RELIGIOUS HOUSES popular order, though it had the disadvantage that adventurers and cheats sometimes forestalled the collectors'* and reaped the harvest. The relaxation of penance granted by the pope in 1365 to those who on the principal feasts of the year during the next ten years visited the chapel of Holy Cross in the church of St. Thomas," was either intended to repair the losses of the house consequent on the Black Death or to raise money for the rebuilding of the church, which does not, however, seem to have been begun until 1383.'* This must have been a long and costly undertaking, for it was a large and beau- tiful church with choir, nave and side aisles, and several chapels.'*" The pope in 1400 came to their aid again, and offered the indulgence of the Portiuncula to penitents who, on the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr, visited and gave alms for the conservation of the church. Many must have been expected to take advantage of it, for the pope gave an indult to the master and six other confessors deputed by him to hear the confessions.'*^ The rebuilding operations appear to coincide with the increased importance of the house in Cheapside, which from 1379 was the principal house of the order.*^^ In 1444 the brothers seem to have felt the necessity of putting the house on a more secure footing. What was the immediate cause of their uneasiness does not appear, for the destruc- tion or loss of title deeds mentioned was evi- dently not of recent date. In answer, however, '* Protection for various periods is given to the attorneys of the master and brethren collecting alms, in 1318, Cal. of Pat. 1317-21, pp. 256, 260; 1319, ibid. 344; 1327, ibid. 1327-30, p. 5; 1329, ibid. 364; 1330, ibid. 1330-4, p. 9; 1331, ibid. 64. '° The king's bailiffs are ordered to arrest unau- thorized persons collecting alms in name of the brethren in 1321, 1323-4, 1346. See Cal. of Pat. 132I-4, pp. 25, 234, 358 ; 1324-7, p. 48 ; 1345-8, p. 206. " Cat. Pap. Letters, iv, 48. " Protection from arrest was given by the king in 1383 to two stonemasons hired by the master of St. Thomas of Aeon for the work of rebuilding his church. Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, p. 310. Some addi- tions appear to have been made many years before, for Matilda de Caxton left a bequest to the new work of the church in 1339. Watney, op. cit. 292. " NewcQurt, Rcpert. Eccl. Lond. i, 554.
- ° The chapels of Holy Cross (Sharpe, Cal. of Wills,
ii, 506), Our Lady, Holy Trinity, Sts. Nicholas and Stephen (Watney, op. cit. 133-4). There are also several altars mentioned besides (ibid.), and the offer- ings at two of these, viz. the altar of St. Thomas and the high altar, were of sufficient importance to be noted as a separate item in the Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 391.
- ' Cal. Pap. Letters, v, ^j6.
- "" Stubbs, InlroJ. to Mem. of Rk. I (Rolls Ser.), i,
p. cxii, n. 5. Earlier, the master of the order had resided in Cyprus. to their petition to the king in Parliament,*^ it was ordained that the house should be reckoned a corporate body with powers to implead and be impleaded and to purchase, and should have a common seal ; that the brethren on a vacancy might elect a master without first asking leave of the king, and without any obligation to grant the king a pension or corrody out of the hospital, seeing that there never was one granted before. In 1454 James, earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, made over to the hospital the manor and the advowson of the church of Hiilcott and a croft called 'LytuU Milne Hamme,'^' co. Bucks, to endow a chantry in the church where his mother was buried," and the house must have derived great benefit from grants in London,^' for it continued to be a favourite with the citizens.^' Yet when John Yong became master on the removal of Richard Adams in 15 10, he found it burdened with a debt of over ^718.^' Yong seems to have had a gift for finance, as he not only paid this off, but within the eight years following met all but ;^8o of expenses, amount- ing to ;^i,43i s. Sd., for repairs to houses, mills, and other buildings in ruins, for walls by the Thames,*' and for new buildings*' within and without London — no easy task considering that " Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 74^. See also Lond. Epis. Reg. Tunstall, fol. 120.
- ' Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 257^.
" Joan, countess of Ormond, was buried in the chapel of Holy Cross 1430. See Sharpe, Cal of Wills, ii, 506, and Wriothesley, Chron. (Camd. Soc), 171. " Rents and tenements for the maintenance of chantries and obits were left by Robert Guphey, mercer, in 141 2, Thomas White 141 9, William Oliver 1432, Henry Frowyk, mercer and alderman, and William West, ' marbeler,' 1453, Stephen Kalk 1493, William Martyn, alderman, and Nicholas Alwyn, alderman, 1505. Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 395, 417, 460, 542, 562, 617 ; Misc. of Exch. bdle. 24, No. 8, fol. b. and 23-5^. An idea of the proportion of gain in these cases can be gathered from the details given in Misc. of Exch. bdle. 24, No. 8, fol. 55, as to two houses belonging to the hospital which brought in £ I 7/. zd., out of which a salary of ^4 had to be paid to a chantry priest, leaving a clear income of £"] Js. zd. " It is noticeable that nearly all the persons of im- portance buried in the church were London citizens ; among these were Stephen Cavendish, mayor 1362, Sir Edmund Shaa, mayor 1482 (he founded a chapel in the church, Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 612), William Browne, mayor 151 3, and Sir William Butler, mayor I 51 5. Stow, Surv. of Lond. iii, 37, 38. For a list of people buried there, see Watney, op. cit. 173-5. " Misc. of Exch. bdle. 24, No. 8, preface.
- ' To prevent inundations on their lands in Stepney
and Wapping. Ahbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 352.
- ' They had lately added a fresh piece of land to
the hospital, which they obtained leave to connect with the old buildings by a gallery across a street, April, I 5 18. Stow, Sarr. of Lond. (ed. Strype), iii, 39 ; Rec. of Corp. of Lond. Repert. 3, fol. 2051^. 493
