WORCESTER was one of five episcopal dioceses into which the great Mercian province was divided during the archiepiscopate of Theodorus of Canterbury, (A.D.668-690). Peada, son of the fierce heathen Penda of Mercia, and son-in-law of the Christian Oswi of Northumbria, had established the first Mercian see at Lichfield (see that Cathedral, Pt. II.) about the year 653. Mercia then comprised not only the whole of central England, but the greater part of Lincolnshire; and in accordance with a design expressed at the Council of Hertford, (673,) but not then carried into execution, Archbishop Theodorus divided the unwieldy diocese, which must still have contained a vast number of heathen, into five. The original see remained atLichfield. The see ofHerefordwas established in 676, those ofWorcesterandLeicesterin 680, and that ofLindisse, orLindsey, in 678. The two latter, Leicester and Lindsey, were afterwards incorporated in the great diocese of Lincoln. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.680-961.] Worcester, (Wigornaceaster,) a “ceaster” or stronghold of the Hwiccas, who occupied Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, had possibly been a Roman station, (although this is uncertain,) and was at all events situated on the line of a Roman road—a matter of no small importance to the earlier Saxon bishops, who, like the Saxon kings, were perpetually moving from manor to manor throughout their diocese[97]. A priest named Tatfrid,—“vir strenuissimus et doctissimus, atque excellentis ingenii[98],”—belonging to the monastery founded by St. Hilda at Whitby (Streaneshalch), had been chosen by Archbishop Theodore to be the first Bishop of Worcester; but he died before his consecration; andBosel, of whose history nothing is known, was consecrated to the new see,A.D.680. Before his death he became disabled by illness, (corporis infirmitate depressus,) andOftforwas consecrated as his coadjutor and successor by Wilfrid of York, who was at that time directing the ecclesiastical affairs of Sussex and of Kent[99]. Oftfor, like Tatfrid, had belonged to St. Hilda’s monastery, but had gone for the sake of study, first to Archbishop Theodore at Canterbury, and thence to Rome. On his return he “turned aside to the province of the Hwiccas, and remained there a long time, preaching the word of faith, and affording a pattern of life to all who saw and heard him[100].” He held the bishopric for one year only. In 693 he was succeeded byEgwin, the founder of the monastery at Evesham. Egwin died in 717. Of his successors,Werefrith(873-915) was a man of considerable learning, a friend and assistant of King Alfred, by whose direction he translated into Saxon the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. St.Dunstanheld the see of Worcester between the years 957 and 961.[A.D.961-992.]Oswald, the successor of Dunstan, the founder of the monastery, and one of the patron saints of Worcester, is best known from his unceasing patronage ofthe monks, in opposition to the secular clergy. Oswald, the son of Danish parents of high rank, was the nephew of Odo, the predecessor of Dunstan in the see of Canterbury; and was appointed by King Edgar to the see of Worcester at the request of Dunstan himself, with whose zeal for the monastic cause Oswald (who had passed some of the earlier years of his life in the famous monastery of Fleury) more than sympathized. In 972 Oswald became Archbishop of York, which see he held, together with Worcester, until his death in 992—in the same manner as Dunstan had held the sees of London and Worcester together, before his elevation to the primacy. Little is recorded “of what he did at York, although he presided over that see for twenty years. There was no Northern writer to speak of what he effected in Northumbria[101].” The condition of the province, “seamed and scarred” by the struggles of the native princes, and by Danish incursions, may have prevented him from working there. But at Worcester, and throughout the south, Oswald was active as a great ecclesiastical reformer. He was powerful enough to remodel the monasteries of Ely and St. Albans. The Church of Worcester had hitherto been served by secular canons. These Oswald determined to replace by Benedictine monks; “and succeeded by the following artifice. Having erected in its vicinity a new church to the honour of the Virgin Mary, he intrusted it to the care of a community of monks, and frequented it himself for the solemn celebration of mass. The presence of the Bishop attracted that of the people; the ancient clergy saw their church gradually abandoned; and after some delay, Wensine, their dean, a man advanced in years and of unblemished character, took the monastic habit, and was advanced three years later to the office of prior. The influence of his example, and the honour of his promotion, held out a strong temptation to his brethren, till atlast the number of canons was so diminished by repeated desertions, that the most wealthy of the churches of Mercia became without dispute or violence, by the very act of its old possessors, a monastery of Benedictine monks[102].” Oswald is said to have introduced monks in the room of secular clergy, in six other churches of his diocese; and charges of extreme tyranny and arrogance have been brought against him in consequence. But there is every reason to believe that a severe ecclesiastical reform was necessary; and there is proof that the eviction of the canons from Worcester was very gradual, and was not completed in Oswald’s lifetime. It is also certain that, although he held the archbishopric of York during twenty years, “we we do not read that he introduced a single colony of monks, or changed the constitution of a single clerical establishment, within that diocese[103].”The church and monastery of St. Mary, built by Oswald, were on the site of the existing cathedral, and were pulled down by Wulfstan to make way for his new minster. (Seepost,Wulfstan.) During the construction of St. Oswald’s monastery, says Eadmer, one large squared block of stone became all at once immoveable, and in spite of the exertions of the workmen, could not be brought to the place prepared for it. St. Oswald, after praying earnestly, beheld “Ethiopem quendam” sitting upon the stone, and mocking the builders. The sign of the cross removed him effectually.A life of St. Oswald, by Eadmer of Canterbury, will be found in Wharton’sAnglia Sacra, vol. ii. This, however, is a compilation from a far more important life by an unknown monk of Ramsey, written within twenty or thirtyyears after Oswald’s death, and hitherto unprinted. This life (of which there is a MS. in the British Museum, MSS. Cotton, Nero, E. 1) is quoted among Mr. Raine’s numerous authorities for the very interesting life of St. Oswald contained in his “Lives of the Archbishops of York.” (London, 1863.) Oswald died at Worcester, and was interred in his own church there. His relics were translated, and placed in a rich shrine, by Aldulf, his successor in both sees. The portiphor of St. Oswald is still preserved in the library of C.C.C., Cambridge.The two immediate successors of Oswald, Aldulf and Wulfstan I., held the see of York together with that of Worcester, probably because, Northumbria being ravaged by the Danes, the possession of the southern bishopric was found to be necessary for the maintenance of the northern primate. Wulfstan succeeded in 1003, and died in 1023. In 1016, seven years before his death,Leofsinwas appointed to the bishopric of Worcester; Wulfstan retaining York.[A.D.992-1062.] Between the death of Oswald and the accession of Wulfstan II., the only remarkable bishops of Worcester wereLiving, the friend and minister of Canute, who held the see of Worcester together with that of Crediton; andAldred, his successor, who was translated to York in 1061, and as archbishop of that see crowned successively both Harold and the Conqueror. In 1062 Edward the Confessor made a grant to Aldred of the church of Worcester, on account of the desolate condition of the see of York. The grant was, however, personal, and not in perpetuity; and Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester only remained a suffragan of York until the death of Aldred. The deed is to be found in Thomas’s “Worcester,” Appendix I.[A.D.1062-1095.]WulfstanII., the founder of the existing cathedral, and the great patron saint of Worcester. Wulfstan was born at Long Itchinton, in Warwickshire. Both his father and mother had embraced monasticism inmature life; and their son, after having been educated in the great monastery of Peterborough, became himself a monk at Worcester, and, eventually, the prior of his convent. “An anecdote must be referred to this period, which is valuable, because it is characteristic of the man and of his times. Wulfstan enjoyed the pleasures of the table, and had a particular liking for roast goose. Boiled meats were generally placed on an Anglo-Saxon table; therefore special directions were to be given when anything roast or fried was to be prepared. The order was given by Wulfstan that a roast goose was to be prepared for his dinner. He then went about his ordinary business. There were many clients of the Bishop to whom he had to pay attention, and he was involved in secular duties. He had not broken his fast when he was called upon to officiate at the Mass. In due time he enters the church extremely hungry; he passes into the chancel, near to which, unfortunately, the kitchen is placed. A whiff of goose soon affects his olfactory nerves; the savour interferes with his devotions; his thoughts wander to his dinner, (studio culinæ tenetur); his conscience reproaches him. His resolution is immediately formed. 