THE CHANTRY CHAPEL IN THE PARISH CHURCH
§ 15. The chantry and the guild chapel had so important an influence
on the plan of the parish church, and especially of the larger church,
that they deserve further consideration, in company with the anomalies
of plan which are their result. Chantries increased in number during
the fourteenth century, and, from the period of the Black Death to the
Reformation, had an ever growing importance. At Grantham, where it is
clear that the enlargement of the church was due to the increase of
chantries, three were founded in 1349, two of them at altars inside
the church. In 1392 two new chantries were founded, at the altars of
Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, and the maintenance of chantries
at the altars of St Mary and St John Baptist was increased by new
benefactions. Thus, to large churches, a large staff of priests became
attached. Although Grantham was never incorporated as a collegiate
church, the body of clergy which served it seem to have had common
services in quire together, and to have been known as the 'college.'
The chantry priests of a large church would benefit from incorporation
in the ordinary course of things, and it very often happened that
they were formed into a regular college, or that provisions were made
affecting their common life. St William's college at York was founded
for the chantry priests of the minster in 1461 by archbishop Neville
and his brother, the king-maker. In 1482-3 archbishop Rotherham founded
his college of Jesus at Rotherham, to which, as a secondary provision
of the foundation, the chantry priests already existing in the church
were to be attached. Rotherham recognised that a large body of
individual priests, whose duties for the day were finished with their
daily mass, would be open to temptation if they were allowed to choose
their own lodgings as they liked; and Thomas Kent, whose executors in
1481 founded a 'perpetual commonalty' of the seven chantry priests of
St James Garlickhithe in the city of London, expressed his opinion
that these chaplains 'conversed among laymen and wandered about,
rather than dwelt among clerks, as was decent.' Not infrequently, a
benefactor who wished to found a chantry of more than one chaplain,
acquired the advowson of the church in which it was to be founded, and
secured its appropriation to his chaplains, who held it in perpetuity,
and were incorporated as a college. This was the case with the college
of Sibthorpe. In 1333 Sir John Heslerton, patron of the church of
Lowthorpe in east Yorkshire, founded a college of six priests in the
church, whose duties were set forth in detail by archbishop Melton in
his ordinance for the new college, which included the appropriation
of the church to it. Sir John represented to the archbishop that the
fruits of the living would serve for the maintenance of more than
one parson, but that there were few ministers there. 'Many persons
there,' he said, 'who are attached to the worship of the Holy Trinity
and St Mary, and are desirous of daily service in their honour and
for the departed, grow lukewarm because of the frequent absence of
anyone to celebrate in the church, when their minister is engaged
in the visitation of the sick, or in discharge of the other duties
of his office.' Six chantries were founded, with a priest to each,
known as the chantries of the Trinity, St Mary, the archbishop, the
chapter, the founder, and the patron. The head of the college was
known as the rector. He and the six chaplains had a common habitation
in the rectory. Daily they were to assemble in the church, with the
three clerks attached to the college, one of whom at least was to be a
deacon, and chant the canonical services. The chaplains were obliged to
wear a common dress of black or nearly dark cloth with black surcoats.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Hallaton, Leicestershire: chapel in S. aisle.]
