Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the BishopsKendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the Bishops
Kendrick, A. F. (Albert Frank)
Lincoln Cathedral
The two large round windows in the end walls are the most interesting
features of this transept. That on the north, the "=Dean's Eye=," is
of the same date as its surroundings, and may be placed about the year
1220. The tracery of the southern window, the "=Bishop's Eye=," is much
later; it is of the Decorated period, and was probably inserted soon
after the middle of the fourteenth century. It has already been remarked
that the row of quatrefoils above the window _outside_, are relics of the
earlier tracery. Near this window was John de Dalderby's shrine. Although
this bishop's admirers could not bring forward a record of sufficiently
numerous miracles to procure his canonisation at the papal court, yet he
was revered as a saint by the people, and it has been suggested that the
offerings at his shrine may have supplied the means to insert the tracery
of this window, as well as the one above, which lights the roof, and can
only be seen from the outside. The round window has been sometimes called
the "Prentice's Window"; but this name is never heard now, and the two
"eyes" of the minster will always retain the name which they have borne
for more than six hundred years. The "dean's eye" and the "bishop's eye"
are both mentioned in the "Metrical Life of St. Hugh," which, it will be
remembered, was written sometime between the years 1220 and 1235. The
simplest explanation of the names seems to be that the one faces the
deanery and the other faces the bishop's palace, but a far more poetic
interpretation than this has been devised. The north is the region of
Lucifer, and in that direction the dean's eye must look to guard against
his approach. Meanwhile the bishop's eye is turned towards the sunny
south, the region of the Holy Spirit, whose sweet influence alone can
overcome the wiles of the wicked one. Both windows are filled with fine
early glass. The "dean's eye" presents a most magnificent example of
early thirteenth century stained glass, earlier than most of the glass
at Canterbury, which is the richest of all our cathedrals in works of
this nature. The subject has been described by C. Winston in the Lincoln
volume (1848) of the Archæological Institute. It represents the Church on
Earth and the Church in Heaven. In the centre is our Saviour seated in
the midst of the Blessed in Heaven. Around are four large compartments,
containing portions of different subjects, which do not appear to have
all originally belonged to their present positions. The most interesting
is that shewing the translation of the relics of St. Hugh, represented as
borne on the shoulders of crowned and mitred personages. Of the sixteen
outer circles, the topmost represents our Saviour seated on a rainbow;
on either side are angels with the instruments of the Passion; in the
next circles St. Peter and other saints are conducting holy persons to
heaven; below these is the General Resurrection; the lowest five circles
each contain the figure of an archbishop or bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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