LADY MONTACUTE'S TOMB.LADY MONTACUTE'S TOMB.
Monuments in the Lady Chapel.—In the bay of the west of the "watching chamber" is the tomb ofElizabeth, Lady Montacute, who gave to the Priory the large field now known as the Christ Church Meadow, in order to maintain two priests for her chantry in the Lady Chapel. There seems to be no ground for the statement that she built the Latin Chapel; in her foundation-deed she expressly directs the masses and other offices to be said "within the chapel of the Blessed Mary," and, so far from her bequest proving sufficient to build a new chapel, it was soon found inadequate for the maintenance of the two chantry priests. Lady Montacute was the daughter of Sir Peter de Montfort, and was married first to William de Montacute, by whom she had four sons and six daughters, and afterwards to Thomas de Furnival. Her monument consists of a high tomb, the sides of which are divided into three panelled compartments. In these compartments are little statuettes of her children, and her own effigy rests on the top; at the head and foot of the tomb are quatrefoiled compartments containing sacred symbols and figures. It is very beautiful, and of great interest as showing many specimens of the costume of the period; but one can hardly imagine what its splendour must have been when the rich hues, withwhich it is painted in every part, were fresh. The colours mentioned in the following learned description by Mr M.H. Bloxham have long tended to monochrome, and the hand of the mutilator has been unusually painstaking and systematic.
"The head of the effigy reposes on a double cushion, and is supported on each side by a small figure of an angel in an alb; these albs are loose, and not girded round the waist. The heads of these figures are defaced, and they are otherwise much mutilated. She is represented with her neck bare, her hair disposed and confined on each side, the face within a jewelled caul of network; over the forehead is worn a veil, and over this is a rich cap or plaited head-dress with nébulé folds, with a tippet attached to it and falling down behind. Her body-dress consists of a robe or sleeveless gown, fastened in front downwards to below the waist by a row of ornamented buttons. The full skirts of the gown are tastefully disposed, but not so much so as we sometimes find on effigies of the fourteenth century. The gown is of a red colour, flowered with yellow and green, and at each side of the waist is an opening, within which is disclosed the inner vest, of which the close-fitting sleeves of the arms, extending to the wrists, form part; this is painted of a different colour and in a different pattern to the gown. This was probably the corset worn beneath the open super-tunic. The gown is flounced at the skirts by a broad white border, and round the side openings, and along the border of the top of the gown, is a rich border of leaves. The hands, which are bare, are joined on the breast in a devotional attitude. Over the gown or super-tunic is worn the mantle, fastened together in front of the breast by a large and rich lozenge-shaped morse, raised in high relief. The mantle, of a buff colour, is covered all over with rondeaux or roundels connected together by small bands, whilst in the intermediate spaces arefleur de lis: all these are of raised work, and deserve minute examination. They are apparently not executed by means of the chisel, but formed in some hard paste or composition [gesso] laid upon the sculptured stone and impressed with a stamp. The feet of the effigy appear from beneath the skirts of the gown in black shoes, and rest against a dog."
Of the statuettes on each side of Lady Montacute's tomb, which are each a foot and a half high, Mr Bloxham says:—
"The first and easternmost of these, on the north side, is themost puzzling and difficult of all to describe, as regards the costume, and the more so from the mutilated state in which it now appears. It is that of a male, who is habited in a red cloak, the borders of which are jagged. This is buttoned in front to the waist by lozenge-shaped morses, and may have been the garment called the Courtepye, and discloses a short white tunic or vest, plaited in vertical folds, with a bawdrick round the body at the hips."
"Next to this is the effigy in relief of an abbess, in a long loose white gown or robe, a black mantle over, connected in front of the breast by a chain, with a tippet of the same colour. The head has been destroyed, but remains of the plaited wimple which covered the neck in front are visible, as also of the white veil on each shoulder. The pastoral staff appears on the left side, but the crook is gone.
"Two daughters of Lady Montacute were in succession Abbess of Barking, in Essex, and so, next to the last figure is another abbess similarly dressed, with the exception that the left sleeve of the gown, which is large and wide, is seen, as well as the close sleeve of the inner robe. Sculptured figures of abbesses, especially of this period, are extremely rare.
"The next figure is that of a female, in a green high-bodied gown or robe, with small pocket-holes in front and sleeves reaching only to the elbows. The fifth figure is also that of a female, in a white robe or gown, with close sleeves, close fitting to the waist, where it is belted round by a narrow girdle, and thence falls in loose folds to the feet; over this is a black mantle. There are also indications of a plaited wimple about the neck, but the head of this, as of the other effigies, has been destroyed.
"On the south side, the easternmost figure, of which the mere torso remains, is that of a male in a doublet, jagged at the skirts, and buttoned down in front from, the neck to the skirts, with close sleeves buttoned from the elbows to the wrists,—manicae botonatae, with a bawdrick, round the hips, and buckled on the right side. From the bawdrick on the left side the gipciere is suspended. This much mutilated effigy presents a good specimen of the early doublet.
"Next to it is the figure of a male, in a long red coat or gown, thetoga talaris, with a cloak over, buttoned in front downwards from the neck as far as the third button, fromwhence it is open to the skirts. This dress, in the phrase of the fourteenth century, would be described ascota et cloca. In the right hand is held a purse.
"Next to this is the figure of a Bishop, intended possibly to represent Simon, Bishop of Ely, 1337-1344, one of the sons of Lady Montacute. He appears in his episcopal vestments, a white alb, with the apparel in front of the skirt, a black dalmatica fringed and open at the sides, and a chocolate-coloured chesible, with orfreys round the border and disposed in front pall-wise. The parures or apparels of the amice give it a stiff and collar-like appearance. The head of this effigy has been destroyed, and the outline of the mitre is only visible. The pastoral staff has been destroyed, with the exception of the pointed ferrule with which it was shod. It was, however, held by the left hand. The maniple is suspended from the left arm, but no traces of the stole are visible. In more than one instance we may notice on episcopal effigies the absence of either the tunic or dalmatica, and sometimes of the stole.
