This encyclopaedic study of the artworks in the churches of East Anglia has good claim to be the photographic counterpart of Eamon Duffy’s monumental work, The Stripping of the Altars. It is the first and best introduction to an important subject, of which only the surface has been scratched in the past.
Written by Michael Hodges, the Herald’s architecture correspondent, it is named after the late-13th-century compilation of saints and prophets drawn up by an Italian Dominican, Giacomo de Varazzi, better known as Blessed Jacobus de Voragine. It consists largely of painted rood screens, plus a few statues, and the small amount of stained glass which was mercifully overlooked by Thomas Cromwell’s appalling band of iconoclasts,
It is worth mentioning that it was through ignorance and malice that they did their work. It cannot seriously be held that these sacred images were actually worshipped by the faithful. Rather, they were used as devotional aids, like rosaries, to help the process of prayer. In no way did they infringe the Commandment against worshipping “graven images” or idols. Indeed, St Gregory, writing to the Bishop of Marseilles, says: “All the matter to be feared is excess in worshipping.” Luther, quoting him, adds: “All idolatry is plainly excluded in his words, so we cannot say that the worshipping of images had its beginnings in popery.”
The present book begins with a foreword by the Rt Rev Alan Hopes, a former Bishop of East Anglia, and a preface by the architect Anthony Delarue, who was a catalyst for the whole enterprise. It lists in alphabetical rather than topographical order the saints to whom the various churches are dedicated, and there is a useful index through which the various churches can be located.
For example, Catholic life was still vigorous right up to the time of the Reformation as at North Burlingham in Norfolk in 1537. No less than 117 rood screens, covering some 1,200 figures of saints, have almost miraculously survived, though some of them are in a dilapidated state which does no justice to the artists involved, but which nevertheless fully deserve to be listed. Their condition is hardly surprising in view of the neglect and damp which has been the fate of so many of the churches in the past, but 40 years ago, the present king played a leading part in encouraging the formation of the Norfolk Churches Trust by Billa Harrod, without which matters would by now have been far worse.
The style of the paintings varies, from rather primitive daubs, perhaps painted on the spot in a tiny village, to much more sophisticated and accomplished works, though some have been rather roughly restored, making it hard to know the quality of the originals. It is interesting to see which of the saints are most frequently represented on the screens. They are the Twelve Apostles, with St Paul, rather than Matthias, often taking the place of Judas Iscariot. The four Doctors of the Church, Ss Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory and Jerome. The saints mentioned in the New Testament, Ss Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Stephen, but curiously not St Peter; a large group of virgins and martyrs, Agatha, Agnes, Apollonia, Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, Lucy, Margaret of Antioch, Cecilia, Dorothy, and later local saints, Ss Etheldreda, Walstan, Withburga and William of Norwich. But no less an authority than St Thomas More gently mocked the custom of associating saints with their activities or professions, writing: “We make St Loy a horse leech, and because one smith is too few at a forge we set St Ipolytys to help him… St Apoline we make a tooth drawer, and may speak to her of nothing but sore teeth; St Sythe for women set to seek their keys (she would still be kept busy today), St Germayne only for children.”
It is interesting to find much less about wall paintings than might have been expected. But the fact is that they could easily be whitewashed over when there was a threat of obliteration, and sometimes rediscovered centuries later, as in the remarkable set in College Chapel at Eton, dating from the foundation by Henry VI and only rediscovered in the 1940s; and the Wenhaston Doom, in Suffolk, a panel which was also whitewashed and only saved by a miracle from being thrown away and burnt as rubbish. As regards stained glass, obviously the most easily destroyed, what remains is mostly of very high quality, for example, at East Harling, Martham, Leverington, Long Melford and an unusual example at Poringland. There is also a charming roundel of St Elizabeth of Hungary at Wisbech St Mary. At Framlingham, there is a beautiful carving, on his rich tomb, of the wonderfully lucky 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who was condemned to death by Henry VIII in a Stalinesque mood, and was only able to survive to the age of over 80 by the death of the king the day before the execution was due to take place.
The author is to be congratulated on this personal odyssey, and on packing such an encyclopaedic work into the space of three years, when he also had various other tasks in progress. The book will open up the subject to many keen church-crawlers, who might otherwise have missed many of the treasures to be found all over the huge area of East Anglia.
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