§ 16. The great advantage of colleges of chantry priests was that they
ensured a constantly resident ministry in the parish. This, in days
when rectors were frequently non-residents or pluralists, whose real
business lay in attending on the king in the chancery or exchequer, was
a most desirable circumstance. But it is also quite easy to see that,
in a parish like Lowthorpe, a small country village between Bridlington
and Driffield, if there were too few ministers before the foundation
of the college, there probably were too many after. Their duty, as
enunciated by the founder, was to celebrate divine service for the
departed; and this was a duty which, sacred though it was, left those
who were bound by it a fair margin of leisure. Also, in some churches,
the chantry foundations were on a very large scale. The college of
Cotterstock in Northants was founded in 1337 for a provost and twelve
chaplains. In 1411 the college of Fotheringhay was founded, only two
miles away, for a master, twelve chaplains, eight clerks, and thirteen
choristers. Of the three chantry colleges in Shropshire, Battlefield
was founded at first for a master and seven chaplains, to pray for the
dead who fell at the battle of Shrewsbury; Tong was founded in 1410 for
a warden and four chaplains; Newport was enlarged from a chantry of two
chaplains, founded in 1432, to a college of a warden and four chaplains
in 1442. Other colleges which may be cited out of many were Haccombe in
Devon, founded in 1335 for an arch-priest and five chaplains; Bunbury
in Cheshire, founded in 1386-7 for a master and six chaplains; Clovelly
in Devon, founded in 1387-8 for a warden and six chaplains; Pleshy
in Essex, founded in 1393-4 for a master or warden, eight chaplains,
two clerks, and two choristers; Higham Ferrers in Northants, founded
in 1425 for a master or warden, seven chaplains, four clerks, and six
choristers; Tattershall in Lincolnshire, founded in 1439 for a master
or warden, six chaplains, six secular clerks, and six choristers, with
thirteen almspeople; and Middleham in Yorkshire, founded in 1477-8
for a dean, six chaplains, four clerks, six choristers, and one
secular clerk. All these foundations bore a distinct resemblance to
the ordinary collegiate bodies, such as those of the cathedrals, or of
Wolverhampton, Tamworth, Bridgnorth, or Westbury-on-Trym. But, while
the holders of prebends in collegiate churches were not necessarily,
and indeed were seldom, resident, the fellows or chaplains of chantry
colleges were obliged to be always on the spot. Nor were these
chantries of more than one priest founded merely in parish churches.
Lords of manors founded chantries on their estates: there was a
college of several chantry priests at the Beauchamp castle of Elmley
in Worcestershire, for example. Sir Robert Umfraville, who founded in
1429 a chantry of a master and a chaplain in the chapel of his manor
house at Farnacres, near Gateshead, strictly bound down the incumbents
to their religious duties, forbidding them to carry on any temporal
business as bailiffs or estate agents, on the ground that _dum colitur
Martha, expellitur Maria_.
§ 17. The foundation of ordinary chantries more than kept pace with
the foundation of chantry colleges. Individual benefactors sought to
secure their own salvation and that of their relations, by endowing an
altar in their parish church. In parishes where services were few, the
parishioners often clubbed together for the support of a stipendiary
service, paid out of property of which they were feoffees. The
chaplain whose services were thus secured would be of great use to the
incumbent of a large parish, especially at seasons when there were many
communicants, and many confessions had to be heard. Also, in distant
parts of large parishes, separated from the mother church by several
miles, or by foul roads and flooded streams in winter, chantry priests
were provided by individual or collective benefactions to serve the
altars of parochial chapels. In the great parishes of west Yorkshire,
Burnsall, Aysgarth, or Grinton, each including a vast tract of dale
and fell, parochial chapels, subject to the mother church, had existed
from a very early period. Such chapels became more numerous as the
middle ages advanced; and the famous chapel of South Skirlaugh, between
Hull and Hornsea, so often quoted as a perfect example of late Gothic
work, was one of these subordinate foundations. It may also be noted
that two of the largest parish churches of the same neighbourhood, St
Augustine's at Hedon and Holy Trinity at Hull, were originally chapels
to Preston-in-Holderness and Hessle. At Boughton in Northants, owing
to a shifting of the population, a chapel in the parish became the
parish church. Obviously, if the larger churches were to be properly
served, they must depend in no small measure on the goodwill of the
parishioners.
