many Townes and Cities the bodies of the Christians haue wanted the rites and ceremonies of buriall it was neither fault in the liuing that could not performe them nor hurt to the dead that could not feele them Yet notwithstanding all this which I haue spoken the bodies of the dead are not to be contemned and cast away especially of the righteous and faithfull which the holy Ghost hath vsed as Organs and instruments vnto all good works for if the garment or ring of ones father be so much the more esteemed of his posterity by how much they held him dearer in their affection then are not our bodies to bee despised being wee weare them more neare vnto our selues then any attire whatsoeuer CHAP. VII Of Cenotaphs Honorarie and religious Of the reuerence attributed to these emptie Monuments A Cenotaph is an emptie Funerall Monument or Tombe erected for the honour of the dead wherein neither the corps nor reliques of any defunct are deposited in imitation of which our Hearses here in England are set vp in Churches during the continuance of a yeare or for the space of certaine moneths Octauia the sister of Augustus buried her sonne young Marcellus that should haue beene heire in the Empire with sixe hundred Cenotaphs or hearses and gaue to Virgil more then fiue thousand French crownes in reward for the writing of sixe and twentie Hexameters in her sonnes commendation all which you may haue for nothing in the latter end of the sixth booke of his Aeneidos These Cenotaphs were of two sorts they were made either to the memory of such as were buried in some other remote funerall monument or to such which had no buriall at all The first kinde of these Cenotaphs are called by Suetonius in the life of Claudius Honorarie tombes erected Honoris vel memoriae gratia Such as the souldiers made to the memorie of Drusus neare vpon the riuer of Rhine howsoeuer his body was carried to Rome and there interred in Campo Martio Alexander Seuerus slaine by the treacherie of certaine seditious French souldiers about the yeare of grace 238 An Emperour saith Sir Thomas Eliot who translated his story out of Greeke whose death all Rome lamented all good men bewailed all the world repented whom the Senate deified noble fame renowned all wise men honoured noble writers commended had his Cenotaph erected in France neare vnto the place where he was slaine but his body was carried to Rome and there interred vnder a most rich magnificent sepulchre as Lampridius affirmes Septimius Seuerus the Romane Emperour died in Yorke in the yeare of mans saluation 212. out of which Citie his corps were carried forth to the funerall fire by the sixth Legion of his souldiers called Victrix after the militarie fashion committed to the flames and honoured with iusts and Turneaments in a place neare beneath the Citie Westward where is to be seene a great mount of earth raised vp as for his Cenotaph But his ashes being bestowed in a little golden pot or vessell of the Porpherite-stone were carried to Rome and shrined there in the Monument of the Antonines Constantine or Constantius the younger sonne to Constantine the Great who is supposed to be the builder of Silcester in Hampshire died at Mopsuestia in Cilicia and was interred in Constantinople in the Sepulchre of his Ancestours Yet he had a Cenotaph or emptie monument built to his memory in the said now-ruined Citie of Silcester And many there were that in honour and remembrance of them had such monuments built about which the souldiers were wont yearely to iust and keepe solemne Turneaments in honour of the dead The second kinde of Cenotaphs were made Religionis causa to the memory of such whose carcases or dispersed reliques were in no wise to bee found for example of such as perished by shipwracke of such as were slaine cut mangled and hew'd apeeces in battell or of such that died in forraine nations whose burials were vnknowne For in ancient times it was thought that the Ghost of the defunct could not rest in any place quietly before the body had decent buriall or the performance thereof in as ample manner as could possibly be imagined Aeneas as it is fained by the helpe of Sibylla Cumea descending into hell found Palinurus his shipmaster drownd not long before among many more wandring about the lake of Styx because his body was vnburied which kinde of punishment is thus related by the Prophetesse Phaers translation This prease that here thou seest beene people dead not laid in graue A pitious rable poore that no reliefe nor comfort haue This Boate-man Charon is And those whom now this water beares Are bodies put in ground with worship due of weeping teares Nor from these fearfull bankes nor riuers hoarce they passage get Till vnder earth in graues their bodies bones at rest are set An hundred yeares they walke and round about these shores they houe And then at last full glad to further pooles they do remoue Then after this she puts him in comfort with hope of Exequies and honorable buriall thus Since whan O Palinure both all this madnesse come on thee Wouldst thou the Limbo-lake and dolefull flouds vntombed see Vnbidden from this banke doest thou indeed to scape intend Seeke neuer Gods eternall doome with speech to thinke to bend Yet take with thee Aeneas word and comfort thus thy fall For they that border next vnto that mount and Cities all By tâ—kens great from heauen shall be compelld thy bones to take And tombe they shall thee build and solemne seruice shall thee make And Palinurus name for euermore the place shall keepe This spoken from his heauy heart his cares abating creepe And sorrowes partly shranke and glad on earth his name he knew Vlysses at the commandement of Circes went downe into the lower shades where he met with his companion or fellow-traueller Elpenor who desired of him buriall with the ceremonies thereof as also a Sepulchre which Vlysses granted and erected to his memory a Cenotaph Doe not depart from hence and leaue me thus Vnmournd vnburied lest neglected I Bring on thy selfe th incensed Deitie I know that saiâ—d from hence thy ship must touch On th' Isle Aeaea where vouchsafe thus much Good King that landed thou wilt instantly Bestow on me thy royall memory And on the foamie shore a Sepulchre Erect to me that after times may heare Of one so haplesse Let me these implore And fixe vpon my Sepulchre the Ore With which aliue I shooke the aged Seas And had of friends the deare societies To these inania busta or vacua Sepulchra the friends of the defunct would yearely repaire and there offer sacrifice vpon Altars erected neare to the Cenotaph for that purpose calling vpon the spirit ghost or Manes of him to whose memory the Cenotaph was made by which ceremony they imagined that the body of the party deceased would lie some where or other at reâ—â— and his
than to Henauld for a wife A Bishop and other Lordes temporall Wher in Chaumbre prevy and secretife At discouerit dischenely also in all As semyng was to estate Virginall Emong theim selfes our lordes for hie prudence Of the Bishop asked counsaill and sentence Whiche daughter of fiue should be the Queene Who counsailled thus with sad auisement Wee will haue hir with good hippis I mene For she will bere good soonnes at myne entent To which thei all accorded by one assent And chase Philip that was full feminine As the Bishop moost wise did determine But then emong theim selfes thei laugh fast ay The lordes than saied the Bishop couth Full mekill skill of a woman al way That so couth chese a lady that was vncouth And for the mery woordes that came of his mouth Thei trowed he had right great experience Of womanes rule and hir conuenience Now what experience this Bishop had in womens conueniency of bringing forth children I know not but it so fell out that she had issue by her said husband King Edward seuen sonnes and fiue daughters borne for the glory of our Nation 1. Edward Prince of Wales borne at Woodstocke 2. William borne at Hatfield in the County of Hertford 3. Lionell borne at the Citie of Antwerpe Duke of Clarence 4. Iohn borne at Gaunt the chiefe Towne of Flanders Duke of Lancaster 5. Edmond surnamed of Langley Duke of Yorke 6. William another of their Sonnes surnamed of Windsore where he was borne 7. Thomas the youngest sonne of King Edward and Queene Philip surnamed of Woodstocke the place of his birth Duke of Glocester Daughters 1. Isabell the eldest Daughter was married with great pompe at Windsore to Ingelram of Guisnes Lord of Coucy Earle of Soissoms and after Archduke of Austria whom king Edward his Father in law created also Earle of Bedford 2. Ioane desired in marriage by solemne Embassage from Alphons king of Castile and Leon sonne of king Ferdinando the fourth was espoused by Proxie intituled Queene of Spaine conueyed into that countrey where she presently deceased of a great plague that then raigned 3. Blanch the third daughter died young and lieth buried in this Abbey Church 4. Mary the fourth daughter was married to Iohn Montford Duke of Britaine 5. Margaret their youngest daughter was the first wife of Iohn de Hastings Earle of Penbroke It is reported of this Queene saith Milles that when she perceiued her life would enâ— she requested to speake with the King her husband who accordingly came to her in great heauinesse being come she tooke him by the hand and after a few words of induction shee prayed him that hee would in no wise deny her in three requests First that all Merchants and others to whom she ought any debt whether on this side or beyond the seas might be payd and discharged Secondly that all such promises as she had made to Churches as well within the realme as without might be performed Thirdly that hee would be pleased whensoeuer God should call him to chuse none other Sepulchre but that wherein her body should be layed all which were performed and so I leaue them both lying in one Graue expecting a ioyfull resurrection Richard the second King of England and France Lord of Ireland sonne to Edward Prince of Wales by Ioane daughter to the Earle of Kent being depriued both of liuing and life by that popular vsurper Henry the 〈…〉 by his commandement obscurely buried at Langley in Hertfortshire in the Church of the Friers Predicants was by the appointment of Henry the fift remoued from thence with great honour in a Chaire royall himselfe and his nobilitie attending the sacred reliques of this annointed King which he solemnly here enterred amongst his ancestors and founded perpetually one day euery weeke a Dirge with nine Lessons and a morning masse to be celebrated for the soule of the said King Richard and vpon each of those daies sixe shillings eight pence to be giuen to the poore people and once euery yeare vpon the same day of his Anniuerse twentie pounds in pence to be distributed to the most needfull He made for him a glorious Tombe and this glosing Epitaph deciphering the lineaments of his body and qualities of mind which to any who knowes vpon what points he was put out of Maiestie and State may seeme strange if not ridiculous thus it runnes Prudens et mundus Richardus iure secundus Per fatum victus iacet hic sub marmore pictus Verax sermone prudens suit et ratione Corpore procerus animo prudens vt Homerus Ecclesie fauit elatos suppeditauit Quemuis prostrauit Regalia qui violauit O bruit hereticos et eorum strauit amicos O clemens christe tibi deuotus suit iste Votis Baptiste salues quem protulit iste Hic iacet immiti consumptus morte Richardus fuisse felicem miserrimum Fabian who translated this Epitaph into English desirous as it seemes to extenuate the force of such palpable grosse flattery annexeth this stanza But yet alas although this meter or ryme Thus doth embellish this noble Princes fame And that some Clerke which fauored him somtyme Lâ—st by his cunnyng thus to enhanse his name Yet by his story appereth in him some blame Wherfore to Princes is surest memory Their lyues to exercyse in vertuous constancy But Iohn Harding speaking of the greatnesse of his houshold and the pride and whoredome therein as well amongst the Clergie as Laitie is more inuectiue in his rimes which to reade I hope will not be troublesome thus he begins Truly I herd Robert Ireleffe saye Clerke of the Grenecloth and that to the Houshold Came euery daye forthe most partie alwaye Ten thousand folke by his messis told That folowed the hous aye as thei wold And in the Kechin three hundred Seruitours And in eche office many occupiours And Ladies faire with their gentlewomen Chamberers also and lauenders Three hundred of theim were occupied then There was greate pride emong the Officers And of all men far passyng their compeers Of rich araye and much more costious Then was before or sith and more pretious In his Chappell were Bishoppes then of Beame Some of Irelond and some also of France Some of Englond and clerkes of many a realme That litill connyng had or conisance In musike honorably God his seruice to auance In the Chappell or in holy Scripture On mater of Goddis to refigure Lewed menne thei were in clerkes clothyng Disguysed faire in fourme of clerkes wise Their Perishyns full litill enfourmyng In Lawe diuine or else in God his seruise But right practyfe they were in couetise Eche yere to make full greate collection At home in stede of soules correction Greate Lechery and fornication Was in that house and also greate aduoutree Of Paramours was great consolacion Of ech degre well more of Prelacie Then of the temporall or of the chiualrie Greate taxe ay the kyng tooke through all the lond
not die Wholly nor shall my best part buried lie Within my Graue And Martial lib. 10. Ep. 2. thus speakes of bookes and writings Reader my wealth whom when to me Rome gaue Nought greater to bestow quoth she I haue By him ingratefull Lethe thou shalt flie And in thy better part shalt neuer die Wilde fig-trees rend Messalla's marbles off Chrispus halfe horses the bold Carters scoffe Writings no age can wrong nor theeuing hand Deathlesse alone those monuments will stand My books are read in euery place And when Licinius and Messalla's high Rich marble Towers in ruin'd dust shall lie I shall be read and strangers euerie where Shall to their farthest homes my verses beare And in another Ep. thus much of his bookes 'T is not the Citie onely doth approue My muse or idle eares my verses loue The rough Centurion where cold frosts orespread The Scythian fields in warre my books are read My lines are sung in Britaine farre remote And yet my emptie purse perceiues it not What deathlesse numbers from my penne would flow What warres would my Pierian Trumpet blow If as Augustus now againe doth liue So Rome to me would a Mecaenas giue In like manner Ouid giues an endlesse date to himselfe and to his Metamorphosis in these words Iamque opus exegi c. And now the worke is ended which Ioues rage Nor Fire nor Sword shall raze nor eating Age Come when it will my Death 's vncertaine houre Which onely of my bodie hath a power Yet shall my better part transcend the skie And my immortall name shall neuer die For where-soere the Romane Eagles spread Their conquering wings I shall of all be read And if wee Prophets truly can diuine I in my liuing Fame shall euer shine S. Ierom in like manner in one of his Epistles writeth of the perpetuity of a funerall Elegie which he made himselfe to the deare memorie of his beloued Fabiola who was buried in the citie of Bethlem not because the said Elegie was cut or engrauen upon her Sepulchre but for that he had written it down in one of his volumes according to these his own words following Exegi monimentum tuum aere perennius quod nulla destruere possit vetustas incîdi Eulogium Sepulchro tuo quod huic volumini subdidi vt quocunque noster Sermo peruenerit te laudatam te in Bethlem conditaÌ„ Lector agnoscat Varus Tribune of Rome hath beene and will be longer remembred by Martials Epigram lib. 10. ep 26. then euer hee could haue beene by any funerall monument which is lately made thus to speake English Varus which as Romes Tribune didst command An hundred men renown'd in Aegypt land Now as a stranger Ghost thou dost remaine On Nilus shore promisd to Rome in vaine We could not dew with teares thy dying face Nor thy said funerall flames with odours grace Yet in my verse eterniz'd shalt thou bee Of that false Egypt cannot cousen thee Thus Lucan lib. 9. of his owne verse and Caesars victorie at Pharsalia O great and sacred worke of poesy Thou freest from fate and giu'st eternity To mortall wights but Caesar enuy not Their liuing names if Romane Muses ought May promise thee whilest Homer's honoured By future times shalt thou and I bee read No age shall vs with darke oblivion staine But our Pharsalia euer shall remaine Bookes then and the Muses workes are of all monuments the most permanent for of all things else there is a vicissitude a change both of cities and nations as we may thus reade in Ouids Metamorphosis lib. 15. For this wee see in all is generall Some nations gather strength and others fall Troy rich and powerfull which so proudly stood That could for ten yeares spend such streames of bloud For buildings onely her old ruines showes For riches Tombes which slaughtered fires inclose Sparta Mycenae were of Greece the flowers So Cecrops citie and Amphions Towres Now glorious Sparta lies vpon the ground Lofty Mycenae hardly to be found Of Oedipus his Thebes what now remaines Or of Pandions Athens but their names Thebes Babell Rome these proud heauen daring wonders Loe vnder ground in dust and ashes lie For earthly kingdomes euen as men doe die Bellay in his ruines of Rome translated by Spenser makes this demonstration or shew of that citie to the strange countrey man or traueller Thou stranger which for Rome in Rome here seekest And nought of Rome in Rome perceiu'st at all These same old walls old arches which thou seest Old palaces is that which Rome men call Behold what wreake what ruine and what wa st And how that she which with her mighty power Tam'd all the world hath tam'd her selfe at last The prey of Time which all things doth deuoure Rome now of Rome is the onely funerall And onely Rome of Rome hath victorie Ne ought saue Tyber hastning to his fall Remaines of all O worlds inconstancie That which is firme doth flit and fall away And that is flitting doth abide and stay It is a vanitie for a man to thinke to perpetuate his name and memory by strange and costly great Edifices for Not sumptuous Pyramids to skies vpreard Nor Elean Ioues proud Fane which heauen compeerd Nor the rich fortune of Mausoleus Tombe Are priuiledg'd from deaths extreamest doome Or fire or stormes their glories do abate Or by age shaken fall with their owne waight We haue many examples here in England of the small continuance as I may so call it of magnificent strong buildings by the sudden fall of our religious houses of which a late namelesse versifier hath thus written What sacred structures did our Elders build Wherein Religion gorgeously sat deckt Now all throwne downe Religion exild Made Brothell-houses had in base respect Or ruind so that to the viewers eye In their owne ruines they intombed lie The marble vrnes of their so zealous Founders Are digged up and turn'd to sordid vses Their bodies are quite cast out of their bounders Lie vnâ—interr'd O greater what abuse is Yet in this later age we now liue in This barbarous act is neither shame nor sinne Of walls towres castles crosses forts rampiers townes cities and such like monuments here in great Britaine which by age warres or the malignitie of the times are defaced ruined or utterly subuerted you may reade in learned Camden onely thus much out of famous Spenser personating the Genius of Verlame or Verulam sometimes a citie neare to S. Albons I was that Citie which the garland wore Of Britaines pride deliuered vnto me By Romane victors which it wonne of yore Though nought at all but ruines now I bee And lie in mine owne ashes as ye see Verlame I was what bootes it that I was Sith now I am but weeds and wastfull grasse Another English muse now liuing vnder the name of Watling one of the foure imperiall high wayes sings thus of the ruines of this citie Thou saw'st when Verlam once her head
