Anglo-Saxon church

“ The names, too, of other writers, namely, Caedmon and the Venerable Bede, add their lustre at this period to those of Church dignitaries. Daily growing more prosperous, the Anglo-Saxon Church reached its golden age in the early part of the 8th century. But we read that—
“Intemperance, impurity and greed of gold soon became rampant. ”

“ If in England a show of dignitaries is attached to each of those establishments, it is merely a form well calculated to impress the solemn Anglo-Saxon character; but even that very form would scarcely have existed were it not one of those few semblances of the Catholic reality which the wily founders of the Protestant religion found it convenient to retain for the purpose hinted at. The Catholic Church alone can understand what a cathedral ought to be. ”

“ Nor can they claim on the ground of greater similarity of doctrine, for transubstantiation, the worship of saints and images, half communion, constrained celibacy, &c., the doctrines and practices which distinguish the modern Romanists, were unknown to the Anglo-Saxon Church. Admitting, then, that we may differ in some particulars of practice from our ancestors, yet certainly we do not differ from them so much as the modern Romanists. ”

“ As the Anglo-Saxon is usually blankly ignorant and blatantly incredulous with regard to all that side of nature, a very curious thing has happened. Consciously or unconsciously the Roman Church has come into that heritage, and profits by what still remains of the power of that ancient spell, and her rule is unquestioned through all the districts where long ago those priests of an older faith established their magnetic centres. ”

“ It was then that the mother church began to complain of simony being practised in England, of Saxon bishops who had purchased their sees; not that the church of Rome was herself guiltless of such transactions, but that she objected to a system in which she partook not of the profits. The storm first broke over the head of Eldred, archbishop of York, who, when he went to Rome to solicit the pallium, was refused, and it was only through the interference of a Saxon nobleman that he at last obtained it. Robert, the Norman archbishop of Canterbury, had again been driven from his see by the Saxons ”

“ One point we must remark, to the eternal honour of the Anglo-Norman, and indeed also of the Saxon Church, deadly as was the hatred existing between the two peoples, for at least a hundred and fifty years after the conquest, it has left no symbolical trace, either in the churches of the vanquishers, or of the vanquished. ”

“ The church consists of a nave and chancel, and has every characteristic of Anglo-Saxon work strongly developed. [10]
At Jarrow-on-the Tyne the chancel of the Saxon church remains. It has few characteristic features. The windows are of a very pristine form, in this case with no external splay, the jambs of upright stones with horizontal stones for imposts, and arches cut out of single stones. They had been walled up at a very early date to a certain thickness from the exterior with very small perforations,—some circular and some more elongated,—in the filling up wall. ”

“ These three Saxon Archbishops, and especially the circumstances of the death of the last, invested the Church of Canterbury with a solemnity and sanctity it had never before possessed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle speaks of the mighty miracles done at the tomb of St. Alphage at St. Paul's. What might not now take place when the first Martyr of the Anglican Archiepiscopate lay buried in honour in his own Cathedral? The people had already reckoned Alphage as a Saint, but until convinced by Anselm in 1078 Archbishop Lanfranc would not look upon him as a Martyr. ”

“ And, independently of all foreign culture, mysticism, deeply rooted in humanity, grew freely on Anglo-Saxon soil; not always with quiet grace, as in the Cambridge school under the husbandry of learning, but with twisted roots, gnarled trunks, and oddly-forked branches, bent and torn by those political and theological storms which swept so wildly over the whole country. ”

“ Though the Anglo-Saxon race are believed generally to have less sympathy with transcendental views than Spaniards, Germans, or Frenchmen, yet it is a fact that nowhere as in this country has mysticism produced a distinct and permanent ecclesiastical organization. ”

“ Their architecture still glows with faith in immortality. Good churches are not built by bad men; at least, there must be probity and enthusiasm somewhere in society.
England felt the full heat of the Christianity which fermented Europe, and, like the chemistry of fire, drew a firm line between barbarism and culture. When the Saxon instinct had secured a service in the vernacular tongue the Church was the tutor and university of the people. ”

“ He taught that particular theology and doctrine to the Anglo-Saxons hat five hundred years afterwards was stated by the Reformers to be the Theology and Doctrine of the Church of England, and it certainly was accepted as such in his own day. ”

“ Saxon churches were probably first built by Roman workmen, whose erections would teach sufficient to enable Saxons to afterward build for themselves. Imported talent, however, is likely to have been constantly employed. Edward the Confessor brought back with him from France new French designs for the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, and doubtless he brought French masons also. Anglo-Norman is strongly Byzantine in character, and though the channels through which it passed may be various, there is little doubt that its origin was the great Empire of the East. ”

“ Every bishop set to work to rebuild his cathedral church, or to build a new one in the place to which his see had been removed. This leads to the inference that the old Saxon cathedrals were comparatively small, in an inferior style of architecture, and perhaps out of repair. Many of the lords of manors seem to have rebuilt the parish churches, and to have built new churches in remote parts of their estates. [75] The bishops also made provision for the spiritual wants of the people more especially dependent upon them ”

“ Before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons the church seems to have established a firm hold on the people, who held tenaciously to their possessions, both secular and religious, which were only wrested from them after a severe struggle. Their enthusiastic love of Christianity led them to make a heroic defence of the churches, rather than see them fall into the hands of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. ”

“ He does not, however, concede that we have any examples of Saxon churches which once actually formed parts of such temples. In all cases, the form and orientation of the churches, he asserts, betray an ecclesiastical origin. The churches may point to a survival of Romano-British Christianity, but that is another question [78] . Nevertheless, as Professor Brown himself notes, Silchester parish church was built close to the remains of two small Roman shrines of Gaulish type. ”

