by Laura Wichmann Hipp
This is the throne where the Archbishop sits and is consecrated. It is of carved stone. The interior and exterior stone came from France, shipped easily as Canterbury is near the sea with seagulls cawing, though you cannot see the water here. Some of the exterior was replaced with local flint stone.
The stained glass above is of Thomas à Kempis, slain in the Cathedral by Henry Il’s men. It was his blood and memory that brought pilgrims here as written about in Old English by Chaucer, the first to write in the language of the ordinary people and not in Latin.
The painting on the walls is in the crypt, the coolest and oldest section of Canterbury Cathedral. The little boy is Frances Ford’s grandson, Henson Norvell, who already knows about the Reformation. He was on the tour of Canterbury Cathedral today and is very well read. The Archbishop of Canterbury was instrumental in drawing up rights of man when the Magna Carta was sealed in 1215. He also studied the Bible and was the one who divided it into chapters! There is a chapel in the cathedral dedicated to him.
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