CHAPTER IV. - HISTORY OF THE SEE.

The true origin of the See of Hereford is lost in remote antiquity. However, it seems probable from the researches of many antiquarians that when Putta came to preside here in the seventh century the see was re-established.

The Rev. Francis Havergal writes on this matter in the beginning of his Fasti Herefordenses.

"The Welsh claim a high antiquity for Hereford as the recognised centre of Christianity in this district. Archbishop Usher asserts that it was the seat of an Episcopal See in the sixth century, when one of its bishops attended a synod convened by the Archbishop of Caerleon (A.D. 544). In the Lives of the British Saints (Rev. W. J. Reeves, 1853), we learn that Geraint ab Erbin, cousin of King Arthur, who died A.D. 542, is said to have founded a church at Caerffawydd, the ancient British name for Hereford. In Wilkin's Concilia, I. 24, it is recorded that beyond all doubt a Bishop of Hereford was present at the conference with St. Augustine, A.D. 601. Full particulars are given of the supposed time and place of this conference. It is also stated—'In secunda affuisse perhibentur septem hi Britannici episcopi Herefordensis, Tavensis alias Llantavensis, Paternensis, Banchoriensis, Chirensis alias Elinensis, Uniacensis alias Wiccensis, Morganensis.' It is styled 'Synodus Wigornensis,' or according to Spelman, 'Pambritannicam.' Nothing whatever is known of the names or of the number of British bishops who presided over the earliest church at Hereford."

The boundaries of this diocese in the tenth century are defined in Anglo-Saxon in an ancient volume known as the Mundy Gospels, now in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

"The condition of the Church of Hereford (circa 1290 A.D.) gave clear testimony to the liberal piety of its founders by the extensiveness of its lands. The diocese itself was richly endowed by nature, and enviably situated. Those of St. Asaph, Lichfield, Worcester, Llandaff, and St. David's, were its neighbours. On the north it stretched from where the Severn enters Shropshire to where that river is joined on the south by the influx of the Wye. From the west to the east perhaps its greatest width might have been found from a point where the latter river, near Hay, leaves the counties of Radnor and Brecon, by a line drawn to the bridge at Gloucester. It embraced portions of the counties of Radnor, Montgomery, Salop, Worcester, and Gloucester, and touched upon that of Brecon. It included the town of Monmouth, with four parishes, in its neighbourhood. The Severn environed its upper part. Almost midway it was traversed by the Teme, and the Wye pursued its endless windings through the lower district,—a region altogether remarkable for its variety, fertility, and beauty, abounding in woods and streams, rich pastures, extensive forests, and noble mountains. In several of the finest parts of it Episcopal manors had been allotted, furnishing abundant supplies to the occupiers of the see."[8]

In the early history of British dioceses, territorial boundaries were so vague as to be scarcely definable, but one of the earliest of the bishops holding office prior to the landing of Augustine was one Dubric, son of Brychan, who established a sort of college at Hentland, near Ross, and later on removed to another spot on the Wye, near Madley, his birthplace, being guided thither by the discovery of a white sow and litter of piglings in a meadow; a sign similar to the one by which the site of Alba Longa was pointed out to the pious son of Anchises.

Dubric probably became a bishop about 470, resigned his see in 512, and died in Bardsey Island, A.D. 522.

It was this Dubric who is said to have crowned Arthur at Cirencester, A.D. 506. When he became bishop he moved to Caerleon, and was succeeded there by Dewi, or David, who removed the see to Menevia (St. David's).

The Saxons were driving the British inhabitants more and more to the west, and before the close of the sixth century they[pg 092] had founded the Mercian kingdom, reaching beyond the Severn, and in some places beyond the Wye.

The See of Hereford properly owes its origin to that of Lichfield, as Sexwulf, Bishop of that diocese, placed at Hereford Putta, Bishop of Rochester, when his cathedral was destroyed by the Mercian King Ethelred.

From Bede we learn that in 668 A.D. Putta died, and that one Tyrhtel succeeded him, and was followed by Torhtere.

Wahlstod, A.D. 731, the next Bishop, is referred to by both Florence of Worcester and William of Malmsbury, as well as Bede. We also hear of him in the writings of Cuthbert, who followed him in 736. Cuthbert relates in some verses that Wahlstod began the building of a great and magnificent cross, which he, Cuthbert, completed.

Cuthbert died, A.D. 758, and was followed by Podda, A.D. 746. The names of these early Bishops cannot all be regarded as certain, and their dates are, in many cases, only approximate. Some of them may have been merely assistants or suffragans to other Bishops of Hereford.

