0:00:03 > 0:00:06For 14 centuries, Canterbury Cathedral has been
0:00:06 > 0:00:10the spiritual headquarters of the nation.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18A place of historic sacred power,
0:00:18 > 0:00:24coveted by kings, popes, pilgrims and princes,
0:00:24 > 0:00:29and the focus of forces which have torn the country apart,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and fought for the souls of everyone in it.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40This is the mother church of England.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42And for most of the cathedral's history,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46you didn't have a choice about which church you belonged to in England.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50That meant that what happened here in the mother church had a lot to do
0:00:50 > 0:00:54with what happened everywhere else, and what everyone thought and felt,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57how they prayed, how they imagined themselves.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01A battle about how this space was going to be used
0:01:01 > 0:01:05was in part a battle for the very soul of England.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11'Over the last ten years, I've seen a few of those battles
0:01:11 > 0:01:15'between forces that want to define and divide us,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18'or in some sense lay claim to us.'
0:01:21 > 0:01:24'In my final weeks as Archbishop,
0:01:24 > 0:01:29'I want to search out for the last time the hidden corners,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32'the hidden messages in a place that has taught me more
0:01:32 > 0:01:37'about God and more about this country than anywhere else.'
0:01:39 > 0:01:43'It's time to say goodbye to Canterbury.'
0:01:55 > 0:01:58BELLS PEAL
0:01:58 > 0:02:01While the rest of the world changes,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04some things seem timeless,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06indestructible.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11It's easy to forget that 70 years ago,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13we almost lost Canterbury Cathedral.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15AIR RAID SIREN
0:02:18 > 0:02:21For three nights in 1942,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Canterbury was attacked by the Luftwaffe.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32130 high explosives
0:02:32 > 0:02:36and over 3,000 firebombs landed on the medieval city.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40The bombers' target?
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Not the town itself, but the cathedral.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48A symbol of Britain's will to resist.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56But they underestimated the people of Canterbury.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Townspeople worked in shifts,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05throwing flaming incendiaries from the roof of the cathedral.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15The town was devastated, but the cathedral was saved.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25In fact, what the raid achieved was to remind us
0:03:25 > 0:03:27that this was somewhere worth saving.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34People risked their lives to leave us Canterbury Cathedral,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38and the least those who follow them can do is to stop
0:03:38 > 0:03:40and ask why they did it.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46I don't imagine that all of them were just enthusiasts
0:03:46 > 0:03:48for Gothic architecture, and probably a lot of them
0:03:48 > 0:03:50weren't even Christians.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54So what was it about this building that was so important to protect?
0:04:02 > 0:04:06'It's a question that I take to heart,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11'because, ten years ago, the duty to safeguard that legacy fell to me.'
0:04:20 > 0:04:23'On February 27th 2003,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27'I entered here a fairly anonymous bishop,
0:04:27 > 0:04:31'and was asked to add my name to the pages of history.'
0:04:38 > 0:04:44'Above my head a vault erected during the reign of King Henry IV.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46'Beneath my feet,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50'foundations dug before there even was a King of England.'
0:04:59 > 0:05:04'This is a space that Chaucer knew, and Elizabeth I.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09'It's seen Saxons, Vikings, Normans come and go,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12'empires rise and fall.'
0:05:14 > 0:05:17'And when each new archbishop is enthroned,'
0:05:17 > 0:05:20a new generation of our leaders is asked to think about
0:05:20 > 0:05:24what this building and its heritage might mean.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28I do wonder a bit what was going on in some people's minds that day.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31It can't have been a very usual sort of experience.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33There must've been a lot of people wondering
0:05:33 > 0:05:37what on earth they were doing there and what this was really all about.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40And they could be forgiven for thinking an occasion like this
0:05:40 > 0:05:44no longer demands our attention in the present day.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Just a peculiar legacy of Britain's past.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53But I don't think so.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58To me, Canterbury Cathedral is a potent reminder
0:05:58 > 0:06:01of another way of looking at England.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06'A country you can't define just by its prime ministers,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09'its kings and queens.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12'A nation whose heritage is more than just political.'
0:06:16 > 0:06:19This is the throne of the Archbishop of Canterbury -
0:06:19 > 0:06:22the cathedra, as it would've been called in Latin and in Greek.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25And that, of course, is where the word cathedral comes from.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28It's the church that houses the bishop's chair.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33And if it's true that this chair makes the cathedral what it is,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37it's also true that the cathedral makes the person who sits here
0:06:37 > 0:06:39what and who he is.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46'When you sit in this chair,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49'you become the leader of the Church of England,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53'a role that, uniquely, asks you to try
0:06:53 > 0:06:56'and speak to every soul in the country.'
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Whatever you've done before, this is different.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Here, you're never just speaking to the people in front of you,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12preaching to the converted.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15What gets said here gets noticed throughout the country,
0:07:15 > 0:07:17and beyond.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26And you've got to find a way to articulate the concerns of everyone,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30'young or old, Christian or non-Christian.'
0:07:32 > 0:07:35And believe me, that feels like a pretty tall order.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43It's physically impossible to fill this throne,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45and that shouldn't be surprising
0:07:45 > 0:07:49since it's certainly spiritually impossible to fill it.
0:07:49 > 0:07:50The first time you sit here,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55you realise that you have countless new ways of getting things wrong,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59countless new responsibilities and expectations laid on you, and that
0:07:59 > 0:08:02the likelihood is that you're going to make a mess of most of them.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09'It's a daunting prospect,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13'but the cathedral itself is there to guide you.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16'It reminds you you're not the first to take on the job.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21'Of the 104 Archbishops of Canterbury,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24'50 are still in this building.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27'I'm just the only one who can get up and walk.'
