England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
The remains of the Benedictine monastery to which the care of these
shrines was entrusted are south of the cathedral, forming three sides of
a square, of which the cathedral nave was the fourth. Beyond is an open
green, with the castle on the farther side and old buildings on either
hand. From this green the castle is entered by a gateway with massive
doors, but, while the structure is picturesque, it is not very ancient,
excepting this gateway. It has mostly been rebuilt since the twelfth
century. This was the palace of the bishops of Durham, of whom Antony
Bek raised the power of the see to its highest point. He was prelate,
soldier, and politician, equally at home in peace or war, at the head of
his troops, celebrating a mass, or surrounded by his great officers of
state. He was the first who intruded upon the solitude of St. Cuthbert
by being buried in the cathedral. Here lived also Richard of Bury, noted
as the most learned man of his generation north of the Alps, and the
first English bibliomaniac. Bishop Hatfield also ruled at Durham, famous
both as architect and warrior. Cardinal Wolsey lived here when
Archbishop of York and his quarrel with Henry VIII. resulted in the
Durham palatinate beginning to lose part of its power, so that in the
days of his successor, Tunstall, it came to be the "peace of the king,"
and not of the bishop, that was broken within its borders. Here also
ruled the baron-bishop Crewe, who was both a temporal and a spiritual
peer, and Bishop Butler, the profound thinker. But the bishops live
there no longer, their palace being moved to Auckland, while the
university is located in the castle. It is the Northern University,
first projected in Cromwell's time. About a mile to the westward of
Durham was fought the battle of Neville's Cross in October, 1346. This
was a few months after Edward had won the battle of Crecy in France, and
the King of Scotland, taking advantage of the absence of the English
king and his army, swept over the Border with forty thousand men,
devastating the entire country. His chief nobles accompanied him, and to
encourage the troops the most sacred relic of Scotland, the "Black
Rood," a crucifix of blackened silver, was present on the battlefield.
This had been mysteriously delivered to David I. on the spot in
Edinburgh where to commemorate it Holyrood Abbey was afterwards founded.
But, though King Edward was in France, Queen Philippa was equal to the
emergency. An army was quickly gathered under Earl Neville, and Durham
sent its contingent headed by the warlike bishop. The invaders drew near
the walls of Durham, and the English army, inferior in numbers, awaited
them. To confront the "Black Rood," the bishop brought into camp an "ark
of God" in obedience to a vision: this was one of the cathedral's
choicest treasures, "the holy corporax cloth wherewith St. Cuthbert
covered the chalice when he used to say mass." This, attached to the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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