The History of Medieval London. Walter Besant
of the Church, against the laziness and luxury of the Religious, against the general immorality imputed, rightly or wrongly, to the Ecclesiastics of all kinds—there were sixty clerks in Holy Orders caught in the act of adultery in the years 1400 to 1440: there were notoriously women who kept disorderly houses for priests and procured girls for them (see Riley’s Memorials). The spirit of revolt was shown by the action of the City when it prayed for the dissolution of St. Martin’s Sanctuary on the ground that the place was a mere receptacle of murderers, thieves, and bankrupts; it was shown most decisively and unmistakably in the remarkable prayer of Parliament that the King would take over into his own hands the whole of the Church lands. This petition demands larger notice. The following is Fabyan’s account:—
“In this yere (xi Henry IV.) the kyng helde his parliament at Westmynster, during the whiche the commons of this lande put up a bylle to the kyng, to take the temporall landes out from spiritual mene’s handes or possession. The effect of whiche bylle was, that the temporaltes, disordynately wasted by men of the churche, myghte suffice to find for the kyng xv erles, xv C knyghts, xi M and CC esquyers and C houses of almes, to the releef of poore people, more than at these dayes were within Englande. And over all thyse aforesayd charges the kynge myght put yerely in his coffers xx M pounds. Provyded that every erle should have of yerely rent iii M marke, every knyght an C marke & iiii ploughe lande, every esquyer xl marke by yere, with ii plughe land, and every house of almesse an C marke and oversyght of ii trewe seculers into every house. And also with provicion that every township shoulde kepe all poore people of theyr owne dwellers, whiche myght not labour for theyr lyvynge, with condycyon that if more fell in a towne than the towne myght maynteyn, that the said almesse houses to releve suche townshyppes. And for to bere thyse charges, they allegyd by theyr sayd bylle, that the temporalyties beyng in the possession of spirituell men, amounted to CCC and xxii M marke by yere, whereof they affermyd to be in the see of Caunterbury, with the abbeys of Cristes Churche, of Seynt Augustyns, Shrowsbury, Coggeshale, and Seynt Osiys xx M marke by yere.
In the see of Durham and other abbeys there, xx M marke: in the see of York & abbays there, xx M marke: in the see of Wynchester & abbays there, xx M marke: in the see of London with abbays and other houses there, xx M marke: in the see of Lincoln, with the abbays of Peterbourth, Ramsay, & other, xx M marke: in the see of Norwych, with the abbays of Bury and other, xx M marke: in the see of Hely, with the abbays of Hely, Spaldyng, & other, xx M marke: in the see of Bathe, with the abbay of Okynborne & other, xx M marke: in the see of Worceter, with the abbays of Euisham, Abyngdon, & other, xx M marke: in the see of Chester with precinct of the same, with the sees of Seynt Davyd of Salisbury & Exceter, with theyr precinctes, xx M marke: the abbays of Ravens, or Revans, of Founteyns, of Geruons, and dyvers other, to the number of five more, xx M marke: the abbays of Leyceter, Waltham, Gisbourne, Merton, Circetir, Osney, & other, to the number of vi more, xx M marke: the abbays of Dovers, Batell, Lewis, Coventre, Daventry, & Tourney, xx M marke: the abbays of Northampton, Thornton, Brystow, Kelyngworth, Wynchecombe, Hayles, Parchissor, Frediswyde, Notley, and Grymysby, xx M marke.
The which foresayd sumes amounte to the full of CCC M marke: and for the odde xxii M marke, they appointed Herdford, Rochester, Huntyngdon, Swyneshede, Crowlande, Malmesbury, Burton, Tewkisbury, Dunstable, Shirborn, Taunton, & Bylande.
And over this, they allegyd by the sayd byll, that over and above the sayd sume of CCC & xxii M marke dyvers houses of relygon in Englande, possessyd as many temporalties as might suffyce to fynde yerely xv M preestes & clerkes, every preest to be allowed for his stipende vii marke by yere.
To the which byll none answere was made, but that the kyng of this matyer wolde take delybracion & advycement, and with that answer it endyd.”
