Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

GENERAL HISTORY.

PERHAPS the highest development of art is that which, in its effect on the mind, approaches the nearest to the sublimities of nature. The emotions, for instance, raised on seeing for the first time the sea, that broad expanse of waters which the skies alone seem large enough to encompass, or in gazing once in a lifetime on the hills of the Alps, towering upwards till they are lost in the clouds, and connecting to the eye of imagination earth with heaven, are evidently kindred in their nature to the impressions produced on walking under similar novelty of circumstance through the long-drawn aisles of a great cathedral: we have the same sense of wonder, admiration, and awe; the same elevation of spirit above the ordinary level; and the same consciousness how still inadequate are our powers to measure the spiritual heights and depths of the mysterious grandeur before us. And in whatever shape art delights to manifest itself, whether in the poem, the picture, or the oratorio, its loftiest creations may be always tested by the presence and intensity of this power; but to architecture alone is it given to exercise it with almost universal sway. In poetry, painting, and not unfrequently in music, the perception of true sublimity is perhaps, to all but highly instructed minds, the last mental operation of the reader, spectator, or listener; in architecture it is the first. It were absurd to place 'Prometheus' or ' Lear'the Cartoons or the paintings of the Sistine Chapelbefore an uneducated rustic, or, except in peculiar cases, to endeavour to make him appreciate suddenly the music of the Messiah ;' but take the same man, with no other idea of an abbey than as a something vastly bigger than his own parish church, and place him in the edifice before us, dark indeed must be his soul if, as he looks around, a divine ray does not enter into it; if he feels not, in however imperfect and transitory a manner, the influence of the sublime.

save them from any such additions. The cathedrals of England are the great landmarks of the progress in this country of the grandest scheme of regeneration ever revealed to man; almost every step of which they illustrate. In Canterbury Cathedral you tread upon the foundations of what is maintained by some to be the first Christian church ever erected in this country, whilst the Cathedral itself dates from the time of Augustine, who may be said to have really established Christianity among us: in Worcester you behold the memorial of the extension of the new religion into another of the great kingdoms of the Heptarchy, Mercia, and its reception by the Kings; whilst in Westminster you are reminded of the activity of Dunstan, and the period when the different and contentious kingdoms had all been consolidated into one, acknowledging generally the Christian faith.

From the tangled web of fact and fiction which our records of the foundation of Westminster Abbey present, it is hopeless to attempt to learn the simple truth. Sporley, a monk of the Abbey, who lived about 1450, describes it as erected at the period when King Lucius is said to have embraced Christianity, about the year 184. He adds that, in the persecution of the Christians in Britain, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Dioclesian (about the beginning of the fourth century), the Church was converted into a Temple of Apollo. But John Flete, a monk of the same Abbey of a much earlier date, from whom Sporley is understood to have derived his materials, seems, in the following passage, to refer the erection of the Temple of Apollo to a later era, to the fifth or, perhaps, the sixth century, when the Saxons poured in their hordes upon the devoted islanders. He says, "The British religion and justice decaying sensibly, there landed in all parts of Britain a prodigious number of Pagan Saxons and Angles, who at length overspreading the whole island, and becoming masters of it, they, according to the custom of their country, erected to their The early history of all these structures bears a idols fanes and altars in several parts of the land, and strangely harmonious relation to their aspect. What overthrowing the Christian churches, drove them from we now look upon almost as miracles of human genius their worship and spread their Pagan rites all around were in the days of their foundation really esteemed the country. Thus was restored the old abomination as works in or connected with which a higher than wherever the Britons were expelled their place; Lonhuman agency was visible; and it is for that very don worships Diana [on the site of St. Paul's], and reason perhaps that so little of their glory was attri- the suburbs of Thorney offer incense to Apollo." So buted to the architects, and that the names of the that even to this hour the foundations of the Pagan latter have been allowed-"willingly" for aught that shrine may lie below those of the Christian. Flete appears—" to die." Their antiquity, again, is so great adds to the statement given, that the temple was overas to take us back into the period when the boundaries thrown and the purer worship restored by Sebert, with of history and fable were but as yet very imperfectly whose name the more undoubted history may be said understood by our historians; although the admitted to commence. Yet even Sebert is so much a matter facts of the former might well have been sufficient to of question, that, whilst some old writers call him a XXXIV.-VOL. IV.

