RELIGIOUS HOUSES the cognition and correction of small breaches of the peace committed by the vicars or servants within the college, and the cognition in their courts of all pleas of those living on their lands.^^ To provide accommodation for the members of the college, the king gave them in 1354 a cham- ber in the gate of the palace and a hospice and other buildings within the precinct, with a piece of ground bounded by the chapel, the receipt of the exchequer, Westminster Hall and the Thames for a close. The endowment of the college, however, to the extent designed by the king, could not be accomplished very quickly. By the foundation charter the college received a large hospice in Lombard Street, and the advowsons of the churches of Dewsbury and Wakefield, CO. York, with licence to appropriate.'^ To these the king added three more churches. San- dal " and Burton,'^ co. York, and Bledlow,'^ CO. Bucks, between 1 35 1 and 1360 ; the sum of £^2,S 14^- l^- from the ferm of the city of York in 1351 ; '"^ ' Sewtestower ' in Bucklersbury in 1358 ;*^ rents amounting to £b(i 13J. ^d. from houses in the Staple of Westminster before 1360;*^ and a hospice called 'La Reole ' in London in 1369.*' Before his death the king also enfeoffed John of Gaunt and others in trust for the college, of the manors of Ashford, Barton, Buckwell, Eastling, Mere, and Langley by Leeds, with the advowsons of the churches, a parcel of meadow in Eynsford, and the reversion of the manors of Elham and Colbridge, co. Kent,^'* and of Winchfield, co. Southants.*' These the feoffees let to the dean and canons for forty years in 1382, but before the grant in mort- main which they intended could be effected, the lands were seized by Sir Simon de Burley, who held them by letters patent of King Richard. Burley was attainted in 1388, and the lands came in consequence into the king's hands. The canons then put in their claim, and Richard at first granted them the profits arising from the lands for a term of years, but finally in 1398 carried out King Edward's wish and gave them the lands themselves.^^ The interest of Edward III in his foundation was constant. It was at his request that the pope offered an indulgence in 1349*' and again " Harl. MS. 410, fol. II. « Ibid. fol. 2. 'Mbid. fol. 14^, 15. " Ibid. fol. 16, in 135 I. " Ibid. fol. ijb. This church must have been ap- propriated immediately, for it was granted in May, 1356, and is mentioned as appropriated in July, when the king allowed the canons to re-unite a portion of tithes to the church. Pat. 30 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5, in Add. MS. 15664, fol. 141. " Harl. MS. 410, fol. 21. " Ibid. fol. 17.
- ' Ibid. fol. 18. " Ibid. fol. 20.
" Ibid. fol. 2Zb. " Hasted, Hist, of Kent, iii, 192. " Harl. MS. 410, fol. 24. « Ibid. fol. 25. " Cal. Pap. Petitions, i, 188. in 1354** and 1361" to those who helped the chapel by gifts or bequests or who visited it on the feasts of the Assumption, of St. Stephen, St. George, and St. Edward. It was to him, too, that the canons owed their bell-tower with its three large bells.'" He also purchased a great missal and an antiphon for the chapeP' in 1362 at a cost of ^33. But perhaps there is nothing that better illustrates the king's relations with the college than his grant of ;^34 to the vicars, clerks, and choristers in 1370 'in relief of their charges because of the dearness of provisions."^ The college probably owed something of the king's generosity to their position. It was impossible for him to forget men who were actually living in the palace, many of the canons being more- over his clerks. But it was also a situation which involved obligations, and if the college had a large income," they certainly needed it, for they seem to have been expected to keep open house for the nobles coming to the court.'* A quarrel which was to last for years began in 1375" between the college and the abbey be- cause the dean had proved the will and adminis- tered the estates of two inmates of Westminster Palace.'* The abbot and convent claimed that as the church of St. Margaret and all the chapels in the parish were appropriated to them, St. Stephen's, which lay in the parish, belonged to them, and the dean and canons had no right to receive parochial tithes and oblations or exercise jurisdiction in the parish or chapel." They therefore obtained letters from Pope Gregory XI, and the dean was cited to appear before papal delegates at St. Frideswide's, Oxford.'* But the matter now touched the crown, and in February, 1377, Edward III interposed," and after a declaration that his free chapels were exempt from all jurisdiction, ordinary and delegate, except that of his chancellor, forbade archbishops, bishops, or others to hold any pleas concerning them to his prejudice or to molest the dean.^ The pro- hibition was renewed by Richard II in December," " Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 538.
- ' Cal. Pap. Petitions, i, 372.
'" Stow, Surv. of Land. (ed. Strype), vi, 54. " Devon, Issues of the Exch. -j-j. " Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, 466. " It seems doubtful whether it was really l.irge. The stipends must have absorbed most of it. " The king petitioned the pope in 1349 to allow benefices to the value of £'2.oo to be appropriated to the dean and canons because their expenses in enter- taining were so great. Cal. Pap. Petitions, i, 186. " Pope Gregory's letters are of that date. Doc. of D. and C. of Westm. Westm. parcel 23, pt. 3 con- tinued. No. 18514A. "* Ibid. pt. 2 continued, No. 18482. " Cal. Pap. Letters, iv, 328, 462. '* Doc. of D. and C. of Westm. Westm. parcel 23, pt. 3 continued, No. 18524A. " Ibid. pt. 2 continued, No. 18490.
- ° Mandate of Richard II, Cal. of Pat. 1377--S1,
p. 95. " Ibid. 56;
