A sacred landscape for the first cathedral

Summary. The first cathedral location was selected by the Mercian king and a top bishop and approved to be the distinguished centre of the new kingdom of Mercia. Its layout with two churches, a shrine and cemetery had a resemblance to the Constantine church in Jerusalem with the Holy Sepulchre. It was a significant pilgrimage centre. 

Known facts.

•  King Wulfhere of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon and Hexham ‘prepared’ a site for a church at Lichfield.[1] Wilfrid’s involvement with Mercia and his understanding of churches in Italy, Ripon and Hexham indicate he planned a sacred landscape at Lichfield.[2] Hill titled her paper on Wilfrid’s build of Ripon as, ‘Rome in Ripon: St Wilfrid’s inspiration and legacy’[3] and would also have applied to Lichfield.
• Chad was buried near the church of St Mary on the site of St Peters.[4] Paired churches dedicated to a major apostle and St Mary occurred at Canterbury, Glastonbury, Hackness, Lastingham, Lindisfarne, Malmesbury, Monkwearmouth and Whitby.[5] This appears to be the conventional layout.
• Rodwell excavated Chad’s shrine at the east end of the nave (2003) and surmised whether Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) walling found in the north (1994) and south (1992) choir aisle was an early church. He said these foundations fall into a pattern of churches, chapels, tombs, standing crosses, wells and other liturgical features and have a near alignment.[6] He did not state what this alignment was.
•  Notable kings and saints were generally buried east of the main church and in a line. This is known at Bradford-on-Avon (possibly), Glastonbury, Gloucester, Hexham, Repton, Wells (probably), Whithorn, Winchcombe and Worcester. Blair identified that where a church was dedicated to an apostle and paired with St Mary, the lesser St Mary church often stood due east of the apostolic church and this followed Continental practice.[7] Gittos expressed it as many chapels were situated in an easterly position when within a group.[8]
• Early medieval liturgy was performed in a sequence of small compartments (churches, chapels and shrines) around holy sites.[9] Churchmen, especially Northumbrians who had visited Rome, were interested in processions between buildings as part of their liturgical practices.[10] This procession followed a ‘Sacred Landscape’.

 

Evidence from elsewhere.

Adomnán (Adamnán), born c. 625 in Donegal, probably a relative of Columba, joined the monastery at Iona c. 669, and ten years later became the ninth abbot. Around 680, he wrote De Locis Sanctis,^[11] ‘On the Holy Places’, describing Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other holy cities. He was impressed by the layout of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem constructed by Emperor Constantine, c. 325.^[12] 

Reconstructed sketch of Adomnán’s layout for the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, taken from a 9th century drawing in Paris. There are similar drawings archived in Vienna, Brussels and Zurich. It has 4 circles representing the rotunda; the Vienna drawing has 5. The church of St Mary was at the end of the Via Dolorosa; the path Jesus took to his crucifixion.

                                     

                                                                                                                                                 

Route of pilgrims through Constantine’s church of the Holy Sepulchre. Note this route is from East to West. The courtyard was at the foot of a rock of Golgotha which held a large silver cross.

 

 Adomnán gave his book to the king of Northumbria who wanted it circulated in his kingdom. In 702‑3, Bede wrote on the Holy Sepulchre complex,[13] using the same title as Adomnán’s book, but with changes, and later adding a description in his Historia Ecclesiastica, book 5 chapter 16.[14] The ground plan of the church, though inaccurate, must have become familiar to many throughout northern Europe;[15]  it was now a model for emulation.[16]  Centres in Ireland[17], on Iona and at Lindisfarne have been cited as good copies. Possible sites in England have been reviewed.[18]

1.     Iona

A sacred landscape at Iona was first suggested in 2001.[19] Adomnán, when the abbot of the monastery, listed the buildings and recent archaeology has revealed such a landscape[20]. On the day before his death, Columba compared Iona to Jerusalem.[21]  

Pilgrimage route envisaged at Iona. The site has a 7th and 8th century formidable inner and outer vallum, a mid-7th century shrine chapel probably to house the relics of St Columba, and the floor of a burnt wattle building (3.8 m x 2.8 m internally) on a rock known as the Tòrr an Aba. This building is now thought to be the hut where Columba wrote and oversaw the community.[22]

 

Pilgrims arrived on the east shore of the island and entered a southern gate through the double vallum boundary, simulating the walls of Jerusalem. They entered the early monastic church (thought to be under the Nave of the Benedictine Abbey, but still has to be located). From here, they moved westwards to the plateola, equivalent to the Jerusalem courtyard, in which stood high crosses, prayer stones and a well that might have been used for baptising. The south side was connected to a 7th or 8th-century paved roadway known as the ‘Street of the Dead’ linking three chapels and having alongside at least 7 standing crosses. Finally, the pilgrim reached Columba’s shrine chapel, of which only the lower courses have survived, reminding them of Christ’s tomb. Pilgrims who visited several times saw it as equal to a journey to Jerusalem.

