Now that the Bishopric of Southwell has become an accomplished fact, and its ancient collegiate church has been elevated into the dignity of a cathedral, Mr. Livett’s recently-published work[13] on the history of that fabric will doubtless awaken additional interest. An Act of Parliament passed early in the present reign deprived Southwell Minster of its collegiate character, while another and later Act has made it the mother church of a new diocese, consisting of the counties of Nottingham and Derby, which had hitherto belonged to the dioceses of Lincoln and Lichfield respectively. The church of Southwell was despoiled of all its monuments and early records during the troubles of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the only MS. of any importance that has come down to us besides the Statutes of Queen Elizabeth is the “Registrum Album,” or “White Book of Southwell.” The former are printed both in Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” and in the appendix to Dickenson’s “History of the Antiquities of Southwell.” Mr. Dimock, the Editor of the “Magna Vita St. Hugonis,” in the Rolls Series, published some years ago a history of the fabric of Southwell Minster; and other local histories, one by Shilton, issued in 1818, and a third by Clarke & Killpack, in 1838, are, as Mr. Livett tells us, little more than abridgments of Dickenson’s work. Hitherto a general history of the origin and development of the ancient secular college, and of the position which it held in the Middle Ages, seems never to have been taken in hand; and this want Mr. Livett has endeavoured to meet in the little volume now before us.

That Southwell held an important position in the diocese of York before the Norman Conquest is certain; but it is difficult to fix a date for the foundation of the church. Mr. Livett writes: “Tradition points to St. Paulinus as the founder of a church here—the founder alike of York and Lincoln, the friend and companion of St. Augustine, the great missionary of Northumbria under King Edwin, and the first Archbishop of York, A.D. 627-633. This tradition rests upon statements to this effect contained in certain private histories of the church, which are no longer extant. They are quoted, however, by Camden, in his ‘Magna Britannia,’ which first appeared in 1586, and were probably lost during the civil wars of the following century, when most of the church records were either destroyed, or, for safety, carried away. They tell us how St. Paulinus founded the church at Southwell when he was baptizing the people of this district in the Trent; and a careful consideration of the Venerable Bede’s account of the missionary work of St. Paulinus gives support to the statement. The ecclesiastical historian makes no direct reference to Southwell, but internal evidence in his account of Paulinus’ missionary work, more especially the evidence of the place-names mentioned, is strong in favour of the view that Paulinus extended his labours to the close neighbourhood of Southwell.”

No part of the present fabric, with the exception of one or two fragments, dates farther back than the 12th century; but there is abundant evidence that a stone church of considerable size existed here at any rate in the previous century. The Norman parts of the church, as it stands, remarks Mr. Livett, contain unmistakable evidence of an earlier building. “In the north transept, over the doorway leading to the newel by which one ascends the central tower there is a large sculptured stone which is worked into the building in such a way as to show at a glance that it is old material used up again. It is supposed by good judges to have formed the tympanum of an early Norman doorway.” The year 1110 is the date assigned to the nave and transepts. The choir is of the Early English period (1230-50), and appears to have been built during the episcopate of Walter Gray, for in Torre’s “Collectanea,” in the library at York, is preserved an indulgence, addressed by Walter Gray to the bishops and archdeacons of his province, “granting a release of thirty days from penance enjoined to all who, being truly penitent, should contribute to the construction of the church of Southwell, since the means of the church were insufficient for the consummation of the fabric a while since begun.” Torre gives 1235 as the date of the indulgence, but the document itself says, “in the nineteenth year of our Pontificate,” which, according to Drake, would be 1233.

The architectural details of the north transept chapel give the chief clue to its date, 1260. The cloister is somewhat later; but the chapter-house and its vestibule date from the close of the 13th century, and the organ-screen from about 1340.

The minster, as it now stands, consists of a clerestoried nave, with aisles and north porch, and two massive towers flanking the western front, each surmounted by a spire; a lantern tower, with its parapet adorned with pinnacles, rises from the intersection of the nave, transept, and choir; and cloister and chapter-house on the north side of the choir. “‘What either Cologne Cathedral, or Ratisbon, or Wiesen Kirche are to Germany; Amiens Cathedral, or the Sainte Chapelle are to France; the Scalegere, in Verona, to Italy, are the choir of Westminster and the chapter-house at Southwell to England.’ So writes Mr. G. E. Street; and assuredly Southwell chapter-house is placed in the foremost rank of our geometrical buildings. In the refined and natural treatment of the foliage which adorns it, it anticipated the artistic perfection of works of many years later date, and is excelled by none. In its more general features it may be compared with the earlier parts of the cloisters at Norwich, and with the ruins of the banqueting-hall in the palace grounds at Wells. It strongly reminds us, too, of its contemporary, the chapter-house at Wells; in its octagonal shape it follows the plan adopted in almost all the chapter-houses of secular communities. The resemblance to York is still more complete, the date of which is uncertain, but it is the only chapter-house besides Southwell which has no central pillar to support the vault, and the arrangement is more striking there on account of its greater size.”

Mr. Livett gives a minute description of the various parts of the Minster, which we have not space to follow, and his work is illustrated with drawings of some of its chief architectural features, one plate of which, by the courtesy of the author, we are enabled to reproduce. This shows (1) a circular window in the clerestory of the nave; (2) the ancient tympanum in the north transept, mentioned above; and (3) window tracery removed from the south-west tower. The ancient tympanum here referred to, which is in the form of a sculptured stone, now forms the lintel of the belfry door. “It must at one time have been the tympanum of an earlier doorway, and a part of it has unfortunately been cut away to make it fit into its present position. The sculpture embodies a double subject, rudely executed in low relief, the one representing probably David rescuing the lamb from the lion, the other very clearly representing St. Michael encountering the dragon.... The sculpture cannot be of later date than the middle of the eleventh century, when the church seems to have been considerably enlarged, perhaps altogether rebuilt, and it might be of earlier date still.”