Although this nave was completed in 1491, it was not ready for service till 1519, when the nave was seated and the Great Rood suspended from the chancel-arch. Meanwhile, the tower had been begun in 1491, and progressed very slowly. In 1515 it was at a standstill and had a thatched roof. The west window, however, which, considering that it belongs to Henry VIII.’s reign16, is surprisingly good Gothic, was glazed17 by 1536. After this time a certain amount of work went on, and the tower was carried up to the string-course. In 1576, Sir Walter Mildmay gave twenty tons of freestone towards the building, which was employed in erecting18 a somewhat heavy Italianised porch at the west end. This, with its great pediment[23] and the clock above it, filled up the space between the buttresses19 and reached up to the sill of the west window. Sir Walter Mildmay promised other materials for the completion of the tower by a stone spire20. This never took place, and, in 1593, the parish decided21 to add a final storey on their own account, which was completed in 1596. This storey, with its octagonal corner-turrets22 and debased windows, is nevertheless in no violent contrast to the work below. In 1608, the turrets were completed and stone balls were placed upon the pinnacles23 by Robert Grumbold, to whom we owe the balls on Clare Bridge.
The last internal addition to the church was the magnificent rood-loft, finished in 1523. It extended not only across the chancel-arch, but across the northern arch, leading to the Chapel24 of St Andrew, and the southern, leading to the Chapel of Our Lady. These chapels25 were further separated from the chancel by parclose-screens. The contract states that the rood-lofts at Thriplow, south of Cambridge, and at Gazeley, between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds, were the models used for this structure. It must[24] have been something like the great rood-lofts which still exist in Devonshire and parts of Norfolk. In the middle, below the rood-beam and facing the choir26, was the University pulpit. But this screen, with its elaborate furniture, its “yomages,” candles and gilding27 did not have a long existence. It was destroyed by Archbishop Parker, that sworn enemy of rood-lofts, in 1562. However, during the Laudian revival29, in 1640, another chancel-screen was erected30, part of which remains31 across the chapel of St Andrew. Its fine composition and carving32 are characteristic of the Stewart era. Another and even better screen of a somewhat earlier date is to be seen in the church of Tilney All Saints, near Lynn. However, this screen perished in its turn, not at the hands of the zealot Dowsing, who destroyed as much as he could, but under the gentle influence of Georgian restorers. It appears that, after the Reformation, the University sermon became more of an institution than it had been, and was no longer preached to the chancel. Great St Mary’s was, however, put to other and more secular33 uses. Laud28 was informed that the body of the church was seated like a theatre; that the[25] pulpit was placed in the middle and called the Cock-pit; that at sermon-time the chancel was filled with boys and townsmen “and other whiles (thereafter as the Preacher is) with Townswomen also, all in a rude heap between the Doctors and the Altar”; that the “Service there (which is done by Trin. Coll.) is commonly posted over and cut short at the pleasure of him that is sent thither34 to read it.” Divers35 other informations were laid against the state of the church. It certainly seems curious to our own day that the Commencements should have been held in church, and that the feeble buffoonery of the “Prevaricator” should have been, under these circumstances, their leading feature. The feeling against these extraordinary ceremonies led to the building of the Senate House, which was large enough for disputations as well as meetings of the senate. But Sir James Burrough, to whom the Senate House is partly due, did his best to spoil the University Church. The screen of 1640, which, with its spirelets and canopies36, must have been very like the Laudian screens remaining in one or two northern churches,[1] was taken down;[26] and the church was devoted37 entirely to the cult38 of the sermon. Mr William Worts had previously39 left a legacy40 to the University, which was employed in erecting the present galleries (1735). The Cock-pit was remodelled, and the centre of the church was filled with an immense octagonal pulpit on the “three-decker” principle, the crowning glory and apex41 of which was approached, like a church-tower, by an internal staircase. About 1740, Burrough filled the chancel-arch and chancel with a permanent gallery, which commanded a thorough view of this object. The gallery, known as the “Throne” was an extraordinary and unique erection. The royal family of Versailles never worshipped more comfortably than did the Vice-Chancellor and heads of houses, in their beautiful arm-chairs, and the doctors, sitting on the tiers of seats behind them. In this worship of the pulpit, the altar was quite disregarded, and Cole the antiquary remarked sorrowfully on this discreditable fact. Undergraduates, whose power of expression was not equal to their sense of humour, irreverently called the Throne Golgotha, because the heads of houses sat there. The church[27] thus became an oblong box, with the organ at one end, the Throne at the other, and the pulpit between them. The portentous42 array of bevelled and panelled oak plunged43 the church in darkness, and so, in 1766, the aisle44 windows were altered and the present meagre insertions made.
