Part 7

There is a special interest in these peculiar features, especially in the _square_ east end; they have a story of their own. The great majority of the great English churches, it is well known, are not apsidal, or circular at the east end, but _square_, and it would seem that some very ancient tradition must be at the root of that striking English feature. Now we have good reason to believe that the majority of ancient British churches were so constructed. In Ireland a few very ancient little churches or oratories are still with us; some of these without doubt date from the fifth century, that is, from the days when Ireland was first Christianised from Britain; they therefore undoubtedly represent the type of church architecture common in Britain before the coming and subsequent havoc of the North-folk invaders, in the fifth and sixth centuries--the Saxon, the Engle and the Jute.

Without exception these very early little Irish churches, or oratories, are _square-ended_, not apsidal or semi-circular ended. They evidently represent an independent Christian tradition, something quite different to the Basilican, especially Italian tradition of an apsidal or semi-circular end. The conclusion then forced upon us is that Christianity came originally to this Island from another centre than Rome or Italy.

This square-ended form for churches, impressed upon Britain by unknown missionaries, is of immemorial antiquity. The teaching has never been forgotten, but has, through all the changing fortunes of the Church in our Island, remained the English favourite form. We will briefly trace its remarkable story.

The first period of the existence of the Church in Britain may be dated roughly from some time in the second century, and may be said to have lasted until the coming of the North-folk in the middle of the fifth century. (The exact date of the first preaching of Christianity in Britain is unknown.) Ireland received the faith from Britain somewhere about A.D. 397, and judging from the invariable square east end form of the early Irish churches, and oratories, we may assume that the British churches (these have all[24] disappeared owing to the sweeping havoc of the Northmen invaders), like their daughter Irish churches, must have been, as a rule, square-ended.

There were, however, it is certain, some rare exceptions to this rule, for when Christianity after A.D. 313 became the recognised religion of the Empire, in some centres in Britain the churches of the Roman colonists and officials were built on the Basilican mode of the great capital of the Roman world, with apsidal or semi-circular sanctuaries. An example of such an exception has been lately discovered in the purely Roman city of Silchester (near Reading), built in the fourth century especially for Roman provincials and officials. The little Silchester church, as might have been expected, has an apsidal or semi-circular end.

The second period of the Church in Britain may be dated from the arrival of Augustine from Italy, A.D. 597, and may be roughly reckoned as lasting until the coming of the Normans in A.D. 1066. Augustine and his companion missionaries, as may have been expected, introduced the Italian or Basilican type, but gradually we find the square end, as the Saxon period wore on, again forcing its way into general use, the old traditional type of church building somehow being deeply rooted in the hearts of the dwellers in our Island.

The Norman conquest once more, after A.D. 1066, gave an artificial and temporary victory to the Italian (Basilican) or apsidal-ended churches. Westminster Abbey, which was a purely Norman church, built under Edward the Confessor’s auspices--Gloucester, and other well-known famous abbeys, were constructed with apsidal and semi-circular east ends. But strangely enough, in spite of the all-powerful Norman influence, nothing could eradicate the old taste for the primitive British type of church, and when once the conquerors and the conquered began to be welded into one people, the square end once more gradually superseded its Roman apsidal rival. By the thirteenth century the victory of the old square-ended type was pretty well complete, and it became par excellence the special English form.

The well-known example of the “restored” Westminster Abbey, which with its apse and striking chevet of chapels at the east end, and which might justly be cited as an important contrary instance, is really exceptional, that glorious abbey owing its Roman and Continental form to the special circumstances under which it was restored and rebuilt. The foreign influences to which Henry III, who mainly carried out the new Westminster work was subjected, are purely responsible here. Durham, on the other hand, where English influences were at work, actually saw its Norman apse destroyed, A.D. 1236-1241, and the beautiful creation known as the Nine Altars commenced. This Chapel of the Nine Altars at the east end of Durham may be cited as the noblest instance existing of a square-ended termination of a great English abbey. A somewhat similar transformation was also effected in the famous Priory Church of Lindisfarne, with its undying memories, hard by Durham.

