Glastonbury Abbey

“ And at Glastonbury also there were the ruins of a great Benedictine church and abbey that had once rivalled Salisbury. Thence they would go on to Wells to see yet another great cathedral and to dine and sleep. Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral brought the story of Europe right up to Reformation times.
“That will be a good day for us,” said Sir Richmond. “It will be like turning over the pages of the history of our family, to and fro. There will be nothing nearly so old as Avebury in it, but there will be something from almost every chapter that comes after Stonehenge. ”

“ It is obvious that it is nonsense as well as vandalism to separate Glastonbury Abbey from Glastonbury. I can understand a man venerating it as a ruin; and I can understand a man despising it as a rubbish-heap. ”

“ In the shelves were ranged many printed books and curious manuscripts, in part the plunder of Glastonbury Abbey; and in truth never was typography clearer, or more beautiful than in the first century of its existence; nor on the other hand was caligraphy, as exemplified in ancient missals and breviaries, ever more a work of art than when about to be superseded by the printing press.
But Sir John was not thinking of these things, his evil heart was full of bitterness.
There is an old Spanish proverb,—“The man who has injured thee, will never forgive thee.” ”

“ Though the ruins of Glastonbury are somewhat scanty, they possess an attraction unrivalled for the antiquarian. Of the abbey church only the east piers of the central tower, a single east bay of both transepts with triforium and clerestory, the south wall of the choir, part of the south nave aisle, and the chapel of St Mary remain. The latter is situated in the north transept. The church was originally cruciform, consisting of nave with aisles ”

“ Old Glastonbury Abbey.—Its Library.—John of Taunton.—Richard Whiting.—Malmsbury.—Bookish Monks of Gloucester Abbey.—Leofric of Exeter and his private library.—Peter of Blois. Extracts from his letters.—Proved to have been a great classical student, etc., etc.
he fame of Glastonbury Abbey will attract the steps of the western traveller; and if he possess the spirit of an antiquary, his eye will long dwell on those mutilated fragments of monkish architecture. The bibliophile will regard it with still greater love ”

“ The antiquary will now search in vain for any vestige of the abbey library; even the spot on which it stood is unknown to the curious.
No christian, let his creed be what it may, who has learnt from his master the principles of charity and love, will refuse a tear to the memory of Richard Whiting, the last of Glastonbury's abbots. Poor old man! Surely those white locks and tottering limbs ought to have melted a Christian heart; but what charity or love dwelt within the soul of that rapacious monarch? Too old to relinquish his long cherished superstitions ”

“ That was the life pursued at Glastonbury Abbey, according to the Benedictine rule, from the time of its establishment there until the dissolution of the monastery, nearly ten centuries. With our modern training and predilections, it is a marvel to us that men could be found willing to submit to such a monotonous career—ten hours a day spent in the church, beginning in the middle of the night, winter and summer. ”

“ This instance of the way in which the numbers in the monastic houses were diminished by the sickness, and by its effect on the general population of the country were prevented from ever again increasing to their former proportions, may be strengthened by the case of Glastonbury. This great abbey of the west of England has ever been regarded as in many respects the most important of the English Benedictine houses. It is not too much to suppose that in the period of its greatest prosperity it must have counted probably a hundred members. ”

“ Nor were they idle, these monks of Glastonbury—some taught in the abbey school, others toiled in the orchards, and the beauty of the stained glass, designed within the abbey walls, found fame far and wide.
Richard Whiting was Abbot of Glastonbury when, in 1539, Henry VIII. ordered inquiries to be made into the condition and property of the abbey. Altho he recognized the monarch as supreme head of the church, he respected the Glastonbury traditions and met the "visitors" in a spirit of passive resistance. ”

“ The old Abbot of Glastonbury—infirm and broken—hangs on the gallows erected on the Tor overlooking his once famous Abbey on a bleak November morning in 1539, strong in his courage, firm in his faith. We call to mind pathetic scenes in connection with the Carthusians of the Charterhouse, men still earnest in their high ideals, their piety and devotion. ”

