Christmas, Christ's-mass

 Summary.  Before Reformation the lead up to Christmas was solemn with fasting, chastity and ritual liturgy. Carol singing and dancing occurred outside of the church. After Reformation there was more festivity, but some groups shunned any kind of celebration. By the 17th century, puritanical Protestantism forbade any kind of celebration apart from a Christian Mass. It took until the early 19th-century for the division between puritanical Protestantism and those who wanted to celebrate the mid-winter festival to subside.

    In pre-Reformation times, Advent leading to Christmas in church was a solemn occasion with three weeks of formal services.[1] The reading of Isaiah and the prophecy of Christ’s birth was a given. Fasting was recommended with fish preferred to meat. Marriages were not allowed because sexual activity was inappropriate (it also applied to Lent). A vigil and fasting occurred on Christmas Eve as a precursor to the feast on Christmas Day. Three masses were celebrated, namely on Christmas Eve, at dawn on Christmas Day and then later in the morning. The following three days were festivals, St Stephen (Boxing Day, so called in 1871 and no one knows why), St John the Evangelist (27 December) and finally Holy Innocents Day (28 December) with the custom of having a boy-bishop – see the post on ‘Choristers’. There were further festivals on 1 and 6 January. The centre pieces of the Christmas liturgy were the shepherds at Christmas, the three Magi at Epiphany and Simeon at Candlemas. The three events are similar in that they are welcoming and presenting Jesus as the Messiah.

Visit of the three Magi on the reredos in the Lady Chapel.

     Richard II spent Christmas 1397 at Lichfield staying in the palace in the Close. His stay until January 6 with a large protecting bodyguard, according to the allegations of a monk of Evesham, meant the consumption of twenty cattle, three hundred sheep, and a daily large quantity of poultry.

            

    The church could be decorated with holly and ivy, and more candles than usual. There is no record of a nativity scene with a crib being displayed.[2] In homes there was generally much celebration with food, games and gift-giving on New Year’s Day. Carols were sung outside of the church and usually accompanied with dancing. The twelve days of Christmas could be a holiday for the prosperous, but for many there was a need to keep working. The season of Christmas lasted to Candlemas on 2 February. Candlemas was the time of ‘light’ and almost everyone attended church and brought in a candle. In some places the people processed to the church carrying torches. New candles for the coming year in the church were blessed.

The Nativity, from a 14th-century Sherbrooke Missal. The Missal on parchment originates from East Anglia and is held in The National Library of Wales.

             The origins of the allegorical Father Christmas are obscure, but might have developed from folklore figures in Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) times. The earliest evidence for a character called Christmas can be found in a 15th-century carol, in which a 'Sir Christëmas' shares the news of Christ's birth. One portrayal of Father Christmas was a large man who wore a green robe lined with fur and had a crown of holly, ivy, or mistletoe. To link this with a pagan ritual sounds plausible, but is conjecture.

Father Christmas crowned with a holly wreath and holding a staff, wassail bowl and Yule log. From Illustrated London News,1848. A red suited Father Christmas carrying a sack of toys first appeared as an illustration to a poem in 1881.

     In post-Reformation times, not much changed with Christmas traditions except the saints were not venerated and this included St Nicholas the saint for children held on 6 December when a boy-bishop was picked from amongst the choristers. It has been postulated that since St Nicholas was associated with gift-giving his cult gradually morphed into that of Father Christmas; however, this is tenuous. Church liturgy changed, see the post ‘Reformation.’ These changes to the church service did not stop festivities. Henry VIII celebrated twelve days of Christmas with prolonged feasting and the menu would include traditional boar’s head, peacock, swan, lark, partridge, quail, roast beef and prawn pasties. The hall, usually at Greenwich Palace, was decorated with greenery, dried fruit, berries, and candles. Carols were sung as well as danced. There was much pageantry, disguising and convivial merrymaking, and all led by the mischievous ‘The Lord of Misrule.’ Mummers would perform a play. The king allowed archery on Christmas Day, but no other sport.

