710) offer the best example of this kind. In the tenth century, Frankish
art was much imitated, and the Saxon style was altered. But the Saxons,
in their imitations, displayed originality; and they developed a
gorgeous form of decoration, which was recognised as a distinct style,
and was known on the Continent as English work (_opus Anglicum_). The
typical specimen of this kind is the Benedictional of Æthelwold (between
963 and 970). From the same cause, the character of the penmanship also
passes through a corresponding change, but more gradually and
indistinctly.[31]


ARCHITECTURE.

Of Saxon architecture there are many traces; we will take but a few.

The cathedral at Canterbury was an old church, which had been built by
Christians under the Romans, and which Augustine, by the king's help,
recovered, and consecrated as the Church of St. Saviour;[32] in later
times it came to be called Christ Church. This building lasted all
through the Saxon period; it was enlarged by Abbot Odo, about 950, and
was finally pulled down by Lanfranc, in 1070. But there exists a written
description of this old church by a man who had seen it,--namely, Eadmer
the Precentor, who was a diligent collector of traditions concerning his
cathedral. What makes his description especially valuable to the
architectural historian is the fact that he compares it to St. Peter's
at Rome, and he had been to Rome in company with Anselm. Now, although
the old Basilica at Rome was destroyed in the sixteenth century, yet
plans and drawings which were made before its demolition are preserved
in the Vatican: and, with all these data before him, Professor Willis
reconstructed the plan of the metropolitan church of the Saxon