Ely Cathedral

“ Nothing distracts the attention from the giant bulk of the Cathedral.
How shall we come into Ely? As archæologists, as pilgrims spiritually inclined and chanting a sursum corda as we go, or shall we be gross and earthly, scenting lamb and green peas, spring duckling and asparagus from afar, for all the world like our hearty grandfathers of the coaching age, to whom the great white-faced Lamb Inn, that is still the principal hostelry of this city, appealed with much more force than that great grey religious pile? ”

“ Edmund's Chapel.—Choir Stalls.—Presbytery.—Norman Piers.—Reredos.—Candlesticks.
The foregoing pages have taught us something of the history of Ely Cathedral, of the men and women who have loved it and worked for it; of those who have defaced and pillaged it; of the wars and revolutions that have surged around it. Now we propose to visit it, and to see for ourselves the very stones which, though silent, can speak to us; hoping to be favoured with a fine day, that we may be able to study the Minster advantageously from without as well as from within. ”

“ He would be a Goth who should fail to perceive the beauty of Ely Cathedral and of its like, but those noble aisles, those soaring towers tell a tale of an enslaved land, of fettered souls, of a priestcraft that sought to rule the State, as well as to hold the keys of Heaven and of Hell. No man, whether he be Pope, Archbishop, or merely the Boanerges of some hideous Bethel, has the right to enslave another's soul. ”

“ There is not the least tendency towards any features of the Perpendicular style. Without reckoning tombs and chapels, there is no structural work of distinct Perpendicular character to be seen at Ely Cathedral, except some remains of the cloisters, and the windows in the nave aisles and clerestory, and those in the upper parts of the great transept, and the large supporting arches which have been inserted beneath the Norman arches of the west tower. The triforium walls in the nave were raised in the fifteenth century, as those in the presbytery had 28been raised in the fourteenth. ”

“ Of each of the several periods of what is usually termed Pointed, or Gothic, Ely Cathedral possesses pure and perfect specimens: the Galilee, or western porch, and the Presbytery were built when the Early English style was perfected: the Octagon, the three bays of the stalled Choir, and the Lady Chapel, when the Decorated English prevailed: and the chapels of bishops Alcock and West when the Perpendicular style was adopted. ”

“ From the death of Bishop Barnet in 1373 to the suppression of the monasteries no Bishop of Ely is credited with having done anything towards the fabric of the cathedral except Bishop Gray (1454-1478) . Some of them were at variance with the prior and convent, and would be little inclined to spend money on the church. Those that had a taste for architecture displayed it in beautifying their palaces or manor-houses, or upon buildings connected with the universities or other places in which they had private interest. ”

“ There is no Cathedral in England which possesses finer examples of the various successive styles of ecclesiastical architecture [Pg 9] than that of Ely; affording excellent opportunities of judging of the comparative merits of each. The Norman portion of the building—the Nave and Transept—is lighter in character than earlier examples of the same style; indeed, in many places it bears marks of transition from the round to the pointed style. ”

“ The shopkeepers (who surely keep shop for fun) come to their doors and yawn, and regard the stray customer with severity; the Divinity students yawn, and the Dean and the Cathedral staff yawn horribly at the service they have gone through so many times and know by heart. The only place where they don't yawn is the railway station, down below by the Ouse, by whose [Pg 258] banks you get quite the finest near view of the Cathedral. Ely, in short, lives chiefly by and on the Cathedral. If there had never been a cathedral here, it would have been a village the size of Stretham. ”

“ Before proceeding further the visitor should pause, and observe the great length of the Cathedral, the noble appearance of the lofty arches, and the sublime grandeur of the whole. When we look around and see the lofty Tower with its decorated ceiling above; on the right, the south-west Transept, rich in the extreme with its several arcades of plain, intersecting, and trifoliated arches; and in front, through the long vista of the Nave, the noble Octagon, and the enriched Choir, to the extreme end of the church, we cannot but pause and admire the skill of man shewn in such a work ”

“ Etheldreda founded a monastery in the seventh century, which ultimately became a cathedral, Ely having been given a bishop in 1109. The present buildings date all the way from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, so that they give specimens of all Gothic styles. The cathedral is five hundred and thirty-seven feet long, and from the summit of its western tower can be gained a fine view of the spreading fens and lowlands of Cambridgeshire, amid which stands the Isle of Ely. ”

“ To all persons, therefore, who take an interest in Ely Cathedral on Diocesan or any other grounds, an appeal is now made, and they are respectfully urged to make one final effort for the purpose of completing a work which has been so well begun, and hitherto so prosperously carried out. ”

“ He prays best whose prayers are an interlude of toil; and so, when we read Cobbett's long account of the wretched condition of Ely Cathedral, of its "disgraceful irrepair and disfigurement," and of the two [Pg 260] old men who on a week-day afternoon formed the whole of the congregation, coupled with his regretful surmise that in Catholic times five thousand people would have been assembled here, we are apt to think that sparse congregation a very healthy sign, and that even those two old men would have been better employed out in the workaday world. ”

“ The lighter style of architecture and the large windows of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made the support of buttresses necessary, in this instance they are deep, and surmounted by crocketed pinnacles; on the sides of many of them are gargoyles, or water-spouts of grotesque figures; flying buttresses are sometimes used in addition, reaching from the side buttresses to the clerestory walls, thus forming an important addition to the support as well as to the external beauty of the fabric: of this the exterior of the Choir of Ely Cathedral is a splendid proof. ”

