Westminster Abbey: The last days of the monastery as shown by the life and times of Abbot John Islip, 1464-1532Westlake, H. F. (Herbert Francis)
History
Westminster Abbey: The last days of the monastery as shown by the life and times of Abbot John Islip, 1464-1532
Westlake, H. F. (Herbert Francis)
Islip, John, 1464-1532; Westminster Abbey
Mention has been already made[5] of the “brassen” chapel or chapel
within the grille surrounding the tomb of Henry VII. One reference to
this occurs in the Exchequer Accounts of September, 1505, where a
payment is recorded of twenty pounds to “Thomas Ducheman Smith” for
copper-work for the “chapell of metal” at Westminster. This chapel is
said to have been called St. Saviour’s, while the high altar of the new
building retained its dedication to the Blessed Virgin. The dedications
of the chapels in the apse cannot be determined with certainty, but
among them may well be St. Dionysius, St. Ursula and St. Giles, for
chapels in honour of these find mention in the Sub-sacrist’s roll for
the year ending at Michaelmas, 1524. If the last-named chapel may be
identified with “o^{r} ffather Abbottes Chappell w^{t.} in the new
chapell” for which the Sub-sacrist was wont to supply six candles a
year, there would be some slight additional reason for supposing that
Islip’s family name was Giles.
The work of Torregiano in connection with the tomb of the royal founder
is too well known to call for additional record.
The devotion of the Jesus mass, which began to be popular towards the
close of the fifteenth century, was in vogue at Westminster some years
before the actual erection of the Jesus Chapel. For instance, in an
indenture made between the Countess of Richmond and the Abbot and
Convent in the year 1506 it was agreed that when her chapel was ready an
altar should be erected there in honour of the Holy Name and the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and that among the masses said there
should be a Jesus mass every Friday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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