Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeAddleshaw, Percy
Religion
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Addleshaw, Percy
Exeter Cathedral
#Walter de Stapledon# (1308-1326) was Professor of Canon Law at Oxford
and a chaplain to Pope Clement V. He was killed by a London mob. The
transformed choir transepts are his work, and he erected the organ
screen, bishop's throne, and sedilia. During his episcopate, also, the
cloisters were begun.
#James Berkeley# (1326-1327), Archdeacon of Huntingdon, and grandson of
William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, died a few weeks after his
consecration.
#John Grandisson# (1327-1369) was born in Herefordshire, of good family.
His long tenure of the see is one of the most memorable chapters in the
history of Exeter. The fatal Black Death occurred during his episcopacy,
1348-1369. He inherited the transforming zeal of his predecessors and
set his seal on the six western bays of the nave, the great west
windows, and the vaulting and the aisles. He completed the north
cloister.
#Thomas Brantyngham# (1370-1394) was educated at the Court of Edward
III., and was a canon of Exeter when chosen bishop. He was a constant
adviser of the king, only being released from his privy council and
parliamentary duties when his advanced age made them irksome to him. He
was very busy in all the affairs of the diocese, but found time to
complete the cloisters, east window, and west front.
#Edmund Stafford# (1395-1419) came of a greatly distinguished family. He
was a canon of York when Pope Boniface IX. advanced him to the See of
Exeter. For a time he served the king as Lord High Chancellor. He has
been abused by Campbell in his "Lives of the Lord Chancellors of
England": but there seems little doubt that he deserved the reputation
he certainly got of being learned, grave, and wise, and "very well
accounted generally of all men." To him are attributed the canopies over
the tombs in the Lady Chapel.
#John Ketterick# or #Catterick# (1419) died at Florence a month after
his appointment.
#Edmund Lacy# (1420-1455), composer of an office in honour of the
Archangel Raphael, left a saintly reputation, and pilgrimages were, for
long, made to his tomb. According to Canon Freeman he raised the chapter
house and glazed the nave windows.
#George Neville# (1458-1465) was a son of the Earl of Salisbury. He was
Chancellor of Oxford, and only twenty-four when made bishop. Though for
several years Lord High Chancellor, and translated to York, he died in
disgrace and comparative poverty.
#John Bothe# (1465-1478) was the son of a Cheshire knight. He has often,
but wrongly, been credited with being the donor of the throne. With more
certainty the roof of the chapter house has been acknowledged as his
work.
#Peter Courtenay# (1478-1486), son of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham,
had been Archdeacon of Exeter and Wiltshire, and Dean of Windsor and
Exeter before he was appointed Bishop of Exeter. He assisted at the
coronation of Richard III., but was none the less translated, for his
services, by Henry to the diocese of Winchester.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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