CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPEL OF ST. LAWRENCE, IN THE DEANERY AND WITHIN THE PRECINTS OF THE MONASTERY.

PASSING from Bridge-street along the eastern side of the Market square, the parochial-burial ground is entered through the remains of a gateway exhibiting features of a more remote antiquity than any other building-with one exception which we shall shortly notice at present standing in the town. The lateral walls of this ancient structure are relieved within by low semicircular arches resting on short semi-columns with indented capitals; the columns in front, which were also of similar character, are there partially preserved, and from these sprang the circular vault that formed the arch of the gateway. Some portion of its springing part may even yet be distinguished among the stonework at the north-western angle, behind the doorway of what is now a butcher's yard. The vault and upper portion of this gateway have wholly and together disappeared, and a timber-framed apartment now supplies their place. It is matter of regret-after the inhabitants and others have so laudably restored the Church of St. Lawrence, and while the municipal authorities have further improved the area of the market-square-that so confined and in every respect inappropriate a communication, as this has by encroachment become, should be suffered thus to continue. A few pounds contributed by the inhabitants would suffice to remove the shattered tenements that abut against and are reared upon the walls of the venerable gateway; and thus while the church-way path for the inhabitants of both parishes would be far more agreeable to those who frequent it; a very dense portion of the main street would also be additionally

ventilated, by the current of air that would then sweep from the meadows throgh the market-place. This gateway, being within the line of wall, still traceable to the Avon eastward, which abbot Reginald erected early in the twelfth century as the boundary of the abbey precincts, we consider to have been constructed at that time. In another portion of the same lofty wall, which encompassed the abbey, as well as the conventual and public burial-grounds, the contemporary relic before adverted to will be found. This is a low, circular, receding doorway, that formerly admitted to the great quadrangle of the monastey; it stands immediately southward of the chancel of St. Lawrence church, and presents the only specimen of a perfect Norman archway that remains within the town.

Having entered the public burial-ground, the spectator will regard with surprise the redundance of architectural scenery that suddenly presses upon his attention, in this retired portion of a country town. Two churches, each with its own tower and spire, in addition to the campanile or bell-tower of the monastery-being grouped together within the circuit of a few square yards. One of these churches will, from the original beauty of its architecture and the present renovated condition of the pile, immediately command attention. It is the parochial chapel of St. Lawrence, formerly subordinate to the abbey-church. This structure, as standing nearest to the site of the monastery and as being uniformly the first noticed in our ancient ecclesiastical returns, we for these reasons consider to be of much earlier origin than the adjacent building dedicated to All-saints; and therefore we proceed to notice it first in detail premising that this as well as the adjacent chapel were both founded by the inmates of the monastery, for the use of the inhabitants of the town. Thus the great church of the abbey could be exclusively appropriated to the multitudinous observances and ceremonials of the convent, without any partial reservation within that edifice for parochial use: thereby precluding there the intervention of secular worshippers, save as distant spectators, at all times.

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The earliest notice of the chapel of St. Lawrence occurs among the abbey Institutes compiled by abbot Randulph in 1223, to which we have previously referred. At that early period the chaplain was supplied by the convent, of which he was an inmate; and there he daily received his corredy of bread and beer, in the same proportion

as the other monks.380 Even the requisites for its altar would seem to have been furnished from the abbey; for two wax-lights of four pounds weight were always to be provided here by the sacristan, to be burned during the celebration of mass.381 At a later period the office of chaplain and curate is found held by indenture from the abbot and convent; the incumbent then receiving parochial oblations and small personal tythe, but yielding thence a yearly payment to the abbot;32 who exercised over this and the remaining chapels of the Vale an authority equivalent not merely to rectorial but also to episcopal superiority. Of this supremacy a remarkable instance is presented in a mandate from abbot Bremesgrave— extant among the conventual registers-addressed to the parochial chaplains of St. Lawrence and All-saints. In this they are commanded either to suspend, or finally to proceed to the excommunication of offenders, within their several churches, by virtue of the abbatial authority as derived immediately from Rome.383

From another manuscript pertaining to the abbey, preserved in the Cotton collection, we learn that in 1271 this church was so far completed, that a conventual chapter was then held in it, during the abbacy of William de Whitchurch.384 And in another manuscript we find that the structure was consecrated by the bishop of

380 Quarum duarum capellarum sacerdotes, scilicet Sti. Laurentii et Omnium Sanctorum, debent habere cotidie de cellario panem et cervisiam, sicut monachi."Cottonian MS. Augustus ii. No. 11.

