central doorway surmounted by a crocketed ogee hood, beneath which is a
mutilated carving of The Trinity. Four large niches stand on either side
of the door and a row of twenty-four smaller ones runs above these.
Cinquefoils and feathered cusps decorate the whole screen, which is
twelve feet thick. In the passage through it a door on the right opens
into a winding staircase to the loft above and one on the left into a
deep pit.
We pass on to the =Choir=. This is of three styles: the first three bays
on the north side are Twelfth Century; the first three on the south
side, Perpendicular; and the last three on both sides, Decorated. The
triforium windows are filled with glass.
“The great window in the central compartment is one of the finest
examples of Geometrical tracery, if not one of the largest windows,
in England. It is over 50 feet high, is 25 feet wide, and has seven
lights. Of these the three at either end are comprised under a
sub-arch, in the head of which are three cinquefoiled circles,
while the central light of the seven is surmounted by an arch, not
so high as its neighbours, but impaling upon its acute point a huge
circle which fills the head of the window and contains six trefoils
radiating from its centre. The arch of this superb window is rather
acutely pointed and richly moulded, and has two very slender shafts
worked on the stones of either jamb, with foliage on their
capitals.
“The huge window, which is not splayed, has a deep rear-vault
bounded by a massive rib, whose outer edge rests on slender engaged
shafts with foliage on their capitals, while the inner edge ends in
bunches of foliage. Between this rib and the tracery is another rib
springing on the north side from a bunch of foliage and on the
south from a grotesque corbel. The inner arch has slender shafts,
and so has the moulding next to the tracery, but in the latter case
the capitals are plain. Few acts of vandalism are more to be
regretted, probably, than the destruction in 1643 of the
magnificent Fourteenth Century glass which once occupied this
window. The present very poor glass, by Wailes of Newcastle,
commemorates the revival of the See of Ripon in 1863.
“Over the window may be seen the mark of one of the earlier roofs.
The choir is thought to have received a groined vault of oak after
the rebuilding of the east end, but this vault was probably renewed
more than once, especially after the accident to the tower about
1450, and the fall of the spire in 1660. Sir Gilbert Scott found a
vault of lath and plaster (probably the work of Blore) for which he
substituted the present roof, a groined wooden vault, admirable in
its lofty pitch and judicious colouring. Its chief feature,
however, is the splendid bosses along the ridge, which are
survivals from either the Decorated or a subsequent Perpendicular
vault. In some of these bosses the figures are five feet
long.”--(C. H.)
The =Choir-Stalls= are splendid specimens of the Fifteenth Century, with
very ornate canopies of tabernacle-work bristling with spires and
pinnacles.
“There are ribbed vaults under the canopies, and upon the pendants
in front are hovering angels. The canopies on the south side were
wrecked by the fall of the spire in 1660, and those over the eight
easternmost stalls were then reconstructed in the ‘Jacobean’ style
with a gallery above, while of the canopies now over the other
nine, eight are said to have been brought across from the eastern
end of the north range, where more Jacobean canopies were erected
in their place. Sir Gilbert Scott removed all this Seventeenth
Century work and set up reproductions of the Fifteenth Century
design. Thus the eight easternmost canopies on either side are
modern. The _misereres_ and arms of the stalls are exquisitely
carved.
“The subjects upon the former are as follows, beginning from the
archway in the screen:--
“_North side_:--(1) (CANON IN RESIDENCE) lion attacked by dogs; (2)
dragon attacked by dogs; (3) angel with shield; (4) dragon and
birds; (5) hart’s-tongue ferns; (6) conventional flowers; (7) ape
attacked by lion; (8) vine; (9) birds pecking fruit; (10)
antelopes; (11) fox preaching to goose and cock; (12) fox running
off with geese; (13) fox caught by dogs; (14) dragons fighting;
(15) fruit and flowers issuing from inverted head; (16) man holding
club with oak leaves and acorns; (17) (MAYOR’S STALL) griffin
catching rabbit.