The remaining Bishops of Hereford, prior to the Conquest, we give in the same order as the Rev. H. W. Phillott in his valuable little Diocesan History.

A.D. 758, Hecca.
777, Aldberht.
781, Esne.
793, Cedmand (doubtful).
796, Edulf.
798, Uttel.
803, Wulfheard.
824, Beonna.
825, Eadulf (doubtful).
833, Cedda.
836, Eadulf.
838, Cuthwulf.
866, Deorlaf.
868, Ethelbert.
888, Cynemund.
895, Athelstane I.
901, Edgar.
930, Tidhelm.
935, Wulfhelm.
941, Elfric.
966, Ethelwolf.
1016, Athelstane II.: he rebuilt the cathedral "from the foundations";[9] but also saw it destroyed in a raid of the Welsh and Irish under Elfgar.
1056, Leofgar, slain in a fight with the Welsh.

Walter of Lorraine, A.D. 1061-1079. The diocese had been administered for the last four years by the Bishop of Worcester,[pg 093] when Queen Edith's chaplain, a foreigner by birth, Walter of Lorraine, was appointed. Beyond a probably satirical reference by William of Malmsbury, all that is known of Walter is an account of a discreditable death.

Robert de Losinga, A.D. 1079-1095. A man of much learning and ability. During his episcopate, according to William of Malmsbury, the cathedral was rebuilt after the pattern of Charlemagne's church at Aix-la-Chapelle. In his time also Walter de Lacy built the Church of St. Peter at Hereford. He was a keen man of business, and it has been suggested that he was open to bribery, but this accusation is hardly compatible with his intimate companionship with the high-minded Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, the date of whose death, January 19, 1095, is included in the calendar of the Hereford Service-Book.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

Gerard, A.D. 1096-1101. Three days after the body of William Rufus had been brought from the forest to Winchester by Purkiss, the charcoal burner, Gerard, who was the Bishop of Winchester's nephew, assisted at the coronation of Henry I., for which service it was said he was promised the first vacant archiepiscopal see. The King tried to evade the bargain a few years later by promising to increase the Hereford income to the value of that at York, but Gerard carried the day and obtained his promotion.

Reynelm, A.D. 1107-1115, Chancellor to Queen Matilda; he resigned his appointment as soon as it was conferred, on account of the King's quarrel with Anselm on the question of investiture, was banished for six years, and was only consecrated in 1107. He is said to have been the founder of the hospital of St. Ethelbert, and continued the work in the Cathedral begun by Robert de Losinga. He regulated the establishment of prebendaries and canons living under a rule.

Geoffrey de Clive, A.D. 1115-1119. During the latter years of this episcopate, a question of jurisdiction over the districts of Ergyng and Ewias, which had begun in the previous century, was revived between the Bishop of Llandaff and the Bishops of Hereford and St. David's.

Richard de Capella, A.D. 1120-1127, King's chaplain and keeper of the Great Seal under the Chancellor. He helped to build at Hereford a bridge over the Wye.

During his episcopate the Royal Charter was granted for the annual holding of a three days' fair (increased to nine days later) commencing on the evening of the 19th of May, called St. Ethelbert's Day.

Nine-tenths of the profits of this fair went to the Bishop and the rest to the Canons of the Cathedral. The bishop's bailiff held a court within the palace precincts, with pillory and stocks. The bishop also had a gaol for the incarceration of offenders against his rights during fair-time.

Tolls were levied at each gate of the city. The suspension of civic authority during fair-time was for centuries a source of frequent quarrels. As late as the eighteenth century a ballad-singer was punished by the bishop's officers.

The wreck of the "White Ship" occurred during this episcopate (Nov. 25th, 1120), and one of the victims was Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Hereford.

Robert de Bethune, A.D. 1131-1148, had become prior of his monastery at his native place of Bethune, in French Flanders, and thence had gone to Llanthony, a priory in a glen of the Hatteral Hills in the disputed district of Ewias.

When later on the country was torn and despoiled with the bitter struggle for the Crown, Bishop Robert, who was a personal friend of Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the King's brother, sided with Stephen.

Hereford was seized near the beginning of the campaign by Geoffrey de Talebot, and held by him for four or five weeks for the Empress Matilda. It was then captured by Stephen, and the victory celebrated in the cathedral on Whitsunday (A.D. 1138), when the King attended mass wearing his crown, and seated, it is said, in the old chair described in an earlier chapter.

In 1139, the Empress's army again attacked Hereford, and seizing the cathedral, drove out the clergy, fortified it, and used it as a vantage ground from which to attack the castle. The tower was used as a platform, from which missiles were thrown, and the nave as a stable; while a trench and rampart was carried across the graveyard.

