The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic GuildScott, Leader
History
The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild
Scott, Leader
Cathedrals; Church architecture; Guilds
Again, in 601, Pope Gregory sent Paulinus and others to assist
Augustine in his work, and by them he sent sacred vessels, ornaments
for the church, and vestments. Now experienced architects and builders
to build churches for the converts were as necessary as the ornaments
wherewith to furnish them, and it is fair to conclude that this
essential had not been overlooked, and that there were with those who
brought the ornaments, men competent to erect the churches to place
them in. Indeed it seems possible that Paulinus himself may have
graduated in the Comacine school of architecture; it is a curious fact
that he is spoken of under the title of _Magister_,[109] the title
given to fully-instructed members of that order, and we know that many
monks were amongst the enrolled members of the Comacine body.
The strongest evidence, of course, would be the evidence of his work
as a builder; unfortunately very little of that remains--though the
little we know about it is consistent with the fact that either he was
of that order, or he had Comacine Masters with him. The Whalley cross
which is attributed to him is ornamented with that peculiar convoluted
ornament which is found in early Comacine work; and he was certainly a
great builder of churches, of the precise type which the Comacines
would have built at that time. Bede relates that he built in Lincoln a
stone church of beautiful workmanship, in which he consecrated
Honorius, Bishop of Canterbury, in the place of Justus. The "beautiful
workmanship" implies an experienced architect. Bede who thus describes
it was a competent witness, and in all probability he knew the church,
which was in his time roofless. Again, King Edwin under the direction
of Paulinus built a "large and noble church of stone" at York (ii.
14). At this time the Comacine builders had not begun to build in the
style which was afterwards known as the Lombard or Romanesque style,
and of which indeed they were the authors, and this church seems to
have been an Italian Basilican church with an atrium at the west end
as was customary in churches of the period; this particular atrium
being built round the little wooden oratory which Edwin had put up
when under the instruction of the bishop, before his baptism, the
oratory being in the midst of the open court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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