specimens of geometrical painted glass, some of which are figured in
Mr. Winston's Paper, before referred to. These have served as motives
for much modern design, which, faithfully as it may have copied the
forms, has generally missed the softened colour that distinguishes the
original work.
[Illustration: TOMB OF WILLIAM LONGESPEE, 1ST EARL OF SALISBURY
(P. 47).
_From a Photograph by Catherine Weed Ward._]
HISTORY OF THE SEE.
The site of old Sarum--Searobyrig, the dry city, as the Saxons called
it--is about a mile to the north of the present New Sarum, or
Salisbury, to use the more familiar name. It was probably a fortified
place from very early times, long before it became the Roman station
of Sorbiodunum. William of Malmesbury says that "the town was more
like a castle than a city, being environed with a high wall, and
notwithstanding that it was very well accommodated with other
conveniences, yet such was the want of water that it sold at a great
rate." This latter statement, although repeated by every chronicler,
is not supported by investigations of recent explorers, who found an
ample supply in divers wells. Francis Price concludes that "it was
frequented by Roman Emperors from the coins of Constantine, Constans
Magnentius, Crispus, and Claudius, being found frequently among its
ruins." This statement also lacks probability. A legend of the visit
of a single emperor might have been barely credible; but the lavish
variety the otherwise trustworthy historian offers is fatal to one's
belief. Its early history, more or less legendary, need not be
chronicled here. Probably Kenric the Saxon, who captured it in 553,
lived there, and it seems to have been kept in his line until Egbert
united the whole Heptarchy. King Alfred ordered Leofric, Earl of
Wiltunscire, to add to its fortifications, which appear to have fallen
into decay after the Romans held it. In 1003 Svein, King of Denmark,
pillaged and burnt it, but the religious establishments if not spared
were soon re-established, for we find that Editha, Queen of AEdward
the Confessor, conveyed the lands of Shorstan to the nuns of St. Mary,
Sarum. At this time it appears to have possessed a mint, as a coin of
AEdward the Confessor bears an inscription showing that it was struck
by Godred at Sarum.
From the time of St. Aldhelm, in 705, to that of Herman, in 1058,
there are no other facts of its secular history sufficiently pertinent
to our purpose to warrant their quotation here, as the record of the
place is so woven into the lives of its bishops, that the brief
summary of the ecclesiastics who held the see includes all we need of
the history of the city. In this kingdom within a kingdom, a cathedral
surrounded by a fortress, its inhabitants were naturally split into
factions; the soldiers and the clergy failed to agree, and in spite of
the document quoted below, there is little doubt that political rather
than climatic reasons led to the removal of the cathedral. Whether, as
some writers think, it was but an insignificant structure, it is
certainly recorded that the church erected by Osmund took fifteen
years to build. Five days after its consecration, on April 5th, 1092,
it was partially destroyed by a thunderstorm. We find in Robert of
Gloucester's "Chronicle" (Hearnes ed., p. 416) this allusion to the
disaster:
"So gret lytnynge was the vyfte yer, so that it al to nogte,
The rof the Church of Salesbury it broute
Rygt evene the vyfte day that he yhalwed was."
Whether the sentence in an old chronicler that Roger "made anew the
church of Sarum" means it was so seriously damaged by the lightning
that he actually rebuilt it, or merely that he restored it, is not
clear. Roger was the great architectural genius of his time, and from
the evidence of its ground plan, traced in the foundations revealed in
the singularly dry summer of 1834, it may be that the stately edifice,
270 feet long by 75 feet wide, on the plan of a Latin cross, was in
its last state not the work of Osmund. During the excavations at this
time, various fragments of stained glass and several keys were
discovered, also what was apparently the original grave of St. Osmund
before his body was moved to Sarum. An extract from Harrison's
"Description of Britain," prefixed to Hollinshed's "Chronicle" shows
clearly enough the principal events that produced the crisis which
doomed Old Sarum to desolation. "In the time of ciuile warres the
souldirs of the castell and chanons of Old Sarum fell at ods,
inasmuch that often after brawles they fell at last to sadde blowes.
It happened therefore in a rogation weeke that the cleargie going in
solemn procession a controversie fell between them about certaine
walkes and limits which the one side claimed and the other denied.
