[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH, FROM THE EAST.]
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF OXFORD
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL SEE
BY THE REV. PERCY DEARMER, M.A.
WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: Arms of the See]
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, 1899
First Published, April, 1897.
Second Edition, Revised, April, 1899.
GENERAL PREFACE.
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the
great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide books
at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work
compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the
student of archæology and history, and yet not too technical in language
for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case
would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general
sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful
are:--firstly, the great county histories, the value of which, especially
in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised;
secondly, the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time
in the transactions of the antiquarian and archæological societies;
thirdly, the important documents made accessible in the series issued by
the Master of the Rolls: fourthly, the well-known works of Britton and
Willis on the English Cathedrals; and lastly, the very excellent series
of Handbooks, to the Cathedrals, originated by the late Mr. John Murray,
to which the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail,
especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.
GLEESON WHITE.
E.F. STRANGE.
_Editors of the Series._
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
For one who has learnt the best of what he knows within Christ Church
walls it has been very pleasant to gather these notes of the Cathedral's
history and architecture. Moreover, I am less remorseful than I might
be at adding to the world's overcrowded library, because certain recent
discoveries in the Cathedral have thrown the best of the old books out
of date, and made it necessary for some one to weave together the older
and the later knowledge. My indebtedness, therefore, is not only to
former labourers in this field, but especially to the author of these
discoveries, Mr J. Park Harrison, who roused my enthusiasm in the old
days, and now has most generously helped me with his advice, and allowed
me to incorporate in these chapters the substance of his own papers. To
these pamphlets I would refer any who wish to go to the fountainhead for
the account of the investigations, and especially I may mention two:
"The Pre-Norman Date of the Choir and some of the Stone-work of Oxford
Cathedral," and the "Account of the Discovery of the Remains of three
Apses at Oxford Cathedral" (Oxford: Frowde, 24 and 23 pp.). I must also
express my thanks for the kindness and help of Professor York Powell,
and of Mr W. Francis, the senior verger, and to Messrs Carl Norman & Co.
of Tunbridge Wells, Mr W. Giles, Mr Park Harrison, and Mr R. Phené
Spiers, F.R.I.B.A., for the loan of and permission to reproduce various
drawings and photographs.
PERCY DEARMER.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
History of the Cathedral 3
Description of the Exterior 27
Spire and Tower 28
On the North Side 32
The Saxon Foundations 33
Cloister 37
Chapter House 39
Bell Tower 43
Tom Tower 44
College Buildings 47
Description of the Interior 49
Nave 51
Monuments of the Nave 57
Organ 58
Pulpit 58
Tower 58
Aisles of Nave and Transepts 62
Glass in Aisles 63
North Transept 65
Glass in Transepts 67
South Transept 67
St. Lucy's Chapel 70
Monuments of Transept and Chapel 71
Choir 72
East End 78
Reredos 79
High Altar 80
South Choir Aisle 81
Monuments 81
North Choir Aisle 83
Shrine of St. Frideswide 84
Lady Chapel 88
"Watching Chamber" 89
Monuments in Lady Chapel 91
Glass in the Aisles 97
Latin Chapel 102
Glass in Latin Chapel 105
History of the Foundation 109
St. Frideswide 109
The Priory 114
College and Cathedral 118
The Diocese of Oxford 126
Oseney 126
List of the Bishops 128
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Christ Church from the East _Frontispiece_
Arms of the See _Title_
The Roof of the Choir 2
The Cathedral at the End of the Seventeenth Century 5
Christ Church from the Garden of the Canon of the 2nd Stall, 1857 10
Christ Church in the Eighteenth Century 11
The Tower and Spire 29
Early Saxon Arches 33
Plan of recently excavated Saxon Arches 34
Conjectural Plan of Early Saxon Church 35
Doorway of Chapter-House 39
Corbel in Chapter-House 40
Boss in Chapter-House 41
Choir, from the Old Cemetery 42
Tom Tower 44
Western Entrance and Bell Tower 45
Plan 52
Early English Moulding 54
Nave and Choir, looking East 55
Pulpit 58
Choir and Nave, looking West 59
From the North Transept 66
Clerestory Window in the South Transept 69
Third Capital of the Choir 72
Capitals of the Choir 73
Tracery of the Roof 77
Lady Montacute's Tomb 91
Ornament from a Tomb 95
The "St. Cecilia" Window 99
Window in the Latin Chapel 103
Section of the Interior before the Restorations 107
The Exterior in 1857 113
The Interior before the Restorations 123
Arms of the College 136
[Illustration: THE ROOF OF THE NAVE.
(FROM A DRAWING BY R. PHENÉ SPIERS, F.R.I.B.A.)]
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.
The "Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford" has had a somewhat unfortunate
history. Built for the small monastery of St. Frideswide, with no thought
of any ampler destination, it was in the sixteenth century raised to
the rank of a cathedral, just after it had been reduced in size by the
destruction of the bays of the nave, and sunk out of sight among a mass
of college buildings. Nor was this all the indignity it suffered; for
it had also to do duty as the chapel of the new academic foundation
which Wolsey established, and very soon the cathedral was forgotten
in the college chapel. So neglected was it that Britton wrote at the
beginning of the present century--"It is very common for visitors,
and even those of rather refined and critical minds, to leave Oxford
without examining the building now under notice." A century earlier
Browne Willis had been content to make the astounding observation:
"'Tis truly no elegant structure."
