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land and water, and of all other services. Wherefore I desire that they may be for ever quit and freed from all other services to me and my heirs.

And if we lodge there more than twice in the year, let them reckon up all that I, or any of my servants lodging there on my account, during the year, shall consume of their substance, over and above what is spent at the two seasons beforementioned, and we will repay them at the end of the year on peril of our souls. Thus I have done, and will do, and so I would have my heirs, as they would be saved in the day of judgment, continue to do, lest for want thereof they turn my charity and theirs into tyranny' and extortion. Moreover, I have given them the church of Acre with two carucates of land, the place where I and my Gundreda, in her lifetime, proposed to build a monastery and dwellings for some of the monks from the monastery of St. Pancras and where at the first we settled some from thence in the church of the Castle. And this Master Lanzo promised to do, but on condition that the prior and monks of Acre should always be subject and under the entire control of the Prior of St. Pancras. Wherefore let the said prior and convent of St. Pancras, have and regulate without contradiction the house of Acre, as their own monks and their own cloister; and this I will do, if God continue to me life and health. But if I cannot accomplish it in my life, I will that my heir shall do it. And if my successors shall in their own day found any religious house, I will that it be subjected to St. Pancras, and that St. Pancras be always the chief place of their barony. And there let them be buried; my wife Gundreda sleeps there, by her my body will be interred, and I will that my heirs also be buried there. All the aforesaid gifts I gave to God and St. Pancras, and to the monks who should serve God in that place, during the life and with the consent of Gundreda, my wife, and William and Raynald my sons and heirs. But this charter I made after her death. After which I also gave them for her soul and mine, and those of my successors, manor in Norfolk, called Hecham, and all that I had there with the land of Paganus my bailiff, and all the free-men whose rents Paganus received. And this donation I will that my heirs grant and confirm, for it has been granted and confirmed by my Master King William, and his father did the same as to my other gifts. All the aforesaid things I have given to the monks to hold for ever, free and quit from all suits, customs, and

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services, as I myself held them, and as any free-man has or can hold his demesne or bestow his alms. And if it come to pass that the king of the country shall require therefrom hidage or danegeld, or any tax or service or other matter, I will save them harmless, and free from all claim as of my demesne, so long as I live, and let my heir after me, and his heirs after him for ever, do the like as regards all things which can or may ever hereafter be demanded by any lord or other person on the King's behalf, and let all men and all belonging to them continue in peace with them, as do the monks themselves. Wherefore I will, that if any contention, dissension, damage or injury occur between the men of St. Pancras and me or mine, from whence forfeiture shall arise, let the prior of St. Pancras have and receive in my stead, forfeiture and satisfaction from his men, in order that by this means the men of St. Pancras may never be injured or distressed on this account by those who are to come, and I would have my heirs do the same; and if I or my heirs after me add any gift, I will that it be given and holden as freely as what I have given, and that my heirs will and do likewise. And I will that as I grow rich, my monks shall be enriched also, and that as their goods increase their number shall likewise increase, and this is my will and desire and command, which let my heirs will and desire and command, and let them confirm and establish what I have done, and I hereby confirm and establish what they shall do. And whoever shall contravene this my donation, or in any respect derogate from or diminish it, let him incur the anger and curse of Almighty God, and His swift vengeance in heart and soul, both in this world and in the day of judgment, and may all the curses which a father can call down on his wicked children fall from me upon him. So be it. So be it. Likewise, if my heir after me, or his heir after him, or any of his successors shall add anything to my donation, I pray God that whoever goes against it for evil, may have God against him for evil, but whoever shall defend and keep it, may God keep him from all evil. Moreover, I would have my monks and my heirs know, that when I and Gundreda requested the Lord Hugh Abbot of Clugny, (who had come into Normandy, to confer with the King my Master,) to restore to us Master Lanzo our prior, whom he had kept all the year at Clugny, and which had disturbed us so much that we had almost resolved to lay aside our intention, and also to take our church away from them and give it to the greater

