[Illustration: HEREFORD FROM THE WYE.]
HEREFORD FROM THE WYE.
_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._
The Cathedral Church Of Hereford
A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See
By A. Hugh Fisher
London
George Bell and Sons
1898
GENERAL PREFACE.
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the great
English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide-books at a
popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work compiled
with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the student of
Archaeology and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use
of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case
would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general
sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful
are:--(1) the great county histories, the value of which, especially in
questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2) the
numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the
Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archaeological Societies; (3) the
important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master of
the Rolls; (4) the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the English
Cathedrals; and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to the
Cathedrals, originated by the late Mr. John Murray; to which the reader
may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in reference
to the histories of the respective sees.
GLEESON WHITE.
EDWARD F. STRANGE.
_Editors of the Series_.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
In addition to the well-known books mentioned in the General Preface, the
"Monastic Chronicles" and many other works named in the text, some dealing
especially with Hereford have been of valuable assistance to me in
preparing this little book. Amongst these are the various careful studies
of the Rev. Francis Havergal, Dean Merewether's exhaustive "Statement of
the Condition and Circumstances of the Cathedral Church of Hereford in the
Year 1841," and "The Diocese of Hereford," by the Rev. H.W. Phillott.
My best thanks are also due to the Photochrom Company for their excellent
photographs.
A. HUGH FISHER.
CONTENTS
GENERAL PREFACE.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. - THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.
CHAPTER II. - THE CATHEDRAL - EXTERIOR.
CHAPTER III. - THE INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
CHAPTER IV. - HISTORY OF THE SEE.
ILLUSTRATIONS
HEREFORD FROM THE WYE.
HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
THE AUDLEY CHAPEL.
THE WEST FRONT (FROM AN OLD PRINT).
THE NAVE AFTER THE FALL OF THE WEST END.
THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
BISHOP BOOTH'S PORCH AND NORTH TRANSEPT.
GENERAL VIEW, FROM THE WEST.
EXTERIOR OF THE LADY CHAPEL. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
THE CLOISTERS, WITH THE LADIES' ARBOUR.
THE NORTH PORCH.
THE NAVE.
THE CHOIR SCREEN.
SECTION THROUGH TOWER AND TRANSEPTS.
NORTH ARCH OF CENTRAL TOWER, SHOWING MASONRY ERECTED ABOUT 1320.
THE NORTH TRANSEPT.
THE CANTILUPE SHRINE.
EAST WALL OF THE SOUTH TRANSEPT.
THE LADY CHAPEL.
SECTION THROUGH LADY CHAPEL AND CRYPT.
ARCH DISCOVERED AT ENTRANCE OF LADY CHAPEL.
SEAL OF JOHANNA DE BOHUN.
THE CRYPT.
VIEW BEHIND THE ALTAR, LOOKING NORTH. AFTER A DRAWING BY W. H. BARTLETT,
1830.
COMPARTMENT OF CHOIR, EXTERIOR, NORTH SIDE.
COMPARTMENT OF CHOIR, INTERIOR, NORTH SIDE.
EAST END OF THE CHOIR IN 1841.
EARLY ENGLISH WINDOW MOULDING.
THE REREDOS.
ANCIENT RELIQUARY IN THE CATHEDRAL.
MONUMENTAL CROCKET.
EARLY ENGLISH BASEMENT MOULDING.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
TOMB OF BISHOP THOS. CHARLETON.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.
PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.
[Illustration: HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.]
HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._
HEREFORD CATHEDRAL
CHAPTER I. - THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.
The early history of Hereford, like that of the majority of cathedral
churches, is veiled in the obscurity of doubtful speculation and shadowy
tradition. Although the see had existed from the sixth century, it is not
till much later that we have any information concerning the cathedral
itself.
From 755 to 794 there reigned in Mercia one of the most powerful and
important rulers of those times,--King Offa. He was a contemporary of
Charles the Great, and more than once these two sovereigns exchanged gifts
and letters. Under Offa Mercia became the first power in Britain, and in
addition to much fighting with the West Saxons and the Kentish men he
wrested a large piece of the country lying west of the Severn from the
Welsh, took the chief town of the district which was afterwards called
Shrewsbury, and like another Severus made a great dyke from the mouth of
the Wye to that of the Dee which became henceforth the boundary between
Wales and England, a position it has held with few changes to the present
day. In church history Offa is of no less importance than in secular, for
as the most powerful King in England he seems to have determined that
ecclesiastical affairs in this country should be more under his control,
or at least supervision, than they could possibly be with the Mercian
church subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 786, therefore, he
persuaded the Pope to create the Archbishopric of Lichfield. Although
Canterbury regained its supremacy upon Offa's death when Lichfield was
shorn by a new Pope of its recently acquired honours, the position gained
for the latter see by Offa, though temporary in itself, must have had
lasting and important influence. Offa is generally held responsible for
the murder, about 793, of AEthelberht, King of the East Angles, who had
been promised his daughter, AEthelthryth, in marriage.
