Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury. Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt between 1070 and 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century when they were demolished to make way for the present structures. Before the English Reformation the cathedral was part of a Benedictine monastic community known as Christ Church, Canterbury, as well as being the seat of the archbishop. History Roman Tertullian refers to Christians in Briton as early as 208 AD. Origen mentions the church in 238 AD and in 314 Britain sent three Bishops to the Council of Arles. There is a medieval London tradition that St Peter upon Cornhill church in London was the seat of English Christianity until the founding of Canterbury in 597 AD. Whether this is true or not has not yet been established. However, St Peter's is positioned directly above the potential location of a pagan Aedes (or shrine room) in the great Roman Basilica of London, and there is a tradition that a native British King, Lucius, converted to Christianity in 179 AD and founded St Peter's as the seat of the archbishop of English church. Either way, Canterbury was therefore a relative latecomer to English Christianity. The cathedral's first bishop was Augustine of Canterbury, previously abbot of St Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome; when other dioceses were founded in England he was made archbishop. He was sent by Pope Gregory I in 596 as a missionary to the English. Augustine founded the cathedral in 597 and dedicated it to Jesus Christ, the Holy Saviour. Augustine also founded the Abbey of St Peter and Paul outside the city walls. This was later rededicated to St Augustine himself and was for many centuries the burial place