Bishop Robert was present at Winchester when the Empress was accepted there by the clergy, and returned thence to Hereford to purify the cathedral. He died at Chalons of a disease contracted while attending a council of Pope Eugenius III.

The Pope decided that his body should be taken to Hereford, and it was enclosed in the hide of an ox for the journey. Both at Canterbury and at London were great demonstrations of grief, which were again repeated at Ross, and on a still larger scale at Hereford. Bishop Robert was undoubtedly a great man, and his reputation for fine character, bravery, and ability was well deserved.

Gilbert Foliot, A.D. 1148-1163, the next Bishop, had been consecrated as Abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, by Bishop Robert, with whom he had contracted an early friendship as far back as 1139.

On the death of Bishop Robert, he was consecrated at St. Omer. He assisted at the consecration of Becket at Canterbury, and the next year was transferred to the See of London. He was followed by Robert of Maledon, A.D. 1163-1168, said to have been remarkably wise.

Amongst his pupils he numbered John of Salisbury. He attended the council of Clarendon, A.D. 1162, and in 1164 was present at the meeting at Northampton between Becket and the King.

Such was the fury and importance of the Becket controversy that even distant Hereford was entangled with it. Two Hereford Bishops took part in the quarrel, and it was through[pg 096] this that the see continued vacant for six years after Bishop Robert's death.

Notwithstanding the rigorous order of Henry VIII., A.D. 1538, for the destruction of all images and pictures of Bishop Becket, there still existed in the cathedral, till late in the seventeenth century, a wall painting of the Archbishop, and even yet in the north-east transept there remains a figure of him in one of the windows in good preservation. The enamelled chasse or reliquary, with scenes of Becket's murder and entombment, and its dark but doubtful stain, has already been described among the treasures of the cathedral.

Some four miles from Hereford is yet another memorial still remaining in a well-preserved window of painted glass at Credenhill, a part of which represents the murdered Becket. Lastly, the festival of the translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury, July 7, is still included in the cathedral calendar.

Robert Foliot, A.D. 1174-1186, had been a friend of Becket's, and may have had some share in his education.

William de Vere, A.D. 1186-1199, removed the apsidal termination at the east end of the cathedral, and is said to have erected chapels, since replaced by the Lady Chapel and its vestibule.

Giles de Braose, A.D. 1200-1215, a stubborn opponent of King John.

Hugh de Mapenor, A.D. 1216-1219, received his appointment by the influence of the papal legate, who, after King John's submission, claimed the right of nomination to all vacant sees and benefices.

Hugh Foliot, A.D. 1219-1234, founded the Hospital of St. Katherine at Ledbury, in which still hangs a portrait of him, painted from an older picture. A tooth of St. Ethelbert was presented to the cathedral during his episcopacy. He endowed the Chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Katherine, in the ancient building adjoining the Bishop's palace, destroyed in the eighteenth century.

Ralph de Maydenstan, A.D. 1234-1239, presented to the see a house in Fish Street Hill, London, as a residence for the bishops when in the metropolis. He also made various gifts to the cathedral, the chapter, and the college of vicars choral. This Bishop was one of the commissioners to settle the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of Provence.

Peter of Savoy (Aquablanca), A.D. 1240-1268, a native of Aqua Bella, near Chambéry, whose appointment was an instance of the preference Henry III. showed for foreigners. One of the most unpopular men in England; he was hand in glove with the weak-minded, waxen-hearted King in schemes for money getting.

Bishop Aquablanca probably built the graceful north-west transept of the cathedral, containing the shrine under which lie the remains of his nephew, a Dean of Hereford, together with his own, except the heart. This was carried, as he had requested it should be, to the church he had founded in his native place.

John de Breton, or Bruton, A.D. 1268-1275.

Thomas de Cantilupe, A.D. 1275-1282. Born A.D. 1220, he showed, as a child, unusual religious zeal, was educated at Oxford and Paris, and for some years filled the office of Chancellor of England at the choice of the barons. This post he lost on the death of Simon de Montfort. When he was elected by the Chapter of Hereford to fill the episcopal chair on De Breton's death he was only persuaded to accept it with difficulty.

Bishop Cantilupe was renowned for his extreme piety and devotional habits. In a dispute concerning the chace of Colwall, near Malvern Forest, from which was derived the Bishop's supply of game, he maintained successfully the episcopal rights. He was also triumphant in a more important quarrel with the Welsh King Llewellyn about the wrongful appropriation of three manors.

When Lord Clifford was in trouble for plundering his cattle and maltreating his tenants, Bishop Cantilupe inflicted personal chastisement upon him with a rod in the cathedral. The clergy no less than laymen did he subdue, appealing when necessary to the Pope.

