The Church East and West: Orienting the Queen Anne Churches, 1711-34

2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason R. Ali ◽  
Peter Cunich
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
New Churches ◽  
Ecclesiastical Architecture ◽  
Correct Alignment ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West ◽  
High Church ◽  
The Church

This article presents the results of an investigation carried out to determine the orientation of seventeen churches and one church plan that are directly or indirectly associated with the 1711 and 1712 Acts for Building Fifty New Churches (for London). The buildings represent an important episode in the history of western ecclesiastical architecture, the visible manifestation of a Tory government-High Church plan to rekindle a "purer form of Christianity" based on the "primitive churches" of the Near East. Our data indicate that few, if any, of the buildings were aligned using the rising or setting sun on important Christian feast days, the method adopted by many of the medieval church builders. Whether this break with tradition was deliberate or not is a matter for conjecture. Nicholas Hawksmoor seemed particularly keen on getting a "correct" alignment and did so for three of his six sole-author buildings. In fact, we suggest that two of Hawksmoor's churches at St. Anne Limehouse and Christchurch Spitalfields, and James Gibbs's St. Martin-in-the-Fields, were so accurately aligned that the only feasible technique for achieving this was through the use of declination-corrected compasses. We speculate that the scientist Edmond Halley provided information and logistical assistance to Hawksmoor.

The medieval church

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Luscombe
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter discusses the contributions that were made by former Fellows of the Academy to the study of the medieval church. It states that the history of the medieval church is inseparable from the general history of the Middle Ages, since the church shaped society and society shaped the church. The chapter determines that no hard and fast distinction can always be made between the works by ecclesiastical historians during the twentieth century, and the contributions made to general history by other historians.

scholarly journals Remarks on the Proportions and Dimensions Used in the Design of the Medieval Church of Zsámbék

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Krisztina Fehér ◽  
Balázs Halmos
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Church ◽  
Design Logic

Since the 19th century, the church of Zsámbék was continuously a focus of scholars' interest. The present paper intends to research the church ruins with a new aspect. Using an accurate terrestrial laser scan survey, the geometry of the plan is analysed in order to find proportions among the dimensions. The main goal of the study is to gather information about the design logic of the first masters of the 13th-century Premonstratensian abbey. In addition, our goal was to detect contributions to the 13th-century construction history of the church, that cannot be found in archives of graphic sources. The latest archaeological excavation achieved excellent results concerning several crucial historical points; however, the periodization of the church is still not entirely clarified. From the 19th century, different scholars have proposed various hypotheses about this topic, without consensus.

Modernity and Compromise: The Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Warsaw and its Designer Władysław Pieńkowski

Ikonotheka ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 169-197
Author(s):  
Wojciech M. Głowacki
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Ecclesiastical Architecture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Religious Nature ◽  
The Church

Despite the considerable influence he exerted on post-war church architecture in Poland, the designer Władysław Pieńkowski (1907–1991) is today an altogether forgotten figure. The current paper outlines his biography and his early oeuvre; this is because his experience in designing office blocks and industrial plants gained while working under the supervision of the most outstanding Polish architects of the mid-20th century, was to be of key importance to his later, independent designs for ecclesiastical buildings. The paper focuses on a particularly important work, one which in many ways constitutes a breakthrough in the architect’s career, namely the church of St. Michael the Archangel in the Mokotów district of Warsaw. This was the first entirely new church to be erected in the capital of Poland after the year 1945. Its construction depended on the dynamic changes in the balance of political forces. The church could be built owing to the support of the PAX Association circle, including the direct involvement of Bolesław Piasecki. In spite of their patronage, however, construction works were repeatedly halted and extended over several years, and the architectural design had to be reworked. The paper contains an analysis of three fundamental designs for the church, now held in the St. Michael the Archangel parish archive and in the architect’s records preserved by his heirs. The first design dates from the period of 1948/9–1951, the subsequent one from the year 1954, and the final one from 1956–1961. The evolution of the design moved from the initial continuation of forms typical of the pre-war Modernised Revivalism, through a peculiar reference to Socialist Realism, to rigorous Modernism. The church of St. Michael the Archangel became Pieńkowski’s testing ground; there, he tried out several solutions which he would consistently utilise in the subsequent years of his career, e.g. the large-scale application of prefabricated elements in both the construction and the decoration of the edifice. The construction of this church was concurrent with important events of a political (the Thaw) and religious nature (the Second Vatican Council). Tracing the history of the design for the Warsaw church and clarifying its connections with contemporaneous church architecture in Poland and in Western Europe made it possible to present the key problems faced by the Polish designers of ecclesiastical architecture in the first decades of the People’s Republic of Poland.

