Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/39

Rh general assertions of the Anglo-Norman monkish chroniclers, to which we ought to give very little value; for not only was it the fashion for at least two centuries after the Conquest to speak contemptuously of every thing Saxon, but general assertions of the old monkish chroniclers are seldom correct. It is my belief that a careful perusal of the early chroniclers would afford abundant proof that churches were not only numerous among the Anglo-Saxons, but that they were far from being always mean structures. It is not the object of the present observations to enter into this part of the subject, but I will cite two passages which offer themselves almost spontaneously on accidently opening two well-known writers. Ordericus Vitalis, speaking of the state of England in 1070, only four years after the Conquest, says, "Fiebant et reparabantur basilicæ, et in eis sacri oratores obsequium studebant Deo debitum persolvere ." Churches to be repaired at this time must have been Saxon, and I think of stone; if they had been mean structures, and in need of repairs, it is more probable that the Normans would have built new ones. There can be no doubt that the Anglo-Saxons paid much less attention to architecture than the Normans. William of Malmesbury, speaking of the laxity of manners among the Anglo-Saxons in the age preceding the Conquest, says, "Potabatur in commune ab omnibus, in hoc studio noctes perinde ut dies perpetuantibus, parvis et abjectis domibus totos sumptus absumebant, Francis et Normannis absimiles, qui amplis et superbis ædificiis modicas expensas agunt." And a few lines after he adds, "Porro Normanni . . . . . domi ingentia ædifcia (ut dixi) moderatos sumptus moliri." This passage must not be taken as a proof of the meanness of Anglo-Saxon architecture in general; it is merely a somewhat indefinite statement of a well-known fact, that the Saxon nobles did not establish themselves in vast feudal castles like those of the Anglo-Normans. William of Malmesbury goes on to describe the change among the clergy under the Normans, and observes, "Videas ubique in villis ecclesias, in vicis et urbibus monasteria, novo