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It is neither possible, nor desirable, within the limits of a book of this size and scope, to go fully into the question, interesting though it be, of the relative claims of Aldred and Serlo to the honour of the first building of the Abbey of Gloucester. Professor Willis, in his lecture addressed to the meeting of the Archæological Institute, held at Gloucester in 1860, after giving various reasons for believing that the crypt dates back no further than 1089, when the foundation-stone was laid by Abbot Serlo, goes on to state that he was "clearly of opinion that when the foundations of the cathedral were laid, the crypt was planned to receive the existing superstructure and no other."

Professor Freeman, in his lecture published in the "Records of Gloucester Cathedral," says: "The first thing we do know for certain is, that in the year 1089, thirty-one years only after the dedication of Ealdred's church, Serlo, the first Norman Abbot, began the building of a new church, which was itself dedicated in 1100."

From the record quoted by Mr. W. H. Hart ("Chartulary," i. 3), the first mention of the abbey is in 681, when it was founded by Osric, viceroy of King Ethelred. It was dedicated to St. Peter, and Kyneburga (the sister of Osric) was the first Abbess of a double foundation for monks and nuns. She died in 710.

Osric himself was buried in his church in 729 (Hart, i. 5), and his sister was buried near him, in front of the altar of St. Petronilla, which was on the north side of the then existing church.

The second Abbess was also a lady of royal descent, and widow of Wulphere, King of the Mercians. She died in 735, and with Eve or Eva, or Gaffa, her successor, who died in 769, the monastery came to an end.

In 823 a new régime began—viz. that of secular priests, introduced by Beornwulf, King of Mercia, and the Monasticon Anglicanum (Caley, i. 563) says that he found the monastery "spoliatum et ruinosum" and therefore rebuilt it. He also changed its constitution, by introducing secular priests, of whom many were married to lawful wives, and who were very little different in their way of living to other secular Christians. This state of things went on till 1022, when Cnut, as Leland says, "for ill lyvynge expellyd secular clerks, and by the counsell of Wolstane (Wulfstan), Bysshope of Wurcestar, bringethe in monkes." The monks introduced by Cnut were of the Benedictine rule, or Black monks, as Parker calls them in his "Rhythmical History of the Abbey."

This change was effected about the same time in many other places in England, but was not generally popular, and certainly was not so in Gloucester. Abbot Parker, in his rhyming account of the founding of the abbey, says that in 1030

"A lord of great puissance, named Ulfine Le Rewe,

Was enjoyned by (the Pope) for ever to finde

Satisfying for the seaven priests that he slew,

7 monkes for them to pray world without minde."

Mr. Hope, in his "Notes on the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter at Gloucester," 1897, p. 2, says: "The Benedictines thus introduced by Cnut do not seem to have been a success, and after an existence of thirty-seven years under a weak Abbot, whose long rule was marked by great decay of discipline, the 'Memoriale' (Dugdale, i. 564) says: 'God permitted them to be extirpated, and the monastery in which they were established to be devoured by the fiercest flames, and the very foundations and buildings to be rent asunder, razed to the ground, and utterly destroyed.'"

"The monastery was next taken in hand by Aldred, Bishop of Worcester, who in 1058 re-established the monks. He also began to build a new church from the foundations, and dedicated it in honour of St. Peter."15

"Until now the monastery seems to have occupied the same site throughout its chequered history; but the 'Memoriale' states that Aldred began the new church 'a little further from the place where it had first stood, and nearer to the side of the city.'"

The language of these authorities is quite plain, but the interpretation thereof is not so evident. As Professor Freeman said: "By the time when the oldest church, of which we have any part remaining, came into being, the Roman Wall, or at least this corner of it, must have pretty well passed away." It seems clear that the "side of the city" cannot refer to the Roman Wall. To quote Professor Freeman again: "The existing church is something more than near to the Roman Wall. It actually stands over its north-west corner."

