Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral: Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric, with Some Account of the College and the SeeWorley, George
History
Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral: Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric, with Some Account of the College and the See
Worley, George
Southwark Cathedral (London, England)
The tablet at the head is surmounted by the arms of the See of
Winchester, impaled with the private arms of Dr. Andrewes, supported
by two figures in a sitting posture. These represent the cardinal
virtues, Justice and Fortitude, so conspicuous in the Bishop's life.
The figures formed part of the original decoration of the canopy. The
Latin inscription at the head is from an entry in Archbishop Laud's
"Diary," and shows a slight inaccuracy in grammar as well as in the
date. This is given as September 21st, 1626, whereas Dr. Andrewes is
known to have died on September 25th. The grammatical error is
unimportant, while the gist of the sentence sums up the life and
character of the departed in the brief form of an epigram: "Lumen
Orbis Christiani." The inscription at the foot simply refers to the
restorations of the monument in 1703 and 1810.
=The Windows in the Retro-Choir.= There is no ancient glass in the
Cathedral, the oldest being that in the windows here set up to the
memory of the Anglican martyrs, and chiefly remarkable as examples of
the art of glass staining at a bad period. Seven martyrs are thus
commemorated, viz., three in each of the extreme bays on the eastern
side, and one in the central bay on the south. Taking them in order,
the window at the north end is devoted to the Rev. Lawrence Saunders,
the Right Rev. Robert Ferrar, and the Rev. Rowland Taylor, each figure
occupying a separate light in the triplet. Entwined about the robes of
the third there is a scroll bearing the supplication from the Litany
in the early prayer-books against "the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome
and all his detestable enormities."
The corresponding window in the southernmost of the four eastern bays
contains the figures of the Rev. John Rogers, Bishop Hooper, and the
Rev. John Bradford.
[Illustration: _Photo._ _G.P. Heisch._
MARTYRS' WINDOW TO SAUNDERS, FERRAR, AND TAYLOR.]
The seventh of the martyrs is memorialised in the central window on
the south, viz., the Ven. Archdeacon Philpot, the three lights being
filled with pictorial scenes from his trial. He is here commemorated
as having suffered at the same time with the others, though he was
separately tried in the Bishop of London's house, by St. Paul's
Cathedral. The rest were tried in this very chapel, then (and still
occasionally) used as a Consistory Court. There is thus a peculiar
appropriateness in the local commemoration, and especially in the
position of the first window of the series, as it was in that
identical bay that the Royal Commissioners sat in judgement, and
pronounced sentence on the men they regarded as heretics. The lancet
on the eastern side of the "Philpot" window is dedicated to Grace
Pearse, and dated 1845. The other is at present filled with plain
glass awaiting a suitable commemoration. The two triplets between the
martyrs' windows on the east contain memorials to the Rev. W. Curling
(1879) and the Rev. S. Benson (1881), who were co-chaplains at St.
Saviour's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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