The Cathedral Builders Part 14

The ornament on Saxon fonts, not being so well known, would require ill.u.s.trations beyond the scope of this article, to render remarks upon them intelligible. One instance may, however, be given of the similarity of ornament in early Italian and Saxon carving. Both the Saxon font in Toller Fratrum church, Dorset, and the well-head (of the eighth century) at the office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rome, are decorated with precisely similar patterns. Interlacing bands in three strands, bordered by a cable moulding, encircle the top of each.

Similar ornament will be found in Saxon MSS. of the eighth century in the British Museum Library, as in _Evangelia Sacra Nero_, d. 4.

Besides the ornament on the ancient crosses and fonts, which clearly belongs to the Saxon period, there are in our churches fragments of ornament which in all probability are of that era.

The angel carved in stone, built into the north wall of Steepleton church, near Dorchester, may have formed part of the tympanum of the doorway of the Saxon church. Floating angels with their robes and legs bent upward from the knee, precisely similar in treatment to the Steepleton angel, may be seen in illuminations in Saxon MSS. in the British Museum. I have examined them, but have mislaid my references to the press-marks. And in the Museum of the Bargello at Florence is a small antique carving of Christ in Glory (a _vesica piscis_ enclosing the whole figure), and angels of this form and att.i.tude surrounding it with curiously drawn symbols of the four evangelists. The angels in the east wall of Bradford-on-Avon church are of a similar character.

This seems to be an instance of Byzantine ornament adopted by the Italian builders. The convoluted and basket-work ornament may also have been derived from the same source.

The stiff foliage and _intrecciatura_ on Barnack church tower are rude imitations of Comacine work.

Wherever the Comacines established themselves they founded lodges; to each lodge a _schola_ and a _laborerium_ were attached, where the members received instruction and training in the several branches of their craft. The Comacines who settled with Augustine in the royal city of Canterbury, must have established according to their custom a lodge and a _schola_ in that city, for there Wilfrid some seventy years later sent for architects and builders (_cmentarii_) to renew the Cathedral Church of York which had been built by Paulinus, but possibly through increase of population was now inadequate. The plan of the ancient church has been traced; it was Basilican in form, with aisles and an apse.[114]

Wilfrid, Bishop of York for forty-three years, was, while still a young man, sent to Rome as a companion to Biscop, a Saxon thane who was afterwards Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow. There, says Bede, he spent some months in the study of ecclesiastical matters. On his way home he remained in Gaul for three years. When he returned to Britain at the expiration of that time, King Alfred gave him land and the monastery of Ripon where he built a s.p.a.cious church, which excited universal astonishment and admiration; though not so large as the church he afterwards built at Hexham, it was a n.o.ble building. The apse with its altar was at the west end, and underneath the apse was a _confessio_, which with its pa.s.sages still exists. The round-headed arches within the church were supported by lofty columns of polished stone.

But beautiful as this church was, that at Hexham exceeded it. Eddius Stepha.n.u.s, precentor of York, the biographer of Wilfrid, and Richard of Hexham, give enthusiastic descriptions of it which accord exactly with what we know the Comacine church of the period to have been.[115]

From them we learn that St. Andrews, Hexham, built by Wilfrid, was a Basilican church, and in one respect at least it was similar to Ripon; the apse was at the west end, and beneath it was a crypt with pa.s.sages around it; the crypt with its pa.s.sages is still to be seen. The proportions of the church were however n.o.bler and the details richer.

The walls were covered with square stones of divers colours and polished; the columns were also of polished stone; the capitals of the columns, arches, and vault of apse, and s.p.a.ce over the apse-arch were decorated with sculptures and histories (_i.e._ with paintings representing sacred scenes) all very splendid and very beautiful, according to Eddius.

