The Cathedral Church of York
A >> A. Clutton Brock >> The Cathedral Church of York[Illustration: York Minster, the West Front and Nave.]
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
YORK
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
ARCHI-EPISCOPAL SEE
BY
A. CLUTTON-BROCK
[Illustration: The Arms of the See]
WITH FORTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1899
W. H. WHITE AND CO. LTD.
RIVERSIDE PRESS, EDINBURGH
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GENERAL PREFACE
This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the
great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide-books
at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work
compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the
student of Archaeology and History, and yet not too technical in
language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.
To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case
would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general
sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful
are:--(1) the great county histories, the value of which, especially in
questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2)
the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the
Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archaeological Societies; (3) the
important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master
of the Rolls; (4) the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the
English Cathedrals; and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to
the Cathedrals originated by the late Mr John Murray; to which the
reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in
reference to the histories of the respective sees.
GLEESON WHITE.
EDWARD F. STRANGE.
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE
I have usually followed Professor Willis in his account of the Minster,
and my obligations to his excellent works are general and continuous.
Professor Willis made careful and extensive observations of the Crypt
and other parts of the Minster during the restoration, which gave him
opportunities for investigation now impossible. He also brought to these
observations a learning and sagacity probably greater than those of any
other writer on English Gothic Architecture, and his little book remains
the standard work on the history of the Minster.
I regret that I have been unable to agree with several of the theories
of that most enthusiastic and diligent writer, Mr John Browne, or even
to discuss them as I should have liked; but his books must always be of
great value to every one interested in the history of York. I am also
indebted to Canon Raine's excellent works and compilations; to Mr
Winston for his remarks on the glass in the Minster; and to Professor
Freeman for his interesting criticisms of the fabric generally.
A. C.-B.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--History of the See and City 3
CHAPTER II.--History of the Building 30
CHAPTER III.--Description of the Exterior 47
The West Front 48
The North Transept 56
The Chapter-House 60
The Choir 61
The South Transept 63
The Central Tower 67
CHAPTER IV.--Description of the Interior 68
The Nave 68
The Transepts 80
The Chapter-House 93
The Choir 98
The Crypt 120
The Record Room 123
Monuments 125
Stained Glass 133
CHAPTER V.--The Archbishops 140
ILLUSTRATIONS
York Minster, the West Front and Nave _Frontispiece_
Arms of the See _Title Page_
The Minster and Bootham Bar, from Exhibition Square 2
St Mary's Abbey 9
Bootham Bar 15
Walmgate Bar 19, 24
Micklegate Bar 25
The Shambles 29
The Minster (from an Old Print) 35
The West Front (1810) 39
The East End (from Britton) 43
The West Front--Main Entrance 49
The Exterior, from the South-East 53
The Exterior, from the North 57
Bay of Choir--Exterior 62
South Transept--Porch 65
Seal of St Mary's Abbey 67
The Nave 69
The Nave--South Aisle 77
South Transept, Triforium, and Clerestory 91
Chapter-House--Entrance and Sedilia 97
The Choir Screen 100
The Choir, looking East 101
Bay of Choir--Interior 103
The Choir, looking West 107
Compartment of Ancient Choir Stalls 110
Compartment of Altar Screen 111
The Choir in 1810 115
The Virgin and Child (a Carving behind the Altar) 119
The Crypt 121
Capitals in Crypt 122, 123
Effigy of Manley 125
Effigy of Archbishop de Grey 128
Monument of William of Hatfield 129
Monument of Archbishop Bowet 132
The East Window 138
Effigy of Archbishop Savage 151
Tomb of Archbishop Savage 152
PLAN OF MINSTER 157
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[Illustration: The Minster and Bootham Bar, from Exhibition Square]
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE SEE AND CITY
At York the city did not grow up round the cathedral as at Ely or
Lincoln, for York, like Rome or Athens, is an immemorial--a
prehistoric--city; though like them it has legends of its foundation.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose knowledge of Britain before the Roman
occupation is not shared by our modern historians, gives the following
account of its beginning:--"Ebraucus, son of Mempricius, the third king
from Brute, did build a city north of Humber, which from his own name,
he called Kaer Ebrauc--that is, the City of Ebraucus--about the time
that David ruled in Judea." Thus, by tradition, as both Romulus and
Ebraucus were descended from Priam, Rome and York are sister cities; and
York is the older of the two. One can understand the eagerness of Drake,
the historian of York, to believe the story. According to him the verity
of Geoffrey's history has been excellently well vindicated, but in
Drake's time romance was preferred to evidence almost as easily as in
Geoffrey's, and he gives us no facts to support his belief, for the very
good reason that he has none to give.
