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Transcriber's note
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of
changes is found at the end of the book. Inconsistencies in
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THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF RIPON
A Short History of the
Church & a Description
of Its Fabric
by
CECIL HALLETT, B.A.
Magdalen Coll., Oxford
With 53 Illustrations
[Illustration: RIPON CATHEDRAL FROM THE FOOTBRIDGE OVER THE SKELL.]
[Illustration]
London George Bell & Sons 1901
PREFACE.
The original authorities for the history (both constitutional and
architectural) of the Church of Ripon have been most ably edited for the
Surtees Society by the Rev. Canon J. T. Fowler, F.S.A., in his
_Memorials of Ripon_ and _The Ripon Chapter Acts_ (_Surtees Soc._, vols.
74, 78, 81, 64). These authorities range from the Saxon period to the
times following the Reformation, but in the Introductions to vol. 81,
and in the Rev. J. Ward's _Fasti Riponienses_, included in vol. 78, the
story is virtually continued to our own day; while the aforesaid
Introductions epitomise, in its constitutional and architectural
aspects, the whole history of the church.
To these volumes and to their Editor, who most kindly consented to
revise the proofs of this book, the present writer is very deeply
indebted. He has also had recourse to an article by Sir G. Gilbert
Scott, R.A., in vol. xxxi. of the _Archaeological Journal_; to the same
Author's _Recollections_; to several articles on the Saxon Crypt, duly
specified on pp. 76, 77; to the Guides, by J. R. Walbran, F.S.A.,
published by Mr. Harrison of Ripon; to Mr. Murray's _Cathedrals_; to the
volume by the Ven. Archdeacon Danks in Messrs. Isbister's Cathedral
Series; to _A Day in the City of Ripon_, by Mr. George Parker of Ripon;
to the old Guides by Farrer and Gent respectively; and to other works of
a more general character.
His sincere thanks are also due to the Right Rev. the Bishop of Ripon
for permission to consult the library at the Palace; to the Very Rev.
the Dean for privileges granted in connection with the library in the
Cathedral and with the Cathedral itself; to the Ven. the Archdeacon of
Ripon and the Ven. the Archdeacon of Richmond for their courteous
assistance on several occasions; to Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, V.P.S.A.,
Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, Mrs. Swire, the Rev. H. A. Wilson, Fellow of
Magdalen College, the Rev. G. W. Garrod, and Mr. John Whitham for
valuable information on various points, historical and architectural; to
Mr. Ronald P. Jones for his excellent photographs, to the Archaeological
Institute and other learned Societies for various other illustrations,
and to the Rev. E. H. Swann, the Rev. J. Beanland, Capt. E. J. Warre
Slade, R.N., Mr. F. Forbes Glennie, Mr. T. Wall, Mr. Watson, and others
for similar assistance.
He desires also to express his thanks to Mr. E. W. Winser, Dean's
Verger, for much valuable local information; to Mr. Henry Williams,
Canons' Verger, for expert advice on points of masonry; and to both, as
well as to the Sexton, for that general assistance which they so
willingly rendered him throughout his investigation of the Fabric.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 3
CHAPTER II.--THE EXTERIOR 39
CHAPTER III.--THE INTERIOR 65
CHAPTER IV.--OTHER OLD BUILDINGS IN RIPON 133
APPENDIX--
Abbots of the Monastery of Ripon 142
Canons of Stanwick 142
Deans of King James I. Foundation 143
Deans of the Cathedral Foundation 143
Bishops of Ripon 143
INDEX 145
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Ripon Cathedral from the Footbridge over the Skel _Frontispiece_
Arms of the See _Title Page_
The Nave, South Side 2
View from the South-West 3
Early Apsidal Chapel with Later Chapel superimposed 13
The West Front before Restoration 17
Mediaeval Seals (3) 20
Ripon Minster Anterior to 1660 (from an old Engraving) 32
The Cathedral from the South-East 38
The West Doorways 39
View from the North-West 42
Doorway, North Transept 47
Doorway, South Transept 52
Reconstructed Angle of the Great Tower 57
Flying Buttresses, South Side of Choir 59
The East End 61
The North-Western Portion of the Nave 64
Conjectural View of the Interior of Archbishop Roger's
Nave (by Sir G. G. Scott) 65
Conjectural Plan of Archbishop Roger's Church
(by Sir G. G. Scott) 67
The Nave, looking Westward 70
Plan of Saxon Crypt 72
The Saxon Crypt 73
Conjectural Plan of St. Wilfrid's Crypt and Presbytery
(by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite) 77
The Two Fonts 79
Bas-Relief in the South Aisle of the Nave 80
The Western Arch of the Central Tower 83
The North Transept 87
Vault of North Transept Aisle 91
The Rood Screen 95
The Great East Window 97
Bay of Archbishop Roger's Choir (by Sir G. G. Scott) 98
Decorated Capital in the Choir 99
The North Side of the Choir 100
Bosses from the Choir-Vault (2) 103
The Sedilia 105
Choir Stalls 107
Misereres 108
Desk-End of Mayor's Stall 109
Finial in front of the Bishop's Throne 110
The West End of the Choir 112
The North Choir Aisle 113
Transitional Vaulting Corbel 114
The Norman Crypt 118
The Chapter-House 122
Ancient Sculptures in the Chapter-House 124
The Library 130
The Old Chapel, St. Mary Magdalene's Hospital 132
Chapel of St. Anne's Hospital 135
Seal of St. Mary Magdalene's Hospital 138
PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL _at end_
[Illustration: THE NAVE--SOUTH SIDE.
(Showing junction of Transitional and Perpendicular work in the
Tower.)]
[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.]
RIPON CATHEDRAL.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
There is evidence that the neighbourhood of Ripon was inhabited during,
and perhaps before, the Roman occupation of Britain. Whether the place
was a settlement of the Romans is uncertain; but it was assuredly in
touch with their civilization, for several of their roads passed near
it--notably Watling Street, on which, six miles to the east, was
Isurium, the modern Aldborough; while imperial coins and other Roman
objects have been dug up in Ripon itself. It is not known whether the
Romans imparted to the local tribes of the Brigantes their own
Christianity; but two centuries after the withdrawal of the legions the
greater part of what is now Yorkshire was absorbed by the invading
Angles into their kingdom of Deira, which had itself been united with
the more northern kingdom of Bernicia to form the single realm of
Northumbria. Deira, however, seems to have retained its own
individuality. About the year 627 King Eadwine of Northumbria was
converted to Christianity by Paulinus, and the majority of his Deiran
subjects followed his example.
=The Scottish Monastery.=--It is in the middle of the seventh century that
the recorded history of Ripon begins. Deira was then ruled by Prince
Alchfrith of Northumbria under his father, King Oswiu, nephew of
Eadwine, and Bede, writing not eighty years after the event, relates
that the prince chose Ripon for the site of a monastery. The date may be
fixed in or just before the year 657. This monastery was one of those
numerous religious colonies which were the result not only of the new
Christian fervour, but also of a reaction from war toward social life
and industry. It did not represent the Roman Christianity of Augustine
which Paulinus had introduced into Deira from Canterbury, but the
Christianity which had come from Ireland through St. Columba's
missionary college at Iona, and which was now predominant throughout the
north. The monks of Ripon were brought from Melrose Abbey on the Tweed.
Like most monks of that early period, they probably followed no definite
Rule. Their abbot was Eata, a pupil of St. Aidan, and previously Abbot
of Melrose and Lindisfarne, while the guest-master was no less a person
than Cuthbert, the legend of whose having entertained an angel unawares
at Ripon added, no doubt, to the growing reputation of the house.
Its tranquillity, however, was not to last. The Roman party in the
Northumbrian Church, though inconsiderable, was gaining force, and
Alchfrith, deserting his former convictions, gave the new monastery,
with an endowment of thirty or forty hides of land, as Bede relates, to
one who had visited Rome, and who regarded the Irish (or, as it was
called by that time, the Scottish) Church as schismatical.
The life of =St. Wilfrid of Ripon=--so full of adventure, misfortune, and
lasting achievement--can only be related here in so far as it bears upon
the story of this, his favourite monastery. It was in 661 that the
transference from Eata to Wilfrid took place, and at once the Scottish
monks, refusing to conform to Roman usages, left Ripon in a body. It is
probable that Wilfrid imposed upon their successors the Benedictine
Rule, which he had studied at Rome. The new Abbot was not yet in
priest's orders, but was presently ordained at Ripon by Agilbert, the
Frankish Bishop of Wessex. In 664 he took the action for which he is
especially remembered in English history. Appearing at the Synod of
Whitby, he prevailed upon King Oswiu to throw in his lot with the Roman
party, and was thus the means indirectly of preventing the isolation of
the England of that time from the Church and civilization of the
Continent. Almost immediately afterwards Abbot Wilfrid became Bishop of
Northumbria, and this tenure of the two offices by the same person was
perhaps the origin of the subsequent connection of Ripon with the
Archbishops of York.[1] Wilfrid insisted on going to be consecrated by
Agilbert, who was now Bishop of Paris, and so long did he remain abroad
that on his return in 666 he found another bishop, Chad (afterwards St.
