Part 31

“Notwithstanding the cruel mutilation of the sculpture all round this chapel, it can be seen that for perfection of exquisite work there is no building of the size in this country worthy for one moment to be compared with this in its unmutilated state. Its single defect strikes the beholder at once: the span of the roof is too broad and the vaulting too depressed for the size of the chapel. The windows on the north have been restored. The end windows, which are of great size, are of later date; that to the east has a look of Transition work about it. The building was finished in 1349, and the east window was inserted by Bishop Barnet, _circa_ 1373. The great beauty of the interior consists in the series of tabernacle work and canopies that run round all the four sides below and between the windows. The heads of the canopies project. In the tracery beneath, at the head of the mullion, was a statue. The delicate carving of the cusps and other tracery is varied throughout. On the spandrels were incidents connected with the history of the Virgin Mary (mainly legendary) and of Julian the Apostate; and though in no single instance is a perfect uninjured specimen left, yet enough remains, in all but a few cases, for the original subjects to be identified. All was once enriched with colour, and many traces remain; and in various parts of the windows there are fragments of stained glass. Most of the monumental tablets which once disfigured the arcade below the windows have been happily removed into the vestibule. The arches and canopies at the east end are arranged differently from those on the sides. In the roof, which reminds us of the contemporary roof in the choir, are some carved bosses, not large, but singularly good. Among the subjects can be recognised a Crucifixion, with half-figures beside the cross; Adam and Eve; the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, holding between them a book inscribed ‘Magnificat’; the Annunciation, with ‘Ave Maria Gratia plena’; the Ascension, indicated by the skirt and feet of the Saviour and five heads of apostles; the Coronation of the Virgin; and the Virgin in an aureole.”--(W. D. S.)

NORWICH

DEDICATION: THE HOLY TRINITY. CHURCH OF A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY.

This Cathedral was begun in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, the bishop appointed by William Rufus, who had received his education in Normandy, and who became prior of Fécamp. No earlier church stood on the site. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

“The characteristics of the cathedral are--its long nave, which is typical of the Norman church; its glorious apsidal termination, encircled by a procession path, which recalls the plan of a French cathedral; and the form of this, with the remains of its old bishops’ chair centrally placed, and with the westward position, of the throne at Torcello and other Italian churches, of the basilican type of plan.

“It is interesting to note that Herbert’s early French training influenced him in the planning of the beautiful eastern termination to his cathedral, and the grand sweep of the procession path. Similar apsidal terminations, of slightly later date, once existed at Ely, and still remain in a modified form at Peterborough and St. Bartholomew’s.

“It is probable, and the more generally accredited supposition, that Herbert built the presbytery with its encircling procession path and the original trefoil of Norman chapel radiating therefrom;--the choir and transepts with the two chapels projecting eastwards and the first two bays of the nave. Harrod advances a theory that he completely finished the whole of the cathedral church, as well as the offices for the housing of the sixty monks who were placed therein, in 1101.”--(C. H. B. Q.)

Norwich acquired its chief saint in the Twelfth Century, and a saint, moreover, that much resembled Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln. A young boy, William, the child of simple country people, was murdered by the Jews in the city. Immediately after his death miracles took place. The monks placed his altar near the ante-choir, and raked in the offerings.

The Cathedral suffered from fires, and the tower was struck by lightning in 1271. There was also a terrible riot between the people and the monks in the Thirteenth Century, when the Cathedral was besieged. The monastery and the Cathedral were burned, and many monks were killed. Some citizens of Norwich were hanged, drawn and quartered, and the city had to repair the church. The monks were compelled to erect new gates and entrances, one of which, St. Ethelbert’s Gate, still exists (see page 351).

About 1361 the spire and parts of the tower were blown down, and the presbytery was damaged. Therefore, the clerestory was rebuilt, and in the transitional style from Decorated to Perpendicular. The Cloisters date from about this time, and so does the Erpingham Gate. In the middle of the Fifteenth Century the nave vault was constructed; and it was under the two rules of Bishop Lyhart and Bishop Goldwell that the Cathedral was practically completed as we see it to-day. Dean Gardiner pulled down the Lady-Chapel and the Chapter-House in the Sixteenth Century, and in the Seventeenth Century Cromwell’s soldiers took possession.

Bishop Hall tells us how they behaved:

“Lord, what work was here, what clattering of glasses, what beating down the Walls, what tearing up of Monuments, what pulling down of Seats, what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windows and Graves! What defacing of Armes, what demolishing of curious stone work, that had not any representation in the World, but only of the cost of the Founder and skill of the Mason, what toting and piping upon the destroyed Organ pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the Market day before all the Countrey, when, in a kind of Sacrilegious and profane procession, all the Organ pipes, Vestments, both Copes and Surplices, together with the Leaden Crosse which had been newly sawne down from over the Green-Yard Pulpit, and the Service books and singing books that could be had, were carried to the fire in the publick Market place; A leud wretch walking before the Train, in his Cope trailing in the dirt, with a Service book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorne the tune, and usurping the words of the Letany; neer the Publick Crosse, all these monuments of Idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire, not without much Ostentation of a zealous joy.”

