THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT PETER IN EXETERTHE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT PETER IN EXETER
Pictured above is the tomb of Walter Bronescombe, Bishop 1258-1280
Should you visit Exeter Cathedral, you will be struck by its beauty and antiquity. The imposing Norman towers dating from the early 12th Century were retained when Bishop Bronescombe, influenced by the magnificent new Gothic (Early English) cathedral at Salisbury, decided on a grandiose rebuilding in 1270. The work took nearly a Century but resulted in a wonderful Cathedral Church in Decorated Gothic style, prompting Bishop Grandisson (1327-69) to write to Pope John XXII praising its splendours.
Our pictorial guide shows some of these aspects should you be unable to visit.
Exeter Cathedral is built on the camp of the Roman Army's II Augustan Legion. Archaeological evidence of 5th century Christian Worship has been found. In the Seventh Century, St Boniface the Patron Saint of Germany was educated at a monastery or church adjacent to the Cathedral's present location in 690. The history of the church as a cathedral dates from 1050 when the Bishop of Crediton (Devon) and St Germans (Cornwall) moved to Exeter. The first Bishop of Exeter, Leofric, was personally installed in his new see by King Edward the Confessor. The old minster of St Mary and St Peter became the new cathedral and Leofric instituted a community of twenty-four canons to help in his work.
In 1224 Bishop Brewer re-organised the community on a contemporary model. The Archdeacon of Exeter became Dean and the great offices of Precentor, Treasurer and Chancellor (still aided by 24 canons) were instituted; the cathedral community has been maintained on these lines ever since. To accommodate these changes, a Chapter House was built in the mid part of the 13th Century in the new Early English style, the first step in the re-building which resulted in the cathedral you see today. Before all this occurred, though, the Normans had rebuilt the Saxon minster into a new cathedral in the Norman style starting in 1114, providing not only the towers but also the foundations of the nave walls for the second re-building a century and a half later.
The original community of 24 grew with the addition of Vicars Choral to take over some of the religious duties of the canons who were increasingly dealing with worldly administration work - the Vicars Choral were instituted by a charter from Henry IV in 1401. They were joined by a group known as annuellars who were paid by endowments from wealthy patrons wishing for a priest to pray for their souls after death. Many chantry chapels were specially built for this purpose - Exeter had as many as 20 of these chapels within the cathedral in the medieval period.
The close surrounding the Cathedral also developed with houses built for their canons, and halls for the annuellars and Vicars Choral. The history of a cathedral is not just the history of the building, but much more so a history of the people that served it and used it. Perhaps the most important occasions for the cathedral clergy and the people of Exeter were visits from royalty; these occurred frequently in the middle ages - kings who have visited and stayed at the cathedral include William the Conqueror (1068), Edward I (1285), Henry IV (1403) and Henry VII (1497) after Exeter had helped crush an uprising by Perkin Warbeck related to the War of the Roses.
The visit by King Edward I marked one of the most infamous incidents in the cathedral's history - the murder of Precentor Lechlade in 1283. This incident was the culmination of a bitter feud between the then bishop , Peter Quinil, and the dean, John Pycot, who had got himself elected under dubious circumstances. Lechlade was one of the bishops henchmen and was seen as a threat by Pycot's faction, which included the mayor Alured de la Porte amongst their number. In consequence, they enacted a heinous plot ending with the stabbing of Walter de Lechlade as he walked to the cathedral for the night service of matins. The king had to resolve the matter and when he came to judge the case in 1285, he sentenced five men to death, including the mayor, and forced the dean to retire to a monastery.
The above incident demonstrates that the cathedral was not just used for prayer. Many ruffians and thieves would use the building for sanctuary or wrong-doing, the cathedral close would be used to hold markets or games of football or any number of other amusements. The people of the middle ages were not all devout or pious - much like todays society.
The religious changes of the 16th and 17th centuries had their effect on Exeter Cathedral. The Reformation of Henry VIII saw the dissolution of chantries and annuellars whilst the austere nature of worship proposed by EdwardVI required the cathedral to dismantle stone altars, destroy revered images and white wash-wall paintings. Despite this, the bosses and corbels remained untouched and only one statue was lost from the Image Screen .
The most dramatic period in the cathedral's history followed the capture of Exeter by Fairfax and Cromwell in 1646 and the suppression of church authorities by the junta which then held power in the City. The chapter was disbanded and the Cathedral was handed to the city council who wanted to use it for worship by two separate groups - the Presbyterians and Congregationalists. To accommodate the two, a dividing wall was built across the quire screen, with the Presbyterians having the quire and the Congregationalists the nave. The cloisters were destroyed in 1655 and in part replaced by a cloth hall. Attempts to disperse the library were foiled by the citizens of Exeter. After the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, by Devon's General Monk, houses were built for veterans of the Royalist Army in the north range of the cloister area.
In the 'glorious revolution' of 1688 the Prince of Orange held court for a week in the Deanery while preparing to march to London to take the throne as William III. (The organ case was built by John Loosemore in the Chapter House and placed on the quire screen in 1665.) In 1815 John Kendall cleared all the exterior buildings which had been added to the Cathedral. In 1870 Gilbert Scott made a major restoration of the quire and added the Martyrs' pulpit to the nave. In 1880 John Loughborough Pearson began to rebuild the cloister but could not complete the project for lack of funds. Completion ot he cloister was proposed as the Devon War Memorial after the Great War but insufficient funds were raised and Edwin Lutyens was called in to design the memorial cross on the green instead.
The last major event to occur was the Blitz on 3 May 1942 when the cathedral suffered a direct hit. The twin chapel of St James and St Thomas the Martyr was destroyed as were two bays in the south quire. Most of the glass was destroyed but, happily, the building suffered no major structural problems. Since 1945 the bomb damage has been repaired, both towers have been completely restored, conservation work has been done to the image screen, and recently the heating system has been replaced, the wiring has been replaced, extra fire protection has been installed, a new sound system has been fitted and a CCTV is now in operation. Restoration, conservation and maintenance work is carried out daily.
A plan showing how the cathedral has evolved over time.
WARNING:- Some of these pages use a lot of memory and may take time to download.
Hope, Erskine and Lloyd's Exeter Cathedral, published by the cathedral, for a comprehensive look at the history of the building. Unfortunately there are few pictures in this book.
Plan of the Cathedral 
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