Bells Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter | Page 3

of an abbey church founded by Athelstan. But Sweyn destroyed
it seventy years later, and it seems frequently to have been attacked by
invaders previous to its destruction. But in 1019 Canute endowed a new
church and confirmed by charter their lands and privileges to the monks.
This building must have been of some pretensions, for it was given to
Leofric for his cathedral church in 1050. It occupied the site of the
present Lady Chapel. When Warelwast and Marshall built their
Norman church they placed it on the east of the old church, leaving an
intervening space. Their nave occupied the site of the present nave, the
transeptal towers were the same, but the choir was shorter and probably
terminated in an apse flanked by smaller apses at the ends of the choir
aisles. Traces of one of these have been found at the end of the third
bay of the north choir aisle. Bronscombe and Quivil (see p. 5) began
their reconstruction at this end, and by adding the ambulatory and Lady
Chapel linked together the sites of the old and new churches.
With the episcopate of Leofric, Exeter first assumes the rank of a
cathedral city. The sees of Devon and Cornwall had been held together
by Lyfing, the last bishop of Crediton. But Crediton, an unfortified

"vill," was an easy prey to the Irish, Danes, and other pirates, who
devastated the diocese from time to time. Leofric felt the urgent
necessity for a change, and fixed on the walled town of Exeter to be his
cathedral city. He sent a clerk to the pope asking him to write to the
king recommending the change. The king readily consented, and the
church of St. Mary and St. Peter was given to the bishop as his
cathedral church. The event was clearly regarded as of considerable
importance, for at his installation Edward the Confessor "supported his
right arm and Queen Eadgytha his left." Archbishops, bishops, and
nobles also assisted at the ceremony. Leofric proved a hard-working
and wise prelate, and gave generously of lands and moneys to his
church. He had found it but poorly furnished, the wardrobe only
containing "one worthless priest's dress." He also remembered it in his
will, and the great "Liber Exoniensis" was his gift.
But if the history of the see has its birth with Leofric, the story of the
cathedral begins with the appointment in 1107 of Warelwast as bishop.
This noteworthy man was a nephew of the Conqueror and chaplain to
both William II and Henry I. Inheriting to the full the Norman passion
for building, he pulled down the Saxon edifice and began to erect a
great Norman cathedral in its stead. The transeptal towers attest the
magnificence of his scheme. There is nothing quite like them anywhere
else, though at Barcelona and Chalons-sur-Marne may be seen
something similar. But they suffice to stamp him as an architect of
exceptional genius. He laboured zealously in other matters, founding at
Plympton a wealthy Augustinian priory; he also represented the king at
Rome in his famous quarrel with Anselm. It is said that he became
blind and died, an old man, at his priory of Plympton.
The next important date to notice is 1194, when Henry Marshall,
brother of Walter Earl Marshall, was made bishop. For two years the
episcopal throne had remained empty, the king being absent from
England in the Holy Land. But with the appointment of Marshall a
most important stage is reached. King John gave to the see the tithes of
the tin in Devonshire and Cornwall. This must have largely increased
the episcopal income, for Marshall quickly set about completing the
work Warelwast had begun a hundred years before. To this end he

granted the emoluments of St. Erth's Church, near Hayle, Cornwall, to
be used towards defraying the cost of repairs. He also called upon each
householder to show his interest in the work by subscribing, at
Pentecost, an alms of "unum obolum ad minim." For the sufficient
remuneration of the choral vicars he made over to them the church of St.
Swithun in Woodbury, "with all its appurtenances."
To Marshall we owe extensive additions to the nave, the north porch,
and the cloister doorway. He completed the Norman church begun by
Warelwast, but there is no evidence that he extended to the eastward, as
is sometimes stated. The position of the tomb in the "founder's place"
on the north side of the choir indicates that it terminated only a few
yards farther to the east. Beyond there must have been an open space
between the Norman and the old Saxon cathedrals.
For nearly fifty years there are but scant records of work done to the
building. Though Professor Freeman[1] speaks of its "not long-lived
perfection," it is