[♦ ] 33. SEAL OF ST. MARK’S, BRISTOL
St. John Evangelist & St. John Baptist appear in conjunction at Exeter, Sherborne, Newport Pagnell, Northampton, and Leicester. The original and usual title at Exeter was St. John Baptist; but in 1354 Bishop John de Grandisson, a benefactor, mentions “St. John the Baptist and Fore-runner of Christ and St. John His Evangelist and Apostle.” The seal of Northampton shows both saints with their symbols, and the appellations BAPTI and EWA are placed over the figures. On the Leicester seal the eagle of the Apostle is shown, and the scroll in its talons may represent the Ecce Agnus Dei. When “St. John” occurs, the dedication commonly proves to be to the Baptist; and even where the Evangelist is expressly named, some later document reverts to his namesake, e.g. Blyth, Burford, Castle Donington, Cirencester.
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke were not uncommemorated. “The house of St. Matthew” at Maiden Bradley, which occurs on one Patent Roll (1242), was commonly called St. Mary’s; the double dedication is mentioned in the Obituary Roll of Prior Elchester of Durham (1484), viz.: Eccles. B. Mar. et S. Math. Ap. The fair, granted p255 in 1215, was upon the vigil and feast of St. Matthew the Apostle. The name of St. Mark’s, Bristol, is preserved in the existing chapel of the hospital; the seal (Fig. 33) shows the saint writing his gospel, the lion by his side. “The lepers of St. Luke the Evangelist at the bridge-end of Beghton” are mentioned in 1334, but the locality is not identified. There was also a hospital of St. Luke at Gorleston.
St. Andrew; St. Thomas; St. Stephen.—There were dedications to St. Andrew at Flixton, Denwall, Cokesford, and Hythe. It seems probable that the last named was a re-foundation of St. Bartholomew’s, for “St. Andrew” only occurs during the few years following its restoration by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, of which See that saint was patron. It is improbable that any of the hospitals of St. Thomas were under the patronage of that Apostle, although Tanner erroneously gives an instance at Birmingham. They sprang up when St. Thomas the Martyr of Canterbury was of paramount popularity. The ambiguous “St. Thomas-on-the-Green” at Sherborne, for example, is referred to by Leland as the “free chapel of Thomas Becket.” St. Stephen, the almoner of the Early Church, was the appropriate patron of several houses of charity, including three in the eastern counties. One was at Bury St. Edmunds, where there were preserved in the abbey “certain drops of St. Stephen’s blood which sprung from him at such time as he was stoned.” The seals of Norwich and Hempton show their patron respectively as martyr and minister.
[♦ ] 34. SEAL OF ST. CLEMENT’S, HODDESDON
St. Paul the Apostle; St. Paul the Hermit; St. Peter; St. Petronilla.—Although St. Peter and St. Paul are commemorated in hundreds of parish-churches, their p256 hospitals number only nine, including those in York and London which were adjuncts of cathedrals and borrowed their dedication-names. At Norwich, St. Paul the Hermit was associated with his namesake. St. Peter and his daughter St. Petronilla were patrons of leper-houses for priests and maidens at Bury St. Edmunds. The virgin saint was famous locally and the skull of St. Petronilla or Pernell, which was preserved in the abbey, was considered efficacious in sickness. Indeed, the eastern counties were rich in her relics, for a casket from the treasury of a Norwich priory, lent to Henry III, contained, it was said, “of St. Petronella, one piece.”
St. Clement; St. Lawrence.—There were dedications to the Bishop of Rome in Oxford, Norwich and Hoddesdon. On one seal, the last-named house is called “the hospital of St. Clement” (Fig. 34), upon another “of St. Anthony”; both depict not only the hermit but a mitred saint in vestments, with hammer and horse-shoe. The connection with the forge is not clear, but St. Clement is referred to as patron of ironworkers in Sussex, and of blacksmiths in Hampshire. He was popularly regarded rather as the seamen’s saint, and was invoked by mariners of a fraternity of St. Clement connected with St. Bartholomew’s hospital, Bristol. St. Lawrence the deacon, whose liberality p257 towards the sick and poor was proverbial, was guardian of twelve hospitals, chiefly for lepers. This beloved martyr of Rome was venerated in Canterbury, and the lepers dependent upon St. Augustine’s Abbey were under his protection on a site now marked by St. Lawrence’s Cricket Ground. “Lawrence Hill,” Bristol, also preserves the memory of a leper-house. The old seal of St. Lawrence’s, Bodmin, shows the martyr with his gridiron.
