The Pictorial History of Westminster Abbey [antikvár]

THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OFWESTMINSTER ABBEYBY CANON ADAM FOX, D.D.FORMERLY SUB-DEAN OF WESTMINSTERTHE recorded history of Westminster Abbey begins in Edward the Confessor's time, but there are glimpses of its existence before that. The name occurs in a 10th-century document where it is described as a terrible place, that is, an awesome place. This evidence points to the previous foundation of a monastery or at least of a church, and legend attributes this foundation to Sebert, King of the East Saxons (died 616), under the influence of Mellitus, first Bishop of London. Earlier still, Romance, as shaped by Mallory in his Morte (!'Arthur, tells of King Arthur holding a tournament near by; of Queen Guinevere going a-maying into the fields aside, and of the corpse of Elaine the fair maiden being rowed in a barget up and down the Thames at Westminster and then being richly interred. No one has ventured to point to Elaine's grave in the Abbey, but they do show the tomb of Sebert erected by the monks in 1308.All this is dim and misty. But the creation of Edward the Confessor is with us still. By a supreme but probably quite unconscious act of statesmanship, he made Westminster the cradle of a future empire. On an island in the River Thames, alreadycalled Westminster Eyot (earlier known as Thorney or Thorneye Island), he set about to build a great monastery to promote the glory of God and the prosperity of his kingdom in England. Close by he took up his residence in order that he might watch the progress of the building. Thus he separated the seat of government from the City of London which lay across the fields a couple of miles away. This he may have done intentionally. Further, by placing the Abbey and the palace side by side he strengthened for some centuries the bond between Church and State. This may also have been intentional in part, but he could not have foreseen the ultimate effect.For the first five centuries of its existence, that is from the 11th century to the 16th, the palace at Westminster was the reigning king's place of residence. For the last two of these five centuries, actually from about 1376 to 1547, the House of Commons normally met in the Chapter House or the refectory of the Abbey. During this period, too, eight of the kings and queens of England were buried in the Abbey, where previously the only royal burial was that of the Confessorhimself. Thus, Church and State forged bonds between themselves. But after the middle of the 16th century the king ceased to live at Westminster, and this led on to great and new events. His palace became the Houses of Parliament, and side by side with the legislative power the executive, or, as we should call it now, the Civil Service, grew up and established itself in Whitehall where it still remains. By a parallel development, the business of the Church of England has come to be transacted in another area that adjoins the Abbey precincts. Here are the Church House, the Convocations, the Church Commissioners, and most of the Church societies, instead of being, as might have been expected, in the vicinity of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Palace at Lambeth.Edward the Confessor is, therefore, no mere figure of fabled sanctity. His work still strongly influences the national life. Of his buildings almost nothing is left. He completed the church which was later on entirely demolished, but the rest of the monastery was hardly begun in his lifetime. Some kind of temporary accommodation there must have been for the Abbot and monks to eat and sleep and work in, but it took thePage 3