Abbey of Glastonbury

the abbey of Glastonbury , located in England, in the Somerset, claims to be the oldest church except ground (in opposition to the crypts and other catacombs) in the world, dating the establishment from the community of monks into 63, at the time of the legendary visit of Joseph d' Arimathie, which there would have brought the Holy Grail and would have planted the hawthorn of Glastonbury. If these facts appear not very probable today, the abbey does not preserve of it less one unquestionable interest, thanks to its ruins and with its rich person history.

History

At the beginning of VIIIe century, the king Ine of Wessex decided to equip of more than means a community of monks already established in Glastonbury. It would have ordered that a stone church is built in 712, church which one can always observe the foundations at the western end of the nave. Glastonbury was devastated by the Viking S in IXe century. At that time, Holy Néot, a former soldier who is sexton there, decides to leave to found its own community with Somerset. The abbey church is increased during Xe century by the abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, central figure of the revival of the English monastic life at that time, which introduces the Règle bénédictine. Dunstan becomes archbishop of Canterbury in 960. It also makes build new cloisters. In 967, the king Edmond Ier of England is buried in Glastonbury. In 1016, Edmond II of England, called " Coast-of-Fer" (because of resistance that he opposed to the invasion carried out by the Danish king Knud Ier Large the) and which had been withdrawn in the West of the country as a " king de Wessex" , is also buried there.

At the time of the conquest Norman of 1066, Glastonbury is with its apogee. The new Norman abbot, Thurstin, make build a new sanctuary in the east of the old church saxonne and the variation of the old cemetery, shifting of this fact the sanctified site. Among these Norman lately arrived, all did not have qualities until one could wait chiefs of religious community: thus, in 1077, Thurstin was isolated after its guards had killed out of the monks to the feet of the principal furnace bridge. In 1086, whereas the delivers Last Judgment is established, the abbey of Glastonbury appears like the richest monastery of all the country. The abbot Henri of Blois order a history of Glastonbury around 1125 with the chronicler William de Malmesbury, whose De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae represents a first hand source for any research over the first centuries of the abbey, although the work also inspired a certain number of at the very least strange legends. It is estimated today that these legends before were very used to attract pilgrims who supported the reputation of the abbey and thus contributed to his maintenance.

In 1184, a serious fire devastates the buildings of the monastery. It was shown that in XIIe century, the nave in ruin was renovated so that the religious offices can take place there while the construction of the new abbey church took place. The number of pilgrims falls then strongly, but the discovery in the cemetery of the tombs of the King Arthur and the Reine Guenièvre gives a new attraction to the abbey. According to the chronicler Giraud de Cambrie, the abbot Henry de Sully had asked that one make research which would have made it possible to discover, with a depth of about five meters, a trunk of solid oak containing two skeletons. Always according to Giraud de Cambrie, a cross of lead carrying the inscription Difficulty jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia (" Here celebrates it king Arthur rests on the island of Avalon") is found near the burial.

Five years later, in 1197, the bishop Savaric FitzGeldewin of Bath persuades the pope Célestin III to include the abbey of Glastonbury in its diocese. It then transfers to it officially its episcopal see, but the monks do not accept their new bishop and this one is kept away of the abbey. The following bishops keep the title of bishop of Bath and Glastonbury until they finally give up their load of Glastonbury in 1219. The offices take place in the new abbey church, devoted again, starting from December 25th, 1213, apparently a little before the building is not completely finished. The king Edouard Ier of England and the Eléonore queen attend the imposing ceremony during which the remainders of the King Arthur are given out of ground, this time at the foot of the large furnace bridge, in 1278.

In XIVe century, only the Abbaye of Westminster is more richly equipped and attended than Glastonbury. The abbot of Glastonbury keeps a raised statute and a standard of living, whose the ruins testify still today to the kitchen of the abbey, equipped of a large furnace to each corner. The kitchen belonged to the splendid house of the abbot, whose construction had started under the abbot John de Breynton (1334-1342). The archaeological excavations revealed a particular apartment set up in the south of the abbey house at the time of the arrival of the king Henri VII, which returned visit to the abbot as to any other land great landowner. The living conditions in England during the War of the Two-Pinks becoming precarious, an enclosing wall is built protecting the abbey field.

At the beginning of the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, there is more than 800 monasteries and convents in England. In 1541, it remains about it any more none. More than 10.000 monks and moniales were dispersed, and the buildings were seized by the crown to be sold or rented to new occupants. Glastonbury once more represents goose that lays the golden eggs. In September 1539, the abbey is seen stripped its goods; the abbot Stephen Whiting, who had been one of the signatories of the Acte of supremacy returning Henri VIII chief of the church, resists, before being hung like traitor on the rock massive of Glastonbury.

Two generations later, Glastonbury could have inspired well Shakespeare, which evokes in one of its sonnets these " naked choruses in ruins where, with fallen the evening, the oiseaux" sang gently;.

Library

The library of the abbey was described by John Leland, the bookseller of the king Henri VIII like container of the single and old copies of English stories as well as Christian documents of the first hour. It would seem that she suffered during the fire from 1184, but that she still contained a remarkable collection until 1539, date on which works were dispersed during the dissolution of the monasteries. The historian James Carley found the trace of certain manuscripts of Glastonbury.

The hawthorn of Glastonbury

A specimen of Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn with a style, or hawthorn monogyne) found in Glastonbury, mentioned for the first time in an anonymous writing of the beginning of XVIe century Lyfe off Joseph off Arimathea (life of Joseph d' Arimathie), had this of unusual which it flowered twice a year, once as with the normal in spring (on old wood), and another time in winter (on the new wood become ripe). This flowering of the hawthorn of Glastonbury in a soft time just after the middle of the winter was regarded as miraculous.

At the time of the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar revised in Great Britain in 1752, the Gentleman' S Magazine reported that the curious ones went to check if the hawthorn of Glastonbury preserved its rate/rhythm on the Calendrier Julien or adopted the new calendar: Glastonbury. - A big number of people went to observe the hawthorn the Christmas Day, new calendar; but with their great disappointment there was no flowering, whereas they were around on January 5th, the Christmas Day of the old calendar, when the flowers appeared normalement.

- Gentleman' S Magazine , January 1753

This tree was widely diffused by means of various Clerc's Offices, with the Cultivar called “Biflora” or “Praecox”. A rather old proof of this was given by Mr. Eyston in History and Antiquities off Glastonbury , ( Histoire and Antiquités of Glastonbury ) in 1722: there is a person with Glastonbury which has of it a seedbed and which, according to what Mr. Paschal learned, sell the grafts for a crown each or against what it can obtain. . Current the " hawthorn sainte" church of St John in Glastonbury comes from a local Clerc's Office, like much of others in the vicinity.

The true hawthorn of Glastonbury was cut down and burned (under relic coming from a superstition) by the troops of Oliver Cromwell during the First English revolution (in English English Civil War ), copying the unconscious, merry and triumphal dash of demolition and destruction of all the crowned trees issued by the Christians in IVe century through Europe, of Dodone in Greece as far as England.

The habit to send a budded branch of the hawthorn of Glastonbury to the queen at the time of Christmas was launched by James Montague, bishop of Bath and Wells, which thus sent a branch to Anne of Denmark, the wife of the king Jacques Ier of England.

A germ of hawthorn coming from the holy tree of Glastonbury was sent to the sovereign at the time of Christmas per the vicar and mayor of Glastonbury. But the tree mourrut in June 1991, and was cut next February. However, of many grafts could be realized before this cut. The hawthorn of before 1991 in the grounds of the abbey of Glastonbury passes to have been a clerk's office coming from the hawthorn which was planted in secrecy after the original one was destroyed. Now, only of the trees coming from original Clerc's Offices remain, and those bud twice a year, in May and in Christmas. The flowers coming from the buds of Christmas are usually smaller than those of May and do not produce fruits. It is also to note that the plants coming from the fruits do not keep the characteristics of the original plant.

Much tried to reproduce the hawthorn of Glastonbury, crataegus monogyna will biflora (or crataegus oxyacantha praecox ), by the means of seeds or Clerc's Offices, but all the recent attempts led only to the normal type of hawthorn, namely with only one flowering in spring.

The large tree present in the cemetery around the church has existed for 80 years. It was planted by Mr. George Chislett, then garden as a chief of the abbey of Glastonbury. He also learned how to graft the holy hawthorn on roots of plum tree, and thus how to manage to preserve the " miraculeuse" flowering of Christmas. His/her Wilf son sent holy hawthorns throughout the world, in particular in Washington, in Canada, in New Zealand and Australia.

By chance, the trees survive of the preceding Clerc's Offices to thus perpetuate the legend of Glastonbury, among which two holy hawthorns on the grounds of St John' S. These last years the bud sent to the queen comes from the one of them. At the time of flowering, the pupils of the school St John' S gather around the tree of the cemetery. They then sing tales, including one especially written for the occasion, and oldest of the children has the privilege to cut the branch of the hawthorn of Glastonbury before this one is not sent to London and is presented to its majesty the queen.

In 1965 the queen made set up a wood cross with Glastonbury with the following inscription: " The cross. Symbol of our faith. The gift of the Queen Elizabeth II indicates a Christian sanctuary so old that only the legend can define the origine." of it;

The abbey today

The ruins of the abbey of Glastonbury were bought by the diocese of Bath and Wells in 1908. These ruins are now the property of the church Anglican.

A pilgrimage towards the ruins of the abbey was carried out by some local churches in 1924. This one continues to be held at second Saturday and Sunday of July, and now attracts visitors of all Western Europe. The offices are celebrated in the worships Anglican, orthodoxe Catholique and .

See too

References

Internal bonds

History of England

External bonds

{in} Official website off present-day Glastonbury Abbey
{in} Glastonbury Abbey History and Photographs
{in} Medieval Sourcebook: the Suppressed Monasteries. Two letters to Henry VIII; execution off the Abbot off Glastonbury.
{in} bbc.co.uk/somerset: The Glastonbury To (U) R

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