THE MONASTERIES
The influence of the monasteries during the Middle Ages was
considerable, and it was in them that the lamp of learning and art was
kept burning. The causes which led to their destruction would be too
long a matter to discuss here. In justice we must say that the charges
of gross immorality levied against the monks were neither fair nor were
they the real reason for the dissolution of the monasteries.
The last monastery had fallen by 1540. In most cases the churches were
destroyed, and even when they were preserved the brasses were taken
from the gravestones and sold by the Commissioners who confiscated the
property.
Thus at St Albans there were over 270 brasses, and now there are hardly
a dozen. In all England there are barely 30 monastic brasses left.
They include seven monks and a friar, two abbesses, a prior and five
vowesses, besides one or two doubtful examples.
Besides the three abbots already mentioned as showing episcopal
vestments, there are four mutilated fragments on the reverse of
palimpsests (see below). These will be given in the list of palimpsests.
The dress of a monk included the tunic, an undergarment, with the gown
over it, the scapula and cowl or hood. The tonsure is much larger than
that of a parish priest.
Abbot John Lawrence at Burwell, 1542, was originally shown in full
vestments, but as he survived the dissolution his brass was changed.
He now appears in cassock, surplice and almuce. The upper part of
the figure is new, but the lower shows on the reverse the original
engraving. There is a canopy, part of which is palimpsest and shows, on
the reverse, part of a deacon, c. 1320.
The Benedictines were by far the richest and largest of the Orders. The
Cluniacs were a reformed order of Benedictines. The chief difference
was that each monastery was under the direct supervision of Cluny,
and not of the mother monastery from which it sprung. In England there
was an exception and Lewes stood in the position of Cluny to the other
English Cluniac monasteries. It alone was directly under Cluny.
[Illustration: Fig. 16. Thomas Neolond, Prior of Lewes, 1433, Cowfold,
Sussex]
Prior Neolond, here illustrated, was therefore a very important man.
His dress is exactly similar to that of the Benedictines. The canopy,
as shown, is the finest still extant of purely English type. The
central pediment is itself triple and holds a shrine with the Virgin
and Child within. St Pancras and St Thomas à Becket stand on the
finials of the other pediments. The whole brass measures 10 ft. 2 in. ×
4 ft. 3 in.
The Augustinian abbot wears gown and cowl over the ordinary choir
vestments. The crozier rests on the right arm and he wears no mitre.
A vowess was a widow who took monastic vows. It is not easy to
distinguish the dress from that of the ordinary widow.
The Duchess of Gloucester, after the murder of her husband in 1397,
entered the nunnery at Barking, Essex, and died there two years later.
She appears in the first act of _Richard II_. Her brass lies on an
altar tomb in St Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. Her heraldic
badge--the swan--adorns the inscription and the central pediment of
her triple canopy. Five armorial shields still hang from the shafts,
but the sixth is lost. The pinnacle between the central and the
sinister arch is now lost, but was still intact when this rubbing was
taken. (See illustration.) Thus year by year portions of these ancient
monuments are carelessly lost or stolen.
[Illustration: Fig. 17. Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester
(Vowess), 1399. Westminster Abbey]
The friar, in gown and cowl, with knotted cord (c. 1440), at Denham,
Bucks., is on the reverse of Amphillis Peckham, 1545.
The other brasses call for no further attention, save that in the case
of the two nuns from Sion their convent had already been dissolved.
The abbess is shown without her crosier and Margaret Dely without her
mantle.
_Palimpsest Brasses._
By this we mean brasses which have been twice used. The dissolution of
the monasteries led to thousands of brasses being sold for old metal,
both from the churches destroyed and from those that were allowed
to remain. In 1551 an order was issued confiscating all the church
plate. It is therefore not surprising that great numbers of brasses
were stolen. It is noteworthy that Elizabeth disapproved of these
proceedings and ordered that fresh plate should be procured, and that
the damaged monuments should be restored. The stolen brasses often went
into the melting pot, but sometimes they were re-engraved and used to
commemorate contemporary persons.