“_South side_:--(1) (DEAN) angel with book; (2) angel with shield
bearing date 1489; (3) lion _versus_ griffin; (4) griffin devouring
a human leg; (5) owl; (6) mermaid with mirror and hair-brush; (7)
two pigs dancing to bagpipe played by a third; (8) Jonah thrown to
the whale; (9) man wheeling another who holds a reed and a bag;
(10) fox caught carrying off goose by dog and by woman with
distaff; (11) winged animal; (12) hart, gorged and chained; (13)
pelican feeding young; (14) Jonah emerging from the whale; (15)
Samson carrying the gates; (16) head (modern); (17) (BISHOP’S
THRONE) Caleb and Joshua carrying the grapes and watched by Anakim.
“Most of these _misereres_ have exquisite conventional flowers
(especially roses) cut upon them in addition to the
figure-subjects. The desks in front of the stalls have rich
finials, and their panelled fronts form the backs of a lower tier
of seats, the arms of which are supported each on a square shaft
set diamondwise. In front of these lower seats the desks again
have carved finials and panelled fronts and on those parallel with
the Rood-Screen the tracery is distinctly Flamboyant. The finial
before the stall of the Canon in Residence has a griffin attached
to it and that in front of the Dean’s stall a lion. Before both
these stalls the ends of the two tiers of desks are richly carved.
The Bishop’s throne and Mayor’s stall have each a canopied niche on
the exterior toward the east, and two small apertures in the east
side to enable the occupant to see the altar, and in front of these
two stalls the ends of the two tiers of desks are again richly
carved. The Mayor’s stall is wider than the others, and attached to
the finial in front is a grotesque ape, beneath which the
supporting shaft is of open work. The end of this desk displays a
shield charged with two keys in saltire, for the see of York.
“The Bishop’s throne was originally occupied by the Archbishops of
York. The Jacobean canopy, which succeeded that of the Fifteenth
Century, comprised the space of two stalls, as did also the modern
structure by which it was itself succeeded and which is now in the
Consistory Court. The present canopy resembles those of the other
stalls but is higher and more elaborate. Upon the back of the
throne inside is a small mitre. The finial in front consists of an
elephant carrying a man in his trunk, and bearing on his back a
castle filled with armed soldiery, and in front of the elephant is
a centaur (renewed), the shaft under which is again of open-work.
The end of this desk displays a large mitre above a shield charged
with the three stars of St. Wilfrid and supported by two angels,
between whom is a scroll with the date of 1494.”
The altar stands against the east wall of the presbytery. The =Reredos= is
a restoration of the original Decorated one. The =Sedilia= and a =Piscina=
are placed on the south side.
Sir Gilbert Scott considered them Late Decorated work, but they have
rather the appearance of Late Perpendicular.
Some historians think that the shrine of St. Wilfrid stood in the east
end of the north-choir-aisle. The remains were kept in a superb coffer,
which was carried in processions.
Passing down the south-choir-aisle from the east we first come to the
vestry; then to the Chapter-House; and then to the Mallory Chapel. A
round-headed door in the west wall of the Chapter-House opens upon a
stairway that leads into another =Crypt= that belonged to Norman times.
The =Chapter-House= is of the Twelfth Century. Above it is a =Lady-Chapel=,
called here the =Lady-Loft=. It is unusual to find a Lady-Chapel on the
south side of the Choir and on an upper floor. It dates from about the
middle of the Fifteenth Century. It is now used as a Library.
YORK MINSTER
DEDICATION: ST. PETER. SERVED BY SECULAR CANONS.
SPECIAL FEATURES: WEST FRONT; CHOIR; CHAPTER-HOUSE; WINDOWS.
York, “the King of Cathedrals,” is one of the noblest and best examples
of Gothic architecture. In form and proportion, in detail of ornament,
in exterior and interior, the famous Minster takes rank with the
greatest ecclesiastical buildings. Not only is it enormous--a forest of
architecture--but it contains, perhaps, more ancient stained glass than
any other building in the world.
“Other English cathedrals are more finely placed, several are
richer in ornament, one or two have a more delicately varied
outline. None are so stately and so magnificent; and there is
hardly a church in Europe that appears so vast as the Minster,
viewed from the north.
