he gave 100_l._, upon condition he would accept it in lieu of all
dilapidations, otherwise willing his executors to spend it in lawe
against him: and lastly unto his executors he left onely 20_l._ a
piece, requiring them to imploy all the rest of his goods to good uses
at their discretion. They answered very justly, the trust reposed in
them, and that with such discretion as well as fidelity, that I should
do them wrong not to remember them. The one was Richard Swanne, Provost
of Welles and parson of Yevelton, that heretofore had beene executor
after the same sort unto Richard Praty Bishop of Chichester (this man
dwelt in the cannonicall house that is neere the market place). Another
was, Hugh Sugar Doctor of lawe and Treasurer of Welles (he built the
chappell all of free stone, which was of wood before, adjoyning to the
great pulpit, and dwelt where I now do, in the middle house of the
three that joyne upon the Cambray). And the third was John Pope Doctor
of Divinity Prebendary of Saint Decumans and parson of Shyre. These
three (as I have beene told by old men) lye buried in a ranke together,
over against the great pulpit under three marble stones of one fashion.
The Bishops goods that remained unbequeathed, they bestowed for the
most part, in building the Vicars close at Welles, which had beene
begun by Bishop Ralfe long before; a sumptuous and beautifull worke."
[28] Some remarks of Mr. Dimock's on this subject will be
found in the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological and Natural
History Society, lxii. 33.
[29] At Hereford some of the Priest Vicars bore the title of
Minor Canons. I do not know in what they differed from the rest of the
body.
[30] He seems not to have done anything for the fabric, though
the north-west tower was still unfinished. But he gave tithes and other
property to the Chapter for various purposes, one of which was keeping
a common table; "ad mensam capitularem et alia onera in ecclesiâ
Wellensi supportanda." Anglia Sacra, i. 570.
[31] Anglia Sacra, i. 570. "Fecit etiam construi per
executores suos in vico vocato _la Mounterye_ mansiones pro xiv
capellanis in dictâ ecclesiâ Wellensi indies celebrantibus." Godwin
calls it "a colledge at Welles for fowerteene priests, at the ende of
the lane now called Colledge-lane." On the history of this foundation,
see Monasticon, viii. 1465.
[32] In the account of the Deans in Anglia Sacra, i. 590,
we read of him. "Vir impense literatus, postquam in utrâque academiâ
Anglicâ bonis studiis operam dedisset, in Italiam profectus, Guarini
Veronensis disciplinæ se tradidit."
[33] See Mr. Parker in the Somersetshire Archæological
Society's Proceedings, xi. 144 and xii. 25. Mr. Parker may be
implicitly trusted on all architectural points, but he has quite failed
to grasp the history of the foundation.
[34] When I wrote this passage and an earlier passage in p.
23, I did not think how near my worst fears were to being accomplished.
The organist's house at Wells, more strictly the house of the
_Informator Puerorum_ (see above, note 25), a house of the fifteenth
century, stands to the south-west of the church, and was connected
by some smaller buildings with the west wall of the cloister. The
north gable, with a singularly elegant window of two lights, formed
a striking object in crossing the Cathedral green, and held no mean
place among the general group of buildings of which the church was the
centre. For a long time past the building had been in a disgraceful
state, and a munificent private offer to repair it was, for what
reasons no man can guess, refused. Since that time, the buildings
which connected the main body of the house with the cloister have been
pulled down. This was a senseless act; for, though they had been much
patched and mutilated, ancient portions still remained, and, in any
case, their presence kept the house in its proper position as part of
a whole. At last, on the night of April 12th, 1870, the ancient roof
of the house, which still remained, fell in, damaging the gable and
shattering the tracery of the window. How this came to pass there is
no distinct evidence, but it is believed on the spot not to have been
wholly accidental. Thus it is that our antiquities are daily perishing,
because, while a taste for them and an appreciation of their value is
daily spreading, those whose duty it is to preserve them are often
those who have the least feeling for them. In the present case the
damage which has been already done is the result of wilful neglect,
but the complete destruction of the building would be a further act of
wanton barbarism. I am by no means certain that the house could not
even now be saved by a careful repair; but even if destruction has gone
too far for that, what remains ought to be kept as a well-preserved
ruin, and not to be swept away for any frivolous private purpose.
