Tales of English Minsters: HerefordGrierson, Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Wilson)
History
Tales of English Minsters: Hereford
Grierson, Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Wilson)
Hereford Cathedral
and about Bishop Dubric, who crowned the King at Cirencester, and
married him to Guinevere his wife.
Part of those wonderful stories is purely legendary, but part is
true, for it is believed that King Arthur was a real person, and so
were many of his Knights.
Bishop Dubric, or Dubricus, certainly was a real person, for we know
that he was Bishop of Cærffawydd, and it is said that it was Sir
Geraint, the Knight who married Enid, and rode with her, in her old
faded dress, to Court, who built the first little church here, where
the Bishop had his chair or ‘stool.’
Be this as it may, it is certain that there was a tiny little
Cathedral here, long before the other English Cathedrals were thought
of, for you know that a church is a Cathedral, no matter how small it
is, if it has a Bishop’s official chair inside it. And it is probable
that this little Cathedral was built of wood, and roofed with reeds
or wattles.
Illustration: THE QUEEN HANDS THE DRUGGED CUP TO ETHELBERT.
_Page 20._
It must have been rebuilt, or at least repaired, once or twice
during the centuries that followed, but we know very little about
its history until we come to the year A.D. 794, when a terrible event
happened which led to a larger and more stately church being erected,
this time of stone.
If you have read the story of St. Albans Cathedral,[1] you will know
what this event was; but I will try to tell you more fully about it
here, for although it is very sad, it gives us a true picture of what
even the life of Kings was, in these dark and troublous ages.
[1] ‘Tales of English Minsters: St. Albans.’
The name of the King who reigned over East Anglia--that is, the land
of the ‘North folk’ and the ‘South folk,’ or, as we call it, Norfolk
and Suffolk--in these days was Ethelbert, and he had an only son,
Ethelbert the Ætheling.
This Ethelbert was such a goodly youth, so tall and straight and
handsome, so skilled in all manner of knightly exercises, and so kind
to the poor and needy, that all his father’s subjects adored him.
He loved God with all his heart, and would fain have given up his
princely state and retired into some religious house, so that he
might have more time to study His Word, and to learn about Him.
But he had plenty of what we call ‘common sense,’ so when his father
died, and he was left King in his stead, he said to himself, ‘Now
must I bestir myself and put away the dreams of my youth. I had
visions of forsaking the world like Cuthbert or Bede, or the holy
Paulinus, who won King Edwin to the Faith.[2] But if it had been the
will of God that I should serve Him in this manner, I would not have
been born an Ætheling,[3] and inheritor of the throne of East Anglia;
and, seeing He hath thus dealt with me, I must serve Him according to
His will, and not according to mine own. Therefore will I seek to be
a just and true King.’
[2] ‘Tales of English Minsters: York.’
[3] Heir Apparent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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