Tài liệu Bell''''''''s Cathedrals: The Churches of Coventry pptx

LINK DOWNLOAD MIỄN PHÍ TÀI LIỆU "Tài liệu Bell''''''''s Cathedrals: The Churches of Coventry pptx": http://123doc.vn/document/1053052-tai-lieu-bells-cathedrals-the-churches-of-coventry-pptx.htm

CHAPTER I.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 61 II. THE EXTERIOR 65 III. THE INTERIOR 69
ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S CHURCH 79
THE GREY FRIARS' CONVENT (CHRIST CHURCH) 91
THE WHITE FRIARS 94
ST. MARY HALL 96
THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY 99
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
COVENTRY, THE THREE SPIRES Frontispiece
ARMS OF THE TOWN Title-page
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF BISHOP STREET 2
COOK STREET GATE 7
SEAL OF THE PRIORY 15
WEST END OF THE PRIORY CHURCH 16
REMAINS OF THE NORTH-WEST TOWER IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 17
ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE NORTH 20
ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE NORTH-WEST 28
INTERIOR OF THE TOWER FROM BELOW 31
THE WEST PORCH 33
SOUTH PORCH FROM ST. MARY HALL 34
SOUTH-WEST DOORWAY 35
INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE WEST 40
TOWER ARCH 42
BAY OF NAVE, NORTH SIDE 43
INTERIOR FROM THE SOUTH DOOR 45
THE CHOIR FROM ST. LAWRENCE'S CHAPEL 46
CHAPTER I. 5
POPPY HEAD, LADY CHAPEL 48
MISERERE, LADY CHAPEL 48
CHEST IN NORTH AISLE 50
THE NETHERMYL TOMB 51
THE SWILLINGTON TOMB 54
ALMS-BOX 56
HOLY TRINITY FROM THE NORTH (ABOUT 1850) 60
PLAN OF TRINITY CHURCH 66
INTERIOR OF HOLY TRINITY, FROM THE WEST 68
NORTH SIDE OF NAVE EASTERN BAYS 71
PULPIT 73
ARCHWAY BETWEEN THE NORTH PORCH AND ST. THOMAS'S CHAPEL 74
ALMS-BOX 77
CHURCH OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST 80
PLAN 85
INTERIOR 87
CLEARSTORY WINDOWS 88
THE SPIRE OF CHRIST CHURCH 92
GREY FRIARS' CHURCH (PLAN OF CROSSING) 93
ST. MARY HALL 96
PLAN 98
PLAN OF ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH At End
[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE TOP OF BISHOP STREET.]
CHURCHES OF COVENTRY
MONASTERY AND CITY
The opening words of Sir William Dugdale's account of Coventry assert that it is a city "remarkable for
antiquity, charters, rights and privileges, and favours shown by monarchs." Though this handbook is primarily
CHAPTER I. 6
concerned with a feature of the city he does not here mention its magnificent buildings the history of these
is bound up with that of the city. The connection of its great parish churches with the everyday life of the
people, though commonly on a narrower stage, is more intimate than is that of a cathedral or an abbey church,
but it is to be remembered that without its Monastery Coventry might never have been more than a village or
small market town.
We cannot expect the records of a parish church to be as full and complete as those of a cathedral, always in
touch through its bishops with the political life of the country and enjoying the services of numerous officials;
or as those of a monastery, with its leisured chroniclers ever patiently recording the annals of their house, the
doings of its abbots, the dealings of their house with mother church and the outside world, and all its internal
life and affairs. In the case of Coventry, the unusual fulness of its city archives, the accounts and records of its
guilds and companies, and the close connection of these with the church supplies us with a larger body of
information than is often at the disposal of the historian of a parish church. As therefore, in narrating the story
of a cathedral some account of the Diocese and its Bishops has been given, so, before describing the churches
of Coventry, we shall give in outline the history of the city which for 700 years gave its name to a bishop and
of the great monastery whose church was for 400 years his seat.
