St Thomas had an especial
devotion to the Holy Trinity. It was in a former Trinity Chapel that
he had said his first Mass, and whether on this account or another,
his devotion was such that it was he who first established that Feast,
till then merely the octave of Whitsunday. His shrine then was well
placed in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity.
In examining the church to-day one can well understand the beauty of
William of Sens' idea, and see, too, where, and perhaps understand
why, it really fails or at least comes short of perfection.
William of Sens trained in Latin traditions had, and rightly, little
respect, we may think, for the work of the past. He would have had all
new. But by 1174, unlike Anselm in 1096, and still more unlike
Lanfranc in 1070, he had in all probability a genuine English and
national prejudice to meet, an English dislike of destruction and an
English hatred of anything new.
It has been said that the failure of William of Sens' design was due
to the meanness of the monks of Christ Church. But meanness is not an
English failing; on the contrary, our great fault is the very
opposite, extravagance.
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