Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel
An historic relic, now preserved at Trinity College, Cambridge, is the
"Ely Book." It cannot be passed over without a word. On a page are
portrayed Ethelwold and King Edgar, but its chief importance is the
record of instructions received by the commissioners to supply details
and valuation of property for the "Doomsday Book." The inquiries and
answers indicate that England had already been divided up into manors,
and furnish besides a variety of most interesting information.
Another incident in the history of Ely, if not of great importance to
the city, is nevertheless an interesting insight of the respective
position of the Church and State soon after the dissolution.
In the good days of Queen Bess, the Bishop of Ely received a royal
rebuke.
In the great struggle between the Protestants, or anti-papal world, and
the Catholic reaction, there was little leisure for the clergy to air
their grievances. They were compelled to submit to the will of the
Queen and her counsellor Cecil, from whom Archbishop Parker of
Canterbury received his cue for the government of the Church. Though he
enjoyed the personal confidence of Elizabeth beyond any other
ecclesiastic of the time, his complaints were unavailing. The supremacy
of the lay power over the ecclesiastical was too thoroughly accomplished
to allow of the Church to exist apart in the early years of Elizabeth's
reign. The Bishop of Ely, for expressing unwillingness to hand over the
gardens of Ely house to Sir Christopher Hatton, received a
characteristic warning, couched in elegant language, for his temerity.
"By God, I will unfrock you!" was the Queen's gracious answer to the
daring prelate, if he did not mend his ways.
Through the cultivation of its fertile soil by market-gardeners, Ely
offers its produce to the London market.
A considerable factory for earthenware and tobacco-pipes, and numerous
mills for the preparation of oil from flax, hemp, and cole-seed, help to
furnish the trade resources of this historical town, which is situated
on the river Ouse, in Cambridgeshire, and just sixteen miles from the
celebrated University of Cambridge.
Gloucester
Glowecestre.
"Doomsday Book."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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