THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER
Winchester boasts a very long list of bishops as compared with many of
our English cathedrals, but the details about a great number of them are
most scanty. The exact year from which the history of the diocese should
be dated is not certain, but it is to be placed somewhere during the
reign of Ine over the West Saxons. Under Bishop Eleutherius, to whom
Hedda succeeded, the kingdom of Wessex was still but a single diocese.
The removal of the see from Dorchester to Winchester was rendered
necessary by the extension of the Mercian rule, which made the former
town unsuitable for a West Saxon see. The date of the change,
simultaneous with the moving of the bones of S. Birinus, is fixed by
Rudborne at 683, but, according to recent authorities, it would appear
to be earlier.
#Hedda# (? 679-705) was, at any rate, the first bishop of Winchester,
properly speaking; though he was the fourth successor to S. Birinus. As
his most recent biographer says, Hedda "was a man of much personal
holiness and was zealous in the discharge of his episcopal duties.... He
is reckoned a saint, his day being 30 July. Many miracles were worked at
his tomb." He figures on the reredos as restored in accordance with the
original design.
#Daniel# (705-744) had the misfortune to see his diocese considerably
docked in order to form the see of Sherbourne. He resigned, by reason of
loss of eyesight, in 744. According to some accounts, Ethelwulf,
afterwards king of Wessex, and father of Alfred, succeeded him; but this
story certainly lacks proof, though Ethelwulf seems to have been
educated at Winchester.
#Hunferth# or Humfredus (744-754), like most of the immediately
succeeding bishops, has his place of interment at Winchester recorded by
John of Exeter.
#Cyneheard# became Bishop of Winchester in 754. His successors during
the next century were #Aethelheard#, #Ecbald# (_circ._ 790); #Dudda#
(793); #Cyneberht# (_circ._ 799); #Almund# or Ealhmund (_circ._ 803);
#Wigthegen# (_circ._ 824); #Hereferth# (? 829-833); #Edmund# (833); and
#Helmstan#. Of none of these do we know much, and their dates cannot be
assigned with any certainty.
With #S. Swithun# (852-862), who was first prior and afterwards bishop,
we come upon one of the names especially connected with the history of
the church. It is, however, to be feared that it is not so much because
of his fame in church-building and his acts of humanity that he will be
remembered as for the popular superstition which asserts that the
weather for forty days after his feast-day on July 15 is dry or rainy
according to its state on that day. The legend is said to be based on
the fact that the removal of his body from "a vile and unworthy place
where his grave might be trampled upon by every passenger and received
the droppings from the eaves" to the golden shrine in the cathedral was
delayed by a long continuance of wet weather. Similar legends to explain
a wet summer are found elsewhere in Europe. "The saint was translated,"
says Rudborne, "in the 110th year of his rest. And for his glory, so
great was the concourse of people and so numerous and frequent the
miracles that the like was never witnessed in England." A figure
representing S. Swithun seems once to have stood in a niche at the apex
of the gable of the west front.
He was succeeded by #Alhferth# or Ealhfrith (863-871), translated to
Canterbury; #Tunbriht# or Dunbert, whose name was Latinised as Tunbertus
(871-879); #Denewulf# (879-909), whom a singularly incredible legend
asserts to have been the swineherd in whose cottage Alfred allowed his
hostess's cakes to burn; #Frithstan# (909-931); #Byrnstan# (931-934);
#Aelfheah# or Elphege (934-951); #Aelfsige# (951-958), who was nominated
to Canterbury, but died in the snow while crossing the Alps on his way
to Rome for his pall--the only fact which is really known about him; and
#Brithelm# (958-963).
Next came "the holy #Athelwold#, a great builder of churches and of
various other works, both when he was abbot and after when he became
bishop of Winchester" (Wolstan). He seems to have moved the bodies of
Swithun and other saints to a more suitable resting-place than they had
hitherto enjoyed. Of Athelwold's building operations at Winchester
Wolstan's account is quoted on page 6. He held the see of Winchester for
twenty-one years (963-984), and he was by birth a native of the town. It
was said of him that he was "terrible as a lion" to the rebellious, but
"gentler than a dove" to the meek.
