Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford Part 12

Queen Elizabeth had imprisoned him for a short time for preaching against her projected marriage with the Duke of Anjou, but made him Dean of Windsor towards the close of her reign. He is said to have been vain, and especially fond of having his name and arms carved on house fronts. In 1607 the old quarrel about the Bishop's rights respecting St. Ethelbert's fair broke out again between the citizens and Bishop Bennett. He spent large sums on the restoration of the Bishop's Palace. Bishop Bennett was buried on the north side of the choir, where his tomb remains with effigy.

*Francis G.o.dwin*, A.D. 1617-1633, translated to Hereford from Llandaff, which preferment he is said to have obtained from the Queen on account of his commentary _De Praesulibus Angliae_. He also wrote other historical works, including a life of Queen Mary. To quote again from Fuller, "He was stored with all polite learning both judicious and industrious in the study of antiquity, to whom not only the Church of Llandaff (whereof he well deserved) but all England is indebted, as for his other learned writings, so especially for his catalogue of Bishops." He was buried at Whitbourn, in a residence belonging to the see of Hereford, on April 29, 1633.

*William Juxon*, Dean of Worcester, and President of St. John's College, Oxford, was chosen to follow Bishop G.o.dwin, but before consecration was called to London. During his episcopacy in that see, he was by Bishop Laud's procurement made Lord Treasurer of England. Fuller says of his administration of these duties that "No hands, having so much money pa.s.sing through them, had their fingers less soiled therewith."

*Augustine Lindsell*, A.D. 1633-1634, Bishop of Peterborough, was confirmed on March 24, 1633, but in November of the following year was found dead in his study.

*Matthew Wren*, A.D. 1635-1635, Dean of Windsor, held a still briefer episcopate, and in the same year as his consecration to Hereford was translated to Norwich.

*Theophilus Field*, A.D. 1635-1636, who had been Bishop of Llandaff and of St. David's, died a year after his translation, and thereby saved the diocese the ill effects of a longer term of servile and corrupt management.

*George c.o.ke*, A.D. 1636-1646, Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, became Bishop of Bristol in 1633, and was translated to Hereford in 1636. He was a grave and studious man, and well loved in his diocese, but in the troubled days of the Civil War was deprived of his see.

*Nicholas Monk*, A.D. 1661-1661, who followed, was brother to the Duke of Albemarle, and provost of Eton. He died in the December following his consecration, at Westminster, where he was buried.

*Herbert Croft*, A.D. 1662-1671. The son of Sir Herbert Croft, of an ancient family in the county of Hereford, he was brought up at Douai and St. Omer as a Jesuit, but was restored to the English Church through the influence of Bishop Morton, of Durham. He became a determined opponent of Romanism, and wrote several treatises against it. About this time there seems to have been an appeal to the n.o.bility and gentry of the county for help towards restoring the cathedral. Bishop Croft was buried in the cathedral, and joined to his gravestone is that of his intimate friend George Benson, the Dean. He left by his will a sum of money for the relief of widows, and for apprenticing the sons of clergymen of the diocese.

*Gilbert Ironside*, A.D. 1691-1701, warden of Wadham College, Oxford, was translated to Hereford from Bristol. He died in London, and was buried in the church of St. Mary, Monthalt. This church was destroyed in 1863, but the Rev. F. T. T. Havergal succeeded in getting the Bishop's remains and tomb-stone removed to Hereford Cathedral a few years later, in 1867.

*Humphrey Humphreys*, A.D. 1701-1712, a Welshman, was translated to Hereford from Bangor. He is said to have been a good antiquary. Again, in the early days of the eighteenth century, was the old contest revived between citizens and Bishop as to his jurisdiction in respect of the fair of St. Ethelbert. The episcopal rights remained unaltered, at least in form, down to 1838, when the privileges were taken away by a special Act of Parliament, and compensation was made to the Bishop for the profits arising from the fair privileges, to the amount of 12-1/2 bushels of wheat or its equivalent in money value, according to the price current. This has now been transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the fair limited to two days' duration.

*Philip Bisse*, A.D. 1712-1721, translated from St. David's, was a man of great munificence, and of the best intentions, of whom it may be said he spent "not wisely but too well." He was entirely devoid of any aesthetic feeling or of architectural fitness, and in the most religious spirit committed acts of wholesale sacrilege. He employed, it is said, in the work of restoration in the palace, the stones of the chapter-house, at that time much injured, but certainly by no means ruined. He built a hideous structure intended to support the central tower of the cathedral, and as a crowning act of magnificent liberality, presented the church with the most dreadful, ponderous, and unsuitable altar-piece that could well have been devised. In an elaborate epitaph in the cathedral his virtues are recorded. It was in the time of Bishop Bisse that the meeting of the three choirs of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester first took place.

