A sacred landscape for the first cathedral

Known facts.

•  King Wulfhere of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon and Hexham ‘prepared’ a site for a church at Lichfield.[1] Wilfrid’s involvement with Mercia and his understanding of churches in Italy, Ripon and Hexham indicate he planned a sacred landscape at Lichfield.[2] Hill titled her paper on Wilfrid’s build of Ripon as, ‘Rome in Ripon: St Wilfrid’s inspiration and legacy’[3] and would also have applied to Lichfield.
• Chad was buried near the church of St Mary on the site of St Peters.[4] Paired churches dedicated to a major apostle and St Mary occurred at Canterbury, Glastonbury, Hackness, Lastingham, Lindisfarne, Malmesbury, Monkwearmouth and Whitby.[5] This appears to be the conventional layout.
• Rodwell excavated Chad’s shrine at the east end of the nave (2003) and surmised whether Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) walling found in the north (1994) and south (1992) choir aisle was an early church. He said these foundations fall into a pattern of churches, chapels, tombs, standing crosses, wells and other liturgical features and have a near alignment.[6] He did not state what this alignment was.
•  Notable kings and saints were generally buried east of the main church and in a line. This is known at Bradford-on-Avon (possibly), Glastonbury, Gloucester, Hexham, Repton, Wells (probably), Whithorn, Winchcombe and Worcester. Blair identified that where a church was dedicated to an apostle and paired with St Mary, the lesser St Mary church often stood due east of the apostolic church and this followed Continental practice.[7] Gittos expressed it as many chapels were situated in an easterly position when within a group.[8]
• Early medieval liturgy was performed in a sequence of small compartments (churches, chapels and shrines) around holy sites.[9] Churchmen, especially Northumbrians who had visited Rome, were interested in processions between buildings as part of their liturgical practices.[10] This procession followed a ‘Sacred Landscape’.

 

Evidence from elsewhere.

Adomnán (Adamnán), born c. 625 in Donegal, probably a relative of Columba, joined the monastery at Iona c. 669, and ten years later became the ninth abbot. Around 680, he wrote De Locis Sanctis,^[11] ‘On the Holy Places’, describing Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other holy cities. He was impressed by the layout of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem constructed by Emperor Constantine, c. 325.^[12] 

Reconstructed sketch of Adomnán’s layout for the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, taken from a 9th century drawing in Paris. There are similar drawings archived in Vienna, Brussels and Zurich. It has 4 circles representing the rotunda; the Vienna drawing has 5. The church of St Mary was at the end of the Via Dolorosa; the path Jesus took to his crucifixion.

                                     

                                                                                                                                                 

Route of pilgrims through Constantine’s church of the Holy Sepulchre. Note this route is from East to West. The courtyard was at the foot of a rock of Golgotha which held a large silver cross.

 

 Adomnán gave his book to the king of Northumbria who wanted it circulated in his kingdom. In 702‑3, Bede wrote on the Holy Sepulchre complex,[13] using the same title as Adomnán’s book, but with changes, and later adding a description in his Historia Ecclesiastica, book 5 chapter 16.[14] The ground plan of the church, though inaccurate, must have become familiar to many throughout northern Europe;[15]  it was now a model for emulation.[16]  Centres in Ireland[17], on Iona and at Lindisfarne have been cited as good copies. Possible sites in England have been reviewed.[18]

1.     Iona

A sacred landscape at Iona was first suggested in 2001.[19] Adomnán, when the abbot of the monastery, listed the buildings and recent archaeology has revealed such a landscape[20]. On the day before his death, Columba compared Iona to Jerusalem.[21]  

Pilgrimage route envisaged at Iona. The site has a 7th and 8th century formidable inner and outer vallum, a mid-7th century shrine chapel probably to house the relics of St Columba, and the floor of a burnt wattle building (3.8 m x 2.8 m internally) on a rock known as the Tòrr an Aba. This building is now thought to be the hut where Columba wrote and oversaw the community.[22]

