Chapter XIV: Part II

History of the See, with Short Notices of the principal Bishops.

Worcester was one of five episcopal dioceses into which the great
Mercian province was divided during the archiepiscopate of
Theodorus of Canterbury, (A.D. 668-690). Peada, son of the fierce
heathen Penda of Mercia, and son-in-law of the Christian Oswi of
Northumbria, had established the first Mercian see at Lichfield
(see that Cathedral, Pt. II.) about the year 653. Mercia then
comprised not only the whole of central England, but the greater
part of Lincolnshire; and in accordance with a design expressed at
the Council of Hertford, (673,) but not then carried into
execution, Archbishop Theodorus divided the unwieldy diocese, which
must still have contained a vast number of heathen, into five. The
original see remained at LICHFIELD. The see of HEREFORD was
established in 676, those of WORCESTER and LEICESTER in 680, and
that of LINDISSE, or LINDSEY, in 678. The two latter, Leicester and
Lindsey, were afterwards incorporated in the great diocese of
Lincoln. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 680-961.] Worcester, (_Wigornaceaster_,) a “ceaster” or
stronghold of the Hwiccas, who occupied Worcestershire and
Gloucestershire, had possibly been a Roman station, (although this
is uncertain,) and was at all events situated on the line of a
Roman road--a matter of no small importance to the earlier Saxon
bishops, who, like the Saxon kings, were perpetually moving from
manor to manor throughout their diocese[97]. A priest named
Tatfrid,--“vir strenuissimus et doctissimus, atque excellentis
ingenii[98],”--belonging to the monastery founded by St. Hilda at
Whitby (_Streaneshalch_), had been chosen by Archbishop Theodore to
be the first Bishop of Worcester; but he died before his
consecration; and BOSEL, of whose history nothing is known, was
consecrated to the new see, A.D. 680. Before his death he became
disabled by illness, (_corporis infirmitate depressus_,) and OFTFOR
was consecrated as his coadjutor and successor by Wilfrid of York,
who was at that time directing the ecclesiastical affairs of Sussex
and of Kent[99]. Oftfor, like Tatfrid, had belonged to St. Hilda’s
monastery, but had gone for the sake of study, first to Archbishop
Theodore at Canterbury, and thence to Rome. On his return he
“turned aside to the province of the Hwiccas, and remained there a
long time, preaching the word of faith, and affording a pattern of
life to all who saw and heard him[100].” He held the bishopric for
one year only. In 693 he was succeeded by EGWIN, the founder of the
monastery at Evesham. Egwin died in 717. Of his successors,
WEREFRITH (873-915) was a man of considerable learning, a friend
and assistant of King Alfred, by whose direction he translated into
Saxon the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. St. DUNSTAN held the see
of Worcester between the years 957 and 961.

[A.D. 961-992.] OSWALD, the successor of Dunstan, the founder of
the monastery, and one of the patron saints of Worcester, is best
known from his unceasing patronage of the monks, in opposition to
the secular clergy. Oswald, the son of Danish parents of high rank,
was the nephew of Odo, the predecessor of Dunstan in the see of
Canterbury; and was appointed by King Edgar to the see of Worcester
at the request of Dunstan himself, with whose zeal for the monastic
cause Oswald (who had passed some of the earlier years of his life
in the famous monastery of Fleury) more than sympathized. In 972
Oswald became Archbishop of York, which see he held, together with
Worcester, until his death in 992--in the same manner as Dunstan
had held the sees of London and Worcester together, before his
elevation to the primacy. Little is recorded “of what he did at
York, although he presided over that see for twenty years. There
was no Northern writer to speak of what he effected in
Northumbria[101].” The condition of the province, “seamed and
scarred” by the struggles of the native princes, and by Danish
incursions, may have prevented him from working there. But at
Worcester, and throughout the south, Oswald was active as a great
ecclesiastical reformer. He was powerful enough to remodel the
monasteries of Ely and St. Albans. The Church of Worcester had
hitherto been served by secular canons. These Oswald determined to
replace by Benedictine monks; “and succeeded by the following
artifice. Having erected in its vicinity a new church to the honour
of the Virgin Mary, he intrusted it to the care of a community of
monks, and frequented it himself for the solemn celebration of
mass. The presence of the Bishop attracted that of the people; the
ancient clergy saw their church gradually abandoned; and after some
delay, Wensine, their dean, a man advanced in years and of
unblemished character, took the monastic habit, and was advanced
three years later to the office of prior. The influence of his
example, and the honour of his promotion, held out a strong
temptation to his brethren, till at last the number of canons was
so diminished by repeated desertions, that the most wealthy of the
churches of Mercia became without dispute or violence, by the very
act of its old possessors, a monastery of Benedictine monks[102].”
Oswald is said to have introduced monks in the room of secular
clergy, in six other churches of his diocese; and charges of
extreme tyranny and arrogance have been brought against him in
consequence. But there is every reason to believe that a severe
ecclesiastical reform was necessary; and there is proof that the
eviction of the canons from Worcester was very gradual, and was not
completed in Oswald’s lifetime. It is also certain that, although
he held the archbishopric of York during twenty years, “we we do
not read that he introduced a single colony of monks, or changed
the constitution of a single clerical establishment, within that
diocese[103].”

The church and monastery of St. Mary, built by Oswald, were on the
site of the existing cathedral, and were pulled down by Wulfstan to
make way for his new minster. (See _post_, WULFSTAN.) During the
construction of St. Oswald’s monastery, says Eadmer, one large
squared block of stone became all at once immoveable, and in spite
of the exertions of the workmen, could not be brought to the place
prepared for it. St. Oswald, after praying earnestly, beheld
“Ethiopem quendam” sitting upon the stone, and mocking the
builders. The sign of the cross removed him effectually.

A life of St. Oswald, by Eadmer of Canterbury, will be found in
Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, vol. ii. This, however, is a compilation
from a far more important life by an unknown monk of Ramsey,
written within twenty or thirty years after Oswald’s death, and
hitherto unprinted. This life (of which there is a MS. in the
British Museum, MSS. Cotton, Nero, E. 1) is quoted among Mr.
Raine’s numerous authorities for the very interesting life of St.
Oswald contained in his “Lives of the Archbishops of York.”
(London, 1863.) Oswald died at Worcester, and was interred in his
own church there. His relics were translated, and placed in a rich
shrine, by Aldulf, his successor in both sees. The portiphor of St.
Oswald is still preserved in the library of C.C.C., Cambridge.

The two immediate successors of Oswald, Aldulf and Wulfstan I.,
held the see of York together with that of Worcester, probably
because, Northumbria being ravaged by the Danes, the possession of
the southern bishopric was found to be necessary for the
maintenance of the northern primate. Wulfstan succeeded in 1003,
and died in 1023. In 1016, seven years before his death, LEOFSIN
was appointed to the bishopric of Worcester; Wulfstan retaining
York.

[A.D. 992-1062.] Between the death of Oswald and the accession of
Wulfstan II., the only remarkable bishops of Worcester were LIVING,
the friend and minister of Canute, who held the see of Worcester
together with that of Crediton; and ALDRED, his successor, who was
translated to York in 1061, and as archbishop of that see crowned
successively both Harold and the Conqueror. In 1062 Edward the
Confessor made a grant to Aldred of the church of Worcester, on
account of the desolate condition of the see of York. The grant
was, however, personal, and not in perpetuity; and Bishop Wulfstan
of Worcester only remained a suffragan of York until the death of
Aldred. The deed is to be found in Thomas’s “Worcester,” Appendix
I.