§ 18. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the parishioners came
forward with benefactions as they never had done before. The rich wool
stapler of Grantham, Newark, or Boston, returned thanks for his wealth
by founding a chantry in his church or one of its chapels. With the
rise of the commercial class, the churches of East Anglia were rebuilt
and transformed. Wealthy trade guilds at York, Boston, Shrewsbury,
or Coventry, maintained their own chaplains in the various parish
churches. Religious guilds or fraternities, composed both of men and
women, obtained royal licence for incorporation, and established their
chantries. Such was the Palmers' guild at Ludlow, which received its
first royal charter in 1284, and maintained a large body of chantry
priests, incorporated as a college, in the parish church. These
religious guilds existed for the purpose of mutual assistance and works
of charity. The guilds of St Mary and Corpus Christi in Cambridge
united together in one corporation, and founded Corpus Christi college
in 1352. In 1392 the guild of St Mary at Stamford had licence to
devote land to the maintenance of certain chantry priests in St Mary's
at the Bridge. In the same year, two guilds at Coventry were united
under the name of the guild of the Holy Trinity, St Mary, and St John
the Baptist, and founded a college of chaplains in St John's chapel
at Bablake. Still in 1392, the guild of the Holy Cross at Birmingham
was founded, with its chaplains in St Martin's; and the guilds of St
Mary and of Jesus Christ and the Holy Cross in the parish church of
Chesterfield. To 1393 belongs the foundation of the guild of the Holy
Trinity at Spalding, with a chaplain at the Trinity altar in the parish
church. In the reign of Henry IV the refounded guild of St Cross and
St John the Baptist at Stratford-on-Avon had licence to find two or
more chaplains in their parish church (1403); the guild of St Thomas
of Canterbury, with one or two chaplains, was founded at Long Sutton
in Lincolnshire (1405). Under Henry VI may be mentioned the guild of
St Mary at Louth, with more than one chaplain, founded in 1446-7; the
licence to the guild of the Holy Trinity at Nottingham, in the same
year, to maintain two chaplains in St Mary's church; the guild of St
Mary of Crediton, with a chaplain at the altar of St Peter, founded in
1448; the guilds of the Holy Trinity, with two chaplains, at Chipping
Norton, and, with one or more chaplains, at Louth (1450); and the guild
of St Mary, with two chaplains, at Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire
(1452). In 1460-1, the twelve chaplains, supported by seven guilds,
in All Saints, Northampton, were formed into a college. In the time
of Edward IV the trade guilds became more active in establishing
chantries; but the foundation of religious guilds went on with unabated
zeal. A number were founded in the small market-towns of Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, with aid in more than one instance
from the diocesan, Thomas Rotherham, then bishop of Lincoln--the
fraternity of the Body of Jesus Christ at Leighton Buzzard (1473), the
guilds of the Holy Trinity at Luton (1474) and Biggleswade (1474-5),
a guild at Hitchin (1475), and the guild of St Mary and St Thomas
the Martyr at Stony Stratford (1476). In 1480 was founded a guild at
Thaxted in Essex, and in 1483-4 the fraternity of the Holy Cross at
Abingdon.
§ 19. The names of most of these guilds, which were joined by royal
and noble personages, are connected with churches of great beauty and
importance, which owe their final perfection in no small degree to the
benefactions of the brethren and sisters of the guilds. The chapel
of Bablake, St John Baptist's church at Coventry, was a result of
the incorporation of the guilds in 1392. The two guilds at Louth and
Chesterfield left their mark on the churches in which they worshipped.
The chancel, the aisles of the nave, the great porches, the west tower
and spire, at Thaxted, belong to the epoch, if they are not altogether
the direct result, of the foundation of the guild. Chantry chapels and
guild chapels may exert their influence on the plan of the fabric,
simply by providing it with a complete set of aisles. Of this type of
plan, we already have seen an example at Beckingham. But these chapels
often cause anomalies which are difficult to classify, and lead to
some confusion of plan; and some instances of this character must now
be given. In the first place, the chantry chapel is not confined to
any definite part of the plan. In our cathedrals it is frequently an
excrescence from an outer wall of the church, like the bishops' tomb
chapels at Lincoln or Hereford, or it is a rectangular structure of
stone, with elaborately traceried windows, cresting, and canopy work,
like prince Arthur's chapel at Worcester, or the episcopal tombs at
Winchester, set up within an arch of the nave or quire. Of these types
we have examples in our parish churches: the first is illustrated, on
a large scale, by Hall's chapel at Grantham; on a fair scale, by the
chapels at Long Melford and Berkeley; and, on a rather smaller scale,
by the chapels, now destroyed, of two masters of Peterhouse, on either
side of Little St Mary's church at Cambridge. All these have small
doorways and arches for table tombs between the church and the chapel.
