the seuenth was taken out of his house and carried into France from whence by ransome he freed himselfe Chart Magna Betweene the Chancell and the North Chappell of this Church is an Altar-Tombe round about the verge of which is engrauen this Epitaph following in brasse and betwixt euery word the figure of a well alluding to the name of the parties there vnderneath interred Anime Willelmi de Goldwelle Auicie vxoris sue per miserecordiam Dei in pace requiescant Qui quidem Willelmus septimo die mensis Maij dicta Avicia octauo die Aprilis Litera Dominicalis B. ab hac luce migrarunt Ann. Domini M. CCCC.LXXXV Quorum animabus propitietur Deus Amen Iames Goldwell of this family Bishop of Norwich was a repairer of this Church as appeares by this broken Inscription in the top crosse window ..... Magistro Iacobo Goldwelle ..... Ecclesie sancti Pauli London qui hoc opus repara ...... And in the East window it is thus to be read in the glasse Memoriale reuerendi patris Domini Iacobi Goldwell Episcopi Norwicen In a North window of the North Chappell haue beene sixteene pourtraitures of men in glasse all kneeling whereof most remaine whose names are as followeth Iohannes Webbe Iohannes Hosewyf Thomas Wred Iohannes Turlepyn Willelmus Malemayne Iohannes Litihey Iohannes Bockon Iohannes Chillinton Iohannes Atte Iohannes Yardherst .......... In midst of whom as the Priests then are Dominus Richardus Medhurst and Dominus Walterus Wilcock Now as it goes by tradition from the father to the sonne these were the builders of this Church In the middest of the East-window in the South Chappell of this Church is the picture of the foresaid Bishop Goldwell kneeling and in euerie quarry a golden well or fountaine his Rebus or Name deuise and crosse the window inscribed ..... Iacobo Goldwelle Episcopo Norwicen qui ..... opus fundauit Ann. Christi M. CCCC.LXXVII whereby it appeares that this Bishop was Founder of this Chappell The corner stone of the foundation of this Chappell on the outside is made like a Graue-stone with a Crosse cut thereupon Orate pro anima Iohannis Toke Armigeri nuper de Goddington istius paroch Cuius corpus iacet hic tumulatum ac pro animabus Margarete et Anne vxorum suarum Que quidem Margareta filia fuit naturalis dum vixit Iohannis Walworth nuper in Comitatu Suff. dicta Anna filia etiam naturalis Iohannis Engeham Armigeri nuper de Syngleton istus paroch Qui vero Iohannes Toke obijt vicesimo die Maij Ann. Dom. M. CCCCC.XIII Quorum animabus propitietur Deus Altissimus Hic iacent Thomas Twesden generosus qui obijt 8. die Decembris Ann. Dom. 1500. et Benedicta vxor eius Quorum animabus propitietur Deus Sancta Trinitas Deus miserere nobis Hic iacet Willelmus Sharpe et eius quinque consortes qui Willelmus obijt 29. die Septemb. Ann. Dom. 1499. Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Seuington Hic iacet Margareta Barry Quondam vxor Edwardi Barry Armiger Que quidem Margareta obijt ..... mensis .... Ann. 1400. Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Hic iacet Ioanna Barry quondam vxor Willelmi Barry militis Pater de celis Deus miserere nobis Fili Redemptor mundi Deus miserere nobis Spiritus Sancte Deus miserere nobis Sancta Trinitas vnus Deus miserere nobis Orate pro anima Iohannis Barry militis Orate pro anima Isabelle quondam vxor Willelmi Barry Militis Pater de celis As before about the verge of this and the other Grauestone Here is also a Monument whereupon a man armed is pourtraied the Inscription whereof is altogether perished which in all likelihood was made to the memory of Sir William Barry knight the husband of the fore-remembred Isabell. At the lower end of the Church and neare to the Bellfree lyeth the body of one of these Barryes pourtraied in compleat armour about the Verge of his Monument this Inscription Hic iacet Vmfridus Barre Ar. Quondam Dominus istius ville et Patronus istius Ecclesie Qui obiit in die Sancte Marie Magdalene An. Dom. 1431. Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Camden in his Chorographicall description of Ireland and in the County of Corke writes greatly to the honour of this surname of Barry These are his words as followeth Beneath Corke saith he the riuer parting in twaine enuironeth a large and very pleasant Island ouer against the principall dwelling house of that most ancient and noble family of the Barries which thereupon is called Barry Court For that family is deriued from Robert de Barry an English man a personage of great worth and renowned who notwithstanding chose rather among the first to be chiefe indeed then to seeme chiefe who in the winning of Ireland receiued wounds and hurt and the first man he was in Ireland that manned and brought the Hawke to hand His posterity by their long approued loyaltie and martiall prowesse deserued to receiue of the kings of England first the title of Baron Barry afterwards of Vicount Butiphant and for their great lands and wealth gat among the people the surname of Barry More that is Barry the Great ..... Iohannes Fynch Armiger Qui obiit 19. die Mensis Maij Ann. Dom 1442. Cuius This I conceiue to be some younger branch of the Nobly descended family of the Finches of whom there is mention made among the Monuments in Braborne Church before where they are stiled Herbert vel Finch not vnaptly thereby continuing the memory of their originall name and ancestry as being lineally descended from Hen. Fuz-Herbert Chamberlaine to king Henry the first who married the daughter and heire to Sir Robert Corbert and had issue by her a sonne named Herbert who likewise had issue a sonne named Herbert Fitz-Herbert Who by his first wife Luce daughter and coheire of Milo Earle of Hereford and high Constable of England had issue a sonne named Peter Fitz Herbert from whom the Herberts Earles of Penbrooke are descended and by Matilda his second wife after his death re-married to the Lord Columbarij he had issue Mathew Fitz-Herbert who was one of the Magnates or Barons at the making of Magna Charta and was likewise one of those potent Noblemen for the king that made the accord betweene king Iohn and the Barons at Runnyng Mead betweene Windsore and Stanes his sonne likewise called Herbert Fitz Mathew was the fourth Baron that is mentioned in the Rowl of the Parliament at Tewkesbury The change of this name Finch seemeth to haue beene about the latter end of king Hen. the third at which time many other families suffered like alteration as appeareth by a supersedeas Ann. 8. E. 2. therein mentioning that Herbertus Filius Herberti dicti Finch was a Ward 28. E. primi and so could not personally serue with the king in his warres in Scotland and
seruiens Abbati et Conuentui de Lesnes qui obiit primo die mensis Ianuarij 1425. Cuius anime Lesnes Abbey In the yeare of our Lord 1178. the third of the Ides of Iune Richard Lucie a Councellour of State and chiefe Iustice of the Realme began the foundation of an Abbey at Lesnes or Westwood neare vnto this Towne of Eâ—â—th The extent of whose yearely reuenue as it was prized by the Commissioners at the suppression amounted to one hundred eighty sixe pounds and nine shillings When this his goodly fabricke was in all parts finished he presently forsooke and surrendred into the kings hands all both his offices and honours And betooke himselfe to the habite and profession of a Canon Regular in this house of his owne foundation where within a short while after euen in the same yeare to wit the fourteenth of Iuly 1479. he exchanged his Conuentuall blacke coole for a glorious bright heauenly crowne And here in the Quire of his Church hee was sumptuously entombed vpon whose Monument this Epitaph was engrauen Rapitur in tenebras Richardus lux Luciorum Iusticie pacis dilector vrbis honorum Christe sibi requies tecum sit sede piorum Iulia tunc orbi lux bis septena nitebat Mille annos C. nouem et septuaginta mouebat Now giue me leaue to go a little further with him and his heires as I finde the words in the Collection of Englands Protectours by Francis Thinne Lancaster Herald Sir Richard Lucie knight chiefe Iustice of England saith he was Protectour of England in the twelfth yeare of the raigne of king Henry the second in the absence of the king when hee was in Normandie and in the parts beyond the Seas Which Lucie in the thirteenth yeare of the same King did valiantly resist and politikely driue backe the Earle of Bolloigne inuading this kingdome He built the Abbey of Leosnes or Westwood in the Parish of Erith in Kent and not in Southfleet as some haue written in the yeare of Christ 1178. and the Castle of Chipping Augre in Essex He had issue Godfrey Bishop of Winchester and three daughters who after the death of Godfrey their brother were his heires Maude the eldest daughter was married to Robert the first called Fitzwater Aueline the second daughter was married to Richard Riuers of Stanford Riuers in Essex Rose the third daughter was married to Richard de Warren the naturall sonne of king Iohn as appeareth by a deed belonging to my selfe who had the Rectory of Leosnes beginning thus Rosa de Douer quondam vxor venerabilis viri Richardi filij Regis de Chillam And king Iohn by his Charter grants to another Rose her grandfathers lands in these words Rex reddidit Roesie de Douerita totam terram suam cum pertenenc qua eam contingit de heredit Richardi de Lucy avi sui tenend sibi hered c. Cart. 24. Reg. Iohannis numero 37. in Archi. Turris London The foresaid Godfrey de Lucy was consecrated Bishop of Winchester the first of Nouember 1189. And died Ann. 1204 hauing gouerned that See fifteene yeares He purchased of king Richard the first the Mannors of Wergraue and Menes which in times past had belonged to his Bishopricke he was a great Benefactour to this Religious house of Leosnes founded by his father wherein according to his will hee was enterred To whose memory this Epitaph was engrauen vpon his Tombe Lux mea lux Christi si terre ventre quiesco Attamen in celo sanctorum luce lucesco Presul de Winton fueram quondam Cathedratus Multum resplendens alto sanguine natus Nunc id sum quod eris puluis rota non retinenda Voluitur inuigila prudens nec differ agenda M. C. bis quatuorque annos his insuper addas Carnis vincla dies soluit secunda Decembris Vos qui transitis ancillam poscite Christi Sit Dominus mitis pulso purgamine tristi Wolwich Orate pro anima Iohannis Colin et Mathilde vxoris eius qui Iohannes obiit 27. Ianuar ..... Mathilda 25. Octob. 1397. Hic tacet Dominus Will. Prene quondam Rector huius Ecclesie viz. tempore Regis Edwardi quarti et postea Rector Ecclesie de Lymming qui fieri fecit istam Capellam et Campanile huius Ecclesie et in uita sua multa alia bona .... ob I. die Decemb. 1464. Willelmus Prene me fecit in honorem sancte Trinitatis Eltham Pray for the sowl of Dame Margerie Roper late wyff of Iohn Roper Suier daughter and one of the heires of Iohn Tattersall Suier who dyed 2. Februar 1518 Roper a name of eminent respect in this County honoured with the title of Baron Roper of Tenham by our Soueraigne Lord Iames late King of England giuen to Iohn Lord Roper now liuing Pray for the sowl of Iohn Morton sonne and heire of Margaret Morton of Asheby de la Zouch in the County of Leicester late wife to Tho. Squier who dyed 23. Aug. Prier pur l'alme Thomas Pierle qi morust le primer iour de Iuyl l'an de Grace Mil. ccc.lxix ..... Here lyeth Iohn Pasley yeoman Porter to king Henry the eighth and Agnes his wife which Iohn dyed .... 1509. Hen. 8.1 West Peckham Iohn Culpeper one of the Iustices of the Common Pleas in the raigne of king Henry the fourth founded here a Preceptorie or free-Schoole which he endowed with threescore and three pounds sixe shillings eight pence of yearely allowance Bromley In the Church wall lyeth the pourtraiture as I learne by tradition of Richard Wendouer Bishop of Rochester and Parson of this Towne He was consecrated 1238. and dyed 1250. yet it is said that his body was buried in Westminster by the kings speciall commandement for that he was accounted a very holy and vertuous man which I cannot much contradict Icy gist Mestre Water de Henche Qi fut Persone de Bromleghe 1360. Lewsham Hic iacet Georgius Hatecliffe Ar. Thesaurarius Domini Regis in Hibernia ac vnus clericorum compoti Hospitii regis obiit 1. Aug. 1514. Iohn Norbury founded a Priory in this Towne of Lewsham which hee replenished with blacke Monkes Aliens belonging to the Abbey of Gaunt in Flanders and thereupon called Aliens because they were Celles to some Monastery or other beyond the Seas The first foundation of these houses I do not finde but in the raigne of king Edward the third they were encreased to the number of one hundred and ten in England besides them in Ireland Aquitane and Normandy The goods of all which Priories the said king Ann. Reg. 12. because of his warres with France caused to be confiscated to his owne vse letting out their houses to farme with all their lands and tenements for the space of three and twenty yeares At the end of which Terme Peace being concluded betweene the two Nations he restored to the Priors Aliens their
