History of the Cathedral Church of Wells: As Illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation — John Shaqi
History of the Cathedral Church of Wells: As Illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old FoundationFreeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
History
History of the Cathedral Church of Wells: As Illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation
Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
Wells Cathedral
This Bishop Gisa, who succeeded Duduc in the year 1060, was a
remarkable man in our local history. Like Duduc, he was a foreigner.
Like several other Bishops at that time, he came from Lotharingia or
Lorraine. But you must remember that the name Lorraine then meant, not
only Upper Lorraine which is now part of France, but Lower Lorraine,
a great part of which is now part of the Kingdom of Belgium. Gisa in
short was what we should now call a Belgian, and he probably spoke
the old tongue of those parts, which is one of the tongues of the
Continent which is most like our own. He complains that, when he came
to his diocese, he found his church mean and its revenues small; so
much so that the four or five canons who were there had to beg their
bread.[26] Of course I need not say that this is an exaggerated way
of talking; but we may well believe that, like many a poor clergyman
still, they were glad of any help that well-disposed people would give
them. It is worth notice that another Bishop of the same time and of
the same nation, Hermann, Bishop of the Wilsætas, complained that the
revenues of his church at Ramsbury were so small that they could not
maintain any monks or canons at all. Hermann mended matters in one
way by getting the Bishoprick of Dorsetshire or Sherborne joined to
that of Wiltshire and Berkshire, and in the end he moved his see to
Salisbury, that is of course Old Sarum, whence it was afterwards again
moved to the new city of that name.[27] Gisa set to work to increase
the revenues of his church by buying and begging in all directions.
King Eadward gave him Wedmore; his wife, the Lady Eadgyth--remember
that the proper title of the wife of a West-Saxon King was not Queen
but Lady--gave him Mark and Mudgeley; William the Conqueror gave him
the disputed lordships of Banwell and Winesham, and he bought Combe
and lands at Litton and Wormestor or Worminster.[28] He was thus able
to make a good provision for his canons; you will doubtless remember
that many of the places which I have just spoken of give their names to
prebends in the church of Wells to this day. He also greatly increased
the number of canons, but he did something more. Among the things which
he complains of is that the canons of Wells before his time had no
cloister or refectory. This means that they did not live in common,
but lived, after the manner of English secular priests, each man in
his own house. They therefore had no need of a common refectory or
dining-hall, nor had they any need of a cloister. In a monastery the
cloister is one of the most important parts of the building; it is
the centre of everything, all the other parts gathering round it;
and it is always built in one particular place and of one particular
shape, namely a square north or south of the nave of the church. In a
monastery in short the cloister is a necessity; in a secular church it
is a luxury, a thing which may be very well left alone. In our secular
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account