York and its Minster
Our Holy and Beautiful House. By G. Austen, Chancellor and Canon Residentiary of York. (S.P.C.K. 5s.) Everyman's York. Written and illustrated by C. R. Swift. (Scott. 3s. 5d.)
EXACTLY thirteen hundred years ago Christianity came to Southern Northumbria, at that time a dreary region, for the
Roman capital of Eboracum, no longer existing as a city, was overgrown with the weeds of a hundred years, and only here and there appeared the rude buildings of Anglian farm-
steads, traces of which are to be observed round York to this day. But in the year 627, at the bidding of the Roman mission-priest, Paulinus, King Edwin of Deira -caused to be
raised first a wooden chapel and then a church of stone, which was dedicated to St. Peter and built on the site of York Minster. It is that kingly foundation which entitles the Choir and Canons, if they wish it, to be habited in royal red. Rather curiously the very name of the church is a misnomer, for Minster comes from " Monasterium, a community served by monks," and that was never the case at York. So says Chancellor Austen, whose book of published sermons appears very appropriately a few days before July 3rd, the day by which the reconsecration of the Minster is memorialized and which marked its completion in its present form in the year 1472.
Fortunate indeed were those persons who, interested in the development of the stately 'church, were privileged to listen to the Chancellor's sermons. The historical subjects of which they treat are many and varied. We hear again of the many fires which wellnigh wrecked the Minster, especially the great conflagration of 1829, which revealed, however, a concrete foundation that may have been part of the first Anglian church ; of the lives of some of the great archbishops ; of the vicissitudes of the Jews in York, who had a Ghetto in Jubber- gate, and to whose financial aid we possibly owe the Minster's famous Five Sisters, or Jewish Window ; and finally, of the time when " the apprentices and servants of York were accus- tomed to dance in the Minster," and when the nave was known as the Lord Mayor's Promenade and games were played in it. One small note of criticism may be struck (a layman seldom has the chance of criticizing a sermon other- wise than silently) : Mr. Austen says that Northumbria was Christianized by Aidan and others " long before Paulinus of Rome came." But Paulinus came in 627, and Aidan did not fix his bishop's stool in the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne till 635. Mr. Austen further states that the followers of Aidan, who was a missionary from Columba's monastery of Iona, were Culdees. But the Culdees, who may be likened to the secular canons of England and the Continent, must be clearly dis- tinguished from the Columban monks. York was the only English establishment of the Culdees, who in the tenth century officiated in the cathedral and looked after the sick and the poor.
To companion and to illustrate Mr. Austen's scholarly work comes Mr. Swift's Everyman's York. The author-artist plans it as an illustrative guide to the City, and with this book in his hand there is little of interest which the visitor should miss. Sir Josiah Stamp, who writes a foreword, calls attention to the " architectural truth " of the drawings—an opinion which can be cordially endorsed.
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