aloft did reare Which in her cinders now lies sadly buried here With Alabaster Tuch and Porphery adornd When welneare in her pride great Troinouant she scornd Likewise vpon this forgotten Citie a namelesse late writer hath made this Epitaph Stay thy foot that passest by Here is wonder to descry Churches that interr'd the dead Here themselues are sepulchred Houses where men slept and wak't Here in ashes vnder-rak't In a word to allude Here is corne where once Troy stood Or more fully home to haue Here 's a Citie in a graue Reader wonder thinke it then Cities thus would die like men And yet wonder thinke it none Many Cities thus are gone But I will conclude this Chapter with these two stanzaes following taken out of Spensers poeme aforesaid speaking of the vanity of such Princes who Absolon like thinke to gaine a perpetuitie after death by erecting of pillars and such like monuments to keepe their names in remembrance when as it is onely the Muses works which giue unto man immortality In vaine do earthly Princes then in vaine Seeke with Pyramides to heauen aspired Or huge Colosses built with costly paine Or brasen pillars neuer to bee fired Or Shrines made of the metall most desired To make their memories for euer liue For how can mortall immortalitie giue For deeds doe die how euer nobly done And thoughts of men doe in themselues decay But wise words taught in numbers for to runne Recorded by the Muses liue for aye Ne may with storming showres be washt away Ne bitter breathing windes with harmfull blast Nor age nor enuie shall them euer wast CHAP. II. Of Funerall Monuments Graues Tombes or Sepulchres Of the ancient custome of burialls Of Epitaphs and other funerall honours NOw to speake properly of a Monument as it is here in this my ensuing Treatise vnderstood it is a receptacle or sepulchre purposely made erected or built to receiue a dead corps and to preserue the same from violation Nam monumentum Sepulchri est quod causa muniendi eius loci factum sit in quo corpus impositum sit vnde Monumentum quasi munimentum dicitur And indeed these Funerall Monuments in foregoing ages were very fittingly called muniments in that they did defend and fence the corps of the defunct which otherwise might haue beene pulled out of their graues by the sauage brutishnesse of wilde beasts for as then none were buried in Townes or Cities but either in the fields along the high way side to put passengers in minde that they were like those so interred mortall vpon the top or at the feet of mountaines Apud maiores saith Seruiuâ— lib. xi Aeneid aut sub montibus aut in ipsis montibus sepeliebantur vnde natum est vt super cadauera aut pyramides fierent aut ingentes collocarentur columnae The Romanes were forbidden by this the second Law of their twelue Tables Hominem mortuum in vrbe ne sepelito neve vrito to bury or burne any within any Towne or Citie For the ancient custome of buriall amongst the Iewes wee reade that Abraham was buried with Sara his wife in the caue of Machpelah in the field of Ephron Gen. cap. 25. And Vzziah king of Iuda slept with his fathers and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the buriall which pertained to the kings 2. Chron. cap. 26. The sepulchre of Lazarus was without the citie of Bethania and so was that of Ioseph without Ierusalem Sandys in the relation of his long iourney tells us that hee was shewed the Tombe of the Prophet Samuel as also the Sepulchre of the seuen brethren who were tortured to death by Antiochus fenced about with a pile of stones square flat and solid both of them being on the top of two mountaines neare vnto the citie of Emmaus and in the vineyards on the North-west side of the said citie sundry places of buriall hewne out of the maine rocke amongst the rest one called the Sepulchre of the Prophets And those Egyptian lofty proud Pyramids the barbarous wonders of vaine cost so vniuersally celebrated being the Regall sepulchres of the Ptolomees were erected farre out of all cities as the said Traueller tells vs who did see so much of the ruines thereof as time hath not deuoured The Athenians buried such as were slaine in battell and other honourable personages in a place without the Citie called Ceramnicus So here in England the interments of the dead were anciently farre out of all Townes and Cities either on the ridges of hills or vpon spatious plaines fortified or fenced about with obelisks pointed stones Pyramids pillars or such like monuments for example Englands wonder vpon Salisbury-plaine called Stonehenge the sepulchre of so many Britaines who by the treachery of the Saxons were slaine there at a parley That of Wada the Saxon Duke neare to Whitby in Yorkshire and those of Cartigerne the Britaine and Horsa the Saxon neare to Ailesford in Kent It was a thing vsuall among our old Saxon ancestours saith Verstegan as by Tacitus it also seemeth to haue beene among the other Germans that the dead bodies of such as were slaine in the field and buried in the fields were not layed in graues but lying upon the ground were couered ouer with turnes clods or sods of earth And the more in reputation the persons had beene the greater and higher were the turnes raised ouer their bodies and this some vsed to call Byriging some Beorging and some Buriging of the dead which wee now call berying or burying of the dead which properly is a shrowding or an hiding of the dead bodie in the earth Of these kinde of funerall monuments you haue many vpon Salisbury-plaine out of which the bones of bodies thus inhum'd are oftentimes digged vp which the Inhabitants thereabout call Beries Baroes and some Burrowes which accordeth with the same fence of Byrighs Beorghs or Burghs From whence the names of diuerse Townes and Cities are originally deriued Places first so called hauing beene with walls of turfe or clods of earth fenced about for men to bee shrowded in as in forts or Castles Reutha King of that neuer-conquered terrible fierce Nation of the Scots who flourished about they eare of the world 3784. and before the birth of our blessed Sauiour one hundred eightie and seven yeares ordained That such Noblemen which had atchieued any notable exploit in defence of their countrey should bee had in perpetuall memorie and buried in solemne wise in sepulchres aloft vpon hills or mountaines vpon which were set so many Obelisks pillars or long-pointed stones as they had slaine enemies in the warres Whereof some remaine saith Hector Boethius in the life of the said King there to be seene euen to this day Sepulchres of this stately kinde of structure for persons of eminent ranke and qualitie were sometimes howsoeuer erected within the cities for wee reade in the first booke of the Maccabees Chap. 13. that Ionathan the valiant brother to Iudas the
worthie being slaine in battell neare to Baschama and there buried Simon sent to take the bones of his brother Ionathan I will vse the words of the Text And they buried him in Modin his fathers city And all Israel bewailed him with great lamentation and mourned for him verie long And Simon made vpon the Sepulcher of his father and his brethren a building high to looke vnto of hewne stone behinde and before And set vp seuen pillars vpon it one against another for his father his mother and foure brethren And set great pillars round about them and set armes upon the pillars for a perpetuall memorie and carued ships beside the armes that they might be seene of men sailing in the sea In like manner the Romanes notwithstanding their second law of the twelue Tables did sometime entombe their dead within the Citie but that was but seldome for the bones and ashes of Trajan the Emperour were put into a golden vrne and set in the Market-place vpon the top of a pillar of one whole peece being one hundred and fourty foot high And Galbaes bodie long neglected saith Tacitus and in the darke despightfully intreated Argius his Steward one of his principall bondmen buried with small ceremonie in his priuate garden But this was not vsuall amongst them Hospinian lib. 3. cap. 1. out of Durandus Vlpian and other Authours giues this reason wherefore both the Iewes and Gentiles vsed to burie their dead without the gates of Townes and Cities It was a custome in times of old saith he that men and women were buried in their owne priuate houses or within their owne priuate gardens but afterwards for the noysome savour and contagious stinke of the dead carkases so interred it was enacted That all burials should bee without Townes and Cities in some conuenient place appointed for that purpose And howsoeuer that this order was obserued by the Gentiles upon this reason onely Scilicet vt in vrbibus mundicies seruaretur aer minus inficeretur ex cadauerum putrescentium faetore Yet the true Christians and such as by their liuely faith were adopted the children of God had a further mysterie in this their manner of interments for by the carriage and buriall of their dead corps without their citie walls they did publikely confirme and witnesse that the parties deceased were gone out of this world to bee made free denizons of another citie namely Heauen there to remaine with the blessed Saints in eternall happinesse This order or custome of buriall without cities continued amongst the Christians vntill the time of Gregory the great for as then the Monkes Friers and Priests saith my foresaid Authour began to offer sacrifice for the soules departed so that for their more easie and greater profit they procured first that the places of sepulture should bee adioyning vnto their Churches and afterwards they got licence to burie within Churches Vpon this reason out of the said Gregory 13. q. cap. 2. Cum grauia peccata non deprimunt saith hee tunc prodest mortuis si in Ecclesijs sepeliantur quia eorum proximi quoties ad eadem sacra loca veniunt suorumque sepulturam aspiciunt recordantur pro eis Domino preces fundunt Antiquitus tantum extra vrbem in coemiterijs hominū corpora sepeliebantur pace Ecclesiae data intra vrbes ad Templorum limina postea etiam in ipsis templis sepeliri mos inualuit Constantinus in porticu Templi Apostolorum Constantinopoli Honorius in porticu Templi S. Petri Romae eius vxor intra idem Templum sepulti sunt Anciently the bodies of the dead were buried onely without cities in Coemiteries or sleeping places vntill the resurrection as the word signifies but persecution being ended and peace giuen to the Christian Church the manner grew in vse to burie within Cities at the entrance into their sacred temples yea and afterwards in the verie Churches themselues Constantine was buried in the porch of the Apostles in Constantinople Honorius in the porch of S. Peter in Rome and his wife the Empresse within the said Church But to come nearer home Austine the first Archbishop of Canterbury sent hither by the foresaid Gregory was interred in the porch of Saint Peter and Paul commonly called Saint Austins neare vnto Canterbury a religious house of his owne foundation and together with him sixe other Archbishops who next succeeded him whose reliques afterwards were remoued into the Abbey Church of which I shall speake hereafter Cuthbert or Cudbright th' eleuenth Archbishop of that Province obtained from the Pope a dispensation for the making of Coemiteries or Churchyards within Townes and Cities whereas here in England vntill his time within the walls thereof none were buried These following are the words in the Appendix to the booke of Rochester a Mss. in Sir Robert Cottons Librarie Cutbertus Archiepiscopus Cant. xi ab Augustino cum Romae videret plures intra Ciuitates sepeliri rogauit Papam ut sibi liceret Coemiteria facere quod Papa annuit reuersus itaque coemiteria vbique in Anglia fieri constituit This order of buriall being thus begun here in England it likewise followed that Graue-stones were made and Tombes erected with inscriptions engrauen upon them to continue the remembrance of the parties deceased to succeeding ages and these were called Epitaphs now an Epitaph is a superscription either in verse or prose or an astrict pithie Diagram writ carued or engrauen vpon the tombe graue or sepulchre of the defunct briefly declaring and that sometimes with a kinde of commiseration the name the age the deserts the dignities the state the praises both of body and minde the good or bad fortunes in the life and the manner and time of the death of the person therein interred Of all funerall honours saith Camden Epitaphs haue alwayes beene most respectiue for in them loue was shewed to the deceased memorie was continued to posteritie friends were comforted and the Reader pu◠in minde of humane frailtie and indeed the frequent visiting and aduised reuiewing of the Tombes and monuments of the dead but without all touch of superstition with the often reading serious perusall and diligent meditation of wise and religious Epitaphs or inscriptions found vpon the tombes or monuments of persons of approued vertue merit and honour is a great motiue to bring us to repentance The invention of Epitaphs proceeded from the presage or forefeeling of immortalitie implanted in all men naturally and is referred to the Schollers of Linus the Theban Poet who flourished about the yeare of the world 2700 who first bewailed this Linus their master when he was slaine in dolefull verses then called of him Aelina afterward Epitaphia for that they were first song at burialls after engraued vpon the sepulchres Funerall monuments then of costly workmanship with curious engrauen Epitaphs were called Sepulchra id est semipulchra halfe faire and beautifull the externall part or superficies thereof being gloriously beautified and adorned and hauing
disobeyed the mouth of the Lord was reproued by him who was the occasion of his errour as hee had it in commandement from God and withall told that his carcase should not come vnto the sepulcher of his Fathers Esay speaking in derision of the death and sepulture of the king of Babylon which was not with his Fathers for that his tyranny was so much abhorred thus noteth his vnhappinesse All the kings of the nations euen they all sleepe in glorie euery one in his owne house But thou art cast out of thy graue like an abhominable branch like the rayment of those that are slaine and thrust through with a sword which go downe to the stones of the pit as a carcase troden vnder feet Thou shalt not be ioyned with them in the graue Ieremie the Prophet speaking against the breakers of Gods sacred couenants brings in most commonly the want of buriall as a punishment for such their hainous offences as followeth Thus saith the Lord I will euen giue them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of them that seeke their life and their dead bodies shall bee for meat vnto the fowles of the heauen and to the beasts of the earth And prophesying against Iehoakim he is inspired with these words Thus saith the Lord against Iehoakim the sonne of Iosiah king of Iuda they shall not lament him saying Ah my brother or ah sister neither shall they mourne for him saying Ah Lord or ah his glory He shall be buried as an asse is buried not honourably saith the Margent among his fathers euen drawne and cast forth without the gates of Ierusalem In other places of his prophesie thus They shall die of deaths and diseases they shall not bee lamented neither shall they be buried but they shall be as doung vpon the earth They shall be cast out in the streets of Ierusalem because of the famine and the sword and there shall be none to burie them both they and their wiues their sonnes and their daughters for I will poure their wickednesse vpon them Thus saith the Lord of hosts I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of them that seeke their liues and their carcases will I giue to bee meate for the fowles of the heauen and to the beasts of the field We haue diuers examples of this nature in the holy Scriptures But let vs go no further then to the lawes of our owne Nation by which the subiect is kept in awfull obedience Hee that commits treason is adiudged by our Lawes to bee hanged drawne and quartered and his diuided limbes to be set vpon poles in some eminent place within some great Market-towne or Citie He that commits that crying sinne of murther is vsually hanged vp in chaines so to continue vntill his bodie be consumed at or neare the place where the fact was perpetrated Such as are found guilty of other criminall causes as Burglarie Felonie or the like after a little hanging are cut downe and indeed buried but seldome in Christian mould as we say nor in the sepulchres of their fathers except their fathers had their graues made neare or vnder the gallowes And we vse to bury such as lay violent hands vpon themselues in or neare to the high wayes with a stake thrust through their bodies to terrifie all passengers by that so infamous and reproachfull a buriall not to make such their finall passage out of this present world The feare of not hauing buriall or hauing of ignominious and dishonourable buriall hath euer affrighted the brauest spirits of the world this feare made the dying Mezentius make this request to his enemy Aeneas No ill in death not so came I to sight Nor made my Lausus such a match One right Afford if pitie stoope tâ—a vanqâ—sht foe Interre mâ— corps Much hate of mine I know Surrounds me Dead from that fear'd furie saue And lay me with my sonne both in one graue This feare made the faire-helm'd Hector as Homer calls him being readie to combat with Ajax Telamon to propound this couenant Amongst you all whose breast includes the most expulsiue minde Let him stand forth as Combatant by all the rest design'd Before whome thus I call high Ioue to witnesse of our strife If he with home-thrust-iron can reacâ— th'exposure of my life Spoiling my armes let him at will conuay them to his tent But let my body be renurn'd that Troys two-stept descent Mâ—y â—â—see it in the funerall pile if I can slaughter him Apollo honouring me so much I 'le spoile his conquered limbe And beare his armes to Ilion where in Apollos Shrine I 'le hang them as my Trophies due his body I 'le resigne To â—e disposed by his friends in flamie Funeralls And hâ—nour'd with erected Tombe where Hellespontus fals Into Aegaeum and doth reach euen to your nauall rode That when our beings in the earth shall hide their period Suruiuers sailing the blacke sea may thus his name renew This is his Monument whose bloud long since did fates imbrew Whom passing farre in fortitude illustrate Hector slew This shall posteritie report and my fame neuer die Cicero in his second booke De gloria makes Aiax glorious in armes to intreate Hector that if it were his fortune to be vanquisht by him so renowned an enemy he would affoord his body worthie and honourable buriall and that his Tombe to succeeding ages might thus speake to all passengers Hic situs est vitae iampridem lumina linquens Cui quondam Hectoreo perculsus concidit ense Fabitur haec aliquis mea semper gloria vines Here he lies depriu'd of light Slaine by Hectors sword in fight Some one will euer tell this story So endlesse shall be Aiax glory Achilles hauing giuen Hector his deaths wound insulted ouer him as it is in the two and twentieth booke of Homers Iliads thus And now the dogs and fowles in â—oulest vse Shall teare thee vp thy corse expos'd to all the Greekes abuse To whom Hector makes his dying request on this manner He fainting said let me implore euen by thy knees and soule And thy great parents doe not see a cruelty so foule Inflicted on me brasse and gold receiue at any rate And quit my person that the Peeres and Ladies of our State May tombe it Thus you see how much the most heroicall spirits desir'd the honour of sepulture with the performance of all funerall rites howsoeuer Lucan in his fifth booke of the Pharsalian warres makes Iulius Caesar being as then in danger to be drowned to expostulate with the Gods and in a boasting manner to contemne all funerall exequies Concluding thus O Gods I craue No Funerall let the seas vtmost waue Keepe my torne carcase let me want a Tombe And funerall pile whilest look't for still to come Into all Lands I am and euer fear'd But this was but one of Caesars rodamantadoes or thundring
