The secrets of a great cathedral

THE SECRETS

OF A

GREAT CATHEDRAL

This is companion
to the preceding
volume — "The
Dean's Handbook
to Gloucester
Cathedral."

}

MAUSOLEUM OF GALLE PLACIDIA, RAVENNA.

Circa A.D. 440.

THE SECRETS OF A

GREAT CATHEDRAL

e/

A ^y '& BY THE VERY REV.

H/D?WsPENCE- JONES, M.A., D.D.

Dean of Gloucester
Professor of Ancient History in the Royal Academy

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LONDON : J. M. DENT 6f SONS, LTD.
NEW YORK : E. P. DUTTON fcf CO.

1914

All rights reserved

This book, " The Secrets of a Great Cathedral," is, after a
fashion, the sequel to the Dean's " Handbook to Gloucester
Cathedral," although it has no special reference to, no real
connection with the former work.

These " Secrets " belong to no one solitary pile, but are the
heritage of the many Cathedrals, at once the glory and the riddle
of Catholic Europe. Still, references to one pile — Gloucester, the
loved home of the writer of the book — will be found constantly to
crop up and appear unexpectedly in the following pages.

Like King Charles the First in the " Memorial " of the
immortal Mr. Dick in Dickens' " David Copper field," so is
Gloucester ever straying into the " Cathedrals " of the " Secrets."
Its haunting memory will not be kept out.

The reader must forgive, and perhaps forget, the writer's
fancy, and — quietly read on.

INTRODUCTORY

THE quaint name which the writer has given to his
little book, " The Secrets of a Great Cathedral," is based
upon his desire to answer briefly some of the leading
questions which have been put to him in the long course
of his office as chief custodian of one of the most notable
of Romanesque cathedrals.

For after viewing with more or less interest and care the
grey, time-worn pile of Gloucester, the visitors often long
to learn something of the genesis and meaning of the
several principal parts of the mighty church.

They ask first, naturally enough, what is the meaning
of the term " Romanesque," which they have often
heard now and again popularly described as " Norman."
Whence then came this massive round-arch architecture?
Is it not perhaps much older than the Norman period,
which only dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries ?
If so, who were the inventors of this widely diffused style ?
when and where did they live and work ?

The writer of this little book answers the question, and
tells the inquirer that this so-called " Romanesque " style
is of very ancient date, and he traces its wonderful story
back for some seven or eight hundred years before the
coming of the Normans into England.

In late years not a few scholars 1 have dwelt with more or

1 Notably Quicherat, Viollet le Due, de Caumont, Corroyer, in
France; in our England, Freeman, Jackson, and Bond; Rivoira in
Italy, only to mention a few notable names.

viii INTRODUCTORY

less detail on " the secret " of this wonderful and stately
" Romanesque " round- arch architecture, of which so
many splendid examples still remain in different lands.
These scholars give us many important details, and they
suggest various interesting theories on its origin and
development.

But the most exhaustive histories that we possess
of Romanesque architecture have quite lately appeared.1
One of these belongs to Italy and is the work of Signor
Rivoira; the other to England, and is from the pen of Sir
Thomas Jackson, R.A. They both travel over much of
the same ground, but with infinite varieties of detail and
illustration — both, however, in their own way, telling the
most interesting story that historical ecclesiastical archi-
tecture has ever had to tell. No one, after a careful study
of these two great works, but will feel that the veil which
has partly concealed " the secret " of Romanesque has at
length been lifted.

But comparatively few, alas, find the leisure necessary
to master the contents of these four massive quarto
volumes.

One word on these great works, not of criticism but of
legitimate comment, is called for.

Rivoira, the Italian scholar, throughout his great study
of Romanesque, seeks and finds in Italy, the old home of
Rome and the Empire, the inspiration and the cradle of
all Romanesque. Sir T. Jackson, R.A., on the other hand,
refers to Constantinople and the near East as the principal
source of this the most famous and enduring of all archi-
tectural schools.

1 Signor Rivoira, Le Origini dell Architectures Lombarda, 2 vols.
4to: Roma. Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, R.A., Byzantine and
Romanesque Architecture, 2 vols. 410 : Cambridge.

INTRODUCTORY ix

The Triforium. — The great gallery which appears in so
many of the more important Anglo-Norman churches,
and which in Gloucester Cathedral surrounds the choir,
perplexes the student of the architecture of these mighty
churches. What, is often asked, was the purpose of this
striking feature ? When and where was it first designed ?

The story of the origin of a Triforium is sketched out ;
the reason for its exclusive ancient use in the Eastern
Church is given, while in the West (Latin Christianity) it
rarely, if ever, for many centuries appears.

Then its strange reappearance as a conspicuous and
characteristic feature especially in Anglo-Norman Roman-
esque is discussed.

The Lady Chapel. — So well-known and frequent a feature
in our more important mediaeval cathedrals, abbeys and
churches, notably in such English examples as Gloucester,
Westminster Abbey, Salisbury, etc., often perplexes the
inquirers. Whence, they ask, comes this striking " annexe "
to the great religious piles of our forefathers ? It seems to
speak of a cult certainly unknown in the " inspired "
writings — of a cult which is evidently a comparatively late
development in Christian teaching.

The strange story of the " Lady Chapel " is traced in
the pages of this little book.

The Crypt is by no means a universal feature even in
Western Christendom, while in the East it is absolutely
unknown. In the West, however, we frequently find a
Crypt in the planning of the more important churches.
The question often is put — What was its use ? When and
where was it first introduced? Is it not possibly "the
memory " of some sacred spot once deeply revered and
often visited in far-back days by tens of thousands from

x INTRODUCTORY

many distant lands? Emphatically a strange mystery
hangs over those dark and gloomy Crypts which sleep
beneath such great churches as the cathedrals of Gloucester
and Canterbury, the mighty church of Chartres, the storied
abbey of S. Benignus of Dijon? The true secret of the
Crypt is a thrilling story and one that goes back to the
earliest days of Christianity.

Some account is given of the Crypt of S. Peter's, Rome,
the " mother of Crypts," and of the strange modern
discoveries in that hallowed spot.

The Cloister ,- once so general a feature in the planning
of the abbey and the cathedral church, and which even
now has left not a few examples still striking with their
scarred and often ruined beauty — the Cloister is to many
the subject of perhaps a mute inquiry as to its origin and
primitive use.

It is clearly a special adjunct to important Christian
buildings, and was evidently once of the highest importance
to the community of the abbey or the cathedral to which
it was annexed.

It has a curious history, and one that is quickly and
easily told ; but this history is after all but very little known.
It ranks emphatically as one of the secrets of a cathedral.

The Altar of 5. Petronilla is a " memory " that belongs
exclusively to Gloucester Cathedral, the home and the
scene of work of the writer of this book. It is the earliest
historical record in the many-coloured story of this great
cathedral, and dates from the far-back early years of the
eighth century. Its curious connection with the mighty
church of the Severn Lands has suggested its inclusion in
this work which deals with " the secrets " of a cathedral
church.

INTRODUCTORY xi

The writer of these pages on " the secrets " of a cathedral
has drawn much of his inspiration from the cathedral he
loves so well. The story of S. Petronilla, so curiously
and mysteriously linked with the fortunes of Gloucester
Abbey some twelve centuries ago, possesses a deep and
peculiar interest, as it tells of a sainted personage, now
well-nigh forgotten, and round whom, for various reasons,
modern criticism has been curiously busy.

The conclusions of modern critics, some of them of
the first rank, if accepted, would destroy the supreme
interest which in the early Christian centuries undoubtedly
invested S. Petronilla with a halo of a rare and peculiar
sanctity. The theories of modern critics have been refuted,
mainly on historical grounds, in this study.

ERRATA

Frontispiece,/*^ Galle Placidia read Galla Placidia
Facing p. $o, for S. Vitate readS. Vitale.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY (p. vii-xi)

THE meaning of the title of this book, " The Secrets of a
Great Cathedral," is briefly explained.

The " Secrets " include the leading questions which are
often put to the writer, who is the chief custodian of a great
pile, partly Romanesque, partly Gothic, as to the signification
and origin of certain prominent features of an important
Mediaeval Church.

These questions include the meaning and history of the
term Romanesque architecture, sometimes mistakenly termed
Norman.

The Lady Chapel. — The circumstances are discussed at
some length, which gave rise to this comparatively late
addition in the planning of a great church or abbey.

The Crypt. — A reply is given to the query — whence comes
this remarkable and little understood feature in many of the
cathedrals, abbeys and large churches — a feature only found
in the churches of Western Christendom.

The Cloister. — The history of the " Cloister " is given with
some detail — a sketch of what it evidently replaced is briefly
written — some of the early criticisms on the elaborate orna-
mentation of Cloisters are discussed.

xiv CONTENTS

S. Petronilla. — This strange memory of a once famous, but
now forgotten Saint — a memory which belongs especially to
Gloucester Cathedral — is referred to. The true history of
this Saint is sketched out.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

PAGE

" Romanesque " a modern term — When first used —

General signification of the word .... 3

Romanesque — really a falling back on the ante-classical
style of Roman architecture — Freeman's definition —
Parts of Diocletian's palace of Spalatro, the earliest
known example of Romanesque, where the Greek
feature of the entablature is cast away, and the
arches rest on capitals of columns .... 4

A brief review of the architectural story of Romanesque
between the fourth and eleventh centuries — How
Ravenna, from days of Honorius, became a great Art
capital — The splendid Romanesque churches of
Ravenna in the days of her glory — A list of Raven-
nese churches which have been preserved ... 6

After the Lombard conquest, a period of darkness in the
Art world of Italy and the West set in — Renais-
sance of Art under the Lombard Queen Theodolinda
— Two hundred years of Lombard rule — Who were
the builders under the Lombards . . . .13

History and appearance of the. Comacine Guild of

Architects ........ 14

The remains of earlier Comacine work under the Lom-
bards— Lombard Comacine work under Charle-
magne ......... 19

Romanesque, or the round-arch style, develops and

penetrates into Gaul and even as far as England . 20

The Byzantine-domed Basilica. (A Note.) . . . 20

England. Lombardic work traced — its slow advance

and progress before the Norman Conquest . . 22

CONTENTS xv

PAGE

Germany. Little traces of early Romanesque save in

the Palace-chapel of Aix-la-Chapelle . . 22

The rare examples in Germany before the eleventh
century — a few examples quoted, however, in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries . . . 24

Gaul — France. Tells us very little of Romanesque Art
for many centuries, although there were many im-
portant buildings in the fourth and fifth centuries
— We learn this from Sidonius Apollinaris, Gregory
of Tours, etc. Very few Romanesque remains,
however, exist dating from Merovingian and
Carlovingian times . . . . . . 24

Something had happened in Gaul between the sixth and
eleventh centuries to account for the absence of
remains of early churches. In truth, the country
was subjected, in a special degree, to disastrous
invasions — by sea and land, (i) The Saracens.
(2) The Northmen — Catalogue of devastated cities
at hands of Northmen — Special reason for the com-
plete destruction of churches in these raids — Rare
facilities for these raids in Gaul . . . 25

At the end of the tenth century, comparative stillness
prevailed in France — Settlement of Northmen in
Normandy and Northern France — We have in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries many Romanesque
buildings — not a few of an elaborate type . . 28

Varieties of Romanesque in the different Gallic pro-
vinces— Thus we find in Aquitaine and in the South-
West the influence of Byzantine art very conspicuous,
especially in the domed churches .... 29

In Provence Romanesque was largely inspired by
memories of Imperial Rome — Here we find few ex-
amples of domed churches ..... 30

In Toulouse — and generally in Languedoc — exist fewer
remains of Romanesque churches, owing to the
Albigensian wars, so disastrous to the cities and
their buildings . . . . . . . .30

In Auvergne. A peculiar feature here in the Roman-
esque remains is the polychrome masonry of the
ornamentation — The beautiful cloisters of Puy. . 31

xvi CONTENTS

PAGE

Burgundy. The home " par excellence " of Monasticism
so important in the eleventh century — especially in
Cluny and Citeaux — The busy workshop of Cluny —
The remarkable porches of certain of the churches —
Progress of the new feature of vaulting — The vast
Church of Cluny — Simplicity of Citeaux — its
example is followed by the countless daughter
Cistercian churches . . . . . . .31

The Royal Domain (1'Ile de France). Its narrow limits
at first — Few Romanesque remains are found here
owing to special ravages of the North-folk — The
" Royal Domain" is greatly enlarged under Philip
Augustus — It became the " cradle " of French Gothic
— List of mighty Gothic cathedrals mostly completed
in the thirteenth century . . . . .32

(In a Note.) Romanesque continued to hold its own in
other provinces longer than in the Royal Domain
— In the Royal Domain Gothic architecture super-
seded at an earlier date the older Romanesque
type 33

NORMAN-ROMANESQUE

Norman-Romanesque — Its origin and rise — William of
Volpiano the Lombard, a monk of Cluny — At the end
of the tenth century he became Abbot and re-builder
of S. Benignus of Dijon — His fame and story —
Invited by Duke Richard II of Normandy, who
appointed him Abbot of Fecamp — William of
Volpiano and his pupils' work in Normandy —
Lombardic style generally followed with certain
differences — List of some of the work of his school
in Normandy. Lanfranc further develops it — His
Church of S. Etienne at Caen — Some features of
Norman work — It passed over into England with
the Conqueror — Great development of Norman-
Romanesque work in England — The enormous
number and great size of churches and abbeys built
under the influence of the Norman kings of England
— Reasons for this building passion here — The
famous English abbeys of expiation — all built
under Norman inspiration 33

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

A brief recapitulation of the story of Romanesque from
the beginning of the fourth century — Ravenna —
Coming of the Lombards — Charlemagne, and the
dark age which followed — Cluny and William of
Volpiano — His school of architecture . . 40

Norman-Romanesque — A few words on the work of the
Comacine Guild is repeated — Norman-Romanesque
passes into England — Its glory — Variations in its
style — One novel and important feature alluded to . 41

On the Comacine symbol of Solomon's knot — The inter-
laced line — Its meaning — Copied but not under-
stood by Byzantine artists ..... 45

Comacine symbol of the Lion of Judah . . . -47

ROMANESQUE — THE CAMPANILE OR BELL TOWER

The Lombardic Romanesque Campanile Towers — the
ancestors of the countless Bell Towers and Steeples
of the Middle Ages— The Tower of San Satiro Milan,
ninth century, probably the oldest example — The
Campaniles of the ancient Ravenna churches, all
of later date than the churches to which they are
adjuncts ......... 47

The Liturgical use of Bells — Goes back to the fifth
century — Their use became gradually more marked —
Their use at a later date in the East . . .48

Normandy especially famous for its Bells and Towers —
Durandus of Mende on the symbolism of Bells —
his fanciful derivations ...... 50

After the eleventh century the Bell became of greater
importance — A short sketch of its history in the
fifteenth century — The Bell now attained its great
dimensions . . . . . . . , 51

List of the more famous Bells in the present day . . 53

A few dates generally illustrative of Romanesque

architecture . . . . . . . -53

THE PASSING OF ROMANESQUE

A few memoranda on the transition of Romanesque
into Gothic — The term " Gothic " a misnomer —
Adopted in the Renaissance period as a term of

xviii CONTENTS

PAGE

reproach — Curious fallacy of Evelyn and others
here — The term " Gothic " remained, though the
old opprobrium was gradually removed — Gothic
is really perfected Romanesque .... 54

Some of the new principles in Gothic architecture lightly
sketched — The walls are slighter — The buttress
now introduced — It does the work of the massive
walls — The pointed arch — a principal outward and
visible sign — This, however, really no new feature, for
in the East it had been long used. The yet greater
outward and visible feature of Gothic windows —
More light needed for interiors — Glass, too, became
less costly in twelfth and thirteenth centuries —
Progress of art in stained glass demanded larger
windows — The walls might now, owing to the
support of buttresses, be safely pierced with large
openings ........ 56

Elaborate tracery in transoms and mullions of windows . 58

On the deeper inner meaning of Gothic architecture —
France, as the original home of Gothic, selected as
example here ........ 59

The exterior of great French cathedrals somewhat
sacrificed to interior — where exceeding height was
aimed at — Contrast with English great churches —
The French cathedrals represent one continuous
design, different to English cathedrals — Gloucester
a good example here — where no one design exists,
but original plan was constantly changed and
added to ........ 60

The French builders of the great cathedrals believed
that in their wondgriul height lay in part the
secret of inspiring the worsmppers with awe and
reverence . . . . ... .62

As they built, their cathedrals were madejiiglier-^uid 62
Jiigher. The " splendid folly " of fieauvais was the
climax of their striving here ....

The Beauvais Cathedral work briefly described . . 62

THE TRIFORIUM

The question is often asked — What is the meaning and

use of the great Triforium gallery? ... 67

CONTENTS xix

PAGE

Suggested derivation of the word " Triforium " — Was
a Triforium ever found in the great ancient churches
of the West (in Latin Christianity) ? ... 67

The real story of the reason of its appearance in the

planning of an important church .... 68

Note on Rivoira's theory of a Pagan origin for this

Byzantine feature of a great church ... 68

The inquirer must go back to the age of Justinian, when
the Basilicas of Constantinople and Salonica, etc.,
were built. In these great churches we ever find
a gallery exclusively intended for women . . .68

In the Eastern Church the sexes were as a rule kept
separate at Divine worship — Not so in the West —
This separation was never a " Latin use." Thus
we never find a women's gallery in the churches of
Gaul and Italy, except these buildings were erected
under direct Byzantine influences .... 69

But, strangely enough, the Triforium reappears in the
West, especially in Anglo-Norman Romanesque,
where it is a marked feature, although the original
purpose for which it was designed no longer existed . 70

Suggestions as to its possible use in these great later
Romanesque piles : (i) Was it an ornamental
architectural device ? (2) Was it connected with
pilgrimage — as affording a longer and more interest-
ing procession for pilgrims ? Neither of these
suggestions, however, is fully satisfactory . . 71

General summary of the story of a Triforium . . 71

The reason for the Anglo-Norman reappearance of the

Triforium must remain a mystery .... 72

The strange but remarkable theory of Mr. Hutton in

his Ravenna is quoted . . . . . -73

THE LADY CHAPEL

Position of the Blessed Virgin Mary — In the New
Testament, and in the oldest Liturgies — Estimate
in the Eastern Church in the first half of sixth
century ........'. 77

xx CONTENTS

PAGE

In the Western Church, in the days of Gregory the
Great, the honour paid to her became more
accentuated ........ 78

Men thought much on the state of the blessed dead —
Gradual multiplication of Saints, almost deified in
prayer — These were regarded as more accessible
to prayer than the Persons of the ever blessed
Trinity — Among these Saints, the Virgin Mary occu-
pied naturally the chief position — Devotion to
her gradually became a special cult ... 78

This cult was introduced into the life of the people, mainly
through the Crusades — Chivalry in its religious
aspect, especially in its regard for women, was
one result of these strange wars, and the Virgin
Mary became the object of passionate devotion to the
great Crusading hosts ...... 79

Detailed explanation of this — To her every Crusader
looked for success in war — From the soldiers of the
Crusading armies this passionate devotion passed
to the people 80

Soon every important church after the period of the
Crusades had its " Mary Chapel " — Hymns were
written; Liturgies in her name were introduced —
Thus a new adoration was added to Christian
teaching — Ever higher and higher was the estimate
conceived of her — The Lady Chapel soon became an
important feature in a great church 81

The magnificent Gloucester Lady Chapel is a conspicuous
and late example of this development in church
planning ..... . . .81

A marked impulse was given to this novel cult in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries through the
teaching of the Mendicant Orders, Franciscans and
Dominicans ; the Dominicans especially professed an
intense devotion to the Virgin Mary — The famous
" Rosary " prayer, which still holds its own, was
" revealed "to S. Dominic — Yet some of the

greatest mediaeval masters, notably S. Bernard of
lairvaux, shrank from the extreme development
of this strange novel cult . . . . .82
Art — its powerful testimony to the growth of this

teaching ......... 83

CONTENTS xxi

PAGE

The rare Catacomb pictures give it little or no support —
In the very ancient Christian sarcophagi no promi-
nent place is given to the Virgin Mary — Even in
the ninth and tenth centuries, when the Crucifixion
was often depicted in sculpture, the Virgin Mary
and S. John are simply represented on either side
of the Redeemer's Cross ...... 84

But in the middle of the twelfth century a marked
change is noticeable — In sculpture or in painted
glass, the Virign Mary appears enthroned- and
crowned, with the Infant Christ in her arms . . 84

In the thirteenth century the Virgin Mary becomes a
central figure — sometimes, though not always,
with the Divine Child in her arms. But clearly it is
to her that adoration was specially offered. And in
the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
she appears in stained glass, in sculpture, in hymns
and liturgies, portrayed as Queen of Heaven . . 85

A Short Appendix on certain remarkable Features in the
Lady Chapel at Gloucester

The east end of this great annexe to the cathedral,
different to the original east end, is square-ended,
not apsidal. It possesses also two little transepts.
These are peculiarly English features ... 85

The square-ended form for churches was the ancient
British " use," and represents an independent
tradition different to the Italian Basilican tradition
of an apsidal or semi-circular end .... 86

The square end was general in the Irish oratories or
little churches of remote antiquity, a few of which
still remain. These were, of'course, small and rough
copies of the British churches which were all de-
stroyed by the North-folk invaders in the fifth
century. The only exception to this plan of the
square end seems to have been in churches fre-
quented by the Roman colonists and officials—
Silchester is an example of these . . . 86

After the coming of Augustine, A.D. 597, naturally the
Italian apsidal end was introduced— But the old

xxii CONTENTS

PAGE

vogue of the traditional square end was rooted in
the hearts of the dwellers in this Island, and largely
reappeared in Saxon times . . . . .88

After the coming of the Normans, again, the apsidal end
was adopted. But gradually the square end super-
seded the Italian apsidal end re-introduced by the
Normans — A list is given of great English churches
which now possess the square end — The exceptions
are, comparatively speaking, rare .... 88

On the Continent of Europe the square end is hardly
ever found. The few generally unimportant ex-
ceptions are quoted, and special causes are adduced
for most of these exceptions ..... 89

In England, the Abbey (Cathedral) of Gloucester is one
of the notable exceptions — It has ever possessed
an apsidal end . -\]f . . . . .90

But in 1457 when the present vast Lady Chapel was
built, the architect determined to give it the square
end — thus giving to the ancient abbey the original
British form, which hitherto it had lacked . . 90

Another peculiar English use was the double transept.
This, too, was added in the Lady Chapel, in the two
little so-called Chantry Chapels of the Lady Chapel—
Thus Gloucester in its latest additions became
possessed of both the English special features — the
square end, and the double eastern transepts . 91

The recent discovery of two little churches on the
north-west coast of Cornwall, hitherto buried in the
sand, both dating from about A.D. 450. These lost
churches are apparently the only survivors of the
old British churches which were destroyed in the in-
vasions of the North-folk — hence their importance.
Some account of these long-lost Cornish churches
or oratories is given. Both of these are built with
the square-end . ..... . . .91

THE CRYPT

Meaning of the principal terms used in this chapter,
viz. Crypt, Confessio, Memoria, Cubiculum, Cata-
comb— the last of these terms a curious misnomer . 97

All the early and mediaeval crypts are a " Memory " of

the Crypt or Tomb of S. Peter .... 97

CONTENTS xxiii

PACK

The " Memoria " of Anacletus built over the Tomb of

S. Peter 97

Of the origin of the most celebrated of the Basilicas of
Rome — They were all built over some famous
martyr's or confessor's tomb . 99

Of the " vogue " of the Crypt in the early Middle Ages —
A few examples are given — This popular " vogue "
came to an end about A.D. 1144 — Reason for this
giving up of the Crypt as part of the plan of
important churches . . . . . . . 101

The Crypt was entirely an ancient Latin and Western
use — It never entered into the plan of the churches
in the East — Reasons for this — It belonged ex-
clusively to the Western School of Romanesque — In
the later Middle Ages there were no Gothic crypts —
In the early Mediaeval age, a crypt was often planned
in accordance with the vogue or fashion, even if
no saint's or martyr's remains were interred in it —
Gloucester Crypt is an example of this practice . 103

The Crypt of S. Peter, Rome. The Story of the
famous " Mother " Crypt

The Crypt or Tomb of S. Peter with the " Memoria "
of Anacletus above it, was the great object of all
Western pilgrimage — it set the vogue in the plan-
ning of crypts in important churches in the West
from the fourth century onwards . . . .105

Position of Rome after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70
as the centre of Christendom, and chief object of
pilgrimage from all lands . . . . .105

Position held by S. Peter (i) at Rome, (2) in all foreign
Christian lands — The witness here of early Christian
writers — Traditional memories of the Apostle at
Rome 106

The respective estimation of the two Roman Basilicas

of SS. Peter and Paul 107

Early pilgrimages to the Tomb of S. Peter — What was
the " Memoria " of Bishop Anacletus of Rome ? —
The sacred graves prepared by Anacletus round the
Tomb of S. Peter for the dead who were laid there . 108

How the little " Memoria " of Anacletus grew into the

lordly Basilica of S. Peter 108

xxiv CONTENTS

PAGE

The work of the Emperor Constantine in the Crypt of

S. Peter . 109

Description of the Crypt after the work of Constantine —
How access to the sarcophagus of the Apostle was
preserved for several centuries . . . . 1 1 1

S. Gregory of Tours' account of a visit of a pilgrim to
the Tomb of S. Peter — Detailed examination of
S. Gregory of Tours' account . . . . . 113

Of the costly offerings to the Tomb from A.D. 579 and

onwards . . . . . . . . .114

Visits of Charlemagne and of the Emperor Louis II

(A.D. 845) to the Tomb ...... 115

How the sarcophagus was concealed before the expected

plundering raid of the Saracens . . « . . 115

The magnificent sanctuary above the Tomb was partly
restored by S. Leo IV and his successors, but never
again was there any access to the Tomb itself —
During the works connected with the Basilica of the
new S. Peter, the sarcophagus was seen by Pope
Clement VIII and three of his Cardinals . . . -116

The little cemetery or group of graves prepared by
Anacletus, discovered in the course of the works
carried on under Urban VIII in the seventeenth
century when the foundations of the great bronze
Baldachino, or canopy over the High Altar, of
Bernini were being strengthened . . . .118

Description of the Baldachino of S. Peter's — The care
taken of the sacred graves after the discovery — A
detailed description of the little cemetery of
Anacletus . . . . . . . .119

Official memoranda of Ubaldi, Canon of S. Peter's,

made during the excavation works . . . .119

Of the present state of the cemetery of Anacletus round

the Tomb of S. Peter 120

What was found there is carefully detailed in Ubaldi's

memoranda ........ 121

THE CLOISTER

After the Peace of the Church, in the fourth and fifth
centuries, a court or open space, in the case of the

CONTENTS xxv

PAGE

principal churches, was arranged in front of the
chief entrance — This was sometimes known as
" Paradisus " — In time this " outer court," for
various reasons, was removed to a more secluded
place at the side of the church or abbey, and then
the court in question reappeared as the Claustrun
(cloister, close) — Round this court were erected
various buildings — such as a school — and dwellings
and offices for the ministers of the church, etc.,
were erected ........ 127

In the late years of the tenth century, after the great
revival of monastic life at Cluny, the cloister of the
Middle Ages attained its supreme importance — It
was the place where the dwellers in the religious
House spent much of their time in literary work,
and in teaching — One general plan seems to have
been usually adopted in the cloisters on the Continent
as in England . . . . . . . . 129

A description of a cloister and its surroundings . .130

The adornment of these cloisters was not unfrequently
very elaborate — Examples are cited of such
ornamentation. . . . . . . .131

Early criticism of such elaborate adornment . . . 131

Apologia for this beautiful monastic work . . .132

The great debt that men owe to the monk-scribes and
scholars, who through a disturbed and war-
harassed age preserved and transcribed all that we
possess now of ancient classical and of early Christian
literature 133

A sketch of the austere conditions under which these

monk-scribes worked in these cloisters . . .134

Cassiodorus' comment on the importance of monastic

transcribing labours 135

Durandus, Bishop of Mende — On the symbolism of a

cloister 136

Note, with sketch of the vast influence of this once

widely-read author . . . . ... .136

APPENDIX

On the curious traces of mediaeval popular games played
by novices and pupils of the monastery, recently

xxvi CONTENTS

PAGE

noticed in certain cloisters — of which the Glou-
cester Cloister is a notable example . . . . 137

Appendix on S. Petrpnilla's Altar (the earliest historical
detail existing in connection with the Abbey of
Gloucester) 138

How we first hear of S. Petronilla in the monastic records
of Gloucester of the year 710 — and 735 — Leland
refers to this curious " entry " in the story of the
abbey 138

Who now was S. Petronilla ? — Bishop Lightfoot's theory
— Baronius and later De Rossi and other Italian
scholars differ here from Lightfoot, though they,
too, shrink from acknowledging her undoubted
parentage ........ 139

A probably true version of S. Petronilla's story — Testi-
mony of Siricius, Bishop of Rome A.D. 391, to the
lofty position evidently held by this saint in the
estimation of the early Church . » . . .139

The wanderings of the remains of S. Petronilla — At
first they were laid in the Basilica of Siricius on the
Via Ardeatina — Then on the request of Pepin the
Frankish king they were removed for safety to
the little Rotunda Chapel close to the side of the
Basilica of S. Peter — This little chapel was an
Imperial Mausoleum . . . . . .141

The special veneration in which this saint was held by
the Frankish people, no doubt was owing to her being
considered the veritable daughter of S. Peter . .142

The Rotunda Chapel, where her remains were deposited,
was pulled down when new S. Peter's was being built,
and then for many years the sarcophagus of S.
Petronilla lay neglected in the sacristy of the new
Church of S. Peter 142

The sarcophagus now rests in the great Basilica of S. Peter
at the end of the right transept — in a small chapel
called S. Petronilla's 142

The only other English reference to this saint, once so
greatly honoured, is in the dedication of the Church
of Whepstead, near Bury S. Edmunds, where the
name is strangely abbreviated to S. Parnel . . 143

Index 144

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED PLATES

To face page

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna . Frontispiece

S Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna .... 8

S. Vital e, Ravenna . . . . . . .50

S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna . . . .' . 74

BLACK AND WHITE

The Triforium of Gloucester Cathedral, looking into the

Choir . . . . . . . .70

Annexe to Gloucester Cathedral— The Lady Chapel . 86
Church of S. Gwithian, Cornwall, as it appeared in 1894 92
The Central Part of the Crypt of Gloucester Cathedral 104
The Cloister of Gloucester Cathedral . . . .136

LINE DRAWINGS IN THE TEXT
Sarcophagus of the Emperor Honorius in the Mausoleum

of Galla Placidia 8

Interior of S. Apollinare in Classe-Ravenna . . . 1 1
Capital from S. Vitale, Ravenna 12

Chartres. — "Notre Dame de la belle verriere." . . 35
(Seepages 84 and 85)

Solomon's Knot . . . ... . ..46

S. Apollinare in Classe-Ravenna . . . :-. -v. 49

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

THE word " Romanesque " (Architecture Romane) is
quite a modern term; it was first generally used by the
French savant M. de Caumont about the year 1825. De
Caumont learned it from a contemporary Norman anti-
quarian of distinction, M. de Gerville, who adopted it as a
fitting appellation for the " Round- Arch " style which
prevailed in the countries which made up the Roman
Empire roughly from the fifth century to the latter end of
the twelfth century.

