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maintained in this version. They are marked in the text with a [TN-#].
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“Whereby may be discerned that so fervent was the zeal of those
elder times to God’s service and honour, that they freely endowed
the church with some part of their possessions; and that in those
good works even the meaner sort of men, as well as the pious
founders, were not backwards.”
Dugdale’s Antiq. Warwickshire.
[Illustration]
THE
PRINCIPLES
OF
GOTHIC
ECCLESIASTICAL
ARCHITECTURE,
ELUCIDATED BY QUESTION AND ANSWER.
BY
MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM.
FOURTH EDITION.
OXFORD:
JOHN HENRY PARKER.
PREFACE.
In revising this Work for a Fourth Edition several alterations have been
made, especially in the Concluding Chapter; and the whole has been
considerably enlarged.
M. H. B.
Rugby,
April 1841.
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAP. I.
Definition of Gothic Architecture; its Origin, and Division
of it into Styles 17
CHAP. II.
Of the different Kinds of Arches 22
CHAP. III.
Of the Anglo-Saxon Style 30
CHAP. IV.
Of the Norman or Anglo-Norman Style 51
CHAP. V.
Of the Semi-Norman Style 74
CHAP. VI.
Of the Early English Style 86
CHAP. VII.
Of the Decorated English Style 102
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Florid or Perpendicular English Style 120
CHAP. IX.
Of the Debased English Style 145
CONCLUDING CHAPTER.
Of the Internal Arrangement and Decorations of a Church 153
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.
Page 41, line 9, _for_ Cambridge, _read_ Lincoln.
Page 49. In addition to the list of churches containing presumed vestiges
of Anglo-Saxon architecture, Woodstone Church, Huntingdonshire, and
Miserden Church, Gloucestershire, may be enumerated.
Page 71. The double ogee moulding is here inserted by mistake: it is not
Norman, but of the fifteenth century.
Page 137. In some copies the wood-cut in this page has been reversed in
its position.
[Illustration: Two Arches of Roman Masonry, Leicester.]
INTRODUCTION.
ON THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF GOTHIC OR ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL
ARCHITECTURE.
Amongst the vestiges of antiquity which abound in this country, are the
visible memorials of those nations which have succeeded one another in the
occupancy of this island. To the age of our Celtic ancestors, the earliest
possessors of its soil, is ascribed the erection of those altars and
temples of all but primeval antiquity, the Cromlechs and Stone Circles
which lie scattered over the land; and these are conceived to have been
derived from the Phœnicians, whose merchants first introduced amongst
the aboriginal Britons the arts of incipient civilization. Of these most
ancient relics the prototypes appear, as described in Holy Writ, in the
pillar raised at Bethel by Jacob, in the altars erected by the Patriarchs,
and in the circles of stone set up by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai,
and by Joshua at Gilgal. Many of these structures, perhaps from their very
rudeness, have survived the vicissitudes of time, whilst there scarce
remains a vestige of the temples erected in this island by the Romans; yet
it is from Roman edifices that we derive, and can trace by a gradual
transition, the progress of that peculiar kind of architecture called
GOTHIC, which presents in its later stages the most striking contrast that
can be imagined to its original precursor.
The Romans having conquered almost the whole of Britain in the first
century, retained possession of the southern parts for nearly four hundred
years; and during their occupancy they not only instructed the natives in
the arts of civilization, but also with their aid, as we learn from
Tacitus, began at an early period to erect temples and public edifices,
though doubtless much inferior to those at Rome, in their municipal towns
and cities. The Christian religion was also early introduced,[3-*] but for
a time its progress was slow; nor was it till the conversion of
Constantine, in the fourth century, that it was openly tolerated by the
state, and churches were publicly constructed for its worshippers; though
even before that event, as we are led to infer from the testimony of
Gildas, the most ancient of our native historians, particular structures
were appropriated for the performance of its divine mysteries: for that
historian alludes to the British Christians as reconstructing the churches
which had, in the Dioclesian persecution, been levelled to the ground. But
in the fifth century Rome, oppressed on every side by enemies, and
distracted with the vastness of her conquests, which she was no longer
able to maintain, recalled her legions from Britain; and the Romanized
Britons being left without protection, and having, during their subjection
to the Romans, lost their ancient valour and love of liberty, in a short
time fell a prey to the Northern Barbarians; in their extremity they
called over the Saxons to assist them, when the latter perceiving their
defenceless condition, turned round upon them, and made an easy conquest
of this country. In the struggle which then took place, the churches were
again destroyed, the priests were slain at the very altars,[4-*] and
though the British Church was never annihilated, Paganism for a while
became triumphant.
