History of the Church of Nortend

Middle Ages

An abbot, later reckoned as Saint Laurence of Sulthey, is widely credited for the founding of the establishment of the modern-day Christian church in Great Nortend in the 8th century. The native Ethlorekoz and the later influx of Arlethians, the Nords, Sexers and Cardes, practised heathen religions. Laurence, arrived on the shores of the then Kingdom of Nortenland in AD 744 during the reign of Egbert, on a mission ordered by Pope Zachary I. He founded a church on the Isle of Sulthey in 749, the year which is now generally considered the start of the Church in Great Nortend, on a site which is now the Church of Saint le Cross. He also founded the first monastery, which became Sulthey Abbey, two years afterwards in 751. Laurence served for over thirty years as the first Archbishop of Sulthey.

After Egbert died in 753 after being mortally wounded by an arrow during battle with the Hambrians, the young Murish prince Hartmold de Mure took the Nortish throne in 756. He had earlier converted in 750, at the age of 30. During his reign, and the subsequent reigns of Æthelfrey, Erwin and Edmund the Good, the people across the Kingdom were converted and the Church and Christianity became the dominant framework for political and religious discourse.

The Church flourished in the later Middle Ages, in a frenzy of religious piety from the 10th century onwards. Gothic architecture was introduced during the late 12th century, supplanting the existing Nortish style which was dominated by wooden construction in the densely forested North above Golder's Line and stone construction below. By the 13th century, nearly every manor had at least one church and across the country numerous religious houses, chantries and chapels were founded. Within Lendert-with-Cadell alone, 52 churches had been built by the time the rebuilt Saint Peter's Abbey was completed in 1272.

• Benedictine reforms in the 11th century
• Investiture controversy in the early 12th century
• Gothic architecture introduced in the late 12th century.
• Bishops of Chepingstow in the early 13th century become ex officio Lord Chancellour.
• 1225: First Dominicans arrive
• 1239: First Franciscans arrive
• 1256: University of Lendert charter issued
• 1272: Lendert Abbey completed
• 1284: Lendert elevated to bishopric
• 1382: Bishop of Lendert dies.
• 1382: Peter II obtains papal approval for Lendert to replace Sulthey as the metropolitan see, translating Silvester de Tongue from Sulthey to Lendert.

Reformation

• 1530: Declaration of Sulthey made by Thomas Akeep, Provost of Sulthey
• 1534: Clement VII intervenes to forbid Thomas Akeep becoming Bishop of Chepingstow
• 1545 to 1563: Nortish bishops attend Trent
• 1566: Accession of Alexander I
• 1567: Pius V abolishes the title of Cardinal
• 1567: Pius V sends the Decrees of the Council of Trent to Alexander for publication
• 1567: Proclamation of Manfarham by Alexander I rejecting the Council of Trent's errors and stating alternative propositions
• 1568: Statute concerning the Convocation, restricting the holding of the Convocation and the authority of canons to override the laws. Statute concerning Temporalities.
• 1569: Statute of Supremacy and Restoration of the Cardinalacy
• 1569 to 1572: Various statutes as to licences, payments, appeals and the like.
• 1572: Injunctions of Cainmare and the Short Homilies to be read in every parish church as touching the late reforms.
• 1572: Statute for the Obedience of Clerks to forbid the preaching of unauthorised doctrinal innovations and to secure oaths
• 1573: Convocation and issuance of the Canons General of 1573.
• 1575: Execution of the Six Hereticks
• 1575: By this time, nearly 100 houses have been dissolved for refusal to swear obedience to the King
• 1580: Death of Archbishop Cainmare and Consecration of Henry Frympell
• 1582: Abolition of the sub-diaconate and minor orders; condemnation of transubstantiation, indulgences, sacrifices of masses, &c.
• 1582: Friars to have degrees and licensed, before preaching; choir monks to take degrees
• 1583: Parliament investigates the Gregorian calendar amid controversy
• 1584: Adoption of the Gregorian calendar and reduction of the number of saints' days by over half
• 1585: Nullification of vows and the dissolution of smaller religious houses
• 1586: Carmelite convents dissolved and dispersed
• 1589: Publication of Frympell's Bible
• 1590: By this date since 1582, establishment of the “New Halls” at Aldesey, of Mancourt Hall and Trinity Hall; expansion of Canonshall, Gosthall and Maudlynhall
• 1590: Death of Archbishop Frympell and Consecration of George Miers
• 1590: Secularisation of the canons regular
• 1590: Henfoot appointed to reform the liturgy
• 1592: First books of Masses and Hours presented, in Latin; rejected by the King
• 1592: Miers issues Injunctions forbidding the Chasuble, Stole and Maniple during the mass and other directions for reforming the existing liturgy; and enjoining the reordering of parish churches in the „collegiate” style
• 1593: Revised books presented, in Latin
• 1595: Great Convocation begins.
• 1599: Great Convocation ends; canons of 1599 issued; revised books authorised; monastic and mendicant reforms issued

17th and 18th centuries

• 1612: Death of George Miers
• 1634: Death of Alexander I; accession of Edmund V
• 1664: Death of Edmund V; accession of Charles III
• 1669: Death of Charles III; accession of William III
• Non-conformist factions grow in prominence
• Statute of Conformity to deal with Protestant non-conformity
• Reincorporates them into the Church, albeit as a more radical Protestant faction, nicknamed the „Service-Clerks” for their failure to secure benefices
• Standard of worship and divine service conformity declines
• 1690: Injunctions issued for conformity to the Rubricks
• 1694: Death of William III; accession of Edmund VI
• 1700 onward: increasing trade with Exponent and growing „Catholic” renaissance, leading to Catholic non-conformity
• 1705: Abolition of the Statute of Obedience oath against the Pope
• 1731: Protestant Augustus I of Aquitayne arrives seeking support for independence from the Roman Exponent Empire
• 1736: Death of Edmund VI; accession of Mary
• 1737: Bishop Lofthouse defects to Rome and flees
• 1738: Statute of Abjuration passed to re-require the oath against the Pope
• 1740: Mary announces her intention to marry the Count of Scode
• Parliament and the Church factionalise into the Scodes and Droughers

19th and 20th centuries

• Recovery of religious piety as the Faith Movement revives the Church in the early 19th century
• Church music improves as literacy and musical education increases, and organs are installed throughout the 19th century
• Parishes open schools and quire knaves increase in the 19th century
• Bell-ringing becomes an art-form in the 19th century
• Romanticised mediaeval art and music becomes associated with the Church in the late 19th and early 20th century
• Monthly communion becomes the norm in the 20th century
• Nationalist conservative movement re-emphasises the links between Church and State, and the particular quality of the Church of Nortend as the church for Nortchmen
• Religious tolerance increases in the 20th century
• 1956: Four new homilies issued on the issues „of the day”, on abortion, eugenics, sexual relations, the family and justice, forming part of the school curriculum