monastery, *then at our earnest entreaty, the Abbot granted and promised that if God prospered our house, he would make it, after the death of Master Lanzo, or his promotion to any higher dignity, 'one of the greater abbeys. And moreover, that when the monks of St. Pancras should send to Clugny for a prior, they should choose from their congregation one of the best of the brethren, one whom they knew to be the holiest (next after the chief prior of the House of Clugny, and the prior of the House of Charity) in the discipline and direction of souls in spiritual things, and the most prudent in the government of the house in secular matters. And that he should be given permanently to us, and not be removed unless for some cause so just and obvious as that no man could reasonably gainsay it; and this promise he gave me in writing, sealed with his seal, and it is now in my possession. We made this request, because we feared that after Master Lanzo's return he would shortly be taken from us, for the king raised the best men he could find to dignities in the church, and in our presence desired the Abbot to send him twelve of his holy monks, and he would make them all Bishops and Abbots in the land of his inheritance, which God had given him. We foresaw also that if a new and undisciplined house were often to change its prior, and to fall into new hands, it would never come to much perfection. Being unwilling also that our religious donation should become burthened with secular services, it was

agreed between us and the Abbot, that the House of Clugny should receive every year from that of St. Pancras, 50 shillings of English money, and should be exempt from all other service, exaction or tax; and that the Abbot should not assume

authority over the prior as to any regulation of the priory, except in matters relating to the observance and reformation of discipline such as the prior could not reform himself, nor as to such houses as by the grace of God should be placed in dependence to them, but that the prior and convent of St. Pancras should always keep them freely in their own disposal, in

* This monastery was at Tours.. See Monast. Anglic. Vol. V. p. 1. New Ed.

This is an interesting confirmation of William of Malmsbury's character of the Conqueror as regards his disposal of Church preferment. "Non tunc episcoporum ambitus, non tunc abbatum venalitas proficiebat; ille majoris gloriæ, amplioris gratiæ apud regem et archiepiscopum erat qui tenacioris sanctitudinis opinionem habebat." Lib. 3. § 267.

such manner as they were given to them. And such was our will and deed because we have always had it in mind, and have desired to build a house and settle monks in our castle of Acre, and these we were not willing should be made subject to any house but that of St. Pancras.

This donation and charter I caused the king my master to confirm and testify with his own hand, and by the sign of the Holy Cross, in council at Winchester, and it was also happily sealed and witnessed by the Bishops and Earls and Barons then present. Amen.

Those who contravene and overturn these things, may God visit with the sword of His anger, fury and vengeance, and His eternal curse; but those who observe and defend them-may they be visited by him in peace with His grace, mercy, and eternal salvation. Amen, Amen, Amen.

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MANY are the essays that have been written, and many the conversations that have been held, in our days, on the subject of church-building. Large are the sums that have been raised, and devoted have been the hearts of thousands to the good work, in order that our very increased population may in due time be provided with commensurate opportunities of joining in public worship, as members of the pure and catholic communion, so happily established in this kingdom.

An earnest desire has been cherished

by many of the clergy and laity, for several years past, to see the old Church Architecture of England revived, so far as it is consistent with the Scriptural doctrines and discipline maintained by our canons and rubricks. In the less wealthy parishes they have shewn themselves to be contented with designs for a plain and unassuming edifice, provided its outlines and general plan clearly indicated the holy purpose for which it was intended, and by means of which that purpose could never be mistaken. In more prosperous communities a commendable zeal has led to a larger expenditure; to the end that the House of God might be constructed with more costly materials, and be adorned, by the aid of the most skilful artists, with the high finish which the hand of a first-rate workman alone can give.

The four styles of architecture which

this communication has in view, are well known to have successively prevailed in England, each for a period that can be pretty accurately defined. Early in the sixteenth century the last of them gradually declined, and soon gave way to the mixed style, which continued generally for about an hundred years.

Before their late revival by the church of England, their principles of construction, and their peculiar characteristics, had for several generations been neglected or forgotten and, had it not been for the existing models, which can never be too highly appreciated, they would have been irrecoverably lost. Their revival was greatly favoured; and a new and most interesting source of study was thereby opened to the architect and amateur. So universal and diligent has been the application to it, that, though the expectation of persons most friendly to its progress has often been disappointed, yet the results, on the whole, are encouraging, and such as may well be regarded as bearing the promise of more rapid advances to perfection.

