Page:VCH London 1.djvu/288

 A HISTORY OF LONDON maintenance of his chantry often proved after fifty years or so through changing circumstances to be insufficient. A more serious trouble, in- separable from the chantry system on such a large scale, was the fact that the lightness of the duties and the want of any control over the chantry priests led almost inevitably to the deterioration of their character. Bishop Braybrook (1382— 1404) seems to have had a keen sense of both these difficulties, and the result was the encouragement he gave to the union of chantries and foundation of colleges for chantry priests. In St. Paul's several such communities were formed ;'°° they should be compared with foundations like that of Sir William Walworth in St. Michael Crooked Lane, in which all the existing chantries were merged in the new college.'^" There are also some instances of the chaplains of chantries in various churches living a corporate life when no college had been formally constituted."^ During the 15th and early i6th centuries there are several notices of union of chantries on account of their poverty,'" and it can be seen from the Chantry Certificates that many other such unions took place of which there is no record. This policy largely accounts for the disappearance of many permanent chantries. It is very difficult to tell the exact number there were in London at the time of their suppression in 1548, for the Chantry Certificates, the Valor for London, and the list of pensioned 'incum- bents ' ''' of chantries in London parish churches do not agree in many particulars. From a comparison of the three it appears there were about 180, exclusive of the chantries maintained by fraternities. To several of these more than one priest was attached ; the whole number of priests pensioned from the parochial churches, which would of course include the fraternity chaplains, was over 200."* The difficulty of ensuring that a testator's wishes should be adequately carried out in such a matter as a chantry bequest was early realized, and various methods of meeting it were adopted. In the late 14th and 15th centuries one of the commonest of these was to leave the property to be administered by the mayor and corporation in case of default by the rector and parishioners of the church (the most general administrator) or other persons so employed. The king on several occasions interposed his authority for the same purpose; for example, in 1331 an order was sent to the mayor to make inquiry concerning tenements and rents withdrawn from the maintenance of chantries and to see that they were used in the way intended."' But on the whole, though there are isolated complaints of mal- administration of chantry property, both clergy and people seem to have been "" Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 609 ; see article on ' Religious Houses.' "' Lond. Epis. Reg. Braybrook, fol. 204 ; ibid. Gilbert, fol. 175 ; Cal. Pat. 1476-85, p. 252. '"Lend. Epis. Reg. Braybrook, fol. 14, 103 ; ibid. Gilbert, fol. 177; ibid. Tunstall, fol. 157, 158; Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 258(1; Cal. Pat. 1461-7, pp. 287, 462 ; Rec. Corp. Lond. Letter Bk. I, fol 107. For this and some of the later references to the City records, and also for other valuable assistance most kindly- given, we are indebted to Dr. Sharpe. '"Add. MS. 8052. ^'* Ibid. This number may include some 'conductes' or singing men. All the figures given in connexion with chantries and fraternities are very rough approximations, it being impossible to get exact numbers without investigating the history of each foundation. Doubtful cases have, however, been always rejected, and the figures are more likely to be below the truth than above it. A detailed account of the chantries will be given in the topographical section under the churches to which they belonged. '"' Cal. Close, 1330-33, p. 314. 206
 * " See under St. Paul's in ' Religious Houses.'