THE CROSS IN CHESHIRE
During the latter years of the Roman occupation there must have been
many among the Roman soldiers stationed in Cheshire who had heard the
message of the Gospel, and, following the example of their emperors,
professed the faith of Christ. But, as we have before stated, there is
no proof that a Christian church existed in Cheshire in those days,
though tradition says that where the cathedral church of Chester now
stands there was a church dedicated to S. Peter and S. Paul, which had
previously been a temple of Apollo.
In Wales and Ireland the Church flourished greatly through the troublous
period of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. We are told that Kentigern, the
first bishop of Glasgow, on his return to Wales landed in Wirral and
founded a church there. In the previous chapter we have seen that at
Bangor-Iscoed on the Dee there was a monastery of great importance,
which after the victory of Aethelfrith of Northumbria was razed to the
ground.
Yet it was from Northumbria that Christianity was destined to be brought
and preached to the Angles and Saxons of Cheshire. Oswald, the son of
the heathen Aethelfrith, had during his exile in Scotland been converted
by Celtic missionaries. During the reign of this 'most Christian king, a
man dearly beloved of God, and fenced with the faith of Christ',
missionaries from Scotland 'began with great and fervent devotion to
preach the word of faith to those provinces which King Oswald governed,
baptising all such as believed. Therefore churches were builded in
places convenient: the people rejoicing assembled together to hear the
word of God,' The ancient churches dedicated to S. Oswald at Chester,
Malpas, Brereton, Peover, Bidston, and Worleston, are proof of the great
part played by King Oswald in the conversion of Cheshire and of the
high repute in which he was held as a champion of Christianity.
The tiny hamlet of Chadkirk near Marple suggests to us a famous
missionary who lived at a time when Cheshire had become part of the
kingdom of Mercia. This was Ceadda or Chad, who was sent by the Irish
saint Colomba to preach the gospel to the people of Mercia, and became
in later times the patron saint of the bishopric of Mercia, founded by
King Offa. Chad, who like Oswald had received Christianity from the
Celtic missionaries of North Britain, continued the good work of the
Northumbrian missionaries. At the village of Over were formerly two
stone crosses which may well mark the spots where Chad preached to the
Saxons of Cheshire, baptizing the converts in the river Weaver that
flows hard by. The old church of Over is dedicated to him, as are also
the churches of Farndon and Wybunbury. It is worthy of note that all the
Cheshire churches named after him were built on the banks of streams,
which leads us to suppose that S. Chad, like S. John the Baptist by the
banks of Jordan, chose places where his preaching might be immediately
followed by the ceremony of baptism.
At Sandbach are two stone crosses which are thought to be closely
connected with the conversion of Cheshire. The story goes that Peada,
son of Penda the heathen king of Mercia, wished to marry the Christian
daughter of Oswiu of Northumbria. To win the maiden the young man
consented to forsake his old religion and become a Christian; whereupon
the crosses were set up to commemorate his conversion and marriage.
If you look carefully at the Sandbach crosses you will see that the
Angles of Mercia had reached a very high level of art in sculptured
stones. Carved upon them are several scenes in the life of our Lord, the
Nativity in the stable at Bethlehem with the ox and the ass kneeling
before the infant Christ, the Crucifixion with S. Mary and Apostles
below, Christ carrying the Cross, and Christ in glory with S. Peter on
His right hand bearing the keys of heaven.
Few crosses were, however, carved so elaborately as these Sandbach
crosses. The majority were doubtless of wood, set up in the middle of
the open space round which clustered the huts and wattled dwellings of
the inhabitants. Others consisted of a plain stone shaft set upright in
the ground or on a base of stone steps, sometimes rudely adorned with
scroll-work such as you may see on the fragments of a cross preserved in
the churchyard of Prestbury. Most of them have perished, broken into
fragments where they fell, or have been used for repairs to damaged
buildings. Many were wantonly destroyed in the seventeenth century
during the Civil War.
[Illustration: ANGLIAN CROSSES AT SANDBACH]
Crosses were set up by the wayside at the junction of important highways
or in towns at the crossing of the principal streets, as at Chester.
Here in the open air the monks would gather round them bands of
listeners, and preach the Word of God. Afterwards close to the cross was
erected an edifice of wood or wattles in which the services of the
Church were held, and in still later times these wooden churches would
be replaced by stone buildings. Nowhere, however, in Cheshire are there
any churches or even portions of churches remaining which can be said to
have been built by our early Saxon forefathers.
The church of S. John's, Chester, is said to have been founded by King
Aethelred of Mercia in the year 689. An ancient legend states that
Aethelred 'was admonished to erect a church on the spot where he should
find a white hind'. In the church you may see fragments of an ancient
wall-painting or 'fresco' on one of the pillars of the nave which
illustrates this story. A church certainly did exist here in very early
times, for we read that in later days Leofric, Earl of Mercia,
_repaired_ and enriched the church of S. John's, which may mean that the
earlier wooden church had fallen into decay, and a more substantial
building of stone was erected in its place.
The house of the Mercian Penda produced yet another name closely
connected with the story of the Cross in Cheshire. Werburga, a
great-granddaughter of Penda, succeeded her mother as head of several
great abbeys. She died at Trentham in Staffordshire towards the end of
the seventh century, and two hundred years later, when the Danes (of
whom you will read more in the next chapter) were harrying the land, her
body was removed to Chester for safe keeping, and placed in the church
of S. Peter and S. Paul which had been re-dedicated to S. Werburga and
S. Oswald. For many centuries crowds of devout pilgrims made their way
to Chester to offer prayers and gifts at S. Werburga's shrine.