Had AEthelberht been gifted with a knowledge of future events (which would
not have been a more wonderful attribute than many of the virtues which
were ascribed afterwards to his dead body), he could hardly have desired a
more glorious fate. His murder gained for him martyrdom with its immortal
glory, and he could scarce have met his death under happier auspices.
Visiting a king's residence to fetch his bride he died by the order of a
man whose memory is sullied by no other stain, a man renowned in war, a
maker of laws for the good of his people, and eminent in an ignorant age
as one who encouraged learning.
Legend and tradition have so obscured this event that beyond the bare fact
of the murder nothing can be positively asserted, and the brief statement
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "792. This year Offa, King of the Mercians,
commanded the head of King AEthelberht to be struck off," contains all that
we may be certain of.
One writer speaks of a hired assassin, and others lay the crime at the
door of Cynethryth, Offa's Queen, who is said to have insinuated that the
marriage was only sought as a pretext to occupy the Mercian throne.
Finding her lord's courage not equal to the occasion, she herself arranged
the end of AEthelberht. There is talk of a pit dug in his sleeping-chamber
and a chair arranged thereover, which, with an appearance of luxurious
comfort, lured him to his fate. The body was, according to one writer,
privately buried on the bank of the river "Lugg," near Hereford.
"On the night of his burial," says the Monkish Annalist, "a column of
light, brighter than the sun, arose towards heaven"; and three nights
afterwards the figure (or ghost) of King AEthelberht appeared to Brithfrid,
a nobleman, and commanded him to convey the body to a place called
"Stratus Waye," and to inter it near the monastery there. Guided by
another column of light, Brithfrid, having placed the body and the head on
a carriage, proceeded on his journey. The head fell from the vehicle, but
having been discovered by a "blind man," to whom it miraculously
communicated sight, was restored by him to the careless driver. Arrived at
his place of destination, then called "Fernlega" or "Saltus Silicis," and
which has since been termed Hereford, he there interred the body. Whatever
the motive for the crime, there is ample evidence of Offa's subsequent
remorse. In atonement he built monasteries and churches, and is even said
by some to have gone on a pilgrimage to Rome, though this rests on slight
evidence.
The miracles worked at the tomb of the murdered King were, according to
Asser, so numerous and incredible that Offa, who had appropriated
AEthelberht's kingdom, was induced to send two bishops to Hereford to
ascertain the truth of them, and it is generally agreed that about A.D.
825 Milfrid, who was Viceroy to the Mercian King Egbert after the death of
Offa and of his son Egfrid, expended a large sum of money in building
"_Ecclesiam egregiam, lapidea structura_" at Hereford, which he
consecrated to the martyred monarch, and endowed with lands and enriched
with ornaments.
Although one of the old chroniclers calls it a church of stone, it is
quite uncertain what were the materials, size, or architectural character
of this edifice. It seems, however, that by 1012, when Bishop Athelstan
was promoted to the see, it had fallen into sheer ruin, or, at any rate,
sufficient decay to necessitate his beginning a new building. Of this no
clearer account has been handed down to us than of Milfrid's church. Soon
after it was finished Algar or Elfgar, Earl of Chester, son of the Earl of
Mercia, was charged with treason at a Witan in London, and (though his
guilt is still disputed) was outlawed by Edward the Confessor. He hired a
fleet of Danish pirate ships from the Irish coast, joined King Gruffydd in
Wales, and marched with him into Herefordshire, determining to make war
upon King Edward. Here they began with a victory about two miles from
Hereford over the Earl of that shire who was a Frenchman, and tried to
make his men fight on horseback in the French fashion, which they did not
understand,--the English way being for the great men to ride to the field
of battle, but there to dismount and fight with their heavy axes on foot.
Earl Ralph, the Frenchman, turned his horse's head and fled the field, and
the English, encumbered with their long spears and swords, followed helter
skelter. After killing some five hundred, AElfgar and Gruffydd turned to
Hereford and came upon the church which Bishop Athelstan had caused to be
built. There they met with a spirited resistance: amongst other victims
seven of the canons were killed in an attempt to hold the great door of
the minster; but, ultimately, the church and town were burned.
Earl Harold, son of Earl Godwin, himself, when it was too late, came with
half of his army to Hereford, and with his usual predilection for peace
(notwithstanding his valour) soon after removed the outlawry from AElfgar,
and quiet was restored.
In 1056, the year following this disaster, the worthy Bishop Athelstan
died at Bosbury. He had been blind for thirteen years before his death,
and a Welsh bishop had acted for him. His body was interred in the church
which he had "built from the foundations," and we may therefore suppose
that the "minster" was not entirely destroyed.
In 1057, on the death of Earl Ralph, the Frenchman, so important was
Herefordshire, through its position on the Welsh borders, and, since it
had been strengthened by Harold, such an important military post was the
town of Hereford, that it became part of his earldom.
