12. THE GREY FRIARS
Of the nine Franciscans who landed at Dover,
September, 1224, (fn. 1) four—Richard Ingworth, a
priest, and Richard of Devon, an acolyte, both
Englishmen, Henry Detrenizo (or de Trevizo),
a Lombard, and Monacatus, (fn. 2) the last two lay
brothers—proceeded to London, where they stayed
with the Friars Preachers at Holborn for fifteen
days. They then hired a house in Cornhill of
John Travers, sheriff of London, and made in it
little cells. (fn. 3) Here they remained, with others
who joined them, until the following summer,
when, their number being too large for their
quarters, John Iwyn, (fn. 4) citizen and mercer of
London, made over to their use, as by their rule
they could possess nothing, some land and houses
close to Newgate, (fn. 5) in the parish of St. Nicholas
in the Shambles. The spot accorded well with
their profession, for it must have been one of the
most unpleasant in the unsavoury mediaeval city:
it bordered on and soon included part of a lane so
filthy from the blood of slaughtered animals that
it was called Stinking Lane. (fn. 6) Once established,
they gradually added to their space, (fn. 7) an urgent
necessity considering that in 1243 there were
eighty friars in the convent. (fn. 8)
The close adherence of the friars to the rule of
their order in the first years of their settlement in
London—for they lived on the poorest of food (fn. 9)
and in buildings (fn. 10) of the simplest description—
explains the enthusiasm (fn. 11) they excited in that
city, which is shown by the large proportion of
London citizens among their early benefactors.
William Joyner, (fn. 12) who built them a chapel at a
cost of £200, was probably the mayor of 1239;
Henry le Galeys, mayor 1274, built the nave of
their first church; Walter Potter, alderman of
London, and sheriff in 1269 and 1272, gave the
chapter-house and all the brass vessels for the
kitchen and infirmary; Gregory de Rokesley,
mayor 1274–80, built the dormitory and furnished it; while the Basings and the Frowyks, (fn. 13)
who bore so much of the expense of the water
supply of the friary, were members of well-known
London families. Salomon, one of the first
novices and the second warden of the house there,
became general confessor of the citizens. It was
from Salomon, (fn. 14) while warden, that Roger bishop
of London demanded canonical obedience, but
owing to his admiration for the order consented
to an indefinite delay, and future demands were
of course stopped by the entire exemption of the
friars from episcopal jurisdiction.
The necessity for intellectual training was
very soon grasped by the Franciscans in England,
and in this respect the London convent was
early provided for by Albert of Pisa (minister
of England, 1239), who established a reader
there. (fn. 15) Its schools may account in some
measure for the influential position it held in the
next century.
The rebuilding of the church in the fourteenth
century gives perhaps a better idea of the extraordinary position to which the friars had attained
than could be gathered in any other way. It
seems indeed to mark a new era in their history,
for the principal contributors are of a different
class from the early benefactors, queens and
nobles now playing the part formerly taken by
London citizens. (fn. 16) The foundation stone was
laid in 1306 by Sir William Walden in the
name of Queen-Margaret, the second wife of
Edward I, (fn. 17) who not only bought the land necessary (fn. 18) for the extension, (fn. 19) but gave 2,000 marks
during her lifetime and bequeathed 100 marks to
the building. (fn. 20) She died before the church was
finished, and was buried in front of the high
altar. John de Bretagne, earl of Richmond, gave
£300, a gold chalice, vestments, and carpets;
Mary, countess of Pembroke, £70 and many
other goods; Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester,
twenty great beams from his forest of Tunbridge
worth £20, and as much more in money;
his sister Margaret, countess of Gloucester,
£26 13s. 4d. for the construction of an altar,
and another sister, Eleanor le Spencer, £15 for
a similar purpose; while a third, Lady Elizabeth
de Burgh, gave £15, partly in wood, partly in
money; (fn. 21) Robert, Lord Lisle, who afterwards
became a friar in the convent, contributed more
than £300. Queen Isabella expended over
£700 on the completion of the church, and
Queen Philippa gave £48 13s. 4d. to the church
and £13 6s. 8d. to the expense of roofing it. (fn. 22)
The church appears to have been both large and
handsome, for it measured 300 ft. in length and
89 ft. in breadth, and the columns and pavement
were of marble. (fn. 23) Between the aisled nave and
the choir stood the altars of St. Mary, of Holy
Cross, and of Jesus and the common altar, and
on each side of the choir were two chapels, those
of St. Mary and All Hallows on the north, and
those of St. Francis and the Apostles on the
south. (fn. 24) The church was finished in 1327, (fn. 25)
but a storm in 1341 did great damage, (fn. 26) and
work was still going on in 1345, when the
cloister was being built (fn. 27) and the houses repaired.
