Introduction to the Expression of Meaning in English Churches
by David Hamilton (May 2011)
Originally a cathedral housed the tomb of a Bishop: Durham has gone further and houses the tombs of two saints: St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede.
Kingdom of Northumbria which covered what is now northern England and south-eastern Scotland up to the Firth of Forth. He became one of England's most important saints with a cult based at Durham Cathedral.
Monkwearmouth, which is now part of Sunderland, and its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, injarrow. Bede's monastery had a superb library which contained works by Eusebius and Orosius.
His famous work is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, translated as An Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731). The first of the books begins with some geographical background, and then the history of England, beginning with Caesar's invasion in 55 BC. An account of Christianity in Roman Britain with the martyrdom of St. Alban and the story of Augustine's mission to England in 597, to convert the Anglo-Saxons.
Oswui.
The climax of the third book is the account of the Council of Whitby, traditionally seen as a major turning point in English history.
Archbishop of Canterbury, and tells of Wilfrid's efforts to bring Christianity to the kingdom of Sussex.
To the famous psychologist, archetypal symbols are inherant in myths, dreams, folklore and religion. They are universal and largely unconscious, expressing deep human truths, albeit only dimly understood consciously.
The Transfiguration window in Durham Cathedral has a beautiful effect when the sun shines through sending its transmitted and altered light onto the wall behind and recalls Keats description of Madeline being altered by moonlight passing through a stained-glass window in stanzas XXIV and XXV of The Eve of St. Agnes. This and The Millenium window show that contemporary art can convey meaning to the viewer.
St. Pauls monastry church in Jarrow is where Bede was based. It has two features shared with Durham cathedral. One is the connection with Bede the other the old windows. There are three small Anglo-Saxon windows high on the south wall. Two of which have stone shutters which were presumably put there because of the difficulty of making enough glass in the monastries' workshop. The middle window is a link with our roots and is unchanged since A.D. 681. It holds a window of reconstructed stained-glass made in the Saxon monastry workshop and is the oldest glass in western Europe. It was found during excavations of the site in 1972-3 and inserted into the historic window in 1980. The glass has a profound affect on the staff: one told me it gives them a spiritual experience when they think that it was there when Bede himself lived and worked there. That is the power of continuity.
There are smaller artefacts that link us to our history. The Wheel of Fortune in Rochester or the decapitated figures on the tomb of Sir John Neville in Durham cathedral tell a story when searched for. The Wheel of Fortune is a 13c wallpainting and discovered in1840 hidden behind a pulpit but only part remains: The figures on the up are there, but those on the down have vanished. (3)
Principality of Wales, the lands directly administered by the English crown following the conquest of Wales by Edward 1 in the 13th century. It was in 1472 by Edward IV to counsel and act on behalf of his son, the infant Edward, Prince of Wales. Edward had recently been restored to the throne during the Wars of the Roses, and he and his supporters controlled what were known as the marcher lordships on the marches just within and adjoining Wales. He established his son at Ludlow Castle, and appointed his allies from the Woodvilles and Stanley's as leading figures in the Council. The Council continued after the death of Edward IV and the disappearance of his son under Henry VII. In Henry's reign the Council was responsible for acting on behalf of his sons as Princes of Wales, first Arthur then Henry (later Henry VIII).
Court of Great Sessions. It continued to sit at Ludlow, and had responsibilities for the whole of Wales together with the Welsh Marches.
The misericords or Mercy seats tell stories. Under the seats are carvings such as a man warming himself by a fire with a cooking pot, a bare-breasted mermaid and a naked ale-wife holding her ale jug while being carried off to hell by a demon, presumably for selling short-measures. These figures often bawdy and fantastic were to instruct the clergy in morality.
http://www.archive.org/details/caedmon_librivox
(2) I wish to thank Ruth Robson of Durham cathedral for kindly allowing me to take photographs.
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