|
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England〔The Buildings of England: Suffolk: Nikolaus Pevsner.〕 in Clare, Suffolk. ==History== This parish church is one of the largest and most beautiful in East Anglia: "A large and handsome church...within a spacious churchyard."〔D P Mortlock, The Guide to Suffolk Churches, Lutterworth Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-7188-3076-2 p114〕 Simon Jenkins includes it in his 'England's Thousand Best Churches'.〔Simon Jenkins, English's Thousand Best Churches, Penguin 2009, ISBN 978-0-14-103930-5〕 It is principally of the 14th and early 15th century, with 13th century work in the west tower, in the perpendicular style. The list of past priests goes back to 1307.〔Thornton op. cit. p139〕 "The tower is unfortunately a little short for the church.....all the windows of the aisles and clerestory are slender and closely set, the effect has the same erectness as Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford and St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham. The remodelling of the interior made it very airy."〔Pevsner op. cit. p166-167〕 'Seen from any angle it floats on the skyline like a great ship, with a small tower for a fo'c'stle and two turrets for masts.....The interior is ablaze with light.'〔Simon Jenkins, op cit p743〕 ] The church possesses a late C15 brass lectern in the form of an eagle with three dogs as feet rather than lions; this may have served as a collection-box, money posted at the beak exiting at the tail. There are two fine private pews, one with the emblems of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, the other an ostentatious Stuart gallery pew with scroll-sided poppyheads "so like those at Little Thurlow that they may have been carved by the same man".〔Mortlock op. cit. p 115〕 In the chancel there are rare Jacobean carved choir stalls. The motto above the sundial over the south porch reads: 'Go about your business', not a mercantile admonition but a peremptory version of St Paul's advice: "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies".〔Bible, King James version, 2 Thessalonians 3.11〕 Around the doorway may be seen carved ten faces of the Green Man, a somewhat pagan image to be seen on a church, but widely used across Christian Europe. The greatest disaster to befall the church was the visit of William Dowsing in 1643. The Puritan Parliament decreed the demolition of altars, removal of candlesticks, and defacement of pictures and images. 'Basher' Dowsing, a fanatical anti-Romanist, was appointed as 'Parliamentary Visitor for the East Anglian counties for demolishing the superstitious pictures and ornaments of churches'. 'Cromwell's iconoclast'〔Simon Jenkins op. cit. p734〕 kept a journal of his visits. On 6 January 1644, he visited six churches, including Haverhill. As for Clare, he wrote: "We brake down 1000 pictures superstitious: I brake down 200; 3 of God the Father, and 3 of Christ, and of the Holy Lamb, and 3 of the Holy Ghost like a Dove with Wings; and the Twelve Apostles were carved in wood, on top of the Roof, which we gave order to take down; and 20 Cherubim to be taken down; and the Sun and the Moon in the East window, by the King's Arms to be taken down". Bullet holes in the roof suggest one inaccurate method; the rest being done with arrows, stones, poles and whitewash. The Sun and Moon still survive.〔Hatton op. cit. IV p 86-88〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|