Tài liệu Bell''''''''s Cathedrals pptx

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KNIGHT 82 THE TREHEARNE MONUMENT 83 THE HARVARD WINDOW 85 CARVED BOSSES
FROM THE CEILING OF THE OLD NAVE, FIFTEENTH CENTURY 90 THE AUSTIN MONUMENT
(NORTH TRANSEPT) 91 ARMS OF CARDINAL BEAUFORT 96 MAP OF THE DIOCESE OF
SOUTHWARK 98 THE PRIORY SEAL 103 PLAN OF THE CHURCH End
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL. Reproduced from a drawing by Mr. Hedley Fitton, by
permission of the "Daily Chronicle."]
[Illustration: ST. SAVIOUR'S IN 1660. Reproduced from "Church Bells."]
SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL
Chapter Clerk 5
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. SAVIOUR, FORMERLY ST. MARY OVERIE,
SOUTHWARK
The history of St. Saviour's takes us back to those distant days when Southwark was but a marsh, and when
there was no bridge across the Thames. John Stow, historian and antiquary (1525-1605), was acquainted with
Bartholomew Linstede, the last of the Priors, and gives the following account of its origin on his authority:
East from the Bishop of Winchester's house, directly over against it, standeth a fair church, called St.
Mary-over-the-Rie, or Overie; that is, over the water. This church, or some other in place thereof, was, of old
time, long before the Conquest, a house of sisters, founded by a maiden named Mary; unto the which house
and sisters she left, as was left to her by her parents, the oversight and profits of a cross ferry, or traverse ferry
over the Thames, there kept before that any bridge was built. This house of sisters was after by Swithun, a
noble lady, converted into a college of priests, who in place of the ferry built a bridge of timber, and from time
to time kept the place in good reparations; but lastly, the same bridge was built of stone; and then in the year
1106 was this church again founded for canons regular by William Pont de la Arch, and William Dauncey,
Knights, Normans.
Stow's account has been disputed in several particulars. Although it may be taken for granted that there was a
cross-ferry before there was a bridge, it does not follow that the bridge immediately superseded it; and it has
been suggested, as more likely, that both means of transit were used for some time simultaneously, as is the
case to-day at other places.
If the first London Bridge was built by Roman engineers during the Roman occupation, it may be assumed
that the bridge existed before the church. That the first bridge was a Roman structure has been almost proved
by the discovery of Roman coins and other relics among the débris of the original work during the erection of
later bridges. We have an evidence of the antiquity of the site in some Roman tesserae, discovered in 1832,
while a grave was being dug in the south-east corner of the churchyard, and still preserved in the pavement,
near the entrance, in the south aisle of the choir. These tesserae, with the pottery, tiles, coins, lachrymatories,
sepulchral urns, etc., excavated from time to time in and about the church, are clear indications of an
important Roman settlement.
It is known that after the destruction of Roman London by Boadicea, a great many Romans made their escape
into Southwark, where they continued to live, and contributed greatly to the size and importance of the
southern suburb. The principal buildings sprang up round the site of St. Saviour's Church, and it has been
reasonably conjectured that a temple stood on the very spot that the church now occupies.[1]
It is true that no trace of this temple has been discovered; but the conjecture is not inconsistent with the known
principles of the early Christian missionaries, in their contact with paganism, as illustrated in the history and
traditions of other important churches.
Stow's phrase, "long before the Conquest," though somewhat ambiguous, has been thought to point to a date
posterior to the Roman occupation. Some authorities, therefore, contend that the Romans had erected London
Bridge and left the country before St. Mary's was founded, and consequently the bridge the antiquary
mentions as built by "Swithun, a noble lady," was not the first. Again, it is doubtful whether the sub-title
"Overie" means "of the ferry," or "over the river," or whether the form "Overies," which the word sometimes
takes, does not suggest a derivation from "Ofers," "of the bank or shore," a meaning contained in the modern
German Ufer. John Overy, or Overs, was the father of Mary, but whether the surname was derived from the
place, or vice versa, is uncertain. In any case, the name, whether by accident or design, includes a reference to
the foundress as well as to the locality of her foundation.[2]
CHAPTER I 6
Stow is obviously wrong, however, as to the person who converted the House of Sisters into a College of
Priests, who was not a lady, but St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester (852-862), whose devotion to the building
of churches and bridges is well known.