Towards the end of the sixth century, when Christianity was again
propagated in this country by Augustine, Mellitus, and other zealous
monks, St. Gregory, the head of the Papal church, and the originator of
this mission, wrote to Mellitus not to suffer the Heathen temples to be
destroyed, but only the idols found within them. These, and such churches
built by the Romans as were then, though in a dilapidated state, existing,
may reasonably be supposed to have been the prototypes of the Christian
churches afterwards erected in this country.
In the early period of the empire the Romans imitated the Grecians in
their buildings of magnitude and beauty, forming, however, a style of
greater richness in detail, though less chaste in effect; and columns of
the different orders, with their entablatures, were used to support and
adorn their public structures: but in the fourth century, when the arts
were declining, the style of architecture became debased, and the
predominant features consisted of massive square piers or columns, without
entablatures, from the imposts of which sprung arches of a semicircular
form; and it was in rude imitation of this latter style that the Saxon
churches were constructed.
The Roman basilicas, or halls of justice, some of which were subsequently
converted into churches, to which also their names were given, furnished
the plan for the internal arrangement of churches of a large size, being
divided in the interior by rows of columns. From this division the nave
and aisles of a church were derived; and in the semicircular recess at the
one end for the tribune, we perceive the origin of the apsis, or
semicircular east end, which one of the Anglo-Saxon, and many of our
ancient Norman churches still present.
But independent of examples afforded by some few ancient Roman churches,
and such of the temples and public buildings of the Romans as were then
remaining in Britain, the Saxon converts were directed and assisted in the
science of architecture by those missionaries from Rome who propagated
Christianity amongst them; and during the Saxon dynasty architects and
workmen were frequently procured from abroad, to plan and raise
ecclesiastical structures. The Anglo-Saxon churches were, however, rudely
built, and, as far as can be ascertained, with some few exceptions, were
of no great dimensions and almost entirely devoid of ornamental mouldings,
though in some instances decorative sculpture and mouldings are to be met
with; but in the repeated incursions of the Danes, in the ninth and tenth
centuries, so general was the destruction of the monasteries and churches,
which, when the country became tranquil, were rebuilt by the Normans, that
we have, in fact, comparatively few churches existing which we may
reasonably presume, or really know, to have been erected in an Anglo-Saxon
age. Many of the earlier writers on this subject have, however, caused
much confusion by applying the term ‘SAXON’ to all churches and other
edifices contradistinguished from the pointed style by semicircular-headed
doorways, windows, and arches. But the vestiges of Anglo-Saxon
architecture have been as yet so little studied or known, as to render it
difficult to point out, either generally or in detail, in what their
peculiarities consist: the style may, however, be said to have
approximated in appearance much nearer to the Debased Roman style of
masonry than the Norman, and to have been also much ruder: and in the most
ancient churches, as in that at Dover Castle, and that at Bricksworth, we
find arches constructed of flat bricks or tiles, set edgewise, which was
also a Roman fashion. The masonry was chiefly composed of rubble, with
ashlar or squared blocks of stone at the angles, disposed in courses in a
peculiar manner.
[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Arches, Bricksworth Church, Northamptonshire
(7th. cent.)]
