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 A HISTORY OF LONDON October of the same year the pope offered re- laxation of penance for a year and forty days to penitents visiting the convent church on the festivals of St. Helen and of Holy Cross,^* and an indulgence of forty days was given by Ralph, bishop of London, in 1306, to those visiting the church and making contributions to the fabric.^' These grants were in all probability made in aid of the rebuilding of the church, the expense of which had largely been defrayed by two brothers, Salomon and Thomas Basing, the latter bequeath- ing also to its maintenance by will enrolled in 1300^* some rents in the parish of St. Bartholo- mew the Little and elsewhere. Several of the Basings became nuns of St. Helen's,^' one indeed was elected prioress in 1269 ;'"' this may account in part for the benefactions of the family, which altogether must have been extensive : William, the sheriff of 1308, is said by Stow to have been reputed a founder,^'^ and Henry de Gloucestre, grandson of Thomas, by will dated 1332"' established there a chantry of two chaplains which he endowed with an income of 1 1 marks of silver. During the next few years the endowments of the nunnery received further additions : in 1344 the prioress and convent undertook to found a chantry in their church and one in St. Mary le Bow for the soul of Walter Dieu- boneye of Bletchingley, cheesemonger of Lon- don, in consideration of his gifts to them ; ^' in 1 346 John de Etton, rector of Great Massingham, left them his dwelling-house and fourteen adja- cent shops near Cripplegate for the maintenance of chantries ; ^* and for the same purpose Walter de Bilynham bequeathed to the priory in 1349 tenements in the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, and St. Mary Axe, at Holborn Cross and ' Cokkeslane ' ; "' the church of Ey- worth, CO. Bedford, was also appropriated to " CaJ. Pap. Letters, i, 521. " Lond. Epis. Reg. B.ildock and Gravesend, fol. 7. '* Sharpe, Cal. of Wills,, 147. He speaks of himself and his brother Salomon as erecting the church. In this will, however, no mention is made of William, said to be brother of Thomas. Cox, op. cit. 6. " Dyonisia de Gloucestre, a nun of St. Helen's, received from her uncle, Thomas Basing, a quit-rent in the parish of St. Botolph Billingsgate, for life. Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, i, 147. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry de Gloucestre, was also a nun there. Cox, op. cit. 7. " Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 77, No. 2039. " Stow, $urv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, 100. " Cox, op. cit. 6 and 7. " Harl. Chart. 44, F. 45 ; Sharpe, Cal. of Letter Bk. F. 115. ■' Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, i, 687. He left bequests to two nuns of the house, one of whom was his sister. "Ibid, i, 581. of another indulgence.' may give a clue to the them in 1331 by the pope at the king's request.'* The nunnery, either through misfortune or mis- management, could not have been very prosper- ous for some years before the Black Death, or the church would not have been reported in 1350 as in danger of going to ruin, a state of things which the pope tried to remedy by the grant Its need at this time to the date of the attempt to recover the market and fair of Brentford, rights which the nuns considered they had lost because, being an inclosed order, they were unable to follow them up.-' In 1374 the priory received an important bequest of lands and tenements in the parishes of St. Martin Outwich, St. Helen, St. Ethelburga, and St. Peter Broad Street, from another London citizen, Adam Fraunceys, mercer, charged with the maintenance of two chantries in the chapels of St. Mary and of the Holy Ghost ^' in the church. A curious case occurred in 1 385. Joan Heyronne, one of the nuns, on the plea that she was so crippled with gout that she was unable to perform her canonical duties, secretly appealed to the pope, and obtained from him an order that an allowance of ^^lo a year should be paid to her from the goods of the monastery. Constance, the prioress, seems to have resented this action, and with the help of the sub-prioress and one of the nuns kept Joan shut up in a room, it was alleged without food suitable to her state of health, until the dean and chapter of St. Paul's commanded that she should be set at liberty and permitted to go where she would in the priory.'" On which side right lay is doubtful : the prioress may have been exasperated by intrigues against her autho- rity, but she appears to have been unduly severe, and this view of her rule is perhaps confirmed by the flight and marriage of another of her nuns in 1388.'^ Too much discipline was certainly not the characteristic of the house in the next century, judging from two sets of injunctions, one issued by Dean Kentwode in 1432,'- and the other believed to be also of that period.'' From the latter'^ it appears that the nuns hurried through the services, for they were ordered to say them fully and distinctly and not so fast as they had been doing, and that they ^ Cal Pap. Letters, ii, 368. " Cal. Pap. Pet. i, 198. ^ Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 403, No. 138. Annis incertis Edw. III. '^ Sharpe, Cal. of mils, ii, 171. »° Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 25, No. 1 1 12. " Ibid. A. Box 25, No. 1 1 10. " Cott. Chart, v, 6, printed in Dugdale, op. cit. i^'. 553- " Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 57. " Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 77, No. 2041. 458