I’m starting to gather my resources for a 2027 Zoom class about angels – lets face it if you go into a church or cathedral there they are – in stone, glass or metal – from medieval to modern. Inevitably I shall be exploring both the theologies and the philosophies attached to angels from the early Middle Ages onwards (actually I may well be going back even earlier – the Romans had their own version of angels.
So I’ve gone back to my photos – still can’t access that external hard drive- and right at the start of the photo library was Ripon Cathedral (St Peter and St Winifred). I seem to remember that the quire contains angels wherever you look, they appear on the walls, tops of columns and the misericords. Then there are the carvings on the fifteenth century quire screen depicting angels playing musical instruments. I think the examples at the start of this post are from the north wall but since I don’t have a notebook identifying the location of each photo I take, I am relying on memory.
Medieval masons – and these particular examples have been restored by the Victorians- sought to carve angels in quires as it was a way of merging the earthly choir with the heavenly host and it was also a reminder of God’s presence. I suppose you might also argue that angels were guardians of the space and if you think about the structure of a church a step closer to the most holy of spaces inside the cathedral – there’s the nave for ordinary people, the choir and then the high altar. The quire or chancel is an area that transitions from the everyday world to the most holy location in a church or cathedral. The screen and the angels are a reminder of the hierarchy.
The coat of arms with the gules (red) field with crossed keys and pascal lamb are the historic arms of the Diocese of Ripon.
The arms with the or (gold) field and the gules knot or fret is more problematic and I’ll admit to being stumped. It’s not a Harrington knot so I don’t think it’s a Markenfield device not least because their main heraldic arms are (argent) silver with a diagonal black (sable) band known as a ‘bend’ containing three bezants (gold coins). The Markenfields were an influential family in the area and several generations of them are buried in the cathedral.
The gules coat of arms with the crossed keys and crown belongs to the Diocese of York reflecting the close relationship of the two, although I think now Ripon is part of the Diocese of Leeds.
And finally there’s the coat of arms with the azure field and three mullets (stars) or which belongs to St Wilfred. The saint founded the cathedral in AD672. The crypt at Ripon is, of course, the oldest surviving in any English cathedral.
Before I forget – Ripon’s association with angels includes the ten thousand origami angels created during Covid and installed in the cathedral entitled ‘A Wing and a Prayer’. Money raised went to the restoration of the cathedral and the Yorkshire Air Ambulence service. Unfortunately I don’t have any images as unsurprisingly we didn’t do much in the way of travelling in 2020.
Friar, Stephen (ed). A new Dictionary of Heraldry (London: A & C Black, 1987)
As regular readers are aware I do like a list. Some people might set off Munro-bagging but I prefer castles, cathedrals and stately stacks. At the moment I’m looking at cathedrals and trying to work out which cathedrals I need to visit that I’ve never been to before as well as those I have been to but which I now need to re-photograph thanks to the pesky external hard drive which still contains all my photos but which won’t let me look at them. Please don’t mention the importance of backing up. I’m still kicking myself.
The bishopric of Rochester was set up in 604, not that long after Augustine set up Canterbury. Sandwiched between London and Canterbury, it seems a bit of an unusual choice today but the Roman city was at an important river crossing. A small diocese, the medieval bishops, who were also Benedictine monks, were largely dependent on Canterbury. It was only in 1124 that a bishop was appointed who was not one of the Benedictines who lived in the monastery there. It was the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 that improved Rochester’s finances. Bishop Glanville founded a hospital for tired pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury. Then in 1201 William of Perth went to the Holy Land and was murdered on his way home by his servant in a wood near to Rochester. A woman was cured of madness having touched the murdered man’s body and William, who was a baker, promptly became a martyr and the subject of a Rochester’s own miracles and cults – bringing in more income. The revenue helped pay for building work.
Rochester’s prosperity ceased with the reign of King John and never recovered. Matters were not helped by the political intrigues of the town’s Benedictine monks. Rochester soon found itself deeply in debt. It was 1539 though, before the monks were finally evicted from the cathedral with the dissolution of the monasteries. Rochester’s most famous bishop, Fisher, had been executed four years previously for his refusal to accept the split from Rome.