This style had received various names, such as Lombardic,
Saxon, Norman, Byzantine. The French archaeologists
were of opinion that one general term could fairly be given
to the various schools of " round- arch " architecture, and
considering the original Roman parentage of the style,
fixed upon " Romanesque " (Romane) as a fairly accurate
title for this widely disseminated architectural school of
building, which, with its various differences in detail,
held its own as the architecture par excellence of the West,
and with certain important variations and additions, of
the near East, for so many centuries.

The appellation " Romanesque " (Architecture Romane)
has been generally if not universally adopted in the West
for " round-arch " architecture during the last eighty
years. In the near East the term " Byzantine " has been
usually applied to the " round- arch " style of the vast
majority of buildings erected from the age of Justinian
and afterwards, until the period of the conquest and

3

4 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

supremacy of the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century.
Constantinople fell A.D. 1453.

Professor Freeman, with great truth, tells us that Roman-
esque architecture is not, as many affirm, a corruption of
the architecture of classical Rome, but that it is a falling
back on the earliest — the ante-classical form of Roman
architecture, which was the true Roman form, before the
original Roman architecture had given way to a foreign (a
Greek) influence.

The great scholar and archaeologist cites as an example
of ante-classical Roman architecture the ruins of the
Emporium by the Tiber, a magazine for merchandise
which had been built before the days of the Emperors.
There we see a simple round-arch construction on which
no Greek element has intruded — a perfect foreshadowing
of any later unadorned Romanesque building of the eleventh
century. Of this earlier style, the so-called classical Roman,
with its marked Greek features, is in fact a corruption.

A consistent round-arched style begins again when the
Greek feature of the entablature is cast away, when the
architect designed an arcade where the arches rest not on
the entablature or cornice, but immediately on the capitals
of the columns.

Such a beginning of consistent round-arched archi-
tecture is to be found in the famous palace of Diocletian
at Spalatro at the beginning of the fourth century. There
in the arcades of the great peristyle, the gorgeous capitals
of the Corinthian order have found for themselves a new
work ; they bear up no longer the dead entablature or heavy
cornices, but the living arch. When this great step had
once been taken, the full development of Romanesque

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 5

architecture was only a work of time. The splendid basilicas
of Ravenna of the fifth and sixth centuries exhibit essen-
tially the same type — Greek conceptions have disappeared.
The elaborate Greek entablature1 has vanished, and the
arches now rest simply on the capitals of the columns.2

Freeman mentions the famous Palace of Diocletian at
Spalatro, circa A.D. 305, as the beginning of consistent
round-arched architecture, a building which in various
portions has gone back to the old pre-classical forms,
suppressing the Greek entablature, and leaving to the
delicate Corinthian capitals their new work of bearing up
the arches and the weight above the arches.

The century which followed the abdication of Diocletian
was the first Christian century ; in it Rome gradually faded
away from its' old position of mistress of the world.

* A word or two explanatory of the term " entablature " will be
useful for those who are not familiar with architectural terminology.
The term belongs to the Renaissance period ; it seems to have been
first used by Evelyn (A.D. 1664). Vitruvius has no single term to
express the group of members of which the " entablature " is com-
posed. He writes of " Membra quae supra columnas imponuntur."
These include the architrave, frieze and cornice.

2 Freeman remarks here that in the buildings of Ravenna (fifth,
sixth and seventh centuries) and in other Romanesque piles, a solid
member is thrust in between the abacus and the capital, in order
to guard the often delicate capital from the pressure of the arch it
supports. The Italian name for this member is pulvino, which
is sometimes translated now as pulvin. This pulvino, especially
in Byzantine work, often grows into a double capital. The English
scholar deems this an unsightly feature in Romanesque architecture,
and suggests that the true remedy is found in the noble buildings
of Lucca and Pisa, where the abaci are heavier — heavy enough to
protect the capital from being crushed. The usual English equiva-
lent for Pulvino is Dosseret, or Impost.

6 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Honorius, the son and successor of the great Theodosius
in the Western Empire, dismayed at the rapid advance of
the barbarian hordes, finally transferred the imperial seat
of government from Rome to Ravenna, circa A.D. 404.

Almost at once in Ravenna flamed up a new architectural
impulse, and Romanesque architecture in the famous
Ravennese churches appears. Several of these great piles,
with much of their beautiful ornamentation, are with us
still.

For about 160 years Ravenna, under its different rulers, the
Emperor Honorius and his sister Galla Placidia, Theodoric
the Ostro-Goth and the Emperor Justinian, with his famous
lieutenants Belisarius and Narses, remained a great Art
capital, the virtual centre of the new school of consistent
round-arched construction, the Greek feature of the
entablature being laid aside. Ravennese art preceded the
great development of art in Constantinople, for the splendid
tomb of Galla Placidia, completed before A.D. 450, was
already gleaming with the gold and colour of its beautiful
mosaics long before the erection of the great basilica of
S. Sophia at Constantinople by Justinian (A.D. 532-537).
But the glory of Ravenna as an Art capital faded away after
a duration of about 160 years, when Alboin the Lombard
overran and conquered Northern and most of Central
Italy.

In the early years of the fifth century the best craftsmen
of Rome and Milan naturally flocked to Ravenna, whither
the imperial court of Honorius had migrated ; these skilled
artisans being attracted to Ravenna by the numerous works
of importance which Honorius and Galla Placidia had set
on foot.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 7

We will give a few details of the age which produced
these wonderful works undertaken and completed in
Ravenna during the 160 years, some few of which, although
sadly shorn of their ancient splendour, are to this day the
objects of our wonder and admiration.

We can fairly divide those 160 years roughly into three
periods. The first, the age of Honorius and his sister
Galla Placidia. The romantic story of this famous princess,
the inspirer of the marvellous Ravennese art, is well known.
She was the daughter of the great Emperor Theodosius,
and was the sister of Honorius, and of Arcadius the Emperor
of the East. In A.D. 414 she married Ataulphus, the
brother and successor of Alaric, the Visigothic conqueror.
After the assassination of Ataulphus at Barcelona and a
short period of captivity among his murderers, she returned
to Ravenna and her brother Honorius in A.D. 416, and
married Constantius, a distinguished general of Honorius,
who after his marriage was eventually associated with
Honorius in the Empire of the West, and received the title
of Augustus, but Constantius only survived his elevation
a few months.

The influence of Placidia in Ravenna over her brother
Honorius was very marked, but a deadly feud sprang up
between the brother and sister soon after Constantius's
death in 421, and Galla Placidia fled to Constantinople to
her nephew, the reigning Emperor of the East. Honorius
died in A.D. 423. Then, aided by the armed legions of her
nephew the Emperor Theodosius II, Placidia returned to
Ravenna, and bearing the title of Augusta, became para-
mount in Ravenna and Italy for some twenty- five years,
first as Regent and then as the all-powerful adviser of her
son Valentinian II.

8 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

It was no doubt during this long period of Placidia's
reign that several of the great Ravennese churches, some of
which are still among the glories of this strange city, were
built — viz. S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Francesco, S. Agata
and the Church of the Holy Cross; the last-named has
disappeared, but its beautiful annexe, known as the

Sarcophagus of the Emperor Honorius in the Mausoleum
of Galla Placidia, Ravenna (fifth century) .

mausoleum of Placidia, where Placidia was buried, still
remains, glittering with its splendid mosaics. In this
magnificent royal tomb house are also the great sarcophagi
which contain the ashes of Honorius her brother, and of
Const antius her husband, and of her son Valentinian II.

The second period of building belongs to the reign of
Theodoric the Ostrogoth. After the death of Placidia and

S. GIOVANNI EVANGELISTA, RAVENNA.

Circa A.D. 425.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 9

her son Valentinian II, who only survived his mother for
a little while (he was murdered in A.D. 455), apparently the
building of great churches in Ravenna ceased for a time.
Ravenna and Italy in this interregnum were ruled over by a
group of shadowy Emperors; the last who bore, the great
title in the West, Romulus Augustulus, who closed the
group, was deposed in A.D. 476. Then followed the reign
of Odoaces, the barbarian chief who, under the title of
Patrician, ruled in Italy until A.D. 493, when Theodoric
the Ostrogoth became the dominant power in Italy.
Ravenna was his capital city.

The famous Arian king Theodoric, Procopius tells us, was
" an extraordinary lover of justice, and adhered rigorously
to the laws ; he guarded the country from barbarian inva-
sions, and displayed the greatest intelligence and prudence.
He reigned for some thirty years or more, leaving a deep
regret for his loss in the hearts of his subjects." Among
his good deeds was his care for the great monuments of the
Empire. His zeal for the adornment of Ravenna was
remarkable.

Theodoric was a great builder. We possess still his
magnificent Arian Church of S. Apollinare Nuovo, which
was orignally called S. Martin ; it was known as " de Coelo
Aureo " because of its beautiful gilded roof. It is, after
all these years, the noblest church in Ravenna. This
church received its present name in the ninth century,
when the remains of S. Apollinare were translated from the
neighbouring suburb of Classis. The glorious mosaics
which now adorn it probably replaced the original work of
Theodoric ; these mosaics we now admire were placed there
as early as the sixth century, when the Arian basilica was
transformed into a Christian church.

io THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

We have with us another great Arian church which he
built, now called the Spirito Sancto. It was originally
named S. Theodore. Very little of the original portion of
this church remains.

Theodoric died in A.D. 536. Then followed a short time
of confusion. Amalasuntha, Theodoric's daughter, suc-
ceeded to her father's power in Italy as guardian of her son
Athalaric, but Athalaric died in his eighteenth year, and
Amalasuntha was eventually murdered.

The great Justinian was now reigning in Constantinople,
and resolved to reconquer Italy and to unite it with the
Eastern Empire./ This he accomplished through the
instrumentality of his famous generals Belisarius, and later
Narses. The Goths after two long wars were completely
defeated, and Ravenna became a city of the Eastern Empire
A.D. 540^

Then may be said to have commenced the third period
of building and adorning Ravenna. In this period, under
the inspiration of Justinian, the mighty churches, still
standing, of S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe,1 were
erected, and magnificently adorned with the mosaics

1 Classis — Classe — was the port, perhaps the chief harbour of the
Roman fleet, and was built by the Emperor Augustus. It was in
the great days of Ravenna a vast port and arsenal, and possessed
various important churches, of which the magnificent Basilica of
Apollinare in Classe alone remains. Classis was joined to Ravenna
by a long suburb, the Via Csesarea, nearly three miles long; but
Classis and Caesarea have all disappeared, and the lonely Basilica
of S. Apollinare stands now by itself in the marshes.

The sea, which once bathed the walls of Classis, has retreated some
two miles, leaving what was once Classis empty and desolate. In
the days of Ravenna's glory and prosperity the three towns, Ravenna,
the long suburb of Caesarea, and the vast port of Classis, must have
appeared as one great city.

Interior of S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.
Circa A.D. 533-549-

12 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

which we now wonderingly admire in their scarred but
unspoiled loveliness.

What we term the third period of the erection of
Ravennese works of art roughly lasted from A.D. 540 to

Capital from S. Vitale, Ravenna, showing
Romanesque Pulvino.

A.D. 568, when Alboin the Lombard with his strange and
savage hordes descended upon Italy.

Although Ravenna and a certain territory more or less
adjacent to it, known as the Exarchate, for a long time
remained attached to the Eastern or Byzantine Empire,
we have no record of any important building or art work in
the Ravenna of the Exarchs of the Eastern Empire.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 13

The stranger pilgrim visiting Ravenna, the city of so
many memories and of world-famed churches, now, alas,
will not see these marvellous Basilicas of Galla Placidia,
of Theodoric and Justinian, in their ancient glory. Their
great age, some fourteen to fifteen centuries, desolating
wars and sieges, long periods of neglect, the unskilful hand
of various restorers, have sadly changed them. For the
most part they have been largely rebuilt. But the exquisite
Romanesque plan, the long unbroken rows of pillars,
mostly of precious marbles, with the Ravennese pulvins,
the great invention of Romanesque architecture, supporting
the overhanging arches, thus supplanting the Greek
entablature, and the beautiful Romanesque capitals are
still there. In several of the churches the wonderful
mosaics of the great builders and artists to this day look
down on us, gleaming well-nigh as fresh and lovely as they
were some fourteen hundred years back.

One singular feature must be touched upon. The outside
of these noble Romanesque piles is ever unadorned and
strangely unattractive. This is noticeable in all Byzantine
as well as in Ravennese (and Italian) Romanesque churches.
The outside of S. Sophia in Constantinople, for example,
is singularly disappointing, but, on the other hand, alike
in Ravenna and in Constantinople, a Romanesque Basilica
emphatically is " all glorious within."

After the Lombard conquest followed a short period of
almost total darkness in the Art-world of Italy and the
West.

A slow renaissance of architectural art, however, soon
showed itself under the influence of Queen Theodolinda, a

14 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Bavarian Christian princess who was married in succession
to two Lombard kings, Autharis and Agilulf.

Then, all through the Lombard domination, a period
lasting roughly 200 years, a gradual revival of church
building went on. Not a few churches were built in these
200 years under the influence of the Lombard kings. We
have only scanty remains of their work, but still enough
to show us that the old spirit of the Ravenna school inspired
the builders, and the round-arch style was generally
adopted.

Of course these Lombard churches were sadly inferior
to the glorious Ravennese piles of Galla Placidia, Theodoric
and Justinian, but the spirit of the same school of thought
evidently inspired the architects employed by the Lombard
rulers, which had dwelt among the builders of the churches
of Ravenna in the days of her glory.

Now who were the builders and architects of the Lombard
churches which arose in these 200 years? The Lombard
buildings were evidently not the work of the Lombards
themselves. They had no stone buildings before Alboin
and his hordes crossed the Alps.

I think we can answer the question.

In the Code of the Lombard King Rotharis, A.D. 636-
652, for the first time appears the expression " Magistri
Comacini." In this Code of Laws the Magistri Comacini
appear as Master-Masons with unlimited powers to make
contracts for building, and to enrol members in their Guild,
and these Comacini are mentioned again in an official
document of King Liutbrand, A.D. 712-744, which treats
of architecture and carving carried out by the Comacine
Guild in question.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 15

Now this Guild cannot have sprung into existence full-
grown, and as it were by magic, in the days of King
Rotharis, A.D. 636. It must have been already in existence,
and have been too of some importance, before Alboin's
descent on Italy, A.D. 568, which was followed by the reign
of the Lombard kings. Who now were these Comacini?
There is little doubt that they were the successors of the
Master-Masons who in the days of the vanished Empire
had directed the operations of the Roman Collegia,
especially devoted to building, and who had survived the
barbarian invasions which were so disastrous to Italy in
the years which preceded the accession of Rotharis to the
Lombard throne. When Honorius migrated from Rome
to Ravenna, this Guild of Masons apparently had made its
head-quarters at Ravenna; had designed and carried out
the magnificent Ravenna buildings ; then eventually, in the
general upheaval which followed the invasion of Alboin,
the Guild removed to the comparatively safe asylum of
Como — a district singularly fitted for the home of a building
fraternity, owing to the stone and marble quarries and
yards for which it was celebrated.

Como had been long an important and a flourishing city
when the Lombard hordes descended into Italy. In the
days of the Empire it had held the rank of a colony, and
was governed by a Prefect. Pliny the Younger had held
this office, and for a time lived in the beautiful city in his
Villa " Comoedia." Catullus also made his home in Como.
Indeed, Como and the Comacine islands might be con-
sidered a privileged territory.

After Alboin the Lombard — A.D. 568 — had invaded and
conquered Northern and much of Central Italy, the city

16 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

of Como for a long time preserved its independence, and
was resorted to by many of the fugitives from the Lombard
raiders, as a haven of security ; among these fugitives from
Ravenna and other centres were included many members
of the famous Guild of Roman Architects and Builders
whose head-quarters had been Ravenna in the days of her
prosperity and glory under the Emperor Honorius, his
sister Placidia, Theodoric the Ostrogoth and the lieutenants
of Justinian.

For many years Como held out against the barbarian
invaders. In the end, however, it fell before the forces
of the Lombard sovereign Autharis.

The Lombard conquerors, as we have seen, favoured the
Guild or brotherhood of architects which they found in
Como ; they gave this building fraternity, the successors
of the ancient Roman Guild of Architects, great privileges,
as we see from the Edict of the Lombard King Rotharis,
circa A.D. 636, and employed them in their many and
important building works.

Como continued to be the head-quarters of this trained
architectural Guild, and from this city, their permanent
traditional home, they derived their name, by which for
long centuries they were known — the Comacine builders —
Magistri Comacini. This expression appears first in the
above quoted Edict of the Lombard King Rotharis, circa
A.D. 636.

It is clear that under the Lombard domination these
Comacine builders possessed a legal monopoly in the
Lombard sphere of influence, from the early years of the
occupation of their conquerors.

This famous Comacine Guild or brotherhood continued
to exist and to flourish for many centuries, indeed until the

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 17

disappearance of the Lombard style of round-arch archi-
tecture, which style they had perfected, somewhere about
the close of the twelfth century.1

Very soon after their settlement in conquered Italy, the
victorious Lombards passed under the magic spell of Italy,
and became themselves lovers of art, and under the influence
of the Christianity which they adopted as their religion,
proceeded to build churches and even cathedrals. They
made use of this Comacine Guild, and by their patronage
and favour revived the fading tradition of this most ancient
building and architectural fraternity and Guild. This was
the beginning of the famous Lombardic style we usually
term Romanesque.

At first, under the Lombard kings, the Comacine artists
worked with, comparatively speaking, poor art, little
skill and imagination; they retained, it is true, their old
traditions, but they had fallen out of practice during the
period of unrest and disorder which followed the Lombard
invasion, but with the new impulse given by the Lombard
rulers to Art, they progressed in architectural design and
ornament, and gradually transformed the old Roman
and later Romanesque development into a new style still
possessing many of the old round-arch features, a new
style generally termed Lombardic — which is now generally
known as Romanesque.

Although time (some 1300 years back), the devastation
of endless wars, many restorations, and even rebuilding,
have obliterated so much of the very ancient Lombardic
work, there is no doubt that as early as in the days of

1 Certain writers place the vanishing of the Comacine builders
at a somewhat later date.
C

i8 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Queen Theodolinda, the wife of King Autharis, A.D. 571-91,
and later of King Agilulph, a number of churches were
erected in the Lombardic dominions. Theodolinda, as
we have stated, was a Bavarian princess.

This queen may fairly be reckoned as the one who
rekindled in Northern and Central Italy the dying embers
of fine Arts, and especially of architecture.

After the time of this Lombard queen, who among other
works built the first cathedral of Monza, no sovereign,
during the 200 years of Lombard rule, can be quoted who
did not help to keep alive the spirit of fine art, especially
the art of architecture, which seems to have been especially
cultivated among the Lombard peoples from an early
date after their settlement in Italy.

The learned Muratori with great force bears his testimony
here, when he tells us that if more of the ancient Lombard
buildings had survived, they would have presented a
striking, and by no means a rough and barbaric appearance.
The great scholar supports his conclusions here by a striking
reference to the contemporary Lombard writer, the well-
known Paulus Diaconus, whose admiration for the churches
of his country was evoked by a personal knowledge of them
and their distinguishing features.

Paulus Diaconus was well able to form an accurate
opinion of these buildings, for he must have been very
familiar with the magnificent churches of Rome and
Ravenna, which in his day and time still preserved much
of their original magnificence.1

1 Writing of the importance of certain of the works of this far-
back age of Lombardic art, Paulus Diaconus dwells on the " Basilica
of the Mother of God," outside the walls of Pa via, erected by Queen
Rodelinda, circa A.D. 686, and describes it in the following words :

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 19

Rivoira cites and describes the present condition of a
very few of the undoubted remains of these ancient Lombard
churches. Other Italian scholars, however, instance more
which they think belong to this first age of Lombardic art.

We possess few remains of the earlier Comacine work ;
they become, however, more numerous as time went on.

The following very early churches are now generally
dated as erected in the eighth century and earlier, and
still remain intact, in part at least, and they fairly represent
the gradual development of the Lombardic style during the
period of the rule of the Lombardic kings : San Salvatore,
Brescia, circa A.D. 753, is the best known instance; the
parish church of Arliano, near Lucca, somewhat earlier;
San Pietro, Toscanella; San Giorgio in Valpolicella ;
S. Teuteria, Verona, are also cited by Rivoira.

After the fall of the Lombard rule, in the time of Charle-
magne, A.D. 774, the Comacine Guild had the opportunity
of working in a wider field, and were no doubt employed
in most of the few important buildings erected by that
monarch; we can trace their handiwork and the peculiar
signs of their craft all through the ninth and tenth centuries,
and we notice the gradual advance they made in Art, even
in that dark and troubled age.

But in spite of this advance in the beauty and ornamen-
tation of their buildings, it was not until the close of the
first quarter of the eleventh century that these famous
architects really recovered the lost Roman secret of vaulting

" Opere mirabili condidit, ornamentisque miraficis decora vit "
(Hist. Lan gob ardor urn] . Paulus Diaconus was a monk, and most
probably wrote his history in the great Monastery of the Benedictines
at Monte Cassino. He was born circa A.D. 723 and died about
A.D. 800.

20 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

large churches; hitherto they had, save in rare instances,
confined themselves to covering small spaces, such as the
apses and crypts of churches, with vaults.

Through those darkest of the early Middle Ages, the
seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, the Romanesque
or round-arch style again slowly developed in Lombardy.
It penetrated into Gaul, into Germany, and even to distant
England.1

In England, the presence of Italian (Lombardic) in-
fluences, from a very early period, is undoubted; but the

1 We are not dealing here with Byzantine architecture. Con-
stantinople and the Eastern empire, while maintaining generally
the round-arch style, had her own great architectural invention,
the Cupola, which under Justinian in the sixth century was brought
to perfection in the great Church of S. Sophia ; this was copied in
many a famous church in the Eastern empire. It influenced later
some of the architecture in the Southern Provinces of Gaul (France) .

Freeman, however, is scarcely accurate in styling the Cupola as
the great architectural invention of the Byzantine masters.

The Byzantine-domed Basilica, as it appeared in the time of
Justinian, as Rivoira accurately tells us, was the result of a gradual
but tolerably rapid evolution. It was really a creation of the
Latin mind, and is based upon the old Roman-domed buildings.
The Byzantine-domed church appears first in Macedonia, where
we find it notably in Salonica in the Church of S. Sophia in that
city ; it received its present development at Constantinople, in
the mighty Basilica of S. Sophia, and may justly be termed the
principal characteristic feature of the round-arch style of Byzantine
architecture.

The dome or Cupola was, however, by no means unknown or unused
in the Lombardic School of the Comacine builders. But it never
really took root in Italy and in the West, save, perhaps, later in
certain districts in the south of France. It is in Constantinople
and in the near East that it was developed and adopted as the main
prominent feature of the Byzantine style.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 21

remains we possess of churches erected before the Conquest
are, after all, but scanty.

Some writers maintain with great probability that the
few churches built shortly after the arrival of Augustine's
mission (A.D. 597) in England were the work of Italian
craftsmen. The first clearly dated churches erected in
England under Italian (Lombardic) influence, however,
belong to a somewhat later period. They are : 5. Peter,
Monkwearmouth, built in A.D. 675 by Benedict Biscop, first
Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as Bede tells us, "in
the Roman style."

S. Paul's, Jarrow, by Benedict Biscop, A.D. 684.

Bishop Wilfred, the energetic Roman champion, erected
the Basilica of S. Andrew, Hexham, between A.D. 672-678 ;
a building which in his day was famous for its size and
splendour, though no doubt the contemporary eulogies
here were owing to the great poverty of ecclesiastical
structures in England at this time.

S. Peter s, Ripon, A.D. 671-678, was also the work of
Wilfred; the Crypt of his church is still with us. 5.
Andrew, Cartridge, is also reputed to have been erected by
Wilfred.

Direct Italian (Lombardic) influence, however, ceased
when the Archbishop's chair at Canterbury was no longer
filled by foreign ecclesiastics; and at the close of the
seventh century, and from the early years of the beginning
of the eighth century, for a somewhat lengthened period
architecture in England pursued its own course without
external aid. But the round-arch Lombardic style still
remained general, though the buildings were rough and
somewhat uncouth. Brixworth Church — A.D. 654 — is a
fair example of the churches of this disturbed period.

22 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

We have little to guide us here until the days of Alfred,
A.D. 871-891, when foreign influences again were dominant
in the realm of the great Anglo-Saxon king. In the days
of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, circa A.D. 943-988,
a strong current of foreign (Italian) influence passed over
England. A similar current is notable in the reign of
Ethelred II (the Unready), A.D. 978-1016. This current
became stronger and stronger. Under Edward the Con-
fessor, A.D. 1041-1066, the new style of architecture — the
Lombardo-Norman — made its appearance in England.
We shall dwell at considerable length on this important
school which produced so many world-famous works.

No doubt before the coming of the Lombardo-Norman
(Romanesque) style, many of the English churches were
constructed of wood. This material was plentiful, as much
of the country consisted of forest land. These have dis-
appeared. We possess, however, one remarkable example
of these Anglo-Saxon timber-constructed buildings in the
interesting little chapel near Aungre (Chipping Ongar),
built on the occasion of the translation of the relics of
S. Edmund from London, circa A.D. 1013.

The first great monument of the coming of Lombardo-
Norman architecture into England is undoubtedly the
Abbey Church of S. Peter, known as Westminster Abbey.
This famous church was built, in part at least, by Edward
the Confessor, circa A.D. 1051-1065. Its completion was the
work of William the Conqueror.

In Germany, until the period of Charlemagne, we have
no proof that any considerable churches were built. This
great conqueror and organiser erected, A.D. 796-804, at
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) the famous Palace-chapel subse-

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 23

quently known as the cathedral, generally after the model
of San Vitale at Ravenna ; but it stands alone. It was not
imitated, and his feeble successors, the Carolingian princes,
did little to advance or to foster architecture in their broad
dominions. This important building at Aachen remained,
it must be confessed, as far as its influence was concerned,
a solitary appearance in Germany. It is said that its
great founder Charlemagne hoped this Palace-chapel at
Aachen might have served as a model for other German
churches, but it is clear that his influence in architecture
was as ephemeral as the mighty Empire which he was
unable to endow with permanent vitality.

