Cathedrals of Britain: London and the South East

142 Pages·2018·27.822 MB·English

by  Bernadette Fallon

Cathedrals of
Britain
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Cathedrals of
Britain
London and the
South-East
Bernadette Fallon
Cathedrals of Britain - London and the South East.indd 3 31/01/2018 22:07
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by
Pen & Sword History
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Bernadette Fallon 2018
ISBN 978 1 52670 392 7
The right of Bernadette Fallon to be identified as the Author of this
Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Library
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction vii
Chapter 1 Canterbury Cathedral 1
Chapter 2 St Paul’s 19
Chapter 3 Westminster Abbey 34
Chapter 4 Southwark Cathedral 47
Chapter 5 Westminster Cathedral 63
Chapter 6 Rochester Cathedral 79
Chapter 7 Chichester Cathedral 95
Glossary 111
Further reading 121
Index 122
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Acknowledgements
A lot of people have been generous with their time and knowledge to
help put this book together. Thank you to:
Jane Walker and David Lewis at Canterbury Cathedral; Sinead Hanna
at Visit Kent; Karen Hart, Mirian Takasugi and Simon Carter at St
Paul’s Cathedral; Ruth Miller and Marilyn Carpenter at Southwark
Cathedral; Grace Robinson and Christine Reynolds at Westminster
Abbey; Anne Marie Micallef, John Daly and Michael Langton at
Westminster Cathedral; Lisa Parish and John Bradshaw at Rochester
Cathedral; Maria Gordon and Alan Bradford at Chichester Cathedral;
Jessica Winkworth at West Sussex; Andrew Clegg at Visit Chichester;
Evelina Andrews and Rebecca Lowe at Visit England.
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Introduction
I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of mountain
scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a
cathedral.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Four out of six of the cathedrals in this book were created for God
and the Church of Rome, five now answer to the Queen of England.
And the seventh isn’t in fact a cathedral at all, though you’ll see why
it takes its place among these hallowed buildings. From tiny timber
churches that grew into magnificent cathedrals, from a Catholic
faith turned Protestant, the history of the cathedrals of Britain is
tumultuous, awe-inspiring and splattered with violence.
And it tells a fascinating story. The story of religious communities
and the secular congregations that grew up around them, the story
of power and wealth alongside suffering and poverty, the stories of
wars and plagues, of soaring spires and falling towers. The story of
entire regions is mapped out in the buildings that were built to serve
them, where you can see the faces of local children carved into the
very structure.
Britain’s incredible cathedrals are mainly legacies from the Middle
Ages, a direct and living link with a 1,000-year history. But their
foundations go back much earlier to small Saxon churches, priories
and monasteries. A few may even have been Roman temples. Before
that it’s likely that some were Pagan shrines and sacred places of
worship. All long-since destroyed but living on in this magnificent
new form.
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viii Cathedrals of Britain
The desire to worship a divine power is not confined to a particular
age or set of people. If it were, it would be long gone from us, along
with the buildings it inspired. We have always been spiritual beings.
We want to find meaning in life. To find wonder in the world around
us. To seek greatness that exists outside us. And to find something of
the divine nature inside ourselves.
In past times, people looked to organised religions to meet those
needs, and different cultures created different doctrines to answer
them. Today, people look for meaning in many different places. Yes,
in organised religions still, but also in many different disciplines such
as yoga, meditation and other spiritual pursuits.
Not everyone who visits a cathedral today comes to worship, of
course. Many come just to stand and stare and admire the magnificent
building, to discover the history, to hear the stories, to see the artworks
and to listen to the singing. But the practice of worshipping a god has
been with us from the beginning of time. Nobody made us worship.
We listened willingly to the stories.
St Augustine was one of the first to bring those stories to England,
back in the 6th century. He was sent by Pope Gregory, who had
reportedly seen Anglo-Saxon slaves for sale in the Roman forum.
Struck by their fair complexions, he asked where had they come
from. When he was told they were ‘Angles’ he is said to have replied,
‘Not Angles, but angels,’ and decided that these people should hear
the word of God.
Some of them had heard it already, however. Christianity first
came to Britain with the Roman Empire. But after its fall at the start
of the 5th century, the Saxons came to power. They had little interest
in following the Roman ways, replacing Roman stone buildings
with their timber ones and speaking their own language, which
gradually evolved into English. Most didn’t practise Christianity but
worshipped their own Pagan gods.
Until Augustine arrived. He landed on the shores of Kent with
a group of Benedictine monks in 597. At this time, England was
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Introduction ix
divided into several Saxon kingdoms and Kent came under the rule
of King Ethelbert and his Christian queen, Bertha.
Ethelbert was wary of Augustine at first, according to Bede, who
is the man responsible for almost everything we know about early
Christianity through his Ecclesiastical History of the English People,
written in 731. He was only prepared to meet the missionaries
outdoors in case they might try to work some magic on him that he
would be more susceptible to inside.
But he eventually welcomed Augustine and gave him land in
Canterbury to establish a cathedral, which is still the mother church
of all England. Ethelbert later converted, as did many thousands of
his subjects, prompting the start of the major spread of Christianity
throughout the country.
In the 6th century also, Irish monks travelled to the north of
Britain, spreading Christianity after Saxon invasions in that part
of the country destroyed the church established by the Romans.
Working across the kingdom of Northumbria, from the isle of Iona
and the holy island of Lindisfarne, St Columba and his disciples St
Oswald and St Aidan preached from Edinburgh and Lothian right
down to the Humber, taking in the counties of Durham and York.
From there, their ministry swept across the country.
Today the Church of England is still led by the cathedrals of
Canterbury in Kent, and York in what was formerly Northumbria.
In the early days, Canterbury, under the pope’s influence, followed
the Roman calendar, while Northumbria stayed with its founding
Celtic Christian tradition, which made for some awkwardness. Like
the confusion arising from one church body celebrating two Easters,
for example.
The Synod of Whitby in 664 debated the issue and everybody
agreed to follow the Roman calendar, which gave Canterbury the
upper hand, a hand it has never relinquished. This united the
church in England. Though with the pope claiming supremacy
over his congregations in all matters spiritual, there was inevitably
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