CHAPTER XXVII

THE SMALLER FOUNDATIONS

Among the Houses mentioned by Arnold FitzThedmar are two or three not considered in the above enumeration. There are the Houses of St. Anne by the Tower Hill, St. James in the Temple, St. James in the Wall, St. Stephen’s at Westminster, St. Thomas’ Chapel of the Bridge, St. James in the Field, St. Mary Magdalen Guildhall, St. Mary Rouncevall, and St. Ursula in the Poultry. There are one or two others which shall here be briefly mentioned.

Concerning many of these Houses, so little is known that the list becomes merely a catalogue. The position of these smaller Houses in the City in some respects corresponded to that of the humbler Dissenting Chapels of the present day. That is to say, although at the time there could be no thought of separation or of schism, the poor folk found themselves more at home in the smaller Houses. With them they had their Craft Fraternities; their priests were not the great Ecclesiastical Lords of the stately Abbeys and priories, but of humbler guise, men accessible to themselves.

THE ORDER OF PENITENCE OR FRATRES DE SACCÂ

The Order of Penitence grew out of the teaching of Francis of Assisi very early in his career. It was brought under rule by the Bull “Significatum est,” dated December 16, 1221, but it is said to have existed before this date.

Among other things, the order actually forbade the carrying of arms. They anticipated the Quakers, they anticipated the Peace Society, they were many centuries in advance of mankind. Like the Quakers, they did not understand that the very existence of a people under the conditions of the time—and of our time as well—rests upon force and strength of arms.

The great innovation designed by the Third Order was concord; this fraternity was a union of peace, and it attempted to bring before astonished Europe a new truce of God.

The second essential obligation of the Brothers of Penitence appears to have been that of reducing their wants as far as possible, and while preserving their fortunes, to distribute to the poor, at proper intervals, such portions of the revenue as remained after contenting themselves with the strict necessaries of life.

To carry on with contentment and uprightness the duties of their calling; to seek a holy inspiration for the slightest actions of life; to find in the infinitely little and ephemeral events of existence, the things apparently the most commonplace, the handiwork of the Almighty; to keep pure from debasing deeds, words, thoughts, ambitions, and interests, to use things as if not possessing them, like the servants in the parable who knew that they would have to give an account of the talents confided to them; to close their hearts to hatred; to open them wide to pity; to give their aid to the old, the poor, the infirm, the diseased, the outcast and the abandoned: such were the other essential duties of this most excellent Order of Penitence.

The letter to all Christians in which these thoughts break forth is a living souvenir of St. Francis’s teachings to the Tertiaries. To represent these latter to ourselves in a perfectly concrete form, we may resort to the legend of St. Lucchesio, whom tradition makes the first Brother of Penitence.

And the history of the first Brother of Penitence may be thus condensed into a short narrative:—

A native of a little city of Tuscany, he quitted it to avoid its political enmities, and established himself at Poggibonsi, not far from Sienna, where he continued to trade in grain. Already rich, it was not difficult for him to buy up all the wheat, and, selling it in a time of scarcity, realise enormous profits. But he was disturbed in conscience: he was convinced—it is exactly like the report of a Salvation Army meeting—by the preaching of Francis of Assisi: he was enabled to see himself from the outside—which is indeed the beginning of all repentance and conviction: he resolved to bestow the whole of his superfluous wealth upon the poor, and to keep nothing at all but his house with a small garden and one ass. From that time he was to be seen devoting himself to the cultivation of his ground and the conversion of his house into a sort of free hostelry, which was filled with the poor and the sick. He not only welcomed them, but he sought them out, even to the malaria-infested Maremma, often returning with a sick man astride on his back and preceded by his ass bearing a similar burden. The resources of the garden were necessarily limited: when there was no other way, Lucchesio took a wallet and went from door to door asking alms, but most of the time this was needless, for his poor guests, seeing him so diligent and so good, were better satisfied with a few poor vegetables from the garden, shared with him, than with the most copious repast. In the presence of their benefactor, so joyful in his destitution, they forgot, it is said, their own poverty—one reads with doubt this statement,—and the habitual murmurs of the poor, half-starved and diseased creatures were transformed into outbursts of admiration and gratitude. Conversion had not killed in him all family ties: Donna Bona his wife, became his fellow-labourer, and when in 1260 he saw her gradually fading away, his grief was too deep to be endured. “You know, dear companion,” he said to her when she had received the last sacraments, “how much we have loved one another while we could serve God together: why should we not remain united until we depart to the ineffable joy? Wait for me. I also will receive the sacraments, and go to heaven with you.”