The Precincts are, like those of all English cathedrals, lovely, and these are fortunate enough to be entered by several ancient gates. The one on the south, =St. Ethelbert’s Gate= (Early Decorated), was built in the Thirteenth Century, after the riots and fire of 1272. The =Gate House= (Perpendicular), on the north, is the entrance to the Bishop’s Palace.

Opposite the west front we find the =Erpingham Gate=, built about 1420, by Sir Thomas Erpingham, whose figure stands in the niche over the wide arch. It is a greatly admired piece of Perpendicular work.

The =West Front= (Perpendicular) clearly defines the width of the nave and the aisles on either side. Over the centre door is the large west window of nine lights, often compared to the window of Westminster Hall. Above is a gable, surmounted by a cross. The doors date from 1436, and the west window from Bishop Lyhart’s time (1446-1472). There are no towers here; for the pinnacles placed on the side turrets in 1875 are not deserving of this name.

“The Tower and Spire stand at the intersection of the choir and transepts, covered with vertical shafts on the face of each. The tower is Norman buttress, which is finished by a crocketed pinnacle. Between these buttresses are horizontal bands of design: the lowest, a Norman arcade of nine arches, three of which are pierced as windows; then, above this, a smaller wall arcade with interlaced arches; and then, above again, the principal feature, an arcading of nine arches, three pierced for windows, and the others filled with wall tracery of diamonds and circles; then, between this last and the battlemented parapet, occur five vertical panels, each comprising two circles, the upper pierced for a window. Above, soaring upward, rises the later crocketed spire. The rest of the tower was finished during the reign of Henry I., and is a beautiful specimen of the work of that time; the stonework was almost entirely refaced in 1856. The tower was crowned by a wooden spire from 1297; this was blown down in 1361, damaging the presbytery so badly that the clerestory had to be rebuilt. The wooden spire was constructed probably at the same time, and the present Early Perpendicular turrets were added. The spire was again in 1463 struck by lightning, and again falling eastward, went through the presbytery roof. The present spire was then constructed in stone by Bishop Lyhart (1446-72), and was finished by his successor, Bishop Goldwell (1472-99), who added the battlements.

“It will hardly be necessary to enlarge on the beauty of this spire of Norwich, as the dominant feature, seen from the south-east, rising above the curved sweep of the apse, and strongly buttressed by the south transept, it stands up, clearly defined against the western sky, and points upward, significant and symbolical at once of the ends and aspirations of the church below.

“The eastern arm, or presbytery, takes its history from the tower. Here, as in the nave, the original triforium windows are blocked up, and a range of Perpendicular work superimposed on the old. Above and beyond this, supported between each bay by flying-buttresses, comes the transitional Decorated to Perpendicular clerestory, higher than the original Norman clerestory remaining to the nave. At the base of each flying-buttress are figures of saints. The roof and Norman clerestory were damaged by the falling tower in 1361, but were rebuilt by Bishop Percy, 1355-69. This work is transitional Decorated to Perpendicular. The presbytery was then re-roofed with a framed timber construction, which was consumed by the falling of the burning spire, struck by lightning in 1463. The present stone vault was added in its place by Bishop Goldwell, 1472-99. This necessitated the addition as well of flying-buttresses to take the thrust of the vault.

“The battlementing to the presbytery also was added at the same time as the flying-buttresses.

“It will also be noted that here, as in the nave, an addition was made in the way of a range of later ‘Perpendicular’ windows superimposed over the original Norman triforium, which was blocked up.”--(C. H. B. Q.)

The south transept projects under the central tower.

Next follows the =Chapel of St. Mary the Less= (Fourteenth Century) projecting southward, then the circular =Chapel of St. Luke= (Norman), very peculiar in form, with two rows of arcading.

The north side is well viewed from the =Bishop’s Gardens=. It differs little from the south side, except in the fact that it has been less restored. The chapel corresponding with the Chapel of St. Luke is the =Jesus Chapel=, and is also circular. Here we find Perpendicular windows inserted in the Norman work.

“The nave on the south side can be seen well either from the upper or lower Close, and can be better examined in detail from the interior of the cloisters. Its elevation consists of fourteen bays divided by flat Norman buttresses. In height it is composed of what, at first sight, appears a bewildering confusion of arches, arcades and windows. Over the aisle windows, hidden by the north walk of cloisters, comes a Norman wall arcading; and over this the Norman triforium windows blocked up, and again, above the later Perpendicular triforium, superimposed on the old, and finished with a battlemented parapet. Behind this come the triforium roof, and then beyond the original Norman clerestory, each bay with a triple arch formation, the centre arch pierced for a window. And then above all, the lead roof over the nave vault.