“The low-pitched roof of the Minster, the solidity of the central
tower, the simple and tranquil front of the north transept, give
the building an air of masculine and stately repose, and of perfect
finish seldom to be found in foreign churches; while the apparent
uniformity of style, though the architecture is of three different
periods, frees it from the picturesque inconsequence of many
English cathedrals. Yet neither inside nor outside does the Minster
appear to be the expression of the spiritual aspirations of a
people. It represents rather a secular magnificence, the temporal
power of a Church that has played a great part in the history of
the nation. The archbishops of York have been forced by
circumstances to be militant prelates, contending with Canterbury
for precedence, leading armies against the Scotch, sometimes even
heading rebellions against the king; and in their cathedral they
have expressed their ambition and their pride.”--(A. C.-B.)
The visitor who has a short time to visit York Minster will study the
west front, the choir, the Chapter-House, and the windows.
“If the beauty in the form of our _flos florum_ is due to its
architecture, very much of its beauty in colour depends on the
glowing and mellowed tints with which its windows are filled. But
it is a large subject to enter upon, for as regards quantity there
are no less than one hundred and three windows in the Minster, most
of them entirely, and the remainder, only excepting the tracery,
filled with real old Mediæval glass. Some of the windows, too, are
of great size. The east window, which is entirely filled with old
glass, consists of nine lights and measures seventy-eight feet in
height, thirty-one feet two inches in width. The two choir transept
windows, that in the north transept to St. William, and the south
to St. Cuthbert, measure seventy-three feet by sixteen feet. They
have both been restored, the latter very recently, but by far the
greater part of them is old glass. On each side of the choir, the
aisles contain nine windows measuring fourteen feet nine inches by
twelve feet, only the tracery lights of which are modern; the same
number of windows fill the clerestory above, the greater portions
of which are ancient.
“The famous window of the north transept, the Five Sisters,
consists of five lights, each measuring fifty-three feet six inches
by five feet one inch, and is entirely of old glass. There are six
windows in the north and six in the south aisles of the nave, with
only a little modern glass in the tracery. The superb Flamboyant
window at the west end of the centre aisle measures fifty-six feet
three inches by twenty-five feet four inches, and consists, I
believe, entirely of old glass, except the faces of the figures.
The clerestory windows are studded with ancient shields, but a
great part of the glass is, I fancy, modern; those of the
vestibule, eight in number, measuring thirty-two feet by eighteen,
are of old glass, including the tracery lights. The east window has
been clumsily restored by Willement. In the side windows of the
transept there is some old glass, and the great rose window over
the south entrance still retains much of the old glass; while far
overhead in the tower there are some really fine bold designs of
late, but genuine, design and execution. Altogether, according to
actual measurements, there are 25,531 superficial feet of Mediæval
glass in the Minster, i.e., more than half an acre--a possession,
we should think, unequalled by any church in England, if not in
Christendom.”--(P.-C.)
York, or, to use its older name, Eboracum, had been an important British
settlement long before the Romans made it the principal seat of their
power in the north between the years 70 and 80 A.D. It continued to be a
Roman court until the Emperor Honorius left Britain in 409. Hadrian
lived here; Severus and Constantine Chlorus died here; and here
Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor. Many churches in the
vicinity were dedicated to the latter’s mother, St. Helena, the
legendary discoverer of the True Cross.
York was therefore the great military post and the great ecclesiastical
seat in the north of England.
The question of precedence between York and Canterbury arose as early as
the days of St. Augustine. Gregory the Great instructed the latter to
appoint twelve bishops, one of whom was to be the Bishop of York, who
was to ordain other bishops in the north of England. He was to be
subordinate to Augustine; but subsequently precedence should be
determined by priority of consecration. This occasioned dissensions for
centuries, culminating in the murder of Thomas à Becket (see page 2),
which Roger de Pont l’Évêque is said to have instigated. It was this
Archbishop of York who, refusing to take a lower seat at the Council of
Westminster in 1176, sat himself in the lap of Becket’s successor only
to be pulled off and soundly beaten. The question was not finally
settled until the time of John of Thorsby (1352-1373), when Innocent VI.
determined that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be styled Primate of
All England and the Archbishop of York, Primate of England.