Though Dugdale says that it is remarkable for antiquity, Coventry as a city has no early history comparable
with that of such places as York, Canterbury, Exeter, or Colchester, while its modern history is mainly a
record of fluctuating trade and the rise and decline of new industries. But through all its Mediæval period,
from the eleventh century down to the Reformation, with an expiring flicker of energy in the seventeenth,
there is no lack of life and colour, and its story touches every side of the national life, political, religious, and
domestic. The only evidence of extreme antiquity produced by Dugdale is the suffix of its name, for "tre is
British, and signifieth the same that villa in Latin doth;" while the first part may be derived from the convent
or from a supposed ancient name, Cune, for the Sherborne brook.
The first date we have is 1016, when Canute invaded Mercia, burning and laying waste its towns and
settlements, including a house of nuns at Coventry founded by the Virgin St. Osburg in 670, and ruled over by
her.[1]
But there is no sure starting-point until the foundation of the monastery by Earl Leofric and the Countess
Godiva, the church being dedicated by Edsi, Archbishop of Canterbury, in honour of God, the Virgin Mary,
St. Peter, St. Osburg, and All Saints on 4th October, 1043. Leofwin, who was first abbot with twenty-four
monks under his rule, ten years after became Bishop of Lichfield. The original endowment by Leofric,
consisted of a half of Coventry[2] with fifteen lordships in Warwickshire and nine in other counties, making it
(says Roger de Hoveden) the wealthiest monastery of the period. Besides this the pious Godiva gave all the
gold and silver which she had to make crosses, images, and other adornments for the church and its services.
The well-known legend of her ride through Coventry first appears in the pages of Matthew of Westminster in
the early fourteenth century. The Charter of Exemption from Tolls is not in existence, and the story of Peeping
Tom is the embroidery of the prurient age (1678), in which the pageant was instituted. In a window of Trinity
Church figures of Leofric and Godiva were set up about the time of Richard II, the Earl holding in his right
hand a Charter with these words written thereon:
I Luriche for the Love of thee Doe make Coventre Toll-free.
Abbot Leofwin was succeeded in 1053 by Leofric, nephew of the great earl; and he by a second Leofwin, who
died in 1095. The first Norman bishop of Lichfield had, in compliance with the decision of a Synod (1075) in
London fixing bishops' seats in large towns, removed his to St. John's, Chester. But his successor, Robert de
Lymesey whose greed appears to have been notable in a greedy age having the king's permission to farm the
monastic revenues until the appointment of a new abbot, held it for seven years, and then, in 1102, removed
his stool to Coventry. Five of his successors were bishops of Coventry only, then the style changed to
Coventry and Lichfield, and so remained till 1661, when (in consequence of the disloyalty of Coventry and
CHAPTER I. 7
the sufferings of Lichfield in the royal cause) the order was reversed!
In 1836 the archdeaconry of Coventry was annexed to Worcester and its name disappeared from the title, and
now it is probable that Coventry will soon again give her name to a See without dividing the honour. For the
joint episcopal history the reader must be referred to the handbook in this series on Lichfield Cathedral. In this
place will only be given that of the Monastery as such, and specially in connection with its "appropriated"
parish churches and the City in which it stood. That history is not essentially different from that of other
monasteries. Though its connection with the See and the rival claims and antagonisms of the respective
Chapters produced a plentiful crop of serious quarrels, its relations with the townsfolk were free from such
violent episodes as occurred at Bury St. Edmunds or St. Albans. The Chapter of Lichfield consisted of secular
priests (Lymesey and his next successor were married men), while the Monastery, though freed by pope and
king from any episcopal or justiciary power and with the right of electing its own abbot, was, like all monastic
bodies, always jealous of the encroachments of bishops, and regarded secular priests as inferior in every
respect. The opinion of the laity who saw both sides may be gathered from Chaucer's picture of a "poore
Persoun of a toun." He knew well enough how the revenue, which should have gone to the parish, its parson
and its poor, went to fill the coffers of rich abbeys, to build enormous churches and furnish them sumptuously,
to provide retinues of lazy knights for the train of abbot or bishop, and to prosecute lawsuits in the papal
courts.
But when bishop and abbot were one and the same, the monks still claimed the right of election, and so for
generations the history of the diocese is a tale of strife and bickering, and how it was that pope, king or
archbishop did not perceive that it was a case of hopeless incompatibility of temper, or, perceiving it, did not
dissolve the union or get it dissolved is difficult to see. Probably the injury done to religion weighed but
lightly against vested interests and the power of the purse. The Monastery was, however, as Dugdale says,
"the chief occasion of all the succeeding wealth and honour that accrued to Coventry"; for though the original
Nunnery may have been planted in an existing settlement, or have attracted one about it, the greater wealth of
the Abbey, its right to hold markets, and all its own varied requirements would quickly increase and bring
prosperity to such a township, as it did at Bury St. Edmunds, Burton-on-Trent and many another.
