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 A HISTORY OF LONDON the pope on the subject are extant, but apparently decisions were given in favour of the religious houses, as they continued to receive the pensions. Another possible cause of the poverty of the parish churches at this period was the perversion of the parishioners' oblations to private chapels and oratories. This would be felt more in London than elsewhere, both because of the sources from which the clergy derived most of their re- venues and because the laity included a great number of inhabitants who could afford this luxury. Canons were framed against it, and private chapels were forbidden to be erected without the bishop's licence. Six such licences issued between 1220 and 1241 exist among the documents of St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey ; they were granted by the Bishop, Dean and Chapter, or Abbot of Westminster,^'' except in one case where the parson of St. Laurence Jewry made the grant, the deed being attested by the bishop and archdeacon.^'* For example, Hamo Pecche obtained leave to build a chapel in his area in the parish of St. Peter Broad Street, and there to have divine service celebrated ; the chaplain was every year to swear fealty to the clerk of St. Peter's, promising to pay to the rector and church all oblations whatsoever, and not to administer any sacrament but the mass with- out leave of the rector, except in articulo necessitatis, while Hamo promised that he and his heirs with his chaplain and household would attend the parish church on the feasts of Christmas, the Purification, Easter, Whitsun, and all feasts of St. Peter, and that the chapel should not be given over to any religious order."^ There is evidence, especially in wills, that the stream of beneficence from London citizens to their parish churches, which by the 15th century made most of them exceptionally rich, at least as regards ornaments and furniture, had already begun in the 13th century. An analysis of the 658 wills enrolled in the Court of Husting from 1259 (when they begin) to 1300 shows that during that period 59 perpetual chantries were founded in parish churches, and provision was made in eleven cases for the singing of masses or for chantries for a certain number of years."' In the same period there were forty-two miscellaneous bequests to churches, of which twenty-nine were for lights of various sorts, a direction often being given that the lamp or taper was to burn before a special altar. One testator provided that a wax torch should be lighted at the elevation of the Host in the church of St. Nicholas Aeon."' During the same period sixteen wills contained mis- cellaneous bequests to religious houses in London, and six bequeathed money to the same for chantries. There were eight bequests to St. Paul's, as well as two for chantries, one in the charnel-house and one in the cathedral. Other sources than wills show the same growing generosity to parish churches. About 1234 the king gave land to the parson and parishioners of St. Magnus for the enlargement of that church."' Algrand the cordwainer, with the assent of Rose his wife, in 1246-7 granted in free alms to God, St. Mary, and '" D. and C. St. Paul's Lib. A. fol. 7, 31 ; A. box 4, no. 695 ; D. and C. Westm. Bk. 11, fol. 372, 376, 377 d ; Westm. parcel 7, 8. '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. i, 449. "' D. and C. St. Paul's Lib. A, fol. 3 1 . '" Sharpe, Cal. of Wills in Ct. of Husting,, passim. This number does not include cases of provision by contingent remainder, or cases where the name of the church in which the chantry is to be founded is not specified. '" Ibid, i, 133. '"* Cal. Pat. 1232-47, p. 82. . 192