Of the White Friars, nothing. Of the Franciscan
house, the charming thirteenth century ruin that stands over the river
to the south of St Peter's Street. That is all.
The Canterbury of St Thomas is no more, it perished with his shrine
and his religion. Even the hospital he is said to have founded, which
at any rate was dedicated in his honour, was suppressed by Edward VI.;
it is, however, still worth a visit, if only for the sake of the wall
painting recovered in 1879, in which we see the Martyrdom, and the
penance of the King.
But in Canterbury to-day St Thomas is really a stranger, no relic,
scarcely a remembrance of him remains; yet he was the soul of the
city, he is named in the calendar of his Church St Thomas of
Canterbury.
No relic do I say? I am wrong. Let all the pilgrims of the past come
in at the four gates in their thousands and their thousands; let the
great processions form as though this were a year of jubilee, they
shall not be disappointed. Yet it is not to the Cathedral they shall
go, but to an ugly little church (alas!), in a back street, where over
the last altar upon the Epistle side there is a shrine and in the
shrine a relic--the Soutan of St Thomas.
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