In a quarrel arising out of a matrimonial case, in which the defendant appealed to Canterbury against a sentence of the sub-dean of Hereford, he was at last excommunicated by the Archbishop for refusing to go to discuss the affair with him at Lambeth. At Rome he obtained a favourable decree, but died in Tuscany on the homeward journey.

As already described, his remains were finally laid with great pomp in the Lady Chapel.

Five years later the bones of Bishop Cantilupe were moved to the Chapel of St. Katherine, in the north-west transept. Twice more were they moved, finally resting in the same Chapel of St. Katherine.

Richard Swinfield, A.D. 1283-1316, the next Bishop, had been Bishop Cantilupe's devoted chaplain. He kept wisely aloof from politics, but offered a keen resistance to any infringement on the rights of his diocese. Several boundary questions were settled by Bishop Swinfield, and in 1289-90 he made a tour through his diocese, of which has come down to us a journal of daily expenses.

Bishop Swinfield was the probable builder of the nave-aisles and two easternmost transepts. In his time the "Mappa Mundi" came into possession of the Chapter.

He worked hard to obtain the Canonisation of his illustrious predecessor, but it was not till four years after his death that Pope John XXII. granted an act for the purpose. He was buried in the cathedral.

Adam Orleton, A.D. 1316-1327, was a friend of Roger Mortimer, and consequently was opposed to Edward II. Throughout the struggle of those many miserable years the affairs of the diocese were dragged in the mire of civil war. It was the Bishop of Hereford who, at Neath Abbey, took the King, carried him to Kenilworth, and deprived him of the Great Seal. The Queen was staying at Hereford, and thither many of the King's adherents were taken with the Chancellor and Hugh Despenser. The last-named was hanged in the town, decapitated, and quartered.

Bishop Adam showed much ability in managing the affairs of the cathedral. He obtained a grant of revenues of two churches from Pope John XXII. for monies necessary for the dedication of the Cantilupe shrine, and also for repairs in the cathedral. He was followed on his translation to Worcester by

Thomas Charleton, A.D. 1328-1343, who was made treasurer of England in 1329. In 1337 he went to Ireland as chancellor. He died in 1343.

John Trilleck, A.D. 1344-1360. The Black Death reached Herefordshire in 1349, and Bishop Trilleck is said to have kept it at bay in the city by a procession of the shrine of the recently canonised St. Thomas of Hereford.

Bishop Trilleck was buried in the cathedral, and a fine brass[pg 099] effigy was placed on his grave. "Gratus, prudens, pius" are among the words which may be still read from the mutilated inscription, and they appear to have had more justification than the rhetoric of the average epitaph.

TOMB OF BISHOP THOS. CHARLETON.

Lewis Charleton, A.D. 1361-1369, was appointed by papal provision. The Black Death made a second visitation in the first year of his episcopate, and it was then that the market was removed to some distance from the town on the[pg 100] west. The "White Cross" there placed, which bears the arms of Bishop Charleton, may mark the spot. He bequeathed money and some books to the cathedral.

William Courtenay, A.D. 1370-1375, was also appointed by papal provision, which was necessary in consequence of his youth. Although he had already held a canonry of York and prebends in Exeter and Wells in addition to the Chancellorship of Oxford University, he was but twenty-eight years of age. At Oxford he had, with Wicliff, opposed the friars, though he afterwards turned against his former ally.

John Gilbert, A.D. 1375-1389, with partial success, went to make terms of peace with Charles VI., the French King. He became treasurer of England in 1386, an office of which he was deprived by Richard II. not long before his translation to St. David's. Bishop Gilbert founded the Cathedral Grammar School.

Thomas Trevenant, A.D. 1389-1404. An active politician, this Bishop assisted in the deposition of King Richard II., and was one of the commissioners to the Pope to announce the accession of Henry IV.

Robert Mascall, A.D. 1404-1416, was employed as a foreign ambassador by Henry IV., who also made him his confessor. He attended the council of Constance in 1414.

Edmund Lacy, A.D. 1417-1420. This Bishop began to build the cloister connecting the cathedral with the Episcopal palace.

Thomas Polton, A.D. 1420-1421, was consecrated at Florence, and the next year was translated to Chichester.

Thomas Spofford, A.D. 1421-1448, Abbot of St. Mary's at York, to which post he returned on resigning his see in 1448. According to a papal bull he laid out 2,800 marks on the buildings of the cathedral,—probably completing the cloisters begun by Bishop Lacy. His pension on retiring was £100 per annum. The great west window of the cathedral was put up in his time by William Lochard.