Medieval Heretics as Protestant Martyrs

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 185-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Church History ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

Two themes which figure repeatedly in the history of the Western Church are the contrasting ones of tradition and renewal. To emphasize tradition, or continuity, is to stress the divine element in the continuous collective teaching and witness of the Church. To call periodically for renewal and reform is to acknowledge that any institution composed of people will, with time, lose its pristine vigour or deviate from its original purpose. At certain periods in church history the tension between these two themes has broken out into open conflict, as happened with such dramatic results in the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The Protestant Reformers seem to present one of the most extreme cases where the desire for renewal triumphed over the instinct to preserve continuity of witness. A fundamentally novel analysis of the process by which human souls were saved was formulated by Martin Luther in the course of debate, and soon adopted or reinvented by others. This analysis was then used as a touchstone against which to test and to attack the most prominent features of contemporary teaching, worship, and church polity. In so far as any appeal was made to Christian antiquity, it was to the scriptural texts and to the early Fathers; though even the latter could be selected and criticized if they deviated from the primary articles of faith. There was, then, no reason why any of the Reformers should have sought to justify their actions by reference to any forbears or ‘forerunners’ in the Middle Ages, whether real or spurious. On the contrary, Martin Luther’s instinctive response towards those condemned by the medieval Church as heretics was to echo the conventional and prejudiced hostility felt by the religious intelligentsia towards those outside their pale.

scholarly journals Korespondencja ks. dr. Jana Kwolka z ks. prof. Janem Fijałkiem za lata 1919–1936

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (26) ◽  
pp. 289-420
Author(s):  
Józef Wołczański
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Reference Library ◽  
Scientific Authority ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

[The correspondence between Rev. Prof. Jan Fijałek and Rev. Dr Jan Kwolek in the years 1919–1936] This paper presents a collection of a few dozen letters written between 1919 and 1938. Their authors were two eminent representatives of the humanities and of the Polish Catholic Church at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. One of them, Reverend Professor Jan Nepomucen Fijałek, represented the Kraków Archdiocese, though professionally he was associated with the University of Lviv and the Jagiellonian University. As an outstanding scholar and expert on sources to the history of medieval Church and spiritual culture of Poland, as well as a distinguished pedagogue, he enjoyed great renown in the world of science. The other correspondent, Reverend Doctor Jan Kwolek, a lawyer, lecturer at the Theological Institute of the Latin rite in Przemyśl, chancellor of the Episcopal Curia, organizer and director of a Diocesan Archive, a model for the whole country, unceasingly developed his interests in canon studies, history of the Church, and showed great concern for preserving the archive heritage of the Przemyśl Diocese. The majority of the letters were written by Rev. Kwolek, though they are not complete; the addressee had collected them meticulously, sometimes adding brief commentaries. The Przemyśl priest must not have attached a lot of weight to collecting the letters of the Kraków mentor, as only over a dozen of them have been preserved. The sources present very interesting material. The “supplicant” here is definitely Rev. Kwolek, seeking in the unquestionable scientific authority of Rev. Fijałek advice on organizing the Przemyśl archive but also methodological and factual guidelines for archive research and publications. In the course of time the distance between the two scholars was gradually decreasing, though it never crossed accepted social boundaries. What confirms that is the elaborate titles both correspondents addressed each other with. The subject matter of the letters is rather diverse and includes several themes. The dominant one is Rev. Kwolek’s requests to be recommended relevant literature necessary to complete a reference library needed in research and scholarly work. Quite a lot of space is also devoted to the Przemyśl priest’s reports on the progressing work on completing and organizing the archive of the Episcopal Curia in Przemyśl. Rev. Prof. Fijałek, apparently did not hide his sincere appreciation of the activity of the junior priest, indefatigable archive fanatic, encouraging him, providing him with expert instruction and warning him against naïve faith in the patronage of successive bishops. Another extensive motif is common and readily produced by church circles gossip on different Church dignitaries in Kraków and Przemyśl, as well as expectations of personal reshuffles and new careers with the start of every new pontificate. Without a doubt, the presented material deserves publication, as it shows the effort of creating and then preserving pioneer initiatives on scholarly and religious ground, particularly in Przemyśl in the first half of the 20th century.