0:08:28 > 0:08:30They're a diverse bunch.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34There are a few stern Victorian headmasters,
0:08:34 > 0:08:3618th-century gentlemen,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40scholars, cardinals and princes of the medieval church.
0:08:43 > 0:08:44Each had his own approach
0:08:44 > 0:08:48to sitting on England's spiritual throne.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52And they give you an opportunity to get a word of advice
0:08:52 > 0:08:55from the people who actually built Canterbury Cathedral.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Here's one of the most spectacular monuments in the entire cathedral -
0:09:01 > 0:09:05a bishop in his full vestments, an Archbishop, in fact,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08surrounded by saints and angels.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12At his feet, a couple of very tiny choirboys holding books for him,
0:09:12 > 0:09:17and angels smoothing his pillow.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19And here's who he is.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21"Hic iacet Henricus Chichele."
0:09:21 > 0:09:27"Here lies Henry Chichele, doctor of laws and Chancellor of England."
0:09:27 > 0:09:32Henry V's Archbishop, one of the great public men of his time.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Then, bring your eye down a bit.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38And here is not Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Chancellor and doctor of laws.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Here is a naked corpse, emaciated, almost a skeleton,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46loosely wrapped in its shroud.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51And underneath, an inscription which tells us what to think.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55"Pauper eram natus, post primas hic elavatus.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59"Iam sum prostratus et vermibus esca paratus."
0:09:59 > 0:10:04"I was born a poor man. Then I was raised up here to be Archbishop.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09"Now I am laid low and turned into food for worms."
0:10:09 > 0:10:12And just in case you haven't got the point, at the very end,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15a very blunt instruction.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19"Ecce meum tumulum. Cerne tuum speculum."
0:10:19 > 0:10:22"Here is my tomb.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24"Look into your mirror."
0:10:27 > 0:10:30And who did he think he was talking to there, I wonder.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38And there is an answer to that question.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41Chichele built his tomb
0:10:41 > 0:10:44right opposite the Archbishop's seat in the choir.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49So all of us have had to sit here looking at him ever since.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55It calls to mind fairly dramatically the central message of the Church.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59You're going to die,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02and how is money or power going to help you then?
0:11:04 > 0:11:07It jolts you back into the mindset of the people who built
0:11:07 > 0:11:09this cathedral in the Middle Ages.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13The magnificence around us
0:11:13 > 0:11:16was intended to remind those who stood here
0:11:16 > 0:11:18of the kingdom of heaven...
0:11:20 > 0:11:25..and how small and how temporary our lives are on earth,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29to provoke us to ponder what might be beyond.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38BELLS PEAL
0:11:43 > 0:11:47'Strip the cathedral of all its adornment
0:11:47 > 0:11:50'and it's a purpose-built factory for prayer,'
0:11:50 > 0:11:53'and has been since AD 602.'
0:11:55 > 0:11:58It's our oldest national institution
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and the only building we share as a nation
0:12:01 > 0:12:05that's been used for the same purpose since the nation began.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08CONGREGATION SINGS
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Prayers were said here for 300 years
0:12:10 > 0:12:13before there was a single kingdom of England,
0:12:13 > 0:12:14and the building around us
0:12:14 > 0:12:18we owe mostly to the period from the 11th to the 15th century.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24It's a building whose very shape brings the way we do things today
0:12:24 > 0:12:26into direct contact with the beliefs
0:12:26 > 0:12:29and the practices of our medieval past.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34To state the obvious, this looks like a church.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Even people who never go to church have a pretty clear idea
0:12:37 > 0:12:40of what to expect when they come into a church.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43A big old building, a large space.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47And yet, in the Middle Ages, this would have been very different.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50This would have felt much more like a huge entrance hall,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53an oversized church porch, almost.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56When people came here, they often did rather worldly things.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00They'd gossip and do business and discuss market prices.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Sometimes they used this part of the church as a sort of short cut
0:13:03 > 0:13:06between different bits of the town, and there are complaints
0:13:06 > 0:13:10in the records about people doing that too often and too noisily.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12Centuries ago,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15when there wouldn't have been an altar or a pulpit there,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18just this great empty space,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21the sense would have been of something immensely important
0:13:21 > 0:13:25happening just out of sight, just beyond that screen.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35'If you mount the steps to the east, you enter a different world.'
0:13:36 > 0:13:39'A place most of our ancestors never set foot.'
0:13:41 > 0:13:42'The choir.'
0:13:48 > 0:13:52'Coming here, you are walking into the medieval holy of holies.'
0:13:53 > 0:13:58'Then, Canterbury wasn't just a cathedral, it was a monastery,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02'and this spot was the exclusive domain of its 80-100 monks.'
0:14:05 > 0:14:08In the Middle Ages, this was the very heart of the building.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11This was where the most important thing of all happened -
0:14:11 > 0:14:15where the monks, several times a day, would gather to sing the praise of God
0:14:15 > 0:14:19in what was called the divine office, literally the divine duty.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21The duty you owe to God.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25And they'd offer prayers for all those who'd asked for their prayers,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27for the whole society around them,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30for all those people wandering around in the rest of the church
0:14:30 > 0:14:32while the monks were getting on with their business,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35the core business of this cathedral.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41The whole country could rest easier while the monks sat here,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44the people who knew how to make contact with God.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51'Those prayers were the focus of everyone's hopes.'
