Worcester Cathedral

The Cathedral was founded in 680, with a Northumbrian priest, Tatwine, appointed as its first bishop. Tatwine died before he could be consecrated, however, so his successor Bishop Bosel may be regarded as Worcester's first serving bishop.[5] The first cathedral church, dedicated to Ss. Peter and Paul, was built in this period, but no remains of its architecture survive. The crypt of the present-day cathedral dates from the 11th century and the time of Wulfstan 'Bishop of Worcester.

The community associated with the cathedral the early eighth century included members of various clerical orders.[6] The cathedral community was regulated along formal monastic lines as a consequence of the Benedictine reforms in the second half of the tenth century (one author gives the time range 974-977, another considers 969 more likely). There is an important connection with Fleury Abbey in France, as Oswald, bishop of Worcester from 961 to 992, was professed at Fleury and introduced the monastic rule of Fleury to the monastery that he established at Worcester around the year 966, which was dedicated — as the present cathedral church is — to St. Mary.[7]

The medieval cloisters

The last Anglo-Saxon bishop of Worcester, Wulstan, unusually remained bishop after the Norman Conquest until his death in 1095. He was later made a saint.

It is the burial place of John, King of England, who succeeded his brother Richard I of England.

The Cathedral Priory was a major landowner and economic force, both in Worcester and the county. Its properties for instance included the priory manor of Bromsgrove.[8] It was a centre of learning and provided schooling. It was associated with hospitals. The Church received a portion of local taxations and ecclesiastical law applied to Christian morals and could result in punishments. It had close political associations with leading gentry and aristocracy. As such, Worcester's Cathedral had a central role in the medieval life of the city and county.[9]

The Cathedral was one of a number of religious institutions in the city.[10]

The Diocese was notably hostile to the small Jewish community which was established in Worcester. Peter of Blois was commissioned by a Bishop of Worcester, probably John of Coutances, to write a significant anti-Judaic treatise Against the Perfidy of Jews around 1190.[11]

William de Blois, as Bishop of Worcester, imposed particularly strict rules on Jews within the diocese in 1219.[12] As elsewhere in England, Jews were officially compelled to wear rectangular white badges, supposedly representing tabulae.[13] In most places, this requirement was relinquished as long as fines were paid. In addition to enforcing the church laws on wearing badges, Blois tried to impose additional restrictions on usury, and wrote to Pope Gregory in 1229 to ask for better enforcement and further, harsher measures. In response, the Papacy demanded that Christians be prevented from working in Jewish homes, "lest temporal profit be preferred to the zeal of Christ", and enforcement of the wearing of badges.[14]

The priory came to an end with King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. Shortly beforehand, in 1535, the prior William More resigned, and was replaced by Henry Holbeach. More had a reputation for fine living, although his standards seem in line with other senior ecclesiasts of the time. However, there certainly were problems with the administration of the priory, including divisions within the community.[15]

The Protestant Hugh Latimer was bishop from 1535, and preached for reform and iconoclasm. He resigned as bishop in 1539, as a result of a theological turn by Henry VIII towards Roman Catholicism, in the Six Articles. John Bell, a moderate reformer, was bishop from 1539 to 1543, during the period of the priory's dissolution.

In the early 16th century, Worcester had around 40 monks. This declined slightly in the years immediately before 1540, as recruitment seems to have halted. There were 35 Benedictine monks plus the Prior Holbeach at the time of dissolution, probably 16 January 1540; eleven were immediately given pensions, while the remainder became secular canons in the new Royal College. Holbeach was re-appointed as the first Dean. A further five former monks were pensioned from the college in July 1540.[16]

The former monastic library of Worcester contained a considerable number of manuscripts which are, among other libraries, now scattered over Cambridge, London (British Library), Oxford Bodleian, and the Cathedral library at Worcester of today.[17] Remains of the priory dating from the 12th and 13th centuries can still be seen.

John Bell's successor as Bishop, Nicholas Heath, was religiously much more conservative and Catholic.

