Diocese of Norwich

“ Canon of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was at Westminster Abbey consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Norwich, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The right reverend Bishop had previously been collated and instituted—on October 16th—to the rectory and parish church of North Creake, and on the same day collated to the Archdeaconry of Lynn formed out of the Archdeaconries of Norfolk and Norwich under an order of her Majesty, dated August 23rd, 1894. “By 26th Henry VIII., c. 14, provision was made for the appointment of two Suffragans within the diocese, to bear the titular names of Thetford and Ipswich. ”

“ It is no exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of parishes in England of whose incumbents for centuries not only a complete list may be made out, but the very day and place be set down where those incumbents received institution into the benefice either at the hands of the Diocesan or his official. This is certainly the case in the great East Anglian diocese of Norwich, which comprehended, in the fourteenth century, the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and a portion of Cambridgeshire. ”

“ Bishop Hooper was born in the year 1495, and was burnt in the reign of Queen Mary. The sixty years of his life formed the most important period of English history. When he was born, the Reformation had just begun; when he died it had struck such deep roots amongst the people, especially of Norwich and Norfolk, that neither force, nor persecution, nor argument could stop its progress. In Bishop Hooper’s time, and in his diocese of Gloucester, the ignorance of the clergy was amazing. ”

“ The Bishops of Norwich, by immemorial custom, always have, and still do enjoy, as an ecclesiastical emolument or advantage, belonging to the spiritualities of the see, the power of union, or uniting any two cures with institution, any where within the limits of their own diocese, whether they be rectories or vicarages of any value whatever; and this power hath been exercised by every bishop without interruption, to this present day, and that in a double capacity, viz. ”

“ Henry Bathurst, LL.D., canon of Christchurch, rector of Cirencester, and prebend of Durham, was installed bishop of Norwich in 1805. He was a prelate much esteemed and respected. His christian deportment, conciliatory manners, and general benevolence, endeared him to this city and diocese. He was eminently distinguished for his liberal sentiments, and for his attachment to the great principles of civil and religious liberty. He was often seen walking arm in arm with Dissenters in our streets. ”

“ Broad in his sympathies, courageous in his outspeaking, and impetuous in his temperament, he oftentimes brought himself in conflict with those who were content with things as they had been, and in the earlier years of his episcopate he found his diocese anything but a bed of roses, for during the closing years of the long rule of his predecessor, Bishop Bathurst, Norwich had been a byword for laxity among the sees of [Pg 95] the English Church, a condition of things the new prelate could not endure. ”

“ Both churches are dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the arms of abbey and diocese (three mitres) are identical.
The monastery at Norwich (of which important remains still exist) was built at the same time to accommodate upwards of sixty monks of the Benedictine order, who were under the rule of a prior, the first called to that office being one Ingulfus. A charter of William II granted to Herbert certain ‘lands at Norwich Castle,’ and he ratified the bishop's transfer of his Syleham manor, including church, water-mill, fishery, &c., to Roger Bigod in exchange for the church of St. ”

“ Every art that could be used was employed by the congregations to avoid returning an answer to the Archbishop’s inquiries, whether the English-born members would conform and use the Liturgy in their own language. The two congregations in Norwich resisted vehemently and remonstrated with Bishop Corbet, who was then bishop of the diocese; but Archbishop Laud himself visited the diocese and caused the injunction to be published in the congregations. ”

“ This rectory is in the deanery of Redenhall, archdeaconry of Norfolk, and diocese of Norwich; valued in the King's Books at 9l. but is now discharged, being sworn of the clear yearly value of 46l. so that it is capable of augmentation, and is freed from first fruits, and tenths.
Rectors. 1297. John de Petrestre, rector. 1313, id. March, Alan de Hallegate, priest. Thomas and Henry de Sheltone. 1314, 10 kal. Nov. Ralph de Sheltone, priest. Ditto. 1343, 18 Decem. Sir Henry de Shelton, priest. Thomas de Shelton. 1349, 14 May, Richard atte Lane of Walton, priest. Ditto. ”

