Nottinghamshire to have been excused the tiresome journey to York once
a year; yet irksome as that duty was we can well believe that in those
days it was regarded as a sacred obligation and as such was faithfully
fulfilled. Yet the hearts of Nottingham men must have swelled with
gladness when they heard the letter read which gave them leave to go to
Southwell instead, and they blessed the goodness of Thomas of Beverley.
Besides this, Thomas is thought to have added two more to the number
of prebends, and altogether he may be counted as one of the greatest
benefactors the church of Southwell ever had.
In the few pages allotted to the history of Southwell in this volume
it is impossible to give a complete or consecutive account of even the
little that we know about the place. We must therefore be content with
an item here and there, remembering that much interesting matter has
had to be omitted for want of space.
The Minster was enlarged and made more beautiful as time went on, and
the Chapter was increased by successive archbishops and its privileges
multiplied, but it never became a very wealthy body, and at times
we hear of complaints of poverty, and even of inability to keep up
the style of worship expected in so great a church. Statutes were
given to the church by Archbishops Walter de Grey (1216–1256), John
le Romeyne (1286–1296), and Thomas de Corbridge (1300–1304) either
to reform abuses or to make better provision for the service of God
and the welfare of the church and its ministers. By the days of le
Romeyne the Chapter reached the number (16) at which it remained till
its dissolution. The canons were all technically equal, for there was
no dean, except apparently for a short time in the days of Walter de
Grey, who perhaps tried the experiment of appointing one in order to
improve the discipline of the college. Several charters in the White
Book are signed by “Hugh, Dean,” who generally, though not always,
put his name first. There is also one signature of a “Henry, Dean,”
but this is most likely a mistake, because if Walter de Grey did once
appoint a dean there seems little evidence that the experiment was
repeated, and it is doubtful if the one appointed was able to exercise
much authority. So the college remained a corporate body of sixteen
canons, all equal in rank, though the Prebendary of Normanton (near
Southwell) seems to have had more privileges than the others, as he
appointed the parish vicar of Southwell, and as chancellor had the
appointment of the mastership of the grammar schools throughout the
county. Besides the sixteen canons, there were sixteen vicars, mostly
in priests’ orders, connected with the Minster, one being presented
for institution to the Chapter by each canon. These vicars were the
representatives of the canons in the Minster, and they were needed,
as the evil of non-residence was felt at a very early date, and none
of the steps taken to check it had any permanent effect. Besides the
vicars there grew up in time a large college of chantry priests, and
at the time of the Reformation the number of clergy attached to the
church was quite fifty. The vicars had lodgings in the Vicars’ Close,
and a common hall where the present Residence House stands, which was
taken from the vicars about the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The vicars of Southwell, though a numerous body, with their own rights
and privileges, never became so numerous or important and independent a
body as the college of vicars at Wells.
