Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum — John Shaqi
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of SarumWhite, Gleeson
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum
White, Gleeson
Salisbury Cathedral
This custom was not confined to this cathedral, but practised at many
others in England and on the Continent, where we find records of much
greater power being exercised by the boy-prelate, extending even to
the presentation to prebends. At Winchester it was certainly observed.
So far back as 1263 we find it described at St. Paul's Cathedral as an
ancient custom. Several sermons preached by the boy-bishops are still
preserved; one is reprinted in the Camden Society's "Miscellany," vol.
vii. Dean Colet (once a prebendary of Sarum) in his statutes for St.
Paul's school directs: "All these children shall every Childermas day
come to Paules Church, and here the Childe-bishoppes sermon, and after
be at high masse so each of them offer _one peny_ to the childe
bishoppe. And with the maisters and surveyors of the scoole in general
procession when they be warned they shall go tweyne and tweyne
togither soberly, and not singe oute, but saye devoutly tweyne by
tweyne seven psalmes with letany." (Add. MS. 6174.) At York the mock
prelate held office longer, and wielded far more power than his
fellows of Sarum.
In 1299, on December 7th, a boy-bishop at Hoton, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I., then on his way to
Scotland.
At Salisbury in 1542 Henry VIII. forbade the ceremony by royal
proclamation. It was revived under Queen Mary, and finally abolished
on the accession of Queen Elizabeth.
Not entirely alien to the subject is the office of the bishop's boy,
which is probably peculiar to Salisbury. His duty is to call at the
palace before every service and inquire if the bishop will attend. He
is formally appointed by the bishop, who lays his hands upon him, and
repeats a prescribed office.
A nameless tomb (19), and a memorial (20) to Dr. Daubigny Turberville,
an oculist of Salisbury, who died April 21st, 1696, complete the more
important monuments of the nave. Several mural tablets on the aisle
walls are of hardly sufficient general interest to need description.
In Price's "Antiquities of Salisbury," and many of the numerous works
devoted to the cathedral, copies of nearly all the epitaphs are given,
but, except in very special instances, they form peculiarly depressing
reading.
=The Choir Screen= was given as a memorial of the late Mr. Sidney Lear
by his wife, to whom the cathedral is indebted for many of its modern
enrichments. It is entirely of wrought metal, by Skidmore, of
Coventry, and a good example of its class. It replaced the organ
screen compiled by Wyatt from fragments of the Hungerford and
Beauchamp chantries; to erect which he removed the original screen of
exquisite workmanship, as may be seen by portions now placed along the
west wall of the north-east transept.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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