Part 6 (1/2)
Rahere can have lost but little tirant of the prescribed land, for we find that within three years of his visit to Rome the church of his new convent was sufficiently advanced for consecration, and presumably the convent itself was ready for occupation The new priory was designed for the reception of Canons Regular of the Order of St Augustine, and the reason for the founder's adoption of this Order, apart from the fact that it was somewhat fashi+onable at this period, may have been partly because his for, and partly because two, at least, of the men hom he had been closely associated at Henry's court were themselves members of this order And it is necessary to bear these facts inthe never-to-be-determined question of whether the apse of St
Bartholomeas ever completed by Rahere
These two friends of the founder's were Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, and William de Corbeil, or Corboyle, Archbishop of Canterbury, and they were not only the the influence of that order The Bishop had then recently built the Priory of St Osyth, in Essex, of which the Archbishop, who had previously been connected with the Priory of Merton, had been the first prior Moreover, Corbeil, soon after he had received the pallium, obtained permission to suppress the monastery of St
Martin-le-Grand--for n of the first Henry, as well as in the reign of the last--and devote its revenues to building a new priory for Austin Canons, outside the walls of Dover This priory, known as St Martin Neork, of which considerable portions rearded as a model plan of a church of this order, and consisted of a se nave with aisles
Fro differed nized type, and the question is, did his friends point out to him his deviation froive their churches a square east end in tin, or were they able to induce him, after he had completed his apse, to remove the two easternmost piers, and to insert in place of them a square-ended chapel? But to this question no answer has ever been discovered
[Illustration: FIG 1--NORMAN CAPITAL
_Discovered in 1863_]
[Illustration: FIG 2--PRIORY GATE AND CHURCH TOWER IN 1863]
[Illustration: FIG 3--TRANSITIONAL CAPITAL
_Discovered in 1863_]
At the death of Rahere, in 1143, but a sreat sche church perhaps no more than the choir to the top of the triforiuments discovered from ti 1, which clearly belong to this period, he had completed other works which have now been destroyed Perhaps during his life-tis, as was the case at Merton, were mainly of wood, and of a merely teether with the cloisters, had been built when the great arch, which for 2), was completed about the middle of the thirteenth century The work to the choir and transepts went on gradually, no doubt, without any alteration of design, or only such es in progress in the style, until their completion, and it is likely that the end of the twelfth century saw the conclusion of that section of the work The frag 3 is a fair exa of the nave, which was a very iht by their preaching to attract large congregations, son was made Evidence of this can be seen in the east bay of the south side (fig 4), where an Early English clustered-shaft, with the springing of soives an idea of the character of the work of the now destroyed nave With this building, which was apparently achieved before the close of the thirteenth century, wetaken over a hundred and fifty years to accomplish
After a lapse of two hundred years, it is not unlikely that the building had fallen somewhat into a state of dilapidation and for that reason, as well, perhaps, froe works of alteration and rebuilding were undertaken at the beginning of the fifteenth century Prior John Walford, of whom little is known, except that he was summoned to a convocation at Oxford in 1407, is credited with the work, which embraced the new east wall to the choir, and perhaps a reredos, the Lady Chapel and chapels, on the north side of the north a of the east walk of the cloisters with rooent for carrying out all these works, the initiative was probably due to Roger de Walden, afterwards Bishop of London This man, who had a most remarkable career, was in some way closely associated with St
Bartholomew's, for his stepmother resided in its vicinity, and he had a brother John, a man of considerable wealth, who is described as an esquire of St Bartholoer de Walden held high and lucrative ecclesiastical appointland, and when Archbishop Arundel was banished from the realer was advanced to the See of Canterbury After the downfall of Richard, Arundel returned to England, and Roger was ousted froh it may appear, the Archbishop bore him so little ill-will for his usurpation that he induced Henry IV, though with soree to his nomination to the Bishopric of London at the next voidance of the See
As Bishop of London, he died in 1406, and though he lay in state in his chantry chapel at St Bartholomew's, it is believed that he was actually buried in St Paul's Cathedral
[Illustration: FIG 4--EAST BAY OF SOUTH AISLE OF NAVE]
It was during his years of prosperity, and before he had anticipated the honours to which he afterwards succeeded, that he built his chantry chapel in the church hich his early youth was doubtless associated, and tradition, to some extent supported by both architectural and heraldic evidence, has identified the screen in which Rahere's monument is encased as a portion of that chapel The beautiful canopies and tracery, the character of the carving of the effigy and its attendant figures, and the arland emblazoned on one of the shi+elds, all point to a date supporting the tradition, whilst the arms, which seem undoubtedly to be Walden's, displayed on the fourth shi+eld ned to any other person
Of the building carried out at this time, except the screen of the chantry chapel and some portions of the restored cloister, but little reht have enabled us to determine how far the east as a restoration, or an entirely neork, were swept ahen the apse was rebuilt That this east as not merely a reredos is shown by the fact that the upper part rose clear of the aisles, and was pierced by two large traceried s in the sahted the church in the last century, and it is quite possible that it was only a restoration of an earlier wall, which had been built across the apse so as to make it conform to the Austin Canon rule The screen of the chantry chapel, the two eastern bays of which have been destroyed, but which is shown co 5), may have been continued across the east wall, and formed the reredos itself, but all traces of this were effaced in subsequent alterations
[Illustration: FIG 5--SCREEN OF ROGER DE WALDEN'S CHANTRY, AND RAHERE'S MONUMENT]
One alteration was made in the choir which verybetween the date of its first building and the erection of Rahere's round outside the church had becoone on around it, and the drainage of the interior had become defective, or for some other reason, the floor over all the eastern part was filled in for a depth of nearly three feet, dwarfing considerably the Nor the bases of the columns; and it was upon this altered level the screen of Bishop Roger de Walden's chantry was built
Having undergone such extensive repairs the priory received no further alterations until, after another hundred years, William Bolton became prior in 1506 It has been asserted, on what seerounds, that Bolton was the architect of Henry VII's Chapel at Westh this is very ied on the work, and seems himself to have been disposed to architectural display He has been credited with very large alterations to the conventual buildings, and the erection of a tower over the crossing; but nearly all traces of his work have disappeared, except a doorway in the south aisle, and the beautifulin the triforiu the choir, which is always, known as ”Prior Bolton's ,” and is distinguished by his rebus, a bolt in a tun, in the centre lower panel, as is shown in the illustration (fig 6)
Bolton's successor, Robert Fuller, was the last of the priors, and with him is ushered in the era of dissolution and decay, when--
”The ire of a despotic King Rides forth upon destruction's wing”
The priory was suppressed, and the great nave was deliberately pulled down But, except that so much of the cloister as adjoined the nave was destroyed with it, no further deradually that the conventual buildings, some of which lasted to our own day, were removed The choir and transepts were preserved to form a parish church, and the area of the destroyed nave becas were sold by the King to Sir Richard Rich, for the su the area of the site and the extent of the buildings, which included, as, styled ”the Mansion,”
which had housed so great a man as Prior Bolton
[Illustration: FIG 6--PRIOR BOLTON'S WINDOW]