"The fourth figure is that of a lady in a gown or robe buttoned down in front from the breast to the waist, and with sleeves reaching only to the elbows, from whence depend long white liripipes or false hanging sleeves; small pocket holes are visible in front. From beneath this gown or super-tunic the loose skirts of the under robe, of which also the close-fitting sleeves are visible, appear. Behind this figure are the remains of a mantle. The fifth and last figure is also that of a female in a gown or super-tunic, close-fitting, and buttoned in front to the waist."
The quatrefoiled compartments at the ends of the tomb are particularly good: they contain,—at the head, the Blessed Virgin and Child, between a winged figure at a desk and an eagle, which are the symbols of St. Matthew and St. John the Evangelist,—at the foot, the symbols of SS. Mark and Luke, and between them a woman in gown and mantle with long flowing hair, probably St. Mary Magdalene. The shields in the panels are blazoned with the arms of Montacute, Furnival, and Montfort.
On a pillar near Lady Montacute's tomb there are two brasses; one bearing a graceful kneeling figure ofJohañ, Bishop filii Geo. Bishop, who died March 23rd, 1588; the other of Thomas Thornton, who died August 17th, 1613.
The next tomb to the west of Lady Montacute is that of aPrior, supposed to beAlexander de Sutton, prior from 1294 to 1316. It used to be called Guimond's tomb, and Prior Philip's, but it cannot, of course, be of their time: for the beautiful canopy, supported by Purbeck shafts with vine-leaf capitals, and powdered with ball-flower without, and groined within, as well as the figure beneath it, are Decorated, and belong to the reign of Edward I., about a hundred and fifty years later than Guimond's death in 1141. There were formerly figures at the angles, of which one on the north-west remains with a little of its original colour. The effigy, also of Purbeck marble, is thus described by Mr. M.H. Bloxham:—"The head of the effigy, which is bare and tonsured, with flowing locks by the sides of the face, reposes on a double cushion. The Prior is represented vested, with the amice about his neck with the apparel; in the alb, the apparels of which appear at the skirt in front and round the close-fitting sleeves at the wrists; with the stole, and dalmatica or tunic—which, it is somewhat difficult to say: these two latter are not sculptured, but merely painted on the effigy, and are only apparent on a careful examination; over these is worn the chesible. This vestment is very rich, and ornamented with orfreys round the borders, over the shoulders, and straight down in front. Hanging down from the left arm is the maniple. The boots are pointed at the toes, and the feet rest against a lion. There is no indication of the pastoral staff; the hands are joined on the breast." Another proof of its fourteenth century date is that the face is close-shaven: had it been an effigy of the twelfth century the face would have been bearded.
ORNAMENT FROM A TOMB IN CHRIST CHURCH.ORNAMENT FROM A TOMB IN CHRIST CHURCH.
West of this is the tomb ofSir George Nowers(de Nodariis),who died in 1425. His effigy gives one a good idea of the armour of his time—or rather of a period slightly before his death. Mr. Bloxham, who devoted special attention to these three monuments, thus describes the armour:—
"On the head is a conical basinet attached by a lace down the sides of the face to a camail or tippet of mail, which covers the head and shoulders, epaulières, rere, and vambraces, and coudes incase the shoulders, arms, and elbows, and on the hands are gauntlets of plate. The body-armour is covered with an emblazoned jupon, with an ornamental border of leaves, and round this, about the hips, is a rich horizontally disposed bawdrick. Beneath the jupon, which is charged with the bearing—three garbs Or—is seen the skirt or apron of mail. The thighs, knees, legs, and feet are incased in and protected by cuisses, genouillères, jambs, and sollerets, the latter composed of movable lamina; or plates, and rounded at the toes. The feet of this effigy rest against a collared dog, and the head reposes on a tilting helm, surmounted by a bull's head as a crest." On a scutcheon at the head of the tomb are the knight's arms: they are—a fess between three garbs, impaling a chevron between three greyhounds.
On the pier at the foot of Sir George Nowers' tomb is fixed the remarkably characteristic monument ofRobert Burton, the famous author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy," who died in 1639, having been Student of Christ Church for forty years, and also Vicar of St. Thomas', Oxford. His bust is coloured, and surrounded by an oval frame; it should be a good likeness, and one fancies that the face is drenched in melancholy.
On the frame are two medallions with a sphere, and a curious calculation of his nativity, composed by himself, and placed here by his brother William, the historian of Leicestershire. The inscription, written by himself, is:—
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotusHic jacetDemocritus JuniorCui vitam dedit et mortemMelancholia.
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotusHic jacetDemocritus JuniorCui vitam dedit et mortemMelancholia.
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus
Hic jacet
Democritus Junior
Cui vitam dedit et mortem
Melancholia.
At the south side of the Montacute tomb there is a stone in the floor with a large cross upon it, and an inscription in Lombardic characters of which these words can be made out:—Johan: de: col ... v. le: gist: id: Dieu ... Merci. Pour: lame: prier: dis: jours: de: pardon: aver: amen.
In the north aisle of the choir a stone commemoratesAndreas de Soltre quondam rector Ecclesiae de Kalleyn; and a brass, James Coorthoppe, Canon of Christ Church 1546, and Dean of Peterborough till his death in 1557. On the floor of this aisle there is also a small brass with the figure of a youth, with the Courtenay arms, and this inscription:—Hic jacet Edvardus Courtenay, filius Hugonis Courtenay, filii Comitis Devomæ, cujus animæ propicietur Deus. This Hugh Courtenay, the father of the lad, must have been either Hugh second Earl of Devon, or his son Hugh, surnamedle Fitz, one of the heroes of Crécy.