From 1055 to 1079 the minster is said to have been in ruins. At the latter
date Bishop Lozing (Robert de Losinga) began to rebuild the cathedral, and
there are vague accounts that it was in the form of a round church in
imitation of a basilica of Charlemagne which had been built at
Aix-la-Chapelle between 774 and 795. If such a form ever existed it must
have been completely destroyed, as the work of the Norman period that
remains is clearly English both in treatment and in detail. If this could
be proved to be Lozing's work, then it had no similarity to the Roman
style. The building begun by him was carried on by Bishop Raynelm, who
held the see from 1107 to 1115, and placed on a more regular basis the
establishment of canons living under a rule. These prebendaries or canons
did not live in common like the monks, but in separate houses near the
church. Whether he completed the building or not, Bishop Raynelm
undoubtedly made many additions and alterations.
We may here quote an interesting account of the duties of the cathedral
treasurer, which were probably settled about this time. They throw a
curious and suggestive light on the ceremonies of the period. "At
Hereford," says Walcott, "he found all the lights; three burning day and
night before the high altar; two burning there at matins daily, and at
mass, and the chief hours on festivals; three burning perpetually, viz.,
in the chapter-house, the second before S. Mary's altar, and the third
before the cross in the rood-loft; four before the high altar, and altar
on "_Minus Duplicia_," and five tapers in basons, on principles, and
doubles, at mass, prime, and second vespers, four tapers before the high
altar, five in the basons, thirteen on the beam, and seven in the
candelabra; the paschal and portable tapers for processions. He kept the
keys of the treasury, copes, palls, vestments, ornaments, and the plate,
of which he rendered a yearly account to the dean and chapter. He found
three clerks to ring the bells, light the candles, and suspend the palls
and curtains on solemn days. He found hay at Christmas to strew the choir
and chapter-house, which at Easter was sprinkled with ivy leaves; and on
All Saints' day he provided mats."(1)
The next great changes were made under Bishop William de Vere (1186-1199).
His work was of transitional character, and bears much resemblance to the
beautiful transitional work at Glastonbury. He removed the three Norman
apsidal terminations at the east end, doubled the presbytery aisles, thus
making two side chapels in each transept which have since been replaced by
the Lady Chapel with its vestibule.
In a paper read before the Archaeological Institute in 1877, Sir G. G.
Scott suggests that the central apse projected one bay beyond the sides;
but this is merely conjecture. A curious feature in De Vere's work was his
putting columns in the middle of the central arch. It is probable that the
part of the presbytery we now have was but the beginning of a larger
scheme never carried out, which included building the presbytery and
dividing the eastern wall into two arches instead of one as at Lichfield
and Exeter.
According to Sir Gilbert Scott's theory, the Early English Lady Chapel was
an extension of the work of Bishop de Vere: it is especially interesting,
and an unique example of its date in being raised upon a crypt.
At the Bishop's palace was a splendid hall of which it seems likely De
Vere was the builder,--at any rate he must have been the first or second
occupier. It was of noble dimensions, being 110 feet in length, consisting
of a nave 23 feet broad, with aisles 16 feet wide, independently of the
columns. This was divided into five bays by pillars supporting timber
arches formed of two pieces of curved oak. Nearly the whole of the present
Bishop's palace is included within the space occupied by this grand hall.
In 1188 when Archbishop Baldwin made pilgrimage into Wales on behalf of
the crusade, he was entertained in this hall by Bishop de Vere, and
doubtless some of those who devoted themselves to the work were Hereford
men.
The central tower of the cathedral, that fine example of decorated work,
covered with its profusion of ball-flower ornament, was built by, or at
any rate during the episcopate of, Giles de Braose (1200-1215), an ardent
opponent of King John.
The remaining examples of decorated date are the inner north porch (as
distinct from the addition of Bishop Booth) and what remains of the
beautifully designed chapter-house, a decagon in plan, each side except
the one occupied by the entrance being subdivided into five seats.
During the term of office of Bishop Foliot (1219-1234), a tooth of St.
AEthelberht, whose remains had been almost entirely destroyed by AElfgar and
Gruffuth in 1055, was given to the cathedral. The donor of this precious
relic was Philip de Fauconberg, Canon of Hereford and Archdeacon of
Huntingdon.
The next Bishop, Ralph de Maydenstan, 1234-1239, presented some
service-books to the cathedral.
In 1240 Henry III., with his wonted preference for foreigners, appointed
to the Hereford bishopric, Peter of Savoy, generally known as Bishop
Aquablanca, from Aqua Bella, his birthplace, near Chambery. He it was who
rebuilt the north transept. He was one of the best hated men in England,
and not content with showering benefices upon his relations, he
perpetrated one of the greatest frauds in history in order to raise money
to aid the annexation schemes of Popes Innocent IV. and Alexander IV. Of
these, however, full particulars will be found in a chapter on the
Diocese.
While he was absent in Ireland collecting tithes, attended by a guard of
soldiers, Prince Edward, coming to Hereford to resist the encroachments of
Llewellyn, King of Wales, found there neither bishop, dean, nor canons
resident. For this they earned the severe reprimand of the King, and the
Bishop returned to Hereford. Shortly after, he was seized within the
cathedral precincts by the insurgent barons of Leicester's party, together
with all the foreign canons (who were his own relations). They were
carried to Eardisley Castle, where the spoil they had just brought from
Ireland was divided among the insurgents.
