Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.
Showing posts with label Benedictine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benedictine. Show all posts

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Worcester Cathedral (Part Two)


Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.



Worcester Cathedral's West Window.
Author: Greenshed
Photo: January 2007.


Other notable burials include:

Richard Edes (died1604), a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.
William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton (1616-1651), Scottish Royalist Commander during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
John Gauden (1605–1662), Bishop of Worcester
Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947), Prime Minister

An image of the Cathedral's West Facade appeared on the reverse of the Series E British £20 note, commemorating Sir Edward Elgar, issued between 1999 and 2007. The notes are gradually being withdrawn from circulation to be replaced by a new series.

Architecture

Worcester Cathedral embodies many features that are highly typical of an English Mediaeval Cathedral. Like the Cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln, it has two transepts crossing the nave, rather than the single transept, usual on the Continent. 

This feature of English Cathedrals was to facilitate the private saying of the Holy Office by many clergy or monks. Worcester is also typical of English Cathedrals in having a chapter house and cloister. To the North Side of the Cathedral is an entrance porch, a feature designed to eliminate the draught which, prior to the installation of modern swing doors, would blow through Cathedral whenever the Western Doors were open.





The Screen and Nave of Worcester Cathedral.
looking West towards the West Window. 



Worcester Cathedral has important parts of the building, dating from every Century from the 11th- to the 16th-Century. Its tower, in the Perpendicular style, is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "exquisite" and is best seen across the River Severn.

The earliest part of the building at Worcester is the multi-columned Norman crypt, with cushion capitals remaining from the original Monastic Church, begun by St. Wulfstan in 1084. 





The earliest part of the building at Worcester is the multi-columned Norman crypt, with cushion capitals remaining from the original Monastic Church, begun by St. Wulfstan in 1084. 
Photo: February 2011.


Also from the Norman period, is the circular chapter house of 1120, made octagonal on the outside when the walls were reinforced in the 14th-Century. The nave was built and rebuilt, piecemeal, and in different styles, by several different architects over a period of 200 years, from 1170 to 1374; some bays being a unique and decorative transition between Norman and Gothic. The oldest parts show alternate layers of green sandstone from Highley in Shropshire and yellow Cotswold limestone.


PART THREE FOLLOWS


Friday 3 August 2012

Worcester Cathedral (Part One)


Text and illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise stated.






Worcester Cathedral.
Author: Newton2.
Photo: 2004.
From: Wikimedia Commons.



Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican Cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester.

Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic. It is famous for its Norman crypt and unique chapter house, its unusual Transitional Gothic bays, its fine woodwork and its "exquisite" central tower, which is of particularly fine proportion.

The Cathedral's West facade appeared, with a portrait of Sir Edward Elgar, on the reverse of the £20 note issued by the Bank of England between 1999 and 2007.




The Cattley Window, Worcester Cathedral. At the West End of the North Aisle. Dedicated by Richard Cattley, Honorary Canon of the Cathedral Church, in memory of his wife, Harriet Emma, who died 1854, and his son, Richard Thomas D'Arcy, who died 1894.
Author: Bob Embleton.
Photo: July 2007.
From: Wikimedia Commons.



The Cathedral was founded in 680 A.D., with Bishop Bosel as its head. The first Cathedral was built in this period, but nothing now remains of it. The existing crypt of the Cathedral dates from the 10th-Century and the time of St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester. The current Cathedral dates from the 12th-Century and the 13th-Century.

Monks and nuns had been present at the Cathedral since the 7th-Century (see Bede). The Monastery became Benedictine in the second half of the 10th-Century. There is an important connection to Fleury, as Oswald, Bishop of Worcester 961 A.D. - 992 A.D., being prior at the same time, was professed at Fleury and introduced the Monastic Rule of Fleury to Worcester. The Benedictine monks were driven out in 1540 and replaced by Secular Canons.

The former monastic library of Worcester contained a considerable number of manuscripts which are, with other libraries, now scattered over Cambridge, London (British Library), Oxford Bodleian, and the Cathedral library at Worcester.




