Page:VCH London 1.djvu/558

 A HISTORY OF LONDON account of receipts and expenses twice a year before the prior and six of the older and more discreet of the chapter, and the next day a brief summary is to be given in the chapter, that the state of the house may be clear to all. The prior, whom all the convent shall obey, is to see that he carries on the business of the house with the counsel of the convent or the greater and senior part of the same. None of the canons is to eat or sleep elsewhere but in the places as- signed for those purposes. They are not to be permitted to go beyond the bounds of the house except for good reasons, and then are to be accompanied by one of the older monks. Other injunctions are concerned with attendance at mass, the care of the sick canons, and the obser- vance of the rule of silence, and that forbidding private property. In the summer of 1290 the prior, William Aygnel, came into collision with the royal authority. He had cited Edmund earl of Corn- wall, in the hall of Westminster, to appear before the archbishop of Canterbury, and as the earl was there in obedience to the king's summons to Parliament, the prior's action was considered to be in contempt of the king." He was sent to the Tower to remain there during the king's pleasure, and a fine of ;^ioo was imposed. But a few months later the canons paid such honour to the body of the late queen, which rested at the priory after entering London on its way to Westminster,^' that they reinstated themselves in the king's favour, and the fine was remitted. '* A view of the condition of the priory at the beginning of the fourteenth century is afforded by the ordinances made by Archbishop Robert (Winchelsey) after a visitation in 1303." It will be noted that the points on which amend- ment was needed are much the same as thirty years before. The brethren were all to be present at divine service, and no one was to absent himself before the end without leave of the sub-prior ; silence was to be kept better than it had been, and those who persisted in talking when they should not were to be punished ; the prior was not lightly to grant leave to the canons, especially to the younger ones, to go out, and those canons who had leave to go beyond the bounds of the monastery were to take a fitting companion with them and to return within the time assigned ; the canons were not to receive money for clothes, but clothes of one value and quality, and shoes, were to be given out according to the means of the priory by an officer deputed for that purpose, and the old clothes and shoes were to be given up before ^ Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 17. " It seems to have reached the priory on 13 Dec. 1290. Chron. of Edv.'. I and Eiizv. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 99. " Cal. of Pat. 1281-92, p. 420. " Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock and Gravesend, fol. 5,6. fresh ones were supplied ; the prior, sub-prior, and cellarer were to visit the sick every day and supply them with suitable food ; two-thirds of the convent were to dine in the refectory every day and were all to have food and drink of the same quality and quantity, and the prior was to make choice of the third part as seemed expedient to him and have them to dinner in his room ; secular persons, and particularly women, were to be excluded from the choir, cloister, and other inner places, and especially from the offices of the house, unless they were women of good fame passing through on a pilgrimage and leaving when their devotions were over. Then follow the ordinances dealing with the administration of the house : all the officers of the priory were to give an account of receipts and expenses to the prior before the older and more discreet of the whole convent as often as they should be re- quired, but the rendering of the account was not to be deferred beyond a year ; the seal was to be kept under guard of three keys, so that no document should be sealed out of the chapter or in the absence of the greater part of the convent, and every letter before and after sealing was to be read aloud in the presence of the convent or the greater part of the same ; the alienation or letting at farm of the house's possessions, and the selling of liveries or corrodies without cause approved by the diocesan, were strictly forbidden, since in these matters the monastery was found to be exceedingly burdened. The regulations as to conduct indicate a laxness in the fulfilment of religious duties and in some of the minor observances of the rule, but nothing worse. That the inquisitors sent by the pope to inquire into the charges against the Templars sat several times at the priory '* is doubtless no proof of anything but its great standing and the size of its buildings ; but after the dissolution of the Order of the Temple one of the knights would hardly have been sent there to live" if the character of the house had not been good. The ordinances dealing with the financial affairs of the priory disclose difficulties, of which there is clear evidence two years later when an action for the recovery of a debt of ^^300 was brought against the prior.^ This seems to be the first notice of the burden of debt *^ which, in spite of the riches of the priory, oppressed it at intervals henceforward. What was the cause of " Wilkins, Concilia, n, 334, 335, 337, 344. " Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 848. (Rolls Ser.), 84. in 1250, when a chantry was erected for Master Rich.ird de Wendover in return for 30 marks given by him to amend the state of the house. Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 24, Nos. 1748 and 1750. 468
 * • Tear Booh, Mich. 33 Edw. I to Trin. 35 Edtv. I
 * ' The priory seems to have needed help, however,