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II.—On some recent Discoveries in the Abbey Church of St. Alban
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Extract
When the churchyard on the north side of St. Alban's Abbey was being levelled and turfed last year I was, by the kind permission of the rector and churchwardens and of the Rev. G. H. P. Glossop, M.A. (senior curate, who had generously undertaken the work), enabled to make some excavations to obtain a ground plan of the parochial chapel or parish church of St. Andrew, which adjoined the north-west side of the abbey church. As to the use of such parochial chapels, which existed at so many of the Benedictine houses, I have referred in a paper on this chapel, which I read before the St. Alban's Archæological Society last summer. I may, however, say that the origin probably dates back to the time of the reformation of monastic rule in this country by Dunstan, Oswald, and others, when the inconvenience of the presence of the laity in the monastic churches was first felt. The additional constitutions of the Benedictine Order likewise tended to make the monasteries more exclusive, and disputes arose in consequence between the monks and the laity as to the use of the church, usually ending in a composition being made, under which most of these parochial chapels were built. The first we hear of St. Andrew's chapel is a little while after the dedication of the Norman church of St. Alban in 1115, when we find it was dedicated by Herbert de Losinga, bishop of Norwich. The position of this Norman chapel is not known, but it is evident that its existence was but short, for it was rebuilt and considerably enlarged, apparently at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century by abbots John de Cella and William of Trumpington.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1898
References
page 22 note a , I. C. and Buckler, C. A., A History of the Architecture of the Abbey Church of St. Alban, with especial reference to the Norman structure (London, 1847), 87.Google Scholar
page 22 note b Patent Roll, 7 Edward VI. part 3, m. (I).
page 23 note a At a depth of 4 feet 6 inches I came upon a nineteenth century brick, showing that the ground had been recently disturbed.
page 23 note b “Iste hanc ecclesiam, cæteraque ædificia, præter pistrinam, vel pistorium, et pinsinochium, reædificavit, ex lapidibus et tegulis veteris civitatis Verolamii, et materie lignea, quam invenit a prædecessoribus suis collectam et reservatam.” Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani (Rolls Series, 28), i. 52.
page 23 note c Ibid. i. 53, 71.
page 23 note d “Hic quoque Abbas Garinus, cum se jam sentiret ab hoc sæeulo migraturum, centum marcas dimisit successori suo, ad frontem ecclesiæ renovandam.” Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani (Rolls Series 28), i. 215.
page 24 note a “Horum igitur duorum fratrum (i.e. Reymund the prior and Roger de Parco the cellarer) fretus consiliis, et fultus adminiculis, stimulante conscientia, (receperat enim a prædecessore suo, Abbate Garino, ut prædictum est, centum marcas, ad opus ecclesiæ repositas et deputatas,) murum frontis ecclesiæ nostræ in terrain diruit, veteribus tegulis et cæmento indissolubili compactum,” Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani (Rolls Series, 28), i. 218.
page 24 note b Ibid. i. 218–220.
page 25 note a “Opusque frontale ipsius ecclesiæ, post quandam nimis damnosam ruinam, misertus ac miseratus Abbas Willelmus, eo quod tarn tædiosam moram protraxerit, suis humeris sibi suscepit supportando perficiendum. Quod infra breve tempus, cum tecto de præelecta materie, tignis et trabibus, cum laquearibus, cumque vitreis fenestris, ad unguem perfectis, veteri operi, decenter plumbo coopertum, continuavit.” Gesta Abhatum, Monasterii Sancti Albani (Rolls Series, 28), i. 281.
page 25 note b This is identical with the Norman mortar which I obtained from a put-log hole in the east wall of the north transept.
page 25 note c Op. cit. 13.
page 26 note a Part I. p. 593.