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. When he died, however, (1069,) they passed with his other estates into the hands of the King. Wulfstan was not disposed to give them up. He desired that theyshould be restored at the Council of Winchester, at Easter, 1070; but as the archbishopric of York was then vacant, the consideration of the question was deferred. When Thomas (the new Archbishop of York) went to Rome for the pall, he claimed the Bishop of Worcester as a suffragan. This question was left by the Pope to the determination of Lanfranc. It was settled in a synod which was held in 1072. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, was on the side of Thomas, but Lanfranc decided against him. The twelve vills were to be given up, and Worcester was for the future to be subordinated to Canterbury, and not to York. In this judgment Thomas seems to have quietly acquiesced[105].” Lanfranc, however, looked with extreme doubt and jealousy on the Saxon clergy; and at the synod of Pedrede (Petherton in Somersetshire) in 1070, he charged Wulfstan with “insufficiency and want of learning,” intending to remove him from his see, as Egelmar had been deposed from the East Anglian bishopric in the early part of the same year. But Wulfstan’s competency was fully proved[106], and it is possible that the whole charge against him may have arisen from his ignorance of Norman-French. A later legend (first mentioned by Ailred of Rievaulx, who did not live till the next century) asserted that when Wulfstan was called upon to deliver up his pastoral staff, he refused to do so, unless to the Confessor, from whom he had received it; that he laid the staff accordingly on the Confessor’s tomb, which opened to receive it; and that no one could withdraw the staff from the tomb but Wulfstan himself, who was of course permitted to retain his see.The simplicity, earnestness, and incessant labour of Wulfstan’s pastoral life—“vir magnæ pietatis et columbinæ simplicitatis,” says Malmesbury—are borne witness to by all the chroniclers; and especially by William of Malmesbury, in hisGesta Pontificum, and in his Life of Wulfstan. On his episcopal manors he built no halls or “dining chambers,” giving his whole attention to more important matters, and even in the churches which he built, he disapproved of rich and elaborate ornamentation[107]. The church and monastery of St. Oswald proved too small for the increasing number of monks. Wulfstan pulled them down, and laid the foundations of the existing cathedral. He lived, apparently, to complete much of his work; but all that now remains of his cathedral is the crypt. (Pt. I. §XXII.) Whilst witnessing the destruction of Oswald’s church, Wulfstan burst into tears, declaring that he was pulling down the work of a far holier man than himself—a church in which so many saints had served God[108].In the year 1088, the Norman barons who had risen to support the cause of Robert of Normandy against the Red King, attacked Worcester. “The venerable Bishop Wulfstan,” says the Saxon Chronicle, “was sorely troubled in his mind, because the castle had been committed to his keeping. Nevertheless, the men of his household went out with a few men from the castle, and through God’s mercy, and through the Bishop’s deserts, slew and captured five hundred men, and put all the others to flight[109].” Wulfstan died, at a great age, in 1095, and was interred in his new cathedral. He was unquestionably one of the best and worthiest of the later Saxon bishops. The fullest and most important life of Wulfstan is that by William of Malmesbury, printed in the second volume of Wharton’sAnglia Sacra. A very interesting notice of his “Life and Times,” by the Dean of Chichester, will be found in the twentieth volume of the Archæological Journal.Early in 1201, miracles were reported at the tomb of Wulfstan[110]. They continued throughout the year, fifteen or sixteen persons being healed daily, as it was asserted. On St. Giles’s Day, (Sept. 1,) 1202, Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury came, with other bishops, to Worcester, to enquire into the truth of the reported miracles. Certain monks of Worcester went to Rome with their report; and in the following year (1203) St. Wulfstan was duly canonized by the Pope, Innocent III. King John more than once performed his devotions, and made his offerings, before the shrine of the new saint; and in the hour of his death at Newark (October, 1216,) he commended his body and soul to “God and to St. Wulfstan.” He was buried in the cathedral. In 1218 the restored church (see Pt. I. §I.)was dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St. Peter, and of the Confessors Oswald and Wulfstan; and the relics of St. Wulfstan were translated into a new shrine. Miracles are again frequently recorded. Edward I. entertained a “special affection” for St. Wulfstan; and, besides many other visits, came to worship before his shrine in December, 1273, after the conquest of Wales[111]. The shrine of St. Wulfstan was placed, together with that of St. Oswald, in front of the high altar, one on either side. (See Pt. I. §IX.)[A.D.1096-1112.]Samson, a canon of Bayeux, succeeded Wulfstan; “non parvæ literaturæ vir,” says Malmesbury, “nec contemnendæ facundiæ; antiquorum homo morum; ipse liberaliter vesci, et aliis dapsiliter largiri[112].” His elder brother, Thomas, was Archbishop of York; and a son of Bishop Samson (at what time born is not evident) became also Archbishop of York in 1109, during his father’s lifetime. Another son, Richard, was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1133.[A.D.1112-1123.]Theulf; also a canon of Bayeux, and Chaplain to Henry I.[A.D.1125-1150.]Simon, Chaplain and Chancellor to Adelais, queen of Henry I. “Affabilitate et morum dulcedine munificentiaque (quoad res Episcopatus angustæ pati possent) insignem habitum[113].”[A.D.1151-1158.]John de Pageham; died at Rome.[A.D.1158-1160.]Alfred, Chaplain of Henry II. For four years the see remained vacant.[A.D.1164-1179.]Roger Fitz Count, a natural son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, himself son of Henry I. The piety and strict life of Bishop Roger are praised byGiraldus Cambrensis. He was the friend and steady supporter of Becket; and was chosen by Henry II., after the death of the Archbishop, to convey to Pope Alexander II. the King’s assurance that he had neither encouraged nor directed the murder. The Bishop died at Tours, August 9, 1179, on his homeward journey from Rome.[A.D.1180, translated to Canterbury 1185.]Baldwin, the preacher of the Crusade; who died (Dec., 1190,) in the camp of Cœur de Lion before Acre. (SeeCanterbury Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1186-1190]William Northall, Archdeacon of Gloucester.[A.D.1191-1193]Robert Fitz Ralph, Canon of Lincoln, and Archdeacon of Nottingham. Son of William Fitz Ralph, Seneschall of Normandy.[A.D.1193-1195]Henry de Soilli, Abbot of Glastonbury; from which great monastery he was removed, to make way for Savaricus, who held it together with the bishopric of Bath and Wells. (SeeWells Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1196-1198]John of Coutances, Dean of Rouen: “cujus sanctitatis refulgent insignia. Nam corpus ejus sacrum cum indumentis Pontificalibus, usque hodie manet integrum et incorruptum[114].”[A.D.1200-1212]Mauger, Archdeacon of Evreux, and physician of Richard I. His election had been declared void by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the score of his illegitimacy. But Mauger proceeded to Rome; and the Pope, Innocent III., “videns elegantiam tanti viri,” confirmed his election, “et illud pulchrum Decretale pro eo composuit quod sic incipit ‘Innotuit[115].’”It was during Mauger’s episcopate that St. Wulfstan was canonized. (See Pt. I. §§I.andVII.) He was one of the bishops who, in1208, pronounced the Interdict and the excommunication of King John; and, with the others, took refuge in France; where he died (1212) in the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, the same which gave a refuge to Becket and to Stephen Langton, and in which Edmund Rich, the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards (1240) died. The death of Bishop Mauger occurred before the reconciliation of England with the Papacy.[A.D.1214, translated to York 1215.]Walter de Gray, was appointed to the see of Worcester after the removal of the Interdict. He had been King John’s Chancellor.[A.D.1216-1218.]Silvester of Evesham, Prior of Worcester. He interred King John; and shortly before his death he dedicated the Norman church, which had been restored, and translated the relics of St. Wulfstan. (Pt. I. §I.; andante,Wulfstan.)[A.D.1218-1236.]William de Blois, Archdeacon of Buckingham, was intruded by the Legate Guala, in spite of the protests of the monks, who afterwards consented to receive him. The eastern portion of the existing Cathedral was built during his episcopate. (Pt. I. §XIV.)[A.D.1237-1266.]Walter Cantilupe, son of William, Lord Cantilupe; uncle of the sainted Bishop of Hereford. He was ordained deacon by the Pope at Viterbo, April 4; priest, April 18; and consecrated bishop, May 3,—in the same year, 1237. Bishop Walter was one of the most vigorous defenders of English liberty during great part of the reign of Henry III., when “England was held by successive Popes as a province of the Papal territory[116].” In 1237, the year of his consecration, he opposed the Cardinal Legate, Otho, at a council in St. Paul’s; and nearly twenty years afterwards, in 1255, made an equally firm stand against another Legate, Rustand, who had demanded an enormous subsidy from the clergy—nominally for theHoly Land, but really for the Pope and the King. Bishop Cantilupe declared he would rather be hanged on a gibbet than consent to such an extortion. He was one of the firmest adherents to the party of Simon de Montfort; and it was this Bishop who absolved the whole army of the Barons as it lay at Fletching, on the morning of the battle of Lewes;—bidding them fight boldly, and with as much certainty of salvation as if they were fighting in a crusade. With the other bishops who had espoused this cause, Cantilupe was excommunicated by the Pope; and was only reconciled and absolved on his deathbed. He died at his manor of Blocklewe, Feb. 12, 1265, and was interred before the high altar of his cathedral. His coffin-lid, with effigy, is now in the retro-choir, (Pt. I. §XVI.); and the coffin containing, in all probability, his remains was discovered during the late restoration. (Pt. I. §XVI.)