Today I want to finish up my series on Norwich Cathedral, a topic that I definitely plan to return to. So I want to find out what happened to Norwich Cathedral and its Benedictine monks during the English Reformation.
For more than four centuries, Norwich Cathedral had been a cathedral and a Benedictine monastery. Generations of monks had lived there, they followed the Rule of St Benedict and organising their days around prayer, study, work and caring for the community and travellers.
However, their way of life came to an end during the reign of Henry VIII.
During the 1530s, Henry broke from the Pope in Rome and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. His government then started to close monasteries, priories and other religious houses across the country.
This became known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Norwich Cathedral was in a slightly different position from many other ordinary monasteries. It was not only a Benedictine priory but it was also the seat of the Bishop of Norwich. The cathedral church was still needed, even if the monastery that was attached to it was dissolved.
In 1538, Henry VIII issued a new charter that replaced the prior and monks with a dean and chapter. However, the formal dissolution of the Benedictine monastery is recorded as the 6th of April 1539.
William Castleton, the last Prior of Norwich, became the first Dean of Norwich Cathedral under the new system.
This meant the transition at Norwich was more orderly than it was at many of the smaller monasteries. Some of the former monks actually stayed at the cathedral as clergy. But, they were no longer members of a Benedictine community, and they no longer followed the old monastic rule.
The traditional way of life that had continued at Norwich for hundreds of years came to an end.
Daily worship did continue but it was now led by cathedral clergy rather than Benedictine monks.
Some of the buildings surrounding the cathedral were also affected. Rooms and halls that had once supported the monks’ lives were no longer needed in the same way.
Buildings that were used for sleeping, eating, studying and receiving visitors were changed, neglected or eventually demolished.
But, the enormous medieval cloister managed to survive.
During the monastery’s history, the covered walkways of the cloister had connected the cathedral with important buildings such as the chapter house, refectory, library and guest accommodation. Although some of these buildings were lost, the cloister remains a wonderful reminder of the cathedral’s monastic past.
Changes inside the cathedral happened gradually.
Henry VIII had rejected the authority of the Pope, but many traditional forms of worship continued during his reign. More openly Protestant reforms were introduced after Henry died in 1547 and his young son, Edward VI, became king.
In 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer was introduced. Church services increasingly took place in English rather than following the old Latin forms of worship.
Altars, shrines, statues, stained glass and objects connected with saints were removed or destroyed in churches across England. Norwich Cathedral sadly lost many of its medieval religious objects during this period, while much of its surviving medieval stained glass was probably destroyed during the Civil War.
One of these was the cathedral’s bronze pelican lectern. It is believed to have been buried in the Bishop’s garden to protect it. It was later rediscovered and is still used for Bible readings today.
Another survivor was the Despenser Reredos, a painted medieval altarpiece dating from around 1380.
It seems that it was turned face down and used as part of a table so was not destroyed. The paintings remained hidden until the reredos was rediscovered in 1847.
The Reformation did not destroy Norwich Cathedral, but it completely changed the community that lived and worshipped there.
Many medieval treasures were lost, and some of the monastic buildings gradually disappeared.
But thankfully, the stunning cathedral church itself managed to survive.
Its Norman architecture, medieval cloister, roof bosses and surviving religious objects still provide us with glimpses of the world that existed before the Reformation.
When we walk through Norwich Cathedral today, we are not only entering a place of worship. We are also walking through the remains of the Benedictine monastery that shaped the cathedral and cared for it for more than four hundred years.
Do you think Norwich Cathedral was fortunate to survive, even though its ancient monastic community was brought to an end?
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