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The Jesus Chapel in St Paul's Cathedral, London: A Reconstruction of its Appearance Before the Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Elizabeth A New
Elizabeth A New
Affiliation:
Elizabeth A New, Department of Manuscripts, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRB, UK E-mail: >ean2y@cam.ac.uk<
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Extract

The Jesus Chapel was located beneath the New Work at the east end of St Paul's Cathedral, and was remembered by that name long after the parish of St Faith had taken control of the space following the dissolution of the Fraternity of the Holy Name, the previous occupants of the Jesus Chapel. Although the chapel disappeared along with the rest of the medieval building following the cataclysm of 1666, archaeological investigations, pre-Fire illustrations and, most importantly, documentary evidence from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries provide invaluable evidence for the appearance of the chapel. This paper utilizes a range of evidence to suggest how the Jesus Chapel may have appeared on the eve of the Reformation; particular attention will be paid to the furnishings and fittings of the building, and to the use (and occasional abuse) of this remarkable place of worship.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 85 , September 2005 , pp. 103 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2005

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References

Bibliography

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Bodleian, Tanner 221, Records of the Fraternity of the Holy Name or Jesus Guild within St Paul's Cathedral, London, c 1504–35Google Scholar
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TNA, MS E321/43/104, Court of Augmentations: reply of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's to Edward Grymston's bill of complaint, temp EdwardviGoogle Scholar
TNA, MS Prob 11/1-41, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Probate Registers, 1384–1558Google Scholar
Alexander, J and Binski, P (eds) 1987. Age of Chivalry. Art in Plantagenet England 1200—1400, LondonGoogle Scholar
Allen, R S (ed) 1931. English Writings of Richard Rolle,Hermit of Hampole, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Avis, F C 1964. Printers of Fleet Street and St Paul's Churchyard in the Sixteenth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Barron, C M 1989. ‘The later Middle Ages: 1270-1520’, in The City of London from Prehistoric Times to c. 1520, British Atlas of Historic Towns, vol 3 (ed Lobel, M D), 42–56, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Barron, C M and Stratford, J (eds) 2002. The Church and Learning in Later Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of R. B. Dobson, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, XI, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1999. ‘The English parish church and its art in the later Middle Ages’, Studies in Iconography, 20, 1–25Google Scholar
Blake, H, Egan, G, Hurst, J and New, E 2003. ‘From popular devotion to resistance and revival in England: the cult of the Holy Name of Jesus’, in The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1 $80 (eds Gaimster, D and Gilchrist, R), 175–203, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Blayney, P W M 1990. The Bookshops in St Paul's Churchyard, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brigden, S 1984. ‘Religion and social obligation in early sixteenth-century London’, Past and Present, 103, 67–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brigden, S 1989. London and the Reformation, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Brooke, C N L 1957. ‘The earliest times to 1485’, in A History of St Paul's Cathedral and the Men Associated with It (eds Matthews, W R and Atkins, W M), 1–99, LondonGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C 2002. ‘Educated parishioners in London and Bristol on the eve of the Reformation’, in Barron, and Stratford, (eds) 2002, 286–305Google Scholar
Cabassut, A 1952. ‘La Devotion au Nom de Jesus dans l'Eglise d'Occident’, La Vie Spirituelle, 86, 46–69Google Scholar
Calendar of Patent Rolls: Philip and Mary (London, 1936-1939), vol 3Google Scholar
Campbell, M 1985. ‘A fifteentht-century copper pyx from the Victoria and Albert Museum and a fourteenth-century candlestick from the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh’, Antiq J, 65, 465–8Google Scholar
Clark, J P H and Dorward, R (eds) 1991. Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Cook, G H 1955. Old St Paul's Cathedral: A Lost Glory Of Medieval London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cox, C J 1913. Churchwardens' Accounts: From the Fourteenth Century to the Close of the Seventeenth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cragoe, C D 2004. ‘The fabric, tombs, and precinct before the Reformation’, in Burns, Keene and Saint, (eds) 2004, 123–42Google Scholar