0:14:51 > 0:14:55That children be born healthy,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59that dead relatives go to heaven, not suffer in hell.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Ultimately, these are the kind of issues Canterbury is here for -
0:15:05 > 0:15:09the really difficult things that never change about being human.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15'You can't always solve them, but you can look beyond them.'
0:15:20 > 0:15:23But how do you look beyond your everyday experience?
0:15:26 > 0:15:30It's not something that's easy to do in the supermarket
0:15:30 > 0:15:32or on the bus to work.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38For many of us, it's something we look for, if at all,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40in the arms of lovers or the company of friends.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46And don't be fooled that things were ever different.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51But Canterbury is a reminder that our ancestors
0:15:51 > 0:15:55went out of their way to create a space for those issues.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01They walled off both buildings and people,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05people who could wrestle with eternity on behalf of the rest of us
0:16:05 > 0:16:07who didn't have the time.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Everybody had an investment in Canterbury's cloisters.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27The monks here were a specialised tier of society
0:16:27 > 0:16:30with a charge from the rest of us to explore the unknown.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Their lives rarely strayed from the walls of the monastery.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41But their horizons were broader than anyone's outside.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Ancient texts and new scientific ideas were sought out
0:16:47 > 0:16:52by the monks in their mission to rise above the ordinary,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55not just in the life of the mind,
0:16:55 > 0:17:01but in architecture that seemed to defy nature and gravity,
0:17:01 > 0:17:06and in art that still feels genuinely miraculous.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17- These are amazing, aren't they? - Absolutely, yes.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Wonderful to be so close to them, isn't it?
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Yes, they're meant to be 20 metres up in the air!
0:17:22 > 0:17:25'These are two 13th century stained-glass masterpieces
0:17:25 > 0:17:28'depicting Old Testament figures.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32'They've come down to the workshop for restoration by Leonie Seliger.'
0:17:32 > 0:17:35What you realise, seeing them close up, is how lively,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37- how much movement there is. - Oh, yes, yes.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42These are made by one of the great masters of European art,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45who is actually called the Methuselah Master after this very figure.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49If we knew his name, we might actually mention him
0:17:49 > 0:17:53in the same breath as Michelangelo and, I don't know, Jackson Pollock.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58The cutting edge designs that he produced,
0:17:58 > 0:18:04the way he fills the space with his big sweeps of an arm
0:18:04 > 0:18:07all the way down to the foot.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Whirlpools of lines here, these rhythmic strokes here.
0:18:11 > 0:18:12There are cascades there.
0:18:12 > 0:18:19You just have to enjoy the way he confidently puts on these lines
0:18:19 > 0:18:22in such a rhythmic way, with a long-handled brush,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25not hanging about, just sort of painting this.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29He was one of the superstars of cutting edge art
0:18:29 > 0:18:30in Europe at the time.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35So Canterbury got the best of the best to work on the new building.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38The detail is extraordinary, because, of course,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40these weren't as close as we are to them.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43They were yards and yards away. They were out of sight.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46They are designed to work on that long distance,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49so they have that really monumental feel.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53But, of course, the detail is there because God sees it.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56And why stained glass at all?
0:18:56 > 0:18:59I know there's a lot of thinking and philosophising about light,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03the uses of light and the meaning of light in buildings like this.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Of course, there was this wish to have more and more light
0:19:06 > 0:19:08in the building. But not any old daylight.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13It had to travel through these very, very richly coloured
0:19:13 > 0:19:16and very expensive stained-glass windows.
0:19:16 > 0:19:17Light on the outside
0:19:17 > 0:19:20is then transmitted through the stained glass,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23and picks up the essence of the figures
0:19:23 > 0:19:27and of the stories and the deeds that are told in the stained glass,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and is enriched and refined by that.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34So, inside the building, you have enriched superlight, if you will.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38So it's as if the light coming from God is received by these
0:19:38 > 0:19:41holy figures and is separated out into the colours
0:19:41 > 0:19:44and by a kind of alchemy, really, comes through to you
0:19:44 > 0:19:46and makes a difference to your life?
0:19:46 > 0:19:50- Yes, yes. The quintessence of light they create.- Yes.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Today, they still create a sense of wonder,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01changing with every passing cloud.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05The nearest thing the world had to the moving image
0:20:05 > 0:20:07before the modern age.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13The medieval eye, as it settled on these windows,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17could see not only the hand of the painter,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20but the hand of God.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Canterbury is much more than a functional building.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47'It's an effort to make sense of the cosmos
0:20:47 > 0:20:49'and reach out to its maker.'
0:20:52 > 0:20:54Whether or not you want to talk about God,
0:20:54 > 0:20:59you can't help but stand back and admire what humans can achieve
0:20:59 > 0:21:01in pursuit of transcendence.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09From the 7th to the 16th century, the people of this country,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12the labourers, the masons,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14the monks, the benefactors,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18came together as never before or since
0:21:18 > 0:21:22to focus their efforts on conjuring heaven,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25a vision of a nation and its god in harmony.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33But delve deeper and there's another story.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44Ten years getting to know Canterbury as a working building
0:21:44 > 0:21:48has taught me not to take anything about this place at face value.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55If you know where to look, you can see some of the cracks
0:21:55 > 0:21:58'and the joins in that medieval vision of harmony.'
0:22:13 > 0:22:15In the cathedral's upper reaches,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18you get a sense of how many other Canterbury Cathedrals
0:22:18 > 0:22:21there have been that we no longer see.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32'It feels like being backstage in Britain's oldest theatre.'
