nglish monastic cathedral chapters were dissolved by Henry
VIII., and, except Bath and Coventry, were refounded by him as churches
of secular chapters, with a dean as the head, and a certain number of
canons ranging from twelve at Canterbury and Durham to four at Carlisle,
and with certain subordinate officers as minor canons, gospellers,
epistolers, &c. The precentorship in these churches of the "New
Foundation," as they are called, is not, as in the secular churches of
the "Old Foundation," a dignity, but is merely an office held by one of
the minor canons.

English cathedral churches, at the present day, may be classed under
four heads: (1) the old secular cathedral churches of the "Old
Foundation," enumerated in the earlier part of this article; (2) the
churches of the "New Foundation" of Henry VIII., which are the monastic
churches already specified, with the exception of Bath and Coventry; (3)
the cathedral churches of bishoprics founded by Henry VIII., viz.
Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford and Peterborough (the constitution
of the chapters of which corresponds to those of the New Foundation);
(4) modern cathedral churches of sees founded since 1836, viz. (a)
Manchester, Ripon and Southwell, formerly collegiate churches of secular
canons; (b) St Albans and Southwark, originally monastic churches; (c)
Truro, Newcastle and Wakefield, formerly parish churches, (d) Birmingham
and Liverpool, originally district churches. The ruined cathedral church
of the diocese of Sodor (i.e. the Southern Isles) and Man, at Peel in
the latter island, appears never to have had a chapter of clergy
attached to it.

AUTHORITIES.--Frances, _De ecclesiis cathredralibus_ (Venice, 1698);
Bordenave, _L'Estat des eglises cathedrales_ (Paris, 1643); Van Espen,
_Supplement III._, cap. 5; Hericourt, _Les Loix ecclesiastiques de
France_ (Paris, 1756); _La France ecclesiastique_ (Paris, 1790);
Daugaard, _Om de Danske Klostre i Middelalderen_ (Copenhagen, 1830);
Hinschius, _Das Kirchenrecht der Katholiken u. Protestanten in
Deutschland_, ii. (Berlin, 1878); Walcott, _Cathedralia_ (London,
1865); Freeman, _Cathedral Church of Wells_ (London, 1870); Benson,
_The Cathedral_ (London, 1878); Bradshaw and Wordsworth, _Lincoln
Cathedral Statutes_ (Camb., 1894). (T. M. F.)

_Architecture._--From the architectural point of view there is no
special treatment as regards dimensions or style for a cathedral other
than that required