The first church on this site was that built by St. Frideswide, "The
Lady," as she was afterwards called in Oxford, and her father Didan,
about the year 727. The story of this saint, which no visitor to her
church should omit to read, will be found in our chapter on the History
of the Foundation.
A contemporary of the Venerable Bede, she was one of those noble and
devoted souls who (as Dr. Jessopp reminds us) made Anglo-Saxon monasticism
the brightest spot in the history of English community-life. The monks
and nuns of that period were in fact missionaries, who spread the
Christian faith among the half-civilised _pagani_, or country-folk;
and, by the wise method of planting themselves in remote districts, and
quietly living the gospel they preached, touched the hearts, and won
the souls, of their rough neighbours. Thus, without the use of force,
without even the exercise of royal authority, says Professor Freeman,
the whole of England had, by the time of the birth of St. Frideswide
(c. 700), accepted the Christian faith. But the religion of the country
districts must have still been of a very untutored description; and
St. Frideswide was one of those who spread in the South, just at the time
when Mercia was the paramount power in England, the finer civilisation
which had already established itself in the North, and produced kings
like Edwin, saints like Aidan, and poets like Caedmon. Whatever may
be the authority of the legends which gathered about her name, it is
certain that she gave up her high estate, "devoted herself and all her
worldly goods to the service of Christ and her poor brethren," refused
the offer of a royal marriage, escaped the persecutions of her suitor,
"and finally died in the odour of sanctity, blessed by the poor and
ignorant people to whom she had devoted her troubled life."
Of the place where she established the little church, part of which can
still be seen in the walls of the cathedral, Dr. Liddell, the late Dean,
thus writes:--
"Meadows unbroken by human habitations or human cultivation, a river
wandering through them as it listed, unbarred by locks, or weirs, or
mills, the hills down to their margin clothed in primeval forest. The bank
of gravel which still slopes down to what we call Christ Church Meadow,
offered a dry and pleasant site; the river supplied fish for the inmates
of the new convent; the Trill-mill stream bears testimony by its name
to the fact that its water was in early times, perhaps the earliest,
used to turn the wheel which ground their corn; the neighbouring forests
supplied abundant wood for fuel, as well as game for food, and acorns
for the swine; the rich meadows of the valley furnished pasture to
the flocks and herds. In those days, no doubt, the existence of such a
peaceful community exercised a humanising and softening influence over
the rude thanes and their clansmen and serfs, who had as yet perhaps
hardly heard the name of Christ."
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
(_from an old engraving_).]
Our next glimpse of the church is a terrible one. Despairing of beating
back the Danes, Ethelred the Unready gave the mad and treacherous order
for the Massacre of St. Brice's Day, 1002. "Urged by secret orders from
the king," says Mr. J.R. Green, "the West Saxons rose on St. Brice's Day,
and pitilessly massacred the Danes scattered defencelessly among them. The
tower of St. Frideswide, in which those of Oxford had taken refuge, was
burnt with them to the ground." This account is touched up by Mr. Andrew
Lang with a little local colour:--"We are tempted to think of a low
grey twilight above that wet land suddenly lit up with fire; of the tall
towers of St. Frideswyde's Minster flaring like a torch across the night;
of poplars waving in the same wind that drives the vapour and smoke of
the holy place down on the Danes who have taken refuge there, and there
stand at bay against the English and the people of the town." A finishing
touch comes from the old chronicler, William of Malmesbury:--"Into the
tower of St. Frideswyde they were driven, and as men could not drive
them thence, the tower was fired, and they perished in the burning."
This closes the first era in the history of the church: the old
_ecclesiola_ of Didan and his daughter was gutted by the fire, and its
roofs and furniture destroyed. Indeed, until lately it was held that
the whole building was of wood, and perished therefore with the tower
and roof, no vestige of it remaining for later times. But the recent
investigations of Mr. J. Park Harrison, an archaeologist of remarkable
devotion and insight, have proved that the east wall of the eighth century
church, with two of its primitive arches, still remains, a venerable relic
of times past, as part of the wall of the cathedral; while the foundations
of the three apses, into which the three low arches once led, have been
discovered in the garden to the north-east of the church (see pp. 33,
34). So did Anthony à Wood, when in the seventeenth century he wrote of
"the antientist buildings" as "on the east and north side of the church,"
speak more truth than even he himself was aware.
After the slaughter of St. Brice's Day, King Ethelred made a vow that
he would rebuild St. Frideswide's church. And well did he keep it; if
in 1004 he built the splendid church which forms the main part of the
cathedral as we know it to-day, sparing the more sacred part of the rude
old building, it may be, because of the veneration in which everything
connected with St. Frideswide was held. His charter contains the
following sentence:--
"In the year of our Lord 1004, in the 2nd indiction, and in the 25th year
of my reign, according to the disposal of God's providence, I Ethelred
ruling over the whole of Albion, have with liberty of charters by
royal authority and for the love of the Almighty, established a certain
monastery situated in the city which is called Oxoneford, where the body
of St. Frideswide reposes."
And here another question of the deepest architectural interest occurs.
