Diocese of Hereford

“ John's altar in our cathedral church of Hereford, and to the rest of the deans, parsons, vicars, chaplains, parish priests, and to others, whosoever in any place are appointed through our city and diocese of Hereford, sendeth greeting, grace and benediction. We bid and command, charging you straitly, in the virtue of holy obedience, that you cite or cause to be cited peremptorily, and under the pain of excommunication, William Swinderby, pretending himself to be a priest ”

“ A few years later it was decided by a synod held here under the presidency of Theodore, then Archbishop of Canterbury, in 673, to make a division of the diocese of Lichfield. Very naturally Wilford, then bishop of that see, refused to recognise the decree, and for this piece of contumacy was subsequently deprived of part of his diocese. His successor, Sexulph, however, was more amenable, and with his consent Hereford was detached from Lichfield and restored to its original independence as a separate diocese. ”

“ The Saxons were driving the British inhabitants more and more to the west, and before the close of the sixth century they [pg 092] had founded the Mercian kingdom, reaching beyond the Severn, and in some places beyond the Wye.
The See of Hereford properly owes its origin to that of Lichfield, as Sexwulf, Bishop of that diocese, placed at Hereford Putta, Bishop of Rochester, when his cathedral was destroyed by the Mercian King Ethelred. ”

“ That he might consolidate his acts, and render the unity of his church lasting, he convoked a synod of the bishops and clergy at Heorutford (Hereford [32] ) about the year 673, and proposed for their adoption several canons, which, as they throw considerable light on the state of ecclesiastical affairs at that period, are here inserted:—1. That all persons should keep Easter in common, on the Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox. 2. That no bishop should interfere with the diocese of another, but be content with governing his own. ”

“ John’s Chapel, Pierrepoint Place, Bath, the title assumed by him being Bishop of Apollonia in the Archdiocese of Thessalonica. The newly created diocese embraced the twelve counties of Wales, with Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. His vicariate was very extensive and extremely impoverished. It included within it only nineteen chapels. Eleven of these belonging to Hereford and Monmouth, no more than eight in all appertained to the dozen Welsh counties. On the formation of the catholic hierarchy Brown was translated, on 29 Sept. 1850, to the newly constituted see of Newport and Menevia. ”

“ The see was detached from Lichfield in 676, Putta being its first bishop; and the modern diocese covers most of Herefordshire, a considerable part of Shropshire, and small portions of Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Monmouthshire; extending also a short distance across the Welsh border. The removal of murdered Aethelbert’s body from Marden to Hereford led to the foundation of a superior church, reconstructed by Bishop Athelstane, and burnt by the Welsh in 1055. Begun again in 1079 by Bishop Robert Losinga, it was carried on by Bishop Reynelm and completed in 1148 by Bishop R. de Betun. ”

“ His dogmatic theological writings have no great merit. His political essays are clear and forcible, but they are disfigured by frequent adulation of the king and royal family. The letters to Lady Sundon show that he was well able to flatter influential personages in the state. As a bishop he was certainly negligent in the performance of his duties. He never visited the diocese of Bangor, and probably not that of Hereford; at Salisbury, however, he acted creditably on one occasion. ”

“ Theophilus Field, A.D. 1635-1636, who had been Bishop of Llandaff and of St. David's, died a year after his translation, and thereby saved the diocese the ill effects of a longer term of servile and corrupt management.
George Coke, A.D. 1636-1646, Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, became Bishop of Bristol in 1633, and was translated to Hereford in 1636. He was a grave and studious man, and well loved in his diocese, but in the troubled days of the Civil War was deprived of his see. ”

“ The power of his preaching was universally felt, and his capacity for business placed him at the head of his party. He had been made a king’s chaplain, and was offered the bishopric of Hereford, but he could not accept the offer without virtually assenting to things as they were. This he could not do, and after his refusal he was not allowed, even before the passing of the Act of Uniformity, to be a curate in Kidderminster, though he was willing to serve that office gratuitously. Bishop Morley even prohibited him from preaching in the diocese of Worcester. ”