[35] In this point of view the history of Wells is well worthy
of the care of students of municipal history. The number of boroughs
which arose under the shadow of abbeys, as at Saint Alban's and Bury
Saint Edmund's (on which last see Mr. Green's papers, published in
Macmillan's Magazine in the course of 1869), is not small; but of
_Bishops' boroughs_ there are not many. Durham and Salisbury (see
above, p. 3) are the nearest examples, but their history is not exactly
the same as that of Wells. Coventry, a still greater city, grew up
under the shadow of an Abbey which became a Bishoprick.
[36] Catalogue of Bishops, p. 307.
[37] This was done in the year 1526 by authority of a bull of
Pope Clement the Seventh; see, for instance, the account of Daventry
Priory, in Northamptonshire, in the Monasticon, v. 176.
[38] This was in 1414. A list of the houses suppressed is
given in the Monasticon, viii. 1652. Among them was the Priory of Stoke
Courcy, in our own county, which was a dependency of the Abbey of
Lonley in Maine. Most of the estates of these monasteries went to the
various foundations which grew up in the fifteenth century, as several
of the Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the College of Eton, to which
Stoke Courcy went, and Saint George's Chapel at Windsor. It should be
noticed that this suppression took place under King Henry the Fifth
and Archbishop Chicheley, than whom there certainly never was a more
religious King or Primate in England. We have here the closest parallel
to the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church.
[39] The suppressions under Henry the Eighth were the most
complete contrasts to the suppressions under Henry the Fifth. The small
portion of the monastic estates which went in any way to the public
service, in the foundation of bishopricks and colleges and in providing
for the defence of the coast, was a trifle compared with the boundless
wealth which was squandered and gambled away among Henry's minions,
to say nothing of the wanton and brutal desecration of churches and
consecrated objects.
[40] We should always distinguish between the two suppressions
of Henry the Eighth's reign. The suppression of the lesser monasteries
was done legally by Act of Parliament. The greater monasteries were
suppressed by extorting from each Abbot and Convent an illegal
surrender, which surrenders were afterwards confirmed by Act of
Parliament. But Abbot Whiting never surrendered, so that the seizure of
Glastonbury Abbey was simple robbery. The Abbot was of course really
hanged for refusing to betray his trust. The nominal charge on which
he was condemned by commissioners sent to "try and execute" him--the
thing being thus arranged beforehand--was a ridiculous pretence of his
having robbed the goods of the monastery, that is, having tried to
save them from those who wished to rob them. This should be borne in
mind, as I have seen it said over and over again that the Abbot was
hanged for denying the King's supremacy, which the Abbot and Convent
of Glastonbury, like other Abbots and Convents, had acknowledged long
before.
[41] See above, p. 46.
[42] The list of Deans in Anglia Sacra, i. 590, says, "vir
laicus, decanatum Wellensem ab anno 1537 pessimo exemplo tenuit. Capite
plexus est 1540. 28. Julii."
[43] See Hook's Lives of Archbishops, viii. 18.
[44] Saint George's Chapel at Windsor was not suppressed;
otherwise the few collegiate churches which still survive, including
those of Ripon and Manchester, which have become cathedral, were
refounded under Elizabeth and James the First. It was now that Beverley
and several other great churches, as well as some smaller ones, like
Stoke-sub-Hamdon in our own county, ceased to be collegiate.
[45] The deed of pretended exchange is printed in the
Monasticon, ii. 294. See also Godwin, p. 311; and Collinson's
Somersetshire, iii. 395.
[46] It was now that the Palace at Wells was restored to the
Bishoprick. After the execution of Somerset it had passed to Sir John
Gates, the destroyer of Stillington's Lady chapel, who was beheaded
along with John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in 1553. He is the
knight of the court, of whom Godwin speaks in his account of Bishop
Burnell.
[47] On the history of the so-called Priory, see the
Monasticon, vii. 664.
[48] See note 44.
[49] See above, p. 50.
[50] See Godwin, p. 311.
[51] This strange document, dated in 1592, has, as far as I
know, never been printed, and I have only seen an English translation.
It first recites the doubts as to the legal position of the Chapter,
arising out of the surrender made by Dean Fitz-Williams in the time of
Edward the Sixth, and the consequent establishment of a new Deanery
by Act of Parliament. The Queen then founds the cathedral church
anew, with all its dignities and prebends as they existed before.