Canterbury Hee the said Saint Benet died about the yeare of our Lord fiue hundred and eighteene and was buried in his owne Oratorie consecrated to Saint Iohn where as before was wont to be the Altar of Apollo He liued 63. yeares Saint Francis was borne in the Towne of Assile in the Duchie of Spoletum in Italy in his young yeares he dealt in the trade of Merchandise but by reason of a great sicknesse at the age of two and twenty yeares he contemned all worldly dealings and gaue himselfe wholly to heauenly meditations he put a shirt of haire vpon his bare skinne and a sacke vpon it girding himselfe with a cord going also without hose or shooes Et victus ostiatim emendicans begging from doore to doore so as the fame of him being spread ouer neighbour countreys many drawne by his holinesse abandoned the world and became his disciples making profession of pouerty but yet to labour and take paines for a poore liuing For these he built an Abbey in the Towne where he was borne and wrate a rule as well for those which were vnited vnto him as for such as should come after him which was approued and confirmed with many Indulgences Priuiledges Graces and Pardons by Pope Innocent the third and Honorius that succeeded him After the confirmacion whereof he ordained that his Friers should be called Fratres minores or Minorite Friers to witnesse their greater humilitie One Adam Sousbout a Germane Diuine Ann. 1227. vpon his entrance into this order writes thus to his Father at Delphos Quà m sit vita breuis quam sit via lubrica quamque Mors incerta bonis quae praemia quaeque parata Sint tormenta malis horum meditatio nostra est Quod facimus quod firmamus quod et esse perenne Optamus testamentum Saluete valete Care pater cari Fratres caraeque Sorores This Scraphicall Saint Francis died the fourth of October 1226. and was canonised by Pope Gregorie the ninth ann 1276. Ann. 1224. About two yeares before the death of Saint Francis these Friers Minorites came into England Et benigne a Rege Henrico tertio sunt suscepti Cantuar collocati fuerunt They were graciously receiued of Henry the third and placed in Canterbury And afterwards anno 1269 one of the Ancestours of Sir Dudley Digge commonly called Digges Emit Insulam vocatam Bynnewyght in Cantuar. et locum Porte super stonestreete ad opus Fratrum Minorum et tempore oportuno transtulit Fratres ad illam bought an Island in Canterbury called Bynnewyght and the place of a gate ouer Stone-streete for the vse of the Friers Minorites to which hee translated them in conuenient time The Friers Minors saith Stow first arriued in England at Douer nine in number fiue of them remained at Canterbury and did there build the first Couent of Friers Minors that euer was in England the other foure came to London and lodged at the preaching Friers the space of fifteene dayes and then hired an house in Cornhill of Iohn Traners one of the Sheriffes they buiâ—â—ded there little cels wherein they inhabited the deuotion of the Citizens toward them and also the multitude of Friers so increased that they were remoued by the Citizens to a place in S. Nicholas Shambles which Iohn Iwyn Citizen and Mercer of London appropriated vnto the Communalty of the Citie to the vse of the said Friers and became himselfe a lay Brother Contemporarie with Saint Francis was Saint Dominicke a Spaniard borne in a Towne called Calogora in the Diocesse of Osma His fader was namyd Felix and his Meder Iohane saith an old Agon from Calogora hee came into Gascoigne where hee continued ten yeares preaching and drawing Christian Princes into armes against the Albigeoâ—s certeyne Heretiques Qui damnato matrimonio vagos suadebant corcubitus atque â—sum carnium prohibebant Who condemned Matrimonie perswaded licentious copulations and forbad the eating of flesh whose errours hee repressed by his Sermons From thence he went to Rome to the Councell of Lateran vnder Innocent the third where hee obtained licence of the said Pope to put himselfe vnder what rule he should like best that was allowed by the Church whereupon he made choise of that of Saint Antonie with sixteene of his disciples and hauing made certaine constitutions it was confirmed by Honorius the third about the yeare of our Lord 1206. Then going to Tholouse he exhorted his Friers and sent them to preach two and two together perswading them to bee preachers both in deed and name These Friers Preachers came first into England in the yeare 1221. where they had louing entertainment and houses built Of which my old Author Then deide Seynt Hugh an half yer and no mo That was Bishop of Lincolne and ther after the fyrst yer The order of Frere prechours bygan that â—as neuer Seynt Domnyk hit bygan in the yere of gease ywis M. C. C. no mor forsothe hit ys Of the gluttonie and drunkennesse of this order which so farre declined like others from the first institution one of their owne side thus writ Sanctus Dominicus sit nobis semper amiâ—us Cuicanimus nostro iugiter praeconia rosâ—ro De cordis venis siccatis ante lagenis Ergo was laudes si tu nos pangere gaudes Tempore Paschali fac ne potu puteali Conveniat vti quod si sit vndique muti Semper erant Fratres qui non curant nisi ventres All things degenerate in time and stray in a manner from the right course for example the order of Saint Benet which had flourished a long space with great reputation of holinesse diâ—â—ered so much from the first institution of their Founder that neither the decrees and authoritie of holy Fathers generall and prouinciall Councels could reforme or draw them to their first principles vntill the sanctitie of one Odo or Otho Abbot of Cluâ—â—â— Burgandy and one of Saint Benets order reuiued in a manner from 〈◊〉 to life this Monasticall profession forcing them to obserue and obseruing himselfe from point to point all that was practised in the time of S. Benedict So as many of their Abbots which were drawne by his good example reformed also their Abbeyes not onely in France but as well in Spâ—â—ne Germany Italy and England and for that this reformation 〈◊〉 his first beginning at Cluni the vnion of so many Abbeyes was called the congregation of Cluni and euery yeare by the Popes permission and authoritie all the Abbots of this congregation met at a certaine place and they called it the generall Chapter whereas they treated of the order and life of Monkes putting out and punishâ—ng such as had offended This Odo liued in the yeare of our Lord 913. It was no long time after ere that these Benedictines fell againe to their old vomit their great wealth hauing made them proud idle luxurious carelesse of Gods house and in most or all of their actions
which I haue read depicted round about the Cloister of the Carthusians at Paris doth shew sent for the foresaid Bruno to Rome whose disciple hee had beene where he remained for a time and did much helpe to pacifie the troubles there at that time by his prayers he parted from Rome and taking his way by Calabria he came into a desart called the Tower in the Diocesse of Squilace where he stayed with his compaâ—ions making their residence in certaine caues vnder the ground The which when one Roger the Prince of that countrey vnderstood he went to visit this holy man Bruno and gaue to him and his societie all that desart whereas they built a Church in the which Bruno remained alone where his companions liued and in that place hee died ann 1102. and there was buried Vpon whose Sepulchre this Epitaph was insculped Primus in hac Christi fundator ouilis Eremo Promerui fieri qui tegor hoc lapide Bruno mihi nomen Genetrix Germania meque Transtulit ad Calabros grata quies nemoris Doctor eram Preco Christi virnotus in orbe Desuper illud erat gratia non meritum Carnis vincla dies Octobris sexta resoluit Ossa manent tumulo spiritus astra petit He was canonized in the yeare 1520. Priors of their grand Monasterie at Carthusia from Bruno the first till Bruno d' Affrinques who gouerned that house ann 1611. haue beene fourty and foure This order came into England about the yeare 1180. and at Witham in Somersetshire built their first cloister Afterwards they came to London and had a faire sumptuous house neare vnto Smithfield London which is now Suttons Hospitall another they had called Sein or Shene in the countie of Surrey now best knowne by the name of Richmond There were foure Orders here in England of begging Friers who did challenge for their Patrons S. Augustine S. Francis S. Dominicke and Saint Basill but in their discipline and rule of life they came farre short of their first Institutors who both tooke paines with their hands as labourers and as learned writers as their workes do testifie of all Orders these Mendicants haue euer been most bitterly inueighed against by their owne writers as I shall shew hereafter Quidam nouus ordo Fratrum Londini apparuit incognitus Papale tamen autenticum palam ostendens ita vt tot ordinum confusio videretur A certaine new and vnknowne order of Friers appeared in London shewing openly the Popes authenticall Bull for their admission so that then there seemed to be a confusion of so many Orders saith Paris These were called Fratres de poenitentia Iesu or Fratres de Sacca Friers of the repentance of Iesus or Friers of the Sacke for that they carried sacks and for that they were clad in sackcloth These had their first house a little without Aldersgate London and obtained licence of King Henry the third in the fifth yeare of his raigne to remoue from thence vnto any other place and within some two yeares afterwards hee gaue to them the Iewes Synagogue in Colmanstreet ward which was defaced by the Citizens of London after they had slaine seuen hundred Iewes and taken away all their goods After which time Eleanor wife to King Edward the first tooke into her protection and warranted vnto the Prior and Brethren De poenitentia Iesu Christi of London the said land in Colechurch street in the Parish of Saint Olaue in the old Iury and S. Margaret in Lothbury by her granted with consent of Stephen de Fulborne Vnder-Warden of the Bridge-house and other Brethren of that house for threescore Markes of siluer which they had receiued of the said Prior and Brethren of Repentance toward the building of the said Bridge This Order of Friers gathered many good Schollers and multiplied in number exceedingly vntill by a generall Councell it was decreed that there should no more Orders of begging Friers be permitted but onely the foure Orders and so from that time these Friers decreased and fell to nothing There were also Nunnes of this order which were called Sachettes whether they had any Couent in England or not I do not know But great S. Lewis King of France being stirred vp by Queene Blaunch his mother in the yeare of our saluation 1261. hauing giuen vnto the Brethren of the Sacke or of the repentance of Iesus Christ a certaine house vpon the riuer of Seine a little beneath S. Michaels bridge in the Parish of Saint Andrew des Artes at Paris as by his charter which I haue read appeares gaue also to the Nunnes of the same order another house to inhabite in the said Parish where neither of the orders made there any long abode but were expelled in the time of the said King leauing onely the name of Sachettes vnto the streete About the yeare 1048. the Sarazins being masters of Ierusalem and of the holy Temple which they ruined certaine gentlemen and Italian Merchants vsed to frequent the ports and maritime towns of Syria and Aegypt who for that they brought merchandise which was pleasing vnto those countries were well entertained not onely by the gouernour of the Towne but by the Calife of Aegypt These Christians going often to Ierusalem to visit the holy places and hauing no place of retreat within the citie they obtained leaue to build a Church a Pallace with certaine Monasteries for the lodging of Pilgrimes But in the end they caused an Hospitall to bee built for the receiuing of all sorts of Pilgrimes both sicke and whole and in like manner a Church which was dedicated to S. Iohn Baptist. In the yeare 1099. the citie of Ierusalem being recouered against the impulsions of the Infidels by Godfrey of Bullein Duke of Lorraine this order was instituted the Kings of France were soueraignes of this order who granted them diuers immunities They bare fiue crosses gules in forme of that which is at this day called Ierusalem crosse representing thereby the fiue wounds that violated the bodie of our Sauiour None were to be admitted if of a defamed life or not of the Catholike religion They were to be gentlemen of bloud and of sufficient meanes to maintaine a port agreeable to that calling without the exercise of mechanicall sciences as appeares by these demands propounded by the Pater-Guardian vpon their admission and the Knights answers Guard Quid quaeris Miles Quaero effici Militem sanctissimi Sepulchri Guard Cuius coâ—ditionis es Mil. Nobilis genere Pare 〈…〉 bis Christianis ortus Guard Habes vnde 〈…〉 litaris dignitatis conseruare possis absque mercibus et 〈…〉 Habeo Dei gratia They tooke the Sacrament to heare euery day 〈◊〉 if they might conueniently if warres were commenced against the 〈◊〉 to serue there in person or to lend other in their stead no 〈…〉 To oppugne the persecutours of the Church to shunne vniust warres 〈◊〉 honest gaine and priuate duels Lastly to
were tearmed Basilicae for that the Basilicae of the Gentiles which were large and spacious Hauls wherein Magistrates sat in iudgement and ministred iustice were conuerted into Christian Churches Whence Ausonius wrote thus Basilica olim negotijs plena c. The Basilica or Haul of Iustice in times past full of businesses is now as full of prayers and vowes or else because they were built in forme somewhat long in manner of those Basilicae But to returne backe againe to my Parishes which are called Benefices for Ecclesiasticall persons like as the preferments in Cathedrall Churches are tearmed Church Dignities and of these some are called Rectories or Parsonages some Vicaradges as will appeare by the sequele Parochia is sometime called Plebania and thus defined Plebania est aliud genus beneficij et maius quam Rectoria habet sub se Capellas et dignitatem esse putant interpretes Plebania is another kinde of Benefice and of greater circuite then a Rectorie it hath vnder it certaine Chappels and this Plebania or dignitas plebeia is said to be a Church dignitie by Interpretours Questionlesse these Plebanians were like our side-wasted Parishes in Lanchishire whose extensure is so large that to my owne knowledge some one of those Parish Churches hath fourteene Chappels of ease as we call them within the circumference of her limits and as it were vnder her iurisdiction all which are honoured with Parochiall rites Cathedrall Abbey and Parish Churches had great priuiledges of sanctuarie granted vnto them in former times Now a Sanctuarie is a place of refuge for offenders to escape punishment And these Sanctuaries were so called of an old Mosaicall rite vsed amongst the Israelites among whom euery Tribe had certaine Cities and places of refuge to which malefactours might repaire and for a time bee protected from the rigour of the Law Of which you may reade in the sacred writ Exod. 21.13 Numb 35.1 Deuter. 4.41 and Iosh. 20.2 And so likewise here in great Britaine Churches Church-yards Cities ploughs and high-wayes had many priuiledges in this kinde anciently granted and confirmed vnto them I will speake first of the last out of a late Writer who makes old Watling-streete thus to sing his verse Since vs his kinglie waies Mulmutius first began From 〈◊〉 â—gaine â—o Sea that through the Hand ran Wh 〈…〉 at in mâ—nd to keepe Posteritie might haue Appoâ—nting â—ust his course this priuiledge he gaue That no man might arrest or debtors goods might seize In any of vs foure his militarie waies Neare fiue hundred yeares before this King Mulmutius take it vpon the credit oâ— the British Story constituted diuerse lawes especially that Churches Ploughs and high wayes should haue liberties of Sanctuary by no authoritie violable That Churches should be free and enioy liberty for refuge consenting allowance of most Nations haue tollerated and in this kingdome it being affirmed also by constitution of King Lucius a Christian euery Church yard was a Sanctuary vntill by Act of Parliament vnder Hen. 8. that licence for protection of offences being too much abused was taken away Of Mulmutius Dunwallo for so hee is sometime called and his priuiledges to sacred places my old Mss. thus further speakes A kynge ther was in Brutayne Donwâ—lle was his nam Stale worth and hardy a man of grete fam He ordeyned first yat theeues yat to Temple slown wer No man wer so hardy to do hem despit ther That hath be moche suth yhold as hit begonne tho Hely Chyrch hit holdyth yut and wole euer mo Hereupon he called the Temples which hee built the Temples of peace and concord one of which was in London where now Blackwell Hall is another in Fleete-street as yet called the Temple Church wherein or in some of them himselfe Gorbomannus and other of the British kings were interred as by supposition it is deliuered Lucius king of the Britaines hauing abundantly distributed and giuen ample possessions and reuenues to Churches and Clergie men ordained that Churches with their Coemiteries or Church-yards should haue this priuiledge that what malefactour soeuer should thither make flight for his safetie he might there remaine without indemnitie Ethelwolfe and Alfred Kings of the West-Saxons gaue the like important priuiledges to these holy Edifices Athelstane sole Monarch of the Englishmen held the memory of Iohn de Beuerley Archbishop of Yorke so sacred and reuerend for he honored him as his â—urelar Saint that he endowed Beuerley the place of the said Archbishops birth with many and those very great priuiledges and granted them liberties in these generall words As free make I thee As heart may think or eie may see Yea and there was granted vnto it the priuiledge of a Sanctuary so that Bankrupts and men suspected of any capitall crime worthy of death might be free and safe there from the danger of the law in which was erected a chaire of stone with this Inscription This seat of Stone is called Freed stool that is the chaire of peace vnto which what offender soeuer flieth and commeth hath all manner of Securitie Of the Sanctuary at Westminster first granted by Sebert King of the East-Saxons encreased by Edgar King of the West-Saxons and confirmed by the Charter of King Edward the Confessor I haue spoken before If any one guilty of offence flie from any place for refuge to the Church Church-doore to the Parson or Vicars house or into any part of his base or inner Court prouided that the said house and courts bee within consecrated ground it shall not be lawfull for any to take him from thence saue onely the Bishop or some of his Officers Now if this malefactour bee a filching knaue or an high-way robber and be taken with the bootie or if his theeuish purchase be altogether exhausted and spent yet if he haue any meanes otherwayes of his owne he shall make satisfaction to the partie or parties whom hee hath so wronged and if hee still continue to play the thiefe and make a custome of this manner of flight to Churches and Priests houses after restitution made he shall abiure the countrey and if he giue not satisfaction to the parties whose goods hee hath taken and purloyned no man shall dare to giue him lodging or entertainment without the kings speciall licence first obtained If a Clergie-man bee taken for felonie deliuered to the Ordinarie and breake prison and flie to the Church for sanctuarie or refuge he shall bee taken from thence and put into the same prison out of which he escaped for the Church ought not to defend him nor any publike malefactour Si ad pacem Regis venire noluerit But stay for if robbing from other mens works to embellish my owne writings be an offence it is high time for mee to take Sanctuarie yet giue me leaue to go a little further in my course and to speake somewhat out of other Authors of the Ecclesiasticall state of England of
