A HISTORY OF NORFOLK Cromwell telling him that the Dominicans had sold their great bell.' On 7 October the duke again wrote to Cromwell enclosing a petition from the unhappy priors and convents of the Black and White Friars of the city begging that the surren- der of their houses might be taken. ' The old and small charity in these days is insufficient to live on, and they have been fain to sell their goods ; have made no waste, but are slandered and inquieted by light persons breaking their glass windows.' The duke told Cromwell that they were ' very poor wretches ' — a distinct compliment to those of mendicant orders — and that as he had already given the worst of the Grey Friars 20s. for a raiment, it was a pity if these should have less.' The eventual disposal of the house and church of the Black Friars will be treated of elsewhere. The appreciation generally entertained for these friars in the city where they were estab- lished, is shown by the very long list of gifts and bequests from 1355 to 1529 given by Father Palmer.' Priors of the Dominican Friars of Norwich * Nicholas de Edenham, 1290 Geoffrey de Derham, 1305 Adam de Halesworth, 1374 Robert de Fretone, 1 38 1 John Pynnesthorp, 1 45 1 Roger de Wichingham, 1470 Simon Curteys, 1483 Roger Bernude, 1501 Thomas Bekylls, 1505 William Brygges, 1 507 Penyman Edmund Harcock, 1534 Thomas Briggs, 1535 An imperfect impression of the circular ad causas seal (2^ in.) of this house shows the Baptism of Our Lord by St. John Baptist, with dove descending ; in the field a sun on the left and crescent moon on the right. Legend : — + BIG CONVEN RIVICO . AD CAS ' A later fifteenth-century pointed oval seal (2^ in. by i^in.) bears St. Dominic working a miracle under a canopied niche. Legend : — SIGILLUM . COMUNE . . . PDICATORU . . .' There is an indistinct impression of the thirteenth-century seal of the prior of the Sackites (i^in. by i in.), with St. Edmund bound to a tree and pierced with arrows.' ' L. and P. Hen. FlII,xm (2), 154. ' Ibid. 216. ' ReRquary (new ser.), vol. iii, 42-9.
- See lists in Blomefield (iv, 339-40), Kirkpatrick
(40), and Palmer {ReTtquary [new ser.], vol. iii, 2 1 3- 14). ' B.M. XXXV, 7. « Ibid. 236. ' Ibid. 237; Blomefield, Hhl. ofSorf. iv, 578. 54. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF NORWICH The Franciscan or Grey Friars arrived at Norwich in 1226, and were established on a site given them by John de Hastingford, between the churches of St. Cuthbert and St. Vedast in Conisford. They gradually increased in numbers, until, sixty years after their arrival, it was decided to build a large church with suitable conventual buildings. As their rule prohibited them accepting any fresh grants of lands or tenements save those that adjoined their house for purposes of extension, it became necessary, in this as in so many other cases, to obtain sanc- tion for closing intervening thoroughfares.' The Friars Minor of Norwich therefore obtained leave in 1285 to close a lane, 21 1 feet by 12 feet, adjoining their area on the south side, for the enlargement of their close.' In 1292 the Franciscans received numerous grants of small parcels of land in the citv from no fewer than nineteen benefactors, among whom were included the prior and convent of Nor- wich, the prior of St. Faith's, and the abbot and convent of Holm.'" In 1297, they obtained leave to close a lane on the north side of their plot, looi feet long by 10 feet broad, for the enlargement of their dwelling." Three Norwich messuages, the respective gifts of the prior of Walsingham, Hugh de Rokeland, and Roger le Mareschal, were bestowed on the friars in 1299." Having secured these considerable extensions, the Franciscans set about building a new church on a grand scale. The dimensions, as given in two places by William of Worcester, are some- what contradictory ; but it is clear that the nave was 105 feet in length, and that the cloister on the north side of the nave was a square of its full length." There were three gilds in connexion with this church, namely, those of Our Lady, of St. John the Evangelist, and of St. Barbara.'^ Kirkpatrick and Blomefield give long lists extending from 1330 to 1529 of those who made small bequests to this house, and who were buried in the church. As an example of the more important of these testamentary gifts, that of Roger Aylmer, esquire, in 1492, may be cited : 'To the Warden and Convent of the Fryers - Blomefield, Hht. of Norf. iv, 106-16 ; Kirk- patrick, Rclig. Order of Nonv. 104-29 ; Dugdale, A/on. vi, 1522-3. ' Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 27. '" Ibid. 20 Edw. I, m. 11. The city of Norwich petitioned the king at this time to allow a messuage to be acquired by the Friars Minor (City Book of Pleas, fol.46). " Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. I. " Ibid. 27 Edw. I, m. 27. " W. de Worcester, Itin. (Rolls Ser.), 506, 308. " Kirkpatrick, ReFig. Order of Kortc. 126. 430