Bishop Aquablanca died soon after these events, in 1268. He was endowed
with a character full of contradictions, extreme aggressiveness, mingled
with remarkable tact.
When he got the better of the Hereford citizens, after their attempt to
encroach upon his episcopal rights, he remitted one full half of their
fine and devoted the other to the cathedral building. While he was showing
in his life a disgraceful example to the clergy of the country, at the
same time he gave liberally to the cathedral foundation in books,
ornaments, money, and land, left a rich legacy to the poor, and a lasting
monument in the rebuilding of the north transept of the cathedral itself.
With the exception of the arches, leading into the aisles of the nave and
choir, the Norman work of the transept was altogether demolished, and
replaced by another consisting of two bays with an eastern aisle. Over the
latter was built a story now used as the cathedral library, which is
approached from the north aisle of the presbytery by a staircase turret.
His tomb is one of the finest in the cathedral. Under it, together with
those of his nephew, a Dean of Hereford, are his own remains, except the
heart, which, as he had wished, was carried to his own country of Savoy.
In 1275 the Chapter of Hereford elected to the bishopric Thomas de
Cantilupe, one of the greatest men who has ever held that office, a man
whose life was in almost every way a remarkable contrast to that of his
predecessor, Bishop Aquablanca. It is said that the Bishop of Worcester,
his great-uncle, asked him as a child as to his choice of a profession,
and that he answered he would like to be a soldier. "Then, sweetheart,"
his uncle is said to have exclaimed, "thou shalt be a soldier to serve the
King of Kings, and fight under the banner of the glorious martyr, St.
Thomas." Regular attendance at mass was his custom from earliest years.
Both at Oxford and Paris he distinguished himself, gaining his degree of
M.A. at the Sorbonne, and on his return accepted, at the request of the
university of Oxford and with the consent of the King, the office of
chancellor. In this capacity he showed singular courage and determination
in repressing a brawl between the southern scholars and those of the
north, in which we are told he escaped with a whole skin, but not with a
whole coat.
He was chosen to fill the post of Chancellor of England under Simon de
Montfort, at whose death, however, he was deprived of the office. It was
some years after this that he became Bishop of Hereford, and was
consecrated at Canterbury, September 8th, 1275. No Welsh bishop attended
the consecration.
After he became a bishop he still wore his hair-shirt and showed ever
intense devotion in his celebration of divine service. He was remarkable
in the steadfastness and ability he displayed in maintaining the rights of
the see. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, claiming a certain "chace"
near Malvern Forest, whence came the Bishop's supply of game, found a
relentless opponent in Bishop Cantilupe. The Bishop was prepared with the
customary "pugil" or champion (who received 6s. 8d. per annum), though his
services were not required. The Earl was excommunicated, and appealing to
the law in a trial Bishop Cantilupe eloquently maintained his right to
capture "buck, doe, fawn, wild cat, hare, and all birds pertaining
thereto," and as a result of the verdict being in his favour, caused a
long trench to be dug on the crest of the Malvern Hills as a boundary
line, which is still traceable.
Llewellyn, King of Wales, was made to restore three manors of which he had
obtained unlawful possession; and Lord Clifford, for cattle-lifting and
maltreating the Bishop's tenants, was compelled to walk barefoot to the
high altar in the cathedral, while the Bishop personally chastised him
with a rod.
Many cases did he fight out successfully, but his greatest struggle was on
a question of testamentary jurisdiction with Peckham, Archbishop of
Canterbury, by whom he was ultimately excommunicated and obliged to leave
the country, attended by Swinfield, his faithful chaplain.
He obtained a decree in his favour from Pope Martin IV., but died on the
homeward journey on August 25th, 1282. He was buried in the church of St.
Severus, near Florence; but his bones having been divided from the flesh
by boiling, were later carried to England and solemnly placed in the Lady
Chapel of the cathedral. It is said that the Earl of Gloucester, with whom
Bishop Cantilupe had had the dispute about the chace, attended the
ceremony, and that blood began to flow from the bones when he approached
the casket containing them; upon which the Earl immediately restored the
property he had taken unjustly from the church.
Forty years later Bishop Cantilupe was canonised. It is said, amongst
other evidences of his saintliness, that he never allowed his sister to
kiss him. Three hundred sick people are said to have been cured at the
place of his interment, and so many candles were presented by the crowds
of visitors that Luke de Bray, the treasurer of the cathedral, had a
dispute with the prebendaries as to the value of the wax, two-thirds being
finally assigned to the treasurer and one-third to the prebendaries.
After five years Bishop Cantilupe's bones were removed to the Chapel of
St. Katherine, in the north-west transept, on Maundy Thursday, April 6th,
1287, in presence of King Edward I. They were again twice moved in the
sixteenth century to the Lady Chapel and back again to the north-west
transept.
The building of the chapter-house may have spread over some part of
Cantilupe's episcopate, and probably part of the cloisters were erected
about this time.
