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 !"