[Illustration: Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church,
Northamptonshire.]
In most of the large conventual churches, and also in some of the smaller
parochial churches, shrines containing relics of the patron or other
saints were exhibited; these were either fixed and immovable, of
tabernacle-work, of stone or wood, or partly of both, or were small
movable feretories, which could be carried on festivals in procession. Of
the fixed shrines, that in Hereford Cathedral of Bishop Cantelupe, of the
date A. D. 1287, is a fine and early specimen, in very fair preservation.
In the north aisle of the abbey church, Shrewsbury, are some remains of a
stone shrine, which from the workmanship may be considered as a production
of the early part of the fifteenth century: this is much mutilated: but
the shrine of St. Frideswide, in Oxford Cathedral, the lower part of which
is composed of a stone tomb, the upper part of rich tabernacle-work of
wood, is still tolerably perfect: this is also of the fifteenth century.
Of the small movable feretories, one apparently of the workmanship of the
twelfth century, seven inches long and six high, formed of wood, enamelled
and gilt, with figures on the sides representing the crucifixion, is still
preserved in Shipley Church, Sussex; and a small stone reliquary or shrine
of the fourteenth century was discovered a few years ago, and is now
preserved in the church of Brixworth, Northamptonshire.
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