The crypt of Wilfrid's church still survives and can be visited; it is quite an experience, too. Descending into the dim depths of the earth it feels like you are going back through time and will start to hear monks chanting at any moment. The crypt was built in imitation of Christ's tomb, and is very simple, with whitewashed walls with small niches for candles and a simple altar table.
The large niche on the east wall may have been made to hold the relics of saints brought back by Wilfrid from Rome. Now it houses a 14th-century alabaster carving depicting the resurrection of Christ. The carving was part of a hidden stash found beneath the Dean's stall in the choir during Victorian restoration work. It was probably hidden to protect it from damage during the Reformation when many works of religious art were destroyed. St Cuthbert served for a time as a guest master at Ripon and is said to have entertained an angel, not realising who his guest was.
In AD the monastery was sacked by raiding Danes. It was rebuilt but again destroyed in AD Sometime after AD , it was rebuilt once more, by Bishop Oswald, who intended it to serve secular priests. It had 6 prebends attached to specific local churches and was under the patronage of the Archbishop of York.
The monastery existed in one form or another until the Reformation when things get a little confusing. Since Ripon was serving as both a parish church and a monastic college, it lasted longer than most monastic houses, finally falling foul of Henry VIII in when the Dissolution of the Chantries was enacted. But because it was also a parish church it was not destroyed as other monasteries had been.
In James I re-founded Ripon. It served as a parish church until Ripon Diocese was formed in when the church was raised to the status of a cathedral. The minster church was heavily restored when it was made a cathedral, so at Ripon you really have three churches in one; the ancient monastery of St Wilfrid, the Victorian improvements and restoration, and making up the bulk of the building, the medieval college.
I've mentioned the Saxon crypt, but there are numerous other Saxon remains in the church, including a late 9th-century crosshead, an 8th-century grave marker, a 7th-century altar pillar and cross base in the crypt, late 8th-century string courses in a corner of the north transept, and a 7th century carved capital in the Chapel of the Resurrection.
The chapter house is probably 13th century, though it could perhaps be Norman. Most of the remainder of the church is in glorious early Gothic style from the period There is an exquisite 14th-century sedilia, a 14th-century library above the chapter house, and a 15th-century pulpit.
The library was originally a chapel but now houses the Cathedral's Treasury. Among the Treasury items on display is The Ripon Jewel , a Saxon roundel discovered near the cathedral in This lovely circular ornament is made of gold inlaid with garnet and amber.
Among the memorials inside the church is a table tomb to Sir Thomas Markenfield d. However, the real treasure in my eyes is the choir screen, with eight carved and painted kings in canopied niches flanking a central doorway into the choir, with a further 24 statues in niches above the doorway arch.
The screen is a delight, beautifully carved and wonderfully ornate. Sir George Gilbert Scott , who undertook much of the Victorian restoration, thought the screen dated to around , but there is a screen mentioned in a document from so either there was an earlier screen or Scott was out by at least a century!
The screen is fully 8 feet thick, with a door inside the passage to the rood loft, and another door down into the Saxon crypt. Unfortunately, though the screen is authentic medieval work, the statues are Victorian and represent kings, bishops, and saints who played a part in the history of the cathedral.
Beyond the screen is the choir, famous for its medieval carved seats, or misericords. One of these carvings shows a gryphon pursuing a rabbit, and is said to have inspired Lewis Carroll 's Alice in Wonderland story. Since Carroll's father was a canon at Ripon from this story has at least the possibility of truth in it.
On his return journey to England, he spent three years with the Bishop of Lyons, where he became steeped in the ways of the continental church. Upon his return to Northumbria in , he was given the recently founded monastery of Ripon to be its Abbot. He also introduced the Benedictine Rule for his monks and promoted the most up-to-date Roman customs, including the singing of plainchant. This church was one of the earliest stone buildings to be built in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria.
The crypt of the present building, one of the oldest in the country, dates back to this period, a simple structure, it is said to be built in imitation of Christ's tomb.
It remains almost as Wilfrid described it. The main chamber is entered by way of dark passages, one of the relics which Wilfrid had brought back from Rome was displayed in the eastern niche. Saint Wilfrid died in and was buried in the church near the high altar. In the monastery was sacked by raiding Vikings.
Sometime after it was rebuilt once more, by Bishop Oswald, who intended it to serve secular priests. The church was again devastated during the reign of the Saxon King Edred in as a warning to Wulfstan, the Archbishop of York, who had formed an alliance with the Viking ruler of York, Eric Bloodaxe.
King Edred marched north with an army and ravaged the province, burning Ripon. Only the crypt of the cathedral survived. The crypt was built in imitation of Christ's tomb, it is very simple, with whitewashed walls with small niches to hold candles, and a simple altar table.
A large niche on the east wall may have been made to hold the relics of saints brought back by St. Wilfrid from Rome. It now houses a fourteenth century alabaster carving depicting the resurrection of Christ.
The carving was part of a hidden stash found beneath the Dean's stall in the choir during Victorian restoration work. Remarkably, despite the severe damage of the Civil War, when the medieval glass was destroyed, the misericords survived intact. With characters in the dress of the time, they present moralistic scenes, mythological creatures, and some biblical and doctrinal episodes, with extraordinary vigour and power.
Ripon Minster continued as a collegiate church, as established by the charter of James I, until the nineteenth century, when the first new diocese to be established in England in the post-Reformation period was formed, with Ripon as its cathedral.
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