Chad of Lichfield), in possession of the see. He therefore retired to
Ripon for three years, during which, however, he visited Mercia and also
Kent, where he met Aedde, or Eddius, who became his chaplain and
biographer.
=The Saxon Monastery.=--In 669 Wilfrid was restored to his see by
Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and soon afterwards began to build
at Ripon. The Scottish monastery, which was probably of wood, is thought
to have occupied a site between Priest Lane, Stonebridgegate,[2] and a
nameless road which connects them. Wilfrid now abandoned it, and erected
upon a new site a more imposing monastery of stone.[3] The practice of
building in stone seems to have become uncommon in Britain after the
departure of the Romans, and Wilfrid is thought to have employed foreign
workmen, perhaps Italians.[4] His church is described by Eddius,
himself now a Ripon monk, as "of smoothed stone from base to summit, and
supported on various columns and (?) arcades (_porticibus_)," and was
doubtless of that Italian type which had become identified in Britain
with the Roman party in the Church, as opposed to the Scottish mission.
The Scottish type of church consisted of a small aisle-less nave and
square chancel: the Italian type generally had aisles, and the altar was
usually raised upon a platform, beneath which was a crypt called
_confessio_. A little later than 670 A.D. Wilfrid's new minster was
solemnly dedicated by him in honour of St. Peter, in the presence of a
great concourse of clergy and nobles, headed by the King of Northumbria,
Ecgfrith, the successor of Oswiu. The endowments seem to have included
at this time certain lands round Ripon which had belonged to the British
Church before the coming of the Angles, and to have been now increased
by grants--some as far distant as Lancashire--made by the great men
present at the ceremony. Wilfrid himself gave a splendid copy of the
Gospels, written in gold upon purple vellum, the beginning perhaps of a
library.[5] The feasting was kept up for three days--indeed, no
monastery could have had for its church a more striking dedication. And
for the next seven years Ripon must have shared the importance of the
Abbot-Bishop, whose state rivalled that of the king. By persuading the
queen to become a nun, however, he presently lost the royal favour;
while the great size of the diocese, which extended at last from the
Forth to the Wash, prevented the achievement of complete success in his
episcopal work.
As yet the see of Canterbury was the sole archbishopric, and in 678
Archbishop Theodore--already known as an organizer of the
episcopate--was invited to the court of Northumbria. With Ecgfrith's
approval, but without consulting Wilfrid, he divided the diocese into
the three sees of Hexham, York, and Lindsey, answering respectively to
the tribal divisions Bernicia, Deira, and the land of the Lindiswaras
(Lincolnshire). Wise though this action was, it was naturally resented
by Wilfrid, who appealed to the Pope--the first appeal of the kind ever
made by an Englishman--and set out himself for Rome. He was destined not
to return till 680, and even then to be kept out of his bishopric till
686. Ripon was now in the new diocese of York, but in 681 Theodore
constituted yet another diocese, of which he made Ripon the cathedral
town.
Of =Eadhead, First Bishop of Ripon= (681-686), little is known. Originally
a priest at the court of Oswiu, he had accompanied the intruded bishop,
Chad, when the latter sought consecration at Canterbury during Wilfrid's
absence for consecration in Gaul. Eadhead had afterwards been appointed
by Theodore to the see of Lindsey, and was translated thence to Ripon
when Lindsey was recovered by the Mercians.
His tenure of his new office lasted for five years only, for in 686
Aldfrith, the successor of Ecgfrith, restored Wilfrid--not indeed to his
original bishopric of Northumbria, but to a see which combined the
lately-formed dioceses of Ripon and York[6]. Eadhead accordingly
retired, and there were no more Bishops of Ripon for twelve centuries.
To Wilfrid was restored not only his bishopric, but also his monastery
of Ripon, which he retained in peace for the next five years. At the end
of that time a long dispute arose with Aldfrith, who was veering back to
the diocesan partition of Theodore, and Wilfrid, deprived of his see for
the third time, crossed over into Mercia. In 703 a synod was held at
Austerfield, the King and Berhtwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, being
present, when Wilfrid was actually asked to promise that he would cease
to act as bishop, that he would accept the partition of Theodore, and
that he would retire to Ripon and not leave the monastery without the
king's permission.
Though he was now a man of seventy, he set out once more for Rome, and
this time as before the Pope decided in his favour. Returning to Ripon
in 705, he attempted to conciliate Aldfrith's successor Eadwulf, but in
vain. In the same year, however, Eadwulf was succeeded by Osred, and
presently another synod was held, this time at Nidd, seven miles south
of Ripon, when it was decided, in the presence of Osred and the now
relenting Berhtwald, that Wilfrid should have the monastery and see of
Hexham (resigning York) and the monastery of Ripon, thus restored to him
for the second time.
In 709 he received a call to Mercia, which had already twice received
him in his adversity, and in which he had accepted the bishopric of
Leicester. Immediately before his departure he was at Ripon, where he
kept his treasure, and having a presentiment that he would never return,
he bequeathed a portion of his wealth to the monastery, appointed
Tatberht to succeed him as Abbot, and took an affecting farewell of the
whole community. Arriving at his monastery of Oundle, in
Northamptonshire, he was seized with illness, and died there on October
12 in the seventy-sixth year of his age. The body was placed on a car
and carried in solemn procession to Ripon, where it was buried on the
south side of the high altar in his own minster.
In 710 the anniversary of his death was kept at Ripon with great
solemnity, and out of such commemorations, probably, arose the feast of
his _Depositio_,[7] which was afterwards kept on every 12th of October.
According to Eddius a remarkable phenomenon occurred on this occasion.
In the evening the monastery was suddenly encircled with brilliant
light, as of day, and whether this was a display of Northern Lights or
not, it was regarded as a Divine testimony to the sanctity of Wilfrid.
The story shows, at any rate, that he was already beginning to be
regarded as a saint, and it was probably about this time that his name
was coupled with St. Peter's in the dedication of the Church. Miracles
were worked at his tomb, and it became an object of pilgrimage; but
little is known of the period immediately succeeding his death, save
that the dwellers around Ripon (as a twelfth century writer, Eadmer,
represents) first encouraged the cult of the saint, then became
disgusted at the crowds it drew, and finally endeavoured to check it
altogether. Wilfrid was succeeded in the abbacy by Tatberht, and history
has recorded the names of three more abbots who followed each other
toward the end of the eighth century, Botwine, Alberht, Sigred; and of
one of uncertain date, Uilden or Wildeng.[8] In 791 a noble named
Eardwulf, who had plotted against Ethelred, then King of Northumbria,
was put to death (as it was thought) at the monastery gate by the king's
orders. The monks carried him 'with Gregorian chantings' to the
precincts of the church, where they laid him out, but after midnight he
was found within the building--a recovery which was regarded as
miraculous.
Ripon did not escape the violence of the Danes. It is thought that about
the year 860 they burned the town and did some damage to the church, and
the remarkable mound known as =Ailcy Hill=,[9] near the Canons' Residence,
and due east of the Cathedral, is probably a relic of some battle of
this period. In the street-names too, all ending in 'gate' (which in the
sense of 'way' is a Danish word), another trace may perhaps be found of
their presence, as well as of the existence of a town at this early
period. The town probably grew up around the monastery. It has been
believed that a civic charter was granted by King Alfred in 886; but
this is impossible, even if such charters were ever granted at this
time, for Alfred had resigned all this part of England (which since
about 839 had owned the overlordship of Wessex) to the Danes in 878.
One of the great events in Ripon history is the visit of Alfred's
grandson =King Athelstan=. Yorkshire had lately been a separate Danish
kingdom, but it passed under the direct rule of Wessex in 926, and it
was either in that year that Athelstan came, or in 937, when he defeated
the Scots and other northern rebels at Brunanburh. It was to this king
that the church afterwards referred the grant of its most important
privileges. Among these was that of =sanctuary=, by which homicides,
thieves, debtors, etc., could flee to Ripon and live there under the
protection of St. Wilfrid for a specified time. The area within which
they were protected extended one mile from the church in every
direction, and the limit was marked by eight crosses, the base of one of
which is still to be seen on the Sharow Road. The penalties for
molesting refugees were afterwards graduated as follows:--between the
limit and the graveyard wall, L18; within the graveyard, L36; within the
choir (where the pursued sought the last possible refuge at the
'grythstool,' or chair of sanctuary), confiscation of goods and possible
death. Those who took sanctuary were called 'gyrthmen' or 'grythmen'
(from the Anglo-Saxon 'gryth' 'peace'), and undertook, among other
things, to carry the banners before the relics of St. Wilfrid in certain
processions. They were under the spiritual charge of a 'gryth-priest.'
The protection of the outer sanctuary can hardly have been extended to
Ripon men, as theoretically the whole town could then have committed
crimes with impunity, and practically the criminals would not have been
safe from their fellow-townsmen. Ripon debtors did indeed enjoy
protection here at Rogation-tide, but as a rule men of Ripon would seek
sanctuary at Durham or Beverley. Athelstan is also said to have granted
to the church a jurisdiction over its lands independent alike of the
northern archbishop and of the king, with the right to inflict the
ordeals of fire and water, and with exemption from taking oaths, from
taxation, and from military service.[10] Of the two charters in which
these grants are set forth, one is, indeed of the eleventh or twelfth,
and the other of the thirteenth century, but Athelstan may at any rate
have done something to give rise to the tradition, though it is
impossible to tell exactly what. The story of his having given the manor
to the see of York is doubtless misleading. The territorial sway of the
Archbishop at Ripon must be of earlier origin, and it may even have
arisen out of the grant of the monastery with its thirty or forty hides
of land to Wilfrid and his retention of them after his elevation to the
see of Northumbria.
The connection of the monastery with the Archbishop is illustrated in
the reign of Athelstan's brother Eadred, when Archbishop Wulfstan, by
aiding a rebellion for the purpose of again setting up a Danish king at
York, drew down the royal anger upon Ripon. In 948 (or 950, according to
one authority) Eadred harried Northumbria, and then, says the Worcester
Chronicle, "was that famed minster burned at Ripon, which St. Wilfrid
built." Wulfstan himself was deprived and imprisoned.
About two years later the half-ruined and deserted church was visited
(the see of York being vacant) by Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury. There
was a tradition in the sixteenth century that he rebuilt it, but his
visit is also memorable for another tradition, namely, that he
translated the bones of St. Wilfrid to Canterbury. Hence arose a fierce
dispute between Canterbury and Ripon, each claiming that it possessed
the body of the Saint. The claim of Canterbury, which is accepted to
this day by the Church of Rome, is supported by the assertion of Oda
himself, and by several subsequent chroniclers, one of whom, however,
attributes the translation to St. Dunstan, while another goes so far as
to concede that Oda left a portion of the bones behind. But Ripon always
maintained that it possessed the whole, and that the relics removed had
been those of Wilfrid II. (Archbishop of York, 718-732). According to
the contemporary biographer of Oswald (Archbishop of York, 972-992) the
bones of the Saint were at Ripon in the tenth century, and Oswald
solemnly enshrined them--whence that feast of St. Wilfrid's translation
which was afterwards kept on the 24th of April; and a later chronicler
speaks of "the body of the blessed Wilfrid" as being at Ripon in the
reign of Stephen. The claim of Canterbury was forgotten for a time in
the glories of St. Thomas a Becket, while that of Ripon became more or
less established in the north. In 1224 Archbishop de Gray, who
translated the alleged relics at Ripon to a more splendid shrine,
declared that he had found the skeleton complete. In the fifteenth
century Henry V. himself writes to Ripon of his reverence for "St.
Wilfrid, buried in the said church." In the sixteenth, Leland, while
recording a common opinion that Oda rebuilt the minster, makes no
mention of any removal of the relics. The controversy will perhaps never
be decided definitely, but it is interesting in view of the cult of St.
Wilfrid at Ripon in the middle ages.
The account of the enshrinement of the relics by Oswald has been thought
to imply that it was he who rebuilt the monastery, and that he filled it
again with monks. Whether it was rebuilt by Oda or Oswald, the body of
St. Cuthbert rested here in 995 on its way from Chester-le-Street to
Durham. From this point onwards, however, no more is heard of monks at
Ripon, and it may be interesting to recall here the part which this
monastery had played in the history of the Church. Its first abbot,
Eata, had become Bishop of Hexham and of Lindisfarne. It had been for a
time the home of St. Cuthbert. Under Wilfrid, Ceolfrith, one of its
monks, had become Abbot of Wearmouth, and another, AEthelwald, had
carried on Cuthbert's work in the Farne Islands. In accepting and
treasuring the staff of St. Columba, the Ripon of Wilfrid had forgotten
something of its hostility to the Scottish mission. Through Wilfrid,
Ripon had been connected with the founding of other monasteries, Hexham,
Selsey, Lichfield, Oundle. Through his labours, again, and those of St.
Willibrord, another of its monks, it had become known as a great centre
of missionary work. Wilfrid had strengthened Christianity in Mercia and
Kent, and may claim to have introduced it into Sussex and the Isle of
Wight. Abroad he had carried the Gospel to the Frisians, and his work
among them was splendidly completed by Willibrord, who became Archbishop
of Utrecht.[11]
=The College of Secular Canons.=--From 995 to the Conquest, the history of
Ripon is almost a blank. During that time the monastery, by a reversal
of the more usual process, became converted into a college of secular
canons, but nothing is known of the manner in which the change was
effected. The last Saxon Archbishop of York, Ealdred, who crowned both
Harold and the Conqueror, is said to have founded prebends--perhaps
giving lands out of his manor, and the Canons of Ripon duly appear in
Domesday Book (1085-6). In 1070 the Conqueror, to whom the north had
given much difficulty, ordered the Vale of York to be harried. Ripon
suffered severely, and in Domesday Book the surrounding lands are
recorded as "waste." The minster probably shared in the general wreck.
What happened to it in the succeeding period is not definitely known. It
may have been entirely rebuilt, as most great Saxon churches were after
the Conquest, or it may have been rebuilt partially, or merely enlarged.
That something was done is proved by the existence south of the choir
of some Norman work which has been attributed to the first Norman
Archbishop, Thomas of Bayeux (1070-1100), or to Archbishop Thurstan
(1114-1141).
[Illustration: EARLY APSIDAL CHAPEL WITH LATER CHAPEL SUPERIMPOSED.]
The former died at Ripon. Indeed, the Archbishops had been in the habit
of residing here since the end of the tenth century, and they duly
appear in Domesday Book as lords of the manor, of which the canons' land
is apparently treated as a part. It is worthy of note that Domesday Book
records also the 'soc' jurisdiction and freedom from taxation which are
mentioned in the 'Athelstan' charters. The exemption also from the
king's officers which is set forth in the same charters, was proved in
1106, when an attempted invasion of the liberties of the Church by the
Sheriff of York was successfully resisted by Archbishop Gerard before
arbitrators appointed by Henry I. This king also exempted the lands of
Ripon from castle-building, and granted to the Canons and the Archbishop
a fair at the feast of St. Wilfrid's translation (April 24th). In the
next century fairs were also claimed for the feast of his _Depositio_
(October 12th), and for the feasts of St. Michael and of the Finding of
the Holy Cross.
=Archbishop Thomas II.= (1109-1114) founded the =Hospital of St. John the
Baptist=, and another Hospital, that =of St. Mary Magdalen=, of which the
chapel remains, was founded by his successor, =Archbishop Thurstan=
(1114-1141). Both these Hospitals were affiliated to the Church, and the
masterships were in the gift of the Archbishop. St. John's afforded
shelter to poor travellers who came in through the forest which then
adjoined the town. When the forest was cleared, the endowment provided
exhibitions for a few poor boys, who lived here while they pursued their
studies in "grammar" (perhaps at the Grammar School), with a view to
becoming clerks. The two hospitals, and a third which was founded later,
were placed at three of the principal entrances to the town, with the
express intention, perhaps, of assisting the pilgrims who resorted to
the shrine of St. Wilfrid.
Thurstan added one more canon to the staff by founding the prebend of
Sharow. He may also be called the founder of Fountains Abbey, which was
built on land assigned by him out of his domain of Ripon.
