CATHEDRAL OF SALISBURY.

CHAPTER III.

Increase of the city.—Ecclesiastical establishments.-Dispute of the citizens with bishop Gandavo.-Permission of the bishop to fortify the city. Licence of Edward the Third to wall the Close.Grant for the removal of the cathedral and canonical houses at Old Sarum.-Erection of the tower and spire.-Appointment of foreigners to the principal dignities. -Dispute with bishop Erghum.-Design to obtain the canonisation of the founder Osmund.-General convocation.-Admission of different illustrious personages into the confraternity of the church.-Decline of the tower and spire.-General convocation.-Charter of Henry the Sixth, giving leave to appropriate lands for the security of the fabric. -Grant of the manor of Cricklade for that purpose, by Walter, Lord Hungerford.-Proceedings on the canonisation of Osmund.-Mission to the Court of Rome.-Canonisation of Osmund-Miracles attributed to his intercession. 1285-1456.

THE beginning of the fourteenth century was an important æra both to our church and city. If we transport ourselves in imagination to that period, we contemplate an edifice inferior to none of its kind and age; the wonder of the time in which it was built, as it is the admiration of the

present, in all its original perfection and elegant simplicity, as it was planned by able heads, and left by skilful hands. We find also the city to which it gave birth, rapidly increasing in extent and importance: at first acquiring wealth and activity, from the vast sums expended in the construction of the cathedral, and the numerous artisans to whom it furnished employment ; and finally, from the powerful influence of industry, enabled to subsist by its own resources, and rising to a considerable rank in the State.

It is natural to man, however, to spurn at restraint, and, despising the advantages which he actually enjoys, to hope for greater from change. Such was the case with the citizens of Salisbury. In 1315, conceiving themselves aggrieved by the services attached to their feudal dépendance on the bishop, particularly by the tallage, which Simon de Gandavo then first demanded, they appealed to the king, and obtained leave to renounce their privileges, on the condition of being exempted from the claims of their prelate. Scarely, however, had a year elapsed, before they had ample cause to regret their precipitation. Deprived of the advantages which they enjoyed under the protection of the church, their trade languished, their consideration was lost; and they saw themselves, to use their own words, "from being members of a city, to which it was glorious to belong, "stripped of their liberties, and rendered a derision to the people."*

They made an appeal to the bishop, renewed their professions of obedience, and by his interposition obtained the restoration of their privileges and exemptions, on the payment of the usual fees. An arrangement was accordingly drawn up between Mr. Walter Harvey, secretary of the bishop, and the agents of the citizens, which, from the minuteness of

* Different documents on this subject, which concern the city rather than the church, are printed in Price's Account of the Cathedral, p. 22-33.

its stipulations, appears to have been studiously calculated to obviate all causes of future dispute.

This broil being happily accommodated, additional confidence revided between the prelate and the community. About 1315 Simon de Gandavo exercised the power confided to him, by the charter of Henry the Third, and granted the citizens permission to fortify their city with a rampart and ditch. In these disorderly times, when the weakness and imprudence of Edward the Second had rendered the kingly power a mere empty name, and when the restraints of law were often defied by bands of robbers, such a privilege must have been of no ordinary value, to a place whose wealth offered a temptation to cupidity and violence. The remains of this rampart were extant till within a few years; and proved that the city at so early a period occupied nearly the same ground as a present. Various notices preserved in numerous deeds which were executed towards the close of the thirteenth, and during the fourteenth century, prove also that its internal arrangement has undergone little change, and that many of the streets had then received the names they still bear. We find references to the Butcher Row, in 1287; to the free school, and Castle Street, in 1326; to Gigore, or Gigant Street, and Wynemand Street, in 1334; to the Poultry Cross, and New Street, in 1335; to Fisherton, in 1341; to High Street, in 1342; to Mynster and Silver Streets, in 1345; to Endless Street, in 1348; to Brown Street, in 1369; to Winchester Street, in 1379; to Culver Street, in 1402. These notices comprise descriptions of shops, cellars, and magazines, which shew a respectable degree of industry, wealth, and prosperity.

The place was not deficient in ecclesiastical and other public establishments, proportionate to its size and consequence. In 1227, according to the author of the Antiquitates Sarisburienses, Ela, countess of Salisbury,

granted to bishop Poor a certain quantity of land, near Bentley Wood, and much cattle, for the endowment of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, in New Sarum. This foundation was not completed before the translation of Poor to Durham, in 1229. But his successor, Bingham, prosecuted the design, and established the present Hospital, near Harnham bridge; for a deed of this bishop was executed in 1244, attesting that he had given possession of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, which he had founded, to the dean and chapter, together with the custody of the bridge at Harnham, then newly constructed, and the chapel of St. John the Baptist, built thereon.*

Within a short space of time another establishment, of a different nature, was founded on the opposite side of the road. In consequence of an insult to Otho, the papal legate, an interdict was laid on the city of Oxford, in 1238, and many of the students withdrew to Salisbury. This incident suggested to bishop Bridport the idea of forming an establishment for public instruction. In 1260 he founded, in the meadow between the river and the cathedral, the College or House of St. Nicholas de Valle, for the maintenance of a warden, two chaplains, and twenty poor scholars, who were to be instructed in the knowledge of holy writ and the liberal arts. The nomination of the guardian was vested in the dean and chapter, who were declared patrons; and from the Registers, it appears to have been generally filled by a residentiary member of the cathedral, +

Soon after the completion of the cathedral, the increasing population of the city rendered additional churches necessary. The parish church dedicated to St. Edmund, was made collegiate, if not founded, by bishop de la Wyle, before 1270, for a provost and twelve secular canons. A

* Antiq. Sarisb. and Bishops' Records.

+ Deed of foundation, in the Bishops' Records.

church was also erected, at an early period, near Harnham bridge; but being exposed to injury, from the inundations of the river, it was abandoned, and a new structure built on the higher ground, which now bears the name of St. Martin's. * It is mentioned in the Chapter Books, early in the fourteenth century. A church, dedicated to St. Thomas, was also founded about the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Nearly coeval with these buildings we trace several monastic establishments. In Fisherton was a House of Black Friars, or Friars Preachers, the foundation of which is ascribed, by Godwin, to Robert Kilwardby, archbishop of Canterbury. † A Convent of Grey Friars, which is said to have been originally established at Old Sarum, ‡ was removed to the new city soon after the building of the cathedral. A Convent of Friars Minors is also frequently mentioned in the Bishops' and Chapter Books, and must have been of some magnitude, as different entries occur of ordinations held by the bishops in their church.

After this cursory review of the city and its ecclesiastical foundations, we revert to the history of the parent establishment.

During the reign of Edward the Second no addition to its former advantages or privileges can be traced; indeed we find only a solitary grant, conferring on the dean and chapter the tythe of venison in the forest of Clarendon. §

* From the appearance of the massive low pointed arches, rising from short columns, which are still visible in the buildings of St. Nicholas's Hospital, it is not improbable that the original church of St. Martin was converted into a chapel for that establishment.

Tanner. Wilts. art. Salisbury.

William of Worcester, who visited this establishment, says it was founded by bishop Richard, or Poor.

§ Charter Edward II. A. R. 13. Chapter Records.