In the thirteenth century the priory was in financial straits, through being fined by Henry III for disobedience.
Later, however, he granted further privileges to the monks, among them that of embodying the merchants in a
Gild. In 1340 Edward III granted this privilege to the City. From an early period the manufacture of cloth and
caps and bonnets was the principal trade of Coventry, and though Leland says, "the town rose by making of
cloth and caps, which now decaying, the glory of the City also decayeth," it was only destroyed by the French
wars of the seventeenth century. But in 1377, when only eighteen towns in the kingdom had more than 3,000
inhabitants, and York, the second city, had only 11,000, Coventry was fourth with 7,000. Just one hundred
years later 3,000 died here of the plague, one of many visitations of that terrible scourge. At the Suppression it
had risen to 15,000, and soon after fell to 3,000, through loss of trade for "want of such concourse of people
that numerously resorted thither before that fatal Dissolution."
But if the town grew apace so did the Monastery. Thus, when in 1244 Earl Hugh died childless his sisters
divided his estates and Coventry fell to Cecily, wife of Roger de Montalt. Six years later the Monastery lent
him a large sum to take him to the Holy Land, and received from him the lordship of Coventry (excepting the
Manor House and Park of Cheylesmore) and the advowson of St. Michael's and its dependent chapels, thus
becoming the landlords of nearly the whole of Coventry.
[Illustration: COOK STREET GATE.]
Civic powers grew with the growth of trade. Before 1218 a fair of eight days had been granted to the Priory,
and later another of six days, to be held in the earl's half of the town about the Feast of Holy Trinity. In 1285 a
patent from the king is addressed to the burgesses and true men to levy tolls for paving the town; one in 1328
for tolls for inclosing the city with walls and gates, while in 1344 the city was given a corporation, with
CHAPTER I. 8
mayor, bailiffs, a common seal, and a prison. As the municipal importance and the dignity of the city
increased, the desire for their visible signs strengthened, and so, in 1355, work was begun on the walls,
Newgate (on the London Road) being the first gate to be built. Such undertakings proceeded slowly, and nine
years later the royal permission was obtained to levy a tax for their construction, "the lands and goods of all
ecclesiastical persons excepted."
Twice afterwards we hear of licence being granted by Richard II to dig stone in Cheylesmore Park, first for
Grey Friars Gate, and later for Spon Gate, "near his Chapel of Babelake." The walls so built were of imposing
extent and dimensions, being three yards in breadth, two and a quarter miles in circumference, and having
thirty-two towers and twelve gates.[3] Nehemiah Wharton, a Parliamentary officer in 1642, reports of the city
that it is:
Environed with a wall co-equal, if not exceedinge, that of London, for breadth and height; and with gates and
battlements, magnificent churches and stately streets and abundant fountains of water; altogether a place very
sweetly situate and where there is no stint of venison.
To return to the monastic history. We have seen how, in the mid-thirteenth century the Monastery had become
the landlord of the city; shortly before this it had been so impoverished with ceaseless quarrels with the King
and the Lichfield Chapter, involving costly appeals to Rome, that the Prior was reduced to asking the
hospitality of the monks of Derley for some of the brethren. A period of prosperity followed and many
benefactions flowed in, including the gift of various churches by the king. It was after twenty-six years of
quarrelling that the Pope, in 1224, had appointed to the bishopric Walter de Stavenby, an able and learned
man. During his episcopacy the friars made their appearance in England, and by him the Franciscans were
introduced at Lichfield, while at Coventry Ranulph, Earl of Chester, gave them land in Cheylesmore on which
to build their oratory and house.
They were not generally welcomed by the monks. A Benedictine laments their first appearance thus "Oh
shame! oh worse than shame! oh barbarous pestilence! the Minor Brethren are come into England!" and at
Bury they were obliged to build outside a mile radius from the Abbey. The parish priests also soon found out
that they were undersold in the exercise of their spiritual offices and although no doubt many badly needed
awakening they were not, on that account, the more likely to welcome the intruders.
