hich may or may not have
been made by Augustine and his immediate successors, we have no accurate
information. It is, however, definitely stated that Archbishop Odo, who
held the see from A.D. 942-959, raised the walls and rebuilt the roof. In
the course of these alterations the church was roofless for three years,
and we are told that no rain fell within the precincts during this time.
In A.D. 1011 Canterbury was pillaged by the Danes, who carried off
Archbishop Alphege to Greenwich, butchered the monks, and did much damage
to the church. The building was, however, restored by Canute, who made
further atonement by hanging up his crown within its walls, and bringing
back the body of Alphege, who had been martyred by the Danes. In the year
1067 the storms of the Norman Conquest overwhelmed St. Augustine's church,
which was completely destroyed by fire, together with many royal deeds of
privilege and papal bulls, and other valuable documents.

A description of the church thus destroyed is given by Prof. Willis, who
quotes all the ancient writers who mention it. The chief authority is
Eadmer, who was a boy at the monastery school when the Saxon church was
pulled down, and was afterwards a monk and "singer" in the cathedral. It
is he who tells us that it was arranged in some parts in imitation of the
church of St. Peter at Rome. Odo had translated the body of Wilfrid,
Archbishop of York, from Ripon to Canterbury, and had "worthily placed it
in a more lofty receptacle, to use his own words, that is to say, in the
great Altar which was constructed of rough stones and mortar, close to the
wall at the eastern part of the presbytery. Afterwards another altar was
placed at a convenient distance before the aforesaid altar.... In this
altar the blessed Elphege had solemnly deposited the head of St. Swithin
... and also many relics of other saints. To reach these altars, a certain
crypt which the Romans call a Confessionary had to be ascended by means of
several steps from the choir of the singers. This crypt was fabricated
beneath in the likeness of the confessionary of St. Peter, the vault of
which was raised so high that the part above could only be reached by many
steps." The resting-place of St. Dunstan was separated from the crypt
itself by a strong wall, for that most holy father was interred before the
aforesaid steps at a great depth in the ground, and at the head of the
saint stood the matutinal altar. Thence the choir of th