“ These trained teachers have been in great demand all over the diocese. The Norwich charity schools are church schools, nine in number, and they have afforded instruction to a large number of boys and girls. But the education of the poor in this city has not been left entirely to the church, as there are many British schools supported by all classes of Nonconformists.
In early times the monks or the clergy were the schoolmasters. Their schools, when not carried on within the walls of a monastery, were, and have been called, Grammar Schools, up to the present time. ”

“ Cromwell, your servant,’ to explain that the writer is ill and cannot come up as commanded. ‘This bringer’ was afterwards lord privy seal and earl of Essex. As part of a scheme for redeeming first-fruits in Norwich diocese, St. Benet's Abbey was by bull, dated 31 May 1528, of Pope Clement VII (Rymer, xiv. 244) , and by private act of parliament (Tanner, Notitia Monast. p. 333) , made directly subject to the bishops of Norwich who were to be ex officio abbots there; but Capon continued abbot and was succeeded by Repps, afterwards bishop of Norwich. ”

“ Bury St. Edmund’s, 4,320; Stowmarket, 2,200; Ipswich, 2,300; Woodbridge, 1,400; Framlingham, 1,900; Halesworth, 1,300; Lowestoft, 600; Beccles, 700; North Walsham, 1,370; Holt, 1,200; Fakenham, 2,000; Lynn, 2,000; Downham, 1,300; Swaffham, 1,600; and Dereham, 1,230. The Visitation concluded on July 1st, and was said to have “redounded highly to the honour of the clergy of this extensive diocese, as the number of persons confirmed greatly exceeded all former visitations.”
—Died at King Street, Norwich, in her 104th year, Mrs. ”

“ Unconscious stones to beauty grew.”
We shall first give, in as complete a manner as our limited space will permit, a sketch of the foundation and progress of the edifice, the erection of which occupied a century, and then we shall describe its different parts, exterior and interior, including the nave, the screen, the choir, the transepts, and the cloisters.
The original structure was begun in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, the first bishop of the diocese. The portions he built comprise the choir, with the aisles surrounding it, the chapels of Jesus and St. ”

“ William Rede succeeded, he was buried in the convent church of Waborne priory; in 1373, William Godfrey succeeded. Afterwards John Clerk and Robert Miller; but for some centuries past there have been no vicars instituted, the lords of the manor holding the impropriation by lease from the church of Norwich, receive the whole tithes, and pay a stipend to the serving curate. The church is in the peculiar jurisdiction of the dean and chapter of Norwich, and pays no procurations, and only 8d. synodals to the Bishop. It is dedicated to all the Saints, stands in a field, no house near to it. ”

“ Mr. Martin Hood Wilkin, in his life of Joseph Kinghorn, gives the following account of the origin of the Baptist denomination. A General (Arminian) Baptist Church was formed in Norwich in 1686 by the learned and zealous Thomas Grantham. They purchased a part of the White Friars’ Priory in St. James’s, on the site of which they built the Meeting House now known as the Priory Yard Chapel. ”

“ In 1517, Cardinal Wolsey visited the city to mediate between the citizens and the monks, but their disputes were not finally settled till 1524, when the jurisdiction of the convent was ascertained and separated from that of the corporation until 1538, when they were converted into a dean and chapter.
On March 2nd, 1520, Queen Catherine and Cardinal Wolsey visited the city, and all the city companies went to meet the queen “in Puke and Dirke Tawney Liveries,” and the city presented her with 100 marks. ”

“ In 1608, John Ward was patron, who suffering a lapse, was by the bishop collated to it; and entry being made that the bishop had collated him in full right, it has ever since been supposed to be in the bishop’s patronage, and held by sequestration or license at the bishop’s nomination. During the cleaning of this Church in 1834, an ancient portrait of Edward the Confessor, painted on a panel, was found beneath one of the seats, where it is supposed to have been placed during the civil wars. The altar piece contains portraits of Moses and Aaron, and the church has an ancient font. ”

“ St. Mary (Hellesdon) stands just within the city boundary, part of the burial ground being in the county. The rectory is consolidated with Drayton. Rev. H. Howell, rector.
CHAPELS.
The Old Meeting House, Colegate street, was erected in 1693 by the Independents, a congregation of which body had existed in Norwich since the Commonwealth. They had originally assembled in a brewery in St. Edmund’s, and afterwards in the “west granary” of St. Andrew’s Hall. The Old Meeting is built of red brick, fronted with four Corinthian pilasters. The Rev. John Hallett is the minister. ”

“ This arose from its being the capital of East Anglia, and the residence of so many of the clergy and gentry. Mr. Woodward pointed out the sites of some of the old monasteries in this period. The Bishop’s palace was then within the precincts of the close. Besides the monastery there, and that of St. Leonard’s, there were then several others in Norwich. In King Street, to the south of St. Faith’s Lane, were the Austin Friars, and to the north of Rose Lane the Grey Friars. ”

“ The church is dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle, and had a gild kept in it to his honour; it was a rectory till 1204, and then John de Grey Bishop of Norwich, after the decease of Roger Luvel, then rector, appropriated it to the sacrist of the cathedral, reserving a pension of 2s. per annum to the celerer, and the patronage of the vicarage to the prior and convent, and all episcopal and parochial jurisdiction, to himself and successours, so that it became exempt from all archidiaconal jurisdiction, and paid neither synodals, procurations, nor Peter pence; and only 3d. ”

“ If, in giving an account of the state of society in the middle ages, we were to omit from our enumeration of causes the vast influence of the clergy of the church of Rome, we should present a very imperfect view of the subject. The priests dominated over the p. 195minds of men for many centuries, and their influence either for good or evil pervaded all classes of society. This influence caused the erection of monasteries, nunneries, priories, and friaries, nineteen in number, in Norwich before the 16th century. Monastic institutions were originally beneficial to society. ”

“ In the walling of the semicircle of the cathedral apse at Norwich there still remains the bishop's throne and portions of the seats of his clergy. And since Norwich cathedral is not orientated to the west, but to the east, it follows that the people faced east and the bishop and clergy west; it is hardly conceivable, however, that the celebrant can have faced west. Such a disposition can never have been but rare. ”

“ There is no chancel arch, but the rood stair turret still remains on the south side; and under the east window, externally, are some good niches and panels. A beautiful carved stone reredos was erected in 1850 by subscription in memory of the late Rev. James Brown, B.D., who was the esteemed incumbent of this parish from 1807 to 1856. The benefice is a perpetual curacy valued in 1831 at £90, and augmented from 1756 to 1786 with £800 of Queen Anne’s bounty, and with a grant of £600 in 1815. The church estate is let in long leases, for £22 16s. yearly. The parishioners are the patrons. ”

“ In Norfolk and Norwich the clergy were quite as ignorant of Scripture. They practised all kinds of impositions on the people who were debased by superstition, immorality, and vice. There was over all the land a p. 243darkness which might be felt. The people had no bibles nor testaments, and the prayers of the church were all in Latin, and of course the people could not understand them. There was scarcely any preaching at all, but instead thereof profane miracle plays were performed in the cathedral, and were paid for like any other dramatic performance. ”

“ Wren, Mainwaring, Corbet, Montague, and other like-minded bishops set themselves vigorously to enforce the Archbishop’s plans, esteeming the discipline and doctrine of the Church more valuable than the popularity which their firmness forfeited. Norwich presented an especial difficulty to the Bishop in the great number of weavers and other workmen who had taken refuge there from the Low Countries in times of persecution, and who still kept up their schismatic services. ”

“ Our Anthony being doctor of divinity of Oxford, Dean of Lincoln, and an old courtier and retainer at the court of Rome, having been some years a clerk there, was by the Pope's mandate made Bishop of Norwich, April 7, 1337, and had his temporalities restored by the King July 9. ”

“ Bishop Nykke died in 1535-6, and was succeeded by William Rupgg or Repes, who was the last bishop elected by the chapter of the monks of the Benedictine monastery of Norwich. Monasticism was doomed; Wolsey had fallen, and his property had been confiscated in 1529. The smaller monasteries were dissolved in 1536, and in 1538 the greater shared the same fate, among them Norwich. ”