“The king” (William the Conqueror) “had given Remigius, who had been a monk at Fescamp, the bishopric of Dorchester which is situated on the Thames. This bishopric, being larger than all others in England, stretching from the Thames to the Humber, the bishop thought it troublesome to have his episcopal See at the extreme limit of his diocese. He was also displeased with the smallness of the town, the most illustrious city appearing far more worthy to be the See of a bishop. He therefore bought certain lands on the highest parts of the city, near the castle standing aloft with its strong towers, and built a church, strong as the place was strong, and fair as the place was fair, dedicated to the Virgin of Virgins, which should both be a joy to the servants of God, and as befitted the time unconquerable by enemies.”
Such is Henry of Huntingdon’s account of the transference of the See, which took place between 1072 and 1075.
The church built by Remigius, on the site of an earlier church, was completed in twenty years. Remigius died three days before the date appointed for the consecration, May 9, 1092, and was buried before the Altar of the Holy Cross in front of the rood-screen. This first church was 300 feet long. It was severely plain; but so strong that Stephen used it as a fortress in 1141, when the castle opposite was held by his enemies.
The next great builder was Alexander the Magnificent (1123-1148), nephew of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. A fire destroying the roof in 1141 necessitated repairs. Alexander remodeled parts of the church. He added the elaborate doorways in the west front in 1146; the Norman arcade along the west front; and built the western towers.
“Part of the west front of Lincoln was built by Bishop Remi, or Remigius, 1085-1092: the small portion which remains of this work is a very valuable specimen of early Norman, the more so that the insertion of later and richer Norman doorways by Bishop Alexander, about fifty years afterwards, enables us to compare early and late Norman work, while the jointing of the masonry leaves no doubt of the fact that these doorways are insertions and, therefore, confirms the early date of the three lofty arches under which they are inserted. A comparison of the capitals and details of these two periods, thus placed in juxtaposition, is extremely interesting. The wide-jointing of the masonry and the shallowness of the carving distinguish the old work from the new. Several capitals of the later period are inserted in the older work, as is shewn on careful examination by the jointing of the masonry, and by the form of the capitals themselves: the earlier capitals are short, and have volutes at the angles, forming a sort of rude Ionic; the later capitals are more elongated, and have a sort of rude Corinthian, or Composite foliage.”—(J. H. P.)
In 1185 an earthquake injured the Cathedral; and so, when Hugh of Avalon became Bishop of Lincoln in 1186, he began to collect money for repairs and rebuilding. The eastern end of the original Cathedral was removed, and in 1192 Bishop Hugh laid the foundations of his very original Choir. The architect was Geoffrey de Noyers. J. H. Parker, who studied Lincoln Cathedral for thirty years, considers this work of St. Hugh (A.D. 1192-1200) pure Early English Gothic and the earliest building of that style in the world.
“Canterbury was completed in 1184 and in 1185 St. Hugh of Grenoble, also called St. Hugh of Burgundy, was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, and immediately began to rebuild his cathedral. It is therefore plain that this portion of the building was completed before 1200, and a careful examination enables us to distinguish clearly the work completed in the time of Bishop Hugh, which comprises his choir and the eastern transepts with its chapels. The present vaults of St. Hugh’s Choir, and of both the transepts, were introduced subsequent to the fall of the tower, which occurred in 1240.
“The architecture in the north of Lincolnshire and the south of Yorkshire appears to have been a little in advance of any other in Europe at that period. St. Hugh’s Choir at Lincoln is the earliest building of the pure Gothic style free from any mixture of the Romanesque that has been hitherto found in Europe, or in the world. The Oriental styles are not Gothic, though they helped to lead to it. The French Gothic has a strong mixture of the Romanesque with it down to a later period than the Choir of Lincoln. St. Hugh of Lincoln certainly did not bring the Gothic style with him from his own country Dauphiny, or from the Grande Chartreuse where he was educated, for nothing of the kind existed there at that period. Grenoble (the place from which St. Hugh was brought to England) and its neighbourhood was quite half-a-century behind England in the character of its buildings, in the time of Henry II. of England and of Anjou, in whose time this style was developed.
“Nothing can well exceed the freedom, delicacy and beauty of this work; the original arcade of the time of St. Hugh is of the same free and beautiful style as the additions of his successors. The crockets, arranged vertically one over the other behind the detached marble shafts of the pillars, are a remarkable and not a common feature, which seems to have been in use for a few years only; it occurs also in the west front of Wells Cathedral, the work of Bishop Jocelin, a few years after this at Lincoln; or perhaps under him, of Hugh de Wells.”—(J. H. P.)
The eight years during which Hugh carried on the work