Abandoning, therefore, the account of Geoffrey of Monmouth, we are
reduced to these facts and surmises. Before the Roman invasion the
valley of the Ouse was in the hands of a tribe called the Brigantes, who
probably had a settlement on or near the site of the present city of
York. Tools of flint and bronze and vessels of clay have been found in
the neighbourhood. The Brigantes, no doubt, waged intermittent war upon
the neighbouring tribes, and on the wolds surrounding the city are to be
found barrows and traces of fortifications to which they retired from
time to time for safety. The position of York would make it a favourable
one for a settlement. It stands at the head of a fertile and pleasant
valley and on the banks of a tidal river. Possibly there were tribal
settlements on the eastern wolds in the neighbourhood in earlier and
still more barbarous times, before the Brigantes found it safe to make a
permanent home in the valley, but this is all conjecture. It is not
until the Roman conquest of Britain that York enters into history. The
Brigantes were subdued between the years 70 and 80 A.D. by Patilius
Cerealis and Agricola. The Romans called the city by the name of
Eburacum. The derivation is not known. It has been suggested that it was
taken from the river Ure, a tributary of the Ouse, but variations of the
word are common in the Roman Empire, as, for example, Eburobriga,
Eburodunum, and the Eburovices. These are probably all derived from some
common Celtic word. In process of time, perhaps in the reign of the
Emperor Severus--that is to say, about the beginning of the third
century A.D.--the name was changed to Eboracum: from this was derived
the later British name Caer Eabhroig or Ebrauc. The Anglo-Saxon name was
Eoferwic, corrupted by the Danes into Jorvik or Yorvik, which by an easy
change was developed into the modern name of York. In the York Museum is
preserved a monument to a standard-bearer of the 9th legion, which is
probably of the period of Agricola, and it is likely that Eburacum
became the headquarters of the Roman army in the north soon after the
conquest. It became the chief military town in the island; for, whereas
the southern tribes were soon subdued, those in the north were long
rebellious, and it was natural that the chief centre for troops should
be established in the more disturbed parts of Britain. Close to York was
the town of Isurium (Aldborough), where remains of pavements have been
discovered, and where it is probable that the wealthier citizens of York
had their homes. Eburacum was fortified in or before the reign of
Trajan, and was connected by a system of roads with other important
Roman towns. The Roman Camp lay on the east side of the river, on or
near the site of the present minster. One of its corner towers and
fragments of the wall still remain, and parts of the city gates have
been discovered. The camp at first covered about seventy acres of
ground; it was afterwards enlarged on the south. The modern streets of
Petergate and Stonegate represent the roads which passed through this
camp, and Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the gates. Remains of
Roman pavement have been discovered below Stonegate. The city itself
spread westward over the river, and fragments of houses and tesselated
pavements have been discovered. In 1841 remains of public baths were
found; and there are many signs that there was a large population on
this side of the river. In 1854 there was found near the southern gate
of the camp a tablet dedicated to Trajan, and commemorating the
conclusion of some work done by the 9th legion in the year 108-9. This
work was perhaps the palace of the emperors.
Near the south gate also was a Christian Church of St. Crux. The road to
Tadcaster was lined with tombs, and remains of cemeteries have been
discovered all round the city.
As in London, there are few remains of Roman masonry above ground, and
this is but natural, for the city has been burnt and destroyed, wholly
or partially, many times; and there is no doubt that Roman buildings
were used, as in Rome and other cities, as a quarry for later erections.
York is historically connected with several of the emperors. Two of
them, Severus and Constantius Chlorus, died there, and Constantine the
Great, the son of the latter, was hailed emperor at York, if it was not
the scene of his birth. At York also were the headquarters of two of the
legions, the 9th and the 6th; and there is little doubt that in course
of time it came to be regarded as the capital of the island. In fact,
according to Professor Freeman (_Macmillan's Magazine_, Sept. 1876),
"Eburacum holds a place which is unique in the history of Britain, which
is shared by only one other city in the lands north of the Alps (Trier,
Augusta Trevirorum)." We learn little of the history of York from Roman
historians, and next to nothing of the early Christian Church. There is
mention of York at rare intervals, when it became connected with the
general history of the empire. For instance, in 208, Severus was in
York, and it became for a time the headquarters of the court.
