FEATURE
An age of faith Homily preached by Mgr Antony Conlon in St Augustine’s, Snave
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lmost to the day and hour, exactly 460 years ago, two clerics made a special visit to the church of St Mary in the Marsh, Kent. They had been sent by Cardinal Pole, who was Archbishop of Canterbury at that time. Their task, to carry out a routine visit of the church, checking the extent of recovery and replacement within the building of the various articles required for Catholic worship, as well as the overall state of the parish and its community of faith. This was in the reign of Queen Mary, which lasted from 1553 to 1558. In the previous six years, under her half-brother Edward,
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churches throughout the kingdom were systematically despoiled and stripped down to what the government decided was adequate. In every case, it wasn’t much. Research into the period reveals that millions of pounds’ worth of books and manuscripts, stone altars, sculpture, stained glass, stonework, plate and statuary were destroyed, or alienated away. Within a very short space of time the entire patrimony of an age of faith, previously paid for and maintained by the parishioners themselves, was lost forever. Immediately following the coronation of Mary in October 1553,
government policy changed. Though reunion with Rome was delayed, Catholic worship was restored by parliament. Parishes were now required to make every effort to repair or replace according to their means, and within a certain time frame, all the essential equipment for the Mass and the sacraments. Visitations of parishes were the method by which the progress, or lack of it, could be verified. Preserved for posterity is the manuscript record of what the visitors found during one such visit around Kent in September 1557. The returns for the church, called then Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae in Marisco,
WINTER 2017