#Elphege# or Aelfheah (984-1005), his successor, to whom Wolstan's
account of Athelwold is addressed, was martyred in 1012 by the Danes
while Archbishop of Canterbury, where his tomb subsequently received
great honours. Aelfheah's great work was spent in the conversion of the
"Northmen," or Danish invaders of England.
#Cenwulf# or Kenulf (1005-1006) is allowed three years by Rudborne, but
apparently wrongly; another #Athelwold# or Ethelwold (1006-1015), and
#Aelfsige# (1015-1032) are not of great importance.
#Aelfwine# or Alwyn (1032-1037), called by Anglo-Saxon chroniclers "the
king's priest," seems to have been a monk of S. Swithun's monastery and
also chaplain to Cnut before he was elevated to Winchester. The legend
which makes him the lover of Emma, widow of Aethelred and Cnut, and
mother of Edward the Confessor, has been declared unhistorical; but, at
any rate, the story of her ordeal, when she walked blindfold and
barefoot over nine red-hot plough-shares, was once celebrated. It is a
curious coincidence that the bones of queen and bishop were deposited by
Bishop Fox in the same chest, Aelfwine's remains being exhumed from his
grave to the south of the high altar to be placed in a leaden
sarcophagus above the crypt-door.
#Stigand# (1047-1069) was chiefly remarkable, it appears, for his
avarice, especially shown in his retention of Winchester after his
election to Canterbury. He received the pall in 1058 from the
"anti-Pope" Benedict X., so that he was never regarded as the rightful
possessor of the dignities he enjoyed, the Normans refusing to recognise
him except as bishop of Winchester. His wealth attracted the attention
of William the Conqueror, and by a Council held at Winchester after
Easter 1070, Stigand was deposed. Some reports state that he was cast
into prison, where he died of voluntary starvation; and that on his body
was found a key of a casket containing the clue to great hidden
treasures, which the king appropriated, giving from them, says Rudborne,
a great silver cross with two images; but the cross is generally called
Stigand's. He was buried in a leaden sarcophagus to the south of the
high altar.
#Walkelin# (1070-1098) was related by blood to the Conqueror, and was
brother of Simeon, prior of Winchester and afterwards abbot of Ely. He
was the first of the Norman bishops, and signalised his incumbency by
rebuilding the cathedral from its very foundations, as the Norman
ecclesiastics frequently did. He figures more largely in the
architectural history of the cathedral than in its historical records,
and his work has been described elsewhere. Walkelin was buried in the
nave before the rood-loft, where stood the great silver cross.
#William Giffard# (1100-1129) succeeded after an interregnum such as
occurred in many sees during the reign of William Rufus. He founded S.
Mary Overy, now S. Saviour's, Southwark, as well as the bishop's
residence in the same district. Before his death he became a monk.
#Henry de Blois# (1129-1171) was grandson of the Conqueror and younger
brother of Stephen, afterwards King of England. Although an ecclesiastic
from his youth, he was by no means a man of peace or a mere scholar and
theologian; _Vir animosus et audax_, says Giraldus. During his prelacy
he influenced greatly the secular history of his time. In the quarrel
between Matilda and Stephen, Henry at first recognised Matilda, but
subsequently, as the foremost power in the church and a strong partisan
of his brother, he lent his weight against the Empress, and, with the
aid of Roger of Salisbury and other bishops, gained the crown for
Stephen. On Whitsunday 1162 Henry de Blois consecrated Thomas à Becket
as archbishop, and it is said that when King Henry visited him just
before his death he was reproved by the bishop for his murder of Becket.
Henry de Blois was certainly a militant churchman; but in an age not
conspicuous for such virtues, we are told, his private life was pure,
and he laboured steadfastly for the good of his diocese. The Winchester
annalist says of him, "Never was man more chaste and prudent, more
compassionate, or more earnest in transacting ecclesiastical matters, or
in beautifying churches." His great foundation was the still existing
hospital of St Cross.
#Richard Toclive# (1174-1188) was elected by the monks after the see had
been vacant three years. He was strongly against Becket, having even
been excommunicated by him; yet after the archbishop was murdered and
canonised he dedicated to him several new churches at Portsmouth,
Newport, and elsewhere. He founded a small hospital at Winchester
dedicated to S. Mary Magdalene, which by the time of Charles II. had
become a ruin, and was pulled down in 1788. Its Norman doorway may be
seen in the Roman Catholic chapel in S. Peter's Street.