“ Churches and Monasteries, which had been built with loving care, were burned and ruthlessly levelled to the ground. Many Christian priests and people were slaughtered.
To find Christianity now you must follow the surviving Britons. We must follow them into Wales and Cornwall, and other mountainous districts of Britain. We know very little of the doings of the British Christians after this Saxon invasion for many years. They kept up, as well as they were able, their old Church life. They held Synods and Church Councils. They founded new Sees in the districts where they were forced to reside. ”

“ It is more like a catacomb than a basilica, for the world is buried deep in sorrows and fears. Look to any of the Saxon churches of the period when the Romanesque prevailed, and they are low, gloomy, and damp, though massive and solemn. The church as an edifice ever represents the Church as an institution or a power, ever typifies prevailing sentiments and ideas. Perhaps the finest of the old Romanesque churches was that of Cluny, in Burgundy, destroyed during the French Revolution. It had five aisles, and was five hundred and twenty feet in length. ”

“ The man without means or protection was treated as an outlaw. This was heathenism and not Christianity. The grand humanitarian, philanthropic principles of the Christian religion were taught the Saxon heathen from the very first by the Christian missionaries. Unquestionably these missionaries found poor, outcast Anglo-Saxons to whom they preached the Gospel, and assisted them with their charity and protection. This was the special function of the bishops and their clergy in their dioceses, and monks in their monasteries. ”

“ Therefore, although a valuable foundation to start with, much more may still be ascertained from manuscripts, public and private, particularly with regard to the lesser religious houses or cells to foreign abbeys.
Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons was a missionary undertaking, therefore it encouraged the foundation of organizing centres; but these seem at first to have rather taken the form of bishoprics than abbeys; still, information as to the early Church in England does not exist sufficiently in detail to permit us to state clearly the actual religious work or its method of working. ”

“ The perplexity which arises here is due to the plentiful re-use of old work by the builders, the presence of [116] which in unexpected places makes the history of the building a nearly insoluble puzzle. The church reached its present length about 1140, when probably the Saxon nave was left as the west part of a church, which was now of the same width the whole way through, and had no chancel arch. Some forty years later, narrow aisles of three bays were added to the nave ”

“ Looking through the distorted medium of their Saxon prejudices, grown stronger with time, and freshly stimulated by the recent definition of Papal Infallibility, they have worked themselves into the belief—seeing the church only on the outside, as they do—that she is purely a human institution, grown slowly, by the controlling action of the Latin-Celtic instincts, through centuries, to her present formidable proportions. ”

“ That seems too small, and I think I saw no seat for a congregation of more than two—his housekeeper and under maid. Perhaps the paying guests are sent to the parish church. But suppose the rector of Malling (I know nothing of him) should be an Evangelical? One thing is certain. They will have to go to church somewhere, and to go often.
For nearly a thousand years the tower of this old abbey has stood where it now stands, and who knows for how many years the Saxon church which laid its foundations stood there before it? ”

“ The name of Canons as applied to Cathedral Clerks has not yet occurred in documents of English origin; and yet the custom of monachism has apparently become extinct in this, their original seat, for although the Canterbury tradition (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Anno 870) placed their extinction under the pontificate of Ceolnoth (833) , they are evidently obsolete under Wulfred (813) . We are unable to say whether the Cathedral Monastery at Canterbury originally contained both monks and secular priests, the latter of whom may have gradually edged out the former ”

“ The religious houses, which were the centres of evangelization in the early missionary phase of the history, were often founded by royal and noble persons, who were not seldom themselves the first abbots and abbesses, and handed down their houses and offices as hereditary possessions. The parish churches were founded by the lords of the land, who made the advowson appendant to the manor, and very usually brought up a younger son to be the spiritual rector of the family estate. The natural result of all this would be that a large proportion of the Saxon clergy would be men of good family ”

“ The space that lies between us and these men of mark seems bridged by a span as we contemplate their work and try to understand it.
As we complete our circuit of the East end, and stand at that of the south transept, we shall be struck with a conspicuous range of ruined arches built into the Canons' residences to the south-east. These are the remains of the Infirmary; which we have seen to play such an important part in the life of the Abbey. It had its own chapel, hall and kitchen, and stood on the site of the original Saxon church. ”

“ The Saxon church, built in 1036, was occupied as a monastic church in 1140, when a monastery of the Augustinians was founded. In 1200, and also in 1350, extensive additions were made. In the church the Jesse window on the north side is unique, for the figures are carved in stone. The east window is a remarkable example of Decorated work; there is a massive buttress in the centre, and the whole of the spaces are occupied by reticulated tracery. The recumbent effigies, dating from 1200 to 1410, are very interesting, while a brass of the Henry V. period lies in the floor. ”

“ Roman Catholic churches are sometimes found to have unorthodox alinements, but not so generally as is commonly believed. Frequently, the so-called lack of orientation simply means that the position of the altar is reversed. Thus, St George’s Cathedral, in Westminster, like St Peter’s at Rome, has its altar at the West end. But since the axis in these cases, as in that of the little Anglican church at Well, previously mentioned, lies East and West, I prefer to consider these churches as not fundamentally violating the rule. ”

“ William sought to limit the exercise of the Papal authority in his new kingdom by a decree that the Pope should send no legates and no bulls without the consent of the Crown, and that his own subjects should make no appeal to Rome without the Crown’s permission. But, in fact, a considerable change gradually took place in the practical relations of the English Church to the Roman see. The Saxon Church had been isolated, the bishops and clergy had been eminently a national [Pg 86] clergy, with practically no one above them and no one between them and their flocks. ”