صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

his elevation to the dignity of Prior. We find many instances at Canterbury of a similar nature.*

We now recall the attention of the reader to the learned Professor's various hypotheses, which may be briefly stated as follows:

I.

1. "Upon fig. 3, plan of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, the Professor says, "The portion in lighter tint marked V is the conjectural termination of Lanfranc's church.”

II. "The shaded parts in a light tint marked V in fig. 3, are the conjectural outline of Lanfranc's eastern end.”

III. "The extent of Lanfranc's choir can only be surmised from other examples and analogies, . . . the length and number of its pier arches may be surmised from cotemporary examples" (from which the Professor assumes that Lanfranc's choir had only two pier arches).

IV. "But his (Lanfranc's) proper Choir of the Monks with so short an eastern portion probably extended not only under the tower, but even into one or more compartments of the nave."

v. “I have just shown that the choir occupied the tower space.

[ocr errors]

VI. "At the suggestion, and with the assistance of his (Lanfranc's) successor Anselm, the priors and monks of the monastery took down the east end or choir within the twenty years after its completion, and erected it on an increased scale. VII. "It will presently appear that the area of this church was nearly doubled by the alteration."

[ocr errors]

VIII. "The disposition of the screens and steps of the tower, although they occupy part of the space of Lanfranc's building, yet must be held to belong to the work of Ernulf and Conrad, for the increased space eastward must have affected all the arrangement of the choir of the monks."

IX. "All the Saxon Archbishops are buried in Ernulf's part of the church, with the exception of Fleogild, &c."

[ocr errors]

x. "The Crypt was confined to the Presbytery.' XI. "No part of the present crypt can belong to Lanfranc's

* The most eminent architects of the Middle Ages were prelates and dignified ecclesiastics. Thus Ernulf, Conrad, Henry de Estria, Chillenden, Goldston I and Goldston II (all priors at Canterbury), have rendered their memory illustrious by their architectural works in and about the Cathedral Church of Canterbury.

church, unless, indeed, some of its columns may have been used; but in that case they do not stand in their old positions. It is not impossible that the whole of these shafts may have been taken from the older crypt.'

[ocr errors]

XII. "The crypt of the western end of the choir being thus certainly an untouched part of Ernulf's work.'

[ocr errors]

XIII. "The arcade at the base of this wall (side-aisle wall) also the work of Ernulf."

XIV. "Eastern transepts, crypt, and chapels of St. Andrew, St. Anselm, and Trinity, the works of Anselm, Ernulf and Conrad, of which there remain the crypt, the external walls of the other portions, and the chapels of St. Anselm and St. Andrew."

A goodly array, verily, of theory and hypothesis, of surmise and conjecture! Yet we hesitate not to declare, most distinctly and emphatically, that they are altogether visionary, fanciful, and unfounded. We are, however, fortunately relieved from the painful necessity of discussing them seriatim. It is unnecessary to insist that the Professor's reasonings are inconclusive, and often illogical; that his analogies are inapplicable, and his confidently-asserted facts not only improbable, but in some instances impossible. We have no morbid desire to gloat over the mangled remains of a prostrate hypothesis. "Our sole object is the investigation and discovery of truth.'

We have already shown that architectural science is unavailing in the solution of this problem, and that it can only be solved by the direct testimony of contemporaneous history.

We will therefore attend solely to our ancient chroniclers and historians. We shall then experience no difficulty in rightly appropriating the Norman remains of our venerable cathedral. We shall then find that the existing works of Lanfranc are as clearly distinguishable from those of Anselm and his Priors, as are those of William de Sens or William the Englishman from the works of Henry de Estria, or any of the succeeding Priors.

In our "list of dated examples," (Appendix, No. 2,) we have stated that the existing Norman crypt, chapels of St. Anselm, and St. Andrew, great eastern transept, and other Norman remains, are the works of Lanfranc. And we shall

now show that Anselm and his Priors did not (as supposed by the learned Professor) erect those parts of the church; and this we shall establish by showing from the historians that their works were entirely confined to the choir.

66

Chap. I, Art. xxii. Ernulphus ... Cantiæ dejectam priorem partem ecclesiæ quam Lanfrancus ædificaverat, adèo splendidè erexit, ut nihil tale possit in Angliâ videri in vitrearum fenestrarum luce, in marmorei pavimenti nitore, in diversicoloribus picturis, quæ mirantes oculos trahunt ad fastigia lacunaris." (Gul. Malms. de Gest. Pont. 234.)

"Ernulf. . . . having taken down the front (or fore part) of the church which Lanfranc had built, he erected it so splendidly, that nothing like it could be seen in England, either for the brilliancy of the glass windows, the splendour of its marble pavement, or the many coloured pictures which led the admiring eyes to the very summit of the ceiling."

[ocr errors]

Art. XXIII. "Cancellum quippe ecclesiæ . . quam venerabilis Ernulphus antecessor ejus imperfectum reliquerat, ipse suâ industriâ magnificè consummavit, consummatumque egregiâ picturâ decoravit, decoratum vero pretiosis ornamentis locupletavit." (Obit. in Ang. Sac. T. i, p. 137.)

"The chancel of the church which the venerable Ernulf, his predecessor, had left unfinished, he [Conrad] by his industry magnificently completed, and decorated with excellent painting and enriched with precious ornaments."

Art. XXIV. "Super hæc, ipsum oratorium quantum a majore turri in orientem porrectum est, ipso Patre Anselmo providente disponente, auctum est. . . . Et quidem, eodem spatio, ipsa ecclesia eâdem villâ potita est, et silva, et villæ, et toti redditus ejus in novo opere quod a majori turre in orientem tenditur, quodq. ipse Pater Anselmus inchoasse dignoscitur consumpta sunt." (Edm. Hist. Nov. L. 5, p. 108, and L. 2, p. 35.)