She then goes on to found "certain other dignities or offices,"
namely those of the Canons Residentiary. The names of the existing
Residentiaries are recited, and the Dean and Canons Residentiary are
constituted a corporation, by the title of the "Dean and Chapter of
the Cathedral Church of Wells." To this newly-founded corporation
the Queen grants the cathedral church, its appurtenances and movable
goods, the Chapter-house and other lands and property, namely such
as had been the common property of the Chapter. She then grants to
them power to make, under certain conditions, statutes "for the good
rule, government, and ordering of the Canons Residentiary and _other
Prebendaries_ in the said Cathedral Church." She then prescribes
the number of Residentiaries, who are not to be fewer than six nor
more than eight, and the manner of their election. They are to be
chosen from the Prebendaries, a strong preference being given to the
Dignitaries, including the Archdeacons, and the Dean having a right to
a Residentiary's place if he chooses to claim it. The term of residence
is fixed at four months at least yearly for a Dignitary being a
Residentiary, and at three months at least for a Residentiary not being
a Dignitary. These, it will be remembered, are exactly half the terms
of residence fixed by Jocelin; see above, p. 90. The document then
goes on to regulate the visitatorial powers of the Bishop, which are
taken for granted. Then follow grants to the different Dignitaries and
Prebendaries of their several corpses, and provision is made for the
payment of certain customary sums to the fabric, the Vicars, and other
purposes. Then come the names of the existing Prebendaries; and it is
ordered that the Prebendaries "shall for ever be joined and combined
with the aforesaid Dean and Chapter and their successors, to the ends,
intents, and purposes following only, that is to say, the Prebendaries
aforesaid, every of them and their successors, and the successors of
every of them, shall have a stall in the choir of the Cathedral Church
aforesaid, and that they and every of them shall have a place and voice
in the Chapter of the said Cathedral Church only to elect a Bishop to
the Episcopal See of Bath and Wells aforesaid, whenever it shall be
needful." The Bishop's right of appointing to dignities and prebends is
then renewed, saving only that the right of appointing to the Deanery
is reserved to the Crown. The remaining provisions are merely formal.
The evident object of this document is to legalize a certain state of
things which had gradually grown up by abuse. It had probably become
customary for the non-resident Canons to be summoned to meetings
of the Chapter only when a Bishop was to be elected. They were now
formally deprived of their right to vote at other times. The Dean and
Residentiaries, who had hitherto been simply certain of the Canons
or Prebendaries selected for a certain purpose, were now themselves
made the corporation, and the corporate style of Dean and Chapter was
transferred to them. From this some grotesque results follow. The
Chapter is first of all defined as a body of which the non-residentiary
Canons are not members, and then the non-residentiary Canons are
defined to be members of that body for one particular purpose; and the
old formula, according to which each Canon had "vocem in capitulo et
stallum in choro," is preserved, with the restriction that the voice is
to be used only at the election of a Bishop. Then the practice by which
the consent of the existing Residentiaries was needful for any Canon
to keep valid residence is stiffened into an actual election by the
existing Residentiaries. Lastly, the custom by which the Chapter always
elected a nominee of the Crown to the Deanery is changed into an actual
nomination of the Dean by the Crown. In all these cases the object is
to legalize by royal authority an existing vicious practice.
It is curious to mark how, in the teeth of all this, some ancient
customs are still retained as matters of form. The Canon, on his
first appointment to his prebend, is solemnly installed in choir
and chapter-house, but no such ceremony follows on his election to
a residentiaryship, when he is simply put in possession of a house.
This is of course because, under the older state of things, the
Residentiaries were not a distinct body, but simply those among the
Canons on whom the duty of residence fell on behalf of the whole. When
a Canon began to reside, he was not invested with any new office;
he therefore needed no new installation. By the Elizabethan Charter
the Residentiaries were changed into holders of distinct dignities
or offices, but no form of installation was prescribed, or could be
prescribed, because the Residentiary retained the stall which he held
before, and had no special stall as Residentiary. With the careless
modern practice of Residentiaries or other Canons occupying stalls
which belong to others of their brethren neither ancient order nor the
Elizabethan Charter has anything to do.
It is worth noticing that in the list given in Collinson's
Somersetshire, of the Chapter as it stood in his time, the Dignitaries
and Prebendaries are all put in their proper order, with the words
"Canon Residentiary" added to those who happened to be so. It is now
the fashion to print the Residentiaries first in larger type, and the
other Canons after them in smaller type. Such are the straws which show
the way of the wind, and thus does oligarchy grow in all times and
places.
[52] The actual rights of the non-residentiary Canons, both
at Wells and elsewhere, is a question of law, to be settled by a legal
examination of various local statutes and general Acts of Parliament.
The result would probably not be exactly the same in every church.