#Godfrey de Lucy# (1189-1204) was son of Richard de Lucy, Grand
Justiciary of England, and a great benefactor to the Priory of Lesnes in
Kent, founded by his father. De Lucy's work at Winchester is a fine
specimen of Early English architecture, and consists of what is known as
the retro-choir, where he was buried in accordance with the practice of
interring a founder amid his work. The large slab of grey marble without
inscription which marks his grave was, Willis tells us, "by a slight
confusion of tradition" pointed out by former vergers as the tomb of
King Lucius.
#Peter de la Roche# or de Rupibus (1204-1238) sprang from a knightly
family in Poitou, and was consecrated bishop of Winton at Rome in 1205.
He was a hot and unscrupulous partisan of King John, in spite of the
latter's scornful treatment of the church, and in 1214, when John had
submitted to Innocent III., Peter was made Grand Justiciary of England,
much against the wish of the English nobles. He became guardian of the
young Henry III., coming often into conflict with Henry de Burgh. Peter
was in many ways a type of the Norman ecclesiastic so hated by the
people, but, according to Matthew Paris, he fought bravely in the Holy
Land, whither he led a body of Crusaders in 1226. He founded the Domus
Dei at Portsmouth, some portions of which still exist in the "Garrison
Chapel"; and also the monastery at Selborne, described by Gilbert White.
He died at Farnham Castle in June 1238.
#William de Raleigh# (1244-1249) came from the see of Norwich to that of
Winchester. He was elected by the monks in 1238, but, as explained
elsewhere, it was six years before he gained possession, though
confirmed in his office by the Pope. He retired to France, then under
the rule of Louis IX., until Henry at length gave way. Raleigh, however,
did not live to enjoy his honours long, dying during a stay at Tours in
1249.
#Ethelmar# or Aymer de Valence (1250-1261), who succeeded him, was
half-brother of Henry III., being son of the Count of La Marche, who
married John's widow. As a native of Poitou, his appointment was as
unpopular as that of de Roches, and, moreover, he is said to have been
only an acolyte when Henry forced the monks to accept him as their
bishop. At first he was only styled "bishop-elect" of Winchester, and he
was not consecrated until Ascension Day 1260. Even before his
appointment we are told that his revenues exceeded those of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was permitted to retain them. His
tyranny and greed provoked the Oxford Parliament in 1258 to expel him
from the kingdom and he fled to France, dying three years later in Paris
while on his return from Rome to England; for he had induced the Pope to
espouse his cause and consecrate him.
#John Of Exeter# or John Gervase (1265-1268) was appointed by the Pope
on the death of Aymer, in preference to two rivals whose election was
disputed. He is accused of having purchased his elevation. He assisted
the barons in the Civil War, and after Simon de Montfort's failure was
suspended and cited to appear at Rome, where he died.
#Nicholas of Ely# (1268-1280) had been lord chancellor and high
treasurer before he obtained Winchester. On his death he was buried at
Waverley Abbey, but an inscription on the wall of the south choir aisle
marks where his heart was interred in his cathedral.
#John de Pontissara#, Pontoise, or Sawbridge (1282-1304), nominated by
the Pope against the will of Edward I., at length made his peace by
paying a fine of 2000 marks and giving his manor of Swainstone, Isle of
Wight, to the king. He built a college of S. Elizabeth of Hungary at
Winchester. He had been Chancellor of Oxford University, though at the
time of his election he was Professor of Civil Law at Modena.
#Henry Woodlock# (1305-1316), former prior of S. Swithun's monastery,
who performed the coronation of Edward II.; #John Sandale# (1316-1319);
#Reginald Asser# (1320-1323); #John Stratford# (1323-1333), whose
election was opposed by the king, but who in the next reign was
translated to Canterbury--are not particularly noticeable.
#Adam Orleton# or de Orlton (1333-1345) was translated hither from
Worcester by the Pope against the king's wishes. He has the most
unenviable notoriety of having been the bishop of Hereford who
instigated the brutal murder of Edward II. on September 21, 1327. He had
been accused of high treason and deprived of Hereford, but was restored
thereto by the barons. Edward III. apparently at length received him
into favour; but Orleton went blind some years before his death. He is
buried in the Chapel of the Guardian Angels.