0:22:39 > 0:22:43'Lovingly crafted Regency fixtures and fittings
0:22:43 > 0:22:47'now clutter the cathedral's attic, gathering dust.'
0:22:49 > 0:22:54'What one generation treasures, another buries in bubble wrap.'
0:23:07 > 0:23:08'And I find that time spent here
0:23:08 > 0:23:12'can start to shift your perspective on the process that's brought
0:23:12 > 0:23:15'the cathedral to the form it takes today.'
0:23:22 > 0:23:25This is a building that doesn't stand still.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30It's been rebuilt almost in its entirety more than once.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32But even over the last 600 or 700 years,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34work has gone on on the building.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36It's constantly reinventing itself,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40rethinking itself for different purposes and different visions.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49At Canterbury, change has always been about more than just architecture.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55'This church once determined the beliefs of the whole country.'
0:23:57 > 0:24:00The people who erected these columns, this vaulting,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04'weren't simply celebrating the glory of God.'
0:24:05 > 0:24:11'They were shaping the perspective of the people below,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15'imposing their vision on everyone in England.'
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Changes in vision aren't always easy or bloodless.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24That means that battles over what the vision should be
0:24:24 > 0:24:26that shapes a building like this
0:24:26 > 0:24:30are not always going to be smoothly resolved.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40There's a darkness in this building, as well as light.
0:24:42 > 0:24:43Conflict as well as harmony.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50All the medieval magnificence around us
0:24:50 > 0:24:54is a shadow of the cathedral as our forebears would've seen it.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58So much has been lost to England's wars of religion.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Below stairs, the Norman crypt conceals the last traces
0:25:07 > 0:25:10of a world of mysterious splendour
0:25:10 > 0:25:12swept away in the English Reformation.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25These wonderful paintings were rediscovered by workmen
0:25:25 > 0:25:27in the 19th century.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29They belong to the very earliest days
0:25:29 > 0:25:31of this bit of the cathedral,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34painted on almost as soon as the crypt was built,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36and they remind us that almost the whole of the cathedral
0:25:36 > 0:25:39would've been covered with painting like this.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42We see here the birth of St John the Baptist.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46We see other saints in roundels under the arches.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51And looking at all this, and sensing just how much of the life
0:25:51 > 0:25:55of the imagination flows into all this, you wonder what on earth
0:25:55 > 0:25:58would've prompted people to want to cover over these paintings.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03What would have motivated people to want to destroy beauty like this?
0:26:06 > 0:26:10These 12th century paintings, the crypt itself,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14hint at the magic of medieval Canterbury,
0:26:14 > 0:26:20a building that used every device at its disposal to access your soul,
0:26:20 > 0:26:25to work its way into the darker recesses of your mind -
0:26:25 > 0:26:28your inborn sense of fear and wonder.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36I love bringing parties of schoolchildren into this chapel,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39because I can show them the monsters on the pillars here.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Quite friendly monsters, quite cheerful ones, in fact.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Here's a couple making music, one playing a fiddle,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48one playing a sort of oboe.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51On the corner, there's even one playing a harp
0:26:51 > 0:26:54with some bits of paintwork still visible there.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01I suppose that in a slightly thin and rational world,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04all of this has tremendous charm and attraction.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08This is a world where imagination can run riot.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12This is a world of colour and splendour and drama,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15a world where all sorts of emotions
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and all sorts of imaginative strands weave in together.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Why should anyone want to destroy it?
0:27:20 > 0:27:26I think that part of the answer is that this can induce
0:27:26 > 0:27:28a kind of claustrophobia in people.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30If you look at the end of the Middle Ages,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32the beginning of the Reformation period,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35that's the sense you may have.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39This is a world absolutely crowded, packed with images.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41As much as an American shopping mall today,
0:27:41 > 0:27:45you're assailed on every hand by images telling you what to think,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49how to feel, how to make connections between one thing and another.
0:27:49 > 0:27:50It must sometimes have seemed
0:27:50 > 0:27:54as if nothing was ever allowed just to be itself,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56and so it's not entirely surprising
0:27:56 > 0:28:00if an impulse begins to rise up in the European soul
0:28:00 > 0:28:04to break through all this, to break through the screen
0:28:04 > 0:28:07or the dome of images that covered life over,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10looking for something more direct.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18A world of mystery was giving way to a world of reason.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22As the Middle Ages came to an end,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24people had begun to see a contradiction
0:28:24 > 0:28:28between the simple message of Jesus and the Gospels
0:28:28 > 0:28:31and what they were seeing in the cathedral.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36In 1514, the Dutch theologian Erasmus visited Canterbury
0:28:36 > 0:28:37and wrote...
0:28:37 > 0:28:42"Good God! What a pomp of silk vestments was there,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45"of golden candlesticks.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47"What possible excuse can there be
0:28:47 > 0:28:50"for decorating and enriching churches
0:28:50 > 0:28:53"when meanwhile our brothers and sisters waste away
0:28:53 > 0:28:54"from hunger and thirst?"
