Collins UK - English Cathedrals: England’s magnificent cathedrals and abbeys

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Author: Historic UK and Elizabeth Craig-Johnson

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Source ISBN: 9780008298326

Ebook Edition July 2018 ISBN: 9780008303709

Version 2018-08-03

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Collins Little Book of English Cathedrals is a guide to Englands sixty-two Church of England and Roman Catholic cathedrals. It includes the major sites of world famous St Pauls Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral, home to the leader of the Church of England. Historical background and architectural details for each of the cathedrals is included, accompanied by beautiful colour photographs. Also included is a brief introduction to the English Cathedrals which belong to other Christian denominations.

We tend to associate the rise of Christianity in Britain with St Augustines mission of AD 597, despite an earlier arrival in the 1st century AD via the Roman artisans and traders who came to Britain spreading the story of Jesus.

The word cathedral comes from the Latin word cathedra meaning seat or chair and refers to the location of a Christian bishop or archbishops throne or seat of office. It is the most important church at the heart of the diocese, which is a geographical district of the Christian Church that falls under the pastoral and administrative care of a bishop and is made up of a number of smaller parishes.

A cathedral is not to be confused with a minster, which is the term often used today to refer more generally to any large or important church. A minster is actually a church established during Anglo-Saxon times and attached to a monastery (or monasterium) as a teaching or missionary church. Famous minsters include Southwell Minster, Westminster in London, and York Minster. Slightly confusingly, York Minster is also a cathedral which shows that it is possible to be both a cathedral, and a minster but that the title is not interchangeable. York Minster was built to baptise Edwin, King of Northumbria in AD 627 and later housed a school and library. The Minster was raised to Cathedral status to house the seat of the first Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeux, in 1070.

There are many significant places of worship across the British Isles, a number of which are referred to as cathedrals. However, this book provides a specific guide to the twenty Roman Catholic cathedrals and forty-two Church of England cathedrals that are still houses of Christian worship in England today. We have also included a brief introduction to Cathedrals from other Christian denominations which can be found in England. Specifically, the Antiochian, Coptic, Greek, Russian, Syriac and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Churches and the Anglican and Liberal denominations of the Catholic Church.

Prior to the 16th-century English Reformation, England was part of the Roman Catholic Church under the authority of the Pope. In 1534, England broke away from the Roman papacy at the behest of King Henry VIII and established an independent Church of England with the English monarch becoming the Supreme Head of the Church under the Act of Supremacy. This split with the Church was initially as a result of Pope Clement VIIs refusal to annul Henrys marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Their marriage had not produced a son and heir for Henry and he had already lined up a prospective new wife, Anne Boleyn.

Initially, few changes were made other than the suppression of the monasteries since Henry anticipated that the English Church would remain Catholic, although a separate entity to Rome. However, after Henrys death, Protestant reforms similar to those taking place across Europe were introduced during the short reign of his young son, Edward VI. Despite an attempt by Henrys Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I, to re-establish Roman Catholicism in England, her persecution of Protestants (earning her the nickname Bloody Mary) brought more sympathy for the cause and under the reign of her half-sister Elizabeth I the Protestant Church of England was fully established and Catholic worship outlawed. Catholic priests and members of their clandestine congregations were fined, imprisoned or even put to death and Roman Catholic cathedrals were reappropriated by the Church of England and relics destroyed.

The rumblings of the Reformation and contrasting ideas on the role of the monarch as parliamentary and religious leader continued into the 17th century and resulted in the English Civil War between Parliamentarians and Royalists. Whilst the cathedrals of England have seen damage and destruction as a result of natural disasters such as fire, storm and earthquake, it is the man-made damage during these turbulent periods in history (and those that came later such as the Second World War) that have caused the most destruction. Thankfully, extensive restoration work to English cathedrals since the 19th century has allowed future generations to appreciate their historic splendour.

In the 19th century, the 1829 Roman Catholic Relief Act and the 1850 re-creation of the Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy in England by Pope Pius IX also took place. This explains why all of the current Roman Catholic cathedrals in England date back to the 19th and 20th centuries. The 19th century also saw a great urbanisation of England following the Industrial Revolution. New cities were created, necessitating new dioceses in both the Catholic and Church of England faiths. A number of cities, such as Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Sheffield, have more than one cathedral because they are covered by both a Roman Catholic diocese and a Church of England diocese. In fact, Birmingham is actually home to three Cathedrals since the Greek Orthodox St Andrews Cathedral is also located there.

Many Church of England cathedrals and communities are referred to as Anglican, however this simply refers to the worldwide community of churches of which the Church of England is a member; Anglican is not a separate religion. The Archbishop of Canterbury is often described as the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican community but outside of England he has no lawful authority, and the religion and its interpretation varies slightly from country to country.