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
Very stormy times befell the Cathedral at the end of the thirteenth
century. The city was sacked by the revolting barons in 1266, and a
few years later a dispute arose between the citizens and the prior
about the right of tolls to a fair held in the Tombland at
Whitsuntide, which were of much profit to the monastery. It was the
same story which is told of many towns, the quarrels of the burghers
and the ecclesiastics. In 1272 the disputants fell to blows, and some
of the citizens were slain. They arrested some of the men of the
monastery for murder, and an interdict was hurled by the prior against
them. Moreover, he imported three barges-full of mercenaries who
plundered the burghers' houses and killed and wounded many. Reprisals
followed. The citizens stormed the Priory and Cathedral, routed and
slew the monks and their mercenaries, set fire to the buildings, and
pillaged the church. Such violence against the Church was then unheard
of, and dire punishment was inflicted on the citizens of Norwich. The
Pope excommunicated them, Henry III. deprived them of their liberties,
and ordered 3000 marks to be paid towards the restoration of the
Cathedral. New gates and gatehouses were erected by order of the Pope
in order to prevent the renewal of such sacrilege, and St. Ethelbert's
Gate was built at the close of the thirteenth century to guard the
precincts. History concludes that the violence of the fierce prior was
the main cause of the trouble, and not the obstinacy of the people.
The work of restoration was immediately begun and the church
reconsecrated in 1278 in the presence of King Edward I. and his queen
and a grand assembly of bishops, knights and nobles, when Bishop
Middleton was raised to the see. His successor, Bishop Ralph de
Walpole, began to rebuild the cloisters, which were continued by
Bishop Salmon, and form some of the largest and most beautiful in the
country. Their style is mainly Decorated, but there is some
Perpendicular work constructed in Bishop Wakering's time, who was a
great persecutor of the Lollards (1416-1425). The chapter-house was
erected by Walpole.
In the time of Edward IV. troubles sore oppressed the diocese. Bishop
Anthony, who was of a violent and imperious spirit, rendered himself
very obnoxious to the monks, and was poisoned by his servants, and six
years later the Black Death is said to have carried off 50,000
inhabitants. This was in the time of Bishop Bateman, buried at
Avignon, a mighty prelate who compelled the powerful Lord Morley to do
penance in the Cathedral for killing the bishop's deer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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