What the early chapterhouses teach us today

series: Central Spaces

Wells Cathedral, Somerset cc 1275 - 1310

Before you read or listen to this article I really recommend that you may open and read the associated pre study here: about the stage effect. This gives an insight into how frontal performance, action (on the stage, then on the screen) has influenced our modern media-fuelled society and how it works in the church. Yes. Indeed in the Church - when Sunday worship is slowly and gradually reduced to a kind of performance and service—for visitors. However, this is a postmodern phenomenon {or diagnose}, not the normal way of life for the community.

I'd like to recommend this booklet for help or contemplation,
NOT like a pre-digested,
instant doctrine.

Chapters:

intro
The centrality in Gd's Kingdom
  In the Old Testament
  The Tabernacle
  In the New Testament
What is the chapterhouse?
Chapter houses in England
Briefing
Late and (post)modern adaptations

Intro

When reading the Bible, visitors are immediately immersed in its historical richness and the saga of the House of David, the struggles of the major prophets, and the tumultuous life of Jesus and his disciples.
Meanwhile, the initial glimpse often overlooks the inner dynamics of the believer's community or broader social relationships.
Honestly, the Book of Deuteronomy doesn't help much with navigating the system.
Perhaps the Gospel accounts from the first century provide us with more insight into the lives of the characters in the New Testament. Jesus is undoubtedly the central figure of the New Covenant and early church life. After all, he is the Messiah, united with the Heavenly Father. But wait! The Almighty Lord God is not everyone's everyday pal, is he?
Good question..

The centrality in Gd's Kingdom

In the following chapters, we will explore the inner family life of the timeless Church (the believers) through scripture and its sacred communal spaces. We will read about the sacral buildings of the Middle Ages and finally about the afterlife of communal spaces, i.e., how they have influenced our modern lives.
This booklet will introduce you to the endless each-otherness in the church's storyline. And we will enjoy the riches of the gem of the Christian architecture: The Chapterhouse.
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In the Old Testament

First of all: In its narrowest sense, the Old Testament refers to the years of the Jewish exodus, the era of the conquest of the land, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the final period before the arrival of the Messiah.

The Tabernacle - God in the center of the society

the 1st central place we study is The Tabernacle And Court in the midst of the camp of Israel.
The Tabernacle was a portable temple—a “tent of meeting”—within a movable courtyard (Exodus 25–31; 35–40). It was constructed after the pattern that YHVH revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, and was assembled in the desert as Moses led the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Tabernacle courtyard was 150 feet (46 m) long and 75 feet (23 m) wide, totaling 11,250 square feet (1,045 square meters).

When observing the cutout of this portable, sacred space, one of the most important things to recognize is the repetition of proportions: ....

TAP for the Zoom & descriptions

Of course, we do not find a central location in the most sacred place, as only the high priest was allowed to enter there on special occasions.
..

Below, I present some beautiful examples from the early history of English cathedrals. Since the chapter houses were built together with (or immediately after) the main church building, they are architecturally compatible with each other.
Functionally, however, they focus primarily on community life rather than Catholic {later: Anglican} worship...

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
{that the visible came out of the invisible}
Heb 12:3
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2Cor 4:18

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In the New Testament

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What is the chapterhouse?

A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter* meets there. In monasteries, the whole community often met there daily for readings and to hear the abbot or senior monks talk. When attached to a collegiate church, the dean, prebendaries and canons of the college meet there. The rooms may also be used for other meetings of various sorts; in medieval times monarchs on tour in their territory would often take them over for their meetings and audiences. Synods, ecclesiastical courts and similar meetings often took place in chapter houses.

Notes:* "chapter"
According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics (chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy.
In some Church of England cathedrals there are two such bodies, the lesser and greater chapters, which have different functions. The smaller body usually consists of the residentiary members and is included in the larger one. {wiki}

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These houses were attached to a monastery, friary, abbey, convent church, or cathedral in which members held their meetings. In the earliest centuries of Christianity, monastic communities began to form, and early leaders of the church began to set down rules for governance of those communities as early as the fourth century.

