Hereford Cathedral (Cathedral Of Saint Mary The Virgin And Saint Ethelbert The King). (Part Three).

Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 3 January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

Peter of Aigueblanche, also known as Aquablanca,was one of the most notable of the pre-reformation Bishops of Hereford, who left his mark upon the Cathedral and the Diocese.

Aquablanca came to England in the train of Eleanor of Provence. He was a man of energy and resource; though he lavished money upon the Cathedral and made a handsome bequest to the Poor, it cannot be pretended that his qualifications for the Office, to which King Henry III appointed him, included piety. He was a nepotist who occasionally practised gross fraud.[4]

When Prince Edward came to Hereford to deal with Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd, Aquablanca was away in Ireland on a tithe-collecting expedition, and the Dean and Canons were also absent. Not long after Aquablanca’s return, which was probably expedited by the stern rebuke which the King administered, he and all his relatives from Savoy were seized within the Cathedral by a party of Barons, who deprived him of the money which he had extorted from the Irish.[4]

The Reredos on The Lady Altar,

Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 3 January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana

(Wikimedia Commons)

In the first half of the 14th-Century, the rebuilding of the Central Tower, which is embellished with Ball-Flower ornaments, was carried out. At about the same time the Chapter House and its Vestibule were built, then Thomas Trevenant, who was Bishop from 1389 to 1404, rebuilt the South End and Groining of the Transept.

Around the middle of the 15th-Century, a Tower was added to the Western End of the Nave, and, in the second half of the 15th-Century, Bishops John Stanberry and Edmund Audley built three Chantries, the former on the North Side of the Presbytery, the latter on the South Side of The Lady Chapel.

Later Bishops Richard Mayew and Booth, who between them ruled the Diocese from 1504 to 1535, made the last additions to the Cathedral by erecting the North Porch, now forming the principal Northern Entrance. The building of the present edifice therefore extended over a period of 440 years.

Stained-Glass Windows,

Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 3 January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana

(Wikimedia Commons)

Thomas de Cantilupe was the next but one Bishop of Hereford, after Aquablanca. He had faults not uncommon in men who held high Ecclesiastical Office in his day, however he was a strenuous administrator of his See, and an unbending champion of its rights.

For assaulting some of the episcopal tenants and raiding their cattle, Lord Clifford was condemned to walk barefoot through the Cathedral to The High Altar, and Cantilupe, himself, applied the rod to his back.

Cantilupe also wrung from the Welsh King, Llewellyn, some Manors which he had seized, and Cantilupe, after a successful lawsuit against the Earl of Gloucester to determine the possession of a Chase near the Forest of Malvern, dug the dyke which can still be traced on the crest of The Malvern Hills.

PART FOUR TO FOLLOW.