house. The dignitaries are the dean, precentor, sub-dean, chancellor,
succentor, and the four residentiary canons. Collectively they are known
as “The Dean and Chapter of York”. Formerly each canon was provided with
an assistant priest, termed a vicar-choral. The original number of
thirty-six vicars-choral has been reduced to five. There was also a
large number of chantry priests.
The choir entrance is set in the screen, amidst figures of the kings of
England from William I to Henry VI. The western end of the choir is
occupied by canopied stalls, terminated on the north side by the pulpit,
and on the south side by the _cathedra_ of the Archbishop. The high
altar formerly stood a bay westward from the glazed screen, being set
between the choir transept windows, which depict events in the lives of
the two great northern saints, Cuthbert and William. Behind the high
altar was a large painted and gilded reredos, with a door at each side,
opening to the sacristy, where the bones of St. William were preserved
in a portable shrine. The head of the saint was kept in a reliquary of
silver gilt covered with jewels.
The Lady Chapel consists of the four eastern bays. Over the altar is the
great window--the largest one in the world containing its original
glazing. The contract for the glazing is dated 10 December, 1405, and
is made between the Dean and Chapter and John Thornton of Coventry, who
undertook to portray with his own hand the histories, images, and other
things to be painted on it, and to provide glass, lead, and workmen at
the expense of the Chapter and to finish it within three years. Thornton
was to receive for every week wherein he should work in his art four
shillings and each year five pounds, and after the work was completed
ten pounds as a reward. The window depicts scenes from the Creation to
the death of Absalom and from the Revelation of St. John.
The tomb of Archbishop Scrope is on the north side of the altar in the
Lady Chapel. This Archbishop joined the insurrection against Henry IV,
and was beheaded in a field on Bishopthorpe Road. Four of the
vicars-choral conveyed the body to the Minster and buried it in the
chapel of St. Stephen. Scrope was generally regarded as a martyr.
In the vestry is the Horn of Ulphus, formed from an elephant’s tusk, the
mouth of which is encircled by a carved band of oriental design. Shortly
before the Norman Conquest, Ulph, son of Thorold, lord of a great part
of eastern Yorkshire, laid this horn on the altar in token that he
bestowed certain lands on the Minster. There are also an ancient
coronation chair, the mazer bowl of Archbishop Scrope inscribed:
“+Recharde arche beschope Scrope grantis on to alle that drinkis of this
cope XLti dayis to pardune”, a silver pastoral staff bearing the arms of
Catherine of Braganza, taken by the Earl of Danby from James Smith,
Bishop of Callipolis, whilst walking in procession to the Minster to
assume the office of vicar-apostolic of the Northern District, to which
he had been appointed by the Pope. Adjoining the vestry is the chapel of
Archbishop Zouche, which contains a picturesque mediaeval well. Near the
entrance to the crypt are two fine quadrant cope chests covered with
gracefully curved ironwork.
Amongst the monuments in the Minster is an effigy of Prince William of
Hatfield, the second son of Edward III. The others are principally of
archbishops. The tomb of Walter de Gray consists of a bearded effigy on
a slab under a solid canopy supported by shafts. That of William
Greenfield is a table tomb bearing a brass on which he is depicted.
Above is a roofed canopy surmounted by a figure of the archbishop. On a
table tomb is a recumbent effigy of Archbishop Savage under a panelled,
arched canopy. Henry Bowet was buried in a tomb surmounted by a lofty
canopy. That of John Dolben, who bore the Royalist standard at Marston
Moor, is figured in white marble. The effigy reclines on a high base.
Treasurer Haxey’s memorial represents a wasted corpse in a winding
sheet, worked in stone; an iron trellis surrounds it, supporting a black
marble slab on which minster dues used to be paid. In the north transept
is a memorial window to Sir Frank Lockwood, M.P. for York. The
inscription below is by Lord Rosebery. In the south transept is a
beautiful monument to the late Dean Duncombe. The monument to the wife
of Archbishop Matthews records she was first married to a son of Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
“She was a woman of exemplary wisdom, gravity, piety, bounty, and
indeed in other virtues not only above her sex, but the times. One
excellent act of her, first derived upon this church, and through
it flowing upon the country, deserves to live as long as the church
itself. The library of the deceased archbishop, consisting of above
three thousand books, she gave it entirely to the public use of
this church. A rare example that so great care to advance learning
should lodge in a woman’s breast! but it was the less wonder in her
because she was kin to so much learning.”
