Part 7 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Iron Railings, 1721.]

=Adam of Boothby= (1321-1338), one of the monks, was a man of great ”innocence and simplicity” His revenues were much employed in contributions to the king's expenses and in royal entertainments; and his energies devoted to divers legal difficulties connected with manors, wards.h.i.+ps, repairs of bridges, rights of hunting, and the like. Of the last eleven abbots, whose rule extended over a period of 124 years, all but one had been monks of the place.

=Henry of Morcot= (1338-1353) in all probability was also one of the monks, but this is not so recorded. And the same may be said of all the remaining abbots, but the historians do not say so until the time of William in 1471. At the same time it is never said that any of them came from elsewhere.

=Robert of Ramsey= (1353-1361) ruled for eight years, and nothing else is known about him.

=Henry of Overton= (1361-1391) was abbot during the commotions in King Richard II.'s reign. The tenants with others rose up against the abbey, intending to destroy it. The Bishop of Norwich ”coming to the a.s.sistance of the monastery with a strong power, forced the villains to desist from their enterprise: nay, dispersed them, and took some of them, and killed others; the rest, taking the church for sanctuary, which they intended to have destroyed, were there run through with lances and swords; some of them hard by the altar, others by the walls of the church, both within and without.”

=Nicholas= (1391-1396), =William Genge= (1396-1408) the first mitred abbot, =John Deeping= (1408-1438) in turn succeeded. Nothing remarkable is told of them. The name of the last and the names of the next two are really the names of places; but the prefix ”de” seems now to have been discontinued, and the place-name to have become a surname. Abbot John resigned his office the year before he died.

=Richard Ashton= (1438-1471) took great pains about the regulation of the services in the church, and drew up a customary out of the ancient usages of the place.

=William Ramsey= (1471-1496) appears to have devoted his time to the management of the estates and to upholding the territorial privileges of the house. If the epitaph formerly to be seen on a bra.s.s on his tomb is to be believed, he was a man prudent, just, pious, esteemed by all, chaste, kind, and adorned with every virtue.

=Robert Kirton= (1496-1528) has left several proofs of his energy in building, signing, as it were, the stones with his autograph. His rebus, a kirk on a ton, sometimes accompanied by the initial of his Christian name, is to be seen in the New Building, which he completed, on the Deanery gateway, and on the graceful oriel window in the Bishop's Palace. The chamber to which this window gives light still retains the name originally given of ”Heaven's Gate Chamber.” Much other work done by him towards the beautifying of the church and buildings has perished.

The last abbot was =John Chambers= (1528-1540). One incident of considerable interest is related as having taken place in his first year. ”Cardinal Wolsey came to Peterburgh, where he kept his Easter.

Upon Palm Sunday he carried his palm, going with the monks in procession, and the Thursday following he kept his Maundy, was.h.i.+ng and kissing the feet of fifty-nine poor people, and having dried them, he gave to every one of them 12d. and three ells of canvas for a s.h.i.+rt; he gave also to each of them a pair of shoes and a portion of red herrings.

On Easter day he went in procession in his cardinal's vestments, and sang the High-Ma.s.s himself after a solemn manner, which he concluded with his benediction and remission upon all the hearers.” This abbot was a native of Peterborough, and was sometimes known as John Burgh; and on the bra.s.s placed on his tomb he was called ”Johannes Burgh, Burgo natus.” A monumental effigy was also erected to him, ”made of white chalkstone”; and this is almost certainly the figure now placed (temporarily) at the back of the apse. This abbot was B.D. of Cambridge and one of the king's chaplains. It was during his time that Queen Katherine of Arragon was interred in the minster. The well-known story that the building was spared by the king out of regard to the memory of his first wife is told by Dean Patrick in these words:--[34]”There is this traditional story goes concerning the preservation of this church at the dissolution of abbeys: that a little after Queen Katherine's interment here (which Mr G. mentions), some courtiers suggesting to the king how well it would become his greatness to erect a fair monument for her, he answered, 'Yes, he would leave her one of the goodliest monuments in Christendom,' meaning this church, for he had then in his thoughts the demolis.h.i.+ng of abbeys, which shortly after followed.” Abbot Chambers surrendered the monastery to the king in 1540, and was appointed guardian of the temporalities, with a pension of 266, 13s.

4d. and 100 loads of wood. The king divided the whole property of the abbey into three parts, retaining one-third for himself, and a.s.signing the other parts upon the foundation of the see to the Bishop and Chapter respectively. If the annual value of the portion he reserved for his own use may be taken to be exactly one-third of the possessions of the abbey, the entire property must have been worth as nearly as possible 2200 per annum. The last abbot became the first bishop.

