§ 25. Other examples of churches in the wealthy market towns of the west of England might be given, in which, as at Frome, chantry chapels grafted themselves upon the plan, with immense advantage to the picturesque effect. But there were few churches on which the foundation of chantries, and especially of chantries maintained by religious guilds, had such influence as on the great churches of Coventry—St Michael’s, Holy Trinity, and St John’s. Licences for the foundations of chantries in St Michael’s bear date 1323 (two chaplains), 1344 (one chaplain in the chapel of St Lawrence, augmented 1383, 1390), 1388 (one chaplain at the altar of All Saints), 1411–2 (one chaplain at the altar of St Katharine), and 1412 (two chaplains at the newly made altars of the Holy Trinity and St Mary). In addition to these altars and the high altar there were altars of Jesus, St John, St Anne, St Thomas, and St Andrew. The chantries at these various altars became in time attached to the various trade guilds of the town, and the church, greatly enlarged and extended in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, contained several chapels, known by the names of the guilds. Some details of the rebuilding have been touched upon already. The plan is curious; for the chancel ends in a semi-octagonal apse—a feature which also occurs in the late Gothic chancels of Westbury-on-Trym and Wrexham—surrounded by a row of vestries on a lower level. On the north of the chancel is the lady chapel, the altar of which was new in 1412–3, known later as the drapers’ chapel. The south chapel of the chancel was the mercers’ chapel, which probably contained the Trinity altar. The eastern part of the north aisle was occupied by St Lawrence’s chapel. The outer north aisle was divided into two parts: east of the doorway was All Saints’ or the girdlers’ chapel, while west of it was St Andrew’s or the smiths’ chapel. Two further chapels, St Thomas’ or the cappers’ chapel, and the dyers’ chapel, formed excrescences to east and west of the south porch. The beautiful cruciform church of the Holy Trinity became flanked in process of time by similar chapels. In the later part of the thirteenth century the north porch was joined to the transept by St Thomas’ chapel. At a later date a chapel, afterwards the consistory court, was built from the west wall of the north porch as far as the west wall of the north aisle. Much later, in the sixteenth century, Marler’s or the mercers’ chapel was continued from the east wall of the north transept along the north aisle of the quire, the north transept being thus practically absorbed in an outer north aisle. The lady chapel was at the end of the north aisle of the chancel, north of the altar: opposite it, on the south, was the Trinity chapel. The south aisle of the chancel was the butchers’ chapel: in the south transept was the Corpus Christi chapel, now destroyed; while at the west end of the south aisle of the nave was the tanners’ chapel.

Fig. 4. Plan of St Michael’s, Coventry. A. St Andrew’s Chapel. B. Girdlers’ Chapel. C. St Lawrence’s Chapel. D. Drapers’ Chapel. E. Dyers’ Chapel. F. Cappers’ Chapel. G. Mercers’ Chapel.

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Fig. 5. Plan of Holy Trinity Church, Coventry. A. Archdeacon’s Court. B. St Thomas’ Chapel. C. Marler’s Chapel. D. Lady Chapel. E. Tanners’ Chapel. F. Jesus Chapel. G. Corpus Christi Chapel. H. Butchers’ Chapel. I. Holy Trinity Chapel.

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§ 26. Thus, by the gradual addition of chapel after chapel, the plan of these magnificent churches, some of the finest productions of English art, grew until, as at Burford or Holy Trinity, Coventry, it lost all likeness to its original state, and seems at first sight to be a collection of buildings heaped together without much method. It would be interesting to trace the growth of churches like St Mary Redcliffe or Ludlow, as we have traced that of Cirencester and Burford. In these cases, it is impossible to give too much emphasis to the part played by lay benefactors in the development of the fabric. Cirencester, Burford, and the Coventry churches, were appropriated to monasteries: St Mary Redcliffe was merely a chapel of Bedminster, appropriated, like Grantham, to a stall in Salisbury cathedral. At Cirencester and Coventry the churches were close to the religious houses to which they belonged. But the growth of the churches was the result of lay devotion: the founders of chantries of whom we hear, like the famous William Canynge at St Mary Redcliffe, were men who had made money in business. The part of the monasteries in church-building was never, so far as parish churches were concerned, very active. As the middle ages went on, their connexion with the fabrics became still slighter; and their interest in the church, apart from the profits which they received from it, and from an occasional litigation about the advowson, was probably confined to the periodical presentation of a vicar. The highest state of development which the parish church attained, in such buildings as have just been described, or in the great churches of Norfolk and Somerset, was the consequence of a long series of beautifications and improvements, in which at first, no doubt, the lay lords of manors took the leading part, but afterwards were joined by wealthy parishioners, who could find no more fitting employment for their wealth than the enlargement and decoration of the house of God. And it should not be forgotten that not merely the rich, but the poor, shared in this work of benefaction. In some places, at Oswestry, for example, chantry priests were supported by the devotion of servants or husbandmen, each of whom paid his yearly share of the endowment. Here and there in East Anglia, inscriptions remaining on beautiful pieces of church furniture, bear witness to the generosity of members of the parish in humble positions. The churches of London, Bristol, York, and Norwich, and of countless towns and villages, are memorials of the brightest aspect of medieval religion—the spontaneous devotion which it excited, for motives often mingled with superstition, but never selfish or unworthy, in the most hard-headed and least emotional section, then as now, of English society.