laid his foundation 137â— His death was much lamented by the King the Nobilitie and commons of all England for with singular commendations hee had for a long time serued vnder Edward the third in the French warres and was employed by him vpon seuerall Embasies and his truth and good councell was euer much auailable to the whole state of the kingdome His obsequies were performed with great solemnity King Edward the third and all his children with the greatest Prelates and Lord Barons of the kingdome being there present His wife Margaret was here entombed with him by whom he had issue Thomas Manye who in his youth was drowned in a Well at Detford in Kent and Anne then his onely daughter and heire married to Iohn Lord Hastings Earle of Penbroke Margaret Lady Manye saith Iohn Stow here interred yet the Catalogue of Honour will haue her to be buried in the Minories died the 24. of March 1399. she was the onely daughter of Thomas of Brotherton Earle of Norfolke and Marshall of England second sonne of King Edward the first and her fathers onely heire after the death of her brother Edward which happened in the same yeare that his father departed the world She was for the greatnesse of her birth her large reuenewes and wealth created Dutchesse of Norfolke for terme of life she had beene first married to Iohn Lord Segraue and her last husband was the foresaid Sir Walter Manny Here sometime was interred the body of Philip Morgan Doctor of Law Chancelour of Normandy and Bishop of Ely a very wise man who with great commendations gouerned that See nine yeeres sixe moneths and foure daies and departed this life at Bishops-Hatfield October 25. 1434. Many funerall monuments were in this Church as you may finde them mentioned in the Suruay of London This religious house is now turned into an Hospitall consisting of a Master a Preacher a Free-Schoole with a Master and an Vsher fourescore decaied gentlemen Souldiers and forty schollers maintained with sufficient cloathing meate drinke lodging and wages besides Officers and Ministers to attend vpon them all so that the whole number now in the house with the attendants is one hundred and fourescore The greatest gift that euer at any time in England no Abbey at the first foundation thereof excepted or therewith to bee compared being the gift of one man onely whose name was Thomas Sutton of Castle Campes in the County of Cambridge Esquire borne at Knaith in the County of Lincolne who liued to the age of 79 yeares and deceased the 12. day of December 1611. somewhat before this his famous Foundation was fully accomplished Great Saint Bartholomewes This Priorie was founded by one Rahere a pleasant conceited wittie gentleman and a Courtier in the raigne of King Henry the first which he dedicated to the honour of God and Saint Bartholomew and placed therein blacke Canons or Canons regular himselfe became their first Prior his foundation was confirmed in these words Henricus Rex c. Sciatis me concessisse presenti carta me confirmasse Ecclesie beati Bartholomei London que est Dominica Capella mea et canonicis dominicis in ea Domino seruientibus quod sint ab omni subiectione terrena seruitute liberi vt sic aliqua Ecclesia in tota Anglia magis libera c. dat per manum nostram apud Winton 15 Iunij Anno reg 37. Here he died and was here buried in a faire monument renewed by Prior Bolton which Bolton was the last Prior of this house a great builder and repairer of the Priorie and the Parish Church and of diuers lodgings belonging to the same as also of new he builded the Mannor of Canonbury now called Canbury at Islington which belonged to the Canons of this house This Bolton and the rest of his brethren were portraied vpon a Table sometimes hanging in this Church now it is in Sir Robert Cottons Librarie holding vp their hands to the Crucifixe vnder whom these verses were depensiâ—d Gulielmo Bolton precibus succurrite vestris Qualis erat pater hic Domus hec cetera monstrant He died at his Parsonage house at Harrow vpon the hill as I haue it by relation the fourth of Edward the sixt and was there interred He surrendred vp this his Priorie the 30 of Henry the 8. which was then valued at 757 l. 8 s. 4 d. ob q. by yeere Here sometime lay entombed the body of Roger Walden Bishop of London Neuer had any man better experience of the variable vncertaintie of worldly felicity then he for from the estate of a very poore man he was suddenly raised to be Treasurer of England hauing beene first Secretarie to the King Deane of Yorke and Treasurer of the towne of Calis and then made Archbishop of Canterbury which honour he enioyed not past two yeares but was remoued from the same and forced to leade a priuate life a long time At last being once more lift vp to the honour of this Bishopricke of London he left this present life within the compasse of the yeere following Of this man thus writeth Thomas Walsingham who liued in those times and much what to the same effect I will vse his owne language Anno 1406. Dominus Rogerus de Waldene debitum Naturae soluit qui varia fortuna vectus expertus est sub breui tempore Quam sit inconstans incerta volubilis ipsa Errans instabilis vaga quae dum stare putatur Occidit et falso mutatur gaudia vultu Nempe ex pauperculo factus est Regni Thesaurarius and so proceeds on forwards with his story Vpon his monument this Epitaph was inlayd in brasse Hic iacet Rogerus de Walden Episcopus Londinens qui cum in vtraque fortuna plurimuÌ„ laborauit ex hac vita migrauit 2 die Nouem an dom 1406 Vir cultor verus Domini iacet intra Rogerus Walden Fortuna cus nunquam steterat vna Nunc requiem tumuli Deus omnipotens dedit illi Gaudet et in celis plaudet vbi quisque fidelis He denied his preferment to the Bishoppricke of London being preferred vnto him by the Pope saying that he would not accept of it from any but from the king As I finde thus recorded in the Tower Cum summus Pontifex nuper prouidisset Rogero Walden de Ecclesia Cathedral London prefatus tamen Rogerus dominicum beneficium sine Regis assensu et licentia acceptare noluit nec vult ni presenti Rex concedit eidem Rogero licentiam quod ipse tanquam verus Pastor et Episcopus dicte Ecclesie Cathedralis eandem ecclesiam capere valeat et acceptare T. R. apud W. 24. Iunij Little Saint Bartholomewes This Hospitall for the poore and diseased was founded by the forenamed Rahere Prior of great Saint Bartholomewes to be gouerned by a Master and eight Brethren being Priests for the Church and foure Sisters to see the poore
ville Quorum animabus obijt ille ...... Hic iacet Dominus Robertus Wingfeeld miles et Elisabetha vxor eius qui quidem Robertus obijt tertio die Maij 1409. Quorum animabus propitietur Altissimus Waldingfield magna ...... Iohn Appulton of Waldingfeeld magna ..... ob anno 14. of Hen. 4. 1416. Three Aples Gules leaues and stalkes vert Orate pro animabus Iohannis Appulton et Margarete vnxoris eius quidem Iohannes obijt 9. die Aprilis Anno Domini 1481. et predicta Margareta obijt 4. die Iulij Anno Dom. 1468. quorum ..... Orate pro anima Thome Appulton de Waldingfeeld magna qui Thomas ab hoc luce migrauit 4. die Octob. ann Dom. 1507. Orate pro anima Margerie Appulton que obijt 4. die Nouemb anno Dom. 1504. Cuius anime propitietur altissimus Amen Orate pro animabus Roberti Appulton generosi et Marie vxoris eius qui quidem Robertus obiit 27. Augusti 1526. Quorum ..... Amen Barton magna Hic iacet corpus Alicie Harpley quondam vxoris Ricardi Harpley ...... que quidem Alicia .... Hic .... Cotton ..... Of these Cottons I haue read as followeth The ancient seat of the Cottons in Cambridgeshire is Lanwade Hall many descents were higher and before the father to the elder Sir Iohn Cotton knight who died neare the beginning of Queene Elisabeth This Sir Iohn being the elder had three brothers whereof Edmund Cotton was the third from Sir Iohn aforesaid and sisters they had c. This elder Sir Iohn Cotton had one sonne called by his fathers name sir Iohn Cotton Knight who dying in the time of King Iames left to inherite his estate one onely Sonne begotten of his wife Anne eldest daughter of sir Richard Hoghton of Hoghton Tower in the county of Lancaster Knight and Baronet now in being whose name is likewise Iohn Edmund Cotton the third brother aforesaid married Ela Coniers the daughter and heyre of Iohn Coaniers the onely sonne of Robert Coniers Knight of neere allyance to the Lord Coniers of Hornby Castell in Richmondshire who liued in the seuerall raignes of Ed. 2. and Ed. 3. A sister of the forenamed Robert Coniers Knight was married in that time to Sir Richard Harpley knight now lieth interred in the Chancell of Barton magna vnder a monument inscribed as before Hic iacet corpus Alicie c. Edmund Cotton aforesaid by Ela his wife had diuers children George was his eldest sonne and Audery a daughter of his vailed her selfe a Nunne George had issue many children and Edmund was his eldest sonne and heire Edmund Cotton in like manner had issue diuers sonnes and daughters and his eldest sonne and heire is Edmund Cotton now in being The ancient seat left vnto him amongst other lands was called by the name of Coniers alias Necton Hall in Bramble Barton alias Barton magna iuxta Bury S. Edmonds Debenham Here lyeth Iohn Farmingham who died .... 1424. and Margaret his wife Robert Cheake and Rose his wife George Neuill and ... his wife Iohn Neuill Iohn Cheake who died 1490. Babewell Here sometimes stood a Monasterie of Grey Friers first founded by master Adam de Lincolne who gaue the Foundership to the honour of Clare Here lay buried Sir Walter Trumpinton and Dame Anne his wife Nicholas Drury and Iane his wife which died the seuenth of MArch in the seuenth yeare of King Richard the second Margaret Peyton Blithborrow This little Towne is memorable for that Anna King of the East Angles together with his eldest sonne and heire apparent Ferminus were here buried both slaine in a bloudie fierce battaile by Penda the Mercian King a Pagan of which my old Manuscript Penda anone his hoste withe hym he led And on Anna came fyrst with mykle pryde Kynge of Este Englonde whos dowter Egfryde wed And slew him Anna was a man of great vertue and the father of a blessed issue saith Bede which were many and those of great holinesse and sanctitie of life First Ferminus slaine in the same battaile with his father as I haue said before here buried but afterwards remoued to S. Edmundsbury His other sonne was Erkenwald Abbot of Chertseie and Bishop of London of whom before His daughters were these Etheldred the eldest was first married vnto a Noble man whom Bede nameth Tombert Gouernour of the Fenny Countries of Norfolke Huntington Lincolne and Cambridge shires And after his death remaining a virgin she was married to Egfrid King of Northumberland with whom likewise she liued in perfect virginitie the space of twelue yeares notwithstanding his entreaty and allurements to the contrary From whom lastly she was released and had licence to depart his Court vnto the Abbey of Coldingham where first shee was vailed a Nunne vnder Abbesse Ebba and thence departing she liued at Ely and became her selfe Abbesse thereof wherein lastly she died and was interred remembred vnto posterities by the name of S. Audrie of whom more hereafter His second daughter was Sexburgh who married Ercombert King of Kent vnto whom she bare two sons and two daughters after whose death she tooke the habit of a Nunne and succeeded her Sister Etheldrid Abbesse of Ely wherein she died and was interred And their yongest sister Withgith was likewise a Menchion with them in the same monastery and all of them canonized for Saints Ethilburghe his third daughter was made Abbesse of Berking in Essex built by her brother Bishop Erkinwald wherein she liued and lastly died as I haue said before A naturall daughter likewise he had whose name was Edelburgh that with Sedrido the daughter of his wife were both of them professed Nuns and succeeded each other Abbesses in the Monastery of S. Brigges in France Such a reputed holinesse was it held in those daies not onely to be separated from the accompanying with men but also to abandon the countrie of their natiuity and as strangers in forraine lands to spend the continuance of their liues Orate pro anima VVillelmi Colet quâ—ndam Mercatoris de Blyburgh siue istius ville qui obijt 16 die Ianuar. An. Domini 1503. Cuius anima per gratiam Dei requiescat in pace Amen Orate pro anima Iohanne Baret nuper vxoris Iohannis Baret qui obijt xiiii die Ianuarij anno M.D.xx. ... Orate pro anima Iohanne Ranyngham quondam vxoris Iohannis Ranyngham qui obijt quarto die mensis Maii anno M.D ..... cuius anime propitietur Deus Orate pro anima Iohannis Ranyngham alias Loman qui obiit xi die mensis Decembris anno Domini M. cccc lxxxxiiii Orate pro animabus Simonis Todyng et Iohanne vxoris eius qui quidem Iohannes obiit xx die Decemb. anno Domini M. cccc.lxxxxii Quorum .... In gratia et miserecordia Dei hic iacet Rogerus Boreham qui obiit xxvii die Nouembris anno Domini M.