Palimpsests are produced in three ways:
I. By engraving the back of the brasses.
II. By re-engraving and altering the figures.
III. By simply substituting a fresh inscription.
Those contained in the first group are probably the most numerous, and
are subdivided into three groups:
(_a_) Plunder from English churches at the Reformation; (_b_) plunder
from Flemish churches at the same period; (_c_) shop-wastes and earlier
stolen brasses.
The Flemish or German brasses, about 50 in number, were probably
plunder from the Dutch churches, which were sacked by the Calvinists in
1566. So complete was the destruction wrought in that short week that
to-day there are fewer complete Flemish brasses in their original home
than there are fragments of Flemish brasses in England. (See Appendix.)
The reverses vary considerably in date and subject. Those laid down
from 1540-1570 show that even before the great outbreak of iconoclasm
of 1566 a good many brasses had been stolen.
Taillor at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, was burnt during the Marian
persecution in 1555, and an inscription was laid down in 1560. The
reverse, c. 1500, shows the head and shoulders and hands of a civilian
on a diapered background with certain other details. The Margate
brass, 1582, shows on the reverse scenes from the life of man. One is
of a child catching butterflies, and the other, two boys walking on
stilts.
Besides these groups there is a third type consisting mostly of
shop-wastes, i.e. sometimes a brass which had been ordered was not
approved; the engraver then either melted it down or re-engraved it
on the other side. Also, brasses were stolen and sold to the brass
engravers, who would use them again in the same way. Many of these are
quite early and often only a few years separate the engravings on the
two sides.
In a few cases the same person is depicted with certain details
altered. John Lawrence of Burwell has already been mentioned.
The demi-figure of Thos. Cod, St Margaret’s, Rochester, 1465, is a
striking example. The reverse shows him in almuce and cope, but for
some unknown reason this apparently was disapproved. He is therefore
shown on the obverse with an amice in place of the almuce.
A late example is at Walton-on-Thames. John Selwyn, 1587, was Gentleman
Keeper of the Royal Park at Oatlands. At a stag-hunt in the presence
of Elizabeth he leapt from his horse on to the back of the stag when
both were going at full speed. There he kept his seat, with his sword
guided the animal towards the Queen, and then plunged the steel into
its throat so that it fell dead at her feet.
This is depicted on a small plate placed between the heads of Selwyn
and his wife. The subject is engraved on both sides. The reverse was
lightly sketched and was rejected. It shows him hatless holding the
stag’s right horn.
The two remaining groups, II and III, are much less numerous. Group II
consists of figures which have been altered.
Examples of this kind are Robt. Hanson, 1545, Chalfont St Peters,
Bucks., altered (by adding shading, etc.) from a priest, 1440. Humphrey
Oker and wife, 1538, Okeover, Staffs., altered from Wm. Lord Zouche
and two wives, c. 1447. The figure of one wife was left intact and the
other was turned over and engraved with the children and an oak-tree
bearing a shield.
There are a few other examples, but perhaps the most interesting is
that to Walter Curzon and wife, Waterperry, Oxon., 1527, altered from
c. 1445. A new head and shoulders were engraved, the palettes were
partly erased and shading was added on arms, cuirass and legs. The
taces have been re-engraved to form a skirt of mail. The ends of the
shoes have been partly erased and the toes rounded. The upper half of
the lady is Tudor, the lower half has had shading added to the lines,
and a chain hanging from the belt added.
Group III consists of appropriate brasses which have not been
re-engraved. A new inscription, and sometimes shields, are merely added.
Good examples of this group are the brasses of Sir John Dyve, 1535,
wife and mother, Bromham, Beds., appropriated from Thos. Wideville and
two wives under triple canopy, c. 1435; John Wybarne (in armour), c.
1546, Ticehurst, Sussex, appropriated from c. 1370; Laughton, Lincs.,
1549, man under triple canopy, appropriated from c. 1400; Joan ffenner,
1516, Horley, Surrey, appropriated from c. 1420, with fine canopy.
There are several other examples and they must be carefully
distinguished from those brasses which have been _copied_ from an
earlier brass, as has happened in the effigy of Peter Rede at St Peter
Mancroft, Norwich.