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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and
Literature
THE HISTORICAL GROWTH OF THE
ENGLISH PARISH CHURCH
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
[Illustration]
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: St Benet's, Cambridge: west tower from N.W.]
THE HISTORICAL
GROWTH OF THE
ENGLISH PARISH
CHURCH
BY
A. HAMILTON THOMPSON
M.A., F.S.A.
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1911
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
_With the exception of the coat of arms at
the foot, the design on the title page is a
reproduction of one used by the earliest known
Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_
PREFACE
This small book is intended to be a companion and complement to the
writer's book in the same series on _The Ground Plan of the English
Parish Church_. In that book the growth of the ground plan is treated
with necessarily scanty reference to the circumstances to which,
directly or indirectly, that growth is due. Some attempt is made in the
present volume to supply an account of the historical conditions amid
which our parish churches were built, to say something of the builders,
and to remove the popular idea, still current even among educated
people, that our architecture is mainly due to the profuse benefactions
of the religious orders. A special chapter on chantry foundations,
which played so large a part in the life of the later middle ages,
follows the general historical chapter. The western tower, the porch,
and the chancel are then described with more fulness than was possible
in the description of the ground plan; and the decoration and furniture
of the various parts of the church are treated in the closing chapter.
The writer returns thanks for much help to his wife, to whom a sketch
and the plans in the book, except that of Burford, are due; to the Rev.
J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., and to the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson, M.A.,
F.S.A., who have read through his proofs, and provided him with many
useful suggestions; to the editor of the _Archaeological Journal_, for
the use of the plan of Burford church; and to Messrs C. C. Hodges, J.
P. Gibson, F.S.A., E. Kennerell, and A. J. Loughton, for the loan of
photographs.
A. H. T.
_April, 1911._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH
SECTION PAGE
1. Early parish churches in England 1
2. The monastic missionary settlements: church-building
on private estates 3
3. The Danish invasions and the monastic revival 5
4. German influence on pre-Conquest architecture 6
5. Influence of the Normans on the architecture of parish
churches 7
6. The parish church at the Norman conquest 10
7. Appropriation of churches to monasteries: ordination
of vicarages 11
8. Relation of monastic owners to the fabrics of churches 13
9. The builders of medieval parish churches 15
10. The parish church and its rectors 17
11. Disadvantages of pluralism and litigation 18
12. Growth of the chantry system 20
13. Chantry chapels at Beckingham, Lincolnshire 21
14. Summary 22
CHAPTER II
THE CHANTRY CHAPEL IN THE PARISH CHURCH
15. Chantries and colleges of chantry priests 24
16. Foundation of chantry colleges 27
17. Parochial chapels 29
18. Religious and trade guilds 30
19, 20. The chantry chapel: its influence on the church
plan 33
21. Chancels of collegiate churches 37
22. St John Baptist's, Cirencester 39
23. Chesterfield and Scarborough; charnel chapels 41
24. Burford church, Oxon 42
25. St Michael's and Holy Trinity, Coventry 45
26. Importance of the work of lay benefactors 48
CHAPTER III
THE TOWER, THE PORCH, AND THE CHANCEL
27. Subject of the chapter 51
28. The western tower before the Conquest 53
29. Survival of the older type of tower after the Conquest 56
30. Architectural development of the tower 59
31. The spire 60
32. The tower of the later middle ages: its relation to the
clerestory of the nave 62
33. Western doorways and porches 65
34. Side doorways of the church 67
35. The porch: altars in porches 68
36. Chambers above porches 71
37. Altars in towers: habitations in connexion with churches 73
38. Variety of position of the tower 75
39. The chancel arch 76
40. Enlargement of the chancel and architectural treatment 78
41. Fourteenth century chancels in Yorkshire and the
northern midlands 80
42. Decline of chancel building in the fifteenth century:
the laity and the nave 85
43. Sacristies 88
44. Squints, priests' doors, low side windows 90
45. Crypts and bone-holes 95
CHAPTER IV