The most common characteristic by which the NORMAN style is distinguished,
is the semicircular or segmental arch, though this is to be met with also
in the rare specimens of Anglo-Saxon masonry; but the Norman arches were
more scientifically constructed: in their early state, indeed, quite
plain, but generally concentric, or one arch receding within another, and
in an advanced stage they were frequently ornamented with zig-zag and
other mouldings. A variety of mouldings were also used in the decoration
of the Norman portals or doorways, which were besides often enriched with
a profusion of sculptured ornament. The Norman churches appear to have
much excelled in size the lowly structures of the Saxons, and the
cathedral and conventual churches were frequently carried to the height of
three tiers or rows of arches, one above another; blank arcades were also
used to ornament the walls.
[Illustration: Norman Arcade, St. Aldgate, Oxford.]
The Norman style, in which an innumerable number of churches and monastic
edifices were originally built or entirely reconstructed, continued
without any striking alteration till about the latter part of the twelfth
century, when a singular change began to take place: this was no other
than the introduction of the pointed arch, the origin of which has never
yet been satisfactorily explained, or the precise period clearly
ascertained in which it first appeared; but as the lightness and
simplicity of design to which the Early Pointed style was found to be
afterwards convertible was in its incipient state unknown, it retained to
the close of the twelfth century the heavy concomitants of the
semicircular arch, with which indeed it was often intermixed: and from
such intermixture it may be designated the SEMI or MIXED NORMAN.
When the original Norman style of building was first broken through, by
the introduction of the pointed arch, which was often formed by the
intersection of semicircular arches, the facing of it, or architrave, was
often ornamented with the zig-zag, billet, and other mouldings, in the
same manner as the Norman semicircular arches: it also rested on round
massive piers, and still retained many other features of Norman
architecture. But from the time of its introduction to the close of the
twelfth century, the pointed arch was gradually struggling with the
semicircular arch for the mastery, and with success; for from the
commencement of the thirteenth century, as nearly as can be ascertained,
the style of building with semicircular arches was, with very few
exceptions, altogether discarded, and superseded by its more elegant
rival.
[Illustration: Canterbury Cathedral.]
The mode of building with semicircular arches, massive piers, and thick
walls with broad pilaster buttresses, was now laid aside; and the pointed
arch, supported by more slender piers, with walls strengthened with
graduating buttresses, of less width but of greater projection, were
universally substituted in their stead. The windows, one of the most
apparent marks of distinction, were at first long, narrow, and
lancet-shaped: the heavy Norman ornaments, the zig-zag and other mouldings
peculiar to the Norman and Semi-Norman styles, were now discarded; yet we
often meet with certain decorative ornaments, as the tooth ornament,
which, though sometimes found in late Norman work, is almost peculiar to
the Early Pointed style; also the ball-flower, prevalent both in this and
the style of the succeeding century. Many church towers were also capped
with spires, which now first appear. This style prevailed generally
throughout the thirteenth century, and is usually designated as the EARLY
ENGLISH.
[Illustration: Horsley Ch., Derbyshire.]
Towards the close of the thirteenth century a perceptible, though gradual,
transition took place to a richer and more ornamental mode of
architecture. This was the style of the fourteenth century, and is known
by the name of the DECORATED ENGLISH; but it chiefly flourished during the
reigns of Edward the Second and Edward the Third, in the latter of which
it attained a degree of perfection unequalled by preceding or subsequent
ages. Some of the most prominent and distinctive marks of this style occur
in the windows, which were greatly enlarged, and divided into many lights
by mullions or tracery-bars running into various ramifications above, and
dividing the heads into numerous compartments, forming either geometrical
or flowing tracery. Triangular or pedimental canopies and pinnacles, more
enriched than before with crockets and finials, yet without redundancy of
ornament, also occur in the churches built during this century.
[Illustration: Worstead Church, Norfolk.]
In the latter part of the fourteenth century another transition, or
gradual change of style, began to be effected, in the discrimination of
which an obvious distinction again occurs in the composition of the
windows, some of which are very large: for the mullion-bars, instead of
branching off in the head, in a number of curved lines, are carried up
vertically, so as to form _perpendicular_ divisions between the
window-sill and the head, and do not present that combination of
geometrical and flowing tracery observable in the style immediately
preceding.
