Christopher Lewis

Cathedrals: Restricting and Liberating Space

It was Pascal who commented that what is truth on one side of the Pyrenees is error on the other, and we can credit Anthony Trollope with at least something of the same insight. In Barchester Towers he followed, and also to some degree explained, the way in which the dean and chapter reacted to the advent of the new bishops chaplain, Mr Slope. The chapter disagreed among themselves, of course, but the threat from without produced a predictable reaction. For even if the gentlemen of the chapter had not been specifically chosen to perpetuate a way of life, then they had soon been socialized into patterns of behaviour which were given meaning by a particular tradition of worship and marked by their peculiar privileges as members of the cathedral foundation. The manner of life has fascinated many (not least those closely involved) and has been an object of study for other novelists as well,