The chapel east of the south porch at Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire,
has a tomb arch opening into the south aisle; but the entrance is in
the east wall of the porch. Many examples of the second type must have
existed in the larger churches of England: at Ludlow, for example,
there were chantry chapels in the eastern arch of the south arcade,
and in the two western arches of both arcades. We read of Sir John
Pilkington's chantry, founded in 1475 at the altar of St Mary in the
'south arch' of the parish church at Wakefield: in 1478 the chantry of
Roger Nowell was founded at the altar of St Peter in the 'north arch.'
There are stone chantry chapels in the north and south arches of the
chancel at Newark--the chantry chapel of Thomas Meyring (1500) on the
north, and that of Robert Markham (1505) on the south. These chapels
recall prior King's chapel at Bath abbey, the Warre chapel at Boxgrove
priory, and other small independent structures, like some of the tomb
chapels which form a ring round the apse at Tewkesbury. Most of these
chapels beneath arches were no doubt covered, like prior Leishman's
tomb at Hexham, with wooden canopies, which have now disappeared. At
Burford in Oxfordshire, however, there is, in the east arch of the
north arcade, a small chapel with a wooden tester and upright posts:
the sides are panelled up to a certain height. The whole structure has
been well restored and is still used.
§ 20. Some small chantry chapels form transeptal projections in unusual
parts of the building: thus, at Sherburn-in-Elmet, St Botolph's,
Cambridge, and Kewstoke, Somerset, such chapels project from the
south wall of the nave next the porch. Indeed, the variety in the
position of chantry chapels often invests the churches of the west of
England with a charm which is not always possessed by more regular
buildings. Churches like Beverstone in Gloucestershire, Croscombe
in Somerset, and Sherston Magna in Wiltshire, are full of little
surprises for anyone to whom variations in plan appeal. Perhaps the
most attractive surprise of this kind is at Long Melford in Suffolk.
On the south side of the chancel, opening out of the Martin chapel, is
a vestry, which communicates with another building at right angles to
it, behind the east wall of the chancel. From this building there is
a doorway into the lady chapel, which thus stands detached from the
body of the church. The chapel is a nearly square building, with three
external gables: internally, there is a central square space, entirely
surrounded by an aisle or ambulatory. At Boston there is a chantry
chapel, forming a short extra aisle, west of the south porch; while
at Witney, there is one west of the north porch. Sometimes, the whole
of an aisle of the nave, east of the main entrance of the church, was
screened off as a chantry chapel. There are instances of this at Croft
in Yorkshire, Hungerton in Leicestershire, and Stratton Strawless in
Norfolk. There are instances, again, in which, when a chantry chapel
was placed at the end of an aisle, its separate character from the
rest of the aisle was structurally defined. In Shropshire, at Alveley,
Cleobury Mortimer, Stottesdon, and one or two other places, one or more
chantry chapels have been formed by widening the eastern part of the
aisles in which the altars were placed.
§ 21. Where chantry colleges have existed, the fact is by no means
always obvious in the plan of the church. It is sometimes disclosed
by the presence of stall-work of unusual richness in the chancel, as
at Higham Ferrers; and sometimes, as in the same place, the altar
in the main chancel may have been reserved for the services of the
college, while another altar was provided for the ordinary parochial
services. But it must be borne in mind that a chantry college was not a
monastery. The church appropriated to the college was a parish church.
Although a chaplain might be specially deputed to look after parochial
services, the master, rector, warden, provost, arch-priest, or whatever
his title might be, was in the position of a resident incumbent. Many
splendid churches, now shorn of their chancels, recall the fact that
the naves of monastic churches were frequently used for the services
of the parish. This distinction doubtless extended to many chantry
colleges, Arundel and Fotheringhay, for example. But the services of
the college were not cut off, like the services of the monastery, from
the outer world. The college of Lowthorpe was founded specifically for
the benefit of devout parishioners who, before its foundation, could
not get all the masses they wanted. The result is that the plan of the
chantry church, as it may be called, differed little from that of the
ordinary parish church. Sibthorpe and Cotterstock are normal churches,
with fine chancels: the altars at which each of the three chaplains
of Chaddesden, or the four of St Michael Penkivel, said his daily
mass, are not confined to one part of the church, but are distributed
throughout it. Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, which were originally
colleges of clergy, were practically identical with chantry colleges,
with the exception that their members were associated mainly for
purposes of study and teaching. To many of them parish churches were
appropriated, in which they held their services, and maintained their
own parochial chaplain. St Michael's at Cambridge, appropriated to
Michaelhouse, was rebuilt in the early part of the fourteenth century.
