10 The Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Salisbury. 



The minutes of the vestry show that at this time there was a step 



or small platform beneath the fifteenth century window, which is 



now within the small chamber (probably an oratory). This 



window is in three lights, and contains good remains of fifteenth 



century coloured glass : — St. Christopher and the divine infant, in 



the middle light; with St. Thomas of Canterbury carrying the 



Canterbury Cross and wearing an episcopal glove on his left hand 



and a ring on his right hand, in the light on the right hand side. 



The left hand light contains the head and shoulders of a figure, 



the remainder of which is lost ; the robe is of ermine — a symbol 



of majesty — the right hand is raised in blessing. There was a 



representation of Cod the Father in the east windows of both St. 



Edmund's and St. Thomas', and, as is generally known, Henry 



Sherfield, the Recorder, in Laud's time obtained leave to replace 



the figure in St. Edmund's Church by clear glass, but to show 



publicly his great hatred of idolatry he smashed the window with 



his staff, for which he was punished by the Star Chamber, and to 



prevent a possible scandal of the same kind at St. Thomas', Mr. 



Sub-Dean ordered the figure to be- removed from St. Thomas' east 



window. The churchwardens' accounts for 1583 include a payment 



of 4d. to 



" Hacker for puttinge oute the picture of the father in ye east windowe 

 at Mr. Subdean's comrnaundment." 



In later days this fragment of glass was found, and placed in. 

 this window, but passed as a representation of St. Osmund. When 

 complete the figure was apparently a representation of the Trinity. 



The under chamber, which now contains the apparatus for heating 

 the Church, was in the seventeenth century used as a skull-house. 

 In 1687 the commissioners ordered it to be emptied and the bones 

 buried. It is said that one of the old beams which were taken 

 out of the skull-house bore an inscription which originally asked 

 people to pray for the souls of William Swayne and his wife, but 

 that in the time of James I. some loyalist painted out the names 

 of Swayne and his wife and substituted that of the king, the 

 painter, however, leaving in the word " souls," regardless of the 

 fact that even a king has no more than one soul. 



