The Headless

Ely Cathedral is more than a place of worship, it’s also a repository of early English and Norman history. Beneath the glow of stained glass, exploring niches and chapels, you absorb more than you fully realise, the process addictive

One of my favourites was St Edmund’s Chapel 

Edmund was a C9th king of East Anglia, killed by the Danes in 870 for refusing to renounce the Christian faith. Tradition says that the Danes shot him with arrows and beheaded him for good measure. Legend also claims that a wolf found and protected the royal head until his friends arrived. 

The last resting place of the relics of Saxon Christians of the 10^th and 11^th Centuries

There is also a space dedicated to early Saxon benefactors and a once famous hero, one now largely forgotten. I was going to skip the Saxon worthies, largely bishops, but then I fell madly in love with their names:

Wulfstan Archbishop of York, died 1023; Osmund, a Swedish Bishop died 1067; Aelfwine, Bishop of Elmham, died 1021; Aelfgar, Bishop of Elmham, died 1021; Eadnoth, Bishop of Dorchester, died 1016; Aethelstan, Bishop of Elham died 996; Bryhtnoth, Eoldorman of East Anglia, died 991

Bryhtnoth is of particular import, being the famous Saxon hero who fought the Danes to the death—his final battle is commemorated in the well-known Old English poem, The Battle of Maldon. It was quite a battle.  His chest contains a headless skeleton. 

 

The Old English version with subtitles

 

 The Lady Chapel

 

                                     The mirror below allows a close up reflection of the ceiling—see below

 

The Lady Chapel is dedicated to Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus. It is the largest chapel of its kind attached to any British Cathedral. Its foundations were laid in 1321 and it was completed in 1348.

High up on the ceiling you can see carvings or ‘bosses’ dating back to the C14th. They are rich in imagery depicting foliage, human faces, animals and mythical creatures. The roof is also decorated with roses. My wife, being from Yorkshire, was a bit miffed by the paucity of white roses, I think I counted only two. Being Lancastrian, I was reasonably content with the sheer number of red roses until I realised the issue was meaningless, since the Chapel was completed in 1348, a hundred years or more before the War of the Roses began. 

What then do the roses signify? I accosted a tour-guide who gavely informed me that he already had a tour in tow and I wasn’t part of it. Scousers haven’t yet learnt the meaning of no, so I persisted with the question. He relented with courtesy, saying he was just about to inform his group on that same topic. The red rose is associated with Mary as Queen of Heaven and is a symbol of her great love. The white rose is associated with Mary’s virginity, and so is a symbol of her purity.

In this context, the ceiling reflects Mary’s greater glory as Queen of Heaven, the two white roses reminding us of her purity. There are hidden continents of symbols lost to us now but familiar to the medieval Christian pilgrim. 

 

By the C14th, Mary had become an important focus of people’s devotions, especially women. The elaborate carvings around the walls depicted the Virgin Mary’s story, and pilgrims would have used these to aid their prayers.

 

And then came the Reformation and the insufferable Dean Goodrich; religious buildings and art were defaced or demolished. The majestic, rich interior of Ely’s Lady Chapel was a particular target for damage. Today, the rawness of the Lady Chapel, is a direct result of the legacy from that time; the empty wall niches, headless statues and faint traces of paint, are all that survive. Although, if you look hard, one statue survived the carnage along with its head.

 

After 1556, the Lady Chapel became Holy Trinity Church and was used as a parish church for the people of Ely. The walls were whitewashed and its stained windows replaced with plain glass. I'm sure God was delighted. 

The Octagon

 

Note the eight sided tower to the right of the photos

                                         Inside, the central nave of the cathedral with its decorated ceiling

                                                               A close up of the ceiling.

A glimpse of its central masterpiece – the Octagon. 

The Octagon looking up from below

A close up of the Octagon. Zoom in and notice the attention to detail, which those below probably 

wouldn’t see – the wounds to Christ’s body and hands – theologically interesting since He is presumably 

now in Heaven – but a reminder perhaps for those who couldn’t actually see what He was reminding them 

of. 

When the cathedral was first built, it had a square stone central tower. The area beneath this was set aside for use by the monks. Here they would gather, screened off from the hoi polloi to pray—eight times a day including a brief night shift.

In 1332 disaster struck when the original tower crashed to the ground. Fortunately, the monks were not at prayer, and no one was injured or killed. The monks though, faced one enormous challenge— clearing the mass of rubble and working out how to rebuild a much safer central tower. 

 

Over the next twenty years, an octagon rose from the ruins. It was designed by William Hurley, Edward III’s master carpenter, and after all the clearing was done took 14 years to build, coming in at 400 tonnes. An eight-sided stone tower provided firm foundations, for the wooden dome crowned with a Lantern that spanned the wide central space. This oak Lantern was and is unique, a masterpiece of medieval craftsmanship and innovation.

Inside, the gilded paintwork, intricate stone carvings and brightly coloured windows add a rich and exuberant decoration. Very high— at the very apex of the Lantern, a striking carving of Jesus forms the central ceiling boss. 

Ely’s monastery closed in 1539 via the Reformation. Vicars replaced monks. While the rest of the cathedral lay empty and unused, daily services continued under the Octagon, neglected and falling into disrepair.

By the late C18th, after 200 years of neglect, the Octagon was at serious risk of collapse. Major repairs averted disaster. The central space beneath was now used for preaching the Sunday sermon. 

In the late C19th, further restoration renewed the Octagon’s breath-taking beauty, with new stained glass and repainting of the vaulted ceiling and Lantern

Probably one more post to follow, but Ely has become my favourite Cathedral. 

 

Etheldreda: Queen and Saint.