So he spoke, and called back the priest to administer them to him. Then after holding the hands of his dying consort, comforting her with gentle words, when he saw that her soul was gone, he made over her the sign of the cross, stretched himself beside her, and calling with love upon Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis, he fell asleep for eternity.

The Order, therefore, known as Penitentiarii or Fratres de Saccâ Order, consisted of both men and women: the latter were _Sorores de Pœnitentia_. They might be married, in which case conjugal abstinence was enjoined on certain days; but they could not marry after admission; they might individually or collectively hold property. They came over in the year 1257, and they remained until 1307, when their Order was dissolved. They had for their House the old Jewish Synagogue of Old Jewry, and apparently were always quite a small fraternity. Beside their London House there were seven Houses of the Order in England, viz. at Lynn, whose Prior was the head of the Order; at Canterbury, Cambridge, Norwich, Worcester, Lincoln, and Leicester.

Their House, on the suppression in 1307, was handed over to Robert FitzWalter: it was the same house which afterward belonged to Robert Large, to whom Caxton was apprenticed; it stood at the north-east corner of the Old Jewry.

ST. JAMES ON THE WALL

If one stands in the south-west part of St. Giles’ churchyard, Cripplegate, one can observe the bastion of the old stone wall which still exists there. Within this bastion, in the corner of the wall at the end of Monkwell Street, was formerly a small religious House, a cell of Garendon Abbey called St. James’s in the Wall; it was originally a Hermitage, and it was placed in the corner no doubt for the same reason that the Greyfriars’ was placed in the next corner going westward, as in a place unoccupied and out of the way of business.

The founder of the Hermitage is said to have been Henry the Third. Wilkinson (_Londina Illustrata_) thinks that it was founded as a Chantry Chapel endowed for a single priest; but the Hermit appears at a very early period. There is a deed quoted by Wilkinson, dated 1253, which mentions the Chapel. In 1275 it is found that the guardian of the place was the Mayor of London. He was appointed by the King for a curious reason—viz. to prevent the spoliation of the place and the robbery of the chalices, vestments, etc., on the decease of the Hermit. The custody of the Hermitage, a few years later, was transferred to the Constable of the Tower, Anthony Beck, afterwards Bishop of Durham. In 1299 the care of the cell was given to the Abbey of Garendon in Leicestershire, I know not why. Newcourt relates an anecdote of the Hermit of 1311, which illustrates the jealousy always felt by parish priests of Hermits and others who intruded into their office:—

“I find, that in the year 1311 (Ralph de Baldock, being then Bp. of London), and Thomas de Wyreford, an Hermit of this Cell (a presumptuous, troublesome Man, it seems) took upon him to hear Confessions of People of the neighbouring Parishes, to enjoyn Penances, to grant Indulgences for 500 Days to such as frequented his Hermitage, and the like, having no lawful Authority so to do. For which Offences he was judicially proceeded against by the Bishop, and pronounc’d Guilty, and to be a Transgressor of the Canons; whereupon he was admonish’d to make Satisfaction for the same, within 15 days, and inhibited to do the like, as also were the People warn’d not to follow, or to be seduc’d by him, under Pain of Excommunication.” (Newcourt, vol. i.)

In 1315 the custody of the place was committed to one Walter Kemesey: in 1343 William de Lyons was the Hermit. In 1347 the Abbey of Garendon sent two chaplains here to pray for the soul of the Earl of Pembroke, who was killed in a tournament on the day of his third marriage, and of his widow, who retired from the world, and devoted herself to acts of piety and charity.

In 1543 the site of the Hermitage was granted by Henry the Eighth to William Lambe, citizen and clothworker, one of the gentlemen of the King’s-house here.

The Fire seems to have damaged, but not destroyed, this Chapel. It was rebuilt with considerable alterations, and continued to be used as a church until its demolition in 1825, when a crypt of great interest was found below. It is described in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of May 1825 by Mr. A. J. Kempe.