[Illustration: St. Michael’s, Oxford.]
The frequent occurrence of panelled compartments, and the partial change
of form in the arches, especially of doorways and windows, which in the
latter part of the fifteenth century were often obtusely pointed and
mathematically described from four centres, instead of two, as in the more
simple pointed arch, and which from the period when this arch began to be
prevalent was called the TUDOR arch, together with a great profusion of
minute ornament, mostly of a description not before in use, are the chief
characteristics of the style of the fifteenth century, which by some of
the earlier writers was designated as the FLORID; though it has since
received the more general appellation of the PERPENDICULAR.
This style prevailed till the Reformation, at which period no country
could vie with our own in the number of religious edifices, which had been
erected in all the varieties of style that had prevailed for many
preceding ages. Next to the magnificent cathedrals, the venerable
monasteries and collegiate establishments, which had been founded and
sumptuously endowed in every part of the kingdom, might most justly claim
the preeminence; and many of the churches belonging to them were
deservedly held in admiration for their grandeur and architectural
elegance of design.
But the suppression of the monasteries tended in no slight degree to
hasten the decline and fall of our ancient church architecture, to which
other causes, such as the revival of the classic orders in Italy, also
contributed. The churches belonging to the conventual foundations, which
had been built at different periods by the monks or their benefactors, and
the charges of erecting and decorating which from time to time in the most
costly manner, had been defrayed out of the monastic revenues, and from
private donations, being seized by the crown, were reduced to a state of
ruin, and the sites on which they stood granted to dependants of the
court. The former reverential feeling on these matters had greatly
changed; and as the retention of some few of the ministerial habits, the
square cap, the cope, the surplice, and hood, which were deemed expedient
for the decent ministration of public worship, gave great offence to many,
and was one of the most apparent causes which led to that schism amongst
the Reformers, on points of discipline, which afterwards ended in the
subversion, for a time, of the rites and ordinances of the Church of
England, any attempt towards beautifying and adorning (other than with
carved pulpits and communion-tables or altars) the places of divine
worship, which were now stripped of many of their former ornamental
accessories, would have been regarded and inveighed against as a popish
and superstitious innovation; and a charge of this kind was at a later
period preferred against Archbishop Laud. Parochial churches were,
therefore, now repaired when fallen into a state of dilapidation, in a
plain and inelegant mode, in complete variance with the richness and
display observable in the style just preceding this event.
Details, originating from the designs of classic architecture, which had
been partially revived in Italy, began early in the sixteenth century to
make their appearance in this country, though as yet, except on tombs and
in wood-work, we observe few of those peculiar features introduced as
accessories in church architecture.
Hence many of our country churches, which were repaired or partly rebuilt
in the century succeeding the Reformation, exhibit the marks of the style
justly denominated DEBASED, to distinguish it from the former purer
styles. Depressed and nearly flat arched doorways, with shallow mouldings,
square-headed windows with perpendicular mullions and obtuse-pointed or
round-headed lights, without foliations, together with a general
clumsiness of construction, as compared with more ancient edifices, form
the predominating features in ecclesiastical buildings of this kind: and
in the reign of Charles the First an indiscriminate mixture of Debased
Gothic and Roman architecture prevailing, we lose sight of every true
feature of our ancient ecclesiastical styles, which were superseded by
that which sprang more immediately from the Antique, the Roman, or Italian
mode.
FOOTNOTES:
[3-*] Tempore, ut scimus, summo Tiberii Cæsaris, &c.--GILDAS.
[4-*] Ruebant ædificia publica simul et privata, passim Sacerdotes inter
altaria trucibantur.--BEDE, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. xv.
[Illustration: Scutcheon from Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, circa A. D. 1450.]
CHAPTER I.
DEFINITION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; ITS ORIGIN, AND THE DIVISION OF IT INTO
STYLES.