THE FURNITURE OF A MEDIEVAL PARISH CHURCH:
CONCLUSION
46. Remains of medieval decorations 98
47. Mural paintings 98
48. Stained glass 102
49. Coloured furniture of stone and wood 105
50. Furniture of the nave and aisles: font and benches 106
51. Chapels in aisles 109
52. Pulpits, galleries, etc. 110
53. The rood screen 112
54. The rood loft and beam 116
55. Quire stalls and lectern 117
56. Levels of the chancel 119
57. The altar and its furniture 120
58. Piscina, sedilia, and almeries 122
59. The Easter sepulchre 124
60. Exceptional furniture 128
61. Parish churches after the Reformation 129
62. Later parish churches 130
63. Post-reformation work and modern restoration 131
Bibliography 134
Index 137
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
St Benet's, Cambridge: west tower from N.W. _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Sketch of Hallaton, chantry chapel in S. aisle 25
Plan of Cirencester Church 40
Plan of Burford Church 43
Plan of St Michael's Church, Coventry 46
Plan of Holy Trinity Church, Coventry 47
Norton, Co. Durham: Saxon central tower, with transept 52
Carlton-in-Lindrick, Notts: west tower 57
Tickhill, Yorkshire: general view from S.E., shewing clerestory,
western tower and projecting eastern chapel 63
St Mary's, Beverley: south porch 69
Cirencester: south porch 72
Patrington: north side of chancel and vestry 83
Walpole St Peter: from N.E. 86
Wensley: chancel, with low side window, from S.E. 91
St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol: from N.E. 95
Patrington: interior, looking across nave from S. transept 99
Well, Yorkshire: font cover 107
Banwell, Somerset: rood screen 113
Hawton, Notts: Easter sepulchre 125
CHAPTER I
THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH
§ 1. The early history of the English parish church is obscure, owing
to the fact that architectural remains of the earliest fabrics are
somewhat scanty, and that their actual date still affords ground for
dispute. The episcopal constitution of the Romano-British church
is not fully known; but it is probable that, as in Gaul, every
considerable centre of population possessed within its walls a church,
which followed the 'basilican' arrangement common to the Christian
churches of the Roman empire. But while, on the continent of Europe,
the ecclesiastical history of the chief provincial capitals remained
unbroken, and the great cathedrals of the middle ages rose upon sites
which had been, from the establishment of Christianity in the empire,
the centres of the religious life of Roman cities, the continuous
history of church-building in England was broken by the relapse into
heathenism which followed the victorious invasions of the Saxons. The
history of church architecture begins again with the coming of St
Augustine in 597 A.D. Of churches which may reasonably be
said to have been built as an immediate result of his mission, there
are several remains in Kent; and the famous church of St Martin at
Canterbury is probably in large part the building which he and his
companions used for their first services. There is more than one theory
as to the original extent of the church; but there can be little doubt
that the western part of the chancel, the south wall of which is built
of Roman brick, is of Augustine's time. Bede tells us that Augustine
found an earlier church, built during the Roman occupation, on this
site or on a site closely corresponding to it. It is safe to assume
that he repaired this building, and spared all that he could of its
materials. Apart from the Kentish churches there remains, on the remote
part of the Essex coast, a building known as St Peter's on the Wall,
which appears to be connected architecturally with the Kentish group.
Its history cannot be traced back earlier than about 653 A.D.,
when St Cedd was sent from Northumbria to preach to the East Saxons.
One of his two chief missionary centres was the Roman city of Othona,
then known as Ythanceaster, at the mouth of the Blackwater. Here he
ordained and baptized: he also, says Bede, built churches in several
places. St Peter's on the Wall, now long disused, stands on the site of
the eastern gateway of Othona, and is largely built of re-used Roman
material. It presents difficulties of site and plan which forbid us to
connect it positively with St Cedd; but there is a high probability
that it is his church, while, in point of plan, it is too closely
allied to the Kentish group to admit of a doubt as to its connexion
with those churches. The actual way in which the connexion came about
is, however, a difficult problem to solve.