On rare occasions Southwell creeps into the history of the nation,
only, however, to retire once more into seclusion amidst the peace of
its undulating hills. At the end of August 1189 the town witnessed an
ecclesiastical function of some importance. Geoffrey Plantagenet, the
natural and only faithful son of Henry II., had been appointed by
his brother, Richard I., to the see of York at the great council held
at Pipewell, in Northamptonshire, about a week before. But Baldwin,
Archbishop of Canterbury, claimed the right of consecrating him, and
forbade him either to receive priests’ orders or consecration from
anybody but himself, and appealed to the Pope to support his rights,
reminding the King and Court of the old dispute between Canterbury
and York, which had continued so long in the days of the first three
Norman kings. Geoffrey had meanwhile got into trouble with the King,
who cancelled his appointment to York. Nothing daunted, Geoffrey set
out for Southwell, the nearest church of importance in the diocese of
York, taking with him John, Bishop of Whithern, his suffragan, who
himself had only been consecrated at the recent council at Pipewell
by John, Archbishop of Dublin. At Southwell, on August 29th, the
Bishop of Whithern ordained Geoffrey priest.[67] Though Geoffrey was
soon reconciled to the King, yet Richard had no intention of allowing
him to be consecrated, and insisted on his promising to remain out
of England while the King went on a crusade. Poor Geoffrey is one of
the most pitiable characters of this period. Misfortune seemed to dog
his footsteps, while he had the unfortunate knack of quarrelling with
every one with whom he had to deal. In 1190 Richard sent Hugh, Bishop
of Durham, back to England with letters in which he appointed him
Justiciary north of the Humber. Hugh met William of Ely, the Chancellor
and Regent of the kingdom, at Ely, and showed him the letters. The
Chancellor said he was willing to obey the King’s orders, and in a
friendly way travelled with Hugh as far as Southwell, where he suddenly
arrested him, and kept him in custody till he had surrendered to
him the castle of Windsor and made other concessions.[68] On April
4, 1194, the Monday in Holy week, a more distinguished pair met at
Southwell--Richard of England and William of Scotland--and there
debated on the differences between them, departing together the next
day to Melton.[69] But these were isolated events, and the comings
and goings of kings and rulers did not often disturb the peace of the
little town. Besides the doings at Whitsuntide, the visits of the
different archbishops would be the greatest excitement, for when in
England they would spend, no doubt, some part of each year at their
manor of Southwell, for it was commodious and near to London; besides,
in those days it was customary for great men to travel from manor to
manor, and stay long enough to consume the provisions and stores laid
up, for it was not possible for one manor to support a great dignitary
and all his retinue for more than three weeks or a month at a time.
The old Norman choir in which Geoffrey had been ordained was not
destined to stand much longer, for about the year 1220 or 1230 Walter
de Grey started to build the present choir. We know for certain that in
1233 he issued an indulgence of thirty days to all who should help by
their alms towards the completion of this new work. For the description
of the choir, as of the other parts of the building, the reader must
refer to the excellent guide-books to the Minster; yet we may say
here that the choir is as good an example of thirteenth-century work
as can be found. Its lightness and elegance, in contrast to the heavy
if majestic solidity of the nave, is most pleasing. Next in order of
time comes the chapel in the east side of the north transept of the
nave, now used as the vestry. This chapel formerly contained two altars
of different chantries, but has since been put to various uses; even
becoming a song school before the abolition of the chantries. In later
years it was the vicar’s vestry, then it became the library until the
books were moved to their present home above the chapel in question.
The next addition to the Minster was the vestibule to the Chapter
House, which was at one time an open cloister; and though the closing
up of its eastern side may have added to the comfort not only of the
vestibule but of the whole church, it certainly has not improved its
appearance. This vestibule leads to the goal of all lovers of Gothic
art who visit Southwell--the Chapter House, with its incomparable
doorway, which has often been described in words of unstinted praise,
and indeed it would be impossible for such praise to be exaggerated.
The present writer will not attempt to describe this building, but
will quote the words of Mr. G. E. Street, who says: “What either
Cologne Cathedral, or Ratisbon, or Weisen Kirche are to Germany, Amiens
Cathedral and the Sainte Chapelle are to France, the Scalegere in
Verona to Italy, are the Choir of Westminster and the Chapter House
at Southwell to England.”[70] Mr. A. F. Leach is of the same opinion
when he says: “It is the most perfect work of the most perfect style
of Gothic architecture.” It is not only the doorway with its exquisite
carving, but the beautiful proportions of the whole Chapter House, and
the extreme lightness and delicacy of all its parts and details, that
arouses the enthusiasm of the most casual visitor, and holds the expert
spell-bound with its charm.
Archbishop John le Romeyne (1286–1296) is the man who set on foot this
work. He it was who initiated the rebuilding of the nave and Chapter
House at York. For the same man to have started three such beautiful
examples of Gothic architecture as the Chapter Houses at Southwell and
York, and the nave at York, is indeed to lay posterity under a debt
which can never be paid. But his interests were not only architectural.