             In parts of Europe, Reformation became a catalyst to curtail Christmas. John Calvin in Switzerland, 1550, thought people gave more importance to the festivities and ignored its Christian significance. Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland sought to abolish all feast and saint’s holy days, including Christmas. John Knox, who founded the Presbyterian movement in Scotland, followed the same thinking. Martin Luther, in contrast, liked Christmas (there is an untrue story he was the first to attach candles to a tree). In Britain, the 1559 Elizabethan Settlement steered a middle line between removing choral music, candles and dance and the desire to have a celebration. In contrast in Scotland,1583, the Presbyterians secured a ban on Christmas celebrations, though others ignored the ban. William Prynne, 1632, a puritan writer, stated all pious Christians should eternally abominate observance of the holiday. For puritans the word Christmas was synonymous with the Popish mass. This division of opinion simmered until the Civil War.

On 19 December 1643, an ordinance was passed by the Parliamentarians encouraging subjects to treat the mid-winter period with solemn humiliation. This was in contrast with the gaiety advocated by the Royalists. A year later another ordinance confirmed the abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, but at this time it only applied to the Parliamentarians. It continued, however, until 1659. From 1656, Cromwell’s parliament legislated that every Sunday was to be stringently observed as a holy day. If Christmas was not on a Sunday, then shops and markets could stay open, but special food for a Christmas event was prohibited. Christmas was not to be celebrated with frivolous and immoral behaviour but spent in respectful contemplation. The fear was poor behaviour would spill over into church services and it was too closely associated with Catholicism. The reality is Cromwell did not order the banning of Christmas, but instead legislated to severely curtail celebrations. The Puritans' prohibition of Christmas proved very unpopular and pro-Christmas riots broke out across the country with many disregarding the ordinance. Royalist propaganda indicated the ban was severe, the reality was it was much ignored.[3]

Early 20th-century architectural drawing of Oliver Cromwell’s statue outside Parliament. There are differences with the statue.

It took until the early 19th-century for the division between puritanical Protestantism and those who wanted to celebrate the mid-winter festival to subside. Popular evangelists, like George Whitfield, John Wesley and others, promoted Christmas as a genuine Christian celebration with carols such as ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain.’ The Victorians added traditions to the festival, c. 1840s, and increased its commercialisation. Its observance has changed in many ways.[4]  

      The flaw in this history is that it is clear how the church saw Christmas and changed its liturgy with time and much is known how leaders of the country tried to impose their idea of the festival, but very little is known how ordinary people approached the winter solstice and New Year. Indeed, the gaiety of Christmas with carols, dancing, gifts and feasting, originated at home and within the local community. 

    The Christ-child was born in a manger, [5] in an ordinary dwelling, Luke 2, 7. From this, artists have painted and sculpted stables, barns, shacks and other out-buildings. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has a cave. 

Fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, late second century. Three magi each in a different colour with outstretched hands approach Mary and child.

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 [1] Orne. N. Going to church in Medieval England. (New Haven and London: 2022), 257–260. 

[2] Francis of Assisi is credited with staging the first nativity scene in 1223, but it then took many years before it was copied in European countries. The earliest cribs appeared in a few churches in Europe in the mid-16th century. Strangely, it did not get taken up in England. Paintings of the nativity were known in England, but never a diorama. In contrast, the tomb and stone at Easter was modelled in an Easter sepulchre.

 [3] J. A. R. Pimlott, ‘Christmas under the Puritans’, History Today, (1960), 10, issue 12.

[4] There is a theory that agricultural workers moving into the towns expanding with new industries in the early Victorian era brought their rural customs and added them to the Christmas celebration. It was a response to upheaval and many strange practices relieving the poverty and dark gloom occurred.

[5] Trough, crib or rack.  

West front including the 'singing windows'

 Summary. The west front has a resemblance to the west fronts of Wells and Salisbury cathedral, but the front is now Victorian Gothic and an eclectic mix of statues. The front has had multiple renovations, especially after significant damage in the Civil War. The original part of the west door, lower statues, possible slit windows for choristers and spires earn admiration and awe.

