Reverently receyved, set with devocion
In the mouther Church of Saint Peter and Paule
(As afore is sayd) a place most principall.”
A full description is given of the solemn reception of the shrine and its treasured contents, and also of the gifts wherewith rich and poor vied with each other to enrich it.[70] The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was probably somewhere on the site of the present cathedral. Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, built a separate minster to St. Werburgh, joining it to the east end of the older church. This building (rebuilt, we are told, by Leofric, Earl of Chester) gave place to the Norman structure of Hugh Lupus, in the erection of which he was assisted by the advice of St. Anselm. But through all these changes and vicissitudes the name of St. Werburgh was associated with the dedication of the church, and her shrine found its home there.
[70] According to the Ely Book (Liber Eliensis) the relics were brought to the Abbey of Ely (Wall’s Shrines of British Saints). Certain portions of them may have been carried to either place, or there may be some confusion as to the name.
The shrine was no doubt visited by pilgrims from all parts, and as time went on was adorned and beautified. The shrine proper was a box or receptacle in which the relics of the saint were deposited, and was often made of the most splendid and costly materials, and enriched with jewels in profusion.
Bradshaw speaks of this portable shrine as “a riall relique” (royal relic), and also tells of the “many riall gyftes of jewels to the shrine.” It was carried about in processions and in times of danger and emergency, and was “set on the towne walles for help and tuicion”; to save Chester from the attacks of the Welsh; and again,
“The devout Chanons sette the holy Shryne
Agaynst their enemies at the sayd Northgate,”
“when innumerable barbarik nations purposed to disstroye and spoyle the city.” Similarly we are told “howe in 1180 a great fire, like to destroye all Chestre, by myracle ceased when the holy shryne was borne about the towne by the monkes.” As various miracles were ascribed to her agency in her lifetime, so now her relics were regarded as powerful instruments in warding off evil whether from individuals or the community at large. The shrine would be visited by suppliants from every quarter, who would invoke the aid of the Saint to remedy their various ills. For the portable shrine a suitable resting-place would be erected, one probably giving place to another as successive generations altered the style and character of the building. Round this stately and elaborate structure would be places where the suppliants could kneel, and also receptacles for the offerings which their piety and gratitude inspired. Of the earlier structures no trace remains, but the fifteenth century one has in recent years been placed at the west end of the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral, as being probably near the spot where it originally stood. At the foundation of the See, and up till 1870, the lower portion formed the base of the Bishop’s Throne, the crown being lowered so as to form the balustrade in front of the Bishop’s seat. In this adaptation certain stones were removed, and were built up in the wall which enclosed the staircase which led from the Bishop’s study directly into the Cathedral. In removing this staircase in 1885 these stones were discovered, and have again been placed on the shrine, which is thus restored to its original proportions. The shrine was adorned with canopied niches, in which were sculptured figures bearing their names on scrolls, representing the Kings and Saints of the Mercian kingdom.