HISTORY OF
THE
CATHEDRAL CHURCH
AS
ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY OF
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCHES
OF THE
OLD FOUNDATION.
BY
EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1870.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Lecture I. | 1 |
| Lecture II. | 42 |
| Lecture III. | 105 |
| Notes | 163 |
| Index | 191 |
PREFACE.
This small volume is a reprint, with hardly anychange, of three lectures which were given to a localsociety in Wells in the months of December 1869 andJanuary 1870, and which were printed at the time ina local paper. I have added some notes and references,but the substance is essentially the same. Thesubject seemed to deserve more than local attentionon more grounds than one. I wished to point outthe way in which local and general history may andought to be brought together. As a general rule, localhistorians make hardly any attempt to connect thehistory of the particular church or city or districtof which they are writing with the general historyof the country, or even with the general history ofits own class of institutions. On the other hand,more general students of history are apt to pay toolittle heed to the history of particular places. I havehere tried to treat the history of the Church of Wellsas a contribution to the general history of the Churchand Kingdom of England, and specially to the history[Pg ix]of the Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation.I have also a special object in calling attention to theorigin and history of those foundations, to their originalobjects and their modern corruptions. It is quite impossiblethat our Cathedral institutions can stay muchlonger in the state in which they now are, a statewhich satisfies no party. If they are not reformed bytheir friends, they can hardly fail to be destroyed bytheir enemies. The awkward att