The cost of erecting this huge and splendid church must have been enormous.  The Minster contained the shrine of St. William of York, which, like those of St. Cuthbert at Durham and St. Thomas at Canterbury of European fame, attracted streams of pilgrims, whose donations helped the funds of erection and maintenance.  This was an established means of raising funds for church purposes.  There was, also, the money from penances and indulgences.  The Archbishops were keenly interested in their cathedral church.  Citizens gave and bequeathed sums of money to the Minster funds.  In addition, the Minster authorities received gifts from wealthy nobles of the north of England.  The house of Vavasour, for instance, supplied stone; that of Percy gave wood to be used in building the great metropolitical church.  If the money cost was enormous, the completed building, for design, engineering, and decorative work—­in stone, wood, cloth, stained glass—­was far beyond monetary value.

The Nave, the part open to the public, was used for processions; some started from the great west door, entrance through which was a rare privilege granted only to the highest.  The Choir was the scene of the daily services of the seven offices of the day.  All around, in the aisles and transepts, were altars in side-chapels, chantry-chapels,[8] where throughout the early part of the day priests were saying masses for the souls of the departed.  There were thirty chantries in the Minster.

The Minster has from its foundation been a cathedral.  The Chapter of canons with the Dean at their head has always been its Governing Body.  As a church it was served by prebendaries or canons, who had definite periods of duty annually, and two residential bodies of priests, of whom some, the chantry priests, lived at St. William’s College.  This College was erected shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century:  on the site there had been Salton House, the prebendal residence of the Prior of Hexham, who was canon of Salton.  This picturesque building of stone, wood, half-timber work, and tiled roofs is a little to the east of the Minster.  It consists of a series of rooms ranged round a central courtyard.  It is of much historical interest, and since it was restored recently to be the home of the Convocation of the Northern Province, it has returned to the service of the church.  The minor-canons, or vicars-choral, who were employed by the canons as their deputies, also lived in community.  They had their hall, chapel, and other buildings in an enclosed part called the Bedern not far from the Minster.

As a counterpart to the Minster, in appearance as in use, was the great, rich Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, of royal foundation.  With a mitred abbot who sat among the lords spiritual in Parliament, St. Mary’s was perhaps the most important of the northern monasteries.  The buildings were proportionally large and fine.  The church, dating mostly from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was particularly