Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Part Seven)

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

20 August (Feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor)
Double
White Vestments

Altar of Saint Bernard in the North Transept of Ebrach Abbey, Germany.

Author: Mattana

Photo: June 2012. 

(Wikimedia Commons) 

In 1139, Bernard assisted at the Second Council of the Lateran, in which the surviving adherents of the schism were definitively condemned. About the same time, Bernard was visited at Clairvaux by Saint Malachy, Primate of All Ireland, and a very close friendship formed between them. Malachy wanted to become a Cistercian, but the Pope would not give his permission. Malachy would die at Clairvaux in 1148.

Contest with Abelard

Towards the close of the 11th-Century, a spirit of independence flourished within schools of philosophy and theology. This led for a time to the exaltation of human reason and rationalism. The movement found an ardent and powerful advocate in Peter Abelard. Abelard's treatise on the Trinity had been condemned as heretical in 1121, and he himself had thrown his book into the fire. 

However, Abelard continued to develop his teachings, which were controversial in some quarters. Bernard, informed of this by William of St-Thierry, is said to have held a meeting with Abelard, intending to persuade him to amend his writings, during which Abelard repented and promised to do so. 

But, once out of Bernard's presence, he reneged. Bernard then denounced Abelard to the Pope and cardinals of the Curia. Abelard sought a debate with Bernard, but Bernard initially declined, saying he did not feel matters of such importance should be settled by logical analyses.

The Choir of Ebrach Abbey, Germany.

Author: Mattana

Photo: June 2012. 

(Wikimedia Commons) 

Bernard's letters to William of St-Thierry also express his apprehension about confronting the pre-eminent logician. Abelard continued to press for a public debate, and made his challenge widely known, making it hard for Bernard to decline. In 1141, at the urgings of Abelard, the archbishop of Sens called a Council of Bishops, where Abelard and Bernard were to put their respective cases. so Abelard would have a chance to clear his name.

Bernard lobbied the prelates on the evening before the debate, swaying many of them to his view. The next day, after Bernard made his opening statement, Abelard decided to retire without attempting to answer. The Council found in favour of Bernard and their judgment was confirmed by the Pope. Abelard submitted without resistance, and he retired to Cluny Abbey to live under the protection of Peter the Venerable, where he died two years later.

Cistercian Order and Heresy

Bernard had occupied himself in sending bands of monks from his overcrowded monastery into Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy. Some of these, at the command of Pope Innocent II, took possession of Three Fountains Abbey, from which Pope Eugenius III would be chosen in 1145.

Pope Innocent II died in the year 1143. His two successors, Pope Celestine II and Pope Lucius II, reigned only a short time, and then Bernard saw one of his disciples, Bernard of Pisa, and known thereafter as Eugenius III, raised to the Chair of Saint Peter.

Detail of the Altar of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,

The North Transept, Ebrach Abbey, Germany.

Author: Mattana

Photo: June 2012. 

(Wikimedia Commons) 

Bernard sent him, at the Pope's request, various instructions, which comprise the Book of Considerations, the predominating idea of which is that the reformation of the Church ought to commence with the sanctity of the Pope. Temporal matters are merely accessories; the principles, according to Bernard's work, were that piety and meditation were to precede action.

Having previously helped end the schism within the Church, Bernard was now called upon to combat heresy. Henry of Lausanne, a former Cluniac monk, had adopted the teachings of the Petrobrusians, followers of Peter of Bruys and spread them in a modified form after Peter's death.

Henry of Lausanne's followers became known as Henricians. In June 1145, at the invitation of Cardinal Alberic of Ostia, Bernard travelled in Southern France. His preaching, aided by his ascetic looks and simple attire, helped doom the new sects. Both the Henrician and the Petrobrusian faiths began to die out by the end of that year. 

Soon afterwards, Henry of Lausanne was arrested, brought before the bishop of Toulouse, and probably imprisoned for life. In a letter to the people of Toulouse, undoubtedly written at the end of 1146, Bernard called upon them to extirpate the last remnants of the heresy. He also preached against the Cathars.

PART EIGHT FOLLOWS

Kyrie

Cologne Cathedral, Interior

Germany
Author: Thomas Robbin
Photo: September 2004
(Wikimedia Commons)

Worcester Cathedral - Part Three

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

The High Altar, Worcester Cathedral.

Author: Mattana

January 2008. 

