Italianate Church, Wilton

I called last week at the ancient borough of Wilton, from where Wiltshire derives its name. It seemed to be a pretty, though unremarkable English market town, but for its gigantic mansion, Wilton House, seat of the Earls of Pembroke, and its extravagant Italian-style parish church. Officially called the Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, it was built at the expense of the noble Pembroke family who saw its construction as an opportunity to show their wealth and advertise their familiarity and fondness for all things Italian. It seems utterly out of place, however, reminding me of Santa Mario Maggiore in Rome, though it has even stronger associations with those giant churches in northern Italy, in such august places as Venice and Florence, to which I have not been.

It has a free-standing campanile, or bell tower, and is constructed in the basilica form, with neo-Romanesque architecture and Byzantine features, including an apse with gold, mosaic decoration about its round wall (see bottom picture). Although the temperature and surrounding townscape bade me believe otherwise, I really could have been transported to northern Italy upon seeing and entering this church.

Although I have a deep affection for Italy, and Rome in particular, it is not quite heaven, and certainly not while it hosts the Man of Sin and all his popish idolatry. Yet one of the purposes of a church is to transport or translate us somewhere else. During our worship, it should carry us to heaven’s throne room, to the very presence of Jesus Christ. Our sinful natures will always cause us to reject God and holiness, constantly re-attaching us to the fallen world and crooked generation into which we were born. True Christian fellowship, however, along with earnest preaching and reverential worship, will always take us somewhere better. We who worship at Salem Chapel know only a plain building, even though it is set amidst the lovely hills of Bowland. Yet I pray that we, too, shall be drawn away, ‘caught up into Paradise’, ‘caught up to the third heaven’, even if it but for a few moments, during a service of worship. To have attended chapel and to have remained in Rimington throughout is a tragedy. The next time you come, I pray you be taken to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to the very throne room of God.

In the year of the death of king Uzziah, I saw also the Lord sitting upon an high throne, and lifted up, and the lower parts thereof filled the Temple. Isaiah 6:1, Geneva Bible