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
In 1111 A.D., it was granted by either Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, or
by Henry I., to Prior Guimond and his fellow canons. This prior began
to restore the ruined church and monastery, but his successor, Robert
de Cricklade (1141-1180), did most of the work, and restored the nave,
choir, central tower and transepts. All the later Norman work is due
to him. In 1180, in the presence of Henry II., his nobles and a goodly
company of bishops, the relics of St. Frideswide were translated to a
place of honour in the restored building on the north side of the
choir, to which there was great resort of pilgrims on account of the
miraculous healings which took place there. Fire played havoc with the
city of Oxford in 1190, but the church escaped without much injury.
The monastic buildings suffered, and the traces of fire can still be
seen on the old Norman doorway in the cloisters. In the thirteenth
century the Lady Chapel was built adjoining the north side of the
choir, some of the old walls being used, the spire raised above the
tower, the chapter-house and part of the Latin Chapel added, which was
completed in the fourteenth century. A few Decorated details were
added at this period, and windows in this style inserted. The
fifteenth century witnessed sundry alterations in the cloisters, the
building of St. Frideswide's latest shrine, the insertion of some
Perpendicular windows, and the erection of the fine vaulting of the
choir.
Then a mighty change dawned on the old monastery. Cardinal Wolsey
obtained a bull from Pope Clement VII. for its suppression and
determined to convert it into a college, which was designed to be the
largest in Oxford. He played sad havoc with the fabric of the church.
A great part of the nave he destroyed altogether in order to make room
for his great "Tom Quad," so named after the famous bell which still
rings each night at five minutes past nine, and is the signal for the
closing of the gates of all Oxford colleges. Part of the old cloisters
disappeared also. Wolsey contemplated the building of another church
for his college, and indeed began its construction; but his fall in
1529 put an end to the carrying out of his great conception, and the
college fell into the hands of King Henry VIII. Here the monarch
established one of his newly-formed sees (the bishop's seat was first
fixed at Oseney Abbey, just outside Oxford), and with characteristic
parsimony applied the revenues of the college to the support of the
see. The dean of the Cathedral is still the head of the college, and
the canons are university professors. As was usual at this time, the
Cathedral was shorn of all its costly ornaments, vestments, plate and
other treasures, but the fabric remained intact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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