Gothic Cathedral

             A constructional revolution occurred in England between 1130–1170,[1] known as High Gothic. French stonemasons in the Ile de France worked out the stresses on the frame of a cathedral and began to change its appearance and functionality. At the time it was known as Opus Francigenum or French work.[2] Solid, monumental, Romanesque buildings with small lancet windows and timbered roofs became larger, lighter and more ornate. Far more pointed arches[3] (originally Saxo-Norman) appeared. The heavy, thick walls were now pierced by large open windows and arcades. Pillars and columns held up pointed arches and together with flying buttresses (external semi-arch) kept the walls vertical with the weight of elaborate vaulted, stone roofs. Large windows were now subdivided by closely spaced parallel mullions (narrow vertical bars of stone) often up to the level of the arch at the top of the pointed window. It gave the impression of a severe grid-like pattern which by the end of the 13th-century became curvilinear and elaborate. Then above there was stone tracery in elaborate, exuberant, geometrical patterns. There was usually at least one rose-window. The arrangement supported heavy cut-coloured glass windows which then enabled biblical art. The triforium (middle layer)  was reduced in size, but the clerestory above with larger windows increased in size. More vaulting ribs appeared including one central rib extending down the middle of the roof. Some of the side ribs were merely ornamental. The west front was generally monumental with twin towers and great doors below. Wide towers held narrow, tall spires, usually octagonal. Pinnacles appeared on corners of the building. Statues and gargoyles were added. Walls were painted, usually red and green. Pews began to be added to the nave at the end of the 13th-century. In many cathedrals heraldic shields became a decorative device. This brought in abstract and animal images with bold colours symbolizing noble lineages.

 

The west front of the cathedral – perfectly Gothic.

 

East end shrine chapel – French designed and constructed.

             Why did this happen; several reasons have been given. Firstly, during the 13th-century there was a population growth with larger towns and an economy swollen with silver following the organisation of numerous markets. There were new agricultural improvements, use of good quarries and better stonemasons. Communication improved and labour became more mobile. The wealth of cathedrals increased considerably.[4] The second reason for the new architecture was more light was let into the cathedral and worship could now be seen in a way not possible before.[5] Liturgy was enriched. Some have linked this with the fourth Lateran Council, 1215, in which many theological changes were made to church organisation including infallibly defining transubstantiation as the centre of the Eucharist.[6] It enhanced the position of the chancel and many were now extended, squared off, had an ambulatory and given sedilia for more priests to sit close to the altar.  Piscina (for washing the sacred vessels) and a cupboard or aumbry (for storing the vessels) appeared. The third reason was it encouraged worshippers to look upwards to heaven. The three spires reminded all of the Trinity. Bosses on the vaulting showed significant events. The polished stone subliminally stated a vision of heaven. The elevated gargoyles scared away evil and made the cathedral a safe space.[7] Statues had natural poses and gestures, full of tender feeling and strong emotion. Column capitals showed beautiful arrangements of leaves. The cathedral facilitated in diverse ways the thinking and feelings of the faithful. A fourth explanation was it expressed the hierarchy of the church. The Angevin kings and bishops (often related) were frequently in tandem and all wanted to own a magnificent house of God, especially for their own glory or an ancestor’s memorial. The cathedral had a Consistory Court and a Chapter House to enforce rules and law. Somewhere in the edifice felons could be held for a short time. All behaviours were being determined by biblical explication.

 

Bishop’s chair between two stalls in the Consistory Court. (J, C, Buckler 1822)

Vaulting at the crossing

 

Inside the central spire

            This revolution is said to have been introduced in the Abbey of Sainte-Denis,  Paris, in 1144 and Notre-Dame, Paris, 1163. Much of the Gothic decoration had been seen in the mosques of the Middle East and the decoration came before the fundamental change in architecture. It came to England at Byland Abbey (1170) and a rebuild of Canterbury Cathedral (east end 1174). Lichfield Cathedral did not begin until early-13th century (see the post ‘Third cathedral dates’), but epitomises in every way this revolution in style (alongside rebuilt Canterbury, Wells, Salisbury and rebuilt Lincoln). Even the Close became a  fortified residence with a battlemented curtain wall and external ditch and moat. The new Jerusalem was given a city wall.[8] The cathedral felt spacious, could be full of light and everywhere stonework made the onlooker peer upwards; all was pointing to heaven. By 1220, a national style had been formed and Lichfield fully exemplified this. It has been written the 130 years 1220-1350 stand out as amongst the most energetic, inventive and extravagant periods of building in English history.[9]

 

Narrow, comparatively small triforium.

Clerestory windows internal and external

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All this new architectural invention sounds deterministic and relatable to the times. It was a performance of power, new liturgy, craftsmanship and increasing wealth. There is also a paradox. Building a cathedral took decades and lives were comparatively short. The cathedral took 110–140 years to build and that could have been 4 to 5 generations. Names of several master-masons are known and each in turn would have had their own ideas of building in stone. 

Supposed face of Walter de Ramessey, a mason engaged in 1337 to join the extension of the choir with the old choir so that the continuation was masked. Walter was a ‘King’s Mason’ and this face Is on the east side of the capital of the pillar by the north gate of the choir. From H. E. Savage, The fourteenth century builders, Unpub. article in Cathedral Library, (1916), 22.

Several kings and bishops would have added their own particular preferences. Consequently, the cathedral was originally a bewildering mix of different ways to build arches, vaults, windows etc. Even sizes varied. Writers blame changes on the many periods of restoration, but the original cathedral was a mixture of styles. A comprehensive account of the early Gothic transepts[10] with detail of differences between the two transepts, between the bays of the transepts and between the levels of the transepts concludes the Lichfield transepts are an excellent example of the richness and variations which are so characteristic of Early English Gothic design. It is a surprise for many to learn how there is little symmetry in the building. Gothic was innovative, never a fixed design and went through several phases. It has also been supposedly reintroduced with poor reference to the past. It is now inaccurate to describe Lichfield Cathedral as Medieval Gothic in its current architecture. Victorian rebuild, repair and replacement, 1854‑98, means the cathedral is now a neo-Gothic revised building. The Gothic Revival started around 1830 and within a decade became the architectural fashion in England, Germany, France and in missionary churches abroad. The revival included many variations, much of it was contrived and some was detrimental. At Lichfield G.G. Scott gave the cathedral a measured Gothic appearance relative to other cathedrals.

[1] 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.

[2] The term Gothic was first coined by Italian writers in the later Renaissance period (late 15th to early 17th–century). It was meant to be derogatory meaning barbaric. The architecture of Gothic was worked out by French masons. Between 1180 and 1270, eighty cathedrals, five hundred abbeys and tens of thousand churches were built in France.

[3] Early pointed arches can be found in Syria and Mesopotamia, and Western builders probably took the idea from Islamic architecture that would have been seen in Spain at this time.

[4] By the end of the thirteenth century twelve out of Europe's forty richest dioceses were in England.

[5] God was the light of the world, so it was liturgically important to show that light.

[6] This was a driver of change given in a Gresham online talk by Simon Thurley in 2010 entitled ‘A New Jerusalem: Reaching for heaven 1130–1300’. See https://vimeo.com/22404136.

[7] As well as draining off rainwater away from the wall.

[8] It resonates with the Book of Revelation.

[9] See S. Thurley, 2010. He added, boom leads to bust and the series of busts that hit English Society after 1300 came thick and fast: economic stagnation, climate change, famine, and disease. All led to changes in the way that the English built.

10] M. Thurlby, ‘The Early Gothic Transepts of Lichfield Cathedral’, In Medieval Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield, J. Maddison (ed.) (1993), 50–64.