and immediate heire to the kingdome promised with an oath to giue her whatsoeuer shee would demand This deuoute Lady begged so much ground to build a religious house vpon as a tame Deâ—re which she kept would runne ouer at a breath one Thunnor or Thymur one of his councell and his assistant in the foresaid murder standing by blamed him of inconsideration for that hee would vpon the vncertaine course of a Deere depart to his certaine losse with any part of so good a Soile Which words he had no sooner spoken saith the booke of Saint Augustine but that the earth immediately opened and swallowed him vp Well the King and the Lady proceeded in their bargaine and the Hynde ranne ouer fourty and eight Ploughâ—lands before she returned This do nation the king confirmed by his Charters which I haue read in the booke of S. Austins to the infringers whereof he added this fearefull curse Si cui vero hec largicio displicet vel si quis quod absit hanc donationem telo ductus Diaboli quoquo ingenio infringere temptauerit Iram Dei omnium Sanctorum maledicta incurrat et subita morte intereat sicut predictus Deo odibilis Thimur interijt percutiatque cum Deus amentia cecitate ac furore mâ—ntis omnique tempore columpnam maledictionis Dei sustineat non sit qui eum liberet nisi penitus resipiscit digna satisfactione satisfaciat And further of this and the race of the Hynde these lame rymes Dompneue letam Thanatos fert Insula metam Seruet iter Cerue ...... nesit .... proterue Cultor siue sator huius mete violator Cum Thunor atra metit inde Barathra petit Hauing erected her Monasterie which she dedicated to the blessed Virgine Mary and to the name and honour of her two murdered Brethren in which â—he placed seuentie veyled Nunnes She departed out of this world about the yeare of our redemption 765. and was buried in the Church of her owne foundation It is said by some that when Thunnor had giuen his wicked command to king Egbert his horse 〈◊〉 presentâ—y a curuetinâ— cast him off his backe and broke his necke and that be 〈◊〉 buried in the Isle of Tenet vnder a great heape of stones which the inhabitanâ—â— to this day call Thunniclan Mildred the daughter of Domâ—â—â—a and Mâ—rwald a Prince of West-Mercia succeeded in her mothers plâ—â—â— â—n which shee continued a long time dyed in the raigne of King 〈◊〉 was interred by her mother and afterwards canonized a Saint 〈◊〉 the Mercian king confirmed by his charter to this Mildred and her Couent the custome of the ships which arriued in the publicke Port of London as appeares by his charter Caâ—utus king of England gaue by his Charter the body of this Mildred with the lands belonging to this Priory to the Abbey of S. Austins in these words Notum sit omnibus c. me dedisse Augustino fratribus eiusdem Monasterij corpus beate Mildrede gloriose Virginis cum tâ—ta terra sua infra in sulam ac Iâ—anet extra cum omnibus consâ—etudinibus suis. The yeare 10 0 her body was translated by Abbot Elstan as I haue said before and after that by his Successour Wulfrike to another place of the Church Her reliques were laid in a leaden coffin whereupon this Epitaph was insculped Clauditur hoc saxo Mildreda sacerrima virgo Cuius nos procibus adiuuet ipse Deus The bodies of the most esteemed godly in former ages tooke the least rest in their graues for they were still remoued and their bodies clattered together from one place to another as it doth and will appeare both by the premisses and sequele of this my Treatise You haue read before how often the body of Saint Augustine was tost from porch to pillar and besides his Reliques were diuided and subdiuided into certaine vessels For the day after the solemnitie of Prior Marisco before remembred vpon the finding out of his Stone-coffin there was found vnlooked for a Lead of seuen foot long hauing this Inscription Hic habetur pars ossium cineris beati Augustini Anglorum Apostoli qui olim missus à beato Gregorio gentem Anglicam ad fidem Christi conuertit cuius preciosum capud ossa maiora Guido Abbas honorifice transtulit sicut tabula plumbea cum eisdem ossibus posita indicat But Henry the eight made an end of all this vnnecessarie trouble and charges by remouing once for all as well Reliques as Religious houses Now to returne Ethelinga the third Prioresse of this house seeing the Church builded by her predecessour Domneua not capable to containe so many holy Virgins built another Temple farre more sumptuous then the first which was consecrated by Archbishop Cuthbert to the honour of S. Peter and Paul She dyed ann 751. and was buried in her owne new Church Sexburga saith the booke of Saint Augustine the daughter of Anna king of the East Angles the wife of Ercombert the mother of Egbert and â—othaire all kings of Kent after the death of her husband tooke vpon her the habite of a Nunne and was admitted and consecrated Prioresse of this place by Archbishop Cuthbert In her time those furious Beare-whelps Hungar and Hubba Nam vt fertur filij fuere cuiusdam vrsi qui illos contra naturam de filia cuiusdam Regis generabat two Danish Pagans with a fierce armie first inuaded this kingdome She dyed about the yeare 797. and was buried in this new Church Capgraue saith at Ely Seberitha was the first Votarie admitted and consecrated Lady Prioresse of this house by Ethelard Archbishop of Canterbury who was no sooner well setled in her gouernment then that the Danes came backe againe and in their sauage furie ouerwhelmed the Island of Tenet destroyed and vtterly demolished this Monasterie and her with her holy Sisters inclosed in secret caues for feare of the enemie they found out and burned them all to ashes Capgraue a Kentish man borne reporteth that Eadburgh the daughter of good king Ethelbert by his vertuous Queene Berta was brought vp a Nunne in this Monasterie vnder the foundresse Domneua that she succeeded Mildred in the Monasticall gouernment that shee was buried here in this Church and that long after her reliques the chiefe and most frequent way in those times to enrich any new built Church were remoued by Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury to the Church of Harbaldowne of his owne foundation and there had in great veneration But Camden to whom I must needs giue more credit speaking of S. Eadburghs Well at Liming in this Tract will haue her to be the first veiled Nunne in all England And that she liued here in a Monastery of her owne building that here shee dyed and here at Lyming was buried saith Speed that she was surnamed Tace a fit name for a woman and that she had beene the wife of
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
the very Prime and flower of his age inured to many a warre and exercised in most dangerous troubles of the state whiles she framed and fitted him for the Empire of Britaine which he being once crowned King mannaged and gouerned in such wise that hauing subdued the Welsh and vanquished the Scots hee may most iustly bee counted a chiefe ornament and honour of Britaine Amongst other admonitions and precepts which he gaue to his sonne Edward after him king of England vpon his death bed he charged him that he should carry his Fathers bones about with him in some Coffin till he had marched through all Scotland and subdued all his enemies for that none should bee able to ouercome him while his Skeleton marched with him thinking belike that the care to preserue them from enemies would make a Sonne fight nobly Moreouer he commanded the said Prince That whereas himselfe by the continuall new attempts of Bruce king of Scotland could not in person according to his vow make warre in the Holy-land therefore he should send his Heart thither accompanied with seuenscore knights and their retinues for whose support he had prouided thirty and two thousand pounds of siluer That his Heart being so by them conuayed he did hope in God that all things there would prosper with them Lastly That vpon paine of eternall damnation the said money should not be expended vpon any other vses Sed filius immorigerus patris mandata negligit But the disobedient Sonne little regarded the commandement of his Father He died the seuenth of Iuly the yeare aforesaid his body was conuayed to this Abbey and accompanied most of the way with the Popes Legate the reuerend Bishops and most of the English Nobilitie where it was interred with that state as became the person of so potent a Prince And such was the care of his Successours to keepe his body from corruption as that the Searecloth wherein his embalmed body was enwrapt was often renewed as doth appeare vpon Record thus Rex Thesaurario Camerarijs suis Salutem Mandamus vobis quod Ceram existentem circa corpus celebris memorie Domini Edwardi nuper Regis Anglie progenitoris nostri filij Regis Henrici in Ecclesia beati Petri Westm. humatum de denarijs nostris renovari facietis prout hactenus fieri constituit Teste Rege apud Westm. xi die Iulij Claus. 1. Ric. 2. Memb. 41 Certaine rimes or verses are annexed to his Tombe as followeth Mors est inesta nimis magnos que iungit in imis Maxima mors minimis coniungens vltima primis Nullus in orbe fuit homo viuens nec valet esse Qui non morte ruit est hinc exire necesse Nobilis fortis tibi tu considere noli Omnia sunt mortis sibi subdit singula soli De mundi medio magnum mors impia mouit Anglia pre tedio satis anxia plangere novit Corruit Edwardus vario veneratus honore Rex nuper vt Nardus fragrans virtutis odore Corde Leopardus invictus absque pauore Ad rixam tardus discretus eucharis ore Viribus armorum quasi Gigas ardua gessit Colla superborum prudens per prelia pressit Inter Flandrenses fortuna sibi bene fauit Vt quoque Wallenses Scotos suppeditauit Rex bonus absque pari strenue sua regna regebat Quod natura dari potuit bonitatis habebat Actio iustitie pax regni sanctio legis Et fuga nequitie premunt precordia Regis Gloria tota ruit Regem capit hec modo fossa Rex quandoque fuit nunc nil nisi puluis et ossa Filius ipse Dei quem corde colebat et ore Gaudia fecit ei nullo permista dolore The which verses saith Fabian to the entent that they should be had in minde and also that the reader might haue the more desire to ouer-reade them I haue therefore set them out in Baladde Royall after my rude making as followeth This sorrowfull deth which bryngeth great full low And moost and leest he ioyneth into one Thys man to whome his pere was not y knowe Hath now subdued nat sparyng hym alone Whyche of all order thys world to ouergone None was to be spared of so great equyte As he yf any for noblesse spared shuld be Therfore thou noble or myghty trust none oder grace But thou shalt pay to deth thy naturall dette And lyke as he from thys world did chace Thys mighty Prynce and from his frendys fette For whome all Englond loude mourned and grette So shalt thou and oder in deths snare fall None shall escape to reckyn kyndes all Edward wyth many and dyuers graces endowed And like as Nardus most sweetest of odoure In smellynge passyth and moost he is allowed Of all swete odours so dyd this knyghtly floure By vertuous artes surmounte in honoure All oder Prynces whose hert was Lybar delyke And without fere were he hole or syke Thys Prynce was slowe to all maner of stryfe Discrete and wise and trewe of his worde In armys a Geaunt terme of all his lyfe Excelling actes doing by dynte of the sworde Subduyd the proud of prudence he bore the horde Of Flaunders by fate he had great amyte And Walshe and Scottes by strength subduyd he This good King perelesse his landes firmly gyded What nature might giue he failed in nothynge No parte of bounte from his was discided He was iustice and peace and of lawe stablishyng And chaser of iniquyte by his vertuous liuyng In whome these graces with innumerable mo Fermly were roted that deth hath tane vs fro That whylom was a Kyng now is but duste and bone All glory is fallen and this pitte kepeth the kynge But he that yeldeth all thing by his one The Sonne of God to whom aboue all thynge With herte and mouth he did all worsshyppyng That Lord of his ioy perdurable to laste Graunt him sorrowlesse euermore to taste All Kings haue long hands alluding to the extensure of their Regall gouernement of which Ouid in one of his Epistles thus An nescis longas Regibus esse manus This King had also long legges and a longis tibijs surnamed hee was Longshankes But I stray beyond my limits his vertues haue taken me prisoner and detained me much longer then I expected let me take liberty to conclude with these verses in commendation of his valour out of the fore-remembred additions to Robert of Glocester Edward the furst reguyd than truly The son he was of Kyng Harry He conquered than all Scotlond Ano toke Irlond into hys hond And was callyd that tym Conqueror God yiue hys soul mych honor In hys tym he made subiecte Alwalys and put them vndre yecke He behedyd thilke sam tym The Prynce of UUalys Lewellyn Iewes that tym withouten doute Of this lond wer clere put oute Atte Westmynstre he had hy burying xxxv yere he reguyd kyng Here lieth entombed Eleanor his first wife Queene
