Rambles in an Old City: comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations — John Shaqi
Rambles in an Old City: comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associationsMadders, Susan Swain
History
Rambles in an Old City: comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations
Madders, Susan Swain
Norwich (England)
Percy, brother of the famous Earl of Northumberland, was another who wore
the mitre of the see; he lies buried before the roodloft door. Henry de
Spencer, the warrior bishop, is another, who raised and headed an army of
three thousand men, and conducted it in person to Flanders, where he
figured prominently in the wars between Richard and the French king, as
well as in the struggles of Urban and Clement for the papacy. His
military fame was rivalled by his notorious zeal in the cause of his
church, evidenced by unmitigated persecution of the Lollards, whose
adherence to the doctrines of Wickliffe was rewarded by every variety of
penance or punishment that could be devised to exterminate the heresy. A
splendid monument of this spirit of the man and age is left us in the
magnificent gateway opposite the West entrance to the cathedral, erected
by Sir Thomas Erpingham, at the bidding of De Spencer, as a penance for
his sympathy with these heretical doctrines. Above the doorway is an
effigy of himself in armour, kneeling and asking pardon for his offence.
Rugg—an instrument of Henry’s, in obtaining the divorce of Catherine of
Arragon; Hopkin—a notorious persecutor of the Protestants in Mary’s
reign; Parkhurst—a literary celebrity; Wren—the victim of Puritanism,
which placed him a prisoner in the tower for eighteen years without a
trial; Butts—a friend of Cranmer; Horne, whose letters on infidelity have
given him a fame; and Bathurst, respected in the memory of many yet
living; are names conspicuous in the catalogue; not yet complete without
two others, Stanley and Hinde. Of Hinde we can but say his work is yet
in hand, he is earning his place in history, for some future pen to
chronicle; but may be, no fitter subject could be offered for a closing
scene to this chapter on the bishops and cathedral of this see, than
memory can recal of that day, when beneath the lofty nave of the one, a
grave was opened to receive the mortal remains of the loved and honoured
Stanley. Who, among the thousands that then gathered themselves
together, wearing not alone the outer symbols of mourning and grief, but
carrying in their hearts deep sorrow, and in their eyes _unbidden_
tears—who will forget the solemn stillness of the thronged multitude as
the simple pall was borne, unmocked by plumes or other idle trappings of
fictitious woe, through the avenues of unhired mutes, whose heads were
bowed in heartfelt reverence, and lines of infant mourners, clad in the
livery of their benefactor’s bounty, and watering the pathway to his tomb
with honest tears of childhood’s love—the attitudes of grief and saddened
faces that filled the crowded aisles, and no less crowded walks above—the
hushed breathing that left the air free to echo the tones of the wailing
dirge, as it rose upon the voices of the surpliced choir, who mourned a
child of harmony, and wafted their strains of lamentation through all the
heights of the vaulted roof, while beneath its centre the grave was
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