The Architectural History of the Cathedral Church and Monastery of St Andrew at Rochester

http://kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/archaeologia-cantiana/ Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382 © 2017 Kent Archaeological Society ( 194 ) DHITECTURAL HISTORY O F THE EDRAL CHURCH A N D MONASOF ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. BY W . H . S T. J O H N HOPE, M . A . g account is based, so far as the architectural a cathedral church is concerned, upon Lwo papers d by me (1) t o the St. Paul's Ecclesiological 883, and printed in its Transactions,* and (2) ty o f Antiquaries i n 1884, and printed i n I- S i n c e the publication of these papers some ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 1 9 5 apostle Andrew; he also presented many gifts to the bishops of each church, and added lands and possessions for the use of those who were with the bishops."* " I n this church of Roffa (i.e. Rochester) the holy Justus sat as first bishop, and he ordained priests to serve God i n it, for the sustenance of which priests king Ethelbert gave a piece of land which he called Priestfield, to the end that the priests serving God might have and hold i t for ever. H e also endowed the church with Doddyngherne, and with the land from the Medway to the east gate of the city of Roffa on the south part, and with other lands without the city wall towards the north part."t " I n the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 644, the most reverend father Paulinus, sometime bishop o f York, but then bishop o f the city o f Rochester, passed t o the Lord on the 6th of the Ides of October . . . . and was buried in t h e church o f t h e blessed apostle Andrew, which king 2Ethilberct built i n the same city o f Hrof from the foundations." From these entries i t appears (1) that king Althelbert was the founder and builder o f the cathedral church o f St. Andrew; (2) that i t was o f stone, for B d a says the king b u i l t i t a fwndamentis, an expression which would hardly apply to a wooden structure; (3) that bishop Justus, although himself a monk, placed the church in the hands of * " Anno Dominicoe Incarnationis sexcentesimo quarto Augustinus Brittaniarum archiepiseopus, ordinavit duos episcopos, Mellitum videlicet et Just= . • . Justum vero in ipsa Cantia Augustinus episcopum ordinavit in civitate Dorubrevi . . . i n qua rex JEdilberct ecclesiam beati Andra° apostoli fecit, qui etiam episeopis utriusque bujus ecclesisa dona multa obtulit ; sed et territoria ac possessiones in usum eorum qui erant cum episcopis adjecit." _Rada Historia Beelesiastica Gentle Anglorum, book ii. ch. 3. " I n hac ecclesia Roffe. sanctus Justus episcopus sedit primus. et presbiteros ad serviend.um deo i n ea ordinavit. ad quorum victum presbiterorum. Rex Ethelbertus unam porcionem term dedit. quam vocavit Prestefeld. eo quod presbiteri deo servientes jure perpetuo earn possiderent. Addidi t eciam ecclesiam dotare cum Doddyngherne et cum terra que est a Medewaye usque ad orientalem portam Civitatis Roffe i n australi parte et aliis terris extra murum civitatis versus partem aquilonem." Itegistrum Temporalium Beelesie et Episeopatue Rofensis, f. 4; and John Thorpe, Registrum Beene° (London, 1769), 1. " Ab Incarnation° Dominica anno sexcenteshno quadragesimo quarto, reverentissimus pater Paulinus, quondam quidem Eburacensis, sed tune Hrofensis episcopus civitatis, transivit ad Dominum sexto Iduum Octobrium die . . . . sepultusque est in secretario beati apostoli Andre, quod rex ./Edilberct fundamentis in eadem Hrofi civitate construxit." Bieda, book iii. ch. 14. o2 1 9 6 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F secular priests; and (4) that king Althelbert endowed i t with lands, including the site of the cathedral church. Although the church of Rochester possesses the originals or transcripts of an unusually fine series of early charters,* only one o f lEthelbert's has come down t o u s . I t i s nevertheless one of the oldest Saxon charters of which the text has been preserved. B y i t the lring conveys to the church, not the site of the cathedral church and the rest of the land between the south gate and the east gate, but the remaining land in the south part of the city. I t would seem therefore that, since the land given by ./Ethelbert was divided b y the street joining the north and south gates, either two separate charters were necessary, o r they were issued at different dates, and this surviving chartert grants the western half only, which is now mostly covered by the site of the castle. In 676 YEthelred, king of the Mercians, laid waste Kent, and defiled t h e churches and monasteries. T h e c i t y o f Rochester did not escape the common slaughter, and Baedat relates t h a t when bishop Putta, who was absent a t the time, heard that his church had been depopulated and robbed, he refused to return, and betook himself to Sexwulf, bishop of the Mercians, i n whose diocese he spent the rest of his days without taking any steps to recover his own see. H i s successor, Cuichelm, according to the same authority, also left Rochester after a short time, because o f the lack o f things (prae inopia rerum). There is, however, no statement as to the destruction of Ethelbert's church, and, i f i t had been fired, a stone structure would not be likely to sustain much further damage than the loss of its wooden roof and furniture. In 726 bishop Tobias died, "and was buried within the porch (porticu) o f St. Paul the apostle, which within the church of St. Andrew he had made into a place o f sepulture * When Thorpe printed his Registrion We n n in 1'769 twelve of the original Saxon charters were i n the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. Where are they now? + For the text of this charter see Thorpe, Registrum Beense, 13. t. Breda, book iv, ch. 12, T. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 1 9 7 for himself."* I t i s clear therefore t h a t the building cannot have suffered much at the hands of the heathen, and we find that 400 years later the site o f the grave o f bishop Paulinus, who was buried in 644, before the sacking of the city, was perfectly well known. Two charters of intermediate date also refer to the same fact. T h e one, granted by Offa in 788, gives lands " a d ecclesiam beati Andrew apostoli et ad episcopium Castelli quod nominatur Hrofescester ubi beatus Paulinus pausat."t T h e other is a grant by Ecgbert in 823 t o the church " quw sita est in civitate Hrobi pro amore apostoli sancti Andrew et beau i a r c h i e p i s c o p i cujus corpus in predicta ecclesia requiescit."1 Bishop Ythamar, who died in 655, was also buried i n the first church. H i s remains were afterwards translated to a shrine i n the later building. For three and a half centuries after the death of bishop Tobias t h e history o f the fabric i s a blank. I t must, however, be noted that several charters o f the kings o f IVIercia and Kent,* granted dtuing this long interval, speak of lands given ad augmentum monasterii. These words were taken by the medieval chroniclers to imply that the church was monastic before the Norman Conquest, but the phrase is more likely used to denote the " minster " with its college of secular priests, of whose removal in Norman times we have ample evidence. With the death of Syward, the last of the Anglo-Saxon bishops, in 1075, we enter upon an important crisis i n the history of the church of Rochester. According to William of Ma1mesbury,11 on Syward's death the church was l e f t utterly forsaken, miserable, and waste, from lack o f a l l things within and without. There were barely four canons, who lived a precarious existence on meagre fare and i n * " Sepultus vero est in porticu sancti Pauli apostoli, quam intra ecclesiam sancti Andreas sibi ipso in locum sepulchri fecerat." Theda, book v. ch. 23. t Textus Roffensis, f. 131b; ed. Tho. Hearne (Oxford, 1720), 86. $ Ibid. f. l 8 ' ; ed. Hearne, 98; and Thorpe, Registrant Roffense, 22, where the date is given wrongly as 723. § 6.9. those of Sigiraed (762), /Ethelbert (781), Ofra (789), and Eadmund. Textus Roffensis, ed. Hearne, 69, 85, 90, 108. IIIVillelmi Malmesbiriensis monadi Gesta Pontifietvin Anglortunt (Rolls Series 52), 136, 137. 1 9 8 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O P mean apparel. W i t h a view of amending these miseries, archbishop Lanfranc gave to the church a certain monk, Arnost by name, as bishop. A r n o s t died i n July 1076, within a few months of his consecration, and the see again remained vacant for nearly a year. Lanfranc then appointed his own chamberlain Gundulf, who also, like Arnost, had been. a monk at Bee, and consecrated him bishop on the 21st March (12 Kai. Aprilis) 1076-7. The canons o f the church were at first maintained by the archbishop, through Gundulf, at his own expense,* but having recovered from Odo, bishop of Bayeux, the manors of Denton, Stoke, Fawkham, and Freckenham, which had long been alienated from the church, Lanfranc substituted Benedictine monks for the secular canons, and assigned the newly recovered lands for their sustenan.ce.t That Lanfranc himself introduced the monks is admitted by the author of the Textus Roffensis, who states that the archbishop not only recovered the aforesaid manors, b u t did many other good works for the benefit o f the monks "whom he himself first instituted in the same church." The introduction o f the monks took place i n 1082 o r 1083. During the t h i r t y years o f Gundulf's episcopate, the Toxins Roffonsis says " h e built entirely anew, as i t appears to-day, the church of St. Andrew, which was almost ruined by age. H e also constructed a l l the necessary offices f o r * Willelmi Malmesbiriensis monacAi Gesta Pontificum Anglorum (Rolls Series 52), 72. t I n the thirteenth-century Canterbury Chronicle known as " Polistorie," in the British Museum, i s t h e following account De prima institucione monachorum rofensis : " Cest an (i.e. 1073) trouva lersevesk' lamfrano en leglise de Roucestre ne gweres plus de quatre chanoynes, ceus a deu despleisaunte vie menauns de suz le evesk' Syward. K ' poy ilukes vesquist. E s i fust apres Ii evesk' ernost par le ordeynement lamfrano. K ' ausy tost morust. P u r quei lamfrano un moygne de seinte vie a eele eglise sacra Gundulf nome par cely la. vele eglise cathedral° tote fist avaler. et une novele dassez plus avenaunte hi pm-fist honurablement. Eleo clers k' loins estoyent lur vie menauns desordinee. fist lamfranc nectement voyder. ceus ke habit de moygne ne voleyent receyvre. mes primes ales engetus par divers lyus garisun assigns, suffisaunte. S i mist en cele novele eglise moignes de seinte religiun pur deu servir perpetuerment. E lur assigna teres. et rentes de ses demeygnes pur lur sustenaunce honurablement cum ore piert a tote. gents qur avaunt nestoyt for ke une eglise petite et poure." Earl. MS. 636, f. 52u. $ " E t ham non solum, sod et alia bona ad opus monachorum quos eidem eeclesie ipso primum instituit." Textus B e m i s , f. 171k; ed. Hearne, 142. ST. A N D R EW A T ROMESTER. 1 9 9 monks, as f a r as the capacity o f the site allowed. H e received also twenty-two monks. H e clothed those whom he received with the habit o f holy religion A n d although on his entry into his bishopric he had found not more than five canons i n the church of St. Andrew, on the day of his departure from this present world he left more than sixty monks." A somewhat later manuscript, the anonymous L i f e o f Gunclulf, gives a more definite account: "Therefore a short time having elapsed (i.e. from Gundnlf's consecration), a new church, the old one having been destroyed, is begun. Circuits of offices are conveniently disposed. A l l the work is finished within a few years, Lanfranc assisting with large sums o f money T h e r e f o r e a l l things having been finished, as has been said, which were necessary for the servants of God abiding at Rochester, having taken counsel with wise men, the same venerable father called an assembly of monks and clerks, as well as a great company of people, and with much solemnity approached the tomb of the most holy confessor Paulinus, who had been buried i n the old church, and caused the treasure of his sacred relics to be removed into the new church, and laid in the place decently prepared for the purpose."-IThe translation o f the relics i s elsewhere attributed to Lanfranc, who i s said t o have "caused t h e body o f * " Qui xxxtn et uno stints inibi superstes existens, ecclesiam Sancti Andree, pene vetustate dirutarn novam ex integro ut hodie apparet xdificavit. ° M a n s quoque monachis necessarias prout loci capacitas pati potuit onmes construxit. Ipsos etiam monaehos xxij. suscepit. susceptos vero sancte religionis habitu induit E t cum non amplius i n introitu episcopatus sui quam quinque invenisset in ecclesia Sancti Andree canonicos die qua seculo presenti decessit plusquatn sexaginta monachos . . . . reliquit." Tealus Rodrensis, f . 172; ed. Hearne, 143. t " Tempore ergo brevi elapso ecclosia nova veteri destructa inaipitur. officinarum ambitus convenienter disponuntur. opus omne intra paucos annos Lanfranco pecunias sumministrante multas perficitur P e r f e c t i s igitur omnibus; gout dictum est que servis dei apud rovecestriam manentibus poterant ease sufficientia. habit° cum sapientibus consilio idem venerabilis pater collecto monachorum et clericorum conventu. necnon et copiosa multitudine plebis. cum magna solennitate accessit ad sepulchrum sanctissimi confessoris Paulini. qui in veteri ecclesia reconditus fuerat ; e t thesaurum sanctarum reliquiarum eius in novam ecciesiam transferri. et in loco decanter ad hoc preparato reponi fecit." Cott. MS. Nero A. 8, if. 62, 53; and Henry Wharton, Anglia Sacra (fol. London, 1691), ii. 280. 200 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F St. Paulinus to be raised, and placed in a silver shrine which he had had made." In the Canter oury 1VIartiloge, which, although written circa 1520, is based on old records, despite the Rochester monk's statement that the archbishop "assisted with large sums of money," Lanfranc is credited with the whole of the works just described: "He also began the church o f Rochester from the foundations. H e honestly -finished that which was begun, and adorned i t with many and decent ornaments. Above all he instituted there the holy religion of monks. H e recovered the lands of the church that had for a long time been taken away, and allowed t h e monks t o have them f o r t h e i r sustenance and clothing."t I f due regard be had to the subordinate relation in which the see of Rochester formerly stood, and even yet stands, to the metropolitan see o f Canterbury, i t i s very possible that the archbishop was actually, though the bishop was nominally, responsible for the foundation of the monastery of Rochester, and the building of a suitable church for the new convent. I t is also probable that Lanfranc, although he had recovered the former possessions o f the church o f St. Andrew, kept them i n his own hands for a time, and spent the revenues arising from them on the building and monastery in which he took so deep an interest4 * " Lanfrancus archiepiscopus . . fecit etiam levari corpus sancti Paulini et in feretro argenteo quod ipse fieri fecit poni." C o t t . MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 88. t " Ecclesiam etiam Rofensem a fundamentis incepit inceptam honeste perfecit. quam multis et honestis decoravit ornamentis. Insuper et reverendam inibi monachorum religionem instituit. Terras de eeclesia longo tempore ablatas adquesivit. quas monachi sad victum et vestitum habere permisit." Lambeth MS. 20, f. 190. $ The manors of Stoke and Denton were among those which Lanfranc claimed and recovered from Odo, bishop of Bayeux, in the famous suit at the shire-mote held on Penenden Heath in 1076 (see Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 27, 28), but when they were transferred to Gundulf does not appear. I n Domesday Book (1085-6) they are entered among the possessions of the bishop of Rochester, as is the manor of Fawkham, and to the account of Stoke is appended the significant memorandum that it had been recovered from Odo by Lanfranc " et inde est modo saisita Rofensis ceeelesia." The manor of Freckenham, in Suffolk, was granted to the archbishop by the Conqueror in 1071, but i t was not restored into the bands of Gundulf by Lanfranc until 1087 (see the charters in Begistrum 1? offense, 859), although Domesday Book says "postea derotionatus est Lanfranens jussu regis in episeopatumi rovensem." I n the same year, or at any rate before ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 0 1 Before the new church was begun, and probably soon after Gundulf's consecration, there was b u i l t t o the east of the old church a strong and massive tower. T h e ruin of this, a mere shell, stripped o f i t s lining and reduced t o about 40 feet i n height, s t i l l remains on the north side of the present church. I t was originally at least half as high again as now, for there are no windows in the clerestory of the north transept opposite its western side, and i t was lofty enough for a bridge to be thrown over to i t from the top of the early-English turret at the north-west corner of the quire transept. T h e accompanying illustration (FIG. 1), taken from Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales,* shews the tower as i t was in 1781. T h a t the tower was built before the church i s proved b y the existence o f a t a l l narrow window (now blocked) i n each side of the ground-story, two of which became useless when the church was erected. F r o m the ruined state of the basement i t is uncertain where the original entrance was. T h e tower is now entered by a large opening broken through the north wall, and by a door i n the south-west corner made by knocking out the back of an original recess there. T h e r e i s also another hole i n the west side. D u r i n g the thirteenth century the north-east angle was strengthened by massive buttresses rising from Purbeck marble plinths, and an upper story, probably o f wood and to hold the bells, added on projecting arches not unlike machicolations. These are shown in the engraving. That the tower was built i n Gundulf's time is evident from its character, but the object of it is somewhat doubtful. Primarily i t may have been raised f o r defensive purposes, or as a treasury and record tower, but there is documentary proof that i t was a t an early date used as a campanile. Thus prior Reginald, who died i n 1154, i s said t o have "made two bells, and placed them in the greater tower."-ILanfranc's death in 1089, the important manor of Hadenham, i n Bucks, was given for the support of the monks by William Rufus, in return for which grant Gundulf built (i.e. fortified with stone walls) the castle of Rochester. Tex tus Boffensis, 1. 173; ed. Hearne, 88. * Francis Grose, Supplement to the Antiquities o f England and Wales (London, 1777). t " Reginaldus prior fecit duas campanas et posuit ens in majori turri." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 85; and Thorpe, Registrum Boffense, 118. 202 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A .ND MONASTERY OP We next find that " Thalebot the sacrist made. . . . a great bell which even to the present day," says the fourteenthcentury chronicler, "retains the name o f the aforesaid Thalebot."* Again we have the account of the making of a bell called " Bretun " by Ralph de Ros, sacrist and after- FIG. 1,—GUNDITLF'S NORTH TOWER. AS IT WAS IN 1781. wards prior.t Both " Thalebot " and " Bretun " were hung in the "greater tower," for the Custum,a,le Roffense (circa, 1305) directs the servants o f the church to strike three * " Thalebot sacrista fecit . . cloccam magnam. que usque in hodiernum diem optinet nomen predicti Thaleboti." C o t t . MS. Yespasian A. 22, f. 89; and Thorpe, Registrum Roffenae, 121. t " Radulfus Bretun habuit in custodia de fratre suo qui necatus est trant?- fretando. xv. mareas argenti. Q u i Radulfus i n artioulo mortis assignavIt predictas. xv. marcas ad faciendam campanam pro anima fratris sui. Q u i denaru tracliti sunt Radulfo de Ros tune sacriste, qui copit campanam fractam que longo tempers in navi ecclesie steterat et duxit Londinias et fecit campanam que dioitur Bretun. que custavit. xliii mama." I b i d . f . SO; and Thorpe, Begistrum .11 offense, 122. Saavw CluarE. of 604. Existing remains of Guarlult1 church, al Probable extent of Gun&la work Early Sinwum, 1095-1100. C.RKLU.t sow LITI40.11.FURNIVAIST HOLSORWC.C' 1077 - e 1090 NORTH PAALTRIASRH ST NICOHFOLAS OF CONDO L Fes, I" CLOISTER STEPS DOWN STEPS DOWN LESSER TOWER TOWER OUIRE re- ALTAR PRESBYTERY ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL CHURCH. CONJECTURAL PLAN OF GUNDULF'S WORK. TOMB OF 5111UU EXTENSION OF PRESBYTERY Plate N.St John Honda ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 0 3 blows inter cancan in twrri majori de majori signo vel de Bretun vol de Thalebot, on principal feasts.* Since there was a greater tower there must have been a lesser, reference t o which also occurs i n the Custumale in the Instructions f o r the Commemoration o f Benefactors, where f o r Odo, bishop o f Bayeux, and others, there i s ordered signwm grosswm unum cum coterie in parvi turri.t This lesser tower stood on the east side o f the south transept. T h a t the major turns and the parva turns were Gundulf's two towers i s clear from the fact that, as w i l l appear i n i t s place, there was no central or other tower until the middle of the fourteenth century. T h e existing ruined tower at Rochester is therefore an early instance of the detached campaniles of which there were many examples later, though we cannot shew that i t was b u i l t f o r the purpose. The plan o f the first Norman church, which may f o r convenience be called Gmiclulf's even i f Lan-franc built i t , was peculiar. I t consisted o f a nave and aisles which, though l e f t unfinished, were intended to be a t least nine bays long; north and south transepts; and an eastern arm, with aisles, of six bays, with a square end with a small rectangular chapel projecting from the centre of the front. T h e four easternmost bays were raised upon an undercroft. There was no tower over the junction of the nave and transepts, nor any western towers, but the detached campanile already mentioned stood i n the angle o f the north transept and eastern arm, and was balanced, as i t were, by the smaller tower on the opposite side of the church. T h i s was, however, an integral portion of the fabric. I t will be seen from the plan (PLATE I . ) t h a t i n the disposition and arrangements o f the east end, and i n the narrowness of the transepts this church stands alone, and differs i n a marked manner from t h e typical Norman plan. T h e church built by Lanfranc a t Canterbury, with which Gundulf must have been familiar, shewed n o marked departure from a normal arrangement; y e t here * John Thorpe, Cusiumate Reense (fol. London, 1788), 31. t Ibid. 37. 2 0 4 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F we have a church so different that, except i n the correspondence between the number o f bays i n the nave, i t resembled i t i n plan i n n o feature whatsoever. A l l i s abnormal and a l l i s distinctly local, and herein perhaps lies the explanation. Of the first Norman church the following parts may be identified: 1. Three bays of the north wall of the north aisle o f the nave, up t o the first string-course, with the bases of three buttresses, though one o f these i s no longer visible. 2. Four and a half bays o f the south wall of the south aisle of the nave, but to what height is uncertain. 3. Five bays of the south arcade o f the nave* as high as the triforium passage, now with a later-Norman order substituted on the nave side, and the piers cased. 4. The great north tower (major turris). 5. The western half of the undercroft or crypt below the presbytery. The question as t o how and where this church ended eastwards was first answered by the late Mr. Arthur Ashpitel, who in 1853 found, by boring, " t h e foundations of a huge rubble wall . . . . upwards of 8 feet thick," crossing the crypt at such a distance from its west wall as to shew that i t was four bays long.t I n 1881, by permission o f Dean Scott, I was able t o test this discovery b y excavation, when I ascertained what had been overlooked by Mr. Ashpitel, that the cross wall extended also across the aisles. F u r t h e r search for a possible apse east of i t brought to light in i t s stead a small rectangular chapel, about 6,1- feet long by 9 feet wide, which projected from the middle of the front./ Other discoveries as to the limits o f the transepts, and * Including the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh existing arches, counting from the east. -I. See plan (plate xxx.) accompanying Mr. Ashpitel's paper on the subject in Journal of the British Arehceological Association, ix. 271-285. For fuller details of this discovery see Ardceologia, xlix. 323-334. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 0 5 the extent of the nave as built by Gundalf, were made by Mr. J. T. Irvine during the repairs carried out by him under Sir G. Gilbert Scott in 1872 and subsequent years. From the united evidence o f the existing remains and the discoveries above noted, the plan of the first Norman church, as already described, can b e l a i d dow w i t h a considerable degree of certainty. The western half of the crypt still remains almost i n its original state, though much blocked up by modern brick walls and the organ bellows. T h e eastern half was removed when the early-English extension was added (see post). The original crypt, which was characterized by extreme plainness, was four bays long, and of three divisions, corresponding t o the presbytery and i t s aisles o f the upper church. T h e central division was about 46i- feet long by 26i feet wide, with aisles o f the same length, b u t only 1 0 feet wide. T h e middle portion was subdivided into three alleys by two rows of three columns supporting the roof, with corresponding engaged responds against the walls. Two of the detached columns still exist, and have circular monolithic shafts, nearly 4-1- feet high, with very plain and rude square cushion caps, and simple bases set on a square plinth. ( F r o . 2.) T h e responds have similar caps and bases, but the semi-circular shaft is formed of five or six courses of tufa bonded into the wall. (FIG. 2.) T h e monolithic shafts and the caps and bases are o f white stone, perhaps from Barnack. T h e roof is a plain rubble vault without ribs of any kind, retaining its original plastering. I t exhibits a singular instance of ingenuity characteristic of early-Norman work. The edges produced by the intersection o f the half cylinders forming the groin are pinched up, as i t were, so as t o accentuate the lines, which would otherwise be lost where they intersect at the crown of the vault owing to the large size o f the elliptical curve at that point. J u s t above the caps of the isolated shafts the springing of the vault batters slightly to a height of 8 inches before it curves outward. T h e main portion of the undercroft opens into the aisles on each side b y semi-circular-headed arches, each 5 feet 6 inches wide, without a chamfer or a moulding. T h e wall is thus reduced to 206 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF pier-like masses of masonry 6 feet square, with vaulting shafts on the north and south faces. Probably a similar fe.i#4/f ---/4'/i lie Stone - - T u f a --."-White Stone White Stone -1=W4ile Stone Franz a drawing by MR. J.T.IRVINE APRIL, 1876. FIG. 2.—PILLAR AND RESPOND OF GUNDTILF'S onyrr.. arch opened into the singular projection on the east. The aisles are vaulted like the central portion, but the vaulting ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 0 7 shafts consist of engaged flat pilasters of 9 inches projection and 2 feet in width, having no bases, and with a plain abacus chamfered on the lower edge. T h e pilasters are formed o f tufa courses, but the capitals are of white stone. T h e undercroft was lighted by four round-headed windows on each side, and probably by three at the east end. Two remain on the north, but blocked by later insertions, and one on the south, now cut down to form a doorway. T h e opening was 2 feet 3i inches, and the splay about 4 feet wide. T h e s i l l seems to have been stepped. Between the windows externally were flat pilaster buttresses; part of one remains on the south side. T h e whole of the walls and arch-soffits are still covered with the original plaster in a very perfect state; but t h e south side o f the last bay o f the north aisle, and the voussoirs and f l a t jambs o f a l l the arches, have never been so covered. Judging from certain square holes cut i n the vaulting just above the caps, there appears to have been a wooden screen carried right across the undercroft and i t s aisles between the two westermnost bays, forming, as it were, an ante-chapel. The undercroft was entered from the upper church by doorways i n the west walls of the aisles, but only that in the north aisle remains. I t is a round-headed doorway, 4 feet wide and no feet high, now blocked. I t was partly opened some years ago, when it was found that the passage up to the quire aisle was not vaulted, and is still quite perfect, with at any rate two of its steps in place. T h i s passage was deflected towards the north so as to allow two sets of steps to be placed in the quire aisle, the one to the crypt, the other t o the higher level above it. T h e last bay of the south aisle of the crypt is filled by the present steps and entrance doorway put in circa 1205. When the uppermost of these steps was taken up some years ago for laying gas-pipes, no traces were found of the southern entrance t o the crypt. I t was probably destroyed when the great early-English buttress in the quire aisle was built. Although part of the first presbytery has been entirely removed and the rest reconstructed, i t is possible to make out some of its probable arrangements. I t measured about 208 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F 76 feet in length by 60 feet in width, and was six bays long. The first four bays were raised upon an undercroft. During the repairs of 1872, the plaster floor o f the western half of Gundulf's presbytery was partly laid open during the making of a tunnel from the west end of the crypt to the present quire-screen for the wind-trunks of the organ bellows, which are placed i n the crypt.* T h e floor i s described by Mr. J. T. Irvine, then clerk of the works, as made of firm plaster mixed with shells, laid upon mortar with a substratum of flints, and of sufficient strength to serve unsupported as the roof of the tunnel for nearly half its length. I t s thickness was about 4 inches. F r o m the junction o f this floor with the crypt wall, where i t was 5 feet 4 inches below the present floor, i t gradually sloped westwards for nearly 17 feet as far as a step, where i t was 6 inches lower. I t thence continued level for about 111- feet to another 6-inch step. Thi s brought i t down to the level of the nave floor, which was 6 feet 7 inches below the present quire floor, and 1 foot 8 inches below the floor of the present crossing. Mr. Irvine thinks that on the line o f the second or westernmost step, which has itself been removed, was a screen of like character to that now standing immediately above it and forming the eastern face of the present quirescreen, and that between i t and the crypt wall the monks' stalls were arranged- t But this very limited area, at most only 27 feet long, can hardly have been large enough for the purpose, and i t is much more probable that the quire extended uncramped down the nave as was usual. The westernmost step would then naturally fall into its place as the gradus chori or presbyterii. How the presbytery was arranged east of i t is simply speculation. There is, however, strong probability that the side walls of the lower level were solid as now, and as formerly at St. Albans. I n that case the westernmost * For a section of this important excavation see Archmologia, vol. xlix., plate facing p. 326. t I n both my former papers, through a misreading of Mr. Irvine's notes I have followed his theory, but a reconsideration of the evidence shows that i t cannot be upheld. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 0 9 bay may have been pierced on each side, as a t St. Albans also, with the doors called the ostia presbyterii, and on the sloping part of the floor there perhaps stood the quire altar at which the morrow mass was sung,* with steps on each side of i t up to the higher level. H e r e the walls were no doubt pierced with four arches on each side, corresponding to those in the crypt below. T h e high altar, for reasons to be again referred to, probably stood i n the third bay, with a procession-path behind i t , leaving the first o r easternmost bay free for altars or chapels. I have already mentioned my discovery i n the crypt of the foundations of a small chapel projecting from the centre of the front of the church. T h a t this had an upper story, the whole reaching about two-thirds o f the total height of the front, there can, I think, be little doubt. Several suggestions have been made as to the use of the upper chapel, but in the absence of an exactly parallel example i t is not easy to say which is the most likely. M a y we not, however, here place, in the honourable position behind the high altar, the tomb of St. Paulinus, whose relics Gundulf had intended to translate i n t o his new church, and where they were eventually placed i n loco decenter ad hoc preeparato ? A s there i s no record whatever o f an altar o f St. Paulinus, i t may be that the practice of building an altar a t the head of a saint's shrine, and dedicated i n his honour, had not thus early become usual. There were, of course, altars i n the ends o f the quire aisles. These aisles had also, midway in their length, the parallel ascending and descending flights of steps from the lower level and to the crypt respectively. Of the transepts there is nothing left above ground, but when the south gable o f the present transept was under- * The Custumale Remise (ed. Thorpe, 37) directs that on the obit of Odo, bishop of Bayeux, mass be sung ad minus altare, which was probably the altar in question. A n altar stood in the corresponding position at Bury St. Edmunds, Ely, Worcester, and other places ; also i n the Saxon cathedral church at Canterbury. T h e contemporary presbytery built by bishop Walkelin at Winchester between 1079 and 1093 had an eastern chapel of four and a half bays with an apsidal end, which was probably the chapel of St. Swithin, and contained his shrine. B o t h presbytery and chapel stood over a crypt of the same area, which still exists. VOL. XXIII, 210 C ATHEDRAL C EIURCH AND MONASTERY OF pinned in 1872, the foundations of the east and south walls of the older one were met with. T h e y shewed that the first transept was as long as the existing one, namely 120 feet; but its width could not have exceeded 15 feet, a dimension fixed by the discovery of the footings of the pilaster buttresses that clasped the south-west angle. There is also still to be seen i n the wall above a straight j o i n t with tufa quoin-stones, which apparently pertains to a later rebuilding, but previous to the widening of the transept to its present dimensions. This remarkable narrowness o f the transept, which is without parallel in a church of such a scale, is perhaps to be explained by the absence o f a tower o r lantern over the crossing. T h e east side o f each wing o f the transept did not open into an apse, as was often the case, f o r on the north there was the "greater tower" standing i n the way, and to balance this, as it were, the " l i t t l e tower" was built on the south, the north and west walls of which formed the south quire aisle wall and east wall of the transept respectively. A section of the east side of this tower, marked by the t u f a quoins i n the wall by the later cloister door, i s all t h a t remains o f i t above ground. B u t i t s former existence and dimensions are further proved by the existing foundations o f its east and south sides, which were f u l l y traced and examined by Mr. Irvine, and by the north jamb of the thirteenth-century arch that spanned the east end of the aisle between i t and the quire. T h e documentary evidence o f i t s existence has already been cited.* E a c h wing of the transept no doubt contained two altars against the east wall, as in later times. As the transept was hardly wider than the nave aisles, i t cannot have been much more than half the height o f the present transept, and i t is a question whether the wings were not treated merely as extensions o f the aisles t o hold altars. I n t h a t case they probably did not open into a central crossing, but were shut off by a prolongation eastwards of the nave arcades. I n a church that exhibits so * The ground floor of this tower was probably a vestry entered from the quire aisle. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 1 1 many peculiarities, so unusual an arrangement may possibly have existed. T h e spacing out, however, of the bays o f the first Norman nave allows of a slightly wider interval for the easternmost arch, and the Rev. G. M. Livett* has suggested to me that there may have been a loftier arch here, of a height equal to the pier arch and triforium combined, opening into the transept on either side. I n that case the triforium was probably returned across the end o f each aisle where i t joined the transept. A s a l l traces of the original arrangement have been removed by later rebuilding's, the question must remain an open one. The existing remains o f the f i r s t Norman nave have already been enumerated. T h e identification of the original south arcade, and of the extent of the old work generally, is due t o the perspicuity of Mr. Irvine, who also, i n his official capacity as then clerk of the works, discovered the bases of the north aisle buttresses during the underpinning of the aisle walls in 1875-6. At the same time the more curious discovery was made that the first nave had not been completed westwards. A l l round the church, wherever the foundations of the earliest Norman work have been met with, they are formed o f (1) about a foot in thickness of gravel, and (2) a n upper layer of small chalk, laid in a shallow trench with a footing course o f two layers o f Kentish rag-stone.t From these easily recognized characters in which the foundations differ from those of later builders, i t is proved that on the south side the wall stops short half a bay from the west front, while on the north i t only extends three bays from the west wall of the present transept. There would therefore be nine arches o f the f i r s t work (including the opening into the transept) on the south side, and five on the north. That Gundulf, despite the account of a later chronicler, did not finish the church is now evident, but why he should have nearly completed one side, and only built half the * Late Minor Canon and Precentor in the cathedral church of Rochester, and now vicar of Wateringbury. t The foundations uncovered by me in the crypt were of somewhat better character, being composed of flint and small chalk, with some mortar, and no gravel. They were laid in dark brown earth with oyster shells in it. r 2 212 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F other, have t o be explained. A s I wrote i n 1886: " W e must remember t h a t when Gundulf built his church the old-English one was standing, as well as the great tower erected by him to the east of i t ; t h e new works therefore had t o be fitted i n somehow between these, f o r the old church was wanted, at any rate i n part, for service until the new one was covered in. I think therefore that the lines of the new nave were so set out that without removing the old church the south wall might be b u i l t t o place the monks' cloister against, and that the work included the south aisle, while on the north the old church stood i n the way, and only five bays could be put up. W e may therefore surmise that the site of the first church is to be looked for between the north wall of the present nave and the south arcade."* The difficulty has been to some extent cleared up by the discovery, i n the autumn of 1888, during the underpinning of the west front, o f the foundations of what seems to be an early church, partly underlying the northern end of the front and extending westwards from it. T h i s most interesting and important discovery has been so lately and so fully described by Mr. Livett, i n a paper printed in Archceologia Cantiana,t that a detailed description o f i t is unnecessary. More recently, i n the summer o f 1894, excavation and probing have brought t o l i g h t some additional facts, which M r. Livett has obligingly communicated t o me. From the combined data i t appears that this church consisted of an aisleless nave, i n round numbers 42 feet long and 28 feet wide, with an eastern apse 24i feet wide and 19 feet long. I f there was a western apse t or porch, the foundations of i t lie under the street, and could not be looked for. F r o m Mr. Livett's careful description, this building, i f not of Roman work, was certainly built i n the Roman manner, and of Roman materials. I t must therefore have been either a church like that recovered by Augustine a t * Archceologia, xlix. 333. t Vol. X V I I I . 261-278. I There was probably a second apse as well as that in which the high altar stood, that of St. Paul, which bishop Tobias had made into his own buryingplace. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 1 3 Canterbury i n 602, "which had been constructed by the original labour of Roman believers," or the church built by /Ethelbert in 604. T h a t there were churches in this country in Roman times has been absolutely proved, independently of historical evidence, by the discovery of the foundations of one at Silchester i n 1893, which cannot well be o f later date than the fourth century.t Thi s was, however, on a smaller scale than the Rochester church, and on a different plan, and had its altar in an apse at the west end. A comparison of the plan of the Rochester building, according t o Mr. Livett's measurements, with those o f three other early churches i n Kent of the same type, which I have lately planned, viz. St. Pancras and St. Martin a t Canterbury, and the foundations o f Althelburga's church a t Lyminge, gives the following interesting results: NNE. A r s n . Rochester 4 2 x 281 feet 2 4 4 x 19 feet St. Pancras 4 2 1 x 261 „ 2 5 x 24 „ St. Martin 3 8 1 x 241 „ ( d e s t r o y e d ) Lyminge 3 2 x 1 1 ) 1 4 1 X 141 feet The ancient church at Reculver had aisles, but its nave and apse seem to have been about co-equal with St. Pancras. This is not the place to discuss the relative ages of these buildings, round which a fierce controversy has raged for years; i t w i l l suffice t o state that the balance of present opinions is in favour of their early date, and of their having been built a t no great intervals apart. I t is therefore not unlikely that the Rochester foundations may be those o f the church built a fundamentis by Althelbert i n 604. I t will at once be seen, on reference to Mr. Livett's plan, that the position of this church, and the fact of its being i n use, explain t o some extent why G-undulf only carried h i s arcades as far as he did. B u t i t will also be seen that there is no apparent reason why the north arcade should have been stopped where i t was. T h e explanation of this may, * " Recuperavit i n ea . . . . ecolesiam, quad i n i b i antiquo Romanorum fidelium opere factam fuisse diclicerat." Bcedce Historia Beelesiastica Gentis Anglorum, book 1. ch. 33. t Arekceologia, Mi. 564-568. 214 CATHEDRAL CHURCH A.ND MONASTERY OE I think, be found i n the twofold division of the nave into conventual and parochial. During the whole period from 604 to 1100 there is no mention o f any other church i n Rochester than t h a t o f St. Andrew. I t is true that a charter o f 850 speaks o f a church "dedicated in honour of St. Mary the Virgin," but this was outside the city, i n orientali playa, extra muruni civitatis i n meridie parte,* and probably destroyed by the Danes. T h e church of St. Margaret, which we hear of first in Gundulf 's time, was also outside the city. T h e church of St. Andrew must therefore have served for the citizens as well as the canons, and been parochial as well as collegiate. I f i t be assumed, and indeed there is no evidence, documentary or otherwise, to the contrary, that the little church built by Althelbert had continued i n use until Gundulf's time, and that there was no other in the city, i t is difficult to see how all the devoutly disposed citizens, of even such a population as Rochester then probably had, could have worshipped within it, unless in relays. I f the apse or apses were reserved for the clergy and the nave for the congregation, then on the most liberal computation not more than 250 people at a time could have found kneeling room on the floor. In May 1876, during the underpinning of the outer wall of the south aisle of the nave, there were cut through the foundations of an early building, anterior to Gundrilf's work, the axis o f which was apparently parallel t o that o f the present church. (See Plan, PLATE A c c o r d i n g to Mr. Irvine, for whom I am indebted for notes and plans of this hitherto unpublished discovery, the remains consisted of what was thought to be part of an apse, exterior to the aisle wall, and of a wall west of i t ; the springing of the former being about opposite the fourth pier of the nave, and the line of the latter directly opposite the sixth pier. M r . Irvine states that there were no traces o f further buildings east of the apse or west of the wall, but east of the apse (P) was a floor of red opus sign,inum. A like floor lay west of it, but covered with a thick layer of wood ashes. T h e chances of a Roman * Thorpe, Registrusn Roffense, 23. • I' 1, It t I. I'' 21.. TOomld pb laocf Be oiehf Foognlamt o of Blythe/319-1352 43.. T7o0mrabv cei fs elaffigb yo of Bf Bisishhoopp la Jcohhann ,oireffniragil,1lie4l0d4,1 -1247188 '1283 56.. PMoarrtiobnles a otlfin original tile pavan sit . 87. .?OCrrigavinea slatpbo osrliistiohnopalioghhna olltfaRro (Tttlehseh daomtte.e14lin0e0s -1n4o0r4thtsouth, 8. C°rIdavries s mlabar ok thf Se liimrltfiiltisa °nEtranne otleltetteICp6sa. onbd 1.4e0h0r &inAeg gnlaesd hlyis-in) 10 Mwaithrb oleb C 1.4a0le1n/Th, lied d laottete&d b reilems moraar/ kke itrsn o crrigypintatPothirmi 1112 M ,Maarrbbllee C Caofimffin rill y rtflishrp Thema* ologoldnahorre1283-1231 5X E10a7r'76 -c4/0V.9o0rrnan,temp. thep henclulf L11a1te5r -b1r1o3rn0ucm temp-Bishops Erradf ef John, Repairs after fur of MS New Prrelplay c. 1200 - al2/5 Yruewv etueemd1ir o22f W7illiam of Ilea Omtemporary works in. quire aisles eto. Jiggle tratt.vept,r. /240 - /255 .Couth,transairt, eta than, nee Alterations etc.Thonz, MOO Insertions c.1340 and later Fifteenth centray works Post- Suppression, andmodern, Seale or 10 0 10 2 0 CF KELL • SOH LITHOTITHANITALS• HOLBORN C ALTAR OF ST JAMES? 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A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 1 5 edifice being exactly parallel with the present church are somewhat remote, and i t is quite possible that these fragments may be part of a Saxon church o f later date than Ethelbert's,* and built clear of i t to accommodate a larger congregation. O f the extent of this building we have no further knowledge at present, but i f i t were a church, built within the limits o f the present nave, i t s existence would clear up several of the difficulties that arise from the smallness of that founded by Ethelbert. In any case, when the old church was taken down, the parochial rights of the citizens in i t had to be considered, and the simplest way of doing so was to find room for them in the new building. T h a t the parish rights were so transferred is proved by a charter of Gundulf, which, though undated, from the names of the witnesses must have been issued between the election - : _ d p h of Seez as abbot of Battle on 1st August 1107, and Gundulf's death on 7th March 1107-8. I t grants to the monks, inter a/ia, the free disposition and presentation of the vicars of various churches, including "the altar of St. Nicholas, which is parochial in the church of blessed Andrew, with the church of St. Margaret which pertains to From this important document i t is clear that a parish altar dedicated in honour of St. Nicholas had been set up in the new cathedral church of St. Andrew. t I t is also clear from later evidence that i t stood in the nave until 1423, when a new church was built for themselves by the parishioners on the north of the cathedral church. The first Norman cathedral church was therefore both monastic and parochial, and the eastern or monastic part of i t constituted the church that Gunclnlf is said to have completed. Thi s included all those parts which have been shewn to be his work. How far Gundulf carried up his bays of the nave i t is * Mr. Irvine writes that he is strongly induced to take my view. t " E t altare Sancti Nieholai quod est parochiale in ecclesia beati Andrem, cum ecclesia Sancts3 Margarette que appendet." Thorpe, Registrum Reense, 6. $ We also learn for the first time that a dependent church or chapel had been built, probably where the existing church of St. Margaret stands, for the citizens who dwelt in the suburb without the south gate. B u t with this we have no further concern. 216 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F impossible to say. A s the monks' quire probably occupied the first three, these were doubtless completed and roofed in, and closed westwards by a temporary wall or partition.* The two bays immediately adjoining need then only have been raised sufficiently high to serve as buttresses to the work east of them. O n the south side, as we have seen, four more arches o f the main arcade were certainly built, perhaps to carry a temporary roof over the aisle f o r processions, but there was no reason why Gundulf should have built anything above them. A good deal therefore had to be done before the old church could be finally destroyed and the parish service be sung in the nave. During the recent underpinning of the west front i t was found that the present late-Norman walls of this part of the church overlie the foundations and lowest courses of an older building, and these were eventually traced to their junctions with Gundulf's work east of them. F u l l particulars of this important discovery are given i n Mr. Livett's paper already referred to, where the differences in the character of the work are shewn to be such as to lead to the supposition that the citizens began the completion of the nave which was to be their parish church. M r . Livett assigns this work to a date between 1095 and 1100, which is not unlikely, seeing that the altar o f St. Nicholas had been established i n the church before the end of 1107. How f a r the citizens proceeded with the works of the nave is doubtful, for whatever they built is now represented only by the foundations and lowest courses o f the walls. Mr. Livett describes the west wall of the nave as plastered with " a very firm. and hard white plaster" right down to the footings, but of the north aisle wall he says there remained "only two courses of the early-Norman walling, not plastered, and that between them and the overlying course there is at * Gervase tells us that at Christchurch, Canterbury, in order to enable the new quire to be used at Easter 1180, a wooden wall with glass windows in it, to keep out the weather, was set up between the quire and the unfinished presbytery. Panics quoque ligneus ad seeludendas tempestates ex parte orientis per transversum inter pilarios penultimos positus est, tres vitreas continens fenestras." Gerva.se of Canterbury, Opera Historiea (Rolls Series 73), i. 22. ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 2 1 7 least an inch of mould." There is nothing to shew whether any attempt was made t o complete the north arcade; on the contrary, as w i l l be seen presently, there i s strong presumptive evidence that i t was left alone. I t is therefore pretty clear t h a t even i f the west wall o f the nave was carried up, l i t t l e else than the foundations were laid i n the north aisle, and the parishioners had to be content with a temporary building, occupying probably the six western bays of the nave, to enclose their altar, and so obtain for them a footing in the church. Grundulf's successor Ralph (1108-1114) having been translated to Canterbury, he was succeeded by Ernnlf, abbot of Peterborough, who was consecrated bishop of Rochester on 26th December 1114. T h i s Ernulf was the prior of Canterbury under A_nselm (until 1107), who took down the eastern part of Lanfranc's church, and began to rebuild i t in the magnificent manner described by William of 1VIalmesbury.* W h i l e abbot o f Peterborough " h e b u i l t a new dorter and rere-dorter, and finished the chapter-house which had been begun, and commenced the frater ; and many other good works he wrought."t H e who had caused such sumptuous buildings to be erected at Canterbury and Peterborough was not l i k e l y t o have l e f t h i s own cathedral church at Rochester untouched during the nine years of his episcopate. I t i s true that the only buildings specially attributed to Ernnlf are the dorter, chapter-house, and frater, but there is architectural evidence that some important works were also carried out in his time in the church; and i t is by no means improbable that its entire reconstruction and completion was then begun, and, as usual, at the east end. T h i s architectural evidence consists o f various fragments o f mouldings that have been found in the quire and presbytery. * " Cantim dejectam priorem partem Ecclesive, quam Lanfrancus red ificaverat, adeo splendide reerexit, u t nichil tale possit i n Anglia, videri i n vitrearum fenestrarum luce, in marmorei pavimenti nitore, in diversicoloribus picturis, qua° mirantes oculos trahunt ad fastigia lacunaris." W i l l i a m of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontifieum Anglornin (Rolls Series 52), 138. "Ipso fecit dormitorium novum et necessarium, et capitulum perfecit quod inchoatum erat, et refectorium inchoavit, et multa alia bona operatus est." Hugonds Candidi Coenobii Burgensis Historia, p. 66 in Joseph Sparkes' Historice Anfilicance Seriptores varii (fol. London, 1723). 218 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O r There are also built up in the back of an arch at the east end of the north aisle of the nave a number of stones ornamented with the curious lozengy diaper which occurs elsewhere only on Emulf's work i n the northern passage to the undercroft at Canterbury, and on the chapter-house attributed to him at Rochester. These had very likely been displaced during the reconstruction of the presbytery and quire that had been carried out shortly before this arch was built. What were the alterations i n the eastern part o f the church we cannot now say. T h e tunnel made beneath the quire floor for the wind-trunks of the organ in 1872 shewed that a second floor had been subsequently laid above what seems to have been Gundulf's, a t a uniform level of 2 feet above i t s western part.* I f , as i s probable, this be o f Ernulf's time, i t would point to a complete reconstruction and re-arrangement of the quire,t and the stones with the lozengy diaper may have belonged to one or other of the two screens that divided the monastic church from the parish part. To Ernulf's time we may also ascribe the reconstruction and completion of the nave. (FIG. 3.) T h e original eastern half has since been rebuilt, as has the whole of the clerestory, but enough is left to enable the general scheme to be made out. Beginning with the south side we find that Gundulf's piers have been cased, and that the arches have received a more enriched outer order towards the nave. The wall spaces have also been cased with ashlar4 O n the aisle side the arches and wall spaces were left untouched, and here the original work may be seen unaltered up to the triforium level. T h e piers of the north arcade are practically duplicates in every case of those opposite to them, each of which is different in plan, but the arches have the enriched outer order on both * See the section already referred to in .Arcliceologia, vol. xlix., plate facing p. 326. t Mr. Irvine says in his notes that this second floor "did not cover the part where the floor o f the stalls of that period rested along the wall, i t ceasing evidently at the line of the front book-board." I f this be so, i t seems as i f Ernulf had lengthened or moved the quire a bay eastwards. S o much of this floor as was uncovered was on one level throughout. I t s composition, Mr. Irvine says, was very like that of Gundulf's floor. t The experiment of filling each of the spandrels of the arcade with a circular panel edged with the chevron ornament has been made in one bay on the south side. ST. ANDILEW AT ROCHESTER. 2 1 0 faces. T h e inner orders are plain and square-edged, but while those of Gundulf's work on the south side are faced with tufa, those on the north are of Caen stone. C l e a r l y FIG. 3.—THE NAVE, LOOKING WEST.* then the north arcade cannot have been built until now, or i t would have been simply cased and treated like the work already standing opposite, and not so entirely altered as practically to have been rebuilt. * When this illustration was made the nave was free from fittings. 220 C&THEDRAL CHURCH I N D MONASTERY OF I t should be noticed that the bases of the last four piers of the north arcade only are ornamented with carved leafwork. (See Fla. 4.) T h i s and other features i n the work above shew that the reconstruction of the south side was done before the north. The remains o f the Norman triforinm are certainly of Ernulf's time, with later decorations inserted. Each bay contains two round-headed sub-arches beneath a large semicircular arch, a l l enriched with chevron-work and carried by twin columns and responds with carved capitals. T h e whole is threaded by a wall passage, the arches o f which throughout are pointed and not round. T h i s i s probably the earliest instance i n this country o f the use o f the pointed arch i n actual construction. The space between the enclosing arch and the subarches Seems originally to have been open, but when the west front, which i s a somewhat .44 7'771,N l a t e r work though i n continuation, was built, the inter- FIG. 4. v a l was closed by ashlar blocks BASE OF THE WESTERNMOST PILLAR w i t h curious ornamental pat- OF THE NORTH ARCADE OF NAVE, SHEWING LEAF ORNAMENT. terns and diapers, which are different in each bay. A very slight examination will shew the difficulty experienced i n inserting the blocks, many of them being chopped up to f i t them in, which would hardly have been done had the superincumbent arches been built with them. T h e Norman clerestory was taken down in the fifteenth century, and only some fragments are left at the ends. These seem to shew that externally each bay had a window between two blank panels, a usual arrangement; this was probably reproduced inside by three arches in front of the wall passage, which the western turrets shew to have existed. Between the nave arches there is in each bay an attached semi-circular shaft, resting upon the front of the capital, and cut off at the triforium string-course. Originally these were ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 2 2 1 carried up t o the roof, which was probably a wooden ceiling, but were cut down -to their present height when the clerestory was rebuilt. Concurrently with the completion o f the arcades, the unfinished sections of the aisle walls were carried up, and those parts which had already been built by Gundoulf were raised or rebuilt from immediately below the ornamental string-course under the windows upwards. M o r e ornate buttresses than Gundulf's pilaster strips were also inserted within and without. Unfortunately only the three easternmost bays of the north aisle now shew these changes unaltered. (FIG. 5.) T h e windows have been enlarged throughout. The aisles were not vaulted, and, as Mr. Livett has reminded me, the wall passage shews that when the triforium was built any design o f vaulting o r even ceiling t h e aisles was abandoned. Professor W i l l i s suggests t h a t t h i s peculiarity was perhaps derived from Lanfranc's church at Canterbury, which in its turn might have borrowed the idea from St. Stephen's at Caen.* The west front is a little later i n date than the rest of the Norman work in the nave, though a continuation o f i t . I t i s indeed probable from the gradual increase i n the ornamentation that t h e nave was somewhat slowly built from east to west without any very decided break. M r . Irvine states that when the north wall was underpinned i t was discovered that foundations had been laid for towers to the front. S u c h a design was, however, soon abandoned, but the larger size o f the last pair o f piers may shew that further preparations for the towers were actually made. Internally the western end of the nave is of three stages. The lowest has a lofty doorway in the middle, set in a twostoried wall arcade of three round-headed niches or arches on each side.t T h e lower arches are moulded, and spring from shafts. T h e upper have continuous mouldings o f * Rev. R. Willis, The Architectural History o f Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1845), 65. f The architectural effect of these niches has been utterly ruined by their having been recently filled with mosaic panels bearing long lists of the names of the officers and men of the Royal Engineers who were killed in the Peninsular War and other campaigns between 1808 and 1880. The semi-circular tympanum over the west doorway has been similarly disfigured, 222 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F chevron-work. B o t h stories have labels with the billet moulding. T h e two upper stages are now filled by a modern copy of a large Perpendicular window of eight lights. B u t 5.—EASTERN FART OF THE NORTH AISLE OF THE NAVE, MEWING THE LATER NORMAN PILASTERS.* * One of these interesting pilasters has lately been most needlessly disfigured by the addition of a memorial tablet, for which there was ample room on the wall hard by. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 2 3 there remain on each side, in the second stage, the springers of an arcade of seven Norman arches alternately blind and open, that once crossed the front at the triforium level, and above, i n the third stage, are two lofty blind arches that seem to have flanked a large circular o r other window, or pair o f windows. T h e ends o f the aisle each contain a Norman window. O n the south this has under i t a wall arcade in continuation of that beside the west doorway. I n the south-west angle i s also a good doorway with a bold embattled pattern round the head, which opens into the great stair turret that here projects into the church. (FIG. 6.) FIG. G.—TURRET DOORWAY IN SOUTH-WEST ANGLE OF THE NAVE. (The door is modern.) On the north side the wall arcade was removed i n 1327, when the west door of the aisle was inserted (see post, p. 274),. and the corresponding turret was taken down and rebuilt i n block in 1763, 224 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F The external aspect o f the west front before its recent " restoration " is well shew-n in the accompanying illustration. (FIG. 7.) Before Mr. Cottingham renewed the Perpendicular west window, i n 1825-6, the wall above and below i t was faced with diapered blocks like those i n the spandrels o f the triforium. These were removed, and are now deposited, with other valuable architectural fragments, i n the crypt. The great west doorway i s a very rich work with five elaborately carved orders and hoodmould, wrought with leafwork and monsters. T h e jamb shafts have sculptured capitals and medial bands, and out of two of them, one on each side, are carved figures of a king and queen, probably Henry 1. and his consort Matilda.* These are among the most ancient statues now remaining i n this country.t T h e tympanum of the doorway contains a (now headless) figure of O u r Lord i n majesty, supported b y two angels, and surrounded by the emblems o f the four Evangelists. T h e horizontal lintel is composed of eight stones curiously joggled together, and carved with twelve figures, probably of the Apostles. T h e stage i n which the doorway is set is plain in its lower half, with a deep recess on each side, b u t the upper part is covered with a wall arcade4 F r o m this stage rise the broad flanking pilasters § o f the gable, ornamented with tiers o f arcading, a n d terminating originally i n octagonal pinnacles. O f these o n l y t h e southern one remains; the northern was destroyed i n the fifteenth cen- * Beautiful and accurate engravings of these figures are given in T. and G. Hollis's Monumental E:gigies. I n The Journal of the British Archoological Association, i . 143, is a woodcut of an archway discovered in the wall o f the old Moot Hall at Colchester, now destroyed. I t has figures on the inner jambs like the Rochester doorway, and very similar ornamental details, and was almost certainly the work of the same architect or sculptor. T h e Moot Hall is said to have been built by Eudo Dapifer, who is enrolled amongst the benefactors of the church of Rochester (see Thorpe, Registrum Beense, 116), and died in 1119-20. H e founded St. John's Abbey at Colchester, which was first supplied with monks sent by Gundulf from Rochester. t Until the recent "restoration" an equally ancient figure of a bishop stood in a niche on the north turret of the front. This has now been taken down and placed in the aisle of the north-east transept for its better preservation. $ Two of the arches, one on either side of the doorway, and of greater width than the rest, were found during the late " restoration ' under Mr. J . L . Pearson to be blocked niches. They have accordingly been opened out and filled with images of bishops Gundulf and John I. § These contain stairs to the upper works of the nave. ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 2 2 5 bury, and replaced by a small octagonal turret in the style then in fashion. FIG. 7.-THE WEST FRONT, PREVIOUS TO THE RECENT " RESTORATION."* The south aisle retains its original end. Below the window the wall space is covered with opus reticulatum, or an * This illustration was taken previous to the external alterations to the North Transept made by Sir G. Gilbert Scott. VOL. XXIII, 226 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F ashlar facing o f square stones set lozenge-wise. Over the window, above the wall passage light, is a row of graduated arches t h a t follows the old rake o f the aisle roof. T h e upper part of the north aisle was rebuilt with the adjoining turret in 1763. T h e labels of both aisle windows furnish us with a very early instance of true dog-tooth moulding. The turrets t h a t flanked the front were, according to old prints, carried up nearly to the same height as the nave pinnacles, and terminated in a similar manner. Except i n the lowest stage, which was plain ashlar, they were ornamented with tiers of arcading. Thei r fate will be spoken of in its place. The west front is, as has been said, somewhat later i n style than the rest of the nave, and was probably built, o r at any rate completed, during the episcopate of bishop John I. (1125-1137). I t bears a striking resemblance in its general design and arrangement to the old Norman front of Hereford,* which Mr. Gordon M. Hillst claims to have been the work of bishop Robert de Bethune (1131-1148), the main difference between them being the larger size at Rochester of the turrets flanking the front. The only work attributed t o bishop John b y the historians is his translation of the body o f bishop Ythamar, who died in 644, and was buried in the Saxon church. T h i s event may point to the final demolition of the old building, for which indeed there could now be no further use, since the nave was finished. T h e chronicler adds t h a t bishop John "began also to do many more good deeds, but he did not persevere with them. F o r i t i s better not t o begin good deeds, than after a beginning t o go back." t I t is * The Hereford front unfortunately perished in the collapse of the western tower i n 1786. A n engraving of i t from a drawing by Walter 1VIerriche is given b y Browne Willis in his Survey o f the Cathedrals o f York, etc. (London, 1727), 499. t Journal o f the British, Arckwologieal Association, xxvii. 