Diocese of Worcester

“ Then and there before the altar he vowed that from that time forth he would never taste meat; and he remained a vegetarian all the days of his life, except on festivals, when he regaled on fish. What was a fast to others was a luxury to him [104] .” On the translation of Aldred to the see of York, Wulfstan became Bishop of Worcester. “In right of his authority over the diocese of Worcester, Aldred took away from it twelve vills, and appropriated them to York. As that Archbishop had only a life-interest in the see, it is clear that these estates ought to have been restored to it at his decease. ”

“ A table of the Whitsun farthings payable in every parish in the diocese of Worcester is given by Dr. Nash in his "History of Worcestershire," vol. i. The clerk's wages in 1690 amounted to £2. 4s. 8d.; the sexton's, 18s.; and the ringers seemed to have had a perpetual license to make as much noise as they liked, and on all occasions, however contradictory: for instance ”

“ Yet Wroxall is by far the worst case of any nunnery in the Worcester diocese, so far as extant visits are concerned. Its character was remarkably good on the eve of its suppression. Henry VIII.’s own Commissioners of 1536, six in number, reported that the nuns then numbered five with the prioress, and were all “off good converssacion and lyvyng, and all desyer yf the house be suppressed to be sent to other religious houses.” ”

“ An account of this synod, drawn up by Wulfstan himself, is printed in the Anglia Sacra. The Dean of Chichester thus translates the commencement:—“I, Wulfstan, by the grace of God Bishop of Worcester, determined to hold a synod in the Minster of St. Mary’s, in the crypt of the church, which I built from the foundations, and by the mercy of God afterwards consecrated. This synod was held in the year of our Lord 1092, the fifteenth indiction. There were assembled all the wisest men invited from the three shires in our diocese, Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick ”

“ At Worcester in 1778 he founded a society for the relief of distressed widows and orphans of clergymen in connection with the festival of the Three Choirs, and organised other clerical charities (Green, Worcester, i. 217; Smith and Onslow, Dioc. of Worc., p. 337) . As Bishop of Winchester he improved Farnham Park, and in 1817 spent over 6,000l. on the castle. In his time (1818) 40,000l. was laid out rather injudiciously on the restoration of the cathedral; and from 1800 to 1820 about twenty new churches were consecrated in his diocese. ”

“ If his arms await her, she will not have far to go, nor many dangers to face. Her lover will know how to guard his own."
"My lord," said the Prioress, now flushed with anger, "you amaze me! Am I to understand that you would have me open the Convent door, so that a renegade nun may escape to her lover? Or perhaps, my lord, it would better meet your ideas if I bid the porteress stand wide the great gates, so that this high-spirited Knight may ride in and carry off the nun he desires, in sight of all! My Lord Bishop! You rule in Worcester and in the cities of the diocese. ”

“ Dr. Stubbs suggests that this sub-king of the Hwiccas may possibly be the same as Osric of Northumbria, v. V, 23, and note. 700. The see was at Worcester. The foundation of the bishopric is assigned by Florence of Worcester to the year 679, the date of the alleged fivefold division of the Mercian diocese (v.s. p. 272, note 2) , Bosel being appointed bishop. 701. Cf. c. 12 and note. 702. The consecration of Oftfor is generally placed in 691. It was after Wilfrid's second expulsion, when he was acting as Bishop of Leicester. ”

“ As she stood in the dawn light, overcome with sleep, yet unwilling to leave her vigil at the shrine, she remembered the example of this greatly revered Bishop of Worcester, "a man of great piety and dovelike simplicity, one beloved of God, and of the people whom he ruled in all things," dead just over a hundred years, yet ever living in the memory of all. ”

“ The Worcester Board of Guardians have not availed themselves of the power conferred by this Act, for under the Parochial Assessment Act not a single parish of this city has hitherto been mapped and valued, until now that All Saints' is under contract for that purpose. The Guardians have not felt it necessary to do so, as no churchwardens or overseers have yet (1855) called upon them to exercise their powers ”

“ In Worcester Cathedral stood the shrine of St. Wulfstan, the last of the English bishops, the saint who had preserved the glory of the old English Church in the days of the Confessor, and carried it on through the troubled time of the Conquest, to whose supernatural resources the Conqueror himself had been forced to yield, and who had since by ever-ready miracle defended his city of Worcester from danger. On this shrine the king and Queen now laid their crowns, with a solemn vow never again to wear them. ”