septimi nec non Thesaurarius Hospitij reuerendissimi Patris domini huius regni Cancellarij titulo Sancte Cecilie trans Tiberim sacro sancte Romane Ecclesie Presbyteri Cardinalis ordinati Qui quidem Willelmus ob 3. Iulij 1518. Here is an Epitaph cut in Brasse vpon a marble stone now almost worne out which was made to the memory of one Robert Haule Esquire murdered in this Church the manner whereof our Chronicles doe thus briefely relate In the battell of Nazers in Spaine this Robert Haule or Hawley and Iohn Schakell Esquires tooke the Earle of Dene prisoner who deliuered vnto them his sonne and heire as a pledge for assurance of performances Not long after this their Hostage was demanded by Iohn Duke of Lancaster in the Kings name whom they denyed to deliuer for which they were clapt in the Tower from whence escaping here they tooke Sanctuary to whom Sir Raph Ferreis and Sir Alan Buxhull with fifty armed men were secretly sent to doe this mischiefe who finding them at high Masse first drew Schakell by a wile out of the priuiledge of the Church then offering to lay hands on Hawley he manfully resisting with his short sword made them all flie off But in the end he was slaine in the Chancell commending himselfe in his last words to God the reuenger of such iniuries and to the liberty of our holy mother the Church With him was slaine a seruant of his thrust into the backe with a Iauelin and a Monke who intreated for him in respect of the holinesse of the place This wicked act was perpetrated the 11. of August 1378. the second of Richard the second These words following now onely remaining vpon his Monument Me dolus ira furor multorum militis atque ................... ..... in hoc gladijs celebri pietatis asylo Dum leuita Dei sermonis legit ad aram Proh dolor ipse meo Monachorum sanguine vultus Aspersi moriens chorus est mihi testis in evum Et me nunc retinet sacer is locus Haule Robertum Hic quia pestiferos male sensi primitus enses .................. Hic iacet Thomas Ruthal Episcopus Dunelmensis Regis Henrici septimi Secretarius qui obijt 1524. To this short Inscription Godwin in his Catalogue addeth a long story of the life and death of this Bishop Who was borne in Cicester saith he in the County of Glocester and brought vp in Cambridge where he proceeded Doctor of Law He was preferred to the Bishopricke of Durham by King Henry the seuenth after whose death hee was made one of the priuie Councell vnto the young King Henry the eight who esteemed greatly of him for his wisedome and learning and imployed him often in ambassages and other businesses of importance Amongst the rest it pleased the king one time to require him to set downe his iudgement in writing concerning the estate of his kingdome in generall and particularly to enforme him in certaine things by him specified This discourse the Bishop writ very carefully and caused it to be bound in Velime gilt and otherwise adorned in the best manner Now you shall vnderstand that it chanced himselfe about the same time to set downe a note of his owne priuate estate which in goods and ready money amounted to the summe of one hundred thousand pounds This account was written in a paper booke of the same fashion and binding that the other was which was prouided for the king Whereby it happened that the king sending Cardinall Wolsey for the other draught which he had so long before required of him the Bishop mistaking deliuered that which contained an estimate of his owne infinite Treasure This the Cardinall soone espying and willing to doe the Bishop a displeasure deliuered it as he had receiued it vnto the King shewing withall how the Bishop had very happily mistaken himselfe for now quoth he you see where you may at any time command a great masse of money if you need it As soone as the Bishop vnderstood his errour the conceit thereof touched him so neare that within a short spaâ—â— after hee died at his house here in the Strand His intention was to haue repaired the Church of Cicester to haue built Bridges as he had begun that ouer the Riuer of Tyne and to haue done many other deeds of charitie if hee had not beene preuented by death Here lieth the body of Sir William Trussell knight and speaker of that Parliament wherein Edward the second king of England resigned his Diadâ—me and all ensignes of Maiestie to Edward his eldest Sonne This Trussell saith an ancient Author was a Iudge who could fit the house with quirks of Law to colour so lawlesse and treasonable an act as the deposing of a lawfull king And thereupon was chosen in the behalfe of the whole Realme to renounce all homage and obedience to the Lord Edward of Carnarvon his Soueraigne Lord and King The forme of which renunciation was by him the said Trussell pronounced at Kenelworth Castle the 20. of Ianuary 1326. in these disgracefull words which you may finde in Polychronicon I William Trussel in the name of al men of the lond of Engelond and of the Parliament Prolocutor resigne to the Edward the homage that was made to the somtym and from this tym forward now folowyng I defye the and priue the of al royal Powyr and shal neuer be tendant to the as for Kyng aftyr this tyme. The time of this Trussels death I cannot learne Here lieth interred before the Communion Table the body of Richard de Ware or Warren Abbot of this Monastery and sometime Lord Treasurer of England Who going to Rome for his consecration brought from thence certaine workmen and rich Porphery stones whereof and by whom hee made that curious singular rare pauement before the high Altar in which are circulary written in letters of brasse these ten verses following containing a discourse as one saith of the worlds continuance Si Lector posita prudenter cuncta reuoluat Hic finem primi mobilis inveniet Sepes trina canes equos homines super addas Ceruos coruos aquilas immania cete Mundi quodque sequens pereuntis triplicat annos Sphericus Archetypum globus hic monstrat Macrocosmum Christi milleno bis centeno duodeno Cum sexageno subductis quatuor anno Tertius Henricus Rex vrbs Odoricus Abbas Hos compegere Porphyreos lapides With these stones and workmen he did also frame the Shrine of Edward the Confessor with these verses Anno milleno Domini cum septuageno Et bis centeno cum completo quasi deno Hoc opus est factum quod Petrus duxit in actum Romanus ciuis Homo causam noscere si vis Rex fuit Henricus Sancti presentis amicus This Abbot died the second day of December 1283. after he had gouerned this Monastery three and twenty yeares and more Vpon whose grauestone this briefe
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
l. 10. s. 8. d. per annum Pleshy This Collegiate Church was founded by Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester for Canons regular which was valued in the Kings bookes to be yearely worth one hundred thirty nine pounds three shillings ten pence The vpper part of which Church within these few yeares was taken downe and as I was told in the Towne the Parishioners being either vnwilling or vnable to repaire the decayes carried away the materials which were employed to other vses This part of the Church was adorned and beautified with diuers rich funerall Monuments which were hammered a peeces bestowed and diuided according to the discretion of the Inhabitants Vpon one of the parts of a dismembred Monument carelesly cast here and there in the body of the Church I found these words Here lyeth Iohn Holland Erle of Exceter Erle of Huntington and Chamberleyne of England Who dyed ....... This Iohn was halfe brother to King Richard the second and Duke of Exceter From which dignitie he was deposed by Act of Parliament in the first yeare of King Henry the fourth whose sister he had married and in the same yeare beheaded in this Towne for a seditious conspiracie saith Camden and in the very place where the Duke of Glocester was arrested by King Richard which was in the base court of the Castle of Pleshie now quite ruined that he might seeme saith he to haue beene iustly punished by way of satisfaction for the foresaid Duke of Glocester of whose death he was thought to be the principall procurer He was beheaded the third day after the Epiphanie 1399. 1. Hen. 4. Vpon a broken peece of a faire marble stone reared to the side of a pillar whereupon were the pictures in brasse of an armed knight and his Lady this ensuing disticke was engrauen Militis o miserere tui miserere Parentum Alme deus regnis gaudeat ille tuis Vnder this stone if Tradition may go for truth Sir Edward Holland Earle of Mortaigne sonne of the foresaid Iohn Holland beheaded with his Lady were entombed Orate pro anima Iohannis Scot primi Magistri huius Collegij qui obijt primo die Ianuar. M. cccc.x Qui me psalmasti miserere mei Qui me pretioso tuo sanguine redimisti miserere mei Qui me ad Christianitatem vocasti miserere mei Here lyeth Robert Frevyt a man letterd sowndyt For hys sowl and for all christine sey a Pater Noster and an Ave. But I shall forget the Founder Thomas of Woodstocke the sixth sonne of King Edward the third and Vncle to King Richard who was taken by force from this his Castle of Plessy by Thomas Mowbray Earle Marshall and conuayed to Callis where he was smothered vnder a Featherbed 1397. His body was afterwards conueyed with all funerall pompe into England and buried here in this Church of his owne foundation in a goodly sepulchre prouided by himselfe in his life time Whose reliques were afterwards remoued and laid vnder a marble inlaid with brasse in the Kings Chappell at Westminster In which Church Elianor his wife of whom I haue spoken before lieth entombed with this French inscription who after the death of her husband became a Nunne in the Abbey of Barking within this County Cy gist Aleonore de Bohun aysue fille et vn des heirs l'hounrable seignour Mons. Humfrey de Bohun Counte de Hereford d'Essex et de Northampton et Constable d'Engleterre Femme a puissant et noble prince Tho. de Woodstock Fitz a tresexcellent et tre puisant seignour Edward Roi d'Engleterre puis le Conquest tiers Duc de Glocestre Counte d'Essexie et de Buchingham et Constable d'Engleterre quemorust le tierz iour a'October ban du grace 1399. de gi aisme Dieux face mercy Amen But againe to returne to the Duke her husband touching whose life and death with the manner thereof thus writeth Gower in his booke called Vox clamantis O quam Fortuna stabilis non permanet una Exemplum cujus stat in ordine carminis hujus Rex agit et Cygnus patitur de Corde benignus Ille prostratus non est de Rege levatus Ad Plessye captus tunc est velut Hostia raptus Rex jubet arma geri nec eo voluit misereri Cum Sponsa nati lugent quasi morti gravati Plusque Lupo sevit Rex dummodo Femina flevit Nil pietas munit quem tunc manus invida punit Rex stetit obliquus nec erat tunc unus amicus O Regale genus Princeps quasi pauper egenus Turpiter attractus jacet et sine iure subactus Sunt ibi Fautores Regis de sorte Priores Qui Cygnum pendent vbi captum ducere tendent Sic ducendo ducem perdit sine lumine lucem Anglia que tota tenebrescit luce remota Trans mare natavit regnum qui semper amavit Flent centum mille quia Cygnus preterit ille Calisij portus petit unde dolus latet ortus Error quem Regis genuit putredine legis Carcere conclusus subito fuit ille reclusus Nescit quo fine sit vite sive ruine Tunc Rex elatum sumpsit quasi Falco volatum Vnde suas gentes perdit Custode carentes A little after follow these verses touching the deniall of buriall to bee granted vnto him among the rest of his honourable and royall Ancestors Sic nece devictum sic corpus ab hoste relictum Clam de conclavi susceperat Anglia navi Per mare regreditur corpus nec adhuc sepelitur Namque sepulturam defendit Rex sibi puram Desuper a latere patris loca justa tenere Dummodo quesivit vix bassa sepulchra subivit Of the manner of his death these three verses following Hen quam tortorum quidam de sorte malorum Sic Ducis electi plumarum pondere lecti Corpus quassatum jugulant que necant jugulatum Such was the end of this royall Prince sonne to a King and vncle to a King who by our writers is discommended in this that he was euer repining against the King in all things whatsoeuer he wished to haue forward Erat enim vir ferocissimus precipitis ingenij as Polidor censures him a most fierce man and of an headlong wit who thinking still that those times wherein he had mastred the King were nothing changed though the King was aboue thirty yeeares old forbare not roughlie not so much to admonish as to check and schoole his Soueraigne Hatfield Peuerell So denominated of one Randolph Peuerell the owner thereof to whom Edward the Confessor was very munificent for that hee had married his kinswoman the daughter of Ingelrick a man of great Nobilitie among the English Saxons A Lady of that admirable beautie that with her lookes she conquered the Conquerour William who desired nothing more then to be her prisoner in Armes which to effect hee begins to expresse a kinde of loue to the remembrance of
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
Nottingham Yorke and Northumberland where without respect of age or sexe they laid all wast and left the Land whence they departed like to a desolate wildernesse From thence they came with the like furie into Edmunds territories and sacked Thetford a frequent citie in those daies but hee not able to withstand their violence fled into â—his Castle at Framingham wherein he was of them besieged and lastly taken in a village then called Heglisdune of a wood bearing the same name or rather yeelded himselfe to their torments to saue more christian bloud for it is recorded that because of his most constant Faith and profession those Pagans first beat him with bats then scourged him with whips he still calling vpon the name of Iesus for rage whereof they bound to a stake and with their arrowes shot him to death and cutting off his head contemptuously threw it into a bush after he had raigned ouer the East Angles the space of sixteene yeares Camden out of Abbo Floriacensis saith that the bloudy Danes hauing bound this most christian King to a tree for that he would not renounce christianity shot him with sharpe arrowes all his body ouer augmenting the paines of his torment with continuall piercing him with arrow after arrow and thus inflicted wound vpon wound so long as one arrow could stand by another as a Poet of midle time versified of him I am loca vulneribus desunt nec dum furiofis Tela sed hyberna grandine plura volant Though now no place was left for wound yet arrowes did not faile These surious wretches still they flie thicker then winter haile His body and head after the Danes were departed were buried at the same royall Towne as Abbo termes it where Sigebert the East Anglean King and one of his predecessors at his establishing of Christianity built a Church and where afterwards in honour of him was built another most spatious and of a wonderfull frame of Timber and the name of the Towne vpon that occasion of his buriall called vnto this day Saint Edmundsbury This Church and place to speake more fully to that which I haue written before Suenus the Pagan Danish King in impiety and fury burned to ashes But when his sonne Canute or Knute had made conquest of this Land and gotten possession of the English Crowne terrified and afrighted as saith the Legend with a vision of the seeming Saint Edmund in a religious deuotion to