“ Already the Bishops of Norwich, Gloucester, Salisbury, Winchester, and Exeter, had signed copies of the petition in token of their approbation. The Bishop of Worcester had refused to distribute the Declaration among his clergy. The Bishop of Hereford had distributed it: but it was generally understood that he was overwhelmed by remorse and shame for having done so. Not one parish priest in fifty complied with the Order in Council. In the great diocese of Chester, including the county of Lancaster, only three clergymen could be prevailed on by Cartwright to obey the King. ”

“ On 17 Nov. 1585 he was nominated bishop of Hereford, in succession to John Scory [q. v.] , and was consecrated at Lambeth on 30 Jan. 1585–6 (Strype, Life of Whitgift, i. 466–7; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1589–90, p. 259) . On 7 Oct. 1587 he sent a report, such as was demanded from most of the bishops, concerning the suitability of the justices of the peace in his diocese, and especially concerning their treatment of recusants (Strype, Annals, iii. i. 669, ii. 453–455) . ”

“ No one can be many minutes in Hereford without detecting that not only the people but the very buildings take their key from the grand cathedral that, calmly gazing into the face of Time, has seen of men and houses generations come and generations go.
Hereford as an ecclesiastical centre is one of the most ancient in Great Britain, but until the commission of Offa’s grievous crime it must have been comparatively unimportant, with a small wooden structure for a church. ”

“ Hereford Cathedral bears the name of Ethelbert of East Anglia, king and martyr, round whose death, at the hands of the men of Offa of Mercia, this story of his comrade centres, and dates its foundation from Offa's remorse for the deed which at least he had not prevented. In the sanctuary itself stands an ancient battered statue--somewhat hard to find--of the saint, and in the pavement hard by a modern stone bears a representation of his murder. ”

“ One Bishop of Hereford represented the old British bishops at the famous conference with Augustine, when, by his want of tact and haughty demeanour, the Roman missionary alienated the native British Church. A very tragic event enhanced the glories of the see. King Offa slew Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, who was a suitor for his daughter's hand, and buried him at Hereford. On the night of the funeral, "a column of light, brighter than the sun, arose towards heaven," according to the monkish chronicler, and miracles were wrought at the tomb of the martyred monarch. ”

“ Hereford at once appealed to the pope, and set out for Rome. In the meantime a royal letter was issued on 13 July, ordering the destruction of any of his writings that might be found at Oxford. In answer to another letter from the archbishop, the chancellor replied on 25 July that search had been made at Oxford, but that Hereford could not be found. On reaching Rome, Hereford propounded his conclusions, which had been condemned at Blackfriars, before the pope and cardinals. They were once more condemned, and Hereford only escaped death through the friendship of Pope Urban VI for the English. ”

“ A man of much learning and ability. During his episcopate, according to William of Malmsbury, the cathedral was rebuilt after the pattern of Charlemagne's church at Aix-la-Chapelle. In his time also Walter de Lacy built the Church of St. Peter at Hereford. He was a keen man of business, and it has been suggested that he was open to bribery, but this accusation is hardly compatible with his intimate companionship with the high-minded Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, the date of whose death, January 19, 1095, is included in the calendar of the Hereford Service-Book. ”

“ Hertfordshire was originally divided between the dioceses of London and Lincoln. In 1291 that part included in the Lincoln diocese formed part of the archdeaconry of Huntingdom and comprised the deaneries of Berkhampstead, Hitchin, Hertford and Baldock, and the archdeaconry and deanery of St Albans; while that part within the London diocese formed the deanery of Braughing within the archdeaconry of Middlesex. In 1535 the jurisdiction of St Albans had been transferred to the London diocese, the division being otherwise unchanged. ”