Richard Beauchamp, A.D. 1448-1450. Son of Sir Walter, and grandson of Lord Beauchamp of Powick, he was a great architect in his day, although his chief work was done after his translation to Salisbury, when he was appointed by Edward IV. to superintend the works at Windsor which included the rebuilding of St. George's Chapel where he was[pg 101] buried. It is said he was the first Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.

Reginald Buller, A.D. 1450-1453, Abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, was translated to Lichfield. He was buried in Hereford Cathedral.

John Stanberry, A.D. 1453-1474, was a Carmelite friar at Oxford, and was chosen by King Henry VI. to be his confessor, and also first Provost of Eton. In 1448 he was made Bishop of Bangor, and five years later was translated to Hereford. After the battle of Northampton (July, 1460), he was taken prisoner and was incarcerated for some time in Warwick Castle. On his release he retired to the convent of his order at Ludlow, where he died in May, 1474. He was buried at Hereford, near his own Chantry Chapel, which still bears his name. He gave land from the garden of the bishop's palace for building a dwelling-house for the vicars choral, which was completed in 1475.

Thomas Mylling, A.D. 1474-1492, the next Bishop, was Abbot of St. Peter's, Westminster, where he had been a monk. King Edward IV. made him a Privy Councillor and gave him the see of Hereford in remembrance of his services to Elizabeth Woodville, whom he received into sanctuary when her husband had to fly to Holland. After his death his body was carried to Westminster, and the stone coffin is still there which is said to have enclosed his remains.

Edmund Audley, A.D. 1492-1502, a prebendary of Lichfield, of Lincoln, and of Wells, was Bishop of Rochester in 1480, translated to Hereford in 1492, and to Salisbury in 1502. The beautiful chantry chapel on the south side of the Lady Chapel, near the shrine of St. Thomas of Cantilupe, was founded by him. He also presented a silver shrine to the cathedral, and a pulpit at St. Mary's, Oxford, is said to be his gift.

Adrian de Castello, A.D. 1503-1504. He conducted the negotiations between Henry VII. and the Pope; and he was translated from Hereford to Bath and Wells, but never visited either see.

Richard Mayhew, A.D. 1504-1516, was made in 1480 the first regular president of Bishop Waynflete's new College of St. Mary Magdalene at Oxford. He was also Chancellor of the University, and almoner to King Henry VII., by whom he had been sent in 1501 to bring the Infanta Katharine of Aragon from Spain as the bride of Prince Arthur.

He was buried near the effigy of St. Ethelbert on the south side of the choir, where his tomb is still to be seen.

Charles Booth, A.D. 1516-1535, Archdeacon of Buckingham, and Chancellor of the Welsh Marches, left a lasting memorial in the north porch of the cathedral, which bears upon it the date of his death. He seems to have been much in the King's favour, and was summoned in 1520 to make one of the illustrious company on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was attached to the company of Henry's "dearest wife, the queen," and was accompanied by thirty "tall personages."

On his death he left some books to the library, as well as a tapestry for the high altar; also to his successor a gold ring and other articles which have disappeared.

Edward Foxe, A.D. 1535-1538. This "principal pillar of the Reformation," as Fuller calls him, is said by Strype to have been "an excellent instrument" in its general progress.

A Gloucestershire worthy, having been born at Dursley in that county, he was sent first to Eton and then to Cambridge, becoming, in 1528, Provost of King's College. In 1531 he succeeded Stephen Gardiner as Archdeacon of Leicester. For many years almoner to the King, he was employed in embassies to France, Italy, and Germany, the most important of these diplomatic missions being in February, 1527, when he was sent to Rome with Gardiner to negotiate in the matter of Henry's separation from his "dearest wife."

Foxe first introduced Cranmer to the King; and he, again, wrote the book called The Difference between the Kingly and the Ecclesiastical Power, which Henry wished people to think he had partly written himself, intended, as it was, to make easier his assumption of ecclesiastical supremacy.

In August, 1536, Bishop Foxe began, by deputy, a visitation of the diocese for the valuation of all church property therein, in accordance with the order referred to above. Dr. Coren, his vicar-general, actually carried out the valuation, and its results are to be found in the pages of Valor Ecclesiasticus, printed by the Record Commissioners in 1802.

In March, 1535-6, an Act was passed by Parliament granting to the King all religious houses possessing a revenue under £200 per annum. There were about eighteen houses in the diocese, excluding the cathedral, and of these only the priories of Wenlock,[pg 103] Wigmore, and Leominster possessed revenues exempting them from appropriation. Bishop Foxe died in London in May, 1538, and was buried in the Church of St. Mary Monthalt.

