Beyond the pier which connects De Lucy’s work with the Presbytery on the north side is the Chantry of Bishop Gardiner (1531-1555), the “hammer of heretics,” secretary to Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII.’s ambassador to the Pope regarding his marriage. Bishop Gardiner also married “Bloody Mary” to the King of Spain.
Opposite is Bishop Fox’s Chantry, built by Fox himself. It is the most elaborate chantry in the Cathedral. The arches were once filled with stained glass. The Bishop’s emblem, the pelican, appears everywhere. Fox was secretary and Lord Privy Seal to Henry VII. and founder of Corpus Christi, Oxford. This college restored the Bishop’s chantry. Blind several years before his death, Fox used to be led every day to the small oratory attached to his Chantry.
The visitor should study these chantries, beginning with Edington’s in the Nave and ending with Gardiner’s, for they form a continuous record of the growth and development of Perpendicular and Tudor architecture from 1366 to 1555.
“In no English church except Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s, lie so many men of name. For just as the features of the Cathedral represent all the successive phases and changes of the art of building, until it has been styled a ‘School of English Architecture,’ so it may be said to be the home and centre of our early history. Long is the roll of kings and statesmen who came hither and whose bones here lie at rest. Cynegils and Cenwalh, West Saxon Kings, founders of the church, are here; Egbert was buried here in 838; Ethelwulf also and Edward the Elder and Edred. The body of Alfred the Great lay a while in the church, then was transferred to the new minster he had built, and finally rested at Hyde Abbey. And, most splendid name of all, the great Cnut was buried here, as was also his son, Harthacnut, as bad and mean as his father was great. The roll of kings was closed when Red William’s blood-dripping corpse came jolting hither in the country cart from New Forest.”—(G. W. K.)
The two Transepts are similar. Both have east and west aisles and both are of two periods. The earlier parts are plain rude Norman, massive and grand in effect. The arches, both of triforium and clerestory, are square-edged like the pier-arches below them. They should be compared with Ely Cathedral, the work of Walkelyn’s brother, Simeon. It is interesting to note that the central towers of both fell,—Walkelyn’s in 1107 and Simeon’s in 1321.
The North Transept contains five altars. On the south side against the organ screen is the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, the walls of which are covered with rude wall-paintings illustrative of the passion of our Saviour.
The South Transept is similar to the North transept. In its eastern aisles are two chapels formed by screens of stone tracery work. The south chapel is called Silkstede’s Chapel, from Prior Silkstede, whose name, Thomas, is carved on the screen with the monogram M. A. of the Virgin and a skein of silk, his rebus. The beautiful iron-work is of a later period. A plain black marble slab in Prior Silkstede’s Chapel marks the Tomb of Izaak Walton, “the prince of fishermen,” who died in 1683.
Entrances from both transepts lead to the crypt.
In the west aisle of the south transept is the Chapter-House (formerly the sacristy), above which is the Library. The doorway in the south wall led to the domestic buildings of the monastery.
The Crypt is entered from the north transept. It is Norman, dark and massive, and suggestive of a remote age. It is frequently flooded; for the level of the river seems to have risen since the Eleventh Century. Like other crypts, it serves to show the original plan of the Norman Church. It is in three parts: the western, consisting of the substructure of the original choir; a long aisleless chapel of three bays beneath the present retro-choir; and the substructure of Courtenay’s Lady-Chapel built between 1486 and 1492. Beneath the