The Churches of Coventry | Page 9

his officers under pain of a grievous curse to make
due payment.
In the early thirteenth century a dispute arose between Bishop Geoffrey
de Muschamp and the Priory as to the right of presentation, the Bishop
claiming on the ground of being Abbot as well as Bishop. This was
settled in 1241 by the Priory renouncing its claim in consideration of
receiving a share of the income but in 1248 an exchange was effected,
the Priory giving the advowsons of Ryton and Bubbenhall[4] (not far
from Coventry) for St. Michael and its chapels and engaging to provide
proper secular priests with competent support. In 1260 the church was
appropriated to the monastery together with Holy Trinity and its
chapels and although in the arrangement of 1248 twenty-four marks
(£16) had been assigned to the vicarage, in 1291 we find the priory
receiving fifty marks and paying the vicar eight and a half.
Since 1537 the patronage has with that of Trinity, been exercised by the
Crown.
The internal evidence of the date of the building is given in the
description of the fabric. Of external evidence in the shape of records or
deeds we have very little. Tradition says that there was once a brass

tablet in the church bearing the following lines:
William and Adam built the Tower, Ann and Mary built the Spire;
William and Adam built the Church, Ann and Mary built the Choir.
Now we know that William and Adam Botoner, who were each Mayor
thrice between 1358 and 1385, built the tower, spending upon it £100 a
year for twenty-two years, but what foundation there is for the other
statements cannot now be determined. The tower was in building from
1373 to 1394, and the choir is contemporary with it, the nave was in
building from 1432 to 1450, and the spire was begun in 1430. As
William was Mayor in 1358 it can hardly have been less than one
hundred years after his birth that both nave and spire were begun. It is
however, likely that other members of the family (if not he, by bequest)
contributed largely to the general building fund.
Much of the history of a parish church is concerned with its internal
economy but even the records of this are not quite trivial for they
enlighten us on many points wherein we are rightly curious. We are, for
instance, constantly reminded, as Dr. Gasquet points out in "Mediaeval
Parish Life," that "religious life permeated society in the Middle Ages,
particularly in the fifteenth century, through the minor confraternities"
or gilds.
Thus the Drapers' Gild made itself responsible not only for the upkeep
of the Lady Chapel but also for the lights always burning on the
Rood-loft, every Master paying four pence for each "prentys" and every
"Jurneman" four pence. The cost of lights formed a serious item in
church expenditure, needing the rent of houses and lands for their
maintenance. Guy de Tyllbrooke, vicar in the late thirteenth century,
gave all his lands and buildings on the south side of the church to
maintain a light before the high altar, day and night, for ever, "and all
persons who shall convert this gift to any other use directly or
indirectly shall incur the malediction of Almighty God, the Blessed
Virgin, St. Michael and All Saints."
Royal visits to the church have been noticed in the history of the priory
and city, especially that in 1450 which was apparently intended to mark

the completion of the church. Reference has also been made to the
plays and pageants with which such visitors were entertained. The site
for the performance of the cycle of Corpus Christi plays was the
churchyard on the north of St. Michael's. Queen Margaret, whose visits
were so frequent that the city acquired the fanciful title of "the Queen's
Bower" came over from Kenilworth on the Eve of the Feast in 1456,
"at which time she would not be met, but privily to see the play there
on the morrow and she saw then all the pageants played save
Doomsday, which might not be played for lack of day and she was
lodged at Richard Wood's the Grocer."
There is evident reference to the dedication of the church in the pageant
of the "Nine Orders of Angels" shown before Henry VIII and Queen
Catherine in 1510 (p. 47).
The history of the church since the Reformation has been not unlike
that of a vast number of others. Fanatic destruction, followed by
tasteless and incongruous innovations, and these again by "restorations"
sometimes as destructive, sometimes as tasteless, and nearly always
feeble; such is their common history. In 1569 even the Register books
were destroyed because they contained marks of popery, while from
1576 onward a want of repair is plainly suggested by