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A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ecclesiastical 8rci)itecture 
 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 http://archive.org/details/historyofecclesiOOpool 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 €cclestasttcal architecture 
 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 GEO. AYLIFFE POOLE, M.A., 
 
 VICAR OF WELFORD. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, 
 AND 78, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXLVIII. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY JOSEFH MASTERS, 
 ALDERS GATE STREET. 
 
RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, 
 RICHARD, 
 
 BY DIVINE PERMISSION, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS, 
 
 Cftts Volume 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author has endeavoured in this volume, to combine a gene- 
 ral history of the greater English ecclesiastical architects of the 
 middle ages, with an equally general view of their works, and of 
 the characters which distinguish the buildings of their respec- 
 tive ages : and he hopes that the result of a plan thus loosely 
 didactic, may be to excite some additional interest in the mas- 
 ters of a great art in its highest application, and a more vivid, 
 as well as a more just perception of the merits of their works. 
 
 He is aware that his work is very far from what it ought to 
 be. Incomplete it is necessarily ; it will probably be considered 
 meagre : should it even be taken as a mere melange of ecclesiolo- 
 gical notes, he will be satisfied with the estimate, if only it ob- 
 tain the praise of being real as far as it goes. 
 
 That it may deserve this praise at least, the monkish histo- 
 rians, the only coeval sources of information, are left to speak 
 for themselves on such subjects as miracles, doctrines, and 
 counsels of perfection, when they are connected with church 
 building. We neither do nor can think, believe, and feel with 
 them ourselves, and we should deprecate nothing more seriously 
 than a use of their works which should lead others to an indis- 
 criminate reception of their facts, or of their theology. Still it 
 must be remembered, that the opinions which they express, the 
 feelings which they avow, even the stories which they relate, 
 whether they be or be not real and true in themselves, or in our 
 judgment, are clearly so in the philosophy of the history of art. 
 It is not the truth of an opinion, or the view which we take of 
 it ; but it is the view which he took of it, which influenced 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Aylwin in the building of Ramsey Abbey. It is not our estimate 
 of their character, or our way of expressing it, but it is their 
 estimate, and their way of expressing it, which indicate the de- 
 gree in which their contemporaries were influenced by such men 
 as Wolstan, and John of Wisbeach. 
 
 It is impossible to write on such subjects without a moral 
 tone, though direct moralizing may be avoided ; unless indeed 
 one can divest oneself of the feeling that they have a moral, 
 and this is a power which the author by no means covets. 
 He feels that the moral here is a wholesome one. Every instance 
 in which we are brought into connection with those to whom we 
 owe our very existence as individuals, and as a nation, ought to 
 make us feel our fellowship rather than our distance, and to 
 teach us a proper estimate of ourselves and of our fathers. If 
 there are many things which tend to lessen the influence even 
 of our common Christianity in making us one with them, it will 
 be useful to view them as engaged in a work, of which we in- 
 herit the advantages : and if we are superior, as we are and 
 ought to be, to our remote ancestors, in many things, — in the 
 arts of life, in habits of society, in soundness of objective faith ; 
 and if we are quite as conscious of this as is consistent with 
 charity and humility, it may be a wholesome exercise for us to 
 pursue a study which will present them to us as unquestionably 
 our superiors in one branch of the arts, and in one of the fruits 
 of true religion. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Anglo-Roman Period. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preliminary Remarks. — Wooden Church at Glastonbury. — Proportions of 
 this Church followed in Ireland.— King Lucius. — The Dioclesian Per- 
 secution. — The Martyrdom and Church of S. Alban. — Churches 
 restored after the Persecution. — Influence of Roman Sway on British 
 Ecclesiastical Art 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Mythical Period. 
 
 Desertion of Britain by the Romans. — Destruction of Churches by the 
 Barbarians. — Ambrosius Aurelianus restores Churches. — Use of Myths 
 and Legends as affording materials for History. — Merlin and Vortigern. 
 — Blood used in the foundation of Buildings. — Alexander, Bishop of 
 Lincoln. — Merlin and Ambrosius Aurelianus. — Stonehenge. — The 
 triumph of Art over Strength. — King Arthur restores Churches. — The 
 splendour of his Coronation 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Saxon Period. . 
 
 From the coming of Augustine to the birth of Dunstan, 
 
 Arrival of Augustine, and his Establishment at Canterbury. — He reconciles 
 Heathen Temples, and founds a Monastery and the Cathedral Church. 
 — Mission of Paulinus to Northumbria. — A Baptistery of Wood erected 
 at York, and afterwards surrounded with a Stone Church. — Other 
 Churches erected by Paulinus, especially at Campodonum, and Lin- 
 coln. — Columba and Iona. — Oswald and Lindisfarne ; Finan's Cathe- 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 dral there. — Cedd and Lastingham. — Cuthbert and Fame. — Mr. Petrie 
 on the Origin and Uses of Round Towers in Ireland. — Other Monas- 
 teries and their Founders. — Benedict Biscop, and Wearmouth and 
 Jarrow. — Of Building more Romano. — Wilfrid and Hexham, from 
 Eddius, and Richard of Hexham 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Saxon Period. 
 
 From the Birth of Dunstan to Edward the Confessor. 
 
 Dunstan introduces the Benedictine Rule into England, and rebuilds Glas- 
 tonbury with increased splendour. — Oswald, Bishop of Worcester. — 
 Ramsey Abbey, and Worcester. — Adhelm, Founder of Malmsbury 
 Abbey. — Miracles connected with the erection of Churches. — Restora- 
 tion of Churches after Danish Invasion. — Croyland, Kirkdale 48 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Saxon Period. 
 
 General Review of Ecclesiastical Architecture in the Saxon era : Brixworth, 
 Greensted. — Circumstances which continued to affect Churches and 
 their Structure in after ages. — Monachism. — The Division of England 
 into Parishes : — The Introduction of Glass : — The use of Lead for 
 Roofs : — Accumulation of Wealth in precious Vestments and Orna- 
 ments : — Church Music : — The Organ : — Bells : — Dials and Clocks : — 
 The Bell-tower. — Burial in Churches 66 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Norman Period. 
 
 Introduction of the Norman Style. — Edward the Confessor and Westminster 
 Abbey. — Harold and Waltham Abbey. — William the Conqueror and 
 Battle Abbey. — Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. — Wulstau, Bishop of 
 Worcester. — Three Duads of Ecclesiastical Builders. — Robert and 
 Hubert Losing : — Walkelyn and his brother Simeon : — Roger and his 
 nephew Alexander. — The Freemasons 90 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Norman Period. 
 
 S. Alban's. — The use of Brick. — Tewkesbury, Peterborough, Bury S. 
 Edmund's, S. Paul's, S. Cross, Romsey, Rydal, Fountains, Faversham, 
 Castor, Durham, and Bolton. — Destruction of Churches. — Worcester, 
 Chichester, York, Bath, Fountains. — Violence of the times. — Number 
 of Churches. — Their general character. — Norman Decorations 120 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xi 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Transition from Norman to Early English. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Burning of Canterbury Cathedral. — The Restoration by William of 
 Sens and William the Englishman. — The older and newer fabrics com- 
 pared. — Introduction of the Pointed Arch and its results. — Influence 
 of the Patron Saint on the fabric of the Church 155 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Symbolism of Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 
 Necessity of treating the subject, — Early Instances of Symbolism. — Round 
 Church at Fulda. — Dream of the Monk of Bury. — Authority of 
 Durandus. — His Rationale. — Definition of Symbolism. — The Definition 
 applied to various instances. — Saxon Symbolism. — Norman. — Subse- 
 quent Styles. — Symbolism still existing 170 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Round Churches in England. 
 
 General History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. — S. 
 Sepulchre's, Cambridge : — S. Sepulchre's, Northampton. — The Tem- 
 ple.— Little Maplested 190 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Connection of Heraldry with Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 
 Synchronisms and parallel fate of Heraldry and Gothic Architecture. — 
 Augmentations illustrated from several events. — Dates of Buildings 
 determined by Heraldry. — Architectural charges, especially the Chev- 
 ron. — Heraldic Decorations of Buildings. — Community of feeling be- 
 tween Heraldry and Christian Art : The Religious element in both . . 200 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Early English Period. 
 
 Great Exertions of Church Builders in the Thirteenth Century. — The 
 Temple. — Fountains, Kirkstall, Buildwas, Winchester, S. Alban's, 
 Glasgow, Beaulieu, York, Skelton, Ely, Durham, Rochester, Beverley, 
 Ripon, Southwell. — Ely : Bishop Ridal, and the introduction of 
 Western Transepts : — Eustachius and the Galilee : — Bishop Norwold 
 and the Presbytery. — Wells: Bishop Jocelin. — Salisbury: Bishop 
 Poore. — Old and New Sarum compared. — Nine Altars of Durham. — 
 Extreme East Transepts. — Westminster Abbey. — Characteristics of 
 Early English. — Destruction of Churches by violence : Rochester, 
 Norwich 211 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Period of Geometric Tracery. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Confusion of arrangement in Ecclesiological Works. — Introduction of 
 Tracery ; its first development in Geometric Forms, coetaneous with 
 the Early English for a long time, and with the Decorated Style 
 on its First Appearance. — Of Cusping and Tracery in general. — 
 Of Panelling. — Results of the Introduction of Tracery. — Chapter- 
 House of York. — Merton College Chapel. — Ripon Minster. — Exeter 
 Cathedral. — Lincoln Cathedral. — Wells Lady Chapel and Chapter- 
 House. — Temple-Balsall. — *' Architectural Parallels." — Tintern. — 
 Guisborough. — Vale-Royal Abbey. — Queen Eleanor's Crosses 237 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Sculpture and Carving, as Decorations of Ecclesiastical 
 Architecture. 
 
 General character of Norman Sculpture : The Fonts of East Meon, and of 
 Lenton ; the Doorways of Rochester and of Malmsbury. — Early Eng- 
 lish Sculpture. — Doorway of Higham Ferrers. — Introduction of " alto 
 relievo." — West front of Wells. — Effigies of Henry III. and of Queen 
 Eleanor. — Monuments of Robert Vere, of Aymer de Valence, and of 
 Edward II. — Lord Lindsay on the Sculpture of this Age. — Screen in 
 Edward the Confessor's Chapel. — Effigies of Henry VII., and of Eliza- 
 beth his Queen. — Introduction of the Pagan Element. — All grace and 
 all religious feeling lost in the Reign of Elizabeth. — Monument of Sir 
 Christopher Hatton. — The Pagan Element again introduced, without 
 any compensation, after the Revolution. — Tombs of Earl Stanhope, 
 of General Fleming, and of Dr. Hales. — Comparison of the Monu- 
 ments of General Wolfe, and of Aymer de Valence. — Sepulchral 
 Crosses at Jervaulx, at Tickhill, and at Laughton-en-le-Morthen. — 
 Other Carved Tombs. — Brasses. — John Bloxham, at Great Addington ; 
 a Priest at Wensley ; the Parents of Archbishop Chichele. — Dean 
 Eyre ; Robert Brannel ; John Selwyn. — Wood Carving. — Early Speci- 
 mens ; most used in the Fifteenth Century. — Grinling Gibbons. — Stalls 
 at Wensley, and at S.Nicholas, Lynn. — Grotesques 253 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Painting, Mosaic, and Glass Painting, as Decorations of Ecclesi- 
 astical Architecture. 
 
 Colour universally employed. — First recorded Introduction of Pictures. — 
 Augustine, Benedict Biscop, Wilfrid. — S. Dunstan. — Skill of the Saxons 
 in the Decorative Arts. — Instances of Early Norman Painting. — Oil 
 Painting in the tenth century, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centu- 
 ries. — S. Stephen's, Westminster. — Ely Cathedral. — MS. account of 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xiii 
 
 Abbot Islip's Funeral. — Lord Lindsay's estimate of the Mural Paintings 
 of our Churches. — Subjects generally treated. — Two examples from Old 
 S. Paul's. — Bishop Sherburn's Painting at Chichester. — The present 
 usage of the Church of England. — Mosaic derived from Greece, 
 through the Roman Empire to the Church. — Richard de Ware, Abbot 
 of Westminster. — Prior Crowden's Chapel at Ely. — Difference of 
 Treatment in Roman and English Mosaic. — Painted Glass. — Its Influ- 
 ence on Architectural Forms. — Early examples ; Canterbury, Win- 
 chester, York, Ludlow, S. Neot's, Peterborough, Dorchester, Tickhill, 
 West Wickham. — Memorial Windows 278 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Decorated Period. 
 
 Universal adoption of flowing and indirect lines. — Other Characteristics of 
 the Decorated Style. — Exeter Cathedral. — York Minster. — Hull. — 
 Hedon. — Patrington. — Carlisle. — Durham. — Boston. — Grantham. — 
 Heckington. — Norbury. — Chesterfield. — Finedon.— Frequent poverty 
 of execution. — Stanford. — Bridge Chapels. — Wakefield. — Chapel of 
 S. William, York. — Wayside Chapel at Houghton-in-the-Dale. — Ely 
 Cathedral. — Fall of the Tower, and foundation of the Octagon by 
 Alan of Walsingham. — The constructive character, and the general ef- 
 fect of this work. — Bishop Hotham and the Presbytery. — The Lady 
 Chapel, John of Wisbeach. — Sequel of the Life of Alan of Walsing- 
 ham 313 
 
 Appendix. — Extract from . fabric roll of Ely Cathedral 339 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Perpendicular Period. 
 
 Interest of Transition Period. — The Nave of Winchester ; Edington and 
 Wykeham.— Gloucester, Norwich, Principles of Restoration ; Win- 
 chester, Canterbury, York, Gloucester, Crowland, Tickhill, Durham, 
 Kirkstall. — Clerestories. — Towers and Spires ; Salisbury, Norwich, 
 Coventry, Whittlesea, Rushden, Shrewsbury, Laughton-en-le-Mor- 
 then, Chester-le- Street, Louth, Newcastle, Fotheringay, Lowick, 
 Boston, Howden, Derby, Evesham, Norwich, Gloucester, Glaston- 
 bury, Bristol, Taunton, North Petherton, Titchmarsh. — Uses of 
 Towers : — Beacons and Landmarks ; Whittlesea, Raunds, the Lantern 
 of Arden, Coventry, Dundry, York, Hadleigh. — Defence : — Melsonby, 
 Middleham, Spennithorne, Bedale : Irthlingborough, Stanwick, Ten- 
 terden 341 
 
 Appendix. — Extracts from the account for building Louth Broach 360 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Perpendicular Period. 
 
 page 
 
 Archbishop Chichele : Higham-Ferrers, the College and Bede-House ; S. 
 Barnard's, Oxford ; the Lollard's Tower, Lambeth. — Bishop Skirlaw : 
 Skirlaw Chapel ; the Tower of York ; the Tower and Chapter-House 
 of Howden; Skirlaw's Burial and Tomb. — Sepulchral Chapels : Bishop 
 Wainfleet : Cardinal Beaufort ; Bishops Alcock and West ; William 
 Comynge and S. Mary Redcliff. — William Greville, and Campden 
 Church. — Anthony Catesby and Isabella his Wife, and Whiston Church. 
 — S. Michael's-le-Belfry, York. — Deterioration in Architectural Cha- 
 racter. — The Tudor Style ; Chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster 
 
 Abbey 367 
 
 Appendix. — I. Contract for the building of the Dormitory at Durham 383 
 
 II. Agreement for the building of Catterick Church, Yorkshire 385 
 
 III. Document relating to the decorations of the Beauchamp 
 chapel, in S. Mary's church, Warwick 386 
 
 IV. On the erection of Coventry Cross 391 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Post-Reformation Period. 
 
 Deterioration in Ecclesiastical Art not to be referred to the Reformation. — 
 Destruction and Spoliation of Churches. — The Curse upon Sacrilege. 
 Materials of Churches used to much hurt and little gain. — Different 
 spirit of Sacrilege at the Reformation, and at the Rebellion. — Puritan 
 Destruction. — The Journal of Will Dowsing. — Desolation of Lichfield, 
 of Scarborough, of Astley. — Restoration of Lichfield, of Stanton 
 Harold. — The Fire of London. — Sir Christopher Wren, and the total 
 
 extinction of Gothic Architecture 392 
 
 Appendix. — I. A contemporary narrative of the burning of S. Paul's steeple, 
 
 in 1561 406 
 
 II. Sir Christopher Wren's account of the state of S. Paul's 
 Cathedral, after the fire of London, 1666 410 
 
 III. Extracts from Sir Christopher Wren's letter on the state 
 
 of Westminster Abbey 413 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ecclesiastical Architecture 
 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Anglo-Roman Period. 
 
 Preliminary Remarks. — Wooden Church at Glastonbury. — Pro- 
 portions of this Church followed tn Ireland. — King Lucius. 
 — The Dioclesian Persecution. — The Martyrdom and Church 
 of S. Alban. — Churches restored after the Persecution. — 
 Influence of Roman Sway on British Ecclesiastical Art. 
 
 There is something very remarkable in the number and beauty 
 of ecclesiastical edifices in this and other portions of western 
 Christendom, possessing a character by which they are collected 
 into one class, however different they may be in magnitude, or 
 in details and accidental varieties of arrangement. 
 
 It is still more remarkable, that these structures, so numerous, 
 and combining within themselves so many elements of beauty, 
 are the work of less than five centuries, 1 and those not the 
 most competent, as we should judge a priori, to design and 
 complete a series of works, at the same time great and beautiful, 
 requiring a disciplined, as well as a bold conception, and for 
 their completion great mechanical and scientific acquirements. 
 
 1 In Germany, however, with Nor- century before it had been embodied 
 mandy and other parts of France, the in such churches as Durham and 
 style now called Norman had attained Tewkesbury in England, 
 some degree of perfection, at least a 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Until the twelfth century our forefathers were but slowly feeling 
 their way towards the perfection of ecclesiastical architecture, 
 and after the fifteenth there was not a single additional form or 
 character of beauty added to the resources of the ecclesiastical 
 architect. From this time a people comparatively civilized in 
 other things, became so tasteless as to depreciate, so barbarous 
 as to destroy the stately monuments of primeval art, or to strip 
 them of all their loveliness ; and the sixteenth century left but 
 the wreck of many of the most stately ecclesiastical fabrics, and 
 those which remained mourned, and still mourn as a bride with- 
 out her jewels. At length, indeed, we have become sensible of 
 the beauties which our fathers despised, ravaged and destroyed. 
 For a while we wondered at the mighty structures, and were 
 impressed with a sort of vague feeling that it was beyond our 
 physical and constructive powers to build the like. Now we pay 
 a deeper and a truer homage, in confessing that there is some- 
 thing almost incommunicable, or which at least we cannot catch, 
 in the soul which informs those lovely structures. We confess, 
 though unwillingly, our inability to match them either in their 
 vastness, or in their beauty : in their vastness, for want of devo- 
 tion or of wealth 3 in their beauty, for want of refined taste, and 
 principles of harmonious composition. Yet wherein are our 
 resources inferior to those of our ancestors of the thirteenth or 
 fourteenth centuries? In the wealth both of the individual 
 and of the community we are greatly superior to them ; not only 
 as wealth is counted in gold and silver, but as it represents the 
 means of commanding elegance and splendour, and of executing 
 vast national works. In general taste and refinement we are be- 
 yond all comparison their superiors. Our science and our applica- 
 tions of science to mechanical arts, would surprise the philosopher 
 or the mechanician of the thirteenth century, as much as their 
 advancement in architecture shames us : yet for so many hun- 
 dred years our ancestors did always, what we, in about as many, 
 have always failed to do. In short, and this is the great re- 
 proach, in everything else, even in every other application of 
 architecture, — in our mansions, our palaces, our bridges, our 
 public works, our courts and exchanges, our public streets, our 
 docks, our piers, our beacons, — we surpass our forefathers ; but 
 in our religious edifices we are far beneath them : and, as if by 
 
THE ANGLO-ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 3 
 
 a necessity against which we cannot struggle, we are kept 
 beneath them. They dwelt in hovels, and worshipped in houses 
 exceeding magnifical ; we dwell in cedar, and worship in meagre 
 or dilapidated churches. 
 
 We must guard, however, at the outset against a notion that 
 the decline of ecclesiastical architecture is to be traced to the 
 Reformation. Many beautiful structures were indeed destroyed 
 at the dissolution of the monasteries, but this was no part of the 
 Reformation properly so called : it preceded, and did not follow 
 the establishment of a reformed ritual ; and it was the work of 
 a prince in all doctrinal matters as popish as any of his prede- 
 cessors. Nor was Henry VIII. the first to devise or to execute 
 this wholesale sacrilege. The alien priories had been already 
 seized several times, and at last wholly confiscated by Henry V. 
 (a.d. 1414.) Wolsey had dissolved and despoiled religious 
 houses to found his own college, nine years before the dissolution 
 of the lesser, and thirteen years before that of the greater mo- 
 nasteries. But it is still more to the purpose that both here 
 and abroad the decline of ecclesiastical art, in all its branches, 
 had preceded the Reformation : that architecture was debased, 
 and partially paganized, all over the continent, as well as in 
 England, before the quarrel of Henry VIII. with the Pope ; and 
 of course long before the Reformation had taken any definite 
 form. Moreover the downward course of ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture has been at least as rapid in other countries as in our own. 
 New churches have been as wretched, — old ones have been as 
 injudiciously restored, and as recklessly and more universally 
 destroyed; nay, wholesale sacrilege and the dissolution of reli- 
 gious houses have been practised without any connection with a 
 change in doctrine. And, finally, the present revival of eccle- 
 siastical art commenced in Protestant England, and among 
 Anglo-Catholics; and we heartily hope that it may yet grow 
 into a living proof, that we are not deserted by the spirit of our 
 fathers, in all that is great and lovely. 
 
 The decline of our ecclesiastical architecture was rapid, and 
 its extinction instantaneous : its growth had been slow and gra- 
 dual, and its vigour of long continuance. It is true that the 
 number of Saxon churches and monasteries was very great, and 
 that in some cases they could boast a dignity and an appropriate- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ness to the solemn use for which they were designed, beyond 
 that of any other buildings of their time. Yet it must be con- 
 fessed that there was scarcely a single edifice which could com- 
 pare in grace of conception and beauty of detail, with those 
 with which the Normans were familiar at their first coming into 
 England. But it must be remembered that we ought not to 
 compare the Saxon churches with the works of another age or 
 another people, to which they may or may not have been immen- 
 surably superior or hopelessly inferior, but with the secular 
 works of the same age and nation. It may fairly admit a doubt, 
 however, how soon the greatest efforts were directed to religious 
 works in England. Christianity came into the island with the 
 Romans ; not, however, as a recognized part of a system, but in 
 the person of a few dependants of the proconsular court, and a 
 few soldiers in stipendiary legions. The new occupants of a 
 conquered and barbarous island, were employed first in necessary 
 military works, and next in the erection of theatres, halls, and 
 basilicas : tokens of their luxury and authority, not of their piety. 
 They erected here and there an altar to Venus or to Mercury ; 
 but a temple perhaps worthy of the name nowhere. The Chris- 
 tians among them would scarcely aspire to the possession of 
 more than a little oratory, like a lodge in the wilderness, be- 
 tokening the low condition, and the uncertain tenure, of military 
 colonists : and the few who came or remained as missionaries, 
 would be as unable as the rest were unwilling, to erect costly 
 temples, until their preaching had already produced its effect on 
 whole tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants. 
 
 The history of those times, whether legendary or authentic, 
 confirms the natural deduction. The first Christian temple in 
 England, as all accounts agree, was that at Glastonbury ; and 
 there is an equal consent in the tradition that it was of very 
 humble materials, and of very rude construction. As this 
 church in its progressive splendour often occurs in the history of 
 Christian art, I will transcribe the account which William of 
 Malmsbury gives of its erection. Having related how Joseph of 
 Arimathea was appointed by Philip, at the persecution which 
 followed the death of Stephen, to preach the gospel in this 
 island, with eleven companions, he adds, — 
 
 " These holy missionaries coming into Britain in the year of 
 
THE ANGLO-ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 5 
 
 our Lord 63, and in the fifteenth of the Blessed Virgin's as- 
 sumption, published the doctrine of Christ with great industry 
 and courage. But the barbarous king and his subjects, being- 
 somewhat alarmed at so unusual an undertaking, and not relish- 
 ing a persuasion so different from his own, refused to become a 
 proselyte ; but in consideration of the length of their voyage, 
 and being somewhat charmed with their unexceptionable beha- 
 viour, gave them a little spot of ground, surrounded with fens 
 and bushes, to dwell in. This place was called Ynswitrin by 
 the natives, and situated upon the confines of his dominions. 
 Afterwards two other pagan kings being affected with their 
 remarkable sanctity, gave each of them a certain proportion of 
 ground, and, at their request, settled twelve hides of land on 
 them, by instruments in writing, according to the custom of the 
 country; from whence it is supposed the twelve hides, now part 
 of the abbey's estate, had their denomination. 
 
 " The holy men being thus settled in this place, which was no 
 better than a wilderness, were, in a short time, ordered by the 
 Angel Gabriel, who appeared to them, to build a church in 
 honour of the Blessed Virgin, in a place to which they were 
 supernaturally directed; who, immediately pursuing their in- 
 structions from heaven, built a chapel, the walls of which were 
 made of osiers twisted together. This small structure was 
 finished in the one and thirtieth year after our Saviour's Pas- 
 sion, having little of ornament in the figure, but very remarkable 
 for the Divine presence, and the beauty of holiness : and this 
 being the first church in this island, the Son of God was pleased 
 to grace it with a particular distinction, dedicating it Himself in 
 honour of His mother." 
 
 Insignificant as this church must have been as a work of art, 
 except with a very liberal allowance for the circumstances under 
 which it was erected, it would yet be preserved with more care 
 than many a finer structure, for the interest of the associations 
 w r ith which it was crowded. Accordingly we find so long after 
 as the eleventh century, the wooden church of Glastonbury still 
 remaining. Canute's Charter of Glastonbury was written and 
 published in the wooden church, in presence of King Canute, in 
 the year of our Lord 1032. 1 This was nearly a hundred years 
 
 1 Companion to Glossary. 
 
6 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 after Dunstan had erected a far more splendid edifice at Glas- 
 tonbury, but he probably retained this as a portion of his work, 
 and through all successive changes its exact size and position 
 were held in remembrance. In the more modern church as it 
 stood till the Reformation, there was affixed to a column a brass 
 plate bearing an inscription, which recorded the history of the 
 erection and consecration of the church, together with the addi- 
 tion of a chancel, on account of the greater number of brethren 
 who worshipped there ; and though this addition was made, as 
 the inscription bears, by Divine inspiration, yet so great reve- 
 rence attached to the original proportions of the structure, that 
 they were thus expressly recorded : " Lest the position or the 
 size of the former church should be forgotten, on account of such 
 additions, this column is erected, in a line drawn through the 
 two eastern angles of the said church, towards the south, and 
 dividing the before-mentioned chancel from it. And its length 
 from the said line westward was sixty feet, and its breadth 
 twenty-six feet, and the distance of the centre of this column 
 from the middle point, between the said angles, forty-eight feet." 1 
 These dimensions have an interest not at first sight apparent, 
 and form a very curious connecting link between the ecclesiastical 
 architecture of England and of Ireland. Among the memorable 
 names connected with Glastonbury, was that of S. Patrick, the 
 
 1 The whole inscription is given by domino reuelante ac sanctorum nu- 
 
 Mr. Petrie from Sir Henry Spelman. mero in eadem crescente, quendam 
 
 It is as follows: "Anno post pas- cancellum in orientali parte huic eccle- 
 
 sionem domini xxxi° duodecim sancti sie adiecit et in honore beate virginis 
 
 ex quibus Joseph ab Arimathia primus consecrauit. Cuius altare inestimabili 
 
 erat, hue uenerunt, qui ecclesiam saphiro in perpetuam huius rei memo- 
 
 huius regni primam in hoc loco con- riam insigniuit. Et ne locus aut 
 
 struxerunt, qui Christi [quam Chris- quantitas prorsus [prioris] ecclesie 
 
 tus] in honorem sue matris et locum per tales augmentaciones obliuioni 
 
 pro eorum sepultura presencialiter traderetur : erigitur hec columpna in 
 
 dedicauit. sancto Dauid Meneuencium linea per duos orientales angulos ejus- 
 
 archiepiscopo hoc testante. Cui dom- dem ecclesie uersus meridiem protracta 
 
 inus ecclesiam illam dedicare dispo- et predictum cancellum ab ea absciu- 
 
 nenti in sompnis apparuit et eum a dente. Et erat ejus longitudo ab ilia 
 
 proposito revocavit. necnon in signum linea uersus occidentem lx. pedum, 
 
 quod ipse dominus ecclesiam ipsam latitudo uero ejus xxvi. pedum, dis- 
 
 prius cum cimiterio dedicarat, manum tancia centri istius columpne a puncto 
 
 episcopo digito perforavit, et sic per- medio inter predictos angulos xlviii. 
 
 forata multis uidentibus in crastino pedum." 
 apparuit ; postea uero idem episcopus, 
 
THE ANGLO-ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 ? 
 
 Apostle of Ireland, who, according to the Glastonbury account, 
 and some Irish legends, was buried in this church. Now it 
 seems that sixty feet was the usual length even of the larger 
 churches in Ireland, built under the direction of S. Patrick, and 
 after his example for many centuries. 1 Mr. Petrie, in his very 
 valuable inquiry into the origin and uses of round towers of 
 Ireland, suggests that the general adoption of this size ori- 
 ginated either in reverence for this model, (i. e., the church of 
 Glastonbury,) or for some similar one derived from the primitive 
 Christians. 2 
 
 From this year, 63, we have few or no accounts of the foun- 
 dation of churches till the time of King Lucius ; but from the 
 number attributed to him, whether truly or not, we may con- 
 clude that ecclesiastical buildings were considerably multiplied 
 in his time. The conversion of Lucius took place in 176, and 
 his death in 201. Within this interval, according to Geoffry of 
 Monmouth, the greatest part of Britain was cleared of heathen- 
 ism, the revenues of the pagan priests were transferred to Chris- 
 tian Bishops and Clergy, and many of the pagan temples cleansed 
 of the relics of idolatry and false worship, were consecrated to 
 the service of the true God. Britain was also divided at the 
 same time into three provinces, formerly under the authority of 
 heathen archnamens, and metropolitan churches were erected in 
 London, York, and the city of Legions, 3 which its old wall and 
 buildings show to have been situated on the river Uske in Gla- 
 morganshire. 4 Lucius himself largely increased the ecclesias- 
 tical revenues out of his royal patrimony, and built several 
 churches. 5 The following which are connected in after ages with 
 
 1 On the subject of the size of the 
 ancient churches of Ireland, Mr. Petrie 
 has collected a mass of very curious 
 matter ; among the rest he gives the 
 history of the foundation of the great 
 church of S. Patrick, near Feltown, in 
 Meath, which is thus related in the 
 tripartite history, ascribed to S. Evan. 
 " In that very place where his residence 
 was, (where he had received S. Pa- 
 trick,) Conal laid the foundation of a 
 church to God and S. Patrick, which 
 was in length sixty of his feet ; (quod 
 
 pedibus ejus LX pedum erat :) but he 
 removed his habitation to another spot. 
 And then Patrick said to him, ' Who- 
 ever shall be so bold as to attempt 
 anything against this church, his reign 
 shall be neither happy nor long.' " — 
 Petrie's Round Towers, p. 161. 
 3 See Petrie atpp.,161 and 193—196, 
 
 3 Carleon on Uske. 
 
 4 Geoffry of Monmouth, iv. 19, and 
 v. l> 
 
 5 As an instance of the great exag- 
 geration which may sometimes be found 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 many interesting* passages of the history of the Church or of 
 architecture, are among the number : Westminster Abbey ; the 
 chapel in Dover Castle ; the church of S. Martin, Canterbury ; 
 the church and monastery of Winchester ; a school at Cam- 
 bridge, and a school and church at Bangor. Glastonbury, 
 already mentioned as the first church erected in England, was 
 restored and greatly enriched by Lucius, and the good example 
 of the sovereign was followed by his nobles ; for when he was 
 engaged in the erection of S. Peter's, Cornhill, in London, Ciran, 
 one of his courtiers, largely contributed to the work, at the 
 request of Thean, Archbishop of London. Lucius died at 
 Gloucester, and was buried in the great church there. 
 
 Thus King Lucius occupies, as every Christian king in the 
 like state of society ought to occupy, a considerable space in the 
 history of ecclesiastical architecture. And perhaps all that we 
 can really collect from the legendary importance attached to his 
 name, is the strong sense which a Christian people had of the 
 obligation in kings to provide for the worship of God, and the 
 grateful recognition of their fidelity in fulfilling it. King 
 Lucius was the impersonation of a Christian, and a missionary 
 prince, nursing and cherishing the Church with all his heart, 
 and all his power ; and not neglecting, as indeed no truly 
 pious Churchman will neglect, the exterior and material 
 comeliness of her services. As the perfection of chivalry and 
 a greater number of chivalrous exploits than one man ever 
 performed, were afterwards attributed to King Arthur, the mirror 
 of Christian knighthood ; so were all Christian energy and devo- 
 tion, and many more acts of beneficence than can satisfactorily 
 be appropriated to him, given to Lucius, the Christian king. 
 This gives to the story a mythical instead of a literal and 
 circumstantial truth ; but still we may safely infer, that before the 
 end of the second century many churches had been erected in 
 England, and that the sanctity of the Lord's house was generally 
 acknowledged. 
 
 The next century opens with a disastrous period for the 
 
 in such stories, we may adduce the 
 words of Nennius, who tells us (54) 
 that S. Patrick wrote three hundred 
 and sixty-five canonical and other 
 
 works, relating to the Catholic faith , 
 and founded as many churches, and 
 consecrated as many Bishops. 
 
THE ANGLO-ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 9 
 
 Church. The Dioclesian persecution commenced in 303, and 
 continued during the ten succeeding years ; and though in Bri- 
 tain its fierceness was mitigated, and its duration limited by 
 Constantius Chlorus, who governed here with the title of Csesar, 
 yet many Christians were put to death, and the churches were 
 everywhere demolished. 1 
 
 One of those who earned a glorious crown in the persecution 
 must not be lightly passed over. The story of S. Alban, the 
 English protomartyr, is mingled with some doubtful particulars ; 
 but since what is true in it induced those Christians who sur- 
 vived him to erect the first church on the spot from whence he 
 rose to receive his crown, and since what is doubtful was reported 
 and believed by the generations who enlarged the first founda- 
 tion, the whole of the story, as related by Gildas and Bede, 
 enters into the philosophy of the history of ecclesiastical art in 
 England. 
 
 " S. Alban, for charity's sake, saved another confessor who was pursued 
 by his persecutors, by hiding him in his house, and then by changing 
 clothes with him ; imitating in this the example of Christ, Who laid down 
 His life for His sheep, and exposing himself in the other's clothes to be 
 pursued in his stead. So pleasing to God was this conduct, that between 
 his confession and martyrdom, he was honoured with the performance of 
 wonderful miracles. 
 
 " Being led to execution, he came to a river which, with a most rapid 
 course, ran between the wall of the town and the arena where he was 
 to be executed. He there saw a multitude of persons of both sexes, 
 and of several ages and conditions, which was doubtlessly assembled by 
 Divine instinct, to attend the blessed confessor and martyr, and had so 
 taken up the bridge on the river, that he could scarce pass over that 
 evening. S. Alban therefore, urged by an ardent and devout wish to 
 arrive quickly at martyrdom, drew near to the stream, and on lifting up 
 his eyes to heaven, the channel was immediately dried up, and he per- 
 ceived that the water had departed, and made way for him to pass. 
 Among the rest, the executioner who was to have put him to death ob- 
 served this, and, moved by Divine inspiration, hastened to meet him at 
 the place of execution, and casting down the sword which he had carried 
 ready drawn, fell at his feet, praying that he might rather suffer with 
 the martyr, whom he was ordered to execute, or, if possible, instead of 
 him. 
 
 " Whilst he thus from a persecutor was become a companion in the 
 faith, and the other executioners hesitated to take up the sword which 
 
 1 Gildas, i. 9. 
 
10 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 was lying on the ground, the reverend confessor, accompanied by the 
 multitude, ascended a hill about five hundred paces from the place, 
 adorned, or rather clothed with all kinds of flowers, having its sides 
 neither perpendicular, nor even craggy, but sloping down into a most 
 beautiful plain, worthy from its lovely appearance to be the scene of a 
 martyr's sufferings. On the top of this hill S. Alban prayed that God 
 would give him water, and immediately a living spring broke out before 
 his feet, the course being confined, so that all men perceived that the river 
 also had been dried up in consequence of the martyr's presence. Here, 
 therefore, the head of our most courageous martyr was struck off, and 
 here he received the crown of life, which God has promised to those who 
 love Him. But he who gave the wicked stroke, was not permitted to 
 rejoice over the deceased; for his eyes dropped upon the ground, together 
 with the blessed martyr's head. 
 
 " The blessed Alban suffered death on the twenty-second day of June, 
 near the city of Verulam, where afterwards, when peaceable Christian 
 times were restored, a church of wonderful workmanship, and suitable to 
 his martyrdom, was erected. In which place, there ceases not to this day 
 the cure of sick persons, and the frequent working of wonders." 
 
 The visit of Germanus to the church of S. Alban comes so 
 nearly within this portion of the history that we shall subjoin 
 it, only noting that it is valuable also as affording indications of 
 the growth of principles other than simply Christian, which 
 had already in some degree affected the arrangement of churches. 
 "The heresy of Pelagius having been refuted and all the 
 people's hearts settled in the purity of the faith, the priests 
 repaired to the tomb of the martyr, S. Alban, to give thanks to 
 God through him. There Germanus, having with him relics of 
 all the Apostles, and of several martyrs, after offering up his 
 prayers, commanded the tomb to be opened, that he might 
 lay up therein some precious gifts; judging it convenient, that 
 the limbs of saints brought together from several countries, as 
 their equal merits had procured them admission into heaven, 
 should be preserved in one tomb." 1 
 
 William of Malmsbury adds Offa to the benefactors of the 
 same church, before the Norman conquest. This monarch 
 ordered the relics of S. Alban, at that time obscurely buried, to 
 be taken up, and placed in a shrine decorated right royally 
 
 1 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 18. him a popular saint in England, and 
 This visit of S. Germanus rendered many churches were dedicated to him. 
 
THE ANGLO-ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 11 
 
 with gold and jewels,, and a church of most beautiful workman- 
 ship was there erected, and a society of monks assembled. 1 
 
 From the close of the Dioclesian persecution to the rise of 
 the Arian heresy, the British Church had rest ; and Christ's 
 disciples, after so long and wintry a night, beginning to behold 
 the genial light of heaven, rebuilt the churches which had been 
 overthrown, and founded and erected others which they dedi- 
 cated to the holy martyrs, 2 everywhere displaying the banner of 
 the faith as a token of their victory ; and though we have no 
 direct evidence of the extent to which this labour was carried, 
 yet we hear now and then incidentally of churches, as not infre- 
 quent, as for instance, in the case of Germanus and Lupus, who 
 when they came over (a.d. 429) to oppose the Pelagian heresy, 
 preached, as we are expressly told, in churches as well as in the 
 fields and highways. 
 
 It would be in vain to attempt a description of the ecclesias- 
 tical architecture of the Anglo-Roman period, not a single 
 building originally designed for the services of the Christian 
 church at that era still remaining in England, unless the 
 
 1 It may be well to state that no 
 portions of this or any preceding 
 church remain at S. Alban's ; the 
 oldest existing portion is attributed to 
 Paul de Caen, Abbot, from 1077 to 
 1093. 
 
 2 The dedication of churches is a 
 subject worthy of more attention than 
 is usually bestowed upon it, on his- 
 toric grounds. As applied to Welsh 
 churches, it has been very fully dis- 
 cussed, and very satisfactorily applied, 
 by Mr. Rice Rees, in his u Essay on 
 the Welsh Saints, or the Primitive 
 Christians usually considered to have 
 been the founders of Churches in 
 Wales." His arguments lead to the 
 conclusion that churches dedicated to 
 the Welsh saints, or rather still called 
 by their name, are the most ancient, 
 and range generally from a.d. 500 to 
 550 ; to those dedicated to S. Michael 
 he assigns in general terms the period 
 between 800 to 850, at about which 
 
 time the Britons began a more general 
 conformity with the religious obser- 
 vances of the rest of the Western 
 Church, and borrowed of course dedi- 
 cations, as well as other things, from 
 them ; and finally, to the twelfth 
 century, or thereabouts, belong the 
 churches dedicated to the Blessed 
 Virgin, the holy Apostles, the saints 
 of the Roman calendar. These de- 
 ductions are fortified by external evi- 
 dence collected from general and eccle- 
 siastical history, from the territorial 
 distribution of the several churches, 
 and their mutual relations. The ques- 
 tion is of course historical rather than 
 architectural, for the present fabric 
 does not often go back even to the 
 middle time indicated above : we shall 
 not therefore pursue the question here, 
 but we would not miss the opportunity 
 of borrowing a hint from Mr. Rees' 
 Essay, and of directing the general 
 reader to its very instructive pages. 
 
12 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 multangular tower at Dover called the Pharos, be an exception, 
 and the only encouragement to call this a church, or part of a 
 church, is that we know not what else it may have been. 
 
 But though so little is to be said of the ecclesiastical archi- 
 tecture of the Romans in England, there can be no doubt that 
 a very considerable advance was made during the continuance of 
 the Roman sway, in the churches erected by the earliest converts: 
 for Tacitus tells us, that Agricola encouraged the British to cul- 
 tivate building, with the other arts of peace ; and when the 
 Emperor Constantine rebuilt the city of Autun, about the end 
 of the third century, he brought the workmen chiefly from 
 Britain, which very much abounded with the best artificers ; and 
 it cannot be doubted, that the skill thus acquired and approved 
 would be employed in the erection of their sacred edifices. 
 Still we must confess that the authority of imperial Rome was 
 brought to a close, without having directly added much to the 
 history of our ecclesiastical architecture. The indirect influence 
 of the Roman sway was, however, very great. It was under the 
 Empire, that the British people first learned certain mechanical 
 arts, which were afterwards employed in religious edifices ; and 
 if they had not been forced to assist in the erection of Verulam 
 or Richborough, the churches of S. Alban's and of Canterbury 
 might have been very different from what they are now. Even 
 the use of mortar was, so far as we can discover, introduced by 
 the Romans and the making of brick is certainly one of the 
 arts which they left behind them. The latter affords an instance 
 of the extensive secondary influence on architecture which a 
 single invention may exert. At first sight it would appear that 
 the introduction of brick would only be followed by the use of 
 that material instead of stone ; 2 but, in fact, it seems to have 
 greatly influenced the decorative forms of the Saxon and Norman 
 architects. The Roman bricks were of a very different form 
 
 1 There are no traces of " the use 
 of lime in a calcined state mixed with 
 water and sand, or any other substance, 
 so as to form an adhesive cement, by 
 which stone could be joined to stone," 
 in any relics of the aboriginal architec- 
 ture of our island. See a paper on 
 ancient mixed masonry of brick and 
 
 stone, by Mr. Bloxam, in No. IV. of 
 the Archaeological Journal. 
 
 2 Roman stations were sometimes 
 quarries, out of which Saxon and Nor- 
 man architects collected materials, 
 chiefly brick, for their churches. Brix- 
 worth, Colchester, and S. Alban's are 
 among the most remarkable examples. 
 
THE ANGLO ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
 13 
 
 from that so long imposed on our bricks by the excise laws. 1 
 They were long, broad, and flat : 2 this shape was for a long 
 time retained by the Saxon builders. Now, bricks of this form 
 fall very naturally into what is called " herring-bone" masonry; 
 and from this way of laying the materials, the zigzag — one of 
 the most effective of the Norman decorations — seems to have 
 taken its rise; while other ornaments, as the billet and serrated 
 mouldings, and the various arrangements of masonry, by which 
 large surfaces are sometimes relieved, are derived from brick in 
 its native application to ornamental building. 
 
 A still less direct, but far more important, influence the 
 Romans exercised by their treatment of the Christians. The 
 persecutions inflicted by Pagan masters stirred up another class 
 of feelings, attaching the brethren to their holy faith, and giving 
 them martyrs, whose memorials employed the successive labours 
 of Christian artists of all kinds, for many generations. The 
 history of the Abbey of S. Alban, 3 which is, in fact, a mar- 
 tyrium, would be a fair epitome of the history of ecclesiastical 
 art in England ; and it is needless to say how much that church 
 owes to the sword, which dismissed the soul of our protomartyr 
 to a better kingdom. 
 
 1 These and the window tax have had 
 a very remarkable effect on our archi- 
 tecture, domestic, in the first instance, 
 but, by consequence, ecclesiastical also, 
 if we can be said to have had until 
 lately, any ecclesiastical architecture, 
 since the imposition of these taxes. 
 The influence of both has been in- 
 jurious, and sadly destructive of pic- 
 turesque character in our buildings. 
 
 2 They were not always of one size, 
 but about 16 x 12 X 1| inches, was 
 an ordinary shape and size. 
 
 3 Since this passage was written, a 
 very careful " History of the Architec- 
 ture of the Abbey-church of S. Alban, 
 with especial reference to the Norman 
 structure," has been published by J. 
 C. Buckler, and C. A. Buckler. 
 
14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Mythical Period. 
 
 Desertion of Britain by the Romans. — Destruction of Churches 
 by the Barbarians. — Ambrosius Aurelianus restores Churches. 
 — Use of Myths and Legends as affording materials for His- 
 tory. — Merlin and Vortigern. — Blood used in the foundation 
 of Buildings. — Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. — Merlin and 
 Ambrosius Aurelianus. — Stonehenge. — The triumph of Art 
 over Strength. — King Arthur restores Churches. — The 
 Splendour of his Coronation. 
 
 In the year 430 the Romans left England, after having long 
 afforded a doubtful defence against the repeated invasions of the 
 Picts and Scots. The ravages of these barbarians extended over 
 the greater part of the country which they were afterwards to 
 colonize, and were as frequent as they were extensive. Gildas 
 and Bede relate especially how the battle of Wippedsflede was 
 followed by a furious irruption, which they compare with the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. Churches were 
 burnt, and the priests slain upon the altars, and once again the 
 words of the Psalmist were fulfilled, " They have set fire upon 
 Thy holy places, and have defiled the dwelling place of Thy 
 name, even to the ground ; thus have they burnt up all the 
 houses of God in the land/" 1 Gildas proceeds : " All the co- 
 lumns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of 
 the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with 
 their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and 
 the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to 
 behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, 
 tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, frag- 
 ments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated 
 blood." 2 
 
 There were, however, many fluctuations in the fortunes of 
 war, and wherever the British succeeded in driving the barba- 
 
 1 Psalm lxxiv. 8, 9. 
 
 2 Gildas, 24. 
 
THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 15 
 
 rians away from any district, there they probably restored the 
 churches. In particular we are told that Ambrosius Aurelianus, 
 a native of this island, but of imperial extraction, having been 
 chosen to lead the Britons, achieved a great victory over the 
 Saxons, who had been called in by Vortigern to assist in repel- 
 ling the Picts and Scots, and became in their turn formidable 
 enemies, at Bannesdown, (a.d. 489) near Bath, and afterwards, 
 by his influence, the churches were generally restored, and Di- 
 vine worship was brought back to its former decent solemnity. 
 
 From the utter disproportion between events and records in 
 times of imperfect civilization, and frequent revolutions, when 
 battles were numerous and historians few, this is far more than 
 the ages which preceded or followed it, an age of myths and 
 legends; and few names are more connected with legendary lore 
 than that of Ambrosius Aurelianus. I have already, in speaking 
 of King Lucius, and of the martyrdom of S. Alban, mentioned 
 part of the grounds on which the legendary stories of such times, 
 in the very form in which they were first told and believed, are 
 among the materials of the philosophy of history ; and I will 
 now add, as an introduction to the wildest stories of the kind 
 that I shall have to relate, that they convey a truth, or a fact in 
 the way of allegory, of which perhaps we find no other contem- 
 porary recognition. And even if, perchance, we should in any 
 instance find a meaning, true in itself, but not intended by the 
 relaters of the legend, we should be like the student in the intro- 
 duction to Gil Bias, who found the soul of the licentiate Peter 
 Garcias in the form of a well filled purse, accompanied with a 
 warning to make a better use of it than Peter himself had made. 
 
 The history of Merlin, in the fifth century, is but a record of 
 the triumph of art over brute force, in which it is exactly parallel 
 with that of Dunstan in the tenth century ; the one having re- 
 ceived a monkish, the other a bardic dress : and we may add 
 that the very existence of Stonehenge and the like structures, in 
 the absence of all authentic history of their erection, would 
 enforce the belief that great mechanical skill was applied by the 
 ancient inhabitants of the British Isles, whether Pagan, Druid- 
 ical, or Christian, in the erection of their temples. 
 
 The story of Merlin, as related by GeofFry of Monmouth, 
 whose history is given in the form of a communication by word 
 
16 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of mouth, to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, is first introduced in connection with Vortigern, a British 
 prince, on whom rests the stigma of having first called in the 
 Saxons to repel the invasions of the Picts, (a.d. 447) . This policy 
 had its usual fatal effect, and Vortigern, a prisoner to the Saxons, 
 purchased his liberty at the expense of his country, and retired 
 in despair to the mountains of Wales. His magicians advised 
 him to build a strong tower for his own safety, since he had lost 
 all his fortified places. Accordingly he made a progress about 
 the country, to find out a convenient situation, and came at 
 last to Mount Erir, where he assembled workmen from several 
 countries, and ordered them to build a tower. The builders 
 began to lay the foundation, but whatever they did one day the 
 earth swallowed up the next. Vortigern being informed of this, 
 again consulted with his magicians, who told him that he must 
 find a youth that never had a father, and kill him, and then 
 sprinkle the stones and cement with his blood; 1 for by those 
 means, they said, he would have a firm foundation. 
 
 We pass over the accident and its results by which Vortigern 
 became acquainted with the birth of Merlin, whose mother, 
 daughter of the king of Demetia, and a nun in S. Peter's 
 Church, protested that none but an incubus had been the father 
 of the child ; and the rest of the story we give almost wholly in 
 the words of Geoffry. While the examination proceeded which 
 led to this announcement, 
 
 " Merlin was attentive to all that had passed, and then approached the 
 king and said to him, ' For what reason am I and my mother introduced 
 into your presence ?' ' My magicians,' answered Vortigern, 1 advised me 
 to seek out a man that had no father, with whose blood my building is to 
 be sprinkled, in order to make it stand.' 1 Order your magicians,' said 
 Merlin, ' to come before me, and I will convict them of a lie.' The king 
 was surprised at his words, and presently ordered the magicians to come, 
 and sit down before Merlin, who spoke to them after this manner : ' Be- 
 cause you are ignorant what it is that hinders the foundation of the tower, 
 
 1 This seems to be an ancient super- 
 stition among the British. Fitzstephen 
 in his description of London, says that 
 the town was built with mortar tem- 
 pered with the blood of beasts. Habct 
 ab oriente arcem Palatinam, maximam 
 et fortissimam, cujus et area et muri a 
 
 fundamento profundissimo exurgunt ; 
 ccemento cum sanguine animalium tem- 
 perato. The writer evidently attri- 
 butes the strength of the citadel as 
 much to the blood as to the depth of 
 the foundation. 
 
THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 17 
 
 you have recommended the shedding of my blood for cement to it, as if 
 that would presently make it stand. But tell me now, what is there under 
 the foundation ? for something there is that will not suffer it to stand.' 
 The magicians at this began to be afraid, and made him no answer. Then 
 said Merlin, who was also called Ambrose, 1 ' I entreat your majesty would 
 command your workmen to dig into the ground, and you will find a pond 
 which causes the foundation to sink.' This accordingly was done. Mer- 
 lin after this went again to the magicians, and said, 1 Tell me, ye false 
 sycophants, what is there under the pond ?' But they were silent. Then 
 said he again to the king, ' Command the pond to be drained, and at the 
 bottom you will see two hollow stones, and in them two dragons asleep.' 
 The king made no scruple of believing him, since he had found true what 
 he had said of the pond, and therefore ordered it to be drained, which 
 done, he found as Merlin had said, and now was possessed of the greatest 
 admiration of him. Nor were the rest that were present less amazed, 
 thinking it to be no less than Divine inspiration." 
 
 The historian had got thus far in his relation, when Alexan- 
 der, 2 who was one of the most munificent prelates and greatest 
 architects of the age, struck probably with the practical lesson 
 thus quaintly conveyed of the necessity of looking well to the 
 foundation, if one would raise a worthy superstructure, engaged 
 him in a digression on the prophecies of Merlin. But we will 
 leave Alexander to speculate on the meaning of more remote 
 prophecies, and return to Geoffry's relation of the warning which 
 he gave Vortigern of his end, and how it came to pass accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Vortigern, being curious to learn his own fate, desired the young man 
 to tell him what he knew concerning that particular. Merlin answered, 
 4 Fly the fire of the sons of Constantine, if you are able to do it : already are 
 they fitting out their ships ; already are they leaving the Armorican shore ; 
 already are they spreading out their sails to the wind. Two deaths in- 
 stantly threaten you ; nor is it easy to determine which you can best avoid. 
 
 1 Heissocalledby Nennius through- pugnacious uncle, to better purpose; 
 out. for the Cathedral of Lincoln, being 
 
 2 Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, was destroyed by fire during his episco- 
 nephew of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, pate, he restored it at his own charges, 
 a prelate not less magnificent in his to more than its former magnificence, 
 carriage than Alexander himself, nor a Such persons could take more than a 
 less industrious architect ; but unfor- passing interest in the legendary his- 
 tunately for himself and his family tory of Merlin. We shall have a future 
 he built castles instead of churches. opportunity of speaking of Roger and 
 Alexander applied the skill which he Alexander. 
 
 had acquired in the household of his 
 
18 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 On the one hand the Saxons shall lay waste your country, and endeavour 
 to kill you : on the other shall arrive the two brothers, Aurelius Ambro- 
 sius and Uther Pendragon, who shall revenge their father's murder upon 
 you. Seek some refuge if you can : to-morrow they will be on the shore 
 of Totness. The faces of the Saxons shall look red with blood, Hengist 
 shall be killed, and Aurelius Ambrosius shall be crowned. He shall bring 
 peace to the nation : he shall restore the churches. 9 Accordingly the next 
 day early, arrived Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother, with ten thousand 
 men." 
 
 I shall not relate how Ambrosius was crowned, or how he and 
 his host beleaguered Vortigern in his strong tower. But Geoffry 
 again shall tell how — 
 
 " they set their engines to work, and laboured to beat down the walls. 
 But at last, when all attempts failed, they had recourse to fire, which 
 meeting with proper fuel, ceased not to rage till it had burnt down the 
 tower and Vortigern in it. 
 
 " The enemies being now entirely reduced, the king summoned the con- 
 suls and princes of the kingdom together at York, where he gave orders 
 for the restoration of the churches which the Saxons had destroyed. He 
 himself undertook the rebuilding of the metropolitan church of that city, as 
 also the other cathedral churches in that province. After fifteen days, 
 when he had settled workmen in several places, he went to London, which 
 city had not escaped the fury of the enemy. He beheld with great sorrow 
 the destruction made in it, and recalled the remainder of the citizens from 
 all parts, and began the restoration of it. Here he settled the affairs of 
 the whole kingdom, revived the laws, restored the right heirs to the pos- 
 sessions of their ancestors ; and those estates, whereof the heirs had been 
 lost in the late grievous calamity, he distributed among his fellow sol- 
 diers. In these important concerns of restoring the nation to its ancient 
 state, repairing the churches, re-establishing peace and law, and settling 
 the administration of justice, was his time wholly employed. From hence 
 he went to Winchester, to repair the ruins of it, as he did of other cities ; 
 and when the work was finished there, he went, at the instance of Bishop 
 Eldad, to the monastery near Kaercaradoc, now Salisbury, where the con- 
 suls and princes, whom the wicked Hengist had treacherously murdered, 
 lay buried. At this place was a convent that maintained three hundred 
 friars, situated on the mountain of Ambrius, who, as is reported, had 
 been the founder of it. The sight of the place where the dead lay, 
 made the king, who was of a compassionate temper, shed tears, and 
 at last enter upon thoughts, what kind of monument to erect upon it. 
 For he thought something ought to be done to perpetuate the memory of 
 that piece of ground, which was honoured with the bodies of so many 
 noble patriots, that died for their country. 
 
 " For this purpose he summoned together several carpenters and masons, 
 
THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 19 
 
 and commanded them to employ the utmost of their art, in contriving 
 some new structure, for a lasting monument to those great men. But they, 
 in diffidence of their own skill, refusing to undertake it, Tremounus, 
 Archbishop of the City of Legions, went to the king, and said, ' If any one 
 living is able to execute your commands, Merlin, the prophet of Vortigern, 
 is the man. In my opinion there is not in all your kingdom a person of a 
 brighter genius, either in predicting future events, or in mechanical con- 
 trivances. Order him to come to you, and exercise his skill in the work 
 which you design.' Whereupon Aurelius, after he had asked a great 
 many questions concerning him, despatched several messengers into the 
 countries to find him out, and bring him to him. As soon as they had 
 delivered their message, they conducted him to the king, who received 
 him with joy, and, being curious to hear some of his wonderful speeches, 
 commanded him to prophesy. Merlin made answer, ' Mysteries of this 
 kind are not to be revealed but when there is the greatest necessity for it. 
 If I should pretend to utter them either for ostentation or diversion, the 
 spirit that instructs me would be silent, and would leave me when I should 
 have occasion for it.' "When he had made the same refusal to all the rest 
 present, the king would not urge him any longer about his predictions, 
 but spoke to him concerning the monument which he designed. 1 If you 
 are desirous,' said Merlin, ' to honour the burying-place of these men 
 with an everlasting monument, send for the Giant's Dance, which is 
 in Killaraus, a mountain in Ireland. For there is a structure of stones 
 there, which none of this age could, raise, without a profound knowledge of 
 the mechanical arts. They are stones of a vast magnitude and wonderful 
 quality ; and if they can be placed here as they are there, round this spot 
 of ground, they will stay there for ever.' 
 
 "At these words of Merlin, Aurelius burst into laughter, and said, 
 1 How is it possible to remove such vast stones from so distant a country, 
 as if Britain was not furnished with stones fit for the work ?' Merlin re- 
 plied, 4 1 entreat your majesty to forbear vain laughter, for what I say is 
 without vanity. They are mystical stones, and of a medicinal virtue. 
 The giants of old brought them from the farthest coasts of Africa, and 
 placed them in Ireland, while they inhabited that country. Their design 
 in this was to make baths in them, when they should be taken with any 
 illness. For their method was to wash the stones, and put their sick into 
 the water, which infallibly cured them. With the like success they cured 
 wounds also, adding only the application of some herbs. There is not a 
 stone there which has not some healing virtue.' When the Britons heard 
 this, they resolved to send for the stones, and to make war upon the peo- 
 ple of Ireland if they should offer to detain them. And to accomplish 
 this business, they made choice of Uther Pendragon, who was to be at- 
 tended with fifteen thousand men. They chose also Merlin himself, by 
 whose direction the whole affair was to be managed. A fleet being there- 
 fore got ready, they set sail, and with a fair wind arrived in Ireland. 
 
 " At that time Gillomanius, a youth of wonderful valour, reigned in 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Ireland; who, upon the news of the arrival of the Britons in his kingdom, 
 levied a vast army, and marched out against them. And when he had 
 learned the occasion of their coming, he smiled, and said to those about 
 him, ' No wonder a cowardly race of people were able to make so great 
 devastation in the island of Britain, when the Britons are such brutes and 
 fools. Was ever the like folly heard of ? What are the stones of Ireland 
 better than those of Britain, that our kingdom must be put to this distur- 
 bance for them ? To arms, soldiers, and defend your country ; while I 
 have life they shall not take from us the least stone of the Giant's Dance.' 
 Uther, seeing them prepared for a battle, attacked them ; nor was it long 
 ere the Britons had the advantage, who, having dispersed and killed the 
 Irish, forced Gillomanius to flee. After the victory they went to the 
 mountain Killaraus, and arrived at the structure of stones, the sight of 
 which filled them both with joy and admiration. And while they were 
 standing round them, Merlin came up to them, and said, 'Now try your 
 forces, young men, and see whether strength or art can do the most towards 
 taking down these stones.' At this word they all set to their engines with 
 one accord, and attempted the removing of the Giant's Dance. Some 
 prepared cables, others small ropes, others ladders for the work, but all to 
 no purpose. Merlin laughed at their vain efforts, and then began his own 
 contrivances. When he had placed in order the engines that were neces- 
 sary, he took down the stones with incredible facility, and gave directions 
 for carrying them to the ships, and placing them therein. This done, they 
 with joy set sail again to return to Britain, where they arrived with a fair 
 gale, and repaired to the burying place with the stones. When Aurelius 
 had notice of it, he sent messengers to all parts of Britain, to summon the 
 Clergy and people together to the mount of Ambrius, in order to celebrate 
 with joy and honour the erection of the monument. Upon this summons ap- 
 peared the bishops, abbots, and people of all other orders and qualities ; 
 and upon the day and place appointed for their general meeting, Aurelius 
 placed the crown upon his head, and with royal pomp celebrated the feast 
 of Pentecost, the solemnity whereof he continued the three following days. 
 In the meantime, all places of honour that were vacant, he bestowed upon 
 his domestics, as rewards for their good services. At that time the two 
 metropolitan sees of York and Legions were vacant ; and with the general 
 consent of the people, whom he was willing to please in his choice, he 
 granted York to Sanxo, a man of great quality, and much celebrated for 
 his piety ; and the City of Legions to Dubricius, whom Divine Providence 
 had pointed out as a most useful pastor in that place. As soon as he had 
 settled these and other affairs in the kingdom, he ordered Merlin to set up 
 the stones brought over from Ireland, about the sepulchre ; which he ac- 
 cordingly did, and placed them in the same manner as they had been in the 
 mountain Killaraus, and thereby gave a manifest PROOF OF THE PREVA- 
 LENCE OF ART ABOVE STRENGTH."* 
 
 * Geoffry of Monmouth, viii. 9, 10, 11, 12. 
 
THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 21 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to add, that Geoffry of Monmouth is 
 not adduced as giving a true account of the date or manner of 
 the erection of Stonehenge. He is, however, the first person 
 whose extant works give any account of that remarkable triumph 
 of art over strength, and he professes to have translated his ac- 
 count from a Welsh MS. of still more remote antiquity. 1 Nor 
 is his account at all less probable than any other that has been 
 proposed ; and perhaps, allowing for the fabulous adjuncts of 
 the story, it may after all be the true one. At all events, the 
 barrows which accompany the stones, fortify the assertion of 
 Geoffry that the edifice was a memorial of the dead. The real 
 purpose which such relations serve, is to show the effect on the 
 less skilful crowd of the application of mechanical powers to 
 purposes which were before effected only by the united strength 
 of many. Nor are we even yet exempt from the wonder which 
 some modern Merlin excites by the use of a new and hitherto 
 unheard-of machine effecting by a kind of magic what would 
 have appeared before impossible. 
 
 We have already alluded to King Arthur, as the flower and 
 example of British chivalry. He is one of the principal mythi- 
 cal personages of this era, and he was not, according to the just 
 view of the character which he represents, deficient in his care 
 for the services and buildings of the Church. 
 
 " The King, after his general pardon to the Scots, went to York to 
 celebrate the feast of Christ's Nativity, which was now at hand. On 
 entering the city, he beheld with grief the desolation of churches ; for upon 
 the expulsion of the holy Archbishop Sanxo, and of all the Clergy there, 
 the temples which were half burnt down, had no longer Divine Service 
 performed in them, so much had the impious rage of the pagans prevailed. 
 After this, in an assembly of the Clergy and people, he appointed Pyramus 
 his chaplain metropolitan of that see. The churches that lay level with 
 the ground, he rebuilt, and (which was their chief ornament,) saw them 
 filled with assemblies of devout persons of both sexes." 2 
 
 1 To speak more correctly, the ori- 
 ginal of the work of Geoffry of Mon- 
 mouth was an Armorican chronicle, 
 brought into Wales from Brittany by 
 Walter de Masses, in the twelfth cen- 
 tury ; but the substance of several of 
 the legends was known in Wales before 
 
 his time, as appears from the work of 
 Nennius, which agrees with Geoffry, 
 among other things, in much that is 
 related in this Chapter. See Mr. Rice 
 Rees' Essay on the Welsh Saints, &c. 
 2 Geoffry of Monmouth, xix. 8. 
 
22 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The conduct of many a noble knight in after ages, showed 
 that the duty thus supposed to be fulfilled by Arthur, was recog- 
 nized by those who followed him in all chivalrous exercises. 
 
 The coronation of Arthur is related with as many circum- 
 stances connected with our subject, as we should collect with 
 great labour from other sources, which have none of the sobriety 
 of truth. 
 
 " Upon the approach of the feast of Pentecost, Arthur, the better to 
 demonstrate his joy after such triumphant success, and for the more solemn 
 observation of that festival, and reconciling the minds of the princes that 
 were now subject to him, resolved, during that season, to hold a magni- 
 ficent court, to place the crown upon his head, and to invite all the 
 kings and dukes under his subjection, to the solemnity. And when he 
 had communicated his design to his familiar friends, he pitched upon the 
 City of Legions as a proper place for this purpose. For besides its great 
 wealth above the other cities, its situation — which was in Glamorganshire, 
 upon the river Usk, near the Severn sea, — was most pleasant and fit for so 
 great a solemnity. For on one side it was washed by that noble river, so 
 that the kings and princes from the countries beyond the seas might have 
 the convenience of sailing up to it. On the other side, the beauty of the 
 meadows and groves, and magnificence of the royal palaces with lofty 
 gilded roofs 1 that adorned it, made it even rival the grandeur of Rome. 
 It was also famous for two churches, — whereof one was built in honour of 
 the martyr Julius, and adorned with a choir of virgins, who had devoted 
 themselves wholly to the service of God; but the other which was 
 founded in memory of S. Aaron, 2 his companion, and maintained a 
 convent of canons, was the third metropolitan church of Britain. Besides, 
 there was a college of two hundred philosophers, who, being learned in 
 astronomy and the other arts, were diligent in observing the courses of 
 the stars ; and gave Arthur true predictions of the events that would hap- 
 pen at that time. In this place, therefore, which afforded such delights, 
 were preparations made for the ensuing festival." 
 
 " When all were assembled together in the city, upon the day of the 
 solemnity, the Archbishops were conducted to the palace, in order to place 
 the crown upon the king's head. Therefore Dubricius, inasmuch as the 
 court was kept in his diocese, made himself ready to celebrate the office, 
 and undertook the ordering of whatever related to it. As soon as the king 
 was invested with his royal habiliments, he was conducted in great pomp to 
 the metropolitan church, supported on each side by two Archbishops, and 
 having four kings, viz., of Albania, Cornwall, Demetia, and Venedotia, 
 
 1 We shall find gilded roofs men- martyrdom during the Dioclesian per- 
 tioned on a future occasion. secution, 
 
 2 SS, Julius and Aaron had suffered 
 
THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. 
 
 23 
 
 whose right it was, bearing four golden swords before him. He was also 
 attended with a concert of all sorts of music, which made most excel- 
 lent harmony. On another part was the queen, dressed out in her richest 
 ornaments, conducted by the Archbishops and Bishops to the Temple of 
 Virgins ; the four queens also of the kings last mentioned, bearing before 
 her four white doves according to ancient custom ; and after her there 
 followed a retinue of women, making all imaginable demonstrations of 
 joy. When the whole procession was ended, so transporting was the har- 
 mony of the musical instruments and voices, whereof there was a great 
 variety in both churches, that the knights who attended were in doubt 
 which to prefer, and therefore crowded from the one to the other by turns, 
 and were far from being tired with the solemnity, though the whole day 
 had been spent in it. At last, when Divine service was over at both 
 churches, the king and queen put off their crowns, and putting on their 
 lighter ornaments, went to the banquet ; he to one palace with the men, 
 and she to another with the women. For the Britons still observed the 
 ancient custom of Troy, by which the men and women used to celebrate 
 their festivals apart. When they had all taken their seats according to 
 precedence, Caius the server, in rich robes of ermine, with a thousand 
 young noblemen, all in like manner clothed with ermine, served up the 
 dishes. From another part, Bedver, the butler, was followed with the 
 same number of attendants, in various habits, who waited with all kinds 
 of cups and drinking vessels. In tfye queen's palace were innumerable 
 waiters, dressed with variety of ornaments, all performing their respective 
 offices ; which if I should describe particularly, I should draw out the his- 
 tory to a tedious length. For at that time Britain had arrived at such a 
 pitch of grandeur, that in abundance of riches, luxury of ornaments, and 
 politeness of inhabitants, it far surpassed all other kingdoms. The knights 
 in it that were famous for feats of chivalry, wore their clothes and arms 
 all of the same colour and fashion ; and the women also no less celebrated 
 for their wit, wore all the same kind of apparel, and esteemed none worthy 
 of their love, but such as had given a proof of their valour in three several 
 battles. Thus was the valour of the men an encouragement for the wo- 
 men's chastity, and the love of the women a spur to the soldiers' bravery. 
 
 " As soon as the banquets were over, they went into the fields without 
 the city, to divert themselves with various sports. The military men com- 
 posed a kind of diversion in imitation of a fight on horseback ; and the 
 ladies, placed on the top of the walls as spectators, in a sportive manner 
 darted their amorous glances at the courtiers, the more to encourage 
 them. Others spent the remainder of the day in other diversions, such as 
 shooting with bows and arrows, tossing the pike, casting of heavy stones 
 and rocks, playing at dice and the like, and all these inoffensively and 
 without quarrelling. Whoever gained the victory in any of these sports, 
 was rewarded with a rich prize by Arthur. In this manner were the first 
 three days spent ; and on the fourth, all who, upon account of their titles, 
 bore any kind of office at this solemnity, were called together to receive 
 
24 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 honours and preferments in reward of their services, and to fill up the 
 vacancies in the governments of cities and castles, archbishoprics, bishop- 
 rics, abbeys, and other posts of honour." 1 
 
 If we have given too much importance to such legendary lore, 
 (which, however, those who are willing to accept the fable for 
 the truth which it shadows forth will scarcely assert,) let it be 
 remembered that it has afforded us a chapter on times which 
 graver history handles most unsatisfactorily. The events of the 
 next page, under the touch of the venerable Bede, who treats 
 them with exceeding love for his high subject, and with reve- 
 rential regard for truth, are fruitful in the subjects of our study, 
 and as worthy to be classed with the materials of undoubted 
 history as those of any succeeding period. 
 
 1 GeoftYy of Monmouth, ix. 12, 13, 14. The quotations are all made from 
 Dr. Giles's translation. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Saxon Period. 
 From the coming of Augustine to the birth of Dunstan. 
 
 Arrival of Augustine, and his Establishment at Canterbury. — He 
 reconciles heathen temples, and founds a monastery and 
 the Cathedral Church. — Mission of Paulinus to Northumbria. 
 A Baptistery of Wood erected at York, and afterwards sur- 
 rounded with a Stone Church. — Other Churches erected by 
 Paulinus, especially at Campodonum, and Lincoln. — Columba 
 and Iona. — Oswald and Lindisfarne ; Finan's Cathedral 
 there. — Cedd and Lastingham. — Cuthbert and Farne. — Mr. 
 Petrie on the Origin and Uses of Round Towers in Ire- 
 land. — Other Monasteries and their Founders. — Benedict 
 Biscop, and Wearmouth and Jarrow. — Of Building more 
 Romano. — Wilfrid and Hexham, from Eddius, and Richard of 
 Hexham. 
 
 When Augustine came to Britain in 597, he found traces in- 
 deed of a British race, and of a Christian people ; but the 
 churches were few, and the worshippers in proportion still fewer, 
 and all decent pomp had departed from the service of the rem- 
 nant that remained. 
 
 Ethelbert, however, King of Kent, though himself, together 
 with his subjects, a heathen, was not wholly unprepared to re- 
 ceive the missionary with favour, for he had a Christian wife of 
 the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha ; whom he had 
 received from her parents, upon condition that she should be 
 permitted to practise her religion with the Bishop Luidhard, who 
 was sent with her to preserve her faith. 
 
 " Some days after the arrival of Augustine, the King came into the 
 island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions 
 to be brought into his presence. For he had taken precaution that they 
 should not come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient super- 
 stition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, 
 and so get the better of him. But they came furnished with Divine, not 
 
26 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of 
 our Lord and Saviour painted on a board; 1 and singing the litany, they 
 offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of 
 themselves and of those to whom they were come. Ethelbert received 
 them favourably, and permitted them to reside in the city of Canterbury, 
 which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and did not refuse them 
 liberty to preach. It is reported that, as they drew near to the city, after 
 their manner, with the holy cross, and the image of our sovereign Lord and 
 King, Jesus Christ, they in concert sang this litany. 2 1 We beseech Thee, 
 O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy anger and wrath be turned away from 
 this city, and from Thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah. 
 
 " As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, they began 
 to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive Church ; applying 
 themselves to frequent prayer, watching and fasting ; preaching the word 
 of life to as many as they could ; despising all worldly things, as not be- 
 longing to them ; receiving only their necessary food from those they 
 taught, living themselves in all respects conformably to what they pre- 
 scribed to others, and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and 
 even to die for that truth which they preached. In short, several believed 
 and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, and the 
 sweetness of their heavenly doctrine. There was on the east side of the 
 city, a church dedicated to the honour of S. Martin, built whilst the Romans 
 were still in the island, 3 wherein the queen, who as has been said before, 
 was a Christian, used to pray. In this they first began to meet, to sing, 
 to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, till the king, being con- 
 verted to the faith, allowed them to preach openly, and build or repair 
 churches in all places. ,n 
 
 Gregory, by whom Augustine had been sent to Britain, was 
 not unmindful of the Saxon Church, now that it was committed 
 to the care of a missionary Bishop, but hearing from Augustine, 
 that he had a great harvest, and but few labourers, sent to him 
 several fellow-labourers, of whom the first and principal were 
 
 1 Imaginem Domini Salvatoris in 
 tabula depictara. Just such, I pre- 
 sume, were the pictures brought by 
 Benedict Biscop from Rome : and as 
 those mentioned above were used in a 
 procession without doors, they were 
 probably painted with oil. To this 
 subject we shall recur in a future 
 chapter. 
 
 2 More suo cum cruce sancta, et 
 imagine magni Regis Domini Nostri 
 Jesu Christi, hanc laetaniam consona 
 voce modularentur. 
 
 3 Erat autem prope ipsam civitatem 
 ad orientem, ecclesia in honorem sancti 
 Martini antiquitus facta, dum adhuc 
 Romani Britanniam incolerent. 
 
 4 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 25, 
 26. I may state, once for all, that I 
 have generally used Dr. Giles's trans- 
 lation of Bede, as before of Gildas and 
 of GeofFry of Monmouth : but where 
 architectural or ecclesiological ques- 
 tions are involved, I have transcribed 
 the original in the notes. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 27 
 
 Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and Rufinianus, and by them all 
 
 things in general that were necessary for the worship and service 
 of the Church, viz. sacred vessels and vestments for the altars, 
 also ornaments for the churches, and vestments for the priests and 
 clerks, as likewise relics of the holy apostles and martyrs ; l be- 
 sides many books. He also sent letters, wherein he signified 
 that he had transmitted the pall to him, and at the same time 
 directed how he should constitute bishops in Britain. 2 Gregory 
 also advised that the heathen temples should be converted into 
 churches, which is the last instance of such a conversion that we 
 shall have to note. Writing to Mellitus, he says, "When Almighty 
 God shall bring you to the most reverend Bishop Augustine, 
 our brother, tell him what I have upon mature deliberation on 
 the affair of the English, determined upon, viz. that the temples 
 of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed ; but let the 
 idols that are in them be destroyed : let holy water be made and 
 sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics 
 placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that 
 they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the 
 true God. And because they have been used to slaughter many 
 oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged 
 for them on this account; as that on the day of the dedication, or 
 the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, 
 they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those 
 churches which have been turned to that use from temples, 3 and 
 celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more 
 offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in 
 their eating, and return thanks to the Giver of all things for 
 
 1 Per eos generaliter universa quse 
 ad cultum erant ac ministerium ec- 
 clesiss necessaria, vasa videlicet sacra, 
 et vestimenta altarium, ornamenta 
 quoque ecclesiarum, et sacerdotalia 
 vel clericalia indumenta, sanctorum 
 etiam apostolorum ac martyrum reli- 
 quias. 
 
 2 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 29. 
 
 3 Fana idolorum destrui in eadem 
 gente minime debeant, sed ipsa quae in 
 eis sunt idola destruantur : aqua bene- 
 
 dicta fiat, in eisdem fanis aspergatur, 
 altaria construantur, reliquiae ponan- 
 tur ; quia si fana eadem bene con- 
 structa sunt, necesse est ut a cultu 
 dsemonum in obsequio veri Dei com- 
 
 mutari die dedicationis, 
 
 vel natalitii S. Martyrum quorum illic 
 reliquiae ponuntur, tabernacula, sibi 
 circa easdem ecclesias quse ex fanis 
 commutatas sunt, de ramis arborum 
 faciant, et religiosis conviviis solemn! - 
 tatem celebrent. 
 
28 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 their sustenance ; to the end that, whilst some gratifications are 
 outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to 
 the inward consolations of the grace of God." 1 Still prosecut- 
 ing his labours, S. Augustine having his episcopal see granted 
 him in the royal city, and being supported by the king, recovered 
 therein a church, which he was informed had been built by the an- 
 cient Roman Christians, and consecrated it in the name of our 
 holy Saviour, God and Lord Jesus Christ, and there estab- 
 lished a residence for himself and his successors. He also built a 
 monastery not far from the city to the eastward, in which, by his 
 advice, Ethelbert erected from the foundation the church of the 
 blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and enriched it with several do- 
 nations ; wherein the bodies of the same Augustine, and of all 
 the bishops of Canterbury, and of the kings of Kent, might be 
 buried. However, Augustine himself did not consecrate that 
 church, but Laurentius, his successor. 2 
 
 After having ordained Justus and Mellitus to the sees of 
 London and Rochester, in both which places Ethelbert built 
 churches, the one dedicated to S. Paul, the other to S. Andrew, 
 Augustine died, and his body was deposited without, close by 
 the church of the apostles, Peter and Paul, above spoken of, by 
 reason that the same was not yet finished, nor consecrated, but as 
 soon as it was dedicated, the body was brought in, and decently 
 buried in the north porch thereof; wherein also were interred the 
 bodies of all the succeeding archbishops, except two only, Theo- 
 dosius and Berthwald, whose bodies are within that church, be- 
 cause the aforesaid porch could contain no more. 3 
 
 In this narrative there is much to our present purpose. We 
 have the fact of the existence of S. Martin's Church, erected 
 in the Roman period ; the same, doubtless, with that referred 
 to King Lucius : we have the use of pictures, crosses, and 
 processions, and a character of devotion tending to a noble 
 
 1 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, i. 30. autem et monasterium non longe ab 
 
 2 Recuperavit in ea ecclesiam quam ipsa civitate ad orientem, in quo, ejus 
 inibi antiquo Romanorum fidelium hortatu, iEdilberct ecclesiam B. 
 opere factam fuisse didicerat, et earn Apostolorum Petri et Pauli a funda- 
 nomine Sancti Salvatoris Dei et Do- mentis construxit, ac diversis donis 
 mini nostri Jesu Christi sacravit, ditavit. I. 33. 
 
 atque ibidem sibi habitationem statuit, 3 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, ii. 3. 
 et cunctis successoribus suis. Fecit 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 29 
 
 ceremonial ; all which would lead to the erection of religious 
 edifices in harmony with their form and spirit. We have the 
 rule recognised by which heathen temples, and by parity of 
 reasoning all secular buildings, which might serve this purpose, 
 were converted into Christian churches ; and we have the 
 mention of feasts of dedication, memorials of the sacred destina- 
 tion of the work of the artificer, from which his labour and his 
 skill cannot be dissociated without grievous loss. We have 
 moreover the introduction of coenobitic establishments, which 
 very greatly modified the religious architecture of future ages ; 
 and, last not least, we have the origin of the pre-eminence of 
 Canterbury in all ecclesiastical matters, which rendered it ever 
 after the great centre from which all that was to inform the 
 spirit, or alter the external development of the Church's system, 
 must radiate. S. Martin's first, and then the monastery 
 founded by S. Augustine, and in which he was buried, and 
 at length the cathedral, to which the bones of the first Arch- 
 bishop were eventually carried, are successively objects of inte- 
 rest to the archaeologist, as well as to the general historian, or 
 the Christian student. 
 
 Ethelbert died in 616, and was buried in S. Martin's porch, 
 in the church of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, where Bertha 
 also, his queen, reposes. His son Eadbald was a most unworthy 
 successor to so pious a king, and the Bishops Mellitus and Justus 
 were driven from their sees, by the heavy discouragements 
 which his wickedness brought on the Church. Laurentius, how- 
 ever, remained to lay his bones by those of his predecessor 
 (Feb. 2, a.d. 619) and Mellitus, who had returned to his 
 church, was his successor. Bede relates how the cathedral was 
 saved by his prayers when the city was destroyed by fire, which 
 raged most around the church of the four crowned martyrs. 
 He also died, and was buried beside Augustine and Laurentius, 
 (a.d. 624) each successive Bishop adding to the glories of the 
 metropolitan church by his virtues. 
 
 But we must leave the southern provinces for a while, 
 and accompany Paulinus on his mission to Edwin, king of 
 Northumbria, which was attended with consequences affording 
 scarcely less interesting subjects of history than the mission of 
 S. Augustine to England. Like Ethelbert, Edwin king of 
 
30 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Northumbria had married a Christian princess, who was the 
 instrument, in the hands of Providence, in preparing the way 
 for the Gospel. The Christian lady was sent only on condition 
 that she might follow the faith of her father with all her retinue; 
 and Paulinus was consecrated to accompany her, (July 21, a.d. 
 625). The good Bishop was intent on higher espousals than 
 those of Edwin and Edilburga. He was earnestly bent on 
 espousing the nation to which he was sent to one husband, 
 that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ. After 
 many incidents, which, interesting as they are, we must pass 
 over as not bearing directly on our subject, King Edwin held a 
 council, at which Coin, the chief of the heathen priests, was the 
 first to recommend that the idols and the temples should be 
 destroyed. Nor was he slow to perform what he had proposed. 
 Having girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he 
 mounted the king's horse, 1 and proceeded to the idols. The 
 multitude beholding it concluded he was distracted; but he 
 lost no time, for as soon as he drew near the temple, he profaned 
 it, casting into it the spear which he held; and rejoicing in the 
 knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his 
 companions to destroy the temple, with all its enclosures, by 
 fire. " This place (says Bede) where the idols were, is still 
 shown, not far from York, to the eastward, beyond the river 
 Derwent, and is now called Godmundingham, where the high- 
 priest, by the inspiration of the true God, profaned and de- 
 stroyed the altars which he had himself consecrated. 
 
 " King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, 
 and a large number of the common sort, received the faith and 
 the washing of regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, 
 which is the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 627, and 
 about one hundred and eighty after the coming of the English 
 into Britain. He was baptized at York, on the holy day of 
 Easter, being the 12th of April, in the church of S. Peter the 
 Apostle, which he himself had built of timber, whilst he was 
 being catechised and instructed in order to receive baptism. In 
 that city also he appointed the see of his instructor Paulinus, 
 and began to build after his directions in the same place a larger 
 
 1 Equum emissarium ; non enim licuerat pontificem prseter in equa equi- 
 tare. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 31 
 
 and nobler church of stone, in the midst whereof that same oratory 
 which he had first erected should be enclosed. Having, therefore, 
 laid the foundation, he began to build the church square, encom- 
 passing the former oratory. But before the wall was raised to 
 the proper height, the wicked assassination of the king left that 
 work to be finished by Oswald his successor." 1 
 
 As for Paulinus, he continued for six years, — to the end, that 
 is, of the reign of Edwin, — preaching the word of God, under 
 the protection and countenance of the king, and as many as 
 were ordained to eternal life believed and were baptized, among 
 whom were Osfrid and Eadfrid, sons of King Edwin, whom 
 Quoenburga daughter of Cearli, king of Mercia, had born 
 him in her exile ; and afterwards his other children by Edil- 
 burga the queen, iEdilhun, and his daughter iEdilthryd, and 
 another son named Vuscfrea, the former two of whom, dying in 
 the white garments of their baptism, were buried in the church 
 at York. 
 
 In the province of the Deiri also, where he was wont often to 
 be with the king, Paulinus baptized in the river Swale, which 
 runs by the village Cataract ; 2 for as yet oratories, or fonts, could 
 not be made in the early infancy of the Church in those parts. 
 But he built a church in Campodonum, 3 which afterwards the 
 pagans, by whom King Edwin was slain, burnt, together with 
 all the town. In the place of which the later kings built them- 
 selves a country-seat in the country called Loidis. 4 But the 
 altar, being of stone, escaped the fire, and is still preserved in 
 the monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest, Thridwulf, 
 which is in Elmete wood. 5 
 
 1 Mox autem ut baptisma consecu- 
 tus est, curavit, docente eodem Paul- 
 ino, majorem ipso in loco et augus- 
 tiorem de lapide fabricare basilicam, 
 in cujus medio ipsum quod prius 
 fecerat, oratorium includeretur. Prse- 
 paratis ergo fundamentis in gyro pri- 
 ons oratorii per quadrum csepit edifi- 
 care basilicam. 
 
 2 Now Catterick. 
 
 3 Perhaps West Tanfield, a place still 
 of great interest for the ecclesiologist. 
 
 4 Leeds, in the neighbourhood of 
 which is Elmete Wood. 
 
 5 " Baptizabat in fluvio Sualua, qui 
 vicum Cataractam prseterfluit. Non- 
 dum enim oratoria vel baptisteria in 
 ipso exordio nascentis ibi Ecclesise 
 poterant sedificari. Attamen in Cam- 
 podono, ubi tunc etiam villa regia erat, 
 fecit basilicam, quam postmodum pa- 
 gani a quibus iEduini rex occisus, cum 
 tota eadem villa succenderunt : pro 
 qua reges posteriores fecere sibi villam 
 
32 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 In Lincolnshire also the persuasive voice of Paulinus was 
 heard. 1 He first converted the governor of the city of Lincoln, 
 whose name was Blecca, with his whole family. He like- 
 wise built, in that city, a stone church of beautiful workmanship ; 
 the roof of which having either fallen through age, or been 
 thrown down by enemies, the walls are still to be seen stand- 
 ing. 2 
 
 We know no better way to give interest to a narrative, which 
 has a natural tendency to become little more than a catalogue of 
 churches and their builders, than the selection of some two or 
 three of the most eminent founders and builders of churches 
 and monasteries, and the mention of their deeds, to the compa- 
 rative exclusion of others. Among such persons the first place 
 is due to S. Columba. He was born of a noble family among 
 the Scots, as a part of the inhabitants of Ireland were then 
 called, about the year 522. After having founded a monastery 
 in his native island, he came over with the spirit of a missionary 
 to the neighbouring shores, and soon produced a great effect on 
 the heathens whom he visited. The island of Hye or Iona was 
 given to him by Bridius, king of the Picts. The present was 
 one which none but a missionary would have accepted. Iona is 
 a barren rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea, surrounded 
 everywhere by vast and dangerous reefs of basalt, which extend 
 probably beneath the bosom of the waves, from the Giant's 
 Causeway, one of the most marvellous scenes in the native land 
 
 in regione quae vocatur Loidis. Evasit 
 autem ignem altare, quia lapideum 
 erat : et servatur adhuc in monasterio 
 reverentissimi abbatis et presbyteri 
 Thryduulfi, quod est in silva Elmete." 
 
 1 A description of the person of so 
 great a missionary as Paulinus must be 
 interesting. Bede tells us that "A cer- 
 tain abbot and priest of the monas- 
 tery of Peartaneu, a man of singular 
 veracity, whose name was Deda, told 
 me that one of the oldest persons 
 had informed him, that he himself had 
 been baptized at noon-day, by the 
 Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of 
 King Edwin, with a great number of 
 
 the people, in the river Trent, near the 
 city, which in the English tongue is 
 called Tiovulfmgacestir ; and he was 
 also wont to describe the person of 
 the same Paulinus, that he was tall of 
 stature, a little stooping, his hair black, 
 his visage meagre, his nose slender 
 and aquiline, his aspect both venerable 
 and majestic. He had also with him in 
 the ministry, James, the deacon, a man 
 of zerd and great fame in Christ's 
 Church, who lived even to our days/' 
 This James we shall find again in our 
 history engaged in teaching Church 
 music. Bede, Ec. Hist. ii. 16J 
 2 Bede. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 33 
 
 of the Saint. FingaPs cave, in the Isle of Staffa, within sight 
 of Iona, is perhaps the most splendid natural object within the 
 British isles — lifting its cathedral-like roof upon giant columns, 
 it mocks the attempts of greater architects than Columba to 
 approach its vast magnificence. But Iona, poor and rugged, 
 with little natural beauty, and absolutely wanting in the ma- 
 jestic features of its neighbour isles, soon became morally 
 and religiously a spectacle as glorious as any that Christendom 
 could afford ; and to this day it has memorials of its past im- 
 portance not to be surpassed in historic interest by the mighty 
 piles of York and Durham, or the halls of Oxford or of Cam- 
 bridge. This little barren spot became the school of what- 
 ever knowledge sacred or profane, was then within the reach of 
 the northern people ; the nursery of many arts, the centre of a 
 Christian colony, and the mother of priests and missionaries. 
 S. Columba himself received the name of Columbkill from the 
 number of oratories or cells that he founded i 1 each one, doubt- 
 less, in size and architectural pretensions such as we should now 
 scarcely class with the hovels of our peasantry ; yet such as his 
 disciples converted, by their pious offices, into gates of paradise ; 
 while a simple and affectionate people loved and admired their 
 inhabitants, and all the visible tokens of their presence, and 
 pledges of their continuance among them. Even as it now ex- 
 ists after the additions of many centuries in more advanced styles 
 of art, the ruins of Iona do not afford traces of any great mag- 
 nificence : but it is otherwise with many of its daughters, in a 
 less barren country. The most important of these is the religi- 
 ous establishment at Lindisfarne, which yields to none in the 
 interest of its origin, and in the importance of its influence on 
 the church of Northumbria, and to few in the splendour of its 
 architecture. 
 
 Oswald, saint, king, and martyr, was the second son of 
 Ethelfrith, king of Northumbria, and with his mother Acca, and 
 his two brothers, was brought up in the Christian faith by 
 Donald III. of Scotland, in whose court they found an asylum 
 from the violence of their uncle the usurper Edwin. Oswald 
 
 1 " Qui videlicet Columba nunc a nonnullis composite- a Cella et Columba 
 nomine Columcelli vocatur.'' 
 
 D 
 
34 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 alone retained the faith, though secretly for a while, and to 
 it he owed his crown, after both his brothers had been cut 
 off. Cedwell, king of Cumbria, had ravaged Northumbria, 
 and nearly brought it into subjection, when Oswald, raising 
 the cross as a banner, 1 and having first prayed to the Lord 
 of hosts, led his little army to the battle, and obtained a com- 
 plete victory. 
 
 However desirous Oswald might be of founding a church in 
 his dominions, he could not effect his pious purpose without the 
 aid of a consecrated missionary ; and Aidan and Einan were suc- 
 cessively sent from Iona to his court. Aidan selected Lindisfarne 
 as the site of a religious establishment, which Finan enriched 
 with a church, which became the cathedral church of his diocese. 
 Notwithstanding, however, the use of stone in building, which 
 we have already noted, this church was erected after the manner 
 of the Scots, of split wood, and was covered with reed-thatch. 
 But Eadberct, bishop of the same see, removed the reeds, and 
 covered it entirely with sheets of lead. 2 
 
 To this age and district belong the four illustrious brothers 
 Cedd and Cynebil, Celin and Ceadda or Chadd, two of 
 whom came to be bishops. The account which Bede gives of 
 the foundation of Lastingham by the first of these, affords a deep 
 insight into the spirit of church builders in those days. 
 
 " Ethelwald, the son of King Oswald, who reigned among the Deiri, 
 finding him a holy, wise, and good man, desired him to accept some land 
 to build a monastery, to which the king himself might frequently resort 
 to offer his prayers and hear the word, and be buried in it when he died ; 
 for he believed that he should receive much benefit by the prayers of those 
 who were to serve God in that place. That prelate, therefore, complying 
 with the king's desires, chose himself a place to build a monastery among 
 
 1 Bede says, " There was no sign 
 of the Christian faith, no church, no 
 altar erected throughout all the nation 
 of the Bernicians, before that new com- 
 mander of the army, prompted by the 
 devotion of his faith, set up the same 
 as he was going to give battle to his 
 barbarous enemy." — Bede, Ecc. Hist, 
 iii. 3. 
 
 2 In insula Lindisfarnensi fecit eccle- 
 siam episcopali sedi congruam ; quam 
 
 tamen more Scottorum, non de lapide, 
 sed de robore secto totam composuit, 
 atque arundine texit, quam tempore se- 
 quenti reverentissimus archiepiscopus 
 Theodorus in honore beati apostoli 
 Petri dedicavit. Sed episcopus loci 
 ipsius Eadberct ablata arundine, 
 plumbi laminis earn totam, hoc est, 
 et tectum et ipsos quoque parietes 
 ejus, cooperire curavit. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 35 
 
 craggy and distant mountains, which looked more like lurking-places for 
 robbers and retreats for wild beasts, than habitations for men ; to the end 
 that according to the prophecy of Isaiah, ' in the habitations where before 
 dragons dwelt, might be grass with reeds and rushes ;' that is, that the 
 fruits of good works should spring up, where before beasts were wont to 
 dwell, or men to live after the manner of beasts. The man of God, desiring 
 first to cleanse the place for the monastery from former crimes, by prayer 
 and fasting, that it might become acceptable to our Lord, and so to 
 lay the foundations, requested of the king that he would give him leave 
 to reside there all the approaching time of Lent, to pray; all which 
 days except of Sundays, he fasted till the evening, according to custom, 
 and then took no other sustenance than a little bread, one hen's egg, 
 and a little milk mixed with water. This, he said, was the custom of 
 those of whom he had learned the rule of regular discipline; first, to con- 
 secrate to our Lord, by prayer and fasting, the places which they had 
 newly received for building a monastery or a church. When there were 
 ten days of Lent still remaining, there came a messenger to call him to 
 the king ; and he, that the religious work might not be intermitted on 
 account of the king's affairs entreated his priest, Cynebil, who was also his 
 own brother, to complete that which had been so piously begun. Cynebil 
 readily complied, and when the time of fasting and prayer was over, lie 
 there built the monastery, which is now called Lestingaw, and established 
 therein the religious customs of Lindisfarne, where they had been edu- 
 cated. 
 
 " Cedd for many years having charge of the bishopric, and of this 
 monastery, over which he had placed superiors, came thither at a time 
 when there was a mortality, and fell sick and died. He was first buried 
 in the open air, but in the process of time a church was built of stone in 
 the monastery, in honour of the mother of God, and his body interred in 
 the same on the right hand of the altar." 1 
 
 Not unlike in spirit is the erection of a cell in Fame Island, 
 by the still more illustrious S. Cuthbert. For reasons which 
 will presently appear, I shall give Mr. Petrie's rendering of 
 Bede's description of the cell and oratory, transcribing the ori- 
 ginal in a note. " Such also (as the more ancient Irish cells,) 
 or very nearly, appears to have been the monastic establishment 
 constructed on the Island of Fame, in Northumberland, in the 
 year 684, by S. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who is usually 
 reputed to have been an Irishman, and, at all events, received 
 
 i " Primoquidem foris sepultus est ; et in ilia corpus ipsius ad dextram 
 
 tempore autera procedente, in eodem altaris reconditum." — Bede, Ecc. Hist, 
 
 monasterio ecclesia est in honorem iii. 23. 
 beatae Dei genitricis de lapide facta, 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 his education from Irish ecclesiastics. This monastery, as de- 
 scribed by Venerable Bede in the seventeenth chapter of his 
 Life of that distinguished saint, was almost of a round form, 
 four or five perches in diameter from wall to wall. This wall 
 was on the outside of the height of a man, but was on the in- 
 side made higher by sinking the natural rock, to prevent the 
 thoughts from rambling by restraining the sight to the view of 
 the heavens only. It was not formed of cut stone, or brick ce- 
 mented with mortar, but wholly of rough stones and earth, 
 which had been dug up from the middle of the enclosure ; and 
 of these stones, which had been carried from another place, 
 some were so large that four men could scarcely lift one of them. 
 Within the enclosure were two houses, of which one was an ora- 
 tory, or small chapel, and the other for the common uses of a 
 habitation ; and of these the walls were in great part formed 
 by digging away the earth inside and outside, and the roofs were 
 made of unhewn timber thatched with hay. Outside the en- 
 closure, and at the entrance to the island, was a larger house for 
 the accommodation of religious visitors, and not far from it a 
 fountain of water." 1 
 
 Cells of this kind were, so far as we have positive evidence, 
 almost confined to the Scoti, or Irish, and the churches derived 
 from them ; but in Ireland they existed at one time in great 
 
 1 .... " Condidit ciuitatem suo ap- 
 tam imperio, et domus in hac asque 
 ciuitati congruas erexit. Est autem 
 sedificium situ pene rotundum, a muro 
 usque ad mururu mensura quatuor 
 ferme siue quinque perticarum disten- 
 tura, murus ipse deforis altior longi- 
 tudiue stantis hominis. Nam intrin- 
 secus viuam cedendo rupem multo 
 fecit altiorem, quatenus ad cobiben- 
 dam oculorum siue cogitationem 
 lasciuiam, ad erigendam in suprema 
 desideria totam mentis intentionem, 
 pius incola nil de sua mansione prseter 
 coelum posset intueri : quern videlicet 
 murum non de secto lapide vel latere 
 et csemento, sed impolitis prorsus la- 
 pidibus et cespite, quern de medio loci 
 fodiendo tulerat, composuit. E quibus 
 
 quidam tantse erant granditatis, vt vix 
 a quatuor viris viderentur potuisse 
 leuari : quos tamen ipse angelico 
 adiutus auxilio illuc attulisse aliunde 
 et muro imposuisse repertus est. — 
 Duas in mansione babebat domos, 
 oratorium scilicet et aliud ad com- 
 munes usus aptum habitaculum : quo- 
 rum parietes quidem de naturali 
 terra multum intus forisque circum- 
 fodiendo siue cedendo confecit, cul- 
 mina vero de lignis informibus et 
 fceno superposuit. Porro ad portam 
 insulse maior erat domus, in qua visi- 
 tantes eum fratres suscipi et quiescere 
 possent ; nec longe ab ea fons eorun- 
 dem usibus accommodus." — Vita S. 
 Cuthberti, apud Colgan, Acta SS., p. 
 667. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 37 
 
 numbers, being constantly erected for themselves or their com- 
 panions, wherever the greater saints of these people dwelt. 
 They were doubtless brought to Iona, and thence to Northum- 
 bria and the neighbouring coasts and islands, by monks either 
 themselves Irish, or spiritually speaking of Irish descent ; and 
 among these Cuthbert holds a very prominent place. Whether 
 it is to be attributed to the greater reverence in which they have 
 been held in Ireland, or to the more pertinacious adherence to 
 ancient forms in the natives of that island, or to the compara- 
 tive infrequency of finer structures displacing the rude cells and 
 oratories of primitive recluses, certain it is, that whereas there 
 is not a trace of such a fabric in England, there are still many 
 in Ireland, to which the above description will apply in its gene- 
 ral features ; and the enumeration of these, with the vindication 
 of their right to be classed among the oldest memorials of the 
 faith in any Christian nation, forms one of the most interesting 
 portions of Mr. Petrie's volume on the origin and use of round 
 towers in Ireland. One who will take the pains to study the 
 descriptions in that volume, with reference to the admirable 
 illustrations, will know more of the history and character of a 
 class of buildings of a very remote age, and now only of archaeo- 
 logical interest, than many a one has of the churches still 
 remaining, and still the resort of worshippers within sight of his 
 own home. 
 
 To an era illustrated by such worthy names, and to the cen- 
 tury immediately succeeding, must be referred the foundation of 
 many other monastic establishments, which were then among 
 the most splendid buildings of the age, and which, receiving 
 with successive generations their share of enrichments and en- 
 largement, still held their place among the magnificent churches 
 of England till the dissolution. We shall mention but very few 
 of those instances, in which there is something of interest in 
 the founders, as well as in the foundations. The first place 
 is due to Benedict Biscop, and his two monasteries of Wear- 
 mouth and Jarrow. 1 
 
 ' Bede, in his Lives of the holy Dr. Giles' translation is still used, 
 Abbots of Wearmouth and Jairow, except in one or two places where 
 supplies all the materials here ; and architectural terms are in question. 
 
38 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " The pious servant of Christ, Biscop, called Benedict, with the assist- 
 ance of the Divine grace, built [a.d. 671] a monastery in honour of the 
 most holy of the Apostles, S. Peter, near the mouth of the river Were, on 
 the north side. The venerable and devout king of that nation, Egfrid, 
 contributed the land ; and Biscop, for the space of sixteen years, amid 
 innumerable perils in journeying and in illness, ruled this monastery with 
 the same piety which stirred him up to build it. 
 
 " After the interval of a year, from the foundation of the monastery, 
 Benedict crossed the sea into Gaul, and no sooner asked than he obtained 
 and carried back with him some masons to build him a church of stone in 
 the Roman style, which he had always admired. Camentarios, qui lapi- 
 deam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanorum, quern semper amabat, morem 
 facerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit. So much zeal did he show from 
 his love to Saint Peter, in whose honour he was building it, that 
 within a year from the time of laying the foundation, you might 
 have seen the roof on culminibus superpositis, and the solemnity of 
 the mass celebrated therein. When the work was drawing to completion, 
 he sent messengers to Gaul to fetch makers of glass, (more properly arti- 
 ficers,) who were at this time unknown in Britain, that they might glaze 
 the windows of his church, with the cloisters and dining-rooms. This was 
 done, and they came, and not only finished the work required, but taught 
 the English nation their handicraft, which was well adapted for enclosing 
 the lanterns of the church, and for the vessels required for various uses. 
 All other things necessary for the service of the church and the altar, the 
 sacred vessels, and the vestments, because they could not be procured in 
 England, he took especial care to buy and bring home from foreign parts. 1 
 
 " Some decorations and monuments there were which could not be pro- 
 cured even in Gaul, and these the pious founder determined to fetch from 
 Rome ; for which purpose, after he had formed the rule for his monastery, 
 he made his fourth voyage to Rome, and returned loaded with more 
 abundant spiritual merchandise than before. In the first place, he brought 
 back a large quantity of books of all kinds ; secondly, a great number of 
 relics of Christ's Apostles and Martyrs, all likely to bring a blessing on 
 many an English church ; thirdly, he introduced the Roman mode of 
 chanting, singing, and ministering in the church, by obtaining permission 
 from Pope Agatho to take back with him John, the archchanter of the 
 church of S. Peter, and abbot of the monastery of S. Martin, to teach the 
 
 1 Proximante autem ad perfectum 
 opere, misit legatarios Galliam, qui 
 vitri factores, (artifices videlicet,) 
 Britanniis eatenus incognitos, ad 
 cancellandas ecclesiee, porticuumque 
 et caenaculorum ejus, fenestras addu- 
 cerent. Factumque est, venerunt ; nec 
 solum opus postulatum compleverunt, 
 sed et Anglorum ex eo gentem hu- 
 
 jusmodi artificium nosse ac discere 
 claustris, vel vasorum multifariis 
 usibus, non ignobiliter aptum. Sed 
 et cuncta, quae ad altaris et ecclesise 
 ministerium competebant, vasa sancta, 
 vel vestimenta, quia domi invenire 
 non potuit, de transmarinis regionibus 
 advectare religiosus emptor curabat. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 39 
 
 English. This John, when he arrived in England, not only communicated 
 instruction by teaching personally, but left behind him numerous writings, 
 which are still preserved in the library of the same monastery. In the 
 fourth place, Benedict brought with him a thing by no means to be des- 
 pised, namely, a letter of privilege from Pope Agatho, which he had pro- 
 cured, not only with the consent, but by the request and exhortation, of 
 King Egfrid, and by which the monastery was rendered safe and secure 
 for ever from foreign invasion. Fifthly, he brought with him pictures of 
 sacred representations, to adorn the church of S. Peter, which he had 
 built : namely, a likeness of the Virgin Mary and of the Twelve Apostles, 
 with which he intended to adorn the central nave, on boarding placed 
 from one wall to the other ; also some figures from ecclesiastical history for 
 the south wall, and others from the Revelation of S. John for the north 
 wall j 1 so that every one who entered the church, even if they could not 
 read, wherever they turned their eyes, might have before them the amiable 
 countenance of Christ and His Saints, though it were but in a picture, 
 and with watchful minds might revolve on the benefits of our Lord's in- 
 carnation, and having before their eyes the perils of the last judgment, 
 might examine their hearts the more strictly on that account. 
 
 "Thus King Egfrid, delighted by the virtues and zealous piety of the 
 venerable Benedict, augmented the territory which he had given, on which 
 to build this monastery, by a further grant of land of forty hides ; on 
 which, at the end of a year, Benedict by the same King Egfrid's con- 
 currence, and indeed, command, built the monastery of the Apostle S. 
 Paul.2 
 
 " When Benedict had made Easterwine abbot of S. Peter's, and Ceol- 
 frid abbot of S. Paul's, he made his fifth voyage from Britain to Rome, 
 and returned (as usual) with an immense number of books and pictures 
 of the saints, as numerous as before. He also brought with him pictures 
 out of our Lord's history, which he hung round the chapel of our Lady in 
 the larger monastery ; and others to adorn S. Paul's church and monastery, 
 ably describing the connection of the Old and New Testament ; as, for 
 
 1 Picturas imaginum sanctarum, 
 quas ad ornandum ecclesiam beati 
 Petri Apostoli, quam construxerat, 
 detulit ; imaginem, videlicet, beatse 
 Dei Genetricis semperque virginis 
 Marise, simul et duodecim Aposto- 
 lomm, quibus mediam ejusdem ec- 
 clesise testudinem, ducto, a pariete 
 ad parietem tabulate, prsecingeret ; 
 imagines evangelicse historian, quibus 
 australem ecclesise parietem decora - 
 ret ; imagines visionum Apocalypsis 
 beati Johannis, quibus septentriona- 
 lem seque parietem ornaret, quatenus 
 
 intrantes ecclesiam omnes, etiam li- 
 ter arum ignari, quaquaversum inten- 
 derent, vel semper amabilem Christi 
 sanctorumque ejus, quamvis in ima- 
 gine, contemplarentur aspectum ; vel 
 Dominicse incarnationis gratiam vigi- 
 lantiore mente recolerent ; vel ex- 
 tremi discrimen examinis quasi coram 
 oculis habentes, districtius se ipsi exa- 
 minare meminissent. 
 
 2 This was the Monastery at Jai row, 
 in which the Venerable Bede who has 
 supplied so great a portion of our his- 
 tory, lived and died. 
 
40 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 instance, Isaac bearing the wood for his own sacrifice, and Christ carry- 
 ing the cross on which He was about to suffer, were placed side by side. 
 Again, the serpent raised up by Moses in the desert, was illustrated by 
 the Son of Man exalted on the cross. Among other things, he brought 
 two cloaks, all of silk, and of incomparable workmanship, for which he 
 received an estate of three hides on the south bank of the river Were, near 
 its mouth, from King Alfrid, for he found on his return that Egfrid had 
 been murdered during his absence. 1 
 
 " In the sixteenth year after he built the monastery, the holy confessor 
 found rest in the Lord, on the 14th day of January, in the church of S. 
 Peter ; and thus, as he had loved that holy Apostle in his life, and ob- 
 tained from him admission into the heavenly kingdom, so also after death 
 he rested hard by his relics, and his altar, even in the body. 2 
 
 The importance of Benedict Biscop's contributions to the 
 architecture of England must not be estimated by the extent 
 of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in their palmiest 
 days, still less in their first beginnings. What we have chiefly 
 to observe is, that he seems to have given a stimulus to improve- 
 ment of a definite kind, and to have carried to a very consider- 
 
 i Ecclesiasticorum donis commodo- 
 rum locupletatus rediit ; magna qui- 
 dem copia voluminum sacrorum, sed 
 non minori (sicut et prius) sanctarum 
 imaginum munere ditatus. Nam et 
 tunc Divinse historise picturas, quibus 
 totam beatse Dei Genetricis, quam in 
 monasterio majore fecerat, ecclesiam 
 in gyro coronaret, attulit ; imagines 
 quoque ad ornandum monasterium ec- 
 clesiamque beati Pauli Apostoli, de 
 concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti 
 summa ratione compositas, exhibuit ; 
 verbi gratia, Isaac ligna, quibus immo- 
 laretur, portantem, et Dominum cru- 
 cem, in qua pateretur, seque portan- 
 tem proxima super invicem regione, 
 pictura conjunxit. Item, serpenti in 
 eremo a Moyse exaltato, Filium ho- 
 minis in cruce exaltatum comparavit. 
 Attulit inter alia, et pallia duo holo- 
 serica incomparandi operis, quibus 
 postea ab Alfrido rege ej usque eonsi- 
 liariis, namque Egfridum postquam 
 rediit jam interfectum reperit, terrain 
 
 trium familiarum ad austrum Wiri 
 fluminis juxta ostium, comparavit. 
 
 2 Ceolfrid, the successor of Bene- 
 dict, with the advice and assistance 
 of Benedict, founded, completed, and 
 ruled the monastery of S. Paul seven 
 years ; and, afterwards, ably governed, 
 during twenty-eight years, both these 
 monasteries ; or, to speak more cor- 
 rectly, the single monastery of S. 
 Peter and S. Paul, in its two separate 
 localities ; and, whatever works of 
 merit his predecessor had begun, he, 
 with no less zeal, took pains to finish. 
 Among other arrangements which he 
 found it necessary to make, he built 
 several oratories ; increased the num- 
 ber of vessels of the church and altar, 
 and the vestments of every kind ; 
 plura fecit oratoria : altaris et ecclesia 
 vasa, vel vestimenta omnis generis 
 ampliavit : and the library of both mo- 
 nasteries, which Abbot Benedict had 
 so actively begun, under his equally 
 zealous care became doubled in extent. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 41 
 
 able extent that very happy method of borrowing from other 
 nations the skill and science in which they excelled his own 
 countrymen, to which we have owed so much ever since his 
 time. The importance of the introduction of glass we shall 
 have occasion to notice by and bye. The use of pictures and 
 images also, however much it may have been abused in after 
 ages, must be allowed to have greatly and most beneficially 
 influenced ecclesiastical architecture, viewed merely as an art; 
 the images brought from abroad by Benedict must not be dis- 
 connected in our minds from the glorious west front of Wells, 
 or the exquisite statuary in the Queen's crosses at Waltham, at 
 Geddington, and at Northampton. But the most important of the 
 benefits which Biscop conferred on the ecclesiastical architecture 
 of his country is perhaps summed up in the few and somewhat 
 obscure words, ccementarios, qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta 
 Romanorum morem facerent attulit. By some it has been 
 inferred from this passage, that Benedict Biscop first introduced 
 stone 1 as a building material, and that this was the Roman fashion 
 which he so greatly valued ; but this notion is entirely exploded, 
 and it is only strange that it could ever have existed, when there 
 is frequent mention of stone churches before his time. Nor 
 can it well be supposed that the manner of the masonry can be 
 intended, for if ccementarii be taken for building in any peculiar 
 fashion, it is rather with the lower than with the higher charac- 
 ter of building that their name is connected, ccementum being a 
 mass of unwrought rag or rubble, roughly imbedded in the 
 mortar, and ccementarii the masons who build with such primi- 
 tive materials. The introduction of the arch of that form which 
 is still called Romanesque, may be supposed to satisfy the phrase 
 juxta Romanorum morem, but it is difficult to believe that this 
 was unusual before this time, when we remember that there 
 
 1 It may seem at first sight a con- 
 firmation of this notion that building 
 with wood is expressly called by Bede 
 the manner of the Scots. Finan fecit 
 ecclesiam . . . quam more Scottorum, 
 non de lapide, sed de robore secto 
 totam composuit. III. cap. xxv. But 
 we are told by Mr. Petrie that before 
 this time the Scoti, i.e., the Irish 
 
 certainly built sometimes with stone ; 
 and besides, if it was necessary to 
 distinguish between the usual Saxon 
 building and that which was of wood, 
 by giving to the latter another name, 
 we should infer that the Saxons did 
 not generally use wood in building 
 their churches. 
 
42 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 were already Roman arches in abundance in the kingdom, and 
 that the inhabitants of Great Britain could hardly have forgotten 
 the art of constructing them, which they had learned during 
 their subjection to the empire. Perhaps the difference of 
 fashion thus expressed may be, at least partly, ritual, and alto- 
 gether rather of degree than of kind. Thus, although the arch 
 may have been already used in doors and windows, and between 
 the nave and chancel ; yet if aisles were now introduced, after 
 an arrangement forced on the Romans by the form of the 
 ancient Basilica, and afterwards adopted by them for ritual pur- 
 poses, the use of the arch would be greatly multiplied, and the 
 church be better adapted for the processions in which a body of 
 ecclesiastics would often be engaged. Again, the apse may, 
 probably at least, have been introduced from Rome at this time : 
 and the habit of departing from the very scanty proportions of 
 early Saxon churches may have originated with the more fre- 
 quent pilgrimages to Rome of our Saxon ecclesiastics, and with 
 the introduction of Roman artificers into England. At all 
 events, we shall see all these features distinctly marked in the 
 church at Hexham built by Wilfrid, who was a great traveller, 
 as well as Benedict Biscop, and more than equally wedded to 
 Roman fashions. 1 
 
 The erection of this church is thus related by Eddius, 2 Wil- 
 frid's contemporary. Having obtained of Queen Ethel drida, 
 who was herself dedicated to the Lord, a region in Hexham, he 
 there founded a church in honour of the blessed Apostle An- 
 drew. Nor can I pretend, says Eddius, in the poverty of my 
 language, to describe the depth of its foundation, with its cham- 
 bers of stone marvellously wrought ; and above the ground the 
 intricacy of the fabric propped with various pillars and porticos, 
 adorned with a marvellous length and height of walls, and with 
 passages of various turnings, winding sometimes upward, and 
 sometimes downward, and carried through spiral stairs : and all 
 this that holy Bishop of souls designed to perform taught by 
 the Spirit of God : nor was it ever heard that such another 
 
 1 Mr. Bloxam considers some such only characteristic features are rude 
 
 portions of the more ancient parts of round-headed windows, with some 
 
 the churches of Wearmouth and Jarrow long and short work in the jambs, 
 to be relics of Biscop's building. The 2 See also Bede, Ecc. Hist. v. 20. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 43 
 
 church was erected on this side the Alps. And besides this, 
 who can venture to relate how Bishop Acca still by God's grace 
 among the living, has adorned the same church with various 
 ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones, and has 
 clothed the altars with purple and silk hangings. 1 
 
 Another, though an indirect testimony to the height of the 
 church, appears in the next section, which relates how a youth 
 was cured, who fell from an exceeding high wing of the church 
 to the stone pavement, and there lay with his arms and legs 
 broken. 2 But the most valuable testimony to the splendour of 
 this effort of the eighth century, is the description of it by 
 Richard, prior of the same church, at the close of the twelfth 
 century, when the Normans had taught us to despise most of 
 the works of our Saxon ancestors. 
 
 " S. Wilfrid laid the foundation of this church, deep in the earth, with 
 great care, forming crypts and subterraneous oratories, and winding pas- 
 sages. The walls, extending to a great length, and raised to a great 
 height, were divided into three distinct stories, supported by polished 
 columns, some square, and others of various forms. The walls, and also 
 the capitals of the columns, by which they were supported, and the arch 
 of the sanctuary were decorated with histories and images, and different 
 figures carved in relief, on stone, and painted with colours displaying a 
 pleasing variety and wonderful beauty. The body of the church was like- 
 wise surrounded on all sides by pentices and porticos, [apses ?] 3 which, 
 with the most wonderful artifice, were divided above and below by walls 
 and winding stairs. Within these winding passages, and over them were 
 
 1 " In Hagustaldense adepta regione 
 a Regina iEthildrite Domino dedicata, 
 donmm Domino in honorem beati 
 Andreee Apostoli fabrefactam fun davit : 
 cujus profunditatem in terra cum 
 domibus mirifice politis lapidibus fun- 
 datam, et super terram multiplicem 
 domum columnis variis et porticibus 
 multis suffultam, mirabilique longitu- 
 dine et altitudine murorum ornatam, 
 et variis linearum circumductam, 
 non est mese parvitatis hoc sermone 
 explicare, quod sanctus ipse Prsesul 
 animarum, a Spiritu Dei doctus, opere 
 facere excogitavit : neque ullum do- 
 mum aliam citra Alpes montes talem 
 sedificatam audivimus. Porro beatse 
 memorise adhuc vivens gratia Domini 
 
 Acca Episcopus, qui magnalia orna- 
 menta hujus multiplicis domus deauro 
 et argento lapidibusque pretiosis, et 
 quomodo altaria purpura et serico in- 
 duta decoravit, quis ad explanandum 
 sufficere poterat ?" — Eddius, inMabil- 
 lon, v. 646. 
 
 2 " Cum sedificantes namque cee- 
 mentarii murorum hujus domus alti- 
 tudines, quidam juvenis ex servis Dei, 
 de pinna enormis proceritatis elapsus 
 ad terram, deorsum cadens in pavi- 
 mentum lapideum, illisus cecidit, con- 
 fracta sunt crura et brachial' — Eddius 
 in Mabillon, v. 647. 
 
 3 For the meaning of tbe word Por- 
 ticus, see Willis' Canterbury Cathe- 
 dral, p. 39. 
 
44 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 stairs and galleries of stone, and various ways for ascending and descend- 
 ing, so ingeniously contrived that a vast multitude of persons might be 
 there, and pass round the church, without being visible to any one in the 
 nave below. Many oratories, also, most retired and beautiful, were, with 
 the utmost care and diligence, erected in the porticos, [apses ?] both above 
 and below ; and in them were placed altars in honour of the blessed 
 Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, S. Michael the Archangel, S. John the 
 Baptist, and the holy Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, with all 
 becoming and proper furniture belonging to them. Some parts of this 
 building, even to this day, remain standing like turrets and fortified 
 places." 1 
 
 Wilfrid was made Bishop of York in 669, and retained the 
 see, with some intervals, into the causes of which we shall not 
 here enter, till 691. When he came to his church in the reign 
 of King Edwy, he found the very stone walls half ruined ; the 
 roofs, already grown old, let in the water ; the windows were 
 open ; birds built their nests in the church, and the walls were 
 contaminated with their filth, and with the stains of the wea- 
 ther : all which, when the holy Bishop saw, according to the 
 words of Daniel, his spirit was grieved within him, because he 
 found the house of God and of prayer, converted as it were into 
 a den of thieves, and he presently determined on restoring it, 
 according to the will of God. First of all he repaired the roof, 
 skilfully covering it with sheets of lead : he shut out the weather 
 and the birds, without impeding the light, by glazing the win- 
 dows. He washed the walls, and made them as the Prophet 
 speaks, whiter than snow. Moreover, he not only adorned the 
 house of God and the altar with rich furniture, but he acquired 
 also many estates with which he enriched it, and so converted 
 its poverty of worldly goods into abundance. 2 This passage is 
 perhaps more interesting from the light which it throws on the 
 
 1 This extract is given from Britton. 
 
 2 Igitur supradicto Rege regnante, 
 beatse memoriae Wilfrido Episcopo 
 Metropolitan© Eboracae civitatis con- 
 stitute, Basilicas oratorii Dei, in ea 
 civitate a sancto Paulino Episcopo in 
 diebus olim Eadwini Christianissimi 
 Regis primo fundatae, et dedicatee Deo, 
 officia semiruta lapidea eminebant. 
 Nam culmina antiquata tecti distillan - 
 tia, fenestraeque apertae, avibus nidifi- 
 
 cantibus intro, et foras volitantibus, 
 et parietes incultae, omni spurcitia 
 imbrium, et avium, horribiles mane- 
 bant. Videns itaque haec omnia 
 sanctus Pontifex noster secundum 
 Prophetam Danielem, horruit spiritus 
 ejus, in eo quod domus Dei et ora- 
 tionis quasi speluncam latronum fac- 
 tam agnovit, et mox juxta voluntatem 
 Dei emendare excogitavit, primum 
 culmina corrupta tecti renovans, arti- 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 45 
 
 resources of the ecclesiastical architect of that day, than for any- 
 additional information which it gives us of the fabric of the 
 church at York in particular. We find the use of glass and of 
 lead thus early introduced ; and probably of lime, in the form of 
 whitewash, for nothing besides would be described by the terms 
 lavans super nivem dealbavit. 
 
