CHAPTER II

ST. MARTIN’S-LE-GRAND

This foundation, by reason of its antiquity and religious objects, should have been venerable, but it became, by its claims, privileges, and position, an institution hateful and detestable, long before the Monastic Houses fell into disrepute. It had its origin certainly before the Conquest, but how long before cannot be ascertained. Tradition made Wythred, King of Kent, its founder in the seventh century. We need not trouble ourselves with the reasons which make this tradition impossible. Safe ground is touched about the year 1056, when St. Martin’s was either founded, or endowed, by Ingelric and Girard [Edward], two brothers, for a Dean and Secular Canons. In 1068 a Charter was granted to the College by William:—

“I William, etc.... grant, and by my royal authority for ever corroborate and confirm to God and the Church of the blessed Martin, situate within the walls of London, which the aforesaid Ingelric and Girard his brother, from their own revenues, and in atonement of their faults, honourable built to the praise of God, and for the Canonical Rule therein to be held and observed for ever. Now these are the names of the lands, Estre in Essex, with the Berewic of Maissebery and Norton, and Stanford, and Fobbinge, and Benedict, and Christehal, and Tolesfunte, and Rowenhal, and Angre, together with their appendages, the meadows, pastures, woods, mills, and all to them belonging; and in Benefleot one hide, and in Hoddesdon one hide, also the church of Mealdon with two hides of Land, and the tithes and all things to it appertaining. Moreover also, on my own part, I give and grant to the said Church, for the redemption of the souls of my father and mother, all the land and moor without the postern, which is called Cripelesgate on either side of the postern, to wit, from the Northern angle of the City wall, where a rivulet of springs, near thereto flowing, marks it out (_i.e._ the moor) from the wall, as far as the running-water which enters the City. I grant to it besides all the Churches and all the tithes, lands also and houses, which the faithful in Christ have already given to it within and without London, or shall in future bestow....

This Charter was renewed or confirmed by Henry the First and by Stephen.

Among the various historical points connected with St. Martin’s, the following may be noted as the most important.

Henry the Second granted to the Canons a free court of all their men and tenants: they were not to be impleaded out of it except before the King and the Chief Justice.

The Saddlers’ Guild became connected with the Church of St. Martin’s—a fact which shows that the college was not wholly regarded as a sanctuary for criminals.

In 1235 Henry the Third upheld the Canons’ Court against the City.

The erection of St. Leonard’s Parish Church on the confines of the Precinct in 1236 points to a restriction of St. Martin’s Church to the College or sanctuary. But there are other instances, _e.g._ that of St. Catherine Cree, in which a parish church was, for convenience, built outside the Monastic Precinct.

The buildings of St. Martin’s were improved and rebuilt by its Dean, William de Wykeham, about 1367.

Pope Innocent the Third exempted the Royal Chapels from Excommunication or Interdict.

Edward the First forbade Cardinals sent from Rome to receive procuration from St. Martin’s.

In 14 Edw. II. the College, under a _Quo Warranto_ heard at the Tower, relinquished any claim to receive toll within the City.

By Rich. II. St. Martin’s was exempted from tenths, fifteenths, tallages, aids, and all contributions or quotas by the King.

St. Martin’s was by far the largest, the safest, and the best-protected of all the English sanctuaries. The meaning and the development of the theory of sanctuary have been considered already (p. 201). At first it meant little more than a temporary asylum, where criminals could find shelter while they sought for means to redeem their offence by paying the penalty attached by Saxon Law. Every Monastic House, every church, the King’s Palace, were all sanctuaries. But a sanctuary within the walls of the City, which was not a place of temporary refuge, not a place, such as a church, in which the fugitive could be starved into surrender, but a place in which every kind of criminal might find an asylum and safe retreat for life, a place which practically defied the arm of the Law and the hand of Justice, was certain to become an intolerable burden to a law-abiding city. And so St. Martin’s actually did become. Again and again the City of London revolted in vain against its powers; again and again cases were vainly laid in the courts against the Dean and Chapter.

