Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely Part 6

In the retro-choir a mosaic slab over the remains of Bishop Allen (d.

1845) has a curious history. A son of the bishop was pa.s.sing through Paris soon after Napoleon's tomb was finished, and the surplus materials were offered for sale by auction. Some of these were purchased by Mr.

Allen and utilised for the slab over the bishop's grave. The large monument to Canon Mill (d. 1853) has an effigy in copper on a support of marble and alabaster; students of India and Cambridge are by the feet.

The tomb of Cardinal Luxemburg (d. 1443) is beneath the most eastern arch on the south, just north of Bishop West's chapel. When the monument was concealed behind some wood-work great dispute arose as to the headdress of the effigy. Bentham has an engraving with a cardinal's hat on the archbishop's head. Cole records that it was a mitre. When the wood-work was removed it was found that the figure was headless, as it still remains.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EARLY ENGLISH PRESBYTERY AND THE SUPPOSED SHRINE OF S. ETHELDREDA.]

Corresponding to the chapel of Bishop Alc.o.c.k on the north is that of #Bishop West# (d. 1533) in the south aisle. This is a most valuable example of the Renaissance style. The niches and canopies with which the walls are covered are much smaller than those in the other chapel, and consequently more numerous; but by reason of the great delicacy of the tracery and the wonderful variety of the designs there is no impression that the decoration is overdone. No perfect specimen is left of the statues or of the heads which were introduced in the tabernacle work; and in its complete state this exquisite work can have existed for not more, than twelve or thirteen years, as the Order in Council for removing images was made in 1548. The roof is curious, as being an adaptation in the Renaissance of the late Gothic fan tracery Some colouring remains. The wrought-iron gates, with motto in Latin several times repeated, and the curious little pendants from the roof, consisting of angels bearing shields of arms, should be noticed. Bishops Greene (d. 1738), Keene (d. 1781), Sparke (d. 1836), and Woodford (d.

1885) are all buried in this chapel. On the south side, within a shrine-like receptacle, have been placed the relics of seven early benefactors of the church. Originally buried in the Saxon church, they have been several limes removed. They were placed here in 1771. The names are carved in seven shallow niches. One was an archbishop, five were bishops, and the seventh was Alderman Brithnoth. The dates range from 991 to 1067.

The very interesting early Norman monumental slab, with carving in relief, preserved in the aisle, does not strictly belong to the cathedral, having been found at S. Mary's Church. Above a round-headed canopy are some Norman buildings; in the chamfer of the canopy is an invocation of the Archangel Michael, a figure of whom below has wings and nimbus, and in the robe a portion of a naked figure with pastoral staff beside it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BISHOP ALc.o.c.k'S CHAPEL.]

Proceeding westward, the monuments under the windows are those of Canon Selwyn (d. 1875), Bishop Gunning (d. 1684), wearing a mitre, with long hair and short beard, and Bishop Heton (d. 1609), in a cope and having an ample beard. Under the arches of the presbytery, after the huge tablet to Bishop Moore (d. 1714), are four monuments. The first is all that is left of the tomb of Bishop Hotham (d. 1337). The next has figures of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, K.G., and his two wives. The earl was beheaded in 1470, and is not interred here. One of the wives was Cecily Neville, sister of Richard, Earl of Warwick, the King-maker.

Of the tomb of Bishop Barnet (d. 1373) the base only remains. It resembles in general character the monument of Bishop Northwold.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BISHOP WEST'S CHAPEL.]

Under the last arch of the presbytery is the fine monument of Bishop Louth (d. 1298). It is a very beautiful early Decorated composition.

Two bra.s.ses remain in the floor of the south aisle, both of great interest. The famous bra.s.s of Bishop Goodrich (d. 1554) represents him in full vestments (wearing a chasuble, not a cope), with mitre and pastoral staff (see below, p. 124). This is specially noteworthy as he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Reformation changes and is believed to have encouraged, if he did not order the wholesale destruction of statues and other ornamentation of the cathedral. He was Lord Chancellor for three years, and the Great Seal is figured on the bra.s.s. Dean Tyndall (d. 1614) is represented in a very different style. He is figured in academical dress, wearing a ruff and a skull-cap, and with a long beard. On one of the shields of arms may be seen the arms of the Deanery impaling Tyndall.