But it is certain that, if our capitular bodies are to be of any use
at all, they must be restored to their old broad basis. A body of
forty or fifty clergymen, the pick of the diocese, partly resident at
the cathedral, partly elsewhere, might be trusted to do many things
which an oligarchy of four or five cannot be trusted to do. In the New
Foundations the object would be gained by giving votes in Chapter to
the Honorary Canons.
[53] It would hardly be believed, except that the same havoc
has been wrought in some other churches, that in an English cathedral
church, in the year 1869, four stoves of incredible ugliness were set
up, _with chimneys driven through the vaulted roof_! For the better
display of one of them, part of Bishop Beckington's canopy, already
moved from its place, was cut away; but, on the coming into residence
of a Canon of better taste, it was put back. If the church wanted
warming, the object might surely have been gained in some other way. In
Bristol Cathedral there are stoves which are no disfigurement whatever.
[54] They would, however, have a precedent in the famous
scene between Archbishops Richard and Roger in the time of Henry the
Second, which I will describe in the words of Godwin, p. 51. "At the
time appointed the Legate came and tooke his place, and the Archbishop
of Canterbury sate him downe next unto the Legate upon the right hand.
After this in came Roger Archbishop of Yorke and would needes have
displaced Canterbury to sit above him: that when the other would not
suffer, he sate him downe in his lap. The other Bishops present, amased
at this strange behavior of the Archbishop of Yorke, cried out all upon
him; the Archbishop of Canterburies men by violence drew the other out
of his ill chosen place, threw him downe, tare his robes almost from
his backe, trode upon him, beate him, and used him so despitefully, as
the Legate, whether for shame or for doubt what might happen to him
selfe in such a tumult, got him out and went his way."
On the tomb of the doer of this havoc is written, with an unconscious
sarcasm, "Multum ei debet ecclesia Wellensis." The words seem happily
borrowed from Lucan's address to Nero:
"Multum Roma tamen debet civilibus armis,
Quod tibi res acta est."
Dean Jenkyns, however, did not employ fire; the stoves were reserved
for the next æra.
[55] There is much in the details of the work at Llandaff
which is fairly open to censure, but the principle of arrangement is
thoroughly good throughout, and the general effect is admirable.
[56] It is proposed to "restore," as it is called, the west
front at a cost of many thousand pounds, while there are no signs of
any movement towards getting rid of the crying abuses in the inside
of the church. I believe there is no fear of the wanton destruction
of any of the ancient work, or of any such absurdities as putting up
new statues. Still it seems to me to be a strange putting of the cart
before the horse to spend such a sum, or indeed to spend a single
farthing, on purely ornamental work, while the arrangements of the
inside are such that the church does not properly fulfil its first
duty as a place of worship. When the nave of Wells Cathedral is again
applied to its proper use, it will be time enough to think of canopies
and carved work on the outside. And I am by no means clear that purely
ornamental work of this kind ought to be restored at all. Anything that
is really needed for the safety of the fabric should be done with all
boldness, and all really essential features should be made good. If
the western towers were likely to fall, it would be a matter of duty
to support or to rebuild them, as the case might call for. And as the
doors and windows are essential parts of the building, I should without
scruple restore their decayed bases, mouldings, and other portions.
But as to the purely ornamental work, the statues and their canopies,
it seems to me that their value comes wholly from their being genuine
parts of the original work, and that any modern repair is out of place.
I should take every means to preserve them and keep them in their
places; but, if they fall or crumble away, I should not replace them.
I therefore greatly regret, on every ground, to see a work undertaken
which can hardly fail to have the effect of putting off the real
restoration of the church of Wells for many a day.
[57] If the screen is, which I do not believe that it is, of
any constructive use in keeping up the piers of the eastern arch of the
tower, the obvious thing is to build a fourth Saint Andrew's cross in
the eastern arch as in the other three.
INDEX.
A.
_Abbeville Collegiate Church_, west front of, 125.
_Abbey Dore_, east end of the church, 177.
_Adalbero_, Archbishop, his changes in the Church of Rheims, 32, 165.
_Adam of Domersham_ quoted, 170.
_Adeliza of Löwen_, wife of Henry the First, 43.
_Ælfsige_ detains lands of the Bishoprick, 29.
_Ælfsige_, last Abbot of Bath, 36.
_Æthelhelm_, first Bishop of Somersetshire, 26.
_Alby Cathedral_, absence of transepts in, 116.
_Alexander_, third Dean of Wells, 170.
_Alien Priories_, suppression of, 147.
_Amiens Cathedral_, its great height, 116.
_Andrew, Saint_, his wells, 19;
yields to his younger brother, 36.
