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The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to Great St Bart's, is an Anglican church in West Smithfield within the City of London. The building was originally founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123 and adjoins St Bartholomew's Hospital of the same foundation.〔G. Cobb, ''The Old Churches of London'', London: Batsford, 1942.〕 ==History== It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral and an Augustinian canon regular, its establishment recorded as being in gratitude for his recovery from fever. His fabled miraculous return to good health contributed to the priory gaining a reputation for curative powers and with sick people filling its aisles, notably on 24 August (St Bartholomew's Day). The surviving building originally comprised part of a priory adjoining St Bartholomew's Hospital,〔N. Pevsner and S. Bradley, ''London: the City Churches'', New Haven: Yale, 1998. ISBN 0-300-09655-0.〕 but while much of the hospital survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries about half of the priory's church was ransacked before being demolished in 1543.〔(The records of St Bartholomew's Priory and St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield: volume 2 ), E. A. Webb, 1921.〕 Its nave was pulled down up to the last bay but the crossing and choir survive largely intact from the Norman and later Middle Ages, enabling its continued use as a parish church. Part of the main entrance to the church remains at West Smithfield, nowadays most easily recognisable by its half-timbered Tudor frontage, which was erected by the post-Reformation patron of the advowson,〔("Rich, Baron (E, 1546/7 - 1759)" ), Cracroft's Peerage.〕 Lord Rich, Lord Chancellor of England (1547-51).〔("Art in Parliament" ), parliament.uk.〕 From there to its west door, the church path leads along roughly where the south aisle of the nave formerly existed. Very little trace of its monastic buildings now survive, although parts of the cloister now house a café.〔(St Bartholomew's Church website )〕 St Bartholomew the Great is so named to distinguish it from its neighbouring smaller church of St Bartholomew the Less which was founded at the same time within the precincts of St Bartholomew's Hospital to serve as the hospital's parish church and occasional place of worship. The two parish churches were reunited in 2012 under one benefice. Having escaped the Great Fire of London of 1666〔Samuel Pepys, ''The Shorter Pepys'', Robert Latham (ed.), Harmondsworth, 1985, p. 484. ISBN 0-14-009418-0.〕 the church fell into disrepair, becoming occupied by squatters in the 18th century. W. G. Grace, however, was one famous congregant before its restoration in the late 19th century,〔(The Guild of St Bartholomew's Hospital. )〕 when it was rebuilt under Sir Aston Webb's direction.〔T. Tucker, ''The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches'', London: Friends of the City Churches, 2006. ISBN 0-9553945-0-3.〕 During Canon Edwin Savage's tenure as rector the church was further restored at the cost of more than £60,000.〔C. Hibbert, D. Weinreb, J. Keay, ''The London Encyclopaedia'', London: Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev. 1993, 2008). ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5.〕 The Lady chapel at the east end had been previously used for commercial purposes and it was there that Benjamin Franklin worked for a year as a journeyman printer. The north transept was also formerly used as a blacksmith's forge in order to make ends meet. The Priory Church was one of the few City churches to escape damage during the Second World War and, in 1941, was where the 11th Duke of Devonshire and the Hon Deborah Mitford were married. The poet and heritage campaigner Sir John Betjeman kept a flat opposite the churchyard on Cloth Fair. Betjeman considered the church to have the finest surviving Norman interior in London.〔John Betjeman, ''The City of London Churches'', Andover: Pikin, 1967. ISBN 0-85372-112-2.〕 In 2005 a memorial service was held for Sir William Wallace, on the 700th anniversary of the Scottish hero's execution, organised by the historian David R. Ross. Charitable distributions in the churchyard on Good Friday continue. A centuries-old tradition established when twenty-one sixpences were placed upon the gravestone of a woman stipulating that the bequest fund an annual distribution to twenty one widows in perpetuity, with freshly-baked hot cross buns nowadays being given not only to widows but others. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.〔 accessed 23 January 2009.〕 In April 2007 it became the first Anglican parish church to charge an entrance fee to tourists not attending worship.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Bartholomew-the-Great」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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