Part 5 (1/2)

During the Diocletian persecution of the Christians, in the year 304 A.

D., a distinguished citizen, Alban of Verulamium, of Roman origin, but converted to Christianity, suffered martyrdom for giving shelter to Amphibalus, a Christian. For this crime he was executed on the site of the present abbey, and in 772 was canonised.

Nearly five hundred years after, in 793, Offa, the King of Mercia, was very much exercised in mind as to the best means of expiating his murder of aethelbert.

Greatly to his relief, he was bidden in a vision to seek the remains of St. Alban, and over them, when found, to erect a monastery. In accordance with these instructions he, with Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield, the Bishops of Leicester and Lindsey, and a huge a.s.sembly of clergy and laity, visited the hill, where the ”Proto-martyr of England,”

as St. Alban came to be known, had suffered. There the holy remains were discovered. Over them Offa founded the abbey, with a monastery for one hundred monks of the Order of St. Benedict.

The present abbey really dates from the eleventh century. At the close of the tenth century the ruins of the old Roman city of Verulamium were broken up to serve as materials for the new church buildings. But owing to the unsettled character of the times the erection was delayed, till William the Conqueror was firmly possessed of the throne, when Paul of Caen, a relative of Archbishop Lanfranc, was appointed abbot in 1077. He built the magnificent Norman structure, based upon the plans of St.

Stephen's, Caen--the same church which served as a model for Lanfranc, when he built Canterbury.

Though finished for some years past, it was only consecrated in 1115.

As was invariably the custom, the church was built in the form of a cross. In this connection it is interesting to note the evolution of the cross.

Prior to the Christian era the cross was looked upon with disfavour.

To be crucified was to undergo a most ignominious form of punishment, and it was only served out to malefactors of the worst description.

Nothing short of this would have been a sufficient check in those times to the growth of vice. But in the early days of Christianity the cross came to be regarded as the holiest symbol of ”The Sacrifice” made for the good of mankind.

When converts met they formed on the ground the sign of the cross, in order to distinguish friends from foes. The mere fact of a severe punishment meted out consequent on discovery of this secret pa.s.sport served only to increase the reverence held for the symbol.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. ALBANS

FROM THE WALLS OF OLD VERULAM]

As soon as time and opportunity allowed places of wors.h.i.+p were erected, and the natural form adopted would be that of the cross, for which they had suffered so much persecution, and which typified the foundation of their faith and hopes of salvation.

As they a.s.sembled in church they would be sensible of the prevailing influence of the emblem. In every direction, look where they would, they would always see the holy sign. The roof would reveal to the gaze the same form as that on the ground.

Even the walls, as they soared upwards, out-lined, tier upon tier, the Christian sign, capped at the last by a mighty cross, which cast its protecting shadows around and over the wors.h.i.+ppers.

The altar came to be placed at the head of the cross. The transept, crossing it at right angles, formed the arms, and the nave the upright.

The altar was always situated at the east end, again ill.u.s.trating a link with the pagan times, when wors.h.i.+ppers turned towards the sun.

As time progressed chapels were erected along the sides, causing the walls to be pierced and arched. These chapels were in honour, firstly, of ”The Blessed Virgin,” and then of the leaders of ”The Faith,” who had been canonised as saints on account of martyrdom. But the main building was always dedicated to the ”G.o.d Head.”

By a special grant in 1154, given by Pope Adrian IV., who was born near St. Albans, and who was the only Englishman ever appointed to the Papal See, the abbots of St. Albans were allowed the privilege of wearing a mitre. Added to this dignity he was given precedence over all in England, whether they were king, archbishop, bishop, or legate. He also exercised supreme episcopal jurisdiction over all clergy and laity in all lands pertaining to the monastery.

The first abbot was WillG.o.d, nominated by King Offa.

The last one was Richard Boreman, otherwise Stevenache.

In all there were forty-one from the foundation to the suppression, which took place in 1534. In that year the monastery was seized by Henry VIII., who allowed pensions to the monks, and an annuity to the abbot.