She was the daughter of a bishop, and one of four sisters all of whom
married bishops.
The Minster Close is bounded on two sides by the city walls. At
Westminster on 18 May, 1285, Edward I granted a
“License for the Dean and Chapter of St. Peter’s, York, to enclose
the churchyard and precinct of their church with a stone wall
twelve feet high all round, for the prevention of nocturnal
incursions of thieves in the streets and lanes in the said
precinct,
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE BANQUETING HALL, KING’S MANOR]
and of night wanderers committing homicides and other evil there:
the said wall to be provided with competent gates and posterns,
which are to be left open from dawn till night.”
These walls and three gateways have been destroyed. On the northern side
of the close stood the Archbishop’s palace, of which a portion of the
fine late Norman arcade exists. The Archbishop’s chapel was built in the
early part of the thirteenth century, and has examples both of the round
and pointed arch. The chapel and its undercroft are now used as the
Minster Library. The prebendal house of Stillington occupied the site of
the present Deanery. Eastward is the Treasurer’s house, which Mr. Frank
Green has restored for use as his residence. The Prince and Princess of
Wales (King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) and Princess Victoria
occupied the Treasurer’s house during their visit to York in 1897.
Southwards stood other prebendal houses and the old Deanery. The house
which the Prior of Hexham held in virtue of his prebend of Salton
afterwards became the home of the chantry priests and was known as St.
William’s College. The buildings surround a courtyard, the lower story
is of stone, and the upper a projecting half-timbered one. When King
Charles fled from London to his beloved city of York, he stayed in Sir
Arthur Ingram’s house, formerly the palace, and the King’s son on his
arrival was created Duke of York as a compliment to the city. On St.
George’s Day, 1642, a meeting of the Knights of the Garter was held in
the chapter house. The royal press was established in St. William’s
College. The college has been restored, and is now used for the meetings
of the Houses of Convocation of the Northern Province.
[Illustration: Plan of York Cathedral
1. South Transept.
2. North Transept.
3. Nave.
4. Chapter House.
5. Abp. Zouche’s Chapel.
6. Lady Chapel.
7. Choir.]
THE ABBEY GROUNDS
The charming abbey grounds contain within their precincts historic
monuments and relics of the greatest interest. An angle-tower, with a
portion of the wall that surrounded Roman York, recalls the struggle of
the Brigantes with the armour-clad legionaries. Tacitus recounts how
Caractacus, the gallant Silurian chief, after his defeat, sought the
protection of Cartismandua, the Queen of the Brigantes, and how basely
she betrayed him. The Romans, after their conquest of York, garrisoned
the city with the Ninth Legion, and subsequently built a walled-in
rectangular fort with angle towers and central gateways. The Emperor
Hadrian sent over the Sixth Legion to replace the Ninth at York, and
afterwards he came over in person to superintend the building of a wall
from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. Ninety years later the Emperor
Septimius Severus, with his sons Caracalla and Geta, came to York on his
way to repel the Caledonians, who had broken through the Wall. The
campaign lasted two years, during which period the Imperial court was
placed at York, where Papinianus the great jurist administered the
Roman law. The Emperor died at York and his remains were cremated on a
hill, thenceforth known as Severus Hill. His ashes were placed in an urn
and conveyed by his sons to Rome. About a century later the Emperor
Constantius Chlorus came over to quell a rising in the north. He died at
York, and his son Constantine was proclaimed his successor. The latter
soon afterwards left York to enter on that famous career which has
earned him the title of the Great.
The wall enclosing the York fort, built by Roman masons, is four and a
half feet thick, consisting of lime-concrete faced on both sides with
narrow courses of small ashlar limestone, and having a band of red tiles
about the middle of its height. The angle-tower is ten-sided and from
the number of its angles is known as the Multangular Tower. The
preservation of the wall and tower is owing to the fact that the
mediaeval architects adopted the same line for their walls. On the
northern side of the tower, however, the mediaeval wall is placed some
five feet beyond the Roman one.
