The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury, chapter 11

What it is

This is a chapter from a book on the history of Canterbury Cathedral, titled The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury, dated 1929. The chapter, numbered XI, is about St. Alphage, archbishop and martyr, whose feast day is April 19. The text is available on Wikisource, where it is about 4,591 words long. The passage that names Thomas Becket is a brief reference: it mentions that events of 1174 took place four years after the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, and says the author will deal with some of these events later.

Why it matters

Books like this one were written long after the events they describe, so they are secondary sources. The author drew on earlier writings, such as the life of St. Alphage begun by Osbern, a monk of Christ Church Priory, in 1070 and finished by Edmer. A later historian looking back at Canterbury's past uses such accounts to show how the cathedral's saints and archbishops were remembered. Becket, murdered in his own cathedral in 1170, is one of the central figures of that memory, and this passage shows how his death was used as a marker in the cathedral's story.

Look closer

• Why does the author mention Becket's martyrdom when the chapter is about St. Alphage, and what does that suggest about how the author organised the cathedral's history?
• The text relies on earlier writers such as Osbern and Edmer. How can you tell which parts come from older sources and which are the author's own additions?
• What does this 1929 book leave out, and which voices from Becket's own time are missing from a history written centuries later?