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Sedilia in Medieval England

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SEDILIA IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND Cherry Hinton (Cambridgeshire), parish church, sedilia in chancel, 1220s or 30s James Alexander Cameron Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art University of London January 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis forms the first monograph on sedilia, the seats for the clergy officiating at the high altar. The focus is on the medieval kingdom of England, as there are an unparalleled number of stone sets built into the walls of its parish churches, often featuring the most impressive sculpture in the building. After a survey of the liturgical and documentary evidence for ecclesiastical seating in Chapter One, Chapter Two gives an overview of the corpus of sedilia in English medieval churches, and establishes a standard ‘classic’ type of three niches, set into the thickness of the south wall by the altar, divided by shafts and surmounted by arches. The origins of this type are then investigated in Chapter Three and attributed to English architectural style and a preference for dado arcading. In Chapter Four, the continuing spread of this type is shown to be dependent on local building practice, and the occasional development into a site of conspicuous display as diagnostic of its recognition as an important fitting by high-ranking patrons. Chapter Five departs from the narrative approach for a close assessment of the more impressive sets, and uses these to investigate the mechanisms of patronage behind sedilia, the significance of their imagery, and signs of their extra-liturgical use in lay confession. Chapter Six examines the decline of sedilia in England in the fifteenth century within the Perpendicular Style, and also attitudes to them just before the Gothic Revival in the nineteenth century. Chapter Seven provides an investigation into parish church staff and whether sedilia can be considered as proof that a high mass with priest, deacon and subdeacon was taking place in the rural parish churches where they often appear, and how the material object relates to historical documentation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 1 List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................... 3 List of Maps and Charts ............................................................................................. 20 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 21 Chapter One: Liturgical and Documentary Evidence .......................................... 28 Liturgical references............................................................................................... 28 The liturgical significance of the south side of the altar .................................... 33 The modern origin of the term ‘sedilia’ ................................................................. 36 Medieval documentary evidence............................................................................ 39 Cathedrae ministrorum altaris: Documented wooden alternatives to sedilia ... 42 Conclusion to Chapter One .................................................................................... 46 Chapter Two: Introduction to the Corpus of Sedilia in England and Wales ..... 47 Amassing the corpus: the sedilia survey of England and Wales ............................ 47 Assessment of the corpus: the types of sedilia classified ....................................... 49 ‘Classic’ sedilia .................................................................................................. 49 ‘Stepping’ of sedilia seats and the order of seated clergy .............................. 52 The sedile ........................................................................................................... 57 ‘Single-niche’ sedilia ......................................................................................... 60 ‘Drop-sill’ sedilia ............................................................................................... 62 Stone armchairs .................................................................................................. 66 Dating the corpus: Stylistic assessment of ‘C13’, ‘Dec’ and ‘Perp’ ...................... 70 Mapping the corpus: Geographical distribution ..................................................... 74 Location in the church ............................................................................................ 78 Number of seats...................................................................................................... 80 Fittings, polychromy and questions of original appearance................................... 81 Conclusion to Chapter Two ................................................................................... 83 Chapter Three: The Origins of Sedilia................................................................... 84 The apsed east end and synthrona of the first millennium..................................... 84 The square-ended chancel and the first sedilia ...................................................... 89 Early extant examples of sedilia on the south side of English chancels ............ 90 The earliest ‘classic’ sedilia ............................................................................... 95 Conclusion on the functional development .......................................................... 100 The ‘Englishness of English sedilia’: The formal development .......................... 101 Decorative arcading ......................................................................................... 102 The rejection of the apsidal east end ................................................................ 106 Conclusion on the formal development ............................................................... 109 Chapter Four: The Spread and Development of Sedilia .................................... 110 Sedilia in the early thirteenth century: The consolidation of an idea ................... 110 Case studies of parish church regional style ........................................................ 115 South East: Kent and Sussex / Canterbury and Chichester dioceses ............... 116 North East: Northumberland and County Durham / Diocese of Durham ........ 119 South West: Diocese of Salisbury / Wiltshire .................................................. 122 Conclusion on the importance of regional style ............................................... 124 Development of sedilia as a site of display in the second half of the thirteenth century .................................................................................................................. 125 Episcopal patronage of canopied sedilia, and the pointed-trefoil gable........... 132 Conclusion on the late-thirteenth-century development .................................. 135 The sedilia in the Gothic great church ................................................................. 135 Wooden sedilia in aisled choirs........................................................................ 142 Stone sedilia in aisled choirs ............................................................................ 145 Mural sedilia at unaisled high altars in great churches .................................... 151 Conclusion on great-church sedilia .................................................................. 153 Sedilia design in the fourteenth century ............................................................... 153 Chapter Five: The Imagery of Fourteenth-Century Sedilia .............................. 161 The sedilia of Heckington and Hawton ................................................................ 161 Mechanisms of patronage .................................................................................... 164 Association of sitters with imagery: The iconography of hierarchy .................... 170 The Exeter sedilia and statues above seats ....................................................... 173 The Westminster sedilia and figures behind seats ........................................... 176 Stained glass and sedilia................................................................................... 183 Conclusion on the iconography of hierarchy on sedilia ................................... 185 The possible use of sedilia as a site of confession ............................................... 187 The sedilia at Croft-on-Tees and the narrative of absolution ........................... 193 The Dorchester Abbey sedilia and imagery of sin ........................................... 195 The Ripon Minster sedilia and the monstrous gaze ......................................... 200 Conclusion to Chapter Five .................................................................................. 203 Chapter Six: The Decline of Sedilia ...................................................................... 204 Before the decline: the transition from the Decorated to Perpendicular in the second half of the fourteenth century ................................................................... 204 Perpendicular sedilia ............................................................................................ 208 Grand sedilia of the fifteenth century and the relationship to woodwork ............ 210 ‘Classic’ sedilia as an archaism in the fifteenth century ...................................... 217 After the Reformation
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