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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES ter, and the priors of St. Mary Overy, of Newark, and of Stone.*"* If the loans requested for the defence of Guienne can be taken as showing the relative wealth of the lenders,'"' the priory seems in 1453 to have scarcely regained its old posi- tion,'"^ though it probably had before 1 48 1, as Edward IV marked his sense of the standing of the house by petitioning the pope to allow Prior Thomas Pomery to use the crosier and mitre."" The bishop of London had been accused of laxness in the exercise of his powers over the priory in 1438, but the same failing could hardly be urged against Bishop Hill in 1493.'"^ On a visitation of the priory he found that Thomas Percy, the prior, had not only wasted the goods of the house, but had given occasion for scandal by his relations with a married woman named Joan Hodgis. Hearing afterwards that Percy, to facilitate his intercourse with Joan, had given her the office of em- broiderer by letters patent to which he had forced the canons to affix the common seal, the bishop extorted a resignation from him by threatening to depose him, and put Robert Char- nock in possession. Percy turned Charnock out, and was in turn forcibly ejected by the bishop. The case, tried first in the court of Canterbury and then at Rome, was decided against the bishop on the ground that he had exceeded his rights by taking the law into his own hands,'"' but a sentence adverse to Percy must also have been delivered, for he was not prior in 1506'"^ nor in 1509,'"' though he may have been rein- stated before his death in 15 12.'"* In the early years of Henry VIII the priory must have seemed as important as ever to the ordinary observer, who could judge only by the position it held in the City and at the court,'"^ and by its lavish '<" Pat. 17 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 31. "" A certain measure of favour may have been shown to religious houses. '"' j^20 was required from the prior, ;^ioo from one of the aldermen, Nicholas Wyfold, and ^40 from Thomas Tyrelle, knt. Letters and Papers lllust. the Wars of English in France (Rolls Ser.), il (2), 489. "" Tanner, Notit. Mon. quotes MS. 1 70, C. C. Camb. fol. 197. '»* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 119. Fabyan says, 'in this year (1493) Dr. Hylle, bishop of Lon- don, grievously pursued Percy, then prior of Christ- church in London.' Chronicle (ed. Ellis), 685. ^"^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 119. 'The bishop ... by taking the law into his own hands had been guilty of contempt of the executive, and was condemned to make amends.' '* L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvi, 503 (i 5). A lease by Prior Thomas Newton, Feb. 1506. '»' Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A. 1773. ""He died prior in 1512. Lond. Epis. Reg. Fitz James, fol. 84. '™ In the cellarer's account, L. and P. Hen. Fill, ii (i), 115, there are notices of presents to the queen, to the king's footmen, the king's waits, the lord of misrule of the king's house. hospitality."" But it was keeping up appearances when it should have been engaged on retrench- ment and strict economy. If it had ever been on a sound financial footing since the middle of the fifteenth century, it was again involved in difficulties by the maladministration of Percy, and on the accession of Henry VIII it owed money to the crown,"' which it never appears to have been able to pay."^ It was exempted from the payment of the two-tenths to the king in 1517 from its lands in Braughing, Layston, and Edmonton, because of the debts with which the house had long been and still was burdened."' In 1526 Bishop Tunstall gave leave to the prior, Nicholas Hancocke, to with- draw from the monastery for three years, in order to relieve the debts of the house, which was to be entrusted to the charge of suitable and skilful persons chosen by the prior and convent. "■* Its condition was evidently rather hopeless, and the reason given by the prior and convent for their surrender of the house to the king in February, 1532,"' viz., that it had so deterio- rated in its fruits and rents, and was so heavily burdened with debt, that unless a remedy were quickly provided by the king it must become extinct, was much nearer the truth than the majority of such statements. Hancocke's friends, however, considered that he had betrayed his trust to secure an easier competency for him- self.'" In that case the desired object was not immediately attained, since he was afraid to stir out owing to an undischarged butcher's bill."' No one would lend to him, he complained, as he had given up his house, and if something were not done for him he would have to go into sanctuary, which would be a disgrace to Cromwell."' At last he received an annuity of 1 00 marks,'" with which he professed himself well satisfied. The canons, who numbered eighteen at the time of the surrender, are said to have been sent ""See the Liber Coquinae, Mich. 1513-Mich. 1 5 14. Ibid. Brewer remarked that the provision made for the guests was more plentiful and varied than that for the convent. The weekly bill for the steward who arranged for the guests amounted to more than that for the convent. On Trinity Sunday they enter- tained thirteen persons, and the menu was a very long one. '" L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 1639 and 3497. '" The priory may have paid this debt, but if so, it contracted another before the surrender. Ibid, v, 823. '" Lond. Epis. Reg. Fitz James, fol. 121. "* Ibid. Tunstall, fol. 156. ■"Lansd. MS. 968, fol. 50, 51. "° He says that all his friends turn from him and make slanderous reports of him, saying he reckoned on good profit and quietness in giving up his house. L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 1735. "'Ibid. V, 1731. '"Ibid. V, 1732. "' Ibid. V, 1065 (34). 20 May, 24 Hen. VIII, 1532. 471