Worcester Cathedral's Gothic Vaulting.
Photo: January 2008.
Author: Mattana.
From: Wikimedia Commons.



Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the building was re-established as a Cathedral of Secular Clergy. The Cathedral was subject to major restoration work by Sir George Gilbert Scott and A. E. Perkins in the 1860s.

The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John in its chancel. Before his death in Newark in 1216, John had requested to be buried at Worcester. He is buried between the shrines of St Wulstan and St Oswald (now destroyed).

The Cathedral has a memorial, Prince Arthur's Chantry, to the young prince, Arthur Tudor, who is buried here. Arthur's younger brother and next in line for the throne was Henry VIII. Worcester Cathedral was doubtless spared destruction by Henry VIII, during the English Reformation, because of his brother's chantry in the Cathedral.


PART TWO FOLLOWS

Saturday 28 July 2012

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Four)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, 
unless otherwise accredited.





Die wahre Dreiheit in der wahren Einheit
(The true Trinity in the true Unity)
(circa 1165)



In addition to the Ordo Virtutum, Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences, to responsories.

Her music is described as monophonic; that is, consisting of exactly one melodic line.Hildegard's compositional style is characterised by soaring melodies, often well outside of the normal range of chant at the time.

Additionally, scholars such as Margot Fassler and Marianna Richert Pfau describe Hildegard's music as highly melismatic, often with recurrent melodic units, and also note her close attention to the relationship between music and text, which was a rare occurrence in monastic chant of the 12th-Century.

Hildegard of Bingen’s songs are left open for rhythmic interpretation because of the use of neumes without a staff. The reverence for the Virgin Mary, reflected in music, shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.




German 10 DM commemorative coin
issued by the Federal Republic of Germany (1998)
designed by Carl Vezerfi-Clemm
on the 900th anniversary of Hildegard of Bingen's birth



The definition of viriditas or ‘greenness’ is an earthly expression of "the heavenly" in an integrity that overcomes dualisms. This ‘greenness’ or power of life appears frequently in Hildegard’s works.

Recent scholars have asserted that Hildegard made a close association between music and the female body in her musical compositions. The poetry and music of Hildegard’s Symphonia is concerned with the anatomy of female desire, thus described as Sapphonic, or pertaining to Sappho, connecting her to a history of female rhetoricians.

Mysticism

In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which, her Scivias ("Know the Way"), was completed in 1151. Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life") and Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works", also known as De operatione Dei, "On God's Activity") followed. In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was about 75, Hildegard first describes each vision, then interprets them through Biblical exegesis.

The narrative of her visions was richly decorated, under her direction, with transcription assistance provided by the monk, Volmar, and nun, Richardis. The book was celebrated in the Middle Ages, in part because of the approval given to it by Pope Eugenius III, and was later printed in Paris in 1513.





Hildegard von Bingen's alphabet "Litterae ignotae"


Herbal medicine

Hildegard also wrote Physica, a text on the natural sciences, as well as Causae et Curae. Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her healing powers, involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones. In both texts, Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos, animals, plants, stones, and minerals.

She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on Earth are for the use of humans. She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and stones, though she also questions God's effect on man's health. One example of her healing powers was curing the blind with the use of Rhine water.

Alphabet

Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified mediaeval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated and abridged words.  Due to her inventions of words for her lyrics and a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a mediaeval precursor. Scholars believe that Hildegard used her Lingua Ignota to increase solidarity among her nuns.


PART FIVE FOLLOWS


Sunday 22 July 2012

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Three)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, unless otherwise accredited.




"Universal Man" illumination 
from Hildegard's Liber Divinorum Operum, 1165


Hildegard's Vita was begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg, under Hildegard's supervision. It was between November 1147 and February 1148, at the Synod in Trier, that Pope Eugenus heard about Hildegard’s writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credibility.

Before Hildegard’s death, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz. A man buried in Rupertsburg had died after excommunication from the Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the Church at the time of his death.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her Sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.

