Shrine of St. Werburgh in Chester Cathedral - as published in The Gentleman's Magazine of 1793.

Chester, like all medieval towns, was well provided for spiritually.1 Though it could not boast of possessing as many parish churches as some other towns, it had nine for a population of some three thousand souls. St. Oswald's, the parish church attached to St. Werburgh's Abbey, and St. John's, lying outside the city walls, were the earliest and largest. Indeed, for a time during the eleventh century, St. John's had ranked as a Cathedral for the diocese of Lichfield. St. Peter's is mentioned in Domesday Book, while the six others, St. Mary's on the Hill, the Holy and Undivided Trinity, St. Michael's, St. Bridget's and St. Olave's, all built by the Norman Earl of Chester and his barons, date back to the twelfth century. In addition, three Orders of Friars had their churches and convents in the city: the Franciscans or Grey Friars, and the Dominicans or Black Friars near the port in the Watergate area, and the Carmelites or White Friars. Today, only the street names recall the site of their fine churches, all of which were destroyed after the dissolution of the monasteries.

The religious and economic life of the town was dominated by the richly endowed Benedictine Abbey of St. Werburgh's. This had begun its life in Anglo-Saxon times, when a small group of canons guarded the relics of St. Werburgh, but under the patronage of the powerful Hugh Lupus, Norman Earl of Chester, it had been converted into a Benedictine monastery by no less a person than St. Anselm. By the fifteenth century, the great monastic church and the conventual buildings grouped around it, which occupied a large area within the city walls, must have been the most imposing buildings in Chester. At the same time, its considerable property and privileges constituted a perpetual challenge to the independence and wealth of the citizens. In earlier times, however, it had been the domination of the Earl of Chester which had threatened the freedom of the townsfolk, and when once this was thrown off they did not transfer their resentment to the Abbey. The generous hospitality of the monks and their patronage of the Mystery Plays helped to keep their relations tolerably friendly, though tensions and economic rivalry did exist.

In addition to the churches, there were a number of chapels in and around the town: St. Chad's on the site of the present Royal Infirmary, St. Nicholas at the north end of St. Nicholas Street, and St. Thomas Becket outside the Northgate. The nuns of St. Mary's Priory had a chapel in Edgar's Field south of the river, and the Cistercians of Basingwerk in North Wales had one in Overleigh. There was the chapel of St. James in Handbridge, and another in Little Parson's Lane, while the Guild of St. Anne had one in St. John's Churchyard.

It has been calculated that by the end of the fourteenth century the number of clergy serving all these churches and chapels amounted to about thirty five. The monks of St. Werburgh's were by then reduced from the forty of the previous century to twenty, and there were between thirty and forty friars, though much of their time was spent evangelising the surrounding countryside, rather than working in Chester itself.

It seems fair to say that the Church in Chester produced no outstanding priests in the period immediately preceding the Reformation. Though it was common by then for all clergy to receive some University education, it was mainly the canons of St. John's who had Degrees, and in Law rather than in Theology. They, however, were frequently non-­resident, and it was the ordinary parish priests who played the most significant part in moulding the spiritual and religious life of the people. Many of them came from Chester itself, as their surnames show, though some were from landed families in Cheshire. The smaller merchant families, tradesmen and craftsmen are all represented among their number. As vicars of the parish churches, their living standards were those of the parishioners among whom they lived and worked. The churches they served were not wealthy, St. Mary's being the richest with an annual income of £52. Consequently, their stipends were worth no more than £5 a year, lower than the £6 to £7 of the average artisan. There is very little evidence among them of pluralism or absenteeism, the most frequent abuses in the Church of the later Middle Ages. The majority of them lived all their life in their parish, devoting themselves to their pastoral duties, and when they died leaving bequests to their church in their wills. They themselves were remembered in the wills of their parishioners with gratitude and affection. Many of them were vicars of the churches appropriated to St. Werburgh's Abbey, and would therefore have been appointed by the monks. Their lives indicate the care with which the monks made their choice, and make a sharp contrast with those of unbeneficed clerks, whose enforced idleness often made them trouble-makers in the town.

The presence and authority of the Church pervaded the life of the city in ways which our modern secularised society finds hard to imagine. Though a man belonged to a particular parish, to which he owed certain obligations, no church was more than a few minutes' walk from his home. He knew each one, and he, with his life's joys and sorrows, was known to it. Church bells rang out to call him to Mass and his other religious duties, he met priests, monks and friars in the narrow streets. The great feasts of the Church were public holidays, especially Corpus Christi with its processions, and Whitsuntide with its performances of the Mystery Plays, both high-lights of the year. The Church in Chester was indeed the community of God's people!

The upkeep of the parish church and, in particular, the maintenance of the nave was the special responsibility of the parishioners. All over England, the fifteenth century was a time unprecedented in church building. In this Chester had its share, as naves of churches were enlarged and beautified, and bequests were made for sacred vessels and vestments.

One would hardly have thought, therefore, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the old order in Chester was about to pass away. That it did so raises the question, what brought about so apparently sudden a collapse and was it totally unforeseen? The answer may lie in too great a familiarity with, and insufficient appreciation of spiritual values. Mediocrity, even lethargy, seems to have settled down on the official Church in Chester. Her lack of apostolic commitment lost her the goodwill of the people she served. The abbey ceased to be the power-house of prayer which medieval society expected it to be. Possessed of an income worth £1,030, it had become worldly and comfortable; and unable, therefore, to justify the privileged position it enjoyed. Few objections were raised to its dissolution, though there were strong protests against the suppression of the friars.

The people of Chester in the reign of Henry VIII were not anti-clerical or anti-religious. Any tensions which existed were economic, rather than religious or spiritual. The ordinary parish clergy living and working among them, and the small houses of friars retained their esteem. Unfortunately, it is the abuses and maladministration which tend to make history, while lives of devoted service lie hidden or are easily forgotten. At a time of great social change, the activities of the official Church were no longer confined to what men considered to be her primary function, the salvation of the world through the celebration of the Mass and the administration of the Sacraments. She possessed great power and wealth, and this no longer seemed acceptable. In stripping her of these superfluities, men brought down the whole structure of the medieval Church.

Two other factors have to be taken into account, in any attempt to explain the destruction of the medieval Church, not only in Chester but throughout the land. If they had not dominated the situation, a long awaited and badly needed reform might have been achieved, instead of the violent and complete disruption which in fact took place. One was the sheer materialism, the desire for wealth, whether in land, in money, or in high places, which was so marked a characteristic of the age. Apart from rare exceptions, like Thomas More, John Fisher and the Carthusian martyrs, Englishmen of the 1530's were singularly lacking in high ideals. Coupled with this, indeed part of it, was their attitude of obedience and submission to the king. When Henry VIII severed England from the See of Rome in 1535, by making himself "Supreme Head of the English Church", everything else was easily accomplished.