The Emperor Constantius died at York in 306, and there is a tradition
that hundreds of years afterwards his body was found under the Church of
St. Helen-on-the-Walls, with a lamp still burning over it. Many churches
in the neighbourhood of Eburacum were dedicated to his wife Helena, the
legendary finder of the True Cross. It has been supposed that
Constantine the Great was born at York, but this is probably untrue,
though he was proclaimed emperor there. In the middle of the fourth
century the Picts and Scots began to make inroads, and it is probable
that they captured York about 367 A.D. They were shortly afterwards
driven northwards by Theodosius the Elder. At the beginning of the fifth
century there were further invasions repelled by Stilicho, but in 409
the Emperor Honorius withdrew the Roman troops from Britain, and the
Roman period in the history of York came to an end.
Of the early ecclesiastical history of York less even is known than of
the civil. There are few relics of Roman Christianity in the city.
A stone coffin, with an apparently Christian inscription, and several
Roman ornaments bearing crosses have been found and placed in the York
Museum, but this is all. There is no evidence, documentary or other, of
the manner in which Christianity reached York. The Christian historians
give us only the most meagre references to the history of the faith in
Britain. Tertullian, for example, mentions that parts of the island as
yet unvisited by the Romans had been evangelised by British
missionaries, and, if this were so, it would seem to prove that the
Church in Britain was early active and flourishing. It is not until 314
A.D. that we come upon a definite historical fact. This was the date of
the Council of Arles, convened by Constantine, to consider the Donatist
Heresy, and among the bishops there assembled were three from
Britain--"Eborus, Episcopus de Civitate Eboracensi; Restitutus,
Episcopus de Civitate Londinensi; Adelfius, Episcopus de Civitate Col.
Londinensium" (perhaps Lincoln). These bishops are mentioned in the
order of precedence, and it would appear that the See of York at that
time was the most important, or perhaps the oldest, in Britain. Bishops
of York were also present at the Councils of Nicaea, Sardica, and
Arminium. With these facts our knowledge of the Roman see of Eburacum
begins and ends. The Episcopal succession probably continued for some
time after the Roman evacuation, and the legendary names of Sampson,
Pyramus or Pyrannus, and Theodicus have been handed down as bishops of
York during the struggle with the Anglo-Saxon invaders. For a long time
after the Roman evacuation jewels and plate were discovered in the
neighbourhood; and in the Pontificate of Egbert, an archbishop in the
eighth century, there is a special form of prayer for hallowing vessels
discovered on the sites of heathen temples and houses. The great Wilfrid
also, in the seventh century, speaks of recovering the sacred places
from which the British clergy had been forced to flee. It is unknown
when or how York was finally captured, but in the seventh century it was
certainly in the hands of the English; though there still remained an
independent British kingdom of Elmete, only a few miles to the west of
the city. Close to York has been discovered a large burying-place of
heathen Angles, in which the ashes were deposited in urns; the date of
this is probably the beginning of the sixth century, and at that time
the invaders must have been settled in the country, and perhaps in the
city itself. The conquest marks a change in the position of York. Under
the Roman occupation it had been an important city for military
purposes, and for that reason it was the seat of an important bishopric.
After the second conversion of England it becomes important more and
more for ecclesiastical reasons, and when it plays a part in the history
of England it is because of the action of its bishops; from this time,
therefore, it becomes necessary to say less about the city itself and
more about the see.
After the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the North of England the country
between the Tweed and the Humber was divided into two kingdoms, Bernicia
to the north of the Tees, and Deira to the south. In the reign of
Ethelfrith these two kingdoms were united, under the name of
Northumbria. Edwin, his successor, was the most powerful king in
England, and every state except Kent acknowledged his supremacy.
In the troubles after the Roman evacuation, it is probable that York
lost some of its importance, which it regained under Edwin, and became
again the capital of England. It is at this period that the authentic
ecclesiastical history of the see, and indeed of England, really begins.
In 601 Gregory the Great, in a letter to Augustine, gave him authority
to appoint twelve bishops in England, and among them a bishop of York,
who, if his mission was prosperous, was to ordain further bishops in the
North of England, remaining himself the chief of them, and being
invested with the pall, the mark of a metropolitan bishop. Provision was
made that the first bishop of York should be subordinate to Augustine,
but that subsequently the question of seniority was to be decided by
priority of consecration. Thus early did the question of precedence
between York and Canterbury arise.