The character of the foundation, altered by St. Swithun, was again altered in 1106, under Bishop William
Giffard, with the co-operation of the two Norman knights to whom Stow refers. They not only erected the first
Norman nave, but made a radical change within by abolishing the "College of Priests," in whose place they
introduced "Canons regular" of the Augustinian Order, governed by a Prior, thus transforming the Collegiate
Church into a monastery. Except as regards the sex of the inmates, the change was a reversion to the idea of
the foundress.[3]
The Norman work of this period is the earliest of which any traces remain in the present church, unless the
doubtful signs on a shaft in the exterior are to be taken as evidence of Saxon workmanship. This shaft is
attached to the north wall of the Chapel of St. John-the-Divine (now used as a clergy vestry), which is perhaps
the oldest part of the fabric. The undoubted Norman remains consist of three arches in the same chapel, where
their outline is just discernible among the brickwork; the fragment of a string-course, with billet moulding, on
the inner wall of the north transept; a portion of the Prior's entrance to the cloisters; the old Canons' doorway;
and an arcaded recess. Of these, it may be briefly remarked that the remains of the Prior's door, showing the
mutilated shafts and the zigzag moulding of the jambs, are preserved, in situ, in the outer face of the north
wall to the new nave. The outline of the Canons' entrance, obviously of much simpler moulding, will be seen
on the inner side of the same wall, towards the west end. The Norman recess lies still farther to the west on the
same side.
Quite recently a valuable relic of the same period has been discovered in the north-east corner within the
above-mentioned chapel (by the side of the new Harvard window) apparently part of the original arcading to
the apse.
Early in the thirteenth century London was visited by one of those great fires, which occurred at rather
frequent intervals, before the greatest of all, in 1666, led to the rebuilding of the city, and better means for its
protection. The date of the particular fire is sometimes given as 1207, sometimes as 1212 or 1213. It is not
unlikely that there were several, in one or other of which London Bridge, Southwark, and the church were
seriously injured. (Vide Stow and Harleian MSS., No. 565.)
The repairs were soon taken in hand by Peter de la Roche, otherwise de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester
(1205-1238), who altered the nave into the Early English, which was then generally superseding the heavier
Norman work, and shortly afterwards built the choir and retro-choir in a still lighter and more ornate style.
The architecture gives us the approximate date of de la Roche's work as the early part of the thirteenth
century, which is about as near as we can get to it in the absence of a more precise record than that it was
"begun after the fire." In consequence of this, or some previous fire, the Canons were led to found a hospital
close to the Priory for the relief of the distress and disease caused by the disaster. During the restorations by
Peter de Rupibus, in or about 1228, he had the hospital transferred to a more favourable site in the
neighbourhood, where the air was fresher and water more abundant, and dedicated it to St. Thomas of
Canterbury, to whom the chapel on London Bridge was also dedicated.[4]
In addition to all this excellent work, Bishop de Rupibus built a chapel for the parishioners, the conventual
church being reserved for the Prior and monks. This chapel stood in the angle between the walls of the choir
and south transept, and was called St. Mary Magdalene Overy.
In the reign of Richard II there was another fire, involving repairs; and then, as well as in the reign of Henry
IV, Perpendicular features were introduced by Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (1405-1447), aided
by John Gower, the "Father of English Poetry." The Cardinal is said to have restored the south transept at his
own expense, and is there commemorated in a sculptured representation of his hat and coat of arms affixed to
CHAPTER I 7
a pier by the door. The difference in style between the two transepts shows that on the north to be of
somewhat earlier date, though it was probably not left untouched by the restorers. The poet Gower founded a
chantry in the Chapel of St. John Baptist, in the north aisle, where he was eventually buried, and where daily
masses were said for the repose of his soul before the Reformation. His monument was transferred to the
south transept during the "repairs and beautifications" of 1832, but is now restored to its original place over
the poet's remains in the fifth bay (from the west), of the north aisle of the nave. The chapel and chantry have
unfortunately disappeared.
