Bishop Walter Langton - benefactor

     Walter de Langton, 1243–1321, was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (and nominally Chester), 1296–1321. He was a considerable benefactor to the cathedral and oversaw much of its construction. Harwood called Langton another founder of this church.[1]

            It has been stated he was born in West Langton or Church Langton, Leicestershire, but it could have been any of the five Langton villages.[2] Langton named himself as the son and heir of Simon Peverel.[3] Copies of charters state his paternity.[4] Early on he owned land in the area. There were past members of the family in the church. An uncle became Dean of York in 1262 and was elected to be archbishop in 1265 only to be quashed by the pope. 

Walter Langton from the third row of the west front of the cathedral. He is holding a model of the Lady Chapel.

             He became a clerk of the wardrobe, 1281–2 in Edward I’s royal chancery. He was in Gascony with the king in 1286 and 1289. In 1290 he was made Bishop of Ely and keeper of the wardrobe. In that position he was responsible for improving the wardrobe's methods of accounting for its expenditure and receipts. During this time, he obtained many ecclesiastical preferment's, bringing him wealth. At some time during his early career Langton was clerk to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and the treasurer of the exchequer and this must have brought him close to the office of treasurer. In 1292, he was made the temporary treasurer before John Langton's appointment.[5] In September 1295, he became treasurer of the exchequer and retained it until 22 August 1307. A year after becoming treasurer he was made Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.[6] He arranged for his enthronement to take place at Coventry on 4 January and at Lichfield on 11 January 1299. According to letters in his register this was the first time in his episcopate that Langton visited his diocese. He stayed at Coventry until at least 6 January and was at Lichfield on 8 January, remaining there until the day after his enthronement. 

Edward I from the second row of the west front of the cathedral. He is holding a poisoned arrow said to have wounded him from an attempted assassination on his holy crusade in 1272. His Queen Eleanor sucked the poison from his wound. There are variations of this story.

             It was his close associations to the king for which Langton is remembered. The Queen described him as  'the king's right eye’.[7]  He attended the marriage of Edward I to Margaret of France in September 1299, and on the following Saturday at Canterbury he celebrated Mass for the queen. His devotion to Edward regardless of ecclesiastical considerations caused a rift with Archbishop Robert Winchelsey. He also became unpopular with particular barons and in 1301 they asked Edward to dismiss him with accusations of murder, adultery and simony.[8] He was suspended and went to Rome to be tried before Pope Boniface VIII. The Bishop of Lincoln and royal letters were sent to the Pope supporting Langton in his inquisition.  The pope referred the case back to the archbishop and although Winchelsey possibly disliked him, some think the animosity was more targeted at Edward, and surprisingly he found Langton innocent. By 1303, he was reinstated. Paradoxically, Langton visited Pope Clement V for his consecration in 1305 and persuaded him to suspend Winchelsey. With Archbishop William Greenfield of York, Langton was appointed keeper of the realm during Edward I's absence in Scotland. He was not at Edward's death on 7 July 1307, but on accompanying his body to London he was arrested and imprisoned in The Tower. His lands and much of his considerable wealth were seized with the accusation of misappropriation and venality. Edward II had long held a grudge against Langton, but he may have been provoked by envy and financial necessity as well as personal enmity.[9] There has been an alternative narrative that Edward’s close friend, Piers Gaveston, demanded the arrest, but this is unlikely. An account in 1307 showed Langton held land in sixteen counties and probably six more.[10] 

Drawing of Langton now lost in a window in the cathedral . Drawing 1762–98 in S. Shaw, 1798.

            Langton was ordered to appear before a panel of justices to answer for trespass, misprision, losses inflicted on the king and many other wrongdoings. He was released in March 1309, pardoned in January 1312 and again became the treasurer. After Gaveston had been executed, Langton became a favourite of Edward II. Excommunicated by Winchelsey, he again appealed to the pope which was revoked on the archbishop’s death. He was a member of the royal council from this time until his dismissal at the request of parliament in 1315. In 1316 to 1317, he appeared again to be on the Council. In 1318, he was trying to retrieve a wealth of £20,000; he had obtained very many benefices and was owed much.[11] He died in November 1321 at his palace in The Strand, London, and was buried in Lichfield cathedral. His defaced monument in Derbyshire marble rests in the south aisle of the cathedral choir. His executors spent decades securing the return of his wealth. He left land and houses in eleven counties, mostly in the Midlands and the East.

            It is clear Langton schemed unscrupulous financial dealings, was ruthless when embroiled in considerable litigation and very good at conniving to make personal gain. This was only possible with royal support and in return Langton was totally loyal to the crown. 

