St Peter upon Cornhill

The church of St Peter upon Cornhill stands on the highest point of the City of London, above the site of the old London roman Basilica (built c. AD90-AD120), with the eastern end and high altar being directly above the position where some basilicas of the period had a pagan shrine room. Immediately to the east of St Peter's, excavations under Gracechurch Street unearthed an adjoining room covered in yellow panels with a black border, 'with a tessellated floor, suggesting it may have had a higher status than normal, possibly acting as an antechamber for the aedes or shrine-room'. The alignment of the church is close to the lines of the basilica, being off by just two degrees and it is feasible for the understructure to have utilized the dry solid 2nd Century basilica wall fabric for support.[1]

A tradition grew up that the church was founded by Lucius, the first Christian King in Britain sometime after his conversion in AD179. He dedicated it to St Peter the Apostle and the church became the seat of an archbishop until the coming of the Saxons in the 5th century, after which London was abandoned and Canterbury became the seat for the 6th-century Gregorian mission to the Kingdom of Kent.[2]

The roman basilica, with most of the forum to the south, is thought to have been largely demolished around 300 AD,[3] with building material being removed (possibly for other projects) and the land levelled and eventually covered with a thick layer of dark soil. Whether St Peter's was in existence at this point, and continued to serve as a place of worship, or whether the Lucius story is a fable and the first St Peter's was only established many centuries later may only be determined by future archaeological investigation under the present church.

Two other facts however, may give credence to a Roman past. The first is that it is known that London sent a bishop, Restitutus, to the Council of Arles in 314 AD. Restitutus must have had a church base. Secondly, in 1417, the Mayor of London determined (during a dispute) that St Peter's was the first church founded in London.[4] Given that three other medieval churches also sat on the site of the Roman basilica, this suggests there may have been something in St Peter's location and longevity that justified it predating the others. Furthermore, given that St Paul's Cathedral was founded in 604, this clearly implies that Londoners in 1417 considered St Peters to have been founded pre-600.[5]

The London historian John Stow, writing at the end of the 16th century, reported "there remaineth in this church a table whereon is written, I know not by what authority, but of a late hand, that King Lucius founded the same church to be an archbishop's see metropolitan,[6] and chief church of his kingdom, and that it so endured for four hundred years".[7] The "table" (tablet) seen by Stow was destroyed when the medieval church was burnt in the Great Fire of London,[8] but before this time a number of writers had recorded what it said. The text of the original tablet as printed by John Weever in 1631 began:

Be hit known to al men, that the yeerys of our Lord God an clxxix [AD 179]. Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond, then callyd Brytayne, fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent Peter apon Cornhyl, and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant, and cheef Chirch of this kingdom...[9]

A replacement, in the form of an inscribed brass plate, was set up after the Great Fire[8] and still hangs in the church vestry. The text of the brass plate has been printed several times, for example by George Godwin in 1839,[10] and an engraving of it was included in Robert Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata (1819–25).[11]

Regardless of the Lucius connection, St Peter's is clearly one of the earliest churches in London. The date of the medieval church is uncertain but the first definitive reference was around 1038, when Ælfric II, bishop of Elmham, left a messauge (a dwelling with adjacent buildings and land) in his will to "St. Peter binnon Lunden" (St Peter in London).[12] In 1156 it is mentioned in a charter of Henry II. A list of vicars in the church records the first known appointment as one John de Cabanicig in 1263, with the patronage being claimed by Pope Urban IV for 'long voidance'.[13] In 1444 a "horsemill" was given to St Peter's. The bells of St Peter are mentioned in 1552, when a bell foundry in Aldgate was asked to cast a new bell.

The church possessed a fine and ancient library and scriptorium, in use up to circa 1548. Sir John Crosby (died 1475) left money for the repairing of the library in his will.[14] It also contained a manuscript copy of the St. Jerome Vulgate that was written there in 1290. This scriptorium became a grammar school, certainly by 1425. However, this adjoining library 'is no longer extant and its exact location is not certain'.[15]

In June 1834 14-year-old Elizabeth Mounsey became the organist of St Peter's. She remained in the position for 48 years, until her resignation in 1882.[25] The organ in the gallery of St Peter's has an autographed souvenir quote from a J.S. Bach Passacaglia on display, which Felix Mendelssohn gave to Mounsey on 30 September 1840 after he gave an impromptu performance on the church's organ.[26]

In the 1830s, the notable missionary William Jowett was a lecturer at the church.[27]