The Abbey and St thelwold

Abingdon Abbey was ranked in the later middle ages as among the great English
abbeys, but the time when it was most influential in English Church life was during
the abbacy of thelwold, from perhaps the late 940s to 96, when he became !ishop
of "inchester# $uring these years, the abbey was transformed from a neglected minor
community to a rich and powerful establishment# %n this period of intensi&e acti&ity,
Abingdon Abbey was at the heart of the reform of !enedictine monasticism in
England# %ts liturgical and community life, informed by the best Continental practice,
brought ad&anced architecture, craftsmanship in precious metals, music and liturgical
drama to the life of the abbey# Ci&il engineering harnessed the power of the 'hames
for the economic life of the Abbey and town# 'he Abbey brought the treasures of the
wider world and the most ad&anced thinking of the day to the town#
!ecause early mediae&al chronicles often conflated history with legend, the
earliest origins of the Abbey are difficult to discern with any certainty# (cholars are
howe&er agreed that there was a late se&enth)century monastery of (t *ary at
Abingdon founded by the "est (a+on king Caedwalla ,6-./-0, endowed with the
estate ,rus0 known as Abbendun, and under the leadership of Abbot 12ha ,or 1ean0#
3ne of the most important pieces of e&idence for the life of this early community was
the 4!lack Cross of Abingdon5 re&ered as being a nail from the 'rue Cross and
associated with the tradition of a 6
th
)century nunnery at 1elenstow and an early (a+on
minster dedicated to (t 1elen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine and credited
with the disco&ery of the 'rue Cross# A thirteenth)century Abingdon manuscript
described its disco&ery in the tenth century by thelwold5s monks, and the Cross took
the form of the type of open)work disk)headed pin found on se&eral sites of the late
6
th
and -
th
centuries# 'he presence of a monastic community would in any e&ent ha&e
accorded with Abingdon5s status as a centre for royal administration in Anglo)(a+on
times#
"hen the $anes sacked Abingdon in -67, they destroyed the church but the
monks5 cells and chapels sur&i&ed until thelwold refounded the monastery# 'he
community had already been secularised, with priests li&ing in separate houses and
drawing on separate incomes# thelwold, generally regarded as the most austere of
the three great reformers ,along with (t $unstan and (t 3swald0 of the era, made it
his priority to re)establish the monastic community under the 8ule of (t !enedict# An
Abingdon chronicler recounted that his reputation for holiness attracted 4men from
&arious parts of England 9 to follow a stricter mode of life5# E&en so, thelwold was
gratefully remembered for mitigating the strictest pro&isions of the 8ule# 'he reform
was inspired by the e+ample of the great :rench monasteries under the influence of
Cluny, particularly :leury, and the monastery at Corbie pro&ided monks who taught
the rules of chanting and reading#
%n addition to his reputation for holiness, thelwold was also remembered as
an adept craftsman# 1e is said to ha&e made with his own hands a pair of organs and
two bells# ,1e would not ha&e been uni;ue in this way< his successor as abbot,
(parha&oc ,c# 7046/c# 70.00 was a king5s goldsmith#0 thelwold was also credited
with the manufacture of a golden)plated wheel supporting twel&e lamps and
numerous small bells as well as a rich tabula super altare or retable of gold and sil&er
and enriched with sculptured figures of the twel&e apostles# %n addition to these skills
should be added those of a ci&il engineer, as the monks under thelwold dug the
mill)stream a=oining the 'hames to power the water)mill that ground the grain from
the monastery5s e+tensi&e land holdings#
3f all of the abbot5s building pro=ects, howe&er, the most important was the
monastic church, for this was the setting for the opus Dei, the liturgy that was the
heart of the monastic life# "e ha&e only tantali>ing hints of the church he would ha&e
built# A description from around 7?00 says, 4'he chancel was round, the church was
round and twice as long as the cancellus and the tower was also round#5 8ichard @em
and *artin !iddle ha&e argued that thelwold5s church was an important link in a
chain of architectural influence from the Church of the 1oly (epulchre ,in @reek the
Anastasis0 in Aerusalem, Charlemagne5s palace chapel at Aachen, the apsidal abbey
churches at (t 8i;uier and Corbie, and thelwold5s subse;uent 3ld *inster at
"inchester# 'he proportions at Aachen and "inchester are precisely modelled on
those of the Anastasis, the tomb of Christ in Aerusalem, thereby intending to
incorporate the holiness of the place of Christ5s resurrection into these far)distant
churches# 'he description of the 4round5 church in Abingdon, interpreted as a tower)
like rotunda with surrounding ambulatory e&oking the tomb of Christ and with an
apsidal chancel to the East, in the conte+t of the community5s de&otion to the !lack
Cross relic, makes a coherent whole within this tradition#
Although the architectural details of thelwold5s church at Abingdon may be
uncertain, we ha&e a richly de&eloped account of the liturgies that took place within it#
thelwold himself compiled the Regularis Concordia, a codification of the liturgical
use for the monastic houses of England# 'he influences of Corbie and (t 8i;uier are
e&identB these abbeys were notable for the presence of many altars at different le&els
within the church and the e+tensi&e use of many processions to the &arious altars and
with special prayers to be used at each station focussing on the core beliefs of the
Christian faith# %n this way, a locational memory was wo&en into the &ery architecture
of the monastic buildings#
'he richness of the tradition achie&ed its fullest e+pression at the clima+ of the
Christian year in the ceremonies of 1oly "eek and Easter# 'he e&ents of Christ5s
passion and death and resurrection were enacted in a building that in all likelihood
was built to bring the presence of the tomb of Christ to Abingdon itself# 'he cross of
Christ &enerated by the monks on @ood :riday was 4buried5 in a special sepulchre and
guarded by them until Easter# $uring the ser&ices of Easter $ay, the Visitatio
Sepulchri ,the &isit to the tomb by the three *arys, Cuke ?4#7/7?0 is enacted by four
monks# 1ere is this liturgical drama scripted by thelwold is the root from which
later grew the mediae&al mystery plays and the later English dramatic tradition#
As the third lesson is being read, four of the brethren shall dress, one of whom, dressed in an alb as if
for some other purpose, shall enter and go secretly to the place of the sepulchre and, holding a palm in
his hand, shall sit there ;uietly# 'hen, as the third respond is being sung, the other three shall enter, all
of them dressed in copes and holding thuribles with incense in their hands, and step by step, in the
likeness of those seeking something, they should come before the place of the sepulchre# Dow truly
these things are done in imitation of the angel sitting on the tomb and the women coming with
perfumes so that they might anoint the body of Aesus# "hen, therefore, the one seated shall see these
three draw near, acting =ust like those wandering and seeking something, he shall begin to sing in a
moderate and sweet &oice, Quem quaeritis E"hom do you seekFG As soon as this has been sung
completely, the three shall answer with one mouth< !hesum "a#arenum$ ,Aesus of Da>areth#0 'hen the
one seated shall say< "on est hic$ Surre%it sicut praedi%erat$ !te nuntiate, quia surre%it a mortis$ E1e is
not here# 1e has risen as he foretold# @o and tell, that he is risen from the dead#G At this command the
three shall turn to the choir saying< Alleluia$ Surre%it Dominus$ EAlleluia# 'he Cord is risen#G
'he monastic life of the late (a+on church was one of the crucibles of the
de&elopment of English learning and culture, and Abingdon Abbey under thelwold
was at the forefront of this mo&ement#
*# !radford !edingfield, The Dramatic &iturgy o' Anglo(Sa%on )ngland$
,"oodbridge, ?00?0#
*artin !iddle, 4thelwold5s Abbeys in Abingdon and "inchester5, in Aspects o'
Abingdon*s +ast &ol# , /76# ,Abingdon, ?0060
*# !iddle, @# Cambrick and A#D#C# *yres, 4'he Early 1istory of Abingdon,
!erkshire, and its Abbey5 ,edie-al Archaeology 7? ,796-0 ?6/69#
Allan $oig# &iturgy and Architecture 'rom the )arly Church to the ,iddle Ages$
,Aldershot, ?00-0#
8ichard @em# 4'owards an %conography of Anglo)(a+on Architecture5 .ournal o' the
/arburg and Courtauld !nstitutes 46 ,79-0, 7/7-#
Aohn 1udson, ed# 0istoria )cclesie Abbendonensis$ The 0istory o' the Church o'
Abingdon, &ol# 7# ,3+ford, ?0060
Arnold "illiam Hlukas, 4Citurgy and Architecture< $eerhurst Iriory as an E+pression
of the 8egularis Concordia5 Viator 7. ,79-40 -7/706#
$a&id Iarsons, 4Citurgy and Architecture in the *iddle Ages5# $eerhurst Cecture,
79-6#
!arbara Jorke, ed# 1ishop thelwold$ 0is Career and !n'luence ,"oodbridge, 79--0#