Old St. Paul's Cathedral

ies-Treasurer-Chancellor-Archdeacons-Minor Canons-Chantries-Obits-Music in Old St. Paul's-T

ich it was the scene. But it is also necessary, if our conception of its history is to aim at

lien" houses belonged to great monasteries at a distance, some of them even across the sea, in Normandy. These houses became very unpopular, as being colonies of foreigners whose interests were not those of England, and they were abolished in the reign of Henry V. When Henry VIII. went further and dissolved the monasteries altogether, it became needful to reconstitute those cathedrals which were administered by monks. St. Paul's not being such,

pted to Christian use, and was applied in monasteries to those who had charge of the discipline of every ten monks. When the Abbot was absent the senior Dean undertook the government; and thus it was that in cathedral churches which were monastic it gradually became the cu

ral, and therefore was a "Prebendary," the name being derived from the daily rations (pr?benda) served out to soldiers. There were thirty Canons or Prebendaries attached to St. Paul's, and these with the Bishop and Dean for

thus it was that, as we have already told, Dean Ralph de Diceto built the Deanery. And thus gradually the Dean became practical ruler of the cathedral-the Bishop had no voice in affairs of the Chapter, except on appeal. And it is a curious fact that the Canons attempted to exclude the Dean from the managing body, as having no Prebend. He could expel from the choir, and punish t

means of carrying on the services and paying the humbler officials. The Canons, it will be remembered, were secular, not monks; but they had a common "College," with a refectory, kitchen, brewhouse, bakehouse, and mill. Archdeacon Hale compute

ttendance at the cathedral. And thus the services devolved on a few men who stayed on and were styled Residentiaries. These clerics not only had their keep at the common College, which increased in comfort and luxury, but also came in for large incomes from oblations, obits, and othe

IFICAL

vavi anim

Fifteenth Century.

ted times, that it was kept clean, and that reverence was maintained at times of service. Under him were four[page 55] Vergers (wand-bearers), who enforced the Sacrist's rules, and took care that bad characters were not harboured in the church, and that burden-bearers were kept out. We have seen that these duties fell largely into abeyance at certain times. Eve

ndence of the Chapter, and also superinten

Colchester had their own stalls in the c

d in the time of Richard II. They were, of course, under the authorit

t perished in the fire; but there are some of its manuscripts still happily preserved, notably the Majora Statu

soul and for the souls of his predecessors, successors, parents, and benefactors. Sometimes special altars are named at which the Mass is to be said, "St. Chad, St. Nicholas, St. Ethelbert the King, St. Radegund, St. James, the twelve Apostles, St. John the Evangelist, St. John Baptist, St. Erkenwald, St. Sylvester, St. Michael, St. Katharine." I take them as they come in the successive testaments. The following passage is worth quoting:-"In 19 Ed. II. Roger de Waltham, a Canon of this church, enfeoft the Dean and Chapter of certain messuages and shops lying within the city of London, for the support of two priests to pray perpetually for his soul, and for the souls of his parents and benefactors, within the chapel of St. John the Baptist in the south part of this cathedral; as also for the soul of Antony Beck, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Bishop of Durham. And further directed that out of the revenue of these messuages, &c., there should be a yearly allowance to the said Dean and Chapter, to keep solemn processions in this church on the several days of the invention and exaltation of the Holy Cross, as also of St. John Baptist; wearing their copes at those times in such sort as they used on all the great festivals; and likewise out of his high devotion to the service of God, and that it should be the more venerably performed therein, he gave divers costly vestments thereto, some whereof were set with precious stones, expressly directing that in all masses wherein himself by particular name was to be commended, as also at his anniversary, and in those festivals of the Holy Cross, St. Joh

, BISHOP OF

r Ho

sh Mu

iew of a Medi?

Prayers. 15th Century. B

UIEM

Book of Prayer

Museum,

G THE

urs of the Virgin, &

useum, Ha

HE DEAN AN

e Library of St.

AND TR

tures from Choral Service

Museum

per medicinam vulnerum tuorum, qui in cruce pependisti, ut mihi et ipsis, concessa perfecta venia peccatorum, concedas nos ad tuam misericordiam pervenire, et frui beatitudine, tuis electis perenniter repromissa." After which he goes on to direct that he shall be buried close to his predecessor, Henry de Sandwiche, whom he calls his special benefactor, and that the marble covering his grave shall

chantry priest, who was to be appointed by the Bishop of London. He also desired to be buried on the same day he died, with his face exposed to view, outside the west door of the cathedral. His endowment of the chantry being judged to be insufficient, one of the nominated chantry priests gave a further endowment for it. This Bishop Northburgh left 2000l. for the completion of the house of the Carthusians (Charter House) in co-operation with Sir Walter Manny. He also left 1000 marks to be put into a chest in the Cathedral Treasury, out of which any poor layman might, for a sufficient pledge, borrow 10l., the Dean and principal Can

ney which the Chapter employed in repairing some ruined houses; but they took care to establish a chantr

ormed at the high altar for ever; and moreover to distribute unto the said Dean and Chapter these several sums, viz., to the Dean, as often as he shall be present, three shillings and fourpence; to the principal canons, twenty pence (to the sum of 16s. 8d.); to the petty canons, ten shillings; to the chaplains, twenty shillings; to the vicars, four shillings and eightpence; to the choristers, two shillings and sixpence; to the vergers, twelvepence; to the bell-ringers, fourpence; to the keeper of the lamps about the tomb of the said duke and duchess, at each of their said anniversaries, sixpence; to the Mayor of London for the time being, in respect of his presence at the said anniversaries, three shillings and fourpence; to the Bishop of London, for the rent of

em, some were united together, and thus, at their dissolution in the first year of Edward VI.

particular anniversaries of deaths. They varied in value according to t

nobles at the shrine of St. Erkenwald, the same at that of the Annunciation, twenty-six floren nobles at the Crucifix by the north door, four basins of gold at the high altar; and, at the hearing of Mass, after the Offertory, gave to the Dean then offic

Bishop Richard Clifford, with the consent of the Dean and Chapter, ordained that from the first day of Decembe

ans were in use in the church at any rate in the fourth century, and were introduced into England by Archbishop Theodore. In old times there was no offici

nticles ever composed for the English Liturgy, is very dull, but his harmony of the Litany and of the Versicles after the Creed, has never been equalled for beauty. His Canon tune, to which we sing Ken's Evening Hymn, is also unsurpassed, and his anthem, "If ye love Me," is one of wonderful sweetness and devout feeling. John Redford was his contemporary, and was organist of St. Paul's, 1530-1540. His anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord," is as impressive and stately as Tallis's that I have just named. It is frequently sung at St. Paul's still. William Byrd was senior chorister of St. Paul's in 1554. I hold his service in D minor to be the finest which had as yet been set to the Reformed Liturgy-the Nicene Creed in partic

scenes from the Bible and Church History, but often degenerating into coarse buffoonery and horseplay. The "Boy Bishop" was for many generations an established institution. One ceremony there was, peculiar to St. Paul's, namely, "The Offering

d made him of twenty-two acres of land adjoining his park in Essex. There was a grand ceremonial on each occasion, the Canons wore their best vestments and garlands of flowers, and there was a procession

N THE CHURCH OF ST.

Lydgate's Life

useum, Ha

It represents the coffin of St. Edmund temporarily deposited in the church of St. Gregory-by-St. Paul's (having been brought up from Bury for safety during an incursion of the Danes), and an

ondene towa

ng blynde me

was entred

lame be grace t

ple were maad

man contrauct

lpe, was maad

martir heeld t

ewyn be

Bysshop upon

Edmund ageyn

maner s

nteth, and unde

late into Po

ook with hym

cherche off

ly, yiff it wo

martir fro th

bysshop was t

dy to Pouli

yx as a gret

her myhte n

e ther fforce

el they spent

e, the bysshop

rde nor off n

ouht-this myra

nt it stood y

e bysshop g

audyd off h

ower and fforce

neer with hum

yng sayde h

eryng lowly f

tre he shold

praier Ayl

and: fond no

t wher the ky

up withou

anne with dree

forth with

sid the subarbi

ge