The Sepulchral Chapel at Lorsch, A.D. 876; perhaps the
Crypt and some of the remains at Quedlingburn, A.D. 936 ;
the old Cathedral at Cologne, A.D. 781; the Church of
S. Michael at Fulda, A.D. 818; the Church of Steinbach,
A.D. 815 ; parts of the more important Church of Gernrode,
S. Cyriacus, A.D. 968, are among the very few examples
which can be cited of Romanesque work in Germany, until
the rise of the Lombardo-Rhenish style in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries.

Rivoira well characterises the Lombardo-Rhenish basilicas
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as the highest ex-
pression of German architecture. It was, he says, an out-
ward and visible sign of the Imperial idea brought back
to life among the Teutonic people by Otto the Great in the
last half of the tenth century.

The erection of these great churches is synchronous
with the mighty wave of church building which passed over
Northern and Central Europe in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. One great peculiarity in this style was the
general adoption of flat ceilings (trabeated) over the

24 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

wide spaces. It was not until the latter part of the
twelfth century that cross vaulting over the naves and
wide spaces began to be adopted in the great German
churches.

In their general features, however, these imposing
Rhenish churches of the eleventh and immediately following
centuries, largely followed Lombardic models.

Among other notable piles, the undermentioned Lom-
bardo- Rhenish churches rose in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. In Cologne : S. Maria im Capitol, A.D. 1094.
5. Martin and the Church of the Apostles and 5. Gereon,
eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Cathedral of Spires,
eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Cathedral of Mainz,
eleventh and twelfth centuries. S. Castor of Coblenz,
eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Cathedral of Worms,
eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Minster Church of
Bonn, twelfth century.

But what of Gaul — the France of mediaeval and modern
days, the fairest, the richest, the most important of the
provinces of the Roman rule — greater and more influential
in wealth as in culture by far than any part of the dominions
of the western world of Rome — equalled by none of the
countries of the far or nearer East of the great Empire —
second only to Italy, the mother-land of the Roman
Empire ?

What does this Gaul tell us of the rise and progress of
Romanesque architecture? Strangely little, we reply,
for many centuries. It is not by any means that this
famous division of the mighty Empire was ever wanting in
noble and sumptuous buildings, civil and ecclesiastical.
To give a few notable historical examples as far back as

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 25

the fifth and sixth centuries. Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop
of Clermont, gives us a vivid picture of a stately country
house in the Auvergne of his day, one of many such lordly
villa residences. Gregory of Tours describes at some
length the Church of Clermont Ferrand, as it existed in the
sixth century, and dwells on its forty-two windows, its
seventy columns, on its walls decorated with mosaics and
many coloured marbles. A still vaster and more famous
ancient church was the venerable and far-famed Basilica
of S. Martin at Tours, so eloquently pictured by the same
historian, S. Gregory of Tours. Another stately church
we know adorned the great city of Lyons. The Lyons
church was erected before the period of the church building
activities of Justinian which culminated in the superb
S. Sophia at Constantinople — one of the wonders of the
Roman world of the East. This Lyons church was a build-
ing contemporary with the noble Ravennese Basilicas of
Honorius and Galla Placidia. But every vestige of all
these, and of many others of later date, has disappeared.
Quicherat strikingly asks, " Where are all the churches
of France which were erected before the year of grace
1000?"

The most careful investigation of modern archaeologists
can only discover some four or five at most, poor reliquiae
of Merovingian and Carlovingian times, and these few scanty
remains consist of a solitary crypt or two, or of a small and
unimportant chapel, once evidently a part of some more
considerable building now utterly vanished.

Something more than time, though measured by centuries,
must have been at work here. Evidently a ruthless
destroyer's hand has passed over France and swept away
all these monuments of religious zeal and devoted piety.

26 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Quicherat, Viollet le Due, Guizot and Villemain, Sir James
Stephen, Palgrave and other modern historians, in their
picture of the story of France in the sixth and following
centuries, tell us how all this havoc and destruction came
about.

No country like France has suffered so deeply from
hostile raids and disastrous invasions — from the seventh
century onwards. As early as in the first years of the
eighth century have the Saracens harried the southern
districts of the fair Gallic province — the great Mediter-
ranean Sea for a long season appeared destined to become
a Moslem Lake, whose masters were Saracenic pirates.
On land these Eastern depredators were even more destruc-
tive. Nothing daunted by the crushing defeat they
suffered at the hands of Charles Martel near Tours, they
persisted in treating Aquitaine and Provence as a country
to which they had a positive claim, and they long continued
to burn and plunder churches, monasteries and cities at
their will.

As time went on, a yet more systematic course of de-
struction in middle and northern France, and even in the
southern districts, must be chronicled in the Gesta Roman-
omm — the dread recital of the harryings of the North-folk,
the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, the Danes, the Frisians.
These invasions began before the close of the eighth century
— even in the days of Charlemagne — and when the strong
hand of the mighty Emperor was removed, we come indeed
upon a terrible catalogue of the woes and ruin wrought in
Gaul by the Northern robbers all through the ninth and
tenth centuries.

The sad catalogue of cities ruined, raided, devastated
and partly burnt by these dread hordes of Northern pirates,

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 27

includes well-known places such as Aix-la-Chapelle, Treves,
Cologne, Metz, Toul, Verdun, Tournai, Rouen, Orleans,
Auxerre, Troyes, Tours, Chartres, Poitiers, Angouleme,
Bordeaux, 0Toulousej besides many solitary monasteries.

Quicherat graphically speaks of the work of these savage
raiders as a veritable feu-de-joie, and with great force
points out how thoroughly they were able to carry out
their fell work of destruction, especially in ecclesiastical
buildings, owing to the abbeys and churches being univer-
sally covered with wooden roofs ; the destructive work of
these Northern pirates, bitter foes of Christianity, was thus
rendered comparatively easy. The interior fittings of the
church were first fired; quickly the flames reached the
timber of the roofs, and very soon the entire building
became a very furnace, and the whole pile was soon com-
pletely destroyed.

All this continuous burning and raiding, which went on
for nigh two miserable centuries, accounts for the strange
absence of any remains of the once sumptuous and in many
cases stately Merovingian and Carlovingian churches and
abbeys of the sixth and following centuries.

The great wealth, the many and opulent cities of Gaul,
marked out this province of the Empire as presenting a
specially attractive country for the invasions and raids of
these hordes of sea-pirates. Gaul too was in the neighbour-
hood of the home of these Northern adventurers, and the
navigable Gallic rivers which emptied themselves into the
Northern Sea, the Channel which divided Gaul from
Britain, and into the Atlantic Ocean which washed the
long western sea-board, the Rivers Scheldt, Seine, Loire
and Garonne; the Rhone, too, which flowed into the
Mediterranean, where the ships of the Northmen were no

28 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

uncommon sight — gave ample facilities for these formidable
fleets with their dark sails to penetrate into the very heart
of the great Gallic province.

Modern archaeologists and historians, such as Quicherat,
Rivoira, and Sir Thomas Jackson, comment sadly on this
almost total absence of even a remnant of the ancient
Gallic churches. Viollet le Due, in his monumental
Dictionary, well sums up the story of this sad gap in the
architectural history of the past of France, by telling us
that " we possess only very vague ideas of the primitive
churches on the soil of France, and that it is only from the
tenth century downwards that we can form a passably
exact conception of what they were like."

So terrible, so widespread, so constantly recurring were
the depredations of these dreaded sea-pirates, that a new
supplication was introduced into the Gallican liturgies —
" A furore Normannorum libera nos." The bitter hostility
of these Northmen raiders to Christianity is well known;
something more than a mere love of plunder influenced
their method of treatment of churches and monasteries,
and moved them especially to select churches as the first
objects of their passion for burning and destroying.

The last years of the tenth century and the first half of
the eleventh, however, witnessed a new state of things.
The raids of the Northern pirates grew fewer and gradually
came to an end.

The more formidable bands of these sea-robbers settled
finally in the northern part of Gaul, and there founded a
new realm, called, after them, Normandy. These invaders
quickly adapted themselves to the civilisation of the con-
quered provincials, and thus materially contributed to the
general quietness which settled over the long-harassed

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 29

Gallic province. Raoul Glanber, the Monk Chronicler of
the Cluny Monks, in a famous and often-quoted passage,
relates how " the world — his world, started from its death-
sleep and from the year 1000 put on its white robe of
churches."

There is no doubt but that an extraordinary reaction in
Church life must be dated from this period. Various causes
contributed to this remarkable renaissance of religion, the
outward and visible sign of which was in the vast number
of churches and abbeys which were built in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. The comparative " stillness " of Western
Christendom was perhaps the dominant factor. But the
enormous and ever-growing influence of Cluny and the
vast number of its daughter Monastic Houses must not be
overlooked.

In France, all the existing Romanesque churches date
from this period. We style them accurately as Romanesque
—but it must be borne in mind that while they all possess
the leading features of this great school of architecture —
notably the " round arch " — in each of the provinces of
France in details they differed very considerably.1

We will give a brief summary of these differences in the
details.

Aquitaine. — This great division of France included the
south-western and west central districts — Poitou Limousin
— Guienne — and later Gascony. Here the influence of

1 In this little summary of French Romanesque churches of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the careful classification of Sir
Thomas Jackson, R.A., has been generally followed. A consider-
able portion of his work on Romanesque and Byzantine architecture
is devoted to this Romanesque work in France.

30 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Byzantine Art on the Romanesque School was very
noticeable — the famous Church of S. Front at Perigueux is
a well-known example, and had many imitators on a smaller
scale. S. Front was evidently designed on the plan of the
Byzantine Church of S. Mark's at Venice.

Aquitaine and the south and south-west of France during
the early Middle Ages carried on extensive commercial
dealings with the Levant, and especially with Venice, which
largely traded with the near East.

The leading special feature in Aquitanian Romanesque
was the Dome. It has been reckoned that in the province
of Perigord some eighty domed churches once existed ; of
these about fifteen are still with us.

Provence has a history of its own here. Its Romanesque
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries was often inspired by
memories of imperial Rome, not unnatural in a district so
closely connected with the great Empire, and which is even
still rich in mighty Roman remains. In this province we
do not find the Dome as in Aquitaine — the old Basilican
plan is generally followed. The majority of all these
French Romanesque churches are vaulted, at least in part,
with solid masonry.

Toulouse andLan^uedoc. Here our examples of the
ancient churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are
sadly fewer. The terrible Albigensian wars of religion
waged against presumed heretics, desolated the country,
and many of the churches and ecclesiastical buildings were
ruthlessly destroyed. The stately Church of S. Sernin at
Toulouse is the most important of the Romanesque churches
remaining in this division of France which we still possess.
The domical feature, though not unknown here, is un-
common. The French feature of the " Che vet," the

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 31

garland of chapels round the ambulatory at the east
end, is developed in these Romanesque Languedoc
churches.

Auvergne. There are various local characteristics in the
Auvergne Romanesque churches — perhaps one of the most
conspicuous peculiar features is the polychrome masonry
which ornaments them. There is abundance of black
basaltic rock in the district, and this is frequently mixed
with yellowish-white freestone laid in mosaic pattern on
the exterior walls, on the aisle, the frieze, etc. The effect
is curious and decidedly pleasing. Sir Thomas Jackson
probably suggests that this various coloured ornamentation,
which specially distinguishes the Auvergne Romanesque
piles, suggests a partly oriental origin; for Mosaic was
a favourite Byzantine art. This striking feature is abso-
lutely peculiar to the Auvergne churches — only one other
example of polychrome masonry can be quoted among the
churches in France built in this period. The lovely cloisters
at le Puy are an admirable instance of this varied coloured
" Mosaic " masonry.

Burgundy. This important province in the north-east
of France was the home of the remarkable revival of
monasticism which played so great a part in the wonderful
religious movement of the eleventh century; the world-
renowned House of Cluny, and its famous daughter
monastery Citeaux, whence sprung the vast Cistercian
Order, being situated in the neighbourhood of Macon in
Burgundy.1

It was in the workshops of Cluny that Romanesque

1 For the rise and development of Norman-Romanesque, its
passing into England and its connection with the great Burgundian
Monastery of Cluny, see below, p. 36.

32 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

architecture made a fresh start in France. The craft of
masonry possessed a marked advantage here in the
admirable stone which was quarried in Burgundy.

Among the characteristic features of Burgundian art,
the splendid and remarkable porches of certain of its more
provincial churches deserve mention.

A marked advance in the comparatively new feature of
stone vaulting belongs to the churches of this province.
At Vezelay the great nave was vaulted; hitherto this
vaulting of great spaces had been generally confined to the
lesser vaults of the aisles and the crypts.

The mighty church of Cluny was the vastest church in
the west of Europe. Its nave was successfully vaulted
with stone. At Citeaux, the Mother Church of the Cister-
cian Order, the example, followed certainly by the earlier
churches of the famous order, was set of that extreme sim-
plicity and restriction in the matter of decoration which
characterises the numberless Cistercian churches which
rapidly arose in so many of the countries of western
Europe.

The Royal Domain — 1'Ile de France. During the
eleventh and first half of the twelfth centuries the " Royal
Domain " was very confined, and virtually was comprised
in the district at present included in the departments
grouped round Paris. It was only enlarged at the expense
of the territories of the great Feudatories in the second half
of the twelfth century. .It had long been terribly ravaged
by the Northmen raiders, and the Romanesque remains in
these parts round Paris are comparatively few and wanting
in importance. But in the latter years of the twelfth
century, under King Philip Augustus, the Royal Domain
became greatly enlarged and included outlying provinces.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 33

It thus became the more fitting appanage of the Over-lord
of France.

But in the later years of the twelfth century the vogue
of Romanesque architecture was passing away and rapidly
giving place to the new and striking architectural school
known as Gothic.

These years and the earlier part of the thirteenth century
— a great building age — saw the foundation of the mighty
Gothic cathedrals of Paris, Chartres, Bourges, Laon,
Soissons, Meaux, Noyon, Amiens, Rouen, and others,
mostly situated in the now enlarged Royal Domain : x these
magnificent Gothic piles were for the most part completed
before the end of the thirteenth century.

Indeed this " Domaine Royale," in its enlarged form,
has been with justice termed the cradle of French Gothic
architecture.

In the early years of the eleventh century, a new style of
Romanesque arose in northern and north-western Gaul,
which was soon known as " Norman Romanesque " — a

1 In these great Gothic cathedrals traces of the old Romanesque
style remain, but the round-arch and other Romanesque features
were evidently rapidly giving place to the new and generally
favoured Gothic school. In other parts of France, Sir Thomas
Jackson well summarises as follows ; when this movement towards
a new style in the " Royal Domain " took place in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, we find Romanesque art still running its course.
In Vezelay (Burgundy), for instance, although the pointed-arch
had been admitted, the general design still clung to the ancient
tradition, and the round-arch still ruled the design. In Auvergne
it still reigned supreme. ... In Aquitaine the domed style con-
tinued to prevail. In Normandy and England the round-arched
style followed a line of its own. In Provence, too, Romanesque
held its own for a longer period than in the " Royal Domain."
D

34 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

distinct and remarkable variety of the common Romanesque
family.

It began thus. In the latter years of the tenth century,
the great monastic community of the Benedictines of Cluny,
in Burgundy, was at the height of its power and influence ;
it occupied a unique position among the religious houses
of the west, owing its great position largely to the long
series of distinguished men who for more than a century
controlled its destinies, and directed its vast and far-reach-
ing activities.

Among its monks, when Maieul, one of the most dis-
tinguished of the rulers of Cluny, reigned as Abbot, A.D. 948-
999, was a young Italian known as William of Volpiano,1
A.D. 961-1031. He attracted attention owing to his great
learning, his devoted piety, and his rare skill as an architect.
Under the Cluny influence, at a comparatively early age,
he was appointed Abbot of the ancient foundation of
S. Benignus of Dijon. That once famous church had fallen
into decay, and was virtually a ruin.

As Abbot of S. Benignus of Dijon, William of Volpiano
became known far and wide, as an earnest and successful
reformer of monasteries, and, above all, as a great architect.
Among other works he rebuilt S. Benignus at Dijon, and
the new Abbey Church became famous as one of the most
magnificent in France, and was dedicated afresh in A.D.
1018. It contained many of the characteristic features of
the Lombardic school of the Comacine builders; but it

1 William of Volpiano was born circa A.D. 961, on the Island of
Santa Giulia in the Lago di Orta — part of the Lago Maggiore. He
was the son of Roberto, Lord of Volpiano. He also founded the
Monastery of S. Benigno de Fruttuaria in Piedmont. He became
one of the brotherhood of Cluny towards the end of the tenth
century.

Chartres.—" Notre Dame de la belle verriere." Early Thirteenth
Century. Showing the Virgin Mary crowned and enthroned,
with the Infant Jesus in her arms.

36 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

also borrowed some of the features known as Byzantine;
these probably he had become acquainted with from his
knowledge of the churches of Aquitaine and southern
France, into whose churches certain Byzantine features
had been introduced. A portion of S. Benignus, for
instance, was roofed with a dome. Beautiful and striking
as the Dijon Abbey was, its great architect did not
repeat it. It was too complicated a structure and too
costly.

In the early years of the eleventh century Richard II
(le Bon), surnamed " 1'ami des moines," was Duke of
Normandy. Normandy, under this eminent ruler, occupied
a prominent position of power and influence in Northern
and Central France. Duke Richard II invited to his Court
the famous Benedictine Abbot, the architect of the restored
Abbey of S. Benignus, and with some difficulty induced
William of Volpiano to make his home in the great Duchy,
as Abbot of Fecamp. A number of Norman abbeys were
built under the direction of Abbot William and his pupils,
and these churches were the beginning of what is known as
the Norman-Romanesque style.

We have a few of these churches with us still — some with
later additions — others simply ruins ; some, alas, dese-
crated by being applied to other uses. We would instance
Jumieges, Fecamp, S. Ouen (Rouen), Bernay, Mont S.
Michel, Cerisy le Foret, these originally being the work
of William of Volpiano and the pupils of his school. We
have cited only a few prominent examples, but in the first
half of the eleventh century, some forty new churches,
including abbatial churches, are recorded to have been
built by this school of architects. As the eleventh century
advanced Lanfranc (subsequently Archbishop of Canter-

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 37

bury) and his pupils further developed the Norman-
Romanesque of William of Volpiano in such churches as
S. Etienne and, somewhat later, the church of the Trinite
at Caen, erected under the auspices of Duke William of
Normandy the Conqueror of England, and his queen,
Matilda.

All these Romanesque round-arched churches contain
many characteristics of the Lombardic architecture, but
they have, too, certain distinctive features; they present
generally the aspect of a rugged severe majesty; the
proportions are noble, but most of them are poor in mould-
ings and carving ; l they are remarkable, not for the elegance
of their decorations or the grace of their forms, but the
severe lines, the noble proportions and the grandeur of the
whole effect especially distinguish the early Norman
churches and abbeys of the Benedictine architect of Cluny,
William of Volpiano, and his school.

The internal arrangement of these Norman churches is
interesting; the form of the perfect Latin cross (crux
immissa) was generally adopted, and then finally the type
was fixed which, amid all the varieties of style, prevailed
through the whole mediaeval period.

But the glory of Norman-Romanesque only really
appeared in England shortly after the conquest by Duke
William of Normandy in A.D. 1066.

The style in England became rapidly a distinctive and
even an independent development of the Lombardic round-

1 Of the capitals of the columns, the most usual were what is
commonly termed cushion capitals ; these were not invented by the
Norman architects, but under their hands put on a character of
their own.

38 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

arch architecture. The impetus which church building
received, when once more stillness prevailed in conquered
England, is marvellous ; there was nothing comparable to
it in any of the countries of northern Europe. It is com-
puted that in the days of the Conqueror after A.D. 1070,
some 45 new monastic or abbatial churches were erected
in England; in the reign of William Rufus, his son and
successor, 25 ; in the days of Stephen as many as
122; under Henry II, the first Plantagenet, 124; when
his son, Cceur de Lion, was King, 44; under King
John, 62.

And not only was England, in the days of the Conqueror
and his immediate successors and kinsmen, covered with
this enormous number of sacred buildings, but many of
these piles were of vast size, far greater than any of those
lately erected in Normandy and the adjacent countries,
by the Lombardic school of William of Volpiano.

The question has often been put, Whence came the
resources out of which these, in many cases, magnificent
churches of vast size, were built in our island? The
answer is — this mighty and strange impulse in church
building in England arose from a feeling among the Norman
conquerors that a terrible wrong had been inflicted by the
Conquest upon the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and to atone for
the awful sin, the Norman nobles and chiefs, their sons and
heirs, who had forcibly entered into possession of the con-
quered people's lands and property, in many cases erected
these churches, abbeys, and monastic houses as expiatory
offerings to Almighty God ; they were intended as an atone-
ment for the grievous sin and wrong perpetrated in the
Norman conquest of England.

This is no fanciful dream of an historian. The enormous

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 39

confiscations of King William have been computed as
amounting to an almost incredible number; 60,000
knights, it is said, received their fees, or rather their livings,
from the Conqueror. These numbers are no doubt ex-
aggerated, but it is certain that the race of Anglo-Danish
and English (Saxon) nobility, the Earls and the greater
Thegns disappeared. It is indisputable that there was an
untold amount of bitter oppression and cruel wrong in-
flicted by the Norman kings on the great masses of Anglo-
Saxon society, especially on its higher grades.

This was soon fully recognised. As early as A.D. 1072,
a general penance was decreed by the Norman prelates and
confirmed by the See of Rome, on all who had shared in
the deeds which followed the establishment of Duke
William on the English throne. The chroniclers Orderic,1
Wace and Matthew Paris, with more or less detail, dwell
on King William's penitence when dying, for the cruel
wrong he and his men-at-arms had done to conquered
England.

The expression above used of these splendid piles in
England is therefore strictly accurate. They were in good
truth in most part " Abbeys of Expiation."

To resume the story of Norman-Romanesque architec-
ture : The following is a list of some few of the principal
English cathedrals and abbatial churches erected in the
very early years after the Norman occupation —

1 Orderic's words which he puts into the mouth of the dying
conqueror are remarkable —

' ' Sic multa millia pulcherrimae gentis, proh dolor ! funestus tru-
cidavi."

Matthew Paris repeats, in other words, the same statement.

40 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Approximate date. By whom built.

A.D.
(Cathedral) Canterbury 1070-1077. Lanfranc, Prior of S. Etienne,

Caen.
(Abbey) . St. Albans 1077-1088. Paul, Monk of S. Etienne,

Caen.

(Cathedral) Rochester 1077-1108. Gundulph, pupil of Lanfranc.
,, Winchester 1079-1093. Walkelin, Monk of S.

Etienne, Caen.
„ Ely . . 1083-1106. Simeon, Monk of S. Ouen,

Rouen.
(Abbey) . Gloucester 1089-1100. Serlo, Monk of Mont S.

Michel, Normandy.
(Cathedral) Durham . 1093-1183. William of S. Carileph,

formerly priest of Bayeux.
„ Norwich . 1096 . Herbert of Losinga, Prior of

Fecamp.
(Abbey) . Tewkesbury 1102-1123. (Probably copied from

Gloucester.)
„ Southwell 1108. Guimond, Chaplain of Henry

I (Beauclerc).
„ Oxford

(Christ Ch.) mi.

„ Peterborough 1114- | John, Abbot of Seez.

1 1 33-5-75. /Martin, Abbot of Bee.

The inspirer and leader of these Norman monk-architects
of so many of the great English churches was Lanfranc of
Pavia, a monk of Bee in Normandy, then Prior of S.
Stephen, Caen, then Archbishop of Canterbury. He re-
built Canterbury Cathedral, 1070-1077, subsequently much
altered and in part rebuilt, but some of Lanfranc's work
still remains.

To recapitulate. We have very briefly and somewhat
roughly traced the evolution of Romanesque from its be-
ginnings]in the first'years of the fourth century, when we date
the " Renaissance " of the pre-classical style which did

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 41

away with the Entablature and the Greek features which
obscured the old pre-classical round-arch architecture.

The glory of the Ravenna school, which best represented
this " Renaissance " of the pre-classical style, came to an
end when the Lombards descended upon Italy — and
became masters of Northern and part of Central Italy.

But a remnant of the skill of the Ravenna and old Roman
School of architects was preserved by the so-called Comacine
Guild,1 who, under the protection of the Lombard kings,
again worked and built during the two hundred years, or
rather less, of the Lombard sway in Italy.^j

Under Charlemagne, A.D. 774, a temporary and partial
building impulse in Dalmatia, Germany, and in Italy must
be chronicled. Then darkness, during about two hundred
years, settled over Northern and Central Europe.

During these two disturbed centuries (ninth and tenth),
however, the Comacine Guild, which had been employed
by the Lombard sovereigns, continued to work and to
develop their " round- arch " style of Lombardic architec-
ture, at Milan and in other centres, of course more or less
fitfully, whenever a ruler arose who had breathing time to
devote himself to the fine arts, especially to architecture.

The Comacine Guild in this period addressed itself to the
study of vaulting construction, and to the art of counter-
balancing the thrust of the roof. The external buttress
began to be more and more extensively used. But the
progress of vaulting large spaces, such as the naves of
important churches, was but slow.

In this dark and disturbed period one very notable

feature, we might almost term it " invention," appeared in

the Comacine school of architecture. This was the addition

An account of this " Comacine " Guild will be found on p. 14-17.

42 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

of the Campanile or lofty Bell Tower, attached or closely
adjacent to the main building of the church.

The earliest dated appearance of this novel and notable
feature seems to have been at Milan about the middle of the
ninth century, in the Churches of San Satiro, and in the
so-called Monks' Tower of Sant Ambrogio in Milan.

The Bell Tower, or Campanile, of San Satiro at Milan
can fairly claim to have been the prototype of the Lombard
Campanile, the virtual ancestor of the countless towers and
steeples of the Middle Ages.

In the great Church revival of the third quarter of the
tenth century, the famous Monastery of Cluny sent out one
of its brotherhood, the Lombard Monk William of Volpiano,
trained in the Lombard traditions of the Comacine school,
who rebuilt, on a magnificent scale, the Abbey of S. Be-
nignus at Dijon. Richard II, Duke of Normandy, sent for
and employed this William of Volpiano, who, with his
pupils, during the first half of the eleventh century, built a
goodly number of churches in Normandy and developed the
Romanesque round-arch style of Lombardy into Norman-
Lombardic.

With the coming of Duke William the Conqueror, this
Norman school of Romanesque passed into England, where,
as we have seen, under peculiar circumstances of advantage,
the Norman-Romanesque became a national and distinct
style, a perfectly independent development; and a vast
number of churches and abbeys, some of them of great size,
arose in England during the last quarter of the eleventh
century and all through most of the years of the twelfth.

The Norman- Romanesque in England, aided by almost
inexhaustible resources, and in the hands of brilliant and
skilful architects, in these years rose to the perfection of

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 43

the Norman-Romanesque style, and when no further
progress seemed possible, the Romanesque passed gradually
into what is termed now — Gothic. Of this last evolution
we shall presently speak.

In England, during the years of the rule of William the
Conqueror and his sons and kinsmen, an almost innumerable
number of Norman-Romanesque churches, abbeys and
cathedrals were built, as we have stated, all in the round-
arch Lombard style, many of them quite small village and
town churches ; others of vast size and of great importance.
It was the old Lombard style, but it had grown impercep-
tibly into something new and independent. The more
important buildings were, indeed, on a great scale, such as
had not been dreamed of in the pioneer churches of Nor-
mandy, the work of William of Volpiano and his school,
the size of which, with perhaps the solitary exception of the
Abbey of Jumieges, was not excessive.

The Lombardic round-arch style in England still held its
own, but the variations were many : for example, the simple
austere grandeur of St. Albans was quite different from
the more elaborate work of Norwich and Lincoln. Win-
chester and Ely were purely Romanesque conceptions, but
they were utterly different from those we have just quoted.
The small and massive cylindrical piers of Malvern Abbey
were again another departure, and were more or less copied
in many other churches, some quite small, others greater,
like Hereford Cathedral, and were reproduced in Gloucester
and Tewkesbury Abbeys by cylindrical piers of enormous,
almost of an exaggerated, height. The effect in these
varieties of English or Norman Romanesque is remarkable
and different.