*Benjamin Hoadley*, A.D. 1721-1723, translated from Bangor, was again translated to Salisbury early in 1723. His rule over Hereford was too short for him to have influenced it for good or evil, and his history belongs rather to Salisbury and Winchester.

*Hon. Henry Egerton*, A.D. 1723-1746, fifth son of the third Earl of Bridgewater, was chaplain to George I. He is chiefly to be remembered for an attempt to destroy the early Norman building adjoining the Bishop's Palace, and thought to have been the parish church of St. Mary, each of its two stories containing a chantry founded by Bishop Hugh Foliot.

*Lord James Beauclerk*, A.D. 1746-1787, grandson of Charles II. and Nell Gwynn, a native of Hereford, was the next Bishop. It was during the last year of his episcopate on Easter Monday, April 17, 1786, that occurred the fall of the western tower of the cathedral, causing much injury. The west front of the church was destroyed, and also a great part of the nave was seriously injured. The Bishop died eighteen months after this calamity.

The see was next occupied for six weeks only by the Hon. J. Harley.

*John Butler*, A.D. 1788-1802. By birth a German, was an active political supporter of the Government of the day.

He contributed largely to the repair of the cathedral.

*Folliott Herbert Cornewall*, A.D. 1802-1808. He was a member of an ancient family in the county of Hereford. Translated from Bristol to Hereford, he was again translated in 1808 to Worcester.

*John Luxmoore*, A.D. 1808-1815, was translated to Hereford from Bristol, and again translated in 1815 to St. Asaph. He helped to establish national schools in the diocese.

*Isaac Huntingford*, A.D. 1815-1832, warden of Winchester College, was translated from Gloucester to Hereford, and still continued his duties at Winchester. During his episcopate an incongruous painted window was placed by Dean Carr at the east end of the choir in 1822. He was author of several cla.s.sical and theological works. He died April 29, 1832, in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried at Compton, near Winchester. There is a monument in the Bishop's cloister and a window in the south-east transept to his memory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.]

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

*Edward Grey, D.D.*, of Christ Church, Oxford, A.D. 1832-1837. He was Dean of Hereford in 1831. He was buried in the choir of the cathedral, eastward of the throne, on July 24, 1837, aged fifty-five years. A bra.s.s plate on the wall marks the spot. There is also a monument to his memory now in the Bishop's cloister.

*Thomas Musgrave, D.D.*, A.D. 1837-1847, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Dean of Bristol; consecrated Bishop of Hereford, October 1, 1837; promoted to the Archbishopric of York, December, 1847. He died in London, May 4, 1860, aged seventy-two years, and was buried at Kensal Green, where there is a tomb with a short inscription. In York Minster a monument in the shape of an altar tomb was erected to him, and in the north choir aisle of Hereford Cathedral are three stained-gla.s.s windows to his memory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.]

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

*Renn d.i.c.kson Hampden, D.D.*, A.D. 1848-1868, Fellow of Oriel College; Princ.i.p.al of St. Mary's Hall; Regius Professor of Divinity; and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He was appointed in 1847 by Lord John Russell, and for the first time since the Reformation "a struggle took place between the recommending minister and a large and influential part of the clergy and laity of the church, who regarded Dr. Hampden's opinions as heretical."(11) Lord John Russell refused to withdraw the appointment, and it was eventually carried out in spite of all remonstrances; not, however, until the question had been taken from the Spiritual Court to the Court of Queen's Bench, where the judges were equally divided in their opinion. He died April 23, 1868, in London, and was buried at Kensal Green, close to the Princess Sophia. His scholastic philosophy was said by Hallam to be the only work of deep metaphysical research on the subject to be found in the English language.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.]

BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.

*James Atlay*, A.D. 1868-1895, second son of the Rev. Henry Atlay, M.A., formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was born July 3, 1817; graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards Fellow, appointed one of Her Majesty's Preachers at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1857; Vicar of Leeds, 1859; Canon of Ripon, 1861; nominated to Hereford, May 9, consecrated at Westminster on June 24, and enthroned in Hereford Cathedral, July 2, 1868. He was succeeded in 1895 by the Right Rev. *John Percival*, D.D., the present holder of the see.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.]

PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.