[A.D. 1062-1095.] WULFSTAN II., the founder of the existing
cathedral, and the great patron saint of Worcester. Wulfstan was
born at Long Itchinton, in Warwickshire. Both his father and mother
had embraced monasticism in mature life; and their son, after
having been educated in the great monastery of Peterborough, became
himself a monk at Worcester, and, eventually, the prior of his
convent. “An anecdote must be referred to this period, which is
valuable, because it is characteristic of the man and of his times.
Wulfstan enjoyed the pleasures of the table, and had a particular
liking for roast goose. Boiled meats were generally placed on an
Anglo-Saxon table; therefore special directions were to be given
when anything roast or fried was to be prepared. The order was
given by Wulfstan that a roast goose was to be prepared for his
dinner. He then went about his ordinary business. There were many
clients of the Bishop to whom he had to pay attention, and he was
involved in secular duties. He had not broken his fast when he was
called upon to officiate at the Mass. In due time he enters the
church extremely hungry; he passes into the chancel, near to which,
unfortunately, the kitchen is placed. A whiff of goose soon affects
his olfactory nerves; the savour interferes with his devotions; his
thoughts wander to his dinner, (_studio culinæ tenetur_); his
conscience reproaches him. His resolution is immediately formed.
Then and there before the altar he vowed that from that time forth
he would never taste meat; and he remained a vegetarian all the
days of his life, except on festivals, when he regaled on fish.
What was a fast to others was a luxury to him[104].” On the
translation of Aldred to the see of York, Wulfstan became Bishop of
Worcester. “In right of his authority over the diocese of
Worcester, Aldred took away from it twelve vills, and appropriated
them to York. As that Archbishop had only a life-interest in the
see, it is clear that these estates ought to have been restored to
it at his decease. When he died, however, (1069,) they passed with
his other estates into the hands of the King. Wulfstan was not
disposed to give them up. He desired that they should be restored
at the Council of Winchester, at Easter, 1070; but as the
archbishopric of York was then vacant, the consideration of the
question was deferred. When Thomas (the new Archbishop of York)
went to Rome for the pall, he claimed the Bishop of Worcester as a
suffragan. This question was left by the Pope to the determination
of Lanfranc. It was settled in a synod which was held in 1072. Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, was on the side of Thomas, but Lanfranc decided
against him. The twelve vills were to be given up, and Worcester
was for the future to be subordinated to Canterbury, and not to
York. In this judgment Thomas seems to have quietly
acquiesced[105].” Lanfranc, however, looked with extreme doubt and
jealousy on the Saxon clergy; and at the synod of Pedrede
(Petherton in Somersetshire) in 1070, he charged Wulfstan with
“insufficiency and want of learning,” intending to remove him from
his see, as Egelmar had been deposed from the East Anglian
bishopric in the early part of the same year. But Wulfstan’s
competency was fully proved[106], and it is possible that the whole
charge against him may have arisen from his ignorance of
Norman-French. A later legend (first mentioned by Ailred of
Rievaulx, who did not live till the next century) asserted that
when Wulfstan was called upon to deliver up his pastoral staff, he
refused to do so, unless to the Confessor, from whom he had
received it; that he laid the staff accordingly on the Confessor’s
tomb, which opened to receive it; and that no one could withdraw
the staff from the tomb but Wulfstan himself, who was of course
permitted to retain his see.

The simplicity, earnestness, and incessant labour of Wulfstan’s
pastoral life--“vir magnæ pietatis et columbinæ simplicitatis,”
says Malmesbury--are borne witness to by all the chroniclers; and
especially by William of Malmesbury, in his _Gesta Pontificum_, and
in his Life of Wulfstan. On his episcopal manors he built no halls
or “dining chambers,” giving his whole attention to more important
matters, and even in the churches which he built, he disapproved of
rich and elaborate ornamentation[107]. The church and monastery of
St. Oswald proved too small for the increasing number of monks.
Wulfstan pulled them down, and laid the foundations of the existing
cathedral. He lived, apparently, to complete much of his work; but
all that now remains of his cathedral is the crypt. (Pt. I. §
XXII.) Whilst witnessing the destruction of Oswald’s church,
Wulfstan burst into tears, declaring that he was pulling down the
work of a far holier man than himself--a church in which so many
saints had served God[108].

In the year 1088, the Norman barons who had risen to support the
cause of Robert of Normandy against the Red King, attacked
Worcester. “The venerable Bishop Wulfstan,” says the Saxon
Chronicle, “was sorely troubled in his mind, because the castle had
been committed to his keeping. Nevertheless, the men of his
household went out with a few men from the castle, and through
God’s mercy, and through the Bishop’s deserts, slew and captured
five hundred men, and put all the others to flight[109].” Wulfstan
died, at a great age, in 1095, and was interred in his new
cathedral. He was unquestionably one of the best and worthiest of
the later Saxon bishops. The fullest and most important life of
Wulfstan is that by William of Malmesbury, printed in the second
volume of Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_. A very interesting notice of
his “Life and Times,” by the Dean of Chichester, will be found in
the twentieth volume of the Archæological Journal.

Early in 1201, miracles were reported at the tomb of Wulfstan[110].
They continued throughout the year, fifteen or sixteen persons
being healed daily, as it was asserted. On St. Giles’s Day, (Sept.
1,) 1202, Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury came, with other bishops,
to Worcester, to enquire into the truth of the reported miracles.
Certain monks of Worcester went to Rome with their report; and in
the following year (1203) St. Wulfstan was duly canonized by the
Pope, Innocent III. King John more than once performed his
devotions, and made his offerings, before the shrine of the new
saint; and in the hour of his death at Newark (October, 1216,) he
commended his body and soul to “God and to St. Wulfstan.” He was
buried in the cathedral. In 1218 the restored church (see Pt. I. §
I.) was dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St. Peter, and of the
Confessors Oswald and Wulfstan; and the relics of St. Wulfstan were
translated into a new shrine. Miracles are again frequently
recorded. Edward I. entertained a “special affection” for St.
Wulfstan; and, besides many other visits, came to worship before
his shrine in December, 1273, after the conquest of Wales[111]. The
shrine of St. Wulfstan was placed, together with that of St.
Oswald, in front of the high altar, one on either side. (See Pt. I.
§ IX.)

[A.D. 1096-1112.] SAMSON, a canon of Bayeux, succeeded Wulfstan;
“non parvæ literaturæ vir,” says Malmesbury, “nec contemnendæ
facundiæ; antiquorum homo morum; ipse liberaliter vesci, et aliis
dapsiliter largiri[112].” His elder brother, Thomas, was Archbishop
of York; and a son of Bishop Samson (at what time born is not
evident) became also Archbishop of York in 1109, during his
father’s lifetime. Another son, Richard, was Bishop of Bayeux from
1108 to 1133.

[A.D. 1112-1123.] THEULF; also a canon of Bayeux, and Chaplain to
Henry I.

[A.D. 1125-1150.] SIMON, Chaplain and Chancellor to Adelais, queen
of Henry I. “Affabilitate et morum dulcedine munificentiaque (quoad
res Episcopatus angustæ pati possent) insignem habitum[113].”

[A.D. 1151-1158.] JOHN DE PAGEHAM; died at Rome.

[A.D. 1158-1160.] ALFRED, Chaplain of Henry II. For four years the
see remained vacant.