expiate his Fathers sacriledge built it anew most sumptuously enriched this place with Charters and Gifts and offered his owne Crowne vpon the Martyrs Tombe of whom for a conclusion take these verses following Vtque cruore suo Gallos Dionisius ornat Grecos Demetrius gloria quisque suiâ— Sic nos Edmundus nulli virtute secundus Lux patet patrie gloria magna sue Sceptra manum Diadema capud sua purpura corpus Ornat ei sed plus vincula mucro cruor The 20. day of Nouember in our Calender was kept holy in remembrance of this King and Martyr Puer Robertus apud Sanctum Edmundum a Iudeis fuit Martirazatus 4. Id. Iunij An. 1179. et illic sepultus Alanus Comes Britannie obijt An. 1093. his iacet ad hostium australe Sancti Edmundi ex eod lib. de chateris This Allan here buried or as some will haue it in the monastery of Rhedon sirnamed the Red or Fergaunt was the sonne of Eudo Earle of Britaine and entred England with William the Conquerour his Father in Law To whom the said Conquerour gaue the honour and County of Edwyn within the County and Prouince of Yorke by his Charter in these words I William sirnamed Bastard King of England giue and grant to thee my Nephew Allan Earle of Britaine and to thy heyres for euer all those Villages Townes and Lands which were late in possession of Earle Edwin in Yorkeshire with knights fees Churches and other liberties and customes as freely and honourably as the said Edwyn held them Giuen at the siege before Yorke Alban being a man of an high spirit and desirous to gouerne the Prouince entirely which he had receiued built a strong Castle by Gillingham a village which he possessed by which he might defend himselfe not onely against the English who were spoiled of their goods and lands but also against the fury and inuasions of the Danes When the worke was finished he gaue it the name of Richmond of purpose either for the greatnesse and magnificence of the place or for some Castle in little Britaine of the same name Here sometimes vnder a goodly Monument in the Quire of this Abbey Church lay interred the body of Thomas surnamed of Brotherton the place of his birth the fifth sonne of Edward the first after the Conquest king of England by Margaret his second wife the eldest daughter of Philip king of France surnamed the Hardy He was created Earle of Norfolke and made Earle Marshall of England by his halfe brother King Edward the second which Earledomes Roger Bigod the last of that surname Earle of Norfolke and Earle Marshall leauing no issue left to the disposition of the king his Father This Earle died in the yeare of our redemption 1338. Here lay buried the body of Thomas Beauford sonne of Iohn of Gaunt begotten of the Lady Katherine Swyneford his third wife who by King Henry the fourth was made Admirall then Captaine of Calis and afterwards Lord Chancellour of England He was created by the said King Earle of Perch in Normandy and Earle of Dorlet in England And lastly in the fourth yeare of King Henry the fifth he was created Duke of Exceter and made knight of the order of the Garter He had the leading of the Rereward at the battell of Agincourt and the gouernment of king Henry the sixth appointed to that office by the foresaid Henry the fifth on his death-bed He valiantly defended Harflew in Normandy whereof he was gouernour against the Frenchmen and in a pitched field encountring the Earle of Armiguar put him to flight He died at his House of East Greenwich in Kent vpon Newyeares day the fifth of Henry the sixth for whom all England mourned saith Milles The body of Mary Queene of France widow of Lewis the twelfth daughâ—er of King Henry the 7. and sister to king Henry the eight was here in this Abbey Church entombed After the death of Lewis with whom she liued not long shee married that Martiall and pompous Gentleman Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke She died on Midsomer Eeue 1533. Iohn Boon Abbot of this Monasterie had his tombe and interrement here in this Church who died in the beginning of February in the ninth yeare of the raigne of king Edward the fourth as appeares by the said kings Conged'eslire or permission royall to the Prior and Couent of this House to make choise of another Abbot as followeth Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Anglie Francie
buried in the euening by certaine men who had that charge who were called Vespillons Men of meaner ranke howsoeuer neuer so rich were not allowed this princely kinde of production to their graues for their corps were borne vpon their seruants shoulders whom they had manumitted a little before their deaths with a Trumpet onely sounding before them and some lights according to this of Persius Satyre 3. Then were prepared for his Funerall The Trumpet and the Lights And last of all This seeming happie man that would not doubt His health being composedly laid out On his high bed his biere and now daub'd o're And eu'n bedurted with th' abundant store Of ointments stretcheth tow'rd the citie gate His cold dead heeles and those whose best estate But yesterday was but to be his slaue Now weare their caps and beare him to his graue Man and woman though of equall degree and qualitie were borne in a different manner to their graues Man was borne vpon mens shoulders to signifie his dignitie and superioritie ouer his wife and woman at the armes end to signifie that being inferiour to man in her life time she should not be equalled with him at her death Which vse continued a long time vntill women by renouncing the world and liuing monasticall religious liues got such an honourable esteeme in the world that they were thought no lesse worthie of honour in that kinde then men and when as a widow dâ—ed hauing hâ—d but one husband they carried her to her graue with a crowne of chastitie vpon her head Condemned persons as they are now adayes were carried in waines or carts because they were thought vnworthy to bee borne by men who by their wicked demerits had procured the hand of iustice to cut them off by vntimely death from the societie of men CHAP. IIII. Of the excessiue expenses bestowed at Funeralls in former times I Might include within this Chapter and not impertinently to these contents the ancient customes and manners of burying the dead in all Nations throughout all the habitable world but that would make the gate bigger then the citie this discourse of a greater bulke then all the rest of the booke besides you may finde this Treatise touched vpon in the Volumne of the Estates Empires and Principalities of the world as also in the Treasurie of Ancient and moderne Times the sixth booke where hee speakes of diuers customes and fashions of buriall of ancient obsequies and their ceremonies onely then a little of so much because I would not stray beyond my limits The ancient Romanes did vse them that were dead after two manners and they had two kindes of obsequies the first and most ancient was to couer the dead with earth and to bury them as we doe the other to burne their bodies but this manner did not continue long Sepeliri antiquius fuisse quam cremari Plin. lib. 7. cap. 54. Cremari apud Romanos non suit veâ—eris instituti terra condebantur at postquam longinquis hellis obrutos eruâ— cognouere est institutum tamen multae familiae priscos seruauere ritus Manut. de leg Rom. sol 125. Numa Pompilius was the inuenter of obsequies and hee instituted a high Priest who had the charge The first honour which they vsed to performe in the obsequies of famous persons was to commend the partie by an Oration Valerius Publicola made a funerall oration on the death and in the praise of Brutus In like manner Iulius Caesar being but twelue yeares old commended his grandfather and Tiberius at the age of nine yeares praised his father The second honour was to make Sword-players to fight Marcus and Decius sonnes to Iunius Brutus were the first that did practise this in honour of their father The third honour was to make a feast of magnificent furnishment The fourth was a distribution of meat to all the common people And such as I haue said before as could not be buried with the like and so great pompe for the expenses were in supportable were buried in the night time by the Vespillons clothed all in white who carried the dead body to his graue They had likewise an order that within some while after the obsequies they would strew diuers flowers and sweet odours upon the sepulchre as the Romane people did vpon the funerall monument of Scipio And also they accustomed yearely to garnish decke and adorne the tombes or graues of the dead with poesies crownes and garlands of all sorts of flowers Husbands saith Saint Ierom ad Pammachum were wont to straw spread or scatter ouer and vpon the graues and sepulchres of their deceased deare wiues violets roses lillies hyacinths and diuers purple flowers by which vxorious office they did mitigate and lessen the griefe of their hearts conceiued by the losse of their louing bedfâ—llowes The like expression of mutuall loue wiues shewed to their buried husbands Now aboue all flowers in these ceremonious obseruances the Rose was in greatest request and had the sole preheminence Romani saith Kirkman de Funeribus Romanorum lib. 4. cap. 3. verò Rosarum fuere studiosi vt ijs post mortem monimenta sua spargi supremo iudicio nonnunquam iusserint legato ad hanc rem relictâ— cui plerumque haec erat conditio ut in Rauennati inscriptione legimus vt quotannis Rosas ad monumentum eius deâ—errent ibique epularentur To which Io. Passeratius in his Rosa thus alludes Manibus est imis Rosa grata grata Sepulchris Et Rosa flos Florum Vnto the Tombes and Spirits of the dead The Rose is gratefull of all flowers the head And Anacreon in praise of the Rose thus sings in one of his odes I will vse the Latine translation Rosa honor decusque florum Rosa cura amorque veris Rosa coelitum voluptas And in another ode in commendation of the Rose more aptly to this purpose thus Medicatur haec aegris Defendit haec sepultos The Rose full many griefes doth cure Defends corps laid in sepulture The ancient Ethnicks did hold the springing of flowers from the graue of a deceased friend an argument of his happinesse and it was their vniuersall wish That the Tombe stones of their dead friends might bee light vnto them and that a perpetuall spring-tide of all kinde of fragrant flowers might incircle their verdant graues According to this of Persius Sat. 7. Dij maiorum vmbris tenuem sine pondere terram Spirantesque crocos in vrna perpetuum ver Lie earth light on their bones may their graues beare Fresh fragrant flowers let springtide still liue there But to come backe againe The magnificence in burning the bodies of the dead did farre exceed in charges all other kindes of funerall for which the bodies of persons of principall regard as you may reade in the Trauelles of George Sandys they burnt rich odours gold iewels apparell heards of cattell flocks of sheepe horses hounds and sometimes the concubines and slaues whom they
these Ethnicke lamentations and fearefull howlings for the dead by hired mourners were prohibited yet moderate weeping and mourning at Funeralls was neuer dissallowed nay it hath been euer highly commended accounted the chiefe grace of Funerals promised for a blessing to the godly and the want thereof a malediction or curse and moderately to mourne after the interment of our friends is a manifest token of true loue by it wee expresse that naturall affection wee had to the departed with a Christian-like moderation of our griefe whereby our faith to God ward is demonstrated For as God hath made vs liuing so hath he made vs louing creatures to the end we should not be as stocks and stones voide of all kinde and naturall affection but that liuing and louing together the loue of the one should not end with the life of the other And now to go a little further I say that to mourne and sorrow for parents children husbands wiues kindred and friends is not any matter of noueltie but most ancient Abraham mourned and wept for his wife Sarah Dauid could not hide his fatherly affection toward his sonne Absolon although he was a traitour to his father Dauid the King for so soone as hee heard of his death he went up to the chamber ouer the gate as the text is and wept and as hee went thus he said O my sonne Absolon my sonne my sonne Absolon would God I had died for thee O Absolon my sonne my sonne Dauid also hearing of the death of murdered Abner whom he respected as a deare friend said vnto Ioab who slew Abner and to all the people that were with him Rent your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourne before the corps of Abner and king Dauid himselfe followed the Beere And when they had buried Abner in Hebron the king lifted vp his voice and wept beside the Sepulchre of Abner and all the people wept Now it being the custome of the Israelites to feast and banquet at their burials â—he people came to cause Dauid such is the Scripture phrase to eate meate while it was yet day but Dauid sware saying So doe God to me and more also if I taste bread or ought else till the Sunne bee downe and aâ—l the people knew it and it pleased them saith the Text. Our aâ—l perfect and Almighty Sauiour Christ Iesus wept ouer the graue of dead Lazarus whom he reuiued wherupon the standers by said among themselues behold how he loued him The ancient Romanes before they were Christians mourned nine moneths but being Christians they vsed mourning a whole yeare clothed in blacke for the most part for women were clothed partly in white and partly in blacke according to the diuersitie of Nations And if any Christian man or woman in those parts wearing mourning came to agree againe in a second marriage during the yeare appointed for mourning the Matrimony was stayed but thenceforward hee nor shee were bound to weare any more mourning These examples considered I obserue that wee in these dayes doe not weepe and mourne at the departure of the dead so much nor so long as in Christian dutie we ought For husbands can burie their wiues and wiues their husbands with a few counterfeit teares and a sowre visage masked and painted ouer with dissimulation contracting second marriages before they haue worne out their