44 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Durham, perhaps, is the most striking example of English
Romanesque; the result of William of S. Carileph's design,
this has been well described as " a Church all glorious
within, Presbytery, Lantern and Nave unequalled in their
stately and solemn majesty, the mighty channelled piers
avoiding a mere massiveness which seems to grovel upon
the earth, and avoiding, too, the attempt at an exaggerated
soaring height, such as we see in Gloucester and in Tewkes-
bury. No Romanesque building in England, or beyond the
sea, can compare with the matchless pile of Durham." It
was never surpassed, and the perfected Romanesque was
not superseded by, but imperceptibly passed into " Gothic."

That all the splendid network of Romanesque churches
which rapidly covered England directly after the Norman
Conquest came from Norman inspiration, a glance at the
little list of notable English churches we have given above
will show.

For most of the original buildings, with scarcely an
exception, were designed and completed under the Norman
kings by Norman ecclesiastics — by men who came from
Caen, Bayeux, Rouen, Fecamp, Seez, Mont S. Michel, Bec-
Herlouin, etc., pupils of, and belonging to, the school
founded by the Lombard-trained Monk of Cluny — William
of Volpiano.

One important special feature of the great Norman-
Romanesque churches of England must be referred to. In
the planning of these buildings, at the east end generally, a
spacious ambulatory, or circumambient aisle, was arranged.

This peculiar feature was not derived from Normandy,
or from the Romanesque school of Lombardy — the direct
ancestor of the Norman-Romanesque builders ; but was
derived from the original plan of the great Pilgrim Church

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 45

of S. Martin of Tours, originally built in A.D. 472 by Bishop
Perpetuus, and which was destroyed by fire in the last year
of the tenth century, and then rebuilt generally on the old
lines with great magnificence early in the eleventh century.
This comparatively novel feature of the Lombardo-
Romanesque churches was designed for the accommodation
of pilgrims, who were thus enabled to pass round the
shrine of the saint, usually placed at the east end of the
church, without retracing their steps, thus obviating the
dangers attendant upon the excessive number of pilgrim
visitors to the shrine of the popular saint.

THE COMACINE SYMBOL OF THE INTERLACED LINE

POPULARLY KNOWN AS " SOLOMON'S KNOT "

" It would be difficult," writes Leader Scott, in that
curious and interesting work The Cathedral Builders* " to
find any church or sacred edifice, or even altar, of the
Comacine work under the Lombards, which is not signed,
as it were, by some curious interlaced knot formed of a
singular tortuous line " (intreccio).

Now was this " endless knot," which seems to have been
the favourite symbol of the Comacine builders, the heritage
of a far-back tradition dating from the days of the building
the Temple of Jerusalem by King Solomon ? This question
cannot be exhaustively or satisfactorily answered; but
the tradition is there, and is at least worthy of consideration.

The " knot " in question, popularly termed " Solomon's
knot," is an unbroken line with neither end nor beginning,
and which the Comacines, as the centuries passed, developed
into wonderful intrecci (interlaced work). It was evidently

1 Leader Scott, The Cathedral Builders, the story of a great
Masonic Guild, 1899.

Solomon's Knot," composed of one strand. S. Ambrogio, Milan.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 47

a sign of the inscrutable and infinite ways of -God, whose
nature is unity. The mysterious " Solomon's Knot " was
an emblem of the manifold ways of the power of the one
God, who has neither beginning nor end.

It was copied, was this famous Comacine symbol, by the
Byzantine artists, but with this striking difference. In
Byzantine work it was reproduced rather for effect — viz.
to get a plain surface well and picturesquely covered. The
Byzantine knots and scrolls are often beautifully finished
and clearly cut, but the line is not continuous. It is merely
a pretty feature repeated over and over again, but it has
no suggestion of meaning such as was evidently in the
mind of the Comacine builders.

We can trace this strange knot of the Comacine builders
back to the early Christian Collegia of Rome, as we see by
the " plutei " in S. Clementi and S. Agnes, and on the door
of a chapel in S. Prassede (Rome), and through these early
Christian Collegia of builders it was transmitted to their
successors, the Lombardic Comacine schools.

Leader Scott remarks that after the eleventh century
the interlaced work, or Solomon's Knot, generally ceased
to be the sign of Comacine work, and the ancient sign or
seal of the great Guild after this date was commonly re-
placed by the " Lion of the tribe of Judah." There was
scarcely a church after this date built by the Comacine
Guild of Masons, in which this " Lion of Judah " was not
prominent.

THE CAMPANILE OR BELL TOWER

IT is to the Comacine builders of Lombardy that the
Bell Towers, afterwards so great a church feature in the

48 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Middle Ages, are owing. Italy is rightly styled the birth-
place of the Campaniles forming part of the structure of
a church, or rising close beside it. So these Lombardic
Campanile Towers were the ancestors, so to speak, of the
innumerable Bell Towers and steeples of the West, erected
in the Middle Ages.

The majestic Bell Tower, or Campanile of San Satiro
at Milan, Rivoira considers to have been the oldest example
of such a structure. The date of its erection was A.D. 876.
The Campanile Towers of the ancient churches of Ravenna,
such as the Towers of Sant Apollinare Nuovo, of Sant
Apollinare in Classe, of San Giovanni Evangelista, must
be ascribed to a date much later than the original churches
themselves. The great Ravennese churches were built
in the fifth and sixth centuries; their Campanile Towers
were only erected in the ninth and tenth centuries.

The liturgical use of Bells can be traced as far back
as the fifth century. For the first three hundred years of
the Christian era the naturally secret and private exercise
of the religion of Jesus of course forbade any outward and
visible sign of Christian gatherings, such as the noise of
bells. In Italy and the West the size and tone of church
bells became gradually more and more marked. Hence
the Lombardic invention, it may fairly be termed, of the
important Bell Tower or Campanile as a distinct feature in
church building. The ninth century, as we have stated,
is probably the date of the first appearance of these
remarkable Campaniles.

In the near East, the use of church bells at all seems to
have been unknown before the ninth century; the first
time we hear of them in the East was late in that century,
when a present of bells was sent to the Emperor Basil in

49

50 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Constantinople by the Venetian Republic — and even then,
for some time, they were but little used, for as late as
A.D. 1200 the great Basilica of S. Sophia at Constantinople
was without them. In Syria they were not introduced
before the end of the eleventh century ; they were no doubt
brought into Eastern lands by the Crusaders after the fall
of Jerusalem.

In the few examples of early churches which can be
quoted as possessing one or two smaller towers, as was
probably the case in certain of the important early Raven-
nese Basilicas, notably in San Vitale, such small towers
were not intended for bells, but simply contained staircases.

Viollet le Due in his long and exhaustive article on
" Cloches " especially calls attention to the fact that in the
eleventh century Normandy was remarkable for the number
and dimensions of its church bells and bell towers ; but the
famous French writer and scholar does not seem aware of
the reason for this marked feature in their churches. They
were evidently part of the Lombardic tradition brought
into Normandy by the great church builder William of
Volpiano, the pupil of the Lombard Comacine architects,
the story of whose coming into Normandy at the invitation
of Duke Richard le Bon has been related in detail above.

ON BELLS

THE Bell, however, was not unknown to the Greeks and
Romans, but in those far-back times it seems to have been,
comparatively speaking, of small dimensions.

Durandus, Bishop of Mende (Mimatensis), Languedoc,
thirteenth century — the great liturgical writer of the Middle

S. VITATE, RAVENNA.

Circa A.D 526-547.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 51

Ages — in his Rationale Divinorum Officiomm, has several
pages devoted to the symbolism of bells, much of which is
most curious and interesting, though, as usual with this
learned writer, often not a little fanciful. For instance, he
tells us how he looks on bells as symbols of preachers, who,
after the manner of bells, are appointed to remind the
faithful of the " Faith." The clapper, he says, represents
the preacher's tongue, the wooden beam to which the bell
is hung typifies the Cross of our Lord.

Durandus considers that the bell was first invented at
Nola, a city of Campania, whence came the terms " Cam-
panae " for the larger bells, and " Nolae " for the smaller.
Various other writers have adopted this curious derivation,
amongst others S. Anselm. But this must be considered
fanciful.

During the first three centuries, naturally bells would be
unused in Christian churches ; as we have stated, quiet and
privacy of worship being in the ages of persecution, for all
assemblies for Christian worship, an indispensable condition,

They were, however, certainly used before the seventh
century; there is a tradition that Pope Sabinianus, A.D. 604,
directed that a bell shall be rung to give notice of the hours
of the " offices." Bells are alluded to in the Rule of S.
Benedict. Bede mentions them in England in the eighth
century.

But it was not until the period of the great revival of
religion in the eleventh century that the bell began to
assume the position of importance in the furniture of a
church which we find it occupying in the Middle Ages.
The size of the bell gradually increased, and the care
bestowed on its casting became greater as the twelfth
century advanced.

52 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

In the eleventh century we read, for instance, of a bell
then remarkable for its size, being presented to the Church
of S. Agnan at Orleans by King Robert of France. This
bell, probably the largest then known, weighed as much as
2,600 pounds.

As the Middle Ages advanced, the vogue of bells in
churches became more pronounced. There were few
parish churches but possessed one or two bells, or even more,
while the abbeys and cathedrals continued to erect towers
to hang bells of various sizes and powers.

In the thirteenth century we find notices of bells of very
considerable size and importance. It was not, however,
until the fifteenth century that the bell attained to the
vast dimensions we are accustomed to associate with the
more considerable of these popular and well-loved instru-
ments of music.

Gloucester Cathedral is singularly fortunate in the
possession of some very ancient bells of rare sweetness and
power; one of these, " Great Peter," being of considerable
size and importance.

This great mediaeval bell has now bidden the citizens to
prayer for several hundred years.

Various ornaments, usually of a sacred character, were
engraved on the mediaeval bells. More interesting, though,
are the inscriptions, which not unfrequently run round the
bell.

The size, however, of the famous Great Peter in Gloucester
Cathedral is not comparable with other of the more cele-
brated bells now in use in various parts of the world —
as will be seen from the following table setting forth the
enormous weight of many of these great bells.

The largest of these — the Tsar Kolokol of Moscow —

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 53

said to weigh 440,000 pounds, was never rung. It was
broken apparently in the casting — and is now used as a
chapel.

Moscow, however, still boasts what probably is the
greatest bell in the world ; its weight is 128 tons.

Of the other huge bells, we would enumerate —

Weight.

The bell in the Kioto monastery in Japan 76 tons.

The Kaiser bell in the Cathedral of Cologne 25 ,,

The chief bell in Notre Dame, Paris . . .17 ,,
Big Ben in the Parliament Houses, London .13 „
Amiens Cathedral — Its principal bell . .11 ,,

Great Tom, Oxford 7 ,,

DATES

A FEW important approximate dates are given to illus-
trate this sketch of Romanesque Architecture : The round-
arch style. At Ravenna — then among the Lombards —
the Rise of the Lombardic-Norman school of Romanesque
builders, and the evolution of Gothic architecture.

circa A.D.

„,, (Diocletian — Palace at Spalatro .... 300-305

, I Honorius — Emperor of the West . . . 393-423

, -< Galla Placidia — (half-sister of Honorius) . 408-451

.p I Theodoric — the Ostrogothic king of Italy . 493-526

\Justintan — Emperor of the East . . . 527-565

{Alboin — The Lombard Conqueror . . 568
Rotharis — The Lombard King. His code
referring to privileges of Comacine
builders 636-652

Charlemagne — Emperor. His conquest of
Lombardy. His Palace -chapel of
Aachen 796-804

54 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Pupil of (Wittiam Of Volpiano—Monk of Cluny.

Comacme ^ Invited by Duke Richard to Normandy

builders I

Lanfranc of Bee — First Norman archbishop
of Canterbury. His works in Normandy
and England . .

circa A.D.
961-1031

Rise and Progress in England
Norman-Lombardic style .

of

The " Coming " and
style .

Rise " of the Gothic

1086

(Eleventh
century
(last part),
twelfth
century.
'Roughly in
the second
part of the
twelfth
century.
Its rapid
and general
adoption in
the thir-
teenth
Lcentury.

PASSING OF ROMANESQUE

WE only propose to give a very short summary here;
all we shall do is to just sketch in a few memoranda which
will throw light on the reasons for the extraordinarily rapid
transition from Romanesque to Gothic. The early years
of the twelfth century witnessed what we have termed the
perfected Romanesque style ; the closing years of the same
twelfth century witnessed " the passing " of Romanesque
(the round-arch mode) and the almost universal substitution
of a new style, generally known as Gothic.

And first : — the term " Gothic," now everywhere adopted
as the expression for that school of architecture which

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 55

prevailed throughout the countries of Northern Europe
for some four centuries is a curious misnomer.

The term " Gothic," which was used certainly before
the seventeenth century, belongs to the Renaissance
period, and was in the first instance, strangely enough,
regarded as a term of opprobrium.

Those who invented it were quite clear as to what
they intended by the expression. They meant it was some-
thing barbarous, because non-classical; some believed
it was actually invented by the Goths who overthrew the
Roman Empire. Evelyn, for instance, writes, that " the
ancient Greek and Roman architecture answered all the
perfections required in a faultless and accomplished
building, and that the Goths and Vandals demolished
these, and introduced in their stead a certain fantastical
manner of building, congestions of heavy, dark, melancholy
monkish piles, without any just proportion, use or beauty." 1

But in time, men came to recognise the glory of what the
Renaissance devotees at first scoffed at ; but the old term
of opprobrium, " Gothic," remained; and now is univer-
sally used to express that splendid school of mediaeval
architecture which arose out of Romanesque and prevailed
for so long a period; the beauty and fitness of which,
perhaps somewhat tardily, all the Northern nations have

1 How hardly this popular misconception of " Gothic " died
away amongst us, is curiously exemplified in a statement which
appeared in the once widely-read New Monthly Magazine (Colburn),
1841, edited by Theodore Hook and then by Thomas Hood. We
read here, " The Heralds' College knocked up a shield containing
the armorial bearings of both the families. . . . The College tacked
the tail of the sea woman to the head of a griffin — as everything ugly
and unnatural is valued in Heraldry and Gothic architecture. This
incongruous monster told well."

56 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

come to recognise with an ungrudging, at times possibly
even with an exaggerated admiration.

After all, the leading writers on architecture have come to
the conclusion that, different though the Gothic schools are
to the Romanesque, they are but one style — Gothic is simply
perfected Romanesque. " L' architecture Gothique n'est que
la perfectionnement de celle qu'on appelle Romane," wrote
Enlart. Gothic, as Mr. Bond expresses it, " has not sup-
planted Romanesque, but is its supreme result, the last
stage in its development, its apogee, consummation and
accomplishment." So, too, De Lasterie defines " Gothic."

To sum up certain of the new principles of Gothic
architecture. The walls of the Gothic buildings became
much slighter — thinner; these walls no longer acted as
the thrusts which counteracted the weight of the stone
vaults which had become gradually more generally used
even in Romanesque buildings, but the weight or thrusts of
these stone vaults were stopped by buttresses. In other
words, Gothic architecture has been with some justice
defined as the art of erecting buttressed buildings.

The principal outward and visible sign of Gothic archi-
tecture, however, was the pointed arch. This novel
feature, and much of the ornamentation which was rapidly
introduced, no doubt came from the East, and must be
referred largely to the influence of the Crusades ; it was,
no doubt, borrowed through acquaintance with Saracenic
work in Egypt and Syria. These strange Crusading wars
had opened a new world of Art to the Western nations.

The pointed arch was no new feature in the East. As
early as A.D. 879 the great Mosque of Tulun had pointed
arcades. The principal gateway of the palace of Ctesiphon
(fifth century) is pointed. The pointed arch appears in the

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 57

great aqueduct near Constantinople of the time of Justinian.
In many districts in the East it had been for centuries as
much the normal form as the round-arch in Europe.

But other outward and visible signs characterised Gothic
architecture, which supplanted Romanesque.

Gothic windows became much larger ; there was a desire
to obtain more light in the churches than had been pos-
sible to obtain through the smaller Romanesque windows.
These were necessarily small and comparatively incon-
spicuous for two reasons : the one was, the Romanesque
builders trusted, as we have seen, to the vast thickness of
their walls to counteract the weight or thrust of the roofs
and the upper portions of the buildings, and dreaded any
unnecessary weakening of these massive walls by the
introduction of large windows.

The other main reason for the smallness of the Roman-
esque windows was the preciousness and cost of glass in the
tenth, the eleventh, and preceding centuries. Glass in the
second half of the twelfth century became a much cheaper
and less costly material. Then, too, the rapid progress in
the art of stained and painted glass in that same century
demanded for the display of this new and beautiful art,
larger and ever larger windows. The artists in glass
painting were no longer content with the small and cramped
Romanesque windows, and the general passion for painted
glass at once compelled the builders to devise without
delay larger spaces in the walls for the display and exercise
of the art.

The new large Gothic windows became at once a con-
spicuous and distinctive feature in the new school. The
general introduction of the buttress feature superseded
the necessity of depending on the thickness and massiveness

58 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

of the walls, thus permitting the larger openings that are
required for the larger Gothic windows.

The pointed arch brought in its train many novel decora-
tions as well as new constructive features. A new system
of mouldings and other ornaments was gradually worked
out in the last quarter of the twelfth and even in the earlier
years of the thirteenth century.

The massive piers of Romanesque architecture were
exchanged for clustered pillars, detached or banded, and
crowned with elaborate capitals.

But perhaps one of the most conspicuous changes in the
new style was, after all, the beautiful and elaborate tracery
which supported and adorned the new windows, ever
increasing in size and importance. The old Romanesque
windows, small and inconspicuous, were supplanted by
the great windows which soon distinguished the new Gothic
school, and these windows soon became what is termed
traceried windows. The necessary supports of these,
known as transoms and mullions, were worked into new
and beautiful forms, usually called " Decorated Tracery " ;
these were divided into geometrical, curvilinear, or flowing
tracery, but we avoid in this very short sketch of " Gothic "
such technical terms, and simply call attention to certain
of the new important features here, which mark the sub-
stitution of Gothic for Romanesque form — and term them
generally traceried windows.

Later, in England, the more elaborate earlier window
tracery was abandoned, and the simpler rectilinear tracery
was generally adopted, and a new style of Gothic, known
as the " Perpendicular," became the vogue in our Island.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 59

On reading over the above brief notes on Gothic Archi-
tecture, the writer, while conscious that the few details
above given were, as far as they went, strictly accurate —
felt that something more was wanting — if only a few words
— which might suggest that there was a deep inner meaning
in Gothic architecture. To express this, some reference
must be made to France and the great French church
builders ; for France — especially the " Domaine Royale "-
Tile de France — was the native country, the original
home of the Gothic school.

The early French Gothic masters in the craft looked
upon the building of churches as the most serious of arts,
and, as it has been well expressed, the churches they
planned were to be " the centre of the life of men, and com-
pared with them, man himself and all his worldly affairs
was counted as nothing; their purpose was to provide a
place of worship, when worship was held to be the highest
function of men, and the problem they set themselves
to solve was to make a place worthy of the God to be
worshipped."

The same lofty purpose without doubt inspired the
Gothic masters in England and other western countries,
though their designs somewhat differed from the great
French architects on whose methods and planning we are
just now dwelling, as presenting in some respects a marked
contrast with the methods and planning of the English
Gothic architects.

Now, a most prominent characteristic feature of the
grand Gothic cathedrals of France was their exceeding
height; to attain this no sacrifice was too great. It has
been accurately remarked that the matchless sublimity of
the interior of a noble French Cathedral was purchased at

60 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

the sacrifice of the exterior. And the architects, as time
went on, made their churches higher and ever higher.

Again, to quote another's words : 1 " The interior
sublimity of a French cathedral seems to be a triumphant
defiance of the attraction of gravity. We know that the
slender shafts that soar so straight and high, could not
support the vault ; but outside there is no concealment of
the manner in which it is upheld. Indeed the outside, for
all its beauty, is the wrong side of a French cathedral, and
is, as it were, a mass of permanent scaffolding to keep all
the stones of the interior in their places . . . and it is, and
it looks a complex mass of straining effort, as the interior
looks an effortless miracle." The innumerable flying but-
tresses carrying the thrust of the lofty vault to the huge
buttresses of the aisles, and so to the ground, have been
somewhat quaintly termed " walls standing in slices at
right angles to the building which they support but do not
enclose, seeming to push and thrust with all their power to
keep up the enormous height ; all this is very wonderful
and beautiful, but it leaves a sense of constant effort to
overcome difficulties.''

" What a difference is there in the peace of the long low
English cathedral with its insignificant buttresses and un-
ambitious lines . . . and, except for the upward pointing
of its central tower or spire, seemingly content to remain
on earth." 2

One of the chief beauties of the Choir of Gloucester is

1 They will be found, with many like words, in a most interesting
and suggestive series of papers on " French Cathedrals," which
appeared in the Times of August and September 1912.

2 Compare a remarkable lecture of Dr. West, before the " Archi-
tectural Association," reported in the Builder of Feb. 17, 1906.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 61

its exceptional " soaring " height, which in common with
Westminster Abbey and York, follows the example of the
great French cathedrals, though at a great distance, it
must be confessed, from the lofty height aimed at and
attained in such churches as the Cathedrals of Bourges and
Chartres, Amiens, Notre Dame of Paris and Beauvais.

Again, each of the sublime interiors of the Gothic
cathedrals of France were, as a rule, the design of one mind
— and that of a master-mind. They have been roughly
but not inaccurately described as " all of a piece," as the
result of one great effort. " These glorious interiors, each
possessing a wonderful unity or harmony, the result of a
great and original idea conceived and carried out through-
out by one individual genius. For most of the mighty
cathedrals in France show a closely reasoned design, and
the result presents a marvellous temple for worship.

" Very different indeed are the English Gothic cathedrals ;
we see here no continuous design, no single idea; we are
sensible of no one mighty impulse which in France, sweeping
ruthlessly away all that had gone before, planned to raise
a building complete and harmonious all through."

For the English builders, on the other hand, preserved
all that had gone before, however imperfect in their eyes,
and added here, and changed there, content to suffice for
the needs and ideas of the present, " with no sign of anxious
ambition for the future; incapable of perfection, because
began and ended incessantly, and always without con-
tinuous design, yet breathing out an indescribable charm
of sympathy almost human in its loving reverence for the
results of all past human effort." Gloucester Cathedral is
an admirable example of this loving conservative spirit;
with its massive Romanesque Nave, its " decorated " South

62 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Aisle, its superb aery Perpendicular Choir, partly veiling,
it is true, but not destroying the work of bygone Norman
builders; its graceful and exquisite Perpendicular Lady
Chapel — the last addition to this great pile — being perfectly
different to any other part of the cathedral.

The Gothic builders of France believed, that in raising
the interior of their cathedrals to that wonderful height
on which successive generations have gazed with awe and
admiration, they had found something of the secret of
inspiring the worshippers with the feeling that they were
indeed worshipping in a Holy House almost worthy of the
God they sought ; nor were they content with their earlier
noble efforts, but kept making their soaring churches, as
they built them, higher and ever higher.

The climax of this strain and restless striving was reached
in the middle of the thirteenth century, when Eudes de
Montreuil, the architect of S. Louis, designed the " splendid
folly," as men love to style it, of Beauvais; there a choir
was built higher than any in the world, and with the
slenderest support that had ever yet been seen.

It was finished in about thirty years, and twelve years
later the vault fell, making a ruin of the whole church,
circa A.D. 1284. This superb choir — for the nave was never
built — can still be seen and wondered at ; the ruin has been
skilfully and cleverly repaired, and new supports have been
devised, and though the original design is sadly marred
and altered, it tells us of that master-mind " who, greatly
daring, had planned the mighty structure complete and
harmonious, the absolute expression of an ideal of future
perfection, but forced to remain incomplete at the last,
for the architect longed for the impossible."

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE 63

True artist, in spite of his failure, for he aimed at ex-
pressing a something higher than himself, which should
draw up in sympathy with him all that was best and noblest
in those around him. " But Beauvais was a structural
impossibility, and the ideal of Beauvais was beyond his
reach, and the mighty remains of its solitary choir tells a
story of mistaken enterprise and wasted heroism." It is
truly a dream of heaven — but alas ! it is only a dream.

THE TRIFORIUM

THE TRIFORIUM

THE question is often asked by a stranger, as he wanders
through an English cathedral, wondering at the size and
striking appearance of the great Triforium or Gallery —
for instance, the immense Triforium in the Choir of Glou-
cester. What is the meaning and use of this vast gallery ?
Has it any story or tradition attached to it ?

The derivation of the word Triforium is uncertain. The
date of the word is unknown, it is not of great antiquity,
but probably belongs to the mediaeval period. That the
Triforium of the great Anglo-Norman piles was used in
pre-Reformation times in the ritual of the Church appar-
ently for processions and the like, is clear from the several
chapels which lead out of it, and from the easy access to
it by fairly broad staircases on either side.

But such an occasional use is not by any means sufficient
to account for the presence of so important an adjunct in
the planning of the church.

Now what is the true story of its existence in so many of
our great churches ?

And first, as to the derivation and meaning of the word
" Triforium." Some scholars think it can be traced to the
post-classical term " transforare," to pierce through. Here,
for instance, it is said to have pierced through the wall.
" Opus triforiatum " was applied to perforated work of
various kinds, such as in lock plates, etc.

It is, however, something more than a passage in the
thickness of the wall which the above derivation, if it be

67

68 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

adopted, would seem to suggest. But it has a history which
is very generally unknown.

The true secret of the Triforium is as follows : Far
back in the annals of Christianity we know that generally
in the churches built by Justinian in the sixth century in
Constantinople, Thessalonica, and in other populous centres,
a large and separate place was arranged for the women
worshippers. In important churches such as the Church
of the Holy Apostles and the Basilica of S. Sophia at
Constantinople, a great gallery was constructed, exclusively
for women ; this gallery was reached by stairs leading from
the narthex (the narthex was a long porch or ante-church,
extending all across the west front). Where there was no
narthex, or gallery, the women were still separated ; they
then sat on one side of the nave and the men on the other.
The women's gallery was usually known as the gynaeconitis
or matronium. It can be seen still, a very prominent
object in the desecrated Mosque of S. Sophia. This women's
gallery, so universal and so important a feature in the
greater churches of the East, became in time the Triforium,
so marked an arrangement in the Norman-Romanesque
churches of England.1

1 Rivoira will not allow that the women's galleries of the Eastern
Church, so notable a feature in the churches of Constantinople and
Salonica of Justinian, and other great Byzantine church builders,
was a pure invention of these architects. But he believes that these
galleries, so universal in the planning of Eastern Basilicas, were in
the first instance imitated from an older model, viz. from certain
of the Pagan civil galleried Basilicas, such as the Basilica Julia
in the Roman Forum, which even before its rebuilding by Augustus
in A.D. 12 possessed a gallery occupied on the occasion of important
trials.

He also dates a very few ancient examples of the existence of such
a gallery in churches of the Latin type, notably in the Churches of

THE TRIFORIUM 69

The women's gallery in its original purpose belonged
exclusively to the East, where the sexes were separated.

In the West, no such custom prevailed. In the West,
as a rule, there was no separation of the sexes. The custom
of the Latin Church adopted no such separation.

This fact is curiously confirmed in the planning of the
churches of the West ; no women's gallery, or Triforium (to
use the later coined word), save perhaps occasionally in
a very diminutive form, appears in the abbeys and churches
of Aquitaine, Provence, or Auvergne. The same may be
said generally of the churches in all the southern and
central provinces of Gaul (France).

Of these Western churches, where as a rule we rarely find
an important " Triforium," a notable exception may be
quoted in the celebrated Palace -chapel of Aix-la-Chapelle,
now the cathedral. But this was erected by Charlemagne
and largely designed after S. Vitale at Ravenna, a church
in great part modelled under Byzantine influences.

A still more notable exception is the vast Cathedral of
Tournai with its Romanesque Nave. It has the very large

S. Salvatore (Spoleto), fifth century; S. Lorenzo (Rome), sixth
century; SS. Quatuor Corona ti (Rome), seventh century; S. Agnese
(Rome), seventh century.

Still, granting the strict accuracy of Rivoira's interesting account
of the genesis of the Byzantine introduction of the women's galleries,
the general deductions given above will not be affected.

The adoption of the women's galleries in Byzantine churches
was, without doubt, referable to the Eastern use of the separation
of the sexes in divine worship ; still, in spite of the existence of certain
rare exceptions, it was never really a Latin practice.

The planning of great churches in the West, until the " coming " of
the Anglo-Norman school of architects, was emphatically without
this gallery. But the Byzantine great women's galleries were
indisputably the origin of the Triforium, which really only reappeared
in parts of the West in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

70 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

Triforium of the Norman-Romanesque churches ; and above
it, again, there is a little gallery.

The same absence of the Triforium feature is observable
in Italy, save where the building was erected under Byzan-
tine or Eastern influences — as S. Mark's, Venice, which
is to some extent a copy of S. Vitale at Ravenna. S.
Vitale largely followed the plan of SS. Sergius and Bacchus
built at Constantinople by Justinian before the erection of
S. Sophia. There is another striking tradition connected
with S. Mark's at Venice, which relates how this magnificent
church was a copy of the Emperor Justinian's vanished
Church of the Holy Apostles, which was designed to act as
the Mausoleum of the Byzantine Emperors.

This Const antinopolitan Basilica of " the Apostles "
certainly contained great galleries for women worshippers,
probably similar to those still existing in S. Sophia.

But among the important Western churches, strangely
enough, when we come to the Anglo-Norman Romanesque
abbeys and cathedrals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
the Triforium gallery, so exclusively an Eastern feature,
reappears; indeed a great Triforium is positively a
characteristic feature in Norman-Romanesque work in
England — the Cathedrals of Ely, Peterborough, Norwich,
Southwell, Winchester, Durham, and the Triforium of the
famous Choir of Gloucester, may be cited as conspicuous
examples.

It is hard to explain this striking reappearance of a
great Triforium gallery. It is absolutely, as far as we can
see, of no possible use, for, different to the East, as we have
observed, in the West the sexes are not separated in divine
worship; and a gallery for women, therefore, was never
required.

THE TRIFORIUM 71

What was in the mind here of the great Anglo-Norman
builders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries when they
arranged a Triforium gallery in their churches is really
unknown to us. Was is simply a graceful and striking
ornamental architectural device, to enhance the beauty of
the interior of these great churches ? This it undoubtedly
does. Was it any way connected with the visits of pilgrims,
so notable a practice in these centuries ? Was it in some
way intended to multiply the interest of their visit, by
providing them with a larger and far more extended
procession round and about the church? Something of
this kind possibly may account for the strange reappearance
of a great Triforium gallery in buildings, for the most part
resorted to by great crowds of pilgrims, when the original
purpose of a Triforium no longer existed.

That the growing passion for pilgrimage was considered
in the planning of these vast Anglo-Norman abbeys and
minsters is indisputable, for we find in the design of
important abbeys such as Gloucester a large ambulatory
or processional aisle, introduced as a prominent feature
in these great churches. Such an aisle was doubtless
designed for the convenience of pilgrims who frequently
thronged these piles. The Triforium gallery possibly,
then, was introduced in view of these crowds of pilgrims.
We cannot, however, at all pronounce for a certainty that
this was the main reason for its introduction in the North
and West — quite an unaccustomed feature, but which at
once strikes the eye in the Anglo-Norman minsters.

It is an unexplained difficulty, and must be left with
these interesting but scarcely satisfactory suggestions.

To sum up : When the great Triforium of an Anglo-
Norman cathedral is wondered at, and the question is

72 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

asked, When was this striking portion of the church first
designed, and what was the original purpose which it was
intended to serve ; and to what uses was it ever put ? the
inquirer must be told at once to carry his thoughts back
to the age of the Emperor Justinian, perhaps somewhat
earlier, when the great churches of Constantinople and
Salonica were planned and built, when in the planning of
these churches a great gallery was designed for the exclusive
use of the women worshippers. It was in such a gallery,
at S. Sophia, where the Empress Theodora sat and listened
when Chrysostom preached, and denounced with his fiery
eloquence the vices of the court and society of his age.

This was undoubtedly the origin of the Triforium in
Eastern churches which now excites the wonder of the
inquirer as to what purpose it was designed and used for.
Then the inquirer must be reminded that in the West and
North — in Gaul and Italy, indeed throughout the Latin
Church — where, different to the Eastern Church, no separa-
tion of the sexes was contemplated — no Triforium gallery
was, as a rule, planned. It is true that in the important
Anglo-Norman cathedrals and abbeys this ancient oriental
feature again made its appearance.

But for what special purpose that great school of Norman-
Romanesque builders again brought back this striking
feature when they planned their mighty piles, will probably
for ever remain an undiscovered secret.

On the unexplained secret of the reappearance of the
Triforium gallery in certain of the great mediaeval churches
of the West, notably in the Anglo-Norman Romanesque
piles of the eleventh and twelfth centuries — a very
remarkable suggestion appears in Mr. Edward Hutton's
eloquent work on Ravenna.

THE TRIFORIUM 73

He is describing the great Romanesque Basilica of S.
Apollinare Nuovo, the work of Theodoric, the Ostro-Gothic
king.

The Mosaics, probably in large part the work of the
artists of Justinian, are of an extraordinary and exceptional
beauty. They represent upon both sides, through the
whole length of the nave, as it were, two long processions
of saints — on the one side a procession of Martyrs — some
twenty-five figures (men), SS. Clement, Sixtus, Laurence,
Cyprian, etc. ; on the other side a procession of Virgin
Martyrs — Pelagia, Agatha, Eulalia, Cecilia, etc., some
twenty-one figures. Mr. Edward Hutton writes here
" that there is nothing in Christendom to compare with
these Mosaics ; they are unique, and, as I like to think, in
their wonderful significance are the key to a mystery which
has for long remained unsolved.

" For these long processions of saints, representing that
great crowd of witnesses, of which S. Paul speaks, stand
there above the arcade and under the clerestory where
in a Gothic church the triforium is set. But the triforium
is the one inexplicable and seemingly useless feature of a
Gothic building. It seems to us, in our ignorance of the
mind of the Middle Age, of what it took for granted, to be
there simply for the sake of beauty, to have no use at all.

" But what if this church in Ravenna, the work indeed
of a very different school and time, but springing out of
the same spiritual tradition, should hold the key ?

" What if the triforium of a Gothic church should have
been built as it were for a great crowd of witnesses — the
invisible witnesses of the Everlasting Sacrifice, the Sacrifice
of Calvary, the Sacrifice of the Mass ?

" It is not only in the presence of the living, devout or
half indifferent, that that great Sacrifice is offered through

74 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

the world, yesterday, to-day and for ever, but be sure in
the midst of the chivalry of heaven, a multitude that no
man can number, none the less real because invisible,
among whom one day we too are to be numbered — not for
the living only, but for the whole Church men offer that
Sacrifice, pro redemptione animarum suarum, pro spe salutis
el incolumitatis SUCB — Memento eiiam Domine, famulorum
famularumque tuarum qui nos pracesserunt cum signo fidei
et dormiunt in somno pads. . . . Here in S. Apollinare, at
any rate, for ever they await the renewal of that moment.
" Those marvellous figures that appear in ghostly pro-
cession upon the walls of S. Apollinare in Ravenna are
really indescribable; they must be seen, if the lovely
significance of their beauty is to be understood. What
can one say of them ? "

Mr. Hutton alludes to the Triforium of a Gothic church,
but this unexplained and strange feature of the Triforium
in the West reappeared in the great early Anglo-Norman
Romanesque piles — in the Choir of Gloucester and in many
others.

The Gothic churches, where such a Triforium exists, have
simply copied their Anglo-Norman predecessors.

The author of this work by no means must be thought
to endorse the above singular explanation of the " secret"
of the Triforium which so strangely reappeared in certain
of the churches of the West. But he judged it fitting to
quote here the striking and remarkable words of the author
of Ravenna. He cannot, however, recall any quotation from
a mediaeval writer in support of the theory in question.
It is to him a perfectly novel thought — a thought at once
strange and haunting — and here as an interesting and
novel suggestion he must leave it.

S. APOLLINARE Nuovo, RAVENNA.

Circa A.D. 519,

THE LADY CHAPEL

THE LADY CHAPEL

THE date of the first appearance in the Eastern Church
of the mediaeval estimate of the Virgin Mother is un-
certain. In the Latin or Western Church the develop-
ment of Mariolatry, as it has been termed, was somewhat
slower than in Eastern Christianity, but, as we shall see,
it became eventually even more accentuated in the West
than in the East.

All signs of this exalted estimate of the Virgin Mary
are notoriously absent in the New Testament books, and
when a new feeling as to the position of the blessed Virgin
appeared in the oldest liturgies of the Church, it was of a
nature widely different from the mediaeval estimate of
Mary. To take a well-known example. In the very
ancient liturgy of S. John Chrysostom, still in use in the
Eastern Church, the Virgin Mary is prayed for. In this
venerable liturgy we read : " We offer unto Thee (God
the Father) this reasonable service for the faithful dead,
our forefathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles . . . martyrs
and confessors, but especially for our most holy, immaculate
and blessed Lady the Mother of God and ever Virgin,
Mary."

This most ancient liturgy, in the form we now find it,
has without doubt been altered and added to since the
days of Chrysostom in the latter years of the fourth century,
but certainly not in the direction of lowering the position
of the Virgin, a position which in the teaching of the
Eastern Church grew more and more definitely exalted as

77

78 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

the ages passed, till such a place of eminence was ascribed
to her, that no loftier one, outside the blessed Trinity, is
conceivable. Similar testimony is given in the ancient
liturgies of SS. Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, and Cyril.

Very exalted indeed was the estimation in which the
Virgin Mary was held in the Eastern Church as early as
in the first half of the sixth century, when in the great
building age of the Emperor Justinian many noble churches
arose, dedicated to the " Mother of God." In the seventh
century the Emperor Heraclius blazoned the Virgin Mary
on his banner of war. To the tutelar protection of the
Virgin, Constantinople looked against the Saracens.

In the Western or Latin Church, as we have said, the
development of Mariolatry was somewhat slower, still as
early as the time of Gregory the Great, early in the
seventh century, the honour paid to the Virgin Mother in
Christian worship became more and more accentuated.

The state and influence of the blessed dead, at a com-
paratively early period, occupied the minds of Christian
teachers. Such glorified human beings after a time began
to be looked upon as powerful intercessors at the Throne
of Grace for those still on earth. As S. Bernard of Clair-
vaux expresses it, " They who have come out of great
tribulation, shall they not recognise those who still continue
in it?"

Gradually the numbers of these glorified Saints became
multiplied and even well-nigh deified. These blessed ones
having been human, were conceived as still endowed with
human sympathies, and were looked upon as more accessible
to human prayer and supplication than the three co-eternal
Persons of the Trinity in their unapproachable solitude
and awful majesty. In a way, these glorified Saints

THE LADY CHAPEL 79

intercepted the worship of the ever-blessed Trinity, and
to them, rather than through them, in time prayer was
addressed.

High above this host of Saints was seated the Queen of
Heaven, for to this strange position, dating certainly from
the days of Gregory the Great in the West, the Virgin was
gradually raised.

Still it was not until the eve of the wonderful awakening
of Church life in the West, toward the close of the eleventh
century, that the cult of the Virgin attained the strange
prominence which it maintained all through the later
Middle Ages. Very lofty indeed was the place ascribed
to the Virgin Mother, but something yet was needed,
however, in the form of a great popular movement to
introduce into the every-day life of the people this strange
cult which so powerfully influenced the Christianity of
the Middle Ages.

This great impulse was given by the Crusades, those
marvellous religious wars which took so mighty a hold of
the popular imagination in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. It came about in this fashion.

Chivalry, at least the religious aspect which chivalry
assumed in all its acts, language and ceremonies, may be
said to have been the result of the Crusades, for before the
Crusades, chivalry, if it existed at all, appears to have had
no special reference to religion. But war was now sanctified
by religion, and men were taught that the noblest end to
which they could dedicate their lives was the rescue of
the Redeemer's sepulchre at Jerusalem from the hands
of the infidel conquerors, the disciples of the false prophet
Mahommed.

The inescapable duty of a Christian knight was self-

8o THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

devotion for others, especially for the defenceless and
weak ; thus courtesy to and protection of the weaker sex
became the imperative duty, as well as the privilege of
knighthood. " The love of God and the ladies was enjoined
as the paramount duties in the teaching of chivalry.
Thus was formed that strange amalgam of religious and
military feeling which was formed around women in the
age of chivalry which was, in fact, the age of the Crusades,
and which no succeeding change of habit or belief has
wholly destroyed." l

" There was one Lady of whom, high above and
beyond all, every knight was the vowed servant, the
Virgin Mother of that blessed Saviour," the rescue of
whose sacred sepulchre was the primary object of the
Crusades.

Thus the adoration of the Virgin, long inculcated by
theologians, became popularised among the Crusaders
of varied ranks and orders, and through them, among
all Western peoples who, during the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, supplied the vast armies of the Cross;
and this popular devotion to the Virgin continued to
grow through the Middle Ages, till it influenced and
coloured Christian worship in all the countries of Western
Christendom.

" And so it came to pass that religious chivalry, that
strange outcome of the Crusades, seemed to array the
Christian world as the Church militant of the Virgin, and
it was to her that the knight looked especially for success
in battle. From the soldier to the people was but a little
step, and very soon this sentiment of adoration became

1 Dean Milman of S. Paul's, Latin Christianity. Book VII,
chap, vi; Book XIV, chap. ii.

THE LADY CHAPEL 81

universal. The Redeemer passed gradually into a more
remote and awful Godhead; the Virgin Mary seemed a
nearer, a more familiar and sympathetic object of
adoration."

Soon every cathedral and abbey, every important church
had its " Mary " Chapel. Hymns were written and every-
where sang in her honour. Liturgies in which her name
was the principal feature were introduced. Manuals of
private and of public devotion, in which the name of Mary
the Mother of the Lord was conspicuous above every name,
were copied and recopied in every monastic Scriptorium or
Cloister. A new and startling theological adoration was
thus generally added to all popular Christian teaching.
" The incommunicable attributes of the Godhead were
even assigned to Mary. She was positively represented
as sitting between the Cherubim and Seraphim, as com-
manding by her maternal influence, if not by her authority,
her Eternal Son. The idea of the ' Queen of Heaven '
became a familiar one in popular theology." This new
devotion was largely called into being, as we have shown,
by the influence of the Crusades, and showed the mighty
hold it had obtained over the popular mind in the erection
and lavish adornment of those often splendid and costly
shrines known as the Lady Chapels, of which the splendid
annexe at the east end of Gloucester Cathedral is a con-
spicuous and well-known example. This Lady Chapel
may even be cited as the crowning instance of this outward
and visible sign of the strange novel cult, as we might
venture to term it. The Lady Chapel of Gloucester was
one of the last great examples of these new additions to
the great churches of the mediaeval period, for the years
which witnessed its completion were the years which
G

82 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

historians consider closed the long and many-coloured
story of the Middle Ages.

We resume our sketch of the progress of the Cult of the
Virgin.

In the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
Mariolatry received another vast impulse through the
teaching of the great and popular mendicant orders of
S. Francis and S. Dominic. One of the most interesting
chapters in mediaeval Church history is filled with the
story of the " coming " of the new orders of mendicant
Friars, among whom the Franciscan and Dominican were
by far the most numerous and influential. Widespread
was the influence exercised by these Friars over the masses
of the people.

And in the teaching of both these great communities
the Virgin Mary occupied a peculiar and lofty position.
Exalted as was the position claimed by the Franciscans
for Mary; if possible the Dominicans professed a yet
greater devotion to the blessed Virgin, whom the disciples
of Dominic even were pleased to regard as the special
protectress of their famous Order. According to a well-
loved tradition of their schools, it was Mary herself who
revealed to S. Dominic that form of prayer known as the
" Rosary " which from the years 1212-1215 became alike
among rich and poor the popular badge of Catholic devotion
— " The ' Rosary/ that curious and novel form of prayer,
with the refrain ' Ave Maria ' (Hail, Mary) repeated again
and again. A prayer which has maintained in Roman
Catholic countries its wonderful popularity down to our
own days and times, and which perhaps has done more
to perpetuate the popular cult of her whom Roman Catholic
teachers, with an insistence pathetic as it is historically

THE LADY CHAPEL 83

baseless, love to term the ' Queen of Heaven/ than all the
rhapsodies of mystics, or learned treatises of doctors or
authoritative pronouncements of the See of Rome."

But this novel form of Christian dogma, with its ever-
multiplying developments, it must be confessed, excited
even in the hearts of some of the most ardent devotees of
the New Cult, now and again qualms and hesitations —
for instance, Bernard of Clairvaux in the middle of the
twelfth century — the glory of the Cistercian Order, one of
the most influential and loved monks that ever lived,
whilst professing the deepest tenderness towards, and affec-
tion and admiration for the Mother of his Lord, wrote in a
spirit of indignant remonstrance against the doctrine of
the " Immaculate conception of the Virgin " which in the
twelfth century had already been suggested for acceptation.
" Are we more instructed," wrote S. Bernard, " or more
devout than the fathers? ... It is perilous presumption
in us, when their prudence in such things is exceeded.
The Royal Virgin needs no fictitious honours." Aquinas,
Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, denied
this doctrine, or at least hesitated before adopting it.1

The testimony of Art to this strange development in
Christian doctrine is striking and instructive. Art, it
must be remembered, is ever the expression of popular

1 This startling doctrine, it will be remembered, was defined and
clothed with authority by a Papal Bull in A.D. 1854 by Pope
Pius IX. The words of Dr. Pusey (Liddon's Life of Pusey, II,
xxxiv) , are very remarkable, and coming from such a source, specially
interesting : " There are very serious things in the Roman Com-
munion which ought to keep us where we are. I would instance
chiefly the system as to the blessed Virgin as the Mediatrix and
dispenser of all present blessings to mankind ; I think nothing short
of a fresh revelation would justify this."

84 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

opinion. Outside the Catacomb pictures which here are
indeed few in number and very simple, and give no support
whatever to the lofty mediaeval conceptions of Mary ; 1
the earliest representations of the Virgin are found in
ancient Christian sarcophaguses ; there the Virgin, when she
is represented at all, occupies a place less prominent than
that given to the Apostles. A conspicuous position is
only accorded to her in the Western Church, towards the
eighth and ninth centuries, when the Crucifixion began to
be a popular subject in the design of ornamentation. The
Virgin is depicted in these scenes at the foot of the Cross
on the right side, S. John occupying a similar place on the
left.

But in the twelfth century, a marked change in Art
appears in the presentment of the Virgin. Dating from
about the year 1140, Mary becomes a prominent figure in
sculpture and in painted glass ; she now appears commonly
seated on a throne and wearing a crown, but ever holding
on her knees the infant Saviour. In her right hand she
often holds a sceptre. An aureole of glory surrounds her
head and the head of the Child Christ. No doubt this
new fashion of representing Mary was borrowed from the
Greek and Byzantine pictures and sculptures, of which
a large number were brought from the East by returning
Crusaders. Still in these early representations, the Child

1 The Virgin and Child are in the Catacombs delineated in a
certain number of instances, but generally with the accompanying
figures of the Magi or Wise Men with their offerings ; but in these
instances the Holy Child is the central figure of the group. But
even these pictures are after all but few in number. The truth is
that in the first three centuries the hearts and minds of the Christians
were so aflame with love for the Lord Jesus, that there was little
place for any delineation of the Apostles or even for the blessed
Virgin.

THE LADY CHAPEL 85

Christ remains the principal figure, and He is depicted on
His mother's knees in the attitude of blessing with an
outstretched little hand.

But a change even here is soon observable. In the
thirteenth century, save in a scene picturing the adoration
of the Magi, the Virgin is rarely depicted in a sitting
posture with the Child Christ in her arms. She now
generally appears standing, crowned and triumphant ; if
she holds the Child in her arms, it is simply to mark the
source and origin of the power and authority which she is
evidently portrayed as exercising. But emphatically in these
thirteenth century and later statues and glass pictures, she
is the central figure, and to her, not to the Divine Child,
is adoration unmistakably offered and prayer addressed.
Very different indeed from the humble and grief-stricken
Mary of the seventh and eighth centuries kneeling with
S. John at the foot of the Cross, is the crowned and sceptred
Queen of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; her
head encircled with an aureole of glory, accepting the
devout homage of Christian worshippers, and listening
to their supplications addressed to her.

It is thus during the thirteenth and two following
centuries, she appears in unnumbered instances, alike in
jewelled window as on the carved porch of the house of
God, unmistakably, as the popular hymns and liturgies
were everywhere teaching, " the Queen of Heaven/'

An Appendix on two remarkable Architectural Features
in the Lady Chapel of Gloucester.

In the Lady Chapel of Gloucester there are two remark-
able features which have, I believe, generally escaped

86 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

attention. The stranger standing on the grass lawn which
forms the outside pavement of the cathedral, perhaps
notices that the east end of the great Lady Chapel is
square — rectangular; and looking down the pile perceives
two small transepts; then as the eye travels down the
great building beyond the Lady Chapel, it is again arrested
by two more transepts of far greater size.

There is a special interest in these peculiar features,
especially in the square east end; they have a story of
their own. The great majority of the great English
churches, it is well known, are not apsidal, or circular at
the east end, but square, and it would seem that some
very ancient tradition must be at the root of that striking
English feature. Now we have good reason to believe
that the majority of ancient British churches were so
constructed. In Ireland a few very ancient little churches
or oratories are still with us ; some of these without doubt
date from the fifth century, that is, from the days when
Ireland was first Christianised from Britain ; they therefore
undoubtedly represent the type of church architecture
common in Britain before the coming and subsequent
havoc of the North-folk invaders, in the fifth and sixth
centuries — the Saxon, the Engle and the Jute.

Without exception these very early little Irish churches,
or oratories, are square-ended, not apsidal or semi-circular
ended. They evidently represent an independent Christian
tradition, something quite different to the Basilican,
especially Italian tradition of an apsidal or semi-circular
end. The conclusion then forced upon us is that Christi-
anity came originally to this Island from another centre
than Rome or Italy.

This square-ended form for churches, impressed upon

THE LADY CHAPEL 87

Britain by unknown missionaries, is of immemorial an-
tiquity. The teaching has never been forgotten, but has,
through all the changing fortunes of the Church in our
Island, remained the English favourite form. We will
briefly trace its remarkable story.

The first period of the existence of the Church in Britain
may be dated roughly from some time in the second
century, and may be said to have lasted until the coming
of the North-folk in the middle of the fifth century. (The
exact date of the first preaching of Christianity in Britain
is unknown.) Ireland received the faith from Britain
somewhere about A.D. 397, and judging from the invariable
square east end form of the early Irish churches, and
oratories, we may assume that the British churches (these
have all x disappeared owing to the sweeping havoc of the
Northmen invaders), like their daughter Irish churches,
must have been, as a rule, square-ended.

There were, however, it is certain, some rare exceptions
to this rule, for when Christianity after A.D. 313 became
the recognised religion of the Empire, in some centres in
Britain the churches of the Roman colonists and officials
were built on the Basilican mode of the great capital of
the Roman world, with apsidal or semi-circular sanctuaries.
An example of such an exception has been lately dis-
covered in the purely Roman city of Silchester (near
Reading), built in the fourth century especially for Roman
provincials and officials. The little Silchester church, as
might have been expected, has an apsidal or semi-circular
end.

The second period of the Church in Britain may be

1 Two remarkable exceptions in Cornwall are quoted later, see
pp. 92-95.

88 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

dated from the arrival of Augustine from Italy, A.D. 597,
and may be roughly reckoned as lasting until the coming
of the Normans in A.D. 1066. Augustine and his com-
panion missionaries, as may have been expected, intro-
duced the Italian or Basilican type, but gradually we find
the square-end, as the Saxon period wore on, again forcing
its way into general use, the old traditional type of church
building somehow being deeply rooted in the hearts of the
dwellers in our Island.

The Norman conquest once more, after A.D. 1066, gave
an artificial and temporary victory to the Italian (Basilican)
or apsidal-ended churches. Westminster Abbey, which
was a purely Norman church, built under Edward the
Confessor's auspices — Gloucester, and other well-known
famous abbeys, were constructed with apsidal and semi-
circular east ends. But strangely enough, in spite of the
all-powerful Norman influence, nothing could eradicate
the old taste for the primitive British type of church, and
when once the conquerors and the conquered began to be
welded into one people, the square end once more gradually
superseded its Roman apsidal rival. By the thirteenth
century the victory of the old square-ended type was
pretty well complete, and it became par excellence the
special English form.

The well-known example of the " restored " Westminster
Abbey, which with its apse and striking chevet of chapels
at the east end, and which might justly be cited as an
important contrary instance, is really exceptional, that
glorious abbey owing its Roman and Continental form
to the special circumstances under which it was restored
and rebuilt. The foreign influences to which Henry III,
who mainly carried out the new Westminster work was

THE LADY CHAPEL 89

subjected, are purely responsible here. Durham, on the
other hand, where English influences were at work, actually
saw its Norman apse destroyed, A.D. 1236-1241, and the
beautiful creation known as the Nine Altars commenced.
This Chapel of the Nine Altars at the east end of Durham
may be cited as the noblest instance existing of a square-
ended termination of a great English abbey. A somewhat
similar transformation was also effected in the famous
Priory Church of Lindisfarne, with its undying memories,
hard by Durham.

Among the great churches of England, either through
original construction, or through partial transformation
or subsequent additions, the following will be found to
possess the square, or rectangular east end, that peculiar
form derived from the ancient British type, adopted in
the Island before the coming of the North-folk : York,
Exeter, Worcester, Salisbury, Christ Church (Oxford),
Winchester, Hereford, Rochester, Lincoln, Ely, Chichester,
Chester, Carlisle, Bangor ; and Old Sarum may be added
to the list.

But, on the other hand, very few traces of this peculiarly
English (British) form, with its striking and interesting
tradition handed down from an immemorial antiquity,
and bearing its voiceless testimony to some original centre
of Christianity, other than Rome or Italy, are found in
the great continental churches.

In the vast and populous province of the old Empire
known as Gaul, which includes modern France, the Low
Countries, etc., among its numerous splendid cathedrals
and abbatial churches, only one can be cited with a square-
ended east end — the cathedral of Laon. To Laon may
be added the important church of Dol. Square-ended

go THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

churches, comparatively small and unimportant, are, how-
ever, not unfrequent in the little country towns of the
north of France and in the Burgundian country. Are not
these latter exceptions probably referable to an undying
memory of the influence of Columba, the great Irish
(Celtic) missionary, and his school?

The magnificent and stately mediaeval cathedrals on
the Continent of Europe, different from their sister churches
in England, are, as a rule, characterised by the feature of
a great apse, semi-circular or polygonal, with a chevet of
chapels.

In England, Gloucester Cathedral is one of the notable
exceptions, in this striking particular, to the general
English type of square-ended churches, with its eastern
apse almost semi-circular, and its chevet of chapels, of
which there are three distinct storeys, one over the other,
containing in all nine chapels.

But in the year 1457, when Abbot Hanley was ruling in
the important Benedictine House of Gloucester, it was
determined that a new and superb Lady Chapel should be
built as an " annexe " to the stately abbey of Serlo and
Aldred. But in the beautiful design for this new and
exquisite eastern annexe, the Benedictine architect de-
termined to give to his historic abbey that peculiar English
feature which it had hitherto lacked, viz. a square or
rectangular termination.

Hence it came about, that in its last architectural trans-
formation, Gloucester has become square-ended, thus
preserving in the mighty abbey of the Severn Lands, the im-
memorial tradition of the square-end, handed down from the
third century, and brought originally to this Island by early
Christian teachers from the East, not from Italy and Rome.

THE LADY CHAPEL 91

Nor was the master-architect who designed the present
Lady Chapel of Gloucester content with only expressing
this peculiar and most ancient British type of church
architecture upon his loved abbey. Hitherto S. Peter's
Abbey had possessed but one pair of transepts. The
secondary or eastern transepts were another feature
peculiarly English. They are found in the great piles of
Canterbury, Lincoln, Salisbury, Beverley and York, but
not in the great Houses of Prayer in France (Gaul). One
solitary Gallic instance can be cited in the vast abbey of
Cluny in Burgundy, now, alas, razed to the ground ; Cluny,
strangely enough, possessed the English feature of the
double transepts.

The architect of the new chapel of " our Lady " at
Gloucester determined that his abbey should henceforth
boast too of this peculiar English feature, and so wove
into his beautiful design those two singular and striking
projections, usually described simply as Chauntry Chapels,
surmounted by minstrel galleries, but which are really
two little transepts.

A glance at the ground-plan of Gloucester Cathedral,
as it now stands, will show the accuracy of this apparently
novel, and perhaps to some students, startling deduction.
So Gloucester, in its last and final transformation in the
fifteenth century, became possessed of both the special
English architectural features — the square-end, and the
double eastern transepts.

The Churches or Oratories of " S. Gwithian" and
" Perranzabuloe " on the north coast of Cornwall.

Since writing the above little historical sketch of the
utter destruction of the ancient churches of Britain in

92 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

the sixth century by the North-folk — the Jute, the Saxon
and the Engle — worshippers of Odin and Thor — Mr. Lach
Szyrma, the well-known Cornish scholar, has called my
attention to the curious but little-known remains of two.
most ancient churches, or oratories, on the north coast of
Cornwall, S. Gwithian and Perranzabuloe ; both dating
from circa A.D. 450. One of them, " S. Gwithian," perhaps
slightly earlier.