 Besides building the church at Hexham, and restoring that at 
 York, Wilfrid founded the church at Ripon, a work which 
 Eddius duly commemorates in the passage given below. 1 This 
 church he dedicated to S. Peter, and these pious acts were not 
 unrecorded, according to the historian, in the book of God's re- 
 membrance ; for when Wilfrid lay sick at Meldum, in his return 
 from Rome, and expecting his death, the Archangel Michael 
 appeared to him, promising him, at the impetration of the 
 Blessed Virgin, an addition of four years to his life, and adding, 
 " Thou hast dedicated churches to S. Peter and to S. Andrew, 
 but to the ever Virgin Mary, who intercedes for thee, thou hast 
 dedicated no church : thou hast to amend this thy neglect, and 
 to build a church to her also." 2 Or as Fridegodus relates the 
 message of the angel in a metrical legend : — 
 
 " Surgito concivis, nostri non portio vilis: 
 Et licet astricolas inter numerere catervas, 
 
 ficiose plumbo puro tegens, per fenes- 
 tras introitum avium et imbrium vitro 
 prohibuit, per quod tamen intro lumen 
 radiebat. Parietes quoque lavans 
 secundum Prophetam, super nivem 
 dealbavit, earn enim non solum do- 
 mum Dei, et altare, in varia supel- 
 lectili vasorum intus ornavit, verum 
 etiam deforis multa territoria pro Deo 
 adeptus, terrenis opibus paupertatem 
 auferens copiose ditavit. 
 
 1 " Crescebat ergo cum seculari 
 sumptu, Deo donante, Pontifici nos- 
 tro, amico Sponsi iEternalis, magis 
 ac magis ardentissimus amor sponsae 
 virginis uni viro desponsatse, de matre 
 omnium bonorum progenitse : quam 
 discipline moribus quasi floribus vir- 
 tutum, castam et pudicam, continen- 
 tem et modestam, circumamictam 
 
 varietate, subjectam pulchre adorna- 
 vit, secundum Prophetam, Omnis 
 gloria filice Regis ab intus. Sicut 
 enim Moyses tabernaculum seculare 
 manu factum, ad exemplar in monte 
 monstratum a Deo, ad concitandam 
 Israelitico populo cultural Dei fidem, 
 distinctis variis coloribus Eedificavit : 
 ita vero beatissimus Wilfridus Epis- 
 copus thalamum veri sponsi et sponsse, 
 in conspectu populorum corde creden- 
 tium et fide confitentium, auro, et ar- 
 gento, purpuraque varia mirifice deco- 
 ravit : nam in Hrypis Basilicam 
 polito lapide a fundamentis in terra 
 usque ad summum eedificatam, variis 
 columnis et porticibus suffultam in 
 altum erexit, et consummavit." 
 2 Eddius, liii. 
 
46 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Inquit, ab orbatis jam nunc revocaberis agnis. 
 Postquam bis binis fratres solidaveris annis ; 
 Cum mercede bona temet revocabo, sed insta 
 Christotochse dignas cedes fabricare Mariae : 
 Cujus amore tibi cumulantur certius anni. 
 Novit quid Petro, Petri quid solvis adelpho." 1 
 
 Notwithstanding this warning, it does not seem that Wilfrid 
 added a church to the Blessed Virgin to his other foundations. 
 He was buried at Ripon; and Bede gives his epitaph, which 
 begins thus : — 
 
 " Vilfridus hie magnus requiescit corpore prsesul, 
 Hanc Domini qui aulam ductus pietatis amore 
 Fecit, et eximio sacravit nomine Petri." 
 
 The brethren of the church where he reposed believed that 
 they were the safer for his tutelar care ; a belief which was con- 
 firmed by a sign in the heavens, which I relate as a most striking 
 instance of that very rare and impressive phenomenon, the lunar 
 rainbow. For when many Abbots and Bishops, and the whole 
 household, were assembled at the festival of the departed Prelate, 
 after supper, in the evening twilight, when they had gone out 
 to the service of compline, they saw a wonderful sign in the 
 heavens ; a white circle, like a rainbow, as it appears in the day, 
 but without its various colours. It seemed to spring from the 
 church dedicated to S. Peter, near to where the body of the 
 Bishop rested, and it encircled the whole monastery. The 
 religious who saw the sign blessed the Lord, understanding 
 that thenceforth there was a wall of Divine help surrounding 
 the chosen vineyard of the family of the Lord. 2 
 
 "Hesperus aeriis sed jam densaverat umbras, 
 Pernox cura fratrum cum ccelum respicit altum. 
 Emicuit ciclus tenebrosa per astra coruscus, 
 Ceu matutinos igniret Phosphorus ortus. 
 Canduit hie radius Monachum Camobia circum 
 Officiose, vias visus liquisse polinas. 
 Hinc patuit, Domini quia constat vinea firmis 
 Oratu Wilfridi aavum stabilita gigantis." 3 
 
 1 Mabillon, 679. 
 
 2 See Eddius, lxiv. 
 
 3 Mabillon, 682. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 47 
 
 Let us place this account at the lowest, and without assuming 
 that there was a revelation of God's purpose, in this " bow in 
 the cloud/' still this is a most impressive passage. The proces- 
 sion of Abbots and brethren moving towards the church for 
 compline, the bright circle, rising as from the grave of the de- 
 parted Bishop, and like a crown of glory overarching the whole 
 fabric which calls him its founder, and the shouts of joy and the 
 ascriptions of praise to God, for what is accepted by all as a sign 
 of promised protection : this is a scene worthy to grace the 
 festival of a founder of churches. 
 
 With Wilfrid we may fairly leave this portion of our history, 
 for there is little reason to suppose that any additions were made 
 to the resources of the ecclesiastical architect, or any greater 
 stimulus given to their employment, until the introduction of 
 the Benedictine Order into England by Dunstan. We may add 
 that portions of the present crypts of York and Bipon are attri- 
 buted to Wilfrid. 1 
 
 1 See a paper by Mr. Turner, in No. York volume of the Transactions of 
 VII. of theArchseologicalJournal ; and the Archaeological Institute, 
 another paper by Mr. Waltham in the 
 
48 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Saxon Period. 
 From the Birth of Dunstan to Edward the Confessor. 
 
 dunstan introduces the benedictine rule into england, and 
 rebuilds Glastonbury with increased splendour. — Oswald 
 Bishop of Worcester. — Ramsey Abbey, and Worcester. — Ad- 
 helm, Founder of Malmsbury Abbey. — Miracles connected 
 with the erection of churches. — restoration of churches 
 after Danish Invasion. — Croyland, Kirkdale. 
 
 We now arrive at another marked era of church building. 
 We have seen the introduction of a Caenobitic system followed 
 everywhere by the erection of churches and monasteries, the 
 most splendid buildings of their day : but in the middle of the 
 tenth century, English monachism assumed a more regular form, 
 and made, in consequence, very rapid advances, both in the 
 number of its votaries and in all external indications of its 
 wealth and greatness. 
 
 S. Dunstan may be called the second founder of the mon- 
 astic system in England, and his character, full of the aesthetic 
 element, would not let him neglect the beauty of the sanctuary; 
 while his pursuits and varied acquirements rendered him every 
 way capable of taking part even in the minutest details of the 
 movement which he was originating. 
 
 This extraordinary man 1 was born in the neighbourhood of 
 Glastonbury, about the year 925. His parents were noble by 
 birth, and still more noble, as Christians ought to be, by their 
 piety. He was a sickly child, 2 but his active spirit was not 
 
 1 The authority generally followed 
 here, is the life of Dunstan by Osbern, 
 published in Wharton's Anglia Sacra. 
 
 2 " Mulier genuit filiura, quantitate 
 quidcm corporis parvulum, sed ea qua 
 
 praeventus fuerat gratia Dei imnien- 
 suiu.'' His future history is evidently 
 coloured by the excitability of a deli- 
 cate frame, acted upon by an ardent 
 spirit. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 49 
 
 weighed down by the infirmities of nature. The usual charac- 
 ter of monkish histories leads us to expect an account of divine 
 presages of his greatness, and we have one which cannot be 
 omitted here; for the heavenly visitant, who reveals the future 
 greatness of the youth, appears almost literally in the character 
 of an Ecclesiastical Architect, revealing the architypal form of 
 a church. His parents brought him to Glastonbury, already 
 venerable for its ancient associations. 1 Here, while they were 
 watching all night in prayer, a man appeared to them of a hea- 
 venly aspect, who told them that the splendour of the place 
 should, after a short time, be greatly increased, and bid them 
 leave their boy there, foretelling his future beatification. Then 
 stretching a surveyor's measuring line over the precincts of the 
 church : 2 " After this fashion," said he, " shall a place be erected, 
 for the religious profit of those who shall hereafter believe in 
 God, through this youth." 
 
 Glastonbury was a noted school of such learning as the times 
 afforded, under the charge of certain Irish priests ; and there 
 Dunstan, giving himself more diligently to his studies than his 
 years and his tender frame would bear, brought on a dangerous 
 illness, accompanied with delirium. His sad associates were 
 beginning to think of the funeral obsequies of their beloved 
 pupil, when Christ Himself administered a remedy by the 
 hands of an angel. Dunstan by the guidance of the heavenly 
 visitant, arose and proceeded at once to the church, to return 
 
 1 "The celebrated abbey of Glas- 
 tonbury was probably a Welch monas- 
 tery before King Ina of Wessex, at 
 the close of the seventh century, took 
 Somerset from the Welch, and raised 
 his own great foundation there. There 
 seems no reason to doubt that King 
 Arthur was buried in the island of 
 Avalon, or Ynis-vitryn, ' the glassy 
 island,' as it was called by the Welch, 
 being surrounded at that time with a 
 wide lake of still water, before the 
 streams that encircle it were confined 
 to their banks ; and here there was a 
 church founded by the Saxons, built as 
 they sometimes built their churches, of 
 
 that kind of stud -building still in use 
 in many parts of the country, where 
 it has not given way to brick or stone. 
 In all likelihood the Britons had a 
 monastery here, for at such places 
 their princes were buried ; and what- 
 ever may be thought of S. Patrick's 
 coming to Glastonbury to die, and of 
 the legend about Joseph of Arimathea, 
 the tomb of Arthur, discovered in 
 Henry II.' s reign, is a strong proof 
 of the ancient religion of the place,'' — 
 Churton's Early English Church, p. 
 102. 
 
 2 " Mensoris funiculum per plana 
 atrii extendens." 
 
50 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 thanks for the blessing he had received. His attendants, as- 
 tonished at what was taking place, followed at a little distance 
 to see the end. The devil, envious of his restored health, and 
 fearing his future influence, beset him in his way accompanied 
 with a pack of howling dogs; the youth calling on Christ, 
 seized a staff which he brandished in the face of his opponent, 
 and so, still attended by the angel, arrived at the church. Find- 
 ing the door bolted, he mounted the stairs which led to the 
 roof, 1 and going thence to another part of the building from 
 which there was no means of descent, he was gently let down 
 upon the pavement by the anger's hands. In the morning he 
 was found among the brethren who were keeping their nocturns, 
 fallen into a gentle sleep, and unable to satisfy the curiosity of 
 those who asked him about the events of the night. His fame 
 was now so widely extended, that many of both sexes crowded 
 to see him ; but the more his praises were sounded, the more 
 apparent did his humility become. 
 
 But it is more immediately to our purpose to record his pro- 
 ficiency in those arts and sciences which are secular in them- 
 selves, though capable of receiving a religious direction in the 
 hands of a Christian. He was learned beyond all his fellows in 
 philosophy, and was soon wonderfully skilled in manual opera- 
 tions. He was a painter and a scribe ; and we have still proofs 
 remaining of his proficiency in these arts. He was, besides, a 
 diligent and skilful artificer in gold, silver, brass, and iron, and 
 used the more delicate gravers' tools, as well as the hammer and 
 the tongs ; but most of all he delighted not only in the prac- 
 tice, but in the science of music, and in the making of musical 
 instruments. 2 Miracles are brought to attest his skill in these 
 
 1 Scalam cui inniti solebant qui and then lightly descended, on angel 
 superiora templi sarciebant. The pinions, to the floor, 
 present church of Brixworth, which 2 William of Malmsbury tells us 
 already existed in the time of Dunstan, that Dunstan gave large and deep- 
 retains all the requisites for this scene. toned bells (Signa sono et mole prse- 
 The angel and the boy ascended stantia) to the Abbey of Malmsbury, 
 up the wide and massive stairs con- and organs, in which the inflated bel- 
 tained in the semicircular appendage lows pour out the air which they have 
 to the tower, and crossing over to the just received, through brazen pipes, 
 other side of the tower, looked down of such length as to produce the vari- 
 upon the church from the threefold ous musical notes. (Organa, uti per 
 opening in the west wall of the nave, sereas fistulas musicis mensuris elabo- 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 51 
 
 matters. He was much pressed by a certain pious matron to 
 paint a pattern upon a priest's stole which she might afterwards 
 enrich with golden embroidery. 1 Dunstan goes to her house 
 and hangs his harp on the wall, he applies his hand to the work 
 for which he came, and his heart and lips to the praises of God ; 
 when the harp, without touch of man, pours forth, with the ut- 
 most precision the melody of the anthem : " The souls of the 
 saints rejoice in heaven, who have followed Christ on earth, who 
 have poured forth their blood for love of Him, for they shall reign 
 with Christ for ever" The damsels of the family, — the mis- 
 tress, the servants, — all exclaim that their guest is wiser than 
 he ought to be ; but Dunstan hears in this heavenly strain an 
 admonition to follow Christ more closely, if necessary even to 
 the shedding of his blood. He had soon an opportunity of prac- 
 tising this lesson ; for being accused of magic, he was dismissed 
 from the court, and his enemies brutally assaulted him as he 
 retired, adding violence to their former enmity, and the danger 
 of death to his disgrace. 
 
 Before he had taken the habit, Dunstan was a pattern of all 
 those virtues which are most nourished by the monastic system, 
 and most lauded in monkish legends ; and now, having become 
 a monk, he added to his former discipline the still greater as- 
 ceticism of a hermit. He built for himself a little shed 2 against 
 the church, less like a human habitation than a tomb, in length 
 about five feet,, in breadth two and a half feet : one side of the 
 shed which opened, and contained the only window, was the door. 
 
 ratas dudum conceptas follis vomit 1 So I understand the words : vt 
 
 anxius auras,) and on these he placed ei sacerdotalem stolam artificiosa ope- 
 
 a brazen plate thus inscribed : ratione perpingeret quam postea ad 
 
 " Organa de Sancto Prsesul Dunstanus divinos cultus aurifactoria imitatione 
 
 Adelmo figuraret. And we have here an inter- 
 
 Predat, hie seternum qui vult huic esting record of church embroidery, 
 
 tollere regnum." and of the way in which the pious 
 
 William of Malmsbury had also hands of those days were directed 
 
 seen a waterpot thus inscribed : in the choice of appropriate decora - 
 
 " Idriola hanc fundi Dunstan man- tions, and even helped in their diffi- 
 
 daverat Archi- cult task. 
 
 Prsesul ; ut in templo sancto serviret 2 " Destinam, sive spelseum, sive 
 
 Adelmo." alio quolibet nomine rectius nominari 
 
 — William of Malmsbury de vita potest." 
 Adhelmi. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 This was his house, his bed, and all of this world that he beheld. 
 There would Dunstan stand at his work ; and there would the 
 devil reiterate his attacks. He would peep through the little win- 
 dow and utter perverse speeches, intermingling the names of wo- 
 men, and the recollection of pleasures, with his talk, and turning 
 the life of a religious to ridicule. The soldier of Christ recognized 
 the tempter, and putting his tongs into the fire, began with lips 
 closely pressed together, to call on the name of Christ ; and 
 when he saw the tongs were red hot, he snatched them from 
 the fire, and seizing the obscene monster by the nose dragged 
 him into his shed. The devil roared with rage and pain, and 
 escaped at last tearing down part of the wall as he went. A 
 story of this kind carries with it its own refutation, as the asser- 
 tion of a fact ; but it conveys this true lesson : That the man 
 whose hands are never idle, has a great advantage over the 
 tempter. 
 
 The king being in imminent danger while hunting, called to 
 mind his harshness to Dunstan, and prayed to God to forgive 
 him this wrong, and to save his life. He was delivered, and in 
 recompense gave to Dunstan his royal demesnes at Glastonbury, 
 with the privilege of establishing a monastery there for his own 
 order. Dunstan commences the work without delay. The 
 foundation of a more splendid church is laid, and all the requi- 
 site buildings are planned according to the pattern which had 
 been revealed to him. A great concourse of monks are collected, 
 and Dunstan becomes the first abbot of the first Benedictine 
 monastery in England. The king was slain soon after, and his 
 body being brought to Glastonbury, was buried by Dunstan. 
 Edred succeeded, and under the influence of Dunstan was a 
 great benefactor of churches. Edwy his successor was a less 
 worthy prince, and Dunstan retired to his monastery. Here 
 miracles continued to attest his sanctity. 1 There was a tower 
 which had not yet been roofed : and when the workmen were 
 raising a heavy beam to the top, the ropes broke, and the 
 beam began to fall. Dunstan hears a scream, rushes forth, 
 
 1 It may be well to observe that by 
 far the greater part of the miracles at- 
 tributed to Dunstan are not alluded to. 
 Those only are mentioned which are in 
 
 some degree connected with his occu- 
 pation as an artificer or builder, or 
 with some part of ecclesiastical habits 
 and ritual. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 53 
 
 making the sign of the cross in the air, and the beam immedi- 
 ately rises again to its place. The devil is again enraged, and 
 attacks Dunstan in the form of a bear, and tries to tear his pas- 
 toral staff from him. The good Abbot retains his hold, raises 
 the staff into the air, and lets it fall on his adversary with such 
 force, that it is broken into three pieces. 
 
 The vices of Edwy were so flagrant, that Dunstan was forced 
 to administer a harsh rebuke, and he w T as in consequence 
 banished the court an,d the kingdom ; but Edwy died, and 
 Edgar succeeded, during whose reign Dunstan acquired his 
 greatest influence. He held at the same time the Bishoprics of 
 London and Worcester, reconciling his conscience to the plu- 
 rality, no doubt, by the belief that he should have the greater 
 power to effect his darling object — the aggrandisement of the 
 monks, at the expense of the secular clergy. 1 He afterwards re- 
 signed those sees to occupy the metropolitan throne of Canter- 
 bury. Here he continued with the increased influence of his 
 station to carry on the same unjust warfare. Here he died 
 (a.d. 988), and here he "was buried in the spot which he him- 
 self had chosen two days before his death, — the place, to wit, 
 were the Divine Office was daily celebrated by the brethren, and 
 which was before the steps which led up to the Altar of the 
 Lord Christ. Here in the midst of the choir, his body was 
 deposited in a leaden coffin, deep in the ground, according to 
 the ancient custom of the English ; and the depth of his grave 
 was made equal to the stature of an ordinary man. A tomb 
 was afterwards constructed over him, in the form of a large and 
 lofty pyramid, and having at the head of the Saint the matutinal 
 altar. Thus, by choosing so conspicuous a spot, he left a mourn- 
 ful and tender memorial of himself to the brethren singing in 
 the choir, or ascending the steps of the altar." 2 . . . . " After 
 the great fire at Canterbury, there was erected over his resting- 
 
 1 A highly picturesque vision of the have ceased to be the bane of the 
 
 blessed Apostles SS. Peter, Paul, and Church ! 
 
 Andrew was invented, to sanctify this 2 This account of the burial and 
 irregularity. We must omit it from tomb of Dunstan is taken from Pro- 
 its length. May the days come when fessor Willis's Architectural History 
 pluralities, under whatever excuse, of Canterbury Cathedral, pp. 6 — 13. 
 
54 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 place, a house of small magnitude, in which masses were daily 
 performed over his body." 
 
 Dunstan had but too well succeeded in his attack on the 
 credit of the secular clergy. Edgar, during his reign, erected 
 or restored no fewer than forty-eight monasteries, and the Bene- 
 dictine rule was advanced to its greatest perfection, with corres- 
 ponding reputation and prosperity, under Ethelwold and 
 Oswald, 1 Bishops of Winchester and Worcester, who co-ope- 
 rated zealously with Dunstan while he lived, and advanced his 
 plans most effectually after his death. Of the influence of 
 Oswald, we have the following very interesting example, in the 
 foundation of the Abbey of Ramsey. 
 
 The isle of Ramsey, in Huntingdonshire, was the least repul- 
 sive of the marsh lands of that district, and the mere out of 
 which it arose was remarkable for the abundance of fish which 
 it produced, especially eels, and pike of enormous size. In the 
 reign of Edgar it was part of the patrimony of Aylwin, a noble- 
 man of the highest reputation, and rich in the favour of his 
 prince and of all the people. It happened that to Aylwin the 
 King intrusted the funeral of one of the greatest and most be- 
 loved persons of his court; and at Glastonbury, where the 
 
 1 " Oswald had not been long es- 
 tablished in his see, before he endea- 
 voured to convert the cathedral of 
 that diocese into a Benedictine monas- 
 tery ; but being thwarted in his plans 
 by the opposition which his scheme 
 met with from the Chapter, he was de- 
 termined to have his revenge. Accord- 
 ingly, he founded a monastery in the 
 neighbourhood, and introduced into it 
 the Benedictine rule, hoping that the 
 people in those parts would be led to 
 draw invidious comparisons between 
 the two rival institutions ; nor was 
 the expedient altogether unsuccessful. 
 Numerous congregations attended up- 
 on the ministry of the monks, while 
 the cathedral was nearly deserted. 
 Pecuniary losses contributed to in- 
 crease the mortification which was 
 
 hence experienced ; for many offer- 
 ings were taken to the altar of the 
 Benedictines, while few were presented 
 in the cathedral. These losses, to- 
 gether with the increasing reputation 
 of the newly-founded monastery began, 
 at length, to operate upon the minds 
 of the Chapter : and one of the senior 
 canons, named Wensinus, a man much 
 esteemed among his brethren, yielded 
 to the wishes of Oswald, and was im- 
 mediately sent by him to Ramsey, for 
 instruction in the Benedictine disci- 
 pline. Other canons followed the 
 example of Wensinus, who, having 
 been recalled by his diocesan, was 
 appointed prior of the monastery, 
 which Oswald had succeeded in sub- 
 stituting for his Chapter." — Fox's 
 Monks and Monasteries. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 55 
 
 corpse was to return to its dust, Oswald, the successor of Dun- 
 stan in his influence over the monastic body, and now his 
 suffragan, 3 took part in the obsequies. Aylwin was irresistibly 
 attracted towards the Bishop by the sanctity of his deportment, 
 and after the solemn rites were concluded, he hastened to con- 
 verse with him, like Cornelius with S. Peter, but moved not by an 
 angel, but by the devotion of his soul, and not as a seeker of the 
 rudiments of the faith, but as a hearer of counsels of perfection. 
 
 The conversation as given by the chronicler of Ramsey is too 
 long to be translated entire, but it is so remarkable as a sum- 
 mary of the arguments by which great men were often led to 
 the foundation of religious houses, and so valuable therefore 
 in its bearing on ecclesiological history, that I shall endeavour 
 to condense its spirit within a smaller space. 
 
 " Providence," said the Earl, " has at length smiled on my 
 wish to see you, and I trust that our meeting may not be with- 
 out occasions of converting acquaintance into a deeper friend- 
 ship. I am a man under authority, yet blessed with a large es- 
 tate and with great influence. This is the gift of God, and 
 I well know that where He has given much He will require the 
 more." 
 
 The heart of the Bishop warmed towards Aylwin as he re- 
 plied, " I thank you, most noble Earl, for the way in which you 
 have more than anticipated the movement of my heart towards 
 you ; and yet more do I thank God for the good seed which He 
 has sown within you. True, indeed, it is, that the more exalted 
 our station, the greater our obligation to fill it worthily. And 
 though we be lifted up above other men, yet have we enough in 
 common with them to keep us lowly. All alike are born in sor- 
 row, and living in sorrow, in sorrow at last end our days, God 
 having set no differences between men, except those of virtue 
 and vice. Wealth and honour are blessings and privileges only 
 when we rule them, instead of their enslaving us ; and though 
 perhaps greatness may be permitted us, lowliness is the most 
 blessed estate. The wind that sweeps the broad boughs of the 
 lofty tree, shakes its roots to their last fibre, while the bending 
 reed rises erect again, and the lowly myrtle scarcely feels the 
 
 1 Dunstan being Archbishop of Canterbury, Oswald Bishop of Worcester. 
 
56 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 blast. The worm feeds sweetly on Csesar and Alexander. Or 
 look on the freshly turned soil beneath our feet. He who was 
 yesterday great and greatly beloved, whose word turned the 
 mind even of the king, who was clothed in purple and silk and 
 gold, and feasted with us in the king's chamber, — he is now in 
 his grave, and all that he had is passed away, except the treasure 
 which he may have laid up in heaven." 
 
 Bursting into tears, the Earl asked what remedy remained for 
 him, whose very greatness did but multiply his cares, and whose 
 duties were too full of occasions of sin, or at best of mistaken 
 judgment. The Bishop replied, that if he made equity always 
 his guide, his worldly honours would be profitable to him ; but 
 that if by any error or fault of judgment, or inscrutable acci- 
 dent, he had swerved from the right, he might atone for the 
 error by increased alms, and by relief of the distressed. Yet 
 that, after all, those only are free who have embraced a voluntary 
 poverty for Christ's sake. " And great is the praise of their 
 estate. Often do their prayers and their merits avert the judg- 
 ments of heaven, obtain healthful and fruitful seasons, drive 
 away famine and pestilence : in their retirement they do indeed 
 rule kingdoms, open prisons, break chains asunder. In their 
 poverty and simplicity they relieve the shipwrecked, cure the 
 sick, strengthen the weak ; in a word, while the world in its 
 madness abuses the Divine patience, for their sake its whole 
 framework is maintained. If then, you know in all your wide 
 lands, a place fit for the residence of holy men, who by their 
 prayers may supply your defects and expiate your sins, do not 
 hesitate to appropriate it to so good a purpose, and from me 
 you shall have all the help that my office and experience can 
 afford." 
 
 Aylwin. " Such a place I have, reverend father, called Ram- 
 sey, in all respects fit for the habitation of such a holy brother- 
 hood. Remote from all concourse of men, the very spirit of 
 solitude reigns there, yet it is fertile, and well clothed with 
 woods, and its flocks and pastures amply repay the care bestowed 
 upon them. Till lately there was no building there, but a few 
 sheds for the flocks which I used to send to fatten in the rich 
 pasture ; but some years back, when I had long languished 
 under a severe and hopeless illness, I received the promise of a 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 57 
 
 cure from S. Benedict, and at the same time was enjoined to 
 build a monastery, in the very place of which I speak. The 
 vision soon received the first part of its fulfilment, in the resto- 
 ration of my health, and I hastened to perform my part ; throw- 
 ing up a little cell, with wooden walls, which might remain until 
 I had leisure to erect a larger church, and all necessary offices 
 for the reception of the brethren. There three men only who 
 have renounced the luxuries of the world, await the aid and 
 counsel of some one who shall teach them the monastic 
 rule." 
 
 Oswald. " In a village in my diocese there are twelve brethren 
 who have cast behind their backs the lusts of the flesh, and are 
 only warmed with Divine love. These would willingly under- 
 take the charge : let us then go at once, together, and inspect 
 the place of which you speak." 
 
 Aylwin. " It is well said, most holy father ; thither will we 
 go, and there shall the flock whom you mention form one fold 
 with those already there." 
 
 And now they bid adieu to the assembled Bishops and Barons, 
 and hasten to Ramsey. " Here, father," says Aylwin, " is the 
 place which S. Benedict pointed out as a site for a religious 
 house. Here you have only to command, it will be my happiness 
 to obey." 
 
 Oswald, with a prescient spirit, exclaimed, " Verily this is an- 
 other Eden, pre-ordained for men destined for the highest 
 heaven. In this place, my friend, shall all generations ac- 
 knowledge the proofs of your faith and devotion ; and while we 
 are here erecting a temporary mansion, we shall also be erecting, 
 if our faith fail not, a mansion eternal in the heavens. Let us 
 then commence at once, for as the iron is beaten while glowing 
 with internal fire into whatever form the smith chooses : so 
 must we, while the little spark of an inceptive devotion is 
 kindled in us, go on with the work which we have designed, 
 lest the devil should take occasion of any delay to breathe a 
 colder spirit upon us, and so the conclusion answer not to the 
 beginning. Let me therefore return to my own place, and send 
 hither a certain man, faithful and approved in such works, under 
 whose management a little refectory and dormitory may be pre- 
 pared for the brethren who shall come hither, until we shall 
 
58 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ourselves return, and consult about the form and character of 
 the future church/' 
 
 The architect whom Oswald sent was iEdnothus, who at once 
 laid out the ground, and enlarged the chapel, which he found 
 there already, adding other buildings according to the form and 
 manner which had been fairly designed for him by the holy man. 
 Twelve brethren from Westbury were sent to Ramsey, and the 
 care of the internal arrangement of the monastery was commit- 
 ted to Germanus, that of all out-door works to iEdnothus. 
 During the winter he got together whatever instruments of 
 wood or iron would be required for the masons' work ; and as 
 the flowers of spring peeped forth, artificers were seen gathering 
 together to the works. The length and breadth of the church 
 to be constructed are marked out : the foundations, on account 
 of the dampness of the soil, are deeply laid ; and the bed is 
 made still more solid to sustain the superimposed weight, by 
 frequent blows of the beetle. 1 The labourers are stimulated as 
 well by devotion as by their wages, some bring stones together, 
 some temper mortar, and some raise on high both stones and 
 mortar with a crane, and the work visibly progresses, through the 
 Lord's help. Moreover, two towers are raised above the ridge 
 of the roof: the first, standing at the west end of the church, 
 presents from afar a noble spectacle to those who enter the 
 island ; 2 but the greater tower rises from the centre of the cross 
 upon four columns, connected with arches, springing across from 
 aisle to aisle. In truth the whole is a glorious edifice, according 
 to the form of building of the day. 3 
 
 1 The historians mention the means 
 taken to secure a good foundation in 
 Croyland also, and at Medeshamstede. 
 " At Croyland, on account of the 
 spongy nature of the soil, innumerable 
 piles of oak and alder were driven into 
 the ground, and the spaces between 
 them filled up with dry earth, brought 
 from a distance of nine miles." (In- 
 gulf, fol. 485.) " At Medeshamstede, 
 the foundations were laid with stones of 
 such enormous size that each was drawn 
 to its place by a team of eight yoke of 
 oxen." (Hug. Oand. p. 4.) Lingard. 
 
 2 Lingard infers that this tower was 
 separate from the main building. This 
 certainly does not appear in the ori- 
 ginal. 
 
 3 Inito deinde consilio, tota hyeme 
 sequenti quicquid provida csementari- 
 orum ars, tarn in ferreis quam in ligneis 
 instrumentis, exquirebat, et omnia, 
 quse futuro videbantur eedificio neces- 
 saria prseparabat. Emensa denique 
 hyeme, cum jam consitum floribus 
 ver caput exereret, fit congestorum 
 distractio thesaurorum. Exquisiti 
 conducuntur artifices, construendse 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 59 
 
 But the brethren of Ramsey did not long pride themselves 
 without rebuke in the beauty of their church. When they 
 arose one morning they saw in the central tower a great crack, 
 from top to bottom, which seemed to threaten the whole church 
 with instant destruction. Germanus and iEdnothus were sent 
 to Aylwin to tell him of the misfortune. The noble soldier of 
 Christ for a moment repressed his words, lest he should seem 
 to reproach God by an impatient expression of grief ; but soon 
 he recovered his self-possession, and said, " I was dumb, dearest 
 children, at your news, for I saw that my travail had returned 
 upon me ; but it is the Lord's will, and blessed be His Name. 
 I had hoped that my limbs, weary and worn out, might at length 
 enjoy a seasonable rest, and now two things conspire to dis- 
 appoint my wishes, — the loss of former labours, and the neces- 
 sity of renewed exertions. But for this I have to thank God, 
 that as yet my body is vigorous, and that an unsubdued spirit 
 animates my aged frame." The good old man hastens to the 
 spot, the brethren meet him. He enters the church, attended 
 by the choristers, and having first celebrated Divine service, he 
 takes courage to look on the terrific ruin. The masons all agree 
 that the fault was in the softness of the foundation, and that 
 without taking down the whole, it could not be remedied. 
 Oswald is consulted, and he too in his old age gives cheerful and 
 wise counsel. The brethren must have been weak indeed not to 
 be encouraged by such advisers, and base indeed not to be sti- 
 mulated to exertion by the greatness of their hearts. " Behold/'' 
 said Aylwin, " how little time or strength is left to me : you 
 whose minds are still firm and active as your bodies, — you must 
 
 Basilicse longitudo et latitudo com- 
 mensuratur, fundamenta alta propter 
 uliginem undique vicinam jaciuntur, et 
 crebris arietum ictibus insolidam sup- 
 ponendo oneri fortitudinem fortius 
 contunduntur. Operariis igitur tarn 
 devotionis fervore quam mercedis 
 amore laborem continuantibus, dum 
 alii lapides comportant, alii cseinentum 
 conficiunt, atque alii hoc et illos rotali 
 machina in altum subministrant, Do- 
 mino incrementum prsestante opus 
 indies altius consurgit. Duse quo que 
 
 turres ipsis tectorum culminibus emi- 
 nebant, quarum minor versus occiden- 
 tem in fronte Basilicse pulchrum 
 intrantibus Insulam a longe spectacu- 
 lum prsebebat, major vero in quad- 
 rifidse structurse medio columnas 
 quatuor, porrectis de ala, ad alam 
 arcubus sibi invicem connexas, ne 
 laxe defluerent, deprimebat. Juxta 
 earn qua vetus ilia antiquitas utebatur, 
 sedificandi formam, spectabile satis 
 sedificium. — Hist. Ramasiensis. 
 
60 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 bear the burden of the work. As for me, the wealth which I 
 have acquired shall be devoted to the service, and, thank God, 
 it will be enough." The labourers approach the tower by the 
 roof, and going stoutly to work, take it down stone by stone to 
 the very ground. They search into the cause of so grievous a 
 destruction, and having taken out the earth from a great depth, 
 find where the foundation was defective. 1 Then making a firm 
 cement with stones and mortar, which they render still harder 
 with the blows of beetles, they fill up the trench, and the masons 
 rejoice to see the daily progress of their work. 2 
 
 While thus stimulating others, Oswald himself was not idle ; 
 the church of Worcester attracted his zeal and munificence, and 
 
 1 " Deinde lapidum congerie arie- 
 tum tunsionibus cum caemento tena- 
 tiori durius conserta, abyssum ipsam 
 denuo construunt, et supersedificantes 
 cotidiani laboris votivo gaudent pro- 
 ventu." The Historia Ramasiensis, 
 from which these accounts are taken, 
 is by a brother of that house, whose 
 name and age are unknown, though it 
 is certain he did not write before the 
 time of Henry I. 
 
 2 The Abbey of Ramsey affords one 
 of the early instances in Sir Henry 
 Spelman's History and Fate of Sacri- 
 lege. The story touches the fabric 
 more nearly than usual. 
 
 " Circ. a,d. 1142, Geoffrey Mande- 
 ville, Earl of Essex, being called, 
 among other of the nobility, to a 
 council at S. Alban's, he was there 
 unduly taken at S. Alban's, prisoned, 
 and could have no liberty till he de- 
 livered the Tower of London, and the 
 Castles of Walden and Plessy : being 
 thus spoiled of his holds, he turned 
 his fury upon the Abbey of Ramsey, 
 it being a place of security, and in- 
 vading it by force, drove out the 
 monks, and placed his soldiers in their 
 room, and fortified the church instead 
 of his castle. The abbot and monks 
 betook them to their arms, and with 
 all the force they could, shot their 
 
 curses and imprecations against him 
 and his complices. ITius prepared to 
 his destruction, he besieged the Castle 
 of Burwell, where a peasant shooting 
 him lightly in the head with an arrow, 
 contemning the wound, he died of it, 
 in excommunication, leaving three 
 sons inheritors of that malediction, 
 but of no lands of their father, the 
 king having seized them. 
 
 " Arnulph, his eldest son, who still 
 maintained the Church of Ramsey as a 
 castle, was taken prisoner by King Ste- 
 phen, stripped of all his inheritance, 
 banished, and died without issue. 
 
 " Geoffrey Mandeville, second son, 
 was restored by King Henry II., and 
 married Eustachia, the king's kins- 
 woman, but had no issue by her. 
 
 " William Mandeville, the third 
 son, succeeded his brother, and was 
 twice married, but died without issue. 
 Thus the name and issue of this sacri- 
 legious earl were all extinct, and the 
 inheritance carried to Geoffrey Fitz- 
 Peter, another family, by the marriage 
 of Beatrix Lay, his sister's grand- 
 child." 
 
 At the dissolution of monasteries, 
 Ramsey fell to Sir Richard Cromwell, 
 and brought with it the usual penalty 
 attached to sacrilege. But very small 
 traces of the edifice remain. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 61 
 
 I shall take occasion from his great name, to enter upon the 
 subject of what may be called architectural miracles, which 
 abound in the works of the monastic historians. 
 
 The building of the church at Worcester was not effected, 
 according to the legend, without the opposition of an envious 
 spirit. The wall had already reached a considerable height, 
 when the workmen were delayed by an unexpected difficulty. A 
 stone ready squared for its place lay near the building, and a 
 sufficient number of men went to bring it to its appointed place. 
 The stone remained, as if rooted in the earth, and additional 
 numbers again and again attempted in vain to remove it. All 
 were amazed, and sent to Oswald, and he, too, seeing the num- 
 bers who were expending their strength on an apparently 
 easy task, was astonished. And thus he stood, amazed, and 
 calling on God in prayer, when all at once he beheld a black 
 man sitting on the stone, and mocking with impudent jestures 
 at the attempts of the labourers. Then Oswald making the 
 sign of the cross, the imp was obliged to flee, and a few hands 
 raised the stone at which eighty men had before laboured in 
 vain. 1 
 
 Adhelm, Bishop of Shirburn, and founder of the Abbey of 
 Malmsbury, is likewise reported to have wrought a miracle 
 upon a part of the materials of his sacred edifice. The story is 
 told by William of Malmsbury, 2 with some circumstances 
 which throw a little light on the habits of workmen, and may 
 therefore be repeated. 
 
 There was already a church at Malmsbury dedicated to S. 
 Peter, but Adhelm, never weary in good works, erected another, 
 within the precincts of the monastery, in honour of the Blessed 
 Virgin ; and yet another he built and dedicated to S. Michael, 
 which last, the historian says, yet remained in his time, and sur- 
 passed every other building of the same antiquity in England. 
 In order therefore that this church might be the more exqui- 
 sitely finished, after the stone walls had been erected at the 
 most lavish expense, 3 a vast quantity of timber was brought to- 
 
 1 Eadmerus de vita S. Oswaldi. 
 3 Anglia Sacra, ii. 15. 
 3 Edificandum post lapideum tabu- 
 latum sine ulta parsimonia sumptuum. 
 
 It has been suggested (in a paper on 
 some anomalies observable in the ear- 
 lier styles of English Architecture, in 
 the Winchester Vol. of the Transac- 
 
62 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 gether at great cost of carriage, the saint himself labouring at 
 the work, that he might render the more acceptable service to 
 his Lord. 1 And now they had come to the fastening together 
 of the beams, which had been cut of the same length, except 
 one, which set the skill of the carpenters at defiance ; whether 
 by the carelessness of those who had cut it, or, (as the relater 
 is more disposed to believe,) by the express will of God, that 
 the sanctity of Adhelm might be better displayed, this single 
 beam was found too short for its position. The workmen for a 
 long time hesitate to tell their master ; for there was no provi- 
 sion made for such mischances, and it would have been a work 
 of great cost to procure another beam. At length however they 
 tell him, and he receives grace from God to extend the beam by 
 a miracle to its proper length ; and then in his earnestness to 
 avoid their praises, he accuses the workmen of having played 
 him a trick, in pretending that it was defective. And now the 
 beam being borne aloft with the pulleys, 2 the roof is completed. 
 It was afterwards reported of this beam, that when the monas- 
 tery was once and again destroyed by fire, it remained un- 
 touched, 3 and at length perished only with the lapse of years. 
 
 We may here observe (and with this observation dismiss the 
 subject,) that such miracles connected with the fabric of the 
 church and its erection, are very common in the old legends. It 
 really was, in those days, from the small number of churches, — 
 as it has since become from the greatness of the population, — 
 one of the most excellent of the works of charity to build 
 churches ; and as such it would rightly be believed that it was 
 one which the devil would most zealously oppose, and God 
 
 tions of the Archaeological Institute,) 
 that the words lapidei tabulatus are 
 applied to those towers rising in stages 
 from the perpent blocks of stone that 
 run transversely on their four sides : 
 to me it rather appears that the words 
 simply signify courses of masonry. 
 
 1 We have a more tragic instance of 
 an Abbot assisting in the labours of 
 the masons. Reinfrid, the venerable 
 Abbot of Whitby, about 1083, having 
 undertaken a journey on account of 
 
 his monastery, and coming to Orms- 
 bridge, where workmen were employed 
 in making a bridge over the Derwent, 
 he alighted from his horse to lend them 
 his assistance, when a piece of timber 
 falling accidentally upon him, it frac- 
 tured his skull, so that he died soon 
 after.— Charlton's Whitby. 
 
 2 Funali machina. 
 
 3 Bede relates the same of a beam 
 against which Bishop Aidan leaned, 
 when he died. — Ecc. Hist. iii. 17. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 63 
 
 most graciously assist. If this consideration induced those who 
 were benefited by the good work to believe the miracles with 
 which it was said to have been attended, let us not condemn 
 their credulity without emulating their piety and thankfulness : 
 and if we are not disposed to admit fabled wonders as proofs of 
 the sanctity of Dunstan, Oswald or Adhelm, let us imitate, or 
 at least reverence what was good in them, and in their deeds of 
 charity, before we despise those who expressed their admiration 
 somewhat absurdly. 
 
 The opposition of the great enemy to churches, did not cease 
 with their erection, and the rage of Pagans was often stirred up 
 to destroy the churches of the saints : but there were never 
 wanting some to restore them to their former splendour, and 
 very often the gift to the church would come from the most re- 
 mote and unexpected sources. The restoration of the Abbey of 
 Croyland, by Turketul, afterwards its Abbot, but for a long- 
 course of time a high civil officer, may be given as an instance. 
 He is, says Lord Campbell, the first English chancellor with 
 whom we can be said to be well acquainted. He was of illus- 
 trious birth, being the eldest son of Ethelwald, and the grand- 
 son of Alfred. He was very distinguished for learning, piety, 
 and courage. He held the office of chancellor under Edward 
 the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund and Eldred, and from 920 to 
 948. It is related that going on a message from the King to 
 Archbishop Wolstan, it chanced that his road lay by the Abbey 
 of Croyland, which had been reduced to ruins in recent warfare, 
 and now only afforded a miserable shelter to three aged monks. 1 
 Touched by their piety and resignation, he believed himself 
 divinely inspired with a design to enter their society, and to res- 
 tore their house to its ancient splendour. For this purpose he 
 resigned his high civil office, and like Samuel in a like case, 
 made further proclamation that he was ready to pay all his 
 debts, and to make three-fold restitution to any persons whom 
 he might have injured. Every demand upon him being liberally 
 satisfied, he resigned the office of Chancellor into the king's 
 
 1 Lingard, in the twelfth chapter of of the Danes on this occasion, which 
 his history of the Anglo-Saxon church, overwhelmed other monasteries besides 
 gives a graphic account of the ravages Croyland. 
 
64 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 hands, made a testamentary disposition of his great possessions, 
 put on the monastic cowl, was blessed by the Bishop of Dor- 
 chester, and recovered for the abbey all that it had lost in the 
 Danish wars, endowed it with fresh wealth, was elected Abbot, 
 and procured from the king and the Witan a confirmation of 
 all the rights which his house had ever enjoyed, with the excep- 
 tion of the privilege of sanctuary, which he voluntarily re- 
 nounced, on the ground that his experience as Chancellor made 
 him consider it a violation of justice and an incentive to crime. 
 He survived twenty-seven years, performing, in the most exem- 
 plary manner, the duties of his new station, and declaring that 
 he was happier as Abbot of Croyland, than as Chancellor of 
 England. He died in 975. 1 
 
 It is one of the things which give a charm to the pursuits of 
 the ecclesiologist, that some remote church, in itself insignifi- 
 cant, becomes interesting from some peculiarity ; and this is 
 well exemplified by the little Saxon church of Kirkdale, beauti- 
 fully situated in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Over the 
 porch of this church is a Saxon inscription, recording the des- 
 truction of a former church, most probably by the Danes, and 
 the erection of one in the reign of Edward the Confessor, to- 
 gether with the name of the builder, of the engraver of the 
 inscription, and the Priest of the church at that time : — more a 
 great deal than we can generally learn about churches erected 
 many centuries nearer to our own time. It is true that the in- 
 scription is not now in its original place, (if Rickman's sugges- 
 tion be accepted,) but parts of the church still standing, may 
 well be referred to the date there ascribed to it. The inscrip- 
 tion is on a stone seven feet five, by one foot ten, built into the 
 wall over the south porch, and containing a dial, or, as it would 
 be called in olden times, an orologe. It runs thus, in English : 
 "Orin, Gamel's Son, bought St. Gregory's Minster. Then 
 
 IT WAS ALL TO BROKEN AND FALLEN. ChEHITTLE AND 
 
 others made it new from the ground, to christ and 
 St. Gregory. In the days of Edward the King, and 
 in the days of Earl Tosti." Under the dial are the words, 
 "And Howard me wrought, and Brand the Priest." 
 There is besides a line over the dial, not so easily decyphered. 
 1 Lives of the Chancellors, Vol. I. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 65 
 
 This inscription fixes the date of Kirkdale church between the 
 years 1056 and 1065, during which time Tosti was Earl of Nor- 
 thumberland. Chehittle and Haward, the builder of the church 
 and maker of the orologe, are among the very few Saxon artifi- 
 cers whose names are perpetuated by a visible memorial of their 
 skill.i 
 
 We might find notices (though few, if any, so remarkable as 
 this,) of the erection of many smaller churches during the 
 Saxon era, but unless they were accompanied with some descrip- 
 tion, or other particulars relating to the fabric, they would add 
 little to the interest of our inquiries. Here, then, having brought 
 it to the reign of Edward the Confessor, and the very extreme 
 verge of pure Saxon architecture, we shall close the history of 
 the period ; and we shall devote the next chapter to a few gene- 
 ral remarks on the character of Anglo-Saxon churches, and 
 on some circumstances originating in those times, which still 
 affect the structure and arrangement of our churches. 
 
 1 See Archseologia, v. 188. 
 
 P 
 
66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Saxon Period. 
 
 General Review of Ecclesiastical Architecture in the Saxon era : 
 Brixworth, Greensted. — Circumstances which continued to af- 
 fect Churches AND THEIR STRUCTURE IN AFTER AGES: — MONACHISM. 
 
 The Division of England into Parishes : — The Introduction of 
 Glass : — The use of Lead for Roofs : — Accumulation of Wealth 
 in precious vestments and ornaments : — Church Music : — The 
 Organ: — Bells: — Dials and Clocks: — The Bell-tower. — Burial 
 in Churches. 
 
 We might multiply, almost indefinitely, the accounts of churches 
 erected during the Saxon era, but separate accounts add little to 
 our real knowledge of the state of architecture, and the principles 
 of church builders : we shall therefore content ourselves with a 
 general estimate of the number of churches erected in England 
 at the time of the Conquest, and a slight sketch of their archi- 
 tectural features. If we follow Mr. Churton in his calculation, 
 (and we can hardly wish for a better guide,) we shall infer that 
 there were probably before the Conquest about one-third the 
 number of churches in England that there are now, (i.e. not 
 much less than four thousand. 1 ) "In Northamptonshire, where 
 three of the old forests are yet left in part, and which was most 
 thinly inhabited in Saxon times, there were at the Conquest 
 
 1 Domesday is a very uncertain 
 guide. " It mentions about 1700 
 churches, but while 222 are returned 
 from Lincolnshire, 243 from Norfolk, 
 364 from Suffolk, 7 from the city of 
 York, 84 from the county of Cam- 
 bridgeshire, and none from Lancashire, 
 Cornwall, or Middlesex : yet it can- 
 not be doubted that all the counties 
 which are passed over without any 
 mention of their ecclesiastical struc- 
 tures, possessed thern like those enu- 
 merated. This will at once raise the 
 
 number of Anglo-Saxon churches ex- 
 isting at the time of the Conquest, 
 not to the extent of 45,011, mentioned 
 by Sprott in his Chronicle, which seems 
 incredible, but to a very considerable 
 number, since certainly the other 
 counties would have a proportionable 
 amount." See a paper by Mr. Harts- 
 horne on some anomalies observable in 
 the earlier styles of English Architec- 
 ture in the Archaeological Journal of 
 the early and middle ages. No. 12, 
 December, 1846. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 67 
 
 more than sixty village churches, while the county town con- 
 tained eight or nine — three or four more than it has now. In 
 Derbyshire there were not fewer than fifty, and five at least in 
 the county town. These are exclusive of monasteries and the 
 churches belonging to them ; of which there were three or four 
 in Northamptonshire, without reckoning Peterborough. In the 
 town of Newark and the manor round it, including twelve or 
 fourteen villages, were ten churches. In Lincolnshire, which 
 was one of the most populous and thriving counties before the 
 Conquest, there were more than two hundred village churches, 
 a third of the present number, without reckoning those in Lin- 
 coln and Stamford, or the monasteries/' 1 
 
 In describing the general appearance of the churches of these 
 times we are in some danger of underrating them, from the pre- 
 judice against assigning too great taste or skill to the artificers 
 of remote ages ; but with regard to elegance of design, the abi- 
 lity displayed by the Saxons in the decorative arts, such as paint- 
 ing and jewellery, 2 was by no means to be despised, and there can 
 be no reason for supposing that less taste was displayed in their 
 churches, as a whole, than in their minor accessories, or in 
 architecture, than in what are now considered ancillary arts : nor 
 can we read the account of Wilfrid's church at Hexham, already 
 given, or that in Wolston's Metrical account of Winchester, 
 without perceiving that then, as now, architecture was accounted 
 so noble an art, as to have painting and sculpture as its hand- 
 maids. In size 3 there will be less prejudice against admitting 
 
 1 Churton's Early English Church, pounds, and 20 mancusses. The can- 
 p. 230. dlesticks of gold, 12 pounds 9 man- 
 
 2 The costliness of Church furni- cusses. The Holy Water stoup was 
 ture was often very great. William of 20 pounds of silver. The images of 
 Malmsbury tells us, [Antiq. Glast. our Lord, and of the Blessed Virgin 
 Eccl.] that Ino, (who died in 727,) Mary, and of the twelve Apostles were 
 caused a chapel to be formed of gold of 1 75 pounds of silver and 38 pounds 
 and silver, with vessels and ornaments of gold ; the altar cloths, and the sa- 
 of the same precious metals within the cerdotal vestments were all wrought 
 church of Glastonbury. And for the with gold and jewels. The mancus 
 construction of this chapel he gave was of the value of 30 pence, and in 
 2640 pounds of silver ; and the altar weight 55 grains Troy. 
 
 was of gold, weighing 264 pounds. 3 p ro fessor Willis gives the dimen- 
 
 The cup and paten were of 10 pounds sions of the first church at Winchester, 
 
 of gold. The censer was of gold, 8 out of Moracius, 209 passus in length, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the claim of the principal Saxon churches j and in constructive 
 skill, and the mechanical contrivances so necessary to the erection 
 of large fabrics, there is no reason to suppose that the Saxons 
 were very inferior to their Norman conquerors. The Romans 
 must have left behind them many practical lessons in the arts 
 of life. The venerable Bede in his many works shows that the 
 sciences were by no means forgotten by the Saxon Monks ; and 
 Benedict Biscop and many like him, were continually bringing 
 from foreign countries both arts and artisans, to recruit and 
 stimulate the native workmen. We have found in the legends, 
 so largely quoted above on that account, indirect traces of the 
 use of mechanical powers, in the raising of stones and timber, 
 and even in the moving of very large masses, such as would be 
 called cyclopean, if they were met with in other countries : l and 
 it is still more to the purpose that in the turning of the arch, 
 which perhaps supposes as much skill as any ordinary part of 
 the builders' work, and which certainly contains the germ of as 
 much architectural beauty and character as any other feature, 
 we have still remaining proofs of the competent skill of our 
 Saxon forefathers. At Brixworth, for instance, the arches still 
 remaining amply justify all that is said of Hexham, Winches- 
 ter, or Ramsey, by the old chroniclers. It must be added that 
 crypts almost necessarily involve vaulting of some kind or other, 
 and these are again and again mentioned by contemporary writers 2 
 and it is more than probable that some traces of those which 
 were frequented by our Saxon ancestors remain, for at the east 
 end of Brixworth there are excavations which have laid bare an 
 ancient fabric which may very well have been a part of the crypt 
 beneath the high altar, and it is at least remarkable that at 
 Ripon and Hexham, two churches founded by Wilfrid, singular 
 
 80 in breadth, and 92 in height; from 
 an extremity of the church across to 
 the altar 180 passus. A passus is 5 
 feet, this therefore must be an exag- 
 geration ; but the Professor suggests 
 pedes for passus which will still leave a 
 large and lofty church. 
 
 1 See the account before given of the 
 building of Stonehenge, and of the 
 
 stones used in the foundation of Medes- 
 hampsted. 
 
 2 Both crypts and a vault (fornix) 
 are mentioned by Eadmer, in the 
 Saxon Church of Canterbury, " Ad 
 hsec altaria nonnullis gradibus ascen- 
 debatur a Choro cantorum qucedam 
 cripta quam Confessionem Romani 
 vocant. Subtus erat ad instar confes- 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 69 
 
 crypts of very great antiquity, and much resembling each other 
 still remain. 1 All these things considered, we shall be rather 
 disposed to attribute some part of what is usually called Nor- 
 man work, from the greater skill it evinces, to the Saxons, than 
 to deny them the benefit of any evidence which may seem to 
 assign an ante-Norman date to any existing edifice. 
 
 We are besides in danger of not doing justice to Saxon archi- 
 tecture, from the fact that in no instance has any building which 
 probably ranked among their most imposing structures come 
 down to us. Brixworth Church is by far the largest and most 
 remarkable structure in this style, and this was but the church 
 of a remote dependence on the monastery of Medeshampsted : 2 
 if this be taken as only second or third rate, the finer churches 
 must have been of ample size, and of very considerable dignity 
 of character. 
 
 Mr. Bloxam, in his work on the principles of Gothic eccle- 
 siastical architecture, (which is by the way incomparably the 
 best manual in existence,) enumerates sixty-four churches which 
 have more or less Saxon work remaining, to thirty-seven of 
 which he refers from his own inspection. From these we col- 
 lect that the masonry of the age was rude and massive ; that 
 the apertures were small, with round or triangular heads, for 
 doors and windows ; with the frequent occurrence in the belfry, 
 of a two-light window, the lights divided by a round baluster. 
 The arches are not generally of large span, and have almost 
 invariably flat soffits. But the constructive feature which has 
 been most generally relied on as indicating Saxon masonry, and 
 that which gives to it considerable character, is the use of what 
 is technically called long and short work, or the laying of long 
 stones alternately with their long and their short sides to the 
 surface, either in the angles or on the faces of buildings, in the 
 latter case giving them a little prominence, so as to divide the 
 whole surface into rude panels. This construction is the more 
 remarkable, because it will be found, if I mistake not, to sug- 
 
 sionis S. Petri fabricata, cujus fornix 
 eo in altum tendebatur ut superiora 
 ejus non nisi per plures gradus pos- 
 sent adiri." — [Quoted from Professor 
 Willis' Canterbury, p. 10.] 
 
 1 The crypt ascribed to Grimbald in 
 S. Peter's Church, Oxford, seems from 
 its more elaborate construction to be 
 of Norman date. 
 
 2 Now Peterborough. 
 
70 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 gest a connecting link between Saxon masonry, and more than 
 one earlier and later development of the art of building. 
 
 That the " long and short work " has an analogy in visible 
 arrangement with the rudest construction of buildings with 
 wood is so clear, that it has been likened to " stone carpentry 
 and thus it serves to perpetuate the visible forms of a time when 
 wood was the most usual building material. But constructively 
 speaking, the long and short work is more exactly analogous 
 with the bonding courses of brick in Roman masonry, for the 
 stones which present their smaller face to the eye are perpent 
 stones running through the wall. In their effect on the appear- 
 ance of the building, however, these two methods are directly 
 opposed. The Roman courses of brick divide the wall horizon- 
 tally, the Saxon courses of stone divide it vertically. This is the 
 more worthy of remark, because it is, perhaps, the first germ of 
 that vertically in Gothic art which at last expanded into the 
 spires of Salisbury and Coventry. A comparison of the Roman 
 tower in Dover Castle with that of Barnack or Barton, will at 
 once establish this distinction ; and the engaged shaft rising from 
 the first pair of windows in the tower of Sompting Church, to the 
 gable of the highly conical roof, so forcibly suggests the vertically 
 of larger portions in later works, that we must believe its effect 
 was already felt, though it was not fully developed till after ages. 
 
 But the most striking contrast between the effect of horizon- 
 tal bonding courses as in Roman masonry, and of vertical lines, 
 like those produced by the Saxon long and short work, is visi- 
 ble in the Roman fortifications in Norfolk, as compared with 
 the churches of the same district. To the eye, the vertical 
 panelling in the churches takes the place of the long portions of 
 the Saxon work, though there is nothing to answer construc- 
 tively to the short portions, (short, that is, as they appear on the 
 outer surface of the wall,) forming bonding stones in the " long 
 and short work." The Roman and the mediaeval architects 
 both used flint, the material of the country. The former con- 
 sulted, most probably, only security, in using frequent horizon- 
 tal courses of brick between the flint ; the latter consulted 
 appearance, and in harmony with their present style of archi- 
 tecture, decorated their walls with perpendicular panellings of 
 ashlar, appearing only on the surface, and the interstices filled 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 71 
 
 with flint. Constructively then there is no connection between 
 the panelling of the later flint churches, and the bonding bricks 
 of the Romans, and stones of the Saxons : but to the eye, the 
 Saxons in taking a constructive lesson from the Romans, so 
 modified it as to anticipate in a great degree the character of a 
 panelling used very largely in the fifteenth century. 
 
 The comparison of the perpent stones of the Saxons with the 
 bonding courses of brick of the Romans, is the more remarkable, 
 because the use of Roman bricks, or of bricks made after the 
 Roman fashion, was so common with the Saxons, as to be almost 
 characteristic of their style ; and yet they never used them for 
 the same purpose to which they had seen them applied by the 
 Romans. They are generally found in the heads and jambs of 
 doors, and in the soffits of arches ; but sometimes also arranged 
 in the walls in that peculiar form of masonry which is called 
 Herring -hone. The use of Roman brick is generally to be ac- 
 counted for from the fact that some Roman building was made 
 to contribute its material to the sacred edifice. This was the 
 case, for instance, at S. Alban's, though the date of those parts 
 of the building which now present that appearance does not go 
 back beyond the Conquest. The occurrence of Roman bricks 
 sometimes (though it may seem paradoxical to assert it) affords 
 the clearest proof that the building is not Roman, though it 
 may sometimes have been so called ; for small portions of Ro- 
 man mortar, differing from the Saxon mortar in having pounded 
 brick mixed with it, will often be found adhering to the bricks, 
 proving that they are not now used for the first time. 
 
 In general outline and pictorial effect, the churches of the 
 first ten centuries were probably all of them low and compara- 
 tively unadorned ; but there was considerable variety in their 
 appearance. Many had a nave and aisles as well as a chancel, 
 and the latter often terminated in an apse or semicircular pro- 
 jection. Some few, among which Ramsey was one of the most 
 remarkable, had transepts, with the tower at the intersection of 
 the cross ; and Ramsey at least, if there were no others so dis- 
 tinguished, had a second tower at the west end. Tn two re- 
 maining instances 1 there are semicircular appendages running 
 
 1 Brixworth and Brigs tock, both in Northamptonshire. 
 
72 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 up to the top of the tower, and presenting to an eye unaccus- 
 tomed to such a form a very strange outline. This appendage 
 was probably not unfrequent, and was doubtless intended to 
 facilitate access to the belfry. 1 The tower, that unequalled 
 source of character, was perhaps seldom omitted in the village 
 churches, for the Saxon who possessed live hundred acres of 
 land, if he had a church with a bell-tower on his estate, might 
 claim the rank of a Thane ; 2 and the number of towers still 
 remaining, leaves no doubt that they were very general : it 
 would be most unjust not to add, that they bear several of them, 
 to be compared, in dignity of effect, with the towers of equal 
 pretensions in later styles. We read also of chapels and sepa- 
 rate altars. Perhaps a description of All Saints, Brixworth, as 
 it may have appeared in the seventh century, will be better fitted 
 to convey a probable impression of the character of Saxon 
 churches, than more vague and general references. 
 
 The first impression which the sight of the church conveys to 
 one who has only known it from detached portions figured in 
 architectural works, is of its great size; and yet it is now 
 smaller than it was in its original state : the whole of the 
 original aisles, and a great part of the eastern apse having 
 been destroyed. At present it consists of a tower, with a sin- 
 gular semicircular appendage to the west, and surmounted by a 
 Decorated spire ; a nave and Decorated south aisle, with a Per- 
 pendicular chancel. The insertions and substitutions are numer- 
 ous and palpable enough, but they leave the following features 
 distinctly visible. 
 
 The original masonry of the tower rises at present but a little 
 above the walls of the nave ; but it must have been originally 
 much higher, for the semicircular appendage at the west, which 
 is only a stair to the tower, is higher than the remaining portion 
 of the Saxon work of the tower to which it gave access. We 
 may perhaps safely infer that it rose one full story, forming the 
 belfry, above the roof of the nave : that this story had double 
 windows divided by a baluster shaft in each face, and that it was 
 surmounted by a low spire-like roof, covered with shingles. It 
 
 1 At Brixworth it still retains the 2 See Churton's Early English 
 cochleare or winding stair. Church, p. 230. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 73 
 
 was approached by the stair already mentioned, which is very 
 curious. It winds round a central mass, but to call it a newel 
 stair would convey a very slight notion of its character. It is a 
 spiral vault, having a headway so rude that even a correct cen- 
 tring can hardly have been employed in its construction, and a 
 footway of very gradual ascent, but of the roughest imaginable 
 steps. The outer wall, the inner process, which serves as a 
 newel, the revolving passage, all are one aggregate of rubble. 
 It seems as if it were evolved, rather than constructed, out of 
 unshaped masses of concrete, by the cumbrous efforts of its 
 builders to ascend. 
 
 Although this cochleare is evidently Saxon, yet it is as evident 
 that it is of more recent date than the tower, for the west en- 
 trance to the tower, which, as it was the principal approach to 
 the church, was of considerable size, is contracted into a barely 
 sufficient communication between the tower and the stairs. The 
 tower arch too was curtailed both in height and in width, and 
 over it was introduced a kind of triforium of three arches, with 
 baluster-shafts, opening upon the nave from an upper floor of 
 the tower, which communicated also with the circular stair at 
 about half its height. A clerestory to the nave was also added 
 at the same time, but when that time was there is nothing to 
 suggest : however, perhaps Brixworth is unique in still re- 
 taining Saxon remains of two well denned structures. Enter- 
 ing the church, in its later Saxon form, through the tower, the 
 nave, chancel, and presbytery, the latter apsidal in form, extended 
 to a length, exclusive of the tower, of one hundred and twenty- 
 four feet; the approach to the chancel and apse respectively 
 being by a wide and very lofty arch. The altar was raised about 
 six feet above the floor of the chancel, and had an approach from 
 a crypt beneath the apse as well as from the chancel. The apse 
 was lighted probably by three windows, the roof over it was 
 most likely dome-shaped. With respect to the masonry, all the 
 arches were wide and lofty, and all turned with Roman bricks, 
 though the greater part of the walls are of the limestone of the 
 country, and all had flat soffits. The piers throughout were 
 square, that is, portions of wall, rather than pillars or columns, 
 and the imposts as well as the arches were of bricks. A little 
 herring-bone masonry appeared here and there, but no long and 
 
74 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 short work. There was not a single moulding throughout, ex- 
 cept in the rude baluster-shafts over the tower-arch. 
 
 All that has been hitherto said relates to the stone churches of 
 the Saxon era, but we have had frequent mention of wooden 
 churches, and one example of these still remains. As it forms so 
 very curious a link in the ecclesiastical architecture of England, I 
 shall give the account of it at length from the Suckling papers, 
 in Vol. III. of Weale's quarterly papers on Architecture, where it 
 is accompanied with plans and drawings, which add greatly to the 
 interest of the description. The church which the author is de- 
 scribing is that of Greensted in Essex, which he supposes was 
 erected in the year 1013, to receive the bones of S. Edmund, at 
 their translation from London to Bury S. Edmund's. 
 
 " The timber walls," says he, " which I take to be of oak, though some 
 imagine them to be of chesnut wood, are but six feet in height on the 
 outside, including the sill : they are not, as usually described, * half trees,' 
 but have had a portion of the centre or heart cut out, probably to furnish 
 beams for the construction of the roof and sills ; the outside or slabs thus 
 left were placed on the sill, but by what kind of tenon they are there re- 
 tained does not appear ; while the upper ends, being roughly adzed off to 
 a thin edge, are let into a groove, and which, with the piece of timber in 
 which it is cut, runs the whole length of the building itself ; the door posts 
 are of squared timber, and these are secured in the above-mentioned 
 groove by small wooden pins, still firm and strong, — a truly wonderful 
 example of the durability of British oak. 
 
 " The east end has been destroyed to admit access to a more modern 
 chancel, and thus we are unable to determine whether, like most Saxon 
 churches, this also ended in a semicircular sweep. At the west end away 
 has been cut to the tower ; and here I had an opportunity of examining 
 the very heart of the timber : to the edge of an exceedingly good pocket 
 knife it appeared like iron, and has acquired from age a colour approach- 
 ing to ebony, but of a more beautiful brown ; and if any conclusion may 
 be drawn from the appearance of the whole building, I see no reason why 
 it should not endure as long as it has already existed. The outsides of all 
 the trees are furrowed to the depth of about an inch into long stringy 
 ridges, by the decay of the softer parts of the timber, but these ridges 
 seem equally hard as the heart of the wood itself; the north doorway 
 measures only four feet five inches in height by two feet five inches in 
 width. It is generally thought that the wood-work of the roof is coeval 
 with the walls, and it was most likely formerly covered with thatch, as Bede 
 describes, and as may still be seen on many village churches in the county 
 of Norfolk. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 75 
 
 " The body of the church is lighted by windows in the roof, but these 
 are decidedly of a recent date; what little light its interior enjoyed in its 
 primitive state, was probably admitted from the east end, if any windows 
 existed at all ; but if we consider the lawless state of the times, and the 
 sanctity and consequent value of S. Edmund's bones, it will not be hazard- 
 ing a conjecture devoid of reason, to suppose that it was illumined solely 
 by the flame of torches." 1 
 
 During the Saxon era many circumstances tended to influence 
 the extent to which ecclesiastical architecture was carried, and to 
 modify the several minor details of character and arrangement, 
 during all succeeding ages. The introduction of the monastic 
 
 1 As the perishable nature of the 
 materials renders this a very remark- 
 able instance, we subjoin the grounds 
 on which the author assigns to the 
 church of Greensted so remote a date. 
 "It is a mere log-house, built of the 
 trunks of trees, like those described 
 by the Anglo-Saxon writers, and was 
 originally erected as a sort of shrine, 
 for the reception of the corpse of S. 
 Edmund, which, on its return from 
 London to Bury S. Edmund's, in the 
 year 1013, was, as Lydgate, a monk of 
 that monastery, informs us, conveyed 
 in a chest. In a MS. entitled ' The 
 Life and Passion of Saint Edmund,' 
 preserved at Lambeth Palace, it is re- 
 corded, that in the year 1010, (thirtieth 
 of Ethelred,) the body of S. Edmund 
 was removed to London, on account 
 of the invasion of the Danes, but that 
 at the expiration of three years it was 
 returned to Bedriceworth, (Bury S. 
 Edmund's, in Suffolk,) and that it was 
 received on its return from London at 
 Stapleford. And in another MS. cited 
 by Dugdale in his Monasticon, and 
 entitled, ' The Register of Saint Ed- 
 mund's Bury,' it is further added, 4 he 
 was also sheltered near Aungre, where 
 a wooden chapel remains as a memorial 
 unto this day.' The parish of Aungre, 
 or Ongar, herein mentioned, adjoins 
 that of Greensted, where this church 
 is situated, and through which the 
 
 ancient road from London into Suf- 
 folk passed ; and no doubt has ever 
 been entertained that this rough and 
 unpolished fabric of oak is the 'wooden 
 chapel near Aungre.' A tradition has 
 ever since existed in the village, that 
 the bones of a Saxon monarch once 
 rested in this church : and although 
 tradition does in some cases, as I will- 
 ingly allow, nourish erroneous opi- 
 nions, yet when, as in the present 
 case, it is found to be divested of all 
 fable, and conforms itself so exactly to 
 the records of history, and to existing 
 monuments of antiquity, it must be 
 granted to afford very strong additional 
 testimony.'' 
 
 Thus far the Suckling papers. 
 Rickman assigns to it a later date, hut 
 all his reasons are compatible with 
 that given above. "This church has 
 usually been considered of great an- 
 tiquity, and from the mode of its con- 
 struction, it would not be easy to re- 
 pair it partially. It does not resemble 
 the wooden edifices of Cheshire, and 
 some of the midland counties, but is 
 wholly a wall of upright trunks of 
 trees, so that it may be of a date soon 
 after the Conquest, as at any much 
 later period it would most likely have 
 carried with it some kind of archi- 
 tectural arrangement, from whence a 
 date might be inferred." — Rickman 's 
 Gothic Architecture. 
 
76 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 system, and the effect which it had on church building we have 
 already noticed ; indeed our history has been hitherto chiefly 
 occupied with the foundation and erection of monasteries ; and 
 we have only to add that monastic establishments, including as 
 they do many of our cathedrals, will afford a very large portion 
 of our future materials. 1 
 
 Not inferior in importance, and not long after in point of 
 time, is the division of the country into parishes, which has had 
 a vast influence on ecclesiastical architecture. For this impor- 
 tant and most beneficial change, we are indebted, as is generally 
 supposed, to Theodore, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 
 678 to 690. The effect of this arrangement must have been to 
 limit the number, and increase the size and beauty of churches. 
 Before this each great landholder would necessarily provide a 
 church, and a minister, for himself and his tenants ; whereas, 
 under the parochial system, the church would belong to a whole 
 district, including perhaps the possessions of several persons, 
 who would assist in the building and endowment as they were to 
 share in the use of the sacred edifice ; or if a single person 
 erected the church, in consideration of the greater charge, he 
 was justly invested with the patronage. If we take the number 
 of chantry altars 2 in our churches as an approximation to the 
 number of families which might at some time or other have 
 chosen to erect a chapel for themselves and their adherents, we 
 shall scarcely set down the additional number at less than thirty 
 or forty thousand. All these would have been, without parishes, 
 so many inconsiderable oratories : under the parochial system 
 they became decorations of an existing fabric, and an increased 
 endowment, and in many cases separate aisles or chapels, of very 
 great beauty, adding much to the splendour of the parent 
 
 1 Among the signs of the hold 
 which the monastic system had taken 
 on the Church, and among the causes 
 of the splendour of monasteries, may 
 be mentioned the frequent retreat not 
 only of nobles, but of kings, to the 
 seclusion and devotions of a religious 
 order. Ethelred retired to Barding, 
 (about a.d. 700) ; Ceolwulf (a.d.737) 
 resigned his crown, and became a monk 
 
 at Lindisfarne ; Egbert (a.d. 768) 
 lived for ten years under the discipline 
 of his brother, the Archbishop of 
 York. (See Churton, pp. 108 and 
 232.) 
 
 2 We learn incidentally from the 
 life of S. Wulstan, by William of 
 Malmsbury, that there were already 
 in the eleventh century, eighteen altars 
 in the abbey-church of Worcester. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 77 
 
 church. It will be observed, however, that the parochial system 
 did not, till long after the Reformation, prevent the erection of 
 chapels in castles and fortresses, and as parts of the mansions of 
 bishops or peers, who were privileged to retain chaplains in their 
 service. To this modification of the provisions in such cases, 
 we owe many gems of ecclesiastical architecture, as for instance, 
 the chapels in the Castles of Coningsborough and Chester, and 
 in the Bishop's Palace at Wells. 
 
 The monastic and parochial systems affected the very exis- 
 tence of churches, and rendered those which were erected under 
 their influence very different from what they would otherwise 
 have been : other things there were which very greatly in- 
 fluenced, and must for ever influence, the development of archi- 
 tectural forms and character, and the details of our ecclesiastical 
 architecture. Among these perhaps the first place is due to 
 the introduction of glass, — in the first instance a mere contri- 
 vance to admit light, while the external air, with all its unwel- 
 come attendants, was excluded, — but ultimately an element in 
 the size, shape, and construction of windows, in which the 
 several successive developments of Gothic Architecture are more 
 distinctly visible than in any other portion of the fabric. In 
 our earliest buildings the unglazed apertures through which light 
 was received, were necessarily very small, to prevent the intru- 
 sion of rain and snow ; and, as far as possible, to exclude the 
 winds of our northern clime. The introduction of glass must 
 have led very soon to the use of windows sufficient, which before 
 they could hardly be called, to admit a full light; and the 
 greater apertures of the later Saxon, and of the Norman 
 churches were adapted to these larger windows. After a time the 
 general introduction of stained glass rendered still larger win- 
 dows requisite ; and the greater size which was in the first in- 
 stance a matter of necessity, that the quantity of light might 
 not be diminished by the density of the medium, 1 became very 
 
 1 Prisdon speaking of the church 
 Ottery S. Mary, says, "Otery church is 
 fair according to the structure of those 
 times whereof the windows little and 
 low are so bedecked with the armouries 
 of divers benefactors, more especially 
 
 of the founder, that instead of Lux 
 fiat it may be verified that they are 
 umbrated thereby." — (Trans. Exeter 
 Arch. Soc. Vol. i. p. 40.) One would 
 hardly suspect painted glass of any 
 power over the brightness of the Gos- 
 
78 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 soon a matter of choice and devotion ; windows now formed a 
 part of the decorations of churches, and they were gradually 
 increased in size, that they might receive more and more of the 
 beautiful creations of the glass-stainer's art, from the narrow 
 Norman lights to the immense windows of Gloucester, York, 
 and King's College Chapel. Many churches have had addi- 
 tional windows inserted in all the intermediate styles, partly at 
 least that stained glass might be introduced in greater abun- 
 dance : and perhaps its universal introduction in the fourteenth 
 century, may account in some degree for the forms which the 
 tracery of the windows began to assume under the last Edward, 
 and in the hands of the magnificent William of Wykeham ; 
 the parallelograms into which Perpendicular windows are divided 
 being more readily fitted with glass than the more free and 
 flowing forms of the later Decorated. 
 
 The use of lead, as a covering for churches, also occurs in 
 this era : and this too must be recorded not merely as a fact, 
 but as tending to affect the development of forms, and the future 
 character of our churches. Eadbert, the seventh bishop of 
 Lindisfarne, [a.d. 688 — 698,] covered his Cathedral with lead. 
 Judging, however, from the representations of churches in con- 
 temporary MSS. and in the Bayeaux tapestry, we should in- 
 fer that the roofs were still generally covered with a kind of 
 tile, or shingles arranged like the scales of a fish; 1 at all events 
 the indirect results of this introduction of lead did not appear, 
 till ages after. The lower Tudor roofs require a lighter covering 
 than the high-pitched roofs of the preceding style, and they 
 found it in the material applied to Lindisfarne in the seventh 
 century. 2 
 
 We have now several accounts of the wealth of churches in 
 
 pel, but John Bruce of Stapleford, in 
 the sixteenth century, though a very- 
 worthy man where his puritanism did 
 not affect his power of reasoning, was 
 of a more suspicious cast : rinding in 
 the church of Tarvin, and his own 
 ancient chapel many superstitious 
 images in the windows, which by their 
 painted coats, darkened the light of 
 the church and obscured the brightness 
 
 of the Gospel, he caused all those 
 painted puppets to be pulled down, 
 and at his own cost, glazed the win- 
 dows again. — See Ormerod's Cheshire, 
 I. 174. 
 
 1 King Eadred proposed to cover 
 the eastern apse of the church at Win- 
 chester with gilded tiles, deauratis irn- 
 bricibus. But he died before it was done. 
 
 2 There is one instance in this age 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 79 
 
 gold and silver plate, pictures, and vestments/ a circumstance 
 which also unhappily involves their frequent spoliation, some- 
 times their destruction. It was seldom, however, that a stript 
 or ruined sanctuary, did not soon find some one to restore it to 
 greater splendour than before ; the dissolution of monasteries, 
 and the raids of the Puritans, are the only sweeping acts of 
 sacrilege recorded in English history, whose mischief has never 
 been adequately repaired. 
 
 The advance of Church music must also be reckoned among 
 the things which materially, though indirectly, affected and must 
 always aifect, ecclesiastical architecture. It is true that we 
 hear of no singing galleries, and organ lofts, stretched across 
 noble tower arches, or over the place of the most sacred mys- 
 teries, until the seventeenth century ; 2 but from the coming of 
 Augustine there have been music and singing, which demanded 
 appropriate arrangements in our churches, 3 and glorious an- 
 thems which have brought down from the fretted roofs tones in 
 unison with heaven's own music. James the deacon of Pauli- 
 nus, at York became celebrated for the success with which he 
 taught Church music, at the little village of Catteric; and far 
 greater men thought not their labours ill bestowed in the same 
 task. 4 
 
 Benedict Biscop brought with him from Italy, John, precentor 
 
 of the use of copper for roofing, a still 
 lighter material than lead, but in some 
 respects far inferior to it. Among 
 other presents sent from Alcuin to 
 Eanbald, was a cargo of copper, to be 
 used in roofing the bell tower at York, 
 which Alcuin wished to be completed 
 in the handsomest style then known. 
 — Churton's Early English Church, 
 p. 189. 
 
 1 The pall, which is a small piece of 
 undyed woollen cloth, worn over the 
 shoulder of an archbishop, has been 
 supposed to have been intended to 
 check the rising vanity of the prelate, 
 when he beheld the gold and jewels, 
 the rich clothes of glorious colours of 
 his archiepiscopal vestments. 
 
 2 In Roman Catholic countries these 
 
 desecrations are as frequent and as 
 obtrusive as in England. 
 
 3 A part of the triforium of Glou- 
 cester cathedral is still called the min- 
 strels' gallery, and there is a stone 
 gallery separating the choir from the 
 lady chapel at Ottery S. Mary, which 
 had probably the same use. In the 
 Cathedral of Canterbury, as left by 
 Prior Conrad, the organ stood on the 
 vault of the south transept : and after- 
 wards on a large corbel of stone in the 
 same transept. — See Willis' Canter- 
 bury, pp. 39, 107. 
 
 4 Putta for instance, Bishop of 
 Rochester, when his See had been 
 sacked, took refuge with Sexwulfus, 
 Bishop of Lichfield, and there taught 
 Church music. 
 
% 
 
 80 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of S. Peter's, and abbot of S. Martin's, and with great care 
 caused the brethren of his monasteries to be instructed in the 
 Roman method of singing ; nor did the good man fail to reap 
 the fruits of his zeal for the music of the sanctuary : for in his 
 last long illness when he was unable to lift his voice in the song 
 of praise, he would call to him several of his brethren at each 
 set time of prayer, and making them sing psalms in two com- 
 panies, would himself sing with them, and thus make up by 
 their voices for the weakness of his own. Bede, the worthy 
 pupil of Benedict Biscop wrote a work de Musica, and he, too, 
 found wings for his own soul in the hymns of his brethren. 
 "0 glorious King, Lord of power," — they sang in the anthem for 
 Ascension day, (a.d. 735) on which high festival he died, — "who 
 triumphing on this day, didst ascend above all the heavens, for- 
 sake not us orphans, but send down upon us the promised Spirit of 
 truth." At the words " forsake us not " he and all with him burst 
 into tears ; but the voice of more cheerful praise yet again broke 
 out at his end ; for turning towards the church and resting his 
 head on the hands of his attendants, he desired to be supported 
 in that position, that he might look towards the place where he 
 used to sing, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to 
 the Holy Ghost," and when he had named the Holy Ghost, 
 his spirit took its flight. 
 
 Nor must we forget how Church music elicited a song, the 
 only one which he is known to have composed, from the lips of 
 Canute the Great. " A ballad which he composed," says Sir 
 Francis Palgrave, 1 " continued long afterwards to be a favourite 
 amongst the common people of England. It chanced that, when 
 navigating the Ouse, near the Minster of Ely, the sweet and 
 solemn tones of the choral psalmody fell on his ear, and Canute 
 burst forth with his lay — 
 
 " Merrily sung the monks within Ely, 
 When Canute, King, rowed thereby. 
 Row, my knights ; row near the land 
 And hear we these monke's song." 
 
 There can of course be no comparison between the music of 
 those days and our own, in artistic character j but we have 
 1 Anglo-Saxou History, p. 319. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 81 
 
 already the introduction of an instrument which was in time to 
 effect a great revolution in the music of the sanctuary. The 
 first introduction of the organ into church services is attributed 
 to Pope Vitalian, who consecrated Theodore Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, in 668, but the first mention of an organ in England, 
 occurs in a poem of Adhelm, (who died 709,) De laude virgi- 
 num, in which he describes it as a mighty instrument with innu- 
 merable pipes, blown with bellows, and enclosed in a gilded 
 case, and far superior to all other instruments. 1 Among other 
 provisions for the service of his church at Ramsey, Aylwin 
 gave thirty pounds for an organ. 2 In the tenth century, one of 
 enormous size was erected at Winchester : seventy men working 
 alternately in two companies, supplied it with wind. Even this 
 must have been greatly inferior in size, as well as in perfection, 
 to the noble instruments now occupying the loft across the choir 
 arch of our cathedrals, and interposing (whether happily or no,) 
 their huge dark outlines in the view from the western entrance 
 towards the east window. This instrument, which we now by an 
 irresistible association connect with the edifice of the church, 
 almost as naturally as the steeple or the bells ; and with the ser- 
 vice of the church quite as constantly as the daily prayer, and 
 the accustomed festival ; has deserved this sacred association by 
 the power which it has given to the expression of those high 
 spiritual feelings, which almost demand the language of music, — 
 of a deep and appropriate harmony, — to give them utterance: and 
 we may certainly say that there is no instrument, that there is 
 no easily managed combination of instruments, which can at all 
 vie with the organ as an accompaniment to the religious lauds 
 
 1 " Si verb quisquam chordarum 
 respuit odas, 
 Et potiora cupit, quam pulset pectine 
 chordas ; 
 
 Quis Psalmista pius psallebat cantibus 
 olim, 
 
 Ac mentem magno gestit modulamine 
 pasci, 
 
 Et cantu gracili refugit contentus 
 adesse : 
 
 Maxima millenis auscultans organa 
 flabris, 
 
 Mulceat auditum ventosis follibus iste, 
 Quamlibet auratis fulgescant csetera 
 capsis."— Basnage, torn. i. p. 715. 
 2 " Triginta prseterea libras ad fabri- 
 candos cupreos organorum calaraos 
 erogavit, qui in alveo suo super unara 
 coclearum denso ordine foraminibus 
 insidentes, et diebus festis follium spi- 
 ramento fortiore pulsati, prsedulcem 
 melodiam et clangorem longius reso- 
 nantem ediderunt." — Historia Rama- 
 siensis, cap. 114. 
 
82 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and praises, to the deep supplications and moving litanies, which 
 are heard from many accordant voices in the service of the Church. 
 But it has affected the science quite as much as the practice of 
 church music. Not only has the system of counterpoint been 
 greatly advanced by its use, but the character of compositions 
 for the Church must have been greatly modified by it in many 
 respects not so readily defined. How great must be the differ- 
 ence of the feeling with which a master sits down to compose 
 for such an instrument from the feeling of the same person 
 writing for one of less scope and power ; and even were the feel- 
 ing the same, how much greater the limits within which he may 
 expatiate. He becomes a greater man, working upon a greater 
 scale. 1 
 
 The last thing that we shall mention as exercising a great, 
 though indirect influence on church architecture in all succeed- 
 ing ages, is the introduction of Bells as part of the furniture of 
 the church. 
 
 That bells were applied to their present ecclesiastical offices 
 even before the erection of parish churches in England there 
 can be no doubt. Bede, speaking of the death of S. Hilda, 
 which took place at Whitby, a.d. 680, tells us " that one of the 
 sisters named Bega, in the distant monastery of Hackness, while 
 she was in the dormitory, on the night of Hilda's death, on a 
 sudden heard in the air the well-known sound of the bell, which 
 used to call the sisters to prayers, when any one of them was 
 being taken from this world ; and opening her eyes she saw as 
 she thought the top of the house open, and a strong light 
 pour in from above. Looking earnestly into that light she saw 
 the soul of the departed Abbess attended towards heaven by 
 angels. She told her vision to the sister who presided over the 
 monastery, who assembled the sisters in the church, where they 
 were engaged in praying and singing psalms for the soul of S. 
 Hilda, when the messengers came to report her death." 
 
 Other notices of the use or gift of bells soon became frequent. 
 Turketul, of whom we have already made honourable mention, 
 
 1 The influence here attributed to and degrading custom which has ob- 
 
 the organ in elevating the character of tained in the churches of the Roman 
 
 sacred music, may be illustrated by Catholics. I mean the employment of 
 
 the opposite effect of a most wicked ca.strati in the choirs. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 83 
 
 gave to Croyland a great bell, called Guthlac, and afterwards six 
 others which he called Bartholomew and Betelin, Turketul and 
 Tatwin, Pega and Bega. " Non erat/' says Ingulphus, " tunc 
 tanta consonantia campanarum in tota Anylia — there was not 
 then such another " ring of bells " in all England. And if not 
 in all England, certainly not in the world, for the English alone 
 have ever known the use of a "ring of bells." Dunstan, who 
 doubtless himself cast them, gave bells to many of the churches 
 in Somersetshire. And bell-ringing made a part of his rule, in 
 the reformation of monasteries ; for he directs " that at mass, 
 nocturns, and vespers, from the Feast of Innocents to the Cir- 
 cumcision, all the bells should be rung, as was the custom in 
 England." 1 
 
 There can be no doubt that a rule so congenial to the feelings 
 of the people 2 was pretty generally obeyed, though perhaps we 
 may not find it frequently mentioned. However, in the History 
 of Ramsey we have a story which not only mentions the bells, 
 but connects them especially with the western tower of that 
 church. 3 
 
 Archdeacon Churton tells us that the Bell-rock, now remark- 
 able for its lighthouse, is so called from the bell, which the 
 monks of Aberbrothock 4 tolled to warn the mariner of his dan- 
 ger as he sailed past. 5 At the murder of Thomas a Becket, the 
 bells are said to have rung of their own accord. 
 
 1 Life of S. Stephen, abbot, p. 3. 
 
 2 Bells are sometimes inscribed 
 
 " GRATUM OPUS AGRICOLIS." 
 
 Lingard quotes a passage from 
 Ethelwold to the same effect. 
 " Nec minus ex cipro sonitant ad 
 
 gaudia fratrum 
 iEnea vasa, cavis crepitant quae pen- 
 
 dula sistris." 
 
 3 " Quadam itaque dierum cum pe- 
 dissequo suo ad spatiandum de more 
 exeuntes, ad restes campanarum majo- 
 rum, quae in occidentali turri ecclesiae 
 pendebant, e trabibus accurrerunt. 
 Quarum unam tam diu imbecillium 
 virtutum tenera lacertorum trahentes 
 agitabant, quousque obortam in ea 
 
 subito ex motu insequali fracturce 
 rimulam maleridus in secretis sonus 
 stridulus indicaret." 
 
 Lingard also quotes a passage from 
 Alcuin which shows that the tower at 
 York contained more than one bell. 
 
 " Videtur condignum ut domuscula 
 cloccarum stagno tegatur propter or- 
 namentum etloci celebritatem." 
 
 4 ! • When the rock was hid by the 
 surge's swell, 
 
 The mariners heard the warning bell ; 
 And then they knew the perilous rock, 
 And bless'd the abbot of Aberbro- 
 thock.'' — Southey. 
 
 5 Early English Church, p. 120. 
 
 2 
 
84 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Paul de Caen, first abbot of S. Alban's after the Conquest, 
 furnished the tower with bells. " A certain English nobleman 
 named Litholf, who resided in a woodland part of the neighbour- 
 hood, added two still larger and more laudable than the rest. 
 Having a good stock of sheep and goats, he sold many of them, 
 and bought a bell, of which, as he heard the new sound when 
 suspended in the tower, he jocosely said, ' Hark ! how sweetly 
 my goats and my sheep bleat ! ' But his wife procured another 
 for the same place, and the two together produced a most sweet 
 harmony, which, when the lady heard, she said, " I do not think 
 that this union is wanting of the Divine favour, which united me 
 to my husband in lawful matrimony, and the bond of mutual 
 affection." 1 
 
 In later times we still find the gift of bells thankfully recorded. 
 Bishop Hythe placed four bells in the tower of Rochester Ca- 
 thedral, which he called Dunstan, Paulinus, Ithamar and Lan- 
 franc. Edward III., about 1347, built for S. Stephen's Chapel 
 in the Sanctuary, a strong clochard of stone and timber, covered 
 with lead, and placed therein three bells, since usually rung at 
 coronations, triumphs, funerals of princes, and their obits. Of 
 these bells some fabled that their ringing soured all the drink in 
 the town ; more, that about the biggest bell was written, — 
 
 " King Edward made me 
 Thirtie thousand and three. 
 Take me down and wey me, 
 And more shall ye find me." 2 
 
 And we have the following curious account of the once celebrated 
 bells at Osney, in Fox's Monks and Monasteries. " At the first 
 foundation, there were but three bells, beside the Saint and 
 Litany bells ; but by Abbot Leech they were increased to the 
 number of seven. The bells were christened, and called by the 
 names of Hauteclare, Doucement, Austyn, Marie, Gabriel, and 
 John : all which, for the most part, towards the suppression, 
 being before broken and recast, had gotten new names, which, 
 by tradition, we have thus : Mary and Jesus, Meribus and Lucas, 
 New Bell and Thomas, Conger and Godston ; which Thomas, 
 
 1 Buckler's S. Alban's, p. 5. 
 
 2 Stow's Survey of London. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 85 
 
 now commonly called ' Great Tom of Christechurch/ had this 
 inscription not long since remaining upon it, ( In Thomce laude 
 resono Bim Bom sine fraude' and was accounted six feet in dia- 
 meter, which is eighteen feet in compass." 
 
 To these more matter-of-fact materials we might add a great 
 deal about the consecration of bells, and their supposed virtue, 
 but we will turn to a more practical matter, the antiquity and 
 use of the campanile or bell-tower. The use of the bell-tower 
 was recognized in the ancient Saxon law, which gave the title of 
 Thane to any one who had a church with a bell-tower on his 
 estate. Of the equally ancient application of towers to the pur- 
 pose of hanging the bells, we have an elaborate and most inter- 
 esting account in Mr. Petrie's work on the Round Towers of 
 Ireland. In England the campanile is generally attached to the 
 church, or at most stands a few yards from it. There are several 
 round towers in Norfolk and Suffolk, which owe their shape in 
 all probability to the peculiar building materials of those counties ; 
 but it is worthy of remark that in two of our most interesting 
 Saxon churches, Brixworth and Brigstock, both in Northampton- 
 shire, we have a semicircular tower rising together with the bell- 
 tower, and forming a staircase to it. There are detached bell- 
 towers at Chichester, East Dereham in Norfolk, Glastonbury, 
 and Bruton in Somersetshire, Evesham in Worcestershire, 
 and several other places; and many have doubtless been destroyed, 
 as those in Old S. Paul's Churchyard, and at Salisbury ; the 
 latter was taken down at the close of the last century, the bells 
 of the former contribute a chapter to the history and fate of 
 sacrilege. 
 
 " In the reign of King Henry VIII. there was a clockier or 
 bell-house adjoining to S. Paul's Church in London, with four 
 very great bells in it, called Jesus-bells. Sir Miles Partridge, a 
 courtier, once played at dice with the king for these bells, staking 
 a hundred pounds against them, and won them, and then melted 
 and sold them to a very great gain. But in the fifth year of 
 King Edward VI., this gamester had worse fortune when he lost 
 his life, being executed on Tower-hill, for matters concerning the 
 Duke of Somerset." 1 
 
 1 Stow's Survey. 
 
86 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Since we can hardly claim for clocks, as separate from bells, 
 sufficient interest, as connected with architecture, to occupy a 
 place by themselves, I shall briefly allude to their introduction 
 in this place. 
 
 Sun dials were used by the Saxons, and by them placed upon 
 churches, as appears from the instance already mentioned of 
 Kirkdale Church ; but Dante is the first who mentions an 
 horologe which strikes the hour, i.e. a clock as opposed to a dial. 
 Dante died in 1321, and before that time we have a curious re- 
 cord of a clock in England. Radulphus de Hengham, who was 
 then chief justice of the King's Bench, was fined eight hundred 
 marks, 16 Edward I., a.d. 1288, for having altered a record, 
 whereby a poor defendant was made to pay 6s. 8d. instead of 
 13s. 4d. Out of this fine a clock was placed in the clock-house 
 near Westminster Hall, which might be heard by the courts of 
 law. An inscription was added commemorating the event, and 
 conveying a lesson to all future judges: "Discite Justitiam 
 Moniti." 1 And this clock was considered in the reign of 
 Henry VI. of such consequence, that the king gave the keeping 
 of it with the appurtenances, to William Walsby, Dean of S. 
 Stephen's, with the pay of six pence per diem, to be received at 
 the Exchequer. The clock-house stood in a ruined state till 
 1715, but the clock had given place to a dial, the inscription 
 still remaining. 
 
 We also find a notice of a church-clock at Canterbury, and 
 from the price it can hardly have been a dial. " Anno 1292, 
 novum orologium magnum in ecclesia pretium £3Q. 3 ' 2 
 
 In Rymer's Fsedera there is a protection of Edward III. 
 (1368,) to three Dutchmen, under the title, "De Horologiorum 
 Artificio exercendo." And Chaucer (who died in 1400) writes, 
 
 " Full sikerer was his crowing in his loge, 
 As is a clock, or any abbey orloge." 
 
 1 This case Justice Southcote re- not to build a clock-house."— Anec- 
 
 membered, when Catlyn, chief justice dotes from Camden Society, 
 
 of the King's Bench, in the reign of 2 Dart's Canterbury, quoted from 
 
 Elizabeth, would have ordered the ra- Daines Barrington's Observation on 
 
 zure of a roll in the like case, which Clocks, in Vol. V. of the Archaeologia, 
 
 Southcote utterly denied to assent to which I am indebted for what is 
 
 unto, and said openly, that " he meant here adduced on the subject of clocks. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 87 
 
 The clock being in all probability a bell, but the orloge being 
 certainly a clock, and that too one that struck the hours. 
 
 I shall mention one other instance. Richard of Wallingford 
 was the son of a smith, who from his learning became Abbot of 
 S. Alban's in the reign of Richard II. When his fortune had 
 now become considerable, he was desirous of displaying in 
 some work, the greatness not only of his genius, but also of his 
 learning and of his marvellous skill. And to this end he con- 
 structed, with great labour, at greater cost, but with art far sur- 
 passing both, a clock, the like of which is not to be found in all 
 Europe, for the exactness with which it points out the course of 
 the sun and of the moon, the rising of the fixed stars, and the 
 ebb and flow of the sea. And lest this marvellous piece of ma- 
 chinery should be spoiled by the clumsiness of monks, or by 
 their ignorance of its construction, Richard himself wrote a 
 treatise upon it. This clock continued to go in Leland's time, 
 who was born towards the close of the reign of Henry VII., 
 and who gives the above account of it and of its artificer. 
 
 This notice of bells and clocks is not disproportioned to the 
 influence which their introduction has had on ecclesiastical ar- 
 chitecture. It is to the use of church-bells that we are indebted 
 for the most prominent feature of almost every ecclesiastical 
 fabric, and that which serves most to harmonize all the parts of 
 a whole, sometimes so vast and almost always so various as a 
 Gothic church. From the low central tower of a Norman abbey, 
 but just rising above the roof, at the intersection of the cross, 
 to the lofty towers or spires of Boston, Gloucester, Salisbury, 
 Coventry, Louth, or Whittlesea, in whatever part of the church 
 it may be placed, the steeple still gives an inexpressible grace 
 and dignity to the whole outline, correcting immoderate length, 
 reducing all minor parts to proportion, giving variety to same- 
 ness, and harmony to the most licentious irregularity. The 
 judicious use of the tower or spire is a great part of the secret 
 of the characteristic boldness in minor details of the mediaeval 
 architects. The little excrescences of such a building as York 
 Minster, which are now lost in the grand whole, would at once 
 become deformities, if the towers were removed. The Cathedral 
 of Milan is in some respects one of the most splendid buildings 
 in the world ; but for want of a steeple of proportionate elevation 
 
88 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 it is but a gigantic grove of pinnacles, in which statues seem to 
 have lost their way, and to be wandering without aim and with- 
 out end. If, as is most probable, the central tower of Fountains 
 had perished before the present northern tower was erected, 
 what a heavy mass of irregularities must that splendid pile have 
 seemed. The tower reduces all to proportion, and makes it 
 once again a whole. Bolton Abbey had also suffered the loss of 
 its tower, and that at the west end was never raised above the 
 level of the nave, and though it is far smaller and less irregular 
 than Fountains, what a long unrelieved length it presents to the 
 eye. "What is it which gives such vastness and importance to 
 the cathedral, such grace and beauty to the parish-church, at a 
 distance, but the tower or spire ? Nay, what is it but the bell- 
 gable which in mere outline often distinguishes the retired 
 chapel from some neighbouring barn ? And for all this we are 
 indebted to the introduction of bells ; or if not for the existence 
 of these or the like additions to the beauty of outline in our 
 churches, yet at least for what is a part of their beauty, — their 
 having a use, and being exactly adapted to their use. 
 
 The last circumstance indirectly affecting the sacred structure 
 to the close of the Gothic period that I shall mention, is the in- 
 troduction of the custom of burying the more illustrious dead 
 within the church. This custom was introduced by S. Cuthbert, 
 in 740. Eadmer tells us how Cuthbert, when he went to Rome 
 to receive the pall, being endowed with great wisdom, obtained 
 from Pope Gregory that all future Archbishops might be buried 
 within their church of Canterbury : for heretofore they had been 
 buried in the churchyard of the church of SS Peter and Paul, 
 without the city; for the Romans, who were first sent into 
 England, had said that the city was for the living and not for 
 the dead. But S. Cuthbert was grieved to think, that after 
 death he must be separated from his church and his children, 
 that were in life the delight of his affection ; at his request 
 therefore, and with the consent of King Eadbrith, it was ordained 
 by the Pope that the Archbishops of Canterbury should be 
 buried in their own church, that they might have their resting- 
 place where they had ruled in honour. 1 Cuthbert himself en- 
 
 ' See Willis's Canterbury, pp. 2 and 45. 
 
THE SAXON PERIOD. 
 
 89 
 
 joyed this privilege, and so did almost all his successors. And 
 so great was the importance assigned to this privilege, that it 
 altered in various ways the plan and fabric of our great churches, 
 and of Canterbury perhaps more than any other. For a great 
 number of the Archbishops of that See were canonized after 
 their death, and then these places of sepulture became chapels 
 with their separate altars, and all the furniture requisite to their 
 greater honour. And so far had the reverence for their relics 
 and other memorials extended in the time of Anselm, that 
 although Lanfranc, his immediate predecessor, had wholly re- 
 built his cathedral, the Abbots Ernulf and Conrad, with Anselm's 
 counsel and assistance, rebuilt the choir on a very much larger 
 scale ; and additional chapels and shrines were still perpetually 
 added ; and these, with the tombs of the Archbishops, were held 
 of so great importance, that Gervase, in his description of the 
 church as it was before the fire, apologizes for his minute ac- 
 count, not by the splendour or importance of the choir which 
 had perished, but by the necessity of stating the resting-places 
 of the several saints whose bones were preserved within it. We 
 shall see by-and-bye how great a change in the same church was 
 exacted at the rebuilding, by the fact that Becket was there 
 buried : nor can we at all proceed with our history, without men- 
 tioning many records of the places of sepulture of great and holy 
 men, whose burial affected the fabric within which it was solem- 
 nized. At last it became the custom for Bishops and other 
 persons of importance to erect sepulchral chapels for themselves, 
 during their lives, and these proved gorgeous appendages to the 
 church, though too often at a great cost of general effect : for 
 they interposed their screen-work in all directions ; filled up the 
 spaces between columns ; cut off the ends of aisles ; and left 
 the church without a single uninterrupted vista to any distant 
 part. Thus what at first exacted enormous splendour in the 
 general design, at last obscured the beauty of the whole, and left 
 it doubtful whether ecclesiastical architecture was on the whole 
 indebted to S. Cuthbert for introducing the custom of burials in 
 churches. 
 
90 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Norman Period. 
 
 Introduction of the Norman Style. — Edward the Confessor and 
 Westminster Abbey. — Harold and Waltham Abbey. — William 
 the Conqueror and Battle Abbey. — Gundulf, Bishop of Ro- 
 chester. — Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester. — Three Duads of 
 Ecclesiastical Builders. — Robert and Hubert Losing: — Wal- 
 kelyn and his brother slmeon s — roger and his nephew 
 Alexander. — The Freemasons. 
 
 The style now called Norman was fully established on the Con- 
 tinent long before the twelfth century, and there is every reason 
 to suppose that the English did not wait to receive it as a part 
 of the yoke imposed on them by their conquerors. There had 
 already been sufficient intercourse with the Continent 1 to make 
 it almost certain that any improved style of ecclesiastical archi- 
 tecture which arose beyond the seas, would be adopted here. 
 Edward the Confessor was educated in Normandy, and dis- 
 played his partiality to foreigners, and to foreign ways and in- 
 stitutions to such excess, as to excite popular tumults among his 
 subjects. It is certain that he enriched foreign abbeys at the 
 expense of his native land, for he was the originator of the per- 
 nicious system of alien priories ; 2 and we may fairly allow him 
 the credit of having in some degree atoned for the mischief, by 
 introducing a better style of church building, 3 which doubtless 
 
 1 And with Normandy in particular, 
 though this is of little comparative im- 
 portance, for the Norman type of Ro- 
 manesque was not confined to that 
 duchy. 
 
 2 Pernicious, not only directly, in 
 depriving England of a portion of its 
 ecclesiastical revenues, but indirectly, 
 
 in affording continual opportunities of 
 robbing the Church, and the first ex- 
 cuse for that wholesale sacrilege which 
 was afterwards extended to all ecclesi- 
 astical property. 
 
 3 Bosham Church and Westminster 
 Abbey are represented in the Bayeux 
 Tapestry ratber as Norman than Saxon 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 91 
 
 appeared to the greatest advantage in his favourite and magnifi- 
 cent foundation of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 The greatness of Edward's reputation was fatal to the fabric 
 on which he had bestowed his last regards. Revered as he was 
 as a tutelar saint of England, he seemed to deserve a better 
 shrine and a better monument than the Norman pile which he 
 had piously dedicated; and this was removed by Henry III. to 
 make way for the glorious abbey which now occupies its site. 
 The foundation of Harold at Waltham remains, however, in 
 some of its features, to prove that the Norman style was intro- 
 duced before the Conquest. Harold, too, had been a traveller 
 in Normandy ; and though he was a most unwilling guest at Eu, 
 this would not prevent him from imitating the more gorgeous 
 style of ecclesiastical architecture which was there fully estab- 
 lished. 
 
 There was already a church at Waltham, with an endowment 
 for two priests, founded by Tovy, standard bearer to King 
 Canute ; and Edward the Confessor gave to Harold certain 
 lands on condition of his building a monastery on the spot, and 
 furnishing it with the requisite relics, vestments, and ornaments, 
 in memory of the Confessor and Edith his queen. This grant 
 was made in the memorable year 1066, and Harold at once ful- 
 filled the terms of the grant, rebuilding the original church, 
 which was then consecrated to the Holy Cross, and endowing it 
 as a convent for a dean and eleven secular black canons. Among 
 the ornaments which he gave to the new foundation were seven 
 little caskets (scrinia) with the relics, three of gold, and four of 
 silver gilt, enriched with gems ; four great thuribles of gold and 
 silver ; six great candlesticks, two of gold and four of silver ; 
 three large vessels of Greek workmanship, silver, and richly 
 gilded ; four crosses of gold and silver, studded with gems ; 
 another cross of silver, weighing fifty marks ; five suits of vest- 
 ments ornamented with gold and precious stones ; five other 
 vestments enriched in like manner, one of extreme weight and 
 cost ; two copes, covered with gold and gems ; five chalices, two 
 of gold and three of silver; four altars, with relics, one of gold, 
 
 buildings ; but too much stress should Norman needle would certainly follow 
 not be laid on this, for these designs the style most in vogue at the court of 
 cannot be taken as views, and the the good Duchess. 
 
92 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and three of silver gilded ; a silver horn ; and various other 
 articles. 
 
 In this church, thus erected, and munificently adorned by 
 him, "Harold infelix" 1 offered up his prayers before his en- 
 counter with William, and in this church he was buried within 
 a year of its erection. 2 It thus becomes a national monument 
 of no slight interest, and as an architectural work it is important 
 as the last foundation of any note before the Conquest. In 
 style it is Norman of a very early type. The pillars are cylindri- 
 cal, with cushion-shaped capitals, deeply indented ; and some of 
 the shafts have the same dancette and spiral lines on their sur- 
 face which are found at Durham and Norwich, which were in 
 progress within the last quarter of the eleventh century, not 
 many years, that is, after the foundation of Waltham. 
 
 We may reasonably presume that this part of our history was 
 far from being devoid of church builders, and that their works 
 were numerous and important, not only from the general ad- 
 vance that had been made in arts, and from the comparative 
 repose that followed the reign of Canute, but also from the 
 effects of a remarkable error into which all western Christen- 
 dom had fallen touching the approach of the end of the world, 
 at the close of the tenth century, followed by a natural return 
 to more than usual activity in the foundation of permanent in- 
 stitutions, when the fear or the hope of the impending doom 
 was dispelled. Mr. Hope, in his historical essay, somewhat 
 overstates the effect of this when he says, that there are more 
 churches whose foundation can be traced to the eleventh century, 
 when people had begun to awake from their fears of a world in 
 ashes to the business of life, than to any other time of equal 
 duration ; but certainly we must admit that these expectations of 
 prolonged existence would influence, and did influence many to 
 erect churches, who had hitherto felt that this and every such 
 work was unnecessary ; nor must it be forgotten, that the reli- 
 gious bodies when they recommenced their labour of building, 
 were enabled to expend in it that increased wealth, which they 
 owed to the numerous grants which had been made to them, 
 
 1 This is said to have been his only 2 These notices of Waltham are taken 
 epitaph. from "Select Views of London," &c. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 93 
 
 appropinquante mundi termino — because the end of the world 
 is now nigh at hand. 1 
 
 William the Norman conquered under a consecrated banner, 
 but he respected the churches little more than the civil institu- 
 tions of his new subjects. In making the new forest he " is 
 reported to have destroyed twenty-six towns, with as many 
 parish churches, and to have banished both men and religion 
 for thirty miles in length, to make room for his deer. And in 
 Lent-time, in the fourth year of his reign, he rifled all the mo- 
 nasteries of England of the gold and silver which was laid up 
 there by the richer of the people to be protected by the sanctity 
 of the places from spoil and rapine, and of that also which be- 
 longed to the monasteries themselves, not sparing either the 
 chalices or shrines." 2 
 
 Spelman, in whose words I have related the sacrilege of the 
 Conqueror, also notes how the Church was avenged, not by her 
 own arm, but by the Hand of God on the spoiler and his house. 
 William was cursed in all his sons. With Robert he was engaged 
 in an unnatural war. On his death-bed he was forsaken by his 
 children, and his funeral was not unattended by fearful signs. 
 All his four children were wretched in their life and in their end. 
 Robert was deprived of his eyes, and then imprisoned by William, 
 till his death ; and he had the additional unhappiness of sur- 
 viving his only son, who was slain in the new forest. Richard, 
 the conqueror's second son died also in the new forest, from the 
 fall of a tree ; William Rufus also in the new forest met his 
 death, and on the very spot where a church stood which the 
 conqueror had destroyed, and left no child behind him. 3 " The 
 fourth son" of William, says Spelman, " abstained (as I imagine) 
 from hunting in the new forest, but God met with him in 
 another corner ; for having but two sons, William legitimate 
 and Richard natural, they were, in the fifteenth year of his 
 reign, both drowned, with other of the nobility, coming out of 
 
 1 See Mosheira, x. ii. 3. coal burner, whose descendants, of the 
 
 2 Spelman's History and Fate of same name and occupation, still re- 
 Sacrilege, main in the new forest. — See Miss 
 
 3 This will appear the more remark- Strickland's Lives of the Queens, Vol. 
 able when it is recorded that Rufus I. p. H6. 
 
 was found dead by one Perkiss, a char- 
 
94 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 France ; and himself dying afterwards without issue male, in 
 the year 1135, gave a period to this Norman family." 
 
 The Conqueror was not, however, wholly occupied in destruc- 
 tion. For the repose of the souls of those who fell at Hastings, 
 and we may presume for the peace of his own conscience also, 
 he founded the Abbey of Battle, which soon became one of the 
 greatest of our monasteries, and which is in many respects 
 among the most interesting historical memorials in the kingdom. 
 There are, however, many such foundations which we must be 
 content with barely mentioning ; and now, resuming the plan 
 which we have so largely followed already, we will pursue our 
 history in the life of some of the most eminent church builders 
 of their time. 
 
 In the days of William I. of England lived Gundulf, 1 the 
 builder of the two castles of the Tower of London and of 
 Rochester, and also of the Cathedral church in the latter city. 
 He was a Norman by birth, a man of venerable conversation, a 
 cleric from his boyhood, then a monk, and at length a Bishop ; 
 regulating his clerical life by the monastic rule, and adorning 
 his monastic conversation with the dignity of the episcopate. 
 While yet a youth he attracted the attention and gained the af- 
 fection of William Archdeacon and afterwards xirchbishop of 
 Rouen ; and the two friends made a pilgrimage together to the 
 holy city, that having visited the places of the Incarnation, Pas- 
 sion, and Ascension of our Blessed Lord, they might ever after 
 have a more cheering recollection of those sacred events. Lovers 
 of the heavenly country, they arrive, after many dangers, at the 
 earthly Jerusalem ; they pour forth their prayers on the spot 
 which our Lord had pressed with His feet, and kiss the place 
 where the cross was raised, where He was buried, and whence at 
 last He ascended into heaven. 
 
 They suffered much on their return, and Gundulf especially 
 was so worn with travel, that one day his companion left him 
 behind unwittingly, and did not miss him till a nobleman of the 
 party all at once observed his absence, and running back found 
 
 1 This account of Gundulf is chiefly ensi cosetaneo. Published in Anglia 
 extracted from Vita GundulfiY Epis- Sacra, Vol. II. 
 copi Roffensis, authore Monacho Roff- 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 95 
 
 him unable to stand, and resigning himself to death. The good 
 nobleman took him on his shoulders, and bore him to his com- 
 panions, by whose care he recovered. 
 
 But the greatest peril of the pilgrims was in a storm at sea. 
 In their extremity they vowed that they would assume the mon- 
 astic habit if they escaped. Gundulf accordingly became one of 
 the brethren of Bee, Herluin the founder being still alive. His 
 virtues were soon observed and rewarded, and he became sacris- 
 tan of the Church of the Blessed Virgin at Bee, an office of no 
 great rank, but one which he held invaluable for the part that 
 it implied in all sacred offices. 
 
 Here sprung up a friendship between Gundulf and a still 
 more eminent man. Anselm entered the monastery in the same 
 year with Gundulf, and was so charmed with his conversation, 
 that it was among his first wishes he should be accounted another 
 Gundulf, and Gundulf another Anselm. Anselm, who was more 
 deeply read in the Scriptures, was the more frequent speaker ; 
 Gundulf, who had the tenderest spirit, wept most. The one 
 planted, the other watered ; the one uttered divine discourses, 
 the other deep sighs. Anslem would sometimes say to Gundulf, 
 " You are always seeking to sharpen your knife on my whet- 
 stone, but you never suffer me to sharpen my knife on your 
 whetstone : speak, I beseech you, that I too may profit by you ; 
 for indeed so dull am I from the multitude of my sins, that I 
 ought rather to take the place of the whetstone, while you in 
 your earnest and constant devotion continue always sharp, in 
 your contemplation of the divine perfections." 1 
 
 When Lanfranc was made Abbot of Caen, he associated Gun- 
 dulf with himself in the cares of his new office ; and when, after 
 the Conquest, he became Archbishop of Canterbury, because 
 even in secular affairs, Gundulf s industry and wisdom were re- 
 markable, he made him the steward of his household. The 
 reputation of Gundulf, as well for wisdom as for sanctity, in- 
 creased daily ; and at length, through the influence of Lanfranc, 
 he was made Bishop of Rochester, and enthroned (March 19th, 
 1077) amid universal acclamations. 
 
 1 An allusion to the words of Ho- Reddere quae ferrum valet, exsors ipsa 
 race, de Arte Poetica, 304. secandi. 
 Ego fungar vice cotis, acutum 
 
96 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 It would be wrong to conceal the fact that there was some- 
 thing more than a desire to give a worthy Bishop to Rochester 
 which determined Lanfranc in this choice. We have already seen 
 in the time of Dunstan, the commencement of very grievous 
 attacks upon the secular Clergy by the monastic bodies ; and Lan- 
 franc, imbued with the spirit of one of the most rigid orders, was 
 bent on hurrying the secular Clergy to their fall. The chapter 
 of Rochester had hitherto been composed of secular canons, and 
 it was agreed upon between Gundulf and Anselm, that in the 
 event of Gundulf s consecration, they should be replaced by a 
 convent of monks. With this understanding certain possessions 
 of the church of Rochester, which had been held by the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, were restored, and fit preparations were 
 made for the reception of the larger and wealthier body. The 
 old church, 1 which was almost in ruins, was taken down and a 
 new one commenced, the monastic buildings surrounding it at 
 convenient distances ; and the work was concluded within a few 
 years, partly by the munificent donations of Lanfranc. 2 When 
 all was done, some of the five Clergy, which was the whole num- 
 ber found there, took the habit, and others being added to them, 
 the number of monks soon amounted to upwards of sixty. 
 
 However pure the intentions of such men as Lanfranc and 
 Gundulf must have been, we cannot but observe that this was 
 direct oppression and robbery of one order, for the aggrandize- 
 ment and wealth of another. It is but one case of hundreds, and 
 it is also a part of a system which was afterwards terribly avenged 
 on the monastic bodies. They enriched themselves then at the 
 
 1 "A bishopric, with a college of secu- 
 lar priests, was founded at Rochester, 
 in the reign of Ethelbert, the Anglo- 
 Saxon King of Kent, soon after Au- 
 gustine the monk had landed in the 
 Isle of Thanet, and preached the Gos- 
 pel at Canterbury. The college was 
 endowed with land, southward of the 
 city, appropriately named Priestfield, 
 but its revenue was small. A church 
 was begun to be erected in a.d. 600, 
 and was finished four years after, when 
 it was dedicated to the honour of God 
 and the Apostle S. Andrew. Rochester 
 
 was almost destroyed in the year 676 
 by Ethelbert, King of Mercia, and the 
 city suffered greatly during the inva- 
 sions of England by the Danes, in the 
 ninth century ; but it appears to have 
 recovered its importance in the reign 
 of Athelstan, when there were three 
 mint masters, two who superintended 
 the king's coinage, and one who su- 
 perintended that of the Bishop." — 
 Winkles' Cathedrals, I. 105. 
 
 2 The greater part of the nave still 
 remains, to attest the excellence of 
 Gundulf's taste and skill. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 97 
 
 expense of the secular Clergy, and added the direct sacrilege of 
 appropriations ; and soon their wealth excited the cupidity of 
 princes. The plunder of monasteries had become a regular sys- 
 tem in the reign of Henry V., and was, as is sufficiently well 
 known, carried on by several persons, on pretence of founding- 
 other religious houses, (the very pretence used for the suppres- 
 sion of the secular Clergy and the seizing of their temporalities,) 
 until the time of the great spoiler, Henry VIII. ; meanwhile the 
 monastic bodies had begun to suffer, at the hands of the mendi- 
 cant friars, precisely the same attacks on their reputation, which 
 they had so uncharitably cast on the secular Clergy from the 
 time of Dunstan. 
 
 The historian of ecclesiastical architecture, however, if he could 
 forget the moral question, and the baneful effects on the spirit- 
 ual Church of any oppression and wrong, might be disposed to 
 rejoice at the victory of monachism ; for it is certain that we owe 
 our finest buildings to a system which concentrated enormous 
 wealth in a few great fraternities, whose means, and whose re- 
 quirements all tended to the erection of vast and splendid edifices. 
 Even the villages which were robbed by them of their parson, 
 and of a great part of their wealth, that the "high monastic 
 tower " might soar yet higher, were a little repaid by better and 
 more costly repairs and additions to their parish church, than it 
 would otherwise have had. 
 
 The church of Rochester being now finished, Gundulf went 
 with a great procession of monks and Clergy, and with a vast 
 concourse of people, to the sepulchre of the blessed confessor 
 Paulinus the third Bishop of Rochester, and translated the relics 
 to a fit place prepared for them in the new church. 
 
 Of Gundulf s demeanour at the sacred services his biographer 
 speaks with deep admiration, but his piety was not dependent on 
 the outward solemnities of public worship. When mass was 
 ended he retired to a secret place, especially chosen as favourable 
 to godly sorrow, for his private prayers : and such a cell he had 
 in all his country houses, where his chamberlain was ordered to 
 deposit his little book of devotions. And there, or anywhere, if 
 perchance he heard any sweet sound, as of singing, or the 
 church bells, he would say, as a sigh broke from him, " What 
 must be the joys of heaven, where God's praise is ever sounding, 
 
 H 
 
98 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 when the hand or the tongue of man call forth such exquisite me- 
 lody V 3 Lanfranc heard the praises of this eminent servant of God, 
 and was delighted that such a man should have proceeded from 
 his monastery. He often sent for Gundulf that he might have the 
 pleasure of his society, nor did he let him depart empty, but 
 sometimes gave him copes, sometimes precious candlesticks, but 
 always some ornament or other for his church. Gifts indeed 
 poured in from all sides. William Rufus added to the offerings 
 made to the church of Rochester, and especially gave the manor 
 of Lambeth as a compensation for the injuries which the church 
 had sustained when Odo, Bishop of Bayeaux, was besieged in 
 Rochester. 
 
 It is sometimes impossible to say whether the Prelates or 
 others to whom our ecclesiastical buildings are attributed, were 
 the founders only, or the architects also of the buildings which 
 bear their names. This, however, is not the case with Gundulf, 
 who was celebrated as an architect in his own day. William I. 
 had employed him in the erection of the white tower in London; 1 
 and the chapel there, dedicated to S. John the Evangelist, but 
 now used as a record office, is one of the most remarkable re- 
 mains of Norman architecture. He also restored the castle and 
 the walls of Rochester ; and we subjoin the substance of an ac- 
 count of the way in which he became charged with the latter 
 work, from the Textus Roffensis, attributed to Ernulf, Gundulfs 
 contemporary, and after the seven years' episcopate of Radulf, 
 his successor in the See of Rochester. 
 
 " How King William II, at the instance of Lanfranc, granted 
 and confirmed to the Church of S. Andrew, at Rochester, the 
 manor of Hedenham, for the table of the monks, in consideration 
 
 1 Stow, in his Survey of London, 
 says, " I find in a fair register-book, 
 containing the acts of the Bishops of 
 Rochester, set down by Edmond de 
 Hadenhara, that William I., surnamed 
 Conqueror, built the Tower of Lon- 
 don ; to wit, the great white and square 
 tower there, about the year of Christ 
 1078, appointing Gundulph, then 
 Bishop of Rochester, to be principal 
 surveyor and overseer of that work, 
 
 who was for that time lodged in the 
 house of Edmere, a burgess of Lon- 
 don ; the very words of which mine 
 author are these : ' Gundulphus Epis- 
 copus mandato Willielmi Regis magni 
 praefuit operi magnse Turris London, 
 quo tempore hospitatus est apud quen- 
 dam Edmerum burgensem London, 
 qui dedit unum were Ecclesia? Ro- 
 fen.' " 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 99 
 
 of which Bishop Gundulf built the tuhole of the stone castle of 
 Rochester at his own charges. 
 