Pic Maredsous Abbey 1

The origins of the chapter house can be traced to the writings of St Benedict of Nursia, who in the sixth century laid out his rules for monastic communities. The third rule ordains that Benedictine monks and nuns must be called to council daily to discuss the affairs of their communities, though it did not specifically require a dedicated room or space. It wasn’t until the ninth century that references to chapter houses appeared in writings on monasterial architecture. The practice of creating a separate space for daily council was adopted by the Benedictines, Augustinians, and other monastic orders.

Pic Maredsous Abbey 2

Chapter houses were used in secular** cathedrals and monastic churches and had the same basic functions. Monastic churches and cathedrals adhered to rules set by the founder of their order; their members lived communally and took vows.

Notes: **secular cathedral
In secular cathedrals, chapter meetings were not necessarily daily occurrences. Rather than meaning nonreligious, in this instance, ‘secular’ refers to a church not connected to a monastic order; its clergy were ordained but not bound by monastic vows. The chapter, comprised of canons and other officers and led by a dean, met for administrative purposes, thus there would be no reading of rules. They were under the authority of the bishop of their diocese, though decisions by the bishop that pertained to the church or cathedral were subject to confirmation by the chapter.

Chapter houses were second only to the church building itself in their importance to the life of the religious community. In many instances, the chapter house was constructed immediately after the church building was framed and construction began.

Pic Lincoln_Cathedral_Chapter_House

Most chapter houses were rectangular, {which was mainly built on the continent, while other versions were also erected in England} but they could also be circular, polygonal, or rectangular with one apsidal (semicircular) wall. Seats were built into the walls all around the perimeter, with a special chair or throne for the abbot or dean. Many were richly and colorfully decorated with frescoed walls, elaborate tracery and statuary, enormous stained-glass windows, and complicated rib-vaulted ceilings.
Medieval cathedrals and churches were generally constructed on an east-west axis with the apse and the sanctuary on the east end, closest towards the sunrise. Chapter houses in most churches and cathedrals were located on the east wing of the cloister, next to the sanctuary. Constructed with chapter meetings in mind, they were designed to have excellent acoustic properties, so that the attending members could hear each other speak across vast spaces.

Pic Chapter house at Salisbury Cathedral

Beyond acoustic considerations, the chapter houses resonated with the dynamics of community activity. Clearly, the principle of central space and focus on community were taken into account.
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Chapter houses in England

Chapter houses were witnesses to history, some more than others.
In England, Over the centuries, chapter houses and the churches to which they belonged were lost in wars, fires, and natural disasters. Usually, they were rebuilt. The Reformation that began in 1534 took a terrible toll on monastic churches, abbeys, and cathedrals. There were nearly 900 religious houses in England just before King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries—more than a third of them were in London. Relatively few of the buildings were completely demolished; many were sold, given to men loyal to Henry VIII, or turned into parish churches. Secular churches and cathedrals were not usually destroyed but often transformed into Anglican churches, only to be damaged or demolished a century later during the English Civil War. Three hundred years on, some were damaged by bombs during the Second World War.
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Pic Westminster Abbey - chapterhouse

Westminster Abbey’s Gothic chapter house was built in the mid-thirteenth century. It is octagonal with seating for up to 80 monks. During the Reformation, the monastery connected to it was dissolved and the church was made a secular cathedral with a bishop. Queen Mary I restored the Benedictine monastery during her brief reign, but when her half-sister Queen Elizabeth I gained the throne, she removed the abbot and monks and reestablished the church as a ‘royal peculiar’, meaning that it is responsible not to a bishop but to the sovereign. The chapter house was the place where the King’s Great Council assembled in 1257, the precursor to the English Parliament. The House of Commons met in the chapter house for several years in the fourteenth century. After Elizabeth I ejected the monks for the second time, the chapter house was used as a repository for state records up until 1863.

