THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF LONDON INTRODUCTION The religious houses of London were in number and interest not un- worthy of the capital. The two which surpassed all the rest in importance were also the most ancient — the cathedral of St. Paul, founded in 604, and the Benedictine abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, which may be as early as the eighth century. The other foundations of secular canons were much later, the college of St. Martin-le-Grand dating from 1067, and that of St. Stephen, Westminster, from 1348, while the only other house of the Benedictine order, the nunnery of St. Helen at Bishopsgate, did not arise before the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the sole Cistercian abbey, St. Mary Graces on Tower Hill, not until 1350. The list of London houses does not include one of Carthusians, for the Charterhouse was just outside the City boundary. The three houses of Austin Canons may be considered early, since Holy Trinity Aldgate, and St. Mary Overy in Southwark, were founded about 1 108 within a very short time of the introduction of the rule into this country, and the priory of St. Bartholomew was begun in 1123. The Knights of the Temple are believed to have settled in Holborn soon after their first arrival in England in 1 128, and the establishment of the Knights of St. Thomas of Aeon in Cheapside took, place in the reign of Henry II, a few years after the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury. The hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, which should also perhaps be included under the heading of Military orders, was founded in 1247. When the Grey Friars came to London in the lifetime of St. Francis, the Black Friars had already settled in Holborn, and during the thirteenth century communities of Carmelite, Austin, Crossed Friars, and nuns of St. Clare, as well as of the short-lived orders of Pied Friars, Friars of the Sack, and Friars de Areno were formed in the City and suburbs. There were at least twelve hospitals, six for the sick, and six for the poor. Of the first kind were St. Bartholomew's Smithfield, St. James's West- minster, and St. Mary's without Bishopsgate, founded in the twelfth century, and the hospitals of St. Thomas and St. Leonard in Southwark, and St. Mary's Cripplegate or Elsingspital, at the beginning of the fourteenth century ; in the second category may be reckoned St. Katharine's by the Tower, which dates from the reign of Stephen, the House for Converted Jews of 407