Glass in the Aisles.—The three lovely east windows of the aisles and Lady Chapel were designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and executed by Mr. William Morris. The only possible criticism is that made by Mr. Ruskin, who once said that they were beautiful pictures, but were they windows? They are perhaps open to the objection, but a comparison of them with the Reynolds windows in New College Chapel, which are flagrant offenders in this way, makes one feel that the objection is purely formal, and that these are true windows, adding colour and interest to the old cathedral in a perfectly legitimate way. One is naturally prejudiced against large figures pictorially treated, because of the atrocities of the Munich school, but these were made, not at Munich but at Merton, by the most accomplished craftsman of the century.
The first window, that in the Lady Chapel, was erected in memory of Frederick Vyner, an undergraduate of the House, who was murdered by brigands at Marathon in 1870. The figures represent Samuel the Prophet, David, King of Israel, John the Evangelist, and Timothy the Bishop. In the panels beneath are, Eli instructing the young Samuel, David slaying Goliath, St. John at the last supper, and Timothy as a little boy learning from his mother. The legends are:—(1)Loquere Domine, quia audit servus tuus, and in the panelPrope est Dominus quibus invocantibus eum; (2)Deus, Deus, meus, ad te de luce vigilo, andTua est Domine victoria; (3)Qui recubit in coena super pectus ejus, andQuis nos separabit a charitate Christi; (4)Dabit tibi Dominus in omnibus intellectum, andStatuit super petram pedes meos.
At the end of the north choir aisle is the St. Cecilia window, presented in honour of the patroness of music by Dr. Corfe, a former organist, in 1873. In the centre light the saint is represented playing her regal or small hand-organ; two angels holding other musical instruments, with palms in their hands, stand by her. The drapery is wrought in white glass, the angels have pale blue wings, and the flesh tints matted over with red tell warm against the drapery. In the lower panels are three scenes from her life: "Here St. Cecilia teaches her husband," "Here an angel of the Lord teaches St. Cecilia," "Here St. Cecilia wins a heavenly crown;" the saint's figure in this last panel is most touchingly drawn. These lower panels are richer in colour than the rest, and a greater variety of tints is introduced; but the colours are so delicate, and so skilfully blended, that they fall in most harmoniously with the main parts of the window. As the neighbouring window just described is full of the robust strength of manhood, so this one, in colour as well as in design, is graceful, delicate, and feminine. Probably it will lead to the north choir aisle being known by the name of St. Cecilia, whose art has certainly many votaries in Oxford. Mr. Malcolm Bell, in his monograph on Burne-Jones, gives the following description of the St. Cecilia window:—
"A still more beautiful instance of the use of simple figures with complicated draperies is found in the lovely St. Cecilia window, executed in 1874-5, a companion to the 'St. Catherine,' executed in 1878, in Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford, in which, moreover, it is enhanced by the soberness of the colouring, which, with the exception of a few touches of stronger hues in the lower panels, is green, and white, and gold, symbolic of the lily of heaven, into which mediæval commentators tortured the meaning of her name. The saint herself stands in the middle, with attendant angels on either side, bearing the palm of martyrdom, who hush their harmony while she plays. Below the left-hand angel, St. Cecilia, seated on her bed, reads to her husband Valirian the lesson of chastity. In the centre the angel brings to them the miraculous proof of the justification of her faith which he demanded from her:
"Valirian goth home, and ſint CecilieWithinne his chaumbre with an aungel stonde,This aungel had of roses and of lillieCorounes two, the which he bar in honde.
"Valirian goth home, and ſint CecilieWithinne his chaumbre with an aungel stonde,This aungel had of roses and of lillieCorounes two, the which he bar in honde.
"Valirian goth home, and ſint Cecilie
Withinne his chaumbre with an aungel stonde,
This aungel had of roses and of lillie
Corounes two, the which he bar in honde.
THE 'ST. CECILIA' WINDOW, BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES.THE 'ST. CECILIA' WINDOW, BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES.
"The lilies, symbolical of virgin purity; the roses, of victory over death. In the third, the executioner holds her by one hand as she kneels on the floor of her bath-room, which is seen in the background, the steam still rising in it after the ineffectual attempt to roast her to death. With his sword raised he is about to strike the first of the three blows which failed to cut off her head.
"And for ther was that tyme an ordinaunceThat no man sholde do man such penaunceThe ferthe stroke to smyten, softe or soreThis tormentour durste do no more."
"And for ther was that tyme an ordinaunceThat no man sholde do man such penaunceThe ferthe stroke to smyten, softe or soreThis tormentour durste do no more."
"And for ther was that tyme an ordinaunce
That no man sholde do man such penaunce
The ferthe stroke to smyten, softe or sore
This tormentour durste do no more."
At the end of the south choir aisle is the third figure window of Burne-Jones. It is dedicated to St. Catherine, and is in memory of Edith Liddell, a daughter of the late Dean, "who, having been scarcely five days betrothed, seized by a sudden attack of illness, rendered her spirit to God, June 26th, 1876." St. Catherine, crowned, is the central figure: she is painted in the likeness of Edith Liddell. On the right is the Angel of Suffering and Submission, with mutilated hands, the wheel of torture and flames beneath; on the left is the Angel of Deliverance, crushing the wheel of torture and scattering the flames. The draperies are white, the wings of the angels are a pale blue, and the curtains hanging at the back of the figures of a rich greenish blue, while the detailed background is cut out of violet-coloured glass, a daring but thoroughly successful arrangement. In the tracery above are angels playing triumphant music. The whole is as beautifully executed as it is finely conceived. In the three lower panels are scenes from the life and death of the saint:—(1) She disputes with philosophers, pleading for her fellow Christians, and demonstratingavec force syllogismesthe truth of Christianity, and the falsity of paganism. This little panel has as large an effect as if it were a fresco covering half a wall. (2) Her dream, in which she is led through a wilderness by the blessed Virgin into the presence of our Lord, who is seated amid a concourse of cherubim. The way in which the cherubim are cut out of tones of ruby, full of depth, and without a suspicion of crudeness, should be noticed, and compared with the treatment of ruby glass elsewhere. This is perhaps the most beautifully drawn picture of all; and the figure of St. Mary is somethingnot to be forgotten. (3) St. Catherine is laid in the tomb by angels. The inscriptions are:—Agnus reget illos, et deducet eos ad vitae fontes aquarum, et absterget Deus omnem lachrymam ab oculis eorum. Timor Domini ipsa est sapientia. Beati mundo corde quoniam Deum videbunt. Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum.