 

Pilgrims arrived on the east shore of the island and entered a southern gate through the double vallum boundary, simulating the walls of Jerusalem. They entered the early monastic church (thought to be under the Nave of the Benedictine Abbey, but still has to be located). From here, they moved westwards to the plateola, equivalent to the Jerusalem courtyard, in which stood high crosses, prayer stones and a well that might have been used for baptising. The south side was connected to a 7th or 8th-century paved roadway known as the ‘Street of the Dead’ linking three chapels and having alongside at least 7 standing crosses. Finally, the pilgrim reached Columba’s shrine chapel, of which only the lower courses have survived, reminding them of Christ’s tomb. Pilgrims who visited several times saw it as equal to a journey to Jerusalem.

      2.     Lindisfarne

A similar sacred landscape is thought to exist at Lindisfarne substantiating its name of Holy Island. Pilgrims arrived by boat on the east side of the island and then moved to the church. Isolated sculptured stones found in and around the remains of the Norman priory (1080) could mean the early St Peter’s church is located within or by the priory.[23] This church built by Finan, 651 x 661, held the relics of Aidan and Cuthbert. To the west of this possible church now stands the parish church of St Mary and perhaps this is over the earlier church that held Cuthbert’s relics. Between the two churches is an early cross base within an open place. This is fragmentary evidence for two churches, holding important saint’s relics being in an east-west alignment with an open place (plateola?) possibly containing standing crosses.

 

          Pilgrimage route at Lindisfarne

 3.     Ripon and Hexham

          The crypts at Ripon and Hexham were the work of Bishop Wilfrid.[24] They are said to resemble catacombs in Rome seen by Wilfrid on his pilgrimages, but there is another explanation. They allude to the rectangular tomb of Christ in Jerusalem;[25] Adamnan’s drawing has a rectangular grave surmounted by a rotunda. The crypt could have been entered from either the west or the east. There is a first room and then a main chamber. This chamber is vaulted, big enough to hold nine people, and has a low roof. Wall to wall dimension is c. 7 feet and this is the attested length of Christ’s tomb.[26] Bishop Wilfrid when in Rome between 703 and 705, had every opportunity to participate in the new papal processions across a sacred landscape and presumably from 706 imitated this at Ripon and Hexham.[27]

    Wilfrid’s crypt at Hexham      

 

Wilfrid’s shrine at Ripon is thought to have been at the east end of the church. The relationship of the crypts to the early church at Ripon is unknown.[28] Consequently the pilgrimage route, whether starting from the east or west end is unknown. It is much the same at Hexham. It is possible Wilfrid ignored the direction of travel in Jerusalem (east to west) and instead built his linear churches to accommodate the conventional travel of west to east in England.

 

So how does this impact on the layout at Lichfield

If each of the first eight bishops at Lichfield and Bishop Wilfrid were connected with and familiar with Lindisfarne, Iona, Ripon and Hexham,[29] then a similar layout would be plausible.  Did Wilfrid arrange a sacred landscape numinous to pilgrims and ensure the enduring cult of St Chad?

In 2003, archaeological excavation in the nave revealed foundations to three sides of what appeared to be a shrine tower and inside which offset to the north was the grave of Chad. It has a similarity to Christ’s tomb within its rotunda. For evidence this was almost certainly Chad’s grave see the post ‘Making sense of Chad's grave, St Peter's cathedral, St Mary's church and a shrine tower’. The findings in 1992 and 94 of early medieval walling in the choir aisles might be remnants from elaborate graves; a tiered grave was found close-by in the south choir aisle. In 2000, a 2m wide band of mortared rubble was found between the pillars at the west end of the nave.[30] Some have conjectured whether this is a floor or foundation to the main church of St Peter, that is to the west of the shrine.

 

                                        Summary of archaeology under the cathedral floor.

Speculative layout of a ‘sacred landscape’ at Lichfield.