“He there states that the recent demolition of the upper part of Lambe’s Chapel for the purpose of rebuilding it gave access to the curious vault occupying the space beneath. After descending ten or twelve narrow steps, a low vaulted chamber was entered, 26 feet long from east to west, and 20 feet broad; having in it originally nine short round columns, six of which were remaining, supporting the groined roof of the apartment. The capitals of these columns were Saxon, ornamented with leaves and volutes at the angles, and the capitals of the four corner pillars were placed diagonally to the square of the building. Some of the intersecting stone ribs springing from the columns were plain, and others were adorned with zigzag, twisted, and other ancient mouldings; specimens of which, with one of the pillars, and a plan of the directions of the arches, are given on the right hand of the lower part of the present Engraving of old Lambe’s Chapel. On the other side of the corresponding part of the same Plate is a Section of the ornamented mouldings from one of the arches; and leaning against the wall, in the Interior View at the top of the Plate, is represented a Ground-plan of the Crypt, with the Outside of the Chapel. The material of which this Crypt was constructed was freestone, of a reddish colour, the surface being very considerably decomposed; and several modern brick walls intersected the building.” (_Londina Illustrata_, vol. i.)

THE ROLLS HOUSE

The very curious and interesting history of the “Rolls House” was told for the first time, as regards its original objects, by Mr. W. P. W. Phillimore, Editor of the _London and Middlesex Note-Book_, 1896. I refer the reader to that paper for fuller details. In this place the leading facts only are taken.

Newcourt, after relating the origin of the House, says that the number of converts decayed when the Jews were banished in 1290; therefore the House in 1377 was given to William Burstall, Keeper of the Rolls: that, nevertheless, “such of the Jews as have in this Realm been converted to Christianity have been relieved there.” It will be seen that this bald statement conveys a very erroneous idea of the place and its history.

In 1232 Henry the Third made an annual grant of 700 marks for the maintenance of those Jews who had been converted to Christianity, for finding them a home and for building them a church. This sum was to be paid out of the Exchequer until the House should possess property of its own equivalent. At the same time the King founded a similar House at Oxford. The number of converts became comparatively large: in 1256 the King’s almoner provided cloth for 150 robes for the converts; in 1257, 171 tunics for Easter and 164 for Pentecost; in 1265 the House was enlarged; in 1267 a third chaplain was added; in 1275 the chapel was enlarged; in 1280 King Edward sanctioned certain rules for the government of the House, especially ordering that the inmates should work at their own handicraft, and if they were able to earn their own living, they should not be allowed to draw the allowance made to all. He also granted to the converts half the value of all their possessions, the whole of which belonged by right to himself; with the chevage or head tax of all the Jews in England. This chevage for 1281 amounted to £14: 14: 9, which, at 3d. a head, means only 1179 Jews in all England—a figure which by no means agrees with the number of those who were banished in 1290.

The revenues of the House for this year were a little over £50, in addition to which they had the annual grant from the Exchequer of £53: 6: 8.

In 1290 the number of converts had gone down to 80. The original occupants of the House must by this time have died and their children have become merged in the general population. The absence of any traditional caste or class, such as that of the _Cagots_ in the South of France, is a proof that this absorption into the general population was complete.

In that year the converts petitioned the King for a Keeper who would look after their interests. It is noted that during the next hundred years many of the Keepers of the Domus Conversorum were also Keepers of the Rolls.

However, the King answered the petition by fixing the allowance for the House at £202: 0: 4, out of which the Fabric was to be kept up, the Master, Chaplains, and Clerk were to be paid, and the converts were to receive weekly allowances. On the death of a convert the amount of the grant was to be decreased. It was evidently supposed that the converts would die off. This, however, did not take place. On the other hand, though the numbers rapidly decreased, the House was never without new converts. Mr. Phillimore does not say where these converts came from: if there were no Jews left in England there could be no converts made in this country.

In 1308 the converts complained that their allowances were not paid. The King ordered an inquiry. It was found that out of all the inmates in 1290, 34 were dead, twelve had left the House, and 56 were still living there. The King thereupon granted a reduced payment of £123: 10: 6.

In 1330-1 there were 8 men and 13 women converts.

In 1334 there were 7 men and 13 women.

In 1337-8 there were 13 men and as many women.

In 1350 there were 2 men and 2 women.

In 1351 Henry de Ingleby had only 1 convert under his care.