It is remarkable that of the two queens buried at Peterborough, the body of one has been removed to Westminster by the orders of her son, and that a similar removal had been previously designed for the body of the other. Queen Katherine's daughter, Queen Mary, left directions in her will that ”the body of the virtuous Lady and my most dere and well-beloved mother of happy memory, Queen Kateryn, which lyeth now buried at Peterborowh,” should be removed and laid near the place of her own sepulture, and that honourable monuments should be made for both. It would have been a singular coincidence if this intention had been carried out.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE.

The Abbey Church was converted into the Cathedral of the newly-founded diocese of Peterborough by deed bearing date September 4, 1541. The counties of Northampton and Rutland were the limits of the new see. The king's original plan for the establishment of bishoprics out of the confiscated estates of monastic establishments was too generous to be put into practice. He designed the foundation of no less than twenty-one new sees. In this scheme Northamptons.h.i.+re and Huntingdons.h.i.+re were a.s.signed to the diocese of Peterborough; and, considering the situation of the new cathedral, this would have been a more satisfactory arrangement than the one which was ultimately carried out. The only change that has been made in the limits of the diocese is that, in the year 1839, the county of Leicester was detached from the see of Lincoln and joined to Peterborough.

As has been said above, the first bishop was =John Chambers= (1541-1556). He was consecrated[35] in the minster on the 23rd of October 1541, by Thomas (Thirlby), Bishop of Ely, Robert (Blyth), Bishop of Down, last Abbot of Thorney, Suffragan of Ely, and Thomas (Hallam or Swillington), Bishop of Philadelphia, Suffragan of Lincoln. Strype has an account of his costly funeral. The two memorials to him in the church had been erected by himself in his lifetime.

=David Pole= (1556-1559) is generally held to have been a relative (some say a nephew) of Cardinal Reginald Pole. He was Dean of the Arches. He was not consecrated till August 1557, and so held the bishopric less than two years, being deprived by Queen Elizabeth in June 1559. He lived quietly in London till his death in 1568.

=Edmund Scambler= (1560-1584) in the Roman index of books prohibited is called Pseudo-Episcopus, no doubt because there was another Bishop of Peterborough, Pole, still living. He alienated many of the lands and manors of his bishopric to the queen and to her courtiers; and as a reward he was translated to Norwich, where he died ten years later.

=Richard Howland= (1584-1600) was Master of Magdalene, and afterwards of S. John's, Cambridge. He was present at the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots. He was buried at the upper end of the choir, but no stone or monument exists to his memory.

=Thomas Dove= (1600-1630) was Dean of Norwich. He was[36] ”a lover of hospitality, keeping a very free house, and having always a numerous family, yet was so careful of posterity that he left a fair estate to his heirs.” He was buried in the north transept. ”Over his body was erected a very comely monument of long quadrangular form, having four corner pilasters supporting a fair table of black marble, and, within, the pourtraiture of the bishop lying in his Episcopal habit.” This was destroyed in 1643. There was a long Latin inscription in prose and verse, and among the verses these occur:--

”Hoc addam: Hie illa est senio argentata Columba Davidis, coelos hinc pet.i.t ille suos.”

This monument was erected by the bishop's eldest son, Sir William Dove, Kt., of Upton.

=William Peirse= (1630-1632) was promoted from the Deanery. He only remained here as bishop two years, when he was translated to Bath and Wells. ”A man of excellent parts, both in divinity and knowledge of the laws: very vigilant and active he was for the good both of the ecclesiastical and civil state.” He was silenced during the civil war, but restored in 1660. On his tombstone, at Walthamstow, it is said ”_Templum Cathedrale Wellense reparavit, Episcopale Palatium exaedificavit, coelis maturus terris valedixit an. aet._ 94 _salut_.

1670.”

=Augustine Lindsell= (1632-1634) was Dean of Lichfield. He was translated to Hereford after being bishop here two years, but died within a few months.

=Francis Dee= (1634-1638) was Dean of Chichester. ”He was a man of very pious life and affable behaviour.” He founded scholars.h.i.+ps and fellows.h.i.+ps at S. John's College, Cambridge, of which he had been Fellow, for boys from the King's School, Peterborough, of his name or kindred. In 1637 Archbishop Laud reported to the King that ”My Lord of Peterborough hath taken a great deal of pains and brought his diocese into very good order.” He left by will 100 to the repairs of the Cathedral, and the same amount to the repairs of S. Paul's. He was buried in the choir, near the throne.