RELIGIOUS HOUSES Rouncevall whose buildings are in need of no small repair. Nothing further is heard of the house until 1478, when Edward IV granted it with all its property in frankalmoign to a fraternity or gild consisting of a master, wardens, brethren, and sisters, founded in the chapel there in 1474, for the maintenance of three chaplains and of the poor coming to the hospital.'" There had been a brotherhood established in St. Mary's in 1385, especially to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, but whether this had any con- nexion with the gild of 1474 does not appear. The story of the hospital ends with the disso- lution of the fraternity in November, 1544.'^ At the time of the surrender the hospital possessed a messuage and field in the parish of . . St. Clement Danes, which it had received from ^'^^ 'f ^^f.'^^ impossible that any difficulty could the king in 1542 in exchange for some tene^ 45. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. GILES WITHOUT CRIPPLEGATE All that is known about this hospital is the statement of Stow,^' that there had been such a house in Whitecross Street in the time of Edward I, and that it was suppressed by Henry V, who founded in its place a brother- hood for the relief of the poor. 46. THE HERMITS AND ANCHORITES OF LONDON Hermits are so different from anchorites, the first being free to wander as they would and the others being actually inclosed in the cell,' that at arise in distinguishin ments and a wharf in the parish of St. Margaret Westminster." About 1 29 1 it held some land in Hawkwell and Ashingdon, co. Essex,'^ and in the fourteenth century a rent of 2s. in Norwich" and 10 acres of land in Kensington." The head of the house was styled prior during the thirteenth century," but afterwards master or warden. Masters or Wardens of the Hospital OF St. Mary Rouncivall Nicholas Slake, occurs 1382'^ Garcias, occurs 1389" John Gedeneye, appointed 1393^** John Neuwerk, occurs 1399^' Richard Rromefeld, died 1526°' Roger Elys, appointed 1526^' William Jenyns, occurs 1542"*' A seal of the fifteenth century ^° represents the Assumption of the Virgin who stands on a crescent upheld by an angel and surrounded by radiance. At each side three flying angels issue from clouds, and overhead in clouds is the Trinity. Legend : — SIGILLU RNITATIS (?) . BE MARIE . DE . ROUNCEVA ' Cal. of Pap. Letters, vii, 251. " Cal. of Pat. 1476-85, p. 114. " Guildhall MS. 142, fol. 112. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, xix (2), 590, " Ibid, xvli, 283 (54). " Had. MS. 60, fol. 71. " Cal. of Pat. 1307-13, p. 222. '* Cal. of Close, 1333-7, P- 423- " C<7/. of Pat. 1272-81, p. 283; 1281-92, p. 476 ; 1292-1301, p. u. " Cal. of Pat. 1381-S, p. 117. " Ibid. 1388-92, p. 152. " Ibid. I 391-6, p. 311. " Ibid. 1 399-1401, p. 25. " L. and P. Hen. VI 11, iv, 2002 (27). Ibid. ^' Ibid, xvii
- ' B.M. Seals, Ixviii, 5,7.
283 (54)- the two kinds of devotees. Yet it is not always easy to make the distinction, for the word hermitage is constantly used with the meaning of anker-hold,^ and a recluse is some- times styled hermit.' There is no doubt, how- ever, that both were to be found in London during the middle ages, for bequests to ' every hermit and recluse in London and the suburbs'* were by no means rare, and Edward III in 1370 gave of his alms 13J. /^d. each to three hermits and eight anchorites in London and the suburbs.^^ There were at least two places in or near the City wall where hermits at one time lived. A cell at Bishopsgate was certainly first occupied by hermits although afterwards by anchorites. The king in 1346 granted to Robert, the hermit of Bishopsgate, his protection for a year while col- lecting alms in divers parts of England.' The same hermitage had been given by the king to a hermit named John de Warwyk four years pre- viously,* and a hermit in 1361 seems still to have been the occupant.' In 1370, however, a be- quest was made to the anchorite of Bishopsgate,* and in 1426 mention occurs of a woman recluse there.' An anchoress of that place is said by Stow to have received 40J. a year from the sherifR of London.'"
- ' Stow, Suiv. of Land. (ed. Strype), iii, 88.
' Arch. Journ. xxiv, 342. ' Fosbroke, British Monachism, 494. The hermitage behind the Tower in which a recluse lived is an exam- ple of this use. 'QiyXsy, Hist, of Tower of London, 125. ^ Friar John Ingram who is designated hermit in a will of 1 37 1, Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 147, is spoken of as a recluse in another of 1376, ibid, ii, 189. There is said at one time to have been an anchorite called the hermit of New Brigge living near the Black Friars. 'iiX.e.Ae., Anchoresses of the West, 100.
- Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, i, 654 ; ii, 107, 145, 147,
220, 234, 237 ; Nichols, Royal Wills, 153.
- '■ Devon, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, 395.
' Cal. of Pat. 1345-8, p. 194. ' Ibid. 1340-3, p. 501. ' Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 107. * Ibid, ii, 146. ' Nichols, op. cit. 250. '" Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, 90. 585 74