Within the Roman tower and wall are the remains of St. Leonard’s,
formerly St. Peter’s, Hospital. The hospital was founded by King
Athelstan on his return to York from the glorious victory he had
achieved at Brunnanburh. He met in the Minster a number of religious
people called Coli Dei or Culdees, devoted
[Illustration: YORK FROM THE OUSE]
to works of charity. The value of their work being greatly hindered for
want of funds, Athelstan granted to God, St. Peter, and the Culdees, a
piece of crown land on which they might erect a hospital, and for its
endowment he granted a thrave of corn from every plough going in the
province of York. The land given to the hospital is that on which the
Theatre Royal now stands. The hospital belonged to the Minster, and was
rebuilt by the first Norman Archbishop, who induced the Conqueror to
confirm the gift of thraves of corn, and also to add more land. The
cloister or undercroft of the hospital was divided into aisles by short
columns and covered with groined vaulting. King Stephen built a church
for the hospital on that part of their close adjoining the king’s
street. The church was dedicated to St. Leonard, and he also changed the
name of the hospital from St. Peter’s to St. Leonard’s. From this time,
under royal patronage, the hospital became independent of the Minster.
On the banks of the river was a staith appropriated to the hospital.
New buildings arose. All that remains of these are a long vaulted
gateway having on the north cloisters of the same length, now three
aisles but formerly five, two of which are provided with a large
fireplace, which has the back formed of thin tiles arranged
herring-bonewise. Above were the wards of the infirmary, opening at the
east end to the chapel, under which is a vaulted chamber.
The occupants in 1280 numbered nearly 400. In the infirmary were 229 men
and women with 2 washerwomen and 7 servants, in the orphanage 23 boys
with a woman caretaker. There were 8 chaplains, 11 lay brethren, 3
secular chaplains, and a sub-deacon, 17 sisters, 19 choir boys, and a
master of the song school, a schoolmaster, and 67 servants. There was a
large distribution of alms at the gate of this king’s almshouse of St.
Leonard, and a dinner was given every Sunday for each prisoner in the
castle.
The hospital was independent of the Archbishop, and only subject to the
king or his deputies. The great Walter Langton, when master in 1294,
ordered each chaplain a seat and desk in the cloister. In 1344 there
were, amongst others, in the hospital a clerk of the church, a cooper, 3
bakers, 2 brewers, 2 smiths, 3 carters, a miller, a swineherd, 12
boatmen, a ferrywoman, 2 valets, a groom, a cellarer, a clerk of the
exchequer, an auditor, and a seneschal. There was plenty of work for all
in such a large establishment. There were the master, brethren, and
sisters to wait on, the sick and needy to attend to, the destitute to
relieve at the gates, whilst a few in their own homes had a corrody in
the shape of food or money. The inmates were well provided for; the
king’s almsmen received the same fare as the chaplains, namely, a loaf
of white bread and a gallon of ale of the better quality, flesh and fish
for dinner and supper, also a loaf and a gallon of ale of the second
quality. During the year, 565 stones of cheese and 60 stones of butter
were consumed. In the year 1469 there were in the hospital the master,
13 brethren, 4 secular priests, 8 sisters, 30 choristers, 2
schoolmasters, 6 servitors, and 206 beadmen. Seventy years later this
useful hospital was dissolved, Dr. Thomas Magnus, Archdeacon and a
member of the Privy Council being then master. He became parson of
Sessay Church where he died eleven years later. He is commemorated by a
fine brass engraved with his effigy.
A story tells how once a miracle was wrought in St. Leonard’s Hospital.
The hero of the tale, so far from being a saint was very much a sinner.
After a not too reputable secular career, he was persuaded to become a
religious. The change in his life was more apparent than real, for, it
seems, when fair-time came round, he made up his mind to join, as on
many a previous occasion, in the festivities of the season. Taking
advantage of the after-dinner sleepiness of the porter, and seizing the
latter worthy’s keys, Brother Jucundus, for that is the hero’s name,
made his exit, contemptuous of discipline.
Whether it was the unusually severe life he had lately been leading, is
not known, but it appears that by the evening the brother’s ideas were,
as a result of his unwisely frequent potations, in quite a nebulous
state.
Meanwhile, attention having been directed to the absence of Jucundus
from the monastery, two brothers were deputed with orders to discover
his whereabouts and to rescue him. Eventually they conveyed their erring
comrade home in a wheelbarrow.
