Читать книгу The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey - G. E. Troutbeck - Страница 4

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“It is finished!

The Kingliest Abbey in all Christian lands,

The lordliest, loftiest minster ever built

To Holy Peter in our English Isle!

Let me be buried there, and all our Kings,

And all our just and wise and holy men

That shall be born hereafter. It is finished!”

Tennyson (Harold).

The writer of this little book was once showing Westminster Abbey to a party of foreigners—they were Germans,—and after hearing something about the Abbey and the people who are either buried or commemorated there, one of them turned and said: “I can understand the pride of English people when I see a place like this.”

Now, it must be remembered that this German visitor was not thinking of our wealth, or of our Empire, or of our commercial prosperity. He was thinking of the “great cloud of witnesses,” the people of our race who have gone before us, and who are gathered together, resting and remembered in our chief national church. He was thinking, too, of the wide and catholic spirit which would shut out no one who had done good service to God and man.

If one who was not our own countryman could feel this so strongly, is it any wonder that the name of Westminster Abbey is dear to all British folk, men, women, and children, whether at home or across the wide seas? Westminster Abbey is a name that means “home,” and the story of home, almost from the very earliest times of our nation.

And if any one asks how and why this is, it is easy to show him that Westminster Abbey has been part of English history all along, and that if you can read what is written on the old grey stones of Westminster you will know more about the British race and Empire than many books could teach you.

Around the venerable and stately church, where all our Kings, from Edward the Confessor onwards, have been crowned, and where many of our sovereigns and most of our famous men are buried, are memories which speak to us even of the Roman rule in Britain, taking us back nearly to the days of brave Queen Boadicea, whose statue stands on the bridge close by.

Then follow memories of the wild Saxon days, of the conversion of England by St. Augustine, of the Danes, the Normans, the Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, and of many others.

We are reminded too, of the signing of Magna Charta, of the Barons’ War, of the Crusades, of the beginning of the House of Commons, of the long Hundred Years’ War with France, of the Wars of the Roses, of the great Civil War, of the rise of our Indian and Colonial Empire, and indeed of all the important things that have happened in our country until this very twentieth century, when the Abbey is still just as much a part of our history as it ever was.

If we want to see and understand how this is, we can learn a good deal from the history of the building itself, that is, of how, when, and where it was built.

To begin with, what do we mean when we speak of the “Abbey”?

An abbey was really a place where a number of monks or nuns lived, under the rule of an abbot or abbess,—the name abbot being taken from “abbas,” the Syriac word for father. The actual church was only a part of the “Abbey,” to which belonged many other buildings, besides gardens, orchards, fields and farms, and often large estates in various places.

The Abbey of Westminster was for monks of the Benedictine Order. The Abbot of Westminster was a very great person, and many well known places belonged to the Abbey, such, for instance, as Covent Garden (the Convent Garden) and Hyde Park, besides others which were far away from London. Windsor at one time belonged to the Abbey of Westminster, but the Conqueror wanted it himself, and so made the monks exchange Windsor for land in other places.

The Church, then, which we now call the Abbey, was the Abbey Church of St. Peter in Westminster. Since the days of Queen Elizabeth, the proper title of the church has been “The Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster,” but every one likes to keep the old name, and to call it Westminster Abbey. As we shall see later on, a good deal still remains of the old monastic buildings besides the church. Such are the beautiful cloisters, the Chapter-House, and parts of the library and dormitory.

Now, as to where the Abbey is built. It stands on what was long ago a desolate little island in the Thames, an island which was overgrown with great thorns and thickets, and in which wild beasts, such as the wild ox and the huge red deer, used to roam about. It was perhaps not unlike the Isle of Athelney, where King Alfred hid from his enemies and made his plans.

It is interesting to remember that the great Cathedral Church of Paris, Notre Dame, is also built on an island,—a little island in the river Seine. In those days, when there were so few roads, it was a great matter to be near a big river, where boats and ships could go up and down, and so we find that most important cities, like Rome, Paris, Vienna, and London, are built on the banks of rivers.

The island on which the Abbey stands was called “Thorney Isle” in those old days, and it is described in a charter of King Offa as “the terrible place,” probably because of its wild forests and fierce beasts. The little streams which once separated Thorney Isle from the mainland still run underground, but in those early days the island was also surrounded by a great marsh, which stretched out to Chelsea on the north bank of the Thames, and to Lambeth and Battersea on the south bank.

The early stories of the foundation and building of the church on Thorney Isle have been handed down from far-off times, and although they cannot all be proved to be quite true, we may be sure that there is a great deal of truth deep down in them, as there is in most of the tales that people have loved and told to their children through all the ages.

To begin with the oldest story of all. We are told that in the second century after Christ, while the Romans were still in Britain, a certain Lucius, a British King, became a Christian. His people also became Christian, and Lucius built a church at Thorney, where a temple of Apollo had once stood. Lucius is also said to have built a church where St. Paul’s now stands, on the site of a temple of Diana.