This estimate of the revenues of the various religious houses at the enormous sum of 322,000 marks, or £216,000 sterling, a sum which we must multiply by fifteen or twenty in order to get an approximation to our money, would thus be equivalent to a revenue of from three millions to four millions and a quarter. If we bear in mind the vast extent of the country then lying waste, untilled, and uncleared, merely forest land, we can understand the enormous proportion which the lands of the Church bore to the rest of the cultivated soil. The Religious Houses of London (not including Westminster) were set down at 20,000 marks or £13,333 a year, equivalent to £200,000 a year of our money.
In the next reign (2 Henry V.) the Commons returned to the subject, and sent up the same Bill. And this in the face of the recent severities towards the Lollards. Fabyan asserts that in fear lest the King should give to this Bill a “comfortable audyence,” certain Bishops and other head men of the Church reminded him of his claims upon France, and he says also that this Bill was the cause of the French wars which followed. It might have been one of the causes, perhaps; Henry V. was the last man to quarrel with the Church or to deprive the Church of her lands; at the same time, his title to the throne was accounted defective—there were many elements of trouble; there were nobles to conciliate; there were towns to please. He would not willingly create new enemies; a successful foreign war is always most popular; what the Black Prince achieved,—the same popularity, the same splendid reputation,—he might also achieve. The King therefore gently laid aside the Bill and presently embarked upon his war with France.
The clergy knew perfectly well that the main cause of the national discontent with the existing forms and institutions of religion was the teaching of the Wyclyfite.
“THE TRUE PORTRAITURE OF RICHARD WHITTINGTON, THRICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON” (d. 1423)
From the engraving by R. Elstrack.
It was, indeed, to be expected that his preaching would be popular in all classes down to the very humblest. How should it be otherwise? He addressed all who could be moved by noble and generous inspirations. He preached against the enormous wealth of the clergy and the Religious Houses, wealth which choked up and destroyed the springs of piety; against the vices which too many of the clergy flaunted impudently in the face of the world, sloth, luxury, gluttony, intemperance, and incontinence: he preached in favour of personal righteousness, purity, and faith: it is significant that no new Monastic Houses were founded; that on the other hand, men like Whittington, Carpenter, Niel, and Sevenoke, in the City were founding schools, endowing libraries, rebuilding prisons, erecting almshouses, but never endowing monasteries. Whittington, for instance, gave a library to Grey Friars: he built and endowed an almshouse called God’s House: he founded the College of the Holy Spirit for five fellows, clerks, conducts, and servants: he restored the hospital of St. Bartholomew: he provided “bosses” or taps of fresh water in various parts of London: he rebuilt Newgate: he gave money for a library at the Guildhall. Of other civic benefactors in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we must record the names of Sir John Philpot, who destroyed the pirates: of Sir William Sevenoke, who founded a grammar school in his native town: of Sir Robert Chichele, who gave money to provide a dinner and two-pence once a year to 2400 poor householders: of Sir John Wells, who brought water from Tyburn: of Sir William Estfried, who constructed a conduit from Highbury to Cripplegate: of John Carpenter, town clerk, who has given us the Liber Albus, and who founded a small charity which in time grew into the City of London School: of Sir John Niel, master of the hospital of St. Thomas Acon in Chepe, who proposed to found four new City schools: of William Byngham, who founded at Cambridge the small college called God’s House for twenty-four scholars, which afterwards developed into the illustrious and venerable College of Christ: of William Elsinge, who founded the Spital for a hundred poor men which afterwards became Sion College: of John Barnes, who left money to be lent to young men beginning in business: of Philip Malpas, who left the then large sum of £125 a year for the relief of poor prisoners, besides great benefactions to the poor, and a sum of money then yielding £25 a year for Preachers on the three Easter Holydays at St. Mary Spital. When we remember that a priest could then live on £6 a year—does that include his lodging?—the remuneration for three sermons seems generous indeed. Robert Large belongs to the latter half of the fifteenth century: he left a great sum of money in various bequests, including the very useful charity of a marriage dot for poor Maids. There were others, but these may suffice. They sufficiently prove the wealth of the donors, because a man thinks first of his own children or nephews: when he