Such also was the hot entertainment on eche part, that at last the
Castellans espieing their time gate betweene the cleargie and the
towne and so coiled them as they returned homewards that they feared
anie more to gang their boundes for that year. Hereupon the peope
missing their belly-chere, for they were wont to haue banketing at
every station, a thing practised by the religious in old tyme, they
conveyed forthwith a deadly hatred against the Castellans, but not
being able to cope with them by force of arms, they consulted with
their bishop ... that it was not ere the chanons began a church upon a
piece of their own ground.... And thus became Old Sarum in a few years
utterly desolate."
By other accounts we find there was insufficient room for all the
canons to live within the walls, and the right of free egress being
disputed the position became so intolerable, that Bishop Richard
Poore, a man of great force of character, who succeeded his brother,
took up the design Herbert had set aside, and commenced negotiations
in earnest, the result of which is best explained by the following
document:
"Honorius, bishop, Servant of the servants of God to our rev. brother
Richard, bishop, and to our beloved sons the Dean and Chapter of
Sarum, health and apostolical benediction. My sons the dean and
chapter, it having been heretofore alleged before us on your behalf,
that forasmuch as your church is built within the compass of the
fortifications of Sarum, it is subject to so many inconveniences and
oppressions, that you cannot reside in the same without corporal
perils: for being situated on a lofty place, it is, as it were,
continually shaken by the collision of the winds; so that while you
are celebrating the divine offices, you cannot hear one another the
place itself is so noisy: and besides the persons resident there
suffer such perpetual oppressions, that they are hardly able to keep
in repair the roof of the church, which is constantly torn by
tempestuous winds. They are also forced to buy water at as great a
price as would be sufficient to purchase the common drink of the
country: nor is there any access to the same without the licence of
the Castellan. So that it happens on Ash Wednesday when the Lord's
Supper is administered at the time of the Synods, and celebrations of
orders, and on other solemn days, the faithful being willing to visit
the said church, entrance is denied them by the keepers of the castle,
alleging that the fortress is in danger, besides you have not there
houses sufficient for you, wherefore you are forced to rent several
houses of the laity; and that on account of these and other
inconveniences many absent themselves from the service of the said
church."
This mandate, dated at "the Lateran, 4th of the calend of April, in
the second year of our Pontificat," concludes by giving formal power
for the translation of the church to another convenient place.
After the cathedral was removed the prosperity of the place quickly
waned. The new roads and bridges made access to the new city more
convenient. Wilton suffered from the growth of its new rival, but
Sarum ceased to be even a ruin, as the very stones of its cathedral
were ultimately taken to build a wall around the precincts of the new
church, and oblivion soon overtook the ancient city, which to-day is
not even a hamlet, but at most a geographical expression. As a
specimen of an early "burgh," or hill fortress, its form well deserves
study. Its circular walls, and various ditches and ramparts, are shown
in plans in the County History, in Francis Price's book, and
elsewhere.
[Illustration: TOMB OF "THE BOY BISHOP" (P. 49).
_From a Photograph by Catherine Weed Ward._]
THE DIOCESE OF SARUM.
So far as its history concerns us here, it suffices to note that the
greater part of Wiltshire, and those portions of Dorset and Somerset
which had been comprised in the see of Winchester, were, about the
year 705, during the reign of Ina, King of the West Saxons, included
in the new diocese of Sherbourne, which in its turn, about two hundred
years after, _circa_ 905-9, was sub-divided into those of Wells, for
Somerset, and Crediton, for Devon. About 920, a new see was allotted
to Wiltshire, whose bishop took his title from Ramsbury, near
Marlborough, on the borders of the county; and with this was soon
after re-united the smaller diocese of Sherbourne, and in 1075, the
episcopal seat was removed to the fortress of Old Sarum, whence in
1218 it was again removed to the present city. In 1542, part of the
see was devoted to the new diocese of Bristol. The see of Sherbourne,
ruled over by St. Aldhelm from 705 to 709, was a much larger one than
the second diocese of the same name which in 1058 was united to
Ramsbury, under Herman, who held it from 1058 to 1078. The eight
previous bishops are more or less well known, and in the admirable
"Diocesan History" and in the "Fasti Ecclesiae Sarisburiensis," both by
the late Rev. W.H. Jones, there is much interesting detail of the
earlier rulers of the diocese now called Salisbury.
