Roman Exeter until the Reformation
Christianity first arrived in England under the Romans, although it is uncertain when Christian worship began in the city of Exeter. It is most likely that missions in the Anglo-Saxon period marked the start of more formal Christian communities in Exeter. One of the first formal centres of Christian worship in Exeter was the monastery founded on the site of the modern-day Cathedral Green, which would later be named St Mary Major.
St Mary Major - Exeter's first major church
By the end of the seventh century, there was a monastery present within the city, situated close to the modern-day cathedral. The church also acted as a Minster church - this was a feature of the Saxon church, in which one central church (minster) would have a series of chapels and smaller churches under its jurisdiction where Mass would be celebrated, and the minster church would be used for the celebration of the other sacraments and as the centre of administration.
One of the figures associated with this monastery is the diocesan patron, St Boniface. Winfrith, who would later be named Boniface by Pope Gregory II, came to know of the monks of the monastery in Exeter after the monks had cared for his dying father. Winfrith was educated at the monastery, before he went on missions to Germany. The church served as the proto-cathedral after the See was translated to Exeter in the eleventh century from Crediton, although the church was superseded in significance by the construction of a new cathedral after the Norman Conquest. St Mary Major served as a parish church until the nineteenth century, when the majority of the building was destroyed. Nothing visible remains of the church of St Mary Major - the last remaining structures above surface level were destroyed in 1971, although there are ruins of the original Saxon church present underneath Cathedral Green.
Exeter Cathedral and the parish churches
Until 1050, Crediton was the centre of the diocese, which stretched from Cornwall towards the edge of Devon. Under a special licence granted by King Edward the Confessor, the seat of the bishop was translated to Exeter, which was deemed to be more defensible from sea raids due to the presence of the Roman walls. Bishop Leofric originally used the monastery church of St Mary Major. It was under Bishop Leofric that Exeter began to be a centre of Christian worship within the south west, and the prominence of Exeter would only grow. Bishop Leofric was a well-known bibliophile and the chaplain of Edward the Confessor.
Exeter Cathedral - the seat of the Bishop of Exeter from the 11th century
Alongside a large collection of books, Exeter Cathedral acquired a significant relic collection, with King Aethelstan donating approximately 1/3 of his entire collection to the cathedral and this collection was expanded by Leofric and later bishops. As such, Exeter became an important site of pilgrimage in the medieval period. The relic collection was listed by the cathedral prior to the Reformation, and reportedly contained hair from St Peter's beard, as well as fragments of the True Cross. The cathedral Martyrology contained its own feast day to celebrate the city's magnificent relic collection.
An English custom at the time, which was not seen widely on the continent, was to have the cathedral served by a religious community. Whilst on the continent cathedral clergy tended to be secular, English cathedral clergy until the Reformation tended to be from religious communities, and there would often be an attached monastic community to a cathedral. Exeter was no exception to what has been referred to by scholars as the "English peculiarity," and the monks of Exeter Cathedral followed the Rule of Chrodegang. Chrodegang was the successor of St Boniface as the Archbishop of Metz, and he wrote a Rule for monks based on the Rule of St Benedict, although the Rule of Chrodegang was more pastoral in nature than that of the Rule of St Benedict.
After the Norman Conquest, construction began of a purpose-built cathedral for the city of Exeter. This would be larger and more impressive than the monastery church that had served as the cathedral since the translation of the See. The cathedral was an important site of pilgrimage in the area, primarily due to the large number of relics held in the cathedral. The number of pilgrims prompted the building of numerous smaller churches around the cathedral which served as "station churches" in processions to celebrate the relic collection, but also the saints associated with the collection.
Exeter, like many medieval cities, therefore had a huge proliferation in the number of parish churches, with many of these small churches surviving around the city. Some of the best examples include St Olave's, St Petrock's, St Martin's, and St Mary's Steps. These parish churches served many different functions and had different purposes - there were the station churches around the cathedral, parish churches such as St Mary's Steps and St Sidwell's, and the church that served the mayor, St Pancras. St Pancras, located in the Guildhall is not the most impressive of Exeter's medieval churches architecturally, but its role was influential in supporting the spiritual needs of those who ran the city during the medieval period.
Monastic Exeter
Prior to the Reformation, there were numerous religious communities in Exeter. Most major religious communities had a presence within the city, including the Benedictines, Dominicans, and Franciscans.
The Mint on the site of St Nicholas' Priory
St Nicholas Priory
The church of St Olave, on Fore Street, was originally built by members of the family of Harold Godwinson. After the Norman Conquest, Harold's mother fled the city, and the care of St Olave's was entrusted to a Benedictine community from Battle Abbey, Hastings, by William the Conqueror. The Benedictine community established a priory nearby, dedicated to St Nicholas. The priory was well supported by the gentry until the Reformation, with the priory owning a large amount of land and earning a considerable income on the eve of the Reformation. At the Reformation, the monks were given a pension, and told to move away from the priory.