Edwin king of Northumberland Sandwich Before the generall suppression here was a religious house of white Friers Carmelites founded by one Henry Cowfeld an Almaine Ann. 1272. and an Hospitall founded by Thomas Rabyng William Swanne Clerkes Iohn Goddard and Richard Long. In a booke of this order of Carmes written by Iohn Bale of which I haue spoken in the prefixed discourse I finde the Foundation of this Religious structure as also certaine Epitaphs made to the memorie of diuers of the Fraternitie therein interred in this manner following Anno Domini M.CC.LXXII fundatus erat Conuentus Sandwici per Henricum Cowfeld de Alemania Epitaphium Magistri Fratris Thome Legatt qui obijt Anno Domini M. CCCCIX Carmelita Thomas Legatt qui Theologie Doctor erat quondam conditur hoc lapide Epitaphium Fratris Thome Hadlow Hic Prior iste Hadlow nunc hoc sub marmore tectus Turmas celicolas adeat nostra prece vectus M.C. quater X. sepâ—eno transijt anno Huic deciâ—o sexto Septembris lumina nexo Magister Frater Willelmus Becklee hic sepultus cum hoc Epitaphio Nunc me petra tenet saxoque includor in isto Et lacerum vermes laniant nunc vndique corpus Quid mihi diuicie quid alta palacia prosunt Cum mihi sufficiat paruo quo marmore claudor Quam fastus quam pompa leuis quam gloria mundi Sit breuis fragilis humana potencia quam sit Collige ab exemplo qui transis perlege posco Obijt Ann Dom. M. CCCC.XXXVIII Epitaphium Magistri Iohannis Sandwich huius Conuentus Prioris perquam amabilis Subiacet huic Tumbe deuotus mente Iohannes De Sandwich dictus huiusce Prior que domus Mille quadringentos tres annos congere lumen Quindecimam Iunij sumite tempus habes Quo sors superna rapuit de corpore vitam Fundito queso preces vt sit ei requies Epitaphium Fratris Dionisij Plumcooper Cuspide lethisera mors que premit impia cuncta Mole sub hac gelià a clausit ossa viri Qui rogitat nomen cognomen postulat ipsum Hoc Dionisius est Plumcooper illud erat Mollibus hic annis Carmeli dulcis alumnus Extitit placide Pacis amator erat Ad canos veniens nature iura reliquit Mors dedit lassis artubus hic requiem Valedicit mundo xx Febr. Ann. Dom. MCCCC LXXXI Ann. 1563. Sir Roger Manwood before remembred natiue of this place founded here a free Schoole which hee endowed with fourty pounds of yearely reuenue Right famous in former times saith Camden was the Citie of Richborow whereof now nothing remaines saue certaine walls of a Castie of rough flint and Britane brickes in forme of a Quadrant Ouer the entrie whereof is the head of Queene Berta as some say grauen in stone the wife of King Ethelbert who here had a royall pallace The Romanes had their Presidents or Prouosts who had the gouernment of this Citie of which I finde but onely two to haue beene here interred namely Flauius Sanctius and Claudius Contentus the one ruling with all peace the other liuing in all riches and prosperitie whose memories are thus preserued by the Poet Ausonius Militiam nullo qui turbine sedulus egit Praeside letatus quae Rhutupinus ager His martiall seruice he discharg'd with care without all strife And Rutupin reioyc'd in him whilst there he was in life The same Authour setteth forth likewise in a lamentable funerall verse in the praise of Claudius Contentus whom he calls Vnkle who being ouertaken with death left behinde him vnto strangers a mighty great stocke of money which he had put out to vsury among the Britaines and increased by interest Et patruos Elegia meos reminiscere cantus Contentum tellus quem Rhutupina tegit My dolefull Muse now call to minde the songs of Vnkle mine Contentus who enterred lyes within mould Rutupine Ashe-Church In this Church are many ancient Monuments of worthy Gentlemen namely Sir ... Goshalls Sir ... Leuericks who lye crosse-legged as knights of Ierusalem One of the Septvaus with a collar of S S about his necke his wifes portraiture vpon the same Tombe diuers of the surname of Saint Nicholas of the Harslets and others all without Inscriptions sauing two and those shamefully defaced Claus. 25. Hen. 6. Memb. 30. 1446. Christian S. Nicholas Lady Prioresse of the Minories without Algate was daughter and heire of Nicholas S. Nicholas of S. Nicholas in Thanet and Thomas S. Nicholas is named in the same Record Hic iacet .... Clitherow Ar. ..... vxor eius silia Iohannis Oldcastell qui obijt ..... Pray for the sowle of Ioane Keriell Ye frends all that forth ypasse In endlesse lyff perpetuall That god it grant mercy and grase Roger Clitherow her fader was Tho erth to erth of kynd returne Pray that her sowle to lyff may come The name of Kiriell hath beene of great note and antiquity within this County Sir Nicholas Kiriell flourished in the raigne of King Richard the second and Sir Thomas Kiriell beheaded with the Lord Bouvile the day after the second battell at Saint Albons in the raigne of King Henry the sixth or slaine in the battell according to Iohn Harding ..... The Lords of the North Southward came To Sainct Albones vpon the fasting gang eue Wher then thei slewe the Lord Bouvile â—eue And Sir Thomas Kyriell also of Kent With mekell folke that pitee was to se. Sibbertswood In this Church are some ancient Monuments but now without Inscriptions erected to the memory of the Philipots or Philpots a familie which hath resided here a long time at Vpton Court within this Parish of which name and family was that renowned Lord Maior of London Sir Iohn Philpot knighted in the field by King Richard the second together with Sir William Wallworth then Maior and other Aldermen for the good seruice they performed against Watt Tylar and his complices Rebels of Kent and Essex This Sir Iohn gaue to the City certaine lands for the finding of thirteene poore people for euer It is likewise remembred of him to his eternall honour that Ann. 2. R. 2. he manned forth a Fleete at his owne charges to scoure the narrow Seas of such Scottish French and Spanish Pyrats as had done much villany by their often incursions to many of our English Ports and Harbours with which he not onely guarded both water and Land from their intollerable violences but also tooke their prime Captaine one Iohn Mercer a Scot with all his whole Nauie consisting of fifteene Spanish ships all being fraught with very rich commodities Which memorable atchieuement as it was right worthily applauded extolled and admired of all the faithfull Commonaltie so was it most wrongfully vnderualued enuied and drawne into question by some of the slothfull Nobilitie Ikham In this Church I saw an old Monument vpon
To whose memory Sir Henry Savill that rare Grecian and exact reuiuer of Antiquities now deceased late Warden of the said Colledge and Prouost of Eaton with the fellowes of the same taking downe an old marble Tombe haue erected another Monument ouer him of Touch and Alabaster bearing this Inscription Waltero de Merton Cancellario Angliae sub Henrico tertio Episcopo Roffensi sub Edwardo primo Rege vnius exemplo omnium quotquot extant Collegiorum Fundatori maximorum Europae totius ingeniorum faelicissimo parenti Custos Scholares domus Scholarium de Merton in Vniuersitate de Oxon. communibus Collegij impensis debitum pietatis Monumentum posuere Ann. Dom. 1598. Henrico Savile Custode Obijt in vigilia Simonis Iudae Ann. Dom. 1277. Edwardi primi quinto Inchoauerat Collegium Maldoniae in agro Surr. Ann. Dom. 1264. Hen. tertij 48. cui dein salubri consilio Oxonium Anno 1270. trans extrema manus faelicissimis vt credi par est auspicijs accessit anno 1274. ipsis Cal. Aug. anno Regni Regis Edwardi primi secundo Magne senex titulis Musarum sede sacrata Maior Mertonidum maxime progenie Haec tibi gratantes post saecula sera nepotes En votiua locant marmora sancte parens Haymo de Heath or Hythe so named of Hithe a Towne in this tract where he was borne lyeth buried by the North wall he was Confessour to King Edward the second This man built much at his Mannor houses of Troscliffe and Hawling In the Towne of Hithe before named he founded the Hospitall of Saint Bartholomew for reliefe of ten poore people endowing the same with twenty Markes of yearely reuenue He resigned his Bishopricke into the Popes hands of whom he had receiued consecration in the Court at Rome Ann. 1352. and liued about some six yeares after that a priuate life with the Monkes in this Priory This Bishop saith the booke of Rochester bought a precious Miter which was Thomas Beckets of the Executours of the Bishop of Norwich which hee offered at the high Altar on S. Pauls day 1327. Iohn de Shepey so likewise surnamed from the place of his birth vpon Haymo his resignation was by the Pope elected to this Bishoprick hee was Lord Treasurer of England in the two and thirtieth yeere of King Edward the third in which office he continued about three yeeres euen vntill his death which happened the nineteenth of October 1360. His portraiture is in the wall ouer his place of Buriall Here ouer against Bishop Merton lieth buried vnder a faire Marble Tombe the body of Iohn Lowe Bishop of this Diocesse borne in Worcestershire and brought vp in Oxford where he proceeded Doctor of Diuinitie He liued for a time in the Abbey of the Friers Augustines in Worcester of which order he was Prouinciall Vir aetate sua ab omni parte doctus So that in regard of his great learning and painfulnes in preaching he was preferred first to the Bishoprick of Saint Asaph by King Henry the sixt and after that translated to this of Rochester hee writ diuers learned works and was a carefull searcher after good bookes so as diuers copies of some ancient Fathers had vtterly perished but for his diligence Hee died the yeere 1467. hauing gouerned the See of Saint Asaph foure yeeres and and this of Rochester foure and twenty The inscription vpon his Tombe is almost all gone only these words remayning ...... Iohannis Low Epis ...... ...... miserere mei Domine Credo videre Dominum in terra viventium O quam breve spatium huius mundi sicomp ..... Sic mundi gloria transit Sancte Andree Augustine orate prop nobis I doe not finde the certainty of any other of the Bishops of this Diocesse to haue bin buried in this Cathedrall Church for most commonly in ancient times as now they departed from this place before they departed from the world this Ecclesiasticall preferment being but a step to some higher aduancement A word therefore or two of Saint William here enshrined and the like of the Priory and so I will take my leaue of this most ancient and no lesse reuerend Episcopall Chaire and goe to Gillingham for the rest of the funerall Monuments in this Church are of later times which I reserue for another Volume This Priory erected by Gundulph and the number of her religious Votaries encreased by him from sixe secular Priests to threescore blacke Canons or Monkes with ample reuenues for their maintenance was within the compasse of one hundred yeares what by casuall fire what by the falling out of the Monkes and Bishop Glanvill and what by the calamities it sustained in the warres of King Iohn brought to that ruine and pouerty that the beauty of all her goodly buildings was altogether defaced her Church burned her sacred Vtensiles by robbery and suites in law embezelled mispent and consumed and the whole Couent greatly indebted Anno 1179.3 Id. Aprilis Rofensis Ecclesia cum omnibus officinis cum tota vrbe infra extra muros combusta est anno 97. ex quo Monachi in eadem Ecclesia instituti sunt It was now therefore high time saith Master Lambard to deuise some way whereby this Priory and Church of Rochester might be if not altogether restored to the ancient wealth and estimation yet at the least somewhat relieued from this penury nakednesse and abiection Therefore Laurence of Saint Martins Bishop of this Church and Councellour of King Henry the third perceiuing the common people to bee somewhat drawne by the fraud of the Monkes to thinke reuerently of one William that lay buried in the Church and knowing well that there was no one way so compendious to gaine as the aduancement of a Pilgramage procured at the Popes Court the canonization of the said William with Indulgence to all such as would offer at his Tombe vnderpropping by meanes of this new Saint some manner of reuerend opinion of the Church which before through the defacing of the old Bishop Paulinus his Shrine was declined to naught This Saint William was by birth a Scot of Perthe by trade of life a Baker of bread in charitie so abundant that hee gaue to the poore the tenth loafe of his workmanship in zeale so feruent that in vow he promised and in deed attempted to visit the holy Land and the places where Christ was conuersant on earth In which iourney as he passed through Kent he made Rochester his way where after that he had rested two or three dayes he departed toward Canterbury but ere he had gone farre from the Citie his seruant that waited on him led him of purpose out of the high-way and spoyled him both of his money and life This done the seruant escaped and the Master because he dyed in so holy a purpose of minde was by the Monkes conueyed hither to Saint Andrewes laid in the Quire and promoted by the
mother this Raph by the marriage of his wife Margaret writ himselfe in his Charters and deeds Baron of Tunbridge And a noble Baron he was and the first Earle of Stafford created by Edward the third the fifth of March in the twentieth and fifth yeare of his raigne Mills in the Catalogue of Honour sets downe this mans pedegree after this manner drawne from William the Conquerours time still abiding in the male line Nicholas the sonne of Robert begot Robert the second whose daughter and heire married to Henry de Bagot he in the right of his wife was made Baron of Stafford and hee begat another called Heruey who left the name of Bagot and tooke on him the name of Stafford and he begot Robert the third father to Nicholas the second father to Edmund who begot this first Earle of Stafford all successiuely Barons and Lords of Stafford Hee dyed the 31. of August in the yeare 1372. Margaret his wife dyed the seuenth of September 1349. This Earle was knight of the honourable order of the Garter at the first foundation Andrew Iud the sonne of Iohn Iud of this Towne of Tonebridge sometime Lord Maior of London erected here a faire free-Schoole and an Almes-house nigh Saint Helens Church in London and left to the Skinners of which company he was lands to the value of threescore pounds three shillings and eight pence the yeare for the which they bee bound to pay twenty pound to the Schoolemaster eight pound to the Vsher yearely for euer and foure shillings the weeke to the sixe Almes-people and twenty fiue shillings foure pence the yeare in Coales for euer This Andrew was Lord Maior of London the yeare 1550. the fourth of King Ed. the sixth Dyed in the yeare following and was buried at S. Helens aforesaid within Bishopsgate ward Senenoke Orate pro anima Edwardi Bowrgchier filij et heredis Thome Bowrgchier militi filii Iohannis Domini de Berners et pro anima Domine Agnete vxoris dicti Thome Bowrgchier filie Thome Carleton militis qui quidem Edwardus obijt 24. Augusti 1496. Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury great Vnckle to this Edward bought of Sir William Fienes Lord Say and Sele and built anew that stately house of Knoll hereunto adioyning which he left to his kindred the cause of their residence in this countrey Ecce sub hoc premitur de funere cuius Curia Primatus Anglorum tota soluta est In lachrymas Haydok Haymundus vir preciosus Moribus eloquio dulcis Philologus ille Atque Theologicus clarus fuit ille viarum Rupta restaurauit letus tribuebat egenis Non auri cupidus non ambitiosus honoris Extitit extinctum Decembris luce secunda Quem mors abripuit Dominoque .... famulari Iussit is annus erat Domini quem C. quater M. que LXX complectimur hunc bone Christe In te confisum bonis celestibus auge Amen Qui pro alijs orat pro seipso laborat Orate pro anima Roberti Lawe Capellani capelle beate Marie istius Ecclesie ... obijt .... 1400. Cuius ... Pray for the soules of Thomas Brooke and Clemence Brooke his wife which Clemence Brooke dyed 1510.24 Febr. On whose soule Pray for the sowls of Tho. Gregby Alice and Godliffe his wyfes and for the sowls of his fader and moder Richard Gregbye Margaret and Agnes his wyfs which Thomas deceysed 22. Aprill 1515. On whos sowls Pray for the sowl of Robart Totleherst sometym servant vnto the Lord Cardinall Bourchier who died ..... 1512. Pray for the sowls of Iohn Yardley Sergeant of Armes to our Souereygn Lord the king and Ioane Pette his wyf whych Iohn died An. 1522. Hic iacent Willelmus Potkine Alexandra vxor eius qui quidem Willelmus obijt 1. Ianuar. 1499. et dicta Alexandra obijt 6. Dec. 1501. quorum Respicias Lector nostrum Epitaphium vt â—res pro nobis Deum About the latter end of the raigne of king Edward the third to vse M. Lambards words there was found lying in the streets of Sennocke a poore childe whose parents were vnknowne and he for the same cause named after the place where he was taken vp William Sennock This orphan was by the helpe of some charitable persons brought vp and nourtured in such wise that being made an Apprentice to a Grocer in London he arose by degrees in course of time to bee Maior and chiefe Magistrate of that Citie At which time calling to his minde the goodnesse of Almighty God and the fauour of the Townesmen extended towards him he determined to make an euerlasting Monument of his thankfull minde for the same and therefore in the yeare 1418. the yeare of his Maioroialtie hee builded both an Hospitall for reliefe of the poore and a free-Schoole for the education of youth within this Towne endowing both the one and the other with competent yearely liuing as the dayes then suffered towards their sustentation and maintenance But since his time the Schoole was much amended by the liberalitie of one Iohn Potkyn which liued vnder the reigne of king Henry the eighth and now lately also in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth of famous memory through the honest trauell of diuers Towne-inhabitants not onely the yearely stipend is much increased and the former litigious possessions quietly established but the Corporation also changed into the name of two Wardeins and foure Assistants of the free-Schoole of Queene Elizabeth in Sennocke Seale In this Church vpon a marble stone inlaid with brasse I found the portraiture of a Bishop and these words onely remaining Credo quod Redemptor meus viuit And these figures 1389. Vnder which as I gather by the date of the yeare of Grace Thomas Brenton Bishop of Rochester lyeth interred who trauelled into many places beyond Seas and comming to Rome preached in Latine before the Pope many learned Sermons which he left behinde him in writing For which and other his rare parts he was much admired and became very famous The Pope made him his Penitenciarie and bestowed vpon him this Bishopricke of Rochester he being before a Benedictine Monke of Norwich He was Confessour vnto king Ric. the second and a singular Benefactour he was to the English Hospitall at Rome He dyed as before Ann. 1389. Hic iacet Dominus de Bryene miles quondam Dominus de Kemsing et Sele qui obijt 13. Septemb. 1395. The family of the Bruins which I take to bee all one with this name was a long time famous as well in Essex as in this tract The last I finde of exemplarie note was one Thomas Bruine high Sheriffe of Kent who with the Lord Scales and others kept the Tower of London for their Soueraigne Lord king Henry the sixth against the rebellious Earles Ann. 1460. Reg. 38. Wrotham De Strattone natus iacet hic Rogerus humatus De Wrotham Rector sacre pagineque Professor
you leaue to choose a sufficient and discreete Priest for your Confessor who so often as to you it shall be thought conuenient your confessions being attentiuely heard may giue to each of you due absolution for your delinquencies committed And appoint you sauing and comfortable penance vnlesse the offences be of that nature for which the Apostolicall chaire is to be sought to for remission Therefore let it not be lawfull for any man in any wise to infringe or in a kind of foole-hardinesse rashly to contradict this Cartulary of our Concession which indeed if any one presume to attempt let him know for certaine that he shall incurre the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul Giuen c. Then followes a forme of Absolution made in the Apostolicall Consistory with plenary Indulgence to be pronounced by the Priest to any one of these Merchants whensoeuer they shall bee dangerously sicke in these words Ego authoritate Dei omnipotentis beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum eius et Domini nostri Martini Pape Quinti mihi in hac parte specialiter commissa secundum quod potestas mihi tradita se extendit et quantum debeo et possum si ista vice moriaris te absolvo ab omnibus penis Purgatorii que tibi in Purgatorio debentur propter culpas et offensas quas contra Deum commisisti et te restituo illi innocentie in qua eras tempore quo baptizatus fuisti In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti Amen I by the authority of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of our Lord and Master Martin the fift Pope to me especially committed in this behalfe according and in so much as the power to me giuen will extend it selfe and how much of duty I owe and how much I may or can I absolue thee from all the paines of Purgatory which are due to be inflicted vpon thee in Purgatory for those sinnes and offences which thou hast committed against God and I restore thee to that innocencie in which thou liuedst the same day when thou hadst newly receiued Baptisme In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Amen A word or two of these two words Merchant Staple or Staple Merchant He is properly called a Marchant qui mare traijcit who passeth ouer the Seas et merces inde avehit and from thence transports merchandise or wares into his owne warehouse either bought for ready money or had in exchange for other commodities which hee brings with him out of his owne Country The diligence and industry of these Marchants is accuratly expressed by Horace Epist. lib. 1. Ep. 1. Impiger extremos curret Mercator ad Indos Per mare pauperiem fugiens per saxa per ignes The ready Merchant runs to th' utmost Inde with speed By Sea by rocks by fire to shun outragious need There are a company of notable Skanderouns which greatly desire to be stiled Merchants and these are such as runne from house to house from Market to Market such as haunt Faires and all publicke meetings with packs and Fardels vpon their backes filled with counterfeit and adulterate wares with which they cheat deceiue and cosin the poore countrey-people and these are called Pedlers Quod pedes iter conficiunt because they go on foot Stapula inquit Lud. Guiccia est locus publicus quo principis auctoritate et priuilegio lanae vina coria frumenta aliaeque merces exotica vendendi causa conuchuntur Staple is a publicke place saith Lud. Guiccia to which by the Prince his authoritie and priuiledge wooll wine Hides of beasts corne or graine and other exoticke or forraine merchandise are transferred carried or conueyed there to be sold or set to sale Or Staple signifieth this or that Towne or Citie whither the Merchants of England by common order or commandement did carry their woolls wooll-fels clothes lead and Tinne and such like commodities of our Land for the vtterance of them by the great The word saith Mins let 5. may probably bee taken two wayes one from Stapel which in the Saxon or old English language signifieth the stay or hold of any thing Or from the French word Estape id est forum Vinarium because to those places whither our English Merchants brought their commodities the French would also meete them with theirs which most of all consisteth in wines Now howsoeuer we most commonly finde the Staple to bee kept and thereupon as in this place the Merchants thereof were stiled Mercatores Stapulae villae Calistiae yet you may read of many other places appointed for the Staple in the Statutes of the Land according as the Prince by his counsell thought good to alter them from the second yeare of Edward the third cap 9. to the fifth of Edward the sixth Officers belonging to these Staples were Maiors Constables Manipernors correctours Porters packers winders workers and other labourers of woolls The Fees of the Maiors and Constables of the Staples in England leuied out of 4. d. a Sacke of wooll comming to euery Staple were as followeth The Maior of the Staple of Westminster had yearly one hundred pounds and euery of the Constables there ten markes The Maiors of the Staples of Yorke Kingstone vpon Hull Norwich and Winchester euery of them twenty pounds and euery of the Constables of the same places one hundred shillings The Maiors of Newcastle vpon Tine Chichester and of Exceter ten pounds and euery of the Constables of those places fiue markes And if any of the Maiors and Constables aboue named refused the Office hee was to pay to the company as much as his Fee should amount to Of all which you may reade the Statute Ann. 27. Ed. 3. The Maior and Constables of the Staple had power to record Recognisances of debt taken before them by vertue of a Statute made the tenth of Henry the sixth Chetham And here giue me leaue curteous Reader to turne backe to this Church situate neare Rochester onely to set downe a strange buriall in this Church-yard thus related by Lambard in his perambulation of Kent Although saith he I haue not hitherto at any time reade any memorable thing recorded in History touching Chetham it selfe yet for so much as I haue often heard and that constantly reported a Popish illusion done at that place and for that also it is as profitable to the keeping vnder of fained and superstitious religion to renew to minde the Priestly practises of old time which are declining to obliuion as it is pleasant to retaine in memory the monuments and Antiquities of whatsoeuer of other kinde I thinke it not amisse to commit faithfully to writing what I haue receiued credibly by hearing concerning the Idols sometime knowne by the names of our Lady and the Roode of Chetham and Gillingham It happened say they that the dead corps of a man lost through
And besides Geruasius Dorobernens or Geruis a Monke in Canterbury who flourished in the raigne of king Henry the first affirmeth that the fore-ward in all battels belongeth to them by a certaine preheminence in right of their manhood And it is agreed by all men that there were neuer any bondmen or villaines as the law calleth them in Kent Neither bee they here so much bounden to the Gentrie by Copyhold or customarie tenures as the Inhabitants of the westerne Countries of the Realme be nor at all indangered by the feeble hold of Tenant Right which is but a descent of a tenancie at will as the Common people in the Northerne parts be for Copyhold tenure is rare in Kent and Tenant Right not heard of at all But in place of these the custome of Gauelkinde that is Giue all Kinne preuailing euery where in manner euery man is a Free-holder and hath some part of his owne to liue vpon And in this their estate they please themselues and ioy exceedingly in so much as a man may finde sundrie Yeomen although otherwise for wealth comparable with many of the gentile sort that will not yet for all that change their condition nor desire to be apparrelled with the titles of Gentrie Neither is this any cause of disdaine or of alienation of the good minds of the one sort from the other For no where else in all this Realme is the common people more willingly gouerned To be short they be most commonly ciuill iust and bountifull so that the estate of the old Franklyns and Yeomen of England either yet liueth in Kent or else it is quite dead and departed out of the Realme for altogether Thus farre in effect out of Lambard Briefly saith Selden it had the first English King in it was the first Christianity among the English and Canterbury then honoured with the Metropolitique See all which giue note of Honourable Prerogatiue But I will conclude this commendation of Kent with these verses following taken out of the foresaid Author of Polyolbion in the same Song When as the pliant Muse straight turning her about And comming to the Land as Medway goeth out Saluting the deare soyle O famous Kent quoth she What countrey hath this Isle that can compare with thee Which hast within thy selfe as much as thou canst wish Thy conies Venson Fruit thy sorts of Fowle and Fish And what with strength comports thy hay thy corne thy wood Nor any thing doth want that any where is good Now here before I take my leaue of this little See of Rochester it shall not seeme impertinent I hope to shew with what great courage and happinesse this Church hath euer vpholden her rights and priuiledges not onely against the Monkes of Canterbury which laboured much to bring it vnder but also against the See it selfe of the Archbishops For example in the raigne of king Henry the third and after the death of Benedict the Bishop of Rochester the Monkes made choise of one Henry Sanford that great wise Clerke which preached at Sittingbourne that such a day the soules of king Richard the first Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury and another Priest were deliuered out of Purgatory and no more soules that day but onely they three as God had reuealed it vnto him three seuerall times whereof when the Monkes of Christ-Church had intelligence they resisted the election challenging that the Pastorall staffe or Crosyer of Rochester ought of very right to be brought to their house after the decease of the Bishop and that the election ought to be made in their Chapiter The Monkes of Rochester maintained their owne choise and so the matter waxing warme betweene them it was at the length referred to the determination of the Archbishop he againe posted it ouer to certaine Delegates who hearing the parties and weighing the proofes gaue sentence with the Monkes of Rochester and yet lost as they thought good loue and amity among them But as the Poet saith Male sarta gratia nequicquam coit sed rescinditur Fauour that is euill peeced will not ioyne close but falleth asunder And therefore this their opinion failed them and their cure proued but to be patched for soone after the sore brake out anew and the Canterbury Monkes reuiued their displeasure with such a heat that Hubert of Burgh Earle of Kent and chiefe Iustice of England was driuen to come into the Chapter house and coole it and to worke a second reconciliation betweene them Neither for all that as it may seeme was that flame quite extinguished For not long after viz. Ann. 1238. the Monkes of Christ-Church seeing that they themselues could not preuaile intituled their Archbishop Edmund with whom also the Rochester Monkes waged law at Rome before the holy Father as touching the election of Richard Wendeouer whom they would haue had Bishop by the space of three whole yeares together and at the length either through the equitie of the cause or the weight of their purse saith my Author ouerthrew him vpon Saint Cuthberts day in ioy whereof they returned home with all hast and enacted in their Chapter house that from thenceforth for euer Saint Cuthberts feast as a Trophey of their victory should be holden double both in their Church and Kitchin And not thus onely but otherwise also hath the See at Rochester well holden her owne for during the whole succession of fourescore Bishops and one as I haue said before which in right line haue followed Iustus she hath continually maintained her chaire at this one place whereas in most parts of the Realme besides the Sees of the Bishops haue suffered sundrie translations by reason that in the Conquerours time order was taken that such Bishops as before had their Churches in countrey Townes and Villages should forthwith remoue and from thenceforth remaine in walled Townes and Cities which ordinance could not by any meanes touch Rochester that was a walled Citie long time before king Williams gouernment Here endeth the Diocesse of Rochester ANCIENT FVNERALL MONVMENTS WITHIN THE Diocesse of LONDON AS before I haue said somewhat of the Cities of Canterbury and Rochester so giue me leaue to speak a little of this great Citie of London collected out of as well ancient as moderne writers And first I will borrow a few lines from Iohn Iohnston before remembred sometimes Professour of Diuinitie in the Vniuersitie of S. Andrewes in Scotland who in a graue note and serious stile compiled certaine Latine verses in praise of this our Metropolis or soueraigne Citie of this Island Which I finde to be translated by Philemon Holland thus This Citie well Augusta call'd to which a truth to say Aire Land Sea and all Elements shew fauour euery way The weather no where milder is the ground most rich to see Doth yeeld all fruits of fertile soile that neuer spent will be And Ocean that with Tams streame his flowing tide doth blend Conueyes to it commodities all that
Brute farre by West beyond the Gallike land is found An Isle which with the ocean seas inclosed is about Where Giants dwelt sometime but now is desart ground Most meet where thou maiest plant thy selfe with all thy rout Make thitherwards with speed for there thou shalt finde out An euer-during seat and Troy shall rise anew Vnto thy race of whom shall kings be borne no doubt That with their mighty power the world shall whole subdew Brute was no sooner awaked then that he related this his dreame or vision to such of his companie as he thought requisite to be acquainted with such a matter of importance after great reioycing and ceremonious thanksgiuing they ioyntly resolued to seeke out this fortunate Island and so returned to their ships with great ioy and gladnesse as men put in comfort to finde out the wished seats for their firme and sure habitations prophesied and promised vnto them by the Oracle not long after Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum Passing through many dangers by sea by land 'mongst strangers They landed at Totnes in Deuonshire about the yeare of the world 2855. and before Christs natiuitie 1108. Of which M. Drayton Polyol Song 1. Mye Britaine-sounding Brute when with his puissant fleete At Totnesse first he toucht Brute hauing taken a view of this Island and destroyed all such as stood against him commanded that the Isle should be called Brutaine which before was called Albion peopled with gyants and the inhabitants thereof Britaines or Brutaines allusiuely after his owne name Within a short time after his arriuall he laid the foundation of a Citie which he named Troynouant or new Troy now London vpon a plot of ground lying on the North side of the riuer of Thames which he built in remembrance of that noble City of Troy from whence hee and his people were descended as also to bee the seat Royall and chiefe Chamber of his imperiall kingdome He also built a Temple to the honour of his Pagan Gods and Goddesses Which stood by coniecture in the same place where now this Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul is erected in which idolatrous Archflamen he bequeathed his body to be buried Here in his new Citie when he had established certaine lawes teaching his people to liue after a ciuill order and fashion also to build townes and villages to worship the Gods to till and plow the earth to weare apparrell to anoint and trimme their bodies and to be short to liue after an humane manner and had holden the regiment of this kingdome right nobly the space of twenty and foure yeares hee departed the world Hauing parted his dominions into three parts amongst his three sonnes Locrine Camber and Albanact with condition that the two younger brethren should hold of the eldest and to him doe homage and fealtie Brute tooke shippe and arriued in Albion Where Diane said should been his habitation And when he came the coasts of it vpon He was full glad and made great exultacion And afterwards vpon the alteration of the name of Albion the building of London the establishing of his lawes the diuision of his Empire as also of his death and buriall the same Author hath these verses This Brutus thus was king in regalite And after his name he called this Ile Briteyn And all his menne by that same egalite He called Briteynes as croniclers all saine So was the name of this ilke Albion All sette on side in Kalandes of a change And putte awaye with great confusion And Briteyn hight so furth by new exchange After Brutus The citee great of Troynouaunt so faire He buylded then on Thamys for his delite Vnto the North for his dwellyng and for his most repaire Whiche is to saie in our language perfite New Troy In whiche throughout his peace and law he sette Whiche been the floures of all regalite With out whiche but if thei twoo be mette There may no Prince hold principalite Ne endure long in worthy dignite For if those twoo be nought vpholden than What is a kyng more worth then his liege man This kyng Brute kepte well this Isle in peace And sette his lawes of Troye with orders rites And consuetudes that might the land encreace Such as in Troye was most profittes Vnto the folke and the common profettes He made theim wryten for long rememory To rule the Isle by theim perpetually His menne he did rewarde full royally With lands and rentes that with hym suffred pain And Troynouaunt he made full specially An Archflaume his sea Cathedrall certain A Temple thereof Apolyne to opteyne By Troyane lawe of all such dignite As Archbyshop hath now in his degre This kyng Brutus made people faste to tylle The land aboute in places both farre and nere And sowe with sede and get them corne full wele To liue vpon and haue the sustenaunce clere And so in fields both farre and nere By his wysdome and his sapience He sette the lande in all suffycience And as the fate of death doth assigne That nedes he muste his ghoost awaye relees To his goddas Dyane he did resigne His corps to be buryed withouten lees In the Temple of Apolline to encreace His soule amonge the goddes euerychone After his merites tronized high in trone It is said saith Sir Edward Coke to the Reader of the third part of his Reports that Brutus the first king of this land as soone as hee had setled himselfe in his kingdome for the safe and peaceable gouernment of his people wrote a booke in the Greeke tongue calling it The Lawes of the Britanes and he collected the same out of the Lawes of the Troianes Brute died after the Creation 2806. yeares before the Incarnation 1103. Samuel then Iudge of Israel Robert of Glocester my old Mss. hath these rimes touching some passages in this History of Brute Brute wende fory in ye lond and espied vp and doun For to seche a fair plas to mak an heued toun He com and fond vpe Temese a place fair ynough A good contre and plenteuous and yuder his herte drough Yat shippes out of eche londe myght bryng good ywys Yer he rerd hys chefe toun yat London cleped ys Yet so ne cleped he it nought but for honour and ioye Yat he from Troie comen was he cleped it new Troye Bruit yis ilke noble Prince Sones had thre By his wyff Ignogent noble men and fre Locryn and Camber and Albanack also Atte last diede Brut. Yo thys was ydo Aftur yat he com into Engelond ye xxiiii yere I buryed he was at London yat he lette furst arere Thus much of king Brute as the brute of him goes and as the vulgar receiued opinion is the maine points of his story being brought into queâ—stion by many of our learned authenticall writers The Conquerour William brought with him from Roane in Normandy certaine Iewes whose posterity here inhabiting within the prime Cities of the kingdome
