XXIII. Observations on the Origin and Antiquity of Round Churches; and of the Round Church at Cambridge in particular. By Mr. James Essex, F.A.S.

James Essex

doi:10.1017/S0261340900020233

XXIII. Observations on the Origin and Antiquity of Round Churches; and of the Round Church at Cambridge in particular. By Mr. James Essex, F.A.S.

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012

James Essex

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Though there are but few churches in England built on a circular plan, it has generally been supposed that most of them were built by the Jews for Synagogues; and this opinion has long prevailed at Cambridge, because the round church, a plan of which is herewith annexed, is situate in a part of the town commonly called the Jewry, in which place it is generally believed that the Jews lived together, as they formerly did in that part of London called the Old Jewry ; but as it does not appear from any good authority that the Jews ever occupied this particular part of the town, we must seek some better reason for its being called the Jewry. As the Jews were dispersed into various parts of the world soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, it is probable that some of them found the way into Britain while it was subject to the Romans, though we have no certain account of their appearing here under that denomination before the time of William the Conqueror, who gave them great encouragement.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 6 , 1782 , pp. 163 - 178

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900020233 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1782

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^{page 164 note [a]} Fuller's History of Cambridge.

^{page 165 note [b]} Mat. Paris Hist. p. 644.

^{page 165 note [c]} Primo receperunt Cantabrigiae fratres villae burgenses, affignantes eis veterem synagogam, quae erat contigua carceri. (Leland's Collec. vol. III. p. 342.) Anno Reg. 8 Hen. III. 15 October. (MS. Baker, vol. XXV. p. 8.) for forty marks, and a rent of one mark yearly to the crown, and two shillings to the chief lord of that house.

^{page 165 note [d]} Tanner's Notitia Monastica.

^{page 166 note [e]} Henry III granted them annual protections while they continued here.

^{page 166 note [f]} Fuller's Hist. Camb. p. 4. Parker, p. 126.

^{page 167 note [g]} Antoine Desgodetz, Edifices antiques de Rome. Il est à present appellé Saint Etienoe le rond.

^{paeg 167 note [h]} Desgodetz.

^{page 168 note [i]} Resurrectionis Dominicae rotunda ecclesia tribus cincta parietibus, duodecim coiumnis sustentatur. (De Locis Sanctis cap. 2.)

^{paeg 169 note [k]} Ecclesia rotunda grandis, ternas per circuitum cameratas habet porticus desuper tectas. De Locis Sanctis, Cap. VI.

^{page 170 note [l]} Rotundo schemate a fundamentis constructa & concamerata. De Locis Sanstis, cap. XIX.

^{page 171 note [m]} Intersecti sunt omnes milites Templi Domini. M. Paris, p. 73.

^{page 172 note [n]} Chauncey, p. 382.

^{page 172 note [o]} There is a monastery of the Resurrection about 30 miles from Moscow, called the New Jerusalem, because built upon the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre by the patriarch Nichon. Dr. King's Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia, p. 33. Constantine built a church at Rome, called Sessorian Basilica, five Ecclesia S. Crucis in Hierusalem. Ciampini de Sacris Aedisiciis, p. 116.

^{paeg 173 note [p]} Plate XX.

^{page 173 note [q]} In 1255 it was valued at 1 M. by the name of Ecc. Sti. Sépulchri, in a Taxation made of all ecclesiastical and temporal estates, according to their true value throughout all England.

^{page 174 note [q]} Parker's History of Cambridge, from a MS. in the Cotton Library.

^{page 174 note [r]} Betwixt St. John's College and the Round Church, or St. Sepulchre's. Fuller's Church Hist. p. 98.

^{page 174 note [s]} The Baptistery at Pisa in Italy may be ranked among the Round Churches, and was begun about thirty years after the church at Cambridge, and finished in the year 1160, by Deotisalvi, an eminent architect of that age. Josephi Martinii Theatrum Basilicae Pisanae.

^{page 175 note [t]} Parker's Hist. Camb. p. 116.

^{page 175 note [u]} Tanner's Notitia Monastica, p. 43.

^{page 175 note [x]} Archives of Jesus College.

^{page 175 note [y]} Now St. John's College.

^{page 175 note [z]} In a taxation roll, 1255, it is called Om. Sanctorum juxta Hospitale.

^{page 176 note [a]} As this church was not taxed among the spiritualities belonging to the priory of Barnwell in the year 1291, twenty-two years before the order was dissolved, it probably did not belong to them until after the year 1313; but it is uncertain to whom it belonged before.

^{page 176 note [b]} Bromfield's Collect. Cantab.

^{paeg 176 note [c]} See pl. XX.

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XXIII. Observations on the Origin and Antiquity of Round Churches; and of the Round Church at Cambridge in particular. By Mr. James Essex, F.A.S.

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