[A.D. 1164-1179.] ROGER FITZ COUNT, a natural son of Robert, Earl
of Gloucester, himself son of Henry I. The piety and strict life of
Bishop Roger are praised by Giraldus Cambrensis. He was the friend
and steady supporter of Becket; and was chosen by Henry II., after
the death of the Archbishop, to convey to Pope Alexander II. the
King’s assurance that he had neither encouraged nor directed the
murder. The Bishop died at Tours, August 9, 1179, on his homeward
journey from Rome.

[A.D. 1180, translated to Canterbury 1185.] BALDWIN, the preacher
of the Crusade; who died (Dec., 1190,) in the camp of Cœur de Lion
before Acre. (See CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1186-1190] WILLIAM NORTHALL, Archdeacon of Gloucester.

[A.D. 1191-1193] ROBERT FITZ RALPH, Canon of Lincoln, and
Archdeacon of Nottingham. Son of William Fitz Ralph, Seneschall of
Normandy.

[A.D. 1193-1195] HENRY DE SOILLI, Abbot of Glastonbury; from which
great monastery he was removed, to make way for Savaricus, who held
it together with the bishopric of Bath and Wells. (See WELLS
CATHEDRAL, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1196-1198] JOHN OF COUTANCES, Dean of Rouen: “cujus
sanctitatis refulgent insignia. Nam corpus ejus sacrum cum
indumentis Pontificalibus, usque hodie manet integrum et
incorruptum[114].”

[A.D. 1200-1212] MAUGER, Archdeacon of Evreux, and physician of
Richard I. His election had been declared void by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, on the score of his illegitimacy. But Mauger proceeded
to Rome; and the Pope, Innocent III., “videns elegantiam tanti
viri,” confirmed his election, “et illud pulchrum Decretale pro eo
composuit quod sic incipit ‘_Innotuit_[115].’” It was during
Mauger’s episcopate that St. Wulfstan was canonized. (See Pt. I. §§
I. and VII.) He was one of the bishops who, in 1208, pronounced
the Interdict and the excommunication of King John; and, with the
others, took refuge in France; where he died (1212) in the
Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, the same which gave a refuge to
Becket and to Stephen Langton, and in which Edmund Rich, the
sainted Archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards (1240) died. The death
of Bishop Mauger occurred before the reconciliation of England with
the Papacy.

[A.D. 1214, translated to York 1215.] WALTER DE GRAY, was appointed
to the see of Worcester after the removal of the Interdict. He had
been King John’s Chancellor.

[A.D. 1216-1218.] SILVESTER OF EVESHAM, Prior of Worcester. He
interred King John; and shortly before his death he dedicated the
Norman church, which had been restored, and translated the relics
of St. Wulfstan. (Pt. I. § I.; and _ante_, WULFSTAN.)

[A.D. 1218-1236.] WILLIAM DE BLOIS, Archdeacon of Buckingham, was
intruded by the Legate Guala, in spite of the protests of the
monks, who afterwards consented to receive him. The eastern portion
of the existing Cathedral was built during his episcopate. (Pt. I.
§ XIV.)

[A.D. 1237-1266.] WALTER CANTILUPE, son of William, Lord Cantilupe;
uncle of the sainted Bishop of Hereford. He was ordained deacon by
the Pope at Viterbo, April 4; priest, April 18; and consecrated
bishop, May 3,--in the same year, 1237. Bishop Walter was one of
the most vigorous defenders of English liberty during great part of
the reign of Henry III., when “England was held by successive Popes
as a province of the Papal territory[116].” In 1237, the year of
his consecration, he opposed the Cardinal Legate, Otho, at a
council in St. Paul’s; and nearly twenty years afterwards, in 1255,
made an equally firm stand against another Legate, Rustand, who had
demanded an enormous subsidy from the clergy--nominally for the
Holy Land, but really for the Pope and the King. Bishop Cantilupe
declared he would rather be hanged on a gibbet than consent to such
an extortion. He was one of the firmest adherents to the party of
Simon de Montfort; and it was this Bishop who absolved the whole
army of the Barons as it lay at Fletching, on the morning of the
battle of Lewes;--bidding them fight boldly, and with as much
certainty of salvation as if they were fighting in a crusade. With
the other bishops who had espoused this cause, Cantilupe was
excommunicated by the Pope; and was only reconciled and absolved on
his deathbed. He died at his manor of Blocklewe, Feb. 12, 1265, and
was interred before the high altar of his cathedral. His
coffin-lid, with effigy, is now in the retro-choir, (Pt. I. §
XVI.); and the coffin containing, in all probability, his remains
was discovered during the late restoration. (Pt. I. § XVI.)

[A.D. 1266, trans. to Winchester 1268.] NICHOLAS, Archdeacon of
Ely; Chancellor of England 1260, 1261; and again, 1263.

[A.D. 1268-1301.] GODFREY GIFFARD, Archdeacon of Wells; Chancellor
of England 1267-1269. He was the brother of Walter Giffard,
Archbishop of York; and was related to the King, Henry III. Bishop
Giffard, in the year of his consecration, obtained a licence to
build (_ædificare_) the castle of Hartlebury--which has ever since
been the principal palace of the bishops of Worcester. The tomb of
Bishop Giffard remains in the south choir-aisle. (Pt. I. § XIII.)
He had constructed a tomb for himself, in his lifetime, “prope
magnum altare, supra B. Oswaldi feretrum,” and had disturbed the
remains of Bishop John of Coutances in preparing it: but Archbishop
Winchelsea ordered the bones of Bishop John to be replaced in their
old position; and Bishop Giffard’s were removed to the place they
now occupy. According to Wharton, the Romanists after the
Reformation took Bishop Giffard’s tomb and effigy for those of St.
Wulfstan; and used to visit it “magna cum religione” on St.
Wulfstan’s Day, Jan. 19[117].

[A.D. 1302-1307.] WILLIAM DE GAINSBOROUGH, a Franciscan of Oxford;
intruded by the Pope.

[A.D. 1308, translated to Canterbury 1313.] WALTER REYNOLDS. (See
CANTERBURY, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1313-1317.] WALTER MAIDSTONE.

[A.D. 1317-1327.] THOMAS COBHAM, canon and subdean of Salisbury. In
1313 he had been duly elected Archbishop of Canterbury by the monks
of Christ Church; but the King, Edward II., strongly supported
Walter Reynolds, Cobham’s predecessor in the see of Worcester, and
the elect of the monks was compelled to resign his claim. Bishop
Cobham was a man of considerable learning, and of so great
excellence of life that he was generally known as “the good
clerk[118].”

[A.D. 1327, translated to Winchester 1333.] ADAM ORLTON; translated
from Hereford. (See HEREFORD, Pt. II.) He was the third English
bishop (Stigand, and Richard Poer of Salisbury, were the two
former) who, up to this time, had ruled three sees successively. An
ancient verse concerning him ran,--

“Trinus erat Adam; talem suspendere vadam.
Thomam despexit; Wlstanum non bene rexit.
Swithunum maluit. Cur? quia plus valuit.”

[A.D. 1334, translated to Ely 1337.] SIMON MONTACUTE. (See ELY, Pt.
II.)

[A.D. 1337-1338.] THOMAS HEMENHALE, a monk of Norwich.

[A.D. 1339-1349.] WULSTAN BRANSFORD, Prior of Worcester. He was
the builder of the ancient Prior’s Lodgings, and of the Guesten
Hall, recently pulled down.

[A.D. 1350, translated to York 1352.] JOHN THORESBY, translated to
Worcester from St. David’s. (See YORK.)

[A.D. 1352-1361.] REGINALD BRIAN, translated to Worcester from St.
David’s.

