Magna Carta and Salisbury Cathedral: Human Rights and VintagePostcards81By tonymac04

What say the reeds at Runnymede?

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,Your rights were won at Runnymede!No freeman shall be fined or bound,Or dispossessed of freehold ground,Except by lawful judgement foundAnd passed upon him by his peers.Forget not, after all these years,The Charter signed at Runnymede.'- from the poem “What say the reeds at Runnymede” by Rudyard Kipling.One original copy of “The Charter signed at Runnymede” on which much ofthe concept of human rights, at least in the western world,  is based is kept inthe chapter house of Salisbury Cathedral in the county of Wiltshire, in theecclesiastical province of Canterbury, England, some distance from Runnymede which is on the banks of the Thames Rivernear London in the county of Surrey.The Magna Carta copy came to be in Salisbury because among those present at the signing of the charter between theBarons and King John I of England in 1215 was one Elias of Dereham, who later became a member of the Chapter ofSalisbury Cathedral and supervised much of its construction. At the time of the signing of the Charter Elias was given thetask of taking on of the four copies made and publicising it around England.So this Hub is about two stories – one is the source document on human rights in the western world, and the other is themedieval Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of unique design and great beauty, a place of prayer and pilgrimagefor almost eight Centuries.

Magna Carta Libertatum

The Magna Carta (properly called Magna Carta Libertatum) ended the so-called “divine right” by which the monarch could rule in England up to thattime, and put an early form of the rule of law in place to limit the actions of theKing by giving the Barons and nobles certain rights.One of the most important principles written into the Charter was that of habeascorpus or to give it its full title: habeas corpus ad subjiciendu. This right, whichderives (for those who want to look them up!) from Clauses 36, 38, 39 and 40,was in fact first invoked in a court case in 1305.Habeas corpus is a key principle of the rule of law as it places limits on arbitraryor capricious actions by legal authorities or rulers. Indeed one of the firstactions of governments wanting to limit the rights of their citizens is to suspend(where it exists) the right of habeas corpus. This was the case in South Africawhen the apartheid regime began its programme of curtailing all citizens rights“legally.”So Salisbury Cathedral should be held in high regard by all who love andhonour liberty!

The Cathedral

But the Cathedral has other claimson one's regard – its position inthe architectural history of Englandand its beauty.The Cathedral also holds a specialplace in ecclesiastical historybecause of its links to “OldSarum” one of the oldestsettlements in all of England,

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One of the original copies of the Charter

Map of the counties of England

dating back some 5000 years.During the Roman occupation ofBritain it was used by them as amilitary station, called on theirmaps Sorviodunum.In 1086 all the notables of Englandwere summoned to Old Sarum topay homage to William theConqueror, and the town, by thistime quite large for its time, waslisted in the famous DomesdayBook as “Sarisburia.”Old Sarum was not always peaceful however, and Eleanor of Aquitaine was held prisoner there for 15 years by herhusband, King Henry II, the first Plantagenet monarch of England and great-grandson of the Conqueror. Unfortunately theMagna carta had not yet been signed so poor Eleanore could not benefit from habeas corpus!But more to the point of our story, conflict arose between the church authorities and the military at Old Sarum, leading theBishop, Richard Poore, to request permission to relocate the Cathedral to a new site on the banks of the Avon River,inevitably called “New Sarum” at first, but later called Salisbury.There is a legend that the good Bishop, in order to decide where to build his new seat, shot an arrow in the general directionin which he wanted to move. This arrow apparently hit a deer which finally died and where it died the Bishop built hisCathedral. No animals' rights movements in those days, apparently!The Cathedral itself is unique among English Cathedrals because it took only about 38 years to complete, from 1220 to1258, as against the more usual couple of hundred. As a result, the architectural style is more coherent than that of any ofthe other Gothic Cathedrals in England.

Constable and the Cathedral

The Gothic style of architecture lasted from the middle of the 12th Century up to

the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th Century, and was characterisedchiefly by the introduction of the pointed arch, a design feature which derivedfrom the architecture of the Middle East. For example the great mosques ofSamarra in Iraq and Ibn Tulun in Cairo made early use of this feature.As a style Gothic was not monolithic and went through several phases,generally called Early English (1180 to 1275); Decorated (1275 to 1380) andPerpendicular (1380 – 1520), although these periods are more stylistic thanstrictly chronological.Salisbury Cathedral is almost completely in the Early English style,characterised by the use of lancet, or slender, pointed arch, windows.The chapter house in which the Magna carta copy is kept, is an octagonalbuilding with a slender central pillar and a decorative frieze on the interior,depicting biblical scenes.The Cathedral also had a clock without a face (it only chimed the hours), aclock which is now in the Science Museum in London. The clock itself datesfrom about 1386 and is in full working order, making it the oldest working clockin the world.The Cathedral has long attracted artists, among them the famous landscapepainter John Constable, by its physical beauty. Constable, possibly best-lovedfor his painting The Hay Wain of 1821, was commissioned by his friend theBishop of Salisbury, John Fisher, to paint the Cathedral, which he did, as wellas a portrait of the good Bishop.Constable also painted a view of Old Sarum.At the Bishop's death Constable was asked to do another painting of theCathedral, which he did, the painting being called “Salisbury meadows. “ In itConstable painted a rainbow with it end over the late Bishop's house in theCathedral Close.

The Postcards

What prompted my research intoall of these things was the

King Henry II

The famous painting by Constable. TheBishop and his wife can be seen in the

bottom left hand corner

Old Sarum painted by Constable

discovery among my late father'sthings of a set of six photogravuredivided back postcards of theCathedral. Photogravure is anintaglio printing process in which amechanised process of etchingplates for the printing is used.The postcards are in almost mintcondition with no writing on themand neither were they postallyused. They were printed andpublished by Photo-Precision Ltd.,of St Albans. They are still in theiroriginal envelope with the pricemarked in pencil: 1 shilling.The backs of the cards have avery pretty rose blossom andleaves design at the top with thewords “English Series” incorporated into the design.The Postcards

The Bishop's portrait painted byConstable

The Salisbury Meadows

The envelope

The divided back of the postcards