Script for the Movie on Canterbury Cathedral

In the Canterbury Tales we meet characters who are going on a religious pilgrimage. Christians believed that a visit to a holy place gave them good marks in the Book of Judgment. In other words, they thought they’d be more likely to get into heaven if they made such a journey.

In Chaucer’s tale, the pilgrims are going to Canterbury Cathedral in the city of Canterbury east of London. Canterbury was, and is, the site of the church in England. Of particular importance for the pilgrims was the tomb of Thomas a Beckett, the most famous of all the Archbishops of Canterbury. Beckett was named Archbishop by his friend King Henry II who wanted the church to yield to his authority. Beckett, instead, espoused the rights of the church in the face of Henry’s desire for control. In 1170, four knights, hoping to ingratiate themselves with the king, took it upon themselves to assassinate Thomas in his own cathedral. A small modern altar marks the spot where he fell. Later the pope declared him a saint and people came from all over England to pray at his tomb.

In 1538, Beckett’s tomb and his remains were destroyed on orders of Henry VIII when he broke with the Pope and the Catholic Church and initiated the protestant church in England.  Today, an eternal flame marks the spot where his tomb once stood. In front of the flame, the stone floor shows a significant indentation where thousands of worshippers have kneeled in prayer.

Canterbury Cathedral was begun in the twelfth century but did not reach its present stage of completion until 400 years later in the fifteenth century. Though a cathedral could take hundreds of years to complete, the protracted building project was the most important thing in a community, spiritually and economically. Everyone was involved with the work, and everyone could feel a sense of purpose in devoting their labors to the worship of God. Even a farmer felt he was working for god by feeding the workers in the cathedral, such as brick makers, masons, sculptors, furniture makers, stained-glass designers, tapestry weavers, gold and silver smiths. The list goes on and on. Only because of this shared sense of purpose could cathedrals have been built. They are the greatest artistic accomplishment in the world.

The rounded top of these windows in what is called the Romanesque style, reflecting the Roman Empire’s influence, came from the earlier part of the cathedral’s construction. Later, the Romanesque gave way to a new style, the Gothic which was very ambitious. The new broken arch, or the pointed arch, was created for visual and structural reasons. The point of the arch is meant to lead the eye towards heaven. The structural advantage was that these pointed arches could bear more weight so cathedrals could be built so high that they tower over the earth, pointing to heaven and directing a contemplation of god. They also could support large stained-glass windows which brought color and light into the space, creating a sense of serenity and joy.