Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Norwich Part 7

The east wall has a similar tablet to those of the same regiment who fell in Afghanistan, 1842. A monument, originally on the west wall, to Bishop Scambler (1585-95), has been removed to the south aisle of nave.

The county of Norfolk is peculiarly rich in painted screens of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; and it would have been strange indeed if no specimen of their work had been preserved in the cathedral.

Fortunately, a superb #retable# in five panels, representing scenes in the Pa.s.sion of our Lord was discovered by Professor Willis in 1847, and is now preserved in the aisle outside the Jesus Chapel.

This was formerly an altar-piece to the Jesus Chapel, and was preserved by the happy accident of its admirable carpentry having saved it for the purposes of a table. It appears to have been the work of an Italian artist of about 1370 A.D., and is executed in a kind of _gesso_ work.

The size is now 7 ft. 5 ins. 2 ft. 4 ins.; but it was formerly surrounded by an ornamented frame, of which portions remain on three sides. The subjects represented are--from the left--The Scourging, Bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.[1]

[Footnote 1: Royal Arch. Inst.i.tute: Norwich volume, p. 198.]

Traces of other decorative painting have also been discovered in the Sacrist's Room, St. Luke's and the Jesus Chapels, the choir aisles, and other places.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Resurrection: from the Painted Retable formerly in the Jesus Chapel.]

CHAPTER IV

THE SEES OF THE EAST ANGLIAN BISHOPS

Herbert, surnamed de Losinga, transferred the see from Thetford to Norwich in 1094, and it is from this period that the history of the cathedral may be said to commence; but, to understand rightly the history of the diocese, we must go back some four centuries and a half to that earlier period when Redwald, king of the East Angles, was first converted to Christianity while paying a visit to the court of Ethelbert in Kent. He, however, proved but a weak disciple, and on being urged by his wife to be true to the old G.o.ds, he tried to effect a compromise and worship Jehovah and Baal.

He was succeeded by his son Eorpwald, who was converted by missionaries sent by Edwin king of Northumbria. His reign, however, was short, and at his death the people again relapsed into heathenism.

Christianity was finally established among the East Angles by Sigeberht, Eorpwald's brother, and it was due to him and through his influence that Felix, a missionary from Burgundy, was enabled to fix his see at Dunwich, A.D. 630.

#Felix# (630-47) must needs have been a man strong in his Faith; he christianised the whole of that district which now includes Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. He died on the 8th of March, and was canonized after death. Felixstowe, where he is said to have founded schools, keeps his memory green in the East Country; but Dunwich, where he fixed his see, has long since been covered by the encroaching waves.

Sigeberht resigned the crown to his kinsman Egric, and had entered a monastery to finish his days in peace. But the kingdom was invaded by the Mercians under Penda, and the peaceful old king was compelled to appear in the field to give heart and courage to the East Angles. He, however, declined to employ carnal weapons, and went out against his enemies armed with nothing more formidable than a wand. He was killed in the ensuing engagement, and his successor, Egric, shared the same fate.

The administration of the two successors to Felix lasted twenty-two years, from A.D. 647-69. The East Anglian see was then divided by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, into two separate administrations, #Acci#, the fourth successor to Felix, taking Dunwich, while #Beadwin# was consecrated to the see of Elham.

From this date there were two lines of East Anglian Bishops; ten diocesans followed after Acci at Dunwich, and nine after Beadwin at Elmham.

#St. Humbert# (828-78) was the last of the Bishops of Elmham; he crowned St. Edmund king of the East Angles, and both were murdered by the Danes under Hinguar in 870.

After Humbert's death the two sees were again united under #Wildred#, who at this time was Bishop of Dunwich; he, however, preferred Humbert's see at Elham, and removed there, and so the bishopric of Dunwich became extinct.

During the next two hundred years (870-1070), there were thirteen bishops of Elmham, and then Elmham shared a similar fate to Dunwich, and the see was moved to Thetford by #Herfast#, a chaplain of William the Conqueror. William of Malmesbury records that Herfast had decided to go down to posterity as a man _who had done something_, and fixed on this removal as an easy solution of the difficulty.

#William Galsagus# (1086-91) or de Beaufeu succeeded Herfast, and he in turn was succeeded by Herbert de Losinga, who became first Bishop of Norwich.