mourning garments and sometimes before their cope mates be cold in their graues Young heires may attend vpon the corps of their parents to their buriall places seemingly making great shewes of inward griefe and sorrow but Haeredis flectus sub persona risus est The weeping of an heire is laughing vnder a visard or disguise And if his father haue impaired or not augmented his state and inheritance this young master will reduce the conuoy of his fathers obsequies to some vnwonted parsimonie answerable to these verses of Persius in the sixth and last Satyre if thou impaire thy wealth thy angred heire Of thy last funerall feast will take small care And with neglect into thy vrne will throw Thy bones without perfumes carelesse to know Whether he buy dull-smelling Cinnamum Or Casia corrupt with cherry gumme Now howsoeuer the procuration of funerals the manner of buriall the pompe of obsequies bee rather comforts to the liuing then helpes to the dead and although all these ceremonies be despised by our parents on their death-beds yet should they not be neglected by vs their children or nearest of kindred vpon their interments But funerals in any expensiue way here with vs are now accounted but as a fruitlesse vanitie insomuch that almost all the ceremoniall rites of obsequies heretofore vsed are altogether laid aside for wee see daily that Noblemen and Gentlemen of eminent ranke office and qualitie are either silently buried in the night time with a Torch a two-penie Linke and a Lanterne or parsimoniously interred in the day-time by the helpe of some ignorant countrey-painter without the attendance of any one of the Officers of Armes whose chiefest support and maintenance hath euer depended vpon the performance of such funerall rites and exequies So that now by reason of this generall neglect of Funeralls and the sleight regard wee haue of the needfull vse of Heraulds many and great errours are daily committed to the great offence and preiudice of the ancient Nobilitie and Gentrie of this Kingdome and to the breeding of many ambiguous doubts and questions which may happen in their Descents and issues in future ages And nothing will be shortly left to continue the memory of the deceased to posteritie pilfery and the opinion some haue that Tombes and their Epitaphs taste somewhat of Poperie hauing already most sacrilegiously stolne erazed and taken away almost all the Inscriptions and Epitaphs cut writ inlaid or engrauen vpon the Sepulchres of the deceased and most shamefully defaced the glorious rich Tombes and goodly monuments of our most worthy Ancestours It could bee wished that some order might betaken for the preseruation of these few which are as yet remaining for to mine owne knowledge by the obseruation I haue made in many Churches the Monuments of the dead are daily thus abused CHAP. V. The reasons wherefore so many haue made their owne Monuments in their life-time Of the care that all or most of all men haue of decent buriall The buriall of the dead a worke acceptable vnto God A funerall Hymne of Aurelius Prudentius to the like purpose IT was vsuall in ancient times and so it is in these our dayes for persons of especiall ranke and qualitie to make their owne Tombes and Monuments in their life-time partly for that they might haue a certaine house to put their head in as the old saying is whensoeuer they should bee taken away by death out of this their Tenement the world and partly to please themselues in the beholding of their dead countenance in marble But most especially because thereby they thought to preserue their memories from
obliuion Absolon in his life time erected a pillar to retaine the memory of his name in that his issue male failed Will you heare the Text. Now Absolon in his life-time had taken and reared him vp a pillar which is in the Kings dale for hee said I haue no sonne to keepe my name in remembrance and hee called the pillar after his owne name and it is called vnto this day Absolons place This pillar which Absolon intended for the place of his sepulture hewne and framed out of the rocke or growing stone is to bee seene at this day saith Sandys all entire and of a goodly fabricke But to returne euery man like Absolon desires a perpetuity after death by these monuments or by other meanes according to that of Tertullian in his booke De Testimonio animae Quis non hodie saith hee memoriae post mortem frequentandae ita studet vt vel literaturae operibus vel simplici laude morum vel ipsorum sepulchrorum ambitione nomen suum seruet These that in their life time do thus build their owne sepulchres and take care in the ceremonious disposing of their funeralls would no question lay this charge vpon those which they must of necessity trust in the performance of their Wills and Testaments and employ their last dayes and houres in more heauenly designes if they did not oftentimes see in their course of life that as well heires as executours interre both the honour and memory of the defunct together with his corps perfidiously forgetting their fidelity to the deceased Of which will it please you reade this old inscription depicted vpon a wall within S. Edmunds Church in Lumbard-street London Man the behovyth oft to haue yis in mind Yat thow geueth wyth yin hond yat sall thow fynd For widowes be sloful and chyldren beth vnkynd Executors beth couetos and kep al yat yey fynd If eny body esk wher the deddys goodys becam Yey ansquer So God me help and halidam he died a poor man Yink on yis Io. Gower in his additions to his booke called Vox clamantis hath these verses contra mortuorum Executores much what to the same effect Dicunt Scripture memorare nouissima vite Pauper ab hoc mundo transiet omnis homo Dat Fortuna status varios Natura sed omnes Fine suo claudit cunctaque morte rapit Post mortem pauci qui nunc reputantur amici Sunt memores anime sis memor ipse tue Da dum tempus habes tibi propria sit manus heres Auferet hoc nemo quod dabis ipse Deo Vpon these and the like considerations they vsed as they now doe to inscribe or engraue these kinde of monuments with certaine sentences to this effect Fallax saepe fides testataque vota peribunt Constitues tumulum si sapis ipse tuum Or thus Certa dies nulli mors certa incerta sequentum Cura locet tumulum qui sapit ipse sibi Concluding most commonly with these words Viuus fecit Viuus faciendum curauit Viuus sibi posuit Se vino fecit Viuus hoc sibi fecit monumentum and the like Some erected their sepulchres whilst they were liuing concluding their inscriptions thus Sibi coniugi Sibi coniugi Liberis Sibi posteris And some that would not haue their wiues heires nor any other entombed therein thus Hoc monumentum heredes non sequuntur Or thus Rogo per deos superos inferosque ossa nostra ne violes This care of buriall moued Augustus Caesar to build his funerall monument in the sixth yeare of his Consulship for himselfe and the succeeding Emperours The like reason moued Hadrian to build his Tombe or Sepulchre neare vnto the bridge Aelium for the Mausoleum of Augustus was full as Xiphilinus writes in the life of Hadrian And to bring you this honie example the like consideration moued King Henry the seuenth in the eighteenth yeare of his raigne to build that glorious faire Chappell at Westminster for an house of buriall for himselfe his children and such onely of the bloud-royall as should descend from his Ioynes forbidding that any other of what degree or qualitie soeâ—uer should euer be interred in that sacred mould as appeares by his last Will and Testament Saint Augustine saith that the Funerals of the righteous in the times of old were performed with a zealous care their burials celebrated and their Monuments prouided in their life time Great hath been the care of buriall saith Camden euer since the first times insomuch that Fathers would lay charges vpon their children concerning the buriall and translating of their bodies euery one being desirous to returne in Sepulchra maiorum into the sepulchres of their Ancestours Iacob at his death charged his sonne Ioseph to carry his body into the sepulchre of his fathers And Ioseph himselfe commanded his brethren that they should remember and tell their posâ—eritie that when they went away into the land of promise they should carry his bones thither with them Abraham Isaac Iacob Sarah Rebecca Leah and Ioseph were buried together in one Sepulchre The kings of Aegypt accustomed to awe their subiects by threatning to depriue them of buriall And it was a penaltie of the law amongst the Romanes He that doth this or that let him be cast forth vnburied and so in the declamations He that forsakes his parents in their necessities let him be cast forth vnburied An Homicide let him be cast forth vnburied And so speakes Cicero to the peoples humour for Milo when hee affirmes his carcase to be more wretched because it wanted the solemne rites of funerall Commanders in warres vsed to terrifie their enemies with the want of buriall according to this speech of Hector in the fifteenth booke of Homers Iliads Then Hector cri'd out take no spoile but rush on to the fleete From whose assault for spoile nor flight if any man I meete He meetes his death nor in the fire of holy funerall His brothers nor his sisters hands shall cast within our wall His lothed body but without the throtes of dogs shall graue His manlesse limbes The people of Israel crying vnto God against the barbarous tyranny of the Babylonians who spoiled Gods inheritance polluted his Temple destroyed his religion and murdered his chosen Nation amongst other calamities thus they complaine for the want of sepulture The dead bodies of thy seruants haue they giuen to be meat vnto fowles of the heauen and the flesh of thy Saints vnto the beasts of the earth Their bloud haue they shed like waters round about Ierusalem and there was none to bury them God commands Elias to tell Iezebel that for her wickednesse the dogs should eate vp her flesh in the field of Iesreel and that her carcase should be as doung vpon the ground in the said field of Iesreel so that none should say this is Iezebel The seduced Prophet because he
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
ghost would giue ouer walking as though all the dues of funerall had beene really performed to him at his death as in Ausonius Voce ciere animas funeris instar habet And agaâ—ne Ille etiam moesti cui defuit vrna sepulchri Nomine ter dicto paene sepultus erit Aeneas saluted the soule of Deiphobus the sonne of old Priam at his Cenotaph after the same manner The rumour went How in the night extreme of Greekish slaughters wearie spent Thou headlong threw'st thy selfe on mixed heape of enemies slaine Then I my selfe to thee an emptie Tombe on Rheta plaine Aduancing vp did build and thrice thy soule saluted cleere Thy name and armes that place preserues but thee O friend so deare Could I not see that in thy countrey-ground I might interre Then Deiphobus said Nothing sweet friend can I require All duties done thou hast nor more my ghost can thee desire You haue the manner of sacrificing about these Cenotaphs expressed in Virgil lib. 3. Aen. where Andromache celebrates the Anniuersary of her slaine husband arme-puissant Hector thus Great sacrifice by chance that time and gifts with heauie minde Before the Towne in greenwood shade by Simois water side Andromache to Hectors dust with seruice did prouide And dainties great of meat she brought and on his soule she cride At Hectors Tombe that greene with grasse and turfs stood her beside And causes more to mourne thereby two Altars had she set The solemnitie of Polydores obit at his emptie hearse is described in the said booke much what after the same manner Anon therefore to Polydore an Hearse we gan prepare And huge in height his Tombe we reare all Altars hanged are With weeds of mourning hewes and cypres trees and blacke deuise And Troian wiues with haire disclosde as is their guise Great fomy boules of milke we threw luke-warme on him to fall And holy bloud in basons brought we poure and last of all We shrikt and on his soule our last with great outcries we call And much what to the same purpose are these verses in Ouids Metam lib. 6. fab 7. Progne her royall ornaments reiects And puts on blacke an emptie Tombe erects To her imagin'd ghost oblations burnes Her sisters fate not as she should she mournes To the memory of the Grecians slaine in the warres of Troy a Cenotaph was set vp at Corinth In the expedition of Cyrus an emptie sepulchre was built for the slaine and mangled souldiers whose reliques could not be found The Romanes sixe yeares after the slaughter made by Arminius of so many of their Legions erected a Cenotaph or couered with earth the remaines of their friends and kindred howsoeuer it was vncertaine whether they buried the stranger or friend And Caesar to shew a gratefull memory of the dead and himselfe to be partaker of their griefe with his owne hands put the first turfe on their Tombes The Primitiue Christians did exhibite a religious honour to the Cenotaphs of holy men to whose memory many in those dayes were erected which for the profession of the Gospell had suffered martyrdome or vndergone those variety of torments which were as then inflicted vpon the faithfull as you may reade in Theodoret. lib. de Martyr and in these Saphicks of Aurelius Prudentius Nonne Vincenti peregre necatus Martyr his terris tenui notasti Sanguinis rore speciem futuri morte propinqua Hoc colunt ciues velut ipsa membra Cespes includat suus paterno Seruet amplectens tumulo beati Martyris ossa It was and is the vse in most countries to inscribe these emptie monuments as reall sepulchres with the names and titles of the defunct to whose honour they were intended As in Ouid. Meta lib. 11. fab 10. Seas fright me with their tragicall aspect Of late I saw them on the shore eiect Their scattered wracks and often I haue read Sad names on Sepulchres that want their dead And a little after in the same fable where Alcyone mournes for her drownd husband Ceix thus would I with thee Had put to sea a happie fate for me Then both together all the time assignd For life had liu'd nor in our death disioynd Now here I perisht there on that profound Poore