The miracles said to have been wrought at the shrine of St. Cantilupe are
both many and various. More than sixty-six dead people are said to have
been restored to life. The saint's intervention appears to have been
extended even to animals, as we find that King Edward I. twice sent sick
falcons to be cured at this tomb. So great was the reverence for the saint
that the See of Hereford was allowed by the Crown to change its armorial
bearings for the arms of Cantilupe, which all its bishops have since
borne.
Bishop Cantilupe was succeeded by his devoted chaplain, Richard Swinfield,
an excellent preacher and a man of agreeable manners. Bishop Swinfield,
like his predecessor, stoutly vindicated the rights and discipline of his
diocese, once against a layman for taking forcible possession of a vacant
benefice, another time against a lady for imprisoning a young clergyman in
her castle on a false charge, and also against the people of Ludlow for
violating the right of sanctuary, and in many cases against abuses of all
sorts. On one occasion Pontius de Cors, a nephew of Bishop Aquablanca, who
had obtained from the Pope the provision of the prebend of Hinton,
interrupted the installation of Robert de Shelving appointed by Bishop
Swinfield, gained admission to the cathedral with an accomplice, and was
formally installed by him in spite of the remonstrance of the Chapter. He
held his place by force of arms during that day and the next, but later
submitted to the Bishop.
Bishop Swinfield was probably the builder of the nave-aisles and of the
two easternmost transepts. This amounted to a remodelling of the work of
De Vere. The bases of his piers and responds were retained and may still
be seen, and upon the former octagonal columns were erected to carry the
vaulting. The windows were altered throughout. It was in his time that the
"_Mappa Mundi_," the curious map of the world designed by Richard of
Haldingham of Battle in Sussex, a prebendary of Hereford in 1305, now
preserved in the cathedral, came into possession of the Chapter.
Richard Haldingham was a great friend of Bishop Swinfield, and when it was
necessary for him to send representatives to a provincial Council in
London, A.D. 1313, Haldingham was deputed to attend with Adam of Orleton,
a place belonging to the Mortimers of Wigmore in the north-east of
Herefordshire.
Three years later (1316), on the death of Bishop Swinfield at his chief
residence, Bosbury, Adam of Orleton succeeded him in the bishopric.
King Edward II. was not jubilant over the appointment of a friend of Roger
Mortimer to this important position, and, failing to persuade Adam to
decline the bishopric, he appealed to the Pope, begging him to cancel the
appointment, but with no more success. The fortunes of the Bishop of
Hereford became identified with the Queen, whom he joined on her return
from France with her eldest son. It was at Hereford that this youth, then
fourteen years of age, was appointed guardian of the kingdom under the
direction of his mother.
The King, who had sought refuge in Wales, was captured at Neath Abbey, and
the great seal taken from him by Bishop Adam Orleton, while the
Chancellor, Hugh Despenser, was conveyed to Hereford, where he was crowned
with nettles and dressed in a shirt upon which was written passages from
Psalm lii. beginning, "Why boastest thou thyself, thou tyrant: that thou
canst do mischief." Amid the howlings of a great multitude who mocked his
name by shrieking "Hue!" he was finally hanged on a gallows 50 feet high
and then quartered. Among the prisoners were two wearing holy orders, and
these the Bishop of Hereford claimed as his perquisite.
[Illustration: A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.]
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
Bishop Adam, wary, unscrupulous, but at the same time vigorous and of
unusual ability, played a great part in politics to the end of the
wretched King's life. Some historians still believe that he recommended
the murder; he certainly supported the deposition in Parliament, and went
to Kenilworth as one of the commissioners to force the King's resignation.
If thus interested in secular politics, he was no less watchful and
vigilant in the affairs of his bishopric and the cathedral.
The great central tower, destined centuries later to be a source of such
anxiety and a problem of such difficulty to the restorer, was even at this
early date showing signs of dilapidation, and Bishop Orleton obtained from
Pope John XXII. a grant of the great tithes of Shenyngfeld (Swinfield) and
Swalefeld (Swallowfield) in Berkshire, in answer to the following
petition:--"That they, being desirous of rebuilding a portion of the fabric
of the Church of Hereford, had caused much super-structure of sumptuous
work to be built, to the adornment of the House of God, upon an ancient
foundation; which in the judgment of masons or architects, who were
considered skilful in their art, was thought to be firm and sound, at the
cost of 20,000 marcs sterling and more, and that on account of the
weakness of the aforesaid foundation, the building, which was placed upon
it now, threatened such ruin, that by a similar judgment no other remedy
could be applied short of an entire renovation of the fabric from the
foundation,--which, on account of the expenses incurred in prosecution of
the canonisation of Thomas de Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, of blessed
memory, they were unable to undertake." The "sumptuous work" alluded to
was evidently the central tower and the north transept; which latter had
been built, as mentioned before, for the remains and shrine of Bishop
Cantilupe.
When Mr. R. Biddulph Phillips, some sixty years ago, was examining the
confused and unsorted mass of charters and grants in the possession of the
cathedral, he found a parchment (which bore the two beautiful episcopal
seals of Bishop Roger le Poer of Sarum and Bishop Adam de Orleton of
Hereford) that acknowledged and confirmed this grant of tithes to the
sustentation of the fabric of the cathedral, which still forms the
backbone of the fabric fund. In 1328 Bishop Orleton was translated to
Worcester.
