Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeFisher, A. Hugh (Alfred Hugh)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Fisher, A. Hugh (Alfred Hugh)
Hereford Cathedral
*Hugh Foliot*, A.D. 1219-1234, founded the Hospital of St. Katherine at
Ledbury, in which still hangs a portrait of him, painted from an older
picture. A tooth of St. Ethelbert was presented to the cathedral during
his episcopacy. He endowed the Chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and St.
Katherine, in the ancient building adjoining the Bishop’s palace,
destroyed in the eighteenth century.
*Ralph de Maydenstan*, A.D. 1234-1239, presented to the see a house in
Fish Street Hill, London, as a residence for the bishops when in the
metropolis. He also made various gifts to the cathedral, the chapter, and
the college of vicars choral. This Bishop was one of the commissioners to
settle the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Provence.
*Peter of Savoy (Aquablanca)*, A.D. 1240-1268, a native of Aqua Bella,
near Chambéry, whose appointment was an instance of the preference Henry
III. showed for foreigners. One of the most unpopular men in England; he
was hand in glove with the weak-minded, waxen-hearted King in schemes for
money getting.
Bishop Aquablanca probably built the graceful north-west transept of the
cathedral, containing the shrine under which lie the remains of his
nephew, a Dean of Hereford, together with his own, except the heart. This
was carried, as he had requested it should be, to the church he had
founded in his native place.
*John de Breton*, or Bruton, A.D. 1268-1275.
*Thomas de Cantilupe*, A.D. 1275-1282. Born A.D. 1220, he showed, as a
child, unusual religious zeal, was educated at Oxford and Paris, and for
some years filled the office of Chancellor of England at the choice of the
barons. This post he lost on the death of Simon de Montfort. When he was
elected by the Chapter of Hereford to fill the episcopal chair on De
Breton’s death he was only persuaded to accept it with difficulty.
Bishop Cantilupe was renowned for his extreme piety and devotional habits.
In a dispute concerning the chace of Colwall, near Malvern Forest, from
which was derived the Bishop’s supply of game, he maintained successfully
the episcopal rights. He was also triumphant in a more important quarrel
with the Welsh King Llewellyn about the wrongful appropriation of three
manors.
When Lord Clifford was in trouble for plundering his cattle and
maltreating his tenants, Bishop Cantilupe inflicted personal chastisement
upon him with a rod in the cathedral. The clergy no less than laymen did
he subdue, appealing when necessary to the Pope.
In a quarrel arising out of a matrimonial case, in which the defendant
appealed to Canterbury against a sentence of the sub-dean of Hereford, he
was at last excommunicated by the Archbishop for refusing to go to discuss
the affair with him at Lambeth. At Rome he obtained a favourable decree,
but died in Tuscany on the homeward journey.
As already described, his remains were finally laid with great pomp in the
Lady Chapel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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