This church of Ethelred's was of a size and magnificence until lately
considered not to have been attainable in England till many years after
the Conquest. It was therefore taken for granted that the church was
wholly rebuilt in the years 1160-1180, and that Ethelred's work was as
entirely lost as Didan's was supposed to be. Dr. James Ingram, President
of Trinity, had, it is true, written in the thirties to prove that the
cathedral was Saxon, but, great authority as he was, he wrote at a time
when architectural history was in its infancy; and at the restoration
of 1869, Sir Gilbert Scott was content to write--"Dr. Ingram evinces
great anxiety to prove that traces of his (Ethelred's) work still exist,
but I need hardly say there is not a shadow of foundation for such a
supposition." However, a greater authority than either of the preceding
showed that the tide of knowledge was turning against the accepted view.
Professor Freeman in his "History of Architecture" wrote that the
cathedral might be "in the main portions of the fabric a monument of
the later days of Saxon architecture," and that "the evidence between
the conflicting statements which would assign it, some to the days of
Æthelred II., others to those of Henry I., seems very evenly balanced;"
in the former case, he said, "we have a complete minster of comparatively
small size, but of the fullest cathedral type, belonging to the early
part of the eleventh century." Mr. J.H. Parker, himself, who had been the
chief authority for the theory that the Saxon architects built almost
entirely in wood, at length changed his mind; and even went so far as
to say, in the fourth edition of his "A.B.C. of Gothic Architecture,"
that "the Saxons, at the date of the conquest, appear to have been more
advanced in the fine arts, such as sculpture, than the Normans," that
"their work was more highly finished, had more ornament," and that their
masonry was more finely jointed than that of the Normans.
Following up these admissions, Mr. Park Harrison carried on the most
thorough investigations, examining almost every stone in the building,
investigating Saxon MSS., and travelling over England and Normandy
for the purposes of comparison. As a result he succeeded in convincing
Professor Freeman, Professor Westwood, and other experts in Anglo-Saxon
archæology, that Ethelred's church was still in the main extant; and at
this moment his theory has a good many supporters. Without committing
ourselves irrevocably to Mr. Park Harrison's conclusions, some of which
are naturally not so well established as others, we may, in the majority
of cases, accept them, at least provisionally. Many allusions to them
will occur in this book; and here, therefore, it is well to say that,
ingenious and striking as they are, many high authorities are still
unconvinced, and that we cannot venture to predict how much of them may
be damaged or maintained by future research.
In this place the following summary of the evidence will suffice:--
1. There is no document or anything tending to show that the original
fabric, as restored and enlarged by Ethelred, was ever rebuilt on a
new plan.
2. Several of the choir capitals differ essentially in their ornamentation
from any others in the cathedral; but resemble very closely the ornamental
work in illuminated MSS. of Ethelred's time. They should consequently
belong to the church as enlarged by him in 1004 (p. 72).
3. The junction of the eleventh century, or Ethelred's work with the
later work, is clearly visible at the north and south-west corners
of the choir; and the abaci, though resembling each other, are of
different thickness. The ashlar work is different, and the courses are
not continuous (p. 61).
4. The manner in which the Norman vaulting shafts are inserted in the
north choir aisle implies that vaulting was not contemplated in the
original plan of the church, and that the aisle was built at a date when
vaulting ribs were not in use (p. 33).
5. The introduction of attached shafts in the tower piers shows that
additions were made, about 1160, to earlier work with roll mouldings
corresponding with those of the choir: similar proofs of alteration are
to be seen in the imposts of the tower and transept arches, which have
been cut through to admit late Norman capitals (p. 58).
6. There is also good evidence that the Norman Presbytery is not part of
the original choir, or the earliest part of the church, as was assumed,
but probably stands on the site of an apse which belonged to Ethelred's
building (p. 79).
7. The worn condition of the choir capitals can only be accounted for by
the state of disrepair into which the church had fallen by the middle of
the twelfth century (p. 74).
[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH FROM THE GARDEN OF THE CANON OF THE
2ND STALL, 1857.]
The reason is not far to seek for the unusual magnificence of Ethelred's
plans. His brother-in-law was Richard II., Duke of Normandy, whose fame
as an art-patron and church-builder was spread so far that, according to
the Chronicles of Fontenelle, "bishops and clergy, abbots and monks,"
travelled from all parts, from Greece and Armenia, to visit him, and
William of Jumièges speaks of him as producing a kind of renaissance
in his country. It so happens that one bay remains in the abbey church
of Fécamp of the original building commenced by Duke Richard in 1001,
just before Ethelred began his operations; and the capitals in this bay
are ornamented with the same curious twining foliage that is found in the
choir at Oxford. It is more than likely, then, that the Saxon king sought
assistance from the cultured court of Richard-le-bon; the Queen Emma may
well have been anxious to have the church rebuilt on a scale that would
accord with the monastic buildings of her own land; and so important was
the work considered, that King Ethelred (as we learn from his charter)
had contributions given him for carrying it on by his whole people.