In 1371 William de Burstall, who was Keeper of the Rolls, was made Keeper of the Domus Conversorum: there were then two converts. In 1377, on learning that William de Burstall had repaired the dilapidated buildings, Edward the Third provided that the two offices should be held together.

In 1386 payments were asked for the Keeper, one chaplain, one clerk, and three converts.

It is very curious to find that the supply of converts continued; only once did they wholly cease; there was sometimes only one; then three, four, eight, five, two, and so on. Where, I repeat, did they come from? One woman was named Elizabeth Portugall—evidently a Portuguese Jewess; another was called Elizabeth Baptista; another was “Kateryn Wheteley,” sometime called Aysa Rudeywa; another, Mary Coke, alias “Omell Fayll Isya.”

Thomas Cromwell was made Keeper in 1534. In his term of office he held a Court of Law at the House: yet it was not without converts. In 1550, when John Beaumont became keeper, he had but one convert, the above-named Mary Coke.

When Mary Coke died in 1551 (?), there followed a period of 26 years when there were no converts at all. In 1578 Yehoude Mende appears followed by Fortuna Massa, Philip Ferdinando and Elizabeth Ferdinando. In 1606-7 there were four converts. And then the allowances cease.

One Paul Jacob petitioned King James to grant him assistance, but he was not received into the Domus. That part of its history was closed.

In 1708 we hear that the buildings were much dilapidated: in 1717 the Rolls House was built upon the site of the Domus. And the Chapel was used as a muniment room for depositing the rolls of Chancery, until their removal to the Public Record Office.

CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND ALL SAINTS GUILDHALL

The foundation of a college dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen is said by Stow to have taken place in 1299. It appears to have been so much enriched seventy years later by Adam Francis and Henry de Frowick as to have become a new Foundation. A third benefactor, Peter Fantore, died before his intentions were carried out. It was endowed for five chaplains who were to pray for the souls of the Founders, their wives, and their children, King Edward the Third, and all departed Kings, Mayors, Wardens, Sheriffs, and Chamberlains of the City. In the year 1430, the buildings, having become ruinous, were pulled down and others erected on the south side of them. In 1450 the parish clerks obtained leave to have a Guild dedicated to St. Nicholas in the Chapel, with two chaplains and seven almspeople.

At the Dissolution the College had a Warden, seven chaplains, three clerks, and four choristers. The Chapel was given to the Mayor and Aldermen, for whom services were held in it on certain occasions.

In the year 1785 the Chapel was made into a Court of Requests, and so remained until the year 1820, when it was taken down.

THE CHAPEL AND COLLEGE OF LEADENHALL

This very ancient market was the property of the City as early as the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The College was founded by Simon Eyre, draper and Mayor, in 1445, when he also built a granary.

It was to consist of a Warden, five secular priests, six clerks, and two choristers to sing mass daily: there were also to be three schoolmasters with an usher; one master, to wit, with an usher, for grammar; one for writing; and one for singing; the masters were to have a yearly stipend of £10; every other priest £8; every clerk £5: 6: 8; and every chorister £3: 6: 8. Stow says that the conditions of the will were not carried out as regards the services in the Chapel and the free school.

But, in 1466, a Fraternity of the Holy Trinity was founded in connection with the Chapel by three priests. It consisted of 60 priests with other brothers and sisters. They performed divine service every market day in the afternoon, and once a year they had a solemn service with a procession of all the Fraternity. The property of this Fraternity amounted to £7: 10s. yearly.

The chapel escaped the Great Fire. It was pulled down in 1812. Wilkinson thus describes it:—

“This Chapel projected eastward from the exterior of the eastern cloisters of Leadenhall, from which it was entered by a large arched doorway, having the arms of the founder over the centre; and on each side of the interior arch was a perforated Gothic screen, of exquisite workmanship. The building was oblong, and was divided on the exterior sides into four parts, by buttresses reaching nearly to the roof, and separating as many large windows of the depressed pointed arch form, each parted into three lights, by stone mullions with cinquefoil arches; the window at the eastern end being considerably larger than the other, and containing five lights. On the outside the Chapel was almost completely enclosed by a case of wooden sheds, which reached nearly to the bases of the windows. It was covered with rafters and tiling of the coarsest modern workmanship, instead of the ancient roof, which had been pointed, and was supported within by carved brackets of chestnut wood, resting on corbels let into the walls against the buttresses: but of those brackets, only the scrolls and one fragment remained when the building was destroyed. Within the Chapel, at the south-west corner, was a small oaken door curiously studded and panelled, opening into a square apartment, which had probably been the sacristy; against the walls of which Mr. John Thomas Smith discovered some slight remains of painted figures. One of these exhibited the cheek, ear, and side of a head, with long yellow hair, flowing over blue and red drapery; the whole very much resembling the paintings discovered in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, executed in the reign of Edward III. Those at Leadenhall, however, were neither embossed nor gilded; but were outlined and shaded with red ochre.” (Wilkinson, vol. ii.)

