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ONLY a few monastic Chapels survived the iconoclastic destruction of over fifty others at the hands of the foreign Reformers introduced from Geneva in the middle of the sixteenth century. These preachers were "imported" because of their knowledge of French, at that time Norman-French was the language spoken generally by the Islanders, and English preachers would not have been understood.
The "Chapelles" which survived were: "Notre Dame des Pas," at St. Helier; "St. Nicolas," at St. Peter; "La Chapelle-es-Pecheurs," at St. Brelade; and some of the Manorial Chapels. (De la Crox, vol. I, page 163.)
The former two have since disappeared and the "Chapelle-es-Pecheurs" is therefore only one of the monastic Chapels now existing.
The name "Chapelle-es-Pecheurs" is peculiar, but I can trace no other designation for it in the early books of local history at my disposal.
Originally monastic, it may have become associated with the fishing guilds existing in the Island, before passing into military occupation. The guilds obtained concessions from the Crown in feudal days for services either rendered or liable to be rendered, and delegates from these guilds may have gathered for worship once in each year for the "blessing of the waters" at the inauguration of the Spring fishing season.
Be that as it may, the existing building is very ancient. It has become increasingly probable (as I have described in my story of the Parish Church) that St. Brelade is identical with St. Brendan, a missionary from Ireland who settled in Brittany before the end of the fifth century. (He was born in A.D. 498).
In support of this conjecture, there exists in the vicinity of the Cathedral city of Dol, in Brittany, a parish called "St. Broladre", which, from time immemorial has also borne the name of "St. Brendan" ("Brendanus" or "Broladrius"), found in an ancient MS. belonging to the Church of the said Parish. And on the small Isle de Cezembre, outside the port of St. Malo, there exists a small Chapel dedicated to St. Brendan.
St. Brendan was called "Brendan the Voyager". He believed that there existed in the Southern Atlantic some Islands called the "Fortunate Island", or "the Isles of the Blest". He repeatedly sailed forth from the Brittany coast in search of the said islands, but was often driven back "by storm and tempest". On one of these occasions he must have sought refuge in the Bay of St. Brelade (situated, as it is, on the southern sheltered side of Jersey, opposite the Brittany coast), and given his name to the Parish, which name, as has already been explained, was, in course of time, altered to St Brelade.
The stained-glass in the west window of the Chapel was presented in in A.D. 1906 in memory of the late Jurat Peter Briard, and represents St. Brendan landing perhaps on the very spot, and a Jersey Chieftain embracing Christianity through his ministry. That in the window nearest the west in the southern wall—"St. Brendan as a Student" —was given by the late Jurat J. E. Le Boutillier; that in the north wall was given by Mr. W. F. Hamon—"St. Brendan's boat among the iceberg's," his boat having drifted too far south; and that in the easternmost window in the south wall was the gift of Mr. Edward
le Bas, of London, a native of this Parish, "St. Brendan holding a Thanksgiving Service on the Isle of Birds, to which the Saint and his crew had swum to safety after their boat had been crushed in the ice. The glass in the east window was given by the late Mr. Lawrence de Gruchy in memory of his wife. All five windows are the magnificent work of Mr. H. T. Bosdet who painted the glass of eight of the windows in the Parish Church at the time of its restoration. (A.D. 1895-1900.)
The walls of the Chapel date from the middle of the sixth century. This date was unhesitatingly assigned to them by the two well-known French archaeological experts, Messrs. F. des Forts and the late M. Renier, some years ago. They pointed out that the characteristics which determined the masonry of just that period were plainly exhibited in the said walls, namely, that no angle stones ("bonding stones") support rows of big stones, but that such large stones rest on either a single or a double line of small stones. "Cela est incontrovertible", they affirmed, thus directly confirming the supposed early landing of St. Brendan mentioned above.