"Moreover, this oratory [choir or chancel] so far as it stretches from the great tower eastward, was enlarged, Anselm himself providing for and directing (the works,) . . . . and indeed during that period this church enjoyed that town [Peckham] and the woods, and the whole revenues thereof were expended in the new work which extended from the great tower eastward, and which the same Father Anselm is known to have begun.

[ocr errors]

Art. xxvI." Ecclesiam Cantuariæ à Lanfranco fundatam et

consummatam, sed per Anselmum auctam . . . . dedicavit." (Gerv. Act. Pont. 1664.)

"The Church of Canterbury founded and completed by Lanfranc, but enlarged by Anselm, he (Abp. Wm. Corbvil) dedicated A.D. 1130."

Here then we find the works of Anselm and his Priors particularly enumerated even to the minutiae of pictures and painting, of glazing and precious ornaments. Their works, however, were confined and limited to the interval between the great tower and the eastern termination of the church. No mention is made of the Norman Trinity Chapel, (which gave name to the whole church,) of the stately Tower of St. Peter and St. Paul (afterwards called the Tower of Anselm,) of the Tower of St. Andrew, the great eastern transept, nor of the external walls of the choir-aisles, for those were not the works of Anselm and his Priors. They did not stretch from the great tower, but extended from Lanfranc's great western transept, and are part of his original structure.

These historians therefore, clearly show the nature and extent of the alterations effected by Anselm and his Priors. They conclusively dispose of the learned Professor's hypothesis, and the maxim "Expressio unius exclusio est alterius," becomes strictly applicable, and is as sound in logic as it is conclusive in law.

We will now take a cursory view, from the same historians, of the proceedings of the venerable Lanfranc, the illustrious founder of the church.

Chap. I, Art. XVII. "Cujus conflagrationis anno tertio Lanfrancus ipsam ecclesiam regendam suscepit." [Edm. Vit. S. Wilfridi, MS. C.C.C. p. 77, Mabillon, T. 3, p. 297.]

[ocr errors]

"Hic ergo Lanfrancus cum Cantuariam primo venisset et ecclesiam salvatoris, quam regere susceperat, incendio atque ruinis penè nihili factam invenisset, mente consternatus est. Sed cum magnitudo mali illum cogeret desperare, rediit in se, animique fortitudine fretus suâ commoditate posthabitâ, domos ad opus monachorum necessarias, citato opere consummavit. Quibus ubi per plures annos usi sunt, adaucto eorum conventu parvæ admodum visæ sunt. Destructis itaque illis, alias decore ac magnitudine prioribus multum præstantes ædificavit. Ædificavit et curiam sibi. Ecclesiam præterea quam spatio septem annorum a fundamentis fermè totam perfectam reddidit. In

cappis, casulis, dalmaticis, tunicis, auro magnificè insignitis, palliis et aliis ornamentis multis ac pretiosis nobiliter decoravit." [Edm. Hist. Nov. L. i, p. 7.]

"Per totam terram illam Religio aucta est, et ubiq. nova monasteriorum ædificia, sicut hodiè apparet, constructa quorum ædificiorum constructoribus ipse primus exemplum præbens, ecclesiam Christi Cantuariensem, cum omnibus officinis quæ infrà murum ipsius curiæ sunt cum ipso muro ædificavit." [Edm. Hist. p. 7.

[ocr errors]

"Post istud gemendum incendium corpora pontificum suprà memoratorum suis loculis immota quiescebant donec ille virorum strenuissimus Lanfrancus .. Archiepiscopatu Cantuariensi functus est. Is quippe omnia quæ combusti monasterii repperit vel ædificia vel ædificiorum detrita monumenta terræ coæquans, et quæ sub terrâ erant fundamenta effodiens, cuncta nova extruxit et præfatos antisites levari ac in tuto locari constituit; donec ea quam cœperat ecclesia facta esset in quâ decenter poni valerent. Et ita factum est. Post aliquot annos in ecclesiam jam fundatam illati sunt et in aquilonali parte super voltum singuli sub singulis locellis ligneis ubi quotidie mysterium sacrificii salutaris celebratur positi sunt." [Edm. Vit. S. Bregw. Ang. Sac. T. 2, p. 188.]

[ocr errors]

Lanfrancus... Ecclesiam salvatoris quam cum præfatum incendium tum vetustas inutilem fecerat, funditus destruere et augustiorem construere cupiens, jussit corpora sanctorum quæ in orientali parte ipsius ecclesiæ humata erant in occidentalem partem ubi memoria beatæ dei genitricis et perpetuæ virginis Mariæ celebris habebatur demutari. Quamobrem celebrato triduano jejunio sub innumerâ hominum multitudine levata sunt corpora pretiosissimorum pontificum Christi Dunstani atque Elphegi. Jam transferebantur ad destinatum locum sepulturæ et omnium ora personabant in Domini laude. . . . . Itaque sacratissima corpora decentissimè tumulata sunt et dies totius festivis guadeo plenum effulsit." [Edm. Mir. S.

[ocr errors]

quia cum adhuc in scholis

Dunst. MS. C.C.C. p. 161.] "Testis enim est mihi puerulus essem." [Edm. Epist. Ang. Sac. T. 2, p. 222.] "V. Cal. Junii obiit fælicis memoriæ Lanfrancus Archiepisqui istam ecclesiam a fundamentis fundavit et Hic etiam claustra, celaria, refectoria dormitoria cæterasque omnes officinas necessarias et omnia

copus consummavit.

« السابقةمتابعة »