THE NUNNERY OF KILBURN

This small House, a cell to the Abbey of Westminster, is, in history, chiefly an account of the jealousies of the Bishop of London and the Abbot of Westminster as to the Episcopal jurisdiction.

Its history is curious. One Godwyn, a recluse, built a hermitage at Kilburn on some land belonging to himself. He conveyed the land to the Abbey of Westminster, by whom a small convent was built on the spot for three ladies, maids of honour to Matilda, Queen of Henry the First. Godwyn became Warden for life, and the Abbey made provision for the maintenance of the nuns.

On the foundation of the nunnery, Gilbert, the Bishop of London, exempted it from his own jurisdiction. This exemption was questioned by Roger le Noir, Bishop in 1229. In 1231 a composition was entered into between the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s on the one side and the Abbot of Westminster on the other.

“By virtue of this agreement the bishop for the time being was to have access to the cell of Kilburn, to be received with procession, to preach, hear confessions, and enjoin penances; but without being entitled to any claim for procurations. It was also conceded that the secular priest, or warden, who was set over the house by the abbat, should, upon his appointment, be presented to the Bishop and pay canonical obedience to him, but to be removable by the abbat alone. That the prioress of the house, though appointed by the abbat and his successors, should be under obedience to the bishop, saving in all things the canonical reverence and subjection which she owed of old to the abbat. That, however, the entire ordering or regulation of the house, concerning matters and persons within its precinct, with the correction of excesses and reformation of its abuses, and the institution or destitution of the prioress and nuns, should belong to the abbat and his successors for ever; provided, that in case any matters requiring persons abiding there, should be neglected by him for the space of a month after warning having been given to him (or in his absence to the Prior) by the bishop, then, upon clear evidence of such neglect of reformation, it should be lawful for the bishop himself to proceed toward correcting and reforming them in such manner as ‘prout secundum Deum viderit expedire.’ It was further ordained that no monk but the abbat (or in vacancy, absence, or illness, the prior) should go near the nuns to hear their confessions and enjoin penance. That the bishop should, when requested by the abbat, perform the office of blessing or consecrating the nuns, but that no other bishop should be in future introduced or admitted at Kilburn to perform any episcopal ceremony. Finally, that neither the bishop nor his chapter should, by reason of this composition, challenge any jurisdiction or subjection over the abbat and monks of Westminster, nor in anything derogate from the rights of the aforesaid nuns, or their cell.” (_London and Middlesex Notes_, pp. 422-423.)

The House received a good many benefactions, but always remained a small Foundation. The revenues, when it was dissolved, amounted to sums variously stated between £74: 7: 11 and £121: 14s. The inventory of all the goods belonging to the nunnery of Kilburn, the 11th day of May, 28th of Henry the Eighth, seems to show that the House was well and completely furnished. It contained a Hall; five chambers for the ladies of the House: Kitchen, Buttery, Pantry, Larder, Brew-house, Bake-house, Cellar; three chambers for the Chaplain and the Husbandmen; the Confession chamber; and the church.

No remains are now to be seen of this House. The last Prioress was Anne Browne.

THE NUNNERY OF STRATFORD-LE-BOW

This Priory was in the Parish of Bromley, but so near to the hamlet of Stratford-le-Bow that it was commonly called after it. The House has been sometimes confused with a Convent of White Monks in the Parish of West Ham, called the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne.

The nunnery, dedicated to St. Leonard, is said to have been founded by William, Bishop of London, in the reign of William the Conqueror. It was always a small house. We read of certain donations and benefactions—lands at Haseling field; the Church of Northim, afterwards called Norton Mandeville; gifts by Henry the Second; the Manor of Bromley; lands held by Idonea Cricket in the reign of Edward the First, by the service of holding the King’s napkin at the Coronation.

