Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Part 7

All whitewash and plaster facing have been stripped off the walls throughout the old parts of the church, to make the restoration as complete as possible, not only in the purity of the new work, but in the removal of what was fict.i.tious and incongruous from the old.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK.]

FOOTNOTES:

[22] "When Dr. Sacheverell was at Lichfield (in 1712) Johnson was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond observed him at the Cathedral perched upon his father's shoulders, listening and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnson how he could possibly think of bringing such an infant to church, and in the midst of so great a crowd. He answered, because it was impossible to keep him at home; for, young as he was, he believed he had caught the public spirit and zeal for Sacheverell, and would have stayed for ever in the church, satisfied with beholding him."--Boswell's "Life of Johnson," Chap. I.

[23] Bede informs us that St. Paulinus baptized a number of people in the Rivers Glen (= Bowent) and Swale, in Yorks.h.i.+re. ("Eccles. Hist.,"

Book II, Chap. xiv.) The latter of these incidents is supposed to be here depicted.

[24] Dr. Thompson gives a selection from the long list of subscribers, which includes, besides n.o.bility and clergy, many of the leading actors, dramatic critics, and novelists of the day--showing the widespread interest taken in the memorial.

[25] Edmund Shakespeare is described in the Burial Register as "a Player," to which the Monthly Account adds that he was "buried in the church with a forenoon knell of the great bell," costing 20_s._ (_Vide_ Dr. Thompson's "History.")

[26] The present elevation of the altar at St. Saviour's has been criticised as above the level which a strict adherence to precedent, here and elsewhere, required.

[27] _E.g._, Christ Church Priory, St. Alban's Abbey, All Souls', Oxford, and Winchester Cathedral.

[28] See an interesting article signed "E.I.C." (E.J. Carlos), in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1834, Part i, pp. 151-154.

[29] In Pennant "History of London" (1790), and Moss and Nightingale's "History and Antiquities of St. Saviour's Church" (1817-1818), the retro-choir is spoken of as "The Chapel of the Virgin Mary," in distinction from that then known as "the Bishop's Chapel."

[30] In Seymour's "History" (1734), written when the figure was standing upright, it is described as "new painted and flourished up, and looking somewhat dreadful."

In Pennant's "History of London" (vol. i, edit. 1801), it is said to have been removed from the north transept to make room for the Lockyer monument (1672), and then set up against the north wall.

[31] For full particulars of the organ the reader is referred to the specification in the Appendix, as furnished by the builders, Messrs.

Lewis and Co., Limited, Ferndale Road, Brixton, S.W.

[32] The veneration in which her name is held is further attested in the parish, where the old street in the Borough, till recent years known as King Street, has been renamed Newcomen Street.

CHAPTER IV

THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK

The two dioceses with which St. Saviour's Church and parish have hitherto been a.s.sociated are Winchester and Rochester. The former was originally one of the largest in England, extending as it did in one direction from the south of London to the Channel Islands; the latter the smallest of all, covering only a portion of the county of Kent.

Various changes have been made from time to time in the area of both in attempts to equalise the duties of their Bishops, and to meet other altering conditions. Of these changes the first that concerns us was that made in August, 1877, when the parishes wholly or partly within the parliamentary divisions of East and Mid Surrey (with two exceptions) were transferred from the dioceses of Winchester and London to Rochester. The Borough of Southwark, including St. Saviour's Church, was thus brought from the jurisdiction of the first to the last of these dioceses. In the following year the portion of Surrey included in the transfer was formed into the new Archdeaconry of Southwark; and a few months later (August, 1878) the patronage of the benefices thus transferred, and hitherto held by the Bishops of London and Winchester, was vested in the Bishop of Rochester. In 1879, in 1886, and again in 1901, the Rural Deaneries of Rochester were rearranged, thus s.h.i.+fting more or less the boundaries of the Southwark Archdeaconry. But the area of the Rochester Diocese was left undisturbed till 1904, when "the Southwark and Birmingham Bishoprics Act" of that year allowed the Diocese of Southwark to be formed out of it. St. Saviour's had been popularly known as a _pro_-Cathedral for some years previous to 1905, when it was formally const.i.tuted the Cathedral of Southwark. The architecture of the fabric, with its long history and a.s.sociations, had long pointed to this fine church for the purpose, for which it was further prepared by Sir Arthur Blomfield's restoration, begun in 1890.

