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[Illustration: Norwich Cathedral from the South-East.]
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
NORWICH
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
EPISCOPAL SEE
BY
C.H.B. QUENNELL
[Illustration: Arms of Norwich]
WITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1898
W.H. WHITE AND CO. LIMITED
RIVERSIDE PRESS, EDINBURGH
* * * * *
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 Archæology 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 Archæological 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
The task of writing a monograph, on such an essentially Norman Cathedral
as Norwich, has been most pleasing to one who owns to an especial
fondness for that sturdy architecture which was evolved in England
during one of her stormiest epochs--from the end of the eleventh till
the end of the twelfth century.
I would here acknowledge indebtedness and thanks due to the Very Rev.
the Dean and Mrs Sheepshanks for the personal interest they evinced, and
for his material help; to Mr J.B. Spencer, the sub-sacrist, for that
help which his intimate association with the cathedral enabled him to
offer; and to Mr S.K. Greenslade for the loan of the drawings reproduced
under his name; as well as to the Photochrom Co. Ltd., Messrs S.B. Bolas
& Co., and Mr F.G.M. Beaumont for the use of their photographs. The
views of the cathedral as it appeared in the early part of the
nineteenth century are reproduced from Britton's "Norwich," and from a
volume by Charles Wild.
C.H.B.Q.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--History of the Fabric 3
CHAPTER II.--The Cathedral--Exterior 23
The Cathedral Precincts 23
The Erpingham Gate 23
St. Ethelbert's Gate and the Gate-House 25
Chapel of St. John the Evangelist 27
The West Front of the Cathedral 28
Exterior of Nave 31
The South Transept 32
The Diocesan Registry Offices and Slype 35
The Chapter-House 36
The Tower and Spire 36
The Eastern Arm of Cathedral or Presbytery 39
The Chapels of St. Mary-the-Less and Saint Luke 39, 40
The Jesus Chapel and Reliquary Chapel 40
The North Transept 40
The Bishop's Palace 43
CHAPTER III.--The Interior 45
The Nave 45
The Choir Screen 49
The Nave Vault 50
The West Window and West Door 55
The North and South Aisles of Nave 55, 56
Monuments in Nave and Aisles of Nave 57, 58
The Cloisters 58
The Walks--East, South, and West 62, 63
The Ante-choir and Choir 64
The Pelican Lectern 68
The Presbytery 68
Reliquary Chapel 72
Monuments in the Presbytery 74
The North Transept 76
The Tower and Triforium Walks 79
The Processional Path 79
The Jesus Chapel 83
St. Luke's Chapel 88
Treasury and Muniment Room 88
The Bauchon Chapel 88
The South Transept 88
Monuments 91
CHAPTER IV.--The Sees of the East Anglian Bishops 95
CHAPTER V.--The City 111
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Norwich Cathedral from the South-East _Frontispiece_
Arms of Norwich _Title_
The Cathedral from the South-West 2
The Cathedral in the Seventeenth Century 9
West Front of the Cathedral in 1816 15
The Cathedral from the South-West Angle of Cloisters 22
The Erpingham Gate 24
St. Ethelbert's Gate 25
The Gate-House of the Bishop's Palace 25
West Front of the Cathedral 28
The Clerestory and Triforium of Choir (South Side) 32
The Tower in 1816 37
Exterior of the Chapel of St. Luke from the East 40
A Norman Capital 46
The Nave, looking East 47
The Choir Screen and Organ from the Nave 51
The North Aisle of Nave, looking West 56
The East Walk of the Cloisters 58
The Cloisters from the Garth 59
The Prior's Door 63
The Choir and Presbytery 65
A Stall in the Choir 67
The Choir and Presbytery in 1816 69
The Choir Stalls at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century 70
The Choir, looking West 72
Detail of the Presbytery Clerestory and Vaulting 74
The Choir Apse 77
Detail of the Clerestory, North Transept 80
The South Aisle of Presbytery, looking East 81
Norman Work in the Lantern of Tower 83
The Ante-Reliquary Bridge Chapel 84
Doorway and Screen between South Transept and Aisle of Presbytery 88
View across the Apse from the Chapel of St. Luke 89
The Resurrection: from the Painted Retable formerly in the
Jesus Chapel 93
Norwich Castle 99
The Guildhall 103
Monument of Bishop Goldwell 107
The Pelican Lectern in the Choir 110
Pull's Ferry 112
PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL 113
* * * * *
[Illustration: The Cathedral from the South-West.]