The history of #Herbert's# episcopate (1091-1119) is the history of the causes which effected the building of Norwich Cathedral, and, although given previously in the history of the fabric, must needs be briefly recapitulated here. Herbert, if not of Norman birth, had received his education in Normandy and was Prior of Fecamp--where he had first taken his vows--when offered by William Rufus the appointment of Abbot of Ramsey. The see of Thetford fell vacant, and Herbert procured his own appointment from the Red King in consideration of a sum of 1900 which he paid into the royal treasury. The remorse which followed on this sin of simony compelled him to go to Rome and seek the consolation and forgiveness of Pope Urban. This was in 1094. He returned, and as expiation for his sin founded the Priory of Norwich, the first stone of which was laid in 1096, the see being removed from Thetford in accordance with the decree of Lanfranc's Synod, held in 1075, that all bishops should fix their sees in the princ.i.p.al town in their dioceses.

In cathedral monasteries the bishop, who was elected by the monks, appears to have represented the abbot and took precedence of the prior.

Before Herbert's time, the chapter was composed of secular canons and not monks.

Herbert, in 1101, placed sixty monks at Norwich, and it may be of interest to quote from Taylor's "_Index Monasticus_" the establishment of the monastery from Herbert's time up to the dissolution in 1538--

The Bishop representing the Chaplains.

Abbot. Precentor or chanter.

The Lord Prior. Sub-chanter.

The Sub-Prior. Infirmarer.

60 Monks. Choristers.

Sacrist. Keeper of the Shrines.

Sub-sacrist. Lay Officers.

Cellarer or bursar. Butlers.

Camerarius or chamberlain. Granarii.

Almoner. Hostilarii.

Refectorer. Carcerarius or gaoler.

Pittancier.

Archbishop Anselm had refused to acknowledge that the king had the right to exercise a suzerainty over the Church, and declined to consent to lay invest.i.tures. An emba.s.sy was sent to Rome, and Herbert, who went there a second time about 1116, represented the king. It, however, was in no way satisfactory; the Pope did not want to offend the king, and he wished to retain to himself the right of invest.i.ture, so, while congratulating the Archbishop's representatives, he sympathised also with those of the king. The exertion told on Herbert, and at Placentia, on the return journey, he fell sick, and stopped there until he became sufficiently convalescent to journey by short and easy stages to his own cathedral city. He lived to complete much important business, but his days of administration were drawing to a close. He had been Prior of Fecamp, Abbot of Ramsey, Sewer to William Rufus, had governed the East Anglian bishopric first from the episcopal see at Thetford, had transferred it to Norwich, and founded the Cathedral Priory, and if this were not sufficient, he founded and endowed many other churches and monasteries in the East Country. His repentance had been sincere, and in one of his letters he refers to "my past life, which, alas! is darkened by many foul sins." Dean Goulburn credits him with a third journey to Rome, and says that it was at Placentia, on the outward journey, that he contracted so grievous a sickness that he "lay ten successive days without taking food and without uttering a word"; in fact, never reaching Rome, but waiting for and rejoining his brother amba.s.sadors on their return. This journey was undertaken with the view of adjusting the differences that had arisen between the new Primates, Ralph and Thurston. The emba.s.sy was not successful, the Pope declining to commit himself to any but the most general statements.

One of the last public acts of Herbert's life was to attend the funeral of Queen Matilda on May-day, 1118. He died on the 22nd of July 1119 in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate, and was buried before the high altar of his cathedral church.

#Eborard# (1121-1145), who succeeded Herbert, a son by second marriage of Roger de Montgomery, first Earl of Arundel, was consecrated in 1121.

During his episcopate Eborard had parted with the towns of Blickling and Cressingham, which pertained to his see, to two of the more powerful barons, in the hope of securing the rest of the episcopal property, and possibly with the idea of regaining possession of the same when the troubled times should have pa.s.sed.

He was deposed in 1145, and it may possibly be that he had favoured the cause of Maude in the civil wars of the period, and that it was Stephen who compelled him to relinquish his see and spend the rest of his life in exile. He had in 1139 laid the foundation of an abbey at Fontenay, in the south of France, and thither he repaired. He died in 1149.

His successor, #William de Turbe# (1146-1174), was elected to the see, and in the year 1146 was consecrated at Canterbury by Archbishop Theobald.