Stone was taken from the cloisters and the monastic quarters in order to make the site uninhabitable for the monks, and this was used to repair the Exe bridge. Several years later, in the reign of Elizabeth I, the site was turned into an impressive townhouse for a member of the local gentry.
St Nicholas' Priory would continue to be influential in the history of Catholic worship in Exeter, becoming an important centre for missions during the penal years when Catholic worship in England was illegal.
St Katharine's Priory
Another Benedictine foundation in the area was St Katharine's. Initially outside the city of Exeter, an urban sprawl has seen the suburb of Polsloe incorporated into the city, and this was the location of St Katharine's, which was home to a community of Benedictine nuns. One of the four buildings which comprised the complex survives, with four original buildings making up the priory around a central quadrangle. The community was founded in 1159, and was supported with land in
The surviving block of St Katharine's
Polsloe, Colyton, and areas in Somerset. However, it was never a flourishing community and was not the wealthiest - on a 1303 visitation by Bishop Stapledon it was suggested that the superior should enforce stricter rules to encourage better behaviour from the nuns!
The nearby Mincinglake area also owes its name to St Katharine's. Mincinglake referred to a fishpond used by the priory as a source of food and income. 'Mincing' is a derivate of 'moenchin' which was an Anglo-Saxon word for 'nun'. The area that is now Mincinglake refers to the 'lake of the nuns'.
St James' Priory
Heavitree, another suburb of the modern city of Exeter which was once a parish in its own right also had a priory, dedicated to St James, which was founded by Baldwin de Redvers, First Earl of Devon, in 1146. It was a daughter house of St Martin-des-Champs, near Paris, although St Martin would later be given to Hugh of Cluny, in 1179, when the monks of St James also began to follow the Cluniac tradition of the Rule of St Benedict, which emphasised the liturgy as the principle form of work of the monks, as opposed to the work which typified the Benedictine lifestyle of the other priories in the area.
The priory was situated close to the river, near Salmonpool Lane. In 1444, the priory was given over as part of an endowment to King's College, Cambridge by King Henry VI. One of the few surviving documents attesting to this priory is the grant in which the priory was given to the college by Henry VI.
Other Communities
The Dominicans also had a presence within the city, located at the site of the Princesshay shopping centre. The exact date of the arrival of the Dominicans in the city is unknown, but they were present by at least 1232, and the completion of the Blackfriars Priory was celebrated with a dedication by Bishop Walter Branscombe in 1259. The priory church was dedicated to St Katherine, and the community came to boast a number of Doctors of Divinity, and by the 1440s the Exeter Dominican community was well-renowned for the quality of its preaching, that it had students come to them from Dublin for education. The priory was dissolved in 1538, and the site used for the construction of Bedford House, after being given to Lord Russell, and which would then be replaced by Bedford Circus, and eventually Princesshay Shopping Centre.
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A plaque noting the site of the Dominican friary
A Franciscan presence in the city began with a friary near Bartholomew Street, established in 1287, although this site did not seem to suit the friars as a large number of their community died shortly after the establishment of the friary. The Greyfriars also did not get on well with the Bishop of Exeter or the Dominicans, and the community did not flourish until the arrival of Bishop Blytton in Exeter, who was sympathetic to the Franciscan order. The friary was later moved to Holloway Street, between the South Gate and the River Exe. A Franciscan church, dedicated to John the Baptist, was built from 1303. The friary was well supported by alms and gifts in wills, and a Franciscan presence remained in the city until the ten brothers of the priory were removed during the Dissolution in 1538.
A further community, based near the East Gate and close to the site of Princesshay shopping centre, was dedicated to St John the Baptist. This did not adhere to a particular rule, but cared for the hospital. The hospital was established by the Long Brothers, whom the Longbrook was named after. The community included five priests, six singing boys, and twelve poor people who were expected to pray for the needs of the community and to assist in the worship which the hospital conducted. The sick came to the community, and received shelter, some form of treatment, and prayers. The hospital also educated local boys. Education was an important part of care for the “deserving poor”, and was provided alongside religious direction. However, the hospital itself was closed in the 1530s during the Reformation, as the community was too close to a monastic foundation for the Tudor authorities and it did generate some wealth through donations and certain fees. The buildings were closed and used for secular purposes, including a market, gunpowder store, and a site for the trading of woollen fleece.
The Catholic faith obviously suffered in the city during the Reformation - vibrant communities were dissolved and worship disrupted. The last Catholic Bishop of Exeter, James Turberville, died in prison in 1570. He is immortalised with a wall painting in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart. The turmoil that came in the Reformation was not accepted blindly by the people, as can be seen in what happened next in the city.