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE FABRIC OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY OF
NORWICH
Norwich Cathedral stands on the site of no earlier church: it is to-day,
in its plan and the general bulk of its detail, as characteristically
Norman as when left finished by the hand of Eborard, the second bishop
of Norwich.
The church was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first bishop, as the
cathedral priory of the Benedictine monastery in Norwich (a sketch of
its constitution at this period will be found in the Notes on the
Diocese); the foundation-stone was laid in 1096 on a piece of land
called Cowholme,--meaning a pasture surrounded by water,--and the church
was dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
It may be of interest to the tourist and student to review briefly what
sort and manner of man Herbert the founder was; what had been his
environment prior to his appointment as the first bishop of Norwich; and
what the causes were which had as their effect the building of the
cathedral.
The characteristics of the cathedral are--its long nave, which is
typical of the Norman church; its glorious apsidal termination,
encircled by a procession path, which recalls the plan of a French
cathedral; and the form of this, with the remains of its old bishops'
chair centrally placed, and with the westward position, of the throne at
Torcello and other Italian churches, of the basilican type of plan.
Herbert, surnamed de Losinga, transferred the see from Thetford to
Norwich in 1094, and it is from this period that the history of the
cathedral may be said to commence.
Herbert was a prelate of a type that in the early days helped to build
up the Church and give her stability. His nature must have been
curiously complex; on the one hand, a man of action and with great
capability of administration, often justifying his means by the end he
had in view, and not being debarred from realising his schemes by any
delicate scruples, he yet, on the other hand, presents in his letters a
chastened spirituality that is not compatible with the methods he
pursued when thinking only of the temporal advantages which might accrue
on any certain line of action. But it may be said that his letters
appear to date from the later period of his life, and after he had
founded the cathedral as an expiation of that sin of simony he appears
to have so deeply repented.
Yet in the earlier period, which we shall note, he was emphatically the
man of action, the typical administrator, who, mixing freely in the
political life of the times, was strengthening the position of the
Church, and gradually leading her up to that position, which she
ultimately gained, of Arbitress of Kings and Empires.
He had also a morbid belief in the power of money--he probably would
have agreed that "every man has his price," and his simoniacal dealings
with William Rufus, which procured his preferment to Norwich, afford
evidence of this weak trait in his character.
Herbert's birthplace is disputed, and, as Dean Goulburn remarked, this
is but natural: a man so justly celebrated would not, or, rather,
historians will not be content with one; so that though he cannot rival
Homer in that seven cities desired to be accredited each as his
birthplace, yet Herbert falls not far short, and this fact alone will
perhaps give some idea of his popularity during his life, and the
interest then aroused which has lasted down to our own times. From a
small pamphlet issued by the dean and chapter in 1896, and containing
extracts from the _Registrum Primum_, we learn that "In primis Ecclesiam
prefatam fundavit piæ memoriæ Herbertus Episcopus, qui Normanniæ in
pago Oximensi natus." First Herbert, the bishop, of pious memory, who
was born in Normandy, in the district of Oximin (or Exmes).
This seems very credible, and the old monkish chronicler who was
responsible for the _Registrum Primum_ and its rugged Latin, may have
had authentic proof of the truth of his assertion. The manuscript dates
from the thirteenth century, and no considerable period, historically
considered, had then passed since Herbert had been one of the prime
movers of the religious and political life of the day.
Blomefield, the antiquary, attributed to him a Suffolk extraction, and
then again spoke of his Norman descent: thus agreeing in some measure
with the _Registrum Primum_. And again, another idea is that he was born
in the hundred of Hoxne, where he possessed property, and his father
before him.
Herbert had, we know, received his education in Normandy, and had taken
his vows at, and ultimately had risen to be prior of, the Abbey of
Fécamp in Normandy; and it was while vigorously administering this
office that he received an invitation from William Rufus to come to
England, being offered as an inducement the appointment of Abbot of
Ramsey.