The great difficulty is not knowing whether early medieval pilgrims entered the minster complex in the 7th and 8th century from the east end, like Jerusalem, Iona and Lindisfarne, or from the west end like many church complexes in England. This means there are two alternatives. 

1. Entry from the east end.

In which case the minster might have looked like the following.

 

2.      Entry from the west end.

 

This layout chimes with the layout for the following two cathedrals. It also accords with the main thoroughfare being along St John and Bird Street. It does not fit if the entry to the shrine tower was on the east side; Rodwell thought the east wall could have had steps. It means the second cathedral could be built on the cemetery ground whilst the first cathedral is still available for continuing worship. It has been suggested St Mary’s church could have been an annexe on the south side of the second cathedral.[31] The position of a well is not far from where it is thought one once existed.

          It is now thought a sacred landscape was relatively short-lived and probably discontinued with the building of the second cathedral, if undertaken by King Offa, c.770. Offa vigorously promoted and paid for pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem.

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[1] Described in the biography of Bishop Wilfrid written by a monk at Ripon called Stephanus and published 712–3. Title was Victa Sancti Wilfridi I. Episcopi Eboracensis.

[2] See the post ‘Wilfrid of Ripon and Mercia’.

[3] J. Hill, Rome in Ripon: St Wilfrid’s Inspiration and Legacy, History, The Journal of the Historical Association, (2020), 105, issue 367, 603‑25.

[4] Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum published in 731, Book 4, Chapter 3. See J. McClure and R. Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford: 2008) 178. This translation has been explained in the post, ‘Two churches in 672 and a shrine.’

[5] H. Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford: 2013) 94‑7.

[6] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. (Unpub. report held in Lichfield Cathedral Library) (2003), 6. Also W. Rodwell, J. Hawkes, E. Howe and R. Cramp, ‘The Lichfield Angel: A spectacular Anglo-Saxon painted sculpture, The Ant. J. (2008), 88, 50–1.

[7] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 200.

[8] See note 5. H. Gittos, (2013), 100.

[9] See note 6. J. Blair (2008), 201.

[10] See note 5. H. Gittos, (2013), 107.

[11] British Library, Imago mundi (part II, 1r–78r); Adomnán, De Locis Sanctis (part II, 78v–93v). It is part of Cotton MS Tiberius D V, part II, ff 1–93 and was copied in the 4th quarter of the 14th century.

[12] Thought to have been described to Adomnán by a Gallic bishop, Arculf or Arculfus, from his pilgrimage to the Near East, 679–682. Hundreds of pilgrims set out from Europe to the Holy Land between 385 and 1099 AD, but of these only eighteen wrote descriptions which have survived.

[13] G. H. Brown, A companion to Bede (Woodbridge: 2009),71. Also P. Darby and D. Reynolds, Reassessing the ‘Jerusalem Pilgrims’, the Case of Bede’s De locis sanctis, Bulletin for the Council for British Research in the Levant, (2014), 1, 27-31,

[14] J. McClure, and R. Collins, Bede. The ecclesiastical history of the English People (Oxford: 1994), 264. Bede’s abridged account had a few minor differences with Adomnán’s version, see P. P. O'Neill,     'Imag(in)ing the Holy Places: A comparison between the diagrams in Adomnan’s and Bede's De Locis Sanctis', Journal of Literary Onomastics.(2017), 6, 1, 42–60.

[15] T. O'Loughlin, Adomnán and the Holy Place (London: 2007), 175–203.

[16] See note 6. J. Blair, (2005), 201.

[17] D. Jenkins, Holy, holier, holiest. The sacred topography of the early Irish Church. In Studia Traditionis Theologiae. (2010) Brepols Publishers,  claimed at least four early Irish monasteries resembled Jerusalem.

[18] See note 4 H. Gittos, (2013) 19–54.

[19] A. MacDonald, 'Aspects of the monastic landscape in Adomnan’s Life of Columba', in J. Carey, M. Herbert and P. O' Riain (eds.) Studies in Irish hagiography: Saints and Scholars (Dublin: 2001),15–30.