During the ensuing war with France, the church walls echoed with prayers
for the King's success, and, while the war-cloud still darkened the
political sky, orisons louder and more heartfelt filled the cathedral. It
is said that when the "Black Death" reached Hereford in 1349, to retard
its progress in the city the shrine of St. Thomas de Cantilupe was carried
in procession.
About this time, and possibly not unconnected with the calamity of this
terrible plague, Bishop Trilleck issued a mandate prohibiting the
performance of "theatrical plays and interludes" in churches as "contrary
to the practice of religion." The exact character of these performances is
doubtful, and the prohibition may have referred to some kind of secular
mumming. The mystery play survived long after Bishop Trilleck's time in an
annual pageant exhibited in the cathedral on Corpus Christi Day, to assist
in which some of the city guilds were obliged by the rules of their
incorporation.
The quarrels between the townspeople and the Bishop about his rights of
jurisdiction continued with more or less frequency. It must certainly have
been irritating to good Bishop Trilleck "_gratus, prudens, pius_" as the
mutilated inscription on his effigy describes him, when one William Corbet
forced his way into the palace, carried away the porter bodily, shut him
in the city gaol, and took away the keys of the palace.
On the second visitation of the "Black Death," 1361-2, it is said that the
city market was removed from Hereford to a place about a mile on the west
of the town, still marked by a cross called the "White Cross" bearing the
arms of Bishop Charleton.
If Bishop Orleton was deeply concerned in the deposition of King Edward
II., a later Bishop of Hereford, Thomas Trevenant, who was appointed in
1389 by papal provision, was no less active in the deposition of King
Richard II., and was sent to the Pope with the Archbishop of York by Henry
IV. to explain his title to the Crown and announce his accession.
In 1396, during the episcopate of Bishop Gilbert, the priest vicars of the
cathedral were formed into a college by Royal Charter, and the first
warden or "_custos_" was appointed by the King to show that the right of
appointment was vested in the Crown. The college was to have a common
seal, and to exercise the right of acquiring and holding property, but to
be subject to the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral. Its members were the
priests of the chantry chapels in the cathedral, at this time apparently
twenty-seven in number.
In 1475 the college was moved from Castle Street to its present site, so
that the vicars should be able more comfortably to attend the night
services. An order was also made about this time concerning the
celebration of mass at the altar of St. John Baptist in the cathedral, an
arrangement which shows that then as now the parish of St. John had no
church of its own outside the cathedral walls.
About 1418, the cloister connecting the Bishop's palace with the cathedral
was begun by Bishop Lacy, who took great interest in the cathedral
although he never visited his diocese. It was upon this work of the
cloisters that 2800 marks were expended by Bishop Spofford, 1421-1448, in
whose time the great west window was erected by William Lochard, the
precentor. The richly panelled and vaulted chapel of Bishop Stanbury,
approached from the north aisle of the presbytery, was added between 1453
and 1474.
In 1492 Edmund Audley, the Bishop of Rochester, was translated to
Hereford, and during his episcopate founded the two-storied chantry chapel
south of the Lady Chapel and near the shrine of St. Thomas of Cantilupe.
The upper story was probably intended as a private oratory for the Bishop
himself. Bishop Audley also presented to the cathedral a silver shrine.
[Illustration: THE AUDLEY CHAPEL.]
THE AUDLEY CHAPEL.
The next important alteration was the lengthening of the great north porch
which bears the date 1519 and the shields of Bishop Booth and his
predecessor, Bishop Mayo. It is a very fine piece of Perpendicular work,
somewhat similar in design to the porch in the middle of the west front of
Peterborough Cathedral. At his death Bishop Booth left various books to
the cathedral library and some tapestry for the high altar, together with
silver and gold ornaments for the Cantilupe Shrine. The tapestry displayed
the story of David and Nabal. He also bequeathed, amongst other things to
his successor, the gold ring with which he was consecrated, but
notwithstanding his forethought in specifying that these articles were not
to be taken away with such successor in case of his translation, they have
disappeared. Little could Bishop Booth have imagined, in the enthusiasm of
his building operations, the changes to follow so closely upon his death.
Yet the papal supremacy had been abolished in this country in 1534, and
though the church services remained unaltered, the amended Primer had been
published. On September 26th, 1535, was consecrated at Winchester, to the
See of Hereford, one of the most "excellent instruments" of the
Reformation, Edward Foxe, and in the following year the suppression of the
monasteries began in serious earnest. Still the chantry chapels were to be
spared for some time. Of these chantries and chapels there were then no
less than twenty-one in the cathedral.
In 1553, commissioners were appointed to visit the churches, chapels,
guilds, and fraternities all over the kingdom and take inventories of
their treasures, leaving to each parish church or chapel "one or two
chalices according to the multitude of people." In Hereford Cathedral,
amongst other valuable ornaments, was a chalice of gold weighing 22 lbs.
