Bishop of Winchester

“ A. 984. This year died the benevolent bishop of Winchester, Ethelwold, father of monks, on the Kalends of August; and the consecration of the succeeding bishop, Elphege [II.] , who by another name was called Godwin, was on the 14th before the Kalends of November; and he took the episcopal seat at Winchester, on the day of the two apostles Simon and Jude. ”

“ As the man's course moves on, we are apt to lose in our successive judgments of the separate steps of it—it may be stops of great immediate interest—our sense of its connection and tendency, of the true measure of it as a whole, of the degree in which character is growing and rising, or, on the other hand, falling or standing still. The Bishop of Winchester had many admirers—many who deeply loved and trusted him—many who, in the face of a good deal of suspicion and hostile comment, stoutly insisted on the high estimate which they had formed of him. ”

“ Like master, like man, and great kings have always had great subjects. Such a one was Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, whose influence was all powerful during the next half century, and was reflected in Egbert’s still greater grandson, Alfred. Swithun belongs essentially to Winchester; he laboured incessantly for the kingdom, the diocese, and the city, and his shrine became for centuries afterwards the glory of its Cathedral, and the place of pilgrimage for thousands of pious feet. He built churches; he protected the Cathedral and Monastery by building a wall round it ”

“ ELEANOR, Duchess of Gloucester
CARDINAL Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, great-uncle to the King
DUKE OF SOMERSET
DUKE OF SUFFOLK
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
LORD CLIFFORD
YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son
VAUX
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of YORK ”

“ Thus the founding of the Church in Wessex was an act independent entirely of Augustinian influence; not for many years after did the diocese acknowledge the supremacy of Canterbury, and when Bishop Henry of Blois in the twelfth century was scheming to convert Winchester into a separate province, with himself as Archbishop, he had at least a historical basis on which to rest his claim. ”

“ William Walkelyn, a relative, there is some reason to believe, of the Conqueror, became the first Norman bishop of Winchester.
Walkelyn enjoyed a high reputation alike for learning and for personal piety. The monkish author of the Annales de Wintonia describes him as a man “of perfect piety and sanctity of life, endowed with wondrous sagacity and withal of such abstinence that he eschewed both meat and fish and rarely tasted wine or mead, and then only with extreme moderation.” ”

“ As bishop of Winchester we find him one of the king's deputies at the council in London in August 1335, one of a commission in 1336 to treat with the King of France for a joint expedition to the Holy Land, to arrange an interview between the two kings for the consideration of certain processes pending in the French courts, and to treat with David Bruce. In May 1337 the king wrote to the pope not to allow the bishop to appeal to the Roman court for the decision of his cause against William Inge, archdeacon of Canterbury. ”

“ The Bishop of Winchester says—“We believe that we do possess, as we cannot see that others do, Christ’s direct commission for our ministry, and a certainty and fulness, therefore, of His presence and of His Sacramental working, which, to say the least, may be lacking elsewhere. If we do not hold as much as this we must dissent from the plain language of our own Ordination Service.” The Bishop also denies that it is a superstitious theory that “the clergy can convey to the soul by a material intervention some spiritual influence in an occult manner.” ”

“ Of former bishops of Winchester the majority are buried here. Some of these—and among them some of the most famous—have no visible sign to mark their tomb; these include such names as Birinus, Swithun, Æthelwold, Walkelyn, Henry of Blois. There are many others too over whom we should like to linger: Peter de Rupibus, for instance, the evil genius of Henry III.’s reign, and Ethelmar or Aymer, the absentee bishop, who died in Paris, but desired his heart to be placed in a casket for interment in the Cathedral, though when alive his affections seem to have been centred anywhere but here. ”

“ It is natural to suppose that a man so admirably adapted for that employment went in search of it to the ecclesiastical court, not beloved of England, which the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester held there. Winchester was the only one of the House of Lancaster who had money to carry on the government either at home or abroad. The two priests, as the historians are always pleased to insinuate in respect to ecclesiastics, soon understood each other, and Winchester became aware that he had in Cauchon a tool ready for any shameful enterprise. ”