=Herman=, by birth a Fleming, was one of the ecclesiastics brought
over by Edward the Confessor. His record is unmarked by events that
left lasting results. He made a bold but fruitless attempt to annex
the Abbey of Malmesbury. During his time, as an old writer quaintly
phrases it, "it is agreed by all authors, both printed and in
manuscript, that there was not yet any cathedral, church, or chapter,
either within or without the King's Castle [of Old Sarum], but only a
chapel and a dean." Later authorities, however, assign to him the
commencement, at least, of a cathedral. In Benson and Hatcher's
"Wiltshire," we find it has been conjectured that Herman, on removing
his see to Sarum, found there a chapel and a dean, and that in
exchange for this building he transferred the two cathedrals of
Sherborne and Sunning to the Dean to whose peculiar jurisdiction they
have since belonged; other evidence, however, points to the church
having been begun and finished by Osmund, his successor, whose own
words in the charter of foundation run: "I have built the church at
Sarum and constituted canons therein." An epistle of Gregory IX. to
the bishops of Bath and Wells states that, "Osmund of pious memory had
employed great care as well in temporals as in spirituals, so that he
had magnificently builded the said church from its foundations and
enriched it with books, treasures, ... and lands from his own
property." Herman, like other English bishops who were his
fellow-natives Leofric at Exeter, and Giso at Wells, was not deprived
of his see after the Conquest; but in 1075, in obedience to the decree
of the Council of London that bishops' sees should be removed from
obscure to more important places, he chose the hill of Sarum. His
remains are said to have been transferred to a tomb in the present
cathedral, but later antiquarians decline to endorse the tradition.
=Osmund=, who is believed to have been the nephew of William the
Conqueror, was son of Henry, Count of Seez, in Normandy; he was
created Earl of Wiltshire soon after the Conquest, before he became an
ecclesiastic; Camden speaks of him as the "Earl of Dorset." As the
author of the "Consuetudinariam," the ordinal of offices for the use
of Sarum, wherein he collated the various forms of ritual in use at
many churches, both in England and on the Continent, he won a fame far
more than the building of Old Sarum, were it never so stately a
cathedral, could have secured him. His famous "Sarum Use" was adopted
by almost the whole of England, and reflected glory upon the church
that instituted it, so that in the words of an old historian, "like
the sun in his heavens, the church of Salisbury is conspicuous above
all other churches in the world, diffusing the light everywhere and
supplying their defects." The original manuscript of this great work
is one of the choicest treasures of the cathedral library exhibited to
those who have access to that collection; it is also available to the
ordinary student in a volume entitled, "The Church of our Fathers,"
published by Dr. Rock in 1849. "As a man," says William of Malmesbury,
"Osmund was rigid in the detection of his own faults, and unsparing to
those of others." Although his body and his tomb were moved to the
Lady Chapel of the new cathedral in 1226, and his name adored
popularly, he was not canonized until over two hundred years later.
Pope Callistus, the first of the Borgias, issued the bull on January
1st, 1456, but not, according to rumour, until ample funds had been
supplied to facilitate his action. Some interesting correspondence
relating to it has been lately printed in the "Sarum Charters and
Documents," issued under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. The
bull itself, in the keeping of the chapter, has been printed in Volume
iii. of the great collection of Papal bulls edited by Cocqueline, and
published in Rome, 1743. On July 15th, 1457, according to the
authority of a writer in "Archaeologia," Vol. xiv., the translation of
his body was completed, principally at the expense of the bishop, a
huge concourse of people being present at the festival. From the
plentiful accounts of miracles worked at his shrine long before he was
officially canonized, there is but little doubt but that it had become
a favourite place of pilgrimage. He died in 1099, and in spite of his
tomb being removed to the cathedral in 1226 and a stately shrine
erected later, a stone with no inscription but a date of doubtful
authenticity--MXCIX--is all that commemorates him there to-day.
