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Ely Cathedral known locally as "the ship of the Fens", because of its prominent shape that towers above the surrounding flat landscape. In Ely Cambridgeshire.
Ely has been an important centre of Christian worship since the seventh century AD. Most of what is known about its history before the Norman Conquest comes from Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum written early in the eighth century and from the Liber Eliensis, an anonymous chronicle written at Ely some time in the twelfth century, drawing on Bede for the very early years, and covering the history of the community until the twelfth century.
According to these sources the first Christian community here was founded by St. Æthelthryth (romanised as "Etheldreda"), daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Anna of East Anglia, who was born at Exning near Newmarket. She may have acquired land at Ely from her first husband Tondberht, described by Bede as a "prince" of the South Gyrwas. After the end of her second marriage to Ecgfrith, a prince of Northumbria, in 673 she set up and ruled as Abbess a dual monastery at Ely for men and for women.
When she died, a shrine was built there to her memory. This monastery is recorded as having been destroyed in about 870 during Danish invasions. However, while the lay settlement of the time would have been a minor one, it is likely that a church survived there until its refoundation in the 10th century.
During the revival of the English church under Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, a new Benedictine abbey for men was established in Ely in 970. This was one of a wave of monastic refoundations which locally included Peterborough and Ramsey. Ely became one of the leading Benedictine houses in late Anglo-Saxon England. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066 the abbey allied itself with the local resistance to Norman rule led by Hereward the Wake.
In 1539, during the Dissolution of the monasteries, the priory surrendered to Henry VIII’s commissioners. The cathedral was refounded by royal charter in 1541 with the former prior Robert Steward as Dean and most of the former monks as prebendaries and minor canons, supplemented by Matthew Parker, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Cox, later Bishop of Ely. With a brief interruption from 1649 to 1660 during the Commonwealth, when all cathedrals were abolished, this foundation has continued in its essentials to the twenty-first century.
Information Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Cathedral
38848
Ely Cathedral known locally as "the ship of the Fens", because of its prominent shape that towers above the surrounding flat landscape. In Ely Cambridgeshire.
Ely has been an important centre of Christian worship since the seventh century AD. Most of what is known about its history before the Norman Conquest comes from Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum written early in the eighth century and from the Liber Eliensis, an anonymous chronicle written at Ely some time in the twelfth century, drawing on Bede for the very early years, and covering the history of the community until the twelfth century.
According to these sources the first Christian community here was founded by St. Æthelthryth (romanised as "Etheldreda"), daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Anna of East Anglia, who was born at Exning near Newmarket. She may have acquired land at Ely from her first husband Tondberht, described by Bede as a "prince" of the South Gyrwas. After the end of her second marriage to Ecgfrith, a prince of Northumbria, in 673 she set up and ruled as Abbess a dual monastery at Ely for men and for women.
When she died, a shrine was built there to her memory. This monastery is recorded as having been destroyed in about 870 during Danish invasions. However, while the lay settlement of the time would have been a minor one, it is likely that a church survived there until its refoundation in the 10th century.
During the revival of the English church under Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, a new Benedictine abbey for men was established in Ely in 970. This was one of a wave of monastic refoundations which locally included Peterborough and Ramsey. Ely became one of the leading Benedictine houses in late Anglo-Saxon England. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066 the abbey allied itself with the local resistance to Norman rule led by Hereward the Wake.
In 1539, during the Dissolution of the monasteries, the priory surrendered to Henry VIII’s commissioners. The cathedral was refounded by royal charter in 1541 with the former prior Robert Steward as Dean and most of the former monks as prebendaries and minor canons, supplemented by Matthew Parker, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Cox, later Bishop of Ely. With a brief interruption from 1649 to 1660 during the Commonwealth, when all cathedrals were abolished, this foundation has continued in its essentials to the twenty-first century.
Information Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Cathedral