0:28:59 > 0:29:04It was a foretaste for Canterbury of the Protestant Reformation,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08a conflict in which the Archbishop would have to take sides.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15This is the monument of Cardinal John Morton,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1500.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22For many years, he'd been one of the great figures of English politics,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25in effect Prime Minister to King Henry VII.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27He represented a kind of fusion,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31a kind of balance of powers in church and state.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34And here, in his monument, he is depicted,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37like so many of his predecessors, wearing all his regalia
0:29:37 > 0:29:41and surrounded by these small figures of monks and clergy
0:29:41 > 0:29:43who are there to say prayers for him.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48But these praying figures have lost their heads and their hands.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50It's not just the ravages of time,
0:29:50 > 0:29:52because if you look at the whole of the monument, you will see
0:29:52 > 0:29:57that the saints around the edge have lost their heads and their hands.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00All of them have been carefully vandalised,
0:30:00 > 0:30:05vandalised as a result of the revolution in religion
0:30:05 > 0:30:08that took place under Henry VIII.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11That was the time when the cardinal's hat disappeared,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14literally, from English life,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17and what remained was the Crown,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20the red and white Tudor roses,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22the Tudor monarchy in all its power.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27One bit of Morton's carefully balanced world of church and state
0:30:27 > 0:30:30had quite literally displaced the other.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Only decades after Morton's death,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40the church in England was taken over by the state.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46Henry VIII was incensed at the church authorities in Rome
0:30:46 > 0:30:50when the Pope refused him a divorce,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54and the King became an unlikely champion of reform.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Your experience at church would no longer
0:30:59 > 0:31:04be centred on mysterious images or the monks' rituals in Latin,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07but on the Bible in English,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09there for anyone who could read.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Radical Protestants had found a licence from the top
0:31:15 > 0:31:21to tear apart the fabric of the English Church and start again.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27Bare walls, plain glass,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31and empty niches remain where once there were glorious images
0:31:31 > 0:31:36whose intoxicating power the reformers so abhorred.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41A battle raged here for over a century
0:31:41 > 0:31:45between the cult of the image and the cult of the word.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58It has left the cathedral a divided building,
0:31:58 > 0:32:05one part telling us, "Be inspired, surrender to the imagination."
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Another saying, "Don't be taken in by the beauty.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14"Decide for yourself in the clear light of day."
0:32:20 > 0:32:27When today symbols, images and idols are built up and smashed down,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30I'm glad to have this place to retreat to
0:32:30 > 0:32:34and remember that these are arguments that never go away.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40It's a mistake we make too easily to think we've progressed
0:32:40 > 0:32:43beyond the moral questions of the past.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48But what we can put behind us are institutions that fail us.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56The monastery was the other casualty of the Reformation,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01a once radical institution that had grown complacent and comfortable.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04The king's agents came here in 1539
0:33:04 > 0:33:08and left with 26 wagonloads of treasure.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Few protested at the demise of the monastery
0:33:12 > 0:33:15or all the hope once invested in it.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20I suppose it's quite a sobering lesson to be learned here for today.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Institutions develop because people invest a lot of trust in them.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27They meet real needs, they represent important aspirations.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31Whether it's monasteries, media or banks,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34people begin by trusting these institutions,
0:33:34 > 0:33:36and gradually the suspicion develops
0:33:36 > 0:33:41that actually they're working for themselves, not for the community.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44We've been through a major crisis of trust in our own culture
0:33:44 > 0:33:46in the last couple of years where banking is concerned,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48and it's perhaps worth thinking about
0:33:48 > 0:33:52that, at the end of the Middle Ages, nobody would really have expected
0:33:52 > 0:33:55the monasteries to be vanishing from the scene within a generation.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58Yet they did. Change does happen.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06That's the advantage for me
0:34:06 > 0:34:09of keeping one place at the centre of our lives for centuries.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17It's a reference point when the same problems rear up again,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21as they always do. And not just the religious ones.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27Canterbury is England's church, and it's always been asked to bear
0:34:27 > 0:34:30the scars of England's conflicts,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33to fly the flag for a vision of nationhood.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39But a national church is bound to struggle to accommodate
0:34:39 > 0:34:45the symbols of national identity alongside the symbols of God.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55The cathedral manifests physically one dilemma we can all recognise.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58What do you put first?
0:34:58 > 0:35:01Loyalty to the country you live in,
0:35:01 > 0:35:05or loyalty to things wider than the borders of nations?
0:35:08 > 0:35:10It's a question that goes right back
0:35:10 > 0:35:11to the origins of the cathedral...
0:35:14 > 0:35:16Origins that lie a long way from Canterbury.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30For a national church,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Canterbury Cathedral isn't where you'd expect it to be.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42It's on the edge,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46not in the heart of the country, but in the far South East.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51It's only seven miles to the English Channel.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58It's easy to forget how near the sea Canterbury is,
0:35:58 > 0:36:00but that fact tells us, of course,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03at Canterbury has always looked in two directions,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05not just inland to England,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08but across to the continent of Europe as well.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13Of course, it's no accident that Canterbury Cathedral
0:36:13 > 0:36:17is where it is, because according to local tradition
0:36:17 > 0:36:18it was somewhere around this spot
0:36:18 > 0:36:21that the first Archbishop of Canterbury
0:36:21 > 0:36:24landed for the first time on the English coast.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27His name was Augustine, he was a monk from Rome
0:36:27 > 0:36:29who'd been sent by Pope Gregory
0:36:29 > 0:36:32to convert the heathen English to Christianity.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37Coming as he did from Rome - Rome, with its long traditions,
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Rome with its wonderful churches, with the papal court -
0:36:41 > 0:36:44I wonder what on earth Augustine felt at the prospect of confronting
0:36:44 > 0:36:47the heathen barbarians and trying to convert them?
0:36:49 > 0:36:54In AD 597, this side of the Channel was beyond the pale,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58the domain of pagan Angles and Saxons.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Augustine's mission?