[A.D. 1362, translated to Bath and Wells 1363.] JOHN BARNET. From
Bath he was advanced to Ely. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1364, translated to Canterbury 1368.] WILLIAM WHITTLESEY,
translated to Worcester from Rochester. (See Canterbury, Pt. II.).

[A.D. 1368-1373.] WILLIAM DE LYNN, translated from Chichester.

[A.D. 1375-1395.] HENRY WAKEFIELD, Treasurer of England. It was
this Bishop who altered the west front of his cathedral, and added
the north porch. (Pt. I. §§ III., IV.)

[A.D. 1395-1401.] TIDEMAN DE WINCHCOMB, translated from Llandaff. A
Cistercian, and the physician of Richard II.

[A.D. 1401, translated to London 1407.] RICHARD CLIFFORD, had been
nominated by the Pope to the see of Bath and Wells, but the King
(Henry IV.) refused to confirm the nomination, and subsequently
made Clifford Bishop of Worcester. He had been one of the “clerks,”
and a special favourite, of Richard II.

[A.D. 1407-1419.] THOMAS PEVERELL, translated from Llandaff. A
Carmelite of much learning. Peverell had been made Bishop of Ossory
by Richard II. in 1397, and in the following year was translated to
Llandaff.

[A.D. 1419, translated to Ely 1426.] PHILIP MORGAN, had been
Chancellor of Normandy. (See ELY, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1426-1433.] THOMAS POLTON, translated from Chichester. Bishop
Polton died whilst attending the Council of Basle, (Aug. 13, 1433,)
and was interred in that city.

[A.D. 1435, translated to Ely 1443, and thence to Canterbury
1454.] THOMAS BOURCHIER. (See CANTERBURY, Pt. II.) It is there
stated that Archbishop Bourchier’s episcopate, of fifty-one years,
is the longest on record in the English Church. This is only true
so far as his predecessors are concerned. Bishop Wilson’s
(fifty-seven years) is the longest English episcopate. (See ELY,
Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1444-1476.] JOHN CARPENTER, Provost of Oriel, and Chancellor
of Oxford. He was born at Westbury, in Gloucestershire, and had so
great a favour toward his native place that he restored and richly
endowed the collegiate church there, of which the first Dean, under
Bishop Carpenter’s foundation, was William Canynges, the great
Bristol merchant, one of the principal contributors toward the
building of St. Mary Redcliffe. Carpenter intended that the bishops
of his see should henceforth bear the double title “of Worcester
and Westbury;” “but,” says Fuller, “though running cleverly on the
tongue’s end, it never came in request, because therein _impar
conjunctio_, the matching of a cathedral and collegiate church
together[119].” Bishop Carpenter was buried at Westbury. The
collegiate buildings were destroyed during the civil war.

[A.D. 1476, translated to Ely 1486.] JOHN ALCOCK. (See ELY, Pt.
II.)

[A.D. 1487-1497.] ROBERT MORTON, Archdeacon of Winchester, and
nephew of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The next four bishops were Italian intruders.

[A.D. 1497-1498.] JOHN DE GIGLIIS, a native of Lucca, the Pope’s
collector in England. He was already Canon of Wells and Archdeacon
of Gloucester.

[A.D. 1498-1521.] SILVESTER DE GIGLIIS, nephew of his predecessor,
and, like him, Papal collector.

[A.D. 1521-1522.] JULIUS DE MEDICIS, uncle of Leo X., afterwards
himself Pope Clement VII. He was made “perpetual commendator or
administrator of the see of Worcester” by Papal bull, and resigned
voluntarily in the following year.

[A.D. 1522-1535.] JEROME GHINUCCI, succeeded by papal provision,
but probably with the consent of Henry VIII., to whom this last of
the Italian bishops of Worcester was of great service. He was
employed on many embassies, both to Spain and Italy, and laboured
much in both countries to procure from their universities and
theologians opinions in favour of the King’s divorce. After
Wolsey’s disgrace, however, and the marriage with Anne Boleyn, the
Bishop fell into disfavour, and was removed from his see by Act of
Parliament in 1535, as “an alien and non-resident.” At the same
time Cardinal Campeggio was removed from Salisbury.

During this foreign occupation of Worcester the affairs of the see
were administered by suffragan bishops, of whom several will be
found recorded in Mr. Stubbs’ _Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_,
Appendix V.

[A.D. 1535, resigned 1539.] HUGH LATIMER. The life of this most
vigorous reformer belongs so completely to the history of his time
that only the principal events in it can be mentioned here. Latimer
was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire. The passage from his
sermons in which he describes his father’s condition has been often
quoted:--“My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only
he had a farm of three or four pounds a-year at the uttermost, and
hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men; he had walk
for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able
and did find the king an harness with himself and his horse, whilst
he came unto the place that he should receive the king’s wages. I
can remember I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath
field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have
preached before the King’s Majesty now. He married my sisters with
five pounds, or twenty nobles, a-piece; so that he brought them up
in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor
neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this did he
of the same farm where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pounds by
the year or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince,
for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the
poor.”

Latimer was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he was
at first well known as a defender of the “old religion,” and
afterwards, by the persuasion of his friend Thomas Bilney, became
as zealous a reformer. He was more than once silenced by the
University, but had powerful friends, and was introduced at court
by the King’s physician, Dr. Butts, and by Cromwell, the latter of
whom procured for him the living of West Kington, in Wiltshire.
Here he was accused of favouring strange and novel doctrines
touching the saints and purgatory, and was compelled to appear
before Stokesley, Bishop of London. He escaped with some
difficulty, the King himself interfering; and in 1535, after
Ghinucci’s deprivation, Latimer was made Bishop of Worcester. In
his diocese he laboured zealously, until the Parliament of 1539,
which, by the influence of Gardiner, passed the famous Six
Articles. For these Latimer would not vote, and at once resigned
his see, as did Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury. He was very shortly
afterwards sent to the Tower, on a charge of having spoken against
the Six Articles. He remained in prison during the last six years
of Henry’s reign, but was set at liberty on the accession of
Edward. He would not be reinstated in his see, however, but
remained with Cranmer at Lambeth, occasionally preaching at Paul’s
Cross, until the fall of the Duke of Somerset. He then retired into
the country. On Mary’s accession he was apprehended by Gardiner’s
order, and was sent to Oxford with Cranmer and Ridley, where he
suffered Oct. 16, 1555.

The fullest and best account of Latimer will be found in Foxe,
although, like the rest of the “Book of Martyrs,” it must be read
with due caution. His sermons, with a life, were edited by Watkins
in 1824, and with other remains, for the Parker Society, in 1844.

[A.D. 1539, resigned 1543.] JOHN BELL, Archdeacon of Gloucester.
The cause of his resignation is unknown. He died in 1556, and was
buried in the church of Clerkenwell, London.

[A.D. 1543, translated to York 1554.] NICHOLAS HEATH, translated
from Rochester. In 1551 Bishop Heath was deprived, for
non-compliance with the new order introduced under Edward VI., and
was imprisoned in the Fleet until Mary’s accession. He was restored
by her, and was made President of Wales and Chancellor of England
after the death of Gardiner. During the imprisonment of Heath,
Bishop Hooper of Gloucester held the see _in commendam_, together
with his own.

[A.D. 1554-1559.] RICHARD PATES, said to have been consecrated
Bishop of Worcester in 1534, after the deprivation of Ghinucci, and
to have been then removed to make way for Latimer. The proofs of
this, however, are not evident, although Godwin asserts that Pates
was present at the Council of Trent, and there signed himself
Bishop of Worcester. He was, at any rate, placed in full possession
of the see on the translation of Bishop Heath to York in 1554. On
Elizabeth’s accession he was deprived, and died at Louvain after a
life of some vicissitude.