“ Many dated examples belonging to later years in the century, which seem to indicate a steady growth from the simplest pointed lancets to the elaborately cusped arches which were themselves the prelude to the Geometric period, are adduced as evidence of the improbability of the Early English style having, so to say, grown suddenly to perfection at Ely. Numerous instances may, however, be found in other great minsters, where a similar difficulty has been encountered. The probable explanation is that the best artists and the most original designers belonged to the monastic or cathedral bodies. ”

“ We owe to the creation of this Bishopric the very existence of Ely Minster as it now stands; had it remained merely an abbey, instead of being also a cathedral, it would have perished at the Reformation, along with the yet greater church at Bury St. Edmund's not far away, and with many another sister abbey throughout the land. At Ely, too, we should see before us ruined arches open to the sky, beautiful indeed and pathetic, but no longer a centre of worship. To this day the Bishop of Ely sits in his cathedral not as Bishop but as Abbot ”

“ Few persons would dispute the statement that for external grandeur of effect the cathedral at Ely is surpassed only, if at all, in England by Durham and Lincoln. With the natural advantages of position enjoyed by those cathedrals Ely cannot compete. ”

“ Its style is in keeping with the adjacent architecture. The north portion of the western transept is entirely walled off. No documentary evidence has been discovered to decide if it had been actually built. The old tradition of the cathedral was that it had been finished by Bishop Eustace at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The Nave.—Originally of thirteen bays, but since the fall of the central tower of twelve bays, the nave is a most complete and perfect specimen of late Norman work. The naves of Ely and Peterborough are conspicuously the best examples of the period in England. ”

“ The cathedral is one of the largest and most remarkable in England, being altogether different in architecture from any other in the Kingdom. Instead of a spire, it has a huge, castellated, octagonal tower, and while it was several hundred years in building, a harmonious design was maintained throughout, although it exhibits in some degree almost every style of church architecture known in England. Ely is an inconsequential town of about seven thousand inhabitants and dominated from every point of view by the huge bulk of the cathedral. ”

“ As you stand in the centre of the octagon under the lantern you see eight spacious arches of two different widths, all springing from the same level and rising to the same height of eighty-five feet, the terminal arch of the Norman nave pointed like its opposite neighbour of the choir. Amongst Gothic churches the interior of Ely reigns unique and supreme, certainly in England if not in Europe. Wren was familiar with this cathedral, and even designed some restorations for it ”

“ The gay mass of moving color as the people swayed this way and that, the goodly brown soil, the living green of the earth,—how good it all was! He could look up and see, from where he stood, the stately tower of Ely and the smaller tower of the Lantern etched grandly against the sky. Beautiful as the proud Minster was, even as he looked at it, he felt that its power must wane from the moment that this new religion of the poor priests took firm hold of the people. The Cathedral stood for a religion of secluded cloisters, a standard of living for monks and priests ”

“ Introduction to Farren's "Cathedral Cities of Ely and Norwich."
[3] Population of Ely, 1891, was 6,646; of Wells, 5,899.
[4] Ely is almost universally called a city, upon the supposition that the mere fact of its having a cathedral constitutes the town a city. But since the Norman Conquest the dignity of a city has always been conferred by grant, and no such grant is known to have been made to Ely.
[5] An American visitor whom the writer was once conducting over Peterborough Cathedral observed, "This is a very large church for so small a place." ”

“ About the same time a spire of timber covered with lead was erected on the Tower.
We now come to the period in which the "two great and famous productions of the fourteenth century—the two special objects of pride which our Cathedral boasts—the Lady Chapel and the central Octagon, with the three adjoining bays eastward," [8] were erected; "each work is of the highest and of undisputed merit, and forms a most marked feature in the building;" [9] affording most admirable specimens of the Decorated English style. ”

“ This work of Bishop Northwold completed the plan of the cathedral as it now stands. The lady-chapel was indeed built afterwards, but that is to all intents and purposes a separate building. Nor is there any later thirteenth-century work in the church itself. The building operations of the second half of the century were confined to the domestic part of the monastery. As these were doubtless carried out by the convent from its own resources, there is little notice to be found of them in the records of the see. ”

“ South Aisle of the Choir.
The eastern portion of this aisle is occupied by the elegant mortuary Chapel of Bishop West, (1515-1534) , filling the space of one bay in a similar way to that of Bishop Alcock in the north aisle. It is a rich specimen of that gorgeous style by some called the "Florid English," by others the "Perpendicular," but when that style was verging into "Renaissance." The niches and canopies are very numerous, and almost endless in variety of size, shape, and decoration. There are places for upwards of two hundred statues, large and small ”

“ The Bishop does not care to stay long in this place, not being good for his health; he is Lord of all the island, has the command and ye jurisdiction.... There is a good palace for the Bishop built, but it was unfurnished. There are two Churches. Ely Minster is a curious pile of building all of stone, the outside full of Carvings and great arches, and fine pillars in the front, and the inside has the greatest variety and neatness in the works. ”

“ The mitred figure of the bishop is on an altar-tomb beneath a richly groined roof, and a space is left at the feet, where a priest might stand to pray for the soul of the deceased prelate.9 There are grand canopies on the sides, with crockets and coloured shields bearing emblems of the Crucifixion, the arms of the See of Ely and of S. Asaph, where Bishop Redman was at first; but the arms of the See of Exeter, from which diocese he came to Ely, as now used, are not to be seen. Above the roof is fine open screen-work, and against the adjoining piers, east and west, are large canopied niches. ”

“ The pope required him to dedicate his eldest son to the religious life in some monastery which he was liberally to endow, and to bestow largely of his substance to the relief of the poor. His son Edelmor was accordingly devoted to the service of God at Ely, and very large estates were assigned by Leofwin to the monastery. He further improved the church, rebuilding and enlarging the south aisle, and joining it to the rest of the building ”