Editing Rushton Triangular Lodge (section)

==History==
The lodge is [[Listed building#England and Wales|Grade I listed]] on the [[National Heritage List for England]].<ref name=NHLE>{{NHLE|num=1052038|desc=The Triangular Lodge|access-date=4 January 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref>
Tresham was a [[Roman Catholic]] and was imprisoned for a total of fifteen years in the late 16th century for refusing to become a [[Protestant]].  On his release in 1593, he designed the Lodge as a protestation of his faith.  His belief in the [[Holy Trinity]] is represented everywhere in the Lodge by the number three: it has three walls 33&nbsp;[[foot (length)|feet]] long, each with three triangular windows and surmounted by three [[gargoyle]]s.  One wall is inscribed '15', another '93', and the last 'TT'. The building has three floors, upon a basement, and a triangular chimney. Three [[Latin]] texts, each 33 letters long, run around the building on each facade.  The quotations are:
#''Aperiatur terra & germinet Salvatorem'': "Let the earth open and … bring forth salvation" ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%2045:8;&version=9; Isaiah 45:8])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/Vulgate/Isaiah.html|title= Isaiah|publisher=Vulgate Latin Bible|access-date=19 August 2024}}</ref>
#''Quis separabit nos a charitate Christi?'': "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%208:35;&version=9; Romans 8:35])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/Vulgate/Romans.html|title= Romans|publisher=Vulgate Latin Bible|access-date=19 August 2024}}</ref>
#''Consideravi opera tua, Domine, et expavi'' : "I have contemplated thy works, O Lord, and was afraid" (a paraphrase of [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=habakkuk%203:2;&version=9; Habakkuk 3:2])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/Vulgate/Habakkuk.html |title=Habakkuk|publisher=Vulgate Latin Bible|access-date=19 August 2024}}</ref>

The windows on each floor are of different designs, all  equally ornate.  The largest, those on the first floor, are in the form of a [[trefoil]], which was the emblem of the Tresham family.  The basement windows are small trefoils with a triangular pane at their centre.  The windows on the ground floor are of a [[Lozenge (shape)|lozenge]] design, each having 12 small circular openings surrounding a central cruciform slit. [[Heraldry|Heraldic]] devices of various families surround these windows.<ref name=NHLE/>

The slightly raised ground floor has an entrance in the south-east facade. Over the door, beneath Tresham's coat of arms, is the Latin inscription: ''Tres testimonium dant '', meaning "The number three bears witness" or "Tresham bears witness" (Tres was the [[nickname|pet name]] his wife used for Tresham in her letters). Also above the door are the numbers "5555". The figures are oddly shaped, and architectural historian [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] speculated that this may once have read "3333", but that number seems to have no particular significance. It has, however, been pointed out that if 1593 is subtracted from 5555, it leaves 3962 (the date, [[Anno Domini|BC]], of the [[Noah's Ark|Flood]], according to [[Bede]]).<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=http://everything2.com/node/1241850 |title=Sir Thomas Tresham's Triangular Lodge |publisher=Everything2.com|access-date=19 August 2024}}</ref>

The principal room on each floor is [[hexagon]]al, thus leaving the three corner spaces triangular; one of these spaces contains a spiral staircase, the remaining two are small rooms. The building is crowned, above the quotations on each facade, by three steep [[gable]]s each surmounted by a three-sided [[obelisk]] at the apex.  Among the emblems carved on the gables are, on the southeast side, the highly symbolic seven-branched [[candelabrum]] within an [[octagon]]al plaque, and a [[heptagon]]al plaque depicting the [[Seven Spirits of God|seven eyes of God]].  On the north side are a [[Pelican#Religion, mythology, and popular culture|Pelican in her piety]], a symbol of [[Christ]] and the [[Eucharist]], and a Hen and Chickens; on the southwest gable are a Dove and Serpent; and the Hand of God touching a globe. The triangular chimney is adorned with the holy [[monogram]] "[[Christogram|IHS]]", a [[Agnus dei|lamb and cross]], and a [[Chalice (cup)|chalice]].<ref name=sign>{{cite sign
|title=Wording visible in the external elevations of the building}}</ref>

While the lodge is indisputably a testament to Tresham's faith, it is also an example of the Elizabethan love of [[allegory]].  Carved in the gables are the numbers "3509" and "3898": these are said to be the dates (BC) of the [[Genesis creation myth|Creation]] and the [[Abraham#Origins and calling|Calling of Abraham]].  Among the more recent dates carved on the building are 1580, thought to be the date of Tresham's conversion, and also the future (at the time of their carving) dates 1626 and 1641 - to what do they refer?  One suggestion is that not only are they divisible by three, but that, when 1593 is subtracted from them, they give 33 and 48, the years in which Jesus and the [[Virgin Mary]] are said to have died.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

The broken inscriptions inscribed on each gable combine to read ''"Respicite non mihi laboravi"'', which means "Behold I have not laboured for myself alone".<ref name=sign/>

The Lodge was the only building Tresham designed which he saw completed before his death in 1605. [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] in his ''The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire'' states: "as a testament of faith this building must be viewed with respect".  He also considered the lodge so architecturally important that he chose its photograph for the front cover of the first edition (1961) of his book; it also features on the cover of the 1973 edition.<ref>{{cite book|title= Northamptonshire (Buildings of England Series)|first1=Nikolaus|last1=Pevsner|first2=Bridget|last2=Cherry|first3=Giles|last3=Isham|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1973|isbn=978-0300096323}}</ref>

The Lodge figures prominently in the chapter of [[Alan Moore]]'s novel ''[[Voice of the Fire]]'' concerning Tresham's son [[Francis Tresham|Francis]], a [[Gunpowder Plot]] conspirator.  Moore, a Northampton native, touches on the history of several local sites in his speculative magical realist history of the town. It is also featured on the cover of the album ''[[Sun Structures]]'' released in February 2014 by the English psychedelic band [[Temples (band)|Temples]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Sendra |first=Tim |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sun-structures-mw0002602832 |title=Sun Structures – Temples |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=15 February 2014}}</ref>