The two first windows in the wall of the south choir aisle, in memory of Dr. Jelf, Canon from 1830-1871, are by Hardman. Next is a most interesting glass painting of Bishop King, last abbot of Oseney, and first Bishop of Oxford, which is perhaps from the hand of Van Ling. This window, with some others, was taken down during the Civil War, buried for safety by a member of the family, and put up again at the Restoration. The Bishop is represented standing vested in a jewelled cope of cloth of gold, and mitre, a pastoral staff in his gloved hand. In the background, among the trees, is a picture of Oseney Abbey in its already ruined condition (c. 1630), drawn without much feeling for its architecture, but of great value as almost the only picture of the place we possess. The western tower was the first home of what are now the Christ Church bells. Three coats of arms (being those of the Bishop, impaled with the abbey of Oseney and the see of Oxford) complete the richness of what is a very good example of seventeenth centurypaintedglass, in the strict sense of the word.
It is to be regretted that some of the glass, which formerly was seen by everybody in the cathedral, has been removed to the chapter-house, where it is seen by few: among the glass thus removed the lovely I.H.C. should not be missed.
The Latin Chapel(St. Catherine's, or the Divinity Chapel, St. Catherine being the patroness of students in theology) was built on to the rest in two parts, the walls of the Lady Chapel being cut into arches, and duly fitted with shafts. The first bay from the west is, like that of the Lady Chapel, part of the transept aisle; the second bay was built in the thirteenth century, so as to form a chapel like that of St. Lucy on the south side of the church; the third and fourth were added in the fourteenth century, and make now one large chapel, very secluded and self-contained, a kind ofhortus inclususthat has an attraction peculiarly its own, and dwells pleasantly in the memory of every one who sees it. It is that supremely excellent thing, a church within a church,without which no cathedral can be what its builders intended it to be; nor any religious building fulfil that instinctive desire of men for an inner place, where they can find their way to the inner places of their own hearts. In such a home of recollectedness, doubly guarded against the dogging world without, is "rest without languor and recreation without excitement"; in such a place one is "never less alone than when alone"; and the fine sympathy with the needs of workaday humanity, which led mediæval architects to build such sanctuaries as this chapel here, or the Lady Chapel of so many churches, had led men in far earlier ages to find room even within the travelling tabernacle of a wandering tribe for a holy place and a holy of holies. Such being the case, it was like the crude instincts of the "dark ages of architecture" to choose this very chapel as most suitable for a lecture-hall—out of all the lofty rooms in the spacious college. Quite lately this practice has been dropped, and the Latin Chapel restored to something of its ancient sanctity, though a good deal remains to be done in a place where there is not as yet even a chair to proclaim asiste viator.
WINDOW IN THE LATIN CHAPEL.WINDOW IN THE LATIN CHAPEL.
The Decorated vaulting was built when the chapel was enlarged in the fourteenth century. The foliage of its bosses is very beautiful; the water-lilies especially of the third boss, so suggestive of Oxford streams, and the roses a little further east, are a happy combination of naturalistic treatment with decorative restraint. It will be noticed that the vaulting does not run true in the third bay, the Decorated work there having been somewhat awkwardly joined to the Early English of the second bay. That part of the old wall which forms the pier at the juncture has been left in a strangely rough condition; the builder having seemingly given up the problem of fitting the vaults to the unequal spaces of the bays, and left the pier as a simple bit of old wall, without even a moulding to mark its juncture with the vault.
A prominent feature in the Latin Chapel is the old oak stalling, which a second inspection proves to be patchwork.The returned stalls at the west end probably belonged to the choir of the conventual church, and in that case would have been fitted in here when Dean Duppa "adorned" the choir by destroying the old wood-work. Near to these is some of the work prepared for Cardinal Wolsey's new chapel. The poppy-heads are good specimens of wood-carving, and contain a monogram I.H.S., a heart in a crown of thorns, a cardinal's hat, and other devices. The pulpit, with its delicate canopy, an excellent specimen of seventeenth century wood-work, was formerly the Vice-Chancellor's seat in another part of the church, occupied by him during university sermons. It was then used by the Regius Professor of Divinity for his lectures, but since the altar was restored six years ago, the chapel has been no longer used as a lecture room. At the time when it was refitted, a handsome ogival arch was found in the wall near the north end of the altar: the moulding is deeply recessed, and once the arch terminated in what must have been an ornate finial. The top of this finial has been cut down to a level with the window ledge, and the face of the moulding hacked off to make the wall flat for the panelling, which has now been removed. It was probably the "Easter Sepulchre," where the Host was deposited on Good Friday, but it may have been the tomb of the founder of the chapel. The curious break in the masonry at the back has not been yet explained.
The wall behind the altar is pleasantly hung with Morris velvet. The altar itself was the high altar before the restoration of 1870. In 1890 new legs were made for it out of the old organ screen, and it was placed in its present position.
The eastern window (inserted as a memorial to Dr. Bull) is a pathetic instance of the corrupt following of Mr. Ruskin, which also inflicted upon Christ Church the gaunt Meadow Buildings. It is, of course, really as unlike Mr. Ruskin's well-loved Venetian work as anything can possibly be: as heavy as that is light, as clumsy as that is graceful, it is ugly and cold and dead; but it represents a genuine enthusiasm of the fifties, and commands our respect as an honest though mistaken effort, a landmark in the history of the architectural revival. It also illustrates a truth which one is apt sometimes to forget,—that it is easy to appreciate beauty, and very hard to create it.
