They turned the old chapel into a school where Lollard doctrines were taught. "Thus," says the orthodox Henry of Knighton, "the chapel that had once been dedicated to God was now made a receptacle and home for blasphemous heretics and enemies of the church of Christ."
The charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1589 comprised a conveyance to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester of "St. John's chapel at the end of Belgravegate with the chapel yard."
(11) THE CHAPEL ON THE WEST BRIDGE.
No mention is made of this little chapel in John Brid's account for the building of the West Bridge in 1325, nor does it occur in a list of Leicester churches and chapels compiled in 1344. But in the Mayor's account for 1365-6 there is an entry which refers to the roofing of "the chamber on the bridge." It was tiled with slates brought from the old Guild hall in Blue Boar Lane, which was then being rebuilt. It would seem therefore that the chapel was built between 1344 and 1365, during the revival of religious activity caused by the Black Death.
The chapel of Our Lady of the Bridge, or St. Mary de Brigge, was constructed over the eastern arch of the bridge. It belonged to the College of St. Mary of the Castle. William Lord Hastings, who was beheaded in 1483, by his will dated the 27th June, 1481, made bequest "that my executors do make and edify the chapel on the Bridge at Leicester, and for the making thereof one hundred pounds. Also that they find a priest in the same chapel by the space of seven years after my decease to say daily mass in the same chapel and other prayers as shall be ordained by my executors."
In the year 1523 the parish priest of Muston, having been found guilty of immorality, was sentenced by the Ecclesiastical Court, according to the report of the case, besides doing penance in the Cathedral church of Lincoln, to visit the chapel of the Blessed Mary on the South Bridge of the town of Leicester, and there repeat 150 Ave Marias on his bended knees, and to pay certain oblations. "Visitabit … capellam b͡tæ Mariæ super pontem australem villæ Leicestr et ib͡m dicet psalterium b͡tæ Mariæ genibus suis flexis …" The question therefore
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