A recent Statement of Significance for Iona Abbey given by Historic Environment Scotland 2019, states Adomnán’s work provides a framework for understanding how the planning and development of Iona and its liturgical landscape was conceived as a reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem.

[20] E. Campbell and A. Maldonado, ‘A new Jerusalem 'at the ends of the earth': interpreting Charles Thomas's excavations at Iona Abbey 1956—63’, The Ant. J. (2020),1–53.

[21] ibid. T. Ó Carragáin (2003), 144.

[22] ibid. 20. It has been suggested Columba’s shrine chapel was the first of its kind and built mid-8th century, see T, Ó Carragáin, 'The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, (2003), 133,130–176. This date could indicate the time of construction for Chad’s shrine.

[23] D. Petts, D. ‘A place more venerable than all in Britain: The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Lindisfarne', in R. Gameson (ed.) The Lindisfarne Gospels: New perspectives (Leiden, 2017), 7.

[24] T. H. Turner, ‘Observations on the crypt at Hexham Church, Northumberland’, Archaeol. J. (1845),  2, 240–1. J. Walbran, ‘Observation on the Saxon crypt under the Cathedral Church at Ripon,  commonly called St Wilfrid’s needle’, Royal Archaeological Institute, York Meeting 1846 (1848), 4.

[25] See Conant (1956), Krautheimer (1971), Biddle (1994) and Wilkinson (2002) all quoted by R. N. Bailey, ‘St Wilfrid – a European Anglo-Saxon’, Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 120.

[26] Ibid. Bailey (2013) 121–3.

[27] É Ó Carragáin and A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid in Rome’, Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 227–8.

[28]A. Clapham, English Romanesque Architecture, Vol. 1. Before the Conquest. (Oxford: 1930), 156.

[29] Diuma (Irish), Ceollach (Irish or Scottish), Trumhere or Trumheri (Yorkshire), Jaruman or Jurumannus (possibly Irish), Chad or Caedda (Northumbrian), Wynfrith (Chad’s deacon and probably from the same background), Headda (associated with Yorkshire), Wilfrid (Northumbrian), see R. Sharp, Drawn to the light. A history of dark times, (Studley: 2018),109, 113.

[30] W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral: 3. Archaeology in the nave. Unpub. paper in the Cathedral Library, (2000), 23.

[31] M W Greenslade, ed. 'Lichfield: The cathedral', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield. (London: 1990). The funerary church may have stood where there was later a side chapel on the south side of the Early Medieval (Norman) presbytery; that chapel was replaced in the earlier 13th century by one with an altar dedicated to St. Peter.

 

Anchorites at Lichfield

An anchorite or anchoress was someone who withdrew from the community to lead a solitary, prayerful and ascetic (anachoretic) life. Earliest anchoritism was a form of monasticism and included men like John-the-Baptist and Anthony living in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century. In Benedict of Nursia’s Rule of Saint Benedict, 516, anchoritic life stood for the highest form of monasticism. There are features of the life of Chad which suggest he practiced solitude and gave spiritual advice to those who visited him. In England, the first recorded religious recluses were in the 10th century.[1] Between the 13th to 16th centuries anchorites and various kinds of solitaries, hermits and recluses were very common in England and throughout medieval Europe. Reformation ended this vision of how life has to be lived.

Century	Female	Male	Gender unknown	Total	Total known sites
12th	48	30	18	96	77
13th	123	37	38	198	175
14th	96	41	77	214	171
15th	110	66	28	204	139
16th	37	27	4	68	49

Number of documented anchorites, A. K. Warren, 1985,.[2] There have been 780 recorded English recluses from 601 sites between 1100 and the end of the Middle Ages. They were 414 female solitaries, 201 males and 165 of unknown gender. It appears there were more anchoresses than anchorites (4:1 in the 13th-century). A dearth of records however, suggests there could have been substantially more.[3]