In 1469 the stone roof of the old nave fell down. The accident has been attributed to the removal, in the reign
of Richard II, of the flying buttresses by which the vault was originally supported, as is still the case with the
choir walls. Another roof of groined oak was soon substituted, as less likely to suffer from its own weight.
That it was not a specially light structure, however, may be inferred from the massive bosses preserved from
it, and now to be seen on the floor of the north transept.
[Illustration: FORMER WESTERN DOORWAY. From Moss and Nightingale's "History" (1817-18).]
The crowning piece of work, which very shortly preceded the ruin brought about by the Dissolution, was set
upon the Priory Church by Bishop Fox in 1520, in the magnificent altar-screen, which through all its
mutilations has borne witness to his work in his favourite device of the "Pelican in her piety," and the
humorous allusion to his name, in the figure of a man chasing a fox, among its sculptured ornaments. The
west end of the church was considerably altered, and a new western doorway inserted, with a six-light
window above it, at about the same time; when also the upper stages of the tower were erected. The window is
said to have been altered for the worse in the seventeenth century, and in its last phase the whole façade
presented what Mr. Dollman describes as "a heterogeneous mass of masonry and brickwork," not worth
preserving when the modern restoration was taken in hand. The flying buttresses have been reproduced in the
new nave, and the chief doorway placed in the south-west corner, which the architect was led to believe was
its original position.
It is generally admitted that by the sixteenth century the monastic institutions had so far departed from the
ideal of their founders, and outlived their usefulness, as to call for some drastic measures for their
improvement. Steps had been taken from time to time with this object, before the reign of Henry VIII, when a
combination of circumstances, into which we need not now enter, enabled the King to carry out his scheme
for the Dissolution of the monasteries, comprising the two chief classes of abbeys and priories into which they
were divided. The coming storm was heralded at St. Mary's on 11th November, 1535 on which date, "by
command of the king," a solemn procession was held in the church to inaugurate its downfall by a Litany, in
which the Prior and Canons took part, "with their crosses, candlesticks and vergers before them," as if in
mockery of the state of which they were so soon to be deprived. The "Act of Suppression," passed in 1536,
sealed the fate of the smaller foundations, to be followed three years later by the "voluntary surrender" of their
property by the larger monasteries, thus making a clean sweep of the whole. The last Prior, Linstede, has been
blamed for so far acquiescing in the measure as to accept a pension from the royal bounty; but with the fate of
the last Abbot of Glastonbury before him, who had been hanged for his resistance, he probably thought that
his own opposition would only have led to a useless martyrdom without averting the fall of his priory. It may
be mentioned, as having some bearing on our history, that part of the wealth released by the Act was applied
to the foundation of six new bishoprics, thus by a strange coincidence bringing up the English dioceses to the
number of twenty-four, originally fixed upon by Pope Gregory the Great, while his successor was set at
defiance by the measures through which they were created.
St. Mary Overy now enters on a new phase of existence. We have seen that it had become a double church, by
union with the church, or chapel, of St. Mary Magdalene, the one a conventual, the other a public, place of
worship. In the immediate neighbourhood there was a third church, dedicated to St. Margaret, which had been
founded by Bishop Giffard in 1107, and granted to the fraternity at St. Mary's by charter of Henry I. By an
Act of 1540, the year of Linstede's surrender, the whole were united into a single parish, under the title of St.
CHAPTER I 8
Saviour's, thenceforward the official designation of the Collegiate Church and surrounding district. The new
dedication was suggested by, and intended to perpetuate the memory of, the convent of that name in
Bermondsey (founded by Alwin Child, a London citizen, in 1082), which shared the fate of its companions at
the Dissolution.