And no doubt from this period the spiritual side of his duties must of
necessity have been somewhat neglected. From the position of prior of
Fécamp, his circle of power limited to the neighbourhood of his priory,
and his duties rounded by the due observance of the rules of his order,
he was given at once the administration of what was one of the richest
abbeys in England, and attained at once the power of a great feudal
lord. He was Sewer to William Rufus as well, an office endowed with fees
and perquisites, and so to Herbert came the temptation of accumulating
wealth for his own ambitious ends. It was not, however, the sin of a
small man: he introduced no personal element into his greed, but rather
thought of his party and his Church, although, of necessity, an
environment so purely temporal told on the spiritual side of his
character. It might be best to connect the links of the East Anglian
bishoprics here, although in the notes on the diocese the matter is gone
into at more length.
Herbert de Losinga was the first bishop of Norwich, to which town the
see was transferred in compliance with a decree of Lanfranc's Synod,
held in 1075, that all sees should be fixed at the principal towns in
their dioceses.
Felix was the first bishop of East Anglia, and fixed his see at Dunwich
in 630.
The see was divided by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 669 into
those of Elmham and Dunwich; and these again were united under Wildred
in 870, and the see fixed at Elmham, and where it remained till 1070,
when Herfast, a chaplain of William the Conqueror's, moved his see to
Thetford.
Now, about this time, when Herbert was abbot of Ramsey and Sewer to
William Rufus, the see of Thetford was vacant, and Herbert gave the king
to understand that if he was appointed to the vacant bishopric, and his
father made Abbot of Winchester, he was willing and able to pay for such
preferment a sum of £1900: a part of his accumulated savings, no doubt,
and a very large amount for that time.
William II. made these appointments, and the sum mentioned was paid into
the royal treasury; but the bishop found that he had attained his end at
a cost other than he had reckoned on; public opinion in those days was
quite as powerful a force as it is now, though the channels along which
its force could be felt and its strength find expression were limited.
Indignation was rife, and monkish versifiers and chroniclers protested
in lines more or less uncomplimentary, and more or less forcible, their
loathing of such sin of simony.
Now it is probable that, in expiation of this transgression, Herbert
came to build Norwich Cathedral. It is certain that he almost at once
repented. In after years, in his letters, he says, "I entered on mine
office disgracefully, but by the help of God's grace I shall pass out of
it with credit."
In Dean Goulburn's admirable monograph on the cathedral many of
Herbert's letters are given, and these alone would go to stamp him as a
wonderful man. His conscience was awakened by the popular outcry against
his sin of simony, he plunged into his new duties at Thetford with
ardour in the vain hope of distraction, but failed to find that
consolation he had hoped to; and so about 1093 he determined on a visit
to Rome to tender his resignation and confess his sin to Pope Urban. He
journeyed to Rome and was kindly received, and the absolution he desired
readily granted. The Pope was glad to see an English bishop come to him
for advice, and in granting him absolution he strengthened considerably
his claim to be regarded as head of the English Church.
This lengthy preamble may seem somewhat unjustifiable, but if we are to
study any building aright, and if we are to interpret in any measure its
meaning and symbolism, it cannot wholly be done on any line of abstract
æstheticism or archæological instinct, however intuitive it may be:
we must in some measure think of the builders of old times and of the
influences which with them produced its inception and have left it to
come down the ages to us.
It is interesting to note that Herbert's early French training
influenced him in the planning of the beautiful eastern termination to
his cathedral, and the grand sweep of the procession path. Similar
apsidal terminations, of slightly later date, once existed at Ely, and
still remain in a modified form at Peterborough.
The old tribunal arrangement of presbyters' seats with the central
bishop's throne facing west, which was part of Herbert's first plan, no
doubt may safely be accredited to the influence of his journey to Rome,
and where he may have become familiar with what was the usual basilican
arrangement.
Herbert returned to England, penitent and forgiven for his sin, and it
is probable that the Pope had laid on him, as a penance, an injunction
to build churches and found religious houses, and that with the
remainder of his wealth he determined to transfer the see from Thetford
to Norwich and to build in the latter place his cathedral church. It
would also have been in compliance with the decree of Lanfranc's Synod.
The see was transferred on the 9th of April 1094, and Herbert was
consecrated on the same day by Thomas, Archbishop of York.
Norwich was then an important town; in the Middle Ages it ranked as the
second city in the kingdom. Its prosperity was chiefly due to its large
trade in wool. It is a moot point whether the town was ever a settlement
of the Romans, no traces of such occupation having ever been discovered.
