31. THE OBSERVANT FRIARS OF GREENWICH (fn. 1)
The Observant Friars or reformed branch of
the Franciscan Order obtained formal recognition
and a more or less independent organization in
1415, but though Edward IV interposed to protect their threatened independence in 1471, (fn. 2)
they seem to have had no separate house in
England till ten years later. In 1480 Edward
IV negotiated with William Bertholdi, vicargeneral cismontane of the order for the establishment of a house in England, and 4 January,
1480-1, obtained the approval of Pope Sixtus IV
for the foundation of a friary at Greenwich.
The land assigned for the purpose adjoined the
royal palace, measured 12 'virgates' by 63
' virgates,' and comprised a level piece of ground
surrounded by walls, 'where the game of ball
used to be played,' together with some old buildings which the king bought. On 2 July, 1482,
the bishop of Norwich in the king's name formally handed over the site in honour of God, the
Blessed Virgin and St. Francis, to Friars Bernard de L . . ., Vincent of Ostend, and others
who had been sent over from the Continent by
John Philippi, now vicar-general. On the same
day the bishop laid the first stone with due
solemnity, whereupon the friars as a sign of true
and genuine possession chanted the Te Deum and
the mass. (fn. 3) They now began to build at their
own cost and labour, with the assistance of some
of the faithful, several poor little houses in honour
of the Virgin Mary, St. Francis, and All Saints. (fn. 4)
In the meantime they appear to have used a
chantry chapel of the Holy Cross which they
obtained by the means of Sir William Corbridge,
and which was still to be seen in Lambarde's
time. (fn. 5) Henry VII, 14 December, 1485, confirmed this grant and founded a convent of
Observant Friars to consist of the warden and
twelve brethren at least. (fn. 6) The elaborate instructions for a stained glass window in the friars'
church were probably drawn up under Henry's
supervision and before the death of his queen in
February, 1502-3. (fn. 7) In his will he left them
£200 to inclose their garden (fn. 8) and orchard with
a brick-wall, and bequeathed £200 to the prior
of the Charterhouse in trust for the use of the
friars at Greenwich, as he ' knew they had been
many times in peril of ruin for lack of food.' (fn. 9)
He also left 100 marks to each of the five houses
of Observant Friars. (fn. 10)
In. 1502 the Grey Friars of England changed
their habits from London russet into white grey
'as the sheep doth dye it.' The change was
largely due to the Greenwich friars, who insisted
on the cheaper material being used. (fn. 11)
Henry VIII, in 1513, wrote from his palace
of Greenwich to Leo X that he
could not sufficiently commend the Observant Friars'
strict adherence to poverty, their sincerity, charity
and devotion. No Order battled more assiduously
against vice, and none were more active in keeping
Christ's fold. (fn. 12)
He made, moreover, frequent grants of money to
the Greenwich house. He gave them £8 6s. 8d.
for 500 masses in April, 1510, and £13 6s. 8d.
for two masses daily for a year for his father's
soul; in 1511, 58s.; in 1512, 48s. for 100 lb.