0:37:00 > 0:37:03To convert and to civilise,
0:37:03 > 0:37:07to bring them into the fold of the Catholic Church in Rome.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19The success of his mission was due in part to a cultural import,
0:37:19 > 0:37:25both Christian and Roman, which miraculously survives even today,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28conserved by historian Christopher de Hamel.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39The Augustine Gospels were my first introduction
0:37:39 > 0:37:42to the incredible antiquity of the mission to which I'd been called.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51I regard it as one of the most important
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and evocative artefacts in Christendom.
0:37:53 > 0:38:00It is the earliest illustrated Gospel book in the Western tradition.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03It has been in England since the late sixth century.
0:38:03 > 0:38:09I think it is probably the oldest object in England of any kind,
0:38:09 > 0:38:10which is not archaeological.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Of course, there are things that are older, like Stonehenge,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15still in the ground, or things that have been dug up and brought in.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17It's always been above ground.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Always belonged to somebody, always been in use, since the 500s.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23I can't think of anything else that could have survived as long as that.
0:38:23 > 0:38:24And we've got here pictures,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27especially of the last week of Jesus's life, it seems.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29Yes, this is the opening of Luke's Gospel.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32These are scenes which are either characteristic of
0:38:32 > 0:38:34or unique to Luke's Gospel.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37They're very vivid little pictures, aren't they?
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey.
0:38:40 > 0:38:46What's that? "Iudas Iesum osculo tradit."
0:38:46 > 0:38:50- "Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss." - Yes.- And the Last Supper.
0:38:50 > 0:38:55Indeed, one of the earliest illustrations of the Last Supper in Europe.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58The Gospels have inspired more art than probably any other text.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01But this is the earliest example we have of European art
0:39:01 > 0:39:03which is based directly on the Gospels.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07But the very fact of a book must have been extraordinary
0:39:07 > 0:39:09for the Anglo-Saxons. They wouldn't have seen a book,
0:39:09 > 0:39:11they wouldn't have seen pictures like this.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Christianity, like Judaism and Islam,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17is one of the three great religions of the book
0:39:17 > 0:39:22and they would have turned up to us pagan Anglo-Saxons with this,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25what then must have been a revolutionary message,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29bringing books and literacy to England for the first time.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34And when... I expect people argued with them and when people said,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38"How do you know?" they would have said, "We have a book.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40"We can prove it."
0:39:40 > 0:39:42And it plugs England back into the classical world,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45because one of the things that strikes me,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47I know this is a picture of St Luke, isn't it?
0:39:47 > 0:39:49This is Luke shown almost like a Roman senator.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53It's a very graphic reminder that mainstream Christianity
0:39:53 > 0:39:58in the late sixth century came to England from the Mediterranean.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01This is southern and classical and rounded arches and pale colours
0:40:01 > 0:40:03and those soft terracottas.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08This is absolutely mainstream Mediterranean into Canterbury.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11So this is really plugging England
0:40:11 > 0:40:15- into Continental culture in a big way.- Absolutely.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20From that moment on,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Canterbury remained a foothold in England for European culture.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31The first place to see Romanesque architecture and then Gothic.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35A forest of mosaics and classical columns.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39This building never let you forget
0:40:39 > 0:40:44it drew its spiritual authority from Rome.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48But it couldn't forget either what made that authority a reality.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54The conversion and the support of King Ethelbert and his successors.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00The land that the Crown granted to us in the old town of Canterbury.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06Canterbury was born with two different royalties.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09To the country around it
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and to the wider Christian world.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23Today, there are millions of Anglican Christians abroad.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28And millions in Britain with religious leaders overseas.
0:41:30 > 0:41:35Relations between what we owe to God or our fellow believers
0:41:35 > 0:41:38and what we owe to our country don't get any simpler.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42As Archbishop of Canterbury today,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45you have a particular loyalty to the British state.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49But your faith compels you to think internationally.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56It was a quandary I found myself in within weeks of arriving here,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59when Britain went to war with Iraq.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05I've been fairly vocal in my criticisms of plans for war,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07not least because of a sense
0:42:07 > 0:42:10that Iraqi lives mattered, as well as British ones,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14that war could suck the whole region into chaos
0:42:14 > 0:42:18and also because of an interest in the concerns,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21the vulnerability of Christian minorities in the region,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25a factor which not everybody seemed very much aware of at the time.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27But once the war had actually broken out
0:42:27 > 0:42:29and once there were British troops on the ground,
0:42:29 > 0:42:31putting their lives at risk,
0:42:31 > 0:42:33it then seemed a little bit of a luxury
0:42:33 > 0:42:35just to sound off from a distance.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38It could sound a bit like grandstanding
0:42:38 > 0:42:40when other people were really paying the price.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44And so I found my focus was much more then on what would
0:42:44 > 0:42:46an exit to the war look like,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48what would justice after the war look like,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52and trying to insist on people focusing on that kind of question.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55And that leaves you satisfying nobody, in principle.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59People who think you ought to be swinging behind the Government are disappointed,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02people who think you ought always to be making loud and clear noises
0:43:02 > 0:43:05about global ethics will be disappointed.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08But I still think it's a path worth treading,
0:43:08 > 0:43:12because the important thing about archbishops speaking in public
0:43:12 > 0:43:16is I believe that they shouldn't ever be speaking in ways
0:43:16 > 0:43:20that have no cost when other people are paying a price.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Risking unpopularity, taking the flak,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30is what archbishops are here for.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32It's the stuff of the job.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35It's something you realise the more you work here,
0:43:35 > 0:43:40that maybe Britain benefits from having someone to get angry with.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45And that compared to my predecessors I've got off lightly.