 " Another benefit, moreover, and not less worthy to be had in 
 remembrance through all ages, did Bishop Gundulf of blessed 
 memory, confer upon them, viz., the castle which is situated in 
 the pleasantest part of the city of Rochester, which he erected 
 in consideration of the royal confirmation to his church of the 
 manor of Hedenham. For Archbishop Lanfranc could not give 
 this manor to the Church of Rochester, as he had determined 
 to do, to furnish the table of the monks, without the king's per- 
 mission ; because the king's father had granted it to him only 
 during his own life, when he was raised to the archiepiscopate. 
 When, therefore, William II. succeeded to the throne, he de- 
 manded a fine of £100 for the renewal of the grant ; which, 
 when the Archbishop and Bishop heard they answered in great 
 consternation, that they neither had so much money in hand, 
 nor knew where they should get it. Now there were two noble- 
 men, friends of both the prelates, Robert son of Haimo, and 
 Henry Earl of Warwick, who, consulting the king's honour on 
 the one hand, and on the other the good of the Church, pro- 
 posed to the king, that as Gundulf had great science and skill 
 in architecture, 1 he should erect a stone castle in Rochester at 
 his own charges, instead of paying a pecuniary fine. When this 
 was told to the two prelates, they were still more amazed, and 
 declared that they would rather that the manor was at the bot- 
 tom of the sea, than that they should purchase the king's grant 
 on such terms, as would burden the church of S. Andrew with 
 a charge for ever ; for if the castle should fall out of repair, the 
 church or the Bishop would be held responsible. The Earl of 
 Warwick was moved to some impatience by this reply, and said, 
 ' Hitherto I have held my Lord of Canterbury to be one of the 
 wisest of men, and even now be it far from me to call him a 
 fool, and yet I cannot here discern the proofs of that wisdom in 
 which he used to abound ; for surely it would be no great hard- 
 ship to build a castle at the expense of some j£40 at the most, 
 and when the sheriff or under-sheriff of the county, or others 
 
 1 Episcopus Gundulfus, quia in opere csementario plurimum sciens et effi- 
 cax erat. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 whom the king may appoint, have certified that the work is 
 finished according to the contract, the king will doubtless hold 
 the Bishop and the Church absolved for ever/ The Archbishop 
 at length consented, and the agreement having been concluded, 
 Gundulf finished the whole, at a cost of about £60." 
 
 The castle thus erected is one of the most remarkable Nor- 
 man fortresses in the kingdom. It is described at great length 
 by Mr. King, in his observations on ancient castles, published 
 in the Arch apologia, 1 but I shall be contented here with the much 
 shorter notice of it by Rickman. 
 
 " The style is Norman, and it presents a fine specimen of the 
 modes adopted at the date of its erection, to enable a very small 
 number within the castle successfully to resist a much greater 
 number of besiegers ; for this the access, the various successive 
 gates, and other defences, are admirably adapted. The masonry, 
 in the interior, is very good, particularly that of the well, which is 
 in one of the walls, and was accessible from several floors of the 
 castle. 2 
 
 Gundulf had no taint of feudal violence in his character, though 
 he was the architect of two royal keeps. The last hours of the 
 good Bishop were as touching as his life had been holy and use- 
 ful. As his health declined, he stript himself of his worldly 
 goods, to enrich his brethren. But his episcopal ring remained, 
 the sign of his dignity, and for this he sought a worthy posses- 
 sor. There was a priest named Radulf, his friend, and a friend 
 of Anselm beforetime, who came to visit him in his sickness. 
 Holding the hand of Radulf, he slipped the ring into it ; and 
 when Radulf starting at the gift would have refused it, as not 
 belonging to his order, Gundulf insisted on his accepting it, 
 saying that it would be useful to him by and by. At the hour 
 of his departure the brethren of his order were around him 
 singing the eightieth Psalm, and as they came to the words, 
 " Turn Thee again, Thou God of hosts, look down from heaven, 
 behold and visit this vine," his spirit departed committing to 
 God the charge of the vine that he had planted, i.e. ; the Chris- 
 tian Church which he had brought together. 
 
 Anselm having honoured the obsequies of Gundulf with his 
 
 1 Vol. IV. 2 Rickman's Gothic Architecture, p. 187, ed. 4. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 101 
 
 presence, anxiously turned his thoughts to the election of a 
 worthy successor. His choice fell on Radulf, who then for the 
 first time understood the secret meaning of the gift which he 
 had received from Gundulf. 
 
 The merits of Gundulf passed into a proverb, and he was 
 made in after times the rule by which others were judged. 
 Thus of Bishop Gilbert who died 1314, Edmund de Hadenham 
 says, " that we may include all in a word, whatever good and 
 noble works Gundulf had laboured to perfect in his lifetime, 
 Gilbert with equal diligence laboured to destroy." (Anglia 
 Sacra, i. 352.) And again of John de Bradefield, who died 
 1 283, he says, " the monks fondly hoped, before his election, 
 that he would prove a second Gundulf, but he was changed into 
 quite another man, and proved himself a follower of Gilbert." 
 (ib. 352.) 
 
 This history of Gundulf might afford occasion to many profit- 
 able reflections. We shall only add, however, that refreshing as 
 it is to read of holiness and devotion in any age, we find in the 
 record of the times to which we have now gone back, so much 
 violence against which holiness had to struggle, so many errors 
 with which devotion was endangered and was tainted, that we 
 may well be thankful for our own happier lot — thankful, but not 
 self-complacent, unless the fruits are proportionate to the milder 
 showers, more refreshing dews, and warmer and more constant 
 suns, under the influence of which we dwell. 
 
 The life of Wulstan, 1 Bishop of Worcester, the builder of 
 his own cathedral church, is not less interesting than that of 
 Gundulf. He belongs to an earlier era of British history, though 
 his great architectural work was not commenced so soon as that 
 of Gundulf. Wulstan was born at Long Itchington, in the 
 county of Warwick. His youth was full of presages of his 
 future piety, and in a.d. 1062, he was elected Bishop of Wor- 
 cester, and consecrated by Aldred, Archbishop of York. He 
 had before been a monk in the monastery of the same city, and 
 was accredited as having already wrought a miracle like one at- 
 tributed to S. Dunstan, and which we adduce for the same 
 reason, for which that was mentioned — its bearing on the sub- 
 
 1 The authority here followed is the life of Wulstan by William of Malmsbury. 
 
102 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ject of our history. There was a bell-turret being erected on 
 the top of the church, and while the labourers were at work on 
 the scaffold erected for this purpose, one of them fell, but was 
 delivered from his danger by the sign of the cross made by 
 Wulstan in the air. He consecrated his first church to the 
 Venerable Bede, that he might render the first-fruits of his 
 ministry, under God, to the prince of sacred literature in 
 Britain. He built churches in all the farms belonging to his 
 bishopric, throughout the diocese, and did all he could to induce 
 others to erect them on their own estates. At Westbury (from 
 whence it will be remembered that Oswald transplanted twelve 
 brethren to Ramsey), there was already an ancient church, but 
 it was half unroofed and half destroyed : this he perfectly 
 restored, rebuilding the walls, and covering the roof with lead. 1 
 He was not one of those prelates who displayed their charity and 
 devotion in erecting palaces and country-houses for themselves ; 
 and indeed he was not easily reconciled to too costly a style of ar- 
 chitecture even in sacred edifices ; for he feared lest it should 
 minister more to human pomp and pride, than to the grace of 
 God. This feeling was very visible on the day when he com- 
 menced the destruction of the old church of Worcester, which 
 had been erected by S. Oswald, that he might replace it with 
 one of greater splendour. 2 He stood in the churchyard sad and 
 silent, and often uttering a deep sigh, until at last his emotion 
 found relief in a fiood of tears. "We, wretches that we are," 
 said he, " destroy the works of the saints, vainly believing that 
 we shall replace them with better. How much greater was S. 
 Oswald, who built this church, than we ! How many holy re- 
 ligious men have served God within its walls \" And though 
 those who stood by bid him rather rejoice that God had ac- 
 counted him worthy to dedicate a fairer church to His honour, he 
 
 1 " Parietes csemento, tectum plurabo 
 reficiens." 
 
 3 "S. Oswald had completed a church 
 dedicated to S. Mary, in 983, in which 
 there were no less than eight and 
 twenty altars. While erecting this 
 church, S. Oswald used frequently to 
 preach in the open air, to crowds of 
 people, near the cross which had been 
 
 erected over the grave of Wifrid, 
 Duke of the Wiccii, in the space 
 before S. Peter's Church. This ca- 
 thedral was ravaged by the soldiers of 
 Hardicanute in 1041, and it probably 
 remained in a state of desolation till 
 Wulstan commenced a new cathedral 
 in 1084." (See Winkles' Cathedrals, 
 iii. 51.) 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 103 
 
 still remained in tears, and some say that he then predicted the 
 fire by which, afterwards, the church he was erecting should be 
 destroyed. 1 He finished the new church, however, with the 
 utmost care and cost, so that there was not a decoration which 
 could be mentioned which was not to be found there, so wonder- 
 fully perfect was it in the whole and in every part. And that 
 there might be no instance of splendour wanting, he expended 
 seventy-two marcs of silver in enriching a shrine, made by S. 
 Oswald, in which he placed the relics of S. Oswald his pre- 
 decessor, and of several other saints. 
 
 The only parts of the present cathedral of Worcester which 
 can be fairly assigned to Wulstan, are portions of the great or 
 western transept, and the crypt. The former has no characters 
 of sufficient interest to be mentioned here. The crypt is thus 
 described in " Winkles' Cathedrals/' 
 
 " It is under the choir, and extends from the eastern wall of 
 the greater transept to a point under the tomb of King John, 
 but, if its apse were opened, it would extend to the centre of the 
 eastern transept. Its primary grand divisions are into a nave 
 and aisles, the nave having a semicircular termination, now walled 
 up, and being divided itself into four aisles by three rows of 
 columns, with plain but bold bases and capitals : the aisles of 
 the nave are also subdivided into two each, by a single row of 
 columns of the same description. To the south a second aisle is 
 attached, divided also in the same manner. The vaulting of the 
 whole is very plain, massive, and semicircular, and springs at 
 once from the capitals of the columns before mentioned." 2 
 
 Wulstan was a favourite with the Saxon historians, as one of 
 the great ornaments of their race when it was rapidly passing 
 away ; and it is to this partiality, doubtless, that we owe the 
 report of a miracle by which his worthiness to fill the episcopal 
 throne was attested. Lanfranc was disposed to deprive him of 
 his See, as he had done other native prelates, and summoned him 
 to resign his staff, the sign of his investiture. Wulstan came 
 as he was required, to Westminster, and there, before the shrine 
 of Edward the Confessor, whose name was the great watchword 
 of the Saxons, he declared how unwillingly he had first received 
 the episcopal staff, and how readily he would resign it, if it 
 
 In a.d. 1113. 
 
 2 Winkles, iii. 58. 
 
104 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 were the will of God that he should do so. Then striking his 
 staff into the shrine, he exclaimed that to S. Edward who had 
 committed it to his unworthy hands he now restored it. Lan- 
 frane came forward to take the staff, but it refused obedience to 
 his grasp. His attendants tried with equal success : at length 
 Wulstan was intreated to resume the staff, which yielded to his 
 lightest touch. Another miracle is said to have occurred at his 
 death, with the like moral. The ring, which he wore as the sign 
 of episcopal investiture, could not be removed from his finger, 
 and it was buried with him. It is easy to recognize here the 
 spirit of a conquered nation, adhering with a just tenacity to 
 the champions of their old rights, and to all their memorials. 
 It is the same spirit which made the Saxons despise even what 
 was superior to themselves in their Norman conquerors. 
 
 Nothing, however, could be more decided than this final vic- 
 tory of Norman over Saxon art. Whether we believe or disbe- 
 lieve the earlier introduction of the Norman style of ecclesias- 
 tical architecture, of its universal adoption from the Conquest 
 downwards there can be little doubt : still less doubt can there 
 be that it well deserved the preference which it acquired. If 
 Gundulf be taken as representing the aggressive Norman, and 
 Wulstan the Saxon, yielding, however unwillingly, we have 
 but representations of the two races in this as in all the other 
 arts of life. The rest of the ecclesiastical architects of the 
 pure Norman period that I mention, I shall arrange for the sake 
 of historic interest in connexion with one another : and the two 
 Losings, of Hereford and of Norwich ; the brothers Walkelyn 
 of Winchester, and Simeon of Ely ; and Roger, Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, and Alexander of Lincoln, his nephew, will afford three 
 interesting duads. 
 
 The Cathedrals of Hereford and of Norwich are indebted for 
 the oldest portions of each to two prelates of the same name, 
 Robert and Herbert de Lozinga. The first was Bishop of 
 Hereford, from 1079 to 1107; and according to the authorities 
 collected by Godwin, he was greatly skilled in philosophy, rhe- 
 toric, music, arithmetic, and the rest of the mathematics. It 
 was greatly to the credit of both prelates, that he and Wulstan 
 of whom we have just spoken, though of hostile races, were 
 united by the most endearing offices of friendship. Of this 
 William of Malmsbury gives an affecting instance. Wulstan 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 105 
 
 lay sick at Worcester, his Norman friend was absent on impor- 
 tant affairs in the king's courts. The dying Bishop appeared to 
 Losing and said distinctly, " If you would see me alive, hasten 
 to Worcester." The king's consent was obtained, and night 
 and day the anxious Bishop travelled, that he might receive his 
 brother's blessing, and close his eyes. He had reached Crick- 
 lade when Wulstan again appeared to him, and said, " You have 
 done all that love could prompt you to do, but in vain, my soul 
 has already left the world ; but take heed to your own life, for 
 you shall not be long behind me : and lest you should doubt, 
 behold a sign ! when you have committed my body to the earth, 
 you shall receive a parting gift, which you shall recognize as 
 mine." Losing had concluded the last duties to the deceased, 
 and had set spurs to his horse to depart, when the prior, falling 
 on his knees before him, presented the parting gift, saying, 
 " Take, I pray thee, the cloak of lamb's-skin which he who loved 
 you used to wear when he rode out. It will be a lasting memo- 
 rial of your mutual affection, and may assure you of the protec- 
 tion of the holiness of our Lord." The departing Bishop 
 received the gift with much emotion, and calling the brethren 
 around him, related to them what had passed, and bid them ob- 
 serve how exactly the event agreed with the prediction. Then 
 he went away, and filled alike with thankfulness for the warning, 
 and anxiety for the event, lived till the June following, only 
 surviving his friend five months. 
 
 This connecting link between two persons, who are also con- 
 nected in the course of our history by the zeal and skill which 
 each displayed in the erection of a cathedral, seemed of too 
 great interest to be passed over. We find Robert Losing 
 connected also, but less closely, with the founder of the present 
 cathedral of Lincoln ; for Remigius having finished that church, 
 invited Losing to be present at the consecration, which, how- 
 ever, he declined, giving as a reason that he read in the stars 
 certain indications that the day proposed would be inauspicious. 
 He was himself, however, engaged at the very time, in the re- 
 storation of his own cathedral, which had been built first by 
 Ethelstan, but had been burnt to the ground by Griffin of 
 Wales. In this work be proposed to himself a foreign model, 
 and the Cathedral of Hereford was erected after the pattern of 
 
106 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 that which Charlemagne had built at Aix-la-Chapelle. 1 This 
 work was brought to a conclusion by Bishop Losing's successor 
 before 1115. To this fabric belong the pier arches of the nave. 
 The west end has been built up in the worst possible taste. In 
 Bishop Losing's design, the nave and aisles which were enriched 
 with arcades and intersecting arches were flanked with square 
 turrets, surmounted by plain spire-like pinnacles. The central 
 door was deeply recessed and richly moulded, and over it were 
 (probably three) round-headed windows, 2 and the high-pitched 
 gable was doubtless surmounted by a cross. In the reign of 
 King John, after the close of the Norman era, Bishop Giles Bruse 
 destroyed the western gable, and carried up a tower to the height 
 of one hundred and thirty feet, over the two western bays of 
 the nave. This tower occasioned by its fall in 1786 the de- 
 struction not only of the two bays of the nave on which it 
 rested, but of four arches beyond. The repairs were unfortu- 
 nately committed to Mr. Wyatt, that indefatigable destroyer of 
 our cathedrals, 3 who unhappily attained a reputation for know- 
 ledge of ecclesiastical architecture, at a time when the better 
 spirit of restoring our cathedrals in their original style was first 
 to any degree carried into execution. If Ecclesiology had her 
 Rhadamanthus, Wyatt would now Sisyphus-like be engaged in 
 the endless toil of pulling down all that he ever built up, and 
 building up all that he ever pulled down. 
 
 Herbert de Losing bought the bishopric of the East 
 Angles of William Rufus for £1900, and for his father the 
 Abbey of Winchester for j81000, 4 simoniacal purchases for 
 
 1 Eodem ipso tempore quo Remi- 
 gius Lincolniensem, suam ille de novo 
 construxit (quam nimirum condiderat 
 olim Ethelstanus, sed incendio Griffi- 
 nus Wallus deleverat, quo tempore ab 
 illo interemptus Leovegarus Episcopus 
 occubuit) et ad exemplar Aquisgra- 
 nensis a Carolo magno extructse, 
 efformandam curavit. — (Godwin de 
 prsesulibus, p. 480.) I am not able 
 to say how far a comparison of the 
 two fabrics, now or at any time here- 
 tofore, would justify this assertion. 
 
 2 For these windows one large Per- 
 
 pendicular window was substituted 
 much to the injury of the effect, 
 perhaps also of the stability of the 
 whole composition, in the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 3 See Glossary, Winkles, and the 
 print in the original edition of Dug- 
 dale, for the dates and character of 
 this portion of Hereford Cathedral. 
 
 4 " Qua de re," says Godwin, (p. 
 426,) " sic lusit illorum temporum 
 poeta : 
 
 " Surgit in ecclesia monstrum genitore 
 Losinga, 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 107 
 
 which he was cited to answer at Rome, and was condemned 
 as a penance to build certain churches and monasteries. 1 At 
 his consecration in 1091, he found his diocese without a fixed 
 cathedral : for sometimes the Bishop's throne had been erected 
 at Elmham, in a little church of wood [in sacello liyneo] some- 
 times at Thetford, or at any other place which the Bishop might 
 appoint for the time. This inconvenience he determined to 
 avoid by building a church worthy to be the cathedral of the 
 diocese at Norwich. Having purchased a site in a place called 
 Cowholm, he erected the cathedral at his own cost, and adorned 
 it with all manner of ornaments, dedicating it in the name of 
 the Holy Trinity, He built also dwellings for the monks, 
 apart from the Bishop's palace, of which he laid the first stone 
 in 1086, bearing this inscription, " Herbert, the Lord 
 Bishop, laid this first stone, in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 After this he erected a palace for himself and his successors, 
 at the north side of the church, which he is said to have 
 kept separate from the cells of the monks, that their minds 
 might not be distracted from heavenly contemplation by the 
 bustle of men coming and going. 2 He built also other churches 
 
 (Simonidum secta, Canonum virtute 
 resecta) 
 
 Petre nimis tar das, nam Simon ad 
 
 ardua tentat : 
 Si prsesens esses, non Simon ad alta 
 
 volaret. 
 
 Proh dolor, ecclesise nummis ven- 
 
 duntur et sere. 
 Filius est Prsesul, pater Abbas, Simon 
 
 uterque. 
 
 Quid non speremus si nummos 
 
 possideamus ? 
 Omnia nummus habet : quod vult 
 
 facit, addit et aufert. 
 Re nimis injusta, nummis fit prsesul 
 
 et abba." 
 1 If we accept the account of Bar- 
 tholomew de Cotton (see Wharton's 
 Anglia Sacra, Vol. I., p. 407,) Her- 
 bert was a most finished courtier, and 
 a most perfect gentleman. " Erat 
 quippe vir omnium literarum tarn sae- 
 
 cularium quam divinarum imbutus 
 scientia, facundia incomparabili, ve- 
 nustus corpore, jocundus aspectu, ut 
 solo visu plerunque a nescientibus 
 quod esset Episcopus deprehenderetur. 
 Mentis quippe gratia radiabat in vultu, 
 et morum tranquillitas corporis offi- 
 cium suo famulatui subigebat." We 
 are not however disposed to admit 
 the monk's apology for the simony of 
 the Bishop. " Mihi tamen videtur, 
 quod excusatur per Apostolum dicen- 
 tem, redimentes tempus, quia dies 
 mali sunt : et per Decratalem qui dicit, 
 quod licitum est clerico emere jus 
 ecclesise suae de manu laici, si aliter 
 habere non possit." 
 
 2 " vEdem cathedralem suis sumpti- 
 bus construxit, area coempta in loco 
 quem veteres Cowholm appellarunt, et 
 ornamentis abunde instructam, sacro- 
 sanctse Trinitatis nomini dicavit, ac 
 
108 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 among which were one on the hill opposite to the cathedral, 
 on the other side of the river ; that in the Bishop's Court ; 
 that at Ehnhain ; one at Lenniam, and one at Jernemut, all 
 which he gave to the monks for ever. The foundation of the 
 cathedral was laid in 1096, and at Herbert's death the choir 
 with its aisles and side chapels, the transepts and the tower were 
 finished; and the nave, if not of his work, which seems most 
 probable, is at least finished according to his plan. To the 
 tower has since been added, however, pinnacles and a lofty 
 spire ; and to the choir a noble clerestory of early Perpendi- 
 cular character, the work of Bishop Goldwell ; and the whole 
 church has been subsequently vaulted. The east end in its 
 original form, that is, as Herbert de Losing left it, afforded a 
 remarkable combination of circular and apsidal forms, the 
 chancel ending in a semicircular apse, and the two chapels 
 attached to its sides being each composed of two intersecting 
 circles, of different diameters, with a round projection at the 
 point of intersection ; while another apsidal appendage occurred 
 at the east of the north transept. 1 Of the size of these portions 
 of the church of Losing, perhaps an adequate idea will be con- 
 veyed by the fact that one of the side chapels, though a mere 
 appendage to the great mass against which it rests, is now used 
 as a parish church. 
 
 The interior, as it was finished by Losing, or at least after 
 his designs, is extremely imposing. Entering at the west, 
 fourteen compartments of the nave, the base of the central 
 tower, and four compartments of the choir intervene between 
 the door and the circular apse. The arches are throughout of 
 
 monachis etiam habitacula [seorsira ab 
 Episcopalibus] eedificavit, primo lapide 
 a se anno salutis 1086 posito, cui hsec 
 verba dicuntur incisa : 
 
 " Dominus Herbertus posuit pri- 
 mum lapidem, in nomine Patris et 
 Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." 
 
 "Sibi turn et successoribus palatium 
 extruxit ab Aquilonari parte ecclesiae, 
 cpiod a monacborum cellulis ideo dici- 
 tur secrevisse, ut bominum buc et 
 illuc discurrentium tumultu, mentes 
 
 illorum a coelestium rerum contem- 
 platione non abstraherentur." — God- 
 win de Prsesulibus. 
 
 1 Tbe east of Canterbury, before the 
 fire in 1174, presented nearly the 
 same assemblage of circular forms, 
 but the towers of S. Andrew and of 
 Anselm, with their apsidal chapels, 
 attached to the side of the greater 
 apse, like the chapels of Jesus and 
 S. Luke to that of Norwich, were 
 circular only at their east end. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 109 
 
 the heaviest type of Norman, and rest on massive square piers, 
 the edges of which are broken with shafts and pilasters ; except 
 where one pair of piers near the middle of the nave gives place 
 to cylindrical pillars, enriched with spiral flutings. The trifo- 
 rium, to which Mr. Hope 1 attaches the same importance in 
 fixing the expression of any church possessed of triforia, with 
 the eyes in the human countenance, is nearly a repetition of 
 the lower arcade on which it rests, except that the zigzag is 
 substituted for the billet ornament in the outer member of 
 the arch mouldings : above this is the clerestory of three arches 
 in each compartment, the middle arch, however, being of three 
 times the span of the outer ones ; thus carrying up to the 
 roof, in some degree, the effect of the unusually wide and open 
 triforium arcade. 2 This arrangement, so far as the triforium 
 is concerned, is very characteristic of great antiquity. It is 
 found at Waltham, built, as we have already seen, before the 
 Conquest. It is rather remarkable for grandeur than beauty, 
 and appears with the best effect in the eastern apse. In its 
 original condition a flat painted ceiling of wood panels most 
 probably covered the whole of this vast length ; now the roof 
 is groined, and in addition to this change the clerestory of the 
 choir is wholly altered from its original character; but though 
 it is impossible to deny that the present lofty pointed windows, 
 occupying the length and circuit of the choir, with lantern-like 
 lightness and radiance, and the fine vaulting spanning the 
 whole space are exquisitely graceful, it is as difficult to doubt 
 that the circular apse with its three arcades, each of harmonious 
 though less delicate forms, had a beauty of its own which 
 amply sustained the glory of Norman architecture, and give to 
 Herbert de Losing a place second to none among the ecclesias- 
 tical architects of his day. 3 
 
 Two brothers, Walkelyn, Bishop of Winchester, and Si- 
 
 1 Description of Christ Church in 
 Transactions of Archaeological Insti- 
 tute, p. 2. 
 
 2 In the naves of Peterborough, 
 Ely, and Winchester, as the latter 
 was left by Bishop Walkelyn, the tri- 
 forium consists of arches which bear 
 
 a very considerable proportion to those 
 of the lower arcade, but they are in 
 each case filled with two subsidiary 
 arches, and their central pillar. 
 
 3 Dugdale. Winkles. Glossary. An- 
 glia Sacra, I. 
 
110 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 meon, Abbot of Ely, laid the foundation of their respective 
 churches ; the central towers of which had a kindred fate, both 
 falling, probably from imperfect construction, as William of 
 Malmsbury insinuates with respect to the former. The resto- 
 ration of Ely, after the fall of its tower, will afford one of the 
 most interesting passages of a future chapter. 
 
 Walkelyn's work at Winchester which was not limited to 
 the tower, will appear with a new face at the close of the four- 
 teenth century, under the auspices of William of Wykeham. 
 The early part of its history I shall relate in the words of 
 Professor Willis, whose masterly account it would be presump- 
 tion to attempt to rival, and affectation either to alter or to 
 leave unquoted. 
 
 "In the year 1079, Bishop Walkelin began to rebuild the church of 
 Winton from the foundations ; and (in 1086) the king was induced to 
 grant him, for the completion of the church which he had begun, as 
 much wood from the forest of Hanepinges as his carpenters could take 
 in four days and nights. But the Bishop collected an innumerable troop 
 of carpenters, and within the assigned time cut down the whole wood, 
 and carried it off to Winchester. Presently after, the king passing by 
 Hanepinges, was struck with amazement, and cried out, Am I bewitched? 
 or have I taken leave of my senses ? Had I not once a most delectable 
 wood in this spot ? But when he understood the truth, he was violently 
 enraged. Then the Bishop put on a shabby vestment, and made his 
 way to the king's feet, humbly begging to resign the episcopate, and 
 merely requesting that he might retain his royal friendship and chaplaincy. 
 And the king was appeased, only observing, ' I was as much too liberal 
 in my grant, as you were too greedy in availing yourself of it.' 
 
 "In the year 1093, in the presence of nearly all the bishops and abbots 
 of England, the monks removed from the old church (monasterium) of 
 Winchester to the new one, with great rejoicing and glory, on the sixth 
 idus of April (April 8). And on the feast of Swithun (July 15) they 
 made a procession from the new church to the old, and brought thence 
 the feretrum of S. Swithun, which they placed with all honour in the new 
 church. And on the following day the bishop's men first began to pull 
 down the old church, and it was all pulled down in that year except one 
 apse (portions) and the great altar. In the next year, 1094, relics of 
 S. Swithun and of many other saints were found under the altar of the 
 old church. 
 
 " The venerable Walkelin, of pious memory, died in the year 1098. 
 He greatly improved the church of Winton in devotion, in the number 
 of its monks, and in the buildings of the house. He caused the tower 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 Ill 
 
 of Winton Church to be made as it is still to be seen, and rebuilt it, 
 with its four columns, from the foundations in the middle of the choir. 
 His venerable body is buried in the nave of the church, before the steps 
 under the rood-loft (pulpitum) in which stands the silver cross of Stigand, 
 with the two great silver images ; and he lies at the feet of William 
 GyfTard, Bishop of Winchester, having over him a marble stone, with 
 these verses engraved thereon : 
 
 'Prsesul Walklynus istic requiescit humatus 
 Tempore Willelmi Conquestoris cathedratus.' 
 
 " When King William Rufus was slain by the arrow of Walter Tirrel 
 in the New Forest, (a.d. 1100,) his body was brought to Winchester, 
 and buried in the Cathedral church, in the middle of the choir. It was 
 laid in the ground within the limits of the tower, in the presence of many 
 nobles, but with the tears of few. Some years afterwards (namely, in 
 the year 1107) the tower fell, which many thought to have been a judg- 
 ment for his sins ; and because that it was a grievous wrong to bury in 
 that sacred place one who all his life had been profane and sensual, and 
 who died without the Christian viaticum — Thus Rudborne : Malmesbury 
 cautiously declines to give an opinion upon this matter, because, as he 
 says, it may have been after all, that the structure would have fallen from 
 the instability of its workmanship, whether the body had been buried 
 there or not." 1 
 
 The last of our proposed duads are Roger, Bishop of 
 Salisbury, and his nephew Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 
 with whom in general history is associated Nigel, Bishop of 
 Ely, another nephew of Roger of Salisbury. 
 
 This Roger, if ancient scandal is to be trusted, was chaplain 
 to Henry I., and commended himself to the good graces of a 
 bad king, at war with his brother, by the rapidity with which 
 he hurried over the service of the mass ; and we are constrained 
 to admit that the character of the man was not altogether alien 
 from such submission to the habits of a camp. However, he 
 rose rapidly to favour, and to places of high trust, and used 
 his influence with the king to enrich both himself and his 
 kinsmen. His natural son, Roger, he made chancellor of Eng- 
 land, his nephews Alexander and Nigel, Bishops of Lincoln and 
 Ely, and for himself he reserved the throne of Salisbury. 2 He 
 was among the first to embrace the cause of Stephen ; but if 
 
 1 Archaeological Institute, Transac- 2 " And thus it seems there are 
 tions, pp. 17, 18, 19. other gates to enter into the temple than 
 
112 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the neglect of the claims of the Empress by Roger be accounted 
 a sign of ingratitude to Henry, it was well repaid by the hard 
 measure which he received at the hands of Stephen ; a piece of 
 retributive justice with which we should have had no concern, 
 had it not been connected with the bishop's building propensities. 
 
 At the beginning of his reign, Stephen had thought it desir- 
 able to strengthen himself against foreign invasion, by suffering 
 his friends to build and fortify castles ; but when he no longer 
 feared an enemy from without, he looked with jealousy on these 
 doubtful defences of his sovereignty, and determined on dis- 
 charging them. It is said that 1117 castles were erected within 
 a short space ; not a few by bishops, and by Roger of Salisbury 
 more perhaps than by any other individual. On a castle at 
 Devizes he expended enormous sums, and scarcely less on 
 others at Malmsbury and Shirburn, 1 and in addition to this 
 he repaired the castle of Salisbury, and surrounded it with a 
 wall. " In these places," says Malmsbury, " he erected vast 
 edifices at enormous cost, and of great splendour, but all this 
 was merely a matter of degree ; it is more important that he 
 is the first who is recorded to have built of close jointed and 
 carefully wrought ashlar, with so nice a disposition of the stones, 
 that the juncture escapes the eyes, and the whole masonry 
 deceives one into the belief that it is of one stone. To avoid 
 the envy, and to wipe out the stain of these military works, 
 he founded two monasteries, and filled them with religious 
 (though it does not appear what these monasteries were) ; and 
 he also restored his church of Salisbury, and greatly orna- 
 mented it, so that it was second to none in England for beauty, 
 and far superior to most." 2 
 
 that which is called Beautiful, which, 
 with the other avenues, have not 
 improperly been thus specified : — 
 ' 4 Quatuor Ecclesias portis intrabit in 
 omnes, 
 
 Ca;saris, et Siraonis, Sanguinis 
 
 atque Dei. 
 Prima patet magnis, nummis patet 
 
 altera, charis 
 Tertia, sed paucis quarta patere 
 
 solet." 
 
 — Staveling on Churches, p. 182. 
 
 1 Of all these, a few slight remains 
 at Shirburn are all that exist at present. 
 
 2 '' Fecit his in locis (inquit Malmes- 
 buriensis) sedificia spatio diffusa, nu- 
 mero pecuniarum sumptuosa, specie 
 formosissima : ita juste composito or- 
 dine lapidum, ut junctura perstringat 
 intuitum, et tota maceria unum men- 
 tiatur esse saxum. Ad tollendam ejus 
 extructionis invidiam (ut loquitur New- 
 brigiensis) et quasi expiandam macu- 
 lam, duo instituit coenubia et collegis 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 113 
 
 But the antidote was less powerful than the poison : these 
 ecclesiastical works failed to divert attention from his for- 
 tresses. The king suspected, or pretended to suspect, the 
 fidelity of the three kinsmen, and contriving a quarrel, seized 
 Roger and Alexander, who were prevailed upon to surrender 
 their castles of Newark, Salisbury, Shirburn, and Malmsbury; 
 but Nigel had fled to Devizes, which he determined to hold 
 against the king. Stephen hastens to Devizes, carrying with 
 him the captive bishops, and Roger, lately chancellor, the son 
 of the Bishop of Salisbury. He erects a gallows in the sight 
 of the castle, and in presence of his father, sentence is passed 
 on the younger Roger, to be remitted only on the surrender of 
 the castle. Nigel, incredulous of the savage purpose, refuses to 
 submit, and the youth is brought out with the rope round his 
 neck, and made to ascend the scaffold. The father, to save the 
 life of his innocent son, takes an oath that he will neither eat 
 nor drink till the castle is given up. The youth descends from 
 the gallows, but the father endures a three days' fast, before 
 his nephew will yield. The castle was destroyed, but not till 
 the king had secured enormous wealth there laid up as in an 
 impregnable fortress ; and Roger of Salisbury soon after died 
 (Dec. 4, 1139) of a broken heart, having first offered on the 
 altar of his church, the small remainder of his wealth. The 
 gift was not respected, and Stephen, not the church, was the 
 richer. 
 
 Alexander of Lincoln, the same whom we have found 
 listening with so great attention to the history and prophecies 
 of Merlin, the builder of Stonehenge, was consecrated in 1123 ; 
 in the year following his cathedral was burnt down by accident, 
 and he rebuilt it, guarding against a similar accident by vaulting 
 it with stone; 1 as great a benefit to confer as the greater splen- 
 dour of his uncle's masonry at Salisbury. He built also four 
 
 religiosis implevit. Qusenam vero ea 
 fuerint, a nemine opinor traditum est. 
 Sed deinde ecclesiam etiam suam Sa- 
 risburiensem (Malmesburiensem audis) 
 et novam fecit, et ornamentis excoluit, 
 ut nulli in Anglia cesserit, sed multas 
 preecesserit."— Godwin de Prsesulibus. 
 
 1 " Consecratus est Cantuarise vice- 
 simo secundo Julii 1123. Anno deinde 
 sequente ecclesia ejus cathedralis, 
 nuper constructa et vix dum absoluta, 
 fortuito incendio conflagravit, Quam 
 refecit ille et contra similes casus 
 munivit, laqueari addito fornicato." 
 
 I 
 
114 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 monasteries ; one for canons regular at Haverholme, another 
 for white monks at Tame, one at Dorchester, and one at Sem- 
 pringham. 1 
 
 But he bestowed his chief attention on the erection of castles, 
 after the example of his uncle of Salisbury, whose consequent 
 punishment, we have already seen, he in some degree shared. 
 Banbury, Sleford, and Newark, owed their castles to Alexander. 
 The lesson which Stephen so sternly taught was not thrown 
 away upon him, and he retired from the ambitious turmoils of 
 politics, and the active scenes of warfare, to the business of his 
 see, and the adorning of his church, which he left more splendid 
 than any other in England at that day. 
 
 And here, to pass from individuals to a society, I may men- 
 tion a circumstance which certainly produced a great, and on the 
 whole a very beneficial effect on ecclesiastical architecture in this 
 and many succeeding ages : — the rise of the " Free and ac- 
 cepted Masons" as a guild of builders and architects, with all 
 the advantages of a corporate and exclusive body, defended by 
 papal charters, and supported by the most zealous and talented 
 men of the several generations through which their history ex- 
 tends. The history of this society is obscure, and the absurd 
 pretensions of those who usurp their name in these days, with- 
 out imitating their usefulness, go far to cast over it an air of 
 ridicule. William Preston, himself a freemason of these later 
 days, says with apparent gravity, " Ever since symmetry began, 
 and harmony displayed her charms, our order has had a being 
 a boast which would have been intelligible, though in a literal 
 sense false, in the days of William of Wykeham, because then the 
 order was conversant with symmetrical and harmonious forms; but 
 which is now as absurd as it is of course untrue : it can adumbrate 
 nothing but satire, and assert nothing but what is false. Almost 
 equally absurd is the deduction from the existence of masonry of 
 the existence of masons, as a guild or secret society. The same high 
 authority just quoted argues that his order existed in England 
 before the invasion, because there are remains of some stupend- 
 
 1 Godwin and his authorities, p. 284. 
 He was not however in this a free im- 
 parter of his own wealth to the church, 
 if Giraldus Cambrensis maybe trusted, 
 
 who says, " quatuor ex terris ecclesiee 
 suae et redittibus, tanquam unum al- 
 tare spoliando, et alia vestiando, mo- 
 nasteria construxit." 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 115 
 
 ous works executed by the Britons before that time ; which is 
 no less than to say that men cannot be masons without being- 
 freemasons. Among the early patrons of freemasonry in Eng- 
 land we are gravely told was our protomartyr, S. Alban, who 
 not only advanced the wages of masons from one penny a day 
 and their meat, to two shillings per week, and threepence for 
 their cheer, but founded a lodge, of which he was himself the 
 president. After this Augustine was grand master in England, 
 and later still S. S within, 1 and other great men, (indeed it was 
 impossible to have been pre-eminently great without being a free- 
 mason,) and we pass in after generations to such men as 
 Gundulf, Stapleton, Wykeham, Chichele, Henry VII., Wolsey, 
 Gresham, Wren. 
 
 All this is provoking, because its pretension to be called his- 
 tory mystifies the whole subject, and leaves us more in the dark 
 than if nothing had been written about it. 
 
 With a little more show of reason the origin of freemasonry 
 in England is referred by some to the year 674, or thereabout, 
 when glass was first brought into the country ; and indeed 
 thenceforward we trace clearly enough the communication of 
 England with other countries, on all matters relating to archi- 
 tecture ; and continental masons, who built more Romano, were 
 chiefly employed, at least until they had initiated the natives in 
 the " mysteries " of their craft. This would be perfectly con- 
 sistent with the existence of a corporate body, such as the free- 
 masons afterwards became ; but it would be equally consistent 
 with the less forced presumption that the Romans excelled the 
 English in the arts of life, and that artisans from Rome were 
 consequently in request here. 
 
 This however seems to be admitted on all hands, that in the 
 tenth century a body of men calling themselves Freemasons, 
 and claiming the right, under a papal privilege, of exercising 
 their craft all through Christendom, and perhaps sometimes 
 
 1 Whether S. Swithin was a free- stroyed or ruined. He also built a 
 
 mason or not, he certainly understood bridge on the east side of the city, and 
 
 the art of making masons work. "He during the work he made a practice of 
 
 was a diligent builder of churches in sitting there to watch the workmen, that 
 
 places where there were none before, his presence might stimulatetheirindus- 
 
 and repaired those that had been de- try."— Capgrave, quoted from Willis. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 rudely enforcing their sole right to be employed in sacred edifices, 
 were known over Europe ; and though the unsettled state of 
 this kingdom, while the Danes were yet formidable, would leave 
 them little to desire here, yet probably before the Conquest, 
 and certainly soon after, they were established in England under 
 a local superior, with communication with a head of the whole 
 order : l and so well did this system work, so far as the perfec- 
 tion of the art which it fostered was concerned, that the sove- 
 reigns of different countries rather gave force to the papal letters, 
 than withstood the monopoly which they created. Indeed prac- 
 tically the masons would remain sufficiently fixed to their own 
 country, the intercourse being chiefly that which would equally 
 benefit all parties, the mutual communication of improvements 
 in the art which all professed. 
 
 Such a state of things led at last to jealousies, which reached 
 the royal ear, and in 1424, during the minority of Henry VI., 
 an act 2 was made against the meetings of masons, because by 
 
 1 Hope gives a very picturesque 
 description of the lodge which the 
 masons established for the time, when 
 they were engaged in any great work. 
 " Wherever they came in the suite of 
 missionaries, or were called by the 
 natives, or arrived of their own accord 
 to seek employment, they appeared 
 headed by a chief surveyor, who go- 
 verned the whole troop, and named one 
 man out of every ten, under the name 
 of warden, to overlook the nine others ; 
 set themselves to building temporary 
 huts for their habitation, around the 
 spot where the work was to be carried 
 on ; regularly organised their differ- 
 ent departments ; fell to work ; sent 
 for fresh supplies of their brethren, as 
 the object demanded them ; often 
 made the wealthy inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood, out of devotion, or 
 commutation of penance, furnish the 
 requisite materials and carriages, and 
 the others assist in the manual labour ; 
 shortened or prolonged the completion 
 of the edifice as they liked, or were 
 
 averse to the place, or were more or 
 less wanted in others ; and when all 
 was finished, again raised their en- 
 campment and went elsewhere to un- 
 dertake other jobs. Even in England, 
 as late as the reign of Henry VI., in an 
 indenture of covenants made between 
 the churchwardens of a parish in Suf- 
 folk, and a company of freemasons, 
 the latter stipulate, that every man 
 should be provided with a pair of white 
 leather gloves, a white apron ; and that 
 a lodge, properly tiled, should be 
 erected at the expense of the parish, 
 in which to hold their meetings.'' 
 
 2 "3 Hen. VI. 1424, cap. i. 'En 
 primis come par les annuels congrega- 
 tions et confederacies faite par les 
 masons en leur Generate Chapitres 
 assemblez, le bon cours et effect des 
 estatutes de laboreurs sont publique- 
 ment vioiez et disrompez en subver- 
 sion de la laye, et grevouse damage de 
 le commune, nostre seigneur le roi 
 voillant en ceo cas pourvoir le remedie, 
 par advis et assent susditz et a l'espe- 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 11 
 
 such meetings it was alleged, ' the good course and effect of the 
 statutes of labourers were openly violated and broken, in subver- 
 sion of the law, and to the great damage of all the commons/ 
 But this act was not enforced, and the fraternity continued to 
 meet as usual under Archbishop Chichele. Humphrey, Duke of 
 Gloucester, brother to the regent, and guardian of the kingdom 
 in his absence, took the masons under his protection, and they 
 continued not only to meet in safety, but were joined by the 
 king himself; who, in 1442, was initiated into masonry, and 
 from that time spared no pains to become master of the art. 
 He perused the ancient charges, revised the constitutions, and 
 honoured them with his sanction. The royal example was 
 followed by many of the nobility, who assiduously studied 
 the art. 1 
 
 We may be excused a smile at the vision of king and lords 
 habited in leathern aprons, and engaged with square and trowel, 
 or with chisel and mallet, mastering the art of masonry. 
 
 In Scotland the masons had at the same time more substan- 
 tial privileges perhaps than elsewhere. They were protected and 
 encouraged by James I. of Scotland, who, after his return from 
 captivity, became a zealous patron of learning and the arts. He 
 honoured the lodges with his presence, and settled an annual 
 revenue of four pounds Scots (an English noble) to be paid by 
 every master mason in Scotland, to a grand master, chosen by 
 the grand lodge, and approved by the crown. His office entitled 
 him to regulate every thing in the fraternity which could not 
 come under the jurisdiction of law courts ; and, to prevent law 
 suits, both mason and lord, or builder and founder, appealed to 
 him. In his absence they appealed to his deputy or grand 
 warden, who resided next the premises. 2 This jurisdiction was 
 
 cial request des ditz communes ait 
 ordine et establi que tieux chapitres et 
 congregations, ne soient desore tenuz, 
 et si ascuns tielz soient faitz, soient 
 ceux qi font faire assembler et tenir 
 ceux chapitres et congregations, si ils 
 soient convictz, adjugez pour felons ; 
 et que tous les autres masons qui veig- 
 nent as tielz chapitres et congrega- 
 tions, soient puniz par emprisonement 
 
 de le corps, et facent fyn et raunceon 
 a la volonte du roi.' " 
 
 I transcribe this statute from a pa- 
 per of Governor Pownail's in Vol. IX. 
 of the ArchaDologia, where there are 
 some good remarks on the Freema- 
 sons. 
 
 1 London Encyclopaedia. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
118 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the same in spirit, as that which Thomas a Becket claimed for 
 the Church, and in a society with less than divine sanction, was 
 most objectionable. 
 
 The influence of this society on architecture must have been 
 very great and very beneficial. But it seems more than proba- 
 ble that in individual masons it tended to make architecture 
 more of a craft, and less of a science. The term " mystery," 
 where it means anything in the theory of such guilds, seems to 
 shroud a little empiricism as well as to dignify a little science : 
 and while it is beyond a question that the order was a mighty 
 architectural corporation, and that it sent forth every where men 
 competent, some to design, and some to execute great works ; 
 yet it may be conceived that the great secret of the society re- 
 sided in the practical way in which many principles after which 
 we are now feeling in vain, and many rules of construction 
 which each man now learns to apply by a mathematical process, 
 were reduced to what is vulgarly, but expressively called " the 
 rule of thumb." We are now measuring, and drawing, and 
 striking circles, and ruling lines, over the plans and elevations 
 of existing buildings of acknowledged beauty, to find the prin- 
 ciple of proportions which their architects followed : perhaps 
 they used some general formula, quite unconscious that a soul 
 of beauty resided in it, which refused to be chained to any other 
 form. We are amazed at the constructive science displayed in 
 the erection of the roof of King's College chapel, and should 
 hesitate to intrust such a work to any living architect, however 
 renowned : perhaps John Wastell, the master mason who agreed 
 " to make and set up a good, sure, and sufficient vault for the 
 grete church," and who executed his agreement to the satisfac- 
 tion of his employers, and the amazement of posterity, followed 
 with, the utmost assurance, a rule of which he could not give a 
 philosophical account, but which he was ready to apply again 
 and again to works of every magnitude, from that which he had 
 just finished, down to the canopy of a sepulchral chapel. If 
 there is any truth in this supposition, the society rises in our 
 estimation, as its members (I will not say sink, but) take a differ- 
 ent position : and indeed it is almost inconceivable that the suc- 
 cession of ages between Edward the Confessor and Henry VIII. 
 could have produced a sufficient number of individuals capable 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 119 
 
 of designing, except with some such helps, the vast number of 
 exquisite buildings which we refer to those times. 
 
 It has been observed again and again, that the marvellous 
 uniformity of detail in structures of the same age, is owing to 
 the general diffusion of freemasons, who carried with them every- 
 where the same rules, the same forms, the same hands and tools 
 to work with. This uniformity is indeed marvellous, but it is 
 sometimes a little exaggerated. There is for instance a clearly 
 national character in our own architecture, which distinguishes 
 it from that of all other countries, both in the general character, 
 and in the details of the buildings of the same age. Let the 
 reader take up Mr. Petit's work on Architecture, and turn over 
 the beautiful sketches, which give the character of the mass with 
 wonderful force : he will at once exclaim, and in almost every 
 instance with truth, This is foreign, this is English, before he has 
 read the names. Again in detail : the Early English, though 
 not exclusively, is chiefly ours. The Geometric we have in com- 
 mon with other countries, and partially the flowing Decorated ; 
 but this is deteriorated on the continent into Flamboyant, while 
 it gives place in England to a decidedly different style. Nor are 
 the mouldings and ornaments less distinct in character : there 
 is indeed a general synchronism of like forms, but they are 
 similar, not identical. An Englishman may be proud to say, 
 that in all these instances he is thankful that we have had our 
 own grand master, our own architect, our own masons, our own 
 craftsmen ; for certain it is that we yield to no nation in Europe 
 in the beauty, as distinct from size, in the elegance, as distinct 
 from gorgeousness, of our cathedrals and parish churches. 
 
120 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Norman Period. 
 
 S. Alban's. — The use of Brick. — Tewkesbury, Peterborough, Bury 
 S. Edmund's, S. Paul's, S. Cross, Romsey, Rydal, Fountains, 
 Faversham, Castor, Durham, and Bolton. — Destruction op 
 Churches. — Worcester, Chichester, York, Bath, Fountains. — 
 Violence of the ttmes. — Number of Churches. — Their general 
 character. — Norman decorations. 
 
 Throughout the last chapter, the builders of churches have 
 been the most prominent object, though their works have some- 
 times been partially described. In this chapter we will pay the 
 principal attention to the fabric, not without some slight notices 
 of those with whose names they are associated. 
 
 It would be a work of immense labour, and would serve no 
 good purpose, to enumerate every church, even of the first 
 order, which was founded, or received additions about this time, 
 and which still retains traces of the work of the reign of William 
 or of his immediate successors. The following are some of the 
 more remarkable. Paul de Caen, 1 whose name indicates his 
 Norman origin, was the fourteenth abbot of S. Alban's. He 
 greatly enlarged the church. His abbacy extended from 1077 
 to 1093, and he was succeeded by Richard de Albini, who con- 
 cluded the work begun by his predecessor, and dedicated it in 
 1115. The parts of the abbey still remaining, which may be 
 referred to this time, are the central tower, the antechoir, or 
 baptistery, with its aisles, the transepts, six northern, and three 
 southern compartments of the nave, from the east, with its 
 aisles, and part of the aisles of the retrochoir. The style of 
 these parts of S. Alban's indicates their very near approach to 
 the Saxon era, for the baluster shaft, which is usually considered 
 a feature of that style, occurs frequently. Roman bricks also 
 
 1 See chronological table in Corapa- Abbey-church of S. Alban, published 
 nion to the glossary, and Guide to the by the S. Alban's Architectural Society. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 121 
 
 are freely used, the old military station affording materials near 
 at hand : indeed a century before Abbot Ealdred had commenced 
 the selection of stones and tiles from the Roman foundations, 
 for the rebuilding of his church. There are also several parts 
 of the work into which bricks, moulded for the purpose, are in- 
 troduced, especially in the newels of the stairs, proving that the 
 use of bricks was, sometimes at least, a matter of choice as well 
 as of convenience with the Normans, and that they did not ac- 
 count them unworthy to receive some elaboration. In this they 
 followed the custom of foreign builders. The ancient Lombard 
 architects used bricks abundantly, plain, moulded, and carved; 
 and perhaps it is more remarkable that brick is so seldom used, 
 than that it is sometimes found in ecclesiastical buildings in 
 England. Some, for example, I may mention. 
 
 The chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Hull, 
 which is of the fourteenth century, is probably the most ancient, 
 as well as the most noble, specimen of ecclesiastical brick build- 
 ing still remaining in England. It does not however stand 
 alone. The churches of King's Lynn, 1 in Norfolk, mostly of 
 the fifteenth century, are in great part of brick. The chancel 
 of Greensted Church, in Essex, of which the nave has been 
 already alluded to as a structure of wood, "is of red brick, 
 and in the style characteristic of the latter days of Henry the 
 Seventh's reign." 2 Of Leicester Abbey, " the most curious por- 
 tion now existing is the outward brick wall, with an inscription 
 worked into it in brick of a varied colour." 3 In the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, Thomas Millay, librarian and registrar 
 to Bishop Halse, built splendid houses of brick [splendidas cedes 
 latericias. — Gul. Whitlocke, Hist. Lich. in Anglia Sacra, i. 454,] 
 for the canons residentiary of Lichfield, at the west end of the 
 pond, in the cathedral close. 4 All these instances are of plain 
 
 1 It will be observed that Lynn and 
 Hull are both sea -ports, and may have 
 borrowed a fashion from abroad. 
 
 2 Suckling Papers, — Weale. 
 
 3 Rick man. 
 
 4 Mr. Essex, in a paper in Vol. IV. 
 of the Archseologia, has the following 
 notices of middle and late Gothic 
 buildings in which brick is used : — 
 
 " Wall tiles, or bricks, were used in 
 some of the buildings belonging to the 
 Priory of Ely in the time of Edward 
 II., and were made in the Flemish 
 manner, but of different sizes, some 
 being twelve inches long, six inches 
 wide, and three inches thick ; others, 
 ten inches or ten and a half inches 
 long, five inches wide, and full two 
 
122 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 bricks, but moulded brick was used in England' as well as on the 
 Continent, and with so good effect that it is surprising its use 
 did not become general. The best instances I have seen are in 
 Norfolk, where the scarcity of stone led to the substitution of 
 this material in richer buildings, as of flint in those where 
 carved ornament was not affected. The rectory-house at Great 
 Snoring, and East Barsham Hall, are very fine examples : the 
 latter especially displaying the power of the material employed, 
 the Gothic details being exceedingly sharp and good, and in 
 point of character fully equal to the best stone work of their 
 day. Both are of the reign of Henry VII. or early in Henry 
 VIII. 
 
 It is almost superfluous to add, that the purpose of this di- 
 gression is to call attention to the use of brick as perfectly con- 
 sistent with great beauty of design and execution in Gothic 
 architecture. It is a great point to be able to make good use 
 of the materials at hand, if better cannot be afforded, without 
 disproportionate expense, or the sacrifice of some real advantage. 
 Let us bring stone from Caen, if we can afford it ; but if not let 
 us build even with the flint or rubble of our country, and if that 
 be too expensive, or the district does not yield it, let us not 
 hesitate to build, with correct designs, of common brick, for a 
 good building need cost no more than a bad one. It must be 
 confessed, however, that in the application of brick to all except 
 domestic purposes, and in the extent to which moulding, or 
 carving, or the variation of the surface by the position of the 
 
 inches thick. They were used in 
 building walls at King's Hall in Cam- 
 bridge, in Edward III.'s time, at 
 which time they were sold from 6s. to 
 6s. Id. the thousand, which in those 
 days was a great price. In the twenty- 
 third of Edward III., Edmund Gon- 
 vile, rector of Terrinton and Rush- 
 worth, in Norfolk, began to build a 
 college in Cambridge, on the ground 
 where the tennis-court and orchard of 
 Corpus Christi College now stand, 
 part of which is yet remaining, and is 
 built entirely with bricks. They were 
 used at King's Hall, in the same Uni- 
 
 versity, in the time of Richard II., and 
 sold at 6s. 8d. the thousand. In the 
 reign of Henry IV., they were sold at 
 5s. 7|d. ; and in the reign of Henry 
 VII., we find them mentioned in the 
 accounts of King's College Chapel, 
 by the name of ' wall tiles,' and they 
 were used in the inside of the walls 
 in the upper parts of that building. 
 About that time they became the 
 fashionable material for building, in- 
 termixed with ornaments of stone, and 
 have continued in use ever since under 
 the name of bricks." 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 123 
 
 bricks, or of the colour, by intermixing different kinds of brick, 
 should be attempted, we must go to foreign buildings for our 
 most valuable lessons. 1 S. Ambrogio at Milan, S. Zeno at 
 Verona, and the Great Hospital at Milan, are three excellent 
 examples of the primitive simplicity, the grace of form and co- 
 lour, and the elaborate finish, of which brick is capable. 2 
 
 The Norman style has now reached its perfection, and until 
 the transition period we should find no changes to mention, even 
 if we entered into a more minute history of works erected be- 
 tween this period and the reign of Henry II. Even for solidity 
 of construction the churches built during the reigns of the two 
 Williams and of the first Henry are by no means universally 
 more remarkable than some later structures. The few names 
 and dates that are here thrown loosely together may serve to 
 connect the early Norman with the transition period, and the 
 History of Architecture in England, with the general history of 
 the country. 
 
 Tewkesbury Abbey was built by Robert Eitz-Hamon who was 
 buried in the Chapter-house in 1107. 3 The choir of Peterbo- 
 rough was commenced in 1117 by John de Sais, the transepts 
 were added between 1155 and 1177 by Abbot Waterville, and 
 the nave was finished in 1193, all according to the original 
 
 1 Lord Lindsay has some good re- 
 marks on the brick buildings of the 
 Continent. Speaking of the Town- 
 halls, he says, — 
 
 " Some of these, as at Padua, Pia- 
 cenza, &c., are of singular beauty, 
 and, in the north of Italy especially, 
 are frequently built of brick, which the 
 Lombards used with a mastery of 
 which, in England, we have no concep- 
 tion ; every delicate architectural orna- 
 ment is fashioned in this unpromising 
 material, and the richness of effect is 
 marvellous. It was even frequently 
 applied to ecclesiastical purposes ; the 
 beautiful Duomo of Cremona, with 
 its adjacent dependencies, is entirely 
 of brick ; so are the Churches of S. 
 Francesco at Pavia, and the cloisters of 
 the celebrated Certosa, between that 
 city and Milan. The Palazzo Publico 
 
 at Piacenza, and the palace of the 
 Lombard Dukes at Pavia, are of the 
 same material, and rank among the 
 noblest edifices in Italy. Nor must I 
 forget to mention, as belonging histo- 
 rically, and indeed, in political geo- 
 graphy, de facto, to Italy, the stupen- 
 dous palace, or rather fortress, of the 
 Popes, at Avignon ; — now, alas ! de- 
 graded into a barrack; — a building by 
 itself in every respect, and the noblest 
 example, perhaps, anywhere extant of 
 the old feudal architecture of Europe." 
 Lord Lindsay on Christian Art, ii. 18. 
 
 2 See an admirable paper on the use 
 of Brick, by the Rev. T. James, in the 
 report of the Architectural Society of 
 the Archdeaconry of Northampton, for 
 1847. 
 
 3 Glossary. 
 
124 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Norman design, though in some contemporary works the pointed 
 arch had been freely used \ so that this cathedral, with the ex- 
 ception of the west front which is Early English, and the Lady 
 Chapel which is Tudor, or late Perpendicular, presents a very 
 noble and uniform example of the style of the twelfth century. 
 
 The church and monastery of Bury S. Edmund's received 
 many additions during this era. In 1032 a church of wood had 
 been consecrated, in place of which a stone church was commenced 
 by Baldwin the first Abbot after the Conquest. Under the 
 Abbacy of Robert, the second of that name (1107 — 1112) the 
 infirmary, the chapter-house, and the Abbot's hall, were built by 
 the Sacrists; and between 1121 and 1130, during which time 
 Anselm, nephew of the Archbishop of Canterbury of the same 
 name, filled the Abbot's chair, the gate tower was erected by the 
 Sacrists, 1 whose names are recorded, Radulphus and Herseus. 
 About 1180, Sampson, then sub-sacrist, and afterwards Abbot, 
 built the choir, and built or restored the great central tower, and 
 finished the two western towers which were commenced a hun- 
 dred years before. 2 
 
 1 The fabric of the church was es- 
 pecially committed to the Sacrist : be- 
 sides these instances here and elsewhere 
 occurring in the text, we may add the 
 following from the Successio Priorum 
 Ecclesise Roffensis, in Anglia Sacra, 
 Vol. I. p. 392—394. Osbern de 
 Scapaya, formerly Sacrist, was made 
 prior (1189). While in his former 
 office he had erected the window at 
 the altar of S. Peter. His successor 
 (1199) Ranulf de Ros, while Sacrist, 
 fecit bracinum, and the greater and 
 smaller Prior's chamber, and the stone 
 buildings in the Cemetery and Hos- 
 telry, and the grange in the vineyard, 
 and the stable. He also roofed the 
 great church, and covered most of it 
 with lead. William de Hoo (prior in 
 1 239) while Sacrist erected the whole 
 of the choir of the church of Roches- 
 ter, from the north and south aisles, 
 out of the oblations at the shrine of 
 S. William. 
 
 2 The following curious details are 
 from the Chronicles of Jocelin of 
 Brakelond : " Sampson the subsacrist, 
 being master over the workmen, did his 
 best that no breach, chink, crack, or 
 flaw should be left unrepaired so far as 
 he was able ; whereby he acquired 
 great favour with the convent, and es- 
 pecially with the cloister monks. In 
 those days was our choir built under 
 Sampson's direction, he ordering the 
 designs of the paintings, and composing 
 elegiac verses ; he also made a great 
 draught of stone and sand for building 
 the great tower of the church ; and 
 being asked, whence he procured 
 money for this work ? he answered, 
 that certain burgesses had privily 
 given him monies for building and 
 completing the tower. Nevertheless, 
 some of our brethren said, that Warin 
 our monk, the keeper of the shrine, 
 together with Sampson the subsacrist, 
 had by concert between themselves 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 125 
 
 In 1127 died Richard 1 Bishop of London, who had expended 
 all his revenues on his cathedral church. Ten years after 
 Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, founded the church of 
 S. Cross in that city; and to him is also attributed the design 
 of the Abbey church of Romsey. 2 In 1139 died Thurstan 
 Archbishop of York, who founded Rydal and Fountains ; and 
 in 1154 King Stephen was buried at Faversham, which he had 
 himself founded : and here, at the latest, ends the purely Nor- 
 man era ; although many churches, some of which have been 
 already noticed, were finished during the next reign, in perfect 
 accordance with the designs of earlier founders, so as to exhibit 
 few if any marks of the transition. 
 
 In the erection of parish churches that age was not less in- 
 dustrious ; and although we have seldom documentary evidence 
 which would enable us to refer them to a particular date, as in 
 the case of cathedral and conventual churches, yet their style 
 often leaves no doubt of the reign in which they were erected. 3 
 And in some districts there is hardly a single church 4 which 
 has not some portion or other which must be referred to the 
 Norman era. 
 
 pilfered some portion of the offerings 
 to the shrine, in order that they might 
 disburse the same for the necessary 
 purposes of the Church, namely, for 
 the building of the tower ; being the 
 more ready to believe this when they 
 saw that the offerings were expended 
 for extraordinary purposes by others, 
 who, to speak plainly, stole them. 
 And these before-named two men, in 
 order to remove from themselves the 
 suspicion of such a favourable theft, 
 made a certain hollow trunk, with a 
 hole in the middle or at the top, and 
 fastened with an iron lock ; this they 
 caused to be set up in the great church, 
 near the door without the choir, in the 
 way of the people, so that therein per- 
 sons should put their contributions for 
 the building of the tower." 
 
 1 He is called William by mistake in 
 Collier's Ecc. Hist. 
 
 a See Mr. Freeman's paper in the 
 
 Winchester vol. of the Transactions of 
 the Archffiological Institute. 
 
 3 In one case, mentioned in the 
 Companion to the Glossary of Archi- 
 tecture, the exact date of a parish 
 church is perpetuated by an inscrip- 
 tion. On a stone over the south door 
 of the chancel of Castor Church, in 
 Northamptonshire, is the inscription, 
 
 XV. KL. MAI. DEDICATIO. HUI. ECCLE 
 
 — a.d. mcxxiii, and the character of 
 the building entirely coincides with the 
 date. 
 
 4 In a visit to twenty-two adjoining 
 churches in the Deanery of Doncaster, 
 in which I was accompanied by J. W. 
 Hugall, Esq., Architect, whose society 
 has doubled the pleasure of many 
 an ecclesiological journey, we found 
 that out of the twenty-two, fourteen 
 had Norman remains ; and of four 
 others of Norman foundation, there 
 were sufficient historic notices. 
 
126 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 But we must relieve this barren catalogue with one or two 
 examples into which a little historic interest may be thrown. 
 The Cathedral of Durham, and the Abbey church of Bolton 
 in Yorkshire, now in ruins, offer themselves as happily falling 
 in with our purpose. 
 
 As in almost every case some account of the patron saint, 
 where he has had a local importance in the neighbourhood, is a 
 necessary part of the history of the church. S. Cuthbert was 
 for some time Prior in the monastery of Lindisfarne, or Holy 
 Island, but seeking in a deeper retirement the higher, or at least 
 the more ascetical discipline of an anchorite, he fixed on the 
 Island of Fame, some miles to the south of Holy Island, as the 
 place of his retreat. The more inhospitable the barren rock, the 
 better was it suited to his purpose, and Farne fully answered all 
 that the hermit could desire in its unpromising aspect. No one 
 had yet dared to disturb the evil spirits, which seemed to have 
 made it their home, and which filled it with shapes and sounds 
 of terror. The cell and oratory which he erected there, have 
 been already described, (p. 36,) and in such solitude, and in such 
 hardness, he wore out nine years of his life. His reputation, 
 however, was not buried in the hermitage which he had chosen. 
 In his absence, he was elected, by the council of Alne, to the see 
 of Hexham ; but exchanging with Eata Bishop of York, he was 
 consecrated to the latter see on Easter day, 685. His heart was 
 still in the place of his greatest conflicts with the enemy of his 
 soul, and he retired to die at Fame. There he requested that 
 his body should be buried in a coffin of stone which had been 
 given him by the Abbot Cudda ; directing however, that if 
 the Pagans should attack the island, the brethren should carry 
 his bones with them in their flight. The monks of Lindisfarne 
 were not willing to lose his body, and at length at their earnest re- 
 quest, he consented that it should be buried in their church, where 
 it was enshrined, (a.d. 687,) at the right side of the high altar. 
 
 Nine years after his death, the brethren, desiring to do 
 honour to his remains, would have inclosed them in a small 
 coffer placed above the floor. 1 Instead of dust and dried bones, 
 
 1 Transactis sepulturse ejus annis ut tollerent ossa illius, quae, more mor- 
 undecim, iramisit in anirao fratrum, tuorum consumpto jam et in pulverem 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 127 
 
 without flesh, for which they looked, they found his body still 
 entire, his joints flexible, and even his clothes undecayed. They 
 did not however desist from their purpose, but folding the body 
 in a new robe, they placed it in a light chest, and laid it on the 
 floor of the sanctuary. 1 
 
 One word in this description of the contemporary Bede seems 
 to have been overlooked, alike by those who relate, and those 
 who would account for a miracle. Sir Walter Scott gives the 
 following metrical version of the future history of S. Cuthbert's 
 body. 
 
 " Nor did Saint Cuthbert's daughters fail, 
 To vie with these in holy tale ; 
 His body's resting-place, of old, 
 How oft their patron changed, they told ; 
 How, when the rude Dane burned their pile, 
 The monks fled forth from Holy Isle ; 
 O'er northern mountain, marsh, and moor, 
 From sea to sea, from shore to shore, 
 Seven years Saint Cuthbert's corpse they bore, 
 They rested them in fair Melrose ; 
 
 But though, alive, he loved it well, 
 Not there his reliques might repose ; 
 
 For, wondrous tale to tell ! 
 In his stone coffin forth he rides, 
 (A ponderous bark for river tides,) 
 Yet light as gossamer it glides, 
 
 Downward to Tillmouth cell. 
 Nor long was his abiding there, 
 For southward did the Saint repair; 
 Chester-le-Street, and Rippon, saw 
 His holy corpse, ere Wardilaw 
 
 Hailed him with joy and fear ; 
 And, after many wanderings past, 
 He chose his lordly seat at last, 
 Where his cathedral, huge and vast, 
 
 Looks down upon the Wear : 
 
 redacto corpore reliquo, sicca inveni- 
 enda rebantur, atque in levi area re- 
 condita, in eodem quidem loco, sed 
 supra pavimentum, dignse venerationis 
 gratia locarent.'' — Bede, Vita S. Cuth- 
 berti, xlii. 
 
 1 " Et involutum novo amictu corpus 
 levique in theca reconditum, super pa- 
 vimentum sanctuarii composuerunt." 
 —Ib. xlii. 
 
128 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 There, deep in Durham's Gothic shade, 
 His reliques are in secret laid ; 
 
 But none may know the place, 
 Save of his holiest servants three, 
 Deep sworn to solemn secrecy, 
 
 "Who share that wondrous grace." 1 
 
 In a note to this passage, where the same tale is told in prose, 
 the poet accounts for the floating of the stone coffin on hydro- 
 static principles. " He at length made a halt at Norham ; from 
 thence he went to Melrose, where he remained stationary for a 
 short time, and then caused himself to be launched upon the 
 Tweed in a stone coffin, which landed him at Tillmouth, in 
 Northumberland. This boat is finely shaped, ten feet long, three 
 feet and a half in diameter, and only four inches thick ; so that 
 with very little assistance, it might certainly have swum. It 
 still lies, or at least did so a few years ago, in two pieces, beside 
 the ruined chapel of Tillmouth." 
 
 All this would have been unnecessary, had the levis theca in 
 which his body was deposited nine years after his death been 
 remembered. Little need be added to Sir Walter Scott's ac- 
 count ; it is sufficient that Lindisfarne grew rapidly in wealth 
 and importance, while S. Cuthbert rested there ; a circumstance 
 which perhaps attracted the Danes to that retreat of the breth- 
 ren, and occasioned their flight in 893. The episcopal see con- 
 tinued to be fixed at Chester-le-Street, for one hundred and 
 thirteen years ; but the Danes again invaded the repose of the 
 sacred relics, and they found at last an asylum at Durham, a 
 place, says Simeon, fortified by nature, but not easily made 
 habitable, for it was covered with a thick wood, and presented 
 at the top of a rock but a scanty patch of land which would 
 repay the toil of cultivation. Here, however, the monks erected 
 an arbour of boughs 2 for the body, and thence carried it to 
 Whitkyrk, where it remained three years, while Aldwinus the 
 Bishop was erecting a stone church for its repose ; which he 
 finished, with the exception of the west tower, which was left to 
 the pious care of Edmund his successor. 
 
 1 Marmion, ii. 14. Wear, and within the present city of 
 
 2 The church of S. Mary-le-Bow, or Durham, is said to be built on the spot 
 le Bough, close upon the bank of the occupied by this arbour of boughs. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 129 
 
 Once again, however, the relics of the saint were driven from 
 their home. William the Conqueror approaching York with an 
 army, so frightened the monks of Durham, that they fled with 
 their precious burden once more to Lindisfarne. But the panic 
 was soon past, and Durham received a Bishop from the King, 
 together with the restoration of many of the possessions of the 
 Church, which he had unjustly seized. 
 
 We are now arriving at the history of the present Cathedral, 
 the three first stones of which were laid August 11, 1093, by 
 Malcolm, King of Scotland, William de Sancto Carilepho the 
 Bishop, and Turgot the Prior of Durham. The name, of Cari- 
 leph is of so great importance in the history of his cathedral, 
 that we shall give the substance of his career as an ecclesiastical 
 architect, from the continuator of Turgot, published in Vol. II. 
 of Wharton's Anglia Sacra. 
 
 William de S. Carilepho, who was consecrated in 1081, was 
 the founder of the present church. His benefactions are thus 
 enumerated. He conferred very signal benefits upon his see, in- 
 creasing its rents, asserting its liberties, and founding its church. 
 For the old church which Bishop Aldhune had built, ninety-eight 
 years before, having been destroyed, he commenced another of 
 far greater magnificence, of which he laid the foundation on the 
 11th of August, 1093, according to Turgot; on the 12th of 
 August, 1094, according to the Durham Annals. 1 He died 
 January 2, 1096. His attendants would have acknowledged his 
 great benefactions by a sepulchre in the cathedral which he had 
 erected, but he himself (humble in this at least,) 2 would not con- 
 sent that the ancient custom of that Church should be broken 
 on his behalf, which denied to any one a burial place where the 
 body of the most holy Cuthbert lay : he chose rather to be 
 buried in the chapter house, where all his successors were also 
 buried until the year 1311. 
 
 1 Maxima tamen Sedi suae beneficia vel 1094, 12 Augusti juxta Annales 
 
 vir magnanimus contulit, auctis fundis, Dunelmenses. Morte autem preerepto 
 
 assertis libertatibus, et fundata ecclesia. ei opus incseptum absolvere non licuit, 
 
 Diruta enim post 98 annos vetusta, laude ista Ranulpho successori relicta." 
 
 quam Aldhunus episcopus construxe- Anglia Sacra, i. 704. 
 rat, ecclesia, aliam longe magnificenti- 2 The historian does not make Cari- 
 
 orem inchoavit, positis ejus fundamen- leph a pattern of meekness and self- 
 
 tis 1093, 11 Augusti juxta Turgotum, renunciation. 
 
130 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The church not being finished at Carilepb/s death, the glory 
 of its completion was left to his successor, Ralph Flambard, 
 justiciary of England, a man splendidly notorious for violence 
 and wrong ; but the Church was enriched, while the people were 
 fleeced. He had already, as Camden asserts, restored the church 
 of Twinham, of which he was dean, with great splendour. We 
 cannot follow him through the vicissitudes of a bad life, but 
 when he came to his see he applied himself in earnest and suc- 
 cessfully to the work which Carileph had left incomplete, though 
 he was forced to regulate his expenditure on the fabric, by the 
 amount of oblations at the altar and the cemetery : for from 
 this fund he finished the walls of the church to the very roof. 
 It must be added, however, that his predecessor, who commenced 
 the work, had made a rule that the Bishop should be charged 
 with the erection of the church, at his proper costs ; but that 
 the monks should erect their own offices, out of the collections 
 of the church ; which rule was set aside during the three years 
 and five months that the see was vacant after his death. For 
 the monks, leaving the monastic building, urged on the con- 
 struction of the church, which Ralph found erected as far as the 
 nave. He added also dossels, palls, copes, chasubles, tunics, 
 and dalmatics, to the ornaments of the church. He extended 
 the narrow courts of the monks both in length and breadth. 
 Although the town was strong by nature, he made it stronger 
 and more imposing by a wall. He built a wall reaching from 
 the chancel of the church to the castle keep. He threw open 
 the space between the church and the castle, which was crowded 
 with houses, that the church might be free from all unseemly 
 accidents and from fire. He united the two banks of the Wear 
 with a solid stone bridge of arches. He built a castle on the 
 top of a rock which overhung the river Tweed, 1 that it might be 
 a check upon the thieves and the Scots. 2 
 
 1 I.e., at Norham, a.d. 1121, as 
 Hoveden says. 
 
 2 Circa opus ecclesise modo intentius 
 modo reraissius agebatur ; sicut illi ex 
 oblatione altaris et csemiterii vel sup- 
 petebat pecunia vel deficiebat. His 
 namque sumptibus navem ecclesise 
 
 circumductis parietibus ad sui usque 
 testudinem erexerat. Porro predeces- 
 sor illius, qui opus inchoavit, id decer- 
 nendo statuerat ; ut episcopus ex suo 
 ecclesiam, monachi vero suas ex eccle- 
 sise collectis facerent officinas. Quod 
 illo cadente cecidit. Monachi enim 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 131 
 
 In the year 1104 the Cathedral thus begun by Carileph, and 
 carried on by the Monks during the vacancy of the see (the 
 merit of which is doubtless to be ascribed to Prior Turgot,) and 
 almost completed by Flambard, was sufficiently advanced to re- 
 ceive the relics of S. Cuthbert. The 29th of August was fixed 
 on for the ceremonial ; but with great reverence the relics were 
 first of all inspected by the brethren, and afterwards exhibited 
 to the people, that there might remain no doubt of the fact 
 that S. Cuthbert's body was still uncorrupted. At night, there- 
 fore, they met at the sepulchre, and taking off the stone found 
 a chest, well guarded with nails and leather j 1 and in it another 
 wrapped in a cloth thrice doubled, in which they found the book 
 of the Evangelists, which according to an old legend had been 
 recovered by the saint after it had fallen into the sea ; a little 
 silver altar, a chalice of pure gold, an onyx stone, and an ivory 
 comb. In a third chest was the body of S. Cuthbert, lying on 
 the right side to give room for other reliques, among which were 
 the bones of the Venerable Bede, and the head of S. Oswald. 
 The rest of the reliques were deposited in other parts of the 
 church, but the head of S. Oswald was placed between the 
 hands of S. Cuthbert, 2 and, with his body enshrined behind the 
 high altar; Bishop Flambard preaching to the people on the 
 occasion. 
 
 The end of Ralph Flambard was what the end of a violent 
 and grasping man ought to be. A month before his death he 
 was carried into the church, and there before the altar he made 
 
 omissis officinarum aedificationibus 
 operi ecclesiae insistunt ; quam usque 
 navem Ranulphus jam aedificatam in- 
 venit. Addidit etiara ornamentis ec- 
 clesiae dorsalia, pallia, cappas, casulas, 
 tunicas quoque et dalmaticas. Angus- 
 tias curiae monachorum porrecto in 
 longum et latum spatio dilatavit. Ur- 
 bem hanc licet natura munierit, muro 
 ipse reddidit fortiorem et augustiorem. 
 A cancello ecclesiae ad arcem usque cas- 
 telli producta murum construxit longi- 
 tudine. Locum inter ecclesiam et 
 castellum, quern multa occupaverant 
 habitacula, in patentis campi redegit 
 
 K 
 
 planitiem ; ne vel ex sordibus contami- 
 natio vel ex ignibus ecclesiam attinge- 
 rent pericula. Diversas Wiri fluminis 
 ripas continuavit structo de lapide 
 magni operis ponte arcuato. Condidit 
 castellum in excelso praeruptae rupis 
 super Twedam flumen ; ut inde latro- 
 num incursus inhiberet et Scotorum 
 irruptiones. — Anglia Sacra, i. 708. 
 
 1 The same perhaps still remaining, 
 and now or lately in the castle. 
 
 2 Hence S. Cuthbert is often repre- 
 sented in mediaeval paintings, with S. 
 Oswald's head in his hands. 
 
 2 
 
132 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 a deep confession of penitence, and restored the rights of the 
 church which he had usurped, and its possessions which he had 
 alienated ; confirming this act of restitution by placing his ring- 
 on the altar, and by a deed sealed with his seal. 1 He died in 
 1128 and the Bishopric was vacant for five years, all but a 
 month, during which time the monks of Durham finished the 
 nave of the church. 2 
 
 The cathedral may now be called perfect, for although it has 
 to receive several additions, and many enrichments, it is already 
 complete in all its essential parts, as a cathedral and monastic 
 church. As its original features still remain there will be little 
 difficulty in describing it as it then stood, which we will do in 
 the present tense as if we were in the train of Flambard' s suc- 
 cessor when he took possession of his throne, but without 
 affecting any archaisms of language. 
 
 As we approach the city, we see first rising out from among 
 the trees the castle keep, and the three towers of the church ; 
 and already we hear the bells pealing from the central tower, 
 welcoming us to our new home. But there is yet some space to 
 traverse, and with hearty thanks to Flambard for his bridge 
 of stone we pass the Wear, and wind upwards towards the 
 cathedral. 
 
 This mighty pile stands on the brow of a precipice, beneath 
 which to the west the river turns the abbey mill. On all other 
 sides it is surrounded by the Priory and its several offices. The 
 church itself has a nave and choir, both with side aisles ; but 
 the transepts have aisles only to the east. The choir is much 
 shorter than the nave, and the east end terminates in a semicir- 
 cular apse. 3 
 
 We approach by the north and find the space before the 
 church cleared of unseemly obstructions by Flambard, so that 
 the whole extent of the cathedral opens upon us in all its mag- 
 nificence. The length of the nave, transepts, and choir, with 
 
 1 Per annulum altari impositum tempore navis Ecclesise Dunelmensis 
 omnia restituit Ecclesia? ablata ; car- Monachis operi instantibus peraeta 
 taque sua et sigillo confirmavit resti- est. 
 
 tuta. 3 This however is conjecture ; the 
 
 2 Vacavitque Episcopatus per quin- east end, whatever it was, having given 
 quennium excepto uno mense. Eo place to the nine altars. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 133 
 
 their aisles, is relieved by the two western towers, which rise 
 just above the roof, and by the greater mass, though the height 
 is but little more, of the central tower, which gives variety and 
 harmony to the whole ; and while the tower seems to be held 
 aloft by the giant arms of the nave, choir, and transepts, they in 
 their turn receive support from their aisles. It is some time 
 before we obtain sufficient self-command to attend to the details 
 of so vast a pile, but on a closer inspection we find these equal 
 to the general design. Around all is carried, next the ground, 
 a blank arcade of semicircular arches resting on clustered 
 columns. Above these are the aisle windows, each of one round- 
 headed light, with engaged shafts in the jambs, and a triforium 
 of the same character, but the windows considerably smaller. 
 
 The buttresses between the several bays of the aisle are plain 
 and shallow, and die in the wall at the bottom of the triforium, 
 instead of being carried, as is perhaps more usual, (and is the 
 case here with the clerestory) into the corbel-table. The clere- 
 story has also its round-headed lights with shafts in the jambs, 
 and the whole terminates in a high-pitched roof, [most probably] 
 of shingles, to be replaced with lead by some future benefactor. 
 The transept is flanked with huge buttress-like projections, which 
 rise into turrets above the roof, and like all the rest of the build- 
 ing is pierced only with single-light round-headed windows : but 
 the gable is enriched with an arcade of semicircular intersecting 
 arches, above which it is finished with a kind of reticulated 
 masonry, with which large surfaces of wall are often covered. 
 The western towers and the great central tower are also decorated 
 with arcades and pierced with round-headed lights; and they 
 are capped with high-pitched roofs, like those of the body of the 
 church covered with shingles, and surmounted by weathercocks. 
 The Bishop entered at the west, by a path on the brow of the 
 rock, winding close round the corner of the church, but the 
 north door is worthy to receive its portion of the coming train. 
 It occupies the last bay but one westward, and is of several 
 orders of receding masonry, each richly decorated, beneath a 
 high pediment, crowned with a cross. As we enter, the gran- 
 deur of the nave is almost beyond expression. The piers are 
 alternately cylindrical and clustered, the former enriched with 
 reticulations or chevrons indented in their surface, and all of 
 
134 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 great solidity. The bases are square and almost plain, the capi- 
 tals of the heaviest form admissible into a building of any en- 
 richment. The arches are semicircular., and enriched with the 
 zigzag and billet mouldings. Each compartment of the triforium 
 opens into the nave by two arches within a single larger arch ; 
 and each clerestory compartment is of three arches, the central 
 one much higher than the others. The roof is not yet vaulted, 
 though it will doubtless soon receive this more perfect covering. 
 The aisles were vaulted ; from the beginning and around their 
 walls, below the windows, rims an arcade, of intersecting arches. 
 And all this is repeated through a length of four hundred feet. 
 But mere size is but a small part of the beauty of such a struc- 
 ture, which consists at least equally in a happy combination of 
 variety and uniformity, and these characters are here most happily 
 blended. The uniform recurrence of the circular arch every- 
 where with the general similarity of design through nave and 
 choir, with the liberal use of the chevron moulding, that most 
 effective of all decorations, ensures sufficient harmony and uni- 
 formity ; while the variations in the sections of the piers, and 
 the three arcades rising above one another, the first of single, 
 the next of double, and the third of triple arches, afford abun- 
 dant variety. 
 
 Nor must the dim light admitted everywhere through small 
 windows, filled with stained glass, — and the shrine of S. Cuth- 
 bert resplendent with jewels, — and the light of many lamps, — 
 and the high altar with its costly furniture, be forgotten : and 
 then shall we confess that S. Cuthbert has found at last a 
 worthy resting place on the heights of Durham. 
 
 The monks indeed have thought something less of their own 
 than of their patron's honour, they are yet without a chapter- 
 house which our good lord and father has promised to build. 
 
 But here we return to the language of history. During the 
 episcopate of Godfrey, Flambard's successor, which extended to 
 1140, the chapter-house was finished. 1 At his death he gave 
 many ornaments to the cathedral, but grievous storms broke 
 
 1 " The original and fine Norman 
 chapter-house was wantonly destroyed 
 by Mr. Wyatt and the officers of the 
 Cathedral, in 1800, and a modern room 
 
 built on its site. Mr. Carter remon- 
 strated strongly against this destruc- 
 tion, but in vain." — Companion to 
 Glossary. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 135 
 
 over the church and kingdom at this juncture, 1 and although 
 they did not affect the cathedral itself, yet as they afford examples 
 of the kind of violence to which churches were in those days 
 sometimes exposed, we must slightly allude to them. 
 
 The kingdom was now agitated by the contending claims of 
 Stephen and the empress Maud, and in the north especially, 
 owing to the neighbourhood of Scotland, whose king, David, 
 had espoused the cause of his niece, the scale visibly inclined 
 against Stephen. 
 
 While Godfrey was in his last illness, William Corny n, chan- 
 cellor of the Scotch king, who had been in days past one of 
 Godfrey's priests, being on a visit at Durham, caballed with 
 some of the clergy, and with the guard of the castle, that 
 they should deliver up the castle to him, on the death of the 
 Bishop, carefully excluding the prior and the archdeacons from 
 the secret. Godfrey died while William was gone to the Scotch 
 king, to obtain, through his influence, the episcopate so soon to 
 be vacant ; and the next night his body was disembowelled and 
 covered with salt, because it could not otherwise be kept un- 
 buried. Meanwhile the prior and the archdeacon who were not 
 admitted to the councils of the usurper, were kept out of the 
 castle, and the bishop's death was concealed for three weeks. 2 
 But the truth began to be whispered abroad, and they gave up 
 the body as if just dead, and on the next Sunday William re- 
 turned. It is too long and not sufficiently to the purpose to 
 tell how he endeavoured in vain to procure his election to the 
 bishopric. Meanwhile messengers, who had been sent to Rome 
 with tidings of the violence and fraud of William, returned with 
 orders that the chapter should proceed to the election of a pre- 
 late, and that if they could not assemble in the cathedral, they 
 should conclude the good work in some neighbouring place. 
 William de S. Barba was finally elected, and after a composition 
 with William Comyn enthroned in the cathedral (October 18th, 
 
 1 " Ipsius tempore Capitulum Mo- 
 nachorum, quale hodie cernitur, in- 
 choatum et consummatum est. Obiit 
 Gaufridus Episcopus. Moriens vero 
 ornamenta Ecclesise non mediocria 
 contulit ; sed in ipsius obitu contigit 
 
 Ecclesiam gravissimas tempestates in- 
 currere." — Anglia Sacra, i. 709. 
 
 2 He died Die Rogationum secunda, 
 sc. feria tertia : his death was kept se- 
 cret usque sextam feriam. 
 
136 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 1144.) The nine years of William's episcopate were scarcely 
 sufficient to repair the damage done by the violence of Comyn, 
 who ravaged the possessions of the see, cut off its retainers, and 
 converted churches into garrisons, at his pleasure. Hugh Pud- 
 scy succeeded under better auspices, and emulating the care of 
 his predecessors to adorn the cathedral, he set himself in earnest 
 to the same task. He commenced therefore a new work at the 
 east end of the church, bases and columns of marble were 
 brought from beyond the sea ; many masters [master masons ?] 
 were successively engaged in the work not without danger to 
 themselves, for the Fates were opposed to the work, and as many 
 beginnings were made as there were masters ; and so, great sums 
 having been expended in workmen, the walls at length had 
 reached a considerable height, when great cracks appeared, and 
 showed that the work was not pleasing to God, and to His ser- 
 vant S. Cuthbert. Leaving this work therefore, the Bishop be- 
 gan another at the west, to which women might be admitted, so 
 that those who were not allowed a bodily approach to the more 
 secret portions 1 of the sacred places, might be consoled by see- 
 ing them from a distance. 2 He suspended also, in the church, 
 before the altar, three silver lanterns, with silver sconces, inter- 
 mixed with glass, in which tapers might burn night and day, in 
 honour of S. Cuthbert, and of the relics ; and he placed others 
 around the altar, like a crown, upon a candelabrum, by which 
 the church might be lighted on the greater festivals. He made 
 also a shrine of gold and silver, unto which he transferred the 
 bones of the Venerable Bede, which was put together with so 
 
 1 Women were not allowed to ap- 
 proach the shrine of S. Cuthbert. 
 There still remains, on the pavement 
 of the church, a great cross, indicating 
 the nearest approach which was al- 
 lowed to them. 
 
 2 »< Novum ergo ad Orientalem hu- 
 jus ecclesise plagam opus construere 
 ccepit. A transmarinis partibus defe- 
 rebantur columnse et bases marmorese. 
 Cumque plures non sine ipsorum peri- 
 culo fatis intercedentibus admitteren- 
 tur magistri, et tot haberet principia 
 
 quot magistros ; sumptibus copiosis in 
 operarios impensis, et muris in aliquam 
 vixaltitudinemerectis, in rimas tandem 
 deficiens, manifestum dabat indicium 
 id Deo et famulo suo S. Cuthberto non 
 fuisse acceptum. Omisso itaque opere 
 illo, aliud ad Occidentem inchoavit ; 
 in quo muliebris licite fieret introitus ; 
 ut qui non habebant ad secretiora 
 sanctorum locorum corporalem acces- 
 sum, aliquod haberent ex eorum con- 
 templatione solatium " — Anglia Sacra, 
 i. 722. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 137 
 
 great skill that it was a doubt whether it was most remarkable 
 for its workmanship, or for its splendour. Nor was he less 
 worthy to be celebrated for the ornaments of gold and silver, 1 
 the cross and the chalice which he gave, ever bearing in mind 
 the words of the psalm, Doinine, dilexi decorem domus tuse. 
 
 Few foundations of this, or of any age are associated with 
 more interesting circumstances, than that of Bolton ; and the 
 great beauty of the remains, wedded as they are to exquisite 
 scenery, will justify a little longer description of them. 
 
 Bolton Abbey stands on the right bank of the river Wharf, at 
 a spot where the character of Wharfclale has nearly completed a 
 rapid, but abrupt transition, from the narrowness of a mountain 
 torrent's rocky bed, to the open and scarcely less picturesque ver- 
 dure of a broad valley, bounded by distant hills. The founders 
 of monastic institutions have been applauded for the beauty 
 and convenience of the sites which they chose for their conven- 
 tual buildings ; which generally repose within some narrow 
 vale, intersected by a stream considerable enough to turn the 
 abbey mill, and to supply the refectory with fish : but if tradi- 
 tion may be trusted, (and as it has in this instance some internal 
 evidence, and great probability on its side, there can be no rea- 
 son why it should not,) the rapid Wharf and its broken bed, 
 gave another and a deeper reason for the choice of the site of 
 Bolton Abbey, than the beauty of the scene, and the abundance 
 of the fish in the river that washes its eastern boundary. 
 
 The tradition is as follows ; — 
 
 In the year 1121, William de Meschines and Cecilia his wife, 
 founded at Embsay, about four miles from Bolton, a priory for 
 
 1 " Fecit etiam in Ecclesise coram 
 altari tria ex argento bactilia cum 
 initiis suis argenteis cristallis mixtim 
 insertis dependi, in quibus lumina die 
 noctuque perpetuo ardentia ob vene- 
 rationem sancti patris Cuthberti et 
 reliquiarum lucerent ; alia quoque in 
 circuitu altaris ad instar corona? super 
 candelabrum poni, quae majoribus so- 
 leniis accensa Ecclesiam suis fulgoribus 
 irradiarent. Feretrumque ex auro et 
 argento, in quod ossa Venerabilis 
 
 Bedse Presbyteri et Doctoris transferre 
 decrevit, ex studio artificum tanta dili- 
 gentia compositum, ut quid magis in 
 eo prsestet, opus an decor, merito ve- 
 niat in dubium. In ornamentis vero, 
 cruce sc. et calice pariter ex auro, et 
 aliis quee alibi scripta babentur, fa- 
 mam melius exornavit ; id semper in 
 corde recogitans canticum, Domine 
 dilexi decorem domus ince." — Anglia 
 Sacra, i. 723. 
 
138 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Canons regular. The founders of Embsay left an only daugh- 
 ter, Auliza, who adopted her mother's name, Romille, and was 
 married to William Fitz-Duncan, a chief notorious for the 
 ravages which he had committed on the property of the Church, 
 in a foray which he headed at the command of David King of 
 Scotland. The lady Romille and this William Fitz-Duncan had 
 two sons ; the younger of whom, called the Boy of Egremont, 
 from one of his grandfathers baronies, survived his father 
 and his elder brother, and became the only hope of his widowed 
 mother. 
 
 A little above Bolton Abbey, the wharf, which is there no in- 
 considerable stream, forces itself with irresistible impetuosity 
 between two rocks, not more than four feet asunder. The tre- 
 mendous roar of the contracted current, and the inevitable 
 destruction of any living being that should fall into it, does not 
 prevent some persons from leaping from rock to rock ; and it is 
 more than probable that it may, in days long past, have been an 
 ordinary place of passing the river. To this place (called the 
 Strid, or Stride, from the facility with which it may be thus 
 passed,) came the Boy of Egremont, leading a greyhound in a 
 leash, and accompanied by a single forester. He sprang over 
 the chasm, but the hound hanging back, and checking him in 
 his leap, dragged him into the torrent. 
 
 The forester hastened to his lady, and with despair in his 
 features, exclaimed, " What is good for a bootless bene." 1 
 Reading in the words and demeanour of her son's attendant, the 
 sadness of the tale that he had to tell, she replied: "Endless 
 sorrow." But great as her first grief was, the resignation of 
 the Christian overcame the despair of the desolate mother ; and 
 with a religious feeling characteristic of those times she pro- 
 vided for the translation of Embsay Priory to the banks of the 
 river in which her son perished : and Bolton Abbey was accord- 
 ingly built as near to the fatal spot as a convenient situation 
 could be found. 2 The translation of the Priory of Embsay to 
 
 1 That is, 2 This tradition is consecrated by 
 
 " Whence can comfort spring time and enshrined in the stanzas of 
 
 Where prayer is of no avail ?" — Wordsworth, beginning, What is good 
 
 Wordsworth. for a bootless bene ? 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 139 
 
 Bolton took place a little more than thirty years after its first 
 foundation, and about the middle of the twelfth century. To 
 this date may perhaps be referred some parts of the remaining 
 structure, though by far the larger portions belong to later 
 periods. The nave is Early English, (i.e., of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury,) the choir, or at least the greater part of it, (for parts of 
 the choir are the oldest remains of all,) is in the Decorated style, 
 and must therefore be referred to the fourteenth century : and at 
 the dissolution of greater monasteries, among which fell Bolton, 
 Richard Moon, the last Prior, had left uncompleted a tower at 
 the west end, which would have been a noble specimen of the 
 Perpendicular style. The exact date of this tower is determined 
 by the inscription which it still bears, recording that Prior Moon 
 laid the foundation in 1520 : but the occasion of its commence- 
 ment has probably no record, but the general character of the 
 whole building as it now stands. The remains of the central 
 piers at the intersection of the nave and transepts, seem to in- 
 dicate that there was before a central tower. This tower had 
 probably given way before Prior Moon's time ; and the piers not 
 being strong enough to admit of its restoration, recourse was 
 had to the erection of a western tower. 1 The tower in the north 
 transept of Fountains Abbey has probably a parallel history ; 
 but there can be no doubt that the Abbot of Fountains selected 
 the position of the new tower with far greater felicity than the 
 Prior of Bolton. 
 
 1 If this conjecture is true, and none 
 other appears to be equally probable, 
 there is a trifling and accidental ana- 
 chronism in the opening of The White 
 Doe of Rylstone, the scene of which is 
 laid by the poet partly in this neigh- 
 bourhood, and the date, 
 
 " In great Eliza's golden time." 
 
 The first Canto opens thus — 
 " From Bolton's old monastic tower, 
 The bells ring loud with gladsome 
 power.'' 
 
 And again — 
 
 « _ Full fifty years 
 
 That sumptuous pile, with all its piers, 
 Too harshly hath been doomed to taste 
 The bitterness of wrongs or waste : 
 
 The courts are ravaged ; but the tower 
 Is standing with a voice of power, 
 That ancient voice which wont to call 
 To mass, or some high festival.'' 
 
 Now if the central tower had fallen 
 before the dissolution, it is certain that 
 there was no tower standing 
 
 " In great Eliza's golden time,'' 
 nor any bells suspended for use. — 
 Whitaker, indeed, argues that the 
 tower was standing, because the bells 
 are mentioned in the inventory of the 
 sequestrators, among the effects of 
 Bolton Priory : but bells unsuspended, 
 (which these would be if the tower had 
 fallen or given way,) would be included 
 in such an inventory. 
 
140 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Priory in its perfect state consisted, of course, of the 
 Church, with the usual appendages of chapter-house, clois- 
 ters, refectory, dormitories, and kitchens, with the Prior's resi- 
 dence, all to the south of the church ; and the outer gateway 
 and the Priory mill, at convenient distances. Of these, the 
 church only remains, partially in ruins ; except the lodge, which 
 is converted into an occasional residence of the Dukes of Devon- 
 shire, the proprietors of this lordly domain. 
 
 Of the church, the choir and transepts are in ruins, leaving, 
 however, enough to prove that they are the remains, if not of one 
 of the largest and most splendid, yet of one of the most elegant 
 churches in the kingdom. The great east window must have 
 been exceedingly grand, and the tracery, yet remaining, of some 
 of the side windows is exquisite. The nave having been appro- 
 priated to the chapelry of Bolton, in the parish of Skipton, at 
 the dissolution, is still used for Divine service, and is kept in 
 neat and sufficient repair. The present entrance is at the west, 
 through the great door of Prior Moon's tower, which forms a 
 singular and not unpleasing ante-church. Touching the walls 
 of the original western front, without being built into them, or 
 at all disturbing them, the tower arch forms to the eye a most 
 remarkable frame-work for the beautiful lancet windows still re- 
 maining entire. 
 
 The casualties to which the structure is subject form interest- 
 ing parts of the history of architecture, especially where they 
 are to be traced to the character of the age, or to any defect in 
 the structure, which may indicate an imperfect development of 
 the art. To the fall of the central towers of Winchester and Ely, 
 and of the western tower of Worcester, we have already alluded ; 
 and though these events belong to a more recent period, yet so 
 far as they were occasioned by an imperfection of structure re- 
 ferable to the imperfect skill and lack of experience of the first 
 Norman architects, they ought to be mentioned at least in this 
 part of the history. There were doubtless many other towers of 
 early date which shared the same fate, between the twelfth and 
 the fifteenth century, among which we may notice those of 
 Fountains and Bolton : but still we must needs say, that of the 
 great number of towers erected about this time, a very large 
 proportion have resisted the varied shocks of six hundred years. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 141 
 
 The great enemy of churches at that day was fire, which was 
 of more frequent occurrence than it has been of late, and also 
 from the constant recurrence of timber roofs, more destructive : 
 for instance York, and also Weremouth were partially destroyed 
 by fire in 1068. Durham was burnt in 1080. In 1113 Wor- 
 cester was destroyed by fire, as Wulstan is said to have foretold 
 on the day of its consecration; 1 and in 1114 Chichester was 
 also burnt. In 1137 York, a cathedral most unhappy in this 
 respect, was again a prey to the flames ; and in the same year 
 the Abbey of Bath shared a like fate. In all these cases the 
 church rose, phoenix-like with renewed vigour and beauty from 
 its ashes ; and perhaps the most splendid of all our monastic 
 remains, owe not a little of their beauty to the sacrilegious hands 
 which set fire to an earlier church. The author of the life of 
 " S. William Archbishop of York," gives the following pictu- 
 resque account of the tumult, in which the enemies of the Arch- 
 bishop destroyed the Abbey of Fountains in which he had taken 
 refuge. 
 
 " They attacked the Abbey of Fountains in a large body, with drawn 
 swords, which they hoped to bedew in the blood of the holy Abbot. Their 
 rage had so passed all control, that they feared not to profane the sacred 
 Abbey itself : with impious and sacrilegious hands they tore down the 
 gates, and entered the very sanctuary : but when he, for whose blood they 
 thirsted, was not to be found, they rushed through the adjacent buildings 
 and offices, laying every thing waste, and carrying off whatever was valua- 
 ble ; and to finish their work of impiety, they set fire to the building, 
 erected at so much labour and expense, and soon reduced it to a mass of 
 ashes. At a short distance off stood the holy brotherhood, and beheld in 
 dismay and anguish their house and church crumbling and sinking into 
 ashes before the devouring flames. One little oratory, with its adjacent 
 offices, remained to them not quite consumed, like a brand snatched from 
 the fire. Here at the foot of the altar lay prostrate the Abbot, pouring 
 forth in prayer his soul to God. His prayers were heard, for here, while 
 the hand of the destroyer was at work, he lay unseen, unhurt, 'safe under 
 the defence of the Most High, and abiding under the shadow of the 
 Almighty.' The destroyers supposing that he was not at Fountains, at 
 length departed, 1 laden,' as the monkish writer says, ' not with much 
 money, but with much damnation.' They lived not long to rejoice in their 
 impious deed : they were struck with the hand of God, and were cut off 
 almost immediately in their sins, some of them dying of consumption, 
 
 1 Worcester was again burnt in 1202. 
 
142 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 some by drowning, and some were struck with madness ; all of them in a 
 short time perished in various ways, and almost all unreconciled to God ! 
 Meanwhile the abbot and monks, taking courage and comfort from above, 
 set themselves vigorously to work to rebuild the abbey and monastery ; 
 and as it is written, ' the bricks are fallen down, but we will build with 
 hewn stones,' so it was with the Abbey of Fountains : holy and faithful 
 men of the neighbourhood gave their assistance, and in a short time the 
 new fabric rose more beautiful and glorious than the former." 
 
 In writing the history of an art in which we are so immea- 
 surably surpassed by our remote ancestors as we are in Ecclesi- 
 astical Architecture, and which, too, is so greatly elevated by its 
 high office as a handmaid of the Church, there is no little dan- 
 ger of seeming unthankful for our own happier lot in many 
 things, and especially for our own less corrupted faith and purer 
 institutions. And, indeed, it would be but palpable weakness to 
 dissemble the conviction, that some quality there must be rather 
 moral or religious, than either physical or purely intellectual, in 
 which the churchmen of the middle ages exceeded ourselves ; 
 and which enabled them to excel us in the application of the 
 noblest of arts, to the highest of purposes. It is on this account 
 the more necessary to bear in mind the many and most impor- 
 tant respects in which we are greatly superior to them. I do 
 not speak of doctrine, because as an Anglican churchman, writ- 
 ing for Anglican churchmen, I cannot suppose a question on 
 that point ; and also because the subject does not at all fall in 
 with the purpose of this volume : but the violence and blood- 
 shed, and the imperfect social system, which converted churches 
 into sanctuaries, and then failed to respect the religion of the 
 place : the outbreaks of the people, never wanting leaders in 
 their attacks against the privileges, and even against the sacred 
 edifices of the Church, and the retreats of her consecrated sons, 
 into which they carried fire and sword without compunction : 
 the bitter feuds between different degrees and orders of the de- 
 voted servants of the sanctuary, which sometimes subverted 
 churches, and sometimes monasteries, and filled the court of the 
 Lord's house with satire and grossness, visible signs of anger 
 and rivalry ; — these things are within our province and teach us 
 a lesson of thankfulness that God has cast our lot in a land 
 fairer, and in places pleasanter and more holy, than they would 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 143 
 
 have been when blood and violence and rampant injustice, and 
 unbridled rage and malice, cried so loud, even from the sacred 
 precincts of the Lord's house, for the chastising rod. 
 
 Viewed in this light there is a moral necessity for intermin- 
 gling with the records of noble acts of devotion, and the praises 
 of a higher art than now stoops to this lower sphere, such in- 
 stances of destructive sacrilege as that just related. Others will 
 occur to the reader, such as for instance the murder of Thomas a 
 Beeket before the altar of S.Benedict in his own church; which 
 has besides an importance in this history as the origin of a part 
 of that Cathedral which has no fellow elsewhere, and is called 
 from the prelate who thus fell, Becket's chapel, and Becket's 
 crown. 1 
 
 One or two like instances I shall collect from the pages of a 
 contemporary chronicler, now open before me, and with these I 
 shall close for the present the less pleasant task of retouching 
 the darker shades of our country's history. 
 
 " On that day," viz. October 22, 1189, says Richard of Devizes, 5 * " Hugh 
 de Nonante, Bishop of Coventry, laid his complaint before the Archbishop 
 and Bishops assembled at the consecration of the Bishops elect, against 
 his monks of Coventry, for having laid violent hands on him and drawn 
 his blood before the altar. He had also expelled the greater part of the 
 congregation before his complaint, nor did he cease from his importunity, 
 until he had obtained the sanction of all the bishops in attestation to the 
 Pope against the monks." 3 
 
 Coventry seems to be a place of many such troubles, for in 
 the following year — 
 
 " William, legate of the Apostolic see, held a council at Westminster, 
 in which he sentenced all religion [all the religious ?] to be expelled from 
 Coventry cathedral, and prebendary clerks to be substituted in place of 
 
 1 The martyrdom of Thomas a 
 Becket has another connexion with 
 this work, as affording a subject to 
 many illuminations, frescoes, and 
 painted windows. It may also be ob- 
 served that in dedications of churches 
 in England, S. Thomas is usually S. 
 Thomas of Canterbury, and not S. 
 Thomas the Apostle. 
 
 2 I have used Gale's translation. 
 
 3 It does not much alter the merits 
 of the case as bearing on the charac- 
 ter of the times, that the monks were 
 resisting an armed force, which the 
 Bishop had brought to expel them 
 from their monastery. — See Godwin de 
 Preesulibus. 
 
144 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the monks." And in 1192, " the Bishop of Chester, who, from his detes- 
 tation of religion, had expelled the monks from Coventry, entirely broke 
 down all the workshops there were in the monastery, that by the altered 
 appearance of the place, all remembrance of its past state might be taken 
 away from posterity. And further, lest the ruins of the walls should some 
 day bespeak their author, the church of the place, which had not been 
 finished, was found a ready plea, and having bestowed the materials upon 
 it, without charge, he began to build. Moreover, he appointed the masons 
 and plaisterers their hire out of the chattels of the monastery. They built 
 eagerly, even the absent canons, around the church spacious and lofty villas 
 perhaps for their own use, if even once in their lives any chance should offer 
 a cause for visiting the place. None of the prebendaries regularly resided 
 there any more than they do elsewhere ; but doing great things for the 
 gates of the palaces, they have left to poor vicars induced by a trifling re- 
 muneration to insult God, to them have they intrusted the holy chant and 
 vanquished household gods and bare church walls. 
 
 " This forsooth is true religion ; this is that glorious religion of the 
 clerks, for the sake of which the Bishop of Chester, the first of men that 
 durst commit so great iniquity, expelled his monks from Coventry." 
 
 We would willingly curtail the account, but there is a raciness 
 about the language of the monk of Devizes, even yet vocal to 
 the wise, which forbids much alteration ; and besides the very 
 bitterness of the man is a part of the evil we are exposing ; and 
 whether Richard of Devizes is a slanderer, or Hugh of Chester 
 a coarse sacrilegious tyrant, it is but a part of the overwhelming 
 hostility between the secular and the regular clergy. 
 
 " O what a fat morsel, and not to be absorbed, is a monk ! Many a 
 thousand has that bit choked, while the wicked at their death have had it 
 for their viaticum. If as often as a monk were calumniated and reproached 
 he were consumed, all religion would be absorbed before many ages. At 
 all times and in every place, whether the Bishop spoke in earnest or in jest, 
 a monk was some part of his discourse. But as he could not desist from 
 speaking of them, lest he should incur the opprobrium of a detractor, if 
 in their absence he should carp at their order, he resolved to keep some 
 monk abiding with him in his court, that his conversation about them 
 might be made less offensive, by the presence and audience of one of them. 
 So he took as his quasi chaplain, a certain monk, scarcely of age, but yet 
 who had professed at Burton, whom to the scandal of religion, he gene- 
 rally took about with him. O excess of sorrow ! Even among the angels 
 of God is found iniquity. The monk, wise and prudent, seduced to the 
 delusion, hardened his forehead as a harlot, that he a monk should not 
 blush when monks were reviled. On a certain day, as the Bishop was 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 145 
 
 standing over his workmen at Coventry, his monk attending close by his 
 side, on whom the Bishop familiarly resting, said, ' Is it not proper and 
 expedient, my monk, even in your judgment, that the great beauty of so 
 fair a church, that such a comely edifice, should rather be appropriated to 
 gods than devils ?' And while the monk was hesitating at the obscurity 
 of the words, he added, ' 1/ said he, ' call my clerks gods, and monks 
 devils !' And presently, putting forth the forefinger of his right hand to- 
 wards his clerks, who were standing round him, continued, ' I say ye are 
 gods, and ye are all the children of the Highest!' And having turned 
 again to the left, concluded to the monk, ' But ye monks shall die like 
 devils ; and as one and the greatest of your princes ye shall fall away into 
 hell, because ye are devils upon earth. Truly, if it should befal me to 
 officiate for a dead monk, which I should be very unwilling to do, I would 
 commend his body and soul not to God, but to the devil !' The monk, 
 who was standing in the very place that the monks had been plundered 
 of, did not refute the insult on the monks, and because on such an occasion 
 he was silent, met, as he deserved, with the reward of eternal silence being 
 imposed upon him. For suddenly a stone falling from the steeple of the 
 church, dashed out the brains of the monk who was attending on the 
 Bishop, the Bishop being preserved in safety for some greater judgment." 1 
 
 Let us now take a general survey of the ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture of the Norman period. 
 
 It is probable that before the close of the twelfth century- 
 there was scarcely a district, except, of course, the very thickly 
 populated manufacturing towns, which happen to be placed 
 almost universally in places least inhabited in those days, which 
 had not as many churches as it has now ; and it is certain that 
 in many parts of the country, especially in the neighbourhood 
 of monastic or cathedral establishments, the churches were more 
 numerous than they are at present. The greater part of the 
 monasteries, too, which grew to future importance, were already 
 founded, and the vast monastic pile, rising over the wooded 
 banks of some murmuring stream, was a sight which whispered 
 often of retirement from the world to the gay and proud, and to 
 the poor and needy offered alms and a blessing. If there were 
 darker shadows in the picture, morally and religiously speaking, 
 they had no expression, nothing to suggest them, in the general 
 outline and character of the church and the cloister. 
 
 1 Hugh de Nonante, however, did The year after his death the seculars 
 not meet with a worse fate than the were driven out of Coventry, and the 
 unhappy monk in the text. He died a monks reinstated. See Godwin de 
 penitent, and in the habit of a monk ! Prcesulibus. 
 
 L 
 
146 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Descending to particulars, there was of course considerable 
 variety in the character of different churches, according to their 
 destination and importance. The smaller parish church usually 
 consisted of a nave and chancel, with a tower, or frequently a 
 bell-gable only at the west end. Sometimes, however, (indeed 
 not unfrequently, if we may judge of the number which still 
 retain this arrangement,) a third compartment was added to 
 the east of the chancel, which became the sacrarium, and which 
 was frequently apsidal in its termination j 1 and in this case the 
 tower was sometimes, as at Stewkley, over the central compart- 
 ment, or that between the nave and the sacrarium. Aisles were 
 certainly not so common as in any future style, except in larger 
 churches, although they were by no means necessarily excluded. 
 In all cases a great part of the general exterior effect was due to 
 the high-pitched roof which formed a very large proportion of 
 the whole mass. 
 
 The door was often placed in a projection of the wall, with a 
 pedimental top, to give depth for jambs and arches of several 
 successively receding orders ; and even where the thickness of 
 the wall was not thus increased, there were almost invariably 
 two orders of mouldings, each supported by its square jamb, 
 with a shaft between them. The doorways of churches of this 
 style, of all degrees of splendour and importance, are extremely 
 rich, as compared with the rest of the exterior. 2 This is not an 
 isolated particular. It is to be referred to a general principle, 
 that of presenting the decorated face of every portion of the 
 church to the advancing spectator. In their application of this 
 principle the Normans were at least so far eminent, that the 
 negative of the principle was most fully carried out by them, 
 the other face of each portion of the church being often abso- 
 lutely devoid of ornament, even when the former is very rich. 
 
 1 This form is so characteristic of 
 the style, that I shall mention some 
 examples. Steetley, Derbyshire, a 
 ruined but very beautiful specimen ; 
 Birkin, Yorkshire ; Kilpeck, Hereford- 
 shire ; Stewkley, Buckinghamshire ; 
 Dunwich, Suffolk ; and, on the au- 
 thority of a drawing from a set of ec- 
 clesiological notices made in 1592, 
 
 given in Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 331, 
 the ancient chapel of Prestbury, in 
 Cheshire. 
 
 2 Church builders in all the succeed- 
 ing styles have borne testimony to the 
 beauty of Norman doors, by frequently 
 preserving them when all other parts 
 of the church were rebuilt. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 147 
 
 The Norman architect never seemed to contemplate the possi- 
 bility of a worshipper turning back. Entering at the rich door, 
 which presents a glorious assemblage of decorations to the 
 advancing eye, we leave behind us, as we pass the threshold, a 
 perfect blank. We look to the chancel-arch, and, even in verjt 
 small churches, find three or four concentric orders, with their 
 jambs and jamb-shafts, each crowded with rich and effective de- 
 corations ; and beyond this is the apse with its three windows, 
 each surmounted with a glory of zigzag mouldings, and sepa- 
 rated by vaulting-shafts, from which moulded groining-ribs arise 
 to one point over the place of the altar, like a rich imperial 
 crown ; and at the south of the chancel is the little side door, 1 
 through which the worshipper passes out, without having dis- 
 covered that if he had turned his head at any stage of his ad- 
 vance he would have seen but bare walls, and unadorned arches. 
 All this may or may not have been designed to express such a 
 meaning, but it surely looks like an embodying of the words of 
 our Lord, " He that putteth his hand to the plough, and looketh 
 back, is not worthy of Me." 
 
 In conventual and cathedral churches this principle is not so 
 fully carried out in the interior, and that because it does not so 
 fully apply. They are for a society of clerics, who are never sup- 
 posed to approach the offices of the church, but to be always in 
 them, totus in illis, to be conversant in them, and, whichever way 
 they turn, still about the work of the sanctuary. According to this 
 notion the east end, when all the furniture is there, is indeed 
 the richest, because it is the place of the highest mysteries, but 
 all around is not plain except by comparison. Yet on the exte- 
 rior, which represents the aspect which the church presents to 
 the world, the rule holds. There the west front, the face which 
 one approaches from without, is by far the most gorgeous ; sur- 
 passing the east in decoration, as much as the east surpasses the 
 west end, in the interior. I have mentioned this principle here, 
 not only because we first find it, but because we find it most 
 
 1 This is usually called the priest's pass out of the church after the celebra- 
 
 door, but I am persuaded that it was tionof mass. I must confess, however, 
 
 really intended not for the priest to that general authority is here against 
 
 enter by, but for the worshippers to me. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 fully carried out, in the Norman style. It gradually gave way 
 before a different character of ornament, as well as a different 
 application of it, until, in the Perpendieular style it is scarcely 
 recognized, though it still retains its hold in the elaborate finish 
 ftf the west fronts of our larger churches. 
 
 In the arrangement of their essential parts the larger conven- 
 tual churches were more uniform than the parish churches of 
 this age ; though their extent, and numerous component parts 
 gave room for great variety in composition. In almost all there 
 was a long nave, a transept, (or cross, as it was anciently called,) 
 and a choir of scarcely half the length of the nave, 1 and but a 
 little longer than the transepts : indeed sometimes, as at Kirk- 
 stall, the choir extended but one bay beyond the transepts, and 
 just served to form the head of the cross, lest that most appro- 
 priate form of the temple of Christ The Crucified should be 
 lost. 2 Of course, in the interior the ritual choir extended into the 
 nave, so that it had no defect of length for the purposes of 
 divine worship. 
 
 To nave, transepts and chancel alike there were generally 
 aisles ; to the nave almost always, to the transepts sometimes 
 on the east side only, where the several bays became chapels, 
 with separate altars each under its east window. The choir was 
 sometimes without aisles, and sometimes it was actually sur- 
 rounded by them, forming a passage called the processional, be- 
 hind and round the apse, or other eastern end. The apsidal 
 termination was perhaps comparatively even more frequent in 
 large churches than in small ones ; indeed, taking the cathedrals 
 of England of Norman date as our guide, we should say it was 
 almost universal. The altar was placed in the chord of 
 the circle of which the apse was composed, 3 and behind it, 
 
 1 This is the most essential differ- 
 ence in the ground plans of churches 
 of this and the succeeding styles. In 
 the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
 centuries, the choir was nearly as long 
 as the nave. 
 
 2 Professor Willis (Canterbury, p. 
 67,) has given the number of bays 
 which constituted the choir of all the 
 
 great Norman conventual churches 
 whose dates are ascertained, and whose 
 plan is recoverable. 
 
 3 This fact is curiously ascertained 
 in the church of Birkin, in Yorkshire, 
 by a hagioscope from an additional 
 Decorated aisle which commands the 
 centre of the chord of the apse. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 149 
 
 raised considerably above the ground, and approached by steps 
 from the processionary, was the Bishop's throne, in cathedral 
 churches. That at Norwich still remains. Gervase describes 
 the site of that at Canterbury. It was in the wall, in the cir- 
 cuit behind the altar, and here the Archbishops used to sit 
 on high festivals, during the solemnizing of the mass, until the 
 consecration, and then they descended by eight steps to the 
 altar of Christ : this throne also, like that at Norwich, was pro- 
 bably approached from the processionary : until within a few 
 years it occupied its original position ; it is now removed into 
 the corona. 
 
 The ground plan of large churches had also several chapels 
 within the shelter, so to speak, of the choir and transepts ; and 
 these, as well as the choir had also, in general, apsidal termina- 
 tions towards the east, 1 and the ends of the transepts sometimes 
 have the same form in foreign churches of this age, but in 
 England I believe never. 
 
 The shortness of the choir, and its apsidal east end, with other 
 subordinate apses are characteristics of this style, by which it is 
 associated with the Saxon, and through that with the Basilican 
 form of churches, so closely connected philosophically as well as 
 in fact, with the earliest church architecture. The smaller 
 churches, such as that of Steetley, most closely follow the Basili- 
 can plan ; the cruciform arrangement of a monastic or cathedral 
 church, combining with it the more distinctively Christian ar- 
 rangements ; but there can be no doubt that the origin of the 
 apse is to be sought in the Roman Basilica. It was discontinued 
 sooner than we can find any satisfactory reason for its being laid 
 aside. Its disadvantage is that it breaks up the east window, 
 which is so magnificent a feature in later styles ; but the lancet 
 of the Early English might well have been contented with the 
 space allotted to it in a semi-octagon ; yet the apse had departed 
 before the Early English was fully developed, nor does it appear, 
 
 1 In Professor Willis's conjectural 
 plans, there are three apses in the 
 Saxon Cathedral of Canterbury ; three 
 in the church as it was rebuilt by Lan- 
 franc, and nine in the enlarged church 
 
 of Anselm. Messrs. Buckler give five 
 apses to the church of S. Alban's, be- 
 sides two which are apsidal in the in- 
 terior, but not in the exterior outline. 
 
150 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 except very rarely in later buildings. 1 The advantages of the 
 apse might have pleaded for its retention even to the end, for 
 nothing can exceed the grandeur which it gives to an exterior 
 view, when it is supported by flying buttresses, springing from 
 the surrounding processionary. 
 
 The increased length of the choir is, on the other hand, a clear 
 advantage of every succeeding arrangement, over that of the 
 Normans, for it restores harmony between the structural and the 
 liturgical division of the church, the choir being no, longer 
 brought down into the nave in the interior arrangements. 
 
 The great eastern crypt, extending sometimes beneath the 
 whole of the choir, from the central tower to the extreme east, 
 is another distinctive feature of Norman construction, which it 
 borrowed from the preceding style, but which was not continued 
 in succeeding centuries. These crypts were used as burial places 
 of holy men, whence they were called confessionaries, and some 
 became crowded with their shrines, and with altars, and chapels, 
 and they became places of the most retired devotions of the 
 faithful. 2 The crypts of Canterbury, Winchester, Gloucester, 
 Rochester, and Worcester, were all founded before 1085, and 
 after this they were discontinued, except as additions to those 
 already existing, as at Canterbury and Rochester, the first espe- 
 cially being of great magnificence, and in every respect worthy of 
 careful study. The Early English crypt of the Lady Chapel 
 at Hereford, is a single instance of later foundation; 3 and 
 passing the borders we have the magnificent crypt, also Early 
 English, of the Cathedral of Glasgow. Still crypts may be 
 considered distinctively Saxon and Norman appendages of our 
 great churches. 
 
 1 Like many early arrangements, it 
 seems to have been partially revived in 
 the latest style. It occurs for instance 
 at S. Michael's, Coventry, and in 
 Henry the Seventh's chapel, West- 
 minster. 
 
 2 I cannot refrain from directing at- 
 tention to the gross and unfounded 
 abuse of Fosbroke's article on crypts, 
 in the Encyclopaedia of Antiquities. 
 Among the parts of churches, he enu- 
 
 merates crypts, for clandestine drink- 
 ing, feasting \ and tilings of that kind, 
 (p. 125.) The man who could write 
 thus is not of course very accessible 
 to shame, but even he might blush 
 to find that his own notices of the 
 uses of crypts from old authorities 
 prove that they were purely devo- 
 tional. 
 
 3 Professor Willis' Canterbury, p. 
 71. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 151 
 
 We now proceed to the details of structure. 
 
 Throughout the whole edifice, the aisle walls were usually 
 pierced with one or two series of windows, and there was a 
 clerestory over them : the ends of the transepts and of the choir 
 had, in most cases, three ranges of windows : but the west end, 
 for greater dignity of effect had generally but one set of taller 
 windows over the lofty and gorgeous west door; and it was 
 sometimes rendered still more imposing, by towers, terminating 
 the aisles. Another tower rising from the intersection of the 
 cross seemed borne aloft by the mighty arms stretched from the 
 four quarters to sustain it, but it was only of sufficient elevation 
 to break the long line of nave, choir, and transepts all of equal 
 height. 
 