381 Evesham Register, in Harleian MS. 3763, folio 201; in Tindal, 184.

382 Capella S'c'i Laurencij in Evesham.-Edus Fyld capellanus & curat' ib'm t'mio vite sue p indentur' ex concessione & dimissione abbi's & conventus monast'ij de Evesham in com' Wigorn' het ib'm in decimis psonalib's oblacõib's ac alijs annuis minorib's decimis & ficuis cõib's annis-£xiij xjs. iijd. ob'

"Inde allor in penĉone ppetua anti' resolut' abbi mon' pdči & succe' suis p anm lxxiijs. ivd.”—Decanat' Vall' Evesham, in Valor Ecclesiasticus, Hen. VIII. iii, 255. 383" Ricardus permissione divina abbas monasterii Eveshamiæ, Wigorn. diocesis, ad Romanam ecclesiam nullo medio pertinentis, ac ordinarii jurisdictionis exempti vallis Eveshamiæ, Capellanis parochialibus ecclesiarum Omnium Sanctorum et Sti. Laurentii Eveshamiæ. dictum R. sic fuisse et esse per nos

excommunicatum vel suspensum in ecclesiis vestris publice et solempniter denunciatis, ab hujus denunciatione non cassantes."-De Correctione Fraterna, in Cottonian MSS. Titus C ix. folio 32.

384

Celebratum est capitulum apud Evesham in ecclesia Sancti Laurentij.”—MS. Nero iii. D folio 342 given in Dugdale.

Y

St. Asaph, during the abbacy of John de Brokehampton, in 1295.385 These dates induce a supposition that the building was completed during the thirteenth century. And bearing in mind, that during this period Thomas de Marleberg and Henry Lathom then successively flourished-to whose architectural ability we have before referred-it is extremely probable that these were the persons who principally directed its construction. There are portions of the present fabric which, from their style of architecture, tend to confirm this supposition: among which we would particularly refer to the structure of the tower and spire.

The church, however, though completed and consecrated, as we have seen, has since that period, and prior to its recent restoration -been almost rebuilt. And, while admiring the pillared arches, the clerestory above,386 and the eastern termination of the central aisleevidently the production of the sixteenth century-we, in the absence of further information than that implied in the traditional appellation of its chapel at the south,387 cannot but inquire-Who was the author of this renovation, if not the mitred genius who reared the adjacent bell-tower? and who-this admitted-alike reedified and adorned the parochial church of St. Lawrence, to which his own cathedral-like establishment was the mother-church. The recent melancholy condition of the structure naturally induces a supposition that this re-edification was suddenly stayed, upon the resignation of Abbot Lichfield, in 1539; and that the building was in consequence hastily covered in, before the external decorations were completed. For Leland-who visited the spot only seven years after-then found the structure, at least thus far, completed; and therefore tells us- "There be within the precincts of the abbey of Eovesham two parish churches, whither the people of the towne resort."388 But within two centuries after this remark, the condition of the one now under review had, from some unnamed cause

385

Memorandum, quod anno domini Mo. CCo. nonagesimo Vto, anno vero regni regis Edwardi III. . die Dominica sequente 16mo, kalend. Januarij, dedicavit idem Asaphensis ecclesiam sancti Laurentij.”—Destroyed Cottonian MS. Vitellius E xvii. given in Stevens's Appendix to Dugdale.

386 Clere-story. The masonry that occurs between the arches next the aisles and the central ceiling.

387 Usually termed Abbot Lichfield's Chapel. 388 Itinerary, iv. p. 69. ed. 1764.