Such a breach of discipline was a most serious offence; indeed, Jucundus
was sentenced to be walled up alive. This unpleasant process was
actually carried out, and our friend thought that he had looked his last
upon the sun.
Mured up thus unkindly, he was soon sobered, and beginning to kick
against the walls, was surprised that the stones gave way under the
pressure he applied to them. He soon had worked a big enough hole (not,
of course, in the wall which Justice had just built in order to immure
him) to allow his passage.
He now found himself in the adjoining Abbey of St. Mary, and his only
hope of safety lay in his passing as one of the regular inmates of that
establishment. He, too, therefore subjected himself to the Rule of
Silence, and acquiring in a remarkably short space
[Illustration: COLLEGE STREET, ST. WILLIAM’S COLLEGE AND CHAPTER HOUSE]
the esteem of his new brothers, was appointed cellarer.
Alas! after a year, temptation was too much for him. He made an unworthy
use of his office and underwent a second sentence for riotous
misconduct. He was carried by the unsuspecting monks to the place where
he had been before immured and was left to his fate. He was still under
his drunken delusion singing merrily, to be heard by the reverend
brothers of St. Leonard’s. The news of Jucundus’s continued existence
was carried to his superior, who, recognizing his former subject’s
voice, ordered the cell to be opened and knelt in awe before the
revivified but still merry Jucundus.
Within and around St. Leonard’s gateway are collected a number of Roman
stone coffins which have been found in York. One coffin in particular is
of more than usual interest, for it is believed to be connected with a
Christian burial. Evidences of Christianity during the Roman occupation
of York are rare. A record exists that Eborius, Bishop of York, was
present at the Council of Arles in 314. The discovery of this coffin
tends to confirm this statement, by showing that there were Christians
in York amongst its Roman inhabitants. In this Roman stone coffin were
found a glass jug and a disk--which are considered to be the cruet and
paten of the viaticum--and a bone tablet carved with a Latin
inscription “SOROR AVE VIVAS IN DEO”, which is rendered in English,
“Sister, hail, mayest thou live in God”.
After the departure of the Romans, the pagan Anglians drove the
Christians out of the district to the westward, and when the Anglians in
York had themselves embraced Christianity, they suffered the like from
the Danish invaders. Subsequently the Danes embraced Christianity, and
adjoining the abbey grounds is the church founded by the conqueror of
Macbeth, Jarl Siward, to the Norwegian sainted King Olaf. Siward was
Earl of Northumbria and a great warrior. On his deathbed he commanded
his attendants to put on him his armour, and thus fully equipped, he
died.
Soon after the Norman Conquest, the church of St. Olave, with four acres
adjoining, was given by the Earl of Richmond to Stephen of Whitby to
found a Benedictine monastery. The site, however, was church property,
and the Archbishop only relinquished it when William II gave him an
equivalent. King Rufus laid the foundation stone of the abbey church,
which was dedicated to St. Mary. The foundations of the eastern part of
this church have been laid bare and show the apsidal terminations.
The introduction into England of the Cistercian order, with their
stricter rule of conduct, led some of the monks of St. Mary’s to
attempt a raising of the standard of discipline in their own monastery.
The other monks, however, resented their interference. The reformers,
filled with admiration of the accounts they heard of the holy lives led
by the inmates of the Cistercian house of Rievaulx, were now anxious to
found a colony of that order and communicated their desire to the Abbot
of St. Mary’s, who, however, refused to allow them to leave, as it would
bring discredit on his abbey. The reformers included the prior,
sub-prior, sacrist, almoner, and precentor. The prior consulted the
Archbishop, who decided to hold a visitation at the abbey.
Archbishop Thurstan on the day appointed rode to the abbey gatehouse
attended by the Archdeacon of York, the Minster Treasurer (afterwards
St. William), the Prior of Guisborough, and the Master of St. Leonard’s
Hospital. Leaving their horses at the gateway, they walked to the
chapter house and were received by the abbot, who protested against
anyone entering but the Archbishop and his clerks. The Archbishop
remonstrated, but the monks who had filled the chapter house,
considering it was a Cistercian attack on their own order, created an
uproar by hooting and screaming and prevented the Archbishop being
heard; he, however, in a lull shouted, “I place the Abbey under an
interdict.” “Interdict it for a hundred years,” exclaimed one of the
monks, and then arose the cry of “Catch them!” The Archbishop with his
retinue and the thirteen reformers were alarmed and took refuge in the
church, and after a time were permitted to leave the abbey.