I was wrackt yet thou without me drownd O I then flouds more cruell should I striue To lengthen life and such a griefe suruiue Nor will I nor forsake thee nor deferre Though one vrne hold not both one Sepulchre Shall ioyne our titles though thy bones from mine The seas disseuer yet our names shall ioyne Death choakt the rest Our Ancients accustomed likewise to garnish decke and adorne these cenotaphs as other tombes or sepulchres and that with all kinde of reuerence and whosoeuer did deface or breake downe any of these Honorarie void Monuments exemplarie punishment was inflicted vpon the partie so offending as vpon your Tumboruchoi or graue-diggers But I will conclude this chapter with this difference of Sepulchres and Cenotaphs as I finde it recorded by Scipio Gentilis Sepulchrorum sanctitas saith he in ipso solo est quod nulla vi moueri neque deleri potest Cenotaphiorum vero in ipsa religione reuerentia viuorum quae mutari deleri potest CHAP. VIII Of the sanctity ascribed sometimes to ancient Funerall monuments and of the ardent desire most men haue and euer had to visit the Tombes and Sepulchres of eminent worthy persons FVnerall Monuments especially of the godly and religious haue euer beene accounted sacred Batti veteris sacrum Sepulchrum The sacred Sepulchre Of old Bat loe is here saith Catullus To which effect Quintilian Declam 10. Sacratos morte lapides etiam ossa cineres ossa religiosè quiescentia fracta sparsisset vrna And they were accounted the more sacred by how much they were of more continuance Sepulchra sanctiora sunt vetustate saith Vlpian And as in the Seâ—pulchres themselues there was euer holden to bee a kinde of sanctiâ—ie so there was holden to bee the like or more holinesse in the soile whereupon these sepulchres were made and erected And such a holinesse as I haue said before quod nulla vi moueri neque deleri potest and more especially in that ground wherein the bodies of Christians were interred by reason of the sanctified corps that it receiued It is an vse in some parts of Ireland as yet not altogether abolished for children to sweare by their forefathers hand or by their Lords hand And in the countrey where I was borne the vulgar sort especially doe most commonly sweare by the crosse of their owne Parish Kirke as they call it and in ancient times children vsed to sweare by the Sepulchres of their parents Others by the sepulchres of such persons who in their life time were reputed honourable amongst them either in regard of the worthinesse of their person or of the eminence of place of gouernment which they held in the weale publike And by these oathes the things
was commanded by the Law Deâ—em pondo auri Fisco inferre to bring ten pound weight of gold into the â—xchequer But the most execrable and hellish abuse of all other offered to the dead is effected by witchcraft incantation and Art-magicke an art saith Quinâ—â—lâ—aâ—s Declam 15. which is said to disquiet the Gods to trouble and displace the starres to search into the graues and sepulchres of the dead to mutilate dismember and cut off certaine parts of the carcases therein inhumed and by those pairings and cuttings together with certaine horrid enchantments charmes and spels to bring to passe strange diabolicall conclusions The powerfull force of which coniurers witches or infernall Hags is thus exprest by the ancient Poets Skill'd in blacke Artes she makes streames backward 〈◊〉 The vertues knowes of weeds of laces spunne On wheeles and poyson of a lust-stung mâ—re Faire daies makes cloudy and the cloudy faâ—â— Starres to drop bloud the moone looke bloudily And plum'd aliue doth through nights shadows flyâ— The dead cals from their graues to further harmes And cleaues the solid earth with her long charmes She said her charmes could ease ones heart of paine Euen when she list and make him grieue againe Sâ—op flouds bring backe the starres and with her breath Rouse the blacke fiends vntill the earth beneath Groand and the trees came marching from the â—ills These witches spels loues soft desires haue sent Into the hardest hearts gainst fates intent Seuere old men haue burnd in impious loue Which temp'red drinks and Philirums could not moue the dull world aâ— their Dire voice has been benum'd great Iupiter Vrging their course himselfe admir'd to see The poles not mou'd by their swift axleâ—tree Showres they haue made clouded the clearest skie And he auenâ—as thundred Ioue not knowing why But not to speake thus in generall of their power and come nearer to the purpose Sextus the sonne of great Pompey desirous to know the euent of the Pharsalian warres consults thereof with the witch Erictho who amongst many her powerfull charmes resolues to take vp the body of one lately buried which she by her Art-magicke would coniure to disclose the sad issue of his and his fathers fates as it is thus in the Argument of the said sixth booke To the dire witch Erictho Sextus goes This fatall warres sad issue to disclose She quickens a dead carcase which relates To Sextus eare his and his Fathers Fates And crauing then deaths freedome to obtaine Is by a magicke spell dissolu'd againe Now in the booke following Lucan makes young Sextus thus to woe and sollicite the old witch Erictho for the speedie knowledge of the warres euent thus Pompey's fearefull sonne best aâ—e Wisest of all Thessalians that canst make Foreknowne all things to come and turne aâ—ay The course of destiny to me I pray The certaine end of this warres chance relate â— am â—o meane part of the Romane state Great Pompey's sonne now either Lord of all â—r wofull heire of his great funerall My mind though â—ounded now with doubtfull feare â— well resolu'd any knowne woe to beare 〈…〉 from chance this power it may not fall 〈◊〉 and suddaine on me the Gods call Or spare the Gods and force the truth out from The ghosts below open Elysium â—all forth grâ—mâ—â—e death himselfe bid him relate Which of the two is giuen to him by fate Tâ—is no meane taske but labour worthie thee To search what end of this great warre shall be The witch makes a replication with an expression as also a limitation of her magicke power in these words The â—mpious witch proud of a fame so spread Replies young man wouldst thou haue altered Some meâ—ner fate it had been easily done â— could haue forcâ—d to any action 〈◊〉 unwilling Gods I can preserue the breath Of him whom all the starres haue doomb'd to death And though the planets all conspire to make Him old the midst of his lifes course can breake But Fates and thuâ—der of great causes all Worke downeward from the worlds originall When all mankinde depend on one successe If there you would change ought our arts confesse â—ortune has greater power but if content â—oâ— be alone to know this warres euent Many and easie wayes for vs there be To finde out truth the earth the sea the sky Tâ—e dead the Rodopeian rock and fields Shall speake 〈◊〉 But since late slaughter yeeldâ— Such choice of carcases in Thessaly 〈◊〉 vp one of those who easiest be That a warme new-slaine carcase with a cleare â—â—â—elligible voice may greet your eare 〈◊〉 by the sunne the organs parch'd and spillâ—d The dismall ghost vncertaine hissings yeild â—rictho hauing raised vp a dead carcase by her damnable incantations and possest his inward parts with some diabolicall spirit who by and thorow 〈…〉 gans might giue to her and young Sextus some satisfactory answers 〈◊〉 she goes forward with her demands Speake quoth Erictho what I aske and well Shalt thou rewarded be if truth thou tell 〈◊〉 our Hamonian art I le set thee free Throughout all ages and bestow on thee Such funeralls with charmes so burne thy bones Thy ghost shall heare no incantations Let this the fruit of thy reuiuall be No spels no herbs shall dare to take from thee Thy long safe rest when I haue made thee die The Gods and Prophets answer doubtfully But he that dares enquire of ghosts beneath And boldly go to th' oracles of death Is plainly told the truth spare not but name Plainly the things and places all and frame A speech wherein I may conferre with fate Adding a charme to make him know the state Of whatsoe're she askt thus presently The weeping carcase spake The deuill in his conference with the Sompner who to tell you by the way Is a renner vp and doun With maundements fornicatioun And is y beat at euery tounes end Amongst other his subtilties relates this for one by way of interrogation thus Yet tell me quoth this Sompner faithfully Make ye you new bodies thus alway Of elements the fiend answerd nay Sometime we faine and sometime we arise With dead bodies and that in sundry wise And speake as renably faire and well As the Phitonesse did to Samuel This violation or fearefull disturbance of the dead was punished with extreme tortures and afterwards by decollation Kelley otherwise called Talbot that famous English Alchymist of our times who flying out of his owne countrey after he had lost both his cares at Lancaster was entertained with Rodolph the second and last of that Christian name Emperour of Germany for whom Elizabeth of famous memory sent very secretly Captaine Peter Gwinne with some others to perswade him to returne backe to his owne natiue home which hee was willing to doe and thinking to escape away in the night by stealth as he was clammering ouer a wall in his owne house in Prague which beares his name to this day and which sometime was an old Sanctuary
from the women lest they should giue occasion of scandall wherefore Saint Brigide desiring to reuiue this order she found meanes how without any suspition the Church and house should be common to boâ—h She ordained that they should weare a russet habit with a cloke of the same colour with a red crosse vpon their breasts Shee would haue but sixtie Nunnes and fiue and twentie Monkes in euery Monasterie that is to say thirteene Priests according to the number of the thirteene Apostles comprehending Saint Paul Then foure Deacons who might also be Priests and represented the foure Doctors of the Church and eight Conueâ—ts who might alwayes be readie to labour for the affaires of the house so as the Friers and Nunnes all together made the number of the thirteene Apostles and the seuentie two Disciples of our Sauiour And to the end they might be distinguished one from another the Priests carried a red Crosse vpon the left side of their cloke vnder which crosse they put a little peece of white cloth as broad as a wafer which they offered vp in reuerence of the holy Sacrament And the foure Deacons for a difference from the Priests carried a round wreath of white cloth which signified as they gaue out the sapience of the foure Doctors whom they represented and vpon it they put foure little peeces of red made like vnto tongues to shew that the holy Ghost inflamed their tongues to deliuer the sacred mysteries of Diuinity The Conuerts wore a white crosse vpon their clokes to shew the innocencie of their liues vpon which there were fiue peeces of red in commemoration of the fiue wounds of our Sauiour At the dissolution there was a Couent of this Order at Sion in Mid'e sexe now a mansion goodly faire house belonging to the right honourable the Earle of Northumberland This holy Lady Brigid died at Rome and her daughter Katherine Princesse of Nerice caused the rule after her death to be confirmed by Poâ—e Vrâ—â—â— the fifth She came to Rome at the age of two and fourtie where she continued eight and twentie yeares she was canonized in the yeare of Grace 1391. There was another S. Brigid of Ireland farre more ancient It is said that the image of our Sauiour spoke to this pious Queene of Sweden as she was saying her orizons before the high Altar in the Church of Saint Paul in Via Ostiensi Rome as appeares by an inscription vpon a table hanging in the same Church which I haue seene As many orders or neare thereabouts as were of Friers so many were of Nunnes here and beyond Seas for men in the feruencie of deuotion did not precede the weaker sex of religious women The strictest Order of Nunnes is that of S. Clare A Lady who liued in the same time and was borne in the same Towne of Assile with S. Francis Which Towne to this day brags of the birth of two such worthie persons These Clares obserue the rule of their Patron S. Francis and weare the like habit in colour They are neuer rich and therefore to this day wheresoeuer they doe inhabite they are called the poore Clares This Saint Clare was the first Nunne of Saint Francis Order and her Mother and Sister vndertooke the same vow Sancta Clara que in vita in morte mirabiliter miraculis claruit Beata Agnes soror sancte Clare beata Ortulana mater eorundem fuere ordinis Franciscorum Saint Clare who both in life and death was wondrously famous by her miracles S. Agnes her sister and Ortulana her mother were of the order of S. Francis This S. Clare saith her Legend touching the world was of rightworthy and honourable linage and as touching the spirit to the regard of the state of vertues and holy manners towards God of right noble reputation Hauing spoken already of such religious persons as I finde to haue liued here in England in Coenobies or Couents at the time of the generall dissolution it remaines now to say somewhat of Hermits and Anchorites who had at that time their solitaire little cells or cabbins in diuers places of this kingdome which carrie still the name of Hermitages in and about the countrey and Anchor-holds in Parish or Abbey Churches They were called Hermites or Eremites for that they liued solitarily in desarts and wildernesses and Anchorites because they liued alone without all company immured betwixt two walls in the out side of some Abbey or Parish-Church in which by their rule they were to liue die and to bee buried Whose exercise was feruent prayer handy labour digging and filling vp againe their graues which were to be within their lodgings Of the beginning and first Authors of the Hermites life there is great question which I leaue vnto the learned and adhere to the common receiued opinion which affirmes that the times of persecution were the first cause of this kinde of life For when as in the time of Decius and Valerianus Emperours about two hundred fiftie and two yeares after Christ they prepared horrible torments against the Christians many distrusting the weaknesse of the flesh and searing to denie the name of God by their intollerable persecutions thought it fittest to seeke their safetie by flight Wherefore many leauing Townes frâ—ends and all their wealth retired themselues into desarts and held themselues in solitarie places and caues where they buâ—lt poore cottages Yea many times they went wandring vp and downe in thicke woods lest they should bee taken But when the surie of their tâ—ranâ— ceased they returned not vnto the world but liued voluntarily in desarts so being accustomed to diuine contemplation and a quick kinde of 〈◊〉 they continued in the course vntill death Among the first which entred into this course of life was Paul of Thebes who liued in a caue at the foote of a rocke about the yeare of our redemption 260. The second was Saint Antonie of Aegypt who built himselfe a cottage vpon the top of an high hill where he died hauing liued one hundred and fiue yeares in the yeare 34â—â— S. Hierome of Stridone in Dalmatia that learned and religious Doct 〈◊〉 the like life in the desarts of Syria not farre from Jerusalem In quo loâ—o deserto se ieiunijs macerabat plangebat orabat sludebat atque etiam â—â—m mentabatur In which vninhabited place he macerated or made leane his bodie with fastings he lamented and bewailed his sinnes he pâ—ayed he studied and writ certaine Comments vpon the sacred Scriptures Many other workes he writ before his death which happened about the yeare of our Lord 388. But to come nearer home where the repute and godlinesse of these Hermites or Anchorites for both of them liuing from the companie and conuersation of men were called sometimes by the name of Hermites and some other time of Anchorites was likewise had in venerable regard for we reade that when seuen British Bishops with other learned men of the Monasâ—â—â—â—e of