§ 2. There is much uncertainty with regard to the chronology of
pre-Conquest architecture in England. From the actual masonry of the
buildings it is difficult to gather much information. Saxon builders
shewed little architectural skill: their methods were unprogressive;
and the chief criterion by which we may estimate any degree of
progress in their work is found in their efforts to develop the
ground plan of their churches. The course of architectural evolution
between the coming of St Augustine and the Norman conquest suffered
more than one serious check. The later part of the seventh century,
the age of Wilfrid and archbishop Theodore, was an epoch during
which ecclesiastical art flourished. It is now that we arrive at
the beginning of the history of the parish church as distinguished
from the monastic missionary settlement of early Saxon times. The
churches which Augustine and his companions had founded at Canterbury
and Rochester were churches of monasteries, established as missionary
centres in a heathen kingdom. The work of evangelisation was carried
on for a century afterwards by the agency of monastic communities. The
churches of Benedict Biscop at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, Wilfrid's
churches at Hexham and Ripon, the Mercian churches of Peterborough
and Brixworth, were all churches of monks. But, as Christianity grew
in the Saxon kingdoms, churches were naturally multiplied. Wilfrid
himself was a large land-owner in Mercia, and may be credited with the
building of churches upon his lands: the foundation of the monastery
of Brixworth and the church of Barnack may be attributed to his
influence. His example would be followed by others; and we shall not
be far wrong if we look upon the private estate of Saxon times as
identical with the early parish. Owners of large estates built churches
upon their property; and undoubtedly the growth of church-building on
private lands led to that organisation of the ecclesiastical system in
England, which was the great work of Theodore's episcopate. During this
period, the church plan was founded upon a compromise; but continental
influence, if modified by contact with Celtic traditions, was strong;
and this influence came from Italy through the channel of the Gallican
church.
§ 3. When Wilfrid died in 709 A.D., the age of religious and
artistic activity was already passing. The power of Northumbria was
declining; and the record of the next hundred years is one of quarrels
between the various tribal kings of Britain. At the end of the eighth
century the Northmen appeared on the Northumbrian coast. Significant
features of their activity were the destruction of the church of
Lindisfarne and the sack of the monastery at Wearmouth. During the next
fifty years, while the kingdom of Wessex was rising to the front place
in English affairs, the incursions of the Danes became more constant.
In 851 A.D. a Danish army took up its winter quarters in
England. From Thanet and Sheppey the Northmen extended their ravages
over the whole east coast. The army which defeated the East Anglian
levies at Thetford in 870 marked its progress across Mercia and East
Anglia by the destruction of monasteries, chief among them the abbey
of Peterborough. During the next hundred years, under the constant
pressure of Danish invasion, little or no church-building can have
been done; and it is likely that, for a long time before 870, little
progress had been made. In 958 or 959 Edgar the Peaceable succeeded
to the throne of Wessex and became master of the whole of England.
During his reign, which lasted till 975, the great ecclesiastics who
rose to influence at his court, Dunstan, Oswald and Ethelwold, busied
themselves with the re-establishment of monasticism in England, and
the rebuilding of churches. The activity of Oswald in Worcestershire,
Gloucestershire, and at Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, of Ethelwold at
Winchester, Ely and Peterborough, shews how widespread was the area of
the destruction wrought by the Danes. This period of revival lasted
until the beginning of the eleventh century. The Danish conquest under
the heathen Swegen brought more destruction with it, and although Cnut
restored the churches which his father had destroyed, it was probably
not until the accession of Edward the Confessor in 1042 that another
era of church-building began in earnest.
§ 4. During the religious revival under Dunstan and his fellow
prelates, the reformers looked once more to the continent for
inspiration. Gaul, however, was no longer a possible source. Between
England and the French kingdom which was rising on the ruins of the
Neustrian monarchy, lay the Danelaw of Gaul, the province of Normandy.
Access to the old current of religious tradition, denied on that side,
was unimpeded on the side of the Low Countries and Germany, where,
along the Rhine, the Austrasian kingdom still pursued its existence
under the powerful sway of the Saxon emperors who had superseded the
house of Charles the Great. It was from monasteries in this district
that the restoration of the religious life in England was most
powerfully helped; and with such help, came inevitably architectural
influence. If we are to look anywhere for the immediate origin of
such well-known features of pre-Conquest architectural detail as
"long-and-short" work or strip-work, it is to be found in the early
religious buildings of the Rhine provinces. Their ultimate origin was,
no doubt, Italian; but during this period, English building indicates
no such close communication with original sources as existed during
the period of Gallo-Roman influence. The era of German influence
lasted but a short time, and examples of it, though familiar from the
peculiar details of their masonry, are comparatively few. The builders
of the period immediately preceding the Conquest seem to have been
thrown more upon their own resources, and to have abandoned German
details gradually in favour of a more simple fashion of building.
Certain German features, however, which had been imperfectly developed
during the period of revival, persisted in their work; and the closest
parallels to the English towers of the eleventh century, so common in
Lincolnshire and parts of Yorkshire, are to be seen in western Germany,
and in that part of Italy where German influence was most powerful.