In the troubles of the reign of Stephen, Ripon took no small share. When
the Scots descended into Yorkshire, nominally to aid the Empress Maud,
Thurstan sent against them all the levies which an archbishop, as a
feudal baron, could muster, including doubtless the men of his manor of
Ripon, and the victory which they won near Northallerton in 1138 is
known as the Battle of the Standard, from the banners of the three
mother-churches--Ripon, York, and Beverley--which waved over the English
army. Ripon was soon to experience the anarchy which prevailed toward
the end of the war. In 1140 Alan, Earl of Richmond, entrenched himself
on a neighbouring hill and grievously oppressed the town and its
inhabitants. Led by him, the large landholders in the neighbourhood
broke open the storehouses and granaries of the archbishop, and in 1143
Earl Alan himself burst into the church with an armed band and attacked
Archbishop William Fitzherbert (afterwards St. William of York), who was
standing by St. Wilfrid's shrine. The Archbishop's offence may have been
that he was the king's nephew. At any rate he was detested by the
Cistercians, who were strongly represented here by Fountains Abbey, and
Ripon seems to have sided with them, for in 1148, when Archbishop
William was temporarily deprived of his office, it was to Ripon that his
supplanter, Archbishop Murdac, retired when he durst not enter York.
Stephen confirmed to the College all the privileges granted by his
predecessors.
=Building of the Present Church.=--The reign of Henry II. is marked by
another rebuilding of the church. William was succeeded in 1154 (the
year of the king's accession) by =Archbishop Roger de Pont l'Eveque=
(1154-1181). This prelate is known in politics for his opposition to
Thomas a Becket, and in art for his prominent share in the development
of our national architecture. There is perhaps no more important example
of the transition from the Norman to the Early English style than his
work at Ripon. With the exception of the crypt under the present
crossing, and of some Norman work south of the present choir, he rebuilt
the whole church, and history has recorded the wording of a deed in
which he gives "L1000 of the old coinage for the building of the
basilica ... which we have begun afresh."[12] Roger's church was a
cruciform building, and its nave had no aisles. A great portion of his
work remains--the two transepts, half of the central tower, and
portions of the nave and choir. The plan (see below, p. 67) was typical
of the early history of the place and of its subsequent conversion from
a monastery into a college of secular canons; for the aisleless
cruciform arrangement in churches was developed from a combination of
the Scottish type with the Roman or basilican, and the absence of aisles
was, or rather had been at a slightly earlier period, the recognized
mark of a secular as opposed to a monastic church. In giving aisles to
the choir Roger's plan was singular, for it was not usual for a choir to
have aisles when the nave had none. Except by the addition of
nave-aisles, the dimensions of his plan (as Walbran remarked) have not
been materially exceeded; and Ripon is an example of the size to which
churches of canons often attained, in spite of the fact that their plan
was generally that of a mere parish church.
The next archbishop, Geoffrey Plantagenet, was often in disagreement
with his brothers, Richard I. and John, but the manor of Ripon is said
to have been the only portion of his temporalities of which the latter
king did not deprive him.
After Geoffrey's death the see was vacant for nine years until 1216, the
year of the accession of Henry III., when it was given to =Archbishop
Walter de Gray= (1216-1255). In the same year 'spiritual fraternity' was
formally concluded between Ripon and Fountains; and a somewhat similar
arrangement was made a little later with Southwell, which since Henry I.
had shared with Ripon and Beverley the dignity of a mother-church or
pro-cathedral in the diocese of York. In 1224, at the request of the
Canons, Archbishop de Gray translated the relics of St. Wilfrid (if such
they were) to a new shrine, enshrining the head separately in such a way
that it was exposed to view. He also granted an indulgence of thirty
days to all who should make pilgrimage to the saint's new resting-place.
This second translation never became a feast, but it doubtless
stimulated the cult of St. Wilfrid afresh, and probably brought
considerable profit to the Church.
A few years later, at any rate, an important alteration was made in the
fabric, by the building of the present west front with its two flanking
towers, and the tall wooden and lead-covered spires which once crowned
the latter and the central tower were probably erected at this period.
In 1230, the Archbishop founded a seventh prebend--that of Stanwick;
and in 1241 sanctioned the addition of the parish of Nidd to the common
property of the College.
[Illustration: THE WEST FRONT BEFORE SIR G. G. SCOTT'S RESTORATION.
(From an old print, by the kind permission of the Ripon Museum.)]
As yet, most of the prebends were distinguished by the names of the
Canons who held them, or of Saints; and it was not till 1301 that they
were named after the principal hamlet or township in each--Stanwick,
Monkton, Givendale, Sharow, Nunwick, Studley, Thorp. They were all in
the neighbourhood except Stanwick, which was in the North Riding, near
Richmond. The Church was (as it still is) parochial as well as
collegiate. Each prebend carried with it a cure of souls, yet all
(except Stanwick) were included in the huge parish of Ripon, which
extended to Pateley Bridge, and in 1300 had a radius of nine or ten
miles. Thus the collegiate establishment differed from the usual type in
which each prebend was a separate parish with a church of its own.
Moreover, there was neither Dean nor Chancellor. The Canons may at first
have lived in common, but as early as 1301, and probably earlier, they
were dwelling in separate prebendal houses round the Church. There is no
evidence that they ever resided on their prebends, except in the case of
the Canon of Sharow, whose residence was at that place. The canonries,
having been founded by Archbishops of York, were in the gift of the see,
or of the Crown when the see was vacant. The Canon of Stanwick was _ex
officio_ Ruler of the Choir, whence his obligation to reside in Ripon in
spite of the remoteness of his prebend, which was served by a vicar.
Similarly the Canon of Monkton was always Treasurer, and had charge of
the Chapter-house, the ornaments and plate, and the High Altar.
The revenues of the church may be divided as usual under three heads.
There was a Common Fund, arising from certain rents, tithes, fees, and
oblations; a survival perhaps of a time when the Canons lived in common.
Secondly, there were the revenues drawn by the Canons from their
respective prebends, and consisting partly of rents, but chiefly of
tithes. The prebend of Stanwick was worth about twice as much as any
other. Thirdly, there was the Fabric Fund, arising from certain rents,
oblations,[13] and licences, from the profits of St. Wilfrid's
burning-iron (with which cattle were branded to keep off murrain),[14]
and, in later days, of the pok-stone (which was probably regarded as in
some way a preventive against the 'pokkes' of sheep and cattle); but
especially from the farm of indulgences. When much building was in
progress the Canons' incomes were afterwards specially taxed, and once
or twice Peter's-pence were actually withheld from the Pope and devoted
to architectural purposes.
At the time of Archbishop de Gray, the old and somewhat vague
jurisdictions in and about Ripon had become more distinct. The parish
was a Peculiar,[15] and as such was exempt from the authority of the
Archdeacon of Richmond, either by tradition from the days when the
church was a monastery, or because of the presence here of the
Archbishops. Over this Peculiar (the laity included) the Chapter
exercised the spiritual jurisdiction of an archdeacon's court, assisted
by the Rural Dean of Ripon, who sat as 'Dean of Christianity.' This
'Court Christian' dealt with testamentary and matrimonial cases, cases
of defamation, immorality, neglect of religious duties, etc. Accused
persons cleared themselves by compurgation, or underwent penalties
(commutable, however), such as being beaten, walking barefoot in the
processions, suspension _ab ingressu ecclesiae_, or excommunication.[16]
Lesser offences were dealt with by an archbishop's officer called
_penitentiarius_, who heard confessions and enjoined penances. The
Archbishop was Ordinary of the Peculiar. He held visitations in the
Chapter-house, and could order repairs of buildings, make statutes (in
consultation with the Chapter) for the College, and sequestrate its
revenues. He also exercised authority over offending Canons and over the
inferior clergy of the staff, though the correction of these belonged
primarily to the Chapter and especially to the Canon of Stanwick.
[Illustration: MEDIAEVAL SEALS.
1. Seal of the Mediaeval Chapter.
2. Capitular Seal "ad causas."
3. Common Seal of the Vicars.]
For purposes of secular jurisdiction Ripon, with the lands round it, was
a Liberty, exempt, that is, from the authority of the Sheriff. The
Liberty was almost co-extensive with the Peculiar. Within it were two
secular jurisdictions, that of the Archbishop as lord of the manor, and
that of the Chapter, which embraced the southern half of the town and
many country districts, and which may have originated either with
Ealdred's presumable gifts of land out of the manor to form prebends, or
(as the charters pretend) from a grant of Athelstan, or perhaps from an
original independence enjoyed by the church as a monastery. The Chapter
claimed within their sphere the rights attributed to Athelstan's grant,
and also assize of bread, ale, weights and measures; dues of fairs and
markets; certain feudal dues; power over masterless goods, and to deal
with cases of rent, wrongful detention of land, and theft; _cognitio de
falso judicio_; execution of royal writs; 'sheriff-tourn'; coroners of
their own; in fact the powers of a sheriff and of the justices-in-eyre,
with a prison and the right of gaol-delivery, and even of inflicting
capital punishment. In cases of homicide, however, a king's justice must
sit as assessor. For civil suits there was a provision against 'wager of
battle,' and the accused again cleared themselves by compurgation.
