Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/611

Rh house for the king’s toils and tents for hunting and for the wars.” Edward VI. granted to his sister, the Princess Mary, by letters patent, in the year 1548, “the seite, circuit, ambit, precinct, capital messauge and house, late of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell.” In the following year, viz., 1549, the greater portion of the church of St. John was blown up, and the materials used in the erection of Somerset House. No doubt this was an arbitrary act of the Protector Somerset during the minority of the king.

On the accession of Queen Mary, the prospects of the suspended langue seemed once more to revive. By royal letters patent, dated April 2nd, 157, the bailiffs, commanders, and knights of St. John were once more incorporated by and under the name and title of the “Prior and Cobrethren of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England,” giving them, as a corporation, a common seal, and ordaining for the crown, its heirs and successors, that the knights of the Order in England should for ever have and enjoy their name, style, and dignity. with all their ancient privileges and prerogatives. Sir Thomas Tresham, of Rushton, was appointed grand-prior of St. John Anglice.

It has been said above that Somerset had destroyed the greater portion of St. John’s church for the sake of the building materials. He, in fact, left only the chancel standing. As soon as Queen Mary had decreed the revival of the langue, Cardinal Pole effected such repairs as were necessary to render the church once more available for ecclesiastical purposes. This he did by enclosing the space left undestroyed with a new west wall. There is a fine crypt beneath, which is much in the same condition as when abandoned by the Order. It is a very handsome Gothic structure, and originally seems to have been above ground, as in Hollar’s view of it, as it appeared in 1661, the entrance is shewn from St. John’s-street up some steps. It is thus described by Pinks in his “History of Clerkeuwell":—“The crypt comprises a central avenue 16 feet 3 inches in width, and 12 feet in height to the crown of the arch, with corresponding side aisles extending from east to west, and of the same length as the present church above. The west end of the crypt, at present bricked up, was found, when an excavation was made in front of the church in the year 1849, to have