Langton’s original monument. Line drawing, 18th-century, held in the National Portrait Gallery. In Public Domain curtesy of the Gallery. This is an artistic reconstruction.

 

Tomb slab from the south choir aisle. His tomb was plundered in the Civil War, 1643, and this sculpture is much defaced. The effigy matches a drawing held in the William Salt collection at Stafford and titled Bishop Langton.

     Langton gave his vestments and books to the cathedral for use or sale. He paid for a chalice and two cruets of gold, silver plate, and a bejewelled gold cross worth £200 for the cathedral. He gave houses in exchange for service from the vicars choral  and provided 20s. a year for their commons. He organised the building of the Lady Chapel and gave 904 marks in his will for its completion. His store of money at Lichfield and Eccleshall was left in his will (value unknown) to be used for the completion of the building of the cathedral. He probably had a hand in reordering the great west window and the west towers which were being built in his time. The vaulted stone roofs of the transepts might have been reordered in his episcopacy.[12] Within the retroquire he paid £2120 for a shrine to be made in Paris to house the relics of Chad. Chantries at the altars of St. Mary and St. Nicholas were endowed and given pensions. Emulating Wells Cathedral, Langton built a wall 15 m high with battlements around the Close. It had two fortified gates, four large towers and a moat and ditch.[13] This fortification must have come immediately prior to the first use of cannon; 1324 in the siege of Metz, France, and possibly in 1327, when used in battle by the English against the Scots. Probably the wall had to be reinforced soon after the age of cannon began. He constructed a new palace on the east edge of the Close and adorned it with embellishments celebrating Edward I. 

Reconstruction of the fortified cathedral occupied by the Royalists

Within the town he built causeways over the pool (Dam Street and Bird or Bridge Street) and obtained a licence to levy tolls on goods brought into the city for sale over a seven-year period and with the money provided pavement in the town and Close. He repaired his London house, and completely rebuilt his residences at Eccleshall Castle and Haywood, Shugborough.

How effective was Walter Langton as a bishop?

The traditional view has been there is a little evidence he visited Lichfield and many of his episcopal mandates were made outside of the diocese. He had little time for the diocese[14] and left its organisation to archdeacons. For most of his time he was undertaking the king’s business and was often abroad. He has therefore been criticised for being distant, unspiritual, more administrator than churchman and even negligent.[15] His great gifts to the cathedral might be seen as offsetting his neglect.

Recent analysis has shown a very different narrative. Apart from a protracted dispute over the visitation of certain prebends, his relations with the cathedral were very good. When Langton was suspended by Boniface VIII the Dean and Chapter wrote to the Pope in his defence, testifying that he was a God-fearing man, devoted to his ministry and had performed notable services for the cathedral.[16] Copies of letters in his register reveal he was a conscientious bishop transacting diocesan business whenever possible. Whether through personal choice or prevailing custom, Langton only employed vicars-general when he went abroad and to cover two absences in England.[17] During Langton's two terms of imprisonment in 1307-8 and in 1311 he again remained in contact with his diocese and appointed a vicar-general only for the first occasion.[18] He personally conducted the majority of ordination services held all over the diocese; five were in the cathedral. Had he been neglectful he would have employed a suffragan bishop more frequently. He was in Lichfield from 27–30 May 1300. In January 1310, Langton absolved Richard Leghton from a sentence of excommunication in the consistory court at Lichfield. On 12 January 1319, he was recorded as visiting Farewell Priory and staying in Lichfield. On the 14th he passed through Lichfield again. His burial in the cathedral testifies to his loyalty and veneration of Chad. His tomb was probably totally destroyed in the Civil War and a stone effigy in the south choir aisle is unlikely to be of Langton.

    In 2011, a list was made of the 250 richest people that had lived in Britain since 1066 and Langton was 53rd with a calculated wealth of £11.099 billion in today's currency.[19] He owned land in eleven counties[20] and many houses, palaces and a castle.[21]

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[1] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806). 10–1.

[2] Langton's mother, Amicia Peverel, was buried at Langton which suggests he could have been born in one of the Langton villages. He held three acres of land in Church Langton at his death and this may indicate his place of birth.

[3] Until recently, he was said to be of lowly birth and loosely connected with the Peverel family. See J. Blackwell Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register’, Unpub. thesis, University of Nottingham, 1992, 198.

[4] Langton granted land and the advowson of the church of Adlingfleet, Yorkshire, to Selby abbey in his family name. It is stated in his register for 1291–3.

[5] Not thought to be a close relative. Also with Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury.