The dates already given shew that five ex-bishops of Worcester,
Pates, Latimer, Bell, Heath, and Hooper, were living at the same
time.

[A.D. 1559, translated to London 1570.] EDWIN SANDYS, President of
Catherine Hall, Cambridge.

[A.D. 1571-1576.] NICOLAS BULLINGHAM, translated from Lincoln.

[A.D. 1577, translated to Canterbury 1583.] JOHN WHITGIFT. (See
CANTERBURY, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1584-1591.] EDMUND FREKE, translated from Norwich.

[A.D. 1593, translated to London 1595.] RICHARD FLETCHER,
translated from Bristol. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1596, translated to Winchester 1597.] THOMAS BILSON. (See
WINCHESTER, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1597-1610.] GERVAS BABINGTON, translated from Exeter.

[A.D. 1610-1616.] HENRY PARRY, translated from Gloucester.

[A.D. 1616-1641.] JOHN THORNBOROUGH, translated from Bristol. (See
that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1641-1650.] JOHN PRIDEAUX, was born at Stowford, in the
parish of Harford, in Devonshire. His family, although entitled to
bear the arms of Prideaux, was in poor circumstances; and the
future Bishop became a candidate for the place of parish clerk at
Ugborough, and was disappointed. A friend sent him to school for a
short time; and he then travelled on foot to Oxford, where he was
employed in the kitchen of Exeter College. In 1596, when his
abilities had become known, he was admitted a member of the
college, of which he eventually became Rector. In 1615 he was made
Regius Professor of Divinity, and in 1641 became Bishop. “If I
could have been clerk of Ugborough,” he used often to say, “I had
never been Bishop of Worcester.”

Bishop Prideaux was an unflinching Royalist, and excommunicated all
in his diocese who took up arms against the King. He was of course
severely treated in his turn; his palace was plundered, and he was
obliged to sell his library as a last means of support. He died at
Bredon, in Worcestershire, in 1650, in the house of his son-in-law,
Dr. Sutton. An elegy on his death will be found among the works of
the Cavalier poet Cleveland. A full account of Bishop Prideaux,
with some interesting local anecdotes, is given by Prince in his
“Worthies of Devon.”

[A.D. 1660-1662.] The first Bishop of Worcester after the
Restoration was GEORGE MORLEY, translated to Winchester 1662. (See
that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1662, died the same year.] JOHN GAUDEN, translated from
Exeter. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1662, translated to Salisbury 1663.] JOHN EARLE. (See
SALISBURY, Pt. II.)

[A.D. 1663-1670.] ROBERT SKINNER, had been consecrated to the see
of Bristol in 1637, and had been translated to Oxford in 1641.
During the civil war he was imprisoned by the Puritans. He died at
the age of eighty, the last English bishop who had been consecrated
before the Great Rebellion.

[A.D. 1671-1675.] WALTER BLANDFORD, Warden of Wadham College,
Oxford, translated from Oxford.

[A.D. 1675-1683.] JAMES FLEETWOOD, Provost of King’s College,
Cambridge. Bishop Fleetwood was the seventh son of Sir George
Fleetwood of Lancashire, and whilst all the rest of his family
joined the Puritans, he alone remained a Royalist.

[A.D. 1683-1689.] WILLIAM THOMAS, translated from St. David’s.
Bishop Thomas was a Nonjuror; and, with the other nonjuring
bishops, would have been deprived of his see, had not his death
occurred, June 25, 1689.

[A.D. 1689-1699.] EDWARD STILLINGFLEET, “a man deeply versed in
ecclesiastical antiquity, of an argumentative mind, excellently
fitted for polemical dispute.... In the critical reign of James II.
he may be considered as the leader on the Protestant side[120].”
Stillingfleet was, however, strongly tenacious of the authority of
the Church, and was decidedly opposed to the “latitudinarian”
theology of his time. He was born, 1635, at Cranbourne, in
Dorsetshire, was educated at St. John’s, Cambridge, and afterwards
became Rector of Sutton, in Nottinghamshire, where he wrote and
published his _Irenicum_, and (1662) his “_Origines Sacræ_, or, A
Rational Account of the Grounds of Natural and Revealed Religion;”
a book of considerable importance, which brought him into great
notice. Passing from one preferment to another, he became in 1689
Bishop of Worcester. In 1699 he died at his house in Westminster.
His body was conveyed to his own cathedral for interment, when the
monument which still remains (Pt. I. § VI.) was erected by his son.
The inscription was written by Dr. Bentley, who had been the
Bishop’s chaplain.

The _Origines Sacræ_ is the most important of Bishop
Stillingfleet’s works; but his entire writings, collected and
reprinted in 1710, fill six folio volumes. After he became Bishop
of Worcester, he wrote a “Vindication of the Doctrine of the
Trinity,” in answer to some parts of Locke’s Essay.

[A.D. 1699-1717.] WILLIAM LLOYD, translated from Lichfield. In 1680
he had been consecrated to the see of St. Asaph, and was one of the
seven bishops sent to the Tower by James II. He died in 1717, aged
ninety-one; and was buried in the parish church of Fladbury, near
Evesham, of which his son was rector. Bishop Lloyd’s learning was
considerable, although few of his works are now remembered.

[A.D. 1717-1743.] JOHN HOUGH, translated from Lichfield. Bishop
Hough was the famous President of Magdalen College, Oxford,
forcibly dispossessed in 1687 by James II., who had ordered the
Fellows to elect Samuel Parker, Bishop of Oxford, and a Romanist.
The story, which will best be read in Macaulay’s “History of
England,” (vol. ii.,) need not be repeated here. Dr. Hough was
restored to the presidency in 1688, together with the twenty-five
fellows who had been expelled at the same time. In 1690, King
William made him Bishop of Oxford, with liberty to retain the
headship of his college. In 1699 he was translated to the see of
Lichfield, and thence in 1717 to Worcester. On the death of
Archbishop Tenison in 1715 the primacy had been offered to, and
declined by, him. All who mention Bishop Hough bear witness to the
simplicity and excellence of his character.

[A.D. 1743-1759.] ISAAC MADDOX, translated from St. Asaph. Bishop
Maddox is best known as the author of “A Vindication of the
Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England,
established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.” He was the founder of
the Worcester Infirmary, to which the story of the Good Samaritan
on his monument refers. (Pt. I. § XVIII.)

[A.D. 1759-1774.] JAMES JOHNSON, translated from Gloucester.

[A.D. 1774, translated to Winchester 1781.] BROWNLOW NORTH,
translated from Lichfield.

[A.D. 1781-1808.] RICHARD HURD, translated from Lichfield. Bishop
Hurd is now best remembered as the friend and biographer of
Warburton; but he was himself conspicuous among the scholars of his
time. He was born, the son of a small farmer, at Penkridge, in
Staffordshire, in 1720; was educated at the grammar school at
Brewood, and was sent as a sizar to Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
where he afterwards obtained a fellowship. Ten years later he made
the acquaintance of Warburton, whose friend he remained through
life. In 1763 he was elected Preacher of Lincoln’s Inn; and in 1765
Warburton made him Archdeacon of Gloucester. George III., who
greatly admired his “Moral and Political Dialogues,” made him
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1774: and in 1776 Preceptor to
the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. In 1781 Hurd was
translated to Worcester; and declined the see of Canterbury on the
death of Archbishop Cornwallis in 1783.

