Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 2

by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Recapitulating the account of its having been erected by St. Augustine on the site of a Roman church, he proceeds to say that in the days of Archbishop Odo, in the tenth century, the roof had become so decayed as to require renewal; that Odo took the opportunity of increasing the height of the walls, and that the work occupied three years. He also tells us that a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist had been added by Archbishop Cuthbert in the eighth century near the east end of the Church, for baptisms, etc. He says that the church escaped the destruction threatened by the army of King Sweyn in 1011; but was subsequently burnt down by accident, and remained in ruins until rebuilt by Lanfranc.

He further gives a very clear description of the church, from which it appears that it was built in some degree on the model of the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. He minutely describes the eastern altar space as greatly raised above the general level of the church, and having beneath it a crypt or confessionary, made in the likeness of that of St. Peter’s at Rome. He further describes an oratory and altar to St. Mary at the western end raised on steps, behind which was the pontifical throne. Also two towers, the one on the north and the other on the south side of the nave, projecting beyond the aisles, and containing chapels.

Professor Willis, in his admirable history of the cathedral, gives an able dissertation on its plan at this period, showing how precisely the description of the eastern arrangements agree with those of the Basilica of St. Peter, but that the Chapel of the Virgin at the west end must have been a western apse, like those so common in Germany, and of which we have an earlier instance in the ancient design for the arrangements of the monastery of St. Gall, supposed to be of the eighth century. Eadmer confirms his account by saying that he can answer for its correctness, for he saw the ruins himself when a boy at school.

From the above description we learn, first, that a Roman model was taken; secondly, that the church was of stone or brick; thirdly, that it had aisles; fourthly, that it had both an eastern and western apse; beneath the former of which was an extensive crypt, called a confessionary, as containing the tombs of confessors.

The additional church of St. John was clearly a baptistery; and Professor Willis thinks that Archbishop Odo’s addition to the height of the walls was a clerestory.

I am not aware that we have any information as to the cathedrals built by the companions of Augustine (Mellitus and Justus) at London and Rochester; but it is unlikely that they would be otherwise than of cognate plan and materials; while, curiously enough, there continues to this day at Rochester, and continued to the seventeenth century in our own St. Paul’s, equally as at Canterbury, a crypt beneath the elevated sanctuary, no doubt the lineal successor and representative of those erected by these missionary bishops, in imitation of the great basilica at Rome, whence they had been sent to evangelise this distant region.

A few years later Paulinus, another Roman missionary, succeeded, under circumstances very similar, in converting to Christianity Edwin, king of Northumbria, who, while receiving instructions preparatory to his baptism, built a temporary church of timber at York; but subsequently erected, around the same, and under the instructions of Paulinus, a larger and nobler church of stone, which was completed by Oswald, his successor. Here, again, we have still remaining the choir-crypt,—the probable successor of that of the original church, and as some say, containing a relic of its actual structure. Thus, we have the two metropolitan cathedrals distinctly recorded as erected of stone by their first bishops.

Bede also relates that Paulinus built a stone church, of beautiful workmanship, at Lincoln, the walls of which remained at the time he wrote, though, by some mischance, it had lost its roof. It is clear, however, that some of Paulinus’s churches were of timber, and, later on, we find St. Aidan and St. Finan,—missionaries from Iona,—erecting a cathedral of that material in the Island of Lindisfarne “more Scotorum.”

Shortly afterwards, however, a church was built, after the monastic rule of Lindisfarne, but of stone, at Lastingham, in Yorkshire; where, again, we find the choir-crypt,—the successor of the original one,—remaining to this day. Still, in the seventh century, we have a more minute account given us by Bede of the works of Benedict Biscop, in the erection of the monastic church of Monk Wearmouth. This church he built of stone, “according to the manner of the Romans, which he had always loved.” He built, also, the church at Jarrow of the same material, and the existing remains of both I shall have presently to describe. So much did he consider himself a follower of the Roman manner, that he went, over and over again, to Rome, to procure ornaments wherewith to decorate his two churches. This was about 670 and 680.

The successor of Benedict Biscop is said to have sent architects to Naitan, king of the Picts, to make him a church of stone after the manner of the Romans.