Dr. Anthony Wilson Thorold was appointed to the See of Rochester in 1877, and translated to Winchester in 1891. It was, therefore, in his time that the first diocesan changes affecting St. Saviour's were made, and the restoration of the church was actively taken in hand. By far the most important part of this work was the rebuilding of the nave, which he had the satisfaction of seeing well advanced before his translation. Some of his predecessors had become alive to the necessity of reducing the onerous duties of the See, but it was left to him to give effect to their wishes by the creation of the Archdeaconry of Southwark, with an eye to its forming the nucleus of a separate diocese. His successor, Dr. Randall Thomas Davidson, now Archbishop of Canterbury, lent his full energies to the work thus begun, in which he was ably supported by the Suffragan Bishop of Southwark, Dr. Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, consecrated in 1891 and promoted to the See of Worcester in 1905 in consequence of the episcopal changes brought about by the Act of Parliament just mentioned. Before Dr. Davidson's removal to Winchester in 1895, besides supervising the restoration of Rochester Cathedral, he was able to do a good work more directly concerning the Southwark Diocese, in the erection of the Bishop's House by Kennington Park. The funds were provided by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from the sale of Danbury Palace, hitherto the residence of the Bishops of Rochester, but now disposed of as inaccessible and otherwise inconvenient. In place of it the new house was built in the heart of the most thickly peopled part of the diocese, within the Southwark Archdeaconry, and probably in view of its ultimately becoming the residence of the Bishop of Southwark. Dr.

Davidson himself was not destined to occupy it, as it was not finished till he was on the eve of translation. On 12th November, 1895, Edward Stuart Talbot was enthroned as his successor in the See of Rochester, and at once took up his abode at Kennington, where he will continue to live at this easy centre of communication between him and his people now that he is Bishop of Southwark.

It will be seen from the accompanying map that the new diocese has been made to include the whole of the county of London south of the Thames, and the Archdeaconry of Kingston, thus reducing the area of Rochester to about half its previous size and relieving it of its most thickly crowded portion.

The population of the diocese of Rochester at the census of 1901 was 2,254,947. The population of the Southwark Diocese at the present time is roughly estimated at 2,000,000, rather more than less. It consists of 294 parishes, ministered to by 687 licensed clergy, or about one to every 3,000 people, except in South London, where the proportion is about one to every 4,000.

Bounded on the north by the Thames, on the east, south, and west by the dioceses of Canterbury, Chichester, and Winchester respectively, the s.p.a.ce enclosed presents an irregular figure varying from some three miles in breadth, in its central portion, to about thirteen along its southern frontier, and about twenty in its widest part towards the north. Its greatest length in a straight line from London Bridge to Felbridge is about twenty-five miles. Geographically the map suggests a couple of small continents joined together by a sort of isthmus in the middle, where the breadth is narrowed by the sweeping bays, or inlets, formed by the encroaching dioceses on the right and left.

By Letters Patent, dated 17th May, 1905, Dr. Edward Stuart Talbot, previously Bishop of Rochester, was appointed to the newly-founded See of Southwark. For its better organisation he lost no time in applying to the Crown for the appointment of two Suffragan Bishops, suggesting one for Woolwich, as a place of great national importance and a centre of vigorous munic.i.p.al and industrial life; the other for Kingston, as representing the ancient and rural side of the diocese. By the approval of His Majesty the appointments were made in the same month, viz.: the Rev. John c.o.x Leeke, Hon. Canon of Rochester Cathedral and Rural Dean of Woolwich, to be Bishop Suffragan of Woolwich; and the Rev. Cecil Hook, Vicar of All Saints', Leamington, and Hon. Canon of Worcester Cathedral, to be Bishop Suffragan of Kingston-on-Thames.

In one sense the most important difficulty to be overcome in the formation of the new diocese was the raising of the capital to provide for the endowment, a _sine qua non_ to the Parliamentary sanction. The requisite sum was provided by voluntary contributions, great and small, throughout the undivided diocese of Rochester, and throughout the country; not the least interesting item being the "s.h.i.+lling fund,"

promoted by the Rev. T.B. Dover, Vicar of Maiden, which resulted in an Easter offering of exactly 2,200. The capital was brought up to 109,000 by the time the new appointments were made. It is intended to provide a minimum income of 3,000 for the Bishop of Southwark, and a house for his successor in the See of Rochester, in lieu of the house at Kennington Park, transferred from the old to the new diocese. The funds of the latter have since been augmented by a grant of 25,000 from the Bishop of London, out of the compensation money (100,000), paid by the City and South London Electric Railway Company for undermining the City Church of St. Mary Woolnoth in order to build a station. This sum of 25,000 is specially destined for church extension, and Dr. Talbot set apart 2,000 of it, directly it was granted, for that purpose in the Woolwich area.

