DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6913#0046
20
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
35atfrefiton Cljurrfn
KENT.
BY CHARLES CLARKE, ESQ. F.S.A.
How long the Church of Barfreston has become an object of research with the
studious in English architecture, unless it arose with the publication of the views
and notices of the late Captain Grose, has escaped my attention. But although it
has been touched upon by that writer in the elucidatory preface to his Antiquities,
and by the late Mr. King,—an antiquary who generally quits his pursuit without
advancing a single step beyond the boundaries marked out by the opinion of the
day, (if it is not in his hands enveloped in a greater degree of uncertainty,)—there is
still, perhaps, some scope for further exposition. Unfortunately, however, this can-
not be extended beyond a certain degree of probability, fixed upon general and well
known customs and relations, when applied to the local circumstances under which
Barfreston will be found at rather an early period of our history.
In recurring to the origin of parochial districts, both Mr. Rowe Mores, in the
" History, &c. of Tunstall," and Mr. King, ascend as high as the time of Honorius,
Archbishop of Canterbury in 636. The latter gentleman has bestowed upon Theo-
dore a share in that labour of distribution ; and an arch circularly turned, or an an-
gular fret, (ornaments equally common in buildings long previous and posterior to
the Conquest,) are sufficient, in Mr. King's opinion, to gain for any ecclesiastical
structure an antiquity of the highest rank : it then becomes, if a rural church, the
work of that Archbishop, or is formed by his desire. Unfortunately for this precept,
the word parochia, on which it is founded, signified in that age the diocese of a
Bishop ; * and although Theodore may claim the merit of a vigilant discharge of his
pastoral functions ; of bringing our ancestors acquainted with the Greek language ;
bestowing upon them a number of valuable manuscripts ; and, but for his submission
* The division of parishes, by Honorius, rests upon the authority of Archbishop Parker, in his life of that pre-
late, but is disproved by Selden, in his history of tithes, as well as by the author of " Parochial Antiquities."
The part Theodore is supposed to have had in the same work is derived, most likely, from the 2d Canon of the
Council held by him at Hertford, which enjoins—"That no bishop invade the parish of another," &c. and by the
9th of the same, it is stated, " We had a conference together concerning increasing the number of bishops in pro-
portion to the number of the faithful." It is said that this Archbishop divided the kingdom of Mercia into five
bishoprics, &c. See Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, DCLXXIII.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
35atfrefiton Cljurrfn
KENT.
BY CHARLES CLARKE, ESQ. F.S.A.
How long the Church of Barfreston has become an object of research with the
studious in English architecture, unless it arose with the publication of the views
and notices of the late Captain Grose, has escaped my attention. But although it
has been touched upon by that writer in the elucidatory preface to his Antiquities,
and by the late Mr. King,—an antiquary who generally quits his pursuit without
advancing a single step beyond the boundaries marked out by the opinion of the
day, (if it is not in his hands enveloped in a greater degree of uncertainty,)—there is
still, perhaps, some scope for further exposition. Unfortunately, however, this can-
not be extended beyond a certain degree of probability, fixed upon general and well
known customs and relations, when applied to the local circumstances under which
Barfreston will be found at rather an early period of our history.
In recurring to the origin of parochial districts, both Mr. Rowe Mores, in the
" History, &c. of Tunstall," and Mr. King, ascend as high as the time of Honorius,
Archbishop of Canterbury in 636. The latter gentleman has bestowed upon Theo-
dore a share in that labour of distribution ; and an arch circularly turned, or an an-
gular fret, (ornaments equally common in buildings long previous and posterior to
the Conquest,) are sufficient, in Mr. King's opinion, to gain for any ecclesiastical
structure an antiquity of the highest rank : it then becomes, if a rural church, the
work of that Archbishop, or is formed by his desire. Unfortunately for this precept,
the word parochia, on which it is founded, signified in that age the diocese of a
Bishop ; * and although Theodore may claim the merit of a vigilant discharge of his
pastoral functions ; of bringing our ancestors acquainted with the Greek language ;
bestowing upon them a number of valuable manuscripts ; and, but for his submission
* The division of parishes, by Honorius, rests upon the authority of Archbishop Parker, in his life of that pre-
late, but is disproved by Selden, in his history of tithes, as well as by the author of " Parochial Antiquities."
The part Theodore is supposed to have had in the same work is derived, most likely, from the 2d Canon of the
Council held by him at Hertford, which enjoins—"That no bishop invade the parish of another," &c. and by the
9th of the same, it is stated, " We had a conference together concerning increasing the number of bishops in pro-
portion to the number of the faithful." It is said that this Archbishop divided the kingdom of Mercia into five
bishoprics, &c. See Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, DCLXXIII.