The medieval cathedrals of England, which date from between approximately 1040 and 1540, are a group of twenty-six buildings that constitute a major aspect of the country's artistic heritage and are among the most significant material symbols of Christianity. Though diverse in style, they are united by a common function. As cathedrals, each of these buildings serves as central church for an administrative region (or diocese) and houses the throne of a bishop (Late Latin ecclēsia cathedrālis, from the Greek, καθέδρα).cathedral Each cathedral also serves as a regional centre and a focus of regional pride and affection.
Only sixteen of these buildings had been cathedrals at the time of the Reformation: eight that were served by secular canons, and eight that were monastic. A further five cathedrals are former abbey churches which were reconstituted with secular canons as cathedrals of new dioceses by Henry VIII following the dissolution of the monasteries and which comprise, together with the former monastic cathedrals, the "Cathedrals of the New Foundation". Two further pre-Reformation monastic churches, which had survived as ordinary parish churches for 350 years, became cathedrals in the 19th and 20th centuries, as did the three medieval collegiate churches that retained their foundations for choral worship.
While there are characteristics of each building that are distinctly English, these cathedrals are marked by their architectural diversity, both from one to another and also within each individual building. This is much more the case than in the medieval cathedrals of Northern France, for example, where the cathedrals and large abbeys form a relatively homogenous group and the architectural development can easily be traced from building to building.
One of the points of interest of the English cathedrals is the way in which much of the history of medieval architecture can be demonstrated within a single building, which typically has important parts constructed in several different centuries with no attempt whatsoever to make the later work match or follow through on an earlier plan. For this reason a comprehensive architectural chronology must jump backwards and forwards from one building to another. Only at one building, Salisbury Cathedral, is stylistic unity demonstrated.
Background
Historical
Christianity was carried to England by the Romans and spread throughout Britain, until the 5th century, when it waned through the departure of the Romans and the invasion by Saxons. In 597 Pope Gregory sent Augustine as a missionary from Rome to Canterbury where a church was established and run initially by secular canons, then Benedictine monks from the late Saxon period until 1540. The present cathedral church at Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England.
As begun by Alfred the Great in 871 and consolidated under William the Conqueror in 1066, England became a politically unified entity at an earlier date than other European countries. One of the effects was that the units of government, both of church and state, were comparatively large. England was divided into the See of Canterbury and the See of York under two archbishops. During the medieval period there were no more than 17 bishops, far fewer than the numbers in France and Italy.
Benedictine monasticism, present in England from the 6th century, was greatly extended after the Norman Invasion in 1066. There were also a number of Cistercian abbeys, but these were often in remote areas and not destined to become cathedrals. The Romanesque architecture of Normandy replaced that of Saxon England, the buildings being generally larger and more spacious, the general arrangement of monastic buildings following those of the great Abbey of Cluny. The Romanesque style, of which the English form is often known as Norman architecture, developed local characteristics.
At the Norman conquest, most English cathedrals were already richly endowed, and as major centres of Norman power they were then able to acquire further lands formerly held by dispossessed English landowners.Jenkins, xi-xiii Furthermore, the development of tithe as a compulsory tax on agricultural production resulted in greatly increased incomes for incumbent clergy. Although all cathedrals gathered donations from worshippers and pilgrims; in practice major building campaigns were largely, or entirely, funded from the accumulated wealth of the bishop and the chapter clergy. The availability of finance largely determined the speed of construction for major projects. When money was readily available, cathedral works could proceed with great speed. At Winchester, during the Norman period, an entire cathedral of unprecedented size begun in 1079 was built from scratch in less than 20 years (although the foundations were skimped, and the tower collapsed in 1107).Jenkins, 293
An important aspect in the practice of medieval Christianity was the veneration of saints, and the associated pilgrimages to places where particular saint's relics were interred and their tradition honoured. The possession of the relics of a popular saint was a source of funds to the individual church as the faithful made donations and benefices in the hope that they might receive spiritual aid, a blessing or a healing from the presence of the physical remains of the holy person.Brittain-Catlin, 57 Among those churches to benefit in particular were St. Alban's Abbey (now cathedral), which contained the relics of England's first Christian martyr, Ripon with the shrine of its founder St. Wilfrid; Durham, which was built to house the body of Saints Cuthbert of Lindisfarne; and Aidan, Ely with the shrine of St. Ethelreda, Westminster Abbey with the magnificent shrine of its founder St. Edward the Confessor, at Chichester, the remains of St. Richard and at Winchester, those of St. Swithun.Jenkins, see individual entries
All these saints brought pilgrims to their churches, but among them the most renowned was Thomas Becket, the late archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated by henchmen of King Henry II in 1170. As a place of pilgrimage Canterbury was, in the 13th century, second only to Santiago de Compostela, and Canterbury's "pilgrim income was believed to be second only to Rome's".Jenkins, 33-42, 42 quoted
In the 1170s Gothic architecture was introduced from France at Canterbury and Westminster Abbey. Over the next 400 years it developed in England, sometimes in parallel with and influenced by Continental forms, but generally with great local diversity and originality.