lieth buried He died Ann. Dom. 1450. Here lieth Giles Dewes who sometime was seruant to king Henry the 7. and king Hen. the 8. Clerke of their Libraries and Schoolemaster for the French tongue to Prince Arthur and to the Lady Mary Who died 1535. Saint Michael Bassishaw or Bassingshall Iohn Burton lyeth vnder here Sometimes of London Citizen and Mercer And Ienet his wife with their progeny Been turned to erth as ye may see Frends free what so yee bee Prey for vs we you prey As you see vs in this degree So shall you be another dey He deceased in the yeere 1460. he was a great benefactor to the building of this Church as appeareth by his marke placed throughout the whole roofe of the Quire and middle Isle of the Church Huc ades atque tuis metire viator ocellis Quam breuis inclusos illigat vrna duos Vt modo tu vir fuit hic hec femina quondam Nunc gelidi pars est huius vterque soli Nomen Abel More erat cognomen Exoniensum Cesarij Doctor iuris in vrbe fuit Agnes alterius nomen coniuxque Iohannis More fuit huius Abel qui modo frater erat Vt cupis ergo tibi faciant post funera viui Has modo tute breues quisquis es ede preces Hic Abel primo hic Agnes releuetur ab Agno Qui prius agnino sanguine lauit oues Obijt Abel 1486. Agnes 1499. quorum animabus Saint Lawrence in the Iewrie Hic incineratur corpus quondam Gaulfridi Bulleyn ciuis merceri Maioris London qui ab hac luce migrauit An. Dom. 1463. cuius anime pax sit perpetua This Sir Geffray or Godfrey Bullen Lord Maior of London was the Sonne of Geffrey Bullen of Salle or Saull in Norfolke Esquire Hee married Anne the eldest daughter and coheire of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings by whom he had issue Sir William Bullen of Blickling in Norfolke Knight fâ—ther to Thomas Bullen Viscount Rochford Earle of Wilshire who was father to Anne Bullen Marchionesse of Penbroke the second wife of King Henry the eight and the happy mother of our late Soueraigne Elizabeth Queene of England with all thankefulnesse euer to bee remembred This Lord Maior gaue to poore house holders in London 1000 l and 200 l to the like vse in Norfolke besides many liberall gifts to Prisons Hospitals and lazar houses Hic iacet Thomas Bulleyn de comitatu Norfolcie Armiger qui obijt vltimo die mensis Aprilis An. Dom. 147â— cuius The honorable Merchant Ion Pickering And Elisabyth lie vndyr this ston Of the English merchant Venturers vndyr the kyng In the Martis beyond See gouernor was this Ion Thirty yeere and more that roome he did manteyn To his honor and worschip and died in Nouembyr The xxix day Mcccc fourty and eyght certeyn Who 's soul and al Christians for cherite remembyr Hic Thomas Cressey London mercerus humatur Et Agnes Coniux sua postea suppeditatur M. Domini C quater his x. annoque secundo Sexta luce Iunij iâ—it hic de .... mundo Guild Hall Chappell This Chappell or Colledge of our Lady Mary Magdalen and of all Saints was founded about the yeere 1299. by Peter Fanclore saith Stow Adam Francis and Henry Frowike whose reuenew was much augmented by K. Richard the second K. Henry the sixt and diuers citizens of London so that at the suppression it was endowed with sufficient maintenance for a Custos seauen Chaplaines three Clarkes and foure Quiristers at which time it was valued at xii l xviij s ix d per an Here haue beene many Tombes and marble stones inlaid with brasse whose inscriptions and portraitures are all either worne out with time torne out or quite defaced onely this Epitaph remaining En Thomas Frances pius hic qui lustra per octo Custos extiterat iacet semper requiescat ob Mar. 4. 1488. Ouer the doore of the Councell Chamber in Guild hall was and yet is as I thinke this Distich Carolus Henricus Viuant Defensor vterque Henricus Fidei Carolus Ecclesie Long prosperity To Charles and Henry Princes most puissant The one of the Faith The other of the Church Chosen defendant These verses were depicted here and in other places about this Citie the yeare 1514. when Charles the fift Emperour was here in England to shew in what golden bands of loue these two potent Monarches were enlinked for that amongst other couenants then concluded and confirmed betwixt them by corporall Oathes one was that the Emperour promised to stay for and take to wife the young Princesse Lady Mary King Henries then onely daughter afterwards Queene of England Why the Titles defender of the Church and Faith were attributed vnto these two Princes is vulgarlie knowne because Charles chosen Emperour to purchase the Popes fauour directed forth a solemne Writ of Outlawry against Martin Luther who then had giuen a great blow to the Papall Crowne And King Henry likewise was renowned in Rome for writing a booke against the said Luther vnderpropping the tottering or downe-cast countenance of the Popes Pardons which Luther shrewdly had shaken The Pope therefore to shew himselfe a kinde Father vnto these his sonnes gaue them these Titles which were in truth none other then the same which they sware vnto when the Crownes of their Empires were first set vpon their heads The Hospitall of Saint Tho. of Acars or Mercers Chappell This Hospitall was founded by Thomas Fitz-theobald de Heili and Agnes his wife Sister to Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury in the raigne of Henry the second and dedicated to Saint Thomas of Acon or Acars in the holy land They gaue to the Master and Brethren of this house the lands with the appurtenances that sometimes were Gilbert Beckets father to the said Thomas in the which he was born there to make a Church This Hospitall was valued at the suppression to dispend yeerely 277 l. 3 s. 4 d. it was surrendred the 30 of Henry the 8. the 21 of October and was since purchased by the Mercers by meanes of Sir Richard Gresham Here lyeth entombed Iames Butler Earle of Ormond and Dame Ioane his wife he died Anno Dom. 1428. and she 1430. Hic iacet Thomas filius Iacobi comitis Ormundie ac fratris Iacobi comitis Wilts Ormundie qui quidem Thomas obijt secundo die 1515 anno regni Regis Henrici Octaui 37. cuius The Ancestors of these Earles saith learned Camden were in old time the Butlers an honourable office in Ireland and from thence came this Surname Le Boteler or Butler imposed vpon them and certaine it is that they were linked in most neere alliance vnto Saint Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury as who deriue their descent from his sister which was a great motiue to make them choose this place for their buriall and that after he was murdered they were
and lastly put out the Almesmen from their houses appointing them xii d. the weeke to each person The Church of this Hospitall is now a preaching place for the French Nation Saint Martins Outwich Ecclesie Rector huius Iohn Breux tumulatus Artibus doctor vermibus esca datus Prebendam quondam cicestrensem retinebat Quem Petronille lux tulit e medio M. C. quater quinquageno nono sociato Sic predotatus vertitur in cinerem Augustine Fryers This religious house was founded in the well meaning deuotion of former times by Humphrey Bohun the fift of that name Earle of Hereford and Essex 1253. and was afterward reedified by Humphrey Bohun the ninth of that name Earle of Hereford and Essex Lord of Brecknocke and Constable of England who died Anno 1361. and was buried in the Quire of this Church This Frierie dedicated to the honour of Saint Augustine was valued vpon the surrender to King Henry the eight to 57 l. 4 s. per annum Here sometime did lie entombed the body of Richard Fitz-Alan the fourth of that name Earle of Arundell and Surrey who with Thomas Duke of Glocester Thomas Earle of Warwicke Henry Earle of Derby afterwards King of England and others combined and sware each to other against Robert Vere Duke of Ireland and Michael de la Pole Duke of Suffolke for abusing and misleading the King for which and some other causes which Richard the second obiected against them some of them were banished others condemned to perpetuall imprisonment and this Richard beheaded on the Tower hill Septemb. Anno 1397. the constancie of whose carriage at his arraignement passage and execution in all which he did not once discolour the honour of his bloud with any degenerous word looke or action encreased the enuy of his death vpon his prosecutors Here likewise lay sumptuously interred Iohn Vere the xii Earle of Oxford and Aubrey his eldest sonne who with Sir Thomas Tudensa knight who was also here buried and others their Councellors either through malice of their enemies or some offence conceiued by King Edward the fourth were attainted by Act of Parliament anno primo Edward 4 and put to Execution vpon the Tower hill the 26 of February 1461. William Lord Berkeley of Berkeley Castle honoured with the tâ—tâ—es of Viscount and Marquesse Berkely Earle of Nottingham and Earle Marshall of England was here inhumed who died Ann. 1492. This William as I had it from my deceased friend Aug. Vincent by his deed dated the third of Nouember Ann. 6. Hen. 7 gaue one hundreâ— pounds to the Prior of this house for two Masses to be said presently and for euer at the Altar of our Lady and Saint Iames. Betweene which Altars the body of his wife Ioan who liued but a few dayes with him and is not at all mentioned in the Catalogues of Honour was buried who was the widow of Sir William Willoughbie before the marriage with the Marquesse And to pray for the prosperous estate of the said Marquesse and of Anne his then wife and of Edward Willoughby Richard Willoughby Anne Beauchampe and Elisabeth Willoughbie with all the issue of the said William and Ioane and especially for the soules health of the said Ioane and of Katherine her mother Duchesse of Norfolke Here sometime lay sumptuously entombed the body of Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who by the sleights and practises of Cardinall Wolsey fell into displeasure with king Henry the eight and being condemned of high Treason for that among other matters hee had consulted with a Monke or wizard about succession of the Crowne was beheaded on the Tower hill May the 17. 1521. He was a noble Gentleman exceedingly much lamented of good men Of whose death when the Emperour Charles the fifth heard he said that a Butchers dogge meaning the Cardinall a Butchers sonne had deuoured the fairest Buck alluding to the name of Buckingham in all England Here was interred the bodie of Edward the eldest sonne of Edward the blacke Prince by Ioan his wife surnamed the faire Maide of Kent who was borne at Angolesme Ann. 1375. and died at 7. yeares of age Many of the Barons slaine at Barnet-field vpon Easterday 1471. were buried here in the bodie of the Church but now their bodies with these before remembred and the bodies of an hundred more mentioned by Stow of exemplarie note and knights degree are not onely despoiled of all outward funerall ornaments but digged vp out of their Requietories and dwelling houses raised in the place which was appointed for their eternall rest Some part of this Church is at this day yet standing but in that no monument of this kinde is remaining for it is conuerted into a Church for the Duch-Inhabitants of this Citie who in that kinde can hardly brooke any reuerend Antiquitie Saint Botolphs Bishopsgate Hic iacet Cardina vxor Richardi Shoder militis Iohanna filia eorundem ...... 14. April 1471. Sub hoc marmore iacet corpus Iohannis Redman quondam huius Ecclesie Rectoris benemerentissimi qui ab hac luce migrauit tertio die Iulij Ann. Dom. 1523. Neare to this gate if wee giue credit to our owne ancient Chronicles Nennius the sonne of Hely and brother of Lud and Cassibelane kings ouer the warlike Britaines was interred A man of a magnanimous spirit heroicall and valiant Who in the warres betweene Iulius Cesar and the Britaines sought couragiously in defence of his countrey causing Cesar to flie backe with the losse of his sword which Nennius tooke from him in single encounter and with which he slew Labienus Tribune of the Romane Nobilitie But the fifteenth day after this single opposition hee died of a wound receiued at the hands of Cesar in the same conflict the yeare of the worlds creation 3913. before the birth of our alone Sauiour 51. And here as I haue said was entombed with all funerall state and solemnitie and with him the sword which he tooke from Cesar the Emperour as he himselfe commanded Which sword was called Reddeath or rather Readie-death wherewith if any one had beene neuer so little wounded he could neuer escape with life Which you shall haue in such old verse as came to my hands At the north yate of London hii buriede this gud knyght And buriede in hys chest the swerd that was so bryght That he wan of the Emperor wythe grete honor enough That Reddedeth was ycluped whar with he hym slough I buriede wyth hym hit was as in tokneyinge Of hys Proesse that he hit wan of on so heigh a kyng I haue some other of the same subiect but of later times if you will reade them But Neminus brother of Cassybalayne Full manly fought on Iulius tymes twayne With strokes sore ayther on other bette But at the last this Prince syr Iulius Crosea mors his swerde in shelde sette Of the manly worthy Sir Neminus Whiche of manly
christendome Another man-childe she bore also vnto the said King though without life vpon the 29. day of Ianuary and the 27. yeare of his raigne to the no little griefe of his mother some dislike of the King as the sequele of her accusation and death did shortly confirme for vpon the 19. day of May next following vpon the greene within the Tower her head was cut off by the sword and by the hands of the Hangman of Caleis when shee had beene King Henries wife three yeares three moneths and twenty fiue daies The bloud was scarse wipt off the blade nor shee 〈◊〉 in her graue an argument that her life was sought after vpon falâ—e 〈◊〉 before another Lady was possest of her bed for on the 〈…〉 her beheading the King her husband was married to that 〈◊〉 Princesse Iane the the daughter of Iohn Seymor Knight and sister to Lord Edward Seymour Earle of Hertford and Duke of Somerset Here lieth buried in the said Chappell the body of George Bollein Lord Rochford brother to the beheaded Queene who together with Henry Norrice Marke Smeton William Brereton and Francis Weston all of the Kings priuie Chamber was beheaded on the Tower hâ—ll two daies before the death of his Sister about matters concerning the said Queene none of them all confessing the act whereupon they suffered death onely Smeton contrarie to his conscience saith one confest some thing in hope of life and preferment which condemned both himselfe and the rest of which thus Cromwell writ to the King Many things haue beene obiected but nothing confessed onely some circumstances haue beene acknowledged by Marke Smeton This hee writ after the prisoners had beene throughly examined in the Tower This Smeton Brierton Norrice and Weston lie buried here in the Chappell-yard Here and neere to the reliques of the said Anne Bollein lieth interred the body of Katherine the fift wife of King Henry the eight the daughter of Edmond and Neece vnto Thomas Howard his brother Duke of Norfolke who hauing continued his wife but the space of one yeare sixe moneths and foure daies was attainted by Parliament and beheaded here in the Tower vpon the 13. of February 1541. It is verily beleeued and many strong reasons are giuen both by English and forraine writers to confirme that beliefe that neither this Queene Katherine nor Queene Anne were any way guiltie of the breach of matrimony whereof they were accused but that King Henry vnconstant and variable in his affections and as vnstayed in religious resolutions did cut them off vpon false suggestions soone wearie of the old and euer ayming at new Espousals Betweene these two Queenes before the high Altar lie buried two Dukes to wit the Duke of Somerset Edward Seymour and the Duke of Northumberland Iohn Dudley Of whom hereafter Here lieth Henry Southworth borne at Halton Castle in the Parish of Runkorne in Cheshire Yeoman of the Crowne and of the Guard to king Henry the seuenth and Henry the eight Yeoman Bawier and Surveiour in the Tower of London for the space of 33. yeares Who died ....... Here lieth Gefferay Hewyt and Ione his wife one of the Gonners in the Tower ... Ione died ... 1525. There are some other Inscriptions in this Chappell but they are of late times Burials of the dead in the fields neare to the Citie of London These burials in the fields might better haue beene spoken of in my prefixed discourse where I write of the strange custome of interring and preseruing of the bodies of the dead But being forgotten there it will not be amisse I hope that they may be remembred here In the fields on the North-East and East side of the suburbs whiles I was writing these matters saith Camden there were gotten out of the ground many vrnes funerall vessels little Images and earthen pots wherein were small peeces of money coined by Claudius Nero Vespasian c. Glasse vials also and sundrie small earthen vessels wherein some liquid substance remained which I would thinke to be either of that sacred oblation of wine and milke which the ancient Romanes vsed when they burnt the dead or else those odoriferous liquors that Statius mentioneth Pharijque liquores Arsuram lavere Comam And liquid baulmes from Egypt-land that came Did wash his haire that ready was for flame This place the Romanes appointed to burne and burie dead bodies who according to the law of the twelue tables carried coarses out of their Cities and interred them by the high-wayes side to put passengers in minde that they are as those were subiect to mortalitie Stow speakes more fully of these and other kindes of funerall Monuments found here in the fields About the yeare 1576. saith hee Lolesworth-field now called Spittle-field was broken vp for clay to make Bricke In the digging whereof many earthen pots called Vrnae were found full of Ashes and burnt bones of men to wit of the Romanes that inhabited here For it was the custome of the Romanes to burne their dead to put their Ashes in an Vrne and then burie the same with certaine ceremonies in some field appointed for that purpose neare vnto their Citie Euery of these pots had in them with the ashes of the dead one peece of Copper-money with the inscription of the Emperour then raigning some of them were of Claudius some of Vespasian some of Nero some of Antonius Pius of Traiane and others Besides those vrnes many other pots were found in the same place made of a white earth with long neckes and handles like to our stone Iugs these were emptie but seemed to be buried full of some liquid matter long since consumed and soaked through For there were found diuers vials and other fashioned Glasses some most cunningly wrought such as I haue not seene the like and some of Christall all which had water in them nothing differing in clearnesse taste or sauour from common spring water whatsoeuer it was at the first Some of these Glasses had oyle in them very thicke and earthy in sauour Some were supposed to haue Balme in them but had lost the vertue Many of these pots and Glasses were broken in cutting of the clay so that few were taken vp whole There were also found diuers Dishes and Cups of a fine reâ—de coloured earth which shewed outwardly such a shining smoothnesse as if they had beene of currall Those had in the bottomes Romane letters printed There were also Lampes of white earth and red artificially wrought with diuers Antiques about them some three or foure Images made of white earth about a spanne long each of them One I remember was of Pallas the rest I haue forgotten I my selfe haue reserued amongst diuers of those Antiquities there one vrne with the ashes and bones and one pot of white earth very small not exceeding the quantitie of a wine pint made in shape of a Hare squatted vpon her legges and betweene her eares is the mouth
