“The design of the present structure is very remarkable; the lofty arched recesses, which are carried up over the actual arches and the triforium, giving the idea of a subsequent work carried over the older work; but an examination of the construction shows that this is not the case, that it was all built at one time, and that none of it is earlier than about 1160. In this church the central tower is not square, the nave and choir being wider than the transepts, and consequently the east and west arches are round-headed, while the north and south are pointed: this would not in itself be any proof of transition, but the whole character of the work is late, though very rich and good, and the clerestory windows of the nave are pointed without any necessity for it, which is then a mark of transition.”—(J. H. P.)
St. Frideswide (Bond of Peace), or “the Lady,” as she was called in Oxford, lived early in the Eighth Century, when Ethelbald was king of Mercia. Her father, Didan, was a prince who lived in the city of Oxford about 727, where Frideswide was born. Of her early piety, her refusal of marriage, her foundation of this nunnery at Oxford, her miracles of healing and her “glorious death,” there are many pretty stories.
St. Frideswide’s Church was burned in 1002, when Ethelred the Unready ordained the Massacre of the Danes.
Ethelred afterwards made a vow that he would rebuild St. Frideswide’s Church; and in 1004 he began the splendid edifice, of unusual magnificence for the period.
Robert of Cricklade, prior from 1141 to 1180, seems to have restored Ethelred’s church; and in that year the relics of St. Frideswide were translated to a more conspicuous place in the church.
Many distinguished noblemen and prelates were present:
“After they were meet, and injoyned fasting and prayers were past, as also those ceremonies that are used at such times was with all decency performed, then those bishops that were appointed, accompanied with Alexio, the pope’s legat for Scotland, went to the place where she was buried, and opening the sepulchre, took out with great devotion the remainder of her body that was left after it had rested there 480 yeares, and with all the sweet odours and spices imaginable to the great rejoycing of the multitude then present mingled them amongst her bones and laid them up in a rich gilt coffer made and consecrated for that purpose, and placed it on the north side of the quire, somewhat distant from the ground, and inclosed it with a partition from the sight hereafter of the vulgar.”—(A.-à-W.)
In 1289 these relics were again translated and placed in the position of the old shrine, probably in the north-choir-aisle, where the marble base recently discovered now stands ([see page 385]).
“In the Lancet period (1190-1245) the works went on apace. An upper stage was added to the tower and on that the spire was built—the first large stone spire in England. It is a Broach spire, i.e., the cardinal sides of the spire are built right out to the eaves, so that there is no parapet. On the other hand, instead of having broaches at the angle it has pinnacles. Moreover, to bring down the thrusts more vertically, heavy dormer windows are inserted at the foot of each of the cardinal sides of the spire,—altogether a very logical and scientific piece of engineering, much more common in the early spires of Northern France than in England.”—(F. B.)
About the Thirteenth Century the monks built the Chapter-House now standing; then the Lady-Chapel; altered the Norman windows to Decorated; and in the Fifteenth Century made many changes in the new Perpendicular style.