positions;
but did not deem the north so important, as it would be of no such
ulterior use. In the same way the choir was finished, while the nave,
or parochial portion, in which the monastic establishment had less
interest, was possibly left to the townsmen, and remained longer
incomplete. All that the monks most wanted,--enough of the nave to
secure the stability of the choir and transepts, and the south wall that
supported their cloister,--was built under Gundulf's direction. It has
been thought likely that the nave was completed by the parishioners
before the later Norman period. If so, the builders of that time seem to
have swept away all the townsmen's work, probably because of its ruder
execution.

Gundulf's arcades consisted, apparently, of two plain square-edged
orders; the plan of his piers is not known. We do not seem to have
any of his work, now, above the first string course in the nave. The
triforium, in its present form at any rate, is, like the casing of the
piers and the outer decorated order of the arches, of later Norman work.

The cathedral, or rather the part described above as Gundulf's work,
seems to have been erected by 1087, in which year William the Conqueror
bequeathed some money, robes, and ornaments to it. The monastic
portions were certainly finished before Lanfranc's death in 1089.

Lambarde, following perhaps the chronicler who said, "Ecclesiam Andreae,
paene vetustate dirutam, novam ex integro, ut hodie apparet, aedificavit,"
does not seem to suspect the incompleteness of Gundulf's work of which
he gives the following quaint account. He tells how he "re-edified the
great church at Rochester, erected the Priorie, and where as he founde
but half a dozen secular priests" (the older authority that we have
followed makes it still worse, only mentioning four) "in the Church at
his comming, he never ceased, till he had brought together at the least
three score Monkes into the place. Then removed he the dead bodies of
his predecessors, and with great solemnitie translated them into this
newe work: and there also Lanfranc was present with his purse, and of
his owne charge in-coffened in curious worke of cleane silver the body
of Paulinus, ... to the which shrine there was afterwarde (according to
the superstitious maner of those times) much concourse of people and
many oblations made. Besides this, they both joined in suite to the
King, and not onely obtained restitution of sundry the possessio