#William Edingdon# (1346-1366), though chiefly notable for his
architectural work at Winchester, was treasurer of England in 1350 and
chancellor seven years later. He might, had he wished it, have become
Archbishop of Canterbury, but preferred Winchester. He began the great
remodelling of the nave, and, dying before much of the work was done,
left certain property, as appears from his will, for carrying on the
work; though it is also said that a claim was made against his executors
with regard to the dilapidations of the see. His general reputation was,
as a biographer says, "that he loved the king's advantage more than that
of the community." He founded a convent of "Bonhommes" at his native
village of Edingdon, in Wiltshire, where the church building, or rather
rebuilding, is due chiefly to him. He was buried in his own chantry in
the cathedral. His "monkish epitaph," as Warner calls it, runs thus:
Edyndon natus Wilhelmus hic est tumulatus
Praesul praegratus, in Wintonia cathedratus.
Qui pertransitis, ejus memorare velitis.
Providus et mitis ausit cum mille peritis.
Pervigil Anglorum fuit adjutor populorum.
Dulcis egenorum pater et protector eorum.
MC tribus junctum post L.X.V. sit I punctum
Octava Sanctum notat hunc Octobris inunctum.
#William of Wykeham# (1367-1404), whose name has become so identified
with Winchester Cathedral and College, was probably a native of the
village of Wykeham, near Litchfield. Born in 1324, after education at
Winchester and Oxford he was in 1346 presented to the king, Edward III.,
at the age of twenty-three, "with no other advantages than his skill in
architecture" and "the courtly attribute of a courtly person." In the
course of the next twenty-one years he rose rapidly, filling various
offices until he became Bishop of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor of
England. His first recorded appointment is to the clerkship of all the
king's works near Windsor, and in the same year he was surveyor of the
new buildings there, including the round tower and the eastern ward of
the Castle and a College to the west for the Order of the Garter,
occupying the site of the ancient Domus Regis, close to the present S.
George's Chapel. On one of the towers the inscription _This made
Wykeham_ may or may not be meant to convey a double meaning, but it is
certainly true that his architectural successes furthered his fortunes.
In 1357 he received the tonsure, and in 1360 was made Dean of S.
Martin's Le Grand, Archdeacon of Lincoln, Northampton, and Buckingham,
and Provost of Wells. In 1361 he commenced Queenborough Castle on the
island of Sheppey; this important edifice, covering over three acres of
ground, was demolished about 1650. The castles of Winchester,
Porchester, Wolvesey, Ledes, and Dover, with many others, are believed
to have been either entirely rebuilt, or at least enlarged, by him. He
was only ordained priest five years before his elevation to Winchester.
In 1394 he undertook the great reformation of the cathedral which is
dealt with in another part of this book. New College (Sainte Mary of
Wynchestre), Oxford, opened by Wykeham on April 14, 1386, effected
almost as great a revolution in university education as his famous
college at Winchester did for the training of boys. As Dr Ingram has
pointed out, the very title of "New" College which has clung to it shows
how completely a new collegiate system was established by its
foundation, which served as a model for future endowments. His
well-known motto--chosen when his growing dignity made it necessary for
him to possess armorial bearings--"Manners Makyth Man" has generally
been taken to mean that virtue alone is true nobility; Lord Campbell,
however, would have us rather interpret "manners" as the studied
etiquette of courts and the polished courtesy which Lord Chesterfield
held so important a factor in success. Willis styles it "a somewhat
radical sentiment at the time." In his own day the secular arts Wykeham
practised did not meet with universal approval, for Wiclif alludes to
him when he observes, "They wullen not present a clerk able of God's
word and holy ensample, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or one
wise in building castles and other worldly doings." But despite this
objection, the whole of Wykeham's biographers, contemporary or
posthumous, agree in praising him as highly as Fuller, who says that his
"benefaction to learning is not to be paralleled by any English subject
in all particulars," and his great innovation, whereby elementary
education was taken from the hands of the monks and, as in his own
college, established upon an entirely different plan, would alone stamp
him as one whose foresight was far beyond his own times. He influenced
the nation in a way not easy to over-estimate, inasmuch as he
originated, or at least carried into execution, the idea of the great
public school, as Englishmen understand it, and, by the building of
Winchester College, founded the institution he had long meditated in a
way worthy of his design. Previously to the actual construction of the
college, he had maintained in temporary shelters numbers of poor
students. On the death of the Black Prince, whose fortunes he had
vigorously espoused, and the assumption of power by John of Gaunt,
Wykeham was impeached on the charge of embezzling the royal revenues,
accepting bribes, and the like; and the king laid hands on the
temporalities of his see. But almost the last act of Edward III. was to
restore what he had seized to the bishop, under certain conditions which
show the great wealth of the latter. Milman, in his "Latin
Christianity," does full justice to the "splendid, munificent prelate,
blameless in character," who devoted his vast riches to the promotion of
learning, and says that, though his endeavour to maintain the
hierarchical power over humanity was bitterly opposed by Wiclif, "the
religious of England may well be proud of both." Wykeham was eighty
years of age when he died, and his body lies in the chantry erected by
his orders on the south side of the nave.
