Perhaps then arose the canon's vicars who
represented the canons and chanted in choir. The vicars choral were,
however, not incorporated until 1465; they were assisted by ten or
twelve boy choristers, whose chief business it was, I suppose, to sing
the Lady-Mass in prick-song. Beside this company of canons, vicars and
choristers directly serving the cathedral, a number of chaplains served
the various altars and chantries within it, which at the Dissolution
numbered fifteen. St Richard not only reorganised the cathedral staff,
but also established the "use" of Chichester, which he ordered to be
followed throughout the diocese. This "use" was followed until 1444,
when, by order of the archbishop, that of Sarum, was established.
With the Reformation, of course, everything but the Cathedral itself
and the form of its administration and government was swept away. Nor
was it long before even what Henry and Elizabeth had spared was
demolished. In 1643 Chichester was besieged by Waller and taken after
ten days. His soldiers, we read, "pulled down the idolatrous images
from the Market Cross; they brake down the organ in the Cathedral and
dashed the pipes with their pole-axes, crying in scoff, "Harke! how the
organs goe"; and after they ran up and down with their swords drawn,
defacing the monuments of the dead and hacking the seats and stalls.
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