Religion and Community, Conflict and Change
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Avon Local History and Archaeology Registered charity 270930 Local History Day 2018 Saturday 21 April at University of the West of England, Bristol RELIGION AND COMMUNITY, CONFLICT AND CHANGE Texts of the papers delivered 1 Rob Harding previously worked for English Heritage. He was the volunteer project manager for the recent major works to St James. At UWE he is currently researching the history of the Priory. The Use by the Laity of the Medieval Church of St James’s Priory, Bristol. Introduction St James’s Priory has a claim to be the oldest building in Bristol still in use. It was planned as the most important religious house in Bristol, although in the event it was quickly eclipsed by the foundation of St. Augustine’s Abbey. The aim of the paper was to look at aspects of its history and, in particular, the use made by the laity of the medieval church. There are two main reasons for the focus of my study. Firstly, while there have been previous studies of St James’s – John Bryant has published a number of articles on archaeological recording work, Reg Jackson has written a monograph detailing the results of excavations of the priory’s lost buildings and cemeteries and the ALHA has produced Joseph Bettey’s pamphlet on St James’s Fair – compared to other religious buildings in Bristol, for example St Augustine’s or St Mary’s, Redcliffe, St James’s has not been studied in the same depth. This may be because of a perceived lack of source material. In a recent study of St Augustine’s, one contributor, commenting on the richness of Bristol’s parish records, excepted St James for which he claimed there were only two medieval documents, both connected to the Dissolution. While it is true that St James’s records are not comparable to say, those for All Saints, there are nonetheless a range of sources we can draw on. Bristol Archives, in particular, holds a substantial amount of relevant documentation. Secondly, the histories of monasticism tend to concentrate on the monastic orders themselves, their religious life and the layout of their houses. In such studies the laity are treated, if they are mentioned at all, as the passive recipients of alms and medical assistance, who may be permitted to visit the relics of saints and make offerings. Their participatory relationship with the monks has been little studied. The paper presented at the conference looked firstly at the foundation of the Priory and the original intentions of its founders, the first earls of Gloucester. It tracked the engagement of the laity with the Priory and, in particular, the emergence of lay representation in the running of the parish church. The paper ended by looking at the extent to which we can reconstruct the way the church was used and experienced by the medieval laity. 1 Foundation St James’s Priory was founded by Robert, first earl of Gloucester, and further endowed by his son William, as a dependency of the great Benedictine abbey of Tewkesbury. We have a range of sources to draw on to date its construction. Antiquarians have suggested a foundation date of 1129 or 1137. We know that Robert was raised to be first earl around 1121 and it is thought that he was building the massive stone keep to Bristol castle in the 1120’s, certainly by 1138 it was strong enough to resist siege by King Stephen. We know that some of the stone brought to Bristol for the keep was tithed by Robert to enable the building of a chapel to the Virgin Mary at St James’s , possibly the first building erected on site. Surviving monastic sources, dated to between 1124 and 1150, refer to the construction of the priory. We also know that the monks’ church, to the east end, was sufficiently complete by 1147 to permit the burial of Robert before the high altar. Archaeological investigations date the earliest finds in the eastern, monks’ cemetery to the 1160’s. The arcading to the exterior of the south clerestory of the surviving western nave has been dated by architectural historians to between 1130 and 1150 and the highly decorated west end to around 1170. From these dates we can propose a sequence of construction starting with the chapel to the Virgin Mary and the monks’ church to the east end in the late 1120’s or 1130’s, the construction of the body of the western church in the following decades, and completion around 1170. This gives a construction period of around 40 years, a length of time not uncommon with monastic building projects - building proceeding as and when resources permitted. By comparison, recent studies of St Augustine’s have suggested the arrival of the monks in 1148, temporarily using St Augustine’s-the-Less, with the building of their abbey church in the 1150’s and the claustral ranges in the 1160’s. Before moving on to the western church’s parochial use it is worth noting that the priory was built to impress. Situated on a sandstone shelf interrupting the rise from the River Frome up 2 to Kingsdown, it was positioned to be clearly visible from the castle and town across the river. The site dictated, and the need for an uninterrupted view required, that the cloister buildings were positioned, unusually but not uniquely, to the north of the church. The most architecturally impressive and highly decorated work faced the town and castle. For example, the south clerestories already referred to were continuously arcaded while those to the north, visible from the fields of Kingsdown, appear to have had much simpler decorative stonework restricted to just the window surrounds. Emergence of Lay Representation Turning to the early use of the priory church, in the twelfth century Bristol was expanding beyond its former Saxon core between the Frome and the Avon. All of Robert’s original charters have been lost as have many of his son William’s; however we do have a relevant charter of Henry II. This confirms the gifting of earl William’s “new borough of meadow” or broad mead to form part of the parish of the church. So it was always the intention of the first earls of Gloucester that St James’s should have a parochial function and indeed the priory went on to develop its new land as a northern suburb of Bristol. The first evidence of organised representation of the parishioners is an agreement of 1307 which divided repair responsibilities for the roof between the parish and the priory. Further agreements followed :- in 1346, for the repair of the image of Our Saviour and the Holy Cross and more general repairs to the church; and in 1374, for the construction of a new bell tower. In each case the agreements included provision for the allocation of sources of income. The 1374 agreement also included a very detailed account of the religious services to which the parishioners were entitled. Some writers have cited the 1346 and, more especially, the 1374 agreement as marking the emergence of the parochial use of St James’s. I would argue that such a use was always intended, the agreements of 1307, 1346 and 1374 representing a fractious working-out between the parishioners and the holy men of the priory as to who did what and who got paid what rather than a new beginning. This view is supported by the fact that the diocese was a party to the 1307 agreement – an involvement normally considered unwelcome, at least from the Benedictines’ point of view. In 1499 the parish’s “procurators” or churchwardens commissioned Richard and Roger Rydge, wood carvers of Staffordshire, to erect a huge reredos, a screen behind the parish church’s altar. The indenture for the work is notable for the fact that the Prior was not a party to the agreement, although his name did appear on an agreement for further works by Richard Rydge in 1505. Taken together, I would argue, that all the agreements I have mentioned reflect the existence from an early date of parish representation and involvement in the development and maintenance of the western church. There are other early indications of the functioning of the parish. In 1328, the Bishop of Worcester, in whose diocese the medieval priory lay, gave the Prior, Brother William Foliot, the ability to grant absolution from excommunication to parishioners who had “withdrawn or unjustly withheld” their tithes and to instead “enjoin salutary penance”. Also, from the fourteenth century we have evidence of the parishioners cooperating with the monks in the running of the St James’s fair; a source of income for the priory, granted as part of its founding endowment. Use by the Laity Finally, I would like to consider how the laity used and experienced the medieval church. There is very little remaining physical evidence we can draw on, apart from some of the main 3 structural elements of the church. There is no surviving medieval glass, and investigations during recent major works recorded only scant traces of medieval painted decoration. With regard to fixtures and fittings, there is the medieval base to the font and one thirteenth century tomb of unknown attribution. However, using a range of sources, we can piece together how parts of the church were used and appeared to the parishioners. I have already referred to a chapel to the Virgin Mary, to the south of the monks’ church. William Worcester, a topographical writer who visited Bristol in 1480, paced out and gave the measurements for a chapel to St Anne and Reg Jackson locates this to the north of the monks’ church.