506. M r . Hills remarks on the "very close resemblance" of the Hereford Norman front " t o the corresponding front of Rochester Cathedral." " Transtulit corpus Ythamari episcopi. Incepit etiam plura bona facer°. sed non permansit in suo robore. Nam melius bona non incipere : quam post inceptum retrorsum ire." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 11O'; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 343, ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 2 7 impossible now to say to what this refers, unless to works interrupted by the fire of 1137. The whole of the later work seems to have been done, or at any rate roofed in by 1130, for on the Ascension Day in that year (May 8th) t h e church was solemnly hallowed b y archbishop William ( o f Corbeuil) i n the presence o f king Henry I., eleven English and two Norman bishops.* In 1137 " o n the 3rd June, the church of St. Andrew, Rochester, was burnt, and the whole city, together with the offices of the bishop and monks."1- Again, in 1179, " t h e church of Rochester, with a l l the offices and the whole of the city within and without the walls, was burnt a second time on the 11th o f Apr i l i n the ninety-seventh year from that i n which monks were instituted i n the same church." T Gervase o f Canterbury says the church "was reduced to a cinder."* I t is more convenient to take together the accounts o f both fires, since i t is now impossible to say to what extent * C . X X X . D i s geares \VMS se mynstre of Cantwarabyri halgod fram pone terceb. Wilhelm. pes &cies 11110. Non. Mai. Der wmron pas biscopes. Johan of Roueceastre. Gilebert Uniuersal of Lundene. Heanri o f Winceastre. Alexander of Lincolne. Roger of Smresbryi. Simon of Wigorceastre. Roger of Couentre. Godefreith o f Bathe. Eourard of Noruuic. Sigefrid o f Oicaestre. Bernard of S. Dauid. Audoenus of Euereus of Normandi. Iohan of &cis. pes feorde (Ines ps3rsefter wws se king Heanri on Roueceastre. & se burch forbende selmest. Sr se serceb. Willelm halgede S. Andreas mynstre. & da forsprecon his°. mid him." The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Benjamin Thorpe (Rolls Series 23), i . 380. T h e King himself says that he gave the church of Boxley to the church of St. Andrew of Rochester i n dedicatione ipsius ecelesie ubi prcesens e u i . " (Thorpe, Registrunc Rofense, 177.) I n Han. MS. 636, the dedication of Christchurch, Canterbury, on May 4, 1130, is also followed by an account of the dedication of St. Andrew, Rochester: " ¶ Le. iiij. jour apses ceo ke le ersevesk' de die avoit le eglise iesu crist de caunterbire par fu outraious la cite de Roucestre ia tote fust gastie. S i estoit le Roy present. et memes cel jour le ersevesk' Guilleaume ovekes acuns des eveskes. K ' de Caunterbire ovek' ly vid.rent. la novele eglise de saint andreu ilukes dedia " (f. 99). " Tertio norms Junii combusta est ecdesia Sancti Andreae Roffensis et tota civitas cum officinis episcopi et monachorum." Gervase of Canterbury, Opera Hislorica (Rolls Series 73), i. 100. C o t t . MS. Vespasian A. 22 (f. 28b), with Gervase, gives the year as 1137, but Cott. MS. Nero D. 2 as 1138. The former is the correct date, since the fire occurred before the death of bishop John on 20th June 1137. $ CO mclxxix. Rofensis ecolesia cum omnibus officinis at iota urbe infra at extra muros secundo combusta est. iii. Id. Aprilis Anno Nonagesimo septimo. ex quo Monachi in eadem ecolesia instituti sunt." Cott. MS. Vespasian A . 22, f. 30. I n Cott. MS. Nero D. 2 the year is given as 1177. § " m'elxxix°. Quarto idus Aprilis, feria scilicet tertia post odavas Pasclue, eidem Rofensi ecclesise triste accidit incommodum. N a m ipsa ecclesia Sancti Andrew cum officinis suis, cam ipsa oivitate, igne consumpta est at in einerem redacta." Gervase, Opera Historica (Rolls Series 73), i. 292. 228 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F the church was damaged by either or both of them. T h e lower parts of the Norman piers in the nave, and of the west end, shew plainly by their scorched and reddened surfaces the action of the burning roofs that had fallen to the floor, but the complete rebuilding o f the rest o f the church has removed all further traces of the fire. The lower part of the outer wall of the north aisle o f the quire, i f i t be not part of Ernuff's reconstruction, may be one of the works done after the fire o f 1137. I t has a pair of round-headed windows i n each bay, now blocked and only visible externally, and, as I ascertained by excavation, i t stands upon the base o f Gunclulf's wall, from which i t differs in plane and thickness.* Mr. Irvine is of opinion that after the fire o f 1179 i t became necessary to rebuild Gundulf's transepts, and that the work was carried out by William of Sens, o r one o f his school. T h e evidence of this rests on certain fragments o f mouldings taken out of the south transept during the repairs of 1872, and now preserved i n the crypt. A s w i l l be seen by the accompanying illustrations (nos. 8, 9, 10), they closely resemble the mouldings of the pier arches built by the two Williams at Canterbury between 1175 and 1179.1- Curiously enough, as Mr. Irvine has also pointed out t o me, i t w i l l be seen from the straight joint o f the angle quoins on the outside of the south wall, that although the transept was rebuilt, its previous width was not increased. When therefore, at a yet later period, i t was thought f i t t o widen the transept, the Canterbury architect's work gave place to an entirely new design. During t h e formation o f the channels f o r the windtrunks of the organ i n 1872, certain remains were brought to light beneath the responds o f the arch between the quire and tower. A s she wn in the accompanying illustrations from drawings by Mr. Irvine (nos. 11 and 12, pp. 230, 231), of what was found on the north side, the remains are those of a * The junction has been opened out, and may be seen in the space between the aisle and the old north tower. t Cf. Rev. R. Willis, The Architectural History o f Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1845), 90, figs. 34-39. ST. A N D R EW AT ROCHESTER. 2 2 9 broad pilaster respond, 3 feet 9.i inches wide and of 21 inches projection, with re-entering angles.* These may belong to a reconstruction after one o f the fires, and to the same date, whichever i t be, we may probably attribute a third floor, cut through in 1872, lying 1 foot 10 inches above that which we have assigned to Ernulf, and 2 feet 9 inches below the present floor. ? f inches f 2 . f f I n c h e s A A Chevron moulding' .1 4 inches FIGS. 8, 9, 10. SECTIONS OF MOULDINGS FROM THE SOUTH TRANSEPT. Of repairs and gifts consequent upon the fires, very few notices have been preserved. T h e list of benefactions states that "bishop Gilbert (of Glanville, 1185-1214) gave. . . . two * Mr. Irvine supposes these to belong to a rebuilding temp. bishop Gilbert of Glanville (1185-1214). N o record, however, of such a work has come down to us, and it is unlikely, as will be seen from the later history of the church, that any such rebuilding was ever undertaken. 230 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF L.?. _ N e w W o r k 0 - ,k O l d W o r k ,, 1" Seale. Floor of ri,,,, ,syals F r O M a d r a w i n 4 , 10 MR.J.T. I f I V I N E APRIL,187e. 11.—ELEVATION OF NORTHERN RESPOND OF EASTERN ARCH OF TOWER, MEWING REMAINS OF EARLIER WORE. M ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 231 Scale:-1 inch to afoot drawing. by MR.J.T.IRVINE APRIL 8 7 8 . FIG. 3.2.--SIDE VIEW OF NORTHERN RESPOND OF EASTERN ARCH OF TOWER, SHEWING REMAINS OF EARLIER WORK. 2 3 2 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O r glass windows at the altar of the blessed John and James,"* and that through the counsel of Osbern o f Sheppey, afterwards prior, t " t h e lady Cecily o f Sheppey gave . . . . a window a t the altar of St. Peter."T T h e r e are, however, two other entries that refer to more extensive repairs after the second fire: "Ralph the prior . . . . caused the great church to be covered in and for the most part to be leaded. Prior Helias caused the great church to be leaded."* Ralph de Ros was prior i n 1199 and i n 1202, and was succeeded by Helias, who was prior during the first twenty years of the thirteen.th century. Of repairs t o the monastic buildings there are many notices, which w i l l be referred to i n their place. I t may here be noted that in a charter of Ralph (de Ros) the prior, and the convent of Rochester, granting part of a meadow to St. Mary's Hospital at Strood, which was founded and built by bishop Gilbert of Glanville, i t is stated that the bishop in return, among other things, "caused our cloister to be finished i n stone."! P a r t of this work still remains in the lower parts of the outer wall of the south quire aisle, and beneath the present "chapter room." In the year 1201 a native of Perth, William by name, was murdered near Rochester when going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. " A t that time St. William of Perth is martyred outside the city of Rochester, f and is buried in the * " Gilebertus episcopus dedit . • . . duas fenestras vitreas ad altare beatorum johannis et Jacobi." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 88b; and Thorpe, .Registrum 1Zqffense, 121. He was prior from about 1190 to 1199. " Osbernus de Scapeia postea prior P e r consiliinn emus fecit [dedit written over] domina Cecilia de Scapeia . . • . fenestram ad altare Sancti Petri." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 89; and. Thorpe, 11 egistrum Roffense, 121. § " Radulf us prior . . . . fecit magnam ecclesiam tegere et plurimam partem plumbare. Helyas prior fecit plumbare magnam ecclesiam." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, IF. 89", 90; and Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 122. Professor Willis (see post, pp. 241, 242) associates these two entries with the new works of the thirteenth-century presbytery and choir. " Fecit claustrum nostrum perfici lapideum." Charter penes Dec. at Cap. and Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 633. 11. There are some remains of a chapel dedicated in his honour on the site of his murder, by the wayside near the Fever Hospital, now called St. William's Hospital, on the road leading by Horsted farm to Maidstone. ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 2 3 3 cathedral church of Rochester with glistening of miracles."* The growing fame of St. Thomas of Canterbury and of the miracles wrought at his tomb, as well as the sight of the splendid chapel expressly built to contain his shrine when i t should be finished, were probably very much in the minds of the monks of Rochester, and they made the most of the murder of the pious Scotchman. I l e was popularly entitled "Saint William," and in 1256 bishop Laurence of St. Martin went to Rome and obtained his canonization.t Encouraged no doubt by the offerings at the tomb of their new saint, the monks began to reconstruct the eastern part of their church on a new and greatly enlarged plan. The new work consisted of an aisleless presbytery of three bays, and a crossing with north and south transepts, each with an eastern aisle containing two chapels. To this was next added, in place of the old presbytery, a new. quire of two bays; and, still later, the old transepts were replaced by others on a much larger scale, opening into a new central crossing. A beginning was also made on the reconstruction of the nave, but the work came t o a stop after two bays had been rebuilt. The architectural history of this part of the church cannot be better described than in the words of the late Professor Willis :t "There can be very little doubt that the monks of the thirteenth century intended to replace the church of Gundulph and Ernulph with one of their own; but fortunately for us, who are the students of an art which is * " I n illo tempore Sanctus Willehnus de Pert martirizatur extra civitatem Roffensern et in ecclesia cathedralis Roffensis sepelitur miraculis choruscando (sic)." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 123. " Eodem anno [1256]. Laurentius de Sancto Martino Roffensis episcopus transfretavit ad curiam romanam. ubi impetravit canonizationem beati Willelmi martyris qui in ecclesia Roffensi requiescit." I b i d . f. 1641). Professor Willis's manuscript account o f the architectural history o f Rochester unfortunately cannot be found among his papers, access to which has been most freely and courteously granted to me by my friend Mr. J. Willis Clark, M.A., U.S.A., Registrary of the University of Cambridge, and a nephew of Professor Willis. Another kind friend, the late Rev. D. J. Stewart, M.A., a former co-labourer with the Professor; luckily made a transcript of the lost notes on Rochester, which he most obligingly placed at my disposal, and from it I have printed the important section relating to the works under notice. A few obvious corrections are given in brackets [ ] , as are the notes, which throughout are mine. 234 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F almost lost, their plan was never completely carried out, but came to an end when they reached the old nave. The early-English crypt is by its plan [see PLATE I I I . ] divided into four distinct parts by the thick walls and arches that serve as the foundations of the upper work. First we have one long rectangular hall, corresponding to the eastern transept above, and bounded b y long eastern and western walls pierced by arches, and by short north and south walls beneath the gables of the transepts. This area is vaulted by means of two rows of intermediate pillars,* which divide i t into three aisles running north and south. Eastward of this is a second chamber or chapel corresponding t o the whole length of the presbytery above, and divided by pillars into three aisles running east and west.* On each side of this is a large double chapel beneath the chapels of the transepts above. The peculiarity of this crypt is in the long rectangular vestibule, which in the crypt at Canterbury does not exist under the small transept, because the foundation wall of the pier arches above is carried uninterruptedly across the small transept. [ S e e FIG. 13.] This hall at Rochester supplies a convenient vestibule to the whole of the altars of the crypt, as well to those of the lateral chapels as to that of the centre. There were two altar places i n each side chapel. A piscina is still visible in one of those of the north end, but the next is encumbered with rubbish,t and those of the south end are built up for the support of the fabric. At the east end of the great central chapel are three recesses4 T h e northern contains a plain piscina in its [north] w a l l , and the southern a similar piscina, o r * [ I n the western hall the responds or half-pillars throughout are semicircular. T h e pillars of the western row are circular. O f the eastern row the first, third, fourth, and sixth pillars are octagonal, the second and fifth round. (See FIG. 10.) I n the eastern and later part of the crypt the responds and pillars are alternately round and octagonal.] .if• [There is no piscina in this chapel.] [These recesses are vaulted, and were evidently built to hold altars.] § [ " East" in MS.] T. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 3 5 rather lavatory, in its [south]* wall. I n the presbytery above there is a large and curious lavatory i n the [north] t wall, apparently for washing sacred vessels. FIG. 13 .-H.A.LL OR. VESTIBULE OF THE THIRTENTH-CENTURY PART OF THE CRYPT. The walls of the vestibule are built wholly with semicylindrical responds; the responds on the eastern face of * i " West" in MS.] t ["East" in MS.] 236 C AT T I E D R A . L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F its eastern wall are also cylindrical. T h e vaults of the vestibule have no wall ribs, but the vaults of the crypt east o f the vestibule have wall ribs and are 6 inches higher. T h e reason for the difference o f height is to raise the pavement of the presbytery, for in the church above i t will be seen that the bench tables of the chapels and eastern arm of the cross are also raised 6 inches above the level of the bench tables of the eastern transept, indicating a step from one level to the other. Wal l ribs serve to strengthen the junction of the vaults with the walls. T h e y were not introduced until after the commencement of the pointed style, and, as this cathedral amongst others distinctly shews, were not universally employed a t their f i r s t introduction, f o r, although we find them i n the eastern crypt, they are used only i n the chapel aisles of the eastern transept and not in the high vaults, either of the presbytery, east transept, or choir. T h e y appear in the high vaults of t h e north-west transept and i n t h e south-west transept. Ridge ribs, i t may be added, appear in this cathedral, first in the west transepts, north and south, and next in the Perpendicular vault of the north aisle of the choir, where they are used as horizontal, longitudinal, and transverse ribs. A vault intended to bear a pavement, in the manner of a crypt, has its haunches filled up level with earth or rubbish, and the wall ribs give a firmer connection with the side walls; but the high vaults carry no floors, therefore the wall ribs are not so necessary, and walls were often left rough above the ashlar. The north side of the east gable, and the small courts east of the great transept, preserve tolerably well the ancient exterior, which i s principally o f rubble w i t h ashlar quoins and nooks. [See also FIG. 14.] T h e crypt story of the north gable is of ashlar,* the buttresses of ashlar; the plain wall above the crypt of rubble nearly up to the window-sills; the windows are in a high belt * [Only in the arch range of the crypt windows.] ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 3 7 of ashlar; then rubble is resumed, and then another belt of ashlar for the clerestory windows.* I t appears from the junction of the north-east turret PIG. 14. JUNCTION OF NORTH SIDE OF PRESBYTERY AND CHAPELS EAST OF NORTH QUIRE TRANSEPT. * [This is not the case.] 238 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F of the north gable with the wall of the crypt chapels that the walls of the vestibule were built complete and the work of the eastern part next. I n fact, the compact form of this part of the crypt, and the greater simplicity of its vault, wanting the wall rib, seem to indicate this mode o f proceeding; b u t the eastern part was i m - mediately added. A t Canterbury t h e c r y p t o f S t . Thomas's chapel was vaulted before the walls o f the superstructure were carried up. The early-English part of this cathedral is remarkable for the absence o f a triforium, by which the general design is greatly influenced. The only side aisles in this part are on the east of the eastern transept, where they were employed as chapels. The choir is bounded by solid walls, so that, although there is a narrow aisle upon the north and a very broad aisle on the south, there is no communication from the choir to these aisles by arches or other openings. T h e western transepts are also without side aisles. The walls of all these parts of the church are divided in height into two portions, which may be called the pier-arch story and the clerestory. T h e clerestory has a gallery which runs at the same level completely round from the north-western tower pier to the east end of the presbytery, and so back again to the south-western tower pier. The clerestory string of the nave is also at the same level as the former, and i n all probability there was a Norman clerestory i n the usual form o f a gallery, to which the eastern clerestories were built in continuation. The present clerestory o f the nave is a late work, consisting of a flat wall with four-centred windows of the plainest and meanest character, the same in number as the pier arches below them, but awkwardly arranged, so that no one window stands above the centre of a pier arch, each being more or less t o the west of i t as the section shews.* * [The Professor's drawing has not been preserved.] ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 3 9 The early-English clerestory gallery has been unfortunately blocked up in several places for the purpose of strengthening the fabric, so that the only portion now accessible by the staircase is the north aisle of the choir, the north-eastern transept, and the presbytery. T h e other parts of this gallery can be reached only by ladders. The clerestory of the east part, like that of the choir, has a single l i g h t window i n each severy, i n front of which is an arcade of three arches resting on two lofty single Purbeck shafts [and*] on two responds, each having a short shaft resting against the pier, which receives the great vault shaft and the vault ribs i n the usual manner, the passage or gallery passing behind. The choir, compared with the eastern transept and presbytery, appears to be at first sight one work, b u t i t is now time to enumerate the differences which affect the unity of style. The blank walls of the choir account f o r the change of distribution i n the lower parts; b u t i t is i n the clerestories and vaults which crown the walls that we must seek the history of the progression. I t must first be mentioned that the east end of the choir wall on each side is separated from the west wall of the eastern transept by a straight joint in the masonry, reaching from the floor to the clerestory string, and partly concealed by a return i n the wall o f the choir about 5 feet from its eastern end. T h i s affords a recess for a lofty shaft, which at its upper extremity simply terminates under the clerestory string. T h e lofty strip of masonry, altogether 5 feet 8 inches wide, thus cut off from the east end o f the choir wall, has i t s beds a t levels totally discontinuous from those of the latter wall, and, as before mentioned, is separated from i t by a straight joint. I t is, in fact, the end of the transept wall, which wall rests on the early-English crypt wall already described as closing the Norman crypt. The two structures were therefore erected independently, and we have to determine which was built first. * L" Or" in MS.3 240 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F But this problem is not so difficult a one as might be thought by a casual observer, f o r, i n addition to the evidence existing in the structure itself, there are documents which make the investigation a tolerably simple one. We are told that Richard de Eastgate, monk and sacrist [of Rochester], began the north aisle of the new work toward the gate of St. William, which brother Thomas de Mepeham nearly completed. R i c h a r d de Waldene, monk and sacrist, made the south aisle towards the court (curia). W i l l i a m de Hoo, sacrist, made the whole choir from the aforesaid aisles from the oblations to St. William,' afterwards being made prior. The word ala in the above account must be interpreted transept,' a sense which i t frequently bears. The description of the position of these transepts, the north opposite to St. William's gate, and the south opposite the monastic curia, coincides with the western transepts and not with the eastern, for the south-eastern transept faces the cloister; the cathedral of Rochester having this peculiarity, that the cloister is to the south of the choir or eastern arm of the cross, and the outer court or curia of the monastery to the south of the nave. The order of the masonry, as well as the progressive order of the architectural style, has shewn us that the order of the work was, firstly, the presbytery, choir, etc.; secondly, the north transept; and thirdly, the south transept, so t h a t the above paragraph does not follow the order of time in appropriating the work to the three sacrists respectively. B u t the choir was entered in 1227, and therefore William de Hoo's work was then finished. The church also was dedicated thirteen years afterwards, in 1240, the year after William de Hoo was elected prior. The dedication shews that the church was completed at least as to its walls and roof, and therefore we must suppose that i n the thirteen years which had elapsed since the entry into the choir in 1227 the transepts had been built and connected with the nave.* A s these two * [As will be shewn in its place, there is every probability that the dedication in 1240 did not include the transepts, but only the new quire and presbytery.] ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 4 1 transepts were the work o f two different sacrists, i t follows that William de Hoo must have quitted that office at least thirteen years before he was made prior. We have no specific mention of the commencement of the previous early-English work, namely, the crypt, presbytery, and eastern transept; b u t i n the l i s t o f benefactions* we first find that prior Radulfus roofed the great church and leaded the greater part of i t ' (fecit magnam ecclesiam tegere e t plurimam partem plumbare). N e x t i t is stated t h a t prior Helias, who [The following is the list of benefactions referred to so far as the church is concerned. I have collated i t with the original in Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22 : "Radulfus prior . . . . fecit magnum ecclesiam teg,ere e t plurimam partem plumbare. ( f . 89b.) Helyas prior fecit plumbare magnam ecclesiam . . . . ad novum opus ecclesie nunquam minus gum. xxii libras sterlingorum, quam din fuit sacrista in unoquoque anno ministravit. et offieinas ad ecelesiam pertinentes bene servavit illesas. ( f . 90.) Heymericus de Tunebregge monachus . . . . i n criptis fecit fenestrarn ad altare sancti Michaelis. et ad altare sancte Trinitatis. Robertus de Langereche dedit calicem et casulam at alia plura ad altare sancte Katerine in criptis. Robertus de Hecham dedit . . . . fenestram ad altare sancte Katerine et tabulam depictam ante at aliam super altare a t de denariis ej us fade sunt due fenestre in front° versus majus altare. ( f . 90".) Durandus Wisdom dedit . . . . unani fenestram in fronte versus mains all are et aliam in criptis. Willelmus Potin dedit unam fenestram in fronte versus majus altare. ( f . 91.) Theoderieus monachus acquisivit de quadam muliere de Hallinges uncle fenestra et casula et alba parata et alia plura in criptis ad altare Sancte [Marie] Magdalene facta sunt. Item acquisivit medietatem unius fenestre in criptis contra Aluredum Cocum. Domina Sediva de Favresham dedit novo open. xxx solidos. Justicia [sic] Anglie Hubertus de Burch dedit fenestram mediam ad sanctum Willelmum. Aschetillus Dacus et Oliva uxor ejus dederunt ad novum opus. xl. solidos. Petrus precentor . . . . quamdiu exercuit officium cantorie [sic] ad novum opus ecclesie nunquam minus quam xxi' solidos ministrabat. Jacobus Salvage dedit novo open i ecclesie. ( f . 91b.) (Added later in tile MS.) Ricardus de Walden° monachus sacrista . . . . propriis manibus fecit trabem supra majus altare cum apostolis in eadem inscisis. et Andrea supra stante. at Almarium cum Reliquijs et libro plures. ( f . 92.) (Added fulllter i n the MS.) Ricardus de Eastgate monachus e t Nsacrista Roffensis incepit alam borialem novi opens versus portam beati Willelmi quam mater Thomas de Mepeham fere consummavit. Ricardus de Waldene monachus et sacrista alam australem versus curiam. Willelmus de Hoo sacrista fecit totum cliorum a predictis alis de oblacionibus sancti Willelmi. Galfridus de Hadenham . . . . fecit altare Sancti Edmunds in criptis, etc." (L 92b.) These and other entries are also printed in Thorpe's Registrum Ileense, pp. 122-125.] VOL. 2EXIII. 1 1 242 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF succeeded him, leaded the great church' (fecit plumbare magnam ecclesiam), which statement probably means that he completed what his predecessor had begun; but i t is also recorded that while he held the office of sacrist he never spent less than 120 sterling upon the novum opus ecclesia.' This is the first mention of the novum opus, a phrase which, as is well known, is always applied to some entirely new construction or enlargement of a church, and i n this case plainly means the crypt and superstructure at the east. Thi s view .is confirmed by the particulars of donations and bequests by the contemporaries of Helias which follow this sentence, in which windows and altars in the crypt continually occur, as well as decorations of the high altar. Unfortunately the exact period during which Helias was in office cannot be fixed with precision, but i t is sufficient to know that he was an active supporter of work done at the very beginning of the thirteenth century. There can be no doubt from the architectural evidence which the church supplies that the building was erected in the order of (1) the crypt, presbytery, and eastern transept, (2) the choir and its aisles, (3) the north-west transept, and (4) the south-west transept, with the eastern part of the nave, by which the work was joined to the old cathedral." Before proceeding with the architectural history a few remarks are necessary on certain points not referred to by Professor Willis. From differences observable in the masonry of the crypt piers it is evident that the western part of the new work was built up around the east end of the Norman presbytery, and a reference to the plan (PLATE III.) will shew plainly how this might be done. A s soon as, however, the new work was sTrfficiently completed to carry its wooden roofs, the first two bays of the old presbytery, with the little eastern chapel, were taken down, and the transepts and crossing provided with floors by vaulting the crypt. The tomb of St. William was, * gore Professor Willia's notes unfortunately end. ri 111111 Early Abintan,temp. Bishop GandaIf fin 1077 Dolma& extent of Gunclulft east end Later Yormeaktemp. Bishop Ernulf *OM 1115 Repaint alter fire of 1179 faleuyentent of Crypt froma:1200 Fourteenth century additions tt insertions • lbsteSuppression and modem .....-"'.... ,‘.. . - - -1111: : .. .... ...... 0...... ,6. . .0. .\„ . ,\\ t/.i.j.t. \ \ 1„, \ ......., „-; -- c,- \ t, .... .•••• ...•••••• • • ••.• 1 . . . . . . . ........ .. Sate et 10 PRESENT EXTENT 0 1 0 Z O 3 0 4 0 5 0 G O 7 0 9 0 9 0 1 0 0 Fart 01SKILL • 5011 LITHO IS /141141VALS• I40L5ORN.CC. OF CHURCH GUNDULKS TOWER EBNLTORCAKNECDE •.4 LF i r........ ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL CHURCH. PLAN OF CRYPT. SITE OF LATER i SUPRONTS OF C-1 AL , 'Kr ALTAR 13 / t i t COURT _ - - NO RMAN CLOISTER CHAPTER (in iyinev) W.M.$i John 110PC Old late de ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 4 3 no doubt, then set up in the north-east transept,* where i t seems to have remained until the destruction of the shrines by order of Henry V I I I . There are differences of treatment in the upper parts o f the walls of this transept, which may 'indicate that the place of the tomb was covered in before the other parts. I have before suggested that the high altar of the Norman church stood i n the third bay o f the old presbytery. • By beginning the new work where they did, instead of further west, the builders avoided interference with this, and, although i t was necessary to build the great piers a t the east end of the present quire, this was no doubt done as quickly as possible and the opening closed by a temporary partition. The old high altar could thus remain undisturbed until the new presbytery east of it was completed. Both the presbytery and the eastern transepts are covered by sexpartite vaulting, with plainly mouMed ribs, springing from shafts rising from the floor. T h e vault has no wall or longitudinal ribs, and not any bosses. The new work must have been finished, or at any rate roofed in, by 1214, for i n that year bishop Gilbert of Glanville died, and was buried on the north side o f the new presbytery, where the tomb attributed to him still remains. A peculiarity of the new presbytery is the division of its lower stage into a series of tall arched recesses, of which there are three at the east end and four on each side. (FIG. 15.) I n these the windows are pierced. T h e effect, however, from the west is that of a series of pier arches opening into north and south aisles. T h e side recesses thus formed seem to have been built to hold tombs, for the Rochester chronicler, who loved not bishop Gilbert on account of certain quarrels he had with his monks, describes his burial " o n the north part of the aforesaid church, a confounder among the founders, as Saul among the prophets,"-I- and his tomb for a long time actually filled the place of honour usually given to a founder * I t s position in the north-east transept is fixed by the record of bishop Walter of Merton's burial in 1278, " i n parte boreali juxta sepulchrum sancti Willelmi." C o t t . MS. Nero D. 2, f. 179. t " Sepultus a parte borialipredicte basilice inter fundatores confundator siout Saul inter prophetas," Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, 1. 127'. 1t2 2 4 1 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F at the north end of the high altar. Four of the side recesses still contain tombs, and in a fifth are placed the sedilia. Owing to the existence of chambers over the aisles of the FIG. 15.-THE PRESBYTERY, LOOKING EAST. eastern transepts these have no clerestory windows in the east wall, and their place is taken by a triforium or wall gallery with a row of Fcb.es in front carried by marble shafts and T. