HISTORIC GLASTONBURY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 93, 13 January 1908, Page 7

HISTORIC GLASTONBURY.

, .' VESTED IN THE CHURCH. 01 ■rWEOBAPn—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTEIGHI •London, January 10. , Mr. Ernest Jardino is the purchasor of' ■Glastonbury Abbey. He has presented it to . the Churcli of England. / - CRADLE OF CHRISTIANITY. . TIIK lIOLY GRAIL. ' Mr. Jardino, of Nottingham, bought Glastonbury Abbey at auction on June G for ,£30,000. The bid was really made on behalf of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. At,, or shortly after, that timo the. Bishop had already; re-, teiveil, or, been' promised, <£18,000 towards the •sum advanced Mr. Jardine; and a pub.'-' appeal for further" funds was subsequently made. It was proposed, to transfer the pro-' perty, without any jiecuniary liability upon it, to the Archbishop of Canterbury and eortain other bishops, with an equal number of prominent laymen, to be held in trust. GlastonburVi it has beon said, has been the nursery of '■ Welsh, Irish, Saxon, and Nohnan Christianity. St. Patrick visited it, and :so did St. Benignus of Armagh; also St. David, uncle of the renowned King Arthur (so. the story runs), coming from Monevia in 530, with ii retinue of seven suffragan bishops. Long before the coming of St. Augustine and the Roman mission, Glastonbury was the acknowledged centre of' Keltic Christianity. It is said that Josopli of Arimathea, bearing the Holy Grail, camo to Glastonbury, and planted his pilgrim's staff on Wearyall Ilill. There' it tool; root, and grow into tho Holy Thorn, "which blossomed miraculously every Old Christmas Eve until it was cut down by a Puritan. Grafts from it flourish still; one at Sutton Poyntz, near Weymouth, duly blosGomed on the night of January 5, 1681, in presence of 250 persoiis." Glastonbury is tlio Avalon of King -Arthur legends, and is immortalised in tho pages of Tennyson. THE ABBOT'S POWERS. In King Ina's Charter (a.d. 725), Glastonbury Abbey was, says tlio "Standard," "Mater sanctorum," and the 'Tons et origo totius rcligionis," being' exempted from episcopal, and, indeed, all secular jurisdiction. So much so that tho Charter of King Edgar (a.d. 971), supplementing that of King Ina, gave the Abbot ®s much power in his own "Curia" as the King in his. . No ono could enter tho sacred precincts " causa placitaridi" or for the sake .of arresting or following up a criminal. .Tlio exempted islands were Godney, Martinsey, Ferraniere, Padcnesberg, and Andredsoy or Nilund. In King Inn's Charter the seven churches under the special'jurisdiction of Glastonbury woro Sowz (Middlezay- arid Wcston-Zoyland), Brent (East and ' South Brent), Morlincn, with its chapels, Shapwick, Street, Butleigh, and Piltoh. The XII Hides of Glastonbury, still to bo clearly traced in their boundaries, and the sovon churches were ruled within a ring fence by Abbot and monks, and the King's writ could hardly be said to rim in these favoured islands and flooded jnoors. , By King Canute's grant no subject could enter this district without tho permission of the Lord Abbot of Glastonburv. Nay, the privileges of Abbot and monks "went far beyond tho jurisdiction of the XII Hides, for if they met in any part of Kin;: Inn's realm a criminal being led to tho gallows or to oxecution they could rescue him thoro and then without any further parley. That these extraordinary privileges wero no dead letter mav be inferred from; a case of law tried in the reign of Richard 11, between King and Abbot about port dues at Axwatcr. It was decided by a jury sitting at a kind of Admiralty court at Comwich, a .small port of entry on the. River Parrot; that the Abbot's rights wero superior "jure fundntionis ceclesite." So, at least, John of Glastonbury tells us. ~ DANISH pAIDEUS. Legends of the sanctity of tho place survived all catastrophes. Even tho Danes, who, after the great restoration that followed upon Ilubba's attacks in 878, dared to cross tho holy precincts felt, so rumour says, tho magic of tlio place. Were not they struck blind for their temerity? Later on Edward Kelly, the famous Worcester experimentalist, found, together with Dr. Dee, a large quantity of the olixir or philosopher's stone in tho ruins of the abbey itself. But Glastonbury needs really- no miracles to onhance its glory and to eiiiphasiso its traditions, as the groat cradle of our Christianity,and tho inspiring centre of our literature and architecture in modirevnl times. These still survive, and, like tho famous Glastonbury thorn (Cratfogus), convey tlio lessons of eternal youth and of still budding vigour. We can still study and reproduce th" works of Glastonbury architects, and cull some useful lessons from tho idealism of founders and builders. The lato Professor Freeman, whoso home at Somerlcazc, near Wells, was close to Glastonbury, once said that, Wronghton Church Toiver, built of, old by Glastonbury masons eud architects, was tho finest square tower in all Kngland, and possibly, therefore, in tho whole world. The lato Sir Charles Barrv took the proportion of this tower as the model for the "Victoria Tower" of tho Houses of Parliament, in Westminster, when rebuilt, by him after the fire of 1835. So subtle and far-reach jug is the influence of ancient Glastonbury tints living in the very metropolis of Eng. land!