[A.D.1266, trans. to Winchester 1268.]Nicholas, Archdeacon of Ely; Chancellor of England 1260, 1261; and again, 1263.[A.D.1268-1301.]Godfrey Giffard, Archdeacon of Wells; Chancellor of England 1267-1269. He was the brother of Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York; and was related to the King, Henry III. Bishop Giffard, in the year of his consecration, obtained a licence to build (ædificare) the castle of Hartlebury—which has ever since been the principal palace of the bishops of Worcester. The tomb of Bishop Giffard remains in the south choir-aisle. (Pt. I. §XIII.) He had constructed a tomb for himself, in his lifetime, “prope magnum altare, supra B. Oswaldi feretrum,” and had disturbed the remains of Bishop John of Coutances in preparing it: but Archbishop Winchelsea ordered the bones of Bishop John to be replaced in their old position; and Bishop Giffard’s were removed to the place they now occupy. According to Wharton, the Romanists after the Reformation took Bishop Giffard’s tomb and effigy for those of St. Wulfstan; and used tovisit it “magna cum religione” on St. Wulfstan’s Day, Jan. 19[117].[A.D.1302-1307.]William de Gainsborough, a Franciscan of Oxford; intruded by the Pope.[A.D.1308, translated to Canterbury 1313.]Walter Reynolds.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.)[A.D.1313-1317.]Walter Maidstone.[A.D.1317-1327.]Thomas Cobham, canon and subdean of Salisbury. In 1313 he had been duly elected Archbishop of Canterbury by the monks of Christ Church; but the King, Edward II., strongly supported Walter Reynolds, Cobham’s predecessor in the see of Worcester, and the elect of the monks was compelled to resign his claim. Bishop Cobham was a man of considerable learning, and of so great excellence of life that he was generally known as “the good clerk[118].”[A.D.1327, translated to Winchester 1333.]Adam Orlton; translated from Hereford. (SeeHereford, Pt. II.) He was the third English bishop (Stigand, and Richard Poer of Salisbury, were the two former) who, up to this time, had ruled three sees successively. An ancient verse concerning him ran,—“Trinus erat Adam; talem suspendere vadam.Thomam despexit; Wlstanum non bene rexit.Swithunum maluit. Cur? quia plus valuit.”[A.D.1334, translated to Ely 1337.]Simon Montacute.(SeeEly, Pt. II.)[A.D.1337-1338.]Thomas Hemenhale, a monk of Norwich.[A.D.1339-1349.]Wulstan Bransford, Prior of Worcester. He was the builder of the ancient Prior’s Lodgings, and of the Guesten Hall, recently pulled down.[A.D.1350, translated to York 1352.]John Thoresby, translated to Worcester from St. David’s. (SeeYork.)[A.D.1352-1361.]Reginald Brian, translated to Worcester from St. David’s.[A.D.1362, translated to Bath and Wells 1363.]John Barnet.From Bath he was advanced to Ely. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1364, translated to Canterbury 1368.]William Whittlesey, translated to Worcester from Rochester. (See Canterbury, Pt. II.).[A.D.1368-1373.]William de Lynn, translated from Chichester.[A.D.1375-1395.]Henry Wakefield, Treasurer of England. It was this Bishop who altered the west front of his cathedral, and added the north porch. (Pt. I. §§III.,IV.)[A.D. 1395-1401.]Tideman de Winchcomb, translated from Llandaff. A Cistercian, and the physician of Richard II.[A.D.1401, translated to London 1407.]Richard Clifford, had been nominated by the Pope to the see of Bath and Wells, but the King (Henry IV.) refused to confirm the nomination, and subsequently made Clifford Bishop of Worcester. He had been one of the “clerks,” and a special favourite, of Richard II.[A.D.1407-1419.]Thomas Peverell, translated from Llandaff. A Carmelite of much learning. Peverell had been made Bishop of Ossory by Richard II. in 1397, and in the following year was translated to Llandaff.[A.D.1419, translated to Ely 1426.]Philip Morgan, had been Chancellor of Normandy. (SeeEly, Pt. II.)[A.D.1426-1433.]Thomas Polton, translated from Chichester. Bishop Polton died whilst attending the Council of Basle, (Aug. 13, 1433,) and was interred in that city.[A.D.1435, translated to Ely 1443, and thence to Canterbury1454.]Thomas Bourchier.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.) It is there stated that Archbishop Bourchier’s episcopate, of fifty-one years, is the longest on record in the English Church. This is only true so far as his predecessors are concerned. Bishop Wilson’s (fifty-seven years) is the longest English episcopate. (SeeEly, Pt. II.)[A.D.1444-1476.]John Carpenter, Provost of Oriel, and Chancellor of Oxford. He was born at Westbury, in Gloucestershire, and had so great a favour toward his native place that he restored and richly endowed the collegiate church there, of which the first Dean, under Bishop Carpenter’s foundation, was William Canynges, the great Bristol merchant, one of the principal contributors toward the building of St. Mary Redcliffe. Carpenter intended that the bishops of his see should henceforth bear the double title “of Worcester and Westbury;” “but,” says Fuller, “though running cleverly on the tongue’s end, it never came in request, because thereinimpar conjunctio, the matching of a cathedral and collegiate church together[119].” Bishop Carpenter was buried at Westbury. The collegiate buildings were destroyed during the civil war.[A.D.1476, translated to Ely 1486.]John Alcock.(SeeEly, Pt. II.)[A.D.1487-1497.]Robert Morton, Archdeacon of Winchester, and nephew of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury.The next four bishops were Italian intruders.[A.D.1497-1498.]John de Gigliis, a native of Lucca, the Pope’s collector in England. He was already Canon of Wells and Archdeacon of Gloucester.[A.D.1498-1521.]Silvester de Gigliis, nephew of his predecessor, and, like him, Papal collector.[A.D.1521-1522.]Julius de Medicis, uncle of Leo X., afterwards himself Pope Clement VII. He was made“perpetual commendator or administrator of the see of Worcester” by Papal bull, and resigned voluntarily in the following year.[A.D.1522-1535.]Jerome Ghinucci, succeeded by papal provision, but probably with the consent of Henry VIII., to whom this last of the Italian bishops of Worcester was of great service. He was employed on many embassies, both to Spain and Italy, and laboured much in both countries to procure from their universities and theologians opinions in favour of the King’s divorce. After Wolsey’s disgrace, however, and the marriage with Anne Boleyn, the Bishop fell into disfavour, and was removed from his see by Act of Parliament in 1535, as “an alien and non-resident.” At the same time Cardinal Campeggio was removed from Salisbury.During this foreign occupation of Worcester the affairs of the see were administered by suffragan bishops, of whom several will be found recorded in Mr. Stubbs’Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, Appendix V.[A.D.1535, resigned 1539.]Hugh Latimer.The life of this most vigorous reformer belongs so completely to the history of his time that only the principal events in it can be mentioned here. Latimer was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire. The passage from his sermons in which he describes his father’s condition has been often quoted:—“My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds a-year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men; he had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able and did find the king an harness with himself and his horse, whilst he came unto the place that he should receive the king’s wages. I can remember I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the King’s Majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles,a-piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this did he of the same farm where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pounds by the year or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor.”Latimer was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he was at first well known as a defender of the “old religion,” and afterwards, by the persuasion of his friend Thomas Bilney, became as zealous a reformer. He was more than once silenced by the University, but had powerful friends, and was introduced at court by the King’s physician, Dr. Butts, and by Cromwell, the latter of whom procured for him the living of West Kington, in Wiltshire. Here he was accused of favouring strange and novel doctrines touching the saints and purgatory, and was compelled to appear before Stokesley, Bishop of London. He escaped with some difficulty, the King himself interfering; and in 1535, after Ghinucci’s deprivation, Latimer was made Bishop of Worcester. In his diocese he laboured zealously, until the Parliament of 1539, which, by the influence of Gardiner, passed the famous Six Articles. For these Latimer would not vote, and at once resigned his see, as did Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury. He was very shortly afterwards sent to the Tower, on a charge of having spoken against the Six Articles. He remained in prison during the last six years of Henry’s reign, but was set at liberty on the accession of Edward. He would not be reinstated in his see, however, but remained with Cranmer at Lambeth, occasionally preaching at Paul’s Cross, until the fall of the Duke of Somerset. He then retired into the country. On Mary’s accession he was apprehended by Gardiner’s order, and was sent to Oxford with Cranmer and Ridley, where he suffered Oct. 16, 1555.The fullest and best account of Latimer will be found inFoxe, although, like the rest of the “Book of Martyrs,” it must be read with due caution. His sermons, with a life, were edited by Watkins in 1824, and with other remains, for the Parker Society, in 1844.