Page:VCH London 1.djvu/291

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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY there arc three bequests for pilgrims to English shrines, who were expected to go barefooted, and usually to make offerings of id. each.'* Bishop Ralph de Stratford (1340-54) bought and consecrated a piece of land, afterwards called Pardon Churchyard, for the burial of those who died of the plague in 1348. His example was followed by Sir Walter Manny, in whose cemetery, the ' new churchhaw,' a chapel was built to which several citizens made bequests between 1349 and 1361.'* Here ten years later was founded the Charterhouse, whose great popularity is shown by the unbroken series of bequests to it made by citizens from 1372 to 1509." Stratford's successor, Michael Northburgh (i 355-61), bequeathed ^2,000 to build it ; he also left 1,000 marks to be kept in the treasury of St. Paul's and advanced upon security to Londoners of various degrees, from the bishop downwards, who should be in need of money. '^ Northburgh was appointed by papal provision, in spite of the recently passed Statute of Provisors. There were so many papal provisions concerning the City clergy or to benefices in the gift of the bishop'* granted after 1351, that the only effect of that statute appears to have been the confusion and strife caused by their doubtful legality. The next appointments to the see of London and the deanery of St. Paul's^" both gave rise to disputes in which the pope was victorious. Bishop Northburgh obtained nine provisions for his friends, some of whom already held at least one benefice, during his first few months." Several London clergymen were given leave to hold two or three benefices,^ but not many held two with cure of souls; in 1370 there seem to have been no foreigners among the beneficed clergy of the City, Westminster, or Southwark,*^^ and there were few provisions to City churches at this period,'* so that London suffered less than other parts of the country from the worst abuses of the system. Yet those abuses can be illustrated by the history of St. Magnus, perhaps already one of the richest City livings. Before 1351 it was held for a year by an unordained foreigner;^' then his brother obtained it by a papal provision, notwithstanding that he had two prebends.^' Meanwhile Edward III presented a certain Richard de Biry,*^ " Cal. oflVills, i, 454,640-1,657-8,664,679 ; ii, 41, 105, 107, 163, 221, 234, 240, 243, 251, 335. " Ibid, i, 558, 571, 604-5, 637, 646, 665, 688 ; ii, 26, 27. '° Ibid. , passim. " Stow, Surv. (cd. Kingsford), ii, 81-2 ; Ca/. of H^ ills, ii, 61 and pasdm ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 471^; Hendriks, Tht Lend. Charterhouse, 1 6-2 1, App. i-iii ; Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 310 et seq. ; Arch. Iviii, 294-6. Unfortunately the pleasant impression of Bishop Northburgh's character given by his will is somewhat qualified by further information concerning him ; see Cal. of Papal Pet. and Cal. of Papal Letters, passim. For a favourable notice of a sufFragran bishop of this period see Riley, Mem. of Lond. 273 ; cf. Stubbs, Reg. Sacrum, 196 ; and Sharpe, Cal. of Letters, 26. " Cal. of Papal Pet. i, passim ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii et seq. passim. " Newcourt, Repertorlum, i, 18 ; cf Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 516, 523 ; and Diet. Nat. Biog. xli, 188. " Cal. of Papal Pet. , 264; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 516. Kylmington became dean, and Bjrnet, in 1355, obtained the archdeaconry of London by exchange ; cf. Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 595 ; Cal. of Papal Pet. i, 308, 329 ; and Hennessy, Novum Repertorium. " Cal. of Papal Pet. , 258, 259, 264, 267. " Ibid. 236, 247, 255-6 (cf 341), 264, 332, 365, 398, 411, 443 (cf. 399) ; Cal. oj Papal Letters, iv, 179. " Powell and Trevelyan, The Peasants' Rising, 6 1 . '* Perhaps the London churches were sti'l too poor to be desirable ; two of those to which provision was made are described as of small value ; Cal. of Papal Pet. i, 299, 301. In 1366 two City rectors managed to exchange livings by papal provision ; ibid. 527. " Cf. the case of St. Mildred Bread Street ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iv, 62. '^ CaL of Papal Pet. i, 219 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, iii, 422. " Cal. Pat. 1350-4, p. 69. 1 209 27