in the Lower Church
Early history The history of Glasgow Cathedral is closely linked with that of the city. In the 6th century
Saint Mungo is said to have brought the body of a holy man, Fergus, for burial at a site named Cathures (which came to be known as Glasgow).
Saint Ninian is reputed to have dedicated the burial ground there on the western bank of the
Molendinar Burn in the 5th century (the cathedral's Blackadder Aisle may mark this site). Mungo built a
monastic cell in the burial ground, and was buried in his church there in
614. His shrine in the Lower Church of Glasgow Cathedral was an important place of
pilgrimage in the medieval period. Little is known about the early church buildings, except that they would have been of
timber and
wattle construction. The first stone cathedral was built on high ground above the steep western bank of the Molendinar Burn. Initiated by the decision of
David I to establish (or re-establish) a bishopric at Glasgow, the new cathedral was
consecrated in 1136 in the presence of David and his court during the episcopate of
John Capellanus. Constructed over St Mungo's burial place – a sacred location which may explain the otherwise unusual hillside site – the cathedral rose slowly, not without interruption and recasting, over a period of some 150 years. Excavations at Glasgow Cathedral between 1988 and 1997 uncovered architectural fragments of this first stone cathedral beneath the floor of the present cathedral. The west front of the 1136 cathedral lay at the third pier of the existing
nave and its east end included the area of St Mungo's tomb. Following the defeat of
Somerled in 1164 at the
Battle of Renfrew, Somerled's head was brought to the cathedral. In 1175
Pope Alexander III recognised Glasgow as 'a special daughter' of Rome, freeing the diocese from the jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of York. Around the same time Bishop
Jocelin was granted a charter by
William I to establish Glasgow as a
burgh of barony, but with the privileges of a
royal burgh. The king attributed the birth of his only son,
Alexander, to the intercession of St Mungo.
Medieval period Destroyed or severely damaged by fire, the first cathedral was succeeded by the present cathedral, which was consecrated in 1197. Between 1207 and 1232, Bishop
Walter Capellanus embarked upon a building programme which saw the completion of the
choir and the Lower Church, and provided the basis for the layout of the transepts and nave as eventually built. From 1233 to 1258, Walter's successor, Bishop
William de Bondington continued the rebuilding, which included a new, longer, eastern arm to provide a shrine to St Mungo at the main level, and adding three projections (the chapter house, the sacristy/treasury, and what later became the Blacader Aisle). Construction work continued for much of the 13th century, including the central tower and spire, a bell-tower at the north-west corner of the nave (a south-west tower was added in the 14th century).
Edward I of England visited the cathedral in August 1301 during the
First War of Scottish Independence, making offerings over four days at the high altar and the tomb of Saint Mungo. Following the killing of
John Comyn at
Greyfriars, Dumfries in February 1306,
Robert the Bruce hurried to Glasgow where he met with
Robert Wishart, the "warrior" Bishop of Glasgow, in whose diocese the murder had been committed. Wishart granted Bruce absolution and urged the clergy throughout the land to rally to him, before accompanying Robert to
Scone where he was crowned as Robert I. Wishart used timber which had given to him by the English to repair the bell tower of Glasgow Cathedral to make siege engines, and laid siege to the English-held
Kirkintilloch Castle, before crossing into
Fife where he took charge of the assault on
Cupar Castle. After his death in 1316, Wishart's body was entombed between the chapels of Saints Peter and Paul and Saint Andrew at the east end of the cathedral's Lower Church. The tomb is uninscribed and the head of the effigy has been defaced at some point, probably during the Reformation. In 1406 a lightning strike caused significant damage, including to the wooden steeple. Bishops
William de Lauder (1408–25),
John Cameron (1426–46) and
William Turnbull (1447–54) rebuilt the
central tower,
spire and chapter house. Bishop Turnbull was primarily responsible for the foundation of the
University of Glasgow. Turnbull prompted
James II (who was a
canon of the cathedral) to write to
Pope Nicholas V to request the establishment of a university in Glasgow. The Pope responded with a
papal bull issued on 7 January 1451, which erected a new
Studium generale in Glasgow for the teaching of
"theology, canon and civil law, as well as the arts and any other lawful faculty". The Bishops of Glasgow were to serve as the Chancellors of the new University of Glasgow, which held its first classes within the chapter house of Glasgow Cathedral, before moving to the Pedagogium or "Auld Pedagogy" on the
Rottenrow. By the 15th century the cathedral stood within an extensive walled precinct known as the chanonry, containing the
Bishop's Castle, the
manses of the cathedral
prebendaries, the houses of the vicars choral, St Nicholas' Hospital (founded in 1450), and the burial ground. Much was cleared away in the aftermath of the
Scottish Reformation in 1560, and the only upstanding structure surviving today is the late 15th-century
Provand's Lordship, on the west side of Castle Street. The cathedral and the nearby castle played a part in the battles of
Glasgow in 1544 and
1560.
