What is it about Christ Church Cathedral vergers? They all seem to give the most interesting of talks, and on 13 November, Jim Godfrey continued to uphold the standard set by previous Christ Church speakers.
Jim started by explaining the title of his talk. He explained that a ‘peculiar’ is a church that is outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated. Christ Church Cathedral is one of those unusual ‘peculiars’.
He also explained the origin of the word ‘verger’. One of the duties of the cathedral verger is to carry the rod in front of the bishop as a symbol of office. Jim showed us the carved wooden rod that he had brought with him (he hadn’t been allowed to bring out the valuable ones!) [picture below] The rod itself is called a ‘virge’, and the person who carries it is a ‘verger’. It’s original purpose was quite literally to push people to the verge, to clear the way.
Jim then gave us some background about the cathedral and its relationship with Christ Church college. it turns out that the cathedral is twice as old as the college, having been built on the forecourt of the Frideswide Monastery. St Frideswide’s relics were kept in a silver box on top of a monument in the original monastery and she is the patron saint of the modern-day Cathedral. The box and relics are gone, but a replica monument exists in the Cathedral.
The site of the cathedral itself is a site of a very old community. 80 Anglo Saxon bodies were found in the cloister: that makes it the site of the oldest community in Oxford.
Other interesting facts about the cathedral:
– There are various lanterns, the third one of which has had a time capsule built into it. It is due to be opened in 500 years.
– The east end of the cathedral was redesigned to the plans of a Victorian architect aiming to make that part of the cathedral look like it might have looked like 750 years previously. But they had to take out an original 14th century window to do this!
To be a cathedral, a Bishop’s throne is needed. Bishop Robert King was the first bishop of Oxford in 1542. His throne is bolted to the cathedral’s floor so firmly that it will never leave! Prior to 1542, Christ Church was on the very outer edges of the Lincoln diocese, so it had little interference. It came under the remit of the abbot of Osney Abbey, which (Jim showed us pictures) was truly vast, having two cloisters. [picture below]
Christ Church college was originally destined to be Cardinal College, with Cardinal Wolsey as its patron. He had attended Oxford and he designed the college that was to be built in his honour, to outdo his alma mater Magdalen College. It was also designed to have a chapel that was slightly wider, longer and higher than Kings College, Cambridge. (Do we think that perhaps Cardinal Wolsey was just a little bit over-competitive?) It is said that Cardinal College’s chapel is the finest building that Oxford never had.
In the end Wolsey fell out with Henry VIII and that was ultimately the reason why Cardinal College was not built. Having fallen out with the King he escaped to York, where he was arrested and brought back towards London. However on the journey he fell ill and died in Leicester, where he was buried at Leicester Abbey. The sarcophagus that had been purchased for him in St Pauls, was unused given that he was buried in Leicester. So the tomb at St Pauls was, eventually, used for national hero Horatio Nelson.
Although his full project never came to fruition, Cardinal Wolsey was responsible for the building of the beautiful staircase and great hall at Christ Church college. Jim mentioned that there are firedogs in the great hall, showing long-necked ladies. It seems likely that these might have influenced academic Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), who was a lecturer at Christ Church.
Returning to the story of Osney Abbey, after the abbey was destroyed during the reformation, Great Tom (the bell), the vestments, clergy, choir were all moved to Christ Church cathedral. This is why the Great Tom bell (which is the largest bell cast in medieval times) predates Cardinal Wolsey by 300 years.
Tom Quad was originally designed without the turret and bell. The tower for Great Tom bell was designed by Christopher Wren in the 1680s, with its beautiful spiral staircase. Great Tom tolls 101 times each evening (that relates to the 101 students of the time) at the curfew hour of 9 o’clock in the evening. That is to warn each student (personally) to get back to college. These days the curfew bell tolls at 9.05pm. Why? Because at the time of the original curfew bell, every area of the country had its own time zone, including Oxford. Oxford is 1 and 1/4 degrees west of Greenwich, and so Oxford’s time zone was 5 minutes behind Greenwich. When time was standardised in 1852, everywhere in the country agreed to make the change except for Christ Church, Oxford. So Christ Church continues to observe Oxford Time, and its bell rings at 9pm Oxford time, which is 9.05pm Greenwich standard time. For that reason, attendees at the cathedral’s evensong may notice that even though evensong is scheduled to commence at 6.00pm every evening, it actually starts at 6.05pm (i.e. Oxford Time). How like Oxford!