“ There, as when the Abbot shewed them years before to Cuthbert, lay the missing treasures of the Abbey: the gemmed reliquaries, the golden and jewelled pyxes, the chalices of solid gold, the heaps of coined money, which a parliament, liberal in disposing of the property of others had given to the king, only he could not get them. All this enormous wealth had thus been saved from the tyrant’s clutch; but it will be remembered that his disappointed avarice had aroused that animosity against the late Abbot, which was only satiated by the life-blood of the victim. ”

“ A road leads through the heart of this mighty wood, leads towards the famous Abbey-town of Glastonbury, where as folks say Joseph of Arimathæa arrived long ago, and planting his staff, which grew like Aaron’s rod, and put forth buds, determined the site of the future Benedictine Monastery. ”

“ The great abbey of Glastonbury lay in his new diocese. As the archbishop was the abbot of the monks of his cathedral church of Canterbury, and as Winchester, Worcester, and Bath itself had a like arrangement, why should Savary not be the abbot of Glastonbury and make that also a cathedral church? There would be no more quarrels then between bishop and abbot, and the bishop of Bath and Glastonbury would be a great prelate indeed. So the emperor made the king agree to this new proposal. ”

“ No town in Britain has an ecclesiastical history more important than Glastonbury, whose tradition stretches back to the very beginning of Christianity in the Island. Legend has it that St. Joseph of Arimathea, who begged the body of Christ and buried it, came here in the year 63 and was the founder of the abbey. He brought with him, tradition says, the Holy Grail; and a thorn-tree staff which he planted in the abbey grounds became a splendid tree, revered for many centuries as the Holy Thorn. ”

“ Nicholas, I wish thee to go out on the western road which leads from Glastonbury to Exeter, and thou mayst pass the night at the ‘Robin Hood;’ I have a strange impression our mutual friends will stop there to-morrow night. If thou meetest them stick to them like a leech, and follow them, thyself unseen, if possible, to Glastonbury; [208] then join me in the Abbey, and we will await them there ”

“ St David, patron saint of Wales, the British saint alluded to in these lines, is supposed to have been an uncle of the renowned King Arthur. With the consent of his royal nephew, St David removed the bishop’s seat from Cærlon to Menevia, founded many monasteries, and helped to further the rebuilding of Glastonbury Abbey. ”

“ For during the time when the Danes held the upper hand the people had fallen back into many heathen ways, and the priests no longer held the torch of Christ's religion on high, or sought to lead men from darkness to light. Dunstan was full of zeal, and under his strong influence King Edgar made many grants of lands and provisions to the Abbey of St. Peter, in which place Wulsinus, also a monk from Glastonbury, reigned as Abbot. ”

“ In the spring of 669, Benedict had returned from Rome in company with Theodore the new archbishop, who retained him at Canterbury for two years in charge of St Augustine's abbey. If Glastonbury fell vacant about that time, by the death of the British abbot Bregored, we may well believe that, on the advice of Theodore and Benedict Biscop, the king may have appointed such a man as Beorhtwald, whom Bede describes as learned in the Scriptures and very highly trained alike in ecclesiastical and monastic discipline. [8] The position of Glastonbury would be exceptionally difficult. ”

“ GLASTONBURY (Mitred Benedictine)
31 A.D. St Joseph of Arimathæa, with other disciples of St Philip, lands on the south-west coast of England, preaches Christianity to the people, and builds a church on land given him by King Arviragus—433-472, St Patrick becomes first abbot and in a great measure founds the abbey—c. 520, Glastonbury saved from destruction by King Arthur, who resists the Saxons at Mount Badon—c. 530, A chapel built at the east end of the old church by St David, for use as a chancel—c. 597, Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury, introduces the Benedictine order into England ”

“ An oratory had previously existed on the site, having been founded a century after Joseph’s arrival by two saints, Phaganus and Duruvianus. The Abbey itself now began to take definite shape, the eyes of all Christians being drawn to Glastonbury by reason of its sacred record. In the sixth century, in King Arthur’s time, it was approaching its fulness of power and nearing that zenith of fame and splendour which did not decline for nearly a thousand years. ”

