[Magdalen] Rose is a Rose.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/7/2016 8:17:50 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com writes:


Roger, who trained in  Salisbury.>>>>>>>
 
 
 
The descriptions that exist of the liturgical style at  Sarum/Salisbury
run out of adjectives to describe the solemnity of worship there.
Literal fleets of vested ministers attending to every detail were  routine,
and, of course, out-did themselves on feast days.
 
It all must of been quite an experience for the worshipper.
 
I've never read any description of the old arrangement of the  sanctuary
around the high altar at Salisbury.  It's always seemed just a  little
unsatisfactory, and in the end, they seem at this time,  to be leaving it
uncluttered/unadorned, with a full, often very colorful altar frontal
(usually Laudian/Jacobian), and then a view straight through to the 
windows (modern) of the Lady Chapel.  It's OK, but not wonderful
IMHO.
 
Past reincarnations in modern times have included a smallish stone
reredos and then later a large, suspended gold colored modern cross
strikingly like the one in my brother's starkly modern A-frame  Methodist
church in Wisconsin.  Thank heaven they got rid of that!
 
There must have been some medieval embellishment of the sanctuary
at Salisbury.......but what?  I'm sure it wasn't empty as it is  now.
 
Somebody needs to write a book about this of the type that explained
in detail the arrangements through the years at Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul/Constantinople.





David Strang.