With the first fan-vaulted cloister in the world and its immense medieval window, Gloucester Cathedral is a summit of English Gothic. Its Renaissance history is a textbook case of the Reformation: saved from destruction by Henry VIII who made it a cathedral, it then saw one of its bishops perish at the stake.
From abbey to cathedral (1541)
Gloucester was a rich Benedictine abbey church — the very one where King Edward II rests. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1540, it might have been razed like so many others. But Henry VIII chose to save it: on 3 September 1541, he refounded it as a cathedral, the seat of a new diocese. It is a little-known aspect of the Reformation: while Henry destroyed hundreds of monasteries, he preserved a few by raising them into cathedrals (Gloucester, Peterborough, Chester…), thus saving from ruin some of the finest buildings in the realm.
The martyrdom of Bishop Hooper
The following reign brought tragedy. Under Mary I, the Catholic queen, the reformed bishop of Gloucester, John Hooper, refused to abjure his Protestant faith. He was condemned and burned alive at Gloucester in 1555, before an immense crowd — one of the most famous and most atrocious martyrdoms of the reign (the fire, badly lit, prolonged his agony). A memorial, near the cathedral, marks the place of his torment. Gloucester thus bears the two faces of the Reformation: the building saved by a king, and the churchman killed by a queen. To see: the fan-vaulted cloister (the first and finest in the world), the great east window (c. 1350, the largest medieval window), the tomb of Edward II, the memorial to John Hooper.
Did you know?
The great east window of Gloucester (around 1350) is said to hold the oldest known representation of a game resembling golf — a figure there brandishes a curved stick towards a ball. This image precedes by more than three centuries the first written mentions of Scottish golf: according to some, the most emblematic sport of Scotland thus left its very first trace… in an English stained-glass window.
Notes
Gloucester Cathedral lies at Gloucester, Gloucestershire; a working cathedral, open to visits. The cloister has served as a film set (Harry Potter). Hours to check.
Quiz
- What did Henry VIII do with Gloucester Abbey in 1541?
- He refounded it as a cathedral
- He razed it
- He sold it to the pope
- Which bishop of Gloucester was burned alive in 1555?
- John Hooper
- Thomas Cranmer
- John Fisher
- What is exceptional about the Gloucester cloister?
- It is the first fan-vaulted cloister in the world
- It is of marble
- It is underground