Davies, M P and Saunders, A 2004. The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Draper, P 1987. ‘Architecture and liturgy’, in Alexander, and Binski, (eds) 1987, 83–91Google Scholar
Duffy, E 1992. The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1658. The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, from its Foundation, LondonGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1716. The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, from its Foundation, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Dummelow, J 1973. The Wax Chandlers of London, London and ChichesterGoogle Scholar
Eames, E 1992. English Tilers, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gadd, I A 1999. “‘Being like a field”: corporate identity in the Stationers' Company, 1557-1684’, unpublished DPhil thesis, University of OxfordGoogle Scholar
Harrison, F L 1963. Music in Medieval Britain, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hind, A M 1922. Wenceslas Hollar and his Views London and Windsor, LondonGoogle Scholar
Innes, M and Perry, C 1997. Medieval Flowers, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jones, M K and Underwood, M G 1992. The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
D, Keene, Burns, A and Saint, A (eds) 2004. St Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004. A New History, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Kisby, F 2002. ‘Books in London parish churches before 1603’, in Barron, and Stratford, (eds) 2002, 305–26Google Scholar
Latham, R E 1965. Revised Medieval Latin Word-List, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Lewis, F 1990. ‘From image to illustration: the place of devotional images in the Book of Hours’, in Iconographie Me'dievale: Image, Texte, Contexte (ed Duchet-Suchaux, G), 29–48, ParisGoogle Scholar
McKendrick, S 1995. ‘Tapestries from the Low Countries in England during the fifteenth century’, in England and the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages (eds Barron, C M and Saul, N), 43–60, Stroud and New YorkGoogle Scholar
McLean, T 1981. Medieval English Gardens, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mateer, D and New, E A 2000. ‘Music and musicians in the Fraternity of the Holy Name in St Paul's Cathedral’, Music and Letters, 81, 507–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, J 1991. ‘The dating of benchends in Cornish churches’, J Roy Inst Cornwall, new ser, 11, 58–72Google Scholar
Morris, R K 1990. ‘New Work at Old St Paul's Cathedral and its place in English thirteenthcentury architecture’, in Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in London, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans, X (ed Grant, L), 74–100, LeedsGoogle Scholar
New, E A 1999. ‘The cult of the Holy Name in late medieval England, with special reference to the Fraternity in St Paul's Cathedral, London, c 1450-1558’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
New Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1967. Catholic University of America, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, J G (ed) 1848. The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant Tailor of London from AD1550-AD1563, Camden Society, 42, LondonGoogle Scholar
North, T 1888. English Bells and Bell Lore: A Book on Bells, LeekGoogle Scholar
Oman, C 1957. English Church Plate 597-1830, LondonGoogle Scholar
Origo, I 1963. The World of San Bernardino, LondonGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary 1933. 2nd edn, vol 12, 22Google Scholar
Parker, W 1873. A History of Long Melford, LondonGoogle Scholar
E, Peacock (ed) 1866. English Church Furniture, Ornaments and Decorations, at the Period of the Reformation, LondonGoogle Scholar
Penrose, F C 1883. ‘On the recent discoveries of portions of Old St Paul's Cathedral’, Archaeologia, 47, 381–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, R 1970. New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medieval England, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Rosser, G 1994. ‘Going to the Fraternity Feast: commensality and social relations in late medieval England’, J Brit Studies, 33, 430–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, J 1993. The Building of London, rev edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Schofield, J forthcoming. The Archaeology of St Paul's Cathedral, I: Survey and Excavation up to 2004Google Scholar
Sharpe, R R (ed) 1890. Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, AD 1258-AD 1688, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Skaife, R H (ed) 1872. Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York, Surtees Society, 57, 288–9, LondonGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1908. A Survey of London (ed Kingsford, C L), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Swanson, R N 1992. ‘Medieval liturgy as theatre: the props’, in The Church and the Arts, Stud in Church Hist, 28 (ed Wood, D), 239–53, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Walters, H B 1939. London Churches at the Reformation, with an Account of their Contents, LondonGoogle Scholar