It has been little altered, and the division into collegiate quire
and parochial nave is clearly marked. There was a similar division in
Little St Mary's, belonging to Peterhouse. In the fourteenth century
the college began to rebuild the church on a large scale. The chancel
was nearly completed, when the Black Death put a stop to the work.
Later, an extra western bay was added to the chancel; and the aisleless
church thus formed was divided by a screen into a collegiate and a
parochial half. In 1446 Clare hall and Trinity hall added aisles to
the chancel of St Edward's: these aisles were wider than the aisles
of the nave, and also overlapped the nave by one bay. When Jesus
college entered into possession of the nunnery of St Radegund, the
priory church was shorn of the western end of the nave and of all its
aisles. The college reserved the quire for its own services, while
the parishioners of the old peculiar of the priory used the nave and
transepts. The ante-chapel of Merton college chapel at Oxford was used
till quite lately as the parish church of St John Baptist.
§ 22. No better instance of the complicating influence of chantry
chapels on the plan of a parish church could be given than the church
of St John Baptist at Cirencester. The oldest part of the present
building is the chancel with its south chapel, which contain twelfth
and early thirteenth century work, but are in the main the fruit of a
later thirteenth century reconstruction. The north chapel, known as St
Katharine's chapel, is a rather narrow aisle, communicating with the
chancel by fourteenth century arches. North of this, again, there may
have been a lady chapel on part of the site of the present one. Towards
the middle of the fifteenth century, the aisles of the nave were much
widened, the width taken for the new north aisle being about twice the
width of St Katharine's chapel, and the new south aisle being rather
wider than the south chapel of the chancel. The Trinity chapel was
formed by adding to the nave an extra north aisle, about half as long
as the adjacent aisle, from which it is divided by a stone screen.
There had been an earlier altar of the Trinity in the church; for the
licence granted to Robert Playn and others in 1382 to found a chantry
of two chaplains in Cirencester church placed one at the altar of the
Trinity, and the other at the altar of St Mary. In 1392 another chantry
was founded in the lady chapel. But, in its present state, the lady
chapel seems to belong to the later part of the fifteenth century,
when it was probably much broadened, so as to overlap the east wall of
the Trinity chapel. Both it and St Katharine's chapel open into the
north aisle through four-centred arches: they open into one another by
two arches pierced in the intermediate wall. Between these arches has
been left a thin piece of wall, in which rectangular slits, commanding
the altar of the lady chapel, have been cut. The plan thus includes two
chapels north of the chancel, and another north of the nave, as well as
the south chapel of the chancel. The rebuilding of the nave, with its
splendid south porch, its smaller north porch, and its western tower,
was not completed until early in the sixteenth century. The Jesus
chapel was enclosed within screens at the south-east corner of the
south aisle; and the roof of St Katharine's chapel was heightened, and
provided with fan vaulting.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Plan of Cirencester Church.]
§ 23. The tendency of the chantry chapels at Cirencester is to group
themselves at the east end of the church, the Trinity chapel forming
an excrescence at the end of the north aisle which is nearest the
chancel. At Chesterfield the high altar, below the great east window,
was flanked by the guild chapel of our Lady on the south, and the
chapel of St Katharine on the north. The guild chapel of the Holy
Cross was east of the north transept: an apsidal chapel east of the
south transept contained the altar of St George; while there were
two chantry altars against the screens in the arches of the south
transept. The four chantry chapels added to Scarborough church towards
the end of the fourteenth century were built in a row at right angles
to the south aisle, each with its own separate gable and pointed barrel
vault. The chapel of St Nicholas had been added to the church somewhat
earlier, by the building of an extra north aisle; a chantry was founded
at St Nicholas' altar in 1390. We also meet at Scarborough, Great
Yarmouth, and other places, with charnel chapels. That at Scarborough,
dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, was probably a separate building in the
graveyard. Such external chapels were often built, although few remain
to-day. Henry of Newark, archbishop of York 1298-9, founded about 1292,
while he was dean of York, a chapel of St Katharine and St Martha in
the churchyard of Newark. Some twenty years later, when the enlargement
of the aisles of Newark church was contemplated, archbishop Grenefeld
licensed the destruction of the chapel. Its materials were used for the
rebuilding of the south aisle, and the chantry was probably transferred
to an altar in the new building. There was probably a charnel chapel at
Grantham, to the south-west of the church.
