Canterbury Cathedral

Connections

• One of Sir Roland's myriad titles is "Honorary Abbot of Canterbury Cathedral"

Context

Let's start with "Honorary Abbot." The title of "abbot" is and was given to the male head of a monastery. It seems the title of "honorary abbot" was only given to celibate priests ("monastics"). Is it possible that Sir Roland, before he became a warrior, was a man of the cloth? Perhaps he did some great service to the area or the church in Canterbury, allowing him to hold the title of its honorary abbot.

Now, what about the Canterbury Cathedral? It is a real cathedral in the city of Canterbury, in the county of Kent (in southeastern England). It is one of the oldest and most famous Christian buildings in England. It even became a point of pilgrimage for many after the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket of Canterbury, former Archbishop at the Canterbury Cathedral, which housed his shrine (until 1538 when King Henry VIII decided it should be destroyed).

Canterbury itself should sound familiar to many thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, one of the most well-known texts from the medieval times (made famous especially by the way it popularized the use of everyday English, as opposed to the then more intellectual French or Latin). It is a series of stories supposedly told by a group of pilgrims travelling to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at the Canterbury Cathedral.