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 York
Minster, one of England's great pre-Reformation cathedrals,
is the largest Gothic church north of the Alps. It is
not only the cathedral church of the diocese of York but also
of the northern province of England and the seat of one of
the country's two archbishops.
In Roman times York, then known
as Eboracum, was a principal city and fortress. Constantine,
one of the first Roman emperors to become Christian,
was proclaimed Caesar here in 306 AD.
In 314 AD a bishop from York
went to one of the early councils of the Church at Arles.
The Minster probably began as a wooden chapel and it was here
that Paulinus baptised Edwin of Northumbria in 627 AD.
Pope Gregory the Great decreed
that York should by the church's missionary centre in the
north of England and a minster (or missionary church) was
established here, dedicated to St Peter.
The see of York was established
within 30 years of St Augustine's mission to Canterbury and
for almost 800 years the archbishops of York fought with those
of Canterbury for supremacy in the English church. The
dispute was finally resolved in the 14th century when Pope
Inocent VI decreed that the Archbishop of York was to be Primate
of England but the Archbishop of Canterbury was to be Primate
of All England.
Little remains of the early churches
on the site but it is known that York was a great centre of
learning in the 8th century. William the Conqueror considered
York to be great importance and appointed Thomas of Bayeux
as his first Norman archbishop.
Thomas' cathedral was the one
of the greatest Romanesque buildings north of the Alps but
today only the crypt remains. In the 12th century York
acquired its saint, William Fitzherbert, who was first appointed
archbishop in 1143 and then reinstated after a dispute 10
years later.
In 1220 Walter de Grey, one of
the greatest medieval archbishops, started to build the present
church. The construction took 250 years and spanned
all the phases of English Gothic, from Early English, through
Decorated to Perpendicular.
The north and south transepts
were the first to be built. Their piers, clustered rounded
shafts and columns of Purbeck marble set the scale for the
rest of the cathedral.
York's octagonal-shaped chapter-house,
one of the finest examples of the Decorated style, was added
at the end of the 13th century followed by the nave and the
north-west front, with its superb window, in the 14th century.
The nave is the widest Gothic nave and largest medieval hall
in England.
The choir, a spectacular example
of the Perpendicular style with walls of glass, was added
at the end of the 14th century.
In 1407 the central tower collapsed
in a storm and 20 years after that catastrophe the present
tower was built. Finally the north-west and south-west
towers were constructed and, when the magnificent carved pulpitum
was installed, York Minster was complete.
York played an important role
in English history throughout the Middle Ages. The infant
son of Edward III, William of Hatfield, was buried here and
Richard II visited York during his turbulent reign.
In 1405 Archbishop Richard Scope joined the Percy rebellion
against Henry IV's taxation of the clergy.
When this failed, Archbishop
Scrope was condemned in his own palace of Bishopsthorpe and
executed. His tomb in York Minster became a place of
pilgrimage and the focus of a popular cult.
Although the importance of York
Minster waned during the 15th century, in 1536 the city played
an important part in the 'Pilgrimage of Grace', the northern
insurrection caused by religious grievances. The minster
was plundered after this pilgrimage but little damage was
done to the cathedral's medieval glass, its greatest glory.
During the Civil War the royalist
city of York was besieged by Parliamentarian troops but their
general, the Yorkshireman Lord Fairfax, ordered that York
Minster should be saved.
In 1829 and 1840 fires caused
serious damage to the minster, and much of the medieval woodwork,
including the choir stalls, were destroyed. The nave
reopened to a new peal of bells in 1844.
In 1967 the central tower was
found to be in serious danger of collapse. The architect,
Bernand Feilden, supervised a five-year restoration programme
which provided the tower with new foundations of steel and
concrete. At the same time the cathedral was cleaned
both inside and out. But in 1984 another fire destroyed
roof of the south transept. The restoration of the roof, vaulting
and glass cost the cathedral £2.25 million.
The cleaning work in the 1970s
emphasised the spaciousness of the building and the quality
of the medieval glass, the largest collection of stained or
'painted' glass in England. The east window has the
greatest area of painted medieval glass anywhere. The
west window, given by Archbishop William Melton in 1338, is
known as the 'Heart of York' because the tracery at the top
resembles the shape of a heart.
The window known as the Five
Sisters, dates from the 13th century and has five soaring
50 foot high lancets containing the coloured glass known as
'grisaille, and the beautiful 16th century rose window
in the south transept has been restored following the fire
of 1984.
York Minster contains many other
treasures, the magnificent late-15th century stone choir screen,
sited between the choir and the nave, with statues of the
kings of England and a canopy of angels, and the splendid
13th century chapter-house, with its restored wooden-vaulted
ceiling with no central column, are just two examples.
20th century additions include
the high altar by William Tapper and the font by Ninian Comper.
In 1955 an astronomical clock was installed at York Minster
as a memorial to the airmen of Britain and her allies, from
bases in the north-east, who lost their lives in World War
II.
In the crypt the visitor can
see remains of York's Roman legionary fortress, Viking gravestones
and incised Norman columns. Also on view are the massive
foundations built in the 20th century to further support the
vast building.
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