Chapter VII: LATE GEOMETRICAL.—Then came a turning-point in the history of

Hereford. The reputation of King Ethelbert as a miracle-worker may well by this time have worn a little thin. In 1287 Hereford found that it had obtained a new saint. This was Bishop Thomas Cantilupe, a man of saintly life, and one of the greatest churchmen of the day. “He was a pluralist of the first dimension—Chancellor of England and of the University of Oxford, Provincial Grand Master of the Knights Templars in England, Canon of York, Archdeacon and Canon of Lichfield and Coventry, Archdeacon of Stafford, Canon and Bishop of Hereford.” In 1282, with his chaplain, Swinfield, he visited Rome, and died on the journey home. Swinfield, following a not uncommon mediæval practice, had the flesh of the body separated from the bones by boiling. The flesh was buried in the church of St. Severus, near Orvieto; the heart and bones he conveyed to England. The heart was interred at Ashridge, the bones in Hereford cathedral. Five years afterwards miracles commenced: “There were raised from death to life threescore several persons, one-and-twenty lepers healed, and three-and-twenty blind and dumb men received their sight and speech. Twice King Edward I. sent sick falcons to be cured at his tomb.” In 1320, by the expenditure of vast sums of money, Swinfield procured his canonisation. Ever since, the see of Hereford has borne the arms of Cantilupe. He was the last English saint; and, being the newest, was for a considerable time the most fashionable. The fame of St. Wulfstan of Worcester and St. Swithin of Winchester paled before that of St. Thomas of Hereford. Till Gloucester secured in 1327 still fresher relics in the murdered body of King Edward II., Hereford held the greatest attraction for pilgrims in all the West-country. For forty years—from 1287 to 1327—the pilgrims resorted to the new shrine in vast numbers. Swinfield’s foresight was justified by the huge sums which poured into the cathedral treasury.

Swinfield succeeded Cantilupe as bishop in 1283, and occupied the see till 1316. With the vast resources now at his disposal he set about a series of great works. His first pious act was to construct for his benefactor and predecessor a noble shrine, the pedestal of which now stands once more, after many vicissitudes, in the aisle of the north transept. It is a work of the rarest beauty, executed just at the time when, tired of conventional foliage, the mediæval carver, with ever fresh delight, was making the most exquisite transcripts in stone of the leaves of the trees and the flowers of the field.

Secondly, he constructed a north porch—the present inner porch—the design of which is plainly taken from the shrine.

Thirdly, he rebuilt the central tower on the Norman piers and arches. To lessen the weight as much as possible it was built in two skins, the inner skin consisting of a framework of upright stone girders, as in the towers of Wells and Lincoln. Externally it is smothered in ball-flower. Originally it carried a tall timber spire; the loss of which greatly injures the external elevation of the cathedral.

Fourthly, he went on with the improvement of the lighting of the cathedral. Beginning probably at the north-east transept, which was rebuilt, together with its eastern aisle, and working along the choir and nave to the west end, and then _vice versa_ on the south side of the cathedral, he took down all but the lower part of the walls of the Norman aisles, rebuilt the upper part higher, and inserted very large windows. This lighted the nave, at any rate, very satisfactorily. The design of these windows is unusual and effective, owing to the largeness of the trefoils employed in the tracery.

VIII. CURVILINEAR (1315-1360).—By the time of Swinfield’s death it may be conjectured that the pilgrim-revenue had begun to fall off; for the rebuilding of the south-east transept, together with its eastern aisle, in completion of the reconstructions commenced by Swinfield, was executed in a cheap and inferior way, even the clumsy Transitional plinth being retained for the new central column of the transept. The windows have flowing tracery.

To the same period belong the stalls and the beautiful chapter-house, now in ruins. The lead of its roof was cast into bullets in the Civil War; sacrilegious bishops used its stones as a quarry for their palace.

There are monuments of Bishop Swinfield (_d._ 1316) and Bishop Charleton (_d._ 1343).

It is probable that all this work was done before 1349, when the Black Death made its appearance at Hereford, and again in 1360.

IX. PERPENDICULAR (1360-1485).—The lighting improvements were now completed by the insertion of two huge windows in the south transept, the southern of which has recently been filled with magnificent glass by Mr. Kempe. On the north side of the choir Bishop Stanbury (1455-1474) built for himself a pretty little chantry-chapel, like those at Lincoln. It has fan-vaulting.