ALIEN HOUSES
43. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. ANTHONY
The brothers of St. Anthony of Vienne
established a cell before 1254 on some land
given to them by Henry III, in a place previously
occupied by a synagogue. (fn. 1) In the bull of Pope
Alexander V confirming the grant the place is
not further described. The hospital of St.
Anthony when mentioned later was certainly in
the parish of St. Benet Fink, but this seems too
far removed from the Jewry to contain a synagogue. Either the brothers changed their
quarters afterwards or at one time the Jews
spread beyond the Jewry, and it is possible to
give this interpretation to an order of Henry III,
1252–3, that there should be no synagogues
except where they existed in the reign of
John. (fn. 1a) The house was founded for a master,
two priests, a schoolmaster, and twelve poor men, (fn. 2)
but there appears to have been no endowment,
for in 1291 their whole property (fn. 3) which lay
in the parish of St. Benet Fink was not worth
more than 8s. a year, (fn. 4) so that they must have
depended entirely on alms. Of the income
derived in this way one source was sufficiently
curious. Any pig that was considered by
the supervisor of the London market unfit to
be killed for food had a bell attached to it by
a proctor of St. Anthony's, and was then free
of the street to pick up what it could. As it
was a merit to feed these animals, they often
throve, and were then taken by the house. (fn. 5) The
privilege seems to have been abused, for in 1311
Roger de Wynchester, the renter of the house,
promised the City authorities that he would not
claim pigs found wandering about the City, nor
put bells on any swine but those given in charity
to the house. (fn. 6)
It is not improbable that the brothers were in
greater need of money than usual, as they were
building their chapel in 1310. (fn. 7) Over the erection of this oratory they had involved themselves
in a quarrel with the bishop of London, whose
rights they had disregarded in neglecting to ask
his leave to build. The case came before the
court of Arches, and the brothers not appearing,
judgement was given in August, 1311, that the
chapel was to the prejudice of the bishop and
of the parish church of St. Benet Fink, and
was to be reduced to the form of a private
house within eight days on pain of greater excommunication. The brothers now found it
expedient to give way, and the proctor submitted to the will and ordinance of the bishop.
During the wars with France and the schism
the hospital was cut off from intercourse with
the parent house. The warden, Geoffrey de
Lymonia, was excused by Clement VII, the antipope, in 1380, from the contributions due to
Vienne, which he had been unable to pay for
three years because he could get nothing from
his preceptory, (fn. 8) so that either Geoffrey had never
obtained actual possession or the house had been
taken for a time into the king's hands. (fn. 9) In
1385 it was paying a yearly fine of twenty
marks. (fn. 10)
It is clear that when the preceptorship became
vacant the king would not allow Clement's candidate to take possession, (fn. 11) and in 1389 he put in
as warden one of his clerks, John Macclesfield. (fn. 12)
Boniface IX agreed to confirm him in the office if
he took the habit within three months, but on his
failing to do so gave the hospital to one of the
canons. (fn. 13) However, at the king's request, the
pope afterwards allowed Macclesfield to hold the
house for ten years in commendam, enjoying all
its privileges and exemptions. (fn. 14)
The hospital was now practically a royal free
chapel and this may account for the benefits
conferred on it by Pope Boniface IX. In 1392
he granted 100 days' remission of penance to
those who during seven years visited the house
of St. Anthony on the chief festivals connected
with our Lord, the Virgin Mary, and St. Anthony,
and gave alms to the fabric of the chapel and the
maintenance of the sick and poor. (fn. 15) In the
same year he gave to the hospital the issues of
the church of All Saints, Hereford, and the annexed chapel of St. Martin, which had been given
to the house at Vienne in 1249 by Henry III. (fn. 16)
The pope in 1400 at Macclesfield's request
appropriated to St. Anthony's the church of
St. Benet Fink, (fn. 17) the advowson of which had