Another innovation, affecting the fortunes of the parish priest, had its beginning under the rule of Bishop
Stavenby though its greatest development occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This was the
foundation of Chantries designed primarily for the maintenance of a priest or priests to say mass daily or
otherwise for the soul's health of the founder, his family and forbears. The earliest we hear of are one at
Lincoln, and one at Hatherton in Coventry Archdeaconry while the Bishop himself endowed one in Lichfield
Cathedral. Many were perpetual endowments (£5 per annum being the average stipend), others were
temporary, according to the means of those who paid for the masses for a term of years or for a fixed number
of masses. Although chantry priests were often required to give regular help in the church services or taught
such scholars as came to them or served outlying chapelries, the system permitted a great number to live on
occasional engagements and was doubtless productive of abuses. Chaucer tells us that his poor parson was not
such an one as
left his sheep encumbered in the mire, And ran unto London, unto Saint Poul's, To seekë him a chantery for
souls.
The number of chantries in the different cathedrals varied very greatly, Lichfield had eighty-seven, St. Paul's
thirty-seven, York only three. Monks' churches had few or none while in town churches they were numerous,
London having one hundred and eighty, York forty-two, Coventry at least fifteen besides the twelve gild
priests of the chapel of Babelake. Most were founded in connection with an existing altar, some had a special
altar, at Winchester, Tewkesbury and elsewhere they were enclosed in screens between the pillars of the nave,
CHAPTER I. 9
or a special chapel was added to the church.
It was in the thirteenth century also (1267) that the monastery obtained the grant of a Merchants' Gild; with all
the privileges thereto belonging, the earliest of those which contributed so much to the renown of Coventry.
These were Benefit Societies, insuring help to the "Brethren and sistren" in old age, sickness or poverty,
securing to them the services of the church after death and in all cases established on a strictly religious basis
and placed under the protection of a Saint, or of the Holy Trinity. The regulation and protection of trade
interests, generally aiming at monopoly and the exclusion of outsiders, were later developments. But without
doubt they were public-spirited bodies according to their lights, maintaining schools (as at Stratford-on-Avon)
hospitals and almshouses, and giving freely on all occasions of public importance. By pageants too, they
contributed to the happiness and amusement of the people as well as by the presentation of Mysteries and
Moralities, to their instruction and edification. But in the eyes of the Reformers, or of grasping courtiers, all
this went for nothing when weighed against the heinous offence of supporting chaplains to pray for deceased
members and so (6 Edward VI) they were suppressed along with the chantries, and their property confiscated,
"the very meanest and most inexcusable of the plunderings which threw discredit on the Reformation."
Here, the city bought back everything which had belonged to the Trinity and Corpus Christi Gilds, with
various almshouses and the possessions of the majority of the Chantries; while previously at the Dissolution it
had bought the abbey-orchard, and mill, and the house and church of the Grey Friars.
In 1340 Edward III granted Licence to the Coventry men to form a Merchants' Gild with leave "to make
chantries, bestow alms, do other works of piety and constitute ordinances touching the same." This was St.
Mary's Gild. Two years later that of St. John Baptist was formed and a year later that of St. Katherine, the
three being united into the Trinity Gild before 1359. Of the chapel (now St. John's church) begun in 1344 by
the St. John's Gild and the "fair and stately structure for their feasts and meetings called St Mary Hall" built in
1394 by the united Gilds more will be said later (p. 81 and p. 97). The end of the fourteenth century and the
fifteenth brought to Coventry a full share in the events and movements of the time. In 1396 the duel between
Hereford and Norfolk was to have taken place on Gosford Green (adjoining the city) and Richard II made the
fatal mistake of banishing both combatants. At the Priory in 1404 Henry IV held his Parliament known, from
the fact that no lawyers were summoned to it, as the "Parliamentum Indoctorum." Setting itself in opposition
to ecclesiastics, it proposed to supply the King's needs by taxing church-property. As in the matter of the city
walls, the church contrived to avoid bearing its share of the public burdens and the chronicler ends thus:
"Much ado there was; but to conclude, the worthy Archbishop (viz. Tho. Arundell) standing stoutly for the
good of the Church, preserved it at that time from the storm impending." One branch of his argument is
noteworthy, that as the confiscation of the alien priories had not enriched the King by half a mark (courtiers
having extorted or begged them out of his hands), so it would be were he to confiscate the temporalities of the
monasteries. Henry VIII had reason to acknowledge the fulfilment of the prophecy.
