wall, though it occupies the exact position of a structure which must in some respects have resembled it pretty closely. If Lord North had spared the Cloister it would have answered the Duke of Norfolk's purpose quite as well as his clumsy building of 1571.1 Now we approach, through a kind of cloister which does not seem to be of monastic origin, the door of the Church. On entering we find the Brothers' Choir intact. It was rebuilt during the priorate of the pious William Tynbygh,' and it still remains as he left it. Its present owners sometimes call it the Baptistry, from a font which they have placed there, or, less incorrectly, the Ante-Chapel. We prefer to name it the Brothers' Choir, for the term explains its original use. The lay brothers met here every night, and during the day on Festivals; and while the Office was being sung in the larger choir beyond the rood screen, they used to join their silent prayers to the holy Psalms and Canticles. How beautiful in its simplicity is this outer choir! Solid, plain, thoroughly Carthusian ! As to style, it is Perpendicular, with stone-vaulted roof, the groining terminating in corbels decorated with angels holding shields. The stalls are no more. 1 1 The figures 1, 5, 7, were stamped in iron upon the wall. 1571 being the date carved on the duke's music gallery in the Great Hall, it was judged that the arcade was most probably erected at the same time, and a figure 1 was added to the 1, 5, 7. Supra, Part I. chap. vi. 2 The screen that once divided this choir from that of the Fathers has also disappeared, and with it have vanished the two small altars that very probably stood against it on either side.' Over the Brothers' Choir is a vaulted chamber closely resembling it. This must, we think, have been the visitors' gallery, commanding a view of the high altar through some apertures, now closed up, in its eastern wall. This gallery was well known when the monastery was flourishing, for it was a common saying about London that those who wished to hear the Divine Office chanted with devotion should go to the Charterhouse.2 Passing A Now our pilgrimage is nearly over. under the arch where the rood screen used to be, we enter the Fathers' Choir. How changed it is! Only the south and east walls are preserved, and even these are disfigured by modern windows. sliding panel conceals a small piscina in the east wall. The flat roof, ceiled and decorated in Jacobean style, is no more in keeping with the monastic remains than the two pillars supporting three semicircular arches, which occupy the position of the ancient north wall. The two aisles beyond the 1 A screen, which is now in another part of the building, occupied, until 1842, the exact position of the rood screen. It is seventeenth-century work and much lighter and more open than the monastic screen would have been, and is surmounted by the royal arms in the place of the cross. 2 Chauncy's Historia (ed. 1888), p. 69. pillars, with Thomas Sutton's tomb, might be interesting on another occasion. They have nothing to do with our pilgrimage. In this choir, for one hundred and sixty-seven years, the Carthusian monks sang by day and by night the praises of our Lord; and in spite of the three centuries and a half which have elapsed since they were driven out, their memories cling to the place with the ancient name it still retains. CHAPTER IV. THE RETURN TO ENGLAND AT THE SAVOY-SHEEN RE-ESTAB LISHED DISAPPOINTMENT-IN THE FLEMISH CHARTERHOUSE DOM MAURICE CHAUNCY and Brother Hugh Taylor seem to have been the first of the English Carthusians who, braving the law which forbad unauthorized going abroad,' left their native land in order to continue their monastic life. Shortly after the suppression of the London Charterhouse, in November, 1538, they made their way to the Charterhouse of Bruges, where they were kindly received. There Chauncy wrote his history of the martyrs, made a second profession of vows, and, according to a manuscript which will frequently be our guide,3 was 1 Stat. 5 Richard II. (1381). This law remained in force until 1606 (4 Jac. I.), though it was not always enforced in the same way. See Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (ed. 1883), vol. ii. p. 505. 2 The Charterhouse of Val-de-Grâce. Founded in 1318, and suppressed by the Emperor Joseph II. in 1783. Notitia Cartusianorum Anglorum, by Father James Long, appointed Sacristan of the monastery. The second profession of vows after removing to another Charterhouse was formerly a custom of the Order, and it entitled those who made it to enjoy the privileges of the professed religious of the house, and to hold offices in the community. The General Chapter of 1547 authorized the Prior and convent of Bruges to admit the English refugees to this second profession. Fifteen or sixteen years in the Flemish Charterhouse prepared Father Chauncy for the arduous duties of the remainder of his life. It was early in 1555 when he received instructions from the Grande Chartreuse to return home and endeavour to reestablish the Order, for England had returned to the Catholic faith. Father John Fox, who had followed him to Bruges, and Brother Hugh Taylor were to be his companions. We have lost sight of Brother Hugh while telling the story of the troubles, for there is no record of what became of him during those dreadful years. Perhaps he was sent for some time to another monastery, or else he may have managed to absent himself from the meetings in the Chapter House. Whatever the reasons may be, his name is neither in the list of signatures to the oath of supremacy nor in that of the recusants. Without falling, like Chauncy and Prior of the English Carthusians at Nieuport, Flanders. The manuscript is now in the possession of the English Augustinian nuns of Bruges. |