"Even under Aldred's auspices the monastery did not altogether flourish. But this time it was through the fault of Aldred himself, for, on his translation to York in 1060, he retained very many of the possessions of the abbey that had been pledged to him on account of his expenses in repairing and re-edifying the church."

In 1072, Wilstan (Wulstan), the Abbot consecrated by Aldred in 1058, died, and was succeeded by Serlo, who found the convent reduced to two monks and eight novices. Through his energy the monastery increased to such an extent that in about fifteen years' time it became necessary to rebuild the monastery.

This rebuilding was begun exactly thirty-one years after Aldred had built his church, de nova and a fundamentis. Why was this necessary? Professor Freeman says: "The reason is not very far to seek for any one who has really mastered the history of architecture during the eleventh century. … The simple fact is that the Norman prelates pulled down and rebuilt the English churches, mainly because they thought them too small." Further on he says: "This proves that, of the two types of church which were in use side by side in the days of the Confessor, Aldred had followed the older type. He had not conformed to the new Norman fashions, vast size among them, which were coming in after the example of the king's own church at Westminster. … His church was built in the Primitive Romanesque style, the style common to England, with Germany, Italy, and Burgundy, not in the newly-developed style of Northern Gaul. Therefore, neither its scale nor its style suited the ideas of Abbot Serlo.2 It was condemned, and the minster that now stands was begun."

In the MS. Lives of the Abbots in Queen's College Library, Oxford, it is stated that "in A.D. 1089, on the day of the festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in this year were laid the foundations of the church (ecclesia) of Gloucester, the venerable man Robert, Bishop of Hereford, laying the first stone, Serlo the Abbot being in charge of the work." (So, too, Hart, i. 11.)

In August 1089 there was an earthquake, which did serious damage to the then existing building. Eleven years after this (1100), in the last year of the reign of William Rufus, "the church," as Florence of Worcester wrote, "which Abbot Serlo, of revered memory, had built from the foundations at Gloucester, was dedicated (on Sunday, July 15th) with great pomp by Samson, Bishop of Worcester; Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester; Gerard, Bishop of Hereford; and Herveas, Bishop of Bangor." This dedication under Serlo's régime is the last authentic record for some years.

Nothing is known exactly as to how much of the building was completed by 1100. Professor Freeman points out that eleven years was quite long enough for its building, and that there is no hint in the local chronicle of any additions being made to the building dedicated in 1100. Probably part of the church was finished for the dedication, such as the presbytery, choir, the transepts, the Abbot's cloister, the chapter-house, and the greater part, at any rate, of the nave.

The nave, though so different in scale as compared with the original choir, must have been built very early in the twelfth century, and, like the rest of the building, originally had a wooden roof.

In 1101 or 1102 damage was done to the building by fire, notably the chapter-house, and again in 1122. Possibly in this latter fire the nave roof was destroyed, and of this fire the piers in the nave show traces. Of the same date must be much of the strengthening masonry in the crypt, the Prior's lodging, the chapel, and the slype beneath it.

The whole of the Abbey buildings were surrounded by Abbot Peter with a stone wall, and the necessary gates—viz. the great gatehouse on the west, another on the south, and a third more to the east. All these can be identified from the small plan of the monastic buildings, reproduced (p. 103), by permission of Mr. F. S. Waller. The Saxon Chronicle tells us that in 1122, while the monks were singing mass, fire burst out from the upper part of the steeple, and burnt the whole monastery. Some time between 1164 and 1179 one of the western towers, probably the south-west tower, fell down. Fire in 1190 is said to have destroyed the greater part of the city, as well as almost all the buildings in the outer court. Helias, the sacrist, also made new stalls for the monks in the choir. Of these Early English stalls, a fragment has been thoughtfully and carefully preserved behind the seat of the Canon in residence.

In 1222 we learn from Hart, i. 25, that the great eastern tower was built under the direction of Helias of Hereford, the sacrist. Of this tower no traces now remain. Helias built his superstructure on the Norman work that we see in the nave.

