A HISTORY OF LONDON considering that when they needed to elect a prior in 1279*' in similar circumstances they had tacitly acknowledged that the dean and chapter occupied the bishop's place. However, after a threat of excommunication ^' they owned themselves wrong and paid the sum demanded, and the chapter of St. Paul's returned it to them for the use of the sick of the house. The better administration desired by the bishop appears to have been inaugurated by Prior Philip. The convent had been enriched to some extent between 1303 and 1331: in 1314 a chantry for four chaplains was erected by John Tany,^' one for two in 1325 by Roger de la Bere ; '* in 1 306 Edward I ^^ had given to the priory some land in Shalford and the advow- sons of the church of Shalford with Bromley Chapel annexed, of ' Woghenersh,' "^ Puttenham, and ' Duntesfeld,' " and leave to appropriate Shalford and Bromley and ' Woghenersh ' ; and in 1318 Edward II had granted the convent acquittance from all tallages,-* aids, pontages, pavages, and other payments. When the king in 1 34 1 ordered the exemption ^' of the priory from payment of the subsidy, he certainly said that its endowment was so slender as hardly to suffice for the maintenance of the convent and the poor in the hospital. This, however, may be another way of stating that the charity dis- pensed there was very great, as he had good reason to know, more than one of his old servants^" finding an asylum there. The position occupied by the priory must have by this time attained some importance, for the prior was appointed one of the valuers'^ of the 9th fleece, sheaf, &c., in co. Middlesex in 1340. The house was evidently the reverse of affluent towards the end of the fourteenth century. In 1394 a sum of j^86 10s. 6d. was owing to St. Paul's Cathedral for obits, chantries, and rents unpaid in some cases for many years ; '^ in 1399 " Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, Liber A. fol. I li. " Ibid. Note in the cover of the book. " Cal. of Pat. I 31 3-17, p. 92. " Ibid. 1324-7, p. 98. " Dugdale, Mon. yingl. vi, 625. " This is probably Wonersh, co. Surrey. " Duntesfeld appears to be Dunsfold, co. Surrey. March 28, 1342, the king granted licence to the prior and convent to appropriate ' Duntesfeld ' and Putten- ham. Cal. of Pat. I 340-3, p. 410. '* Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 452 ; see, too, Cal. of Pat. 1340-3, p. 434, and Cal. of Cose, 1339-41, p. 600. " Ibid. 1339-41, p. 600. '° 17 Nov. 1309, Robert de la Naperie, who had been maimed in the king's service, was sent there to receive food and clothing and a chamber to dwell in. Cal. of Close, 1307-13, p. 236. When he died the king filled his place with Peter de Kenebell, 1330. Ibid. 1330-73, p. 159. Another such appointment was made 27 Oct. 1331. Ibid. 396. " Cal. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 502. " Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 77, No. 2048. the prior had to pawn a silver gilt censer for ^10;'^ and in 1400 it was arranged that in return for 300 marks granted to the prior and convent ' in their very great necessity for the relief of their house which was heavily burdened with debt,' they would give 1 2 marks annual quit- rent from their possessions in certain London parishes to the chaplain of the chantry of St. John Baptist in St. James's Garlickhithe." The causes of its poverty can only be con- jectured, but were probably the depreciation in the value of its lands owing to the Black Death, and repairs to the church and other buildings, since it is unlikely that they had escaped without much damage from the floods which in 1373 were said to occur there annually.'^ The pope in 1 39 1 granted an indulgence to those who visited and gave alms to the church and its chapels and to the hospital at Christmas, Easter, and other great festivals,^^ and the benefit derived may have been considerable, for crowds of people flocked to the priory on the three days following Easter Sunday,^' doubtless attracted by the sermons preached at the Cross in the church- yard .'* One of the canons in 1389 obtained a papal indult to hold a secular benefice, and a similar grant was made to John Mildenhale, the prior, in 1 40 1." The ordinances of William bishop of London, dated 20 June, 1431,*^ do not disclose anything very much amiss. They chiefly concern the sisters, who as usual had been deprived of their due both as regards food and clothing. Some scandal had apparently been caused by their access to the convent kitchen, and the bishop ordered that a straight and inclosed way {via recta et clausa) should be made at the expense of the priorv from the door of the sisters' house to the kitchen window, from which the sisters could, without hindrance, carry away their own dishes and those for the sick. To provide against their frequent visits to the pantry their allowance of bread and ale was to be given out weekly, though the good this would do is not very obvious, as they still had to go for bread and ale for the sick and candles for watching as needed. Anyone desiring to become a sister was to be admitted at a year's probation, and, if rejected, was to pay her own expenses, which otherwise were to be paid by the priory. At the admission and profession of a sister no " Ibid. A. Box 77, No. 2049. " Harl. Chart. 44, F. 40. " Through the stopping up of a water-course. Riley, Mem. of Lend. 375. ^ Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv, 393. " Ibid. " Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, 98. The sermons were established before 1398, and they took place on these days. Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv, 324. " Ibid, v, 436.
- ' Lond. Epis. Reg. Gray, fol. 61.
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