Jean Gerson: The ‘Ecclesia Primitiva’ and Reform

Traditio ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 379-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis B. Pascoe
Keyword(s):  
Personal Contact ◽  
Church Reform ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conscious Intention ◽  
The Church

Recent studies on the history of reform in the early and medieval church have been highly influenced by the works of Gerhart Ladner. In his writings Ladner stresses primarily the ideological foundations of reform. He distinguishes, moreover, the idea of reform from other types of renewal. In contrast with cosmological, vitalistic, and millenaristic renewal, reform implies conscious intention and finality. Church reform, consequently, both in its personal and institutional dimensions necessarily involves some concept of what a church should be. For this reason in most reform ideologies the idea of the ecclesia primitiva has played an important role. The primitive Church is regarded as a privileged moment in the history of the Church since it was in immediate personal contact with its founder and the direct recipient of his message.

Shaping Sacred Space in the Sixteenth Century: Design Criteria for the Collegio Borromeo's Chapel

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Design Criteria ◽  
Spatial Complexity ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Initial Design ◽  
Ecclesiastical Architecture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
The Church

In this article, I present a newly discovered, late-sixteenth-century design drawing for the chapel of the Collegio Borromeo, in Pavia, Italy, and investigate it in the context of contemporary Catholic ecclesiastical architecture. Historiographically, the period is dominated by the church of the Gesù, in Rome, interpreted as a typological paradigm characterized by austere architecture and restrained decoration. This view is called into question by the Collegio's chapel. The initial design (represented by the drawing) drew from ancient sources in order to achieve spatial complexity. The realized chapel is spatially simpler, but ornately ornamented and decorated. The chapel differs from what is considered the norm, but is the chapel an anomaly, or are traditional understandings of the Gesù invalid? On investigation, it becomes evident that patrons may have established a number of criteria for their churches, but architects had a degree of freedom in designing them. In few if any contemporary cases, however, was architectural severity a goal for Catholic churches. With the example of the Collegio's chapel, these findings take on greater significance: the patron, Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584), was one of the most important in the history of ecclesiastical architecture. The chapel's architect, Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596), restored, renovated, and built numerous sacred spaces for Borromeo. What they achieved demonstrates that Catholic reformers of the latter half of the sixteenth century sought architectural magnificence for buildings dedicated to the worship of God.

XVI—Recent Discoveries in Romsey Abbey Church

Archaeologia ◽  
1901 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-320
Author(s):  
C. R. Peers
Keyword(s):  
Wood Block ◽  
The South ◽  
Undisturbed Soil ◽  
South Side ◽  
The North ◽  
Structural History ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Church

The remains of walls found in October and November, 1900, during the process of laying down a wood block floor in the nave and crossing of Romsey Abbey, are shown on the accompanying plan (Plate XLL). Those on the south side of the nave may be dealt with first, as they have no bearing on the structural history of the church, and the record of them is chiefly of value because they are now buried beneath 6 inches of concrete and a wood block floor, and will probably not be seen again for many years. They are of two dates, the wall running east and west being the older. This is 19 inches thick, of flint and stone rubble, and was traced from the eastern angle of the first nave pier to within 2 feet of the fourth, where it ends without a return. It is plastered on the north or inner face with a coat of rough yellowish plaster, continuous with a floor of the same character, 16 inches below the present pavement level, which is at the original level of that of the existing Norman nave. This plaster floor rests, as to its western part, on a layer of flints on the undisturbed soil, and extends along the whole length of the wall from east to west, and northwards as far as the digging went, that is, nearly to the south edge of the paving of the central alley of the nave.

Institutions and illusions: the dilemma of the modern ecclesiastical historian

1975 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 355-365
Author(s):  
Keith Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Wars Of Religion ◽  
Acute Case ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The modern ecclesiastical historian is an uncertain and hesitant creature; an acute case, it may be thought, of status deprivation. He looks with envy at his august and serene colleagues who have the history of the medieval church as their field of study. He knows that they are in process of uncovering the different layers of belief in medieval or early modern society. It is, no doubt, an illusion to suppose that an ‘age of faith’ ever existed. Nevertheless, at all levels of society, the church seems to be central to the life of the time. If we consider the reformation or counter-reformation periods, church questions seem to be in the forefront. The ‘Wars of Religion’ may not be at bottom about religion, but we cannot avoid some consideration of religious issues.

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