, of the church of Offa's day. From the fact that
certain remains of it were incorporated in the present building, and
that these were of the character generally called "Saxon," there is
little doubt that the church of the monastery was not the little church
erected in the fourth century over the martyr's grave, but one of later
date, probably the one described by Beda as standing in his day, built
in the latter part of the sixth or in the seventh century. We have no
further record of this church, but we know that the ninth Abbot, Eadmer,
began to collect materials for rebuilding the church; but the work was
not begun until the time of the fourteenth Abbot, Paul of Caen, who was
appointed by William I. So enthusiastically did he work, that in the
short space of eleven years (1077-88) the church was rebuilt. The
rapidity of the building was no doubt chiefly due to the fact that there
was no need of hewing and squaring stone, for the Roman bricks from the
ruins of the old city of Verulam were ready at hand, and the timber
collected by Paul's five predecessors was well seasoned. It is said that
the new church was not dedicated until the year 1115, but it is hard to
believe that so long a space of time as twenty-seven years would be
allowed to elapse between the completion of the building and the
dedication. It is possible there may be some error in this date.

We can form a good idea of this Norman church. It was like several of
the other cathedral and abbey churches built at the same time, of vast
size, far grander than their prototype in Normandy, St. Stephen's at
Caen. The following table gives approximately the dimensions of some of
these churches:

Length of Number of Bays. Total
Nave. Nave. Presbytery. Apse. Length.
St. Stephen's, Caen 193 9 2 ... 290
Canterbury 185 9 10 5 290
Winchester 318 14 3 5 ...
St. Albans 275 13 4 ... 460
Bury St. Edmund's 300 15 4 3 490

The church consisted of a nave with aisles; the arches of the main
arcade were semicircular, the piers massive and rectangular; there were
no mouldings, the orders of the arches, like the piers, having
rectangular corners. There were possibly two western towers, which
stood, like those of Rouen and Wells, outside