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
England in the time of the tyranny of Norman kings. Fire again raged
in 1186, which prepared the way for the alterations and improvements
of the transitional builders who were developing the beauties of
English Gothic. Bishop Seffrid, the second who bore that name, was the
director of the work, which shows the purist style of the twelfth
century. The triforium, the upper storey of the western towers (the
present north-west tower is a modern imitation of the south-west
tower) and the lower storey of the central tower are mainly his work.
This bishop had the doubtful honour of crowning King John. Bishop
Neville (1224-1244) designed and began to build the spire, and the
Lady Chapel was partly constructed by Bishop Gilbert de St. Leofard
(1288-1304). John de Langton, bishop (1305-1336), who was a skilful
architect, finished the retro-choir and the south wing of the
transept. By this time the Cathedral had assumed much of its present
form. The apsidal chapels in the choir had been made to assume the
more English form of square-ended buildings. The thirteenth-century
bishops who accomplished all this excellent work were remarkable men.
Bishop Simon Fitz Robert (1204-1207) obtained many benefactions for
his see, and grants of stone from the Isle of Purbeck for the
beautifying of his church. Richard Poore, the noble builder of
Salisbury, was here for two years, and Bishop Neville worked hard
during his episcopacy for his church, and built a palace for his see
in London which stood on the site of Lincoln's Inn. St. Richard de
Wych was an excellent bishop (1245-1253), who reformed his diocese
with some severity, and ordered his flock to contribute liberally to
the building fund of his Cathedral. "St. Richard's Pence" afterwards
became a fruitful source of income. Bishop Gilbert de St. Leofard
followed in his steps, and, as we have said, built the main parts of
the Lady Chapel, which is of Decorated style. The work of the
fourteenth century was rather that of adornment than of construction.
We find Bishop Langton (1305-1337), the suppressor of the Templars,
inserting a beautiful window in the south transept, and building the
chapter-house. A little later a noble reredos was erected behind the
altar, the choir stalls added, and some changes made in the window
tracery. The founder of Merton College Library, William Read, was
bishop here in 1369-1385. Lollardism was rampant in the diocese, and
Bishop Robert Rede (1397-1415) took strong steps to uproot the
obnoxious teaching. The beginning of the fifteenth century saw arising
the detached bell tower, called Raymond's Tower, the only existing
detached belfry in the kingdom. Some of the Bishops of Chichester at
this time fared ill. Bishop Moleyns (1446-1450), who helped Henry VI.
to marry Margaret of Anjou, was murdered by some sailors at
Portsmouth, and his successor, Peacocke (1450-1459), was tried on
account of his supposed heretical opinions and deprived. Bishop Storey
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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