Fortunately it is nearly lost sight of in the splendid Burne-Jonesglass which fills it, and represents another side of the artistic revival not less important than the architectural.
Glass in Latin Chapel.—The beautiful windows at the side are filled with fine fourteenth century glass, which was replaced after a long period of exile by Dean Liddell. In the middle of each light is a figure in canopy work, the rest of the light being covered with "quarries,"—that is, diamond-shaped pieces of glass with leaves and flowers lightly burnt upon them. The spaces in the tracery are ornamented with curious medallions, and the borders with various beasts, as in St. Lucy's Chapel, monkeys among them. The Courtenay Arms—Three Torteaux—suggest that the family may have contributed towards building the chapel. Beginning at the west, the first window contains a St. Catherine in the first light, next a Madonna and holy Child (the blue pattern at the back of these figures should be noticed); next a figure of St. Frideswide, or her mother Saffrida.
The second window contains the figure of an archbishop, holding a cross curiously blended into a crooked pastoral staff; angels are on either side.
The next has St. Frideswide in the centre, with St. Margaret and St. Catherine at her side. The patroness holds the curiously foliated sceptre which has led to the identification of her figure in the choir boss, and Catherine handles her wheel and sword in the same way as her statue over the dean's stall in the choir. The last window on this side is by Clayton and Bell, and a particularly feeble one.
The St. Frideswide window at the east end of the Latin Chapel was designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and executed by Messrs. Powell of the Whitefriars Glass Works, the firm which is now making the glass for the mosaics at St. Paul's. "Burne-Jones, an Oxford undergraduate, destined for the Church, but gifted with high powers of romantic design, sought out Rossetti towards June 1856, and showed him some drawings. Rossetti told him at once that he ought to be, and must be, an artist, and he became one." In the next year Rossetti drew the attention of the Powells to the young artist, and they had the penetration to recognise his worth and to employ him. But though this is one of the first windows that Burne-Jones ever designed, it is one of his best. Better suited (as many think) to the purpose of a window, at all events in thisenclosed chapel, than the freer method of the other glass, it carries on the best traditions of the craft, in its infinite variety of gem-like colour and complexity of detail; while it attains a degree of perfection in pictorial effect and figure-drawing which was impossible during the great era of mediæval glass-painting. The death of the saint, with its lovely effect of light through the latticed window, for instance, and the picture of her in the pig-sty, would be perfect as finished pictures, and yet do not for an instant outstep the convention which is necessary for their function as part of a window. The fact that the subjects are a little crowded is not the artist's fault. Mr. Woodward, the architect to whom the commission was due, made an unlucky mistake about the measurements, being in very ill-health at the time, and indeed on the point of death. Mr. Burne-Jones' cartoon had therefore to undergo a mechanical reduction which has slightly affected the clearness of the designs. The colour is, in spite (or rather because) of its radiant variety, not so immediately attractive to everyone as that of the other Burne-Jones windows; but when one has sat down for five or ten minutes and deciphered the various scenes, its unapproachable beauty becomes apparent, and each succeeding visit deepens the impression of the splendour and poetry of this incomparable work.
The scenes depicted are, by the artist's own account, as follows:—
First Light.
Second Light.
Third Light.
Fourth Light.
In the tracery above are the trees of life and of knowledge, and a ship of souls convoyed by angels.
SECTION OF TOWER, WITH A COMPARTMENT OF BAY AND CHOIR, BEFORE THE RESTORATIONS (Britton).SECTION OF TOWER, WITH A COMPARTMENT OF BAY AND CHOIR, BEFORE THE RESTORATIONS (Britton).
This east window was purchased with money left by Dr. Bull (1853), to whom there is a monument against the western wall. There are also brasses to the eminent Dr. Mozley (Regius Professor of Divinity till 1878), Dr. Ogilvie (1873), Dr. Shirley (1866), Dr Barnes (1859), Archdeacon Clerke (1877).
St. Frideswide (Fritheswithe, "The Bond of Peace"), foundress and patron saint of the church, lived early in the eighth century, when Ethelbald was King of Mercia. Her father Didan was probably the under-king of the little town of Oxford, which was then a frontier city of Mercia. In spite of the legendary atmosphere that has gathered about her memory, there is no reason to doubt the main facts of her life; indeed, the best modern authorities endorse them.
Here is her story, told in the delightful words of Anthony a Wood, who wrote towards the end of the seventeenth century:—
"About the year of our Lord 727, as authors say, lived in the city of Oxford a prince (or as Malmesbury hath, a king) named Didan, one of incomparable honesty and virtues, who, by his wife Safrid, of a Saxon family, had an only daughter called Frideswyde, born at this place, and by her parents brought up in all manner of honest and liberal breeding, befitting her descent." Then is described her early piety, her refusal of marriage, and her refusal also to be a nun. The narrative continues:—
"And furthermore, with great zeale, she added that seeing he had large possessions and inheritances and that she was like to enjoy most of them after his discease, he could not doe better than bestowe them upon some religious fabrick wherein she and her spirituall sisters (votaresses also) might spend their dayes in prayers and singing of psalmes and hymmes to God. To which the father giving an attentive eare and considering withall that his issue was like to be discontinued, took upon him a resolution to performe the same that soe he might leavehis child in a comfortable manner and then dye in peace. Wherfore, not long after, the good old man built a church within the præcincts (as 'tis said) of the city of Oxon, and dedicated it to the honour of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and All Saints, and soe committed it wholy to the use of his daughter Frideswyde purposely to exercise her devotion therin."
