Changes in St
Neots churches during the 15th and 16th centuries
The
fifteenth century was a time of great devotion to the Passion of Christ. The
rebuilt parish church of St Mary’s, St Neots, had, above the chancel step, a Rood Screen, a carved wooden frame with
a statue of Christ upon the cross supported by the figures of the Blessed
Virgin and St. John.
In 1486 Thomas Mylys
left money for the making of the rood screen.
People’s
wills testify to the existence of a side altar to the Trinity (1486).
In
1489 William Crouker left money ' to the repariacion and makynge of the Rodeloft"; there were many other gifts.
The
south chapel was dedicated to Our Lady,
the mother of Christ.
In
1504 Robert Arnold desired to be buried in the chapel of Our Lady annexed to
the chancel of the parish church.
In
the roof there is still a carving of an angel with a fleur de lys, the emblem of the Blessed
Virgin.
There
were statues of our Lady of Pity next to the north chapel of Jesus (1528), of
St. Gregory the Great in the south aisle (1534) and St. Ninian
(1544).
There
was a tabernacle of St. John (1529).
The
side altars were for the chantry priests who, though they were paid to pray for
the souls of the departed, also did pastoral work in the parish.
In
the vestry there are some fifteenth century glass panels with the figures of
St. Stephen and St. Lawrence which were formerly kept in the Dove's Chamber
above the south porch.
The
rood screen was removed in the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553).
Edward
VI, a Protestant king, banned all Catholic devotions except the newly
introduced Book of Common Prayer.
The
new prayer book was criticised by Catholics as "a Christmas game"
compared with the Mass.
When
Edward's Commissioners visited they were not told about the gild lands. These
were not revealed until 1552.
On
Edward's death in 1553, Mary, a Catholic queen, ordered the restoration of
English churches but not the return of the lands of the monasteries and
nunneries.
Cardinal
Pole's Commissioners came to St. Neots in August 1556 and ordered that all
altars should be restored and re-erected by the end of the month together with
the Rood Loft, and that images/statues should be restored by the following
Easter.
The
rood screen was replaced during the reign of Queen Mary.
Mary
revived all the Roman Catholic devotions.
On
Mary's death in 1559 Elizabeth I's Commissioners were
instructed not only to remove carvings, statues, wall hangings depicting
people, stone altars etc. but also to find objects that the priest or
parishioners had removed and concealed.
Three
months later in August 1559 St. Neots was visited three Protestant
Commissioners including Dr. Bentham, shortly to become bishop of Lichfield.
They ordered the altar and rood screen to be removed. They were "cut down
by the seates of the quyer,
leaving no memorial thereof.... as an example to the residue of the country to
do the like".
The
remains today show two bishops with their faces vandalised.
Elizabeth
I abolished all church devotions other than those of the Book of Common Prayer.
There
was a dispute over the destruction of images in the church. A number of
townspeople wanted them removed but two members of the gentry, Sir Lawrence
Taylard and Oliver Leader Esq. objected. The issue was brought to the Privy
Council in London which took the side of the image breakers (iconoclasts).
In
1573 Queen Elizabeth appointed Rev. Peter White as the incumbent (vicar) of
Eaton Socon church. He found the rood screen gone but the rood loft remaining.
Fearing that the mere memory of the crucifix and figures would lead the
congregation back to Catholicism, White preached on the necessity of its
destruction.
Gradually,
but only as a result of constant visits, all the artifacts
of mediaeval religion were removed from the churches: stone altars, rood
screens, statues, altar cloths, wall hangings, priests vestments, tabernacles,
candlesticks, communion vessels, organs and even bells. Only a single tolling
bell would have rung to call people to their worship.
The
inside of the churches were whitewashed to hide all the early religious
pictures of the Old and New Testament.
The post Reformation Church
The
immediate effects of the Reformation worked themselves out over a long period.
In
some places clergy continued to celebrate the new communion service wearing
vestments and with Catholic ceremonial.
The
Book of Common Prayer was now attacked by a new generation of Reformers (who
became known as "Puritans") as being papalist
(a belief in the Catholic Pope as leader of the church.
In
Eaton Socon the Puritan vicar, Peter White, (from 1573 to 1616), was described
as "a severe Calvinist".
John
Calvin (1509-64), the Genevan Reformer, taught the
worthlessness of human effort and our utter reliance on the grace of God who
has already determined our eternal fate (predestination).
Calvin
was opposed to ceremonial of any kind in worship. Both Peter White and his son
Francis, who became Bishop of Ely in 1631, engaged in controversy with the
Roman Catholic Jesuits, by pamphlet and face to face, during that time
"that he reduced many seduced Romanists to our Church".
Francis
even thought the Presbyterians suspect as denying the idea of predestination.
The
influence of Peter White was considerable, not only because of his strong views
and indefatigable pamphleteering but also because he was incumbent of St.
Neots.