Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Endre Abkarovits: Teaching the Englishness of English Gothic cathedral architecture

holy men, very often the first bishops, were revered as saints. At the beginning of the Gothic period these bishops were also often felt as symbols of the Englishness, when most of the aristocracy, particularly those connected more closely to the court, spoke in French. The future saints, neither representatives of the clergy, nor those of royalty, had to lead a saintly life necessarily. Even people (living in quite distant ages) like Thomas Beckett (d. 1170) and Edward II (d. 1327), who had been despised during their lifetime, when killed in a cruel way, quickly turned into martyrs and their shrines became centres of pilgrimages and as a result, a source of revenue for the cathedral. It is not by chance that Perpendicular was born at Gloucester, which managed to get the bones of Edward II, and had a beautiful shrine built for the relics, and the until then unimportant monastery suddenly became a centre of pilgrimage. The money the pilgrims brought enabled the clergy to rebuild most parts of the church gradually, with the exception of the nave. As mentioned above, the relics were usually kept in shrines in the retrochoir of most cathedrals, and the spreading cult of the Virgin (in the Lady Chapel) made the Eastern extension of the church also necessary. In France the central chapel of the apse was normally dedicated to the Virgin, while in England a whole new section was usually added to the Eastern end. As the choir itself was as long as some naves in France, through extending it with a retrochoir or Lady Chapel the Western and Eastern arms became equally long in several cases. In the fourteenth and fifteenth century England went on experimenting while the development in France came to a halt. In spite of this, as already mentioned, because of the halving of the population in 1348—49 and the decreasing incomes of the Church, as well as the less successful continuation of the Hundred Years' War and later the consequences of the War of Roses, no new cathedral constructions were begun, only additions and alterations took place. Innovations were typical of the decoration of vaults and other surfaces. Besides the tierceron ribs of the Decorated style, lierne ribs appear, having no structural function at all, just pleasing the English preference for linear decoration. During the Perpendicular period not only the vaults, but also the wall surfaces were divided by ribs, and not just vertically, as the name would suggest, but also horizontally. That is why 'Rectilinear' is also used as an alternative term. Because of this grid the whole space takes on a cage-like effect. Again Gloucester, especially its Lady Chapel, can be mentioned as a typical example. Many cathedrals managed to (re)build their central tower only in the Perpendicular period. Gloucester, Canterbury and Worcester are perphaps the most successful ones. On the whole, I can agree with Harvey, who says 61