It should be added that Canterbury, infinitely more wealthy, had its own problems during the medieval period, despite the wealth that poured in with the pilgrims following the brutal murder of Thomas Becket. It has also been rebuilt many times including by Simon of Sudbury who was murdered during the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. In 1539 Becket’s shrine was dismantled and centuries worth of accumulated wealth, in the form of twenty-six cartloads of jewels, was sent off to the royal treasury.
Its been a while since I looked at anything ecclesiastical but since my Zoom class is currently exploring Opus Anglicanum, or English work, I thought that it was about time to look at some church furniture- cope chests – as pictured at York.
A cope is essentially a cloak. The word derives from the Latin cappa meaning cloak or mantle. It originally had a hood – which let’s face it a hood is more useful than a piece of material that looks like a shield and was meant to mimic the shape of the hood – as found on copes up until the twentieth century. The whole thing was originally held in place by a clasp or brooch but bands were introduced later to keep the semi-circular fabric closed.
The first written mention of a cope appears in the late 8th century but it was more an item of everyday wear for monks who wanted to keep warm while singing in the choir than a ritual robe worn by bishops (who presumably were also keen on keeping drafts at bay). The cope’s liturgical significance had already developed by the end of the 8th century but the garments worn by bishops were made of precious silks and heavily embroidered to reflect the bishop’s status, his patrons and of course the lives of Christ and the saints. There are a number of monumental effigies depicting sixteenth century bishops in their copes as well as more modern examples.
Somewhat surprisingly copes remained on the ecclesiastical dress code after the Reformation. The prayerbook of Edward VI depicts him with a group of bishops all dressed in their copes and mitres so that they are immediately identifiable. Problems arose about their use during the time of Charles I, mainly because the Episcopalian Archbishop Laud insisted that they be worn whereas the king’s puritan subjects felt the garment smacked of popishness. The cope disappeared during the Commonwealth period but was reintroduced at the Restoration in 1660.
Meanwhile, back in medieval England the precious textiles were too valuable to be folded – no one wanted wrinkles in their silk or for their gold thread to become worn. And so the cope chest evolved. They were semi circular or wedged, like a cheese, in shape allowing the cope to be laid flat and then gently folded side to middle in a wedge shape. Salisbury Cathedral’s cope chest is believed to be the oldest of the remaining English cope chests – it dates to 1244 and was thought to have been made to house a cope gifted to the cathedral by Henry III. There are seven medieval cope chests in England including the one at Salisbury. They were large items so only bigger foundations would have had the space for them. Wells, Gloucester and Westminster each have one while York has two York’s is the finest – well I would think that-but it has some very fine wrought iron strap work on its lid. There’s also a cope chest at Durham. Tewkesbury’s cope chest is a modern oak chest.
Copes are still in production but some of them are very different from their medieval counterparts, including the wonderful St Paul’s Cathedral Silver Jubilee cope designed by Beryl Dean.
Why not have a closer look by following the link, which opens in a new tab, and seeing how many of London’s churches and peculiars you can identify in addition to St Paul’s Cathedral. http://www.beryldean.org.uk/works/jubilee-cope/
I love stained glass – and incidentally the little diamond shaped panes are called quarries. It turns out that glass has been around since the third millennium BC – leading us to the inevitable question of What did the Romans ever do for us?
The gallery depicts modern glass which can be found in St Mary’s Church, Richmond, North Yorkshire. it won’t come as a surprise to learn that much of the medieval glass was somewhat knocked about during the English Civil War and Commonwealth period. Restoration commenced under Sir George Gilbert Scott during the Victorian period.
The ones pictures below are modern and dedicated to Ruth Gedye who was just eighteen years old when she died. The artist Alan Davis of Whitby created the image based on Ruth’s favourite hymns.