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 4 5 cross lintels, and decorated with the dog-tooth ornament. These are well shewn in FIG. 16, which also illustrates the other features of this part of the church. The completion of the presbytery is marked by an added record in the list of benefactions that "Richard of Walden, monk and sacrist, made the bell called Andrew, which cost 80 marks, and with his own hands made the beam above the high altar, with the apostles graven upon i t and Andrew standing above, and the cupboard (almarium) with the relics and divers books." T h e high altar, as may be seen from the supports for its reredos which are built up in the crypt, was placed in the centre of the presbytery between bishop Gilbert's tomb and the sedilia. T h e relic cupboard probably stood i n the recess west of the bishop's tomb. Unfortunately we do not know during what period Richard of Walden was sacrist, but he was still holding that office when he rebuilt the southwest transept during the latter part of the thirteenth century. I t may here be noted that before the new work had been carried up very far some change was evidently made i n the design. T h i s i s well seen i n the external turrets and buttresses, which have bases for angle shafts that were never built, and the upper parts are awkwardly finished off. The completion of the new work, in whatever year i t took place, enabled the monks to transfer their services into i t while they set about the reconstruction of the Norman quire, which had remained until now in a style corresponding with the work east of i t . A s the new quire was paid for out of the offerings at the tomb of St. William, some little time must have elapsed before these had sufficiently accumulated to enable the work to be begun, and this is shewn by certain differences i n the styles o f the quire and presbytery. I n place o f the coarse workmanship and extravagant use o f clumsy marble columns that characterize the eastern transepts and presbytery, the work of the new quire is better and of superior design. I t had evidently been the intention of the builders of the eastern crossing eventually to rebuild the quire with arcades opening into the aisles. W i l l i a m of Hoo, however, retained the Norman side walls, but refaced their lower parts with 246 C ATHEDRAL CHITRCH AND MONASTERY OF plain ashlar up to the first string-course, and above that with a blind arcade* ranging with the arches of the presbytery and transepts. The arches of this rest upon slender marble Ja• FIG. 16.—GENERAL 'VIEW OF THE NORTH-EAST TRANSEPT. shafts, and are ornamented, like the work eastwards, with the billet mouldi-ng. They are arranged in pairs, one to each * This arcade may represent a Norman one in the same position. ST. ANDREW AT ROCREATEU, • 2 4 7 bay, and have carved leafwork at the junction of the twin arches, but in the easternmost bay the great piers of the earlier work have left room for a single arch only on each side. The vaulting shafts of the quire do not come down to the floor, but rest upon carved marble brackets at the level of the first string-course, so as not to interfere with the monks' stalls. The clerestory of the quire is a continuation of that east of it, but the windows are higher and wider, and have not any connecting string-course externally. The features here noted are well shewn in FIG. 17. As pointed out by Professor Willis in his description of the crypt, the floor levels of the new work differed considerably from those of the work westward. Taking the level of the Norman presbytery, which is fixed by the crypt beneath it, as datum, the floor of the eastern transepts was three steps higher. A t the entrance of the presbytery was another step (gradus presbiterii), which was also carried across the arches opening into the transept aisles to form platforms for altars there. The high altar had a platform of its own. I n the new quire the old presbytery floor, which occupied its eastern half, was extended westwards as far as the quire screen or pulpitum, where a flight of ten steps gave access to or from the nave. Before the upper works of the quire were completed i t became necessary to provide proper abutments (1) for its vault, and (2) for the great arch at its western end, the piers for which were already built or in course of construction. Like the presbytery and eastern transepts, the quire is covered with a sexpartite vault, but unlike the vaults east of i t this has the dog-tooth ornament along the ribs and carved bosses at the intersections. To carry the thrust of the vault in the middle of the quire a flying buttress was thrown over the north aisle from a large buttress built against it. O n the south the greater width of the aisle and the existence of the cloister forbade such an arrangement; the difficulty was therefore met by building a buttress in the aisle against the quire wall. This explains the singular projecting mass seen at the top of the present steps down to the crypt. The course of the work at the western end of the quire is .• 0 CD • CD 0 ct- 0 e"! N A z o n u m m o s fIMEMBNIMNBRINNAHM :,7_71 ' • `:'-'`' ...," Z:, - v Ifrapimossionomilmilmoymermegyisismommispg oliflymi!.— ....-:.. —it . . . . . . . Eil-- _ .....,..,....„..,.,__a_J-.--.*:-.0. ..,...,,,,k,,,,,4;42..ta.,,..,..,07.04,,,,,,,,,,,„., , 01I 0, ,-,, ,V,:•ip1‘ 4,* L _ -.. 111.1111111111110M11111111111;h . ) 01.:61,11,11,11M11011i. 111.5110111111111.21 Elm wingemmiaimmon - y j N y L I M , ="A =•.7 avitm411,113,ulluiral mun,wwmum ",111)11)111111)191111))111.1: , u 11iWINIMIST1A,JET»111290311P10,111/11151111Milil hlithinP kalif : 1 1 1,131.1411 wilnE11111110111lhan1.11a 011111111111N MOIL iiTh!klL'IL'/ 1114a4KI‘11:\U,111,111,c1,3 11111111,111, ST. A S D R EW A T ROCIIESTBR. 2 4 9 used only for the uppermost member of the capitals of his piers, which are otherwise of stone throughout. The work i n question included the lower parts o f the responds of new arches opening from the transepts into the quire aisles. B y continuing these round so as to join those of the great quire arch, a beginning was also made of another important work, the building of a central tower.* T h e new responds at the entrance of the quire aisles were completed and the arches built by William o f Hoo or his architect, together with one bay of the clerestory of the transept on either side.t The chronological position of the responds o f the aisle arches between the beginning of the quire and the completion of its clerestory, etc. is well shewn by the accompanying diagram (FIG. 18) of the plan of the north pier at the west end of the quire. T h e portion representing the work of William of Hoo has marble shafts and bases (A A A A),T o f which the latter have the section shewn i n FIG. 19. I n the portion representing the bases of the aisle arch and the central tower respond the whole of the bases and shafts are of stone instead of marble, and the bases have the section shewn in FIG. 20. Bases B B are on the same level as A —A, but the bases C—C are 6 feet 10 inches lower, and stand upon a benchtable 2 feet 51 inches high, which rests upon the transept floor. To the probable reason for this difference in height between bases B B and C—C I shall refer presently. T h e pier on the south side of the quire shews the same features, but with some slight variations. O f the same date as the bases B—C is the respond in the north wall of the south aisle of the quire of an arch which once spanned the space * I n my former essay on the architectural history I suggested as an explanation of certain difficulties in the chronology of the quire aisles, that the bases of the four tower piers and of the arches into the quire aisles were laid before the building of the new quire and presbytery. B u t recent alterations to the stone screen at the entrance of the quire have revealed evidence, which before was hidden, that the actual course of events was as described above. For particulars of this discovery I am indebted to the Rev. G. M. Livett, who made careful notes and measurements before the work was again covered up. t I n the north transept this clerestory bay remains almost unaltered; in the south transept it has all been removed except the northern respond. These are also shewn in FIGS. 11 and 12, rude. 250 C ATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OE between the quire and Gundulf's south tower. The changes here will be described below. To the works just described belong the massive buttresses added at the north-east angle of Gundulf's great tower. The new quire was finished and used for the first time in 1227.* The reconstruction of the quire aisles was effected in a very different way in the case of the south aisle from that of its fellow. In the Norman church, at any rate in Gundulf's time, the FIG. 18.—PLAN OF NORTII-EAST PIER OF CENTRAL TOWER. south aisle, like the north, was merely a passage, part of its outer wall being also the wall of the south tower; but at the beginning of the thirteenth century i t was doubled in width east of the tower. I t has already been stated that bishop Ernulf built the dorter, chapter-house, and frater. These formed the east and south sides of a new cloister laid out, immediately to the east of Gundulf's monastic buildings, on the south side of the * " mocc°xxvii°. Introitus in novum ohorum Roffensem." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 133. ST. A.NDREW AT ROCHtSTER. Scale ( i f Inches 0 I 2 3 4 FIG. 19. F I G . 20. F I G . 22. SECTIONS OF THE BASES OF THE QUIRE ARCII, TOWER PIERS, AND QUIRE AISLES. 251 252 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A X D m o N A n t i t Y o P presbytery. T h e eastern arm of the church was at this time only half as long as the side of the new cloister (which was about 130 feet square), and the additional length needed for the latter, had i t abutted against the church, could only have been obtained by building a wall eastwards from the southeast corner of the presbytery. B u t for some reason, perhaps to avoid blocking the southern windows of the crypt, Ernulf's cloister did not extend up to the church, but was closed on the north side by a wall 12 feet distant from it.* T h e space thus left probably served as a passage to the monks' cemetery at the east end of the presbytery, and across its west end was the only way, at that time, from the cloister to the church. In the course of the new works of the presbytery and quire, the passage having been effectually blocked by the building of the eastern transept across it, the part which was left between the latter and the south tower was taken into the quire aisle, which thus became doubled in width, with arches opening into i t from the eastern transept. (See FIG. 28, p. 266.) I t WEIS evidently intended to convert this enlarged section into a lofty vestibule, vaulted in four large compartments springing from a central column.. N e x t to the quire transept may be seen part of its south wall, with one of the windows, built upon the older cloister wall.; and on the north and east sides are the vaulting shafts prepared for the vault. ( F i e . 28.) T h e wall ribs, ornamented with the billet moulding, also exist, but can only be seen above the present ceiling. T h e aisle having been widened as described, the two staircases i n its former width were taken away and replaced, the one by a new staircase and doorway to the undercroft built i n the westernmost bay of the crypt-aisle, the other by a new and broad flight of steps up to the presbytery placed further east. The arches at each end of the narrow western part of the aisle, between the quire and Gundulf's south tower, were built, as stated above, by the director of the works at the entrance of the quire aisles. The north quire aisle, which, as already suggested, had * The wall now existing on this line appears to date from repairs necessitated by the fire of 1179, and contains a number of interesting features which will be noticed in the description of the cloister. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. probably been rebuilt after the fire o f Seal/ 12/ 1138, had lately become the way f o r pilgrims t o approach S t . William's shrine. T h e two staircases in its width leading, the one to the crypt, the other to the upper church, had therefore now become inconveniently narrow. T h a t to the crypt was accordingly done away I mites 6 with, and the stair o f ascent t o the shrine carried right across the aisle.* A stone bench was then built along each side, and shafts added for a stone vault, but this does not seem to have been put on. T h e bench and shafts are the work r 1G. 21.—SECTION OF of the same architect who began the BASES OF VAULTING responds of the quire aisle arches and SSHIFT QUIR E AI INSLE NORTH. of the tower piers adjoining them, but the bases of the shafts differ slightly from those of the arches and have the section shewn in FIG. 21. To the same architect must also be attributed the western bases of the north and. south arches of the projected central tower (and perhaps those of its western arch), together with those of the arch into the north aisle of the nave, and one side of that into the south aisle. These bases, which are also of stone, though some are painted to imitate marble, at first sight appear to be identical with those on the eastern side of the crossing. O n comparison, however, a slight difference of section will be noticed both i n the basest and the benchtables or plinths on which they stand. (See FIG. 22.) A s the bases of the eastern respond of the south tower arch, and one of the bases of the arch into the south quire aisle have the same section as these western bases, too much importance need not be attached to so slight a variation, but the difference between the plinths is very distinct, as well as the number of courses, of which they are built. (See FIGS. 20 and 22.)$ * These steps still remain, but in consequence of their worn condition they are now covered with wood. t I n the earlier bases (see FIG. 20) the roll slightly overhangs the lower vertical member; in the later bases (see FIG. 22) the roll is flush with this. I have to thank Mr. Livett for pointing out to me these features. 253 2 5 4 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F The differences referred to clearly indicate a pause in the building operations, perhaps necessitated by the clearing away of the old quire arrangements i n the nave, and the construction of the new wooden pulpitum, and its platform, and a new rood-screen on the line of the new bases west of it. As will be seen below a further interval must have elapsed between the laying of the bases and the final carrying up of the piers and arches that stand upon them. The new works were so far advanced towards completion that in 1240 "the church of Rochester was dedicated by Dan R(ichard of Wendover), bishop of the same place, and by the bishop of Bangor on the non.es (5th) of November."* As soon after the completion of the presbytery and quire as funds permitted, the great north transept was taken in hand. There is no evidence of any alteration having been made to this part of the church since Gundulf built it, and it is more than probable that his work had remained intact until now, especially if we consider that the rebuilders of the south transept after the fire of 1179 thought fit to retain the original width. T h e lines of the new work were set out according to the bases of the tower piers laid down some time before, and thus, while retaining the original length, the transept now became doubled in width. Although the height and division of the work into two stages had already been fixed by the arch into the north quire aisle and the beginning of the clerestory on the east side, the builder of this transept, Richard of Eastgate, was in other respects unhampered, and the design of his work shews a marked advance upon that of the presbytery. ( F i n s . 23 and 24.) The transept is divided into two bays by the vaulting shafts, which rise from the floor. O n the east (see FIG. 23) the space south of the vaulting shaft is mostly taken up by William of Hoo's arch into the quire aisle, the plainness of which is relieved by bold dog-tooth ornament in the soffit. The remaining space is occupied by a shallow recess with pointed arch carried * " Eodem anno (1240) dedicata eat ecclesia Roffensis a domino It. episcopo ejusdem loci et episcopo de Bangor Nonis Novembris." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, L 141b. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 5 5 by marble shafts, above which is a lancet window, now blocked, with moulded rear arch, also carried by marble shafts. The space north of the vaulting shaft is filled by a wide pointed arch opening into the space between the transept and Gundulf's north tower, which has been vaulted over and converted into a recess for an altar. T h e arch has an outer and an inner order, with a plain soffit between, and originally had marble jamb shafts, of which only the capitals remain. The recess has a plain pointed vault with wall ribs only, and is lighted by a low square-headed window on the north, set in a tall recess with moulded arch (of which the sides are nearly straight) carried by stone jamb shafts with foliated capitals.* T h e recess has a Purbeck marble step at the entrance, on which formerly stood a screen, probably of stone. In the east wall is a drain and cruet-shelf of good design, with marble side shafts, and 10 feet up are two stone corbels. The north side of the transept is practically in two divisions below the clerestory. The lower contains a doorway, which has a pointed segmental rear arch with marble jamb shafts, and two recesses similar to that next the quire aisle, but wider. Above are three lancet windows with moulded rear arches of two orders, also with marble shafts. O n the west side, to the north of the vaulting shaft, are two like windows with arched recesses under them. ( n o . 24.) Beyond this the arrangement of the east side is reproduced, but the arch into the nave aisle is of loftier proportions than that opposite, and was built in view of another scheme presently to be noticed, which was eventually abandoned. The carrying up to its full height of the north-west pier of the crossing, the bases of which had already been laid, was of course included in the building of the west side of the transept. The clerestory on this west side consists of four lancet windows, two in each bay, with an open screen or arcade in front of the wall passage. Thi s is composed in each division of a triple arch enriched with the dog-tooth ornament, carried by two detached shafts and responds, all of marble. The sides of the central opening are carried up vertically as far as the enclosing arch with rather * With the exception of a later example i n the nave these are the only foliated capitals in the church. ueaq s q S u - p a & r e . n u e o j o p Ve i l OIR p u t . ' I v a & 9 , 0 0 l l urgynTAA. i a x l u b a t i g . o4. l x a u u o l g A l p t j j , p a p v o n u d UciaSKVIII u m o x HELL xO acus Isva—.8g _ 1101Urn 111111). ‘ \ setist," sT r p m p u l l q p u ' a p I s q . n o a a m o s t g a o u a t i s s o a o u a s a t o l a l i s o 2 t r p & o ‘ s A t o p u p a o u 0.1B ° J a m . SSODal .1V4.7e a A o c t v q.nct ' u . I e s e A a t j e m - m a s a , ' I m p a a a j a u . t a l s Ta e t p p a s s a snoTano 30 Allad.SITNOW GINIV HOIII1110 rivmaall,hyo 9 9 g ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 5 7 altered to accord with the later design. The north wall had three clerestory windows, of which the central one is higher than the rest. I n front of the wall passage is a screen in continuation of that on the east and west, but with arches of graduated height. A l l the shafts of Richard of Eastgate's work throughout the transept, as well as their capitals and bases, are of marble. Almost the whole of the external ashlar work of the north transept was renewed by Sir G. Gilbert Scott during the late repairs, but on the old lines, so far as they could be recovered. For quite a century previously the outside had been more or less of a ruin, and nearly all the western windows were blocked up.* I n both stages these windows form openings in a wall arcade extending from buttress to buttress. The north front has in its lowest stage a good but plain doorway of two orders, with jamb shafts. Above this are the three lancet windows, which appear as part of an arcade of seven pointed arches carried by detached shafts, and alternately blind and pierced. Over these are the three clerestory windows, which are also set in an arcade. The window openings are in every case wider and higher than the blind arches. In the view o f the church published by Thorpe i n the Custumale .Roffense in 1788, the north transept is shewn with its original high-pitched roof, the gable of which is seen in King's north view (published in the first edition of the Monasticon Anglicanum)to be pierced with three circular windows.t But in Storer's print, dated 18164 and Coney's drawing in the Monasticon Anglicanuin,§ the old roof is replaced by one of low pitch, with a nondescript gable. Thi s was taken away by Sir G. Gilbert Scott, who restored the high roof * See plate xxxv. p. 155, in Thorpe's Custufnale Boffense, and later views skewing this part of the church; also Fm. 7, p. 225, ante. + Roger Dodsworth and William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1655), i . 28. These are also shewn in the large north-west view published by John Buckler i n 1810, and i n similar but smaller views published by J. C. Buckler in 1818 in his Views of the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales (London, 1822). $ James Storer, History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of Great Britain (London, 1819), vol. iv. § Dugdale's Monasticon Anglieanum, ed. Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel (London, 1817), i. 153. YOli. XXIII. 258 C ATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF with its triple-eyed gable, and added the present flanking pinnacles. iiJ4Il ItroyA. Nit,er t i- 4 a w i — Ir[1.111111111i- ORR num ipm Itglit«vititut(tIcitin iitai1ItlIi111111(1W1116 FIG. 24.—WEST SIDE OF THE NORTH TRANSEPT. Concerning the date of the north transept we have the statement that i t was begun b y Richard o f Eastgate, ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 5 9 monk and sacrist, and "almost finished" by brother Thomas of Meopham. W i l l i a m o f Hoo, the sacrist under whose direction the quire was built, became prior in 1239. Richard of Eastgate seems to have succeeded him, but we have no record o f his term o f office. Thomas of Meopham, whose name i s associated with the work, is merely described as "brother." H i s share must therefore have been done before 1255, as i n that year we first find him described as sacrist.* A s the new quire was ready for use i n 1227, the work o f the north transept may well lie between 1240 and 1255. Although preparations had been made from the first t o vault the north transept, this could not yet be done, inasmuch as the arch to the crossing had not been built. T h e eastern arch was already in place, owing to its having formed part of the work of William of Hoo's quire, as was also the northeast pier, and the north-west pier had now been completed by the builders of the transept, but the south-west one had only been begun. Before any attempt was made to complete the crossing and build the arches, the beginning was made o f a more serious undertaking, which fortunately was never carried out, namely, the reconstruction of the nave. I t had evidently been intended t o rebuild this entirely, b u t with narrower and loftier aisles, for the blocked lancet window on the west side of the north transept abuts directly upon the Norman wall, and the arch beside i t , as has been already stated, is of unusual height. T h i s further work was a continuation of that in the north transept, and by the same architect. In order t o form a proper abutment for the proposed central tower the first two bays of the Norman work on each side, that is, the arches, triforium, and clerestory, were taken down, and the bases laid of two new arches i n their place. More than half of the first bay on the north side was then filled by a solid buttress against the new tower pier, now plain towards t h e nave, b u t w i t h a moulded arch o f * Adam occurs as sacrist in 1254 (Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 99), and Thomas of Meopham in 1255 (Ibid. 64). s2 260 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F construction on the aisle side with marble jamb shafts. B u t a serious check occurred in the middle of the work, and after the responds and piers of the first bay had been built on each side the work came to a standstill. The work was resumed after a short pause, but by a new architect, who carried up the second pair of piers in an entirely different manner, although on the same plan, and built the two arches on each side that still remain. (See FIGS. 25 and 31.) H e also made preparations for vaulting the nave aisles, but only the springers for this were put in. W i t h the new arches, which are taller than the old arcade, was probably built a clerestory, but this disappeared with the rest of the Norman one in the fifteenth century. The work of the new architect, who was evidently the same that rebuilt the south transept, is distinguished from his predecessor's by the abandonment of marble shafts. I n the first bay of the nave the shafts are detached and of marble, but those of the second bay are worked out of the pier, and of stone, now painted in imitation of marble. The older work is also distinctly early-English, but the newer in its style and mouldings is essentially Decorated. Following upon these alterations in the nave the work was carried round into the south transept, which was thus begun to be altered to correspond with the north one. I t had apparently been reconstructed in part on the old lines after the fire of 1179, but was now doubled in width by building a new west wall and lengthening the south wall to meet it. T h e old west wall and the upper parts of the south were then taken down, and a series of tall arched recesses, suggested evidently by those in the presbytery, built round the sides, two on the west and three on the south pierced with windows, and two on the east to form recesses for altars. Owing to the lower level of the floor as compared with that of the presbytery, these arches do not extend as high as the clerestory string-course, which ranges with that in the eastern part of the church. The work of the transept included the carrying up of the fourth or south-west pier of the crossing, and the building of the north, west, and south arches of a central tower. T. AXDREA/V A T ROCHESTER. 2 6 1 The latter work was probably followed by the vaulting of the north transept. Thi s vault is octopartite, and of two bays, with longitudinal, transverse, diagonal, and wall ribs. The diagonal ribs and the central transverse rib spring from FIG. 25.-ALTERATIONS, AND JUNCTIONS Or NEW AND OLD WORK, IN THE ARCADE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE NAVE. marble shafts starting from the floor ;* the other transverse ribs spring from short marble shafts resting on carved heads * Where these diagonal and transverse ribs meet between the two main divisions of the vault, the vaulting shafts form a triple group rising from the floor. 262 C ATHEDRAL OFEURCEt A_ND MONASTERY O r fi xed just below the clerestory string-course. A t the intersection of the ribs are carved bosses. The general design o f the south transept, which was built under the direction of Richard of Walden, the sacrist, is distinctly inferior to Richard of Eastgate's work in the opposite wing. The design is in fact not new at all, but merely an adaptation of that of the presbytery, modified only as regards detail. The three original windows which remain on the south side of the lower stage shew an advance upon the lancets o f the north transept. They are o f simple character, consisting of two pointed lights beneath a containing arch, with the spandrel above the dividing mullion completely pierced. The transept is divided into three bays by the vaulting shafts, but only those of one division now rest on the floor. I n its original state the arrangement of the walls below the clerestory was simple enough. O n the east the first or northernmost bay contained William of Hoo's arch into the quire aisle, and in each of the other two bays was a lofty altar recess. O n the west the arrangement was the same, but the arch into the nave aisle is Richard of Walden's work, and the two recesses had windows in them. The south side, as already noted, had three arched recesses with windows therein, which remain unaltered. The clerestory, unlike that of the north transept, which is practically all of one date and a continuation of the work below, is here of at least two dates. The windows also are wider and differently treated, owing to there being three bays instead of the two subdivided bays of the north transept. On the west each window is composed of two wide lancets with a quatrefoil above. This feature is repeated in an ugly and exaggerated form i n the screen in front of the wall passage, the mullion being represented by a banded marble shaft surmounted by a lozenge pierced with a quatrefoil. The containing arch is simply moulded, and rests on short marble responds. (FIG. 26.) The southern clerestory, which is of the same date as the west, consists of five graduated lancets, with a plain screen in front composed of as many simple pointed arches carried by marble shafts; the spandrels, however, have not any quatrefoil openings, but are entirely T. A N D R EW A T 11001I1STEit. 2 6 3 pierced. T h e eastern clerestory i s different from either of t h e others. I t s windows a r e each o f t w o pointed tref oiled lights, with a large quatrefoil with pointed ends pierced through the head.* (FIG. 27.) T h e screen in front of the wall passage is formed in each bay by subdividing the wide drop arch by tall and slender marble shafts into a large central and two narrow side openings, enriched with the dog-tooth ornament. I t is possible t h a t this screen is the original one designed for the transept, especially as i t continues the dogtooth ornament so lavishly used in the north transept. Externally t h e l o w e r stage, both on the east and west sides of the transept, is covered b y buildings, and t h e clerestory w i n - dows, which have been already described, are the only visible features. T h e south end, being towards the outer court o f t h e monastery, contains merely the window openings.t I n the lower range these have two orders o f mouldings with jamb shafts. T h e gable is entirely modern, having been rebuilt by Sir G. Gilbert Scott, who also added the flanking pinnacles, in imitation of the old design figured by Thorpe in the Custzonale Boifense.T T h i s was ornamented with a transverse band of flint checker work, interrupted by FIG. 26.—CLERESTORY OF THE SOITTI1 TRANSEPT; WEST SIDE. * I n Storer's plate of the S.E. view of the church the northernmost window is shown blocked up; the next has a dividing mullion only, and no tracery; and the third is walled up and pierced with a lancet. t These windows are placed as high up as possible on account of the monastic buildings outside (see Plan). $ Plate xxxix. p. 165. 264 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F three panels with shields of arms, with an inlaid cross of the same material above, and i n the apex a sculptured bust, apparently of Our Lord. This last has been replaced in the new gable. The shields seem to have borne (1) three crowns in pale, (2) the saltire and escallop shell of the church of Rochester, and (3) a cross. The old gable was taken down in the early part of this century and replaced by a lower one of debased classical character, flanked by pedestals on the tops o f the buttresses;* this i n turn was removed by Sir G. Gilbert Scott. Shortly after the rebuilding of the south transept, sundry alterations were made in and around it. The two arches in its east side were replaced by one o f twice their span, built with the old voussoirs, and resting on shafts made out of the pier that formerly divided the two. A recess was thus formed for one important altar, similar to that in the north transept, which no doubt suggested i t t Gundulf 's south tower was next razed t o t h e ground, and the quire aisle wall continued westwards over its site up to the transept. I n place of the southern half of the tower a vestry was built with a door from the transept, and the rest of its area was thrown FIG. 27.—CLERESTORY OF TEE SOUTH TRANSEPT, EAST SIDE. * See two views, dated 1816, in James Storer's History and Antiquities o f the Cathedral Churches of Great Britain (London, 1819), vol. iv. t These alterations are probably referred to in a grant of 1322 to the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which stood in this transept, " i n Capella ejusdem . . de novo constructa." Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 546. T h e Oustuntale Boffemse (ed. Thorpe, 13), compiled circa 1305, mentions "altare beate Marie in novo opere." ST. ANDREW AT ROCI1ESTER. 2 6 5 into the aisle, which thus attained its present dimensions. The singular lop-sided wooden ceiling dates from this enlargement, as does the upper half of the outer wall of the aisle with the lancet windows in it. These lancets have Decorated mouldings. The various features of the aisle are shewn in FIGS. 28 and 29. The removal of the south tower seems to have put an end to the scheme of a vaulted vestibule described above. So long as this tower was standing there could have been no clerestory windows on the east side of the transept save that next the quire which had been already built by William of Hoo. This window was now enlarged to match two other new ones which were inserted after the removal of the tower, but it is somewhat shorter than they owing to its sill being placed higher to clear the aisle roof. The arches of these windows are of two orders, with engaged jamb shafts; their tracery is all new, but is copied from the remains o f the old disclosed when the clerestory was restored by Sir G. Gilbert Scott. Following upon the reconstruction of its clerestory, the south transept was now vaulted. I t had been intended to have a stone vault, but this was abandoned, and the present vaulted ceiling of wood set up instead. The springers for the stone vault, which remain, shew that the ribs were to have been of different curvature from that of the wooden ones. This vault is in three bays, and octopartite, with longitudinal, diagonal, and transverse ribs. I t has also wall ribs, but these are of stone and coeval with the springers. Each bay has also an additional horizontal transverse rib along the apex of the groin, but this is very slight and merely covers the junctions of the boarding. The vaulting shafts, which are single, and of marble, originally started from the floor, but those between the second and third bays were shortened up after the arched recesses were altered, and now rest upon corbels under the clerestory string. I t should be noticed that these vaulting shafts are the only shafts of marble in the transept. The others are all of stone and part of the wall, like the second pier in the nave, but have Purbeck marble capitals and bases. I t seems from an extra shaft still to be seen in the southeast angle of the south aisle that a series of arches like those 266 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY Or first built round the transept was to have been carried down the aisle also, but all other traces o f this scheme have disappeared through a later alteration. i l [I" 14%ili Idl, 1;1',;‘,11A il 1 I II 1141 , ' - _ ==—•,-•- 44'1;1141AN/tFillT 6;117 I ! ."""' • L!II 1 1 1 1 1 1 sammtruL.11 tii5111 I II! Z g l I „ p „ i i "lip — d a l n c ( I ( I g , 1 Z IDl A "iiii"‘%„111111111114111. awipthinticill111111. 