St Peter's Church, Empingham: Guns & Fashion

St Peter’s Church at Empingham in Rutland is a thirteenth-century beauty. The first two doors I tried held fast, but a third was left open. It is tall, stately and well maintained, a credit to both its members and its village.

I was struck by the styles of arching on the southern and northern arcades (the sections of the building away from the main aisle and by the outer walls). The southern has rounded arches, which were fashionable before 1200, whereas the northern arcade’s arches are pointed, which became fashionable after 1250, and probably date to the 1300s. When it was decided to enlarge the church or make it more architecturally stylish, one half must have looked modern, and the other out of date. To we who live in the twenty-first-century, however, both look archaic, both are simply labelled ‘medieval’ and few notice the difference.

Northern, rounded arches, above; southern, gothic arches with points, below:

Similarly, consider those Christian denominations and sects which encourage their members to wear all black: are they expressing scriptural holiness, or are they really just expressing mid-Victorian taste in clothing? Those churches which have ‘worship groups’, ie musicians, standing at the front and loudly playing their instruments while the rest are drowned out: are they just expressing the musical tastes of the late twentieth-century? We should assess all we do in the light of scripture, and not confuse what we think as normal with that which is correct and Biblical.

Ironically, another fashion started within earshot of St Peter’s Church which still, sadly, remains commonplace. Just out of the village along the Great North Road was fought the Battle of Losecoat Field in 1470, when the Yorkists beat the Lancastrians who had rebelled against King Edward IV. It is the first battle in English history during which cannons were fired: artillery, explosives and missiles have been used ever since.