The last image in the gallery comes from a different window in the church. Alan’s work can also be found in Manchester Cathedral. Hicks notes that the abstract designs with which we are familiar these days were popularised after World War Two thanks to commissions for Coventry Cathedral and the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. She lists some examples and although I have seen the ‘Prisoners of Conscience’ window in Salisbury I can’t remember it particularly clearly, unlike the Richard III window at Leicester.
St Nicholas Church, West TanfieldMarmion TowerLion at foot of effigySt Nichalas’s Church, West Tanfield near Ripon
For those of you familiar with the area just beyond Ripon you’re probably thinking Marmion! A medieval gatehouse near the church is all that remains of a medieval manor house. It’s possible that there was a Norman castle first but nothing remains. Licence to crenelate (fortify) was granted in 1314. The family associated with the area were the Marmions.
So starting with Robert. Our first Robert died in 1216 was married twice and had families with both his wives – and thought that it would be useful to call both of his first sons Robert. Thankfully he was part of the Staffordshire elite so lets just leave him as 3rd Baron Marmion of Tamworth.
In 1215 Robert the Younger (the son from the second marriage) Marmion of Tamworth paid the avaricious King John £350 and five palfreys to marry Amicia/Avice the daughter of Jernigan or Gernegan FitzHugh of West Tanfield – a minor heiress with lands in Yorkshire. Needless to say starting the conversation with King John results in revolting barons, confiscations and general unhappiness especially when King John gave the order to demolish Tamworth Castle. Fortunately for the Marmions the contractors didn’t move in.
Eventually the Marmions got themselves back on track with the younger Robert coughing up more cash both for his own lands and his elder half-brother’s estates as he was continuing to rebel. By 1220 Robert the Elder was in control of Tamworth. There followed a series of male Marmions until yet another Robert Marmion died leaving his sister Avis as his heir. She held the manor jointly with her husband John de Grey of Rotherfield but their son rather than being called de Grey was known as Marmion which brings us back to the rather marvellous alabaster effigy in St Nicholas’s Church.
He died in 1387 in the service of John of Gaunt in Spain so the manor passed back into the hands of the FitzHugh family via John’s nice Elizabeth. Eventually the manor passed back up the family tree and across to the Parrs by right of Elizabeth FitzHugh before returning to the Crown and for a while into the hands of William Cecil Lord Burghley. The lady by Sir John’s side is his wife Elizabeth.
The gallery images also show a wall painting of St George slaying the dragon – St George is left handed I think. And some lions for recumbent effigies to rest their feet upon. I can’t resist the animal footrests or the rarer animal cushions. I think lions are supposed to show valour and nobility. And it turns out that in medieval bestiaries lion cubs who were born dead came back to life after three days because of their mother’s breathing on them – so not a huge step to the resurrection and life after death.
A ledge provided by a hinged seat in choir stalls for clerics to lean on during services. Translates from the French meaning of ‘mercy seat’. Ripon has 32 of them which were created at the end of the 15th century. I particularly like the bagpipe playing pig, Jonah emerging from a very sharp toothed whale, the lady (I think) in a wheel barrow and the mermaid.
Where did the month go? Sorry – got carried away with decorating, sewing mask (seriously who’d have thought) and generally pottering around. And if I’m honest “words, words, words” is rather bigger than I thought….or rather didn’t think.
But it has given you a good long time to come up with a list of words associated with churches and cathedrals. How did you do? I am sure that there are others – this is not a complete list. However after a month with no posts I think it’s time I got back to my more usual blogging habits.
Architectural style:
Saxon – pre-Conquest . Buildings were often constructed from wood or incorporated into medieval churches but one give away are chunky, deepest windows with triangular points at the top. And here’s a thought the Saxons developed the idea of church towers – the usual reason given is that they were for watching out for the enemy.
Norman (Romanesque) – semi circular arches and vaulting. Quite chunky looking buildings in most cases. Small windows, thick walls and the dog-tooth zig zag pattern which is a common motif of the period. A carved stone font.
Early English (began about 1200) The whole medieval period of church building also has the label Gothic.