    Visitors to the cathedral are often surprised by the west front. Twin towers,[1] tall spires, a flat, symmetrical elevation, numerous aligned statues and the great west window combine to give an unusual welcome.[2] It is an ‘architectural screen’ similar to the cathedral façades of Wells and Salisbury.[3] Five layers of statues, 113 in total (153 around the whole cathedral), two pointed spires with many pinnacles encourage the viewer to look to the heavens; the Gothic objective. The original frontage was probably more spectacular with gilded statues, Cobb thought there were about a hundred figures all gilded,[4]  and stonework painted red and green. Erdeswicke in the 16th-century described “a great number of tabernacles containing statues of prophets, apostles, kings of Judah and divers’ other kings of this land.” The original top statue was Christ seated.[5] The story of a seated Christ statue, 2.1 m (7 feet) high and 13th-century, found at Swynnerton Church as being the lost statue is plausible, but unlikely.[6] Willis gave an approximate date for the front as c. 1275,[7] but this was probably the start of construction and it took several decades for completion.

 

W. Hollar’s etching, early 16th-century. Note how all the niches are filled with statues. This is the earliest known image of the west front. Hollar's engravings were presented by Ashmole to Fuller's "Church History," published in 1655. Thanks to Univ. of Toronto Libraries.

 

Almost the entire front of the cathedral was destroyed in the Civil War; mostly in the 1646 heavy bombardment. There was a partial restoration completed by 1666, further reordering in 1749[8], twice in the19th[9] and more work in the 20th centuries; all of which means little is original. The statues are the third set, very Victorian in composition, and undoubtedly different from the original decoration.[10] The top statue of Charles II, added with post-Civil War restoration, was removed between 1877–84 and by 1977 stored forlornly by the South Transept door.

 

Charles II

 

                                             West front showing Charles II statue and a mistaken hood stone for a cathedra.[11]

West front post-Civil War. S. Shaw, The history and antiquities of Staffordshire, Volume 1. (London: 1798) who copied from Gale, 1720.

          Much has been written on Joseph Potter’s addition of stucco[12] to the eroding statues on the west front, 1820–2, and then the removal of the grey figures begun by G. Gilbert Scott and finished by his son, J. Oldrid Scott, 1877–84. Almost everyone expressed disdain[13] at the early restoration and later gave praise for the current, reddish, sandstone, figures. Many of the new statues were copied from sepia drawings taken before the 1820–2 restoration,[14] but there is an obvious Victorian bias regarding which figures were included and how they were portrayed. The apostles in the lowest tier sculpted by Mary Grant are considered the finest. Other figures were sculpted by Gilbert Seale and Walter Rowlands Ingram of London and 63 were executed by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield. The figure (probably just the head) of Queen Victoria, was sculpted by her daughter Princess Louise and added in 1885.[15] Princess Victoria visited Lichfield in 1832. The doorways had bushy foliage added around the arches in the early 19th-century and this was removed by Scott and replaced with small statues. The smaller doors were studded and the studs replaced with shaped, wrought-iron decoration. The large central doors had ironwork at the bottom replaced. Hinges and ironwork could be late-13th century and by Thomas Leighton an ironsmith.

 

West Front, c. 1845. Old statues have been removed and the old west window has still to be replaced. C. Knight, Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal, And Popular Antiquities. 2 Volumes. (London: 1845). p252.

 

Great west window being replaced in 1869. Like all the cathedral windows after the Civil War it contained various effigies and coats of arms of bishops and other eminent men.[16] The west window had the arms of England and the Earl of Chester and Clare. The new window was furnished by Clayton and Bell and consisted of six lights filled with figures of the Archangel Gabriel, St. Joseph, the Virgin and Child, and the Three Magi; under which respectively are scenes representing the Annunciation, the Angel appearing to St. Joseph, the Birth, with angels adoring; the Journey of the Magi, the Magi before Herod, and the Flight into Egypt. It is sometimes referred as the ‘Nativity Window’. John B. Stone, A history of Lichfield Cathedral (London: 1870).

 

West Front restoration in the early 1880s. The south side and tower have been finished.

                                              West front post-Victorian Reordering.

