Produced by MWS, Mhairi Hindle and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries Transcriber's Note All variant spelling, variable hyphenation and variable capitalisation have been retained. Italics are represented by underscores. 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