> >The full list of English Monastic cathedrals is:
> >
> >Canterbury, Winchester, Durham, Worcester, Bath, Rochester, Coventry,
> >Norwich, Ely, Gloucester.
> >
> >Chester and Peterborough were Abbeys that became cathedrals at the
> >reformation.
>
>
> Also Gloucester.
>
> Oxford cathedral, also the chapel of Christchurch College, is the former St
> Friedwide's, a monastic house.
I don't believe that the Abbey of St Peter at Gloucester was raised
to cathedral status until the Reformation, at the dissolution of
the monasteries, when many former monastic churches were turned
either into cathedrals, or parish churches (as at Tewkesbury,
Pershore, Malmesbury, Romsey, etc). As for St Frideswide's, it was
an Augustinian house until Cardinal Wolsey dissolved it in the
early 16th century in order to found "Cardinal College" which, after
his fall from grace, was continued as Christchurch College. Wolsey
had begun to tear down the old church, getting as far as the nave,
with the intention of building a new college chapel, but when
Christchurch was continued, what remained of the church was turned
into the college chapel. It was only later in the 16th century that
it was also made into the cathedral of the newly formed diocese of
Oxford (formerly part of the diocese of Lincoln).
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
|