ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL 109 



had come over together from Normandy to England ; 

 and the close relations thus established lasted for many 

 years. The See of Rochester was founded by Saint 

 Augustine about a.d. 600, and by him the first Bishop 

 was consecrated, four years later. 



But when the Norman Conquest brought a new 

 era of church building into England, Rochester 

 Cathedral was rebuilt. Gundulf, the second Norman 

 Bishop, the friend of Anselm and Lanfranc, the 

 greatest military and ecclesiastical architect of his 

 time, prepared to erect a new and grander edifice 

 on the ruins of the Saxon church. The number and 

 extent of this great architect's works are simply 

 prodigious. How he could have packed into even 

 his lengthy life the duties of a Churchman, which 

 we are told by those who knew him he never missed 

 for a single day ; the cares of statecraft which also 

 fell to his lot ; and the building, not only of his 

 Cathedral, but also of the Tower of London, Rochester 

 Keep, Dartford Church, Mailing Abbey, and minor 

 works, we are at a loss to conceive. He was con- 

 secrated in 1077 and died in 1108, before he had 

 completed his work here. Ernulf, Prior of Canterbury, 

 succeeded him, and finished the building, which was 

 consecrated in 1130, in the same year that witnessed 

 the completion and consecration of Ernulf 's and 

 Conrad's new Cathedral at Canterbury. Here, then, 

 we see at once the close connection between the 

 architectural history of these two neighbouring 

 churches. Ernulf had a hand in both ; a very large 

 share of the crypt, the west front, and a part of the 

 nave of Rochester was his ; while at Canterbury the 

 crypt and the choir were built in collaboration with 

 Prior Conrad. These facts partly explain the unusual 

 and beautiful feature of a choir raised many feet above 

 the level of the nave, Avhich is characteristic both 

 of Canterbury and Rochester Cathedrals, and seen 

 nowhere else in England. And not only in these 

 most prominent features of their architectural con- 



