Thomas More Research

Walk 8: Canterbury

For a visit to Canterbury we recommend the excellent pamphlet by Laurence Goulder which includes a biography of St. Thomas of Canterbury and a description of the place1.

In 2011 the Cathedral was open on weekdays, 

  • from 9.00 to 18.30, Easter to September, and 
  • from 9.00 to 17.00, October to Easter; 

and on Sundays 12.30 to 14.30, and 16.30 to 17.30. 

The Audio-Guide is highly recommendable. There are reductions for groups if booked in advance.

The Catholic church was open, Monday to Saturday, 10:30 to 12, and 12:30 to 3pm; on Sunday it opens just for Mass and other services.

The Church of St Dunstan closes at 5pm.

In the time of Thomas More, the Shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which contained the relics of the martyr, was a very well-known centre of pilgrimages. We have in England the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury, just as there is a Pilgrims Way to Santiago de Compostela. The shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1538, three years after the execution of St. Thomas More. Yet now in Canterbury there is another relic, More’s head in the Roper family vault, under the side chapel of St. Dunstan’s church.  St. Dunstan’s, as a site related to St. Thomas More, is as important as the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury in cathedral was until 1538.

The following directions assume that we approach Canterbury by car from the west, but the same suggestions would apply whether we approach it from the east, coming from the Continent or from other directions, and whether we go by train, coach, bike, or indeed on foot following the Pilgrims Way.

Whether we go by car, train, coach, bike, or on foot, the starting point is the Anglican church of St Dunstan. 

– If by car on the A2 from the west, as soon as we reach the A257, in front of us, towards the east, we can see the imposing gothic Cathedral.

At the roundabout, turn left onto London Road towards the university. Before arriving at St. Dunstan’s Road, park the car on the left in London Road. There is 4 hours free parking, enough for the visit.

– If by train, in arriving to Canterbury West go towards St Dunstan’s Road, and turn right towards the Anglican church of St Dunstan’s

Inside St. Dunstan’s, there is a black marble stone with the inscription: 

Beneath this floor is the vault of the Roper family in which is interred the head of Sir Thomas More of illustrious memory sometime Lord Chancellor of England who was beheaded on Tower Hill 6th July 1535

The legend ends with the words from Magna Carta “Ecclesia Anglicana Libera Sit”, which of course does not refer to the present Anglican Church, but to the clause of Magna Carta stating the Church’s freedom from the king’s control. The date on the stone: “A.D. 1932”, the date Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor because the Convocation of Canterbury agreed to the “Submission of the Clergy”, thus renouncing to the freedoms preserved in Magna Carta. The “Submission of the Clergy” was first agreed in Convocation in 1532, and then by Parliament in 1534. 

In the church there are also two stained-glass windows of Thomas More.

Figure 1: Stained-glass window showing St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (959-988); St Thomas More (1478-1535); and St Lanfranc, first Archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman conquest (1070-1089).

Figure 2: Stained-glass window commemorating he life of St Thomas More, gift of friends from St. Thomas More Church in Kansas City, USA, made in 1973. 

From the Church of St. Dunstan’s, we continue our journey to Canterbury along St. Dunstan’s Street towards Westgate. A brick archway opposite the church is the only remain of the Roper’s house. Further along one can see Roper Street.

To the right, just before arriving at the Westgate, we can stop for lunch on the lawn of Westgate Gardens (Another good place for lunch is on the lawn within the precinct of the cathedral). Near the entrance of the Westgate gardens we will spot on the façade of one of the buildings the coat-of-arms of the City of Canterbury with the legend, “AVE MATER ANGLIAE”, which of course refers to the Church of Canterbury as the primate church of England.

From the Westgate we follow the signs to the Cathedral along the High Street. The last sign indicates turning left onto Mercery Lane2, which leads directly to the entrance of the Cathedral precinct. There they give us a little leaflet indicating the path that leads us to the place of the martyrdom of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 29 December 1170. At that spot we can go up the steps and, reading from Goulder’s guide, visualise in detail what went on.

The body of St Thomas was buried. Later on, on 7 July 1220, his holy remains were transferred solemnly to a new large shrine on the chapel of the Holy Trinity behind the main altar of the cathedral. Since then, 7 July was kept as the feast of the translation of St. Thomas-a-Becket. On 5 July 1535, after having been condemned to be beheaded, Thomas More wrote to his daughter Margaret saying: “I would be sorry if it should be any longer than tomorrow, for it is Saint Thomas Eve, and the octave of Saint Peter and therefore tomorrow long I to go to God, it were a day very fitting and convenient for me.”3 The connections between these two London saints are highly suggestive.

In the crypt we can also see the tomb of Cardinal Morton. Thomas More was educated for some time in his household at Lambeth Palace, when Morton was Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England. In Utopia More praises Morton. He referred to him also as Bishop of Ely in his History of Richard III.

Going to the upper level of the cathedral, we reach the chapel of the Holy Trinity where a burning candle marks the place where the shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket stood until it was destroyed by the men of Henry VIII in 1538. 

On the south aisle of the chapel of the Holy Trinity we will see the tomb of the Black Prince. This splendid monument was made in accordance with the directions found in his will, but the instructions about the position of his tomb were not carried out. He had desired to be interred in the crypt, but public opinion would not sanction so noble a prince being denied a place of honour near Becket’s shrine. The painting on the tester is of the Holy Trinity, and there is a reconstruction opposite on the wall. It shows God the Father holding the Cross on which Christ is nailed, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit between the face of God the Father and the head of God the Son. 

Leaving the cathedral, we could pay a visit to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Burgate, south of the Cathedral (Remember that it closes at 3pm).

As we need to go back to the car, next to St. Dunstan’s church, we can read the rest of the text in the guide book and learn that it was in this church that Henry II took off his royal dress to begin his penitential walk along St. Dunstan’s Street, through the Westgate, to the cathedral.

Of course, in our journey and visit to Canterbury, we will learn also of St. Augustine of Canterbury who arrived in England in 597. Those from abroad will hear of 1066, and that all the pre-Reformation cathedrals in England were begun or greatly enlarged soon after the Norman Conquest and later were further enlarged in the Gothic period (the one of Canterbury is largely the creation of these two periods, namely 1070-1184 and 1391-1505) and that all of them are oriented towards the orient4. We will hear also of T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, Anouilh’s play, Becket, or The Honour of God, and the biography of St. Thomas of Canterbury by R.H. Benson (whose father was the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury and was buried inside the cathedral in the northwest chapel). 

On our way back to London we could stop at Aylesford. The Carmelite Monastery there was destroyed in 1538 and rebuilt in 1950. We have no record of More visiting Aylesford, though he may have done so, as it is conveniently situated on the road from London, through Rochester, to Canterbury.

  1. Pilgrimage Pamphlets, published by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, No.1: Canterbury.
    ↩︎
  2. Mercery, (1) the ware sold by a mercer; (2) The Mercery, The Mercers’ Company. Is Mercery Lane related to the Mercers Hall in the house in London where Becket was born? St Thomas More worked as a lawyer for the Mercers. ↩︎
  3.  Selected Letters, No. [218]. ↩︎
  4. Thomas More mentioned the practice of praying towards the east in his Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer (cf. CW 8, bk.3, pp. 368-69): “In the observances of the Church, some things there are, which must of necessity be observed and kept, and yet the cause why appeareth not to every man. As (for example) that we kneel when we pray, and that of all parts of heavens, we most specially turn us towards the east.” ↩︎