The Churches of Coventry | Page 4

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 Foul'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, 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