Here was buried Elizabeth, sister of Queen Philippa, and daughter of William, Earl of Hainault.

At the Dissolution there were a Prioress and nine nuns. The revenues of the House were estimated, according to Dugdale, at £108: 1: 11-1/2, and according to Speed at £121: 16s. At this time the maintenance of a chantry priest being £5 or £6 a year, the ten nuns would require about £50 for their maintenance, leaving £70 for the House and the service. Sibilla Kirke, the last prioress, received a pension of £15 a year. She was still living in 1553.

The site of the Priory, the advowson of the Church, and the Manor of Bromley, were given to Sir Ralph Saddler. The Chapel is now the Parish Church of Bow.

ST. AUGUSTINE’S PAPEY

The history of this interesting house, previously almost unknown, was rescued by the late Rev. Thomas Hugo, who read a paper on the subject before the _London and Middlesex Archæological Society_ (vol. v.).

It was founded in 1442 by four priests of London, viz. Thomas Symmeson, Rector of All Hallows in the Wall; William Cleve, Priest of the Charity of St. John the Baptist in the Church of St. Mary Aldermary; William Barneby, a Chantry Priest in St. Paul’s Cathedral; and John Stafford, Priest in London. The Foundation was a Hospital or College for aged and impotent Priests. The Churches of the time were filled with Chantry Priests, each of whom had to live upon the very small endowment of a Chantry—generally £6 or £7 a year, sometimes less—in return for a Mass said every day for the soul of the Founder. When age fell upon these men, and they could no longer perform the one simple duty of their life, what could they do? How could they live? We cannot believe that an old and impotent Priest was ever suffered to starve. At the same time, until the charity of the Papey was founded, the lot of many must have been precarious and dependent and most miserable.

The Papey was situated within the wall just at the north end of the street now called “St. Mary Axe.” In the _Collections of a London Citizen_ (Camden Society) it is written “Pappy Chyrche in the walle be twyne Aldgate and Bevysse Markes. And hit ys a grete Fraternyte of prestys and other segular men. And there were founde of almys certayne prestys both blynde and lame that be empotent: and they have day masse and xiiij a weke, barber, and launder, and one to dresse and provyde for hyr mete and drynke.” They also had allowance of bread and coal, with one aged man and his wife to keep the house clean.

The Church and parish of St. Augustine had recently been incorporated with that of All Hallows in the Wall. It was therefore a disused church which was first placed at the service of these poor priests. The Rector of All Hallows, in addition, gave over to their use a certain messuage with a garden which had been given to All Hallows by a late citizen. The community, so formed, was to be in honour of St. Charity and St. John the Evangelist. This name, however, was never given to the house by the people, who called it still St. Augustine, qualified by the words De Papey—_i.e._ of the _papes_ or fathers who lived there. The Foundation was poor; but it possessed a house at Baynard’s Castle, six cottages and two messuages in Pavyn Alley; there was also the messuage in Bevis Marks given them by the Rector of All Hallows. This is all the property that can be proved to belong to them. Those of the members who could walk and sing sometimes attended the funerals of great persons, and in this way added something to the slender revenues of the House. At the time of the foundation there were twenty-four brethren and fifteen sisters—it does not appear how the sisters were elected or for what cause.

The history of the House is not marked, so far as I know, by a single event. It lasted for 106 years, being suppressed by the Act of 2 Ed. VI. for the suppression of all chantries, hospitals, and similar foundations. The value of the land and property of the Foundation was returned at £23: 11: 8. William Nevill purchased the House for £102. There were then six old priests but no sisters. These, one records with satisfaction, were all provided with small pensions: the Master receiving sixty-six shillings and eightpence a year, a little over twopence-farthing a day, and the brethren forty shillings, a little under 1-1/3d. a day. The church was pulled down, and an Apothecary set up his shop on the site, the Churchyard was converted into a garden, and the Priests’ House became a private residence. Thus was thrown down and destroyed a Foundation which might have continued doing good work unto the present day. There is not, in fact, among all the numerous charities, foundations, and endowments belonging to the Church, a single House at the present day which at all corresponds with this ancient Foundation of St. Augustine Papey.