In several works already completed, the details of each respective style, and the beautiful adaptation of parts which mark the transition from one to another, have been acknowledged to reflect credit on those who designed and executed them. It is not in this view of the churches arising on every side of us, that our architects need to be admonished. In the planning and fitting up of the sacred edifice, it is to be regretted that they have hitherto been rarely found to be correct. Far from it, indeed, are too many of the examples that might be adduced: and I feel confident that in every instance their designers have not done justice to the powers which they actually possess. There seems to be a certain timidity about them lest they should be thought to follow too closely the great masters of the art in the middle ages. With a high degree of knowledge, and having produced details of unquestionable excellence, they have, nevertheless, for the most part, retained the errors and unchurchlike practices so generally prevalent in the last century. If in their future operations they would resolve to adhere strictly

to "the ancient models," churches might speedily be raised, that in plan, division into parts, arrangement of fittings-up, and due elevation of the eastern portion, would equal the most judicious and appropriate edifices that happily remain in this kingdom. These structures have frequently, indeed, been mutilated and deformed by the innovations of the years that are past. Complete restorations, on the principles of our church, are most ardently to be desired. Time may accomplish much, and the good spirit now pervading the land, will, it is to be hoped, be speedily increased an hundred fold. In the mean time, every architect should earnestly reflect, that, of all the fine churches in the land, scarcely two are alike in every particular; and yet they all possess, in due place and order, the great distinguishing marks, of which no building for the service of the church of England should be destitute.

In the third number of the Ecclesiologist is an article headed" A CHURCH AS IT SHOULD BE." The example adduced is certainly a promising one, as are also those which the editor subsequently notices. But if the Cambridge Camden Society, to which the nation is much indebted, would really announce a church "fitly framed together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth," they must go even greater lengths than they have yet done; and, with the writer of this letter, they must strive unceasingly, that the churches which are yet unbuilt may obtain the most desirable testimony of being perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Your Correspondent, fast approaching to the age of man, but, God be praised, with every faculty in its full vigour, has been (as an amateur) a student of architecture from very early years. Church building, in all its forms and varieties, considered historically, practically, and with strict reference to whatever our truly Catholic church requires and allows, has been, of all others, his most favourite pursuit; and these points are fully exemplified in his large and systematic collections.

The mind of the church of England may now be most accurately understood, concerhing the restoration of the old churches that have been "ill

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treated," and the erection of new ones that are yet in contemplation. In both these cases, may those persons who employ architects, as well as the architects themselves, give us reason to "hope for better things than we have hitherto had the gratification of beholding!

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The Temple church has been most admirably restored; and we trust that at no distant day it will be found worthy of delighting the eye of taste, and of elevating the heart of every true worshipper among the successive thousands of visitors who resort to this great metropolis. But, exquisite as this restoration undoubtedly is, costly in all its parts, and worthy of the best ages that have passed away in the correctness and beauty of its decorations, it has the now irrevocable fault of having failed in what was due to its most important feature. The altar stands on the same depressed level as it did before. To this it had been reduced in the days when a dread of popery, and a desire to conciliate dissenters, induced our forefathers to depart, in some measure, from the sound principles by which they ought in all cases to have been guided. A firm adherence to these would have enabled them, according to "the wisdom of the church of England, to keep the mean between two extremes."

A church may here be restored or constructed consistently with all that is right in principle and good for edification, without even verging to the line that guards us from Romish corruptions on the one hand, or approaching that, on the other, which preserves us within the pale of that sound discipline with which the defective systems of dissenters never can accord.

It may here be well to delineate the form of "A CHURCH AS IT SHOULD BE," by laying before your readers,

I. The construction that was generally practised during, at least, the four centuries that preceded the Reformation; and,

II. That which has been handed down to us as the usual mode in the primitive ages, and frequently continued even to our own times.

I first notice the more recent class of the two, because in general we are much more familiar with what belongs

to it, than we are with the peculiarities that distinguish the sacred edifices of the early ages.

1. An opportunity occurs of illustrating the first division of these remarks, by referring to the intended restoration of the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, in the city of Bristol.

This church is well known to be of large dimensions, cruciform in its outline, and of admirable beauty as to the fine proportions of its several parts. At the same time, for the planning and fitting up of a church without a transept, and even without aisles, every other part that is here mentioned is equally to be required, even for a building on the smallest scale.

The advocates for the correct formation of the interior, as well as exterior, of our churches, have lately been led to hope that the whole of the fittings up of Redcliffe church, handsome and good in themselves, as they unquestionably are, will shorly be removed, as totally unsuitable to the great architectural beauty of that venerable pile.