been given shortly before by John Sauvage and
Thomas Walington. (fn. 18) This grant, however, can
have been of no effect, for in 1417 a dispute of
long standing between the hospital and the rectors
of the church, touching the oblations claimed by
the latter from the chapel of St. Anthony, was
settled by the brethren agreeing to give the
rector and his successors a pension of six marks. (fn. 19)
It was not until 1440 that St. Benet's was
appropriated to the hospital by the bishop of
London for the maintenance of the grammar
school. (fn. 20) The pope had, also owing to Macclesfield's representations, in 1397 issued a mandate
to the bishops of England and Ireland, ordering
them to recommend to the people of their
dioceses those seeking alms for the hospital, and
not to extort anything from them or hinder
them in any other way. (fn. 21) The importance of
these collections will be seen when it is remembered that they were by far the largest means of
support possessed by the house. In 1391 the
hospital had been excused from a liability incurred
by a former warden 'in consideration of its
having no possession temporal or spiritual of
much value, nor anything but the alms of the
people for the maintenance of divine service, the
support of the sick and the repair of the
house.' (fn. 22)
From his dealings with the pope Macclesfield
might be judged a zealous advocate of the cause
of his preceptory. It is evident, however, that his
motives were not disinterested, since Adam de
Olton, presumably his successor, informed Pope
Martin V that he had alienated much of the
property of the house and granted pensions to his
children, and other persons, and in 1424 the
pope ordered the bishop of Winchester to annul
such alienations as should be found unlawful. (fn. 23)
It may be presumed that any damage done to
the finances was set right, for five years later
the master acquired a messuage and garden and
some land adjoining from the abbot of St. Albans
to enlarge the buildings of the house and make a
garden and cemetery. (fn. 24) There were then fourteen priests and clerks there, and many poor and
sick who had to be lodged elsewhere.
A bull of Pope Eugenius IV in December,
1441, exempting the brothers from eating in the
refectory and sleeping in the dormitory, shows
that the new buildings for the convent were not
yet finished. (fn. 25) Henry VI, in June of that year,
describes the house as wretched and almost
desolate, reduced to the very verge of poverty,
although it was under the rule of his vigilant
and prudent chaplain, John Carpenter. (fn. 26) The
brothers doubtless found it none too easy to
meet their extraordinary as well as ordinary
expenses, yet it seems strange if the house were
so very poor that it is never the first consideration
in the grants made to it.
It was for the maintenance of the school that
St. Benet Fink was appropriated, and in 1442
the king granted to the brethren the manor of
Pennington with pensions in Milburn, Tunworth,
Charlton, and Up-Wimborne, co. Southants,
to maintain at Oxford University five scholars,
who were to be first instructed in the rudiments of grammar at Eton College. (fn. 27) The bequest of William Wyse in 1449 of his brewery,
'Le Coupe super le hoop,' in the parish of Allhallows London Wall, was also charged with the
maintenance of a clerk to instruct the children of
St. Anthony's in singing to music and plain
singing, besides the usual celebrations for the
testator's soul. (fn. 28) It would be interesting to know
whether there is a connexion between the teaching of music at St. Anthony's and the establishment by the king's minstrels there of a fraternity
in 1469. (fn. 29)
The hospital had come into the king's possession (fn. 30) under the Alien Priories Act of 1414,
and was treated henceforth as a royal free chapel:
Henry VI appointed the wardens, (fn. 31) and Edward IV on two occasions (fn. 32) gave the right to
present on the next vacancy of the house. The
connexion with the house at Vienne probably
ceased after the fourteenth century. The employment of the use of Sarum had been authorized
in 1397, as the brothers were unable to obtain
the books necessary for the celebration of service
according to the rule of their order, (fn. 33) and in
1424 the pope ordered them to celebrate service