Soon after this, in 1423, Coventry showed its sympathy for Lollardry when John Grace an anchorite friar
came out of his cell and preached for five days in the "lyttell parke." He was opposed by the prior of St.
Mary's and by a Grey Friar who however were attacked and nearly killed by the mob.
The royal visits which earned for Coventry the title which it still bears as its motto 'Camera principis' were
frequent in this century. In 1436 we hear of Henry VI being there, and in 1450 he was the guest of the
monastery and after hearing mass at St. Michael's Church presented to it for an altar-hanging the robe of gold
tissue he was wearing. The record in the Corporation Leet book is interesting enough to quote:
The King, then abydeng stille in the seide Priory, upon Mich'as even sent the clerke of his closet to the
Churche of Sent Michel to make redy ther hys clossette, seying that the Kynge on Mich'as day wolde go on
p'cession and also her ther hygh masse. The Meyre and his counsell, remembreng him in this mater, specially
avysed hem to pray the Byshoppe of Wynchester to say hygh masse afore the Kynge. The Byshoppe so to do
agreed withe alle hys herte; and, agayne the Kynges comeng to Sent Michel Churche, the Meyre and his
CHAPTER I. 10
Peres, cladde in skarlet gowns, wenton unto the Kynges Chambar durre, ther abydeng the Kynges comeng.
The Meyre then and his peres, doeng to the Kyng due obeysaunse toke his mase and bere it afore the Kynge
all his said bredurn goeng afore the Meyre til he com to Sent Michels and brought the Kynge to his closette.
Then the seyde Byshoppe, in his pontificals arayde, with all the prestes and clerkes of the seyde Churche and
of Bablake, withe copes apareld, wenton in p'cession abowte the churchyarde; the Kynge devowtely, with
many odur lordes, followed the seyd p'cession bare-hedded, cladde in a gowne of gold tissu, furred with a
furre of marturn sabull; the Meyre bereng the mase afore the Kynge as he didde afore, tille he com agayne to
his closette. Att the whyche masse when the Kyng had offered and his lordes also, he sende the lorde Bemond,
his chamburlen, to the Meyre, seying to him, "hit is the Kynges wille that ye and your bredurn com and offer;"
and so they didde; and when masse was don, the Meyre and his peres brought on the Kynge to his chambur in
lyke wyse as they fet hym, save only that the Meyre with his mase went afore the Kynge till he com withe in
his chambur, his seyd bredurn abydeng atte the chambur durre till the Meyre cam ageyne. And at evensong
tyme the same day, the Kyng, sende the seyde gowne and furre that he were when he went in p'cession, and
gaf hit frely to God and to Sent Michell, insomuch that non of the that broughte the gowne wolde take no
reward in no wyse.
In 1451 he made the city with the villages and hamlets within its liberties into a county "distinct and
altogether separate from the county of Warwick for ever," and in 1453 the King and Queen again visited the
Priory. Perhaps out of gratitude for all this royal favour, Coventry adhered to the Lancastrian cause and in
1459 was chosen as the meeting place for the "Parliamentum Diabolicum," so called from the number of
attainders passed against the Yorkists. The year 1467 however saw Edward IV and his Queen keeping their
Christmas here, while less than two years later her father and brother were beheaded on Gosford Green (Aug.
1469).
After the king's landing at Holderness in 1471 the king-maker, declining a contest, occupied the town for the
Lancastrians, and Edward passing on to London soon after turned and defeated the earl at Barnet. After
Tewkesbury Edward paid the city another visit, and in return for its disloyalty seized its liberties and
franchises, and only restored them for a fine of 500 marks. Royal visits still continued. Richard III came in
1483 to see the plays at the Feast of Corpus Christi; in 1485 Henry VII stayed at the mayor's house after his
victory at Bosworth Field; and in 1487 kept St. George's Day at the Monastery, when the Prior at the service
cursed, by "bell, book, and candle," all who should question the king's right to the throne. The importance of
the Gilds is shown by the king and queen being made a brother and sister of the Trinity Gild; and the part that
pageantry played in the lives of all men is seen in the many occasions on which kings and princes came hither
to be entertained, not only with the plays "acted by the Grey Friars" but those in which the "hard-handed men"
of, for instance, the Gild of the Sheremen and Tailors, "toil'd their unbreathed memories" in setting forth such
subjects as the Birth of Christ and the Murder of the Innocents. But although Henry VIII himself was received
in 1511 with pageantry and stayed at the Priory, royal favours and monastic hospitality availed neither men
nor buildings when the Dissolution came. On 15th January, 1539, Thomas Camswell, the last Prior of St.
