Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
Franciscan Church in Erfurt:
Here are some plans and elevations of the church. On looking at them, you will notice a well defined rectangle wich was probably the early church of 1291 reflecting the building ordinances of the general Chapter of the order which forbade elaborate design and features such as towers or steeples. The same ordiances were regorously observed in ireland where the rectangular form survived well into the 14th century. This insistence on simplicoty was regarded as necessary for the Franciscan charism of povery.
With the growth of preaching in the 14th century, we find that Franciscan churches expanded. there were two favoured means of doing this: either by breaking down the north wall and adding an extra aisle (shich is what has happened here) or else by adding a huge transept on the south side. Building on the south side of Franciscan churches generally did not lend it self to aisles because the exterior of the church on the south side was usually occupied by a grave yard – roughly where the street is in Erfurt. the same is true of these early Irish foundations.
By the 14th century, especially in Britain and Ireland, it became customary for Franciscan churches to have bell towers sividing the chancel from the nave giving rise to what is now regarded (perhaps not quite so accurately) as typicaly Franciscan church architecture. Later Franciscan churches are readily identifiable by the cebntral bell tower feature. Earlier houses, however, are identifiable by the building of the later bell towers withing the original walls.