Archbishop de Gray claimed similar privileges, but wished to exercise
them over the whole Liberty, on the ground that the church and its
appurtenances were part of his manor (as indeed they very possibly were,
originally). Unlike Archbishop Gerard, who had supported the church's
privilege against the sheriff, de Gray actually joined the sheriff in
invading it. In 1228 the case came before the king's justices in the
Chapter-house at Ripon, and the decision was for the Chapter. Thus the
division of jurisdictions received from the State an undoubted sanction.
Within his sphere the Archbishop appointed his own justices, but on
arriving at the limits of that sphere, the king's justices sat with them
there on the first day, and were afterwards admitted to sit with them in
the town. The Archbishops claimed also that their commissioners should
administer the oath of obedience at the mile-limit to those who sought
sanctuary. The Archbishops are also said to have had a 'military court,'
probably a feudal institution.
The memory of de Gray was perhaps held in scant respect at Ripon. He is
accused by Matthew Paris of having refused to distribute his corn during
a famine, and it was through the erection of Bishopthorpe Palace by him
that Ripon ceased to be a favourite provincial residence of the
Archbishops. Nevertheless they still frequently visited the town, both
for sport and duty. They had a park "six miles in compass," and the
fishing in the Ure. The existence, moreover, of a prison here for
criminous clerks made the minster a convenient place for the public
degradations which the Archbishop was obliged to hold from time to time.
On these occasions the offending clerks were brought across to the
church, where the Archbishop in full pontificals would hear their avowal
of guilt in the nave, and then solemnly divest them of their robes and
of their office at the west door.
In 1270 came the first echo from the outside world since the reign of
Stephen. Prince Edward was setting out on a crusade, and Archbishop
Giffard was compelled to exact from the Chapter a twentieth of their
temporalities. The town had now attained to some importance, and sent
two members to the Model Parliament of 1295.
As yet the minster of Archbishop Roger had suffered no change in its
main fabric save the rebuilding of the west front, but an alteration was
now to be made at the other extremity also, and the eastern portion of
the choir was rebuilt with all the elaboration of the Decorated style.
Of this work the greater part was probably effected under =Archbishop
John Romanus= (1286-1296).
In 1293 the almost cathedral rank of the church was marked by the
consecration within its walls of a bishop (of Galloway). It was, as has
been said, the parish church of the huge parish of Ripon. Yet the town
itself possessed at an early period a separate parish church of
Allhallows, a memory of which survives in 'Allhallowgate.'[17] There was
also an old chapel of the Virgin called the 'Lady-kirk,' in
'Stammergate,' and there were chapels at the two hospitals and the
palace. But there were at first few if any places of worship in the
surrounding country, and the most remote of the parishioners had been
obliged to repair Ripon. This state of things led to the erection of
district chapels by the larger landholders under the sanction of the
Chapter, as early as the twelfth century, and of these chapels there
were eventually at least sixteen.
The parishioners, however, still assembled at Ripon on certain feasts,
notably Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide, and the
feasts of St. Wilfrid's death (October 12th) and translation (April
24th), to which was added later a feast of his nativity, observed on the
Sunday after Lammas Day, and in the parish of Ripon only.[18] On St.
Wilfrid's feasts the privilege of sanctuary was extended beyond the
mile-limit to all who visited the mother-church, and the penalty for
molestation without the limit was L6. On Easter Day all the parishioners
received the Communion in the minster,[19] and on that day, on Christmas
Day, and on the feast of St. Wilfrid's nativity, the district chaplains
attended in their copes. Very picturesque, too, must have been the
miracle-plays at Easter, Christmas, and Epiphany; the great fairs; the
solemn processions, especially at Rogation-tide, when the relics of the
Saint were borne in state by representatives of the greater tenants of
the church, and attended by the sanctuary-men carrying staves with
banners. It is probable that once a year (perhaps at Whitsuntide) the
church was visited by clergy and laity from the whole of that division
of the diocese to which Ripon was the mother-church. Such annual
visitations were the especial privilege of mother-churches, and were a
great source of profit.
Underneath all this pageantry, however, there was much that was
unsatisfactory in the internal affairs of the college. In the thirteenth
century even more than afterwards, the great difficulty in the working
of secular colleges was non-residence. The Canons were often pluralists,
or foreigners appointed under pressure from the Pope or the king, who
provided in this way for prominent civil servants. A canon would often
leave his prebend in the spiritual charge of a vicar engaged by the
year, or under the administration of a proctor, or would even farm it
out--sometimes to a layman. Sometimes a canon was suspected of being a
layman himself, or a married man. The proctors or lessees dismissed or
appointed vicars at their pleasure. The prebendal houses fell into
disrepair, and in some cases a plot had been assigned, but no house had
been built. Some canons at this period resigned their stalls after an
extremely short tenure, or changed from one stall to another.
=Archbishop Thomas de Corbridge= (1299-1303) addressed himself to the
reform of these evils. He ordered the Canons to look to their prebendal
houses. He tried to control their acceptance of benefices in plurality.
He forbade them to farm their prebends to any but brother-canons except
with his licence. It was he who gave the prebends their territorial
names. Most important of all, he decreed in 1303 that the cure of souls
in each prebend was to be entrusted to a vicar-perpetual. The collegiate
system was indeed breaking down, and the Vicars henceforth were almost
as important a body as the Canons, whom they relieved of all
responsibility for the parochial work and the performance of the
services. Except the Vicar of Stanwick, they all lived at Ripon, and in
1304 one Nicholas de Bondgate provided them with a common residence,
which became known as the Bedern[20] (whence 'Bedern Bank'). The office
of _penitentiarius_ or of rural dean was often held by one of them.
Besides the seven Canons and the six Vicars in Ripon, there were three
deacons, three sub-deacons, six thuriblers, and six choristers, and the
full officiating staff thus amounted to thirty-one, exclusive of the
chantry priests, of whom, however, there were as yet but few.
The successor of Archbishop de Corbridge was an ex-Canon of Ripon,
=William Greenfield= (=Archbishop= 1304-1315). He rebuilt the chapel of the
Palace and founded a chantry in it. It was at Ripon that he put forth,
with additions of his own, certain rules against clerical abuses which
he had borrowed from the diocese of Chichester. He found indeed much to
reform. Already the vicariate was becoming demoralized. Vicars and
inferior clergy were addicted to shows and sports, to dances and
stage-plays. A chaplain invented a gambling game called "ding-thrifts."
What wonder that the laity, then, begged at the altars under pretence of
being proctors of absent canons, or intruded into the choir during
service--a privilege reserved for the great? And another privilege of
rank had been invaded also, for the Archbishop had to direct that only
great persons and benefactors were to be buried within the minster. In
1310 two women fought in the graveyard so savagely that it had to be
reconsecrated. In his last year the Archbishop had to restrain the
proctors of absent canons from acting independently in the
administration of the prebends, and from exercising capitular authority.
These internal difficulties, however, were presently forgotten in a new
danger from without. Already, in 1298, Archbishop de Newark had called
upon the Chapter to assist in providing cavalry for Edward I.'s campaign
against John Balliol, King of Scots. The King himself is said to have
visited the town in 1300. In 1315 the Chapter had sent a representative
to a council held by Archbishop Greenfield at Doncaster to consider the
defence of the realm. Since Bannockburn the Scots had been raiding the
northern counties, and in 1316 Edward II. ordered Ripon to provide
maintenance for Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who was to pass
through on his way to check the raids. In March 1318 the town sent a
contingent to the King's forces, and the money, together with a banner
of St. Wilfrid, was provided by =Archbishop William de Melton=
(1317-1340). In May of the same year the Scots descended upon Ripon
itself. They might have spared the place, for in 1297 it had been the
temporary home of the mother of Robert Bruce, now King of Scotland, but
no consideration was shown. As there were no town walls, the inhabitants
fled to the minster and fortified it. For three days their homes were
given over to plunder, and the enemy demanded one thousand marks as the
price of a promise not to burn the town altogether. Even the Archbishop
urged the townsmen to pay this blackmail lest further damage should be
done, but such a sum could not be raised in a moment, and during either
this or a subsequent visit the Scots did much damage to the church. The
prebends suffered to the extent of over 150 marks, and the hospitals
were much crippled. Nor was any satisfaction to be had, save by solemnly
excommunicating the enemy on Sundays and festivals. It was probably in
consequence of the havoc wrought that in 1322 Parliament, which had been
summoned to meet at Ripon, met at York instead.
Thrice again after 1318 were forces levied in the Liberty against the
Scots--in 1327, in 1333, and in 1342, when Edward III. even offered
pardon to the sanctuary-men if they would serve.