Another very interesting story is that of the rebuilding of the church at Thorney in the Saxon times. The Venerable Bede tells us that Sebert, King of the East Saxons, and nephew of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was converted to Christianity by St. Augustine in A.D. 603 or 604. The Norman monks said that this King Sebert built a church and founded a monastery at Thorney Isle, and a very beautiful story is told about the consecration of this church of King Sebert’s.

One stormy Sunday night—the very night before Mellitus, Bishop of London, was to come and consecrate the church—a fisherman named Edric was casting his nets into the Thames. While he was doing this he heard a voice calling to him from Lambeth, on the other side of the river, and when he had crossed over in his boat he found a venerable looking man in foreign dress, who asked to be ferried over to Thorney Isle. Edric took him across the river, and when they landed at Thorney the stranger went at once to the church, leaving the fisherman waiting by the shore. Then, while Edric watched, a heavenly light seemed to fill all the air, and angels ascended and descended on a ladder which reached from heaven to earth. Edric heard the angels singing, and saw how they burned sweet incense and held flaming tapers. At last the stranger came back, and said to Edric: “I am Peter, keeper of the keys of Heaven. When Mellitus arrives to-morrow, tell him what you have seen, and show him the token that I, St. Peter, have consecrated my own Church of St. Peter, Westminster, and have anticipated the Bishop of London. For yourself, go out into the river; you will catch a plentiful supply of fish, whereof the larger part shall be salmon. This I have granted on two conditions—first, that you never fish again on Sundays; secondly, that you pay a tithe of them to the Abbey of Westminster.”

When King Sebert and Bishop Mellitus arrived the next day for the solemn consecration, Edric met them, bringing a salmon, which he presented to the Bishop from St. Peter, at the same time telling him the wondrous story. It is told that the Bishop saw on the church the crosses and all the marks of consecration, and was satisfied that the fisherman’s tale was true.

King Sebert is said to have died about the year 616, and he and his wife Ethelgoda were buried in the church at Thorney. His tomb was replaced in the great church built on Thorney Isle by Edward the Confessor, and was finally moved into the present church, where it still remains.

It is supposed that the church at Thorney was left neglected until it was restored by Offa, King of the Mercians. After his day it was probably overrun and robbed by the heathen Danes, but it is said to have been again restored by the great St. Dunstan, who brought some Benedictine monks from Glastonbury to the monastery at Thorney.

Harold the Dane, son of Canute, was buried at Thorney, but his brother, Hardicanute, ordered the body to be taken out of its grave and thrown into the Thames. An old story says: “And he (Hardicanute) caused to be hurled out the body of Harold, and to be thrown, beheaded, all out of church; head and body he throws into the Thames. The Danes drew it from the water, and caused it to be buried in the cemetery of the Danes.” (St. Clement Danes).

[D. Weller KING SEBERT’S TOMB.

Now we come to the time of Edward the Confessor, when we feel we know more about the real history.

Edward the Confessor had been in exile in Normandy during the reigns of the Danish Kings. When Hardicanute died, Edward came back to England, and was crowned King at Winchester. After he was once settled in his kingdom he remembered a solemn vow he had made while he was in a foreign land, and when he doubted whether he would ever get back to England. This was the vow: “Sire Saint Peter, under whose aid I put myself and my property, be to me a shield and protection against the tyrant Danish plans: Be to me lord and friend against all my enemies. To thy service I will entirely give myself up, and well I vow to you and promise you, when I shall be of strength and age, to Rome I will make my pilgrimage, where you and your companion Saint Paul suffered martyrdom.”

The English were most unwilling that their King should leave them, and go away on such a long and dangerous journey as it was in those days. So they begged the King to remain, and he sent to ask the Pope what he might do instead of going to Rome. The Pope answered that he might build or restore some monastery in honour of St. Peter. There is a beautiful old story which tells that while the King was thinking over this matter, and wondering where to build his monastery, a message was brought to him from a holy hermit of Worcestershire, one Wulsinus, and the message was as follows: “I have a place in the west of London, which I myself chose, and which I love. This formerly I consecrated with my own hands, honoured with my presence, and made it illustrious by divine miracles. The name of the place is Thorney, which once, for the sins of the people, being given to the fury of barbarians, from being rich is become poor, from being stately, low, and from honour is become contemptible. This let the King, by my command, repair and make it a house of monks, adorn it with stately towers, and endow it with large revenues. There shall be no less than the House of God and the Gates of Heaven.”

This, and other reasons, decided the King to rebuild the church at Thorney Isle, and this great “Minster of the West” was probably begun about the year 1055. In 1065 the eastern part of the church, that is to say, the choir and transepts, was ready, and it was consecrated by Archbishop Stigand on Innocents’ Day, 28th December 1065. King Edward was too ill to be at the service, so his wife, Queen Editha, had to represent him.