#Henry of Beaufort# (1405-1447), who followed Wykeham in the bishopric,
was the second son of John of Gaunt, by Catharine Swynford, and uncle of
Henry V. In 1398, at the early age of twenty-one, he was made bishop of
Lincoln, and in 1404 was translated to Winchester. During the reign of
Henry V. he thrice filled the office of chancellor. In 1417, when
ostensibly on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was present at the Council
of Constance which was then considering the affairs of the church. At
this time he was offered the cardinal's hat by Martin V. and appointed
papal legate, but the bestowal of this dignity on him was resented by
the English monarch, who commanded him to surrender his office at
Winchester, which he declared was forfeited by his becoming a cardinal.
The dispute, however, was arranged, and "the haughty cardinal, more like
a soldier than a man of the church," formally received his hat at Calais
in 1426. In the following year he led a crusade against the followers of
Huss in Bohemia, where, during the retreat of the great army from Mies,
he alone at the head of a band of English crusaders endeavoured, but in
vain, to arrest the utter rout. The death of Henry V. brought about a
fierce rivalry between the two great uncles, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester
and the cardinal bishop of Winchester, lasting until the death of the
former, which only occurred six weeks before that of Beaufort himself.
During the half-century of his rule at Winchester he rebuilt St Cross
and founded the "Almshouse of Noble Poverty." Shakespeare has made
Beaufort a prominent figure in Parts I. and II. of "Henry VI.," but, for
dramatic reasons, perhaps, he is painted very much blacker than he
deserved. That he was a militant ecclesiastic, scheming and
unscrupulous, is no doubt true; but he was a statesman and possessed
firmness of purpose, fertility of resource, and confidence in those whom
he selected to carry out his designs. His wealth was very great, for he
was able to lend his nephew the king £20,000, besides spending an
enormous amount in charities, including £400,000 devoted to the inmates
of London prisons.
#William of Waynfleete# (1447-1486), a student in Wykeham's colleges at
Winchester and Oxford, was first master of Winchester College, then made
provost of Eton in 1443, and in 1447 succeeded Beaufort in the bishopric
of Winchester. From 1449 to 1459, like his predecessor, he held the
chancellor's seal, and during the Wars of the Roses was a firm adherent
of Henry VI. His death took place in 1486. He founded Magdalen College,
Oxford, and possibly influenced Henry in his endowment of King's
College, Cambridge, and Eton. Waynfleete appears to have been a man of
great piety and learning, and, as Milman observes, his actions, in
advancing non-monastic institutions, reveal a sagacious fore-knowledge
of the coming changes in the temporal power of the church, and were
planned to maintain its supremacy in ways better adapted to the new
spirit which soon after his death caused the downfall of the religious
houses. The effigy of this bishop, in his chantry in the retro-choir,
has been restored.
#Peter Courtenay# (1486-1492) was translated from Exeter to Winchester,
but at neither see has he left any mark on the history, the
architectural work of his period being due chiefly to his priors.