His first care was the moral and spiritual discipline and welfare of
the great churches in his diocese. He established, among other things,
his right of visitation over his cathedral Chapter, and gave statutes
to Southwell which he based on those of York. The next addition of
importance to the Minster was the choir screen or pulpitum. Here,
again, it does not seem an exaggeration to say that in this feature
also Southwell is very hard to beat; for though, unfortunately, the
greater number of the carved heads are not the original ones at all,
yet as a whole the pulpitum stands unrivalled for its beauty and
elegance of design. It was built towards the end of the first half of
the fourteenth century. In the White Book there is a copy of a licence
granted by Edward III., in 1337, to the Chapter, allowing them the free
transit of stone from Mansfield through Sherwood Forest. This licence,
which was granted as a result of complaints made by the Chapter that
their carts had been unduly made to pay toll by the King’s foresters,
is generally supposed to refer to the cartage of material required
for building the screen. And therefore the screen has been dated from
the year of this licence, 1337; but the present writer is bound to
confess that, from an impartial reading of the licence in question, it
does not seem to infer that any special work was in progress, but only
refers to the stone that would be continually needed for the repair and
support of such a fabric as the Minster, and of all the buildings and
houses depending on it. Southwell, it must be remembered, had to fetch
all its stone from Mansfield, no durable material being found in the
neighbourhood. The screen is built in the fully developed Decorated
style, and must have been erected somewhere about this time, yet this
licence is not nearly explicit enough to warrant any one taking its
date as the precise date of the screen itself. The sedilia, remarkable
both for their beauty and for the unusual number of seats--five--were
built a little later than the screen, and are the last addition of
importance which can be entirely praised.
As regards the great west window, which is fifteenth-century work, much
as it is needed for the illumination of what would otherwise have been
a very dark interior, one cannot help feeling that it is out of keeping
with its surroundings, and does not harmonise with the rest of the
nave.
So uneventful was life at Southwell during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries that a recent student of the Chapter records of the later
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries could find nothing else to
publish, except the peccadilloes and moral lapses of the vicars-choral
and chantry priests which came up before the Chapter for punishment. It
is, of course, no excuse to say that the clergy at Southwell were no
worse than other like bodies, and it must be admitted that many things
happened that ought not to have occurred.
In 1530 a very important person came to Southwell. Cardinal Wolsey had
never visited this house of his during the years of his greatness,
but after his fall he spent the summer of 1530 there. In Passion Week
he travelled from London to Peterborough, and “upon Easter Day in the
morning he rode to the resurrection, and that day he went in procession
in his vesture cardinal, with his hat and hood upon his head, and he
himself sang the high mass there very devoutly; and granted clean
remission to all the hearers.”[71] He stayed at Peterborough till the
Thursday in Easter Week when he removed to the house, near the town,
belonging to Sir William Fitzwilliam, an old friend of his. Here he
remained a few days, and then went north, staying nights at Stamford,
Grantham, and Newark, and reaching Southwell in the middle of the
week after Low Sunday. He could not go to the palace for it wanted
repairing, so he lodged in the house of an absent prebendary, removing
to the palace about Whitsuntide.
Mr. Dimock, in his book quoted above, gives an extract from a pamphlet,
published about fifteen years ago, which starts as follows: “Who was
less beloved in the north than my Lord Cardinal before he was amongst
them? Who better beloved after he had been there awhile? He gave
bishops a right good example how they might win men’s hearts.” On the
eve of Corpus Christi he decided to sing high mass in the Minster on
the following day, and ordered Cavendish to make all due preparations.
Nor was he prevented of his purpose by the fact that during the night
two gentlemen arrived from the King, and caused him to be roused,
and after some private speech made him sign some paper. At the close
of the summer, “at the latter end of grease time,” so Cavendish puts
it, he removed to Scrooby, and by departing in the middle of the
night disappointed many gentlemen lodging in Southwell, who came to
accompany him on his journey through the forest, intending “to lodge
a great stag or twain for him by the way.” But he dare not indulge in
such honours, for he feared what his enemies would make of such doings
with the King, and so departed by night to Welbeck abbey, and was in
his bed continuing his night’s rest before his disappointed admirers
at Southwell were awake. Greatly grieved were the people of Southwell
when the Cardinal left them, for they had received nothing but kindness
from him, as did all the people of the places in his dioceses where he
stayed from that time till his arrest. From his behaviour during these
few weeks it is abundantly evident what a good and wise bishop Wolsey
would have made if he had served his God as well as he served his King.