Pic The chapterhouse in the Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral survived the Reformation but not the Civil War, when it was so heavily damaged that services were held in the chapter house for the next 70 years. It came to be known as the Sermon House. In 1986, the chapter house was the venue for the signing of the agreement to build the channel tunnel between Britain and France, signed by English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterrand.

Pic Wells Cathedral Chapterhouse

Considered by many to be the most beautiful example of a medieval chapter house in Britain is the one in Wells Cathedral.
In the Cathedral in the 1290s an octagonal chapter house was built, one of the most beautiful in England. Its basic form is the richly decorated vault. Like a palm-tree, the sturdy central column supports the expansive dome of the vault on which countless closely packed tierceron ribs stretch upwards.
It is known for the graceful, flowing stairs leading to the chapter house and the comical sculpted faces that look down from above every seat.

The Porch of the Salisbury Cathedral's chapter house

The Salisbury Cathedral chapter house displays one of the original four copies of the Magna Carta. Stephen Langton, then the Archbishop of Canterbury, was an important figure in the negotiations leading to the signing of the landmark document, and he had many ties to Salisbury. Canterbury also had an original copy but after it was damaged by fire, it was sent to the British Library.
The end of the monastic culture
After the Acts of Suppression in 1535 and 1539, monastic orders disappeared from England. Mary I briefly lead a Catholic revival but her reign was short, and her half-sister Elizabeth I returned the kingdom to Protestantism. Religious houses were banned by law until the Catholic Relief Act of 1791 passed to offer refuge to French priests and monastics during the French Revolution. It also allowed limited public worship for English Catholics. In the mid-nineteenth century, English Catholics and Anglicans gradually began building new monastic communities, bringing back the building of charter houses. This coincided with the Gothic Revival movement...
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Briefing

Chapter houses played a critical role within the day-to-day life of the religious community. They were central places where meetings are held.
These rooms/buildings usually belonged to a cathedral, monastery, or monastery church. In cathedrals, the cathedral chapter (a college of clerics advising the bishop) meets there. In monasteries, the community gathered daily for readings and discussions. In collegiate churches, the dean, prebendaries, and canons convene there.
These spaces also hosted various other meetings, including royal audiences, synods, and ecclesiastical courts.
The concept traces back to St. Benedict of Nursia's sixth-century monastic rules, which required daily councils, though dedicated spaces only appeared in ninth-century writings. The practice was adopted by Benedictines, Augustinians, and other orders.
Chapter houses served both monastic and secular cathedrals (who weren't connected to monastic orders). They were second in importance only to the church itself and were often built immediately after the church structure.
Architecturally, most were rectangular, though some were circular, polygonal, or featured apsidal walls. They included perimeter seating with a special chair for the abbot or dean.
Many featured elaborate decoration: frescoes, tracery, statuary, stained glass, and rib-vaulted ceilings. Typically located on the east wing of the cloister, they were designed with excellent acoustics for clear communication across large spaces.
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Late and (post)modern adaptations

In post-medieval times, occasions for building chapter houses in the proper sense were rare; but, because the form was so characteristic of medieval architecture, 19th-century "Gothic revivalists" made considerable use of it in secular adaptations—typical examples being the chapter house adjoining the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the library of the House of Commons, Ottawa.

Used sources

https://www.quillsandquartos.com/post/england-s-chapter-houses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_house
https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/evolution-chapter-houses-medieval-architecture
https://www.britannica.com/topic/chapter-house
https://www.britainexpress.com/church-history.htm?term=Chapter+House
https://medievalheritage.eu/en/main-page/dictionary/chapter-house/
Sarah Lee :
The Evolution of Chapter Houses
Tracing the development of chapter houses from early Christianity to the Gothic period

i - ii

Assoc. Articles:
· The Stage effect: action and reaction
· Reciprocity