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 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY picture at St. Margaret's Westminster.^'^' In St. Martin's Ludgate were pictures of the Salutation, the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, and the Resurrection.'" St. Margaret's Westminster owned ' a stained cloth of St. Gregory's pity.''^* At St. Christopher's in 1483 there were twelve ' tables ' in various parts of the church, comprising a copy of the Ten Com- mandments ; some prayers of Our Lady and ' the Sauter ^^' of charity ' ; St. Gregory's pity; 'St. Crasynus' ;'^° 'St. Katherine of divers good prayers'; St. Anne ; St. James ; three pictures of St. Christopher ; and two of St. Sebastian.'" At St. Stephen's Coleman Street instead of the modern hymn book there was in 1466 'j Salve tabyll covered with a lynnen clothe. Item j nothir of the tunery .... Item j of the antymys of the cros and oure Lady and the responnys of the Trinite' and other like writings. Some of the relics in the mediaeval London churches were curious. The church- wardens of St. Andrew Hubbard in 1495 purchased 'a relic of St. Andrew's finger ' for a penny.'" The relics of the church of St. Margaret New Fish Street included, amongst many others, portions of the burning bush and of Moses' rod, a piece of ' the stone whereon St. Mary Magdalene did penance,' part of the manger and crib that Our Lord was laid in, the stole, gloves, and comb of St. Dunstan, and a tooth of St. Bridget. The parishioners of St. Mary Axe were the proud possessors of ' a holy relic, an axe, one of the three that the eleven thousand virgins were beheaded withal.' "* In the chancel were seats for the clergy and sometimes for choristers."" In the middle stood a lectern,"' generally with a double desk on which lay the Antiphonar and Grail. The following is a typical list of books '" in use in a London church : four Antiphonars, four Grails, six Processionars, two Psalters, two Mass books, one Venite book, one old book for the organs, one Hymnal, three Manuals, and two Legends, ' one for the time and another for the saints.'"^ In the chancel, chapels, and body of the church were pews arranged in rows with wide passages between and a large clear space at the west end."' Men and women were divided, the men generally occupying the seats nearest the chancel, and the women those farther back.'*" It was customary for the vestry or churchwardens to decide what sittings the various members of the congregation should occupy.'" Pew rents were paid, varying in amount according to the position of the pew.'*^ In St. Andrew Hubbard a churching-pew was made c. 1466 ; '*' there was also a "*Accts. 1498. '" Inventory, ut sup. '** Accts. 1490 ; otherwise known as St. Gregory's mass from the image of Our Lord showing His wounds which appeared to St. Gregory at the consecration. ™ Psalter. ''"Variously called St. Rasamus and St. Erasmus. Cf Cal. Pot. 1467-77, p. 543. '" Rec. Bk. 1483. "* Micklethwaite, Ornaments of the Rubric (Alcuin Club), 45. '"Accts. 1495. '''i. andP. Henry Fill, i, 4993. '"See Par. Rec. gen. ^'^St. Stephen Walbrook Accts. 1485. In St. Christopher's there were several lecterns, large and small ; Rec. Bk. 1483. '"From the Accts. of St. Alphage London Wall, 1536. Some churches were much better supplied with books than St. Alphage : e.g. St. Margaret Southwark, which had thirty-eight volumes (Inventory, 1485), and St. Margaret New Fish Street, which had fifty-nine ; Rec. Bk. 1472. "'i.e. one a Temporal (book of lessons from Scripture ?) and the other a Legend (a chronicle of the lives of the Saints). '"Micklethwaite, in Arch. Journ. xxxv, 379 ; Par. Rec. gen. "° Par. Rec. gen. '" Fatry Mhi. o/St. Chrutopker le Stocks, 71-2 ; Par. Rec. gen. See W. J. Hardy, 'Seat Reservation in Churches,' Arck. liii, 95-106. '" Par. Rec. gen.- '" Accts. 1465-7. I 241 31