Then is told how Frideswide afterwards took the veil, inducing "12 virgins of noble extract to follow her"; how her father "erected other ædifices adjoyning to the church to serve as lodging rooms for the said virgins," settled lands upon the Nunnery, and died. The central story of her life next follows:—
"Frideswyde, continuing most constant in her strict course of life, was not only reputed famous for that particular, but also for those excellent parts that nature had endowed her withall; insomuch that both being conjoined in one body, was accounted the flower of all these parts. Which being quickly rumoured in other countryes, gave occasion to a young spritely prince, named Algar, king of Leycester, to become her adorer in way of marriage. Which she by his proxies and others of his wellwishers understanding, triumphed soe highly in her virginity, that she with an open profession utterly despised both him and his princely bed; neither left the least incouragement for him to proceed in this his designe. The king having such a sudden repulse, and supposing it to be a flashy resolution, encited him the more to goe forward; and sometimes considering her beauty, then her incomparable qualities, and both obscured under a minchon's hood, could not but attempt once more. Which, though he performed with all the intreaties and gifts imaginable, did not in the least disjoynt her purpose, but rather occasioned her to trample upon his accostments and with a coy deportment despise his offers. All it seemes was in vaine: nothing to be heard but nays: nothing to be received but foyles: nothing but what if pursued, usher him to dispaire: and the like. What shall we imagine this yong amoretto now to doe! Noe place is able to containe him, nobody please his curious fancy but deare Frideswyde! Noe note now but 'hei mihi, quod nullis,' etc.!
"To remedy this, therefore, and attaine his cure, he considered very well from the præmises could not be compassedunless it was by a forced stealth. These were his last thoughts; and this he was resolved to prosecute.
"Wherefore, immediately summoning some of his faithfull servants, sent them as embassadours to prefer (under pretence) his last desires for marriage, with full power, if like to prosper, to complete it. With this speciall and soveiraign caution, if she did not concede, to watch their opportunity and carry her away by force."
Then follows the account of the visit of the ambassadors, their threats of force, and the Saint's undaunted reply. The story proceeds:—
"Well, the night is spent in consultation, and at the dawning of the day they sallied from their lodgings and made their appearance towards the Nunnery, where clambering the fences of the house and by degrees approching her private lodging promised to themselves nothing but surety of their prize. But alas! their purposes came short. What shall we think the event of this designe? Why! their hopes were utterly frustrated. For shee, either by the noise they made at their entrance or else (as 'tis said in another place) by the instinct of some good spirit, awakened and suddenly arose to see what was the matter. And immediately discovering who they were and their intent for what they came, and finding it in vaine to make an escape from them by flight being soe closely beseiged, she (as the best remidy) straightway prostrated her selfe flatt on her face and fervently prayed to the almighty that he would præserve her from the violence of those wicked persons that were now ready to take her away, that he would show some speciall token of reveng upon them for this their bold attempt. Wherefore the embassadors (as 'tis delivered) were miraculously struck blind, and like mad men ran headlong yelling about the city."
The townsmen were much amazed at this strange sight, and this the cheifest of them went straightway to her and—"Upon falling upon their knees, humbly desired her to grant those simple and impertinent people their sights, promising withall that, as sone as they were perfected, would see them out of towne and enjoyne them noe more to returne. Hereupon she commanded them to be brought to her; and after fervent prayers in their behalfe, were as wonderfully restored to their eyes againe, as before they were deprived of them."
On the ambassadors' return to Algar, he was filled withrage against "that witch, hagge, and fury Frideswyde," and planned vengeance:—"The king then gathering a force and intending for Oxon, breathed out nothing but fire and sword to this place. But the night before he came hither, there was an angel (as the story goes) appeared to Frideswyde in a dreame, saying to her these words: 'Ignoras, O Virgo,' &c.: 'thou art as yet ignorant, O virgin, what will befall you tomorrow: for King Algar with his assistants intend to sett upon you and if it be possible will satisfy his lust upon you and leave you a miserable creature. But doe not feare: there is a safe place provided for you; and he for this his attempt shall be struck blind and never recover his sight. Arise therefore, and make hast to the way that leads to the river Thames, where you shall find a ship boat ready provided for you and one in it to convey you away in safety.' After this was pronounced Frideswyde awakened; and, suddenly arising from her couch, took two of her sisters the nunns named Katherine and Cicely; and walked to the place appointed her by the angell in her dreame. Where according to his admonitions, she found a boat by the river's side and in it the appearance of a yong man with a beautiful countenance and clothed in white: who, mitigating their feare with pleasant speech, placed them in the boat, in which, the space of one hour, shee and her sisters arrived neare the towne called Benton [Bampton or Bensington], ten miles and above distant from Oxon.
"Where after their landing, followed a path adjoyning, which conveyed them into a vast and dismall wood. And wandring therin too and fro, met at length with a kind of hovell or shelter purposely erected to harbour swine and other cattell in times of cold and wett weather; and there taking up a resolution to fix, crossed themselves and retired therin. Which place being quickly overgrowen with ivy and other sprouts, they continued therin a long time, being in fasting and prayers, and utterly unknown to the inhabitants therabouts."
Algar in the meanwhile had gone to Oxford, found Frideswide flown, and in the midst of his fury been smitten with blindness. After living three years in close retirement in the Benton wood, Frideswide, to comfort the nuns whom she had left, came by boat to Binsey near Oxford, and there lived for some time. Soon after she came back into Oxford, and spent her days in the service of the people, working in especial many miracles ofhealing. The Cottonian MS. relates her first miracle as happening at "Bentonia," when St. Frideswide cured a blind girl of seven through virtue of the water wherein the saint had washed her hands. Shortly after she helped a young man (infortunatus juvenis) named Alward, who, while cutting wood on a Sunday (parvi pendens diem Resurrectionis Dominicæ), found his hand fixed to the handle of his axe, so that he could not let it go. A beautiful story is told about her entry into Oxford; that a leper met her, and begged her to kiss him, which, after making the sign of the cross, she did, and he was healed of his leprosy.
