A HISTORY OF LONDON refuge in their church may have offended the City,'*" but in 1529 the usual procession was not to take place ' in consequence of the unkindness and ingratitude of the friars.' *' Stand ish seems to have been taken as an ex- ample by the wardens during the period of re- ligious change. Cudner, on behalf of his con- vent, acknowledged the king as supreme head of the Church in 1534,^" and it is unlikely that Friar Forest and others of the Observants would have been sent to this house if the king had not been certain of the opinions entertained there. Chapuys said that the Observants, while they refused to take the oath, were treated by the Conventuals worse than they would have been in ordinary prisons,^' and the hostility shown to them by Thomas Chapman, the warden, when Forest again fell under suspicion is sufScient indication of the treatment meted out to them in London. In a letter to Cromwell Chapman says*- that he has not forgotten the command to search out Forest's friends, but the time assigned had been too short. He has now learned more, and sends the names of those who had given Forest a small sum of money, adding : ' I will be true to my Prince, and so will all my Brethren. I dare depose for them that were no Observants.' One friar was so eager to show his loyalty that he laid information against one of his fellow brethren, misrepresenting a conversation of which he had only heard part.*' The accused managed to clear himself," but such spying must have made life unendurable, and gone far to justify the warden in declaring that 'all the house would willingly change their coats provided they have a living,' and that * they all longed to change their coats.' *' The house was surrendered on 12 November 1538, by Thomas Chapman, S.T.D., the war- den, and 26 friars.** Chapman was granted a life pension of ;^I3 6s. 8^.,*' and payments, but '*' ' Chron. of Grey Friars ' in Monum. Franchc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 193.
- ' Rec. of the Corp. of Lond. Repert. viii, fol. 62b.
^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, vii, 665. ^' Ibid, xiii (l). Pref. p. xvi. They were cer- tainly severely treated. See letter of one imprisoned at Stamford. Ibid, vii, 1307. " Ibid, xiii (I), 880. ^ L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (i), 658. The accused friar, Geoffrey Turner, had been talking in the buttery with some laymen, and the conversation had turned on King John. The friar had said that the monk reported to have poisoned the king was to be blamed for striking before God struck. '"' Turner figures as one of the friars at the sur- render. Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 28. " In a letter to Master Newell, steward of the archbishop of Canterbury. L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 251- •^ Ibid, xiii (2), 808. "Aug. Off". Misc. Bks. 233, fol. 163. The Last payment made to him was 35 Hen. VIII. L. and P. Hen. Fill, xix (i), 368. apparently not pensions,** were made to twenty of the friars. The fixed income of the house derived from lands and houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the church and monastery *' was only ;^32 19X.,'*' so that the friars must still have depended on alms for the greater part of their revenues.'^ The importance of the house may be gauged by the amount of plate in the church at the time of the Dissolution — i,520oz. of gilt, 600 oz. of parcel gilt, and 770 oz. of white plate. Wardens of the Grey Friars Henry de Treviso, the first warden, 1224 " Salamon,'* occurs c. 1230 Peter of Tewkesbury, occurs 1234'* John de Kethene, before 1239 '* A., occurs c. 1 252-8 " J., occurs 1282 '* Salomon de Ingeham, occurs 1292 or 1293 " Nicholas, occurs 1294*" and 1295 *^ Henry de Sutton, occurs 1302 ** ^ Ibid, xiv (2), 236. They do not appear in the Augmentation accounts after this time, 31 Hen. VIII.
- ' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xv, 1032 ; xvi, 1 500;
xvii, 1258 ; xix (i), 1035 (6, 55). '"Stow, Surv. of Lond. (Strype's ed.), iii, 130. Stow says the church was valued at this amount, but as the church must h.ave been worth much more, I have presumed that he meant the income of the friary. " They benefited considerably by bequests, for although the sums left to them were often small, the friars were remembered in the wills of most London citizens. Another important source of income was the establishment of chantries and obits : in 1 45 8 William Cantelowe arranged that daily masses should be said for him and Thomas Gloucester, and gave to the friars X2'-'° '° ^^ repair of their church. Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A. 1 1 314. " Monastic Treasures (Abbotsford Club), 19. There are unfortunately very few notices of bequests like that of Marie de St. Pol, countess of Pembroke, who left a gold chalice and an image of St. Louis of France to the high altar of the Friars Minors. Sharpe, Cal. of IVills, ii, 195. " Monum. Francisc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 7. " Ibid, i, 12, 41. It was Roger Niger, bishop of London 1 229-41, who demanded canonical obedience from him. " Little, op. cit. 127. " It was while Helias was minister-general, i.e. before 1 2 39, that Scotland was made a sep.irate pro- vince and John was sent there from London. Monum. Francisc. i, 32. " A. was warden sometime between the date when the troubles over Gascony began between the king and Simon de Montfort and 1258, when Adam de Marisco died, for he is mentioned in a letter of Marisco's. Monum. Francisc. i, 396. " Reg. Epist. J. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, 1029. " Little, op. cit. 320, n. I.
- " Monum. Francisc. ii, 61. " Ibid, ii, 62.
Ibid, i, 514. He gave a window to the church. Harl. MS. 544, fol. 48. 506
