Bishop of Peterborough

“ The Bishop of Peterborough (Magee) , being plagued to go and open all sorts of things—churches, schools, bazaars, &c.—exclaimed one day, "I do believe very soon there will not be a young curate in the diocese who has bought a new umbrella, who will not apply to the bishop to come and open it." ”

“ SCAMBLER, EDMUND (1510?–1594) , bishop of Peterborough and Norwich, was born at Gressingham, Lancashire, about 1510. He was educated at Peterhouse, Queens', and Jesus Colleges at Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1541–2. He no doubt took orders at once, as during the reign of Mary he is mentioned as one of the ministers of a secret protestant congregation in London, and is noted as having been in great danger (Strype, Memorials, III. ii. 132, 147, Parker, ii. 458) . At the accession of Elizabeth he became vicar of Rye and chaplain to Parker (ib. and iii. 284) . Promotion came rapidly. ”

“ Pearson was ordained by the bishop of Peterborough on 26 June 1781. He came out sixth senior optime in the mathematical tripos for 1782, proceeded to the degree of B.A. (M.A. 1785, B.D. 1792) , and was elected fellow of his college. In 1786 he obtained the Norrisian prize for an essay on ‘The Goodness of God as manifested in the Mission of Jesus Christ.’ Early in 1788 he became tutor of Sidney-Sussex College, and at the same time undertook the curacy of Pampisford, about seven miles from Cambridge. ”

“ Above the canopy is a lofty spire. On the sides of the seat are SS. Peter and Paul. On the book board are symbolical representations of the virtues of Temperance, Wisdom, Fortitude, and Justice. In the lower tier on the canopy are six figures: Saxulf, first Abbot; Cuthwin, first Bishop of Leicester; John de Sais; Benedict; S. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, his hand resting on the head of his tame swan; and John Chambers, last Abbot and first Bishop of Peterborough. In the upper tier are four Bishops: Bishop Dove, the theologian; Bishop Cumberland, the philosopher; Bishop Kennett, the antiquary ”

“ The King is very kind to my Lord Sandwich, and did himself observe to him (Sir G. Carteret) how those very people (meaning the Prince, and Duke of Albemarle) are punished in the same kind as they did seek to abuse my Lord Sandwich.
18th. Comes my old good friend Mr. Richard Cumberland [Richard Cumberland educated at St. Paul's School, and Magdalene College, Cambridge, made Bishop of Peterborough 1691. Ob. 1718, aged 86.] to see me, being newly come to town, whom I have not seen almost, if not quite these seven years. In a plain country-parson's dress. ”

“ The dissolution of the religious houses of England is one of the most important events recorded in our national history. It changed the whole aspect of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, and produced an entire revolution in the scheme of legislation.
John Chambers, who was the abbot of Peterburgh before these changes commenced, conformed to the new order of things, and was retained in office by the king,—the monastery being converted into a cathedral, and the abbot into a bishop. The new establishment consisted of a Bishop, a Dean, and six canons ”

“ From Stamford to Peterborough is a country of the same description, with the additional beauty of woods here and there, and with meadows just like those at Huntingdon, and not surpassed by those on the Severn near Worcester, nor by those on the Avon at Tewkesbury. The cathedral at Peterborough is exquisitely beautiful, and I have great pleasure in saying, that, contrary to the more magnificent pile at Ely, it is kept in good order; the Bishop (Herbert Marsh) residing a good deal on the spot ”

“ During the vacancy of the see of Lichfield on Bishop Sampson's death in 1554, he was appointed commissary for the diocese. In the early part of the same year he took part in the condemnation of Hooper and Taylor (ib. pp. 288, 290) . On 25 April 1556 he was appointed on the commission to inquire after heretics, and to proceed against them. On the death of John Chambers, the first bishop of the newly formed diocese of Peterborough, the queen sent letters commendatory to Paul IV in Pole's favour. ”

