Chapter VI: The Monasteries

The influence of the monasteries during the Middle Ages was considerable, and it was in them that the lamp of learning and art was kept burning. The causes which led to their destruction would be too long a matter to discuss here. In justice we must say that the charges of gross immorality levied against the monks were neither fair nor were they the real reason for the dissolution of the monasteries.

The last monastery had fallen by 1540. In most cases the churches were destroyed, and even when they were preserved the brasses were taken from the gravestones and sold by the Commissioners who confiscated the property.

Thus at St Albans there were over 270 brasses, and now there are hardly a dozen. In all England there are barely 30 monastic brasses left. They include seven monks and a friar, two abbesses, a prior and five vowesses, besides one or two doubtful examples.

Besides the three abbots already mentioned as showing episcopal vestments, there are four mutilated fragments on the reverse of palimpsests (see below). These will be given in the list of palimpsests.

The dress of a monk included the tunic, an undergarment, with the gown over it, the scapula and cowl or hood. The tonsure is much larger than that of a parish priest.

Abbot John Lawrence at Burwell, 1542, was originally shown in full vestments, but as he survived the dissolution his brass was changed. He now appears in cassock, surplice and almuce. The upper part of the figure is new, but the lower shows on the reverse the original engraving. There is a canopy, part of which is palimpsest and shows, on the reverse, part of a deacon, c. 1320.

The Benedictines were by far the richest and largest of the Orders. The Cluniacs were a reformed order of Benedictines. The chief difference was that each monastery was under the direct supervision of Cluny, and not of the mother monastery from which it sprung. In England there was an exception and Lewes stood in the position of Cluny to the other English Cluniac monasteries. It alone was directly under Cluny.

Prior Neolond, here illustrated, was therefore a very important man. His dress is exactly similar to that of the Benedictines. The canopy, as shown, is the finest still extant of purely English type. The central pediment is itself triple and holds a shrine with the Virgin and Child within. St Pancras and St Thomas à Becket stand on the finials of the other pediments. The whole brass measures 10 ft. 2 in. × 4 ft. 3 in.

The Augustinian abbot wears gown and cowl over the ordinary choir vestments. The crozier rests on the right arm and he wears no mitre.

A vowess was a widow who took monastic vows. It is not easy to distinguish the dress from that of the ordinary widow.

The Duchess of Gloucester, after the murder of her husband in 1397, entered the nunnery at Barking, Essex, and died there two years later. She appears in the first act of _Richard II_. Her brass lies on an altar tomb in St Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. Her heraldic badge--the swan--adorns the inscription and the central pediment of her triple canopy. Five armorial shields still hang from the shafts, but the sixth is lost. The pinnacle between the central and the sinister arch is now lost, but was still intact when this rubbing was taken. (See illustration.) Thus year by year portions of these ancient monuments are carelessly lost or stolen.

The friar, in gown and cowl, with knotted cord (c. 1440), at Denham, Bucks., is on the reverse of Amphillis Peckham, 1545.

The other brasses call for no further attention, save that in the case of the two nuns from Sion their convent had already been dissolved. The abbess is shown without her crosier and Margaret Dely without her mantle.

_Palimpsest Brasses._

By this we mean brasses which have been twice used. The dissolution of the monasteries led to thousands of brasses being sold for old metal, both from the churches destroyed and from those that were allowed to remain. In 1551 an order was issued confiscating all the church plate. It is therefore not surprising that great numbers of brasses were stolen. It is noteworthy that Elizabeth disapproved of these proceedings and ordered that fresh plate should be procured, and that the damaged monuments should be restored. The stolen brasses often went into the melting pot, but sometimes they were re-engraved and used to commemorate contemporary persons.

Palimpsests are produced in three ways:

I. By engraving the back of the brasses.

II. By re-engraving and altering the figures.

III. By simply substituting a fresh inscription.

Those contained in the first group are probably the most numerous, and are subdivided into three groups:

(_a_) Plunder from English churches at the Reformation; (_b_) plunder from Flemish churches at the same period; (_c_) shop-wastes and earlier stolen brasses.

The Flemish or German brasses, about 50 in number, were probably plunder from the Dutch churches, which were sacked by the Calvinists in 1566. So complete was the destruction wrought in that short week that to-day there are fewer complete Flemish brasses in their original home than there are fragments of Flemish brasses in England. (See Appendix.)

The reverses vary considerably in date and subject. Those laid down from 1540-1570 show that even before the great outbreak of iconoclasm of 1566 a good many brasses had been stolen.

Taillor at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, was burnt during the Marian persecution in 1555, and an inscription was laid down in 1560. The reverse, c. 1500, shows the head and shoulders and hands of a civilian on a diapered background with certain other details. The Margate brass, 1582, shows on the reverse scenes from the life of man. One is of a child catching butterflies, and the other, two boys walking on stilts.

Besides these groups there is a third type consisting mostly of shop-wastes, i.e. sometimes a brass which had been ordered was not approved; the engraver then either melted it down or re-engraved it on the other side. Also, brasses were stolen and sold to the brass engravers, who would use them again in the same way. Many of these are quite early and often only a few years separate the engravings on the two sides.

In a few cases the same person is depicted with certain details altered. John Lawrence of Burwell has already been mentioned.

The demi-figure of Thos. Cod, St Margaret’s, Rochester, 1465, is a striking example. The reverse shows him in almuce and cope, but for some unknown reason this apparently was disapproved. He is therefore shown on the obverse with an amice in place of the almuce.

A late example is at Walton-on-Thames. John Selwyn, 1587, was Gentleman Keeper of the Royal Park at Oatlands. At a stag-hunt in the presence of Elizabeth he leapt from his horse on to the back of the stag when both were going at full speed. There he kept his seat, with his sword guided the animal towards the Queen, and then plunged the steel into its throat so that it fell dead at her feet.

This is depicted on a small plate placed between the heads of Selwyn and his wife. The subject is engraved on both sides. The reverse was lightly sketched and was rejected. It shows him hatless holding the stag’s right horn.

The two remaining groups, II and III, are much less numerous. Group II consists of figures which have been altered.

Examples of this kind are Robt. Hanson, 1545, Chalfont St Peters, Bucks., altered (by adding shading, etc.) from a priest, 1440. Humphrey Oker and wife, 1538, Okeover, Staffs., altered from Wm. Lord Zouche and two wives, c. 1447. The figure of one wife was left intact and the other was turned over and engraved with the children and an oak-tree bearing a shield.

There are a few other examples, but perhaps the most interesting is that to Walter Curzon and wife, Waterperry, Oxon., 1527, altered from c. 1445. A new head and shoulders were engraved, the palettes were partly erased and shading was added on arms, cuirass and legs. The taces have been re-engraved to form a skirt of mail. The ends of the shoes have been partly erased and the toes rounded. The upper half of the lady is Tudor, the lower half has had shading added to the lines, and a chain hanging from the belt added.

Group III consists of appropriate brasses which have not been re-engraved. A new inscription, and sometimes shields, are merely added.

Good examples of this group are the brasses of Sir John Dyve, 1535, wife and mother, Bromham, Beds., appropriated from Thos. Wideville and two wives under triple canopy, c. 1435; John Wybarne (in armour), c. 1546, Ticehurst, Sussex, appropriated from c. 1370; Laughton, Lincs., 1549, man under triple canopy, appropriated from c. 1400; Joan ffenner, 1516, Horley, Surrey, appropriated from c. 1420, with fine canopy.

There are several other examples and they must be carefully distinguished from those brasses which have been _copied_ from an earlier brass, as has happened in the effigy of Peter Rede at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich.