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A SHORT ACCOUNT OF
KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

LONDON AGENTS
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co. Ltd.

Outside Outside

A SHORT ACCOUNT

OF

KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

BY

W. P. LITTLECHILD

(CHAPEL CLERK)

SECOND EDITION
With Illustrations

CAMBRIDGE:
W. HEFFER & SONS Ltd.
1921

Preface to Second Edition

THE success which has attended this little work from its first appearance, and the approval with which it has been received prompts me to issue a second and revised edition.

Regret has been expressed by some, that I omitted to give a description of all the windows, and that there were no illustrations in the first edition. This I have endeavoured to remedy by giving the subjects of all the windows (with here and there a special note) and inserting some pictures of the Chapel both inside and out, also the arms and supporters (a dragon and greyhound) of Henry VII, crowned rose and portcullis, from the walls of the ante-chapel and the initials H.A. from the screen.

I am indebted to Messrs. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd., 1 Amen Corner, London, for the loan of the blocks of the former, which appeared in the late Sir William St. John Hope's book Heraldry for Craftsmen and Designers. The latter, together with three photographs of the Chapel, were specially taken for me by Mr. A. Broom. I wish also to thank the Provost of Eton, Dr. M. R. James, for permission to use some part of his description of the windows. I am also indebted to Mr. J. Palmer Clark for leave to reproduce the photograph of the ship in the window on the south side. I am also grateful to Mr. Benham and Dr. Mann for their assistance in compiling the lists of Provosts and Organists. I have again to thank Sir G. W. Prothero, Honorary Fellow of the College, for reading through the manuscript and proofs of both editions and for his valuable suggestions. In conclusion, I would ask for the kind indulgence of my readers for any errors that may be discovered in this little book, and shall be glad to have them pointed out to me.

W. P. L.

Cambridge,
St. James' Day,
July 25, 1921.

Illustrations

Outside		Frontispiece
		PAGE
Looking East from Provost Stall	face	4
The Screen from West End		8
Ship Window		11
H.A. from the Screen		27
Arms of Henry VII.		35
Rose and Portcullis (Badges of Henry VII.)		35

The Foundation

IN the year 1441 Henry VI [1] founded King's College for a Rector and twelve scholars. He remodelled his plan in 1443, and styled his foundation the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas.[2] It was to consist of a Provost, seventy Fellows, or Scholars, together with Chaplains, Lay Clerks, and Choristers. The court was originally on the north side of the present chapel opposite Clare College, and was the home of many generations of Kingsmen until about 1825. In 1829 this court was sold to the University, and the buildings thereon were demolished to make way for an extension of the University Library; but the old entrance gateway was happily spared and incorporated with the new Library building, and stands there, as a "venerable and beautiful specimen of architecture," at the present day.

On St. James' Day, July 25th, 1446, the King laid the foundation stone of the chapel, and so began a building which, as a distinguished member of the college (Lord Orford) said, would "alone be sufficient to ennoble any age." It has been classed with the chapel of Henry VII at Westminster and Saint George's collegiate church at Windsor, as one of "the three great royal chapels of the Tudor age"; but there is no edifice, except Eton College Chapel, which forms in any way a fair subject of comparison with that of King's College.

The style is rich perpendicular, marking the point where the last Gothic meets the early Renaissance. Nicholas Close has commonly been considered to be the architect. He was a man of Flemish family, and for a few years held the cure of the parish of St. John Zachary, which church stood on the west side of Milne Street, and probably so close to it that the high altar of the church was on ground afterwards enclosed within the western bays of the Ante-Chapel. Close, in 1450, was appointed to the See of Carlisle, and in 1452 transferred to Lichfield. He certainly received from the King the grant of a coat of arms for his services, but it might fairly be said that John Langton, Master of Pembroke College, and Chancellor of the University, who also had the title of "Surveyor," a term generally admitted to be synonymous with architect, has an equally strong claim. But Mr. G. G. Scott, in his essay on English Church Architecture, says "the man who really should have had the credit of conceiving this great work was the master-mason, Reginald Ely, appointed by a patent of Henry VI to press masons, carpenters, and other workers." According to Mr. Scott's view, "Close and his successors did the work which in modern days would be done, though less efficiently, by a building committee. But they were ecclesiastics, not architects; it is the master-mason, not the more dignified 'surveyor,' to whom the honour of planning the building should be attributed."

Royal Benefactors

Looking East from Provost Stall Looking East from Provost Stall

BESIDES the founder, whose misfortunes hindered the completion of his work, four successive kings aided in its erection. When Henry was taken prisoner at St. Albans in 1455, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick promised to supply funds for the college buildings. For a time they kept their word, and some part of the £1,000 a year promised by Henry from the Duchy of Lancaster continued to be paid; but the defeat of the King at the battle of Towton in 1461 and the subsequent overthrow of the Lancaster dynasty checked progress. "After a long time spent in hiding in secret places, wherein for safety's sake he was forced to keep close, he was found and taken, brought as a traitor and criminal to London, and imprisoned in the Tower, and eventually suffered a violent death. He was buried at Chertsey Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed to Windsor Castle."[3] Still, the idea was there, and it remained for a later generation only to imitate and complete. In 1483, just before Edward IV's death, we find that nearly £1,300 had been spent on the chapel, about £1,100 given by the King, and £100 by Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, Lord Chancellor of England, formerly a Fellow of the College, but it is not stated how the deficit was met. Richard III, on his accession, resumed the work with great vigour. Between May and December, 1484, about £750 was spent, nearly all of which was provided by the king.

It is stated that in the year 1506 sufficient progress had been made in the building to admit of the performance of divine service, at which Henry VII and his mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, Foundress of St. John's and Christ's Colleges, who were on a visit to Cambridge, were present; and it is said that John Fisher, President of Queens' College, Bishop of Rochester, took part as chief celebrant. Professor Willis, in The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, takes exception to this statement. He is of opinion that, as the Screen and Stall work was not finished until 1536, and as the old Chapel [4] did not fall down until 1537 (in fact it was used on the eve of the day on which it fell), it is unlikely that the new chapel was used for service until that time. He further quotes Dr. Caius to strengthen this view.

Henry VII, who has been credited with an excessive tendency to accumulate treasure, was, next to the Founder, much the largest contributor. A short time before his death in 1509 [5], moved perhaps to emulate the liberal example of his pious mother, he gave £5,000 to the college, with instructions to his executors to finish the building. May we not also think that Richard Fox, Founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Bishop of Winchester from 1500 to 1528, who was Henry VII's constant adviser, Privy Seal, and one of his executors, had something to do with this mark of Henry's generosity and favour? This sum of £5,000 was probably all spent by the beginning of 1512, when the King's executors made over to the Provost and scholars, in 1511-12, a second sum of £5,000.

Thus in 1515, in the 7th year of King Henry VIII's reign, the stonework of the chapel was completed; it had cost, in the present value of money, about £160,000. The stone used in the construction is of different kinds. The white magnesian limestone from Huddlestone in Yorkshire is that which was chiefly used in the lifetime of the Founder. The lower part of the walls was built of this; the upper part was built with stone brought from Clipsham in Rutlandshire in 1477. A third kind, from Weldon in Northamptonshire, was used for the vaulting of the choir and ante-chapel, executed in 1512 and the following years. The north and south porches were vaulted with a magnesian limestone, more yellow in colour, from the Yorkshire quarry of Hampole.

The Screen from West End The Screen from West End

The outside measurement of the chapel from turret to turret is 310 feet, the said turrets being 146 feet high. The four westernmost buttresses on the south and five on the north side are ornamented with heraldic devices, crowns, roses, and portcullises, while on the set-offs separating the stages are dragons, greyhounds, and antelopes bearing shields.

Inside, the chapel is 289 feet long, 40 feet wide from pier to pier, and 80 feet high from the floor to the central point of the stone vault. The tracery of the roof is a fine specimen of the fan-vault which is rarely to be found in Continental architecture, but is the peculiar glory of the English style. It can truly be said that stone seems, by the cunning labour of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight and density and suspended aloft as if by magic, while the fretted roof is achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb. Similar roofs appear in Bath Abbey (the architect of which was Dr. Oliver King, a member of King's), in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster, in Sherborne Minster, and in the ambulatory of the choir of Peterborough; but the earliest example of this kind of vaulting is the cloister of Gloucester (1381-1412), of which the late Dean Spence speaks in the following lines:

"Old Gloucester's peerless cloister, once the haunt
Of mitred Abbot and of monk in cowl.
Above we see the long fan-traceried arch;
Beneath are letter'd stones and human dust."

The same words can be applied to this chapel, for here we have the long fan-traceried arch, and beneath are stones and human dust, for many members of King's and others are buried within its walls.

Work of Freemasons

IT may be that some of my readers are members of the Masonic body. Mr. John Proctor Carter, sometime Fellow of King's and Eton, in writing a history of the chapel, published in 1867, writes thus: "So many learned authors have been at fault when they have ventured into the obscurity which envelops the history of the Freemasons, by a gang of whom this chapel, in common with, at all events, a large number of mediaeval buildings were erected, that to say a word upon the subject may seem presumptuous. The theory of a traditional science, confined entirely to the members of a secret society that had ramified over the whole of civilised Europe, and to whom developments in architecture were due, has been pushed to extremity by some writers. By a natural reaction others have been led to discredit altogether the existence of such a society, and to consider the masonic fraternity merely as one of the various trade corporations or guilds whose relics have descended to our own day. But apart from the argument drawn from universal belief, there is probably sufficient evidence to show that the Freemasons were distinguished to some extent from other guilds, partly by the possession of peculiar secrets, and partly by their religious character. They seem to have been as it were the knight-errants of architecture, and to have travelled from city to city and country to country in the exercise of what they must have deemed a half sacred profession."

Ample proof has been adduced that Henry VI was not only a Mason himself (having been admitted a member of the fraternity in 1450), but did a good deal for the craft; and Freemasonry has much to thank him for. In a history of Westminster Abbey, written by the late Dean Farrar, is to be found the following: "Even the geometrical designs which lie at the base of its ground plan are combinations of the triangle, the circle, and the oval." Masons' marks are to be found in various places on the walls in chapel.

The Windows

Ship Window Ship Window

AS I have previously mentioned, the building was begun in 1446, but, owing to the long Civil Wars, it dragged on until 1515; and it was in that year that a contract was entered into with one Barnard Flower, to glaze the windows "with good, clene, sure, and perfyte glass, according to the old and new lawe," or, as we should put it, the Old and New Testament. Barnard Flower died between July 25, 1517, the date of his will, and August 14, 1517, the date when the will was proved, having completed only four windows, one of which is generally believed to be that over the north door, while a second faces the organ on the same side. He describes himself as "Barnard Floure, the Kinges glasyer of England, dwelling within the precynt of Saint Martin hospitale, in the Burgh of Southwark, in the county of Surrey." In 1526 two contracts were entered into with other firms to complete the rest of the windows, which was done in 1531. Among the names of those who entered into the last contract were two Flemings. Windows of a similar kind, although smaller, are to be found at Fairford in Gloucestershire; these date from about 1490.

The windows of the Chapel contain the finest series in the world of pictures in glass on a large scale. The tracery is filled with heraldic devices. At the top of the centre light are the Royal Arms as borne by Henry VII, and the rest of the badges are Roses, Crowns, Portcullises, Hawthorn bushes and Fleur-de-lys, being all appropriate to Henry VII. There are also the initials H. E. (Henry VII and Elizabeth of York) and H. K. for Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon as Prince and Princess of Wales. These badges run all round the side windows. In each side window there are four subjects, two side lights above and two below the transom or crossbar, while in the centre light are four figures, men and angels alternately, "Messengers," as they are called, because they hold scrolls or tablets (in Latin) descriptive of the pictures at the sides. All the side windows, except the easternmost window on the south side, are carried out in a similar manner.

In most cases the two lower pictures illustrate two scenes in the New Testament, and the two upper ones give types of these scenes drawn from the Old Testament or elsewhere. There are exceptions to this arrangement, as, for instance, the first two windows on the north side and in those illustrating the Acts of the Apostles.

The main subjects of the windows are the life of the Virgin Mary and the life of Christ. The scenes begin with the Birth of the Virgin, in the westernmost window on the north side, and proceed through the principal events of our Lord's life to the Crucifixion in the east window. This is followed on the south side by the following events as recorded in the Gospels, of which the last depicted is the Ascension in the one opposite the organ. Next comes the history of the Apostles as recorded in the Acts, while the legendary history of the Virgin occupies the last two windows.[6]

The following diagram may be of use in helping my readers to decipher the windows on the north and south sides.

Window key

The Subjects of the Windows are as follows:

NORTH SIDE

Window I. (Westernmost.)

1. The offering of Joachim and Anna rejected by the High Priest.	2. Joachim is bidden by an Angel to return to Jerusalem, where he would meet his wife at the Golden Gate of the Temple.
3. Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate of the Temple.	4. Birth of the Virgin.

Window II.

1. Presentation of a Golden Table (found by fishermen entangled in their nets) in the Temple of the Sun.	2. Marriage of Tobias and Sara.
3. Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.	4. Marriage of Joseph and Mary.

At the bottom of each picture in this window there is a small compartment containing a half-length figure of a man or angel bearing a legend.

Window III.

1. The Temptation of Eve.	2. Moses and the Burning Bush.
3. The Annunciation.	4. The Nativity.[A]

Window IV.

1. The Circumcision of Isaac by Abraham	2. The visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon.
3. The Circumcision of Christ.	4. The Adoration of the Magi.[B]

Window V.

1. The Purification of Women under the Law.	2. Jacob's Flight from Esau.[C]
3. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple.[D]	4. The Flight into Egypt.

Window VI.

1. The Golden Calf on a Ruby Pillar.	2. The Massacre of the Seed Royal by Athaliah.
3. The Idols of Egypt falling.[E]	4. The Massacre of the Innocents.

Window VII.

1. Naaman Washing in Jordan.	2. Jacob tempts Esau to sell his birthright.
3. The Baptism of Christ.	4. The Temptation of Christ.[F]

Window VIII.

1. Elisha raises the Shumanite's Son.	2. The Triumph of David.[G]
3. The raising of Lazarus.	4. The entry into Jerusalem.[H]

Window IX.

1. The Fall of Manna.	2. The Fall of the Rebel Angels.
3. The Last Supper.[I]	4. The Agony in the Garden.[J]

Window X.

1. Cain killing Abel.	2. Shemei cursing David.
3. The Betrayal.[K]	4. Christ mocked and blind-folded.[L]

Window XI.

1. Jeremiah imprisoned.	2. Noah mocked by Ham.
3. Christ before Annas.	4. Christ before Herod.

Window XII.

1. Job tormented.	2. Solomon crowned.
3. The Scourging of Christ.	4. Christ crowned with thorns.

Window XIII.

The East Window is quite different. For one thing it is much larger, and has nine vertical divisions instead of five. Here, in the tracery, in addition to other heraldic badges, is the "Dragon of the great Pendragonship," holding a banner with the arms of Henry VII. Also there is seen the ostrich feather of the Prince of Wales with the motto "Ich Dien."[7]

In this window there are no Messengers with inscriptions; only six scenes from the Passion beginning at the bottom left hand corner, and each occupying three lights instead of two. In the first three lights below the transom is the Ecce Homo; in the centre three, Pilate washing his hands, the final moment in the trial. Our Lord is represented in the centre light with his back to the spectator. In the three on the right is Christ bearing the Cross. Here is shown Saint Veronica kneeling and offering to our Lord a handkerchief to wipe his face. The legend goes on to say that, when he returned it to her, his face was impressed upon it; and it is now one of the four great relics preserved in the piers of the dome of St. Peter's at Rome.

Above the transom, the left three lights contain the Nailing to the Cross. In the centre three is Christ crucified between the thieves. At the base of the Cross may be seen our Lord's robe on the ground, and two figures kneeling upon it and pointing down to pieces of paper or dice, a scene depicting the fulfilment of the prophecy: "They parted my garments among them and upon my vesture they did cast lots." In the right three lights the body of Christ is taken down from the Cross.

SOUTH SIDE

Window XIV.

The Brazen Serpent, after a picture by Rubens, now in the National Gallery.[M]

3. Naomi and her Daughters-in-Law.

4. The Virgin and other Holy Women lamenting over the body of Christ.

Window XV.

1. Joseph cast into the pit by his brethren.	2. Israel going out of Egypt.
3. Burial of Christ.	4. The Harrowing of Hell.

Window XVI.

1. Jonah vomited up by the Whale.[N]	2. Tobias returning to his Mother.
3. The Resurrection of Christ.	4. Christ appearing to his Mother at prayer.

Window XVII.

1. Reuben at the pit, he finds it empty, and Joseph gone.	2. Darius visiting the lions' den finds Daniel alive.
3. The three Marys at the Sepulchre, which they find empty.	4. Christ, with a spade, appears to Mary Magdalene in the garden.[O]

Window XVIII.

1. The Angel Raphael meets Tobias.	2. Habakuk feeding Daniel in the lions' den.
3. Christ meets the two Disciples on the way to Emmaus.	4. The Supper at Emmaus.

Window XIX.

1. The Return of the Prodigal Son.[P]	2. The meeting of Jacob and Joseph.
3. The Incredulity of St. Thomas.	4. Christ appearing to the Apostles without Thomas.[Q]

Window XX.

1. Elijah carried up to Heaven.[R]	2. Moses receives the Tables of Law.
3. The Ascension of Christ.	4. The Descent of the Holy Ghost.

Window XXI.

1. Peter and John heal the lame man at the gate of the Temple.	2. The Apostles arrested.[S]
3. Peter and the Apostles going to the Temple.[T]	4. The Death of Annanias.[U]

Window XXII.

1. The Conversion of St. Paul.	2. Paul conversing with Jews at Damascus.[V]
3. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra.	4. Paul stoned at Lystra.

Window XXIII.

1. Paul and the Demoniac Woman.	2. Paul before the Chief Captain Lysias at Jerusalem.
3. Paul saying farewell at Philippi.[W]	4. Paul before Nero.

Window XXIV.

1. The Death of Tobit.	2. The Burial of Jacob.
3. The Death of the Virgin.	4. The Funeral of the Virgin.

Window XXV.

1. The Translation of Enoch.	2. Solomon receives his mother Bath-Sheba.
3. Assumption of the Virgin.	4. The Coronation of the Virgin.[X]

Window XXVI.

The West Window was filled with stained glass depicting the Last Judgment, by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, of London, in 1879. There is no doubt that in the original scheme of the windows this was intended to be the subject of the west window.[8] Like the east window, it consists of nine lights, divided by a transom into two tiers. The general idea is to set forth the scene of the Judgment as within a vast hall of semi-circular plan. In the central light of the upper tier is seated the figure of our Lord on the throne of judgment. On each side of the principal figure are groups of angels jubilant with trumpets and bearing emblems of the Passion.

On the right and left, each in three divisions, are seated figures of Apostles and other Saints. In the three lights below the figure of our Lord are St. Michael and two other angels, the one on the dexter side (the left side as you look at it) bearing a Lily, the other on the sinister (right) holding a flaming sword. St. Michael in the centre is in full armour. He carries the scales of judgment, and rests one hand on a cruciferous shield.

The lower portions of the lights show, on the one side, the resurrection of the blessed, with angels receiving them. A special feature of the design is seen in the lowermost portion near the centre. Here appears the figure of the founder, King Henry VI. He rises from his grave gazing upward, and bearing in his hands a model of the chapel itself. On the other side the lost are shown, driven out by angels threatening them with flaming swords.

In the tracery are arranged various shields and heraldic devices, which comprise the arms of Queen Victoria, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, the Provost (Dr. Okes), the Visitor (the Bishop of Lincoln, Chr. Wordsworth), F. E. Stacey, Esq. (the Donor), with those of King's College, Eton College, and the University.

The question has often been asked, How did the windows escape during the Civil War? There is one story that the west window was broken by Cromwell's soldiers (who certainly were quartered in the chapel), and that the rest of the glass was taken out and concealed inside the organ screen. Another, which appears in a small book called "The Chorister," is that all the glass was taken down and buried in pits in the college grounds in one night by a man and a boy. Both these stories are entirely fictitious. The best answer to the question may be found in the words of the Provost of Eton (Dr. M. R. James), who says, in one of his addresses on the windows: "It is most probable that Cromwell, anxious to have at least one of the universities on his side, gave some special order that no wilful damage should be wrought on this building, which, then as now, was the pride of Cambridge and of all the country round." The windows have been taken out and re-leaded at various times—first between 1657 and 1664; next in 1711-1712; thirdly in 1725-1730; fourthly in 1757-1765; fifthly in 1847-1850; and fourteen of them (one in each year) in a period extending from 1893 to 1906, by the late Mr. J. E. Kempe, when several mistakes which then existed were put right.

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A SHORT ACCOUNT OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL