Wells Cathedral

During our stay in Bath we travelled the short distance to Wells.

 Wells is a medieval city, the smallest city in the UK. It is interesting to wander through  the narrow streets. There is a busy main street with the usual shops but also some old and interesting buildings. The movie "Hot Fuzz" was filmed here.

But it boasts a most beautiful Cathedral, and I took the opportunity to visit it.

The wells which still exist today within the grounds of the Bishop's Palace were the reason people first settled here. Water. There is evidence of a Romano British burial chamber. A saxon mortuary church was built near here around 705AD. Later, a minster church was founded.

The building of the present Cathedral began around 1175. Bishop Reginald de Bohun was responsible for the first Gothic style Cathedral in England. 300 of its statues still remain today despite the vandalism of the Reformation.

Though much of the cathedral was left intact, the wall paintings of saints and biblical pictures were whitewashed over. The Chantry Chapels, where masses were said for the dead became redundant.

In 1645, Parliament abolished Bishoprics and closed Cathedrals.15 years later, under CharlesII, it was reopened.

 Like all Catholic Cathedrals, it was built to the Glory of God, and to help people appreciate the wonder and respect due to God.

It is an interesting thought that all the great Cathedrals and Abbeys were Catholic, and the great saints we are proud of, were Catholics.

That all this was swept away so quickly at the Reformation is staggering. And of course, there were problems with some of the Clergy in the Church at that time. But when the Abbeys were destroyed, so too was the Social Care sytem of that time, for the Abbeys were schools, hospitals, chemists, orphanages the hostels for the poor.

All these who had been protected by the Monasteries now found themselves on the streets. And as Cobbet explains so well in his book "A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Wales", the rich cronies of the King were given these properties. They had no intention of being benevolent. And soon laws were enacted to prevent the poor from entering towns and villages. If they cannot be seen, they are no longer a problem.

http://www.wellscathedral.org.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Cathedral


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