#Thomas Langton# (1493-1500), translated hither from Salisbury, where he
was active against the adherents of Wiclif, was chosen in 1500 to occupy
the see of Canterbury, but he died of the plague before his translation,
and was buried in his chantry to the south of the Lady Chapel. He seems
to have been enthusiastic in the cause of education, since he is said to
have himself superintended the teaching of boys in his town.
#Richard Fox# (1500-1528) was bishop successively of Exeter, Bath and
Wells, and Durham before he was appointed to Winchester. Great
confidence was reposed in him by Henry VII., who chose him as godfather
of the future Henry VIII. To Fox is attributed the introduction of
Wolsey to the king. Yet this appears to have failed to win him the
cardinal's gratitude, for, according to Fuller: "All thought Bishop Fox
to die too soon, only one excepted who conceived him to live too long,
Thomas Wolsey, who gaped for his bishopric." With Hugh Oldham, bishop of
Exeter, Fox was joint-founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the
pelican in her piety, which appears on the college arms, being borne by
the bishop. His fine chantry and the reconstruction of the choir aisles
bear witness to his interest in the fabric of his cathedral, and he is
otherwise noted for the assistance he gave to various foundations.
[Illustration: CARVING ON CHOIR STALL IN LADY CHAPEL--BISHOP FOX'S WORK.
(From a Drawing by H.P. Clifford.)]
#Thomas Wolsey# (1529-1530) at length gained the coveted see, which he
held _in commendam_ with the archbishopric of York, but only for one
year.
#Stephen Gardiner# (1531-1555), another of the more famous prelates who
have held this see, is said to have been the illegitimate son of Bishop
Lionel Woodville of Salisbury, brother-in-law of Edward IV. Fuller, in
one of his favourite conceits, says that Gardiner retained in his wit
and quick apprehension the sharpness of the air at his birthplace of
Bury St Edmunds. In 1529 he became archdeacon of Norwich, and, owing to
his services to Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII., was appointed to
Winchester. On the whole, he managed to keep on good terms with the
king; but his famous six articles in support of the Real Presence sent
so many to the stake that the title of "the bloody statute" has clung to
them. During the reign of Edward VI. he was kept prisoner in the Tower,
and in 1550 was deprived of his bishopric, which was restored to him on
the accession of Mary, whom he crowned at Westminster. He performed also
the marriage service of Mary and Philip of Spain, mentioned on page 13.
"His malice," says Fuller, "was like what is commonly said of white
powder which surely discharged the bullet yet made no report, being
secret in all his acts of cruelty. This made him often chide Bonner,
calling him 'ass,' though not so much for killing poor people as for not
doing it more cunningly." Cruel and vengeful as he was, it is yet
possible that he has been rather unjustly accused of personal delight in
his victims' sufferings; but, while the persecutions under Mary continue
to be the worst chapter of English church history, the "hammer of
heretics," as he was called, will always continue to be execrated. On
his death-bed at Westminster in 1555 he is reported to have said: "I
have sinned with Peter, but I have not wept with him." It has indeed
been held that in his latter days he was half a Protestant at heart,
though this is difficult to establish. There is preserved a rather
amusing appeal of Gardiner to the Privy Council, dating from 1547. He
had intended to hold in Southwark a solemn dirge and mass in memory of
Henry VIII., and writes to complain that the players who flourished in
the neighbourhood say that they will also have "a solemne playe to trye
who shal have most resorte, they in game, or I in earnest." During
Gardiner's imprisonment by Edward VI., #John Poynet#, once Cranmer's
chaplain, held his see. As the author of "On Politique Power" (1558),
where he pleads that "it is lawful to kill a tyrant," and uses some very
immoderate language, Poynet may be remembered, but as an ecclesiastic he
has left only a discreditable record in his short term of office. He
died in 1556 in Germany, whither he had retired on the Roman Catholic
revival.
#John White# (1556-1559), who succeeded Gardiner, was deposed by Queen
Elizabeth. He was born at Farnham, and educated at Winchester. Though
personally he appears to have been pious, during his tenure of the see
four burnings of religious opponents took place in the diocese.
