History. Canterbury is supposed to have been a place of importance before the Roman invasion, the Roman name Durovernurn show ing apparently the British prefix Dwr, water, although antiquaries differ in the interpretation of the remainder of the compound. Druidical remains have been found here, together with the British weapons termed celts. Its import ance during the Roman occupation is proved by the discovery of a great variety of remains and it is interesting to note that bricks of Roman manufacture have been found in cer tain portions of the remaining walls. It derives its present name from the Saxon byrtg, the Kentishmen's city. During the resi dence of Ethelbert, king of Kent, the memor able arrival of Saint Augustine took place in 597an event rapidly followed by the conver sion of this King and his people to Christianity and the foundation of the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. In the 8th and the three following centuries, the city was from time to time dread fully ravaged by the Danes, and on one oc casion, in 1011, nearly the whole of the inhabit ants, including women, children and the arch bishop himself, were barbarously massacred, and the cathedral burned to its bared walls, It was gradually reconstructed and at the Con quest its buildings exceeded in extent those of London. The ecclesiastical importance of the place, in particular, advanced with great rapid ity, and was consummated by the murder of Thomas at Becket, whose canonization by the Pope rendered Canterbury the resort of pil grims from every part of Europe. Not only
were the priory and see enriched by the offer ing of the wealthy devotees, but the prosperity of the town itself was greatly advanced by the money spent in it by so many strangers. Erasmus describes the church, and especially the chapel in which Becket was interred, as glitter ing with the gold and jewels offered up by the princes, nobles and wealthy pilgrims to his shrine. Henry VIII appropriated all its revenues on the dissolution of the priory in 1539, when he ordered the bones of Becket to be burned to ashes. Several of the English monarchs have made a temporary residence at Canterbury, which was also occupied by Oliver Cromwell in the civil war, whose troopers made a stable of the cathedral. Pop. (1911) 24,626.
Bibliography. Willis,