As regards the sculptures, the examples we have of Saxon sculptures show them to have been generally vigorous, and often grotesque. A writer in _Archaeologia_, vol. viii. p. 174, states that in the vaults of Hexham there were at the time he wrote many Roman inscriptions and grotesque carvings. The capitals of columns in Saxon as well as in later times not infrequently bore grotesque ornament for decoration, and it was commonly used for other purposes; not even coffins were exempt from decorations of this nature. Reginaldus de Coldingham (de virtutibus S. Cuthberti) describes the double coffin of St. Cuthbert, the inner one being of black oak elaborately carved, the subject of one of the carvings being a monk turned into a fox for stealing new cheese.

As regards their paintings, the Comacines were rather given to colour--it was in one of their churches, that of S. Maria del Tiglio, built by Theodolinda, wife of King Autharis, that the Emperor Lothaire beheld a brilliantly painted picture which adorned the vault of the apse and represented "The three kings presenting gifts to the Child Jesus." The picture moved the king to undertake the restoration of the church.

The Comacines also used frescoes in Theodolinda's palace at Monza in the fifth and sixth centuries.

From the foregoing description of Hexham church by Eddius Stepha.n.u.s, it would appear that there were galleries over the aisles to which access was gained by spiral stairways in the wall. Similar galleries and spiral stairway still exist in the church of S. Agnese in Rome. In this church between the nave and the aisles there is a double arcade of open arches one above the other; the higher arcade on each side forms the front of the galleries--above these is a clerestory. The church of S. Lorenzo at Verona, also a Comacine church, contains a spiral stairway in the wall which led to the different divisions in the women's gallery for the widows, matrons, and girls. So far I have not heard of any ancient spiral stairways as still existing in any other than in these Comacine churches.[116]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOWER OF S. APOLLINARE NUOVO, RAVENNA.

_To face page 153._]

These galleries and arcades may be regarded as the original of the triforium.

Eddius relates that there were also bell-towers at Hexham of surprising height, and this suggests reflections. Hexham was built about A.D. 674, early in the Saxon period, and these tall towers were built wholly at that time. What were they like? The early Comacine towers were built in several stages; the lowest generally had either no windows or slits; the next stage above had single-light windows, plain round-headed and straight-sided, as if cut out of the wall; in the stages above the windows were of two or three lights divided by colonnettes, the larger number of lights being in the windows of the upper stages; in each stage there were commonly four windows, one opening to each quarter of the compa.s.s. Wolstan's description of the tower of Winchester answers very nearly to this. He says it consisted of five storeys; in each were four windows looking towards the four cardinal points, which were illuminated every night.

As examples of early Latin towers, the round towers of S. Apollinare nuovo, and S. Apollinare in Cla.s.se, Ravenna, and perhaps the square tower of S. Giovanni Evangelista, may be given. Take any one of them, that of S. Apollinare nuovo, for instance. Cut off the upper stages by holding the hand above the eyes, and regard only the lower stages with the single-light windows, and you have a structure which might be Roman. It looks very much older than the complete tower; and it is the same with well-known Saxon towers in England, so that some persons have been misled into thinking that the lowest stages with straight-cut single-light windows are much older than the upper portion with double or treble-light windows--which does not at all follow, at least not from that fact, for they might be of the same date;--and they have argued that these lower stages both in Italy and England are older than the upper ones, notwithstanding the improbability that the old builders would place a heavy tower on walls originally intended to carry only a light roof.

The Saxon towers have clearly a Latin or Comacine origin. The walls are usually of stone grouted in the old Roman manner; and when Lombard windows, of two or more lights, with a column dividing them, are used, they are, as a rule, in the upper and not in the lower stages.

Unfortunately we have no towers of the earliest Saxon period still standing; but the resemblance between the later Saxon and the early Italian towers is apparent. The same may be said of the later Comacine towers, S. Satyrus, Milan, for instance (_see_ plate), which Cattaneo a.s.signs to the ninth century, and regards as the prototype of Lombard towers; take away the little pensile arch ornament, which was characteristic of the Comacine style known as Lombard, and you have a tower which might be Saxon.