The Early English Lady Chapel was said to have been built between the years 1224–1227 by Ralph of Wylington, and Olympias his wife, and endowed with lands.

The church was dedicated again in 1239, in Abbot Foliot's time, by Walter of Cantelupe, "the patriot prelate who, six-and-twenty years later, stood by Earl Simon on the day of martyrdom at Evesham."

Three years after the dedication in 1242 alterations in the triforium of the nave were made, and the stone vaulting was done by the monks themselves. It was a very laudable object, but they effectually spoiled the nave. The same year saw the beginning of the rebuilding of the south-west tower, and it was finished before 1246. If this was the tower that collapsed in 1170, the monks would seem to have somewhat neglected their duty to the fabric. The Norman refectory or "frater" was demolished in 1246, and the new one begun. This building stood to the north of the cloisters, and was pulled down at the Dissolution. Of the Early English infirmary or "farmery" traces remain near the Bishop's Palace.

In this place we may refer incidentally to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, which college was founded in 1283 as a residence for thirteen monks, to be chosen out of the brotherhood at Gloucester, and sent to study at Oxford. The hall was empowered later on to receive students from other Benedictine foundations, and the buildings were enlarged for this purpose in 1298.

Fire again ravaged the Abbey and its precincts in 1300, on the feast of the Epiphany. "It began in a timbered house in the great court, from which it spread to the small bell-tower, the great camera, and the cloister" (Hope, 36). Mr. Hope thinks this bell-tower was either a single western tower, as formerly there was at Hereford, or else a Norman north-west tower, and that the great camera was part of the Abbot's house, now the Deanery. Professor Freeman thinks that the small bell-tower or parvum campanile was so called as being less in height than the south-west tower rebuilt in 1245–6.

In this same fire the Norman dorter or dormitory suffered considerable damage. It was pulled down three years later, and a new one, which took ten years to build, was opened for use in 1313, after being blessed and sprinkled with holy water by the Bishop of St. David's. 1318 is a date of importance in the history of the Abbey. John Thokey, Abbot from 1307–1329, made many changes. He reconstructed the south aisle of the nave to save the south side from collapse. The windows on the outside have been restored, but the buttresses have been very little touched. Most of the tracery in the windows of the aisles and chapels of the choir, and the triforium of the choir, date back to his time.

Thokey, between 1316–1329 built the new camera of the Abbot, beside the infirmary garden (Hart, i. 55).

Thokey's successor, Wygmore, carried out the works planned previously, and in 1331–1337 the south transept was recased, and vaulted practically as we see it to-day, in the style now known as Perpendicular. Part of the front of the Deanery is presumably of the same date, though many later alterations have been made in it. Wygmore also built the double screen (vide p. 44) which separated the nave from the choir. "Parts of it," says Mr. Hope, "are worked up in the present screen," and he quotes Hart, i. 47, to show that Wygmore was buried in 1337, "before the Salutation of the Blessed Mary in the entry of the quire on the south side, which he himself constructed with the pulpitum (or loft) in the same place."

The transformation of the Norman minster had thus begun. In the days of Adam de Staunton (1337–1357) the great vault of the choir was made at a great expense, together with the stalls on the Priors' side—i.e. the north side.

The oblations at the tomb of Edward II. rendered much of his extensive work practicable, as the funds of the Abbey were becoming exhausted.

Thomas Horton (1351–1377) finished the work, comprising the high altar, with the presbytery, the stalls on the Abbot's side, or south side of the choir. (Hart, i. 49.)

He also caused to be made the images and tabernacle work at the entrance of the choir on the north side, and in the six years, ending with 1374, he completed the casing of the north transept, defraying the greater part of the cost himself (£444, 0s. 2d. out of a total sum of £781, 0s. 2d.).

Horton also built "the Abbot's chapel near the garden of the infirmary, the covered camera of the monks' hostelry, and the great hall in the court, where the king afterwards held his Parliament in 1378." (Hart, i. 48, 50.)

The present cloister, as far as the door of the chapter-house, is also his work.