The rounded windows give way to larger, pointed windows (lancet windows). Or put another way pointy arches were invented. The ceiling was pushed up by the use of clusters of piers to support arches which became narrower than the Norman columns. Vaults which also helped to push the ceiling up were constructed in four parts (like a cross). Stained glass starts to be used and rose windows are introduced.
Decorated (about 1290) – does what it says on the tin. Everything that cane decorated is. We’re also at fan vaulting and tracery. Four leaved flowers and geometric patterns or “diapering” were very popular as well.
aisle – walkway down the middle or sides of the nave. side aisles tend to be lined on one side by columns or pillars.
altar or communion table – usually situated at the East end of the church or at the crossing in cathedrals. They can also be found in side chapels.
ambulatory – aisle around the east end of the choir joining the choir side aisles to make a continuous passage.
apse – semi circular bit that sticks out from the east end of the building – not to be found in all churches.
arcade– series of arches carried on piers (architectural term for columns.)
aumbry – a small recess or cupboard in the wall of a church for storing sacred vessels and vestments.
blind arch – an arch with no opening. Usually decoration.
boss – a stone at the intersection of ribs in the vaulting that projects down from the ceiling. Very often they are elaborately carved. The boss ties the vaulting together a bit like a keystone in an arch.
buttress a support built against a wall which reinforces it. This means that medieval masons were able to build taller walls because buttresses braced the walls to act against the lateral (sideways) forces acting from the roof.
campanile -detached bell tower.
capital– the stone on the top of a column.
chancel – area at the east end of the church beyond the nave. There is usually a step up from the nave to the chancel.
chapel – small building or room set aside for worship – the “room” might be created by wooden partitions or be a specific stone built chamber. Larger churches or cathedrals often have many chapels dedicated to different saints. Chantry chapels are where prayers for the dead are said.
chapter house – meeting place for the governing body of a monastery or cathedral. Chapter houses in England are usually polygonal with a central column supporting the roof.
choir, sometimes quire, area with seating for the clergy and church choir. Choirs can usually be found in the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary. Medieval choir-stalls, involve seating at right-angles to the seating for the congregation in the nave and these seats would often be highly decorated misericords which are not so much seats as perches to lean on during lengthy services.
clerestory– wall that contains windows high above eye level usually in the nave or side aisles of Romanesque or Gothic churches.
cloister – usually four sided area surrounded by covered walkways, the middle tends to be an area of grass or garden.
close– the precincts in which a cathedral and any other buildings that supplement a cathedral stand. There may well be a gatehouse and walls around the precinct.
corbel – stonework that sticks out of the wall to support something above it – such as an arch or a beam. Often decorated.
crypt – stone chamber beneath the floor of the church containing, coffins, relics or these days chapels.
galilee – porch at the western end of the church used as a chapel for women and/or penitents. It can refer to the entire western end of the nave.
gargoyle – a grotesque carved with a spout to take water from a roof and away from the side of the building.
lancet window – pointed window that is part of the Early English evolution of church design.
lantern tower – tower above the crossing with windows to give light on the floor below.
lectern – reading desk, often in the shape of an eagle, made to hold the Bible during services.
misericord The Latin word for “mercy” gives us misericord – folding wooden brackets in choir stalls that clergy could lean against during long services. They are often beautifully carved.
nave – the main body of the church where the congregation sits today but where they stood in the medieval period as there were no pews.
pew -long wooden benches in the church. Pews started to be placed in churches at the end of the medieval period. Many bench-ends were carved with animal and foliate designs. Box pews are high sided enclosed pews with doors. Some even had their own stove to keep people warm.
pulpit – raised stand from which the preacher addresses the congregation.
pulpitum – stone screen, sometimes wood, that divides the choir (the area containing the choir stalls and high altar. Basically, if acts like a rood screen in a smaller church.
reliquary– casket containing relics.
reredos – decorated screen behind the altar.
rood – another name for a cross
rood screen – the screen separated the chancel from the nave, often surmounted by a cross during the medieval period.
sanctuary – the area beyond the chancel where the altar stands. Again, there is often a step up from the chancel to the sanctuary and there may be a rail as well. Think of the journey east through the church as gradually becoming more Holy – the “zones” are marked by steps, screens and rails.
stoup – basin for holy water near the west door. Can be built into the wall or free-standing.
transept – crossing place usually at the east end of the nave between the nave and chancel where the building is built in a cross shape.