The next bishop was =Roger=, who was elected in 1102, consecrated in
1107, and died in 1139. If his fame as an ecclesiastic is not so
assured as that of his illustrious predecessor, in architecture and in
secular history he has left a decided mark. He was a poor Norman
priest, who won his mitre by singing a hunting mass quickly before
Henry I. Made chaplain by the king on his accession, he afterwards
became first chancellor, and then justiciary. He organized the Court
of Exchequer, which has preserved the earliest official records known
to us. His castles at Devizes, Sherborne, and Malmesbury excited the
jealousy of the nobles; his son was chancellor, one nephew Bishop of
Ely, and another nephew Bishop of Lincoln. Besides much work, now
destroyed, at Old Sarum (so that whether he merely restored the damage
caused by lightning, or rebuilt it from the foundations, according to
the Norman custom, we cannot tell), his additions to Sherborne Minster
are still memorable as a new departure in Norman architecture; in
fact, he has been called the great architectural genius of the
thirteenth century. "Unscrupulous, fierce, and avaricious," he is a
type of the great feudal churchmen when they were veritable rulers.
According to William of Malmesbury, "was there anything contiguous to
his property which might be advantageous to him, he would directly
extort it either by entreaty or purchase, or if that failed, by
force." Although after King Henry's death Henry, Bishop of Winchester,
persuaded him to open the vast treasure of the late king to Stephen,
yet in the fourth year of his reign Stephen imprisoned him, and the
Bishop of Lincoln, his nephew, and seized their castles of Devizes and
Sherborne, Newark, and Sleaford. Bishop Roger the same year, according
to one chronicler, "by the kindness of death, escaped the quartan ague
which had long afflicted him, and died broken-hearted." But another
version says that "he starved to death through a promise to King
Stephen that his castle of Devizes should be surrendered to him before
he eat or drank; but his nephew, the Bishop of Ely, who then had
possession of it, kept it three days before he made the surrender to
the king."
=Jocelin de Bohun=, or, as he is sometimes called, de Bailleul (1142
to 1184), is best known from his quarrel with Thomas a Becket, of
Canterbury. For his share in framing the "Constitutions of Clarendon,"
he was excommunicated by the archbishop. On the death of Roger, in
1139, King Stephen nominated Philip de Harcourt, but the canons
preferred Jocelin, who was not, however, consecrated until 1142. After
the murder of A'Becket he "purged himself by oath of his offences"
towards his late foe. In 1184 he retired to a Cistercian monastery,
and died shortly afterwards. A monument on the south side of the
cathedral nave is attributed to him.
The see was now left vacant for five years, when Hubert Walter, was
consecrated, in 1189; he shortly after went to the Holy Land to join
Richard I. in his crusade. While at Acre he was nominated to the
vacant archbishopric of Canterbury, to which he returned in 1193. He
exercised a powerful influence on both king and people; the latter,
with whom he had never been popular, found at his death that "they had
lost the only bulwark strong enough to resist or break the attack of
royal despotism."
=Herbert de la Poer=, or Poore (1194-1217), who succeeded him, ruled
in a troubled period, when the realm was under the interdict of Pope
Innocent III. Compelled to quit Old Sarum, he died at Wilton in 1217.
[Illustration: MONUMENT LOCALLY ACCREDITED TO BISHOP POORE.]
With =Richard Poore=, who was consecrated Bishop of Chichester in
1215, and in 1217 Bishop of Old Sarum, where he had been dean, begins
the record of the bishops immediately connected with the building. His
history is so intimately bound up with that of the cathedral, that
here it is sufficient to note that he ruled at Old Sarum and Salisbury
until 1229, when he was translated to Durham.[10] His distinct
influence upon the architecture of that cathedral, in connection with
Elias de Derham, is noticed elsewhere. He died at his birthplace,
Tarrant (Tarent Crawford[11]), in Dorsetshire, where he had founded a
Cistercian nunnery, in which his heart is said to have been interred;
his body was taken to Durham, and a monument with his effigy erected
in the new cathedral at Salisbury. The names of St. Osmund and Richard
Poore stand out beyond all others in connection with this see. The one
for the indirect glory he conferred upon it by his memorable ordinal;
the other by his removal of the cathedral and the superb fabric he
left to commemorate his fame. With them, excepting possibly Bishop
Hallam, the record of men of mark ceases; of their successors hardly
one has had a reputation beyond his diocese, and certainly there is
not one whose fame has spread beyond his native land.
[Illustration: NORTH CHOIR AISLE, WITH BISHOP BINGHAM'S
MONUMENT.]
=Robert Bingham= (1229-1246) finished the work of the cathedral
during his eighteen years' rule; but when he died he left it in debt
1,700 marks. His monument, with effigy, is now in the north choir
aisle.