[A.D.1539, resigned 1543.]John Bell, Archdeacon of Gloucester. The cause of his resignation is unknown. He died in 1556, and was buried in the church of Clerkenwell, London.[A.D.1543, translated to York 1554.]Nicholas Heath, translated from Rochester. In 1551 Bishop Heath was deprived, for non-compliance with the new order introduced under Edward VI., and was imprisoned in the Fleet until Mary’s accession. He was restored by her, and was made President of Wales and Chancellor of England after the death of Gardiner. During the imprisonment of Heath, Bishop Hooper of Gloucester held the seein commendam, together with his own.[A.D.1554-1559.]Richard Pates, said to have been consecrated Bishop of Worcester in 1534, after the deprivation of Ghinucci, and to have been then removed to make way for Latimer. The proofs of this, however, are not evident, although Godwin asserts that Pates was present at the Council of Trent, and there signed himself Bishop of Worcester. He was, at any rate, placed in full possession of the see on the translation of Bishop Heath to York in 1554. On Elizabeth’s accession he was deprived, and died at Louvain after a life of some vicissitude.The dates already given shew that five ex-bishops of Worcester, Pates, Latimer, Bell, Heath, and Hooper, were living at the same time.[A.D.1559, translated to London 1570.]Edwin Sandys, President of Catherine Hall, Cambridge.[A.D.1571-1576.]Nicolas Bullingham, translated from Lincoln.[A.D.1577, translated to Canterbury 1583.]John Whitgift.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.)[A.D.1584-1591.]Edmund Freke, translated from Norwich.[A.D.1593, translated to London 1595.]Richard Fletcher, translated from Bristol. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1596, translated to Winchester 1597.]Thomas Bilson.(SeeWinchester, Pt. II.)[A.D.1597-1610.]Gervas Babington, translated from Exeter.[A.D.1610-1616.]Henry Parry, translated from Gloucester.[A.D.1616-1641.]John Thornborough, translated from Bristol. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1641-1650.]John Prideaux, was born at Stowford, in the parish of Harford, in Devonshire. His family, although entitled to bear the arms of Prideaux, was in poor circumstances; and the future Bishop became a candidate for the place of parish clerk at Ugborough, and was disappointed. A friend sent him to school for a short time; and he then travelled on foot to Oxford, where he was employed in the kitchen of Exeter College. In 1596, when his abilities had become known, he was admitted a member of the college, of which he eventually became Rector. In 1615 he was made Regius Professor of Divinity, and in 1641 became Bishop. “If I could have been clerk of Ugborough,” he used often to say, “I had never been Bishop of Worcester.”Bishop Prideaux was an unflinching Royalist, and excommunicated all in his diocese who took up arms against the King. He was of course severely treated in his turn; his palace was plundered, and he was obliged to sell his library as a last means of support. He died at Bredon, in Worcestershire, in 1650, in the house of his son-in-law, Dr. Sutton. An elegy on his death will be found among the works of the Cavalier poet Cleveland. A full account of Bishop Prideaux, with some interesting local anecdotes, is given by Prince in his “Worthies of Devon.”[A.D.1660-1662.] The first Bishop of Worcester after theRestoration wasGeorge Morley, translated to Winchester 1662. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1662, died the same year.]John Gauden, translated from Exeter. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)[A.D.1662, translated to Salisbury 1663.]John Earle.(SeeSalisbury, Pt. II.)[A.D.1663-1670.]Robert Skinner, had been consecrated to the see of Bristol in 1637, and had been translated to Oxford in 1641. During the civil war he was imprisoned by the Puritans. He died at the age of eighty, the last English bishop who had been consecrated before the Great Rebellion.[A.D.1671-1675.]Walter Blandford, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, translated from Oxford.[A.D.1675-1683.]James Fleetwood, Provost of King’s College, Cambridge. Bishop Fleetwood was the seventh son of Sir George Fleetwood of Lancashire, and whilst all the rest of his family joined the Puritans, he alone remained a Royalist.[A.D.1683-1689.]William Thomas, translated from St. David’s. Bishop Thomas was a Nonjuror; and, with the other nonjuring bishops, would have been deprived of his see, had not his death occurred, June 25, 1689.[A.D.1689-1699.]Edward Stillingfleet, “a man deeply versed in ecclesiastical antiquity, of an argumentative mind, excellently fitted for polemical dispute.... In the critical reign of James II. he may be considered as the leader on the Protestant side[120].” Stillingfleet was, however, strongly tenacious of the authority of the Church, and was decidedly opposed to the “latitudinarian” theology of his time. He was born, 1635, at Cranbourne, in Dorsetshire, was educated at St. John’s, Cambridge, and afterwards became Rector of Sutton, in Nottinghamshire, where he wrote and published hisIrenicum, and (1662) his “Origines Sacræ, or, A Rational Account of the Grounds of Natural andRevealed Religion;” a book of considerable importance, which brought him into great notice. Passing from one preferment to another, he became in 1689 Bishop of Worcester. In 1699 he died at his house in Westminster. His body was conveyed to his own cathedral for interment, when the monument which still remains (Pt. I. §VI.) was erected by his son. The inscription was written by Dr. Bentley, who had been the Bishop’s chaplain.TheOrigines Sacræis the most important of Bishop Stillingfleet’s works; but his entire writings, collected and reprinted in 1710, fill six folio volumes. After he became Bishop of Worcester, he wrote a “Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity,” in answer to some parts of Locke’s Essay.[A.D.1699-1717.]William Lloyd, translated from Lichfield. In 1680 he had been consecrated to the see of St. Asaph, and was one of the seven bishops sent to the Tower by James II. He died in 1717, aged ninety-one; and was buried in the parish church of Fladbury, near Evesham, of which his son was rector. Bishop Lloyd’s learning was considerable, although few of his works are now remembered.[A.D.1717-1743.]John Hough, translated from Lichfield. Bishop Hough was the famous President of Magdalen College, Oxford, forcibly dispossessed in 1687 by James II., who had ordered the Fellows to elect Samuel Parker, Bishop of Oxford, and a Romanist. The story, which will best be read in Macaulay’s “History of England,” (vol. ii.,) need not be repeated here. Dr. Hough was restored to the presidency in 1688, together with the twenty-five fellows who had been expelled at the same time. In 1690, King William made him Bishop of Oxford, with liberty to retain the headship of his college. In 1699 he was translated to the see of Lichfield, and thence in 1717 to Worcester. On the death of Archbishop Tenison in 1715 the primacy had been offered to, and declined by,him. All who mention Bishop Hough bear witness to the simplicity and excellence of his character.[A.D.1743-1759.]Isaac Maddox, translated from St. Asaph. Bishop Maddox is best known as the author of “A Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England, established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.” He was the founder of the Worcester Infirmary, to which the story of the Good Samaritan on his monument refers. (Pt. I. §XVIII.)[A.D.1759-1774.]James Johnson, translated from Gloucester.[A.D.1774, translated to Winchester 1781.]Brownlow North, translated from Lichfield.[A.D.1781-1808.]Richard Hurd, translated from Lichfield. Bishop Hurd is now best remembered as the friend and biographer of Warburton; but he was himself conspicuous among the scholars of his time. He was born, the son of a small farmer, at Penkridge, in Staffordshire, in 1720; was educated at the grammar school at Brewood, and was sent as a sizar to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he afterwards obtained a fellowship. Ten years later he made the acquaintance of Warburton, whose friend he remained through life. In 1763 he was elected Preacher of Lincoln’s Inn; and in 1765 Warburton made him Archdeacon of Gloucester. George III., who greatly admired his “Moral and Political Dialogues,” made him Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1774: and in 1776 Preceptor to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. In 1781 Hurd was translated to Worcester; and declined the see of Canterbury on the death of Archbishop Cornwallis in 1783.Some curious anecdotes are told of Bishop Hurd’s bad temper, the sharpness of which is sufficiently evident in his letters. Madam D’Arblay, however, says of him,—“Piety and goodness are so marked on his countenance, which is truly a fine one, that he has been named, and very justly, the ‘Beauty of Holiness.’ Indeed, in face, manner, demeanour, and conversation, he seems precisely what a bishop should be,—and what would make a looker on—were he not a bishop, and a see vacant—call out, ‘Take Dr. Hurd!—that is the man.’”George III. spoke of him as the “most naturally polite man he had ever known.”Bishop Hurd died in 1808, at Hartlebury Castle, where he had built a library for the reception of Warburton’s books, which he left as a legacy to the see. A life of Bishop Hurd, containing some interesting selections from his correspondence, has been published by the Rev. Francis Kilvert. (London, 1860.)[A.D.1808-1831.]Ffolliott H. W. Cornewall, translated from Hereford.[A.D.1831-1841.]Robert James Carr, translated from Chichester.[A.D.1841-1861.]Henry Pepys.[A.D.1861.]Henry Philpott.