Four statues on the top left are 14th-century and believed to be original. Three are shown. They could have been queens of the kings involved in the early construction of the cathedral (Edward I, Henry III and Richard II are possibilities). Other cathedrals with kings on the front include Canterbury, Exeter, Lincoln and York.

 

 

For a detailed exposition with images of the 113 statues see the website  https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=gbwm025

The current eclectic mix of statues contains King Richard II, reigning 1367–1400, (immediately left of Chad) and thus well after the front had been completed.

 

Confusion on the Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) kings to the right of Chad.

There was much uncertainty on who was being replaced from the second set of statues and there was also a deep Victorian bias. The line is: Peada, 655‑6, Wulfhere, 658-75, Æthelred, 675-704, Offa, 757-96, Egbert, king of Wessex, 802-39,

Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, 839-58, Æthelberht, king of Wessex, 860-65, Æthelred, king of Wessex, 865-71, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, 871-86 and then king of the Anglo-Saxons to 899, Edgar the Peaceful, 959-75, Cnut 1016-35,

Edward the Confessor, 1042-66. Including the Wessex line of kings, 839‑886 is inexplicable, unless it was believed Æthelwulf’s father, king Ecgberht of Wessex, defeated and completely subdued the Mercians in battle in 825. If so, why is Ecgberht not figured. Why is Æthelstan, king of all Britain (rex totius Britanniae), 924‑39, missing? Woodhouse thought the figures removed in 1749 might have included Æthelstan.[17] There is a case for king Coelwulf II, 874‑880s, who consolidated the Mercians after defeat by the Vikings (Danes), and even Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, c. 881‑911 who maintained the sub-kingdom and prepared the way for Æthelstan. The downgrading of Æthelstan and the lauding of his grandfather Alfred is a bias from medieval times repeated by many Victorian narratives.[18] 

           Work in 1878 included the lowering of the ground across the whole of the front of the cathedral. At one time there were railings across the front of the cathedral. Also, there has been an entire restoration of the southwest tower, exclusive of the sculpture.[19] Another bout of conservation is imminent.

 

Conjecture on Great Window extending above the stone vault

The top of the Great West window cannot be seen from the inside of the cathedral; the stone vault roof cuts off the top of the window. This has led to much speculation on whether the stone roof was added later and whether originally the window was so large. The plausible view is the window was built to be admired from the outside and being foreshortened internally was considered not a problem.

 

‘Singing Windows’

The west fronts of Wells, Salisbury and Lichfield Cathedrals[20] have statues with windows behind them. Behind these openings are passageways in which it is contended choristers, and maybe trumpeters, sang and played so that worshippers outside could hear and be welcomed on Palm Sunday.

 

St Chad with slit windows each side.

 

Gallery with ten slit windows, each now with glass.

 

Wells has four groups of three round holes plus two narrow slits in the middle. All are now glazed.

 

Salisbury has nine small quatrefoil windows almost hidden behind the sculptures. All have been filled in with cement.

 

Ascending spiral staircases in the west towers lead to a doorway below the level of the triforium. This opens with steps leading down into a passageway built into the wall, 1.8 m high (6 feet) and 0.6 m wide (2 feet). The chamber is lit by ten slit windows each 500 mm high (20 inches) and 75 mm wide (3 inches). Higher up the staircases, above the triforium and level with the sill of the west window, is a second passageway.[21] Having two passageways, also seen at Wells and possibly at one time at Salisbury, cannot be explained.

          The lower passageway has been equated with the ‘trumpet openings’ at Wells Cathedral and thought to be for broadcasting responses and perhaps music outwards to processing worshippers standing below on Palm Sunday. It is a re-enactment of the entry into Jerusalem.[22] The liturgy[23] specified seven choristers were to be ‘elevated’ and to sing ‘Gloria, laus, et honor’[24] as the congregation approached the west front of the cathedral, having processed both inside and around the outside of the cathedral taking in the cloister and the lay cemetery.

The company of angels is praising you on high; and we with all creation in chorus make reply. The people of the Hebrews with palms before you went; our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.   ‘All Glory Laud and Honour’

 

Conjecture on the existence of ‘singing windows.’