 Throughout the exterior, large surfaces were broken by arcades 
 of round-headed arches, resting on engaged shafts, and fre- 
 quently intersecting. Sometimes, especially in the tower, some 
 of these were pierced and formed windows. Among external 
 decorations, which added not merely to the richness of the 
 building on a close view, but to the general character also, must 
 be added the corbel table, often of grotesque heads, or other 
 rude forms, and from its depth and position of great con- 
 sequence as a decorative feature : and the reticulated or imbri- 
 cated forms cut on the face of large surfaces, as in the tower of 
 Castor Church, and the north transept gable of Durham 
 Cathedral. 1 
 
 The roofs externally were all of high pitch, those of the towers 
 but little more so than the rest ; and they were covered gene- 
 rally with tiles or shingles, but sometimes with lead. The nearest 
 approaches to spires, in form if not in height, were found in 
 the large pinnacles surmounting angle-buttresses in the larger 
 churches. 2 
 
 In the interior, round arches were supported sometimes by 
 cylindrical pillars, varying in height from two to seven diame- 
 
 1 This method of relieving a sur- 
 face is one of the characters de- 
 rived by the Normans from the use 
 of brick. 
 
 2 As for instance, the splendid tur- 
 rets with their conical caps at the east 
 
 end of Peterborough. Connected with 
 a small church these would in fact form 
 spires, in the ordinary acceptation of 
 the term, and no mean spires they 
 would be. 
 
152 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ters, 1 (but almost universally more nearly approaching the 
 former proportion,) sometimes by square piers, or masses of wall, 
 with or without engaged shafts to relieve their flat surfaces. 
 The bases were generally square, as were also the capitals ; the 
 latter very plain or variously decorated, sometimes with grotesque 
 figures of leaves, men and animals ; sometimes in imitation 
 more or less exact of the Corinthian capital, which was received, 
 however, by the Norman architect, through the western empire, 
 and was never produced with a perfectly classical grace. The 
 abacus was almost invariably square, and either without mould- 
 ings, or without such mouldings as would break the effect of 
 a straight line, presented by a succession through several com- 
 partments of a building. In short the abacus represents the 
 classical entablature, running unbroken along a whole building, 
 and on this account is a very valuable link, in Romanesque, be- 
 tween the classical forms of the Grecian orders, and the very 
 dissimilar, but not less beautiful creations of mediaeval art. 
 
 The roof of the nave and choir was either open to the main 
 timbers, or ceiled with flat panels, level with the top of the 
 walls, and painted in brilliant colours. 2 A large expanse, as 
 that of the nave or choir, was seldom if ever vaulted ; even the 
 crypts being divided into a greater number of aisles than the 
 superincumbent edifice, to avoid a large span of roof : but the 
 aisles are often vaulted. The geometrical construction of the 
 vaulting where it did occur, was very simple ; the four sides of 
 the compartments being equal, two semicylinders intersecting 
 one another formed the simplest quadripartite vault. Where 
 the sides of the compartment were unequal, one of the cylin- 
 ders was usually stilted that the central point of intersection 
 might coincide at the top of the vault ; but sometimes the con- 
 struction was so inartificial, as to throw the groining ribs more 
 or less apart. Into more elaborate geometrical arrangements I 
 shall not here enter. 
 
 The mechanical construction of vaults was often equally sim- 
 ple, or rather rude. The groining ribs (and cross springers 
 where there are any) alone are of wrought stone, and support 
 
 1 Rickman. But those in the crypt 2 That of Peterborough is usually 
 of York are of much less than two di- considered original, 
 ameters. 
 
THE NORMAN PERIOD. 
 
 153 
 
 the whole of the vault, which is of rough cement laid upon the 
 centrings which were removed when it was set, and sometimes 
 to this day retains the impressions of the boards. The practical 
 imperfection of this construction often becomes apparent in the 
 premature decay of the vault. " The roins of Lindisfarne, on 
 the Northumberland coast, have long exhibited the great cross 
 springer rib, over the intersection of the nave and transepts, re- 
 maining, while the rest of the roof is destroyed." 1 The choir 
 of Kirkstall presents much the same appearance, the in- 
 terstitial vaulting falling rapidly to decay, while the groining 
 ribs remain. 
 
 It is no part of the plan of this work to enumerate or de- 
 scribe all the decorations distinctive of each style : these may be 
 found in any manual of ecclesiastical architecture. "Where, how- 
 ever, there is a progressive development, or a character common 
 to several forms, but more or less peculiar to a particular style, 
 the class of decorations in which these are found, are a part not 
 only of the details, but of the history of the art. 
 
 The decorations of the Saxon era consisted almost exclusively 
 of what may be called surface carving, as distinguished from 
 mouldings. In this style surface carving still preponderates 2 
 though mouldings begin to appear; but they are themselves 
 generally enriched with forms which break in upon the continu- 
 ous projections and hollows which alone can strictly be called 
 mouldings. When, however, the same forms are repeated along 
 the same line, they are generally included under the term 
 mouldings, and thus, two of the most beautiful and character- 
 istic kinds are called the chevron or zigzag, and the beak-head 
 moulding. The former is perhaps the most effective decoration 
 in ecclesiastical architecture, and is especially beautiful over 
 the interior of window arches where it receives and scatters the 
 light with great effect. The medallion moulding consisting of 
 series of subjects carved in relief upon round or oblong paterae 
 is more complicated, though in general effect less beautiful : but 
 it affords ample opportunity to display the fecundity of the 
 
 1 Rickman. 
 
 2 Though nothing can be farther 
 removed from it in character and effect, 
 the panelling and decoration of sur- 
 
 faces in the late Perpendicular, as seen 
 in excess in King's College Chapel, is 
 a return to the principle of Norman 
 surface sculpture. 
 
154 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 mason's invention, and sometimes presents a curions series of 
 carvings ; as for instance the twelve signs of the zodiac, several 
 of the parables of the New Testament, and the like. All these 
 are as we have said, strictly speaking, rather surface decorations 
 of mouldings, than mouldings strictly so called, and we shall 
 find them gradually disappearing in the succeeding style. — 
 Where mouldings occur in this style they generally occupy the 
 wall and the soffit plane, 1 or even one of these alone, and not 
 the chamfer plane; and of course all the' profuse decorations 
 which cover the face of the mouldings occupy the same position, 
 which gives a squareness, (a directness, if we may so speak, to 
 express character as well as mere form,) to the decorated sur- 
 faces of the Normans. Whether or no it has any connection 
 with the character of the people, the Norman is a most straight- 
 forward style. And to this we have only to add that on the 
 whole the effect of Norman decoration is due to the aggregation 
 of a great number of forms, each in itself not possessing much 
 beauty ; but it may admit a doubt whether any succeeding style 
 produced an effect equal in solemnity and gorgeousness to the 
 door-ways, and chancel-arches of the Norman period. 
 
 1 I.e., the plane of the wall, and that at right angles with it, and not at an 
 angle of 45°. 
 
155 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Transition from Norman to Early English. 
 
 The Burning of Canterbury Cathedral. — The Restoration by Wil- 
 liam of Sens and William the Englishman. — The older and 
 newer fabrics compared. — introduction of the pointed arch 
 
 and its results. influence of the patron saint on the fabric 
 
 of the Church. 
 
 " In the year of grace one thousand one hundred and seventy-four, by 
 the just but occult judgment of God, the Church of Christ at Canterbury 
 was consumed by fire, in the forty-fourth year from its dedication, that 
 glorious choir, to wit, which had been so magnificently completed by the 
 care and industry of Prior Conrad. 
 
 " Now the manner of the burning and repair was as follows. In the 
 aforesaid year, on the nones of September, at about the ninth hour, (Sep. 
 5, between three and four p.m.) and during an extraordinarily violent south 
 wind, a fire broke out before the gate of the church, and outside the walls 
 of the monastery, by which three cottages were half destroyed. From 
 thence, while the citizens were assembling, and subduing the fire, cinders 
 and sparks carried aloft by the high wind, were deposited upon the church, 
 and being driven by the fury of the wind between the joints of the lead, 
 remained there amongst the half-rotten planks, and shortly glowing with 
 increasing heat, set fire to the rotten rafters ; from these the fire was 
 communicated to the larger beams and their braces, no one yet perceiving 
 or helping. For the well painted ceiling below, and the sheet-lead cover- 
 ing above, concealed between them the fire that had arisen within. 
 
 " Meantime the three cottages, whence the mischief had arisen, being 
 destroyed, and the popular excitement having subsided, everybody went 
 home again, while the neglected church was consuming with internal fire 
 unknown to all. But beams and braces burning, the flames rose to the 
 slopes of the roof ; and the sheets of lead yielded to the increasing heat 
 and began to melt. Thus the raging wind, finding a freer entrance, in- 
 creased the fury of the fire ; and the flames beginning to show themselves, 
 a cry arose in the churchyard : 1 See ! see ! the church is on fire !' 
 
 " Then the people and the monks assemble in haste, they draw water, 
 they brandish their hatchets, they run up the stairs, full of eagerness to 
 save the church, already, alas ! beyond their help. But when they reach 
 the roof and perceive the black smoke and scorching flames that pervade 
 it throughout, they abandon the attempt in despair, and thinking only of 
 their own safety, make all haste to descend. 
 
156 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " And now that the fire had loosened the beams from the pegs that bound 
 them together, the half-burnt timbers fell into the choir below upon the 
 seats of the monks ; the seats, consisting of a great mass of wood-work, 
 caught fire, and thus the mischief grew worse and worse. And it was mar- 
 vellous, though sad, to behold how that glorious choir itself fed and assisted 
 the fire that was destroying it. For the flames multiplied by this mass of 
 timber, and extending upwards full fifteen cubits, scorched and burnt the 
 walls, and more especially injured the columns of the church. 
 
 " And now the people ran to the ornaments of the church, and began 
 to tear down the pallia and curtains, some that they might save, but some 
 to steal them. The reliquary chests were thrown down from the high beam 
 and thus broken, and their contents scattered ; but the monks collected 
 them and carefully preserved them from the fire. Some there were, who, 
 inflamed with a wicked and diabolical cupidity, feared not to appropriate 
 to themselves the things of the church, which they had saved from the fire. 
 
 "In this manner the house of God, hitherto delightful as a paradise of 
 pleasures, was now made a despicable heap of ashes, reduced to a dreary 
 wilderness, and laid open to all the injuries of the weather. 
 
 " The people were astonished that the Almighty should suffer such 
 things, and maddened with excess of grief and perplexity, they tore their 
 hair and beat the walls and pavement of the church with their heads and 
 hands, blaspheming the Lord and His saints, the patrons of the church ; 
 and many, both of laity and monks, would rather have laid down their 
 lives than that the church should have so miserably perished. 
 
 " For not only was the choir consumed in the fire, but also the infirmary, 
 with the chapel of S. Mary, and several other offices in the court ; more- 
 over many ornaments and goods of the church were reduced to ashes." 1 
 
 The pure Norman style found a tomb in the ashes of Canter- 
 bury, over which Gervase so pathetically mourns ; for in the res- 
 toration, to which we now proceed, still following the authority 
 of Gervase, an eyewitness of all that passed, the pointed arch is 
 frequently used, and several Early English decorations are intro- 
 duced. 
 
 1 This account of the burning of the 
 Cathedral of Canterbury is taken from 
 Gervase, and from Professor Willis's 
 translation of his history. Professor 
 Willis observes that " the most re- 
 markable mediaeval writer of architec- 
 tural history is undoubtedly Gervase:" 
 it is equally true to say that the most 
 remarkable living writer on mediaeval 
 architecture is undoubtedly the trans- 
 lator of Gervase. The history of Can- 
 terbury Cathedral is perfect. With 
 
 a glorious subject ; with a contem- 
 porary chronicle before him surpas- 
 sing every other in existence for 
 minute description ; with a full know- 
 ledge both of structure and of ecclesi- 
 ology to guide him in making the 
 cathedral and the chronicle illustrate 
 each other, Professor Willis has pro- 
 duced a work which has done more to 
 fix our knowledge on the subject of 
 which he treats, than any other work 
 in existence. 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 157 
 
 The choir being destroyed, the Clergy of Canterbury put to- 
 gether as well as they could an altar and station in the nave, 
 where they might wail and howl, rather than sing the matins 
 and nocturns : and taking the relics of SS. Dunstan and El- 
 phege, the patron saints of the church from the ruins, they dis- 
 posed them as decently as possible at the altar of the Holy Cross 
 in the nave, and there, for five years the brethren remained in 
 grief and sorrow, separated from the people only by a low wall. 
 
 Meanwhile they consulted how the church might be repaired; 
 but this was impossible, for the columns of the church, com- 
 monly called the pillars, were scaling in pieces from the heat of 
 the fire, and hardly able to stand. French and English artifi- 
 cers were consulted, but they differed in opinion, some under- 
 taking to repair the columns without mischief to the walls above : 
 others asserting that the church must be pulled down, if the 
 brethren would worship in safety. 
 
 "However, amongst the other workmen there had come a certain 
 William of Sens, a man active and ready, and as a workman most skilful 
 both in wood and stone. Him therefore they retained, on account of his 
 lively genius and good reputation, and dismissed the others. And to him, 
 and to the providence of God was the execution of the work committed. 
 
 " And he, residing many days with the monks and carefully surveying 
 the burnt walls in their upper and lower parts, within and without, did yet 
 for some time conceal what he found necessary to be done, lest the truth 
 should kill them in their present state of pusillanimity. 
 
 " But he went on preparing all things that were needful for the work, 
 either of himself or by the agency of others. And when he found that 
 the monks began to be somewhat comforted, he ventured to confess that 
 the pillars rent with the fire and all that they supported must be destroyed 
 if the monks wished to have a safe and excellent building. At length 
 they agreed, being convinced by reason and wishing to have the work as 
 good as he promised, and above all things to live in security ; thus they 
 consented patiently, if not willingly, to the destruction of the choir. 
 
 " And now he addressed himself to the procuring of stone from beyond 
 sea. He constructed ingenious machines for loading and unloading ships, 
 and for drawing cement and stones. He delivered moulds for shaping the 
 stones to the sculptors who were assembled, and diligently prepared other 
 things of the same kind. The choir thus condemned to destruction was 
 pulled down, and nothing else was done in this year." 
 
 Then follows in the chronicle of Gervase a history and de- 
 scription of the former church, which with Professor Willis* 
 
158 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 plan and notes of explanation are most graphic and instructive ; 
 so that we are almost in as favourable a condition even with 
 respect to the church of Lanfranc, which was destroyed long 
 before Gervase's time, as the predecessors of the chronicler, who 
 had not, as he complains, left behind them any very clear de- 
 scription of the church in their day. The former history of 
 the church, however, is not to our present purpose. " Leaving 
 out therefore," we again turn to Gervase, and use his words, 
 " all that is not absolutely necessary, let us boldly prepare for 
 the destruction of this old work and the marvellous building of 
 the new, and let us see what our master William has been doing 
 in the meanwhile." 
 
 The first year was taken up in destroying the old works, and 
 making preparations for the new. In the following year (1175) 
 before winter, William of Sens 
 
 " had erected four pillars, that is, two on each side, and after the winter two 
 more were placed, so that on each side were three in order, upon which 
 and upon the exterior wall of the aisles he framed seemly arches and a 
 vault, that is, three claves on each side. I put clavis for the whole cibo- 
 rium, because the clavis placed in the middle locks up and binds together 
 the parts which converge to it from every side. With these works the 
 second year was occupied. 
 
 " In the third year (a.d. 1176-7) he placed two pillars on each side, the 
 two extreme ones of which he decorated with marble columns placed 
 around them, and because at that place the choir and crosses were to meet, 
 he constituted these principal pillars. To which, having added the key- 
 stones and vault, he intermingled the lower triforium from the great tower 
 to the aforesaid pillars, that is, as far as the cross, with many marble 
 columns. Over which he adjusted another triforium of other materials, 
 and also the upper windows. And in the next place, three claves of the 
 great vault, from the tower, namely, as far as the crosses. All which 
 things appeared to us and to all who saw them, incomparable and most 
 worthy of praise. And at so glorious a beginning we rejoiced and con- 
 ceived good hopes of the end, and provided for the acceleration of the 
 work with diligence and spirit. Thus was the third year occupied and the 
 beginning of the fourth. 
 
 "In the summer of which, commencing from the cross, he erected ten 
 pillars, that is, on each side five. Of which the two first were ornamented 
 with marble columns to correspond with the other two principal ones. 
 Upon these ten he placed the arches and vaults. And having, in the next 
 place completed on both sides the triforia and upper windows, he was, at 
 the beginning of the fifth year, in the act of preparing with machines for 
 the turning of the great vault, when suddenly the beams broke under his 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 159 
 
 feet, and he fell to the ground, stones and timbers accompanying his fall, 
 from the height of the capitals of the upper vault, that is to say, of fifty 
 feet. Thus sorely bruised by the blows from the beams and stones, he 
 was rendered helpless alike to himself and for the work, but no other per- 
 son than himself was in the least injured. Against the master only was 
 this vengeance of God or spite of the devil directed. 
 
 " The master, thus hurt, remained in his bed for some time under medi- 
 cal care in expectation of recovering, but was deceived in this hope, for 
 his health amended not. Nevertheless, as the winter approached, and it 
 was necessary to finish the upper vault, he gave charge of the work to a 
 certain ingenious and industrious monk, who was the overseer of the 
 masons; an appointment whence much envy and malice arose, because it 
 made this young man appear more skilful than richer and more powerful 
 ones. But the master reclining in bed commanded all things that should 
 be done in order. And thus was completed the ciborium between the 
 four principal pillars. In the key-stone of this ciborium the choir and 
 crosses seem as it were to meet. Two ciboria on each side were formed 
 before the winter; when heavy rains beginning stopped the work. In these 
 operations the fourth year was occupied and the beginning of the fifth. 
 
 " And the master, perceiving that he derived no benefit from the physi- 
 cians, gave up the work, and crossing the sea, returned to his home in 
 France. And another succeeded him in the charge of his works ; William 
 by name, English by nation, small in body, but in workmanship of many 
 kinds acute, and honest. He, in the summer of the fifth year (a.d. 1179), 
 finished the cross on each side, that is, the south and the north, and turned 
 the ciborium, which is above the great altar, which the rains of the previous 
 year had hindered, although all was prepared. Moreover, he laid the 
 foundation for the enlargement of the church at the eastern part, because 
 a chapel of S. Thomas was to be built there. 
 
 " For this was the place assigned to him ; namely, the chapel of the 
 Holy Trinity, where he celebrated his first mass, where he was wont to 
 prostrate himself with tears and prayers, under whose crypt for so many 
 years he was buried, where God for his merits had performed so many 
 miracles, where poor and rich, kings and princes, had worshipped him, 
 and whence the sound of his praises had gone forth into all lands. 
 
 " The master William began, on account of these foundations, to dig in 
 the cemetery of the monks, from whence he was compelled to disturb the 
 bones of many holy monks. These were carefully collected and deposited 
 in a large trench, in that corner which is between the chapel and the 
 south side of the infirmary house. Having, therefore, formed a most sub- 
 stantial foundation for the exterior wall with stone and cement, he erected 
 the wall of the crypt as high as the bases of the windows. 
 
 " Thus was the fifth year employed, and the beginning of the sixth. 
 
 "In the beginning of the sixth year (a.d. 1180) from the fire, and at 
 the time when the works were resumed, the monks were seized with a 
 violent longing to prepare the choir, so that they might enter it at the 
 
160 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 coming Easter. And the master, perceiving their desires, set himself man- 
 fully to work, to satisfy the wishes of the convent. He constructed, with 
 all diligence, the wall which encloses the choir and presbytery. He erected 
 the three altars of the presbytery. He carefully prepared a resting-place 
 for S. Dunstan and S. Elfege. A wooden wall to keep out the weather 
 was set up transversely between the penultimate pillars at the eastern 
 part, and had three glass windows in it." 
 
 In fact the convent returned into the new choir, April 19, 
 1180, about the ninth hour of Easter Eve, but I must refer to 
 Gervase, again, with Willis's notes, for the details of the interest- 
 ing ceremonial, and the preparations for it. The works did not 
 proceed with less zeal because the brethren had returned to the 
 choir. In the same manner, 
 
 " The outer wall round the Chapel of S. Thomas, begun before the win- 
 ter, was elevated as far as the turning of the vault. But the master had 
 begun a tower at the eastern part, outside the circuit of the wall as it 
 were, the lower vault of which was completed before the winter. 
 
 " The Chapel of the Holy Trinity above mentioned was then levelled to 
 the ground; this had hitherto remained untouched out of reverence to 
 S. Thomas, who was buried in the crypt. But the saints who reposed in 
 the upper part of the chapel were translated elsewhere. 
 
 " The translation of these Fathers having been thus effected, the chapel, 
 together with its crypt, was destroyed to the very ground ; only that the 
 translation of S. Thomas was reserved until the completion of his chapel. 
 For it was fitting and manifest that such a translation should be most 
 solemn and public. In the mean time, therefore, a wooden chapel, suffici- 
 ently decent for the place and occasion, was prepared around and above 
 his tomb. Outside of this a foundation was laid of stones and cement, 
 upon which eight pillars of the new crypt, with their capitals, were com- 
 pleted. The master also carefully opened an entrance from the old to the 
 new crypt. And thus the sixth year was employed, and part of the seventh. 
 
 " Now let us carefully examine what were the works of our mason in 
 this seventh year (a.d. 1181) from the fire, which, in short, included the 
 completion of the new and handsome crypt, and above the crypt the ex- 
 terior walls of the aisles up to their marble capitals. The windows, how- 
 ever, the master was neither willing nor able to turn, on account of the 
 approaching rains. Neither did he erect the interior pillars. Thus was 
 the seventh year finished, and the eighth begun. 
 
 " In this eighth year (a.d. 1182) the master erected eight interior pillars, 
 and turned the arches and the vault with the windows in the circuit. He 
 also raised the tower up to the bases of the highest windows under the 
 vault. In the ninth year (a.d. 1183) no work was done for want of funds. 
 In the tenth year (a.d. 1184) the upper windows of the tower, together 
 with the vault, were finished. Upon the pillars was placed a lower and an 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 161 
 
 upper triforium, with windows and the great vault. Also was made the 
 upper roof where the cross stands aloft, and the roof of the aisles as far 
 as the laying of the lead. The tower was covered in, and many other 
 things done this year. In which year Baldwin, Bishop of Worcester, was 
 elected to the rule of the Church of Canterbury on the eighteenth kalend 
 of January, and was enthroned there on the feast of S. Dunstan next 
 after." 
 
 We have now to compare the character of the new work of 
 the two Williams, with that of the ancient choir, which it re- 
 placed, bearing in mind that the old fabric was finished in 1 1 10, 
 and that the new works, to the extreme east, were in progress 
 between 1174 and 1185. 1 
 
 Of the older fabric, the crypts of the choir, the external walls, 
 and the chapels of S. Anselm and S. Andrew remain ; and with 
 these must be compared the new crypt, eastward of the old 
 choir, the interior of the choir itself, and the whole of the Trinity 
 chapel and of Becket's crown. 2 
 
 In the Companion to the Glossary, (plate 29,) separate views 
 are given of the two portions of the crypts, erected by Ernulf 
 and William the Englishman respectively. The former consists 
 of a centre and two aisles, separated by large and massive piers, 
 which bear the pillars of the superimposed choir, and the centre 
 is again subdivided by two rows of comparatively slender pillars. 
 Throughout this work, the shafts, which are cylindrical, and 
 very short, have square, cushion-shaped, unmoulded capitals. 
 The vaulting is quadripartite, with plain flat cross springers, and 
 
 1 As might be expected, there are 
 several coincidences of design between 
 the work of William of Sens at Can- 
 terbury, and the cathedral of his native 
 place : these are pointed out by Pro- 
 fessor Willis, (p. 95,) who also notices 
 the resemblances between the Cathe- 
 dral of Caen, commenced by Lanfranc, 
 before he was Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and the choir of Canterbury as 
 greatly enlarged by him, (pp. 64, 65 ;) 
 and also between the Cathedral of 
 Canterbury, and that of Rochester, 
 which were both under the charge of 
 Ernulf, first prior of Canterbury, and 
 
 then Bishop of Rochester, (pp. 65, 
 87.) Such coincidences as these are 
 among the most interesting subjects of 
 ecclesiological research. 
 
 2 It is extremely difficult or almost 
 impossible to make such descriptions 
 as we must give intelligible, without 
 plans, elevations and sections. These 
 will be found in Britton, and Winkles 
 on the Cathedral, in the Companion to 
 the Glossary, and especially in Profes- 
 sor Willis's book, which no student of 
 ecclesiastical architecture ought to be 
 without. 
 
162 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 without ribs at the diagonal groins ; in a word, it is as plain as 
 quadripartite vaulting can be. In the crypt of the Trinity chapel, 
 built by William the Englishman, there are also two aisles, sepa- 
 rated from the central portion by strong piers : but the centre 
 being of less breadth than that of the choir crypt, it is only di- 
 vided into two portions, by a single row of columns. Here the 
 piers and columns are of much greater height than in the more 
 ancient crypt, and more slender in their proportions. The sec- 
 tion of the greater piers is remarkable, being of two intersecting 
 circles, forming as it were twin columns. All the capitals are 
 round, and moulded. The vault is pointed, and all the groins 
 are finished with moulded ribs ; but bosses have not yet made 
 their appearance. Thus we have the principle of the pointed 
 arch fully developed, but as yet with extremely little decora- 
 tion. 
 
 In the choir, the lower part of the aisle walls, and the bases 
 and parts of the shafts of several pillars of the old fabric remain, 
 and these with Gervase's description have enabled Professor Wil- 
 lis to give diagrams and copious descriptions of Ernulfs choir, 
 and to place the reader in possession of every little change, and 
 every great revolution effected in the restoration after the fire, 
 so that not a base or a moulding remains unappropriated to its 
 rightful owner. It is not, however, for a history of the cathe- 
 dral that we are searching these materials, but for the several 
 indications of a style newly grafted upon one more ancient, so 
 that our work is comparatively simple. 
 
 First with respect to the masonry, (which is often sufficient 
 alone to determine the date of a building,) the portions of the 
 Norman work are of much smaller stones, and more coarsely 
 jointed. In the vaulting shafts, for instance, there are two or 
 three stones in each course of Ernulfs work, but in the work of 
 William of Sens only one stone, in each course of the cylinder. 
 In the proportions of the several parts, the newer work is always 
 taller and more slender : for instance, the new pillars are raised 
 twelve feet higher than the old ones, though they retain the 
 same thickness, and the same cylindrical form ; and of course, 
 every part of the building, aisles, triforia, and clerestory, are 
 raised in due proportion. The aisle windows are lengthened 
 about three feet eight inches ; but this being insufficient to oc- 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 163 
 
 cupy the twelve additional feet of wall, a triforium is added over 
 the window heads. In the older church there was but one tri- 
 forium, in that of William of Sens there were two, one in the 
 usual position over the pier arches, the other in the thickness of 
 the wall at the level of the clerestory windows. Moreover, in 
 Ernulf's church the ceiling was flat, in that of William pointed 
 vaulting rose from about the level of the old ceiling to a point 
 nearly twenty feet above it. Thus, without reference to the 
 character of the several parts, much greater height and light- 
 ness was attained, in the whole fabric, and a greater complica- 
 tion of arrangement was admitted, than would have been con- 
 sistent with the character of the earlier church. There is also 
 greater boldness of construction in the work of William of Sens ; 
 two massive piers, at the intersection of the eastern transept 
 with the choir and its aisles, being dispensed with, and the 
 whole width of the transepts thrown open from the choir. In 
 the still later work of William the Englishman in the Trinity 
 chapel, the double pillars (answering in form and position to 
 those already described in the crypt) give also a lightness and 
 grace of construction wanting in the choir ; and the octopartite 
 vaulting of Becket's crown is a great step in advance of any- 
 thing in the older church, as is also the use of moulded groin- 
 ing ribs, and the occurrence of bosses at their intersections. 
 The vaulting is moreover sexpartite, instead of quadripartite. 
 The circular-headed vault is, however, still retained in the 
 aisles. 
 
 But the great constructive difference between the new and the 
 old work, and that which is the clue to many minor arrange- 
 ments, is the iutroduction of the pointed arch, which is adopted 
 universally in the great arcades of the choir by William of Sens, 
 and excepting two pairs of round arches in the Trinity chapel, 
 throughout the work of his successor. We shall presently dis- 
 cuss the general results of the introduction of the pointed arch ; 
 I shall only mention here that one of its correlatives, the wide 
 spreading buttress, (and in the Trinity chapel even the flying 
 buttress) is already developed in the work of William the 
 Englishman. Yet there is something apparently arbitrary in 
 the manner of introducing the pointed arch in this restoration, 
 the two forms pointed and round being often singularly associ- 
 
 m2 
 
164 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ated ; as for instance, in the triforium of the choir, where two 
 pointed arches are inclosed within one round-headed arch : and 
 the windows of the Trinity chapel are some pointed, some round- 
 headed. 
 
 At length we descend to ornamental details, and here also wc 
 find a great advance in the newer works upon the Norman style. 
 The marble shafts with which William of Sens relieves three 
 pairs of great pillars, are new, both in character and in material; 
 and the same principle is carried out in the works of his succes- 
 sor, where we also have the slender vaulting shafts banded, as in 
 decided Early English works. The capitals of the pillars assume 
 a much more classical form, as well as greater richness and deli- 
 cacy of chiselling, making the nearest approach of any in Eng- 
 land to the Corinthian capital; and in the triforium of the 
 Trinity chapel the pillars are richly clustered. Grotesque carv- 
 ing on the capitals of the decorative arcades of the older works 
 is not repeated, but several of the Norman mouldings or rather 
 decorations of mouldings, as the billet, the nail-head and the 
 chevron still remain ; though the latter of these has assumed a 
 very different character from the shallow zigzag of early Nor- 
 man : and the dog-tooth, so distinctive of Early English, makes 
 its appearance. In mouldings strictly so called there is no com- 
 parison between the two works, those of the later fabric being 
 much richer and deeper, and more generally used : our limits 
 would hardly admit a larger view of the change effected in a 
 single building by the introduction of the elements of a new 
 style, and we now return to the consideration of one principal 
 feature thus introduced, the pointed arch. 
 
 Henceforward till the reign of Henry III. we find buildings 
 in all other respects Norman, with the pointed arch of the next 
 style ; and again, buildings with the round arch, but with many 
 Early English details. For instance, in the hall of Oakham 
 castle, which affords a rich and very instructive example of the 
 transition between the two styles, and which is assigned to the 
 period between 1165 and 1191, in the Companion to the Glos- 
 sary, the arches are all round, but the dog-tooth ornament, one 
 of the most distinctive of Early English decorations, appears on 
 one of the capitals : and again at Kirkstall, the pillars are Nor- 
 man in all their characters, the arches are pointed; and the 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 165 
 
 clerestory over them is pierced with round-headed windows. 
 Proportions are as much mixed as forms and details. The 
 Galilee of Durham (1180 — 1197) has throughout round arches, 
 but the section of the pillars is Early English, and their propor- 
 tions are light, even for that less massive style. 
 
 The introduction of the pointed arch is of so much greater 
 importance than any number of separate buildings erected 
 during this time, that we will devote to its effects the remainder 
 of this chapter. 
 
 The most obvious result of this change is the introduction of 
 a different form into doors, windows, and arcades, which are by 
 far the most observable features of a building, and which give it 
 a great part of its expression. But this is in reality far from 
 being the whole that is due to the introduction of the pointed 
 arch, which is mechanicalhj and constructively of very different 
 character from the round arch, and which indirectly introduced 
 mechanical arrangements which totally altered, not only the 
 details, but the very outline (sometimes even the very ground- 
 plan) of a building. 
 
 The thrust, or pressure and stress, of the superincumbent 
 weight, upon a circular arch is almost entirely vertical, demand- 
 ing the heavy piers of the Normans, with very slight lateral 
 supports. 1 The aisles and transepts of large churches were in- 
 deed very important lateral supports to the central walls and 
 roof, but they gave more support than was needed, in that direc- 
 tion, and were not constructively intended for that purpose ; and 
 the buttresses of the Normans were almost useless, as indeed 
 they were not introduced as mechanical aids to construction. 
 They were mere shallow pilasters decorating the walls, and pro- 
 moting harmony of design, by carrying the eye upward from 
 the base-moulding to the corbel-table ; but all that they seemed 
 to support was often the parapet, and they really did support 
 nothing. 
 
 On the other hand, the thrust of the pointed arch is in a great 
 degree lateral ; and now the piers have to support less weight, 
 and may be more slender in proportion ; the sides of the build- 
 
 1 Thus mechanically, as well as in retained much of the classical charac- 
 several of its forms, the Norman style ter. 
 
166 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ing have to resist more pressure, and the walls require lateral 
 support. The aisles and transepts of the larger churches are 
 now mechanically necessary, but even these are not sufficient for 
 the support of the towers, and central walls, and roofs : but- 
 tresses also are carried out, with an enlarged base, to support the 
 weight thrown upon the sides of the building. And very often 
 the aisles are even constructively, as well as in fact, huge but- 
 tresses, or lateral support, the vaulting-ribs connecting the aisle 
 walls with the clerestory, to which they become real, though 
 masked, flying buttresses. The buttresses increase in projection, 
 as the architects of succeeding styles depend less and less on 
 the strength of the pillars, and calculate more and more for the 
 lateral thrust, until at last in King's College Chapel, they em- 
 brace separate oratories within their enormous bases ; and all 
 through the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, they very well 
 answer to Mr. CockerelFs picturesque description of them in the 
 works of William of Wykeham, "grasping the soil of their 
 foundation with digitated extensors, always proportioned to their 
 perpendicular and lateral pressures." 1 
 
 Now compare the lines of the essential features of a church 
 in the later, and in the Norman era. There is not, in the Nor- 
 man style, until we come to the roof, a single necessary approach 
 to the pyramidal form. Nothing converges upwards; nothing 
 spreads laterally as it reaches the ground. On the other hand, 
 as soon as the pointed arch is introduced into vaulting and other 
 portions of the building, there is an outward pressure from the 
 apex of the roof downwards, which demands a support, and but- 
 tresses are thrust out to a proportionate extent, till they reach 
 the ground at the point where the lateral pressure demands ef- 
 fective resistance. In other words, from the apex of the roof to 
 the very ground all diverges downwards, or (which is the same 
 thing) converges upwards ; and a pyramidal form is the result. 
 This is the real origin of the verticality of Gothic architecture. 
 It comes at last to have additional developments, and it has ac- 
 cepted the high office of a symbol of theological dogmas ; but 
 still it is in its origin essentially constructive, and it owes 
 its birth, not to the doctrines of the Church, or the cha- 
 
 1 Paper read at the Winchester meeting of the Archaeological Institute, p. 44. 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 167 
 
 racter of Churchmen, but to the introduction of the pointed 
 arch. 1 
 
 The spire and the pinnacle seem at first independent efflores- 
 cences of the vertically of the pointed style ; and the spire in- 
 deed is so, though it is but an extension of the tower-roof, 
 which had already begun to assume considerable elevation in 
 the twelfth century ; but the pinnacle is really a part of the but- 
 tress, and so one of the corollaries of the pointed arch. It gives 
 greater weight to the buttresses, and so greater lateral support 
 to the building ; and where it occurs as a part of the flying but- 
 tress, rising just over the spring of the arch, which props the 
 mass against which it leans, by throwing upon it the weight of 
 some distant portion of the building, the pinnacle has a very 
 visible effect in retaining the equilibrium of the whole mass. 
 
 We must not however look in the transition from Norman to 
 Early English for actual examples of well -developed verticality on 
 these principles. The buttress was still shallow even in the 
 Semi-Norman, and the walls retained a thickness which would 
 have been unnecessary, had the buttress assumed its proper 
 place and received its full development. Eor the perfection of 
 verticality we must look to the future styles, when these forms 
 were fully developed, which now struggled, a living though un- 
 conscious embryo, within the narrow shell out of which they 
 were soon to burst forth in power and beauty. 
 
 We must now go back to the work of the two Williams, for a 
 different purpose. 
 
 We have seen that the great fire happened in 1174. The 
 murder of Thomas a Becket had occurred but four years previ- 
 ous, but in the interim that prelate had been canonized; and 
 " the martyrdom," as the place where he fell was called, and 
 his tomb in the crypt of the chapel of the Holy Trinity, had 
 already become objects of great veneration in the eyes of all 
 Christendom, and sources of vast wealth to the convent. 
 
 When, therefore, the rebuilding was undertaken, very great 
 additions were made to the cathedral, with especial reference to 
 the martyr. The place where he was murdered was in the north 
 
 1 To avoid misconception, I may retained with a symbolical meaning, 
 here anticipate a future claim for this though of course not without a con- 
 verticality of Gothic architecture to be structive use. 
 
168 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 transept, and on the spot where he fell an altar was erected. 
 The transept communicated with the church by a pillar and its 
 arches, and this pillar was removed that the altar might be seen 
 from distant parts of the church. Such was the arrangement of 
 the martyrdom before the fire. The body of Becket was buried 
 in the crypt beneath the Trinity chapel ; almost, that is, at the 
 extreme end of the crypt, which extended eastward from the 
 great cross, to the extremity of the church. 
 
 But the relics of S. Thomas required a yet more remarkable 
 resting place : and though the choir of Canterbury Cathedral 
 was already of much greater size than that of any other church 
 in the kingdom, and the crypt was even more pre-eminent above 
 all others, the devotion of the convent was not satisfied without 
 extending both the crypt and the superstructure eastward, in two 
 very marked additional features. These were called respectively 
 Becket's chapel, and Beckers crown, singular in their arrange- 
 ments, and of a form which it would require drawings to make 
 intelligible. 
 
 Thus the murder of S. Thomas of Canterbury has to this day 
 a very remarkable influence on the cathedral in which his throne 
 had been erected. And here we shall take occasion to observe 
 on other instances in which the form of the church was modified 
 by some singular devotion to the patron saint. 
 
 The instance which occurs most uniformly is in the relative 
 position of the chapel of our Lady, which is almost invariably 
 eastward of the high altar itself : indicating that peculiar .reve- 
 rence by which the Holy Virgin was elevated into a more imme- 
 diate, if not a higher place, in the affections and devotions of the 
 people of the middle ages, than our Blessed Lord had Himself. 
 A singular instance occurs at Durham. The supposed antipathy 
 of S. Cuthbert to women, had caused all females to be shut out 
 of the cathedral, or at least they were not allowed to approach 
 nearer eastward than a few paces within the south door. Hugh 
 Pudsey, Bishop from 1153 to 1197, compassionating their sad 
 case, built for them the Galilee, at the west end of the church, 
 in which they might be present at the celebration of the Holy 
 Mysteries. 
 
 The instances in which the reputation of the saint influenced 
 the splendour of the church, without creating any singular ar- 
 
THE TRANSITION FROM NORMAN TO EARLY ENGLISH. 169 
 
 rangement were without number. Thus the ancient West- 
 minster Abbey fell a sacrifice to the zeal of Henry III., which 
 could not rest without dedicating a more splendid fane to the 
 honour of the Confessor. The cathedral of Ely was vastly in- 
 creased on account of the reputation of S. Etheldreda, the patron 
 saint. Gloucester flourished, and its visible glories were marvel- 
 lously augmented after Edward II. had found a tomb there. 
 Our Lady of Walsingham had a glorious return for the wealth 
 which she brought to the abbey of that place in the magnificent 
 church which attested the devotions of her worshippers. 
 
 The way in which the legends of the saints or some local his- 
 tory suggested the subject of decorations should rather be treated 
 as a part of the history of the fine arts in connexion with archi- 
 tecture. We may however just allude to the bas-relief on the 
 doorway of Croyland, where the life of S. Guthlac is related in 
 several medallions of statues in the octagon, and to the Lady 
 chapel of Ely cathedral, in which the legendary history of S. 
 Etheldreda, and of the Blessed Virgin find in like manner their 
 appropriate places. 
 
170 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Symbolism of Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 
 Necessity of treating the subject. — Early Instances of Symbolism. 
 — Round Church at Fulda. — Dream of the Monk of Bury. — 
 Authority of Durandus. — His Rationale. — Definition of Sym- 
 bolism. — The Definition applied to various instances. — Saxon 
 Symbolism. — Norman. — Subsequent Styles. — Symbolism still 
 existing. 
 
 From a modified construction of certain parts of the building 
 due to the influence of some favourite saints, the transition is 
 but slight to the symbolism which pervades Christian art uni- 
 versally, and Christian architecture in particular. 
 
 The history of ecclesiastical architecture cannot indeed be 
 treated philosophically, without reference to the question of 
 symbolism ; for even if the whole theory involved in this term 
 were false, it would be necessary to account for its rise and very 
 general adoption, (though in different forms and degrees,) by 
 recent ecclesiologists ; but it is quite certain that symbolism 
 has a real and very important existence in every branch of eccle- 
 siastical art ; and that in church architecture in particular, it 
 has, from the beginning, much modified the general structure 
 and the details of sacred edifices. Those who are least dis- 
 posed to admit its claim to be classed among the principles of 
 church-building, must still design their churches with submis- 
 sion to several laws, which have no basis but that of symbolism; 
 and the coldest utilitarian must, in spite of himself and his 
 principles, judge the works of an age, least of all disposed to 
 sacrifice to the fancies of former generations, by rules to which 
 symbolism has given existence, and all their force. 
 
 Whatever may become of particular applications of the prin- 
 ciple, this at least is certain, that there is a symbolical spirit and 
 a system of symbols in the ecclesiastical architecture of the first 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 171 
 
 and middle ages. Those who now interpret the symbolic lan- 
 guage into the expression of high doctrines of our most holy 
 faith, are not necessarily working out a fanciful system from 
 forms and combinations in which no meaning was ever before 
 suspected, as Quarles works out his " Emblems/' or Fuller his 
 " Thoughts," from all kinds of things and occurrences. On the 
 contrary, the principle of symbolism is clearly asserted in parts, 
 or as a whole, by authors who lived long before the greater part 
 of the churches at present existing were erected, and it was ac- 
 knowledged and acted upon throughout the middle ages. Of 
 this we have abundant proof in the plain assertions of the primi- 
 tive Fathers, 1 and even in the Canons of the early Church, 2 
 while in many cases where there is no explicit assertion of the 
 principle of symbolism, there is what is even stronger, an un- 
 forced allusion to it, in which its general adoption is implied. 3 
 
 I shall give three early and striking instances, not hitherto ad- 
 duced, in which the principle is recognized, in the two first 
 directly, in the third indirectly, but not less evidently. 
 
 William 4 of Malrasbury describing the church at Glastonbury, 
 says, " In the pavement may be remarked on every side stones 
 designedly interlaid in triangles, and squares, and figured with 
 lead, under which, if I believe some sacred enigma to be con- 
 tained, I do no injustice to religion." The value of this extract is 
 not diminished by the way in which the Chronicler refrains, as if 
 
 1 As for instance in the Pastor of 
 Hermas, Vision III., and in the ac- 
 count which Eusebius gives of the 
 plan of the Church of the Resurrec- 
 tion, built by Constantine. 
 
 2 The Apostolic Constitutions direct 
 that the church shall be built in the 
 form of a ship : — 
 
 " "When thou callest an assembly of 
 the Church, as one that is the com- 
 mander of a great ship, appoint the 
 assemblies to be made with all possible 
 skill ; charging the deacons, as mari- 
 ners, to prepare places for the brethren, 
 as for passengers, with all care and 
 decency. And first, let the church be 
 long, like a ship, looking towards the 
 
 east, with its vestries on either side at 
 the east end. In the centre let the 
 Bishop's throne be placed, and let the 
 presbyters be seated on both sides of 
 him ; and let the deacons stand near 
 at hand, in close and small garments, 
 for they are like the mariners and 
 managers of the ship," &c. — Book ii. 
 sec. 28. 
 
 3 For instance, in the panegyrist of 
 Paulinus in Eusebius, referred to at 
 great length in the Essay on Sacra- 
 mentality, (pp. lxx. &c.) by the trans- 
 lators of the first book of the Rationale 
 Divinorum Officiorum of Durandus. 
 
 4 Chronicle, I. 2. 
 
172 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in ignorance, from offering a solution of these figures on the 
 pavement : it is enough that he evidently assumes them to have 
 had a religious meaning. 
 
 Eigil, Abbot of Fulda, (circa a.d. 820) built, with the consent 
 of the brethren, a little round church in the cemetery, which 
 Candidus, the contemporary author of his life, thus describes. 
 The part of it under the ground, where it encircles a hollow 
 vault, rose from one stone column set in the midst, throwing out 
 arches to the circumference on all sides ; but above the ground 
 it was raised upon eight columns, and one stone (key-stone) 
 finished the whole work at the top. This edifice the abbot with 
 his companions erected under Divine teaching, figuring some 
 great thing ; I know not what, but conceive that it may be con- 
 sidered (without derogation of the faith) a figure of Christ and 
 the Church. For the Apostle Paul, who is himself called by the 
 Lord a chosen vessel, thus speaks of the Church of Christ 
 built up of living stones, that is of holy men, to be the habita- 
 tion of God : For the temple of God is holy, which temple are 
 ye ; and of this structure Christ is the beginner and builder ; 
 the foundation and columns, ever remaining fixed by virtue of 
 His eternal majesty, in Whom the whole building joined to- 
 gether increases into a holy temple in the Lord. And what the 
 finishing of the building above with one stone signifies the same 
 teacher declares, who will have us pray with earnest hearts, that 
 He Who hath begun in us a good work will also finish it against 
 the day of Christ ; forasmuch as all our works have their be- 
 ginning in God, and by Him what we have begun is finished. 
 And the eight columns standing in the temple of God may sha- 
 dow forth the eight beatitudes, which the Lord Himself sets 
 together in the Gospel ; so that those who fulfil these two qua- 
 ternions of duties, deserve to be accounted props in the Church 
 of Christ. But the round form of the church having no end, 
 and encircling the principles of life, that is the Divine Sacra- 
 ment, may fairly be taken to signify the kingdom of Eternal 
 Majesty, and the hope of life everlasting, and the never-fading 
 rewards with which the just shall be finally crowned. 1 
 
 Such is the description of the church at the cemetery at 
 
 1 Vita Eigilis Abb. Fuldensis. Mabilloni A. S. Ben. V. 226. 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 173 
 
 Fulda in the prose narrative of Candidus : his metrical account 
 of the same history is so nearly identical with the above, that I 
 shall transcribe it in the note instead of the passage which I 
 have almost literally translated. 1 
 
 It can only be necessary to call attention to the strong asser- 
 tions, that the abbot intended to signify some divine thing, that 
 he was under the divine teaching, when he so arranged his work 
 that it should serve this purpose. As for the particular inter- 
 pretations so modestly suggested by Candidas, it is unimportant 
 to the present stage of the inquiry, whether they be false or 
 true. 
 
 The third example, which is at least equally curious, and 
 
 1 " Parvam qua corpora Fra- 
 
 trum 
 
 Hie defuncta jacent devote namque 
 rotundam 
 
 Condidit ecclesiam, latitans qua pervia 
 crypta 
 
 Sub tellure latet, una quae rite columna 
 Incipit, ac supra octonis subrecta co- 
 lumnis, 
 
 Praepulcre in summo lapide concludi- 
 tur uno. 
 
 Hoc opus hoc etenim divino munere 
 docti 
 
 Pastor, et ipse simul infantum Doctor 
 honestus 
 
 Cum sociis jaciunt alto sinuamine 
 mentis, 
 
 Nescio quid magni fingentes arte fe- 
 cunda, 
 
 Quod tamen ipse reor, salva menteque 
 fideque, 
 
 Istius Ecclesise et Christi praeferre 
 figuram. 
 
 Templum quippe Dei Sanctum est, 
 
 quod Paulus aperte 
 Christicolas esse Christi vas personat 
 
 ipse. 
 
 "Cujus tecturse princeps et conditor 
 adstat 
 
 Arbiter ipse Deus, fundamentumque, 
 columna 
 
 Inconcussa manens semper virtute per- 
 enni. 
 
 Qua fidei merito nunc hie plebs advena 
 Christo 
 
 Subrigitur, templumque Deo coalescit 
 
 in almum. 
 Quod vero in summo lapide concludi- 
 
 tur uno, 
 
 Edocet ipse monens, intenta mente 
 
 rogandum 
 Egregius Doctor, ut qui virtute po- 
 
 tenti in 
 
 Nobis coepit opus placitum, dignetur 
 in altum 
 
 Perficere Jesu, donee manifesta mi- 
 cando, 
 
 Ac famosa dies Christi procedat in or- 
 bem. 
 
 Octonse interius stantes hincque inde 
 columnar, 
 
 Totque beatitudinibus aptantur, ut 
 apte. 
 
 Quique quater bina heec complentes 
 
 dicta Tonantis, 
 In hac a;de Dei fulcra mereantur 
 
 haberi. 
 
 Circulus ecclesiae quinullo fine rotundus 
 Clauditur ; interius complectens com- 
 
 moda vitse, 
 Spem quoque vitse perpetuae regnum- 
 
 que perenne, ac 
 Prsemia mansura post hanc signare 
 
 videtur, 
 
 Vitam quis justi merito vittantur in 
 sevum." — Ibid. p. 244. 
 
174 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 equally conclusive of a habit of giving mystical meanings to the 
 parts of churches, occurs in the chronicles of Joscelin of Brake- 
 lond, where a dream of one of his brethren of the monastery is 
 represented as influencing in some degree, or at least presaging, 
 the election of an abbot of Bury S. Edmund. The interpre- 
 tation of the dream turns on the mystical reference of certain 
 portions of the church to parts of the human body ; which 
 can only have originated from the connection between the cross 
 form of the church, and the cross on which Christ suffered as 
 the instrument and symbol of His atonement. 
 
 " There sat along with us," says the Chronicler, " another brother, 
 Edmund by name, asserting that Sampson was about to be abbot, and 
 narrating the vision he had seen the previous night. He said, he beheld 
 in his dream Roger the cellarer and Hugh the third prior, standing before 
 the altar, and Sampson in the midst, taller by the shoulders upward, 
 wrapt round with a long gown down to his feet looped over his shoulders, 
 and standing as a champion ready to do battle. And as it seemed to him 
 in his dream, S. Edmund arose from his shrine, and, as if sickly, showed 
 his feet and naked legs, and some one approaching and desiring to cover 
 the feet of the saint, the saint said 'Approach me not; behold, he shall 
 veil my feet. — pointing with his finger towards Sampson. This is the in- 
 terpretation of the dream : — by his seeming to be a champion is signified, 
 that the future abbot should always be in travail ; at one time moving a 
 controversy against the Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the pleas of 
 the crown, at another time against the knights of S. Edmund, to compel 
 them to pay entire escurages, at another time with the burgesses 
 for standing in the market, at another time with the sokemen for 
 the suits of the hundreds ; even as a champion who willeth by fighting to 
 overcome his adversaries, that he may be able to regain the rights and 
 liberties of his church ; but he veiled the feet of the holy martyr when he 
 perfectly completed the towers of the church, commenced a hundred years 
 before. Such dreams as these did our brethren dream, which were im- 
 mediately published throughout the cloister, afterwards through the court- 
 lodge, so that before the evening it was a matter of common talk amongst 
 the townsfolk, they saying this man and that man are elected, and one of 
 them will be abbot." 
 
 We now arrive, in order of time, and very conveniently for 
 our subject, at Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in the thirteenth 
 century, by whom the application of the principle of symbolism 
 was carried out more largely than it had before been, in his book 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 175 
 
 entitled, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, a work alike remarka- 
 ble for the direct, and for the indirect testimony, which it affords 
 to the system : for Durandus was a man worthy of the very 
 high estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries ; 
 and if the character of the man gives weight to his writings, so 
 does the value which was set upon this work in particular 
 evince the degree in which he either led or went along with the 
 religious feeling, and the principles of his day. The Rationale 
 was the first work from the pen of an uninspired writer ever 
 printed, and the translators enumerate nine editions between 
 1459 and 1609, which have come under their notice, while 
 Chalmers mentions, besides the first, thirteen editions in the 
 fifteenth, and as many in the sixteenth century. With the stu- 
 dent of ecclesiastical architecture, it may perhaps have even 
 more weight, that this book was one which William of Wyke- 
 ham bequeathed expressly to his new foundation at Winchester, 
 together with his mitre and his Bible. 1 
 
 Indeed the work is worthy of the man, and of the high repute 
 in which it was once held. But though it is fully sufficient to 
 justify the assertion that symbolism was in his day and had long- 
 been a recognized principle in ecclesiastical art, and in the erec- 
 tion of churches especially, it must not be used in this question as 
 determining the recognized or rather intended symbolical mean- 
 ing of every thing to which he alludes. He himself calls his 
 book, not a treatise on " the Symbolism of Churches and Church 
 Ornaments," but " Rationale Divinorum Officiorum " because 
 the reasons of the variations in Divine offices and their truths are 
 therein set forth and manifested ; and he justifies his choice of 
 a title by a very graceful allusion to the Breastplate of Judg- 
 ment (Rationale judicii in the Vulgate, and in the Septuagint 
 Aoyeiov 7% xpio-sug) which Aaron wore, and in which were placed 
 the Urim and Thummim, Manifestation and Truth, (Doctrinam 
 et Veritatem, Vulg. ryv dsKaoaiv xa) ryv aX^siav, LXX.) And so 
 in his work, his Rationale, the pious author proposes to set forth 
 the doctrine and the truths expressed in the several offices of the 
 
 1 Item lego collegio meo Winton. 
 aliam mitram meam planam aurifregi- 
 atam, ac Bibliam meam usialem, item 
 
 librum vocatum " Catholicon." Item 
 librum vocatum " Rationale Divino- 
 rum," etc. 
 
176 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Church, which the prelates and priests of churches ought faith- 
 fully to preserve in the shrine of their breasts. And as the 
 breastplate was woven of four colours and of gold ; so, says he, 
 the principles on which are founded the variations in ecclesiasti- 
 cal offices, take the hues of the four senses, the Historic, the 
 Allegoric, the Tropologic, and the Anagogic, with Faith as the 
 ground. So, for instance, Jerusalem is understood Historically, 
 of that earthly city whither pilgrims journey ; Allegorically, of 
 the Church militant ; Tropologically , of every faithful soul ; 
 Anagogically, of the celestial Jerusalem, which is our country ; 
 " but in this work," he adds, " many senses are applied, and 
 speedy changes are made from one to another, as the diligent 
 reader will perceive." The reader should however be discrimi- 
 nating as well as diligent, lest he overlook the different degrees 
 in which those several principles, and the application of them to 
 particular forms or usages, bear upon the question of sym- 
 bolism. 
 
 In short we must not take Durandus to have accomplished 
 more than he professes to have aimed at, or we shall assuredly 
 either pervert his authority, or set him down as having treated 
 fancifully, at best, a subject which will bear a far more rigid 
 method. For instance, in his chapter on bells, he says that 
 " the rope by which the tongue is moved against the bell is hu- 
 mility, or the life of the preacher, and that the same rope also 
 showeth the measure of our own life and a great deal more of 
 the same kind : now if Durandus is here taken to imply, that 
 the bell-rope is intended to convey such lessons, or that it was 
 so arranged, and left dependent, that it might convey them, we 
 should accuse him of trifling ; but if we read his words as those 
 of a very pious man, accustomed to moralize all the offices and 
 instruments of the Church, with which he was daily conversant, 
 we shall find few more interesting and instructive chapters than 
 that on bells. If we learn with him to find " Sermons in stones 
 and good in every thing," we shall not quarrel with him because 
 he does not either prove, or desire to prove, that every thing 
 from which he draws a lesson was really intended to convey that 
 lesson, or was, in the sense in which the term must be used in 
 treating of ecclesiastical art, symbolic, or significant of Christian 
 doctrine. 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 177 
 
 We may imagine the different spirit in which Durandus, and 
 some modern advocate of ecclesiastical symbolism, would dis- 
 course on the structure and details of a Gothic church. Duran- 
 dus would be reading a lesson to his own soul, from every thing 
 around him : from the pavement he would learn humility, be- 
 cause the Psalmist saith, Adhcesit pavimento anima mea ; from the 
 windows opening wide inward, but with a narrow aperture with- 
 out, he would teach his senses to present the smallest possible 
 surface to the world, but to diffuse more widely the materials of 
 divine contemplation ; from the roof he would preach to himself 
 the exercise of charity, because charity covereth a multitude of 
 sins : on the other hand, the more fanciful interpreter of an- 
 cient emblems would be using these and the like sentences to 
 prove that the mediaeval architects paved their churches, because 
 a pavement symbolizes humility ; made their windows with a 
 wider splay within than without, because the Christian has made 
 a covenant with his eyes and other senses, not to be too much 
 conversant with worldly things ; and covered their churches with 
 a roof, because any covering may be made by an application of 
 Holy Writ to symbolize charity. With Durandus we would 
 walk still in the house of our God, and seek no better guide 
 than his Rationale : with his too apt pupil we should scarcely 
 pass the threshold of the sacred edifice, without some misgivings 
 of his fitness to read the mystic characters by which we were 
 surrounded. 
 
 And we are persuaded that the cause of symbolism will lose 
 nothing, by setting aside the moralizing of Durandus; for al- 
 though a great part of his work is not conversant with what can 
 be called strictly symbolical, and although he applies every kind 
 of interpretation to whatever can be made, by any means, to 
 render a moral or a religious lesson, yet he supplies many in- 
 stances of purely symbolical interpretation. For instance, he 
 says, (c Some churches are built in the shape of a cross, to sig- 
 nify that we are crucified to the world, and should tread in the 
 steps of the Crucified, according to that saying, If any man 
 
 WILL COME AFTER Me, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE 
 
 up his cross, and follow Me and again, in the furniture 
 of the church, u The rail, by which the altar is divided from the 
 choir, teacheth the separation of things celestial from things ter- 
 
 N 
 
178 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 restrial." These, and many like passages, actually prove the 
 general question so far as his authority is concerned; and 
 also as far as the fact is concerned that a symbolic spirit was 
 recognized in his time, in the sacred edifice, and its several 
 parts. 
 
 Let us, before we go farther, for the credit of our own sense, 
 and in justice to those whom we bring into the question, con- 
 sider what we mean by symbolism in churches. What does, and 
 what does not fall under that name ? In the first place, then, 
 pictures and other representations are not symbols of what they 
 represent. It is essential to a symbol, properly so called, that 
 it be not, nor pretend to be, a simple representation ; for if it 
 be, it loses its allusive character, it is no longer a figure but a 
 picture of the thing represented. Thus, for instance, the figures 
 of the Four Evangelists are not symbols of those Evangelists ; 
 but the figures of a man, an angel, an ox, and an eagle are : yet 
 the figures of these and other servants of God may become sym- 
 bols of other things, as for instance, of the Communion of 
 Saints. A picture or figure of our Lord on the cross, is not 
 symbolical of the Crucifixion ; but certain arrangements of the 
 several parts of the figures may symbolize particular branches of 
 the doctrine of Atonement. A picture of the great judgment is 
 not symbolical, but a mere representation ; but the place where 
 it is found, as on the arch between the nave and the chancel, 
 may symbolize the truth that the judgment precedes our admis- 
 sion into the Kingdom of Heaven. 1 
 
 Our definition also excludes from the number of symbols, 
 strictly so called, those forms by which certain tones of religious 
 feeling, and certain religious or political conditions, have been 
 clothed upon, so to speak ; so that the form which has grown 
 
 1 I subjoin a passage from Fuller's 
 History of Waltham Abbey, not for its 
 spirit, or indeed for its information in 
 a general sense, but for the clearness 
 with which he assigns a symbolical 
 meaning to the position which the rood 
 holds, instead of to the rood itself. 
 " The rood was an image of Christ on 
 the cross, made generally of wood, and 
 erected in a loft for that purpose, just 
 
 over the passage out of the church into 
 the chancel. And wot you what spi- 
 ritual mystery was couched in this po- 
 sition thereof? The church (forsooth) 
 typified the Church militant, the chan- 
 cel represents the Church triumphant: 
 and all who will pass out of the former 
 into the latter, must go under the rood 
 loft : that is, carry the cross, and be 
 acquainted with affliction." 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 179 
 
 over it and out of it, maintains a certain harmony with the 
 plastic spiritual element. The massiveness of a Norman, or the 
 gorgeousness of a Tudor, church, can no more be said to sym- 
 bolize the sturdier or the more luxurious character of the age, 
 to which they owed their respective forms, than the shape and 
 texture of a man's jerkin can be said to symbolize his size and 
 character. They stand in the relation of the effect to the cause, 
 not in that of the symbol to its antitype. If I find a richly 
 embroidered shirt of a certain size, I do not recognize in it a 
 symbol of the existence of a man of such a height and such a 
 degree of refinement or foppery. It indicates the existence of 
 such a man, it is true, but it is not a figure of the man, or of 
 his conditions, even in the laxest sense of the term, still less in 
 the restricted sense of a symbol. And so such results of the 
 power of the immaterial and moral over the material, may ex- 
 press the pervading feeling of the Church ; and they may sug- 
 gest it afterwards, and even by-and-bye they may symbolize it, 
 having been adopted for that purpose ; but they do not symbolize 
 it by the simple fact that they arise out of it by an unconscious 
 growth. 
 
 Thus its vertically, the most fascinating, the most distinctive 
 characteristic of Gothic architecture, will cease to be accounted 
 symbolic, if it has no other claim than its growth out of the up- 
 ward aspirations of Christians i 1 if this principle arose uncon- 
 sciously out of the doctrines of the Church, and was never 
 avowedly adopted to embody their spirit to the sense, they have 
 still a beauty and propriety which we maintain against all comers ; 
 but they can hardly be said to symbolize the Resurrection, or our 
 hope of immortality. If, however, they were afterwards ac- 
 cepted as embodying these doctrines, and used thenceforward on 
 that account, or even inclusively with that intention, then are 
 they among the legitimate symbolisms of ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture. 
 
 1 We have already seen in the last ment is, that even in the latter sup- 
 chapter, that the verticality of Gothic position it would not therefore be 
 architecture has a constructive, and symbolical, though it might the more 
 not a mystical origin, or even a growth probably be accepted as, and so become 
 out of invisible tendencies or associa- symbolical in future ages, 
 tions of Churchmen. But our argu- 
 
 n2 
 
180 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Excluding pictures and sculpture therefore, as such, and also 
 forms which are characteristic of those with whom they originated, 
 though not intended to embody character, we include under the 
 term symbols, first and chiefly, whatever in itself, its accidents 
 or accessories, was originally designed, besides its direct use, to 
 signify some doctrine or Christian rule, state, or privilege ; and 
 secondly, whatever has been since its first introduction accepted 
 as conveying such a meaning, and afterwards on that account 
 chosen before other things equally useful, but not accepted as 
 expressive. This definition, of course, excludes all necessary 
 parts of a building, as the walls or the roof, simply as such 3 but 
 it does not exclude any arbitrary forms or arrangements of these 
 which might or might not be otherwise : as, for instance, orien- 
 tation, and the ship-like excess of length over breadth. 
 
 Every church must point some way, but that all, (to speak 
 generally, and the exceptions are few in England,) point one 
 way, and that way towards the east, indicates a design beyond 
 any constructive convenience; and we find that the design actu- 
 ally was to point to the place of the rising sun, the symbol of 
 the Christian's Saviour, and of his future expectations. 1 Most 
 churches without any especial meaning would be longer in one 
 direction than another, but the very name of nave, or navis, for 
 the longer part of the church, together with the Apostolical 
 Canons before referred to, and the constant use of a ship as a 
 type of the Church in the Sacred Scriptures, and in all theology, 
 have sanctified a form which would otherwise have been indiffer- 
 ent, into the type of a mystery. 2 
 
 1 As examples and authorities are 
 always interesting, in proportion as 
 they are connected with manners and 
 customs, I transcribe from Staveley 
 the following paragraph from an ancient 
 homily to be read at Church wakes : — 
 " Leteus think that Crist dyed in the 
 Este, and therefore lete us pray besely 
 into the Este, that we may be of the 
 nombre that He died for, and lete us 
 think that He shall coome out of the 
 Este to the doom : wherefore lete us 
 pray heretily to Him allsoe, and besely, 
 that wee may have grace and contrition 
 
 in our hartes for our misdeeds, with 
 shrift and satisfaction, that wee may 
 stond that day on the right honde of 
 our Lord Jesu Crist, &c." — Staveley, 
 pp. 155, 156. 
 
 2 Bede in his book " De Linguis 
 Gentium " says, the ark of Noah is 
 doubtless a type of the Church ; and 
 he distributes its chambers thus, "Hie 
 (i.e. at the top) Noe and his signify the 
 body of Christ ; hie (also in the roof) 
 the birds are the type of the Martyrs ; 
 hie (below them) the sheep are the 
 type of virginity ; hie (lower down) 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 181 
 
 Neither does our definition exclude those things which have 
 been first employed, simply for their constructive use, but have 
 acquired a meaning since ; as, for instance, pillars, which were 
 obviously anterior in their use to any Christian symbolism, but 
 which were afterwards in many cases clearly designed to signify 
 the Apostles, 1 or other eminent saints. 
 
 I have been thus careful in excluding false symbolism, as well 
 as asserting the general principle, because I believe that one great 
 effort of the advocate of the principles of symbolism must be to 
 guard against the very strong temptation to find symbols every- 
 where, and where they cannot be found, to invent them. The 
 mere arbitrary assigning of a symbolical meaning to what there 
 is no proof was ever used or accepted as symbolical, is surely un- 
 scientific. We involuntarily demur when, without a single argu- 
 ment that bears directly on the question, we find it asserted that 
 certain windows symbolize the Wounds in our Lord's Side and 
 in His Feet ; or that in order " to denote that all that the Church 
 has, and all she is, is from above, the stringcourse, springing 
 from the eastern triplet, runs round the whole church, (often 
 both within and without,) binding it, as it were, in, and connect- 
 ing every other light, with those at the east." 2 When we find 
 that such applications are gravely made of the principle of sym- 
 bolism, we either start aside from the thing itself, or shrewdly 
 suspect that our friends have taken the words of John Bunyan 
 as their motto, 
 
 " Having now my method by the end, 
 Still as I pulled it came." 
 
 We conclude, then, that to accept all the recent attempts to 
 find symbolical meanings in churches, and in their different de- 
 tails ; or even to convert all the moral reflections of Durandus 
 upon the parts of churches into legitimate symbolical interpre- 
 tations, would be to admit that there is a dormant symbolism in 
 
 those animals which do not eat flesh 
 are a type of wedlock ; hie (lower still) 
 the animals which eat flesh are a type 
 of violent men and sinners ; hie (low- 
 est of all) where they throw the dung, 
 is a type of hell." 
 
 1 And this as early at least as the 
 time of Constantine, who surrounded 
 the Holy Sepulchre with twelve pillars, 
 after the number of the Apostles. 
 
 2 Essay on Sacramentality, p. lxli. 
 
182 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ecclesiastical art, which any one may awaken at any time, and in 
 the most arbitrary manner ; an assertion which respect for the 
 principles of symbolism forbids us to admit. But it is undoubt- 
 edly true, and most important, that there is a nascent and 
 germinant symbolism in ecclesiastical art, arising out of its ap- 
 propriateness to its several purposes, and out of the law which 
 imposes on material forms something in harmony with the wants 
 or feelings out of which they have grown. Such forms are ever 
 ready to become (though they were not so originally) symbols of 
 that ritualism to which they owed their existence, and of that 
 character which they at first expressed by a law quite distinct 
 from that of symbols. And the bursting forth of these forms 
 into a new life, instinct with a recognized meaning, is a highly 
 interesting and practical part of the history of symbolism, and 
 of the reciprocal influence of ecclesiastical art, and of Christian 
 doctrine on each other. And at the present revival of church 
 architecture, it becomes a question how far on this ground many 
 forms which were perhaps not accepted as symbolical in the six- 
 teenth century, yet having had a soul given to them by the ex- 
 pression of the deep feelings of reverent men, awakened by them 
 and associated with them, are not now to be recognized as sym- 
 bolical, and their use exacted, or at least desired on that account 
 in future religious edifices. 
 
 It is almost superfluous to remark, that besides this nascent 
 and germinant symbolism, there is that which had from its first 
 existence the fulness of its life and vigour, and sprang forth, (as 
 Minerva from the head of Jupiter,) complete in itself, not wait- 
 ing for its force till it was adopted, or interpreted, but symboli- 
 cal in its very birth and first intention. Such is the symbolism 
 of the Atonement by the cross-form of our churches, and of the 
 separate orders in the Church by its separation into nave and 
 chancel, after the type of the Holy place, and the Holy of Holies. 
 Such are also some of the essential symbolisms of branches of 
 ecclesiastical art ancillary to architecture, as of painting and 
 sculpture : the distinguishing marks of the virgins, martyrs, and 
 confessors among saints ; and of particular saints in each com- 
 pany : such emblems of the Atonement as the pelican in her 
 piety ; of the Holy Eucharist as the Lamb pouring its blood into 
 a chalice ; of the offices or states of Christ as the good Shep- 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 183 
 
 herd, or the Lamb triumphant. Such again are the emblemati- 
 cal allusions in the rich surface-carving of early times, and 
 afterwards in the capitals, brackets, or bosses which so richly 
 adorn our finest churches ; as for instance, the Christian soldier 
 opposing a shield charged with a cross to the attacks of fiery 
 serpents, in which the Christian vow in Holy Baptism is figured; 1 
 the birds making their nests in the foliage of a capital, in allu- 
 sion to the text, " The sparrow hath found an house, and the 
 swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even 
 Thine altars, Lord of Hosts/" 2 But in such instances as the 
 latter, we must distinguish between a representation and a sym- 
 bol. Except in the Church, these would be mere renderings of 
 a parable in the language of sculpture : in the Church 3 they 
 symbolize the truth that the house of God is a refuge for the 
 meek and lowly. 
 
 Having now endeavoured, with what success we do not ven- 
 ture to say, to clear the general subject from some misrepresen- 
 tations and confusion of terms, we may give a short summary of 
 the history of symbolism in its effects on ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture in England. 
 
 There are but very few remains of Saxon architecture of such 
 extent as to retain what may originally have presented a sym- 
 bolic arrangement. We find, however, in ground plans, the 
 
 1 On the font of Thorpe Ernald, in 
 Leicestershire. 
 
 2 Psalm lxxxiv. 3. See also Psalm 
 civ. 16, 17, and S. Matthew xiii. 
 31, 32. 
 
 3 Or perhaps in a conventual church 
 there may be a more restricted applica- 
 tion of this figure in the way of sym- 
 bolical representation. Gildas, in his 
 reproof of Maglocune, (the imperso- 
 nation doubtless of a class) who seems 
 to have broken his monastic vow, ap- 
 plies this figure to that more limited 
 number of Christians, who have taken 
 refuge in a monastic life from the 
 temptations of the world. " Didst 
 thou not as a dove, which cleaves the 
 yielding air with its pinions, and by its 
 rapid turns escapes the furious hawk, 
 
 safely return to the cells where the 
 saints repose, as a most certain place 
 of refuge ?" And Archdeacon Churton 
 translates a Saxon version of the 84th 
 Psalm in the same spirit. 
 
 " Lord, to me Thy minsters are 
 Courts of honour, passing fair : 
 And my spirit deems it well 
 There to be, and there to dwell : 
 Heart and flesh would fain be there, 
 Lord, Thy life, Thy love to share. 
 
 There the sparrow speeds her home, 
 And in time the turtles come, 
 Safe their nestling young they rear, 
 Lord of Hosts, Thine altars near ; 
 Dear to them Thy grace, — but more 
 To the souls who there adore." 
 
184 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 principle of orientation recognized ; we find the ternary arrange- 
 ment into nave and aisles, which is symbolical of the doctrine 
 of the Trinity ; and in one church, that at Brixworth, there 
 seems to have been a three-fold chancel-arch, intensifying the 
 former symbol. We know of two Saxon churches only which 
 were built in the form of a cross, 1 so far as we can learn from 
 existing remains, that of Worth, in Sussex, and that in the castle 
 at Dover. 2 The cross-form is so evidently to be referred to the 
 intention of figuring the Atonement, that there can be no hesi- 
 tation in admitting this among the highest of pure symbols 
 employed by the Saxons : the division of the body of the church 
 into nave and aisles may have been, and indeed certainly was, 
 adopted from the Roman basilica, but it was retained and con- 
 secrated by perpetual use in the Church, while other basilican 
 arrangements were at once modified, and gradually dropped. 
 The division of the church into nave and chancel, signifying and 
 effecting the distinction between the clergy and the laity, and 
 also symbolizing the separation between the Church below and 
 the Church above, and the entrance into the latter through the 
 " triumphal 99 or chancel-arch of death, may be added to the 
 symbolical arrangements of churches before the Norman inva- 
 sion. In details we have the spire, though at present very low, 
 as in the illuminations of Csedmon's paraphrase, (where it is 
 surmounted by the cock,) and in the representation of Bosham 
 church, in the Bayeaux tapestry ; and we have the constructive 
 use of bonding courses set upright, instead of horizontally, as in 
 Roman masonry, originating the vertical lines of after styles, so 
 that we have already, what has at length, if never before, been 
 admitted into the rank of symbols as a figure of the Christian's 
 aspirations after his heavenly home. 
 
 The Norman era rejected none of the older symbolisms, but 
 as a natural consequence of the progress of architecture, and of 
 
 1 But sufficient stress does not seem sanctuary at Westminster, (which he 
 to have been laid on the cross-form of says was at least of the age of Edward 
 every church that has west tower, a the Confessor, though, if his drawing 
 nave with aisles, and a chancel. be correct, it is most likely at least two 
 
 2 According to the plan given by centuries later,) was in the form of a 
 Dr. Stukeley in the first vol. of the Greek cross. A very rare form in 
 Archseologia, the old church of the England. 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 185 
 
 the arts, and also by direct purpose to symbolize additional 
 truth, added several new ones. The ground plan even of small 
 churches now often assumes a longitudinal, as well as a lateral 
 ternary arrangement ; and that for no apparent purpose, but 
 simply that it may afford an additional figure of the great Chris- 
 tian doctrine of the Trinity. The same doctrine finds its ex- 
 pression in the three arcades of the interior, the nave-arches, the 
 triforium, and the clerestory ; and in the exterior elevation of 
 the larger churches in that most glorious expression of a glori- 
 ous truth, the three towers. In the absence of all evidence, 
 (which indeed cannot in the nature of things be had,) we should 
 be disposed to refer the former of these arrangements to adopted, 
 the latter to intended symbolisms : at any rate their hold was 
 soon fully established, and they were worthy of the high office 
 universally committed to them. The excessive number and 
 variety of carvings in the richer Norman churches, full of mean- 
 ing as they generally are, seem to render the history of symbo- 
 lism in Norman ecclesiastical decorations very complicated ; but 
 we shall find it much simplified by a little careful arrangement. 
 And first of all, mere representations of the events connected 
 with the church or neighbourhood are not symbols, but orAy pic- 
 ture histories. So also a parable or an allegory represented in 
 stone, continues still but a parable or allegory, or a kind of 
 homily upon it, or application of it, but not at all in the way of 
 symbol, not so as to heighten, but only so as to retain the figure 
 already there. The same is true of the representation of Scrip- 
 ture history. A sculpture of our Lord's Baptism or Crucifixion, 
 in a Norman church, is no more necessarily symbolical, than a 
 painting of the same subject by Raphael or Michael Angelo ; 
 but the position of such a subject may give it a symbolical 
 meaning ; as the Baptism of our Lord, not uncommon on Nor- 
 man fonts, symbolizes the truth that by His Baptism water is 
 sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin : and the Cruci- 
 fixion on the chancel-arch indicates that through the death of 
 Christ only is our death the way to eternal life. Of this class 
 of symbols the number is well nigh infinite in the surface- 
 sculpture of the Normans. 
 
 We would state then the amount of symbolism in the Norman 
 era thus. The great lines of the ground plan and elevation still 
 
186 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 symbolize the distinction between the clergy and the laity, and 
 between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant, and 
 also the great mysteries of the Trinity and the Atonement. 
 And besides these, the great amount of surface-carving being 
 highly figurative in some of its devices, and capable of a sym- 
 bolical meaning by the position in which it was placed, or some 
 occasional adjunct, affords many symbolisms of detail, in which 
 the great truths of the Gospel, its laws and privileges, are 
 brought down to the individual, and addressed to him in a prac- 
 tical form. 
 
 The theory of symbolisms seems now perfected, though its 
 developement was still progressing. In the next style we lose 
 in a great degree the surface -decoration, and the carved mould- 
 ings, and with them much of the symbolism of details ; but we 
 are amply compensated by the greater developement of the sym- 
 bolism of numbers. It is difficult to divest the prosecution of 
 this branch of the subject of the appearance of trifling, in the 
 eyes of those who do not know the degree in which the very 
 greatest Fathers of the Church carried their mystical use and 
 interpretation of numbers. To adduce a few examples would 
 convey no adequate idea of this the truth is, that wherever 
 numbers are mentioned in Holy Writ, there the Fathers found 
 that they had a mystical, as well as an historic meaning : and 
 we are bold to say that the Bible itself fully sanctions the prin- 
 ciple of such interpretations, by the obviously mystic character 
 which it gives to certain numbers, — as for instance, to three and 
 to seven. From the writings of the Fathers, the like use of num- 
 bers passed into the several branches of ecclesiastical art. We 
 have already noted a triplicity of arrangements indicating the 
 
 1 We will give, however, one pas- 
 sage from our own Venerable Bede, in 
 which he adopts the principle on which 
 a mystical interpretation is given to 
 numbers. ' ' Isidore says, in his praises 
 of numeration, that the hidden mean- 
 ing (ratio) of numbers, is worthy of 
 note, for there are many places of 
 Holy Writ in which they evidently 
 contain a great mystery, nor is it said 
 in vain that God made all things by 
 measure, number, and weight. The 
 
 number six for instance, which is per- 
 fect in its parts, expresses the perfec- 
 tion of the world in the language of 
 numbers : and so the forty days which 
 Moses and Elias, and the Lord Him- 
 self fasted, cannot be understood, 
 without respect to the significancy of 
 numbers. And there are other num- 
 bers in Holy Writ whose meaning can- 
 not be reached without the science of 
 computation." — Beda de Computo. 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 187 
 
 doctrine of the Trinity : we find this now carried down to the 
 parts of the fabric, especially to the windows, in which the num- 
 ber three begins to prevail, especially at the east end, or the 
 part where whatever is mystical most delights to dwell. We 
 have also far more frequently, (and indeed it soon becomes all 
 but universal,) the octagonal form for the font. 1 In the early 
 Decorated, the geometric forms in the windows afford occasion 
 to an almost indefinite use of the symbolism of numbers. We 
 give a few examples from the Essay on Sacramentality, with the 
 interpretations there suggested, but with some hesitation in ad- 
 mitting the more recondite meanings. 
 
 " The south transept of Chichester Cathedral is a glorious specimen of 
 Decorated symbolism. In the gable is a Marygold, containing two inter- 
 secting equilateral £n-angles : the six apices of these are sea?-foiled : the 
 interior hexagon is beautifully worked in six leaves. The lower window 
 seven lights : in the head is an equilateral spherical tri-angle, containing 
 a large ^re-foil, intersected by a smaller tre-foil. Here we have the Holy 
 Trinity, the Divine Attributes, the perfection of the Deity. 
 
 " The next element introduced was the consideration of the six attri- 
 butes of the Deity. One of the simplest examples was to be found in the 
 west window of the north aisle of S. Nicolas, at Guildford : a plain circle, 
 containing six ^re-foils : these are arranged in two tn-angles, each contain- 
 ing three tre-foil s, and the two sets are varied. 
 
 " The east end of Chichester is rather earlier, but introduces yet another 
 element. Here we have a triplet : and at some height above it, a wheel- 
 window of seven circles : symbolizing therefore eternity and perfection. 
 
 " We are now in a purely Decorated age. And as one of its earliest 
 windows we may mention that in the Bishop of Winchester's Palace at 
 Southwark. It was a wheel and contained two intersecting equilateral tri- 
 angles : around them were six sex-foiled triangles, the hexagon in the cen- 
 tre containing a star of six great and six smaller rays. Here of course, [!] 
 the Blessed Trinity and the Divine and Human Natures were set forth. 
 
 " The east window of Bristol Cathedral is of seven lights, but so much 
 prominence is given to the three central ones, as strongly to set forth the 
 Most Holy Trinity : over them is a crown of six leaves and by the 
 numerous winged foliations around them, the Heavenly Hierarchy may, 
 very probably, be understood." 2 
 
 1 Essay on Sacramentality, pp. lxlii. 
 et seq. 
 
 2 This form is symbolical, accord- 
 ing to the ancient method of spiritu- 
 alizing numbers, of the new birth in 
 Baptism : for the seven days' creation 
 
 of the natural world is symbolized by 
 the number seven ; and the new crea- 
 tion by Christ Jesus, by the number 
 eight, in allusion to the eighth day, on 
 which He rose again from the dead. 
 And this reason S. Ambrose, more than 
 
188 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 After this time, as the authors now quoted justly observe, 
 there was no addition made to the structure, and but little to 
 the vocabulary of the language of symbols ; but we may close 
 this chapter with an instance in which the voice of after ages 
 has consecrated a beautiful character of Gothic architecture, into 
 the symbolical expression of certain glorious characteristics of 
 the Christian faith and people, by which it was unconsciously 
 developed. 
 
 Struck by its peculiar character, Coleridge calls a Gothic 
 church " the petrifaction of our religion," and the same pos- 
 sessor of many gifts compares Pagan and Gothic architecture in 
 such terms as these : " The Greek art is beautiful. When I 
 enter a Greek church, my eye is charmed, and my mind elated : 
 I feel exalted and proud that I am a man. But the Gothic art 
 is sublime. On entering a cathedral, I am filled with devotion 
 and with awe ; I am lost to the actualities that surround me, 
 and my whole being expands into the infinite ; earth and air, 
 nature and art, all swell up into eternity, and the only sensible 
 impression left is, that I am nothing " Y 
 
 That character which has called forth such testimonies may 
 well be admitted among the recognized symbolisms of church 
 architecture : and to descend to particular features, the taper 
 spire " that points to heaven," cannot be without its recognized 
 meaning, since it has inspired Wordsworth to say that spires 
 " point as with silent finger to the sky and stars, and some- 
 times, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich, though rainy 
 sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heavenward 
 and to sing } 
 
 " Watching, with upturned eye, the tall tower grow, 
 And mount, at every step, with living wiles 
 Instinct — to rouse the heart and lead the will, 
 By a bright ladder to the world above." 
 
 fourteen centuries ago, assigned for the 
 
 octagonal form of the Baptistery : 
 
 " Octachorura sanctos templum sur- 
 
 rexit in usus, 
 Octagonus fons est, munere dignus 
 
 eo, 
 
 Hoc numero decuit sacri baptismatis 
 aulam 
 
 Surgere, quo populis vera salus rediit 
 Luce resurgentis Christi, qui claustra 
 resolvit 
 
 Mortis, et a tumulis suscitet ex- 
 amines." 
 
 1 Literary Remains of S. T. Cole- 
 ridge, i. 71. 
 
THE SYMBOLISM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 189 
 
 Such developements of the awfulness and verticality of Gothic 
 art are now no longer without a soul of symbolical meaning : 
 they have shot forth into holy life, like the budding rod of Aaron, 
 which was ever after religiously preserved in the ark of the 
 Covenant, as a testimony. 
 
190 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Round Churches in England. 
 
 General History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jeru- 
 salem. — S. Sepulchre's, Cambridge : — S. Sepulchre's, Northamp- 
 ton. — The Temple. — Little Maplested. 
 
 Both from their date and from their importance as instances of 
 symbolical arrangements, an account of the round churches in 
 England ought to follow the two last chapters. 
 
 Of these memorials of the sufferings and achievements of 
 pilgrims, and of a religious chivalry in the Holy Land, four still 
 remain in England : the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Cam- 
 bridge, the church of the same name and dedication at North- 
 ampton, the Temple church in London, and the church of Little 
 Maplested in Essex, and to these perhaps may be added the 
 chapel in the castle of Ludlow. 
 
 From the time of our Saviour's Ascension, and of the de- 
 scent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, the city of Jerusalem 
 contained its Christian Church ; and its succession of bishops, 
 with whatever else is essential to the well-being of a Church, was 
 never interrupted, except during the short, though cruel inter- 
 vals of siege and persecution, to which Jerusalem has been so 
 frequently subjected. Nor were the sacred places of which the 
 mother of all Churches could boast interesting to her more im- 
 mediate children only. From all parts of Christendom pilgrims 
 came to worship at the Holy Sepulchre, and in many other 
 places within and around the Holy City, consecrated by our 
 Saviour's presence. That the immediate disciples of our Lord 
 should forget the spots so hallowed to their affections, would be 
 impossible ; and almost equally so, that they should neglect to 
 point them out to their children, and their children's children. 
 Among these, none received greater regard than the place of 
 
THE ROUND CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 191 
 
 our Lord's burial ; and in this instance, the heathens, in their 
 determination to rob the Christians of their spiritual title in the 
 sacred spot, unwittingly assisted in perpetuating its remem- 
 brance. A temple of Venus was built over the Holy Sepulchre, 
 and it was thenceforth a matter of history, no longer subjected 
 to the less tangible evidence of tradition, that on that spot the 
 tomb of our Saviour was to be found. 
 
 The piety of Constantine the first Christian emperor, and of 
 his mother Helena, hastened, so soon as it was in their power, 
 to cleanse the sacred spot from this pollution, and to crown the 
 Holy Mount with a better temple, open to the devout worship- 
 pers of Jesus Christ. The temple of Venus was destroyed ; 
 the ground was cleared ; the Holy Sepulchre was found unde- 
 stroyed, beneath many feet of soil, and soon a beautiful church 
 was erected over it. This church, called the Church of the 
 Resurrection, was circular, enshrining the Holy Sepulchre 
 around which it was built ; and from this circular form of Con- 
 stantine's Church of the Resurrection, the round churches of 
 which we are about to speak were imitated. 
 
 But the munificence of Constantine did not cease here. The 
 death of our Lord, as well as His resurrection, was to be com- 
 memorated j and eastward of the round church already men- 
 tioned, but connected with it by a court open to the heavens, and 
 surrounded by a corridor, he built a much larger church, called 
 the Martyrium ; and of this also we shall find a counterpart in 
 the four round churches in England. 
 
 The Church of the Resurrection, however, after having been 
 visited by pilgrims for three centuries, was destroyed by fire at 
 the sacking of Jerusalem by Cosroes II. The emperor Herac- 
 lius rescued the holy city from the Persians ; and though it fell 
 soon after into the hands of the Arabian followers of Mahomet, 
 the resort of Christians to the Holy Sepulchre can scarcely be 
 said to have been checked by the Moslem lords of Jerusalem. 
 The Khalif Harun el Rashid even sent to Charlemagne the keys 
 of the church, in token of the free admission which he granted 
 to the Christians, " to that sacred and salutary place. - " 
 
 But the rule of the Egyptians was more adverse to Christian 
 pilgrims. By the orders of Hakem, who commenced his reign 
 in 996, the Church of the Resurrection was utterly destroyed, 
 
192 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and even the cave itself was preserved only by the natural in- 
 destructibility of its materials. The church was again rebuilt by 
 the patriarch Nicephorus, with funds from the imperial treasury 
 of Constantine Monomachus ; but the Christians still groaned 
 under heavy burdens, which were rather increased than lightened 
 when the Holy City again changed masters, and fell under the 
 despotic rule of the Turks. Such was the state of the Christians 
 until the voice of Peter the Hermit, at the very end of the 
 eleventh century, aroused all Europe to the defence of pilgrims 
 to the Holy Sepulchre, and to the recovery of the Holy City 
 from the hands of infidels. 
 
 The church which the first crusaders found, was not, there- 
 fore, the same which Constantine the Great had erected, though 
 on the same spot, and probably very much on the same plan ; 
 that is, there was a circle, or perhaps a double circle of columns, 
 with their outer wall, surrounding the sacred cave ; and east- 
 ward of this, the larger Church of the Martyrdom, connected 
 with the Church of the Resurrection, by an uncovered court. 
 Within these were many spots consecrated by various parts of 
 our Saviour's sufferings or triumph. And this is all that we 
 shall require by way of comparison with the English churches 
 which we are about to describe ; nor need we more than glance 
 at the fact, that the present church, re-edified since its almost 
 total destruction by fire in the beginning of this century, still 
 presents evidences in its architectural features, of the work of 
 the pilgrim Christians of the twelfth century, in the enlarge- 
 ment and adornment of the sacred edifice. 
 
 We may well believe that the Christians who returned from 
 their devout pilgrimage would gladly erect memorials in their 
 own country, of the glorious and spirit-stirring sights of the 
 Holy City ; and this natural wish was expressed in the erection 
 of churches, in some degree at least similar to that of the Resur- 
 rection. Of these, three have perished; Temple-Bruer, and 
 Aislabey, in Lincolnshire, and the Old Temple in Holborn. 
 Four yet remain, the first of which in order of time, and not the 
 last in beauty, is The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 
 Cambridge. 
 
 The ancient and round portion of this church consists of an 
 outer circular wall, with a rich Norman doorway, opening into 
 
THE ROUND CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 193 
 
 an aisle, which embraces a central round, resting on eight circu- 
 lar piers, and finished above with a clerestory, surrounded by an 
 arcade, pierced with eight lights, and finished with a conical roof. 
 The piers are low and massive, without bases, and with capitals 
 of varied designs. The arches are all circular, and some of 
 them adorned with the zigzag moulding, so characteristic of the 
 Norman style. To this part of the church is added a chancel, 
 and two aisles, of Perpendicular character, with an octangular 
 bell-turret at the north-west angle of the north aisle ; and thus 
 the present church consists of a circular nave and aisle, with the 
 chancel and its north and south aisle and bell-turret, extending 
 eastward from the round. In the interior the effect is greatly 
 heightened by the introduction of rich painted glass, and an ap- 
 propriate style of furniture and decoration throughout. The 
 round is, of course, the part of most interest, and here the win- 
 dows bear, many of them, reference to the history of the 
 Church. One represents the Resurrection, with an obvious allu- 
 sion to the Church of the Resurrection, after which, as we have 
 stated, this church is designed. Another is of the Venerable 
 Bede, the great historian of our early Church, who is said, (but 
 on the authority of a tradition which will not bear minute can- 
 vassing,) to have resided for a time between the site of S. Sepul- 
 chre, and that of S. John's College; and who happens to be the 
 only person who has handed down to these times a description 
 of the round churches existing in Jerusalem 1 in his day* 
 Another window represents S. Etheldreda, whose history is con- 
 nected with Ely, in which diocese the church is situated. The 
 
 1 Bede's account of the holy places Helen. From hence, to the westward, 
 
 in Jerusalem, abridged from Adam- appears the church of Golgotha, in 
 
 man, who had it from Arculf, a French which is also to be seen the rock 
 
 Bishop, who had himself visited the which once bore the Cross, with our 
 
 holy city. Saviour's body fixed on it, and now 
 
 " Entering the city of Jerusalem on it bears a large silver cross, with a 
 the north side, the first place to be great brazen wheel hanging over it 
 visited, according to the disposition of surrounded with lamps. Under the 
 the streets, is the Church of Constan- place of our Lord's Cross a vault is 
 tine, called the Martyrdom. It was hewn out of the rock, in which sacri- 
 built by the Emperor Constantine, in fice is offered on an altar for honour- 
 a royal and magnificent manner, on ac- able persons deceased, their bodies re- 
 count of the Cross of our Lord hav- maining meanwhile in the street. To 
 ing been found there by his mother the westward of this is the Anastasis, 
 
194 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 east window of the chancel, which appears to great advantage on 
 immediately entering the church, is of beautiful painted glass, 
 representing the Crucifixion, with the figures of the ever blessed 
 Virgin, and the beloved Apostle, as they are associated with the 
 cross of Christ in mediaeval art, on the authority of the 
 Holy Gospel. 
 
 This is a cursory description of the church as it now appears, 
 after having been restored with great taste, and at a vast expense, 
 by the Cambridge Camden Society. It is greatly to be regretted 
 that a question very indirectly touching architectural proprieties 
 should have occurred to take the work out of the Society's 
 hands ; and no one can approve of the taste and judgment dis- 
 played in the few alterations which have been made since they 
 resigned their task of restoration. Into the polemical question 
 of course we do not enter. The appearance of S. Sepulchre, 
 before a fall of part of the round admitted the care of the 
 Society in its restoration, was quite as indicative of the bad taste 
 of comparatively recent generations, as of the piety and genius 
 of the Crusaders. The round had been deformed by the inser- 
 tion of most incongruous windows, both below and in the clere- 
 story ; while the latter had been made to bear the additional 
 weight of another story, which was finished in all its details in 
 
 that is, the round church of our Sa- 
 viour's resurrection, encompassed 
 with three walls, and supported by- 
 twelve columns. Between each of the 
 walls is a broad space, containing three 
 altars, at three different points of the 
 middle wall ; to the north, the south, 
 and the west, it has eight doors or en- 
 trances, through the three opposite 
 walls : four whereof front to the north- 
 east, and four to the south-east. In 
 the midst of it is the round tomb of 
 our Lord, cut out of the rock, the 
 top of which a man standing within 
 can touch : the entrance is on the east : 
 against it is laid the great stone, which 
 to this day bears the marks of the iron 
 tools within, but on the outside it is all 
 covered with marble, to the very top 
 of the roof, which is adorned with 
 
 gold, and bears a large golden cross. 
 In the north part of the monument, 
 the tomb of our Lord is hewn out of 
 the same rock, seven feet in length, and 
 three palms above the floor ; the en- 
 trance being on the south side, wher 
 twelve lamps burn day and night, four 
 within the sepulchre, and eight above, 
 on the right hand side. The stone 
 that was laid on the entrance of the 
 monument is now cleft in two ; never- 
 theless the lesser part of it stands as a 
 square altar before the door of the 
 monument ; the greater part makes 
 another square altar at the east end of 
 the same church, and is covered with 
 linen cloths. The colour of the said 
 monument and sepulchre appears to be 
 white and red." — Eccl. Hist. v. 16. 
 
THE ROUND CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 195 
 
 a late Perpendicular character. The chancel and north aisle were 
 altogether unworthy of the fabric to which they were appended. 
 
 We have described this church before adverting to its history, 
 because, as usual, the architectural character is as valuable in as- 
 certaining its date and destination as any existing records. The 
 character of the round takes us back to the very beginning of 
 the twelfth century, or rather, to the last few years of the 
 eleventh ; and it appears from a MS. in the Bodleian Library 
 that it was consecrated in 1101. For the rest, we know nothing, 
 except what its form and its dedication tell us. It was certainly 
 erected by some one interested in, or connected with the Crusades, 
 and, most probably, that prayers might be offered in it for the 
 success of those religious expeditions. But it cannot owe its 
 erection to the Templars, who did not exist till 1118, and who 
 did not obtain possessions in England until 1134. 
 
 S. Sepulchre's, Northampton, is the next in antiquity, but 
 so far as regards its most ancient portion, and that which en- 
 titles it to a place in the present chapter, it is far inferior to the 
 former. Its erection is referred with some degree of probability 
 to Simon S Liz, second Earl of Northampton, and a Crusader, 
 who died a.d. 1127. In size it much surpasses the Cambridge 
 church of the same name, but in architectural beauty it is at 
 least as much its inferior. Like that, it consists of a central 
 portion, supported by eight Norman circular pillars ; but the 
 arches are pointed, though the plain flat soffits are far less ele- 
 gant than the well-moulded semicircles of the older structure. 
 The present roof, both to the round and to the outer portion, is 
 of wood ; and, as there are no vaulting shafts, or other indica- 
 tions of a better covering, it is probable that it was always so. 
 The central portion becomes octagonal immediately above the 
 piers. Of course the original buttresses and windows through- 
 out, are the shallow square buttresses, and narrow round-headed 
 lights of the Norman period; but later windows are inserted 
 everywhere ; and walls of great thickness, and of a shape as 
 little liable to disturbance as any, have been so shaken in the 
 process, that the far-projecting buttresses of later styles have 
 been rendered necessary. The present porch is to the south, 
 and at the north is an ancient doorway, now blocked up. If 
 there was ever a west porch, its place is occupied by a beautiful 
 
 o 2 
 
196 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 tower and spire, of which the composition cannot be too much 
 commended. It is early Perpendicular in character; the far- 
 projecting diagonal corner buttresses of the tower bring down 
 the line of the spire to the ground with great effect. The chan- 
 cel and its two aisles, opening out of the round eastward, do not 
 in their present state, harmonize at all with the round ; although 
 the piers and arches between the chancel and the north aisle are 
 of so early a character, that they form doubtless a part of the 
 original plan, though not erected until the Early English style 
 had assumed its distinct character. The external aspect of these 
 parts of the church would lead us to assign the north aisle to the 
 close of the thirteenth century, the south aisle to the middle of 
 the next, and the chancel to the fifteenth century ; but more 
 minute inspection shows that they have been rather altered than 
 erected at those periods. In the interior of the chancel are 
 some curious corbels supporting the roof, representing grotesques 
 playing on musical instruments ; among others, the organ, the 
 fiddle, the fife, and the double drum ; but there is little worthy 
 of remark in this portion of the fabric. 
 
 We cannot leave this church without expressing very sore regret, 
 that it does not find some sympathy in its extreme destitution 
 from the inhabitants of the wealthy town in which it is situated. 
 Even in its present condition, it is one of the most interesting 
 objects in the neighbourhood, and this it can never cease to be ; 
 but it is also one of the most melancholy objects, which it need 
 not remain, nor can remain long, without becoming a reproach 
 to the town. 
 
 The two churches already described cannot, with absolute cer- 
 tainty, be assigned to their proper founders; only their very 
 name, as well as what would, on any other hypothesis, be the 
 mere accident of their form, connects them with the devotions 
 of pilgrims to the original Hound Church of the Resurrection. 
 But the Temple Church, London, and the church of Little 
 Maplested, are more closely associated with the two great religi- 
 ous orders of chivalry, the Templars and the Hospitalers, who 
 were bound by the most solemn vows to the defence of pilgrims 
 to Jerusalem. The Templars had already a church in Old- 
 bourne, now Holborn, before the erection of the present church 
 was commenced ; and the latter, when finished, was called the 
 
THE ROUND CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 197 
 
 " New Temple/' with reference to the more ancient foundation. 
 The older edifice, like this, was round, and though not, in all 
 probability, so sumptuous, had yet been built at great cost ; for 
 it was of Caen stone, as appeared when some of its remains 
 were discovered at the beginning of the last century. The pre- 
 sent church consists of a circular portion, and, eastward of this, 
 of a chancel, with its two aisles, answering in relative position to 
 the martyrium, connected with the Church of the Resurrection, 
 as built by Constantine, and perpetuated through all its changes 
 to the present day. The round, then called the New Temple, 
 was consecrated in 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 on his arrival in England to obtain succour from Henry II. 
 against Saladin — an event still commemorated by an inscrip- 
 tion over the door leading to the cloisters, of which the follow- 
 ing is a translation : — " On the 10th of February, in the 
 year from the incarnation of our lord 1185, this 
 Church was Consecrated in honour of the Blessed 
 Mary, by the Lord Heraclius, by the grace of God 
 Patriarch of the Church of the Resurrection, who 
 has remitted sixty days of enjoined penance to all 
 who visit it annually." Whether this inscription was of 
 the date of the church cannot be determined, for it was destroyed 
 by the workmen employed in repairs after a fire by which it had 
 been much injured, in 1695 ; but there can be no question that 
 it rightly records the event of the dedication. The oblong por- 
 tion of this church was consecrated on Ascension Day, 1240 ; 
 and in this, as in the former case, the architectural features fully 
 answer to the historical mention of the event. 1 
 
 The church is entered at the west by an elaborate Norman 
 doorway, which formerly communicated with a cloister leading 
 from the hall of the Knights Templars. The round, as in all 
 
 1 Like the church of S. Sepulchre, 
 in Cambridge, the Temple Church has 
 been recently restored ; but it is the 
 highest praise of those who planned 
 and executed the restoration, that it 
 may still, in all essential features, be 
 described according to the ancient ap- 
 pearance. We have, indeed, made a 
 great advance in good taste and good 
 
 feeling, when a learned body, but of a 
 secular profession, have devoted up- 
 wards of ,£50,000 to the legitimate 
 restoration of a sacred edifice, which 
 they have inherited from an age and 
 order full of high and holy associa- 
 tions, and perfect in its style of eccle- 
 siastical art. 
 
198 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 other cases of the like kind, consists of a circle of columns, 
 supporting a tower, and of an external circular wall, forming a 
 kind of aisle to the central portion. In this instance the piers 
 are six in number, each consisting of four columns springing 
 from the same base, and again joined at the capitals, but disen- 
 gaged through the whole height of the shafts, except where a 
 fillet connects them at their mid-height. From these columns 
 spring pointed arches, over which runs a triforium, behind an 
 arcade of semicircular and intersecting arches ; and over these 
 again are six clerestory windows of the pure Norman character. 
 The roof is groined, the ribs springing from vaulting shafts 
 which rise from the capitals of the several pillars. The outer 
 round is also vaulted, and lighted by Norman circular-headed 
 windows. Over the west door is a wheel- window of eight lights. 
 The lower portion of the wall is relieved by shafts springing 
 from a stone bench which is carried along the whole circum- 
 ference, and supporting an arcade of pointed arches, the span- 
 drils of which are decorated with grotesque heads. 
 
 Although this part of the church agrees perfectly with its 
 Norman date, an eye practised in distinguishing architectural 
 features will at once detect intimations of the approach of the 
 next style, especially in the pointed arcade and pier arches, and 
 in the banding of the shafts. The square portion of the church, 
 which opens into the round by three lofty pointed arches, is of 
 pure and highly developed Early English. The pillars, which 
 are of a very elegant section, are light and lofty. The roofs are 
 all groined. The windows are triple lancets throughout. More 
 minute features it would be impossible to notice in so hasty a 
 sketch. 
 
 The richness of the whole structure is in some respect due to 
 the materials, as well as to the beauty of the design. The 
 shafts throughout, both the greater shafts supporting the roof, 
 and those purely ornamental in the arcades, are of Purbeck 
 marble. The floor was of encaustic tiles, and has been restored 
 after the same fashion. The roof was gorgeously painted, and it has 
 been adorned once more with an equal profusion of colours. The 
 windows were of stained glass, and they are again filled with the 
 same gorgeous material; and in these, and the painting of the roof, 
 both executed by Mr. Willement, (to whom the art of painting 
 
THE ROUND CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 199 
 
 in glass owes so much,) great attention is paid to the suitable- 
 ness of decoration, as regards both age and subject : the insig- 
 nia of the Templars appearing everywhere in various forms, 
 together with such theological emblems and devices as were com- 
 monly used at the time to which the erection of the church 
 is referred. Although beautiful in themselves, perhaps the 
 benches, in their design and arrangement, reflect less credit on 
 the learned restorers of this ancient edifice than any other part. 
 But every praise does not fall to the lot of one generation, and 
 to be first in action, and to profit by the experience of others, 
 are incompatible. 
 
 The Church of Little Maplested is dedicated to S. John 
 of Jerusalem, the Patron Saint of the Hospitalers, to whom it 
 owes its erection. In 1186 the whole parish was given to this 
 chivalrous order by Juliana, daughter and heir of Robert Dor- 
 nelli, and wife of William Fitz Andelin, steward to Henry II. 
 Here therefore, a commandery was erected. The church, still 
 remaining, carries us back to the times at which the knights 
 flourished in wealth, reputation, and true greatness. 
 
 In size this church is inferior to either of the other three ; 
 but it is even more remarkable in some respects ; for the whole, 
 with the exception of the porch, is of the original design and 
 execution ; and the chancel with its semicircular apse still more 
 closely resembles the Church of the Martyrium, so often before 
 alluded to, than the same relative portions of the churches be- 
 fore mentioned. 
 
 Of the commandery, once a part of the same Christian estab- 
 lishment, not a vestige remains ; but the Knights of S. John of 
 Jerusalem, if they retained their religious character, would not 
 be the last to submit, cheerfully, to the decree of Providence, 
 which has preserved the memorials of their faith to future ages, 
 while the signs of their power and splendour are utterly swept 
 away. 
 
200 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Connection of Heraldry with Ecclesiastical 
 Architecture. 
 
 Synchronisms and parallel fate of Heraldry and Gothic Archi- 
 tecture. — Augmentations illustrated from several events. — 
 Dates of Buildings determined by Heraldry. — Architectural 
 
 charges, especially the chevron. heraldic decorations of 
 
 Buildings. — Community of feeling between Heraldry and 
 Christian Art : The Religious element in both. 
 
 To the Crusaders Christian Architecture owed the round 
 churches, and Christian chivalry owed heraldic insignia and 
 this last architecture also borrowed as a minor decoration. 
 
 The existence of some connection between Gothic architecture 
 and heraldry is sufficiently obvious to the most superficial ob- 
 server, from the fact that armorial bearings are among the fre- 
 quent and characteristic decorations of the ecclesiastical and 
 other buildings of the middle ages. But this fact cannot be 
 without its causes, results, and inferences : and, in truth, archi- 
 tecture and heraldry are linked together by ties of greater im- 
 portance than mere accidents of detail and decoration. For 
 instance, heraldic records often throw light on architectural 
 questions, where all other sources of information fail : and the 
 
 1 " One ornament, which by degrees 
 formed a very considerable feature 
 among those of the pointed style, was 
 derived clearly and notoriously from 
 the Crusades alone ; namely, armorial 
 bearings. When these insignia, in- 
 vented in the holy wars, and placed on 
 tne shields and helmets of the leaders, 
 in order that they might be recognized 
 by their followers in life and in death, 
 had been rendered illustrious by the 
 feats and heroism of their wearers, and 
 
 had become proofs of an honourable 
 pedigree in their descendants, their 
 successors, no longer satisfied with 
 hanging them in reality or in effigy in 
 their halls and habitations, displayed 
 them round their tombs and funeral 
 chapels : and the temple of the God of 
 peace became studded with the monu- 
 ments, not only of the private feuds of 
 the Clergy, but of the public warfare 
 of the laity." — Hope. 
 
CONNECTION OF HERALDRY WITH ARCHITECTURE. 201 
 
 eeclesiologist amply repays the debt thus contracted, when his 
 researches bring to light armorial combinations of authority 
 sufficient to settle a pedigree, and even to influence the descent 
 of a title or of an estate. 
 
 And this, perhaps, is all the connection that the practical man, 
 as a matter-of-fact character delights to call himself, will desire 
 to find ; and all that most men who have studied either of them 
 alone, will expect to find between two sciences, not at first sight 
 mutually dependent on each other. But there is, to say the 
 least, a remarkable parallelism in the histories of architecture 
 and of heraldry. Armorial bearings were brought into Europe 
 by the Crusaders. At that very time ecclesiastical architecture, 
 in the hands of the freemasons, was emerging from the Norman, 
 and acquiring the Gothic type ; and this more fascinating style 
 was brought to its highest perfection while our chivalrous con- 
 nection with the Holy City still remained. Nor are the twin 
 sciences less nearly associated in their decline, than in their 
 birth and progress. It is true that neither heraldry nor archi- 
 tecture was wholly deserted by its spirit, with the last efforts of 
 the Crusaders : but architecture soon commenced its downward 
 course, and heraldry, when chivalry had lost its highest and 
 most inspiring direction, became comparatively effete. With 
 mock chivalry came the greatest gorgeousness of blazonry : — 
 the Field of the cloth of gold. With the Tudor race, (under 
 which chivalry, and of necessity heraldry with it, visibly de- 
 clined,) came also the decline of architecture ; marked not by 
 defect, but, as in chivalry, by excess of gorgeousness, but with- 
 out the spirit with which it was for a long while instinct. Since 
 that time the fall of both has been consummated. What Gothic 
 architecture was years ago who shall venture to express ? and as 
 for heraldry, it almost ceased to exist, except as a source of 
 revenue. It is, to say the least, a curious application of the 
 system of rewards, to exact a fine from a faithful servant and 
 his descendants, because of the value of his services ; and this 
 the State has done in taxing the outward insignia of hard-earned 
 glory, the memorials of honourable service. The blood that 
 flowed at Cressy, at Agincourt, or at Waterloo, might surely 
 purchase a right to transmit the coat there assigned untaxed to 
 countless generations: and the good Lord James of Douglas 
 
202 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 earned dearly enough for himself and his posterity the crowned 
 heart which graces the Douglas shield. Where heraldic devices 
 are merely taken, or "found" by a seal engraver, or purchased 
 at the herald's office, let them be taxed doubly and trebly if ne- 
 cessary : but surely there might be an exception in favour of 
 those whose hatchment (whose atchievment, as the word is origi- 
 nally and most significantly written) represents ancestral dignity, 
 or who trace their paternal coat to a grant for services, or whose 
 arms have ever received an honourable augmentation. 
 
 Hitherto I have only stated the general synchronism of he- 
 raldry and architecture in their rise, growth, decline, I may 
 almost add disgrace. But there was a more especial parallelism 
 in their mediaeval course, a resemblance in their forms and 
 spirit, as well as in their fortunes. The shield takes the form 
 of the arch most in use at the same period. With the Early 
 English lancet, and the Decorated equilateral arch, we have the 
 shield also acutely pointed. In the fifteenth century the arch 
 and the shield become obtuse, with great loss of beauty to each : 
 and in the sixteenth century we have the flat four-centred arch, 
 and the shield, 1 requiring sundry quirks, and other appendages 
 to give them form and character. In still later times we have 
 all forms that an unbridled fancy can suggest, for shields and 
 arches alike. 
 
 In both cases, the deterioration lay deeper than any external 
 forms. The language of heraldry was rapidly losing its flexi- 
 bility and purity, and was becoming vulgar and common-place. 
 Armorial bearings were pictorial rather than symbolic; the 
 painted history of the barbarous Mexicans, rather than the 
 sacred and mystic hieroglyphic of sacerdotal Egypt. The aug- 
 mentations which commemorate two actions, in some respects 
 similar, but with an interval of three hundred years between 
 them, will illustrate my meaning. In 1329 died Robert Bruce, 
 king of Scotland, leaving unfulfilled a vow to go in person to 
 the Holy Land. On his death-bed he entreated James of 
 Douglas to carry his heart thither, a mission which his trusty 
 friend and companion in arms died in attempting : but the 
 
 1 Or perhaps it would be still more fall of heraldry, to say that the shield 
 true and still more indicative of the was disused and the coat substituted. 
 
CONNECTION OF HERALDRY WITH ARCHITECTURE. 203 
 
 Douglas still bears, in addition to the paternal coat, a man's 
 heart proper, royally crowned or. How simple is this device ! 
 
 In 1650, (that is more than three centuries after,) James 
 Graham, Marquis of Montrose, was barbarously murdered by 
 the traitors of Scotland, and his head fixed on a pike at the Tol- 
 booth. It was removed by a retainer of the Marquis named 
 Graeme ; a service to the dead thus commemorated in the crest 
 of his descendants, " Two arms erect, issuing from clouds, in the 
 act of removing from a spike a human skull : above the skull a 
 Marquis's coronet, all between two laurel branches proper with the 
 motto — ' Sepulto viresco.' " The description of this crest is as 
 long as the history of the deed which it commemorates, and one 
 cannot look at the cumbrous medley of head, coronet, arms, 
 spikes, clouds, scrolls, and mottoes, without feeling that the 
 herald's art had fallen far beneath the worthy deed which it had 
 to celebrate. 
 
 The language thus deteriorated soon utterly perished, and 
 when architects did not, (but ought to have done) write on their 
 buildings or on parts of them, " This is a church, this is the 
 chancel, this is the tower heralds actually did confess that 
 they had lost all power of expression in the language of heraldry, 
 by writing under their pictures what they intended them to 
 represent. On our later augmentations we have the names of 
 places under certain green mounds, with castles upon them, and 
 the like devices, which mean anything the letters please, because 
 they mean nothing without the letters : and thus heraldry, which 
 is a glorious hieroglyphic, a symbolical language, more universal 
 than any tongue, Latin not excepted, is made to accept the help 
 of a modern language most limited and most unideal. 
 
 There is a very curious seal ring figured in the fourth volume 
 of the " Archseologia," which so fully illustrates the theory and 
 use of augmentations, that I am tempted to describe it at length. 
 The device is a knight armed cap-a-pie, his shield blazoned or, 
 a fess cheeky argent and azure, (the arms of Stuart,) 1 striking 
 with a ragged staff at a lion, which has attacked him, and broken 
 his sword which lies in two pieces at his feet. From the upper 
 
 1 The fess cheeky is a canting ordinary in this case, referring to the Steward's 
 accounts. 
 
204 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 part of the seal an arm is issuing, vested in a maunch, charged 
 with three fleurs-de-lys, and holding a shield with the same arms 
 before given, but with the augmentation of a lion rampant gules 
 debruised by a bend ragule or, an escutcheon of pretence argent. 
 The whole is surrounded by a double tressure, flori counter- 
 flori. 
 
 The knight here represented is probably Alexander Stuart, to 
 whom the augmentation was assigned by Charles VI. of France, 
 for service done by Andrew Stewart, his father, to the said 
 Charles, and to the King of Scots ; and also to John the French 
 King, grandfather to Charles. It is wholly unknown what 
 the services were which are thus requited, but the seal, as a 
 work of art, tells its own history in its own way ; the shield tells 
 the same history in the language of heraldry. The combat of 
 the knight has been with danger to his life, and the loss of his 
 sword, but he seizes a ragged staff, and therewith debruises the 
 lion, and receives from the French King, signified by the three 
 fleurs-de-lys on the maunch, his own shield augmented by a lion 
 debruised by a bend ragule, or a ragged staff, in bend. The only 
 question is, whether the combat with the lion is real or allegori- 
 cal. It would seem a more worthy exploit to conquer some hos- 
 tile knight, than to kill a lion as thus represented ; and this may 
 have been the service performed, the vanquished knight bearing 
 a lion rampant. But if this were the case, the seal would con- 
 tain a mixture of allegory and direct representation hardly ad- 
 missible. The Stuart is a man, and so should the other be, if 
 he were really a human opponent, bearing like the Stuart his 
 arms on his shield. Again, if the lion represented any person 
 or people, it would itself have been charged with some device. 
 The lion therefore seems to be as real and literal as the knight 
 and the combat; and the augmentation records the slaughter 
 of a lion by Sir Andrew Stuart, after a sharp conflict, in which 
 he had lost his sword. 
 
 Now what I would chiefly remark here is this, — that if this 
 were a modern augmentation, the allegory, which is not out of 
 place on the seal, would in all probability have been the coat of 
 arms awarded as an augmentation, while some vapid inscription 
 by way of motto laboured to bring together history, allegory, 
 and heraldry. As it is, the augmentation speaks purely in the 
 
CONNECTION OF HERALDRY WITH ARCHITECTURE. 205 
 
 language of heraldry, while the seal speaks in the supplemental 
 and partly explanatory language of picture history. 
 
 The modern use of explanatory inscriptions by way of mottoes 
 is the more observable in itself, and the more derogatory to he- 
 raldry,, because armorial devices, in their very theory, exclude 
 speech and writing, for which they are in some sort a substitute. 
 The heraldic insignia of the knight of old were the best desig- 
 nations of his person and property. Covered with mail, at a 
 distance far beyond that at which his features could be recog- 
 nised, (even if his visor were raised,) perhaps, too, approaching 
 persons who have never seen him, the Warren was known by 
 his shield (cheeky or and azure,) the Fitzwilliam by his em- 
 broidered surcoat (lozenge argent and gules), or Lupus, TLarl of 
 Chester, by his canting device, a wolfs head erased argent, in a 
 field azure, — and so well did the device answer its purpose, that 
 it was known all over Christendom, and recognised by the very 
 page, whose master could neither write his own name, nor read 
 another man's. Property was marked in the same way. Instead 
 of putting his name and titles on a nice square panel over a 
 doorway, the founder of a church or castle inserted his arms ; 
 and these testified to all generations that a Beauchamp or a Vere 
 had there first spread his banner, or there first offered of his 
 substance to the Almighty. These, in the great scarcity of 
 records, are invaluable to the ecclesiologist or mediaeval historian, 
 and the deductions from them are full of interest. 
 
 The exact date of a building is also indicated sometimes by a 
 change in the device of the founder, or by the association of 
 other arms with his paternal coat. Thus Richard Plantagenet, 
 Earl of Lancaster, assumed in 1373, and retained until about 
 1399, the arms of the King of the Romans ; and his shield thus 
 ensigned, appears on the upper part of the tower of Tickhill, in 
 Yorkshire, infallibly deciding that the belfry was added to the 
 tower, which is Early English, between those dates. The cinque- 
 foil of the Astleys occurs in Crick Church, together with the 
 fess and cross crosslets of the Beauchamps. 1 Here is a double 
 
 1 In this case the impaling is very lion supports a shield with the Beau- 
 curiously managed. A lion supports a champ coat, and the tails of the lions 
 shield with the Astley coat, another are intertwined. 
 
206 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 help in assigning the date, for the Beauchamp coat was at one 
 time gules, crusilly or, instead of gules, a fess between six cross 
 crosslets or, so that the church must have been erected while the 
 arms of Beauchamp were emblazoned in the latter way ; but we 
 get still nearer to the date of this church, on a comparison of 
 the pedigrees of the two families which supply the date of their 
 connexion by marriage. 
 
 In the case of Crick Church, the arms of Astley occur several 
 times on the exterior, as well as in the case just mentioned, in 
 the interior ; but the Beauchamp coat does not appear at all on 
 the exterior, and only once in the interior, where it is associated 
 with that of Astley. Hence we may infer that the chancel of 
 Crick was nearly finished before Astley had a right to the im- 
 palement of Beauchamp ; for, otherwise, so honourable an he- 
 raldic ensign would certainly not have been omitted during the 
 progress of the work. On the other hand, at Astley, in War- 
 wickshire, a church afterwards built by the same Sir Thomas de 
 Astley, who finished Crick Church about the time of his mar- 
 riage, the arms of Astley and Beauchamp occur alternately 
 throughout the whole of the original fabric, as we should natu- 
 rally expect ; thus indicating not only that the two churches 
 were built by the same person, but also that the one was 
 just finished, and the other just begun at the time of his 
 marriage. 
 
 As this instance affords a valuable praxis in the connection of 
 heraldry with architecture, we will sum up the purely heraldic 
 inferences which we have drawn : — 
 
 I. The chancel of Crick was erected during the time that the 
 
 Beauchamps bore a fess between six crosslets, and not 
 while they bore crusilly. 
 
 II. It was erected by an Astley : and 
 
 III. By an Astley who married a Beauchamp : but 
 
 IV. It was not finished till just after their marriage. Whereas 
 on the other hand, 
 
 V. Astley church, in Warwickshire, was also erected by an 
 
 Astley who married a Beauchamp, and who was entitled, 
 during the whole of the course of its erection, to asso- 
 ciate the Beauchamp coat with his own. 
 And all these deductions are fully borne out by documen- 
 
CONNECTION OF HERALDRY WITH ARCHITECTURE. 207 
 
 tary evidence, and by the architectural character of the two 
 churches. 
 
 In like manner the impaling of a family coat with the 
 arms of a corporation sole, 1 as for instance, those of Chichele with 
 the See of Canterbury, at Higham-Ferrers, affords an exact 
 indication of dates, where they are not otherwise determined. 
 
 But I must leave this branch of the subject, not for want of 
 material, for every district in the kingdom would furnish abun- 
 dant examples, but merely for shortness' sake, I will now pro- 
 ceed to mention some heraldic charge s, which seem to be directly 
 borrowed from architecture. 
 
 Besides certain architectural objects, such as castles, towers, 
 arches, pillars, canopies, and churches, architecture has given 
 several forms and bearings to heraldry. The Pile driven into 
 the marshy soil to receive the arches of a bridge occurs with the 
 same name in blazonry, and probably records the erection of 
 some work in which this contrivance was needed. But one of 
 the heraldic ordinaries is more especially connected with archi- 
 tecture in the symbolic language of ancient heralds. The 
 chevron, composed, as it were, of two rafters leaning against 
 each other, represents the tectum, the roof of a house, and it is, 
 " as the learned Nicholas Upton has it, one of those bearings 
 which per carpentarios et domorum f adores olim portabantur :" 2 
 but it has also a more honourable signification, and adumbrates 
 
 1 While on this subject, I may note 
 another method of appropriating the 
 arms of a corporation to an individual : 
 — the figure of the person himself, or 
 his coat or rebus, being presented in 
 the same seal or coat with the corpo- 
 ration device. Archdeacon de Bokyng- 
 ham's seal of office was " the Virgin 
 and Child, with the ecclesiastic be- 
 neath in the attitude of worship." 
 Here the Virgin and Child is the de- 
 vice of the office, the ecclesiastic is De 
 Bokyngham himself, who thus appro- 
 priates the seal to his own person ; 
 just as a present archdeacon would ap- 
 propriate it, impaling his coat with it. 
 
 Again, in the seal of the chantry in 
 Wimbourne Minster founded byThos. 
 
 de Brembre, the arms of Brembre 
 (Argent two [three ?] Annulets and a 
 canton azure) is placed under the 
 figure, where the kneeling ecclesiastic 
 is found in the before cited instance, 
 {Archaeological Journal, XII. 360,) 
 and the seal of Bishop Grandisson, 
 and that also of his college, has the 
 Bishop's arms, (Paly of six argent and 
 azure, on a bend gules three eaglets 
 or) in the same relative position. 
 
 2 Such professional arms are not 
 uncommon, and would soon grow from 
 the assumption of an individual to the 
 honourable bearings of a family. In 
 the churchyard at Harleston, in North- 
 amptonshire, (a place of quarries and 
 masons.) we find an instance. The 
 
208 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 under the form of a roof, by a figure common to most languages, 
 as well as to that of heraldry, the house in the second intention 
 of the word, the family and lineage. Let us take the arms of 
 Danby as an instance, viz., Argent, three chevronelles in base 
 interlaced sable, on a chief of the second three mullets of 
 the first : a coat which is expressly said to record the erection 
 of three great houses in one province by the founder of this 
 family. 1 
 
 In return heraldry has given some forms and many decora- 
 tions to architecture. Spandrils and panels are, of course, 
 adapted to the shields they bear ; and the shields themselves 
 sometimes form brackets, corbels, and label terminations : and 
 the very word label expresses much the same form in he- 
 raldry and in architecture ; the dripstone over a square window, 
 (which alone is properly called a label,) being almost identical in 
 
 tombstones of the Lumleys are headed 
 with the coat on a chevron between 
 three castles a pair of CGmpasses ex- 
 tended. This is purely an architectu- 
 ral device. Bishop Skirlaw, whose 
 coat is found on so many eccle- 
 siastical buildings, bore six osier 
 wands intertwined in the form of a 
 cross, in allusion as has been sup- 
 posed to the trade of a basket maker, 
 which his father is said to have ex- 
 ercised : but I should rather suspect 
 that in this case the supposed trade is 
 inferred from the arms, rather than 
 the arms adopted from the trade. 
 They would look another way blazoned 
 as they might be, three pallets, and 
 three barrulets intertwined. 
 
 1 "The three chevronels brased, 
 shows that the ancestours of thys 
 cote hath buildeth three great houses 
 in one province, as we are told by the 
 author of the first book of heraldry 
 that was ever printed in the English 
 tongue." Gerard Legh, in his "Ac- 
 cedence of Armory," printed 1562, p. 
 180, quoted from the Ducatus Leodi- 
 ensis. 
 
 In the Glossary of Heraldry two 
 
 varieties of a peculiar way of bearing 
 the chevron, are given, which very 
 exactly represent a groined or arched 
 roof beneath the wooden roof, and 
 both belong to names bearing reference 
 to architectural construction. Argent 
 a chevron inarched sable, for Hol- 
 bearne (quasi Hall-beam,') and purpure 
 a chevron inarched argent, for Arch- 
 ever. William of Wykeham bore 
 argent two chevronelles sable, between 
 three roses gules, barbed and sided 
 proper. 11 He probably assumed the 
 chevronelles," says the Glossary, "in 
 allusion to his employment as an ar- 
 chitect." Had not the two chevron- 
 elles some allusion to his two founda- 
 tions at Winchester and at Oxford ? 
 Or did he bear the same coat before 
 they were contemplated ? It may be 
 added that Archbishop Chichele, who 
 succeeded Wykeham, as the freemasons 
 have it, as their grand master in 
 England, and who certainly displayed 
 a kindred taste and skill in architec- 
 ture, also bore a chevron in his coat, 
 which was argent a chevron between 
 three cinquefoils gules. 
 
CONNECTION OF HERALDRY WITH ARCHITECTURE. 209 
 
 form with the label in blazonry, used as the first mark of 
 cadency. 
 
 To recount the places on which arms are found in Gothic ar- 
 chitecture would be endless : on exteriors, on towers and gate- 
 ways, and porches innumerable ; in interiors, on the floor, and 
 on the roof ; on capitals of pillars, and on spandrils of arches ; 
 on the font and on the tomb, in short every where : but the 
 most remarkable application of heraldry I know, is on the 
 Easter sepulchre at Patrington, in Yorkshire, where the Roman 
 soldiers who guard the sepulchre are represented with shields, 
 charged with armorial bearings : certain Christian benefactors 
 to the church thus identifying themselves, (but certainly not 
 designedly,) with these enemies of our Divine Redeemer. 
 
 In one instance, (I know of one only,) a particular bearing 
 has given a form to an essential part of a structure. The win- 
 dows of the south aisle of Crick church, to which I have already 
 alluded at some length, have in their head a cinquefoil, — not an 
 architectural but an heraldic cinquefoil, formed by the intersec- 
 tions of the tracery. Now the cinquefoil is the coat of the 
 Astleys, one of which family erected, or at least greatly altered, 
 that part of the church, which thus takes its character from his 
 shield. 
 
 I shall not enter on the use of armorial bearings in windows 
 of painted glass, and on encaustic tiles. 
 
 I have still to observe on a certain community of feeling be- 
 tween heraldry and Gothic architecture. They are both full of 
 symbolical meaning, 1 and the symbols are in both cases purely 
 symbols, not pictures or resemblances. In many cases they are 
 the same in both. The cross, the symbol of our Redemption, 
 which appears in so many forms in architecture, appears in still 
 more in heraldry. Where the symbols are not identical, they 
 often represent the same thing. The cross of S. George, as we 
 
 1 " Heraldry is, in fact, the last 
 remnant of the ancient symbolism, and 
 a legitimate branch of Christian art ; 
 the griffins and unicorns, fesses and 
 chevrons, the very tinctures or co- 
 lours, are all symbolical, — each has its 
 mystic meaning, singly and in combi- 
 
 nation, and thus every genuine old 
 coat of arms preaches a lesson of chi- 
 valric honour and Christian principle 
 to those that inherit it, — truths little 
 suspected now-a-days in our he- 
 rald's offices." — Lord Lindsay on 
 Christian Art, ii. 4P. 
 
210 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 now call it, is the cross of the crusaders, Argent, a cross gules. 
 The Maltese cross, the escallop, the palmer's staff, the Saracen's 
 head, and other heraldic bearings, answer to the round churches 
 of the ecclesiologist. Both heraldry and Gothic architecture 
 delight in grotesques, in imaginary figures : wyverns, and 
 griffins, and heraldic tigers, and antelopes 1 in the one case ; and 
 in the other masks of strange and monstrous shapes, dragons 
 and salamanders. 
 
 But the great bond of union between heraldry and architec- 
 ture was the religious element in each. In theory every knight 
 was a faithful and devoted Christian : in theory every architect 
 was a servant of the living God. The knight received his arms 
 and his banner at the hands of the Church, after prayer and 
 vigil : and the rules of his order, and his vow of chivalry, were 
 full of religious requirements and promises. And the arms 
 which he received from the Church, he desired at his last day to 
 suspend over his monument^ in pious acknowledgment that he 
 had received them from God, that he had kept then! unsullied 
 by God's grace, and that he was permitted to offer them again 
 to God, in thankfulness and honour. And so with the architect 
 and his work. The church was an offering, in the heart and 
 from the heart of all concerned, the founder, the architect, the 
 artisans. I fear it is too much to hope that heraldry shall again 
 be accounted a religious science, or its application so much as 
 capable of receiving a soul of devotion : but I do hope that a 
 day may come again, when it shall not only be acknowledged 
 that a church is a holy place, but that the work of the ecclesiastical 
 architect is a holy work. 
 
 1 These are all of them entirely arbi- 
 trary in their forms ; and the tiger and 
 antelope would puzzle a comparative 
 
 anatomist as much as the griffin or 
 wyvern. 
 
211 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Early English Period. 
 
 Great Exertions of Church Builders in the Thirteenth Century. 
 — The Temple. — Fountains, Kirkstall, Buildwas, Winchester, 
 S. Alban's, Glasgow, Beaulieu, York, Skelton, Ely, Durham, 
 Rochester, Beverley, Ripon, Southwell. — Ely: Bishop Ridal, 
 and the introduction of Western Transepts ; — Eustachius and 
 the Galilee ;— Btshop Norwold and the Presbytery. — Wells: 
 BisHor Jocelin. — Salisbury: Bishop Poore. — Old and New 
 Sarum compared. — Nine Altars of Durham. — Extreme East 
 Transepts. — Westminster Abbey, — Characteristics of Early 
 English. — Destruction of Churches by violence: Rochester, 
 Norwich. 
 
 Impelled as it were by the sense of a new faculty, (for to this 
 the use of the pointed arch almost amounted,) the Churchmen 
 of the close of the twelfth, and of the whole course of the thir- 
 teenth century, put forth extraordinary energies in the erection 
 of religious edifices, or in the enlarging and beautifying those 
 which already existed. In some districts there is scarcely a 
 parish-church which does not owe its earliest existing portion to 
 this era, 1 and perhaps there is hardly a cathedral or a conventual 
 church of the higher order in existence, which did not receive 
 some great addition during the reign of the Early English 
 style. 
 
 Examples then crowd upon us, but we shall mention only 
 some of the more remarkable. 
 
 In the octagon of the Temple Church, London, dedicated, as 
 we have already recorded, in 1185, we have the pointed arch, 
 with many accessions of the Norman style ; and in the Abbeys 
 of Fountains, Kirkstall, 2 and Buildwas, the same juxtaposition 
 
 1 Of course the foundation of such support pointed arches, and again over 
 churches, in the ecclesiastical sense, is these is the clerestory of purely Nor- 
 often much more ancient than any man character. For beautiful views of 
 part of the existing fabric. Fountains and Kirkstall, see "The 
 
 2 At Kirkstall this is very rem arka- Monastic Remains of Yorkshire," and 
 ble. The pillars in the nave are Nor- Sharpe's Architectural Parallels, 
 man in all their characters. These 
 
 »2 
 
212 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of contending forms appears. At Winchester we have the Lady 
 chapel built by De Lucy; 1 at the very beginning of the thirteenth 
 century ; and in S. Alban's Abbey the four western bays of the 
 nave, and the west porch by Abbot John de Cella, between 
 1195 and 1214. 2 Of about the same date is the Cathedral of 
 Glasgow, which I mention (notwithstanding a general determi- 
 nation not to travel out of England for instances,) for its singu- 
 lar excellence ; even Salisbury itself being scarcely a more 
 valuable example of pure Early English. It was commenced by 
 Bishop Jocelin, who was consecrated in 1175, and his tomb in 
 the crypt is evidence of its having been completed by him. 3 This 
 part of Glasgow yields in interest only to the crypt at Canter- 
 bury. It is thus described by Hickman : — u The crypt under 
 the choir and chapter-house is not equalled by any in the king- 
 dom ; it is from the fall of the ground well lighted, and is an 
 uncommonly rich specimen of Early English ; the piers and 
 groining are of the most intricate character, the most beautiful 
 design and excellent execution. The groins have rich bosses ; 
 and the doors are much enriched with foliage and other orna- 
 ments ; the piers have fine flowered capitals, much like some at 
 York." 4 
 
 In 1204, King John founded and richly endowed the Abbey 
 of Beaulieu in Hampshire, a foundation which is chiefly memo- 
 rable in history for the privilege of sanctuary attached to it 
 having been claimed by two remarkable persons ; the one illus- 
 trious in her misfortunes, the other notorious for the greatness 
 of his impudence. Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI., 
 
 1 " In 1202, according to the annals, 
 Bishop Godfrey de Lucy instituted a 
 fraternity for the reparation of the 
 church of Winton, to last five whole 
 years. And in the obituary of John 
 of Exeter, we are told that Godfrey 
 Lucy made the vault with the aisles 
 from the altar of the Blessed Mary to 
 the end of the church, where he was 
 buried outside the chapel of the Bles- 
 sed Virgin." — See Professor Willis's 
 Architectural History of Winchester 
 Cathedral. 
 
 2 In the triforium of this portion of 
 
 S. Alban's, the spandrils formed by 
 the two open lancets under one outer 
 arch, are pierced with a quatrefoil ; — 
 thus indicating a tendency towards 
 tracery ; and in the porch is a trefoil 
 arcade. 
 
 3 Glossary. 
 
 4 Glasgow Cathedral has been more 
 perfectly illustrated than most churches 
 of equal pretensions, by Collie in his 
 " Plans, Elevations, Sections, Details, 
 and Views of the Cathedral of Glas- 
 gow." 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 213 
 
 took refuge there when, on returning from the Continent, she 
 found her husband a prisoner, and the usurper Edward on the 
 throne ; and thence Perkin Warbeck was drawn by the false 
 promises of Henry VII., to suffer imprisonment in the Tower, 
 and a traitor's death at Tyburn. 1 
 
 In 1227, the southern transept of York Minster, the oldest 
 part of that magnificent church, 2 was commenced by Archbishop 
 Walter Grey, to whom, with much probability, is referred the 
 neighbouring little church of Skelton, 3 equal in its kind to the 
 greater work of the munificent primate. 
 
 We shall have occasion, by-and-bye, to mention the presbytery 
 of Ely Cathedral erected by Bishop Norwold, (1236—1253,) 
 and also the Chapel of the Nine Altars, commonly ascribed to 
 Bishop Poore, translated from Salisbury to Durham in 1228. 
 About 1240, William de Hoo, Prior of Rochester, built the 
 crypt and the choir of that church, out of the proceeds of offer- 
 ings at the shrine of S. William. 4 With many additions in sub- 
 sequent styles, Beverley Minster is still on the whole an Early 
 English church. The nave, including the very fine west front of 
 Ripon, is in the same style, but there are no means of authenti- 
 cating its date : it is probably within the first twenty years of 
 the thirteenth century. The choir and aisles, with the eastern 
 transept of Southwell Minster, are Early English additions to a 
 Norman nave and transepts. 
 
 But it is time to leave such desultory notices of churches for 
 a more particular history and description of some remarkable 
 examples. 
 
 Ely Cathedral contains specimens of the highest perfection of 
 the several modifications of the pointed style, from its first in- 
 
 1 By ecclesiologists the remains of 
 the Abbey are perhaps chiefly remem- 
 bered for a beautiful stone pulpit. 
 This pulpit is approached by steps in 
 the wall of the refectory, which still 
 remains and is used as a parish church. 
 See plans and sections accompanying 
 " Some Account of Beaulieu Abbey, 
 in the county of Hants, by Owen B. 
 Carter, architect ; " published in 
 Weale's Quarterly Papers. 
 
 2 That is, of those parts which form 
 any portion of the general composi- 
 tion, for the crypt is partly Saxon, 
 and partly the work of Archbishop 
 Thomas, at the close of the twelfth 
 century. 
 
 3 See Churches of Yorkshire, No. 
 III. 
 
 4 See Winkles' Cathedrals. 
 
214 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 troduction, and before it had cast off the more ancient Norman 
 accessories, to the introduction of tracery, whence the reign of 
 the Geometric or Early Decorated is calculated. The great west 
 front consisting of a lofty tower with two wings, or transepts, 
 flanked by four turrets, 1 is among the earliest instances of the 
 pointed or transition Norman : indeed, the round arch occurs in 
 the lower parts of the whole design, while the arch is pointed 
 but still enriched with the zigzag or chevron moulding, in the 
 upper portions. The whole of this was the work of Bishop 
 Bidal, between the years 1174 and 1189 ; nearly, that is, during 
 the very same space which was occupied by William of Sens, 
 and William the Englishman, in the restoration of Canterbury 
 Cathedral, the history of which we have already related in treat- 
 ing of the introduction of the pointed arch. 
 
 Like all rich examples of the same date, which retain a 
 general Norman character, this work of Bishop Ridal exempli- 
 fies the very splendid effect of arcades as decorations of large 
 surfaces ; and in the lantern, which had been from time imme- 
 morial underdrawn, having lately been opened internally, we 
 have another proof of the correctness and grandeur of concep- 
 tion in our ancestors, and of their mastery in composition over 
 the greatest masses, as well as over the most minute details. 
 
 Bishop Bidal was, so far as I know, the first to design and 
 execute a great western facade, separate, in some sense, from the 
 original front of a cathedral, and wholly an addition to the nave 
 and aisles. The grandeur of a Norman west front did not ex- 
 tend beyond a high nave gable, flanked by low massive towers, 
 which terminated the aisles. The great front of Ely substituted 
 a lofty tower for the central gable, and two great wings, each 
 with its two turrets for the ordinary towers. As it appears at 
 present, with the addition of an octagon to the central tower, 
 this, when seen from the west, which ought of course to be the 
 most favourable view of a west facade, is somewhat deficient in 
 harmony ; but from the site of the ancient infirmary, a little to 
 the south-east of the south transept, where the intervention of 
 
 1 The north wing with its turrets octagon upon the tower, more than a 
 fell, not long before the Reformation, century after the tower had been 
 owing probably to the erection of an finished. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 215 
 
 the nave-roof diminishes the relative height of the central 
 tower, nothing can well surpass the happy combination of gran- 
 deur and picturesqueness of this arrangement. The west facade 
 of Peterborough/ in principle resembling that at Ely, though, 
 greatly differing from it in composition, and which is generally 
 considered the finest west front in the kingdom, has nothing to 
 equal that at Ely, seen from the spot just mentioned. 
 
 And let us, before we dismiss the western transeptal facade, 
 observe the place which it may probably have had in the sym- 
 bolism of church architecture. That the central cross repre- 
 sented the Cross of Christ is beyond dispute ; and if it is not 
 so certain, it is at least probable, that the eastern cross, or that 
 yet above the great transept, or as it were over the head of the 
 cross, as at Wells and York, and in a different form at Durham 
 and Fountains, represented the inscription over our Blessed 
 Saviour's head, in which, all unconsciously, yet by a Divine im- 
 pulse, He was proclaimed a King ; or perhaps even the crown it- 
 self of His mediatorial kingdom. And it remains that the 
 western cross, or that before the nave, and through which ad- 
 mission to the body of the church is gained, represented the 
 steps on which the cross of Calvary stands, and by which it must 
 be approached, mystically by us, as it was actually by our Divine 
 Redeemer, if like Him we would through the cross ascend to a 
 crown. 
 
 Though Ely had now perhaps the finest approach in the king- 
 dom, it did not satisfy Eustachius, who succeeded to the Episco- 
 pate in 1197, and filled the throne till 1214. This prelate 
 
 1 The west front of Peterborough is 
 usually attributed to Eobert de Lind- 
 say, abbot from 1210 to 1222. While 
 sacrist he had bestowed much care on 
 the fabric, among other things making 
 thirty glass windows, which before 
 were stuffed with straw ; and many of 
 the dependencies of the Abbey he en- 
 riched in one way or other. There is 
 however no mention of his works in 
 the abbey-church after his elevation, 
 and indeed it is one of the numerous 
 and provoking inconsistencies of the 
 monastic history, that slight things are 
 
 so often mentioned, and very great 
 works left unnoticed. However the 
 style very well agrees with the time of 
 Lindsay, and may be taken as a strong 
 confirmation of the tradition which 
 gives the work to an abbot whose cha- 
 racter also justifies the choice. It may 
 also be accounted a confirmation, that 
 in 1237, (and the work though begun 
 and carried on by Lindsay might well 
 be so long in completion,) the church 
 was solemnly rededicated. — Gunton's 
 Peterborough, pp. 294—303. 
 
216 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 erected the Galilee, a western porch of great size, and of splen- 
 did design and execution, before the central door of Bishop 
 Kidal's work. In this porch the Early English appears already 
 fully developed. The triplet of lancets over the west door is the 
 most characteristic feature, but throughout the details and deco- 
 rations are very perfect and very distinctive of the style ; and 
 especially the full power of cusping as a decoration is here de- 
 veloped, and the use of foliage and the dog-tooth in the deep 
 hollows of mouldings is very effective ; a style of ornament in 
 which there is as great a change from the Norman in the prin- 
 ciples of decoration, as there is in constructive principles in the 
 pointed arch. 
 
 In 1229, Hugh Nor wold 1 was consecrated Bishop of Ely. 
 To this munificent prelate the cathedral owed the last addition 
 which we shall mention in the present chapter. The choir as 
 well as the nave and transepts, was, at the beginning of his 
 Episcopate, of the original Norman, much shorter than the nave, 
 as was universally the case with the earlier Norman conventual 
 churches, and probably with a semicircular east end, as still in 
 the neighbouring cathedrals of Peterborough and Norwich. 
 But the veneration in which S. Etheldreda the patron saint was 
 held, and the consequent devotions of the people, called for a 
 more splendid shrine for her relics, and Bishop Nor wold de- 
 stroyed the Norman apse, and extended the church eastward by 
 six more arches. Nothing can exceed the beauty of this obla- 
 tion on the altar of S. Etheldreda. The carving is of the most 
 delicate kind, and the clusters of foliage in the several corbels, 
 both in the exterior of the east end, and in the whole of the in- 
 terior are exceedingly rich. The value of Purbeck marble also 
 in the slender shafts by which the greater pillars are relieved, as 
 well as in the vaulting and jamb-shafts, with all their enrich- 
 ments, as contrasted with the stone-work (equally elaborate), of 
 which the constructive portions are formed, is here admirably 
 displayed. Bishop Norwold died in 1254, and was buried in 
 the noble work which he lived to dedicate, in the presence of the 
 King (Henry III.) and Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I., 
 
 1 Jocelin of Bath and Wells was one of the Bishops who assisted at the conse- 
 cration of Norwold. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 217 
 
 together with the Bishops of Norwich and LlandafF, and a great 
 concourse of nobles. 
 
 Bishop Jocelin of Wells, and Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, founded 
 jointly the Hospital of S. John at Wells. Jocelin also founded 
 several prebends in the church of Wells, and endowed all the 
 dignities, persons, and offices attached to the church. But these 
 works, great as they were, are not those for which he is here 
 mentioned. He took down the church of W ills, which was in a 
 most ruinous state, and rebuilt it from the ground, and dedicated 
 it. He also built with great skill the chapels and lodges of 
 
 Wells and of Woky The see of Wells had no such 
 
 Bishop before him, nor as yet, says the historian, has he been 
 followed by his like. At his death he was honourably buried 
 in the middle of the choir of Wells. 1 
 
 Scanty as it is, this is all the notice that I find of the erection 
 of one of the greatest glories of the thirteenth century ; and to 
 this day, one of the greatest ornaments of the kingdom. In- 
 deed the Cathedral of Wells, with its several parts and precincts, 
 is perhaps more perfect than any other in existence ; and its 
 plan still comprises all the features of a vast cathedral and con- 
 ventual church. Not that all these are of the same date, or of 
 the work of Jocelin : but the most striking feature of the whole 
 is certainly to be referred to him, as well as, in all probability, 
 the chapel in the palace, which is in its kind as perfect as the 
 Cathedral itself. The west front of the Cathedral is not like 
 those of Ely and Peterborough before mentioned, a separate por- 
 tion of the cathedral, but it combines a unity of purpose which 
 is wanting in those, with all their grandeur and importance : a 
 result obtained by extending the towers as transepts beyond the 
 north and south walls of the church instead of erecting them 
 
 1 " Isti duo Episcopi Jocelinus et 
 Hugo Lincolniensis fundarunt Hospi- 
 tale S. Johannis Wellensis. Jocelinus 
 fundavit multas Prsebendas in Ecclesia 
 Wellensi de novo, dotavit etiam omnes 
 dignitates, personatus et officia dictse 
 Eeclesise in forma adhuc durante : 
 ipsamque Wellensem Ecclesiam vetus- 
 tatis ruinis enormiter deformatam pro- 
 stravit, et a pavimentis erexit dedi- 
 
 cavitque Hie sibi similem 
 
 anteriorem non habuit, nec hue usque 
 visus est habere sequentem. Tandem 
 defunctus, in medio Chori Wellise ho- 
 
 norifice sepelitur Capellas 
 
 etiam cum cameris de Welles et Woky 
 notabiliter construxit." — Can.Wellen. 
 de Ep. Bath, et Wellen. in Anglia 
 Sacra, I. 564. 
 
218 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 over the last bay of the aisles. The noble central space thus 
 gained, together with the towers by which it is flanked, covered 
 as they are with exquisite sculptures, present as happy a combi- 
 nation of grandeur and beauty, as was ever realized by mortal 
 hand. 
 
 Common consent has given to Salisbury which was being- 
 erected by Richard Poore and his successors during nearly the 
 same time that Jocelin was engaged on Wells, the first place 
 as a study of pure Early English Architecture. At the time of 
 the translation of Poore from Chichester, the Episcopal throne 
 of his new diocese was erected in what is now called Old Sarum, 
 a barren place, and within the influence of rude soldiery where 
 the church seemed still a captive, or at best in the wilderness, so 
 that a poet describes it in these sorry terms, 
 
 " Est ubi clefectus lymphse, seel copia cretae, 
 Saevit ibi ventus, sed Philomela silet." 
 
 Far different was the valley beneath this inhospitable site ; 
 there the fields were yellow with an early harvest, and two danc- 
 ing rivulets flowed together through verdant meads. The peo- 
 ple called it Merryfield ; and joyfully did the monks of Old 
 Sarum seek so fair a spot for a new habitation. Thither Richard 
 Poore brought together the most celebrated and the most skilful 
 workmen that could be found, and there by the hands of Pan- 
 dulf the Pope's Legate, were five stones laid ; the first for the 
 pope, the second for the king, the third for the earl, the fourth 
 for the countess, and the fifth for the Bishop of Salisbury. Nor 
 did the king and his nobles leave the great work without more 
 substantial aid than an honorary token of their interest in its 
 foundation, 
 
 " Rex largitur opes, fert prsesul opem, lapicidse 
 
 Dant operam ; tribus his, est opus, et stet opus." 
 
 So writes an old poet, quoted by Godwin, who however adds 
 
 " Sed elegantius alius poeta itidem vetustus, 
 
 ' Regis enim virtus templo spectabitur isto, 
 Prsesulis affectus, artificumque fides.' " 
 
 But with all submission, the last whether or no more elegant 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 219 
 
 than the first is not so much to the purpose. It would not be 
 easy to express in fewer or better words than those first quoted, 
 the part which a monarch's authority and resources, a Bishop's 
 superintendence and skill, and the people's pains and labour 
 should have, in the erection and support of the material fabric 
 of the church, and under God, of the spiritual temple. 
 
 But we have yet another " multo elegantius/' and though we 
 again demur to the comparative estimate of the verses, we can- 
 not refrain from giving in his own words the enumeration of 
 some of the principal features of this church, by an ancient 
 writer. Camden then, from whom Bishop Gibson quotes the 
 preceding, adds, 
 
 " Sed multo elegantius clarissimus et eruditissimus Daniel Rogersius — 
 ' Mira canam, Soles quot continet annus in una 
 Tarn numerosa, ferunt, sede, fenestra micat. 
 Marmoreasque capit fusas tot ab arte columnas, 
 
 Comprensas horas quot vagus annus habet. 
 Totque patent porta?, quot mensibus annus abundat, 
 Res mira, at vera res celebrata fide.'" 
 
 The accident of an unusually dry season enables us to state 
 the dimensions of the Cathedral at Old Sarum. In the summer 
 of 1834 the foundations of the original church, completed by 
 Bishop Osmond became distinctly visible. A comparison of its 
 dimensions with those of the present structure fairly represents 
 the advance that had been made in the splendour of ecclesiasti- 
 cal buildings ; and will also indicate certain changes in the rela- 
 tive dimensions of their several parts. The length of the nave 
 was about one hundred and fifty feet, that of the choir sixty 
 feet, and the total length two hundred and seventy feet. Of the 
 present Cathedral the total length is four hundred and eighty- 
 feet, of which the nave occupies about two hundred, the choir 
 nearly as much, the remainder being taken up with the space 
 under the central tower, and with the Lady Chapel at the east 
 end. The breadth of the old nave and aisles was seventy-two 
 feet, that of the present west face is one hundred and twelve 
 feet. The ancient transept was one hundred and fifty feet by 
 sixty, the present greater transept is two hundred and thirty-two 
 feet by eighty-two : and there is an additional eastern transept, 
 of one hundred and seventy-two feet by sixty -five ; the smaller 
 
220 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of the two Early English transepts being larger than the great 
 Norman cross. The most important differences here noted are 
 the greater complexity of form in the addition of an entire 
 transept, and the greater comparative length of the choir ; the 
 latter being a very constant feature in churches of Early Eng- 
 lish and subsequent dates, as compared with those of the twelfth 
 and preceding centuries. 
 
 Richard Poore was translated to Durham in 1228, leaving the 
 care of the works at Salisbury to Elias de Derham, who had 
 from the first acted as architect ; and the building was not 
 finished till the Episcopate of Giles of Bridport, in whose time 
 it was consecrated, thirty-five years after the laying of the first 
 stones, September 30, 1258. The expenses incurred during its 
 progress are stated in accounts delivered to King Henry III., at 
 40,000 marks or about £26,666 13s. M. of our money. 1 At 
 Durham Bishop Poore was not idle, if as is supposed he built 
 the Nine Altars, 2 a structure like the western front of Ely to 
 be noted as originating a new feature in ecclesiastical edifices, 
 this being the first transeptal addition recorded to the extreme 
 east end of a church, extending the east front on both sides be- 
 yond the line of the chancel aisles. The same arrangement was 
 followed at Fountains, and at one or two other churches in later 
 times. 
 
 Bishop Poore died in 1237 at Farrant Crawford, in Dorsetshire, 
 the place of his birth, in a monastery of his own foundation, 
 and there his heart was buried, but his body was carried to Salis- 
 bury, and Leland gives this inscription from his tomb in the 
 Lady Chapel : — 
 
 1 Winkles' Cathedrals, I. 3. 
 
 2 Although the erection of the nine 
 altars is usually attributed to Bishop 
 Poore, I find nothing in the continua- 
 tion of Turgot in the Anglia Sacra 
 touching the fabric, until the Episco- 
 pate of Nicholas de Farnham, who was 
 elected in 1241, and under his life we 
 are told that in the year 1242, Prior 
 Thomas began the new portion of the 
 church, about the feast of S. Michael, 
 the Bishop assisting, and assigning the 
 church of Bedlington for the purpose. 
 
 "Anno Domini mccxlii, incoepit 
 Thomas Prior novam fabricam Eccle- 
 sise circa Festum S. Michaelis, juvante 
 Episcopo et Ecclesiam de Bedlington 
 ad ejus fabricam conferente.'' — Anglia 
 Sacra, ii. 737. 
 
 If this nova fabrica be the nine al- 
 tars, which seems most probable, this 
 positive testimony must outweigh the 
 presumptive evidence from the charac- 
 ter of Bishop Poore, as an architect, 
 and the resemblance of the nine al- 
 tars to his work at Salisbury. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 221 
 
 " Orate pro anima Ric. Poure quondam Sarum Episcopi ; 
 qui Ecclesiam hanc inchoari fecit in quodam fundo, ubi nunc 
 fundata est, ex antiquo nomine Miryfelde, in honore B. V. Maria? 
 3 Kal. Maii in Eesto S. Vitalis Martyris a.d. 1219, regnante 
 tunc Rege Ricardo post Conq. primo. Fuitque Ecclesia hsec 
 sedificando per spatium 40 annorum, et consummata est 8 Kal. 
 Apr. a.d. 1260. Obiit 15 Apr. a.d. 1237 et 21 H. 3."— 
 Leland, Itinera, f. 62. 
 
 We must expend some pains on one other example of the 
 Early English style before we pass to the transition between 
 this style and the Decorated. 
 
 The history of Westminster Abbey might be made almost 
 a history of England, so intimately are its several parts, and 
 the treasures of imagery which it contains, interwoven with the 
 memorials of all our kings, of all our statesmen, of all our 
 heroes, and of all our revolutions ; nor would a full description 
 of the church with all that is known of its history, with the re- 
 cords of the several charges of its erection, with all the circum- 
 stances under which the several works it contains were carried on, 
 and with a fair estimate of their relative and actual merits, fall 
 very far short of a precis of the history of mediaeval architec- 
 ture and of ecclesiastical art in general. But we propose to our- 
 selves no such work. We have but to bring the history of the 
 fabric by a rapid sketch to the conclusion of the Early English 
 period, and though we may sometimes recur to the several parts 
 of this great fabric and its varied contents, it will be but to 
 exemplify some passing subject. 
 
 The most probable history of S. Peter's church, Westminster, 
 refers its first foundation to King Sebert, about the year 616; 
 and Sulcardus a monk of Westminster, about the close of the 
 eleventh century, tells us the fabric newly erected was dedicated 
 by S. Peter himself, who appeared miraculously for the purpose 
 of anticipating Mellitus the bishop in that sacred service. When 
 Mellitus was told of the visit of the saint, he hastened to the 
 church and there found the chrism, the droppings of wax tapers 
 and other signs of an actual consecration : a legend which we 
 mention chiefly for the proof which it affords of the very early 
 use of these portions of the ritual of consecration. 
 
222 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 However, the story of the consecration by S. Peter himself 
 was adopted by other writers, for Ailred tells us that S. Peter 
 appeared to a monk named Wulsinus, and told him that there 
 was a place in the west part of London which he had formerly 
 consecrated to himself with his own hands, honoured with his 
 presence, and rendered illustrious by miracles, [quam quondam 
 mihi propriis manibus consecravi, mea nobilitavi presentia, divi- 
 nis insuper miraculis illustravi,] which had become impoverished, 
 and which the king (Edward the Confessor) was appointed to 
 rebuild. " Non erit aliud," said the Apostle, "nisi domus Dei 
 et porta cceli," a vaticination which the splendour of the fabric 
 doubtless fully justified, so far as it could be interpreted into a 
 prediction of its material beauty. 
 
 The king heard of the vision, and appropriated to its fulfil- 
 ment a tenth part of his entire substance, in gold, silver, cattle, 
 and all other possessions ; and pulling down the old church, 
 constructed a new one from the foundations. Sulcardus states 
 that it was but a few years in building, as the king pressed on the 
 work very earnestly. Compared with the former edifice it was a 
 very magnificent fabric ; and according to Matthew Paris, it after- 
 wards became a pattern much followed in the erection of 
 churches. 
 
 Sulcardus says, " the new church was supported by divers 
 columns, from which sprang a multiplicity of arches and Sir 
 Christopher Wren, from an ancient manuscript, " the sense of 
 which," he remarks, " I translate into language proper for build- 
 ers, and as I can understand it," describes it as follows : u The 
 principal area or nave of the church being raised high, and 
 vaulted with square and uniform ribs, is turned circular to the 
 east ; this on each side is strongly fortified with a double vault- 
 ing of the aisles in two stories, with their pillars and arches. 
 The cross building contrived to contain the quire in the middle, 
 and the better to support the lofty tower, rose with a plainer 
 and lower vaulting ; which tower then spreading with artificial 
 winding stairs, was continued with plain walls to its timber 
 roof, which was well covered with lead." 1 
 
 1 For this and other portions of the tiquities of the Abbey church of S. 
 history of Westminster Abbey, I am Peter's, Westminster." 
 indebted to Neale's " History and An 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 223 
 
 Edward lived to the completion of his church, but a mortal 
 sickness prevented his being present at its consecration, and he 
 was buried a few days after, (Jan. 5, 1066,) before the high 
 altar. But his body did not rest here. Edward became, more 
 from the tyranny of the Normans, who succeeded to the sove- 
 reignty of England, than from his own merits, a national fa- 
 vourite; and having been canonized by Alexander II., his 
 body was translated to a precious shrine in the abbey, erected 
 on purpose, at midnight, on the 3rd of the ides of October, 
 1163. 
 
 It was not to be supposed that Westminster, second to no 
 foundation in its ecclesiastical position, and under the especial 
 patronage of kings, should remain unaltered, when Canterbury 
 had arisen more glorious from its ruins, and when many other 
 churches had already assumed a fairer form, under the influence 
 of the newly introduced style of architecture. In 1220, Henry 
 III. laid the first stone of a chapel in honour of S. Mary the 
 Virgin, where Henry VII. 's chapel now stands, and the erection 
 of this, and the rest of the church was continued throughout 
 Henry's reign. During the long period of twenty-four years 
 the king had a counsellor and assistant in the work in Abbot 
 Berkynge, who died in 1246, and was buried in the Lady 
 Chapel so lately founded. The preceding year Henry had com- 
 manded that the church should be enlarged, and that the tower, 
 with the eastern part should be taken down, and rebuilt more 
 splendidly at his own charges. 
 
 For the better husbanding the resources devoted to this work 
 by the king, a new office with two treasurers was established. 
 The collection of revenues for such purposes is one of the most 
 interesting subjects of our history, and in this case we have 
 several indications of the sources from whence it was derived. 
 In 1246, £2591 due to the king from the widow of a Jew 
 named David, of Oxford, was assigned by him to the erection of 
 the church. A gift of £2000 from the citizens of London, ex- 
 torted with some difficulty, was applied to the same purpose. A 
 fair of fifteen days was granted to the Abbot of Westminster, 
 the profits of which were probably carried to the same account. 
 In 1270 the sum of £3,754 paid by the Lady Alice Lacy, for 
 eleven years' custody of her son's estate, was applied towards the 
 
224 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 furtherance of the works of the Abbey church. At his death, 
 Henry committed the charge of the unfinished church to his 
 son, with a bequest of five hundred marks of silver for the com- 
 pletion of the Confessor's shrine. The donations of Cardinal 
 Langham at different times amounted to .€10,800 ; and many 
 other gifts of individuals were received, among which vestments 
 and church plate and jewels are continually recorded, and in 
 some instances materials for the fabric. " On the 13th of Oc- 
 tober, 1269, the new church, of which the eastern part with the 
 choir and transept appears to have been at that time completed, 
 was first opened for divine service ; and on the same day, the 
 body of Edward the Confessor, ' that before laye in the syde of 
 the quere, where the monkes nowe synge 9 was removed with 
 solemnity, ' into ye chapell at the backe of the hygh aulter, and 
 there layde in a ryche shryne/ which the king had caused to be 
 made for its reception. The vast pomp that accompanied this 
 ceremony may be appreciated from a passage in Thomas Wykes, 
 who, speaking of Henry the Third, proceeds thus : — c This 
 prince being grieved that the reliques of Saint Edward were 
 poorly enshrined and not elevated, resolved that so great a lumi- 
 nary should not lie buried, but be placed high on a candlestick, 
 to enlighten the church. He therefore, on the 3rd of the ides 
 of October, the day of Edward's first translation, summoned the 
 nobility, magistrates, and burgesses of the land, to Westminster, 
 to attend so solemn an affair: at which time the chest being- 
 taken out of the old shrine, the king, and his brother the king 
 of the Romans, carried it upon their shoulders in the view of the 
 whole church, and his sons, Edward, (afterwards king,) and 
 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, the Earl of Warren, and the Lord 
 Philip Basset, with as many other nobles as could come near to 
 touch it, supported it with their hands to the new shrine, which 
 was of gold adorned with precious stones, and eminently placed 
 in the church/ 
 
 " Henry the Third died on the 16th of November, 1272, and 
 within four days afterwards, with as much solemnity as the time 
 would admit, he e was buryed vpon the south syde of Saint Ed- 
 warde in Westmynster/ The following verses are given by 
 Fabian, as having been ' wryten in a table hangynge vpon ye 
 tombe of the sayd Henry/ 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 225 
 
 " Tercius Henricus iacet hie, pietatis amicus : 
 Ecclesiam strauit istam quam post renouauit. 
 Reddat ei munus qui regnat trinus et vnus." 
 
 The gifts which this sovereign made to S. Peter's Church, in- 
 dependently of the great sums he had caused to be expended in 
 rebuilding it, were extremely munificent. They consisted, says 
 the historian, of robes, jewels, and curious vessels, which were 
 beheld with admiration and astonishment, and would have co- 
 piously enriched even a royal treasury. Among these valuables 
 were the following, as particularized by Strype in his extracts 
 from the Tower records. 
 
 " ' In the twenty-eighth year of his reign, he commanded Edward Fitz- 
 Odo to make a dragon, in manner of a standard, or ensign, of red samit, 
 to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continu- 
 ally moving, and his eyes of sapphires, or other stones agreeable to him, to 
 be placed in this church against the King's coming thither.' Again, ' In 
 the thirtieth of his reign, he commanded the keeper of his exchequer to 
 buy out of the monies there, as precious a mitre as could be found in the 
 city of London, for the Abbot of Westminster's use; and also, one great 
 crown of silver to set wax candles upon in the said church.' And again, 
 when the Queen set up 4 the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the 
 feretry of S. Edward,' ' the King caused the aforesaid Edward Fitz-Odo, 
 keeper of his works at Westminster, to place upon her forehead for orna- 
 ment, an emerald and a ruby, taken out of two rings which the Bishop of 
 Chichester had left the King for a legacy.' 
 
 " Among the additional privileges with which this sovereign invested 
 the Abbots, were those of holding a weekly market at Tuthill (called 
 Touthull in the grant,) on Mondays, and an annual fair of three days' 
 continuance ; that is, on the eve, the day, and the morrow of the festival 
 of S. Mary Magdalen : this grant was dated at Windsor, in his forty-first 
 year. Henry, also, by different grants, gave eight bucks to the Abbot, 
 with liberty to make a park in Windsor Forest, and a warren of ten acres 
 and a half. Even in dying, the advance of this church was among the last 
 subjects which occupied his thoughts ; and by his will, he committed the 
 completion of his plan to his eldest son (who had been named Edward 
 from his favourite saint,) together with 500 marks of silver to finish the 
 Confessor's shrine." 
 
 At the time of Henry III.'s death, the Early English style was 
 fast approximating to the earlier or Geometrical Decorated, and 
 accordingly we have in the windows and in the triforium of the 
 
 Q 
 
226 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 choir and transepts which were his part of the fabric, foliated 
 circles introduced in the heads of the lights, the first advance 
 towards regular tracery. Edward in carrying on his father's de- 
 sign, seems to have had more regard than was common to the 
 style of the part already concluded ; so that the whole minster, 
 though in date its later portions fall in with the succeeding style, 
 is in general character Early English. 
 
 What were the principal features of that style we now pro- 
 ceed to explain. 
 
 Among the characteristics of the church architecture of a 
 period, the first place is due to those more important arrange- 
 ments, which affect the ground-plan ; and though these may in 
 a great measure be inferred from what has been already said, it 
 will be better to state them more formally and connectedly. 
 
 First, then, and principally, in large conventual churches, the 
 choir is now very greatly enlarged, being full twice the usual 
 length of the Norman choir ; and thus room is gained for the 
 choral services, without carrying the stalls into the nave. Be- 
 sides this, there is often an additional eastern transept, either 
 midway between the cross and the east end, as at Salisbury and 
 Wells ; or at the extreme east, as at Durham and Fountains. 
 There is also in several cases a more elaborate west front than the 
 old Norman termination of the aisles by western towers and a 
 centre gable afforded, as has been observed already in the cases 
 of Ely, Peterborough, and Wells, and as appears also in Salisbury 
 and Lincoln. Thus, without mentioning the addition of chapels 
 and other appendages differing only in number, and not in any 
 principle, from those which had already accumulated round 
 every large church from the first, we have in general a greater 
 complication of parts in this than in the preceding style. 
 
 On the other hand crypts are almost, and apses are quite dis- 
 continued; but this from no repugnance to a polygonal figure, 
 for chapter-houses of this period are usually polygonal, whereas 
 they were previously quadrilateral. The form now adopted was 
 retained in after periods. It was probably suggested by some 
 arbitrary association of a number of persons forming the chap- 
 ter with a number of sides to the building in which they met in 
 synod. 
 
 Of exterior features buttresses assume a greater prominence, 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 227 
 
 and are often carried up in stages, and finished with a triangular 
 pediment. Flying buttresses begin to produce as great effect 
 on the outward aspect of the church, as on its constructive cha- 
 racter; and pinnacles with all their luxuriant additions of 
 crockets and finials, are corollaries of the buttress, as the but- 
 tress is of the pointed arch. Towers rise to a greater elevation 
 over the roof, and are very generally finished with a spire, some- 
 times of great height. The most frequent Early English spire 
 is that called the broach, where the spire does not rise from 
 within parapets, but is carried up on four of its sides from the 
 top of the square tower, the diagonal faces resting on squinches, 
 or arches thrown across the corners within, and finished on the 
 outside in a slope. But a great many of the Early English 
 spires were wooden frames, covered with lead or shingles ; and 
 these in general, as well as in a few instances stone spires, were 
 connected with the tower in a different way, the spire itself 
 being at first only four-sided, and the angles being canted off a 
 little above the base, to form the octagon. 1 
 
 In the interior of large churches the triforium still retains its 
 relative importance, being very remarkable both in size and deco- 
 ration. The greatest change is in the roof. Before, only the 
 aisles were vaulted, and the vaulting was very simple : now the 
 large span of the nave, choir, and transepts does not deter the 
 architect from throwing across it a pointed vault, springing 
 from below the clerestory windows. The pointed arch, indeed, 
 gives the most distinctive character to the whole, and makes 
 everything lighter and loftier. Nor was any advance made in 
 these respects even to the close of the Tudor period, the loftiest 
 building being the Early English. The roof of Westminster 
 Abbey is no less than one hundred feet from the ground ; and 
 the Early English spire of old S. Paul's was the highest in 
 Europe. 
 
 In parish churches, the sacrarium is no longer added, as con- 
 structively distinct from the chancel ; unless a central tower may 
 seem to make that distinction, and this is by no means frequent, 
 except in cross churches. On the other hand the nave is more 
 
 1 As for instance at Denford. See the Churches of the Archdeaconry of 
 Northampton, No. V. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 universally furnished with aisles ; and a steeple, often both 
 tower and spire, is very frequently added at the west end ; the 
 spire as in larger churches being the broach, or the wooden spire 
 already described. 1 The tower assumes an octagonal 2 form first 
 during this period, but very infrequently : the only example that 
 occurs to me is Stanwiek in Northamptonshire. 
 
 Descending to less prominent parts of the building ; the doors 
 are almost all pointed, 3 and in large and fine specimens several 
 jamb shafts each with its separate base and capital, carry as 
 many suits of mouldings in the head of the door. Sometimes 
 the doorways are divided by a shaft, or cluster of shafts in the 
 centre, and each opening is richly foliated, the spandrels being 
 either pierced with a trefoil, or quatrefoil, or filled with carving. 
 The windows are always, at first, and very often to the close of the 
 style, single uncusped lancets. Early in the style, however, 
 two, three, five or seven, lancets are sometimes grouped together 
 under one hood ; or by the elevation of the central lancet, or by 
 some arrangements of the rerevault, are rendered one in compo- 
 sition, especially in the interior : and the spaces between the 
 heads are frequently pierced with foliated circles, or with trefoils 
 or quatrefoils not enclosed in a circle ; and often in the place 
 of this piercing is a panel of like device, but not carried through 
 the wall. These methods of relieving the heads of groups of 
 lancets are very important, as indicating the approach of tracery, 
 and of windows of many lights. But the finest and largest 
 group of Early English lancets in the kingdom is without this 
 or any other method of subordination : this is the five lancets, 
 commonly called "the five sisters," in the north transept of 
 
 1 It is almost needless to add that 
 not many Early English wooden spires 
 remian. 
 
 2 At Osleworth, in Gloucestershire, 
 is an hexagonal tower, the part next the 
 nave being square, that next the chan- 
 cel having the square edges canted off. 
 This is Norman, the tower of Stanwiek 
 is at first hexagonal, but becomes oc- 
 tagonal above the roof of the nave. 
 
 3 "There are small interior doors of 
 this style with flat tops, and the sides 
 
 of the top supported by a quarter cir- 
 cle from each side."— Rickman. I 
 should not however limit this form to 
 interiors. It should be added too, 
 that small doorways are sometimes 
 trefoil-headed, as in the tower stairs of 
 Burton Latimer. See Churches of the 
 Archdeaconry of Northampton. See 
 also a cinquefoil, and a square trefoil 
 door, at Sutton and at Salisbury, 
 figured in the Glossary. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 229 
 
 York Minster. They are nearly fifty feet in height, and in the 
 interior have a beauty which is altogether their own, and is not 
 surpassed, if it is equalled by any Decorated or Perpendicular 
 window in the kingdom. 
 
 The rose or wheel windows of this style also deserve especial 
 mention. That in the south transept of York is of great size 
 and beauty. 
 
 The use of foliations and cuspings, always most employed in 
 the heads of windows, commences with this style. So far as it 
 is purely accessary, it will be noticed in the next chapter : but 
 there is a kind of foliating which is now found, which regulates 
 the form of the window or other arch itself ; and in describing 
 which it is hardly correct to speak of a trefoiled, but rather of 
 a trefoil-headed lancet or doorway : or of a trefoil panel or 
 corbel. In such cases there is no outer pointed arch, but 
 the head or panel or corbel itself is thrown into the form of a 
 trefoil. This is the case, for instance, with the door at Burton 
 Latimer referred to in a preceding note. It is the case with 
 many windows, as at Stanton S. John, Oxfordshire, and the rear 
 arch of a lancet in Hythe church, Kent, 1 and also at Shipton 
 OllifFe, Gloucestershire. In the latter case the windows them- 
 selves are square-headed, a rare circumstance in the Early Eng- 
 lish, but not unique. 2 
 
 There is also a window combined of the trefoil and the square 
 head, the upper lobe of the trefoil being cut off horizontally. 
 This is called the square-headed trefoil. It occurs to the 
 west and south of the little chapel of S. Mary Magdalen, Ripon, 3 
 and indeed is not very unusual. 
 
 In all the cases of trefoiled openings, or panels of any num- 
 ber of foils, the point of each foil is very frequently enriched 
 with a flower or patera. 
 
 The jamb shafts common in Norman windows, are discon- 
 tinued in exteriors in Early English (except in towers, or 
 where the windows are parts of arcades) ; but it is brought into 
 the interior, and is much modified and enriched, the shafts 
 
 1 See Brandon's Analysis, Sec. I. 
 Early English, plate 20. 
 
 9 A square-headed window very sin- 
 gularly treated, will be found in the 
 
 west end of Ringstead, figured in the 
 Churches of the Archdeaconry of Nor- 
 thampton. 
 
 3 See Churches of Yorkshire. 
 
230 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 generally standing free and being sometimes tripled. But the 
 place that they hold in the composition of the fabric is of more 
 importance than any of these details concerning Early English 
 windows. So long as they are single or double lancets,, they 
 are subordinate to the composition, as in the Norman period ; 
 but when they are thrown into groups so as to adapt them- 
 selves to the form of the roof, and to rise high towards the 
 point of the gable, and still more when they begin to receive 
 tracery, they assume a very different degree of importance. 
 Henceforward they are not only introduced as essential to the 
 purposes for which the fabric is erected, and then decorated be- 
 cause every useful part must also be rendered beautiful; but 
 they are themselves decorations, and treated as such, at last even 
 forming centres around which decorations are grouped, and 
 affording patterns after which they are designed. 
 
 The piers in large and highly enriched churches are now of 
 great beauty. The usual plan is of a central circle with four, 
 eight, or more slender shafts, (often quite detached,) clustered 
 around it. The shafts are frequently surrounded by bands or 
 fillets, a feature which they borrow from late Norman, 1 (though 
 the section is very different,) but which they do not transmit to 
 the Decorated : and this fillet occurs in the shafts, in door and 
 window jambs, in short everywhere where shafts are found. The 
 shafts are generally of Purbeck or other dark marble. In smaller 
 churches the pillars, instead of being surrounded by free shafts, 
 are frequently of a quatrefoil section, no part, or but a small 
 part of the central circle appearing. The octagonal shaft is also 
 now pretty frequent. 
 
 The foliage of capitals, and other parts which follow the same 
 form, as brackets and corbels, no longer imitates that of the Corin- 
 thian acanthus, nor is it the almost indescribable knotted and 
 knobbed foliage of the Normans ; but it is equally conventional 
 though in a different way. 2 It is usually described as crisped and 
 curled, rising on stiff stalks which form part of the composition 
 from the neck of the capital. It turns over beneath the abacus 
 
 1 There are remarkable examples at 
 8. Peter's, Northampton. 
 
 2 The Decorated foliage is more na- 
 tural than the Early English. The 
 
 Perpendicular again becomes more 
 conventional, though of very different 
 forms. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 231 
 
 with a peculiar curve ; and though stiff it has a singular grace, 
 from its luxuriance and the delicacy and sharpness of its exe- 
 cution. 
 
 The mouldings of this style are bolder and more effective than 
 any other. It must be remembered that an elaborate Norman 
 arch was formed of several subarches, and that the mouldings 
 were cut in the wall and soffit planes of these, the point of junc- 
 tion of each subarch with its principal being left square. In 
 this style, especially at first, the mouldings still occupy the wall 
 and soffit plane almost exclusively : but instead of the retiring 
 angle made by the junction of one order with another, (i.e. of 
 the subarch with its principal,) being left square, a three quarter 
 round is struck from the point of junction of the two orders as 
 a centre, so that now the several orders of mouldings are sepa- 
 rated by a deep hollow. The several surfaces, originally square, 
 of the orders, are also deeply indented with hollows, and the 
 bowtels or prominent portions of the mouldings thus left, are 
 of bold forms, as three quarter circles, retaining their hold on 
 the mass only by a narrow neck, and enriched sometimes by one, 
 two, or three fillets. There is also a bowtel, expressively called 
 keel-shaped, very distinctive of this style, which terminates ex- 
 ternally in a point. But it would be impossible without sec- 
 tions to convey any impression of the contour of Early English 
 mouldings. 
 
 These matters touch the very principle of mouldings, and 
 form an important part in the history of their development, or 
 they would not be stated so much at length. The same may be 
 said of another characteristic of the Early English, as compared 
 with the preceding and subsequent mouldings. 
 
 We have already observed that the Normans were fond of 
 decorating surfaces, and that their most elaborate decorations of 
 moulded surfaces, were rather enrichments of mouldings, than 
 themselves actual mouldings* This is true for instance of the 
 medallion, of the chain, and of the chevron, which are com- 
 monly called mouldings, but which are in fact repetitions of un- 
 moulded figures, upon the surfaces of mouldings. Now these 
 unmoulded decorations always in the Norman occupy the promi- 
 nent parts ; in the Early English, the dog-tooth in its several 
 varieties and the nail-head, (the only two forms at all analogous 
 
232 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 with those before mentioned,) occupy the hollows, and not the 
 prominent surfaces. And this rule holds in all the succeeding 
 styles, the ball-flower of the Decorated, and the flat four-leaved 
 flower of the Perpendicular, still retiring within the slopes and 
 hollows. In the contour of these ornaments there is something 
 characteristic of the several styles to which they are appropriated, 
 so that they not only do co-exist, but there is a manifest reason 
 why they should co-exist with their attendant forms. The dog-tooth 
 of the Early English is sharp and angular, and deeply seamed, 
 and receives the light on prominent points and edges : the ball- 
 flower of the Decorated is rounded and softened, and its lights 
 and shadows are gently blended : the Perpendicular flower is 
 flattened and frittered away in its effect, and has no part vividly 
 presented to the eye. Again, in their arrangement. The dog- 
 tooth is set in one continuous serrated rank ; its expression is 
 force and exuberance as well as beauty : the ball-flower occurs 
 at moderate intervals, uncrowded and yet rich, without force, 
 but perfect in beauty : the rank of distant flowers in the Perpen- 
 dicular is poor and attenuated, without the force and beauty of 
 exuberance and combination. 
 
 There is yet another character in certain Early English mould- 
 ings of great richness, which must be noted, because its total 
 disappearance in the subsequent styles indicates the progress 
 towards a distinct continuousness of lines, free from abrupt 
 transitions, from breaks and intersections of several parts. I 
 have perhaps too often observed, how the decorations of Norman 
 mouldings occupy their prominent faces : there are also decora- 
 tions of another class which seem to belong to two several parts 
 of a suit of mouldings, and to bring their prominent faces to- 
 gether. For instance, " the beak head," " the cat's head," and 
 "the bird's head," each a decoration of a suit of mouldings, 
 originates in the upper square and curls over the lower semicir- 
 cular member. The " open heart," does the same, and the 
 "overlapping" 1 even encloses the mouldings of two planes at 
 right angles to one another, in one network of decoration. The 
 chevron sometimes, as in the south doorway of Hargrave, 2 
 
 1 See all these figured in the Glos- 2 Churches of the Archdeaconry of 
 sary. Northampton, No. II. 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 233 
 
 Northamptonshire, and in the west doorway of Orpington, 
 Kent, 1 connects the mouldings of different planes in a very 
 remarkable manner. These last are instances of transition to 
 the Early English, and will therefore at once lead us to note the 
 Early English adaptation of this method. 
 
 We find the same thing then in the Early English, though 
 here foliage is always the connecting link between the members 
 of mouldings. In the south door of Woodford, 2 the filleted edges 
 of two mouldings separated by a third, throw off a leaf which 
 curls over the intervening hollow, (which it leaves free,) and 
 meets the fillet at the edge of the central bowtel. In the rear 
 arch, and again in the head of the lights of the east window 
 of the choir of Romsey, the beautiful foliage unites several 
 moulded members in the same way. 3 In the exquisite and 
 highly characteristic monument of Archbishop Walter Grey, 
 in the south transept of York Minster ; the foliage springing 
 from the surface of the tomb curls over the shafts, otherwise 
 free, which support the gablet over the head of the figure; 
 and some of the foliage of the capitals of the shafts instead 
 of curling downwards, as if turned back by the abacus, rises 
 over it, and rests its topmost leaves upon its highest mould- 
 ing; peculiarities, slight as they are, which will be seen in 
 the plate of this monument in Britton's History of York 
 Minster. A reference to these figures will at once exemplify 
 my meaning, 4 and as I should despair to make myself intelli- 
 gible without the help of a figure, I shall not labour the de- 
 scription farther. 
 
 Now in the Decorated and Perpendicular mouldings the 
 decorations always repose in the hollows, and never wander from 
 the single hollow in the bosom of which they are shaded. In 
 the Early English this is the case with those decorations which 
 
 1 Brandon's Analysis, Sec. I. Semi- 
 Norman, plate 1 . 
 
 2 Churches of Northamptonshire, 
 No. V. p. 84. 
 
 3 See Mr. Petit' s account of this 
 church in the Winchester volume of 
 the transactions of the Archaeological 
 Institute. 
 
 4 See also an example from Win- 
 chester, and another from Salisbury, 
 among the Early English mouldings in 
 the Glossary. Also the details of the 
 arcade in the north of the nave of 
 New Shoreham, Sussex. Brandon's 
 Analysis, Section I. Semi-Norman, 
 plates 2, 3, 4. 
 
234 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 originate in the hollow ; but others spring from a prominent 
 round or fillet, and these wander over the intervening hollow, 
 and rest on the next salient point. The extreme beauty of every 
 instance of this kind makes us regret its infrequency at all times, 
 and its utter extinction at last ; and we must trace its early dis- 
 appearance to the love of facility which took deep root at the 
 birth of the Flowing Decorated, and gives expression (that of 
 ease and grace as opposed to luxuriance and successful effort) to 
 the architecture of that day. 
 
 We conclude the chapter, as usual, with one or two instances 
 of the destruction of ecclesiastical edifices, and we still find the 
 hand of violence and of sacrilege but too active in the work of 
 demolition. 
 
 In 1264 the Church of Rochester suffered grievously from 
 sacrilegious violence. The Earl of Warren and Lord Leyburne 
 kept the town and castle of Rochester, against the Earl of 
 Leicester and the Barons. Among other excesses committed by 
 the assailants, these servants of the devil entered the church of 
 S. Andrew with drawn swords, and there slaughtered several of 
 the children of the church, together with others who had fled 
 thither for safety ; crucifying them, as it were, with their Lord 
 (it was on the morrow of Good Eriday,) Who suffers in His elect. 
 They destroyed many muniments and much treasure belonging 
 to the church ; and as the monks fled to the very altars for 
 safety, with wicked hands they drew them forth from thence, 
 following them even round the altar on horseback. day of 
 tears and of woe, in which the noble Church of Rochester, with all 
 its wealth, became the spoil of base men, who gave to it no more 
 reverence than to the vilest shed or stable. All its gates were 
 burnt, its choir resounded with the voice of woe, and the organs 
 uttered only notes of lamentation. The sacred places, the very 
 oratories, the cloisters, the chapter-house, the infirmary, in short 
 all places which were more holy than the rest, were converted 
 into stables for horses, and were everywhere choked with the 
 filth of animals and the corruption of dead bodies. 1 
 
 1 " Ecclesiam insuper B. Andrese 
 satellites diaboli gladiis evaginatis in- 
 trogressi, filios ipsius et quosque re- 
 pertos in ea cum timore et horrore 
 
 crucifixerunt cum Domino qui patitur 
 in suis electis ; auro et argento aliis- 
 que pretiosis inde violenter ablatis. . . 
 Equites vero in equis armati circa alta- 
 
THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 
 
 235 
 
 On the festival of SS. Peter and Paul, in the year 1272, while 
 the convent of Norwich was singing prime, a terrible storm of 
 thunder and lightning broke over the church, and a thunder- 
 bolt at the same time struck the tower of Trinity Church with 
 such violence, that several stones were cast down to the ground, 
 and much damage was done to the church. All the brethren 
 except three fled in terror from the church, and of these one fell 
 to the ground as if dead ; the other two continued to chant their 
 parts until the rest returned. These things seemed to many to 
 presage some greater misfortune, and the event justified their 
 belief, for on the morrow of S. Laurence in the same year, the 
 citizens of Norwich besieged the monastery, and having in vain 
 endeavoured to effect an entrance by force, they set fire to the 
 great gates and burnt them, together with a parish-church 
 which stood beyond, and with all the ornaments, books, and 
 images which it contained. At the same instant they set fire to 
 the great alms-house, and to the gates of the church, and to the 
 great bell-tower, which were all destroyed, together with the 
 bells. Some of them also threw fire with balisters from the 
 tower of S. George into the great bell-tower which was outside 
 the choir, from which fire all the church was miraculously pre- 
 served, except the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin. Thus they 
 burnt the dormitory, the refectory, the locutorium, the infirmary, 
 with the chapels, and almost all the buildings of the court. 
 Several of the servants, some subdeacons, and some clerics, they 
 slew in the cloisters, and within the enclosure of the monastery ; 
 some they dragged away and put to death in the city, and some 
 they imprisoned. They carried off the sacred vessels, and books, 
 the gold and silver, the vestments, and everything that was not 
 destroyed by fire, driving away all the monks except two or three ; 
 
 ria discursantes, quosdam ad ilia coo- 
 fugientes nefandis manibus extraxe- 
 runt. O luctuosa funestaque dies, in 
 qua nobilis Ecclesia Roffensis cum 
 omnibus contends in ea vilium homi- 
 num facta fuit prsedatio, qui ipsi non 
 plus honoris seu reverentiae quam 
 vilissimo prostibulo seu tugurio de- 
 ferebant ! Porta siquidem ejus cir- 
 cumquaque exusta sunt, chorus ejus 
 
 in luctum, et organa ejus in vocem 
 flentium sunt concitata. Quid plura ! 
 loca sacra, utpote oratoria, claustra, 
 capitulum, infirmaria, et oracula quse- 
 que divina, stabula equorum sunt 
 effecta ; et animalium immunditiis 
 spurcitiisque cadaverum ubique sunt 
 repleta." — Edm.de Hadenham, Annal. 
 Ecc. Roff. Anglia Sacra, I. 351. 
 
236 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and this course they pursued for three days. For this the city 
 was placed under interdict, and it happened that a certain bell 
 in the bell-tower which had been broken at the same time, fell 
 to the ground. 1 
 
 1 u Anno mcclxxii. In die Apos- 
 tolorum Petri et Pauli, hora qua con- 
 ventus Norwici prima psallebat, facta 
 sunt tonitrua magna et coruscationes 
 et fulgura ; sed et ictus tonitrui in tanta 
 fortitudine simul in turrim Ecclesiae 
 Sanctae Trinitatis Norwici descendit, 
 quod lapides quamplurimos de praefata 
 turri horribiliter evulsit, et in terram 
 violenter prostravit, et earn non medi- 
 ocriter deturpavit. Sed et omnes fra- 
 tres prae timore de choro fugerunt, 
 exceptis tribus, quorum unus cecidit 
 in terram quasi mortuus, et caeteri duo 
 psalmodiam pro modulo suo sustenta- 
 bant, quousque caeteri reversi : unde 
 creditur a pluribus, quod ista accide- 
 rant in praesagium futuri et majoris 
 infortunii. Eodem anno cives in 
 crastino S. Laurentii, obsederunt cu- 
 riam monachorum per girum ; qui cum 
 per insultum non potuerunt habere in- 
 gressum, apposuerunt ignem, videlicet 
 ad magnas portas monasterii, ultra quas 
 erat quaedam Ecclesia parochialis ; et eas 
 cum praedicta Ecclesia et cum omnibus 
 ornamentis, libris et imaginibus et cum 
 singulis in eadem contentis combusse- 
 runt. Item apposuerunt ignem in eo- 
 dem instanti ad magnam domum elee- 
 mosynarum, et ad portas Ecclesiae, et 
 
 ad magnum campanile ; quae omnia 
 cum campanis statim combusta sunt. 
 Quidam vero ex ipsis extra turrim 
 Sancti Georgii ignem in magnum cam- 
 panile, quod fuit ultra chorum, per 
 balistas traxerunt ; ex quibus ignibus 
 tota ecclesia praeter capellam Beatae 
 Mariae miraculose salvata est ; com- 
 busserunt dormitorium, refectorium, 
 aulam hospitum, infirmariam cum ca- 
 pella : et quasi omnia aedificia curiae 
 consumpserunt igne. Quam plures de 
 familia, aliquos subdiaconos, aliquos 
 clericos, aliquos laicos, in claustro et 
 infra septa monasterii interfecerunt ; 
 aliquos extraxerunt ; et in civitate 
 morti tradiderunt, aliquos incarcerave- 
 runt. Post quae ingressi, omnia sacra 
 vasa, libros, aurum et argentum, vestes 
 et omnia alia, quae non fuerunt igne 
 consumpta, depraedati fuerunt : mo- 
 nachos omnes, praeter duos vel tres, a 
 monasterio fugantes. His non con- 
 tenti, malitiam suam usque ad tertium 
 diem continuaverunt, comburendo, in- 
 terficiendo, depraedando . . . et quod- 
 dam tintinnabulum in campanili eodem 
 tempore fractum cecidit." — Bartholo- 
 maei de Cotton, Annales Norwicenses. 
 Anglia Sacra, I. 399. 
 
237 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Period of Geometric Tracery. 
 
 Confusion of Arrangement in Ecclesiological Works. — Introduc- 
 tion of Tracery ; its first development in Geometric Forms, 
 coetaneous with the early english for a long time, and with 
 the Decorated Style on its First Appearance. — Of Cusping 
 and Tracery in general. — Of Panelling. — Results of the In- 
 troduction of Tracery. — Chapter-House of York. — Merton 
 College Chapel. — Ripon Minster. — Exeter Cathedral. — Lin- 
 coln Cathedral. — Wells Lady Chapel and Chapter-House. — 
 Temple-Balsall. — " Architectural Parallels." — Tintern. — 
 Guisborough. — Vale-Royal Abbey. — Queen Eleanor's Crosses. 
 
 The student of ecclesiastical architecture must have felt, when 
 he would apply the rules which he has learned from Mr. Rick- 
 man's invaluable work, that in one portion of his arrangement 
 there is some confusion. To the Early English, Rickman gives 
 the reigns of Richard I., John, Henry III., and Edward I., or 
 the interval between the years 1189 and 1307 ; yet in describ- 
 ing the style to which he gives the name Decorated, and to 
 which he assigns the two next reigns, or the interval between 
 1307 and 1377, he especially classes under that style the geo- 
 metrical tracery, or that tracery in which " the figures, such as 
 circles, trefoils, quatrefoils, &c, are all worked with the same 
 moulding, and do not always regularly join each other, but 
 touch only at points ; and this," he says, " may be called geo- 
 metrical tracery." 
 
 Now it so happens that a very large proportion of the build- 
 ings in which this kind of tracery is used, belongs to the period 
 before called Early English. And the examples which might 
 have been supposed to clear up the difficulty, only make it 
 greater. Thus, in speaking of the chapter-house at York, 
 which has splendid geometric tracery, he says, " The chapter- 
 house is of Decorated character. " Yet the chapter-house, 
 
238 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 though certainly not erected according to the popular account 
 in the time of Archbishop Walter Grey, who died in 1255, is 
 clearly of a character which prevailed during a considerable part 
 of that period which Rickman assigns to the Early English 
 style. 
 
 A very laudable desire on the part of the most competent 
 writers on the same subject, to retain the nomenclature of their 
 great master, has perpetuated the confusion. Eor example, the 
 east window of Romsey Abbey is even earlier in character than 
 the chapter-house at York : it is, indeed, purely Early English 
 in mouldings and decorations. It has, however, geometrical 
 tracery — if tracery it can be called — when the masonry between 
 the circles is not pierced. This window is called Decorated by Mr. 
 Petit, one of the first ecclesiologists of the day; but with a hint 
 that it is chronologically somewhat earlier than some specimens 
 generally called Early English. The whole passage is so indica- 
 tive of the confusion to which I allude, that I shall transcribe it. 
 " The windows of the choir are very beautiful specimens of the 
 earliest Decorated window. They are of three lights, with wide 
 shafted mullions, and geometrical tracery of foliated circles in 
 their heads. The jambs internally are enriched with knobs of 
 foliage, the design of the two windows in this respect being not 
 quite the same. In many points these windows have more of 
 an Early English than a Decorated character. Their date is pro- 
 bably earlier than the cloisters and chapter-house at Salisbury." 1 
 
 Where there is this confusion of terms, as applied even by 
 the same person, no wonder that different persons, and they 
 equally well qualified to speak with authority, describe the same 
 window differently. So the great east window of Raunds, which 
 is called Early English by the author of the description of that 
 church in the Churches of the Archdeaconry of Northampton, is 
 included in Mr. Sharpens Series of Decorated Windows. 
 
 Amidst all this confusion, the general tendency has been of 
 late, to arrange with the Early English by far the greater pro- 
 portion of those examples which answer to Rickman's definition 
 of Geometrical Decorated : a few of the later examples only 
 
 1 Description of Romsey Abbey Church in the Archaeological Institute's Win- 
 chester Volume, p. 12. 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRIC TRACERY. 
 
 239 
 
 being treated as transition from Early English to Decorated. 
 The characters which this peculiar style has in common with 
 Early English, perhaps, justify this arrangement. The mould- 
 ings are generally of perfectly Early English character, and so 
 are the clusters of foliage, the bosses, and other ornamental ap- 
 pendages. There are, besides, many instances in which the pure 
 and simple Early English lancet was used, during the reign of 
 the geometrical tracery. How, then, are the two styles, if they 
 be two, to be separated, in a system which is in part chronolo- 
 gical ? How are they to be united, in a system which is also 
 in part founded on similarity of parts ? 
 
 It is, however, a most exquisite style, — perhaps the most per- 
 fect of all the styles ; for its tracery has the completeness and 
 precision of the Perpendicular, without its stiffness ; the variety 
 of the flowing Decorated, without its licence and exuberance ; 
 while its minor details partake of the boldness and sharpness of 
 the Early English, which need not fear to be compared with 
 the ornamental accessories of any subsequent style. 
 
 These difficulties meeting us on either hand, I shall venture 
 to treat of this peculiar development of mediaeval architecture, as 
 sufficiently distinct from Early English to need a separate de- 
 scription ; and yet as inseparable from it in chronological order, 
 and as having more in common with it, though at first sight so 
 very dissimilar, than with any other style. 
 
 Besides the intrinsic beauty of this style it is important as af- 
 fording the first full development of tracery and of cusping, 
 with all their power of enriching large windows, and of bring- 
 ing together several lights as one whole. Here, therefore, we 
 may best investigate the history of tracery, with its effects on 
 the size and proportions of windows, and on those various en- 
 richments which fall into the arrangements of orbs, 1 or com- 
 partments of tracery, and which are evidently copied from the 
 windows of their respective styles. 
 
 The Normans were absolutely without means of relieving the 
 formal outline of the apertures of their windows. Their suc- 
 cessors felt the want and soon employed cuspings or foliations to 
 their lancets, but not in general in buildings of a very high order, 
 
 1 The very term orb, which is a mediaeval term, gives the parentage of 
 panelling. An orb is a blind window. 
 
240 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 as Salisbury for instance, and the transepts of York, in which 
 the lancet is left to assert its grace and dignity by its own 
 beautiful proportions, and by happy combinations. In this way 
 we have the finest groups of Early English windows approach- 
 ing in character to one window as nearly as a common hood 
 without, and a common rerevault within can make them, yet 
 still without tracery or even cusping. But by and by a farther 
 connection between the lancets, where they were associated in 
 couplets or triplets was desired, and the space between their 
 points was pierced, and the whole group formed to the eye one 
 window, of two or more large lights, with one or more smaller 
 and subordinate lights between their heads. This piercing how- 
 ever did not necessarily follow any of the lines of the lancets 
 with which it was associated. It was generally a circle, trefoiled 
 or quatrefoiled, though the lights over which it was placed were 
 always pointed, and generally without foliations ; sometimes it 
 was a quatrefoil without a circumscribing circle, as in the tri- 
 forium of the nave of Romsey, and in the very beautiful trifo- 
 rium of the choir of Ely Cathedral. Nor were the mouldings 
 at all the same with those of the jambs and arches below 
 them. In short these subsidiary lights were mere piercings of 
 the wall, no otherwise connected with the windows than by being- 
 placed in immediate juxtaposition with them. This device too 
 was more generally used where two, than where three lancets 
 were grouped together ; a triplet being more happily combined 
 into one group by lengthening the middle light, and so giving 
 harmony and subordination of parts to the whole. 1 
 
 So long as the additional piercings remain separated from 
 their lancets by a portion of unmoulded masonry, and unasso- 
 ciated with them by a series of mouldings common to the whole 
 composition, they cannot be said to form tracery. They are no 
 more entitled to that name than the foliated piercings or panels 
 in the spandrels of arches, or other places where relief is required. 
 As for instance the trefoils in spandrels at Ely, where the quatrefoils 
 
 1 In the triforium of the nave of intervention of an octofoil. The same 
 
 Salisbury, four lancets are thus associ- arrangement in principle occurs in the 
 
 ated ; rirst two and two under one arch, triforium of Whitby. — See Sharpe's 
 
 with a quatrefoil between their heads ; Parallels, 
 these again under one arch with the 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 
 
 241 
 
 between the lancets have been already mentioned. But by and 
 bye the circles or other figures, (but circles in nine cases out of 
 ten at the least) are formed of the same mouldings as the window- 
 jambs, and rest immediately on the tops of the lights, or on one 
 another, and no unmoulded masonry is left between them ; even 
 the several triangles or other spaces left by the contact of the cir- 
 cles, being pierced, wherever they are large enough for the mould- 
 ings of the several touching circles to be carried through them. 1 
 And now we have tracery, strictly so called ; that is, a net work 
 of open masonry, in no part more solid than it necessarily be- 
 comes by the touchings and intersections of several lines of 
 equal thickness. 
 
 In the succeeding style, or that of the flowing Decorated, in- 
 stead of forming perfect figures, each complete in itself, and 
 touching and resting upon its neighbours : the several lines of 
 the tracery branch out of each other, and return again to the 
 same point, having in their course given out other branches ; an 
 arrangement which often produces a feeling of insecurity, by 
 the imperfect figure of each part, and still worse by the insuffi- 
 cient balancing of several parts, 2 and this, with all the splen- 
 dour of that most fascinating style, renders its tracery perhaps 
 
 1 In very early examples, to which case at Easby in the east end of the 
 it is hard to deny the name of tracery, refectory (see Sharpe) ; and though 
 those interstitial spaces are not pierced, this is a splendid example, the parti - 
 simply because they are not large cular feature here alluded to must be 
 enough for the repetition of the whole reckoned a defect, 
 mouldings ; as in the south chancel of 2 As published examples are of 
 Etton, Northamptonshire, figured by course chosen for their excellence, it 
 Sharpe : compare with this Croft, is difficult to refer to marked examples 
 Yorkshire, south chancel, in the same of these defects, though the church 
 series, where two of the spaces are tourist finds them perpetually. I may 
 just, and only just pierced : and War- however refer to Heckington, (one of 
 mington, Northamptonshire, north the finest examples in the kingdom, so 
 chancel, where all are pierced, but that the defect is the more remark- 
 some of them just as narrowly es- able) the great window of the south 
 cape being solid. Sometimes but very transept of which is figured by Sharpe. 
 rarely, and here also in early examples Let the eye follow the tracery bars 
 only, the central circle does not touch which rise from the two central and 
 the supporting circles or lights in the primary monials, till they meet those 
 fillet which describes the figure, but which branch off from the jambs on the 
 only in the outer moulding, so that the opposite side, and let the included 
 fillet, with part at least of the cham- tracery be set aside, and a very dis- 
 fer moulding is repeated. This is the torted arch is the result. Even the 
 
242 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 inferior to that of the more severe geometrical which it sup- 
 planted. The Perpendicular tracery regained its appearance of 
 security and repose, but at the expense of much grace, all the 
 lines being either parallel with the jambs or at right angles to 
 them, and the whole space being filled with parallelograms, in- 
 stead of the fantastic branchings of the Decorated, or the circles 
 of the geometrical tracery. 
 
 During the whole of the periods here mentioned foliations or 
 cuspings are profusely used, and though they are not of the 
 essence of tracery, they greatly enhance its effect. There are 
 windows of considerable size of the geometrical tracery without 
 a single cusping, composed only of circles touching each other : l 
 but generally the circles are foliated, three, four, five, or more 
 times ; and the same may be said of the spaces in the other 
 styles. But there is this to be observed in the cusps of the 
 geometrical tracery, that they follow the precision of the lines 
 within which they are confined, being almost universally of parts 
 of single circles, not ogeed, or in any way combined with other 
 circles of different diameters and another centre ; and also that 
 like the tracery to which they are subordinated, the circles never 
 cut but only touch one another. Indeed this precision and non- 
 interference of parts is so great that except the monials of the 
 great lights, the elevation of every part of a window, arch, tra- 
 cery, cuspings, mouldings, and all, may be described with the 
 compasses only, working each line from a single fixed centre. 
 
 splendid east windows of Sleaford and 
 Selby, (see Sharpe's Parallels,) are not 
 quite free from the like defects. Ex- 
 amples of perfection of form are hap- 
 pily more frequent in fine buildings. 
 As for instance the two-light west 
 window at Hedon, the three-light 
 north aisle window in the same church, 
 that of four lights, north chancel at 
 Nantwich : those of five lights east of 
 south aisle, Hull, and east chancel, 
 Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. And above 
 all the great window of nine lights 
 at Carlisle. All these examples are 
 figured by Sharpe. 
 
 1 In the east window of Raunds in 
 
 Northamptonshire, there are seven 
 circles without a single foliation, 
 though an early style of cusping, to 
 be mentioned presently, occurs in the 
 heads of the six great lights. In 
 the still more remarkable one at the 
 west of the north aisle, Grantham, 
 there are fourteen circles, equally with- 
 out cusps, unless the seven circles 
 within the great central circle can be 
 called its cusps, and the six in the 
 heads of the lights, the cusps of arches 
 in which they are contained. The to- 
 tal height of the window is thirty - 
 seven feet six inches, the total width 
 twenty- one feet six inches. — Sharpe. 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 
 
 243 
 
 In describing tracery and cusping, it is frequently necessary 
 to mention the several suites or orders of mouldings of which 
 they are composed, and it may be worth while to pursue these 
 features, small as they are in the space that they occupy, but 
 infinite almost in their use and variety, through their several 
 characters. 
 
 The simplest monial or tracery bar that can be employed, or 
 even conceived, is a plain rectangular block or post of stone. 
 Such may still be seen in the stone cottages in the West Riding 
 of Yorkshire, but nowhere does it remain, so far as I know, in 
 any ecclesiastical building however rude. Even of this, however, 
 we have a memorial in the Hat part, next the glass, in a peculiar 
 form of monial, sometimes seen in very early Geometric win- 
 dows : but an additional order is always placed upon it. 1 
 
 As this construction however was soon utterly abandoned as 
 it deserved to be, I shall leave it quite out of the question for 
 the future, and pass to the next simplest form, which was re- 
 tained so long as tracery lasted, and is found in combination 
 with other forms even in the most elaborate suites of mouldings. 
 
 This simplest and most important monial has a rectangular 
 section, with the edges chamfered, leaving a narrow fillet out- 
 wards, which, when the monials and tracery bars are thus simple, 
 describes the pattern of the window. This section is varied in 
 three ways : the first and most common is by substituting a 
 hollow for a plain chamfer. The second is by giving an ogee 
 form to the chamfer, 2 the third, which is peculiar so far as I 
 have observed to early Decorated, is called the channelled cham- 
 fer, and is formed by cutting out a hollow in the chamfer with 
 receding angles instead of a receding curve. 3 But all these in 
 
 1 See the north chancel window 
 of Warmington, Northamptonshire, 
 (Sharpe) the first edge or fillet next 
 the glass, in the two lights, is the 
 square-edged monial to which I allude. 
 The effect is always peculiar, and 
 generally heavy and very flat, for the 
 second or outer order of the monial is 
 sufficient for solidity and effect, and 
 the lower one appears a needless addi- 
 tion to its width. The monial of the 
 
 two-light west windows of the south 
 aisle at Church Langton, in Leicester- 
 shire, is ten inches in width, the lights 
 heing only sixteen inches each. 
 
 2 The whole suite then becomes a 
 double ressant with a fillet. 
 
 3 For plain chamfer, see south chan- 
 cel window, Oundle. For the hollowed 
 chamfer, Carmel, Lancashire, south 
 aisle of choir. For the double ressant 
 with a fillet, Yaxley, Huntingdonshire, 
 
 2 
 
244 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 principle resolve themselves into a chamfered rectangle, and are 
 so treated in composition. Where this occurs once only in the 
 monial, and tracery bars, and it is carried through them all, the 
 window is said to have one order of mouldings. Perhaps it 
 should be added, that the hollowed chamfer has a remarkable 
 importance as being the only moulding which is ordinarily 
 made to carry ornaments in the Decorated and Perpendicular 
 styles : it is in this that the ball-flower of the fourteenth, and 
 the four-leaved flower of the fifteenth century so frequently 
 occur. 1 
 
 Where the tracery is at all elaborate, a subordination of the 
 several parts is needed, 2 and this is effected by giving to the 
 jambs and monials, or perhaps to some of the monials only, and 
 to some of the tracery bars, an additional order of mouldings. 
 But mouldings are accidents only of which the monials are the 
 substance. This is effected therefore by reduplicating the mo- 
 nials, by setting a smaller one upon a larger, so to speak, and 
 then moulding the edges of both, leaving however a fillet free 
 in the external surface of each. And now the fillet of the 
 outer moulding describes the greater lines, that of the inner 
 moulding the smaller lines of the tracery, and the whole of the 
 cusping. 
 
 and for the channelled chamfer, or the 
 angular hollow in the chamfer, Croft, 
 Yorkshire, chancel south side, — all in 
 Sharpe. This last form occurs in 
 Moulton church, Northamptonshire, 
 where it is assigned to the early part 
 of the fourteenth century, by a precept 
 of the Bishop of Lincoln to repair the 
 church, dated 1298 ; and also at Har- 
 leston in the same county, the church 
 of which was built in 1325. 
 
 1 The windows of the south aisle of 
 Leominster church, contain three or- 
 ders of mouldings in the jambs, and in 
 addition a fourth order in the cusp- 
 ings : all these are of the hollowed 
 chamfer, and all are filled with ball- 
 flowers. There are no fewer than 
 820 in each window. — See Sharpe's 
 Parallels. 
 
 2 It is however remarkable, that 
 even in some very elaborate windows 
 of the Flowing Decorated there is no 
 subordination in the tracery ; another 
 sign of inferiority in this style. The 
 east window of Ringstead (Sharpe,) 
 has complicated tracery, but one order 
 of mouldings serves for all. This is but 
 one example of many. In the ordinary 
 reticulated tracery this is necessarily 
 the case, and this (as twice at the east 
 end of Higham-Ferrers,) is sometimes 
 carried through the head of a window 
 of five lights. The simple intersecting 
 tracery is also necessarily without sub- 
 ordination of mouldings, and this too 
 may be found in five-light windows, as 
 at the east end of Stanford, Nor- 
 thamptonshire. 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 245 
 
 In like manner a third order is often added, by the same 
 means, and for the same purpose ; a third series of still more 
 subordinate lines of tracery, together with the cuspings, being 
 wrought out of the innermost suite of mouldings. 1 
 
 Each of these orders may be varied as the first was : perhaps 
 the most common form for the first is the hollowed chamfer, 
 and for the second and third the ressant with a fillet, but no 
 absolute rule need be attempted for the forms of mouldings in 
 combination. 
 
 We have hitherto supposed that the external member of the 
 outer suite is a fillet, as it is in a vast majority of cases. But in 
 Geometrical, 2 and again in late Perpendicular tracery, 3 it is 
 sometimes a bowtel ; a form borrowed from the jamb- shafts of 
 the Early English, the effect of which it carries through the 
 whole pattern ; sometimes indeed it is treated as a shaft, 
 and has a capital at the spring of the arch, and a base at the 
 window sill. 4 In a very few instances, the fillet becomes a 
 sharp edge : i.e., the monial is chamfered to a point. This 
 character is found at Hull, and also at Temple Balsall, both 
 Geometrical or very early Decorated. 
 
 Since these several orders of mouldings grew out of the neces- 
 sity of subordinating and distinguishing the several parts of the 
 tracery and of the cusping, it will follow that where any part of 
 the tracery is of the same order as the cuspings, it will be re- 
 duced in constructive character to a higher species of cusping ; 
 and again, that where the subsidiary monials are of the same 
 order or orders as any part of the tracery, they will be reduced 
 in like manner to the character of tracery ; and even in very 
 rare instances to that of cusping. This may seem a refinement, 
 or even a paradox, but on examination it will be found to be 
 true. 
 
 1 For windows with two orders of 
 mouldings I may refer to two from He- 
 don, Yorkshire, and to the east window 
 of Ripon ; for three orders to the Lady 
 Chapel, at Wells, to the great window 
 at Carlisle, and many others figured by 
 Sharpe. 
 
 2 Temple Balsall, (Sharpe.) This 
 beautiful chapel deserves a very careful 
 
 description. Its windows form a glo- 
 rious series of geometrical designs ad- 
 mirably treated, and worked with great 
 precision. 
 
 3 At Brington, (chancel) Northamp- 
 tonshire, the date of which is about 
 1520. 
 
 4 As at Whitby north aisle, and 
 Howden, both in Yorkshire. (Sharpe.) 
 
246 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 For instance, the three-light window of the north chancel 
 aisle, Beverley, figured by Mr. Sharpe, has monials and princi- 
 pal tracery of two orders. It has also cuspings and subordinate 
 tracery of one order. Take away the whole of the second order, 
 and you take cuspings and secondary tracery with it. These 
 are of the same relative importance. The primary tracery no 
 more wants the secondary tracery than it wants the cusping, to 
 complete a well-balanced frame-work. The subsidiary tracery is 
 but a higher kind of cusping, and enriches the first pattern on 
 the same principle. Again, in the south chancel window of 
 Claybrook, Leicestershire, also given by Mr. Sharpe, the subsidi- 
 ary tracery is identical with the cuspings in character and in 
 office, and the most unpractised eye in throwing aside the one 
 would throw aside the other. 1 In the east of the founder's 
 chapel, Trent, Somersetshire, the same is the case in a very re- 
 markable degree with all the tracery within the greater lines, and 
 so also in the circles in the windows in Temple Balsall. Indeed 
 in such cases as the latter, the system of triangles in the circles 
 is at once referred to cusping, in its spirit and office, though it 
 may be more convenient to call it tracery. 
 
 The instances in which the monials become part of the tracery 
 are most frequent in large and very complicated windows, though 
 by no means confined to them. 
 
 In the south transept of Howden a perfect two-light window 
 with a circle in the head, is converted into a four-light window 
 with appropriate tracery and cuspings, by the addition of se- 
 condary monials, of the same suite with the subordinate tracery. 
 In the Lady Chapel, Wells, the secondary monials are of the 
 same suites with the secondary tracery ; the tertiary tracery 
 being of the same suite with the cuspings. In the east window 
 of Ripon Minster, the great circle is of the same orders with 
 
 1 This window exemplifies some of 
 the peculiar defects of Decorated 
 tracery , and I shall therefore give Mr. 
 Sharpe' s description of it. 
 
 "It is not often that a three-light 
 window is found to have all its lights of 
 equal height ; the manner in which 
 this is accomplished in the present 
 
 example constitutes its peculiarity. 
 Although this design is, on the whole, 
 not inelegant, this arrangement and 
 the manner in which the interstitial 
 spaces thus occasioned are filled up, 
 exhibit the difficulty of preserving this 
 equality in a window, the head of 
 which is filled with flowing tracery." 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 
 
 247 
 
 the primary monials ; the small circles with the secondary mo- 
 nials, which would be removed with them, and in fact are a part 
 of the same system of tracery. In the windows of the south 
 aisle of Sleaford, which are of a more advanced character, this 
 cohesion of the secondary monials with the secondary tracery 
 is very striking, and perhaps it is even more so in the north aisle 
 of Whitby. 1 
 
 The cases are very extreme in principle, (indeed they are al- 
 most abnormal,) and of very rare occurrence, in which the mo- 
 nials can at all be referred to the cusping, and before we adduce 
 them we must advert to a very peculiar style of cusping not un- 
 common in early geometrical tracery. 
 
 The most perfect cusping takes with it the last suite of mould- 
 ings, and the most ordinary takes a part of the chamfer of the 
 last suite of mouldings. There is, however, a kind of cusping 
 which drops from the soffit plane of the tracery, and forms 
 another order of mouldings for itself. Of this drop cusping, as 
 I shall call it, there is a fine example in the heads of the lights, 
 and in the smaller circles of the east window of Bipon Minster : 
 smaller examples are sufficiently obvious. Now this cusping, 
 like the more ordinary cusping, sometimes runs into a subsidiary 
 tracery, and even lets fall its own monials, which become drop 
 tracery and drop monials. This is the case with the secondary 
 tracery, elaborate and highly ornamented as it is, and with the 
 secondary monials equally rich, though very much attenuated by 
 the very condition of their existence, in the windows already re- 
 ferred to in the south aisle of Leominster. Here the primary 
 monials and tracery carry on the last suite of jamb mouldings, 
 the secondary tracery and monials drop from the soffit of the 
 primary tracery, and rest on the soffit of the window sill. 2 
 
 There are other parts of a building besides the windows 
 which owe much of their decorations to the same forms of which 
 the windows themselves are actually composed, and in these we 
 
 1 All figured by Sharpe. ing afforded examples of every kind of 
 
 2 Sharpe. The abundant use here tracery, cuspings, and mouldings which 
 made of this elegant and useful series, I had to adduce within the Decorated 
 recmires a special acknowledgment. and Geometric periods in a somewhat 
 The judgment with which the examples elaborate discussion of the subject, 
 are chosen is manifest from their hav- 
 
248 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 have the tracery of the time repeated. Thus in the triforium 
 arcade we have a series of arches relieved by the same tracery 
 and cuspings with the windows, and in the panellings of plain 
 surfaces the orbs or compartments are in fact mere blank designs 
 of windows, in all their parts. And it should be observed that 
 the introduction of tracery wrought a change, not only in the 
 detail, but in the principle of these decorations. So long as the 
 Norman style continued, and so long as the Early English was 
 without tracery, large surfaces of wall were enriched by arcades 
 or pillars and arches actually standing out from the wall ; but 
 with tracery came panelling, — a far lighter and more manage- 
 able decoration, — and this appears very early, as for instance in 
 the west front of Salisbury, where the panelling is of geometric 
 tracery, while the windows are still plain lancets. In the later 
 Perpendicular, panelling was carried to excess, but still few new 
 forms were struck out, the tracery of the windows being almost 
 invariably servilely followed in every work whether of wood or 
 stone. 
 
 What we have said of the introduction of the pointed arch, is 
 in some degree true of the free use of tracery, which followed 
 so shortly upon it : its results are not to be stated by a mere 
 description of a lancet window or a combination of lancets, as 
 compared with a Decorated or Perpendicular window of equal 
 beauty in its kind. Not only the windows of King's College 
 differ from simple lancets, but the building itself is far other 
 than it would have been had there not been another element in- 
 troduced into the composition. The lantern-like lightness of 
 the chapter-house at York, of the choir clerestory at Norwich, 
 and the whole of S. George's or Henry VII.'s Chapel, is to be 
 traced in all justice to those who filled the first window-head 
 with circles. 
 
 Among the works in which the history of the Geometrical style 
 is embodied, we shall necessarily mention many which are usu- 
 ally styled pure Early English, and indeed which are so, both in 
 date and in character, except for the intermixture of geometrical 
 tracery with the simple forms of the lancet style. Thus we have 
 already found geometrical panelling in the west front of Salis- 
 bury. Geometrical triforium arcades occur at Westminster, and 
 in both the transepts of York. But in the chapter-house at 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 249 
 
 York the accessories especially the buttresses, become rather 
 Decorated in character. The architect, proud of his successful 
 work, inscribed this building with the legend, 
 
 " £&t rosa flos florum sic est ttomus tsta tJomorum." 
 
 And well is the boast realized. Rickman justly speaks of its 
 exquisite beauty, and says, " This chapter-house is by far the 
 finest polygonal room without a central pier in the kingdom, 
 and the delicacy and variety of its details are nearly unequalled." 
 To this we must add as a link in the history of arts, that the 
 roof is of wood, a material which we shall find employed at Ely 
 in vaulting a large space by Alan of Walsingham in the next 
 century, and that the original painted glass is of extreme beauty. 
 To proceed to the history of churches. 
 
 There are few ecclesiastical edifices which exceed that of the 
 Cistercian monastery of S. Mary, of Vale Royal, in Cheshire, in 
 the interest attached to their foundation. Prince Edward, eldest 
 son of Henry ITL, and afterwards King Edward I., on his 
 return from the Holy Land, was nearly lost in a dreadful storm, 
 when he made a vow to the Blessed Virgin, that if he escaped, 
 he would found a convent for a hundred Cistercian monks. The 
 vessel righted itself, and was brought into port ; the prince 
 landed last ; immediately the ship went to pieces, and disap- 
 peared in the waters. Afterwards, when a prisoner of the rebel- 
 lious barons, Prince Edward received much kindness from the 
 monks of Dore Abbey, and he was induced to select them as the 
 tenants of his promised foundation. Accordingly, in 1273 a 
 colony of this house was removed to Dernhall, and thence to 
 Vale Royal, the original name of which had been Quetenue Hale- 
 was, and Menechene, two names which the chronicler of Vale 
 Royal interprets into " Sanctorum frumentum," and " monacho- 
 rum sylva," and finds in them presages of the sacred use to 
 which it was to be appropriated. Nor were there wanting other 
 signs of the future sanctity of the place ; for ages before the 
 building of the monastery, on the festival of the Virgin, amidst 
 the solitude that then reigned on its future site, tradition 
 affirmed that the shepherds had heard music, and celestial 
 voices, and the sound of bells, and had seen a radiance that 
 
250 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 changed the darkness into day, and visions of a sacred pile not 
 yet commenced. The first stone was laid by Edward in per- 
 son, August 2, 1277 ; Queen Eleanor laid two stones, one for 
 herself, the other for her son Alphonso : many nobles then 
 present also laid stones for themselves, and Robert Burnell, 1 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Chancellor of England, joined 
 the Bishop of S. Asaph in the celebration of high mass. When 
 the fabric thus commenced was completed, old people believed 
 that they recognized the design as a vision of their youth, 
 having often seen the holy pile, from turret to foundation stone, 
 glittering in the night, with a miraculous illumination, visible to 
 the rest of the country at a surprising distance. 
 
 The first four abbots resided in a temporary edifice while the 
 abbey was in progress, and on the Feast of the Assumption, 
 1330, after the expenditure of thirty- two thousand pounds, the 
 monks entered their new residence. Not a trace, except a few 
 doorways to the offices of a more recent house, remains of this 
 splendid pile. 2 
 
 The choir of Merton College, Oxford, must be placed before 
 1277, in which year Walter de Merton, the founder of the col- 
 lege and the builder of the choir, was drowned in crossing a 
 river. The mouldings are still very Early English, and the but- 
 tresses, to which character owes so much, are far more of that 
 style than those of the chapter-house at York, though the tracery 
 has made some advances in the combination of geometrical 
 forms. Perhaps, indeed, we may refer to about this time the 
 introduction, to which allusion has been already made, of tri- 
 angles as subordinate to the general lines of tracery, and almost 
 taking the place of cuspings 3 to the circles into which they are 
 introduced. Of this arrangement the central circle in the head 
 of each window of Merton is a fair example. We have some- 
 thing the same in S. Nicholas' church, Guildford, and in the 
 
 1 This Prelate was himself a muni- 
 ficent man and a great ecclesiastical 
 architect. Did he design the work in 
 the commencement of which he then 
 took part ? 
 
 2 The account of Vale Royal Abbey 
 is from Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. ii. 
 
 3 The use of spherical triangles 
 for tracery, as in the Lady Chapel at 
 Wells, presently to be noticed, is very 
 different from this introduction of 
 triangles within the main lines of the 
 tracery. 
 
THE PERIOD OF GEOMETRICAL TRACERY. 251 
 
 Bishop of Winchester's palace, Southwark, both ascribed in the 
 Glossary of Architecture to about 1280. It may be doubtful 
 how far the principle of symbolism influenced this use of tri- 
 angles within circles. However, it belongs to this style, chiefly 
 if not exclusively. The choir of Ripon Minster owes a great 
 part of its beauty to the great east window 1 with its Geometri- 
 cal tracery, of which the history, I believe, is not known. The 
 Cathedral of Exeter is very rich in geometrical tracery, having 
 been commenced in 1280 by Bishop Quivil, and carried on by 
 his successors, Thomas Bytton and Walter Stapleton, until the 
 reign of the full flowing Decorated. The east end of Lincoln is 
 a glorious specimen of the same style, as well as portions of 
 Lichfield Cathedral. The Lady Chapel of Wells, the work of 
 Bishop William Bytton, brother to the prelate already mentioned 
 as continuing Exeter Cathedral, is in the same style, but the 
 tracery is in spherical triangles instead of in circles ; and the 
 chapter-house at Wells, built in the time of Bishop William de 
 la March (1293—1302), and " by the contributions of well- 
 disposed people," is among the most beautiful fabrics in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 This last is the latest work of any consequence that can at all 
 be referred to this style. Among edifices whose history is only 
 inferred from their architectural features, perhaps one of the 
 most beautiful of this date and character is the Church of Tem- 
 ple Balsall, in Warwickshire, formerly the chapel of a preceptory 
 of Knights Templars, from whom the parish has part of its 
 name. In this chapel there are windows of not fewer than eight 
 different patterns, each of three, four, or five lights, and one a 
 rose window of sixteen compartments. In all these the geo- 
 metrical tracery is carried to the highest stage of perfection. In 
 one only there are spherical triangles, but these are filled with 
 circles. They are the latest characteristics of the whole build- 
 ing, all else (i. e., of the original fabric,) being rather Early 
 English than Decorated in the mouldings and other details. 2 
 
 Of our greater monasteries, now in ruins, there are few which 
 
 1 Figured in Sharpe's series of De- 
 corated Windows. 
 
 2 I am glad to be able to state that 
 
 this splendid example of Geometrical 
 Early English is in the hands of Mr. 
 Scott. 
 
252 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 do not exhibit some large and beautiful portions of this style. 
 The chief of these may be studied with great pleasure and profit in 
 Mr. Sharpens " Architectural Parallels," a work which combines 
 in a very high degree the technical precision, without which it 
 would be useless to the architect, with an elegance and artistic 
 character, by which it will be recommended to every person of 
 taste. The drawings of Tintern are perhaps the most valuable 
 as examples of the geometrical period. Those of Guisborough, 
 a ruin inconsiderable in extent, in a district of Yorkshire seldom 
 visited, may be referred to as giving perhaps the earliest tri- 
 forium, treated after the same manner which became universal 
 with the flowing Decorated ; not, that is, as an arcade of distinct 
 arches, but as a continuation of the composition of the clere- 
 story. 
 
 I shall conclude this chapter w T ith a reference to one of the 
 most interesting groups of buildings in the kingdom. The 
 crosses of Queen Eleanor are not less important for their histo- 
 rical association, than for their value as examples of ecclesiastical 
 art, and they have the additional value to the student of Gothic 
 architecture, as forming a happy link in his memoria technica, 
 for their date is fixed by the death of Queen Eleanor, and they 
 are decided examples of the Transitional character which the 
 Geometrical style at last admitted. 
 
 Thus commenced about the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 and ended with the crosses of Queen Eleanor, (1292) or possibly 
 a little later, a distinct style, neither Early English nor Deco- 
 rated, but coincident for a long time with the pure and simple 
 Early English, and for a shorter time with Decorated no less 
 pure, and decided, and partaking during its course, of the mould- 
 ings and accessories of either style respectively. I cannot leave 
 this style without expressing a regret, that even the fascinating 
 forms of the Flowing Decorated were permitted to usurp the 
 place of its Geometric tracery. 
 
253 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Sculpture and Carving, as Decorations of Ecclesias- 
 tical Architecture. 
 
 General character of Norman Sculpture : The Fonts of East 
 Meon, and of Lenton ; the Doorways of Rochester and of 
 Malmsbury. — Early English Sculpture. — Doorway of Hicham 
 Ferrers. — Introduction of " alto relievo." — West front of 
 Wells. — Effigies of Henry III. and of Queen Eleanor. — 
 Monuments of Robert Vere, of Aymer de Valence, and of 
 Edward II. — Lord Lindsay on the Sculpture of this Age. — 
 Screen in Edward the Confessor's Chapel. — Effigies of Henry 
 VII., and of Elizabeth his Queen. — Introduction of the Pagan 
 Element. — All grace, and all Religious feeling lost in the 
 Reign of Elizabeth. — Monument of Sir Christopher Hatton. — 
 The Pagan Element again introduced, without any compen- 
 sation, AFTER THE REVOLUTION. TOMBS OF EARL STANHOPE, OF 
 
 General Fleming, and of Dr. Hales. — Comparison of the 
 Monuments of General Wolfe, and of Aymer de Valence. — 
 Sepulchral Crosses at Jervaulx, at Tickhill, and at Laugh- 
 
 ton-en-le-morthen. — other carved tombs. brasses. — john 
 
 Bloxam, at Great Addington ; a Priest at Wensley ; the Pa- 
 rents of Archbishop Chichele. — Dean Eyre ; — Robert Brannel ; 
 — John Selwyn. — Wood Carving. — Early Specimens ; most used 
 in the Fifteenth Century. — Grinling Gibbons. — Stalls at 
 Wensley, and at S. Nicholas, Lynn. — Grotesques. 
 
 We have now arrived very nearly at the culminating point of 
 ecclesiastical architecture, and other arts which followed in her 
 orbit, have kept pace with the ars regina, so that now the most 
 splendid buildings have also the most splendid adornments of 
 painting and sculpture. Let us here, therefore, review the 
 progress of the decorative arts, as applied to ecclesiastical archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The most common material of sculpture is so well adapted to 
 resist the effects of time, and in some degree of violence also, 
 that we have very considerable traces of the Norman, and some 
 
254 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 few of the Saxon chisel. The latter perhaps differ more in rude- 
 ness of execution than in design from the former j 1 and yet 
 nothing can well be ruder than much of the early Norman 
 carving. Drawing, grouping and design are all terms too 
 significant of advancement for their ruder works. Groups of 
 men and beasts, of all degrees of deformity, often accompanied 
 with trees and foliage still less true to nature, are sketched out 
 in mere surface carving, and imaginary monsters 2 alternate 
 with figures intended to represent some real object in strange 
 confusion. Repose, either in the obvious or in the artistic mean- 
 ing of the word, is a stranger to Norman art even in its higher 
 forms : there is not sufficient harmony of composition for 
 artistic repose ; and repose of action is contrary to the spirit of 
 the people and of the times. Even their religion was one of 
 strong contending oppositions. Christianity habitually pre- 
 sented itself to the Normans, as a struggle against evil powers, 
 rather than as a rest into which we have entered. If both views 
 are true, (as indeed they are in due mutual subordination) the 
 Norman seized upon that most strongly which most harmonized 
 with his national character, which was all action, and much of 
 the action that of violence and strife. 3 
 
 A like zeal was put forth in the contest with all difficulties ; 
 and in the hands of a persevering and active generation, sculp- 
 ture continued to advance. Gervase in his history of the burn- 
 
 1 The monumental stone of the mar- 
 tyrs, at Peterborough, slain by Hubba, 
 in 775, is said to be Saxon, by some 
 competent authorities, but its charac- 
 ter seems to me to be wholly Norman. 
 
 2 Serpents, salamanders, and cen- 
 taurs, are the most frequent imaginary 
 animals ; Serpents usually signify the 
 devil, and his spirits, and are repre- 
 sented combating with the Christian, 
 or trying to devour a woman, the em- 
 blem of the Church. Salamanders 
 occur on fonts in allusion to the words, 
 He shall baptize you with the Holy 
 Ghost, and with fire.— The centaur 
 was a badge of Stephen, and where it 
 occurs (as at Adel, Yorkshire,) it is 
 
 supposed to indicate the date of the 
 structure. 
 
 3 There is an exceedingly character- 
 istic, and a very good example of Nor- 
 man carving in the comparatively 
 modern north porch of Hallaton 
 church, Leicestershire. It was origi- 
 ginally the tympanum of a door. The 
 subject is S. Michael contending with 
 the great Dragon, in behalf of the 
 souls of men, several of which the 
 Archangel who is winged, on horse- 
 back, bears in his bosom, while others 
 are kneeling in terror supplicating his 
 help. The composition and drawing 
 are very superior to most Norman 
 sculptures. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 255 
 
 ing and rebuilding of the Cathedral of Canterbury, late in the 
 twelfth century, tells us how the old capitals were plain, the 
 new ones most artistically sculptured. The old arches, and 
 every thing else either plain, or sculptured with an axe and not 
 with a chisel, but in the new work first-rate sculpture abounded 
 everywhere. 1 Still, however, the figures were grotesque and 
 the groupings inartificial : but we must not suppose that there 
 was not real splendour, as well as what would then be called 
 splendour in such decorations. The profusion of such rude or- 
 naments produces a very rich effect, and though when we judge 
 of it as sculpture, we must condemn it altogether ; yet when we 
 speak of it as secondary to the fabric which it adorns, we cannot 
 withhold our admiration. 
 
 A very rapid description of some of the remains of Norman 
 art, in which this richness of aggregation is most remarkable, 
 will fully bear out this estimate, both of the style and of the 
 general effect of the sculpture of this age. The first that I shall 
 adduce shall be one or two fonts, for the Normans often lavished 
 all their arts on this instrument of a Divine ordinance. 
 
 The font of East Meon, 2 in Hampshire, is occupied on two 
 sides by an arcade of semicircular arches, with a border of animals 
 above it ; and on the two remaining sides with the creation of 
 Adam and Eve, the Temptation, the Expulsion from Paradise, 
 (which is represented as a church or palace,) and the Almighty 
 instructing the fallen pair in the method of tilling the ground. 
 
 The font of Lenton, in Nottinghamshire, (figured and de- 
 scribed in Van Voorst's, series of fonts,) is covered in every part 
 with elaborate sculpture. On one side is the Crucifixion ; the 
 figure of our Saviour occupying a large cross, which branches, 
 and is foliated over the whole surface ; while the two malefactors 
 are on smaller crosses at the base, with the soldier piercing our 
 Saviour's side ; and above are angels waving their censers out 
 of Heaven, in adoration of their Crucified Lord. The relative 
 sizes of the figures are remarkable, as indicating a principle of 
 mediaeval art according to which the most important figure was 
 also the largest, and so the most prominent ; an object which is 
 attained in the higher art of later times by grouping in its 
 
 1 Willis, p. 86. 
 
 2 Figured in Vol. X. of the Archaeologia. 
 
256 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 highest sense. Another side is filled with figures of angels and 
 cherubim under the several arches of two arcades, the one over 
 the other, and in a larger central space at the bottom is a repre- 
 sentation of the Taking down from the Cross. One of the 
 other two sides is filled with a large cross of ornamental foliage, 
 and the other is divided into four compartments, each containing 
 a subject from Scripture. The parts not occupied with these 
 subjects are filled with ornamental patterns. Thus the whole 
 surface is covered with sculpture, and though each particular 
 figure may be rude, the whole effect is very rich. 
 
 But the doorways of the Normans were made to receive the 
 greatest share of enrichment ; both, perhaps, on account of that 
 desire so manifest in their arrangements, to which allusion has 
 been before made, to present the richest surface to the approach- 
 ing worshipper ; and also because of the words of our Lord, 
 " I am the Door," consecrating the door for ever as a symbol 
 of His own Person, to which there is plainly an allusion in the 
 figure of our Saviour frequently found in the doorway planes 
 of this style, and in the same relative position in later examples. 
 The west doorway of Rochester is a splendid instance. It is of 
 five concentric arches, or orders, enriched with very elaborate de- 
 vices, and resting on as many banded shafts, with highly wrought 
 capitals. Two of the shafts, however, have a peculiar import- 
 ance here, for above the bands they become statues of King 
 Henry I. and Matilda, his Queen ; the King holding a sceptre 
 in his right hand, and a book in his left, — the Queen holding 
 the charter of the royal endowments to the abbey ; and these (as 
 is truly observed in Winkles 5 Cathedrals, where this door is 
 figured,) are among the very earliest statues in the kingdom. 
 The doorway plane is occupied with a representation of our 
 Saviour, in the attitude of blessing, surrounded by worshipping 
 angels, and holding a book, while below are the Twelve Apostles. 
 
 But the south door of Malmsbury Abbey is perhaps the most 
 splendid example in the kingdom. I describe it from the beau- 
 tiful elevation in the " Monumenta Antiqua." 
 
 The outer arch consists of no fewer than eight concentric 
 suites of mouldings, alternately principal and subordinate, the 
 latter having a concave surface, enriched with various Norman 
 forms of foliage, and other characteristic patterns ; the former 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 257 
 
 having a convex surface, so as to assume a greater prominence, 
 and composed of groups of figures arranged in oval medallions, 
 bounded by the links of a kind of branching chain-work. 
 These groups represent probably several portions of the histories 
 of the Old and New Testaments. The Presentation of Christ 
 in the Temple, His triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, His Last 
 Supper, His Crucifixion, His Entombment and Resurrection, 
 His Ascension and the Sending of the Holy Ghost, being very 
 apparent on the outer principal suite of mouldings. Of such 
 groups, not fewer than eighty must have adorned this door in its 
 perfect state. The doorway plane of the inner door has upon it 
 the figure of our Lord in a vesica piscis, supported by two angels. 1 
 As the Early English style approached, the efforts of the 
 sculptor began to arrogate to themselves an individual and sepa- 
 rate beauty. The subjects of the Normans were still in some 
 degree retained, but the execution was greatly improved. The 
 monsters, dragons, and serpents, have more life, and more of 
 what would be called " nature," if the objects themselves were 
 natural, and there is sometimes a force in them almost terrible. 2 
 Scriptural subjects are still retained in low relief, as in the door- 
 way of Higham Ferrers Church, Northamptonshire, which is 
 adorned with several circles, or medallions, of the following 
 subjects: — 1. The Salutation of SS. Mary and Elizabeth; 2. 
 the Angel appearing to Zacharias ; 3. the Adoration of the 
 Magi; 4. Our Saviour in the Temple; 5. His Baptism; 6. 
 the Angels appearing to the Shepherds ; 7. the Crucifixion ; 8. 
 the Annunciation ; 9. the Disciples at the Sepulchre ; 10. the 
 Descent into Hell. 3 In other cases some legendary history con- 
 nected with the church, or its patron saint, is similarly treated, 
 as the story of S. Guthlac in several medallions in the doorway 
 plane of Croyland Abbey. The foliage of capitals and other 
 
 1 The west doorway of the same 
 Abbey-church has more than half 
 perished. It was very rich, though 
 not so elaborate as that above de- 
 scribed. On one of the capitals of 
 the jamb-shafts is the centaur, the 
 cognizance of King Stephen, and usu- 
 ally taken to determine the date to 
 his time. 
 
 2 As for example, in the splendid 
 bosses still preserved from the ruins of 
 S. Mary's Abbey, York, where the 
 dragons contending with beasts are 
 terrible in their muscular contortions. 
 
 3 See No. I. of the Churches of the 
 Archdeaconry of Northampton. 
 
258 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ornamental members assumes a character quite its own, instead 
 of the ungainly imitation of the Corinthian capitals, which was 
 the highest effort of Norman sculpture in the representation of 
 foliage. There is still, however, a memorial, at least, of the 
 classic acanthus, in the manner in which the Early English 
 foliage springs from the neck of the pillar, and rises till it curls 
 downwards on reaching the abacus ; but even this character is 
 lost in the next style, and the free foliage entwines the capitals 
 like a wreath, instead of climbing up it like the acanthus of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 But the greatest stride which sculpture made about the be- 
 ginning of the thirteenth century, was in the use of alto-relievo, 
 instead of the very low relief of the preceding centuries ; and as 
 grouping as well as the forming of separate figures made a pro- 
 portionate advance, the statuary of this age has a very conside- 
 rable degree of merit. The most glorious assemblage of figures 
 and groups in the kingdom is in the west facade of Wells Cathe- 
 dral, some of which have extorted very high praise from the 
 classical Flaxman. 1 
 
 1 " Bishop Joceline," says Flaxman, 
 " rebuilt the Cathedral Church of 
 Wells from the pavement ; which 
 having lived to finish and dedicate, he 
 died, in the year of our Lord 1243. 
 
 " The west front of this church 
 equally testifies the piety and compre- 
 hension of the Bishop's mind ; the 
 sculpture presents the noblest, most 
 useful and interesting subjects possible 
 to be chosen. On the south side, 
 above the west door, are alto-relievos 
 of the Creation, in its different parts, 
 the Deluge, and important acts of the 
 Patriarchs. Companions to these on 
 the north side, are alto-relievos of the 
 principal circumstances of the life of 
 our Saviour. Above these are two 
 rows of statues, larger than nature, in 
 niches, of kings, queens, and nobles, 
 patrons of the church, saints, bishops, 
 and other religious, from its first foun- 
 dation to the reign of Henry III. Near 
 the pediment is our Saviour come to 
 
 Judgment, attended by Angels and His 
 Twelve Apostles. The upper arches 
 on each side, along the whole of the 
 west front, and continued in the north 
 and south ends, are occupied by 
 figures rising from their graves, 
 strongly expressing the hope, fear, as- 
 tonishment, stupefaction, or despair, 
 inspired by the presence of the Lord 
 and Judge of the world, in that awful 
 moment. 
 
 " In speaking of the execution of 
 such a work, due regard must be paid 
 to the circumstances under which it 
 was produced, in comparison with 
 those of our own times. There were 
 neither prints, nor printed books to 
 assist the artist ; the sculptor could not 
 be instructed in anatomy, for there 
 were no anatomists. Some knowledge 
 of optics, and a glimmering of per- 
 spective were reserved for the re- 
 searches of so sublime a genius as 
 Roger Bacon, some years afterwards. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 259 
 
 Hitherto, whatever manner is observable, may be attributed 
 chiefly to imperfect skill : it is the manner of the infancy of 
 art. But we soon find occasion to notice the influence of 
 foreign schools on English sculpture ; and with skill in execu- 
 tion, and even in design, came also a mannerism, which is in- 
 separable from that influence of individuals which is the origin 
 of a school, and which in some degree neutralizes the benefit of 
 derived excellence. There is a conventional grace of posture, 
 especially in the carriage of the head, observable henceforward 
 in single figures ; except, indeed, in the most beautiful class of 
 figures, the recumbent effigies on tombs ; but still there can be 
 no question that the art of sculpture advanced on the whole until 
 the reign of the second Tudor, from which time we may date the 
 decadence of all ecclesiastical art. 
 
 It would be too long to mention any fair proportion of the 
 more remarkable sculptures from the middle of the thirteenth 
 to the close of the fifteenth century : a very small list may serve 
 to indicate the progress of the art. 
 
 The effigy of Henry III., and of Eleanor, queen of Edward I. 
 in Westminster Abbey, are by an Englishman, William Tozel, 
 and the statues on the Queen's crosses are also of native work- 
 manship. And in all these there is a very great degree of ma- 
 jesty and beauty, such as could only be produced in times of 
 real and high art. In 1296, we have the monument of Robert 
 Vere, fifth Earl of Oxford, at Earl's Colne, in Essex, the sides of 
 which are richly decorated with figures in niches. In 1308 
 occurs the very beautiful tomb of Aymer de Valence, Earl of 
 Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey ; and in 1334, the monument 
 of Edward II. in Gloucester Cathedral. 1 To the monument of 
 this prince the Abbey of Gloucester was greatly indebted ; for 
 when the Abbeys of Bristol, Keynsham, and Malmsbury had 
 
 A small knowledge of geometry and and much of the sculpture is rude and 
 mechanics was exclusively confined to severe ; yet, in parts, there is a beau- 
 two or three learned monks in the tiful simplicity, an irresistible senti- 
 whole country ; and the principles of ment, and sometimes a grace, excelling 
 those sciences, as applied to the figure more modern productions." 
 and motion of man and inferior ani- 1 This exquisite monument is well 
 mals, were known to none. figured in the plans, &c. of Gloucester 
 " Therefore this work is necessarily Cathedral, published by the Society of 
 ill drawn, and deficient in principle, Antiquaries. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 refused to receive the royal corpse, Abbot Tkokey covered it with 
 a pall, enriched with the arms of the abbey, and carried it 
 from Berkeley Castle to Gloucester, where it was buried with be- 
 coming magnificence. This act of loyalty and duty was amply 
 repaid, not only by Edward III., but by the offerings of many 
 pilgrims, which amounted to so large a sum, that after a while 
 the whole church was nearly rebuilt with it. 
 
 "Sculpture from henceforth flourished in England," says 
 Lord Lindsay. 1 "Edward III. was an especial patron of the arts, 
 bishops and chapters vied with each other in decorating their 
 churches, and this lasted during the whole of the fourteenth, 
 and the early years of the fifteenth century. The statues of the 
 kings and queens on the screens in the cathedrals of Canterbury 
 and Exeter ; the recumbent figures of Edward III. and of Queen 
 Philippa, in Westminster Abbey, the head of the former almost 
 ideal in its beauty, the drapery in both flowing and free ; the 
 tomb of Henry V. also there ; the series of kings from the 
 Conqueror to Henry V. in the Cathedral of York, the tomb of 
 Richard Earl of Warwick, in the interesting chapel of the Beau- 
 champs, and many others, belong to this period. But the reign 
 of Henry VI. witnessed a change, and from the death of the 
 hero of Agincourt downwards, the art declined, till Henry VIII. 
 introduced the Italian style of the cinquecento." 2 
 
 Westminster Abbey, to which reference has already been made 
 more than once, contains so many and various sculptures each in 
 the perfection of the beauty or deformity of their respective 
 times, that a history of ecclesiastical sculpture from the reign of 
 Henry III. to the present day might be fairly illustrated from 
 the stores of that church alone. Among the most remarkable 
 
 1 Sketches of Christian Art, iii. 252. 
 
 9 A striking instance of the contrast 
 between the beauty of the Gothic 
 sculpture, and the barbarity of that 
 introduced by Henry VIII. when ap- 
 plied to the same subjects, is found in 
 the cross erected at Bristol during the 
 reign of Edward III., and containing 
 statues of that monarch, and of his 
 Queen Philippa, to which have been 
 added figures of Henry VIII. and of 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, in all their grotesque 
 costume, equally removed from the 
 classic and the Gothic beauty which 
 adorns each its appropriate subjects. 
 The history of this cross is singular 
 enough to be mentioned here. It was 
 taken down and re-erected in the Ca- 
 thedral, again taken down, and at 
 length purchased by Sir Richard Colt 
 Hoare, and now adorns the grounds at 
 Stourhead House, Wiltshire. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 261 
 
 are the decorations of the screen of Edward the Confessor's 
 chapel, and especially the fourteen alto-relievos which are con- 
 tinued along the upper part of it, in which the history of the 
 royal saint is represented, according to the legend of his life and 
 miracles by Ailred, which was presented by Abbot Laurence to 
 Henry II. on the day of the translation of Edward's relics to his 
 new shrine. 1 (1.) The first compartment represents the prelates 
 and nobility swearing fealty to the Confessor, when in his 
 mother's womb. The Queen stands in the midst of the assem- 
 bled nobles, with her left hand upon her waist, and occupies her 
 most important position with becoming dignity. (2.) The next 
 subject is the birth of the Confessor. (3.) The third his corona- 
 tion. (4.) Then follows his vision of the devil dancing upon 
 the money collected as Danegelt, which led him to remit that 
 most unpopular tax. (5.) Then Edward's generous conduct to 
 the thief who was purloining his treasure : the King raises him- 
 self on his elbow in bed, while the thief is kneeling at the open 
 hanaper, to which he has just returned for the third time. " You 
 are too covetous, youth," the legend makes the King to exclaim, 
 who had seen the whole theft, " take what you have, and fly ; if 
 Hugoline (the chamberlain) come, he will not leave you a single 
 doit." The thief, who thought the King had been asleep, fled 
 without being pursued, and when Hugoline discovered the loss, 
 the King soothed his fear and passion, saying, " Perhaps he 
 needed it more than me ; and he has left sufficient for us." (6.) 
 In the sixth compartment is represented an appearance of our 
 Saviour to King Edward, when he was partaking of the Holy 
 Eucharist. (7.) The seventh is the vision of Edward, in which 
 he beheld the drowning of the King of Denmark, who was pre- 
 paring to invade the kingdom. (8.) Then follows the quarrel 
 between Tosti and Harold when children at the King's table ; 
 from which, according to the legend, the prophetic mind of Ed- 
 ward presaged the future character and fate of the two noble 
 youths. (9.) The ninth subject is one of the most picturesque 
 of the ancient legends, and is not badly rendered in the language 
 of sculpture. In the Decian persecution (about 250,) seven 
 Christian youths of Ephesus fled into a cave under Mount 
 
 1 See plates and description in Neale's Westminster Abbey, 
 
262 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Celion to avoid death, and having committed themselves to God, 
 fell asleep. The Emperor stopped the mouth of the cave with 
 stones, which were not removed till the year 479, when the 
 youths arose, and thinking that they had slept but one night, 
 despatched one of their number into the city to purchase bread, 
 for which he offered a coin of Decius in payment, which led to 
 the discovery of the sleepers. They were permitted only to warn 
 Theodosius, who then wore the purple, of the certainty of the 
 Resurrection, when they again fell asleep, " and even to this 
 day/' says Gregory of Tours, " they slumber in the very same 
 place." Gregory lived in the sixth century, and the seven youths 
 were destined to sleep for five centuries more. The Confessor 
 was observed to smile at the Eucharist one Easter day. He told 
 his attendants afterwards that he had been transported in vision 
 to the city of Ephesus, and to Mount Celion, and had there seen 
 the seven sleepers in their cave. Letters were despatched to the 
 Emperor of Constantinople, giving an account of this vision, 
 and the messengers being taken to the cave, the sleepers were 
 found as Edward had described. In the sculpture the messen- 
 gers are seen on horseback arriving at the cave, and the sleepers 
 are discovered lying on their left sides, as they had appeared to 
 Edward in the vision. (10.) In the tenth compartment, the 
 Confessor having already emptied his purse in almsgiving, gives 
 his ring to S. John the Evangelist, who appears before him as a 
 beggar, while he is engaged in the consecration of a church. 
 (12.) In the twelfth, S. John delivers the ring, with a message 
 to Edward, to two pilgrims, who, (13,) in the thirteenth, return 
 it again to the King. (11.) In the eleventh compartment, blind 
 men are restored to sight by washing in the same water into 
 which the King has dipped his hands ; and (14) in the last, the 
 Confessor dedicates his church : — that very Westminster Abbey 
 which he but just lived to finish, in which he was buried, within 
 the vast confines of which he was twice translated, which Henry 
 III., in reverence to his sainted predecessor, rebuilt, and which 
 Henry VI. adorned with further tokens of pious veneration, 
 among which was in all probability the very screen we are de- 
 scribing. 
 