“ A statue of the murdered King has been placed, as you see, on a pedestal, close to one of the pillars, and here, on the floor, in front of the altar, is a circular slab of marble, on which is traced a representation of his murder.
But if we cannot visit St. Ethelbert’s shrine, we can visit another, which is six hundred years old, and which was erected to hold the bones of a very celebrated Bishop of Hereford, who was such a good man, that, after his death, people thought he deserved the name of Saint;—Thomas de Cantilupe. ”

“ CHAPTER II. - THE CATHEDRAL - EXTERIOR. Artistic unity is certainly not the chief characteristic of Hereford Cathedral, but it is doubtful whether the absence of that quality dear to a purist is not more than compensated for by the fine examples of different periods, which make the massive pile as a whole a valuable record of historical progress. And surely it is more fitting that a great ecclesiastical edifice should grow with the successive ages it outlasts, and bear about it architectural evidence of every epoch through which it has passed. ”

“ I well remember one occasion while we were at Hereford, a very pompous and extremely proper town, as all cathedral cities are; my lord and I were robed for the reception of the High Sheriff (as he is called) and his chaplain, who were presently coming with the great carriage to take us to be churched before we charged the grand jury.
Hereford is a very stately place, and enjoys a very high opinion of its own importance in the world. It is almost too respectable to admit of the least frivolity in any circumstances. ”

“ From 1861 to 1856 he resided at Lorchill House, Langley-Marish, Buckinghamshire, and in 1856 was appointed precentor of Hereford Cathedral. He succeeded Sir Henry Rowley Bishop as professor of music in the university of Oxford in the same year, and was made LL.D. of Cambridge in 1883, and of Edinburgh in 1884. He was appointed a canon residentiary of Hereford Cathedral in 1886, and died suddenly of epilepsy on Saturday, 6 April 1889, at Hereford He was buried at St. Michael's, Tenbury. He was unmarried, and the baronetcy became extinct at his death. ”

“ I don't know if that is a proper way in which to describe a solid Herefordian; but if so, judge of the High Sheriff's surprise, as well as that of the chaplain, when I walked by the side of my lord into our drawing-room! I never saw a clergyman look so glum! We were both in robes, as I observed, and my lord was so pleased with my appearance that he held me up for the two dignitaries to admire. But Hereford does not admire other people; they confine their admirations within their own precincts. ”

“ The window at the back of the passage is filled with tracery of Decorated character. The triangular form, which is by no means usual, is{W-15} that which prevails in the north transept of Hereford, (see the Handbook for that Cathedral,) built at the end of the thirteenth century for the reception of the shrine of St. Thomas Cantilupe.
The groined vaulting of the nave—the work of Bishop Wakefield in 1377—has ridge and intermediate ribs, with bosses of foliage at the intersections. The nave, which was covered with whitewash by the “restorers” of the last century, has been thoroughly cleaned ”

“ Ziz. p. 274) . He had graduated as doctor of divinity by the following spring, and in the letter of the Oxford friars to John, duke of Lancaster, on 18 Feb. 1382, is mentioned as their chief enemy (ib. pp. 294, 296) . Throughout Lent of this year Hereford was constantly preaching in support of Wiclif, and against the friars at St. Mary's Church, having for his chief opponent Peter Stokes, the Carmelite. The chancellor, Robert Rigge, refused to take action against Hereford, and finally appointed him to preach the sermon at St. ”

“ Four years later, in 1799, he was presented to the rectory of Eaton-Bishop, Herefordshire, by Bishop Butler, who also gave him on 12 April 1800 the prebend of Withington Parva, and on 23 March 1801 translated him to the prebend of Gorwall and Overbury in Hereford Cathedral. ”

“ Hervey, who by his courteous behaviour had ingratiated himself with the monks of Ely, promoted the scheme vigorously, and brought it to a successful issue. The council which sat in London at Whitsuntide 1108, under the presidency of Anselm, decreed that the diocese of Lincoln being too extensive for the effectual oversight of a single bishop, the county of Cambridge should be taken from it and constituted a new diocese with its episcopal see at Ely, and Hervey for its first bishop. ”