In the 16th century the Reformation brought about changes in the governance of the cathedrals as discussed below. Some existent buildings became cathedrals at this time. Several of the buildings were structurally damaged or left incomplete because of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, 1537–40. Many of the large abbey churches, particularly those outside the towns, were robbed, burnt out and abandoned. The late 16th and early 17th centuries saw repairs to the fabric of many cathedrals and some new building and stained glass as well as many new fittings.
During the period of the Commonwealth, 1649–60, wholesale iconoclasm was wrought on all the pictorial elements of Christian buildings. Most of England's medieval stained glass was smashed. The majority of England's medieval statues were smashed or defaced leaving only a few isolated examples intact. Medieval paintings almost disappeared. Vestments embroidered in the famous style known as Opus Anglicanum were burnt. Those medieval Communion vessels that had escaped the Dissolution were melted down so that only about 50 items of pre-Reformation church plate remain.
The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 also brought about some restoration of churches and cathedrals such as that at Lichfield by Sir William Wilson, and their enrichment with new fittings, new church plate and many elaborate memorials. The loss of the ancient St. Paul's Cathedral in the Great Fire of London in 1666 meant that an entirely new cathedral, the present St Paul's, was built on its site to a design in the Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren.
In general, from the time of the Reformation onwards, apart from necessary repairs so that buildings might remain in use, and the internal adornments of successive generations who wished to be commemorated, there was little building work and only piecemeal restoration. This situation lasted for about 250 years with the fabric of many major cathedrals suffering from neglect. The severity of the problem was demonstrated by the spectacular collapse of the spire of Chichester Cathedral, which suddenly telescoped in on itself in 1861.
By this date medieval architecture was back in fashion. A growing awareness of the value of England's medieval heritage had begun in the late 18th century, leading to some work on a number of the cathedrals by the architect James Wyatt.Jenkins, xx-xxiii The consciousness accelerated until in the 1840s two academic groups, the Oxford Society and the Cambridge Camden Society both pronounced that the only suitable style in which to design a church was Gothic. The critic John Ruskin was an ardent advocate of all things medieval and popularised these ideas. The architect Augustus Welby Pugin, who designed mainly for the growing Roman Catholic Church, set himself to recreate not only the structural appearance of medieval churches, but also the richly decorated and colourful interiors that had been almost entirely lost, existing only as a painted screen here and there, a few tiled floors such as those at Winchester and Canterbury and the intricate painted wooden ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral.
The Victorian era saw the restoration of all of England's cathedrals and remaining major abbey churches. Some buildings left incomplete were completed at this time and the greater part of existent church furniture, fittings and stained glass dates from this period. The architects included George Gilbert Scott, John Loughborough Pearson, George Frederick Bodley, Arthur Blomfield and George Edmund Street.
Scope
The 26 cathedrals described in this article are those of Bristol, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Ripon, Rochester, St. Alban's, Salisbury, Southwark, Southwell, Wells, Winchester, Worcester and York with reference also to Westminster Abbey and the ancient cathedral of London generally known as Old St. Paul's.All covered by Jenkins, in entries ordered alphabetically (the last as St Paul's, not London)
All the medieval buildings that are now cathedrals of England were Roman Catholic in origin, as they predate the Reformation. All these buildings now serve the Church of England as a result of the change to the official religion of the country, which occurred in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII.Jenkins, xvii-xix
The cathedrals fall into three distinct groups, depending on their earlier organisational structure. Firstly, there are those that, during the medieval period as now, were governed by a body of secular clergy or chapter, presided over by a dean. These cathedrals are Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, London, Salisbury, Wells, and York, all of which built specifically to serve as cathedral churches.