He has written a very instructive chapter on ‘the Church in London’ in his London (Historic Towns, 1887), but he is not able to give any very definite information. Moreover, he doubts whether it is wise to take for granted the early dedications of, for instance, such churches as are named in honour of Sts. Alphage, Magnus and Olave, or of Sts. Ethelburga and Osyth.
The parish church of which we have the most authentic notice before the Conquest is St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, in existence many years before the Priory of the Nuns of St. Helen’s was founded. In 1010 the remains of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, were removed from Edmundsbury in order that they might not fall into the hands of the Danes, and deposited in the Church of St. Helen, where they remained three years. Many of the London churches were small, but some were of considerable size. When the religious houses were dissolved the churches of some of these became the most important of the parish churches.
The Church of St. Mary le Bow in Cheapside (better known as Bow Church) is named from having been the first in London built on arches of stone, and the Norman Crypt is of great interest. When Wren built his church he used these arches of the old churches to support his own superstructure. This crypt also gives its name to the Court of Arches which was held here.
In the Liber Albus there is a chapter on the periodical visits of the Mayor to various churches on certain saints’ days, such as to St. Thomas’s at the Feast of All Saints (November 1), to St. Peter’s on Cornhill on the Monday in the Feast of Pentecost, and to St. Bartholomew’s and St. Michael le Quern on other occasions.[371]
The position of the parish priest was a good one in the eyes of the parishioners, who looked up to him as a friend, and resented the interference with his duties by monks and chantry priests. Among the parish priests the highest rank was conceded to the rector of St. Peter’s, Cornhill. The mediæval writers, who are mostly vituperative when speaking of monks and friars, have little but good to say of the parson.
The great evil of lay rectorship, which has done so much to injure the Church, was largely introduced by the monasteries.