0:43:45 > 0:43:51I share a house, as well as a job, with men burned at the stake,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55men executed for treason, men lynched by the mob.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00And when I look across the garden at the cathedral,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02I can't help remembering
0:44:02 > 0:44:05that the whole place was once built around martyrdom.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13The price paid by an archbishop when Church and state clashed.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19Much of the building we have now is a monument to its most famous son,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21murdered here,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Archbishop St Thomas Becket.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Becket has become a symbolic figure,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35the embodiment worldwide of the treacherous fault line
0:44:35 > 0:44:38between religion and political power.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50The son of a merchant from Cheapside in London, a man of the world,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53who become fixer in chief to King Henry II.
0:44:57 > 0:45:02In 1162, Henry made him Archbishop of Canterbury.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05He was charged to take on the power of the Church,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09to bring the bishops in line with the will of the King.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14But the job seemed somehow to transform Thomas Becket.
0:45:15 > 0:45:20He refused to sign the document that made Henry's word law,
0:45:20 > 0:45:25an act of treachery that a king like Henry could never forgive.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36What happened to Becket reverberated around Europe.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43And in the Victoria and Albert Museum, you can get a sense why.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52This beautiful object shows
0:45:52 > 0:45:56the end of Thomas Becket's career as Archbishop of Canterbury
0:45:56 > 0:45:57and the beginning of his career
0:45:57 > 0:46:01as an international spiritual superstar.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Here we see Becket's murder.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05Standing in front of an altar,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07being attacked by three of the knights who killed him,
0:46:07 > 0:46:12and two shocked clerics on the right-hand side.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15Up above, we see Becket's body laid out for burial,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18his soul ascending into Heaven.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21In fact, it's not an accurate depiction of what happened
0:46:21 > 0:46:22when Becket was killed.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25He wasn't celebrating mass at an altar.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28But that's how it felt to people across Europe,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31as if the very heart of the Church's life and worship
0:46:31 > 0:46:35had been brutally interrupted by this act of terrible violence.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39All across Europe, the story was spreading,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41people were turning their eyes towards Canterbury
0:46:41 > 0:46:43and then beginning to travel to it.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45We know that within just a couple of years of the murder,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49people were celebrating his memory in Hungary.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52And pilgrims came because they wanted to be in touch
0:46:52 > 0:46:53with this great figure.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Quite literally to touch where he had suffered and died.
0:46:57 > 0:46:58And caskets like this
0:46:58 > 0:47:01were meant to hold little containers for his blood,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05bits of his bone, perhaps bits of cloth that had been on his body.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Everybody, you could say, wanted a piece of Becket, quite literally.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17In death, Becket became a saint and a popular hero.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Roads across Europe became thronged
0:47:20 > 0:47:23with pilgrims making their way towards Canterbury.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33Becket's body, it was said, had begun to perform miracles.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37Proof that here, conscience could defeat a king.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46It gave the cathedral a completely new focus.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51It transformed the building, both spiritually and architecturally.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00A dramatic new journey took you upwards and eastwards
0:48:00 > 0:48:02to the cathedral's new climax...
0:48:05 > 0:48:07..The Shrine of the Saint.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13The very bones of Thomas Becket.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25The shrine itself has long since disappeared.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29But what hasn't disappeared is this groove in the stone,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33worn by the knees of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims
0:48:33 > 0:48:34over the centuries.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38In front of them, they'd see a stone superstructure
0:48:38 > 0:48:40of the saint's actual tomb,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44blazing with gold and colour and jewels and coloured marble.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46We know from the pictures
0:48:46 > 0:48:49that there were large holes in the side of that superstructure,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51so that if you wanted, you could put your hand in
0:48:51 > 0:48:53to touch the saint's sarcophagus.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56You could even put your head inside to kiss it.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Because it mattered to be physically close to the saint,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03that's what you'd come for, to be as close as you could to a holy body.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15The shrine was destroyed by King Henry VIII.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17And that says a lot.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24It was a symbol of an authority distinct from the King's.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30People thought of Becket as one of their own.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34Someone who could stick up for them in high places,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38who could put in a word with God in the highest place of all.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47The windows that still ring the site of the tomb
0:49:47 > 0:49:50show not prophets or angels,
0:49:50 > 0:49:55but the ordinary people who came to this spot in search of a miracle.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02There are some very poignant stories recorded here.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05About halfway up this window,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08we see a woman in a long dress with two attendants.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12One of them with his stick raised, as if he's going to beat her.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Her name was Matilda and she came from Cologne.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Her brother had murdered her lover.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22And Matilda, driven mad by this traumatic experience,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25had killed her own newborn child.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29She was violent and uncontrollable and in the Middle Ages,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32the only way they knew to deal with that was to beat people,
0:50:32 > 0:50:34to try and restrain them.
0:50:34 > 0:50:39So there she is in the middle, at the shrine itself, being beaten.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41But she's cured.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45And on the right, she kneels in prayer at the shrine.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48The attendants are putting down their sticks.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51And one of the monks is getting ready
0:50:51 > 0:50:53to listen to what she's been through.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55Somebody profoundly disturbed
0:50:55 > 0:50:59and somebody who at last finds a place where there's a person
0:50:59 > 0:51:04who will listen to her and do something about her condition.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07As reasonable 21st century people, we're bound to ask,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09"Did all this really happen?
0:51:09 > 0:51:13"Are all these stories real history?"