The material with which the walls are compacted is most interesting. Jersey possessing no natural supply of lime, the early people no doubt after many experiments, discovered that limpet-shells, broken up and dissolved in boiling sea-water, produced a first-rate consolidating material. Their mode of procedure was supposedly the following: they first erected their walling, cased the same with wood on all sides, and then poured their prepared liquid lime-mortar into the wall-work. This turned into a solid mass and is in that rock-like condition today after nearly fourteen centuries. When. sixty years ago. the Parish Church was restored. no stones which had been bound in that way could be removed from the walls, without breaking the stones to pieces, or, preferably, inserting into some wide joint a small charge of gunpowder, which, ignited, disloged the masonry more easily.
The stone roof of the Chapel was raised in the fourteenth century. The monks of that period evidently found the original roof too low and squat to allow space for the paintings with which they wished to decorate the interior of the building. The present roof is therefore Gothic in style. Or it may have been due to the military necessity I have already mentioned.
The fresco on the east wall was discovered and restored in 1918. After a severe thunderstorm colour revealed itself under the saturated soiled plaster and led to the disclosure of "The Assumption" in a hopelessly damaged condition. But from underneath another layer of plaster, the older fresco "The Annunciation", was gradually recovered. It dates from A.D. 1310-1315. Why the monks of the fifteenth century plastered it over may be due to their objection to some detail in the picture—perhaps the lay figures on either side, seven male on the left and seven female on the right. It was customary, in those early days, for the donor of a fresco to a Church to have the option of inserting either his coat of arms or a representation of the members of his family.
The male figures are supposed to be the seven sons, and the female figures the one daughter and six other relatives of a branch of the distinguished Jersey family of de Carteret. It is known that one of the sons took Holy Orders and that another joined the Army, and the first male figure in the picture wears a cowl, and the second shows a sword.
May not the monks of the fifteenth century have considered that these lay figures dwarfed the importance and the dignity of the central subject—the "Annunciation"—and have been led to cover the whole picture with plaster and to paint the "Assumption" in its stead?
At what period the latter was, in its turn, hidden from view is a matter of conjecture. But the "Annunciation", as a fresco, did not disappear from the Chapel, for it exists as a fifteenth-century painting on the right of the buttress-arch along the southern sloping roof. The name of the Angel—"Gabriel"—is still visible as well as the head, the wings and the feet. A short distance westwards the Virgin's hands can be seen clasped before an open book resting on a Lectern.
Nearby appears the head of one of "the Magi, ,with the name "Melchior" above it, and quite close to the west wall the figure of another of the "Wise Men" bearing the inscription, "les Mages".
Between the two magi the body and legs of a chain-mail armoured soldier are quite distinct.
On the west wall the subject is "The Resurrection" and "The Last Judgment", "but it seems to have been made ridiculous by some later artist-joker's hand as women only are shown emerging from their coffins! Old wall-pictures were frequently parodied and spoilt in this manner.
Over the doorway on the north wall appear: (1) King Herod on his throne, crowned and with sword on shoulder. The scroll bears the inscription, "Herode Roy". The long-pointed shoe reveals the date of the painting—early fifteenth century. (2) The "Scourging of Christ". On the north ceiling above the door in the north wall, the "Entry of Christ into Jerusalem", the Saviour riding on the ass, is quite discernible. There are also seen: a Roman soldier, in uniform, standing on the left of the advancing Christ; a man, wearing a blue head-dress and a blue gown, standing on the walls of the city; its battlements and towers; and also the Temple crowning all. On the south ceiling, opposite the above, there remains a much- mutilated representation of "The Creation", with portions of the persons of Adam, Eve and the Children.
The buttress-arch still has a decoration of fruit and flowers. The capital letters S, abbreviations for "Sanctus", painted in red along the roof, are of a peculiar type. They arrested the attention of a recent visitor—an expert employed in the script department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who declared them to be unique in design.