01111111111111111d, 111111111 111. p E r 1 1 0 . . i .4121111111111111411111111111111111111111110r111111 1111 1111 111fi 1 1111 h I . _ e L , i i i f i l f ;hot FIG. 28.—SOUTII AISLE OF THE QUIRE IN ITS FINAL AND PRESENT STATE, LOOKING EAST. The greater part of the church having now been reconstructed on a new and enlarged plan, the erection of its permanent divisions was proceeded with. These were rendered ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 6 7 necessary (i.) for separating the more public portions from the quire and presbytery, etc., and (ii.) by the existence of the shrines and other valuable ornaments in the eastern part of the church. In connexion with this work were included measures for securing the stability o f part o f the south quire transept, FIG. 29.—THE SOUTH AISLE OF THE QUIRE, LOOKING WEST, SHEWING THE WOODEN CEILING, ETC. which seems to have given way to an extent that caused great alarm. F r o m the absence of buttresses on the south side of this transept, owing to the position of the cloister there, this part o f the church has been a source o f anxiety t o i t s custodians from the first.* B y the time in question, which * Storer, in his History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of England ancl Wales (London, 1819), vol. iv., shows this transept in a plate, dated 1816, as supported by two huge raking buttresses. 268 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D 1110NASTERY O F was not much more than a century after its building, the south wall had settled outwards to such an extent as to necessitate the entire reconstruction of its vault and. of parts of the upper works as well.* O n the aisle side of the west wall the group of shafts between the two arches, which had been built for the vaulting of the projected vestibule, were rebuilt in ashlar, with the old marble bases and capitals,f and continued upwards to the wooden ceiling. Possibly the early-Decorated part of the aisle wain and the ceiling itself belong to the repairs consequent upon this serious settlement. The first of the permanent divisions to be noticed is no longer in its place. I t was a stone wall or screen with central door, built in the arch from the south transept to the south quire aisle,* but was taken down early in this century and rebuilt in the southern of the two arches on the west side of the south-east transept, where it still remains. O f the same date as this screen is a small doorway in the west wall of the south quire aisle. I t is pierced through the thin wall behind the south transept altar (see Plan), and as its sill is 16 inches from the floor, it evidently opened upon the altar platform. T h e sacrist and others were thus enabled to approach the altar without using the larger door into the transept. The existence of this doorway suggests that part of the transept itself was screened or walled off from the rest, and as will be seen below, there is strong probability that this was the case. The second of the permanent divisions is a screen similar to that described above, built across the middle of the north quire aisle at the head of the steps there. I t was so placed, instead of in the arch from the transept, to leave a way into * I am indebted to the Rev. G. M. Livett, M.A., for calling my attention to this fact. t The marble band midway belongs to the rebuilt work. The condition of this aisle wall became so threatening in recent years that Sir G. Gilbert Scott advised its rebuilding. B u t the entreaties of Mr. J. T. Irvine, who recognized its great historical value, led to the substitution of a flying buttress, which has successfully met the difficulty. T h e external features o f this interesting wall will be described in connection with the cloister that abutted against it. § I t is shewu in the view of this part of the church in H. and B. Winkles's Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations of' the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales (London, 1838), i. 120. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 6 9 the great north tower, perhaps for the parishioners of the altar of St. Nicholas, who may have used the bells therein. The doorway of this screen, which was defended by a stout drawbar, is of the same section and pattern as the two doorways in the south quire aisle. The cloister doorway is also of the same date and character. Of the other divisions the principal one i s the screen still separating the monks' quire from the parts o f the church west of it, which were used by or more accessible to ? • ? I n c h e s FIG. 30. SECTION OF THE QUIRE DOORWAY. the citizens. I t was originally a double screen of wood of the same date as the other fittings in the quire, which were first used in 1227, but its west side was replaced early in the fourteenth century by a stone wall with central door of a similar pattern to those in the quire aisles. I t s section is shewn in FIG. 30. On, at any rate, the north side of the door there seems to have been a recess for an altar. This was subsequently walled up and converted into a cupboard, lighted by a small cinquefoikd window, but the traces 270 C AT H E D R A L C HU RC H A N D MONASTERY O F of i t remained in the form o f a curious segmental halfarch until the recent destruction o f the wall t o make way for niches and imagery. From the ranging of the bases of the north-west pier of the tower already described it seems that, in place of the present seventeenth-century steps, there was originally a broad flight, after the manner of that at Canterbury, extending the whole width of the screen, with a platform on top. This double screen was surmounted by a gallery, and thus formed the pulpitum or loft on which the organs stood (and stand), and where the Gospel was sung on festivals. Another important screen was that formerly under the tower arch at the east end of the nave. I t was a solid structure of stone, and had been provided for, i f not actually begun, when the north pier of the arch was built, as is evident from the fact that the shafts of this start, not from the floor, but the top of the screen. The same peculiarity exists on the south side of the arch. The arch bases shew that the screen was about 14 feet high, but its junctions with the wall below have unfortunately been obliterated. O n top of i t was a loft where stood the great Rood* and its attendant images, and against the west face was placed the altar of St. Nicholas between the two procession doors. A s there are no remains of this screen we cannot say whether i t was finished before or after the remodelling of the south transept. I t is however clear that after the completion o f the latter work the rebuilding of the nave was abandoned, and the junctions of the early-Decorated and Norman work made good in the singular way we see. (FIGs. 25 and 31.) I t will be noticed that one-half of the Norman arch on each side has been reset with the original voussoirs. The northern arch is supported by a new pier of the same plan as that east of i t ; but on the south side, although the pier is in the main new, the arch is carried by a shaft o f Norman plan but Decorated date, with the capital beautifully carved with oak * The Rood is casually mentioned in the Custumal i n the directions De Pamulis Ecelesie : "Cam processio sit ad crucem in navem ecclesie ponent ante crucifix= cereura accensum," Thorpe, Custumale We n n , 80. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 7 1 leaves and acorns.* T h e square abacus of this capital is probably unique. The altar of St. Nicholas is first named in a charter of Fm. 31.—JuNcnoN OF NEW AND OLD WORKS IN THE SOUTH ARCADE OF THE NAVE. Gundulf, the date of which must fall between 1st August 1107 and 7th March 1107-8.f That i t stood in the nave * The whole of this foliage was painted, and on the nave side richly gilt. See ante, 215, 272 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F from the beginning against the rood loft there can be little doubt, but no definite record of its position occurs before the fourteenth century. O n 6th. April 1312 an agreement was made touching a dispute in the Consistory Court of Canterbury between the prior and chapter of Rochester on the one part, and the parishioners of the altar of St. Nicholas on the other part, " occasione amocionis dicti altaris parochialis sancti Nicholai per dictos religiosos, contra voluntatem parochianorum altaris supraclicti i n alio loco dicte ecclesie situati."* W h y the parish altar had been moved is not stated, but probably on account of some work in connection with the rood loft and the building up of the junctions in the nave described above. I t was accordingly agreed that the parish mass should be sung on certain feasts and on all Sundays "in altari existente in corpore ecclesie anteriori sub pulpito," but the other offices were to be said sine notci. On ordinary days no mass might be sung "in altari sub pmfato pulpito," nor the divine offices performed "in parte anteriori sive in navi dicti ecclesie," except sine notci. I t seems, therefore, that there was an altar sub pulpito, probably on the top of the steps beside the quire door, and an altar in the nave also, which had temporarily been removed. The date of the agreement, 1312, is approximately that of the carved capital and other Decorated work in the nave. I n a deed of 1327, presently to be noticed, the parish altar is definitely spoken of as "the altar of St. Nicholas situated in the nave of the said church ;" i t would seem, therefore, that the works above described had then been completed and the altar replaced against the rood loft. The 1312 agreement, which was a settlement of one of the usual quarrels when the church was parochial as well as monastic or collegiate, concludes with a proviso that i f at any time the monks would build them a separate church outside the cathedral church, the parishioners would remove into it, and resign all claims to an altar in the cathedral church. W e hear nothing further t i l l a century later, when bishop Richard Yong, in May 1418, granted to the parishioners o f the altar of St. Nicholas, siti iv, nave * Thorpe, Registrion Roffense, 545, where the document is printed at length. I t will repay careful study on account of the many curious conditions laid down in it. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 273 ecclesie nostre Roffensis, licence to continue and complete the building of the work there begun for making a church in the cemetery on the north of the cathedral church, on completion of which they were to remove into it. Various objections and hindrances were raised by the monks, and the building got on slowly. B u t in 1421 a composition was drawn up between the monks and citizens withdrawing all opposition to the completion of the still unfinished structure, which was to be ready for occupation in three years.* A n d on 18th December 1423 the new church of St. Nicholas " i n the cemetery commonly called Green Church Hawe " was consecrated by John, bishop of Dromore (in absentia episcopi Roffensis), and a solemn renunciation made by the parishioners " i n the nave of the cathedral church of Rochester before the altar which was anciently called the altar of St. Nicholas, lying and situate in the said cathedral church," of all their rights to the same altar.t One more dispute occurred in 1447, owing to the parishioners having begun to build a porch at the west end of their church, which the monks maintained was an infringement on their right of way, but the citizens removed the obstruction, and peace was restored.t I n t o the further history of St. Nicholas church there is no need to enter. As there is no later mention of an altar of St. Nicholas in the cathedral church, it is probable that it was taken away and set up in the new parish church in 1423. Whether the screen against which i t stood was also then removed, or at what time it eventually disappeared, there is nothing to shew. The north aisle of the nave does not appear at any time since the beginning of the thirteenth century to have been closed by a screen or altar at its east end. The end of the south aisle, however, was certainly so closed, as may be seen from the mutilations of the arch bases for the building of a screen there; one of the marble shafts of the arch has also been taken away for it. * Thorpe, Ilegistrum Remo, 561. f " I n navi ecdesie cathedralis Roffensis ante altars quod fuit ab antiquo vocatum altars sancti Nicholai in ecolesia cathedrali predieta situm et situatum." Ibid. 568. t Ibid. 515. voi,. 274 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F Urgent need of repairs to the monastic buildings for a time put a stop to any further important works in the church, but several interesting doorways and windows were inserted. The earliest of these is of special interest from its being dated. According to an anonymous chronicler, on the evening of Trinity Sunday 1327 "all the men of Rochester conspired to despoil the cathedral church under pretence o f having access to the church night and day to minister the reserved Sacrament to the sick, and being denied entry they assailed and broke the doors of the church, and throughout the night and until terce the next day besieged the monks." "By some agreement, I know not what, the tumult was quieted," says the chronicler.* The agreement, however, exists among the records of the Dean and Chapter.f I t is dated 14th June 1327, a week after the riot, and recites how * 1327. " N e e est pretereundum quomodo post festum Sancte Trinitatis in estate predicta omnes de Roffa ad depredandum ecclesiam Roffensem cathedralem conspirantes sub quesito colore habendi ingressum i n ecclesiam noete et die ad ministrandum infirmis viaticum et denegato eis introitu hostia ecelesie hostiliter i n multitudine armata invadentes hostia fregerunt. et per totem noctem usque in crastinum ad horam tertiary' Monachos inelusos obsidentes nescio quo pacto tumultus conquievit." C o t t . MS. Faustina, B. 5, if. 49b, 50; and Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 368. The following is the text of the agreement: " P e r istam Indenturam Cunctis pateat evidenter quod Anno domini Millesimo Trecentesimo vicesimo septimo Decimo octavo Kalendas Juin mota contentione inter Priorem e t Conventual ecclesie Cathedralis Roffensis ex parte una. Et parochianos altaris Sancti Nicholai in navi dicte ecclesie Roffensis situati ex parte altera. super custodia clavis dicte Ecclesie navis sic concordatum est inter partes. videlicet quod dicti Religiosi facient dictis parochianis unum Oratorium in angulo dicte navis ecclesie juxta hostium boriale cum hostio et fenestra. ex parte exteriore dicte ecclesie ad reponendum corpus domini pro infirmis I nocturnis horis I futuris temporibus ministrandis cum libero introitu et exitu ad dictum Oratorium. E t quia ante completionem dicti Oratorij proper defectum ingressus eeclesie I ut pluribus parochianorum visum fuerat. per eventus fortuitos pericula contigere possint. ex benignitate dictorum Religiosorum concessum est et concordatum quod die et nocte usque ad dicti Oratorii completionem pro infirmis ministrandis liberum in dictam ecclesiam habeant ingressum. Oratorio vero perfecto et clavi hostii dicti Oratorii eisdem parochianis traclita, ingressus dicta ecclesie de cetero per noctem totaliter denegetur. Noctibus Natalis domini. Omnium Sanctorum et Sancti Nicholai duutaxat exceptis I Observato tauten quod dicti parochiani omnia sacramenta et sacramentalia ac eciam omnia servicia sua in dicta navi ecelesie habeant sicut prius usi sunt e t habere solebant a tempore ultimo Compositionis inter eosdem facte. I n cujus rei testimonium parti Indenture remanenti penes Religiosos predictos Sigillum Commune Civitatis Roffensis est appensum. E t p u l l Indenture remanenti penes parochianos predictos. appensum est Sigillum Commune Religiosorum predictorum. Datum Roffe in ecclesia Co.thedrali predinta xijm° Balendas Sulij Anne domini supradicto." A damaged impression of the city seal in white wax is appended. Endorsed " D e oratorio pro parochianis Hoff in navi ecclesie Roffeusis." ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 7 5 a dispute had arisen between the prior and convent on the one part, and the parishioners of the altar of St. Nicholas "situated in the nave" on the other part, concerning the custody of the key of the nave. I t was therefore agreed "that the said religious shall make for the said parishioners an Oratory in the corner of the nave of the said church, beside the north door, with a door and a window on the outer side of the said church, to place the Corpus Domini in to minister to the sick during the night hours at all future FIG. 32.-SECTION OF ARCH MOULDINGS OF A DOORWAY INSERTED IN THE WEST FRONT IN 1327. times, with free entry and exit to the said Oratory," etc. The door made in accordance with this agreement seems to be that at the west end of the north aisle of the nave. I t has continuous mouldings o f the accompanying section (FIG. 32). The window, i f i t were an external one, cannot now be traced, owing to alterations and recasing. The most noteworthy work of the fourteenth century is the beautiful doorway now forming the entrance to the chapter- T 2 276 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F room. I t may have been inserted when certain " defects " in the church were made good in 1342, principally at the cost of bishop Hamo of Hythe.* The two principal figures represent the Christian and Jewish Dispensations, but the female figure of the Church was " restored " by Mr. Cottingham with a bearded bishop's head! (FIG. 33.) B y the exertions of Miss Louisa Twining the lady's head has lately been replaced. The figure of the Synagogue is mostly original. The four figures above, two on either side, are accompanied by most interesting representations of medimval studies with reading desks. The figures are supposed to be those of the Evangelists, or the Doctors of the Church, but there are no distinctive emblems to indicate them.t I n the apex of the arch, above the singing angels, is the little naked " soul " of the donor or builder. To the same work as this doorway belong the two windows with flowing tracery inserted on either side of it. A similar window seems once to have existed in the corresponding aisle of the north-east transept, where John of Sheppey, who was prior under bishop Harao of Hythe, afterwards founded a chantry at the altar there. In 1343, during the episcopate of Ham.o of Hythe, "the bishop caused the new steeple of the church of Rochester to be carried up higher with stones and timbers, and to be covered with lead. H e also placed in the same four new bells whose names are Dunstan, Paulinus, Ithamar, and Lanfranc."I So far as can be gathered from old prints and engravings the tower had already been carried up high enough to receive the four main roofs against it, and this stage seems to have been ornamented with an arcade o f tall trefoiled arches. * " Anno regni regis Edwardi x v j (1342) Episcopus Refectorium. Dormitorum. et adios defectus in ecclesia sumptibus suis pro majori parte fecit reparare." Cott. MS. Faustina B. 5, f. 88'; and Wharton, _Anglia Sacra, i. 375. i* My friend Mr. C. R. Peers suggests that possibly the contrast between Christianity and Judaism is continued here, and that the two lower figures, both of which have veiled heads, are Jewish doctors, and the two upper, with bare heads, Christian doctors. t A n n o regni regis Bdwardi [ I I I . ] xviij (1343) Episcopus tune Campanile novum eoclesie Roffensis petris atque lignis alcius fecit levare at illud plumb° cooperire. necnon et quatuor campanas novas in eodem ponere. quorum [sic] nomina sunt heo. Dunstanus. Paulinus. Ithamarus. atque Lamfrancus." Cott. MS. Faustina 33. 5, f. 89'; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 375. T. A N D R M A T ROC HtSTER. FIG. 33.—DOORWAY AT ENTRANCE OF CHAPTER-ROOM, (The door is modern.) 277 278 C ATHEDRAL ORUROU A113 1VIONA8TERY O r Bishop Ramo now added an upper story, capped by a wooden spire covered with lead. Both appear to have undergone extensive renewal (see post), but the main lines of the steeple were retained until 1826, when Mr. Cottingham took down the spire, and cased and otherwise altered the tower into its present form. A s the tower was known as "six-bell steeple" in 1545,* there must have been placed in it, besides the four new bells given by the bishop, two others, perhaps those that formerly hung in the south tower. The next work in point of date was the raising of the outer wall of the north aisle of the quire to form a clerestory, and the erection of a new stone vault of four bays with longitudinal, transverse, diagonal, and wall ribs, with carved bosses. O f the four windows of the clerestory the first is of two lights with quatrefoil above, the others of three lights, of two patterns, with late-Decorated tracery. O f about the same period are the three-light windows, with slender tracery verging on Perpendicular, that are inserted in the side walls of the presbytery in place of the plainer early-English lights. These and the sedilia were probably put i n during the episcopate of Thomas Brinton, 1373-1389. During the fifteenth century various alterations were made in the nave. I n the north aisle the first five Norman windows were replaced by larger pointed ones of early-Perpendicular character, of two lights with a sexfoil in the head. I n the sixth bay was also inserted a doorway with a square-headed window over it, also of two lights. The windows in the south aisle are poor modern things, and it is impossible to say what they have succeeded. Still later the Norman clerestory of the nave, which from the bulging and declination of the existing walls had evidently been for some time in a dangerous state, was taken down and rebuilt in the new manner, and a large eight-light window inserted in the Norman front. Professor Willis, in his notes already referred to, accurately describes the nave clerestory as " a late work, consisting of a flat wall with four-centred windows o f the plainest and meanest character, the same in number as the pier arches * See Thorpe, Custumale Reese,174. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 7 9 below them, but awkwardly arranged, so that no one window stands above the centre of a pier arch, each being more or less to the west of it." T h e new clerestory, unlike its Norman predecessor, has no wall passage. W i t h the old clerestory the Norman pinnacle on the north-west angle of the nave was taken down and a plain octagonal turret set up in its stead,* and the flat Norman ceiling and its outer roof were replaced by an open timber roof, also nearly flat. These new works were no doubt largely assisted by bequests of two of the bishops, and other pious folk. Thus bishop John Langedon, by his will dated 2nd March 1433-4, left £20 "ad reparacionem tecti navis ecclesie D.ostre Roffensis."t Thomas Brown, bishop of Norwich, but o f Rochester from May 1435 t o September 1436, by his will dated 28th October 1455, also left £20 "ad fabricam navis ecclesie cathedralis Ruffensis . . . . Proviso quod opere fabrice hujusmodi aliquod raemoriale fiat per sculpturas armorum meorum et nominis mei. I t a quod intuentes magis alliciantur ad orandum pro me." $ There are no traces of the good bishop's arms, but they may have been painted on the shields carried by the angels carved on the roof corbels, which now bear the Elizabethan arms of the city. Among other bequests are also the following: 1444. Thomas Glover alias Tanner, of Strode: "ad dimidiam fenestram in corpore ecclesie Cathedralis Roffensis de novo vitriandam. xxxs." ( i . 31b.)§ 1449. J o h n Bamburgh: To be buried in the cathedral church. "ad fabricara unius fenestre in navi ecclesie Cathedralis Roffensis. l x ' . " ( i . 87.) 1452. J o h n Pylmore: To be buried in the cathedral church. " fabrice unius fenestre in eadem ecclesia. xls." (ii. 14.) * This interesting piece o f architectural history, an example of fifteenthcentury restoration, was destroyed during the recent " restoration " of the west front (despite the protests of the late Mr. Granville Leveson Gower, V.P.S.A., and, the writer) i n order that i t might be replaced by a nineteenth-century mockery of the Norman pinnacle i t had superseded. f Reg. Chichele, i. f. 4621). $ Reg. Stafford, f. 132. § These and other references to extracts from wills relate to the volumes, now removed to Somerset House, of the Will Registers of the Consistory Court of Rochester. I am indebted for most of such extracts to my friend Mr. Leland L. Duncan, F.S.A. 2 8 0 C AT H E D R A L CHTIRCH A N D MONASTERY O F Mr. Denne also quotes a sentence passed in 1447 upon a vicar of Lamberhurst, i n the consistory court, for gross misconduct, " quod processionaliter eat in eccl. cath. et unam fenestram faciat vitriari sumptibus suis," etc.* Another fifteenth-century alteration was the substitution of a wide window of nine lights, with a transom, for the three upper lancets of the east front, and the addition of a low screen of stone, pierced with quatrefoils, in front of i t to guard the clerestory wall-passage. This window was destroyed by Sir G. Gilbert Scott, who " restored " the thyee lancets, and the quatrefoil screen was then placed in front of the west window, but it has since been taken down and deposited with other lumber in the crypt. The last addition made to the already singular ground plan of the church was the building on to the west side of the south transept of a late-Perpendicular quire of three bays. I t was intended to have been covered with a fan-vault of six compartments carried by two central columns, but that part of the design was never carried out. I t opens into the transept by a wide arch with massive jamb shafts, but towards the aisle there are three tall arches, like windows without tracery, with the lower parts closed by stone screens. The windows are each of three lights with a transom, and traceried heads of somewhat curious pattern. This extension has in modern times been called the Lady Chapel, but, as will presently be shewn, the south transept was actually the chapel of Our Lady, and this was added to form a quire to it. A n earlier claim that this was the infirmary chapel, which was also dedicated in honour of Our Lady, was made from lack of knowledge of the uses and position of the monastic imfirmitorium or imfirmaria. In the accounts of William Preselle, prior, for 1512-13 is a payment of 30s., " Johanni Birche kerver ultra vjli xiijs iiijd sibi solutos ultimo anno pro complanacione nove capelle et pro factura desse in capella Domini Prioris."t The nova * "Memorials of the Cathedral Church of Rochester," by the Rev. Samuel Denne, M.A. and F.S.A., in Thorpe, Custumale Itoffense, 118, note [p]. f The originals of this and some other account rolls are at present mislaid, but transcripts of them exist among the Thorpe MSS. in the possession of the Sooiety of Antiquaries, whence the above extract is taken (MS. 1784.) ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 8 1 capella here mentioned is not improbably the western annex to the south transept. This last addition to the church brings us within a few years of the suppression of the priory and the ref oun.ding of the cathedral church i n 1541 with, for the second time, a body of secular canons. B y the charter incorporating the new Dean and Chapter, the whole o f the church, with its chapels, bells, steeples, cloisters, roofs, and cemeteries, was made over to them; but excepting some slight alterations i n the arrangements of the quire, no important changes appear to have been made in the fabric. During the three and a half centuries that have since elapsed the church has suffered many things at the hands of " restorers " and others. The shrines of St. William, St. Paulinus, and St. Ythamar had probably been destroyed i n 1538, but the altars and images, etc., no doubt remained, as at Canterbury, until the reign of Edward V I . , when they were swept away and the church otherwise defaced under the "Reformers." A bond of 1591, among the chapter records, contains the statement: "Whereas a greate parte of the Chansell of the within named Cathedrall church was lately burned and now reedified." There does not, however, seem to be any other record of this fire, or of its extent, or as to what repairs were entailed by it. During the Great Rebellion the church seems t o have suffered less than others of its size. I t was visited by the rebels i n September 1642 on their way from Canterbury, where t h e y had wrought great havoc; and "Mercurius Rusticus " gives the following account of their doings here: The Rebels therefore comming to Rochester, brought the same affections along with them which they had expressed at Canterbury, but in wisedome thought it not safe to give them the same scope, here as there; for the multitude though mad enough, yet were not so mad, nor stood yet so prepar'd to approve such heathenish practices; b y this means the Monuments of the dead, which elsewhere they brake up and violated, stood untouched; Escoucheons and Armes of the abbilitie and Gentry (upbraiding eye-sores to broken, mean 282 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F Citizens and vulgar Bebells) remained undefaced, the Seats & Stals of the Quire escaped breaking downe, onely those things which were wont to stuffe up Parlianzentary Petitions, and were branded by the Leaders of the Faction, for Popery and Innovation, in these they took libertie to let loose their wild zeal° : they brake down the Rayl about the Lords Table, or Altar, calllt which you please; and not only so, but most basely reviled a now Reverend Prelate, who being lately Deane of that Church,* had for the more uniform°, and reverend receiving of the blessed Sacrament set it up, with the odious name of Rogue, often repeated: they seized upon the Velvet covering of the holy Table, and in contempt of those holy Mysteries which were Celebrated on the Table, removed the Table it selfe into a lower place of the Church.t According to Mr. Denne,t large sums were spent upon the repair of the fabric at the Restoration, but what parts were thus dealt with is not stated. A stone with the date 1664, inserted i n the outer wall o f the south aisle o f the nave, probably records i t s partial rebuilding and recasing, when most of its ancient features were obliterated. T h e other aisle was partly reconstructed i n 1670, M which year Mr. Denne says: " A n agreement was made with Robert Cable to take down the north wall of the nave of the church forty feet i n length, and to erect i t new from the ground."§ In the Chapter Act Book,11 under date 8th December 1679, is this entry: Memorandum that Mr. Guy appeared this day in the Chapter house & gives this account Concerning the Steple vizt That he finds the same in a very ruinos Condicon—read.y to sinke dovvne into the Churche & to Carry all before it, by reason of the rottennesse of the plates, & that the great Girders are rotted quite through so that a stick may be easily thrust through the same; & that all the lead is so * This was Henry King, dean from 6th February 1638-9, who was consecrated bishop of Chichester 6th February 1641-2. t Mercurius Rusticus ; o r, The Countries Complaint, o f The Sacrileges, Prophanations, and Plundrings, Committed by the Schisrnatiques, on the Cathedrall Churches of this Singdome (Oxford, 1646), being the second part of Anglia Buina : or, Bngland's Buine, etc. 220, 221. Thorpe, Custumale Roffense, 181. § Ibid. 182. j j f . 14b. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 8 3 thinn that there is no mending of it & that it is thought that the spire bath not beene new leaded since it was first set up. And that three Corners of the Stone worke of the tower wch is all rent and Cracked, must be taken downe, And that he supposes that the makeing good of the sti me Tower, the takeing downe of the Old Spire & the putting Lipp of new one & sufficiently to Cover the same with lead may amount unto the smile of 1600li over & besides the old lead & timber. Subscriptions seem to have been raised for the repair, for a few leaves further on* is a list of " Benefactors " and the amounts they subscribed, including the Dean of Canterbury 220, the Church of Canterbury 220, Sir Orlando Bridgeman (Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas) 1100, John Warner late Bishop of Rochester 22000, John Dolbin. now Bishop 2100, and so on. Another opinion, however, than Mr. Guy's appears to have been taken, for under date 17th June 1680 is this memorandum: Henry ffiT of the Citty of Westminster Carpenter haveing taken a survey of the steeple of the Cathedrall Church of Rochester doth declare, That the mending of the lead upon. the Spire and the mending of one end of a Beame att the lower end of the east side of the Spire wilbe sufficient to keep° the aine from falling.t Mr. Guy's alarming report was therefore set aside, and on 23 June 1680 we find: "The Repaires of the Steeple and the wall Ordered to be done forthwth.I The steeple was, however, rebuilt in 1749* from the roofs upwards. In 1751 the condition of the south-east transept became so serious that " i n pursuance of the advice o f the late Mr. Sloane" two great brick buttresses were built up against it. 11 Twenty years later the roof was lightened, and, according to Mr. Denne, "these experiments had for a time their use. B u t the wall being evidently declining, i t was since judged expedient to consult Mr. Mylne, and by his direction piles of brick have been reared in the undercroft and within * Chapter Act Book, iii. f. I b i d . iv. f. 8". $ibid. f. 16". § Thorpe, Custermale Roffeitse, 183. See Storer's view of the south-east transept, published in 1816. 