Some curious anecdotes are told of Bishop Hurd’s bad temper, the
sharpness of which is sufficiently evident in his letters. Madam
D’Arblay, however, says of him,--“Piety and goodness are so marked
on his countenance, which is truly a fine one, that he has been
named, and very justly, the ‘Beauty of Holiness.’ Indeed, in face,
manner, demeanour, and conversation, he seems precisely what a
bishop should be,--and what would make a looker on--were he not a
bishop, and a see vacant--call out, ‘Take Dr. Hurd!--that is the
man.’” George III. spoke of him as the “most naturally polite man
he had ever known.”

Bishop Hurd died in 1808, at Hartlebury Castle, where he had built
a library for the reception of Warburton’s books, which he left as
a legacy to the see. A life of Bishop Hurd, containing some
interesting selections from his correspondence, has been published
by the Rev. Francis Kilvert. (London, 1860.)

[A.D. 1808-1831.] FFOLLIOTT H. W. CORNEWALL, translated from
Hereford.

[A.D. 1831-1841.] ROBERT JAMES CARR, translated from Chichester.

[A.D. 1841-1861.] HENRY PEPYS.

[A.D. 1861.] HENRY PHILPOTT.

PRINTED BY JAMES PARKER AND CO., CROWN-YARD, OXFORD.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A volume of excellent plans and sketches, illustrative of Gloucester Cathedral, has been published by Mr. F. S. Waller, Architect to the Dean and Chapter, (London, 1856). To it we are indebted for the plan of the cathedral contained in this volume.

[2] Froucester’s Chronicle.

[3] Fergusson.

[4] The transepts of Oxford (102 ft.) and Rochester (122 ft.) are shorter: but neither of these cathedrals at all approaches the general dimensions of Gloucester or Worcester. The tower of Malvern Priory Church much resembles that of Gloucester, and was perhaps an imitation of it. “In dignity the central tower of Gloucester is perhaps surpassed by that of Canterbury, and in expression by that of Lincoln.”--_G. A. P._

[5] Comparing the relative proportions of Gloucester and Norwich, the difference will be found greater than could be conceived compatible with the same style. They are--

NORWICH. GLOUCESTER.
Height of piers 15 feet. 30 feet.
Diameter of piers 7 ” 6 “
Height to base of triforium 25 ” 40 “
Height of triforium 24 ” 10 “
Height of clerestory 25 ” 24 “

Thus at Norwich the three great divisions are nearly of equal height; at Gloucester the lower portion is more than equal to the other two. At Norwich the piers are about two diameters, at Gloucester nearly five in height.

[6] “The painting may be thus generally described. The hollow of the abacus of the capitals red, the lower member of the same, green; the whole of the bell red, the leaves alternately green and yellow, with the stalks running down of the same colour into the red bell of the capital; the vertical mouldings between the marble shafts red and blue alternately; the lower shafts green or blue, with red in the hollows: the foliage on these also is green and yellow. Some of the horizontal mouldings are partly coloured also. The bosses in the groining are yellow and red, as in the capitals. All the colouring, which was very rich, was effected with water-colours; in one instance only has any gold been discerned, and that upon one of the bosses in the roof.”--_F. S. Waller._

[7] The Norman towers or turrets had, however, been rebuilt in the Early English period. “From an account of an accident which occurred between 1163 and 1179, we know that the west front was flanked by two towers; for while Roger, Bp. of Worcester, was celebrating mass before the high altar, the north-west tower, owing to a defect in its foundation, fell. It may be a question, however, whether these towers were not rather turrets, like those at Tewkesbury. The very fact that at Tewkesbury we have turrets rather than towers, is sufficient to make the suggestion very probable, for there is a great resemblance between the two churches. Moreover, if Abbot Morwent found a design with towers, properly so called, he substituted for it one provokingly inferior. This is hardly likely.”--(_G. A. P._) The rebuilding of the north-west tower was commenced in 1222, and its companion was also rebuilt between the years 1228-1243. These were the towers or turrets destroyed by Abbot Morwent.

[8] “In the interior this wall falls outwards eleven inches in its full height; and on the exterior the more recent work inclines not more than four inches; from which it is evident that the Norman wall must have been out of perpendicular seven inches, prior to the erection of Abbot Thokey’s work.”--_F. S. Waller._

[9] “The south aisle has this great advantage, which other altered buildings do not possess;--in other buildings the proportions very often constrain the designs in the new work, and give it a mixed character, spoiling both,--giving, for example, heaviness to the Norman, and flimsiness to the Decorated. But this is not the case at Gloucester.”--_Willis._

[10] The attention of the public was first called to this fact in a paper read before the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Worcester, in the summer of 1862, by the Rev. Samuel Lysons, F.S.A.

[11] Froucester’s Chronicle asserts that Abbot Wygemore re-cased the “aisle of St. Andrew,” and Abbot Horton “the aisle of St. Paul.” These aisles are identified with the south and north transepts, by comparing the Chronicle with an account given by one of the monks which Leland has recorded in his Itinerary. See Willis’s notice of the cathedral at the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Gloucester in 1860, Gent. Mag., Sept. 1860.

[12] Report of Professor Willis’s lecture at Gloucester, Gent. Mag., Sept. 1860.

[13] Willis.

[14] It has, however, been suggested that this structure may have been a lavatory, and the work of Elias de Lideford, sacrist during the early part of the thirteenth century, who, it is recorded, (by Froucester,) brought an “aqueduct” into the church. A lavatory in a church is not uncommon.

[15] This is the most probable explanation of this lectern. There was perhaps a desk in Canterbury Cathedral, in a similar position, from which the pilgrims were exhorted as they approached Becket’s shrine. At all events, in later times, the desk for the Bible and “Fox’s Martyrs” was erected in that cathedral, at the angle of the stairs ascending to the choir-aisle.

[16] Willis.

[17] Willis.

[18] The restoration of this window is the result of the untiring energy and able administration of the Chapter revenues by the Treasurer, Dr. Jeune, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Canon of Gloucester. A new Chapter school has been built, extensive repairs and restorations made in the cathedral, and the ground round it thrown open, by special funds derived from the same source.

[19] C. Winston, Stained Glass of Gloucester, &c., in the Bristol volume of the Archæological Institute. (For some further important remarks on this window, see Note at the end of Part I.)

[20] It has been asserted that this Sir John Powell was one of the judges who tried the seven bishops. This is an error. There were three Judge Powells living at the same time; two “Sir Johns,” and one “Sir Thomas.” Sir John who tried the bishops was of Caermarthenshire; the Sir John buried in this cathedral was of a Gloucestershire family. See “Gloucestershire Achievements” by the Rev. S. Lysons, 2nd edit., note, pp. 42, 43.

[21] F. S. Waller.

[22] Gent. Mag., Sept. 1860.

[23] F. S. Waller.

[24] Other traditions connect Lucius with Kent, and make Chilham Castle, near Canterbury, his principal stronghold. Besides Gloucester, he is the traditional founder of Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals, and of many churches. Another legend asserts that he resigned his crown, and after preaching Christianity throughout France and Germany, became Bishop of Coire in the Grisons, where he died, and where his relics are still shewn.

[25] Hist. Eccl., lib. i. cap. 4.

[26] See the whole discussion in Collier’s Church History, Pt. II. bk. iv.

[27] Fuller’s Worthies--Herefordshire.

[28] Worthies--Denbighshire.

[29] Church Hist., bk. xi.

[30] William of Malmesbury. No work of this early period now remains at Aix.

[31] Report of a Survey of the Dilapidated Portions of Hereford Cathedral, in the year 1841. By Professor Willis. Hereford, 1842.