Scripta ferunt post se que liquerat exposuisse Pro dilectoris anima tui dulciter ora Albani sancti conventus qualibet hora His next successor was Iohn Stoke of whom as also of all the rest in the Catalogue I haue already spoken and now I will returne backe againe to the rest of the Epitaphs and Inscriptions which I finde in the Church In a wall in the body of the Church ouer a vault Vir Domini verus iacet hic Heremita Rogerus Et sub eo clarus meritu Heremita Sigarus Memoriale Domini Thome Rutland quondam subprior is huius Monasterij qui ex luce migrauit M. ccccc.xxi cuius anime propitietur altissimus Amen Ecce sacerdos eram iam factus vile cadauer Et cito puluis erit queso memento mei Siste gradum qui ad me venit hic funde precator Me deus vt leuet ducat ad vsque polum Vpon his brest on the portraiture this English Distick is ingrauen Iesus Chryst Marys son Hav mercy on the sowl of Rychard Stondon This Towne vaunts her selfe very much of the birth and buriall of Sir Iohn Mandeuill Knight the famous Trauailer who writ in Latine French and in the English tongue his Itinerary of three and thirty yeares And that you may beleeue the report of the Inhabitants to bee true they haue lately pensild a rare piece of Poetry or an Epitaph for him vpon a piller neere to which they suppose his body to haue beene buried which I thinke not much amisse to set downe for although it will not bee worth the reading yet doe but set it to some lofty tune as to the Hunting of Antichrist or the like I know it will be well worth the singing marke how it runs All yee that passe on this pillar cast eye This Epitaph read if you can 'T will tell you a Tombe onâ—'t stood in this roome Of a braue spirited man Iohn Mandeuill by name a knight of great fame Borne in this honoured Towne Before him was none that euer was knowne For trauaile of so high renowne As the Knights in the Temple crosse-legged in marble In armour with sword and with sheeld So was this Knight grac't which time hath defac't That nothing but ruines doth yeeld His Trauailes being donne he shines like the Sun In heauenly Canaan To which blessed place O Lord of his grace Bring vs all man after man That he was borne here in this Towne I cannot much deny but I am sure that within these few yeares I saw his Tombe in the Citie of Leege within the Church of the religious house of the Guilliammits with this Inscription vpon it and the verses following hanging by on a table Hic iacet vir nobilis D. Ioannes de Mandevile Al D. ad Barbam miles Dominus de Campdi natus de Anglia Medicine professor deuotissimus orator bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator qui toto quasi orbe lustrato Leo â—ij diem vite sue clausit extremum Ann. Dom. M.CCC.lxxi Mens Nouemb. die xvi Aliud Hoc iacet in tumulo cui totus patria viuo Orbis erat totum quem peragrasse ferunt Anglus Eques que fuit nunc ille Britannus Vlysses Dicatur Graio clarus Vlysse magis Moribus ingenio candore sanguine clarus Et vere cultor Relligionis erat Nomen si queras est Mandevil Indus Arabsque Sat notum dicet finibus esse suis. The Church-men will shew you here his kniues the furniture of his horse and his spurres which he vsed in his trauells Vndyr this Ston lyeth beryed here He that whylom was Balyff of this town Callyd somtym William Smyth Esqwyere To whom of his Sins God grant remission Elisabyth his wyff a woman of renown Here lyeth alsoo enterryd in this grav Cryst on her sowl hav compassion And grant them in heuen a plase to hav Vpon the same marble vnder the picture of the Crosse these words are engrauen which the foresaid Smith seemes to speake By this tokyn of the holy cross Good Lord sav owr sowls from loss Elisabeth his wife these Cryst who dyed for vs on the Rood tree Sav the sowl of my Husbond owr chyldren and mee Here lieth .... Raph Rowlat Citizen of London Merchant of the Staple and Ioan his wife Which Raph dyed M. cccccxix on whose This familie is now extinct and the inheritance diuolued by marriage vnto the Maynards as appeareth by an Epitaph vpon the wall not long since made for on of the Maynards who married one of the heires of Sir Raph Rowlat knight To the picture of Christ hanging on the Crosse this inscription was lately to be read vpon one of the pillars in the Church Fly the falshode of the fiend for he wil fownd the Dread not my dreadful doomes for I dyed for the. Cal on me thy Sauyour Chryst I can chere the My mercy is more than thy misse I may amend the See how my syde was perced for the and I shal help the. In this Abbey Church is a goodly Font of solid brasse wherein the kings children of Scotland were wont to be baptized which Font Sir Richard Lea knight Master of the Pioners brought as a spoile out of the Scottish warres and gaue it to this Church As may appeare by this loftie and arrogant inscription about the same as if the Font in it owne person did proclaime the knights act to all passengers in these words lately Englished When Leeth a Towne of good account among the Scots and Edinbrough their chiefe Citie were on a fire Sir Richard Lea knight saued mee from burning and brought mee into England And I being mindfull of this so great a benefit whereas before I was wont to serue for baptizing of none but Kings children haue now willingly offered my seruice euen to the meanest of the English Nation Lea the Victour would haue it so Farewell In the yeare of our Lord M.D.xliii and of the raigne of King Henry the eight xxxvi These already written are all the Epitaphs or inscriptions which I finde in this Abbey Church howsoeuer it doth retaine the ashes of many a worthie man conquered by death both before and since the Conquest As of Egfrid king of the Mercians sonne to great Offa the Founder who added to those twenty Lordships or Mannors wherewith his father at the first endowed this foundation Terram quinque Maneriorum in loco dicto Pynefeld cum terminis suis antiquis manerium de Sauntridge et Tirefeld Cartas que Patris sui benigne in suae serena concessione confirmauit pro confirmatione regni sui sua prosperitate nec non pro salute paterne sueque anime antecessorum suorum Ecclesiam suam per omnia salubriter protegendo saith the golden Register of this Abbey The first businesse that this King vndertooke after hee came to the Crowne was the restauration of ancient priuiledges to the Church and great hope
iustly preuaile against the winde and easily cease these temporall flames and obtaine that they should neuer hurt him nor his See more of him before in Canterbury After the death of Mellitus the Church of London was long without a Pastor euen vntill that Segebert the sonne of Segebert surnamed the little obtaining the Kingdome of the East Saxons by the perswasion of Oswin King of Northumberland became a Christian and procured Ceada a vertuous and godly Priest to be consecrate Bishop of his country which was done in the holy Iland neere to Barwicke by Finan Bishop of Durham from whence he returned to this his Diocesse and began with more authoritie to perfect the worke hee had already begun erecting in diuers places Churches making Priests and Deacons who in preaching baptising might assist him especially in the Cities of Ithancester Tileburg the one standing vpon the Thames the other vpon a branch thereof called Pant in which two places diuers newly assembling together christened he instructed them after the rules of religious persons as farre as their tender capacity could then conceiue And hereby way of digression let me speake somewhat of this small hamlet of Tilbury in ancient time the seat of the Bishops of London and no question in those daies when as Bishop Cedda by baptisme ingraâ—ted the East Saxons in the Church of Christ a prettie faire citie howsoeuer it consisteth now onely of a few cottages much honoured by that famous religious and fortunate great Commander in the warres Sir Horace Vere Knight Lord Vere of Tilbury Of whom and of his elder brother Sir Francis Vere Knight deceased and honourably buried like as hee was an expert and valiant warriour in the Abbey of Westminster a late Poet hath thus written Then liu'd those valiant Veres both men of great command In our imployments long whose either Marshall hand Reacht at the highest wreath it from the top to get Which on the proudest head Fame yet had euer set But to returne this man of God Cedda hauing at first and last continued a long time in these countries preaching the word of life by which hee made a great haruest vnto Christ went downe into his owne countrie of Northumberland which he oftentimes vsed to visite where he builded a Monasterie at Lestinghen wherein he died and was buried of whom no more vntill I come to speake of that Foundation saue onely these verses following ....... Now London place doth take Which had those of whom time Saints worthily did make As Cedda Brother to that reuerend Bishop Chad At Lichfield in those times his famous seat that had Is Sainted for that See amongst our reuerend men From London though at length remoou'd to Lestingen A Monastery which then richly he had begun Erconwald the sonne of Offa King of the East Saxons and the fourth Bishop of this Diocesse was likewise as I haue already spoken canonized of whom venerable Bede thus writes At that time saith he when Sebba and Sigher ruled the East Saxons the Archbishop which was Theodore appointed ouer them Erconwald to be their Bishop in the Citie of London the life and conuersation of which man both before he was Bishop and after was reported and taken for most holy as also euen yet the signes and tokens of heauenly vertues and miracles doe well declare For vntill this day his Horse-licter being kept and reserued by his Schollers wherein he was wont to be carried when hee was sicke and weake doth daily cure such as haue agues or are diseased any otherwise And not onely the sicke persons that are put vnder or laid by the Horse-licter to be so healed but also the chippes and pieces that are cut off from it and brought to sicke folkes are wont to bring them speedie remedie This and many other the miracles wrought by him if wee may beleeue Capgraue was the cause of his canonization questionlesse he was a deuout and vertuous man and bestowed his patrimony in the building of two Monasteries one for Monkes at Chertsey in Surrey another for Nunnes at Barking in Essex of which before Thus much then here for a conclusion as followeth Him Erkenwald ensues th' East English Offa's sonne His Fathers Kingly Court who for a Crosiar fled Whose workes such fame him wonne for holinesse that dead Time him enshrin'd in Pauls the mother of that See Which with reuenues large and priuiledges he Had wondrously endow'd to goodnesse so affected That he those Abbeyes great from his owne power erected At Chertsey neere to Thames and Barking famous long Theodred Bishop of the Diocesse may challenge a place in this my Kalender for that he was sirnamed the Good pro praerogatiua virtutum for the preheminence of his vertues saith Malmesbury lib. 2. de Pontif. Anglor he flourished about the yeare 900. he was buried vnder a high tombe by the window of the vault going downe into S. Faiths Church Of Egwulfe and his Shrine I haue already written all that I know Richard Fitz-neale had his Shrine in S. Pauls Church but vpon what ground or for what reason he was thus much honoured I doe not learne He was the sonne of Nigellus or Neale Bishop of Ely and was made Treasurer of England by the purchase of his father the foresaid Nigellus Richardus filius Nigelli Episcopi Eliens pro quo Nigellus pater emit officium Thesaurij a Rege auaro pro Quadragint Marcis pro quibus pecunijs Nigellus pater spoliauit Ecclesiam Eliens Thesauro suo et ornamentis This purchase was made when as the King Henry the second went to the wars of Tolous It is further written in the booke of Ely that this Richard Fitz-neale after the buriall of Nigellus his father being also an enemy to the Church of Ely as his father had beene before made hast to passe ouer the Seas to King Henry the second fearing that some euill would be prepared against him if the Church should haue sent any thither before him At whose comming to the King he accused the Monkes of Ely of many things and did therewith so edge the King against them that the King sending into England charged by Wunnecus one of his Chaplaines that the Prior of Ely should be deposed and the Monkes with all their goods to be proscribed and banished This man being Treasurer to King Henry the second the treasure of the said Henry the second at his death came vnto one hundred thousand markes notwithstanding the excessiue charges of the King many waies This Richard being Bishop of London by the name of Richard the third and the Kings Treasurer was chosen for the gouernement of this See in the yeare of our redemption one thousand one hundred eighty and nine being the first yeare of King Richard the first and was consecrated Bishop at Lambeth by Baldwine Archbishop of Canterbury in the yeare of Christ one thousand one hundred ninety he died the
peicked after a strange fashion and a paire of Challices of course mettall lying vpon his breast the which was thought to be one of the Bishops of Donwiche but when they touched and stirred the same dead body it fell and went all to powder and dust And although these aforesaid three old Churches were not sumptuous great very faire after the manner fashion of Cathedral Churches now vsed yet it seemeth they might serue in those daies very well for it plainely appeareth in the book of the description of England and in the title of Bishoprickes and their Sees the thirteenth chapter whereas these words following are said Take heede for in the beginning of holy Church in England Bishops ordained and had their Sees in low places and simple that were conueniable and meete for contemplation and deuotion c. But in King William the Conquerours time by doome of Law Canon it was otherwise ordained that Bishops should remoue and come out of small townes and to haue their Sees in great Cities By meanes whereof it seemeth that the towne of Donwiche being then greatly decayed and also then likely more and more to decay as it hath done indeed from a great citie as some doe say or at the least from a very great ancient Towne to a little small Towne the Bishops seat of Donwich was remoued from Donwich to Elmham and Thetford and afterward to the Citie of Norwich whereas it yet remaineth There was a Mint in Dunwich for one Master Holliday told mee that he had a grote whose superscription on the one side was Ciuitas Donwic Diuers other things he told me of to make it a citie The Treatise is much longer but enough is already deliuered The succession of the Bishops of Dunwich is set downe by Bishop Godwin to which I refer my Reader The foundation of the Blacke Friers in Dunwich This religious Structure was founded by Sir Roger de Holishe Knight of the order you haue heard before of the time dedication value or surrender I finde not any thing Persons of note buried in the Church of this Monastery were as followeth Sir Roger de Holishe Knight the foresaid founder Sir Raufe Vfford and Dame Ione his wife Sir Henry Laxiffeld Knight Dame Ione de Harâ—ile Dame Ada Crauene Dame Ione Weyland Sister of the Earle of Suffolke Iohn Weyland and Ione his wife Thomas sonne of Richard Brews Knight Dame Alice wife of Sir Walter Hardishall Sir Walkin Hardesfield Austin Valeyus Raph Wingfeld Knight Richard Bokyll of Leston and Alice and Alice his wiues Sir Henry Harnold Knight and Fryer The grey Friers of Dunwich was founded first by Richard Fitz-Iohn and Alice his wife and after by King Henry the third of which I haue no further knowledge Herein lay interred the bodies of Sir Robert Valence the Heart of Dame Hawise Ponyngs Dame Ideu of Ylketishall Sir Peter Mellis and Dame Anne his wife Dame Dunne his mother Iohn Francans and Margaret his wife Dame Bert of Furniuall .... Austin of Cales and Ione his wife Iohn Falleyâ— and Beatrix his wife Augustine his sonne .... Wilexâ—es Sir Hubert Dernford Katherine wife of William Phellip Margaret wife of Richard Phellip Peter Codum I had the notes of these buried in these Monasteries as also of diuers other Monasteries in Suffolke and Norfolke out of the painefull collections of William le Neue Esquire Yorke Herauld truely copied out of the ancient originals thereof remaining in his custody Bury Saint Edmunds or Saint Edmundsbury This Town seemeth saith Camden to haue been of famous memory considering that when Christian Religion began to spring vp in this tract king Sigebert here founded a Church and it was called Villam Regiam that is a royall towne But after that the people had translated hither the body of Edmund that most christian King whom the Danes with exquisite torments had put to death and built in honour of him a very great Church wrought with a wonderfull frame of timber it began to be called Edmundi Burgus commonly Saint Edmundsbury and more shortly Bury But especially since that King Canutus for to expiate the sacrilegious impietie of his Father Suenus against this Church being often affrighted with a vision of the seeming-ghost of Saint Edmund built it againe of a new worke enriched it offered his owne Crowne vnto the holy Martyr brought vnto it Monkes with their Abbot and gaue vnto it many faire and large Mannors and among other things the Towne it selfe full and whole ouer which the Monkes themselues by their Seneschall had rule and iurisdiction Thus Knuts Charter began In nomine Poliarchie Iesu Christi saluatoris Ego Knut Rex totius Albionis Insule aliarumque nationum plurimarum in Cathedra regali promotus cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Comitum aliorumque omnium fidelium meorum elegisanciendum perpeti stabilimento ab omnibus confirmandum vt Monasterium quod Budrices Yurthe nuncupatur sit per omne euum Monachorum gregibus deputatum ad inhabitandum c. After a long recitall of his many donations corroborations priuiledges and confirmations of former grants he ends with an Additament of fish and fishing Huic libertati concedo additamentum scilicet maritimos pisces qui mihi contingere debent annualiter per Thelonei lucrum et Piscationem quam Vlskitel habuit in Pilla et omnia iura c. These gifts to this Abbey as to the most of all others were finally concluded with a fearefull curse to the infringers thereof and a blessing to all such that did any way better her ample endowments the Charter is signed with the marke which is the crosse and the consent of thirty and fiue witnesses of which a few as followeth ✚ Ego Knut Rex c. hoc priuilegium iussi componere compositum cum signo Dominice crucis confirmando impressi ✚ Ego Aelgifa Regina omni alacritate mentis hoc confirmaui ✚ Ego Wulsâ—anus Archiepiscopus consensi ✚ Ego Adelnodus confirmaâ—i c. After Knut one Haruey the Sacrist comming of the Norman bloud compassed the Burgh round about with a wall whereof there remaine still some few reliques and Abbot Newport walled the Abbey The Bishop of Rome endowed it with very great immunities and among other things granted That the said place should be subiect to no Bishop in any matter and in matters lawfull to depend vpon the pleasure and direction of the Archbishop which is yet obserued at this day And now by this time the Monkes abounding in wealth erected a new Church of a sumptuous and stately building enlarging it euery day more then other with new workes and whiles they laid the Foundation of a new Chappell in the raigne of Edward the first There were found as Euersden a Monke of this place writeth the walles of a certaine old Church built round so as that the Altar stood as it were in the mids