§ 24. But the most interesting case of an external chapel is the
Sylvester chapel at Burford, which now forms a long arm stretching
to the south-west of the main fabric. The church and chapel were
originally separate. The church was, to begin with, an aisleless
twelfth century structure, with a tower between nave and chancel. In
the thirteenth century the chancel was produced to its present length,
the north and south walls of the tower were pierced with arches, and
transeptal chapels were added. A narrow south aisle was also added
to the nave. About the same time a long aisleless chapel was built
in the churchyard, some yards to the south-west of the church. In
the fourteenth century a chapel was constructed, with a bone-crypt
beneath it, west of the south transept, and was connected with the
south aisle. There seems to have been no north aisle to the nave.
East of the transepts were small chapels. The fifteenth century saw a
great transformation. A sacristy was built north of the altar. Aisles
and a south porch of great beauty were built in harmony with a new
nave arcade. The outer chapel, the axis of which was not parallel to
that of the nave, was prolonged eastward to meet the south porch, and
connected by an arcade with the south aisle. It was shortened at the
west end, but still projects two bays beyond the main body of the
church. The east chapel of the south transept was now taken away, and
a south chancel chapel built, the east wall of which interfered with
the thirteenth century sedilia of the chancel. The south wall of the
chancel, opposite the sacristy, was allowed to stand clear of the new
chapel. On the opposite side of the church, the north transept was
shortened, until it was little longer than the breadth of the north
aisle: its north wall was then continued eastwards and was returned to
join the west wall of the sacristy. The north chapel of the chancel
was thus formed. The whole progress of the plan is from a simple form
of aisleless church to an aisled rectangle with central tower and
spire; but the process is irregular, and the absorption of the outer
chapel is an almost unique step. It will be noticed that the south
aisle is entirely covered by a triple arrangement of buildings--first,
St Thomas' chapel next the south transept, then the south porch, and
finally the Sylvester chapel, which gives additional length to the
church from this point of view.
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Plan of Burford Church.]
§ 25. Other examples of churches in the wealthy market towns of the
west of England might be given, in which, as at Frome, chantry chapels
grafted themselves upon the plan, with immense advantage to the
picturesque effect. But there were few churches on which the foundation
of chantries, and especially of chantries maintained by religious
guilds, had such influence as on the great churches of Coventry--St
Michael's, Holy Trinity, and St John's. Licences for the foundations
of chantries in St Michael's bear date 1323 (two chaplains), 1344 (one
chaplain in the chapel of St Lawrence, augmented 1383, 1390), 1388
(one chaplain at the altar of All Saints), 1411-2 (one chaplain at
the altar of St Katharine), and 1412 (two chaplains at the newly made
altars of the Holy Trinity and St Mary). In addition to these altars
and the high altar there were altars of Jesus, St John, St Anne, St
Thomas, and St Andrew. The chantries at these various altars became in
time attached to the various trade guilds of the town, and the church,
greatly enlarged and extended in the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, contained several chapels, known by the names of the guilds.