L

citizen of London, others say-apparently with truth, from the care taken of his tomb through all the rebuildings that he was King of the East Saxons in the beginning of the seventh century, and nephew of Ethelbert. Mellitus was then Bishop of London, and encouraged, if he did not instigate, Sebert to the pious work; which, indeed, has been attributed wholly to him. The place—a "terrible" one, as an old writer calls it was overrun with thorns, and surrounded by a small branch of the Thames; hence the name Thorney Island. Here the Church or Minster, was built, West of London, from which circumstance the Abbey and the district now derive their appellation. It was to be dedicated to St. Peter; and the preparations were already made for that august ceremony, when, according to the relation of several writers, whose fidelity we leave our readers to judge of, the Apostle himself appeared on the opposite bank of the Thames, and requested a fisherman to take him over. There he was desired to wait while St. Peter, accompanied by an innumerable host from heaven singing choral hymns, performed the ceremony of dedication to himself; the church, meanwhile, being lighted up by a supernatural radiance. On the return of St. Peter to the astonished fisherman, he quieted the latter's alarm, and announced himself in his proper character; bidding him, at the same time, go to Mellitus at daybreak to inform him of what had passed, and to state that, in corroboration of his story, the Bishop would find marks of the consecration on the walls of the edifice. To satisfy the fisherman, he ordered him to cast his nets into the river, and present one of the fish he should take to Mellitus; he also told him that neither he nor his brethren should want fish so long as they presented a tenth to the church just dedicated; and then suddenly disappeared. The fisherman threw his nets, and, as might have been expected, found a miraculous draught, consisting of the finest salmon. When Mellitus, in pursuance of the Apostle's mandate, went to examine the church, he found marks of the extinguished tapers and of the chrism. Mellitus in consequence contented himself with the celebration of mass. We may smile now at such a story; but there is no doubt whatever that for ages it obtained general credibility. Six centuries after, a dispute took place between the convent and the parson of Rotherhithe, the former claiming a tenth of all the salmon caught in the latter's parish, on the express ground that St. Peter had given it to them; eventually a compromise was agreed to for a twentieth. Still later, or towards the close of the fourteenth century, it appears fishermen were accustomed to bring salmon to be offered on the high altar, the donor on such occasions having the privilege of sitting at the convent table to dinner, and demanding ale and bread from the cellarer.

From the time of Sebert to that of the Confessor, the history of the Abbey continues still uncertain. There are in existence certain charters which, could they be depended upon, would give us all the information we

| could reasonably desire. The first of the charters is one granted by King Edgar, 951, directing the refor mation of the monastery by Dunstan, which had been previously destroyed or greatly injured by the Danes, and confirming privileges said to have been granted by King Offa, who, after the decay of the church consequent on the death of Sebert, and the partial relapse of the people into heathenism under the rule of his sons, had, says Sulcardus, restored and enlarged the church, collected a parcel of monks, and, having a great reverence for St. Peter, honoured it by depositing there the coronation robes and regalia. Another charter by Edgar, one of the most splendid of supposed Saxon MSS., among a variety of other particulars agreeing with the account we have given, ascribes Sebert's foundation to the year 604. This, and a charter by Dunstan, are preserved among the archives of the Abbey. Dunstan's charter names Alfred among the benefactors to Westminster. According to William of Malmesbury and another writer, the church having at this period been restored, Dunstan brought hither twelve (Benedictine) monks, and made one of his favourites, Wulsinus, a man whom he is said to have sborn a monk with his own hands, abbot.

Vow.