Whilst Wilfrid was engaged in building Hexham, his friend and companion in travel, Biscop, was building the monastery and monastic church of Wearmouth. Biscop was a Saxon thane of Northumberland; he became a monk of the monastery of S. Lerino, and, according to Henry of Huntingdon, on his return from Rome, King Egfrid gave him sixty hides of land, on which he built the monastery of Wearmouth. Eight years later, the king granted him more land at Jarrow, upon which he built a monastery and church. The former was dedicated to St. Peter, the latter to St. Paul.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOWER OF S. SATYRUS, MILAN.

_To face page 154._]

On obtaining possession of the lands at Wearmouth, Biscop, according to Bede,[117] set out for Gaul, to find builders to build the monastic church, "juxta Romanorum quem semper amabat morem."

It might be asked, If there was at Canterbury a Comacine school of architecture whose special function it was to build on the Roman model, why did not Bishop Benedict send there for architects and masons? The simple answer is, that Wilfrid had already engaged them for his work at Hexham. Wilfrid was building both a church and monastery there, and evidently had employment for every hand he could obtain.

The building of Hexham was commenced in 674, and it was not till that date that Biscop was in a position to engage workmen for Wearmouth, so that Wilfrid was just beforehand with Biscop, who in consequence had to look elsewhere for his architects, and he set out for Gaul to engage them there.

Now it does not at all follow that because Biscop brought his masons from Gaul, therefore they were not Comacines. It was as easy to find Comacines in Gaul as in England. We find them settled there at a later date, when they were called _artefici Franchi_. There is nothing to show definitely, but there is presumptive evidence of a settlement of a guild in Gaul at this time, and it was probably some of the French Comacines that Biscop employed, for Biscop insisted on a church built after the Roman manner, a Basilica; he would have nothing else, and no builders could build a Basilica better than the successors to the Roman college of architecture.[118]

It seems further probable that these Gallican architects were Comacines, from the fact that they followed the practice of the Comacines in establis.h.i.+ng a _schola_ at Wearmouth, possibly amongst the monks, for Naitan, King of the Picts, sent to Cedfrid, who succeeded Benedict as abbot, and begged him to send architects to him to build a church in his nation "after the Roman manner," and the abbot complied with his request.

Mr. Micklethwaite states that "the doorway under the tower of the church at Monkswearmouth in Durham was doubtless a part of the church which Benedict Biscop erected there in the seventh century in imitation of the Basilicas in Rome. The twined serpents with birds'

beaks on the right doorpost are, as we know from MSS. of that age, singularly characteristic of the style."[119] There is a similar design on the architrave of an ancient door in San Clemente, Rome.

The decoration of the church seems to have been in the highest style of ecclesiastical art of the age. Even gla.s.s-makers, who might have been Comacines, were brought from France to make gla.s.s for glazing the windows of the church and of the cells of the monks--no gla.s.s had ever before in Saxon times been used in England for windows--and even paintings were brought from abroad for the decoration of the walls.

Bede, in his sermon on the anniversary of the death of Benedict, states that he imported paintings of holy histories, which should serve not only for the beautification of the church, but for the instruction of those who looked upon them; vases, vestments, and other things necessary for the service of the church, were also brought from Gaul, and those things which could not be obtained there, were brought "from the country of the Romans."

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. APOLLINARE IN CLa.s.sE, RAVENNA.

_To face page 157._]

The church was p.r.o.nounced by monkish writers to be for two centuries the grandest and most beautiful church on this side of the Alps; even Roman architects admitted that they who saw Hexham church might imagine themselves amidst Roman surroundings.[120]

There is one point in connection with Saxon architecture not touched.

