90 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 66. 



It is not likely that Hobbcs anil Bunyan were 

 acquainted ; they lived in distant parts of the 

 country. Bunyan's Pilgrim, which was the found- 

 ation of his wide-spread fame, was not published 

 till 1678, when the Leviathan philosopher was 

 ninety years of age: he died in 1679. Ilobbes' 

 company were the learned and illustrious among 

 men, — the Des Carteses, Gassendis, and Wallises 

 of his ase ; while Bunyan associated with the de- 

 spised Nonconformists. Nor is it likely that 

 Bunyan read the Leviathan ; Dent's Plain ^fuiis 

 Pathway to Heaven, The Practice of Pieiij, Fox's 

 Martyrs, and, above all, his Bible, constituted his 

 library during his imprisonment for conscience- 

 sake, which lasted from 1660 to 1672. Had he 

 suffered from Hobbes's philosophy, he would iiuve 

 proclaimed it upon tlie house-tops, especially in 

 ins Grace Abounding, that others might have been 

 guarded from such dangerous scejjticism. The 

 Vision of Hobbes was doubtless intended to render 

 the forgery more popular. Geokge OrroE. 



Hackney, Jan. 1851. 



THE MOTHEE CUUECH OF THE SAXONS. 



In "Notes and Qubrijss" (Vol. ii., p. 478.) 

 Sir Henry Ellis observes, that — 



" Ahliough St. Martin's, Canterbury, is commonly 

 calk'd the mother cbuicli of En<;l;uid on account of 

 its having been the first used liere by Augustine, tradi- 

 tion represents, that when this missionary arrived in 

 Kent, he found an ancient church on the site of what 

 is now called St. Martin's." 

 Sir H. Ellis adds, that — 



" A charter of King Canute's styles Saviour's 

 church, Canterbury, the mother and mistress of all 

 churches in the kingdom of England." — jEcclesia Sal- 

 vatoris, &c. 



I conceive these accounts to be perfectly re- 

 concilable. From Bede's Ecclesiastical History 

 (b. i., caps. 25, 26.), wc learn that, on the east 

 side of Canterbury, in the year 597, there was a 

 church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin, that 

 was "built while the Romans were still in the 

 island," some two hundred years before this date. 

 St. Martin's was the church wherein Bertha, 

 Queen of Kent, used to pray ; she liaving been a 

 Christian of the Royal Family of the Franks. 



It will, of course, be allowed that during the 

 sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, different saints 

 were held in especial honour in diil'crent countries. 

 For instance, not long after the arrival of the 

 Roman missionaries in England, various churches 

 and monasteries, — at Canterbury, Lindisfarne, 

 Bamborougli, Lichfield, AVeremouth, and Jarrow, 

 and the capital city of the Bicts, — were wholly or 

 partially named after St. Peter. AVhen Naitan, 

 King of the Picts, was about to build his church, 

 he sought the assistance of the Abbot of Were- 

 mouth, a strong supporter of Roman observances, 



and " promised to dedicate the same in honour of 

 St. Peter," and to follow the custom of the Roman 

 church, in certain matters, which tlie subjects of 

 his kingdom liad protested against, for more than 

 a hundred years. 



Now, on the occasion of Queen Bertha's leaving 

 France, she was accompanied to England by a 

 bishop of her native country, named Luidhard ; 

 and when it is remembered that they settled in 

 Kent, amongst heathens of great superstition, — 

 an example of which is recorded on tiie part of 

 her own husband, — it is natural to suppose they 

 would, in some public manner, seek the especial 

 protection of the popular saint of France ; and 

 that saint was JMartin. For so profound was the 

 popular veneration which the Franks at one ])e- 

 riod offered to the power of Saint Martin, that 

 they even computed ordinary occurrences and 

 national events, by an era which commenced with 

 the year of his death."' 



It is therefore very probable that the public act 

 of reverence just alluded to, consisted in a new 

 dedication of the repaired church, by adding to 

 the ancient name that of St. Martin. 



That a practice of altering the names of sacred 

 edifices in this manner was common at the date 

 under consideration, cannot be cjuestioned. For 

 example. Bishop Aidan, about the year 652, built 

 a church in the island of Lindisfarne, the name of 

 which is now unknown. This structure, however, 

 liaving been destroyed by a fire, his successor^ 

 Finan, erected another on the same site, and ap- 

 parently of the same name. But when a second 

 fire destroyed this church also, in some five and 

 twenty or thirty years, " a larger church " was 

 I erected on the old site, and gratefully "dedicated 

 in honour of St. Peter," by Theodore of Roman 

 appointment, " the first archbishop whom all the 

 English church obeyed." {JBecIe, iii. 17. and 25., 

 and iv. 2.) Here, then, a new name was given to 

 a church on the site of a former one of difl'erent 

 appellation ; and in Lichfield, we have two ex- 

 amples of similar alterations in the names of 

 churches ; one St. Chad's Church, Stow, and the 

 other, the cathedral. On the site of the former, 

 according to Bede, Bishop Chad built a St. Mary's 

 Church, hard by which he was buried; "but af- 

 terwards, wdien the church of the most holy prince 

 of the apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were 

 translated into it." {Ecc. History, iv. 3.) That is 

 to saj^, when Chad was canonised, his remains 

 were removed to the site of the present cathedral, 

 as relics over which the principal church of the 

 Mercian kingdom was to be erected. 



Throughout the various documents relating to 

 this church, which are preserved in Dugdale's 

 Monasticon, vol. iii. pp. 219-255, Savoy edition, 



See Brady's Clavis Calendaria, November 12. 