 The lower part of the screen, along the frieze of which these 
 subjects arc carved, is of very rich tabernacle-work ; the several 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 263 
 
 niches were once occupied with statues, and the whole design 
 must have been exceedingly gorgeous. The several groups 
 above enumerated tell their tale as well as they could do in the 
 hands of the most celebrated artists, and they are by no means 
 deficient in grouping and harmony of effect. The principal 
 figures are about a foot high. All delicacy of finish is lost from 
 the violence which the screen has suffered ; but it would be un- 
 reasonable to doubt that in this respect it was equal to the 
 elaborateness and skill of the design. 
 
 With respect to the subjects, they must not of course be taken 
 as historically true, but they have another kind of truth which 
 is artistically and even intellectually higher than historic truth : 
 they are in their true place, they are told in the spirit of truth, 
 they are true many of them according to the eternal standard of 
 moral truth, and even historically and theologically they are true 
 according to the notion of the times when they were designed ; 
 and in every respect they are in full keeping with their place 
 and purpose. 
 
 We now turn to a very different example of art. With the 
 exception of the recumbent figures themselves, which retain the 
 clasped hands, and general repose of character of the old monu- 
 mental effigies, no parts of the elaborate monument of Henry 
 VII., and Elizabeth his queen deserve one syllable of this praise. 
 It is needless to say that they are placed in that most gorgeous 
 effort of architectural design, Henry the Seventh's chapel, and 
 that they are yet more closely enshrined by worthy and elabo- 
 rate brazen tabernacle work, in which the character of the cha- 
 pel is preserved. The artificer of this tomb was a Florentine 
 graver and painter, named Torrigiano, or as he is called in the 
 indenture of covenant for the work, Peter Torrisany : but though a 
 foreigner he could not plead ignorance of character of the build- 
 ing in which his work was to be placed, for the same instrument 
 described him as " now being resident in the precincts of Saint 
 Peter of Westminster/ 5 and the chapel was then nearly finished, 
 and the "closure" or shrine of brass at least well advanced. 
 But if the king, when he provided for his monument in his will, 
 hoped that it would be erected in accordance with the style 
 which he had himself adopted in his own foundations, he was 
 sorely deceived. The tomb is principally of black marble, (or 
 
264 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 touch, as it used to be called,) but the figures and alto-relievos 
 are of copper gilt. All this is in accordance with the will of 
 Henry, 1 but certainly nothing could be farther from his concep- 
 tion than the pagan-like medallions of figures on the sides of 
 the tomb, when he ordered that in the sides and both ends of 
 the same tomb, tabernacles should be graven, and the same to be 
 
 1 This document is so much to our 
 present purpose that I transcribe part 
 of it. " Howbeit I am a synfull crea- 
 ture, in synne conceivied, and in synne 
 have lived, knowing p'fitely that of my 
 merits I cannot atteyne to the lif 
 eu'rlasting, but oonly by the merits of 
 thy blessed passion and of thi infinite 
 m'cy and grace, Nathelesse my moost 
 m'ciful Redemer, Maker, and Salviour, 
 I trust that by thi special grace and 
 m'cy of the moost blissed moder euir 
 Virgyne, oure lady saincte Mary, in 
 whom after the, in this mortall lif hath 
 eu'rbeen my moost singulier trust and 
 confidence, To whom in al my neces- 
 sities I have made my continuel refuge, 
 and by whom I have hiderto in al 
 myne adu'rsities eu'r had my sp'ial 
 comforte and relief, wol nowe in my 
 moost extreme nede, of her infinite pitie 
 take my soule into her hands, and it 
 p'sent vnto her moost dere Son : 
 Whereof swettest lady of m'cy veray 
 moder and virgin, Welle of pitie and 
 surest refuge of al nedefull, moost hum- 
 bly, moost entierly, and moost hertely 
 I beseche the : And for my comforte 
 in this behalve, I trust also to the 
 singuler mediacions and praiers of all 
 the holie companie of heven ; that is 
 to saye, Aungels, Archaungels, patri- 
 arches, prophets, apostels, eu'ngelists, 
 martirs, confessours, and virgyns, and 
 sp'ially to myne accustumed avoures I 
 calle and crie, Sainct Michaell, Sainct 
 John Baptist, Saint John Eu'ngelist, 
 saint George, saint Anthony, sainct 
 Edward, saint Vincent, saint Anne, 
 saint Marie Magdalene, and Saint Bar- 
 
 bara, humbly besechingyou not oonly at 
 the houre of dethe, soo to aide, soccour 
 and defende me, that the auncient and 
 gostely enemye ner noon other euill or 
 dampnable esprite, haue no powar to 
 invade me, ner with his terriblenesse 
 to annoye me ; but also with your holie 
 praiers, to be intercessours and medi- 
 atours vnto our Maker and Redemer, 
 for the remission of my synnes and 
 saluacion of my soule. 
 
 " And we wol that our Towmbe bee 
 in the myddes of the same Chapell, 
 before the high Aultier, in such dis- 
 taunce from the same as it is ordred in 
 the plat made for the same Chapell, 
 and signed with our hande : In which 
 place we Wol, that for the said sepul- 
 ture of vs and our derest late wif the 
 Quene whose soule God p'donne, be 
 made a Towmbe of Stone called 
 touche, sufficient in largieur for vs 
 booth : And upon the same, oon 
 ymage of our figure, and an other of 
 hers, either of them of copure and 
 gilte, of suche faction, and in suche 
 maner, as shalbe thought moost con- 
 uenient by the discrecion of our exe- 
 cutors, yf it be not before doon by 
 our self in our daies. And in the 
 borders of the same towmbe, be made 
 a conuenient scripture, conteignyng 
 the years of our reigne, and the daie 
 and yere of our decesse. And in the 
 sides, and booth ends of our said 
 towmbe, in the said touche vnder the 
 said bordure, wee Wol tabernacles bee 
 graven, and the same to be filled with 
 Ymages, sp'cially of our said avouries, 
 of coper and gilte." 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 265 
 
 filled with images of his especial avowries or patron saints, whom 
 he had mentioned at the beginning of his will. The figures in- 
 deed are there, but instead of the " tabernacles" beneath which 
 they were to be placed, the tomb is divided into the requisite 
 number of compartments by Grecian pilasters covered with ara- 
 besque foliage ; and the figures are contained in medallions sur- 
 rounded with a Roman civic wreath : and there, instead of 
 kneeling to pray for the deceased, or standing to bless or to 
 guard him, in the habit or with the symbols of sanctity in which 
 they had ever appeared to his mind's eye, and which were at 
 least Christian and characteristic, they stand most unmoved 
 spectacles, to spectators equally unmoved. Instead of bending 
 beneath the mystic weight of The unknown Child, and lean- 
 ing a giant's weight on the uptorn pine tree which supports 
 him, S. Christopher is a respectable Roman citizen carrying an 
 infant on his shoulders with some affection, and much affectation, 
 and holding up a branch of whitethorn to amuse him. S. 
 George is a swaggering soldier in the accoutrements of the em- 
 pire, telling the story of one of his victories to S. Anthony and 
 his pig. Even the Blessed Virgin with the Holy Child 
 could never be taken elsewhere, for that dearest and happiest 
 creation of Christian art : in the compartment in which she ap- 
 pears with S. Michael she is a pagan Tellus, or Latona, or 
 some matron showing her child to a distant relation. At the 
 four corners are perched as many winged Cupids who once held 
 the scales and sword of justice, the royal banner, and the dragon 
 of Cadwallader, from whom Henry affected to trace his Welsh 
 descent. As these are all stolen and the occupation of the 
 Cupids is gone, they appear at a disadvantage ; but of the 
 whole tomb we may say, (again excepting the recumbent figures) 
 that there is not throughout a trace of Christian costume, or a 
 shade of Christian feeling. 
 
 This tomb of Henry VII. is one of the first — perhaps quite 
 the first — of any importance in the kingdom, in which the Pagan 
 element so entirely predominates ; and this, be it remembered, 
 is by an artist who brought his principles of design from Italy. 1 
 
 1 I shall have occasion by and bye to 
 note a smaller decadence of art in the 
 shrine of Edward the Confessor, and 
 
 in the tomb of Henry III., by Pietro 
 Cavallmi, also an Italian. 
 
266 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 I confess my joy and pride, as an Englishman, that the fall of 
 the Teutonic art even in England, in all its forms and applica- 
 tions, is not to be traced to us : and that its revival, or at least 
 its due appreciation in the present day, did not originate beyond 
 the Alps, no nor beyond the seas. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that whatever was barbarous, 
 and whatever was unchristian in art, was too readily adopted 
 here. If we held it justifiable to separate Christian religion 
 from Christian art, there is a style which we should account 
 more wretched than even that of revived paganism. Though 
 statuary was not absolutely banished from churches as a mere 
 decoration by the Reformation, yet its use was practically con- 
 fined to monuments ; and these, under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, 
 became barbarous beyond all former example, — we may almost 
 say beyond all antecedent possibility. Still, however, there was 
 an intention to be religious. The worthy alderman and his good 
 wife who kneel, all ruffs and buckram, at the opposite sides of 
 an impossible desk, seem to be praying to one another, but are 
 intended to be praying to God. All the accessaries of their 
 tombs are so hideous, so perfectly harmonious with themselves, 
 that while we look at the death's-head and thigh-bones, balls 
 and pyramids, hour-glass and scythes, cherubs in tears, children 
 peering over one another's heads in ranks of boys and girls to 
 the number of some sixteen or twenty, all in black of the same 
 suit, and then read an epitaph as long as the Iliad and twice as 
 false, we are tempted to doubt whether this could have been the 
 time of Shakspere and Bacon, and a host of men who could not 
 have been what they were in an age of absolute prostration of 
 thought and feeling. Of such monuments perhaps the paragon 
 was that of Sir Christopher Hatton, the same who danced 
 himself into favour with Queen Elizabeth, and into the wool- 
 sack, at a court mumming. It stood between the lady chapel 
 and the south aisle of old S. Paul's Cathedral, and perished in 
 the great fire. It is engraved by Hollar, in Dugdale's History 
 and Antiquities of S. Paul's Cathedral, and I turned to the plate 
 with the intention of describing it, but its hideousness defies 
 description, as its vastness defied mensuration. Of its latter 
 quality Stowc, in his survey of London gives an amusing notice. 
 Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Francis Walsingham were buried near 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 267 
 
 the dancing knight, but had no monuments, whereon a merry 
 poet wrote thus; — 
 
 " Philip and Francis have no tomb 
 For Great Christopher takes all the room." 
 
 I need hardly add that the allusion is to the Great S. Christopher 
 the mighty giant, — " four-and-twenty feet he was large, and 
 thick and broad enough," — of monkish hagiology. 
 
 The monuments of this age deserve no longer notice. We 
 may leave them with a regret that as they are sacred, both from 
 the House of God, in which they are erected, and from the pur- 
 pose for which they are designed, it would not be right to 
 destroy them utterly. This can, however, hardly be said, of 
 those which are absolutely unchristian in form and spirit, which 
 arose out of that same revival of pagan art to which we have 
 alluded before, but which did not dare to put itself forth without 
 disguise till the Revolution. Statues of Hercules, Neptune, 
 Minerva, Esculapius and other gods : figures of the Fates twin- 
 ing and cutting the thread of life : l heathen virtues crowned 
 with celestial garlands by heathen deities ; — these and the like 
 subjects can be consecrated by no service to which they are put, 
 and by no place into which they are obtruded. 
 
 I shall take one or two examples almost at random, from 
 Westminster Abbey. 2 
 
 The first Earl Stanhope is a Roman soldier, attended by 
 Minerva, Victory, and Cupid, the latter bearing his shield of 
 arms. 3 A sarcophagus, in itself a covert denial of the resurrec- 
 tion of the body, inscribed with Congreve's name is strown 
 with books, masks, and other emblems of the Drama. At the 
 
 1 A recent anecdote connected with 
 this device is not less worthy to be re- 
 corded than the pasquinade on Sir 
 Christopher Hatton's monument. A 
 nobleman had employed a sculptor 
 to restore some of his family monu- 
 ments, among which was one in which 
 the venerable Atropos had just cut 
 the thread of one of his predeces- 
 sors. His grace was startled at being 
 told with well feigned concern, that 
 
 his estates and titles were no longer 
 his. The furbisher of monuments 
 little dreaming of the mischief he 
 was doing, had pieced the severed 
 thread. 
 
 2 Neale's W estminster Abbey is 
 my authority in all these. 
 
 3 Proving beyond dispute that he- 
 raldry was not brought into western 
 Europe by the Crusaders. 
 
268 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 base of the monument of General Fleming are, "the figures 
 of Minerva and Hercules, who are employed in binding to the 
 latter' s club a serpent and a glass ; and thus forming a trophy, 
 composed of the emblems of valour, wisdom, and prudence." 
 
 Stephen Hales, D.D., is represented, " on a large medallion, 
 supported by the figures of Religion and Botany, the former is 
 sitting, and deploring her loss ; the latter holds a cornucopia, 
 and at her feet The Winds are displayed on a globe, in allusion 
 to Dr. Hale's invention of ventilators. A pyramid, surmounted 
 by an urn, composes the back-ground." 1 
 
 But the monstrousness of such devices in a Christian church, 
 and as memorials of those who were on earth, and still remain 
 members of Christ, (and what fellowship hath Christ with 
 Belial ?) cannot be justly exposed except by way of contrast. 
 Stand then for a moment before the monument of Aymer de 
 Valence, in the choir of Westminster Abbey, for we still linger 
 among the tombs in that glorious pile. Eight figures, now 
 headless and otherwise mutilated, but originally of exquisite 
 workmanship, stand within as many tabernacles along the side 
 of the tomb : they represent most likely the patron saints of the 
 deceased, some saints they certainly represent, and they sym- 
 bolize too plainly to be mistaken the article of The Communion 
 of Saints. Over the tomb a magnificent canopy is raised in 
 forms of beauty harmonizing with the Gothic piers and arches, 
 beneath which it is erected. The knight on his charger fully 
 caparisoned surmounts the whole, while his arms and those of 
 his nearer relations appear on various parts of the tomb. This 
 would perhaps appear to savour of the vainglorious display which 
 we deprecate when it assumes another form ; but we must re- 
 member that the knight was then known best by his coat 
 armour ; and that emblazoned shields merely tell in the simplest 
 language then in use, the name and title of the deceased. We 
 must also remember, that right or wrong, chivalry, and with it 
 heraldry, was closely interwoven with the Religion of mediaeval 
 knighthood. Not struggling in the battle, not marshalling his 
 troops, not reaching forth to a crown of laurel, or complacently 
 listening to the trumpet of Fame resounding in his ears, but re- 
 
 1 The pyramid and the urn are symbols, the one of fire worship, and the other 
 of heathen cremations. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 269 
 
 cumbent, as he might have fallen asleep at the last, with hands 
 closed in prayer, lies the deceased hero ; his feet pressed against 
 a lion in memory of the promise, " the young lion and the 
 dragon thou shalt tread under thy feet," and at his head is a 
 group representing attendant spirits bearing his soul to Abra- 
 ham's bosom. 1 
 
 And now raise your eyes, and you will see, beyond the recum- 
 bent figure of Aymer de Valence, another monument of far 
 different character. That too commemorates a hero, and a 
 Christian hero ; it is the monument of General Wolfe. Lest 
 I should be tempted to speak sneeringly, I will borrow the 
 approving words of another, and still I will confidently leave 
 the contrast to produce its proper effect. 
 
 " It consists of an elevated basement and sarcophagus ; upon 
 which, on a couch under an open tent, is a naked statue of the 
 dying Wolfe, supported by a grenadier, who appears raising him 
 up by the left arm, to receive a laurel wreath, and palm branch 
 from a descending Victory ; bis right hand is placed over the 
 wound in his breast. His habiliments and arms lie scattered 
 near the couch, and beneath his feet is the French flag. In the 
 back-ground is a mourning Highland serjeant ; and on the left, 
 an oak tree, on which are hung tomahawks and scalping-knives. 
 Upon the basement, which projects circularly in the middle, are 
 two gaunt lions, couchant ; and at each end on the flanks, 
 within an oval, is a wolfs head, erased, in low relief. In front, 
 is a singular representation in lead, but bronzed over, of the land- 
 ing of the troops under the Heights of Abraham, with the 
 scaling of the precipices, and advance into action." Now let me 
 observe that this is not an exaggerated specimen of this kind of 
 monument, it is chosen solely for the accident which enables the 
 spectator to compare it, without moving, with that of Aymer de 
 Valence, and if possible to admire both, and if not, to choose 
 which he will admire and which he will condemn. It is well 
 that there are now few who will not choose the Christian before 
 the Pagan memorial, and who will not wonder how it could 
 have been otherwise at any time in a Christian country ; still 
 we have before us a fierce struggle with the pagan element in a 
 
 1 This device has been adopted in the cenotaph of the Princess Charlotte in 
 S. George's Chapel, Windsor. 
 
270 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 thousand strange and revolting forms, before the cry will be 
 heard in the temples which we have been erecting for them ever 
 since the coming of the Dutch William, " The gods are de- 
 parting." 
 
 I must not leave the subject of sculpture without a few 
 words on several classes of monuments which can hardly aspire 
 to so high a rank among works of art as the recumbent effigies 
 in full proportions. The first of these are the foliated crosses 
 of which the numbers still existing, though multitudes have 
 perished, is quite beyond calculation. A very interesting series 
 occupies the nave of the church, and the chapter-house at 
 Jervaulx, and the soil having been suffered to collect over the 
 whole site of this abbey for many generations, has preserved 
 them very perfectly. The whole building is now cleared out, and 
 is a most admirable ecclesiological study. But by far the most 
 beautiful sepulchral crosses of this kind which have come within 
 my notice, are two in the neighbouring churches of S. John 
 Baptist, Laughton-en-le-Morthen, and of Tickhill, in Yorkshire. 
 The first occupies the whole surface of a stone en dos d'dne 
 which it covers with the most perfect foliage and fruit of the 
 vine, in very deep relief. The other is a cross of Calvary flory, 
 of eight rays, with the lamb triumphant in the centre of the 
 cross. A great peculiarity in this tomb leads to the mention of 
 another class of monuments : — out of the side of the stone, 
 above where the right hand of the entombed warrior rested, 
 appears a mailed hand issuing, and grasping a sword, as if to 
 express a military ardour which could not be quenched even by 
 death. I know of no other instance of the hand alone appear- 
 ing: 1 but in the neighbouring churches of Wadworth and 
 Loversall, and also in the far distant churches of Both well and 
 Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, 2 are stones representing the head 
 and clasped hands appearing through an opening at the top, and 
 the feet through an opening at the bottom of the tomb, the in- 
 termediate portion being left plain, perhaps for an inscription. 
 
 1 Since this was written I have found 
 in Vol. III. of the Antiquarian Reper- 
 tory, a drawing of a coffin-lid in Rum- 
 sey church, where a female's hand in 
 like manner appears, holding a staff of 
 
 office. The cross is an ordinary foli- 
 ated cross, of no great elegance. It 
 probably commemorates some Abbess 
 of Rumsey. 
 
 2 Also Hambleton, Rutland. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 271 
 
 Whither is this curious design to be referred ? Not to want of 
 art or of liberality ; for besides that the most elaborate parts are 
 given in this instance, the execution seems to have been excellent, 
 and the depth of the carving, the canopy being relieved no less 
 than six inches, indicates no parsimony of time or labour. Per- 
 haps it is intended thus to represent the superincumbent weight 
 of the tomb, together with the continued existence of the spiri- 
 tual and moral faculties ; as if the soul still had feet to walk in 
 the way of life, hands to clasp in prayer, and a head, and a 
 tongue to praise God, while the body, the most carnal part, 
 loses its individuality and energies being under the power of 
 corruption. 
 
 Sepulchral brasses still remain to be noticed. The designs of 
 brasses evidently originate from the several kinds of sculpture 
 on monuments of stone. We have the same recumbent figures, 
 we have also beautiful crosses, as we have on the stone coffin-lids : 
 a very graceful and interesting specimen of which occurs at 
 Higham Ferrers, over the remains of the father and mother of 
 Archbishop Chichele. 1 The niches and figures on the sides of 
 high tombs are transferred to the margins of brasses, and with a 
 splendid array of canopies emulate the beauty of the most elabo- 
 rate masonry and sculpture. Of these several glorious specimens 
 perished in the flames which destroyed S. Paul's Cathedral, among 
 which was one of Thomas Eyre, Dean of S. Paul's, who died a.d. 
 1 500. The twelve apostles occupied as many niches at the edge 
 of the brass, and at the top was a medallion of the Annunciation ; 2 
 while the figure of the dean himself in full pontifical habits, oc- 
 cupied the usual place in the centre of the stone. Such a design 
 as this, with the usual accompaniment of enamel, must have 
 been very splendid. 
 
 Allusions to particular circumstances in the lives of the per- 
 sons commemorated are very rare, in the monuments, whether 
 brasses or statuary, of the middle ages. There is, however, one 
 of a recumbent figure at Coverham Abbey, in Yorkshire, sur- 
 rounded by hounds and stag in full pursuit and flight, which 
 doubtless records a passion, if not a particular act of the de- 
 
 1 See Churches of Northampton- tory and Antiquities of S. Paul's Cathe- 
 shire, No. I. dral. 
 
 2 Hollar's Plate in Dugdale's His- 
 
272 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ceased ; and at King's Lynn, in Norfolk, is a very curious brass 
 of Robert Brannel and his two wives, Letitia and Margaret, and 
 " under the feet of the figures, occupying the whole width of the 
 brass, is represented a sumptuous festival, at which twelve per- 
 sons are present, nine males and three females ; the figure at 
 
 the head is crowned ; the rest wear the chapeau, at 
 
 each end are seen attendants bearing dishes, with peacocks in 
 their plumes, preceded by musicians with trumpets, shawms, 
 viols, &c. The first dish, a peacock, is presented to the royal 
 personage at the head of the table, by a kneeling figure. It 
 scarcely admits of a doubt," adds Mr. Taylor, from whose Anti- 
 quities of King's Lynn I am quoting, " that this represents a 
 banquet given by Brannel, during his mayoralty, to Edward 
 III., who about that time frequently visited Lynn, and that the 
 kneeling figure is Brannel himself." 1 
 
 The subject of wood carving is nearly connected with that 
 which is more correctly called sculpture, and must be slightly 
 alluded to. Of very ancient wood- work we have not many re- 
 mains. 2 A few Early English screens and parcloses may be 
 found, and only a few ; and of lighter tabernacle- work, or mise- 
 reres in that style, I do not know that we have any examples. 3 
 There can be no question however, that the forms and decora- 
 tions so distinctive of the stone-work of this style were repeated in 
 all those articles of ecclesiastical or general furniture which were 
 constructed of wood ; and of this a very interesting example oc- 
 curs in a table in the kitchen of the Priory, at Winchester, 
 figured in the Winchester transactions of the Archaeological 
 
 1 See also the brass of John Selwyn, 
 ( 1 587) , in the church of Walton-upon- 
 Thames, figured in Vol. I. of the An- 
 tiquarian Repertory. It is reported 
 of this man, that being keeper of her 
 Majesty's park of Oatlands, he in the 
 heat of the chase leaped from his 
 horse upon the back of the stag, while 
 both were at full speed, and drawing 
 his sword guided the affrighted animal 
 with it towards the Queen, and when 
 near her, plunged his sword into its 
 throat, so that it fell dead at her feet. 
 
 In memory of this the said John 
 Selwyn appears on his tomb on the 
 back of the stag into which he is 
 thrusting his sword. 
 
 2 A Norman, or rather a Transition 
 screen is given in the Glossary, and 
 also two Early English screens, and one 
 Early English chest. 
 
 3 There is, however, at Aysgarth in 
 Yorkshire, a church very rich in wood- 
 work, a fragment of a seat, with the 
 nail-head occurring upon it, and un- 
 doubtedly Early English. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 273 
 
 Institute, the legs of which are adorned with the peculiar crisped 
 foliage of the style. The wood- work of the next century is more 
 frequent, but still it is by no means commonly found. We have 
 however several screens, and also some tabernacle work, as that 
 of the restoration of Ely Cathedral, after the fall of the tower in 
 1322. 
 
 But the next style is that in which wood- work most abounds ; 
 not only because the perishable nature of the material has for- 
 bidden the preservation of older specimens ; but because the art 
 of carving in wood was carried to a greater extent, and much 
 more frequently applied to the decoration of churches in the 
 fifteenth century, than at any other time. To this century is 
 to be referred the greater part of the beautiful tabernacle work 
 in our cathedrals, and conventual churches ; the glorious rood- 
 screens of Somersetshire and Devonshire, and the lofts wherever 
 they remain, for I do not know that a single rood-loft, or any 
 portion of one of an earlier style has been preserved. The 
 bench ends even in small village churches, are often adorned 
 with excellent carving of this age. And the open roofs, of which 
 Suffolk affords the most numerous and beautiful examples are 
 generally to be referred to the fifteenth century. 
 
 Throughout all the styles, the decorations and mouldings of 
 wood-work are identical with those of the stone-work of the 
 same date, the tracery of the windows especially being often 
 copied, without a single variation. It is true that no attempt was 
 made to confuse the constructive provinces of wood and stone; 1 
 but even in roofs, where the long beam supplants the stone 
 vault, supporting them on a totally different principle, the span- 
 drils are filled with the very same open work that occurs in the 
 mullions and tracery of the windows ; and the sides of chests, 
 and the ends of seats have the same character of carving with 
 the stone font, or the panelled surface of a wall ; even the but- 
 tresses and pinnacles which are here constructively useless, being 
 
 1 There are however a few instances the choir is of wood, but vaulted, after 
 in which wood is made to take the the manner of stone : and in the nave 
 place of stone in construction, as for of the very beautiful church of War- 
 instance, in the roofs of nave, choir, mington, in Northamptonshire, which 
 and transepts of York Minster ; at is roofed in a similar way. 
 Selby, in Yorkshire, where the roof of 
 
 T 
 
274 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 repeated in all their forms. This is a rare instance of poverty 
 in principle in mediaeval ornament : the higher art, theoretically 
 at least, of giving a character to the designs for wood carving, 
 was not introduced till an age too late for the full application of 
 the principle. With the sixteenth century came the linen pat- 
 tern, as it is called, which is, as it ought to be, solely employed 
 for wood-work ; the coarse arabesque patterns of the Stuart era 
 were used alike in wood and in stone; and a century after Grin- 
 ling Gibbons 1 gave to wood the grace of living flowers, by a 
 skilfulness and lightness of hand which would have been in- 
 valuable in earlier times, had the peculiar decorative capabilities 
 of wood been cultivated. The only instances in which, as a 
 general rule, the older workmen were touched with a feeling 
 which might have led them to anticipate an equal beauty, and 
 to have brought it at the same time into harmony with the 
 types of Gothic art, occur in the poppy-heads of stalls, which 
 are sometimes of exquisite force and lightness combined, and 
 quite escape from the character of stone carvings. 
 
 This praise belongs also, in a considerable degree to a very 
 late, but most splendid specimen of stall-work in Wensley 
 church, 2 Yorkshire, and the juxtaposition of some very elaborate 
 Perpendicular work, but of the ordinary character, which occurs 
 in the north aisle, renders the contrast very striking. The 
 stalls in question occupy the north and south sides of the chan- 
 cel, and are returned along the base of the roodscreen. They 
 have richly decorated ends and poppy-heads, and panelled 
 fronts. Before the poppy-heads are several animals, chiefly he- 
 raldic, and it is in the designing and execution of these that the 
 character now alluded to chiefly appears. The figures are 1, 
 (commencing at the south-east, and going round the chancel,) 
 a wyvern, 2. a bear, 3. a lion, 4. a griffin, 5. a hare, 6. an uni- 
 corn chained. The hare especially is so good, so spirited and 
 
 1 The throne at Canterbury is his 
 work. 
 
 2 Few churches are so well worthy 
 of a visit from the ecclesiologist as 
 this, though the exterior is far from 
 promising; besides the wood- work 
 above mentioned, the chancel contains 
 the justly celebrated brass of a priest. 
 
 The effect of the wood-work in the 
 north aisle is destroyed by some mise- 
 rable moresque additions. The inner 
 door of the north porch is very good, 
 and the situation of the church, in one 
 of the most beautiful dales in Yorkshire, 
 adds a charm to all these interesting 
 objects. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 275 
 
 true to life, that I doubt whether it could possibly be surpassed. 
 Heraldic achievements enrich the ends of the benches, and the 
 following inscription is distributed on thirty shields upon the 
 panels, the letters being beautifully formed of a riband pattern, 
 and very sharply carved. Henricus Richardson hujus [Ecclesise ? 
 the shield is gone] Rector hoc fecit, [Anno] Dmi. m°ccccc g xl°vii 
 Soli Deo honor et gloria. 
 
 In the chapel of S. Nicolas, in King's Lynn, Norfolk, there 
 are some stalls of nearly equal beauty, 1 and of very similar cha- 
 racter, though a little earlier in date. Here also the heraldic 
 animals have wonderful force, especially an antelope on one of 
 the elbows of a stall, and a tiger, ducally gorged and chained 
 on one of the misereres. But I mention these stalls for a very 
 interesting group, which the carver has introduced into another 
 of the misereres. He has represented himself at work upon 
 some part, perhaps, of these very stalls ; and in the background 
 two of his fellow-labourers busied in the same task. His dog- 
 is represented sitting at his feet. His initials (or at least some 
 initials,) are given on either side the group : the letters are 
 pierced with a saw and a gouge. It is so seldom that we get 
 any traces of the mediaeval artist at his work, that such an ex- 
 ample as this is very interesting. 2 
 
 1 In his description of these stalls 
 Mr. Taylor says, " In one small span- 
 dril which a child's hand would cover, 
 I observed a perfect figure of a man 
 and four birds in various attitudes : 
 and while admiring this, my attention 
 was directed to others, less than half 
 that size, so delicately finished, that 
 even the feathers of the birds are de- 
 picted." He very justly adds, " When 
 we look at these minute works, and 
 then think of the vast interior of the 
 chapel, covered throughout with such 
 elaborate productions, we cannot but 
 regret the cold apathy of a succeeding 
 age, that would not even preserve the 
 work, thus carefully bestowed on the 
 house of prayer by their zealous an- 
 cestors." 
 
 2 This fine specimen of the stall - 
 
 work of the fifteenth or sixteenth cen- 
 tury (or rather what remains of it, for 
 a great part of it has been barbarously 
 destroyed) is greatly disfigured by suc- 
 cessive coats of paint : not of the rich 
 patterns and colours of the days of its 
 early beauty, but of the dark cold hue, 
 so charming to churchwardens. (Tay- 
 lor's History of Lynn.) It may, per- 
 haps, be necessary to mention that the 
 ordinary wood-work of the middle ages 
 was painted in brilliant colours — blue, 
 vermillion and green, with the more 
 prominent parts gilt ; but I should 
 much doubt, whether the more beautiful 
 late poppy-heads received this addi- 
 tion, and the stalls just mentioned at 
 Wensley were never, I am persuaded, 
 injured by the addition of colour. 
 
276 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 We shall scarcely find a better opportunity of noticing those 
 grotesques, which are common to sculpture, painting, and carving, 
 but are perhaps most usual in the carved misereres in conven- 
 tual churches. Their introduction, even when simply ludi- 
 crous, still more when satirical or obscene, into the furniture of 
 the Lord's house, must be confessed to be extremely unhappy : 
 nor do I think that any account that is given of them at all jus- 
 tifies or even excuses their use. Sometimes, indeed, what is 
 intended to be neither the one nor the other, is grotesque and 
 ridiculous simply from want of skill in the designer and the 
 artist : but far more frequently there is an obvious intention to 
 provoke a smile, by ludicrous figures presented to the eyes. 
 Obscene carvings and paintings are sometimes said to be in- 
 tended to hold up vice to contempt and abhorrence, but I can- 
 not discover in them such a tone of severity and scorn as would 
 fit them for this purpose : they are simply coarse in the same 
 sense in which many of the contemporary tales and poems must 
 be called coarse, and certainly do not tend to correct the prurient 
 fancies which they may call into being. The satire which some 
 of them embody is chiefly to be referred to the jealousies of the 
 secular and regular clergy one against the other, and of both 
 against the mendicant Friars. These grotesques occur in all 
 ages, and in all works of art. They abound in the borders of 
 the Bayeaux tapestry. There are several in the paintings of the 
 ceiling of the nave of Peterborough, which are supposed to be 
 Norman in their design and original execution. They oc- 
 curred in the decorations of S. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. 1 
 In the Decorated stained glass in Stanford church, North- 
 amptonshire, there are some specimens. There are several 
 in the sculptures with which York Minster abounds ; 2 and to 
 conclude with a very late example, they are found in the 
 misereres of Henry the Seventh's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. 
 A few examples may be cited of these last, which may represent 
 the whole class. A cock in armour riding on a fox, and a fox 
 in armour riding on a cock. A fiend seizing a miser, whose 
 
 1 There are several given in Smith's 
 Westminster, p. 234. 
 
 2 See Halfpenny's York ; and 
 Browne's York. In the latter work 
 
 an unsuccessful attempt is made to 
 give historic interpretations to these 
 grotesques. 
 
SCULPTURE AND CARVING. 
 
 277 
 
 riches are falling from his money bag : at the sides fighting 
 cocks, and a monkey beating a drum. A group of boys, one 
 naked and his head between another's knees, while a third is 
 flogging him with a rod. A chained bear, playing on the bag- 
 pipes; an evil spirit, bearing away a Friar on his shoulders. 1 
 This last in a conventual church is sufficiently significant : but 
 the secular clergy could forge similar weapons against the Friars, 
 and find grave Divines to point them personally enough. Take 
 the following instance : — Latimer, having been foolishly pressed 
 with the literal sense of some figurative expressions in the Holy 
 Scriptures, by one Buckingham, Prior of the Black Friars, in 
 Cambridge, looking towards the place where the Friar was seated 
 on the next Sunday, said in his sermon, — " When we see a fox 
 painted in a friar's hood, nobody imagines that a fox is meant, 
 but that craft and hypocrisy are described, which are so often 
 found disguised in that garb." We may add, that the fox thus 
 interpreted by Latimer was a very common device for a friar ; he 
 is sometimes represented preaching to geese, thus including the 
 stupidity of those who listen to him, in the same device with 
 the craft of the obnoxious friar. 
 
 1 See Neale's Westminster Abbey. 
 
278 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Painting, Mosaic, and Glass Painting, as Decorations 
 of Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 
 Colour universally employed. — First recorded Introduction of 
 Pictures. — Augustine, Benedict Biscop, Wilfrid. — S. Dunstan. — 
 Skill of the Saxons in the decorative Arts. — Instances of 
 Early Norman Painting. — Oil Painting in the tenth century, 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — S. Stephen's, 
 Westminster. — Ely Cathedral. — MS. account of Abbot Islip's 
 funeral. — Lord Lindsay's estimate of the Mural Paintings of 
 our Churches. — Subjects generally treated. — Two examples 
 from Old S. Paul's. — Bishop Sherburn's Painting at Chiches- 
 ter. — The present usage of the Church of England, — Mosaic 
 derived from greece, through the roman empire to the 
 Church. — Richard de Ware, Abbot of Westminster.— Prior 
 Crowden's Chapel at Ely. — Difference of Treatment in Ro- 
 man and English Mosaic. — Painted Glass. — Its Influence on 
 Architectural Forms. — Early examples ; Canterbury, Win- 
 chester, York, Ludlow, S. Neot's, Peterborough, Dorchester, 
 Tickhill, West Wickham. — Memorial Windows. 
 
 I have no intention in this chapter to enter upon the whole 
 subject of polychromatic decorations, or upon anything that 
 would now be referred to the house-painter or mere decorative 
 artist. On this subject it is enough to state that paint and gold 
 were very largely used in the decoration of churches from the 
 earliest times ; that all parts of churches, and all materials and 
 all ornaments were coloured ; that from the roof to the pavement 
 every fine ecclesiastical edifice was gorgeous with gold and azure 
 and vermillion ; that the most severe sculpture and the sharpest 
 and most delicate oak carving was equally overlaid with paint ; 
 and that what was meant to be natural aod what was meant to 
 be unnatural accepted the same disguise. Indeed the colouring 
 of surfaces, in themselves more beautiful uncoloured, was in 
 some sort demanded by the gorgeousness of everything around. 
 The roof was of blue and gold ; the walls of a painted diaper, or 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 279 
 
 of figures in rich array ; the mouldings of piers and arches were 
 relieved with deep but rich shadows, 1 and lights of crimson or 
 of gold. The tabernacle work, the seats, the rood, the loft, and 
 the roodscreen, the several parcloses, every niche and every 
 bracket was of gay and strongly contrasted tints ; the floor was 
 but a little less brilliant, with its encaustic pavement ; perhaps 
 sometimes not less brilliant, with its mosaic or burnished and 
 enamelled brass ; through windows of ruby and topaz and sap- 
 phire and emerald, the sun poured such many-coloured beams 
 as made the bright brighter still, and the gorgeous more exceed- 
 ingly gorgeous. And on such a floor, along such an array of 
 colour, and in such a light, moved the priests in robes of silk and 
 fine brocade, and bawdkin and double-piled velvet, and gold and 
 silver and precious stones, more dazzling than all, except the light 
 of heaven that glanced from them. Amid all this the recumbent 
 effigy, or the image of the saint, however really beautiful, might 
 be cold and tame without colour, and an accessory, not in itself 
 desirable, was forced upon it by circumstances. Nor may it be 
 forgotten that the dress of sepulchral figures was generally he- 
 raldic, and so would lose a meaning if it were not emblazoned. 
 These things, and especially and above all the taste which we 
 have now learned to repudiate, and which really held that colour 
 was an additional beauty even to the highest efforts of the sculp- 
 tor, must plead in excuse of the excessive use of colour in the 
 ecclesiastical decorations of the middle ages. 
 
 Now taste and circumstances are alike changed. We do not 
 now think colour an additional beauty to really good imagery 
 and carving. Who would paint the flowers of Grinling Gibbons, 
 or the statues of Flaxman ? and as for attendant circumstances, 
 some are removed without our times being consulted ; and others, 
 even on aesthetic grounds, we would not recall. 
 
 Setting aside, therefore, mere decorative or house painting 
 as of a lower class than we shall discuss, and the painting of 
 statuary and carving as no longer admissible, let us at once turn 
 
 1 Sometimes even the mouldings of are painted with butterflies and other 
 
 arches were yet farther enriched than insects on a dark ground. In other 
 
 by a mere shadow ; at Higham Ferrers, examples fleurs-de-lys and lions occur ; 
 
 for instance, there is a sepulchral re- but the general effect is everywhere the 
 
 cess, the hollow mouldings of which same. 
 
280 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 to the ecclesiastical use of painting, in the truly artistic sense of 
 the terms. 
 
 We are told by the Venerable Bede, how Augustine at his 
 first coming brought with him pictures which he used in religi- 
 ous processions, 1 and which we may fairly infer were made at 
 other times decorations of his church. The same authority tells 
 us how Benedict Biseop, towards the close of the seventh cen- 
 tury adorned his church at Wereinouth with pictures, of which 
 the subjects also are enumerated. — The Blessed Virgin, and the 
 twelve Apostles, the history of the Gospels, the visions related in 
 the Apocalypse ; but these were not painted on the walls, nor 
 executed here, but brought from Rome, and arranged about the 
 church, on partitions and wainscotings of wood. The pictures 
 with which Wilfrid enriched his church of S. Andrew at Hex- 
 ham, were probably painted in distemper on the walls ; and if 
 so, they were a great advance, not in the art of painting (rather 
 perhaps the reverse,) but in the association of painting with 
 architecture, as a means of decoration. 
 
 We may safely assume the life of Dunstan as a point from 
 which a greater perfection in all the decorative arts may be cal- 
 culated. He was himself very skilful in all fictile arts, from 
 bell-founding to goldsmith's work ; he was a great illuminator 
 of manuscripts ; and we have seen him employed in devising and 
 drawing patterns for embroidery. Henceforward there is per- 
 haps as frequent notice of the use of all these sources of deco- 
 ration as we could expect in very unsettled times, but we shall 
 be contented with a few examples. 
 
 Ernulf, prior of Canterbury at the end of the eleventh cen- 
 tury, "having taken down the eastern part of the church which 
 Lanfranc had built, erected it so much more magnificently, that 
 nothing like it could be seen in England, either for brilliancy of 
 its glass windows, the beauty of its marble pavement, or the 
 many coloured pictures which led the wondering eyes to the very 
 summit of the ceiling, and the chancel, which Ernulf left un- 
 finished, was superbly completed by his successor Conrad, who 
 
 1 From the use of these in the open 
 air, I should infer that they were 
 painted with oil. Of the use of oil in 
 
 the tenth and succeeding centuries, we 
 have more direct evidence, as will pre- 
 sently appear. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 281 
 
 decorated it with excellent paintings and furnished it with pre- 
 cious ornaments. " l 
 
 From the subsequent account of the fire in this church, as re- 
 lated by Gervase, we find that the ceiling also was painted, and 
 that gilding was applied as an enrichment of the furniture of the 
 church. 2 
 
 With the exception of the illuminations in manuscripts and 
 perhaps some specimens of early Norman glass, all relics of the 
 pictorial decorations of these times have vanished : but if they kept 
 pace at all with the best illuminations, they were not unworthy 
 decorations of the most splendid churches. Indeed we have 
 abundant proof that the English were not thought behind their 
 neighbours in the ornamental arts, their jewellery being of great 
 price, and their embroidery celebrated at a distance and highly 
 valued even in more polished countries. 3 
 
 We have scarcely arrived at times, some relics of the mural 
 paintings of which remain, when we find two distinct kinds of 
 painting employed : fresco, (with which we class distemper,) and 
 oil painting. Of the use of the first from the beginning there 
 is and can be no question : but the very early use of oil as a 
 vehicle of colour in ecclesiastical decorations deserves some little 
 attention. 
 
 The invention of oil painting is popularly given to John 
 van Eyck, in 1410; but Theophilus in his treatise, de diversis 
 artibus, which is attributed to the tenth century, gives receipts 
 
 1 William of Malmsbury, and 
 Anglia Sacra, quoted from Professor 
 Willis's Canterbury Cathedral. 
 
 2 " A gilded corona hangs in the 
 midst of the Church." Gervase. — 
 Willis, p. 37. 
 
 3 " The English were celebrated for 
 their rich gold embroiderings. Being 
 of needlework, wrought with threads 
 of gold, opere Phrygionico, and 
 thence sometimes called Aurifrisia, 
 and Aurifrygia ; of which Matthew 
 Paris tells us this very memorable 
 story or passage, ' that once the Pope 
 viewing, amongst some church orna- 
 ments of the English, some curious 
 
 Aurifrisian copes, he asked where they 
 were made, and being told in England, 
 Truly, saith he, England is our gar- 
 den of pleasure and delight : truly it 
 hath inexhaustible treasures, and 
 where much is, much may be taken. 
 And being mightily taken with them, 
 he sent his bulls to all the Abbots of 
 the Cistercian order in England, com- 
 manding them to gather up all the best 
 Aurifrisian copes they could meet with, 
 and send them to him, for the better 
 adorning of his quire; which was done 
 accordingly, and transmitted by the mer- 
 chants of London.' " — Staveley, p. 1 93 . 
 
282 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 for the application of pigment with oil, and there are records 
 positively proving the existence of the art in our own country, 
 in the thirteenth century. In the rolls of expenses in the de- 
 coration of S. Stephen's chapel, 20, 21, and 22 Edward I. 
 (1292, 1293, and 1294,) more than a century before Van Eyck, 
 there are items which show that oil was used in the process ; 
 while the number and wages of the painters, with the time 
 during which they were employed, proved that their work was 
 something more than house painting. Although therefore we 
 have no direct evidence of the subjects of the paintings, we 
 should infer that they were artistic decorations. 1 
 
 The following extract not only establishes the use of oil, but 
 also gives the names of some artists of that remote period. 2 
 
 Half a hundred of gold 
 Three hundred of silver 
 Two pounds of tin 
 One pottle of oil 
 
 A candle .... 
 Master Walter's wages for a week 
 John of Soningdon, for six days 
 John of Carlisle, for the same time 
 Roger of Winchester, for the same time 
 Thomas of Worcester, for three days 
 Roger de Beauchamp, for one day 
 Roger of Ireland, for one day 
 Thomas, son of Master Walter, for six days 
 Henry of Sodington, for six days . 
 
 1 This inference is drawn in Smith's 
 Antiquities of Westminster, from which 
 work the extracts of the rolls also 
 are copied. 
 
 ' ' From the colours mentioned in 
 these rolls, such as white lead, red 
 lead, vermillion, azure, gold and sil- 
 ver, it is evident that this could not 
 have been only for house painting. On 
 the contrary, the length of time em- 
 ployed, which was at least from the 
 feast of S. Martin, (11 Nov.) in the 
 20th, to the week next after the feast 
 of S. Bartholomew, (24 Aug.) in the 
 
 22nd year of the king's reign ; together 
 with the number of the painters, ou an 
 average from eleven to fourteen, makes 
 it more probable that the paintings 
 were not even heraldical bearings, but 
 human figures, either portraits, or 
 ideal representations, and historical 
 subjects ; such as were afterwards 
 painted on the walls when the chapel 
 was rebuilt by Edward III." — Smith's 
 Westminster, p. 76. 
 
 2 The whole of the records given in 
 Smith's Westminster are very inter- 
 esting, but too long to be given here. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 283 
 
 In 1330, Edward III. rebuilt the chapel thus decorated by 
 his grandfather, and in 1350 and other subsequent years, 
 writs were issued for procuring painters. " Of these, the earliest 
 that has been actually found, is dated the 18th of March, 24 
 Edward III., 1350, and directed to all sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, 
 ministers, and all other his faithful people, as well within liber- 
 ties as without, to whom the then present writing should come. 
 It recites, that the king had appointed Hugh de S. Alban's, 
 master of the painters assigned for the works to be done in the 
 chapel in the palace of Westminster, to take and choose out, in 
 such places as he should see fit, as well within liberties as with- 
 out, in the counties of Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, and 
 Sussex, as many painters and other workmen as should be 
 wanted for executing those works ; which painters and other 
 workmen were to be sent to the palace at Westminster, there to 
 remain in the king's service, at his expense, so long as should 
 be necessary ; and it therefore 'required the before-mentioned 
 persons to be ready to assist, counsel, and aid the said Hugh in 
 the matters aforesaid, as often as they should have notice from 
 him for that purpose. By another similar writ, of the same 
 date, it appears that John Athelard was appointed to act in the 
 same manner in the counties of Lincoln, Northampton, Oxford, 
 Warwick, and Leicester ; and from a third writ, of the same 
 kind and date, it is found that the counties of Cambridge, 
 Huntingdon, Norfolk, and Suffolk, were, in like manner, and 
 for the same purpose, subjected to the authority of Benedict 
 Nightengale. On the 4th day of June, 37 Edward III. a.d. 
 1363, another writ of the same nature occurs, in which it is 
 stated, that the king had appointed William de Walsyngham 
 to collect as many painters in the city of London as would be 
 sufficient for the works in S. Stephen's chapel, within the palace 
 of Westminster, and to send them to the aforesaid palace, to be 
 employed in those works, and to remain there at the king's ex- 
 pense, so long as should be necessary : and had authorized him 
 to arrest, and commit to prison, all such persons as he should 
 find opposing or thwarting him in this undertaking. It there- 
 fore commanded the persons to whom it was directed to be ready 
 to aid, counsel, and assist the said William, in all the matters 
 
284 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 aforesaid, as often as they should receive from him notice for 
 that purpose." 1 
 
 The first account which we have of the workmen, thus sum- 
 marily brought together, is in the rolls of expenses. We find 
 for example : — 
 
 Images. 
 Workmen. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 13 Sept. [6 Edw. III.] Master Richard of Reading, for making 
 two images by task-work, in gross ; viz., for an image of 
 S. Edward, and another image of S. John in the likeness 
 of a pilgrim, which images are to be put in the front gable 
 of the chapel . . . . .368 
 
 26 Sept. [25 Edward III.] William de Padryngton, for two 
 images made for the chapel, by agreement made with him 
 by the treasurer, to receive, by task-work, for each four 
 marks . . . . . .568 
 
 William de Padryngton, mason, for making twenty angels to 
 stand in the tabernacles, by task-work, at 6s. 8d. for each 
 image . . . . . . 6 13 4 
 
 To the same for making a certain image, called John le Wayte, 
 
 of stone found by himself, by task-work . .16 8 
 
 To the same William for making three kings to stand in the 
 tabernacles of the chapel, of the king's stone, by task-work, 
 at £2 13s. 4d. for each image . . .800 
 
 To the same William, for making two images of two serjeants- 
 at-arms, of the king's stone, by task- work, at £4 each 
 image . . . . . .800 
 
 12th March. [26 Edward III.] John Elham, Gilbert Pokerigh, 
 William Walsingham, three painters, painting the taber- 
 nacles and images in the chapel, six days, at lOd. a day 
 each . . . . . . 15 
 
 [31 Edward III.] William Patrington, for making eleven images 
 
 for the stalls, by task-work, at 8s. each image . .480 
 Materials. 
 
 19 April. [6 Edw. III.] Thomas Bernak, for one long and large 
 
 stone, bought to make image of . . .060 
 
 16 August. Thomas Bernak of Ryegate, stonemason, for two 
 
 large stones, bought to make two images, price each 5s. 6d. 1 1 
 
 30 August. Walter, the smith, for two large staples and two large 
 hooks of his own iron, weight fourscore pounds, to bear and 
 support two large images in the front of the chapel . 10 
 
 1 Smith's Westminster, p. 175. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 285 
 
 £. 8. d. 
 
 19 March. [26 Edw. III.] William Padryngton, for one large 
 stone, bought at Dunstaple, for making an image of 
 S. Stephen . . . . . 10 
 
 To the same, for the carriage of the same, with two other stones, 
 bought for the images of two serjeants-at-arms, from Dun- 
 staple to Westminster . . . .0100 
 
 To William de Padryngton, for one stone, bought for an image 
 
 of S. Stephen . . . . . 10 
 
 To the same for two stones, bought for two images of two 
 
 serjeants-at-arms . . . .10 
 
 To the same William for the carriage of the two stones for the 
 aforesaid serjeants-at-arms, from Egremond to West- 
 minster . . . . .10 
 
 [31 Edward III.] Master Andrew for one iron stand, bought 
 
 for the image of S. Stephen, in gross . . .16 8 
 
 12 April. John Lightgrave, for seven hundred leaves of gold, 
 
 bought for the painting of the tabernacles in the chapel .18 
 
 30 April. John Lyghgrave, for fifteen hundred leaves of gold, 
 bought for the painting of the tabernacles and angels 
 standing at the top of the tabernacles . .300 
 
 William Almand, for eight hundred leaves of gold, bought for 
 
 the same . . . . . 1 12 
 
 7 May. John Lightgrave, for two thousand five hundred leaves 
 of gold, bought for the painting of the tabernacles and 
 images . . . . . .500 
 
 John le Tynbeter, for half a pound ofteynt, bought for painting 
 
 the angels on the tabernacles . . .10 
 
 Painters employed on the chapel in general. 
 
 20 June, (25 Edw. III.) John Elham and Gilbert Pokerig, 
 two painters, working there as well on the tablements 
 as on the priming of the east end of the king's chapel, 
 
 six days, at 1 Od. a day each 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 Edward Paynel and Roger Norwich, painters, working 
 
 there on 
 
 
 
 
 the said works, five days, at 6d. a day each 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Edward Burton, painter, working with them, six days. 
 
 at 5d. a 
 
 
 
 
 day ..... 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 John Leverynton working with them, five days, at 5d. 
 
 a day 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Richard Lincoln, painter, working there, and grinding colours 
 
 
 
 
 for the painting of the chapel, five days, at 4£d. a 
 
 day 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10* 
 
 27 June. John Elham and Gilbert de Pokerig, 
 
 painters, 
 
 
 
 
 working there on the aforesaid works, six days, 
 
 at lOd. 
 
 
 
 
 a day ..... 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 Edward Paynel, Benjamin Nightengale, and Roger Norwich, 
 three painters, working there on the painting of the said 
 
 tablement, six days, at 6d. a day . . .090 
 
286 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 £. 8. d. 
 
 John Levryngton and Edward Burton, two painters, working 
 
 on the aforesaid works, five days, at 5d. a day . .042 
 
 Richard Lincoln, painter, grinding and tempering colours for 
 
 the said painters, five days, at 4|d. a day . . 1 10| 
 
 We are next introduced to two painters who may be styled 
 artists, and who designed the works which were executed by 
 the inferior workmen. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 4 July. Master Hugh de S. Alban's 1 and John de Coton, paint- 
 ers, working there on the drawing of several images in 
 the same chapel, four days and a half at Is. a day each. 9 
 
 11th July. Master Hugh de S. Alban's, painter, working there 
 on the ordination of the painting several images, two days, 
 at Is. a day . . . . .020 
 
 John Cotton, painter, working there on the said drawing, six 
 
 days, at Is. a day . . . .060 
 
 18 July. Hugh de S. Alban's, and John de Cotton, painters, 
 
 working there four days, on the painting of the said 
 
 chapel, at Is. a day each . . . .080 
 
 25 July. Hugh de S. Alban's, painter, working there on the or- 
 dination of several images, four days, at Is. a day .040 
 
 John de Cotton, working there for five days on the painting of 
 
 the said chapel, at Is. a day . . .050 
 
 15 Aug. Master Hugh de S. Alban's, painter, working there, 
 
 two days, at Is. a day . , . . .020 
 
 John Cotton, painter, working there upon the painting of the 
 
 said chapel five days, at Is. a day . . .050 
 
 Painters employed on particular parts. 
 
 30 Jan. (26 Edw. III.) John Elham and Gilbert Pokerigh, 
 painting several images in the chapel, five days, at lOd. a 
 day each . . . . .084 
 
 27 Feb. Hugh de S. Alban's, painter, working there, two days, 
 on the drawing of the images in the same chapel, at the 
 above daily wages . . . .020 
 
 19 March. John Elham, Gilbert Pokerigh, and Wm. de Wal- 
 
 singham, three painters, painting images on the walls of 
 
 the said chapel, six days, at lOd. a day each . .0150 
 Richard Croydon and John Palmer, doing the same there, six 
 
 days, at 8d. a day each . . . .080 
 
 John Werkham, and five others, painting the walls of the said 
 
 chapel, six days, at 6d. a day each . . .0180 
 
 John Leveryngton, and three others, laying on the gold on the 
 
 walls of the said chapel, six days, at 5d. a day each . 10 
 
 1 The same person named in the writ before cited. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 287 
 
 £. *. d. 
 
 26 March. John Elham, Gilbert Pokerigh, and William de 
 Walsyngham, three painters, painting images for the same 
 chapel, six days, at lOd. a day each . . . 15 
 
 Thomas Ruddok doing the same there, six days, at 9d. a day .046 
 
 John Palmere, painting the walls of the said chapel, six days, 
 
 at 8d. a day . . . .040 
 
 John Leveryngton, and two others, laying on the gold on the 
 
 walls of the aforesaid chapel, six days, at 5d. a day each .076 
 
 Thus we have regular gradations of payment to the several 
 painters, from Master Hugh de S. Alban's, and John de Coton, 
 who work on the drawings, and on the ordination of images for 
 Is. a day, to the second-rate artists who paint the said images 
 when drawn and arranged, at 9d. or lOd. a day each ; the mere 
 house painter who paints tablements and the like at 6d. ; the 
 gilder who brings little but his labour to the task at 5d. ; and 
 the grinder of colours at 4Jd. a day. 
 
 The account of materials is equally minute. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Master Hugh de S. Alban's, for half a pound of teynt, for the 
 
 painting of the said chapel . . .020 
 
 To the same, for one pound and a half of oker, for the same 
 
 painting . . . . .003 
 
 To the same, for two small earthen jars, to put the different 
 
 colours in . . . . .001 
 
 One pound and a half of Cynephe for the painting of the 
 
 upper chapel . . . . . 17 3 
 
 1 5 Aug. Lonyn de Bruges, for six pounds and a half of white 
 varnish, for the painting of the said chapel, price per 
 pound 9d. . . . . . 4 10| 
 
 One pair of shears to cut the leaves of tyn . .002 
 
 19 Sept. Nineteen flagons of painters' oil, for painting of the 
 
 chapel, at 3s. 4d. per flagon . . .334 
 
 Wm. de Hamelamsted, for one hundred and a half and two 
 
 pounds of tin, for the king's works, at £1 2s. per hundred 1 13 5 
 7 Nov. John Madefray, for one flagon of cole, for the painting 
 
 of the chapel . . . . .001 
 
 2 Jan. John Lambard, for two quatern of royal paper, for the 
 
 painters' patrons 1 . . . .018 
 
 One pound of cotton to lay on the gold . . . 10 
 
 One pair of scales to weigh the different painters' colours .010 
 
 20 Feb. John Tynbeter, for six dozen leaves of tin, for the 
 
 pryntes for the painting of the chapel . .060 
 
 1 Patterns. 
 
288 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 £. S. d. 
 
 5 March. Master Andrew the smith, for one fork of iron, 
 
 sharpened for the painters . . .002 
 
 19 March. John Matfray, for four pounds of oker, for the prim- 
 ing of the walls of the same chapel . . .008 
 
 To the same for two pounds of brun for the same . .006 
 
 16 April. John Matfray, for two pounds of Vert de Grece, for 
 
 the painting of the same chapel . . .024 
 
 22 April. John Lighgrave and William Allemant, for two 
 thousand one hundred leaves of gold, for the painting of 
 the same chapel . . . . . .480 
 
 To the same, for four hundred leaves of silver, for the painting 
 
 of the same chapel, at 8d. per hundred . .028 
 
 To the same for thread to bind the pencils and brushes of the 
 
 painters . . . . .001 
 
 4 June. Gilbert Pokerich, for one hundred and fifty-three pea- 
 cock's and swan's feathers, for the pencils of the painters 3| 
 
 Simon de Lenne, for one pound and a half of hogs' bristles, 
 
 for the brushes of the painters . . .010 
 
 1 1 June. Gilbert Pokergh, for thread and squirrels' tails, for 
 
 the painters' pencils . . . .002 
 
 Nicholas Chaunser, for fifteen ells of canvas, to cover the images 
 
 of the kings to be painted . . .068 
 
 Boatage and porterage of the said canvas and cable from Lon- 
 don to Westminster . . . .003 
 
 This roll of materials, besides the principal fact that oil was 
 used as a vehicle, proves also that all the preparations for 
 the work, even the making of brushes, was a part of the 
 limner's business ; nor does the painter's catalogue of the 
 present day afford better materials, or more certain indications 
 of variety in the work, than the hogs' bristles, the squirrels' 
 tails, and the feathers of certain fowls used by the painters of 
 S. Stephen's chapel. 
 
 Their list of colouring matters however is scarcely so well fur- 
 nished, but in point of brilliance of effect much would be gained 
 by the use of three metals, gold, silver, and tin, in their metallic 
 state, employed contrary to all modern principles in artistic, as 
 well as in mere decorative painting. 1 
 
 The whole of the chapel in which these paintings were made 
 
 1 There are, however, several other pigments mentioned by Theophilus, in 
 the work above referred to. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 289 
 
 lias been destroyed, and they have of course perished with the 
 walls on which they were- painted : but careful drawings were 
 made by Mr. Smith, and by the Society of Antiquaries, in which 
 their subjects, and the treatment of them are perpetuated. Be- 
 sides the mere painting and gilding with which all the carving 
 and imagery was overlaid, and which of course fell under the 
 hand of the painters at least cost, there were several grotesques 
 with enough of spirit and drawing to have been " ordained " by 
 Hugh de S. Alban's, or John de Coton, and executed by the 
 second-rate artists : and the portraits, of which there were several 
 inscribed with their names, and the Scripture subjects were of 
 course drawn, and it is more than probable in great part coloured, 
 by the more considerable limners. 
 
 There is a great tendency in those who are engaged in arch- 
 aeological pursuits to assume the excellence of relics of mediaeval 
 art, which have been destroyed ; but if any faith is due to the 
 drawings published by the Society of Antiquaries at the time of 
 the discovery of these paintings, 1 which was also the time of 
 their destruction, it cannot be denied that the paintings in S. 
 Stephen's were very fine specimens of design and of execution. 
 The portraits are almost as full of grace and dignity as the con- 
 temporary sculptures ; and one especially, which has been sup- 
 posed to represent Edward III. himself, was excellent. There 
 are besides paintings of part of the histories of Job and of 
 Tobit, in which there is considerable force and expression, and a 
 good deal of art in the grouping of figures. — To these were added 
 pictures of the Adoration of the shepherds, of the Presentation 
 of Christ in the Temple, and of the Adoration of the Magi. 
 Of this last the lower part only remained, but if the rest was 
 equal to the Holy Child, and the drapery which remained of 
 the blessed Virgin, it was a charming and an exalted composition. 
 These subjects were all of them surrounded by figures and cano- 
 pies and other architectural decorations, and were painted on 
 rich diaper grounds. 
 
 It is not easy to decide at a glance what was the vehicle used 
 
 1 This discovery is associated with 
 a remarkable era in our national his- 
 tory. The paintings were discovered 
 and destroyed during the arrangements 
 
 made for adapting the Houses of Par- 
 liament for the increased number of 
 members at the union with Ireland in 
 
 1800. 
 
 V 
 
290 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in paintings on a wall, without the intervention of copper, wood, 
 or canvas, which have been exposed for four or five hundred 
 years to the changes of the atmosphere; and perhaps some 
 paintings generally called, fresco may be in oil, though most of 
 them are almost certainly neither oil nor fresco properly so 
 called, but distemper. But whatever the kind of painting, I 
 fear that in descending from the rich and royal foundation of S. 
 Stephen's to ordinary churches, where at the present day paint- 
 ings are most frequently found, we are descending also to a much 
 lower grade of art. And yet there can be no reasonable doubt 
 that the skill of the best limners was consecrated to the service 
 of the church. The only very high specimen of art which oc- 
 curs to me at present is not purely architectural. It is however 
 ecclesiastical in the strictest sense, and it is also rich in architec- 
 tural drawing, and is in commemoration of one of the last 
 persons whose names are honoured for their connection with 
 architecture. The piece to which I allude is a very beautiful 
 drawing on vellum, in the possession of the Society of Antiqua- 
 ries, of which they have published copies, with the following 
 description. 
 
 It consists of five compartments. 
 
 "The first contains the figure of John Islip, 1 Abbot of Westminster, 
 standing under an arch, ornamented with wreaths of flowers of different 
 kinds, interspersed with which, are scrolls having the names of various 
 virtues, &c., inscribed on them : in each of his hands he holds a flower ; 
 one of them is slipped off, and he is in the action of slipping off the other ; 
 in allusion to his name, I — slip. Above the arch are three angels holding 
 shields of arms ; that in the centre is charged with cross keys and an an- 
 nulet, that on the dexter side has the arms of Edward the Confessor, and 
 that on the left the arms of France and England quarterly. There are also 
 three Angels at the feet of the abbot holding shields of arms ; in the cen- 
 
 1 Abbot Islip was a great favourite 
 with King Henry the Seventh, and 
 laid the first stone of the chapel which 
 bears his name ; he superintended the 
 building of it during that monarch's 
 lifetime, and till its completion in the 
 reign of King Henry the Eighth. He 
 was himself also a great benefactor to 
 the Abbey church, and was engaged in 
 
 finishing the west end at the time of 
 his death. He became abbot of West- 
 minster in the year 1500, and died on 
 the 12th of May, 1522, in the twenty- 
 third year of King Henry VIII. On 
 the 1 6th of the same month he was 
 buried in the chapel dedicated to S. 
 Erasmus, which he had founded, in 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 291 
 
 tral one under a mitre is the personal coat of the abbot, ermine, a fess be- 
 tween three rats passant gules ; that on the dexter side, is charged with a 
 fess engrailed between three crosses patee fitche, and on the sinister side 
 are the arms of the abbey, azure on a chief indented or, a pastoral staff 
 in the centre and a mitre in the sinister corner gules. A scroll over the 
 head of the abbot is thus inscribed, ' Johannes Islype nuper abbas West- 
 monasterii and under his feet is the following inscription : 
 
 ' Inqvire pacem et persequere earn.' 
 
 <e The second compartment exhibits the abbot on his death-bed sur- 
 rounded by a group of figures ; among which may be distinguished S. 
 Peter, S. John the Baptist, S. Giles, S. Katherine, S. Mary Magdalene, S. 
 Margaret and the Virgin Mary, who is praying to our Saviour in the 
 following words, ' Yslip o fili veniens miserere johanni.' On each side of 
 the bed are priests performing the last offices for the dying abbot. At the 
 corners of this compartment are symbols of the four Evangelists. 
 
 " In the third compartment appears the abbot's coffin in the choir before 
 the high altar, under a magnificent canopy, on the upper part of which 
 are a great number of branches of tapers, surrounded by men in gowns 
 and hoods bearing long torches ; on the corners are four, bearing banners 
 of saints ; at one end of the coffin appear three of the mourners. 
 
 " The fourth compartment represents the outside of S. Erasmus's chapel 
 in Westminster Abbey, founded by Abbot Islip, on the north side of the 
 north aisle of the choir. The window between the chapel and the aisle is 
 here removed, in order to show the inside, where the monument of the 
 abbot is seen, being in the form of a table, under which lies his effigies. 1 
 Over the altar in the chapel are figures of the crucifixion, &c, and within 
 an arch over the chapel is a representation of the last judgment, the cruci- 
 fixion, and symbols of the passion. 
 
 " The last compartment contains a large initial letter, being an U, richly 
 ornamented, and filled up with a north-west view of the nave and transept 
 of the Abbey Church at Westminster ; part of the church being laid open 
 exhibits the coronation of King Henry the Eighth. The work which was 
 carrying on at the west .end of the Abbey at the time of Abbot Islip's 
 death is here also indicated, and the lanthorn which he had intended to 
 build over the middle of the cross. Over the roof of the church appears 
 a Bishop attended by a group of angels, exorcising the building and driv- 
 ing away the evil spirits." 
 
 In addition to this bare description I must offer one or two 
 remarks on each compartment. 
 
 1 The only part now remaining of 
 this monument, is the table, which is 
 
 V 
 
 of marble supported by four slender 
 pillars of brass, 
 
 2 
 
292 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Although, the conceit in the first appears frigid, 1 yet the 
 figure of the Abbot is full of dignity : the drawing and drapery 
 are perfect. It is evidently a portrait. The second is a magni- 
 ficent composition, and the drawing is very fine. The dying 
 Abbot is the centre of the group ; yet prayer is so plainly writ- 
 ten everywhere that all is drawn upwards to The Lord repre- 
 sented in His glory above. Four priests kneeling at a litany 
 desk and two angels also kneeling, form the foreground. The 
 glorified saints, who are so soon to receive an accession to their 
 number, surround him with encouragements and intercessions. 
 S. Peter supports his head ; a mitred saint holds the crucifix 
 before him : the Blessed Virgin standing on the foot of the bed 
 alone utters the prayer in which all may be supposed to join. 
 Two priests behind, with faces full of sorrow, prepare for the ex- 
 treme unction : — a hideous figure leaving the chamber with an 
 expression of disappointed malice, represents the adversary 
 
 1 Frigid, that is, as an allusion to the 
 name, but not as an allusion to the vir- 
 tues of the deceased abbot : — a poor 
 pun but a good apologue. 
 
 Indeed it is not improbable that 
 this drawing would afford some hints 
 towards a more minute account of 
 the fashionable system of symbolical 
 representations of the time. The 
 several virtues, each inscribed on a 
 flowering branch, among which Islip 
 is standing, doubtless indicate the 
 graces which he cultivated ; and the 
 act of slipping off two branches not 
 only gives an allusion to his name, but 
 indicates the two virtues, charity and 
 piety, in which he was most advanced. 
 The flowers it may be observed are 
 drawn from nature, and as in some in- 
 stances they are clearly appropriated 
 to the virtues with which they are in- 
 scribed, we may suppose that they are 
 so in others, or perhaps in all. They 
 are as follows, so far as I can recog- 
 nize the flowers. 
 
 Sapiencia. — Cornflower. Centaurea 
 cyanus. 
 
 Intellectus. — The seed of the lily 
 of the valley (Convallaria majalis) 
 with allusion perhaps to the 
 wisdom of Solomon and the text 
 Matt vi. 28. 
 
 Consilium. — The nasturtium ? 
 
 Pietas. — The lily. This well-estab- 
 lished ecclesiastical emblem needs 
 no comment. 
 
 Fortitudo. — Perhaps the honeysuc- 
 kle. 
 
 Scientia. — Perhaps the iris. 
 
 Timor Domini. — The columbine, for 
 its bowed head ? 
 
 Const an ci a. — The pink Dianthus. 
 
 Temperancia. — The corn marigold. 
 Chrysanthemum segetum. 
 
 Charitas 1 These flowers I cannot 
 
 Justicia J recognize. 
 
 Spes. — The heartsease, a very old ad- 
 aptation of a flower made symbo- 
 lical by common consent. 
 
 Prudencia. — The daisy. 
 
 Fides. — The wall-flower, Cheiranthus 
 fruticulosus. Is this emblematic 
 of faith on account of its rooting 
 itself in the rock ? 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 293 
 
 watching, but hopelessly watching the departure of the soul 
 The whole is a glorious embodying of the article of the Creed, 
 " I believe the communion of Saints." The third compart- 
 ment has less merit than any of the others, but it is curious, 
 architecturally speaking, for its correct delineation of the part 
 of the Abbey before the high altar, 1 and for the representation 
 of the rood-loft with its several figures. In this instance a che- 
 rub at either side is added to the figures of the Blessed Virgin, 
 and of S. John. 2 The fourth deserves still greater praise as an 
 architectural drawing, in which even the details of the building 
 are given with much accuracy. The last is curious chiefly for 
 the representation of the consecration of the church, under the 
 same figure that we find even in Saxon illuminations, the devil 
 fleeing away as the Bishop exorcises. There is also a wheel and 
 a crane on the west towers, alluding to the then unfinished state 
 of that part of the fabric, and promising its completion : a little 
 incident which may call to remembrance the crane so long re- 
 maining, and at length not without better auspices, on the un- 
 finished Cathedral of Cologne. Well would it have been if 
 drawings of Westminster Abbey, as of Cologne, according to its 
 original plan had existed ; or if Sir Christopher Wren had had 
 the modesty to imitate instead of disfigure. 
 
 But if these splendid drawings be taken as indicating in any 
 degree the spirit and the execution of the best specimens of art 
 just before the Reformation, I fear it must be confessed that in 
 most cases the distemper paintings were sufficiently rude. 
 
 Lord Lindsay however speaks in high terms of some of the 
 designs in the chapel of the Holy Trinity, at Stratford-upon- 
 Avon j " executed towards the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and of which coloured engravings were published some 
 years ago, now of the more value, as the originals (familiar pro- 
 bably to Shakspeare's youth,) have been twice whitewashed 
 within the present century. The paintings of the chancel must 
 have been ineffably hideous, but the murder of S. Thomas h 
 
 1 In general in drawings of build- 
 ings the style of the day in which the 
 drawing was made is adopted ; in this 
 case the Abbey has its true Early Eng- 
 lish character. 
 
 2 So also in the Cathedral of Canter- 
 bury, as it was restored by Lanfranc, 
 and described by Gervase. See Willis' 
 Canterbury, p. 37. 
 
294 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Becket and S. George's conquest of the dragon in the nave, 
 evidently by a different artist, seem to have possessed much 
 comparative merit. The latter is designed with much spirit, 
 and is quite a study of chivalric action and costume ; the horse 
 fights as well as the rider, and pierces the dragon with the pike 
 on his brow like an unicorn ; the sword of the knight, descend- 
 ing on the monster at the same moment, will cut the deeper 
 from the weight of the iron apple loosened by the concussion, 
 and rushing from the hilt to the point, while the spike usually 
 fastened to the crupper of the saddle to prevent an opponent 
 leaping up and attacking him behind, here projects at right 
 angles, like a boss, from a sort of target or disk affixed to the 
 nether extremity of his person." 1 
 
 The subjects generally chosen for the decoration of the walls 
 of churches were single figures of saints, 2 especially of the 
 patron saint of the church, and of S. Christopher, on the 
 door ; the great Doom, 3 over the chancel-arch, or the tower arch 
 
 1 "See the volume entitled 'An- 
 cient, Allegorical, Historical, and Le- 
 gendary Paintings in Fresco, discovered 
 in the summer of 1804, on the walls of 
 the chapel of the Trinity, belonging to 
 the Gilde of the Holy Cross, at Strat- 
 ford-upon-Avon, &c, from drawings 
 made at the time of their discovery by 
 Thomas Fisher,' London: fol. 1838. 
 The chapel was built by Sir Hugh 
 Clopton, of the ancient family whose 
 Gothic tombs may be seen in the old 
 parish church of Stratford-upon- 
 Avon." — Sketches of Christian Art, 
 vol. iii. p. 274. 
 
 2 The subject of the emblematical 
 distinctions of the several saints is too 
 long to touch here, but of their early 
 introduction I may mention two slight 
 illustrations. It is sometimes said 
 that the Christians had their evangeli- 
 cal symbols from heathenism. Mr. 
 Hope, if I remember right, traces 
 each to its supposed heathen origin ; 
 but Gildas calls Ezekiel "the be- 
 holder of the four evangelical crea- 
 tures " (61). And with reference to 
 
 the conventional differences in other 
 saints, Bede relates that during a great 
 pestilence, (a.d. 681,) SS. Peter and 
 Paul appeared to a Saxon youth then 
 near his death, in the monastery of 
 Selsea. The boy described them thus . 
 " Their habit was noble, and their 
 countenances most pleasant and beau- 
 tiful, such as I had never seen before, 
 nor did I think there could be any 
 men so graceful and comely. One of 
 them was shorn like a clerk, the other 
 had a long beard." — Ecc. Hist. iv. 14. 
 
 3 This subject is treated sometimes 
 emblematically, sometimes historically. 
 At Preston church, Sussex, is a picture 
 of the Judgment, represented by S. 
 Michael weighing the soul of a sinner 
 against his fleshly lusts, represented 
 by a boar's head in the opposite scale. 
 By the intervention of the Blessed 
 Virgin, the soul preponderates. At 
 Trinity church, Coventry, the great 
 Doom is represented historically, the 
 good and bad standing before the 
 throne of the Judge : it is perhaps the 
 finest fresco remaining in the kingdom. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 295 
 
 of a cross church ; and passages in the life of our Blessed Sa- 
 viour, or of the Virgin Mary, in various parts of the church : 
 even the jambs of the windows being often thus decorated. 
 Of more extensive subjects, I shall cite two examples in old 
 S. PauPs Cathedral. 
 
 Roger de Waltham, towards the close of the reign of Ed- 
 ward II., 
 
 " founded a certain oratory on the south side of the quire in this cathe- 
 dral ; towards the upper end thereof ; to the honour of God, our Lady, 
 Saint Laurence, and All Saints ; and adorned it with the images of our 
 Blessed Saviour, Saint John Baptist, Saint Laurence and S. Mary Mag- 
 dalen ; so likewise with the pictures of the Celestial Hierarchy, the Joys 
 of the blessed Virgin, and others ; both in the roof, about the altar, and 
 other places within and without : and lastly, in the south wall opposite to 
 the said oratory, erected a glorious tabernacle, which contained the image 
 of the said blessed Virgin, sitting as it were in childbed ; as also of our 
 Saviour in swaddling clothes, lying between the ox and the ass ; and 
 Saint Joseph at her feet : above which was another image of her, stand- 
 ing, with the Child in her arms. And on the beam, thwarting from the 
 upper end of the oratory to the before-specified childbed, placed the 
 crowned images of our Saviour and His Mother, sitting in one tabernacle, 
 as also the images of Saint Katherine and Saint Margaret, Virgins and 
 Martyrs : neither was there any part of the said oratory, or roof thereof, 
 but he caused it to be beautified with comely pictures and images." 1 
 
 On the walls of a chapel first founded by Gilbert Becket, 
 father to Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, and rebuilt in King- 
 Henry the Fifth's time, and then dedicated to S. Anne and S. 
 Thomas of Canterbury, " was richly pourtraied the Dance of 
 Death, (viz. the picture of death leading away all estates,) at the 
 charge of Jenkyn Carpenter, a citizen of London in those days, 
 (in imitation of that in the cloyster adjoyning to Saint Inno- 
 cent's churchyard in Paris,) with English verses to explaine the 
 painting, translated out of French by John Lydgate, a monke 
 of Saint Edmund' s-bury, one of our famous old poets." 2 
 
 Perhaps the painting executed at the cost of Bishop Sher- 
 burne, in the transept of Chichester, may represent, as well as 
 any the last expiring effort of the art, and its subsequent fate. 
 
 1 Dugdale's History of S. Paul's 
 Cathedral. 
 
 2 It is worth noting that the inscrip- 
 
 tion alone was of eighty-five stanzas of 
 eight lines each. 
 
296 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " The side walls of this portion of the transept were embel- 
 lished in 15 19, at the expense of Bishop Sherburne, in a very 
 extraordinary manner. He employed a Flemish artist to paint 
 two large pictures upon oak panel, the subjects of which are two 
 principal epochs in the history of the see, viz. the foundation of 
 it at Selsey, by Ceadwalla, and the establishment of four pre- 
 bends by himself. To these paintings have been added a series 
 of the bishops of Selsey and Chichester, and of the kings of 
 England. In their original state the two first-named paintings 
 had great merit, considering the time in which they were exe- 
 cuted ; but having been much injured by the parliament sol- 
 diers, their restoration was intrusted by Bishop Mawson to an 
 inferior artist, which has been destructive of all their original 
 merit, except the mere outline and design." 1 
 
 The revival of the use of mural painting has now become a 
 part of the history of the art, and it would be affectation or 
 carelessness not to advert to it. Indeed, it induced us to com- 
 mence the subject as a practical one, and now leads us to add 
 some remarks on the subject in the same tone. If we speak as 
 advocating the use of paintings (as we shall do, within certain 
 limits), we are met by what seems to some an objection against 
 them, from the very fact of their having been used before the 
 Reformation : an objection which I need not say would tell just 
 as strongly against every visible thing or service that we still 
 possess in the Church of England, — the Commination service 
 and the setting up of the royal arms excepted, — which last, how- 
 ever, has no authority. The question really is, whether it was 
 one of the bad things in use before the Reformation; and this 
 is nowhere decided in form, though in spirit I think it is fully 
 determined by very high authorities. If there is a body of 
 men which, now that Convocation is silenced, more than any 
 other represents the authoritative voice of the Church, I presume 
 it is the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which 
 contains on its lists the Queen's most excellent Majesty, the 
 two Archbishops, and every Bishop in the Church of England. 
 Now this society sanctions, by its publications, the use of pic- 
 tures of Scripture subjects. I do not consider myself charged 
 with the defence of this practice, and indeed I confess a dislike 
 
 1 Winkles' Cathedrals. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 297 
 
 to all pictures which include a representation of our Blessed 
 Lord, Whom as Godman (i. e. in the very same nature in which 
 He is represented) we worship, so that I think they are contrary 
 to the decree of the council of Eliheris 1 in 305, which forbad 
 mural paintings, lest that be represented which is worshipped 
 or adored. 2 
 
 The usage of our Church, too, has ever been in harmony with 
 this judgment. Emblematical figures, as of Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity, of Time with his scythe and hour-glass, seem to be no- 
 where objected to — that is, not on ecclesiastical grounds. 
 Moses and Aaron are always admitted to hold the two tables of 
 Commandments. Altar-pieces are found in many, if not most 
 of our fine churches ; and by way of memoria technica, to fix the 
 time at which such things have been done, Sir William Thornhill 
 painted the dome of S. Paul's ; Hogarth painted three pictures, 
 which now surround the altar of S. Mary Redcliff, Bristol; 
 West painted the altar-piece of Winchester Cathedral ; an ancient 
 picture has been placed in the new parish church in Leeds ; and 
 a promising native artist has given a large painting, which is 
 suspended over the altar of S. George's church in the same 
 place. It cannot, therefore, be contrary to the spirit, to the 
 usage, or to the authorities of our Church to employ pictures for 
 church decoration. And this use of paintings is very greatly to 
 be desired, even for seemliness, in the restoration of old churches. 
 Except in churches of the highest order, the walls are commonly 
 
 1 This, however, was not a general 
 council. 
 
 2 Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse 
 non debere, ne quod colitur aut ado- 
 ratur, in parietibus depingatur. — 
 The fear of the greater profanation of 
 worshipping the picture itself had not 
 yet occurred as a reason against pic- 
 tures. The decree of the council of 
 Trullus, held in 683, and to this day 
 received as general by the Greek 
 Church, goes on a very different 
 principle. " Whereas among the 
 venerable pictures, the Lamb is re- 
 presented as pointed at by the finger 
 of His Forerunner [John the Baptist] , 
 
 which is only a symbol, or shadow : 
 we, having due regard to the Type, 
 but preferring the Anti-type, deter- 
 mine that He be for the future de- 
 scribed more perfectly, and that the 
 portraiture of a Man be made instead of 
 the old Lamb : that by this we may 
 be reminded of His Incarnation, Life, 
 and Death." Bingham supposes that 
 "by this time the worship of images 
 was begun, anno 692 ; and it was now 
 thought indecent to pay their devo- 
 tions to the picture of a lamb, and 
 therefore they would no longer endure 
 it to be seen in the church." 
 
98 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of rubble, and must have some coating. Whitewash, and all 
 the forms of lime and ochre are cold or dull. Plaister without 
 lines in imitation of masonry is too uniform, and with lines it is 
 offensive, because it is evidently sham. The use of paintings 
 occurs then to fill up the void, which there can be no manner 
 of question it would do with the best effect, if it were judiciously 
 employed. 
 
 Now for subjects, I should suggest such parts of the sacred 
 history of the Old Testament and of the New, as do not involve 
 an attempt at representing the first Person in the ever blessed 
 Trinity at all, or the second and third Persons except in the 
 way of symbol. 1 
 
 The best models in composition would, I think, be the draw- 
 ings published by the Chancellor of Salisbury, from the pictures 
 of Raphael in the Vatican. The best mode of painting in almost 
 every case, would be distemper, and the best style of colouring 
 a warm but subdued tone, chiefly produced by the several pre- 
 parations of ochre, and the positive colours of the lightest tint. 
 I speak of course only for such small churches as would scarcely 
 demand the exertions of the highest artists, who would be trusted 
 to use oil or fresco at their discretion, and to employ their own 
 styles of colouring ; but if these only were employed, the cost 
 would be beyond the reach of most benefactors of churches, and 
 it is certain that the state of the arts at present is such that 
 there are many " decorative artists," who would be abundantly 
 qualified with a little practice in the merely technical part of 
 the process to adorn the walls of our churches in distemper, 
 after copies which might be provided for them. Mr. Hendric 
 in his appendix to the first book of Theophilus in his valuable 
 translation, has transcribed from M. Didron an account of ob- 
 servations which he made, and conversations which he held with 
 
 1 " In all ancient history we never 
 meet with any one instance of picturing 
 God the Father, because it was sup- 
 posed He never appeared in any visible 
 shape, but only by a voice from hea- 
 ven. Upon this account Paulinus, 
 where he describes a symbolical re- 
 presentation of the Three Divine Per- 
 
 sons, made in the painting of a church, 
 makes a lamb to be the symbol of 
 Christ, and a dove the symbol of the 
 Holy Ghost, but for God the Fa- 
 ther, nothing but a voice from hea- 
 ven." — Bingham's Ecclesiastical An- 
 ticprities, VIII. viii. 10. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 299 
 
 Father Joasaph, one of the best painters of Mount Athos, which 
 show that the processes of the present day where distemper is 
 used, are the same as they were in the middle ages ; and which 
 has the yet farther value of proving how easily practicable 
 the mural decoration of churches might still be, at a compara- 
 tively small cost. 
 
 However different in the materials employed, Mosaic must be 
 classed with painting as a means of decoration, and as such it is 
 far more exclusively devoted to architectural purposes. Mosaic 
 was employed among the Greeks, and had been borrowed from 
 them by the Romans before the Christian era ; and wherever 
 the Romans formed colonies they brought with them this method 
 of adorning their baths and villas. We have in England many 
 specimens of their art, and some of them of considerable beauty. 
 These are, however, all of them purely secular. The question 
 at present is of the Christian and ecclesiastical use of mosaic : 
 and here we find that whether they were removed thither from 
 Pagan temples, or from some secular buildings, or whether they 
 were constructed for the purpose, the dome of the church of S. 
 Constantia in the Via Nomentana, at Rome, was adorned by 
 Constantine with pictures in mosaic. When, therefore, the in- 
 vention of this art is attributed to Giotto, who flourished at the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, the most that can be un- 
 derstood is that he revived, or greatly extended its use. 1 
 
 In England the principle of mosaic was doubtless applied to 
 pavements long before the time of Giotto : indeed the arrange- 
 ment of encaustic, or otherwise coloured tiles and stones, in 
 various patterns, however simple, must, in strictness, be classed 
 with mosaic ; and so we must consider the floors at Fountains, in 
 which black and white tesserse are arranged in the least compli- 
 cated of geometric forms, and the more elaborate figures upon 
 the floor of Prior Crowden's chapel at Ely, 2 as essentially of the 
 same class. We owe, however, the introduction of the more 
 costly and elaborate character of mosaic to the visit of an Abbot 
 of Westminster to Rome, at the time this style of decoration 
 had acquired renewed favour. Richard de Ware, elected Abbot 
 
 1 See a paper on mosaic pavements, 2 Both are figured in Fowler's splen- 
 by Mr. Gough, Archseologia, Vol. X. did engravings of mosaic pavements. 
 
300 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in 1260, went to the papal city for consecration, where, among 
 other artists, he found Pietro Cavallini engaged in the manufac- 
 ture of mosaic. On his return he brought with him rich por- 
 phyry and other precious stones, 1 for the shrine of Edward the 
 Confessor, in his Abbey church, and for the pavement before the 
 high altar. He also brought over fit artists for the work, and 
 possibly Pietro among the rest, who would be employed also in 
 the designing and making the tomb of Henry III. The tomb 
 of this monarch and the shrine of the Confessor, are in the 
 same style both of design and execution. Gorgeous as they 
 are, they harmonise very ill with the splendid Minster, beneath 
 the fretted roof of which they are placed; the design being 
 cinque cento, if the solecism of expression may be pardoned, in 
 speaking of a work of the thirteenth century. The name of one 
 Odorick (also in all probability an Italian) appears, as we shall 
 presently find, as the artificer of the mosaic before the high altar 
 in the same church. 2 But ecclesiastical art in England owes but 
 little to the Italian names which figure in its history. 
 
 The costliness of these mosaics consisted in the value of the 
 materials, as well as in the art and labour which were lavished 
 
 1 Richard de Ware died treasurer of 
 England in 1283, and was buried on 
 the north side of the altar, with this 
 epitaph, 
 
 " Abbas Richardus de Ware, qui re- 
 quiescit hie, portat lapides, quos hie 
 portavit ab urbe." 
 
 2 The old inscription on the shrine 
 of Edward the Confessor, in West- 
 minster Abbey, was 
 
 " Anno milleno Domini cum septua- 
 geno 
 
 Et bis centeno, cum completo quasi 
 deno, 
 
 Hoc opus est factum, quod Petrus 
 
 duxit in actum 
 Romanus civis. Homo, causam nos- 
 
 cere si vis, 
 Rex fuit Henricus sancti prsesentis 
 
 amicus." 
 
 The words Petrus duxit in actum 
 Romanus civis remained in 1741. They 
 ascribe the work to the before men- 
 
 tioned Pietro Cavallini, who died at 
 Rome in 1364, aged eighty-five. 
 
 Camden in his notices of the kings 
 buried in Westminster Abbey, thus 
 notices the tomb of Henry III. who 
 died in 1272. 
 
 " Westmon. (invitis Templariis, qui 
 corpus regium vendicabant) magni- 
 fico et sublimi sepulchro, quod Rex 
 Edwardus filius jaspidibus, ophiticis, 
 &c. quae e Gallia attulerat, pluri- 
 mum oneravit, ad boreale latus capellae 
 requiescit cum his inscriptionibus : 
 ' Tertius Henricus jacet hie, pietatis 
 amicus, 
 
 Ecclesiam stravit istam, quam post re- 
 novavit. 
 
 Reddet ei munus qui regnat trinus et 
 unus.' 
 
 ' Tertius Henricus est templi conditor 
 hujus. 1273. 
 Dulce Bellum inexpertis.' " 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 301 
 
 upon them. That before the high altar is composed of porphyry, 
 lapis lazuli, jasper, alabaster, Lydian and serpentine marbles, 
 and touch. The figures are generally geometrical, — circles, 
 lozenges, triangles, squares, &c, — and so greatly are they com- 
 plicated, that in one angle there are upwards of one hundred and 
 thirty intersecting circles, each formed by four elliptical pieces, 
 including a square. Many of the pieces are not more than half 
 an inch square, and the largest is not more than four inches, 
 except the central planes of porphyry, and a few other pieces. 1 
 
 Although it is far less costly, yet there is much more to admire 
 when it is considered in its connection with the forms and spirit 
 of Gothic art, in the mosaic in the Prior's Chapel at Ely. The 
 chapel is the work of Alan of Walsingham ; and as this remark- 
 
 1 All these complicated figures were 
 not, it should seem, without a mystical 
 meaning, though it would be hazardous 
 to adopt the interpretation here copied 
 from Widmore's History of Westmin- 
 ster Abbey. 
 
 "The design of the figures," says 
 Widmore, that were in this pavement, 
 " was to represent the time the world 
 was to last, or that the Primum Mobile, 
 according to the Ptolemaic system, was 
 going about, and was given in some 
 verses, formerly to be read on the 
 pavement, relating to those figures : 
 ' Si Lector posita prudenter cuncta 
 re vol vat, 
 
 Hie finem primi mobilis inveniet. 
 Sepes trina, canes et equos, homines- 
 
 que subaddas, 
 Cervos et corvos, aquilas, immania 
 cete, 
 
 Mundum ; quodque sequens pereuntes 
 
 triplicat annos. 
 Sphaericus archetypum, globus hie 
 
 monstrat Microcosmum. 
 Christi milleno, bis centeno, duodeno 
 Cum sexageno, subductis quatuor, 
 
 anno, 
 
 Tertius Henricus Rex.Urbs, Odoricus, 
 et Abbas, 
 Hos compegere porpbyieos lapides.' 
 
 ' • Of these, and they seem to need it,' ' 
 continues Widmore, " I find this ex- 
 plication given : ' The threefold hedge 
 is put for three years, the time a dry 
 hedge usually stood ; a dog for three 
 times that space, or nine years, it 
 being taken for the time that creature 
 usually lives ; a horse in like manner 
 for twenty- seven ; a man, eighty-one ; 
 a hart, two hundred and forty -three ; 
 a raven, seven hundred and twenty- 
 nine ; an eagle, two thousand one 
 hundred and eighty- seven ; a great 
 whale, six thousand five hundred and 
 sixty-one : the world, nineteen thou- 
 sand six hundred and eighty-three : 
 each succeeding figure giving a term 
 of years, imagined to be the time of 
 their continuance, three times as much 
 as that before it.' In the four last 
 verses, the time when the work was 
 performed, and the parties concerned 
 in it, are expressed : by the rest is 
 meant, that the King was at the 
 charge, that the stones were purchased 
 at Rome, that one Odorick was the 
 master workman, and that the Ab- 
 bot of Westminster (who procured 
 the materials) had the care of the 
 work." 
 
302 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 able man was, like S. Dunstan, cunning in many arts, we may- 
 presume that this mosaic was devised, made, and arranged with 
 his own hands. The chapel is a gem of Decorated architecture; 
 but it is so small that the mosaic, of twenty-seven feet six inches, 
 by thirteen feet six inches, occupies the whole floor. Though 
 the colours are faded, or rather have vanished, except in a few 
 places, the pattern remains perfect. The general ground-work 
 is of light circles intertwined or touching, on a dark ground ; 
 each centre of the circle, however, and each space left by the in- 
 tersecting or touching diameters being relieved with a face or a 
 flower. A narrow border of heraldic animals, lions, antelopes, 
 and eagles, runs aloug the north and south sides : and a border 
 of larger animals of the same character along the east and west 
 ends of the floor. In the part immediately around the altar, 
 intersecting triangles are introduced in several places, probably 
 with some allusion to the Mystery of the Trinity ; and imme- 
 diately before the altar is a group representing the Fall of Man. 
 The serpent, with a human face, appears entwined around the 
 tree of knowledge, and speaking to Eve, while she gathers the 
 fruit and presents it to Adam, who is already putting an apple 
 to his lips. This is a very frequent subject with mediaeval artists, 
 whether in stone or in colours. 1 
 
 To this elaborate and highly beautiful work, several others 
 might be added ; 2 but I prefer tracing a general rule, to accu- 
 mulating examples. There is this difference of principle between 
 the Roman and the Gothic mosaic, that in the former the pat- 
 terns are produced entirely by the arrangement of coloured 
 tesserse, whereas in the latter 3 the figures are helped out with 
 painting on the surface of the tiles, which produce the more ela- 
 borate parts ; as, for instance, the heraldic animals and the faces 
 of the figures, in Alan of Walsingham's work at Ely. The 
 Roman method is the more strictly artistic ; but the Gothic has 
 practical advantages over it in effect, and in facility of execution. 
 
 1 This splendid specimen of Mo- before the high altar of stone at S. 
 saic may be even better, or at least Mary Magdalen, Ripon. 
 
 more easily studied in Fowler's draw- 3 The mosaics of Cavallini, however, 
 ings, than in the original work it- in Westminster Abbey, must be ex- 
 self, cepted, but these are hardly to be called 
 
 2 I may mention one in Trinity Gothic : they are, in truth, Italian in 
 Chapel, Canterbury, and a little piece design and execution. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS TAINTING. 303 
 
 From painting and mosaic we naturally proceed to painted 
 glass, a decoration which with some advantages over both, and 
 with some peculiar defects, partakes almost equally of the con- 
 structive character of mosaic, and of the artistic power of 
 painting. 
 
 It is mortifying to confess that here we must for the present 
 yield the palm to our ancestors, though there is no reason to 
 doubt that we may ultimately more than recover all the ground 
 that we have lost. In drawing we are unquestionably superior 
 to the mediaeval painters ; the art of colouring glass, which was 
 until lately supposed to be lost, has been perfectly revived ; the 
 texture of the glass itself still remains to be successfully adapted 
 to the objects of the glass stainer, and then all the materials are 
 brought together, and the same tact and skill, with careful 
 study and labour, which have overcome other difficulties far 
 more apparently insurmountable, may be rewarded with perfect 
 success. 
 
 We have already observed that glass staining, which seems at 
 first sight so entirely subsidiary and subordinate, has really pro- 
 duced considerable effects on ecclesiastical architecture; that 
 this led in the first instance to the introduction of larger win- 
 dows, 1 and perhaps suggested the greater use of parallel lines 
 in the Perpendicular style : and since panelling and other orna- 
 ments in stone-work, and the whole character of screen-work, is 
 directly copied from the windows of their respective styles, there 
 is at least a reflected influence shed from painted glass upon far 
 different materials. And though this may at first sight seem to 
 be an exaggerated view of a subordinate influence, it is really 
 very far short of the truth. Without painted glass, windows 
 must have continued few and small; now architecture could 
 never have developed such forms as those of York, or of Ely, or 
 of King's College chapel, with few and small windows. In 
 height, in span, in lightness ; in its internal and external sup- 
 ports, its piers and its buttresses, a church of the first order must 
 have been a very different thing, had painted glass never been 
 employed, from a church of the same order at the time of Wil- 
 
 1 Lord Lindsay thinks that the introduction of stained glass, but this 
 larger size of the windows led to the is contrary to all history. 
 
304 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 liam of Wykeham, or King Henry VII. In comparison of this 
 the direct influence of painted glass as a decoration is insignifi- 
 cant ; yet even here we must go beyond the mere beauty of the 
 glass in itself, and take into consideration the effect of the light 
 variously coloured, yet subdued, in enriching, and at the same 
 time harmonizing the whole of an interior, in every part of 
 which colour was freely used. The value of painted windows 
 for this purpose is but too painfully felt now, by their loss. 
 
 The date may be assigned to painted glass by a careful study 
 of its texture, its pattern, its colours, its execution, its arrange- 
 ment, with as great certainty as to the windows in which it 
 occurs ; and Mr. Winston, in his valuable work lately published, 
 has brought the history of glass painting, and the means of 
 discriminating the different styles, as much within the reach of 
 the ecclesiologist, as the arrangement of armour is with the help 
 of Meyrick, or that of Gothic architecture with the aid of 
 Rickman. 
 
 The earliest specimens of stained glass in England, scarcely 
 ascend higher than about 1200, of which date may be some exam- 
 ples both at Canterbury and at York. 1 The general design of that 
 at Canterbury " consists of panels of various forms, containing 
 subjects from Holy Writ, on a ground of deep blue or ruby ; the 
 spaces between the panels are filled with rich mosaic patterns in 
 which red and blue predominate, and the whole design is sur- 
 rounded with a broad and elaborate border of leaves and scroll- 
 work in brilliant colours." 2 Towards the middle of the century 
 more use was made of mosaic devices, and of diapers, generally 
 of flowing foliated patterns. Such figures as these often form 
 the whole ground of a window, which is surrounded by richly 
 coloured borders of leaves, while the centre is occupied with 
 varied intersecting figures, as squares, triangles, and the like, 
 in rich colours, chiefly blue and ruby. The finest Early English 
 windows in the kingdom, those called " the five sisters " at the 
 end of the north transept of York Minster are of this character. 3 
 In the Decorated style, figures more frequently occupy the whole 
 
 1 See a paper by Mr. Winston on 
 the stained glass of York, in the York 
 vol. of Transactions of the Archaeolo- 
 gical Institute. 
 
 2 Glossary of Architecture, p. 184. 
 
 3 The compartments are very well 
 figured by Browne. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 305 
 
 window, being represented separately in niches, or sometimes in 
 larger groups ; and heraldry is now very frequently introduced, 
 either on shields, or on the surcoats of the figures. Quarries 
 also, with a uniform pattern, generally a flower, sometimes form 
 a whole window, and are often the ground to receive more 
 elaborate subjects. Sometimes these quarries are so arranged as 
 to form a pattern of stems and leaves running over the whole 
 surface. 
 
 Meanwhile the painting of figures became extremely elaborate 
 and beautiful. One of the best known examples is the great 
 west window of York Minster, in describing which, the author 
 of a paper published by Mr. Weale, says " the archbishops and 
 saints which form the principal part of the design, are shaded 
 and finished with the delicacy of an oil painting, whilst the 
 profusion of ornaments on the dresses, requires the spectator to 
 be on the same level, and close upon them to make it out." 
 
 But the Perpendicular glass is the most beautiful, and it grows 
 in real beauty as the architecture with which it is associated 
 grows in gorgeousness of effect. Mr. Winston, whose judgment 
 is decisive on this point, declares that it was during the first 
 quarter of the sixteenth century, that glass painting attained 
 its highest perfection as an art; 1 and he instances the great 
 east window of the cathedral of Winchester, which is appro- 
 priated to Bishop Fox, by his motto, " Est Deo Gloria," occur- 
 ring in it, as most remarkable for the characteristic beauties of 
 its age. " It is superior/'' says he, " to the other glass paint- 
 ings in the fulness and arrangement of its colours, but it is less 
 brilliant, owing to the greater depth of the shading, to which 
 the increased roundness of the figures is owing. In point of 
 execution, it is as nearly perfect as painted glass can be. In it 
 the shadows have attained their proper limit. Deeper shadows 
 would have produced blackness and opacity, and lighter shadows 
 a greater degree of flatness than is necessarily inherent in a real 
 glass painting." 
 
 But there is no place like York to study painted glass in. 
 We have already noticed the splendid Early English glass in 
 the " Five Sisters," and to these must be added the Decorated 
 
 1 Paper read at Winchester. 
 
 X 
 
306 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 glass in the nave, and the Perpendicular in the choir of the 
 cathedral ; both which were preserved, as if by miracle, in the 
 fires which have successively destroyed these two portions of the 
 church. There is besides a great quantity of very beautiful 
 glass in other churches in the same city ; and some of the de- 
 signs in the Perpendicular churches are as remarkable as the 
 beauty of the execution. In this latter style the figures become 
 larger, and the group sometimes more elaborate ; and now not 
 only is a whole window sometimes occupied with a single sub- 
 ject, but several incidents in the same history are distributed 
 through several windows, the story being carried on at the same 
 time by a legend describing the subject of each window. Some 
 remarkable examples of this are given in Chapter V. of Hiero- 
 logus, especially one of the fifteen days of Judgment, in All 
 Saints, North Street, York ; — one of the history of S. Lawrence 
 in twenty-seven compartments, in the east window of the church 
 dedicated to that saint at Ludlow ; — and the history of S. Neot, 
 in the church of S. Neot's, Cornwall. To these may be added 
 Gunton's account of the windows in the cloisters of Peter- 
 borough, which utterly perished, with other most valuable eccle- 
 siastical monuments in the same church, in the great Rebellion. 
 
 " The windows were all compleat and fair, adorned with glass and ex- 
 cellent painting. In the south cloyster was the history of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; in the east cloyster of the New ; in the north cloyster the figures of 
 the successive Kings from King Peada ; in the west cloyster was the history 
 from the first foundation of the monastery by King Peada, to the restoring 
 of it by King Edgar. Every window had at the bottom the explanation 
 of the history thus in verse : — 
 
 First Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " King Peada, a paynein, as writing seyth, 
 'Gate yese five children of Christen feyth." 
 Light 2. 
 
 11 The noble King Peada, by God's grace, 
 Was the first founder of this place." 
 
 Light 3. 
 
 " By Queen Ermenyld, had King Wulfere, 
 These twey sons that ye see here." 
 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Wulfade rideth, as he was wont, 
 Into the forest, the hart to hunt." 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 307 
 
 Second Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 '* Fro' all his men Wulfade is gone, 
 And sayth himself the hart alone." 
 
 Light 2. 
 
 " The hart brought Wulfade to a well, 
 That was beside Seynt Chaddy's cell." 
 Light 3. 
 
 " Wulfade askyd of Seynt Chad, 
 Where is the hart that me hath lad ?" 
 Light 4. 
 
 u The hart that hither thee hath brought, 
 Is sent by Christ, that thee hath bought." 
 Third Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 i( Wulfade prayd Chad, that ghostly leech, 
 The feyth of Christ him for to teach." 
 Light 2. 
 
 " Seynt Chad teacheth Wulfade the feyth, 
 And words of Baptism over him seyth." 
 Light 3. 
 
 * Seynt Chad devoutly to mass him dight, 
 And hoseled Wulfade Christy's knight." 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Wulfade wished Seynt Chad, that day, 
 For his brother Rufine to pray." 
 
 Fourth Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 u Wulfade told his brother Rufine, 
 That he was christned by Chaddy's doctrine." 
 Light 2. 
 " Rufine to Wulfade said again, 
 Christned also would I be fain." 
 
 Light 3. 
 
 " Wulfade, Rufine to Seynt Chad leedeth, 
 And Chad with love of feyth him feedeth." 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Rufine is christned of Seynt Chaddys, 
 And Wulfade, his brother, his godfather is." 
 Fifth Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " Werbode, steward to King Wulfere, 
 Told that his sons christned were." 
 
 Light 2. 
 
 " Toward the chappel Wulfade 'gan goe, 
 By guiding of Werbode, Christy's foe." 
 
 v 2 
 
 A. <V 
 
308 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Light 3. 
 
 " Into the chappel entered the King, 
 And found his sons worshipping." 
 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Wulfere in woodness his sword out drew, 
 And both his sons anon he slew." 
 
 Sixth Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " King Wulfere, with Werbode yoo, 
 Burying gave his sons two." 
 
 Light 2. 
 
 " Werbode for vengeance his own flesh tare, 
 The devil him strangled, and to hell bare." 
 Light 3. 
 
 " Wulfere, for sorrow, anon was sick, 
 In bed he lay, a dead man like." 
 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Seynt Ermenyld, that blessed Queen, 
 Counselled Wulfere to shrive him clean." 
 
 Seventh Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " Wulfere contrite, hyed him to Chad, 
 As Ermenyld him counselled had." 
 
 Light 2. 
 " Chad bade Wulfere, for his sin, 
 Abbeys to build his realm within." 
 
 Light 3. 
 " Wulfere in hast performed than, 
 Brough that Peada his brother began." 
 Light 4. 
 
 "Wulfere endued with high devotion, 
 The Abbey of Brough with great possession." 
 
 Eighth Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " The third brother, King Ethelred, 
 Confirmed both his brethren's deed." 
 
 Light 2. 
 " Saxulf, that here first abbot was, 
 For Ankerys, at Thorney, made a place." 
 Light 3. 
 
 " After came Danes, and Brough brent, 
 And slew the monkys as they went." 
 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Fourscore years and sixteen, 
 Stood Brough destroyed by Danes teen." 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 309 
 
 Ninth Window. 
 Light 1. 
 
 " Seynt Athehvold was bidden by God's lore, 
 The Abbey of Brough again to restore." 
 Light 2. 
 
 " Seynt Athelwold to King Edgar went, 
 And prayed him to help him in his intent." 
 Light 3. 
 
 " Edgar bade Athelwold the work begin, 
 And him to help he would not lyn." 
 
 Light 4. 
 
 " Thus Edgar and Athelwold restored this place : 
 God save it and keep it for His grace." 1 
 
 This may stand as an example of the higher order of historical 
 designs in painted glass; there are besides not infrequently 
 subjects which may be called doctrinal or mystical, as the tree 
 of Jesse, of which one is mentioned in Hierologus at Llaurhaiadr 
 in Kinmerch, Denbighshire, as late as 1533. The example at 
 Dorchester in Oxfordshire is altogether unique, in principle as 
 well as in detail, affording an example of stone and glass-work 
 wedded together in one mystic design. The glass has been so 
 wantonly mutilated, and so heedlessly patched that it cannot 
 now be cited as an entire work ; the stone tracery is described 
 by Mr. Addington as a window of four lights, with intersecting 
 tracery in the head. The centre monial represents the trunk 
 of a tree, its branches crossing over the intermediate monial 
 as far as the jambs. In the centre, at the base of the window, 
 is sculptured the recumbent figure of Jesse, and from his body 
 rises the tree. The branches are ornamented with foliage their 
 whole length, and with a figure sculptured at each intersection 
 of a monial ; that of David occupying the lower angle on the 
 east side. Some of them are male, some female, several are 
 crowned, and some have wings, and all seem originally to have 
 had their names painted on the labels, which they in general 
 hold in their hands. On the upper part of the centre monial, 
 representing the tree, has been apparently a figure of the Sa- 
 viour, and at the base of it adpears to have been a figure of the 
 
 1 Gunton's Peterborough, pp. 103 — 112. 
 
310 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Virgin, crowned, but both these have been wilfully mutilated. 
 The tree terminates in a large finial formed of leaves. 1 
 
 Another mystic subject is the creed, or each apostle accom- 
 panied with the article of the creed which is assigned to him by 
 tradition j of this a fine example occurs in the south aisle of 
 Tickhill, an early Perpendicular church. The mystery of the 
 ever-blessed Trinity is also a common subject, and is repre- 
 sented in two ways, by the " trine compass," and by a figure of 
 the Holy Father supporting a crucifix, the dove descending upon 
 the figure on the cross. 2 To mystical subjects may be added 
 also the figure of S. Christopher, on account of the mystic cha- 
 racter of the legend of that saint ; and perhaps in the ancient 
 hagiologies, we may generally look as much for significant inci- 
 dents, as for such as were intended to be taken as simple rela- 
 tions of facts ; and thus many historical subjects may be called 
 theological or emblematic. At all events we have some exquisite 
 compositions, and some beautiful subjects admirably treated of 
 this class; such as for instance the magnificent S. Katherine 
 trampling on a crowned tyrant, in West Wickham church ; and 
 in the same church a still more beautiful group, S. Anne teach- 
 ing the Blessed Virgin. 3 This subject is treated with equal 
 grace in the east window of All Saints' Church, North Street, 
 York. 4 
 
 To another class of painted windows attention is now happily 
 called by its revival in the present day. Ancient memorial win- 
 dows occur frequently, and though the material is so fragile, yet 
 practically a window has been found as faithful a depository of 
 a benefactor's name and effigy, 5 as either stone or brass. Win- 
 dows of this kind are exceedingly various in design, but gene- 
 rally include in some part of them a figure (a likeness probably) 
 of the person commemorated, with his armorial bearings, and 
 
 1 Account of Abbey Church of Dor- 
 chester, p. 11. 
 
 2 A beautiful specimen from S.John's 
 church, Micklegate, York, is figured 
 in the first volume of Weale's quar- 
 terly papers. 
 
 3 There are others of equal beauty in 
 this church, and several are figured in 
 
 the second volume of Weale's quar- 
 terly papers. 
 
 4 Figured in Vol. I. of Weale's 
 quarterly papers. 
 
 5 The likenesses of Bishops William 
 of Wykeham and Fox, the former es- 
 pecially interesting to the ecclesiologist, 
 are thus preserved at Winchester. 
 
PAINTING, MOSAIC, AND GLASS PAINTING. 311 
 
 the usual mortuary inscription, " Pray for the soul — or the 
 like. 
 
 It is strange, too, that we have more frequent records of the 
 donor or artist of stained glass windows, or of something con- 
 nected with their insertion, than of anything else about the 
 church, even of more essential importance, sepulchral monu- 
 ments excepted. 1 
 
 In Mr. Winston's paper, read at Winchester, are given very 
 interesting figures of " the carpenter, the mason, and the clerk 
 of the works," from the east window of Winchester College ; 
 and another, still more closely to the point, of the " glass 
 painter," from the same window. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no single person whose name is associated 
 with a greater number of works of this kind, than John Fosser, 
 Prior of Durham during the episcopate of the illustrious book 
 collector, Richard de Bury. We shall not omit some other do- 
 nations of Prior John, though our present business is with the 
 windows. "He constructed a great window of glass in the 
 north transept of the church, over the altar of the Confessors 
 SS. Nicholas and Giles, together with three smaller windows, 
 appointing, with the consent of the Chapter, that he should 
 have one mass every day for his soul, at the holy altar, by one 
 monk, for whose payment and for the repairs of the window, and 
 for alms on his anniversary, he appropriated certain lands and 
 rents to the convent." 2 — " He caused all the missals which were 
 less than seven years old, to be repaired by the servants and 
 ministers. He himself beginning with a missal which lies on 
 the altar of SS. Nicholas and Giles, for which he paid <£22 of 
 his own gift. Also he ordained, with consent of the convent, 
 that one chantry, which is called the Trinity, should be main- 
 
 1 The most useful habit of the monk- 
 ish historians recording the very spot 
 where each bishop or abbot was 
 buried, affords very many notices of 
 monuments. 
 
 2 Hie construxit in aquilonari parte 
 ecclesise crucis, ad altare Sanctorum 
 Confessorum Nicholai et Egidii mag- 
 nam fenestram vitream, cum aliis tribus 
 fenestris minoribus et ordinati cum 
 
 consensu capituli, quod haberet futuris 
 temporibus quolibet die pro anima sua 
 unam missam ad divinum altare per 
 unum monachum: pro cujus pensione 
 et dictarum fenestrarum sustentatione 
 et pro pitantia in die anniversarii sui 
 facienda, conventui terras et reditus 
 appropriavit, — Will, de Chambre, in 
 Anglia Sacra, I. 767. 
 
312 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 tained for ever at that altar, for the support of which he bought, 
 with the Bishop's licence, lands and tenements in North Pitting- 
 don, Ulneston, and Billingham, for which he paid £66 10s. 9d. 
 and for the erection and repair of buildings there, £20. The 
 form of the ordination of the said chantry is inscribed in the 
 Martyrology, and in the beginning of the missal of the said 
 altar. He also presented to the same altar a chalice, worth £6 
 13s. 4d., with three albes, and chasubles, and altar cloths, besides 
 images of the Holy Trinity, and of the Blessed Virgin, in ala- 
 baster, with tabernacles and other ornaments at the cost of £22. 
 He also made a long and splendid window of six lights in the 
 northern transept of the church, near the said altar, for which 
 he paid £100, and for glazing, £52, and for other buildings, 
 debts, and ornaments of the church, £402 6s. 8d., and for one 
 window in the south end of the prior's hall, £40 ; making to- 
 gether £2076 8s. lOd. In his time also was erected a great 
 window of seven lights, at the west end of the nave of the 
 church, and three others on the north side of the nave, and two 
 on the north side of the quire, by John of Tickhill, and two on 
 the south side of the quire, through the shrine/' 1 
 
 1 Postea vero idem prior fecit per 
 obedientiarios et ministratores omnia 
 missalia infra septennium de novo re- 
 parari, ipso priore incipiente de missali 
 quod jacet ad altare Sanctorum Nicho- 
 lai et iEgidii, pro quo solvit de oblati- 
 onibus suis £22. Item unam canta- 
 riam, quae de Trinitate nominatur, de 
 consensu conventus ordinavit in dicto 
 altari perpetuo celebrandam. Ad cujus 
 sustentationem terras et tenementa in 
 Northpittingdon, Ulneston et Billing- 
 ham de licentia episcopi emit, pro 
 quibus solvit £66 10s. 9d. Et pro 
 sedificiis ibidem factis et reparatis 
 £20. Forma autem ordinationis 
 dicta? cantarise scribitur in Martiro- 
 logio et in principio missalis dicti 
 altaris. Idem prior ordinavit dicto al- 
 tari unum calicem, pretium £6 13s. 4d. 
 
 una cum tribus albis et casulis et 
 palliis altaris. Item imagines Sanctae 
 Trinitatis et Beatse Virginis de alabas- 
 tro, cum tabernaculis cum aliis orna- 
 mentis, pretium £22. Item fecit 
 unam fenestram VI. luminarium, 
 longam et sumptuosam, in boreali 
 parte crucis dictse ecclesise juxta 
 dictum altare, pro quo solvit ^"100, 
 et pro vitreatione £b2. Item pro 
 aliis ecclesia? acdificiis, debitis et orna- 
 mentis £402 6s. 8d. Item pro una 
 fenestra in fine australi aulas prioris 
 £40. Summa omnium summarum 
 prsecedentium est hsec, £2076 8s. lOd. 
 Item in tempore suo fiebant de 
 novo magna fenestra VII. luminarium 
 in capite occidentali navis ecclesiae, et 
 III. alia? in parte boreali parte australi 
 chori per feretrum — lb. 768. 
 
313 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Decorated Period. 
 
 Universal adoption of flowing and indirect lines. — Other Charac- 
 teristics of the Decorated Style. — Exeter Cathedral. — York 
 Minster. — Hull. — Hedon. — Patrington. — Carlisle. — Durham. — 
 Boston. — Grantham. — Heckington. — Norbury. — Chesterfield. — 
 Finedon. — Frequent poverty of execution. — Stanford. — Bridge 
 Chapels. — Wakefield. — Chapel of S. William, York. — Wayside 
 Chapel at Houghton-in-the-Dale. — Ely Cathedral. — Fall of 
 the Tower, and foundation of the Octagon by Alan of Wal- 
 SINGH A.M. — The constructive character, and the general 
 effect of this work. — Bishop Hotham and the Presbytery. 
 — The Lady Chapel, John of Wisbeach. — Sequel of the Life 
 of Alan of Walsingham. 
 
 The architects of the period at which we have now arrived,, em- 
 ployed the flowing line, as constantly as if they had anticipated 
 all that Hogarth laid down on the perfection of the curve in his 
 Analysis of Beauty, and all that Burke, Alison, and Uvedale 
 Price ever asserted on the grace of undulating surfaces, in their 
 more general expositions of the philosophy of beauty. Indeed 
 it has been observed that the only line which actually occurs in 
 architecture answering to the perfection of beauty in a line, as 
 stated by Hogarth, — the spiral or the curve described by a line 
 encircling a cone, — is the complex ogee, bending forwards as 
 well as upwards, as it sometimes does in the head of a Decorated 
 canopy : and it would be almost impossible to imagine any fair 
 exposition of the principles of grace and beauty, which should 
 not find, if it condescended to seek them, several happy il- 
 lustrations from the characteristic forms of fully developed 
 Decorated. 
 
 Still it must be confessed that beauty is here too unmixed 
 with a severe and massive grandeur. Those who love to trace 
 the connection between the moral character of a generation, and 
 the development of its spirit in visible things, might half ad- 
 
314 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 mit a question, whether the luxury and licence of a court such 
 as that of Edward II. had not something in aommon with the 
 forms which were developed by contemporary architects. The 
 straight line, the circle, and the right angle — types, as it were, 
 and expressions of direct, straight forward, measured, stern duty 
 and action, — are everywhere deserted or disguised. Horizontality 
 and perpendicularity must predominate in the main lines of 
 every building ; but where it is possible they are masked by 
 more devious lines. Monials branch off into various irregular 
 curves. Circles become pointed and flowing ovals, and instead 
 of simple curves we have ogees and spirals. Crockets and 
 finials become more undulating in their outlines : and even but- 
 tresses desert the right angle, and meet the corners of the build- 
 ing which they support obliquely. 1 In the arrangement and 
 form of mouldings, — the minutest accessories of the several 
 parts of a building, — the same thing occurs. Instead of the rect- 
 angular planes of the wall and soffit, the suites of mouldings 
 take the diagonal, or chamfer plane : and angles, and parts of 
 simple circles, are melted into undulating lines. The sterner 
 generation that follows desiderates a more severe character in its 
 great and enduring works, and the Perpendicular grows up under 
 the tutorage of one of the most practical and accomplished men 
 of business that our nation ever knew. Had William of Wyke- 
 ham found the Geometrical style, he would perhaps have exerted 
 himself to evolve its capabilities : finding the flowing Decorated, 
 he deserted it, and erected a less beautiful, but a more perfect 
 one in its place. On the Continent the turn of affairs was just 
 the contrary ; and we, in our insular complacency, shall perhaps 
 admit, that national character is observable in each development. 
 While the Perpendicular is asserting its proper dignity in the 
 hands of Wykeham, the Flamboyant under foreign guidance wan- 
 ders into mazes in comparison of which the undulations of our 
 Decorated are sternness itself. 
 
