Dunster Church and Priory
Their History and Architectural Features, with Many Illustrations and Plan (Classic Reprint)
Description:... Excerpt from Dunster Church and Priory: Their History and Architectural Features, With Many Illustrations and Plan In the third case, however, both the laity and the monks of the adjoining convent had rights within the church, one worshipping in one part and another in another. Indeed, as Professor E. A. Freeman remarks, our monastic and large collegiate churches may be divided into two classes, those simply and wholly designed for the monastic or collegiate fraternity, and those which at the same time discharged the function of ordinary parish churches. In the generality of these latter cases, the eastern part or the choir, belonged to the monks, the western part or the nave, to the people. In fact, they often formed, to all intents and purposes, two distinct churches, and the two parts were often spoken of distinctly as the parish church and the abbey or priory church. There was often a complete barrier between the two, and the people had what may be called their own high altar at the east end of the nave.
When the monasteries were suppressed, the eastern part of the church, being as much the possession of the particular confraternity as a chapel within its gates, became the property of King Henry VIII, and passed, like any other building on the estate, to the noble to whom he granted out the convent lands. In that case its doom was generally s'ealed. The rapacious owners converted everything they could into money. The bells and lead off the roof were sold to the highest bidder, and the splendid stone, timber, and glass work of an earlier and more devout age were cleared away as old building material.
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