403
SAX
of
i S r ;i hin .g mor e than reeds or thatch. A description of ai '* °f S °* t *'' S ki n< L which there is good evidence to believe! !i l|) at P r 0n date ’ is given under the article Church : it isJ i-%.^ ' at Greenstead, near Ongar (the Saxon Aungre), inH of villa S e . they have a tradition that the dead
: 'i' e first some king once rested here for a short time, and thati 'f(ii s : St e< J>(ice was a wooden chapel, erected for its reception.
ting 3 Opposed to have been the body of St. Edmund, thej fye r ' 0vva s slain A.D. 946. In a manuscript, entitledI '* lr ai> e an< ^ Passion of St. Edmund, preserved in thel0(y ^ °f Lambeth Palace, it is recorded, that, in the year^y'of n «; tke thirteenth year of the reign of Ethelred , the®t. Edmund was removed from Ailwin to London ,
«f t a h Cc °Unt of°>e e
an invasion of the Danes, but that, at the endl0tl 'Sr m earS * il was returned to Bedriceworth. And in^'ded ® anus cript, cited by Dugdale in the Monasticon,’and^de<l „! The Register of St. Edmund’s Abbey,” it is further^Pel ' e Was a L° sheltered near Aungre, where a woodena f Aunl! mains . as a memorial to this day.” Now, the parish, 8 ci,° re ’ or Ongar, adjoins to that of Greenstead, wherek ^uff ip 1 * s situated, and the ancient road from London 'k lay through it. It seems therefore not impro-k a 8 lat rough and unpolished fabric was first erectedij s ^ r ' ne f° r the reception of the corpse of St.
^Ur v ’''diicli, i n its return from London to Bedriceworth,tyV 51, Edmund’s, as Lydgate, the monk of that abbey,Ch Ct|) re carried in a chest. Indeed, that the old oakens Pel now called Greenstead church is this wooden
futile -Aungre, no doubt has ever been entertained ;
't a o er y st yle and character of the building would claimJ Xon antiquity.
II lujn le ! fisl onaries who had been accustomed to the buildings^ S a ^ o lntr °duced the manner of building churches amongj ?%e P 3 jnore substantially, with stone, and in the Romant ^'tin<» d * ms we find the king of the Piets—a peopleno, 'thern parts of Britain—soliciting Ceolfrid ,V ^tion 0 akkot > t0 send him architects to build a church in6 " • after the Roman manner, promising to dedicate
tli at i ln honour of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles :
J* 1 of J* e an d all his people would always follow the cus
~ ■ ■■ ■
hfl J
y Roman and Apostolic Church, as far forthco^ re mote from the Roman language and nation,learn the same. Here we also see the deficiency
Stu^Cdg"^ 13 ’ as well as that of the Anglo-Saxons , in the> otl, sacr ed architecture, one building with wood,\ Ifislj \ er with rough unhewn stones : and these, as well asV ^ls . 1Ur ches, are covered with reeds and rushes, andwin' 4 ! 1 s ^' ns - The windows, in some instances, were>P a per o* a ttice-of-wicker
in others, of horn and shells,and the rafts were of oak.
y Pll * 3 °fi this class, however, would seem to have beenfttblTl Construc ti° n * the walls being composed either of\ P toi> et , e 'W r ork, or of flints, piled up irregularly, andoh]j ,e r l) y cement of some sort : such walls were, ofVn 11 brifu to ' Je °f great thickness. Sometimes we find *|
Hifnre Worked '
up in the walls with other materials,n °t laid in regular courses, as in the structuresWit» r> P een erected by the Romans during their resi-th U|, itain • •>— <• 1 1 ■' ■'
N ; h A d be,
Without
they are found built up with the otherregard to order or regularity. By this' ‘ — this island
\l 8 s . th
^ aings erected by the Romans in^
this test
the
of ft* tllis test is similar to that applied to- , th y k 7^ on 5 f° r it is there noted, that in the earlierNit^ys vj? ° r icLs indented with arrow-headed charactersaced * n a particular position with respect to the
Whether, indeed, the method of building such stone erec-tions was learned from the Roman missionaries, or originatedin an imitation of the edifices which the Romans had left inthe island, is by no means certain; we are inclined to think,however, that the latter is the more probable, for it wouldappear very unnatural that the Saxons should not haveattempted to imitate the buildings which they found inthe country even before Augustine made his appearance ;although it is not unlikely that he and his companions mighthave given them further instructions, and imparted to themsome knowledge of the method of building at Rome . Thisseems the more reasonable when we call to mind the letterwhich Gregory, bishop of Rome , sent by Melitus to Augustine,respecting the employment of existing buildings for places ofChristian worship.
“ When, therefore,” says he, “ Almighty God shall bringyou to the most reverend man, our brother, Bishop Augus-tine, tell him what I have, upon mature deliberation on theaffair of the English , thought of, viz., that the temples of theidols in that nation ought not to be destroyed : let holy waterbe made and sprinkled in the said temples : let altars be erectedand relics placed ; for if those temples are well built, it isrequisite that they be converted from the worship of devilsto the service of the true God, that the nation, not seeingthose temples destroyed, may remove error from their hearts,and, knowing and adoring the true God, may the morefamiliarly resort to the same places they were wont.”
From this it would appear, that the Saxons had erectedtemples for their worship before Augustine’s appearanceamongst them ; and we hear, also, at a subsequent period, ofCoifi, the heathen arch-priest in Northumbria , desecratingand destroying the idol’s temple, upon his conversion toChristianity . That they had temples, therefore, there canbe no doubt; the only question is, whether they built themthemselves, or made use of such buildings as they found readyto their hands: the latter supposition is by no means impro-bable : whichever be the case, however, it is almost impos-sible, that, after a century’s residence in the island, the Saxons should still remain totally unacquainted with the method ofconstruction of those buildings which they had found thereon their arrival.
“ At the time the Saxons were converted,” Mr. Benthamobserves,“ the art of constructing ajehes and vaultings, andof supporting stone edifices by columns, was well knownamong them ; they had many instances of such kind of build-ings before them in the churches and other public edificeserected in the time of the Romans. For notwithstanding thehavoc that had been made of the Christian churches by thePiets and Scots, and by the Saxons themselves, some of themwere then in being. Bede mentions two in the city of Can-terbury ; that dedicated to St. Martin , on the east side ofthe city, wherein queen Bertha performed her devotions, andwhich Augustine and his companions made use of at theirfirst coming ; and the other, that which the king, after hisconversion, gave to Augustine, and which he repaired anddedicated to our blessed Saviour, and made it his archi-episco-pal see. Besides these two ancient Roman churches, it islikely there were others of the same age in different parts ofthe kingdom, which were then repaired, and restored to theirformer use.”
We do not suppose, however, that their acquaintance withthe Roman method of building was very intimate, or thatthey had acquired much skill in the construction of vaultsand arches, for their time was too much occupied with warswith the Britons, and quarrels amongst themselves, to admitof much opportunity for the cultivation of the arts of peace.All that we wish to assert is,that they were not entirely igno-