Page:VCH London 1.djvu/565

 RELIGIOUS HOUSES and holding in the left hand a book ; in the field on the right a star. Legend : — [siGiLLv : eccl'e .] scE. [trinitJatis : LVNDONIE A counterseal also of the twelfth century ^^ is oval in shape, the impression being that of an antique intaglio : a naked man holding some object in the left hand, and walking on an estrade to the right. The seal of Prior John Bradwell"- represents a shield of arms, and a Trinity for the priory. The legend round the shield is : — [PAJTER [FILIVS] SPS 6. THE PRIORY OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW SMITHFIELD The honour of founding the priory of St. Bar- tholomew appears to belong jointly to a clerk named Rahere ^ and to King Henry I,^ for though the means were supplied by the king, it is to the enthusiasm of the clerk that both the origin and success of the scheme must be ascribed. Accord- ing to an account written by a canon of the priory, apparently within seventy years of the foundation of the house,' Rahere spent his early life more like a courtier than a priest in attend- ance on the great nobles of his day, but experienced a change of heart while at Rome on a pilgrimage. He then fell ill and vowed, if he recovered, to found a hospital. Afterwards he had a dream in which St. Bartholomew appeared to him and directed him to build a church in his honour at Smithfield.* On his recovery and return to England he obtained this land from the king,* through the good offices of Richard bishop of London, and on it he built a house and church for a community of regular canons of whom he became the first prior, and, in close proximity, a hospital for the poor. The author already quoted says this event took place in 1123,° and there seems no reason to doubt his statement,' though he is clearly mistaken in assigning the consecration of the cemetery by Bishop Richard to the thirtieth year of Henry I, as the bishop died in 1128. Rahere's position "' B.M. Seals, Ixviii, 35. »" Harl. Chart. 44, F. 52. ' Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix, fol. 41. ' Leland, Coll. i, 54. ' Moore, The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholo- mew's Church in London, xli. ' Ibid. fol. ^ib. ' Ibid. fol. 46. 'Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strj'pe), iii, 232, gives 1 102 as the date, but if Bishop Richard played the part supposed, this must be much too early, since he did not obtain the see until 1 108. Matt, of Westm. Flor. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, says the house was founded in 1 1 2 3. was a very difficult one, for in addition to the ordinary anxieties attendant on the establishment of a new foundation he had to contend with intense enmity, on one occasion a plot being made against his life.* The hostility towards him seems to have come not entirely from one quarter, for he intended to go to Rome to secure the support of the pope,' although he had already found in the king a powerful protector. Henry gave the canons the site in West Smithfield, and the churches of Gorleston, St. Nicholas, Little Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and Belton,^** and also granted to them in 1 133 very ample charters " of privileges : he declared them free from all services and customs except the episcopal customs, viz. consecration of churches, baptism and rule of the clergy ; in all their lands they were to have sac and soc, toll and team, infangenthef and outfangenthef ; to the prior was granted the power to settle all disturbances of the peace, assaults, and forfeitures in his demesne; they were to be quit of shires and hundreds, danegeld and other gelds, building and repairing of castles, and of ferdwite, hegwite, wardpeni and averpeni ; throughout all the king's domi- nions their goods and men were to be free from toll, passagium, pedagium, wharfage, lastage, and stallage ; and the king granted his firm peace to those going to or returning from the fair held at the priory for three days from the eve of St. Bar- tholomew. The king provided at the same time that on Rahere's death the canons should choose one of themselves as prior, but if there should not be a suitable person there, they were free to choose one from a well-known place ; and that gifts of lands were not to be alienated without the consent of the chapter.^^ The house indeed seems to have been regarded as a royal founda- tion, and as such protected and patronized. Henry II confirmed all the privileges granted to the canons by his grandfather, and added another that they should not be impleaded save in the king's presence ; ^' Richard I laid down more definite rules with regard to the fair, granting the canons all the profits, forbidding the exaction of customs or tolls from those coming to buy and sell there, and ordering that no one should sell on the canons' land without their permission ; " John took the canons, their men and possessions into his protection, and forbade any interference with the church which he calls his demesne ' Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix, fol. 483. ° Mr. Moore, op. clt. Ixi, sees in this projected visit to Rome a sign that the canons had difficulties with the clergy. '"The grant was confirmed Sept. 1 229, Cal. of Chart. R. i, 98. " There are two charters of this date, in one of which the king says that he will maintain and defend this church as he does his crown. Inspex. 2 Hen. VI, Add. MS. 34768, fol. gh-ii. " Add. MS. 34768, fol. 16. " Ibid. 20-8. " Cart. Antiq. R. L. (4). 475
 * Cott. MS. Vesp. B. ix, fol. 41-3.