The Christ Church History Project
by Dr Kenneth Milne

The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
22 February 2001

We were greatly pleased when the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, chose our History of Christ Church as one of his books of the year 2000, and he told the Irish Times that he thought it was very surprising that this history had never been written before - or, at least on such a scale. It is surprising.

The great English and Continental cathedrals mostly have their Histories, and in recent years there has been quite a spate of volumes on the English foundations: Lincoln, Winchester, Canterbury among them. This was an incentive for those of us connected with Christ Church. I have to admit, however, that we were not the first in Ireland. That honour goes to Fred Rankin's history of Down Cathedral, which pipped us to the post in 1997.

Dr Raymond Refaussé, the Church of Ireland Librarian and Archivist, wrote the 'Introduction' to our book, and he speculated as to what the reasons may have been that Irish cathedrals have been neglected by historians. For one thing, from Reformation times onwards, they became particularly identified with the English presence in Ireland, and a focus for the Protestant elite. Which is not to say that the Dublin cathedral hadn't been associated with Norman and English rule long before the Reformation. The personnel and the liturgical practices of the cathedral had been very Anglicised. But the Reformation created a new barrier, as it were, and so the cathedrals (apart from some rather slight apologetic work) failed to attract the attention of Catholic scholars. With one major exception: Professor Geoffrey Hand, who, inspired by Professor Aubrey Gwynn of UCD, researched the medieval life of the Dublin cathedrals in an unprecedentally scholarly manner. To our great advantage, he became closely associated with our project, which has benefited greatly from what he published in learned journals in the 1950s, and has stood the test of time.

Protestant scholars, especially Church of Ireland ones, might have been expected to take up the work, and there was some specialist study, but no major works. William Monck Mason, whose work on St Patrick's was published in 1820, collected material for a similar volume on Christ Church. It was never published though the material remains in manuscript. There were, of course, short guide-books and the like, some of these, like William Butler's book in the Elliot Stokes series of 1901, of considerable value. But this was comparatively brief. The restoration of the cathedral in 1871-8 led to several impressive publications, not least the truly superb volume that, though primarily an account of George Edmund Street's restoration, contains a major historical essay by Edward Seymour, the precentor.

But little happened for a century. This would have been easily explained if there was a dearth of manuscript source material. But such was not the case. To quote Dr Refaussé: '... when compared with the archives of Irish cathedrals, the Christ Church collection is unique.' Furthermore, he added 'As the archives of the most important religious foundation in the most important city in Ireland the collection documents not only the life of the cathedral and its community but the interaction of that community with the wider world and especially with the corporation of Dublin, which has the only other comparable archive.

The cathedral was established by the Dublin Vikings in the 1030s. The Benedictines were introduced by Bishop Patrick and survived in the time of two of his successors. However, it was the Augustinian canons regular who were to occupy the cathedral until the Reformation, at which time the constitution of the cathedral was changed to that of St Patrick's, 'old foundation' style, as a secular cathedral with dean and chapter. The fourteenth century 'Liber Niger' and the early sixteenth century 'Liber Albus', contain records of the early administration of the priory, a compilation attributed largely to Henry la Warr an Augustinian canon from Bristol, who became prior in 1300, some of the material reflecting his early career as a diplomat at the court of Edward I. The volume will be on view in a new treasury being established in the cathedral crypt. There were also the Christ Church deeds, covering the period 1174-1699 'the most sustained record of an Irish institution' (apart from the Dublin city assembly rolls). Long since destroyed in the PROI fire of 1922, they were, thankfully, calendared, and transcriptions also survive in the Registrum Novum, an eighteenth century compilation of papal bulls and legal extracts. We also have the chapter act books from Reformation times onwards. And much else - not least a great store of manuscript music, though the only musical liturgical manuscript that we can with certainty link with Christ Church is what we call 'The Christ Church Psalter' and the Bodleian calls 'The Psalter of Stephen de Derby' prior from 1348-87 (who brought it to Ireland) prior from 1348-87, and whose picture appears in one of the minature illustrations to the psalter.

Altogether then, our archives provide much that throws light on the history of Christ Church cathedral, its origins, its priory and its secular cathedral. But also on the society in which it exists. For instance, the earliest Account Roll (1337-46) has bound up with it a medieval morality play, the text of which to quote Dr Alan Fletcher 'whose cultural significance to medieval Dublin, and to the British Isles generally it is hard to exaggerate'.

Bearing all this in mind, it is no wonder that some us felt that here was a story worth telling. And there was another factor, an advantage that earlier generations did not have: the cathedral archives in the care of the Representative Church Body Library, in Braemor Park. There they had been listed, and given appropriate care. Had the material not been in such an accessible situation, it is hard to imagine how those of use who worked on it over several years could have done so.

