After quite the exhausting day at Windsor, it was particularly difficult to get up this morning for class...and from the looks of it, it was for everyone else too. Despite being able to feel my exhaustion this morning, I chugged an ice coffee like it was my job in hopes of being fully attentive during our visit to Southwark Cathedral.
This cathedral, similarly to St. Georges, was a lot less intimidatingly beautiful, like Westminster Abbey, and felt more personable. There was an abundant sense of community within this church, which I presume to be because of their struggle to be a surviving establishment through history. Like many, many things in England, this cathedral was built by William the Conqueror. Dude popped up everywhere. It was originally built in a medieval style but had to be reconstructed after the fire of 1212. It was then restored with the ever popular, Gothic style of the time period. Interestingly, there were some remaining parts of the original chapel walls and stone that you can visibly tell were the model for the Victorian style to later follow.
In order to teach those who could not read a Bible the lessons of Christ and scare them shitless into not sinning, there were numerous embellishments within the church regarding Satan. One of the most graphic being an oak ceiling boss that shows Judas, a betrayer of Jesus, being eaten by Satan. Painted in the colorful patterns associated with medieval style, the message was pretty clear: do good while you're here or hope to God, Christ, and his Holy Spirit while you're at it, that others pray for your soul so you get a chance at purgatory.
One of the most lovely aspects of the cathedral, that our tour guide knew a significant amount about, were all the stained glass windows. Not only were there many original and century old windows, but some as modern as 2012, like the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Window with vivacious colors that shone and reflected gracefully into the church. One that I enjoyed in particular that stayed with me afterwards, was the large stained glass window above the commemorative tribute to my main man, Shakespeare. In each of the three panels, some of his most profound plays were depicted; in the first pane, his comedies, like A Midsummer Nights Dream; in the middle, a large tribute to his final play, The Tempest; in the third panel, his tragedies like Hamlet and Othello. Maybe I enjoyed this specifically because of it's colorful nature or because of our studies here, but either way I smiled to myself to see the characters tiny faces looking back at me.