 Having prefaced the history of this style with these general 
 remarks on its character, I shall describe its details more 
 minutely before I pass to particular examples. 
 
 1 Of course it will not be under- ments are constant in this style ; but 
 stood that these forms and arrange- they are frequent and characteristic. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 315 
 
 There is of course a greater aggregation of chantries and ex- 
 edral buildings, within and around older fabrics ; but the gene- 
 ral ground plan, where it is originally of Decorated date, is, if 
 anything, more simple than in the preceding style. The western 
 transept, or facade, independent of the internal terminations of 
 nave and aisles, is omitted ; nor does the second transept, either 
 at the extreme east, as at Durham, or between the great cross 
 and the east end, as at Wells or Salisbury, occur in the 
 same form. 1 There is a tendency even to sink the western 
 towers, as at Exeter ; though the west end of York gives us the 
 two finest in the kingdom; and that of Lichfield (which is how- 
 ever very early in the style,) 2 has the same noble features, crowned 
 with beautiful spires. In small churches there is no difference 
 in the main principles of arrangement between this and the an- 
 tecedent and subsequent styles ; nave and aisles, chancel, tower 
 and south porch still forming the ordinary ground plan of the 
 parish church. 
 
 In the interior of large churches the great difference is in the 
 relative importance of the triforium and clerestory. In Early 
 English, as in Norman, the triforium was a most prominent and 
 important feature, the clerestory far less so : now the clerestory 
 lets fall its monials and tracery over the triforium, which ceases 
 to be a distinct feature, and becomes, to the eye, an appendage 
 of the clerestory. This arrangement also continues to the close 
 of Gothic art, and is to be referred to the same principle of con- 
 tinuousness which throws aside the bands of the shafts, and 
 sometimes even the capitals of pillars, 3 and studiously leads the 
 eye with as little break as possible from the ground to the roof. 
 As it has been well put by Mr. Freeman in a paper read before 
 the Oxford and Northampton Architectural Societies, the pro- 
 minence of separate parts is sacrificed to the perfection of the 
 whole. 
 
 Vaulting has become more complex, and at last the Heme 
 
 1 With some differences both are 
 resumed in the Perpendicular : wit- 
 ness the intermediate transepts not 
 extending beyond the aisles at York, 
 and the transeptal Lady Chapel at the 
 east of Peterborough. 
 
 2 The west end of York also was 
 begun early. 
 
 3 As at Stanford, Northamptonshire, 
 and at Ratley, Warwickshire ; the 
 latter figured by Mr. Bloxam. 
 
316 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 vault 1 is employed, as for instance by Bishop Hotham at Ely, 
 (1336) and at Gloucester at few years earlier. 2 This complexity 
 of vaulting affords room also for greater decoration in the 
 numerous bosses at the intersection of the groining ribs. The 
 external roof still continues of high pitch ; but clerestories are 
 more frequently original, and lead is generally used as a 
 covering. 
 
 Descending to particular parts, the doorway is more simple 
 in general form, being less frequently double ; but in the en- 
 richment of the mouldings it is unsurpassed in any style, if both 
 the elegance of particular parts, and the beauty of the whole 
 effect be taken into account. Indeed nothing within the com- 
 pass of architectural decoration exceeds the grace and effective- 
 ness of the figures under canopies, or the branches of foliage, 
 sometimes introduced in the wide and deep hollows of Decorated 
 doorways. 3 
 
 Windows still continue to form a very prominent part of the 
 composition, as they began to do at the introduction of tracery ; 
 and this change in the principles of composition produces parallel 
 changes in detail. For instance, the monials, if such they could 
 be called, of Early English windows are at first flush with the 
 wall ; now an order of jamb -mouldings intervenes between the 
 plane of the wall and that of the monials, enriching the window 
 very greatly, as seen from without. It is rather a part of this 
 change, than a consequence of it, that the glass is carried more 
 nearly to the centre of the wall, instead of being nearly in the 
 plane of the exterior; that the outside and inside jambs are 
 alike considerably splayed, though not equally ; whereas in Nor- 
 man and Early English windows the interior splay is alone con- 
 siderable. The effect of enriched jambs in the exterior is yet 
 farther increased by the frequent addition of ogeed and foliated 
 
 1 A groined vault in which the main 
 ribs are connected or tied together in 
 the midst of their course, by transverse 
 ribs. 
 
 2 Professor Willis, Winchester, p. 
 68. 
 
 3 I cannot refrain from noticing a 
 surprisingly beautiful example in a 
 
 most retired part of a retired church, 
 and nowhere figured that I know of, — 
 the north door of Leamington Hast- 
 ings, in Warwickshire. The west door 
 of Cley church, Norfolk, is justly cited 
 as a remarkably beautiful instance, in 
 Brandon's Analysis, where it is figured. 
 Sec. I. Decorated. Plate 39. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 317 
 
 dripstones, often with very elegant corbel-heads, and sometimes 
 supporting a niche above. The monials and jambs, too, are 
 sometimes enriched with shafts, with capitals and bases, and 
 often with the ball-flower in their hollows. The tracery is in 
 itself highly decorative. It has now deserted the geometric 
 forms, and branches out, in apparently arbitrary directions, into 
 most graceful members. It is, however, of four very distinct 
 types. (I.) The first, where the window-arch being equilateral 
 or nearly so, acutely pointed lights are carried to the head of 
 the arch, and the spandrels are pierced. 1 This form occurs only 
 very early in the style. (II.) The second, where the several 
 monials branch into the architrave, when there are two or more 
 intersecting one another : these are sometimes plain, 2 sometimes 
 cusped in all their spaces. (Ill-) The third, where the monials 
 throw up undulating tracery bars, which intersect each other in 
 a kind of net-work. The spaces thus formed are almost always 
 quatrefoiled, but sometimes, as at Finedon, they are without 
 cusps. (IV.) The fully developed flowing tracery, most charac- 
 teristic of the style, and most hard to describe : here the lights 
 in the head formed by the flowing tracery are generally pointed 
 at their origin, and obtuse at their end, and curved round the 
 top of one of the greater lights, or an intermediate lesser light, 
 so as to assume a pear shape, a little curved below the round 
 end. In Flamboyant tracery the lights are pointed at each end; 
 to borrow a term from botany, they are lanceolate in form, in- 
 stead of pear-shaped. They also make a second curve upwards, 
 so as to have a flame-like character, which suggested the name 
 of the style. This form very seldom occurs in England. 3 
 
 1 The lights are sometimes un- 
 cusped, as at Finedon and Acton 
 Burnell. — Churches of Northampton, 
 Vol. I. p. 134, and Archaeological 
 Journal, Dec, 1845. Sometimes they 
 are foiled, generally five times ; some- 
 times the heads of the lights are them- 
 selves undulated in the manner of 
 foils, as at Long Itchington, Warwick- 
 shire, the birthplace of S. Wolstan. 
 
 2 Where they have been cusped the 
 cusps are sometimes gone ; but that 
 
 they were sometimes originally plain, 
 which has been doubted, appears not 
 only from the hundreds of instances 
 in which no trace of cusps appears, 
 but from contemporary glass still re- 
 maining, with the border fitting the 
 lines of the uncusped tracery bars. 
 
 3 In late Decorated windows there 
 are sometimes approximations to it, 
 as in S. Mary's, Oxford, figured by 
 Bloxam, Sometimes too a little piece 
 of Perpendicular tracery finds its way 
 
318 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 On the Continent it holds the same relative place with our 
 Perpendicular. 
 
 Buttresses still increase in size and projection, and in rich 
 examples have often finely crocketed pediments at their head, 
 and niches in their faces ; the niches here, as everywhere else, 
 being rich and delicate. 
 
 Piers are clustered, not with free, but with attached shafts. 
 
 Mouldings are somewhat less bold than in the last style, and 
 less effective, from their falling less in rectangular planes : they 
 still, however, retain great beauty of form and arrangement. 
 Two or three are considered characteristic of the style. The 
 channelled chamfer is of the close of the thirteenth and the be- 
 ginning of the fourteenth century ; as is also the hollow between 
 the hood-mould and the arch. 1 The scroll moulding is gene- 
 rally Decorated, but appears even in Early English work, as in 
 the tower of Hackness, near Scarborough : in the Decorated it 
 is of extremely frequent occurrence. The decorations of mould- 
 ings run all in the hollows ; these are principally the ball-flower, 
 which, however, occurs so soon that it is sometimes Early 
 English ; and wreaths of foliage, vine, oak, or ivy, executed with 
 a freedom almost approaching to nature. Sometimes figures 
 under canopies occur in very wide cavettos. 
 
 The foliage of capitals, bosses, and the like, is free and natu- 
 ral, and encircles the member to be adorned, as with a chaplet, 
 instead of climbing up it with naked stems, that throw out 
 crisped leaves at their tops. The heads used as corbels and 
 dripstone terminations are also frequently of considerable ele- 
 gance and nature. 
 
 There is a method of relieving large spaces — commenced in 
 the Early English, and not retained beyond the Decorated, — the 
 use of diaper patterns, cut in the stone; a far more elegant 
 decoration than the imbricated masonry of the Normans, or the 
 panelling of the fifteenth century, though not so effective as 
 either, because the lights and shadows are not so strong. 
 Among the earliest examples is that of the spandrels of the 
 
 into the head of a Decorated window, 
 as at Patrington, Yorkshire, (See 
 Churches of Yorkshire,) and still 
 more remarkably in the east of the 
 
 south chantry of Wadworth, in the 
 same county. 
 
 1 See both in the pier- arches of 
 Finedon. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 319 
 
 pier-arches in Westminster Abbey. 1 The three sides of the 
 beautiful cross at Geddington are covered with a diaper. The 
 diaper on the tomb of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, 
 who died a.d. 1323, is given in the Glossary, article "Diaper," 
 and the same pattern occurs in the doorway of the round church 
 of Little Maplestead. That figured by Mr. Bloxam, and given 
 also in the title-page of Professor Willis' Canterbury, as part of 
 the shrine of S. Dunstan, may be referred, from the very great 
 resemblance between its arrangements and that of the tracery of 
 the window in Anselm's chapel, (Willis, 114,) to the same hand; 
 and this fixes the date to about 1336, though both the window 
 and the diaper have an earlier aspect. In Paley's Manual, (p. 
 263,) the font of Swaton, Lincolnshire, assigned to about 1340, 
 is given : the sides of the bason are diapered. The example 
 from Beverley, (Glossary, plate 97,) assigned to about 1350, is 
 the latest that occurs to me. In the next style, when faci- 
 lity was studied to the exclusion very often of higher art, 
 diapers were painted, instead of sunk beneath the surface of the 
 stone. 
 
 Such, in very general terms, are the peculiarities of the style, 
 of which we proceed to mention a few of the more remarkable 
 examples. 
 
 Exeter Cathedral still progresses under the successors of 
 Bishop Quivil, and the several developments of Decorated ap- 
 pear in their respective works. In 1291, Archbishop Romaine 
 laid the first stone of the nave of York Minster. As might be 
 expected, we have in the west door and in the lower windows, 
 geometrical tracery ; but in the upper portions of the noble 
 west front the most exuberant forms of flowing tracery run with 
 a magic beauty and harmony over buttresses, pediments, canopies, 
 panelling, crocketing, finials, and parapets ; and the great west 
 window of eight lights, with the pediment by which it is sur- 
 mounted, is perhaps the most elaborately gorgeous system of 
 masonry in the kingdom. The towers flanking this splendid 
 
 1 See Neale's Westminster Abbey ; tyrdora at Canterbury, and also over 
 
 also Glossary, article "Early English." the front of the Chapter-house at 
 
 The fretted reticulation thrown over the Rochester, both the work of Ernulf, 
 
 surface of the walls on the south of (about 1150,) is hardly to be called 
 
 the passage to the crypt from the mar- diaper. See Willis' Canterbury, p. 87. 
 
320 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 facade are in their upper portion still more recent, but beiag 
 early in the next style, and retaining the ogee over the windows, 
 they harmonize sufficiently with the rest of the elevation. 
 
 There are besides one or two little memorials of architectural 
 history upon this front not to be omitted. Over the central 
 doorway is the figure of an archbishop, probably Romaine, the 
 founder of this part of the Minster ; and on either side are two 
 figures representing two great benefactors to the church. On 
 the right side is Robert de Vavasour, and on the left Robert de 
 Percy ; they hold, the one a piece of rough, the other a piece of 
 wrought stone, indicating their grants of quarries and of right 
 of way to the fabric. 
 
 In the interior it will be sufficient to remark that on a com- 
 parison of the Decorated nave with the Early English transepts, 
 the loss of the triforium as a distinct feature becomes very ob- 
 vious : the composition of the clerestory windows continued 
 downwards forming the ornamental face of the triforium next 
 the nave. 1 This is one of those great changes in the general 
 arrangement of churches which were continually taking place 
 from the Saxon to the Tudor period, and which are really more 
 important than minute matters of form and detail, on which more 
 stress is generally laid by ecclesiologists. A comparison of the 
 sections of the pillars with those of the Early English transept, and 
 the Perpendicular choir is very instructive. The general outline of 
 all is very similar, so much so indeed as to be clearly intended 
 to convey the same impression to the eye ; but, on examination, 
 the shafts which are engaged in the nave, are found to be de- 
 tached in the transepts, and to alternate with a deep cavetto in 
 the choir. 
 
 In the same county with York, among other fine examples, 
 are the church of the Holy Trinity, Hull, remarkable among 
 other things, for the use of brick in the noble choir; and the 
 neighbouring churches of Hedon and Patrington, popularly 
 called, in distinctive commendation of the beauty of each, the 
 King and Queen of Holderness. Proceeding northward, Car- 
 
 1 A less marked example, because Exeter, drawn on the same plate with 
 
 rather earlier, may be studied also in one of the nave of Salisbury, in the 
 
 contrast with the Early English arcade, Companion to the Glossary of Archi- 
 
 in a compartment of the nave of tecture. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 321 
 
 lisle has at the east end of the choir, the largest and most splen- 
 did Decorated window in England ; l and at the west end of 
 Durham, the beautiful Decorated window of seven lights has re- 
 placed the original Norman windows. Nor shall we, perhaps, find 
 a better occasion to observe that Norman and Early English 
 windows are often filled with the tracery of the flowing Deco- 
 rated ; never, so far as I know, with Geometric, and not very 
 frequently with Perpendicular tracery. 
 
 The magnificent churches of Lincolnshire are, many of them, 
 of the fourteenth century, and all the varieties of Decorated 
 tracery may be studied in their windows. Boston and Gran- 
 tham are both abundantly celebrated ; but Heckington is one of 
 the most beautiful and perfect models in the kingdom of a 
 Decorated church, " having," (I use the words of Rickman, 
 whose account of this church I borrow almost entire,) 
 
 " with one exception, (that of the groining or interior ceiling which is 
 wanting, and appears never to have been prepared for,) every feature of a 
 fine church, of one uniform style, without any admixture of earlier or 
 later work. The plan of the church is a west tower and spire, nave and 
 aisles, spacious transepts, and a large chancel, with a vestry attached to 
 the north side. The nave has a well-proportioned clerestory. There is a 
 south porch, a rich font, the tomb of an ecclesiastic under a low arch in the 
 chancel, and an Easter sepulchre. On the south side of the chancel, under 
 a window, is a very rich water-drain, and in the wall three stone stalls. 
 The vestry has a crypt below it, and a water-drain in the wall above. 
 Every part of the design and execution is of the very best character. The 
 church is rich, rather from its composition, than from minute or profusely 
 scattered ornament, and the outline at a distance is peculiarly fine. The 
 south side of the church is more enriched than the north, and the chancel 
 more so than the nave. The tower and spire are very lofty, and the four 
 pinnacles which crown the tower are large and pentagonal : this unusual 
 shape has, at less cost, an effect fully equal to an octagon, and the pinna- 
 cles are without crockets, but have rich finials ; the spire is plain, with 
 three tiers of windows on the alternate sides. The whole arrangement of 
 
 1 This is figured by Mr. Sharpe, in 
 his series of Decorated Windows. 
 14 The dimensions are, — 
 
 feet in. 
 
 Height to spring 28 2 
 
 Total height 59 6 
 
 Width of side lights .... 2 3 
 
 feet in. 
 
 Width of centre lights . . 2 10 
 
 Total width 33 
 
 The trefoils and quatrefoils with which 
 the window head is pierced, amount in 
 number to no less than forty-five." 
 
 Y 
 
3.22 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 this steeple is peculiarly calculated for effect at a distance. The whole of 
 the windows of the church are fine and much varied, and the east window 
 of seven lights is one of the most splendid in the kingdom. 1 The south 
 porch, and all the buttresses of the south side, have very fine niches, some 
 of them with double canopies. At the east end of the nave, and at the 
 east end of the chancel, are large rich pinnacles ; but the buttresses gene- 
 rally finish with canopies below the parapet. The chancel buttresses are 
 richer, and the parapet is pierced ; the chancel-door, a small one on the 
 south side, has rich mouldings and a plain ogee canopy, with a rich finial, 
 and the window is slightly encroached upon by this door. The arch into 
 the porch, and the south door of the church, have very fine mouldings 
 with shafts ; the north door is plainer, and has no porch. In the interior, 
 the first object worthy of notice is the font, — a hexagon with very rich 
 niches, but sadly mutilated and painted ; the design and execution both 
 excellent. In the nave, the piers and arches are plain, but with very good 
 mouldings : one window on the south side is filled with ancient stained 
 glass, of a character so excellent as to make it much to be regretted that 
 more has not been preserved. The sepulchre, of which there are not 
 many specimens now remaining, consists of a series of richly ornamented 
 niches, the largest of which represents the tomb, having angels standing 
 beside it : the side niches have the Marys and other appropriate figures, 
 and in the lower niches are the Roman soldiers reposing; these niches 
 have rich canopies, and are separated by buttresses and rich finials, having 
 all the spaces covered by very rich foliage. The various small ornaments 
 about these stalls and niches form one of the best possible studies for en- 
 richments of this date, and it is almost peculiar to this church, that there 
 is nothing about it (except what is quite modern,) that is not of the same 
 style and character." 
 
 In Derbyshire we have the fine chancel of Norbury church, 
 with large windows in which much of the original glass remains, 2 
 and Chesterfield, familiar to every one who has but once seen it 
 though at a distance, for its distorted spire, but far more truly 
 remarkable for its fine proportions and details. 3 
 
 In Northamptonshire, besides several other examples, we 
 have the noble cross church of Finedon, with its lofty west 
 tower and spire, and fine porch and parvise ; an example, the 
 whole of which is to be referred to the Decorated period, and, 
 
 1 The east window of Heckington is 
 figured by Mr. Sharpe. 
 
 2 Rickman. 
 
 3 This church has been admirably 
 restored and refitted, a work com- 
 
 menced by the present munificent 
 rector in a spirit which would avert all 
 severity of criticism, even if the suc- 
 cess with which it has been carried 
 through were less complete. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 323 
 
 with the exception of the tower and spire, which are later, to 
 one date. 1 
 
 Of smaller and less important churches, the number in this 
 style throughout the kingdom is quite beyond calculation. 
 There seems to have been more done in church building during 
 the reigns of Edward II. and III., than during any other period 
 of the same duration, or at least more has remained to testify of 
 the zeal of the church builders of those days. But although 
 beauty of form is inseparable from this style, it would be vain to 
 look in all ordinary cases for perfect execution; indeed there 
 is no period of Gothic architecture in which there is often so 
 little proportion between the beauty of forms and designs, and 
 the poverty of details. In the preceding or succeeding style, a 
 window with a fine elevation is sure to have corresponding 
 beauty and richness of mouldings, and a proportionately elabo- 
 rate finish ; but here we have often the plan of a beautiful win- 
 dow, with the most meagre, and even clumsy details : nor is the 
 proportion between the windows and the size of the church uni- 
 versally maintained. A small village church may sometimes be 
 pierced with windows, which might have been borrowed from a 
 neighbouring minster. There is moreover, as much of what we 
 might call slovenly work in the smaller churches of this period, 
 as in all others put together. But in one thing, the Decorated 
 style is perhaps unrivalled, and a very important one it is, the 
 good useful proportions of its parish churches, which renders 
 them admirable models for the present day. I cannot refrain 
 from mentioning one from the immediate neighbourhood in 
 which I write, as a most excellent example, though so many 
 others are nearly equal to it in this respect, that unless there 
 were some other interest attached to it I should pass it over. 
 
 This is the little church of Stanford, on the borders of Leices- 
 tershire and Northamptonshire, which consists of nave and 
 aisles, chancel, west tower, and south porch ; the most ordinary 
 and nearly the most simple form of a parish church. The chan- 
 cel is of good but moderate proportions, the whole area of nave 
 and aisles is nearly a square, and the pillars being slight, the 
 
 1 This church is an absolute model scribed in the " Churches of the Arch- 
 for a large parish church. It is de- deaconry of Northampton." 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 space is well adapted to the purposes of congregational worship. 
 Two types of windows only are introduced, and these are re- 
 peated in the several parts of the church, and intermingled, the 
 reticulated and the uncusped intersecting tracery. The work is 
 every where good, hut the beauty both of exterior and interior 
 is due far more to proportion and to harmony of arrange- 
 ment than to ornamental detail. In the windows a very large 
 part of the original glass remains, and tradition tells us that we 
 are indebted for its preservation to the zeal of the servants of 
 the neighbouring mansion, who rushed out armed with clubs, 
 and such weapons as they could command, and beat off a party 
 of Cromwell's soldiery, who would have stabled their horses 
 there, after the battle of Naseby, and amused themselves with 
 the wanton destruction of every thing beautiful throughout 
 the fabric and its decorations. 
 
 Among the most interesting memorials of the religious habits 
 of our forefathers are the chapels which they consecrated to the 
 offices of devotion by the wayside, especially near to large towns, 
 and yet more especially on the bridges which crossed the rivers, 
 on which places of great resort were situated. 
 
 One of the most beautiful of these chapels remains, — that on 
 Wakefield Bridge, and its origin is to be referred to this period. 
 The west front of this chapel is as rich in its kind as any spe- 
 cimen even of the Tudor period. There is not a single square 
 foot of masonry above the basement moulding, without its ap- 
 propriate enrichment. Its general design is of two stages, the 
 first of five recessed arches, under triangular pediments, sepa- 
 rated by shallow buttresses. The northern arch, or that nearest 
 the town, is pierced as a door, the others are unpierced and 
 adorned with panelling. The pediments are crocketed, and 
 within them the outer mouldings of the arches are carried up in 
 an ogee, also crocketed. The entire wall above the arches unoccu- 
 pied with these decorative features, is enriched with a foliated 
 pattern. The whole is flanked with the square bases of two 
 turrets, and a rich buttress intervening between them and the 
 rest of the front. Here, too, the panelling and flowing patterns 
 cover the whole surface. Above the first story both the turrets 
 and the general front are recessed. The buttresses carried up 
 to the battlements again divide the central space into five com- 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 325 
 
 partments, each of which is crowned with projecting canopies, 
 and forms a niche for a group of figures. The turrets have also 
 their canopies on their two free sides, with pedestals for single 
 figures. The upper part of the turrets is gone, but they proba- 
 bly terminated in low crocketed spires. Above the centre ap- 
 pears the base of some additional feature, probably a cross of far 
 larger dimensions than ordinary. At the eastern angles of the 
 chapel there are also turrets, through one of which a stair is 
 carried from the lower chamber or crypt, (which was doubtless 
 the residence of a chantry priest,) to the chapel, and thence 
 again to the roof. All the windows have been so much damaged 
 by "late botch- work," as Whittaker justly calls it, that it is im- 
 possible to trace their original design. They are, however, 
 square-headed, but their square heads probably enclosed a series 
 of tracery resembling that of the panelling of the lower stage of 
 the turrets. 
 
 Authorities have somewhat obscured the history of this beau- 
 tiful chapel. It is popularly attributed to Edward IV., and is 
 said to have been erected and endowed by him as a chantry for 
 prayers for the souls of those who fell at the battle of Wakefield, 
 especially for the Duke of Rutland. This account, which is too 
 interesting to be readily slighted, is given by Leland, 1 and by 
 Archbishop Holgate ; but it is quite certain that the west front 
 cannot be so recent as the time of Edward IV., and it is far 
 more to the purpose of the real history of the chapel, that in 
 1337, 31 Edward III., the king vested a rent-charge of ten 
 pounds per annum in William Kaye and William Bull, chap- 
 lains, and their successors for ever, to perform Divine Service 
 
 1 "These things I especially noted 
 in Wakefield. The faire bridge of 
 stone, of nine arches, under the which 
 rennith the river of Calder ; and on 
 the est side of this bridge is a right 
 goodly chapel of our Lady, and two 
 cantuarie prestes founded in it, of the 
 fundacion of the townesmen, as sum 
 say : but the Dukes of Yorke were 
 taken as founders for obteyning the 
 mortemayn. I hard one say that a 
 servant of King Edwarde's (the 4th) 
 
 father, or else of the Erie of Ruthe- 
 land, brother to King Edwarde the 
 4th, was a great doer of it. There was 
 a sore batell faught in the south fieldes 
 by this bridge : and yn the flite of the 
 Duke of Yorke's parte, other the duke 
 himself or his sun therle of Rutheland, 
 was slayne a litle above the barres, be- 
 yond the bridge, going up a clyving 
 ground. At this place is set up a crosse 
 in memoriam." 
 
326 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 daily in the chapel of S. Mary, then newly erected on Wakefield 
 Bridge. Edward IV., however, may very probably have en- 
 dowed an additional chantry here, on the occasion before men- 
 tioned, and perhaps some considerable additions may have been 
 then made to the fabric ; and to this date may be referred the 
 parapet of the north and south sides of the chapel, which re- 
 semble those of the parish church in the same town, rebuilt 
 about 1470. 
 
 It is gratifying to be able to add, that this beautiful chapel, 
 which has until lately been barbarously mutilated, and profanely 
 applied to low secular uses, is now being restored to its original 
 beauty, that it may again be used for sacred purposes. The 
 Vicar of Wakefield having obtained possession of the fabric, has 
 committed it, under the superintendence of the Yorkshire Archi- 
 tectural Society, to Mr. Scott, the greatest master of Gothic 
 architecture in the present day, from whose designs it is being 
 restored, and it will soon be opened once again for Divine 
 Service. 
 
 This is not the only instance of a bridge chapel with what 
 may be called a double history. Indeed bridges are on many 
 accounts so appropriate places for chantries and chapels, that 
 the instances in which they were thus elevated to a higher use 
 than that of a mere means of transit from one bank of a river to 
 another, were probably very numerous ; and the history attached 
 to them and their chapels must often have been full of incidents. 
 Not only was the bridge the usual access to the town, on which 
 account alone it would have its wayside chapel, 1 where the pil- 
 grim might say his orisons, before he entered on the worldly 
 business which was the immediate object of his journey ; but 
 the ford, and the wooden bridge which succeeded it, and after- 
 wards perhaps not unfrequently the bridge itself, even when 
 completed, had been again and again the scene of fatal accidents 
 or bloody frays ; and the souls of those who fell in fight, or were 
 lost in the flood, would be commended to God in a chantry en- 
 dowed for the purpose, on the site of their disaster : and even 
 
 1 And so also its fortified gateway, 
 for some of the same reasons. See 
 notices of the Bridges of Bridgenorth, 
 
 and of the Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury 
 in Vol. II. of the Antiquarian Reper- 
 tory. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 327 
 
 when there was no especial incident of this kind connected with 
 its history, the building of a bridge was accounted, and justly 
 accounted, a charitable work, and was very often undertaken by 
 great nobles and ecclesiastics, or by religious bodies, who 
 would wish by the endowment of a chantry to sanctify their 
 work. 
 
 A chapel dedicated to S. William on the Ouse bridge in York, 
 now, with the bridge itself destroyed, 1 is perhaps a more than 
 usually remarkable example of this. S. William had returned 
 from Rome, (1153) having received from the Pope confirmation 
 of his election to the throne of York; and as his elevation to 
 this dignity had been cruelly disputed, and even with violence, 
 his friends and the people nocked in vast numbers to meet him 
 on his triumphant arrival. He had passed the wooden bridge 
 by which the town was approached, when it gave way beneath 
 the tread of so great a multitude, and numbers were precipitated 
 into the river. The cries of the sufferers reached his ears, and, 
 returning to the bank, he poured forth an earnest prayer for 
 their deliverance. Not one perished : — 
 
 " Eboracum prsesul redit : 
 Pontis casus nullum Isedit 
 De tot turbse millibus 
 
 as the hymn for his festival rehearses. The good Bishop lived 
 only to the following year, when he was taken off as some re- 
 ports say by poison administered with the Holy Eucharist. He 
 was afterwards canonized. 2 When a stone bridge was substi- 
 tuted for the wooden one, which was the scene of the accident 
 just described, a chapel dedicated to S. William was part of the 
 fabric. 
 
 Leland, however, says of this chapel, that it was indebted for 
 its erection to a fray which took place on the bridge between 
 the citizens and a Scotch nobleman named John Comyn, in 
 1268. Several of the servants of the Scotsman having been 
 slain, the citizens were obliged to pay the sum of three hundred 
 
 1 The bridge, but not the chapel, 
 has been replaced with a more commo- 
 dious structure. 
 
 2 The Bull of his canonization is 
 
 given at length in Browne's History 
 of the Edifice of the Metropolitan 
 Church of S. Peter's, York. 
 
328 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 pounds for the erection of a chapel, on the place of the affray, 
 and to find two priests to celebrate mass for the souls of the 
 slain for ever. Now drawings of this chapel given by Cave 
 in his " Picturesque buildings in York," substantiate as far as 
 possible both parts of the history : for the most ancient portions 
 are late Norman, and must have been erected not very long 
 after the death of S. William, but the greater part of the 
 fabric as it stood in Cave's time, was of the Early English 
 of Henry III., to which the fatal affray with the Comyn is 
 referred. 
 
 As no part of this chapel can be assigned to the Decorated 
 period, this mention of it must be considered as parenthetical. 
 Not so a reference to the only wayside chapel still remaining in 
 England so far as I know. 1 This is at Houghton-le-Dale, 2 near 
 Walsingham, in Norfolk. It was probably the last chapel at 
 which pilgrims paid their devotions before they reached the cele- 
 brated shrine of S. Mary, in the Abbey church. 3 It is of ela- 
 borate Decorated character. 
 
 But the history of Ely Cathedral during this period is con- 
 nected with the most illustrious names, and is fuller of interest 
 than that of any other church. 
 
 The foundations of the present church were laid by Simeon, 
 Abbot of Ely, and brother of Walkelyn, Bishop of Winchester. 
 The transepts still remain, and they alone of Simeon's work. 
 The central tower had been overburdened with a spire about the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, which occasioned its fall in 
 1322, after it had been for some time in so precarious a state, 
 that the choir was not used for divine service. The fall of the 
 tower destroyed not only the choir which was under it, but also 
 three compartments of the Presbytery which had been erected 
 in the most exquisite Early English by Bishop Hugh Norwold ; 
 and the restoration of the ruined pile called forth all the ener- 
 gies both of the Bishop and of the monastery of Ely, and em- 
 ployed all the skill of the sacrist, Alan of Walsingham, in whose 
 services that church was then most fortunate. The whole series 
 
 1 They are not unfrequent on the 3 Erasmus gives a very curious ac- 
 Continent. count of his visit (not pilgrimage) to 
 
 2 Figured in the recent edition of Walsingham, and the shrine of S. 
 Rickman. Mary. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 329 
 
 of events cannot be better told than in the words of the histo- 
 rian, himself a monk of Ely, in the next century. 
 
 "Alan of Walsingham was made sacrist in the year 1321, during the 
 episcopate of John Hotham, and held that post twenty years. In his time, 
 many and great burdens fell upon his office, and the greatest of all in the 
 year of his appointment. On the night before the festival of S. Erme- 
 nilda, (1322) after matins had been sung in the chapel of S. Catherine, for 
 the convent did not dare to sing in the choir, on account of the dangerous 
 state of the tower, the procession was concluded to the shrine, in honour 
 of S. Ermenilda, the convent were returning to the dormitory, and a few 
 only of the brethren had got into bed, when suddenly the campanile fell 
 upon the choir with such tremendous noise, that one would have thought 
 it had been an earthquake, and yet no one was injured or bruised by the 
 ruin. Another wonderful thing also happened, which should rather be 
 attributed to a miracle than to nature, — that in so terrible a fall and im- 
 mense collision of stones with which the whole town of Ely was shaken, 
 that fair and great fabric suspended over the sepulchres of the holy virgins, 
 was preserved from all damage and fracture, by the protection of God, as 
 may be piously believed, and by the merits of His beloved virgin Ethel- 
 dreda. To Christ, therefore, be the glory ! Alan, greatly grieving at 
 this lamentable destruction, scarce knew whither to turn, or what to do, 
 for the repair of so great a ruin ; but resuming courage, and placing his 
 trust in the help of God, and of His most Holy Mother Mary, and in the 
 merits of S. Etheldreda, he set his hand to the work with all confidence. 
 In the first place he caused the stones and wood which had fallen together 
 in the ruin, to be carried away, a work of great labour and expense. The 
 church itself he cleansed as quickly as he could from the cloud of dust 
 which rested on it. After diligent examination and exact measurement, 
 he proposed to construct a new campanile, and with great architectural skill 
 he chose eight spots, where as many stone columns should be erected for 
 the support of the whole fabric, beneath which the stalls of the choir might 
 eventually be constructed. Then he dug into the ground, and carefully 
 examined until he had found a solid bed on which the foundation of the 
 work might be securely commenced. Having therefore carefully examined 
 these eight places, and made them firm with stones and sand, he com- 
 menced at length the eight columns with the subsequent stone work, which 
 was finished to the top course in six years, A.D. 1328: and immediately 
 afterwards, in the same year, he began to erect that skilful structure of 
 wood of the new campanile, designed with great and wonderful ingenuity, 
 upon the before-mentioned stone work; all which was done at great and 
 heavy charges, especially for the great beams of the said structure, which 
 were found with difficulty, purchased at a great price, and brought toge- 
 ther from afar by sea and land. Many ingenious artificers also were 
 employed in carving them, and in putting them together in their place ; 
 
330 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and at length, by the help of God, the work was brought to a happy 
 and noble conclusion. The cost of the new campanile during the twenty 
 years that Alan of Walsingham was sacrist, was £2400 6s. lid. 1 
 
 A glance at the ground plan of Ely Cathedral will render the 
 greatness and originality of this work very apparent. The nave, 
 without its aisles, is somewhat deficient in width, and the origi- 
 
 1 "Fuitautem Sacrista usque ad xxv. 
 diem mensis Octobris Anno Domini 
 mcccxli. fere per xx. annos. In 
 cujus tempore multa et varia onera 
 gravia valde officio Sacristaria?, et 
 maxime eodem anno sua? praefectio- 
 nis, evenerunt. Nam in nocte ante 
 diem Festi S. Ermenildae, post matuti- 
 nas in Capella S. Katerina? decantatas, 
 eo quod in Choro propter imminen- 
 tem ruinam illas decantare Conventus 
 non audebat. Facta namque proces- 
 sione ad feretra in honore S. Erme- 
 nildae, et conventu in dormitorium 
 regrediente, vix paucis Fratribus in 
 lectulis suis ingressis, et ecce subito et 
 repente ruit campanile super chorum 
 cum tanto strepitu et fragore ; veluti 
 putabatur terra? motus fieri ; neminem 
 tamen lsedens nec opprimens in ruina. 
 Aliud etiam contigit mirabile, miraculo 
 potius ascribendum quam natura? ; 
 quod in ilia horribili ruina et lapidum 
 collisione maxima, unde tota fere tre- 
 mebat Elyensis villa, ilia tamen pulcra 
 et magna fabrica eminens supra sanc- 
 tarum virginum sepulcra, protegente 
 Deo et meritis sua? dilecta? Virginis 
 Etheldredae, ut speratur, ab omni laesi- 
 one salvata est et fractura. Unde 
 Christo sit gloria. Ex quo eventu 
 dampnoso nimis et lamentabili prae- 
 fatus sacrista Alanus dolens vehemen- 
 ter et tristis effectus, quo se verteret 
 vel quid ageret ad tantam ruinam re- 
 farciendam, penitus ignorabat. Sed 
 resumpto spiritu, in Dei adjutorio et 
 sua? piissima? matris Maria?, necnon et 
 in meritis S. Virginis Etheldredae plu- 
 rimum confidens, manum misit ad 
 fortia ; et primo lapides et ligna, 
 
 quae conciderant in ilia ruina, cum 
 magno labore et expensis variis extra 
 Ecclesiam fecit apportare ; et ipsam de 
 pulvere nimio, qui ibi erat, celeritate 
 qua potuit emundare ; et locum in 
 quo novum campanile fuisset con- 
 structurus, per viii. partes arte archi- 
 tectonica mensuratas, in quibus viii. 
 columna? lapidea? totum aedificium sup- 
 portantes erigerentur, et infra quas 
 chorus postea cum stallis esset con- 
 struendus, fodere fecit et scrutari ; 
 donee inveniret locum solidum, ubi 
 firmamentum operis secure possit 
 inchoare. Illis siquidem viii. locis sic, 
 ut praedicitur, sollicite scrutatis, lapi- 
 dibus et arena firmiter condensatis ; 
 tunc demum illis viii. columnas cum 
 subsequenti opere lapideo inchoavit. 
 Quod quidem usque ad superiorem 
 tabulatum per vi. annos consummatum 
 Anno Domini mcccxxviii, Et statim 
 illo anno ilia artificiosa structura lignea 
 novi Campariilis summo ac mirabili 
 mentis ingenio imaginata, super pra?- 
 dictum opus lapideum aedificanda fuit 
 incoepta, et maximis et onerosis ex- 
 pensis, praesertim pro lignis grossis 
 structura? praedictae necessario con- 
 gruentibus longe lateque requirendis, et 
 difficultate maxima tandem inventis, 
 magno precio comparatis, ac per ter- 
 ram et per mare apud Ely adductis, 
 necnon et per ingeniosos artifices sculp- 
 tis et fabricatis, atque in ipso opere 
 artificiose coadunatis ; honorificam et 
 optatam auxiliante Deo sortita est 
 consummationem." — Monachi Elien- 
 sisHistoria, Wharton's Anglia Sacra, 
 I. 643, 644. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 331 
 
 nal tower of course partook of the same fault. But Alan, in 
 seeking places for the two northern and two southern of his 
 eight main supports, sought them, not within the base of the 
 tower, but in the intersection of the outer walls of the four arms 
 of the cross ; so that the octagon is nearly twice the diameter of 
 the old tower in each direction. It consists of four greater and 
 four smaller sides, the greater sides opening by a lofty arch, 
 (answering to the great tower arches in general effect) to the 
 choir, nave, and transepts, respectively ; thus preserving the 
 original cross form of the interior ; while the smaller sides open 
 obliquely by a much lower arch into the side aisles. 
 
 The advantage of this arrangement in the effect of the interior 
 is very great. In general we have, from any part of our great 
 churches in which we may be standing, a lengthened prospect in 
 one line only, or at most in two lines, intersecting at right 
 angles beneath the tower ; but here the side and cross aisles are 
 added to the general effect ; and besides this, a much greater 
 body of light is thrown upon the central space. From the 
 angles of the lower stone octagon spring the groining ribs, 
 which meet above in the sides of an upper octagon of timber 
 thirty feet in diameter, pierced on each of its sides with an open 
 window ; and additional light is gained by a large window of 
 four lights, with rich tracery in the head rising to the point of 
 the groining arches, in the diagonal sides of the octagon which 
 open into the aisles. The whole of the vaulting system of this 
 great work, together with the upper octagon, which is indeed, 
 strictly speaking, a portion of the vaulting, is, as has been 
 already related by the historian, of wood ; the substructure not 
 being calculated for its greater weight, had it been of stone. 
 
 Such is the constructive character of this beautiful substitute 
 for the fallen tower. Its decorative features are very attractive, 
 though of course of less real importance ; and they are interest- 
 ing, too, for the light which they throw on the history of eccle- 
 siastical art. Painting once appeared, sculpture still appears 
 everywhere. The shafts which support the main arches are 
 clustered, and have richly foliated capitals. The vaulting- 
 arches spring from the same level with the pier-arches beneath 
 them, in the cardinal faces of the octagon, but as they are more 
 acute, a space is left between the vaulting and the top of the 
 
332 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 pier arches,, and this is filled with panelling j 1 and before the 
 head of the windows, which rise to the top of the vaulting 
 arches, in the diagonal faces of the octagon, a portion of fine 
 tracery is suspended, forming, so far as it is extended downwards, 
 a double plane of tracery to the windows, a feature common 
 enough in Continental churches, but by no means frequent in 
 England. 2 There are foliated bosses at the intersection of all 
 the ribs in the vaulting, which, it will be remembered, is wholly 
 of timber, and a more elaborate boss in the centre of the lan- 
 tern. The wall of each smaller or diagonal side of the octagon 
 is relieved with three canopied and crocketed niches, once filled 
 with statues, the pedestals for which remain. The hood mould- 
 ings over the arches leading into the aisles, are terminated with 
 heads, or other devices admirably carved. Four of these are, in 
 all probability, portraits : those at the north-west of Edward III. 
 and Philippa his queen; those at the south-east, of Bishop 
 Hotham and Prior Crowden, 3 names intimately connected with 
 the architectural history of Ely about this time. But the most 
 remarkable portion of the decorations of this fabric yet remains 
 to be noted. The vaulting shafts at each angle of the octagon 
 are interrupted at about half their height by richly canopied 
 tabernacles, each adapted to receive one larger and two subordi- 
 nate figures. These tabernacles are supported on brackets which 
 are enriched with finely executed alto-relievos of the most im- 
 portant events in the legendary history of S. Etheldreda, the 
 patron-saint of the cathedral church of Ely, thus splendidly 
 adorned in her honour. 4 
 
 1 Panelling merely for the filling of 
 space, is not very frequent until the 
 next style, of the most advanced stage 
 of which it is eminently characteristic. 
 
 2 The great west window at Dum- 
 blane, in Scotland, is a good example 
 of a double plane of tracery. 
 
 3 The same portrait occurs again in 
 Prior Crowden' s chapel, but with fea- 
 tures altered by advancing years. 
 
 4 These subjects are thus arranged 
 according to the description inWinkles' 
 Cathedrals. " Beginning at the right 
 side of the north-west arch, the first 
 represents her reluctant marriage with 
 
 Egfrid, King of Northumberland. 2. 
 Her taking the veil in the monastery 
 of Coldingham. 3. Her pilgrim's 
 staff taking root while she slept by the 
 way, and bearing leaves and shoots. 
 4. Her preservation, with her attendant 
 virgins, on a rock surrounded by a 
 miraculous inundation, when the king 
 pursued her with his knights to carry 
 her off from her monastery. 5. Her 
 instalment as abbess of Ely. 6. Her 
 death and burial. 7. A legendary tale 
 of one Brithstan, delivered from bonds 
 by her merits after she was canonized. 
 8. The translation of her body." 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 333 
 
 It would be difficult now to imagine the splendour of this 
 work when all the statues were perfect, all the whole surface 
 gorgeous with gold, azure, and vermillion, and all the windows 
 streaming with their gem-like hues. We must be contented 
 with what we have, however, and be more than contented, even 
 satisfied, with the historical notices that yet remain of this great 
 work, its patrons, its designer, its execution, its smallest decora- 
 tions. In addition to the work of the monk of Ely, already 
 largely quoted, the archives of the minster contain very minute 
 accounts of the expenditure upon the whole work, and in matters 
 at the time almost insignificant, though now rendered very 
 important by the paucity of light resting on the history of 
 similar works at the same era. A portion of these has been 
 published by Governor Pownall in the ninth volume of the 
 Archseologia ; but as his object was only to prove the use of oil 
 in tempering colours in the fourteenth century, his extracts are 
 of course limited. 1 
 
 Enough has been said to prove that Alan of Walsingham had 
 a truly creative genius, and that he was well fitted to lead the 
 way in great architectural changes ; yet his greatest and most 
 original work was never followed in restorations, never imitated 
 in new foundations ; and this, probably, from its imperfect effect 
 viewed from without. The lower octagon is indeed amply suf- 
 ficient in area for the great mass of which it forms the centre, 
 and the interior effect is faultless ; but it is wholly deficient in 
 one element of dignity, it is too low to give character to the 
 whole building, as seen from without ; and the upper, or wooden 
 octagon, which is added for the sake of elevation, is small and 
 poor for its position. In the exterior view the eye desiderates 
 the tower. In judging of the work of Alan of Walsingham, it 
 must, however, be borne in mind, that after the erection of the 
 original central tower, a great western tower had been added to 
 the cathedral, which rendered an additional tower in the centre 
 less necessary. 
 
 In its original intention the octagon of Alan of Walsing- 
 ham was the choir of the church, and it was fitted up by 
 
 1 I have thrown into an Appendix to as they are given in the paper above 
 this chapter the more remarkable items mentioned. 
 
33i ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 him 1 with stalls, which were sufficiently perfect to be removed 
 with very slight exceptions to their present place. 
 
 It will be remembered that the three compartments of the 
 presbytery, now used as the choir, were destroyed by the fall of 
 the tower ; and these, too, were restored at the same time. The 
 only name that occurs in connection with this part of the work 
 is that of Bishop Hotham, who, as we are told, constructed the 
 exquisitely beautiful fabric (the new work over the candela- 
 brum as it is called in the Ely Register, as cited by Wharton), 
 which begins where the work of Hugh de Norwold of happy 
 memory ends, and extends to the new portions of the choir : 2 
 the work thus described being the three compartments of the 
 presbytery, which had been destroyed by the fall of the tower ; 
 and this he did, says Godwin at the cost of <£2034 12s. 8d. 
 " as appears by an inscription on the north wall of the said 
 presbytery, which is still to be seen." 
 
 Although this work was going on at the same time with the 
 octagon designed and executed by Alan of Walsingham, it is 
 remarkable how little it has in common with it. It is of ex- 
 tremely rich Decorated character, but if its history were not 
 beyond all doubt, it would be placed a little earlier than the 
 octagon. This may arise in part from the necessity of adapting 
 it to the Early English work of Bishop Norwold ; and this ne- 
 cessity has not only influenced some details, but also a much 
 more important matter, the relative importance of the triforium. 
 In an original design of this date the triforium would almost 
 disappear, but here it is of precisely the same proportions with 
 the fully developed triforium of the earlier work. This is alto- 
 gether a very valuable example of theage. 
 
 Bishop Hotham died in 1336, having made many handsome 
 presents to the church. He was buried at the east of the altar 
 in the choir towards the high altar, under a beautiful stone 
 structure with an image of the Bishop in alabaster upon the 
 tomb, with seven candlesticks gracefully branching from one 
 stem, and images of the creation of man and his expulsion from 
 
 1 Winkles, but of this presently. 
 
 2 " Ipse vero fieri fecit illam mag- 
 nam fabricam pulcram valde, inci- 
 pientem ab opere bonse memorise 
 
 Hugonis de Northwolde, protenden- 
 tern ad novam fabricam chori." Hist. 
 Eli. Wharton, I. 647. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 335 
 
 Paradise, ranged around, besides four images of armed kings 
 and four dragons in four parts of the structure. 1 
 
 Among the benefactions of Hotham thus acknowledged was 
 a contribution towards the construction of a new choir ; that is, 
 I presume, of the wood work, which would probably be com- 
 menced after the octagon, where it was to be placed, was finished ; 
 and which, although it is attributed 2 to Alan of Walsingham, 
 may probably have been designed by another man, and we are 
 told accordingly that in 1338, the following year, the new choir 
 was made by Brother B. de Saxmundham, who received of the 
 executors of Bishop John Hotham 40s. towards the work. 3 
 
 One would suppose that these works were sufficient to try the 
 energies of the Bishop and convent of Ely during the whole 
 course of their erection ; but in fact another and still more gor- 
 geous fabric had been commenced before the fall of the tower, 
 and was in progress during the rest of the episcopate of Bishop 
 Hotham, and was yet unfinished at the death of Simon Mon- 
 tacute, his successor, in 1344. 4 This was the Lady Chapel, 
 the history of which makes us acquainted with one of the most 
 interesting characters connected with ecclesiastical architecture. 
 
 John of Wisbeach had commenced this chapel out of the alms 
 of the faithful, in honour of the Ever Virgin Mary, on the festi- 
 val of her Annunciation, 1321, the venerable and ingenious 
 Alan of Walsingham, (verier abilis et artiftciosus pater Alarms de 
 Walsyngham,) 5 then sub-prior, laying the first stone. At the 
 commencement of the said chapel, brother John had very insuf- 
 ficient means in his hands or in his treasury for the prosecution 
 
 1 " Ipse autem sepultus est in Ec- 
 clesia sua Cathedrali apud Ely, et 
 honorifice collocatus ad partem orien- 
 talem altaris in choro versus magnum 
 altare, sub quadam pulchra structura 
 lapidea, cum imagine Episcopi de ala- 
 bastro super tumulum ipsius erecta, 
 cum vii. candelabris ex uno stipite de- 
 centissime procedentibus ; et circa 
 siquidem imagines de creatione ho- 
 minis et ejectione ejusdem de Para- 
 dise- ; iv. etiam imagines regum arma- 
 torum, et iv. dracones ad iv. partes 
 ejusdem structure. " Ib. 648. 
 
 2 In Winkles' Cathedrals. 
 
 3 Novus chorus factus erat temp. 
 Ed. III. Regis anno 12, A.D. 1338, 
 et sequentibus per fratrem R. de Sax- 
 mundham, &c. Ib. p. 644. 
 
 4 The Lady Chapel was commenced 
 in 1321 : the tower fell in 1322. Ho- 
 tham was Bishop from 1316 to 1336, 
 and Montacute from 1336 to 1344. 
 Alan of Walsingham was sacrist almost 
 the whole of the time. 
 
 5 Hist. Eli. Wharton's Anglia Sacra, 
 p. 651. 
 
336 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of so great an undertaking ; but firmly trusting in the Divine 
 aid, he commended himself and his work to God Almighty and 
 the Blessed Virgin, praying God earnestly and without inter- 
 mission, that He would assist him in all his need : and God 
 Almighty, Who according to His merciful purpose, maketh poor 
 and maketh rich, abaseth and lifteth up, never suffered him 
 either to abound overmuch, or to be greatly in want during the 
 whole of the work ; but kept him always as it were in an equal 
 balance, lest he should either exalt himself in his abundance, or 
 be cast down in his need. Now it came to pass that one day he 
 assembled some of the monks and some seculars, and earnestly 
 entreated their assistance in digging the foundation. When the 
 time came, they commenced digging one night, each alone, in 
 the place assigned him ; but it fell out that the forementioned 
 brother John was digging by himself in the place which fell to 
 his lot, and there, unknown to all his companions, (by God's 
 appointment as it should seem,) he found a brazen vessel full of 
 money, as if it had been placed there on purpose to relieve the 
 necessity which was pressing on him. And when the night was 
 almost passed, at daybreak a little rain began to fall, so as to in- 
 convenience the labourers : and calling his companions together, 
 " Come," said he, " my brethren and fellow-labourers, I give you 
 many thanks for your hearty work, and now it is time for you 
 to rest awhile. I commend you therefore to God, and may He 
 worthily requite your toil." When they were gone, he alone 
 remained, and taking up the vessel with all possible secresy, he 
 placed it in the dormitory under his bed. He took the money, 
 obscured as it was by rust, and cleansed it by rubbing it with 
 chalk and water; and out of that, so long as it lasted, he paid 
 the wages of the labourers. Meanwhile he was not ashamed to 
 receive from the Christians who came to the place, whatever he 
 could obtain, either by begging or selling. Thus passing his 
 life in various labours, by great good management, and by beg- 
 ging, borrowing, and exposing to sale such things as by the 
 laws of his order he might call his own, together with the as- 
 sistance of the Bishop and other venerable men, and the alms of 
 the people, when he had continued the work for twenty-eight 
 years and thirteen weeks, with the greatest care, and when he 
 had now finished the stone structure, together with the images 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 337 
 
 within and without the chapel, to the number of one hundred and 
 forty-seven, besides the small images in the table over the altar, 
 and besides the images at the introit of the host, in the chapel, 
 and the wood- work also covered with lead, and the eastern gable 
 (agabulum orient ale) with two windows on either side of the 
 chapel most beautifully fitted with iron and glass, he died, in a 
 season of pestilence, on the 17th of June, 1349, and left his 
 office to his successor, unburdened with any debt. Besides 
 which, there was found laid up, after his death, to the value of 
 one hundred pounds and more, with jewels and sums of money 
 for the perfecting of the remainder of the work. 1 
 
 This beautiful chapel, on which such true-hearted zeal was ex- 
 pended, is in some respects unique, in all respects remarkable. 
 It extends eastward, parallel with the choir, from the north-east 
 angle of the north transept, and consists of five compartments,, 
 marked externally by far projecting buttresses which rise over 
 the parapet in richly crocketed finials ; the pairs of buttresses 
 at the angles forming larger and turret-like pinnacles. The 
 windows are all of ample proportions, those at the side of five 
 lights, those at the east and west of eight lights respectively. 
 The tracery is throughout of the richest Decorated. The whole 
 of the surface of the west end, even to the buttresses and the 
 gable-cross, is enriched with foliated niches, all originally filled 
 with imagery of beautiful character. In the interior all is gor- 
 geous, from the floor to the roof. A rich arcade of tabernacle 
 work runs round the whole chapel beneath the windows. The 
 spaces between the windows and the window-jambs themselves 
 are enriched with canopies, from which the figures have fallen, 
 but portions of many of the groups in several parts of the 
 chapel still remain, proving that the legendary history of the 
 Blessed Virgin is here profusely illustrated, as that of S. Ethel- 
 dreda is in the interior of the great octagon. The groining is 
 elaborately decorated with bosses at all the intersections of the 
 ribs, which are multiplied by the cross ribs, which give this an 
 early place among liern vaults. In a word, when the statues 
 mentioned in the history were perfect, and the windows were 
 still gorgeous with coloured glass, this must have been a work to 
 compensate the toil and self-devotion of many years. 
 
 1 Hist. Eli. Wharton, I. 651. 
 
 z 
 
338 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Simon Montacute had preceded John of Wisbeaeh to the 
 grave, and was not permitted to see the completion of the glo- 
 rious fabric to which he had been so great a benefactor. He died 
 June 20, 1344, and was buried before the high altar in the new 
 chapel before its completion. The Chapter of Ely now felt that 
 they had a fair opportunity of acknowledging the great benefits 
 which their church had received at the hands of Alan of Walsing- 
 ham, first sub-prior, then sacrist, and afterwards prior, and he 
 was elected to fill the episcopal throne ; but the usurpation of 
 the Pope frustrated their just intentions, and one Thomas de 
 Lylde was thrust into the vacant throne. Here ends, so far as 
 we are concerned, the history of Ely, in the fourteenth century, 
 which we should certainly have closed with greater satisfaction, 
 had we left Alan of Walsingham Bishop of the church which he 
 had so greatly adorned. We cannot leave his name without add- 
 ing that he was the architect of several other buildings, both at 
 Ely and elsewhere. Among others the church of Little S. Mary, 
 Cambridge, is attributed to him; 1 and one of his additions to 
 the monastic buildings of Ely we may mention for its connection 
 with his office and pursuits. He erected a square chamber of 
 stone, covered with lead in the north corner next the cemetery 
 in the upper story of which is a table made square (quadrata, 
 perhaps covered with checkers,) for calculations, and for receiving 
 the accounts belonging to his office ; the lower story is divided by 
 a stone wall into two chambers, one for a goldsmith's workshop, 
 the other for the wine it was his business to keep. 2 His merits 
 were recognised in his own day, and besides his genius as an 
 architect, he is recorded by his townsman Walsingham as a skil- 
 ful worker in gold. He was alive in 1345 : his epitaph is as 
 follows : — 
 
 "Flos operatorum, dum vixit, corpore sanus, 
 Hie jacet ante chorum prior hie tumulatus Alanus. 
 
 1 See Memorials of Cambridge, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 2 In angulo boreali juxta cimiterium 
 cameram lapideam quadratam plumbo 
 tectam construxit, in cujus parte supe- 
 rior! est camera qusedam cum mensa 
 quadrata ad calculandum et ad pro- 
 
 ventus officio pertinentes recipiendum. 
 Sub qua est duplex camera muro 
 lapideo divisa, uno pro selda aurifabri, 
 et alia pro quodam parvo cellario pro 
 vino officii, cum habeatur reponendo. 
 —Ib. 6-16. 
 
THE DECORATED PERIOD. 
 
 339 
 
 Annis bis denis vivens fuit ipse sacrista, 
 Plus tribus his plenis prior ens perfecit et ista. 
 Sacristariam quasi funditus sedificavit ; 
 Mephale, Brame etiam, huic ecclesise cumulavit. 
 Pro veteri turre, qua? quadam nocte cadebat, 
 Hanc turrim, proprie quam cernitis, hie faciebat. 
 Et plures cedes qui fecerat ipse prioris ; 
 Detur ei sedes coelo pro fine laboris." 1 
 
 The chapter on the Decorated period closes as worthily with 
 Alan of Walsingham, as that on the Perpendicular period will 
 commence with William of Wykeham. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Excerpta qusedam e Rotulis Comput. de Expensis et Receptis Sacrista? 
 Eliensis, in Archivis Ecclesice Eliensis manentibus, 1773. 2 
 
 "In the Roll containing the sacrist's annual expenses from (1325, 16 
 Ed. II.) Michaelmas to Michaelmas following, is the charge under the 
 title of Custos novi operis, et minut. res pro novo opere, viz., in 3 lagenis 
 et dimid. olei pro ymaginibus super columnas depingend. 3s. 6d. 
 
 "In the sacrist's annual Roll of expenses about the church, from 
 Michaelmas, 8 Ed. III. (a.d. 1335,) to Michaelmas following, whilst the 
 dome and lanthorn were in building, are these charges made under the 
 general title of ' Custos novi opens,' and particular title of nova pictura. 
 
 " In 80 lib. rubei plumbi empt., pro volta novi campanilis depingend. 
 una cum 20 lib. rubei plumbi empt. pro eodem, 16s. 8d. Item, in 18 lib. 
 rubei plumbi pro eodem, 3s. 9d.prec. lib. 2^d. In 20 lib. de Vernyz, emp. 
 pro eodem, 5s. prec. lib. 3d. Item, in 3 lib. de gold colour emp. ad idem, 
 2s. 2d. Summa, 27s. 7d. 
 
 " In the sacrist's annual Roll of expenses about the church from 
 Michaelmas, 10 Ed. III. (1336) to Michaelmas, 1337, under the title of 
 ' Custos novi operis et nova pictura,' viz. ; In 2 lib. de Vermilion, empt. 
 
 1 Wharton's Anglia Sacra, I. 684. in the ninth volume of the Archseo- 
 
 2 From Governor Pownall's paper logia. 
 
 z2 
 
340 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 20d. Item, in 2| lib. de Verdigrez emp. 2s. 5d. In ^ 1 4 lib. albi 
 plumbi empt. de Thoma de Bongeye, 14s. 4d. prec. lib. l^d. 
 
 "Item, 4 lib. albi plumbi emp. de eodem, 12s. prec. Id. In 13 
 lagenis olei empt. de Thoma d' Elm, 10s. 3§d. prec. lagen. lOd. ob. In 6 
 lagenis olei emp. de Thoma de Cheyk, 4s. lid. prec. lag. lOd. 
 
 "In 28 lagen. et dimid. olei empt. de Nich. de Wickam, 26s. Id. ob. 
 prec. lagen. lid. In dimid. lagen. olei emp. 3d. In vas terren. pro oleo 
 imponend. 4d. quad. 
 
 " In 1 longa corda emp. pro le chapital deaurand. etcolumpn. depingend. 
 8d. Item, solut. Nicholao Pictori pro volta nova dealband. in parte per 
 3 septimanas acl tasc. 3s. 6d. 
 
 " Item, cuidam Pictori pro eodem 3 septimanas ad mensam Domini, 
 21d. In 6 cent, et 1 quarter, fol. argent, empt. de Radulpho de Golbeter, 
 4s. 2d., prec. per cent. 8d. Item, solut. pro fol. auri fabricand. de florent. 
 domini, 16s. in cavenas et parcamen. empt. pro mold. 9d. Item, solut. 
 pro Magro. Will. Scliank, pro dictis voltis depingend. cum le chapital et 
 le bociz deaurand. ex conventione, £10. Summa, £14 19s. 2d. 
 
 " In the same Roll is this article under the title ' Minut. res. Item, dat. 
 Johannis de Offincton querenti 1 pictorem in patria sua, 3s. 6d.' 
 
 " In the sacrist's Roll of annual expenses about the church from 
 Michaelmas, 13 Ed. III. (1339), to Michaelmas following, are these 
 charges made under the general title of ' Custos novi opens,' and the par- 
 ticular head of ' Custos novse picturse.' 
 
 "In 31 lagenis et dimid. olei empt, de quodam nomine de Wicham pro 
 color, temperand. 21s., prec. lag. 8d. 
 
 "In i^- 2 de silverfol. emp. per vices de Radulpho de Golbeter et de 
 aliis apud London ut patet per parcell. 6s. 9d. prec. C. tel. Item, de 
 Goldfyn empt. de eodem per vices ut patet per parcell. 32s. prec. C. 4s. 
 Item, de gold parti empt. de eodem, 36s. prec. C. 3s. Item, 1 lib. de 
 orpiment. empt. 6d. Item, in 3 quarter, de vermilion, empt. de Thoma 
 de Hende, lid. Item, 4 buss de scrowes pro cole inde faciend. 18d. 
 Item, 1 lib. et dimid. albi plumbi empt. apud Cantabrig. 2s. 8d. Item, in 
 6 lib. de vermilion empt. de Robert de Dokkyng, 5s. lib. lOd. In Cynopro 
 empt. 16d. In 40 lib. de blaunk plumb, empt. de Will, de Elingham apud 
 Lenn, 5s. 8d. prec. lib. l|d. In stipend. Walteri Pictoris per 42 septi- 
 manas (quia stetit cum Domina de Clare per 10 septimanas,) 28s. cap. per 
 septiman. 8d. prseter mensam et robam. 
 
 " Excerpta e Rotulo Comput. Custodis Capellae B. Maria? a festo S. Mi- 
 chaelis, An. 24. Reg. Edw. III. per annos 4 sequentes. sub titulo Custus 
 Capelle. In oleo empt. pro picture faciend. in capella, 10s. In albo 
 plumbo empt. 6s. 4d. In cynopre empt. 20s. In vermilion, 3s. In auro 
 empt. pro diet, pictur. £9. Solut. Johanni Pictori pro candelabris et oli- 
 etis pingendis, 20s. Sub. tit. Robe. empt. Item, in 1 Robe empt. pro 
 pictore, 8s." 
 
 1 Seven score. 
 
 2 Thirteen hundred. 
 
341 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Perpendicular Period. 
 
 Interest of Transition Period. — The Nave of Winchester ; Eding- 
 ton and wykeham. — gloucester, norwich, principles of resto- 
 RATION ; Winchester, Canterbury, York, Gloucester, Crowland, 
 Tickhill, Durham, Kirkstall. — Clerestories. — Towers and 
 Spires : Salisbury, Norwich, Coventry, Whittlesea, Rushden, 
 Shrewsbury, Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Chester-le-Street, 
 Louth, Newcastle, Fotheringay, Lowick, Boston, Howden, 
 Derby, Evesham, Norwich, Gloucester, Glastonbury, Bristol, 
 Taunton, North Petherton, Titchmarsh. — Uses of Towers : — 
 Beacons and Landmarks ; Whittlesea, Raunds, the Lantern 
 of Arden, Coventry, Dundry, York, Hadleigh. — Defence ; — Mel- 
 sonby, Middle ham, Spennithorne, Bedale : Irthlingborough, 
 Stanwick, Tenterden. 
 
 There are no two parts of the history of ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture more full of interest, than the two transitional periods from 
 Norman to Early English, and from Decorated to Perpendicular. 
 The first is indeed beyond compare the most important in fact ; 
 but its interest in narrative arises chiefly from the very minute 
 account which Gervase gives in his chronicle of the work of 
 William of Sens at Canterbury, where he first in England, as far 
 as is actually recorded, used the Pointed arch. 1 The late work 
 of Professor Willis on Canterbury cathedral, has revived and 
 heightened the interest of this remote chronicle. 
 
 In the history of the transition from Decorated to Perpen- 
 dicular we have no such description, but again Professor Willis 
 comes to our aid, and helps us to read another part of our his- 
 tory in the walls of Winchester ; and Edington, and William of 
 Wykeham become to us as another William of Sens and William 
 of England. 
 
 1 There is however little doubt that already used ; together with Norman 
 at Fountains, Kirkstall, and Buildwas, details, 
 and some other churches, it had been 
 
342 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The cathedral of Winchester, in which the first great Per- 
 pendicular work was executed, was originally Norman, having 
 been erected by Bishop Walkelyn between 1079 and the end of 
 the eleventh century. 1 The central tower fell in 1107, and large 
 repairs were rendered necessary, which, however, still left a 
 Norman cathedral in plan and details. The usual extension of 
 the choir eastward was made by Bishop de Lucy, in the begin- 
 ning of the thirteenth century, and of course in the Early 
 English style. But the great work which now forms the sub- 
 ject of our history was the conversion of the Norman into a 
 Perpendicular nave, which was commenced by Bishop Eding- 
 ton about 1350, and carried on by his successors Wykeham, 
 Beaufort, and Waynflete, the latter of whom lived till 1486. 
 
 To appreciate the change thus made, we must recall the ap- 
 pearance of a Norman nave and aisles, and observe both the 
 relative proportions of their parts, and the character of their de- 
 tails. On the outside, the flatness of the general effect arising 
 from the shallowness of the buttresses, and the want of pin- 
 nacles, has to be altered ; and the round-headed windows require 
 to be extended in all their proportions, and filled with tracery. 
 Within, the three great arcades, of pier arches, triforium, and 
 clerestory, have to be merged into two ; the triforium having 
 already been reduced in the preceding style, to a deep band of 
 panelling, masking rather than revealing the passage which runs 
 behind it : the clerestory meanwhile has gained as much in im- 
 portance as the triforium has lost ; the necessary panelling being- 
 made a part of the same composition with the tracery of the 
 clerestory windows. Besides these great changes, that from 
 round to pointed in all the arches, and from flat to pointed in 
 the roof, must be made in the general expression, and in the 
 several parts, of a Norman nave, before it becomes even the 
 skeleton of a Perpendicular edifice. 
 
 In matters of detail the Norman pillars were not only of 
 great solidity, but their shape was very different from that to 
 which they are now to be reduced. The section of a Norman 
 pier was ordinarily composed of circles or parts of circles, and of 
 right angles, of half cylinders placed on the face of a square, or 
 engaged shafts within the recess formed by two squares set one 
 ] The present transepts are a part of Walkelyn's work. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 343 
 
 against another. Throughout, both in form and expression, the 
 mass is a pier rather than a pillar ; a part of the wall, isolated, 
 yet still wall-like. In the Perpendicular style the pier vanishes, 
 and the pillar appears. The salient angles which suggest the 
 square face of the wall are rebated, either by a hollow or by 
 some combination of the ogee ; and the attached parts of cylin- 
 ders become in their general proportions rather bowtels than 
 engaged shafts. In like manner the square soffits of the arches 
 must be moulded into hollows and chamfers ; carrying up the 
 lights and shadows which vary the surface of the pillar to the 
 point of the arch, where they are again caught up by some ad- 
 ditional member, and borne aloft till they converge in the bosses 
 of a groined roof. 
 
 The very general terms hitherto employed would be equally 
 applicable to the Decorated; one element however of a new 
 style, and that of considerable importance, not only in itself, but 
 in its effects on the forms of buildings, was first largely used in 
 the Perpendicular, and that at its very first introduction : — the 
 four-centred arch. This form predominates in the works of 
 Edington and Wykeham at Winchester, in the contemporary 
 works at Canterbury, and ever after till the fall of Gothic archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The manner of effecting the change thus described in the 
 nave of Winchester was as follows. 
 
 For the great western towers a front, consisting of a high 
 gable between two pinnacled turrets, and flanked by the ends of 
 the aisles, was substituted i 1 the whole width of nave and aisles 
 respectively being filled with large pointed windows, full of per- 
 pendicular tracery, and the gable, and pinnacles, and in short 
 almost every portion of the wall being enriched with panelling. 
 The external walls of the aisles were pierced with large windows 
 having four-centred heads occupying the whole of the space from 
 buttress to buttress ; and the buttresses on the north side, though 
 not on the south, were extended outwards at the base, and re- 
 duced by several stages till they terminated in panelled and 
 crocketed finials. The windows of the aisles were repeated in 
 the clerestory ; but here, though it would have been quite in 
 
 1 It must be understood, however, spirit of the Perpendicular in western 
 t hat there is nothing alien from the towers. 
 
344 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 keeping with the rest, no pinnacles were raised above the battle- 
 ments. All this was done by the entire destruction of the west 
 end of the Cathedral ; but on the south the old wall remains on 
 the exterior ; and on the north the rubble of which the inside 
 of the thick Norman walls was composed is untouched and the 
 ashlar only is reduced in size, or new ashlar is substituted, as 
 may be necessary to produce the required effect. 
 
 In the interior the whole of the ashlar coating of the walls 
 is either chiselled into the forms required by the new style, or 
 altogether superseded by new work : the former method being 
 pursued by Bishop Edington, and at first by Wykeham, but 
 soon deserted for the second. 
 
 Thus Perpendicular pillars are cut out of Norman piers ; and 
 the additional height is gained by throwing down the triforium 
 arcade, and carrying the new pillars to the level of the bottom of 
 the old triforium passage ; while the arches rise to the middle of 
 the old triforium. Thus the nave pillars are nearly twice the 
 height that they were, and the arches which they support are 
 half as high again as in the Norman church. 
 
 The clerestory windows occupy their original position, but they 
 are altered in form, as before mentioned, and their sills are 
 brought down a little lower. The composition of the clerestory 
 windows, or the same series of tracery lines, is continued down- 
 wards till it masks the triforium gallery ; before which an open 
 parapet extends, still more disguising this marked feature of a 
 Norman church. Throughout the whole of the work the core 
 of the Norman walls remains, wherever it was possible to retain 
 it, and in some parts as much of the original ashlar as could be 
 reduced with the chisel to the new forms. 
 
 Finally, instead of a flat roof extending from clerestory to clere- 
 story, a vaulted ceiling springs from the top of the triforium, 
 and rises over the clerestory, spanning the windows with its 
 several bays. 1 
 
 What part William of Wykeham had in originating and 
 devising this revolution in the nave of Winchester, and designing 
 its details, and how far, therefore, he may be called the origina- 
 tor of the Perpendicular style, is not very clear. The work was 
 
 1 The very valuable figures in Pro- make even this short account entirely 
 fessor Willis' paper, are necessary to clear. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 345 
 
 commenced under Bishop Edington, 1 and as it happens, the part 
 attributed to him is even more intensely Perpendicular than the 
 rest ; the great west window being of a design which might 
 very well be assigned to a century after its real date, and the 
 panelling which is extended over the whole surface of the inte- 
 rior of the west end, being of equally decided character. But 
 though Wykeham did not in his own episcopate, and at his own 
 charges, commence the work, it is not improbable that he de- 
 signed it, and as the friend of Edington superintended its exe- 
 cution. When Edington commenced his episcopate, Wykeham 
 was twenty-three years old. He was introduced to the Bishop by 
 Nicholas Uvedale, governor of Winchester castle, and was after- 
 wards presented to the King by his illustrious patrons : and as 
 he was almost immediately employed as an architect, being made 
 clerk of all the king's works in his manors of Henle and Yeth- 
 amsted, there can be no doubt that it was for a proficiency as an 
 architect, gained and exercised under Uvedale and Edington, that 
 he was commended to the king. We should presume that Uve- 
 dale had found him so competent to order the works in the castle 
 of Winchester that he presented him to the Bishop, when repairs 
 of the Cathedral were determined on ; and that having again 
 approved himself worthy of commendation, he was promoted to 
 the king's service, in which he acquired, as is sufficiently well 
 known, as great trust, reputation, and rewards 2 as have fallen to 
 
 1 Bishop Edington also rebuilt the 
 church of Edington, his native place 
 in Wiltshire, and here it is said the 
 transition to Perpendicular is very ap- 
 parent. 
 
 3 " Windesora fuit pagus celeberri- 
 
 mus, illic 
 Rexstatuit castri msenia magna sui, 
 Wicaraus huic operi prseponitur : inde 
 probatum est 
 Ingenio quantum polluit, arte, fide. 
 Ergo fit Edwardo charus, custosque 
 sigilli 
 
 Non ita post multos incipit esse 
 dies." 
 
 Lord Campbell quotes these lines, 
 and adds, " the analogous case would 
 be, if Mr. Barry, as a recompense for 
 
 his excellent plan for the new houses 
 of parliament, were now to be made 
 Lord Chancellor." 
 
 Now Lord Campbell must know as 
 well as any man that this case would 
 not be at all analogous. Neither was 
 the office of chancellor and the sup- 
 posed requirements for it in Wyke- 
 ham 's time, what they are now ; nor 
 are the education and habits of a pro- 
 fessional architect now, the same with 
 those of a young churchman, and a 
 civilian of the fourteenth century. — 
 Nor again is it for the present day to 
 sneer at such a method of dispensing 
 honours and offices. There is now in- 
 deed, happily, no fear of a Clergyman, 
 for whatever services, being made Lord 
 
346 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 any man's lot for an honourable service of his prince. Nor 
 were his own private works less calculated to ensure him a high 
 and lasting renown. His noble school and college have ever 
 produced him bedesmen, and champions of his fame ; and 
 Edward himself did not better consult his glory in the institu- 
 tion of The Garter, than his noble servant in the foundations of 
 Winchester College and the New College, Oxford. 1 
 
 If space permitted we should gladly pursue the subject of 
 Wykeham's architectural career, but having associated his name 
 with the introduction, or at least the establishment, of a new 
 style, we must refer the reader to an elaborate paper of Mr. 
 Cockerill, in the transactions of the Archaeological Institute, for 
 a summary of his works, and an elegant eulogium of his style ; 
 in which however we must remark that some things are said which 
 are equally true of buildings before Wykehanr's time; and others 
 to which as a matter of taste we might be inclined to demur. 
 
 The whole of the cathedral (then the abbey church) of Glou- 
 cester, received also such modifications as made it in its gene- 
 ral effect a Perpendicular church ; and the process by which the 
 choir was thus transformed, is not less curious than that which 
 we have seen pursued in the nave of Winchester. 
 
 Gloucester Cathedral was originally a Norman church, with 
 the usual short choir, an apsidal east end, and, probably, two 
 western towers. In this form it was dedicated by Abbot Serlo 
 in the year 1100. The great piers and arches, both of choir 
 and nave, of Serlo's work remain ; indeed there is scarcely an 
 English cathedral of which a greater part of the original fabric 
 still exists, but its character is throughout entirely masked. 
 
 I have before had occasion to mention the splendid monument 
 of Edward II., and the reward which this abbey received for the 
 
 Chancellor ; but there is great danger 
 of political and purely secular services 
 being rewarded by the highest spiritual 
 places in the Church. 
 
 1 Few buildings are so minutely dated 
 as these foundations of William of 
 Wykeham. He laid the foundation of 
 his College at Oxford, March 5, hora 
 quarta Ante Meridian, a. d.mccclxxix. 
 and it was first entered as a residence 
 
 on the Sunday next before Palm Sun- 
 day, a.d. mccclxxxvi. April 14, hora 
 tertia Ante Meridian. He laid the 
 first stone of Winchester College, 26 
 March, hora tertia Ante Meridian, 
 a.d. mccclxxxvii. and it was first 
 used hora tertia Ante Meridian, 28 
 March, a.d. mcccxciii. — Geraldus 
 Cambrensis in Anglia Sacra. II. 356. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 347 
 
 charge of that prince's obsequies. The first great evidence of 
 its enriched exchequer which now remains, is the conversion of 
 the aisles into the Decorated of that day. The west front and 
 the two first bays of the nave, together with the south porch 
 were added by Abbot Morwent, in the very richest Perpendicu- 
 lar ; and a clerestory and parapet were afterwards set upon the 
 nave in the same style. The magnificent tower, (the most 
 splendid perhaps in the kingdom, and the pattern after which a 
 series of towers of unexampled beauty have been designed,) was 
 built by Abbot Seabrook about 1455 ; and about the same date 
 the choir received its latest transformation. The Norman piers 
 and arches still remain ; but upon these is erected a lofty clere- 
 story, with elaborate Perpendicular windows, the tracery of which 
 is continued downwards not only over the triforium, as at Win- 
 chester and Canterbury, but to the top of the monuments upon 
 the floor of the choir : so that a veil of open-work seems sus- 
 pended from the roof, over the venerable framework of Norman 
 arches and piers. A window, the largest in the kingdom, 1 occu- 
 pies the square east end, which is fitted upon the semicircular 
 apse ; and the vaulting, which is very complicated, is of course 
 in harmony with the clerestory from which it springs. In ad- 
 dition to such changes, this church had received before the 
 Reformation a Lady Chapel, and the finest cloisters in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The modification of the choir of Norwich has something in 
 common with that of the nave of Winchester, and with that of 
 the choir of Gloucester. Like the piers of Winchester, those of 
 Norwich have a Perpendicular face given to their surface ; like 
 the clerestory of Gloucester that at Norwich is entirely super- 
 added, and like that too the form of the east end is varied from 
 that of the Norman apse, which is retained beneath it ; but at 
 Norwich the Perpendicular portion is a half octagon, at Glou- 
 cester it is square. 
 
 Instances of such transmutations might be multiplied in- 
 definitely, but instead of detailing facts we turn to a great 
 principle of restoration pursued from the very beginning by me- 
 diseval architects ; that they did not imitate the parts of the 
 building already erected, or that which they were restoring, but 
 
 1 Its size is 79x35 feet ; that at the east of York is 76x32. 
 
348 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 they employed the style in use at the time of the restoration. 
 Thus the nave of Winchester was not assimilated to the Norman 
 transepts or Early English choir, but it assumed altogether a 
 new character : the nave of Canterbury was designed after that 
 at Winchester, or at any rate upon the same principles, instead 
 of being adapted to the earlier character of the rest of the build- 
 ing ; and at York, a Perpendicular choir was added to Early 
 English transepts, and a Decorated nave. Even where large 
 parts of the older fabric were retained as the substratum of the 
 new, or where mere insertions were made, the same principle was 
 adhered to. 
 
 At Gloucester the massive Norman skeleton remains to up- 
 hold the superincumbent weight; but a new system, like the 
 delicate tissue of the nerves of expression, in the most eloquent 
 features, is thrown over it, and the enormous bulk and giant 
 strength of a Norman fabric, brightens into cheerfulness and 
 grace. 1 The magnificent Early English west front of Crowland 
 retains all the lower portion, but the upper part is Perpendicu- 
 lar. The fine church of Tickhill in Yorkshire was originally 
 Early English, and some Decorated additions are still retained ; 
 but the whole of the chancel, nave, a ad aisles were rebuilt at 
 the close of the fourteenth century, and the tower still retains 
 its ancient lower stories, the very jambs of the windows remain- 
 ing ; but within these has been inserted one of the most beautiful 
 early Perpendicular windows in the kingdom, and the upper 
 stories are a very rich specimen of the same style. Decorated, 
 and afterwards Perpendicular tracery (but the latter less fre- 
 quently) was continually inserted in Norman and Early English 
 windows, as for instance at Durham, and at Kirkstall Abbey. 
 In short in everything from the greatest to the least the same 
 rule was followed. Each style successively gave way to one 
 which was thought better, and future benefactors did not even 
 in restorations imitate that which they thought worse. 2 
 
 1 To this remarkable specimen of walls with all the gentleness and light- 
 
 the lightest form of Perpendicular the ness of a snow-flake on a flower." 
 
 author of the description in Winkles' 2 After stating a rule broadly, one 
 
 Cathedrals has applied the pretty si- has generally to mention exceptions, 
 
 mile of Mr. Trollope, in his tour buthere even these will be found in some 
 
 through Western France, " the vaulted degree to follow the rule. Westminster 
 
 roof seems to fall upon the supporting Abbey, commenced in Early English 
 
TFIE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 349 
 
 There is besides another feature of church restoration which 
 may best be noticed here. In nine cases out of ten, the 
 clerestory of village churches will be found of a later cha- 
 racter than the aisles, and very generally Perpendicular. This 
 is from a method of restoring the roof which was pursued partly 
 perhaps, from economy, partly because, when the clerestory had 
 become common, it was accepted as a good additional feature. 
 The older roofs were all of high pitch, and many of them ex- 
 tended unbroken over nave and aisles, as at the churches of 
 Bolton-Percy and Patrington, in Yorkshire ; two remarkable 
 examples, the latter especially, of such an arrangement remain- 
 ing in a large church. The long timbers began at length to 
 decay, and the ends had perished before the rest was at all 
 affected. To reconstruct the roof of the same pitch would re- 
 quire new timbers ; — a roof of less pitch might be constructed 
 with the old timbers, the ends only being sawn off. But a low- 
 pitched nave roof required to be raised at the spring, or the 
 general effect would be depressing and gloomy. A wall, there- 
 fore, pierced with windows, was added upon the nave piers : and 
 upon this the new roof was constructed. 1 Thus the clerestory 
 may rather be called, in its history, a part of the roof, than of 
 the walls, of the church ; — an accident, rather than an original 
 feature. But it must be added, that when the use of lead and 
 the introduction of the four-centred arch had caused the general 
 adoption of roofs of low pitch, the clerestory became an original 
 feature of almost all churches with aisles. At Scarborough, 
 
 times, was continued through the De- 
 corated into the Perpendicular period, 
 without a change of the more promi- 
 nent features, hut the mouldings, and 
 the sections of the pillars partake of the 
 style during which they are erected. 
 The nave and choir of York may almost 
 be called uniform in general design, 
 but the tracery, the mouldings, the sec- 
 tions, are found on a minute examina- 
 tion to be purely of the several periods 
 to which they belong. The part of the 
 Presbytery of Ely rebuilt in Decorated 
 times retains the triforium arcade, 
 which is an Early English feature, but 
 
 its details are Decorated, and Beverley 
 Minster is equally remarkable for an 
 adaptation of Decorated details to an 
 Early English plan. 
 
 1 The earliest account of the raising 
 of the roof of a church is that which is 
 given of Odo raising the roof of Can- 
 terbury Cathedral ; and as the work 
 occupied three years, and was there- 
 fore considerable, Professor Willis 
 conjectures that it was done by the 
 addition of a clerestory, as is so fre- 
 quent in later styles. Willis' Canter- 
 bury, p. 30. 
 
350 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 which has an original clerestory, an addition has been made to 
 the height of its walls, at the repair of the roof, analogous to 
 the introduction of a clerestory where there was none originally. 
 The great difference which the introduction of the clerestory has 
 made in the aspect of our village and ordinary town churches, 
 is so great that it could not be passed unnoticed. 
 
 The time of which we are now speaking is distinguished also 
 by the splendour and loftiness of the Towers and Spires 
 which were then erected. The spire of Salisbury, which rises 
 to the height of three hundred and eighty-seven feet from the 
 ground, was erected about the middle of the fourteenth century. 
 In 1361 the spire of Norwich was blown down, and it was re- 
 built by Bishop Percy soon afterwards. 1 S. Michael's spire, 
 Coventry, was built between 1373 and 1395. 2 This is the 
 most beautiful spire in the kingdom : indeed, it is perhaps the 
 most perfect architectural work in design and execution that we 
 have, and though not the highest steeple, yet it is in effect by 
 far the highest : for it does not rise, like Salisbury and Norwich, 
 from the centre of a transeptal church, but from the ground ; and 
 its flying buttresses, and extremely taper form, give it a great ad- 
 vantage over every spire which rises from within battlements. 3 
 
 It would be unpardonable to leave the spire of S. Michael's, 
 without alluding to its two graceful sisters in the same city ; 
 
 1 Glossary. Its height is 318 feet. 
 
 2 " The tall and beautiful steeple, 
 which, for its excellent workmanship 
 and height, is inferior to none in Eng- 
 land, was more than twenty- two years 
 in building, being begun in Anno 
 1373, 47 Ed. III., and finished Anno 
 1395, 18 Ric. II. But I find that in 
 12 Hen. VI. there was a new work 
 begun upon this church, yet what in 
 particular I cannot directly say : how- 
 beit, by the fashion of the building, 
 do I conceive, that the whole body of 
 the church, or the greatest part thereof 
 was then built in that form we now 
 behold it." — Dugdale's Warwickshire, 
 p. 106. 
 
 3 Perhaps in theory the broach is 
 the most perfect form of spire ; but to 
 
 the eye flying buttresses amply com- 
 pensate by their richness for their com- 
 parative imperfection in their task of 
 carrying the eye upward, without a 
 check, from the tower towards the top 
 of the spire. 
 
 I may add the infrequency of the 
 broach in the Perpendicular style has 
 been somewhat misstated. Stanion, 
 in Northamptonshire (an exquisitely 
 graceful example), has been cited as 
 the only instance ; but Kelmark, Bray- 
 port, Thorpe-Malsover, Desbo'rough, 
 Brampton in Northamptonshire, with 
 South Kilworth in Leicestershire, 
 ought to be added ; these are, how- 
 ever, of the same date with Stanion, 
 and probably by the same hand. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 351 
 
 it may truly be said that the three together, in all their varieties 
 of grouping, form a picture not to be surpassed in England ; 
 and when the cathedral still existed, which had, as is generally 
 supposed, three spires, like those at Lichfield, the city of 
 Coventry must have been imposing beyond all present imagina- 
 tion. Even now, there is a single point from which the whole 
 length of S. Michael's and of Trinity church are seen together, 
 with the Grey Friars' steeple beyond, and it would be difficult to 
 mention an architectural group in England 1 which does not 
 shrink from comparison with this. 
 
 Of other remarkable spires of this style we may mention 
 Whittlesea, in Cambridgeshire, Rushden, in Northampton- 
 shire, the two spires of S. Mary and S. Alkmund, Shrewsbury, 
 Laughton-en - le - Morthen, in Yorkshire, Chester -le- 
 Street, in Durham, and finally Louth, in Lincolnshire, the 
 substance of the building accounts of which last I have trans- 
 ferred from the tenth volume of the Archseologia, to the appen- 
 dix to this chapter. They will be found to embrace materials, 
 labour, the additional remuneration of master masons, bells and 
 all their accompaniments, law charges, the expense of the whole 
 work, the means of obtaining supplies, and the record of the 
 conclusion of the work, which was completed between 1501 and 
 1518 : the whole document is one of the most interesting archi- 
 tectural records in existence. 
 
 The number of fine Perpendicular towers is so great, that we 
 must select those only which have an interest beyond their mere 
 beauty, either from their connection with some great name, or 
 from some peculiarity in their structure, or from the influence 
 they may have had on the architecture of a neighbourhood. 
 
 The tower of S. Nicholas, Newcastle, holds a very high 
 place in this list. I shall describe it, and state its importance in 
 the history of architecture, in the words of Rickman. Having 
 mentioned the general character of the church, he proceeds : — 
 " The steeple is the most beautiful feature of the building, and 
 is a most excellent composition : it is early Perpendicular, not 
 much enriched, but producing a very fine effect ; it is the type, 
 of which there are various imitations : the best known are 
 
 1 The Pisan group of Cathedral, Campo Santo, is the group in the 
 Baptistery, Leaning Campanile, and world. 
 
352 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 S. Giles's, Edinburgh, the church at Linlithgow, the college 
 tower at Aberdeen, and its modern imitation by Sir C. Wren, 
 at S. Dunstan's in the East, London ; but all these fall far short 
 of the original. The tower is engaged, and opens to the nave 
 and aisles by beautiful arches : the corners are bold buttresses, 
 crowned by octagonal turrets, with pinnacles ; from the base of 
 these turrets spring four flying buttresses, on the intersection of 
 which is placed an elegant lantern, crowned with a spire. The 
 flying buttresses are crocketed, and are peculiarly graceful in 
 their forms. This steeple is as fine a composition as any of its 
 date, and the lightness and boldness of the upper part can 
 hardly be exceeded/' 
 
 Those who have seen this beautiful steeple, will wonder that 
 the same design was not more frequently adopted by contempo- 
 rary, and imitated by succeeding architects. 1 The same remark 
 may be made of another class of towers, most of them to be re- 
 
 1 Sir Christopher Wren imitated this 
 steeple in S. Dunstan's in the East. 
 Mr. Carter, in Vol. LXXXIII. p. 335, 
 
 " S. DUNSTAN. 
 
 " Width of tower, twenty feet. 
 Proportionate height, three stories to 
 the battlements of the tower. 
 
 "Doorway to first story, and one 
 window to each front of second and 
 third story. 
 
 " Abutting or flying arches in the 
 summit of the tower, plain masonry 
 without mouldings or ornament. 
 These arches bearing in their centre 
 an unapplying perforated (in its base) 
 obelisk. 
 
 " Obelisk pedestals, great and 
 small, at tbe angle and centre of each 
 point of the tower." 
 
 Notwithstanding its comparative 
 poverty, the spire of S. Dunstan's was 
 a great favourite with Wren, who 
 would probably have affected to ridi- 
 cule the glorious steeple of Newcastle. 
 
 of the "Gentleman's Magazine," gives 
 the following comparative account of 
 the two steeples. 
 
 " S. Nicholas. 
 
 " Width of tower, forty feet. Pro- 
 portionate height, five stories to the 
 battlements of the tower. 
 
 " Doorway to first story, and one 
 window to each front of second, third, 
 and fourth story ; to the fifth story on 
 each front two magnificent windows. 
 
 " Flying or intersecting ribs on the 
 summit of the tower, replete with 
 mouldings and corresponding orna- 
 ments. These ribs bearing in their 
 centre an efficient perforated lanthorn 
 and spire. 
 
 " Characteristic pinnacles, great and 
 small, at the angles and centre of each 
 front of the tower, with battlements, 
 demy ditto, crockets and terminating 
 vanes ; pinnacles to the lanthorn with 
 crockets and vanes ; spire with crockets 
 and a vane, (number of vanes, thir- 
 teen,) with eight small buttress flying 
 arches, for the support and embellish- 
 ment of the several pinnacles." 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 353 
 
 ferred to this age, of which we may take Fotheringay as the 
 type. The ordinary square tower is surmounted by an octago- 
 nal lantern of much smaller dimensions, which is connected 
 with the tower, in composition, by flying buttresses from the 
 bases of the angle pinnacles. Though Fotheringay is perhaps 
 the best known example, it is far from being the most graceful, 
 or the most splendid ; the neighbouring tower of Lowick, 
 where the same general design is followed, exceeding it in 
 beauty, and that of Boston, in Lincolnshire, setting all compe- 
 tition at defiance. Rickman thus describes this beautiful struc- 
 ture : — " The tower, which is one of the finest compositions of 
 that style, is a complete arrangement of panelling over walls and 
 buttresses, except the belfry story, in which the window is so 
 large as nearly to occupy the whole face of the tower. A very 
 rich and elegant octagonal lantern rises from the tower, and is 
 supported by flying buttresses from the four pinnacles ; this 
 lantern is panelled throughout, and each side pierced with a large 
 two-light window, having double transoms; this composition 
 gives to the upper part of the steeple a richness and lightness of 
 appearance scarcely equalled in the kingdom. The details of 
 the tower are very good, and the whole church is deserving- 
 careful study." 1 
 
 The central tower of the collegiate-church at Howden is con- 
 nected with the name of Skirlaw, of which we shall have again 
 to make honourable mention ; it is not only a magnificent tower 
 but curious as having been erected as a refuge in time of floods, 
 to which the low country in which it stands is still subject, and 
 was once far more so. 
 
 The tower of All Saints, Derby, has deservedly a very high 
 reputation ; it is late in the style, as is also the detached campa- 
 nile at Evesham, which forms a part of so singular and elegant 
 a group, with the two churches within the reach of its shadow. 
 To these may be added S. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, as a 
 fine specimen of flint building with stone panels. 
 
 But the most remarkable of our Perpendicular towers, both 
 
 1 There are several Early English of a broach without the flying but- 
 
 and Decorated octagons, but they rise tresses, and their character is very 
 
 from within parapets, or in the manner different. 
 
 A A 
 
354 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in itself and for its influence on the ecclesiastical architecture of 
 a large district, is that of Gloucester, erected by Abbot Sea- 
 brook, about 1455. 1 This noble tower rises above two hundred 
 feet from the ground, and about one hundred from the top of 
 the roof of the choir. It consists of two lofty stories, each 
 with two windows in each face, set within an elaborate system 
 of buttresses, pediments, and panels, all of the richest descrip- 
 tion, and surmounted by a crenellated parapet, flanked by four 
 turret-like pinnacles, all of delicate open work to the very finials. 
 This upper portion of the tower is light and graceful almost be- 
 yond the natural capacity of stonework ; and it is in this espe- 
 cially, though not exclusively, that Seabrook's noble tower has 
 given the character to so many others. Some of the more im- 
 portant of these towers are to be found at Glastonbury, (S. 
 John's,) S. Stephen, Bristol, and S. Mary, Taunton, with 
 which last the tower of North Petherton is associated by 
 some resemblance of composition, and by a tradition that the 
 same architect designed the two works. The peculiarity of these 
 Somersetshire towers is, besides their rich parapet and pinnacles, 
 the open stonework of the belfry windows, and the mode in which 
 the stair turret is almost always made an ornamental external 
 feature. They owe not a little of their beauty to the rich colour 
 of the stone. Only a visitor of the west of England can have 
 an adequate impression of the degree in which the whole coun- 
 try is studded with beautiful towers more or less of this charac- 
 ter. Nor must it be supposed that they are to be found only, 
 though chiefly in the district before-mentioned. Titchmarsh, 
 in Northamptonshire, is a good example in a distant county. 
 
 From the immediate subject of the towers and spires of the 
 fifteenth century, it is at least a natural digression to the parti- 
 cular purposes which towers and spires have been made to serve. 
 
 1 This is one of the few examples 
 of ancient fabrics with an historical 
 inscription. — " Gloucester Cathedral 
 tower, built by abbot Seabroke, the 
 finishing of which he committed to 
 Robert Tully oue of the monks, after- 
 wards Bishop of S. David's. The fact 
 is still perpetuated in the following lines 
 within the choir, over the great arch. 
 
 ' Hoc quod digestum specularis opus- 
 
 que politum 
 Tullii hsec ex onere Seabroke abbate 
 
 jubente.' 
 
 The name, motto, and arms of this 
 abbot are still remaining in many of 
 the bricks which formed the old pave- 
 ment of the choir." — Dugdale, Vol. I. 
 p. 536, quoted from the Glossary, 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 355 
 
 This question in relation to a certain class of towers, is the subject 
 of one of the most interesting, and decidedly the most learned 
 ecclesiological works ever published, that of Mr. Petrie on the 
 round towers of Ireland : these are clearly shown to have served 
 the threefold purposes of belfries, of keeps or monastic treasure 
 houses, and of watch towers and beacons, and to all these pur- 
 poses we shall find the steeples of England frequently applied. 
 
 The use of towers for bells is indeed their primary and natural 
 use, but of this we have spoken in a former chapter. We pro- 
 ceed to their remaining uses as beacons and landmarks 1 which 
 could not but occur to the wayfaring man on land or by sea, 
 and it is far from improbable that lights were sometimes kept 
 burning in them, to make them more effective way-marks by 
 night. Lingard gives a passage from Wolstan, in which he de- 
 scribes the tower of Winchester as serving these purposes to the 
 traveller : though it does not seem to me to imply that the lights 
 were kept burning : the sine node dies being only an hyperbolical 
 way of expressing its height, as if the sun never set upon the 
 gilded ball, and upon the cock which looked down 
 " Aureus ornatu grandis et intuitu" 
 
 on all beneath. 
 
 The passage is, however, so much to our purpose that I shall 
 give it at length, calling especial attention to the happy expres- 
 sion of the traveller's joy on beholding the distant object. 
 
 " Insuper excelsum fecistis et addere templum, 
 
 Quo sine nocte manet continuata dies. 
 Turris ab axe micat, quo sol oriendo coruscat, 
 
 Et spargit lucis spicula prima suae. 
 Stat super auratis virgaa fabricatio bullis, 
 
 Aureus et totum splendor adornat opus. 
 Luna coronato quoties radiaverit ortu, 
 
 Alteram ab sede sacra surgit ad astra jubar. 
 Si nocte inspiciat hunc praetereundo viator, 
 
 Et terram stellas credit habere suas. 
 
 1 The site of one of our finest Ab- the watch-tower. It seems probable 
 beys had its Saxon name from this that the headland of S.Hilda's Abbey- 
 important use. " Streones-Halch, was used in those early times, as it 
 (now Whitby) a compound Saxon was likely to have been after its resto- 
 word, signifying, as our Bede explains ration, for a lighthouse to ships at sea." 
 it, ' Sinus Phari,' or the headland of — Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire. 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Additur ad speciem, stat ei quod vertice G alius 
 
 Aureus ornatu, grandis et intuitu. 
 Despicit omne solum, cunctis supereminet arvis, 
 
 Signiferi et Boreae sidera pulchra videns. 
 Imperii sceptrum pedibus tenet ille superbis, 
 
 Stat super et cunctum Wintonise populum. 
 Imperat et cunctis evectus in aera gallis, 
 
 Et regit occiduum nobilis imperium. 
 Impiger imbriferos qui suscipit undique vintos, 
 
 Seque rotando suam prsebet eis faciem. 
 Turbinis horrisonos suffertque viriliter ictus, 
 
 Intrepidus perstans, flabra, nives tolerans. 
 Oceano solem solus vidit ipse ruentem ; 
 
 Auroree primum cernit et hie radium. 
 A longe adveniens oculo vicinus adhseret, 
 
 Figit et adspectum dissociante loco ; 
 Quo fessus rapitur visu mirante viator, 
 
 Et pede disjunctus, lumine junctus adest." 
 
 But let us pass on to instances still before our eyes. 
 
 The spire of Whittle sea on the broad fen of that name 
 must have been a guide to many a wanderer. The spire of 
 Raunds, though in a hilly country, yet peeping over the top of 
 almost every eminence, and seen at a great distance, is still a land- 
 mark for a large district of Northamptonshire. 1 The woody 
 country of Warwickshire, known as the forest of Arden, had its 
 guide in the " Lantern of Arden " as the tall spire, now 
 no more, of Astley church was called. The three spires of 
 Coventry in the same district, are still visible over the well 
 wooded country for many miles. But the most important 
 waymarks are certainly those which direct the sailor on the 
 trackless sea. To him every headland marked by a distinct 
 object is valuable, and this object is often a church tower (a 
 spire very seldom) and there can be no doubt that many towers 
 have been erected on such places, for that purpose. 2 Generally 
 there is indeed no direct evidence that the towers which are 
 
 1 In 1826 it was partly destroyed by 
 lightning, and the subscriptions for its 
 restoration were increased by its value 
 to huntsmen as a landmark. A strange 
 practical comment on the uses of 
 spires ! 
 
 2 The author of Ilierologus refers to 
 
 this use of towers. — "How often, for 
 example, is a noble situation on a cliff 
 chosen, that the erection may exter- 
 nally be a guide to mariners, as it is 
 internally to those who are tossed upon 
 the waves of this troublesome world ! 
 All along the Norfolk coast one has 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 357 
 
 turned to so good use were purposely adapted to it : but in some 
 instances this has certainly been the case. The tower of Dun- 
 dry church, near Bristol, altogether disproportioned to its little 
 church, occupies the summit of a high hill, and is visible far 
 down the channel. It was erected by the merchants adventurer 
 of Bristol. 1 The beacon intensified the value of a tower as a 
 landmark, and also rendered it important in days in which in- 
 telligence was not otherwise so rapidly conveyed, as a means of 
 communication between distant places, and of making signals, 
 important to the peace and security of the realm. Of such 
 beacons none is more remarkable than the lantern of All Saints 
 Pavement, York, which is an octagon erected upon the tower, 
 like those of Lowick and Fotheringay, but much lighter ; a 
 large lamp used to hang in it, which served as a beacon to noc- 
 turnal travellers over the extensive forest of Galtres. A hook 
 and pulley still remain, 2 by which the light is supposed to have 
 been suspended. But the more usual beacon was a fire lighted 
 in an iron framework, on the top of an angle turret. The tur- 
 ret is frequent enough, but I believe one example only of the 
 fire pot remains, and this is at Hadleigh in Essex. 3 
 
 examples of this use. Cromer church 
 is a notable instance : so Boston 
 1 Stump :' so Patrington, in Yorkshire, 
 a noble building, commands the en- 
 trance of the Humber, and is a famous 
 beacon : so Westbourne, in Sussex : so 
 S. Buryan, in Cornwall : so Paul, or 
 S. Paulinus, as it should be called (in 
 the same county, and near the last- 
 named church,) where there seems a 
 beacon-tower for kindling a light, 
 should it be needed." 
 
 1 See Hierologus, p. 305. It is one 
 of those in which the character of 
 Gloucester tower is followed. A stone 
 in it is dated 1482. Hierologus relates 
 an amusing tradition concerning it : — 
 
 u One architect is said to have 
 built the towers of Chew Magna, and 
 Chewton Mendip, and after these of 
 Dundry ; and this may be true. Tra- 
 dition further reports him to have given 
 
 the last village its name, by exclaiming, 
 on completing the tower, Now I 
 have done dree ! " 
 
 2 1813, Cave's Picturesque Buildings 
 in York. 
 
 3 The Cathedral of York also af- 
 forded till a comparatively recent 
 period, a beacon of late erection on an 
 interesting occasion. A little turret ap- 
 peared which at an angle of the central 
 tower was a beacon erected in 1666, by 
 order of the Duke of Buckingham, to 
 place lights in to alarm the country in 
 case of an invasion from the Dutch 
 and the French, with whom this coun- 
 try was then at war. In December 
 1803 this beacon was taken down, to 
 make room for another kind of beacon, 
 which was not however erected, to give 
 notice of the expected invasion by the 
 French. — See Browne's York. 
 
358 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 We have still to mention the application of church towers to 
 the purposes of warfare, defensive at the least, and these occur 
 as might be expected, in greatest numbers in the unquiet dis- 
 tricts, and among the numerous castellated edifices of the border 
 country. At Melsonby, near Gilling, in Yorkshire, where there 
 was an important fortress, the tower, which is very large and 
 massive, is divided in the centre by a strong but rough partition 
 of stone work, so that assailants who had even entered the tower 
 from the church, had yet another and much stronger fortification 
 to pass, before they could reach those who had taken refuge 
 within : and in the west wall is a peculiar little loop-hole, 
 adapted for covert communication with the exterior. At Mid- 
 dleham, the tower of the church has been fitted up apparently 
 as a guard-room ; there is a fire-place in one corner, and a look- 
 out towards the castle of the Nevilles immediately adjoining. 
 At the neighbouring church of Spennithorne, several figures, 
 which at a distance look like men on the watch, are placed on 
 the battlements, so as to give to the tower an appearance of 
 being garrisoned. 1 At Harlestone, in Northamptonshire, one 
 stage immediately below the belfry is only approachable by a 
 narrow gallery, which runs along the west end of the nave, and 
 has singular and substantial fastenings on the inside, which could 
 only be used for purposes of defence. At Bedale, again, the 
 tower is fitted up as a temporary residence. This need not how- 
 ever always have reference to defence. At Irthlingborough the 
 octagon was divided by a floor into two stories, and each had its 
 fire-place and other conveniences for habitation : it was probably 
 part of the domestic offices of the college, erected at the same 
 date. The very graceful octagon of Stanwick, which is open 
 at all sides, and the approach to which is finished with more de- 
 licacy than is usual in portions of buildings out of sight, was 
 possibly the solarium, or summer-house, which Robert de Lyn- 
 desey, Abbot of Peterborough, (1214 to 1222,) is recorded to 
 have built in that parish. 2 
 
 I shall perhaps be excused if I conclude this account of the 
 singular or accidental uses of steeples, by transcribing an expla- 
 
 1 The same is the case on the bars resque Buildings of York,) buildings 
 of Micklegate and Bootham, and on altogether military. 
 Monk bar, York, (see Cave's Pictu- 2 See Gunton's Peterborough. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 359 
 
 nation of a Kentish proverb from a book now something out of 
 date, though once well known, and in which one would hardly 
 look for so odd an ecclesiological morsel. Ray, in his "Proverbs," 
 has the following. 
 
 " Tenterden steeple's the cause of Goodwin's Sands. 
 
 " This proverb is used when an absurd and ridiculous reason is given of 
 anything in question ; an account of the original whereof I find in one of 
 Bishop Latimer's Sermons, 1 in these words : ' Mr. Moore was once sent 
 with commission into Kent, to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of 
 Goodwin's Sands, and the shelf which stopped up Sandwich Haven. 
 Thither cometh Mr. Moore, and calleth all the country before him, such as 
 were thought to be men of experience, and men that could of likelihood 
 best satisfy him of the matter concerning the stopping of Sandwich Haven. 
 Among the rest came in before him an old man, with a white head, and one 
 that was thought to be little less than an hundred years old. When Mr. 
 Moore saw this aged man, he thought it expedient to hear him say his 
 mind in this matter ; for being so old a man, it was likely that he knew most 
 in that presence, or company. So Mr. Moore called this old aged man unto 
 him, and said, Father, tell me, if you can, what is the cause of the great 
 arising of the sands and shelves here about this haven, which stop it up, 
 so that no ships can arrive here. You are the oldest man I can espy in all 
 the company, so that if any man can tell the cause of it, you of all likeli- 
 hood can say most to it, or at leastwise more than any man here 
 assembled. 
 
 " 1 Yea, forsooth, good Mr. Moore, (quoth this old man,) for I am well 
 nigh an hundred years old, and no man here in this company anything 
 near my age. 
 
 " 1 Well then, (quoth Mr. Moore,) how say you to this matter ? What 
 think you to be the cause of these shelves and sands, which stop up Sand- 
 wich Haven ? 
 
 "'Forsooth, Sir, (quoth he,) I am an old man: I think that Tenter- 
 ton steeple is the cause of Goodwin's Sands. For I am an old man, Sir, 
 (quoth he,) I may remember the building of Tenterton steeple, and I 
 may remember when there was no steeple at all there. And before that 
 Tenterton steeple was in building, there was no manner of talking of any 
 flats or sands that stopped up the haven.' 
 
 " Thus far the Bishop. Fuller, however, remarks, ' That one story is 
 good till another is told ; and though this be all whereupon this proverb is 
 generally grounded, I met since/ says he, ' with a supplement thereunto : 
 it is this. Time out of mind money was constantly collected out of this 
 county, to fence the east banks thereof against the irruptions of the sea, 
 
 | 1 Bishop Latimer's Sermons are singularly full of touches interesting to the 
 ecclesiologist. 
 
360 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 and such sums were deposited in the hands of the Bishop of Rochester ; 
 but because the sea had been quiet for many years, without encroaching, 
 the Bishop commuted this money to the building of a steeple, and endow- 
 ing a church, at Tenterden. By this diversion of the collection for the 
 maintenance of the banks, the sea afterwards brake in upon Goodwin's 
 Sands. And now the old man had told a rational tale, had he found but 
 the due favour to finish it : and thus sometimes that is causelessly accounted 
 ignorance of the speaker, which is nothing but impatience in the auditors, 
 unwilling to attend to the end of the discourse.' " 
 
 I am quite as much aware as the reader can be, of the desul- 
 tory nature of the last few pages, but hope it may be excused in 
 a work w r hose object it is to combine ecclesiological notes on 
 several subjects, with the more continuous course of direct 
 history. With this apology I proceed to a few of the principal 
 church builders of these times. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from the accounts for building Louth Broach. 
 
 £. ». 
 
 Page 2. Paid for stone and expenses at the quarrel to the 
 broach. 
 
 Item, paid to John Chapman, merchant, William John- 
 son riding to the quarrel by four days, and other two 
 men charing stone, and to William Nettleton in his 
 expenses . . . .06 
 
 Item, paid to William Johnson for his labour 12d. and 
 
 his horshire 13d. . . .02 
 
 Item, paid to the quarryn for stone at that time . 40 
 
 Item, paid William Nettleton, charing stone at the said 
 
 quarrel to the broach . . . .01 
 
 Page 17. Memorandum, There is coming home stone to the 
 broach, 10 score foot and 5, and to the gallery within 
 the steeple, 40 foot grofts and 10 orbs. 
 Page 26. Item, paid to William Nettleton, riding to the 
 quarrell for to buy stone to the broach, and for to get 
 a master mason, for to take charge of the said broach, 
 by four days, 2s., and to John Miller for his horse- 
 hire and his own cost, 20d. . . sum 3 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 361 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Page 27. For to make a Loch tolay stone in. 
 
 Paid to Robert Beverley for 6 bunch sewing rope . 5 
 
 Also paid to Thomas Taylor for latts 200 and f, 12^d. 
 nails, 6d., straw, 2s. 4d., l|lb. of wax, 10|d., rosin, 
 lflb., lfd. . . . sum 4 4J 
 
 Also paid to William Thomas and William Palmer, levy- 
 ing the ground for to sett the broach upon, and re- 
 moving stone by three days, 2s. also for four load sand 
 gathering, 8d. . . . .028 
 
 Page 28. Item, paid to the bailiff of Consby for toll, for stone 
 
 carriage in great for the broach by . .050 
 
 Page 31. Item, also that Thomas Taylor paid to Robert 
 
 Peniston for lyme . . . 12 
 
 Item, winding up stone to the broach . .060 
 
 Item, paid to William Plumer by three days rolling up 
 
 lead . . . . . 12 
 
 Item, paid Good-Fryday to Maister Mason's man, mak- 
 ing mortar by 9 days . . .038 
 
 Paid for the making. 
 
 Memorandum, that the Abbot of Louth Park gave one 
 yew-tree to it. 
 
 Item, paid to the said Abbot for one tree . .034 
 Item, paid for felling of them 4d.,and to William John- 
 son one load, 6d., and Robert English gave t'other 
 load. 
 
 John Harrison, smith, for one pully shife of brass, 16d., 
 for Spanish iron, 2s. 
 Page 38. Memorandum, that the said accomptants has bor- 
 rowed to the building of the broach, of the alderman 
 and brethren of our lady Gyld, and the com'onty shall 
 pay to the said Gyld again, as it appears in the ac- 
 compt book of our Lady Gyld . . 6 13 4 
 
 Also that the said accomptants has received of William 
 Johnson and Richard Brough, Deans of our Lady Gyld, 
 by the assent of the alderman and brethren of the said 
 Gyld, for to buy stone to the broach, as it appears in 
 their accompt, sum 40s., the which sum was borrowed 
 of our Lady Hock for to buy wax. 
 
 And the said accomptants by the assent of the com'onty, 
 has laid to pledge to the said alderman and brethren 
 the best chalice, belonging to the high altar, the which 
 chalice lays in Trinity hutch. 
 Page 64. That the said accomptants has borrowed of the 
 alderman and brethren of our Lady Gyld this year, to 
 the building of the broach . . . 4 4 1| 
 
362 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 £. 8. a. 
 
 Which sum was paid of the arrears of "William Watson, 
 Dean of the brotherhood, as it appears in our Lady 
 books, An.Dom. 1503, and paid by the hands of John 
 Chapman, merchant . . . . 4 4 1 1 
 
 Page 74. Memorandum, that the com'onty of this town, 
 oweth to master alderman George Fitzwilliams, Esq., 
 and brother of this Gyld, as it appears the year afore, 
 to the building of the broach, the which belongs to 
 our lady Gyld . . . sum 36 8 8 
 
 The which the said com'onty has laid to pledge to the 
 said master alderman and brethren two silver crosses, 
 one of their best chalices, and their silver pax. 
 Page 85. In the first for 17 load square pieces of Hazle- 
 
 brough stone . . . . 38 
 
 Also for 10 load of Willsforth square pieces . 20 
 
 Also for 54 foot crokytts, price 1 foot, 2d. 38 4 
 
 Also paid to Nicholas Brancell, for 100 foot achlere, and 
 squinches of 18 inches high, and 15 at the least, price 
 the foot 2|d. . . . . 25 
 
 Lawrence, and William, and Christopher Scune, master 
 masons from 1505 — 6 to 1515. 
 Page 187. 1510, paid to Lawrence and William master ma- 
 son, Christopher Scune his prentice. 
 Page 111. Paid to Christopher Scune, master mason, making 
 molds to the broach, by two days, the Sunday after 
 Easter . . . . . 16 
 
 Page 119. Memorandum, that Master George Fitzwilliam bor- 
 rowed of the said accomptants belonging to the kirk, 
 100 wt. of web lead, 1 qr. f and 61b. ; also borrowed 
 another time 100 wt. old lead, and | and 71b. of the 
 same Kirk of Louth. 
 Page 124. Gifts given when the first stone was set of the 
 broach by diverse men. 
 
 Item, received of the gift of George Fitzwilliam, Gent. 20 
 
 Item, received of John White, priest, for old timber 
 taken off the highest floor within the steeple . 16 
 
 Page 123. Paid first Sunday after Easter to Christopher 
 Scune, master mason, for half a year, being fee the 
 year afore . . . . 10 
 
 Also paid to the said master in a reward for . . 10 
 
 Item, Hugh Smith, three days, 12d., &c. 
 
 Item, paid sawing stone by eleven tonn . .074 
 Page 178. Item, paid for great cable to wind up stone 23,4 
 
 fathom, bought at Lynn . . 16 4 
 
 Carriage by water to Ingoldmells . . 3 
 
THE PERPENDICULA.il PERIOD. 363 
 
 £. S. d. 
 
 And for a man wages and cost, 2s., and carrying to 
 Louth, 16d., bell string, lid., a tub, 4d., a spade, 4d., 
 shovel, Id. 
 
 Page 179. Paid for nether scaffolds of the broach and mid- 
 dle scaffolds. 
 
 Item, for eight pieces, 8d., and for middle scaffolds, two 
 pieces going through, 16d., eight smaller liggers, 4d., 
 weighing wood, 4d., four trees, 12d., nine pieces lig- 
 ging aboon trees, 4d., four sparrs, 2s., two pieces over 
 scaffold, 19d., four sparrs, 12d., raising tree and beam, 
 lOd. 
 
 Page 203. Memorandum, Thomas Alderton paid Mr. Kiggs, 
 Bailiff of Consby, for toll as long as the broach is in 
 hand, and to it be ended, as appears by a bill of 
 his own hand, which bill is lying in the com'on 
 hutch . . . . . 10 
 
 Latts, 2d., Dodington stone kirk style . .002 
 
 Page 235. Five strike lyme, 7d., strike charcoal, 2d., key for 
 the west kirk door, 4d. 
 
 Page 264. Paid Lawrence Mason for riding to his master in 
 north country for to spure 1 him whether he would 
 make end of the broach, and he said he would deal no 
 more with it, but he showed his councel, sum .068 
 William Walker and Lawrence Mason riding to Bos- 
 ton to speak with master Mason to make end of 
 broach . . . . .020 
 
 Page 300. Memorandum, that the said broach was 15 years 
 setting up, which cost as appears afore. 
 
 Page 266. Memorandum, the 15th Sunday after Holy Tri- 
 nity of this year (1515) the weathercock was set upon 
 the broach of Holy Rood Eve after, there being 
 William Ayleby, parish priest, with many of his bre- 
 thren priests there present, hallowing the said weather- 
 cock, and the stone that it stands upon, and so con- 
 veyed upon the said broach ; and then the said priests 
 singing Te Deum Laudamus with organs, and then the 
 kirkwardens garred ring all the bells, and caused all 
 the people there being to have bread and ale, and all 
 the loving of God, our lady, and all saints. And the 
 said Thomas Bradley lived after by five years. 
 Memorandum, that Thomas Bradley, mercer, said that 
 he might mean well, and saw the first stone set upon 
 the said steeple, and also the last stone upon the said 
 
 1 ? Speer, ask. 
 
364 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 £. s. d 
 
 broach. And also Agnes, the wife of Robert English 
 Barker, said the same with many more. 
 
 Memorandum, that the steeple is in length, from the 
 ground to the highest stone of the broach by the 
 king's yard, 18 score feet, and great measure shewed 
 by master mason and his brethren. 
 
 Memorandum, that Thomas Taylor, draper, gave the 
 weathercock, which was bought in York of a great 
 baron, and made at Lincoln : and the king of the 
 Scotts brought the same baron into England with 
 him. 
 
 Good money and evil money. 
 Page 268. Memorandum, cost and charges of the broach by 
 
 15 years, 14 score and £8. and 3s. . . 288 3 
 
 And also this year ending and paid diverse men .17 4 5 
 
 Sum, 15 score pounds and 5 seven shillings and four- 
 pence ..... 305 7 5 
 Page 177. Paid for Bells. 
 
 To Oliver Whitaker, sen. to the bell-founder, Notting- 
 ham . . . . . 40 
 
 Item, paid to the said Oliver, in full payment and pay- 
 ments in any condition which belongs to his said 
 master, as appears by a indenture and obligation 
 which he broke and cancelled . . 3 20 
 
 Also paid Palmer taking diverse suits at London, of bell- 
 founder of Nottingham, for because he would not de- 
 liver three new bells . . . 19 
 
 Page 181. Memorandum, the weight of three bells in Louth. 
 
 Cwt. qr. 
 
 Item, the 1st, the least bell called John Weyner . 13 1 
 
 Cwt. lbs. 
 
 Item, the middle bell 15 cwt. | except 91b. . 15 47 
 
 Item, the great bell called Stella Mariae, weigheth 18 cwt. 
 
 except 121b. . . . 17 44 
 
 The Kest bell-clapper weigheth a quarter of cwt. and 
 
 121b. . . . . 40 
 
 The middle bell-clapper, a quarter of cwt. and 161b. . 44 
 
 The great bell-clapper, | cwt. and 61b. . 62 
 
 Memorandum, that the three new bells weighed heavier 
 than the three old bells in metal, which bell-getter 
 
 1 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 365 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 had in money, £7 8s. which was borrowed of Trinity 
 hutch, as appears by accompts there. 
 Page 91. Paid for making three new bells to Nottingham 
 bell-getter. 
 
 Paid for three indentures making betwixt this town and 
 
 the said bell-getter . . . .040 
 
 Paid William Foster riding to the said bell-getter to 
 
 Nottingham, to see the bells casting, his expences . 4 
 
 Paid Thomas Wright and Robert Burnet, carrying two 
 
 of the said bills to Bracebridge, besides Lincoln . 6 8 
 
 Item, carrying the first bell to Bracebridge . .008 
 
 Riding to Nottingham for the said bells, by six days . 4 4 
 
 Item, carrying said three bells from Bracebridge to 
 
 Louth, two loads . . . .094 
 
 Making three bell clappers . . 14 
 
 Paid to Hardy, for carrying the rope from Saltfleet 
 
 Haven to Louth . . . .006 
 
 Page 162. Paid in expences to them that carried two new 
 
 bells from Nottingham to Louth . .008 
 
 Item, paid to John Spencer for an obligation making . 4 
 Page 286. Paid to the bell-founder of Nottingham part of a 
 
 more sum for casting Trinity bell . .068 
 
 Paid Robert Goldsmith riding to Nottingham for Trinity 
 
 bell . . . . 20 
 
 Paid to Thomas Wayt and Richard Mason, keeping the 
 
 clock and winding up the chime plumb . .068 
 
 Paid him for keeping the chimes . . .034 
 
 Paid to John Bradfull cleaning the kirk above and be- 
 neath by the whole year . . .034 
 
 Paid to Jannet Pattington washing cloaths to the high 
 
 altar by the whole year . . .020 
 
 Page 17. Memorandum, that William Chapman, clockmaker 
 of Kirby by Baine, has taken this clock this year, of 
 his own cost and charges ; and the said William, shall 
 have the two years after this year, and every year after 
 of the kirkgraves, 2s. a year, he to take all manner 
 charges of this same clock, during as long as he may 
 ride and go, except that the kirkgraves shall pay for 
 wire and timber work. 
 Page 22. Received of Master John Chapman, merchant, paid 
 by his own son to the building of the broach above 
 the steeple in gold, sum . . . 20 
 
 Page 35. Memorandum, that George Smith, merchant, 
 bought one pair organs beyond the sea, and the said 
 George sold them the com'onty of this town of Louth, 
 
366 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 for £13 6s. 8d. In the first they paid him £10. the 
 which, master Thomas Barrow gave to the said 
 com'onty, and parson of the said town being then 
 dead, &c, &c, &c. 
 Page 163. Paid making a coffer for pricksong books by the 
 door side in our Lady Quire ; making a cross for 
 candle of timber ewyns ; and for setting up the 
 Flemish organ in the roodloft, by four days . 20 
 
367 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Perpendicular Period. 
 
