At the same time the beautiful north porch was built and the
north aisle was buttressed. To the fourteenth century we owe the fine
rood screen restored in 1848, but the next great period of building was
the fifteenth century, when the Lady Chapel, with the chapels north and
south of it, were built, and later in the same century the great choir
was entirely re-erected.
Thus Christchurch Priory grew until the Reformation. It escaped the
first raid of Cromwell in 1536, but in spite of the petition of John
Draper, the last Prior, in 1539 the house was demanded of him and he
surrendered it. The report of the vandals and sacrilegious persons who
received it is worth copying, if only to show their character. "We
found," they wrote, "the Prior a very honest, conformable person, and
the house well furnished with jewels and plate, whereof some be meet
for the king's majesty in use as a little chalice of gold, a goodly
large cross, double gilt with the foot garnished, and with stone and
pearl; two goodly basons double gilt. And there be other things of
silver.... In thy church we find a chapel and monument curiously made
of Caen stone, prepared by the late mother of Reginald Pole for her
burial, which we have caused to be defaced, and all the arms and badges
to be delete.
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