This important work was for many years unfinished, but was completed by Froucester in the years 1381–1407. As Leland says, "he made the cloyster a right goodly and sumptuous piece of worke."

In the one hundred and thirty years that elapsed between the finishing of the cloisters and the Dissolution many further important changes took place, both in the interior and in the exterior of the fabric.

John Morwent (1421–1437), utterly destroyed the west front, with its two towers, which, in the opinion of many, may have been counterparts of those at Tewkesbury. To him also is credited, mainly on Leland's authority, the insertion of the south porch.

Abbot Seabroke (1450–1457) took down the tower as far as the Norman piers, and built the present beautiful structure. He died before it was finished, and Robert Tully, one of the monks of the monastery, carried out the work, as the inscription on the wall in the interior (vide p. 63) testifies.

Before the tower was complete, the present Lady Chapel (which was finished before 1500) was begun by Abbot Hanley, and finished by Abbot Farley.

John the Baptist's Chapel is usually ascribed to Abbot John Browne (or Newton), from the similarity of his initials to those of the saint.

The eastern bay of the chapter-house dates back to Abbot Hanley's time—i.e. between 1457–1472.

In 1540 Henry VIII. sent his commissioners, and they demanded the surrender of the Abbey to the king. This cannot have been a surprise to any of the monks who were in the Abbey at the time. As far back as 1534 they had all been compelled to take the oath by which they acknowledged the king as supreme head of the Church of England, and denied that any foreign bishop had any authority in these realms.

The monks, too, had seen the smaller monasteries in Gloucester dissolved two years before, and the more thoughtful of them must have foreseen that it was a mere question of time for the greedy king to absorb the larger monasteries as well.

Abbot Parker's tomb, and also that of King Osric, practically date themselves, and of the same period are presumably the gateway into Palace Yard, and part of the Abbot's lodging on the site of the present Bishop's Palace. From Leland we learn that the south gate—i.e. King Edward's gate—is of the same date, having been rebuilt by Osborne the cellarer.

The library, and the set of rooms beneath it, now used as vestry and practice-room for the choir, are perhaps the latest additions to the buildings.

At the Dissolution the Abbey which had "existed for more than eight centuries under different forms, in poverty and in wealth, in meanness and in magnificence, in misfortune and success, finally succumbed to the royal will. The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt and lowly adoration before the altar there; and, doubtless, as the last tones of that day's evensong died away in the vaulted roof, there were not wanting those who lingered in the solemn stillness of the old massive pile, and who, as the lights disappeared one by one, felt that there was a void which could never be filled, because their old abbey, with its beautiful services, its frequent means of grace, its hospitality to strangers, and its loving care for God's poor, had passed away like a morning dream, and was gone for ever." (Hart, iii. 49.)

The charter of Henry VIII. founding the see is too long to quote in extenso, but it stated that "Whereas the great convent or monastery, which, whilst still in being, was called the monastery of St. Peter of Gloucester, … and all and singular its manors, … and possessions, for certain special and urgent causes were, by Gabriel Moreton, Prior of the said abbey or monastery and the convent thereof, lately given and granted to us and our heirs for ever. … We, being influenced by divine goodness, and desiring above all things, that true religion, and the true worship of God may not only not be abolished, but entirely restored to the primitive and genuine rule of simplicity; and that all those enormities may be corrected into which the lives and profession of the monks for a long time had deplorably lapsed, have, as far as human frailty will permit, endeavoured to the utmost that for the future the pure word of God may be taught in that place, good discipline preserved. … "

The charter goes on to say that, "considering the site of the said late monastery in which many famous monuments of our renowned ancestors, Kings of England, are erected, is a very fit and proper place … we have decreed that the site of the said monastery be an episcopal see. … We also will and ordain that the said Dean and Prebendaries, and their successors, shall for ever hereafter be called the Dean and Chapter of the Holy and Individed Trinity of Gloucester." Henry also assigned to the Bishop all the premises formerly occupied by the Abbot.