“ For a eulogistic sermon on the first duke of Devonshire he was in 1707 recommended to the deanery of Peterborough. He afterwards joined the Low Church party, strenuously opposed the Sacheverel movement, and in the Bangorian controversy supported with great zeal and considerable bitterness the side of Bishop Hoadly. His intimacy with Charles Trimnell, bishop of Norwich, who was high in favour with the king, secured for him in 1718 the bishopric of Peterborough. He died at Westminster in December 1728. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On 4 Sept. 1541 letters patent were issued converting the abbey church of Peterborough into a cathedral church, with a dean and chapter and ecclesiastical staff, Henry, thus it is said, by a tardy act of repentance, erecting the noblest possible monument to his first wife, who had been buried in the abbey church in January 1536. Chambers now became the first bishop of the new see, and had his old home, 'the abbot's lodgings,' alias 'the abbot's side,' together with 'the great stone tower known as the knight's chamber,' granted him as his house of residence. ”

“ Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the soke and borough. In 1576 Bishop Scamble sold the lordship of the hundred of Nassaburgh, which is coextensive with the soke, to Queen Elizabeth, who gave it to Lord Burghley, and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol in Peterborough for prisoners arrested in the soke. The trades of weaving and wool combing were carried on in Peterborough in the 14th century. ”

“ When Turold arrived at Peterborough he brought with him a force of 160 well-armed Normans. Joining the forces of Ivo Taillebois he attacked the Camp of Refuge near Ely. The attacking party was repulsed by Hereward, and Turold taken prisoner, and only liberated upon paying a heavy ransom. Soon afterwards the Abbot is said to have received into the monastery two monks from beyond sea, "who secretly stole away, and carried many of the Church Goods with them." At length he was made Bishop in France, and the monastery trusted they had seen the last of him. ”

“ In 1855 he was appointed examining chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich, and was made prebendary of S. Andrew's and canon of Llandaff cathedral in 1869. In 1872 he became prælector in Theology of Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1873 took his degree of D.D., and became Fellow of Trinity College. In 1875 Her Majesty was pleased to graciously appoint him one of her hon. chaplains, and in the same year he was appointed Hulsean Professor of Divinity. In 1851 and 1852 he was examiner for the Classical Tripos at Cambridge, and select preacher before the University on several different occasions. ”

“ To that episode I do not hesitate to assign a charter entered in the Peterborough ‘Liber Niger’ belonging to the Society of Antiquaries. It is a general confirmation of the abbey’s possessions, “petente abbate Brand,” [52] and is witnessed thus:
Huic testes affuere: Aldredus Eboracensis archiepiscopus; Wlwinus Lincoliensis episcopus; Merlesuen vicecomes; Ulf filius Topi; Willelmus comes; Willelmus Malet; Ingelri [cus] presbyter.
Here we have first Ealdred, by whom William had been crowned; then Wulfwig, bishop of Dorchester, here described as bishop “of Lincoln.” ”

“ He possessed great power over the whole hundred. And even after the See of Peterborough was constituted, and the Abbey Church became a cathedral, many of the ancient privileges were retained by the newly formed Dean and Chapter. They still retained the proclamation and control of the fairs; their officer, the high bailiff, was the returning officer at elections for parliament; they regulated the markets; they appointed the coroner. Professor Freeman contrasts an Abbot's town with a Bishop's town, when speaking about the city of Wells. [1] "An Abbot's borough might arise anywhere ”

“ In the north isle of the church there was a stately tomb in memory of Bishop Dove, who had been thirty years bishop of the place. He lay there in portraicture in his episcopal robes, on a large bed under a fair table of black marble, with a library of books about him. These men that were such enemies to the name and office of a bishop, and much more to his person, hack and hew the poor innocent statue in pieces, and soon destroy'd all the tomb. So that in a short space, all that fair and curious monument was buried in its own rubbish and ruines. ”