Very many other tablets and inscriptions remain; but we have no s.p.a.ce for a more extended treatment of the subject. In the south transept is a tablet to Dean Merivale (d. 1894), with a likeness in slight relief; and mention of this gives opportunity for saying that the very greatest care seems to have been taken to secure good likenesses in the most recent monuments, those of three, as to which the writer can speak from personal knowledge--Bishop Woodford, Dean Merivale, and Canon Selwyn--being of conspicuous merit.

It would require a book to itself to treat exhaustively of the stained gla.s.s in the windows. In nearly all cases, certainly in those which can be examined without the aid of a gla.s.s, the names of the donors, or of the persons to whose memory the windows were inserted, are plainly set forth either in the windows or on bra.s.s tablets adjoining. It should be stated that the greatest encouragement to this form of decoration was given by Canon E. B. Sparke, who secured, partly by his influence and persuasion, and largely by his own munificence, the insertion of so many windows. It is true that in the first instance not a few were prepared in too great a hurry, and some of those first placed in the restored cathedral (as those in the octagon) have been at a later time condemned as being deficient in harmony of colouring and in artistic design; but there is little fault to be found with the most recent additions. Among so many it is inevitable that very different degrees of merit will be exhibited. It has been said that the entire series is an exemplification of the Horatian maxim, "Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura"; and, except that we should be disposed to exchange the position of the words "quaedam" and "plura" (if the metre allowed it), with this sentiment we agree.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Quite recently further security has been attained by a system of iron bracing, not visible from beneath.

[2] "Ely Gossip," p. 39.

[3] When Murray's "Eastern Cathedrals" was published, Mr. Gambier Parry's work had not been begun; and by comparing the above list with the list there given as the proposed series of sacred subjects for the last six bays of the ceiling, it will be seen that the last three subjects are not the same as at first intended.

[4] From the key to the ceiling by Dean Stubbs, in "Handbook,"

20th ed., pp. 60, 61.

[5] Admirable and exhaustive descriptions of these pieces of sculpture, with sketches of six of them, are given in Dean Stubbs' "Historical Memorials of Ely Cathedral," pp. 71-84. The account in the text of the miracle on the seventh corbel is condensed from this description.

[6] Canon Stewart, in _The Builder_, April 2nd, 1892.

[7] Introduction to Farren's "Cathedral Cities of Ely and Norwich."

[8] For a full account and list of all the subjects as far as is known, see Dean Stubbs' catalogue of them, abridged from Dr.

Montagu James' work on the iconography of the lady-chapel, given in the "Handbook," 20th ed., pp. 127-132.

[9] In the inventory of plate, etc., "belonging to the late priory at Ely," made 31 Hen. VIII., printed in Bentham's "History" from the MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the only altars mentioned are the high altar, those in the lady-chapel, in the chapels of Bishops Alc.o.c.k and West, and in "Byslope Redmannes Chaple."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHOIR LOOKING EAST.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CHAPTER SEAL. _From Bentham._]

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY.

All that need be said of the original establishment at Ely has already been told in the account of the foundress. There is no doubt that in the monastery there were religious persons of both s.e.xes. Dean Stubbs says "the mixed community was the fashion of the time"[1] and he gives Coldingham, Kildare, and three in Normandy--Ch.e.l.les, Autun Brie, and Fontevrault--as examples of similar foundations. In this instance the abbess was the head of all; and this accounts for Bede's calling the house a nunnery. What name was given to the superior of the men's part does not appear.

Of all the abbesses who ruled over this "twin monastery" we know only the names of the first four; and all these were in due time canonised.

These were S. Etheldreda (673-679), S. s.e.xburga (679-699), S. Ermenilda (699-?), and S. Werburga (dates unknown). If we allow ten years for the duration of the rule of the last two, we still have the names of the abbesses for only thirty-six years out of the one hundred and ninety-seven years that the inst.i.tution lasted. It is said to have been in a very flourishing condition when the Danes came to destroy it; and there is no hint anywhere that there was not a continuous succession of abbesses during the whole period.