“ WATSON, JOHN (1520–1584) , bishop of Winchester, was born in 1520 at Bengeworth, Worcestershire, and was educated at Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in June 1539, and was elected fellow of All Souls' in 1540. He proceeded M.A. on 25 June 1544, and for a time practised medicine, graduating M.D. at Oxford on 27 July 1575. Having taken holy orders, he became known as a reformer under Edward VI, and on 20 Nov. 1551 the council procured his appointment to the second prebend in Winchester Cathedral (Royal MSS. cxxiv. f. 159) ; he was admitted on 14 Dec. (Le Neve, iii. 34) . ”

“ Wykeham's successor, Beaufort, was far less a bishop of Winchester than an English statesman. His contributions to the architecture of his see are very small. He did indeed so add to the hospital of St Cross as to make it almost a new 10foundation; but in the cathedral he only left one monument, though this Milner styles the "most elegant and finished chantry in the kingdom," lying on the south side of the retro-choir. Waynflete, who followed him, left another fine chantry in a corresponding position to the north. ”

“ The prelates and nobles present were Ælfsige bishop of Winchester, Oswulf bishop of Ramsbury, Cénwald bishop of Worcester, Byrhthelm bishop of London, Æðelwald then abbot of Abingdon and afterwards the celebrated bishop of Winchester—the Father of the Monks, as he was called; Byrhtnóð the ealdorman an equally decided patron of the monastic order; Ælfheáh no less a man than the dapifer regis, or seneschal of Eádwig’s house. ”

“ In this year also he was elected bishop of Hereford, and his defect in age having been made up by a papal bull dated 17 Aug., he was consecrated on 17 March 1370, and enthroned on 5 Sept. following. As bishop he allied himself with the party of the Prince of Wales and William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, who opposed the attacks made on the clergy by John of Gaunt, and he vigorously upheld the rights of the national church against the twofold oppression of the pope and of the crown, to which it was exposed. ”

“ John Ponet, bishop of Winchester, in an Apology against Bishop Gardiner, relates as matter of common knowledge that in 1547 Doctor Boord, a physician and a holy man, who still kept the Carthusian rules of fasting and wearing a hair shirt, was convicted in Winchester of keeping in his house three loose women. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that these two bishops and Waynflete, the founder of Magdalen College, Oxford, between them occupied the see for no less than 120 years. The history of this period, as far as the cathedral is concerned, is mainly architectural and therefore uneventful in comparison with that of the earlier times. The intervals whose history is less stirring, however, fortunately leave far better marks on the actual buildings than do the more eventful epochs; and the fact that Cardinal Wolsey once was Bishop of Winchester could not be gathered from the cathedral itself. ”

“ The Tabard owed its origin to the Abbey of Newere Mynstre, Winchester, which was founded by King Alfred, and afterwards removed outside the walls, when it assumed the name of Hyde Abbey, temp. Henry I. Alwyn, the eighth abbot, was uncle to King Harold, and fought, with twelve of his monks, under his standard at Hastings. In process of time the Abbey waxed rich, and in 1307 the Abbot purchased a plot of land near the palace of the [167] Bishop of Winchester, and thereon, as Stow informs us, "built a faire house for him and his train when he came to the City to Parliament." ”

“ Sussex was also taken from the Winchester diocese during the episcopacy of Daniel, Hedda's successor, and by way of compensation he was only able to add the Isle of Wight, hitherto unattached to any see. When the West Saxon kingdom became, in the ninth century, practically the kingdom 97of England, Winchester, of course, assumed a very important position. S. Swithun, who was chosen as bishop in 852, had great influence with King Ethelwulf, and his cathedral correspondingly became an object of veneration. ”

“ How eloquently the recumbent effigy{152} seems to recall the strong features of the man who desired power so earnestly, and could dare greatly in the effort to possess it—those rigid hands now clasped meekly in prayer betoken a humility and repose which their owner when in life probably never enjoyed, nor it may be even desired. Waynflete, again, had a notable career. Headmaster of Winchester, he was chosen by Henry VI. as first headmaster of his new foundation of Eton, and shortly after from headmaster became Provost, from which position he rose to become Bishop of Winchester. ”

