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
Across the middle of the choir, just behind the reredos, is a row of four
table-tombs. The first of these, to the north, was erected by Bishop Fuller
soon after the Restoration, to mark the supposed burial-place of Bishop
St. Hugh. The saint's shrine was in the centre of the choir, but it is
supposed that when the shrine was melted down the body was removed and
placed somewhere else, perhaps in this spot marked by Bishop Fuller. The
tomb was opened in the year 1886, when the stone coffin was found to
contain nothing but decaying vestments. In Leland's time, St. Hugh lay
"in the Body of the Est Parte of the Chirche above the Highe Altare."
The next monument is that of Bishop Fuller himself, who was summoned
_ex ultimâ Hiberniâ_, as the epitaph records, to preside over the See
of Lincoln. William Fuller was a chaplain of Christ Church Cathedral,
Oxford, but, as a steady Royalist, lost his post during the war. At the
Restoration he was rewarded with the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin,
and became soon after Bishop of Limerick. In the year 1667 the bishopric
of Lincoln was vacant. There were two candidates for the appointment,
Dr. Glenham, Dean of Bristol, and Dr. Rainbow, Bishop of Carlisle. Fuller,
hearing of this, suggested that the difficulty should be solved by his
own transference from Limerick to Lincoln, and his suggestion was carried
out. Pepys, a friend of Fuller's, mentions the fact with delight. The
new bishop did his utmost to repair the injuries perpetrated during the
Civil War. He restored many monuments, and was meditating other works
in the same direction, when he died at Kensington, 23rd April 1675. The
third monument is that of Bishop Gardiner, who presided over the see
for ten years, dying in March 1704-5. This bishop, in a visitation of
the diocese, found a bad state of affairs in several churches where the
chancels were disused and left "in a more nasty condition than the meanest
cottage," while the holy table was brought down into the mid-aisle. The
Latin inscriptions on the monuments of Bishops Fuller and Gardiner are
somewhat quaint. The last of the four monuments is that of Subdean Gardiner
(d. 1731-2), and his only daughter Susanna, who died a year later. Near
the monument of Bishop Gardiner is a slab in the pavement, marking the
tomb of "Michael Honywood, D.D., who was grandchild and one of the 367
persons that Mary, the wife of Robert Honywood Esq., did see before she
dyed lawfully descended from her." The elaborate stone monument in the
third bay on the north side is in memory of Bishop Wordsworth (b. 1807:
d. 1885), a nephew of the poet. The base is decorated with Gothic
arcading, and has figures of the twelve apostles. On it rests the
recumbent effigy of the bishop, clad in a cope and mitre. At his head
are two angels, and a dragon lies beneath his feet. Above is a lofty and
intricate Gothic canopy, with a figure of Christ in the centre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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