of wax which he had given them; in 1514,
20s. for the repair of their wharf, and in 1519
he paid again for the repair of their wharf. (fn. 13) In
October, 1516, a grant of £40 was made 'to a
friar that gave the king an instrument.' (fn. 14) The
Observant Friars seem to have carried out the
mandates of the rule with regard to manual
labour, and some of them were skilled workmen. (fn. 15)
The friars' church was used for royal baptisms
and marriages. Henry VIII was christened
probably in this church (1491), and certainly his
brother Edmund (1498). The marriage of
Henry and Catherine took place at Greenwich,
probably in the friars' church (1509). The Princess Mary was christened here 20 February,
1515-16, and the Princess Elizabeth 8 September,
1533. (fn. 16) Muriel, daughter of Thomas Howard,
duke of Norfolk, relict of John Grey, Viscount
Lisle, was buried here in 1512; (fn. 17) John Hent,
esq., in 1521.; (fn. 18) Edith, wife of Thomas, Lord
Darcy, in 1529. (fn. 18) Lord Darcy, who was a
benefactor of the friars, (fn. 20) desired before his execution, 30 June, 1537, to be buried near his
wife, but this request was refused. (fn. 21)
Bequests to the friars are numerous. The
earliest recorded one seems to be that of Richard
Tilley, who left them 100s. for building in
1485. (fn. 22) Thomas Ustwayte of East Greenwich,
esquire, in 1496 left 6s. 8d. to ' the blessed house
of St. Francis' and 3s. 4d. for repairs of All
Hallows chapel in the same church (fn. 23) ; Michael
Walis of Woolwich left money for the repair of
the friars', church about 1500. (fn. 24) Thomazine
Sheby left- the friars in 1506, 'a diaper cloth
12 yards long' for the frontal of masses. (fn. 25)
Richard Carpenter, yeoman of the pantry (1515),
John Stile, armourer to the king (1524), William
Derlington, vicar of Greenwich (1525), several
London merchants, and a large proportion of
women, left them legacies. (fn. 26)
The brilliant William Roy was a friar of this
house for a short time about 1520, when he
seems to have written the Montfort Codex of
the Greek text of the New Testament, probably
at the instigation of Friar Henry Standish, bishop
of St. Asaph, and to help him in his controversy
with Erasmus. (fn. 27)
In January, 1524-5, Wolsey attempted to
carry out a visitation of the convent of Greenwich by his legatine authority; the friars resisted,
many of them leaving the house: ' Friar John
Forest was commanded to preach at Paul's Cross
the Sunday after and there pronounced all accurst
that went out of the place.' They at length
submitted to the legate, some being imprisoned
for their contumacy. (fn. 28)
Catherine of Aragon is said to have belonged
to the Third Order of St. Francis; she used
to rise at midnight to the Divine office and be present
in the Franciscan church at Greenwich during the
time that the friars were reading or singing their
Matins and Lauds. (fn. 29)
John Forest was her confessor. (fn. 30)
The question of the nullity of the marriage of
Henry VIII with Catherine brought the friars
into direct conflict with the king. In December, 1528, a discontented friar asserted that many
of his brethren were guilty of Lutheranism and
spoke ill of the king and of Wolsey. (fn. 31) On
Easter Sunday (31 March), 1532, William Peto,
provincial of the friars, preached at Greenwich
before the king, and warned him that he was
endangering his crown, for both great and little
were murmuring at the marriage. The king
dissembled his ill-will, but on the provincial's
departure for a chapter, he caused one of his
chaplains, Dr. Curwen, to preach in the friars'
church, contrary to the custom of the convent
and the will of the warden. The chaplain's
sermon roused the warden, Henry Elston, to
expostulate; in the king's presence he gave the
chaplain the lie. Henry was very angry, and
bade the provincial on his return depose the
warden. This he refused to do, and the king
had them both arrested (fn. 32) Elston was confined
at the Grey Friars of Bedford, (fn. 33) but some months
later he and Peto were at Antwerp carrying on
the campaign against the king. (fn. 34)
Meanwhile the general feeling in the Greenwich convent was strongly in favour of Catherine.
Friar William Robinson, a former warden, offered
to dispute and preach at Paul's Cross on the
queen's behalf, and was strongly supported by
William Curson, vicar of the house. (fn. 36) A young
friar, Thomas Pereson, reproved the king's chaplain for speaking against the queen. (fn. 36) John
Forest organized the opposition to the king in
the provincial chapter (1532). (fn. 37) Cromwell was
kept fully informed of the state of affairs by some
friars (fn. 38) who acted as his agents and spies. The
chief of these were friars John Lawrence and
Richard Lyst, (fn. 39) a lay brother who had been an
apothecary in Wolsey's service, and who, on the
death in prison of another lay brother named
Ravenscroft, suggested that a charge of murder
against his fellow friars would be an effective
method of keeping them quiet. (fn. 40) Both these
friars found life in the cloister intolerable and
escaped. (fn. 41) The king tried to induce the general
commissary of the province to deprive his
enemies of their offices, but without much success. (fn. 42) Peto, however, was not re-elected provincial, and a more amenable brother was made
warden of Greenwich; (fn. 43) but Forest
rejoiced to have put the king beside his purpose at
our last chapter, saying that if he had not been there
the king would have destroyed our whole religion. (fn. 44)
Two Observant Friars were caught by Cromwell's spies holding secret communications with
the princess dowager in July, 1533: 'it is undoubted,' wrote Cromwell to his master, 23 July,
1533,
that they have intended and would confess some
great matter if they might be examined as they
ought to be, that is to say by pains.