[32] The Norman triforium, which was a mere wall-arcade without a passage, consisted of two circular arches in each bay, each arch circumscribing two smaller ones. The clerestory had one lofty circular arch in each bay, and had a passage throughout.

[33] “The oxe-eye masonry is so termed because the centre of it is pierced by an opening in the form of the ancient _vesica piscis_, called by workmen an ox-eye.”--_Willis._

[34] Willis’s Report on Hereford Cathedral, p. 20.

[35] This brass is engraved as the frontispiece to Haines’s “Manual of Monumental Brasses.”

[36] See Pt. II. for the confirmation of this date.

[37] Dean Merewether’s Memorials.

[38] A translation of M. D’Avezac’s paper will be found in the Gentleman’s Magazine for May, 1863. The division of France from Flanders, and “an inscription, most significant, placed across the Saone and the Rhone, marking, between Lyons and Vienne, the separation of France from Burgundy,” are the indications on which M. D’Avezac relies for his date.

[39] D’Avezac.

[40] For a further notice of this map, see Mr. Wright’s paper in the Gloucester volume of the Archæological Association, and that by M. D’Avezac already mentioned. One of the earliest mediæval maps accompanies the text of the _Periegesis_ of Priscian, an Anglo-Saxon MS. of the end of the tenth century, (Cott. Lib.) “A map of the world, in a MS. of the thirteenth century in the British Museum, contains a curious note, in which the author refers to four maps which were then looked upon in England as being of chief authority. These were, the map of Robert de Melkeleia, that of the Abbey of Waltham, that in the King’s Chamber at Westminster, and that of Matthew Paris.”--_Wright._

[41] “Mobiliers.”

[42] “This may account for the omission of any recorded founder or benefactor in connection with either the work of the north transept or of this tower; for it may be generally observed, with respect to the buildings of the Middle Ages, that, when they were carried on by their monasteries no record is preserved of the work, but only when some considerable portion of it, as a tower, a transept, or the vaulting of an aisle, was undertaken at the expense of an individual.”--_Willis’s Report_, p. 10.

[43] “The English eastern crypts are Canterbury, Winchester, Gloucester, Rochester, Worcester;--all founded before 1085. After this they were discontinued, except as a continuation of former ones, as at Canterbury and Rochester. The Early English crypt of the Lady-chapel at Hereford is an exception.”--_Willis_, _Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral_, p. 71, note.

[44] “_Port_ strictly means an enclosed place for sale or purchase--a market.”--_Kemble._

[45] Angl.-Sax. Chron., ed. Thorpe, s. ann. 1055. Another version of the Chronicle asserts that the minster was burned, and it is probable that it was greatly ruined. (See _post_, Bishop LOSING.)

[46] Sax. Chron., ad ann. 1056.

[47] Milman, Hist. of Latin Christianity, iii. 455.

[48] Collier, Eccles. Hist., bk. v. cent. 12.

[49] Wilkins, Concil. Mag. Brit. i. p. 76, quoted by Britton.

[50] Reg. Orleton--quoted by the Rev. John Webb, in his notes on the Swinfield Roll. It was in the time of Bishop Orleton that the canonization was decreed.

[51] Worthies--Herefordshire.

[52] Collier, Eccles. Hist., bk. vi. cent. 14.

[53] Britton.

[54] Worthies--Devonshire. Fuller gives Churchill, in the parish of Bratton, as Stanbery’s birthplace; but the bequest in his will renders it certain that he was born at Stanbery in Morwenstow.

[55] Worthies--Gloucestershire.

[56] See Procter’s Hist. of the Prayer-book, p. 23, note.

[57] Worthies--Northamptonshire.

[58] Worthies--Derbyshire.

[59] The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester ends with the year 1117, but has been carried on by an unknown Continuator as late as 1295. It has been printed by the English Historical Society. It is not so valuable for the architectural history of Worcester as the _Annales Ecclesiæ Wygorniensis_, which will be found in the first volume of Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_.

Professor Willis’s most valuable and elaborate “Architectural History of Worcester Cathedral” will be found in the twentieth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Institute. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for October, 1862, is printed Mr. Bloxam’s paper on the “Sepulchral Remains and Monuments” in the cathedral. Great use has been made of both these papers, and especially of the latter, in preparing the following account. Professor Willis’s dates and conclusions have been adopted throughout. Some very interesting features of the building are pointed out, for the first time, in his “Architectural History.”

[60] “Ego Wlstanus ... decrevi synodum congregare in monasterio S. Mariæ, in cryptis, quas ego a fundamentis ædificavi, et per misericordiam Dei postea dedicavi.”--_Anglia Sacra_, i. p. 542.

[61] “_Caput_, the ‘head’ of the church, was exclusively applied to the altar end thereof. _Frons_, the ‘front,’ however, can be shewn by many examples to have been employed for _either end_ of the building.”--_Willis’s Architectural History of Canterbury_, p. 45, note. There can be no doubt, as Professor Willis himself pointed out at Worcester, that in this instance the east end, or front, is intended.

[62] The eastern transept, forming the second transverse limb of the cross, was an addition of the Early English builders. Such a transept, “equal in height to the central alley of the presbytery, is only to be found elsewhere in England in the late Norman of Canterbury (c. 1096), and York (c. 1160); and in the Early English of Lincoln (c. 1186), Salisbury (c. 1220), Beverley, and Rochester. On the Continent the only known examples of this feature are S. Benoit sur Loire (c. 1080), and Cluny (c. 1089), the former of which was doubtless the prototype of the English examples.”--_Willis’s Architectural History of Worcester Cathedral._

[63] On this subject it may be well to quote the remarks of Professor Willis:--

“In criticizing these repairs and restorations, it is necessary to recollect that the crumbling material of the cathedral had decayed to such an extent on the exterior as to destroy the whole of the decorative features; and that, in the interior, settlements of the piers and arches in the Early English work had attained so alarming a magnitude as to threaten the stability of the structure. Attempts had been made to mitigate these settlements by the introduction of walls and arches in 1712; but these, beside disfiguring and obstructing the interior, were themselves giving way, having served rather to change the direction of the settlements than to stop them.

“The outside of the cathedral had been also overloaded and disfigured by additional buttresses to prop up its falling walls. Most of these have been removed or repaired, and the walls themselves thoroughly and skilfully restored to soundness by renewing the whole of the exterior ashlar, and pointing the interior, resetting it when required. This process has necessarily destroyed all appearance of antiquity in the exterior of the choir and Lady-chapel; but it must be remembered that all the decorative features of the original had vanished long since, and given place to the mean and uninteresting botchings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and that we have now a reproduction of its original aspect, as far as that can be determined.”--_Archit. Hist. of Worcester Cathedral_, p. 123.

[64] These relics of the Norman nave have been carefully pointed out by Professor Willis, _Arch. Hist. of Worcester Cathedral_, p. 93.

[65] Willis.

[66] See Arch. Hist. of Worcester Cathedral, p. 112.

[67] Willis, p. 110.

[68] Willis, p. 94.

[69] M. H. Bloxam.

[70] Willis.

[71] Willis, p. 97. The white oolite was obtained from Bredon Hill at Bath; the green stone from Higley on the Severn.

[72] That of St. Thomas de Cantilupe at Hereford--translated 1287; and of King Edward II. at Gloucester, _circa_ 1330.

[73] Willis, p. 100.

[74] Willis, p. 102.

[75] Id., 103.

[76] Willis.