The Archbishop befriended the outcasts and subsequently gave them a plot
of ground, near his manor at Ripon, on which they founded the Cistercian
Abbey of Fountains.
Simon of Warwick became Abbot of St. Mary’s in 1259, and placed it in
greater security from the attacks by the citizens, between whom and the
monks were often quarrels, owing to the privileges claimed by the abbey.
The monastery, being just outside the city, was always in danger from
raiding expeditions of the Scots, so in the year 1266 the abbot had
licence from the king to wall in the abbey close.
Abbot Warwick in 1271 laid the foundation stone of a new church to St.
Mary’s Abbey. He began by building at the rear of the Norman church a
new aisled choir of nine bays. The Norman edifice was then taken down
and replaced by a new aisled nave of eight bays, transepts of three bays
with eastern aisles, and lofty tower with spire. The western front has a
central doorway set between arcading; the doorway jambs are delicately
sculptured with the ivy and its trailing stem. The aisle windows are
alternately of two and three lights with geometrical tracery and placed
above an arcade--the work is similar to that in the north aisle of the
choir at Selby Abbey. One of the views depicts the eastern archway with
clerestory of the nave north aisle. The remains of the church show it to
have been a magnificent example of the art of the last quarter of the
thirteenth century. Excavations have revealed the foundations of the
choir and exhibit the full length of the church.
The ruins of the vestibule and entrance to the chapter house are
beautiful examples of the richly ornamented late Norman work.
The walls of the abbey close remain. The principal, and for a long time
the only entrance, was that of Mary Gate. There is a fine arch and on
either side of the gateway is an arcade with stone seats. The vaulted
roof and the courtroom above for the Liberty of St. Mary have
disappeared. The gatehouse adjoins and is now a private dwelling. John
Phillips, the eminent geologist, resided in it for some years. On the
opposite side are the ruins of the Chapel of Our Lady at the Gate; the
edifice was of two stories, with the chapel on the first floor which was
reached by a stone stair.
The Bootham entrance was made in order to shorten the distance from the
abbot’s house to the Minster, and in expectation of a visit of Henry
VII, on his return from Scotland. The Princess Margaret, daughter of
Henry VII, was the guest of the Lord Abbot of St. Mary’s for two days on
her journey to the north to be the bride of James IV of Scotland. The
Princess, accompanied by five hundred lords and ladies, was met at
Tadcaster Bridge by the Sheriffs in crimson gowns, attended by one
hundred persons on horseback, who conducted her royal highness towards
the city. At Micklegate Bar, the Princess was received by the Lord Mayor
and Corporation, who welcomed her to the city. On the following day the
Lord Mayor and Corporation waited upon the Princess, and presented her
with a silver gilt cup containing one hundred angels of gold for which
she heartily thanked them. The next day the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and
Aldermen escorted the Princess as far as Magdalene Hospital in Bootham.
The Lord Mayor made a long oration in taking his leave, to which the
Princess replied, “My Lord Mayor, your brethren, and all the whole city
of York. I shall evermore endeavour to love you and this city all the
days of my life.”
The Bootham entrance to St. Mary’s Abbey consists of an archway with
porter’s lodge now used as a shop. From here the abbey walls continue
behind the houses to the circular tower at the end of Marygate. The
tower contained the records of many of the suppressed northern
monasteries. During the siege of York in the time of the Great Civil
War, one Sunday the Parliamentarians having laid a mine, blew up the
tower and entered the grounds. The Royalists sent out a body of men by
the Watergate and up Marygate to the ruined tower. Those inside were
thus caught and were compelled to surrender. The tower was afterwards
rebuilt, but on a smaller scale. From the tower the abbey walls stretch
to the gatehouse and from there continue to the river, where they
terminate in a circular tower, which is seen in the view taken across
the river from near the railway bridge.
The river front had its water gate and walls. The water gate led to the
“hospitium”, a two-storied building, the lower part of stone and the
upper of timber and plaster. The hospitium adjoined the gateway, on the
other side was the gatehouse, of which little remains.