S. s.e.xburga, the elder sister of the foundress, succeeded her as abbess.

She was the widowed queen of Ercombert, King of Kent, and had herself founded the monastery of Sheppey, at the place now known as Minster, and set over it her daughter Ermenilda, another widowed queen. S. s.e.xburga joined the house at Ely, and had resided there some time before her sister's death. The body of S. Etheldreda was in her time removed into the church, under the superintendence of Archbishop Wilfrid. Bede gives a full account of the translation. The monks who had the charge of providing a stone coffin suitable for the reception of the remains of the foundress are said to have "found" one of marble among the ruins of Grantchester, the name of the old town of Cambridge. When disinterred, the body was reported free from all corruption. The account would not be complete without the customary miracles--marvellous cures effected by touching the clothes and coffin, and by the healing efficacy of a spring that flowed from the place of the first interment. This translation took place on October 17th, 695. This is the day a.s.signed to the commemoration of S. Etheldreda. The importance of this festival is sometimes held to account for the fact that the Feast of S. Luke, on October 18th, is not preceded by a fast. But as no fast is a.s.signed to the vigils of the Conversion of S. Paul, S. Mark, or Saints Philip and James, it is questionable if this opinion is sound. Upon the death of S.

s.e.xburga, in 699, her body was laid in the church next to that of her sister.

The next abbess was her daughter, S. Ermenilda. Her husband had been Wulphere, King of Mercia, who died in 675. She had been professed at Ely, and left to become the head of her mother's foundation at Sheppey.

The date of her death is not known. She was succeeded, both at Sheppey and at Ely, by her daughter, S. Werburga. How long she ruled at Ely is not recorded. She was buried by her own desire at Hanbury, in Staffordshire. When the Danes reached Derbyshire in their incursions, this was deemed no longer a safe place, and her body was removed to Chester, where the cathedral was afterwards placed under the joint invocation of S. Werburga and S. Oswald.[2] The reason why it is suggested above that ten years may be taken as the limit of time to be a.s.signed to the rules of S. Ermenilda and S. Werburga is that the author of her Life[3] says that her body was taken up "9 years after her decease, to translate it to a more eminent part" of Hanbury Church, by order of Ceolred, King of Mercia. As this king died at latest in 717, it would follow that S. Werburga must have died not later than 708.

Probably in the Isle of Ely more special respect was paid to the festivals of these four sainted abbesses than elsewhere. But we find no churches dedicated to any of the four in the isle except those previously named as dedicated to S. Etheldreda, the cathedral, Histon, and a chapel at Swaffham Prior. Minster Church, in Kent, is dedicated to Saints Mary and s.e.xburga. In a tenth-century will of the widowed queen of Edmund I. we read: "I give to S. Peter's, and to S. aetheldryth, and to S. Wihtburh, and to S. s.e.xburh, and to S. Eormenhild at Ely where my lord's body rests, the three lands which we both promised to G.o.d and His saint."[4] There were no doubt side-altars erected in honour of one or more of the four. At Wisbech, for instance, there was a "light" of S.

Etheldreda, to which we find persons bequeathing small sums.

Of the monastery of S. Etheldreda and that of Bishop Ethelwold, Professor Freeman writes that there is "no continuity between the two."[5] By this we must probably understand that he considered the original monastery absolutely at an end after its destruction by the Danes; and that the monastery founded in its place a century later was something quite new, that had no claim to be regarded as the continuation of the former one. But the history of the place during the interval was not an absolute blank.

The Danish destruction took place in 870. The reconstruction by King Edgar and Bishop Ethelwold took place in 970. In the monastery so founded, or, as most would prefer to say, resuscitated, there were no nuns. It has been pointed out that at Ely, unlike other religious houses in the district, there was not complete desolation during the century intervening between the destruction of the former and the construction of the latter house. Some clergy banded themselves together and formed a religious community, of what precise character is not known, but apparently it was something in the nature of a college of secular priests. When the second monastery arose, these clergy were either absorbed or evicted.

#Brithnoth# (970-981) was the first abbot. He had been Prior of Winchester. He devoted his energies to the consolidation of the new house, securing many fresh endowments, settling the boundaries of the Isle of Ely, and laying out the grounds of the abbey in beautiful order.

The church possessed only the bodies of three of the four saints connected with the original foundation. There being no hope of recovering the fourth, Bishop Ethelwold and the abbot resolved to find a subst.i.tute in the body of S. Withburga, the youngest sister of S.