Edward the Confessor died on 5th January 1066, and was buried the next day, the Feast of the Epiphany, in front of the high altar of his new church.

That church was very different to look at from the Abbey we all know at the present day. It was built in what is called the Norman style, with massive pillars, round arches, and round-headed windows. It must have been a very large and splendid church, almost as large as the present one, only that it was not so high.

The church and the surrounding monastery buildings were finished during the reigns of the early Norman kings, and William the Conqueror confirmed the charters granted to the Abbey by the Confessor, and bestowed yet more lands upon it.

We must now pass over nearly two hundred years, and speak of the time of King Henry III. In the year 1220, Henry III began to build a very beautiful chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at the eastern end of the Abbey church. It was just about this time that some of the grand cathedrals of France, such as those of Amiens, Reims, and Chartres, were being built in that lovely and graceful pointed style which is called Gothic, but which really comes from France.

Henry III, when visiting his brother-in-law, St. Louis, King of France, had no doubt seen some of these glorious new churches, and was very anxious to build one like them in honour of King Edward the Confessor, for whom he had a great reverence.

Photo W. Rice, F.R.P.S. Allen & Co (London) Ltd Sc

The Norman Cloister.

Accordingly, in 1245, he began to have the Confessor’s Norman church pulled down, and in its stead he built the splendid church we now see, a church which has been called “the most lovely and lovable thing in Christendom.”

The choir and transepts, the Chapter-House, and some of the cloisters were built during Henry’s reign. The monks sang service in the new choir and transepts for the first time on 13th October 1269, when the body of Edward the Confessor was placed in the magnificent new shrine made for it by Henry III.

Some of the nave was then gone on with, but it was not built to its present length until the reign of Henry V. The first time it was used for a procession was when the Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The money for building this part of the Abbey was given into the care of a man named Dick Whittington, whom some people think to have been the famous Lord Mayor of that name. This, however, is doubtful.

The church built by Henry III is very different from a Norman church. Instead of round arches, it has very pointed ones; the windows are long and pointed; the pillars are tall, slender, and graceful. The wonder seems to be how such a building can have stood for all these hundreds of years. And indeed it would not stand, if it were not for the beautiful flying buttresses which support it on the outside.

In the reigns of Edward III and Richard II the cloisters were finished, and Abbot Litlington built the celebrated rooms known as the Jerusalem Chamber and the College Hall. A very fine North Porch, called “Solomon’s Porch,” was built in Richard II’s reign, but unhappily none of it now remains.

In the year 1503, King Henry VII began the chapel which is known by his name, and which is so famous for its beauty. It stands on the place where Henry III’s Lady Chapel stood, but it is much larger than the older chapel, and some houses had to be pulled down to make room for it, among them being the house where the poet Chaucer is said to have lived. Henry VII’s chapel is too elaborate to describe here. The decoration is so rich and so delicate that it looks almost like lace-work, and the badges carved on the walls, the Tudor roses, the Beaufort portcullis, and the fleur-de-lys are a kind of history lesson in themselves. The fan-tracery vault is most wonderful, both in its lovely design and splendid masonry work.

We have now come almost to an end of the story of the actual building of the Abbey,—at any rate of the chief parts of it. The tracery of the great west window was put up in the year 1498, in Abbot Esteney’s time, but the glass in it dates only from the reign of George II. The western towers, which were begun long before, were finished in 1739 or 1740, from a design made by a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren.

In 1540, King Henry VIII made great changes in the monasteries all over England. The monks were sent away from Westminster, and their place was taken by a Dean and twelve prebendaries. For just ten years, from 1540 to 1550, the Abbey was made into a cathedral, or church where a bishop has his throne. During these years there was a Bishop of Westminster, but when the bishop resigned, in 1550, his diocese was joined once more to the See of London.

Henry VIII also made new arrangements for the old School, which had existed in the monastery from the Confessor’s time.

When Queen Mary Tudor came to the throne she brought the monks back, with Abbot Feckenham to rule over them, and the old services were restored for a time.

Queen Elizabeth changed this again, and established the Abbey as a Collegiate Church, with a Dean and Prebendaries. The present arrangements are not very different from those of her time, in spite of certain changes which have had to be made in modern days.

Queen Elizabeth also re-established the School, much on the same plan as her father had done. She settled that there should be a Head-Master, an Under-Master, and forty Scholars, who are called either King’s Scholars or Queen’s Scholars, according as the Sovereign is a king or a queen.

Westminster School always remembers what Queen Elizabeth did for it, and her name is commemorated in the prayers.

Now, having described something of the foundation and building of the Abbey, it is time to turn our thoughts to the many important and interesting things that have happened there, and to the great people of our nation who are resting within its walls.