after the use of London as long as the wars
lasted, because few or no canons having come
for many years from Vienne, the custom of the
order could not be easily observed. (fn. 34) The popes
evidently acquiesced in the change in the position
of the hospital, for Pope Eugenius IV, at the request
of Henry VI, gave leave in 1446 to the bishops
of Worcester and Norwich, the provost of Eton
and William Say, the warden, to make statutes
for St. Anthony's, London, (fn. 35) and Pope Nicholas V
in 1447 exempted the hospital from all spiritual
and temporal jurisdiction, especially from that of
the monastery of St. Anthony, Vienne. (fn. 36)
The independent existence of the hospital was
not of long duration, as it was annexed and
appropriated to the college of St. George, Windsor, in 1475. (fn. 37) It must have been quite prosperous at that time, since the sum total of its
receipts in 1478–9, viz. £539 19s., exceeded its
expenses by £96 4s. 10d. (fn. 38) From the accounts
it may be gathered that the surplus was not
obtained by stinting the inmates of food. (fn. 39)
The church was rebuilt in 1499 on the old
site, to which other ground had been added, (fn. 40) and
rededicated in July, 1502. (fn. 41) To this work the
principal contributor was Sir John Tate, a London
alderman, who gave both land and money. (fn. 42)
It is interesting to compare the list of wages
paid in 1522 (fn. 43) with that in 1545: the first
shows that there were then in the house besides
the master, four priests, a steward, the curate of
St. Anthony's, a schoolmaster, a master of the
song-school and seven other clerks, an usher of
the school, and a butler; in 1545, those receiving
stipends were two priests, the steward, the schoolmaster, a clerk for the mass of Our Lady, the
curate of St. Benet Fink, and the sexton. (fn. 44)
Provision was still made at the latter date for the
twelve poor men, but evidently it was no longer
a place where the sick were cared for: probably
this work was given up when the best part of the
hospital's income was cut off, (fn. 45) for although an
agent of St. Anthony's was raising money as late
as 1537 by collecting offerings and selling hallowed bells for cattle, (fn. 46) such efforts must soon
have been abandoned. St. Anthony's pigs still
existed in 1525, (fn. 47) but by this time they too may
have disappeared.
The income was then only £55 6s. 3d., and
fell short of the expenditure by £40 11s. 11d. (fn. 48)
The hospital was despoiled, not by the crown,
but by a prebendary of Windsor named Johnson,
who gave the almsmen a weekly pension of 1s.
each, and turned them out of their houses: (fn. 49) as
the accounts of 1565 make no mention of commons, it is evident that this event had already
taken place. (fn. 50) The church was let in Elizabeth's
reign to French Protestants. (fn. 51)
The property of the hospital in 1565 (fn. 52) comprised the manors of 'Esehall,' (fn. 53) 'Walens,' and
'Fryslyng,' which figure in the hospital accounts
at a much earlier date as 'Esthall,' 'Valance,'
and 'Thyrstelyng,' (fn. 54) and land called 'Jurdens
land' in co. Essex; the rectories of All Saints
and St. Martin in the city of Hereford, in the
possession of the house since 1392 (fn. 55) ; a tenement in Winchester, another in Portsmouth,
tenements in London, among them being three
tenements near the school, and the capital
messuage, called 'Lady Tate's House,' then in
the tenure of Sir Henry Sydney and the rectory
of St. Benet Fink.
Masters of St. Anthony's Hospital
Reymund de Basterneys (?), (fn. 56) occurs 1287
John, occurs 1311 (fn. 57)
Geoffrey de Lymonia, occurs 1380 (fn. 58)
John Savage, occurs 1382 (fn. 59)
Richard Brighous, occurs 1385 (fn. 60) and 1389 (fn. 61)
John Macclesfield, appointed 1389, (fn. 62) occurs
1417 (fn. 63)
Adam de Olton, appointed 1423, (fn. 64) occurs
1424 (fn. 65)
John Snell, appointed 1431, (fn. 66) occurs 1432 (fn. 67)
John Carpenter, S.T.P., occurs 1434, (fn. 68) 1440, (fn. 69)
resigned 1444 (fn. 70)
Walter Lyhert, appointed 1444 (fn. 71)
William Say, S.T.B., occurs 1446, (fn. 72) 1449, (fn. 73)
and 1463 (fn. 74)
Peter Courtenay, appointed 1470 (fn. 75)
Richard Surlond, occurs 1499 (fn. 76) and 1501–2 (fn. 77)
Roger Lupton, occurs 1509–10 (fn. 78)
John Chambre, occurs 1521–2 (fn. 79)
Anthony Baker, occurs 1545 (fn. 80)