St Albans

“ Most of those who visit St. Albans for the first time feel a sense of disappointment. The church has no far-projecting buttresses to give light and shade, no flying buttresses or pinnacles like those that lend such a charm to most French and many English churches. All is severely plain, partly on [Pg 24] account of the very early time at which the greater part of the existing church was built, partly on account of the material used for its walls. Abbot Paul of Caen, who designed it, trusted entirely to mass and proportion for the effect he wished to produce. ”

“ Saint Albans is a heavenly place, but it is still upon earth, and, save the one hope that my country may revive, and that the laws and manners and the tongue of the Saxons may not utterly perish, my hopes are all in heaven! ”

“ Its poverty weakened its independence, and was at once the cause of the decline of its hospitality and the reason for its growing obsequiousness toward the great. The bishops especially were quick to realise the weakness of the Abbey.72 Always jealous of exempt houses, they exhibited in the fifteenth century an unusually bitter hostility towards St. Albans. In 1399, Henry Bishop of Lincoln had formally notified the Abbot that he claimed no jurisdiction over the Abbey73 ”

“ When he chronicles the death of ‘that limb of Satan, idol of heretics, mirror of hypocrites and fabricator of lies—John Wycliffe,’ it is only to repeat cruel gossip about his last hours. The life of Wycliffe, in fact, marks a fresh step in the growing unpopularity of the monastic system, and with a sure instinct St. Albans recognised the fact, and so far as it was able, dealt with him accordingly. ”

“ But his method was effective. Before long the Abbey grew famous, not only in England, but on the Continent, and monks were often sent to St. Albans to be trained in monastic discipline for the benefit of their own houses.
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The position of St. Albans as the premier Benedictine house was recognised by the election of the Abbot as president of the successive General Chapters at Northampton. In these assemblies De la Mare issued a comprehensive series of constitutions on the discipline of the Order. ”

“ But though in early times the laity had not in all churches regular access to the building, yet it appears that they were some times admitted even in those churches that as a rule excluded them. For we find it recorded that a great number both of men and women were in the nave of St. Albans for the purpose of hearing Mass and praying at the time when the Norman piers on the south side of the nave fell in 1323. ”

“ The younger assistants might certainly have performed the feat, but they would have been but scurvily treated for their trouble, on the wrong side of the barricade.
When two antagonist bodies cannot fight, it is no bad pastime to parley. Saint Albans was simultaneously and unanimously voted leader, though we had many older than he, for he was but eighteen. A glorious youth was that Saint Albans! Accomplished, generous, brave, handsome, as are all his race, and of the most bland and sunny manners that ever won woman’s love, or softened man’s asperity. ”

“ PARIS, MATTHEW (d. 1259) , historian and monk, took the religious habit at St. Albans on St. Agnes's day, 21 Jan. 1217. He was then, it may be surmised, about seventeen years old. He had doubtless received his early education in the convent school. His surname, which was not uncommon in England in the thirteenth century, was probably inherited. St. Albans was at that time a place of art and learning, and the writing of history was specially encouraged there. Abbot Paul [q. v.] had endowed the scriptorium and increased the library, which received further additions under his successors ”

“ Albans records, and even here his account was worthless. The decadence, the immorality of which he spoke was largely confined to the early years of the fourteenth century, and the Abbacy of William Wallingford (1476–1490) . To see in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a consistent, uniform process of decay is largely to misunderstand St. Albans’ history.
It is true, nevertheless, that the best days of the Abbey were already past at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The evolution of modern from mediaeval society, which was effected during our period, was fatal to monasticism. ”

“ Albans a man of that high importance as to be worth making a precedent for—which may be attended with ill consequences, and in process of time bring difficultys on the crown itself? How can others who live at Windsor be refused this favour, which has been granted to the Duke of St. Albans, simply as such? His predecessors in his office, I may say without wronging him, have some of them been as distinguished as himself. Prince Rupert, son to the Queen of Bohemia, and nephew to King Charles, was one of them that frequently resided at the Keep, and never desired nor ever enjoyed this privilege ”