THE EXTERIOR IN 1857.THE EXTERIOR IN 1857.
Of her last sojourn in Oxford, William of Malmesbury says:—"In that place, therefore, this maiden, having gained the triumph of her virginity, established a convent, and when her days were over and her Spouse called her, she there died."
"Some time," says Dugdale, "after the glorious death of St. Frideswide, the nuns having been taken away, Secular Canons were introduced." We cannot fix the date when the community of nuns which the saint had founded was thus removed, but the passage which follows in Dugdale makes it clear that the seculars were in possession in 1004, when Ethelred II. rebuilt the church. It seems strange that the nuns, for whom Frideswide had suffered so much and laboured so successfully, should have been thus early made to give place to a chapter of married priests; but early it must have been, for by the middle of the tenth century Dunstan was busy suppressing the seculars, and enforcing everywhere the stricter monastic rule. Nor did the nuns ever come back; for, when the Secular Canons had finally disappeared, by the time of the Norman Conquest, the priory, after being for a long time in ruins, was made over, first to the great Benedictine monastery of Abingdon, of which it became a "cell" or dependency, shortly afterwards to the warlike Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, "but only for the profits issuing from their lands, which he, after its restoration, returned again with great reluctancy"; and it was finally restored under Henry I. (IIII) as a house of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, an order holding a position midway between monks and secular canons, in whose hands it continued henceforward.
Guimond was the first prior, and a curious story is told by several old writers as to the manner whereby he won the king's favour:—
"On Rogation Sunday (30th April 1122), when the king was at mass and Guymundus performing divine service before him, did when he came to that parcell of the prophet, 'it did not rain upon the earth for the space of III. years and six months,' read thus, 'it did not rain upon the earth one, one, one years six months.' Which the king observing, and all the clerks marvelling and laughing at, did when mass was ended reprove him for it, and furthermore asked him the reason why he read after that manner. Guymund smilingly answered, 'Because you, my liege, are used to bestow your bishopricks and other church benefices to them that read so; and therefore be it known to you, henceforth I will serve no other master but Christ my King and Sovereign, who knoweth as well how to confer temporal as eternal benefits upon his servants that always obey him.'"
By the eleventh century important national meetings were held in Oxford, as when in 1020, Cnut being then king, the English and Danes were reconciled, and both nations agreed to observe the laws of Edgar. But no king ventured to visit the city, for, after the failure of Algar, there was a tradition that boded misfortune to any king who entered within the city walls. Henry III. was the first to defy it by coming to worship at the shrine of St. Frideswide in 1264; but his example was an unfortunate one, for within six weeks Nemesis came in the Battle of Lewes. Edward I. was less daring than his father, for in 1275, when he reached the gates of Oxford, he turned his horse about, and sought a lodging outside the town. Later in his reign, however, he made the venture, and destroyed the superstition.
St. Frideswide's Priory did not, according to the latest authority on mediæval universities, Mr. Rashdall, create Oxford University,4but reasons of convenience of access and other like matter-of-fact causes; for, if the University had needed only a religious house round which to cluster, the neighbouring monastery of Abingdon was far larger and more suitable. Yet there is great probability that the first germs of the University were produced by the Priory. It is said, indeed, that the Mercian kings built inns or halls in the neighbourhood of the convent, but we may suspect this as a legendary statement not more substantiable than the story of King Alfred's founding University College, since the first actual notice of "Oxeneford" does not occur till 912. But it is much more certain that, during the wise rule of Guimond (1122-1141), the first Regular Prior, and of Robert of Cricklade,5his successor, there was a school connected with the convent, as indeed was the case with most convents, and probably with St. Frideswide's itself before Guimond's time. This school stood nearthe west end of the church, about the middle of what is now Tom Quad. Writing of the arrival of Vacarius, in King Stephen's reign, Mr. J.R. Green says:—"We know nothing of the causes which drew students and teachers within the walls of Oxford. It is possible that here, as elsewhere, the new teacher had quickened older educational foundations, and that the cloisters of Osney and St. Frideswide already possessed schools which burst into a larger life under the impulse of Vacarius."
The Priory was also one of the centres of university life in its early days, occupying perhaps in some sort the position held by St. Mary's at the present day. From the time of the Translation of St. Frideswide, the chancellor and scholars of the University used to go in Mid-Lent and on Ascension Day "in a general procession to her church, as the mother-church of the University and town, there to pray, preach, and offer oblations to her shrine." The Civil Law School belonged to St. Frideswide's as well as St. Patrick's Schools, and some others situated near to School Street. Among the Halls that the Priors possessed, Brend Hall was in 1438 made over to Lincoln College; Urban Hall and Bekes Inn were bought by Bishop Fox to procure a site for Corpus Christi College.
Yet St. Frideswide's does not seem to have been so great a power in educational matters as its position would have warranted. In fact, most of the other orders were ahead of the Augustinian Regulars in this matter, for we do not hear of their doing anything much until the fifteenth century, when St. Mary's College near Northgate Street was an Augustinian establishment. It was the new orders, the Black Friars (Dominicans) and the Grey Friars (Franciscans), who did so much for the educational advance of Oxford. The Franciscan schoolmen, especially, gave the University a European reputation, for Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William Occam were trained by them. Cardinal Wolsey, though he did much harm to St. Frideswide's church, did at least make the place a great educational centre.
In one indirect way we find that the Priory helped to attend to the scholars' interests in the thirteenth century. "Owing to the general poverty," says Mr. Boase, "charitable people foundedchests, from which loans might be made to poor scholars. Grostête began the system in 1240 by issuing an ordinanceregulating St. Frideswide's Chest, which received the fines paid by citizens; and we hear on the whole of about two dozen of these charitable funds, amounting in all to nearly 2000 marks. The money was lent out on security of books, plate, or other property, and it was, in fact, a pawnbroking business which charged no interest." The money accruing to the University was placed in a chest at St. Frideswide's, when the borrower was required to deposit some pledge—a book or a cup, or a piece of clothing. Pledges not redeemed within a year were sold by public auction. As time went on, private bequests were added to the Frideswide chest, to the great relief, no doubt, of the scholars, who were as poor as could be.