John Skypp, A.D. 1539-1552. The Archdeacon of Leicester, Edmund Bonner, was appointed to the see on Foxe's death, but was removed to London before his consecration, and John Skypp, Abbat of Wigmore, Archdeacon of Dorset, and chaplain and almoner to Ann Boleyn, became the next Bishop.

He was associated with Cranmer, though, after Cromwell's execution for high treason in 1540, the Archbishop became distant towards him. He was the part compiler with Foxe of the Institution of a Christian Man, published in 1537, of the Erudition or King's Book, published in 1543, and was probably one of the committee employed to draw up the first Common Prayer-Book of Edward VI., in 1548, although, on its completion, he protested against its publication. He died in 1552 at the episcopal residence in London.

John Harley, A.D. 1553-1554, was appointed by Edward VI. to hold the see "during good behaviour." He was consecrated on May 26, 1553, but only to be deposed in March, 1554. Soon after Mary came to the throne, she appointed a commission of bishops to deprive the bishops appointed during the reign of her brother. On various charges, and especially on that of "inordinate life" (meaning marriage), the bishopric of Harley was declared void. He is said to have spent the remainder of his life wandering about in woods "instructing his flock, and administering the sacrament according to the order of the English book, until he died, shortly after his deposition, a wretched exile in his own land."

Robert Parfew, A.D. 1554-1557, also known as Wharton, was instituted to the Hereford See at St. Mary's Church, Southwark, by Lord Chancellor Gardiner. He had been Abbat of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey, as well as Bishop of St. Asaph, attended the baptism of Prince Edward, and was one of those concerned in the production of the Bishop's Book. On his death, September 22, 1537, he bequeathed his mitre and other ornaments to Hereford Cathedral, though whether he was buried there or in Mold Church seems doubtful. The Dean of Exeter, Dr. Thomas Reynolds, was appointed to succeed him, but was imprisoned in the Marshalsea, on the accession of Elizabeth, before he had been consecrated, and[pg 104] died there in 1559. Fuller, in his Church History of Britain, remarks: "I take the Marshalsea to be, in those times, the best for the usage of prisoners, but O the misery of God's poor saints in Newgate, under Alexander the gaoler! More cruel than his namesake the coppersmith was to St. Paul; in Lollard's Tower, the Clink, and Bonner's Coal-house, a place which minded them of the manner of their death, first kept amongst coals before they were burnt to ashes."[10]

John Scory, A.D. 1559-1585, was translated from Chichester. On the accession of Mary, 1553, he is said to have done penance for his marriage, and generally reconciled himself with Rome, then to have withdrawn to Friesland and retracted his recantation, becoming superintendent to the English congregation there. When Elizabeth came to the throne he returned, preached before her by appointment in Lent, 1558, was restored to Chichester, and later on was elected to Hereford.

During his episcopate the persuasive Queen induced Bishop Scory to surrender to the Crown nine or ten of the best manors belonging to the see, and to receive in exchange advowsons and other less valuable possessions. In these transactions it is possible he thought more of his own interest than that of his successors; in any case, serious charges were brought against him in other ways. His steward Butterfield drops into verse on the subject. One of his stanzas runs:—

Then home he came unto our queene, the fyrst year of her raigne,

And byshop was of Hereford, where he doth now remaine;

And where hee hath by enemyes oft, and by false slanderous tongues,

Had troubles great, without desert, to hys continuall wronges.

Bishop Scory was succeeded by Harberd (or Herbert) Westphaling, A.D. 1585-1601, Prebendary of Christ Church, Oxford: a man remarkable for the immoderate length of his speeches, his great integrity, and a profound and unsmiling gravity. He married a sister of the wife of Archbishop Parker, and before his election to Hereford was treasurer of St. Paul's and Dean of Windsor.

According to Sir John Harrington, Bishop Westphaling was once preaching in his cathedral when a mass of frozen snow fell upon the roof from the tower, creating a panic among the[pg 105] frightened congregration[**typo: congregation]. But the Bishop, remaining in his pulpit, exhorted them to keep their places and fear not. He spent all that he had in revenues from the see in charity and good works, leaving, says Fuller, "no great, but a well-gotten estate, out of which he bequeathed twenty pounds per annum to Jesus College in Oxford." He lies in the north transept of the cathedral, where his effigy can still be seen.

Robert Bennett, A.D. 1602-1617, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, was a famous tennis player.