raigne of Hen. the seuenth Hen. the eight In the raigne of Ed. the sixt In the raigne of Q Mary In the raigne of Q Elizabeth In the raigne of King Iames. The Aetymologie Antiquity and Dignity of Heralds Heralds Priests Rosinus Ant. Rom. li. 3. c. 21. Heralds of France of noble descent Stow in the life of Brute The Armes of Brute Cold Harber the Heralds Colledge Eleanor Lady Wriothesley Ioan Wriothesley Io. Wriothesley Sir Hen. Grey Reginald Lord Grey Earle of Kent Sir Will. Cheyney and Margaret his wife The Heralds Office The body corporate of the Heralds Henry Spelman Gloss lit H. Iohn Leland the Antiquary Lelandi Strena â—â—lands New yeares gift The study of Antiquity in Hen. the eight The caâ—e King Hen had of Religion The workes of ancient Writers saued and conserued The Kings Libraries augmented The plaine â—â—le and forme of â—uncient Writers Britaine the Mother of worthy men and excellent wits This volume he called Antiphilachia written against the ambitious Empire or vsurped authoritie Reiall of the Bishop of Rome Albertus Pighius a Canon sometime in the Cathedrall Church of Vtrecht in the Low Countries Lelands affection toward his Country Four Bookes of illustrious men or of the British writers Learned Princes The wits of the British and English writers exercised in all kinds of good literature A wonderfull great number of Historiographers of British affaires Lelands laborious iourney throughout all England The description of all England in a quadrate table of siluer A Booke of the Topographie of England The names of seuerall nations Cities and great townes c. of Britaine in old time such as Cesar Tacitus Ptolimey other Authors haue made mention of restored together with the later and moderne names Of the Antiquitie of Britaine or of Ciuile History fiftie Bookes Sixe Bookes of the Islands adiacent to England Three bookes of the Nobility of Britaine His conclusion a delectabili vtili Commune voâ—â—â— Sir Rob. Cotton knight and Baronet Sir Tho. Bodley knights Pit Aetas 16. Io. Leland the Elder Elis. West Rog. Woodcocke and Ioane his wife Catherine Cauendish Alice Cavendish Marg Cavendish Lib. Esiens in bib Cott. Will. Burd Clarke of the Pipe Cowell lit C. Clarke of the Priuie Seale Io. Hartishorne Sergeant at Armes and Agnes his wife The office of Sergeant at Armes Cowell lit â— George Lord Maior Ioan and Marg. his wiues Iohn Kirkham and Elis. his wife Iohn Mynne The foundation of the Brotherhood in S. Botolpâ—s Edward Murell and Martha his wife William Campion and Anne his wife Henry Cantlow Sir William Cantlow knight Iohn Olney Lord Maior Tho. Muschampe Sir William Yerford Lord Maior and Elis. his wife Sir Roger Ree â—night and Rose his wife Tho. Bromflit Andrew Chyett Iohn Martin Lord Maior and â—atherine his wife * Eliae Reusneri Basil. Geneal Auctuarium edit Francosurt 1592 pag. 102. Historie generall of the Netherlands lib. 5 pag 227. impr an Dom. 1609. * Penes Simonds D' Ewes Equitem auratum abâ—epotem dicti Aâ—rini * In Registro Curiae Dum. Archidiaconi Lond. Libr. 4. sol 34. a b. * Escaety de a. 34. Eliz. parte 1. n. 11. Essex in Archiuis Tho. Pigot Richard Sutton W. Holland and Margaret his wife Rich Story and Ioan his wife Peter Fernefold Walter Turke Lord Maior Tho. Padington Marg. and Anne his wiues Will. Cogshall and Elis. his wife Nich. Wolbergh and Mar. his wife Rog. Hunning and Margaret his wife Tho. Paynard Vincent Catal. of Viscounts Ioan Coppinger Tho. Wandesford and Idonea his wife Will. â—oyliâ— Lord Maior and Catherine his wife Glanvile Agnes Cheyney Io. Rayning Will Porter and Elis. his wife Cowell lit C. Will. 〈◊〉 Io. Westcliffâ— Ioan his wife Will. Newport and Mossâ—s his wife Will Read and Maâ—g his wife M. Drayton Pol. 17. Song London lying like a halfe moone London Bridge the Crowne of Tames Camd. in Mid. Speed of Miâ— Gen 14.10 Hampton Court Camd in Mid. Câ—sar Commâ—nt lib. 5. Burials neere Stanes Spec. Brit. Lib. 1. cap. 2. Burials neere Brainford Burials of the dead slaine at Barnet field Camd. in Hert. The first battel of S. Albans Mss In bib Coâ— The second battell of S. Albans Camd. in Hert. Burials of the dead slaine in the battels at S. Albans Burials of the dead betwixt Stenenhaugh and Knebworth Camd. in Essex M. Drayton Song 19. Roman burials and the bones of Gyant-like found in Essex Burials neere Showbery Burials neere Barklow Ancient Tombes Danes-bloud Burials of the dead in and about Ashdown * â—â—â—inous * places * soules Battels and burialls of the dead â—â— and about â—he ancient Baâ—hg of Maldon 〈…〉 London Gâ—dwin Mss in lib. Sim. 〈…〉 aurat 〈◊〉 lib. 2 ca. 7. Mellituâ— quenched by his prayer the fire burning the Citie of Canterbury S. Ceada or Cedda 〈…〉 3. c. 2◠〈…〉 Tilbuâ—y Cities Sir Horace Vâ—â—e Baâ—on of Tilbury Sir Francis and siâ— Hoâ—ace Vere M. 〈…〉 Song 〈◊〉 S. Chad Bishop of Lichfield S. Erconwald Bed lib. 4 ca. 6. Cures by Saint Erconwald Horse-licter S. Theodred S. Egwulfe S. Richard Ex lib. Elien in bib Coâ— S. Roger. Mat. Paris an 1230. A strange Tempest M. D. Polyol Song 24. Felix the first Bishop of Dunwich or Dunmok Harding ca 91. Beda lib. 2. ca. 15 Hist. Eccl. Two and fifty religious stâ—â—ctures as many windmilâ— and as many toppe ships in Dunwich Recorda Dun. Camd. in Suss. The state of Dunwich since the foregoing time Six parish Churches Two houses of Friers One house of Templaâ—s Two Hospitals The couetouâ—nesse of the Masters and Officers The destruction of both Hospitals Three Chappelâ— The Cathedral Church vncertaine A strange and ancient buriall of a Bishop Bishops Seats anciently what they were A Mint in Dunwich Burials in the blacke Friers at Dunwich 〈◊〉 in the blacke Friers of Dunwich The foundation of the first Church in Bury The first foundation of the Abbey by the common people The second by K Canâ—â—e Ex Arch Turr. Lend * Bederics Court Farme or mansion house Camd. in Suss. Euersden Leland * Now but two The oath of the Alderman of Bury The broile betweene the Townesmen the Abbot and Couent of Bury Reliques in the Abbey Church out of a booke called Compend Com. pertorum in the treasurie of the Exchequer Aniles Fabulae S. Edmund King and Martyr Speed Hist ca. 11 * now Hoxon Ex lib. Abb. de Russ. in bib Col. S. Robert Martyr ex lib. Abb. de chateris in bib Cot. Alan Earle of Britaine and Kichmond Milles Catal. Rich. The building of Richmond Castle Tho. Plantaginet Earle of Norfolke Vincent Catal. Norf. Tho. Beauford Duke of Exceter Mary Queene of France Iohn Boon Abbot of Bury Out of a Lieger booke of the Abbey Cowell lit C. Conged'eslire Iohn Lidgate Monke * I know not * Promised * A dish made of marrow and grated bread * A Pancake * Couuremnet * Nappy Ale * Guâ—â—â— * Clocke * Verely * Nor Squire
spatium triginta dierum 11. Ed. quarti Boniface of Sauoy Archbishop of Canterbury Vnckle to Eleanor the wife of king Henry the third built here at the confluence of the waters a religious structure to the honour of Saint Peter S. Paul and S Thomas the Martyr as most call him and endowed it with faire possessions by the name of an Hospitall but vsually called The new Worke which had not stood fully an hundred and fourty yeares but that William Courtney one of his Successours in this See pulled it downe and erected it anew after his owne pleasure thereby gaining the name of a Founder and called it a Colledge of secular Priests which he consecrated to the holinesse of All Saints which was valued at the suppression at 139. l. 7. s. 6. d. of yearely reuenues This Archbishop Courtney was sonne of Hugh Courtney the third of that Christian name Earle of Deuonshire by Margaret his wife daughter of Humphrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford and Essex And being thus honourablie descended he was no sooner entred into Orders but that he was loaden with spirituall preferments as a Prebend in Wells Exceter and Canterbury beside Benefices with Cure more I thinke then he could well discharge The first Bishopricke he had was Hereford which he enioyed fiue yeares from thence he was remoued to London which hee gouerned about sixe yeares in which time saith Walsingham he was aduanced to the dignity of Cardinal from London to Canterbury which gracious honour hee enioyed 12. yeares lacking one moneth euen vntill his death which happened the last day of Iuly 1396. He lyeth buried according to his will here in his owne Church vnder a plaine graue-stone a lowly Tombe for such an high borne Prelate vpon which his pourtraiture is delineated and this Epitaph inlaid with brasse about the Verge Nomine Willelmus en Courtnaius reuerendus Qui se post obitum legauerat hic tumulandum In presenti loco quem iam fundarat ab imo Omnibus sanctis titulo sacrauit honoris Vltima lux Iulij fit vite terminus illi M. ter C. quinto decies nonoque sub anno Respice mortalis quis quondam sed modo talis Quantus iste fuit dum membra calentia gessie Hic Primas Patrum Cleri Dux genus altum Corpore valde decens sensus acumine clarens Filius hic comitis generosi Deuoniensis Legum Doctor erat celebris quem fama serenat Vrbs Herdfordensis Polis inclita Londoniensis Ac Dorobernensis sibi trine gloria sedis Detur honor digno fit Cancellarius ergo Sanctus vbique pater prudens fuit ipse minister Nam largus letus castus pius atque pudicus Magnanimus iustus egenis totus amicus Et quia Rex Christe Pastor bonus extitit iste Sumat solamen nunc tecum quesumus Amen This Archbishop bestowed much in building and enlarging of his houses especially vpon his Castle of Saltwood Towards the reparation of his Church at Canterbury he gaue 1000. Marks hee gaue also vnto the same Church a certaine image of siluer weighing one hundred and threescore pounds two vestments and thirteene Copes of great value Besides a number of bookes Hic iacet Dominus Iohannes Wotton Rector Ecclesie Parochialis de Stapilhurst Canonicus Cicestrensis primus Magister huius Collegij qui obijt vltimo die Octobris 1417. On the North side of the Quire stands an old Monument most shamefully defaced Onely these words remayning of an old Inscription ..... ad bona non tardus vocitando ..... namque Deo trino valefecit ....... December .... ..... Annomilleno C. quater X. ... It is said that one Woodvill lyeth herein entombed who dwelt at Thamote within this Parish I finde saith M. Lambard in a Record that Thomas Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury the next Successour of Courtney founded a Chantrie at Maidston which whether it be the same that was sometime called the house of the Brothers and but lately conuerted by the Townsmen into a freeschoole or no I will not boldly affirmed but I thinke it rather so then otherwise Leedes There was a Priory in this Towne built and amplie endowed by one Sir Robert Creuequer and Adam his sonne and heire who in ancient Records is named de Creuequer or de crepito corde a Nobleman of Normandie and knight to William the Conquerour in the yeare of our redemption 1107. or thereabouts which he consecrated to the honour of our alone Sauiour Iesus Christ and Saint Nicholas and placed therein blacke Canons regular Augustines Rainham In a Chappell of his owne foundation here in this Church lyeth interred Iohn Bloor and William Bloor Which Iohn dyed 29. Decemb. 1520. Hic iacet Iacobus Donet Ar. qui ob Viij Kal. Feb. 1409. For the loue of Iesu pray for me I may not pray now pray ye That my peynes lessyd may be Wyth on Pater Noster and on Aue. Iohn Paynter of Douer namyd I was And two times Maire of that plas I passyd to God the thirteenth of Iuly On thousand fyve hundryd and forty The people of this place make a great vaunt of the best wheate in all Kent or Christendome Now here gentle Reader giue me leaue to speake a little more of the Priory of Leedes though casually misplaced because forgotten I finde saith Lambard in a Heralds note who belike made his coniecture by some coate of Armes lately apparant that one Leybourne an Earle of Salisbury was the founder of this Priory And indeed it is to be seene in the Annalls of Saint Augustines of Canterbury that a Nobleman called Roger Leybourne was sometime of great authoritie within this Shire notwithstanding that in his time he had tasted of both fortunes for in the dayes of king Henry the third hee was first one of that coniuration which was called the Barons warre from which faction Edward the kings sonne wonne him by faire meanes to his part and made him the bearer of his priuie purse Afterward they agreed not vpon the reckoning so that the Prince charging him with great arrerage of account seised his liuing for satisfaction of the debt by which occasion Roger once more became of the Barons partie But after the pacification made at Kenelworth he was eft-soones receiued into fauour and was made Warden of the fiue Ports and Lieutenant of this whole Shire Now though it cannot be true that this man was the builder of this Priory for the same Annals say that it was erected long before yet if hee did but marry the heire he might truly bee termed the Patron or Founder thereof for by that name not onely the builders themselues but their posterity also to whom the glory of their deeds did descend were wont to bee called Patrons and Founders as well as they It is obserued by my Author in this place speaking of the Priory that in ancient time the greatest Personages held Monkes
Friers and Nunnes in such veneration and liking that they thought no Citie in case to flourish no house likely to haue long continuance no Castle sufficiently defended where was not an Abbey Priory or Nunnery either placed within the walls or situate at hand and neare adioyning And surely omitting the residue of the Realme hereof onely it came to passe that Douer had Saint Martins Canterbury Christ-Church Rochester Saint Andrews Tunbridge the Friers Maidstone the Chanons Greenwich the Obseruants and this our Leedes her Priory of Chanons at hand About two hundred yeares since the Prior of this House with three of his Chanons and others layed violent hands vpon the body of a Monke of Saint Albans whereupon many more quarrels would haue ensued if that Boniface the ninth Pope of Rome hearing thereof had not by his Bull authorised the Abbot of Saint Edmundsbury to heare examine and determine all controuersies betwixt the two Houses and to absolute the delinquents after competent satisfaction made to the wronged parties Thus goes the Bull. Bonifacius Episcopus seruus seruorum Dei Dilecto filio Abbati Monasterij de Sancto Edmundo Norwicen dioc Salutem et Apostolic ben Conquesti sunt nobis Abbas et Conuentus de Sancto Albano Ordinis Sancti Benedicti Lincoln Dioc. Quod Wilhelmus de verduno Prior Monasterij de Ledes ordinis Sancti Augustini Thomas de Maydenston Nicholaas Shirton Iohannes de Reuham dicti Monasterij de Ledes Canonici Magistrum Hugo de Forsham clericus Antonius Messager Iohannes Frere et Iohannes Linne laici Cantuar. Dioc. in Fratrem Iohannem de Stopeleya Monachum dicti Monasterii de Sancto Albano manus iniecerunt Dei timore postposito temere violentas Ideoque discretioni tue per Apostolica scripta mandamus quatenus si est ita dictos sacrilegos tandiu appellatione remota excōmunicatos publice nunties et facias ab omnibus arctius euitari donec super hiis satisfecerint competenter et iidem Clericus et Laici cum tuarum testimonio litterarum ad sedem venerint Apostolicam absoluendi Canonici vero debite absolutionis beneficium assequantur Dat. Lateran xii Kalend. Nouemb. Pontificatur nostri Anno octauo I haue the rather inserted this Bull for that it may bee the more plainly vnderstood how the most of all causes in those times concerning the Clergie were arbitrated not alwayes by the authority of the learned Bishops of this land but by Commissions purchased from the Bishops of Rome This Priory was valued in the Records of the late suppression at three hundred fourescore and two pounds of yearely reuenue Mottenden or Motindene Lambard speaking of Motindene which name hee deriues from two Saxon words Moo and Dene which is the proud valley a name imposed as he thinkes for the fertilitie thereof saith That hee hath not heard nor hitherto found any thing touching the Religious House of Motindene in Hetcorne saue onely that the head thereof was called Minister and that the House it selfe was of the yearely value of sixty pounds Neither would I saith he haue affoorded it so much as paper or place here but onely that you might vnderstand with what number of buildings variety of sects and plenty of possessions Popery was in old time prouided for and furnished No corner almost without some Religious house or other Their sects and orders were hardly to be numbred and as for their lands and reuenues it was a world to behold them I finde that the yearely extent of the cleare value of the Religious liuings within this Shire amounted to fiue thousand pounds Bishoprickes Benefices Friaries Chaunteries and Saints-offerings not accounted Which thing also I do the rather note to the end that you may see how iust cause is giuen vs both to wonder at the hote zeale of our ancestours in their spirituall fornication and to lament the coldnesse of our owne charity towards the maintenance of the true Spouse of Iesus Christ. For if euer now most truly is that verified which the Poet long since said Probitas laudatur et alget Boxley William de Ipre a Towne in Flanders the base sonne of Philip Viscount de Ipre Lieutenant to king Stephen in the warres against Maud the Empresse for which seruice the king created him Earle of Kent founded this Abbey Ann. 1146. which he consecrated to the blessed Virgine Mary and planted it with a Couent of white Monkes of Saint Barnards order which he translated hither from Claravall in Burgundie which as good children were to follow and obey the rules and ordinances of the Abbey of Claravall in all things These are the words in the institution Anno 1146. fundata est Boxleia in Cancia filia Claravallis propria And further Quod ipsa Abbathia sit subdita Abbathie de Claravalle c. It was ordinarie both beyond Sea and here in England for one religious house to beget another as will appeare by the sequele for not many yeares after her first foundation this Abbey it selfe was the mother of Robertsbridge in Sussex The yearely value of this house was esteemed at the suppression to be worth 218. l. 19. s. 10. d. This Monastery in former times was famous for a woodden Roode by which the Priests for a long while deluded the common people vntill their fraud and Legierdemain was detected Bocton Malherb At Bocton Malherb saith learned Clarentieux hath dwelt a long time the familie of the Wottons out of which in our remembrance flourished both Nicholas Wotton Doctor of the Lawes who being of the priuie Councell to king Henry the eighth King Edward the sixth Queene Mary and Queene Elizabeth sent in Embassage nine times to forraine Princes and thrice chosen Committee about Peace betweene the English French and Scottish liued a goodly time and ranne a long race in this life with great commendation of pietie and wisedome and also Sir Edward Wotton whom for his approued wisedome in weightie affaires Queene Elizabeth made Controller of her house and King Iames created Baron Wotton of Merley If you would know any more reade Hollinshead who hath written a Treatise of this family from Richard Wotton who flourished in the raigne of King Edward the first vnto these Wottons who yet do liue in our memory This Church is honoured with the sepulture of many of this noble progenie but I haue no inscription nor Epitaph for any saue onely for him who was twice Lord Maior of London The first time in the third yeare of king Henry the fifth the second in the ninth of king Henry the sixth Here lyeth Nicholas Wotton Esquire ... twice Lord Maior of London .... who was borne the 26. of October 1372. and dyed Septem 14. 1448. .... being 76. yeares of age Newenden This Towne harboured the first Carmelite Friars that euer were in this kingdome for about the midst of the raigne of king Henry the third this order came ouer the Sea arriued in this land