The castle mound, no doubt, formed some part of the earthworks of an
earlier stronghold. The word Norwich is probably of Norse origin,
meaning the north village or the village on the North Creek
("_wic_"--_i.e._ a creek). The city stood on a tidal bay in 1004, in
which year the Danes under Sweyn completely devastated and ruined the
town in revenge for the massacre of their countrymen by Aethelred the
Unready two years before. So that the history of the town of Norwich, as
we now know it, may be said to have started directly after this.
The foundation-stone of the cathedral was laid in 1096; and upon it,
according to the _Registrum Primum_, the following inscription is said
to have been placed:--"In nomine patris et filii et spiritus Sancti Amen
Ego Herbertus Episcopus apposui istum lapidem." (In the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen, I, Herbert the
Bishop, have placed this stone.)
It was the custom of the Norman builders to start building from the
easternmost part of the church, as the more sacred part of the
structure, and then build westwards; so that probably this
foundation-stone, for which diligent search has been made in vain, was
in the eastmost wall of the original Norman Lady Chapel--in fact, the
_Registrum Primum_ describes how Herbert began the work "where is now
the chapel of the Blessed Mary." This chapel was demolished to make way
for the beautiful thirteenth-century Lady Chapel which Dean Gardiner
destroyed.
The thirteenth-century builders of the Lady Chapel may have used
Herbert's foundation-stone in their walling; Dean Lefroy quite lately,
while repairing parts of the tower and east end, came across pieces of
stone with beautiful "dog-tooth" ornament upon them, which had been used
to repair the masonry that, it was evident, at one time had formed part
of the thirteenth-century Lady Chapel. This must be so, since in no
other part of the building save the arches now remaining in the extreme
eastern wall of the procession path, which at one time gave access to
the Lady Chapel, does such ornament occur.
It is probable, and the more generally accredited supposition, that
Herbert built the presbytery with its encircling procession path and the
original trefoil of Norman chapel radiating therefrom;--the choir and
transepts with the two chapels projecting eastwards and the first two
bays of the nave. Harrod advances a theory that he completely finished
the whole of the cathedral church, as well as the offices for the
housing of the sixty monks who were placed therein, in 1101.
He also built the episcopal palace on the north side of the cathedral,
of which some parts remain to this day incorporated with work of a later
period; he seems to have founded and built other churches in Norwich and
Yarmouth. He died on the 22nd of July 1119, in the twenty-ninth year of
his episcopate, and was buried before the high altar in his own
cathedral church.
[Illustration: The Cathedral in the Seventeenth Century.]
Bishop Eborard, who succeeded in 1121, is credited with having finished
the nave from the point where Herbert had left it. The evidence which
goes to support this theory is taken from the _Registrum Primum_.
"Moreover, the same Herbert completed the church of Norwich in his own
time, as I have learned from the account of old people, but have not
found in writing, as far as the altar of the Holy Cross, which is now
called the altar of St. William. He also built all the episcopal
dwelling-house, except the great hall." The altar referred to was on the
north side of choir screen.
Herbert also provided the base for the tower only, probably up to the
roof level; the remainder, up to the parapet, was finished about the
time of Henry I., but at that earlier period it was without the stone
spire which now adds dignity to the cathedral from any point of view.
The roofs at this time were generally of a flat wooden construction
throughout (similar to that of Peterborough Cathedral), and probably
decorated with lozenges, flowers, and symbolical devices. When recently,
under Dean Lefroy, the whitewash and paint were cleaned off from the
stonework, many indications have been found of a most beautiful scheme
of colour decoration.
Though we, in this part, are following up the history of the cathedral
structure, yet it may be interesting to note that it was during the
episcopate of Bishop Eborard that the boy saint, St. William of Norwich,
was said to have been martyred. He was the son of country folk who
gained a living by agriculture. During his life he worked many miracles,
and by his death gave Norwich a share of his glory. It is related that
he was tortured by the Jews, and on the spot where they were discovered
secretly burying him, in Thorpe Wood, a chapel was erected called the
Chapel of St. William in the Wood. Very little now remains of this
structure, but the site can still be traced. The altar before referred
to was set up to his memory in Norwich Cathedral, on the north side of
the screen leading into the ante-choir.
