RELIGIOUS HOUSES George Done, elected 1523 John More, elected 1524-5 William Basse, elected 1526 George Dune, elected 1534—5 Humphrey Town, elected 1536 George Dune, elected 1537 Robert Haune, elected 1538-9 Robert Fox, elected 1540 John — John Benson Robert Fox 2* . 31. JESUS COMMONS Stow speaks of a number of priests who lived together in Dowgate Ward in a house which had been left to them for that purpose, and which was well provided both with furniture and books. They were known as Jesus Commons, and were apparently a corporate body, filling up gaps in their ranks as they occurred through death or otherwise. ^^ It is not impossible that the college was connected with a fraternity of priests to whom John Kyrketon, stockfishmonger, left a bequest at the end of the fourteenth century.^* Mention of it occurs in 1539, a priest re- porting there words spoken by the parson of St. Mary Aldermary,^^ and again in 1543 when the parson of St. Ethelburga made to it a bequest of "]$. bd}^ It seems to have survived the changes under Edward VI, and to have become ex- tinct through lack of members in the reign of Elizabeth.*' 32. DOMUS CONVERSORUM In 1232 King Henry III founded in New Street, the present Chancery Lane, a hospital for Jews who had been converted to Christianity,' promising for their maintenance and that of the two chaplains who were to celebrate divine service in the chapel there,^ a yearly sum of 700 marks from the Exchequer, until he or his heirs provided for them otherwise.^ The king in giving to the converts in 1235 some lands and houses in London which had been John Herlicun's, granted them all escheats falling to him in London,* and they undoubtedly acquired " Fox held the office two years in succession and was the last master. '* Stow, Surv. ofLond. (ed. Strype), ii, 201. '« Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 269. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (2), 41 (3). " Lend. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 193^. " Stow, op. cit. ii, 201. ' Cart. 16 Hen. Ill, m. 18, printed in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 683. ^ Cal. of Close, 1 23 1-4, p. 37. The chapel and the buildings adjacent are said by Matthew Paris to have been built in 1233, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 262. ' Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 683.
- Cal. of Chart. R. i, •199.
some property in this way, as, for instance, the lands of Constantine son of Aluf in 1248 ;' he gave them, moreover, certain lands in Oxford in 1245.* The legacy of ^^loo left to the hospital by Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, was also devoted to the endowment of the house.' Whatever income, however, they ultimately derived from such sources, it was never large enough to enable them to dispense with an annual grant which neither Henry III nor Edward I seems to have found easy to raise. In 1245, indeed, the king, unable to give them adequate help, tried to induce some religious houses* to maintain one or two converts for two years. If the number of robes given to the con- verts by the king corresponds in some measure to the number of persons belonging to the house, the hospital soon became large ; 150 robes were given to the converts at Christmas, 1255-6, 171 the following Easter, and 164 at Whitsun- tide ; *' so that at this time there must have been considerably more than a hundred people who received allowances, though all may not have been resident.* Naturally the first accommodation provided soon proved insufficient, and in 1265-6 the master was engaged in enlarging the place or in building new houses, and in 1275 the chapel was lengthened.*" The chap- lains also were increased to three in 1267.*"" Sums amounting altogether to /lOO were allotted to them from the ferms of the coun- ties in 1275,' but five years later the king made them a grant for seven years of deodands, the poll-tax of the Jews, the goods of Jews forfeited for any cause, and half the property of any Jews converted during that period.'** At the same time he ordered that a school should be kept, and that converts able to learn a handicraft were to be taught one, and to be maintained only until they could support themselves, while the portions of clerical scholars who obtained eccle- ' Ibid, i, 336. In other cases the property seems to have been granted to priv.ite individuals who paid a rent to them. Ibid, i, 307, 309, 322, 327. « Ibid, i, 283. ' The king's writ orders that the money shall be used to buy lands for the maintenance of the Conversi. Close, 27 Hen. Ill, m. 9, quoted by Tovey, Jnglia fudaka, 115. ' He sent one to Walsingham priory and a man and his wife to Abingdon Abbey. Tovey, op. cit. 228, 229. "^ W. J. Hardy, ' The Rolls House and Chapel,' Midd. and Herts. N. and Q. ii, 51.
- Two converts in 1238 received them at the
Tower, where they were employed. Ibid. 50. »=Ibld. 52. ^ Ibid. There were, however, only two priests and a clerk in 1280. Cal. of Pat. 1272-81, p. 371. " Cal. of Close, 1272-9, p. 207. " Cj/. of Pat. 1272-81, pp. 371, 372. The property of converted Jews belonged to the king, but Edward on this occasion permitted them to retain half for themselves. 551
