28
April 1220 A.D. First
stones laid for Salisbury Cathedral
Christianity has spawned many works of
architecture. One of the most beautiful is this at Old Sarum, England, just ten
miles from Stonehenge. Unlike most Medieval cathedrals, Salisbury was built in
a single campaign. Bishop Poore laid the first five stones on this day, April
28, 1220, one each for himself, Archbishop Stephen Langton, Pope Honorius III,
Earl William and Countess Ela of Salisbury. By 1237 the choir and east
transepts were built and by 1258 the nave and main transepts. The plans and
their implementation experienced few alterations. Consequently, Salisbury has
more unity of design than most English cathedrals of the period.
Just who did design Salisbury is
not known. Historian Paul Johnson suggests that Elias of Dereham and Nicholas
of Ely combined their talents. At any rate, Bishop Poore was the motivating
force behind the project. He obtained the papal authority to build the
cathedral and to locate it on a broad, flat piece of ground rather than on an
earlier site. Had he built on the old site, the new would have had to
accommodate itself to old foundations and the structure could not have had the
charm of the present building.
Salisbury Cathedral is in the
Early English Gothic style. Gothic employs pointed arches, slender vertical
piers, buttresses and diagonals for an austere effect. Salisbury is shaped as a
cross, ever the symbol of Christian faith. Its interior is well-lighted.
The flying buttresses (outside arches) are later additions. They became needful
because of the one major change made to the original conception by a later age.
The original plan called for a
low tower. 110 years after the first stone was laid, the tower was doubled and
Richard of Farleigh designed the octagonal spire which now completes the whole,
making it the second tallest in Europe. The addition of the spire added so much
weight the crossing piers bent. They support almost 6,500 tons. Consequently
new supports had to be added.
The cathedrals of Europe are
symbols of intense faith. It took faith to start building one. Most were not
completed in one generation or even in two. Their spires, straining toward
heaven, are standing prayers to God. In their windows we read the gospel story.
Not a few ornaments remind us of the lurking powers of hell. Salisbury is
little encumbered with such detail, and the simplicity of its decor has been
described as peculiarly English in its understatement. Salisbury Cathedral
remains a testimony to an age of faith.
Bibliography:
1. Johnson, Paul. British
Cathedrals. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, c1980.
2. "Poor, Poore, Poure, or Le
Poor, Richard." Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen
and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford University Press, 1921 - 1996.
3. Smethurst, Canon A. F. The
Pictorial History of Salisbury Cathedral; one of Christendom's loveliest
landmarks. London: Pitkin Pictorials, ca. 1957.
Last updated April, 2007.
