#1187 Why do churches have stained glass windows?

Why do churches have stained glass windows? The stained glass windows in churches were used to display religious stories to educate the congregation. They were also used because plate glass windows were not possible at such a large scale. And they were possibly used to show off the wealth and the power of the church.

Stained glass was actually the norm and not a modern invention. When the Egyptians first invented glass, about 5,000 years ago, they used soda-lime in it, which left the glass a green or brown color. They used this glass to make beads and jewelry. The first colorless glass was only invented in the 9^th century BC. A lot of civilizations used glass and the Romans were no exception. They made a lot of colorless glass for decoration or for occasions such as weddings and funerals. They also made clear glass, but it was less prized than colored glass. The Romans had a lot of uses for glass and one of them was in windows. They were the first people to realize that putting glass in the windows could allow them to let in light but keep out the wind and the elements. The glass they used was extremely thick and you couldn’t see through it, but it did let light in.

So, stained glass had been around for thousands of years, but it was not used in windows until the 7^th century AD. The very first use of stained glass in a window was St Peter’s and St. Paul’s Monastery in Jarrow, England, which was built in 674. The window was made by setting pieces of colored glass in a frame and nobody knows whether it displayed an image or not. It probably didn’t. The window fell out over the centuries and the pieces of stained glass were found in 1973 by an archaeologist called Professor Rosemary Cramp, and she arranged them into a random pattern which is displayed in the rebuilt church today. However, that first window was the start of a trend that would last from the Middle Ages until today. As more churches were built, the tradition of building a stained glass window took a while to catch on, but once it did, a church wasn’t a church if it didn’t have a stained glass window.

Stained glass is made with glass that has impurities added that reflect certain wavelengths of light. The way that was done in the past and the way it is done today are slightly different. In the past, these were the methods that were used. Green was made with iron oxide. If you add chromium it is a richer green. Blue was made with cobalt blue or Sulphur. Red was made by adding metallic gold or copper. Yellow was made with a mix of silver, Sulphur, and carbon. Purple was made by adding manganese. You can make violet or black by adding nickel. White glass is made with tin and arsenic.

Why do churches have stained glass windows? From 950 onwards, bigger churches were built that had larger windows to let in light. With the Gothic style that became popular, these windows were divided up into sections. That was partly the design of the church, but it was also because plate glass windows that would fill the entire space were not popular. Starting in Italy, someone had the idea to use different colored glass to make an image. They very quickly realized that they could use the images to tell stories from the Bible. The vast majority of people that visited the church to pray, or for mass, could not read. Showing them scenes from the Bible would allow them to understand more without needing to read.

After a while, church stained glass windows became a status symbol. Churches were the only places that had stained glass windows because they were the only organizations that could afford them and those kinds of windows wouldn’t be practical anywhere else. A small group of stained glass window artisans grew up to fulfill the needs of the church and they tried to outdo each other. When you walked into a church, you would be filled with awe by the enormous stained glass window. It would give you a sense of the power of the almighty, but it would also show you the power of the church because only a truly powerful organization could build something like that. And, if you were a stained glass artisan, you would be filled with awe at the person who built the window as well.

These days, not a lot of churches are built, and it is more common for old churches to be deconsecrated and turned into other buildings, such as apartments. However, were churches to be built, they would have to have a stained glass window because we now associate the two and a church without a stained glass window wouldn’t be a “real” church. And this is what I learned today.

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