By Jim Linwood -  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10289518

Etheldreda (also known as Aethlthryth or Audrey) was an Anglo-Saxon princess born in Suffolk about 636 AD. Her father was Anna (a straightforward name but to our ears more puzzling) King of the East Angles. 

 It is to Audrey that we owe Ely Cathedral. After two political marriages she founded the first monastery on this site in 673 AD.

Etheldreda (can’t say Audrey. Puts me in mind of a soap character) had always wanted to be a nun. Her father had different ideas, marrying her off to Tondbert, a local chieftain. She did though acquire the island of Ely as a present from her new husband.

Two years later Tondbert died and like a dutiful daughter she married Ecgrith, the future king of Northumbria. According to historians, Etheldreda ‘preserved the glory of perfect virginity’ so it is hardly surprising that after twelve years of marriage, Ecgrith released her from her vows. 

Free at last, she became a nun at Coldingham, where her aunt Ebbe was Abbess. In 673 she left Coldingham and journeyed south to Ely where she founded her own monastery – a double house—one for both nuns and monks. 

Despite or because of a pious life of abstinence, wearing only rough woollen clothing, eating only once a day and praying throughout the night, she died six years later —679 AD—from a tumour in her neck, and was buried in a simple wooden coffin outside the Abbey. Her sister Seaxburga the widowed Queen of Kent, succeeded her as abbess.

Sixteen years after her death, Etheldreda’s body was moved into the Abbey and was found to be ‘incorrupt’ – interpreted as a sign of her holiness. More than that, the wound in her neck where the doctor had tried to excise the tumour had completely healed. From then on, her tomb became a focus for pilgrims and the site of many miracles. 

Initially pilgrims were few because Ely pre conquest was an island and necessitated the hire of a boat. The rich though, were actively encouraged. Queen Emma, wife of Ethelred the Unready and then of his successor king Cnut, was an early benefactor, both she and Cnut taking the boat there in 1030. 

After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror built a road through the marshes, mainly to crush rebellions and subjugate the area.The road, of course, encouraged more pilgrims to visit. 

Her tomb became even grander when the Abbey grew into a cathedral in 1109—and grander still in 1252 when the Cathedral was extended to allow more space for the hordes of new pilgrims.

And then came  the Reformation and the even more malign Dean Goodrich. With malicious intent he destroyed the tomb so completely her body disappeared and hasn’t been found to this day. A simple stone marks the site of the original shrine.

But behind that, a rather splendid altar

There is though, a fascinating artefact that survived the malign dean Goodrich.

And for those who wish to raise a glass to the blessed Audrey, her feast day is fast approaching. June 23rd. Put it in your diaries. 

Ely Cathedral

 

Ely Cathedral, like all great cathedrals,  has  magnificent architecture and is awash with magical  stained glass. But what initially piqued my interest was less the stonework but  more the characters buried within. Stone is pretty enduring, so too is human nature which hasn't changed much over the years. Every one of these men are recognisable types, you could easily fit modern names to them.  In this case however, their stories mirror a key period in English history and reveal scoundrels and saints, the vain, the good  hearted. I’l leave you to decide who belongs to which category.

Bishop West’s Chantry

Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely 1515 – 1534

The young Nicholas West was apparently a wild one, but age sobered him. He became chaplain to Henry VII and later an important diplomatic envoy for Henry VIII. He truly was a prince of the church, living in ‘the greatest spleandour of any Prelate in his time.’ And yet he also fed ‘warm meat and drink to the excess of 200 people per day.' It was lucky he died when he did, because he was also an ardent supporter of Catherine of Aragon and would likely have been executed like Fisher and More, had he lived. 

Dean Humphrey Tyndall Dean of Ely 1591 – 1614

Dean Tyndall was heir to the throne of Bohemia but refused the kingdom saying that he ‘would rather be Queen Elizabeth’s subject than a foreign prince.' 

Good man! 

His memorial agrees.

His presence, government, good actions and in birth, 

Grave, wise, courageous, noble was this earth.

The poor, the Church, the college say here lies

A friend, a Dean, a master true, good and wise

Bishop Thomas Goodrich Bishop of Ely 1534 – 1554 Lord Chancellor of England.

Bishop Goodrich was a rabid reformer who published his intent in 1541: ‘… all images, relics, table monuments of miracles, shrines etc be so totally demolished and obliterated with all speed and diligence that no remains or memory of them might be found for the future.’ It is because of Goodrich that no trace of St Etheldreda  remains, that so many figures in the niches were destroyed, and that the C14^th and C15^th stained glass windows were damaged.

When however, the Catholic Queen Mary ascended the throne, Thomas Goodrich had a revelation. He suddenly realised he was Catholic after all and so retained his Bishopric – though not the office of Lord Chancellor. 

Sir Mark Steward, the cousin of Dean Robert Steward, and like him related to Elizabeth Steward, Oliver Cromwell’s mother. He was also touchingly vain. In keeping with his knighthood, he and his family boasted a genealogy to match. His monument suggests that they were not only of Scottish ancestry but members of the royal house of Stewart—which was a load of pleasing nonsense. The family name was Styward, meaning ‘keeper of the pig sties,’ and they came from Swaffham in Norfolk. It might have been embarrassing for Oliver Cromwell otherwise—beheading a relative. 

Praying for his lost money.

Dean Henry Caesar Dean of Ely 1614 – 1636

Has an interesting family history He was noted for his charity and left a considerable sum of money for scholarships at Jesus College, Cambridge. Unfortunately, the money was subsequently lent to King Charles I at the start of the Civil War. He lost his head and Jesus College lost the money bequeathed by the Dean Henry Caesar of blessed memory.

Next week, a remarkable saint.