Mr. Harry Lloyd, of Woodlands, Caterham, is acting as Hon. Treasurer to the fund which has been opened for the complete equipment of the diocese.

The Cathedral Church of St. Saviour is as yet without endowment, and depends entirely upon voluntary offerings for its expenses. These were estimated on the average at about 2,500 till last year, when the cost of maintenance amounted to 3,096, besides which about 350 was required for the College of Clergy. Attention was called to this matter by the Ven. Archdeacon Taylor during his Visitation held in the Cathedral on 25th May, 1905, when he made an earnest appeal to the church people of the diocese for their help and sympathy on behalf of the Cathedral, the Bishop and his Suffragans, and all concerned in the work.

The duties before them, in the arrangement and control of the various elements of which the diocese is composed, will obviously not be light, but ought to be extremely interesting and rewarding. They will have to deal with extremes, which may there be said to meet, in a combination of rural and urban, ancient and modern, commercial, industrial, and aristocratic life, a variety in unity such as the Catholic Church itself presents, of which the diocese may be regarded as a miniature.

"In veste varietas sit: scissura non sit."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PRIORY SEAL.

(OBVERSE. REVERSE.)]

APPENDIX

I

LIST OF THE PRIORS OF ST. MARY OVERIE

Appointed.

1. AldG.o.d 1106 2. Algar 1130 3. Warin 1132 4. Gregory 1142 5. Ralph 1150 6. Richard 1154 7. Valeria.n.u.s 1163 8. William de Oxenford 1189 9. Richard de St. Mildred 1203 10. William Fitz Samari 1205 11. Martin 1206 12. Robert de Oseney 1218 13. Humphrey 1223 14. Eustachius 1240 15. Stephen 1253 16. Alan 1266 17. William Wallys 1283 18. Peter de Cheyham 1306 19. Thomas de Southwark 1326 20. Robert de Welles 1331 21. John de Peckham 1348 22. Henry Collingbourne 1359 23. John Kyngeston 1395 24. Robert Weston 1397 25. Henry Werkeworth 1414 26. John Bottisham 1452 27. Henry de Burton 1462 28. Richard Briggs 1486 29. John Reculver 1491 30. Richard Mich.e.l.l 1499 31. Robert Shouldham 1512 32. Bartholomew Linstede 1513 (_alias_ Fowle)

The last-named surrendered the Priory to Henry VIII in 1540, when he was granted a pension of 100 per annum, and the use of a house within the close. The aggregate granted to the other annuitants (eleven in number), amounted to 70. The pensions were to be paid half yearly.

The annual value of the Priory at the surrender was estimated at 656 10_s._, from which "Reprisals," amounting to 32 3_s._ 6_d._, were deducted by the Commissioners, leaving 624 6_s._ 6_d._ net.

II

THE PRIORY SEAL

The impressions given (p. 103) are taken from a fine, but imperfect, sulphur cast in the British Museum (4050 lxxii, 66 and 67) of the Seal in use in the twelfth century. It is circular, about 2-3/8 inches in diameter, and contains, within a vesical compartment, a figure of the Blessed Virgin, seated on a carved throne, holding a fleur-de-lis in her right hand, and supporting with her left the Infant Saviour upon her knee. The Holy Child is distinguished by a cruciform nimbus, while that of the Virgin is a plain circle. The Child is raising the right hand in benediction, and holds in the left an orb. The vesica is bordered with a double dotted line, containing the salutation: "Ave: Maria: gracia: plena: Dns: tec.u.m: benedicta." A similar border, immediately within the circ.u.mference, holds the legend: "Sigillum ecclesie sancte Marie de Suthewercha."

The s.p.a.ce between the circ.u.mference and the vesica is occupied on each side by two angels, with expanded wings, those above issuing from waves, those below kneeling.

The reverse contains a small counterseal, 1-3/8 inch in diameter. The figure is an angel, with nimbus and expanded wings, issuing from waves, with (probably) an orb in the hands.

The inscription: "Ave: Mater: Misericordie."