The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and ArchitectureDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and Architecture
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Cathedrals -- Great Britain; Church architecture -- Great Britain
Before proceeding eastward we will see the Galilee Chapel, which was
the Lady Chapel, a beautiful specimen of Late Norman work, erected by
Bishop Pudsey in 1175. Lady chapels usually stand at the east end, but
no women were allowed to enter churches dedicated to St. Cuthbert, who
has been accused of misogyny. We notice in the nave a boundary stone,
beyond which no female foot might go in the direction of the high
altar. We mark a change in the style of architecture from that used in
the nave. The arches and columns are lighter, with graceful capitals,
on which the volute appears. The style is approaching that of the
graceful period of Early English. Cardinal Langley (1406-1437) made
extensive alterations in this chapel, heightening the walls, erecting
a new roof, inserting Perpendicular windows, closing the west door of
the church, and making two other entrances. All visitors will approach
with reverence and interest the tomb of the Venerable Bede, the great
Anglo-Saxon scholar, and the father of English history. His bones were
once covered with a splendid shrine, which the iniquitous
commissioners of Henry VIII. destroyed. Now a plain marble slab, with
the inscription:
"_Hac sunt in fossa Bædæ Venerabilis ossa,_"
alone marks the grave of this illustrious man. The altar of the Virgin
stood in the great western doorway, which was then walled up, of which
the stone slab carved with the five crosses, the aumbrey and some
colouring alone remain. The builder of this chapel, Cardinal Langley,
lies buried here, and his monument remains. Some much-damaged mural
paintings mark the site of the Altar of Our Lady of Pity. The
paintings are supposed to represent St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert. There
is some uncertainty about the origin of the name "Galilee." Most
probably it arose from the custom of the monks to go in procession at
certain times around the church, and to halt at certain stations in
memory of our Lord's appearance after His Resurrection. His last
appearance was on a mountain in Galilee; it is therefore not
improbable that the place where the procession made its final halt
should receive that name. Here in ancient times the consistory court
held its sittings, and here the commissioners of Henry VIII. met and
destroyed, or appropriated, the rich store of treasures, the
vestments, plate and ornaments which had been given to the Cathedral
by countless generations of pious benefactors. Again entering the nave
in the south aisle, we see the Neville monuments, which have been much
mutilated by the Scottish prisoners, or during the Reformation period.
Between the fifth and sixth pillars is an altar tomb to the memory of
Lord John Neville and his wife Matilda (1386), daughter of Hotspur.
The matrix of the brass of Bishop Robert Neville (1438-1457) is in
front of this. In the next bay is the altar tomb of Lord Ralph
Neville and his wife, Lady Alice (1374), who founded the Neville
Chapel. Holes in the pillar show where the iron grating stood which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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