[6] His consecration by Béraud de Got, cardinal-bishop of Albano, took place on 23 December 1296, at Cambrai, where he was engaged in peace negotiations with the papal nuncios. On his return he made his profession of obedience to the Archbishop before the high altar at Canterbury.

[7] N. Denholm-Young, The liber epistolaris of Richard de Bury,  (Roxburghe Club Oxford: 1950) 317. He was appointed the principal executor of the king’s will.

[8] The accusation was he was living in adultery with his stepmother and had murdered her husband. Another was communicating with the devil, which was witchcraft.

[9] A. Beardwood, ‘The trial of Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 1307–1312’. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. (1964), 54, 3, 5. 

[10] Ibid, 33.

[11] By 1295, before he became treasurer, it has been estimated his benefices gave him £1000 annually. See A. Hamilton Thompson, 'The College of St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, with some account of its Deans and Prebendaries', Archaeological Journal, (1927), 84, 68.

[12] J. Britton, The history and antiquities of the See and cathedral church of Lichfield. (London: 1820) 28.

[13] It is possible the bishop employed Henry Ellerton, master of the king's works, as his master mason at Lichfield.

[14] See T. F. Tout, ‘Langton, Walter’. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 32. 130. The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield stretched south from the river Ribble in Lancashire to Edgehill in south-east Warwickshire, and from the western borders of the present county of Cheshire, including parts of the former counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire, to the boundary of the diocese of Lincoln. It had five archdeaconries; Chester, Coventry, Derby, Shrewsbury and Stafford.

[15] T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England, ii (Manchester, 1920) 16, 21.

[16] M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh (eds.) 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970), 140–166.

[17] J. Blackwell Hughes (1992), 268. See note 3.

[18] Ibid. 270.

[19] P. Beresford and W. D. Rubinstein, The richest of the rich. The wealthiest 250 people in Britain since 1066. (Petersfield: 2011), 117. 

[20] Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem, Parliamentary Writs, I, 300.

[21] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, (1691), 442 and 447.

 

Bishop John Hacket

John Hacket (Halket), 1592–1670 was Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, 1661–1670. He has been described as ‘another founder of the cathedral’.[1]  He was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London and educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. His father was a prosperous tailor in London.

Statue of John Hacket from west front. He is holding the Book of Common Prayer which he used all his life.

 He was ordained in London in 1618, aged 26 and gained a D.D. in 1628. He preached to James I in 1623 and again in 1624;[2] being made a Prebend of Lincoln Cathedral in 1623. Between 1631 and 1661, he was archdeacon of Bedford. In 1641, Hacket was asked to speak to parliament against a bill forwarded by Puritans to abolish bishops, deans and cathedral chapters. He gave reasons for supporting the existence of cathedrals, their clergy and all who work in them causing the bill to be delayed for a month. A year later he was made a residentiary canon of St Pauls. In 1642, he was imprisoned for failing to pay money to Parliament and a year later the Parliamentarians accused him of ‘superstition, covetousness, sending money to the king and aversion to the Covenant’. Whereupon he retired to his rectory at Cheam having no more to do with the Civil War.[3] After the Civil War and the Commonwealth he became chaplain to Charles II. In 1660 he frequently preached before Charles II, sometimes occupying the pulpit at St. Paul’s. That year he was offered the bishopric of Gloucester and refused it, but then on the recommendation of Charles II accepted the see at Lichfield with all the difficulty of rebuilding "that most ruined cathedral, city and diocese to his prudent circumspection and government." He was consecrated Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry on 22 December 1661, aged 69.

 

Bishop Hacket painting in Trinity College, Cambridge. Wikipedia, Public Domain.

 

Near life-size effigy of Hacket on a marble table monument located in the South Choir aisle. The bishop is holding the Book of Common Prayer and a crozier. His eldest son, Andrew, erected the effigy to his father’s memory.

     Hacket gained a reputation for learning, perseverance and determination and was widely known for his Royalist sympathies, but he came to Lichfield in mental turmoil. The Civil War and the defeat of the Royalists had caused him much anguish and sorrow. He had retired to rural Cheam and said he would never again enter London after the execution of the king. William Harvey, fellow Royalist who had been physician to James I, described Hacket as wanting to depart the world after the execution of Charles and other clergy. His time was spent in prayer and study and the isolation made him a ‘sickly old man’. Harvey told him to take exercises and gave him curatives for his despondency. Leaving his rectory sanctuary and restoring the cathedral after its Civil War desecration was never going to be easy for him.

Hacket seated at the bench planning the restoration of the cathedral. Note the figure at the front of the bench holding the working drawings. 