Robert Louis Stephenson said “I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.” – Robert’s grandfather also named Robert began the tradition of lighthouse building The author’s father and two uncles were also lighthouse keepers. If you’d like to know more then Bella Bathuhurst’s book The Lighthouse Stephensons is for you.
Charles Dickens wrote this description of Canterbury Cathedral in David Copperfield which drew on his own childhood experiences after his father was imprisoned for debt. “The rooks were sailing about the cathedral towers; and the towers themselves, overlooking many a long unaltered mile of the rich country and its pleasant streams, were cutting the bright morning air as if there were no such thing as change on earth.”
“Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.” Henry Kissinger won a Nobel prize having served in Richard Nixon’s administration.
Thomas Carlyle, also known as the Sage of Chelsea, said “The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better.”
“Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.” – W.H. Auden wrote this line in On this Island.
“The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.” – Ken Follett wrote two books which featured the town of Kingsbridge – The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End which is placed two hundred years after the first novel. For those of you looking for something historical to get your teeth into there are the books and a mini-series featuring Ian McShane, Matthew Macfadyen and Eddie Redmayne.
“The most solid thing was the light. It smashed through the rows of windows in the south aisle, so that they exploded with colour, it slanted before him from right to left in an exact formation, to hit the bottom yard of the pillars on the north side of the nave. Everywhere, fine dust gave these rods and trunks of light the importance of a dimension. He blinked at them again, seeing, near at hand, how the individual grains of dust turned over each other, or bounced all together, like mayfly in a breath of wind. He saw how further away they drifted cloudily, coiled, or hung in a moment of pause, becoming, in the most distant rods and trunks, nothing but colour, honey-colour slashed across the body of the cathedral. Where the south transept lighted the crossways from a hundred and fifty foot of grisaille, the honey thickened in a pillar that lifted straight as Abel’s from the men working with crows at the pavement.” – The author of this rather lengthy quote about the building of Salisbury Cathedral is William Golding better known for his work The Lord of the Flies. The book featuring Salisbury Cathedral is called The Spire.
“If you seek his monument, look around.” – whose epitaph is this and where can it be found? This particular epitaph can be found in St Paul’s Cathedral on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, Seventeenth Century London’s great church builder.
“Along the sculptures of the western wall I watched the moonlight creeping: It moved as if it hardly moved at all Inch by inch thinly peeping Round on the pious figures of freestone, brought And poised there when the Universe was wrought To serve its centre, Earth, in mankind’s thought.” Thomas Hardy wrote about Salisbury Cathedral after visiting it he is best known for his novels set in Wessex.
“Somehow, cathedrals have contrived to snap free of the sectarian exclusivity of the parish church. They answer to a longing for congregation and communal space. Their key is a quality unfashionable to social analysis, the offer of solitude with beauty. You need not to be of faith to sit quietly and contemplate the loveliness of a cathedral. As a dean once hinted to me in a whisper, “Here we don’t bang on about God.” Simon Jenkins writes for The Guardian and wrote the book called England’s Cathedrals.
Time for answers – how did you do and how many have you visited?
Old Foundation Cathedrals: These cathedrals were ‘secular’ foundations dating from before the Reformation. This simply means that their chapters weren’t made up from monks in a closed order – their chapters were always run by canons who were of the world rather than being enclosed. Essentially the lack of monastic involvement meant that these cathedrals were unaffected by the dissolution of the monasteries.
In England: Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, London (St Paul’s), Salisbury, Wells and York.
In Wales: Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, and St David’s.