(Wikimedia Commons)

The East End was re-built over the Norman Crypt by Alexander Mason between 1224 and 1269, coinciding with, and in a very similar Early English style to, Salisbury Cathedral. From 1360, John Clyve finished off the Nave, built its Vault, the West Front, the North Porch and the Eastern Range of the Cloister.

He also strengthened the Norman Chapter House, added Buttresses and changed its Vault. His masterpiece is the Central Tower of 1374, originally supporting a timber, lead-covered Spire, now gone. Between 1404 and 1432, an unknown architect added the North and South Ranges to the Cloister, which was eventually closed by the Western Range by John Chapman, 1435–38. The last important addition is Prince Arthur’s Chantry Chapel to the right of the South Choir Aisle, 1502–04.

Worcester Cathedral was extensively restored from 1857 to 1874 by W. A. Perkins and Sir George Gilbert Scott. Most of the fittings and the stained glass date from this time.

Exterior statuary at Worcester Cathedral.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Misericords

Thirty-Nine of the Misericords date from 1379 and include a complete set of the Labours of the Months. The subject matter includes biblical stories, mythology and folklore. Three of the misericords are Victorian replacements, such as N-02, Judas in the jaws of Satan.

Bells

The Tower has a ring of twelve bells, plus three semitone bells and a non-swinging bourdon. The current peal of 15 ringing bells were cast in 1928 by John Taylor & Co., of Loughborough, from the metal of the original ring, cast in 1869. The ring is the fifth-heaviest ring of twelve in the world, only the bells in the Cathedrals of Liverpool, Exeter, York and St Paul's, London are heavier. The bells are also considered to be one of the finest-toned rings ever cast. The bells hang in a wooden frame that was constructed in 1869 for the previous ring. Worcester Cathedral is unique in having a purpose-built teaching centre equipped with eight special training bells, linked to computers.

Worcester Cathedral has three choirs: the Worcester Cathedral Choir (the main Choir which has both a boys' and a girls' treble line, which normally work independently); Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir, and the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir.

Two views of the Gothic Nave.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

All three Choirs were involved in the BBC broadcast of the Midnight and Christmas Morning Services in 2007, with the boys and the girls of the Cathedral Choir, respectively, taking the lead in the two services. Since the 18th-Century, Worcester Cathedral Choir has taken part in the Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world.

The composer, Edward Elgar, spent most of his life in Worcestershire. The first performance of the revised version of his Enigma Variations - the version usually performed - took place at the Cathedral during the 1899 Three Choirs Festival. He is commemorated in a stained glass window, which contains his portrait.

Worcester Cathedral has a long history of organs, dating back to at least 1417. There have been many re-builds and new organs in the intervening period, including work by Thomas Dallam, William Hill and most famously Robert Hope-Jones in 1896. The Hope Jones organ was heavily re-built in 1925 by Harrison & Harrison, and then regular minor works kept it in working order until Wood Wordsworth and Co were called in 1978. It was a large four-manual organ with 61 speaking stops. It had a large Gothic Revival case with heavily decorated front pipes as well as two smaller cases either side of the quire.

Gothic Triforium and Clerestory.

Author: Mattana

January 2008.

(Wikimedia Commons)

This organ (apart from the large transept case and pedal pipes) was removed in 2006 in order to make way for a new instrument by Kenneth Tickell, which was completed in the summer of 2008. The Nave has a three-manual Rodgers organ.

Worcester Cathedral. 

View of the Tower from the South-East. 

Author: Philip Halling.

August 2005.

Wikimedia Commons.

Notable organists at Worcester have included Thomas Tomkins (from 1596), Hugh Blair (from 1895), Ivor Atkins (from 1897) and David Willcocks (from 1950). The present organist (from 2012) is Dr Peter Nardone.

Worcester Cathedral is the host of the annual graduation ceremonies for the University of Worcester. These ceremonies are presided over by the Chancellor of the University, and take place over three days in November.


THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON WORCESTER CATHEDRAL.

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. 

Author: TheElfFromAbove

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.

Author: TheElfFromAbove

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

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Seven)

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

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, extended the liturgical cult of Saint Hildegard to the universal Church in 2012.

Hildegard's name was, nonetheless, taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the 16th-Century. Her Feast Day is 17 September. Numerous Popes have referred to Hildegard as a Saint, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard to the universal Church in a process known as "equivalent canonisation". Hildegard’s parish and pilgrimage Church in Eibingen, near Rüdesheim, houses her relics.

Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints of various Anglican churches, such as that of the Church of England, in which she is commemorated on 17 September.

Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing centre that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing.

German Emperor, Friedrich Barbarossa, mit seinen Söhnen König Heinrich und Herzog Friedrich. Miniatur aus der Welfenchronik (Kloster Weingarten, 1179-1191). Heute Landesbibliothek Fulda.

Frederic I Barbarossa and his sons King Henry VI and Duke Frederick VI. Medieval illustration from the Chronicle of the Guelphs (Weingarten Abbey, 1179-1191).

In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars. Her reference to herself as a member of the "weaker sex" and her rather constant belittling of women, though at first seemingly problematic, must be considered within the context of the patriarchal Church hierarchy. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis. 

Such a statement on her part, however, worked to her advantage, because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice. Hildegard used her voice to condemn Church practices she disagreed with, in particular simony.

In space, she is commemorated by the asteroid 898 Hildegard.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON HILDEGARD VON BINGEN.

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

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Six)

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

Hildegardis-Codex, sogenannter Scivias-Codex, Szene:
Der mystische Leib
(The Mystical Body).
circa 1165 A.D.
From: Wikimedia Commons.

Due to Church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the mediaeval rhetorical arts included: preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition. Hildegard’s participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female rhetorician, transcending bans on women’s social participation and interpretation of Scripture.

The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected Abbess and acknowledged Prophet. does not fit the usual stereotype of this time. Her preaching was not limited to the Monasteries; she even preached publicly in 1160 in Germany. She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in Chapter Houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced the work of Hildegard von Bingen at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148.

Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist (1090 – August 20, 1153) was a French Abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.

After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 km southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. 

According to tradition, Bernard founded the Monastery on 25 June 1115, naming it Claire Vallée, which evolved into Clairvaux. There, Bernard would preach an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.

 In the year 1128, Bernard assisted at the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, who soon became the ideal of Christian nobility.

Many Abbots and Abbesses asked Hildegard for prayers and opinions on various matters. She travelled widely during her four preaching tours. She had several rather fanatic followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote frequently to her and eventually became her secretary, after Volmar died in 1173. In addition, Hildegard influenced several monastic women of her time and the centuries that followed; in particular, she engaged in correspondence with another nearby visionary, Elisabeth of Schönau.

Hildegard von Bingen corresponded with another visionary, 

Elisabeth of Schönau. This photo is of the Altar of St. Elizabeth of Schönau (with the reliquary in which Elizabeth's skull is kept) in the Monastery Church of St. Florin, Kloster Schönau-im-Taunus.

Hildegard communicated with Popes, such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen, such as Abbot Suger, German Emperors, such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable figures, such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her Abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148.

Hildegard of Bingen’s correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.


Beatification and Canonisation

Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonisation process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonisation were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification.

PART SEVEN FOLLOWS

Hildegard von Bingen (Part Five)

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

Benediktinerinnenkloster Eibingen

(Eibingen Abbey)

Author: Moguntiner

Photo: October 2006.

Web-Site: http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de

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.

Abtei St. Hildegard in Eibingen,

Ortsteil von Rüdesheim am Rhein.

Innenansicht der Abteikirche.

Interior of the Abbey Church of Eibingen.

Author: Haffitt.

Photo: May 2012.

From: Wikimedia Commons.

In 1988, the sisters founded Marienrode Priory at Hildesheim, which became independent of Eibingen Abbey 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 "BachTrompetenGala" with Edgar Krapp, organ.

Eibingen Abbey: A Benedictine Abbey, full of the contemplative life.

It is claimed by some that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, plus the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

The correspondence she kept with the outside world, both spiritual and social, transgressed the Cloister as a space of female confinement, and served to document Hildegard’s grand style and strict formatting of mediaeval letter writing.

Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, Hildegard “authorised herself as a theologian” through alternative rhetorical arts. Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should not allow novices who were from a different class than nobility because it put them in an inferior position. She also stated that ‘woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman.'

PART SIX FOLLOWS

Peterborough Cathedral (Part Four)

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

Cloisters, Peterborough Cathedral. 

A view across what remains of the cloisters, largely destroyed during the Civil War, with the South side of the Cathedral behind.

Author: Derek Harper
Photo: December 2007.
Taken from Wikimedia Commons.


