Isle of Avalon | Glastonbury Pilgrims' Trail

<BODY> <H1><A HREF="gpt-03-abbey.html">Glastonbury Abbey</A></H1> <P>St Mary's Chapel marks the site of Joseph of Arimathaea's original church, the first above-ground purpose-built church in all of Christendom. Glastonbury Abbey is also the only place that claims King Arthur's grave. It was found in the the Abbey cemetery during rebuilding of the church after a disastrous fire in 1184.</P> <P>The Celts had a deity named Easus who died and was supposed to come back to life. When the Druids heard about Jesus from Joseph of Arimathaea, they saw the return of Easus in the story, and they gave <I>Ynys Witrin</I> to him. It was here in Glastonbury where Joseph built the first above-ground Christian church in all of Christendom. There is also an unverified tradition that Joseph brought Jesus here as a young man, during the 'lost years'  in which case the local Druids will have formed their own judgements and recognised the hosting of the exiled Joseph and his followers as a significant act.</P> <P>This was a birthplace of Celtic Christianity  the Culdees or 'wanderers', as they at first will have been. It grew to be a powerful site of pilgrimage for Christians  so powerful that, when Henry VIII created the Anglican Church, he had to send his men to Glastonbury to find a pretext to take over the Abbey's land. The Abbey was closed down a full two years later than all the other monasteries in England.</P> <P>They found a chalice in Abbot Whiting's office. They said that it should have been in the king's treasury, so Abbot Whiting was obviously stealing it. They hanged him on trumped-up charges and then drew and quartered this unfortunate Abbot, on top of the Tor. After that, the Abbey treasure was taken and the building was allowed to fall into ruin  helped by quarrying by locals of the useful dressed stone of the Abbey for their own building purposes. At first an act of protest against centuries of subservience and service to the Abbey, many locals supported the dissolution of the Abbey, only to regret it when they experienced economic disaster in the area and a new subservience to the king's men.</P> <P>One theory has it that Henry VIII sought the relics of the chalice and the blood and sweat of Jesus to verify England's primacy over Rome. This was high-level power-politics, a coup against Papal influence in European politics. The Abbot refused to yield these relics  it is said they were concealed in South Somerset and have been so to this day. So he had to be got rid of  he was seen as a traitor against the state.</P> <P>The Abbey remained derelict and in private ownership for 350 years until the Church of England acquired it in 1906. Shortly after, the Anglican church hired church architect Frederick Bligh Bond of Bristol to do a dig at Glastonbury Abbey. His discoveries were amazing, including the unexpected Edgar Chapel at the head of the Abbey. His success was due to a series of psychic 'automatic writings' in which Bond communicated with a thirteenth century monk, who spoke to him about the layout of the Abbey and grounds. Bond wrote about this communication in a book called <I>The Gate Of Remembrance</I>, published in 1918 (it's still available).</P> <P>Unfortunately for him, he very quickly lost his job and was not often hired as an ecclesiastical architect after that. Bond also designed the <I>vesica pisces</I> lid on the Chalice Well  this has become a symbol for Glastonbury, signifying the interlocking of the female and the male, of matter and spirit and any polarity.</P> <P>Today the Abbey is a pilgrimage site for all who come to Glastonbury. Its grounds are beautifully kept, and it is a place of silent meditation for all who enter. In a sense, the break-up of the Christian church and the later planting of an arboretum in the Abbey grounds has restored something of its former glory, perhaps as a pre-Christian sacred grove.</P> <P>The Abbot's Kitchen is the only fully intact building left over from the days of the Abbey, which was closed down in the 1530s. After the Dissolution, Glastonbury became a hotbed for Protestant Puritan radicals, some of whom were quite extreme, battling over territory here. The Abbot's Kitchen was for a while used as a Quaker meeting house until, later, the Quakers were forcibly ejected from Glastonbury, moving over the river Brue to found the neighbouring town of Street. Street later became a factory town for a Quaker shoemaking company, Clarks.</P> <P>Apart from being an interesting medieval catering establishment, the Abbot's Kitchen is nowadays a wonderful chamber for toning, singing and chanting. Try it! The apex of the domed ceiling is on the left.</P> </BODY>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> </script><script type="text/javascript"> </script><noscript><img height="1" width="1" alt="" src="http://nht-2.extreme-dm.com/n2.g?login=avalon23&pid=gptabbey&j=n&jv=n&auto=y"/> </noscript>