Among the great churches of England, either through original construction, or through partial transformation or subsequent additions, the following will be found to possess the square, or rectangular east end, that peculiar form derived from the ancient British type, adopted in the Island _before_ the coming of the North-folk: York, Exeter, Worcester, Salisbury, Christ Church (Oxford), Winchester, Hereford, Rochester, Lincoln, Ely, Chichester, Chester, Carlisle, Bangor; and Old Sarum may be added to the list.

But, on the other hand, very few traces of this peculiarly English (British) form, with its striking and interesting tradition handed down from an immemorial antiquity, and bearing its voiceless testimony to some original centre of Christianity, other than Rome or Italy, are found in the great continental churches.

In the vast and populous province of the old Empire known as Gaul, which includes modern France, the Low Countries, etc., among its numerous splendid cathedrals and abbatial churches, only one can be cited with a square-ended east end--the cathedral of Laon. To Laon may be added the important church of Dol. Square-ended churches, comparatively small and unimportant, are, however, not unfrequent in the little country towns of the north of France and in the Burgundian country. Are not these latter exceptions probably referable to an undying memory of the influence of Columba, the great Irish (Celtic) missionary, and his school?

The magnificent and stately mediæval cathedrals on the Continent of Europe, different from their sister churches in England, are, as a rule, characterised by the feature of a great apse, semi-circular or polygonal, with a chevet of chapels.

In England, Gloucester Cathedral is one of the notable exceptions, in this striking particular, to the general English type of square-ended churches, with its eastern apse almost semi-circular, and its chevet of chapels, of which there are three distinct storeys, one over the other, containing in all nine chapels.

But in the year 1457, when Abbot Hanley was ruling in the important Benedictine House of Gloucester, it was determined that a new and superb Lady Chapel should be built as an “annexe” to the stately abbey of Serlo and Aldred. But in the beautiful design for this new and exquisite eastern annexe, the Benedictine architect determined to give to his historic abbey that peculiar English feature which it had hitherto lacked, viz. a square or rectangular termination.

Hence it came about, that in its last architectural transformation, Gloucester has become square-ended, thus preserving in the mighty abbey of the Severn Lands, the immemorial tradition of the square end, handed down from the third century, and brought originally to this Island by early Christian teachers from the East, _not_ from Italy and Rome.

Nor was the master-architect who designed the present Lady Chapel of Gloucester content with only expressing this peculiar and most ancient British type of church architecture upon his loved abbey. Hitherto S. Peter’s Abbey had possessed but _one_ pair of transepts. The secondary or eastern transepts were another feature peculiarly English. They are found in the great piles of Canterbury, Lincoln, Salisbury, Beverley and York, but _not_ in the great Houses of Prayer in France (Gaul). One solitary Gallic instance can be cited in the vast abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, now, alas, razed to the ground; Cluny, strangely enough, possessed the English feature of the double transepts.

The architect of the new chapel of “our Lady” at Gloucester determined that his abbey should henceforth boast too of this peculiar English feature, and so wove into his beautiful design those two singular and striking projections, usually described simply as Chauntry Chapels, surmounted by minstrel galleries, but which are really _two little transepts_.

A glance at the ground-plan of Gloucester Cathedral, as it now stands, will show the accuracy of this apparently novel, and perhaps to some students, startling deduction. So Gloucester, in its last and final transformation in the fifteenth century, became possessed of _both_ the special English architectural features--the square end, and the double eastern transepts.

_The Churches or Oratories of “S. Gwithian” and “Perranzabuloe” on the north coast of Cornwall._

Since writing the above little historical sketch of the utter destruction of the ancient churches of Britain in the sixth century by the North-folk--the Jute, the Saxon and the Engle--worshippers of Odin and Thor--Mr. Lach Szyrma, the well-known Cornish scholar, has called my attention to the curious but little-known remains of two most ancient churches, or oratories, on the north coast of Cornwall, S. Gwithian and Perranzabuloe; both dating from _circa_ A.D. 450. One of them, “S. Gwithian,” perhaps slightly earlier.