[77] “Et his ita gestis, sciscitatus est ab eo Abbas de Croestuna si ipsum mori contingeret, ubi vellet eligere sepulturam. Cui Rex respondens, dixit, Deo et Sancto Wlstano corpus et animam meam commendo. Qui postea in nocte quae diem sancti Lucæ Evangelistæ proxime sequuta est, ex hac vita migravit. Cujus corpus regio schemate ornatum ad Wigorniam delatum est; et in ecclesia Cathedrali ab Episcopo loci honorifice tumulatum.”--_Matt. Paris_, p. 288.

[78] Leland (Itin.) thus notices the tomb:--“In presbyterio, Johannes Rex, cujus sepulchrum Alchirch, sacrista, nuper renovavit.” The time at which Alchirch was sacristan has not been ascertained, but it cannot have been long before Leland’s visit.

[79] M. H. Bloxam, “On the Sepulchral Remains and Monuments in Worcester Cathedral,” read before the Archæological Institute at Worcester, in 1862. (Gent. Mag., Oct., 1862.)

[80] Bloxam.

[81] Id.

[82] M. H. Bloxam.

[83] Id., Gent. Mag., Oct., 1862.

[84] Willis, p. 106.

[85] Bloxam.

[86] Bloxam.

[87] Id.

[88] Bloxam.

[89] Id.

[90] Gent. Mag., Sept. 1862. “It was said to be for the purpose of the monks conferring with each other; but he had seen such openings in places where no such construction could be put upon them.”

[91] Willis, p. 90.

[92] An account of this synod, drawn up by Wulfstan himself, is printed in the _Anglia Sacra_. The Dean of Chichester thus translates the commencement:--“I, Wulfstan, by the grace of God Bishop of Worcester, determined to hold a synod in the Minster of St. Mary’s, in the crypt of the church, which I built from the foundations, and by the mercy of God afterwards consecrated. This synod was held in the year of our Lord 1092, the fifteenth indiction. There were assembled all the wisest men invited from the three shires in our diocese, Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick; because that I, being full of days, sensible of my bodily weakness, and perceiving the end of my life approaching, was desirous of disposing canonically the ecclesiastical affairs committed to our charge, and by their wise concert, of correcting and amending whatever required amendment.”

[93] See Mr. Albert Way’s paper on “The Tradition of Flaying Inflicted in Punishment of Sacrilege,” Archæological Journal, vol. v. The Worcester doors are said to have been fixed originally in the west entrance, and to have been removed thence by Bishop Wakefield. The Dean of Chichester (Life of Wulfstan, p. 7,) remarks that the west side of the cathedral, fronting the Severn, was that from which a Danish attack might naturally be expected; and suggests that the doors are as old as the eleventh century, when the citizens of Worcester, like other Englishmen, resisted the imposition of the Danegelt, and killed (May, 1041) Feadu and Thurstan, the huscarls of Hardicanute, who had been sent to Worcester to collect it. Their skins may have been stretched on the church doors. In the following November a Danish army plundered the town and ruined the cathedral, from which the monks had fled. The sight of the skins, it is suggested, may have been the especial cause of this latter act of vengeance.

[94] Report of Professor Willis’s Lecture in Gent. Mag., Sept. 1862.

[95] J. H. Parker, Gent. Mag., Oct. 1862. Professor Willis considered the hall to be “in so ruinous a state that the expense of restoring it would have been greater than justifiable on such an object (especially as there would have been no use for it when done), and the Dean and Chapter had to keep up and maintain the cathedral in a state worthy of its original purpose.”--_Gent. Mag._, Sept. 1862.

[96] Rev. C. H. Hartshorne.

[97] See Kemble, Sax. in England, i. p. 300; and Exeter Cathedral, Pt. II.

[98] Bede, Hist. Eccles., 1. iv. c. 23.

[99] Archbishop Theodore died in 690. The see of Canterbury remained vacant for two years after his death.

[100] Bede _ut sup._

[101] Raine’s Lives of the Archbishops of York, p. 123.

[102] Lingard’s Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 294, quoted and accepted by Kemble.

[103] Lingard, ut sup. On the whole question of the dispute between the secular and regular clergy, see the excellent chapter on “The Clergy and Monks” in Kemble’s “Saxons in England,” vol. ii.

[104] Dr. Hook, Life and Times of Wulfstan; Archæological Journal, vol. xx.

[105] Raine’s Archbishops of York, p. 150.

[106] “Qui non ita hebes in literis ut putabatur, cætera sciebat, præter fabulas poetarum, et tortiles syllogismos dialecticorum, quæ nec nosset, nec nosse dignaretur.”--_W. Malmes._, _De Gest. Pontif._, l. iv.

[107] “Nusquam enim in villis suis aulas, nusquam triclinia fecit. Nimirum qui non solum in istis forensibus, sed etiam in Ecclesiis operosâ gravaretur architecturâ. Magis enim deputabat talia humanæ pompæ et jactantiæ quam divinæ voluntati et gratiæ.”--_W. Malmes._, _Vita S. Wulfstan._, l. iii. cap. 10.

[108] “Stabat ipse in cæmiterio tacitus, et subinde congemiscens. Scaturibat quippe in animo ejus cogitatio; quæ ingentem imbrem lacrimarum ferens, tandem erupit. ‘Nos, inquit, miseri Sanctorum destruimus opera, pompatice putantes nos facere meliora. Quanto præstantior nobis S. Oswaldus qui hanc fecit Ecclesiam? Quot sancti viri religiosi in eâ Deo servierunt?’ Et licet astantes referrent non debere illum tristari, sed potius lætari, quem Deus ad hanc servâsset gratiam ut sic videret magnificari Ecclesiam, in lacrimarum proposito tenax fuit. Nec desunt qui dicant prædixisse illum Ecclesiæ novæ incendium, quo subsequentibus conflagrata est annis. Sed non placuit pro vero præsumere, quod discrepat. Tunc autem et novam Ecclesiam perfecit; nec facile invenias ornamentum, quod eam non decoraverit. Ita erat in singulis mirabilis, et in omnibus singularis. Quocirca ut magnificentiæ nihil deesset, lxxii. marcas argenti scrinio innexuit; in quo beatissimi Oswaldi prædecessoris sui exuvias, simulque multorum Sanctorum locavit.”--_W. Malmes._, _Vita S. Wulfstan._, l. iii. cap. 10.

[109] Sax. Chron., ad ann. 1088.

[110] “1201. Miracula de S. Wlstano incæperunt xiv. Kal. Februarii; quæ per totum annum et amplius adeo crebrescebant, ut nunc xv. nunc xvi. uno die curarentur ab omnibus languoribus.”--_Annales Eccles. Wigorniensis. Anglia Sac._, i. 479.

[111] Annales Eccles. Wigorn., ad ann. 1283. “Rex Edwardus subjugata totaliter Wallia, venit Wigorniam gratia visitandi S. Wlstanum, erga quem amorem habuit specialem.”

[112] Malmes., De Gest. Pontif., lib. iv.

[113] Ibid.

[114] Annales Eccles. Wigorn., ad ann. 1198.

[115] Id., ad ann. 1199.

[116] Milman.

[117] Wharton’s note to Annales Eccles. Wigorn., s. a. 1268; Anglia Sacra, i. p. 497:--“Tumulum namque ejus magna cum religione Pontificii die 19 Januarii, quæ S. Wlstano sacra est, _hodienum_ visitare solent, Wlstani esse perperam credentes.” The Anglia Sacra was published in 1691.

[118] Walsingham.

[119] Worthies--Gloucestershire.

[120] Hallam, Literary History, Pt. IV. chap. ii.