§ 5. The development of Norman architecture in England was due to the
increasing skill in construction which followed the Conquest. For the
building of the larger churches, foreign prelates relied on the help
of Norman masons, trained in artistic methods far in advance of those
which Saxon builders had learned to use. The great aisled churches of
the monasteries, Durham, Winchester, Norwich, or Gloucester, planned
and built under the superintendence of men who were in close touch with
the contemporary art of Normandy, led the way, and provided patterns
of architecture which could not fail to exercise an influence upon
the smaller churches of the country. In the early parish churches of
the Norman period, we cannot expect to find this influence strongly
marked. Local masons had little opportunity of acquaintance with the
more advanced craftsmanship of the Normans until some large cathedral
or abbey church rose in their neighbourhood, and supplied them with
a model. Even then their imitation would be rough and uncertain,
until practice made perfect their first attempts. The model would
also provide them with a plan far beyond the requirements of a parish
church, where a single priest served a limited congregation. There was
no need of the provision of a large quire or of a number of separate
altars: the ritual necessaries were all of the simplest kind. The old
plan therefore sufficed in most instances. It is in the masonry that
we notice the earliest introduction of modifications and improvements.
The thin Saxon walling gives place to more massive construction:
walls composed of a rubble core with facings of dressed stone take the
place of the rubble masonry with through-stone quoins and dressings of
the later Saxon period. The recessing of the arch, with shafts in its
jambs, becomes gradually understood: the beginnings of the practice
were rough and unintelligent, and it was not without difficulty
that the local builder learned the structural use of jamb-shafts as
supporting and corresponding to the orders of the arch above. Our
country churches supply many instances of this faltering treatment
of new motives. Here and there it is possible to trace the direct
influence of some large Norman building on the work of the country
mason. At Branston, four miles south-east of Lincoln, the western
tower of the church belongs to the class which is common in the
neighbourhood--a class whose origin is earlier than the introduction of
Norman influence. Its masonry has several characteristics of the type
known as Saxon. But the high arch of its western doorway, and the small
arcades which have been introduced, on either side of the doorway, in
the face of the tower, shew very clearly that its builder had seen
Norman work, and was attempting, roughly, but not without success, to
copy it. Further, the arch of its doorway, and the tall shafts, with
crocketed capitals, which support it, are beyond doubt closely imitated
from the lower arches of the Norman west front of Lincoln minster.
As the Norman church at Lincoln was consecrated in 1092, the tower at
Branston can hardly be earlier than that date, and may be several years
later. Such examples as this shew that there is still much to discover
with regard to the chronology of the later Saxon architecture, and that
the grasp of new methods by native builders was acquired very gradually.
§ 6. We know, from the indications with respect to certain counties
supplied by Domesday Book, that in 1086 the number of parish churches
in England corresponded closely to the number which existed until
the comparatively modern sub-division of parishes. Domesday was
not intended to be a directory or clergy list; and the return of
the churches existing upon manors depended upon the view which
its individual compilers took of their duties. We have seen that
the earliest English churches were monastic centres of missionary
influence, built on land granted by wealthy converts to Christianity.
The revival at the end of the tenth century was also monastic. But,
after the age of Dunstan, the monastic ideal suffered an eclipse. The
parish churches of the later Saxon age, although many of them had been
granted to, and remained the property of monasteries, were for the
most part, if not entirely, served by secular priests who were under
no monastic obligation. The parish was co-extensive, so far as we can
tell, with the estate of the Saxon landlord: in most cases the church
was his property, the appointment of the priest lay in his hands,
and the church and its advowson passed to the Norman land-owner who
superseded him.
§ 7. With the Norman conquest came a great revival of monastic life.
The conquerors founded and heaped benefactions on new monasteries,
or enlarged the possessions of Norman abbeys by granting them new
estates in England. Many manors and more churches thus became
the property of religious houses; and, where the property of a
benefactor was widely scattered, a monastery might acquire a number
of churches in many different counties. Thus the church of Kirkby in
Malhamdale, in west Yorkshire, became the property of the abbey of
West Dereham, in Norfolk; while a moiety of the tithes of Gisburn,
in the same neighbourhood, belonged to the nuns of Stainfield, near
Lincoln. These gifts, in the first instance, depended entirely on
the free will of pious benefactors. The monasteries were naturally
expected to present suitable priests to the churches; but this was
left to their discretion. The logical result of these unconditional
benefactions was that, as time went on, many churches were totally
appropriated by monasteries: the income from the tithes, which should
have served for the support of parish priests, was absorbed by the
religious proprietors. Bishops recognised the evil; and towards
the beginning of the thirteenth century steps were taken to check
the control of monasteries over their subject churches. Archbishop
Geoffrey Plantagenet in 1205 allowed the abbey of West Dereham to
appropriate the fruits of the church of Kirkby in Malhamdale, but
required them to reserve a stipend of ten marks yearly for a vicar.
