> << I now wonder when mortgages became a factor in consecrations!
> >>
>
> I couldn't give a specific time frame, but I imagine when the tradition of
> acquiring a lump sum of money in order to have the construction done in a
> relatively short period of time. Previously, construction took place in bits
> and pieces based on the rate of income for the patron. When the altar was
> completed the church could be consecrated. If the edifice was royal and the
> king was rich, even complex structures such as St Chapelle could be put up
> and consecrated quickly.
Mark,
Not necessarily. When I wrote my MA thesis, quite a while ago now, I
ran across a very suspicious cluster of dedications/consecrations
(the terms are hopelessly muddled both in my thesis and, I suspect,
many of the secondary sources I used) all around the year 1239, many
by Walter Cantilupe, the bishop of Worcester, who dedicated the
church of Winchcombe Abbey on 13 Oct. 1239, the church of Tewkesbury
on 18 June 1239, the church of Gloucester on 18 Sept. 1239, and the
churches of Evesham and Pershore also in 1239. Robert Grosseteste,
bishop of Lincoln, and William Brewer, bishop of Exeter, dedicated
the church at Peterborough on 6 Oct. 1238. The bishops of Rochester
and Bangor dedicated Rochester Cathedral on 5 Nov. 1240. Ralph
Maidstone, bishop of Hereford, dedicated the expanded south aisle of
the church at Leominster in c.1239. And at the priory of Finchale,
near Durham, the high altar and the altars of St Mary and St Cuthbert
were all consecrated in 1239, even though the laying out of the
church was not begun until c.1237. It is inconceivable that the
church at Finchale or even the east end could have been completely
finished at this time, and it is not alone among the above churches
in this respect. G. Haigh, The History of Winchcombe Abbey (London,
1947), p. 64, connects the dedication there with legislation
introduced to speed up the dedication of the many new east ends in
building at the time, in order to make them operational as soon as
possible. In 1237, the papal legate, Otho, addressed the question at
the Council of London, and C.R. Cheney, "Churchbuilding in the Middle
Ages," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 34 (1951-2), p. 36,
associates the first canon of his constitutions ("quae perfectis
parietibus sunt constructae") with a number of reasons why clergy
were anxious to have churches dedicated quickly, not the least among
them being that donations to the altars could then be made. So much
for both "lump sums" and "mortgages"!
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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