Etheldreda. Her youth had been spent at Holkham, in Norfolk, where the church is now said to be dedicated to her, and afterwards founded a nunnery at Dereham, in the same county, where she died and was buried. A long account is given by Bentham[6] of the trickery by which her body was purloined and brought to Ely, where it was interred near the bodies of the three abbesses.[7] Brithnoth is said to have been murdered at the instigation of Queen Elfrida, having grievously offended her in many ways, especially by reproving her infamous and abandoned life. This is the same Elfrida who, two years before, had caused her stepson, King Edward (thence called the Martyr), to be a.s.sa.s.sinated in order that her own son, Ethelred (the Unready), might have the crown. Edward only reigned four years; but during that time much that his father, King Edgar, had done towards establishing the monastic rule in England was set aside. In some instances "the monastic rule was quashed, and minsters dissolved, and monks driven out, and G.o.d's servants put down, whom King Edgar had ordered the holy bishop Ethelwold to establish."[8]

The queen confessed before her death to having compa.s.sed the death of Abbot Brithnoth. His body was conveyed to Ely for interment.

He was succeeded by #Elsin# (981-1016), "of a n.o.ble family." In his time very considerable donations and bequests were made to the monastery. In some cases members of the house who rose to eminence and obtained lucrative appointments became benefactors; sometimes the parents of young men who joined the society testified their confidence by munificent gifts; sometimes widows gave manors and lands in their lifetimes or in their wills. In one case at least much wealth was acquired by way of penance. Leofwin, a man of large possessions, in a violent fit of anger had occasioned the death of his own father. In his remorse he betook himself to Rome to obtain absolution, undertaking to perform any penance that might be enjoined. The pope required him to dedicate his eldest son to the religious life in some monastery which he was liberally to endow, and to bestow largely of his substance to the relief of the poor. His son Edelmor was accordingly devoted to the service of G.o.d at Ely, and very large estates were a.s.signed by Leofwin to the monastery. He further improved the church, rebuilding and enlarging the south aisle, and joining it to the rest of the building; and in one of its porches, or side-chapels (_in uno porticu_), he built an altar to the Virgin Mary, erecting over it a stately image of gold and silver, adorned with valuable jewels. It is probably to this altar that reference is made when we find some speak as if there were a lady-chapel in existence before the present one. At Leofwin's death his body was buried in the church, and to it he bequeathed his entire property.

Alderman Brithnoth, a man of great rank and eminence, and of great reputation as a soldier, was another considerable benefactor. On one occasion he was marching with his forces from the north to encounter the Danes, who had been plundering in Suffolk and had reached Ess.e.x. Pa.s.sing Ramsey Abbey, he sent word to the abbot that he proposed to stop there with his men for refreshment. But the abbot, though willing to entertain the alderman and a few select friends, declined the honour of providing for his troops. This did not suit Brithnoth, and he went on to Ely.

There the whole company was hospitably entertained; and Brithnoth was so pleased that he on the next day made over to the monastery a number of manors into their immediate possession, and also a.s.signed certain others, on condition that if he should be slain in battle his body should be buried at Ely. In the battle the English forces were outnumbered, and Brithnoth fell, the Danes taking his head away with them in their triumph. On hearing of his death, the abbot and some of the monks went to the scene of the engagement, recovered the body, and interred it with all honour in their church.

A great accession of dignity was granted by King Ethelred. While his brother, King Edward, was on the throne, Ethelred, with his mother, had visited the tomb of S. Etheldreda, and professed great admiration for her character and work. When Ethelred became king he granted to the churches of Ely, Canterbury, and Glas...o...b..ry the office of Chancellor of the King's Court, putting, as it were, the office in commission; so the abbot of each place, or his deputy, officiated as chancellor for periods of four months each. This privilege was only retained till the time of the Normans.

Elsin died in a good old age, "after a life of great sanct.i.ty and observance of the commandments of G.o.d, and after the acquisition of much honour and great possessions to the church." His death took place, according to the "Liber Eliensis," in King Ethelred's time--that is, not later than 1016. Wharton gives 1019 as the date. Possibly the unsettled state of the kingdom may have caused the abbey to be vacant for three years.