The first archbishop was Paulinus, Bishop of Rochester (see page 33),
who accompanied Ethelburga, daughter of the King of Kent, when she went
to Northumbria to marry King Edwin. Edwin embraced Christianity and was
baptised in 627, by Paulinus, in a temporary wooden church on the site
of the present glorious York Minster. Immediately afterwards Edwin began
to build a stone church in this same place, which he dedicated to St.
Peter. This church was repaired by the next archbishop--the great
Wilfrid--about 669.
When Thomas of Bayeux, the first Norman archbishop, arrived in 1070, he
found the Cathedral in ruins, owing to the Danish invasion and to the
wars of the Conqueror; and, if William of Malmsbury may be believed,
Thomas began the church from its foundations and also finished it.
Roger de Pont l’Évêque (1154-1181) rebuilt the choir.
About this time York acquired its patron saint, William Fitzherbert,
great-grandson of the Conqueror, who became Bishop of York in 1143.
Expelled from office in 1147, he was restored in 1153. On his return he
performed a miracle and died almost immediately afterwards, so suddenly,
in fact, that he was thought to have been poisoned out of the holy
chalice. The monks buried him in the Cathedral. His tomb attracted
pilgrims because of the marvellous cures. St. William was canonised in
1284; and in that year his relics were translated from the nave to the
choir. Edward I. and Queen Eleanor were present and gave jewels to the
shrine, which was placed at the eastern end of the nave under a huge
canopy. St. William’s head was preserved in a silver reliquary.
There is now no Norman work visible in York Minster except in the crypt
and in parts of the nave and tower. In 1200, however, the nave, choir,
towers, and transepts were Norman. About 1230 it was decided to rebuild
the transepts on a big scale. Walter de Grey (1216-1265) began the south
transept (Early English); and he lies there under an arch, in a splendid
tomb. John Romeyn, treasurer of York, built the north transept and also
an Early English tower to replace the Early Norman tower. His son, John
Romeyn, also archbishop from 1286 to 1296, began the new nave.
John of Thorsby (1352-1373) began the present choir in 1361. The work
was started at the extreme east end. Thorsby was a Yorkshireman, who
“had the further development of the glories of the Minster
thoroughly at heart. At once he sacrificed his palace at Sherburn
to provide materials for an appropriate Lady-Chapel, gave
successive munificent donations of £100 at each of the great
festivals of the Christian year, and called on clergy and laity
alike to submit cheerfully to stringent self-denial to supply the
funds.
“During his tenure of office of twenty-three years the Lady-Chapel
was completed, a chaste and dignified specimen of early
Perpendicular style, into which the Decorated gradually blended
after the year 1360, and unique in its glorious east window,
seventy-eight feet high and thirty-three feet wide, still the
largest painted window in the world, enriched with its double
mullions, which give such strength and lightness to its graceful
proportions, and with its elaborate glass executed by Thornton of
Coventry, at the beginning of the following century. But Roger’s
choir, which was still standing, must now have looked sadly dwarfed
between the lofty Lady-Chapel and the tower and
transepts.”--(P.-C.)
Edward I. made York his capital during the war with Scotland, to the
expense of which the archbishop and clergy gave one-fifth of their
income. Parliament assembled there in 1318. The archbishops were great
politicians and intriguers, now plotting against the king and now
supporting him; great military leaders, sometimes defeated, like Melton
at Myton-on-Swale, where he led 10,000 men against the Scots, or
victorious, like William La Zouche (1342-1352) at Neville’s Cross near
Durham; and nearly always great builders and benefactors of the
Cathedral. Richard Scrope’s rebellion is famous. Lord Chancellor of
England and Bishop of Lichfield before he became Bishop of York in 1398,
Scrope was advanced by Richard II. In 1405 he headed a rebellion and was
captured. The Chief Justice refused to try him. He was taken to his own
palace at Bishopthorpe, condemned to death and beheaded near York in
1405. Buried in the Minster, thousands flocked to his tomb in the
north-choir-aisle. Naturally enough the king who had murdered him tried
to check the stream of offerings; but Scrope’s tomb became more popular
than that of St. William. Scrope was a Yorkshireman, the son of Lord
Scrope, of Masham, and the Scropes had a chantry in the chapel of St.