The warden of Greenwich was anxious to have
the punishing of them, (fn. 45) perhaps to save them
from a worse fate. One of them, Hugh Payne,
was soon at large again, preaching obedience to
the pope and denouncing the king's marriage, in
the west of England. (fn. 46)
Henry probably hoped to bend the friars to
his will at this time. He gave them an alms of
10 marks; (fn. 47) the Princess Elizabeth was christened in the church with great pomp I o September, (fn. 48) and the minister, warden, and friars of
Greenwich begged for the king's pardon 21 December. (fn. 49) But on 13 April, 1534, a royal
commission was issued to the provincial priors of
the Austin and Black Friars to visit all the friars'
houses and bind every friar by oath to acknowledge the king as supreme head of the church
and repudiate the pope's authority. (fn. 50) On
14 June Roland Lee and Thomas Bedyll, acting
on instructions from the commissioners, visited
Richmond, and induced the friars there to entrust their case to four ' discreets' or representatives, who should attend the visitors the next
day at Greenwich. On 15 June the visitors
tried to induce the Greenwich friars to adopt
the same procedure, ' specially to the intent that
if the discreets should refuse to consent, it were
better after our minds to strain a few than a
multitude.' The friars, however, ' stiffly affirmed
that where the matter concerned particularly
every one of their souls, they would answer particularly every man for himself.' After further
discussion, the visitors were compelled to examine
each friar separately, and each refused to accept
the articles, especially that which denied the
papal authority. In answer to all the arguments
of the visitors they declared that ' they had professed St. Francis' religion, and in the observance
thereof they would live and die.' (fn. 51)
On 17 June two cart-loads of friars drove
through London to the Tower, (fn. 52) and it is possible that some of the Greenwich Observants were
among them. On or before 11 August the
friars were expelled from their convent (fn. 53) (though
they seem to have made some kind of submission (fn. 54) ) and distributed in different places, generally
in houses of the Grey Friars, where, wrote
Chapuys to Charles V, 'they were locked up in
chains and treated worse than they could be in
prison.' (fn. 55) Some, such as John Forest, were
actually in prison in London. (fn. 56) Two of them,
inclosed in a poor lodging at the Grey Friars,
Stamford, and treated as prisoners, were ' in
meetly good case as the world at this time requireth,' and sent to London for their little
belongings, including a new Psalter, a pair of
socks, a penner and inkhorn. (fn. 57) But the severity
of their treatment is shown by the fact that out
of 140 Observant Friars thirty-one soon died, (fn. 58)
and this does not account for all the deaths.
Thomas Bourchier, who was a member of the
Greenwich friary in the reign of Mary, gives
details of several martyrdoms which probably
belong to this time, though the writer assigns
them to 1537. (fn. 59) On 19 July Anthony Brdrbe,
formerly of Magdalen College, Oxford, a distinguished scholar, who had been imprisoned and
tortured to such an extent that ' for twenty-five
days he could not turn in bed or lift his hands
to his mouth,' was strangled with his own cord. (fn. 60)
On 27 July Thomas Cortt, who had been imprisoned for a sermon against the king in the
church of St. Lawrence, London, died in Newgate. (fn. 61) On 3 August Thomas Belchiam, a
young priest, who had composed a book against
the king, one copy of which he left in the hands
of his brethren at Greenwich, died of starvation
in Newgate. (fn. 62) No mention of these three friars
occurs in extant contemporary authorities, but
Bourchier's account representing the traditiqn of
the Order is probably substantially correct, though
the names may be misspelt.