Q. What is meant by the term “Gothic Architecture”?
A. Without entering into the derivation of the word “Gothic,” it may
suffice to state that it is an expression sometimes used to denote in one
general term, and distinguish from the Antique, those peculiar modes or
styles in which most of our ecclesiastical and many of our domestic
edifices of the middle ages have been built. In a more confined sense, it
comprehends those styles only in which the pointed arch predominates, and
it is then often used to distinguish such from the more ancient
Anglo-Saxon and Norman styles.
Q. To what can the origin of this kind of architecture be traced?
A. To the classic orders in that state of degeneracy into which they had
fallen in the age of Constantine, and afterwards; and as the Romans, on
their voluntary abandonment of Britain in the fifth century, left many of
their temples and public edifices remaining, together with some Christian
churches, it was in rude imitation of the Roman structures of the fourth
century that the most ancient of our Anglo-Saxon churches were
constructed. This is apparent from an examination and comparison of such
with the vestiges of Roman buildings we have existing.
Q. Into how many different styles may English ecclesiastical architecture
be divided?
A. No specific regulation has been adopted, with regard to the
denomination or division of the several styles, in which all the writers
on the subject agree: but they may be divided into seven, which, together
with the periods when they flourished, may be generally defined as
follows:
The SAXON Or ANGLO-SAXON Style, which prevailed from the mission of
Augustine, at the close of the sixth, to the middle of the eleventh
century.
The NORMAN style, which may be said to have prevailed generally from the
middle of the eleventh to the latter part of the twelfth century.
The SEMI-NORMAN, Or TRANSITION style, which appears to have prevailed
during the latter part of the twelfth century.
The EARLY ENGLISH, or general style of the thirteenth century.
The DECORATED ENGLISH, or general style of the fourteenth century.
The FLORID Or PERPENDICULAR ENGLISH, the style of the fifteenth, and early
part of the sixteenth century.
The DEBASED ENGLISH, or general style of the latter part of the sixteenth
and early part of the seventeenth century, towards the middle of which
Gothic architecture, even in its debased state, became entirely discarded.
Q. What constitutes the difference of these styles?
A. They may be distinguished partly by the form of the arches, which are
triangular-headed, semicircular or segmental, simple pointed, and complex
pointed; though such forms are by no means an invariable criterion of any
particular style; by the size and shape of the windows, and the manner in
which they are subdivided or not by transoms, mullions, and tracery; but
more especially by certain minute details, ornamental accessories and
mouldings, more or less peculiar to particular styles, and which are
seldom to be met with in any other.
Q. Are the majority of our ecclesiastical buildings composed only of one
style?
A. Most of our cathedral and country churches have been built, or had
additions made to them, at different periods, and therefore seldom exhibit
an uniformity of design; and many churches have details about them of
almost every style. There are, however, numerous exceptions, where
churches have been erected in the same style throughout; and this is more
particularly observable in the churches of the fifteenth century.
Q. Were they constructed on any regular plan?
A. The general ground plan of cathedral and conventual churches was after
the form of a cross, and the edifice consisted of a central tower, with
transepts running north and south; westward of the tower was the nave or
main body of the structure, with lateral aisles; and the west front
contained the principal entrance, and was often flanked by towers.
Eastward of the central tower was the choir, where the principal service
was performed, with aisles on each side, and beyond this was the lady
chapel. Sometimes the design also comprehended other chapels. On the north
or south side was the chapter house, in early times quadrangular, but
afterwards octagonal in plan; and on the same side, in most instances,
though not always, were the cloisters, which communicated immediately with
the church, and surrounded a quadrangular court. The chapter house and
cloisters we still find remaining as adjuncts to most cathedral churches,
though the conventual buildings of a domestic nature, with which the
cloisters formerly also communicated, have generally been destroyed. Mere
parochial churches have commonly a tower at the west end, a nave with
lateral aisles, and a chancel. Some churches have transepts; and small
side chapels or additional aisles have been annexed to many, erected at
the costs of individuals, to serve for burial and as chantries. The
smallest class of churches have a nave and chancel only, with a small
bell-turret formed of wooden shingles, or an open arch of stonework,
appearing above the roof at the west end.
[Illustration: SEDILIA,
St. Martin’s, Leicester, circa A. D. 1250.]