Septimius Severus
Posted in Uncategorized on 04/13/2008 09:12 pm by admin
Septimius Severus
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US $9.99
The City of St Albans owes its origin to Saint Alban. Much of the city's history depends on the existence of his shrine and the development of the great monastery that grew up around it.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History tells us that Alban, while still a Pagan, gave shelter to a Christian priest who was hiding from his persecutors. Alban himself was converted to Christianity, and gave himself up in the priest's place when his pursuers came to claim him. Alban refused to denounce his Christianity, and was sentenced to be beheaded.
Alban's execution took place on a hill about 500 paces beyond the city wall of Roman Verulamium. According to Bede, when the peace of Christian times was restored, a church was built on the spot to commemorate his martyrdom.
Bede dates the martyrdom during the reign of emperor Diocletian in the early fourth century, but more recent research places it more likely in the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus in the third century - the year 209 fits various details of the story quite well.
We can be fairly certain that Alban was a Roman citizen of Verulamium, and the hill on which he was executed was the hill on which the present-day Abbey Church stands.
Soon after the martyrdom there must have been a shrine of some sort on the spot, which Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, visited in 429. A monastery may have existed there even before the time of Offa II, King of Mercia, who re-established it in 793. The town of St Albans grew up around the monastery, and the main road (Watling Street) was diverted to pass through the fledgling town.
The Abbey Church of St Albans has only had cathedral status since 1877. Like most English cathedrals the present building consists of a successive wave of restorations and additions.
This can be seen from the outside, from the difference between the yellow stone of Lord Grimthorpe's west end restoration in the 1870s, and the red brick and grey flint of Paul de Caen's tower and transepts, and there is evidence of two different periods of building in the nave which lies between.
St Albans Abbey Cathedral is the second longest church in England, with a length of 550 feet. The original Norman church was nearly 200 feet shorter, consisting of a chancel, tower, transepts and a nave of nine bays, still to be seen on the north side of the church.
Approximately 100 years later, in the abbacies of John de Cella (1195 - 1214) and William de Trumpington (1214 - 1235) the nave was extended west to more or less its present length. This gives us the four bays on the north side and the five westernmost bays on the south side in the Early English style.
In 1323 two of the Norman columns on the south side collapsed, and five bays on that side had to be rebuilt, but the designer kept to the plans of the Early English bays.
The vaulting shafts, visible on the spandrels of the earlier arches are replaced on the new bays by label stops in the shape of heads, identified (from west to east) as those of Master Geoffrey, (the master mason at the time), King Edward II, Queen Isabella of France, and Hugh de Eversden (abbot during the first stage of rebuilding).
The massive height of the Norman tower arches, built by Abbot Paul de Caen between 1077 and 1088, is impressive. The triforium arches of the transepts contain pillars which have a certain Saxon character - it's possible they were taken from King Offa II of Mercia's church.
The finest Norman decoration in the Abbey is to be found in the doorway at the southern end. The base of the reliquary of St Alban's shrine, with its Purbeck marble carved and decorated with gems, has been meticulously restored - it was broken into more than 2000 pieces during the Reformation. The carvings depict, on the west side, the scene of Alban's martyrdom, and, on the south side, King Offa II of Mercia holding a model of his Saxon church.
On the dissolution of the monastery its site and buildings were handed over to Sir Richard Lee, a military engineer. The year was 1539, and it was not long before the extensive monastery buildings, which occupied the area between Holywell Hill, the river Ver, Abbey Mill Lane and the Abbey Church, were demolished, leaving only the church itself and the Great Gateway.
Wherever modern tourists go in the city of St Albans, they cannot help notice the great Abbey Church up on the hill. Even if they didn't come on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Alban, as did most of their medieval counterparts - the Abbey's tall Norman tower and long nave dominate the skyline.
For framed prints of St Albans and other towns in the UK click here: England posters [http://framedartposters.net/posters/subjects/travel/world-regions/europe/browse-europe/united-kingdom/browse-the-united-kingdom/england/-/cat-9342/apws-c0]
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