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Ruthwell Cross Statement of Significance

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Ruthwell Cross Statement of Significance Property in Care (PIC) ID: PIC213 Designations: Listed Building (LB17247) Taken into State care: 1887 (Guardianship) Last reviewed: 2013 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE RUTHWELL CROSS We continually revise our Statements of Significance, so they may vary in length, format and level of detail. While every effort is made to keep them up to date, they should not be considered a definitive or final assessment of our properties. Historic Environment Scotland – Scottish Charity No. SC045925 Principal Office: Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH © Historic Environment Scotland 2019 You may re-use this information (excluding logos and images) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/version/3/ or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Any enquiries regarding this document should be sent to us at: Historic Environment Scotland Longmore House Salisbury Place Edinburgh EH9 1SH +44 (0) 131 668 8600 www.historicenvironment.scot You can download this publication from our website at www.historicenvironment.scot Historic Environment Scotland – Scottish Charity No. SC045925 Principal Office: Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH RUTHWELL CROSS SYNOPSIS Ruthwell Cross is situated inside Ruthwell Parish Church, in an apse specially built for it in 1886-7. It is dated to the c.730s. Together with the comparable cross at Bewcastle (Cumbria), it is undoubtedly the most important sculptural survival from Anglo-Saxon Britain and arguably from early medieval Europe. That importance was recognised in 1887 when it was taken into state care, one of the first ‘ancient monuments’ so taken in following the passing of the Ancient Monuments Act in 1882, and re-erected in the church. The cross stands 5.2m high. Its coherent scheme of Christian images and Latin and Anglo-Saxon inscriptions (in Roman and runic script) shows how the cross would have served as a theological reference work in the instruction of the illiterate faithful. The two broader faces have scenes illustrating the divinity and power of Christ, along with representations of the Holy Trinity, and symbols of the four Evangelists, all within a ladder-like frame. The two narrow side faces are carved with panels of vine-scroll ornament, inhabited with birds and beasts, representing the theme of Creation. These panels are surrounded by Latin and Anglo-Saxon text, including an Old English poem, The Dream of the Rood, in which the cross itself describes the events of the Crucifixion. CHARACTER OF THE MONUMENT Historical Overview: • c.730s – the cross is created during a time when the Anglian kings of Northumbria extend their rule west into Rheged, the British kingdom on either side of the Solway Firth, and establish a bishopric at Whithorn. • c.1600 – the first and only reference to the cross before its destruction, including a drawing of it still standing, is made by Reginald Bainbrigg, of Appleby (Cumbria), and sent in a letter to William Camden, then compiling his epic Britannia. Bainbrigg describes the cross as being ‘of wondrous height’. • 1642 – the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland issues an edict ordering the destruction of the ‘idolatrous monuments in the Kirk of Ruthwell’. The minister, Rev Gavin Young, reluctantly has the cross toppled, but preserves the bulk of it in the kirk by using fragments as benches. • 1695 – Bishop Gibson of Carlisle, editor of Camden’s Britannia, mentions ‘St Ruth’s Church, where there is a pillar curiously engraven’. In 1704, Archdeacon Nicolson of Carlisle notes fragments in the church and others under table-tombs in the graveyard. • 1772 – the two largest fragments are hauled outside to make way for a reorganisation of the church, including new paving and pews. • 1802 – the minister, Rev Henry Duncan, discovers the other fragments under the table-tombs and another is found during grave-digging. (Rev Duncan is known as the ‘Father of Savings Bank’, after setting up the world’s first Savings Bank, in Ruthwell, in 1810). • 1823 – Rev Duncan, despairing of ever finding the missing head of the cross, commissions a local mason to carve a new cross arm and has the cross re-erected in the manse garden. • 1833 – Rev Duncan makes accurate drawings and a full description of the cross. These lead (1840) to the runic inscription being finally translated, when it is realised the runes are not Norse but Anglian! The chance discovery soon after of a manuscript in Italy leads to the recognition that both the manuscript and the runic inscription refer to the same religious poem, The Dream of the Rood, thus making the Ruthwell Cross one of the