Queen Elizabeth had imprisoned him for a short time for preaching against her projected marriage with the Duke of Anjou, but made him Dean of Windsor towards the close of her reign. He is said to have been vain, and especially fond of having his name and arms carved on house fronts. In 1607 the old quarrel about the Bishop's rights respecting St. Ethelbert's fair broke out again between the citizens and Bishop Bennett. He spent large sums on the restoration of the Bishop's Palace. Bishop Bennett was buried on the north side of the choir, where his tomb remains with effigy.

Francis Godwin, A.D. 1617-1633, translated to Hereford from Llandaff, which preferment he is said to have obtained from the Queen on account of his commentary De Praesulibus Angliae. He also wrote other historical works, including a life of Queen Mary. To quote again from Fuller, "He was stored with all polite learning both judicious and industrious in the study of antiquity, to whom not only the Church of Llandaff (whereof he well deserved) but all England is indebted, as for his other learned writings, so especially for his catalogue of Bishops." He was buried at Whitbourn, in a residence belonging to the see of Hereford, on April 29, 1633.

William Juxon, Dean of Worcester, and President of St. John's College, Oxford, was chosen to follow Bishop Godwin, but before consecration was called to London. During his episcopacy in that see, he was by Bishop Laud's procurement made Lord Treasurer of England. Fuller says of his administration of these duties that "No hands, having so much money passing through them, had their fingers less soiled therewith."

Augustine Lindsell, A.D. 1633-1634, Bishop of Peterborough, was confirmed on March 24, 1633, but in November of the following year was found dead in his study.

Matthew Wren, A.D. 1635-1635, Dean of Windsor, held a still briefer episcopate, and in the same year as his consecration to Hereford was translated to Norwich.

Theophilus Field, A.D. 1635-1636, who had been Bishop of Llandaff and of St. David's, died a year after his translation, and thereby saved the diocese the ill effects of a longer term of servile and corrupt management.

George Coke, A.D. 1636-1646, Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, became Bishop of Bristol in 1633, and was translated to Hereford in 1636. He was a grave and studious man, and well loved in his diocese, but in the troubled days of the Civil War was deprived of his see.

Nicholas Monk, A.D. 1661-1661, who followed, was brother to the Duke of Albemarle, and provost of Eton. He died in the December following his consecration, at Westminster, where he was buried.

Herbert Croft, A.D. 1662-1671. The son of Sir Herbert Croft, of an ancient family in the county of Hereford, he was brought up at Douai and St. Omer as a Jesuit, but was restored to the English Church through the influence of Bishop Morton, of Durham. He became a determined opponent of Romanism, and wrote several treatises against it. About this time there seems to have been an appeal to the nobility and gentry of the county for help towards restoring the cathedral. Bishop Croft was buried in the cathedral, and joined to his gravestone is that of his intimate friend George Benson, the Dean. He left by his will a sum of money for the relief of widows, and for apprenticing the sons of clergymen of the diocese.

Gilbert Ironside, A.D. 1691-1701, warden of Wadham College, Oxford, was translated to Hereford from Bristol. He died in London, and was buried in the church of St. Mary, Monthalt. This church was destroyed in 1863, but the Rev. F. T. T. Havergal succeeded in getting the Bishop's remains and tomb-stone removed to Hereford Cathedral a few years later, in 1867.

Humphrey Humphreys, A.D. 1701-1712, a Welshman, was translated to Hereford from Bangor. He is said to have been a good antiquary. Again, in the early days of the eighteenth century, was the old contest revived between citizens and Bishop as to his jurisdiction in respect of the fair of St. Ethelbert. The episcopal rights remained unaltered, at least in form, down to 1838, when the privileges were taken away by a special Act[pg 107] of Parliament, and compensation was made to the Bishop for the profits arising from the fair privileges, to the amount of 12-1/2 bushels of wheat or its equivalent in money value, according to the price current. This has now been transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the fair limited to two days' duration.

Philip Bisse, A.D. 1712-1721, translated from St. David's, was a man of great munificence, and of the best intentions, of whom it may be said he spent "not wisely but too well." He was entirely devoid of any æsthetic feeling or of architectural fitness, and in the most religious spirit committed acts of wholesale sacrilege. He employed, it is said, in the work of restoration in the palace, the stones of the chapter-house, at that time much injured, but certainly by no means ruined. He built a hideous structure intended to support the central tower of the cathedral, and as a crowning act of magnificent liberality, presented the church with the most dreadful, ponderous, and unsuitable altar-piece that could well have been devised. In an elaborate epitaph in the cathedral his virtues are recorded. It was in the time of Bishop Bisse that the meeting of the three choirs of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester first took place.

Benjamin Hoadley, A.D. 1721-1723, translated from Bangor, was again translated to Salisbury early in 1723. His rule over Hereford was too short for him to have influenced it for good or evil, and his history belongs rather to Salisbury and Winchester.

