[114] Alcuin (lib. v. 1488) describes the appointments of the Saxon church at York, which were on a scale of great magnificence. There were two altars covered with plates of gold and silver, and a profusion of gems; the tapestries were of the richest, and the walls of the sanctuary were adorned with foreign paintings.
[115] Description of the church built in the monastery of Hexham by Saint Wilfrid, 674-680. See the Appendix to the "Life of St. Wilfrid" in Montalembert's fine work on The Saints of the West.
"Igitur profunditatem ipsius ecclesiae criptis et oratoriis subterrancis et viarum anfractibus inferius cum magna industria fundavit.
"Parietes autem quadratis et bene politis columpnis suffultos et tribus tabulatis distinctos immensae longitudinis et altitudinis erexit. Ipsos etiam et capitella columpnarum quibus sustentantur et arcum sanctuarii, historiis et ymaginibus et variis coelaturarum figuris ex lapide prominentibus et picturarum et colorum grata varietate mirabilique decore decoravit. Ipsum quoque corpus ecclesiae appentitiis et porticibus nardique circumdixit quae, miro atque inexplicibili artificio, per parietes et cocleas inferius et superius distinxit. In ipsis vero cocleis, et super ipsas, ascensoria ex lapide, et deambulatoria, et varios viarum anfractus, modo sursum, modo deorsum, artificiosissime ita machinari fecit, ut innumera hominum multitudo ibi existere et ipsum corpus ecclesiae circumdare possit, cum a nemine tamen infra in eo existentium videri queat. Oratoriaque quam plurima, superius et inferius, secretissima e pulcherrima, in ipsis porticibis cum maxima diligentia et cautela constituit, in quibus altaria in honore Beatae Dei genitricis semperque Virginis Mariae, et Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, sanctique Johannis Baptistae et sanctorum Apostolorum, Martyrum, Confessorum, atque Virginum, cum eorum apparatibus, honestissime praeparari fecit. Unde etiam, usque hodie, quaedam illorum ut turres et propugnacula, supereminent. Atrium quoque templi magnae spissitudinis et fortitudinis muro circumvallavit. Praeter quem in alveo lapideo aquaeductus, ad usus officinorum, per mediam villam decurrebat."—Richardi, Prioris Historia Hagulstadensis Ecclesiae, c. iii., Ap. Twysden, Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores decem., et Raine's Priory of Hexham, p. 2.
[116] See [Chap. V.], "Comacines under Charlemagne."
[117] Sermo beati Bedæ in natale sancti Benedicti Abbatis.
[118] There is a much easier explanation than this. Lombardy was at that time part of Gaul—Cisalpine Gaul. The Comacines appear to have gone to France with Charlemagne; see [Chap. V.] (Leader Scott.)
[119] Dr. Raine of Durham believed, on the authority of the Chronicles of Symeon of Durham, that the churches of Monkswearmouth and Jarrow were rebuilt by the monks of Durham after 1075, and that the church of Wearmouth could not have been built on the same site, because in the account of the House at Wearmouth, 1360, the old church is mentioned incidentally as used for a barn or storehouse (Parker's Introduction); but allowing that to be the case, it is by no means improbable that the old doorway was retained and removed to the new church.
[120] "Ibi œdificia minaci altitudini murorum erecta multi proprio, sed et cœmentariorum quos ex Roma veriunt allequant ut qui Hagulstadensem fabricam vident, ambitionem romanam se imaginari jurent."—Malmesbury, De Gest. Pontiff. I. iii., f. 155.
[121] This is a decidedly Comacine form of building. All the earliest apses of Italian churches have these perpendicular shafts. At S. Piero in Grado they show signs of having been originally covered with marble. (Leader Scott.)