 Archbishop Chichele : Higham-Ferrers, the College and Bede 
 House ; S. Barnard's, Oxford ; the Lollard's Tower, Lambeth. 
 Bishop Skirlaw : Skirlaw Chapel; the Tower of York; the 
 Tower and Chapter-House of Howden ; Skirlaw's Burial and 
 Tomb. — Sepulchral Chapels : Bishop Wainfleet ; Cardinal 
 Beaufort ; Bishops Alcock and West ; William Comynge and 
 S. Mary Redcliff. — William Greville, and Campden Church. — 
 Anthony Catesby and Isabella his Wife, and Whiston 
 Church. — S. Michael's -le-Belfry, York. — Deterioration in 
 Architectural Character. — The Tudor Style; Chapel of 
 Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 As might be expected the names of the greater masters in build- 
 ing, whether as patrons or architects, are more frequently found 
 in existing records as we approach the present day. Among the 
 first of these may be mentioned Archbishop Chichele, whose 
 name is happily associated with that of William of Wykeham, 
 the great master of his age on such matters as come within the 
 subject of this history. Henry Chichele was born at Higham- 
 Ferrers, 1 in Northamptonshire, where he is reported to have at- 
 tracted the favourable notice of Wykeham, as he kept his father's 
 sheep. He was afterwards one of the fellows on Wykeham's 
 foundation at Oxford, and successively rector of Brington, in 
 1400, chancellor of Sarum, Bishop of S. David's, 1409, and Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, 1414 to 1443. During this long period 
 he was greatly in the favour of the Prince, and as an ecclesiasti- 
 cal politician at least, he deserved well of his countrymen ; for 
 when he perceived that the revenues of the Church were en- 
 dangered by the poverty of the Crown, he directed the attention 
 
 1 A brass, consisting of a very ele- 
 gant cross, in Higham-Ferrers church, 
 no doubt designed and placed there by 
 the Archbishop, marks the spot of the 
 
 burial of his parents. See No. 1, of 
 the " Churches of the Archdeaconry of 
 Northampton." 
 
368 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 of Henry V. to the claims of his progenitors to the crown of 
 France, and the Church of England escaped while the realm of 
 France was desolated. But he is mentioned here for his found- 
 ations at Oxford, and in his native town, and also for his works 
 at his archiepiscopal palace. At Higham -Ferrers he founded a 
 college for secular priests, which he endowed with large re- 
 venues : he built also in the same town a hospital for poor 
 people, which he likewise endowed liberally. At Oxford, he 
 founded Bernard's, now S. John's College, and All Souls', 
 " which yet continueth," says Bishop Godwin, (1601) "in such 
 state as he left the same, one of the fairest and seemliest of our 
 university." When he took possession of his palace at Lam- 
 beth, he found it grievously desolated by the mob, who during 
 the insurrection of Wat Tyler, had murdered Archbishop Sud- 
 bury, and plundered the palace, burning whatever books and 
 vestments they could lay hold on. Archbishop Arundel had 
 done much to repair the damage, and Chichele prosecuted his 
 repairs, and made several additions to the palace. He rebuilt 
 the hall with great magnificence. 1 But the most remarkable 
 addition to the palace of Lambeth made by Chichele, is the 
 "Lollard's Tower," so called because it contains the prison 
 in which heretics were kept while under the charge of the Arch- 
 bishop. This tower cost " J278 2s. lljd. Each item of the 
 expense is set down in the computus ballivorum, or steward's ac- 
 counts of the year. By these it appears, every foot in height, 
 including the whole circumference, cost 13s. 4d. for the work. 
 The iron-work used about the windows and doors amounted to 
 1322Jlbs. in weight, at three halfpence per pound, and cost 
 .£10 14s. ll|d. ; and three thousand bricks were used for stop- 
 ping the windows between the chapel and the tower. On the 
 west side was a tabernacle or niche made, in which was placed 
 the image of S. Thomas, which image cost 13s. 4d. A brick- 
 layer's and a tiler's wages were then by the day, with victuals, 
 4d., without victuals, 6d. or 6Jd. ; a labourer's with victuals, 
 
 1 It was however again destroyed by 
 Scott, one of the regicides, in 1648, 
 and gave occasion to the munificence 
 of Archbishop Juxon, who rebuilt the 
 hall at the cost of £ 1 0,500, and though 
 
 he did not occupy the throne three 
 full years laid out in repairs £14,847. 
 7s. lOd. See Brayley and Herbert's 
 concise account of Lambeth. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 369 
 
 3d., without victuals, 3|d. But most of this tower was done by 
 the gross, as the computers call it, or the great." 
 
 Chichele died in 1443, and was buried in a fine tomb of 
 alabaster, which he had erected during his life, at the south side 
 of the presbytery of Canterbury cathedral. 1 As this is a fair 
 specimen of the sepulchral architecture of that day, I will tran- 
 scribe the description of it from Winkles' Cathedrals. 
 
 " It exhibits his effigy robed in pontifical vestments, the 
 minutiae of which, as the pall, ring, jewels, &c, are studiously 
 expressed ; the hands, as usual, are joined and elevated, and the 
 pastoral staff lying between his right arm and body is sur- 
 mounted by a cross patee. At his head are attendant angels, 
 and at his feet two kneeling monks with books open before them. 
 The sides of the tomb, or table, are pierced with arches disclosing 
 a cadaver. Over the tomb is a flat canopy resting on two piers, 
 each having three faces and a double tier of niches, once con- 
 taining figures of the twelve Apostles." 2 
 
 Contemporary with Wykeham and Chichele was Walter Skir- 
 law, successively bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1385, of 
 Bath and Wells, 1386, and of Durham, 1388 to 1406. He was 
 born in a little village of his own name, in the East Hiding of 
 Yorkshire, before the middle of the fourteenth century. Like 
 Chichele, and indeed most other great men whose names occur 
 in this history, his affections reverted, on his elevation, to his 
 native place, which he enriched about the close of the reign of 
 Richard II. with a chapel which has found admirers, notwith- 
 standing its remote situation, ever since the revival of ecclesias- 
 tical art among us. 3 Its character, as claiming notice in a 
 general history, is that of decided Perpendicular, though so 
 early in the style ; and it must be added that it presents features 
 which certainly verge on the much deteriorated character of a 
 century later ; the roof is of low pitch and is concealed by a 
 crenellated parapet, and the porch is poor and also finished with 
 the like parapet : the parapet of the tower is elegant in outline, 
 but meagre in details. 
 
 1 Godwin. restored its pristine exuberancy of 
 
 2 "The society of All Souls' Col- decoration." 
 
 lege have recently rescued this monu- 3 It is described and figured in the 
 ment from a state of decay, and " Churches of Yorkshire." 
 
 B B 
 
370 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Skirlaw's reputation rests, however, on greater works than 
 this. For an enumeration of them we are beholden to William 
 de Chambre, the Latin chronicler of the church of Durham, 
 who tells us that " he built the bridge of ShinclifFe, and the 
 bridge of Yarm ; for which latter he purchased certain lands, 
 which he afterwards gave for the repairs of the said bridge : he 
 built also the bridge at Auckland, and he raised the great stone 
 gateway at Auckland, from the foundation to the top-stone at 
 his proper charges. He built also the great bell tower of How- 
 den, (campanile de Houldon,) in the county of York, which he 
 caused to be made of a great size, fsummce magnitudinis,) that it 
 might afford a place of refuge to the people of Howden, if there 
 should chance a great inundation of their town. He laid out 
 also vast sums in the repair of the said church ; and he erected 
 an exquisitely beautiful chapter-house (domum capitular em per- 
 pulchram) adjoining the same church. He built also the manor 
 house of Howden, and laid out besides considerable sums in the 
 buildings on the said manor. He also constructed a great part 
 of the bell tower or lantern, as it is commonly called, of the 
 Minster Church of York, and placed his arms in the centre of 
 the work. (Magnam partem campanilis, vulgo lantern, Minis- 
 terii Eboracensis construxit, in medio cujus operis arma sua 
 posuit.J 1 There also did he found a chantry, on the south 
 angle of the cross of the said church, where he endowed a 
 chantry priest for the perpetual celebration of the mass for his 
 soul. He expended six hundred pounds in the erection of the 
 cloisters in the monastery of Durham. He gave moreover three 
 hundred and thirty marks towards the erection of the dormitory, 
 and to the construction of the cloisters his executors gave three 
 hundred pounds, he himself having already given two hundred. 
 And on all these buildings he placed his arms, viz., six osiers in- 
 terlaced after the manner of a sieve (6 virgas vicissim flexatas, 
 in forma crebri.)" 
 
 Of these works, by far the chief as indicating the taste and 
 
 1 This is not strictly true. Bishop 
 Skirlaw made a considerable bequest 
 for the building of the lantern of York, 
 which was in progress at his death, 
 but it was far from sufficient to fur- 
 
 nish a large proportion of the requisite 
 funds ; nor did he himself place his 
 arms there : they are over one of the 
 great tower arches, which were not 
 completed till after his death. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 371 
 
 munificence of the Bishop, arc the tower and chapter-house of 
 Howden. 1 The tower is most remarkable for its grandeur, the 
 chapter-house for its extreme lightness and for its elaborate finish. 
 Both, of course, are of pure Perpendicular. The chapter-house 
 is an octagon, and scarcely a stone in it is without enrichment. 
 The tower rises in two lofty stages from the centre of the cross, 
 the first, or lantern stage, being of double windows on each 
 side, twice transomed, and of such height, as to give extreme 
 lightness to the whole, as well as a most singular effect. The 
 upper story is of more ordinary character. 
 
 Skirlaw died in 1406, and is buried on the north side of the 
 choir of Durham, between two piers, before the altar of 
 S. Blaise, (which was afterwards called Skirlaw's altar,) 
 beneath a marble stone, curiously wrought, and adorned with 
 many splendid images in brass, with his own effigy elaborately 
 wrought in brass, in the midst of the tomb. Upon his breast is 
 this inscription : " Credo quod Redemptor mens vivit, et in die 
 novissimo de terra surrecturus sum et in came videho Deum 
 Salvatorem meum." And all around the tomb is erected a high 
 iron lattice (clatrum) of curious workmanship, within which 
 daily mass was said for his soul : and right opposite the tomb, 
 on the north side, there was constructed a stone bench of the 
 length of the space between the two piers, (sedile lapideum lon- 
 gitudine columnar urn distansj all along which his arms are placed 
 repeated in a row. 2 
 
 This honourable place of sepulture Bishop Skirlaw had secured 
 to himself before his death, as appears from the following licence 
 granted by the prior and brethren of Durham to Bishop Skir- 
 law, to be buried within the church, which I transcribe for the 
 light which it throws on the character of the times. 
 
 " To the Most Reverend Father in Christ, and Lord Walter by the 
 grace of God Bishop of Durham, his most devoted son, John the prior, 
 and the convent of the church of Durham, obedience, reverence, and 
 honour, with the most perfect mind to do his pleasure ! O most Reverend 
 
 1 The collegiate church of Howden under the auspices of the Yorkshire 
 is figured in the Monastic Remains of Architectural Society. 
 Yorkshire. The tower has been re- 2 The arms of Skirlaw are twelve 
 cently restored, and the lantern opened times repeated, in quatrefoils. 
 
 B 15 2 
 
372 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Father and Lord, we are bound by the institutes and precept of our order 
 earnestly to supplicate the Lord in behalf of our benefactors, that they 
 may receive, for the benefit which they have conferred on us upon earth, 
 eternal rewards in heaven : and contemplating with the internal eyes of 
 our minds, the many and great signs of your paternal affection, which 
 your most evident love towards us has displayed ; in that you have often 
 relieved our want out of the means which God has given to you ; in that 
 you have rescued our college at Oxford from decay and destruction ; in 
 that you have largely added precious vestments and ornaments to our 
 church ; and above all in that you have most liberally expended of your 
 wealth in the construction of a dormitory, especially appropriated to our 
 comfort, we should ourselves be obliged to remember you of all persons 
 in our prayers. 
 
 " Wherefore, although all your honourable predecessors have been 
 buried, according to ancient custom, in our chapter-house, (four only ex- 
 cepted, whose bodies are buried in the church, in token of our special af- 
 fection,) that ever hereafter when we shall stand to pray in the choir we 
 may the more retentively hold the recollection of you and of your bene- 
 fits, we will and concede, that after you have gone to your rest, your soul 
 being called away to the Lord, your body may be buried on the north 
 side of our choir, in the spot which you have already chosen, in full sight 
 of our eyes : that while we see your monument we may be incited to pray 
 that you may receive abundantly of the favour of God, saying devoutly, 
 'Ejus in pace cum Domino anima requiescat, qui pro nostra requie corpo- 
 rali divitias suas habundantes effundere consuevit.' In witness whereof, 
 our common seal is affixed to these presents. Given in our chapter-house 
 this sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand four 
 hundred and four." 1 
 
 One other monument of those times, connected with the burial 
 of Bishop Skirlaw, we must translate, and we are sure it will be 
 with the good will of the curious reader. 
 
 " Instrument concerning the hearse [vereda 2 ] and horses, with the whole 
 of the furniture left [liberati] to the sacristan of Durham, for the mortu- 
 ary of "Walter, Bishop of Durham. 
 
 " In the Name of God, Amen. Know all men by these presents, that 
 in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord, according to the reckoning 
 of the Church of England, one thousand four hundred and six, on the 
 seventh of May, the Reverend Masters, Thomas Wiston, Archdeacon of 
 
 1 Translated from the original docu- 
 ment in Surtees Society's Hist.Dunelm. 
 Script, tres. Appendix No. clxxii. 
 
 2 In a former instrument of the like 
 
 kind touching Bishop Hatfield's fune- 
 ral, it is called " una vereda, anglice j 
 charyot," 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 373 
 
 Durham, Richard Holme, John Hildyarcl, clerks, and Peter de la Hay, 
 executors, as was declared of the Lord Walter Skirlawe, of happy me- 
 mory, late Bishop of Durham, deceased, with his late household,' brought 
 and caused to be brought the body of the said Lord Walter deceased, to 
 the cathedral church of Durham, to be committed to Christian burial in 
 the same, in one ' chare,' [hearse] with five great horses drawing it to the 
 said cathedral church ; and that when the body had been thus brought, 
 and placed in the said cathedral church, in the said ' chare,' they took his 
 body from the said ' chare,' and carried and bore it into the said cathedral 
 church. Which being done, Brother Thomas Rome, a religious, a monk, 
 and a professed of the foresaid cathedral church, and appointed to the 
 office of sacristan of the said cathedral church, claimed the said e chare ' 
 and the said five horses drawing it, with all the furniture to them pertain- 
 ing, as of accustomed right due and belonging to the said cathedral 
 church, and to him in the name of the same, as the mortuary of the said 
 Lord Walter ; and so took the said ' chare,' with the said five horses, and 
 ordered that the said ' chare' should be left in the said cathedral church 
 by his servants, and that the said five horses should be led to the Abbey of 
 Durham : and of the said ' chare ' and of the said five horses be ordered 
 and disposed at his pleasure, the said executors knowing that all and sin- 
 gular the premises were so done by brother Thomas, and suffering it, and 
 not gainsaying, as was at that time evidently seen of me the undersigned 
 notary ; and there were present also men of credit, Richard Rypon and 
 Thomas Roose, clerks of the diocese of Durham, and many others, in 
 great n umbers, who were especially called to witness of the premises, and 
 I, Thomas de Ryhall, clerk of the diocese of Lincoln, 1 &c." 
 
 One would have thought that the tomb so humbly desired by 
 the Bishop, and so lovingly granted by the prior and convent of 
 Durham ; so richly adorned with appropriate devices, and so 
 fondly described by the historian ; above all, consecrated by 
 so many virtues of him who lay beneath it, might have been 
 spared by the spoiler's hand : but, alas ! vain were the reputa- 
 tion of men, though the noblest of their race, were it only 
 committed 
 
 " Saxis cinerum custodibus, ad quae 
 Discutienda valent sterilis mala robora ficus ; 
 Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris." 2 
 
 The barren fig-tree of Juvenal is too sad a type in more ways 
 
 1 Translated from the original instrument in the Surtees Collection, Appendix 
 No. clxx. 2 Juvenal, Sat. x. 
 
374 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 than one of our desecraters of churches, and subverters of sacred 
 monuments. The imagery and fine carved work of Durham 
 cathedral fell under the charge of Dean Whittingham, a zealous 
 iconoclast, who married Calvin's sister, and Skirlaw's effigies and 
 brasses are gone with the rest. 
 
 But we are passing out of the age of tombs, into that of 
 sepulchral chapels. The tomb had been getting more and 
 more gorgeous from the first, until it became a lofty fabric, 
 adorned with panels, and niches and figures, with a splendidly 
 painted effigy reposing on it, the head supported by priests or 
 angels, and the feet resting on a lion, or some other animal, 
 while a gorgeous canopy, with its crockets and foliations spired 
 above it. Even this, however, was not sufficient to satisfy the 
 desire of future great men to be honoured in their obsequies ; 
 and the canopy was expanded into a chapel, within the walls of 
 the church, with its separate altar and chaplain. This was a 
 grievous infringement on the true uses of a church, as well as on 
 the proportions and general effect of the interior of our cathe- 
 drals, though there is nothing within the reach of architectural 
 elaboration, to compare with the beautiful structures thus conse- 
 crated to the memory of the departed. 
 
 Perhaps none of these exceed in beauty the chapels of Bishop 
 Wainfleet, and of Cardinal Beaufort, in Winchester Cathedral, 
 and those of Bishops Alcock 1 and West, 2 at the ends of the 
 north and south aisles of the choir of Ely Cathedral. Both of 
 these last are in the richest Tudor style, the latter with minute 
 but very decided indications of the approach of the cinque 
 cento. 3 
 
 From this digression upon sepulchral memorials we return to 
 the more general subject, and having adduced the greater names 
 of history, descend to the works of less illustrious individuals, 
 
 1 Anno 1501. 
 
 2 Anno 1534. 
 
 3 As it is almost the last example of 
 the kind we shall meet with, I will 
 give the clause of Bishop West's will 
 relative to his monument. 
 
 "To be buried in my cathedral 
 church of Ely, in the middle of a 
 chaple by me newly erected, on the 
 
 south side the chaple, and a convenient 
 stone of marble to be laid upon me, 
 with this writing only : — ' Of your 
 charitie pray for the soule of Nicolas 
 West, Bishop of this see, and for all 
 Christian soules ; for the whiche 
 prayer he hath graunted to every per- 
 sone so doying, fourty daies pardon 
 for every tyme that they shall so pray.'" 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 375 
 
 though not far from the glory of men more elevated in rank and 
 office, if their deeds be taken for their heraldry. Of these 
 works of private munificence, three deserve especial mention. 
 The churches of S. Mary Redcliff, Bristol, of Campden, in 
 Gloucestershire, and of Whiston, in Northamptonshire. 
 
 The first, which is among the most glorious monuments in 
 the kingdom of an individual's liberality, and of an architect's 
 skill, was erected by William Canynge, 1 merchant, and mayor of 
 Bristol, in 1445, in which year the old structure had been greatly 
 damaged by a storm. 2 Two beautiful monumental brasses in 
 this church commemorate the pious merchant and his wife. 
 
 The church of S. James, Campden, was rebuilt between 1380 
 and 1401, by William Greville, woolstapler, who is buried in the 
 
 1 It may be well to note, however, 
 that the popular history of this church, 
 in assigning the whole to William 
 Canynge, does him more than justice, 
 as at once appears from its several 
 features. The church was founded in 
 1294, by Simon de Burton, Mayor of 
 Bristol, and of his foundation, with 
 several intermediate additions, portions 
 still remain. It is thus described by 
 Mr. Rickman : — 
 
 " This magnificent church contains 
 so much of valuable composition, that 
 it ranks quite as a cathedral, or col- 
 legiate church. Though not very well 
 seen, its west and south sides are 
 tolerably open. Some parts of the 
 building on the outside are decayed, 
 others are in good preservation. It 
 consists of a series of portions from 
 Early English to middle Perpendicu- 
 lar, with the styles considerably mixed 
 and sliding into each other. The 
 lower part of the tower is the oldest 
 part, then the very rich north porch, 
 and then the church ; the Lady chapel, 
 now a school, seems the latest of all. 
 The Early English portion is very 
 good, the composition of the upper 
 part of the tower very fine, and though 
 the spire has only about the lower one- 
 third remaining, it gives some idea of 
 
 what its effect would be if complete. 
 The north porch is singular, but very 
 beautiful, and of pure Decorated cha- 
 racter. The windows of the church 
 are mostly Perpendicular, but the de- 
 tails of many of the piers, arches, and 
 some other parts, are more like Deco- 
 rated than Perpendicular, and other 
 parts show a transition from one style 
 to the other. The nave is very narrow, 
 and this, added to the pewing, and the 
 fine east window being blocked up by 
 some paintings by Hogarth, takes 
 away much from the general effect of 
 the interior, which is, however, ren- 
 dered fine by the loftiness of the pro- 
 portions, and the excellence of the 
 groinings, which are complete all over 
 the building." 
 
 2 This church is connected with 
 literary history by the fact that Chat- 
 terton pretended to have found his 
 ancient MSS. in a box in the muni- 
 ment room, over the north porch; to the 
 ecclesiologist it has another interest, 
 since the publication of Professor 
 Willis' Architectural Nomenclature of 
 the Middle Ages, for the description 
 of the several mouldings in the west 
 door of this church, by William of 
 Worcester, affords a great part of the 
 basis of that work. 
 
376 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 chancel, where there is a fine brass representing him and his 
 wife. 1 It is one of the most beautiful pari^i churches of mo- 
 derate dimensions in the kingdom. 2 
 
 The third instance of private beneficence is recorded in the 
 windows of Whiston church, dedicated to S. Mary the Virgin, 
 Northamptonshire, from which the following inscription may be 
 collected : 
 
 " Orate pro . . . Antonii Catesby, Armigeri, et Isabelle uxoris 
 ejus Domini . . . Johannis Junioris generosi ejusdem Antonii . . . 
 qui quidem Antonius, Isabella, et Johannes hanc ecclesiam 
 condiderunt . . . quingentesimo tricesimo quarto/'' [1534.] 
 
 This then is one of the very last of the churches erected be- 
 fore the Reformation ; and we may well marvel at the warm- 
 hearted and firm faith in the stability of the Church, which 
 could encourage men to build such edifices at such a time ; and 
 truly the exercise of this faith is well rewarded in the perpetuity 
 of the Church and her offices, notwithstanding the troubles of 
 an age of licence, of violence, and of sacrilege, so that the parish 
 church of each little village, and the noble cathedral of each 
 city, (with few exceptions in either case,) still commemorate the 
 piety of the sons of the same Holy Mother, are still devoted to 
 the service of the same Most Holy God, and are bonds of fellow- 
 ship between the children and their fathers, while in some re- 
 spects the chain of unity seems broken to outward show, and 
 has really suffered a grievous wrench. May we, in like troublous 
 times, if they come, have like confidence ; and meanwhile let us 
 show that our purer faith is not less fruitful in good works, both 
 by humility at our own neglect, by charity in acknowledging the 
 greater beneficence of our forefathers, and by zeal to emulate 
 them. 
 
 The chief constructive features of Whiston church are the 
 very slender pillars, supporting four-centred arches of greatly 
 depressed form, and the very flat roof, without a clerestory : 
 
 1 Glossary. 
 
 2 It has one peculiarity which it 
 shares with Tickhill, in Yorkshire, a 
 very fine church of about the same 
 date, so far as the nave and chancel are 
 concerned, There is a window (a kind 
 
 of clerestory) above the chancel arch, 
 looking over the chancel roof. The 
 effect is not good in itself, and it indi- 
 cates the use of a low-pitched roof, 
 which we begin to find too often. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 377 
 
 its aisles carried nearly to the end of the chancel, give the 
 latter feature a very meagre aspect : and this and the flat roofs 
 together make the whole look almost like a wooden church. It 
 may perhaps be worth noting that great use is made in the tower 
 of a means of decoration, not uncommon in the same district : — 
 the laying of stones of different colours in several courses. 1 
 
 Although there were other edifices in course of erection, even 
 at the time of the Reformation, yet perhaps there is none whose 
 absolute completion may be assigned to a later date than that of 
 S. Michael-le-Belfry, York, which was commenced in 1535, 
 and finished in 1545, by the Chapter of York, out of the excess 
 of income, after the choir of the cathedral was finished. This 
 church has the same defects with that at Whiston. 
 
 Indeed we are constrained to confess that the character of ec- 
 clesiastical architecture was by this time greatly deteriorated : 
 that in their constructive features the churches of this age are 
 inferior to all since the Norman gave way before the pointed 
 arch ; and that to descend to smaller matters, even in the most 
 splendid buildings, or perhaps in these chiefly, there was a 
 meretricious excess of decoration, which failed to produce 
 the higher kind of beauty so visible in the enrichments of 
 buildings of similar relative importance in all the preceding 
 styles. In the midst of great and well-deserved admiration 
 of the science displayed in the vaulting of the larger churches 
 of this age, and of the lightness, the filigree effect of the whole, 
 this would probably be the practical judgment of every compe- 
 tent authority. Whether we should revert for our best models 
 to the pure Early English, to the Geometric, or flowing Deco- 
 rated, or to the Perpendicular of the first half of the fifteenth 
 century, may admit a doubt ; but there can be no doubt that the 
 chapels of Alcock or West at Ely, of S. George's, Windsor, 
 King's College, Cambridge, or Henry the Seventh's Chapel, 
 Westminster, are both practically and aesthetically the last that 
 we ought to imitate. 
 
 In these and some other edifices there is a certain well-marked 
 character, which renders it necessary to distinguish them from 
 
 1 Among other examples of this are and the Bede house at Higham Ferrers 
 Husband's Bosworth tower (early De- (Perpendicular), 
 coruted), Irchesttr tower (Decorated), 
 
378 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the pure Perpendicular, and the name Tudor, though it would 
 in strictness of chronology exclude some buildings commenced 
 in the reign of Henry VI. which ought not to be excluded, and 
 would include many built under Elizabeth, which have no title 
 to be included, is perhaps as convenient as any : at all events, it 
 is generally received, and well understood, which is sufficient to 
 ensure its continued use. 
 
 I shall only attempt an historic notice of one example of this 
 sub-style. The Lady Chapel, commonly called Henry the 
 Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, 1 which Leland calls orbis 
 miraculum, and which every one must admit to be the most gor- 
 geous building in the kingdom, was commenced by the Monarch 
 whose name it bears, as a sepulchral chapel as well for himself 
 and his queen, as for Henry VI. whose canonization he endea- 
 voured to procure, and whose remains he intended to translate 
 thither, from the convent of Chertsey where they reposed. 2 
 
 The laying of the first stone is recorded with all particulars 
 by Holinshed : — 
 
 " An. Reg. 18; 1503. In this eighteenth year, the twentie- 
 fourth daie of J anuarie, a quarter of an houre afore three of the 
 clocke at after noone of the same daie, the first stone of our 
 ladie chapell within the monasterie of Westminster was laid, by 
 the hands of John Islip, abbat of the same monasterie, Sir Regi- 
 nald Braie, knight of the garter, doctor Barnes, maister of the 
 rolles, doctor Wall, chapleine to the king's maiestie, maister 
 Hugh Oldham, chapleine to the countesse of Darbie and Rich- 
 mond, the kings mother, sir Edmund Stanhope, knight, and 
 diuerse others. Vpon the same stone was this scripture in- 
 graven : ' Illustrissimus Henricus septimus rex Anglise et 
 Francise, et dominus Hibernise, posuit hanc petram, in honore 
 beatse virginis Marias, 24 die Januarij ; anno Domini, 1502 : et 
 anno dicti regis Henrici septimi decimo octauo.' The charges 
 whereof amounted (as some report, vpon credible information as 
 they say) to foureteene thousand pounds." 3 
 
 1 I have followed throughout the 
 account in Neale's History and Anti- 
 quities of the Abbey Church of West- 
 minster. 
 
 2 It seems somewhat doubtful whe- 
 
 ther the removal of Henry VI. actually 
 took place. 
 
 3 To obtain a site for this royal edi- 
 fice, the Lady Chapel, founded by 
 Henry III. in 1220; a chapel dedi- 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 379 
 
 Stowe adds, that " the stone for this work (as I have been in- 
 formed) was brought from Huddlestone quarrie, in Yorkshire ; 
 but this is by no means a sufficient account of the care taken to 
 procure materials, and to adapt them to their particular places 
 and uses in the fabric." During the investigation relating to 
 the state of this Chapel, before the Committee of Taste, at the 
 deanery, on the 3rd of February, 1808, it was stated by the 
 abbey mason, that " Kentish rag-stone was used in the founda- 
 tion ; Kentish stone, from near Maidstone, in the plinth ; Hud- 
 dlestone stone, from Yorkshire, in the corbels or springing 
 pieces to the flying buttresses ; Caen stone, from Normandy, in 
 the superstructure: and Ryegate stone, from Surrey, in the 
 screens to the north-east and south-east chapels." The Bath 
 stone, with which the late restoration has been made, belongs 
 to that class of calcareous free-stones, included by geologists 
 under the denomination of the Great Oolite ; it is extremely soft 
 in the quarry, but hardens on exposure to the air ; though it 
 may still be wrought in any direction with great facility. 
 
 As is almost invariably the case, the name of the original de- 
 signer of this splendid fabric thus commenced is unknown. 
 The merit has been given to Sir Reginald Bray, (the most popu- 
 lar candidate,) to Bishop Alcock, to William Bolton, prior of 
 S. Bartholomew's, to Bishop Fox, 1 and to the King himself. It 
 is more certain that the actual work was committed to one of 
 these, William Bolton, who is especially named by Henry VII. 
 in his will, as the master of his works there. At the time of 
 Henry's death, (1509) it is probable that the vaulting only re- 
 mained to be completed, and from the coincidence of time, the 
 author of the letterpress in Neale's Antiquities of Westminster 
 conjectures " that this vaulting was constructed by the same 
 masons who executed that of the choir of S. George's Chapel, 
 at Windsor, viz., John Hylmer, and William Vertue ; and who, 
 as will be seen by the following extract from Ashmole, would 
 have been at liberty to undertake such a work, at the very period 
 that we may presume it to have been raised. — { By indenture, 
 
 cated to S. Erasmus, by Elizabeth 
 Woodville, Edward the Fourth's 
 Queen, and certain secular and domes- 
 tic buildings were destroyed. 
 
 1 These three ecclesiastics are all 
 well known for their architectural 
 skill and munificence. 
 
380 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 dated the fifth of June y in the one and twentieth year of this 
 King's reign, [namely. Hen. VII.] John Hylmer and William 
 Vertue, freemasons, undertook the vaulting of the r oof of the 
 choir (that curious and excellent piece of architecture, for seven 
 hundred pounds, and to finish it by Christmas, Anno Dom. 
 1508/ — There is much analogy between this Chapel and S. 
 George's Chapel, in the style of the workmanship, and in the 
 disposition and pattern of the tracery/' 
 
 The windows were all filled with painted glass, which was of 
 such beauty as to be referred to as a model in the indentures for 
 the glazing of King's College Chapel. 1 
 
 The subsequent history of this last great effort of Gothic 
 architecture, includes its spoliation, with the destruction of the 
 greater part of the glass, at the Reformation, and the great 
 Rebellion ; its appropriation to the knights of the Bath, as the 
 Chapel of their order, by George I., to which it owes a part of 
 its richest national associations, and the display of banners 
 which hang over the stalls, 2 and the recent repairs, at the 
 
 1 ' ' The earliest of these indentures, 
 which was made on the last day of 
 April, in the 8th of Hen. VIII. [anno 
 1516,] between Dr. Robert Hacom- 
 bleyn, Provost of King's College, &c, 
 on the ' one partie.'and Galyon Hoone, 
 Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve, and 
 James Nycholson, ' Glasyers,' on the 
 other part, it was covenanted that the 
 latter should ' glase and sette up, or 
 cause to be glased and set up eightene 
 wyndowes of the upper story of the 
 great churche within the Kynge's Col- 
 lege of Cambridge, whereof the wyn- 
 dowe in the este ende of the seid 
 churche to be oon, and the windowe in 
 the weste ende to be another ; and so 
 seryatly the resydue with good, clene, 
 sure and perfyte glasse and oryent co- 
 lors and imagery of the story of the olde 
 lawe and of the new lawe, after the 
 forme, maner, goodenes, curiousytie, 
 and clenelynes, in every poynt of the 
 glasse windowes of the Kynge's newe 
 chapell at Westminster ; and also ac- 
 cordingly and after suche maner as oon 
 
 Barnard Flower, glasyer, late deceased 
 by Indenture stode bounde to doo.' — 
 The same glaziers agreed, also, to * de- 
 lyver or cause to be delyvered' to 
 Ffraunces Wylliamson and Symond 
 Symondes, ' glasyers,' or to ' either of 
 them, good and true patrons, other- 
 wise called a vidimus, for to fourme 
 glasse and make by other four wyn- 
 dowes of the said churche ;' — which 
 the said Wylliamson and Symondes 
 had, by another indenture, dated on 
 the 3rd of May, in the same year, un- 
 dertaken to execute, ' after the forme,' 
 &c, ' of the Kynge's newe chapell at 
 Westminster ;' and for which they 
 were to be paid, * for the glasse, work- 
 manship and settyng up of every foot 
 of the seid glasse by them to be pro- 
 vided, wrought and sett up after the 
 forme abovesaid, sioctene -pence ster- 
 linges/ " 
 
 2 And unhappily the wanton de- 
 struction of many of its delicate orna- 
 ments, in the preparation of the cha- 
 pel for the installations. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 381 
 
 national expense. The admission of monuments has had the 
 usual effect of destroying many beauties, and introducing 
 many deformities, but of this enough has been said in a former 
 chapter. 
 
 The most meagre description of this fabric, with a mere enu- 
 meration of the ornaments which crowd its whole surface within 
 and without, would occupy several pages. It will be requisite 
 however to mention some particulars which seem to indicate a 
 principle of design and decoration peculiar to the Tudor style. 
 
 First in importance are the character and decorations of the 
 vaulting. This is of the low four- centred arch, adorned with 
 the most elaborate fan-tracery, with three rows of pendants of 
 great size and richness, extending through the whole length. 1 
 Each bay is separated from those on either side of it by a 
 free groining rib, which passes through an open pendant 
 on either side, and is itself fringed with hanging foliations. 
 The pendants are, constructively speaking, key stones, each to its 
 separate system of fan-tracery : and the triumph of art which 
 has employed the law of gravitation in suspending such threat- 
 ening masses in security themselves, and as indissoluble bonds 
 of union to so ponderous a system of stone-work, is most mar- 
 vellous. 2 
 
 The windows of the aisles are broken up into projecting an- 
 gular forms, an arrangement which however rich it may be here, 
 is clearly at variance with the principles of Gothic architecture : 
 but in the clerestory windows, and the great west window, 
 which has no fewer than fifteen lights, this is not repeated. In 
 the tracery of these there is a tendency to recur to Decorated 
 forms ; though the mouldings are purely Perpendicular. The 
 tracery also of the open flying buttresses is Decorated in general 
 composition : features which are mentioned because they indi- 
 cate a return in the late Perpendicular to the design of a former 
 age, which is found in other instances. The church of S. John 
 the Evangelist in Leeds, one of the very latest specimens of 
 Gothic, founded by John Harrison, in the reign of Charles II., 
 is actually Decorated in character. 
 
 1 The aisles of course have a separate 2 I do not attempt a more minute 
 system of vaulting. It is not so elabo- description, because it would be wholly 
 rate, but is the same in principle. unintelligible without figures. 
 
382 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The apsidal termination of the east end, found also in S. 
 Michael's church, Coventry, is a return even to the Norman 
 arrangement. 
 
 The dome-shaped terminations of the turrets is quite charac- 
 teristic of the Tudor style, in which alone it appears. 
 
 And to descend to smaller details, the courses of mouldings 
 beneath the parapets accept a kind of decoration quite incon- 
 gruous with any earlier style. Instead of flowers or animals 
 studding the projections, as in Norman, or tilling the hollows, 
 as in all subsequent styles, they are set upon the whole suite of 
 mouldings, as if they had no connection with it, beyond the 
 mere fact of their being there. Panelling also is enriched in the 
 same way. It is not a matter of principle, but merely an acci- 
 dent of the age and foundation of this chapel, that the orna- 
 ments thus thrown everywhere upon the surface, are the royal 
 badges of Henry VI L, the greyhound, the dragon, the fleur- 
 de-lys, the portcullis, and the rose. 
 
 To this chapter may be appended a few documents relating 
 to the erection of ecclesiastical edifices. They are all of them 
 published already, but some specimens of the kind are necessary 
 to the history of architecture, and on this account, rather than 
 for their curiosity, they are here given. Others will be found in 
 the agreement for the building of Fotheringay church, repub- 
 lished in a separate volume of the Oxford Architectural Society, 
 from Dugdale's Monasticon, and in the Appendix to Professor 
 Willis, on the Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages : 
 and other documents of the kind are scattered among the wills 
 of the princes, nobles, and merchants of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 383 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Documents relating to the Erection of Ecclesiastical Edi- 
 fices DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 I. 
 
 The indenture between the prior and convent of Durham, and John Middle- 
 ton, mason, concerning the building of the dormitory, transcribed from 
 the Surtees edition of the Scriptores tres, Appendix No. CLX. 
 
 Haec indentura, facta inter Johannem Priorem ecclesiae Dunelmensis 
 et ejusdem loci Conventum ex parte una, et Johannem de Middelton 
 cementarium ex parte altera, testatur, quod praedictus Johannes cementa- 
 rius promisit, et manucepit, ac se obligavit, ad edificandum et de novo 
 construendum muros dormitorii infra Abbatiam Punelmensem situati, 
 modo et forma inferius expressatis. In primis, idem cementarius suis 
 sumptibus et expensis fieri faciet de novo unum murum, ex parte occiden- 
 tali ejusdem dormitorii, qui quidem murus se extendit in longitudine a 
 Monasterio Dunelmensi usque ad finem australem ejusdem dormitorii, 
 et in altitudine sexaginta pedum; una cum bretissementis, si necesse 
 fuerit, secundum voluntatem ipsorum Prions et Conventus ; et erit exterius 
 de puro lapide, vocato achiler, plane inscisso, interius vero de fracto lapide, 
 vocato roghwall, et de bono calce bene et sufticientermixto cemate compo- 
 situs. Erit etiam planus murus et in fundamento spissitudinis sive latitu- 
 dinis duarum ulnarum, cum quatuor bonis et securis scarcementis, vel 
 pluribus si oporteat fieri, secundum formam cujusdam exemplaris praesen- 
 tibus identuris annexi. Erunt etiam in eodem muro quatuor ostia, vel 
 plura si necesse fuerit, bona et conveniencia, et de bono et competenti 
 opere, pro introitibus et exitibus opportunis ; cum uno bono botras et sub- 
 stantial! inter finem dicti muri et le sowthgavill. Erunt eciam sub volta 
 ejusdem domus in muro praedicto novem fenestras lapideae; de quibus 
 quinque erunt sculpturae et similitudinis mediae fenestrse in domo commu- 
 narii situatae, vel melioris ; quatuor vero aliae fenestrse erunt competentes, 
 et de bono opere, pro voluntate dictorum Prioris et Conventus eligendse. 
 Quilibet vero bini lecti monachorum, supra dictam voltam, habebunt unam 
 bonam fenestram pro suis studiis competentem ; quae quidem fenestras 
 erunt ejusdem formae cujus est fenestra studii vicinioris ecclesiae ejusdem 
 partis ; et supra quodlibet studium erit unum modicum et securum arche- 
 wote, supra quod, spacio competenti interposito, erit una historia octo 
 fenestrarum, ejusdem formae cujus est fenestra superior et propinquior pa- 
 
384 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 rieti monasterii praedicti in dormitorio praedicto ; et desuper istam histo- 
 rian! fenestrarum erunt honesta alours et bretesmont? batellata et kirnel- 
 lata ; qua3 quidem alours et bretisment? erunt de puro achiler et plane 
 inciso,tarn exterius quam interius. Murus vero orientalis ejusdem dormi- 
 torii, inter monasterium praedictum et refectorium dictse abbathiae, a su- 
 perficie claustri erit planus, cum securis searcement? necessariis de mun- 
 dissimo lapide achiler, plane inciso exterius, et roghwall interius ; cum 
 studiis et fenestris tarn inferioribus quam superioribus, ejusdem sectaecujus 
 erit murus alius antedictus. Et eritle bendyng cujuslibet achiler ponendi 
 in isto opere longitudinis unius pedis de assisa, vel longioris. Erit eciam 
 le sowtgavill ejusdem dormitorii, a parte inferiori usque ad altitudinem 
 competentem, de puro achiler exterius, et inferius de roghwall ; cum lati- 
 tudine, spissitudine, bretisment?, et alours, muris antedictis correspondens 
 et conveniens : in quo quidem gavill erit una magna fenestra, ad voluntatem 
 et arbitrium dicti Prioris facienda. Erit eciam in aliquo loco competenti 
 per discrecionem dicti cementarii eligendo, assensorium vocatum vys, pro 
 ascendendo supra dictum dormitorium ; et opus istud erit in parietibus 
 adeo decentis formge et fortitudinis, vel melioris, cujus est quaedam turris 
 in castro de Branspeth, vocata le Constabiltour ; quae quidem turris erit 
 exemplar hujus operis. Et erit dictum opus finaliter completum infra tres 
 annos festum Natalis Domini proxime futurum immediate sequentes. Et 
 praedictus cementarius waranti^abit et sustentabit woltam infra praedictum 
 dormitorium nunc existentem, adeo bono statu sicut est in die confectionis 
 praesentium, absque aliqua deterioracione ejusdem. Et idem cementarius 
 inveniet omnimoda cariagia, dicto operi quomodolibet oportuna ; franget 
 quareram ; ardebit calcem ; ac instrumenta ferrea, et lignea, alia quoque 
 vasa quagcunque, cum scaffaldes, seyntres, et flekes, et aliis omnimodis ne- 
 cessariis oportunis, sumptibus propriis et expensis ; exceptis quarera tam 
 pro lapidibus quam pro calce, meremio, ac virgis pro dictis scaffaldes, 
 sentres et flekes, quae dictus Prior assignari faciet eidem cementario infra 
 spacium trium miliarium a Dunelmo distancium. Idem quoque Prior et 
 Conventus, cum consilio et deliberacione dicti cementarii, muros antiquos 
 in eodem dormitorio nunc existentes prosterni facient ; et eorum funda- 
 menta pure mundari, pro novo opere imponendo ; quae fundamina erunt 
 incepta et posita per concilium et deliberacionem dicti Prioris et Conven- 
 tus. Et habebit idem cementarius omnes lapides et cementum de muris 
 antiquis ejusdem dormitorii prosternendi, et novos lapides pro eodem dor- 
 mitorio de novo exscisos et ordinatos, ad suplecionem operis supradicti. 
 Ita tamen quod faciat omnes fenestras antiquas et lapides de novo reno- 
 vari, pro decoro et conformitate dicti operis. Praenominati eciam Prior et 
 Conventus dabunt praedicto cementario, quolibet anno, durantibus tribus 
 annis supradictis, quando praefatum Priorem contigerit liberacionem panni 
 facere generalem, unum garmamentum de secta armigerorum Prioris. 
 Dabunt etiam eidem cementario, durantibus tribus annis supradictis, vic- 
 tum in esculentis, et poculentis pro ipso et garcione suo, quandocunque 
 pro opere praedicto Dunelmi moram traxerit, et ibidem circa opus praedic- 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 385 
 
 turn fuerit occupatus. Dabunt itaque dictus Prior et Conventus cemen- 
 tario supradicto pro qualibet roda operis praedicti quae continebit sex ulnas 
 et duas partes unius ulnae squar, tarn sub terra quam supra terram, decam 
 marcas argenti : unde ad inceptionem operis supradicti idem cementarius 
 percipiet prse manibus quadraginta libras argenti ; et postea, cum perfece- 
 rit ad valorem sex rodarum operis supradicti, alias quadraginta libras ; et 
 sic tociens quadraginta libras quociens perfecerit sex rodas, modo supra- 
 dicto; donee praedictum opus fuerit plenarie consummatum. Proviso 
 tamen quod, ultra praemissa specificata, nichil quomodolibet sibi valeat ven- 
 dicare. Et erit prsedictus cementarius, et quatuor alise sufficientes per- 
 sonae, obligati dictis Priori et Conventui in una obligacione, per concilium 
 dictorum Prioris et Conventus facienda, in quadraginta libris singula vice 
 qua quadraginta libras in forma praedicta idem cementarius receperit ; sol- 
 vendis eidem Priori, aut ejus successoribus, in casu quo idem cementarius 
 defecerit perficere pro singulis decern marcissummae praedictae unam rodam 
 operis antedicti sub forma et condicione superius memoratis. In cujus rei 
 testimonium praesentibus indenturis partes praedictae sigilla sua alternatim 
 apposuerunt. Data die Sabbati, in festo Sancti Mathei Apostoli et Evan- 
 gelistae, anno Domini millesimo ccc m0 nonagesimo octavo." 
 
 II. 
 
 Agreement for the building of Catterick Church, Yorkshire, transcribed 
 from Whittaker's Richmondshire. 
 
 The original contract, regularly executed, upon parchment, is in the 
 possession of Sir Henry Lawson, Bart., Brough Hall. 
 
 " This indenture, made at Burghe, the aghteenthe day of the moneth of 
 April, the yere of King Henrie fefth after the Conqueste, betwene Dame 
 Katerine of Burghe, some tyme the wyfe of John Burghe, William of 
 Burghe, the sonne of the aforesaid John and Dame Katerine, of the ta 
 partie, and Rich d of Cracall, mason e, on the tother, bereth &c. that the 
 foreseid Rich d takes full charge to make the kirke of Katric new, als 
 workmanshipp and masoncrafte will, and fynde all the labrers and service 
 perteyning to the kirke makyng; and that the forseid R d shall take downe 
 and ridd of (off) the stayne werke of the aide kirke of Katrik after the 
 timber be tane downe, and he shall care (carry) and bere all the stane 
 wark of the aid kirke to the place where the newe kirke sal be made ; and 
 also forseid Rich' 1 sail take the grownde, and ridde the grownde, whar the 
 newe kirke sail be made, and sail gett or garre get all the quarral (squared 
 stones) at his awen coste, all the stuff or the stane that misters (is required) 
 more for makyng of the kirke of Katrik than that stuffe that is foune 
 within the kirke yerde beforeseid ; and alsoe sail make the kirke and the 
 queere newe. The queere sail be of length within with the thicknesse of 
 
 C C: 
 
386 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 bathe walles fifti fote, and it sail be of brede within the -walles two and 
 twente fote ; and the forseid Bich d sail make a windowe in the gavel of 
 fife lightes accordant to the heght of the kirke ; and he sail make apon 
 the cornere of the south syde of the same windowe a stanche botras rising 
 unto the cabill. And a windowe of twa lights at the awter ende, and a 
 botras rysing unto the cabell, and a windowe on the same syde of fower 
 lyghtes, and a botras accordant therto ; and sail make a queere doore on 
 wheder syde of the botras that it will best bee ; and sail .... put on ... . 
 for the makyng of a revestry, and sail make a dore on the same syde for a 
 revestry and a botras ; and sail set a windowe of three lightes anens the 
 deskes, the whilke stande nowe in the old queere on the southe syde. 
 
 " And the highte of the walles of the queere sail be above the grownde 
 twenti fote. 
 
 " And also the forseid Rich d sail make an highe awter, joinard on the 
 windowe in the gavell with thre greses (steps) beginning at the revestery 
 dore. 
 
 " And the foreseid R d sail make the body of the kirke accordant of 
 wideness betweene the pilers of the queere, and the lenght of the body of 
 the kirke sail be of threscore fote and tenne, with the thicknesse of the 
 weste wall ; and the said ele (aisle) sail be accordant to the queere, with an 
 awter and a lavatory in the este ende. 
 
 " And the forseid Rich d sail take the windowe that stands now in the 
 north syde of the aide kirke, and sett itt in the este end of the north ele 
 over the awter with a stanche botras on the corner. 
 
 " And the said Rich d bindes himselfe &c. that the kirke of Katrik before- 
 saide and nemend, sail bee made fra the Faste of Seynt JhonBaptiste next 
 follow, and unto the same faste be thre yeres next follow, andbotif sodayne 
 wers or pestilence make it (prevent it) the whiche maye be resonaabill 
 excusation. 
 
 " And the forseid Dame Katrine and William sail carri all the stane that 
 misters mare than is fou in the aide kirke, and the kirke yerde, at theire 
 awin coste, and sail fynde lyme, and sande, and water, and scaffalyng. 
 And forseid Dame Katrine and W m byndes them be thes endentures to 
 paye unto seid Rich d within terme of thre yere eighte score of merkes ; and 
 iff the kirke be ended at the terme before nemande, Dame Katrine and W m 
 sail gif untoe the saide Rich d tenne merkes of money and a gowne of W m 
 wering to his rewarde." 
 
 III. 
 
 Documents relating to the decorations of the Beauchamp chapel, in S. Mary's 
 church, Warwick, collected by Dugdale, and given in his Warwickshire. 
 
 John Essex, Marbler, Will. Austen, Founder, and Thomas Stevyns, Cop- 
 per-smyth, do covenant with the said executors, that they shall make, forge, 
 and worke, in most finest wise and of the finest latten, one large plate to 
 be dressed, and to lye on the overmost stone of the tombe under the 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 387 
 
 Image that shall lye on the same tombe ; and two narrow plates to 
 go round about the stone. Also they shall make in like wise and like 
 latten, an hearse to be dressed and set upon the said stone, over the 
 image, to bear a covering to be ordeyned ; the large plate ^to be made 
 of the finest and thickest Cullen plate, shall be in length viii. foot, and in 
 bredth iii. foot and one inch. Either of the said long plates for writing, 
 shall be in bredth to fill justly the casements provided therefore; the hearse 
 to be made in the comeliest wise, justly in length, bredth, thickness, and 
 height thereof, and of every part thereof, and in workmanship in all places 
 and pieces such, and after an hearse of timber which the executors shall 
 make for a pattern : and in ten panells of this hearse of latten, the said 
 workman shall set, in the most finest and fairest wise ten scutcheons of 
 armes, such as the executors will devise. In the two long plates they 
 shall write in Latine in fine manner, all such scripture of declaration as 
 the said executors shall devise, that may be conteined and comprehended 
 in the plates : all the champes about the letter to be abated and hatched 
 curiously, to set out the letters. All the aforesaid large plates, and all 
 the said two plates through all the over sides of them, and all the said 
 hearse of latten without and within, they shall repair and gild with the 
 finest gold, as finely, and as well in all places through, as is or shall be 
 any place of the aforesaid image, which one Bartholomew Goldsmyth then 
 had in gilding ; all the said workmanship, in making, finishing, laying, and 
 fastning to be at the charge of the said workmen. And for the same they 
 shall have in sterling money cxxv. li. 
 
 Will. Austen, Citizen and Founder, of London, xiv. Martii, 30 H. 6. 
 covenanteth, &c, to cast, work, and perfectly to make, of the finest latten 
 to be gilded that may be found, xiv. Images embossed of Lords and 
 Ladyes in divers vestures, called weepers, to stand in housings made about 
 the tombe, those images to be made in bredth, length, and thickness, &c. 
 to xiv. patterns made of timber. Also he shall make xviii. lesse images of 
 angells, to stand in other housings, as shall be appointed by patterns, 
 whereof ix. after one side, and ix. after another. Also he must make an 
 hearse to stand on the tombe, above and about the principall image that 
 shall lye in the tombe, according to a pattern ; the stuffe and workman- 
 ship to the repairing, to be at the charge of the said Will. Austen. And 
 the executors shall pay for every image that shall lye on the tombe, of the 
 weepers so made in latten, xiii, s. iv. d. And for every image of angells so 
 made, v. s. And for every pound of latten that shall be in the hearse, 
 x. d. And shall pay and bear the costs of the said Austen for setting the 
 said images and hearse. 
 
 The said Will. Austen, xi. Feb. 28 H. 6, doth covenant to cast and 
 make an image of a man armed, of fine latten, garnished with certain or- 
 naments, viz. with sword and dagger ; with a garter ; with a helme and 
 crest under his head, and at his feet a bear musled, and a griffon, per- 
 fectly made of the finest latten, according to patterns; all which to be 
 brought to Warwick and layd on the tombe, at the perill of the said Aus- 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 ten ; the said executors paying for the image, perfectly made and laid, and 
 all the ornaments, in good order, besides the cost of the said workmen to 
 Warwick, and working there to lay the image, and besides the cost of the 
 carriages, all which are to be born by the said executors, in totall xl. li. 
 
 Bartholomew Lambespring, Dutchman, and Goldsmyth, of London, 
 23 Maii, 27 H. 6, covenanteth to repaire, whone, and pullish, and to 
 make perfect to the gilding, an image of latten, of a man armed, that is in 
 making, to lye over the tombe, and all the apparell that belongeth there- 
 unto, as helme, crest, sword, &c, and beasts; the said executors paying 
 therefore xiii. li. 
 
 The said Bartholomew and Will. Austen, xii. Martii, 31 H. 6, do cove- 
 nant to pullish and repare xxxii. images of latten, lately made by the said 
 Will. Austen for the tombe, viz. xviii. images of angells, and xiv. images of 
 mourners, ready to the gilding ; the said executors paying therefore xx. li. 
 
 The said Bartholomew, 6 Julii, 30 H. 6, doth covenant to make xiv. 
 scutcheons of the finest latten, to be set under xiv. images of lords 
 and ladyes, weepers, about the tombe; every scutcheon to be made meet 
 in length, bredth and thickness, to the place it shall stand in the marble 
 according to the patterns. These xiv. scotcheons, and the armes in them, 
 the said Bartholomew shall make, repare, grave, gild, enamil, and pullish 
 as well as is possible ; and the same scutcheons shall set up, and pin fast, 
 and shall bear the charge of all the stuff thereof, the said executors paying 
 for every scutcheon, xv. s. sterling, which in all amounteth to x. li. x. s. 
 
 The said Bartholomew xx. Julii, 31 H. 6, doth covenant, &c. to gild, 
 pullish, and burnish xxxii. images, whereof xiv. mourners, and xviii. angells 
 to be set about the tombe, and to make the visages and hands, and all 
 other bares of all the said images, in most quick and fair wise, and to save 
 the gold as much as may be from and without spoiling, and to find all 
 things saving gold ; the said executors to find all the gold that shall be 
 occupied thereabout, and to pay him for his other charges and labours, 
 either xl. li., or else so much as two honest and skillfull goldsmyths shall 
 say upon the view of the work, what the same, besides gold and his labour, 
 is worth : and the executors are to deliver money from time to time, as 
 the worth goeth forward, whereof they pay Li. li. viii. s. iv. d. 
 
 The said Bartholomew, iii°. Martii, 32 H. 6, doth covenant to make clean, 
 to gild, to burnish, and pullish, the great image of latten, which shall lye 
 upon the tombe, with the helme and crest, the bear and the griffon, and all 
 other the ornaments of latten ; and the said Bartholomew shall finde all 
 manner of stuffe for the doing thereof, saving gold, and all workmanship 
 at his charges, the said executors providing gold, and giving to the said 
 Bartholomew such sum and sums of money for his charges and workman- 
 ship as two honest and skilfull goldsmyths, viewing the work, shall 
 adjudge, whereof some of the money to be payd for the borde of the 
 workmen, as the work shall go forward, whereof they pay xcv. li. ii. s. viii. d. 
 
 JohnBourde of Corff Castle, in the county of Dorset, Marbler, 16 Maii, 
 3o H. 6, doth covenant to make a tombe of marble, to be set on the said 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 389 
 
 Earle's grave; the said tombe to be made well, cleane, and sufficiently, of 
 a good and fine marble, as well coloured as may be had in England. The 
 uppermost stone of the tombe and the base thereof to contain in length 
 ix. foot of the standard, in breadth iv. foot, and in thickness vii. inches : 
 the course of the tomb to be of good and due proportion to answer the 
 length and bredth of the uppermost stone ; and a pace to be made round 
 about the tombe of like good marble, to stand on the ground ; which pace 
 shall contain in thickness vi. inches and in breadth xviii. inches. The 
 tombe to bear in height from the pace iv. foot and a half. And in and 
 about the same tombe to make xiv. principall housings, and under every 
 principall housing a goodly quarter for a scutcheon of copper and gilt to 
 be set in ; and to do all the work and workmanship about the same tombe 
 in the entail, according to a portraicture delivered him ; and the carriages 
 and bringing to Warwick, and there to set the same up where it shall stand : 
 the entailing to be at the charge of the executors ; after which entail- 
 ing the said marbler shall pullish and dense the said tombe in workman- 
 like sort. And for all the said marble, carriage and work, he shall have 
 in sterling money xlv. li. 
 
 The said marbler covenanteth to provide, of good and well coloured 
 marble, so many stones as will pave the chapell where the tombe standeth, 
 every stone containing in thickness two inches, and in convenient bredth, 
 and to bring the same to Warwick and lay it. And for the stuff, work- 
 manship, and carriage of every hundred of those stones, he shall have 
 xl. s. which in the totall comes to iv. li. xiii. s. iv. d. 
 
 John Prudde of Westminster, glasier, 23 Junii, 25 H. 6, covenanteth, 
 &c. to glase all the windows in the New Chappell in Warwick, with glasse 
 beyond the seas, and with no glasse of England ; and that in the finest 
 wise, with the best, cleanest, and strongest glasse of beyond the sea that may 
 be had in England, and of the finest colours in blew, yellow, red, purpure, 
 sanguine, and violet, and of all other colours that shall be most necessary, 
 and best to make rich and embellish the matters, images, and stories that 
 shall be delivered and appointed by the said executors by patterns in 
 paper, afterwards to be newly traced and pictured by another painter in 
 rich colour at the charges of the said glasier. All which proportions the 
 said John Prudde must make perfectly, to fine glase, eneylin it, and finely 
 and strongly set it in lead and souder, as well as any glasse is in England. 
 Of white glasse, green glasse, black glasse, he shall put in as little as shall 
 be needfull for the showing and setting forth of the matters, images and 
 storyes. And the said glasier shall take charge of the same glasse, 
 wrought and to be brought to Warwick, and set up there, in the windows 
 of the said chapell ; the executors paying to the said glasier for every 
 foot of glasse ii. s. and so for the whole xci. li. i. s. x. d. 
 
 It appeareth, that after these windows were so finished, the executors 
 
 devised some alterations, as to adde, for our lady ; and scripture 
 
 of the marriage of the earle, and procured the same to be set forth in 
 glasse in most fine and curious colours ; and for the same they payd the 
 
390 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 sum of xiii. li. vi. s. iv. d. Also it appeareth, that they caused the win- 
 dows in the vestry to be curiously glased with glasse of ii. s. a foot for 
 which they payd Ls. The sum total for the glasse for the said vestry 
 and chapell Xvi. li. xviii. s. vi. d. which in all contain by measure : 
 
 The east window, Cxlix. foot i quarter and two inches. 
 
 The south windows, CCCCClx. foot xi. inches. 
 
 The north windows, CCCv. foot. 
 
 The totall DCCCCx. foot, iii. quarters of a foot and two inches. 
 
 Richard Bird and John Haynes, citizens and carpenters of London 
 xii. Febr. 28 H. 6, do covenant to make and set up in the chapell where 
 the Earl is buried, or where the tombe standeth, a pair of desks of tim- 
 ber, poppies, seats, sills, planks, reredoses of timber, with patands of 
 timber, and a crest of fine entail, with a bowtel roving on the crest. And 
 also the carpenters do covenant to make and set up, finely and work- 
 manly, a parclose of timber about an organ loft ordained to stand over 
 the west dore of the said chapell according to patterns : all these things 
 to be made, set up, fastened, joyned, and ordered in as good sort as those 
 in the quire of S. Maries Church in Warwick j the executors finding all 
 manner of timber, and carriages ; and giving and paying to the said car- 
 penters, for the workmanship, xl. li. 
 
 John Brentwood, citizen and steyner of London, 12 Febr. 28 H. 6, 
 doth covenant to paint fine and curiously to make at Warwick, on the west 
 wall of the New Chappell there, the dome of our Lord God Jesus, and 
 all manner of devices and imagery thereto belonging, of fair and sightly 
 proportion, as the place shall serve for, with the finest colours, and fine 
 gold : and the said Brentwood shall find all manner of stuffe thereto at 
 his charge ; the said executors paying therefore xiii. li. vi. s. viii. d. 
 
 Kristian Coleburne, peinter, dwelling in London, 13 Junii, 32 H. 6, 
 covenanteth, &c, to paint in most fine, fairest, and curious wise, four 
 images of stone ordained for the new Chapell in Warwick ; whereof two 
 principall images, the one of our Lady the other of S. Gabraell the 
 Angell ; and two lesse images, one of S. Anne, and the other of S. George. 
 These four to be painted with the finest oyle colours, in the richest, finest, 
 and freshest clothings that may be made of fine gold, azure, of fine pur- 
 pure, of fine white, and other finest colours necessary, garnished, bordered, 
 and poudered in the finest and curiousest wise. All the cost and worman- 
 ship of painting to be at the charge of the said Kristian, the executors 
 paying for the same xii. li. 
 
 IV. 
 
 On the erection of Coventry Cross, from Sir William Dug dale's Warwick- 
 shire. 
 
 " I come now to speak of that stately cross here, being one of the chief 
 things wherein this city most glories, which for workmanship and beauty is 
 
THE PERPENDICULAR PERIOD. 
 
 391 
 
 inferior to none in England : the building whereof was begun in Anno 
 1541, 33 Hen. VIIL, and finished in Anno 1544, 36 Hen. VIII." The 
 founder was Sir William Hollies, knight, " who bearing a special affection 
 to this city, for order, for the structure thereof, as the words of his testa- 
 ment, bearing date, 25 Dec. 33 Hen. VIIL, do impart, 'and furthermore I 
 give and bequeath unto the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Coventry, 
 and to the Commons of the same £200 sterling, to the intent and purpose 
 hereafter ensuing, that is to say, to make a new cross within the said city : 
 whereof delivered in hand to M. Warren, draper, of the said city, the 24th 
 day of August last, £20 in ready money : and also more paid to Mr. Over, 
 by the hands of Salt, my bailie of Yoxall, £70 in ready money; and to 
 rest unpaid £110 sterling, which I will and desire my executors see to be 
 delivered and paid unto the said Mayor ana Aldermen of Coventry afore- 
 said, to the use and intent aforesaid, within one year after my decease.' " — 
 Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 95. 
 
 " In that place where this cross is now situate, there stood anciently an- 
 other ; which having been set up in Anno 1423, 2 Hen. VI. was taken 
 down in Anno 1510, 2 Hen. VIIL, but for what reason I find not." — Ibid. 
 
392 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Post-Reformation Period. 
 
 Deterioration in Ecclesiastical Art not to be referred to the 
 Reformation. — Destruction and Spoliation of Churches. — 
 The Curse upon Sacrilege. — Materials of Churches used to 
 
 much hurt and little gain. different spirit of sacrilege 
 
 at the Reformation, and at the Rebellion. — Puritan Des- 
 truction. — The Journal of Will Dowsing. — Desolation of 
 Lichfield, of Scarborough, of Astley. — Restoration of Lich- 
 field, of Stanton Harold. — The Fire of London. — Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren, and the total extinction of Gothic Architec- 
 ture. 
 
 The Reformation occurred at a happy time for the true honour 
 of ecclesiastical architecture. Teutonic art had passed its cul- 
 minating point, and its gradual declension was prevented, and 
 its shame covered by the rude collision of contending elements 
 which quenched its full blaze of light. A little longer, and it 
 would have set in dishonour, sinking feeble and dim behind the 
 cold and dreary mists which were gathering in a tainted atmo- 
 sphere from a corrupt world, to obscure its parting beams. 
 
 It is well that there is nothing like a connecting link be- 
 tween Henry VII/s chapel, and the debased or pseudo-Gothic 
 of Elizabeth, or the revived and pseudo-classic of Inigo 
 Jones, and Wren. We may be thankful for the violence of 
 the transition. 
 
 It is no part of my intention to enlarge on the causes or the 
 course of the destruction which fell on so many of our greater 
 ecclesiastical fabrics, and of the desolation which reigned within 
 many a sacred pile which was itself wholly or partially spared : 
 nor to relate how a nation with a rapidly-increasing population, 
 not only ceased to build new churches, but even to restore old 
 ones, until many a district once amply provided with sacred edi- 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 393 
 
 flees could not find u church-room >n for a tenth part of its 
 population ; until some at least of the churches that remained 
 were in a state which would not be tolerated in the stables of 
 neighbouring mansions : and until, for very necessity, conventi- 
 cles were substituted for churches : 2 nor how at last, when some- 
 thing must be done, for very shame or for fear, many causes 
 conspired to prevent the churches newly erected from taking their 
 place as works of art, and objects of beauty, beside our beauti- 
 ful and venerable sanctuaries. 
 
 It is sufficiently well known as a general fact, though perhaps 
 it is strangely little known in its particular incidents, how the 
 greater churches belonging to the monastic bodies were sold or 
 granted by the crown during the Reformation to needy and un- 
 principled courtiers, or retained for unhallowed uses ; and how 
 they were stripped of their roofs, and taken to pieces for their 
 mere materials ; and how the remaining cathedrals, and the 
 parish churches, with a few others which were saved by the inter- 
 vention of better counsels, 3 or actually purchased by the inhabi- 
 tants, 4 were stripped of their decorations. Thus a church was 
 destroyed by Henry VIII. to build Nonsuch. The protector 
 Somerset pulled down the parish church of S. Mary's, and the 
 palaces of the Bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, and LlandafF, to 
 form a site for Somerset House, and several chapels and religious 
 houses supplied the materials. Tewkesbury was granted to Sir 
 
 1 The very word indicates our po- 
 verty. Could there, since the full 
 establishment of Christianity, till long 
 after the Reformation, have been such 
 a question asked as whether there was 
 " church-room " in any district ? 
 
 2 In 1268, Branescombe, Bishop of 
 Exeter consecrated forty churches in 
 his diocese. One would be curious to 
 know how many churches were conse- 
 crated during the whole of the episco- 
 pates, of all the post-Reformation 
 Bishops, till the year 1800. The pre- 
 sent Bishop of Exeter is exerting him- 
 self, not in vain we hope, to procure 
 " church- room" in Devonport, which, 
 
 with a population of 26,000 persons, 
 has not a single church ! 
 
 3 York was besieged by Fairfax, but 
 the inhabitants surrendered on condi- 
 tion that their minster and churches 
 should be spared. The condition was 
 respected. Perhaps the chapter-house 
 was not accounted a part of the church. 
 It is said to have been sold as useless, 
 and to have been doomed to destruc- 
 tion, but the death of the purchaser 
 saved it. 
 
 4 S. Alban's was thus saved, being 
 purchased for £400 by the inhabi- 
 tants, and converted into a parish 
 church. See Staveley on Churches. 
 
394 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Thomas Seymour : the church remains as a parish church, but 
 it was sadly despoiled ; the vestments were sold for £194>, the 
 plate weighed 1431 oz.: the lead 180 fodder, the bells 14,600 lbs. 
 and all this besides jewels. 1 
 
 Although of course the valuable materials were converted 
 either to immediate use, or into money, yet the mere wanton 
 determination to destroy seems to have dictated the demolition 
 or dismantling of several conventual fabrics. The author of 
 " Monks and Monasteries " quotes a remarkable document of a 
 royal commissioner, in which the true spirit of a spoliator is ex- 
 pressed with great naivete. 2 These men seem to have had some- 
 thing of a sportsman's delight in marking and bringing down 
 the prey : had the prey been less feeble, and had the excitement 
 of flight or of resistance been added to their sport their satisfac- 
 tion would have been complete. 
 
 But though wood and stone might seem too passive to revenge 
 the injury, it turned out far otherwise : " the stone cried out of 
 the wall, and the beam out of the timber answered it." 3 It was 
 a thing notorious at the time, and which we would not willingly 
 have forgotten, that the spoils of churches brought no blessing 
 
 1 Spelman's History and Fate of Sa- 
 crilege, recent edition. 
 
 2 ' ' Plesy the your good lordship to be 
 advertysed, I have taken down all the 
 lead of Jervase, and made it in pecys 
 of half foders, which lead amountyth 
 to the number of eighteen score and 
 five foders ; with thirty and four foders 
 and a half that were there before ; and 
 the same lead cannot be conveit nor 
 caryed unto the next sombre, for the 
 ways in that country are so foull and 
 deep, that no caryage can pass in wyn- 
 tre ; and as concernynge the raising 
 and taking down the house, iff it be 
 your lordshipp's pleasure, I am minded 
 to lett it stand to the spring of the 
 year, by reason of the days are now so 
 short it would be dowble charges to do 
 it now ; and as concernynge the sell- 
 ing of the belles, I cannot sell them 
 above fifteen shillings the hundreth ; 
 
 wherein I would gladly know your 
 lordshipp's pleasure, whether I should 
 sell them after that price or send them 
 up to London. And if they be sent 
 up, surelye the caryage will be costly 
 from that place to the water. And as 
 for Bridlington, I have doun nothing 
 there as yet, but spayreth it to March 
 next, because the days now are so 
 short, and from such time as I begyn I 
 trust shortly to dispatch it after such 
 fashion, that when all is finished, I 
 trust your lordshipp shall think that I 
 have been no evil housbound in all 
 such things as your lordshipp appointed 
 me to do ; and thus the Holy Ghost 
 preserve your lordshipp in honour. 
 
 « At York, the 14th day of Novem- 
 ber, 1538, by your most bounden 
 beadman, 
 
 Richard Bellasis." 
 3 Habakkuk ii. 11. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 395 
 
 with them, and that the materials somehow or other turned to 
 no profit. They were lost in their transit, as a very great pro- 
 portion of the bells were ; or they paid gambling debts ; or they 
 eat into the house as doth a canker. 1 
 
 I purposely omit to mention the general fate of sacrilege, 
 where the property of the Church, its wealth and its broad 
 lands were taken, but some reference to the curse which seemed 
 to cleave even to the materials of the religious houses and of the 
 churches, could not be omitted without evident impropriety in a 
 history of ecclesiastical architecture. The several royal injunc- 
 tions, with the episcopal articles of visitation from the close of 
 the reign of Henry VIII. to the end of that of Elizabeth, give 
 sufficient note of the changes in smaller matters of decoration 
 and arrangement which were continually occurring. These, 
 however, do not come strictly speaking within the subject of this 
 work, for they do not touch the fabric of the church. Nor are 
 churchwarden % 3 accounts and the like contemporary notices of 
 such events more directly to our purpose ; they are, however, al- 
 ways amusing and often interesting, and as they are not found 
 
 1 Sir Henry Spelman relates the fol- 
 lowing instance, of which he speaks 
 as within his own knowledge, and as 
 admitted by the person concerned. 
 " Sir Roger Townsend, the baronet, 
 intending to build a goodly house 
 at Rainham, and to fetch stone for 
 the same from Coxford Abbey, by 
 advice of Sir Nathaniel Bacon, his 
 grandfather, began to demolish the 
 church there, which till then was 
 standing : and beginning with the 
 steeple, the first stone (as it is said,) 
 in the fall brake a man's leg, which 
 somewhat amazed them ; yet contemn, 
 ing such advertisement, they proceeded 
 in the work, and overthrowing the 
 steeple, it fell upon a house by, and 
 breaking it down, slew in it one Mr. 
 Seller, that lay lame in it of a broken 
 leg, gotten at foot-ball, others having 
 saved themselves by fright and flight. 
 
 " Sir Roger having digged the cellar- 
 ing of his new house, and raised the 
 
 walls with some of the abbey stone, 
 breast-high, the wall reft from the 
 corner stones, though it was clear 
 above ground ; which being reported 
 to me by my servant, Richard Ted- 
 castle, I viewed them with mine own 
 eyes, and found it so. Sir Roger, ut- 
 terly dismayed with these occurrents, 
 gave over his begun foundation ; and 
 digging anew wholly out of the ground, 
 about twenty yards more forward to- 
 ward the north, hath there finished a 
 stately house, using none of the abbey 
 stone about it, but employed the same 
 in building a parsonage-house for the 
 minister of that town, and about the 
 walls of the churchyard, &c. 
 
 4 1 Himself also showed me that as 
 his foundation reft in sunder, so the 
 new bridge, which he had made of the 
 same stone at the foot of the hill, 
 which ascendeth to his house, settled 
 down with a belly as if it would fall." 
 
396 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in general history, a specimen may be admissible here. I give, 
 therefore, the 
 
 Churchwardens' Account, S. Helen's, Abingdon. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 MDLIX. Eliz. 2. For taking down the altere . . 20 
 
 MDLX. Received of Thomas Hethe for the holye loft . 2 
 
 Of William Dale for the holye loft . . .64 
 
 Payde for tymber and making the communyon table 6 
 For a carpet for the communyon table . .28 
 
 For mending and paving the place where the altere stoode 2 8 
 For two dossin of morris belles . . .10 
 
 MDLXI. Elizabeth 4. To the somner for bringing the order for 
 
 the roode loft . . . .08 
 
 To the carpenter and others for taking down the roode 
 loft and stopping the holes in the wall, where the 
 joices stoode . . . . 15 8 
 
 To the peynter for wrighting the scripture, where the 
 
 roode lofte stoode, and overthwarte the same isle . 3 4 
 MDLXIV. For reparations of the cross in the market place . 5 2 
 MDLX VI. 16 Eliz. Payde for setting up Robin Hoode's bower 1 18 
 MDLXXVII. 20 Eliz. For writing the commandments in the quire 
 
 and peynting of the same . . .19 
 
 MDXCI. 34 Eliz. Payde for an houre glass for the pilpitt 2 . 4 
 
 The tendency during Elizabeth's reign, 3 so far as acts of au- 
 thority were concerned, was on the whole to decency if not 
 
 1 " I came once myselfe," says 
 Latimer, Sermon VL, before King 
 Edward VI., " to a place, riding on a 
 journey homeward from London, and 
 I sent word overnight into the town 
 that I would preach there in the morn- 
 ing, because it was a holy day, and 
 methought it was an holidaye's worke ; 
 the church stode in my way ; and I 
 toke my horse and my companye and 
 went thither ; I thought I should 
 have found a great companye in the 
 churehe, and when I came there the 
 churche dore was faste locked. I 
 tarried there half an houre and more, 
 and at last the keye was founde ; and 
 one of the parishe commes to me, and 
 sayes, ' Syr, thys ys a busye day with 
 
 us, we cannot heare you : it is Robyn 
 Hoode's daye, The parishe are 
 gone abroad to gather for Robyn 
 Hoode, I pray you let them not.' I 
 was fayne there to geve place to Robin 
 Hoode. I thought my rochet should 
 have been regarded, thoughe I were 
 not ; but it woulde not serve, it was 
 fayne to give place to Robyn Hoode's 
 men." 
 
 2 Archseologia, Vol. I. 
 
 3 During this reign, (June 4, 1561,) 
 the spire of S. Paul's Cathedral, the 
 loftiest in the world, was burnt down. 
 An extract from a contemporary ac- 
 count will be found in the Appendix to 
 this Chapter. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 397 
 
 splendour of ceremonial ; but the under-current of Puritanism 
 soon reached the surface, and overflowed the feeble barrier that 
 had been opposed to it, leading to acts of sacrilege and spolia- 
 tion little less lamentable than those of Henry VIII. Indeed 
 insolence in sacrilege could proceed no farther than it did during 
 the Great Rebellion and under the Commonwealth. 
 
 Under Henry VIII. and his minions and their successors, the 
 destruction of churches was in proportion to their wealth. 
 Under Cromwell the desolating axe fell on sacred furniture and 
 decorations in proportion to their beauty and to the holiness of 
 their use : cupidity directed the blow in the former instance, in 
 the latter superstition, and between the two the havoc was most 
 complete. 
 
 We have a few scattered notices of the results of Puritan visi- 
 tations in several districts, 1 but the state of the churches every- 
 where proves that their deeds have been very imperfectly 
 recorded. At Canterbury, " on the 22nd Aug. 1642, some zea- 
 lous troopers hewed the altar rails all to pieces, and threw the 
 altar over and over, down the three altar steps, and left it lying 
 with the heels upwards." 2 The font also in the same Cathedral 
 was broken to pieces : meet accompaniments of the insults, in- 
 justice, and violence which the Archbishop of Canterbury was 
 then receiving, and preludes of his sacrilegious murder. The 
 more beautiful statuary, and the figures of saints in painted 
 glass, seem to have been designedly used as marks in rifle 
 practice; but we will desert such general statements, and turn 
 to the confessions, 3 (or rather the boast) of one of the Parlia- 
 mentary visitors for the demolishing of the superstitious pictures 
 and ornaments of churches. 
 
 The whole of this journal is most instructive, as showing 
 the utilitarian simplicity with which the work of demolition 
 
 1 Mercurius Rusticus gives several Earl of Manchester, for demolishing 
 disgusting details of the desecration of the superstitious pictures and orna- 
 Westminster Abbey. ments of churches, &c, within the 
 
 2 Dean and Chapter news from Can- county of Suffolk, in the years 1643 
 terbury, by Richard Culmer, quoted — 1644. First published in quarto in 
 from Archseologia, Vol. XI. 1786, and lately as an Appendix to 
 
 3 The Journal of William Dowsing, one of the reprints of English Divines 
 of Stratford, Parliamentary Visitor, at Oxford. 
 
 appointed under a warrant from the 
 
398 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 was carried on, and the unblushing effrontery with which its 
 perpetrators could speak of their individual share in it. Their 
 ignorance, too, of the real nature of the evils which they fancied 
 that they were opposing, is almost enough to raise a laugh at 
 their absurdities, in spite of the sadness occasioned by their 
 sacrilegious violation of whatever was beautiful or holy. 
 
 The cross upon the steeple, or on the chancel, might have 
 seemed beyond the reach of their malice ; too innocent to give 
 offence, and too difficult of access to encourage their interfer- 
 ence ; but there are many entries such as the following : " Cod- 
 denham, Jan. 22nd. We gave order for taking down three 
 crosses off the steeple, and one off the chancel." All pictures, 
 even those in the stained glass, which were never, that I know 
 of, used for superstitious purposes ; and those of the seven 
 deadly sins, which no one on earth would profess to worship, as 
 a part of his religion, were condemned at once. " Rushmere, 
 Jan. 27th. We brake down the pictures of the seven deadly 
 sins." " Bramford, Feb. 1st. A cross to be taken off the 
 steeple ; we brake down eight hundred and forty-one superstiti- 
 ous pictures." Their use, as architectural ornaments, did not 
 defend corbels and mouldings, and the like, if unhappily they 
 were thrown into the form of figures. " Shadbrook, April the 
 4th. Eight angels off the roof, and cherubims in wood, to be 
 taken down." 
 
 Nay, the carver's or the painter's hand seems to have brought 
 with it pollution, when most innocently employed ; and even in 
 the placing the name of our Blessed Lord, or portions of the 
 Sacred Scriptures, before the eyes of the people. At Cochie, 
 " there were many inscriptions of Jesus, in capital letters on the 
 roof of the church : and cherubims with crosses on their breasts ; 
 and a cross in the chancel ; all which, with divers pictures in 
 the windows, which we could not reach, neither would they help 
 us to raise the ladders," [unnatural, ungodly men !] H all which 
 we left a warrant with the constable to do in fourteen days." 
 " Beccles, April the 6th. Jehovahs, 1 between the church and 
 chancel, and the sun over it ; and by the altar, My flesh is 
 
 1 This must mean the Hebrew letters which express this name of the 
 Almighty. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 399 
 
 MEAT INDEED, AND My BLOOD IS DRINK INDEED." " South- 
 
 wold. To take down the cover of the font." 
 
 Nor must the ear be spared, any more than the eye : " organs 
 I brake," is not an uncommon entry : and it would be most un- 
 just to omit the following beautiful and unaffected touch of 
 charity: " Ufford, Aug. 31st. We brake down the organ cases, 
 and gave them to the poor." The resistance of the inhabitants, 
 which is noticed, seems to have saved some of the furniture of this 
 church ; for there is also the following entry, with no mention 
 of demolition : " There is a glorious cover over the font, like a 
 pope's triple crown, with a pelican on the top, picking its breast, 
 all gilt over with gold." 
 
 The folly of quarrelling with a hood and surplice is just 
 equalled by the ignorance which associates the academical with 
 the clerical vestments : " Elmsett, Aug. 22nd. Crow, a deputy, 
 had done before we came, we rent apieces there the hood and 
 surplice." 
 
 Of course whatever tended to distinguish the chancel from 
 the church, or to signify the sanctity of the altar, was con- 
 demned. Such items as the following are very frequent : 
 " Broke in pieces the rails, and gave orders to pull down the 
 steps." 
 
 It might have been expected that private chapels would escape. 
 Vain hope ! " The lady Bruce" laments the destruction of her 
 pictures, and " The Lord Windsor," and " Mr. Captain Wald- 
 grave," (i.e. their servants) refuse the 6s. 8d. which are the 
 wages of Wm. Dowsing' s iniquity. 
 
 And all this while those are the godly men, whether consta- 
 bles, or churchwardens, or even clergymen, who join most 
 heartily in the work of demolition — " Aldborough, Jan. 24. 
 We gave order for taking down twenty cherubims, and thirty- 
 eight pictures ; which their lecturer, Mr. Swayn, (a godly man,) 
 undertook, and their Captain Mr. Johnson." 
 
 Really when Puritan reformation was thus carried on, we cannot 
 but express the least sympathy with the one instance of a parish 
 whose church had nothing to reform : — " Feby. the 3rd. Wen- 
 ham Magna. There was nothing to reform." 
 
 Besides this destruction, under pretence of reformation, 
 many churches suffered greatly from the effects of a civil war, 
 
 
 
400 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 in which one of the contending parties treated them habitually 
 as profane, while the other party sometimes brought harm upon 
 them by converting them or neighbouring buildings, into places 
 of defence and refuge. Churches were perpetually converted 
 into barracks, by the Puritans, and horses 1 were quartered in 
 them as well as the troopers to whom they belonged. 
 
 Ecclesiastical edifices in the same town with a fortress, or 
 themselves capable of defence, were, of course, most subject to 
 the direct assaults of besiegers, and the unhappy necessities of 
 a beleaguered garrison. Thus the Cathedral of Lichfield, stand- 
 ing in a close which was adapted to hold out against the rebels, 
 suffered more than any other church in the kingdom of the same 
 importance. And Scarborough church was battered most un- 
 mercifully from the castle. Of the latter instance I shall give 
 the history. 
 
 Scarborough was twice besieged during the great Rebellion, 
 and the church suffered on each occasion. Sir John Meldrum, 
 a Scotchman, was sent against it by the Parliament. The fol- 
 lowing are among the notes of his proceedings : 
 
 " On February 18th, (1644,) about ten o' clock, Scarborough 
 was stormed in four places by the English and Scottish soldiers, 
 who gained the town and the church with the loss of eleven men. 
 In the church they took eighty soldiers and the governor of 
 Helmsley Castle. They also took in the town and church thirty- 
 two pieces of ordnance, with store of arms and other prize. And 
 Sir John Meldrum, having made a lodgement with his troops in 
 the church of S. Mary, conveyed several pieces of artillery into 
 it in the night, and opened a battery from the east window ; but 
 
 1 "To me it was enjoyment enough 
 to behold your happy change, and to 
 see the same city, the metropolis of 
 loyalty and of the kingdom, to behold 
 the glory of English Churches re- 
 formed, that is delivered from the 
 Reformers ; and to find at least the 
 service of the Church repaired, though 
 not the building. To see S. Paul's 
 delivered from beasts here, as well as 
 S. Paul at Ephesus : and to view the 
 church thronged only with troops of 
 
 auditors, not of horse!" — South's 
 Sermons. 
 
 There had been already a fiscal con- 
 version of churches into stables. Rid- 
 ley being about to give Grindal a 
 prebend in S. Paul's, was prevented by 
 the council, it being their pleasure that 
 the king should have it for the furni- 
 ture of his stables ! See Blunt's Hist, 
 of the Reformation, p. 244. S. Paul's 
 was especially unhappy. In 1561 the 
 south aisle was a horse fair ! — Strype. 
 
 % 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 401 
 
 the garrison made such a vigorous and well-directed fire, that 
 the choir of the church was demolished." On another occasion 
 Sir John Meldrum was repulsed with great loss, and himself re- 
 ceived a wound of which he died, June 3rd, 1645. 
 
 In November, 1646, among other damages sustained by Scar- 
 borough during the siege, the following is specified in a memorial 
 presented to the Parliament : — " Their churche wholly ruinated, 
 except the walls and some part of the roof, which was formerly 
 in good repaire." In consequence of these repeated injuries the 
 central tower fell in October, 1659, and considerably injured a 
 great part of the nave of the church ; and the inhabitants were 
 under the necessity of having recourse to a brief, from which 
 the following passage is extracted. 
 
 " Whereas we are credibly informed by the humble petition 
 of the inhabitants of the town corporate of Scarborough, that 
 during the late wars our said town of Scarborough was twice 
 stormed, and the said inhabitants disabled from following their 
 ancient trade, whereby they are much impoverished, and almost 
 ruined in their estates ; and that nothing might be wanting to 
 make their condition more deplorable, their two fair churches 
 were, by the violence of the cannon, beaten down ; that in one 
 day there were three score pieces of ordnance discharged against 
 the steeple of the upper church there, called S. Mary's, and the 
 choir thereof quite beaten down, and the steeple thereof so 
 shaken, that notwithstanding the endeavours of the inhabitants 
 to repair the same, the steeple and bells, upon the tenth day of 
 October last, fell and brought down with it most part of the 
 body of the said church ; but the other church, called S. Tho- 
 mas's Church, was, by the violence of the ordnance, quite ruined 
 and battered down ; so that the said church, called S. Mary's, 
 must be rebuilt, or otherwise the said inhabitants will remain 
 destitute of a place wherein to assemble themselves for the 
 public worship of Almighty God. And that the charges of re- 
 building the church, called S. Mary's, will cost =€2,500 at the 
 least, which of themselves they are not able to disburse, their 
 fortunes being almost ruined by the calamities of the late war, 
 as aforesaid." 1 
 
 1 See HinderwelPs History of Scarborough, 
 D D 
 
40.2 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 It is one of the sad consequences of rebellion, that it forces, 
 even upon the faithful, acts which would otherwise be wrong, 
 and which are, under any necessity, most unhappy. Thus the 
 Church during the troubles of King Charles the Martyr, not 
 only suffered under the attacks of the Puritans, but was despoiled 
 even by the loyalty of her faithful sons ; a great part of the 
 Church plate being sacrificed to the royal cause. Hence partly, 
 the very great rarity of Ante-Reformation communion-plate ; and 
 hence the question whether its absence is not more honourable 
 to a parish than its existence. 
 
 Nor should we forget, that without the avowed intention of 
 robbery, but under the pretence of restoration, or of fitting 
 churches to another service, or from a niggard expenditure in 
 repairs with a total want of the sense of propriety, or even de- 
 cency, not to speak of reverence in such matters, churches were 
 suffering destruction during the whole of the troublous times of 
 which we have been speaking, and that they are still perpetually 
 suffering from the like causes. Sir William Dugdale's lament 
 on the fine collegiate church of Astley, in Warwickshire, the 
 work of Sir Thomas Astley, in the fourteenth century, may 
 stand as a fair exposure and rebuke of such conduct. One 
 Adrian Stokes got possession of the Lordship in right of his 
 wife, and this notable esquire 
 
 " much defac't the church before specified as not onely by tradition of the 
 inhabitants, but a presentment upon oath in i. Eliz. may appear ; which 
 manifesteth, that he caused the tall and costly spire made of timber, to- 
 gether with the battlements, all covered with lead, to be pull'd down, 
 being a landmark so eminent in this part of the woodland, where the ways 
 are not easy to hit, that it was called the Lanthorn of Arden. As also 
 the two fair iles, and a goodly building, called S. Anne's Chappell, adjoyn- 
 ing, the roofs of which were likewise leaded. By reason of which sacri- 
 legious action, the steeple, standing in the midst, took wet, and decayed, 
 so that, about the year 1600, it fell down to the ground, and with it a great 
 part of the church, Ric. Chamberlain, Esq., being then Lord of this man- 
 nour, by the Grant of Q. Mary to Edw. Chamberlain, his father, (of the 
 family of Chamberlain of Shirburn in Oxfords.) who, with some contri- 
 bution from the country, did, about the year 1 607, begin the building of 
 the tower again ; but, instead thereof, took totally away all the west part 
 of the church, with the north and south cross iles, making that which was 
 the quire the body of the church, but pulled down the other beautifull 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 403 
 
 chappells on the north and south side of the quire, setting up that which 
 stood on the north side at the east end for a chancel], wherein were the 
 monuments of Edw. Grey Vise. L'isle and his 2 wives : And in that on the 
 south side of Thomas Grey Marg. Dorset and his Lady, with their statues 
 in alabaster excellently cut; and in the vault underneath the same their 
 bodyes; that of the Marquess embalmed and wrapt in cerecloth many double 
 in a coffin of lead ; which, through the vain curiousity of some being 
 opened, his corps was found as intire, and free from any seeming corrup- 
 tion, as if he had been but newly dead. At the pulling down and trans- 
 lating of which chappell, it was resolved that the monuments should be 
 set up againe in the church ; the said corps with the coffin of lead being 
 accordingly removed thither: howbeit this good intention afterwards 
 cooled, and the statues of the Marquess and his lady were cast into the 
 belfrey, that of the woman having a coronet on her head ; and those of 
 the other thrown into an old outhouse amongst lime and rubbish; all 
 which I myself have seen." 1 
 
 The restoration of the Church and Monarchy did not in any 
 adequate degree repair the injuries which had fallen on churches 
 and church furniture, during the twenty disastrous years which 
 had preceded. Nor was there anything during this period to 
 indicate a change in architectural taste and execution ; the de- 
 based Gothic of Queen Elizabeth's reign being still followed in 
 the few restorations and additions which were attempted about 
 this period. 
 
 But there is one work which it would be unjust not to men- 
 tion with the great praise which it deserves. I have already said 
 that Lichfield Cathedral suffered very greatly in the Rebellion, 
 and when Bishop Hacket came to his throne, 2 the roof was beaten 
 in, the central spire was entirely destroyed, those at the west end 
 were nearly in the same state, the sculpture in the west part was 
 defaced, the painted glass was broken, and the monuments muti- 
 lated and despoiled. The morning after his arrival at Lichfield, 
 Bishop Hacket began the restoration of his desolated cathedral. 
 He roused his servants by break of day, set his own coach horses 
 with trams and labourers, to remove the rubbish, and laid the 
 first hand to the work himself. Very large subscriptions were 
 
 1 Dugdale's Warwickshire. 
 
 2 Which was offered to the notori- 
 ous Baxter, " factionis Presbyterianse 
 Coryphaeus," as Godwin calls him. 
 
 D 
 
 Would he in better times, and with 
 the grace of an office of Divine insti- 
 tution, have built up that which he and 
 his had laboured to destroy ? 
 
 2 
 
404 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 gathered, chiefly by the personal assiduity of the Bishop, who 
 obtained also from Charles II. a grant of one hundred fair tim- 
 ber trees out of Needwood forest, towards the work. In eight 
 years the work was completed at a cost of ,£20,000, 1 and on the 
 24th December, 1669, the church was solemnly reconsecrated. 
 In the following year Bishop Hacket contracted for six bells ; 
 the first of which only was hung during his life. He was then 
 in his last illness, and went out of his bedchamber into the 
 next room to hear it. He was pleased with the sound, blessed 
 God Who had favoured him with life to hear it, and said 
 that it would be his passing-bell. He never left his chamber 
 again. 2 
 
 I transcribe the account of another meritorious restoration, 
 from Staveley's History of Churches. I am not able to say how 
 far the praise of architectural propriety is due to the work there 
 recorded. 
 
 " Sir Robert Shirley, late of Stanton Harold, in the county of Leicester, 
 Baronet, deceased, pull'd down an old ruinous church at Stanton Harold, 
 and in the place thereof, at his own charges, built a new one, compleat for 
 the workmanship ; plentiful and honourable for the furniture, ornaments, 
 and endowment ; but most admirable for the time wherein the same was 
 undertaken and finished ; it being then when the roofs of our cathedrals 
 were generally pulled down, and the foundation of all other churches un- 
 dermined : the time and manner of which work is set forth by an inscrip- 
 tion over the entrance thus : 
 
 In the year 1653, 
 when all things sacred throughout 
 
 the nation 
 were either demolished or profaned, 
 Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, 
 
 founded this church, 
 whose singular praise it is, 
 to have done the best things in the 
 worst times, 
 
 AND 
 
 HOPED THEM IN THE MOST CALAMITOUS. 
 'THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL BE HAD IN EVERLASTING 
 REMEMBRANCE.'" 3 
 
 1 Godwin. 2 See Winkles' Cathedrals. 3 Staveley, pp. 143, 144. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 405 
 
 In the year 1666, an event took place which had a most 
 disastrous influence on ecclesiastical architecture, and intro- 
 duced, or at least firmly established, the pseudo-classic style 
 which prevailed until very recently. The fire of London de- 
 stroyed a great part of the city, with several churches, among 
 which was the Cathedral Church of S. Paul, the largest, and 
 one of the most splendid in the kingdom. The plan of the 
 new city, and the rebuilding of most of the churches, including 
 S. Paul's, was committed to Sir Christopher Wren, who brought 
 to his task the requisite energy, and the no less requisite self- 
 confidence ; but who felt or affected a contempt for the architec- 
 tural works of the mediaeval Church, which boded ill for the 
 sacred edifices which were to start into renewed life under his 
 hands. It is indeed greatly to be regretted that when so many 
 churches were to be rebuilt, the style chosen should have been 
 so unecclesiastical : but it would have been a subject of still 
 deeper regret, if Wren, with his very imperfect knowledge of 
 pointed architecture had affected that style for his churches. In 
 some instances he imitated the Gothic forms and arrangements, 
 but his imitations are always failures. Witness his western 
 towers of Westminster Abbey, and his steeple of S. Dunstan's in 
 the east. 
 
 Still the name of Wren is a household word with Englishmen, 
 and his crowning work is a glorious effort of human design and 
 execution : nor is there any material of the history of the arts 
 in those days more interesting than the professional documents 
 which proceeded from his pen. I have transferred, therefore, to 
 the Appendix to this chapter, his remarks on the style proper 
 for the western towers of S. Peter's Abbey, and on the state of 
 S. Paul's Cathedral after the fire. 
 
 From Wren's time downwards till within a few years past, the 
 only two classes into which churches can fairly be arranged, are 
 those that aim at a religious character with or without suc- 
 cess ; and those that do not fail in this object, because they do 
 not aspire to attain it. 1 But I have not the smallest intention of 
 entering into the detailed examination which would be requisite 
 to give satisfactory examples of these two classes. 
 
 Nor shall I dare to discuss the present prospects of ecclesi- 
 
 1 This arrangement is somewhere suggested in the " Ecclesiologist." 
 
406 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 astical art, or to weigh the merits of those modern architects, 
 who have at least partially succeeded in their endeavour to re- 
 vive a truly ecclesiastical style. I shall, however, suggest one 
 word in arrest of too severe a judgment on what has yet been 
 done : — that it does not fall to the lot of the same person or the 
 same generation, both to be first in action, and to profit by ex- 
 perience. It is no fair disparagement of many noble works that 
 they have aided the great development by their defects, as well 
 as by their beauties. For the rest, if I may venture to hope 
 that the present volume may work with those persons and cir- 
 cumstances which are giving a healthful stimulus to the pre- 
 sent revival of ecclesiastical art, it will be rather by carrying 
 back the thoughts of those interested to the times which we 
 must emulate, than by anticipating the success which may 
 crown our future efforts. And let me not conceal my entire 
 consciousness that I must at last fall far behind the merit of 
 those who even in the smallest degree realize the ideal after 
 which we are striving, either by their professional skill, or by 
 well-directed munificence. The architect who has restored one 
 church in the true spirit of a restorer, or built one church in the 
 true spirit of a churchman, has done more to forward our com- 
 mon object, than all the commendations of Alan of Walsingham, 
 and of William of Wykeham, that were ever penned ; and one 
 sacrifice, one offering on the altar, in which the sssthetic element 
 is animated by a Christian spirit, is more than whole piles of 
 description, and manuals, and histories. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 I. 
 
 A contemporary narrative of the burning of St. Paul's Steeple, in 1561, 
 published in the Archceologia, Vol. XI. 
 " The true reporte of the 
 burning of the Steple and 
 church of Paules, in London. 
 " On Wednesday, beinge the fourthe daye of June, in the yeare of our 
 Lord 1561, and in the thyrde year of thereigne of our Soveraygne Ladye 
 Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queene of Englande, Fraunce, and Ire- 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 407 
 
 land, Defender of the Faith, &c, between one and two of the clocke at 
 afternoone, was scene a marveilous great fyrie lightning, and immediately 
 insued a most terrible hydeous cracke of thunder, such as seldom hath 
 been heard, and that by estimacion of sense, directlye over the citie of 
 London. At which instance the corner of a turret of the steple of St. 
 Martin's churche within Ludgate was torne, and divers great stones casten 
 downe, and a hole broken throughe the roofe and timber of the said church 
 by the fall of the same stones. 
 
 " For divers persones in tyme of the saide tempest being on the river of 
 Thamys, and others, beyng in the fieldes, nere adjoyning to ye citie, 
 affirmed, that thei saw a long and a speare pointed flame of fier (as it 
 were) runne through the toppe of the broche or shaft of Paules steple 
 from the easte westwarde. And some of the parish of St. Martin's then 
 being in the streate, dyd feele a marveylous strong ayre or whorlewynd, 
 with a smel lyke brimstone coming from Paules church, and withal heard 
 the rush of ye stones which fell frd their steeple into the churche. Be- 
 twene iiij and five of the clocke, a smoke was espied, by divers, to breake 
 oute under the bowle of the said shaft of Paules, and namely, by Peter 
 Johnson, principall Registrer to the Bishop of Londo, who immediately 
 brought word to the Bishop's house. But sodeinly after, as it were in a 
 momente, the flame brake forth in a circle like a garlande rounde about 
 the broche, about two yards to thestimacion of sight under the bowle of 
 the said shaft, and increased in suche wise, that within a quarter of an 
 howre, or little more, the crosse and the egle on the toppe fell downe 
 upon the south crosse ile. The Lord Maior being sent for, and his breth- 
 ren came with all spede possible, with ye Bishop of London, and others, 
 for ye best way of remedy. And thither came also ye Lord Keper of the 
 great seale, and the Lord Treasorer, who bv their wisedom and authoritie 
 dyrectecl as good order, as in so great a comasio could possibly be. 
 
 " Some there wer, preteding experience in warres, that couceled the re- 
 manente of the steple to be shot down with canons, which counsel was not 
 liked, as most perilous both for the dispersing of the fire, and destructio 
 of houses and people ; other perceiving the steple to be past all recovery, 
 considering the hugeness of the fier, and the dropping of the leade, 
 thought beste to geat ladders and scale the churche, and with axes to hew 
 down a space of the roofe of the churche to stay the fier, at least to save 
 some part of the saide churche, which was concluded. But before the 
 ladders and buckets could be brought, and things put in any order, and 
 especially because the churche was of such height, that thei could not 
 scale it, and no sufficiente number of axes could be had, ye laborers also 
 being troubled with ye multitude of ydle gazers, the most part of the 
 higheste roofe of the churche was on fier. 
 
 " Fyrst, the fall of the crosse and egle fired the southe crosse ile, which 
 ile was first consumed, the beames and brands of the steeple fell downe on 
 every side, and fired the other thre partes, that is to saye, the chauncel or 
 quier, the north ile, and the body of the churche, so that in one howres 
 
408 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 space ye broch of the steple was brent downe to ye battlements, and the 
 most part of ye highest roofe of the church likewise consumed. The state 
 of the steple and churche seming both desperate, my Lord Mayor was ad- 
 vised by one maister Winter, of ye admiraltie, to converte the most part 
 of his care and provisio to preserve the Bishop's palace adjoyning to the 
 north-west end of the church : least fro that house beinge large, the fier 
 might sprede to the stretes adjoyning, whereupon the ladders, buckets, 
 and laborers, were commanded thither, and by greate labor and diligence, 
 a piece of the roofe of the north ile was cut down, and the fier so stayed, 
 and by muche water, that parte quenched, and the said Bishop's house 
 preserved. It pleased God also at the same tyme bothe to turne and 
 calme the winde, which afore was vehemet, and continued stil high and 
 greate in other partes without the citie. 
 
 "There wer above v.c. persons yt laboured in carrying and filling water, 
 and divers substancial citizens toke paynes as if thei had bene laborers, so 
 did also divers and sondrye gentlemen, whose names wer not knowen to 
 the writer hereof, but amongst other, the said M. Winter, and one Mr. 
 Stranguish did both take notable paines in their own persons, and also 
 much directed and encouraged other, and that not without great daiiger 
 to theselves. In ye evening came the Lord Clinton, Lord Admiral, from 
 the court at Grenewiche, whe the Queenes majesty, assone as the rage 
 of the fier was espied by her majestye and others in the court, of the 
 pitifull inclination and love that her gracious highnesse dyd beare both 
 to ye said church, and ye citie, sent to assyst my Lorde Mayor for 
 the suppressyng of the fyre, who with his wisdome, authority, and dili- 
 gent travayl, did very much good therein. About x of the clocke the 
 fyercenes of the fyre was past, the tymbre being fallen, and lyinge bren- 
 ninge uppon the vaultes of stone, the vaultes yet (God be thanked) stand- 
 ynge unperished : so as onelye the tymbre of the hole church was con- 
 sumed, and the lead molten, savying the most part of the two lowe iles of 
 the queare, and a piece of the north ile, and an other smal piece of ye 
 southe, in the bodye of the churche. Notwithstandyng all which, it 
 pleased the merciful God in His wrath to remebre His mercie, and to en- 
 close the harme of this most fyerce and terrible fyre wythin the walles of 
 thys one church, not extending any part of His wrath in this fyre uppon 
 the rest of the citie, which to all reason and sence of man was subject to 
 utter distruction. For in the hole city without the churche no stycke 
 was kyndled surely e, notwithstanding that in diverse partes and stretes, 
 and within the houses bothe adjoyning, and of a good distaunce, as in 
 Fletestrete and Newgate market, by the violence of fyre, burninge coles 
 of greate bignesse fell downe almoost as thicke as haylstones, and flawes 
 of lead were blowen abrode into the gardins without yt citie, like flawes 
 of snowe in bredthe, w'oute hurt, God be thanked, to any house or perso. 
 Many fond talkes goe abrode of the original cause of this fier. Some say 
 it was negligence of plumbers, wheras by due examination, it is proved 
 that no plumbers or other workemen laboured in the churche for sixe 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 409 
 
 monethes before. Others suspect it was done by some wicked practice of 
 wildfyer or gunpowder, but no just suspicions thereof by any examinacion 
 can be founde hitherto. Some suspect conjurers and sorcerers, wherof 
 there is also no great likelyhode. And if it hadde bene wrought yt waie, 
 yet could not the devil have done it, without God's permissio, and to some 
 purpose of His unsercheable judgemets, as appereth in the story of Job. 
 The true cause, as it semeth, was the tepest by God's suffrance : for it 
 cannot be otherwise gathered, but that at ye said great and terrible 
 thunderclap, when St. Martin's steple was torne, the lightning, which by 
 natural order smiteth ye highest, did first smite ye top of Paules steple, 
 and entring in at the small holes, which have always remained open for 
 building skaffoldes to the workes, and finding the timbers very olde and 
 drie, did kindle the same, and so the fier increasing grew to a flame, and 
 wrought ye effecte which folowed, most terrible then to behold and now 
 most lamentable to looke on. 
 
 " On Sonday folowing, beynge the viii day of June, the reverend in God, 
 the Bishop of Duresme, at Paules crosse, made a learned and fruitful ser- 
 mon, exhorting the auditory to a general repentance, and namely to 
 humble obediece of the lawes and superior powers, which vertue is much 
 decayed in these our daies. Seming to have intellygece from the Queenes 
 highnes, that her Majestie intendeth that more severitie of lawes shall be 
 executed against persons disobedyent as well in causes of religion as civil, 
 to the great rejoysing of his auditors. He exhorted also hys audiece to 
 take this as a generall warninge to the whole realme, and namelye to the 
 citie of London, of some greater plage to folow, if amendmente of lyfe in 
 all states did not ensue : He muche reproved those persons whiche woulde 
 assigne the cause of this wrathe of God to any perticular state of me, or 
 that were diligent to loke into other mens lyves, and could see no faultes 
 in themselfes ; but wished that every man wold descend into himselfe, and 
 say with David, Ego sum qui peccavi. I am he that hathe sinned, and 
 so furth, to that effect very godlye. He also not onely reproved the pro- 
 phanatyon of the said churche of Paules, of long time heretofore abused 
 by walking, jangling, brawling, fighting, bargaining, &c, namely, in ser- 
 mons and service time : but also auswered by the way to the objections of 
 such evil-tunged persos, which do impute this token of God's deserved ire, 
 to alteratio or rather reformatio of religio, declaring out of aucient re- 
 cords and histories, ye like, yea and greater matters, had befallen in the 
 time of superstitio and ignorance. For in the first year of King Stephe, 
 not only the said churche of Paules was brent, but also a great part of the 
 city, that is to say frd Londo bridge unto St. Clemets without Teple bar, 
 was by fier cosumed. And in ye daies of King Hery ye VI. ye steple of 
 Paules was also fired by lightning, although it was then staid by diligece 
 of ye citizens, ye fier being the by likelyhode not so fierce. Many other 
 suche like comon calamities he rehersed, whiche had happened in other 
 coutries, both nigh to this realm, and far of, where the church of Rome 
 hath most authority, and therefore concluded the surest way to be, yt 
 
410 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 every man should judge, axamin, and amed himselfe, and embrace, beleve, 
 and truely folow ye word of God, and earnestly to pray to God to turn 
 away fro us His deserved wrath and indignation, wherof this His terrible 
 work is a most certein warning, if we repent not unfeinedly. The whiche 
 God grat maye come to passe in all estates and degrees, to ye glory of His 
 name, and to our endlesse comfort, in Christ our Saviour. Amen. 
 God save the Queene." 
 
 II. 
 
 Sir Christopher Wren's account of the state of S. Paul's Cathedral, after 
 the Fire of London, 1666. From the Antiquarian Repertory. 
 
 What time and weather had left entire in the old, and art in the new- 
 repaired parts of this great pile of S. Pauls, the late calamitie of fire hath 
 so weakned and defac'd, that it now appears like some antique ruine of 
 2000 years continuance : and to repaire it sufficiently, will be like the 
 mending of ye Argo-navis, scarce any thing will at last be left of the old. 
 
 The first decaies of it were great, from severall causes; first, from the 
 originall building itself : for it was not well shaped and design'd for the 
 firme bearing of its owne vault, how massy soever ye walls seemed to be, 
 nor were the materialls good : for it seem'd to have been built out of the 
 stone of some other antient ruines, the walls being of 2 severall sorts of 
 freestone, and those small; and ye coar wthin was raggestone, cast in 
 rough wth morter and putty, wch is not a durable way of building, unless 
 there had been that peculiar sort of banding wth some thorowe courses, 
 wch is necessary in this kind of fillingwork, but was omitted in this 
 fabrick. This accusation belongs chiefly to the west, north and south 
 parts. The quire was of later and better worke, not inferiour to most 
 Gothick fabricks of yt age. The tower, though it had ye effects of an ill 
 manner of building and small stones, and fillingwork, yet was it more 
 carefully banded, and cramped wth much iron. 
 
 A second reason of ye decaies, wch appeared before ye last fire, was in 
 probabilitie the former fire, wch consumed ye whole roof in ye reign 
 of Q. Elizt. The fall of timber then upon ye vault, was certainly one 
 maine cause of ye cracks wch appeared in ye vault, and of ye spreading 
 out of ye walls above 10 inches in some places fro their true p'pendicular, 
 as it now appears more manifestly. This giving ovt of ye walls was en- 
 deavoured to be corrected by ye artist of the last repaires, who plac'd his 
 new case of Portland stone truely p'pendicular, and if he had p'ceeded wth 
 casing it wthin, ye whole had been tolerably corrected. But now even 
 this new work is gone away fro its p'pendicular allso by this 2d fall of ye 
 roofe in this last fire. This is most manifest in ye north-west ile. 
 
 The second ruines are they that have put the restauration past remedy, 
 ye effects of wch I shall briefly enumerate. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 411 
 
 First, the portick is totally deprived of yt excellent beauty and strength 
 wch time alone and weather could have no more overthrowne than the 
 naturall rocks, so great and good were ye materialls, and so skillfully were 
 they lay'd after a true Roman manner. But so impatient is ye Portland- 
 stone of fire, that many tunns of stone are scaled off, and ye columns 
 flawed quite through. 
 
 Next ye south-west corner, one of ye vast pillars of ye body of ye 
 church, wth all yt it supported, is fallen. 
 
 All along the body of ye church ye pillars are more given out than they 
 were before the fire, and more flawed towards ye bottome, by ye burning 
 of ye goods belowe, and ye timber fallen fro above. 
 
 This further spreading of ye pillars wthin hath also carried out the 
 walls of ye iles, and reduced the circular ribbs of ye vaults of ye iles to 
 be of a forme, wch to ye eye appears distorted and compressed, especially 
 in the north-west ile of ye body of the church. 
 
 The tower & ye parts next about it have suffered the least, for there by 
 reason that ye walls lying in form of a cross give a firme and immoveable 
 buttment each to other, and they stand still in their position, and support 
 their vaults ; wch shows manifestly, that ye fall of ye timber alone could 
 not break ye vaults, unless where ye same concussion had force enough to 
 make ye walls allso give out. 
 
 And this is ye reason of ye great desolac'on wch appears in the new 
 quire, for there ye falling vaults in spite of all the small butresses, hath 
 broken them short, or dislocated the stouter of them, & overthrowing ye 
 north wall and pillars and consequently ye vaults of ye north-east ile, hath 
 broken open the vaults of S. Faith's (though those were of very great 
 strength) but irresistible is ye force of so many 1000 tunns, augmented by 
 the height of ye fall. 
 
 Having shewn in part the deplorable condic'on of o patient, we are to 
 consult of ye cure, if possibly art may effect it. And herein we must 
 imitate ye physitian, who, when he finds a totall decay of nature, bends 
 his skill to a palliation, to give respite for a better settlemt of ye estate of 
 ye patient. The question is then, where best to begin this kind of practise, 
 that is, to make a quire for present use. 
 
 It will worst of all be effected in the new quire, for there the walls and 
 pillars being falln, it will cost a large sume to restore them to their former 
 height, and before this can be effected, the very substrucc'on and repaire 
 of S. Faith's will cost so much, that I shall but fright this age wth ye 
 computac'on of that wch is to be done in the darke, before any thing will 
 appear for ye use desired. 
 
 The old quire seems to some a convenient place, and yt wch will be most 
 easily effected ; because ye vault there looks firme, or easily reparable, as 
 far as to ye place where was once ye old pulpit. But this designe will 
 not be wthout very materiall objections. First, the place is very short and 
 little between ye stone-skreen and the breach, and only capable of a little 
 quire, not of an auditory. 
 
412 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 And if the auditory be made wthout, yet secondly, all ye adjacent places 
 are under the mines of a falling tower, wch every day throws off smaller 
 scales, and in frosts will yield such showers of the outside-stones (if no 
 greater parts come downe wth tempests,) that ye new roofs (yet to be 
 made) will be broken up, if no further mischiefs ensue. Thirdly, you are 
 to make such a dismall procession through mines to come thither, that 
 the very passage will be a penance. Fourthly, this cannot be effected wth 
 out considerable expense of making of partic'on-walls to ye topp to sever 
 this part on every side from the ruines, and covering wth timber and lead 
 these four short parts of ye cross next ye tower, and covering the tower 
 also, that is, if you make room for ye auditory, as well as the quire, the 
 quire itself being very little. 
 
 These waies being found inconvenient and expensefull, either of taking 
 out a part, where ye new quire was, or where the old quire is, with the 
 parts west, north, and south next the tower, as far as the vaults stand ; it 
 remains that we seek it in the body of the church. And this is that wch 
 I should humbly advise, as the properest and cheapest way of making a 
 sufficient quire and auditory, after this manner. 
 
 I would take the lesser north and south door for the entrances, and 
 leaving two intercolumniations eastward, and three or four westward, I 
 would there make partic'on-walls of the fallen stone upon the place. The 
 east part above the doores may be contriv'd into a quire, the west into the 
 auditory. I would lay a timber-roof as low as the bottoms of the upper 
 windows, wth a flat fretted railing. The lead sav'd out of the burning will 
 more than cover it. Of iron and of pavemt there is enough for all uses. 
 The roof lying low, will not appeare above the walls, and since we cannot 
 mend this great mine, we will not disfigure it, but that it still shall have 
 its full motives to work, if possible, upon this, or the next ages ; and yet 
 wthin it shall have all convenience and light (by turning the second 
 story of arches into windows,) and a beauty durable to the next two cen- 
 turies of years, and yet prove so cheap, that between 3000£. & 4000£. 
 shall effect it all in one summer. 
 
 And having wth this ease obtained a p'sent cathedrall, there will be time 
 to consider of a more durable and noble fabrick, to be made in the place of 
 the tower and eastern parts of the church, when the minds of men, now 
 contracted to many objects of necessary charge, shall by God's blessing be 
 more widened, after a happy restauration, both of the buildings and 
 wealth of the city and nation. In the meane while, to derive, if not a 
 stream, yet some little drills of charitie this way, or at least to preserve 
 that allready obtained, from being diverted, it may prove ill advise, to seem 
 to begin something of this new fabrick. But I confess this cannot well be 
 put in execution, wthout taking downe all that part of the ruines, wch 
 whether it be yet seasonable to do, we must leave to our superiours. 
 
THE POST-REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 413 
 
 HI. 
 
 The following extracts are made from Sir Christopher Wren's Letter to 
 Atterbury, then (1713) Dean of Westminster, as affording not only an 
 account of the state of Westminster Abbey, in his day, but also sufficient 
 insight into his own feeling about Gothic architecture, which, from his in- 
 fluence on church building, is a matter of importance. The whole letter 
 is given in the Parentalia, but these quotations are made from a larger ex- 
 tract in Neale's Westminster. 
 
 " The Saracen mode of building, seen in the East, soon spread over Eu- 
 rope, and particularly in France ; the fashions of which nation we affected 
 to imitate in all ages, even when we were at enmity with it. Nothing was 
 thought magnificent that was not high beyond measure, with the flutter of 
 archbuttresses, (so we call the sloping arches that poise the higher vault- 
 ings of the nave ;) the Romans always concealed their butments, whereas 
 the Normans thought them ornamental. These, I have observed, are the 
 first things that occasion the ruin of cathedrals, from being so exposed to 
 the air and weather ; the coping, which cannot defend them, first failing ; 
 and if they give way the vault must spread. Pinnacles are of no use, and 
 as little ornament ; the pride of a very high roof, raised above reasonable 
 pitch, is not for duration, for the lead is apt to slip ; but we are tied to this 
 form, and must be contented with original faults in the first design. But 
 that which is most to be lamented is the unhappy choice of materials ; the 
 stone is decayed four inches deep, and falls off perpetually in great scales. 
 I find, after the Conquest, all our artists Were fetched from Normandy ; 
 they loved to work in their own Caen stone, which is more beautiful than 
 durable : this was found expensive to bring hither, so they thought Rye- 
 gate stone, in Surrey, the nearest like their own, being a stone that would 
 saw and work like wood ; but it is not durable, as is manifest; and they 
 used this for the ashler of the whole fabric, which is now disfigured in the 
 highest degree : this stone takes in water, which, being frozen, scales off, 
 whereas good stone gathers a crust, and defends itself, as many of our 
 English freestones do. And though we have also the best oak timber in 
 the world, yet these senseless artificers would work (as in Westminster 
 Hall, and other places,) their own chesnuts from Normandy : that timber 
 is not natural to England ; it works finely, but sooner decays than oak. 
 The roof in the Abbey is oak, but mixed with chesnut, and wrought after 
 a bad Norman manner, that does not secure it from stretching and da- 
 maging the walls : and the water of the gutters is ill carried off. ... . 
 
 " I have yet said nothing of King Henry the Vllth's chapel, a nice em- 
 broidered work, and performed with tender Caen stone ; and though 
 lately built, in comparison, is so eaten up by our weather, that it begs for 
 some compassion, which I hope the sovereign power will take, as it is 
 the regal sepulture. 
 
414 ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 " I begin, as I said, to set down what is necessary for completing the 
 repairs ; though part whereof I can but guess at, because I cannot yet 
 come to the north side, to make a full discovery of the defects there ; but 
 I hope to find it rather better than the south side, for it is the vicissitudes 
 of heat and cold, drought and moisture, that rot all materials more than 
 the extremities that are constant, of any of these accidents. This is mani- 
 fest in timber, which if always underground, and wet, never decays, other- 
 wise Venice and Amsterdam would fall. It is the same in lead work; for 
 the north side of a steep roof is usually much less decayed than the south, 
 and the same is commonly seen in stone-work. Besides, the buttresses 
 here are more substantial than those of the south side, which were indis- 
 creetly altered for the sake of the cloyster; and I find some emendations 
 have been made about eighty years since, but not well 
 
 " And now, having given a summary account of what will perfect the 
 repairs, let me add what I wish might be done to render those parts with 
 a proper aspect, which were left abruptly imperfect by the last builders, 
 when the monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII. 
 
 " It was plainly intended originally to have had a steeple, the beginnings 
 of which appear on the corners of the cross, but left off before it rose so 
 high as the ridge of the roof; and the vault of the choir under it is only 
 lath and plaister, now rotten, and must be taken care of. Lest it should 
 be doubted whether the four pillars below be able to bear a steeple, be- 
 cause they seem a little swayed inward, I have considered how they may 
 be unquestionably secured, so as to support the greatest weight that need 
 be laid upon them ; and this after a manner that will add to their shape 
 and beauty. 
 
 " The pillars being once well secured from further distortion, it will be 
 necessary to confirm all by adding more weight upon them, that is, by 
 building a tower according to the original intention of the architect. In 
 my opinion, the tower should be continued to, at least, as much in height 
 above the roof as it is in breadth ; and if a spire be added to it, it will 
 give a proper grace to the whole fabric, and the west end of the city which 
 seems to want it. I have made a design, which will not be very expensive, 
 but light, and still in the Gothic form, and of a style with the rest of the 
 structure, which I would strictly adhere to throughout the whole inten- 
 tion : to deviate from the old form would be to run into a disagreeable 
 mixture, which no person of a good taste could relish. I have varied a 
 little in giving twelve sides to the spire instead of eight, for reasons to be 
 discerned upon the model. The angles of pyramids in the Gothic archi- 
 tecture were usually enriched with the flower the botanists call calceolus, 1 
 which is a proper form to help workmen to ascend on the outside to amend 
 
 1 This is by no means a happy at- 
 tempt to appropriate the conventional 
 forms of Gothic architecture to a na- 
 tural prototype. Mr. Browne in his 
 
 valuable work on York Minster has 
 attempted the same thing, in many 
 instances, but with like success. 
 
THE POST- REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 415 
 
 any defects, without raising large scaffolds upon every slight occasion. I 
 have done the same, it being of so good use, as well as an agreeable 
 ornament. 
 
 " The next thing to be considered is, to finish what was left undone at 
 the west front. It is evident that the two towers there were left imper- 
 fect ; the one much higher than the other, though still too low for bells, 
 the sounds of which are stifled by the height of the roof above them : 
 they ought certainly to be carried to an equal height, one story above the 
 ridge of the roof, still continuing the Gothic manner in the stone- work 
 and tracery. Something must be done to strengthen the west window, 
 which is crazy ; the pediment is only boarded, but ought undoubtedly to 
 be of stone. I have given such a design as I conceive may be suitable for 
 this part 
 
 " The great north window had been formerly in danger of ruin, but was 
 upheld, and stopped up for the present with plaister : it will be most ne- 
 cessary to rebuild this with Portland stone, to answer the south rose-win- 
 dow, which was well rebuilt about forty years since. The staircases at 
 the corners must be new ashlered, and pyramids set upon them conform- 
 able to the old style, to make the whole of a piece. I have therefore made 
 a design, in order to restore it to its proper shape, as first intended, but 
 which was indiscreetly tampered with some years since, by patching on a 
 little Doric passage before the great window, and cropping off the pyra- 
 mids, and covering the staircases with very improper roofs of timber and 
 lead, which can never agree with any other part of the design. 
 
 " For all these new additions I have prepared perfect draughts and 
 models, such as I conceive may agree with the original scheme of the old 
 architect, without any modern mixtures to show my own inventions ; in 
 like manner as I have, among the parochial churches of London, given 
 some few examples (where I was obliged to deviate from a better style), 
 which appear not ungraceful, but ornamental, to the east part of the city ; 
 and it is to be hoped by the public care, the west part also, in good time, 
 will be as well adorned ; and surely by nothing more properly than a lofty 
 spire, and western towers to Westminster Abbey/' 
 
 JOSEPH MASTERS, A I.OKRSGATE STREET, LONDON. 
 
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