Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/402

364 ST. THOMAS CHURCH. Store of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1506. John Skenock and J. Mayow, keepers. Recpts. For quy hyr, 17c!. It. for cows bought and sold, &c. Exps : for heling stones, 2s. 4d. ; payd to y e 8 men, 21s. 4d. To the sexton, 13d. ; to the clerke, 4d. The reader will have observed how often, in these pages, the incidents culled from one original source have confirmed and illustrated incidents drawn from other similar sources. We now offer another remarkable instance of this kind. At pages 26-28 is, first, an abstract of the introductory parts of an award by Bishop Oldham, dated 9th November, 1506, and, next, the full ordering part of such award. While those early sheets were passing through the press we were unconscious of the existence of the accounts which are under present consideration. Compare the names of persons, and of offices, mentioned in the award with those mentioned in the accounts. With their joint aid how com- pletely we realize the state of affairs in St. Thomas in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The recorded ex- penditure of id. by the Guild of All Saints in 1504, " when the church was dra down " (thrown down), was not altogether a joke. The rancorous disputes concerning the celebration of divine service at the chapel were of several years standing. There may therefore have been a positive pulling down of a wall, or a damaging of a roof, by the angry zealots who dwelt near the chapel. We ask the reader to look at the award. We need not repeat it here ; but it is, for several reasons, of historical importance. With reference to the Bishop's designation of the chapel as "the Chapel of St. Thomas, the Martyr" we must observe that we have not seen the epithet applied to it, or to the parish, in any earlier document. Thomas a. Becket had, long before, been canonized, but his martyrdom was only gradually admitted by the laity. Possibly, on the then recent restoration of this chapel, it had been rededicated to the equivocal martyr, in substitution for his more