earliest surviving sources of an Anglo-Saxon poem. John Kemble publishes the link between The Dream of the Rood and the Ruthwell Cross in 1844. • 1882 – the first Ancient Monuments Act is passed into law. • 1887 – the Ruthwell Cross is added to the ‘schedule’ of Ancient Monuments and taken into state care, one of the first monuments so protected under the provisions of the first Ancient Monuments Act. Meanwhile, local, national and international interest in preserving the cross, and concern that it should stay locally rather than being removed to the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, leads to the building of the semi-circular apse in the parish church, designed by Campbell Douglas & Sellars, specifically to house it. The state provides financial support. At the re-dedication service, the minister, Rev James McFarlan, preaches a sermon on the text from Genesis 28, 22: ‘This Stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s House’. • 1931 – A further fragment of cross, part of the original transverse arm, is found in the manse and displayed (1936) alongside the cross. Archaeological Overview: Nothing is known of the archaeology of the site, although excavations in a field adjoining the church in 1980 and 1984 found evidence for iron working possibly related to Roman activity in the vicinity. The graveyard is still in use and the digging of new graves should routinely be monitored for chance discovery of further fragments. Note: There is a tradition that the cross didn’t originally stand at Ruthwell but at Priestside (NY 102662), 1 mile to the south on the Solway shore. Architectural/Artistic Overview: The Ruthwell Cross and the Bewcastle Cross (Cumbria), are undoubtedly the most important sculptural survivals from Anglo-Saxon Britain, and arguably from early medieval Europe (Cassidy 1993). The cross is a much studied and argued about monument, with many scholarly attempts made to explain its complex biblical iconography, original form (the present reconstruction is contested), date and epigraphy. The design of the 5.2m high cross is wholly Northumbrian in style. Each of the four main faces of the shaft have a ladder-like grid of borders carved with Latin inscriptions framing sculptural panels. The head of the cross was evidently intended to show the four Evangelists with their symbols, but the 1823 reconstruction resulted in the present confused muddle, with St John and his Eagle erected back-to-front. The 19th-century cross arms are carved with masonic symbols, arguably because there was still a fear of the relics of Popery at that time. The south face has, in order of ascent: the Crucifixion; the Annunciation; Jesus healing the man born blind; Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Jesus; Martha and Mary; and an archer. This last is the most puzzling image on the cross; the panels beneath apparently depict the Christian life (obedience to God’s call, conversion, penitence, and action and contemplation). The north face depicts, in order of ascent: an obliterated scene (perhaps the Nativity); the Flight into, or Return from, Egypt; St Paul and St Anthony breaking bread in the desert; Jesus in majesty, his feet resting on beasts; and the Holy Trinity. This iconography seems to show Jesus’s presence, whether in person or in sacrament, and his ultimate revelation in the Trinity. The two side faces, to east and west, show curling vines filled with birds and other, more fanciful animals eating the fruits – a common symbolism for the Eucharist since wine is made from grapes. The inscriptions which are found all over the cross are in two languages and two alphabets. The south and north faces have Latin inscriptions that describe the panels they surround. The inscriptions on the east and west sides, however, are written in runes and spell out a version of the Anglo-Saxon religious poem of the Crucifixion – The Dream of the Rood - seen from the point of view of the cross: I raised the powerful king The lord of the heavens I dared not fall down They reviled us both together I was all stained with blood Poured from the man’s side It is possible these lines were added shortly after the cross was erected. Social Overview: The post-medieval and antiquarian history of interest in the cross is a fascinating story in its own right, and one that tells us much about contemporary social and religious values, and of the involvement of key local and national figures. Other than being a visitor attraction, the Ruthwell Cross currently seems to play no other social role. Spiritual Overview: The Ruthwell Cross is perhaps best interpreted as a preaching cross, although we do not know where it originally stood, whether inside a church (where it was in 1600) or outside (where the Bewcastle Cross is positioned).
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