In each of these, the Sanctuary has a square ending.
These little churches without doubt were the work of the
old British community — and apparently are the only
survivors of the British churches swept away by the
North-folk invaders.

Of these two churches or oratories, S. Gwithian was
erected in a very exposed situation, and the sand from
the sea-shore is blown upon the site in clouds ; as much as
a depth of five feet of sand will come up in one night. It
was covered up in this way at a very remote date.

This " lost " church was dug out of the sand, circa
A.D. 1830-1835. Since then it has several times been
partially uncovered, but it has gradually been completely
rilled up again with sand. It is now completely buried in
the sand, and only a few stones of the west wall are visible
above ground.

The length of the Church of S. Gwithian is circa fifty
feet, and the breadth circa twenty feet. The walls are
dry-built.

The building is rectangular (square-ended), with a door
on the south side away from the sea.

The church or oratory of Perranzabuloe (S. Peran in
Sabulo; S. Peran in the Sand) was only discovered circa

ij

II

M fl

I!

a I

THE LADY CHAPEL 93

A.D. 1880. Its previous existence was suspected owing to
a very faint local tradition, when it suddenly partly re-
appeared in consequence of a storm uncovering a small
portion of it, the sand mound which completely covered
it being partly swept away.

It had been buried in the sand at an unknown, but very
early date, yet the tradition of its existence lingered on
through the centuries. This church or oratory of Perran-
zabuloe is smaller than the church of S. Gwithian above
described. It is only about twenty-five feet long by
twelve and a half feet broad. The chancel at the east
is square-ended. The little building forms a perfect double
square.

It is now accessible — and quite recent care has entirely
covered the ancient edifice with an enclosing building,
leaving a passage all round, between the old walls and
the new wall which encircles it. The present Vicar says :
"It is a rather ugly arrangement, but it is the best that
could be done with the funds collected for the conservation
of the precious relic. At any rate/' its guardian says, " the
old church is now protected from wind and weather."

This most ancient church is built of unhewn stones
without mortar. Attached to the east wall is a stone
altar five feet three inches long by two feet three inches
wide. About eight inches above the altar is a niche some
twelve inches high by eight inches wide, in which most
probably was once placed the shrine of S. Peran.

The church or oratory of Perranzabuloe is in the midst
of a stretch of sand-dunes reaching from Perranporth to
Newquay, on the north coast of Cornwall, eight miles from
Newquay, one and a half miles from Perranporth.

The strange reappearance of these two most ancient

94 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

British churches, dating certainly from before the sixth
century, apparently the solitary survivors of the destroyed
churches of the old inhabitants of Britain before the coming
of the North-folk, bear out the theory above advanced,
that the British churches or oratories erected before the
disastrous conquest of the North-folk, like the Irish churches
or oratories which faithfully reproduced their peculiar
architectural features, were all square-ended churches.

THE CRYPT

THE CRYPT

Of the principal terms used in this study on the Crypt.

Crypt is derived from the Greek Kpmrreu/ to hide, to
conceal.

Confessio — The Confession. The burial chamber or
vault where lay the remains of one who had " confessed "
and borne witness to his Faith by his blood. The " Con-
fessio " is sometimes termed " Martyrium." Sometimes
the word is used for the chamber immediately contiguous
to the actual vault of the tomb beneath it, as is the case
in the Crypt of S. Peter at Rome.

Memoria. — The chamber or chapel erected over the
" Confessio " or burial place of the Martyrs — originally
used for the gathering place of the Faithful, pilgrims or
others who came to visit and pray over the grave of the
Saint buried beneath. The first " Memoria " that we are
acquainted with was erected over the vault which held
the body of St. Peter. This " Memoria " was built by
Anacletus,1 the successor of Linus ; Anacletus is generally
reckoned as third Bishop of Rome. It served as a church
for the faithful, in which the Eucharist could be celebrated,
and a small congregation gathered together. This Memoria
of Anacletus was erected shortly after A.D. 70. It is
mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis under the record

1 A detailed description of the " Memoria " of Anacletus and the
tomb or crypt of S. Peter, the " mother " of all the crypts since
constructed, will be found in the following chapter, pp. 106-124.
H 97

98 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

of Pope Anacletus in the following words : " Memoriam
beati Petri construit et composuit."

The " Memoria " of Anacletus was no doubt referred to by
the Presbyter Caius in A.D. 210, who calls it the " Tropaeum "
— the visible monument of the Apostle S. Peter. Tertullian
also, as early as the end of the second century, refers to it
as an object of pilgrimage from all parts of the world.

Cubiculum. — This was a little burial chamber leading
out of the galleries of the Roman Catacombs. These
" Cubicula " were hewn out of the rock, generally at right
angles to the gallery in which were cut the countless niches
each holding one or more corpses.

The " Cubiculum " was intended for the more con-
spicuous persons in the Church, and especially for those
who had through martyrdom, or through any very dis-
tinguished work for the Church, merited this special dis-
tinction after death ; not a few of these " Cubicula " were
occupied by the bodies of the men and women who had
witnessed a good confession by shedding their blood for
Christ's sake. Many of these little chapels which held the
remains of such illustrious dead, became, as time went on,
places highly venerated by the congregation.

Catacombs. — The modern name of " Catacombs," now
universally applied to ancient underground Crypts where
the dead were interred in the early days of Christianity,
and especially used for that vast network of subterranean
corridors filled by the Christian dead beneath the suburbs
of old Rome, was totally unknown to the original Christian
communities who hewed out of the solid rock this mighty
cemetery of the Roman dead. The term " Catacomb "
is derived from the Greek words Kara /cv/x/fy, the latter word
signifying " hollow " or valley.

THE CRYPT 99

The district on the Appian Way where the little basilica
of S. Sebastian now stands, was especially known as "ad
catacumbas " or " the Hollows/'

In the earlier part of the ninth century, the bodies of
the more prominent Saints and Martyrs were removed for
security's sake from their original resting-places outside
the walls of the city, to the safer custody of the Roman
churches within the city, and the once famous subterranean
cemeteries in the suburbs gradually ceased to be objects of
pilgrimage.

But the one suburban cemetery of S. Sebastian, owing to
the tradition that the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul had
reposed in the Crypt beneath S. Sebastian for some years
when persecution had rendered their original resting places
insecure, ever remained an object of devout pilgrimage.

This Crypt was known as " Cemeterium ad Catacumbas,"
and on the re-discovery of the great underground City of
the Dead at Rome, late in the sixteenth century, the
popular name " ad Catacumbas " came to be applied to
all subterranean cemeteries, and especially to the great
cemeteries beneath the Roman suburbs.

But it must be borne in mind that, after all, this
universally used appellation, when given to the subter-
ranean cemeteries in general, is a curious misnomer, and
was unknown, in its present universal signification, in
ancient times.

Now it may be positively assumed that all Crypts are
generally a memory of, are reminiscent of the sacred and
venerated burying-places of the Martyrs and Saints of the
age of persecution, notably of the Crypt of S. Peter.

Thanks to the industry of a few modern scholars, the

zoo THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

details of S. Peter's tomb on the Vatican Hill are fairly
well known. The sacred remains of the great Apostle and
Martyr, ever venerated as the founder of the Roman
congregation, were originally laid in a little vault or crypt
on the Vatican Hill hard by the place of his martyrdom.

From the first, this spot was visited by pilgrims from
many lands, an ever-increasing number, but the place of
interment was very small and difficult of access. So
Anacletus, traditionally the third Bishop of the Church of
Rome, in order to accommodate these numerous visitors
to the tomb, built directly over the vault where the Apostle's
body rested, the little chapel known in history as the
" Memoria " of Anacletus.

Over this humble Chapel or " Memoria," the first
Christian Emperor Constantine erected the lordly basilica
generally known in history as " Old S. Peter's." In the
same age, or a very little later, various other basilicas or
churches were built directly over the " Cubicula " or burial
chambers leading out of the Catacomb galleries, where lay
the remains of the more prominent Saints and Martyrs
interred in the Catacombs of Rome.

In those far back days, the grave of a Martyr was ever
regarded with the deepest reverence, and was constantly
visited by pilgrim visitors. No more appropriate spot, it
was considered, could be chosen for the celebration of
divine service than the chamber which held the Martyr's
grave; but these graves were sunk deep in the ground,
and the " Cubicula " of the Catacombs were utterly in-
capable of containing the officiating clergy and the crowd
of the faithful who would wish to worship in these hallowed
spots. It was generally considered in the early Church
that the remains of the Martyrs and Saints ought not to

THE CRYPT 101

be removed, for such a removal would be deemed an
impious act; never — so taught the teachers of the first
age — must the sainted relics of the dead Confessors be
translated or disturbed.

To overcome this difficulty, the rock over and round
the grave must be cut away, and room must thus be gained
as was sufficient for the erection of a basilica or church,
large or small, directly over the Crypt or Cubiculum, which
contained the Martyr's tomb. The damage done to such
catacombs, thus cut away by the builders of these basilicas,
was incalculable; thousands of early Christian graves
must have been sacrificed for the preservation of the one
grave specially selected for peculiar honour.

This, Lanciani tells us, is the origin of the greatest
Sanctuaries of Christian Rome; such as the Churches of
S. Paul on the Via Ostiensis, S. Sebastian on the Via Appia,
S. Petronilla on the Via Ardeatina, S. Agnes on the Via
Nomentana, S. Lorenzo on the Via Tiburtina; these and
other sacred historical structures owe their existence to
the martyr's grave over which these churches were built,
a grave which no human hand was allowed to touch or to
transfer to another and more convenient place.

This was the genesis, the origin of the idea of the Crypt
beneath the church. The desire to possess a Crypt in
early mediaeval times was widely spread. As a rule, though,
as we shall presently explain, not always was the Crypt
the resting place of some noted martyr. In Gaul and on
the banks of the Rhine these crypts were fairly general
in the early Middle Ages : their retention, enlargement,
and reconstruction was largely due to the sentiment and
tradition of the very early age of Christianity.

102 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

In Gaul, in the Merovingian period, in the more important
churches they seem to have been very usual ; for instance,
we still possess the Crypts of S. Avitus of Orleans (sixth
century), the Crypt of Jouarre and parts of the Crypt of
Vezelay, supposed to contain the remains of S. Mary
Magdalene, S. Medard of Soissons; large portions of the
vast Crypt of Chartres, the Crypt of the Cathedral of
Auxerre, and certain parts of the Crypt of the famous
Church of S. Benignus of Dijon, one of the largest existing.
The underground Church of S. Seurin of Bordeaux dates,
however, from the eleventh century, as does also the
famous and vast Crypt of S. Eutropius of Saintes.

On the banks of the Rhine and in the Eastern districts
of Gaul, dating from the eleventh century, and even some-
what earlier, we may cite as prominent examples the
Crypts of Besancon and Strasburg, and the great under-
ground Church of Spires.

In Anglo-Saxon England, we have the Crypts of Ripon
and Hexham, both the work of Wilfrid in the seventh
century, a little later that of Wing in Buckinghamshire,
and somewhat later still, Repton.

In the early Norman period we have in England the
important Crypts of Winchester, Worcester, Rochester,
Gloucester and Canterbury (in parts). The Oxford and
York Minster Crypts were built as late as in the last part
of the twelfth century.

But then they came to an end. The vogue of building
Crypts ceased soon after the famous action of Suger,
Abbot of S. Denys near Paris, who, in A.D. 1144, probably
owing to the impossibility of providing for the vast crowds
of pilgrims to the Shrines of S. Denys and his two com-
panions SS. Rusticus and Eleutherus in the Crypt of the

THE CRYPT 103

abbey, brought up from the underground Church of S.
Denys the remains of the three saints, and placed them
near the high altar of the church above, where they could
be more easily seen and visited by the pilgrim crowds.

The example of Abbot Suger seems to have been largely
followed, notably at Canterbury, where the body of S.
Thomas a Becket, a most popular object of pilgrimage,
was removed from the under to the upper church in A.D.
1248.

This general removal of the remains of the saints and
confessors from their original place beneath the church,
to a position hard by the high altar of the main building
above, seems to have taken away completely the traditional
interest of the Crypt. It now was never constructed.
In the planning of an abbey or of any considerable church
the Crypt found no place ; and thus the vogue which had
prevailed for so many centuries passed away completely.

Singularly enough the great Cluniac Brotherhood of
Benedictines, with its two thousand churches, scattered
over the countries of the West, never seems to have adopted
the Crypt as a part of any of their many homes of prayer.
There is little doubt that the example of so mighty and
influential a section of the Church of the twelfth century
also contributed largely to the disuse of this most ancient
and interesting feature, which for some ten centuries or
more had occupied a place in the planning of so many of
the more important abbeys and homes of prayer in the
West.

To sum up, the Crypt was entirely a Latin and Western
use ; it was virtually unknown, and practically non-existent
outside the broad area of Latin Christianity. The custom
of the Eastern Church received it not. It belonged

104 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

exclusively to the Western school of Romanesque archi-
tecture. It is interesting to remember that as the school
of Romanesque building gave place to another and different
school of architecture, the Crypt virtually disappeared.
No purely Gothic Crypt can be quoted or referred to.

In the first place it was undoubtedly understood to be
the resting-place of the remains of the famous saint or
confessor after whom, in so many cases, the church built over
the Crypt in question was named, and to whose honoured
memory the church was dedicated. But it came to pass,
when the vogue or fashion of constructing a Crypt or
under-church became very general, that not unfrequently
we find this under-church, sometimes of considerable size
and importance, designed and planned without the presence
of any of these hallowed remains dating from far-back
days. Such, for instance, was the vast Gloucester Crypt.
No tradition exists in Gloucester of the remains of any
saint or confessor ever having been laid to rest in the wide
ambulatory or in the central division of that most venerable
and solemn under-church which lies beneath the stately
Cathedral of Gloucester.

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER ON THE
VATICAN HILL

THE STORY OF A TOMB

THERE was one Crypt of remarkable sanctity — that of
S. Peter at Rome. It was the favourite object of all
Western pilgrimage from the last years of the first century
— and it retained its far-reaching popularity for many
centuries.

This Crypt which contains the remains of the great
Apostle, with the " Memoria " of Anacletus immediately
above it, may justly be considered to have set the vogue
which prevailed in the planning of a Crypt in so many
important churches of Western Christianity, from the
fourth until the end of the twelfth century.

The immense and enduring estimation in which this
Crypt of S. Peter at Rome was held for so many centuries,
has determined the writer of these studies to describe it
with some detail — and to tell its eventful and striking story
at some length.

In the year of grace 70, Jerusalem and her glorious
temple were burnt and destroyed by Titus and his Legions,
who saw in Jerusalem, the sacred city and citadel not only
of the rebel Jews, but also of the hated Christian sect.
There is no doubt but that from the year of the great
catastrophe Rome gradually became the acknowledged

105

106 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

centre and metropolis of Christendom — it had no longer
any recognised centre when Jerusalem was destroyed.

This position has been altered and the influence of Rome
has been dimmed, and to a certain extent materially
diminished by certain other centres of Christianity which
have arisen. But she holds it to a certain extent still.
Constantinople the home of the widespread Eastern or
Greek Christianity, and later Moscow after the fall of
Constantinople, were important religious centres. London
among the far-reaching Anglo-Saxon peoples may claim,
with some reason, the lofty title of the Metropolis of the
Christian world.

Yet after all these great religious centres have been
reckoned with, Rome, though her old fame and influence
has been sadly tarnished and dimmed, still ranks first.
The Eastern or Greek Church, changeless in the midst of
change, silently watches her loved metropolis of Constanti-
nople all spoiled and desecrated, in the hands of unbelievers.
The Protestant Churches dear to the Anglo-Saxon and
Teutonic peoples, reluctantly perhaps, sadly without
doubt, in their hearts still think of Rome as the centre or
metropolis of that living faith in the Crucified which has
been adopted as the religion of the fairest and most powerful
portion of the world.

S. Peter is regarded by Roman Catholic writers (as
might have been expected) as the founder of the Roman
congregation — many too among Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic
scholars now accept this view. This conclusion undoubtedly
is supported : (i) by the general testimony of early Christian
writers mostly of the second century ; (2) by the important
traditional " Memories " of the presence and preaching of

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 107

S. Peter in Rome. Some of these " Memories," it is true,
are purely traditional, others have clearly an historical
foundation; but taken all together, they constitute an
argument of no little weight. In the written testimonies,
as well as in the " Memories " which hang round the figures
of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome, who are generally joined
together as founders of the great Church of the Metropolis
of the Empire, it is notable that Peter, not Paul, ever is
the principal figure; (3) the place which the two mighty
Basilicas of S. Peter and S. Paul have ever occupied in the
minds and hearts not only of the dwellers in Rome, but
also of all the innumerable pilgrims in all ages to the
sacred shrines of Rome, seenis accurately to measure the
respective positions which the two great Apostles have
ever held in the estimate of the Roman congregation.

The comparative neglect of S. Paul's Basilica in Rome
when measured with the undying reverence bestowed on
the sister Basilica of S. Peter, is due, not to any want of
reverence and regard for the great Apostle of the Gentiles,
but solely because Rome itself and the innumerable
pilgrims to the Queen City were conscious of the special
debt of Rome to S. Peter, who was evidently in all ages
regarded as the first and real founder of the mighty Church
of the Capital.

This great and revered teacher S. Peter suffered martyr-
dom about the year 66-67. Somewhere about A.D. 69,
when the violence of the terrible persecution of Nero,
who perished A.D. 68, was dying away, the Christian
worshippers in Rome prepared a tomb in the nearest
available spot to the place of his martyrdom on the Vatican
Hill. This tomb was a vaulted chamber almost entirely
subterranean.

io8 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

This sacred sepulchre was visited from very early days
by ever large and increasing numbers of the faithful,
not only belonging to the Roman congregations, but
including pilgrims from all parts of the Roman world who
wished to pray at the sacred tomb; these visitors were
undeterred by any danger of arrest and death. Pilgrimage
to the holy places of Jerusalem was impossible since a
heathen temple had arisen on the site of the Holy Sepulchre.
It was therefore to Rome, and especially to the tomb of
S. Peter, that the early pilgrim devotees of Christendom
chiefly turned.

But the original sepulchre or vault where the remains
of S. Peter rested * provided but little space for pilgrims,
and was not indeed very easy of access. So Anacletus,
who followed Linus as Bishop of the Roman Church,
A.D. 79-87, built a " Memoria " or upper chamber imme-
diately above the tomb to serve as a little church or meet-
ing-place for the ever-increasing numbers of pilgrim visitors.
This " Memoria " of Anacletus was constructed by simply
raising the walls of the tomb or crypt to a higher level,
and was of the same shape as the vault itself; thus, as it
were, providing a chamber for the pilgrim visitors on the
floor immediately above the actual tomb.

1 There was no difficulty raised in the early days of Christianity
in getting possession of the bodies of martyrs. The custom of the
Roman Government was in every case to give over the bodies of
those who had been put to death, to those who had loved them in
life. This we see in the case of our Lord when the sacred body was
at once given to Nicodemus and the friends of Jesus.

It was only at a later date, when Christianity became a real terror
to the Roman Government, that this favour was taken away, and
when every effort was made by the authorities to prevent the Chris-
tians from obtaining possession of the relics of their martyrs.

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 109

This little upper chamber of the tomb, which was above
ground, is the " Tropaeum " spoken of by Caius the pres-
byter, when, in A.D. circa 210, he writes as follows : " I can
show you the trophies of the Apostles, for whether you go
to the Vatican or on the Ostian Way you will meet with
their ' trophies ' " (i. e. of SS. Peter and Paul who founded
the Church in Rome).

But in addition to building the little upper chamber or
" Memoria " of the tomb itself, Bishop Anacletus prepared
places, or graves, in which he himself and a certain number
of his successors might be buried round S. Peter.

In this sacred bury ing-place, in these graves prepared
by Anacletus round the Apostle's tomb, were the early
second-century Bishops of Rome laid, close to the resting-
place of S. Peter, and it is these graves which were laid
open in the excavations of which we shall presently speak,
in the year 1626.

There is no record of the exact date of the building of
the Basilica of S. Peter, but there can be no doubt that it
was really, as immemorial tradition has asserted, the work
of Constantine the Great after he became absolute master
of the Roman world.

We should put the date probably shortly after A.D. 324,
in which year the yet earlier Basilica of the Lateran was
consecrated. The inscription which still runs along the
west front of the Lateran Church —

" Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia, omnium urbis
et orbis ecclesiarum Mater et Caput " —

voices the ancient tradition that the consecration of the
great Lateran Church preceded the building of S. Peter.

no THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

The venerable dedicatory inscription originally on the
principal arch which spanned the nave of S. Peter recorded
the name of its imperial builder :

" Quod duce Te Mundus Surrexit Ad Astra Triumphans
Hanc Constantinus Victor Tibi Condidit Aulam."

The entry in the Liber Pontificalis, presently quoted,
tells of the first Christian Emperor's special work in the
vault or crypt of the Apostle's tomb.

It was over this sacred tomb and the little " Memoria "
above it that Constantine erected the magnificent church
known as Old S. Peter's. Before the days of Constantine,
the humble " Memoria " of Anacletus represented the
church above the tomb. Under the first Christian Emperor,
the little " Memoria of Anacletus " grew into the magnifi-
cent Basilica 1 renowned for centuries through the Western
world.

But here we have only to do with the tomb and the
immediate work above it in the " Memoria " of Anacletus.
The entry in the Liber Pontificalis gives us a precise
account of what the Emperor Constantine did in the vault
of the tomb.

" He hid away the stone coffin which contained the

1 It was of this ancient church of Constantine that Bishop
Creighton in his eloquent History of the Papacy, thus writes of its
demolition under Pope Julius II, circa A.D. 1506 —

" The basilica of S. Peter's had been for ages the object of
pilgrimage from every land; outside it gleamed with mosaics;
inside its pavement was a marvel of mosaic art; its monuments
told the history of the Roman Church for centuries. Men may
praise at the present day the magnificence of the (New) S. Peter's ;
they forget what was destroyed to make room for it. No more
wanton or barbarous act of destruction was ever deliberately
committed."

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER in

body after this manner : He enclosed the coffin altogether
in bronze, and then built up (i. e. filled the vault) with
masonry. After this manner he enclosed the body of the
blessed Peter and hid it away."

There is no doubt, however, that the Emperor, in en-
closing the sarcophagus of the Apostle with solid masonry,
left clear a little space actually above the coffin in the
ceiling of the vault, for the same entry goes on to tell us
that Constantine made a gold cross and placed it above
the bronze covering of the coffin. This gold cross was
seen gleaming through an opening as late as A.D. 1594.
We know too that in the early Middle Ages, objects of
devotion were occasionally lowered from the church above,
through the ceiling, and these objects were revered as
bona fide precious relics of the Apostle whose coffin they
had touched.

Here the entry in the Liber Pontificalis ends, and the
particulars of any work which Constantine carried out in
the " Memoria " of Anacletus, which had been built above
the tomb, we can only learn from its present appearance
and from detached notices which occur in later entries of
the Liber Pontificalis which tell us of the splendid gifts
made to this " Memoria " by the Popes and others in the
following centuries.

Directly above the " Memoria " it is clear that Con-
stantine, when he built the great church, placed a heavy
stone altar. This had to be supported by strengthening
the comparatively slender walls of the " Memoria." The
vault of the tomb filled up, save directly above the sarco-
phagus, with solid masonry, provided a firm foundation,
and the " Memoria," which was now divided into two

H2 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

chambers, was made strong with additional masonry.
The lower of the two chambers was completely filled up
save for a small opening or passage which led directly
down to the vault of the tomb.

The walls of the upper chamber of the " Memoria "
were also strengthened with masonry sufficient to support
the great altar placed immediately above it, but enough
space was left to form the Confessionary, part of which
still exists beneath the great altar.

Thus direct communication with the sacred vault of
the tomb itself existed by means of the narrow opening
or passage through the lower chamber above mentioned,
by means of which handkerchiefs or similar objects could
be let down so as to touch the sarcophagus in which lay
the remains of the Apostle. This opening or passage
was closed with two small gratings carefully locked. These
gratings are generally known by the term " cataracts " —
the one at the lower end, which was in fact the ceiling of
the vault, which ceiling consisted of one or more marble
slabs; the other on the top of the opening or passage, on
the floor of the upper chamber of the " Memoria " —
which became the well-known Confessionary.1

We possess in the writings of S. Gregory of Tours a
vivid description of the manner in which pilgrims to Rome
revered the sacred shrine in early times. The description
in question was given to S. Gregory by his deacon Agiulphus

1 These details have been worked out by Mgr. Barnes in his
elaborate and exhaustive work on the Tomb of S. Peter, who gives
in his scholarly and able book many more particulars of the sacred
spot.

No words of praise are sufficient to express the thanks of the
historian and archaeologist, who is interested in this most famous
of Christian sanctuaries, to Mgr. Barnes for his labours here.

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 113

who had made the pilgrimage. The account is given us
by S. Gregory in his book called In gloria Martyrum,
written about the year of grace 595. We append a trans-
lation of the words here of S. Gregory —

" S. Peter is buried in a church called from ancient
times the Vatican. . . . His sepulchre, which is placed
under the Altar, is exceedingly rarely entered. However,
if any one desires to pray, the gates by which the place
is fenced are opened, and he goes in above the sepulchre,
and then, having opened a little window, puts his head
within and makes request concerning his needs.

" Nor is the result delayed, if only the petition be a
just one. For if he desires to carry away with him some
blessed memorial, he throws within a little handkerchief
that has been carefully weighed, and then watching and
fasting, he prays most fervently that the Apostle may
give an effectual answer to his devotion. Wonderful to
say, if the faith of the man prevails, the handkerchief
when it is raised from the tomb, is so filled with divine
virtue that it weighs much more than it did before, and
then he who has raised it knows that he has obtained
the favour which he sought.

" Many also make golden keys to unlock the gates of
the blessed sepulchre, and then they take away those
which were used before, as a sacred treasure, and by these
keys the infirmities of the afflicted are cured. For true
faith can do all things."

Mgr. Barnes in his work on S. Peter's tomb gives a
detailed explanation of the above report of Agiulphus to
S. Gregory of Tours.

" The actual sepulchre, the subterranean chamber in
which the sarcophagus (of S. Peter) was placed, was
I

H4 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

scarcely ever opened, and was not, even at that early date
(late in the sixth century), accessible to ordinary wor-
shippers. The most that they could hope for, was to
visit the Confession under the Altar . . . the pilgrim passes
on, throws himself with his body prostrate within the
recess, raises the little window or grating which closed the
aperture in the floor, and so puts himself in communication,
not indeed with the tomb itself, but with the space which
intervened between the Confession and the vault, which
space had once formed the lowest part of the old upper
chamber or ' Memoria ' of Anacletus."

From the vault and the actual sepulchre he was still
shut off by a second grating or cataract — which was un-
locked for him.

Through these two gratings, when opened, the hand-
kerchief or other object was lowered so as to touch the
tomb, and this could be carried away as a precious relic.

By the early Popes and Bishops of Rome, and other
illustrious persons, notably by Pelagius II, A.D. 579-590;
S. Gregory, A.D. 590-604; Sergius, A.D. 687-701 ; S. Gregory
III, A.D. 731-741; Paul I, A.D. 757-768; Hadrian I, A.D.
772-795; and S. Leo III — Hadrian's successor — were
magnificent and costly offerings bestowed upon the sacred
shrine. These decorated with unexampled magnificence
the Confession, the Altar and the canopy above.

In the reign of Paul I, King Pepin of France was also a
munificent donor to this famous shrine.

These gifts consisted in gold and silver coverings for
the canopy of the altar — in costly mosaics — in precious
marble columns — in pavements of silver — in railings and
gates of gold — in superb candelabra. Many of these

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 115

costly gifts are chronicled with much care and detail in
entries in the Liber Pontificals.

A specially interesting entry in the Liber Pontificalis
tells us how Charlemagne, accompanied by Pope Hadrian,
was permitted to enter the vault of the tomb — the only
visit to the sepulchre itself that is recorded. The few
words which tell of this, perhaps solitary, visit of the
great Prankish sovereign and the Pope are memorable —

" Descendentes pariter ad Corpus beati Petri."

In the time of Pope Sergius II, we read of another
imperial visit to Rome. The Emperor Louis II, A.D. 845,
was received with the same ceremonial respect as his great
predecessor Charlemagne. He, too, prayed before the
Confession, but there is no allusion to any visit to the
body of S. Peter. The sacred vault indeed seems to have
been, even in these far-back centuries, very rarely if ever
entered. Charlemagne's visit was probably never repeated.

