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At 10:58 AM 2/8/2001 +0000, you wrote:
>I wonder what happened with the abbey churches during the English
>Dissolution of the
>Monasteries in this regard? Some seem to have been put to storage use.
>Graveyards seem to have been removed to order... is there no deconsecration
>there?


That depends on the abbey.  Some, as has been noted, became cathedrals
(Peterborough, Gloucester, Oxford, Westminster [briefly]).  Others, e.g.,
Tewksbury, were reused as churches.  Others passed into lay hands or
suffered ruin.  I was told, during a tour of Jervaulx Abbey in 1998, that
it underwent damage as part of the punishment of the North during the
Pilgrimage of Grace.

Considering the scant respect paid relics and shrines, is there any reason
to think formal ceremonies were used to deconsecrate monastic churches not
be reused for religious purposes?

Tom Izbicki


>I have some recall of an earlier discussion/posting  on this list in more
>whimsical times in which it was explained why a leased building could not be
>consecrated but (?) only dedicated for use.
>
>Does it follows that the act of selling the church site amounts to de
>facto deconsecration,  i.e. that it's not an affirmative process but more of
>a consequence?
>
>regards
>
>john a w lock
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Madeleine Gray <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 1:40 PM
>Subject: Re: Cathedrals (deconsecration)
>
>
> > The problem is that neither my own diocese nor the diocese of Swansea and
> > Brecon (in which the church originally was) seem to know what they did (or
> > indeed what they should have done)!  I think we are in denial on this one
> > because so many Welsh churches have had to be deconsecrated in recent
> > years.
> >
> > Apparently it's the sort of question visitors to the reconstruction do
>ask.
> >
> > Maddy
> >
> >
> > Dr Madeleine Gray, in the foothills of God's golden county of Gwent
> > (Department of Humanities and Science
> > UWCN Caerleon Campus
> > PO Box 179
> > Newport NP18 3YG
> > Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
> > http://humanities.newport.ac.uk/history.html)
> >
> > 'Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought'
> >