[My thanks are due to the kindness of Archdeacon Richardson, Rector of Southwell Minster, for his kindness in explaining to me the interesting features of his church. I am also indebted to the works of Mr. Dimock, Mr. Livett and Mrs. Trebeck for much valuable information.]
Dimensions
Length, 306 ft.; breadth, 61 ft.; length of transept, 123 ft.; height of central tower, 105 ft.; height of west towers and spires, 150 ft.
PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL
The towns and cities of England owe their origin to various causes. Some arose around the walls of great castles, some as trading centres or harbours, some clustered around the palace of a bishop, and others sheltered themselves beneath the shadow of a monastery.
Peterborough, or Medeshamstede, is of this last class. It is a monastic town, and owes its existence to the great fenland Monastery of St. Peter, the minster church of which is now this beautiful Cathedral. Peada, the son of Panda, King of Mercia, first founded a monastery here in 654, of which Saxulph was the first abbot. The Pagan Danes came in 870 with fire and sword, and wrought fearful havoc in all this region, burning the holy house of Medeshamstede, and slaughtering the monks. For a hundred years the monastery lay in ruins; then came the religious revival under the rule of Dunstan and King Edgar. Monastic houses increased in number greatly, and Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester began to rebuild the waste places of the ruined Saxon Medeshamstede, and constructed a minster, some foundations of which still remain. The Abbey flourished for nearly a century, but sad misfortunes befell. Hereward the Wake, the hero of Kingsley's story, the gallant "last of the English," was making his last brave stand against William the Norman, and in conjunction with the Danes attacked the Abbey, and wrought much destruction. Fires and robbers were also occasionally dread visitants, and at last, in the time of Henry I., a great fire destroyed the whole buildings. The then abbot was John de Sais, who set to work immediately to erect a new monastery. This was in 1117. Then was begun the glorious minster which is the pride and glory of the fenlands. Subsequent abbots continued the work. Abbots Martin de Vecti and William de Waterville completed the transepts and tower and part of the nave, which was finished by Abbot Benedict (1177-1193). There is a striking uniformity of design throughout all this Norman work, which shows that the builders followed one plan, and imitated the work of their predecessors. The western transept, however, shows evidences of the coming change, and when we come to the beautiful west front we find unmistakable Early English work. This part was probably finished in 1238, in the time of Abbot Walter of St. Edmunds, when the church was dedicated by Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln. Abbot Robert de Lindsay, who liked not the windows of his monastery "stuffed with straw" to keep out wind and rain, filled many of them with glass, and built the lavatory in the cloister. Gradually the erection of the monastic buildings was being completed, and refectory and infirmary added, and Prior Parys built the Lady Chapel and one of the steeples at the close of the thirteenth century, which also saw the removal of the Norman windows from the aisles and the substitution of Early Decorated ones. This was a time of much splendour and magnificence for the Abbey, when Godfrey was abbot, and King Edward often visited it and received aid for his Scottish wars. This Godfrey built the large gateway. A century later the abbot was endowed with the privilege of a mitre, and thus took his seat in the House of Peers; and during this fourteenth century the lantern tower was erected with an octagon framed of wood, the triforium windows changed into the Decorated style, and the west front improved by the erection of the spire and the central porch. During the fifteenth century we hear sad complaints of the relaxation of the discipline of the monks, who too often frequented taverns and "the vulgar company of dancers and ballad singers." Abbot Kirton was a notable man, who built, or rather finished, "that goodly building at the east end of the church, now commonly known by the name of the new building," begun by his predecessor Ashton; and his rebus—a kirk and a tun—appears on the grand gate, now leading to the Deanery. At this time several Norman windows were filled with Perpendicular tracery. We see Cardinal Wolsey visiting the Abbey, and on Maundy Thursday washing the feet of poor persons, and the luckless Catherine of Arragon being buried here in 1535.
Then came the dissolution of monasteries, and Peterborough shared the fate of the rest. Whether it was on account of the subservience of the abbot, or because it contained the ashes of his queen, Henry VIII. spared the church, and made it a Cathedral, the last abbot being the first bishop. The burial of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 is the next historical event which was here witnessed. We can imagine the scene of the torchlight procession bearing the executed body of the frail but fair queen into the church, and the last solemn obsequies of that sad and stormy life. Cromwell's soldiers "did after their kind," and Dean Patrick tells us of "the rifling and defacing" that ensued:—
"The next day after their arrival, early in the morning, they break open the church doors, pull down the organs, of which there were two pair.
"Then the souldiers enter the quire, and their first business was to tear in pieces all the common-prayer books that could be found. The great bible indeed, that lay upon a brass eagle for reading the lessons, had the good hap to escape with the loss only of the apocrypha.
"Next they break down all the seats, stalls and wainscot that was behind them, being adorned with several historical passages out of the old testament.
"When they had thus defaced and spoilt the quire, they march up next to the east end of the church, and there break and cut in pieces, and afterwards burn the rails that were about the communion table. The table itself was thrown down, the table-cloth taken away, with two fair books in velvet covers; the one a bible, the other a common-prayer book, with a silver bason gilt, and a pair of silver candlesticks beside. But upon request made to Colonel Hubbert, the books, bason and all else, save the candlesticks, were restored again.
"Now behind the communion table there stood a curious piece of stone-work, admired much by strangers and travellers: a stately skreen it was, well wrought, painted and gilt, which rose up as high almost as the roof of the church, in a row of three lofty spires, with other lesser spires growing out of each of them. This now had no imagery work upon it, or anything else that might justly give offence, and yet because it bore the name of the high altar, was pulled all down with ropes, lay'd low and level with the ground.
"Over this place, in the roof of the church, in a large oval yet to be seen, was the picture of Our Saviour seated on a throne; one hand erected, and holding a globe in the other, attended with the four evangelists and saints on each side, with crowns in their hands, intended, I suppose, for a representation of Our Saviour's coming to judgment. This was defaced and spoilt by the discharge of muskets.
"Then they rob and rifle the tombs, and violate the monuments of the dead. First then they demolish Queen Katherin's tomb: they break down the rails that enclosed the place, and take away the black velvet pall which covered the herse: overthrow the herse itself, displace the gravestone that lay over her body, and have left nothing now remaining of that tomb, but only a monument of their own shame and villany. What did remain [of the herse of Mary Queen of Scots] that is, her royal arms and escutcheons which hung upon a pillar near the place where she had been interr'd, were most rudely pulled down, defaced and torn.
"In the north isle of the church there was a stately tomb in memory of Bishop Dove, who had been thirty years bishop of the place. He lay there in portraicture in his episcopal robes, on a large bed under a fair table of black marble, with a library of books about him. These men soon destroy'd all the tomb.
"The like they do to two other monuments standing in that isle.
"In a place then called the new building, and since converted to a library, there was a fair monument, which Sir Humphrey Orm (to save his heir that charge and trouble), thought fit to erect in his own life time, where he and his lady, his son and wife and all their children were lively represented in statues, under which were certain English verses written:—
"Mistake not, Reader, I thee crave, This is an Altar not a Grave, Where fire raked up in Ashes lyes, And hearts are made the Sacrifice, &c.
"Which two words, altar and sacrifice, 'tis said, did so provoke and kindle the zealots' indignation, that they resolve to make the tomb itself a sacrifice: and with axes, poleaxes, and hammers, destroy and break down all that curious monument, save only two pilasters still remaining, which shew and testifie the elegancy of the rest of the work.
"When they had thus demolished the chief monuments, at length the very gravestones and marbles on the floor did not escape their sacrilegious hands. For where there was any thing on them of sculptures or inscriptions in brass, these they force and tear off.
"Having thus done their work on the floor below, they are now at leisure to look up to the windows above.
"Now the windows of this church were very fair, being adorned and beautified with several historical passages out of scripture and ecclesiastical story; such were those in the body of the church, in the isles, in the new building, and elsewhere. But the cloister windows were most famed of all, for their great art and pleasing variety. One side of the quadrangle containing the history of the Old Testament; another, that of the new; a third, the founding and founders of the church; a fourth, all the kings of England downwards from the first Saxon king. All which notwithstanding were most shamefully broken and destroyed. Yea, to encourage them the more in this trade of breaking and battering windows down, Cromwell himself, (as 'twas reported,) espying a little crucifix in a window aloft, which none perhaps before had scarce observed, gets a ladder, and breaks it down zealously with his own hand.
"But before I conclude the narrative, I must not forget to tell, how they likewise broke open the chapter-house, ransack'd the records, broke the seals, tore the writings in pieces, specially such as had great seals annexed unto them, which they took or mistook rather for the popes' bulls.
"Thus, in a short time, a fair and goodly structure was quite stript of all its ornamental beauty, and made a ruthful spectacle, a very chaos of desolation and confusion, nothing scarce remaining but only bare walls, broken seats, and shatter'd windows on every side.
"Many fair buildings adjoyning to the minster, were likewise pulled down and sold by publick order and authority, such were the cloysters, the old chapter-house, the library, the bishop's hall and chapel at the end of it: the hall was as fair a room as most in England; and another call'd the green-chamber, not much inferior to it. These all were then pull'd down and destroyed; and the materials, lead, timber and stone exposed to sale, for any that would buy them. But some of the bargains proved not very prosperous; the lead especially that came off the palace was as fatal as the gold of Tholouse; for to my knowledge, the merchant that bought it, lost it all, and the ship which carried it, in her voyage to Holland."