Some details of the rebuilding have been touched upon already. The plan
is curious; for the chancel ends in a semi-octagonal apse--a feature
which also occurs in the late Gothic chancels of Westbury-on-Trym
and Wrexham--surrounded by a row of vestries on a lower level. On
the north of the chancel is the lady chapel, the altar of which was
new in 1412-3, known later as the drapers' chapel. The south chapel
of the chancel was the mercers' chapel, which probably contained
the Trinity altar. The eastern part of the north aisle was occupied
by St Lawrence's chapel. The outer north aisle was divided into two
parts: east of the doorway was All Saints' or the girdlers' chapel,
while west of it was St Andrew's or the smiths' chapel. Two further
chapels, St Thomas' or the cappers' chapel, and the dyers' chapel,
formed excrescences to east and west of the south porch. The beautiful
cruciform church of the Holy Trinity became flanked in process of
time by similar chapels. In the later part of the thirteenth century
the north porch was joined to the transept by St Thomas' chapel. At a
later date a chapel, afterwards the consistory court, was built from
the west wall of the north porch as far as the west wall of the north
aisle. Much later, in the sixteenth century, Marler's or the mercers'
chapel was continued from the east wall of the north transept along the
north aisle of the quire, the north transept being thus practically
absorbed in an outer north aisle. The lady chapel was at the end of the
north aisle of the chancel, north of the altar: opposite it, on the
south, was the Trinity chapel. The south aisle of the chancel was the
butchers' chapel: in the south transept was the Corpus Christi chapel,
now destroyed; while at the west end of the south aisle of the nave was
the tanners' chapel.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Plan of St Michael's, Coventry. A.
St Andrew's Chapel. B. Girdlers' Chapel.
C. St Lawrence's Chapel. D. Drapers' Chapel.
E. Dyers' Chapel. F. Cappers'
Chapel. G. Mercers' Chapel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Plan of Holy Trinity Church, Coventry.
A. Archdeacon's Court. B. St Thomas' Chapel.
C. Marler's Chapel. D. Lady Chapel. E. Tanners'
Chapel. F. Jesus Chapel. G. Corpus Christi
Chapel. H. Butchers' Chapel. I. Holy Trinity
Chapel.]
§ 26. Thus, by the gradual addition of chapel after chapel, the plan of
these magnificent churches, some of the finest productions of English
art, grew until, as at Burford or Holy Trinity, Coventry, it lost
all likeness to its original state, and seems at first sight to be a
collection of buildings heaped together without much method. It would
be interesting to trace the growth of churches like St Mary Redcliffe
or Ludlow, as we have traced that of Cirencester and Burford. In these
cases, it is impossible to give too much emphasis to the part played
by lay benefactors in the development of the fabric. Cirencester,
Burford, and the Coventry churches, were appropriated to monasteries:
St Mary Redcliffe was merely a chapel of Bedminster, appropriated,
like Grantham, to a stall in Salisbury cathedral. At Cirencester and
Coventry the churches were close to the religious houses to which
they belonged. But the growth of the churches was the result of lay
devotion: the founders of chantries of whom we hear, like the famous
William Canynge at St Mary Redcliffe, were men who had made money in
business. The part of the monasteries in church-building was never,
so far as parish churches were concerned, very active. As the middle
ages went on, their connexion with the fabrics became still slighter;
and their interest in the church, apart from the profits which they
received from it, and from an occasional litigation about the advowson,
was probably confined to the periodical presentation of a vicar. The
highest state of development which the parish church attained, in
such buildings as have just been described, or in the great churches
of Norfolk and Somerset, was the consequence of a long series of
beautifications and improvements, in which at first, no doubt, the lay
lords of manors took the leading part, but afterwards were joined by
wealthy parishioners, who could find no more fitting employment for
their wealth than the enlargement and decoration of the house of God.
And it should not be forgotten that not merely the rich, but the poor,
shared in this work of benefaction. In some places, at Oswestry, for
example, chantry priests were supported by the devotion of servants
or husbandmen, each of whom paid his yearly share of the endowment.
Here and there in East Anglia, inscriptions remaining on beautiful
pieces of church furniture, bear witness to the generosity of members
of the parish in humble positions. The churches of London, Bristol,
York, and Norwich, and of countless towns and villages, are memorials
of the brightest aspect of medieval religion--the spontaneous devotion
which it excited, for motives often mingled with superstition, but
never selfish or unworthy, in the most hard-headed and least emotional
section, then as now, of English society.