[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]
But more troubles were to follow, for Ethelred had yet to pay the
penalty for the massacre of St. Brice's Day, and his "long reign of
utter misgovernment" was interrupted in 1013, when the heathen Viking
Sweyn drove him out of his kingdom to take refuge in Richard's court
in Normandy. The exile of the king, and the triumph of the Danes,
who besieged and took Oxford in the same year, must have interrupted
the work there for a time; and a remarkable break of joint between the
masonry of the choir and the south transept bears silent witness to the
dislocation of the Anglo-Saxon rule (p. 61). When Sweyn died in 1014,
Ethelred returned, and for three years, with the help of his noble son
Edmund Ironside, held Canute in check. At this time the work at St.
Frideswide's was probably resumed, the king being doubtless anxious
to complete the fulfilment of his vow at a time when he sorely needed
the divine assistance; and a certain difference in the character of the
capitals and foliage in the transepts points to their having been built
at this time, for they bear traces of oriental influence similar to that
in the church at Bernay which Duke Richard was building in the year when
Ethelred was with him in exile, and the eastern monks were flocking to
his court in Normandy. But it is probable that, what with the strain of
the terrible war, and the constant drain of the Danegelt, the work was
never finished according to Ethelred's complete design, for he died in
1016, and his son Edmund Ironside only reigned for seven months.
Nor have we any record that anything further was done under Canute or
Edward the Confessor. Though it is not at all improbable that Canute
continued the work, for we know that he restored many monasteries which
had been injured or destroyed by his father, being very fond of the
monks; and that the Witenagemot met several times at Oxford during his
reign. His marriage to Ethelred's widow Emma, also, placed him in the
same relationship to the Norman court as Ethelred himself. The church
must have been in use during this time; for we read that in the reign of
Edward the Confessor troubles arose owing to the substitution of Regulars
for the Secular Canons. Under King Harold the Seculars were restored,
and, says Anthony Wood, "It was not long after this but that, whether
by the negligence of the Seculars or the continuall disturbance of the
expelled Regulars, it was almost utterly forsaken and relinqueshed,
and the more especially because of that troublesome warre betweene
King Harold and William the Conqueror,--a few persons all that while
only remaining in it." In this ruinous state it proved a kind of white
elephant that no one cared to possess; given first to Abingdon Abbey,
and then to Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, it was at last handed over to
Henry I., who made Guimond his chaplain Prior.
Although the whole church has been sometimes attributed to Prior Guimond,
it is probable that he was too much taken up with restoring order to
devote himself to architecture. And, as there is no suggestion in history
that Ethelred's church was destroyed, so there is no mention of any
building by Guimond. William of Malmesbury, his contemporary, praises
his piety and learning (_excellentis literaturæ et non aspernandæ
religionis_), but is totally silent about architectural talents. Besides,
the establishment was at that time too impoverished for anything of the
kind, many of the lands and revenues having been alienated, as we learn
from the Domesday Book. If Guimond built at all, he would have had enough
to do, we may imagine, in adapting the tumble-down monastic buildings
for their occupation by canons regular. Sir G.G. Scott attributes the
Norman doorway into the chapter-house to him; and he may have begun
the restoration by putting a roof on the old church; for the weathered
condition of some of the choir capitals bears out the historians who
tell us that in the eleventh century the place was become ruinous.
Robert of Cricklade, called Canutus, another excellent man, was next
prior. He ruled from 1141 to 1180. There was a copy of one of his works,
says Dr. Ingram, in the library of Balliol College in Leland's time. In
1158 Cricklade obtained a confirmation of the privileges of the priory
from Pope Hadrian IV. (Nicholas Brakespear, the English pope) who wore
the tiara from 1154 to 1159. It was probably at this time that the
restoration of Ethelred's church was begun, for the monks would almost
certainly not have undertaken such extensive works until their property
was secured them.
Robert of Cricklade did not build a new church, but it was probably he
who restored Ethelred's church on the old plan, rebuilding those portions
of the walls that required it, and inserting most of the later Norman
work, especially the clerestory and presbytery. Much of the earlier work
appears to have been imitated at this time, as is known to have been
the case elsewhere when enlarging or rebuilding a church; and some of
the carved work was used again. Cricklade appears, from architectural
evidence, to have left most of the old pillars, but he rebuilt two of
those in the nave, and reduced the girth of the rest.
The restoration must have been pretty well finished by 1180, for in
that year the relics of St. Frideswide were translated "from an obscure
to a more noted place in the church," by the new prior Philip, who
himself wrote a book, "_De Miraculis S. Frideswydæ_." The "obscure"
place was doubtless the southernmost of the three early Saxon apses,
recently discovered outside the east wall of the north choir aisle
(see p. 37). So important a ceremony could not have taken place till
the church was fit for the great company that assembled there; for the
translation was regarded as an event of national interest,--King Henry
II. possibly, and the Archbishop of Canterbury certainly, being present,
with many other prelates and nobles. This occasion may have also been
the inauguration of Oxford University, since seven years afterwards we
come upon the first mention of regular students.
Here is Wood's account of this the first translation:--
"After they were meet, and injoyned fasting and prayers were past, as
also those ceremonies that are used at such times was with all decency
performed, then those bishops that were appointed, accompanied with
Alexio, the pope's legat for Scotland, went to the place where she was
buried, and opening the sepulchre, took out with great devotion the
remainder of her body that was left after it had rested there 480 yeares,
and with all the sweet odours and spices imaginable to the great rejoycing
of the multitude then present mingled them amongst her bones and laid them
up in a rich gilt coffer made and consecrated for that purpose, and placed
it on the north side of the quire, somewhat distant from the ground,
and inclosed it with a partition from the sight hereafter of the vulgar."