In 1576 the fabric seems to have been in want of considerable repair, and in 1616, when Dr. Laud was Dean, it was said of it that "there was scarcely a church in England so much in decay." The Dean procured an Act of the Chapter, by which the sum of £60 per annum was to be allowed for repairs.

In the time of the civil war it suffered less than might have been expected. It was subsequently in danger of total destruction from the machinations of some persons, who are said "to have agreed amongst themselves for their several proportions of the plunder expected out of it." The little cloisters and the Lady Chapel were begun to be pulled down, and "instruments and tackle provided for to take down the tower," but in 1657 the church was made over by grant to the mayor and burgesses at their request, and from this it is to be assumed that they wished to prevent it from possible ruin. Mr. Dorney, speaking in 1653, recommends to the officers of the city then elected, "that they would, together with others, join their shoulders to hold up the stately fabric of the College Church, the great ornament of this city, which some do say is now in danger of falling."

In 1679 we find an insensate prebendary securing an order from the Chapter for destroying some of the old glass in the west window of the choir. Bishop Benson (1734–1752) spent vast sums of money on the building, and to him are due the paving of the nave, and pinnacles to the Lady Chapel, which were removed at a recent restoration. A stone screen (removed in 1820) was erected at the entrance to the choir by this energetic Bishop, and his architect, Kent, in whose hands he was, suggested the fluting of the pillars of the nave.

Fifty years ago, in 1847, under the energetic administration of Dr. Jeune, the Treasurer, extensive repairs and improvements were begun by Mr. F. S. Waller. The crypt was drained, concreted, and later on glazed. The grounds round the cathedral have been lowered, enlarged, and laid out, and the drainage has been properly done. Of the restorations during the last fifty years mention has been made in detail in the description of the various parts of the building that have been restored, and there is no need to repeat.

Restoration is a cause of much strife, and in the hands of many architects it means destruction of the original features of the building. Gloucester has suffered somewhat at the hands of Sir Gilbert Scott, but probably not a tithe of what would have been inflicted upon it had Wyatt been turned loose with an absolutely free hand. Mr. Waller, writing in 1890, said: "Forty years ago everything not 'Gothic' (the fashion of the day) was destroyed; but were it possible now to reinstate the Chapter-House book-cases, the Renaissance Reredos of the Choir, Wygmore's pulpit, the aisle screens, the remains of the Rood Loft, and the Choir fittings, and to put them all back—odd mixture as they would be—to the positions they occupied in 1727, few would be found to object, even though the replacement of the monuments on the columns of the nave became one of the conditions."—Truly "Tempora mutantur," and fortunately nos et mutamur in illis.

Dedication.—The building of Osric was dedicated to St. Peter by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bosel, Bishop of Worcester. When Bishop Wulfstan ejected the secular canons, and brought in his Benedictine monks, he reconsecrated it to St. Peter and St. Paul.

Bishop Aldred after building de novo re-dedicated the church to St. Peter, as the chief of the apostles. Abbot Serlo seems to have remembered the earlier dedication to St. Peter and St. Paul, for he caused the foundation-stone to be laid in 1089 on the festival of those two apostles in June, but his dedication in 1100 was to St. Peter. Both St. Peter and St. Paul are now represented among the statues on the front of the south porch. After the dissolution of the monastery Henry VIII. ascribed the Cathedral Church to the Holy and Individed Trinity.

The Cathedral is traditionally by many called "St. Peter's," and by some "The Abbey Church," but this, of course, is quite inaccurate.

Apropos of the question of the dedication, the arms of the see may be briefly considered.

The original arms were Azure, two keys in saltire, or.

By the fifteenth century the sword for St. Paul had become incorporated with the crossed keys, and it is found upon the bells and also on the east side of the organ case. At the Dissolution the arms were Gules, two keys in saltire surmounted by a sword in pale, argent. Brown Willis, in 1727, wrote that "the old arms of this see as used 100 years ago, were three chevronels, the middle one charged with a mitre, but the bishops now give Azure, two keys in saltire, or."