Its spire — the tallest in England — has dominated the Wiltshire plain since the fourteenth century. A masterpiece of Gothic unity, Salisbury Cathedral came through the Reformation and the Elizabethan age; it shelters one of the great defenders of the nascent Anglican Church and the moving tomb of a couple punished for a secret marriage.
A bishop of the English Reformation
An 'Early English' Gothic cathedral completed essentially in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, Salisbury lived through the great religious turning point of the sixteenth century. Its bishop John Jewel (1559-1571) was one of the major theologians of the English Reformation: his Apology of the Church of England provided a learned and influential justification of the break with Rome and of the Anglican way. To sit at Salisbury, in one of the most prestigious cathedrals of the realm, was for Jewel to have a leading platform to defend the new Church.
The tomb of a forbidden marriage
Salisbury also keeps the tomb of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (1539-1621), and of his wife Lady Katherine Grey (died 1568) — one of the great dynastic dramas of Elizabeth's reign. Katherine Grey, sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, was a possible claimant to the throne; her secret marriage to Hertford, without the queen's permission, was judged so dangerous that Elizabeth had the couple imprisoned in the Tower of London and their union declared illegal. Their joint tomb recalls how far, under the Tudors, love and royal blood could be a crime. To see: the Magna Carta (one of the four original exemplars, the best preserved) in the chapter house, the spire (the tallest in England), the 'Early English' Gothic unity, the Tudor monuments and tombs.
Did you know?
Salisbury keeps the best-preserved of the four surviving original exemplars of the Magna Carta (1215), the Great Charter that first limited the king's power. Thus, in the cathedral with the tallest spire in the country also watches the most venerable document of English liberty — two summits, one of stone, the other of parchment.
Notes
Salisbury Cathedral lies at Salisbury, Wiltshire; a working cathedral, open to visits. The Magna Carta is displayed in the chapter house. Hours to check.
Quiz
- What is exceptional about Salisbury Cathedral?
- The tallest spire in England
- The largest dome
- The oldest stained glass
- Which reforming theologian was bishop here (1559-1571)?
- John Jewel
- Thomas Cranmer
- John Knox
- Which major document is kept here?
- An original exemplar of the Magna Carta
- The Gutenberg Bible
- Henry VIII's will