Part 6 (1/2)

FROM THE FIELDS]

It was only after the Conquest that the ”Doomsday Book” came into existence. After the Conquest the sheriff became simply a royal officer.

He was the financial representative of the Crown within his district.

Now his financial duties no longer exist, and his judicial are almost _nil_. Our general knowledge of him is that he is supposed to be in at the death of a murderer, and that he is somehow or other a.s.sociated with the bailiff--sheriff's officer, as he is styled.

Mr. Collins presents us with three interesting graphic descriptions.

This city owes its name to the numerous springs, and more particularly to that of St. Andrew's Well, whose water, rising in the vicinity of the episcopal palace, flows through the south-western part of the city.

Ina, King of the West Saxons, named it thus. He, in 704, founded a collegiate church and dedicated it to St. Andrew the Apostle.

This foundation was handsomely endowed by Cynewulf in 766, and flourished till 905. Wells was then erected into a see. This change was consequent on an edict of Edward the Elder for the revival of religion, which had been brought down to a low ebb by the frequent and terrible incursions of the Danes. To combat this state of things, Pligrund, Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated several new bishops, of whom Aldhelm, formerly Abbot of Glas...o...b..ry, became first bishop of Wells.

Edward the Confessor made his chaplain, Giso, the thirteenth bishop to the See, and at the same time enriched it by the confiscated property of G.o.dwin, Earl of Kent, and Harold, Earl of Wess.e.x, his son, whom he had driven into exile. Harold, in spite of his exile, made an incursion into Somersets.h.i.+re, levied mail on his former tenantry, and eased the church of its treasures.

In the meantime Giso was being consecrated at Rome. On his return he was fortunate enough to gain some compensation from the queen, who was sister to Harold. But, unfortunately for Giso, Harold was again received into favour. He promptly procured the banishment of Giso, and on his succession later to the throne straightway resumed all his estates, which Edward the Confessor had granted to the Church, and thus impoverished the See.

Bishop Giso's opportunity came with the Conquest, when he was reinstated. William, in his second year of reign, restored to the Bishopric, with some small deduction, all Harold's estates. Giso augmented the number of canons, and built a cloister, hall, and dormitory, and enlarged and beautified the choir of the Cathedral. John de Villula, his successor, swept away these buildings, and on their site built a palace.

Villula's name in ecclesiastical history is closely a.s.sociated with a memorable event which caused considerable commotion and rivalry between the inhabitants of Wells and Bath. He removed the See of the diocese to Bath, and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Bishop of Bath. Feeling ran high, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was appealed to. His ingenuity proposed that the prelates should be styled ”Bishop of Bath and Wells,” that an equal number of delegates from both cities should elect him, and that their installation should take place in both churches. Yet, later, the determination of the diocese's headquarters became again a vexed question, under Bishop Savaricus, who was closely allied to the Emperor of Austria.

Richard I.'s liberty was granted him by the Emperor of Austria on one condition besides the ransom, that the then vacant Abbey of Glas...o...b..ry should be annexed to the See of Bath and Wells. Savaricus afterwards changed the seat of his diocese to Glas...o...b..ry, and styled himself Bishop of Glas...o...b..ry. The seat was finally settled in 1205, after his death, by the monks under his successor, Joscelyne de Wells. Glas...o...b..ry pet.i.tioned Rome, favourably, to be reinstated as an abbey, on condition of relinquis.h.i.+ng a handsome portion of its revenue to the See.

Joscelyne a.s.sumed the bishopric t.i.tle of Bath and Wells, which has remained to this day. The death of this prelate was the signal for further dispute in another direction. The monks of Bath endeavoured to exercise, in opposition to the Canon of Wells, the right of electing the successor to the See. All dispute was settled by the Pope, who managed to draw closer the union of the churches. At the Reformation the monastery of Bath was suppressed, and though the name of the See was retained, all ecclesiastical authority and the right of electing the Bishop were vested in the Dean and Chapter of Wells, which then became the sole chapter of the Diocese.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WELLS

THE RUINS OF THE BANQUETING HALL]

The Chapter House is a beautiful octagonal building, each side measuring fifty feet. Its finely groined roof is held up by a central cl.u.s.tered column of Purbeck marble. Beneath it there is a crypt displaying a very good example of plain groining.

The foundation of the present Cathedral was laid by Wiffeline, the second bishop of the diocese, and completed by Bishop Joscelyne in 1239.

This cruciform structure was dedicated to St. Andrew. On the south the cloisters form three sides of a quadrangle. The prevailing style of the architecture of this church is the Early English, with the introduction of the Decorated and subsequent periods.

The west front is divided into compartments by b.u.t.tresses, and is richly embellished with canopied niches, containing statues of kings, popes, cardinals, bishops, and abbots. Even the mullions of the west window and the lower stages of the western towers are similarly treated. These towers, like the central tower, are crowned with parapets elegantly pierced. The nave and transepts display the grand simplicity and elegance of the Early English style. The former is separated from the aisles by a series of cl.u.s.tered columns and finely pointed arches, above which are placed a triforium of lancet-shaped arches, and a range of clerestory windows with elegant tracery in the Later English style inserted.

The choir belongs to the Decorated style.

The Cathedral contains several chapels. In one there is the ancient clock from Glas...o...b..ry. It has an astronomical dial, and figures of knights in armour are set in motion by machinery. An ancient font in the south transept is of the same date as this portion of the Cathedral.

Of monuments there is the elaborate effigy of Bishop Beckington; and in the choir the grave-stone of Bishop Joscelyne is the sole relic of what was once an imposing marble monument bearing a bra.s.s effigy. In the centre of the nave King Ina was buried.

The hall, by Villula, was demolished in the reign of Edward VI. for the sake of its materials. Its remains even now clearly indicate its original splendour. In length it was one hundred and twenty feet.

On the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII. remodelled the then existing establishment and refounded it. This monarch's name reminds us that Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Laud were prelates of this see. The eminent historian, Polydore Vergil, was archdeacon in the sixteenth century, and in the year 1634 was born in this city pious Dr. George Bull, Bishop of St. David's.

The history of the See is the history of the city.

Worcester