Soon after the amalgamation, St. Margaret's Church was secularized, and divided into three portions for use
respectively as a Sessions' Court, a Court of Admiralty, and a prison. It stood on the ground where the old
Southwark Town Hall was afterwards built, itself a perpetuation of the secular uses to which the
deconsecrated church was put before it was destroyed. A relic of St. Margaret's survives in the shape of a
monumental slab to Aleyn Ferthing, five times Member for Southwark, about the middle of the fourteenth
century. The stone was discovered in 1833 during some excavations on the site of the old church, and
transferred to St. Saviour's, where it is imbedded in the pavement of the retro-choir. From 1540 the Priory
Church and Rectory were leased to the parishioners by the Crown, at a rental of about £50 per annum, till
1614, when the church was purchased right out from James I for the sum of £800.
The Corporation into whose hands the newly constituted parish of St. Saviour's passed in 1540 consisted of
thirty vestrymen, of whom six were churchwardens.[5]
The latter, as representatives of the ancient Seniores Ecclesiastici, were charged with the protection of the
edifice and church furniture, but the records show that they had no special veneration for either. The Act of
1540, appointing them to St. Saviour's, had formed them into a Corporation in continuation of the Perpetual
Guild or Fraternity of the Assumption, incorporated in 1449. This Guild was afterwards merged in the
Churchwardens of St. Margaret's, whence the existing officers were transferred to St. Saviour's on the
amalgamation of the parishes, and others added to their number. With the help of their fellow vestrymen they
soon set to work to render the Collegiate Church more convenient. To secure an easy communication between
that church and the adjacent chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, they cut through the south wall of the choir, and
constructed four clumsy arches in it, thus opening the way from one building to the other. From that time
forward the smaller of the two was used as a vestibule, and the other chapels and chantries pertaining to the
larger church were doomed to destruction, as being no longer required under the altered conditions. The
proceedings which strike us as most sacrilegious occurred in the Lady Chapel. Perhaps they cannot be better
described than in Stow's graphic words:
The chapel was leased and let out, and the House of God made a bakehouse. Two very fair doors were
lathed, daubed, and dammed up, the fair pillars were ordinary posts, against which they piled billets and
bavens. In this place they had their ovens, in that a bolting place, in that their kneading trough, in another (I
have heard) a hog's trough, for the words that were given me were these: "This place have I known a hog-stie,
in another a storehouse to store up their hoarded meal, and in all of it something of this sordid kind and
condition."
That the description is not exaggerated is proved by the parish registers, which also show that the state of
things went on for some years and did not improve with time. On 15th May, 1576, for instance, a vestry order
is recorded in which the lessee of the chapel is called upon to repair certain broken windows and remove
nuisances. In the following December, a further entry states that fourteen members of the vestry went in a
body to the chapel to see whether their orders had been attended to, having allowed the lessee more than six
months to act on the notice. They found the place turned into a stable "with hogs, a dung-heap and other filth"
about, and were thereupon empowered to take legal proceedings to keep the tenant up to his contract.[6]
In the reign of Edward VI the Prayer-book and its vernacular services were introduced. The people had hardly
got used to them before the accession of Queen Mary, and the consequent papal reaction, restored the Latin
mass, around which most of the religious controversies of the time were furiously raging. During that brief
reign the retro-choir was turned to more respectable use as a Spiritual Court, though the memories attaching to
it in that character constitute a gloomy chapter in its history which we would gladly eliminate.
CHAPTER I 9
On Monday, 28th January, 1555, and the two following days, a commission, appointed by the Cardinal
Legate, sat there for the trial of certain preachers and heretics. It was presided over by Bishops Gardiner, of
Winchester, and Bonner, of London, and included eleven other Bishops, besides several eminent laymen. On
the first day the proceedings were open to the public, but as the crowd was inconvenient, and the example or
logic of the accused thought likely to be contagious, the doors were closed on the Tuesday and Wednesday,
except to a few privileged spectators. The trials ended in the condemnation of six clergymen of high standing,
viz.:
1. The Rev. Lawrence Saunders, Rector of Allhallows', Bread Street.
2. The Rev. John Bradford, Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral.
3. The Rev. John Rogers, Prebendary of St. Paul's, and Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, Newgate Street.
