Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal SeeClifton, A. B.
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See
Clifton, A. B.
Lichfield Cathedral
About this time, too, the cathedral must have been finished; now, too,
was the terrible visitation of the black death, that most deadly of all
plagues, which is said to have cut off one half of the whole population
of the realm. Whether the fear of it, or the occasion of the completion of
the cathedral, caused the chapter to set their house in order, certain it
is that we have, in the discovery of the sacrist's roll of 1346, a kind
of inventory of the valuables of the cathedral at this time; these are
set out in the part devoted to the cathedral. Thomas of Chesterfield,
the early historian of the diocese, whose work is printed in Wharton's
_Anglia Sacra_, and on whom all later writers on the subject have had
largely to rely, lived at this time, and brought down his "chronicle"
to 1348, one of the years of the black death.
=Roger de Stretton= (1360-1386), an absolutely uneducated man,
succeeded Langton; then came =Walter Skirlaw= (1386) and =Richard
Scrope= (1386-1396), but the former, between his consecration and his
enthronement, was translated to Bath and Wells, from whence he went
to Durham, and the latter, though distinguished in English history,
is more noted as Archbishop of York. Next came Bishop =John Burghill=
(1398-1414), a barefooted Black Friar, who gained a reputation for
asceticism, and left his worldly goods to the church. Richard II. was
present at the enthronement of these two last bishops. They were followed
by =John Catterick= (1415-1419).
In 1419, =William Heyworth= (1419-1447), the abbot of St. Albans,
became bishop. An important question was settled in his time--viz. the
bishop's position in the cathedral. At his suggestion, it was arranged
that he should give notice to the dean when he intended a visitation:
the chapter should be summoned, and they should conduct him to the high
altar and there leave him to stand or kneel alone in prayer. Afterwards
they were to conduct him to the chapter-house, where he might inquire
into the title and conduct of the canons; the other cathedral clergy
were to be entirely subject to the dean and chapter. His rule saw also the
beginnings of the collegiate church of Manchester, which so long after was
to become the cathedral of the new diocese to be carved out of our see.
It is unnecessary to more than mention the names of bishops who succeeded
about this time: they are--=William Booth= (1447-1450), =Nicholas Cloose=
(1452), =Reginald Bolars= (1453-1459). =John Halse= (1459-1492) was called
on to give shelter to Queen Margaret after the battle of Bloreheath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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