“ Wolfere died in 683, and was succeeded by his brother Ethelred, who contributed very largely to the monastery, and secured to it by his interest extraordinary privileges. Those who could not afford to go to Rome to offer up vows and get absolved from their sins were allowed both indulgences at this monastery, and could likewise receive "the apostolical benediction." Ethelred built a house for the abbot, which is now the palace of the bishop, but, excepting for its antiquity, it possesses no features of interest. ”

“ In 1541 the monastery (then a mitred abbey) was converted by Henry VIII. into a cathedral and bishop’s see. Before Peada’s time, Peterborough was a village called Medhamsted.—See Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiii. (1622) .
Peters (Dr.) , benevolent, eccentric physician, who is a sympathetic fellow-sinner to the most depraved of his patients, going through it all “with a grimly humorous hope that some good, in some unseen direction, may come of it.” ”

“ He was elected bishop of London on 11 Sept. 1318 (Annales Paulini, i. 283) , was confirmed at Peterborough on 3 Nov., consecrated at Canterbury by Walter Reynolds on 14 Jan. 1319, and enthroned on 30 Sept. following (ib. i. 284) . Next year he resisted the archbishop's visitation and appealed to the pope, but he was at last obliged to submit. In October 1320 he was sent to negotiate with Thomas of Lancaster, but was detained by illness at Northampton, and did not return till 6 Feb. 1321 (ib. i. 290–1) . ”

“ The re-edification of the monastery, henceforth known as Burgh, is due to Bishop Ethelwold, of Winchester, with the approval and support of King Edgar. This was accomplished in 972. We have now reached a point where all can take a practical interest in the subject, because portions of this church are to be seen to this day. The exact site of the Saxon church had always been a matter of conjecture until the excavations made in the course of the works incidental to the rebuilding of the lantern tower (1883-1893) finally settled the question. ”

“ John Cosens, bishop of that see, and a copiously annotated copy of Gunton's ‘History of Peterborough.’ The collection, consisting of about fifteen hundred books and tracts, was placed in a private room at Peterborough, and a manuscript catalogue was drawn up and subscribed ‘Index librorum aliquot vetustorum quos in commune bonum congessit W. K., Decan. Petriburg. MDCCXII.’ (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. i. 257) . This library is now arranged in the chapel over the west porch of the cathedral.
On 25 July 1713 Kennett was installed prebendary of Farrendon-cum-Balderton at Lincoln. ”

“ William Lloyd (1679-1685) was translated from Llandaff, and was further translated to Norwich in 1685. He was deprived of his see as a Nonjuror in 1691. He lived at Hammersmith till his death in 1710. He was the last survivor of the seven deprived bishops. It is singular that his namesake, William Lloyd, bishop of S. Asaph, should have been one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower by King James II. in 1688; but he had no scruples about taking the oaths to the new sovereigns, and became afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and ultimately of Worcester. ”

“ The ascertained facts of his archbishopric are very few. He is found consecrating St. Damian, a South Saxon, to Rochester, when Ithamar died (ib. iii. 20) , and his name occurs in one copy (the so-called Peterborough MS.) of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,’ under the year 657 A.D., when he hallowed Wulfhere's new monastery of Medehamstede (Peterborough) , and signed its charter. ”

“ Gloucester, Norwich and Tewkesbury are examples of its use in Benedictine churches; and it occurs in the Augustinian priory church of St Bartholomew, Smithfield. In these cases the processional path was retained through all later alterations, and the original arrangement is still quite clear; while the alternative and at one time more common plan has generally disappeared in England, and Peterborough is the one large church in which there are substantial remains of it above the foundations. ”

“ Our Lord's prayer has been effective, and Peter's faith has never failed. No doubt there is the full authority to teach and to govern in the church; but this authority is not derived from the faithful nor distributed equally among them, but resides primarily and in its plenitude in the Holy See, and therefore in the bishop of that see, or the pope, Peter's successor, in whom Peter lives and continues to teach and govern the whole church. {517} All Catholic bishops depend on him, and receive from him their jurisdiction, and by authority from God through him govern their respective dioceses. ”