As early as the reign of Athelstan a Benedictine monastery, dedicated to St. Peter, existed at Crediton and was much injured by the Northmen in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. When the Sees for Devon and Cornwall were removed from Crediton to Exeter in 1050, the old church of St. Peter was chosen for the new Cathedral. Of the Saxon church, however, nothing remains. William Warelwast (1107-1136), the third bishop after the Conquest, began the new church about 1112, in the “marvellous and sumptuous” architecture of the Normans. During its erection it suffered from fire when Stephen besieged Exeter in 1136. Of this building the two transept towers remain. Bishop Peter Quivil built the greater part of the present Cathedral before 1291; Bishop Stapledon, who was murdered by the Londoners at the “great cross in Chepe” in 1326, the eastern part of the Choir, the sedilia and the choir-screen; Bishop Grandisson finished the Nave about 1350 and the west front, in all probability, a little later; and Bishop Brantingham, the Cloisters. The Lady-Chapel was built during the episcopates of Bronescomb and Quivil, and the chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and of St. Gabriel the Archangel, north and south of the Lady-Chapel, are the work of Bishop Bronescomb.
Many of the ancient decorations and arrangements were either removed, or defaced, by Queen Elizabeth’s “visitors,” who, in 1559, were appointed to compel the general observance of the Protestant formularies. During the Commonwealth the Cathedral was divided into two portions by a brick wall so that an Independent preacher named Stuckeley, one of Cromwell’s chaplains, could preach in “West Peter’s,” and a Presbyterian, named Ford, in the Choir, or “East Peter’s,” as the Puritans now named these portions of the Cathedral.
The finest view is perhaps from Waddlesdown, about four miles from Exeter. Taking a view of the exterior,
“The visitor should especially remark the Norman towers, the cresting of the roof, the flying-buttresses and the north porch. The Norman towers, in connection with the long unbroken roof, should perhaps be regarded as constituting the specialty of Exeter. At all events, the peculiarity of their present position is so great and so striking as at once to attract attention; and the question of their place in the original Norman church is one of very considerable interest. Each tower consists of six stages, the two lowest of which are plain: the other four have blind arcades and circular window openings, the details and arrangements of which vary in the two towers. At the angles are square buttresses, which rise above the uppermost story. The south tower is Norman throughout; that on the north was altered by Bishop Courtenay for the reception of the great bell from Llandaff, and its final stage is Perpendicular. The fleur-de-lis cresting of the roof is of lead (with which the whole of the roof is covered), and its form is very graceful and effective. The flying-buttresses derive a very grand effect from the fact that the aisle-roofs slope outwards, and not, as usual, inwards. Resulting also from this peculiarity are, the great height of the aisles on the exterior, and an unusual development of the clerestory, without any intervening space between it and the aisle-roofs; and within the nave, the absence of the triforium; the place of which is, however, indicated by the blind arcade above the piers. The north porch with its triple canopy is part of Grandisson’s work, and very beautiful.”—(R. J. K.)
Many people are at first disappointed with their first view of the West Front and more particularly of the Screen with its noble array of statues. The impression that it produces has been well described by W. D. Howells, who writes on his visit to Exeter:
“To the first glance it is all a soft gray blur of age-worn carving, in which no point or angle seems to have failed of the touch which has blent all archaic sanctities and royalties of the glorious screen in a dim sumptuous harmony of figures and faces.”
Now let us examine it more in detail.
“The west front, usually regarded as the latest work of Bishop Grandisson, who died in 1369, is of very high interest; and although it cannot compete with those of Wells or Lincoln (both of earlier date), may justly claim great beauty as an architectural composition. It recedes in three stories, the lowest of which is formed by the sculptured screen; the second contains the great west window, on each side of which is a graduated arcade; and in the third, or gable, is a triangular window surmounted by a niche, containing a figure of St. Peter, the patron saint of the cathedral. The SCREEN deserves the most careful examination. It is pierced by three doorways, and surrounded by a series of niches, in which are the statues of kings, warriors, saints and apostles, guardians, as it were, of the entrance to the sanctuary. These figures are arranged in three rows. From pedestals crowned with battlements spring angels, each of whom supports a triple pilaster, with capitals. The statues on these capitals, forming the second row, are for the most part those of kings and knights; above the canopies which surmount them appears the third row, chiefly saints and apostles. The positions of the angels are admirably varied.
“The two statues with shields of arms in niches above the upper row are certainly those of Athelstan and Edward the Confessor, the Saxon king who expelled the Britons from Exeter, and the founder of the existing bishopric. In all these figures the general arrangement of the hair as well as the fashion of the crowns and of the armour, are those of the reign of Edward III., in which the work was probably completed.
“The platform above the screen no doubt served, as in many foreign cathedrals, as a station from which the church minstrels and choristers might duly welcome distinguished persons on their arrival; and from which the bishop might bestow his benediction on the people. The three doorways are much enriched. Round that in the centre, within the porch, is a moulding of carved foliage which deserves notice. On the central boss of the groining is a representation of the Crucifixion. The recess within the south doorway contains two sculptures, The Appearance of the Angel to Joseph in a Dream and The Adoration of the Shepherds. Both, like the figures on the screen, have suffered not a little from time, and the assaults of Cromwell’s Puritans.”—(R. J. K.)