Such ordinations of vicarages became common within the next few years;
and the great feature of the episcopate of Hugh of Wells, bishop of
Lincoln 1209-35, was the provision of vicars, not monks, but secular
priests with sufficient stipends, in the appropriated churches of his
huge diocese. The monastery was usually allowed to take the greater
tithes, _i.e._ the tithes of corn, for itself, the smaller tithes, or
a sum in commutation of them, being reserved to the vicar. The study
of episcopal registers shews that these provisions were sometimes
evaded; and anyone who has made out lists of vicars of appropriated
churches knows that frequently long gaps occur, in which it is probable
that the monastery allowed the presentation to lapse unchecked; but
the ordination of vicarages was in great measure a cure for the evil.
However, during the thirteenth century, laymen still continued to
present religious bodies with large gifts of property. The inroads
which these benefactions began to make upon estates held in chief of
the king were a menace to royal power. In order to provide a regular
restraint upon the growth of ecclesiastical property, the statute of
mortmain was passed in 1279. As a consequence of this measure, any man
who wished to alienate land or churches to a religious corporation,
was required to apply for royal letters patent. If it were found by
inquisition that the property could be alienated without prejudice
to the king or the lord from whom the fee was immediately held, the
licence was granted; and, if a church formed part of the property, the
religious corporation was allowed to appropriate it by the grant of a
further licence, the ordination of a vicarage being left to the decree
of the bishop. It need hardly be said that a very large number of
churches remained all through the middle ages in the hands of private
patrons, and that by no means all churches granted to monasteries were
appropriated by them. Of the arrangements for these unappropriated
rectories more will be said later. The connexion of the parish churches
with the monasteries is of great importance, however, for our present
purpose.
§ 8. As so many churches belonged to monasteries, it is constantly
assumed that the monasteries, especially during Norman times, provided
parish churches at their own expense. Thus the splendid series of
churches in south Lincolnshire, on the road from Sutton Bridge to
Spalding, is said, without historical foundation, to have been produced
by rivalry in church-building between Croyland abbey and other
monasteries. It is true that, as at Spalding in 1284, the religious
house would probably contribute a certain amount to the building or
rebuilding of an appropriated church, but that amount would be limited,
and the parishioners would be left to provide the rest according to
their means. When vicarages were ordained, the repair of the chancel,
the rector's peculiar property, was usually left to the monastery as
rector; but we often find that a special stipulation was made by which
part of the repairs even of this portion of the church devolved upon
the vicar, and that sometimes his stipend was so arranged as to free
the monastery of this obligation altogether. A monastery naturally
regarded the fruits of a church as an addition to its own income.
The most that could be expected of it would be that it would employ
a reasonable part of the profits in keeping the fabric in order. If
the monastery owned the manor as well as the advowson, it probably,
and here and there unmistakably, did more for the fabric of the
parish church. But these fabrics were in most cases existing when the
monasteries took seisin of the advowsons of the churches in question.
When appropriation followed, the enrichment of the monastery, not
the enlargement of the building, was the end in view; and the plea
made by the monastery in dealing with the bishop over appropriations,
was invariably one of poverty. When a church, then, was rebuilt or
enlarged, the money came for the most part from parishioners, the
monastery supplying its proportion, not without a view to strict
economy.
§ 9. Further, the builders were generally, it may be assumed,
local masons. We have seen an indication of this at Branston,
where the builder grafted imitative detail in a new style upon his
own old-fashioned work. The splendid development of many twelfth
century parish churches is no argument against their local origin.