The ivy-leaf border, traced along the several walls, divided the panels of the paintings which, in primitive days, must have covered the walls from roof to floor. One is led to this conclusion by the very occasional appearance of colour through what looks generally like plaster only. This depends altogether on atmospheric conditions. The damper the weather is, the more are portions of these hidden pictures likely to appear. For example, once or twice only in forty years has the "Crucifixion"—the three figures on the crosses—been seen on the northern wall, east of the fresco "the Scourging of Christ", and once in the same period, but on a different occasion, still more to the east and nearer the wall-base, under the grey square of plaster, three armoured soldiers holding their halberds on high—likely the guards at the foot of the Crosses. It is supposed that some of the pigments of the early paints were extracted from sea-weed and that because of saline constituents, the frescoes are easily affected by damp weather. The recently-exposed "Annunciation" in the east wall proves to be a real barometer, heralding coming weather-changes most accurately.
The question has often been asked: "Why did the monks of the fourteenth century raise the roof of the building (as described above) for the sake of the one painting on the east wall, now again brought to light ?" Is it not possible that as their successors of the fifteenth century plastered over the painting of the "Annunciation", they may have also similarly treated other paintings of that earlier date in other parts of the Chapel? The question has only very recently been answered in the affirmative by an English artist who alleges that the picture of "Christ's entry into Jerusalem" covers not one, but two older pictures (just as the east-wall fresco has recently disclosed an earlier one—that is, the roof and wall of a building with an arched window or doorway in the "pointed Gothic" style). The "King Herod" fresco also seems to cover an older one. f
Some advisers suggest that careful examination should follow these discoveries, but as it is very easy to damage, or even to destroy, ; what exists for what may not be found, or found in a bad state of preservation, it has been decided to leave the matter in status quo, I believing that science may shortly assist us to unravel the problem.
The earthquake of 30th July, 1927, shook the sea wall and the foundations of the Chapel to such an extent that a great length of the former had to be rebuilt and the latter underpinned.
The sea-wall is a formidable structure and an interesting discovery was made during its demolition. At a depth of some two feet below the surface-soil of the Churchyard the ancient military-wall, some four feet in thickness, became exposed. From early days the small Churchyard had, of necessity, to be fortified owing to the circumstance that the Bay of St. Brelade, on account of its sheltered position, and also of its comparatively shallow depth, had become the favoured point of attack by pirates, marauders and freebooters of varying nationalities for the purpose of loot. And owing to its proximity to the Bay the Chapel became the barracks of the small defending garrison. That explains the reason why the building escaped destruction at the time of the Reformation. The foreign Reformers found the redcoats in possession and passed on.
Within living memory three old cannons still stood in situ on the banks of this ancient portion of the Churchyard, and the large east window of the Parish Church was still called "la fenetre en dessus de la Batterie" ("the window above the battery") by the older people some fifty years ago. The Chapel did not pass out of military occupation until the Military Arsenals were built in the nineteenth century. The guns of the local Battery of Militia were removed from the Chapel in that year.
The work connected with the underpinning of the Chapel-walls, after the above-mentioned earthquake, led to various interesting discoveries.
Not only was the whole space below the floor filled with human remains, but it was found that the walls themselves rested upon human skulls, thigh-bones and dust. Mixed with these remains were the teeth of horses and the bony snouts of pigs. It thus appears that the custom then prevalent was that if a man died owning a horse, the animal was killed and buried with its master, and if he only possessed a pig, it was likewise put to death and buried with its former owner!
The foundation-walls of the Chapel had an average depth of three feet below the floor-level, but, unlike the walls above the floor, which, as has been stated, were quite solid, the lower walls consisted of large stones placed over each other, but without compacting mortar of any kind. This discovery was first made along the south wall and was a matter of some surprise, but when a similar state of things was found to exist under the north wall a very primitive system of drainage was brought to light. There being no gutters along the base of the roofs the rain had for centuries dripped down the outer walls on to the soil, drained itself through the open wall-work below ground, then through the soil below the Chapel floor, to find its outlet through the foundations of the wall on the opposite side.