=William of York= (1247-1256) was one of the chaplains to Henry II.;
by his renewal of the vexatious custom of attending the lord's courts,
he became very unpopular. Matthew Paris mentions him as one of the
favourites of the king, and Bishop Godwin says that he was better
versed in the laws of the realm than in those of God.
=Giles of Bridport=, or de Bridlesford (1257-1262), who held also the
Deanery of Wells by a faculty "in Commendam," for Pope Honorius,
continued the works of the cathedral until it was consecrated, in
1258, by Boniface, Archbishop of Savoy, the brother of the queen of
Edward I. He also founded the college of Vaux. In 1260, during his
bishopric, there is a curious entry in a document, lately printed,
which refers to Nicholas of York, Canon of Salisbury, _Le engineur_.
In the same volume (Rolls Chronicles, 1891), there is a note of this
bishop granting 200 lbs. of wax annually from his wardrobe for
increasing the lights in the church, as he had been told that amount
would be sufficient to double the number of the candles at each
ministration.
=Walter de la Wyle= (1263-1271), the founder of the church of St.
Edmund of Abingdon, has a mutilated effigy assigned to him in the
cathedral.
=Robert de Wykehampton= (1274-1284), although elected by the canons,
the monks of Canterbury, and the king, was opposed by the archbishop,
who, after four years' interval and an appeal to Rome, was forced to
consecrate him. He is said to have become blind in 1278.
=Walter Scammel= (1284-1286). Although on his election the monks of
Canterbury appealed to the Pope against it, they subsequently withdrew
their opposition. He was buried near the Audley Chapel.
=Henry de Braundeston= (1287), who died the same year, was buried,
according to Leland, in the Lady Chapel.
=Walter de la Corner= (1289-1291) was one of the chaplains of the
Pope. He was buried in the middle of the choir, "nearly under the
eagle."
=Nicholas Longespee= (1292-1297) was fourth and youngest son of the
first Earl of Salisbury, and Countess Ela.
=Simon of Ghent=, or de Gand (1297-1315), first empowered the mayor
and citizens to fortify the city. According to a document printed in
the "Rolls Chronicles," 1891, the visitation of many of the churches,
about 1300, compares badly with a similar record for 1220; ignorance
of the clergy, gross neglect of the fabric, insufficient and
dilapidated books and vestments, with other evidences of lack of
energy, are very frequent.
=Roger Mortival= (1315-1330) founded a collegiate establishment at
Knowsley, his birthplace. The Library of Merton College, Oxford,
contains many manuscripts, his gift while he was Archdeacon of
Leicester. He is said also to have drawn up the statutes by which the
cathedral is still partly governed.
=Robert Wyville=, or Wivil (1330-1375), was, by Walsingham's account,
not merely destitute of learning, but so deformed and ugly, "it is
hard to say whether he was more dunce or dwarf, more unlearned or
unhandsome," that had the Pope seen him he would never have endorsed
his appointment. He was a militant bishop, and in 1355 instituted a
suit against William de Montacute, and sent his champion clothed in
white to try wager of battle with him. He recovered for his see 2,500
marks and the ancient castle of Old Sarum, also that of Sherborne. He
obtained permission to fortify his manors of Sarum, Sherborne,
Woodford, Chardstock, Potterne, Canning, Sunning, and his mansion in
Fleet Street (now Salisbury Court), "in the suburbs of London." His
brass is in the Morning Chapel.
=Ralph Erghum= (1375-1388) was probably of Flemish birth. He was
translated to Bath and Wells in 1388, where he died in 1400. He is
said to have erected the City Cross as a penance, but the Sarum
register seems rather to indicate that he compelled the Earl of
Salisbury to do so.
=John Waltham= (1388-1395) was Master of the Rolls in 1382, and Keeper
of the Privy Seal in 1391. For a time he resisted the metropolitan
visitation of Archbishop Courtney, notwithstanding that the Bishop of
Exeter had been forced to yield in a similar contest, but when the
archbishop excommunicated him he was compelled to submit. He was
specially in the favour of his king, Richard II., and died Lord High
Treasurer in 1305. He was buried ("not without much general
dissatisfaction," according to Walsingham,) in Westminster Abbey,
where his brass can be seen in the floor of the chapel of the
Confessor, to the right of King Edward's tomb.