Bishop Eborard resigned the see, or was deposed in 1145, and retired to
the abbey of Fontenay, Mont-Bard, Côte d'Or, in the South of France. He
had re-enforced a mandate of Herbert's that the clergy of the diocese
should contribute to the fund in aid of the fabric.
During the episcopate of Eborard's successor, Bishop William de Turbe,
the cathedral appears neither to have gained or suffered until, about
1169 or 1170, a fire broke out in the monastic buildings; the
fire-extinguishing appliances in those days, if indeed there were any at
all, could not prevent it spreading to the cathedral. It is generally
believed that the original Norman Lady Chapel was also well destroyed.
Bishop William de Turbe, although an old man at the time (he died in
1174), is said to have taken a vow that he would not go from within
twelve leucas of the cathedral, unless compelled by the direst
necessity, until the ravages of the flames had been repaired. He is
reported to have seated himself at the door of the cathedral, and to
have begged alms for this purpose from the worshippers. The work of
reparation was carried on by his successor, John of Oxford, who may also
be said to have completely finished Herbert's cathedral. He provided the
furniture of the church, the vestments, books and ornaments, and,
probably, entirely re-modelled the monastic buildings. He is also said
to have built the Infirmary, of which now only three piers remain, to
the south of the cloisters.
In the years following, various works were doubtless carried on, but it
is not until the time of Walter de Suffield, about 1250, that anything
important in the way of structural alteration was effected. The fire of
1169 had in part or whole destroyed the original Norman Lady Chapel, and
Bishop de Turbe had restored the same in some measure. But the _cultus_
of the Blessed Virgin in the interval had gathered strength wonderfully;
chapels dedicated to her naturally became important, and Bishop Suffield
determined to pull down the old Norman work and rebuild a chapel in the
Early English style then prevalent. Dean Goulburn, in his work on the
cathedral, estimated the size of the later chapel at 90 feet long by 30
feet wide, and these dimensions are shown plotted in dotted lines on the
plan in this book. This is longer and narrower than the size given in
previous conjectures, but Dean Goulburn had the opportunity of
inspecting the foundations of the chapel, which, with those of the still
earlier one, lie buried but a few feet below the surface in a garden to
the east of the cathedral. In the same place, and over the entrance
arches remaining, the height and lines of the later roof can be seen
still plainly marked on the stonework. These entrance arches are
beautifully moulded and decorated on the inside with the "dog-tooth"
ornament--a decoration peculiar to the Early English style.
The theological reaction which followed close on this movement led to
the neglect of the chapel, and obviated the necessity of maintaining it
as a place of worship. It had probably greatly decayed; that Dean
Gardiner (1573-89), no longer needing it for services, was tempted to
pull it down, as a cheaper expedient than keeping it in repair.
In 1271 Norwich was visited by a terrific thunderstorm, when the tower
was struck by lightning. The damage, however, was not great, as,
fortunately, the excessive rains which followed quenched the fire that
had been kindled. This incident, however, was the precursor of one of
the stormiest periods in the history of the city and its cathedral
church. Roger de Skerning occupied the episcopal chair, and the prior
was one William de Brunham, a man of fierce and truculent disposition.
An outbreak of hostilities between the citizens on the one hand and the
monks on the other, was brought about by his arbitrary assumption of
power; the bishop throughout, ostensibly preferring the safer game of a
somewhat anomalous position of neutrality, is nevertheless believed to
have covertly sanctioned his proceedings.
A fair was held in Tombland--to the west of the precincts--annually on
Trinity Sunday, and by right of ancient custom the priors reaped large
revenues by the imposition of tolls on the sales. Tombland, derived from
_Tomeland_, a vacant space, had originally formed part of the estate
bequeathed by Herbert, the founder, to the monks; the boundaries in
course of time had become matters of controversy, and it is probable
that the citizens felt the imposition of these tolls and dues to be a
real and serious grievance. A riot broke out and the monks were driven
within their gates. Had the prior at this juncture chosen to act
peacefully, it is probable that history would contain no record of the
sacrilege that followed. He, however, decided to resist force by force,
and carefully generaled his monks, disposing them at the various
strategic points of his domain. At the same time he sent to Yarmouth for
mercenaries--these arrived and the tables were turned; the prior's
forces sallied forth from the gates and robbed and pillaged the town.
