Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter | Page 2

57 The Sedilia 58
Pulpit in the Choir 60 St. James' Chapel 61 St. George's Chapel 62 The
Lady Chapel 64 Bishop Bronscombe's Monument 66 Screen of St.
Gabriel's Chapel 68 Tomb of Bishop Stapledon 72 Monument of
Bishop Marshall 73 The East Gate (pulled down in 1784) 77 The
Bishop's Palace 81 Old Houses in Fore Street 90 Rougemont Castle 93
The Guildhall, Exeter 94
PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL at end

[Illustration: EXETER CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH.]

EXETER CATHEDRAL.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY AND ST. PETER IN
EXETER.
The history of any ancient cathedral must always be interesting, and
that of Exeter is no exception, though "it supplies less of architectural
history than those churches whose whole character has been altered
over and over again." A cathedral represents not only the spiritual, but
the active, laborious, and artistic life of past generations. The bishop,
too, was in many ways the head man of the province, and combined,
not seldom, the varied qualities of priest, warrior, and statesman. The
acts of such ecclesiastics were full of importance, not for their own city

only, but often also for the whole nation. As men who had frequently
travelled much and studied deeply, they summoned to their aid in the
building and beautifying of their churches the most skilled artists end
artificers of their time; so, with the story of the lives of the bishops of a
diocese, the history of a cathedral's building is inextricably woven. To
be elevated to a bishopric generally meant to be put into possession of
great wealth--when Veysey became bishop the revenues of the see of
Exeter have, by some authors, been computed at £100,000; Canon
Hingeston-Randolph puts them, with more reason and authority, at the
sum of £30,000--and a large portion of this money was spent on works
connected with the chief church of the diocese. It is not wonderful,
therefore, this generosity being joined to marvellous skill and taste, that
our old cathedrals are at once the despair and envy of the modern
architect. And it is with a feeling of reverence that one recalls the
history of those who built in the heart of each populous city "grey cliffs
of lonely stone into the midst of sailing birds and silent air."
The story of Exeter has an unique interest, and its church, as we shall
see, is in many respects without a rival. The fact that a building of such
great beauty should adorn a city so situated is remarkable; for long
after--as we read in Macaulay--weekly posts left London for various
parts of England, Exeter was still, as it were, on the borders of
territories scarcely explored, and was the furthest western point to
which letters were conveyed from the metropolis. Fuller thus describes
the county of Devonshire in his day (1646): "Devonshire hath the
narrow seas on the South, the Severn on the North, Cornwall on the
West, Dorset and Somersetshire on the East. A goodly province, the
second in England for greatness, clear in view without measuring, as
bearing a square of fifty miles. Some part thereof, as the South Hams,
is so fruitful it needs no art; but generally (though not running of itself)
it answers to the spur of industry. No shire showes more industrious, or
so many Husbandmen, who by Marle (blew and white), Chalk, Lime,
Seasand, Compost, Sopeashes, Rags and what not, make the ground
both to take and keep a moderate fruitfulness; so that Virgil, if now
alive, might make additions to his Georgicks, from the Plough-practice
in this county. As for the natives thereof, generally they are dexterous
in any employment, and Queen Elizabeth was wont to say of the gentry:

They were all born courtiers with a becomming confidence."
The city of Exeter is of great age. "Isca Damnoniorum, Caer Wise,
Exanceaster, Exeter, keeping essentially the same name under all
changes, stands distinguished as the one great city which has, in a more
marked way than any other, kept its unbroken being and its unbroken
position throughout all ages." But though Whitaker asserts that in the
middle of the fifth century it was the seat of a bishop, Professor
Freeman, with more authority, declares that the city did not become a
bishop's see till the latter half of the eleventh century, at which period
the bishopstools were removed from the small to the great towns. Until
703 A.D. Devonshire formed part of the vast diocese of Wessex. About
the year 900 A.D. the diocese of Devon and Cornwall was divided into
two--the former with its bishop's seat at Crediton--only to be reunited
again a hundred and fifty years later when Leofric was appointed
bishop.
The first record of a church dedicated to SS. Mary and Peter in Exeter,
is that