Only two years after Louis II's visit occurred the de-
structive raid of the Saracens. For several years these
Mahommedan invaders, who had taken possession of
Sicily, had ravaged the Italian coasts. They had plun-
dered the great Monastery of Monte-Cassino, and in
A.D. 847 appeared before Rome. This raid was not
unexpected, for some of the treasures seem hastily to have
been removed to a more secure home within the walls of
the city.

No attempt to move the great bronze-covered sarco-
phagus was evidently thought of, but the entrance to the
vault was concealed by pouring down stones and rubble
through the upper opening below the Confession, completely
filling up the space between the two cataracts or gratings,

n6 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

which thus escaped the notice of the plundering invaders,
who, however, carried off many of the treasures, the gifts
of the Popes and other distinguished persons to which we
have alluded above, which adorned the shrine.

The Saracens only stayed in the vicinity of S. Peter's
for some eight days, and then retreated. There is little
doubt but that the " earthing up " the narrow passage
which led to the sacred vault where the sarcophagus lay,
the filling it up with the stones and rubbish which still
effectually blocks up all access to the tomb itself, must
be dated from the period of this raid of the Saracens in
A.D. 847.

Much was done by S. Leo IV, A.D. 847-855, and his
successors in the Papacy, to restore the damage done
and the havoc wrought by the Saracenic raiders; but
the passage to the tomb itself was never again opened.
Many beautiful and costly gifts were often made to the
shrine, and especially to the Confession, by various Popes
and illustrious visitors and pilgrims, among whom the
Anglo-Saxon Ethelwolf, the father of Alfred, must be
included. But in spite of these efforts and gifts the shrine
never again reached anything like the glory and magnifi-
cence which it possessed before the terrible incursion of
the Saracen invaders in A.D. 847.

For more than a thousand years there has been no
access to the vault of the tomb; and no serious attempt,
for various reasons, has ever been made to restore the original
communication which once evidently existed between
the floor of the Confession and the sacred chamber which
held, and no doubt holds still, the bronze-covered sarco-
phagus of S. Peter.

We possess no accurate contemporary details of this

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 117

disastrous Saracenic raid, as the manuscripts of the Liber
Pontificates are deficient here.

A story of surpassing interest is told by Bonanni (Templi
Vaticani historia) , the authenticity of which is accepted by
Marucchi , Lanciani, Barnes and other scholars and experts.

In the spring of A.D. 1594, when the works connected
with the new S. Peter's were going on, Giacomo della Porta,
the architect in charge, reported to Pope Clement VIII
that a portion of the ground in the vicinity of the tomb
had given way, and through an aperture thus uncovered
the interior of the chamber of the tomb could be seen.

The Pope, accompanied with three Cardinals, at once
visited the spot, and with the aid of a lighted torch the
sarcophagus was visible, with the great golden cross of
Const ant ine lying upon it. Clement VIII, after viewing
the strange sight, immediately ordered the aperture to
be closed with cement in his presence. The names of the
Cardinals, who were well known, were Bellarmine,Antoniano
and Sfondriato.

The building of the new S. Peter's was slowly drawing
to its completion, when in A.D. 1607 Pope Paul V planned
to bring the ancient Confession of S. Peter into sight.
In the new planning of the church, this Confession was
concealed in the Crypt, and any access to it was almost
impossible.

Maderno, the artist and architect, designed and carried
out the present arrangement of the great church, which
provided for the worshippers an approach to the old
Confession — the recess under the high altar. In these
works of Maderno, the workmen employed came upon the

n8 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

forgotten cemetery of the Vatican, arranged in the first
century by Bishop Anacletus. The " find " was one of
extraordinary interest. Torrigio, a " beneficiato " of the
basilica, was present when the discovery of this most
ancient cemetery was made, and has left us an account of
what he saw. Accompanying his description was a plan
drawn by Benedetto Drei, the clerk of Maderno's works.

Of the rare plan in question, a rough drawing has been
preserved, and has been of the greatest use in elucidating
the more detailed and accurate description of the sacred
spot, which description was made a few years later, circa
A.D. 1626, when under Urban VIII (Cardinal Barberini),
Pope from A.D. 1623-1644, it became necessary to strengthen
the foundations of the new mighty bronze Baldachino of
Bernini, and elaborate and careful work was undertaken
in this sacred spot.

What was then discovered in the ancient cemetery of
Anacletus has been told us by Ubaldi, a Canon of S. Peter's.
Ubaldi saw with his own eyes the wonderful things then
discovered, and his account is of the greatest value to the
historian of the very early days of Christianity in Rome.
These precious memoranda of Ubaldi were deposited in
the Vatican archives and were only found in quite late
days by Palmieri, one of the keepers of these archives;
the well-known scholar Armellini has since published
them.

We will give a few specially interesting particulars from
Ubaldi's memoranda. The story of these excavations is
as follows —

Pope Urban VIII was dissatisfied with the adornment
of the high altar, which he deemed quite unworthy of the
conspicuous position it occupied in the glorious new

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 119

Church of S. Peter's; and he entrusted the decoration to
the architect Bernini of Florence. Bernini designed the
great Baldachino or canopy of the altar which we see
now.

It was an enormous and striking work. Its great size
is imperfectly grasped by the ordinary visitor. The vast-
ness of S. Peter's, it has been well said, dwarfs everything
that is in it. This massive Baldachino or canopy of the
high altar is composed of bronze largely taken from the
portico of the Pantheon originally built by Agrippa, the
son-in-law of the Emperor Augustus. It is ninety-five
feet in height, and is computed, with its pillars, to weigh
nearly one hundred tons.

To carry this tremendous weight of metal, it was con-
sidered necessary to place the pedestals of the supporting
columns upon a solid and firm foundation, but how to
excavate such foundations in the immediate neighbourhood
of the tomb of S. Peter, in the midst of the holy graves
quite recently discovered surrounding the tomb in the ancient
cemetery of Anacletus, for some time seriously perplexed
the Pope and his counsellors, and they long hesitated
before commencing the work. At last it was decided upon,
but the excavations were ordered to be carried out with
the utmost care and reverence considering the holy ground
where they were to be made ; a guard of priests and ministers
of the Church was deputed to watch every grave as it was
disturbed, and reverently to replace every body and all
the dust and ashes which had to be removed. It was from
the memoranda made on the spot by one of these watching
priests, the Canon Ubaldi, that the striking story, some
extracts of which we are about to give, is taken.

120 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

A few words descriptive of the spot where the excavations
were made will be useful before we speak of the strange
and wonderful " find " itself.

It must be remembered that the actual vault of the
tomb or crypt in which was the sarcophagus of S. Peter,
embedded in the solid masonry of Const antine, lies deep
in the ground beneath the locality of the excavations.

The " Memoria " of Anacletus was built originally above,
on the walls of the vault of the tomb. Part of
the " Memoria " must once have been above ground.
Round this " Memoria " Anacletus arranged the little
cemetery of the Vatican Hill. In this cemetery, as close
as possible to the walls of the " Memoria " above the
tomb, were the graves dug for the nine or ten first Bishops
of Rome. In other graves in that sacred little God's
acre were coffins containing the remains of certain of the
martyrs and confessors of the first and second centuries.
It is these graves, in the ancient cemetery round the
" Memoria " walls, which were disturbed in the course of
the excavations, and whose sacred contents are described
in the Memoranda of Ubaldi.

The vault itself or crypt of the Tomb of S. Peter which
lay deep below the " Memoria," was never interfered with.

In this work of excavation necessary for the foundations
of the great Baldachino of Bernini, the workmen employed
found themselves at once in the ancient cemetery of
Anacletus.

Among the graves necessary to be touched, they found
close to the wall of the " Memoria," still in situ, coffins
of marble made of single slabs of different sizes. Only
one of these slabs seems to have borne an inscription,

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 121

and that was the solitary word " LINUS." This was most
probably a portion of the coffin of the first Bishop who
followed S. Peter— the "Linus" saluted by S. Paul
in 2 Tim. iv, 21. These coffins placed close to the " Me-
moria " walls were no doubt belonging to the first Bishops
of Rome.

Other coffins were found near, of terra-cotta, containing
ashes and bones charred with fire. " It was evident,"
writes Ubaldi, " that all the earth on these coffins was mixed
with ashes and tinged with blood " (probably the blood of
the first martyrs).

These are some among the sacred historical reliquiae
discovered in digging the first foundation.

In digging for the second foundation, a singularly
interesting " find " is recorded. Ubaldi relates how a
very large coffin, made of great slabs of marble, was un-
covered. " Within the coffin were ashes, with many
bones, all adhering together and half burned. These
brought to mind the famous fire in the time of Nero, three
years before S. Peter's martyrdom, when the Christians,
being falsely accused of causing the fire, . . . afforded in
the circus of the gardens of Nero, which were situated just
here on the Vatican Hill, the first spectacle of martyrdom.
Some were put to death in various cruel ways, while others
were set on fire, and used as torches in the night. . . .
These were buried close to the spot where they suffered
martyrdom and gave the first occasion for the religious
veneration of this holy spot. . . . We therefore revered
these holy bones as being the first founders of the great
Basilica, and having put back the coffin, allowed it to remain
in the same place."

122 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

The memorandum on the third foundation contains no
detail of any very special interest.

On the fourth foundation, Ubaldi made the following
note : " Almost at the level of the pavement, there was
found a coffin made of fine and large slabs of marble. . . .
This coffin was placed just as were the others which were
found on the other side ... in such a manner that they
were all directed towards the altar (of the ' Memoria ' of
Anacletus) like spokes towards the centre of a wheel.
Hence it was evident, with much reason, that the place
merited the name of ' the Council of Martyrs.' ' These
bodies surrounded S. Peter.

Apparently we have here the remains of the first Bishops
of Rome for whom Anacletus made special provision when
he arranged this earliest of Christian cemeteries. Their
names are Linus, the lid of whose coffin lies apart but still
close to the Apostle's vault or crypt, Anacletus, Evarestus,
Sixtus I, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius I, Eleutherius and
Victor. Victor was laid here in A.D. 203. After him no
Bishop of Rome was interred in the Cemetery of Anacletus
— for by that date it was quite filled up, and the successors
of Bishop Victor were, with rare exceptions, buried in a
chamber appropriated to them in the Cemetery of S.
Callistus in the great Catacomb so named on the Appian
Way.

The other interments in the sacred Vatican Cemetery
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Apostle's tomb,
noticed in the Ubaldi memoranda, were apparently the
remains of martyrs of the first and second centuries of the
Christian era ; or, in a few cases, of distinguished Confessors
of the Faith whose names and story are forgotten, but of
whom Prudentius, the well-known Christian poet of the

THE CRYPT OF S. PETER 123

end of the fourth century, writes in his Peristephanon,

i-73—

" O vetustatis silentis obsoleta oblivio
Invidentur ista nobis, fama et ipsa extinguitur."

On the whole we may sum up as our estimate of the
Ubaldi memoranda, that it is without doubt an invalu-
able record of what lies beneath the High Altar and the
Western or more sacred part of the great Mother Church of
Christendom.

It is very remarkable that the practice of planning crypts
only prevailed in important churches of Western Christen-
dom. An imitation of the Crypt of S. Peter at Rome was
in these churches of the West constantly aimed at.

In the East, in the near as in the far-East, this " vogue "
of planning crypts beneath the churches, never was intro-
duced ; for the veneration of S. Peter in the Eastern divisions
of Christianity never attained to the popularity we notice
in the West. In the East, other Saints, especially S. Mary,
the Virgin Mother of the Lord, were revered with a special
reverence. This is very marked in Constantinople and in
other important centres of Eastern Christianity.

THE CLOISTER

THE CLOISTER

IN a great monastic establishment such as Gloucester,
the most important and interesting portion of the buildings
surrounding the church, belonging to the religious com-
munity, was undoubtedly the Cloister.

The history of the origin and development of the Cloister
is full of interest. In the years (fourth and fifth centuries)
which immediately followed the ratification of the peace
of the Church under Const ant ine the Great, in the more
important churches, built often after the Basilican model,
it was usual to arrange for a court or open space in front
of the principal entrance.

This open court, which corresponded to the Roman
atrium, was for the most part surrounded by a portico, or
covered walk termed " triporticus " or " quadriporticus,"
according as the portico consisted of three or four sides.
This court was in the earlier days put to various uses.
In it were often gathered the Catechumens, those not yet
formally received into the congregation who worshipped
within the church itself. Here also were wont to assemble
penitents who for some grave offence had been excluded
from the society of believers, but who sought readmission.
Now and again it was used for the interment of the more
distinguished Christians associated with the congregation
worshipping in the adjoining Basilica. Hence came the
name by which this outer court was sometimes known —

127

128 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

" Paradisus " — whence was derived the mediaeval term of
" Parvis," which in later times was often attached to the
" square or place " lying under the shadow of the chief
entrance to the church, as for instance in Paris, " The
Parvis N6tre Dame."

In the centre or side of this court or atrium, usually
was found a well. The Holy Water stoup always found
near the entrance of Roman Catholic churches is a
" memory " of this atrium well.

In the Cloister Garth, which with the Cloister itself
was the immediate successor of this atrium, with rare
exceptions, such a well is almost always to be found. To
give an example, in the Gloucester Cloister Garth, which
is carefully preserved, the old well is still in existence.

As time went on, the original purposes for which this
fore-court or atrium was intended existed no longer.
The conditions of the Christian society became largely
modified, the Catechumen class in many cases almost
entirely disappeared, Church discipline became relaxed,
the number of penitents shut out from worship in the
church became very small — only notorious sinners were
excluded.

As a place, too, for public interments, save in rare in-
stances, the portico was disused. In many cases, especially
in cities, the large space in front of the church was urgently
needed for houses, while on the other hand, new arrange-
ments became necessary for the monastic life which grew
up round the ancient churches and abbeys. The Canons
and other persons connected with the service of cathedrals
and the more important churches, required accommodation.

To meet these new requirements, the outer court — the
Atrium or Portico — was removed from its original position

THE CLOISTER 129

in front of the church to a quieter and more secluded place
at the side of the cathedral or abbey; and under the
well-known mediaeval name of Cloister, the " Claustrum,"
or enclosed space, this old portico or atrium reappeared,
and at once assumed an important, even an indispensable
place, among the mediaeval abbatial or cathedral buildings.

At first the " Cloister " was little more than a cluster
or block of buildings, erected round an enclosed spot
immediately under the great house of prayer — mostly
buildings designed as the dwelling-place of the Canons and
of the minor officials engaged in the services of the church.

The modern term " close " is derived directly from this
usage. In very early times a school, where various kinds
of learning, profane as well as sacred, existed in connection
with the abbey or cathedral, found a home in this cluster
of dwellings.

This in England was the case of York in the seventh
and eighth centuries; in Canterbury in the days of
Theodore and Hadrian; in Winchester in the time of
Ethelwolf, in the latter part of the tenth century.

It was, however, in the Western Monasteries after the
great revival inaugurated by the important religious
House of the Benedictines of Cluny in the tenth century,
that the " Cloister " of the Middle Ages attained to its
supreme importance. It served many purposes. It was
the heart of the community. It was the place where the
dwellers in the religious House spent many hours of their
quiet life in meditation, in literary work, in teaching.
It was there that the novices were often instructed. In
the Cloister, too, the copyists of manuscripts plied their
various crafts, many simply copying the more ancient
and often perishable MSS. in their beautiful and careful

130 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

handwriting, and thus preserving accurate copies of what
the world already possessed of books. How few of the
old treasures of literature would have been handed down to
the printing presses of the sixteenth century had not this
useful work gone on in these quiet cloisters? Certain of
the monks, too, were occupied in original research, and in
composing and arranging monastic and historical records.

One general plan, with occasional modifications, seems
usually to have been adopted in the great Cloisters of the
Western Church on the Continent as in England. In the
Cloisters were doors leading to the principal chambers and
offices connected with the every- day life of a monastic
community, such as the Refectory where the monks
dined, the dormitory where they slept, during those few
hours allotted to them for rest, the Chapter House where
they met daily, and consulted together on the business
public and private of their House, and on their varied
Mission work outside. Other doors in the Cloister led to
the Infirmary, where the sick and the aged monks received
the tenderest care and attention; to the Abbot or Prior's
special lodgings, to smaller cloisters, sometimes termed
a slype (the derivation of this word is unknown), leading
into outer courts and separate buildings; such as the
guest-chambers, kitchens and store rooms, into the Ceme-
tery of the religious House, into the garden. Two large
doors besides, as a rule, opened from the Cloister alleys
directly into the church.

In the centre of the Cloister invariably was a small
garden — the garth; sometimes simply turfed, sometimes
bright with flowers and shaded with trees. In it as a rule
the well above referred to was found. The windows of the
Cloister walls were, in some cases, especially in the later

THE CLOISTER 131

Middle Ages, wholly or in part, glazed, sometimes with
rich stained glass.

Very frequently, in the more wealthy monastic founda-
tions, and also in the case of some cathedrals, the Cloister
was richly adorned with sculpture, and in some instances
ornamented with colour.

Occasionally costly marbles were used for the pillars
and their capitals ; indeed, no portion of the sacred building
itself received greater attention than did many of these
mediaeval Cloisters.

As examples of specially beautiful and costly Cloister
work, we would cite the well-known Cloisters of S. Paul,
outside the walls of Rome, and S. John Lateran. In
Sicily the vast and splendid Cloisters of Monreale are
noteworthy. In France, the Cloister alleys of the
Cathedral of Rouen, S. Trophimus of Aries, the Abbey of
Moissac (Tarn et Garonne), the Abbey of Montmajeure
(near Aries), Mont S. Michel (Normandy), the Cathedrals
of Toul, Soissons, and many others, might be instanced.
In England the beautiful cloisters of Westminster Abbey are
well known. Norwich, too, possesses a notable example.

But the most famous by far in England are the Cloisters
of Gloucester. In some respects they are the most beautiful
in Northern Europe, none possessing a roof comparable
in richness and in general effect; the glory of the fan-
tracery of the Gloucester roof gives a special character to
the whole of this admirably preserved and perfect Cloister.

So costly and elaborate indeed were the decorations
often lavished on this most important part of the monastic
buildings of the Middle Ages, that the wonderful display
of art in the adornment of the Cloister now and again
seems to have excited hostile criticism. As early as in

132 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

the thirteenth century, we read in the curious poem of
Rutebeuf, a writer who was welcome at the Court of S.
Louis of France, a bitter note of disapprobation of the
splendour and magnificence of these costly works of art
which so frequently adorned the Cloisters of the monks
in his day and time.

" These monks " — he writes — " who possessed nothing "
— these men who " fors Taumosne n'avoient rien " — yet
adorned their austere home with —

" y mages li monstrent bien fetes
bien entaillies et portretes
mult orent couste, ce li semble."

Then after an elaborate description, the poet adds, that
these things —

" ne font pas la religion
mes la bone composition."

And yet in spite of the stern criticism of the austere
poet of the Court of S. Louis, that precursor of our English
Wyclif and of the Puritans of a yet later time, few will
be found now, even among the sternest critics of mediaeval
religion, who would dare to find fault with the tender and
graceful fancies with which the monastic orders adorned
the scenes of their solitary life-work, a work which, accord-
ing to their light, was wholly dedicated to God.

The Art world and its mighty teaching power would
indeed be poorer if some of the men who built and adorned
these fair homes of prayer and study, had not, among the
many crafts which they cultivated with such untiring zeal
and conspicuous success, devoted themselves especially to
architecture and its many exquisite developments, outside
as well as inside the walls of their church — architecture

THE CLOISTER 133

which in their skilful hands became in their day and time
one of the most effective instruments of popular education.

In our days, too, we must never forget that few indeed
would have been the remains of the great writers and
teachers of Greece and Rome, had it not been for the
patient industry of the monks working in their silent
Cloister alleys.

It must be remembered that there was no printing
press, no scribes save these monks, to hand down the
priceless literary treasures of a by-gone age. It was their
patient industry alone which preserved for us the Holy
Scriptures of the New Testament, and the precious words
of men who had talked with the Apostles and the pupils
of the Apostles, of teachers such as Clement and Irenaeus,
Origen and Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine and Jerome.
Most of the writings of that long line of illustrious fathers
and doctors of the Catholic Church of the first Christian
centuries would have been lost irretrievably, had not
generation after generation of monkish scholar-scribes
toiled unweariedly in their still and often deadly cold
Monastic Cloisters.

We who live in the restless evening (is it the evening?)
of the world, enjoy the fruits of their labours, and gaze
with pathetic interest on the comparatively few undis-
turbed remains of these once famous homes of learning
where so much good and useful work was done. In the
quiet beautiful Gloucester Cloister we possess one of these
precious relics of that almost forgotten past, to which we
owe so much — one of the most perfect that exists in
England, perhaps in the whole of Northern Europe.

134 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

In such a Cloister as that of Gloucester, some idea can
be gathered of the conditions under which the monk-
scribes carried on their work of transcribing and editing —
a work which, as we have shown, has been of such ines-
timable value to us. The Cloister architecture might
have been, not unfrequently was, a marvel of grace and
beauty, but it was utterly devoid of what in modern
phraseology is termed " comfort." There they ever toiled
amidst the circumstances of an austere self-denying life.
The cold in England and in other countries of Northern
Europe, so rich in Monasteries of the first rank, was very
severely felt in these cloister-carrels or recesses such as we
see in Gloucester. They often wrote with straw heaped
round their legs to protect them from the effects of the
searching damp and cold, although in the later mediaeval
period glazing seems to have been somewhat largely
introduced with the view of rendering more tolerable the
condition of these toilers for God. In the books they
transcribed and preserved for us, and adorned with such
rare art and skill, we occasionally light upon silent pathetic
testimonies to the hardships endured by these tireless
scholar-scribes. Montalembert in his Monks of the West,
(Vol. VI, Book XVIII, chap, iv), gives us some of these
curious and interesting reflections of long-forgotten monk-
scribes. We will quote two or three specimens of these
Cloister notes.

" Nauta rudis pelagi ut saevis ereptus ab undis

In portum veniens, pectora laeta tenet ;
Sic scriptor fessus, calamum sub calce laboris
Deponens, habeat pectora laeta quidem."

This was found at the end of a Gospel Book of the
eleventh century.

THE CLOISTER 135

The Monk Louis of Wissobrun wrote at the end of the
copy he had made of S. Jerome's Commentary on Daniel —

" Sedibus externis hie librum quern mode cernis
Dum scripsit, friguit, et quod cum lumine soils
Scribere non potuit, perfecit lumine noctis :
Sis Deus istorum merces condigna laborum."

In a Latin MS. of the Carlovingian epoch, a scribe named
Garimbert wrote at the end of his book —

" Sicut navigantibus dulcis est portus, ita scrip tori novissimus
versus."

Cassiodorus thus quaintly but touchingly writes of the
true aim of the vast work of transcription carried on by
the dwellers in these still and silent cloisters —

" What a glorious labour is that which enables us to
preach to men by the hands as well as by the voice, to
use our fingers in place of our tongues, to place ourselves
in relation with the rest of the world, without breaking
silence, and to combat with pen and ink the lawless sug-
gestions of the devil ! for each word of Holy Scripture
written by the scholar-monk is a wound given to Satan.
.... a reed shaped into a pen, as it glides over the
page and traces the divine word there, repairs, as it were,
the wrong done by that other reed with which, on the day
of the Passion, the devil caused the head of the Lord to
be struck."

Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in his great work Rationale
Divinorum officiorum, written in the latter years of the
twelfth century, gives us in his customary picturesque
language, the symbolical significance of the " Cloister " :
" The diversity and variety of the dwellings and occupations

136 THE SECRETS OF A GREAT CATHEDRAL

connected with the Cloister, and the buildings and offices
leading from it, are symbolical of the many mansions and
various rewards provided for the Faithful, in the kingdom
of the hereafter. ' For in my Father's house are many
mansions.' '

In a deeper sense the same Durandus1 adds — "The
Cloister represents the state of contemplation of the soul,
when it withdraws itself from the world, after it has done
away with earthly thoughts and aspirations, and only
meditates upon heavenly things."

1 Durandus, Bishop of Mende (Mimatensis) in Languedoc —
born A.D. 1230 and died A.D. 1296 — was a most distinguished
Canonist. He filled various ecclesiastical dignities, amongst them
the Deanery of Chartres, and was largely consulted by the popes of
his time. In later life he declined the archbishopric of Ravenna.
He was the author of various works which had an enduring success.
Amongst these the Rationale above quoted, a vast and exhaustive
compilation, is the best. During the early years of printing, this,
the greatest of mediaeval liturgical treatises, was printed and re-
printed more often than any book (excepting, of course, the Holy
Scriptures) . It is computed that more than "ninety printed editions
in different languages of the Rationale appeared between the second
half of the fifteenth century and the close of the seventeenth.

Viollet le Due, in his Diet, de I' Architecture (" Architecture "),
thus sums up his estimate of the Rationale : " Que Ton ne saurait
trop lire et mediter, lorseque qu'on veut connaitre le moyen age
catholique."

Dom Gueranger of Solesmes calls it " le dernier mot du age sur
le mystique du culte divin."

The Cloister of Gloucester Cathedral, showing Romanesque and Gothic work.
(The doorway leads into the Chapter House.) XI, XIT, XIV Centuries.

APPENDIX

TRACES OF GAMES PLAYED BY NOVICES AND BOYS IN
THE CLOISTERS

IT is only in the last thirty years that the curious reliques
of games played in the Middle Ages by Novices and boys
placed under the tuition and care of the Monks were
observed by J. T. Micklethwaite, the late erudite architect
of Westminster Abbey.

Several good examples of these game-boards occur in
the Gloucester Cloister, especially in the Cloister Alley
appropriated to the Novices.

The games in question generally were " Nine Men's
Morris " and varieties of the game of " Fox and Geese."

Similar game-boards have been also found in the Bene-
dictine Cloisters of Westminster Abbey, Canterbury,
Norwich and Durham, and in the secular Cloisters of
Chichester and of Salisbury.

These are generally found in what must have been the
Novices' quarters. In some instances, however, they
exist in places where they were probably made by the
builders of the walls or stairs, to play on during their
leisure time. Examples of these latter have been dis-
covered in Scarborough Castle and in Norwich Castle.
An admirable example has been quite recently found by
the writer of these Notes, on the stair of the South-Eastern
turret of the S. Transept, Gloucester Cathedral.

There is little doubt but that in these game-boards we have

137

138 APPENDIX

reliques of the mediaeval games of the fourteenth century
and even of a yet earlier date. If careful search is made in
Cloisters which have not been destroyed or restored, it is
probable that other interesting examples will come to light.
A careful and exhaustive paper by Mr. Micklethwaite
on these mediaeval games will be found in the Archceological
Journal, xlix.

S. PETRONILLA'S ALTAR

THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL DETAIL EXISTING IN CONNECTION
WITH THE GLOUCESTER ABBEY

THE earliest detail connected with the Abbey of Glou-
cester that we possess is connected with this once famous
but now well-nigh forgotten Saint. In the Historia Mon-
asterii S. Petri Gloucestria, a very ancient collection of
documents belonging to the great Benedictine House put
together by Abbot Froucester, circa A.D. 1381, we find an
entry which relates how Kyneburg, the sister of King Osric,
who built the first Gloucester Church, after ruling the
Religious House founded by her brother for twenty-nine
years, was buried before the Altar of S. Petronilla in the
year of grace 710.

Another entry in the same Historia tells us that Queen
Eadburg, the widow of Wulphere, King of the Mercians, the
second Abbess, A.D. 710 to A.D. 735, was buried by the side
of Kyneburg before S. Petronilla s Altar. King Osric him-
self, who built the first church and founded the religious
House, and who died in A.D. 729, was also buried according
to the same record " in ecclesia Sancti Petri coram altari
sanctae Petronillae in aquilonari parte ejusdem Monasterii."

Leland, the secretary of King Henry VIII, writing of

APPENDIX 139

his official visit to Gloucester after the suppression of the
religious House, circa A.D. 1540 — sums up the immemorial
tradition in the following words — " King Osric (the founder)
first laye in S. Petronell's Chapel of the Gloucester Abbey."

Professor Freeman, the historian, comments on these
various notes and entries as follows : "It is certain that
there was a church of some kind, a predecessor, however
humble, of the great Cathedral Church of Gloucester that
now is, at least from the days of Osric (circa A.D. 729).
But more than that we cannot say, except that it contained
an altar of S. Petronilla."

Now who was this S. Petronilla who was thus intimately
connected with our church in the earliest years of its
existence ?