The Precinct is almost exactly occupied by the present Post Office and Telegraph Offices of St. Martin’s-le-Grand.

About the year 1285 it was judged expedient to close a lane leading from St. Vedast, Foster Lane, to St. Nicholas Shambles through the Precinct of St. Martin’s because it had become the safe haunt for thieves and rogues.

In 1381, during Wat Tyler’s rebellion, Roger Legat, “quest monger” or collector, was torn from the High Altar of St. Martin’s and beheaded in Cheapside.

In 1405 the citizens petitioned Henry the Fourth for the abolition of St. Martin’s privileges as to sanctuary, on the ground that it sheltered murderers, thieves, and fraudulent debtors. It was, however, impossible to hope that Henry, who owed his crown largely to the support of the Church, could do anything so contrary to ecclesiastical privilege. It is perhaps astonishing that so simple a plan as the removal of the College bodily to some place in the country, or, at least, without the walls of the City, should not have been suggested.

In 1416 one Henry Kneve, who had taken sanctuary, fled for some reason, leaving behind him a quantity of valuables which he had stolen. These were seized by the Dean’s officers as waif. One would have thought that they would have been restored to their owners.

We have seen (p. 205) the case of the year 1422, when the City fought with all its powers, and by means of its most learned men.

In 1430 the Mayor and Sheriffs withdrew by force from sanctuary a certain Canon. They were, however, compelled to restore him.

One Matthew Philip, Alderman of Aldersgate Ward, denied the right of St. Martin’s Lane, which ran through the Precinct, to be privileged, and demanded certain payments on account of taxes or tallage to be paid there. On being refused, he levied by distress. He, too, had to give way, and offered the Dean, by way of reconciliation, a supper.

It must not be supposed that sanctuary men lived in St. Martin’s for nothing. On the contrary, the great cost of living within the Precinct was a source of considerable profit to the Canons, and was doubtless one of the reasons why the place was continued. Many of the refugees took advantage of the immunities of the place to make counterfeit goldsmiths’ work. Hence the phrase “false St. Martin’s beads.” It is noteworthy, however, that in 1447 the Goldsmiths’ Company, by permission of the Dean, although against the privileges of the place, searched the Precinct, and took away all the counterfeit work they could find, while the Dean consigned the offenders to the College Prison.

St. Martin’s, during the Wars of the Roses, served as a refuge and an asylum for many persons of consideration. William Oldehall, the Duke of York’s Chamberlain, was one of them. Henry demanded his surrender, but withdrew his order. Shortly after, Oldehall was charged with breaking sanctuary in order to commit murder. The Alderman of Aldersgate broke into St. Martin’s and carried him off, but, as in every other case, had to bring him back with gifts of atonement to the Canons.

In 1455 the City was highly provoked by the lawlessness of the sanctuary men. The Mayor and Aldermen, at the head of the citizens, forced the sanctuary and took out the ringleaders. The Dean complained, but it was the time of the outbreak of the Civil Wars, and his complaint appears to have passed unheeded.

In the following year the sanctuary men joined the citizens in attacking aliens. But, indeed, the fact proves nothing except the readiness of the lawless to commit lawless actions.

In 1457 the following Articles were drawn up for the reformation of the sanctuary, no doubt in deference to the complaints of the citizens:—

The Dean was to be sworn to keep the said Articles:

(1) Refugees to make known their reasons for taking sanctuary, and the same to be registered in a book with the refugee’s name.

(2) Refugees to deliver up weapons or armour, except a pointless knife for meat.

(3) A notorious thief entering the sanctuary must give good security for the time he remains there and three months after; failing such security, he is to be committed to ward, in the sanctuary, but may depart from the sanctuary if he will.

(4) The outer gates and posterns of the sanctuary to be closed from 9 P.M. to 6 A.M., Allhallows to Candlemas, and the rest of the year from 9 P.M. to 4 A.M., or till the commencement of the first mass there. Refugees for felony or treason to remain in sanctuary all night.