It is possible that additions were made throughout
the century: the glazing of the windows was
done at the cost of various people who were not
all contemporaries, (fn. 28) and the choir stalls were
the gift of Margaret Segrave, countess of Norfolk,
about 1380. (fn. 29) The convent buildings were
enlarged a little after 1360, an alteration made
necessary by the numbers that joined the order. (fn. 30)
In 1315 and 1325 there were seventy-two
inmates of the friary, (fn. 31) and in 1346 the king had
to check the influx of foreign friars into the
London house, (fn. 32) ostensibly in the interests of the
English brothers, but possibly in the fear of
spies. There is also proof that about a hundred
friars died at the time of the Black Death, for
recent excavations on the site of the old burialground led to the discovery of a pit evidently
made at the time of an epidemic, and about a
hundred bodies in this had upon them the
leaden crosses used by the Franciscans, but in this
case not inscribed with the formula of absolution,
and showing other signs of hasty construction. (fn. 33)
It would perhaps be difficult to overrate
the influence of the Grey Friars, particularly
in the fourteenth century. Queen Isabella chose
as her confessor one of this convent, Roger
Lamborne, a man of good family, (fn. 34) and as
the gifts of Gilbert de Clare to the church are
said to have been made at the prompting of his
confessor, Geoffrey de Aylesham, (fn. 35) so the generosity of Margaret, countess of Norfolk, may
have been partly due to Friar William de Woodford. (fn. 36) Roger Conway of the convent of
Worcester received a papal licence in 1355 to
reside in London, for the spiritual recreation of
himself and of the many English nobles coming
to the friary. (fn. 37) He is interesting not only as a
spiritual adviser of the fashionable world, but as
having answered the tract of the archbishop of
Armagh against the mendicant orders. (fn. 38) The
regard in which the house was held is also testified
by the persons of high rank (fn. 39) and the prominent
citizens (fn. 40) who chose the church as a place of burial.
The popularity of the Grey Friars with the
rich and powerful was doubtless one of the
reasons for the vehement attacks made on them,
although the attitude towards them can be sufficiently accounted for when one remembers that
they continued the practice of begging while
they had given up a life of poverty, and any
doubt on this last point vanishes after seeing the
list of property stolen from John Welle, (fn. 41) a
Minorite dwelling in London, 1378. Their
shortcoming in this respect was the immediate
cause of Wycliffe's hatred. No definite part in
this controversy can be ascribed to the London
house, for it was only after 1390 that Friar
Woodford, Wycliffe's opponent, lived there. (fn. 42)
During the reign of Henry IV the part played
in political affairs by some of the English Franciscans (fn. 43) must have caused all of the order to be
looked at askance by the court. Hence perhaps
the reason why it was not to noble patrons such
as those who built their church, but to a London
citizen, the celebrated Richard Whittington, (fn. 44)
that they owed the new library, begun in 1421
and completely finished in about four years. In
like manner it was to the efforts of two inmates
of the convent, William Russell (fn. 45) the warden
and Thomas Winchelsey, that they were indebted for most of the improvements in the
convent buildings.
The names of these two friars occur again in
another very different connexion. On 15 May,
1425, Russell (fn. 46) appeared before the archbishop
of Canterbury, presiding in his provincial council at St. Paul's, on a charge of preaching
that personal tithes need not be paid to the
parish priest, but might be devoted instead
to charitable purposes. The opinion of the
archbishop was against him, and Russell professed himself willing to submit, but as he did
not appear (fn. 47) to make the public renunciation of
this doctrine at St. Paul's Cross in accordance
with the archbishop's order, he was declared
excommunicate. He thereupon betook himself
to Rome, where he was imprisoned by the pope
for his erroneous opinions.
