Burial places of the bishops of Rochester
/Tim Tatton-Brown investigates what is known of the burial places of the bishops of Rochester. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2004-2005.
There have now been bishops of Rochester for over 1,400 years, and the place of burial of the bishop was, until more recently, always an important consideration. In the later Middle Ages the bishop, if he was not translated to a more important see (quite common at Rochester), was almost always buried in the cathedral, but even here fashions changed, and as we shall see, the exact place of burial in the cathedral also changed over time. The form of the bishop's tomb also changed, and in the later Middle Ages it was quite common for the bishop to be buried under the floor, covered only by a large Purbeck marble leger slab, on which would have been fixed a monumental brass. Sadly all the brasses have gone (robbed out in the mid-seventeenth century), but some fine legers do survive. After the Reformation, no bishops were buried in the cathedral except John Warner (1637-66), and after his burial in the north-east transept (in the Lee Warner chapel, earlier the Chapel of St John-the-Baptist) many of the bishops were buried in Westminster Abbey. This was because between 1666 and 1802 the see was held in commendam with the Deanery of the Abbey.' The bishop of Rochester's income was always very low (half that of the Dean of Westminster), and it made economic sense to join the two together. At this time also the bishop's residence was at Bromley, and this combined nicely with the fine 'town house' on the north-east side of the Abbey. The two were separated again in 1802, and after this the bishops were buried in a variety of places, but not at Rochester.
The Anglo-Saxon bishops must also have been buried in their cathedral, though the first of them, Justus, of course, went on to be Archbishop of Canterbury, and amazingly his original tomb can still be seen at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury. Bede also tells us that when Bishop Paulinus died in AD 644, he was buried in the sacristy of the church of the Blessed Apostle Andrew'. 141
He also tells us that Bishop Tobias, who was a very learned man, was buried 'in the porch of St Paul which he had built within the church of St Andrew (i.e. the cathedral) for his own burial place'. The remains of what must have been the apsidal east end of the first cathedral were discovered in 1888 under the north-west corner of the present cathedral and, one day, when they are fully excavated, the various chapels where the bishops were buried (like those of the Archbishops at St Augustine's in Canterbury) should be found, and understood. In the later Anglo-Saxon period the tombs of Paulinus, and Ithamar, the latter the first Anglo-Saxon bishop, became shrines, and after the rebuilding of the eastern arm of the cathedral, in the late twelfth century, their relics were translated to new shrine-tombs on either side of the high altar. These mirror the shrines-tombs of St Dunstan and St Alphege in Canterbury Cathedral, though at Canterbury both were eclipsed by the new shrine of St Thomas Becket after 1170.
After the Norman Conquest, Rochester Cathedral was totally rebuilt by its great Norman bishop Gundulf. He also introduced Benedictine monks to the cathedral in 1083, and when he died in 1108 we are told that he was buried by Archbishop Anselm before the altar of the Cruficix of the Church which he himself had built from the foundations'. This is almost certainly the altar of the Holy Cross in the centre of the eastern part of the nave, though its exact site is not known. His great friend and master, Archbishop Lanfranc, was buried in a similar place in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral in 1089, and at this time both cathedrals probably had the monks' choirs just to the east of these tombs.
During the twelfth century, various of the bishops died and were buried at Rochester, but the site of their graves is not known. It is quite possible that, as at other monastic cathedrals, they were buried (along with the priors) in the chapter house. The splendid chapter house at Rochester was rebuilt by Bishop Ernulf (1114-24), and he may himself have started a tradition of being buried there. The contemporary chapter house at Durham, though mutilated in 1796, still contains some of the original bishops' gravecovers.* When the main doorway into the Rochester chapter house was reopened in 1936, part of the floor was dug up just inside it, and one burial was found. This was then rapidly covered up again, but one day an archaeological excavation there may uncover the graves of some of the twelfth-century bishops.
The first bishop's tomb to survive in the Cathedral is the tomb of Bishop Gilbert de Glanville (1185-1214), who presided over the rebuilding and enlargement of the eastern arm of the cathedral after the fire of 1179. His damaged but fine tomb is on the north side of the presbytery, three bays from the east end. It clearly takes its inspiration from the tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter (died 1205) in Canterbury Cathedral. This is very appropriate as Gilbert de Glanville was a friend of Archbishop Hubert, and Clerk to his predecessor Archbishop Baldwin.
Immediately to the east of de Glanville's tomb is the very fine Purbeck marble effigy of Bishop Laurence de St Martin (1251-74), which covered his stone coffin. Bishop Laurence was able to acquire the canonization of William of Perth in 1256, and to have his new shrine set up in the centre of the northeast transept, as an addition to the high altar shrines of Sts. Paulinus and Ithamar, already mentioned. It is also perhaps worth mentioning that Bishop Laurence's predecessor, Bishop Richard de Wenden (1238-50), was said to have been a very holy man, and was, most unusually, buried in Westminster Abbey at exactly the time when Henry III was starting to rebuild it. Sadly the tomb, and even its site, is now lost, and so too knowledge of its site.
After Bishop Laurence's death, Rochester was given one of its most important bishops, Walter de Merton (1274-7). He had already been Chancellor of England twice (1261-3 and 1272-4), and had founded his famous Oxford College. His time at Rochester was short because sadly he died as a result of an accident, after falling from his horse when crossing a ford."' His fine tomb, built in the north-east transept immediately to the north of the new shrine of St William, is well-known, and its medieval form and history has already been described for the Friends.'
The next bishop was John de Bradfield (1278-83), a former monk and precentor of Rochester, whose tomb in the south aisle, appropriately enough, looks across to the main south door of the cathedral that led into the monastery. The tomb is also a fine early example of a so-called 'Ciborium' tomb with its 'Kentish tracery' canopy, though the mutilated effigy on the tomb seems to date from the earlier thirteenth century. The next bishop, Thomas Inglethorp (1283-91), a former Dean of St Paul's, has a fine Purbeck marble effigy in the presbytery, immediately to the south of the high altar. This is the last of the tombs in the eastern presbytery side-wall niches, though a magnificent canopied tomb was constructed in the arch between the north-west side of the presbytery and the chapel of St John-the-Baptist for Bishop John of Sheppey (1352-60), who had been Edward's Ill's Treasurer of England. Famously this tomb was rediscovered by L. N. Cottingham2, in 1825, after it has been walled-up behind Archdeacon John Lee Warner's monument in about 1680.
Thomas de Wouldham, another Rochester monk, who became Prior, and then bishop (1292-1317), was almost certainly the first bishop here to be commemorated by a monumental brass. His fine brass indent is perhaps that in the centre of the north choir aisle at the foot of the steps!. Unfortunately this indent is not in situ, and we do not know where it yeas know where it was placed originally. Hamo de Hythe, another Rochester monk and prior, became bishop in 1319 is, and did a great deal for the Cathedral and the priory before his death in 1352. Most importantly, he built the original tower and spire (demolished in 1825). His tomb is probably that on the south side of the north choir aisle, but this has never been proved for certain.
After Bishop John of Sheppey (1352-60) came William Whittlesea (1362-4), but he moved on to Worcester before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. When he died in 1374, he was buried in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral. Sadly his tomb there was destroyed in the 18th century's!.
In the later 14th century, a 'nave was added to the Lady Chapel in the South Transept'. This was mentioned, in passing, in the will of Bishop Thomas Brinton (1373-89) who asked to be buried in the Lady Chapel 'de novo constructa juxta tumulum bone memoris quondam Thome Trillek Roffensis Episcopi nostri predecessoris immediati'. This tells us that he was to be buried in the newly constructed Lady Chapel next to the tomb of his predecessor, Thomas Trilleck (1364-72). Both these burials must have been below the floor of the Lady Chapel 'Chancel' in the South Transept, and were beneath legers and brasses. Three legers are shown in 18th and early 19th century plans of the Cathedral, but only one now survives in situ, and this must be the slightly later brass indent covering the grave of Bishop Richard Young (1404-18), who also requested burial in the Lady Chapel, under a lapis marmoreus (i.e. Purbeck marble leger stone) a. Brinton's leger seems now to have disappeared, but the ex situ indent of a bishop in the north-west corner of the North choir aisle is probably that of Trilleck".
John Kemp, the next bishop (1419-21) moved on to Chichester (1421), then London (1421-6) followed by a long spell as Archbishop of York (1426-52), before returning south to Canterbury as a Cardinal(1452-4). His wonderful wooden-canopied tomb can still be seen on the south side of the presbytery in Canterbury Cathedra|2. Kemp's successor, a Canterbury monk John Langdon (1422-34) died at a conference in Basle and his body was bought back to be buried in the Charterhouse in London. His successor was the Dean of Salisbury, Thomas Brown (1435), who moved on quickly to be the Bishop of Norwich. He died in 1445 and was buried in the nave of Norwich Cathedral.
The next two bishops, William Wells (1437-44) and John Lowe (1444-67) were the last two bishops to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, except John Warner in 1666. Bishop Wells was probably buried beneath the fine large brass indent in the centre of the presbytery (south of Bishop John of Sheppey). Once again only the indent survives, but stylistically the form of it dates to the middle of the 15th century?". John Lowe was the former prior of the Austin Priory in London, and Provincial of the Order in England, He chose to have a plain Purbeck marble tomb on the north side of the eastern crossing 'opposite the bishop's throne', as his will of 1463 says?21, It also mentions 'the golden image of St. Andrew nearby. This tomb remained here, beside an east-west screen, until it was moved to its present position in the northern entrance to the Chapel of St. John-the-Baptist in the 1870s by G.G. Scott.
After John Lowe's burial in 1467, all the other late medieval bishops of Rochester were translated to grander seas, so their tombs can be found in York Minster, Ely, Lincoln, Salisbury and St. Paul's Cathedrals. John Fisher, the most famous of them all was, however, bishop of Rochester from 1503, for over thirty years. In 1535, as is well known, he was executed at the Tower of London as a newly created cardinal, and was buried there in the recently re-built Chapel of St. Peter-ad-Vincula.
Tim Tatton-Brown
Notes
See Friends' Annual Report 1996/7, 25-30 for Bishop Warner.
For their monuments there, see John Physick's fine article in the Friends' Annual Report
1995/6, 24-30.
3 For a list of the later bishops, see J.M. Horn (ed.), Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1541-
1857 III, Canterbury, Rochester and Winchester dioceses (1974), 52-4.
Bede, A History of The English Church and People, III, 14 (p.163 in the Penguin Classics edition). For Bishop Tobias, see Bede V, 23, (p. 330).
G.M. Livett, 'Foundations of the Saxon cathedral church at Rochester' Arch. Cant. 18 (1889),
261-278W. H. St John Hope, 'Recent discoveries in the Abbey Church of St Austin at Canterbury,' Arch. Cant. 32 (1917), 1-26.
W.H St John Hope, The Architectural history of the cathedral church and monastery of St. Andrew at Rochester,' Arch. Cant. 23 (1898), 289.
J. T. Fowler, 'An account of excavations made on the site of the Chapter House of Durham Cathedral in 1874', Archaeologia 45 (1880), 385-404.
Briefly reported in the The Times (April 1936), and in the first Annual Report of the Friends.
M. Franks, 'The Clerk of Basingstoke: A Life of Walter de Merton' (2003), 88.
J. Blair, The Limoges enamel tomb of Bishop Walter de Merton' in Friends Annual Report
1993/4, 28-33.See St John Hope (note 7), 298-9. For Ciborium tombs in England, see L.L. Gee in Journ. Brit.
Archael. Archaeol. Assocn. 132 (1979), 29-41.See the article by A.J. Kempe, in Archaeologia 25 (1825), 122-6. Bishop Sheppey had a chantry in the chapel of St. John-the-Baptist.
14 I owe this to Professor Nigel Saul, though he suggests that the indent could also have contained a brass commemorating Bishop Hamo de Hythe.
There was a delay because the Avignon Pope John XII wanted to appoint someone else.
See K, Blockely et al., Canterbury Cathedral Nave: Archaeology, History and Architecture
(1997), 147-8.Earlier writers have suggested a later fifteenth-century or early sixteenth-century date for the whole of this fine structure, but Dr. Richard Morris points out that the mouldings of the bases and capitals of the entrance arch suggest a later fourteenth century date. See J.P. Mcleer, Rochester Cathedral 604-1540, an architectural history (1999), 162.
See St John Hope (note 7), 294-5, who quotes from the wills of the three bishops.
The ex situ bishop's indent to the east of it used to be attributed to Brinton, but as we have seen Professor Saul suggests an earlier fourteenth century date for this indent.
See C. Wilson, 'The medieval monuments' in P. Collinson, N. Ramsay, and M. Sparks (eds.)
A History of Canterbury Cathedral (1995), 481-2.St John Hope (note 7), however, suggests that it may have covered the grave of Bishop John of Bottisham (1400-4).
St John Hope (note 7), 305, and 322-3.
