RELIGIOUS HOUSES London — for they lived on the poorest of food * and in buildings ^* of the simplest description — explains the enthusiasm ^' they excited in that city, which is shown by the large proportion of London citizens among their early benefactors. William Joyner/ who built them a chapel at a cost of ;^200, was probably the mayor of 1239 ; Henry le Galeys, mayor 1274, built the nave of their first church ; Walter Potter, alderman of London, and sheriff in 1 269 and 1272, gave the chapter-house and all the brass vessels for the kitchen and infirmary ; Gregory de Rokesley, mayor 1274-80, built the dormitory and fur- nished it ; while the Basings and the Frowyks,^' who bore so much of the expense of the water supply of the friary, were members of well-known London families. Salomon, one of the first novices and the second warden of the house there, became general confessor of the citizens. It was from Salomon," while warden, that Roger bishop of London demanded canonical obedience, but owing to his admiration for the order consented to an indefinite delay, and future demands were of course stopped by the entire exemption of the friars from episcopal jurisdiction. The necessity for intellectual training was very soon grasped by the Franciscans in England, and in this respect the London convent was early provided for by Albert of Pisa (minister of England, 1239), who established a reader there. ^* Its schools may account in some measure for the influential position it held in the next century. The rebuilding of the church in the fourteenth century gives perhaps a better idea of the extra- ordinary position to which the friars had attained than could be gathered in any other way. It seems indeed to mark a new era in their history, for the principal contributors are of a difTerent class from the early benefactors, queens and nobles now playing the part formerly taken by London citizens.^^ The foundation stone was ' Thomas de Eccleston {Monum. Francisc. i, 9) says that in the time when W. was minister and H. vvfarden, he saw the friars there drink sour beer and eat the coarsest bread. '° Ibid, i, 34. ' Angnellus . . . similiter dormi- torium Londoniae persistente tecto immobili muris lapideis amoto luto fecit stabiliri.' In 1340 the house was not even inclosed. Ibid, i, 35-44. " Brewer points out in the introduction to the Monum. Francisc. that the number of small gifts to them shows how widespread w.is the feeling in their favour. " Ibid, i, 508 ; Harl. MS. 544, fol. 43. " The Henry Frowyk mentioned in this connexion (ibid, i, 509) may be the Henry Frowyk who was sheriff in 1274. '* Thomas de Eccleston in Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Sen), i, 41. " Ibid, i, 47. Albertus on his arrival made Brother Vincent de Coventry reader at London. " They had in tfie first period been patronized by Henry III, see Monum. Francisc. ii, 279, for a grant of wood, I 3 Hen. Ill.and Harl. MS. 544, fol. 44, for laid in 1306 by Sir William Walden in the name of Queen Margaret, the second wife of Edward I,^' who not only bought the land neces- sary^* for the extension," but gave 2,000 marks during her lifetime and bequeathed 100 marks to the building.^** She died before the church was finished, and was buried in front of the high altar. John de Bretagne, earl of Richmond, gave
- ^300, a gold chalice, vestments, and carpets ;
Mary, countess of Pembroke, ;^70 and many other goods ; Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, twenty great beams from his forest of Tunbridge worth ^20, and as much more in money ; his sister Margaret, countess of Gloucester, £2() 13J. ^d. for the construction of an altar, and another sister, Eleanor le Spencer, ;^I5 for a similar purpose ; while a third. Lady Elizabeth de Burgh, gave ;^I5, partly in wood, partly in money ; ^^ Robert, Lord Lisle, who afterwards became a friar in the convent, contributed more than ;^300. Queen Isabella expended over jr700 on the completion of the church, and Queen Philippa gave £^?> 131. ^d. to the church and ^^13 6i. ^d. to the expense of roofing it.^' The church appears to have been both large and handsome, for it measured 300 ft. in length and 89 ft. in breadth, and the columns and pavement were of marble.^' Between the aisled nave and the choir stood the altars of St. Mary, of Holy Cross, and of Jesus and the common altar, and on each side of the choir were two chapels, those of St. Mary and All Hallows on the north, and those of St. Francis and the Apostles on the south.^ The church was finished in 1327,^° but a storm in 1341 did great damage,^^ and work was still going on in 1345, when the cloister was being built ^' and the houses repaired. his help to the aqueduct ; and in the grants to the building of the church London citizens again showed themselves generous. It is the proportion that seems reversed in the two cases. " Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Sen), i, 513. " Shepherd, ' The Church of the Friars Minors in London,' in Arch. Journ. lix, 245 ; Monum. Francisc. i, 503. 504- " Harl. MS. 544, fol. 43. Joyner's Chapel afterwards, that is when this church was built, became a great part of the choir. " Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 513.
- ' Ibid. 514. "Ibid. 515.
" Harl. MS. 544, fol. 49. " Mr. Shepherd, in the article already referred to, has constructed a very clear plan of the church and its different parts from Cott. MS. Vitell. F. xii. "In Monum. Francisc. i, 513, it is distinctly said that the church was begun in 1306, and (i, 515) that the work was finished in twenty-one years, but this latter passage continues, ' inceptum enim erat MCCCXXVII.' According to the monk of St. Albans it was not yet dedicated in 1357, when Queen Isabella was buried there. Chron. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 38. Riley, Chron. oJOldLond. 286. " Cal. of Pat. 1343-5, p. 476. 503