2 8 4 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY OP the aisle, and other methods used to discharge the weight of the upper works. This scheme has hitherto fully answered the purpose."* The "piles of brick" still remain i n the undercroft (see Plan, PLATE III.) ; those "within the aisle" are shevvn in Storer's plate 7. 34.—THE SOUTH-EAST TRAN SEPT, BEFORE ITS " RESTORATION " BY MR. COTTINGHAM, MEWING ONE OF THE BUTTRESSES BUILT IN 1751. In 1763 the pinnacles on. the outer turrets of the west front were taken down, and the remainder of the north turret rebuilt from the ground in a curious imitation of Norman work (see FIG. 7).t * Thorpe, Oustuntale Roffense, 169. t Ibid. 183. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 8 5 Shortly after 1779 Gundulf's north tower was begun to be demolished for the sake of the building material, but the work was abandoned after the upper parts had been destroyed. Between 1825 and 1830 a great deal of work was done to the church under the direction of Mr. L. N. Cottingham, especially i n connection with the quire and presbytery, the south-east transept, the central tower, and the west front. The alterations in the quire and presbytery will be referred to later. W i t h regard to the south-east transept the disfiguring brick buttresses were taken down (FIG. 34), and the whole front recased with a perpendicular face; the arches into the eastern aisle were also unblocked, and the doorway and screen at the west end of the south quire aisle removed eastwards to the southernmost of the two arches at the top of the steps. In the case of the tower the upper story and the wooden spire that surmounted it were taken down, the lower story cased, and a new tower of poor design carried up in place of the old steeple. The west window and gable o f the nave were "restored," that is, made new, and the remains of the old Norman diapering.* relegated to the crypt. In 1872 and following years the church again underwent " restoration " at the hands of Sir G. Gilbert Scott. A n ugly late-Perpendicular window i n the clerestory a t the east end of the church was then replaced by sham early-English lancets, and the presbytery and quire were gutted and repaved and refitted. Externally the east and north gables of the presbytery were rebuilt to the supposed pitch of the old roofs, but the roofs themselves have not yet been raised to meet them. The roofs and gables of both the transepts were also rebuilt to the old high pitch, as ah.eady noted. A good deal of necessary repair was done to the stonework, and on the whole the " restoration " was conservative and involved the destruction of very little old work. In 1888 and following years the west front was " restored " under the direction of Mr. J. L. Pearson, who replaced the outer pinnacles and north turret, destroyed in 1763, by sham- Norman ones designed from old drawings. H e also destroyed the fifteenth-century pinnacle, and substituted for it a sham- * This is shewn in the etching in Thorpe, Custumale Beene, plate xxxv, 2 8 6 C A T H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F Norman copy of its fellow. Much of the facing was also renewed, but this was to a large extent necessary owing to its decayed condition. Before leaving the church something must be said as to (i.) its antiquities and ritual arrangements, and (ii.) the fine collection of ancient monuments. One of the most valuable sources of evidence as to the arrangements of a church is its old pavement. N o t only does i t sometimes indicate by undisturbed gravestones of known persons the positions of altars and images, but the limits of altars and altar platforms, the places of lost furniture and screens, and of various other interesting features, are often plainly to be seen in it. Unfortunately the cathedral church of Rochester has been repaved in modern times from end to end, and most of the ancient gravestones that remained have been displaced or broken up. W e are therefore confined to the few traces left upon the walls, and such information as may be gleaned from wills and other documents. The nave has been so completely divested of almost every trace of its old arrangements that very little can be said about them. The pavement is all new, and a casement of a bishop's brass, shevvn in Thorpe's plan as lying at the foot of the steps before the west door, has now disappeared. Some indications of colour may be seen on the diaper-work in the first of the Norman bays of the triforium, and Mr. George Payne has pointed out to, me the ghost of a large painting of St. Christopher on the north face of the last pier of the south arcade. The carved Decorated capital on the south side has also been painted and gilded. The altar of St. Nicholas and the little chapel built in 1327 were probably taken away in 1423. A l l traces of them and of the screen against which the altar stood, other than what have been already noted, have disappeared with the old floor. In the Oustumale Roffense is a memorandum concerning the brethren of St. Bartholomew's Hospital near Chatham, that "the infirm also have the offering of two altars, namely, of St. James and St. Giles, and on. that account they ought ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 287 to cover the aisles of the church."* A s the Custumal was drawn up early in the fourteenth century, the aisles here referred to can hardly be other than those of the nave, and the altars of St. Giles and St. James would appear to have been in them. N o other reference to the altar of St. Giles has come to light, but that of St. James is named in two late wills: 1490. John Dogett : To the autr of Seynt James the apostell wtin the seyde Cathedral church xld. ( v. 130.) 1501. Richard Qwylt To the autir of Seynt James in the seyde Cathedral church a cloth of Diaper. ( v. 411.) The condition of the arch between the north aisle and the transept is so perfect that there cannot at any time have been an altar or screen there, or it would certainly have left traces, and the arch was no doubt purposely kept open for pilgrims and processions. The arch at the east end of the south aisle has its base ruthlessly chopped away for a lofty screen that stood in it, and against this was no doubt an altar. I t was surrounded with painting, some of which, in the form of a series of branched loops, black on a yellow ground, remains on the north jamb of the arch. A s the altar of St. James was a popular one and accessible to the layfolk, I am inclined to identify it with the south aisle altar, especially since, as will be seen presently, there is no other place for it, unless it stood against one of the pillars. Somewhere in the nave was a famous image of Our Lady of Grace. Whether it was the same as the "great image of St. Mary" recorded in the thirteenth-century list of benefactionst as the gift of Robert FitzBundo and Aldiva his wife it is impossible to say, as it is not mentioned until the * " Habent eciam infirmi oblacionem duorum altarium, scilicet Sancti Jacobi et Sancti Egidii, at ideo debent cooperire alas ecclesim." Thorpe, Custumale Roffense, 25, 170. t " Robertus films Bundonis at Aldiya uxor ejns dederunt magnam ymaginem sancte Marie." Cott. MS. Vespasian A , 22, f . 50k; and Thorpe, Registrunt Roffense, 123. 288 C ATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF end of the fifteenth century. Several references to i t occur in wills: 1497. John Bischopp, brother of Dan William Bischopp, prior of Rochester: To be buried in the Cathedral church of Rochester a fore the image of Or lady of grace. I will that a honest priest syng in the abbey church afore the ymage of our seyde Lady of Grace St Grygory trentall a hole yere. ( v i . 60b.) 1518. Michael Ottewell : To ouer ladie of grace to the mayntening of hur ligths beying in the bodie of the abbey church iiijd. ( v i i . 134.) 1527. Alice Warner: To be buried in the Cathedral church of Rochester in the body of ye churche before ouer lady of grace and to the ligth before our lady of grace in the same church xld. (viii. 146.) 1532. John Warner: To be buried before the ymage of our lady in the body of the Cathedral church in Rochester. ( i x . 69.) Before it, in addition to the usual light or lights, was a chest for offerings. I n the sacrist's account for 1512-13 is a payment of 4d. pro factura Junius ciste corm, Beata Maria in navi ecclesie, and 31s. 5d. are set down as the offerings for the same year at the tomb of St. William and de cista Beate Marie. There is one other matter touching the nave. B y his will dated 2nd March 1433 John Langedon, bishop of Rochester, desires corpus meum vero sepeliendum in ecclesia nostra Roffensis in navi ecclesie inter duas columpnas proximas ad finem capelle beate marie virginis in navi ecclesie.* I f the last three words be not redundant, this direction implies the existence of a Lady Chapel in the nave, perhaps one in which stood the image of Our Lady of Grace. I am not, however, able to locate this, or for the present to explain the passage. A n y gravestone which might mark the site has long disappeared. * Reg. Chicheley, j f. 462'. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 8 9 One object in the nave must be mentioned before leaving it, namely, the font. That one existed in medieval times is proved by a direction in the Custumal that the servants of the church, "cum processio sit ad crucem in navem ecclesie ponent ante crucifix= [i.e. the Rood] cereum accensum, et in nocte ad fontes candelam." O f this font nothing appears to be known. I n Coney's view o f the nave i n the llfonasticon Anglicanumt the font is shewn standing under an arch on the south side, enclosed by a balustrade and surmounted by a seventeenth-century cover. S o far as the engraving tells this font appears to have resembled the one at Canterbury, and as that was given by John Warner, bishop of Rochester (1637-8-1666), when prebendary of Canterbury (circa 1634- 1637), the Rochester font was perhaps also his gift, because the old one had been damaged or destroyed by the Puritans. In 1850 the old font and its balustrade were swept away, and in place of the former a new one of sham-Norman design was set up in the next bay westwards. This in turn has been done away with, and another, of equally feeble design, which was dedicated on 24th May 1893, has been placed in the middle of the seventh bay. The nave is now a mere preaching house, furnished with an old pulpit displaced from the quire, and with varnished pitch-pine fittings for the clergy, singing men, and choristers. The congregation is provided with chairs. On Gundulf's death in March 1107-8 he was buried by archbishop Anselm "before the altar of the Crucifix of the church which he himself had built from the foundations."1 Where this altar stood is not recorded, nor is there any other mention of such an altar until the end of the fifteenth century. This is not, however, extraordinary, owing to the scarcity of intermediate documents that might have referred to it. In 1480 John Beaule the elder desires in his will " t o be buried in the church of Seynt Andrew in Rochester betwene the Rode autm- and the north dore and the autir of Seynt * Thorpe, Cuslumale Beene, 30. t Ed. Coley, Ellis, and Bandinel (London, 1817), vol. i. $ "Ante altare orucifixi ecolesie quam ipso a fundamentis construxerat." Cott. MS. Nero A. 8, f, 80; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, ii. 291. YOL. xxur, 290 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF Ursule " (vi. 45). The north door here referred to is that in the north transept; we can therefore have no hesitation in placing the Rood altar in the large recess in the east wall, and the altar of St. Ursula in the small arched recess next to the quire aisle. Whether this Rood altar occupied the same place as the altar of the Crucifix before which Gundulf was buried i t is difficult to say, but the two dedications are undoubtedly synonymous for one and the same altar, which was also known as the altar of St. Cross, and the Jesus altar. I t was surmounted by a roodloft, supported by existing corbels in the east wall, and in front upon a screen that stood on the front edge of the platform. O n the loft stood a figure of the Rood with its accustomed light before it. The following other extracts from wills o f Rochester citizens refer to this altar and its adjuncts: 1496. William Ryverse : Corpus meum ad sepeliendum i n ecclesia Cathedrali Rolfensis ante crucem juxta hostium boriale ecelesie. (v. 282b.) 1498. Agnes Crowche : To be bereyd in the monastery of the Cathedral church before the autur of Thu, and for my sepulcur there vjs viijd. (v. 307.) 1501. Richard Qwyk : To the autir of Thu and of Seynt Ursuly in the seyd Cathedral church to make to eyther of them an autir cloth a fyne shete. ( v. 411.) 1503. William Brune, gent.: To the payntyng o f the Rode lofte i n the seyde Cathedral Church x marke. ( v i . 73.) 1516. Jane Skipwith, widow, of Bulley Hill nexte Rochester: To be buried in the Cathedral church before the Rode. To the rode ligth in the abbey xijd. ( v i i . 82.) 1523. Thomas Shemyng, draper: To the roode at ihc aulter in the abbey of Rochester ij yards of velvet prise xxs for a garment. ( v i i . 291.) The account of Robert Pyltone, sacrist, for 1512-13 also contains the following entry: Item pro factura duarum fiolarum argenti ponderancium x. unces ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 2 9 1 ex donacione computantis ad altare Sancti \Villelmi et Sancte Crucis [et] Sande Ursule xijs. The altar of St. Ursula was evidently a popular one, f o r there are many references to i t in wills. I t was apparently enclosed by a screen or iron grate, and was flanked by images of St. Christopher and St. -Ursula. F o r the canopy of one of these, probably the latter, the hood mold of the arch of the Jesus altar is cut away on the south side. Besides the entry above quoted from t h e sacrist's account, the following references to St. Ursula's altar are found in wills: 1501. Richard Qwyk : To be buried in the Cathedral church of Rochester afore the ymage of Seynt Ursule. To the autir of Seynt Ursule in the seyde church a playn Tuell marked wt blake silke. To the autir of Jhu and of Seynt Irrsuly in the seyd Cathedral Church to make to eyther of them an autir cloth a fyne shete. ( v. 411b.) 1503. William Brune, gentleman: To be buried in the Cathedral church of Rochester before the ymage of Seynt Ursula and Seynt Xpofer there. (vi. 73.) 1504. William Ladd: I bequeth to the supportacon of the chapell of seynt Ursula wtin the abbey of Rochester xxs. ( v i . 116.) 1513. Marten Bere of the Cytye of Rochester gent. of Bullyhill in the parysshe of seynt Nicholas: To the Pryor and covent of Rochester x marks to bye lede for the reparacion of ther dorter so that they find suerte that a brother of theirs syng too yers at seynt Ursula alter for my soule and Maryon and Elizabeth my wyffes. ( v i i . 1.) 1518. William Watts, junior: To the ligth o f Saynt Ursula in the abbey viijd. (vii. 124a.) 1526. Johan Pownde, widow: To in ligth of Saynt Barbara* and Saynt Ursula in the abbey wher I am suster xld. ( v i i i . 63.) 1543. Elizabeth Knollis : To be buried in the Kyngs collige at Rochester before the chapill of Saynt Ursula. ( x . 110.) * This light was in St. Nicholas church. u 2 2 9 2 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F This last entry is of interest as shewing that the various altars and chapels (as at Christchurch, Canterbury) were not destroyed at the suppression of the monastery, but continued in use under the Dean and Chapter appointed in 1541. The place of St. Ursula's altar is now occupied by a modern monument,* which partly blocks the recess. I t stood upon at least one step, but the evidence of this and of the various ancient grave-slabs in the transept disappeared with the old pavement. The only remaining traces o f the altar o f St. Ursula are the broken iron fastenings, on the chamfers of the recess in which it stood, for the ridels or curtains at the ends of it. These are 6 feet 10 inches from the present floor. There remains one monumental slab in the north transept which must not be passed over. I t is the casement of a brass, now fixed in an upright position in the recess for the Jesus altar, and is 3 feet 81 inches square. The design was, however, arranged lozengewise, a most unusual arrangement, and represented a priest in mass vestments with a figure on either side of him, and above, the Three Persons of the Trinity seated on a throne, with a kneeling figure on each side. The three lower figures held scrolls, and the priest had in addition an inscription under his feet. The whole was surrounded by a marginal inscription with the Evangelistic symbols at the corners. T h i s remarkable memorial was apparently of the fifteenth century. The north aisle of the quire has already been described as divided midway by a stone screen, which stands at the head of a flight of steps to the eastern parts of the church. The western part of the aisle is at present paved with a number of casements of brasses o f various dates, and apparently collected here from other parts of the church. O n either side the aisle is a stone bench extending its entire length, upon which the vaulting shafts stand. I n the south wall is a mutilated canopied recessed tomb that once probably held an effigy. I t is traditionally assigned to bishop Hamo of Hythe, 1819 to 1352, but there is nothing to connect i t with 'him except its date, which is circa 1350. I n the opposite wall are * Of John Parr, Esq., Storekeeper of the Ordnance at Chatham, who died in 1792, ST. A N D R EW AT ROCIMSTVR. 2 9 3 two doorways. The westernmost is a small pointed one, opening into a crooked passage to the basement of Gundulf's north tower. The present doorway is modern, but replaces an early one. The other door is a large square-headed opening leading to a flight of wooden steps up to the aisle roof, and thence, until the new tower was built, up to the belfry. The door actually opens into the space between the aisle and the Norman tower, and from the corbels in the walls there was at one time a chamber here of some kind.. This is clearly referred to in a lease, quoted by Mr. Delme,* from the Dean and Chapter to Nicholas Arnold, priest, dated 7th April 1545, of all their lodgings which was sometimes called the wax chandler's chambers, together with the little gallery next adjoining with all usual ways, that is to say, through the three-bell steeple,t some time so called, and so up to the north side of the church, and so on the stairs that goeth up to the six-bell steeple, T at a rent of a taper of one pound of wax, to be offered on Good Friday to the sepulchre of Our Lord." This space is now roofed in at the level of the aisle parapet, thereby rendering useless two of the clerestory windows of the aisle (which retain their glazing), and so darkening this part of the church. The blocked lancet window over the site of St. I.Trsula's altar also looked into the same space. In its first state, as built by bishop Gundulf, the south transept probably contained two altars, for which room was again made when the transept was rebuilt and enlarged in the thirteenth century. T h e dedication o f them is not known, but one was perhaps the altar of St. Mary. That there was an altar dedicated in her honour, at least as early as the thirteenth century, is proved by records of gifts to i t in the list of benefactions,* but its place is not indicated. During the subsequent alterations of the transept the two altar recesses were converted into one, which contained a single altar. This, as later documents prove, was dedicated * Thorpe, Custumale Roffense, 174. t Grundulf's tower. I The central tower. § " Quedam matrona de Wintonia, nomine Elviva, que habuit hic fratrem Nicholaum monachum, dedit . . casulam que est cotidiana ad altare sancte Marie. Rogerus de Ticheseie monachus, dedit altari sancte Marie casulam optimam. Singly& reclusa dedit p a n n u m ad altare sancte Marie." C o t t . MS. Vespasian A. 22, if. 901', 9V'; and Thorpe, Registrton Roffense, 123, 124. 204 CATICEDRAL CHERCH AND MONASTERY 0 7 in honour o f the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the transept thenceforth became the chapel of Our Lady, or Lady Chapel. The first entry that helps to locate the Lady Chapel is a reference i n the early fourteenth-century Custumal to "the altar of the Blessed Mary in the new work (in novo opere)."* This is followed by a grant among the Chapter records, dated Wednesday on the feast of the Conception o f the Blessed Virgin Mary 16 Edward I I . (1322), by Eleanor, widow o f William Coman of Rochester, of an annual rent of 12d., "ad susten.tacionem unius lampadis ardentis coram altare beate Marie virginis in capella ejusdem in ecclesia cathedrali Roffensis de novo constructa."1- O n 1st March 50 Edward I I I . (1376-7) Robert de Beleknappe, knight, granted to the prior and convent a l l his manor o f Sharsted, a moiety o f the manor o f Lidsing, and all his lands, etc. in the parishes of Chatham and Wouldham for an annual rent of 22 marks a year, " e t invenien.do ac sustentan.do unum monachum presbiterum divina cotidie imperpetuum celebraturum in ecclesia sancti Andree Roffensis ad altare beate Marie in pane Australi ejusdem ecclesie, viz, pro salute mea dum vixero, etc."I In the plan of the church given in the Custumale Reense,§ two of a row of three gravestones shewn as lying before the site of the altar in the south transept are described as those of bishops. B y his will dated 11th December 1372 Thomas Trillek, bishop of Rochester, desires "corpus meum ad sepeliendum in ecclesia cathedrali Roffensis." II T h a t he was buried in the Lady Chapel is proved by the will, dated 30th Apri l 1389, of his successor Thomas of Brinton, who desired "corpus meum sepeliendum in capella sande marie virgisis in ecclesia n.ostra Cathedrali Roffensis jam de novo constructa juxta tumulum bone memoris quondam Thome Tr i l lek Roffensis Episcopi nostri predecessoris immediati."¶ Perhaps the two slabs indicated by Thorpe covered the graves of these two bishops. They are no longer i n the position shewn. There is, how- * Thorpe, Custumale t Printed in Thorpe, Thorpe, Regiotrum § Plate xi. p. 174. 11 Reg. Whittlesey, f. ¶ Reg. Courtenay, f. Roffense, 13. Registrum Beense, 546. Roffense, 219. 126". ST. A N D R EW AT ROCHESTER. 2 9 5 ever, a huge casement of the brass of a bishop lying before the altar-place, which is not indicated i n Thorpe's plan. This may be the memorial of bishop Richard Yong, who, by his will dated 17th October 1418, desires "corpus meum sepeliendum in Capella beate Marie situata, in ecdesia Roffensis i n parte Australi dicte Capelle. I t e m volo quod ubi corpus nieum sepelietur ponatur lapis marmoreus j-uxta decenciaxn meam prout ipsis executoribus meals videbitur." The expression de novo constructa in bishop Brinton.'s will probably refers to some changes i n the arrangements or decorations of the chapel, of which no trace nor other record remains. Among the Chapter records i s an agreement dated 30th May 8 Henry IV. (1407), between Sir William Rikhill, knight, and the Prior and Convent o f Rochester, that whereas the said Sir William, among other good deeds, has given the monks £100 in usus ecclesie sue, the said Prior and Convent undertake that every day for ever, except on the last three days o f Holy Week, a monk and priest shall celebrate ad summum altare in capella beate Marie a mass of requiem for the said William, Rosia his wife, and others, etc. B y his will dated the day of St. German (31st July) 1407 the same Sir William "Rykel " desires to be buried in the church of the blessed Andrew of Rochester "in capella beate Marie ejusdem ecclesie juxta lapidem ubi Johannes Schepeye nunc prior ejusdem ecclesie se disposuit jacere."t Rosa, formerly the wife of Sir William Rikhill, by her will dated 28th April 1418 desired her body to be buried in the cathedral church of Rochester in eadem ecclesia ubi corpus predicti Willelmi nu/per mariti mei requiessit [sic] .1 S i r Richard de Arunclell, brother of Six William Arundel, LG., by will dated 8th July 1417 desired to be buried in capella beate Marie in Abbatia de Rouchestre secundum disposicionem et ordinacionem executorum meorum.§ The will of Richard Brown alias Cordon, LL.D., archdeacon of Rochester, and * Reg. Chichele3r, 1. f. 323'. t Reg. Arundel, i. f. 234. t Reg. Stafford and Kemp, f. 222. § P.0.0. Reg. 45 Marche, p. 360; see also Archaologia Cantiana, X I I I . 141. 296 CATHEpRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERIt OF canon o f York, Wells, and St. Asaph, dated 8th October 1452, has also an interesting reference to this chapel: Si vero infra Civitatem Roffen. me mori contingat tune volo quod corpus meum sepeliatur in Cancello beate Marie Virginis infra ecclesiam Conventualem et Cathedralem beati Andree Roffen. ad pedes domini Ricardi Yong quondam Episcopi Roffen. et primi promotoris mei cum superposicione lapidis et epitaphio predicto.* , The following entries in later wills also have reference to the Lady Chapel: 1474. Edmund Chertsey, gent.: To be buried in the Cathedral chiral of Seint Andrewe in Rouchestr beside the body of Edith sumtyme my wife which lieth a yenst their when as the durr o f our lady chapel" was of ()old tyme, in which place I will myn executors make to be leid a conuenient stone o f marble with a remembrance of Imagery thereon of me and of the said Eclithe and also of Elyanor my wife and of all my children with scriptur conuenient and accordyng to the tymes of our decessyng.t 1493. Julyan Hyckes : To the sustentation of a taper in the chapell of our lady in the seyde monastery V18 Vilid. ( v, 211.) 1518, Thomas Harlow: To be buryed wtin the abbey o f Sent Andrewe of Rochester in the chapell of oure lady next to my wyff and for my grave vjsviijd. ( v i i . 139.) 1526. Margaret Welles : To be buried wtin our lady chapell wtin the monastery of Saynt Andrews of Rochester beside my husbande. (viii. 46.) 1530. John Normanvile, esquire: To be buried wtin the Oath. Churche of Rochester in the chapell of our lady there. ( v i i i . 273.) Isabell Normanfeld, widow, makes a similar bequest in 1535. (ix. 258.) Although, with the exception already noted, all the ancient grave-slabs disappeared when the transept was repaved, there can be little doubt that the whole of the documents quoted * Reg. Stafford and Kemp, f. 263. t P.C.C. Reg. 15 Wattys. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 9 7 refer to one and the same chapel, and that it was in the south transept. A l l traces o f the altar have unfortunately been obliterated, but the little doorway at the west end of the quire aisle, and the vestry door south of the site,* shew by their sills that they opened from the platform of an important altar, such as that of Our Lady of course was. F r o m these door levels i t is not improbable that the altar stood on a step of its own, on a platform raised three steps above the level of the transept. The back of the altar recess is plastered over and partly covered by monuments, but the soffit of the arch still bears traces o f coloured decoration. T h e whole of the wall above it, as far as the northernmost vaulting shaft, has also been covered with painting. Three tiers of tall canopied figures of saints can still be made out, as well as two smaller kneeling figures of a man and his wife, one on either side of the arch. The arches on the south side of the chapel also bear traces of colour. T h e easternmost recess on this side has, just below the window, traces of the insertion of a canopyt of some kind. This may have covered a sculptured representation o f the Nativity of Our Lord, or " O u r Lady i n ,Teson " as i t was called, which stood somewhere in this chapel. Two references to i t occur in wills: 1493. Julyan Ilyckes, maid: My purse of golde to be offeryd wt ye botons of sylver and gilt to the byrth of Ihu wtin the cha,pell of our lady in the seyde monastery. ( v. 211.) 1501. Richard Qwyk : I bequeth to our lady in Jeson a pursse of gold & peryl x corall stones to be brouderyd a boute itt and va money. ( v. 411b.) In the treasurer's accounts. for 1548 is an entry: " I t e m payd unto M o i l Pyle and Ihoii Watts for takyng down o f the Jesye xviija," which may refer to the carving in question, but there may also have been a Tree of Jesse somewhere in the church, of which .we have no other record. * The sill of this door is 33 .inches from the floor. t These traces have lately been almost entirely obliterated by a tablet referring to the painted glass above, one of a large series of similar blots with which the walls of the church are disfigured. 298 CATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF From the restriction of .the painting on the east wall to two bays i t is probable that there was a screen across the transept on the line of the northernmost pair of vaulting shafts, and this is borne out by the reference in Edmund Chertsey's will to "the durr of our lady chapell." N o other traces of the screen now remain. The large addition westwards to the area of the chapel, made in the late-Perpendicular period, was probably to afford room f o r a quire, arranged much in the same way as the Lady Chapel at Winchester still is. After the middle of the sixteenth century the stalls, etc., would be destroyed, and henceforth the chapel was fitted up as a consistory court, as shewn in the old plans of the church. The south aisle o f the quire seems to have been used for the most part as a sort of lobby between the cloister and the church. The large space west of the cloister woulifiniff.dulilialling (WM at d o o r would be available for presses f o r copes, vestments, or other FIG. 35.-CANOPIED TOMB OF BISHOP JOHN church gear, but no record of them exists, and the repaving has swept away whatever traces there may have been on the floor. Near the west end of the aisle, at about 8 feet from the pavement, is a pipe or tube, about 3 inches in diameter, cut in ashlar blocks and running through the quire wall. The same peculiarity exists on the north, though blocked externally by bishop Hamo's tomb. The object of these is a puzzle. kwdi eiq OF BRADFIELD, 1278-1283. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 2 9 9 They open in the quire at about the level of a man's ear when sitting, but are now hidden by the stalls. Immediately to the west of the buttress at the top of the stairs leading down to the crypt is a recessed tomb. I t bears a mutilated effigy in a chasuble, holding a book in the right hand and staff in the left. T h e head and lower part of the figure are missing, but the sleeves of the albe, tunic, and dalmatic, appear at the wrists, and prove that i t represents a bishop. I t is usually ascribed to John of Bradfield, who died in 1283, and was buried in the south part of the church juxta ostium crubitorum.* So the MS. plainly has it, but what does the last word mean? M r . J . T. 1VIicklethwaite suggests "crypts," which fits very well. T h e effigy, which is executed in very low relief, seems earlier than 1283. I t is surmounted by a straight-sided pedimental canopy with remarkable cusps. (FIG. 35.) T h e style of this agrees better with the date of the bishop's decease. Just to the east of the cloister door is a wide and plain trefoiled arched recess. I t .perhaps formed part of the stone cloister b u i l t b y bishop Gilbert of Glanville (1185-1214), and when the wall of that was absorbed into the aisle, was put to some other use, such as a lavatory. Beyond i t are two semi-circular arches; these also belong to the old cloister. The flight of marble steps at the east end of the aisle is that by which the monks ascended on their way from the cloister to the quire. T h e doorway a t the top has been moved from the other end of the aisle, as already stated, but there i s nothing t o shew t h a t i t displaced o r succeeded another. The transept into which i t opens has i n the south wall a central recess, between two small doorways, containing a stone coffin; the marble l i d of this has a cross with foliated stem, but there is nothing to indicate whom i t covers. T h e two doorways led to staircases: the one descending to the crypt, the other ascending to the triforium and the chamber * "mocconxxxur. Obiit Johannes episeopus Itoffensis in die Sancti Georgij martyris a t sepultus est i n ecelesia eadem a parte australi juxta, ostium orubitorum." S o Cott. MS. Nero D . 2, f . 181, but Wharton i n Anglia Sacra, ii. 350, prints the last word excubitorum. John of Bradfield was bishop from 1278 to 1283. 3 0 0 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F over the aisle; but both stairs are now blocked for the greater security of this part of the fabric. The aisle on the east of the transept originally contained certainly one altar, but i f there was another i t must have been done away with in the fourteenth century, when the well-known doorway with figures of the Church and Synagogue was inserted, probably by bishop Hamo of Hythe. The dedications of these altars cannot at present be identified. I t is possible, however, that the surviving altar was that at which bishop Hamo of Hythe founded a chantry for two priests on 30th April 1346, and enriched with sets of vestments and other necessary ornaments.