Still the Abbey church and buildings were but small, and comparatively unworthy of the distinguished honour which St. Peter had so condescendingly conferred; and the monks no doubt pondered over the means by which a more magnificent structure might be obtained. An opportunity at last offered in the reign of the Confessor. Whilst Edward was in exile during the Danish usurp ation, he vowed a pilgrimage to Rome, if God should please to restore him to his crown. He was restored; and then, mindful of his vow, assembled his principal nobility soon after his coronation, and declared his purpose. By them, however, he was persuaded to send an embassy to Rome to procure absolution from the The embassy was successful; and the Pope merely enjoined that the King should spend the sums intended for his journey in the foundation or reparation of some religious house dedicated to St. Peter. It was precisely at the time these particulars got abroad that a monk of Westminster Abbey, named Wulsine, a man of great simplicity of manners and sanctity, had a remarkable dream. Whilst asleep one day, St. Peter appeared to him, to bid him acquaint the King that he should restore his (Wulsine's) church and, with that noticeable minuteness which characterises unfortunately only those stories of our early times which we are most disposed to doubt, we have the very words of the Apostle recorded :-"There is," said he, a place of mine in the west part of London, which I chose, and love, and which I formerly consecrated with my own hands, honoured with my presence, and made illustrious by my miracles. The name of the place is Thorney; which, having, for the sins of the people, been given to the power of the barbarians, from rich is become poor, from stately low, and from honourable is made despicable. This let the King, by my command, restore and make a dwelling of monks, stately build, and amply

:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

endow it shall be no less than the house of God and the gate of heaven." The dream was, no doubt, just the thing for the credulous monarch, who might have been otherwise puzzled where to bestow his benefactions, and he immediately commenced his task in an earnest and magnificent spirit. Instead of confining himself to the expenditure enjoined, he ordered a tenth part of his property of every kind to be set apart for the new abbey; he enlarged the number of monks; a new and no doubt grander style of architecture was adopted-Matthew Paris says it was built novo compositionis genere; and, when the whole was finished, bestowed on it a set of relics which were alone sufficient in the eleventh century to make the fortune of any monastery, and which must have rendered Westminster the envy of most of the other religious houses of Britain. "They comprised," says Dart, in his history of the Abbey, "part of the place and manger where Christ was born, and also of the frankincense offered to him by the Eastern Magi; of the table of our Lord; of the bread which he blessed; of the seat where he was presented in the Temple; of the wilderness where he fasted; of the gaol where he was imprisoned; of his undivided garment; of the sponge, lance, and scourge with which he was tortured; of the sepulchre, and cloth that bound his head; "t-and so on, through not only Christ's own history, but, in a lesser degree, through that of his mother, his apostles, and the most famous abbots and saints. Of the Confessor's building we have fortunately an interesting and perfect remain in the Pix Office and the adjoining parts against the east cloister and the south transept. (Cut, No. 1.) As we may here perceive, the architecture is grand in its chief features, but strikingly plain in details, with the exception of the capitals, which are handsomely sculptured. The original edifice was built in the form of a cross, with a high central tower. When the work was finished, Edward designed its consecration under circumstances of unusual splendour. He summoned all his chief nobility and clergy to be present: but, before the time appointed, he fell ill on the evening of Christmas-day. By this time his heart was greatly set upon putting the seal to his goodly work in the manner he had designed; so he hastened his preparations; but, on the day appointed, the Festival of the Innocents, he was unable to leave his chamber, consequently Queen Editha presided at the ceremony. He died almost immediately after, and was buried in the church.

From the death of the Confessor to the reign of Henry III. the history of the Abbey is chiefly confined to the lives and characters of its Abbots, on whom our space will not allow us to dwell.

To the king just named we are indebted for the greater portion of the existing cathedral. From a boy he seems to have been interested in the place; for whilst yet but thirteen years old we find him called Translation from Ailred of Riveaulx, in Neale's 'Westminster Abbey.'

+ Dart's Westmonasterium.'