“ There is another road by which we may approach our problem. Hearne has printed in the appendix to his John of Glastonbury a list of charters existing among the abbey muniments in 1247. [23] He has on p. 378 a heading which runs thus: 'Days of Indulgence for Glastonbury, of which we have not the charters, though we once had them '. This list is just what is needed to tell us what undoubted privileges Glastonbury claimed in the middle of the thirteenth century, a hundred years after William of Malmesbury's death. ”

“ Westward of the cloister was an outward court, round which was the monks' infirmary, and the [Pg 659] almery. An embattled gatehouse led to this court, which was the principal entrance of the Abbey. The whole was surrounded with a high wall, including in its precincts, gardens, stables, granary, &c. Some of the great Abbeys—as Glastonbury, and Furness—covered sixty acres of ground. The situation chosen for the site of an Abbey was as different from that of the castle as the purpose to which it was applied. The one meant for defence stands boldly on the hill ”

“ JOHN (fl. 1400) , called of Glastonbury, historian, a Benedictine monk of Glastonbury, wrote a history of his abbey. In his preface he states that he had added many things which William of Malmesbury had omitted, and had rearranged the early history in better order. ”

“ More prudent than Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury—who refused to surrender and was hanged on St. Michael’s Hill, overlooking his wide domains—Elizabeth Zouche, the last Abbess of Shaftesbury, gave up to Henry VIII., on March 23rd, 1539, the Abbey with all its property, valued at £1,329 per annum, and received in lieu thereof the handsome pension of £133 a year for her own use. ”

“ I am young and vigorous, and might bear the brunt. Listen, I recognized an old Glastonbury boy, a former Abbey scholar, who was my especial enemy at school, and far worse than that, he guided the men who took the sainted Abbot,—’twas that red-haired page, his name is Nicholas Grabber, I think he knew and suspected me, although I tried hard to stare him out of countenance.”
“All the more reason, my dear son, that we should separate, one at least may arrive safely, and each has now the secret. Our lives are as nothing in comparison with this duty ”

“ Yet Glastonbury is rich in relics of medievalism. You may even come to your truly ancient inn here, just as did the pilgrims of old before the abbey was dissolved and the last Abbot and two of his monks were hanged, a good deal higher than Haman, on the lofty crest of Glastonbury Tor in 1539. Abbot Selwood built what is now the George Hotel in 1485 as a pilgrims’ hostel, and the ancient frontage is still in existence. The abbey ruins, which include the fine Transitional Norman remains of St. ”

“ He was the author of:
'A little Monument to the once famous Abbey and Borough of Glastonbury, or a short specimen of the History of that ancient Monastery and Town, with a Description of the remaming Ruins of Glastonbury,' 1716, manuscript at Hendred House, It was printed by Hearne in his 'History and Antiquities of Glastonbury,' 1722, and again in the Rev. Richard Warner's 'History of the Abbey of Glaston and the Town of Glastonbury,' 1826. 'A poor little Monument to all the old pious Dissolved Foundations of England ”

“ Here we waited, as usual, upon the cathedral, which received our compliments with but 423 small return of civility. There was little to be seen without, except old monuments of old abbots removed from Glastonbury, so inferior in workmanship and design to the abbey once containing them, that I was rather displeased than gratified by the sight. They have also a famous clock, brought from the abbey at Its general demolition. This exhibits a set of horses with riders, who curvet a dance round a bell by the pulling a string, with an agility comic enough, and fitted to serve for a puppet-show ”

“ Thirty steps down, and as the Abbot’s room was on the ground-floor, they must have been [31] below the foundations of the Abbey when they came upon a solid iron door; the Abbot touched a spring, bidding Cuthbert observe the manner in which it worked, and entered.
“Fasten the door carefully back by this stay,” said the Abbot, “for should it sway to, we are dead men; the lock is a spring lock, and opens only from the outside, nor is there other exit save into the vaults of the dead. Dost thou see this chest? ”