medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Christopher Crockett wrote:
> From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
>> Christopher Crockett wrote:
>
>>> if the monks made so little use of the nave, one might wonder why it was
>>> that it was so necessary to have such a large one (there are quite a few
>>> cathedrals which are smaller than St. Peter's of Chartres).
>>
>> Have you ever wondered why a cathedral has a nave, and what that was
>> used for?
>
> ideological reasons aside, i always assumed that it was to hold great
> masses of folk, who assembled there especially on special feast days.
>
> i was in Chartres for several Christmasses in the '80s and saw, for
> the first time, the whole cathedral *full*.
>
> i suspect that that was a much more common occurance during the m.a.
Nope. They went to their own parish churches.
> there are also, as i hinted above, various "ideological"
> considerations which may have driven the design, quantitatively,
> ranging from a conviction that the Theotokos *deserved* to have as
> splendid and as large a "house" as was possible to build, to the much
> more crass motives associated with "cathedral envy" between the
> various cities of the High Gothic period.
That's more like it.
> in any event, the size of the major secular church in a diocese would
> have been driven by considerations which were rather different from
> those which might determine that of monastic buildings.
'Fraid not. The use of the church is much the same.
> so, why *does* a cathedral have a nave, and what was it used for?
To hold up the central tower, to look in proportion compared to the choir,
for processing down.
That's about it, really.
Now, there *may* have been a use for it in the early middle ages, when the
standard plan became more or less fixed, and before the community retreated
behind the choir screen.
John Briggs
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