9-1/2 oz., two basins weighing 102 oz., and an enamelled pastoral staff in
five pieces of silver gilt weighing 11 lbs. 7 oz. 3 dwts. troy. It is not
possible to learn the value of the goods appropriated in the cathedral
alone, but the jewels and plate of the whole country were estimated at
4860-1/4 ounces, in value about L1213, 1s. 3d.
On August 22nd or 25th, 1642, the Royal Standard was set up at Nottingham,
and the clouds of the Great Rebellion burst over the country. Bishop Coke
of Hereford had been one of the twelve churchmen most active against the
Bill for excluding the bishops from Parliament, passed in the Commons in
May 1641, and was one of the ten bishops committed to the Tower by the
joint sentence of the Lords and Commons on charge of treason.
The "popishly inclined" county of Hereford was at one with its Bishop, but
so unprepared for war that Lord Stamford, with two troops of cavalry and a
single infantry regiment, entered Hereford under the orders of the Earl of
Essex and quartered himself in the Bishop's palace. Here he remained till
December 14th without, however, any serious plundering in the town itself.
In April 1643, Waller took the city for the second time, and again without
much resistance, a condition of the surrender being the immunity of the
Bishop and cathedral clergy from personal violence and plunder. On his
leaving Hereford the place was retaken by the Royalists, and became an
asylum for fugitive Roman Catholics. So it went on, being held first by
one side and then by the other. In the autumn of 1645 Hereford was
besieged by Lord Leven with the Scottish army, who were driven off by
Colonel Barnabas Scudamore with heavy loss.
The cathedral at this time suffered considerable injury during the siege.
The defenders used the lead from the chapter-house roof to cover the keep
of the castle, and possibly also to make bullets. Finally, on December
18th, through the treachery of Colonel Birch, the governor of the city,
Hereford was once more taken, and this time the whole place was overrun by
a rabble of plundering soldiery.
No doubt much damage had been done in the cathedral during the
Reformation, but despite the protests of an antiquarian captain, one Silas
Taylor, far greater mischief was perpetrated in this military loot. "The
storied windows richly dight" were smashed to bits, monumental brasses
torn up, the library plundered of most valuable MSS., and rich ornaments
stolen.
Some while after the Restoration, an appeal was made by the cathedral
clergy to the nobility, baronets, knights, esquires, and gentry of the
county for help towards restoring the cathedral, though it is not known
with what welcome the appeal was received.
Towards the beginning of the eighteenth century much harm was done to the
cathedral by the zeal of Bishop Bisse, one of those irritating people who
mean well but act abominably. He spent much, both on the palace and the
cathedral, employing in the alterations of the former the stones of the
chapter-house, which had been doubtless much injured but not irreparably
so. In the cathedral itself he erected a mass of masonry intended to
support the central tower, which was, however, nothing but a hideous
architectural blunder. In itself it was ugly to behold, and actually
weakened by lateral pressure that which it was intended to support. He
also presented an elaborate altar-piece and Grecian oak screen with scenic
decoration above, boards painted to represent curtains, and wooden
imitations of tassels which hung immediately over the heads of the
ministering priests as they stood at the altar. These were found later on
to be hung on rusty nails by twine "little better than pack thread."
[Illustration: THE WEST FRONT (FROM AN OLD PRINT).]
THE WEST FRONT (FROM AN OLD PRINT).
During the episcopate of the Hon. Henry Egerton, 1723-1746, an ancient
building of early Norman date used as a chapel for the palace was pulled
down. It consisted of an upper and a lower portion, the lower a chapel
dedicated to St. Katherine and the upper one to St. Mary Magdalene. Part
of one wall still remains. It was during the next episcopate, on Easter
Monday 1786, that a terrible calamity occurred,--the fall of the great
western tower. Directly and indirectly this was the worst accident that
has happened to Hereford Cathedral. The west front was utterly destroyed,
and a great part of the nave seriously injured, while the injudicious
restoration begun in 1788 by the Dean and Chapter, with James Wyatt for
architect, did nearly as much to ruin the cathedral as the fall of the
tower.
[Illustration: THE NAVE AFTER THE FALL OF THE WEST END.]
THE NAVE AFTER THE FALL OF THE WEST END.
_From a drawing by T. Hearne_, 1806.
Already, at Salisbury, Wyatt had been busy with irreparable deeds of
vandalism, but at Hereford he surpassed his previous efforts in this
direction. He altered the whole proportion of the building, shortening the
nave by a bay of 15 feet, erected a new west front on a "neat Gothic
pattern," and availed himself of the chance of removing all the Norman
work in the nave, above the nave arcade substituting a design of his own.
One of the strangest items in his scheme was a plaster hod moulding round
each of the arches above the arcade. These eccentricities were removed not
long since, but the roughened lines for adhesion of the plaster still
remain. Inside the west front may also still be seen large spaces of wall
painted to represent blocks of stone, but no more so in reality than the
wall of any stucco residence.
It should not be forgotten, while condemning the meaningless insipidity of
Wyatt's work, that it was enthusiastically approved in his own day, and
that the public generally were as much to blame as himself.
The old spire was taken down from the central tower, and in order to give
it apparent height the roofs of both nave and choir were lowered in pitch,
its parapet was raised, and some pinnacles were added.
