Proceedings of the Congress held at Rochester and Maidstone 337, 386 Election of Associates Presents to the Association, 72, 75, 77, 84, 87, 182, 189, 195, 200, Index 447 451. 452 List of Engravings and Woodcuts List of Associates, Local Members of Council, Foreign Members THE JOURNAL OF THE British Archaeological Association. APRIL 1853. ON THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN, WINCHESTER, AND THE PAINTINGS DISCOVERED ON THE NORTH WALL, JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST, 1852. BY FRANCIS JOSEPH BAIGENT, ESQ. Or the churches, being no fewer in number than seventy, that existed in Winchester during the days of mediæval splendour, six only remain at the present time; and they, like most town churches, have endured various vicissitudes and undergone repairs under zealous churchwardens. The oldest church is that of St. John the Evangelist, known in olden days as St. John-upon-the-Hill (St. Johannis super montem). It is not only the largest, but has experienced little beyond the ravages of time, and scarcely ever the hand of a renovating churchwarden. For this we are by no means indebted to the good taste, but to the poverty of the parish, and the smallness of the income of the incumbent (£75 per annum, from queen Anne's Bounty), also to the want of church zeal, and religious indifference on the part of the parishioners. A century since, service was performed on every Sunday, but the congregation, rarely amounting to more than five or six people, at length dwindled to none at all, and the incumbent found it useless to perform service any longer, so that it was discontinued. The parish hereupon prosecuted him, for neglect of duty, in the bishop's court, where a trial soon after took place; but it appear VOL. IX. 1 ing in evidence that the neglect was owing to the want of religious feeling in the parishioners themselves, the prosecution became invalid, and service once a fortnight was fixed upon as fully sufficient for this church; which was performed every other Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon. This continued till the beginning of the present century. At an even earlier period (viz. in 1672), this parish was in a neglected state, being without a pastor; and Dr. Ken (afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells), with the consent of bishop Morley, undertook the gratuitous cure. To the poor of the parish he devoted his best energies, whilst his eloquence drew crowds to the church. Previously to the Reformation, the church appears to have been endowed and supported by chantry foundations. The celebrated William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, when establishing his college in 1373, ordered his scholars to attend this church, on every Sunday and festival, at vespers, compline, matins, the hours and masses of the day, and bear their part in them. This continued till the 28th of March 1393, when St. Mary's college was completed; and the society, leaving the parish in solemn procession, and chanting hymns of joy, took possession of their new buildings. One of the aisles, probably the north, belonged to a confraternity, and was called the "Chapel of our Ladye". There is a curious circumstance connected with this, whereby the parish is possessed of nineteen tenements and other small properties. John Thomas, by indenture dated December the 10th, 1527, gave, in trust, to certain feoffees named by him, this property, to the intent that they receive the profits thereof, and deliver them to the warden of the fraternity of the Chapel of the blessed Virgin Mary, in the parish church of St. John, for the celebrating of masses and other divine services in the said chapel. This gift was overlooked at the confiscation of chantry property in the time of Edward VI, and ultimately became the property of the parish. The earliest notice we meet with of this church, is in the episcopal registers of John de Pontissara, bishop of Winchester from A.D. 1280 to 1304; but the church itself was evidently built in the time of Richard I, and has, to all appearance, preserved its original size. The side-walls |