Stephen, now destroyed.
The great central tower was erected in 1400-1423 and the church was
re-consecrated on July 3, 1472; and so, at the close of the Fifteenth
Century, York Minster existed as we see it: save for two fires (1829
and 1840) and a judicious repairing and restoration in 1871, the great
Minster has not been changed.
When Henry VIII. disestablished the monasteries there were many
outbreaks in York, and the famous “Pilgrimage of Grace” (1536) was much
excited by the seizure of St. William’s head, still a beloved relic of
the Cathedral. Lee, then archbishop, was taken by the rebels and forced
to support them. Before this, however, Thomas Wolsey had been arrested
at Cawood. Though Archbishop (1514-1530), it is said that he was never
at York.
When York was besieged by the Parliamentarians in 1644, Fairfax
restrained his soldiers to some degree, which explains why so much of
the ancient glass is left. Thomas Mace’s description of the siege,
however, shows how little respect the army really had for the Minster:
“The enemy was very near and fierce upon them, especially on that
side of the city where the church stood; and had planted their
great guns mischievously against the church; with which constantly
in prayer’s time, they would not fail to make their hellish
disturbance by shooting against and battering the church; insomuch
that sometimes a cannon bullet has come in at the windows and
bounced about from pillar to pillar (even like some furious fiend
or evil spirit) backwards and forwards and all manner of sideways,
as it has happened to meet with square or round opposition amongst
the pillars.”
On February 2, 1829, Jonathan Martin, brother of the painter, John
Martin, hid himself behind the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield, in the
north transept during evening service; and after the church had been
closed, set fire to the choir. The stalls, organ, and vault were
destroyed and much of the stone-work was damaged. Restorations were
started in 1832. Another fire occurred in 1840 in the south-west tower,
occasioned by some workmen who were repairing the clock in the
south-west tower. The wooden vault of the nave and the tower and bells
were damaged. In 1871 some of the side walls were rebuilt.
Every one is familiar with the =West Front= of York; but the traveller who
looks upon it for the first time is, nevertheless, overwhelmed.
“The West Front is more architecturally perfect as a composition in
its details than that of any other English Cathedral, and is
unquestionably the best cathedral façade in this country. The lower
part, with the entrances and lower windows, belongs to the Early
Decorated period. Above the windows the work is Late Decorated and
the towers above the roof Perpendicular. Numerous niches cover the
surface. It is doubtful whether they ever contained statues. The
principal entrance is divided by a clustered pier, and above it is
a circle filled with cusped tracery. Over the whole doorway is a
deeply-recessed arch, and over that a gable with niches, one of
which contains the statue of an archbishop, supposed to be John le
Romeyn, who began the nave in 1291, and other niches have figures
of a Percy and a Vavasour, who gave the wood and stone for the
building. The favourite ballflower ornament of the Decorated style
is seen on the gable, and the mouldings in the arches have figures
representing the history of Adam and Eve. Above the entrance is a
large eight-light window, pronounced by many to be too large even
for York Minster, containing very elaborate and beautiful tracery,
and over it is a pointed gable. On each side of the west window are
buttresses covered with panelling and niches. The noble towers
rising on each side of the west front, have buttresses similarly
adorned, and each three windows, and over the second an open
battlement forms a walk along the whole front. The towers have
battlements and pinnacles. The south-west tower (1433-1457) was
injured by fire in 1840; and the north tower (1470-1474) has the
largest bell in the kingdom, Great Peter, which cost £2,000 in 1845
and weighs ten tons.”--(P. H. D.)
The twin-towers rise to a height of two hundred feet and are ornamented
with windows, battlements, and pinnacles.
The =Central Tower= at the crossing of the transepts, built in 1410-1433,
Perpendicular, is also two hundred feet high. It is the largest in
England, and is considered not only one of the triumphs of Fifteenth
Century architects, but one of the finest towers in the world. Much of
it is supposed to be the work of Walter Skirlawe, Bishop of Durham, and
its resemblance to the central tower of Durham Cathedral justifies the
assumption. It has never been finished.