      2.     Lindisfarne

A similar sacred landscape is thought to exist at Lindisfarne substantiating its name of Holy Island. Pilgrims arrived by boat on the east side of the island and then moved to the church. Isolated sculptured stones found in and around the remains of the Norman priory (1080) could mean the early St Peter’s church is located within or by the priory.[23] This church built by Finan, 651 x 661, held the relics of Aidan and Cuthbert. To the west of this possible church now stands the parish church of St Mary and perhaps this is over the earlier church that held Cuthbert’s relics. Between the two churches is an early cross base within an open place. This is fragmentary evidence for two churches, holding important saint’s relics being in an east-west alignment with an open place (plateola?) possibly containing standing crosses.

 

          Pilgrimage route at Lindisfarne

 3.     Ripon and Hexham

          The crypts at Ripon and Hexham were the work of Bishop Wilfrid.[24] They are said to resemble catacombs in Rome seen by Wilfrid on his pilgrimages, but there is another explanation. They allude to the rectangular tomb of Christ in Jerusalem;[25] Adamnan’s drawing has a rectangular grave surmounted by a rotunda. The crypt could have been entered from either the west or the east. There is a first room and then a main chamber. This chamber is vaulted, big enough to hold nine people, and has a low roof. Wall to wall dimension is c. 7 feet and this is the attested length of Christ’s tomb.[26] Bishop Wilfrid when in Rome between 703 and 705, had every opportunity to participate in the new papal processions across a sacred landscape and presumably from 706 imitated this at Ripon and Hexham.[27]

    Wilfrid’s crypt at Hexham      

 

Wilfrid’s shrine at Ripon is thought to have been at the east end of the church. The relationship of the crypts to the early church at Ripon is unknown.[28] Consequently the pilgrimage route, whether starting from the east or west end is unknown. It is much the same at Hexham. It is possible Wilfrid ignored the direction of travel in Jerusalem (east to west) and instead built his linear churches to accommodate the conventional travel of west to east in England.

 

So how does this impact on the layout at Lichfield

If each of the first eight bishops at Lichfield and Bishop Wilfrid were connected with and familiar with Lindisfarne, Iona, Ripon and Hexham,[29] then a similar layout would be plausible.  Did Wilfrid arrange a sacred landscape numinous to pilgrims and ensure the enduring cult of St Chad?

In 2003, archaeological excavation in the nave revealed foundations to three sides of what appeared to be a shrine tower and inside which offset to the north was the grave of Chad. It has a similarity to Christ’s tomb within its rotunda. For evidence this was almost certainly Chad’s grave see the post ‘Chad's grave-the evidence’. The findings in 1992 and 94 of early medieval walling in the choir aisles might be remnants from elaborate graves; a tiered grave was found close-by in the south choir aisle. In 2000, a 2m wide band of mortared rubble was found between the pillars at the west end of the nave.[30] Some have conjectured whether this is a floor or foundation to the main church of St Peter, that is to the west of the shrine.

 

                                        Summary of archaeology under the cathedral floor.

Speculative layout of a ‘sacred landscape’ at Lichfield.

The great difficulty is not knowing whether early medieval pilgrims entered the minster complex in the 7th and 8th century from the east end, like Jerusalem, Iona and Lindisfarne, or from the west end like many church complexes in England. This means there are two alternatives. 

1. Entry from the east end.

In which case the minster might have looked like the following.

 

2.      Entry from the west end.

 

This layout chimes with the layout for the following two cathedrals. It also accords with the main thoroughfare being along St John and Bird Street. It does not fit if the entry to the shrine tower was on the east side; Rodwell thought the east wall could have had steps. It means the second cathedral could be built on the cemetery ground whilst the first cathedral is still available for continuing worship. It has been suggested St Mary’s church could have been an annexe on the south side of the second cathedral.[31] The position of a well is not far from where it is thought one once existed.

          It is now thought a sacred landscape was relatively short-lived and probably discontinued with the building of the second cathedral, if undertaken by King Offa, c.770. Offa vigorously promoted and paid for pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem.

    The current cathedral lies on the same site as the original church-cathedral. (Hereford is the only other cathedral likewise). It means the current cathedral is on an ancient sacred site.

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[1] Described in the biography of Bishop Wilfrid written by a monk at Ripon called Stephanus and published 712–3. Title was Victa Sancti Wilfridi I. Episcopi Eboracensis.

[2] See the post ‘Wilfrid of Ripon and Mercia’.

[3] J. Hill, Rome in Ripon: St Wilfrid’s Inspiration and Legacy, History, The Journal of the Historical Association, (2020), 105, issue 367, 603‑25.

[4] Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum published in 731, Book 4, Chapter 3. See J. McClure and R. Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford: 2008) 178. This translation has been explained in the post, ‘Two churches in 672 and a shrine.’

[5] H. Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford: 2013) 94‑7.