* The deed o f foundation unfortunately does not specify the altar. Perhaps i t was the altar of St. Peter to which the lady Cecily of Sheppey, by counsel of Osbern of Sheppey, gave a window when this part of the church was building.t This window must in that case have given way to the fourteenth-century one subsequently inserted over the altar, probably by bishop Hamo. A l l traces of an altar or altars here have been obliterated. The enriched doorway described above opened into the vestry, but it was no doubt built as the entrance to the way by which the monks had direct access to the dorter, as in the parallel case at Canterbury. The building into which it opens is two-storied. The lower story is certainly as old as the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, and its south wall may be even older. I t was in connexion with the cloister, and was among the buildings assigned to the Dean at the Suppression, when i t was described as "a vault for the deanes woodehouse lying under the vestrie." T h e upper floor has been so much altered that only its north wall and part of the south wall can be called old; all its windows have been modernized, and all its old fittings destroyed. Since the dismantling of the Norman chapter-house i t has served as the library and meeting-room of the Dean and * Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 554. t " Osbernus de Scapeia postea prior [1186-1199] . . . . per consilium ejus dedit domina Cecilia de Scapeia calicern argenteuln et deauratum e t albam paratam cum amictu suo de aurifriso et fenestram ad altare sancti Petri et duodecim denariatas redditus." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 89; and Thorpe, Begistrum, Beense, 121, 675. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 3 0 1 Chapter. The western end is partitioned off as a lobby, which until lately was also the choristers' vestry; i t also contains a modern fire-proof muniment room. The list of benefactions contains several items relating to vestry furniture, but there is of course nothing to shew if they were placed in the building just described: Radulfus [de Roe] prior [in 1199 & 1202] . . . . armarium ad cereos et ad ceram et ad candelam reponendam fieri fecit. quod modo in duas partes serratum est. Helyas prior [after 1202 & before 1222] . . . . materiem ad faciendum triangulum ad ca,pas reponendas comparavit. Petrus precentor inter multa alia bona que fecit armarium ad gradalia et psalteria reponenda •fieri fecit. quod modo in duas partes cissum est.* The cutting in two of the wax cupboard and the book almery evidently points to their removal to some other part of the church than that where they at first stood. No inventories of the vestry have been preserved, but it is clear from the large number of gifts recorded in the list of benefactions and elsewhere that i t was very well furnished with vestments and other ornamenta. Although the divisions have long disappeared, there can be little doubt that the eastern transepts were screened or walled off, after the usual fashion, from the quire and presbytery.t T h e arrangements o f these have o f course undergone considerable alteration from time to time, but so much has been left, or disclosed in successive "restorations," that their recovery is fairly certain. The quire still retains a good deal of what are certainly the oldest wooden quire fittings in England, no doubt those placed in it against the introitus in novum chorum in 1227. They include the wooden screen which forms the eastern face of the pulpitum or organ loft, portions of the old stalls, and almost the whole of the original forms in front of them, as well as some later desks with which they were enclosed in * Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, if. 89-90, 91b; and Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 122, 124. t On the south side the line of the screen seems to be indicated by a piece of the old pavement near the bishop's seat... • 3 0 2 C A T H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F 1541. When the arrangement then made was first altered is uncertain, but various names and dates scratched upon the old painted decoration of the quire walls shew that i t was not until after the sixteenth century. A n injunction of archbishop Laud "that there should be a new fair desk in the choir,"* and the statement of " Mercurius Rusticus " that "the seats and stalls of the quire escaped breaking down" during the troubles o f the Great Rebellion,t do not help us much. Perhaps the old state of things continued until the eighteenth century, when Mr. Denne says: "Very considerable alterations and improvements were made in the choir in the years 1742 and 1743, under the direction of Mr. Sloane. New stalls and pews were erected, the partition walls wainscoted, and the pavement laid with Bremen and Portland stone beautifully disposed. The choir was also newly furnished. The episcopal throne, which is opposite to the pulpit, was erected at the expense of Dr. Joseph Wilcocks, at that time bishop of the diocese."I The state of things thus created is shewn in Plate 7 of Storer's account of the church. I t represents the transept as shut off by a tall panelled screen, in front of which rise five tiers of seats. Similar panelling is shown against the quire wall, extending up to the first string-course. The throne given by bishop Wilcocks is of classical design, surmounted. by a mitre. During the repair of the quire and presbytery 'under Mr. Cottingham, in 1825-6, most of this eighteenth-century woodwork was swept away. A new throne and pulpit, new seats for the choir, and elaborate canopies over the returned stalls, all of the most approved "Gothic," were set up, from the designs of Mr. Blore. A case to match was also made for the organ,* and the west front of the pulpitum covered with panelling and tabernacle work. A l l was of the flimsiest character, of * Thorpe, Custumale Beense, 180. . 1 ' Ibid. t Ibid. 183. § The organs were first given by bishop Gilbert of Glanville (1185-1214), who among other benefits to the prior and convent, organa nobis fieri feeit. (Thorpe, 1?egistrum Reense, 633.) N o further mention of them occurs until 1634, when the Dean and Chapter reported to archbishop Laud that "there hath been of late years upon the fabric of the church, and making of the organs expended by the church above one thousand pounds." (Thorpe, Custumale Roffense, 180.) T h e present organs were made by Green in 1791. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 3 0 3 deal painted and grained in imitation of oak, and with crockets and finials cast in plaster-of-Paris and glued on and painted. These fittings i n their turn were taken away by Sir G. Gilbert Scott to make room for the present arrangements; and i t was during the alterations then made that there were brought to light the considerable remains of the thirteenthcentury woodwork already noted. By the removal of the canopies at the west end the old face of the organ loft was disclosed. T h e lower part of it was formed of plain wooden panelling, rising above the stalls for several feet, and decorated w i t h rude thirteenth-century painting. Above this was an open arcade of small trefoiled arches carried by slender octagonal shafts, but now boarded up and painted. T h e southern doorpost, the only ancient one, has some remains, of the carved figure of an angel, perhaps in connexion with a canopy over the bishop's stall, which was the first on the right of the entrance. T h e prior's stall was the first on the left. On the removal of the pews the lower parts o f the stalls were found t o be tolerably complete on both sides, and sufficient pieces were discovered to enable almost the whole design to be made out and reproduced. There was only one row, o f twenty-two stalls, on each side, and probably four returned stalls, making fifty-two in all; but all traces of the returned stalls and the whole o f the misericords had disappeared. In front of the seats is a low wooden form, divided by gangways into three lengths. Each length consists of a series of trefoiled arches carried by slender octagonal shafts, with stout ones at the ends, and supporting a thick slab o f oak. As the top of this is only 224 inches from the platform these forms could hardly have been used for books, for the monks used none save those that lay on the great lectern i n the middle of the quire, but were f o r the brethren to rest their elbows on when they were kneeling prostrati super formas during certain parts of the services. These curious fittings, which retain a good deal of their original painted decoration, owe their almost perfect preservation to their conversion into bookshelves by being.enclosed by higher panelled desks in 1541 3 0 4 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F for the convenience of the newly-appointed secular Chapter. These later desks, which are characteristic examples of their date, were removed by Sir G. Gilbert Scott to serve for a lower row of seats, and replaced by new bookboards carried by iron standards fixed to the old forms, which were then repaired and once more exposed to view.* The new stalls and misericords are as nearly as possible on the old lines. On lowering the stalls to their original level the remains of an interesting heraldic diaper with which the walls had been painted were disclosed, and further portions were found behind the canopies at the west end. From these remains the whole pattern has been recovered and reproduced from end to end of the quire, I t consists of a series of quatrefoils enclosing golden lions of England on a red ground, with blue interspaces, each charged with a gold fleur-de-lis of France. Along the bottom is a narrow band of flowers and interlaced ribbon work, and at the top a broader band of panels of ribbon work alternating with green panels, each containing a shield.t These have been filled with the armorial bearings of bishops of Rochester, and are amongst the best examples of modern heraldic painting to be seen anywhere. Other armorial ensigns, also modern, have been painted on the panels of the screen. The prior's stall was evidently covered with some kind of canopy at the time of the painting of the heraldic diaper, for the panelling behind i t retained the old thirteenth-century decoration. To preserve this the panels have been taken out and preserved under glass. On taking down the pulpit, which stood opposite the bishop's throne, Mr. Cottingham found on the flat surface of the wall the greater part of a representation of the Wheel of Fortune. This and the other paintings of the quire, with which it is contemporary, are probably of the time of bishop Ha,mo of Hy-the (1319-1352), who caused various works to be * From a valuable note on the quire fittings, by Mr. C. R. Baker King, i n Spring Gardens Note Book, ii. 75, from which some of the above particulars relating to the stalls have been taken. A drawing of the stalls, of which these notes are descriptive, by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, is given i n Spring Gardens Sketch Book, vol. ii. plate xlvi. For further descriptions and illustrations of this decoration see a paper by the Rev. Canon Scott Robertson i n iircliceologia Cantiana, X. 70-74. T h e ingenious disposition of the ribbon work is well worthy of notice, ST. A N D R EW AT ROCHESTER. 3 0 5 clone in the church between 1340 and 1350. A s the heraldic diaper is obviously derived from the quartered royal arms o f Edward I I I . , first adopted b y him i n 1340, i t cannot be earlier than this date. Although we have no record of the fact, i t is probable that the bishop's throne at the east end of the southern row of stalls was set up by Hamo of Hythe at about the same time that such thrones were being erected at Exeter, Wells, Durham, and elsewhere. I t certainly occupied this position at Rochester in the fifteenth century, for bishop John Lowe in his will, dated 1463, desires to be buried ex opposito sedis episcopalis (see post). Nothing is known of the throne displaced by bishop Wilcocks i n 1742-3. I n the treasurer's accounts for 1675 is a payment of £1 6s. 8d. " ffor purple bayes to line Bpps seate." The earliest notice of a pulpit occurs i n the treasurer's accounts for 1591: Item the making of the new pulpit wth Iron, wainscote, etc. V11 vs xjd. As there is no record of a new one i n 1742-3, the old pulpit may have remained t i l l the refitting o f the quire by Mr. Cottingham. T h e pulpit erected by him is now in the nave, and a new one by Sir G. Gilbert Scott has taken its place, but on another site, against the north-east pier of the crossing. There used to be an old brass eagle desk in the quire, but i t has disappeared and been replaced by a modern one. I n the accounts for 1676 is an entry: Pd. Bayly the Sexton for cleaning the Eagle for one year due at Mich. 1676 . 0 : 10 : 0 At the east end of the stalls is an ascent of three steps to the space between the two transepts. A s the presbytery proper is east of this, there can be little doubt that i n this area, as in other Benedictine churches, stood the quire altar. This is the altar mentioned i n the Custumal in connexion with the obit of bishop Odo of Bayeux as the minus altare.* * Thorpe, Custumale _Rebus°, 37. A t Worcester the corresponding altar was called the medium altare, and was dedicated in 1218 in honour of St. Peter and St. Wolstan. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 484. VOL, XXIII, X 3 0 6 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F I t would thus have stood nearly upon the site of the old high altar, with perhaps, as at Ely and Bury St. Edmunds, a low wall behind it, pierced with two doors.* T h e side screens or walls that shut off the transepts from this part of the quire would also have doors in them, the ostia presbyterii as they were usually called. The westernmost bay of the presbytery is raised one step above the level of the crossing (which is original), and has in the centre of the floor a large slab with the casement of the brass of a bishop. T h e arch on the north side is filled with the tomb and effigy of bishop John of Sheppey (1353-1360). The southern arch was also probably closed originally, but is now crossed by a low screen of sixteenth-century ironwork, in which is a gate. Owing to the many alterations i n the arrangements and levels of the rest of the presbytery i t is not easy to make out the successive changes i t has undergone. T h e high altar has occupied certainly three different sites. L e a v i n g f o r the present the consideration o f i t s position, etc. before and immediately after the changes o f 1549, we have first an injunction of archbishop Laud " t h a t the communion table be placed at the east end of the choir i n a decent manner, and a f a i r r a i l put up t o go cross the choir as i n other cathedral churches."t D u r i n g the troubles o f 1641 this rail was broken down and the altar removed "into a lower part of the church." 1 O f the replacement and decoration of the altar at the Restoration we have no note. T h e state o f things i n t h e eighteenth century i s thus described b y Mr. Denne : " T h e altar piece, which is made of Norway oak, is plain and neat, and was probably constructed in 1707, there being a chapter act, dated June 2, to empower Mr. Crompe, the chapter clerk, to sign an agreement with Mr. Coppinger * For particulars concerning the "base altar," as i t was called at Ely, see the Rev. D. J . Stewart's Architectural History o f _Ely Cathedral (London, 1868), 112, 113. T h e Bury altar is twice mentioned in the account of the abbots: " Baldewinus Abbas (1065-1097) sepultus est in presbiterio in eadem ecelesiajuxta murum retro parvum altar° in choro. Johannes primus (1279- 1301) sepultus est coram parvo altari in elioro." M . R. James, On the Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, xxviii. 1895), 180, 181. f Thorpe, Custumale Boffense, 180. Ibid. ST. ANDREW A T ROMIESTER. 3 0 7 for a new altar-piece . . . . I n 1752 when archbishop Herring, who was many years dean of this cathedral, gave fifty pounds towards furnishing and ornamenting this part of the church, there was only a pannel of wainscoat in the middle, in the place of which was fixed a large piece of rich velvet in a frame elegantly carved and gilt. T h i s was removed a few year ago; and i t is now decorated with a picture o f the angels appearing to the shepherds, by Mr. West, from an unknown benefactor."* . T h e plan that accompanies Mr. Denne's account shews the altar a t the east end on a platform of three steps, the topmost o f which i s checkered. Between the third and fourth bays are drawn four parallel lines, which represent the altar rail and perhaps two steps. T h e existing step across the next bay is not shevvn, nor are others i n the eastern part of the church, which were certainly there then. Storer's plan (1816) shews a similar arrangement of the altar and its steps, but his other lines are unreliable through their confusion with the diagram of the vaulting. At the beginning of 1825 the arrangements above described were entirely altered by Mr. Cottingham who, according to an account i n The Gentleman's Magazine, "commenced the improvements by taking down the Corinthian altar-piece, put up at the Reformation, which has brought to view the whole of the original composition of the East end of the choir, consisting o f three beautiful gothic arched recesses and windows, in the purest style of the thirteenth century, and on scraping off the whitewash, the decorations of the high altar appeared nearly all in their pristine glory; consisting of birds and beasts, fleurs de us, lilies, crescents, stars, scroll-foliage, fieury-crosses, lace-work borders, etc., arranged in the most beautiful order, and finely contrasted in the colours, which consist of the brightest crimsons, purples, azures, greens, etc.' t A later account i n the same publication also describes the removal of "the old and ugly oaken altar-screen" and the opening out of the three recesses in the east wall. " I n the intercolynnniations," i t continues, "are windows, and below * Thorpe, Custumale Iloffense, 183. t The Gentleman's Magazine, xcv. part i. (January—June 1825) 76. x 2 3 0 8 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F each i s a cross i n a circle painted on the wall."* These crosses are clearly three o f the twelve inside the buildingt that were anointed at the consecration of the church in 1240. Unfortunately they and the rest o f the painted decoration disclosed b y M r. Cottingham have since been obliterated. The disposition of the steps, etc., as rearranged in 1825, was as follows: The step a t the entrance o f the presbytery remained as of old. I n the next bay was a single step, and another a few feet further east, between the third and fourth bays, on which was the altar rail. T h e four bays beyond were on one level, and the altar stood against the east wall without any steps under it. T h e new arrangement is shewn in the plan published by Winkles in 18384 In 1873 Mr. Cottingham's arrangements were entirely swept away b y S i r G. Gilbert Scott, and the presbytery reduced t o its original level. I n the middle o f i t were disclosed what seem to have been the remains of the thirteenthcentury altar steps, and of a continuation of its platform eastwards, for notes of which I am much indebted to Mr. C. B. Baker King.* They consisted of a short length of the lowest step on the north side, and a longer piece on the south, immediately opposite the group of vaulting shafts between the second and third bays. U p o n these rested the remains o f walling, o f plastered rubble to the east of the shafts, of ashlar work t o the west of them. These were not however in line, the ashlar wall being set back 1 foot from the edge of the step, and the plastered wall only 8 inches. T h e dividing line falls exactly between the vaulting shafts, and if the high altar were on the west of this line, i t would stand immediately over the early- English supports built in the crypt below to carry its weight. This then would seem to have been its original position from the thirteenth century onwards. T h e platform was 17 feet * The Gentleman's Magazine, xcv. part ii. (July—December 1825) 225. t There were twelve outside as well, though all traces of them have now gone. Winkles's Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations o f the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales (London, 1838), i. 106. § Photographs were fortunately taken of these remains, copies of which were given to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. King, who had charge of the works under Sir G. Gilbert Scott. ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 3 0 9 3i- inches wide and rested upon the presbytery floor, which was apparently of one level from the east wall to about the foot of the bishop's grave-slab • in the fifth bay. M r . King tells me this level had been paved with 411-inch tiles, as shewn by their mortar beds, which alone remained. H o w far westward the platform extended could not be ascertained, and its height is uncertain, but there were probably three steps up to the altar. A s the presbytery is 28 feet wide the altar would not have been less than 11 or 12 feet long, and may even have been longer. Behind i t was a wall or reredos o f some kind extending from side to side, and over this was the beam which Richard of Walden the sacrist wrought with his own hands, with the apostles carved upon i t and a figure of St. Andrew standing above.* T h e " almery with relics" which he also made not unlikely stood in the recess west of bishop Gilbert's tomb, o r i n that opposite. T h e platform was continued behind the altar for at least 10 feet, but With a reduced height of 151- inches instead of the 23 inches on which the altar seems to have been elevated. T h e lower height is fixed by a large slab east of the platform, bearing the casement of the brass of Sir William Arundel, K.G., governor of the castle and city of Rochester, who died in 1400, and by his will desired t o be buried in Prieratu Roucestr' a (ergo inajoris aitaris,t and his wife Agnes t who, by her w i l l dated 6th September 1401, desires to be buried in ecclesia prioratus Sancti Andree Roffensis et sub eadem tumba ubi .pin,guntur figure domini mei et mee.§ The brass represented the knight and lady with clasped * " Ricardus de Waldene monachus sacrista . . . . propriis imanibus fecit trabem supra majus altare cum apostolis in eadem inseisis. et Andrea supra stante. et Almarium cum Reliquiis et libros plures." Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, 1. 92; and Thorpe, Registrum Roffense,125. T h e high altar of the Norman church had been decorated by Lanfranc with a silver frontal (tabulam argenteam), to which bishop Ernulf added ornaments of enamel (aecrevit dua,s listas de esmalo). The mother of William de Blintune, son of Ansfrid the sheriff, gave " pallium optimum, quod solet esse principale ad maj us altar°, absente tabula argentea, et crucem pulcherrimam de argent°, quo vendita est pro redempoione REicardil regis." I b i d . f. 87b; and Thorpe, Registrum Reense, 119, 120. T h e silver table was stolen by King John in 1215 when " depredata ecclesia Roffonsis. et tota civitas. adeo ut nee busta cum corpore domini super magnum altar° monachormu remaneret." C o t t . MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 314. t Reg. Arundel, i. f. 172b. $ See a paper by Mr. W. B. Rye in .d.relimologia Cantiana, X I I I . 111. § Reg. Arundel, i. f. 183. 810 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A D 1VIONA.MRY o r hands beneath a canopy. W h a t stood upon the platform is uncertain. Analogy would suggest a shrine o r shrines. That o f St. William, as w i l l be seen below, was placed elsewhere, b u t there were two others i n the church, o f St. Paulinus* and St. Ythanaar,-1- which bishop Hamo o f Hythe i n 1344 "caused to be made anew o f marble and alabaster, for which renewal he gave 200 marks." Some fragments of richly carved marble, which perhaps formed part of one or other o f these shrines, or were worked for them, were found by Mr. Cottingham in the casing of the old steeple when he built the central tower4 T h e amount spent upon the two shrines (at least 11500 according to present value) shews that they were standing structures, and not mere ornamented coffers or boxes of bones.* How long the arrangements described continued unchanged is not known, but by the end o f the fourteenth century some alterations seem to have been made in the levels, as is proved by the existing sedilia, which were then inserted immediately to the south of the altar. T h e seat of these is 2 feet 10 inches above the old floor, but i f the levels o f this were raised two steps to the height o f the (later) Arundel slab, the sedilia would be only 18-1- inches above, which is a convenient height for a seat. T h e sedilia are triple and o f late-Decorated date with crocketed canopies and super-canopy. T h e y bear the arms of (1) the church of Rochester, Argent, on a cross o f St. Andrew gules an escallop o r ; (2) the church o f Canterbury, * See p. 199 ante D u r i n g the episcopate of bishop Gilbert "magna fuerat perturbacio in ecclesia Roffensi. cujus occasione prior et conventus multa bona una cum argento quo venerabilis Lamfrancus feretrum sancti Patilini decoraverat : i n placito inter eos et episcopum vendiderunt.' Cott. MS. Nero 1). 2, 1. 127; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, ii. 346. t " Episcoptis circa festum Sancti Michaelis feretra sanctorum Paulin' et Ythamari de marmore et alabaustro fecit renovare : pro qua quidem renovacione ducentas mamas dedit." Cott. MS. Faustina 13. 5, f. 90; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 375. t See one o f the plates i n Some Account o f an Ancient Tom!., etc., discovered at Rochester Cathedral, by L . N . Cottingham, Archt. (Lendon, J. Taylor, 59 High Holborn, n.d.) § They were at an even earlier date of sufficient importance and popular repute f o r the King t o make offerings at, f o r the Wardrobe Account o f 28 Edward I. (1299-1300) has this entry: Obi aionces E o d em die. (27 Feb.) in oblaeionibus factis nomine Regis per dominum Raduif um de Staunford in ecelesia Prioratus leoffensis Reegt isfi lRij esguiine a d feretra sanctorum Itomari et Paulini quolibet loco vijs Summa xiiijs. Soc. Antiq. Loud. 2116. 119, f. 33. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 8 1 1 Azure, on a cross argent the abbreviation Xi (Christi) sable; (3) Argent, a cross quarter-pierced azure, for bishop Thomas Brinton, 1373-1389.* T h e only other trace of the old ritual arrangements of the presbytery is a small pointed and elaboratelycusped recess in the first bay on the north side, apparently to hold a cistern or lavatory. I t is 3 feet 6 i inches above the bench filling the bay, and has a slightly projecting ledge in front, with a long narrow sinking, from which a drain runs away towards the back. Beneath is a small cupboard with tile floor and smoke flue. I n connexion with the high altar i t may be noted that in the sacrist's account for 1512-13 is a payment of fid. " p r o j corde pro le basons coram summo altari."t The present arrangements by Sir G-. Gilbert Scott nearly reproduce those of the thirteenth century, but the altar and its platform have been set a bay too far east. T o accommodate the unsatisfactory and top-heavy reredos the Arundel slab has been moved about 2 feet further east. Before leaving the presbytery some reference must be made to the tombs i t contains. The casement of the brass of a bishop at its west end has already been noticed. I t s slab is 9 feet 61 inches and 3 feet 101 inches wide, and bore a life-size effigy of the bishop, with apparently a representation above his head of his soul being carried. up to Heaven in a sheet. O n either side were two shields, and the whole composition was surrounded by a marginal inscription interrupted by six roundels. T h e brass may have commemorated bishop John of Bottlesham, 1400-1404. Thorpe's plan shews a slab lying immediately in front of the * These arms also appear on the bishop's seal of dignity. t Before the high altar a t Durham "were three marveilous faire silver BASINS hung in chaines of silver ; one of them did hange in the south side of the Quire, above the stepps that go upp to the High Altar, the second on the north side .opposite to the first, the third, in the midst, betweene them both, and just before the High Altar. Theise three silver basons had lattin basons within them, havinge pricks for serges, or great wax candles, to stand on, the lattin basons beiuge to receive the drops of the candles, which did borne continually, both day and night, in token that the House was alwayes watchinge to God. There was also another silver bason. which did hang in silver chaines before the Sacrament of the foresaid High Altar, but nerer to the High Al tar than the other three, as almost dependinge or hanginge over the priests back, which was only lighted in time of masse and ther after extinguished." Rites of Durham (Surtees Society 15), 12. Probably a similar arrangement existed at Rochester. 312 C ATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY O r sedilia, which was supposed to mark the place of bishop John of Sheppey's burial. M r. Deane describes it as "a flat stone that was removed when the choir was new-paved in 1743."* The casement of the Arundel brass has been referred to above. FIG. 36.-MARBLE TOMB ASCRIBED TO BISHOP GILBERT OF GLANVILE, 185-1214. In the recess westward of the sedilia is an interesting early thirteenth-century Purbeck marble coped coffin-lid, which has lately been rescued from the crypt through the exertions of Mr. G. Payne, F.S.A. I t has a roll moulding • Thorpe, Custumale Roffense, 202. ST. ANDREW A T ROCHESTER. 3 1 3 along its ridge, from which leaves and curls o f leaf work diverge.* In the first bay on the south side i s a large Purbeck marble coffin covered by rough plain slabs. I t is traditionally assigned t o bishop Gundulf, b u t I know not upon what authority. In the third bay on the north side, opposite the sedilia, is the tomb generally ascribed to bishop Gilbert of Glanville. I t is a Purbeck marble sarcophagus with an arcade of seven arches filled with foliage i n front, and a sloping roof, now mutilated and restored w i t h rough stone, b u t originally adorned with seven busts. F o u r of these issued from lozengeshaped openings, and the other three were set i n quatrefoils, the openings and quatrefoils being placed alternately.t (FIG. 36.) T h e existence of this tomb, i f i t is in situ, shews that the presbytery was completed before 1214, the date o f the bishop's death. H e appears t o have been continually quarrelling with the prior and convent, and the chronicler, in recording his death, adds with uncharitable glee that he was buried like Jews and heretics, without the Divine offices, because he died during the Interdict, and that as soon as he was dead and buried the. Interdict was removed.I The next bay to the east contains the tomb o f bishop Laurence of St. Martin, 1251-1274.* T h e effigy is a fine * The foot has been cut away and hollowed to f i t against a semi-circular shaft or pillar. M r . Irvine suggests the slab was placed against one of the fourth pair of pillars in the nave, and removed at the repaving. t See Thorpe, Custumale Botrence, plate xlii. t 1214. " Defunctus est autem predictus. G. primus ecOlesie Roffensis perturbator. et sepultus a parte boriali predicte basilica inter fundatores confundator sic saul inter prophetas. cujus sepulchro titulum satis ei competentem patres predecessores imposuerunt. qui sic incipit. Laude Dei clausa fuit hic him claims in aula. Luce Jovis lux septima mesta silencia fregit. Congrue laude dei clausa moritur. cujus vita laudem canentium ore conclusit plurimorum. E t ut aperte dicamus : in tantum in eum ut creditur ulcio divina excrevit. ut sancta ecclesia qui pro hereticis at perfidis Judeis exorat : in transitu istius nequaquam divina celebrare permitteretur. Quia ipso vivente per septennium duravit tocius anglie In terdictum. Quo defuncto at tumulato. statim solutum est interdictuni." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 127b; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 347. T h e tomb should be compared with that of archbishop Hubert Walter (1193-1205) in the chapel of St. Thomas at Canterbury, from which i t was probably copied. § " O b i i t Laurentius Roffensis episcopus in crasti no sanctorum Marcellini at Petri. at sepultus honorifice in basilica sedis sue juxta, majus altare a parte boriali." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 178b. F o r an engraving of the effigy 3 1 4 C A T flEDEAL CHURCH A N D MONASTERY OP one, with a magnificent canopy above the head, wrought with great minuteness of detail in Purbeck marble. I t covers a coffin of the same material. In the opposite bay lies the Purbeck marble coffin and effigy of bishop Thomas of Ingoldesthorpe, 1283-1291.* T h e figure and its canopy are evidently by the same hand as bishop Laurence's effigy, but in a plainer style.t I t is curious that although the two effigies just described are placed in recesses, the side of each next the wall, which is consequently not seen, is as carefully carved as that towards the presbytery. T h e figures would therefore appear to have been brought ready-made, or carved for some other place; or they may have originally occupied another position where both sides were visible, such as under the arches at the west end of the presbytery, whence they were afterwards moved to their present sites. The northern o f these two arches is now filled by the monument of bishop John of Sheppey, 1353-1360. I t was found walled up, during the alterations in the presbytery, by Mr. Cottingham on 25th January 1825,T and consists of its original tomb and elaborately painted effigy, with a modern canopy copied from what was found o f the old one. T h e effigy is carved in chinch, and represents the bishop in amice and alb with brow.). and gold apparels, pink dalmatic diapered with black flowers, and red chasuble lined with green and powdered with a gold cruciform device. T h e gloves are white with jewelled backs, and from the left wrist hangs a golden f anon set with crystals. The tunicle and stole are not shewn. The crosier has a napkin twisted round i t , but the crook, which was fixed into the staff by a peg, has been lost; perhaps see Thorpe, Custumale Bofense, plate xliii. Another, but apparently unfinished, engraving of the effigy was published in 1841 by T. and G. Hollis in their Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. * "at°ccox.cr, Eodem anno obiit bone rnemorie magister Thomas de "Ynglesthorp episcopus Roffensis. videlicet i n festo sanctorum Nerei Achillel atque Pancratii. cujus corpus xvj° kl. Julii videlicet die Jovis proxima ante f e s t = Sancti Dunstani archtepiscopi traditum fuit sepulture cum sollempnitate debita in eadem ecclesitt juxta magnum altare ex parte australi." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 1836. Compare above from the original with the version printed by Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 350. i* See Thorpe, Cvstumale Roffense, plate xliii. I See The Gentleman's Magazine, xcv. part i . (January—June 1825) 76, and xcv. part i i . (July—December 1825) 225, 226; also a paper by Mr. A. J. Kempe in Areliceologia, xxv. 122-126, where the tomb, effigy, and details are carefully engraved (Plates vii, and viii.), ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 3 1 5 i t was of metal. T h e face appears to be a likeness. T h e mitre i s richly g i l t and jewelled, and perhaps represents mitram meam novam de op ore Johannis de Coloigne, which the bishop, by will dated 21st September 1360, bequeathed t o the Prior and Chapter.* Beneath the head are two oblong cushions of different design. T h e feet are covered by white sandals with brown bands, and rest on two dogs, each adorned with a red collar with gold bells.t Amongst the rubbish and stones with which the tomb was blocked up were a number o f splendidly carved fragments, enriched with painting and gilding, and contemporary with the effigy. T h e y include part of a figure of Our Lady and Child; portions of a group o f the Coronation o f the Virgin; pieces of angels with censers, scrolls, and musical instruments; some small figures under canopies, one being Yi,i.E5$ with the tables of the Law; and some rich pieces of :tabernacle work and cresting. These fragments, which are now in the crypt, probably formed part of the reredos of John of Sheppey's altar. F r o m Weever's description, that " H i s portraiture is i n the wall ouer his place o f Buriall," the bishop's effigy seems to have been visible when he wrote.t I t was apparently walled up in 1681, when a tall monument to archdeacon John Lee Warner (ob. 1679) was set up against its north side.* T h e carved pieces were perhaps then used up on account of injuries they had received during the Great Rebellion, or because they were considered useless. * Reg. Islip, 1961'. 'I A correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine (xcv. part ii. 226) says that after the discovery of the efli2y "two drawings were made by a person of the name o f Harris, employed by Mr. Cottingham the architect, one of which represents the effigy as i t MS found, and the other as Mr. Cottingham supposed i t t o have been, with the features perfect, and the figure highly coloured. A f t e r this Mr. Cottingham resolved on restoring the colours on the figure, in conformity with the latter drawing, which was accordingly done.... The painted beard is also an addition, as it was not there when first discovered. The dalmatic, instead of being a pink, is now of a dull scarlet, with a green lining, and the shoes are painted yellow." 13y dalmatic is here meant the chasuble, which is now red, while the dalmatic is actually p i i i i . T h e sandals are as described by me. S o far as I can see the original colouring of the effigy has not been tampered with. I t , however, narrowly escaped destruction, for bn ignorant painter who was sent down to varnish the effigy after its discovery actually repainted the whole ! The new paint was fortunately removed before it was too late. J. Weever, Ancient Eunerall Monuments, etc. (London, 1631), 314. § The following entries relating to this monument are in the Chapter Act Book, vol. iv . : 1680, 8th February. " J o " Carr servant to Mr. Jo" Shorthose mason & Carver 3 1 6 C AT H E D R A L CHURCH A N D MONASTERY 0 1 ' The aisle of the north transept was made into a buryingplace for the Warner family at the Restoration. I t is raised somewhat above the general level to allow coffins to be buried between the floor and the crypt vault below, and has a black and white marble pavement. A g a i n s t t h e north wall, and partly concealing the arcade there, is the monument of John Warner, bishop ,of Rochester 1637-8— .9'lang,Carls Fm. 37.—IRONWORK ON EAST SIDE OF NORTH QUIRE TRANSEPT. (From a Drawing by Mr. J. T. Irvine.) 1666, and against the east wall one t o Lee Warner, Esq., eldest son of the archdeacon, who died in 1698. The archdeacon's monument was moved by Mr. Cottingham to its present position under the northern of t h e t w o arches opening from the transept. The southern arch is closed by some interesting s i x t e e n t h - century ironwork (FIG. 37), placed here in 1681, and in its south jamb is fixed a thirteenth-century marble liveing in Sy Clem' lane without Temple Barr, & two other of the servants of the said Mr. Shorthose brought this day a letter from Mr. Henry Lee directed to Mr. Deane concerning the placing of a monument for his father Dr. Lee Warner late a Prebendary & Vicedeane of this church." 1681, 22nd June. "Ordered by consent of the whole chapter yt the Monumt brought lately down for Mr. Archdeacon Warner al[ia]s Lee be forthwth erected or sett upp in y° place where y. same is begunne in Cathedrall Church and that there shalbe floe more hindrance of y° same And that the inscripciin be as i t t is now only altering the word principalis." [ T h i s entry is cancelled.] 1681, 10th December. " Memorand I t is fully agreed That the monument for the late Archdeacon Bee put upp Iv"' the inscription as i t t is now ingraven in the same place of this Cathedral where the same is begun° to be sett upp:—And that Mr. Lee his sonn & executor may send his .workmen to doe the same when he thinke fitt." See also Thorpe, Custumate livrense, 229, for further particulars, Plate I V. / ` , / / / \ / \ / >\, / \ / / \ / \ / / / \\>,/ EARLY T I LE PAVING, IN ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL CHLDia. ST. A N D R EW AT ROCHESTER. 3 1 7 bracket for an image. B o t h arches retain valuable specimens of the original thirteenth-century mosaic tile-paving. (See PLATE IV.) T h e space above the aisle, which is reached by a wide staircase at its north-east corner, is and appears always to have been the treasury. Whether one or two altars stood in this aisle is uncertain. According to the list of benefactions bishop Gilbert of Glanville, when the "new work" was building, gave ducts fenestras vitreas ad altare beatorum Johannis et Jacobi.* T h i s altar must therefore have had a front and a side window, or have stood between two windows. A s there is nothing to shew that i t was i n the crypt, i t is probable that i t stood i n this aisle.t T h i s seems to be borne out by the fact that bishop John of Sheppey founded a chantry at an altar of St. John Baptist in his cathedral church,t beside which his tomb was afterwards placed. I t is singular, however, that his will makes no mention of tomb, altar, or chantry, and merely desires his body to be buried i n ecelesia Cathedrali Roffensi ubi executores mei infra nominati ordinaverint cum consensu Prioris.§ T h e will of Sir John Drake, chaplain of the chantry of St. John Baptist's altar, dated 8th August 15 Henry V I I I . (1523), contains the following interesting provisions: Corpus meum ad sepeliendum in parte boriali navis ecclesie Cathedralis inter predecessores meos. Volo quod scabellum meum situatum juxta altare Sancti Johannis nuper per me in monasterio emptum non remanebit in eternum. Item. altari Sancti Johannis in monasterio unum le table cloth dyaper. Lego dompno Nicholao Dersingham monacho capud Sci Johannis Baptiste. l ( v i i . 305.) The north-east transept, though o f the same size and * Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 89; and Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 121. t Among the documents of the Dean and Chapter are two charters relating to grants by Alan de Capella to Alexander the prior (1242-1252) and the convent of Rochester, to be paid annually ad rubeum ostium eeelesie Roffensis. One of these is endorsed: "Carte de quodatn redditu pertinente ad duo altaria que fuerunt in antiquo opere antequam istud novum opus ecclesie inceptum." These were probably the altars at the ends of the Norman presbytery aisles; and if they were the altars of St. Peter and of St. John and St. James, which I have suggested stood in the new transept aisles, they would not be far removed from their old positions. Thorpe, Registpum Roffense, 580. § Reg. Islip, f. 169b. 11 See a paper on "The sculptured alabaster tablets called St John's Heads" in Ayeltaologia, lii. 669-708. 31S C A T 11EDRAL CHURC 11 A N D MONASTERY O F general design as its fellow, differs from it in several respects. Its east side is similar, as are internally the second and third stages o f its gable end; b u t the lowest stage is different, having originally had three recesses for tombs, instead of the single one between the two staircases t o be found on the opposite side. T h e easternmost recess has a moulded arch at the back, and contains a marble coffin with a lid of the same material, carved with a floriatecl cross with a crutch-headed staff for a shaft. T h e wall behind is painted with a trailing vine pattern of green on a red ground, with white popinjays on the branches. M r . Denne calls this the tomb o f St. William, but adds that i t "makes so mean an appearance as not to have merited the burin."* T h e tomb is probably that of one of the priors, either Ralph de Ros or his successor Helias. The central recess contains the monument of bishop Walter of Merton, 1274-1277, who "was honourably buried i n the church in the north part beside the tomb of St. William."-IThe tomb was originally of Limoges enamel, probably of wood with an effigy of the bishop covered with metal plates, like t h a t o f William o f Valentia i n the abbey church o f Westminster, the whole being placed under a stone canopy, with a double window pierced i n the wall behind to throw light on the effigy. T h e accounts f o r the making o f i t have fortunately been preserved. F r o m them we learn * Concerning this tomb, Mr. Denne further remarks: "Whatever decorations it may have had, these have been long since defaced or pillaged; and all that remains is a bar of iron upon the cover, which, being in the form o f a palmer's staff, serves to denote the class of the person here deposited. Thi s is, however, loose, as if an attempt had been made to wrench i t off; and had i t succeeded i t would probably have been sold to John Wyld, a shoe-maker in Rochester, who is upon record for having purchased all the ironwork torn from the monuments in this cathedral by the church reformers in the last century [Dean and Chapter's Answer to Bishop Warner's Articles of Enquiry, September 12, 1662]." Thorpe, Cusiumale Beettse, 170. I am unable to understand what this iron bar could have been; no traces of it are visible on the coffin, and the crutch staff thereon is part of the carving of the marble lid. t " Sepultus honorifice in Ecclesia eadem in parte horeali juxta sepulcrum sancti Willelmi." Cott. MS. Nero D. 2, f. 180b; and Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 347. T h e window over the bishop's tomb is probably the fenestram mediam ad 8anctatn Willelmum, recorded as the gift of Hubert de Burgo in the list of benefactions. C o t t . MS. Vespasian A . 22, f . 91b; and Thorpe, Aegistrum Roffense, 124. The costs of the making of his tomb are entered in the executors' accounts (which were audited in May 1282) at Merton College, Oxford, and have been ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 3 1 9 that the tomb and its carriage from Limoges to Rochester cost 140 5s. 6d.; t h e masonry, i.e. the stonework o f the canopy and the windows behind, cost £22; t h e ironwork, which came from London, cost 7 marks; and the glazing of the two windows 11s. Other expenses brought the total up to over 170, a large sum for those days, equal to a t least 11600 at present value. In 1598, probably because the tomb had been despoiled of its metal-work, a new monument was made at the cost of Merton College, Oxford, with two long epitaphs concerning its founder. I n 1662 the tomb was again renewed by the College, on account o f i t s having been fanatieorum rabie deformatum at quo fore deletwm, as a new epitaph stated. A good engraving of the tomb and canopy in their "restored" condition is given by Thorpe.* I n 1852 the monument was again " restored " by destroying the tomb and displacing its effigy and protecting grate, and substituting for them the existing tomb and railing. T h e windows behind, which had been long blocked, were reopened and filled w i t h hideous glass, and the canopy " Gothicized." T h e fragments of the old tomb are now, or were until quite lately, lying about i n the crypt, but the alabaster figure o f the bishop was placed in the recess west of the tomb and protected by the old grate. This recess was altered and deepened in the fifteenth century and a small window pierced i n the back. N o t unlikely the keeper of St. William's shrine had a seat and desk here. printed, with divers errors, by Mr. Denne i n Thorpe's Cusiumale Roffen.se (p. 193). They are more correctly given in a Sketch of Me Life of Walter de Merton, by Edmund (Hobhouse), Bishop of Nelson (Oxford, 1859), p. 50, from which they are here reprinted: xl" v" vj" L i b e r a t . Magistro Johanni Burgensi Limovicensi pro tumba domini Episcopi Roffensis. scilicet pro constructione e t cariagio de Lymoges usque Ream. Et xlvjs viij" Cuidam executori euuti apud Lymoges ad ordinandam et providendam constructionem dictse tumbm. Et x' viij" C u i d a m garcioni eunti apud Lymoges querenti dictam tumbam construct= e t ducenti earn cum dicto magistro usque Ream. Et xxij" i n Inaceoneria circa dictam tumbam defuncti. . Et vij mamas i n ferramento ejusdem et cariagio ejusdein a Londinio usque Ream. at aliis parandis ad dictam tumbam (iv" xiij" iv). Et xj" G u i d o n vitriario pro vitrio fenestrarum juxta tumbam domini episcopi apud Roffam. * Custuntale 2? offense, plate xliv, Summa. lxx" vij" ij", 3 2 0 C A T EIEDRAL CHURCH A N D MONASTERY O F The western side of the transept has, instead of the two arches of the south-east transept, one only, which opens into the quire aisle. T h e place o f the other i s occupied by a window, under which are a pointed arched recess and a doorway to the stair turret at the angle. A b o u t the end of the thirteenth century the sill of the recess was cut down and the back pierced with a small doorway to a new building on the outside, presently to be described. As has before been stated, the north-east transept contained the tomb o r shrine o f St. William o f Perth, the position of which in this part of the church is fixed, apart from other considerations, by the statement of bishop Walter of Merton's burial "beside the tomb of St. William." I t s precise situation cannot now be determined, but not improbably i t stood nearly in the centre of the transept, with the accustomed altar at its west end. T h e existence of this altar is indicated as early as 1341 by an ordinance of bishop Hanao of Hythe founding a chantry ad altare juxta tumbam sancti Willelmi . . . . ubi missa beate Marie virginis celebrare consuevit.* T h e following entries w i l l suffice t o shew that the shrine was one of some importance at this date: Wardrobe Account 28 Edward I. (1299-1300). Oblaciones xviij° die ffebruarii i n oblacionibus factis per Regis. d o m i n u m Radulfum de Stanford ad feretrum Sancti Willelmi in ecclesia Prioratus Roff' nomine Regis.t v i j s Wardrobe Account of Queen Philippa, 1351-2. Oblaciones I n oblacionibus Comitisse Ultonie factis ad fere- Comitisse t r u m Sancti Willelmi in ecclesia couventuali Ultonie. R o f f e n s ' per manus Johannis Priour ibidem eadem die [15 June 1352].$ x i j d Another fourteenth-century reference to the shrine is i n the will, dated 1360, of bishop Thomas of Wouldham : Item lego open i tumbe beati Willelmi decem morals.* During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there are * Thorpe, Registrunt Roffense, 548. t Soo. Antiq. Lond. MS. 119, f. 32. I b i d . 208, f. 3. § Cott. MS. Faustina B. 5, f. 29; and Thorpe, Registruna Roffense, 113. ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 3 2 1 many references to the shrine i n the wills o f Rochester citizens and other good folk, e.g.: 1474. Edmund Cherkey, gent: To the payntyng of the Shryne of Seint William vjs viijd. (P.C.C. Reg. 15 Wattys.) 1480. John Beaule : To sustn of the ligth a bougth seynt Wiims Shryne. (vi. 45.) 1493. Julyan Hickes, maid: I bequetli to the schryne i n the monastery of Sent William in the seyd abbey 20d. ( v. 211.) 1496. John Hines of Strode: Item lego fferetro Sancti Willelmi in ecclesia Cathedrali Roffen. Imam vaccam. ( v. 277.) 1516. Jane Skipwith : To Seynt Williams Ligth xijd. ( v i i . 82.) 1523. Thomas Shemyng, draper To Saynt Williams chapell vjs -viijd. ( v i i . 291.) In the sacrist's accounts for 1512-13 is an entry recording the receipt of 31s. 5c1. de oblacione ad tuntbam Sancti Willehni et de Cista beate Marie, and among the payments: pro factura duarum flolarum argenti ponderancium x uncas ex donacione computantis (Robert Pylton, sacrist) ad altare Sancti Willehni et Sancte Ursule [et1 Sancte Crucis x i j s pro j peyre candelstykkis pro Altare Sancti Willelmi i i i j s pro j candelabro pro tumba Sancti Willehnd x i j d The only relic of the shrine that seems to have survived is a curious slab of Purbeck marble, which was until recent years laid upside down in the transept floor. The exact spot cannot unfortunately now be fixed. The stone was taken up by Sir G. Gilbert Scott and set up on posts in St. John Baptist's chapel, where it can be examined. I n its present state i t is 6 feet inches long, 2 feet 5 i inches wide, and 4 inches thick. One side and one end are moulded, but the slab is incomplete at the other end, and on the other side the moulding has been sawn off. A t the complete end there start from each corner a pair of diverging chases, about 1 inch wide, and extending towards one another, but not far enough to meet. A t 5 feet 6 inches from the end are a similar pair of chases, starting VOL. X X I I I . 3 2 2 C A T H E D R A L C H U R C H A N D MONASTERY O F from the edge towards the medial line of the stone, but these again do not quite meet. These chases seem to be for upright slabs of stone, sustaining a canopied superstructure of some kind after the manner of the shrine of St. Alban, but if they were arranged symmetrically the stone must have been 11 feet long. This appears excessive, but i t is not easy to suggest anything shorter. I t s under side has three pairs of roughly incised markings to afford a key for the mortar of a series of pillars that supported the slab.* I f the stone were 11 feet long there would have been ten such pillars. I n default of further information the question of the size of the shrine, like that of its exact position, must remain unsolved for the present. From analogy with other shrines, that of St. William, with its altar, was probably enclosed by a grate. On the south side of the transept there stood, until it was most improperly moved elsewhere by Sir G. Gilbert Scott,t the monument of bishop John Lowe, 1433-1467. I t is a plain high tomb of stone, without any effigy, inscribed on a chamfer round the edge of the covering slab: jiilisserere . Vetto . altinte . f.1, Notanitio . Wine . t o t o p i CreVei . biDere . liana . Domini . in. terra . bibencium . * n e t ( TtAttirea . et . Attgliqtine . Orate . vro . nobigs. On the old east end are two blank shields. T h e long (north) side has a row of seven shields, of which six are inscribed: Mc IeOtj miter m e n I rico g r i o and the last bears the bishop's arms: (Argent) on a bend (azure) three wolves' heads erased (of the field). O n the old west end is an angel holding a large shield of the bishop's arms, with the curious addition in the sinister chief of a saltire (gules) charged with an escallop (or), the arms of the church. O n the base of the tomb are scrolls bearing in ribbon black letter: O.Uant . brebe . F4vacittm Tier . niuntli. . tit . Umbra . bontInto . otott . eittz I gatt'ota. * See The Gentleman's Magazine, lxiv. part ii. (July—December 1794), 705, and plate iii. Fig. 4. t I t is now placed altarwise against the back of archdeacon Lee Warner's monument. i.e. fratris. John Lowe was an Aust in Friar at Droitwich, and became prior of the Austin Friars of London before 1422. ST. A N D R EW A T ROCHESTER. 3 2 3 The fourth side of the tomb i s plain, on account o f its having originally stood against the wall or screen that shut off the transept from the quire and presbytery.* T h e bishop's monument was placed here in accordance with a clause in his will, dated on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1463: Inprimis u t moris boni christiani lego animum meum deo salvatori et corpus meum deo salvatori et corpus meum sepeliendum coram ymagine aurata sancti Andree ex opposito sedis episcopalis in ecclesia mea Cathedrali de Rochestria ex parte boriali in choro in tumba aliquantum elevata ad expensas meas constructa e t construenda.t This tomb was thus an ancient landmark in the topography of the church, and its removal is therefore the more unjustifiable. H a d not its original site fortunately been known we could not have located the position of the "golden image o f St. Andrew," which would appear to have stood against the broad pier to the east. T h e reference to the sedes episcopalis is the only mediwval notice of i t I have met with. A small portion of the original tile paving of the transept remains almost exactly in the centre of the present floor. Some excellent bits of sixteenth-century iron-work, with curiously wrought finials of different patterns, are preserved in the presbytery and north-east transept. A grate before John of Sheppey's tomb, removed hither b y Mr. e a t i n g - ham from the north transept, bears his initials, and has finials in form of huge fleurs-de-lis. T h e fence and gate i n the opposite arch has the uprights terminating in shields surmounted b y a spiked ornament (FIG. 38), and the .same * See plan i n Thorpe's Custumale Roffense, 1'74. Plates xlvi. and xlvii. In the same work (p. 215) represent the side and ends of the tomb. t P.C.C. Reg. Godyn (1463-1468), 1. 263. H e also made the following bequests to his cathedral church: "Item lego ecolesie mee Roffensi ad majorem seouritatem eorum et notioiam aliorum quorumcumque non oporteat quod jam deliberati sunt eis monachis totarn illam seotam rubiorum vestimentorum de panno aureo leonum et leporum cum xi capis et ceteris ejusdem secte preter sexaginta quatuor mamas quas eciam remisi et dedi eis quod deliberabantur michi de firma ecclesie de ffrendesbery alias autem centum libras in quibus hodie michi de eadem firma tenentur non remitto eis sed retineo ant michi solvendas aut executoribus meis pro suocessore moo i n parte soluoionis implementorum meorum. I t e m lego eis pulorum oalicem meum cum historijs festorum Christi in pede et xij apostolis in patena operatis precij viginti duarum maroarum." Y 2 324 C ATHEDRAL CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF pattern occurs on the grate in St. John Baptist's chapel, which also has finials of elaborately twisted scrolls (FIG. 87). The old grate of Walter of Merton's tomb has large fleursde- lis terminals of curious design. Mention was made ahoy FIG. 38.-0IINAMBNTAL IRONWORK ON SOUTH SIDE OF PRESBYTERY. (From a Drawing by Mr. J. T. Irvine.) e of a small doorway of early- Decorated date which has been cut through the back o f a deep recess in the west wall of the transept. T h i s doorway gave access to certain chambers between the transept and the old north tower that pertained to the sacrist and servants of the church. These chambers were at first of one story, but afterwards two stories in height, as may be seen from the corbels that carried the upper floor, which was reached by a door opening from the great turret stair at the angle of the transept. T h e chambers extended some distance beyond the turret to obtain light, and the angle of the lower story still remains there, with a transomed window, now blocked, of two trefoiled lights with a trefoil in the head. This domesticlooking window is contemporary with the canopy over the tomb of bishop John o f Bradfield (1278-1283.) The upper chamber had in its west wall, close to the quire aisle, a fireplace (now blocked) with a small oven beside it. A s the Custumal mentions the monks qui jacent assi due in ecclesia,* i t is very likely that these chambers were used by them and the two famuli eeelesice, whose duties are * Thorpe, Oustwinale Rofense, 31, ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESThR. 3 2 5 minutely set forth in the same document.* The site of these chambers is now entered by a modern door in the quire aisle wall, which is built within the arch of a much larger one. A little further west is a small doorway, now blocked, that gave access to a small open court between the chambers just described. and the wax-house on the other side of the buttress. The crypt, which extends beneath the whole o f the presbytery, eastern transepts, and eastern half of the quire, is second in this country only to that at Canterbury in size and importance. (PLITT III.) I t s general plan and arrangements are fully described in Professor Willis's note.t Unfortunately its interesting character has until lately been utterly overlooked by its custodians, and its more ancient part, that built by Gundnlf, still has its central division partitioned off and filled up -with the organ bellows. A strip under the south-eastern transept has also lately been similarly divided off and converted into a series of vestries. This part of the crypt is already partly blocked up with brickwork for the support of the fabric. There are recesses in the crypt for seven altars, but only six are known. The dedications and historical notices of these are as follows: 1. St. Katherine: Bishop Walter (1148-1182) gave " casula que est coticliana ad altare Sancte Katerine." * Thorpe, Csstumale Roffense, 30, 31. A t Durham "there was four men appointed to ringe the said bells at midnight, and at all such other times of the day as the Monkes went to serve God; two of the said men apperteininge to the vestrye, which allwayes kept the Copes with the Vestments, and five paire of silver Sensers, with all such goodly ornaments, perteigninge to the High Al tar, which two men did lye everye night in a chamber over the west end of the said vestrye, and the other two men did lye everye night within the said church, in a chamber i n the North allye, over against the Sexton's checker. These two men did alwayes sweepe and keepe the church cleanly, and did f i l l the Holy Water stones everye Sunday in the morninge with cleane water, before it came to be hallowed, and did lock in the church dores everye night." Rites of' Durham (Surtees Society, 15), 19. A t Durham the sexton's or sacrist's checker was in a similar position to this Rochester example, outside and against the north aisle of the presbytery. T h e sexton's "office was to se that there should nothing be lacking° within the Churche, as to provyde bread and wyne for the Church, and to provide for wax and lyght in wynter. H e had alwaies one tonn of wyne lying° in the said checker, for the use of the sayd Church. A l so his office was to se all the glass wyndowes repayred and mendid, and the plumbers wourke of the Churche, with mending of bells and belstrings, and all other workes that was necessary to be occupied, both with in the Church and with out the Church, and to se the Church to be clenely keapte." I b i d . 81, 82. See ante, pp. 234-236. 326 CATHEDRAL CHURCH A.ND MONASTERY OF Robert of Langridge " dedit calicem et casulam et alia plura ad altare Sancte Katerine in criptis." Robert of Higham " d.edit . fenestram ad altare sancte Eaterine et tabulam depictam ante et aliam super altare," etc.* Certain rents assigned to the altar beate Eaterinc in criptis are given in the Custumal.t 2. St. Mary Magdalene: The rents assigned to this altar are stated i n the Oust um al. t The table of benefactions also records that Theod.eric the monk " acquisivit de quadam rauliere de Hallinges uncle fenestra et casula et alba parata e1 alia plura in criptis ad altare Sancte [Marie] „Magdalene facta sunt. I t e m acquisivit medietatem unius fenestre in criptis contra Aluredum cocum."$ 3. St. Michael. 4 . Holy Trinity: Heymeric of Tonbridge, monk, " i n criptis fecit fenestram ad altare sancti Michaelis et altars sancte Trinitatis. Posuit eciam ad altare sancte Trinitatis calicem et vestimenta duplicia pannum quoque ad pendendum ante altare et alia plura."§ 5. St. Edmund: According to the list o f benefactions, " Galfridus de Hadenham emit plures terras aput Darente. fecit altare Sancti Edmundi i n criptis et dedit redditum ad dictum altare provenientem de Darente quia idem Gr. habuit Darente sicut Hadenham. E t quia in dispersione fuerunt aput Westmonasterium Rogerus de Sanford e t Willelmus de Cornubia propter devocionem erga sanctum Edwardum predictum altare decoraverunt ornamentis et ibidem ymaginem sancti Edwardi statuerunt. Hac de causa omnia ornamenta et luminaria dicti altaris inveniri debent a fratribus ibidem celebrantibus et michi a sacristis."Il 6. St. Denis: John of Borstall, chaplain of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, by deed dated St. Edmund's day 21 Edward III. (9th October 1347), gave an annual rental of 4d. altari beati Dionisij in Oriptis.lf * Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, if. 88", 90'; and Thorpe, Registrum Remise, 121, 123. t Thorpe, Custumale .Roffense, 25. Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 22, f. 91; and Thorpe, Rellistrum .Roffense, 124. § Ibid. f. 90"; and Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 123. II Ibid. 1. 92b; and Thorpe, Registrum Roffense, 125. 5 Thorpe, Begistrum Roffense, 218. ST. ANDREW AT ROOHESTER. 827 I t will be noticed that four of these altars are associated with the gifts of the windows beneath which they stood. A fifth window in criptis was given by Durand Wisdom, but not in connexion with any altar.* To locate any of these altars is out of the question, but perhaps that which stood on the north side, beneath the altar of St. John Baptist i n the upper church, may some day be identified by the remains of the painted decoration on the vault over it. M u c h of this unfortunately has fallen off with the plaster. Round the central point, where are the remains of an iron hook or ring for suspending a light, were four circular pictures, each 2 feet in diameter. O n e has gone; a second has a figure standing behind another, which is recumbent; and a third contains a woman seated and holding up both hands. Outside these pictures were eight larger ones, each 3 feet in diameter. Tw o of them are still fairly perfect. One represents a monk (P) sitting i n the stern o f a singlemasted ship, with a bearded man seated or standing in front of him. I n another a tall nimbed figure i s standing i n the centre, with his left hand pointing to a dark recess with open door, and with his right touching the kneeling figure o f a bearded man. O f the remainder, several are gone and the others utterly defaced. Below the large pictures the angles of each compartment are filled with painted shields of arms, each 2 feet high and 20 inches across the top. Tw o at the north-west angle bear respectively: ( i ) Quarterly, 1 and 4, Or, a lion rampant double-tailed gules (the field is also either fretty gules, or covered with a red fretty diaper) ; 2 and 3, Sable, a lion rampant double-tailed argent; and (ii) Or, an eagle displayed sable (with a fretty diaper). Those a t the south-west corner are (iii) perhaps three lions o f England on a field gules, within a bordure argent; and (iv) Argent, a cross gules. T h e cross is very narrow, and the field beautifully diapered. T h e pair (v and vi) a t the south-east corner are defaced. O f those on the north-east, one (vii) bears Or, three chevronels ; t h e other (viii) i s destroyed. T h e deep semi- * "Duralidus Wisdom dedit . . . unam fenestram i n front° versus majus altare et aliam i n criptis." C o t t . MS. Vespasian A. 22, 1. 91"; and Thorpe, Registrum Roffeuse, 123, 3 2 8 C A T H E D R A L CHURCH O F S T. ANDREW. circular archway on the west has also been entirely covered with pictures. These were painted in rows, and evidently represented. a series of scenes in a wood, the trees of which alone are now visible, though parts of faces and figures may here and there be made out.* A 11 the painting seems to be of the beginning of the fourteenth-century date, or perhaps earlier, and to the same time belong the three-light windows that have been inserted to light the altar and that in the next compartment. The heraldry promises to afford a clue to the exact date and other information, but beyond the arms of St. George in (iv), of the Emperor of Germany in (ii), and possibly of bishop Walter of Merton or a De Clare in (vii), the bearings of the shields cannot be identified with certainty. A similar series of pictures in circles once ornamented the compartment of the vault immediately before the southernmost of the three altars at the east front of the crypt, but only the ghost of them can now be seen in a favourable light. In the vault beneath the chapter-room are deposited a large number of carved and moulded architectural fragments, some of considerable beauty and interest, that have been found from time to time at successive " restorations."t There are also in. the crypt some good monumental slabs and casements of brasses brought down from the upper church. One great slab bears the indent of a head and hands which were once inlaid with white stone, while the rest of the design was probably formed of incised lines, as is so often seen in some parts of France and Belgium. The whole surface is however worn so smooth that not a vestige of these is now visible. The Account of the Monastic Buildings will appear in the next Volume. * These pictures may have represented the martyrdom of St. Edmund the King, the finding of his body i n the wood, the wolf guarding his head, and other scenes, but they cannot be connected with the paintings on the vault. t Until quite lately these were scattered about the crypt, but have now been reduced to some kind of order by the care of Mr. George Payne, F.S.A. They have yet to be sorted and labelled, before all record of them is forgotten.