Meanwhile Archbishop de Melton had been promoting the repair of the
minster, a task which included probably the renewal of the spires, the
roof, the stained glass, and the woodwork. In 1331-2 he issued some
important statutes for the College. Hitherto each Canon (except the
Canon of Stanwick) had received an annual dividend out of the Common
Fund. Of this fund, a large portion which had always gone to furnish
these dividends (or a part of them) was now appropriated exclusively to
canons willing to reside. Thus a premium was put upon residence, which
was fixed at twelve weeks in the year (not necessarily continuous), and
a distinction was admitted between resident and non-resident canons.
Again, the Common Fund was now to be charged with the salaries of the
Vicars, who had hitherto been precariously paid by the Canons their
masters.
=Archbishop John de Thoresby= (1352-1373) added to the prebend of Studley
the two districts of Dacre and Bewerley, and it was probably about this
time that the Lady-chapel (now the Library) was built. In 1375 some part
of the church was burnt, and in 1396-7 the central spire seems to have
been rebuilt. The town had now recovered its prosperity, for in 1405 it
became the residence of the Court, when King Henry IV. was driven from
Westminster by a plague. The next reign is marked by an improvement in
the status of the Vicars. They had been living dispersed over the
town,--indeed, their common residence or Bedern is said to have been
destroyed by the Scots.
In 1415, therefore, =Archbishop Henry Bowet= (1407-1423), having obtained
from Henry V. a charter with a dispensation of the Statute of Mortmain,
gave a site out of his manor for a new Bedern; and the vicars
themselves, who at this period are commended by both the Archbishop and
the King, were at the same time formed into a corporate body having a
common seal, and were allowed to elect from their number a Provost.
Under this Archbishop there were several instances of canons exchanging
their stalls for other benefices. The discipline of the staff seems to
have become exceedingly lax by 1439. The church music was neglected.
The Mass of Our Lady was not said regularly in the Lady-chapel. The
inferior clergy did not study for their examinations, and wore daggers
in the Choir. They and the vicars frequented taverns, walked about the
nave during service, and absented themselves without leave. The Canons
did not attend church in their habits, and the clergy generally indulged
in field sports.
=Archbishop John Kemp= (1426-1452) did what he could to reform these
abuses, and effected some improvement (the nature of which is not clear)
in the status of the Vicars, who had been badly treated by the Chapter
in financial matters. Later in this century a chantry chaplain is found
engaging in dishonest trade; priests fight; laymen assault one another
in the minster during service. But mediaeval morality in general must not
be condemned, of course, for a few recorded crimes.
About 1450 the south-east corner of the central tower gave way, and so
unsafe was the church that service had to be held in the Lady-kirk. In
consequence of this disaster the Canons were obliged to rebuild not only
the south and east sides of the tower, but also the east side of the
south transept, and eventually part of the south side of the Choir; and
it is evident that they would have rebuilt the two remaining sides of
the tower, had they not been prevented by the Dissolution. The present
rood screen and canopied stalls were put in toward the close of the
fifteenth century. In 1502 the Lady-kirk (in which a chantry had been
founded in 1392) was handed over by the Chapter to Archbishop Savage,
who in turn transferred it to Fountains Abbey. Abbot Huby, intending to
make it a colony of Cistercians, rebuilt the east end of it, and
enclosed part of its graveyard with a fine stone wall having a
strongly-marked base. Of this wall a great part remains in St.
Mary-gate. A large doorway in it has been built up. The Lady-kirk itself
has vanished long ago.
At this time was begun the greatest architectural enterprise that had
been undertaken at Ripon since the twelfth century, namely, the
rebuilding of the nave of the minster. The Transitional nave, it was
said, had become ruinous through age and storms, but the real motive for
its destruction was probably an ambition to enlarge the building. The
enlargement of aisleless churches was usually begun by the addition of a
single aisle, and that on the north side (since the south was usually
the side of the graveyard); but at Ripon the south aisle was built
first, perhaps because it was always intended that there should be two
aisles--an arrangement which there were no cloisters here to prevent.
The work was begun in 1502 or 1503. Delayed by a plague in 1506, it was
almost complete, as Leland's _Itinerary_ shows,[21] when he visited the
town about 1538, but the aisles had not yet been vaulted when the
Dissolution came, and had wooden roofs until our own time. Irreparable
as is the loss of Archbishop Roger's nave, its successor must surely be
placed among the great naves of the Perpendicular period--and it is the
latest of them. The work was furthered by =Archbishop Savage= (1501-1507)
and by =Cardinal Archbishop Bainbridge= (1508-1514), and two canons must
especially be mentioned in connection with it, Andrew Newman, appointed
Master of the Fabric in 1502, and =Marmaduke Bradley=, who was paymaster,
and who was connected with the repairs after the failure of the central
tower, and gave up to the fabric a large portion of his fees for
residence. The last work done before the Reformation was probably the
rebuilding of the three westernmost bays on the south side of the choir,
which had been weakened doubtless by the accident to the central tower.
By this time the church contained nine chantries, namely, those of St.
Andrew (founded 1234); of the Holy Trinity _supra summum altare_ (1345);
of St. John the Evangelist and St. John the Baptist (1364); of St. James
(1407-8); of Our Lady 'in the Church' (1408); of St. Thomas of
Canterbury (1418); of the Holy Trinity _subtus altare_ (1466); of Our
Lady 'in the Lady-loft'; and of St. Wilfrid (? 1420). In some of these,
other chantries had been merged. There were also four or five chantries
in various chapels in the parish. The chantry-chaplains were not
strictly on the staff, but helped on Sundays and festivals. As their
chantries did not give them sufficient occupation, they sometimes held
in addition such offices as that of Proctor of an absent canon, Curator
of the Fabric, Sub-Precentor, Sub-Treasurer, or Chamberlain, the holder
of this post being the chief financial officer of the community.
On the eve of the Reformation the discipline of the staff was again very
unsatisfactory, chiefly through the influence of the Treasurer, Canon
Christopher Dragley, who employed the vestry clerks on his private
business, disposed of chantries prematurely, and encouraged the Vicars,
who were now living dispersed, to be insubordinate. It was the custom
for choir and clergy to adjourn after Prime to the Chapter-house, where
the martyrology for the day was read and notices were given out. Here,
too, once a week sat the Chapter Court. But Dragley was able to hinder
all this by keeping the door locked. From 1533 to 1539 he was Treasurer,
Canon Residentiary, and President of the Chapter, and the general laxity
was largely due to this concentration of authority in the hands of one
bad man through non-residence. The case of Dragley drew several decrees
from =Archbishop Edward Lee= (1531-1544):--that no vicar should be
appointed without the consent of a majority in Chapter; that the Chapter
seal must be kept by three people; that one canon must no longer form a
quorum (as hitherto) in the Chapter Court, and as a question had arisen
whether the powers of the Chapter were not entirely vested in the
canons-resident,[22] it was laid down that the latter were indeed
competent to dispose of certain chantries and other offices, and to
exercise the Chapter's spiritual jurisdiction, but that in most other
matters the whole body must be consulted. As most of them were always
absent, this means, perhaps, that they were represented in Chapter by
their proctors. There is an instance in 1546 of the Vicars, chantry
priests, and deacons being allowed to take part in a Chapter meeting.
An attack on relics was begun in 1538, and it was probably about this
date that the shrine of St. Wilfrid was destroyed. In 1539 came the
suppression of Fountains Abbey, the abbot who surrendered it being no
other than Marmaduke Bradley. He had been Abbot since 1536, holding his
canonry at Ripon at the same time, and after the suppression of the
Abbey, he became once more a power at Ripon. As sole residentiary in
1544, 1545, and 1546, he appears to have used his influence well, and
played a prominent part in the last architectural operations before the
Dissolution. The old system of sanctuary, suited only to times when the
State was weak, seems to have died out about this period. In 1545 came
an Act for the dissolution of chantries and hospitals. As 'Supreme Head
of the Church' Henry VIII. renewed the visitatorial authority of the
Archbishops, and both he and Edward VI. confirmed the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Chapter. But the end was imminent. In 1547 the
College was dissolved,[23] and its revenues were annexed to the Duchy of
Lancaster. There had been attached to the church for centuries a =Grammar
School=, for which the Chapter had claimed a monopoly of education within
the Parish and Liberty, forbidding in 1468 the establishment of any
other school without their special licence. This ancient seminary was
apparently dissolved, and a new grammar school independent of the church
was founded by Edward VI., whose benefaction was completed by Mary, the
endowment being provided from the revenues of four of the late
chantries. There had also been a Song-school, but it was perhaps merely
a room in which boys of the Grammar School were trained to be
choristers. Out of the confiscated revenues one or more clergy were paid
to minister to the parish, but under Mary the old state of things was in
some measure brought back. There was once more a Chamberlain, whose
accounts show much the same items as do those of his mediaeval
predecessors, and the old religion was restored; indeed, there were six
altars in the church.