This domestic comfort pervaded45 the church until 1863. The Camden Society destroyed the picturesque46 top of the tower in 1842, but did not touch the interior of the church. In 1851 Sir Gilbert Scott took away Mildmay’s porch, and substituted for it the present west door. Much about the same time, the ground round St Mary’s was cleared of houses. Dr Luard, the late registrary, who was then Vicar, agitated47 for the removal of the “throne” for a long time, and at last the work of reconstruction began. The present nave-seats and chancel-stalls, in a somewhat florid style, were put in, and the only remains of the old preaching-house were the galleries and the organ at the west end. This organ, which dates from 1698, and is in part the work of Father Smith, was rebuilt by Messrs Hill in 1870. In 1888 the south porch was rebuilt on the lines of a porch which had been[28] destroyed in 1783. Under the present vicar, Dr Cunningham, the work of restoration has advanced. The tower has been thoroughly48 repaired, and a new organ has been built for parochial services on the south side of the choir. Further, the late Mr Sandars, who did so much for the University, filled in the lower part of the aisle windows with the arms of those noblemen and prelates who subscribed49 to the nave between 1478 and 1519. These windows, which are by Messrs Powell, are full of interesting matter for the student of monastic heraldry. Messrs Powell are similarly engaged in filling the clerestory windows with admirable figure-glass. Altogether, during the last half-century, the church has returned some way towards its original design. There is now a side altar in St Andrew’s Chapel, which is used as the chapel of the Clergy50 Training-School; the Lady Chapel is occupied by the vestry. And, finally, one must not forget the “Cambridge chimes” in the tower, which were composed in 1790 by Dr Jowett of garden fame, and are the model of all such chimes throughout England.
点击收听单词发音
1 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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2 embryonic | |
adj.胚胎的 | |
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3 catastrophes | |
n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 );灾难;不幸事件;困难 | |
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4 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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5 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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6 consecration | |
n.供献,奉献,献祭仪式 | |
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7 remodelled | |
v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 gild | |
vt.给…镀金,把…漆成金色,使呈金色 | |
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9 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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10 reconstruction | |
n.重建,再现,复原 | |
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11 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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12 nave | |
n.教堂的中部;本堂 | |
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13 arcade | |
n.拱廊;(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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14 piers | |
n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 );(常设有娱乐场所的)突堤;柱子;墙墩 | |
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15 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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16 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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17 glazed | |
adj.光滑的,像玻璃的;上过釉的;呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式);上釉于,上光;(目光)变得呆滞无神 | |
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18 erecting | |
v.使直立,竖起( erect的现在分词 );建立 | |
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19 buttresses | |
n.扶壁,扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑,加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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20 spire | |
n.(教堂)尖顶,尖塔,高点 | |
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21 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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22 turrets | |
(六角)转台( turret的名词复数 ); (战舰和坦克等上的)转动炮塔; (摄影机等上的)镜头转台; (旧时攻城用的)塔车 | |
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23 pinnacles | |
顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 ); 顶点; 尖顶; 小尖塔 | |
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24 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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25 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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26 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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27 gilding | |
n.贴金箔,镀金 | |
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28 laud | |
n.颂歌;v.赞美 | |
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29 revival | |
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振 | |
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30 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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31 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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32 carving | |
n.雕刻品,雕花 | |
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33 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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34 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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35 divers | |
adj.不同的;种种的 | |
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36 canopies | |
(宝座或床等上面的)华盖( canopy的名词复数 ); (飞行器上的)座舱罩; 任何悬于上空的覆盖物; 森林中天棚似的树荫 | |
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37 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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38 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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39 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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40 legacy | |
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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41 apex | |
n.顶点,最高点 | |
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42 portentous | |
adj.不祥的,可怕的,装腔作势的 | |
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43 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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44 aisle | |
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道 | |
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45 pervaded | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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47 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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48 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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49 subscribed | |
v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意 | |
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50 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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