4. The Rev. Rowland Taylor, Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk.
5. The Right Rev. Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's, and
6. The Right Rev. John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, all of whom were afterwards burnt. They are
commemorated in the windows of the chapel, which include the Ven. John Philpot, Archdeacon of
Winchester, who suffered at the same time, though his examination was held elsewhere. The odium of this
melancholy transaction of course rests on the presiding Bishops, neither of whom was afterwards anxious to
take the undivided responsibility. Bishop Gardiner did not long survive it. He died on the 13th November, in
the same year, at Whitehall, whence his body was conveyed, via Southwark, to Winchester for interment. The
funeral procession went by water from Westminster to St. Mary Overy, where his obsequies were performed,
and his intestines buried before the high altar, in order that the honour of holding his remains might be shared
by the two principal churches in his diocese.[7]
Immediately on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, steps were taken to reconcile the conflicting elements
within the Church of England, whose extreme representatives had been brought into violent collision in the
previous reign. A compromise was offered to them in a new Prayer-book, which aimed at combining the
principles of the first and second books of Edward VI, in order to comprehend within the pale of the Church
those who had been excluded from it by a rigid interpretation of the rubrics on either hand. On one side the
rubrics of Edward's second book were modified so as to allow greater liberty in the use of ornaments and
vestments, while on the other, the sentences employed at the distribution of the elements in Holy Communion,
which had been held to support two opposite theories of the Sacrament in the previous books, were united in
the new one, as involving no real contradiction.
Notwithstanding the rubric which was inserted in Elizabeth's book for the retention of the ornaments in use
under Edward VI, an order was issued in the first year of her reign (18th September, 1559), for the sale of
certain "Popish ornaments" at St. Saviour's, to meet the expenses of repairing the church, and in consideration
of the purchase of the new lease. A list of the ornaments so disposed of may be interesting:
Two small basons of silver, parcel gilt, weighing 22 ounces, with a salver, double gilt, and a paten, parcel gilt.
Two altar-cloths, and a vestment of black velvet and crimson satin, embroidered in gold and silver.
A cope and vestment (deacon and sub-deacon) of green velvet, with flowers of gold.
Three copper cases, 43 pieces of stuff, and 4 "aules."
The whole of which were sold for £14 5s. 8d.
CHAPTER I 10
Other articles sold included:
A painted cloth from before the rood, realizing 7s.
Two altar-cloths of white fustian, 16s.
Two altar-cloths of white damask, with flowers of green and gold, 21s.
Two altar-cloths, pea-green and white damask, 17s.
Two altar-cloths of green and white satin, with letters of gold, 58s.
One altar-cloth of satin, 17s.
Three vestments of blue damask, with crimson velvet crosses, 42s.
A white damask cope; "a little narrow thing like a valance," with the name of Jesus in gold sold for 8d.
Candlesticks, censers, with "other broken brass," "as little bells and such like," containing in weight, 34 lb.,
sold at 6d. a pound.
In pursuance of this destructive work an order was given on 31st May, 1561, "That all the church books in
Latin be defaced and cut according to the injunctions of the Bishop"; the effect of which has been to deprive
us of many valuable parish records which happened to be written in the Latin language, in addition to the
more distinctly ecclesiastical books expressly included in the order.
On the very next day another order followed to the effect, "That the Rood Loft be taken down, and made
decent and comely as in the other churches in the City." The changes which all this implies in the adornment
and accessories of religious worship under Queen Elizabeth, were supplemented by the teaching from the
pulpit. This was chiefly done by the "Preaching Chaplains" introduced at St. Saviour's in that reign. The first
appointments were made in 1564, when two Chaplains assumed office, and divided the preaching between
them.
