THE OLDEST CHURCH IN ENGLAND.*
ST. MARTIN'S, Canterbury, the oldest church in England, and claimed by the author to be the oldest existing church in Europe, certainly deserves to have a book written about it. Canon Routledge may claim great credit for the labour and judgment which he has displayed iu writing it. Even if the actual fabric of St. Martin's is not the most ancient church in England or in Britain, it is at all events the church in which the oldest recorded historical event in connection with Christianity in England occurred, as being, on the unimpeach- able authority of Bede (grown up within a century of the event), the chapel of Bertha, the Christian wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, and the first church in which Augustine, "the apostle of the English," performed divine service. Canon Routledge also claims that it was the scene of the actual baptism of Ethelbert in 597, and that the stone tub, adorned with somewhat late Norman arches, which is the present font of the church, was the actual font in which Ethelbert stood for the ceremony. We confess to totally disbelieving that Ethelbert stood in the stone tub, and we venture very ranch to doubt whether• his baptism took place in the church at all. At that date, total immersion of adults was the rule, and Baptisteries, much on the model of those of the modern Baptists—those Nonconformists more ritualistic in this respect than Rome itself—were provided for the purpose. It is true the seal of an Abbot of S. Augustine's Abbey in the first half of the thirteenth century represents Ethelber•t standing " in a font similar in many respects to the present one." And, if Canon Routledge wants another illustration, the baptism of Rollo, the first Christian Duke of Normandy, is represented in an early manuscript of the twelfth-century Chronicle of Beuvit de St. More, with Rollo standing (or sitting) naked in a similar Norman tub- like font. But we may doubt whether the thirteenth-century artists have not transferred the practice and the instruments of a later age of infant baptism to the earlier age of adult baptism. Our Saxon and Norman ancestors were too sensible to have used a little stone basin for• the total immersion of a full-grown man; and most of the early baptisms on the con- version of the heathen English are reported to have taken place in rivers. If Ethelbert's baptism took place in a building at all, it certainly would have taken place in a building more adapted for the purpose, such as the Italian Baptisteries.
If, however, we cannot accept the font as Ethelbert's, we may at all events admit that Canon Routledge has made out his case in favour of the Roman origin of the building. Hitherto St. Martin's has generally been regarded as a Saxon church built of Roman materials only, like St. Alban's Abbey. But the microscopic care, which Canon Routledge has given to the examination of the structure, and particularly of the texture of the characteristic salmon-coloured mortar made of pounded Roman bricks, such as may be seen in the Roman walls of Pevensey, has conclusively established that the original Roman walls are still standing up to the height of 8 ft. or• 9 ft. The nave and chancel appear to be distinct buildings. The author's view is that the nave was originally a small Roman temple, and the chancel added when it was turned into a Christian chapel, as the orientation is exact. It is, of course, however, a conjecture only that the nave was originally built as a temple. The building was in any case a very small one, as the nave is only 38 ft. 4 in. long, and the chancel 20 ft. 2 in. ; so that there is no reason why the nave should have been a public building at all. St. Martin's, whether originally temple or dining-room, owes its interest neither to its quantity nor its quality as a building, but solely to its historical associations.
And even these seem to appeal only to a very limited circle, as the author tells us that he was once lionising a party from the United States, and completely failing to engross their• atten- tion by any historical or antiquarian description. "At last in despair I asked them to write their names in the visitors' book kept in the vestry, when it so happened that the last names written were those of the Duchess of Edinburgh and her• children. Then their interest was aroused, and they left in a state of perfect happiness because their autographs were in- scribed on the same page as those of Royalty." And, after all, perhaps the signature of the Duchess of. Edinburgh may possess as great historical interest for the English of a
• St. Martin's Church, Canterbury. By Rev. Canon Routledge, H.3L'a Inspector of Schools. London : Sedan Paul, Trench, and Co.
thousand summers hence, in the mountains of Africa or the valleys of New Guinea, as that of Bertha would for us.
The Church of St. Martin's is interesting, however, to the antiquarian from the fact that its "metropolitical" character as the mother, or at least earliest, church in England, was recognised by its being the seat of Bishops of St. Martin's, of the kind, probably, known as " Chorepiscopi," i.e., Country- Bishops, suffragans to Canterbury, who existed at least in 1050 to 1061, and whose functions were by Lanfranc transferred to the Archdeacon of Canterbury. Until the Reforma- tion, however, St. Martin's parish remained exempt from the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon. Canon Routledge hardly makes the most of the appearance of the parish of St. Martin's in quite as interesting a capacity as that of a Bishop's See,—namely, as the seat of a very ancient, perhaps the most ancient, Grammar-School in the City of Canterbury or Kingdom of England. It appears in a record of the year 1321. The Rector was master. He was limited to the number of thirteen grammar scholars only, for fear of his infringing on the privilege of the master of the City Grammar- School, though he was entitled to take as many scholars in reading and singing as he pleased. In fact, however, the Rector took as many grammar boys as he could get, it being necessary only that when his school was "visited" by the City schoolmaster's deputy, the surplus should conceal them- selves for the time being. On legal proceedings being taken on the part of the City schoolmaster•, this odd way of getting round the monopoly of the City school was disallOwed, and an injunction was granted in the Archbishop's Court to restrain the Rector of St. Martin's from taking more than his bare thirteen. This is an extremely interesting record, both for the fact that it shows two flourishing Public Schools going on in Canterbury at that early period, sixty years before the establishment of Winchester College; and also because it is clear,—firstly, that other subjects than grammar were taught in the Grammar-Schools, and secondly, that the pupils paid for their teaching. Otherwise, we may be sure neither the City schoolmaster nor the Rector of St. Martin's would have contested the point.
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