An anchorite usually lived permanently[4] enclosed in a cell known as an anchorhold; that is, they were anchored to one cell. Some anchorites moved freely between several cells and some were in houses. An anchorhold was usually attached to a church or cathedral and often located on the north side. Some were connected to houses and castles or castle walls and some were near monasteries. The anchorite house at Chester-le-Street had four cells and was exceptional. Generally, the cell was small (an average of 4 metres square), contained a bed, a chamber pot and a small altar, but rarely had a window. Commonly, those against a church had a squint or opening to view the altar thus enabling the anchorite to view the raising of the host in the Eucharist. Often the cell was adjoined to another room in which a servant could assist the anchorite especially in providing a frugal meal. Sometimes local people would converse with the anchorite through a small opening in the wall. The anchorite was seen as a wise person able to offer spiritual guidance. Indeed, many who chose to be immured were of high status and were respected. Many had financial security; it was common for wills to contain donations for the local anchorite. The anchorite was independent of the church, but answerable to the bishop. Early anchorholds were predominantly in rural areas and in makeshift timber buildings, but by the 14th century they were in stone houses. By the 16th century anchorholds had become ‘an integral element of the ecclesiastical topography of medieval towns.’[5]

 

View of anchorite's cell at Holy Trinity Church, Skipton, Yorkshire, Wikipedia Public Domain.  

      

The enclosure of an anchoress by a bishop. 15th-century illumination from a Pontifical manuscript, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 79. Fol. 72r. 

The anchorite often held their isolation to be a way to avoid hell and by intense prayer to join Christ.[6] It was like being perpetually in Lent, that is, avoiding temptation and preparing for death. Unlike hermits, anchorites received a rite of consecration that resembled a funeral before entering their anchorhold. They would be held as gone from the world, a living saint. During the late medieval period it was often a pious, lay woman. Some had terminal diseases and this was a positive way to see their end-life and enact a form of martyrdom. There is some evidence of when they died, they were buried within the apse of the church near to the altar. 13 English guides giving instruction are known which explain how anchorites were to be made, supported and behave. There were four key ideals: enclosure, comparative solitude, chastity and orthodoxy[7] Therefore their common portrayal as a solitary, unstable, unkept and heretical individual is wrong. Some anchorites suffered, but this most likely applied only to a minority. Some anchorite-priests pursued scholarly or copyist work in their cells. Ælfheah, c.953‑1012, was an anchorite at Bath who became an abbot, then a bishop and finally Archbishop of Canterbury. He became a saint in 1078.

 A well-known anchorite was Cuthbert isolated on Farne island and described by Bede. Another was Billfrith at Lindisfarne who adorned the Lindisfarne Gospels with gold and gems. In the late 7th century, Guthlac left the monastery in Repton and for 15 to 20 years lived on an island in the Lincolnshire Fens. A folklore story has Chad living as a hermit and living on the milk of a doe. This myth has been modified to locate the hermitage at Stowe. Wigbald might have been an anchorite who attested a charter, 786/96, at Medeshamstead. Wulfric of Haselbury, c.1080‑1154. Wulfric was an anchorite priest in Wiltshire and Somerset and frequently advised King Stephen. He lived in a cell adjacent to the church at Haselbury Plucknett, Somerset for 29 years reading the Bible and healing those who visited him. Despite these often-quoted narratives, recent research has emphasised not much is known how the anchorite lived and practised their vocation. Instead, the evidence points to anchoritism as being highly esteemed by the surrounding community, a community which, after all, enabled the vocation to exist and persist in both economic and practical terms.[8]

 