_Angers_, undercroft of the Bishop's palace at, 176.
_Apses_, various kinds of, 130;
their rarity in England, 130;
use of, in Romanesque times, 181;
more common in Normandy than in England, _ib._
_Archdeacon of Wells_, ancient house of, 142;
its alienation, 150;
recovery of the other property of, 150.
_Archdeacons_, their rights under the charter of Elizabeth, 188.
_Architects_, employment of professional, in the middle ages, 81.
_Athelney_, prebend attached to the Abbey, 88.
_Augustine_, his mission to Britain, 12.
_Avalon_, see Glastonbury.
_Axe_, the English frontier in 597, 13, 17.
B.
_Bangor Cathedral_, arrangement of towers at, 182.
_Banwell_, history of the lordship, 27, 29, 31;
Bishop's house at, 37.
_Barlow, William_, Bishop, alienates the lands of the see, 149, 186;
partly recovers them, 149.
_Bath_, its Roman origin, 13, 36;
taken by the West-Saxons, 36;
church of, founded by Offa, 36, 177;
monks brought in by Eadgar, _ib._;
burned, 36, 47;
bought by Bishop John, 36, 37, 166;
see of Somersetshire removed to, _ib._;
church rebuilt by Bishop John, 37;
settlement between the Churches of Bath and Wells, 45;
suppression of the Monastery, 46, 148;
restoration of the Church in the seventeenth century, _ib._;
works of Bishop Robert at, 46-48, 167, 168;
date and style of the present church, 48;
monks of, illegally elect Bishop Roger, 105;
gradually neglected by the Bishops, 107;
form of the west front, 125;
alleged foundation of Osric, 177.
_Bath and Wells_, origin of the title, 10, 45.
_Battle Abbey_, lofty undercroft under the dormitory, 176.
_Bayeux_, installation of the Bishop at, 158.
_Beaufort, Cardinal_, enlarges the Hospital of Saint Cross, 163.
_Beauvais Cathedral_, remains of the old church at, 79, 80;
its great height, 116.
_Beckington, Thomas_, Bishop, works of his executors;
his various works, 145;
removal and mutilation of his canopy, 153;
his work in the cloisters, 181;
his will, 182, 183;
his gifts to the Chapter, 183.
_Benefice_, meaning of the word, 59, 169.
_Berengar_, agent of Archbishop Thomas, 173.
_Beverley Minster_, compared with Wells, 124, 130;
unreality of its west front, 128;
east end of, 130;
compared with Wells, 132.
_Bird, Prior_, his works at Bath, 48.
_Bishop_, his share in the daily distribution, 174;
his right of visitation saved by the Elizabethan charter, 187;
election of, under the charter, 187, 188.
_Bishops_, their relations to their cathedral churches, 10, 11, 45;
difference between their position in England and elsewhere, 12;
their ancient territorial style, 12;
how appointed in early times, 25;
Norman and French Bishops after the Conquest, 35;
number of, increased by Henry the Eighth, 53;
their greater power in the old cathedrals, 54;
plunder of, under Edward the Sixth and Elizabeth, 149.
_Bishopricks_ moved from small towns to larger, 35, 166.
_Bishopstool_, meaning of the word, 12.
_Boniface the Ninth_, Pope, his bull about entertainments, 175.
_Bourges Cathedral_, absence of transepts in, 116.
_Bourne, Gilbert_, Bishop, recovers the lands of the see, 149.
_Bridgewater_, more modern than the other Somersetshire towns, 14.
_Bristol_, Church of St. Mary Redcliff, internal effect of height
in, 133.
_Bristol_, position of the Cathedral, 2;
harmless stoves at, 189.
_Brunswick_, sham fronts in the churches of, 181.
_Bubwith, Nicholas_, Bishop, his share in building the north-west
tower, 122;
his gift of the Guild-hall to the citizens, 123;
his buildings in the cloister, _ib._
_Bury Saint Edmund's_, its municipal history compared with Wells, 184.
C.
_Canon_, title of, not to be confined to the Residentiaries, 50;
meaning of the name, 51.
_Canons_, honorary, unknown in the old foundations, 140.
_Canons_, non-residence of, 89;
their share in the daily distribution, 174;
their three sources of income, ib.
_Canons_, residentiary and non-residentiary, origin of the
difference, 85 et seqq.
_Canterbury Cathedral_, propping of the central tower at, 119;
its double apse, 182.
_Carlisle Cathedral_ compared with Wells, 134, 135.