In each of these, the _Sanctuary has a square ending_. These little churches without doubt were the work of the old British community--and apparently are the _only_ survivors of the British churches swept away by the North-folk invaders.

Of these two churches or oratories, S. Gwithian was erected in a very exposed situation, and the sand from the sea-shore is blown upon the site in clouds; as much as a depth of five feet of sand will come up in one night. It was covered up in this way at a very remote date.

This “lost” church was dug out of the sand, _circa_ A.D. 1830-1835. Since then it has several times been partially uncovered, but it has gradually been completely filled up again with sand. It is now completely buried in the sand, and only a few stones of the west wall are visible above ground.

The length of the Church of S. Gwithian is _circa_ fifty feet, and the breadth _circa_ twenty feet. The walls are dry-built.

The building is _rectangular_ (square-ended), with a door on the south side away from the sea.

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[Illustration: Church of S. Gwythian, Cornwall--VI Century--as it appeared in A.D. 1894, before it was again covered with sand.]

The church or oratory of Perranzabuloe (S. Peran in Sabulo; S. Peran in the Sand) was only discovered _circa_ A.D. 1880. Its previous existence was suspected owing to a very faint local tradition, when it suddenly partly reappeared in consequence of a storm uncovering a small portion of it, the sand mound which completely covered it being partly swept away.

It had been buried in the sand at an unknown, but very early date, yet the tradition of its existence lingered on through the centuries. This church or oratory of Perranzabuloe is smaller than the church of S. Gwithian above described. It is only about twenty-five feet long by twelve and a half feet broad. The chancel at the east is _square-ended_. The little building forms a perfect double square.

It is now accessible--and quite recent care has entirely covered the ancient edifice with an enclosing building, leaving a passage all round, between the old walls and the new wall which encircles it. The present Vicar says: “It is a rather ugly arrangement, but it is the best that could be done with the funds collected for the conservation of the precious relic. At any rate,” its guardian says, “the old church is now protected from wind and weather.”

This most ancient church is built of unhewn stones without mortar. Attached to the east wall is a stone altar five feet three inches long by two feet three inches wide. About eight inches above the altar is a niche some twelve inches high by eight inches wide, in which most probably was once placed the shrine of S. Peran.

The church or oratory of Perranzabuloe is in the midst of a stretch of sand-dunes reaching from Perranporth to Newquay, on the north coast of Cornwall, eight miles from Newquay, one and a half miles from Perranporth.

The strange reappearance of these two most ancient British churches, dating certainly from before the sixth century, apparently the solitary survivors of the destroyed churches of the old inhabitants of Britain _before_ the coming of the North-folk, bear out the theory above advanced, that the British churches or oratories erected before the disastrous conquest of the North-folk, like the Irish churches or oratories which faithfully reproduced their peculiar architectural features, were all square-ended churches.

THE CRYPT

_Of the principal terms used in this study on the Crypt._

_Crypt_ is derived from the Greek κρύπτειν to hide, to conceal.

_Confessio_--The Confession. The burial chamber or vault where lay the remains of one who had “confessed” and borne witness to his Faith by his blood. The “Confessio” is sometimes termed “Martyrium.” Sometimes the word is used for the chamber immediately contiguous to the actual vault of the tomb beneath it, as is the case in the Crypt of S. Peter at Rome.

_Memoria._--The chamber or chapel erected over the “Confessio” or burial place of the Martyrs--originally used for the gathering place of the Faithful, pilgrims or others who came to visit and pray over the grave of the Saint buried beneath. The first “Memoria” that we are acquainted with was erected over the vault which held the body of St. Peter. This “Memoria” was built by Anacletus,[25] the successor of Linus; Anacletus is generally reckoned as third Bishop of Rome. It served as a church for the faithful, in which the Eucharist could be celebrated, and a small congregation gathered together. This Memoria of Anacletus was erected shortly after A.D. 70. It is mentioned in the _Liber Pontificalis_ under the record of Pope Anacletus in the following words: “Memoriam beati Petri construit et composuit.”

