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Chapter V (5)       THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY

 

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THE most notable benefactions which Arch­bishop John of Stratford, before his death in 1348, conferred on Stratford were gathered about the parish church. The church, although at the time, as the evidence of some of the stonework proves, a substantial erection, was not fully completed. It had even then many architectural pre­tensions. The tower still retains its Romanesque panel arches, with their Early English lights, which probably date from the farther side of 1200. But John of Stratford desired to make the structure more stable and more elaborate. Although cruci­form in shape, it had but an embryo south aisle; and the north aisle was very narrow. Having widened the north aisle, the archbishop

 

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placed there a chapel to the Holy Virgin, and the Bishops of Worcester promoted the decoration of the chapel by granting indulgences to those who contributed money towards the expenses. The south aisle the archbishop built anew, and in it he set up a chapel in honour of St. Thomas a Becket, with whom he had some qualities in common. The church tower he renovated, and probably added the wooden spire, with which Shakespeare and his con­temporaries were acquainted. But his work was not wholly confined to mere structural improvements.  In 1332, with the permission of the Bishop of Worcester and Ed ward III, John of Stratford formed a chantry of the chapel of the church, dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr. It is difficult for some of us nowadays to appreciate the spirit that prompted such a foundation. The archbishop's object was to endow five priests to chant for all time at the altar of this chapel masses for the souls of the founder and his friends. John of Stratford, who had acquired much property about Stratford, appointed for the maintenance of the priests of his chantry one messuage in Stratford, with the Manor of

 

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Inge, the modern Ingon-by-Welcombe, and among those whose souls his masses were expected to free from purgatory were, be­sides himself, his brother Robert, his father and mother, the Kings of England, and the Bishops of Worcester. Of the five priests, one was to be warden of the chapel and another sub-warden. John of Stratford, in spite of his political cares, watched over the chantry with paternal affection. Year by year he added land and houses in Stratford to its possessions, and his friends followed his

example. One of these was Nicholas of

Dudley, parson of King's Swynford, in Worcestershire, a connection of a family with a notorious career before it, who made overly much property to the chantry about his native village of Dudley. And the patronage

of the church of Stratford, John purchased of the Bishop of Worcester, and gave to his chantry priests, who thus fully controlled the parish church. Ralph of Stratford was not behind his uncles in his generosity to his native town. In 1351 he built for John's chantry priests a "house of square stone for the habitation

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of these priests, adjoining to the churchyard." The ten carpenters and ten masons, with the labourers, who doubtless came from London to erect the edifice, were, placed, while at Stratford, under the king's special protection.

The building came to be known as the College of Stratford, and was familiar to the Eliza­bethans and their successors, as the map of 1769 amply proves. In 1415 Henry V confirmed all the privileges of the chantry and the college, and the church of Stratford then bore the honoured epithet of collegiate, since it was under the supervision of a college or chapter of priests, in much the same manner as Westminster Abbey and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, are to this day. Other inhabitants of Stratford followed the example set by the three prelates of Stratford, and made many sacrifices to adorn their church. True penitents were urged by the Bishop of Worcester in 1321 to contribute to the building

and the repair of the belfry, and in 1381 to adorn and illuminate the altar of the Virgin Mary. The warden of the college in the time of Edward IV, Dr. Thomas Balsall, "added a fair and beautiful choir, rebuilt from the ground

 

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at his own cost," which still survives. He clearly employed master masons of different schools. One was faithful to the older models, and especially to the Early Decorated style. Of his work are the tomb of Balsall, who died in 1491, the north and south doors, and, doubtless, the font at which Shakespeare was baptized. The other artificer aimed at greater novelty. He studied his bestiary, and perched paunchy toads on but­tresses, or transferred dragon-flies in grotesque attitudes to stone cornices. His angels are very whimsical, and if the carvings in the stalls be his, he delighted in picturing the least refined aspects of humanity. Ralph Collingwood, the warden at the close of the fifteenth century, gave the collegiate church its final touches. He renewed the north porch and the nave. "The low decorated clerestory was removed, the walls pulled down to the 'crowns of the arches, rude angels (by some 'prentice hand) were inserted to carry the pilasters, and the walls were panelled with large lantern windows, with a flattish roof." 1

In pursuit of Dr. Balsall's "pious intent," Collingwood improved the church service

 

1 Knowles's Architectural Account of Holy Trinity Church.

 

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by appointing" four children choristers, to be daily assistants in the celebration of divine service," and placed them under the supervision of the college; "which choristers," according to Collingwood's ordination, "should always come by two and two together into the choir to Matins, and Vespers on such days as the same were to be sung there, according to the Ordinale Sarum; and at their entrance into the church, bowing their knees before the crucifix, each of them say a Pater Noster and an Ave. And for their better regulation did he order and appoint that they should sit quietly in the choir, saying the Matins and Vespers of our Lady distinctly, and afterwards be observant in the offices of the choir: that they should not be sent upon any occasion whatsoever into the town: that at dinner and supper they should constantly be in the college to wait at the table: and to read upon the Bible or some other authentic book: that they should not come into the buttery to draw beer for themselves or anybody else: that after dinner they should go to the singing school: and that their schoolmaster should be one of the priests or clerks appointed by the discretion

 

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of the warden, being a man able to instruct them in singing to the organ: as also that they should have one bedchamber in the church, whereunto they were to repair in winter-time at eight of the clock, and in summer at nine: in which lodging to be two beds, wherein they were to sleep by couples: and that before they did put off their clothes they should all say the prayer of De profundis with a loud voice, with the prayers and orisons of the faithful, and afterwards say thus, 'God have mercy on the soul of Ralph Collingwood, our Founder, and Master Thomas Balsall, a special benefactor to the same.''' For the maintenance of the choristers, lands were assigned at Stratford, Binton, and Drayton.

Shakespeare only knew Stratford after the Reformation had stripped it of all these ecclesiastical distinctions-distinctions which were so many tributes of affection paid to their birthplace by his ancient fellow-townsmen-but the majority of them had been solidly embodied in stone, with which time in his day had not dealt unkindly. They were monuments enshrining traditions not wholly lifeless, and may well have helped a poet to realise the setting of scenes like

 

 

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King John's death under the windows of Swinstead Abbey, or Gaunt's last moments in Ely House.

 

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 [End Chapter 5]