In much of the Saxon building now standing there are projecting ribs of stone in the masonry which are commonly known under the name of pilaster strips. The masonry in which it occurs is perhaps always late Saxon work. The strips seem to be similar to the pilasters in the front of Lombard churches; in the latter they are more ornamental in detail, and are often in the form of shafts occasionally decorated.[121]

The external arcading, as in Bradford-on-Avon, seems to be a modification of late Roman work, followed in various forms in Comacine, Lombard, Saxon, and Norman work. In its original form it may be seen on the exterior of the Basilica of S. Apollinare in Cla.s.se, Ravenna, where external arcadings in the masonry of the walls will be noticed both in the walls of the aisles and in the walls of the nave above the aisles, the arcading being carried on pilasters built into, and forming part of, the walls; the pilasters with the arcading serving to give rigidity to the walls, enabling them to resist the outward thrust of the roof as b.u.t.tresses were intended to do in later times. This church was built about A.D. 300.

In Comacine or early Lombard churches there was an arcading on steps in the gable of the west front, the steps giving access to the roof on the outside. In later Lombard churches this arcading became simply an ornamental detail to the front. To this type belongs the arcading on Bradford-on-Avon church. In Norman churches it degenerated into a corbel table, in which the shafting was omitted, the heads of the arches being supported on corbels.

The Byzantine character of some of the ornaments in Comacine and Saxon work is accounted for by the fact that the Comacine order found refuge in a Romano-Greek colony in which the Greek influence was strong, and in all probability there were Byzantine guilds working alongside of it. That there is a trace of Oriental form in it is not surprising, when it is remembered how much communication there was between all parts of the Christian world notwithstanding the difficulties of travelling. Teliau, David, and Paternus journeyed to Jerusalem. On arriving at the Temple they were placed in three ancient stalls in the Temple, and after expounding the Scriptures were elected by the people and consecrated bishops (_Vita S. Teliaui Episcopi_). Columba.n.u.s, an Irish saint, established a monastery amidst the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Bobbio in Italy. St. c.u.mean, born in 592, obtained possession of a deserted church in the same city, restored it and served it.

According to the chronicles of Fontenelle, bishops and clergy, abbots and monks came from all parts, even from Greece and Armenia, to visit Richard Duke of Normandy, brother-in-law of our Saxon King Ethelred and a great church-builder; the Oriental character of some of the ornaments in Oxford cathedral, which Ethelred rebuilt, is attributed to the influence of Richard and his Oriental visitors, for Ethelred took refuge in Normandy for a time to avoid the Danes.

Some Saxons left England at the Norman Conquest and settled in Constantinople, where they built a church for themselves and other members of the Saxon colony there.

St. Germa.n.u.s when he left Britain went to Ravenna, then the royal city.

a.s.ser relates that Alfred received emba.s.sies daily from foreign parts, from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the farthest limits of Spain, and that he had seen letters and presents which had been sent to the king by Abel, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Many British monks, some of whose lives and legends may still be found in early MSS., travelled to the south and east, and all over the known world, and being skilled in architecture, might readily have made copies of ornaments which took their fancy when travelling in Eastern countries, and introduced them on their return.

Let us restate the argument briefly--

1. When Italy was overrun by the barbarians, Roman _Collegia_ were everywhere suppressed.

2. The architectural college of Rome is said to have removed from that city to the republic of Comum.

3. In early mediaeval times, one of the most important Masonic guilds in Europe was the Society of Comacine Masters, which in its const.i.tution, methods, and work was essentially Roman, and seems to have been the survival of this Roman college.

4. Italian chroniclists a.s.sert that architects and masons accompanied Augustine to England, and later Italian and continental writers of repute adopt that view.

5. Whether this is proved or not, it was customary for missionaries to take in their train persons experienced in building, and if Augustine did not do so, his practice was an exception to what seems to have been a general rule. Besides, a band of forty monks would have been useless to him unless some of them could follow a secular calling useful to the mission, for they were unacquainted with the British language, and could not act independently.

6. Masonic monks were not uncommon, and there were such monks a.s.sociated with the Comacine body; so that qualified architects were easily found in the ranks of the religious orders.

7. From Bede's account of the settlement of Augustine's mission in Britain, it seems clear that he must have brought Masonic architects with him.