Winchelsey, who was considered the most
famous doctor of the order, had also been summoned before the same convocation (fn. 48) on an
apparently groundless charge of heresy. When
Russell however managed to escape to England
in January, 1426, he was sheltered for a night
at his friary, when it is said that Winchelsey
came from Shene expressly to see him. In consequence of this Winchelsey was accused and
condemned by convocation in April following
for favouring heresy. He submitted to the court,
and on behalf of himself, the London convent and
the whole order, read a declaration at St. Paul's
Cross repudiating Russell's opinions. Russell
probably surrendered himself, (fn. 49) as he was not kept
long in prison by the bishop of London after he
had recanted at St. Paul's Cross in March, 1427.
The Grey Friars may have thought that they
had re-established their reputation for orthodoxy
by the part their provincial played against
Pecocke, (fn. 50) bishop of Chichester. The remembrance of their former check did not at any rate
deter them from joining the Carmelites in their
attack on the beneficed clergy in 1465, (fn. 51) and
their representative in the disputation at Whitefriars went so far that he was cited to appear
before the archbishop at Lambeth for heresy.
He pleaded exemption from all episcopal jurisdiction, but the privilege was judged not to hold
in this case. Whether he withdrew or explained
away everything obnoxious to the authorities or
not does not appear, but it would seem he was
acquitted, and he alone ventured to answer
Dr. Ive (fn. 52) when he lectured at St. Paul's Schools
on the opposite side.
The return of the Grey Friars in 1502 to
their whitish-grey habits, which they had for
some reason temporarily abandoned, (fn. 53) looked at
in the light of subsequent events, appears a ludicrous attempt at outward profession when the
spirit had completely departed: for the rest of
their history may be summed up as a firm
determination to stand well with the king at
whatever cost of principle. Their relations with
the court are shown in the next collision with
the ecclesiastical authorities. Dr. Henry Standish,
then resident in the London house, provincial (fn. 53a)
of the Grey Friars, and a popular court preacher,
was accused of heresy (fn. 54) in the convocation of
1515. He may have thought with some reason
that the real charge against him was the opinion
he had expressed in favour of the Act of
4 Henry VIII, by which the benefit of clergy
was curtailed. At all events the king took this
view, and the members of Convocation (fn. 55) found
themselves in their turn accused of an attack
on the secular power, and had enough to do to
excuse themselves without pursuing the case
against Standish.
The close connexion of the Grey Friars and
the City was illustrated more than once about
this time: on the petition of the warden and
friars it was decided in 1514 (fn. 56) that the mayor
and aldermen as founders should go in procession to the house every year on St. Francis'
Day; and when the nave of the church was to
be paved with marble London citizens contributed the money; and a further outlay being
necessary in 1518 the provincial and the warden
applied to the City, and at the request of the
Court of Common Council the sum required,
£16 16s. 8d., was raised by the companies. (fn. 57)
The feeling that as Friars Minors of London
they must sympathize with the London poor
undoubtedly caused John Lincoln's attempt (fn. 58) to
use their influence to persuade the City authorities to take measures against the foreigners with
whom the populace was so enraged. But Dr.
Standish was not the man to run any risk, and
saying that it was not a fit subject to touch on
in a sermon, escaped any ill consequences of the
evil May Day of 1517.
The attitude of the friars in the affair of the
prisoner who escaped from Newgate and took
refuge in their church may have offended the
City, (fn. 58a) but in 1529 the usual procession was
not to take place 'in consequence of the
unkindness and ingratitude of the friars.' (fn. 59)
Standish seems to have been taken as an example by the wardens during the period of religious change. Cudner, on behalf of his convent, acknowledged the king as supreme head of
the Church in 1534, (fn. 60) and it is unlikely that
Friar Forest and others of the Observants would
have been sent to this house if the king had not
been certain of the opinions entertained there.
