Thursday, April 28, 2011

Ex-Catholic Church: Westminster Abbey

I'm not really in to the upcoming wedding of Prince Williams and Lady Kate and it's not of much interest to me. While I hope the couple a happy marriage what I find more fascinating is the history of the church they are going to be married in, Westminster Abby

While you may know that this is the same church that Williams mother had her funeral ceremony in, and that Lady Diana was Catholic, Maybe you didn't know that the actual church was once a Catholic Church taken over in the mid 1500.

Here's a little history:

This most famous of all English abbeys is situated within the precincts of the Royal Palace of Westminster, like Holyrood in Scotland and the Escurial in Spain. Its site, on the northern side of the River Thames, a mile or two above the ancient City of London, was formerly known as Thorney or the Isle of Thorns. The date of the foundation of the abbey is quite uncertain. The Venerable Bede (d. 736) does not mention it, but an early and long-received tradition ascribes it to Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who likewise founded St. Paul's, London. The given is 616 and the church is said to have been miraculously consecrated by St. Peter himself. But though this is mere legend, invented probably in the thirteenth century, it is tolerably certain that the monastery existed as early as the eighth century, for it is in a charter of King Ofa, dated 785, that it is first called Westminster, to distinguish it apparently from the minster of St. Paul's to the east. There is also extant a tenth century charter of King Edgar in which the boundaries of the abbey property are defined, and according to William of Malmesbury, St. Dunsan brought twelve Benedictine monks from Glastonbury to Westminster about 960, though the authenticity of this statement has been doubted.

At any rate, whatever the beginnings may have been, it is quite certain that there was an important church standing, and a community of Benedictines in existence at Westminster, when Edward the Confessor began to build in 1055. Of this first Saxon church and monastery no traces remain, and even its plan and site are for the most part conjectural. During his exile in Normandy Edward had vowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome if he should regain his throne. The pope absolved him from this vow on condition that he built or restored an abbey in honour of St. Peter, and this condition Edward fulfilled at Westminster, his friend Edwin being abbot at the time. The earlier buildings were demolished to make way for the new choir and transepts, which were finished and consecrated in 1065, a few days before the king's death. The monastery was planned for seventy monks, but the actual number seems never to have been more than about fifty. The nave of the church was begun in 1110 and completed about 1163 when the Confessor's relics were translated, on his canonization, to a stately shrine in the middle of the choir. Early in the thirteenth century a large eastern lady-chapel was substituted for the small semi-circular one behind Edward's high altar, and this was consecrated in 1220. The growing needs of the community and the constant stream of pilgrims to the tomb of the miracle-working Confessor soon necessitated further changes, and, aided by the munificence of Henry III, a period of great building activity set in. The demolition of the Norman church began in 1245, and during the next thirty years the whole of the eastern part of the church, together with about half the nave, were rebuilt, and the shrine of St. Edward was moved to its present position in the apse behind the high altar. The abbots during this period were Richard Crokesley and Richard Ware. The death, however, of Henry in 1272, a disastrous fire in 1298 which consumed the whole of the monastic buildings, and the "Black Death" in 1349, which carried off Abbot Byrcheston and twenty-six of his monks, so drained the resources of the abbey that all building operations ceased for nearly a century. Under Abbot Litlyngton (1362-86) the conventual parts were rebuilt, after which the western bays of the nave were taken in hand. Progress was slow, however, and the nave was not finally completed until 1517, whilst the western towers were not added until the eighteenth century. In 1502 Henry VII commenced the beautiful eastern lady-chapel which bears his name and was intended by him to enshrine the remains of his uncle Henry VI. Robert Vertue was the architect and his work is far in advance of any other contemporary building. Its wonderful fanvault has never been surpassed either in beauty of design or in the daring skill displayed in its actual construction. In this chapel stands the tomb of its pious founder who died in 1509.
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