It will be convenient to pause at this point to look at the great change
which had taken place westwards. The stately Abbey of Westminster had
arisen on what was once a thorny waste. Originally founded by Sebert, the
first Christian King of the East Saxons, it had been rebuilt by King
Edward the Confessor in the Norman style, of which he was the real
introducer into England. It was consecrated only a week before his death,
January, 1066, and the ill-fated Harold was crowned in it immediately
after, as was William the Conqueror before the year had ended. From that
day to this Westminster Abbey has been the scene of the Coronation of all
the English monarchs. Later on, Edward the Confessor was canonised, and
his remains were removed from their original resting-place, and laid in a
stately shrine prepared by Henry II., who was present, along with his
Chancellor and Archbishop Becket, at the "translation." This was on the
13th of October, 1163. It was in consequence of the honour thus conferred
upon it that the Abbey was declared by the Pope exempt from the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, and subject only to the authority of
the Pope and the King of England. Its Abbot was "mitred," _i.e._, he was
privileged to wear the Episcopal habit, and to claim a seat on the
Episcopal bench in the House of Lords.
The thirteenth century saw a yet further honour for the Abbey. Henry III.,
who always held the memory of Edward the Confessor in "prodigious value"
(which he showed by naming his eldest son after him), resolved on
rebuilding the Abbey in the beautiful style which we commonly call "Early
English," though he had seen it in France, and at once became, not
unreasonably, enamoured of it. The present beautiful church is, in large
measure, his work, though later abbots continued it: the material
additions since have been the Lady Chapel, commonly known as Henry the
Seventh's, he being the founder, and the western towers, by Sir
Christopher Wren, at a date outside our limits. It is hard to realise,
until one has seen similar buildings on the Continent, that there was a
partition wall entirely dividing the choir, which belonged to the monks,
and the nave, to which the general congregation was admitted. This wall
was removed in the time of Henry VII.
The road between London and Westminster passed amidst detached houses and
farms. The monks of Westminster cultivated their produce in the Convent
Garden--the name lives on, though the "n" in the first word is gone. After
the peaceable settlement of the Danes, a portion of territory was set
apart for them to dwell in between London and Westminster. As they were
seafarers, they naturally took the sailor's saint for their patron, and
the church which they built for themselves is known to us as St. Clement
Danes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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