Anchorholds have been identified in churches in Staffordshire and Shropshire. There is a mention of Simon, a longstanding hermit, being translated in 1222 from Lichfield to Dunstable, but he could have been isolating in a cave, house or cell and not attached to a church.[9] Two hermits were allowed by Matilda to settle a mile to the south of Beaudesert (at Radmoor?) and were given land for pasture on Cannock Chase early in the 12th century. In the register of Bishop Walter Langton, in 1311, Emma Sprenghose was found suitable to be an anchoress in a house close to St George’s chapel, Shrewsbury. In 1315, Iseult de Hungerford was admitted into the same house. The house was said to have other anchorites.[10] The register of Bishop Roger de Northburgh, 1322–1358, included appointments of anchorite-priests being made 1357–1374,[11] though it is not clear where the anchorite-priests were sent. In 1360, the prior of Maxstoke was commissioned by Bishop Stretton to enclose Brother Roger de Henorebarwe as an anchorite in the chapel of Maryhall. In 1363, Bishop Stretton inducted a friar at St. John's, Chester, into an anchorite's cell in the churchyard.[12] In 1423, John Grace an anchorite friar from Coventry, preached on three days to the canons in the Cathedral Close.[13] John Woodcoat, a chaplain, in 1457, was asked to hear the confessions of an anchorite at Polesworth.[14] The River Anker runs through Polesworth and its name is said to derive from two anchorholds close-by. In 1509, the bishop suffragan shut up Joan Hythe, a nun from Derby, in a cell at the church in Macclesfield.[15]

View of Savage Chapel attached to St Michael and All Angels’ Church, Macclesfied. Joan Hythe was enclosed in the upstairs room and communicated via the small window to the outside. Internally she could look down though slits in a wall to the ground floor Savage Chapel. She was known as ‘the holy woman’.        

                                                                Squint in the Savage Chapel, now blocked, to see the main altar. . 

An anchorhold with an aumbry in the wall, seems to have existed on the northern side of St. Chad's chancel at Stafford.[16] The inference is medieval Lichfield bishops were supportive of anchoritism.

          Almost certainly in the 13th or 14th-century there must have been anchorites in cells adjoining the cathedral or in the Close, but there is no documentary evidence. The involvement of bishops of Lichfield in the 14th and 15th centuries in anchoritism, especially Bishop Walter Langton, supports this. It raises the question, where were the cells? One good possibility are the three small chambers on the south side of the Lady Chapel built by Bishop Langton. The cells are small and in line sight with the altar in the Lady Chapel. All three chambers are 1.7 m (5 feet 9 inches) wide internally. The eastern and western chambers are shorter (2. 6 m or 8 feet 8 inches long) and the middle chamber is longer (3.9 m or 13 feet long). The roofs are groined with stone ribs and bosses. The middle chamber has a small door to the eastern chamber; it passes –through a buttress and is 1 m (3 feet 3 inches) thick. This chamber was once accessible to the outside by a door.

John Snape’s map 1781 has an engraving of the cathedral and appears to show a path leading from the eastern chamber door. The path appears to extend to outside the south door where a ferry could take visitors across Minster Pool. This avoids entrance through the southeast door, which would have been guarded and used by the bishop.

 

It has been thought the chambers were built for the tomb of Walter de Langton the originator and funder of the chapel, but he was buried on the south side near the high altar. Madisson conjectured whether the chambers were originally sacristies or had a tomb intention, but then admitted their purpose was open to question.[17] He also pointed out the usual practice of a Lady Chapel being seen as a separate building sometimes entered through a low arch and cited 7 other cathedrals. Cox[18] suggested various priests who might have been buried within the chambers. He also surmised whether they were chantry chapels but comes to no conclusion. After Reformation the ‘little cells in the wall of the Lady Chapel may have been occupied by the ecclesiastics who watched the shrine.’[19] The chambers have clearly teased historians; the chambers being tombs has to account for the undercroft and its use and why Langton was not buried in one.

South side of Lady Chapel in Dugdale Monasticum Anglicanum Vol 6 part 3, pages 1238–9. Note the access door for the eastern most chamber. Note changes of access within chambers; the 1989 version appears to be different regarding internal doorways whereas the 1891 is more accurate. Under the three chambers is an undercroft roofed by a pointed tunnel vault.

