Cathedral

Greek kathedra, ‘seat’: kata, ‘down to’ and hedra, ‘seat’—thus ‘a seat to sit down on’. A cathedral is a church with bishop’s seat or throne, and thus a symbol of authority within the structure of the Church: the name became applicable only when an establishment had been endowed with a bishopric. The same seat is found also in the Latin language, for the ‘see’ of the bishop derives from sedes, ‘seat’. The throne itself is found in the stalls of the choir, distinguishable by its size and the richness of the carving. The power of the bishop was originally in the nature of head of a family of clergy, exercising power over property, finance, and most Church affairs, but the growth of the chapter caused his position to become an increasingly honorary one. The loss of the original function is now compensated by the responsibility for a diocese.

Architecturally, the cathedrals and monastic churches of Western Europe were at first similar in design to the Roman basilica where the tribunal presided in the apse with the altar in front of it. The bishop’s throne was in the center of the apse, where the clergy also sat, with the altar and singers to the west of them. Gradually the monk’s choir came to be enclosed by screens, and the transepts were moved westward. Variations of form in time and place were however inevitable. In England, the cathedrals built in the late 11^th and 12^th Centuries underwent eastern extensions from the 13^th century onwards. This was in order to provide for more altars in the chantry chapels, which were needed for the growing custom of saying masses for the dead. These extensions, often culminated in a Lady Chapel, and gave rise to there being equal areas for the clergy as for the laymen. They also contributed to the dignified length of the English Cathedral. It is interesting to note that the building of a cathedral was always started from the east end and progressed westward. If this is borne in mind whilst looking at the present day building, confusion through the mixing of styles can often be avoided. The first cathedral founded in this country (circa 600) was in the see granted to St. Augustine at Canterbury; that at York was built by Paulinas in 627, but of these and other early churches only traces in crypts remain.

Seen from an ‘inner’ point of view, the early church was a place of teaching, open only to those undergoing initiatory instruction, and as it became open to the people certain inner truths were inevitably lost. Nevertheless, their essential meaning was still held and disguised in the form and contents of the church, especially in the cross which had established itself as the symbol of Christianity. In the medieval period, the cruciform cathedral was taken by the religious zeal of the time and thrown upwards into vertical vaults and spires. The attempt to reach heaven was the cause of drastic changes in architectural techniques: upward thrust needed balancing against downward pressure, insubstantial aspiration against substantial reality, fire against earth. Thus the cathedral became a fine instrument with the two forces reconciled in a third, its perfectly balanced structure. (See ‘Gothic’.) The life inside it in medieval times was equally a balance between the priesthood with the mystery of the sanctuary, and the people carrying on everyday activities of craft, festivity, education, and worship, in the nave. The cathedral was, in a sense, the soul of the people.

                                                                                --Church, Monastery, Cathedral by Herbert Whone