“Notwithstanding the cruel mutilation of the sculpture all round this chapel, it can be seen that for perfection of exquisite work there is no building of the size in this country worthy for one moment to be compared with this in its unmutilated state. Its single defect strikes the beholder at once: the span of the roof is too broad and the vaulting too depressed for the size of the chapel. The windows on the north have been restored. The end windows, which are of great size, are of later date; that to the east has a look of Transition work about it. The building was finished in 1349, and the east window was inserted by Bishop Barnet, circa 1373. The great beauty of the interior consists in the series of tabernacle work and canopies that run round all the four sides below and between the windows. The heads of the canopies project. In the tracery beneath, at the head of the mullion, was a statue. The delicate carving of the cusps and other tracery is varied throughout. On the spandrels were incidents connected with the history of the Virgin Mary (mainly legendary) and of Julian the Apostate; and though in no single instance is a perfect uninjured specimen left, yet enough remains, in all but a few cases, for the original subjects to be identified. All was once enriched with colour, and many traces remain; and in various parts of the windows there are fragments of stained glass. Most of the monumental tablets which once disfigured the arcade below the windows have been happily removed into the vestibule. The arches and canopies at the east end are arranged differently from those on the sides. In the roof, which reminds us of the contemporary roof in the choir, are some carved bosses, not large, but singularly good. Among the subjects can be recognised a Crucifixion, with half-figures beside the cross; Adam and Eve; the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, holding between them a book inscribed ‘Magnificat’; the Annunciation, with ‘Ave Maria Gratia plena’; the Ascension, indicated by the skirt and feet of the Saviour and five heads of apostles; the Coronation of the Virgin; and the Virgin in an aureole.”—(W. D. S.)
NORWICH
Dedication: The Holy Trinity. Church of a Benedictine Monastery.
This Cathedral was begun in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, the bishop appointed by William Rufus, who had received his education in Normandy, and who became prior of Fécamp. No earlier church stood on the site. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
“The characteristics of the cathedral are—its long nave, which is typical of the Norman church; its glorious apsidal termination, encircled by a procession path, which recalls the plan of a French cathedral; and the form of this, with the remains of its old bishops’ chair centrally placed, and with the westward position, of the throne at Torcello and other Italian churches, of the basilican type of plan.
“It is interesting to note that Herbert’s early French training influenced him in the planning of the beautiful eastern termination to his cathedral, and the grand sweep of the procession path. Similar apsidal terminations, of slightly later date, once existed at Ely, and still remain in a modified form at Peterborough and St. Bartholomew’s.
“It is probable, and the more generally accredited supposition, that Herbert built the presbytery with its encircling procession path and the original trefoil of Norman chapel radiating therefrom;—the choir and transepts with the two chapels projecting eastwards and the first two bays of the nave. Harrod advances a theory that he completely finished the whole of the cathedral church, as well as the offices for the housing of the sixty monks who were placed therein, in 1101.”—(C. H. B. Q.)
Norwich acquired its chief saint in the Twelfth Century, and a saint, moreover, that much resembled Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln. A young boy, William, the child of simple country people, was murdered by the Jews in the city. Immediately after his death miracles took place. The monks placed his altar near the ante-choir, and raked in the offerings.
The Cathedral suffered from fires, and the tower was struck by lightning in 1271. There was also a terrible riot between the people and the monks in the Thirteenth Century, when the Cathedral was besieged. The monastery and the Cathedral were burned, and many monks were killed. Some citizens of Norwich were hanged, drawn and quartered, and the city had to repair the church. The monks were compelled to erect new gates and entrances, one of which, St. Ethelbert’s Gate, still exists (see page 351).