Ralph, of Shrewsbury, who ruled from 1329 to 1363.  The deanery was built by Dean Gunthorpe in 1475, who was chaplain to Edward IV.  On the north is the beautiful vicar’s close, which has forty-two houses, constructed mainly by Bishop Beckington (1443-64), with a common hall erected by Bishop Ralph in 1340 and a chapel by Budwith (1407-64), but altered a century later.  You can see the old fireplace, the pulpit from which one of the brethren read aloud during meals, and an ancient painting representing Bishop Ralph making his grant to the kneeling figures, and some additional figures painted in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

[Illustration:  The Gate House, Bishop’s Palace, Wells]

When we study the cathedrals of England and try to trace the causes which led to the destruction of so much that was beautiful, so much of English art that has vanished, we find that there were three great eras of iconoclasm.  First there were the changes wrought at the time of the Reformation, when a rapacious king and his greedy ministers set themselves to wring from the treasures of the Church as much gain and spoil as they were able.  These men were guilty of the most daring acts of shameless sacrilege, the grossest robbery.  With them nothing was sacred.  Buildings consecrated to God, holy vessels used in His service, all the works of sacred art, the offerings of countless pious benefactors were deemed as mere profane things to be seized and polluted by their sacrilegious hands.  The land was full of the most beautiful gems of architectural art, the monastic churches.  We can tell something of their glories from those which were happily spared and converted into cathderals or parish churches.  Ely, Peterborough the pride of the Fenlands, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, Westminster, St. Albans, Beverley, and some others proclaim the grandeur of hundreds of other magnificent structures which have been shorn of their leaden roofs, used as quarries for building-stone, entirely removed and obliterated, or left as pitiable ruins which still look beautiful in their decay.  Reading, Tintern, Glastonbury, Fountains, and a host of others all tell the same story of pitiless iconoclasm.  And what became of the contents of these churches?  The contents usually went with the fabric to the spoliators.  The halls of country-houses were hung with altar-cloths; tables and beds were quilted with copes; knights and squires drank their claret out of chalices and watered their horses in marble coffins.  From the accounts of the royal jewels it is evident that a great deal of Church plate was delivered to the king for his own use, besides which the sum of L30,360 derived from plate obtained by the spoilers was given to the proper hand of the king.