We may take it that the early Christian church had entirely died out in
Northumbria, and that prior to the mission sent by Gregory there had
been no effort in the southern part of the kingdom, at least, to reclaim
the inhabitants from heathendom. York was chosen as the seat of the
metropolitan bishop in the north, entirely because of its importance as
a city. It is after this event that it becomes chiefly remarkable for
its ecclesiastical importance. Augustine died before he had followed
Gregory's instructions, and they were not carried out till 625. In that
year, Justus, the fourth bishop of Canterbury, was led by unusually
favourable circumstances to consecrate a bishop of York and to send him
to Northumbria. Edwin the king was over-lord of England, and he wished
to be allied with Kent, the only other independent kingdom in the
country. He therefore proposed to marry Ethelburga, the daughter of the
King of Kent. She and her father were Christians, and Edwin, though
still a heathen, agreed that she should be allowed to take with her a
Christian chaplain to Northumberland. Paulinus, perhaps a Briton by
birth, was chosen for this office, and was consecrated Bishop of York
before he set out. He has been identified with a certain Rum the son of
Urien. This enterprise met with great and immediate success, in which
political reasons probably played a considerable part; and on Easterday
627, the most important date in the ecclesiastical history of York, the
king Edwin, his family, and many of his court were baptised there in a
wooden chapel temporarily erected on the site of the present minster.
Immediately afterwards Edwin begun to build a church of stone, dedicated
to St. Peter, on the same site. The baptism of the king was followed by
a wholesale conversion of thousands of his subjects, and it is stated
that Paulinus was forced to stay over a month in one place to baptise
the crowds who flocked to him. Paulinus was confirmed in his appointment
to the see by the king, and immediately after received the pall,
together with Honorius of Canterbury, which authorised him to assemble
councils and to consecrate bishops. The pall was not given to any of his
successors until Egbert (732 A.D.). In view of the subsequent struggles
for precedence between the sees of Canterbury and York, the following
passage in a letter from the Pope to Edwin is of interest:--"We have
ordered," the Pope says, "two palls, one for each of the metropolitans,
that is for Honorius and Paulinus, that in case one of them is called
from this life, the other may, in virtue of this our authority, appoint
a bishop in his place." (Bede, "Eccl. Hist.," Smith edit., book ii.,
cap. 17, p. 98.)
[Illustration: St. Mary's Abbey.]
This early prosperity of the northern Church did not last long. In 633
Edwin was defeated and killed at a battle near Hatfield, and a period of
anarchy and persecution followed. Thereupon Paulinus, with Ethelburga,
the queen, fled to Kent, leaving behind him only one evangelist, by name
James the Deacon. It is probable that the greater part of Northumbria
thereupon fell back into paganism, and by the flight of Paulinus the
Catholic Church, or that part of it immediately under the influence and
control of the bishops of Rome, lost its hold on the north, which it was
not to regain without a struggle. The anarchy came to an end with the
accession of Oswald, a Christian, who had been converted, not by
Paulinus, but by the Celtic Church of Iona. It was this circumstance
which led to the establishment of the influence of that Church in
Northumbria. Oswald did not look to Rome or Canterbury for evangelists
when he set to work to establish Christianity in his kingdom, but to
Iona, whence, in 635 A.D., was dispatched a bishop, Aidan, who settled
at Lindisfarne (Holy Island). From this time there were two influences
at work among the Christians in Northumbria--that of the older and more
national British Church which had survived the flood of heathen
invasion; and that of the later Catholic Church, which originated with
the mission of Augustine.
The conflict between these two influences reached its height in the time
of Alfred. Oswald completed the church began by Edwin: it remained under
the rule of Aidan, as no evangelists were sent from the south to take
the place of Paulinus, though it is said that James the Deacon continued
his missionary work in the North Riding. In 642 Oswald was killed in
battle, and Deira and Bernicia were again split up into two kingdoms.
