firefi enteh in 751 ‘ ( 12 Efiihrarg cf the ' i ‘ fin hm ziig of (E s t onia 11 9 P r f o e s s o r Jo h n S a t t e rly De a p r t me nt o f Phy s i cs i Un v e r s i t y o f To r o nt o E LY CAT H E D RAL. D C . r h n An . Lxxrn. See E th eld y t o go n th ae t Mynst er a t Elige. Tm : Saxon CH R ONI CLE . Twelve centu ries and more is the tale of years in the history of Ely ' s . L iber E lienszis n Th om as th e Min ter In the , (a Chronicle begun by Mo k in 1 2 th co o f c 1 2 th or e r 1 century, a py whi h in a ly 3 th century handwriting is st e a r m e R m ill pr served in the Ch pte Muni nt oo ,) it is said that a Church was o 0 S . ne in th e s e o f E l a t Cra ten dune e f unded in 6 7 by Augusti , I l y , , a mil a re s a em e South of the present site . But be yond that b t t ent w have no eviden ce an s rc . In 6 w t r of the existen ce of y uch Chu h 73 , ho ever, the first Ely Mins e ’ was founded by S . E th eldreda . An account of her life is given in Bede s s H s oo . h x . n e th eldr h t Ecclesia tical i tory, B k iv (c apters xix, ) The Pri c ss E y was one of the four D augh ters of I 6 2 T onb ert arldorm an Anna, King of the East Anglians married ( ) in 5 to , E or of o Girvii F i I Prin ce the S uth , or enmen , receiv ng the sle of Ely as her 2 6 8 rid Osw i dowry, and ( ) in 5 to n , son of y , King of Northumbr a, receiv ing a m i h c w as dowry l rge Northu br an Estates , w i h ho ever under the advice of Wil r B . Y o r sh e . 1 2 f id, p of k , gave up to religious uses About years afi er her t rid e sh e h ad m i s betro hal to n , wh n beco e 'ueen of Northumbr a, she re olved m n m h er es I of to retire fro the Northern Ki gdo , to tate in the sle Ely, there to devote herself to a life of s eclus i on a nd prayer in a monast ery foun ded b y he rself. This she did in 6 7 3 . The fi rs t Ely Monaste ry was a doubl e h ouse of a nd . th eldr Monks Nuns 'ueen E eda was the first Abbess . She died in 6 7 8 mm c t S exb ur a a rconb rt i was suc eeded by her sis er g , widow of E e , K ng of Kent. 6 l e m a was In 95 her body, p ac d in a white rble sarcophagus , translat ed t o th e x c fil e s r Sa on Chur h on present ite and the e, or within a few yards of that a m e e 00 e rs n r pl ce , it re ain d for n arly 9 y a . a ce t e of pilgrim age and reveren ce . In 870 the Isle was ravaged b y the D anes and the Church and Monastery were ' m m fi 2 n destroyed . Willia of Mal esbury states (D e . Gest . Pont . 93 ) that Ki g t i Alfred in 878 founded a College of priests on the vacant site . Cer a nly in 0 B . th elwold 97 , King Edgar by the advice of p E of Winchester, reorganised r n R th e the Ely Monastery unde the Be edictine ule, and gave back to it all lands with which it had originally been endowed . Brih tnoth was appointed . 1 0 1 h a s first Abbot In 7 the Abbey, which had espoused t e c u e of the E theling ft r H e r m Edgar, a er a long defence unde ereward , surr nde ed to Willia . In 1 08 n r the Conqueror 3 , the buildi g of the p esent Cathedral was com m enced Walkelin by Abbot Simeon , brother of Bishop of Winchester and a r 1 . kinsman of the Conqueror, and was continued du ing the 2th century ’ In 1 1 06 the second translation of S . E th eldreda s body took place to the . 1 1 0 D e Norman choir, which had just been completed In 9 the ioc se of Ely was n o f created , the reve ues of the Abbot being used for the endowment the See, so that henceforth the Prior was the head of th e Monastery . The great West Tower r r m n n with its Transepts, (the Southe n one alone now e ai ing) belo g to the end 1 2 of the th century . Much of this work is due to the fifteen years of Geoffrey ’ Ridel s 1 1 — 1 o m Episcopate ( 74 The Western or Galilee P rch , see s to belong to the Episcopate of Eustace (1 1 98 It is a p e rfect exam ple of the fully developed Lancet style . In 1 23 5 the building of th e Presbytery was begun by Bishop H ugh of Northwold These six easternmost bays are of the very purest and most beautiful English Gothic of the 1 3 th century . ” Nowhere - says Proressor Freem an can we bette r study th e bo ldly clus te red c floriate d c marble pier with its deta hed shafts, the richly apitals with their round abaci the yet richer corbels which bear up the marble vaulting shafts , the bold and deeply cut m ouldings o f eve ry arch great and sm all . Lovelie r detail was ” m a n . n e re surely never wrought by the hand of I to this nobl P sbytery, on the 1 th O 1 2 2 c o f H e son m s ctober, 5 , in the presen e King nry III and his , and any of n h th e F the leading nobles and prelates of the ki gdom , the S rines of oundress and re . e m of the three other Abbesses , and the puted Shrine of S Alban , wer re oved , rm a few feet eastward from their position in the No an Choir, and the whole - r Church in ground plan completed as we have it to day was dedicated to S . Ma y , 8 . Peter and S . E th eldreda . But although the Cathedral was thus finished in th e 1 th far t e r 3 century as as its leng h and breadth w e concerned as it now stands , in the next century a necessary reconstruction of the central crossing of the building changed entirely not only the external outline but the whole general efie ct of F r 2 2nd F 1 22 the Church within . o on the ebruary, 3 , the central Norman tower of fell , a catastrophe whi ch, through the supreme constructive genius Alan i ui de Walsingham , became a blessing in disgu se, and led to the b lding of the of octagon tower and lantern , a feature which gives to the interior Ely Minster e xt its unique beauty and grace, que nly beyond words , an d to the e erior that i i e of character sti c outl ne, which has no f llow in any of the Churches England Th e 1 22 e or indeed of Christen dom . stonework , begun in 3 , took six y ars to u l 1 28 w b i d, and was fin ished in 3 ; the oodwork , begun at once on the completion m i il 1 of the stonework, too k twice the ti e and was not fin shed t l 34 2 . The s ul e c s of c ptured corbels , midway up a h of the eight vaulting hafts the octagon , contain representations of in cidents in the life of S . E th eldreda . The three ul O a beautif decorated arches east of the ct gon , now used as the place of the ri rc tual choir, whi ch took the place of the Norman a hes shattered by the fall of the tower the elabo rately canopied oak stalls (the 5 0 carved panels of scenes ld m e n Ab eloo s from O and New Testa ent sc es are by of Louvain , a modern - c r e w wood arver) ; the supe b Lady Chap l , ith its priceless sculptured work, one of the finest specim ens of D e co rated architecture in the kingdom ; the ’ - r re . th eldre da s sh ne m sub st uctu of S E ri , and a ong the monas tery buildings ’ Crauden s em i Prior Chapel , a perfect g of beauty and orig nality, are all Alan ’ de Walsing h am s wo rk T h e woode n py ra m idal spire which in all probability ’ r G ffr es r c owned Bishop eo ey s w te n tower, gave way in the 1 5 th century to th e e fl n t u present stone octagonal tow r , a ked wi h corner t rrets of a late D ecorated e type , crowned ag ain with a wood n spire which has sin ce happily vanished .