e fenestris
Pulchraque porticibus fulget circumdata multis,
Plurima diversis retinens solaria tectis,
Quae triginta tenet variis ornatibus aras.

It is plain that this church, wherever it was, and the poem does not
mention its locality, was a very important one. It was very lofty, and
had many porches, or apses (_porticus_ may mean either), and thirty
altars.

Just before this passage in the poem there is an account of altars set
up by the archbishop, probably in the cathedral. Professor Willis thinks
that if the church referred to immediately after were the cathedral, an
account of altars set up in it would not be given before an account of
the building of the church itself. But, as Professor Freeman points out,
it is most improbable that two writers, the chronicler and Flaccus
Albinus, should allude to a church other than the minster without giving
its name. It is, of course, just possible that Albert set up his altars
before rebuilding the cathedral, in which case Professor Willis'
contention would lose its force. It is curious that no other chronicler
mentions either the fire or the rebuilding of the church, but this
omission would be almost equally strange whether the building in
question were the minster or some important church in the diocese.

On the whole, therefore, it is perhaps most probable that the church
referred to by Flaccus Albinus was the minster. If that is so, this
church remained until it was ruined by the Danes in 1069. Then it was
certainly either wholly or partially burnt down. Thomas, the first
Norman archbishop, appointed in 1070, found the minster, the city, and
the diocese, all waste and desolate. At first he was satisfied with
roofing in what remained of the cathedral and otherwise restoring it as
best he could. Afterwards, before 1080, he began to rebuild it. It is
uncertain whether he rebuilt the whole church, or merely the nave and
transepts.

Stubbs on this point seems to give two different accounts.

"Thomas," he states, "restored the canons of the church after he had
rebuilt it as well as he could." Afterwards he says, "He built the
church as it now is from its foundations."

Probably, this first passage refers to the immediate repairs which
Thomas found necessary in 1070, and the second to his ultimate
rebuilding of the church.

William of Malmesbury says that he began the church from its foundations
and finished it. In the face of this positive testimony it is p