During the Civil War, the Cathedral was used to store arms, possibly as early as September 1642.[18] Worcester declared itself for the Crown and was quickly occupied by extra Royalist forces,who were using the building to store munitions when Essex briefly retook the city after a skirmish on its outskirts. The Parliamentary troops then ransacked the Cathedral building. Stained glass was smashed and the organ destroyed, along with library books and monuments.[19]

The See was abolished during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, approximately 1646–60.[20] The belltower was demolished in 1647 and the building used as a prison in the aftermath of the 1651 battle.[21]

In the 1860s, the cathedral was subject to major restoration work planned by Sir George Gilbert Scott and A. E. Perkins.

An image of the cathedral's west facade appeared on the reverse of the Series E British £20 note commemorating Sir Edward Elgar, issued between 1999 and 2007.[22]

• John Noake (1866), The monastery and cathedral of Worcester., London: Longman, OL 7145051M
• Thomas Dingley (1867), History from marble., [Westminster]: Printed for the Camden Society, LCCN 17001261, OL 14133074M
• Worcester Cathedral (official guidebook), Scala Publishers Ltd. (2004) ISBN 1-85759-347-2
• Tatton-Brown, Tim; John Crook (2002). The English Cathedral. New Holland Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84330-120-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• R.K. Morris, ed. Medieval Art and Architecture at Worcester Cathedral, 1978
• Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967). The Cathedrals of England (2nd ed.). Thames and Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0500200629.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Brookes, Alan (2007), "Worcester: Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary", Worcestershire, The Buildings of England (Revised ed.), London: Yale University Press, pp. 672–702, ISBN 9780300112986, OL 10319229MCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Willis-Bund, JW; Page, William, eds. (1971a). "Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of St Mary, Worcester". A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2. London: British History Online. pp. 94–112. Retrieved 17 June 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)}
• Willis-Bund, J W; Page, William, eds. (1971b). "Hospitals: Worcester". A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2. London: British History Online. pp. 175–179. Retrieved 20 May 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Willis-Bund, J W; Page, William, eds. (1971c). "Friaries: Worcester". A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2. London: British History Online. pp. 167–173. Retrieved 13 May 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ker, Neil Ripley, ed. (1964). Medieval Libraries of Great Britain. Royal Historical Society. pp. 205–215.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Vincent, Nicholas (1994). "Two Papal Letters on the Wearing of the Jewish Badge, 1221 and 1229". Jewish Historical Studies. 34: 209–24. JSTOR 29779960.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Mundill, Robin R (2002). England's Jewish Solution: Experiment and Expulsion, 1262-1290. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52026-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• de Blois, Peter (1194). "Against the Perfidy of the Jews". Medieval Sourcebook. University of Fordham. A treatise addressed to John Bishop of Worcester, probably John of Coutances who held that See, 1194-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Lazare, Bernard (1903), Antisemitism, its history and causes., New York: The International library publishing co., LCCN 03015369, OCLC 3055229, OL 7137045MCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Barrow, Julia (2013). "Worcester". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0470656327.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Knowles, David; Hadcock, R. Neville (1971). Medieval Religious Houses: England & Wales. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-11230-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Braunfels, Wolfgang (1972). Monasteries of Western Europe. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-691-00313-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Dyer, Christopher (2000). Bromsgrove: a small town in Worcestershire in the Middle Ages. Occasional Publications. 9. Worcestershire Historical Society. ISSN 0140-9913.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Thornton, David E (2018). "The Last Monks of Worcester Cathedral Priory" (PDF). Midland History. Routledge. 43 (1): 3–21. doi:10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461774. hdl:11693/50072.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• More, William (1914), Fegan, Ethel S (ed.), Journal of Prior William More., London: Printed for the Worcestershire Historical Society, by M. Hughes and Clarke, OL 23307603M
• Atkin, Malcolm (2004). Worcestershire under arms. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-072-4. OL 11908594M.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• King, Peter (July 1968). "The Episcopate during the Civil Wars, 1642–1649". The English Historical Review. Oxford University Press. 83 (328): 523–537. doi:10.1093/ehr/lxxxiii.cccxxviii.523. JSTOR 564164.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)