WORCESTER was one of five episcopal dioceses into which the great Mercian province was divided during the archiepiscopate of Theodorus of Canterbury, (A.D.668-690). Peada, son of the fierce heathen Penda of Mercia, and son-in-law of the Christian Oswi of Northumbria, had established the first Mercian see at Lichfield (see that Cathedral, Pt. II.) about the year 653. Mercia then comprised not only the whole of central England, but the greater part of Lincolnshire; and in accordance with a design expressed at the Council of Hertford, (673,) but not then carried into execution, Archbishop Theodorus divided the unwieldy diocese, which must still have contained a vast number of heathen, into five. The original see remained atLichfield. The see ofHerefordwas established in 676, those ofWorcesterandLeicesterin 680, and that ofLindisse, orLindsey, in 678. The two latter, Leicester and Lindsey, were afterwards incorporated in the great diocese of Lincoln. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.680-961.] Worcester, (Wigornaceaster,) a “ceaster” or stronghold of the Hwiccas, who occupied Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, had possibly been a Roman station, (although this is uncertain,) and was at all events situated on the line of a Roman road—a matter of no small importance to the earlier Saxon bishops, who, like the Saxon kings, were perpetually moving from manor to manor throughout their diocese[97]. A priest named Tatfrid,—“vir strenuissimus et doctissimus, atque excellentis ingenii[98],”—belonging to the monastery founded by St. Hilda at Whitby (Streaneshalch), had been chosen by Archbishop Theodore to be the first Bishop of Worcester; but he died before his consecration; andBosel, of whose history nothing is known, was consecrated to the new see,A.D.680. Before his death he became disabled by illness, (corporis infirmitate depressus,) andOftforwas consecrated as his coadjutor and successor by Wilfrid of York, who was at that time directing the ecclesiastical affairs of Sussex and of Kent[99]. Oftfor, like Tatfrid, had belonged to St. Hilda’s monastery, but had gone for the sake of study, first to Archbishop Theodore at Canterbury, and thence to Rome. On his return he “turned aside to the province of the Hwiccas, and remained there a long time, preaching the word of faith, and affording a pattern of life to all who saw and heard him[100].” He held the bishopric for one year only. In 693 he was succeeded byEgwin, the founder of the monastery at Evesham. Egwin died in 717. Of his successors,Werefrith(873-915) was a man of considerable learning, a friend and assistant of King Alfred, by whose direction he translated into Saxon the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. St.Dunstanheld the see of Worcester between the years 957 and 961.
[A.D.961-992.]Oswald, the successor of Dunstan, the founder of the monastery, and one of the patron saints of Worcester, is best known from his unceasing patronage ofthe monks, in opposition to the secular clergy. Oswald, the son of Danish parents of high rank, was the nephew of Odo, the predecessor of Dunstan in the see of Canterbury; and was appointed by King Edgar to the see of Worcester at the request of Dunstan himself, with whose zeal for the monastic cause Oswald (who had passed some of the earlier years of his life in the famous monastery of Fleury) more than sympathized. In 972 Oswald became Archbishop of York, which see he held, together with Worcester, until his death in 992—in the same manner as Dunstan had held the sees of London and Worcester together, before his elevation to the primacy. Little is recorded “of what he did at York, although he presided over that see for twenty years. There was no Northern writer to speak of what he effected in Northumbria[101].” The condition of the province, “seamed and scarred” by the struggles of the native princes, and by Danish incursions, may have prevented him from working there. But at Worcester, and throughout the south, Oswald was active as a great ecclesiastical reformer. He was powerful enough to remodel the monasteries of Ely and St. Albans. The Church of Worcester had hitherto been served by secular canons. These Oswald determined to replace by Benedictine monks; “and succeeded by the following artifice. Having erected in its vicinity a new church to the honour of the Virgin Mary, he intrusted it to the care of a community of monks, and frequented it himself for the solemn celebration of mass. The presence of the Bishop attracted that of the people; the ancient clergy saw their church gradually abandoned; and after some delay, Wensine, their dean, a man advanced in years and of unblemished character, took the monastic habit, and was advanced three years later to the office of prior. The influence of his example, and the honour of his promotion, held out a strong temptation to his brethren, till atlast the number of canons was so diminished by repeated desertions, that the most wealthy of the churches of Mercia became without dispute or violence, by the very act of its old possessors, a monastery of Benedictine monks[102].” Oswald is said to have introduced monks in the room of secular clergy, in six other churches of his diocese; and charges of extreme tyranny and arrogance have been brought against him in consequence. But there is every reason to believe that a severe ecclesiastical reform was necessary; and there is proof that the eviction of the canons from Worcester was very gradual, and was not completed in Oswald’s lifetime. It is also certain that, although he held the archbishopric of York during twenty years, “we we do not read that he introduced a single colony of monks, or changed the constitution of a single clerical establishment, within that diocese[103].”
The church and monastery of St. Mary, built by Oswald, were on the site of the existing cathedral, and were pulled down by Wulfstan to make way for his new minster. (Seepost,Wulfstan.) During the construction of St. Oswald’s monastery, says Eadmer, one large squared block of stone became all at once immoveable, and in spite of the exertions of the workmen, could not be brought to the place prepared for it. St. Oswald, after praying earnestly, beheld “Ethiopem quendam” sitting upon the stone, and mocking the builders. The sign of the cross removed him effectually.
A life of St. Oswald, by Eadmer of Canterbury, will be found in Wharton’sAnglia Sacra, vol. ii. This, however, is a compilation from a far more important life by an unknown monk of Ramsey, written within twenty or thirtyyears after Oswald’s death, and hitherto unprinted. This life (of which there is a MS. in the British Museum, MSS. Cotton, Nero, E. 1) is quoted among Mr. Raine’s numerous authorities for the very interesting life of St. Oswald contained in his “Lives of the Archbishops of York.” (London, 1863.) Oswald died at Worcester, and was interred in his own church there. His relics were translated, and placed in a rich shrine, by Aldulf, his successor in both sees. The portiphor of St. Oswald is still preserved in the library of C.C.C., Cambridge.
The two immediate successors of Oswald, Aldulf and Wulfstan I., held the see of York together with that of Worcester, probably because, Northumbria being ravaged by the Danes, the possession of the southern bishopric was found to be necessary for the maintenance of the northern primate. Wulfstan succeeded in 1003, and died in 1023. In 1016, seven years before his death,Leofsinwas appointed to the bishopric of Worcester; Wulfstan retaining York.
[A.D.992-1062.] Between the death of Oswald and the accession of Wulfstan II., the only remarkable bishops of Worcester wereLiving, the friend and minister of Canute, who held the see of Worcester together with that of Crediton; andAldred, his successor, who was translated to York in 1061, and as archbishop of that see crowned successively both Harold and the Conqueror. In 1062 Edward the Confessor made a grant to Aldred of the church of Worcester, on account of the desolate condition of the see of York. The grant was, however, personal, and not in perpetuity; and Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester only remained a suffragan of York until the death of Aldred. The deed is to be found in Thomas’s “Worcester,” Appendix I.
[A.D.1062-1095.]WulfstanII., the founder of the existing cathedral, and the great patron saint of Worcester. Wulfstan was born at Long Itchinton, in Warwickshire. Both his father and mother had embraced monasticism inmature life; and their son, after having been educated in the great monastery of Peterborough, became himself a monk at Worcester, and, eventually, the prior of his convent. “An anecdote must be referred to this period, which is valuable, because it is characteristic of the man and of his times. Wulfstan enjoyed the pleasures of the table, and had a particular liking for roast goose. Boiled meats were generally placed on an Anglo-Saxon table; therefore special directions were to be given when anything roast or fried was to be prepared. The order was given by Wulfstan that a roast goose was to be prepared for his dinner. He then went about his ordinary business. There were many clients of the Bishop to whom he had to pay attention, and he was involved in secular duties. He had not broken his fast when he was called upon to officiate at the Mass. In due time he enters the church extremely hungry; he passes into the chancel, near to which, unfortunately, the kitchen is placed. A whiff of goose soon affects his olfactory nerves; the savour interferes with his devotions; his thoughts wander to his dinner, (studio culinæ tenetur); his conscience reproaches him. His resolution is immediately formed. 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. When he died, however, (1069,) they passed with his other estates into the hands of the King. Wulfstan was not disposed to give them up. He desired that theyshould be restored at the Council of Winchester, at Easter, 1070; but as the archbishopric of York was then vacant, the consideration of the question was deferred. When Thomas (the new Archbishop of York) went to Rome for the pall, he claimed the Bishop of Worcester as a suffragan. This question was left by the Pope to the determination of Lanfranc. It was settled in a synod which was held in 1072. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, was on the side of Thomas, but Lanfranc decided against him. The twelve vills were to be given up, and Worcester was for the future to be subordinated to Canterbury, and not to York. In this judgment Thomas seems to have quietly acquiesced[105].” Lanfranc, however, looked with extreme doubt and jealousy on the Saxon clergy; and at the synod of Pedrede (Petherton in Somersetshire) in 1070, he charged Wulfstan with “insufficiency and want of learning,” intending to remove him from his see, as Egelmar had been deposed from the East Anglian bishopric in the early part of the same year. But Wulfstan’s competency was fully proved[106], and it is possible that the whole charge against him may have arisen from his ignorance of Norman-French. A later legend (first mentioned by Ailred of Rievaulx, who did not live till the next century) asserted that when Wulfstan was called upon to deliver up his pastoral staff, he refused to do so, unless to the Confessor, from whom he had received it; that he laid the staff accordingly on the Confessor’s tomb, which opened to receive it; and that no one could withdraw the staff from the tomb but Wulfstan himself, who was of course permitted to retain his see.
