Exploring Medieval Monasteries, part 13

Hello. The largest and most important building in a monastery was of course the monastic church, and it was constantly in use. We're not talking just once or twice on a Sunday. The liturgy of the hours, the divine offices were celebrated throughout the day and into the night. And the quality and the scale of the monastic church and its fittings, both the statement of the status of the community, but also the aspirations of its founder and of its patrons. All monastic churches change and evolve over time. Every repair, every rebuild reflects architectural fashion and liturgical developments. Now those monastic churches that became great cathedrals at the dissolution are the ones that have survived best. So Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Gloucester, Peterborough, Rochester, Winchester, Worcester. After those, the ones that survived, perhaps in part as parish churches, have survived best. Places like Boxgrove in West Sussex, Christchurch in Dorset, Lempster, Great Malvern, Selby, Tewksbury. At Tewksbury, the locals bought their church from the Crown for £453 at the dissolution. Roughly, it was the value of the lead in the roof and the bells. The splendour of many monastic churches is evident in spectacular ruins like fountains. And even in those that are in poor condition, perhaps Bury St Edmunds is a good example, we can still see echoes of their former glory. Now by comparing archaeology and standing remains, it's possible to get a good understanding of how monastic churches were originally planned and how they developed over the centuries. The earliest monastic churches were timber. Little survives, even in the archaeological record. But we have had some useful and informative excavations, for example, of an early Saxon nunnery at Flixburgh in Lincolnshire. And what these excavations suggest is that those early Saxon timber monastic churches were rectangular and very similar to Anglo-Saxon halls, which makes it rather difficult sometimes to distinguish between religious and domestic, unless we can find other evidence. So pottery sherds and a hearth would suggest domestic use, for example. A different continental tradition arrives with Augustine's mission in 597. And soon after the arrival of Augustine and his missionaries, a stone church is built at Canterbury, St Peter and St Paul, incorporating some Roman tile recycled. Probably brought over masons from northern France to do the building. And excavations there have revealed that the first building was rectangular, it had no aisles, there was a western porch entrance and a series of side chapels on either side of the nave, and a small apsidal, semi-circular choir at the east end. The early archbishops of Canterbury were buried in the side chapels on the north side, and the Kentish royalty in the side chapels on the south side. A second church, St Mary's, followed, in line with St Peter and St Paul, but to the east. And then a third church, St Mary's, was built. Now small churches in line, we've seen before in Anglo-Saxon England, at places like Jarrow. But over time at Canterbury, these separate churches will grow into one composite building. Further side chapels were added to the north side in the mid-7th century, and then there were extensions in the mid-10th century to meet the requirements of the Benedictine rule for three liturgical areas, each with its own altar. The porch, the nave, and the choir. Here at Canterbury, the porch became part of the nave, and then a new porch was built at the west end. A screen was erected in the nave, both to separate the nave from the choir, but also to form a backdrop for the nave altar. Then the eastern ends of the side chapels get extended, so these are embryonic transepts. Then the roof is raised, and in the mid-11th century, a crypt was added beneath an octagonal roof between St Peter and St Paul and St Mary, and the eastern end of St Paul's is demolished, and the western end of St Mary's, and those buildings join. So here at Canterbury, what we can see is the beginning of the Grand Church plan that is so familiar today. Architecturally, Canterbury is hugely influential, although at the same time these developments are taking place at Canterbury, something similar is going on at Glastonbury as well. Now after the Norman conquest, designs are modified to take account of the greater emphasis on shrines, and this becomes increasingly important after the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, and shrines become even more popular. Shrines attract pilgrims, pilgrims bring gifts and benefactions, and the east ends of many monastic churches are extended and redesigned to accommodate elaborate shrines, and ambulatories are built, walkways, for pilgrims to progress around the shrine. At the same time, there is less religious use of the porch, and the idea of a porch church disappears. Communion was generally only for the monks, but the host would be elevated so that it was visible in the nave, and an altar was used for mass only once a day, so there becomes a need for more altars. Now this is a plan of Battle Abbey, and what you can see is that inner chapels have been added at the east end, each one would have its own altar. Similar extensions will be added to the east end of monastic churches elsewhere throughout the 13th and 14th century. This is a digital reconstruction of the east end of Battle Abbey, and looking east, showing how it might have looked. The plan of Norman Canterbury shows how these churches function. The high altar in the choir, raised on steps, above a crypt. The crypt is accessed by stairs from the transepts. The choir, closed off by a pulpitum, a screen with a central door flanked with an altar on either side, and a loft above. West of the pulpitum, a second screen, the rude screen with a large cross above it, and an altar for the nave. The space in between is known as the retro choir, and this was where the older or infirm monks might sit during long services, so that they are more comfortable. Now the retro choir will move to the far eastern end of the choir in later periods. So much for the ground plan, what about the elevation? Well in the grandest, they're designed to impress, and they are three storey. This is St Albans, and what you can see above the roof of the aisle is a triforium, an arcaded passage, and then another storey above that, the clear storey. You'll see similar at Norwich, Tewkesbury, and elsewhere. Now when we get the arrival of new monastic orders, who are attempting to return to more austere ideals from the earlier period, then we get some simpler churches. At Kirkham Priory in North Yorkshire, established by the Augustinians, Cistercians will take over later, but established by Augustinians about 1120. The plan is cruciform, but there is no aisles, the choir is short. The very first church at Fountain's Abbey, which began about 1135, built by the Cistercians, again was cruciform, it had no aisles, but by the 1140s aisles were added to the nave, and later in the 12th century, when the number of monks had risen to around about 80, and there was a small army of lay brothers, then there was a requirement for a bigger church. This time it gets built in a much grander and more elaborate style, and it's the remains of that that we can see today. The Carthusians were different from the other orders, in the sense that they only used their church for mass twice a day, the first and last service. The other offices they celebrated privately in their individual cells. They tended therefore to have much smaller churches, and they tended to be smaller communities as well. You can see quite substantial remains of Mount Grass Priory in North Yorkshire. This church is just 90 feet by 24 feet, very simple rectangular, still two sections, West End for the lay brothers, and East End for the monks' choir, and the two sections defined by a pulpitum and a rude screen, but much simpler. Now next time I'm going to look at the Cloister and its associated buildings. If you've enjoyed this video, hit the like and subscribe buttons, and click on the notification bell to be informed the next video is released, or you can subscribe by clicking on the rose window over my shoulder.