Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION FOUR.
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION.
VI. BEFORE THE REFORMATION.

In the early English period, strife for place and
power raged between high ecclesiastical officials. ^^'e
get glimpses of it in local history as early as
1098 when Anselm, Archbishop of Canterl)ury, ha^•ing
quarrelled with the King, William Rufus, about the tilling up
of the Abbacies, sought refuge from the ecclesiastical storm
by embarking at Dover in the disguise of a humble
pilgrim. Further light is thrown on local history by the
records of the before mentioned contentions, between the
monks of Dover and Christ Church, Canterbury, and a
greater flare casts a lurid light when King John, who, having
incurred the displeasure of the Pope, surrendered his crown
to the Pope's Legate at Dover. A century passed, during
which the light and life of Christianity was nearly extin-
guished. New light came on the scene, produced by the
teachings of Wyckliffe and the Lollards, but this was so dis-
pleasing to the Bishops that the followers of these teachers
were arrested. The fires of persecution were frequently
lighted in Kent, one of the most conspicuous Kentish
men. who then recci\c(l the cmwn of martyrdom
being Sir John Oldcasrle. Lurd Cobhain. Between
that vcar and 1557 no less tlian se\onty-se\'en Kentish
martyrs were buiiit, most of them in the reign of
(^ueen Mary, and niaiiv more, who v.-ei'e condemned for
their faith, died of want and starvation in filthy holes, called
prisons in Canterbury. As far as can be ascertained, there
was no martyr for the Protestant faith from Dover burnt, but
there is abundant evidence, that if Queen Mary had lived
another year, the recusants of Dover and its surrounding
villages would have been dragged to the stake. The visitation
of the Dover rural deanery by Cardinal Pole in 1556, indicated
that the feeling of the commoti pco])le was running very
strongly against Popery ; altars and images were broken down,
mass-books, ornaments and vestments were carried away. It
is mentioned in the record of that visitation that, at Buckland,
in Dover, when tlie Host was elevated, the people kept their
eyes fixed on the ground that they might not be even supposed
to be adoring it. At Buckland too, a parishioner named
Thomas Hide, destroyed a crucifix by ca.sting it into the fire
saying, " If it be a God, let it rise and come out of the fire !"



THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. 187