The simplicity, earnestness, and incessant labour of Wulfstan’s pastoral life—“vir magnæ pietatis et columbinæ simplicitatis,” says Malmesbury—are borne witness to by all the chroniclers; and especially by William of Malmesbury, in hisGesta Pontificum, and in his Life of Wulfstan. On his episcopal manors he built no halls or “dining chambers,” giving his whole attention to more important matters, and even in the churches which he built, he disapproved of rich and elaborate ornamentation[107]. The church and monastery of St. Oswald proved too small for the increasing number of monks. Wulfstan pulled them down, and laid the foundations of the existing cathedral. He lived, apparently, to complete much of his work; but all that now remains of his cathedral is the crypt. (Pt. I. §XXII.) Whilst witnessing the destruction of Oswald’s church, Wulfstan burst into tears, declaring that he was pulling down the work of a far holier man than himself—a church in which so many saints had served God[108].
In the year 1088, the Norman barons who had risen to support the cause of Robert of Normandy against the Red King, attacked Worcester. “The venerable Bishop Wulfstan,” says the Saxon Chronicle, “was sorely troubled in his mind, because the castle had been committed to his keeping. Nevertheless, the men of his household went out with a few men from the castle, and through God’s mercy, and through the Bishop’s deserts, slew and captured five hundred men, and put all the others to flight[109].” Wulfstan died, at a great age, in 1095, and was interred in his new cathedral. He was unquestionably one of the best and worthiest of the later Saxon bishops. The fullest and most important life of Wulfstan is that by William of Malmesbury, printed in the second volume of Wharton’sAnglia Sacra. A very interesting notice of his “Life and Times,” by the Dean of Chichester, will be found in the twentieth volume of the Archæological Journal.
Early in 1201, miracles were reported at the tomb of Wulfstan[110]. They continued throughout the year, fifteen or sixteen persons being healed daily, as it was asserted. On St. Giles’s Day, (Sept. 1,) 1202, Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury came, with other bishops, to Worcester, to enquire into the truth of the reported miracles. Certain monks of Worcester went to Rome with their report; and in the following year (1203) St. Wulfstan was duly canonized by the Pope, Innocent III. King John more than once performed his devotions, and made his offerings, before the shrine of the new saint; and in the hour of his death at Newark (October, 1216,) he commended his body and soul to “God and to St. Wulfstan.” He was buried in the cathedral. In 1218 the restored church (see Pt. I. §I.)was dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St. Peter, and of the Confessors Oswald and Wulfstan; and the relics of St. Wulfstan were translated into a new shrine. Miracles are again frequently recorded. Edward I. entertained a “special affection” for St. Wulfstan; and, besides many other visits, came to worship before his shrine in December, 1273, after the conquest of Wales[111]. The shrine of St. Wulfstan was placed, together with that of St. Oswald, in front of the high altar, one on either side. (See Pt. I. §IX.)
[A.D.1096-1112.]Samson, a canon of Bayeux, succeeded Wulfstan; “non parvæ literaturæ vir,” says Malmesbury, “nec contemnendæ facundiæ; antiquorum homo morum; ipse liberaliter vesci, et aliis dapsiliter largiri[112].” His elder brother, Thomas, was Archbishop of York; and a son of Bishop Samson (at what time born is not evident) became also Archbishop of York in 1109, during his father’s lifetime. Another son, Richard, was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1133.
[A.D.1112-1123.]Theulf; also a canon of Bayeux, and Chaplain to Henry I.
[A.D.1125-1150.]Simon, Chaplain and Chancellor to Adelais, queen of Henry I. “Affabilitate et morum dulcedine munificentiaque (quoad res Episcopatus angustæ pati possent) insignem habitum[113].”
[A.D.1151-1158.]John de Pageham; died at Rome.
[A.D.1158-1160.]Alfred, Chaplain of Henry II. For four years the see remained vacant.
[A.D.1164-1179.]Roger Fitz Count, a natural son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, himself son of Henry I. The piety and strict life of Bishop Roger are praised byGiraldus Cambrensis. He was the friend and steady supporter of Becket; and was chosen by Henry II., after the death of the Archbishop, to convey to Pope Alexander II. the King’s assurance that he had neither encouraged nor directed the murder. The Bishop died at Tours, August 9, 1179, on his homeward journey from Rome.
[A.D.1180, translated to Canterbury 1185.]Baldwin, the preacher of the Crusade; who died (Dec., 1190,) in the camp of Cœur de Lion before Acre. (SeeCanterbury Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1186-1190]William Northall, Archdeacon of Gloucester.
[A.D.1191-1193]Robert Fitz Ralph, Canon of Lincoln, and Archdeacon of Nottingham. Son of William Fitz Ralph, Seneschall of Normandy.
[A.D.1193-1195]Henry de Soilli, Abbot of Glastonbury; from which great monastery he was removed, to make way for Savaricus, who held it together with the bishopric of Bath and Wells. (SeeWells Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1196-1198]John of Coutances, Dean of Rouen: “cujus sanctitatis refulgent insignia. Nam corpus ejus sacrum cum indumentis Pontificalibus, usque hodie manet integrum et incorruptum[114].”
[A.D.1200-1212]Mauger, Archdeacon of Evreux, and physician of Richard I. His election had been declared void by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the score of his illegitimacy. But Mauger proceeded to Rome; and the Pope, Innocent III., “videns elegantiam tanti viri,” confirmed his election, “et illud pulchrum Decretale pro eo composuit quod sic incipit ‘Innotuit[115].’”It was during Mauger’s episcopate that St. Wulfstan was canonized. (See Pt. I. §§I.andVII.) He was one of the bishops who, in1208, pronounced the Interdict and the excommunication of King John; and, with the others, took refuge in France; where he died (1212) in the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, the same which gave a refuge to Becket and to Stephen Langton, and in which Edmund Rich, the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards (1240) died. The death of Bishop Mauger occurred before the reconciliation of England with the Papacy.
[A.D.1214, translated to York 1215.]Walter de Gray, was appointed to the see of Worcester after the removal of the Interdict. He had been King John’s Chancellor.
[A.D.1216-1218.]Silvester of Evesham, Prior of Worcester. He interred King John; and shortly before his death he dedicated the Norman church, which had been restored, and translated the relics of St. Wulfstan. (Pt. I. §I.; andante,Wulfstan.)
[A.D.1218-1236.]William de Blois, Archdeacon of Buckingham, was intruded by the Legate Guala, in spite of the protests of the monks, who afterwards consented to receive him. The eastern portion of the existing Cathedral was built during his episcopate. (Pt. I. §XIV.)
[A.D.1237-1266.]Walter Cantilupe, son of William, Lord Cantilupe; uncle of the sainted Bishop of Hereford. He was ordained deacon by the Pope at Viterbo, April 4; priest, April 18; and consecrated bishop, May 3,—in the same year, 1237. Bishop Walter was one of the most vigorous defenders of English liberty during great part of the reign of Henry III., when “England was held by successive Popes as a province of the Papal territory[116].” In 1237, the year of his consecration, he opposed the Cardinal Legate, Otho, at a council in St. Paul’s; and nearly twenty years afterwards, in 1255, made an equally firm stand against another Legate, Rustand, who had demanded an enormous subsidy from the clergy—nominally for theHoly Land, but really for the Pope and the King. Bishop Cantilupe declared he would rather be hanged on a gibbet than consent to such an extortion. He was one of the firmest adherents to the party of Simon de Montfort; and it was this Bishop who absolved the whole army of the Barons as it lay at Fletching, on the morning of the battle of Lewes;—bidding them fight boldly, and with as much certainty of salvation as if they were fighting in a crusade. With the other bishops who had espoused this cause, Cantilupe was excommunicated by the Pope; and was only reconciled and absolved on his deathbed. He died at his manor of Blocklewe, Feb. 12, 1265, and was interred before the high altar of his cathedral. His coffin-lid, with effigy, is now in the retro-choir, (Pt. I. §XVI.); and the coffin containing, in all probability, his remains was discovered during the late restoration. (Pt. I. §XVI.)
[A.D.1266, trans. to Winchester 1268.]Nicholas, Archdeacon of Ely; Chancellor of England 1260, 1261; and again, 1263.