In 1168, Becket had written to De Turbe from Vezelay, a town on the borders of Burgundy and Nivernois, and ordered him, by the Pope's authority, to publicly excommunicate Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk. He had robbed the Priory of Pentnay, in Norfolk, of some of its possessions. De Turbe obeyed, notwithstanding the fact that the king had sent officers to prohibit him from so doing. An absolution was obtained from the Pope, but the king was so far incensed that De Turbe considered it advisable to rest in sanctuary at Norwich until the following year, 1169, when he received the royal pardon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Norwich Castle.]

Bishop William de Turbe died 17th January 1174, and was buried in the cathedral choir, on the left side of the founder.

#John of Oxford# (1175-1200) was consecrated at Lambeth by Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, December 14, 1175; he was clerk or royal chaplain to the king. He had presided over the council of Clarendon, the const.i.tutions of which defined the king's prerogatives in regard to the Church, and chiefly with regard to the question of trying clerks charged with crimes in the civil courts. He was despatched to Rome on an emba.s.sy to the Pope, Alexander III., and on its failure was sent by Henry to the Diet at Wurzburg; the king, not having been supported by Alexander, determined to uphold his opponent, and as well he, in direct opposition to the Pope, made John of Oxford Dean of Salisbury, with the result that the future Bishop of Norwich incurred the penalty of excommunication by Becket from Vezelay, "for having fallen into a d.a.m.nable heresy in taking a sacrilegious oath to the emperor, for having communicated with the schismatic of Cologne, and for having usurped to himself the deanery of the church of Salisbury."

The dispute was referred to the Pope at Sens, where John of Oxford, with his fellow-amba.s.sador, Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, repaired; John of Oxford was rebuked by the Pontiff for his misconduct, but diplomatically managed to effect his end and retain his deanery. Henry had met Becket at Chaumont, through the mediation of the Archbishop of Sens, and, the quarrel being patched up, John of Oxford was sent to escort him to England. He landed, December 1, at Sandwich, in the year 1170, and within the month was murdered at Canterbury.

In 1175, the incursion of William of Scotland was checked, and the king himself taken prisoner by Ranulph de Glanville. John of Oxford and others were commissioned to settle terms of peace; and they executed the treaty of Falaice, afterwards ratified by King Henry at York, by which the Scottish king and his barons were under the necessity of doing homage for their possessions. John of Oxford, who had rendered good service to his sovereign, was rewarded by promotion to the vacant see of Norwich; and during his episcopate sent by the king on an emba.s.sy to William, King of Sicily, to convey his majesty's consent to the marriage of his daughter Joan with that monarch.

An important step in the administration of justice was taken during this reign--the king divided the country into six circuits, to which certain prelates and n.o.bles were to be sent at certain times to hear suits and save litigants the trouble of attending the king's court at Westminster.

John of Oxford was one of a company of five to whom was given jurisdiction over a portion of the country, from Norwich down to Suss.e.x, and from Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire eastward to the coast.

On the 9th of July 1189, King Henry died, and was succeeded by his third son, Richard: John of Oxford a.s.sisting at the coronation. Richard had no sooner been crowned than he led the crusade to the Holy Land, which had been preparing in Henry's time, and John of Oxford was forced to proceed to the Pope to ask for his absolution of the oath he had taken to follow the Cross, on account of his old age and infirmity. This request being granted, for which he had to pay 10,000 marks, he returned to England.

The last public act of John of Oxford--who was one of the most remarkable men who have held the see of Norwich--was most probably his attendance at the coronation of King John. He died June 2, 1200.

#John de Grey# (1200-1214) was elected by the monks, and his election being confirmed by King John, he was consecrated by Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was during his episcopate, and through the quarrel between King John and the Pope, that the power of the latter was at length firmly established--a supremacy that was unquestioned until the sixteenth century.

The metropolitan see of Canterbury fell vacant in 1205; the sub-prior, who was surrept.i.tiously elected by the monks, and unknown to the king, travelled to Rome for the Pope's sanction of his appointment. When the king became aware of this he was enraged, and despatched an emba.s.sy upholding his nominee, John de Grey. The Pope pleased neither party, and named Stephen Langton as Hubert's successor. The Pope, Innocent, sent two legates, of whom Pandulph was one, in 1211 to England, and on John declining to recognise the Papal claims, he was deposed, and his crown offered to the French king Philip.