قراءة كتاب Sir Christopher Wren His Family and His Times
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after the trial of the Seven Bishops had shaken the confidence of every Churchman in the country, Wren may have acquiesced in a settlement which appeared to promise protection to the Church without finally excluding the Stuart line. The ‘Parentalia,’ published five years after the last Jacobite rising in 1745, preserves, as has been said, a political silence which may be that of discretion or of disappointment.
One word should be said as to Gresham College, where Wren held his first professorship. It was founded in 1579 by the will of Queen Elizabeth’s great merchant Sir Thomas Gresham. The college was no other than his own house in Bishopsgate, forming a quadrangle round a large garden. The seven professors, each of whom gave a lecture a day in term time, had a salary of 50l. a year and were lodged in the house. Gresham College escaped the Fire, and gave lodgings at that time to the Lord Mayor and the aldermen, who had been less fortunate. In 1768 it was pulled down by Act of Parliament, to give a site to the new Excise Office, and the original collegiate scheme was destroyed, though the lectures are still given in a lecture hall.
Little is known of Wren in his Masonic capacity. He is said to have been a member and a master of the ‘Old Lodge of S. Paul,;’ now known as the ‘Lodge of Antiquity.;’ All the records of the Lodge belonging to that time have unfortunately been lost, so that they cannot be consulted with reference to this matter.
The question has been raised whether Wren was a Freemason or not. On this point the ‘Parentalia’ makes no explicit statement, though it appears to imply Wren’s connection with the Order.
The Duke of Sussex caused a plate to be engraved in 1827 and affixed to the mallet which Sir Christopher was said to have presented to the Lodge, with this inscription:—‘A. L. 5831. A.D. 1827. To commemorate that this, being the same mallet with which His Majesty King Charles II. levelled the foundation stone of S. Paul’s Cathedral, A. L. 5677, A.D. 1673. Was presented to the Old Lodge of S. Paul, now the Lodge of Antiquity, acting by immemorial constitution, by Brother Sir Christopher Wren, R.W.D.G.M., Worshipful Master of this Lodge and Architect of that Edifice.’
The statement respecting King Charles’s presence is probably an erroneous one. The Lodge possesses also three gilt wooden candlesticks in the form of columns, inscribed ‘Ex dono Chr. Wren Eq. A. L. 5680.’
Where quotations have been made directly from the Wren MS., from the ‘Parentalia,’ or from Evelyn’s Diary, the spelling and stopping of the originals have been faithfully reproduced. For the rest, the writer can only hope that these pages may serve as a contribution towards that full and worthy biography of the great architect which may yet, she trusts, be written before London is finally robbed of the Churches with which Wren’s genius endowed her.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| 1585–1636. | |
| Ancestry of the Wrens—Matthew Wren—Travels to Spain with the Prince of Wales—Interview at Winchester House—Bishop Andrewes’ Prophecy—Wren made Master of Peterhouse—Bishop of Hereford—Consecration of Abbey Dore—Office of Reconciliation—Foreign Congregations and the Norwich Weavers—Result of ‘a Lecturer’s’ Departure. | 3 |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| 1636–1640. | |
| Dr. C. Wren—Birth of his Son Christopher—East Knoyle—Order of the Garter—How a Murderer was Detected—Christopher at Westminster—A Latin Letter—Diocese of Ely—Impeachment of Lord Strafford—Of Archbishop Laud—Articles against Bishop Wren—Resigns the Deanery of the Chapels Royal. | 31 |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| 1641–1647. | |
| Bishop Wren accused—Westminster Abbey attacked—Imprisonment of the Bishops—Bishop Wren’s Defence—‘Utterly Denieth all Popish Affections’—The Garter Jewels—Archbishop Laud Murdered—Christopher at Oxford—Philosophical Meetings. | 55 |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| 1647–1658. | |
| Death of Mrs. M. Wren—King Charles Murdered—A monotonous Walk—Inventions—A Dream—All Souls’ Fellowship— Beginnings of the Royal Society—Astronomy—An Offer of Release—The Cycloid—Cromwell’s Funeral—Letters from London. | 85 |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| 1659–1663. | |
| Apostolical Succession—Difficulty of preserving it—Letters from Lord Clarendon—Bishop Wren’s Release—The Restoration—Convocation—Savilian Professorship—Royal Society—‘Elephant in the Moon’—Pembroke Chapel begun. | 109 |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| 1664–1667. | |
| Repair of S. Paul’s—Sheldonian Theatre—The Plague—A Letter from Paris—Consecration of Pembroke Chapel—Fire of London—Bishop Wren’s Death—His Family. | 139 |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| 1668–1672. | |
| Patching S. Paul’s—Sancroft’s Letters—Wren’s Examination of S. Paul’s—Salisbury Cathedral—London as it might have been—Letter to Faith Coghill—Wren marries her—Temple Bar—S. Mary-le-Bow—Artillery Company—Gunpowder used to remove Ruins. | 165 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| 1672–1677. | |
| Birth of his eldest Son—S. Stephen’s, Walbrook—S. Bennet Fink—Plans for S. Paul’s—The Excavations—Son Christopher born—Death of Faith, Lady Wren—Second Marriage—City Churches—The Monument—Tomb of Charles I.—Remains of the little Princes in the Tower. | public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@42007@42007-h@42007-h-6.htm.html#Page_191" class="pginternal" |