With this division came also religious difficulties between the Church
of Iona and the Catholic Church of the south. These difficulties
culminated in the Synod of Whitby, 664, at which the Catholic party, led
by the great Wilfrid, perhaps the greatest of all bishops of York,
defeated their opponents. After the council, Colman, then Bishop of
Lindisfarne, resigned, and his successor, Tuda by name, was killed with
many of his monks, by a pestilence at Lindisfarne. The ground therefore
seemed to be cleared for Wilfrid. At this time Oswy was king of
Bernicia, and Alchfrid his son governed Deira, probably as an
independent province. Alchfrid induced Wilfrid to accept the see of
York. Wilfrid at once set to work to strengthen the position of the
Catholic Church and to destroy the influence of the Church of Iona in
his diocese. He refused to be consecrated by a bishop of the Church of
Iona, sent for that purpose to Gaul. He probably was determined not to
acknowledge the supremacy of any other English see over his own. He was
absent for three years, and Oswy, who favoured the Church of Iona, took
advantage of his absence to appoint Ceadda (Chad) to the see of York. On
his return, after being duly consecrated, Wilfrid retired without a
struggle to his own monastery at Ripon. In 669, Theodore, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, intervened to make peace between the two factions, and at
his instigation Ceadda resigned the see in favour of Wilfrid, who at
once began his great period of activity in the diocese. Whatever may be
our sentimental liking for the older and more national Church of Iona,
there can be no doubt that the Catholic Church was the chief support of
culture, learning, and civilisation in Europe, and Wilfrid was a worthy
representative of it. During his episcopate the see of York probably
played the most important part it has ever taken in the history of
England. At that time, more than any other, the future of learning,
civilisation, and humanity was in the hands of the priests, and the
English _toto divisi ab orbe_ were kept in touch with the slowly
reviving culture of Europe by the cosmopolitan Church of Rome. Wilfrid
was undoubtedly the best representative of that culture in England. It
was his object not only to Catholicise the north of England, but to
educate it. He travelled continually through his vast diocese with a
train of builders, artists, and teachers. His architectural activity in
particular was very great. He repaired the minster at York, which had
fallen almost into ruins, and built large churches at Hexham and Ripon.
But he was not allowed to continue his work unopposed. Egfrith had
become king of the whole of Northumbria, and a quarrel arose between him
and Wilfrid. At last the king induced Theodore, who had formerly
interfered in Wilfrid's favour, but who was now perhaps jealous of his
great activity and fame, to assert his supremacy over the north and to
divide the great diocese of Northumbria into four bishoprics, York,
Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Witherne. Theodore had received the pall;
Wilfrid had not. It was therefore contended that Theodore had authority
over him. Wilfrid retired to Rome to claim the support of the Pope. It
was given to him, but when he returned to York, in 680, he was
imprisoned and afterwards banished. Soon after Egfrith died, and
Theodore, again intervening, obtained a reconciliation between Wilfrid
and the new king Alchfrid. Wilfrid again became Bishop of York, but
another quarrel caused him again to resign his see, and this time for
good. During all this period there is no doubt that the Bishops of York
were subordinate to those of Canterbury. The constant disorders to which
the kingdom of Northumbria was subjected for a century, and the quarrels
between bishop and king, lessened the power, both civil and
ecclesiastical, of the kingdom. It was not till 734 that a bishop of
York, Egbert, received the pall, which had been granted only to
Paulinus, and from that time the northern archbishops seem to have been
independent of Canterbury, especially after York fell into the hands of
the Danes in 867. It is possible that Gregory, who directed that York
and Canterbury should each appoint twelve suffragan bishops, intended to
make the sees equal in every respect. The anarchy and divisions of the
northern kingdom prevented this plan from being carried out. The kings
of Northumbria themselves, from time to time, acknowledged the authority
of Canterbury, and during the hundred years between Paulinus and Egbert
that York was without a metropolitan archbishop, the Primate of
Canterbury, without a rival, increased his power. With the advent of the
Danes, however, Northumbria was naturally much isolated from the south,
and the diocese of York, though smaller and poorer than that of
Canterbury, was a rival power. In fact, until the year 1072 the
archbishops of York either held themselves or appointed others to the
diocese of Worcester. It was not until the Conquest that the
independence of the northern bishops was seriously questioned. Under the
Danish rule two of the archbishops were probably of that race--Wolfstan,
appointed in 928, and Oskytel, his successor. The Danish supremacy was
put an end to in 954, when Eadred incorporated Northumbria into the
kingdom of England. From 867 to 1000, or after, York was ruled by an
earl, either under the Danes or the kings of England. The city was
important, not only as a strongly fortified place, but as a centre of
commerce, and it had a large population. It had as many as 30,000
inhabitants in the tenth century. There are traces of the Danish
supremacy in the language and faces of the people; in York itself Danish
beads, glass, jet and amber, and carved horns have been found.