It was not to be expected that the Reformation and the church
spoliation indulged in by Henry VIII. and Cromwell would leave
Southwell unharmed. The Chapter, perhaps wisely, surrendered their
church and estates to the King in 1540. They possessed a kind friend
in Cranmer, who was a Nottinghamshire man, and no doubt mainly through
his influence Henry refounded the Chapter in 1541. Southwell also was
mentioned as one of the fifteen new sees which Henry professed his
desire to create out of the spoils of the monasteries and one of the
prebendaries--a certain Dr. Cox--was even named as the first bishop.
But Henry’s cupidity got the better of his zeal, and the fifteen new
dioceses dwindled down to six, and Southwell was not among the chosen
few.
But the restored Chapter did not enjoy uninterrupted peace, for at
the end of the White Book are copies of three letters from Sir Edward
North, Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, in which he accuses
the Chapter of disposing of some of their plate and ornaments, and
after rebuking them for so doing, orders them to surrender the goods
in question, and despatch them at once to London for the use of the
King. Mr. A. F. Leach thinks these letters probably belong to the
year 1546.[72] Southwell does not seem to have been affected by the
first passing of the Chantries and Colleges Act. Mr. Dimock says: “The
Court of Augmentations, to which was entrusted the alienation of the
different estates, left Southwell alone, as the list of 1547 shows
that the prebendaries and other clergy were in full enjoyment of their
benefices.”[73] But this Act was renewed at the beginning of the reign
of Edward VI., and the Chapter ceased to exist. “On the petition of
the parishioners, the Minster was continued as the parish church;
and the sacrist prebendary, John Adams, was made vicar of Southwell
at a stipend of £20 a year, with his vicar-choral Matthew Fort, and
the old parish vicar, Robert Salwyne, as ‘assistants to the cure,’
with £5 a year each.”[74] The lands of the Chapter, after changing
hands once or twice, eventually remained in the possession of John
Dudley, duke of Northumberland, and at his attainder lapsed to the
Crown. This gave Queen Mary the opportunity she did not often get of
restoring church lands to their original owners, and the Chapter was
reinstated. No doubt the cause of the Chapter was greatly helped by the
influence of Heath, archbishop of York, whom the Queen had appointed
on the deprivation of Holgate.[75] But the position of the Chapter
was still legally uncertain, because the Act of Suppression had not
been repealed. But it was safe during Mary’s reign, and was left in
possession by Elizabeth, who granted new statutes for the governance
of the college which remained the foundation of its organisation until
its dissolution in 1840. It was left to James I. to put the Chapter
on a firm legal footing, during whose reign it was argued that the
Chapter of St. Mary’s, Southwell, is vested in the Crown by statute of
I Edward VI., “thus enabling James I. in 1604 to make the magnanimous
grant and confirmation to the Chapter of the collegiate church of
Southwell of the site and precinct of the church, and the possessions
belonging thereto.”[76] James I.’s interest in the place may have been
influenced by the fact that he passed through Southwell on his way to
London to take possession of the throne. He was struck with surprise,
we are told, at seeing such a church in so small a town. And when some
of his Court remarked that York and Durham were far more magnificent
structures, James replied rather peevishly in his Scotch accent, “Vare
wele, vare wele, but, by my blude, this kirk shall justle with York or
Durham, or ony kirk in Christendom.”
