ocese enjoining them to solicit subscriptions for rebuilding the
nave of the church, '_propter ipsius notoriam et evidentem ruinam_' and
granting forty days' indulgence to all contributors." Archbishop Courtenay
gave a thousand marks and more for the building fund, and Archbishop
Arundell gave a similar contribution, as well as the five bells which were
known as the "Arundell ryng." We are told also that "King Henry the 4th
helped to build up a good part of the Body of the Chirch." The immediate
direction of the work was in the hands of Prior Chillenden, already
frequently mentioned; his epitaph, quoted by Professor Willis, states that
"Here lieth Thomas Chyllindene formerly Prior of this Church, _Decretorum
Doctor egregius_, who caused the nave of this Church and divers other
buildings to be made anew. Who after nobly ruling as prior of this Church
for twenty years twenty five weeks and five days, at length on the day of
the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary closed his last day. In the
year of the Lord 1411." It is not certain that Chillenden actually
designed the buildings which were erected under his care, with which his
name is connected. For we know that work which was conceived and executed
by humble monks was ascribed as a matter of course to the head of the
monastery, under whose auspices and sanction it was carried out. Matthew
Paris records that a new oaken roof, well covered with lead, was built for
the aisles and tower of St. Alban's by Michael of Thydenhanger, monk and
_camerarius_; but he adds that "these works must be ascribed to the abbot,
out of respect for his office, for he who sanctions the performance of a
thing by his authority, is really the person who does the thing." Prior
Chillenden became prior in 1390, and seems at any rate to have devoted a
considerable amount of zeal to the work of renovating the ruined portions
of the church.

[Illustration: THE MURDER OF ST. THOMAS A BECKET.

(Restoration, by T. Carter, of a painting on board hung on a column near
the tomb of Henry IV.).]

[Illustration: THE SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS A BECKET.

(Specially reproduced from a drawing among the Cottonian MSS. Brit. Mus.)]

The new #Nave# replaced the original building of Lanfranc. Professor Willis
says: "The whole of Lanfranc's piers, and all that rested on them, appear
to have been utterly demolished, nothing remaining but the plinth of the
side-aisle walls.... The style [of Chillenden's new work] is a lig