[A.D.1268-1301.]Godfrey Giffard, Archdeacon of Wells; Chancellor of England 1267-1269. He was the brother of Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York; and was related to the King, Henry III. Bishop Giffard, in the year of his consecration, obtained a licence to build (ædificare) the castle of Hartlebury—which has ever since been the principal palace of the bishops of Worcester. The tomb of Bishop Giffard remains in the south choir-aisle. (Pt. I. §XIII.) He had constructed a tomb for himself, in his lifetime, “prope magnum altare, supra B. Oswaldi feretrum,” and had disturbed the remains of Bishop John of Coutances in preparing it: but Archbishop Winchelsea ordered the bones of Bishop John to be replaced in their old position; and Bishop Giffard’s were removed to the place they now occupy. According to Wharton, the Romanists after the Reformation took Bishop Giffard’s tomb and effigy for those of St. Wulfstan; and used tovisit it “magna cum religione” on St. Wulfstan’s Day, Jan. 19[117].
[A.D.1302-1307.]William de Gainsborough, a Franciscan of Oxford; intruded by the Pope.
[A.D.1308, translated to Canterbury 1313.]Walter Reynolds.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1313-1317.]Walter Maidstone.
[A.D.1317-1327.]Thomas Cobham, canon and subdean of Salisbury. In 1313 he had been duly elected Archbishop of Canterbury by the monks of Christ Church; but the King, Edward II., strongly supported Walter Reynolds, Cobham’s predecessor in the see of Worcester, and the elect of the monks was compelled to resign his claim. Bishop Cobham was a man of considerable learning, and of so great excellence of life that he was generally known as “the good clerk[118].”
[A.D.1327, translated to Winchester 1333.]Adam Orlton; translated from Hereford. (SeeHereford, Pt. II.) He was the third English bishop (Stigand, and Richard Poer of Salisbury, were the two former) who, up to this time, had ruled three sees successively. An ancient verse concerning him ran,—
“Trinus erat Adam; talem suspendere vadam.Thomam despexit; Wlstanum non bene rexit.Swithunum maluit. Cur? quia plus valuit.”
“Trinus erat Adam; talem suspendere vadam.Thomam despexit; Wlstanum non bene rexit.Swithunum maluit. Cur? quia plus valuit.”
“Trinus erat Adam; talem suspendere vadam.Thomam despexit; Wlstanum non bene rexit.Swithunum maluit. Cur? quia plus valuit.”
[A.D.1334, translated to Ely 1337.]Simon Montacute.(SeeEly, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1337-1338.]Thomas Hemenhale, a monk of Norwich.
[A.D.1339-1349.]Wulstan Bransford, Prior of Worcester. He was the builder of the ancient Prior’s Lodgings, and of the Guesten Hall, recently pulled down.
[A.D.1350, translated to York 1352.]John Thoresby, translated to Worcester from St. David’s. (SeeYork.)
[A.D.1352-1361.]Reginald Brian, translated to Worcester from St. David’s.
[A.D.1362, translated to Bath and Wells 1363.]John Barnet.From Bath he was advanced to Ely. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1364, translated to Canterbury 1368.]William Whittlesey, translated to Worcester from Rochester. (See Canterbury, Pt. II.).
[A.D.1368-1373.]William de Lynn, translated from Chichester.
[A.D.1375-1395.]Henry Wakefield, Treasurer of England. It was this Bishop who altered the west front of his cathedral, and added the north porch. (Pt. I. §§III.,IV.)
[A.D. 1395-1401.]Tideman de Winchcomb, translated from Llandaff. A Cistercian, and the physician of Richard II.
[A.D.1401, translated to London 1407.]Richard Clifford, had been nominated by the Pope to the see of Bath and Wells, but the King (Henry IV.) refused to confirm the nomination, and subsequently made Clifford Bishop of Worcester. He had been one of the “clerks,” and a special favourite, of Richard II.
[A.D.1407-1419.]Thomas Peverell, translated from Llandaff. A Carmelite of much learning. Peverell had been made Bishop of Ossory by Richard II. in 1397, and in the following year was translated to Llandaff.
[A.D.1419, translated to Ely 1426.]Philip Morgan, had been Chancellor of Normandy. (SeeEly, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1426-1433.]Thomas Polton, translated from Chichester. Bishop Polton died whilst attending the Council of Basle, (Aug. 13, 1433,) and was interred in that city.
[A.D.1435, translated to Ely 1443, and thence to Canterbury1454.]Thomas Bourchier.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.) It is there stated that Archbishop Bourchier’s episcopate, of fifty-one years, is the longest on record in the English Church. This is only true so far as his predecessors are concerned. Bishop Wilson’s (fifty-seven years) is the longest English episcopate. (SeeEly, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1444-1476.]John Carpenter, Provost of Oriel, and Chancellor of Oxford. He was born at Westbury, in Gloucestershire, and had so great a favour toward his native place that he restored and richly endowed the collegiate church there, of which the first Dean, under Bishop Carpenter’s foundation, was William Canynges, the great Bristol merchant, one of the principal contributors toward the building of St. Mary Redcliffe. Carpenter intended that the bishops of his see should henceforth bear the double title “of Worcester and Westbury;” “but,” says Fuller, “though running cleverly on the tongue’s end, it never came in request, because thereinimpar conjunctio, the matching of a cathedral and collegiate church together[119].” Bishop Carpenter was buried at Westbury. The collegiate buildings were destroyed during the civil war.
[A.D.1476, translated to Ely 1486.]John Alcock.(SeeEly, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1487-1497.]Robert Morton, Archdeacon of Winchester, and nephew of Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury.
The next four bishops were Italian intruders.
[A.D.1497-1498.]John de Gigliis, a native of Lucca, the Pope’s collector in England. He was already Canon of Wells and Archdeacon of Gloucester.
[A.D.1498-1521.]Silvester de Gigliis, nephew of his predecessor, and, like him, Papal collector.
[A.D.1521-1522.]Julius de Medicis, uncle of Leo X., afterwards himself Pope Clement VII. He was made“perpetual commendator or administrator of the see of Worcester” by Papal bull, and resigned voluntarily in the following year.
[A.D.1522-1535.]Jerome Ghinucci, succeeded by papal provision, but probably with the consent of Henry VIII., to whom this last of the Italian bishops of Worcester was of great service. He was employed on many embassies, both to Spain and Italy, and laboured much in both countries to procure from their universities and theologians opinions in favour of the King’s divorce. After Wolsey’s disgrace, however, and the marriage with Anne Boleyn, the Bishop fell into disfavour, and was removed from his see by Act of Parliament in 1535, as “an alien and non-resident.” At the same time Cardinal Campeggio was removed from Salisbury.
During this foreign occupation of Worcester the affairs of the see were administered by suffragan bishops, of whom several will be found recorded in Mr. Stubbs’Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, Appendix V.
[A.D.1535, resigned 1539.]Hugh Latimer.The life of this most vigorous reformer belongs so completely to the history of his time that only the principal events in it can be mentioned here. Latimer was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire. The passage from his sermons in which he describes his father’s condition has been often quoted:—“My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds a-year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men; he had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able and did find the king an harness with himself and his horse, whilst he came unto the place that he should receive the king’s wages. I can remember I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the King’s Majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles,a-piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this did he of the same farm where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pounds by the year or more, and is not able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor.”
Latimer was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he was at first well known as a defender of the “old religion,” and afterwards, by the persuasion of his friend Thomas Bilney, became as zealous a reformer. He was more than once silenced by the University, but had powerful friends, and was introduced at court by the King’s physician, Dr. Butts, and by Cromwell, the latter of whom procured for him the living of West Kington, in Wiltshire. Here he was accused of favouring strange and novel doctrines touching the saints and purgatory, and was compelled to appear before Stokesley, Bishop of London. He escaped with some difficulty, the King himself interfering; and in 1535, after Ghinucci’s deprivation, Latimer was made Bishop of Worcester. In his diocese he laboured zealously, until the Parliament of 1539, which, by the influence of Gardiner, passed the famous Six Articles. For these Latimer would not vote, and at once resigned his see, as did Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury. He was very shortly afterwards sent to the Tower, on a charge of having spoken against the Six Articles. He remained in prison during the last six years of Henry’s reign, but was set at liberty on the accession of Edward. He would not be reinstated in his see, however, but remained with Cranmer at Lambeth, occasionally preaching at Paul’s Cross, until the fall of the Duke of Somerset. He then retired into the country. On Mary’s accession he was apprehended by Gardiner’s order, and was sent to Oxford with Cranmer and Ridley, where he suffered Oct. 16, 1555.
The fullest and best account of Latimer will be found inFoxe, although, like the rest of the “Book of Martyrs,” it must be read with due caution. His sermons, with a life, were edited by Watkins in 1824, and with other remains, for the Parker Society, in 1844.