The fame of her miracles spread over all England, and multitudes came to
be healed, many of whom went away whole and rejoicing.
But the troubles of the Priory were not yet over. During the priorate
of Philip in 1190, a great fire broke out in Oxford, which destroyed a
large part of the city. St. Frideswide's did not escape, and, though the
church itself does not seem to have suffered materially, it is probable
that the monastic buildings were much injured, the chapter-house and
cloisters among them; for the old Norman doorway has, through all the
changes of seven centuries, borne the red marks of the fire, and bears
them as unmistakably to-day.
This mishap did not mark an era in the architecture of the church; for
nothing can with certainty be pointed to as the work of the last decade
of the twelfth century; nor indeed do we find that any important work
was undertaken till, well into the thirteenth century, the spire was
added. The monks seem to have patched up the ruined chapter-house as
best they could, for it was not till about the middle of the thirteenth
century that the present beautiful room was built. About this time the
second bay of what is now the Latin Chapel was also added.
It seems certain now that the Lady Chapel, though it was undoubtedly
vaulted, and its pillars cut into Early English shafts, was not built for
the first time at this period. Part of the wall between it and the Latin
Chapel remains in all its primitive roughness, while there is no sign of
a wall between it and the north choir aisle. Its east wall is even older,
for it contains one of the eighth century arches already alluded to.
In 1289, Robert de Ewelme being prior, the relics of St. Frideswide were
again translated. "The old coffer," says the Oseney Chronicle, "of St.
Fritheswyda was translated, and placed in a new and more precious one in
the same church, and near the place where the old one had stood." Its
marble base has recently been discovered, and replaced in what seems
to have been its old position. The beautiful northernmost chapel,
called the Latin Chapel, was added in the fourteenth century, the
single Early English bay being incorporated, and the north wall of the
Lady Chapel further opened out, for this purpose. Some of the Norman
windows were also altered to Decorated. The Norman windows at the east
end were replaced by a large five-light window, which was spoilt in
the seventeenth century, and ultimately removed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
Decorated windows of three lights were also placed at the east ends of
the choir aisles, and a four-light window in the Lady Chapel. These all
went in the seventeenth century, but the beautiful window in St. Lucy's
Chapel survived. All the fourteenth century work belongs to a rather
late division of the Decorated style.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century the Perpendicular style began
to spread over the church. Besides the windows of the nave and north
transept aisles, the clerestory of the choir was remodelled to carry the
elaborate vaulting, which was probably also added in this century, and not
by Wolsey as has been supposed, though the work may have been completed
in his time. The similarity of the vaulting to that of the Divinity
School in Oxford enables us to fix the date pretty accurately at 1480.
Another characteristic feature of the church was made at this time,
to wit, the fine chantrey tomb, called the Watching Chamber, but very
probably the third and last "shrine" of the patron saint. The cloisters
were also reconstructed, and, in order to make room for their eastern
side, the western aisle of the south transept was destroyed.
We are able to fix the date of the great north window of the north
transept, and of the commencement of vaulting in its northern bay,
because they were paid for out of a bequest of a monk, James Zouch,
who died in 1503, and is buried under the window. One may conjecture
that the whole of the church would have been vaulted in a style similar
to that of the choir, if the dissolution of the priory had not come,
and left this one bay as a pathetic little protest against the sweeping
reconstructions of Cardinal Wolsey.
Indeed Wolsey, who in 1524 created Christ Church as a college, did
nothing but harm to Christ Church as a church. It used to be thought
that he had thrown the vault over the choir, and even that he had
built the palpably early English spire!--an idea which throws a curious
light upon the architectural knowledge of our grandfathers. But, alas
for his reputation, the only work connected with the church that can
with certainty be attributed to him is the destruction of one half
of the nave. For, in order to build the great quadrangle now known as
"Tom Quad," he demolished its three western bays, and was apparently only
prevented from carting away the whole church by his sudden fall from the
royal favour in 1529. His scheme for "Cardinal College," as Christ Church
was at first called, was one of extreme magnificence; and he began--much
to the amusement of Oxford--with the splendid kitchen, still in daily
use. Tom Quad gives one some idea of the scale on which he formed his
plans: it, however, has never been properly finished, as it is too large
and too much inhabited to be fit to receive the cloister for which it was
designed. The real cloisters are of much more modest dimensions. Wolsey
destroyed one side of them in order to build the college Hall.
In justice, however, to Wolsey it must be stated that he commenced to
build a new chapel along the north side of Tom Quad, which, judging by
the foundations that some draining operations in the canon's gardens have
recently disclosed, would have rivalled the chapel of King's College,
Cambridge, in size, and have been about 100 feet longer than the actual
length of the cathedral. To this the Aubrey MSS. (written about 1670)
refer:--"Ye foundations of that famous begun Chapel or Cathedral of
Cardinal Wolsey which went towards the blue Boare in Oxford and pulled
down by Dean Fell about 1671." Aubrey also mentions that the height
of the walls of this chapel was seven feet at the time of Wolsey's
disgrace. The west end ran in a line with the front of the octagonal
turrets in St. Aldate's Street, and the walls reached nearly to Fell's
passage into Peckwater.