Once more the Chapter started on its quiet course, and again its
history is for the most part a peaceful blank. We get just a glimpse
of the condition of things in 1635 from some odd papers of answers to
the visitation articles of the archbishop in that year. The old faults
are prominent; canons neglect to keep their residence and let their
houses fall into disrepair, and the due amount of sermons and lectures
do not seem to have been delivered. One canon in his answers complains
that the organist is very negligent in his duties and especially in the
management of the choristers, often only correcting them in service
time to the great disturbance of the worshippers. “And besides all
this,” he goes on, “he is a great lyer as yr lordship knows if you
please to remember him ... and as soon as he has made a boy fit for
the quire he sells him to some gentleman and soe by this means the
quire is impoverished.” The selling and even kidnapping of solo boys
seems to have been not uncommon at this time. The same prebendary
says that the church needs a “paire of good organs which I wish your
Grace would be pleased to contribute something towards and divers
other gentlemen would be ready to follow in so good a worke.” He
also says that the chimes and clock are much neglected. Another says
that he believes “Copes and a decent Corporall and a Bason for the
offertory are required” and that “there have been writings taken out
of the Treasury.” A third tells the archbishop that in the Treasury
“are divers writings, but so laid up that they are in danger of wette,
by raine or snowe, if the leads should happen to be faulty, and so
confused that it will be hard to finde what the church may stand
suddenly in need of. The letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, King James,
the authentique copy of the statutes, with divers other evidences
and muniments of the church are not there but in the keeping of the
Residentiaries. How they were taken out, or what caution taken for the
returning of them, he knoweth not.” After reading here how little care
was taken for the preservation of the documents of the church it is a
cause for thankfulness that as many remain as do.[77] This negligence
amply accounts for the great losses the library has sustained, and
there is no need to put the blame of their removal or destruction on
the shoulders of Cromwell and his Ironsides, as is so commonly done, as
if their shoulders had not enough to carry already. The Treasury was
described in one of the papers of visitation answers, mentioned above,
as “by the Chapter House,” and was probably the room now used as the
library.
During the Civil War Southwell was the scene of much activity. King
Charles stayed there on his way to hoist his standard at Nottingham,
and he also spent some hours at “The Saracen’s Head” before he gave
himself up to the Scottish Commissioners at Kelham. On one occasion he
lodged at the palace, but it had been much damaged, for it had been
occupied by the troops of both sides. The townspeople mostly favoured
the Puritans. This may have been partly due to the fact that Mr. Edward
Cludd, the most prominent layman in the town, was a great supporter of
Cromwell. After the dispossession of the church he bought Norwood Park,
close to Southwell, which had belonged to the archbishop, and built
himself a house there. As a magistrate, it was his duty to perform
marriages under the new regime, and there was a big oak in the park
which was famous as the place where he had tied many couples together.
Shilton, who published his history of Southwell in 1818, says the tree
was still pointed out and was called Cludd’s Oak. After the Restoration
Cludd continued to live at Norwood, leasing the property from the
archbishop. Posterity owes a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Cludd, for
it is said to have been due to his influence with Cromwell that the
latter did not damage the Church nor pull down the nave, which he
certainly intended to do, as he thought the choir large enough for the
needs of the parish.
A quotation from Thoroton’s _Nottinghamshire_ is interesting. It
refers to a visit of King Charles I. to the town, which took place
during the period between the battle of Naseby and his subsequent
residence at Oxford. “The King with a few faithful followers took
refuge at Southwell. The day after his arrival he walked about the town
not known, and entered the shop of a shoemaker, whose name was Lee, who
was a fanatic of the day. His Majesty, after some conversation with
this man, bid him take measure for a pair of shoes. Lee, on taking
the King’s foot in his hand and looking at him attentively, refused
to proceed. The King, astonished at the man’s behaviour, desired him
to do what he had requested; but the shoemaker actually refused,
giving the reason that the King was the customer he had been warned
against in a dream the night before, in which he (the customer) was
doomed to destruction, and those who worked for him would never thrive.
The forlorn monarch, whose misfortunes had opened his mind to the
impressions of superstitions, uttered an ejaculation expressive of his
resignation to the will of providence, and returned to the palace,
which was the place of his abode.”[78]