[A.D.1539, resigned 1543.]John Bell, Archdeacon of Gloucester. The cause of his resignation is unknown. He died in 1556, and was buried in the church of Clerkenwell, London.
[A.D.1543, translated to York 1554.]Nicholas Heath, translated from Rochester. In 1551 Bishop Heath was deprived, for non-compliance with the new order introduced under Edward VI., and was imprisoned in the Fleet until Mary’s accession. He was restored by her, and was made President of Wales and Chancellor of England after the death of Gardiner. During the imprisonment of Heath, Bishop Hooper of Gloucester held the seein commendam, together with his own.
[A.D.1554-1559.]Richard Pates, said to have been consecrated Bishop of Worcester in 1534, after the deprivation of Ghinucci, and to have been then removed to make way for Latimer. The proofs of this, however, are not evident, although Godwin asserts that Pates was present at the Council of Trent, and there signed himself Bishop of Worcester. He was, at any rate, placed in full possession of the see on the translation of Bishop Heath to York in 1554. On Elizabeth’s accession he was deprived, and died at Louvain after a life of some vicissitude.
The dates already given shew that five ex-bishops of Worcester, Pates, Latimer, Bell, Heath, and Hooper, were living at the same time.
[A.D.1559, translated to London 1570.]Edwin Sandys, President of Catherine Hall, Cambridge.
[A.D.1571-1576.]Nicolas Bullingham, translated from Lincoln.
[A.D.1577, translated to Canterbury 1583.]John Whitgift.(SeeCanterbury, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1584-1591.]Edmund Freke, translated from Norwich.
[A.D.1593, translated to London 1595.]Richard Fletcher, translated from Bristol. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1596, translated to Winchester 1597.]Thomas Bilson.(SeeWinchester, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1597-1610.]Gervas Babington, translated from Exeter.
[A.D.1610-1616.]Henry Parry, translated from Gloucester.
[A.D.1616-1641.]John Thornborough, translated from Bristol. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1641-1650.]John Prideaux, was born at Stowford, in the parish of Harford, in Devonshire. His family, although entitled to bear the arms of Prideaux, was in poor circumstances; and the future Bishop became a candidate for the place of parish clerk at Ugborough, and was disappointed. A friend sent him to school for a short time; and he then travelled on foot to Oxford, where he was employed in the kitchen of Exeter College. In 1596, when his abilities had become known, he was admitted a member of the college, of which he eventually became Rector. In 1615 he was made Regius Professor of Divinity, and in 1641 became Bishop. “If I could have been clerk of Ugborough,” he used often to say, “I had never been Bishop of Worcester.”
Bishop Prideaux was an unflinching Royalist, and excommunicated all in his diocese who took up arms against the King. He was of course severely treated in his turn; his palace was plundered, and he was obliged to sell his library as a last means of support. He died at Bredon, in Worcestershire, in 1650, in the house of his son-in-law, Dr. Sutton. An elegy on his death will be found among the works of the Cavalier poet Cleveland. A full account of Bishop Prideaux, with some interesting local anecdotes, is given by Prince in his “Worthies of Devon.”
[A.D.1660-1662.] The first Bishop of Worcester after theRestoration wasGeorge Morley, translated to Winchester 1662. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1662, died the same year.]John Gauden, translated from Exeter. (See that Cathedral, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1662, translated to Salisbury 1663.]John Earle.(SeeSalisbury, Pt. II.)
[A.D.1663-1670.]Robert Skinner, had been consecrated to the see of Bristol in 1637, and had been translated to Oxford in 1641. During the civil war he was imprisoned by the Puritans. He died at the age of eighty, the last English bishop who had been consecrated before the Great Rebellion.
[A.D.1671-1675.]Walter Blandford, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, translated from Oxford.
[A.D.1675-1683.]James Fleetwood, Provost of King’s College, Cambridge. Bishop Fleetwood was the seventh son of Sir George Fleetwood of Lancashire, and whilst all the rest of his family joined the Puritans, he alone remained a Royalist.
[A.D.1683-1689.]William Thomas, translated from St. David’s. Bishop Thomas was a Nonjuror; and, with the other nonjuring bishops, would have been deprived of his see, had not his death occurred, June 25, 1689.
[A.D.1689-1699.]Edward Stillingfleet, “a man deeply versed in ecclesiastical antiquity, of an argumentative mind, excellently fitted for polemical dispute.... In the critical reign of James II. he may be considered as the leader on the Protestant side[120].” Stillingfleet was, however, strongly tenacious of the authority of the Church, and was decidedly opposed to the “latitudinarian” theology of his time. He was born, 1635, at Cranbourne, in Dorsetshire, was educated at St. John’s, Cambridge, and afterwards became Rector of Sutton, in Nottinghamshire, where he wrote and published hisIrenicum, and (1662) his “Origines Sacræ, or, A Rational Account of the Grounds of Natural andRevealed Religion;” a book of considerable importance, which brought him into great notice. Passing from one preferment to another, he became in 1689 Bishop of Worcester. In 1699 he died at his house in Westminster. His body was conveyed to his own cathedral for interment, when the monument which still remains (Pt. I. §VI.) was erected by his son. The inscription was written by Dr. Bentley, who had been the Bishop’s chaplain.
TheOrigines Sacræis the most important of Bishop Stillingfleet’s works; but his entire writings, collected and reprinted in 1710, fill six folio volumes. After he became Bishop of Worcester, he wrote a “Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity,” in answer to some parts of Locke’s Essay.
[A.D.1699-1717.]William Lloyd, translated from Lichfield. In 1680 he had been consecrated to the see of St. Asaph, and was one of the seven bishops sent to the Tower by James II. He died in 1717, aged ninety-one; and was buried in the parish church of Fladbury, near Evesham, of which his son was rector. Bishop Lloyd’s learning was considerable, although few of his works are now remembered.
[A.D.1717-1743.]John Hough, translated from Lichfield. Bishop Hough was the famous President of Magdalen College, Oxford, forcibly dispossessed in 1687 by James II., who had ordered the Fellows to elect Samuel Parker, Bishop of Oxford, and a Romanist. The story, which will best be read in Macaulay’s “History of England,” (vol. ii.,) need not be repeated here. Dr. Hough was restored to the presidency in 1688, together with the twenty-five fellows who had been expelled at the same time. In 1690, King William made him Bishop of Oxford, with liberty to retain the headship of his college. In 1699 he was translated to the see of Lichfield, and thence in 1717 to Worcester. On the death of Archbishop Tenison in 1715 the primacy had been offered to, and declined by,him. All who mention Bishop Hough bear witness to the simplicity and excellence of his character.
[A.D.1743-1759.]Isaac Maddox, translated from St. Asaph. Bishop Maddox is best known as the author of “A Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England, established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.” He was the founder of the Worcester Infirmary, to which the story of the Good Samaritan on his monument refers. (Pt. I. §XVIII.)
[A.D.1759-1774.]James Johnson, translated from Gloucester.
[A.D.1774, translated to Winchester 1781.]Brownlow North, translated from Lichfield.
[A.D.1781-1808.]Richard Hurd, translated from Lichfield. Bishop Hurd is now best remembered as the friend and biographer of Warburton; but he was himself conspicuous among the scholars of his time. He was born, the son of a small farmer, at Penkridge, in Staffordshire, in 1720; was educated at the grammar school at Brewood, and was sent as a sizar to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he afterwards obtained a fellowship. Ten years later he made the acquaintance of Warburton, whose friend he remained through life. In 1763 he was elected Preacher of Lincoln’s Inn; and in 1765 Warburton made him Archdeacon of Gloucester. George III., who greatly admired his “Moral and Political Dialogues,” made him Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1774: and in 1776 Preceptor to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. In 1781 Hurd was translated to Worcester; and declined the see of Canterbury on the death of Archbishop Cornwallis in 1783.
Some curious anecdotes are told of Bishop Hurd’s bad temper, the sharpness of which is sufficiently evident in his letters. Madam D’Arblay, however, says of him,—“Piety and goodness are so marked on his countenance, which is truly a fine one, that he has been named, and very justly, the ‘Beauty of Holiness.’ Indeed, in face, manner, demeanour, and conversation, he seems precisely what a bishop should be,—and what would make a looker on—were he not a bishop, and a see vacant—call out, ‘Take Dr. Hurd!—that is the man.’”George III. spoke of him as the “most naturally polite man he had ever known.”
Bishop Hurd died in 1808, at Hartlebury Castle, where he had built a library for the reception of Warburton’s books, which he left as a legacy to the see. A life of Bishop Hurd, containing some interesting selections from his correspondence, has been published by the Rev. Francis Kilvert. (London, 1860.)
[A.D.1808-1831.]Ffolliott H. W. Cornewall, translated from Hereford.
[A.D.1831-1841.]Robert James Carr, translated from Chichester.
[A.D.1841-1861.]Henry Pepys.
[A.D.1861.]Henry Philpott.
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