To the sixteenth century belong also the flat wooden roofs of the nave and
transepts, and perhaps the concealment of the lantern story of the tower.
The Reformation, apart from the usual destruction of altars, furniture,
plate, and ornamental work generally, is chiefly remembered in the history
of the church by the demolition of St. Frideswide's shrine. Anthony à Wood
says of the third shrine that, "being adored till the dissolution of the
religious houses, it was then, 30 Henry VIII. [A.D. 1538], amongst others,
taken down, and all the offerings conveyed into the King's Treasury." We
give an account of the curious incidents connected with the demolition
in our description of the shrine itself.
An inventory taken in the last year of Henry VIII.'s reign is interesting
for the glimpse it gives us of the rich ornaments which even then
survived, and must have made so vast a difference in the appearance of
the church. They were confiscated, no doubt, as being "monuments tending
to idolatrie and popish or devill's service, crosses, censars, and such
lyke fylthie stuffe," to quote the curious phrases used by Bishop Horne
of the plate of Trinity College.
There were eight altars in the aisles and body of the church, in
addition to the high altar. The furniture then remaining of the high
altar and choir was catalogued (only that the spelling was obscurer)
as follows:--"Upon the high altar a here-cloth, 40s. _Item_, two
altar-cloths, one of olde diaper, and the other of fine linen cloth.
_Item_, a mass-book and a desk. _Item_, a great sacring bell. _Item_,
4 high latten candlesticks. _Item_, a canopy with a pix of copper.
_Item_, 4 desks with two cloths of old silk. _Item_, a pair of organs,
with a turned chain to the same. _Item_, 2 forms. _Item_, a canopy over
the Dean's head of old silk. _Item_, 15 antiphoners and 9 grayells."
After some more books comes:--"_Item_, a foot-cloth for the high altar
of old tapestry." All the hangings of the side altars are enumerated,
besides their vestments, candlesticks, etc. Thus the south choir aisle
had "4 hangings for above and beneath the altar, whereof two of white
satin Bruges, and the other two of yellow and red," and two altar-cloths;
St. Lucy's Chapel had "two altar-cloths of old diaper, two hangings for
the altar for above and beneath, the one of old needle-work, and the other
of buckram"; the four altars on the north of the choir were hung with
"dornaxe," diaper, yellow and white baundkin.
The description of some of the fourteen copes sounds very beautiful,
for instance:--"2 copes of red silk, woven with sunbeams of gold;" "one
cope of blue silk, woven with flower de luce, roses, and crowns of gold,
and a whole suit to the same." There were also copes of purple and red,
branched with gold, of red and white flowers, bordered with clouds, of
red and green, of velvet and baundkin, and chamlet; and many suits of
vestments besides; and tunicles, albs, and amices for the choristers.
The inventory also contains, among other items, heavy silver bowls and
other vessels belonging to the "house plate," and the "church plate,"
which we here give in the original spelling:--"A pixe of the ymage of
God, gilte, weing 33 oz. _It'm._ a highe standing pixe w'th a cover
gilte, weing 23 oz. dim. _It'm._ a crosse w'th Mary and John and a fote
to the same gilte, weing 114 oz. _It'm._ a ship [incense-boat] and a
spone gilte, weing 12 oz. dim. _It'm._ two bassings parcell gilte, weing
92 oz. _It'm._ a halliwater [holy water] bokett, and a sprinkell, whitt
syluer, weing 33 oz., 2 greatt sensors, and a litle sensor, whit syluer,
weing 170 oz. _It'm._ two crowetts [cruets] of whit syluer, weing 8 oz.
_It'm._ a little paxe gilte, weing 3 oz.; 4 chalesses, gilte, w'th
patentts, weing 95 oz. _It'm._ 3 chalesses w'th patentt, whit syluer,
weing 50 oz. _It'm._ a litle cros, parcell gilte, weing 51 oz. _It'm._ a
crismatory gilte, not weighted. _It'm._ 2 gospells, plated w'th syluer
of thonesyde [the one side], not weighted. _It'm._ two maces for the
preuelege, plated w'th syluer vppon yeron [iron], not weighted. _It'm._
two virge roddes, plated w'th syluer vppon yeron, not weighted; 4
rectors staves, the haadds of syluer wherof two gilte, not weighted.
_It'm._ two stavis for the crosse, plated with syluer, not weighted."
When, in 1546, St. Frideswide's became the cathedral church of the four
year old diocese of Oxford, the momentous change in its character left
no mark upon its architecture. The great alterations in the fabric and
fittings had either happened already or were yet to come.
During the deanery of Brian Duppa in 1630, the unhappy church suffered
a sweeping restoration, which well-nigh destroyed its ecclesiastical
character altogether. As Dean Duppa was a cultured man himself, and wrote
a life of Michael Angelo, his work was all the more disastrous,--a mere
Philistine would have probably been content to let well alone. To begin
with, he, "_being minded to adorn it_," says Wood, "did first take down
all the old stalls in the choir, and in their places put up those that now
are," those great ugly pews, that is, which Dean Liddell removed. Then,
in laying down his new pavement, he removed many of the old monuments,
"having most of them," continues the old antiquary, "Saxon inscriptions
on them; which being looked upon by the dean and canons as old superfluous
stuff, and unhandsome to be mixed with their new pavement, they did
cause them to be thrown out of the church, as also those out of the
cloister." The remaining monuments he moved to the aisles, having,
with two exceptions, "duly deprived them of their brasses." Thus was a
priceless record of the priory's history lost to us. Most of his work
has during this century been undone; but one memorial of him remains,
a valuable historical landmark, and full of the characteristics of its
age--the Jonah window at the west of the north aisle of the nave.