Hildegard's musical, literary, and scientific writings are housed primarily in two manuscripts: the Dendermonde manuscript and the Riesencodex. The Dendermonde manuscript was copied under Hildegard's supervision at Rupertsberg, while the Riesencodex was copied in the century after Hildegard's death.





A Facsimile of the"Riesencodex"

(Hs.2 of the Hessische Landesbibliothek, Wiesbaden, fol. 466-481v)




Attention in recent decades to women of the Mediaeval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard, particularly her music. In addition to the Ordo Virtutum, sixty-nine musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost.

This is one of the largest repertoires among Mediaeval composers. Hildegard also wrote nearly 400 letters to correspondents ranging from Popes to Emperors to abbots and abbesses; two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures; an invented language called the Lingua ignota; various minor works, including a Gospel commentary and two works of hagiography; and three great volumes of visionary theology: Scivias, Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life"), and Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works").

One of her better known works, Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play. It is unsure when some of Hildegard’s compositions were composed, though the Ordo Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151. 

The morality play consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human Soul) and 16 Virtues. There is also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima and the Virtues.


PART FOUR FOLLOWS


Wednesday 18 July 2012

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Two)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, unless otherwise accredited.




Mutterschaft aus dem Geiste und dem Wasser
(Motherhood from the Spirit and the Water), 1165

In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest in what is now Germany. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the enclosure. Hildegard also tells us that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard Biblical interpretation.

Hildegard and Jutta most likely prayed, meditated, read scriptures, such as the psalter, and did some sort of handiwork during the hours of the Divine Office. This also might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed psaltery. Volmar, a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could also have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create.

Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as "magistra" of the community by her fellow nuns. Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg also asked Hildegard to be Prioress, which would be under his authority. Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg. This was to be a move towards poverty, from a stone complex that was well established to a temporary dwelling place. 

When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that kept her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. 




Hildegard von Bingen's alphabet "Litterae ignotae"


It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery. Hildegard and about twenty nuns moved to the Saint Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165, Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at Eibingen.

Visions

Hildegard says that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term 'visio' to this feature of her experience, and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

She was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who, in turn, told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, Scivias ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing.

While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. [...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus!'



PART THREE FOLLOWS


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Cluny Abbey (Part Three)



Coat of Arms of Cluny Abbey: 
"Gules, two keys in saltire, the wards upwards and outwards, or. Overall, a sword in paleargent".

Text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

The Cluny library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe. It was a storehouse of numerous very valuable manuscripts. During the religious conflicts of 1562, the Huguenots sacked the abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob related to the excesses of the French Revolution. Others still were stored away in the Cluny town hall.

The French Government worked to relocate such treasures, including those that ended up in private hands. They are now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France at Paris. The British Museum holds some sixty or so charters originating from Cluny.


The Consecration of Cluny III by Pope Urban II, 12th century (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).


In the fragmented and localized Europe of the 10th and 11th centuries, the Cluniac network extended its reforming influence far. Free of lay and episcopal interference, responsible only to the papacy, which was in a state of weakness and disorder with rival popes supported by competing nobles, Cluniac spirit was felt revitalizing the Norman church, reorganizing the royal French monastery at Fleury and inspiring St Dunstan in England. There were no official English Cluniac priories until that of Lewes in Sussex, founded by the Anglo-Norman earl William de Warenne c 1077. The best-preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk, and Much Wenlock Priory, Shropshire. It is thought that there were only three Cluniac nunneries in England, one of them being Delapré Abbey at Northampton.

Until the reign of Henry VI, all Cluniac houses in England were French, governed by French priors and directly controlled from Cluny. Henry's act of raising the English priories to independent abbeys was a political gesture, a mark of England's nascent national consciousness.

The early Cluniac establishments had offered refuges from a disordered world but by the late 11th century, Cluniac piety permeated society. This is the period that achieved the final Christianization of the heartland of Europe.



Pope Callixtus II was elected at the papal election, 1119, at Cluny.