We believe without any hesitation that she was the
daughter of S. Peter, the Lord's Apostle and follower.
Modern scholarship, however, represented by Bishop
Light foot of Durham, denies this, and asserts that the
immemorial derivation of Petronilla from Petro (Petrus),
is etymologically wrong, and that the name Petronilla
is connected, not with Petro but with Petronius — the
founder of the imperial Flavian family. Lightfoot then
proceeds to suggest that Petronilla was a member of the
Flavian House, and became an early convert to Christianity,
and was subsequently buried with other members of the
Flavian family in the Domitilla Cemetery, where her tomb
was recently discovered by De Rossi, the Roman archaeolo-
gist, to whose life-long labours we owe so much of the
Catacomb lore which has excited so much interest in
recent days.

Curiously enough, late Roman Catholic scholars and
writers join hands here with Bishop Lightfoot in denying
the paternity of the great Apostle, but on different grounds.

140 APPENDIX

•

Modern Roman Catholic theology shrinks from acknow-
ledging that S. Peter had a daughter at all, preferring to
believe that S. Peter was free from all family and home ties.

De Rossi, however, with other Italian scholars, sweeps
away the etymological difficulty1 pressed by Lightfoot,
and while declining to give up the ancient " Petrine "
tradition, maintains that Petronilla was a daughter, but
simply a spiritual daughter of the Apostle, in other words
merely an ordinary convert of S. Peter. This curious
explanation of what later theology felt was a difficulty
seems to have been first suggested by Baronius.

The etymological difficulty pressed by Bishop Lightfoot
and other scholars, and the more important doctrinal
question which has perplexed the later Roman Catholic
theologians, in no way seems to have weighed with scholars
and divines in earlier times ; this will be seen from a brief
examination of the estimation in which S. Petronilla has
been ever held.

As early as the closing years of the fourth century,
Siricius, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 391-395, built the important
Basilica lately discovered in the Domitilla cemetery or
catacomb on the Via Ardeatina, but although the Basilica
in question contained the historic tombs of the famous
martyrs SS. Nereus and Achilles, as well as the remains

1 The etymological difficulty suggested by Lightfoot can hardly
be pressed, considering the very free and rough way in which the
Latin tongue was treated at a comparatively early date in the
story of the Roman Empire, when grammar, spelling and prosody
were frequently more or less disregarded, save in highly cultured
circles. This striking disregard of all rules is very conspicuous in
the numberless inscriptions and epitaphs found in the Roman
Catacombs.

The early entries in the so-called Liber Pontificalis show the
same utter disregard of grammar and spelling.

APPENDIX 141

of S. Petronilla, Siricius dedicated the Basilica in question
to S. Petronilla. Surely the Bishop of Rome (Siricius)
would never have dedicated this important and very early
church to a comparatively unknown member of the Flavian
House, still less would he have called it by the name of a
simple convert of the great Apostle. Petronilla in his days
must have possessed some very especial title to honour.

In Siricius' eyes there was evidently no shadow of doubt
that the Petronilla for whom he had so deep a veneration
was the veritable daughter of S. Peter, and as time went
on the devotion which for many centuries was paid to her
remains, is a clear indication of the view which was univer-
sally taken of her illustrious lineage. We will give some
striking examples of this.

THE WANDERINGS OF THE REMAINS OF S. PETRONILLA

The sarcophagus which contained the body of S.
Petronilla rested in its original position in the Basilica of
Siricius until A.D. 787, when it was removed to one of the
little Rotunda Chapels which once stood adjacent to the
south side of the great Church of S. Peter on the Vatican
Hill. The reason for this first translation is singularly
interesting, and shows in a remarkable way the deep
veneration in which the remains of the daughter of S.
Peter were held. S. Peter was specially honoured by the
Prankish nation, and S. Petronilla his daughter, sharing
in this special devotion, was styled by Pope Paul I, circa
A.D. 757, the " auxiliatrix " of Pepin, the king of the Franks,
and when Pope Stephen II, circa A.D. 752, was on a visit
to Pepin's court, he promised as a pledge of the alliance
between the Papacy and the Franks against the Lombards,
to remove the body of S. Petronilla, who was evidently

142 APPENDIX

specially venerated by the Prankish people, of course
owing to her illustrious parentage, from the Basilica of
Siricius on the Via Ardeatina, where it was exposed to
the profanities of Barbarian raiders, to the more secure
shelter of the walls which protected the Church of S. Peter.

This promise was carried out by Paul I, the brother
and successor of Stephen II, circa A.D. 757, and the sarco-
phagus of S. Petronilla was placed in the Rotunda Chapel
above mentioned. This Rotunda Chapel contained the
ashes of the wife of Honorius, Maria the daughter of Stilicho,
and other Imperial remains, but after the translation of
the remains of S. Peter's daughter it was known as the
Chapel of S. Petronilla, and it was especially placed under
the care of the kings of France.

There the body of Petronilla rested until A.D. 1471,
when in consequence of a restoration undertaken at the
cost of Louis XI of France, the sacred sarcophagus was
seen and the ancient simple inscription on it, " Aureliae :
Petronillae : fil : dulcissimae " : was copied. Early in the
fourteenth century, when Old S. Peter's was demolished,
the Rotunda Chapel was pulled down, and the sarcophagus
of S. Petronilla lay for many years neglected in the Sacristy
of New S. Peter's. It was subsequently ruthlessly broken
up when so many ancient monuments perished in the
building work of the New S. Peter's, and the pieces of the
sarcophagus were used as a pavement.

The remains, however, of the Saint were transferred
to a new coffin and were eventually, circa A.D. 1606, placed
under the altar where they now rest. The spot in question
is known as the Chapel of S. Petronilla. It is in the
extreme end of the right transept of S. Peter's. Above
the resting-place of the Saint is a large mosaic copied from
Guercino's picture of Petronilla raised from the tomb.

APPENDIX 143

There is a curious custom belonging to this Chapel,
bearing upon the ancient tradition connecting France
and S. Petronilla. The French Ambassador, after pre-
senting his credentials to the Pope, used at once to visit
this Chapel of S. Petronilla in S. Peter's.

Again reverting to the eighth century testimony above
referred to in the case of the action of Popes Stephen II
and Paul I, when the remains of S. Petronilla were trans-
lated from the Basilica of Siricius to the Rotunda Chapel
by the great church — there was a striking witness to what
was the general belief of that age in the parentage of the
then famous Saint, in an inscription on an altar at Bourges
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints,
an inscription attributed to Alcuin, the Minister of
Charlemagne, circa A.D. 790. The inscription consists of
eight hexameter lines. One line runs thus : " Et Petronilla
patris praeclari filia Petri."

In England, besides the famous reference to the Altar
and Chapel of S. Petronilla in the ancient church of Osric
at Gloucester, there is only one church known to be
dedicated to S. Petronilla; it is at Whepstead, near Bury
S. Edmunds, where her name is curiously abbreviated as
S. Parnel.

The close connection between the Royal Mercian and
Northumbrian family of Osric, the founder of the Abbey
(Cathedral) of Gloucester, and S. Petronilla, the daughter
of S. Peter, the Saint so strangely venerated by the
Frankish peoples, is unknown.

INDEX

AACHEN, Palace-chapel of, 22,

23. 53

" Abbeys of Expiation," 39
Agatha, 73
Agilulf, King of the Lombards,

14, 18

Aix-la-Chapelle, 27
Aix-la-Chapelle, Palace-chapel

of, 22, 23, 69
Alaric, 7

Albertus Magnus, 83
Albigensian Wars, 30
Alboin the Lombard, 6, 12, 14,

J5. 53

Alcuin (the Minister of Charle-
magne), 143
Alfred, King, 22
Amalasuntha, 10
Amiens, Cathedral of, 33, 53,

61
Anacletus, 97, 97 note, 98, 100,

105, 108, 109, no, in, 114,

118, 119, 120, 122
Angles, 26

Anglo-Saxons, 38, 39
Angouleme, 27
Anselm, S., 51
Antoniano, Cardinal, 117
Apollinaris, Sidonius, Bishop of

Clermont, 25
Apostles, Church of the

(Cologne), 24
Appian Way, 99, 122
Aquinas, 83
Aquitaine, 26, 29, 30, 33 note,

36,69
Arcadius, 7
Arliano, Church of (near Lucca),

19

Armellini, 118
Ataulphus, 7
Athalaric, 10
Augustine, 21, 88, 133
Augustus, Emperor, 10 note, 68

note
Aungre (Chipping Ongar),

Chapel near, 22
Autharis, King of the Lombards,

14, 16, 18
Auvergne, 25, 69
Auxerre, 27
Auxerre, Crypt of Cathedral of,

102
" Ave Maria," the, 82

Bangor, 89

Barberini, Cardinal. See Urban

VIII

Barcelona, 7
Barnes, Mgr., 112 note, 113,

117

Baronius, 140
Basil, Emperor, 48
Bayeux, 44

Beauvais Cathedral, 61, 62
Bec-Herlouin, 44
Becket, S. Thomas a, 103
Bede, 21, 51
Belisarius, 6, 10
Bellarmine, Cardinal, 117
Benedict, S., 51
Benedictines, the, 19 note, 138
Benedictines of Cluny, 34, 103,

129

Bernay, Church at, 36
Bernini, 118, 119, 120
Besan$on, Crypt of, 102
Beverley, 92

144

INDEX

145

Big Ben (Houses of Parliament,

London), 53
Biscop, Benedict, 21
Bonanni, 117
Bona ventura, 83
Bond, Mr., 56

Bonn, Minster Church of, 24
Bordeaux, 27, 102
Bourges, Cathedral of, 33, 61
Brescia, 19
Brixworth Church, 21
Builder, The, quoted, 60 note
Burgundy, 31, 32, 90
Byzantine Empire, Artists, etc.,

12, 13, 20, 47

Caen, 37, 44

Caius, Presbyter, 98, 109

Cambridge, 21

Canterbury, Canterbury Cathe-
dral, and Crypt, 21, 40, 91,
102, 103, 129, 137

Carlisle, 89

Carolingian princes, 23

Cassiodorus, 135

Catacombs, the, 84 note, 101

Catechumens, 127

Caumont, M. de, 3

Cecilia, 73

Cerisy le Foret, Church at, 36

Charlemagne, 19, 22, 23, 26, 41,
53. 69, 115

Chartres, and Cathedral, and
Crypt of, 27, 33, 61, 102, 136
note

Cherubim, 81

Chester, 89

Chichester, and Cloisters of, 89,

137

Chipping Ongar, 22
Christ Church, Oxford, 40, 89
Christianity in Britain, 86, 87,

88, 90

Chrysostom, S. John, 77
Cistercians, 31, 32, 83
Citeaux, 31, 32
Classis, 9, 10 note
Clement, 133
L

Clement VIII, 117

Clermont Ferrand, Church of,

25
Cluny, and Abbey and Monks

of, 29, 31, 31 note, 32, 34,

34 note, 37, 42, 44, 91, 103,

129

Coblenz, 24
Cologne, 24, 27
Cologne Cathedral, 23, 53
Columba, 90
Comacine Builders and Guild,

the, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 34, 41,

42, 45, 47. 50, 53. 54
Comacine Islands, 15
Como, 15, 1 6
Constantine, 100, 109, no, in,

117, 120, 127
Constantinople, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13,

20, 20 note, 25, 50, 57, 68,

68 note, 70, 72, 78, 106, 123
Constantius (Augustus), 7, 8
Creighton, Bishop, no note
Crusades, 50, 56, 79, 80, 81,

84

Ctesiphon, Palace of, 56
Cyprian, 133

Dalmatia, 41

Danes, 26

De Lasterie, 56

De Rossi, 139, 140

Diaconus, Paulus, 18, 18 note,
19 note

Dijon, Abbey of S. Benignus at,
34, 36, 42, 102

Diocletian, 4, 5, 53

Dol, Church of, 89

Dominicans, 82

Domitilla Cemetery, 139, 140

Drei, Benedetto, 118

Dunstan, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, 22

Durandus, Bishop of Mende
(Mimatensis), 50, 51, 135, 136,
136 note

Durham Cathedral, 40, 44, 70,
89, 137

146

INDEX

Eadburg, Queen, 138
Edward the Confessor, 22, 88
Egypt, 56
Eleutherius, 122
Eleutherus, S., 102
Ely Cathedral, 40, 43, 70, 89
Emporium by the Tiber, 4
England, 20, 21, 22, 33 note, 38,

42, 54, 58, 61
Engles, 86, 92
Enlart, 56

Ethelred II (the Unready), 22
Ethelwolf, 1 1 6, 129
Eudes de Montreuil, 62
Eulalia, 73
Evarestus, 122
Evelyn, 5 note, 55
Exarchate, the, 12
Exeter, 89

Fecamp, 36, 44
Flavian family, 139, 141
France, 25, 26, 28, 32, 33 note,
59, 61, 62, 69, 90, 91, 131, 142,

143

Franciscans, 83
Franks, the, 141, 142, 143
Freeman, Professor, 4, 5, 5 note,

20, 139
Frisians, 26

Froucester, Abbot, 138
Fulda, 23

Garimbert, 135

Garonne, River, 27

Gascony, 29

Gaul, 20, 20 note, 24, 26, 27,

28, 33, 69, 72, 89, 91, 101, 102
Germany, 20, 22, 23, 24, 41
Gernrode, 23
Gerville, M. de, 3
Giacomo della Porta, 117
Glanber, Raoul, 29
Gloucester Abbey, 40, 43, 44,

71, 88, 138, 139
Gloucester Cathedral, 52, 60,

61, 62, 67, 70, 74, 81, 85, 86,

90, 91, 102 (Crypt), 104

(Crypt), 104, 127, 128, 131^

' 133, 134. 137, 143

Goths, 10, 55

" Great Peter " (Bell in Glou-
cester Cathedral), 52

Great Torn (Oxford), 53

Greece, 50, 84, 133

Greek architecture, 55

Greek or Eastern Church, 106

Gregory of Tours, 25

Gregory the Great, 79

Gueranger of Solesmes, Dom,
136 note

Guercino, 142

Guienne, 29

Guimond, Chaplain of Henry I,

4°

Guizot, 26
Gundulph, 40

Hadrian I, Pope, 114, 115, 129

Hanley, Abbot, 90

Henry II of England, 38

Henry III of England, 88

Heraclius, Emperor, 78

Heralds' College, the, 55

Herbert of Losinga, Prior of
Fecamp, 40

Hereford Cathedral, 43, 89

Hexham, Basilica of S. Andrew,
21

Hexham, Crypt of, 102

Holy Apostles, Church of the
(Constantinople), 68, 70

Holy Cross, Church of (Ra-
venna), 8

Honorius, 6, 7, 8, 15, 16, 25, 53,
142

Hood, Thomas, 55 note

Hook, Theodore, 55 note

Hutton, Edward, 73, 74

Hyginus, 122

He de France, 32, 59
Ireland, 86
Irenaeus, 133

Italy, 6, 7, 9, 15, 17, 41, 48, 72,
86, 90

INDEX

147

Jackson, Sir Thomas, 28, 29

note, 31, 33 note
Jarrow, 21
Jerome, 133
Jerusalem, and the Temple of,

45, 5°. 79, 105, 106, 108
[esus Christ, 108 note
[ohn, Abbot of Seez, 40
[ohn, King of England, 38
[ouarre, Crypt of, 102
[ulia, Basilica (Roman Forum),

68 note

Julius II, Pope, no note
Jumieges, Abbey of, 43
Jumieges, Church at, 36
Justinian, 3, 6, 10, 13, 14, 16,
20, 25, 53, 57, 68, 68 note, 70,

72, 73. 78
Jutes, 26, 86, 92

Kaiser Bell in Cathedral of

Cologne, 53

Kioto Monastery, Japan, 53
Kyneburg, 138

Lanciani, 101, 117

Lanfranc, 36, 37, 40, 54

Languedoc, 30

Laon, Cathedral of, 33, 89

Leland (Secretary to King Henry

VIII), 138
Leo IV, Pope, 116
Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham,

139, 140, 140 note
Lincoln, 43, 89, 91
Lindisfarne, Priory Church of,

89
Linus, Bishop, 97, 108, 121,

122
" Lion of the tribe of Judah,"

Liutbrand, King, 14
Loire, River, 27
Lombard, Peter, 83
Lombards, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,

141

Lombardy, 20, 53
London, 22, 106

Lorsch, Sepulchral Chapel at,

23

Louis of Wissobrun, 135
Louis II, Emperor, 115
Louis XI of France, 142
Lucca, 5 note, 19
Lyons, 25

Macedonia, 20 note

Macon, 31

Maderno, 117

Magi, or Wise Men, 84 note,

85

Mahommed, 79
Maieul, 34

Mainz, Cathedral of, 24
Malvern Abbey, 43
Maria (daughter of Stilicho),

142

Martel, Charles, 26
Martin, Abbot of Bee, 40
Marucchi, 117
Mary, the Virgin, 77, 78, 79, 80,

81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 123, 143
Matilda (queen of William I),

37

Meaux, Cathedral of, 33
Mediterranean Sea, 26
Metz, 27

Micklethwaite, J. T., 137, 138
Milan, 6, 41, 42, 48
Milman, Dean, 80 note
Moissac, Abbey of (Tarn-et-

Garonne), 131
Monkwearmouth, 21
Monreale, Cloisters of (Sicily),

I31

Mont S. Michel, 44
Mont S. Michel, Church at,

36

Montalembert, 134
Monte -Cassino, 19, 115
Montmajeure, Abbey of, 131
Moscow, 52, 53, 106
Muratori, 18

Narses, 6, 10
Nero, 107, 121

148

INDEX

New Monthly Magazine (Col-
burn), quoted, 55 note
Newquay, 93
Nicodemus, 108 note
Nola, 51
Norman Conquest of England,

38, 39
Normandy, 28, 33 note, 36, 43,

50, 54

Normans, the, 88
Northmen, 27, 32, 87, 89, 94
Norwich Castle, 137
Norwich Cathedral, 40, 43, 70,

131. 137

Notre Dame of Paris, 61
Notre Dame, Paris, Bell in,

Noyon, Cathedral of, 33

Odin, 92

Odoaces, 9

Old Sarum, 89

Old S. Peter's Church (Rome),

103, no, 142
Origen, 133
Orleans, 27, 52, 102
Osric, King, 138, 139
Osric, Church of (Gloucester),

J43

Ostian Way, 109
Otto the Great, 23
Oxford, Crypt of, 102

Palgrave, 26

Palmieri, 118

Pantheon, the, 119

Paris, 32, 128

Paris, Cathedral of, 33

Paris, Matthew, 39, 39 note

Parvis Notre Dame of Paris,

128
Paul I, Pope, 114, 141, 142,

*43

Paul V, Pope, 117
Paul, Monk of S. Etienne, Caen,

40

Pavia, 1 8
73

Pelagius II, 114

Pepin, King of France, 114,

141

Perigneux, 30
Perigord, 30
Perpetuus, Bishop, 45
Perranporth, 93
Perranzabuloe, Church of, 92,

93

Peterborough, Abbey of, 40
Peterborough Cathedral, 70
Petronius, 139
Philip Augustus, King, 32
Piedmont, 34 note
Pisa, 5 note
Pius I, 122

Pius IX, Pope, 83 note
Placidia, Galla, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14,

16, 25, 53

Pliny the Younger, 15
Poitiers, 27
Poitou Limousin, 29
Procopius, 9
Provence, 26, 30, 33 note,

69

Prudentius, 122
Puritans, the, 132
Pusey, Dr., 83 note

Quedlingburn, Church at, 23
Quicherat, 25, 26, 27, 28

Ravenna, 5, 5 note, 6, 7, 9, 10,
10 note, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18,

41. 48> 50, 53. 69, 70, 72, 74,

136 note

Repton, Crypt of, 102
Rhine, River, 101, 102
Rhone, River, 27
Richard I of England, 38
Richard II (le Bon), Duke of

Normandy, 36, 42, 50, 54
Ripon, S. Peter's, and Crypt of,

21, 102
Rivoira, 19, 20 note, 23, 28, 48,

68, 69 note

Robert, King of France, 52
Roberto, Lord of Volpiano, 34

INDEX

149

Rochester Cathedral and Crypt S.

of, 40, 90, 1 02

Rodelinda, Queen, 18 S.

Roman Architecture, 55
Roman Architects and Builders,

Guild of, 1 6
Romans, 50
Rome, 4, 6, 15, 18, 24, 47, 69

note, 86, 90, 97-101, 105-109,

"5, 133

Romulus Augustulus, 9 S.

"Rosary" (form of prayer), S.

82
Rotharis, King of the Lombards, S.

14, 15, 16, 53 S.

Rouen, 27, 44

Rouen, Cathedral of, 33, 131 S.
Rutebeuf, 132 S.

S,

Sabinianus, Pope, 51 S.

S. Achilles, 140
S. Agata, Church of (Ravenna), S,

8
S. Agnan, Church of (Orleans), S,

52 S.

S. Agnes, Church of (Rome), 47,

101 S
S. Agnese, Church of (Rome), 69

note S
S. Albans, Abbey at, 40, 43

S. Ambrogio, Church of (Milan), S

42

S. Andrew, Basilica of (Hexham) , S

21 S
S. Andrew's Church, Cambridge,

21 S

S. Apollinare, 9 S

S. Apollinare in Classe, Church S

of (Ravenna), 10, 10 note,

48 S

S. Apollinare Nuovo, Church of S

(Ravenna), 9, 48, 73, 74 S

S. Avitus, Crypt of (Orleans), S

102 S
S. Basil, 79

S. Benigno de Fruttuaria, S
Monastery of (Piedmont), 34 S
note

Benignus, Abbey of (Dijon),
34, 36, 42

Benignus, Crypt of Church of
(Dijon), 102

Bernard of Clairvaux, 79, 84
Callistus, Cemetery of, 122
Castor, Church of (Coblenz), 24

S.
S.
S.
S.
S. Clementi, Church of (Rome),

Clement, 73

ti, Cl

I7
Cyprian, 73

Cyriacus, Church of (Gern-
rode), 23
Cyril, 78

Denys, Church of (near Paris),
102, 103
Dominic, 82
Edmund, 22
Etienne, Church at, 37
Eutropius, Crypt of (Saintes),
102

Francesco, Church of (Ra-
venna), 8
Francis, 82
Front, Church of (Perigueux),

3°

Gereon, Church of (Cologne),

24
, Giorgio, Church of (Valpoli-

cella), 19
. Giovanni Evangelista, Church

of (Ravenna), 8, 48
. Giulia, Island of, 34 note
. Gregory I, Pope (the Great),

. Gregory III, Pope, 114
. Gregory of Tours, 112, 113
. Gwithian, Church of, 91, 92,

93

. John, 84, 85

. John Lateran, Cloisters of, 131
. Laurence, 73
. Leo III, 114
. Lorenzo, Church of (Rome),

69 note, 101
. Louis, 62, 63, 132
. Maria im Capitol, Church of

(Cologne), 24

150

INDEX

S. Mark's, Church of (Venice),

30. 70
S. Martin, Church of (Cologne),

24
S. Martin (S. Apollinare Nuovo),

Church of (Ravenna), 9
S. Martin, Church of (Tours), 25,

S. Mary Magdalene, 102

S. Medard of Soissons, Crypt of,

102
S. Michael, Church of (Fulda),

23
S. Michel, Mont, Abbey

(Normandy), 131
S. Nazianzus, 78
S. Nereus, 140

S. Ouen (Rouen), Church at, 36
S. Parnel, Church of (Whep-

stead), 143

S. Paul, 73, 99, 107, 109, 121
S. Paul's Church, Jarrow, 21
S. Paul, Church of (Rome), 101,

131

S. Peran in Sabulo, 92, 93
S. Peter, 99, 105-113, 115, 121,

122, 123, 139-141, 143
S. Peter's Abbey (Gloucester),

9i
S. Peter, Abbey Church of

(Westminster Abbey), 22
S. Peter's Church, Monkwear-

mouth, 21

S. Peter's Church, Ripon, 21
S. Peter's Church (Rome), 97, 97

note, 99, 109, no, no note,

117, 118, 119, 141, 142, 143
S. Peter at Rome, Crypt of,

105-123

S. Peter's tomb, 100
S. Petronilla, Church of (Rome),

101
S. Petronilla and S. Petronilla's

Altar, 138-143
S. Pietro, Church of (Toscanella),

19
S. Prassede, Church of (Rome),

47

S. Quatuor Coronati, Church of

(Rome), 69 note
S. Rusticus, 102
S. Salvatore, Church of (Brescia),

19
S. Salvatore, Church of

(Spoleto), 69 note
S. Satiro, Church of (Milan), 42,

48
S. Sebastian, Basilica (Rome),

99
S. Sebastian, Church of (Rome),

101
S. Sernin, Church of (Toulouse),

30
>. Seurin,

S. Seurin, Church of (Bordeaux),
102

S. Sixtus, 73

S. Sophia, Basilica of (Con-
stantinople), 6

S. Sophia, Church of (Con-
stantinople), 13, 20 note, 25,
50, 68, 70, 72

S. Sophia, Church of (Salonica),
20 note

S. Teuteria, Church of (Verona),
19

S. Theodore (Spirito Sancto),
Church of, 10

S. Trophimus of Aries, Abbey of,
131

S. Vitale, Church of (Ravenna),
10, 23, 50, 69, 70

SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Church
of (Constantinople), 70

Saintes, 102

Salisbury Cathedral, 89, 91, 137

Salonica, 20 note, 68 note, 72

Saracens, 26, 56, 78, 115, 116,
117

Saxons, 26, 86, 92

Scarborough Castle, 137

Scheldt, River, 27

Scott, Leader, 45, 47

Seez, 44

Seine, River, 27

Seraphim, 81

Sergius I, Pope, 114

INDEX

Sergius II, Pope, 115

Serlo, Monk of Mont S. Michel,

Normandy, 40
Serlo and Aldred, Abbey of,

90

Sfondriato, Cardinal, 117
Sicily, 115, 131
Silchester, 87
Simeon, Monk of S. Ouen,

Rouen, 40
Siricius, Bishop of Rome, 140,

141, 142, 143
Sixtus I, 122
Soissons Cathedral, 131
Soissons, Cathedral of, 33
Solomon, King, 45
Solomon's Knot, 47
Southwell Abbey, 40
Southwell Cathedral, 70
Spalatro, 4, 5, 53
Spires, Church of, 102
Spires, Cathedral of, 24
Spirito Sancto, Church of, 10
Spoleto, 69 note
Steinbach, Church at, 23
Stephen, King of England, 38
Stephen II, Pope, 141, 142,

M3

Stephen, Sir James, 26
Strasburg, Crypt of, 102
Suger, Abbot of S. Denys near

Paris, 102
Syria, 50, 56
Szyrma, Mr. Lach, 92

Telesphorus, 122

Tertullian, 98, 133

Teutons, 106

Tewkesbury Abbey, 40, 43, 44

Theodolinda, Queen, 13, 14,

18

Theodora, Empress, 72
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 6, 8,

9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 53, 73
Theodosius I, the Great, 6, 7
Theodosius II, 7
Thessalonica, 68
Thor, 92

Times, The, quoted, 60 note

Titus, 105

Torrigio, 118

Toscanella, 19

Toul, 27

Toul Cathedral, 131

Toulouse, 27, 30

Tournai, 27

Tournai, Cathedral of, 69

Tours, 26, 27, 45

Treves, 27

Trinite, Church of the (Caen),

37

Troyes, 27
Tsar Kolokol of Moscow Bell,

52, 53

Tulun, Mosque of, 56
Turks, 4

Ubaldi, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122,

123
Urban VIII (Cardinal Bar-

berini), 118

Valentinian II, 7, 8, 9

Valpolicella, 19

Vandals, 55

Vatican Hill, the, 100, 107, 109,

113, 118, 121
Venice, 30, 70
Verdun, 27
Verona, 19
Vezelay, 32, 33 note
Vezelay, Crypt of, 102
Via Caesarea, the, 10 note
Victor, Bishop of Rome, 122
Villemain, 26
Viollet le Due, 26, 28, 50, 136

note

Vitruvius, 5 note
Volpiano, William of, 34, 34

note, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 44,

5°> 54

Wace, 39

Walkelin, Monk of S. Etienne,
Caen, 40

152 INDEX

West, Dr., 60 note Winchester, Crypt of, 102

Westminster Abbey, 22, 61, 88, Wing, Crypt of, 102

141 Worcester (Church of), Crypt of,

Whepstead, 143 90, 102

Wilfred, Bishop, 21, 102 Worms, Cathedral of, 24

William I of England, 22, 37, 39, Wulphere, King of the Mercians,

42, 43 i38

William II of England, 38 Wyclif, 132
William of S. Carileph, 40, 44

Winchester, 129 York, 129

Winchester Cathedral, 40, 43, York Cathedral, 61, 89, 91

70, 89 York Minster, Crypt of, 102

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