In order that the windows of the aisles might be "beautified with
glass, admirably well performed by the exquisite hand of Abraham Ling,
a Dutchman, an. 1634," Brian Duppa and his chapter altered the whilom
Perpendicular windows, sawing away "the fine architecture or crustation of
those windows," and changing them from three lights with tracery to two
plain lights, the author of the "Anatomy of Melancholy" being the donor
of part of the new glass. The priceless old glass, which had been set
up by ancient priors of St. Frideswide's, and contained pictures of the
life of "The Lady," besides the arms of many benefactors, was ruthlessly
sacrificed. This act of vandalism has led to still more unfortunate
reprisals in our own time; for Van Ling's old glass, which had great
merits, was taken away at the last restoration, and replaced by some
entirely uninteresting modern stuff (to say the least of it), while the
tracery was remade into a respectable nineteenth century parody of the
original Perpendicular.
The amiable and terrible Duppa also ruined the Decorated windows of three
lights which terminated the aisles of the choir by converting them into
his favourite two-light windows; and the beautiful four-light window
of the Lady Chapel was similarly treated. The great north transept
window was likewise impoverished in its tracery; and at the end of the
seventeenth century the great east window was reduced from five to three
lights by the same curious and unaccountable perversion of taste. One
more memorial of Dean Duppa defaced the cathedral down to our time. This
was the strange arrangement of stone screens by which the eastern chapels
were separated from the transepts, and the most romantic feature of the
church destroyed. They were particularly offensive, as they finished
in a half-circle turned upwards, so that, with the Norman arch above,
a complete circle was formed. However, the fine pulpit and organ-screen
must be set down to the credit of this period.
Dean Duppa's successors signalised themselves, as far as the cathedral
is concerned, only by the erection of monuments, some gruesome, and all
heavy. Their work for the college was more considerable, and we shall
enumerate it in our chapter on the Exterior.
A great deal of mischief was done to the painted glass during the Civil
War, many of the windows being destroyed, and not one left quite perfect;
but otherwise the church escaped pretty well. Indeed, in this orderly
country a great deal more damage has been done by lawful authority than
by popular riots.
Up till Dean Liddell's time the cathedral was in as bad a state as most
of the other cathedrals of England. A writer in the "Ecclesiologist"
for February 1847 thus bewails its then condition:--
"We now come to the present estate of the cathedral, which is more
deplorable than can be imagined. It is really wonderful that the cathedral
of an English diocese, and the chapel of one of our greatest colleges,
should remain in a condition which would disgrace the meanest hamlet. In
the first place, it will hardly be credited by those whose eyes have
not witnessed the sacrilege, that a portion of the church is actually
desecrated. In so vast a college the hire of a single room cannot be
dispensed with, but the House of God must be defiled; a bay of the south
transept and one of the adjoining chapels are blocked off to form a
residence for the verger. On this subject we can hardly trust ourselves
to speak.
"The fittings up of the choir are of the most wretched and irreverent
description. The stalls are of seventeenth century work, and by no
means a favourable specimen: those of the dean and canons are marked
by canopies. The episcopal throne is meanness itself, and can hardly be
distinguished without a most diligent search: on the prayer-books nearest
to it, and nowhere else, are inscribed the words 'Christ-church Chapel,'
as if to warn the Bishop off the forbidden ground. Nearly the whole area
of the choir between the stalls is filled with benches looking west,
and in which kneeling is all but impossible. These are occupied by the
overgrown mass of undergraduates, and at the 'canons' prayers' partly by
choristers. Further, that not an inch of available space may be lost, an
arch on each side is blocked up by a gallery, which at surplice-prayers,
when the students and commoners attend, is filled by the choir thus
displaced. Finally, behind the stalls are some darksome dens, occupied
by women, which greatly encumber the choir aisles. The screen [then
blocking up the choir] is a cumbrous piece of work contemporary with
the stalls, but of better character: it supports, of course, a vast
and unsightly organ. The miserable appearance which is thus produced
in this really noble chancel is almost indescribable. The whole seems
so narrowed and confined; one feels pent in without the least scope for
one's energies. Of the service performed within the degraded choir we can
only trust ourselves to say that it is the most slovenly and irreverent
that we have ever witnessed in any English cathedral."
The stalls seem to have been particularly bad. The "Gentleman's
Magazine" for 1856 says that "the choir aisles and the chapels were also
excluded from view, and almost from any participation in the service,
by the box-like framing, which rose to the height of eleven feet from
the paving." Of course, all this had caused serious damage to the
architecture: the pillars on the north and south side of the choir were,
for instance, _squared_, and their bases cut away; thus mutilated they
had been "encased with heavily moulded Italian framing intermixed with
some remnants of Jacobean workmanship."
