Part 7

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-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.”[21]

“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 thirteenth 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 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 everywhere 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 commanding 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 conspicuous 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 mediæval period, for the years which witnessed its completion were the years which 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 mediæval 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 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 affection 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.[22]

* * * * *

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 opinion. Outside the Catacomb pictures which here are indeed few in number and very simple, and give no support whatever to the lofty mediæval conceptions of Mary;[23] 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 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 remarkable features which have, I believe, generally escaped 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 Christianity came originally to this Island from another centre than Rome or Italy.

This square-ended form for churches, impressed upon Britain by unknown missionaries, is of immemorial antiquity. 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[24] 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 discovered 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 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 companion missionaries, as may have been expected, introduced 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 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 churches, comparatively small and unimportant, are, however, 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 mediæval 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 determined 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 transformation, Gloucester has become square-ended, thus preserving in the mighty abbey of the Severn Lands, the immemorial 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.

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 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 filled 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_ A.D. 1880. Its previous existence was suspected owing to a very faint local tradition, when it suddenly partly reappeared 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 Perranzabuloe 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 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