Well-born and educated Cluniac priors worked eagerly with local royal and aristocratic patrons of their houses, filled responsible positions in their chanceries and were appointed to bishoprics. Cluny spread the custom of veneration of the king as patron and support of the Church, and in turn the conduct of 11th-century kings, and their spiritual outlook, appeared to undergo a change. In England, Edward the Confessor was later canonized. In Germany, the penetration of Cluniac ideals was effected in concert with Henry III of the Salian dynasty, who had married a daughter of the duke of Aquitaine. Henry was infused with a sense of his sacramental role as a delegate of Christ in the temporal sphere. He had a spiritual and intellectual grounding for his leadership of the German church, which culminated in the pontificate of his kinsman, Pope Leo IX. The new pious outlook of lay leaders enabled the enforcement of the Truce of God movement to curb aristocratic violence.

Within his order, the Abbot of Cluny was free to assign any monk to any house; he created a fluid structure around a central authority that was to become a feature of the royal chanceries of England and of France, and of the bureaucracy of the great independent dukes, such as that of Burgundy. Cluny's highly centralized hierarchy was a training ground for Catholic prelates: four monks of Cluny became popesGregory VIIUrban IIPaschal II and Urban V.

An orderly succession of able and educated abbots, drawn from the highest aristocratic circles, led Cluny, and three were canonized: Saints Odo of Cluny, the second abbot (died 942); Hugh of Cluny, the sixth abbot (died 1109); and Odilo, the fifth abbot (died 1049). Odilo continued to reform other monasteries, but as Abbot of Cluny, he also exercised tighter control of the order's far-flung priories.


Cluny and the Gregorian reforms



A plan of the Abbey

Cluny was not known for its severity or asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny supported the revival of the papacy and the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. The Cluniac establishment found itself closely identified with the Papacy. In the early 12th century, the order lost momentum under poor government. It was subsequently revitalized under Abbot Peter the Venerable (died 1156), who brought lax priories back into line and returned to stricter discipline. Cluny reached its apogee of power and influence under Peter, as its monks became bishops, legates, and cardinals throughout France and the Holy Roman Empire. But by the time Peter died, newer and more austere orders such as the Cistercians were generating the next wave of ecclesiastical reform.

Outside monastic structures, the rise of English and French nationalism created a climate unfavourable to the existence of monasteries autocratically ruled by a head residing in Burgundy. The Papal Schism of 1378 to 1409 further divided loyalties: France recognizing a Pope at Avignon and England one at Rome, interfered with the relations between Cluny and its dependent houses. Under the strain, some English houses, such as Lenton PrioryNottingham, were naturalized (Lenton in 1392) and no longer regarded as alien priories, weakening the Cluniac structure.

By the time of the French Revolution, the monks were so thoroughly identified with the Ancien Régime that the order was suppressed in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny almost totally demolished in 1810. Later, it was sold and used as a quarry until 1823. Today, little more than one of the original eight towers remains of the whole monastery.




Pope Gregory VII was once a monk at Cluny


Modern excavations of the Abbey began in 1927 under the direction of Kenneth John Conant, American architectural historian of Harvard University, and continued (although not continuously) until 1950.

Decline and destruction of the buildings.

Starting from the 12th century, Cluny had serious financial problems, caused mainly by the construction of the third abbey. Charity given to the poor increased the expenditure. The influence of the abbey weakened gradually as other religious orders rose (Cistercians in the 12th, then Mendicants in the 13th century). Bad management of the grounds and unwillingness of the subsidiary companies to pay the annual taxable quota helped to lessen Cluny's revenue. Cluny raised loans and ended up being involved in debt to its creditors, who were merchants of Cluny or Jews of Mâcon.

The conflicts with the priories multiplied and the authority of the pope became heavier. To the 14th-Century, the Pope frequently named the abbots. The crises at the end of the Middle Ages and the wars of religion in the 16th-Century weakened the abbey a little more. The monks lived in luxury and there were not more than about 60 monks in the middle of the 15th-Century. With the Concordat of Bologna in 1516, overseen by Antoine Duprat, the king gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny.

The years following the French Revolution were fatal to all the monastic buildings and its church. In 1793, its  archives were burned and the church was delivered to plundering. The abbey estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Until 1813, the abbey was used as a stone quarry to build houses in the town.

Today, there remain only the buildings built under the Old Mode as well as a small portion of Cluny III. Only the Southern Transept and its Bell-Tower still exist. The remaining structure represents less than 10% of the floor area of Cluny III, which was the largest Church of Christendom, until the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, five centuries later.

In 1928, the site was excavated and recognized by the American archaeologist Kenneth J. Conant with the backing of the Medieval Academy of America.


THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON CLUNY ABBEY



Friday 6 July 2012

Hildegard von Bingen (Part One)


Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise accredited.




Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision
and dictating to her scribe and secretary


Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 A.D. – 17 September 1179 A.D.), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.

She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations.

On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of Saint Hildegard to the universal Church, in a process known as "equivalent canonization". On 27 May 2012, the Pope announced that, on 7 October 2012, he will declare Saint Hildegard to be the 35th Doctor of the Church.




Eibingen Abbey was founded by Hildegard von Bingen in 1165.


Eibingen Abbey (in German, "Abtei St. Hildegard", full name, Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard) is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen, near Rüdesheim, in Hesse, Germany.

The original community was founded in 1165 by Hildegard von Bingen. It was dissolved at the beginning of the 19th-Century during the secularisation of this part of Germany.

The present community was established by Charles, 6th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1904 and re-settled from St. Gabriel's Abbey, Bertholdstein. The nunnery belongs to the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.

In 1941, the nuns were expelled by the Nazis; they were not able to return until 1945.

In 1988, the sisters founded Marienrode Priory at Hildesheim, which became independent of Eibingen in 1998.

The nuns work in the vineyard and in the craft workshops, besides undertaking the traditional duties of hospitality. They can be heard (but not seen) singing their regular services.

The Abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site. The Church has been used for concerts of the Rheingau Musik Festival, such as a "Bach Trompeten Gala" with Edgar Krapp, organ.




Hildegard's date of birth is uncertain. It has been concluded that she may have been born in the year 1098. Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles. She was her parents' tenth child, sickly from birth. In her Vita, Hildegard explains that from a very young age she had experienced visions.

Monastic life

Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as an oblate to the Church. The date of Hildegard's "Enclosure in the Church" is contentious. Her Vita tells us she was enclosed with an older nun, Jutta, at the age of eight. However, Jutta's enclosure date is known to be in 1112, at which time Hildegard would have been fourteen. Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim, at the age of eight, before the two women were enclosed together six years later. There is no written record of the twenty-four years of Hildegard's life that she was in the convent together with Jutta. It is possible that Hildegard could have been a chantress and a worker in the herbarium and infirmarium.


PART TWO FOLLOWS


Cluny Abbey (Part Two)






Coat of Arms of Cluny Abbey:
"Gules, two keys in saltire, the wards upwards and outwards, or. Overall, a sword in pale, argent".

Text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.



Partly due to the Order's opulence, the Cluniac nunneries were not seen as being particularly cost-effective. The Order did not have interest in founding many new houses for women.

The customs of Cluny represented a shift from the earlier ideal of a Benedictine monastery as an agriculturally self-sufficient unit. This was similar to the contemporary villa of the more Romanised parts of Europe and the manor of the more feudal parts, in which each member did physical labour as well as offering prayer.

In 817 A.D., Saint Benedict of Aniane, the "second Benedict", developed monastic constitutions at the urging of Louis the Pious to govern all the Carolingian monasteries. He acknowledged that the Black Monks no longer supported themselves by physical labour. Cluny's agreement to offer perpetual prayer (laus perennis, literally "perpetual praise"), meant that it had increased a specialisation in roles.

As perhaps the wealthiest monastic house of the Western world, Cluny hired managers and workers to do the labor of monks in other orders. The monks devoted themselves to almost constant prayer, thus elevating their position into a profession. Despite the monastic ideal of a frugal life, the abbey in Cluny commissioned candelabras of solid silver and gold chalices made with precious gems for use at the abbey Masses. Instead of being limited to the traditional fare of broth and porridge, the monks ate very well, enjoying roasted chickens (a luxury in France then) and wines from their vineyards and cheeses made by their employees. The monks wore the finest linen habits and silk vestments at Mass. Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

Cluniac Houses in Britain

All of the English and Scottish Cluniac houses which were larger than cells were known as priories, symbolising their subordination to Cluny. Cluny's influence spread into the British Isles in the eleventh century, first at Lewes, and then elsewhere. The head of their order was the Abbot at Cluny. All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France to Cluny to consult or be consulted unless the Abbot chose to come to Britain, which he did five times in the 13th century, and only twice in the 14th.

At Cluny, the central activity was the liturgy; it was extensive and beautifully presented in inspiring surroundings, reflecting the new personally-felt wave of piety of the 11th century. Monastic intercession was believed indispensable to achieving a state of grace, and lay rulers competed to be remembered in Cluny's endless prayers; this inspired the endowments in land and benefices that made other arts possible.

The fast-growing community at Cluny required buildings on a large scale. The examples at Cluny profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. The three successive churches are conventionally called Cluny I, II and III. In building the third and final church at Cluny, the monastery constructed what was the largest building in Europe before the 16th century, when St. Peter's in Rome was rebuilt. The construction of Cluny II, ca. 955-981, begun after the destructive Hungarian raids of 953, led the tendency for Burgundian churches to be stone-vaulted.





                     Cluny III, reconstruction.


The building campaign was financed by the annual census established by Ferdinand I of León, ruler of a united León-Castile, some time between 1053 and 1065. (Alfonso VI re-established it in 1077, and confirmed it in 1090.) Ferdinand fixed the sum at 1,000 golden aurei, an amount which Alfonso VI doubled in 1090. This was the biggest annuity that the Order ever received from king or layman, and it was never surpassed. Henry I of England's annual grant from 1131 of 100 marks of silver, not gold, seemed little by comparison. The Alfonsine census enabled Abbot Hugh (who died in 1109) to undertake construction of the huge third abbey church. When payments in the Islamic gold coin later lapsed, the Cluniac order suffered a financial crisis that crippled them during the abbacies of Pons of Melgueil (1109 – 1125) and Peter the Venerable (1122 – 1156). The Spanish wealth donated to Cluny publicized the rise of the Spanish Christians, and drew central Spain for the first time into the larger European orbit.


PART THREE FOLLOWS


Wednesday 4 July 2012

Cluny Abbey (Part One)



Coat of Arms of Cluny Abbey: 
"Gules, two keys in saltire, the wards upwards and outwards, or. Overall, a sword in paleargent".

Text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

Cluny Abbey (or Cluni, or ClugnyFrench pronunciation: [klyˈni]) is a Benedictine monastery in ClunySaône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries.

Cluny was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910. He nominated Berno as the first Abbot of Cluny, subject only to Pope Sergius III. The Abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict and the place where the Benedictine Order was formed, whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of western monasticism. The establishment of the Benedictine order was a keystone to the stability of European society that was achieved in the 11th century. In 1790 during the French Revolution, the abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed. Only a small part of the original remains.

Dating around 1334, the abbots of Cluny had a townhouse in Paris known as the Hôtel de Cluny, what is now a public museum since 1833. Apart from the name, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny.

In 910, William I, Duke of Aquitaine "the Pious", and Count of Auvergne, founded the Benedictine abbey of Cluny on a modest scale, as the mother house of the Congregation of Cluny. In donating his hunting preserve in the forests of Burgundy, William released the Cluny abbey from all future obligation to him and his family other than prayer. Contemporary patrons normally retained a proprietary interest and expected to install their kinsmen as abbots. William appears to have made this arrangement with Berno, the first abbot, to free the new monastery from such secular entanglements and initiate the Cluniac Reforms. The abbots of Cluny were statesmen on the international stage and the monastery of Cluny was considered the grandest, most prestigious and best-endowed monastic institution in Europe. The height of Cluniac influence was from the second half of the 10th century through the early 12th. The first female members were admitted to the order during the eleventh century.


The monastery of Cluny differed in three ways from other Benedictine houses and confederations:
  • organizational structure;
  • prohibition on holding land by feudal service; and
  • execution of the liturgy as its main form of work.
While most Benedictine monasteries remained autonomous and associated with each other only informally, Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of  the abbot of Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac houses, being directly under the supervision of the abbot of Cluny, the autocrat of the Order, were styled priories, not abbeys. The priors, or chiefs of priories, met at Cluny once a year to deal with administrative issues and to make reports. Many other Benedictine houses, even those of earlier formation, came to regard Cluny as their guide. When in 1016 Pope Benedict VIII decreed that the privileges of Cluny be extended to subordinate houses, there was further incentive for Benedictine communities to insinuate themselves in the Cluniac order.


PART TWO FOLLOWS

Cluny Abbey in Virtual Reality

Saturday 30 June 2012

Rheims Cathedral (Part Four)


Non-Italic Text and Photos from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise accredited.




Rheims Cathedral façade

Photo taken April 2011 by Traveler100


In 2011, the city of Reims celebrated the cathedral's 800th anniversary. The celebrations ran from 6 May to 23 October. Concerts, street performances, exhibitions, conferences, and a series of evening light shows highlighted the Cathedral and its 800th anniversary. In addition, six new stained glass windows, designed by Imi Knoebel, a German artist, were inaugurated on 25 June, 2011. The six windows cover an area of 128m² and are positioned on both sides of the Chagall windows in the apse of the cathedral.



Rheims Cathedral interior.
From Wikimedia Commons.
Photo: Josep Renalias

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims (Latin: Archidioecesis Remensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 A.D., by St. Sixtus, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese around 750 A.D. The archbishop received the title "primate of Gallia Belgica" in 1089.

In 1023, Archbishop Ebles acquired the Countship of Reims, making him a prince-bishop; it became a duchy and a peerage between 1060 and 1170.




Gallery of the kings on Rheims Cathedral.



The archdiocese comprises the arrondissement of Reims and the département of Ardennes, while the province comprises the région of Champagne-Ardenne. The suffragan dioceses within Reims are Amiens, Beauvais-Noyon-Senlis, Châlons, Langres, SoissonsLaonSaint-Quentin, and Troyes. The Archepiscopal See is located in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims, where the Kings of France were traditionally crowned.

The current archbishop is Thierry Romain Camille Jordan, who was appointed in 1999.


Rheims Cathedral Triforium.

Nef de la cathédrale de Reims, montrant la galerie du triforium.


From Wikimedia Commons.

Photo: March 2007. Taken by 
Vassil.





Reims, located in the North-East of France, hosted several Councils or Synods in the Roman Catholic Church. These Councils did not universally represent the Church and are not counted among the official Ecumenical Councils.

The first Synod, said to have been held at Reims by Archbishop Sonnatius, between 624 A.D.-630 A.D., is probably identical with that held at Clichy (Clippiacum) in 626 A.D. or 627 A.D.

In 813 A.D., Archbishop Wulfar presided at a Synod of Reform (Werminghoff in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Concilia aevi Carol. I", I, Hanover, 1904, 253 sq.).

A Council, usually called the Synod of St-Basle, was convoked at Reims by King Hugues Capet, assisted by Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, to consider the case of Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims, illegitimate son of the late King Lothair.


Arnulf (Archbishop of Reims) at the Council of Reims in 991 A.D.


Arnulf was accused of conspiring with his uncle, Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, against Hugues Capet. He was duly deposed by the Council, and Gerbert appointed in his place. This was done without the approval of Pope John XV, who refused to accept either Arnulf's removal or Gerbert's appointment. The matter dragged on until 995 A.D., when Arnulf was restored, and was only completely resolved by Pope Gregory V in 997.



Exterior view of the Chevet of Rheims Cathedral

From Wikimedia Commons.

Photo taken May 2009 by Marie51.



Held by Pope Leo IX, the Council of Rheims in 1049 A.D. inquired into Simony. Hugo of Breteuil, Bishop of Langres, fled the proceedings, and was deposed. According to Eamon Duffy: "In one week, Leo IX had asserted papal authority as it had never been asserted before".

The Council also excommunicated Geoffrey Martel, for the imprisonment of Gervase, Bishop of Le Mans.

On 3 October 1054, a Rheims Council had a dogmatic declaration about the primacy of the Roman Pontiff as Successor of Peter: "declaratum est quod solus Romanae sedis pontifex universalis Ecclesiae Primas esset et Apostolicus".


THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON RHEIMS CATHEDRAL




Sunday 24 June 2012

Rheims Cathedral (Part Three)


Non-Italic Text and Photos from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
unless otherwise accredited.




Two Rose Windows at Rheims Cathedral.
Photo taken January 2008 by Mattana


The three portals are laden with statues and statuettes; among European cathedrals, only Chartres has more sculpted figures. The central portal, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is surmounted by a rose window framed in an arch, itself decorated with statuary, in place of the usual sculptured tympanum. The "gallery of the kings", above, shows the baptism of Clovis in the centre, flanked by statues of his successors.

The facades of the transepts are also decorated with sculptures. That on the North Side has statues of bishops of Reims, a representation of the Last Judgment and a figure of Jesus (le Beau Dieu), while that on the South Side has a modern rose window with the prophets and apostles

Fire destroyed the roof and the spires in 1481. Of the four towers that flanked the transepts, nothing remains above the height of the roof. Above the choir rises an elegant lead-covered timber bell-tower that is 18 m (about 59 feet) tall, reconstructed in the 15th-Century and in the 1920s.




Français : Notre-Dame de Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Vitraux XIIIè siècle surplombant le chœur, représentant la Vierge, le Christ en croix, les apôtres, archevêques et évêques.



English: Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Rheims, Champagne-Ardenne, France. 

13th-Century stained-glass windows above the Choir, 
representing Our Lady, Christ, the Apostles, Archbishops and Bishops.

Photo taken August 2008 by Tango7174.


The interior of the cathedral is 138.75 m (about 455 ft) long, 30 m (approx. 98 feet) wide in the nave, and 38 m (about 125 feet) high in the centre. It comprises a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles, a choir with double aisles, and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. It has interesting stained glass ranging from the 13th- to the 20th-Century. The rose window over the main portal and the gallery beneath are of rare magnificence.

The cathedral possesses fine tapestries. Of these, the most important series is that presented by Robert de Lenoncourt, archbishop under François I, representing the life of the Virgin. They are now to be seen in the former bishop's palace, the Palace of Tau. The North Transept contains a fine organ in a flamboyant Gothic Case. The Choir Clock is ornamented with curious mechanical figures.Marc Chagall designed the stained glass. installed in 1974. in the axis of the apse.



Rheims Cathedral hit by shell-fire during World War I.


"The Cathedral of Notre Dame at Rheims was one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. 


The framework was still standing when the German Army began their drive in 1918. In this instance, shells burst on the cathedral before the eyes of many spectators." (caption).


Photo is dated 20 September 1914.

"Collier's New Photographic History of the World's War" (1919), page 86.


The Treasury, kept in the Palace of Tau, includes many precious objects, among which is the Sainte Ampoule, or Holy Flask, the successor of the ancient one that contained the oil with which French kings were anointed, which was broken during the French Revolution, a fragment of which the present Ampoule contains.

Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, the former Abbey of Saint-Remi, and the Palace of Tau were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1991.


PART FOUR FOLLOWS.

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