It may be supposed then that the floor and the walls are freed entirely from their incumbrances, and that they appear before us in the original symmetry, and purity of style, in which their founders and benefactors themselves beheld them.

The work of restoration then begins. The chancel, from east to west, consists of four divisions, formed by the piers and arches on each side. It has also an aisle northward, and a corresponding one to the southward. Chancels of this extent, from west to east, were very suitable for the ritual of the Romish communion, but are by no means desirable for the pure, instructive, and primitive services of our own church. Imagine then a screen, or reredos, extending from pier to pier, across the centre of the chancel, having the space of two of the divisions before it, aud of two behind. On each side of the former space, suppose the screen to be returned, from pier to pier, on both sides; and an area will be thus formed of at least twenty feet square. this arrangement ample space will be retained for the altar and its accompaniments; whilst the aisles, in their full length, and the central space be

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hind the reredos, will remain clear and unoccupied, as in a cathedral church. The floor of these to be of one level, and raised above that of the transept and nave by the height of one step. I recommend the screen, on the three inclosed sides of the chancel, to be (if not of stone) constructed of oak, in a style perfectly in accordance with the surrounding architecture; the lower part of it to be of close panelling, and the compartments of its upper portion having the openings filled with plate glass, except the four immediately over the altar, to be reserved for the two tables of the Decalogue, with the Lord's Prayer on the north side, and the Apostles' Creed on the south. In a triangular figure above the Decalogue, and surrounded with rays of glory, "the incommunicable name," in Hebrew characters above; in the hollow of the cornice, "The Law was given by Moses," and in a narrow panel below the Decalogue, "Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ." Over the prayer, "After this manner, therefore, pray ye." Over the Creed,

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Repent ye, and believe the Gospel." All the English writing to be in "Church text," with ornamented capitals; the prevailing colours, vermilion, blue, and gold. The screen to be surmounted by the royal arms and supporters, &c. chiefly of carved open work.

Come we now to the marble floor of this area. One step at the western extremity; next to it the rails, in the front line only; and within them a level space three or four feet in width. Eastward of this level, an ascent of four very easy steps, and of sufficient tread for the foot. We are now on the upper floor, on which, against the reredos, stands the altar, raised on one low step. The altar has upon its eastern side a stage or step for "The two candlesticks," and three handsome small folio volumes, viz. the Old Testament in the centre, the New Testament northward of it, and the Book of Common Prayer southward. The first of these without the Apocrypha; and the third without the Psalms in metre; and each of the three having two good silver clasps: the two Communion Service books besides. the north side, about its centre, a 4

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suitable table, of moderate size, as the prothesis; and, on the south side, three sedilia, projecting from as many compartments of the screen, with elbows, and with or without canopies. A kneeling stool at each end of the altar; but by no means any cushions upon it. No chairs at any time; unless one to be placed for the Bishop when he may visit the church, and to be taken away after his departure. The steps, at least, should all be of marble; but the levels may be of encaustic tiles, within borders of marble. Such a floor should never be covered with carpeting.

These remarks refer chiefly to what has of late times been either neglected, or suffered to yield to awkward and unauthorised substitutions.

Let us next look at the transept. See an ambo, or chamber, erected in its northern division for the organ and singers, which faces the south but not projecting beyond the line of the north wall of the nave. Against the north-eastern great pier of the transept, is the pulpit, placed diagonally, with a sounding-board, as an indispensable requisite. The readingdesk may be beneath it, having the Prayer Book on its south side, and the Bible on its west side. A falled stool, with its desk, for the Litany, may stand in the area, beneath the centre of the transept. The nave and its aisles to be furnished with open seats of oak, with backs, and kneeling boards. Immediately in front of the altar rails should be a sufficiently open space. From thence to the west end, a passage of well-proportioned width; and another, not quite so wide, through the length of each of the two aisles. There should also be convenient passages to the seats that may be placed in each end of the transept. It may be found advisable to make a gradual rise in the seats that may be placed between the western wall and the line of the south and north doors. Between these doors the cross-aisle or passage should be carefully preserved; and, either in the centre of it, or a little on one side, westward of this aisle, the font, of stone, of the size required by the canons; with a water drain through its centre into the earth.

In this fine church galleries do not

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