#Richard Horne# (1560-1580) was a very vigorous supporter of the
reformed religion, and suffered consequently under Mary. He appears to
have been very fanatical against the use of vestments, pictures, and
ornaments of all kinds. He may have pulled down the monastic buildings
at Winchester, less from a mistaken zeal than from motives of economy;
but his reputation in this respect is very bad.
#John Watson# (1580-1583), formerly a Doctor of Medicine, only held the
see for three years.
#Thomas Cooper# (1583-1594) was ordained on the accession of Elizabeth,
his Protestancy hindering him from taking holy orders under Mary. His
preaching abilities rapidly secured his promotion to the see of Lincoln
in 1570, and Winchester thirteen years later. He was buried in the
choir, but his monument has disappeared. He engaged in controversies
both with the "recusants" and with the Puritans.
#William Wickham# (1594-1595), who also came from Lincoln to Winchester,
only held the see for ten weeks.
#William Day# (1595-1596), brother-in-law of the preceding, was provost
of Eton for no less than thirty-four years, but he died eight months
after his elevation to Winchester.
#Thomas Bilson# (1597-1616), though called by Anthony à Wood "as
reverend and learned a prelate as England ever afforded," and the author
of several theological works, has left little behind him at Winchester.
#James Montagu# (1616-1618) may also be briefly dismissed. Bilson's "On
the Perpetual Government of Christ's Church" and Montagu's Latin
translation of the writings of James I. can hardly be said to have made
them famous. Montagu's tomb is in Bath Abbey.
#Lancelot Andrewes# (1619-1626) is the most celebrated of the
post-Reformation bishops who have held the see. He was made Bishop of
Chichester in 1605, Bishop of Ely in 1609, and moved to Winchester nine
years later. As a pious and austere man, a powerful preacher (an "angel
in the pulpit," he was called), a scholar versed in patristic
literature, and a polemical writer, he is well known. Milton's elegy
suffices to prove the great respect and admiration which he inspired in
his contemporaries, and he held a considerable influence over James I.;
but his "Manual of Devotion" is the only volume of all his writings that
can fairly be said to have become a classic in any sense of the word.
Andrewes died at Winchester House, Southwark, on September 11, 1626; and
his tomb is at S. Saviour's, Southwark, in the Lady Chapel, whither it
was moved on the destruction of the chapel to the east of the building,
where it was originally placed.
#Richard Neile# (1627-1631), son of a tallow-chandler, though of good
descent, became Bishop of Rochester 1608, Lichfield and Coventry 1610,
Durham 1617, Winchester 1627, and Archbishop of York 1631. He was
censured by the House of Commons, together with Archbishop Laud, as
"inclined to Arminianism and favouring Popish doctrines and ceremonies."
#Walter Curle# (1632-1650), who came next, was deprived of his see
during the Civil War. Like Neile, he was a follower of Laud. He is best
remembered in the Winchester of to-day for his cutting of the passage
known as the "slype."
#Brian Duppa# (1660-1662), chaplain to Charles I. and tutor to his sons,
was appointed to Chichester in 1638, having previously been dean at
Oxford. In 1641 he was translated to Salisbury, but during the
Commonwealth he retired to Richmond, where he lived in solitude until
the Restoration, when he obtained the see of Winchester. An allusion to
him during his first year here may be found in Pepys, who, in his diary
for October 4, 1660, says: "I and Lieut. Lambert to Westminster, where
we saw Dr Frewen translated to the Archbishoprick of York. Here I saw
the Bishops of Winchester, Bangor, Rochester, Bath and Wells, and
Salisbury, all in their habits, in King Henry VII.'s chapel. But, Lord!
at their going out how people did most of them look upon them as strange
creatures, and few with any kind of love or respect." Duppa was,
however, we are informed, "a man of such exemplary piety, lively
conversation, and excess of good nature, that when Charles I. was in
prison at Carisbrooke Castle he thought himself happy in the company of
so good a man." He died in 1662 at Richmond (where an almshouse, founded
by him, bears over its gate the inscription: _I will pay my vow which I
made to God in my trouble_) and was buried at Westminster Abbey in Abbot
Islip's chapel, where a tablet records his adherence to his two kings.