Some of the friars fled abroad, to Scotland 01
over sea. (fn. 63) Others obtained permission through
Wriothesley's influence to leave the country. (fn. 64)
Among Cromwell's ' remembrances' of this time
is the entry: ' Item to remember the friars of
Greenwich to have licence to go to Ireland.' (fn. 65)
It is clear that not a few made formal submission (fn. 66) and were set free, but they could not
refrain from teaching what they believed, and
after the rebellions of 1536 the king renewed his
attack on them. Thus Friar Hugh Payne wrote
from the prison into which he had been cast in
July, 1534, promising to submit entirely to the
king and begging for deliverance; (fn. 67) in 1536 he
was acting as curate of Hadleigh, Suffolk, and
then as priest of Stoke by Nayland. (fn. 68) Being
denounced by Cranmer for his preaching, he
was thrown into the Marshalsea, whence he
wrote (1537) to the duke of Norfolk urging that
his trial should be hastened, as he was like to die
of sickness and the weight of his irons. (fn. 69) He
died soon afterwards in prison, but not before a
patron had presented him to the living of Sutton
Magna in Essex, which another ex-Observant
then tried to obtain. (fn. 70) The king, on 17 March,
1536-7, declaring that the Friars Observants
were ' disciples of the bishop of Rome and sowers
of sedition,' ordered that they should be arrested
'and placed in other houses of friars as prisoners,
without liberty to speak to any man till we
decide our pleasure concerning them.' (fn. 71)
Forest was the most famous victim of the new
persecution. From his prison he had written to
Catherine of Aragon in expectation of immediate
death, probably in 1534; he was then sixty-four
years of age, and had spent forty-three of these in
religion. (fn. 72) He was, however, transferred to the
Grey Friars, London, in consequence probably
of having made his submission. (fn. 73) At the
Grey Fliars he enjoyed considerable liberty;
from well-wishers he received small sums of
money for fuel and other necessaries, and was
allowed to celebrate mass and hear confessions. (fn. 74)
Suspicion arising, Forest was cast into Newgate,
and in examination admitted that he induced
men in confession ' to hold and stick to the old
fashion of belief.' (fn. 75) On 22 May, 1538, he was
roasted alive as a traitor and heretic. (fn. 76) Another
Greenwich friar, Anthony Browne, who on the
break-up of the convent became a hermit, was
brought before the justices at Norwich in July,
1538, confessed, (fn. 77) and received judgement accordingly; the execution was postponed for ten
days, partly because the judges thought it well
that a sermon should be made by the bishop of
Norwich, as was done by the bishop of Worcester
at Friar Forest's execution, partly in case Cromwell wished to have him brought to the Tower
and tortured. (fn. 78)
Meanwhile the king instituted a convent of
Grey Friars at Greenwich, to which in March,
1537, he assigned an annuity of £100; (fn. 79) and
on 25 March, 1538, a payment of £25 was
made to the warden of the Grey Friars of Greenwich for their relief; (fn. 80) this is the latest grant
recorded.
The friary was revived by Mary, who repaired the buildings and had the Observant
Friars. reinstated on 7 April, 1555, by Maurice
Griffin, bishop of Rochester. (fn. 81) Peto, now
nominally bishop of Salisbury and soon to be
cardinal, (fn. 82) and Elston returned to their old
monastery.
They complained to the queen in July, 1555,
of having been ' beaten with stones which were
flung at them by divers lewd persons as they
passed from London to Greenwich on Sunday
last.' Among the inmates of the house were
Thomas Bourchier, author of the Historia de
Martyrio Fratrum Ordinis Divi Francisci, &c.,
and several Spaniards. (fn. 83) Cardinal Pole was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in the friars'
church 23 March, 1555-6, (fn. 84) two days after the
burning of Cranmer. The friars were again
expelled by Elizabeth, 12 July, 1559; (fn. 85) most
of them seem to have taken refuge in the Netherlands; they are found at Liège and Antwerp,
Lisbon, and the convent of Ara Coeli in Rome. (fn. 86)
William Robinson, (fn. 88) 1528
Henry Elston, (fn. 89) 1532
William Sydenham, (fn. 90) 1533
Henry Elston, (fn. 91) 1555
Stephen Fox, (fn. 92)
custos of Greenwich, c. 1558
The seal of the warden in the time of Queen
Mary was pointed oval, and represented the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary, who is seen supported by four angels; a radiant nimbus round
her head; beneath is an escutcheon of the arms
of France and England, quarterly, ensigned with
the head of a cherub. Legend:—
SIGILLVM GARDIANI .GCEWVBQSIS (fn. 93)