The citizens, roused to a pitch of madness, drove them and the soldiers
back again within the walls of the monastery; the bishop, instead of
acting as peacemaker, appears to have preserved his position of
neutrality and quietly stopped in his palace. There was a short interval
of truce, but it only served as a breath to fan the flames; the citizens
besieged the cathedral precincts, and by the means probably of slings
succeeded in hurling combustible materials into the buildings, with a
result that the whole of the monastery and the cathedral itself was soon
in flames. It seems to be an established fact that the prior had placed
men in the tower to shoot at the citizens, and it is conjectured that
they, and not the citizens, were the cause of the outbreak here.
The only part of the cathedral that escaped was the Lady Chapel; the
rest was gutted, vestments and ornaments were carried off, and the monks
for the most part slain.
So ended the first part of this lamentable chapter in the history of
Norwich. A sentence of excommunication was passed on the city, and King
Henry hastened to Norwich to preside at the trial of the prisoners.
The accounts which have come down to us are as varied as might be
expected, the chroniclers of the one party, of course, blaming the other
side; it seems, however, to have been proved "that, after all, the
church was burnt by that accursed prior"; but many of the citizens were
hung, drawn and quartered, and the city had to pay in all 3000 marks
towards repairing the church and monastical buildings, and to provide a
gold pyx, weighing ten pounds, of gold; the monks in their turn had to
make new gates and entrances into the precincts. The St. Ethelbert's
Gate-house was part of the work imposed on the monks; it is of early
Decorated character and was erected probably early in the fourteenth
century.
Bishop Roger de Skerning had died in retirement on the 22nd of January
1277, and in the meantime the work of reparation had proceeded with such
vigour that on Advent Sunday 1278 his successor, Bishop Middleton, was
inaugurated with great state; Edward I. and his Queen with the Bishops
of London, Hereford, and Waterford being present. He does not seem to
have done much in the way of building, though the work of reparation was
carried on; he died in 1287, and it was left to his successor, Bishop
Ralph de Walpole, to begin the work of rebuilding the cloisters. The
original Norman cloisters, which had endured until the time of the great
fire in 1272, were probably of wood. It was determined to rebuild them
in stone in the prevailing style. The cloisters are described in more
detail in the notes on the interior of the cathedral, so that it will be
sufficient to state here that their building spread over a period of one
hundred and thirty-three years, and that they were finished during the
episcopate of Bishop Alnwick.
[Illustration: West Front of the Cathedral in 1816.]
Bishop Walpole built the eastern walk of the cloisters, together with
the chapter-house; he was translated to Ely about 1299, and the work
carried on by his successor, Bishop Salmon, who built the south walk,
also a chapel and hall attached to the bishop's palace. Of this nothing
remains in the garden of the palace except a grand ruin, which is
supposed to have formed the entrance or porch to the hall.
He founded also the chapel dedicated to St. John the Evangelist,
converted by Edward VI. into, and now used as, a grammar school; below
it was a charnel-house.
Continuing the history of the fabric, we can pass on to the episcopate
of Bishop Percy, during which, about 1361, the wooden spire and parts of
central tower of the cathedral were blown down by a violent gale of
wind, and the presbytery was greatly damaged by the falling material.
This bishop rebuilt the present clerestory, designed in the transitional
style between Decorated and Perpendicular; the vault is later. It is
also probable that he repaired the spire.
During Bishop Wakering's time the Erpingham gate of the close was
erected, and as well the cloister that formerly connected the palace on
the north side with the cathedral. He also founded a chantry for one
monk at his tomb.
His successor, Alnwick, completed the cloisters. The gateway to the
palace was built by him about 1430, and probably replaced an earlier
structure. He also began the work of remodelling the central compartment
of the west front. He left directions in his will to his executors to
make a large west window, the cost to be charged to his estate. The
doorway under this window, built over the old Norman one, and
encroaching on the side arcading, was executed during his episcopate,
the window being eventually added during the time of Bishop Lyhart to
throw additional light on to the vault he erected, and its wonderful
sculptures.
