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
Jocelin's death in 1242, it would seem that his chief attention was
given to the rebuilding of the fabric of the church of Wells, to some
further changes in the constitution of the Chapter, and to other good
works in the city. He could not have begun his works at Wells before
the year 1211; for the first five years of his episcopate were spent
in banishment under the tyranny of John.[32] Jocelin was a Wells man
in every sense of the word. As he is called Jocelin of Wells, and as
his brother Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, is called Hugh of Wells, both were
doubtless natives of the city, and Jocelin had been a Canon of the
Church before he became its Bishop. He is a memorable man indeed in our
local history; he may be called the creator of the cathedral as it now
stands, he put the last finishing touches to the capitular constitution
devised by Robert, and he also began another of our institutions which
has lasted to our own time, I mean that of the Vicars. With regard to
the fabric, I now come upon ground which Professor Willis has made
his own. As many of you doubtless remember, he has twice lectured on
Wells Cathedral: once in 1851, when the Archæological Institute at
their Bristol meeting paid a hurried visit to Wells; and again in 1863,
at the meeting of our own local Archæological and Natural History
Society, an honour, let me tell you, of a very rare kind, and which I
believe has not been granted to any other local society. Now, if we had
Professor Willis's lecture as he delivered it, there would be little
else for any future historian of the fabric to do except to make spoil
of what the Professor said. But unluckily, the great work of which
this and all other Professor Willis's lectures of the same kind were
to form parts has not yet appeared, and I greatly fear that it never
will appear. We have therefore to draw our own recollections, helped
by the report in our own Society's Proceedings, 1863, which is at
least fuller and more accurate than that in the Bristol volume of the
Institute. I shall therefore, in what I have to say as to architectural
facts, follow Professor Willis as nearly as I can, though I shall have
to make more use of my own light than I need have done if I really had
the Professor's lecture before me. I speak thus of architectural facts,
with regard to which he who follows Professor Willis will seldom go
wrong; as for matters of taste and opinion, architectural or otherwise,
I hold myself independent of Professor Willis as of every other man.
But I should add that I have not had, like the Professor, the advantage
of a diligent study of the manuscript documents in possession of the
Chapter. I once glanced at them in company with Professor Stubbs, and
that is all. When these documents are printed, as all documents of
the kind ought to be printed, I hope I may be able to make good use
of them; but while they are shut up in manuscript they are useless to
me. Searching into manuscripts is a special gift, one which Professor
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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