History
St Peter's is an Anglo-Saxon foundation. The history of St Peter's was dominated for centuries by its collegiate status, from the 12th century constituted as a dean and prebendaries, and by its royal connections, which were crystallised in the form of the Royal Peculiar in 1480. Although a source of pride and prosperity to both town and church, this institutional framework, hard-won and doggedly-defended, made the church subject to the whims of the monarch or governing elite and unresponsive to the needs of its people. Characterised by absenteeism and corruption through most of its history, the college was involved in constant political and legal strife, and it was dissolved and restored a total of three times, before a fourth and final dissolution in 1846 cleared the way for St Peter's to become an active urban parish church and a focus of civic pride.
Read more about this topic: St Peter's Collegiate Church
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)