Hon. Henry Egerton, A.D. 1723-1746, fifth son of the third Earl of Bridgewater, was chaplain to George I. He is chiefly to be remembered for an attempt to destroy the early Norman building adjoining the Bishop's Palace, and thought to have been the parish church of St. Mary, each of its two stories containing a chantry founded by Bishop Hugh Foliot.

Lord James Beauclerk, A.D. 1746-1787, grandson of Charles II. and Nell Gwynn, a native of Hereford, was the next Bishop. It was during the last year of his episcopate on Easter Monday, April 17, 1786, that occurred the fall of the western tower of the cathedral, causing much injury. The west front of the church was destroyed, and also a great part of the nave was seriously injured. The Bishop died eighteen months after this calamity. The see was next occupied for six weeks only by the Hon. J. Harley.

John Butler, A.D. 1788-1802. By birth a German, was an active political supporter of the Government of the day.

He contributed largely to the repair of the cathedral.

Folliott Herbert Cornewall, A.D. 1802-1808. He was a member of an ancient family in the county of Hereford. Translated from Bristol to Hereford, he was again translated in 1808 to Worcester.

John Luxmoore, A.D. 1808-1815, was translated to Hereford from Bristol, and again translated in 1815 to St. Asaph. He helped to establish national schools in the diocese.

Isaac Huntingford, A.D. 1815-1832, warden of Winchester College, was translated from Gloucester to Hereford, and still continued his duties at Winchester. During his episcopate an incongruous painted window was placed by Dean Carr at the east end of the choir in 1822. He was author of several classical and theological works. He died April 29, 1832, in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried at Compton, near Winchester. There is a monument in the Bishop's cloister and a window in the south-east transept to his memory.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

Edward Grey, D.D., of Christ Church, Oxford, A.D. 1832-1837. He was Dean of Hereford in 1831. He was buried in the choir of the cathedral, eastward of the throne, on July 24, 1837, aged fifty-five years. A brass plate on the wall marks[pg 109] the spot. There is also a monument to his memory now in the Bishop's cloister.

Thomas Musgrave, D.D., A.D. 1837-1847, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Dean of Bristol; consecrated Bishop of Hereford, October 1, 1837; promoted to the Archbishopric of York, December, 1847. He died in London, May 4, 1860, aged seventy-two years, and was buried at Kensal Green, where there is a tomb with a short inscription. In York Minster a monument in the shape of an altar tomb was erected to him, and in the north choir aisle of Hereford Cathedral are three stained-glass windows to his memory.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

Renn Dickson Hampden, D.D., A.D. 1848-1868, Fellow of Oriel College; Principal of St. Mary's Hall; Regius Professor of Divinity; and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He was appointed in 1847 by Lord John Russell, and for the first time since the Reformation "a struggle took place between the recommending minister and a large and influential part of the clergy and laity of the church, who regarded Dr. Hampden's opinions as heretical."[11] Lord John Russell refused to withdraw[pg 110] the appointment, and it was eventually carried out in spite of all remonstrances; not, however, until the question had been taken from the Spiritual Court to the Court of Queen's Bench, where the judges were equally divided in their opinion. He died April 23, 1868, in London, and was buried at Kensal Green, close to the Princess Sophia. His scholastic philosophy was said by Hallam to be the only work of deep metaphysical research on the subject to be found in the English language.

BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.

James Atlay, A.D. 1868-1895, second son of the Rev. Henry Atlay, M.A., formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was born July 3, 1817; graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards Fellow, appointed one of Her Majesty's Preachers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1857; Vicar of Leeds, 1859; Canon of Ripon, 1861; nominated to Hereford, May 9, consecrated at Westminster on June 24, and enthroned in Hereford Cathedral, July 2, 1868. He was succeeded in 1895 by the Right Rev. John Percival, D.D., the present holder of the see.

PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.

The dimensions of the cathedral are:—

Ft.In.
Total length outside,about3420
Total length inside,about3275
Length of Nave to Screen Gates,about1586
Length of Choir-Screen to Reredos,about756
Length of Lady Chapel from Reredos,about935
Breadth of Nave (span of roof),about314
Breadth of Nave and Aisles (internally),about734
Breadth of Central Transepts,about1462
Breadth of North-East Transepts (each about 35 ft. sq.),about1106
Height of Choir,about626
Height of Nave,about640
Height of Lantern,about960
Height of Tower (top of leads),about1406
Height of Tower (top of pinnacles),about1650
Height of old central timber Spire,about2400

NEILL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.