(5) Fugitives to be deprived of stolen goods they may bring into the sanctuary, and the same to be restored if possible to the owners. No one to buy such goods in the sanctuary, but if such purchase be proved, the buyer to make satisfaction to the owner.

(6) Any sanctuary man leaving the sanctuary to commit crime, is to be put to ward in the sanctuary, and if he wish to depart the sanctuary he shall do so at a given hour in daytime.

(7) Persons guilty of certain offences, as lock-picking, forgers of seals, evidences, workers of counterfeit gold and silver work not to be suffered in the sanctuary. Persons suspected of such to be committed to ward till they find sufficient security.

(8) Vicious persons not to be “suspected” in the sanctuary. If any be there, they to be put to open ward in the daytime till shame cause them to depart, or they amend their evil ways.

(9) That deceitful games be not played in the sanctuary.

(10) Barbers and artificers to keep Sundays as the citizens of London do, if they break this ordinance they to be put in ward. They to use their crafts according to the ordinances of the same City.

(11) Every person taking sanctuary to be sworn on a book, to obey these ordinances.

Among others who took sanctuary in St. Martin’s during the Civil Wars were the Countess of Oxford; Anne Neville, afterwards Richard’s Queen; and Miles Forrest, one of the murderers of the young Princes in the Tower. The tradition was that he “rotted away piecemeal”—probably he was one of the late victims to leprosy, which was then rapidly vanishing.

In 1498 Henry the Seventh endowed the Abbey of Westminster and his Lady Chapel there with St. Martin’s-le-Grand, so that the Abbot became the Dean of the College. A new seal was made. Also a new and a more powerful defender of sanctuary was created. It was not until 1548, when all chantries, free chapels, and brotherhoods were granted to the King, that the College was dissolved and the church was demolished. Even then the privileges of sanctuary survived, though under greatly modified conditions.

The church, as appeared from the excavations in 1818, was more than 200 feet long. After it was pulled down, tenements called the New Rents were erected on its site. On the place of the high altar was a wine tavern.

During the reign of Elizabeth, most of the inhabitants were foreigners—French, German, Dutch, and Scotch. By the freedom of the Precinct they could trade without being free of the City: among them were shoemakers, tailors, buttermakers, goldsmiths, purse-makers, stationers, silk weavers, and silk throwsters. The number of the foreigners of St. Martin’s in 1593 was 196.

In 1697 whatever privileges of sanctuary remained were abolished.

The Act of 1815, providing for the site of the new Post Office, reserved to the inhabitants the right to trade without being freemen of the City; the Court of St. Martin’s remained undisturbed; and the inhabitants were entitled to vote at Parliamentary Elections as Electors of Westminster.

There is an immense mass of material in connection with this ancient House, but the above seems to embody the matters of importance. It may be added that the College possessed considerable property outside Aldersgate; that St. Botolph’s Church was united with St. Martin’s in 1399, and seems to have been farmed to the Priory of St. Bartholomew. The French Protestant Church, now in Soho Square, was situated in St. Martin’s from 1841 to 1877.

St. Martin’s was one of the churches where the Curfew Bell was rung every night; the other churches, from time to time, being those of St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Laurence, St. Giles Cripplegate, and All Hallows Barking.

The common opinion of the citizens in the sixteenth century regarding the sanctuary is set forth by Stow. He, it must be remembered, was able to recollect the actual working of sanctuary, while St. Martin’s was still a living and acting Foundation.

“This St. Martin’s appears to have been a Sanctuary for great Disorders, and a shelter for the loosest sort of People: Rogues and Ruffians, Thieves and Felons and Murderers. From hence used to rush violent persons, Committers of Riots, Robberies, and Manslaughters: Hither they brought in their preys and stolen goods, and concealed them here, and shared or sold them to those that dwelt here. Here were also harboured Picklocks, Counterfeiters of Keys and Seals, Forgers of false Evidences, such as made counterfeit chains, beads, ouches plate, Copper gilt for gold: nay, common strumpets and Bawds, Gamesters and Players at Hazard and Dice, and other unlawful games. And lastly profaners of Sundays, and other Festival days, exercising their crafts thereon.