At the same time the churchyard was levelled and new burying-grounds
provided for the city elsewhere.
In 1837, Dr. Thomas Musgrave was promoted to the See of Hereford. He was a
man of sound judgment and of much practical ability, and it was during his
episcopacy that a serious competent and thorough repair of the cathedral
was at last undertaken at a cost of L27,000, to which no one devoted more
loving care or more untiring energy than Dean Merewether.
"Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house
lie waste?" he quotes in the beginning of his exhaustive "Statement of the
condition and circumstances of the Cathedral Church of Hereford in the
year 1841." In this statement he shows the lamentable state of decay in
the eastern end of the Lady Chapel, the bulging of its walls and the
dangerous fissures, which, on the removal of whitewash and plaster, became
visible in the soffit of each of the window arches.
In early times the walls were very much thicker, composed of hewn stone,
making a kind of casing at each side, called ashlar, the interval being
filled with rubble masonry cemented with lime and loam. This stuffing
having deteriorated the weight above had split the outer wall, though most
fortunately the interior face was perfectly sound and upright.
To trace the cracks thoroughly, it was necessary to remove the oak
panelling fitted to the wall below the windows, and the heavy bookcases
filling up a great part of the area were taken away with the lath and
plaster partition from the sides of the pillar at the west end of the
chapel.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY.]
THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
By this clearing the beauty of the chapel so long obscured became again
manifest: its symmetrical proportions, the remains of its ancient
painting, the disclosure of two most interesting monuments, two aumbries,
a double piscina, the chapel of Bishop Audley, but more important than
all, two of the most beautiful specimens of transition arches to be found
anywhere, Early English in form, but ornamented in their soffits with the
Norman moulding and the zigzag decoration, corresponding with the
remarkable union of the Norman intersecting arches on the exterior of the
building, with its pointed characteristics.
The further examination by Dean Merewether and Mr. Cottingham, the
architect, showed that the great central tower of the cathedral was in
imminent danger of falling, and might at any moment entirely collapse.
Above the Grecian altar screen of Bishop Bisse they were struck by the
traces of Norman mouldings, whilst on traversing the clerestory gallery
the remains of Norman ornaments were everywhere to be found, the gallery
itself being still existent at each side, returned behind the wooden
coverings, up to the splays of the eastern windows.
The whole incongruous covering of the east end of the choir shown on p. 77
was then removed, and the change effected was most striking. It was
evident that long before the introduction of the Grecian screen in 1717,
the original arrangement had been disturbed by the insertion of a
Perpendicular window, to support which the low circular arch in the centre
had been constructed; on either side of this window were now to be seen
the mouldings and featherings of the original early decorated lights, on a
level with the lateral clerestory range; below these the Norman arcade,
based upon a string course of nebule ornaments.
"But below," says Dean Merewether, "the beauty of beauties was to be
traced,--the thickness of that part of the wall is 8 feet; on either side
of the arch, 24 feet in span, were portions of shafts, corresponding with
the pair of Norman shafts exposed to view seven years ago. The bases of
these (standing on a sort of plinth, which was continued through those
already referred to), as well as the capitals, of most curious detail,
were perfect, and upon them were visible as far as the level of the window
above, the remaining stones which formed the architecture of the exterior
arch, from which it was evident that its crown must have risen to the
height of 30 feet. By cautious examination of the parts walled up, it was
discovered that the capitals were all perfect, and that this exquisite and
grand construction, the mutilation and concealment of which it is utterly
impossible to account for, was, in fact, made up of five arches, the
interior and smallest supported by the two semi-columns already described,
and each of the others increasing in span as it approached the front upon
square and circular shafts alternately, the faces of each arch being
beautifully decorated with the choicest Norman ornaments. Of the four
lateral arches, the two first had been not only hidden by the oak
panelling of the screen, but were also, like the two others, closed up
with lath and plaster, as the central arch; and when these incumbrances
and desecrations were taken away, it is impossible to describe adequately
the glorious effect produced, rendered more solemn and impressive by the
appearance of the ancient monuments of Bishops Reynelm, Mayew, Stanbury,
and Benet, whose ashes rest beneath these massive arches, of which,
together with the noble triforium above, before the Conquest, Athelstan
had probably been the founder, and the former of those just mentioned, the
completer and restorer after that era."
Under Mr. Cottingham many improvements were made, though it cannot be said
that all the work he did was good either in design or execution. The
beautiful lantern of the central tower, with its fifty-six shafts, was
satisfactorily strengthened and thrown open to view. At the time of Dean
Merewether's death in 1850 much still remained to be done, and in 1857 a
further scheme was set going under the financial management of Dean
Richard Dawes, and the architectural direction of Mr., afterwards Sir
Gilbert, Scott, who restored the north transepts, the north porch, the
choir, and Lady Chapel. He also erected the large metal screen and fitted
up the Lady Chapel as a church for the parish of St. John the Baptist.
Altogether in these two works of repair about L45,000 was expended, and
the cathedral was opened for service on June 30th, 1863.