medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
There's another reason for it, too. If one looks at the (admittedly
scanty, but not as scanty as one might think) available figures, it was
invariably bishops who paid the lion's share of major cathedral building
projects, in England at least. Indeed the lay contribution - from the
poorest peasant to the richest aristocrat - pales into insignificance by
comparison.
On a smaller scale - sponsoring windows, etc - senior members of the
aristocracy could and did make a contribution.
But my guess is that lay sponsorship of a major work of architecture -
like the Tewkesbury and Bristol east ends - would simply have been seen
as inappropriate in a cathedral. A cathedral was different: it was the
bishop's spouse, and the centre of Church power in the see.
By the same token monumentalized lay burials in English cathedrals are
comparatively rare: I can only think of one in Winchester, for example.
Indeed monumentalized burials to *anyone* who was not either a Bishop or
related to the Royal family are vanishingly few. There is a strong sense
of what is and is not appropriate in a bishop's church at work in all
this.
Unless, of course, anyone knows different...
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim
Bugslag
Sent: 26 November 2006 17:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Lay families and cathedrals (WAS: Re: [M-R] Fw: The
younger Despenser - Oxford DNB Life of the Day/Tewkesbury)
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
> > The Berkeleys were able to transform St Augustine's Bristol in their
own
> > image; the Despencers did something comparable at Tewkesbury. No
single
> > lay family could ever have done that in a cathedral.
This situation, I believe, goes back to the "Eigenkirchen" of the
pre-Gregorian
Reform era. During the 12th century, many lay "owners" of churches, who
could no
longer unproblematically collect their tithes, made use of them as the
core of a
monastic foundation. Others were subsequently founded as family
"mausolea", and
the constant offices and prayers for founders on the part of monastic or
collegiate
chapters was considered particularly effective in benefitting the souls
of founders
and their families. Ironically, perhaps, it was lesser folk who
gravitated towards
cathedrals, families who were content to make do with a chapel within a
church,
rather than a whole foundation. During the late 13th and early 14th
centuries, for
example, the recently completed Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris was
completely
ringed with private chapels, by breaking out aisle and ambulatory walls
and building
one-bay chapels between the buttresses.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|