The arrangement, allowing two men to act simultaneously but quite independently of each other, remained in
force till our own times, though its disadvantages soon began to appear. The Chaplains, though committed by
their appointment to the general doctrines of the Reformation, were by no means bound to agree on the many
debatable questions to which the Reformation had given rise, and did not always convey the same doctrines to
their people, or work harmoniously together. It was not, however, till the year 1868 that this inconsistency
was corrected by merging the two offices into one; and in 1883 the measure was supplemented by an Act
which abolished the office of Chaplain altogether, and made him who then held it the first Rector.
It may here be added that the parishioners had acquired the right of appointment to the pastorate by their
purchase of the church in 1614; but the scandals attending the public election at every vacancy led to its
abolition in 1885, when the right was transferred to the Bishop of the diocese by Act of Parliament.[8]
In 1618 Dr. Lancelot Andrewes was appointed Bishop of Winchester, where he died in 1626. During his
episcopate he often visited St. Saviour's, as the most important church in his diocese, next to his own
cathedral. His pronounced churchmanship occasionally brought him into strong contrast with the Chaplains,
who usually went much further in the Puritan direction than their Bishop, while they were themselves apt to
be pushed forward or restrained by the parishioners. The latter, as holding the appointment in their hands, had
established a sort of censorship over their pastors, which they were not slow to exercise against any tendency
to "unsound" teaching. The records of the parish show that the Chaplains had to ask leave of absence when
CHAPTER I 11
they wanted a holiday, and were otherwise kept in excellent order by their lay superiors.
About this time considerable alterations were made in the interior of the church to bring it into line with the
current spiritual discipline. In or about 1615 galleries were set up for the first time across the north and south
transepts, and in 1618 a screen and gallery in place of the old rood loft between the nave and choir, were
"worthily contrived and erected." Somewhere between this date and 1624 an inner porch, of semi-classical
design, was inserted at the west end.
That closed and rented pews were introduced at this period may be inferred from the following
Representation, made by the churchwardens to the Bishop of the diocese in 1639:
"We assure your Lordship that a Pew wherein one Mrs. Ware sits, and pleads to be placed, is, and always hath
been, a Pew for Women of a far better rank and quality than she, and for such whose husbands pay far greater
duty than hers, and hath always been reserved for some of the chiefest Women dwelling on the Borough side
of the said Parish, and never any of the Bankside were placed there, the Pews appointed for that Liberty being
for the most part on the North side of the body of the Church."[9]
The Prayer-book services were suspended at St. Saviour's, as elsewhere, during the Commonwealth, by the
Act of Parliament passed on 3rd January, 1645, which established the "Directory" in their place.
"The Directory for the Public Worship of God in the three Kingdoms" was not so much a book of devotions as
a set of instructions to the minister, who was allowed the discretion of using what the book provided, or
extemporising a service of his own upon its principles. On the Restoration of Charles II, an attempt was made
at the Savoy Conference (1661) to reconcile the conflicting religious parties into which the country had been
divided an attempt which was not at all successful with those outside the Church of England. The result of
the Conference, as far as the Church was concerned, was the issue of the revised Book of Common Prayer in
1662, which restored, with certain modifications, the form of services withheld during the inter-regnum.
The sacraments had been much neglected under the Protectorate; baptism was seldom administered, and the
records of St. Saviour's show that marriages were then performed by the magistrates instead of the ordained
ministers, the banns being published in the market-place.
[Illustration: The South Prospect of the Church of St. Savior in Southwark THE CHURCH ABOUT 1740.
From an engraving by B. Cole.]
During the next few years various structural alterations were made within and without the edifice. The chief of
these were the rebuilding, in 1676, of the Bishop's or Lady Chapel, which had been damaged by fire; and
some alteration in the tower pinnacles in 1689, when new vanes (bearing that date) were also set up. Mr.
Dollman conjectures that the buttresses, if they ever existed, were then removed from the tower.[10]
The "Bishop's Chapel" was a small building projecting eastward from the retro-choir. The name was popularly
conferred upon it as the place of Bishop Andrewes' interment, but there can be no reasonable doubt that it was
the true Lady Chapel, and that its more correct designation, though popularly disused, was the "Little Chapel
of Our Lady." This small building was destroyed in 1830, as interfering with the approach to new London
Bridge, when the body of Bishop Andrewes was transferred to its present place in the retro-choir.
