Konkret om restaureringsarbeidet i Morebath

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Som siste utdrag fra Eamon Duffys bok «The Voices of Morebath» tar jeg med enkelte nokså konkrete ting man måtte gjøre i Morebath for å kunne feire messen igjen, og kunne gjennomføre andre katolske tradisjoner – etter at England igjen ble katolsk under dronning Mary (det varte bare 5 1/2 år). Det katolske alteret måtte på plass igjen i kirken, siden protestantene hadde krevd at disse skulle bort og erstattes med kommunionsbord foran i koret. Videre leser vi (på s 162) hvordan sognepresten (sir Christopher) ledet restaureringsarbeidet:

… The parish was by now working at full stretch to meet the stringent requirements of the official Catholic restoration … The Vicar and Wardens trooped off to Exeter in 1555 to present a new inventory of their church goods to the Royal Commissioners, this time not as a prelude to confiscation but to establish what was still missing and in need of provision. Ten yards of canvas were bought to make a new Lent cloth, Cecily at Moore was paid seven groats for making up a new surplice, and allowed to keep the seven-pence-worth of linen she had left over. From a series of business trips William Hurley brought back a new pyx for the Sacrament and, separately, the winter and summer volumes of a new breviary `of the largest volumen’ for Sir Christopher to say his service. Two sets of vestments (long since out of hiding) were being repaired, and the wardens paid … for a makeshift crucifix while a better one was carved. … They also packed up their English Bible and their copy of Erasmus’ Paraphrases, and sent it by carrier to Exeter to be handed over to the authorities there. …

Best of all, confident that the Marian restoration was here to stay, parishioners and neighbours now brought out of hiding the flotsam rescued from the Edwardine purge of imagery. Sir Christopher himself gave back the painted cloth with the picture of his patroness St Sidwell, John Williams of Bury produced an image of Mary …. William Morsse at Loyton returned the figure of John from the Rood group, the widow Jordan gave `tralis and Knottis’, and `of diverse wother perssons here was rescevyd pagynttis and bokis and diversse wother thyngis concernyng our rowde lowfth’. The vicar was enchanted: `lyke tru and faythefull crystyn pepyll this was restoreyd to this churche by the wyche doyngis hyt schowyth that they dyd lyke good catholyke men’.

Here Sir Christopher was perhaps idealising. Not everyone who returned goods to Morebath church was motivated by pure zeal for the Catholic truth. Edward Rumbelow, executor for small legacies to the church from his father and from Roger Budd, donated a valuable tunicle (not necessarily originally belonging to Morebath), which more than covered those legacies, but he wanted the church to reimburse him for the difference … John Williams of Bury expected to be paid for having kept safe so many of the parish’s endangered images: he nagged on about this, and seems to have threatened to pursue the matter in the episcopal courts. ….

But there were plenty of less mercenary gifts to maintain the priest’s sense of a returning tide of piety: the legacy of a coat from Roger Don at Exebridge `to be prayed for’, 6/8d from Thomas Stevyn of Clotworthy towards the altar crucifix and for painting the ceiling over the Sacrament, a pair of altar cloths from John Norman at Court, another altar cloth from Elizabeth Yondyll of Bampton, all in 1556. In the following year the Young Men and the Maidens … once more collected round the parish to paint the ceiling of honour above the high altar. Recording it all, Sir Christopher is careful to underline the pious motives behind these benefactions: the young men and the wives have money in store `of devocion’, the wives buy a manual `of there benevolence’, the young men paint the ceiling over the altar `of there owne frewyll’, John Norman makes up a shortfall of 9d for a mended censer `of his owne devocion’. And alongside the giving, the continuing scramble to keep pace with the pressure from the diocesan and crown authorities to hurry the restoration of full Catholic worship. ….

Etter disse fem årene med katolsk styre, ble England protestantisk igjen. Sir Christopher (som de fleste andre katolske prester) føyde seg etter alle bestemmelser, og da han døde i 1574, ble han etter eget ønske begravd i koret, mellom stedet der høyalteret hadde stått og det nye kommunionsbordet.

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