“The radical changes that have taken place since the nave was built by Bishop Eborard (1121-45) consist of the insertion in the aisles of later ‘Decorated’ traceried windows in place of the original Norman ones, and of the superimposition, before referred to, at triforium level, of a whole range of ‘Perpendicular’ windows over the old Norman work, which were blocked up at this period. The battlementing, too, over the clerestory to the nave is later work, to correspond with battlementing over the triforium windows. It will be noticed that the two bays next the transept in the triforium are higher than the others, in order to throw additional light into the choir.

“Also on this same south side, in the seventh and eighth bays from the west end, two very late windows occur, inserted in the Norman arcading under the original triforium windows; these were inserted by Bishop Nykke to light the chapel he built in two bays of the south aisle of the nave.

“The curious raking of the lead rolls to the nave roof is noticeable; the mediæval builders did this with a view of counteracting the ‘crawl’ of the lead.”--(C. H. B. Q.)

Norwich Cathedral is famous for its magnificent interior. A noble view is obtained on entering, for the great =Nave= reaches 200 feet to the choir-screen; and if the organ on the latter were removed, the view would be longer, for the extreme length of the Cathedral is 407 feet. The perspective is splendid, as it is, and very largely is it so because of the lierne vault of Perpendicular days, which relieves the severity of the Norman work below.

The nave consists of seven double bays (fourteen compartments) from the west end to the transepts. The main piers are, of course, large, and the arcade arches are ornamented with the billet. The triforium arches are decorated with a chevron or zigzag. Over it is the typical Norman clerestory and above all spreads the handsome lierne vault (Perpendicular). This splendid vault (72 feet), built by Bishop Lyhart (1446-1472), after the Norman roof had been destroyed by fire in 1463, is of great value to the student. There are 328 carved bosses at the intersection of the ribs, the subjects of which are taken from Biblical history.

“The vault is of Perpendicular design, and known as _lierne_; such vaults may be distinguished by the fact that between the main ribs, springing from the vaulting shafts, are placed cross ribs forming a pattern, as it were, and bracing the main ribs, but not in any great measure structural. This vault at Norwich may be taken as typical of the last legitimate development of the stone roof; it was the precursor of the later fan-vaulting, such as we find in Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster, where legitimate construction was replaced by ostentatious ingenuity and the accumulation of needless ornament and detail.

“To all those who take an interest in early stone-cutting, this vault of Norwich is a store of inexhaustible treasure; the bosses, rudely cut as they are, tell their own tales with singular truth and directness. Their sculpture may not display the anatomical knowledge of the work of the Renaissance; yet it has a distinct decorative value that has been seldom equalled in the later decadent period. The fourteen large central bosses on the main longitudinal ribs present in themselves an epitome not only of Bible history, but of the connecting incidents forming the theme of Christian teaching. In the tenth bay, on the longitudinal rib, there is, in place of a boss, a circular hole through the vault. It is supposed to have been formed to allow a thurible to be suspended therefrom into the church below. Harrod, quoting from Lambard’s ‘Topographical Dictionary,’ says: ‘I myself, being a child, once saw in Poule’s Church at London, at a feast of Whitsontide, wheare the comyng down of the Holy Gost was set forth by a white pigeon that was let to fly _out of a hole that is yet to be seen in the mydst of the roof of the great ile_, and by a long censer which, descending out of the same place almost to the very ground, was swinged up and down at such a length that it reached at one swepe _almost to the west gate of the church, and with the other to the queer [quire] stairs of the same_, breathing out over the whole church and companie a most pleasant perfume of such sweet things as burned therein.’

“It is probable that the hole in the nave vault at Norwich was used for a similar purpose; and its position would seem to agree with such use, situated as it is about midway between the west end and where the front of the mediæval rood loft occurred.”--(C. H. B. Q.)

In the aisles we find Decorated windows, and in the triforium, Perpendicular windows.

The =Choir-Screen= was erected by Bishop Lyhart in 1446-1472, but only the lower part survived the fury of the Puritan mob. The organ was placed in its present position in 1833. Immediately under the organ loft is a single compartment, blocked off from the north and south aisles by screens that originally belonged to one old screen (Perpendicular). This =ante-chapel= was formerly the chapel of Our Lady of Pity.

The =Choir= extends a little into the nave, and, therefore, beyond the tower and transepts. There are sixty splendid =Choir-stalls= of the Fifteenth Century, with ornate _misereres_. The Bishop’s Throne and Pulpit are modern. The old Pelican Lectern, in the Decorated style, should be noticed.

