Exeter Cathedral

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Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, full name Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, is an Anglican cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop. It is a Religion building for worship, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicanism, Orthodox Christian and some Lutheranism churches, which serves as a bishop's seat, and thus as the central church of a dioc...
in the city

City status in the United Kingdom

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarchy to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city"....
of Exeter

Exeter

Exeter Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Roman Britain and has existed since time immemorial. Exeter Cathedral, founded in 1050 is Anglicanism....
, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large Counties of England in South West England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county but often indicating a shire....
, in the southwest

South West England

South West England is one of the regions of England. It is the largest such region in terms of area, and extends from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly....
of England

England

Bishop of Exeter

The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The incumbent usually signs his name as Exoniensis or incorporates this in his signature....
. The present building was complete by about 1400, and has the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England, and other notable features.

founding of the cathedral

Cathedral

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
, dates from 1050, when the seat of the bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
of Devon and Cornwall was transferred from Crediton

Crediton

Crediton is a town in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It stands on the A377 road Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road road to Tiverton, Devon, about north west of Exeter....
because of a fear of sea-raids.

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Encyclopedia

Exeter Cathedral, full name Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, is an Anglican cathedral

Cathedral

City status in the United Kingdom

Exeter

Exeter Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Roman Britain and has existed since time immemorial. Exeter Cathedral, founded in 1050 is Anglicanism....
, Devon

Devon

South West England

England

Bishop of Exeter

History

The founding of the cathedral

Cathedral

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
, dates from 1050, when the seat of the bishop

Bishop

Crediton

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
minster already existing within the town (and dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter) was used by Bishop Leofric

Leofric, Bishop of Exeter

Leofric was a medieval Bishop of Exeter....
as his seat, but services were often held out of doors, close to the site of the present cathedral building. In 1107, William Warelwast

William Warelwast

William Warelwast was a medieval Norman cleric and Bishop of Exeter in England. A native of Normandy, little is known of his background before 1087, when he appears as a royal clerk for King William II of England....
, a nephew of William the Conqueror

William I of England

William I , better known as William the Conqueror , was Duke of Normandy from 1035 and English monarchy from later 1066 to his death. William is sometimes also referred to as "William II" in relation to his position as the second Duke of Normandy of that name....
, was appointed to the see, and this was the catalyst for the building of a new cathedral in the Norman

Norman architecture

The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries....
style. Its official foundation was in 1133, after Warelwast's time, but it took many more years to complete. Following the appointment of Walter Bronescombe

Walter Branscombe

Walter Branscombe was bishop of Exeter from 1258 to 1280....
as bishop in 1258, the building was already recognized as outmoded, and it was rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style, following the example of nearby Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

building_name= Salisbury Cathedral|year_built=|year_end=|year_highest =|location= Salisbury, England|antenna_spire= 123m/404ft*|construction_period = 1220-1258 ...
. However, much of the Norman building was kept, including the two massive square towers and part of the walls. It was constructed entirely of local stone, including Purbeck Marble

Purbeck Marble

Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarry in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England.It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods....
. The new cathedral was complete by about 1400, apart from the addition of the chapter house

Chapter house

A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monastery....
and chantry chapels

Chantry

Chantry is the England term for the establishment of an institutional chapel on private land or within a greater church, where a priest would chant Mass ....
.

Like most English cathedrals, Exeter

Exeter

Exeter Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Roman Britain and has existed since time immemorial. Exeter Cathedral, founded in 1050 is Anglicanism....
suffered during the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, denotes the administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII of England disbanded all monastery, nunnery and friary in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed of their assets and provided f...
, but not as much as it would have done had it been a monastic foundation. Further damage was done during the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
, when the cloisters were destroyed. Following the restoration of Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
, a magnificent new pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a keyboard musical instrument that produces sound by venting mechanically compressed air through resonant Organ pipe. Each pipe produces sound at one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets or "ranks" with one pipe or more per note, each rank having a common timbre and loudness throughout....
was built in the cathedral by John Loosemore

John Loosemore

John Loosemore was an England builder of pipe organs. He is best known for his organ at Exeter Cathedral in Devon, which he completed in 1665....
. During the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
, some refurbishment was carried out by George Gilbert Scott

George Gilbert Scott

Sir George Gilbert Scott was an England architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of Church , cathedrals and workhouses....
. The bombing of the city in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
caused considerable damage to the cathedral, including the loss of most of the stained glass

Stained glass

For the Blackford Oakes novel, see Stained Glass The term stained glass can refer to the material of coloured glass or the craft of working with it....
. Subsequent repairs and the clearance of the area around the western end of the building uncovered portions of earlier structures, including remains of the Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
city and of the original Norman cathedral. Notable features of the interior include the great clock, the minstrels' gallery, and the ceiling bosses, one of which depicts the murder of Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion....
. Because there is no centre tower, Exeter Cathedral has the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in England.

Misericords

The misericord

Misericord

A misericord is a small wooden shelf underneath folding seats in Church installed to provide some level of comfort for those standing during long periods of prayer....
s, are the earliest, complete set in the United Kingdom, comprising of fifty misericords, dating from 2 periods, 1220 - 1230 and 1250 - 1260. Amongst other things, they depict the earliest representation of an elephant, known in the UK. Also, unusually for misericords of this period, they have supporters.

