Special features: Galilee Chapel; Chapel of the Nine Altars; Neville Screen; Joseph’s Window.
Durham is the most beautifully situated of all English cathedrals. It is perched upon a rocky and wooded eminence above the Wear River, and with the castle by its side makes a noble picture. When seen from the opposite side of the river the west end of the Cathedral is very charming; for the Galilee Chapel, the western towers and gable, the tall central tower and the roof of the nave show variety of line and mass. The Galilee Chapel completely hides the western doorway; but above it rises the big window of 1346, the semicircular arch and the small gable between the twin towers.
Durham Cathedral owed its existence to St. Cuthbert (one of the three great English saints), and was fortunate enough to possess his shrine. Therefore, it is well to recall his life before visiting the church. St. Cuthbert was born about 635, and in Ireland, according to tradition. He is first heard of as a shepherd-boy in Northumbria, where, in 651, while watching his flocks by night, he had a vision of the heavens opening and angels carrying thither the soul of St. Aidan, the pious bishop of Lindisfarne. He decided to become a monk and entered the monastery of Melrose, where he became prior. After a few years he went to Lindisfarne, and also became prior there. In 676 he became an anchorite on Farne Island, where he died, March 20, 687. The fame of St. Cuthbert increased after his death and his anniversary was a great festival in the English Church. Many churches in the north were dedicated to him. His body rested quietly in Lindisfarne for two hundred years, but in 875, when the Danes were ravaging Northumbria, the pious monks of Holy Island, bearing the body on their shoulders, fled inland and found a temporary resting-place in Chester-le-Street, half-way between Newcastle and Durham. In 995 they transferred the body of St. Cuthbert to Ripon; but in the same year removed it to Durham.
Legend says that after the monks left Chester-le-Street, St. Cuthbert appeared and announced that he desired to rest at Dun-holm. The monks wandered about in search of this place. Finally they heard a woman asking another if she had seen her lost cow. The other answered: “It’s down in Dun-holm.” The monks remembering that Dun-holm meant hill-meadow, carried the body of St. Cuthbert into the lonely field.
Here they built a stone chapel to protect the body; and Bishop Aldhun soon began a great church. This “White Church” was consecrated in 999. Aldhun died in 1018. The next important bishop was William of Saint Carileph (1080-1096), appointed by William the Conqueror. He turned the place into a Benedictine monastery. Then he determined to build a better Cathedral, and laid the foundation-stone in 1093. When he died, three years later, the walls of the choir, the eastern walls of the transepts, the arches of the tower and a part of the first bay of the nave were finished. A temporary shrine was also made for St. Cuthbert’s body. Ranulph Flambard (1099-1128) was the next great builder. The nave, the aisles, the west doorway, the lower part of the western towers and the vaulting of the aisles are his. In 1104 he removed the body of St. Cuthbert from the cloister-garth to the splendid shrine behind the high altar. Here the sacred relics were supposed to work miracles, and pilgrims flocked in great numbers to this holy place. William the Conqueror, Henry III., Edward II., and Henry VI. were among the royal personages who did homage to the saint.
When Henry VIII. suppressed the monasteries in 1540, the shrine was destroyed; but the monks secured St. Cuthbert’s body and buried it beneath the platform on which the shrine had stood. In 1827 the grave was opened. A coffin was found that had been made in 1541; this enclosed another, supposed to date from 1104; and this, a third, that agreed with the description of the one made in 698. In the latter was found St. Cuthbert’s body, wrapped in five robes of embroidered silk. Thus it almost seemed as if there were some reason for the legend that his body was supposed to be incorrupt.
William the Conqueror, anxious to see this incorrupt body, ordered the shrine to be opened; but, at the first stroke, such sickness and terror fell upon him that he rushed from the Cathedral; and, mounting his horse, he never drew bridle until he had crossed the Tees.
Until the Reformation the banner of St. Cuthbert hung over his shrine. It was made from a cloth used by St. Cuthbert in celebrating mass and it was believed to insure victory to the army in whose ranks it was carried. Flodden was one of the many fields in which the defeat of the Scots was ascribed to the Standard of St. Cuthbert. Another was Neville’s Cross, near Durham, when 15,000 Scots perished. A thanksgiving hymn was ordered to be sung on top of the Cathedral tower on each anniversary of the battle. This custom is still observed.
Returning now to the architectural history of the Cathedral, the next great builder was Hugh Pudsey (1153-1195), in whose time the Norman style was passing out of fashion. Pudsey began to build a Lady-Chapel at the east end; but when he saw great cracks appearing in the walls, he thought that St. Cuthbert was manifesting his displeasure. Consequently he removed all his building materials, including the Purbeck marble columns, and began and finished the wonderful Galilee Chapel at the west end, about 1175.
Pudsey was a great prince as well as a fine builder. He was only twenty-five when he became Bishop of Durham. He bought the earldom of Northumberland and also a manor. When King Henry decided to go to Jerusalem after his capture by the Saracens, Pudsey fitted out ships and had a seat of silver for himself in one of them. The King died, and Pudsey remained at home; and while King Richard went on the trip Pudsey and the Bishop of Ely quarrelled. Pudsey was decoyed to London and thrown into the Tower. He was released. He died on another journey from Durham to London in 1195.