Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/21

Rh whatever was considered necessary and appropriate for their sacred purposes. Thus Hexham church, built by Bp. Wilfrid A. D. 674, is styled a wonderful work, "mirabile opus;" and Ripon was indebted to the same munificent prelate for a highly-commended church. (Notes to Bed, Hist. Eccl. 1. 5, c. 19.) Of his successor, Acca, the statement already referred to is, that he added to his church various beauties and rare works; "ecclesiæ suæ edificium multifario decore ac mirificis ampliavit operibus." (Ib. 1. 5, c. 20.) He also, beside collecting relics, and providing separate altars, &c. for them, erected and furnished a splendid library (unquestionably "splendid" according to the experience and idea of the age) as well as procured vessels and lights for his cathedral: "historias passiones eorum" (scil. apostolorum et martyrum Christi)" una cum caeteris ecclesiasticis voluminibus summa industria congregans, amplissimam ibi ac nobilissimam bibliothecam fecit, necnon et vasa sancta et luminaria, aliaque hujusmodi quae ad ornatum domus Dei pertinent, studiosissime paravit." (Ibidem.) Similarly it is stated of Benedict Biscop (Ib. 324), that he had bestowed on his monastery at Wearmouth a most noble and copious library: "Bibliothecam, quam de Roma nobilissimam copiosissimamque advexerat." The following quotation likewise will show the opinion upon this subject of a very competent judge. "That many of the Saxon churches were erected of stone, and on plans of great complexity, with crypts, triforia, clerestories, central towers, and other parts resembling in arrangement the Norman churches, can hardly be doubted, from the descriptions that have been preserved to us," &c. (Professor Willis's Architectural Hist, of Winchester Cathedral, 34.)

From the brief report by his historian, Asser, of K. Alfred's proceedings we may acquire some insight into the state of domestic architecture at that period. Alfred himself appears to have been a great builder, and must have acquired a knowledge of the art, as of so many others, far beyond his contemporaries. He is stated to have taught all his goldsmiths and craftsmen, falconers, hawkers, and huntsmen; and by his own new contrivance to have formed edifices far beyond the custom of his predecessors. "Aurifices, et artifices suos omnes, et falconarios, et accipitrarios, canicularios quoque (non desinebat) docere; et ædificia supra omnem antecessorum suorum consuetudinem, venerabiliora et pretiosiora nova sua machinatione facere." (Asser's Alfred by Wise, 43.) Notwithstanding his long-continued and most harassing warfare with the Danes, we are assured that he