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
brought many prelates in his train, and not the least conspicuous among
them was Remigius, who was destined soon to share largely in the spoils
of the newly-conquered country. This man was Almoner of Fécamp on the
coast of Normandy. His offer, for the projected invasion, of a single
ship with twenty knights, procured him the promise of the first English
bishopric vacant, and the Conqueror redeemed his word on the death of
Wulfwig, Bishop of Dorchester. In the first years of his episcopate,
Remigius commenced to build on a stately scale at Dorchester, but it
seemed to him inconvenient, so Henry of Huntingdon records, that the
see should be in a corner of the diocese. Remigius had already begun to
look on the "distinguished city of Lincoln" as being more worthy to be
the seat of a bishop, when in the year 1072 a council held at Windsor
decreed that bishops should fix their sees in walled towns instead of
villages. Remigius would naturally turn to the district of Lindsey, whence
his predecessors had come, and with his choice of Lincoln begins the
history of our minster. The city at this time, according to the Domesday
record, boasted eleven hundred and sixty inhabited houses. The Conqueror,
"in feare of rebellious commotions," had already commenced the erection
of a castle there to overawe the surrounding country. For this purpose,
one hundred and sixty-six houses were destroyed on the top of the hill,
within the bounds of the Roman walls. Their inhabitants were driven
beyond the Witham to found a new town in the plain beneath, where the
land belonged to Coleswegen, an English favourite of the king. The towers
of St. Mary-le-Wigford and St. Peter-at-Gowts stand to this day as the
venerable relics of the churches built by him for these new tenants of
his estate. They are extremely valuable records, being monuments of the
earlier--Saxon--style of architecture, reared by Englishmen, while the
castle and cathedral in the more advanced Norman style were rising on
the height above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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