The church of St. John Baptist has a history quite different from that of the other parish churches and is specially interesting as a building belonging to a very limited class, namely, Collegiate Churches owned by a Gild.  Though Dugdale says that the “first and most antient of the Gilds here was founded in the 14th Ed. III (1340)” it is probable that, as in other places, religious gilds had for long existed here and that the royal license or Charter of this date was like that of Stratford-on-Avon in 1332, really a reconstitution or confirmation of the Gild’s rights, privileges and possessions.

This earliest one was known as the Merchant or St. Mary’s Gild and its first ordinances provided that “the brethren and sisteren of the gild shall find as many chaplains as the means of the gild can well afford.”  Then in 1342 that of St. John Baptist and in 1343 that of St. Katharine was founded.  The former at once founded a chantry of six priests to sing mass daily in the churches of St. Michael and the Trinity for “the souls of the King’s progenitors and for the good estate of the King, Queen Isabella his mother, Queen Philippa his Consort and their children” and others, besides the members of the Gild.  In 1344 this Gild, desiring to have a building for its exclusive use, received from Queen Isabella a small piece of land called Babbelak on which to build a chapel in honour of God and St. John, two priests being required to sing masses daily for the souls “of her dear lord Edward,” John, Earl of Cornwall and others.  Did she seek to satisfy her conscience thus for the woes she had brought upon her dear lord? The site thus given measured 117 feet from north to south and about 40 feet from east to west giving room for the chancel only of the present church, this being dedicated in 1350.  But in 1357 William Walsheman, valet to the Queen and now her sub-bailiff in Coventry gave further land, added a new aisle and increased the number of priests while the Black Prince in 1359 gave a small plot on which, perhaps, the tower and transept now stand.  Within the next ten years Walsheman and Christiana his wife gave to the Gild certain tenements, called the “Drapery,” in the city to build a chapel in honour of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John, and St. Katharine “within the Chapel of Bablake.”  William Wolfe, mayor in 1375, is mentioned as a “great helper” in the work at the church, the original nave and aisles being probably built at this time, and some reconstruction of the choir.  Records are wanting of the subsequent alterations which gave it its present form.  The north clearstory of the nave shows the original design while that of the choir and the south side of the nave belong to the fifteenth century as do the tower and the cruciform arrangement of the building.  Leland’s “Itinerary” gives the following description:  “There is also a Collegiate Church at Bablake, hard within the West Gate (Spon Gate) alias Bablake Gate, dedicated to St. John....  It is of the foundation of the Burgesses and there is a great Privilege, Gild or Fraternity.  In this College is now a Master and eight ministers and lately twelve ministers.”  Stowe adds that there were twelve singing men and extant deeds mention “Babbelake Hall” in which the warden and priests lived.