Reformation The
Scottish Reformation saw Archbishop
James Beaton flee to
France, taking the diocesan records with him, and Glasgow Cathedral was 'cleansed' of its Catholic furnishings such as altars and sculpture, and the roof was apparently stripped of lead. It was decided to retain the building for Protestant worship, and in 1562 David Wemyss, who had been
minister of
Ratho, became the first Protestant minister of Glasgow Cathedral. The fabric of the cathedral suffered from vandalism and plunder, and by 1574 it was in sufficiently bad condition to attract the attention of the Glasgow town council:
"the greit dekaye and ruyne that the hie kirk of Glasgow is cum to, throuch taking awaye of the leid, sciait and wther grayth thairof in this trublus tyme bygane sua that sick arte greit monument will alluterlie fall doun and dekey without it be remidit". The condition was serious enough to encourage the town council to raise a tax of £200 for repairs to the cathedral in that same year, but the process of repairing the cathedral and modifying it for
presbyterian worship dragged on for years. In 1595 the Barony Church congregation was created. Its parish covered the area surrounding the city and it worshipped in the cathedral's Lower Church.
18th–19th centuries In 1798, the Barony Church ceased using the Lower Church for worship, and the entire crypt was transformed into a burial place. This involved introducing about one metre of earth over the floor and the erection of railings to mark out the lairs. During the 18th and 19th centuries, several memorial to Glasgow's
Tobacco Lords, who made their fortune in slave-produced
tobacco, were erected in the cathedral. The included
Alexander Spiers of Elderslie,
Sir James Stirling of Keir and
Cecilia Douglas, all of whom owned slaves in the West Indies. Douglas also commissioned a glass-stained window in the cathedral to preserve her own and her family's legacy, which has since been removed. In the 1830s there was a growing appreciation of the architectural significance of the building which led to the execution of detailed architectural drawings and the publication of proposals for restoration work. By 1835, both the Outer High Kirk and the Barony Kirk had left the premises, leaving the Inner High Kirk congregation in sole possession of the cathedral. In 1843 the graves and earth were removed from the Lower Church and, as part of restorations to the crypt and the chapter house, the original levels of the floors were restored and the windows were opened up.
20th century to the present Between 1909 and 1912 the medieval timber roofs over the choir and nave (which were found to be unsafe) were replaced with new oak roofs, under the direction of
William Thomas Oldrieve, Architect for Scotland within the Office of Works. The weight of the roof was reduced by the substitution of copper sheeting for lead and slate, and the distinctive green copper roofing on the exterior of the nave and choir dates from that time. By 1938 the colours of the 'Munich Glass' had faded and the leading of the windows had deteriorated and needed to be replaced. The Society of Friends of Glasgow Cathedral decided that it should be replaced by works of the best contemporary artists.
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother unveiled a window in 1954 in memory of the dead of the four Scottish divisions in
World War I and
World War II. In 1961 a chapel for nurses, also known as the Chapel of St Andrew, was dedicated in Glasgow Cathedral. The cathedral sits next to
Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This was furnished by nurses and dedicated to Scottish nurses who died in the
World War II. In 1971 a memorial service was held in Glasgow Cathedral following the
Ibrox Stadium disaster which claimed the lives of 66 football supporters. The funeral of
First Minister Donald Dewar was held in the cathedral in October 2000.
Elizabeth II attended services of thanksgiving at Glasgow Cathedral to mark her
Silver Jubilee in 1977 and her
Diamond Jubilee in 2012. File:Glasgow Cathedral McFarlane and Erskine 882503e5-8dbc-4c2d-b03e-9c8e43e8c9ea.png|1898 plan of Glasgow Cathedral File:Glasgow Cathedral lower church McFarlane and Erskine 2a2385da-f4e4-4db0-96f9-91a85bcfc5f7.png|1898 plan of the Lower Church of Glasgow Cathedral File:Bishop Wishart's effigy, crypt of Glasgow Cathedral.JPG|Defaced effigy on the tomb of Bishop
Robert Wishart File:Glasgow Cathedral - Choir.jpg|Choir ==Ministers of Glasgow Cathedral==