Under Elizabeth there was a return to the arrangement of Edward, the
clergy (now as many as five in number) being denominated vicars.
Archbishop Sandys (1577-1588), Lord Burleigh, Richard Hooker, Moses
Fowler (afterwards the first Dean), and others tried to bring about the
establishment of a theological college in the Bedern, and an increase of
the endowments of the church, but in vain. The town must have lost all
favour in 1569, by taking part in the Rising in the North. It was
visited by the rebel earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, many of
the townsmen and local gentry joining them, and for the last time the
minster witnessed the celebration of the Mass. On the collapse of the
rebellion, a number of those who had taken up arms were hanged at Ripon
in sight of their homes, and the church suffered much damage from the
Queen's soldiery, who stripped the lead from the roof. Like the
Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, this Rising was a protest against the
Reformation, and the records of Archbishop Young (1561-1568), and of the
Court of High Commission (1580), show that the people of Ripon still
clung to the old religion. The pillage of Henry and Edward had no doubt
destroyed most of the ornaments of the church, but some still remained
or had been renewed under Mary, and the clergy displayed a marked
reluctance in removing them; 'Images,' even when removed, were concealed
in private houses. One vicar named Thomas Blackburne had continued the
old practice of holding churchings in the Lady-chapel, and was ordered
publicly to renounce this error, as well as that of having left "that
olde, abhominable, and supersticious vawte called the Wilfride's
nedle[24] and the alter therein" undefaced. One townsman is punished for
having taken part in the Mass during the late Rising. The clergy
generally were unclerical in dress and lax in their performance of the
reformed services, which the parishioners showed a corresponding
unwillingness to attend, while the old fasts and festivals were not
wholly given up.
[Illustration: RIPON MINSTER ANTERIOR TO 1660.
_Note_.--This representation much resembles that engraved on the old
communion plate. As a view of Ripon Minster, it affords an instance of
the inaccuracy of old architectural drawings; but it shows, at any rate,
the effect of the spires.]
=The Chapter revived.=--On the accession of =James I.= a second futile
attempt was made to obtain for Ripon a theological college.[25] The
influence, however, of the queen, =Anne of Denmark=, gained from the king
a greater boon, and in 1604 he re-established the Chapter. Under the new
constitution there were six prebendaries, and for the first time a Dean.
Much of the old endowments was restored, but the new stalls could not be
identified with the old territorial prebends, and were therefore
distinguished as 'the first stall,' 'the second stall,' and so on. After
1607 the Prebendaries were empowered to elect a Sub-Dean. The cure of
souls was discharged by two vicars, and the choir was composed of six
lay-clerks and six choristers. The parish remained a Peculiar. The
spiritual jurisdiction of the Chapter and the Archbishop had been
somewhat restricted by the Reformation, and the secular jurisdiction of
the Liberty--especially in criminal cases--had been partly transferred
to the king's itinerant justices. The Archbishop, however, still
retained some criminal jurisdiction and also his 'Court Military,'
which, strange to say, came to hear civil cases. During the latter half
of the fifteenth century the secular cases heard by the Chapter had been
chiefly cases of debt, and under the new constitution they were
authorized to hold a court, which was called the Canon Fee Court, for
cases of debt and other civil cases. Some obscurity exists as to the
mediaeval relation of the Archbishop to the town. There was, of course, a
town council, and its president the Wakeman[26] (an official peculiar to
Ripon) had charge of what would now be called the town police. The
ancient town bridges (of which only one remains) were under the charge
of the Archbishop. During the sixteenth century the borough constitution
had been the subject of disputes, in which Cardinal Wolsey had been
concerned in 1517 and Archbishop Hutton in 1598. James I. therefore now
granted a new Charter, under which the Wakeman became a Mayor; and
henceforth the borough had also an independent court of its own. The
dissolution of the Chapter in 1547, coming as it did upon the decay of
the manufacture of woollen cloth, had been a great blow to the
prosperity of the inhabitants,[27] and it was no wonder that when James
visited the town in 1617 he received an ovation.
In 1625 a plague, such as had not occurred here since 1546, prevented
the country folk from approaching the minster, and obliged them to have
their children baptized in the fields. Several changes in the
surroundings of the church took place at this time. The Bedern, with its
quadrangle, hall, and chapel, had been demolished by 1625, in which year
the Deanery was erected, perhaps upon its site. Of the old prebendal
houses some had been sold, or let; others, perhaps, were occupied by the
Prebendaries of the new foundation. In 1629 the ancient Palace, which
stood to the north of the minster and west of the Deanery, was turned
into a poor-house. The town (and doubtless the minster) was visited in
1633 by Charles I. on his way to his coronation at Edinburgh.[28] A few
years later he was to pass through again, a captive on his way to Holmby
House.
Ripon had escaped the Wars of the Roses, but it was not unscathed by the
Great Rebellion, for in 1643 it was occupied by Sir Thomas Mauleverer, a
Parliamentary officer, whose soldiery broke into the minster and
shattered the magnificent glass in the great east window, and doubtless
much other glass besides. At the end of the war the manorial rights were
sold to Lord Fairfax, and the Chapter was again dissolved, "one who
called himself Dr. Richardson" being "appointed to preach in the minster
by the Parliament, tho' in all probability he was never in any Orders,
Presbyterian or Episcopal."[29] The Chapter was revived at the
Restoration, but all its members were new save one.
In the same year (1660) the central spire, which had been injured by
lightning in 1593, fell through the roof, wrecking many of the beautiful
canopies of the stalls. The damage to the choir and other parts of the
church, estimated at L6000, was repaired with money raised under a brief
from Charles II., but the spire was never rebuilt, and in 1664, to avoid
any further catastrophe, the western spires, though sound, were
deliberately removed.[30] The place of the spires was ill supplied by
the erection of battlements and pinnacles, which were renewed in 1797.
It was perhaps at this period that the west gate of the precincts was
pulled down--a mediaeval structure which contained at least seven rooms,
and which stood at the bottom of Kirkgate. The graveyard in the middle
ages contained a cross, at which a service was held on Palm Sunday;
also, possibly, a mortuary chapel and a well associated with St.
Wilfrid--(not, of course, the St. Wilfrid's well which now fills the
public baths). Of these things there is now not a trace, save, perhaps,
the stump of the cross, near the south wall of the nave. Nor are there
any undoubted remains of the mediaeval wall which enclosed the precincts,
except the fragment with an archway in it, which still forms the
southern entrance. The mediaeval prisons, which belonged respectively to
the Archbishop and the Chapter, have long vanished, as has also that
which appertained to the Court of Canon Fee, but there is a Liberty
prison of some age in 'Stammergate.' Most of the archiepiscopal palace
had disappeared by 1830, but there was still a portion which was used as
the court-house of the Liberty. In that year this was pulled down, and
the present court-house was built upon the site. A memory of the Palace
survives in 'Hall Yard,' and there still remains what is, perhaps, a
remnant of the actual fabric, in the shape of an old cottage with an
external staircase, which stands behind the wall to the west of the
public garden that fronts the north side of the church. In the
above-mentioned wall is an Early English doorway, with a dripstone
adorned with the nailhead moulding. The door has a flat-arched wooden
frame, the spandrels of which are carved with _fleurs-de-lys_, while the
wooden tympanum above has Perpendicular panelling. This doorway is not,
perhaps, a relic of the Palace. It is not in its original position, and
indeed is said to have come originally from St. Mary Magdalene's
Hospital. Several of the old houses adjoining the Cathedral on the south
side, and along St. Agnes-gate, may possibly have been inhabited by the
Prebendaries of the Second Collegiate foundation, but the stone-roofed
house adjoining Bondgate Green Bridge is the only one in Ripon which can
be identified with a mediaeval prebend--that of Thorp, and even here the
existing fabric can scarcely be pre-Reformation. St. John's
Hospital,[31] whose inmates for several centuries have been women, was
unfortunately rebuilt in 1869, but the modern chapel (served by one of
the cathedral clergy) retains a bell of 1663. The old Grammar
School,[32] which stood at the foot of the steps from St. Agnes-gate to
the Minster, has been pulled down since 1872.
Meanwhile the Minster itself had been undergoing restoration--in 1829
and the following years at the hands of Blore, when upwards of L3000
were spent, and from 1862 to 1870 at the hands of Sir G. Gilbert Scott,
and at a cost of about L30,000.