Chapuys said that the Observants, while they
refused to take the oath, were treated by the
Conventuals worse than they would have been
in ordinary prisons, (fn. 61) and the hostility shown to
them by Thomas Chapman, the warden, when
Forest again fell under suspicion is sufficient
indication of the treatment meted out to them in
London. In a letter to Cromwell Chapman
says (fn. 62) that he has not forgotten the command to
search out Forest's friends, but the time assigned
had been too short. He has now learned more,
and sends the names of those who had given Forest
a small sum of money, adding: 'I will be true to
my Prince, and so will all my Brethren. I dare
depose for them that were no Observants.'
One friar was so eager to show his loyalty that
he laid information against one of his fellow
brethren, misrepresenting a conversation of which
he had only heard part. (fn. 63) The accused managed
to clear himself, (fn. 64) but such spying must have
made life unendurable, and gone far to justify
the warden in declaring that 'all the house would
willingly change their coats provided they have
a living,' and that 'they all longed to change
their coats.' (fn. 65)
The house was surrendered on 12 November
1538, by Thomas Chapman, S.T.D., the warden, and 26 friars. (fn. 66) Chapman was granted a
life pension of £13 6s. 8d., (fn. 67) and payments, but
apparently not pensions, (fn. 68) were made to twenty
of the friars. The fixed income of the house
derived from lands and houses in the immediate
neighbourhood of the church and monastery (fn. 69)
was only £32 19s., (fn. 70) so that the friars must still
have depended on alms for the greater part of
their revenues. (fn. 71) The importance of the house
may be gauged by the amount of plate in the
church at the time of the Dissolution—1,520 oz.
of gilt, 600 oz. of parcel gilt, and 770 oz. of
white plate. (fn. 72)
Wardens of the Grey Friars
Henry de Treviso, the first warden, 1224 (fn. 73)
Salamon, (fn. 74) occurs c. 1230
Peter of Tewkesbury, occurs 1234 (fn. 75)
John de Kethene, before 1239 (fn. 76)
A., occurs c. 1252–8 (fn. 77)
J., occurs 1282 (fn. 78)
Salomon de Ingeham, occurs 1292 or 1293 (fn. 79)
Nicholas, occurs 1294 (fn. 80) and 1295 (fn. 81)
Henry de Sutton, occurs 1302 (fn. 82)
Thomas de Whapelad, occurs 1303 (fn. 83)
William de Querle, occurs 1324 (fn. 84) and 1330 (fn. 85)
John Malberthorpe, occurs 1369 (fn. 86)
Robert, occurs 1391 (fn. 87) and 1393 (fn. 87a)
John Bruyle, occurs 1398 (fn. 88)
William Russell, occurs 1425 (fn. 89)
John Alen, S.T.P. (fn. 90)
John Kyrie, occurs 1440 (fn. 91) and 1458, (fn. 92) died
1474 (fn. 93)
William Goddard, the younger, died 1485 (fn. 94)
James Walle, died 1494 (fn. 95)
Andrew, occurs 1498 (fn. 96)
Walter Goodfield, c. 1511(?) (fn. 97)
Henry Standish, D.D. (fn. 98)
James Cutler, S.T.P., (fn. 99) occurs 1514, 1515,
and 1518 (fn. 100)
Thomas Cudner, occurs 1526 (fn. 101) and 1534 (fn. 102)
Thomas Chapman, S.T.D., surrendered the
house 1539 (fn. 103)
There is a seal of this friary of the fourteenth century. (fn. 104) It is a pointed oval in
shape, and bears a representation of a carved
corbel on which stand two saints, a tree with
several birds being between them. They hold
up a shrine with trefoiled canopy and three
spires, each topped with a cross. In the shrine
is a saint seated on a throne and holding in the
right hand a sword, in the left a book. The
background is diapered lozengy with a small star
in each space. Legend:
SIGI . . VS . FRATRVM . MIN . V
LONDONIAR
Only a fragment remains of the large red seal
used by the receiver in 1498. (fn. 105) It represents
a shield of arms of the city of London. The
legend is wanting.