0:51:13 > 0:51:16Well, nobody's going to be able to answer that question in detail.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20But look at the vigour and the variety of the stories here.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Something was going on here.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Something extraordinary and intensely hopeful
0:51:26 > 0:51:31for a lot of ordinary people with their troubles of mind and body.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35They came here, they were caught up in this big story.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39Their lives changed and that's what we really need to know
0:51:39 > 0:51:42about the impact of St Thomas here.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Miraculous or not, there is a power in this space
0:51:48 > 0:51:52that hasn't diminished since the bones were taken away and burned.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03We're left with a gap. A ghost of a shrine.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08A space to fill with our own thoughts and ideas.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12But that's one thing I feel today's Canterbury offers.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17A question and the broken relics of the past's attempts at an answer.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25But it's not just the building.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28It's the rhythms, the rituals,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32that can make those unsettling connections across time.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Every night for 14 centuries, someone's been here,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42saying evening prayer.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46And it was at that time of day that the knights came to get Becket.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53He was at home, where I live today.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Ten years in this job have forced me personally
0:53:00 > 0:53:03to confront Canterbury's difficult questions.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09And the answers still don't seem easy at all.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20These vestments that have been laid out for me
0:53:20 > 0:53:24here in the chapel of the Archbishop's Palace
0:53:24 > 0:53:28are exact copies of vestments that belonged to Thomas Becket himself.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Every year, I put on these vestments on the 29th of December
0:53:34 > 0:53:39to celebrate the Eucharist on the spot where Thomas Becket died.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Putting on these vestments and standing in the place
0:53:42 > 0:53:48where Thomas was martyred produces some very complicated feelings.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52It can feel like play-acting, dressing up as a saint.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56And yet, at the same time,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59like other kinds of drama,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01it has its effect.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07It invites you to think about what it might be like
0:54:07 > 0:54:10to have the kind of courage, the kind of inner stillness
0:54:10 > 0:54:12that Thomas seems to have shown on that occasion
0:54:12 > 0:54:15and that other people in similar situations show
0:54:15 > 0:54:17right up to the present day.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Trying to imagine that from a very, very long way away.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25It's an experience that pushes you to the edge of your comfort zone
0:54:25 > 0:54:27and a good bit beyond.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36CHOIRBOYS SING
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Last chorus then? Good.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48Let's try it again, really get the words to the front of the mouth.
0:54:48 > 0:54:49THEY SING
0:54:53 > 0:54:57My last few hours as Archbishop in Canterbury
0:54:57 > 0:55:00will be spent in the same place Thomas spent his.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07It's one way the cathedral can make ordinary experiences extraordinary.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Abstract terms turn into concrete dilemmas.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Would I give up my life?
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Would I desert my loved ones to make a point, however important?
0:55:24 > 0:55:27And perhaps that's the ultimate legacy of Becket's choice
0:55:27 > 0:55:29to die in this spot.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35Making for the cathedral, rather than making for safety.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50Thomas and his attendants came to the church by the cloistered door,
0:55:50 > 0:55:54just as evening prayer was beginning.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Not surprisingly, there was a great rush to bolt and bar the doors.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03Thomas said, "No, I'm not having the Church of God turned into a castle."
0:56:03 > 0:56:06He was determined to die in this building.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19The silliest thing in the world is to dramatise yourself,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21to imagine yourself in the position of people
0:56:21 > 0:56:25greater, holier, more heroic than you are.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29But every year, as I stand in this place
0:56:29 > 0:56:34and hear those doors being flung open, I have to ask myself -
0:56:34 > 0:56:36"What is it that makes it possible
0:56:36 > 0:56:39"to take a stand for the Kingdom of God?
0:56:39 > 0:56:43"What is it that's going to make that possible for me,
0:56:43 > 0:56:45"for the people standing around?"
0:56:50 > 0:56:53As long as there's one cathedral for the whole country
0:56:53 > 0:56:59that looks out beyond our borders, that talks to the state,
0:56:59 > 0:57:02there'll be someone like me confronting these problems.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07Should governments be able to dictate people's beliefs?
0:57:07 > 0:57:12Should images that offend be allowed or banned?
0:57:12 > 0:57:16Should religious leaders abroad have influence in Britain?
0:57:18 > 0:57:24The more diverse we get, the more I think we need Canterbury.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28We need a shared space to have these arguments.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30And we need someone at the heart of it,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33trying to point to a way forward.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35If there's one thing
0:57:35 > 0:57:38that nothing really prepares you for in this position,
0:57:38 > 0:57:40it's the level of public scrutiny.
0:57:40 > 0:57:45All your mistakes and errors of judgment are out there in public straight away.
0:57:45 > 0:57:46If you say anything silly
0:57:46 > 0:57:49or anything that could be made to sound silly,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51it's out there immediately for comment,
0:57:51 > 0:57:56with plenty of people to tell you exactly what you should have said or should have done.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00So these years have been more about old-fashioned patience
0:58:00 > 0:58:02than martyrdom.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08And in any case, ten years is the blink of an eye in this story.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15What matters most about this place is that it goes on.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17It goes on, never mind the personality
0:58:17 > 0:58:20or the agenda of this archbishop or that.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24It goes on standing for what it stands for.
0:58:24 > 0:58:26It's the point of intersection
0:58:26 > 0:58:28between the Kingdom of God, the values of God,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32and all the skill, the art,
0:58:32 > 0:58:36the problems, the politics of human beings.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40Every Archbishop, I think, needs to know
0:58:40 > 0:58:43how very, very important this place is for their ministry.
0:58:45 > 0:58:47I can only say that as I look back on
0:58:47 > 0:58:50ten years of association with this building,
0:58:50 > 0:58:53I do so with the most immense gratitude.
0:59:09 > 0:59:13Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd