Peterborough Cathedral (Part Two)

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

The Nave.

Photo taken by Kev747, 

March 2007.

This newer Church had as its major focal point a substantial Western tower with a "Rhenish Helm" and was largely constructed of ashlar. Only a small section of the foundations of the Saxon Church remain beneath the South Transept, but there are several significant artefacts, including Saxon carvings such as the 'Hedda Stone', from the earlier building.

In 2008, Anglo-Saxon grave markers were reported to have been found by workmen repairing a wall in the cathedral precincts. The grave markers are said to date to the 11th-Century, and probably belonged to "townsfolk".

Norman and Mediaeval architectural evolution

Although damaged during the struggle between the Norman invaders and local folk-hero, Hereward the Wake, the Cathedral was repaired and continued to thrive until destroyed by an accidental fire in 1116. This event necessitated the building of a new Church in the Norman style, begun by Abbot John de Sais in 1118 (Old Style). By 1193, the building was completed to the Western end of the Nave, including the Central Tower and the decorated wooden ceiling of the Nave. The ceiling, completed between 1230 and 1250, still survives. It is unique in Britain and one of only four such ceilings in the whole of Europe. It has been over-painted twice, once in 1745, then in 1834, but still retains the character and style of the original. (The painted nave ceiling of Ely Cathedral, by contrast, is entirely a Victorian creation.)

Robert Grosseteste (Bishop of Lincoln) 

consecrated Peterborough Cathedral in 1238.

The Cathedral is largely built of Barnack limestone, from quarries on its own land, and it was paid annually for access to these quarries by the builders of Ely Cathedral and Ramsey Abbey in thousands of eels (e.g., 4,000 eels each year for Ramsey). Cathedral historians believe that part of the placing of the Church is due to the easy ability to transfer quarried stones by river, and then to the existing site, allowing it to grow without being relocated.

Then, after completing the Western Transept and adding the Great West Front Portico in 1237, the Mediaeval masons switched over to the new Gothic style. Apart from changes to the windows, the insertion of a porch to support the free-standing pillars of the portico and the addition of a ‘new’ building at the East end, around the beginning of the 16th-Century, the structure of the building remains essentially as it was on completion almost 800 years ago. The completed building was consecrated in 1238 by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, within whose diocese it then fell.

The trio of arches forming the Great West Front, the defining image of Peterborough Cathedral, is unrivalled in Mediaeval architecture. The line of spires behind it, topping an unprecedented four towers, evolved for more practical reasons. Chief amongst them was the wish to retain the earlier Norman towers, which became obsolete when the Gothic front was added. Instead of being demolished and replaced with new stretches of wall, these old towers were retained and embellished with cornices and other Gothic decor, while two new towers were added to create a continuous frontage.

Peterborough Cathedral, from the South-East.

The Norman tower was rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic style in about 1350-1380 (its main beams and roof bosses survive) with two tiers of Romanesque windows combined into a single set of Gothic windows, with the turreted cap and pinnacles removed and replaced by battlements.

Between 1496 and 1508, the Presbytery roof was replaced and the 'New Building', a rectangular building built around the end of the Norman Eastern apse, with Perpendicular fan vaulting (probably designed by John Wastell, the architect of King's College Chapel, Cambridge and the Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury Cathedral), was added.

PART THREE FOLLOWS

Peterborough Cathedral (Part One)

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

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

(Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew)

Photo taken March 2010 by NotFromUtrecht

Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the three high gables of the famousWest Front.

Founded in the Anglo-Saxon period, the architecture is mainly Norman, following a re-building in the 

12th-Century. With Durham Cathedral and Ely Cathedral, it is one of the most important 12th-Century buildings in England to have remained largely intact, despite extensions and restoration.

Peterborough Cathedral is known for its imposing Early English Gothic West Front (façade) which, with its three enormous arches, is without architectural precedent and with no direct successor. The appearance is slightly asymmetrical, as one of the two towers that rise from behind the façade was never completed, but this is only visible from a distance, while the effect of the West Front upon entering the Cathedral Close is overwhelming.

Peterborough Cathedral - fan vaulting in the "new building".

Author: Steve Cadman from London, U.K. 

Taken July 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons) 

Anglo-Saxon origins

The original Church, known simply as "Medeshamstede", was founded in the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Peada of the Middle Angles, in about 655 A.D., as one of the first centres of Christianity in Central England. The monastic settlement, with which the Church was associated, lasted at least until 870 A.D., when it was supposedly destroyed by Vikings.

In the mid-10th-Century monastic revival (in which, Churches at Ely and Ramsey were also re-founded), a Benedictine Abbey was created and endowed in 966 A.D., principally by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester, from what remained of the earlier Church, with "a Basilica [Church] there furbished with suitable structures of halls, and enriched with surrounding lands" and more extensive buildings which saw the Aisle built out to the West, with a second Tower added.

The original Central Tower was, however, retained. It was dedicated to St Peter, and came to be called a burgh, hence the town, surrounding the Abbey, was eventually named Peter-burgh. The community was further revived in 972 A.D. by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

PART TWO FOLLOWS

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 pale, argent".

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.

• Herman I, Margrave of Baden
• Philip I, Duke of Burgundy
• Pope Gelasius II
• 
  

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 popes: Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal 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 Priory, Nottingham, 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

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

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 pale, argent".

Text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

Cluny Abbey (or Cluni, or Clugny, French pronunciation: [klyˈni]) is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-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

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, Soissons–Laon–Saint-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

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.

Rheims Cathedral (Part Two)

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

Rheims Cathedral at night.

Photo taken August 2009 by Jayanta Sen.

Unusually, the names of the cathedral's original architects are known. A labyrinth built into the floor of the nave at the time of construction, or shortly after, (similar to examples at Chartres and Amiens) included the names of four master masons (Jean d'Orbais, Jean-Le-Loup, Gaucher de Reims and Bernard de Soissons) and the number of years they worked there, though art historians still disagree over who was responsible for which parts of the building.

The labyrinth itself was destroyed in 1779, but its details and inscriptions are known from 18th-Century drawings. The clear association here between a labyrinth and master masons adds weight to the argument that such patterns were an allusion to the emerging status of the architect (through their association with the mythical artificer Daedalus, who built the Labyrinth of King Minos). 

Die Kathedrale von Reims by Domenico Quaglio (1787-1837).

English: Domenico Quaglio (1787-1837): The Cathedral of Reims.

Français : Domenico Quaglio (1787-1837): Cathédrale de Reims.

Italiano: Domenico Quaglio (1787-1837): La cattedrale di Reims.

The cathedral also contains further evidence of the rising status of the architect in the tomb of Huges Liberger (died 1268, architect of the now-destroyed Reims church of St-Nicaise). Not only is he given the honour of an engraved slab, he is shown holding a miniature model of his church (an honour formerly reserved for noble donors) and wearing the academic garb befitting an intellectual.

The towers, 81 m tall (approx. 267 ft), were originally designed to rise 120 m (approximately 394 ft). The South tower holds just two great bells; one of them, named “Charlotte” by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine in 1570, weighs more than 10,000 kg (about 11 tons).

During the Hundred Years' War, the cathedral was under siege by the English from 1359 to 1360.

Exterior view of the Chevet of Rheims Cathedral

(Vue du chevet de la cathédrale de Reims).

Photo taken March 2007 by Vassil.

In 1875, the French National Assembly voted £80,000 for repairs of the façade and balustrades. The façade is the finest portion of the building, and one of the great masterpieces of the Middle Ages.

German shellfire, during the opening engagements of the First World War on 20 September 1914, burned, damaged and destroyed important parts of the cathedral. Scaffolding around the North Tower caught fire, spreading the blaze to all parts of the carpentry superstructure. 

The lead of the roofs melted and poured through the stone gargoyles, destroying in turn the bishop's palace. Restoration work began in 1919, under the direction of Henri Deneux, a native of Reims and chief architect of the Monuments Historiques; the cathedral was fully reopened in 1938, thanks in part to financial support from the Rockefellers, but work has been steadily going on since.

PART THREE FOLLOWS

Rheims Cathedral (Part One)

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

Interior of Notre-Dame de Reims (Our Lady of Rheims)

From Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Eric Pouhier (March 2006)

Notre-Dame de Reims (Our Lady of Rheims) is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Reims, where the kings of France were once crowned. It replaces an older church, destroyed by a fire in 1211, which was built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in 496 A.D. That original structure had been erected on the site of the Roman baths. As the cathedral it remains the seat of the Archdiocese of Reims.

A major site for tourism in the Champagne region, France, it received half a million visitors in 2006.

Excavations have shown that the present building occupies roughly the same site as the original cathedral, founded circa 400 A.D., under the episcopacy of St Nicaise. That church was rebuilt during the Carolingian period and further extended in the 12th-Century.

Rheims Cathedral

On July 6, 1210, the cathedral was damaged by fire and reconstruction started shortly afterwards, beginning at the Eastern end. Documentary records show the acquisition of land to the West of the site in 1218, suggesting the new cathedral was substantially larger than its predecessors, the lengthening of the nave presumably being an adaptation to afford room for the crowds that attended the coronations. 

In 1233, a long-running dispute between the cathedral chapter and the townsfolk (regarding issues of taxation and legal jurisdiction) boiled over into open revolt. Several clerics were killed or injured during the resulting violence and the entire cathedral chapter fled the city, leaving it under an interdict (effectively banning all public worship and sacraments). 

Work on the new cathedral was suspended for three years, only resuming in 1236, after the clergy returned to the city and the interdict was lifted following mediation by the King and the Pope. Construction then continued more slowly. 

Coronation of Charles VII in Rheims Cathedral in 1429.

Image of Joan of Arc, 1889-1890 in the Panthéon de Paris, by E. Lenepveu.

Photo taken January 2007 by 

Tijmen Stam (User:IIVQ)

The area from the crossing Eastwards was in use by 1241, but the nave was not roofed until 1299 (when the French King lifted the tax on lead used for that purpose). Work on the West facade took place in several phases, which is reflected in the very different styles of some of the sculptures. The upper parts of the facade were completed in the 14th-Century, but apparently following 13th-Century designs, giving Reims an unusual unity of style.

PART TWO FOLLOWS

Lincoln Cathedral (Part Five)

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

Lincoln Cathedral (West Front) 

seen from the Castle wall

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Photo taken March 2006 by Brian

Fan-Vaulting in Lincoln Cathedral's Chapter-House

Picture from Wikimedia Commons 

Photo taken April 2011 by Mattana

Recently, concerns have been growing once more about the state of the West Front, as there has been some stonework falling, which has raised questions as to the effectiveness of the repairs carried out in 2000.

Lincoln Cathedral is at present a very popular destination and is visited by over 250,000 tourists a year. The semi-mandatory entrance fee for weekday visiting is £6.00, which is charged on admission throughout the tourist season. The Cathedral offers tours of the Cathedral, the tower and the roof. The peak of its season is the Lincoln Christmas Market, accompanied by a massive annual production of Handel's Messiah. The Episcopacy of Lincoln Cathedral is currently in inter-regnum, following the retirement of Dr John Saxbee on 31 January 2011. The current Dean of the Cathedral is the Very Reverend Philip Buckler.

Lincoln Cathedral (by Wenzel Hollar, 1607 - 1677)

Choir

The Choir is currently formed of ten Gentlemen (who are either Lay Vicars or Choral Scholars), a team of circa twenty boys and a team of circa 20 girls.

The Cathedral accepted female choristers in 1995. Lincoln was only the second Cathedral in the country to adopt a separate girls' choir, after Salisbury Cathedral, and remains one of the few who provide exactly the same musical opportunities and equal weekly singing duties to both girls and boys. All the choristers are educated at Lincoln Minster School.

Interior of Lincoln Cathedral.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Photo taken April 2012 by Merlin-UK

The Director of Music is Aric Prentice, who conducts the Choir of girls and men, and the Assistant Director of Music & Sub-Organist is Charles Harrison, who conducts the Choir of boys and men. The Organist Laureate is Colin Walsh, previously Organist and Master of the Choristers, and the Assistant Organist is Claire Innes-Hopkins. 

Like any great Cathedral, Lincoln has had its share of organists who have achieved international renown: perhaps the most famous is William Byrd, the Renaissance composer. Although it is uncertain whether Byrd was born in Lincoln, as has been claimed, he was organist at the Cathedral from 1563 until 1572 and continued to compose works specifically for the Cathedral Choir after his departure.

RAF Waddington Station Badge,

depicting Lincoln Cathedral

Organ

The organ is one of the finest examples of the work of 'Father' Henry Willis, dating from 1898 (it was his last Cathedral Organ before his death in 1901). There have been two restorations of it by Harrison & Harrison in 1960 and 1998. The specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Literature

An important scene in D. H. Lawrence's novel, "The Rainbow", takes place at Lincoln Cathedral.

The Cathedral features in Ken Follett's novel "The Pillars of the Earth".

Film

The Cathedral was used for the filming of The Da Vinci Code (based on the book of the same name). 

Filming took place mainly within the Cloisters and Chapter-House of the Cathedral, and remained a closed set. 

Lincoln Cathedral Triforium

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

... Le chevet de la cathédrale de Lincoln (Angleterre) nous fournit un

exemple des plus remarquables de la persistance de cette tradition (fig. 21). Là le triforium est encore couvert par une charpente apparente comme celui de l'église normande romane, et le chemin de ronde supérieur se combine avec le fenestrage ouvert sous les formerets. Ce chemin de ronde n'a plus alors une utilité réelle, puisque les vitraux pourraient, s'il n'existait pas, être réparés du dehors en passant sur la tablette de recouvrement du comble du triforium. La claire-voie intérieure du chemin de ronde se relie à la fenêtre vitrée au moyen de linteauxformant l'assise du tailloir des chapiteaux ...

This image comes from

Dictionary of French Architecture from 11th- to 16th-Century 

(1856) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879).

The Cathedral took on the role of Westminster Abbey, as the Abbey had refused to permit filming. Although there was protest at the filming, the filming was completed by the end of August 2005. In order to make the Lincoln Chapter-House appear similar to the Westminster Chapter-House, murals were painted on a special layer over the existing wall, and, elsewhere, polystyrene replicas of Isaac Newton's tomb and other Abbey monuments were set up. For a time these murals and replicas remained in the Chapter-House, as part of a "Da Vinci Code" exhibit for visitors, but in January 2008 they were all sold off in an auction to raise money for the Cathedral.

The Cathedral also doubled as Westminster Abbey for the film Young Victoria, filmed in September 2007.

Wartime history

Lincolnshire was home to many Bomber Command airfields during the Second World War, giving rise to the nickname of 'Bomber County'. Lincoln Cathedral was an easily recognisable landmark for crews returning from raids over Occupied Europe, and, as such, took on much importance to the men. 

The Station Badge, for the nearby RAF Waddington Airbase, depicts Lincoln Cathedral rising through the clouds, a sight which returning bomber crews used to help find their way back to Waddington's airfield.

Appropriately, the Cathedral, as of 2006, has the only Memorial in the United Kingdom dedicated to Bomber Command in the Second World War.


The official Lincoln Cathedral Web-Site can be found at 
http://lincolncathedral.com/


This concludes the Article on Lincoln Cathedral.