And again, to this licentiousness was this Sanctuary grown in these times, that in Henry VII.’s reign, one coming hither for Sanctuary, the Sheriffs took him thence by violence, and brought him away. But observe what followed: The Abbot of Westminster (to whom this college now belonged) in the year of Henry VII. exhibited a bill to the king against these sheriffs for arresting and drawing out with force a privileged person, out of the sanctuary of St. Martin’s belonging to the said Abbey. Which matter was heard in the Court of the Star Chamber, before the Lords and others of the King’s Counsel, and Hody and Newton, chief Justices. Which Justices determined that by Law, the Party ought to enjoy the privilege of sanctuary: and the Sheriffs were grievously fined by particular named.” (Stow’s _Survey_, vol. i.)

After the Dissolution some of the liberties of the place, as we have seen, remained. And the last condition of the precinct was almost worse than the first.

“Because of the Liberty enjoyed by such as lived within these bounds, many Foreigners, English and others, Tradesmen and Artificers, planted themselves here. In 1585 a Survey was taken of all the strangers, being French, German, Dutch and Scots, inhabiting here and their occupations. Many of them were cordwainers, that is shoemakers (which trade still continues there), Taylors (hence the tallymen who sold shreds of Cloth; and Button makers, and Button-mold-makers, that remained there even until the great Fire in my remembrance). Here inhabited also Strangers, Goldsmiths, Purse-makers, Linen-drapers, some Stationers, some Merchants, silk weavers. Here lived also two silk twisters, who I suppose were the first silk throwers in London, and brought the trade into England. And for remembrance sake, I shall set down their names: the one was John James, born under the Dominion of King Philip, and made Denizen the 19th of December, the 10th of the Queen. The other was Anthony Emerick, born also under the obedience of King Philip, and made Denizen the 1st of January an 17 regin Elisabethæ. There were also upon that survey aforesaid, found to be of householders (Denizens as well as others), their Wives, Children, and Servants, one hundred and fifty in number. Which nevertheless was less by half than was some years before: for in 1569 their number was 269. There was a Constable and a Headborough for this liberty. But divers things here wanted provided for: in respect whereof they that lived out of the Liberty were in better condition. Sundry of the inhabitants refused to watch and ward, when upon occasion they were required, as good subjects and honest neighbours so to do. They refused to contribute to such taxes and payments as were set upon them for Her Majesty’s service, with the rest of their neighbours. Several visited with the sickness would not obey the Orders appointed in that behalf: that is, they would not keep their doors and windows shut, nor keep themselves within their houses: but walked forth, and struck out the red cross set upon their doors, and threatened mischief to any that should come to set crosses there. And some repaired to the Court with their Wares, a thing dangerous to the Queen and Nobility. There was no prison in the said liberty to commit such as should be troublesome and offensive, but the Gatehouse in Westminster: which was in another Shire, and out of the Liberty. And so they that were thus committed, commonly brought their actions against those that committed them, and put them to great trouble.

Hence in the year 1593, the officers and inhabitants petitioned the Lord Treasurer to grant them such good ordinances for the redress of the said disorders, and sufficient authority for the execution of the same, for the good government of the said liberty: and conversation of the people in peace: as to his Lordship’s discreet wisdom should be thought fit. And that they might have a prison and execution of justice within the precinct of their liberty. And that he would send his letters to the Constable and Headborough, to find out a convenient place for such purpose: and to assess all the inhabitants of the liberty to the charge thereof. The Lord Treasurer recommended this matter to Serjeant Owen, and Mr. Lewis, Lawyers: who gave their Judgments, that for all matters for the service of the Queen, the inhabitants were compelled to perform the same. But for other matters, they must make some Bye-Laws and Orders among themselves, to bind themselves to performance.” (Maitland.)