“ Yet politics were as keen and as absorbing in the Middle Ages as they are now, and monks and Abbot must have followed their course, and criticised the actors, with as much freedom as the men of to-day.25 In favour of St. Albans it must be said that, in comparison with other monasteries, its chronicles are singularly living and human. In those written during the revival of historical writing under the guidance of Thomas Walsingham, the political sympathies of the convent during the critical period of Richard II’s reign are fully revealed. ”

“ St. Albans became a specially learned monastery and home of historians, while Roman law, medicine, and theology were closely studied, and books were lent out to students from the monastic libraries, a pledge of value being deposited by the borrower.
Latin Literature. ”

“ A growing movement towards reform and revival was thus the main trend of events at St. Albans during the fourteenth century. The persistent efforts of Maryns and the other short-lived abbots removed abuses and restored the discipline. The long abbacy of Thomas de la Mare was marked by able administration, and minute and unflagging attention to the monastery’s interests. The Abbot shirked no contest to retain or regain lands, services or jurisdiction upon which the Abbey had just claims. ”

“ Ethelbert of East Anglia had been treacherously murdered by his father-in-law, Offa, King of Mercia, who now sought to salve his conscience by building a monastery in honour of St Alban. Of this second church (the first was only a temporary shelter for the relics of the saint, which were supposed to have been miraculously discovered by King Offa) there are now but few traces. The town of St Albans lies on a high hill, while the Ver, a stream supposed to have burst forth miraculously to assuage the thirst of Alban the martyr, flows along the peaceful valley below. ”

“ Albans, editor of the New York 'Daily Fife,' whose 'leaders' on the propriety of an immediate slaughter of all Britons within reach, have excited much terror in the bosom of Victoria.
"'My dear sir,' screamed the sturdy St. Albans, springing to meet his visitor, 'I am delighted to welcome you to the United States!'
"Mr. R. Fennarf's heart sank down to his very boots. ”

“ The tide of economic decline and growing material decrepitude, stemmed by De la Mare’s careful administration, proceeded unchecked after his death. Within the convent the decay of the monastic spirit was everywhere apparent. Living became inevitably more luxurious, and the religious life grew cold and formal.63 Yet the reputation of48 St. Albans was as great in 1460 as in the days of Abbot Thomas. Up to 1464 (the year in which Whethamstede died) no flagrant abuses appear to have invaded the cloister, nor was there any considerable slackening of the discipline. ”

“ Alban's shrine.
33. In 1451 Abbot John of Wheathampstead, though over eighty years of age, was re-elected. Soon after his election he gave his church a "pair of organs," surpassing all others in England in size, tone, and workmanship.
In 1455 the Wars of the Roses began with the first battle of St. Albans (May 23rd) , fought to the east of the town. In this the White Rose party were victorious; the King was taken prisoner and lodged for the night in the Abbey. The victorious army plundered the town, but the Abbot by sending out plenty of wine and food saved his monastery. ”

“ Albans through a part of the county of Essex.
Paul had prospered during these past years. The king had rewarded his early fealty by a grant of lands and a fine manor near to St. Albans, whither he had removed his wife and family, so as to be within easy reach of them at such times as he was summoned by the king to Westminster. The atmosphere of home was dearer to him than that of courts, and he was no longer away from his own house than his duty to his king obliged him to be. ”

“ To the south-west of the present city of St Albans stood the ancient Verulamium (q.v.) , one of the oldest towns in Britain, on Watling Street. The ruins served as a quarry not only to the builders of the Abbey, but also for the other churches and the monastic buildings of St Albans, and Roman bricks are found even in the fabric of the churches of neighbouring villages, as at Sandridge, 21/2 m. N.E. After being burnt by Boadicea, Verulamium revived, and its church was famous early in the 8th century. ”