But since the fifties the appearance of the cathedral has been completely
changed. Dean Liddell began the restoration in 1856, when Mr. John Billing
was employed to repair some parts of the walls that had become unsafe,
and to remove the galleries and high pews. The work then done was only
temporary; the reseating whereby decent accommodation was provided for
the whole college was managed out of the old woodwork, not a plank being
taken out or carried into the church; the organ was moved for the time
into the south transept, so that the choir could be thrown open to the
nave, and other work of a simple and necessary character carried through.
In 1870, Dean Liddell employed Sir G. Gilbert Scott to carry on the
great restoration, whereby very considerable changes were wrought in the
fabric itself.
On the whole, it has been real restoration, and not destruction: here
and there one might have wished that the changes had been less sweeping,
or that the renewed carved work had been left unattempted till such time
as the dignity of labour in craftsmanship is recovered; but it remains
one of the most judicious and successful works of restoration that this
not impeccable age has produced. The difficulties to be encountered were
very great, for the church had suffered unusually; a certain amount of
rebuilding was therefore inevitable, and besides provision had to be
made for the church as a college-chapel as well as a cathedral.
The restoration was preceded by a report on the condition of the building,
which Sir Gilbert Scott drew up in 1869. The following extract shows the
"reparation" that was needed:--
"It is fortunately the case that the main walls of the building do not
show any symptoms of failure or of weakness. The external stone-work
is very unequal in its state of preservation, some parts being very
much decayed, while others have suffered in a very small degree. On the
whole, however, there can be no doubt that the decay is very extensive,
and even some parts which, at first sight, seem tolerably sound, are
found on closer examination to be seriously decayed. The eastern parts
are, as a rule, better preserved than those facing in other directions,
though the southern aisle of the choir is also among the least decayed
portions. The tower is generally very severely decayed, but the spire
less so, though its lights are very much damaged. The reparation of this
wide-spread decay is a work requiring much discrimination and judgment.
Every stone which retains ancient work in an intelligible state should be
carefully preserved, and only such parts renewed as have become shapeless
from decay, or the retention of which would tend to future injury.
"Internally, the stone-work generally needs little more than the careful
brushing or washing off of the white-wash and the exposure of the original
surfaces. This should be effected with extreme care and tenderness, so
as not to efface in any degree the original tool-marks or to disturb
any ancient wall-painting which may exist. The mutilations which the
work has in some places suffered would of course be repaired, as well
as any structural defects which may be brought to light."
This proves that Gilbert Scott went to work with a full sense of his
responsibility, so far as the "reparation" was concerned. With regard
to the "restoration," many complicated questions arose, but Scott
generally threw his weight on the conservative side, respecting all the
alterations which had been effected before "the extinction of our national
architecture in the sixteenth century"; and, happily, respecting as well
all the good work of a later date. Thus the organ-case and pulpit were
spared. Duppa's work was mostly destroyed, his windows being rebuilt
according to their former Perpendicular and Decorated designs, with the
one interesting exception already mentioned. To make provision for the
church's collegiate use, while rendering it at the same time suitable
for diocesan purposes, an iron screen was carried round the nave as
well as the choir, and the seats of the nave were set lengthways. This
arrangement could not well have been bettered: the college is well
accommodated without any blocking up of the church, and the choir is
conveniently situated in the eastern bay of the nave. The organ at the
same time was moved to the west end of the church, where a new bay was
made; and thus, while an increased effect of length was given, a screen
was provided for the college-chapel, without hiding any of the old work
in the nave, and the choir was no longer hidden by the organ.
The great Decorated east window, which had been spoilt in the seventeenth
century, was, after much deliberation, removed; and, traces being found
of a large circular window assumed to be Late Norman, the east end was
rebuilt in accordance with the conjectured Norman design,--a bold venture,
but a remarkably successful one. At the same time the two Norman windows
at the sides of the presbytery were reopened.
The bay of the south transept, which had been cut off, and used as a house
for the verger, was recovered, and the present vestry built therein, in a
style, right no doubt in general plan, but not very successful in detail.
The vaulting of the cloister was completed, and, by the happy expedient of
building a raised wooden vault in one part, the old chapter-house door was
once more fully exposed to view. The division which had entirely spoilt
the chapter-house itself was removed; as were also the stone screens which
had cut off and defaced the beautiful cluster of north-eastern chapels.
The opening of the lantern-story added greatly to the beauty of the
interior, but it made it necessary to chime the bells instead of ringing
them; and in 1878 they were removed altogether, as their vibration was
considered dangerous to the tower, and an admirably contrived belfry
built in 1880 over the staircase of the Hall by Mr. Bodley. Scott also
constructed the porch which opens into Tom Quad, and affords an entrance
to the cathedral at once more dignified and convenient than before.
Since Scott's time a good many further improvements have been effected,
among which may be mentioned the reredos, the stained glass of Sir Edward
Burne Jones, the fitting up of the Latin Chapel and recovery of the
easter sepulchre therein, the recovery also of the marble base of the
second shrine of St. Frideswide, and of the early Saxon arches hard by.
At least it cannot be true now, as it seems to have been fifty years ago,
that many persons, visiting Oxford to explore its antiquities, "actually
go away without entering the cathedral church, or that undergraduates
any longer pass an academical career, content to be aware possibly that
Christ Church has its chapel, like other colleges."