A HISTORY OF LONDON chapel ; " and Henry III in 1227 confirmed their charters.^' But as usual the latter acted with an entire absence of fairness when the canons came into collision with one of his foreign favourites. Boniface of Savoy, as archbishop of Canterbury, was determined to exercise visitatorial powers in London. After being repulsed at St. Paul's and at the priory of Holy Trinity, he came to St. Bar- tholomew's.^' The canons, dressed in their most precious copes, received him with much honour, but on hearing that he had come on a visitation the sub-prior, the prior being absent, informed him that the bishop of London alone possessed this right, and they ought not to submit to its exercise by another. The archbishop, be- side himself with rage, struck the old man again and again ; the canons went to the rescue of the sub-prior, and tried to drag him away ; then Boni- face's Provencal followers rushed into the church, and a contest ensued in which the canons came off badly, as they were not, like the archbishop, equipped in armour beneath their vestments. By the advice of the bishop of London four of the canons went to the king to complain, but he refused to hear them, and fearing the temper of the Londoners, who were furious with the arch- bishop, he forbade anyone to interfere in the controversy on pain of life and limb. Boniface followed up his disgraceful conduct by excommu- nicating the convent officials, but this sentence was shortly afterwards annulled by the pope.^' The canons, however, never received any com- pensation for their sufferings, for the archbishop managed partly by threats, partly by promises, to suppress their complaints," and the question of archiepiscopal visitations was decided against them by the court of Rome in 1252."*' The disputes of the priory with the City, both of which arose over the fair, were not marked by any violence. The prior and canons, by the counsel of the king's treasurer, William de Haverille, and of their sokereeve John de Kondres, set up on the first day of their fair in 1246 a new ' tron,' with which all weighing had to be done.^' The mayor and the chief men of the City went on the next day to the priory and demanded that the practice should be abandoned as it was in contravention of the customs of the City, and the canons appear to have yielded the point at once. In 1292 an attempt was made by the warden of London to deprive the priory of half the profits of the fair,^^ but the prior must have given " Charter dated December, 1203. Chart. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 115. '« Cart. Antiq. R. L. (6). " Matt. Paris, Ciron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 12 1-3. " Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 264. " Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 1 78, 188. '" Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 276.
- ' Riley, Chron. of Mayors and Sheriffs of Lond. 13.
" Sharpe, Cal. of Letter Bk. C. 9. satisfactory proof of his right to the whole, for the City never made any further claim. The priory during this time had been steadily growing in wealth and importance. At the death of Rahere the house depended largely on obventions and charity, but the great increase in temporalities noticed between 1144 and 1174*' seems to have been well maintained. In London it had received the church of St. Sepulchre from Roger, bishop of Salisbury,^^ the church of St. Michael Bassishaw ^* from G. bishop of London ^^ in the twelfth century, and St. Mar- tin's, Ironmonger Lane, from Ralph Triket before 1253.^' ^^ Essex it possessed the manor of Shortgrove, which it held as early as the reign of Henry II ; ^' half the church of Danbury,^' the gift of Earl William de Mandeville before 1 1 90 ; '" the hamlet of Langley, granted by Robert Fitz Roger, to whom it had been given by Henry II ; '^ and the church of Theydon Bois, given by William de Bosco in the latter half of the twelfth century.'^ In co. Herts, the canons held the church of Hemel Hemp- stead in 1201;'^ and in 1253 '^^ '^'"g '^on- firmed to them the manor of Little Stanmore, the gift of William de Ramis,'* to whom they owed also the church of Bradfield,co. Essex ; the church of St. Laurence Stanmore, which had been given to them by Roger de Ramis ; '* lands in Shenley, obtained from Adam son of Elias de Somery, and Saer '* son of Henry ; and lands and rents in Tewin, given with land in Hertford, Amwell, and * Lockeleigh ' by Alex- ander de Swereforde, canon and treasurer of St. Paul's, to endow a chantry of four chap- lains. The king also confirmed to them in 1253 ^^^ church of Mentmore, co. Bucks, which had been given to the priory by Hugh Bussell and William son of Miles, and half the church of Wenhaston, co. Suffolk, granted by Geoffrey Fitz Ailwin.'* Between 1323 and 1353 lands were added for the establishment of chan- tries and anniversaries in Theydon Bois, co. " Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix, fol. 59.
- Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14. " Ibid.
'* Either Gilbert Universalis, bishop of London 1 1 28-41, or Gilbert Foliot,who held the see 1 163-89.
- ' Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14.
" Morant, Hist, of Essex, ii, 585. " Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14. '° He died in the second year of Ric. L Newcourt, Repert. Eccl. Lond. ii, 203. Morant, op. cit. ii, 614. " William de Bosco held a knight's fee in Theydon Bois in 1 166. Morant, op. cit. ii, 162. " They paid 200 marks for John's confirmation. Hardy, Rot. de Oblat. et Fin. (Rec. Com.), 181. " Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14 ; Plac. de ^0 Ifarr. (Rec. Com.), 478. " Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14. ^^ Ibid. " He died in 1246. Jnn. Mon. [Rolls Sst.), in, 171. Cart. Antiq. R. L. 14. Ca/. of Pat. 1348-50, p. 270. 476
