Eight myths

 History has been warped by plausible assertions made without evidence and with repetition these untrue explanations have become accepted. The historical narrative of the cathedral has a good number of these falsities.

 

1. King Oswiu of Northumbria fixed the site for a church at Lichfield.

Up to the 20th century the following was believed. Oswy, King of Northumberland, about the year 656, having conquered and put to death Penda, King of the Mercians, converted his kingdom to Christianity, and established a bishopric in this place; in commemoration probably of the former persecution. Here he built a church, which was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Mary, and appointed Dwina (Diuma), a Scotsman, the first prelate of Mercia.^[1] This myth was so embedded it was written in Latin under the west window of the cathedral from the mid-17th century. Translated it read, “Oswy is the founder, but the repairer was Offa. The fame of these Kings will be immortal. King Stephen, King Henry, Richard I and King John bestowed many gifts.”^[2]

 

          Oswiu was the king of Northumbria, including Yorkshire. Penda more likely died from drowning according to Bede. Stephen of Ripon in his biography of Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon described how the church was founded and it does not include Oswiu. Bede does include Oswiu, but King Wulfhere and Archbishop Theodore are the chief instigators. Why would Oswiu commemorate the death of an enemy by building a church at the centre of a new diocese that competed with Oswiu’s northern diocese? Bishop Diuma was Irish not Scottish. There is no evidence Kings Stephen, Henry I and II, Richard I and John did anything for the cathedral, except possibly paid for a chantry.

 

2. The cathedral was built cross-shaped for biblical expression. Its three spires represent the Trinity. The cathedral lies east-west. The cathedral is straight.

The cathedral is in the shape of a Greek cross (+) with small side arms, not a tau cross (T). This is because all four arms are buttresses for the massive central tower; it is an architectural necessity. The central spire is the tallest (78.65 m), the bell tower spire in the southwest corner is next in height (60 m) and the spire on the northwest tower is the lowest (59 m). This could be the trinity, but different heights provide a ranking which would be heresy. Three spires might be because there were three towers and other cathedrals had three towers and some had spires; there is no fixed rule for cathedrals. The layout of the cathedral is nearer west-southwest to east-northeast; it is out of east-west alignment by 27^o. There is a 2^o kink in the line of the cathedral. The building was subjected to the whims of kings, master-masons and architectural constraints.^[3]

 

3. Lichfield cathedral was a forgotten cathedral.

An archaeological account in a national journal described the cathedral as ‘forgotten.’^[4] It is true the Normans marginalised the cathedral and removed the bishop to first Chester and later Coventry. Up to Reformation the cathedral was secondary in many ways to the larger monastic Coventry Cathedral. Between the Civil War destruction and the Victorian restoration, 1850s onwards, the cathedral was only an inner church in an outer, drab, much repaired frame of a building. To describe the cathedral as forgotten is, however, excessive because throughout these travails it remained a major centre for pilgrimage. Its origin, survival and Victorian recovery has depended on pilgrimage. For 12 centuries it has been firstly a major local and later a national pilgrimage centre with the relics and cult of Chad.^[5] It has also had national importance in being the ecclesiastical centre of King Offa’s large kingdom and has also received the rich refurbishment from Bishop Walter de Langton including, perhaps, the greatest shrine and best Lady Chapel in the country. Ownership of the Chad’s Gospels gives significance and now the origin of the Staffordshire Hoard adds to this importance.

 

 

4. Bishop Headda built the first church in the year 700. Worship has been from the year 700.

Little is known about Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691 x 716–27. His length of episcopacy is uncertain and so is his origin. He had a close relationship with Bishop Wilfrid of Mercia, bishop of the Middle Angles, and it has been suggested it was Wilfrid who consecrated Headda.^[6] This relationship continued and lasted for eleven years, between 691/2 to 703.^[7] Strangely Bede never mentioned Headda or his relationship with Wilfrid. The spurious date of 700^[8] was added in the 14th century from a text that is wholly unreliable. The text was in the Chronicon Lichfeldense, since lost, but copied in Warton’s, Anglia Sacra. Originally it was titled ‘The book of Alan de Assheborn, Vicar of Lichfield’ and dated in 1320s. Alan of Ashbourne wrote a tangled history full of fabled beliefs from c.1323 until his death in 1334.

          This account conflicts with Bede who stated the grave of Chad was by the church of St Mary and on the site of the church of St Peter.^[9] Why 28 years later in 700 would another church be built? If the first cathedral church was built in 700, where did bishops Chad, 669–672, Winfrith, 672–c. 674 and Seaxwulf, c. 676–c. 691, have their church, as well as Headda in his early years of being a bishop? Why is this nonsense still repeated?

