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
Now in this account there are many things worthy of careful notice.
First, mark the full authority of the Bishop in his own church; Gisa
seems to do whatever he pleases. We need not suppose that he did what
he did without obtaining the consent of his Chapter in some shape or
other; but it is plain that the Bishop was still, to say the least,
the chief mover in everything. One is also inclined to think that
before Gisa's time the Canons had no property distinct from that of the
Bishop. A large portion of his new acquisitions was bestowed to the
benefit of the Canons; but it appears from Domesday that what they held
at the time of the Survey was all held under the Bishop.[32] Secondly,
mark the very important change which Gisa made in the constitution
of the church of Wells by bringing in the Lotharingian discipline. He
did not, like some other Prelates, drive out his canons and put monks
in their stead, nor yet did he, as was done at some other places,
compel his canons to take monastic vows. The Canons of Wells, after
his changes, still remained secular priests and not regulars. But the
changes which he made were all in a monastic direction. They brought in
something of the strictness of monastic discipline among a body of men
who had hitherto lived in a very much freer way. I cannot help thinking
that the rule of Chrodegang was but the small end of the wedge, and
that before long it would, if not by Gisa, by some reforming Bishop or
other, have been developed into the rule of Saint Benedict. But the
next Bishop was not a reforming Bishop, and the fear of the Canons
of Wells being displaced to make room for monks, or being themselves
turned into monks, happily passed away. Gisa, there can be no doubt,
was a good man and a diligent and conscientious Bishop, though some of
his doings were such as we Englishmen are not likely to approve. At
last, after being Bishop twenty-eight years, he died in 1088, and was
buried under an arch in the wall on the north side of the high altar,
as his predecessor Duduc was on the south side.[33] This notice is
important; it shows that Gisa, among all his works of other kinds, did
not rebuild the church itself; it also shows, by speaking of an arch in
the wall, that the eastern part of the church had no aisles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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