WORCESTER CATHEDRAL.
PART I.
History and Details.
I. The chief authorities for the architectural history of Worcester Cathedral are—the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, and the Annales Ecclesiæ Wygorniensis, compiled by a monk of Worcester at the beginning of the fourteenth century[59]. From these it appears that in the year 1084 Bishop Wulfstan “began the work of the Minster;” into which the monks entered four years afterwards; and in 1092 Wulfstan held a synod in the crypt, which he had “built from the foundations, and by the mercy of God had dedicated[60].” Wulfstan died in 1095. In 1113 the city of Worcester, with the cathedral church and the castle, were greatly injured by fire. In 1175 the “new tower”—probably the central tower of the cathedral—fell, as many other Norman towers had fallen; and in 1189 another great fire destroyed nearly the whole of Worcester. On this occasion the cathedral escaped; but in 1202, at Eastertide, it was burnt, (igne conflagravit alieno,) together with all the buildings and offices attached to it. During the whole of the year before, however, great miracles had been manifested at the tomb of St. Wulfstan, and many sick persons were said to be cured there daily. Accordingly, on St. Giles’s Day, (Sept. 1,) 1202, Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, came to Worcester with other bishops to enquire into the truth of the reported miracles. Certain monks of Worcester took his favourable judgment to Rome; and in the following year, 1203, St. Wulfstan was canonized by Pope Innocent III., who so far honoured the new English saint as to compose a prayer for his Office.
From this time offerings poured in daily at the tomb of St. Wulfstan; and it was no doubt with the wealth thus acquired by the monastery that the cathedral was restored. In 1207 King John visited Worcester; and after praying at Wulfstan’s tomb, gave three hundred marks for the repair of the cathedral. He was interred in the church in the year 1216, (see § IX.); and in 1218 the cathedral was dedicated “in honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, and of the holy confessors Oswald and Wulfstan.” The young King, Henry III., was present, with a great company of bishops, abbots, and nobles; and after the dedication the body of St. Wulfstan was translated to its shrine near the high altar.
The cathedral, up to this period, had been a Norman and transition Norman building. In 1221, on St. Andrew’s Day, during a great storm, the two “lesser towers” of Worcester fell. There is no evidence that the Norman nave terminated in western towers; and Professor Willis has suggested that these “lesser towers” may have flanked the Norman choir of Worcester, like those still remaining at Canterbury. Their fall may have injured the choir, and the ruin thus effected may have assisted the determination of the Bishop and Convent to expend the wealth which was still pouring in before the shrine of St. Wulfstan, in the erection of a more sumptuous church. At any rate, in 1224 the existing choir and Lady-chapel were begun; Bishop William of Blois laying the foundations of the new work of the east front; (novum opus frontis[61]). In 1281 the sacrist of the monastery received from the executors of Nicholas of Ely, Bishop of Winchester, a sum of sixty marks, the Bishop’s legacy toward the “rebuilding of the tower,”—no doubt the central tower of the cathedral,—which was not, however, effected for nearly a century, (1374). In the meantime, the Norman nave was partly removed and rebuilt. Bishop Cobham vaulted the north aisle of the nave between 1317 and 1321; and in 1377 Bishop Wakefield vaulted the nave itself.