By the mid 1990s, therefore, the conditions were propitious for embarking on a major academic project. I had the good fortune to be invited by the cathedral to be 'Keeper of the Archives', and from time to time the dean and I discussed the possibility of producing a 'history'.

Dean John Paterson invited a few people to meet at the deanery to discuss the possibility of producing such a book, and it was clear from the first that this would have to be a cooperative work. No one person could cover the many-faceted history of Christ Church, stretching from Viking times to the present day, and doing justice to such specialist areas as liturgy, music and architecture. And this is where good fortune played its part.

Professor Roger Stalley of TCD, who had done much work on the medieval building, but was also intensely interested in the Victorian restoration, was prepared to take part. So was Dr Barra Boydell of the music department at Maynooth, and Dr Alan Fletcher of the Department of English at UCD. Professor Hand had returned to Ireland, and was prepared to get involved, and Dr Refaussé, the Church of Ireland Librarian and Archivist not only made the facilities of the RCB Library available to us, but prepared a bibliographical introduction. The narrative text fell to Professor James Lydon of Trinity, Dr Raymond Gillespie of Maynooth and myself. We were also very fortunate in that Stuart Kinsella, a postgraduate student of Professor Stalley's, long associated with Christ Church, acted as honorary secretary to the project, and, much helped by Professor Hand, and Dr Howard Clarke of UCD and Dr Seán Duffy of TCD, contributed the very tricky chapter on the pre-Norman cathedral. The cooperation of the choir, directed by Mark Duley, and the ringing master, Leslie Taylor, at every stage, were of invaluable assistance. So the team was assembled. But it is one thing to write a history, and quite another to have it published.

Early on in our project, Dr Michael Adams of Four Courts Press, let it be known that he would publish the work. Not only that, he also committed the press to an ambitious programme of ancilliary publications under the general editor of Raymond Gillespie: 'the Christ Church documents series'. This comprises eight titles, including a CD of Anthems sung by the choir to illustrate the history, and the eighth volume Christ Church deeds, edited by M.J. McEnery and Raymond Refaussé is to be published on 1 May 2001.

On 6 November 1995, the entire project was launched by Dr Patrick Collinson, Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. He made a telling point: that the cathedrals might well have gone the way of the monasteries at the Reformation. However, they didn't. As we know, Christ Church was in considerable danger at that time and might well have been suppressed but for the representations made on its behalf, not only by the mayor and corporation, but also by the lord deputy and council, who said of Christ Church cathedral, 'it stands in the high place as St Paul's does in London' and claimed that it had a national function, being used for parliaments and councils.

From 1995 onwards, until the actual launch of the book itself last year, we met over 40 times: including one residential conference and an all-day conference in Dublin. Needless to say, we drafted and re-drafted the structure of the book, a process that continued until the whole enterprise was well advanced. Our meetings took place at roughly two monthly intervals, in the cathedral chapter room, the wheels of scholarship oiled by bottles of wine, as we took it in turn to read digests of our chapters to one another. There was also a convivial aspect to the various occasions, where, one by one, the ancilliary volumes came out. The pleasurability of these events was greatly enhanced by music provided by the choir and directed by Mark Duley and accompanied by Andrew Johnstone. We tried to ensure that our hospitality was of a high standard and the financial backing of the board and of the Friends of Christ Church made that posible. Everyone at the cathedral played a part and a considerable burden was placed on the administration, particularly Christopher Shiell and his successor, Mark Bowyer.

So, at last, on 18 June 2000 - Trinity Sunday, the Patronal Festival of the cathedral which is really the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity - the book itself was launched by An Taoiseach, in the crypt which that very day was re-opened after a closure of nine months for a major refurbishment. The Treasury will be opened in the early summer of 2001.

The History, and its ancillary volumes in the 'documents series' have, thankfully, been well received, and, needless to say, for quite some time we didn't want to think about writing books or publishing them.

However, I should add as a postscript that an institution like Christ Church cathedral, which, understandably attracts considerable attendance from visitors from home and abroad, is expected to provide literature about its various features for the interested visitor who, perhaps, has a specialist interest in the building and its history. We have regular lecture series (usually at lunchtime) and of course there is considerable interest in the stained glass, the bells, the organ, the tiles. A company, 'Christ Church Cathedral Publications, Ltd.' has been set up. Its first title: Augustinians at Christ Church is about to be published and other titles are planned. But I think I should end by paying tribute on behalf of the cathedral and my fellow contributors, to Four Courts Press. As the dean said in his 'Foreword' to the book: 'Few Cathedrals have been as well or generously served by their publishers'.