No new underpinning would have been of use unless such were founded on a solid base. Excavation, therefore, became necessary and at an average depth of six feet the rock-head was laid bare. Among the interesting finds in connection with this section of the work were:
(1) three rough stones, the longer one four feet, the others two feet in length, laid in the form of a cross at right angles to, not in a straight line with, the centre of the south wall, just below its foundations. May not these stones have been placed in situ by the builders of the Chapel as the emblem of Christianity? The three stones covered a collection of very small pebbles of various colours (white, red, green, purple, yellow, etc.), none more than one inch long. A testimony of a primitive form of ritual ? No such collection of pebbles was found anywhere else. But the human remains which lay just over the solid rock arrested immediate interest. The long and thick thigh-bones belonged to people of about seven feet in height, and the heads were of an uncommon type. Two of the best-preserved skulls were sent to Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., for examination, and here follow some extracts of his Report:
"Of the racial nature of these two skulls there can be no doubt—they represent the round-headed type which prevails in France south of the Seine, and is particularly well represented in modern Brittany. It is a type which reached France certainly in Neolithic times, probably in late Palaeolithic times. It is usual to speak of this as the Alpine type, but I note that it differs from our Beaker (bronze age) people in this respect: the occiput of the bronze age skulls of Britain—as in most modern brachycephalic Germans—is usually flat, whereas in the Gaulish type the occiput is wide and lightly 'bombrd'—so that the skull is truly rounded. . . The two skulls from the "Fishermen's Chapel' are of the Gaulish or rounded type and all their facial and other features are in keeping. Of the two skulls. No. I is the most representative of the type; No. 2 does show in occiput and forehead certain features which indicate a small admixture with a longheaded (Mediterranean type).
"Both skulls are of aged men. In No. I the sutures of the skull are obliterated; in No. 2 they are in process of disappearing. In both the crowns of the teeth are deeply worn—particularly the first molar teeth. The incisor teeth meet edge to edge. Although teeth have been lost from abscesses formed at their roots there is no trace of caries nor of crowding of the teeth.
"The most difficult point to answer relates to the date of burial. The condition of the Skull No. I is such as is met with in graves of the Roman period—or even earlier; that of No. 2 has more animal matter in it. I am sure No. I precedes the ninth century; No. 2 may not."
These people, it would seem, were, even in those early days, attempting a raid on the Islanders, because each skull showed cracks on the forehead—the result of having been hit with some heavy stone or implement by the defending natives who killed them, and buried them where they fell.
(2) Various fragments of ancient pottery (urns) and some Stone Age implements.
(3) A large deposit of limpet-shells along the outer south wall, like the surplus of what had been collected for building requirements. These shells differed in shape from that of modern-day type, being much flatter.
(4) For some time the discovery of a semi-circular erection below the floor in the centre of the east wall, where the stone altar has since been replaced, caused considerable speculation with respect to its original use. The stone-work was held together by a clammy kind of yellow clay, and the soil, loose stones and bones at the base, showed signs of burning. Could this have been a heathen altar of sacrifice? So important was the disclosure held to be, and also as a protective measure against interference by inquisitive visitors to the Chapel, a square of concrete was erected around, but away from it. This is mentioned for the information of any who may hereafter have occasion to displace the flooring—a work which would entail great energy, seeing that the concrete floor lately laid down is very thick and rests on some three feet of macadam, the human remains having been carefully removed and reverently re-buried in the Churchyard. But the raison-d’être for the above-mentioned semi-circular erection was disclosed when an exactly similar projection was unearthed below the floor mid-way along the north wall. One of the workmen, in carefully pursuing the work of excavation at that spot, suddenly felt the thrust of his pick-axe arrested by some impediment, and then, with .difficulty, unearthed the base of a large rusty iron cauldron. These two erections had been built as "cooking sites" by the garrison at the time of the military occupation of the Chapel. The iron cauldron had been one of their cooking utensils, and thus departed the theory of a prehistoric "altar of sacrifice"!
In underpinning the walls a projecting "set off", both inside and outside has been built, allowing of a free external circulation around the Chapel on the southern side. All the work is, therefore, now solid and secure, and "long may it remain so"!