Реферат: Westminster Abbey

WestminsterAbbey is a Gothic monastery church in Londonthat is the traditional place of coronation and burial for English monarchs.Neither a cathedral nor a parish church, Westminster Abbey is a place ofworship owned by the royal family.

Locatednext to the Houses of Parliament in the heart of London, Westminster Abbey is amust-see for any London visitor. With its oldest parts dating to the year 1050,the Abbey contains some of the most glorious medieval architecture in London.Because of its royal connections, it was spared King Henry VIII's general assaulton monastic buildings during the Reformation.

Theinterior is a veritable museum of English history. Among many highlights arethe medieval coronation throne; Poet's Corner with its memorials to WilliamShakespeare, Charles Dickens, and other giants of literature; and the tombs ofQueen Elizabeth I, «Bloody» Queen Mary, explorer David Livingstoneand naturalist Charles Darwin.

History

Accordingto tradition, a shrine was first founded here in 616 on a site then known asThorney Island. It was said to have been miraculously consecrated after afisherman on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter.

Whilethe existence of this shrine is uncertain, the historic Abbey was built byEdward the Confessor between 1045-1050 and was consecrated on December 28, 1065.Its construction originated in Edward's failure to keep a vow to go on apilgrimage; the Pope suggested that he redeem himself by building an Abbey.

Theoriginal Abbey, in the Romanesque style that is called «Norman» inEngland, was built to house Benedictine monks. It was rebuilt in the Gothicstyle between 1245-1517. The first phase of the rebuilding was organised byHenry III, in Gothic style, as a shrine to honor Edward the Confessor and as asuitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic nave inEngland.

Thework was largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of KingRichard II. Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to theVirgin Mary in 1503 (known as the Henry VII Lady Chapel).

Althoughthe Abbey was seized by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in1534, and closed in 1540, becoming a cathedral until 1550, its royalconnections saved it from the destruction wrought on most other English abbeys.The expression «robbing Peter to pay Paul» may arise from this periodwhen money meant for the Abbey, which was dedicated to St. Peter, was divertedto the treasury of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Itsuffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritaniconoclasts, but was again protected by its close ties to the state during theCommonwealth period. Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from anearby gibbet.

TheAbbey was restored to the Benedictines under Queen Mary, but they were againejected under Queen Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1579, Elizabeth re-establishedWestminster as a «royal peculiar» – a church responsible directly tothe sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop – and made it the CollegiateChurch of St. Peter, (i.e. a church with an attached chapter of canons, headedby a dean).Westminster Abbey is a Gothic monastery church in Londonthat is the traditional place of coronation and burial for English monarchs.Neither a cathedral nor a parish church, Westminster Abbey is a place ofworship owned by the royal family.

Locatednext to the Houses of Parliament in the heart of London, Westminster Abbey is amust-see for any London visitor. With its oldest parts dating to the year 1050,the Abbey contains some of the most glorious medieval architecture in London.Because of its royal connections, it was spared King Henry VIII's general assaulton monastic buildings during the Reformation.

Theinterior is a veritable museum of English history. Among many highlights arethe medieval coronation throne; Poet's Corner with its memorials to WilliamShakespeare, Charles Dickens, and other giants of literature; and the tombs ofQueen Elizabeth I, «Bloody» Queen Mary, explorer David Livingstoneand naturalist Charles Darwin.

HenryIII rebuilt the Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor, whosememorial and relics were placed in the Sanctuary. The Shrine of St.Edward the Confessor has been the focus of pilgrimages to WestminsterAbbey since the Middle Ages.

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HenryIII was buried nearby as were the Plantagenet kings of England, their wives andrelatives. Subsequently, most English kings and queens were buried here.However, Henry VIII and Charles I are buried at St. George's Chapel in WindsorCastle, as all royals have been since George II.

Aristocratswere buried in side chapels of Westminster Abbey and monks and peopleassociated with the Abbey were buried in the cloisters and other areas. One ofthese was Geoffrey Chaucer, who was buried here as he hadapartments in the Abbey as he was employed as master of the Kings Works.

Otherpoets were buried around Chaucer in what became known as Poets' Corner. Abbeymusicians such as Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work.Subsequently it became a great honor to be buried or memorialized here. Thepractice spread from aristocrats and poets to generals, admirals, politicians,scientists, doctors, and others.

WestminsterAbbey is the setting of a climactic scene in Dan Brown's novel The Da VinciCode. Towards the end of the book, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu finallyfigure out (after a dead-end search at the Temple Church and with the help ofthe computers at King's College London) that their latest clue —

InLondon lies a knight a Pope interred His labor's fruit a Holy wrath incurred —refers to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey. Newton's eulogywas delivered by Alexander Pope — «A. Pope».

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Thescene in Westminster Abbey includes some admiring descriptions of WestminsterAbbey and its history, and mentions of several important sights of itsinterior, such as Poet's Corner, Newton's tomb, and the Chapter House. Thenarrative includes this vivid description as the characters enter:

Langdon'sand Sophie's eyes, like those of almost every visitor, shifted immediatelyskyward, where the abbey's great abyss seemed to explode overhead. Grey stonecolumns ascended like redwoods into the shadows, arching gracefully overdizzying expanses, and then shooting back down to the stone floor. Before them,the wide alley of the north transept stretched out like a deep canyon, flankedby sheer cliffs of stained glass. On sunny days, the abbey floor was aprismatic patchwork of light. Today, the rain and darkness gave this massivehollow a wraithlike aura… more like that of the crypt it truly was.

Thetomb of Isaac Newton is in a niche on the north side of the nave. Themonumental tomb is a grand affair, with lovely sculptures and elaboratedecorations representing his scientific discoveries. Atop the monument is agiant orb with images of planets. The Da Vinci Code's characters are attemptingto solve the rest of the riddle that brought them to Westminster Abbey:

Youseek the orb that ought to be on his tomb It speaks of Rosy flesh and seededwomb.

BeforeRobert and Sophie can figure out the puzzle, they discover a chilling note onthe sarcophagus lid, next to Newton's outstretched right foot: «I haveTeabing. Go through Chapter House, out south exit, to public garden.» Thenote was scrawled using the charcoal pencils provided by the Abbey for visitorsto do rubbings of the monuments in Poets' Corner.

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Theabbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Sir ChristopherWren and Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone to an earlyexample of a Gothic Revival design. Further rebuilding and restoration occurredin the 19th century under Sir George Gilbert Scott.

Untilthe 19th century, Westminster was the third seat of learning in England, after Oxfordand Cambridge. It was here that the first third of the King James Bible OldTestament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The NewEnglish Bible was also put together here in the 20th century.

Sincethe Christmas Day coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all Englishmonarchs (except Lady Jane Grey, Edward V and Edward VIII, who did not havecoronations) have been crowned in the Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury isthe traditional cleric in the coronation ceremony. St. Edward's Chair, thethrone on which British sovereigns are seated at the moment of coronation, ishoused within the Abbey.

Closerto our own time, in 1998 ten 20th-century Christian martyrs including DeitrichBonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Oscar Romero were immortalized instone statues over the Great West Door.