Clock

The clock is one of the group of famous 14th to 16th century astronomical clock

Astronomical clock

An astronomical clock is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets....
s to be found in the West of England. (See also Salisbury

Salisbury cathedral clock

The Salisbury Cathedral clock, a large iron-framed clock without a dial located in the aisle of Salisbury Cathedral. The Salisbury cathedral clock dating from about 1386 is the oldest working clock in the world....
, Wells

Wells Cathedral clock

The Wells Cathedral clock is an astronomical clock in the north transept of Wells Cathedral, England.The clock is one of the group of famous 14th to 16th century astronomical clocks to be found in the West of England....
, Ottery St Mary

Ottery St Mary

Ottery St Mary, known locally as just "Ottery" , is a town in the East Devon district of Devon, England, on the River Otter, about ten miles east of Exeter on the B3174....
, and Wimborne Minster.) The main, lower, dial is the oldest part of the clock, probably dating from the 1480s. The fleur-de-lys 'hand' indicates the time (and the position of the sun in the sky) on a 24-hour analogue dial. The numbering consists of two sets of I-XII Roman numerals

Roman numerals

Roman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The system is decimal but not directly Positional notation and does not include a zero....
. The silver ball and inner dial shows both the age of the moon and its phase (using a rotating black shield to indicate the moon's phase). The upper dial, added in the 1760s, shows the minutes.

The Latin phrase Pereunt et Imputantur, a favourite motto for clocks and sundials first penned by the Latin poet Martial

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin language poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Ancient Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the Roman emperor Domitian, Nerva and Trajan....
in the poem "Character of a happy life", is usually translated as "they perish and are reckoned to our account", referring to the hours that we spend, wisely or not. The original clockwork mechanism, much modified, repaired, and neglected until it was replaced in the early 20th century, can be seen on the floor below.

Organ and organists

Organ

The Cathedral organ stands proud and imposing on the ornate medieval screen, preserving the old classical distinction between quire

Quire

A quire can be any of several things:* Quire , part of a church* Paper quire, a quantity, usually 24 or 25, of sheets of paper* a variant spelling of Choir ...
and nave

Nave

In Romanesque architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and Church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar....
with marked grandeur. The largest pipes, the lower octave of the 32ft Contra Violone, stand just inside the south transept

Transept

Full descriptions of the elements of a Gothic floorplan are found at the entry Cathedral diagram.'For the periodical go to The Transept....
. The organ also boasts one of the very few trompette militaire

Trompette militaire

The trompette militaire is a loud majestic sounding organ stop, with brassy, penetrating tone. It is noted for its installation in Liverpool Cathedral, on the fifth manual of the Henry Willis Organ in St Paul's Cathedral, London, and in the 1968 rebuild of the organ of Exeter Cathedral....
stops in the country (the only other examples to be found in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
are in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
's Anglican

Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of Liverpool, England, built on St. James' Mount in the centre of the city. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool....
and London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
's St Paul's

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral is the Anglicanism cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major medieval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedr...
Cathedrals), housed in the minstrels' gallery

Minstrels' gallery

A minstrels' gallery is a form of balcony, often inside the great hall of a castle or manor house, and used to allow musicians to perform, sometimes discreetly hidden from the guests below....
, along with a chorus of diapason pipes

Flue pipe

A flue pipe is an organ pipe that produces sound through the vibration of air molecules, in the same manner as a recorder or a whistle. Air under pressure is driven down a Flue and against a sharp lip called a Labium, which causes the column of air in the pipe to resonate at a frequency determined by the pipe length....
.

Organists

1584 Matthew Godwin
1591 Arthur Cocke
1609 John Lugge
1665 Theodore Coleby
1674 Henry Hall
1686 Peter Passmore and John White
1693 Richard Henman
1741 John Silvester
1753 Richard Langdon
1777 William Jackson
1804 James Paddon
1835 Samuel Sebastian Wesley
Samuel Sebastian Wesley

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was an England organ and composer.He was born in London, the son of the composer Samuel Wesley and his partner Sarah Suter, and grandson of Charles Wesley....
1842 Alfred Angel
1876 Daniel Wood
Daniel Wood

Daniel Wood, Dan Wood or Danny Wood may refer to:*Dan Wood, a former collegiate and professional soccer coach*Daniel Joseph Wood, an organist and chorister...
1919 Ernest Bullock
Ernest Bullock

Sir Ernest Bullock was an English organist, composer, and education....
1928 Thomas Armstrong
1933 Alfred Wilcock
1953 Reginald Moore
1957 Lionel Dakers
1973 Lucian Nethsingha

Director of Music (since 1999)

1999 Andrew Millington

Assistant organists

???? - 1880? Mr. Vinnicombe
1881 - 1889 Ernest Slater
Frederick Gandy Bradford
Walter Hoyle
1900 - 1906 Revd Arnold Duncan Culley
1919 - 1927 Ernest Bullock (later organist of Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
)
1929 - 1937 William Harry Gabb
1937 - 1940 John Norman Hind
1945 - 1946 John Norman Hind
1950 - 1955 Howard Stephens
1961 - 1969 Christopher Gower

Organist (since 1999)

1969 Paul Morgan

Organ Scholars

Exeter Cathedral has only had one organ scholar in its history.

See also the List of Organ Scholars at Exeter Cathedral

List of organ scholars at British cathedrals and parish churches

This table contains a list of the Organ Scholar at British Cathedrals and Parish Churches. ...
.

Holy relics

It is recorded in the missal

Missal

A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year....
of the 11th-century that King Athelstan had brought together a great collection of holy relics at Exeter Cathedral; sending out emissaries at great expense to the continent to acquire them. Amongst these items were a little of the bush in which the Lord spoke to Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
, and a bit of the candle which the angel of the Lord lit in Christ's tomb.

Exeter Cathedral

History

Misericords

Clock

Organ and organists

Organ

Organists

Assistant organists

Organ Scholars

Holy relics

Images

See also

External links