The Fair of St. Frideswide was another useful institution connected with the Priory, for in early days the fairs not only afforded much innocent amusement, but they also served to mark the seasons of the year, and were of great practical value in the domestic economy of the people. St. Frideswide's Fair lasted for seven days, and during that time the keys of the city passed from the mayor to the prior, and the town courts were closed in favour of the Piepowder Court, held by the steward of the Priory for the redress of all disorders committed during the fair. By Stuart times the Fair had fallen almost to nothing, but its memory is still kept up by the annual cakestall in St. Aldate's.
One of the strongest Jewries in England existed in Oxford, so the chest was a useful form of charity in the days when Jews were the only money-lenders, and it was found necessary to pass a law preventing the Hebrews of Oxford from charging over 43 per cent, on loans to scholars. In 1268 St. Frideswide's provided a curious proof of the strong protection which the Jews enjoyed till their expulsion from England for four centuries in 1290.
"The feud between the Priory and the Jewry went on for a century more, till it culminated in a daring act of fanaticism on Ascension Day 1268. As the usual procession of scholars and citizens returned from St. Frideswide's, a Jew suddenly burst from the group of his friends in front of the synagogue, and snatching the crucifix from its bearer, trod it underfoot. But even in presence of such an outrage, the terror of the Crown shielded the Jewry from any burst of popular indignation. The king condemned the Jews of Oxford to make a heavysilver crucifix for the University to carry in the processions, and to erect a cross of marble on the spot where the crime was committed; but even this was in part remitted, and a less offensive place was allotted for the cross in an open plot by Merton College." The event which had opened the feud between the Priory and the Jews happened about 1185, when Prior Phillip complained of a certainDeus-eum-crescat(Gedaliah), son of Mossey, who stood at his door as the procession of St. Frideswide passed by, and mocked at her miracles, no one daring to meddle with him.
An instance of the widespread fame of the shrine of St. Frideswide, and the veneration in which it was held even shortly before its destruction, is given in Wood's "Annals." In 1518, "Queen Katherine being desirous to come to Oxford, was attended in her journey by the Cardinal [Wolsey]: and being entered within the limits, was received by the scholars with all demonstrations of love and joy. After she had received their curtesies, she retired to St. Frideswydd Monastery to do her devotions to the sacred reliques of that Virgin Saint, being the chief occasion, it seems, that brought her hither."
But the great change was rapidly approaching. It had indeed been foreshadowed nearly a century and a half before, as when, for instance, on Ascension Day 1382, Wyclif's disciple Nicholas Hereford, preaching in the churchyard of St. Frideswide's, made a violent attack on the Mendicant Friars, and boldly asserted his sympathy with Wyclif.
The suppression of the Priory in 1524 was not, however, a Protestant act; for Wolsey obtained a bull from Pope Clement VII., authorising him, with the royal consent, to suppress the Priory of St. Frideswide, and to transfer the canons to other houses of the Augustinian order, so that their dwelling and revenues might be assigned to the proposed college of secular clerks. Wolsey had magnificent ideas about education,—"indeed," says Fuller, "nothing mean could enter into this man's mind"; he was bent on founding institutions which should surpass even those of William of Wykeham and William Waynflete; and he saw that monasticism had fallen into disrepute, with no prospect of restoration to public favour. He adopted, therefore, the hitherto exceptional method of suppressing certain priories, in order that he might endow with their revenues his new foundation of Cardinal College, as it was firststyled. Henry VIII. readily assented to the scheme, and his minister was thus enabled to dissolve the oldest religious establishment within the walls of Oxford, and to dispose of its income of "almost £300 a year." Dr. John Barton, the last Prior of St. Frideswide's, was elected to be Abbot of the neighbouring monastery of Oseney, just as (a little later) Bishop King, the last Abbot of Oseney, was made first Bishop of Oxford.
There was much popular opposition to Wolsey's act in suppressing St. Frideswide's, and (by a second Papal Bull) certain other monasteries. Hall, a chronicler unfriendly to Wolsey, averred that "the poor wretches" ejected from the monasteries received scarcely any compensation. Complaints such as these drew from Wolsey this earnest and redundant contradiction:—
"Almighty God I take to my record, I have not meant, intended, or gone about, ne also have willed mine officers, to do anything concerning the said suppressions, but under such form and manner as is and hath largely been to the full satisfaction, recompense, and joyous contentation of any person which hath had, or could pretend to have, right or interest in the same, in such wise that many of them, giving thanks and laud to God for the good chance succeeded unto them, would for nothing, if they might, return or be restored and put again in their former state, as your Highness shall abundantly and largely perceive at my next repairing unto the same.
"Verily, sir, I would be loth to be noted that I should intend such a virtuous foundation for the increase of your Highness' merit, profit of your subjects, the advancement of good learning, and for the weale of my poor soul, to be established or acquiredex rapinis."
It was indeed, says Mr. Maxwell Lyte, part of Wolsey's "grand and statesmanlike scheme of establishing episcopal sees in some of the larger monasteries, and annexing thereto smaller monasteries to provide greater revenues." The graduates of Oxford were very grateful, and promised to remember him in their prayers to the end of time; but great fear came over the monks. His proceedings, says Fuller quaintly but truly, "made all the forest of religious foundations in England to shake, justly fearing the king would finish to fell the oaks, seeing the Cardinal began to cut the underwood."
Thus was Cardinal College founded. Its magnificencecertainly made a great impression upon Englishmen, as is shown by the fact that it is the only existing college mentioned by Shakespeare. InHenry VIII.Wolsey is praised for his new foundation:—