From the eighth century up to 1836 Ripon had been in the diocese of
York. In that year was created the modern diocese of Ripon, and the
church thus attained to cathedral rank. It had, however, always had some
pretension to that rank, not merely as a mother-church but because (up
to 1836) the Archbishops had their throne in the choir; indeed, it is
styled a cathedral in documents of 1537 and 1546. The diocese is
composed of parts of Yorkshire taken from the sees of York and Chester,
and included Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield, until
in 1888 a portion including Halifax and Huddersfield was taken away to
form part of a new diocese of Wakefield. There are three archdeaconries:
those of Richmond, Ripon, and Craven. The first is a survival, in a
diminished form, of the ancient archdeaconry of the same name; the
others are modern; the last is the only one which is held without a
canonry. In accordance with the Act of 1840, the Sub-Deanery has been
suppressed, the Prebendaries have been reduced to four, and their style
has been changed to that of Canons. In 1841, provision was made for the
appointment of Canons honorary. There is also a precentor, and three
other clergy who act as minor canons, and assist him in discharging the
cure of souls--for though the huge mediaeval parish has been gradually
divided into many, the greater portion of the city itself is still
served from the cathedral church. The choir is composed of six
lay-clerks and twelve choristers. There was as late as 1890 a
Choir-school, but most of the present choristers come from Jepson's
Hospital--a charity which was founded in 1672, in Water Skellgate, and
the old buildings of which were pulled down in 1878.
There are still some relics of the ancient jurisdictions of the Chapter
and the Archbishop. Though the secular jurisdiction has been gradually
reduced by legislation to the scope of Quarter and Petty Sessions, the
Liberty has Quarter Sessions of its own, and its justices are still
nominated by the Archbishop, while his Court Military survived at any
rate into the nineteenth century. A copyhold court, called the Canon Fee
Court, is also still held by the Chapter. As regards ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, the mediaeval right of the Chapter to hear testamentary and
matrimonial cases (which were not taken away from the ecclesiastical
courts till 1857) probably survived at least until the abolition of the
Peculiar. Peculiars, with but one or two exceptions, had ceased to exist
by 1850, and Ripon, once exempt from archidiaconal authority, is now
itself an archdeaconry. The Bishop of Ripon has, of course, his
Consistory court, which is held at the Cathedral.
In ending this account of one of the most venerable of English churches,
it is worth while to remark that, of the four mother-churches of the old
diocese of York, Ripon is the only one besides York Cathedral itself
which still has a collegiate foundation.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The archbishopric of York arose out of the bishopric of Northumbria
in the eighth century.
[2] The name in this form is modern. In common speech the street is
always 'Stammergate,' which is probably a corruption of 'Stanbriggate.'
The latter is the original name of the street, and appears frequently in
mediaeval records. It has reference to a stone bridge over a brook where
the gas-works now are. The continuation of this street toward the
Cathedral is called St. Mary-gate, but this name again seems to be
modern, and to have arisen from a notion that 'St. Mary-gate' is the
origin of the word 'Stammergate'--a notion which would be rendered more
plausible by the fact that this was the situation of the Lady-kirk.
[3] The question whether his monastery church stood over the Saxon crypt
which exists below the present Cathedral is reserved for Chap. III.
[4] For the place of Ripon in the theory of the direct connection of
Saxon architecture with the Comacine Guild of Italy, see _The Cathedral
Builders_, by Leader Scott, p. 139 _sqq._
[5] An MS. which has been thought to be identical with Wilfrid's gift
came into the market recently, and has passed to America.
[6] The Saint's return after his long exile is still commemorated at
Ripon, early in August, on the first Saturday after Lammas Day, when a
man dressed as a Saxon bishop and riding a grey horse is escorted
through the streets.
[7] This liturgical term sometimes refers to the _burial_ of a saint,
sometimes, as here, to the _death_.
[8] There is also mention of an Abbot Tylberht, but he may be the same
as Tatberht.
[9] _I.e._, 'Elves-how'--'the hill of fairies.' Coins of Aella and other
early kings have been found in the hill.
[10] At a later period the Chapter claimed also that 'St. Wilfrid's men'
need not pay tolls when travelling on business through the realm, and on
one occasion they issued to a Ripon clerk a kind of passport.
[11] Frisia's debt was remembered in the seventeenth century, when one
of the Canons of Antwerp wrote an account of Ripon monastery for his
countrymen.
[12] Until Walbran drew attention to this passage, the rebuilding was
attributed to Thurstan.
[13] Especially at St. Wilfrid's shrine.
[14] It has been suggested that this was the iron which in Saxon times
had been used for the ordeal of fire.
[15] A Peculiar is a district taken out of its geographical surroundings
for purposes of ecclesiastical jurisdiction (_Sir W. Anson_).
[16] In later times (at any rate) the Archbishop apparently had a
spiritual court of his own. A Chapter minute of 1467 declares a certain
person accused of a spiritual offence to be "non de foro Capituli sed de
foro Archiepiscopi, unde litterae correctionis emanarunt."
[17] This church had disappeared, as Leland tells us, long before his
visit to Ripon, which took place about 1538. The dates of its erection
and demolition are both unknown. In the Chapter-house is preserved a key
which has been assigned to the fifteenth century, and which has been
thought to have belonged to Allhallows, but it is thought that the
church disappeared at an early date.
[18] This Sunday is still called Wilfrid Sunday at Ripon. The Saturday
preceding it is the day on which the town commemorates the Saint's
return from his first appeal to Rome. The season is regarded as a
holiday, and another relic of the nativity festival survives in the fair
held on the Thursday after August 2nd.
[19] The Easter Communion has survived till our own day. Within living
memory, and at a period when Early Celebrations were not usual, it was
celebrated at 7 A.M., and people drove in from the outlying places.
[20] This word is probably connected with the Anglo-Saxon 'bed,' a
prayer (whence 'bedesmen'), and means a 'house of prayer.' In one
passage of the records it is rendered in Latin by _proseucha_.
[21] It was Walbran, again, who drew attention to Leland's phraseology
here.
[22] The Canon of Stanwick was always in Ripon, but was not considered
technically a canon-resident. Perhaps he was not entitled to the special
fees for residence. He had, however, full capitular rights. These had
been denied to him by Dragley, but were now restored by the Archbishop.
[23] If the Ripon hospitals were dissolved they were re-established, for
they are still fulfilling their purpose.
[24] _I.e._, the Saxon crypt.
[25] The project is being realized in our own day.
[26] _I.e._, the watchman, or setter of the watch. The town motto is,
"Except the Lord keep the city, the _Wakeman_ waketh in vain." After
1598 a horn was blown every evening to denote the setting of the watch.
If any house was robbed between horn-blowing and sunrise, compensation
could be claimed from the town. To support this system a small tax was
levied on each house-door, and if a house had two doors it paid more, as
being more liable to be robbed. A relic of the system still survives.
Every night a horn is blown thrice before the Mayor's door at 9 P.M. and
thrice at the Market Cross afterwards. The ancient horn of the Wakeman
(which appears on the city arms) is still worn by the Sergeant-at-mace
in civic processions.
[27] Since then, however, another industry had arisen--the manufacture
of spurs, for which Ripon became famous, and James was presented with a
pair. This industry did not die out till the end of the last century,
and a spur is still the crest of the city. The manufacture of
saddle-trees, which flourished here in the sixteenth century, is still
carried on.
[28] In 1640 he was at war with the Scots for their opposition to
episcopacy, and it was at Ripon that the disgraceful negotiations were
begun, by which a sum of L850 a day was to be paid to maintain their
invading army, pending a more permanent settlement. The house in which
the 'Treaty of Ripon' was negotiated stood near Ailcy Hill, and
disappeared about the beginning of the century. Charles is said to have
visited the town four times altogether.
[29] Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy," quoted in _Surtees Soc._, Vol.
78. There is a tablet to Richardson's wife in the south Choir-aisle.
[30] The following is probably the true version of a story that is told
in connection with their demolition. One of the workmen had been hoisted
by means of a pulley, and was being held aloft by his comrades below,
when he spied some coursing in progress on Bondgate Green. Seeing the
hare well away and the dogs straining in the leash, he shouted "Let go!"
And his comrades below did.
[31] For the other hospitals, the 'Thorp' house, and other old buildings
still standing, see Chap. IV.
[32] Ripon Grammar School has produced an Archbishop of York, Matthew
Hutton (one of the two of that name who held the office from 1595 to
1606 and from 1749 to 1757 respectively: the latter Hutton became
Archbishop of Canterbury); also Beilby Porteous, Bishop of London
(1776-1787), and Dr. William Stubbs, late Bishop of Oxford.
[Illustration: THE WEST DOORWAYS.]