“ The Bishop of Hereford likewise kept a champion in his suite, who received regular wages; and when Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, laid claim to the chase on the western slopes of the Malvern range, the Bishop's representative was prepared to do battle in the lists if need were; but a jury, composed of men drawn from the counties [Pg 148] of Worcester and Hereford, decided in favour of the church, and a trench of separation between the two possessions was made by the disappointed Earl along the ridge of the hill, where it remains a memorial of the contest to the present day. ”

“ The bishop of Worcester lived and died in Rome, and his predecessor and successor in the see were also foreigners.
No less detrimental to the well-being of the Church in England at this time was the crying abuse and scandal of pluralities. Some priests were proved to have as many as ten or twelve benefices, and very possibly resident on none, while there were "plenty of learned men in the universities " [9] for whom no preferment could be found. Cardinal Wolsey himself set the example. He held not only a plurality of livings, but was bishop of more than one see, whilst he farmed others. ”

“ In the Castle Morton parish register is an entry of such payment at the commencement of the present century. Nash states that the Whitsun farthings belonging to the Cathedral of Worcester in 1649, when an act was passed for selling the lands, &c., of bishops, deans, and chapters, were estimated at about £5. 5s. per annum. He also gives a list of the amount due from each parish in the then nine deaneries. The share paid by the city of Worcester was 15s. 2-1/2d.
The present rector of St. Helen's is the Rev. J. H. Wilding; churchwardens, Mr. Woods and Mr. T. Bickley. Population in 1851, 1368. ”

“ ABLE TO ENDURE Back to Worcester rode the Bishop.
Gallop! Gallop! along the grassy rides, beside the hard highway.
Hasten good Shulamite, black and comely still, though flecked with foam.
Important work lies ahead. Every moment is precious.
If Mother Sub-Prioress should send to the Palace, mischief will be done, which it will not be easy to repair. ”

“ Aldred [q. v.] , archbishop of York, having been forced by the pope to promise to resign the see of Worcester, two legates who were in England in 1062 visited Worcester and exhorted the clergy and people to choose Wulfstan as their bishop, and, having secured his election there, attended the Easter meeting of the witan and proposed his election by the assembly. Many spoke in his favour, and all approved ”

“ But Wulstan bishop of Worcester, with a large military force, prevented the earl of Hereford from crossing the Severn and joining earl Ralph with his army at the appointed place, and the bishop was joined by Aegelwin abbot of Evesham, with his men, and summoned to his aid Urse, the sheriff of Worcester, and Walter de Lacy, with their forces, and a large company of the people. ”

“ But it is important to observe that the church of Worcester showed another charter for the five hides at Esig in Gloucestershire, viz. B. C. S. 487, a grant of King Burgred in the next century, A.D. 855. This is somewhat inconsistent with the grant of King Offa c. A.D. 775.
We cannot, therefore, regard this charter (B. C. S. 226) as affording any solid evidence of the existence of St Mary's church in the eighth century. It is almost certainly a forgery based on B. C. S. 210.
VI
B.C.S. 231. Offa and Aldred to St Mary's. Geate. n.d. ”

“ I became a member of his parish in Worcester in August, 1849. Wherever I have been, or wherever he has been, I have been his parishioner ever since. I do not undertake to speak of him at length not only because he is alive, but because his countrymen know him through and through, almost as well as I do.
He has done work of the first quality in a great variety of fields. In each he has done work enough to fill the life and to fill the measure of fame of a busy and successful man. I have learned of him the great virtue of Hope; to judge of mankind by their merits and not their faults ”

“ We humbly desier that wee may not bee constrayned to goe to any other parish or chappell for the causes aforesaid, and in regard it hath cure of sowles and wee are at least fower and ffortie familyes, poore, aged, and weake people, and the soyle very hilley and durtie in the winter tyme and the out side of Worcester Shire and dioces, and remote from Thornebury aforesayd, which is in the county and dioces of Hereford, or any other church in the county or dioces of Worcester. ”