In the eighteenth century the interior was altered in various details, with the object of bringing it into harmony
with the current notions of ecclesiastical beauty, and the classical forms which architecture had assumed. In
the year 1703 a new altar-piece, in the Corinthian style, was erected in front of Bishop Fox's fine stone screen,
which it completely concealed. A wooden framework of classical pillars, with figures of Moses and Aaron on
either side, and the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments in the spaces between them, the whole
surmounted by flaming censers and a circle of flying cherubs, made up a composition not at all bad in itself
CHAPTER I 12
but utterly out of character with the Gothic work behind and around it. At the same time the sanctuary was
railed and paved with black and white marble, the body of the church newly paved and galleried, a pulpit with
sounding-board erected, and the whole church "cleaned, white-washed, and beautified throughout, at the
charge of the parish." That the work was generally approved may be inferred from the remark of Stow's
"Continuator": "This is now a very magnificent church since the late reparation"; while another exponent of
public opinion, speaking of this and some later improvements of the same kind says, "Though the church hath
been often repaired, yet the beauty for which it is justly admired consists in this repair."
[Illustration: INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST. From an engraving in Moss and Nightingale's "History"
(1817-18).]
In May, 1821, the restoration of the choir was proposed and entertained for the first time, a restoration which
the dilapidated state of the clerestory and triforium showed to be necessary. The proposal was not allowed to
pass without opposition, for a counter motion was submitted for the complete destruction of the whole
building except the tower, to which a brand-new church was to be adapted. Fortunately this latter scheme was
negatived by a large majority of the parishioners, and the work of restoration was committed to the then
famous Gothic architect Mr. George Gwilt. He did his work most carefully and conscientiously, adhering as
far as possible to the original, though hampered throughout his progress by contradictory instructions from the
managing committee, who, like most bodies of that kind, were apt to fluctuate between motives of economy
and a sense of what was due to the ancient fabric. The Gothic revival was then in an incipient stage, and Mr.
Gwilt, or his committee, must be held responsible for the removal of the old east gable, with its five-light
Tudor window, erected by Bishop Fox, in place of which a new window of three lights was inserted. During
this restoration the Church of St. Mary Magdalene was demolished in 1822, together with some old houses,
which are less to be regretted as having encroached too closely on the walls of the choir.
In 1825 the restoration of the nave began to be seriously considered, its dilapidated state having been made
more conspicuous by contrast with the restored chancel. Tenders for the work were invited by public
advertisement, but nothing important was done while the vestry were discussing the respective advantages of
"rebuilding" and "repairing," and the nave was neglected till it got beyond repair. In the meantime the two
transepts were restored by Mr. Robert Wallace in 1830.
He substituted new designs of his own for the original tracery in the most important window in the south
transept; and (probably influenced by an economical committee) made the fatal mistake of employing cement
instead of stone for the interior mouldings, and a soft Bath stone for his repairs to the exterior. The action of
time and weather has shown the false economy of the work. In the same year the "Bishop's Chapel" was
destroyed, as before mentioned. In 1832 a much graver act of vandalism was threatened by the Bridge
Committee in their proposal for widening the roadway, which meant the entire destruction of the retro-choir.
The suggestion was to leave a space of sixty feet wide, afterwards extended to seventy, between the east end
of the church and the bridge.[11] This was too much for the inhabitants of Southwark, who rose to the
occasion in a vigorous protest by which the venerable building was saved.
[Illustration: THE NAVE IN 1831. From a contemporaneous Engraving, by permission of "Church Bells."]
At their first meeting on the subject (24th January) the vestrymen endorsed the proposal of the Bridge
Committee by a large majority. At a subsequent meeting, held within a week, public opinion had been aroused
on the subject, and the majority was reduced to three. The moral victory for the Church and Borough of
Southwark, headed by Bishop Sumner, was secured by the poll there and then demanded, the result of which
was announced, in two days' time, as: "For the retention of the building, 380; against, 140; majority for the
retention, 240."