“ A small but extremely interesting parish church in ‘The Square,’ of which practically all the exterior, save the Western Doorway and the Tower, is hidden from sight by the houses and shops hemming it in on all sides. Every Bishop of Winchester on being installed proceeds in solemn procession from the Cathedral to St. Lawrence Church to ring the bell—a picturesque survival of feudal days. ‘The Square’ marks the site of a palace built for his own occupation by William the Conqueror. ”

“ Resigning Brightstone in 1669, he was collated to a prebend at Winchester, and to the rectory of East Woodhay, Hampshire, which he resigned in 1672 to make room for his friend George Hooper [q. v.] , afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells. He then resided at Winchester, again taking gratuitous charge of the parish of St. John in the Soke, performing his duties in the cathedral and the college, and as bishop's chaplain, and recreating himself with music, for he had an organ of his own. In 1674 he published his ‘Manual for Winchester Scholars,’ though as yet without the three hymns. ”

“ On 2 March, when a new archbishop was elected [see Richard,d.1184] , and a dispute arose between the bishops and the Canterbury monks for the right of proclaiming the election, the matter was compromised by both parties deputing the archdeacon of Poitiers to make the proclamation in their stead (R. Diceto, i. 354) . When, on 1 May, Richard was chosen bishop of Winchester (Ann. Mon. ii. 61) , John of Salisbury pleaded warmly for the pope's confirmation of the appointment, praising the bishop-elect as a devout lover and imitator of St. ”

“ No better example could be found of the emptiness of constitutional theory in those days of turbulence and violence.
Finding himself powerless to restore peace in Bedfordshire, Gloucester turned south, and by way of St. Albans reached London, where he prepared to welcome his old rival Beaufort on his return from the Continent. [734] This was the Bishop of Winchester’s first appearance in England as a cardinal, and he was met on September 1 outside London by the Mayor and citizens ‘reverently arrayed in red hoods and green vestments. The Abbot of St. ”

“ This act of unparalleled folly—for the person of a bishop was regarded as sacred—not only estranged public sympathy, but fanned to active flame the smouldering resentment of Bishop Henry. As Papal Legate he summoned Stephen to answer for his conduct before him at a council held at Winchester, and here the king was not only condemned, but even obliged to do penance. Stephen’s position was gravely{104} compromised, and Matilda’s supporters, who had long bided their time, broke into active opposition. Robert, Earl of Gloucester, her half-brother, took up arms in her behalf ”

“ Giles, where merchants from all parts of Europe congregate to buy the wool for which the south of England is so famous, and during the sixteen days that the fair lasts no merchant or shopman in Winchester, or ten miles round, may buy or sell except within the fair itself, and whoever is a welcome and popular figure, it is not the Lord Bishop of Winchester nor the bishop’s bailiff, for all merchandise must first pay toll—and heavy toll—for the bishop’s exclusive benefit, before it may pass within the barriers, and be exposed for sale. ”

“ Winchester Cathedral is a stately edifice, incorporating every style of English architecture from the Norman to the Perpendicular. It was founded on a more ancient site in 1079. The choir and transepts were finished in 1093. The conversion of the nave from Norman to Perpendicular was begun by Bishop Edington before 1366, and the whole was completed in 1486. The builder of the greater part of the nave was Bishop William of Wickham, the renowned architect and statesman, who occupied the See from 1366 to 1404. The church is the longest in England, measuring 560 feet in all. ”

“ Suitable plate and sanctuary hangings were provided, and four copes which were to be used on all Sundays and holidays. The prebendaries were solemnly bound by oath to make a reverence before the altar when entering or leaving the choir. The bishop did not confine his attention to the cathedral, but throughout the diocese similar customs were most rigorously enforced. In 1636 the archbishop, in his annual report on the state of the southern province, represents the diocese of Winchester as ‘all peace and order,’ so zealously had Curll worked. ”