Architectural enthusiasm in the middle ages was a possession of the
people generally: it was not confined to a limited and privileged
body. The large monastery or cathedral churches in every neighbourhood
were sources of inspiration to the builders of the parish churches:
details were copied, and methods of construction were learned from
them, and the structural progress which took place in them had a
constant influence upon the architectural improvement of the less
important buildings. Here and there, perhaps, a mason, who had taken
part in the building of one of the greater churches, would be called
into consultation for the design of a parish church; and this, as
years went by, would become more common. It should be noted that in
the middle ages the builder was not a mere instrument to carry out the
designs of an architect. He himself, the master mason of the work,
was the architect. His training lay, not in the draughtsmanship
of an architect's office, but in practical working with mallet and
chisel. Thus, during at any rate the earlier part of the middle ages,
design was in no small degree a matter of instinct. Architecture was
a popular, democratic art, in which the instinctive faculties became
trained to a high pitch. The individual mason was allowed free play
for his talent; and the result was that constant variety of design and
detail, that continual movement and progress, those forward steps or
that conservative hesitation in the art of different districts, which
are the eternal attraction of medieval architecture. One feature of the
instinctive faculty of design in the builder was that he did much of
his work by eye alone. He must have made some rough measurements for
the setting out of his buildings; but he was not always provided with a
plan or elevations. Even in our larger churches, his work was sometimes
left to his own judgment. The western transept at Lincoln, for example,
can hardly have been built with much forethought. Each set of masons
employed upon it seems to have been left to its own devices: accurate
spacing was entirely neglected, and the connexion between the different
parts of the design was evidently a matter of guess-work, which led to
curious irregularities in the elevation. In this striking instance, the
builders were doubtless hampered by having to build their new transept
round older buildings, which were not taken down until their work was
well advanced; and the encumbered site alone may account for some
bewilderment.
§ 10. Parish churches in England may be divided, for historical
purposes, into four classes. (1) In some monastic churches, as in the
Benedictine priory of Selby and the Augustinian priory of Bridlington,
the parochial altar was in the nave of the church, west of the rood
screen, and was served by a vicar or a curate, who was responsible
for the spiritual welfare of the parish. (2) In collegiate churches
a similar arrangement existed; but in the majority of such cases the
dean or warden of the college was regarded as the parson of the parish,
and had the cure of souls. (3) Of parish churches appropriated to
monasteries, we have spoken already. (4) There remains the very large
number of unappropriated parish churches, in which the rector or parson
was directly responsible for the cure of souls. The duties of the
rector were regarded in the middle ages with considerable latitude.
Nothing was more usual than for a man of good family, or one whose
clerkly talents made him a constant attendant on the king or the great
officers of state, to obtain a number of benefices which provided him
with a necessary income. Such parsons were naturally non-resident: as
often as not, they had not proceeded to full orders. The Patent Rolls
are full of grants of benefices to persons engaged in the work of the
royal chancery or exchequer; while the papal registers in the Vatican
library contain thousands of dispensations by which pluralists were
enabled to hold several benefices at a time, to acquire benefices up
to a stated value, or to defer their ordination to the priesthood.
Popes and bishops alike kept a careful watch on the attempt to obtain
additional benefices without licence; but it is quite obvious that
little discrimination could be exercised, and that dispensations
became matters of form, for which the applicant, backed by a request
from the king or some magnate, made a payment in money. Pluralism was
further increased by the pope's claim to reserve certain benefices on a
vacancy, and provide incumbents to them. This claim, which originally
was intended to prevent patrons from keeping benefices vacant and
appropriating their fruits, led to the enactment of the statute of
provisors in 1351. Papal provisions, though nominally forbidden, were
not stopped by this law, but became subject to regulation.
§ 11. To the medieval mind, the habit of a non-resident rector,
holding several churches in plurality, was a matter of course, which
cannot be judged by the moral standard of our own day. It must be
regarded simply as a fact, not as an abuse. The rector was required
to see that his churches were properly served, and probably, like his
successors after the Reformation, he paid a curate to do his work
in each of his churches. In some cases, like monastic impropriators,
he made an arrangement by which a vicar was provided with a fixed
stipend; and now and then a vicar was properly instituted by the
bishop at his presentation. This was the regular course of procedure
in parish churches attached to prebends in cathedral and collegiate
churches, which were held for the most part by king's clerks, and
often by foreigners appointed by the pope. But it is clear that,
where a man held ten or twelve churches at once, they might be served
very irregularly. Again, no form of litigation in the middle ages was
so common as that between two or more claimants of an advowson. The
sub-division of the ownership of a manor might and did constantly lead
to a dispute between rival patrons for the presentation to a living.