The Cathedral was vandalised during the English Civil War, in 1643, by Parliamentarian troops. As was common at the time, almost all the stained glass and the Medieval Choir Stalls were destroyed, and the High Altar and reredos were demolished, as were the cloisters and Lady Chapel. All the monuments and memorials of the Cathedral were also damaged or destroyed.

King Henry VIII's wife, Katharine of Aragon, was buried here in 1536, as was Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.
Mary was later removed to Westminster Abbey.
Author: Dave Hitchborne
Photo: April 2004.
From Wikimedia Commons.

The Choir of The Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, Peterborough.
Author: Dave Hitchborne
Photo: April 2004.
From Wikimedia Commons.

Some of the damage was repaired during the 17th- and 18th-Centuries. In 1883, extensive restoration work began, with the interior pillars, the Choir and the West Front being completely rebuilt under the supervision of John Loughborough Pearson, and new hand-carved Choir Stalls, Cathedra (Bishop's Throne), Choir Pulpit and the marble pavement and High Altar being added. A stepped level of battlements was removed from the Central Tower, reducing its height, slightly.

In the early evening of 22 November 2001, the Cathedral was hit by a fire, thought to have been started deliberately amongst plastic chairs stored in the North Choir Aisle. Fortunately, the fire was spotted by one of the vergers, allowing a swift response by emergency services.

Peterborough Cathedral: Looking from the Nave to the High Altar.
Author: Dave Hitchborne
Photo: April 2004.
From Wikimedia Commons.

The High Altar.
Author: Dave Hitchborne
Photo: April 2004.
From Wikimedia Commons.

The timing was particularly unfortunate, as a complete restoration of the painted wooden ceiling was nearing completion. The oily smoke given off by the plastic chairs was particularly damaging, coating much of the building with a sticky black layer. 

Fan vaulting in the ambulatory at Peterborough Cathedral.
Author: NotFromUtrecht
Photo: March 2010.
From Wikimedia Commons.

The seat of the fire was close to the organ and the combination of direct damage from the fire, and the water used to extinguish it, necessitated a full-scale rebuild of the instrument, putting it out of action for several years.

An extensive programme of repairs to the West Front began in July 2006 and has cost in excess of half a million pounds. This work is concentrated around the statues located in niches, which have been so badly affected by years of pollution and weathering that, in some cases, they have only stayed intact thanks to iron bars inserted through them from the head to the body. This enabled people to "sponsor" a stone.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL

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

Peterborough Cathedral (Part Three)

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

Henry VIII, after Hans Holbein the Younger, 

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

King Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries,

which ended the life of Peterborough Abbey 

and instigated the life of Peterborough Cathedral.

Monastic life

From the Mid-12th-Century monk, Hugh Candidus, we have a detailed record of the contents of the Abbey's reliquaries , which included two pieces of swaddling clothes which wrapped the baby Jesus, pieces of Jesus' manger, a part of the five loaves which fed the 5,000, a piece of the raiment of St Mary, a piece of Aaron's rod, and relics of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew - to whom the church is dedicated.

Most famous, however, was the supposed arm of St Oswald, which disappeared from its chapel, probably during the Reformation, despite a watch-tower having been built for monks to guard its reliquary, and various contact relics of Thomas Becket, brought from Canterbury in a special reliquary by its Prior, Benedict (who had witnessed Becket's assassination), when he was 'promoted' to Abbot of Peterborough.

All of these created an aura of great importance around what is today Peterborough Cathedral, making it at the zenith of its wealth, just before the Reformation, the sixth largest monastery in England in terms of income, with 120 monks and departments including an Almoner, an Infirmarian, a Sacristan and a Cellarer.

Signature of King Henry VIII.

Harbinger of doom for many Abbeys and Monasteries.

Tudor

In 1541, following Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, the relics were lost, but the Church survived by not being sold off and, instead, being selected as the Cathedral of the new Diocese of Peterborough. This may have been related to the fact that Henry's former queen, Katherine of Aragon, had been buried there in 1536.

Her grave can still be seen and is nowadays honoured by visitors and often decorated with flowers and pomegranates (her symbol). It carries the legend "Katharine, Queen of England", a title she was denied at the time of her death.

In 1587, the body of Mary, Queen of Scots, was also buried here after her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle, but it was later removed to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I of England.

Coat of Arms of King Henry VIII

Author: Sodacan

August 2010

From Wikimedia Commons

PART FOUR FOLLOWS

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