Page:County Churches of Cornwall.djvu/138

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no THE CHURCHES OF CORNWALL sedile of fine and perfect design S. of altar, and when the cumbersome marble monument was removed a lofty canopied recess was found under an ogee arch. Where work of such exceptional beauty is found, it becomes at once highly probable that there was some additional reason for construction of such a chapel other than that of greater space. The annals of the church at once supply the cause in a remark- able incident that exactly corresponds with the period that architectural experts would assign to this chapel. On the death of Prior Polgoner in 1355, John Precheur, sub-prior, succeeded as superior. During his rule the priory became enriched with relics of the Saint whose name it bore. Sir Nicholas Tamorze, Kt., succeeded in obtaining from abbot and convent of St. Germain of Auxerre a portion of the relics they possessed. A small bone of the arm and a portion of the shroud in which the body of St. German rested were given to the knight, who placed them in a silver-gilt reliquary and brought them across the seas to the priory of St. Germans, where pro- vision had been made for their honourable keeping. The grant from the Abbey was made in 1358. On May 20, 1 361, Bishop Grandison granted forty days' indulgence to all penitents who should make a pil- grimage to shrine at St. Germans, or visit it for sake of devotion. There can be no reasonable doubt that this chapel was then built for the special re- ception of these relics, and that an almery for their safe enclosure was placed within the canopied recess