the founder of the Lady Chapel (on the site of the present Henry VII.'s Chapel), and the first stone of which he laid on Whitsun Eve, 1221, in the abbacy of Humez. Twenty-five years afterwards Henry commenced more extensive works; he pulled down, according to Matthew Paris, the east end, the tower, and the transept, in order that they might be rebuilt in a more magnificent style. The lightness, beauty, and variety, as well as the grandeur, of pointed architecture, recently introduced, was now to take the place of the comparatively cumbrous and simple impressiveness of the Anglo-Norman edifice. Crokesley became abbot in 1246, and about that period great progress was made. The king, among other benefactions, directed his goldsmith 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 continually moving, and his eyes of sapphires, or other stones agreeable to him, to be placed in the church against the king's coming thither." Two years later the keeper of the Exchequer is ordered to "buy 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." In addition to his own direct assistance, and the assistance of his nobles, impelled by his example, the king, no doubt at the suggestion of the Monastery, adopted a curious mode of stimulating the popular excitement on the subject, and we should suppose with the most satisfactory results. In 1247, on St. Edward's Day, he set out with his nobles in splendid procession towards St. Paul's, where he received the precious relic which had been sent for him from Jerusalem by the Masters of the Temple and the Hospitallers, and which he munificiently designed to deposit in the Abbey of Westminster: this was no less than a portion of the blood which issued from Christ's wounds at the Crucifixion. It was deposited in a crystalline lens, which Henry himself bore under a canopy, supported with four staves, through the streets of London, from St. Paul's to the Abbey. His arms were supported by two nobles all the way. Holinshed says, that to "describe the whole course and order of the procession and feast kept that day would require a special treatise; but this is not to be forgotten, that the same day the Bishop of Norwich preached before the king in commendation of that relic, pronouncing six years and one hundred and sixteen days of pardon granted by the bishops there to all that came to reverence it." We need hardly add that those who did come were seldom empty handed. To give still greater distinction to the ceremony, Henry, the same day, knighted his halfbrother, William de Valence, and "divers other young bachelors." This was one mode, and, if he had faith in the essentials of the act performed, it was as cheap and efficacious as it was unobjectionable. But we cannot say so of his next act of beneficence to the Abbey. In 1248 he granted, evidently with the same object, a fair of a very extraordinary kind to the abbot, to be held at Tut or Tot Hill, at St. Edward's

[graphic][merged small]

tide, when all other fairs were ordered to be closed, and not only them but all the shops of London, during the several days of its continuance. The object was to draw the entire trade of London to the spot for the time; and although the citizens and merchants were much inconvenienced, the fair succeeded so well as to be repeated in 1252; "which thing, by reason of the foul weather chancing at that time, was very grievous unto them (the citizens); albeit there was such repair of people thither, that London had not been fuller to the judgment of old ancient men never at any time in their days to their remembrance." By all these dif

ferent methods, a sum of nearly £30,000-an enormous sum, if reckoned at its present value-was raised, and applied to the rebuilding of the Abbey, in about fifteen years: when it was still unfinished.

Crokesley was succeeded by Ware, who brought from Rome the materials of the beautiful mosaic pavement which lies before the altar in the choir of the Abbey. During his abbacy Henry was constrained to seek a peculiar kind of assistance from the edifice he had so enriched. Two years after the battle of Evesham, when the Earl of Gloucester seemed inclined to play by himself the game which he had helped to spoil in De Montfort's hands, the king borrowed the shrines and other jewels and relics of the Abbey, and pledged

them to certain merchants. It was a dangerous act. But the king, who had so often broken faith in political matters, even when the church had strengthened the

engagement by the performance of the most solemn and awful rites, kept faith with the church itself, and honestly redeemed and replaced the treasure.

It may be useful to see with precision how far the Abbey had now advanced, which we may easily do by an examination of the building. It will then appear that Henry erected the chapel of the Confessor, which forms the rounded end of the choir, and is properly the apsis of the building, the four chapels in the ambulatory which encompasses the apsis, the choir to a spot near Newton's monument, the transepts, and probably the Chapter-house. In the reign of Edward I. a portion of the nave was completed. Edward was too busy with his Welsh and Scottish wars, we sup pose, to accomplish more, though he exhibited his favour to the Abbey in a marked manner by bringing hither the most precious spoils of his warfare. In 1285, during the abbacy of Wenlock, he gave a large piece of our Saviour's cross which he had met with in Wales; and in 1296, or in 1297 as Stow has it, he offered at St. Edward's shrine the chair, containing the famous stone, sceptre, and crown of gold, of the Scottish sovereigns, which he had brought from the Abbey of Scone. In this reign two events disturbed the even tenor of the monastic life: a fire, which de stroyed some of the domestic buildings, in 1298, and the robbery of the king's treasure deposited in the cloisters in the care of the convent in 1303, when the abbot and forty-eight monks were sent to the Tower,

« PředchozíPokračovat »