Mary's, surrendered. "The Prior," reported Dr. London, the king's commissioner, "is a sad, honest priest as his
neighbours do report him, and is a Bachelor of Divinity. He gave his house unto the king's grace willingly and
so in like manner did all his brethren." The Doctor asks for good pensions for the dispossessed, not on the plea
of justice but so that "others perceiving that these men be liberally handled will with better will not only
surrender their houses, but also leave the same in the better state to the King's use."
The yearly revenue had been certified in the valuation at £731 19s. 5d. Deducting a Fee-Ferme rent to the
Crown, reserved by Roger de Montalt, and other annual payments, the clear remainder was £499 7s. 4d.
Bishop Rowland Lee, writing to "my singular good Lord Cromwell," implies that he had a promise from him
to spare the church. "My good Lord," he says, "help me and the City both in this and that the church may
stand, whereby I may keep my name, and the City have commodity and ease to their desire, which shall
follow if by your goodness it might be brought to a collegiate church, as Lichfield, and so that fair City shall
have a perpetual comfort of the same, as knoweth the Holy Trinity, who preserve your Lordship in honour to
your heart's comfort."
CHAPTER I. 11
But his entreaties, and those of the mayor and corporation, were all in vain, the church and monastic buildings
were dismantled and destroyed piecemeal, and like so many other magnificent structures became a mere
quarry for mean buildings and the mending of roads.
The site having been granted by Henry VIII to two gentlemen named Combes and Stansfield, passed soon into
the hands of John Hales, the founder of the Free School, and in Elizabeth's reign was purchased by the
Corporation.
The changes in religious opinion of the successive sovereigns were felt here by many poor victims. Seven
persons were burnt in 1519 for having in their possession the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the
Creed in English, and for refusing to obey the Pope or his agents, opinions and acts that would have been
counted meritorious twenty years later. In 1555 Queen Mary burnt three Protestants in the old quarry in Little
Park Laurence Saunders, a well-known preacher, Robert Glover, M.A., and Cornelius Bongey.
Ten years after this Queen Elizabeth's visit was the occasion of much pageantry and performing of plays by
the Tanners', Drapers', Smiths', and Weavers' Companies, and in 1575 the men of Coventry gave their play of
"Hock Tuesday" before her at Kenilworth Castle. In 1566 Queen Mary of Scots was in ward here, in the
mayoress' parlour, and in 1569 at the Bull Inn.
Coming down to the opening of the Civil War we find that a few days before the raising of his standard at
Nottingham Charles summoned the city to admit him with three hundred cavaliers, and received for answer
that it was quite ready to receive his Majesty with no more than two hundred. Whereupon he retired in
displeasure, and reappeared some days later with the threat to lay the city in ruins if it should persist in its
disloyalty. The townsfolk being in no mind to receive a garrison, the King planted cannon against Newgate
and broke down the gates but was met with a fierce musquetry fire from the walls, followed up by a vigorous
sally, in which the citizens did much execution and took two cannon.
To prevent the like happening again, the walls were in 1662 breached in many places and made incapable of
defence. Just one hundred years later New-gate was taken down, and others followed from time to time, until
now there are left only the remains of two of the lesser ones Cook Street Gate, a crumbling shell (p. 7), and
the adjacent Swanswell or Priory Gate, blocked up and used as a dwelling.
In 1771 was finally destroyed the famous Cross which had been built, 1541-3, by Sir William Hollis, once
Lord Mayor of London, who came of a Coventry family. It was described by Dugdale as "one of the chief
things wherein this City most glories, which for workmanship and beauty is inferior to none in England." A
few relics of it exist in St. Mary Hall, a statue of Henry VI, and, in the oriel, two smaller figures. So too does
the very interesting contract for its building, which shows how much was left to the craftsman's pride in his
work and how little he was trammelled by conditions, save that the work was to be "finished in all points, as
well in imagery work, pictures, and finials, according to the due form and proportion of the Cross at
Abingdon."