[6] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. (Unpub. report held in Lichfield Cathedral Library) (2003), 6. Also W. Rodwell, J. Hawkes, E. Howe and R. Cramp, ‘The Lichfield Angel: A spectacular Anglo-Saxon painted sculpture, The Ant. J. (2008), 88, 50–1.

[7] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 200.

[8] See note 5. H. Gittos, (2013), 100.

[9] See note 6. J. Blair (2008), 201.

[10] See note 5. H. Gittos, (2013), 107.

[11] British Library, Imago mundi (part II, 1r–78r); Adomnán, De Locis Sanctis (part II, 78v–93v). It is part of Cotton MS Tiberius D V, part II, ff 1–93 and was copied in the 4th quarter of the 14th century.

[12] Thought to have been described to Adomnán by a Gallic bishop, Arculf or Arculfus, from his pilgrimage to the Near East, 679–682. Hundreds of pilgrims set out from Europe to the Holy Land between 385 and 1099 AD, but of these only eighteen wrote descriptions which have survived.

[13] G. H. Brown, A companion to Bede (Woodbridge: 2009),71. Also P. Darby and D. Reynolds, Reassessing the ‘Jerusalem Pilgrims’, the Case of Bede’s De locis sanctis, Bulletin for the Council for British Research in the Levant, (2014), 1, 27-31,

[14] J. McClure, and R. Collins, Bede. The ecclesiastical history of the English People (Oxford: 1994), 264. Bede’s abridged account had a few minor differences with Adomnán’s version, see P. P. O'Neill,     'Imag(in)ing the Holy Places: A comparison between the diagrams in Adomnan’s and Bede's De Locis Sanctis', Journal of Literary Onomastics.(2017), 6, 1, 42–60.

[15] T. O'Loughlin, Adomnán and the Holy Place (London: 2007), 175–203.

[16] See note 6. J. Blair, (2005), 201.

[17] D. Jenkins, Holy, holier, holiest. The sacred topography of the early Irish Church. In Studia Traditionis Theologiae. (2010) Brepols Publishers,  claimed at least four early Irish monasteries resembled Jerusalem.

[18] See note 4 H. Gittos, (2013) 19–54.

[19] A. MacDonald, 'Aspects of the monastic landscape in Adomnan’s Life of Columba', in J. Carey, M. Herbert and P. O' Riain (eds.) Studies in Irish hagiography: Saints and Scholars (Dublin: 2001),15–30.

A recent Statement of Significance for Iona Abbey given by Historic Environment Scotland 2019, states Adomnán’s work provides a framework for understanding how the planning and development of Iona and its liturgical landscape was conceived as a reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem.

[20] E. Campbell and A. Maldonado, ‘A new Jerusalem 'at the ends of the earth': interpreting Charles Thomas's excavations at Iona Abbey 1956—63’, The Ant. J. (2020),1–53.

[21] ibid. T. Ó Carragáin (2003), 144.

[22] ibid. 20. It has been suggested Columba’s shrine chapel was the first of its kind and built mid-8th century, see T, Ó Carragáin, 'The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, (2003), 133,130–176. This date could indicate the time of construction for Chad’s shrine.

[23] D. Petts, D. ‘A place more venerable than all in Britain: The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Lindisfarne', in R. Gameson (ed.) The Lindisfarne Gospels: New perspectives (Leiden, 2017), 7.

[24] T. H. Turner, ‘Observations on the crypt at Hexham Church, Northumberland’, Archaeol. J. (1845),  2, 240–1. J. Walbran, ‘Observation on the Saxon crypt under the Cathedral Church at Ripon,  commonly called St Wilfrid’s needle’, Royal Archaeological Institute, York Meeting 1846 (1848), 4.

[25] See Conant (1956), Krautheimer (1971), Biddle (1994) and Wilkinson (2002) all quoted by R. N. Bailey, ‘St Wilfrid – a European Anglo-Saxon’, Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 120.

[26] Ibid. Bailey (2013) 121–3.

[27] É Ó Carragáin and A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid in Rome’, Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 227–8.

[28]A. Clapham, English Romanesque Architecture, Vol. 1. Before the Conquest. (Oxford: 1930), 156.

[29] Diuma (Irish), Ceollach (Irish or Scottish), Trumhere or Trumheri (Yorkshire), Jaruman or Jurumannus (possibly Irish), Chad or Caedda (Northumbrian), Wynfrith (Chad’s deacon and probably from the same background), Headda (associated with Yorkshire), Wilfrid (Northumbrian), see R. Sharp, Drawn to the light. A history of dark times, (Studley: 2018),109, 113.

[30] W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral: 3. Archaeology in the nave. Unpub. paper in the Cathedral Library, (2000), 23.

[31] M W Greenslade, ed. 'Lichfield: The cathedral', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield. (London: 1990). The funerary church may have stood where there was later a side chapel on the south side of the Early Medieval (Norman) presbytery; that chapel was replaced in the earlier 13th century by one with an altar dedicated to St. Peter.