The =Presbytery= is the earliest part of the cathedral. It consists of four compartments, or bays, and terminates in a semicircular apse of five compartments. We find here Perpendicular arches, a lofty Norman triforium, and clerestory windows of the transitional period from Decorated to Perpendicular. The whole effect is Norman and noble. Unfortunately the old glass of the windows has perished.

The aisles of the presbytery are also called the =Processional Path=, and consist of four bays, and five around the apse. A door in the north aisle opens into the gardens of the Bishop’s Palace; and in this aisle, at the fourth bay east of the tower, there is a very peculiar bridge-chapel that spans the aisle. Critics say that it formed the ante-chapel to the reliquary chapel projecting northward from the outer wall of the Cathedral, and that it was probably built as a bridge for exhibiting relics as the processions passed along underneath.

On the south side of the presbytery (third bay) is the =Chapel of St. Mary the Less=, or =Bauchon Chapel= (Fourteenth Century). It projects beyond the wall. The vault is Fifteenth Century, and the bosses represent the Life, Death and Assumption of the Virgin. This is now the Consistory Court.

The =north transept= is without aisles or triforium. Arcading decorates the wall up to the clerestory. Above is a lierne vault of later date, of course, than the transept. The old apsidal chapel on the east (dedicated to St. Anne) is now used as a storeroom.

A staircase in the east wall of the north transept leads to the tower-galleries and walks, very interesting in themselves and affording glimpses through their openings into the nave, presbytery and transepts below.

Between the south aisle of the presbytery and the =south transept= a beautiful screen of late Perpendicular tracery fills the Norman arch. The roof, like that of the north transept, originally of wood, was destroyed by fire in 1509, and a new vault added in Perpendicular times.

Of the three chapels grouped around the presbytery the =Jesus Chapel= on the north and the chapel on the south, =St. Luke’s=, remain. The =Lady-Chapel=, at the extreme east, has perished.

The Norman Lady-Chapel was partly destroyed by the fire of 1169, and was succeeded by an Early English chapel of the Thirteenth Century. This was destroyed in the Sixteenth Century; but the finely proportioned entrance arches still remain. They are ornamented with the dog-tooth.

It is not often that ancient altar-pieces are found in the English cathedrals; but Norwich possesses a =Retable=, supposed to be the work of an Italian painter of the Fourteenth Century. It is in five panels--The Scourging, Bearing the Cross, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. It was formerly in the Jesus Chapel.

The =Cloisters= are in their usual position--on the south. Originally these were Norman, and perished by fire in 1272. The present ones were 133 years in building, and so they reveal the developments of architecture during 1297-1430. The cloister garth is about 145 feet square.

“The arches are filled with open tracery carried by two mullions.

“On the east side it is geometrical in character, the work being transitional between Early English and Decorated; on the south side the tracery is more flowing and has advanced to Decorated; on the west side again, we get the transitional style between Decorated and Perpendicular, with some _flamboyant_ or flame-like detail; while on the north and latest side it is frankly Perpendicular.”--(C. H. B. Q.)

They are entered from the south side of the nave, of course. The =Monk’s Door=, opening into the East Walk, is an ornate specimen of Perpendicular; and the =Prior’s Door=, opening into the West Walk, a fine specimen of Early Decorated.

ST. ALBANS

DEDICATION: ST. ALBAN. CHURCH OF A BENEDICTINE MONASTERY.

When Sir Gilbert Scott began to restore and repair the old abbey church of St. Albans, in 1870, he found it in a very dilapidated condition. Among other base uses to which various parts of the Cathedral had been put, the Lady-Chapel had been converted into a grammar-school, and a thoroughfare had been made through the retro-choir. After Scott’s death, in 1878, Lord Grimthorpe, who had been diligent and liberal for years regarding restorations, succeeded in getting control of the entire work. He made various changes and additions, and inserted windows at his own pleasure, not always with judgment, nor in the best taste. The consequence is that St. Albans is open to much criticism. Yet it remains an interesting old pile in many respects.

St. Albans did not become a cathedral until 1877. It was a famous old abbey church, dating back to the days of Offa II., King of the Mercians, who founded a Benedictine monastery here about 793. From this time until the suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII., the Abbey of St. Albans was of the greatest importance. Its Abbot had a seat in the House of Lords, and took precedence of all the abbots in the kingdom. Naturally, therefore, the list of abbots is notable. Some of them were related to the royal family. Among those especially distinguished were: Paul of Caen, John de Cella, William of Trumpington, John of Hertford, Roger of Norton, Hugh of Eversden, Richard of Wallingford, Thomas de la Mare, John de la Moote, John of Wheathampstead, and Thomas Wolsey, the great cardinal.