Mediæval London, Volume 2: EcclesiasticalBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 2: Ecclesiastical
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
We have in this episode a graphic and most suggestive picture of the
exasperation caused by the admission of aliens to the offices and
dignities which, above all, required a knowledge of the country and
its institutions and its prejudices. The rights and privileges of
ecclesiastics and of Religious Houses were defended with the greatest
possible jealousy and tenacity. It was clearly a privilege of this
House that their visitor was the Bishop of London, and that the
Archbishop had no right to intrude himself into the House. That he
did so is proof of an attempt at encroachment, of which an Englishman
would have been incapable. But observe, as well, the arrogance of
the Prelate. He seizes the Sub-prior and hurls him against a pillar;
the Canons run to his rescue, and the Archbishop is thrown on his
back ignominiously, betraying the fact that he is armed beneath his
episcopal robes. And his men, his followers, are themselves strangers
and aliens—men of Provence, like himself.
[Illustration: THE GATE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S PRIORY
From the Grangerised edition of Brayley’s _London and Middlesex_ in
Guildhall Library.]
It may be observed, as well, that the citizens had their own standard
of episcopal duties, if the words are correctly reported. “He is no
winner of souls,” they cry: “he is an exacter of money, whom neither
God nor any lawful or free election did bring to this promotion.” That
the ideal of the people was so far above the practice of the prelates
in such cases as this shows, it might be fairly argued, that the parish
priest of Chaucer, drawn a hundred and fifty years later, existed
already in the thirteenth century.
The restored plan of the Priory is here reproduced by permission of the
Rev. Sir Borradaile Savory, Bart.
In 1410 the church was rebuilt “almost anew.” The apse of the east end
was removed; a square east end terminating with two large windows was
inserted; the Norman Lady Chapel was taken down and the present one
erected with a crypt; the Norman Clerestory was taken down and replaced
by the present one; the Norman capitals were changed; the stone screen
under the North Transept was inserted, probably to give strength to the
piers. A Chantry Chapel was built on the north side of the north aisle.
In wills of this period St. Katherine’s Chapel is referred to, also a
Pardon churchyard. A stone pulpit was put up in the choir. A peal of
five bells was given to the church in 1520 by one Thomas Bullesden.
This is the oldest peal in London, and the bells are dedicated
respectively to St. Bartholomew, St. Anna, St. Peter, St. Katherine,
St. Johannes Baptista.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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