The retro-choir was saved, and Mr. Gwilt completed the good work by restoring it, giving his services
gratuitously. The nave had been already doomed. It had got into such a ruinous state by 1831 that at a Vestry
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Meeting holden on the 3rd, and confirmed on the 10th, of May, it was resolved:
"That the whole of the roof, from the western door to the west end of the tower, called the nave, consisting of
ceiling, roof, walls, and pillars, as far as dangerous, be sold and cleared away; the remainder of the walls,
pillars, and family vaults to be left open to the weather. And that the choir, north and south transepts, be
enclosed, to the eastern part of the church, for divine service; and that the pews, situated in the nave, be
removed into such part, for the accommodation of the inhabitants."
In 1838 the nave, having been sufficiently operated on by the climate and other destructive forces, was taken
down; and in the following year the foundation stone of a mean and flimsy substitute, in the "Gothic" of the
period, was laid by Dr. Sumner, then Bishop of Winchester. The interior, thus limited and reduced, was fitted
up with timber staircases, wainscoting, galleries, high pews, and a "three-decker" pulpit, which answered the
double purpose of obscuring the sanctuary and enabling the preacher to command his audience in the
galleries.
The barbarous result did not escape the sensitive eye of Mr. A.W. Pugin, the great Gothic revivalist, who gave
vent to his indignation in a scathing article in the "Dublin Review." He said:
"It may not be amiss to draw public attention to the atrocities that have lately been perpetrated in the
venerable church of St. Saviour's, Southwark. But a few years since it was one of the most perfect
second-class cruciform churches in England, and an edifice full of the most interesting associations connected
with the ancient history of the Metropolis. The roof was first stripped off its massive and solemn nave; in this
state it was left a considerable time, exposed to all the injuries of wet and weather; at length it was condemned
to be pulled down, and in place of one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture left in
London with massive walls and pillars, deeply moulded arches, a most interesting south porch, and a
splendid western doorway we have as vile a preaching-place as ever disgraced the nineteenth century.
"It is bad enough to see such an erection spring up at all, but when a venerable building is demolished to make
way for it, the case is quite intolerable. Will it be believed that, under the centre tower, in the transepts of this
once most beauteous church, staircases on stilts have been set up, exactly resembling those by which the
company ascend to a booth or race-course? Nothing but the preaching-house system could have brought
such utter desolation on a stately church; in fact, the abomination is so great that it must be seen to be
credited."
Strange as it may appear, the seating accommodation under this arrangement was even greater than it is at
present, and the congregations at the Sunday services were almost as large as they are to-day. It would be
quite wrong, therefore, to suppose that no religious work was going on in the parish. But beyond the
parishioners, and the few antiquaries who visited the church from time to time, it was scarcely known to the
outside world, except when the bells rang out the old year on the 31st of December, or when a dismal light in
the windows proclaimed the Christmas distribution of bread, coals, and blankets to the poor of the
neighbourhood.
It was impossible, however, that an edifice with the history and associations of St. Saviour's, should escape
the religious and artistic revival of which the Oxford movement was the cause or the outcome; and the
restoration of this fine church to its original beauty, and more than its original usefulness, has followed almost
as a matter of course. The scheme for its restoration, although in the air for some time previously, began to
take a definite shape in 1877, when St. Saviour's, Southwark, with other South London parishes, was
transferred from the diocese of Winchester to Rochester. Dr. Anthony Wilson Thorold was appointed to the
See of Rochester in the same year, and very soon lent his full energies to the work. In 1889 a meeting of the
chief parishioners was summoned to inaugurate the scheme, and a subscription list was at once opened,
headed by his Lordship with £1,000. An appeal to the public was immediately issued, and was generously
responded to by great and small. Among the larger donations may be mentioned the sum of £5,000 from Lord
CHAPTER I 14