#George Morley# (1662-1684), a constant supporter of Charles I., was
much favoured by him until his death on the scaffold. From this point he
lived in exile until the Restoration, when he was created Bishop of
Worcester in 1660, and was chosen to be one of the revisers of the
liturgy. In 1662 he succeeded Duppa at Winchester. He restored Farnham
Castle, the palace of the bishops, at a cost of £8000; obtained
Winchester House, Chelsea, for the see; and founded the "College for
Widows of the Clergy" near the close at Winchester. He died at Farnham
Castle in 1684. Bishop Morley was an acquaintance of Isaak Walton the
angler, whose guest he was after Parliament had expelled him from his
see. The cathedral library owes its being to a bequest from Morley to
"the dean and chapter and their successors."
#Peter Mews# (1684-1706), bishop of Bath and Wells in 1672, took part
personally in the Civil War, attaining the rank of captain, and followed
Charles II. to Flanders in 1648. Even long after his ordination he
retained his martial spirit, for as bishop of Winchester he personally
took part in the battle of Sedgmoor against the followers of Monmouth
and received a wound. He died in 1706, and was buried in the cathedral.
#Jonathan Trelawney#, Baronet (1707-1721), was one of the famous seven
bishops who underwent trial in the reign of James II. He was before his
occupancy of the see of Winchester, bishop of Bristol and of Exeter.
During his episcopacy, the cathedral received some questionable
adornments, including the "Grecian" urns in the niches of the reredos,
now fortunately removed.
#Charles Trimnell# (1721-1723) was a very energetic Whig and a strong
opponent of the once famous Sacheverell. He only spent two years at
Winchester, his term being cut short by death.
#Richard Willis# (1723-1734) was bishop successively of Gloucester,
Salisbury, and Winchester, but he has left little by which he may be
remembered.
#Benjamin Hoadley# (1734-1761) was "a zealous partisan of religious
liberty," and a strenuous Low Churchman. He occupied in turn the
bishoprics of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. During his
tenure of the first-named see he started the famous Bangorian
Controversy by the publication of a tract and a sermon in which he
denied the existence of a _visible_ Church of Christ in which "any one
more than another has authority either to make new laws for Christ's
subjects, or to impose a sense upon the old ones, or to judge, censure,
or punish the servants of another master in matters relating purely to
conscience or salvation." As a result of the heated discussion of the
matter in Convocation, that body was virtually suspended for a century
and a half. Pope ridicules Hoadley for his verbose eloquence, speaking
of "Hoadley with his periods of a mile." He was, however, a great
favourite of George I., whose private chaplain he became on that king's
accession; and it was under royal protection that he published the works
which gave rise to the great controversy.
#John Thomas# (1761-1781) was tutor to George III. He was called by his
successor "a man of most amiable character and a polite scholar"; and it
is difficult to say much more about him.
#Hon. Brownlow North# (1781-1826) was half-brother of Lord North, to
whom he owed a rapid preferment. In 1771, when he was thirty years of
age, he was made bishop of Coventry and Lichfield; in 1774, bishop of
Worcester. At Winchester he spent over £6000 on Farnham Castle, and
during his time £40,000 was devoted to the restoration of the cathedral,
but the result cannot be commended.
#George Pretyman Tomline#, Baronet (1820-1827), had a distinguished
university career and was the author of several theological works.
#Charles Sumner# (1827-1869) came to Winchester after a year at
Llandaff. He was a vigorous supporter of the Evangelical party. During
his term of office the boundaries of his see were re-adjusted and
contracted.
#Samuel Wilberforce# (1869-1873), third son of the celebrated
abolitionist, William Wilberforce, was translated to Winchester from
Oxford, where for twenty-five years he was bishop. His record at
Winchester is neither so long nor so important as at Oxford, where he
successfully passed through the troubles of the Tractarian movement. His
death was occasioned by a fall when he was out riding with Lord
Granville.
Since the death of Bishop Wilberforce the see has been occupied by three
bishops whose names alone need be given here, for their records will be
fresh in the memories of all:--
#Edward Harold Brown# (1873-1890), who came from Ely to Winchester;
#Antony Wilson Thorold# (1890-1895), whose tomb lies outside the
cathedral, close to the new memorial south window of the Lady Chapel;
#Randall Thomas Davidson# (1895), the present occupant of the see.
[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE FONT (also see THE NORMAN FONT in Chapter
III).]