In 1446, on February 27th, Walter Lyhart, or le Hart, was consecrated,
and it is to him that Norwich Cathedral owes the superb _lierne_ vault
that now spans the nave. Other important works were carried out by him;
the spire which had been blown down in 1362 (and had probably been
re-constructed by Bishop Percy--though there is no record of such work),
was struck by lightning in 1463, and the burning mass fell through the
presbytery roof, which up till this period was still in wood, completely
destroying it, and making necessary the vault added by Lyhart's
successor.
During this episcopate the rood screen was erected, and a sumptuous
monument placed over the grave of the founder.
The stone spire must have been added about this time, replacing the
former wooden construction.
Bishop Lyhart left to his successor, Bishop Goldwell, in his will 2200
marks for repairing the dilapidations caused by the fire of 1463. During
this bishop's episcopate we find that the cathedral was brought nearly
to that state in which we have it now,--the tower was still further
adorned with Perpendicular battlements, the presbytery was vaulted in
with stone, and the flying-buttresses added around the eastern apse to
take the consequent thrust of the new vault.
Internally, also, the lower stages of the presbytery were
Perpendicularised by the addition of the four centred arches that still
remain, and in the second bay of which, eastward from the tower, on the
south side, was erected Bishop Goldwell's altar tomb.
His successor, Lane, occupied the see but a short while, 1499-1500, and
in turn was succeeded by Bishop Nykke--he is more generally called _Nix_
(snow), sarcastically, as his character appears to have been of the
blackest. During his episcopate, the cathedral was again visited by fire
in 1509. The sacristy, with all the books and ornaments, was consumed,
and the wooden roofs of both transepts totally destroyed.
Bishop Nykke constructed the stone vaulting that, covering both arms of
the church, completed the stone vaulting throughout the cathedral. His
chantry, which is on the south side of the nave, and occupies two bays
of the aisle, was arranged by him before his death, and its richness is
inversely proportionate to the degradation of his character.
The tracery in the Norman arch leading from the south aisle of the
presbytery into the transept, is of late Perpendicular style, and was
added by Robert of Calton, who was destined to be the last prior but one
of Norwich: William Castleton was the last prior and the first dean.
Bishop Nykke died in 1535-6, and was succeeded by William Rupgg or
Repes, who was the last bishop elected by the chapter of the monks of
the Benedictine monastery of Norwich. Monasticism was doomed; Wolsey had
fallen, and his property had been confiscated in 1529. The smaller
monasteries were dissolved in 1536, and in 1538 the greater shared the
same fate, among them Norwich.
Most interesting is the parallel which can be drawn between the history
of the Church and of that architecture which she especially fostered.
Gothic or Christian art was developed from the remains of a Roman
civilisation, and so long as it had the healthy organic growth which was
consequent on the evolution of a series of constructive problems fairly
faced and in turn conquered, and again, stimulated by the growth of the
Church, to which it was handmaiden, developed style after style in
regular sequence, until the builders, finding they had conquered
construction, took to imposing ornament. From that time, instead of
ornamenting construction, they constructed ornament; and as the
Reformation came to the Church in the sixteenth century so to
architecture came degradation. And then the Renaissance of pagan types,
from which the Gothic had derived its being by a rational development,
was by the revivalists of those days hotch-potched into a more or less
homogeneous mass, which even the genius of Wren could leave but coldly
pedantic.
The history of the architecture of the cathedral might safely stop with
the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, since when it is a mere
recapitulation of the doings and undoings of various sets of more or
less deeply incriminated fanatics and restorers.
So that we do not feel inclined to enter into more detail, in the few
remaining notes on the history of the structure.
Dean Gardiner, 1573-89, was a great reformer, and, as we have already
noted, pulled down the thirteenth-century Lady Chapel, and as well the
chapter-house.
In 1643 the cathedral was taken possession of by Cromwell's soldiers,
and the work of spoliation carried on. The organ was probably destroyed
at this time, for Dean Crofts set up a new organ in 1660, the case of
which was re-modelled in 1833, and still remains. It is also perhaps
needless to state that the cathedral was repeatedly whitewashed during
the eighteenth century.
In June 1801 a fire broke out in the roof of the nave, but was
extinguished before much damage had been done.
The various works effected during this century are mentioned
specifically elsewhere in these notes, under the headings of the parts
of the building where they have occurred.
[Illustration: The Cathedral from the South-West Angle of Cloisters.]