 

5. The Lindisfarne Gospels are superior to the Chad Gospels

If you prefer Gospels that are colourful, have elaborate gold and silver artwork and are complete, then the Lindisfarne Gospels are the best. The Chad Gospels are incomplete having lost John and much of Luke, the artwork is simpler on eight pages with no gold or silverwork, and handwriting differences suggesting at least four scribes were involved. The Gospels contain excellent Chi-Rho and carpet pages, display interesting marginalia, have some text in runic-like form and have diminuendo for every one of the 20 lines on each of its 236 pages. Artwork is in pastel tones and replete with symbolic references.

Gospels written in different scriptoria are bound to differ and, of course, all are wonderful. The surprising aspect is the two gospels are similar in several ways. They were commissioned for Cuthbert and Chad who were nearly contemporary. Both suffered an exodus away from the Viking onslaught. The layout of the carpet page is strikingly similar with the Lindisfarne having cormorant birds and the Chad crane-like birds. Similar styles with the carpet page, three incipit pages and the Chi-rho page with the equivalent in the Lindisfarne Gospels let Brown^[10] to write the artist must have studied the Lindisfarne book at first hand. It is better to see the two Gospels as comparable and written in the two powerful kingdoms of the 8th-century.

 

6. The Gospels were removed by the Dean during the Civil War and were stored in London.

Another myth with the Gospels is they were returned to the cathedral after the Civil Wall in the bequest of Frances Devereux, Duchess of Somerset and wife of William Seymour. She gave to the cathedral around 400 books in 1674. The fact is the Gospels were returned by Precentor William Higgins and may have been stored in his house in Derbyshire. Furthermore, it is most likely he returned one book; the existence of a second volume is misleading.

 

7. The current rite of worship (Sunday at 10.30am) is centuries old.

 The authority of the Church of England is thought by many to be embedded in a very long tradition which grew from an ancient time. Consequently, the way of worship within the cathedral is supposed to have long roots from the far past. In fact, much of the ritual is no more than two centuries old and is essentially Victorian.

Following restoration from the Civil War, 1640s, most Anglicans agreed on the authority of the English Church, but there was a rapidly growing number of Dissenting Churches.  By the 1820s to 30s internal divisions were giving three distinct, even sharply different, approaches to Christian belief and worship, namely Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Liberal interpretations.^[11] In response to this division High Anglo-Catholic Churchmen began to resist further reform. A small group based in Oxford between the years 1833 and 1845 led a campaign, known as the Oxford Movement, to return to the theology and practice lost since reformation times, 1530s.^[12] Their philosophy was called Tractarianism after a series of publications called ‘Tracts for the Times’ published from 1833 to 1841. This included neo-Gothic aesthetics,^[13] revived colourful ceremony and intense sacramentalism. Essentially, it was the doctrine of the church standing alone with its own authority and having its own traditional practices unfettered by actions from the state. This doctrine derived from the idea priests connected in time to the Apostles by ordination through the laying on of hands known as ‘Apostolic Succession’. It meant the ordained ministry could not be beholden to civil or State authority. By 1845, the movement was in conflict with the bishops and it splintered into factions leading some to join the Catholic Church. However, many Anglican priests were strongly asserting a doctrine of real presence and of eucharistic sacrifice. The eucharist was only valid when celebrated by a priest or bishop.^[14] For some Tractarians life was in anticipation of death and judgment.^[15] Penance was important.

Tractarianism is thought by some to have led to Ritualism and Ceremony. The church service now had procession, colourful dress, use of incense and above all the centrality of the eucharist in worship. Choral music in cathedrals and church bands in smaller churches became an intrinsic part of a service. Coloured altar frontals, candles on the altar and choristers in surplices appeared. A credence table with the chalices and receptacles of communion stood alongside the altar. The host, now wafer bread, was raised above the head in a prayer of consecration. The wine was mixed with water. A modern Anglo-Catholic liturgy and worship became widely accepted, especially in cathedrals.

This High Church Revival spurred new relations with the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, inspired artists, poets, writers and musicians,^[16] and new neo-Gothic architecture became the fashion with G. Gilbert Scott, his sons George and John and grandson Giles prominent especially at Lichfield. The connection between the Oxford Movement, Ritualism and neo-Gothic architecture was obvious.^[17] This Victorian movement is the background to current worship in the cathedral, but most, not all (such as saying the creed and some responses), is relatively recent.

A further change resulted from the first World War. A new cult of sacrificial death entered into churches. Language formerly restricted to Christian martyrs and Christ was extended to include ordinary people killed in the war. Loss was glorious, death for King and country was the highest sacrifice and all for the pursuit of peace. Demand for prayers for the dead was an annual event. Memorialisation took several forms. For veterans church became important.^[18]

 

8. The cathedral was built in a Norman Gothic style

Soaring pinnacles, pointed arches, heavy, thick walls pierced by large open windows and arcades, flying buttresses, elaborate vaulted, stone roofs and windows subdivided by closely spaced parallel mullions (narrow vertical bars of stone) are some of the features associated with the Gothic fashion of architecture. Many then describe it as Norman and they are misconceived. Much of this architecture was inspired by Islamic architecture of the Middle East. It was borrowed by French stonemasons in the Ile de France, centred on Paris, from around1130 to 1170.^[19]  It did not originate in Normandy with Norman stonemasons. When it crossed the channel, it was known as ‘French work’ and never labelled Gothic until the 19th century and the Gothic revival in architecture around 1860.^[20] There are Norman cathedrals with round arches, small windows and very little in the form of pinnacles and pointed stonework, see Rochester Cathedral. There are many Early Medieval Churches with round, arched front doors. There was a transitional period in the 12th century with much crossover of styles. Indeed, much of the Gothic architecture was completed in the neo-Gothic revival by the Victorians and this is typified by Lichfield, Wells and Salisbury cathedrals. Lichfield Cathedral was built from the early 13th century by Plantagenets, 1154‑1485, and postdates the Norman era by at least 50 years. There is no Norman stonework in Lichfield Cathedral that can be verified.

          The misleading labelling originates from Thomas Rickman (1776‑1841) who wrote a handbook[21] for clergy to help them to understand the ‘English Style’ could be divided into Early English, Decorated English and Perpendicular English architecture. He then added an earlier fourth style following the Norman conquest, described it as Romanesque and called it Norman rather than English.[22] Coming after the long isolation of England during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars the name gave it a patriotic cast. This became difficult to extirpate. [23]

 

There are many more myths, see the posts, ‘Beasts in the Lady Chapel’, ‘Chad, fantasy folklore and maybe’, ‘It has to be the Lichfield Hoard’, ‘King Penda of Mercia deserves a statue’, ‘Lichfield's founding myth’, ‘Chad, fact and fiction’, ‘There is no historical evidence for a Norman second cathedral’ and ‘Two churches in 672 and a shrine.’

 

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[1] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield, (London: 1806), 3.

[2] J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield. (London: 1805). 110.

[3] See the post, ‘Building a cathedral.’

[4] W. Rodwell, The forgotten cathedral. Current Archaeology, (2006), Vol. XVIII No. 1(205), 9--17.

[5] See the post, ‘Pilgrimage defines the cathedral’.

[6] M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.

[7] M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.

[8] This dating appeared in the ‘Lichfield Chronicle,’ British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra D IX. It was later published in H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Volume 1. (London, 1691), 428. The source and detail for this date, January 700, and construction of a church are unknown. Sargent suggested St Peter’s church can be plausibly connected with a church built by Bishop Headda, see A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield: 2020), 53. If so, the church could have been built from the start of Headda’s episcopate, namely 691 onwards.

[9] See the post, ‘Two churches in 672 and a shrine’.

[10] M. P. Brown, ‘The Lichfield/Llandeilo Gospels reinterpreted’. In R. Kennedy and S. Meecham-Jones (eds) Authority and Subjugation in writing of Medieval Wales. (New York: 2008), 57–70.

[11] Ibid. 237.

[12] Ibid. 239. The movement included John Henry Newman, John Keble, Edward Pusey and Richard Hurrell Froude.

[13] See the post ‘Gothic Cathedral’.

[14] Ibid. 241. With great emphasis on the eucharist came new forms of clerical dress including a white collar, black cassock, coloured vestments and a revived practice of personal confession and sacramental absolution.

[15] Ibid 246.

[16] Ibid. 255.

[17] M. J. Lewis. The Gothic Revival. (London: 2002).

[18] J. Morris, A People’s Church. A history of the Church of England. (London: 2022), 340.

[19] Strangely, not in Scotland or Wales. Perhaps, the greatest example was the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. There were rivals in other parts of Europe; the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo in Spain, the cathedral of Strasbourg near the French border with Germany and the cathedral of Cologne when it was finally completed.

[20] See the post ‘Gothic Cathedral’.

[21] T. Rickman, (1819) Attempt to discriminate the styles of English Architecture. (Cambridge: 2014).

[22] M. J. Lewis, The Gothic Revival, (London: 2002), 48.

[23] Ibid. 49.