White, E 1987. The St Christopher and St George Guild of York, Borthwick Pap, 72, YorkGoogle Scholar
Wieck, R S 1997. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Wordsworth, C and Littlehales, H 1904. The Old Service Books of the English Church, LondonGoogle Scholar
BL, Royal 2 B. xiii, Gospel LectionaryGoogle Scholar
BL, Early Printed Books Huth 54, 1522 Almanac by Wynkyn de WordeGoogle Scholar
Bodleian, Tanner 221, Records of the Fraternity of the Holy Name or Jesus Guild within St Paul's Cathedral, London, c 1504–35Google Scholar
GL, MS 25, 121/513, Agreement between the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's and the Brothers of the Guild of St AnneGoogle Scholar
GL, MS 25, 630/1, Register of the Deans of St Paul's Cathedral; Register Sampson, 1536–60Google Scholar
GL, MS 645/1, St Peter West Cheap churchwardens' accountsGoogle Scholar
GL, MS 9171/2–13, Commissary Court Register of Wills, 1400–1558Google Scholar
GL, MS 9481/1, Waxchandlers' Company wardens' account book, 1531–98Google Scholar
SRO, IC500/2/9/188, Suffolk Record Office register of willsGoogle Scholar
TNA, MS Ei 17/4/5, Exchequer Records; Church goods, inventories and miscellanea, Henry vm-Edward VI; inventory of the parish of St Faith, c 1552Google Scholar
TNA, MS E321/43/104, Court of Augmentations: reply of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's to Edward Grymston's bill of complaint, temp EdwardviGoogle Scholar
TNA, MS Prob 11/1-41, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Probate Registers, 1384–1558Google Scholar
Alexander, J and Binski, P (eds) 1987. Age of Chivalry. Art in Plantagenet England 1200—1400, LondonGoogle Scholar
Allen, R S (ed) 1931. English Writings of Richard Rolle,Hermit of Hampole, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Avis, F C 1964. Printers of Fleet Street and St Paul's Churchyard in the Sixteenth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Barron, C M 1989. ‘The later Middle Ages: 1270-1520’, in The City of London from Prehistoric Times to c. 1520, British Atlas of Historic Towns, vol 3 (ed Lobel, M D), 42–56, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Barron, C M and Stratford, J (eds) 2002. The Church and Learning in Later Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of R. B. Dobson, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, XI, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Binski, P 1999. ‘The English parish church and its art in the later Middle Ages’, Studies in Iconography, 20, 1–25Google Scholar
Blake, H, Egan, G, Hurst, J and New, E 2003. ‘From popular devotion to resistance and revival in England: the cult of the Holy Name of Jesus’, in The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1 $80 (eds Gaimster, D and Gilchrist, R), 175–203, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Blayney, P W M 1990. The Bookshops in St Paul's Churchyard, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brigden, S 1984. ‘Religion and social obligation in early sixteenth-century London’, Past and Present, 103, 67–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brigden, S 1989. London and the Reformation, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Brooke, C N L 1957. ‘The earliest times to 1485’, in A History of St Paul's Cathedral and the Men Associated with It (eds Matthews, W R and Atkins, W M), 1–99, LondonGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C 2002. ‘Educated parishioners in London and Bristol on the eve of the Reformation’, in Barron, and Stratford, (eds) 2002, 286–305Google Scholar
Cabassut, A 1952. ‘La Devotion au Nom de Jesus dans l'Eglise d'Occident’, La Vie Spirituelle, 86, 46–69Google Scholar
Calendar of Patent Rolls: Philip and Mary (London, 1936-1939), vol 3Google Scholar
Campbell, M 1985. ‘A fifteentht-century copper pyx from the Victoria and Albert Museum and a fourteenth-century candlestick from the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh’, Antiq J, 65, 465–8Google Scholar
Clark, J P H and Dorward, R (eds) 1991. Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Cook, G H 1955. Old St Paul's Cathedral: A Lost Glory Of Medieval London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cox, C J 1913. Churchwardens' Accounts: From the Fourteenth Century to the Close of the Seventeenth Century, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cragoe, C D 2004. ‘The fabric, tombs, and precinct before the Reformation’, in Burns, Keene and Saint, (eds) 2004, 123–42Google Scholar
Davies, M P and Saunders, A 2004. The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Draper, P 1987. ‘Architecture and liturgy’, in Alexander, and Binski, (eds) 1987, 83–91Google Scholar
Duffy, E 1992. The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1658. The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, from its Foundation, LondonGoogle Scholar
Dugdale, W 1716. The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, from its Foundation, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Dummelow, J 1973. The Wax Chandlers of London, London and ChichesterGoogle Scholar
Eames, E 1992. English Tilers, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gadd, I A 1999. “‘Being like a field”: corporate identity in the Stationers' Company, 1557-1684’, unpublished DPhil thesis, University of OxfordGoogle Scholar
Harrison, F L 1963. Music in Medieval Britain, 2nd edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hind, A M 1922. Wenceslas Hollar and his Views London and Windsor, LondonGoogle Scholar
Innes, M and Perry, C 1997. Medieval Flowers, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jones, M K and Underwood, M G 1992. The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
D, Keene, Burns, A and Saint, A (eds) 2004. St Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004. A New History, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Kisby, F 2002. ‘Books in London parish churches before 1603’, in Barron, and Stratford, (eds) 2002, 305–26Google Scholar
Latham, R E 1965. Revised Medieval Latin Word-List, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Lewis, F 1990. ‘From image to illustration: the place of devotional images in the Book of Hours’, in Iconographie Me'dievale: Image, Texte, Contexte (ed Duchet-Suchaux, G), 29–48, ParisGoogle Scholar
McKendrick, S 1995. ‘Tapestries from the Low Countries in England during the fifteenth century’, in England and the Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages (eds Barron, C M and Saul, N), 43–60, Stroud and New YorkGoogle Scholar
McLean, T 1981. Medieval English Gardens, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mateer, D and New, E A 2000. ‘Music and musicians in the Fraternity of the Holy Name in St Paul's Cathedral’, Music and Letters, 81, 507–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, J 1991. ‘The dating of benchends in Cornish churches’, J Roy Inst Cornwall, new ser, 11, 58–72Google Scholar
Morris, R K 1990. ‘New Work at Old St Paul's Cathedral and its place in English thirteenthcentury architecture’, in Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in London, Brit Archaeol Ass Conference Trans, X (ed Grant, L), 74–100, LeedsGoogle Scholar
New, E A 1999. ‘The cult of the Holy Name in late medieval England, with special reference to the Fraternity in St Paul's Cathedral, London, c 1450-1558’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
New Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1967. Catholic University of America, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, J G (ed) 1848. The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant Tailor of London from AD1550-AD1563, Camden Society, 42, LondonGoogle Scholar
North, T 1888. English Bells and Bell Lore: A Book on Bells, LeekGoogle Scholar
Oman, C 1957. English Church Plate 597-1830, LondonGoogle Scholar
Origo, I 1963. The World of San Bernardino, LondonGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary 1933. 2nd edn, vol 12, 22Google Scholar
Parker, W 1873. A History of Long Melford, LondonGoogle Scholar
E, Peacock (ed) 1866. English Church Furniture, Ornaments and Decorations, at the Period of the Reformation, LondonGoogle Scholar
Penrose, F C 1883. ‘On the recent discoveries of portions of Old St Paul's Cathedral’, Archaeologia, 47, 381–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, R 1970. New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medieval England, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Rosser, G 1994. ‘Going to the Fraternity Feast: commensality and social relations in late medieval England’, J Brit Studies, 33, 430–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, J 1993. The Building of London, rev edn, LondonGoogle Scholar
Schofield, J forthcoming. The Archaeology of St Paul's Cathedral, I: Survey and Excavation up to 2004Google Scholar
Sharpe, R R (ed) 1890. Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, AD 1258-AD 1688, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Skaife, R H (ed) 1872. Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York, Surtees Society, 57, 288–9, LondonGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1908. A Survey of London (ed Kingsford, C L), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Swanson, R N 1992. ‘Medieval liturgy as theatre: the props’, in The Church and the Arts, Stud in Church Hist, 28 (ed Wood, D), 239–53, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Walters, H B 1939. London Churches at the Reformation, with an Account of their Contents, LondonGoogle Scholar
White, E 1987. The St Christopher and St George Guild of York, Borthwick Pap, 72, YorkGoogle Scholar
Wieck, R S 1997. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Wordsworth, C and Littlehales, H 1904. The Old Service Books of the English Church, LondonGoogle Scholar