WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Of the Foundation of the Abbey.
f the Founding of an Abbey on Thorney Island, where that of Westminster now stands, there are so many miraculous stories related by monkish writers, that the recital of them now would hardly be endured. Even the relations of ancient historians have been questioned by Sir Christopher Wren, who was employed to survey the present edifice, and who, upon the nicest examination, found nothing to countenance the general belief, “that it was erected on the ruins of a Pagan Temple.” No fragments of Roman workmanship were discovered in any part of the building, many of which must undoubtedly have been intermixed among the materials, if a Roman temple had existed before on the same spot.
Nor is the dedication of the first Abbey less involved in mystery than the founding of it. The legend says that Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who died in 616, ordered Melitus, then Bishop of London, to perform the ceremony; but that St. Peter himself was beforehand with him, and consecrated it in the night preceding the day appointed by his Majesty for that purpose, accompanied by angels, and surrounded by a glorious appearance of burning lights.
That this legend continued to be believed after the building itself was destroyed, will appear by a charter which we shall have occasion to mention hereafter; and though nothing can with certainty be concluded from these fictions, yet it may be presumed, that both the ancient church dedicated to St. Paul, in London, and this dedicated to St. Peter, in Westminster, were among the earliest works of the first converts to Christianity in Britain. With their new religion, they introduced a new manner of building; and their great aim seems to have been, by affecting loftiness and ornament, to bring the plain simplicity of the Pagan architects into contempt.
Historians, agreeable to the legend, have fixed the era of the first Abbey in the sixth century, and ascribed to Sebert the honour of conducting the work, and completing that part of it, at least, which now forms the east angle, which probably was all that was included in the original plan.
After the death of that pious Prince, his sons, relapsing into Paganism, totally deserted the church which their father had been so zealous to erect and endow; nor was it long before the Danes destroyed what the Saxons had thus contemptuously neglected.
From this period to the reign of Edward the Confessor, the first Abbey remained a monument of the sacrilegious fury of the times; but, by the prevailing influence of Christianity in that reign, the ruins of the ancient building were cleared away, and a most magnificent structure, for that age, erected in their place. In its form it bore the figure of a cross, which afterwards became a pattern for cathedral-building throughout the kingdom. That politic Prince, to ingratiate himself with his clergy, not only confirmed all former endowments, but granted a new charter, in which he recited the account of St. Peter’s consecration, the ravages of the Danes, and the motives which prompted him to restore the sacred edifice to its former splendour, and endow it with more ample powers and privileges. This charter concluded with solemn imprecations against all who should in time to come, dare to deface or to demolish any part of the building, or to infringe the rights of its priesthood.
Henry III. not only pulled down and enlarged the plan of this ancient Abbey, but added a Chapel, which he dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; but it was not till the reign of Henry VII. that the stately and magnificent Chapel now known by his name was planned and executed. Of this Chapel, the first stone was laid on the 24th January, 1502, and when completed was dedicated, like the former Chapel, to the Blessed Virgin. Henry, designing this as a burying-place for himself and his successors, expressly enjoined by his will, that none but those of the blood-royal should be inhumed therein.