A Guide to Peterborough Cathedral Part 3

"Then they rob and rifle the tombs, and violate the monuments of the dead. And where should they first begin, but with those of the two queens, who had been there interr'd: the one on the north side, the other on the south side of the church, both near unto the altar. First then they demolished Queen Katherin's tomb, Henry the Eighth his repudiated wife: they break down the rails that enclosed the place, and take away the black velvet pall which covered the herse,--overthrow the herse itself, displaced the gravestone that lay over her body, and have left nothing now remaining of that tomb, but only a monument of their own shame and villany. The like they had certainly done to the Queen of Scots, but that her herse and pall were removed with her body to Westminster by King James the First, when he came to the crown. But what did remain they served in like manner; that is, her royal arms and escutcheons, which hung upon a pillar, near the place where she had been interr'd [which] were most rudely pulled down, defaced and torn.

"In the north isle of the church there was a stately tomb in memory of Bishop Dove, who had been thirty years bishop of the place. He lay there in portraicture in his episcopal robes, on a large bed under a fair table of black marble, with a library of books about him. These men that were such enemies to the name and office of a bishop, and much more to his person, hack and hew the poor innocent statue in pieces, and soon destroy'd all the tomb. So that in a short s.p.a.ce, all that fair and curious monument was buried in its own rubbish and ruines.

"The like they do to two other monuments standing in that isle; the one the tomb of Mr. Worm, the other of Dr. Angier, who had been prebendary of that church.

"In a place then called the new building, and since converted to a library, there was a fair monument, which Sir Humphrey Orm (to save his heir that charge and trouble), thought fit to erect in his own life time, where he and his lady, his son and wife and all their children, were lively represented in statues, under which were certain English verses written:--

_"Mistake not, reader, I thee crave,_ _This is an altar not a grave,_ _Where fire raked up in ashes lyes,_ _And hearts are made the sacrifice, &c._

"Which two words, altar and sacrifice, 'tis said, did so provoke and kindle the zealots indignation, that they resolve to make the tomb itself a sacrifice: and with axes, poleaxes, and hammers, destroy and break down all that curious monument, save only two pilasters still remaining, which shew and testifie the elegancy of the rest of the work. Thus it hapned, that the good old knight who was a constant frequenter of G.o.ds publick service, three times a day, outlived his own monument, and lived to see himself carried in effigie on a souldiers back, to the publick market-place, there to be sported withall, a crew of souldiers going before in procession, some with surplices, some with organ pipes, to make up the solemnity.

"When they had thus demolished the chief monuments, at length the very gravestones and marbles on the floor did not escape their sacrilegious hands. For where there was any thing on them of sculptures or inscriptions in bra.s.s, these they force and tear off. So that whereas there were many fair pieces of this kind before, as that of abbot William of Ramsey, whose large marble gravestone was plated over with bra.s.s, and several others the like, there is not any such now in all the church to be seen; though most of the inscriptions that were upon them are preserved in this book.

"One thing, indeed, I must needs clear the souldiers of, which _Mercurius Rusticus_ upon misinformation charges them with, viz.:--That they took away the bell clappers and sold them, with the bra.s.s they plucked off from the tombs. The mistake was this: the neighbourhood being continually disturbed with the souldiers jangling and ringing the bells auker, as though there had been a scare-fire, (though there was no other, but what they themselves had made,) some of the inhabitants by night took away the clappers and hid them in the roof of the church, on purpose only to free their ears from that confused noise; which gave occasion to such as did not know it, to think the souldiers had stolen them away.

"Having thus done their work on the floor below, they are now at leasure to look up to the windows above, which would have entertained any persons else with great delight and satisfaction, but only such zealots as these, whose eyes were so dazzled, that they thought they saw popery in every picture and piece of painted gla.s.s.

"Now the windows of this church were very fair, and had much curiosity of workmans.h.i.+p in them, being adorned and beautified with several historical pa.s.sages out of scripture, and ecclesiastical story; such were those in the body of the church, in the isles, in the new building, and elsewhere. But the cloister windows were most famed of all for their great art and pleasing variety. One side of the quadrangle containing the history of the Old Testament; another, that of the new; a third, a history from the first foundation of the Monastery of King Peada to the restoring of it by King Edgar; a fourth, all the kings of England downwards from the first Saxon king. All which notwithstanding were most shamefully broken and destroyed."

[But little remains to be seen of these famous cloisters beyond the mouldings of arches imposed in rough walls on each side. The five recesses in the south wall were partly the lavatories used by the Monks before entering the refectory by the richly cut door in the corner.]

_"Every window had at the bottom the explanation of the history thus in verse:_--

_First Window._

COL. 1.

"King Penda, a paynim, as writing seyth, "'Gate yese five children of Christen feyth."

COL. 2.

"The n.o.ble Peada, by G.o.d's grace, "Was the first founder of this place."

COL. 3.

"By Queen Ermenyld, had King Wulfere, "These twey sons that ye see here."

COL. 4.

"Wulfade rideth, as he was wont, "Into the forest, the hart to hunt."

_Second Window._

COL. 1.

"Fro' all his men Wulfade is gone, "And 'suyth himself the hart alone."[21]

COL. 2.

"The hart brought Wulfade to a well, "That was beside Seynt Chaddy's cell."

COL. 3.

"Wulfade askyd of Seynt Chad,-- "Where is the hart that me hath lad."

COL. 4.

"The hart that hither thee hath brought, "Is sent by Christ, that thee hath bought."

_Third Window._

COL. 1.

"Wulfade prayd Chad, that ghostly leech, "The feyth of Christ him for to teach."

COL. 2.

"Seynt Chad teacheth Wulfade the feyth, "And words of baptism over him he seyth."

COL. 3.

"Seynt Chad devoutly to ma.s.s him dight, "And hoseled Wulfade Christy's knight."

COL. 4.

"Wulfade wished Seynt Chad, that day, "For his brother Rufine to pray."

_Fourth Window._

COL. 1.

"Wulfade told his brother Rufine "That he was christned by Chaddy's doctrine."

COL. 2.

"Rufine to Wulfade said again,-- "Christned also would I be fain."

COL. 3.

"Wulfade, Rufine to Seynt Chad leadeth, "And Chad with love of feyth him feedeth."

COL. 4.

"Rufine is christned, of Seynt Chaddys, "And Wulfade, his brother, his G.o.dfather is."