The “Memoria” of Anacletus was no doubt referred to by the Presbyter Caius in A.D. 210, who calls it the “Tropæum”--the visible monument of the Apostle S. Peter. Tertullian also, as early as the end of the second century, refers to it as an object of pilgrimage from all parts of the world.

_Cubiculum._--This was a little burial chamber leading out of the galleries of the Roman Catacombs. These “Cubicula” were hewn out of the rock, generally at right angles to the gallery in which were cut the countless niches each holding one or more corpses.

The “Cubiculum” was intended for the more conspicuous persons in the Church, and especially for those who had through martyrdom, or through any very distinguished work for the Church, merited this special distinction after death; not a few of these “Cubicula” were occupied by the bodies of the men and women who had witnessed a good confession by shedding their blood for Christ’s sake. Many of these little chapels which held the remains of such illustrious dead, became, as time went on, places highly venerated by the congregation.

_Catacombs._--The modern name of “Catacombs,” now universally applied to ancient underground Crypts where the dead were interred in the early days of Christianity, and especially used for that vast network of subterranean corridors filled by the Christian dead beneath the suburbs of old Rome, was totally unknown to the original Christian communities who hewed out of the solid rock this mighty cemetery of the Roman dead. The term “Catacomb” is derived from the Greek words κατά κύμβη, the latter word signifying “hollow” or valley.

The district on the Appian Way where the little basilica of S. Sebastian now stands, was especially known as “ad catacumbas” or “the Hollows.”

In the earlier part of the ninth century, the bodies of the more prominent Saints and Martyrs were removed for security’s sake from their original resting-places outside the walls of the city, to the safer custody of the Roman churches within the city, and the once famous subterranean cemeteries in the suburbs gradually ceased to be objects of pilgrimage.

But the _one_ suburban cemetery of S. Sebastian, owing to the tradition that the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul had reposed in the Crypt beneath S. Sebastian for some years when persecution had rendered their original resting-places insecure, ever remained an object of devout pilgrimage.

This Crypt was known as “Cemeterium ad Catacumbas,” and on the re-discovery of the great underground City of the Dead at Rome, late in the sixteenth century, the popular name “ad Catacumbas” came to be applied to all subterranean cemeteries, and especially to the great cemeteries beneath the Roman suburbs.

But it must be borne in mind that, after all, this _universally_ used appellation, when given to the subterranean cemeteries in general, is a curious misnomer, and was unknown, in its present universal signification, in ancient times.

* * * * *

Now it may be positively assumed that all Crypts are generally a memory of, are reminiscent of the sacred and venerated burying-places of the Martyrs and Saints of the age of persecution, notably of the Crypt of S. Peter.

Thanks to the industry of a few modern scholars, the details of S. Peter’s tomb on the Vatican Hill are fairly well known. The sacred remains of the great Apostle and Martyr, ever venerated as the founder of the Roman congregation, were originally laid in a little vault or crypt on the Vatican Hill hard by the place of his martyrdom.

From the first, this spot was visited by pilgrims from many lands, an ever-increasing number, but the place of interment was very small and difficult of access. So Anacletus, traditionally the third Bishop of the Church of Rome, in order to accommodate these numerous visitors to the tomb, built directly over the vault where the Apostle’s body rested, the little chapel known in history as the “Memoria” of Anacletus.

Over this humble Chapel or “Memoria,” the first Christian Emperor Constantine erected the lordly basilica generally known in history as “Old S. Peter’s.” In the same age, or a very little later, various other basilicas or churches were built directly over the “Cubicula” or burial chambers leading out of the Catacomb galleries, where lay the remains of the more prominent Saints and Martyrs interred in the Catacombs of Rome.