New Foundation Cathedrals: These cathedrals either functioned as public places of worship with monastic chapters in the medieval period or were abbeys. The Reformation was not good news for their monastic inhabitants. Cromwell reorganised the dioceses and church administration of England and Wales. New non-monastic constitutions were applied. For instance, St Mary’s Abbey church in Carlisle became the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Many cathedrals were re-founded during the reign of Henry VIII often with the last abbot or prior becoming the dean of the new chapter.
In England: Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester and Worcester had already existed prior to the reformation as cathedrals. In addition, Henry created new bishoprics and cathedrals from Bristol (the Holy and Undivided Trinity), Chester, Gloucester, Oxford and Peterborough.
Modern Foundation Cathedrals or Parish Church Cathedrals: from the mid 1800s (the first dates from 1836) a number of new cathedrals have been established which reflect the changing population of England and Wales. They include cathedrals based upon former parish churches, to meet the needs of new dioceses.
In England: Blackburn, Birmingham, Bradford, Chelmsford, Coventry, Derby, Guildford, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Ripon, St Albans St Edmundsbury, Sheffield, Southwark, Southwell, Truro, Wakefield
IN Wales: Brecon, Newport
Cannon, Jon. (2007) Cathedral: The Great English Cathedrals. London: Constable.
Jenkins, Simon. (2016) England’s Cathedrals. London: Little Brown
Sir Christopher Wren, whose words are quoted here, built 51 churches and a cathedral in London following the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Please feel free to add quotes into the comments relating to the UK’s cathedrals. And to get you thinking who said the following:
“I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.” – The author of this quote is a writer related to a famous lighthouse building family.
“The rooks were sailing about the cathedral towers; and the towers themselves, overlooking many a long unaltered mile of the rich country and its pleasant streams, were cutting the bright morning air as if there were no such thing as change on earth.” – The author of this quote about Canterbury Cathedral owned a house in Rochester and another in Broadstairs.
“Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral.”- The author of this quote won a Nobel prize having served in Richard Nixon’s administration.
“The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better.” – The author of this quote is also known as the Sage of Chelsea.
Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.” – The author of this quote wrote a poem that featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
“The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.” – The author of this quote writes thrillers and historical novels. He wrote two books which featured the town of Kingsbridge.
“The most solid thing was the light. It smashed through the rows of windows in the south aisle, so that they exploded with colour, it slanted before him from right to left in an exact formation, to hit the bottom yard of the pillars on the north side of the nave. Everywhere, fine dust gave these rods and trunks of light the importance of a dimension. He blinked at them again, seeing, near at hand, how the individual grains of dust turned over each other, or bounced all together, like mayfly in a breath of wind. He saw how further away they drifted cloudily, coiled, or hung in a moment of pause, becoming, in the most distant rods and trunks, nothing but colour, honey-colour slashed across the body of the cathedral. Where the south transept lighted the crossways from a hundred and fifty foot of grisaille, the honey thickened in a pillar that lifted straight as Abel’s from the men working with crows at the pavement.” – The author of this rather lengthy quote about the building of Salisbury Cathedral is most famous for his debut novel written in 1954 that saw a party of children stranded on an island with unpleasant consequences.
“If you seek his monument, look around.” – whose epitaph is this and where can it be found?
“Along the sculptures of the western wall I watched the moonlight creeping: It moved as if it hardly moved at all Inch by inch thinly peeping Round on the pious figures of freestone, brought And poised there when the Universe was wrought To serve its centre, Earth, in mankind’s thought.” The author of this verse wrote about Salisbury Cathedral after visiting it he is best known for his novels set in Wessex.
“Somehow, cathedrals have contrived to snap free of the sectarian exclusivity of the parish church. They answer to a longing for congregation and communal space. Their key is a quality unfashionable to social analysis, the offer of solitude with beauty. You need not to be of faith to sit quietly and contemplate the loveliness of a cathedral. As a dean once hinted to me in a whisper, “Here we don’t bang on about God.” The author of this quote writes for The Guardian and wrote book called England’s Cathedrals.
