Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Chichester (1901): A Short History & Description of Its Fabric with an Account of the Diocese and SeeCorlette, Hubert C. (Hubert Christian)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Chichester (1901): A Short History & Description of Its Fabric with an Account of the Diocese and See
Corlette, Hubert C. (Hubert Christian)
Chichester Cathedral
We have now briefly to review the changes produced in the plan of the
cathedral. There were those effected as an immediate consequence of
the fire, and others which were more the result of the continued
energy of the thirteenth-century builders. The most remarkable one was
that which converted the French chevet, or group of apses, into the
more familiar square, and characteristically English, eastern
termination. The apsidal chapels on the east side of each arm of the
transept had disappeared to make room for others of a different shape
and size. The other chapels at the east remained the same in number;
but towards the close of the thirteenth century the lady-chapel had
been lengthened, and the aisles of the choir, being continued
eastward, ended in small chapels to the north and south of the central
one. The other changes were those caused by the addition of chapels
off the south and north aisles of the nave. The addition of the south
and north porches, and the sacristy next to the south arm of the
transept, were the only other alterations, if we except the addition
of buttresses, which had been made in the original arrangement up to
the beginning of the fourteenth century.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH-EAST, ABOUT 1836. _From
Winkles's Cathedral Churches_.]
Though the quest may not be followed here, it would be interesting to
try and trace the cause of this desire to add chapels to mediæval
buildings. It had during the thirteenth century already become a clear
indication of that gradual movement affecting the arrangement of
churches which originated in the introduction of new doctrinal ideas.
The particular set of ideas which caused such additions as these had
now become a part of the common property of popular thought,
imagination, and reverent superstition. The earlier designers and
builders had not been taught to consider these features essential to
the complete equipment of a church planned in accordance with
primitive usages; they were a simple example of the influence which
doctrine exercised upon the history of art and the scope of
archaeological inquiry.
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