The late foundation of the House, at a time when bequests to the religious House had begun to fall off before they ceased altogether, sufficiently accounts for its poverty. One or two bequests only, and these apparently of small account, are on record. (See Appendix X.).

WHITTINGTON COLLEGE

The College of St. Spirit and St. Mary, founded by Whittington, whose intention was carried out by his executors, was for a Master, four Fellows, Clerks, Choristers, etc., together with an Almshouse. Fortunately the Almshouse was separated by the executors from the College, so that it was spared when the College was suppressed. The following is a portion of the original ordinances of the Charity drawn up by the executors:—

“The fervent Desire and best Intention of a prudent, wyse and devout man that be to cast before and make seure the State and thende of the short liffe with Dedys of Mercy and Pite: and namely to provyde for such pouer Persons which grevous Penuere and cruel Fortune have oppressed, and be not of power to gete their lyving either by Craft or by any other bodily Labour: whereby that at the day of the last Jugement, he may take his part with hem that shal be saved. This considering the foresaid worthy and notable Merchaunt Richard Whittington, the which while he leved had ryght liberal and large hands to the Needy and Poure People, charged streitly, in his Death-bed, us his foresaid Executors, to ordeyne a House of Almes after his Deth, for perpetual sustentacion of such poure people as is tofore rehersed: and therupon fully he declared his Wyll unto us. And we wylling after our power to fullfil thentent of his commendable Wille and holesome Dessre in this part, as we be bound.

First, Yfounded by us, with sufficient Authorite, in the Church of Seint Mighells, in the Royolle of London: where the foresaid Richard and Dame Alice his Wife be biried, a commendable College of certain Prestes and Clerkis; to do there every day divine Service for the aforesaid Richard and Alice.

We have founded also, after the Wille abovesaid, a House of Almes for XIII pouere folk successively for evermore; to dwell and to be susteined in the same House. Which house is situated and edified upon a certain Soyl that we bought therefore, late in the Parish of Seinte Mighel abovesaid: that is to say, Bytweene the foresaid Church and the Wall that closeth in the voyd place, behind the heigh Auter of the same Church in the Southside, and our great Tenement, that was late the House of the aforesaid Richard Whyttington in the Northside. And it stretcheth fro the dwelling place of the Master and the Prestis of the College abovesaid. The which also we did late to be now added in the Eastside unto a great voyd place of our Land. The which by the help of God we purpose to do be hallowed Lawfully for a Churchyard to the same Church within short time in the Westside.” (Stow, i. bk. iii. pp. 3-4.)

And the ordinances for the poor folk are as follows:—

“To be twelve pouer Folks alonely of Men or Women togiddre; after the sad Discretition and good Conscience of the Overseers underwrit, and Conservators of the same House, to be provided and admitted.

The which every day, when due and convenient time is, shal pray for evermore, for al the now being alive, and also for the bypast, to God; Whose names of great Specialty been expressed in these Statutes underwrit.

To be one _Principal_, which shal pass al other in power and Reverence, and be called TUTOR. The Office and Charge of him shal be the goods of the Almes-house, which shal come to his hands, well and truly to minister. The Goods dissevered to gather again togidre; to the Use of the Almes-house: And at the Husbandry of the same house, in as much as he may goodly oversee, dispose and ordain; inforcing himself to edifie and nourish Charity and Peace among his Felawes.

The Poor folks unto the said _Tutor_ evermore shal obey.

The thirteen poor folke to be hable in Conversation, and honest in Living.

The same House to be called for ever _God’s House_, or Almes house, or the Hospital of _Richard Whyttington_.

The L. Maior to be overseer of the said Almeshouse: and the Keepers of the Commonalty of the Craft of Mercers to be called for evermore _Conservators_ of the foresaid House.

The Tutor to have a Place by himself, that is to say, a Cell or little House, with a Chimney and a Prevy, and other Necessaries. In the which he shall Lyegge and rest. And that he may aloon and by himself, without Let of any other Persoon intend to the Contemplation of God, if he woll.