Exterior of third chamber showing the new stone where there was a door. Note the slit window to the undercroft. Was there a stoup on the ledge inside the archway?

 

A plausible purpose for the exceptional chambers would be for an anchorite, especially an anchorite-priest. Such a solitary could have occupied the middle chamber with welfare provided from the western chamber. Visitors wanting spiritual guidance could not enter the cathedral by the main doors, but would access an anchorite-priest by the small door into the eastern chamber. Perhaps, the anchorite-priest was one of a team of acolytes on a rota. The undercroft could have been for sleeping and sanitation. This means any citizen could access a priest through a wall opening without entering the main body of the cathedral.

Doorway from middle chamber to eastern chamber (now a storeroom).

 

            There was an anchorage adjoining Chichester Cathedral in which William Bolle, rector of Aldrington, obtained permission to construct a cell and retire thither.  It was agreed that after his death it should pass into the bishop’s hands.  The chamber, 29 x 24 feet, communicated with the Lady chapel. Worcester cathedral had a cell on the north side, between the porch and the west end. At Sherborne Abbey the anchorite was in the chapel of St Mary le Bow on the south side of the Lady chapel. At Durham the chamber was within the cathedral. It was a loft, evidently a wooden structure, close to the high altar and behind St Cuthbert’s shrine. The Westminster anchorage was on the south side of the chancel of St Margaret’s.[20]

 

          It would be unlikely for the name of any anchorite-priest to appear in any Dean and Chapter document since the appointment was entirely the work of the bishop. Furthermore, the anchorite would be considered separate from any cathedral or diocesan arrangement. This helps to explain the obscurity of these individuals and why more is known from the architecture of their cell. The existence of three chambers, an undercroft and external door built by Bishop Langton, the lack of information as to their purpose and their location near the town gate or southern ferry points to their possible use for anchoritism. Also, the known enthusiasm for anchoritism by the following two bishops, Northburgh and Stretton, points to this explanation. The cathedral having an anchorite priest would compete with the Friary and its monks tending to the residents of Lichfield. An anchorite-priest would be able to say Mass, and pray for the souls of brethren and benefactors. They would be akin to a chaplain.

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[1] T. Licence, Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950–1200, (Oxford: 2011). Also, T Licence, ‘Evidence of recluses in eleventh-century England’, in M Godden and S Keynes (eds), Anglo-Saxon England, (2007),36.

[2] A. K. Warren, Anchorites and their Patrons in Medieval England. (Oakland: 1985).

[3] E. A. Jones, Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550. (Manchester: 2019), 7.

[4] There are known examples where the anchorite left or was removed.

[5] R Gilchrist, Contemplation and Action: The Other Monasticism, (Leicester: 1995), 183.

[6] Ibid, A cell of enclosure was equated with prison into which the anchorite propelled himself for fear of hell and for love of Christ.

[7] M. Hughes-Edwards, Reading Medieval Anchoritism, (Cardiff:2012).

[8] Ibid.

[9] R. M. Clay, The Hermits and Anchorites of England. (London: 1914). 142.

[10] J. B. Huges, The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register. Ph.D. Thesis for the University of Nottingham, 1992, 684, 697.

[11] Ibid, 24. Also E. Hobhouse ed. Registers of Roger de Norbury, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, from 1322 to 1358, William Salt Archaeological Society, (1880), 286.

[12] Ibid, 156.

[13] W. Beresford, Diocesan histories. Lichfield. (London: 1883), 154. Also T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 285.

[14] Ibid W. Beresford (1883),168

[15] Ibid 162

[16] Ibid 162

[17] J. Maddison, ‘Building at Lichfield Cathedral during the episcopate of Walter Langton, 1296–1321.’ In Medieval archaeology and architecture at Lichfield, XIII, The British Archaeological Association, (1993), 71.

[18] J. C. Cox, ‘The mortuary chapels of Lichfield Cathedral,’ Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, (1879), 1, 116–126.

[19] Ibid 190

[20] R.M. Clay (1914), 80‑1. See note 9.