At York, the same liturgy was used with the choristers elevated on a temporary platform raised on the front of the Minster.[25] At Wells the openings are at different heights from the floor suggesting it accommodated two heights of choristers. The hidden voices would appear as if coming from the angels sculptured on the front. At Salisbury there was an elaborate procession.[26] Passages, both internal and external, exist elsewhere,[27] but the majority, especially northern churches, do not appear to be churches that used the Sarum liturgy prepared around 1210. Consequently, singing from the gallery has been questioned.[28] Furthermore, the procession relied on the particular layout of the cathedral and since this varied, it cannot be assumed the procession stopped at the west door at the right time in the Missal. Mahrt thought the opposite and worked out the Gloria would be sung at Wells just as the procession reached the west door.[29] Another objection is it would have made the procession ‘dither under the west front.’[30] Finally, the construction of a passageway and openings for one service seems extravagant. Especially since the voices would sound muffled and echoey when compared with being in an open space. If singing windows are mythical, it raises the question why build two passageways with openings? If they are for some kind of maintenance, why make them so small? Explaining the purpose and function of the singing windows at Lichfield depends on linking them with the Sarum liturgy used at Wells and Salisbury Cathedrals. If it was used, it strongly suggests the original façade of the west front, that is pre-Civil War, had angels in the arcades where the slit windows occur. The procession was entering the New Jerusalem with heavenly angels singing. It also links with Chad’s death when ‘the song of joyful voices was heard descending from heaven’[31] and that opens a new context for the use of the windows on March 2 and a figure of ascendent Chad surrounded by singing angels.

 

Conjecture on a date for an earlier lower west front

Rodwell, 1989, examined the stonework below the internal lower passage and conjectured it was Romanesque and earlier than the 1320s.[32] Moulding profiles and mason’s marks (over 200 have been recognised in the cathedral) led him to believe a date of 1220‑30 was more appropriate. It might also explain the two buttress foundations under the pavement and either side of the central door. If true, it means an earlier nave front was contemporary with that at Wells cathedral and earlier than Salisbury. It also gives doubt to the dates of the nave.

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[1] There are differences between the towers which has led to the speculation they were built at different times. It is more likely they were built by different masons and the lower ground on the south side was a complication. Furthermore, the south tower held the heavy bells and clock. The south side spire is a little taller than the north side spire. The first recorded bell in the southwest tower was in 1477. This ‘Jesus Bell’ was destroyed in the Civil War and removed in 1653. It was replaced after the War, but had to be recast again in 1688.

[2] J. Leland, 1540s, wrote ‘the glory of the church is the work of the west end which is exceedingly costly and fayre’. T. Fuller, Church History of Britain. Vol. 1. (London: 1842), Book 4, 499, wrote ‘the west front is a stately fabric adorned with exquisite imagery’.

[3] J. P. McAleer, The west front of Lichfield Cathedral. A hidden liturgical function. 52nd Friends Annual Report held in cathedral library. (1989), 26–9. There are similarities between the southwest spire of Lichfield Cathedral with the central spire at Salisbury Cathedral.

[4] G. Cobb, English Cathedrals: the forgotten centuries. Restoration and change from 1530 to the present day. (London: 1981), 140.

[5][5] Noted from Hollar’s etching, early 17th-century, appearing in Thomas Fuller’s book, Church history of Britain. Volume 1. (London: 1842).

[6] It depends on a Royalist climbing the front and retrieving a very heavy statue in the middle of a siege. That assumes it avoided damage from cannon and musket and could be taken north without discovery. In contrast the statue is in a stone similar to that used for the cathedral and it has red paint on the sleeve; the cathedral was painted in red and green.

[7] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’. The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1–24. Willis visited the Cathedral in 1849 to examine window tracery. In 1854 he was invited to forward a drawing for the restoration of the choir area. Before publication Willis gave a lecture reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1861, Vol. 210, 296‑300.

[8] Several statues in a poor state were removed. R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England. (London: 1864), 271, claimed most of the statues were taken down.