“ St Albans became the seat of a bishop in 1877; the diocese covering the greater part of Essex and Hertfordshire, with small portions of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The great cathedral, or abbey church, is finely situated on the steep hill, above the small river Ver, on which the central part of the city is placed. ”

“ Albans estates and on the estates of its cells. Thus in 1381 the rural tenants of St. Albans were ready to join in the general revolt. Simultaneously the townsmen made a final attempt to win from the Abbot privileges identical with those demanded in 1327.
The Revolt of 1381.
There is little reason to linger over the details of the Revolt. The townsmen rose in a body and set themselves to destroy all visible tokens of their subjection. The fences of the Abbot’s woods were pulled down, his game was killed freely, and a show was made of dividing his domain into small individual holdings. ”

“ It is plain that these old monks were not always to be trusted to behave in an honourable manner when precious relics were concerned. The chronicler, however, who tells the story, considers the conduct of the monks of St. Albans in sending spurious relics was "pious," while the behaviour of the monks of Ely was "detestable and disgraceful"—but then the chronicler was a monk of St. Albans. Ælfric bought the royal palace of Kingsbury and its land near the Abbey, demolishing the whole of the palace except one tower. Ælfric in 995 was promoted to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. ”

“ Albans to lend him the choir copes of the abbey, for Dunstable Priory was not founded until some years later (Monasticon, vi. 238) . On the night after the play, doubtless 24 Nov., the eve of the saint's feast day, Master Geoffrey's house was burnt, and with it his books and the St. Albans copes. Not knowing how to make up the loss to God and the saint, he determined to make an offering of himself (Gesta Abbatum, i. 73) ; became a monk of St. Albans, and in after days as abbot took special care to provide the house with valuable choir copes. ”

“ The city has three parishes, those of the Abbey, St Peter, and St Michael, but it is also extending into the parish of Sandridge. On the further side of the Ver is situated St Stephen’s. St Albans is rapidly increasing as a residential district, and also as a manufacturing centre, a number of industrial establishments from London having been recently set up in its environs. ”

“ The Roman way, the famous “Watling Street,” avoided the site of St. Albans altogether, and went considerably to the left of the Holyhead Road, to the valley of the Ver, where the ruins of Verulamium may yet be found below the hilly site of the monastery of St. Alban, founded by King Offa of Mercia in 793. It was the monks who in mediæval times diverted the Watling Street from its straight course to Verulam, and made the road from St. Stephens into St. Albans, by the tremendous descent and ascent of Holywell Hill. ”

“ Albans is commonly called ‘The St. Albans MS.’ or ‘Chronicle.’ It was compiled in or soon after 1394, its last date being 1393. It covers the period 1272 to 1393, incorporating successively the chronicles of Matthew of Westminster, Adam Murimuth, the continuation of Trivet's ‘Annales,’ John Trokelowe, and others. Its text agrees with the ‘Chronicon Angliæ’ (No. 2 supra) to 1369. From this point it varies frequently from the ‘Chronicon,’ and at almost all points it tones down the ‘Chronicon's’ unfavourable comments on the action and character of John of Gaunt. ”

“ It remains for us, taking our stand at the year in which the Monastery was dissolved, to survey the period that has elapsed since the death of Thomas de la Mare. It was a time of stagnation, followed by rapid decline. At the end of the fifteenth century the Abbey was financially more embarrassed and morally even more depraved than in the first years of our period. Without attempting a defence either of the motives of Henry VIII or the methods of the Dissolution, no other conclusion is possible but that the abolition of St. Albans was both just and necessary. ”

“ And scarcely was there a forest, chase, or wood throughout the greatest part of England, which did not in some measure contribute a supply to the abbey of its timber or venison. Successive monarchs banquetted within its walls, and while the abbots were distinguished for their extensive hospitality, the poor were not forgotten. Thus stood St. Albans, [Pg 220] often in stormy times a place of refuge, into which the peasants drove their cattle and were secure, and while the storm of war raged furiously without, there was safety and abundance within. ”