He arrived at the cathedral two years into its restoration. Canon and Precentor Higgins, a reinstituted Chapter, a new Dean and other local notables initiated much of the early planning and clearance of the site from 1660–1.[4] Hacket arrived in August 1662 and was immediately preoccupied with building a house in the Close, spending £1000 of his own money.[5] He returned again in October. He gave a silver-gilt communion service, two chalices, two flagons and a paten, for facilitating Eucharist.

 

Communion service given to the cathedral by Hacket, 1662. Made by Daniel Rutty and engraved with the cathedral arms, with one piece made by an unknown silversmith.

 From 1663, Hacket and the Chapter had a quarrelsome relationship with the Dean, who he described as siding with ‘Puritans’ (Nonconformists) in the town.[6] He visited Lichfield in August 1668 to see the work being done. The restored cathedral, after eight years of considerable work, was rededicated by Hacket on Christmas Eve 1669, followed by a feast for three days.[7] Hacket paid for a statue of Charles II to be placed high on the west front.[8] For some, he was the builder of a new cathedral,[9] but much of the evidence for his involvement in its material reconstruction is lacking. Hacket’s great contribution was the raising of finance and before he died he claimed to have raised £15,000 (equivalent to £1.5 million).[10] In his last year he preached again to the king. When close to death he heard a new bell chiming in the south-west tower; described by one writer as his passing bell. He died in October 1670.

Hacket grave marker at the end of the south aisle.

Hacket’s sermons for which he was most noted were published in 1675.[11]

 

Hacket’s cathedra, the middle stall. It was adapted for use by judges in the Consistory Court, 1814. The Court from late 17th-century to 1830 was mostly concerned with arbitration for intractable disputes of a predominantly rural nature.[12]  

[1] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 155.

[2] Hacket in his study time composed the Latin comedy called Loyola, which was twice performed before James I. It satirised church groups outside of mainstream Church of England.

[3] There is a story of Hacket preaching from the unauthorised Book of Common Prayer when a soldier entered his church and presented a pistol at his breast and ordered him to stop. Hacket replied that he would do what became a divine, let the other do what became a soldier; and continued with his service. It has not been possible to find the origin of this story, or which church it occurred in; there are variations.

[4] H. E. Savage, Reconstruction after the Commonwealth. Unpub. paper in Cathedral Library. (1918).

[5] T. Harwood, (1806), 66.

[6] The bishop was driven to excommunicate the Dean openly in the church.

[7] M. W. Greenslade, ‘Lichfield: From the Reformation to c.1800', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), 14-24. 

[8] T. Harwood (1806), 72.

[9] M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh,  'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: From the Reformation to the 20th century', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970),  166-199. 

[10] Ibid. £3,500 was said to have come directly from Hacket.

[11] See https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A43515.0001.001?view=toc for a list of the sermons.

[12] A. Tarver, The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry and its work, 1680-1830. Unpub. thesis, University of Warwick. (1998) 

Early Benefactors

     The following list of benefactors is a mix of bishops, deans, canons and noblemen who gave in some way to the early cathedrals. Much information comes from the Victorian County History.

 Chad had eight ‘brothers’ to assist him and possibly two succeeded him as the bishop. Offa’s archbishopric must have had several priests to assist services. If Offa copied Charlemagne a school of scribes and clergy would have been founded.

 Bishop Æthelwold, 818–830

According to the Lichfield Chronicle, 20 canons comprising 11 priests and 9 deacons, led the cathedral for the first time. Perhaps, the Rules of Bishop Chrodegang of Metz were introduced.[1] This history is a deduction and unreliable. There is no evidence of a Chapter. A late 16th-century history of the cathedral wrongly ascribed to Æthelwold the foundation of prebends to support his canons.

 There is a mention that the cathedral had 5 altars in the 850s and was being looked after by a bishop (Tunberht or Tunfrith, 841/5–857/62, or less likely Wulfsige 857/62–866/9) who had around 20 prebendaries, half being priests and half being deacons. This is a post-Conquest deduction.

 Bishop Roger Clinton, 1129–48

A 13th-century Prior of Coventry said the bishop introduced canons at Lichfield. This is false since the Domesday Book, 1086, had earlier stated on the bishop's manor five canons held three ploughs of land. Furthermore, it is possible five prebends existed by 1086 and were held by the five canons. It is also possible these positions were in place before the Conquest. The Lichfield Chronicle stated Clinton increased the number of prebends, but again this source of history is suspect. It is probable the new prebends were attached to the Coventry Priory.

            Clinton reconstituted the cathedral chapter in the 1130s, forming a collegium canonicorum along the same lines as those founded at Lincoln, Salisbury, and York.[2] It contained four dignitaries. It has been suggested that his motive in setting up a secular chapter at Lichfield was to obtain support against the monastic chapter at Coventry.[3] Why Clinton would have favoured Lichfield over richer and larger Coventry monastic priory has not been explained. His uncle Geoffrey nurtured Kenilworth priory and Roger could have done the same at Coventry.

 Bishop Roger Peche, 1161–82.

Ordered the institutions of the cathedral, choir and chapter, and clergy should, like its model at Rouen church, be strictly observed. The precentorship, first endowed in 1155, was further endowed in 1177 with the precentor called Matthew. A subdean was mentioned in 1165. The deanery was endowed c. 1176.

 Bishop Hugh Nonant, 1185–98

The duties and privileges of the four dignitaries were described in the first statutes of the cathedral. These were the earliest surviving statutes of any English cathedral, and probably drawn up by the dean and chapter for the bishop in 1191. The duties of the treasurer were described in comprehensive detail. A Chancellor was the legal and literary officer and kept the seals. He wrote the letters of the chapter and was expected to run a school. 

 Bishop Geoffrey Muschamp, 1198–1208

Gifts of land and endowments to the cathedral were given from 1180, but the most important donations to the common fund did not begin until the 1190s. It is thought the rebuilding of the choir occurred in this episcopate and would have required new stone and timber. Prebends were arranged which brought endowments to the cathedral and this continued until 1255. From then on, few changes were made, apart from the lapse of some prebendal arrangements.

 Dean Richard of Dalham

Possibly the first Dean appointed in the interdict, 1208–1215, enforced by the pope against King John. Ralph Nevill followed, appointed by King John.

 Dean William of Mancetter (Mancetre), 1222–1254

Probably the first Dean appointed by the Chapter, 1222, and who then raised the position as second to the bishop. He probably redrafted the statutes. He must have oversaw the early stages of the building of the cathedral and become involved with the rancorous dispute with the monks of Coventry cathedral regarding who had the right to elect a bishop. During his time many chantries appeared within the cathedral.

 Canon Thomas Bradford

It is thought he secured a clean water supply to the Close, c.1263.

 Bishop Roger Meuland (Meyland), 1258–95.

Rewrote the statutes and included a clerk to record meetings. He reordered services, enlarged endowments to the canons and priests, oversaw much of the rebuilding of the cathedral including obtaining grants for stone and timber and gave regulations on how farmed estates should be organised. During his episcopate there was much disagreement on the ownership of lands especially those in the Peak District. He enforced the practice of every canon having a vicar and the appointed vicar had to be tested in reading and singing. More chantry chapels were added to the cathedral. Meuland by some unknown means, acquired the rectory at Flixton, Manchester, c. 1290, and transferred it to the cathedral making it a prebend.

 Treasurer Walter of Leicester

A former sacrist appointed to look after the treasury. He formed a scriptorium composed of scriveners and vicars with literary and legal ability. One vicar, Alan of Ashbourne (Assheborn), wrote the Lichfield Chronicle begun c.1323 and continued until his death in 1334. Another vicar, John of Aston, also wrote a chronicle of which only fragments survive in a 16th-century copy. Savage[4] considered the many possible sources of information for Ashbourne’s book, most being second-hand and derived. Between 1317 and 1328 the Magnum Registrum Album, or Great Register, was written and contains information on the cathedral's privileges and property.

 Bishop Roger Northburgh, 1321–58.

Installed 98 canons, 94 selected by the pope. Many were related to the pope and never visited Lichfield. The Chapter contained mainly men who had retired to Lichfield after active careers in the service of the Crown or the Church or in the universities.

 Dean Thomas Stretton, 1390–1426

Became the first dean to be permanently resident in the Close.  

Bishop William Heyworth, 1420‑47. 

Founded ‘Milley’s Hospital’. It was later rebuilt and enlarged by Archdeacon Milley, 1502‑4.

 Canon Thomas Chesterfield, c. 1447.

A canon who arranged repairs of the vicars' houses and built for them a common hall. He also wrote a history of the cathedral. 

[1] Around 755–6 Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, northeast France, compiled a rule for canons of his own church. His rule contained protocols for living in a quasi-monastic, celibate community.

[2]  W. Dugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum, 1673, (London: 1817–1830 ed.), 3, 1242. Also K. Edwards, The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages: a constitutional study with special reference to the fourteenth century, (Abingdon: 1967), 141. Also H. E. Savage, Lichfield Chapter in the twelfth century. Unpub. article in the Cathedral Library, (1917), 11.

[3] H. E. Savage (1917), 13.

[4] H. E. Savage, The Book of Alan de Assheborn, Unpub article in Cathedral Library. (1922).