Swastikas in Cambridge churches
Here at Cambridge we have some surprises for the visitor. Did you know that there are examples of the swastika in some of Cambridge’s world-famous churches and chapels? He would have found the meander of the swastika in the front elevation of the Ancient Schools next to the Senate House before it was covered in later years. There was nothing sinister about this. It is simply an elaboration of the Greek Fret motif that allows the development of the ‘Swastika’ to appear within the design.
It is found almost all over the world as a decorative motif. It was often found in synagogues, churches, and mosques from the earliest days of these religious movements. Other examples may have a more symbolic meaning. Here in Cambridge we can find examples in the Westminster College Chapel, King’s College Chapel and the Round Church. In this article we will focus primarily on the Round Church, or to give it its full name: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
There are alternative terms that we can use for this geometric device popularly known as the swastika. In both stained glass and heraldry, terms like Gammadion and Fylfot-Cross can be used appropriately. Fylfot-Cross’ [probably meaning ‘four-footed’] it is generally reserved for that form of Gammadion which has shorter feet and is used more frequently in heraldry.
The Round Church
Many visitors will be surprised to find Fylfot-Crosses here at the Round Church. However, the Fylfot-Cross or Gammadion is found in a wide range of ecclesiastical settings. These devices have been used in both decorative and symbolic contexts; It has been used in fountains, in silver, in Gospel books, in monumental brass [depicting clergy in mass vestments], in church bells, inscribed in stone, and in stained glass. So the examples found here were commissioned long before the rise of any of those German volkisch nationalist groups that would later lead to general negative feelings towards this geometric device. It is entirely understandable that there has been very little abatement of this almost universal suspicion, despite widely held positive attitudes in many cultures in the East and West.
This church is considered one of the few Templar churches in Great Britain. It was clearly inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, so its link to the Crusades is undeniable. However, there are some doubts that it was a Templar church due to its presumed early dating.
Whether we can safely attribute the Round Church to the Templars in Cambridge or not, an example of a Gammadion in a Templar Church is found in St Michael’s Church, Garway, Herefordshire, probably dating from the late 12th or early 12th century. XII century. early 13th century. In one of the stones of the wall of the South Chapel a Gammadion has been engraved on the left along with a Crosslet -in a position that corresponds to that of the pool inside the chapel, with its accumulation of symbolic elements- with identifiable links to the Eucharist.
The crosses of Fylfot in the window of baptism
The fraternity that built the original Norman structure would almost certainly have been too poor to buy glass, and the first stained glass windows were installed during the 15th century remodel. In January 1644, Suffolk-born official and professional iconoclast William Dowsing smashed most of these windows and other “superstitious” fixtures that were considered too closely tied to Catholicism. It appears that the windows subsequently remained without stained glass until the mid-19th century. The stained glass windows currently in the Round Church date from 1841, as part of a restoration project organized by the Camden Society.
The window with the baptism scene is located immediately to the right of the entrance. In the four corners of the window, to the left and to the right of the two circles, there are swastika shapes surrounded. Strictly speaking these are Fylfot-Crosses rather than Gammadions, as the feet are shorter than the crosses and do not fill the square. Sometimes we find these symbols pointing to the right (conventionally called ‘straight’) and sometimes to the left (conventionally called ‘verse’). In heraldry, they can be faced in any way, and we can be sure that no great meaning can be attributed to either way, despite great popular belief to the contrary. The Fylfot-Crosses here all point to the left (‘verse’).