STANBROOK
244
STANBROOK
baldachinum over the highest row of seats was often
very magnificent. Germany and France possess a
large number of stalls that are masterpieces. These
stalls are found on both sides of the choir in the
churches of monasteries and collegiate foundations.
The seats on the Epistle side are called chorus abbatis
or prceposili, those on the Gospel side chorus prioris
or decani. The last of the ascending rows has gener-
ally a back wall crowned with artistic decorations.
The back of each preceding row serves the succeeding
one as a prayer-desk; the first row has a projection
built in front of it for the same purpose. On feast
days, for the sake of comfort and ornament, tapes-
Stanbrook Abbey, an abbey of Benedictine nuns,
midway between Malvern and Worcester, England.
The abbey and church are dedicated to Our Lady of
Consolation, the title of theoriginal foundation at Cam-
brai, Spanish Flanders, 1625, effected by the Benedic-
tine iNIonks of the English Congregation, under whose
immediate jurisdiction the community has always
remained. Of the nine English ladies who began the
foundation, Helen More (Dame Gertrude) was chief
foundress because of the liberality of her father, Cres-
acre More, great-grandson of Sir Thomas More; where-
fore the community has special claims on the patron-
age of this blessed martyr. The other ladies were:
tries were hung on the backs of the stalls, cushions Margaret Vavasour; Anne Morgan; Catherine Gas-
laid on the seats, and rugs put under the feet. Orna- coigne; Grace and Anne More, cousins of Helen;
mental designs or figures carved in the wood dec- Frances Watson; and two lay sisters, Marj' Hoskins
orated both the front and rear faces of the high and Jane Martin. Dame Frances Gawen, one of three
backs of all the stalls as well as the double arms that nuns lent by the Benedictines of Brussels to train the
were used both when
standing and sitting.
On the arms as well
as in subordinate
parts, especially on
the misericordia or
console — against
which, after the seat
had been turned uj),
the cleric could sup-
port himself while
standing — it was not
unusual to carve fan-
tastic figures of ani-
mals or grotesque
devils. Choir-stalls
of stone, which are
always colder, occur
but "rarely (for ex-
ample, at Kaurini in
Bohemia). Anioim
the oldest still exist-
ing examples of Got h-
ic choir-stalls in
France are those in the Church of Notre-Dame-
de-la-Roche; especially rich in their ornamen-
tation are those in the cathedrals at Amiens, Paris,
Auch, and others. VioUet-le-Duc gives some beauti-
ful examples in his " Dictionnaire de 1' Architecture",
s. v. Slalles. Among examples in Belgium the Church
of St. Gertrude at Louvain shows late Gothic choir-
Choir Stalls in the Church of S. Spibito, Florence
postulants, governed
as abbess until the
infant community
was in a position to
choose one from its
own body, Dame
CatherineGascoigne,
abbess, 1629- 1676.
Dom Augustine
Baker, to whom their
s]iiritual formation
w a.-i entrusted, wrote
at the Cambrai Ab-
bey, for their use,
spiritual treatises
which give him ce-
lebrity. In 1793 the
French revolution-
ists, seizing their
house and property,
conveyed the nuns,
twenty-two in num-
ber, to a prison in
Compiegne. Here,
consequent on hardship, four of them died, as
also the Very Reverend Dom Augustine Walker,
President of the Anglo-Benedictine Congrega-
tion, who had been arrested in their priests' quar-
ters. Subsequently they had as fellow-prisonera
the CarmeUtes (since beatified), who were led
thence to niartjTdom in Paris, July. 1794. Though
stalls with statuettes and twenty-eight rehefs por- a similar death awaited the Benedictines this was
traying the life of Christ, of St. Augustine, and of averted by the downfall of Robespierre, their deliver-
St. Gertrude. The most celebrated choir-stalls in ance from jail being effected only on 25 April, 1795.
Germany are those in the Cathedral at L'lm; these Clad in worn-out secular attire left in the Compiegne
are reproduced in all their details in Egle, "Der Dom prison by the Carmelite martjTs, they reached Eng-
zu Ulm" (1872). There are eighty-nine seats ^\'ith land in utter destitution, but were charitably lodged
gable hood-mouldings and pinnacles, on each seat in London for some days. Thence they proceeded to
there are two rows of decorations, on the back and Lancashire, where the \'er>' Reverend Dr. Brewer,
on the side, representing Christ as the anticipation of President of the Anglo-Benedictine Congregation,
the heathen and the prediction of the prophets, and made over to them the Ladies' School belonging to the
in addition there is delineated the founding of the Woolton mission under his care.
New Covenant. The choir-stalls at Dordrecht, Hoi- In 1807 the community removed to Salford Hall,
land, belong to the style of the Renaissance; they near Evesham, where bv the joint kindness of its
represent on the back the triumph of the Church and ownier. Mrs. Stanford, and the life-heir. Robert Berk-
of the Holy Sacraments; on the opposite side, the eley, Esq., of Spetchly. they lived free of rent, till
triumphs of Charles V. There are superb creations able to purchase Stanbrook Hall, to which they re-
of the same style in Italy, especially with inlaid work moved in 18.38. In 1S71 an entin>ly new monastic
called tarsia, as at Assisi, Siena, Florence, and ^'enice structure W!is insvugurated by the consecration of the
(cf. Kraus, "Geschichte der christl. Kunst", II, abbey-church, designed by Edward ^^'elby Pugin.
685). Modern times have made but few changes in The starting of this project was mainly attributable to
the practical and artistic form that was fixed in an the zeal an(l energy of the then Virnrius monictlium,
Dom James Laurence Shepherd, the well-known trans- lator of Dom Gut'Taiiger's ".\nnee Liturgique". The rest of the ablx'v l)uil(ling. of which Mcs,srs. Cuthbert and Peter-Paul Pugin were the architects, wsus grad- uallv erected during the abbacv of Ladv Gertrude L. d'Aiirillac Dubois, d. 1897. The abbey, with its extensive grounds, is enclosed by the canonical wall
earlier era.
Besides the authors already meulioncd: Reitz, Dan Chorgesliilit desDomes zu Kdln (Dresden. 1S47) ; TscmarHKA, Der Stephansdom in Wien (Vienna, 1832). A comprehensive treatise is given by RiGGENBACn, ChorgrMUhl des Millelallers in Zeilschr. fur christl. Arch&ol. u. Kuji.lt, II: Mitteil. der k. k. Central-Kommis.non ru Wim, VIII (Vienna, 1865); Gailhabacd. .Architecture du V« au XVII' siicle el des aria qui en dipendertt (Paris, l.S.'iO-S).
Gbbbard Gietmann.
