Page:VCH London 1.djvu/261

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY priest to another, or on a temporary alienation of the benefice. Probably the earliest is that of St. Michael Queenhithe, which cannot, from the names of the witnesses, be later than 1138. The church then possessed a breviary, tropary, gradual, antiphonary, manual, capitulary, missal, and part of an old missal, a complete priestly vestment, an alb with apparel, amice, stole, girdle, corporal, four towels, two crosses, an altar cloth, and two bells.^^^ The second inventory, which refers to the church of St. Augustine, was made when the church was in charge of Edward sacerdos, who was granted the church for life by the canons in 1148,"' and it is not improbable that the inventory was taken on that occasion. St. Augustine's, possibly on account of its closer connexion with the cathedral, was much richer in vestments and orna- ments than St. Michael's, though poorer with regard to books. It possessed a psalter, a good gradual with tropary, another tropary and a lectionary worth 30J., one entire vestment, a chasuble de cata-volatilia, an alb and amice with apparel, stole, maniple, and girdle of silk, another vestment with chasuble of silk, alb and amice with apparel, lacking stole and maniple, and surplice with rochet, an altar cloth of silk, three good linen cloths for the altar, a silver chalice gilded inside with a paten weighing one mark less 2d., two tin phials, one little tin pitcher for water, two copper and two wooden candlesticks, two small basins, a reading desk on the altar, a portable cross, a chest for keeping the possessions of the church, a chair, and a censer."* The third inventory, that of St. Helen's, was made between 11 60 and 1181 ; this church possessed a missal, the third part of a breviary, an antiphonary, a manual and hymnary, an entire vestment with chasuble of cloth, two towels for the altar, an altar cloth, and a silver cross."' These three churches were all included in the visitation which took place between 1181 and 1186. St. Michael Queenhithe does not appear to have been much richer then than it was fifty years earlier ; in some respects it was poorer, in spite of efforts of the priest and people to replenish its store. In books there had been a loss, those then belonging to the church being only an optimum antiphonarium according to the Use of St. Paul, and a new gradual, the gift of Walter son of Walter, apparently the priest in charge, though no designation is put after his name. Besides the single complete vestment of the older inventory another had been acquired by the offerings of the parish- ioners, and instead of one altar cloth [pannus) there were ten pallae for the altar, one of them incisa and another picta, the gifts of Walter. The bells and crosses had all disappeared, but a banner had been added. St. Augustine's had gained in books, in which it was formerly poorest, having acquired a good missal with gradual, a breviary, a manual and antiphonary, and only lost its second tropary and lectionary. Its vestments remained unaltered except that the rochet was not mentioned, and in place of one silk and three linen cloths there were ten pallae. Three banners had been acquired, but the phials, water pitcher, two candlesticks, two basins, reading desk, portable cross, chest, chair, and censer had all disappeared. There were two altars in the church. St. Helen's had increased its list, having lost only a missal, manual, and hymnary, and acquired a silver chalice gilded inside, a copy of the four '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 631^. '" Ibid. 63^. "* Ibid. 643. "' Ibid. ; D. & C. St. Paul's, Liber L. fol. lob. 181