He then speaks of the different reredoses, tombs of two priors, silver
candlesticks, a great silver cross made by Eytor Gonsalves, a goldsmith
of Lisbon, much other church plate, and then goes on to say that a
lectern was ordered for the choir but was not made and was much needed,
as was a silver monstrance, and that the monastery had no money to pay
Christovam de Figueiredo for painting the great reredos of the high
altar and those of the other chapels, 'and, Sir, it is necessary that
they should be painted.'
Besides making so many gifts to Sta. Cruz, Dom Manoel endowed it with
many privileges. The priors were exempt from the jurisdiction of the
bishop, and had themselves complete control over their own dependent
churches. All the canons were chaplains to the king, and after the
university came back to Coimbra from Lisbon in 1539 Dom João III. made
the priors perpetual chancellors.[135]
By 1522 then the church must have been practically ready, though some
carving still had to be done.
Marcos Pires died in 1524 and was succeeded by Diogo de Castilho, and in
a letter dated from Evora in that year the king orders a hundred gold
cruzados to be paid to Diogo and to Master Nicolas[136] for the statues
on the west door which were still wanting, and two years later in
September another letter granted Diogo the privilege of riding on a
mule.[137]
The interest of the church itself is very inferior to that of the
different pieces of church furniture, nearly all the work of foreigners,
with which it was adorned, and of which some, though not all, survive to
the present day.
Inside there is nothing very remarkable in the structure of the church
except the fine vaulting with its many moulded ribs, the large windows
with their broken Manoelino heads, and the choir gallery which occupies
nearly two bays at the west end. Vaulted underneath, it opens to the
church by a large elliptical arch which springs from jambs ornamented
with beautiful candelabrum shafts.
Of the outside little is to be seen except the west front, one of the
least successful designs of that period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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