The Cathedral Churches of England and Wales; Their History, Architecture and Monuments (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1892. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... ENGLISH CATHEDRALS. INTRODUCTION. There are two distinct points of interest about the churches which form what our ancestors used to call "bishop's stools." We may study the history of the see and of the capitular body: and we may study the fabric of the cathedral church. It is well not to confine our attention exclusively to either. In some cases the church has grown into what we now see owing to the influence of a peculiarly constituted capitular body; in others, the fact that the church has become or continued a cathedral is owing to some peculiarity of the fabric. Thus Gloucester, Peterborough, and Ely, among others, are as they were made for the chapels, or minsters of great and wealthy monasteries. On the other hand, Wakefield, Southwell, and Newcastle owe the fact of their becoming the heads of dioceses to their possession already of fine churches, suitable for the establishment and continuance of cathedral services, for the meeting-place of diocesan clergy, and for the exercise of the functions of a dean and chapter. It may b9 best, therefore, to consider, first, the different constitutions of capitular bodies, and then to examine the actual buildings of cathedral churches. Our cathedral establishments have had different origins, B some, like London, having been founded at a very early period and never altered; others, like Oxford, having been erected on the ruins of a suppressed monastery; others again, like Canterbury, having been founded, refounded, and finally reformed; while a fourth class, like Truro, have been recently established in parish churches. In all these different kinds of cathedral establishments we shall see that the paramount consideration has been of a fiscal character. A cathedral cannot exist without money to build and endow the chu...