The Cathedral Church of St. Peter, Exeter.
FROM SOUTH-EAST.
In the days of the so-called Heptarchy, the divisions of the Church followed those of the State. The diocese of Lichfield was conterminous with the kingdom of Mercia. In the same way the diocese of Winchester was coextensive with the kingdom of Wessex. Thus Devonshire, so far as it had been colonised by Anglo-Saxons before the eighth century, formed part of the diocese of Winchester. But these vast dioceses were too cumbrous to work. They had to be subdivided. So a western diocese was lopped off from Winchester, and a Bishop of Sherborne was appointed as its head. Then, as the far west grew in population and importance, two more bishoprics were created—those of Crediton and Cornwall. These two, however, were soon amalgamated; and Cornwall has had no bishop of its own from the Conquest till the recent formation of the Bishopric of Truro.
Just before the Norman Conquest Bishop Leofric removed the see from the open town of Crediton to the walled city of Exeter, largely in consequence of attacks of Scandinavian pirates. At Exeter Leofric found a Benedictine monastery, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Peter. This conventual church he made his cathedral. “He was installed in the episcopal chair by Edward the Confessor, who supported his right arm, and Queen Eadgytha his left”; representations of which were inserted in the fourteenth-century sedilia. The Benedictine monks were removed by the Confessor to his new abbey at Westminster, and Leofric supplied their place by a body of secular canons, who lived together, however, and to some extent observed monastic discipline. Leofric was left undisturbed in his bishopric till his death, 1072. His successor, also, though a Norman, was English and conservative by training; the venerable Anglo-Saxon church was good enough for him. But William Warelwast (1107-1128) was a great building prelate, and it was he who commenced the existing cathedral. Exeter Cathedral, therefore, was commenced much later than most of the Norman cathedrals. This Norman cathedral of Warelwast seems to have been partly remodelled in the early years of the Lancet period (1194-1206) by Bishop Marshall. Later, but still in the Lancet period, Bishop Bruere (1224-1244) settled the cathedral establishment, and provided for his dignitaries a chapter-house, as well as stalls in the cathedral. In the Geometrical period Bishop Bronescombe (1257-1280) seems to have made a few changes at the east end of the choir. Then came the great builder of all, Bishop Quivil, who formed the bold idea of remodelling the whole cathedral, as left by Bishop Marshall. The work which Bishop Quivil commenced was carried out, and precisely in accordance with the original plans, by Bishops Bitton, Stapledon, and Grandisson, who completed the transformation of the cathedral about 1350. Other great prelates did good work later—especially Brantyngham, Stafford, Lacy, Bothe, Courtenay, Fox, King, and Oldham. The Bishops of Exeter were in nearly all cases men of the highest ability, rank, and importance.
Up to 1551 Exeter was one of the greatest prizes in the Church of England. It possessed thirty-two manors, fourteen palaces—two in Cornwall, nine in Devonshire, one in Surrey, one in London, of which Essex Street, Strand, is a reminder. The present value of the income of the see would be at least £100,000. The first of the Protestant bishops was Miles Coverdale, who with Tyndale translated the Bible. Seth Ward (1662-1667) “cast out the buyers and sellers who had usurped the cathedral, and therein kept distinct shops to vend their wares.” In the evil days of the Puritans the cathedral had been divided into two churches by a vast whitewashed wall, built on the choir-screen and separating choir from nave. The Independents worshipped in the nave, the Presbyterians in the choir. Here they had what they called “great quiet and comfort,” till Seth Ward pulled the wall down. Seth Ward’s restoration of the cathedral cost him £25,000—representing a far greater sum nowadays. He put the cathedral in substantial repair; and the restoration by Sir G. G. Scott, in 1870, did little damage.
Bishop Warelwast.
Nothing remains of the church of the Anglo-Saxon monastery; nor is there any Early Norman work, for, as we have seen, that church was allowed to remain standing till the year 1107. But in the first half of the twelfth century a Norman cathedral was commenced, and possibly finished, by William Warelwast and his successors. That cathedral included both the existing towers; it also included an aisled nave of the same dimensions as the present one. The narrowed span of the westernmost arches of the pier arcade is to be accounted for only on the supposition of the existence, to the west, of the wall of a pre-existing west front (cf. Lincoln nave). Also traces of Norman buttresses and pilasters, and one base, have been found in the walls of the north and south aisles of the nave. And traces of an apse have been found at the end of the third bay of the choir. So it is plain that the twelfth-century cathedral had west front, nave and aisles, transeptal towers, a choir of three bays, an apse at the end of the choir, and probably some minor apses.