[This is one of six reports covering past Antiquarian Society lectures for which the Consoc newsletter had no space at the time. We caught up in Newsletter 141. —Ed.]

A talk by Jon Cannon

Jon Cannon, the writer of the BBC documentary Cathedral: the great English cathedrals, as guest speaker at the Antiquarian Society provided an overview of how the two models for cathedrals — secular and monastic — operated and how their architecture was affected.

      A long process of rivalry went on between Wells and Glastonbury — in the late 11th and early 12th century the Wells Cathedral chapter was relocated to Bath, and the remaining monastic community wanted to recover their status, so the rebuilding of the cathedral was perhaps a form of architectural propaganda. Although in the early 13th century there were attempts to make Glastonbury a cathedral, by 1220 Wells had the upper hand.

   There are many similarities between the two buildings — both had three towers and double-aisled transepts, which are very rare, and both contain a panoply of Lady Chapels. Building periods were concurrent but the styles adopted were very different — Glastonbury built the western Lady Chapel in an anachronistic Romanesque style, while the nave at Wells was in a much more contemporary gothic design.

      The different designs have their roots in early church history. Monastic communities were cut off from the world and came together to live by a set of rules; secular communities engaged with the world and operated with colleges of priests. Both serve a church, and both can have a bishop.

      Their buildings readily demonstrate these features. Durham has a complex on either side of the cathedral: the monks lived around a cloister at the tip of the peninsula, and the bishop and priests on the town side. Salisbury was a collegiate cathedral with a cloister — not all secular cathedrals have one. About half the English cathedrals were also monasteries.

      All secular cathedrals had a vicars’ close, as at Wells, which had derived from the need for resident deputies (vicars) for canons who were absent on business or administrative functions. The system was flexible and innovative, and resulted in the development of colleges which became the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Minster churches and chantries also had colleges. Secular cathedrals have a chapter house, usually hexagonal in shape, as a central feature, containing seats for the canons, whose income came from separate areas or prebends. Monastic chapter houses were part of standard layouts and adjoined the cloister, and all monks were members.

      Another contrasting feature of secular and monastic cathedrals is seen in the architecture of west fronts. Elaborate screens are a feature of Wells, Lincoln, Salisbury, Lichfield, Exeter and York. By contrast, monastic cathedrals have plain west fronts, often with a large west window, as at Durham, Canterbury, Norwich, Worcester, Ely, Rochester and Winchester.

      Inside, secular cathedrals tend to be of a single build, as at Wells (except the east end), Lichfield, and Exeter — all gothic and vaulted. Monastic cathedrals are often not vaulted: Durham, Norwich and Ely are Romanesque, and parts of Winchester and Rochester were rebuilt in gothic style. Worcester, Canterbury and Bath are gothic, but show clear stages of construction. Rebuilding in a uniform style was more common in secular cathedrals, as their institutions were more flexible than their monastic counterparts.    [2013 Feb 15]