Thus, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, the church of
Adlingfleet in Yorkshire became the subject of a long law-suit between
two separate patrons, the archbishop of York, and their presentees,
which was protracted for nearly thirty years before the royal and
papal courts. The candidates, all non-residents, strove to obstruct
each other. In the parish itself they made attempts to defend their
rights by force, and it is difficult to see how, during this period of
strife, the cure of souls could have been adequately served. Churches
appropriated to monasteries were more fortunate; for they, in most
instances, had the advantage of a resident vicar, and the appropriation
removed disputes as to the patronage.
§ 12. Pluralism and litigation, in themselves, had no noticeable effect
on architectural development. But they led to a desire, on the part of
the parishioners, for resident clergy with an endowment independent
of the caprices of lay patrons. And this led to the establishment of
chantry priests at the altars of churches, which had a powerful effect
upon the architectural growth of the churches in which they served.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, and from that time to the
Reformation, the foundation of chantries in parish churches became a
common thing. Zeal for the foundation of monasteries had spent itself.
Lay benefactors acquired the habit of alienating land, not to some
religious house, but to one or more priests who, as a condition of the
gift, should say mass daily at one of the altars of a parish church
for the good estate of the giver and other persons named by him, and
for their souls after death. These endowments of services were known
as chantries, and were intended to continue for ever. Many chantries
were founded in cathedral and monastery churches; but, as time went
on, the church of the parish in which the benefactor lived was more
and more frequently chosen as their site. That this had been always
the custom is probable; but it was a custom which certainly was not
universal until the later middle ages. From the time of the enactment
of the statute of mortmain, we possess a series of royal licences for
the foundation of chantries and gifts of land to chantry priests, which
are invaluable in tracing the history of the English parish church. A
chantry, however, is a service, not the building in which it is held.
It might be founded at the high altar of a church, but more usually
was connected with one of the lesser altars. It was natural, however,
that a founder would be willing to do something for the repair of the
part of the church in which his chantry was held. Repair took the form
of enlargement and rebuilding; and while special chantry chapels were
sometimes built as excrescences from the main body of the church, the
usual building which was done in connexion with a chantry implied the
widening or addition of an aisle.
§ 13. A good concrete example of this procedure is the church of
Beckingham, five miles east of Newark-on-Trent, a building of various
periods, but chiefly of the early part of the thirteenth century. The
aisles of the nave are wide, and belong, in their present condition, to
the fourteenth century. At the end of each are distinct indications of
the former presence of an altar. The parson of Beckingham in the second
quarter of the fourteenth century was Thomas Sibthorpe, a man of some
substance, and one of the royal clerks. His benefactions to the church
of his native village of Sibthorpe and to Beckingham involved him in
some litigation, ample records of which are to be found in the Patent
Rolls. In 1332 he obtained a licence to found a chantry in the chapel
of St Mary, in the north part of Beckingham church, and by the end of
1347, he built the chapel of St Anne, on the south side of the church.
Both the existing chapels agree with one another in date; and we may
safely infer that Sibthorpe probably widened, and certainly rebuilt
both the aisles between 1332 and 1347. He evidently intended his
chapel of St Mary to be of some importance, as the chantry priest was
called the warden, and was probably intended to be the head of a small
college, such as existed at Sibthorpe. Of a chantry in the chapel of St
Anne we know nothing: Sibthorpe endowed two candles to be burned there
at certain times. An interesting feature of this fourteenth century
rebuilding is that the north and south doorways, both of late twelfth
century work, were removed to the new walls.
§ 14. The growth of chantry foundations formed the most remarkable
feature of the lay activity of the later middle ages, and is treated
in the next chapter with a view to its influence on architectural
progress. We may sum up the influence of the historical facts already
indicated upon the fabric of the parish church in the following
conclusions: (1) The origin of the parish church was the spiritual need
of the private estate. (2) The lord of the manor was the founder and
provided the fabric. (3) The work of the fabric was entrusted to local
masons. (4) In the division of expense, the rector became responsible
for the chancel and the altar from which he received his dues. (5)
The parishioners were responsible for the fabric of the nave. (6) In
churches appropriated to monasteries, the chancel was the only part of
the fabric for which the monastery was responsible, and a part of its
responsibility was usually laid upon the vicar. (7) Where the monastery
was lord of the manor, it would take its share of the building and
up-keep of the church with the other parishioners. We shall see in
a later chapter some concrete instances of manorial and monastic
influence at work upon the structure of the church.