CHAPTER FIVE5 Life as a bishop in Salisbury
The diocese of Salisbury before 1560
The diocese of Salisbury, comprised of Dorset, Berkshire and Wiltshire
counties, dated back to Anglo-Saxon England. The initial dioceses of the
area were begun shortly after St Augustine of Canterbury’s mission, with
Birinus establishing the diocese of Dorchester in 634, which seems to
have encompassed much of the West Country. From Dorchester was
begun the mission to Wessex. St Headda moved the diocese to
Winchester, and upon his death the diocese was divided into Winchester
and Sherborne, which encompassed Wiltshire, along with parts of
Somerset and Dorset. In 909 Wiltshire and Berkshire were split off into
separate dioceses, but in 1058 Herman, the Bishop of Ramsbury,
reunited the dioceses, and in 1075 moved his see to Old Sarum, an
Anglo-Saxon stronghold. The next bishop was St Osmund, who drew up
the form of the liturgy known as the Sarum rite. In 1220 bishop Richard
Poore, having decided to move the cathedral, laid the cornerstone for the
new edifice on 28 April 1220. The entire structure was completed and
dedicated by 1258. Because the cathedral itself was the product of a
single vision and constructed over the relatively short span of 38 years,
it has a unity lacking in other Gothic cathedrals. The cloisters and
chapter house were added by 1284, both of which are on the south side
of the cathedral (like any well-planned church, the cathedral was built
with the doors in the west, the altar and congregation facing east). At
some point after the initial crossing was completed, the decision was
made to add a spire. Since it was not part of the original plan it soon
became apparent that additional buttresses would have to be added
internally. The internal additions make the crossing seem a bit more
enclosed than it should. Nonetheless, even this was insufficient for the
mass of the spire, as the original columns at the four corners of the
crossing bow noticeably from the additional weight. Further, the spire,
rising 404 feet from the floor of the cathedral, leans, with holes bored in
the floor at the crossing where a plumb line has been dropped down
from the spire’s top, marking its decay.
By Jewel’s day there were a number of buildings ancillary to the
cathedral, including the episcopal palace, Braybroke House, which was
the headmaster’s residence and the cathedral school, the Song School or
choristers’ house, a deanery, Leaden Hall, and the chantry house of Lord