[9] 1820–22 and 1877–84.

[10] Apart from four (two and six are quoted elsewhere) at the top left-hand corner where cannon and musket appear not to have reached out of a total of 113 now present. Wells Cathedral has 297.

[11] J. Gould, ‘Saxon cathedral or 17th-century niche in Lichfield Cathedral?’ South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transactions for 1976–7. (1976) 18, 69–72.

[12] A proprietary formula labelled ‘Roman Cement’ which was very hard wearing, had low shrinkage, but was brittle. Roman Stucco is made with a natural cement by burning limestone in a traditional kiln. 

[13] A. W. Pugin wrote a censorious letter in 1834 describing brown, (grey?) cracked cement and heads devoid of expression. The letter was published by B. Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin. (1861), 85–6.

[14] R. Prentis, The restoration of the west front, 1877–1884. Unpub. article in Cathedral Library (2007), 11.

[15] Possibly Chad with a resemblance to a previous archbishop. 

                 

[16] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 51.

[17] J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral. (London: 1885), 38_­‑42 (8th ed.)

[18] S. Foote, Æthelstan. (New Haven and London: 2011), 234‑42.

[19] G. H. Holderness, ‘The cathedral a hundred years ago.’ (1977). Unpub. article in cathedral library.

[20] These are the only medieval cathedrals without any Norman architecture. Lichfield differed from the other two in having its frontal twin towers in line with the nave aisles so the west half of the cathedral is a rectangle. At Wells and Salisbury, the towers project out on the sides of the west end.

[21] J. P. McAleer, The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral: A hidden liturgical function. Friends of Lichfield Cathedral 52 Annual Report. (1989), 26–9.

[22] P. Z. Blum, ‘Liturgical influences on the design of the West End at Wells and Salisbury’. Gesta (1986), 25, 1, 145–150.

[23] It was a reformed liturgy first used at Sarum cathedral during Bishop Osmund's prelacy. 1087-1099. It was commonly used throughout southern England and most likely included Lichfield.

[24] It is possibly a 9th-century hymn and a modern translation is the hymn ‘All Glory, Laud and Honour’.

[25] H. Gittos and S. Hamilton (eds) Understanding Medieval Liturgy. Essays in interpretation. (London and New York: 2017), 228.

[26] According to N. Orme, Going to church in Medieval England, (New Haven and London: 2022), 274–5. The procession started in the choir with the carried cross, candle holders, incense bearer, someone holding the relics, the holy sacrament inside a pyx, clerks with palm branches, clergy and then the laity. They left the church, and in the churchyard heard the Gospel of Luke describing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. They re-entered the cathedral with the choristers singing Gloria, laus, et honor. In a description of the procession, 1542, it stated the Gospel was read beside a Palm Cross. After the hymn was sung the cathedral doors were opened only when the priest banged on the door with the foot of the processional cross. Another account has people being given palms which were taken home and attached to their house-door believing this would drive away the Devil.

[27] Examples include Lindisfarne Priory, Rochester, Colchester, Arbroath, Holyrood, St Andrew, Kelso and Elgin. See note 2. Kilkenny has been since added.

[28] C. Hohler, The Palm Sunday procession and the west front of Salisbury Cathedral. Private letter written early 1990s and considered by M. S. Andås, Ø. Ekroll, A. Haug and N. Holger (eds.), ‘Architectural and ritual constructions. The Medieval Cathedral of Trondheim in a European Context’. Ritus et Artes (Turnout, Brepols: 2007), 3, 279–284.

[29] W. P. Mahrt, Review of Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and ideology at Wells Cathedral. (Leiden and Boston: 2004).

[30] M. Spurrell, ‘The procession of Palms and west-front galleries’, The Downside Review. (2001), 415, 136–7.

[31] Historia Ecclesiastica Book 4, chapter 3. J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede: The ecclesiastical history of the English People. (Oxford: 2008), 176.

[32] W, Rodwell, ‘Lichfield cathedral. Notes on the gallery and other features at the west end of the nave.’ (1989), Unpub. article in the cathedral library.