Another building, which was destroyed in 1820, was the Pilgrims' Rest, a fine timbered house of three storeys,
"supposed," as the inscription upon it records, "to have been the hostel or inn for the maintenance and
entertainment of the palmers and other visitors to the Priory." Some pieces of carved work were patched
together in the windows of the inn built on its site and there remain.
The modern history of Coventry, consisting of the ordinary events and vicissitudes of civic life and the
changes and fluctuations in its trades, apart from that of its parish churches which is elsewhere given, does not
come within the scope of this handbook.
[Illustration: SEAL OF THE PRIORY.]
CHAPTER I. 12
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: St. Osburg's name is not found in the Calendar. As at the Dissolution the Cathedral possessed
relics of St. Osborne, including his head in copper and gilt, these saints may be identical.]
[Footnote 2: Earl Street and Bishop Street are still principal streets in either half of the town.]
[Footnote 3: The walls of London were about three and a quarter miles long (including the river front), with
ten or eleven gates; those of York three miles, of Chester hardly two.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE WEST END OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.]
THE RUINS OF THE PRIORY AND CATHEDRAL CHURCH
The Priory buildings and grounds covered a large area to the North of the two parish churches on the gentle
slope descending to the little river Sherbourne, Priory Row forming its southern boundary.
The church occupied the South-West portion of this site, extending about 400 feet from the excavated west
end to a point a little beyond the narrow lane called Hill Top. The excavation shows that the church stood on a
sloping site, the floor level being some ten feet lower than that of Trinity Church. It was cruciform, with two
western towers and a central one, and is believed to have had three spires similar to those of Lichfield but
probably earlier in point of date. On the substructure of the North-West Tower now stands the house of the
mistress of the Girls' Blue Coat School. The interior of the West end to a height of 5 to 8 feet, with the
responds of the nave arcades and of the tower arches, is visible and in good condition. The beginning of the
turret stair in the South-West tower is exposed, but the basement of the house unfortunately occupies the
lower part of the northern one. The exterior of this is however easily accessible from an enclosure known as
the Wood Yard, the much decayed spreading plinth and a few feet of walling above it not having been
destroyed. Above this, grievous damage has been perpetrated by the casing and complete obliteration of the
mouldings and arcading which remained. The towers were placed outside the line of the aisles as at Wells, the
total width of the West front, 145 feet, being nearly the same in both cases. There are still indications of the
position of the great west door, but the height of the inner plinth shows that there was always a descent of
several steps into the church. At the south transept where was "the Minster durra that openeth to the Trinite
Churchyarde," the descent must have been considerable. The remains show that the nave dated from the first
half of the thirteenth century, while fragments of wall near the site of the transept with indications of lancet
window openings are probably a little earlier than the west end.
[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE N.W. TOWER (IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY).]
Whether the church of Leofric and Godiva, dedicated in 1043, had survived wholly or in part until this time
cannot be known, but, judging from the history of most other great monastic churches and from the known
wealth of the monastery, it may almost be taken for granted that the Norman bishops and priors rebuilt much
if not all. Some relics of Norman work have been found but the covering of the site with roads, graves and
houses precludes the systematic exploration and survey which alone could solve this question and make clear
the outlines of the plan of the whole establishment.
The entrance to some wine-cellars in Priory Row gives access to the old pavement level of part of the choir
and transept. From the fact that a brick vault forms the roof the cellars have often been looked upon as the
crypt of the church but this is erroneous; the vault is a later insertion and if any crypt exists it lies below this
level. To the east of the cathedral was the Bishop's Palace, the gardens of it extending over the detached burial
ground of St. Michael's to the east of Priory Street. The grandeur of this assemblage of buildings grouping,
with the spires of the churches behind and rising so magnificently above the houses of the city can best be
realized by going to the top of Bishop Street whence may be obtained the finest view of the two spires that
CHAPTER I. 13
remain (see p. 2).
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE NORTH.]
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
CHAPTER I. 14