Every Tutour and poor folk every day first whan they rise fro their Bedds, kneeling upon their knees, sey a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria, with special and herty recommendacion-making of the foresaid Richard Whyttington and Alice, to God, and our Blessed Lady Maidyn MARY. And other times of the day, whan he may be best and most commody have leisure thereto, for the Staat of al the Souls abovesaid, Say three or two Sauters of our Lady at the least: that is to say, threies seaven Ave Marias, with XV pater nosters, and three Credes. But if he be letted with febleness, or any other reasonable cawse, One in the day at the least, in case it may be: that is to say, after the Messe, or when Complyn is don, they come togidder within the College about the Tomb of the aforesaid Rich. Whyttington and Alice, and they that can sey, shal sey for the Soules of the seid Richard and Alice, and for the Soules of al Christen people, this Psalm de Profundis with the Versicles and Oriosons that longeth thereto. And they that can shal sey three Pater nosters, three Ave Marias, and oon Crede. And after this doon, the Tutour, or oon of the eldest men of theym that sey openly in English, God have mercy on our Founders Souls and al Chrysten. And they that stond about shal aunswer and say, Amen.

That they be bound to dwell and abide continewally in the seid Almes house, and bounds thereof: And that every day, booth at meet and sopier, they eet and be fed within the said Almes house. And while they be at meet, or soupier, they absteyn thanne from veyn and ydel words. And if they wol any thyng talk, that it be honest and profitable.

That the Overclothyng of the Tutour and pouer folk be derk and brown of colour; and not staring ne blaising; and of esy prised, according to their Degree.” (Stow, i. bk. iii. pp. 4-5.)

The Almshouse, removed from its former place behind the church of St. Michael Royal, is still in existence at Highgate.

We may pass rapidly through the few remaining small Houses.

DENTON’S HOSPITAL is entered as one of them, but it never existed except in the intention of the Founder, Robert de Denton. He obtained, in 1369, the Royal license to found a Hospital for distracted priests and others, but could not carry out his intentions, and instead founded a chantry at the House of St. Katherine by the Tower.

Of CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL I find nothing but a tradition that one of the Kings, being annoyed by the presence of the patients so near the Court, ordered their removal to Bethlehem Hospital.

ST. MICHAEL, CROOKED LANE. This College was founded by Sir William Walworth, who united certain Chantries and added lands and certain houses, and so formed a College for the support of a Master and nine priests.

BARKING COLLEGE was attached to the Church of All Hallows, Barking. Richard the First founded and endowed here a Chapel to the Virgin. John, Earl of Worcester, added a Brotherhood with a Master and Brethren endowed from the alien Houses of Tooting, Bow, and Okeburn. Richard the Third rebuilt the Chapel and founded a college with a Dean and six Fellows. It was dissolved by Edward the Sixth, the buildings pulled down, and the ground converted into a garden.

HOLME’S COLLEGE OF ST. PAUL’S was founded by Roger Holme, Chancellor of St. Paul’s, in 1395, as a college of seven Priests, whose services were held in the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. The College buildings stood in the parish of St. Gregory, south of the Cathedral Precinct.

LANCASTER COLLEGE was founded by Henry the Fourth and the executors of John of Gaunt in connection with the Cathedral: the College buildings were also in the Parish of St. Gregory.

Another College in connection with the Cathedral was that of the MINOR CANONS, founded by Richard the Second. They had houses adjoining the Precinct and a Common Hall within the Precinct.

The College of ST. LAWRENCE POULTENEY, in connection with that church, consisted of a Master or Warden, thirteen priests, clerks, and choristers.

In Dowgate stood a small college of Priests called JESUS COMMONS: Stow says that it was a “House well furnished with Brass, Pewter, Napery, Plate, etc., besides a fair Library well stored with books: all which of old time were given to a number of priests that should keep Commons there.” Evidently a quiet and peaceful College, not unlike All Souls, Oxford.

ST. JAMES’ IN THE FIELDS, a hospital founded from time immemorial, for leprous virgins of the City, was suppressed by Henry the Eighth. St. James’s Palace stands upon its site.

ST. MARY ROUNCEVALL or RUNCEVALL, at Charing Cross, a hospital, suppressed as an alien House by Henry the Fifth, was refounded as a Brotherhood by Edward the Fourth, provided with new statutes for a Master, Wardens, Brethren, and Sisters by Henry the Seventh, and suppressed again by Edward the Sixth. Northumberland House, with its gardens, used to occupy exactly the Precinct of St. Mary Rouncevall. It was built, as Northampton House, in the year 1614.

Beside this House was a modest Hermitage, named after ST. CATHERINE, founded by Edward the First (see also Appendix XI.).