In those far-back days, the grave of a Martyr was ever regarded with the deepest reverence, and was constantly visited by pilgrim visitors. No more appropriate spot, it was considered, could be chosen for the celebration of divine service than the chamber which held the Martyr’s grave; but these graves were sunk deep in the ground, and the “Cubicula” of the Catacombs were utterly incapable of containing the officiating clergy and the crowd of the faithful who would wish to worship in these hallowed spots. It was generally considered in the early Church that the remains of the Martyrs and Saints ought not to be removed, for such a removal would be deemed an impious act; never--so taught the teachers of the first age--must the sainted relics of the dead Confessors be translated or disturbed.

To overcome this difficulty, the rock over and round the grave must be cut away, and room must thus be gained as was sufficient for the erection of a basilica or church, large or small, directly over the Crypt or Cubiculum, which contained the Martyr’s tomb. The damage done to such catacombs, thus cut away by the builders of these basilicas, was incalculable; thousands of early Christian graves must have been sacrificed for the preservation of the one grave specially selected for peculiar honour.

This, Lanciani tells us, is the origin of the greatest Sanctuaries of Christian Rome; such as the Churches of S. Paul on the Via Ostiensis, S. Sebastian on the Via Appia, S. Petronilla on the Via Ardeatina, S. Agnes on the Via Nomentana, S. Lorenzo on the Via Tiburtina; these and other sacred historical structures owe their existence to the martyr’s grave over which these churches were built, a grave which no human hand was allowed to touch or to transfer to another and more convenient place.

* * * * *

This was the genesis, the origin of the idea of the Crypt beneath the church. The desire to possess a Crypt in early mediæval times was widely spread. As a rule, though, as we shall presently explain, not always was the Crypt the resting-place of some noted martyr. In Gaul and on the banks of the Rhine these crypts were fairly general in the early Middle Ages: their retention, enlargement, and reconstruction was largely due to the sentiment and tradition of the very early age of Christianity.

In Gaul, in the Merovingian period, in the more important churches they seem to have been very usual; for instance, we still possess the Crypts of S. Avitus of Orleans (sixth century), the Crypt of Jouarre and parts of the Crypt of Vézelay, supposed to contain the remains of S. Mary Magdalene, S. Medard of Soissons; large portions of the vast Crypt of Chartres, the Crypt of the Cathedral of Auxerre, and certain parts of the Crypt of the famous Church of S. Benignus of Dijon, one of the largest existing. The underground Church of S. Seurin of Bordeaux dates, however, from the eleventh century, as does also the famous and vast Crypt of S. Eutropius of Saintes.

On the banks of the Rhine and in the Eastern districts of Gaul, dating from the eleventh century, and even somewhat earlier, we may cite as prominent examples the Crypts of Besançon and Strasburg, and the great underground Church of Spires.

In Anglo-Saxon England, we have the Crypts of Ripon and Hexham, both the work of Wilfred in the seventh century, a little later that of Wing in Buckinghamshire, and somewhat later still, Repton.

In the early Norman period we have in England the important Crypts of Winchester, Worcester, Rochester, Gloucester and Canterbury (in parts). The Oxford and York Minster Crypts were built as late as in the last part of the twelfth century.

But then they came to an end. The vogue of building Crypts ceased soon after the famous action of Suger, Abbot of S. Denys near Paris, who, in A.D. 1144, probably owing to the impossibility of providing for the vast crowds of pilgrims to the Shrines of S. Denys and his two companions SS. Rusticus and Eleutherus in the Crypt of the abbey, brought up from the underground Church of S. Denys the remains of the three saints, and placed them near the high altar of the church above, where they could be more easily seen and visited by the pilgrim crowds.

The example of Abbot Suger seems to have been largely followed, notably at Canterbury, where the body of S. Thomas à Becket, a most popular object of pilgrimage, was removed from the under to the upper church in A.D. 1248.

This general removal of the remains of the saints and confessors from their original place beneath the church, to a position hard by the high altar of the main building above, seems to have taken away completely the traditional interest of the Crypt. It now was never constructed. In the planning of an abbey or of any considerable church the Crypt found no place; and thus the vogue which had prevailed for so many centuries passed away completely.