“ Very great men think it no shame to beg boons from the church. Already before 750 the bishop of Worcester has granted five manses to ‘Comes Leppa’ for lives [1052] ; before the century is out the abbot of Medeshamstead has granted ten manses to the ‘princeps’ Cuthbert for lives [1053] . In 855 the bishop of Worcester gives eleven manses to the ealdorman of the Mercians and his wife for their lives [1054] ; in 904 a successor of his makes a similar gift [1055] . But we have seen that the king himself was not above taking a loan from the church. ”

“ In 1404 the Gild of the Holy Trinity was established in Worcester by Henry IV. The chantry which had been founded in the reign of Edward III. was slightly altered from its original purpose; a perpetual chantry of three monks was appointed to sing masses for the soul of Henry, while the priest of the original foundation was required to assist the parson and curator of the parish church, “because it doth abound in houseling people,” as well as to sing mass at his own altar. ”

“ The Bishop of Worcester not only brings the lovers together but in so doing voices the following sentiment: “Methinks these nunneries would serve a better purpose were they schools from which to send women forth into the world to be good wives and mothers, rather than storehouses filled with sad samples of nature’s great purposes deliberately unfulfilled.” The setting and atmosphere are true to the twelfth century. ”

“ The truth is, that the former endeavoured after their own aggrandizement in every possible way, but had no inherent right of exemption from the fact of their being lords of parliament, or being invested with the mitre. Thus it appears from Dugd. Monast. that Gloucester, Winchcomb, and Tewkesbury were subject to the visitation and jurisdiction of the bishop of Worcester, till the Reformation; Croyland, Peterborough, Bardney, and Ramsey to the bishop of Lincoln; St. Mary in York, and Selby, to the archbishop of York, and Coventry to the bishop of Lichfield. ”

“ It is a delight to see it grow and a greater delight to help it grow,—to help improve its schools, and found its Public Library, and help lay the foundations of great institutions of learning. Worcester had an admirable Bar, admirable clergymen, and physicians of great skill and eminence. Among her clergymen was Edward Everett Hale, then in early youth, but already famous as a preacher throughout the country. There was no Unitarian pulpit where he was not gladly welcomed. So his congregation here, by way of exchange, heard the most famous pulpit orators of the country. ”

“ When we consider that the clergy held the third part of the soil of France and exacted a tithe of the produce of the rest, affecting to call this tithe a free-will offering, while they prosecuted forty thousand lawsuits to enforce it, we can see that the crash must come, and can understand why Church and State domination must go down together.
"During the eighteenth century men were speculating on religion, government, and society in a more daring way than they had ever speculated on so great a scale before. ”

“ It is not so valuable for the architectural history of Worcester as the Annales Ecclesiæ Wygorniensis, which will be found in the first volume of Wharton’s Anglia Sacra.
Professor Willis’s most valuable and elaborate “Architectural History of Worcester Cathedral” will be found in the twentieth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Institute. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for October, 1862, is printed Mr. Bloxam’s paper on the “Sepulchral Remains and Monuments” in the cathedral. ”

“ She had run to and fro in the dank darkness, beating first upon the door beneath the Convent cloisters, then upon the door, a mile away, leading into the Cathedral crypt.
But the nuns were shut into their cells, beyond the cloister; the good people of Worcester city slept peacefully, not dreaming of the despairing figure running to and fro beneath them—tottering, stumbling, falling, arising to fall again, yet hurrying blindly onwards ”

“ In 1552 he and Robert Johnson (d. 1559) [q. v.] , another canon of Worcester, refused to subscribe the articles of religion propounded by Bishop Hooper at his diocesan visitation, on the ground that they were neither catholic nor agreeable to the ancient doctrine. The two canons held a public disputation with Hooper and Harley, afterwards bishop of Hereford, and Hooper sent an account of the controversy to the privy council (Strype, Eccl. Memorials, ii. 534, folio; Life of Cranmer, pp. 218, 219, Appendix, p. 136, folio) . ”

“ This charter is one of those which come from the codicellus already spoken of: and it is plain that no weight can be attached to its evidence, either for monks or for St Mary's church at this period.
XII
B. C. S. 578 is a Canterbury memorandum to the effect that King Alfred gave certain lands at Rotherhithe to Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith. The words which concern us are: unum archiepiscopo Doroberniae Plegemundo et successoribus eius ad opus ecclesie Christi et monachorum: alterum vero Werefrido ad ecclesiam sanctae Mariae Wigoracensem. ”