Rochester Cathedral is a
Norman church in
Rochester, Kent.
The bishopric is second oldest in
England: only
Canterbury is older. It was founded by
Justus, one of the
missionaries who accompanied
Saint Augustine to convert the pagan English to
Christianity in the early
7th century. As the first bishop of Rochester, Justus was given permission by King
Ethelbert of Kent to establish a church of
St Andrew the Apostle (the same dedication as the monastery in Rome from which St Augustine and St Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the home of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of
secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called
Priestfield.
The cathedral and city suffered much from the
Mercians (
676) and the
Danes, but retained its importance, so much so that, when
William of Normandy conquered England in
1066, he gave the church and its estates to his brother,
Odo of Bayeux. The church was reduced to near-destitution, a situation only remedied in
1082 when
Lanfranc,
Archbishop of Canterbury visited and restored some of its lands and staff.
Gundulf, the Norman Bishop of Rochester, also played a very active role; a talented architect himself, the bishop commissioned and probably had a major part in designing a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He also replaced the secular chaplains by
Benedictine monks, translated the relics of St Paulinus to a silver shrine that became a place of pilgrimage, obtained several royal grants of land, and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city. By the time of his death he had built the
nave and Western front, the Western
transept being added between 1179 and 1200 and the Eastern transept during the reign of
Henry III. The cathedral is small, being only 306 feet long, but its nave is the oldest in England and it has a fine Norman
crypt.
The present building is widely regarded as one of the finest Norman cathedrals in the country, with a particularly fine doorway at its western (main) entrance. The
tympanum depicts
Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway.
After Gundulf's death, the cathedral had a somewhat chequered history. In
1130 the cathedral was consecrated by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by thirteen bishops in the presence of
Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in
1137 and
1179. It was then looted in
1215 by the forces of King
John and again in
1264 by Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and its
castle.
However, besides the shrine of St Paulinus, the cathedral contained the relics of St
Ithamar, the first Saxon to be consecrated bishop, and of St
William of Perth, a murdered Scottish pilgrim. In
1201 the offerings at St William's tomb were so great, that by their means the choir was rebuilt and the central tower was added (
1343), thus completing the cathedral.
The cathedral suffered a steep decline after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the
16th century, during which time its estates were confiscated by the Crown, and it became dilapidated and disreputable.
Samuel Pepys, the diarist, dismissed it as a "shabby place". It underwent some restoration work of mixed success during the
19th century before Sir
George Gilbert Scott took on the task in
1872, renovating the cathedral and restoring it to a reasonable facsimile of its original
11th century condition.
Archdeacons of Rochester Rochester Cathedral's Archdeacons have included:
Rev. Dr.
Thomas Plume, B.A., D.D., founder of the Plume Library,
Maldon, Essex, and the
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the
University of Cambridge.
Rev. Dr. Walker King, M.A., D.D., father of the Rt. Rev.
Edward King,
Bishop of Lincoln.
Delegates from Illinois Territory
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