London with a strong wall and a deepe Moat beene â—ased the reuenewes of his See adorned it with many sumptuous and staâ—ely buildings and procured diuers notable priuiledges for the same and to repaire the bookes and Library of this Church he gaue the Church of Halegast he finished a Collegiate Church at Lambeth of Canons regular begun by Baldwin his predecessour Which vpon the complaint of the Monkes of Canterbury to the Pope was pulled downe to the ground Maâ—ny oppositions were betwixt him and the Pope and many times he was discountenanced by King Iohn yet apparently he died in both their fauours at his Manor of Tenham Iuly 13. 1205. Hauing sat Archbishop twelue yeares sauing foure moneths Here lieth entombed the body of Stephen Langton Archbishop whose election to this See against the Kings will was the cause of many calamities within this kingdome the greatest part whereof fell vpon the Clergie Of which heare my Authour Bishop Hubert of Canterbury tho died Wherefore Kyng Iohn vnto the Couent sente To chose his Clarke whych they refused and denied Wherefore the kyng was wroth in his entente For they disobeyed the lettre whych he sente For they had chosen Mayster Stephan Langton An worthy Clarke of all disposicion Whom kyng Iohn then wold not admytte For Romayn Bull ne for the Prelates prayer But prisoned some and some to death commytte Some he exiled and theyr eyen clere And all persounes and Prelates in fere He then put out and seazed theyr benefice Through all the lande as his mortall enemyes The Romysh Byshoppe curssed hym openly And all the realme fully did enterdite That Sacraments none therin should occupie But howsoeuer these mischiefes happened vpon his admittance yet the man in regard of his many excellent gifts both of body and minde was no way to be misliked but much to be commended for his religious wise carriage liuing vnder so violent a King And in such troublesome vngodly times to whom this Distichon taken out of Martials Epigrams to Traian warfaring vnder Diocletian was applied Laudari debes quoniam sub principe duro Temporibusque malis ausus es esse bonus descended he was from an ancient familie in Lecestershire brought vp in the Vniuersitie of Paris greatly esteemed by the King and all the Nobility of France for his singular and rare learning made Chancellour of Paris and Cardinall of Rome 〈◊〉 S. Chrysogoni Hee writ many admirable profound workes and amongst the rest diuided the Bible into Chapters in such sort as we now account them he bestowed much vpon his palace here in Canterbury and vpon a faire Horologe in the South-crosse Isle Yet the solemnitie of the translation of Thomas Beckets bones was so chargeable vnto him as neither he nor foure of his successours were able to recouer the debt he cast his Church into He died Iuly 9. 1228. hauing sate Archbishop 22. yeares Here in this Church but in what particular place my Author knowes not Iohn Peckham sometime Bishop of this See lieth buried This Iohn was borne in Sussex spent his childhood in the Abbey of Lewes and was brought up in the Vniuersitie of Oxford from thence hee went to Paris to study Diuinitie and after that to Livus to get some knowledge in the Canon Law without the which Diuinitie was esteemed vnperfect in those dayes and to better his knowledge he visited all the Vniuersities of Italie came to Rome where his rare learning being soone perceiued hee was made by the Pope Auditor or chiefe Iudge of his pallace and so continued till his preferment to Canterbury for a man of so meane parentage he was thought to be very stately both in gesture gate words and all outward shew yet of an exceeding meeke facile inward disposition Vnto double Beneficed men and Non-residents he was very strict Adulterie he punished very seuerely he persecuted a Bishop terriblie for keeping of a Concubine and one Roger Ham a Priest he enioyned to three yeares penance for fornication a sinne predominant in former times among the Clergie Witnesse these rimes Greate Lechery and fornication Was in that house and also greate aduoutree Of Paramours was greate consolation Of eche degree well more of Prelacie Then of the Temporall or of the Chiualrie He excommunicated one Sir Osborne Gifford Knight for stealing two Nunnes out of the Nunnerie of Wilton and absolued him vpon these conditions First that he should neuer come within any Nunnerie or in the company of a Nunne that three Sondayes together he should be whipped in the Parish-Church of Wilton and as many times in the Market and Church of Shaftsbury that he should fast a certaine number of moneths That he should not weare a shirt of three yeares And lastly that he should not any more taken vpon him the habite or title of a Knight but weare apparell of a russet colour vntill he had spent three yeares in the holy Land He died Ann. 1294. very rich yet founded a Colledge of Canons at Wingham in Kent valued at 84. l. per annum and aduanced many of his friends to great possessions whose posteritie haue continued in the state of Knights and Esquires euen vntill our times He sat Archbishop thirteene yeares and an halfe His heart was buried at Christ-Church London retro magnum altare Here beside the altar of Saint Gregorie sometime stood a sumptuous Monument wherein the bones of Robert Winchelsey were entombed which vpon the reformation of Religion was pulled downe to the ground lest that the common people who would needs esteeme him a Saint might giue him diuine honours Hee sate Archbishop nineteene yeares during which time he endured much sorrow yet finished his dayes in quietnessâ— and great felicitie The King and the Pope concurring together in his time exacted many great payments and inflicted grieuous punishments vpon the Clergie Whereupon these Satyricall verses were framed Ecclesiae nauis titubat regni quia clauis Errat Rex Papa facti sunt vnica capa Hoc faciunt do des Pilatus hic alter Herodes Hee liued in banishment two yeares euen vntill the death of Edward the first who exiled him vpon surmised Treason from which hee was called home by Edward his sonne who restored him to his place to all his goods and to all the profits of his Temporalities receiued in his absence He was a stout Prelate and a seuere punisher of sinne hee boldly opposed himselfe against Piers Gaueston the Spensers and other corrupters of the young king and enforced Iohn Warren Earle of Surrey to forsweare the company of a certaine beautifull Wench with the loue of which he was greatly be witched Hee maintained many poore Schollers at the Vniuersities with liberall exhibition and such preferments as fell to his disposition he bestowed vpon men of excellent learning Vnto all kinde of poore people hee was exceeding bountifull his bookes apparell and other mouâ—ables such as they were for
that were at his deth and his body lyeth at Cawnterbury in a worschipful shryne wher as owr Lord sheweth for his Seruant S. Dunston many faire and grete myracles wherfor owr Lord be prâ—ysed world wythouten end Amen His reliques saith Capgraue were remoued to Glastenbury about foure and twenty yeares after his departure And so it is very probable for there he was first a Brother of the House and afterwards Abbot there the deuill came to him dancing by which the deuils merriment Dunstan knew the instant time of the death of Edmund the Brother of Athelstane slaine at Pucklechurch Of which my old Rimer Rob. of Glocester Seynt Dunstone was atte Glastonbery tho the kyng yhurte was And yut in the same stound he wiste of this cas For the deuell befor hym cam dawncyng and lowgh And as hit wer pleying made game enowgh This hely man wiste anon why his ioy was And that for the kyngs harme he made such solas Dunstone toward Pukelcherch dight hymself blive So that men tolde hym by the way the kyng was out of livs But at another time this merry deuill or some other came to him in another moode in likenesse of a Beare and would haue handled with rough Mittins as the prouerbe is yet Dunstane had the better in the conflict being neuer abasht with such an hellish encounter vpon which the foresaid Author of Polyolbion doth thus comment Dunstan as the rest arose through many Sees To this Archtipe at last ascending by degrees There by his power confirmd and strongly credit wonne To many wondrous things which he before had done To whom when as they say the Deuill once appear'd This man so full of faith not once at all afear'd Strong conflicts with him had in Myracles most great The day consecrated to the memory of this Saint was the 19. of May more of him if it be not needlesse when I come to Glastonbury Elphege of wom I haue spoken elsewhere borne of great parentage brought vp in all good learning at Derehirst not farre from Glocester a man of wonderfull abstinence neuer eating drinking or sleeping more then necessity compelled him spending his time altogether either in prayer study or other necessarie businesse was stoned to death like another Stephen by the Danes at Greenwich in the yeare 1012. canonized for a Saint and allowed the 19. day of Aprill for celebration of his memory suth ye yer of grace A thowsand and twelf they ladde hym to a place Wythowte the town of Grenewyche and stened hym with stenes As men did Seynt Stephenne and all to bruysed his benes This was doe the Ester weke in the Saterday As mor plenner in his lif se ther of men may Egelnoth surnamed The Good is likewise calendred amongst these Sainted Archbishops He was the sonne of an Earle called Agelmare and is said to haue beene Deane of Christ-Church in Canterbury which at that time was replenished for the most part with Canons wearing the habite and garments of Monkes but in profession and manner of life differing much from them Therefore when as in that same terrible tithing of the Danes in the time of Elphege all the Monkes were slaine except onely foure the Canons that were now the greater number gaue vnto their gouernour the name of Deane from which place he was taken to bee Archbishop Going to Rome to fetch his Pall he bought an arme of that blessed Father S. Augustine Bishop of Hippo for an hundred talents of siluer and a talent of gold and bestowed it vpon the Church of Couentrie Hee bestowed great paines and cost in repairing his Church and Monastery destroyed and burnt by the Danes and by his good aduise directed King Knute that fauoured him exceedingly vnto many honourable enterprises He dyed Octob. 29. Ann. 1038. hauing sat Archbishop seuenteene yeares and vpward Egelnoâ—h againe much grac'd that sacred Seat Who for his godly deeds surnamed was the Good Not boasting of his birth though com'n of Royall bloud For that nor at the first a Monkes meane Cowle despis'd With winning men to God who neuer was suffic'd Eadfine next ensues To propagate the truth no toyle that did refuse He was a secular Priest and first Chaplaine vnto king Harold who preferred him to the Bishopricke of Winchester from whence hee was remoued to this See of Canterbury He departed this life Octob. 28. An. 1050. after he had continued Archbishop twelue yeares almost All which time he was much oppressed with sicknesse he was interred in his owne Church and at the place of his buriall many miracles are said to haue beene wrought Lanfranke of whom I haue written before is recorded by Capgraue amongst our English Saints who saith that vpon his first entrance to this Metropoliticall gouernment he found the Monkes of Canterbury sicut omnes fere tum temporis in Anglia secularibus similes as all the rest were almost at that time in England like to secular persons for Venari aucupari et potibus indulgere consueuerunt They accustomed to hunt hawke and giue their minde to excessiue drinking which after a short time by gentle perswasions he reclaymed He was a man affable pleasant and humble skilfull in many Sciences prudent in counsell and gouernment of things and for Religion and life most holy Meruit ergo inter Sanctos annumerari Therefore he deserues to be numbred amongst the Saints Anselm for integritie of life and depth of learning euen admirable in regard whereof and of the many miracles which are said to be wrought by him liuing and by his Reliques he being dead hee was canonized a Saint about foure hundred yeares after his decease at the great charges of Iohn Moorton one of his Successours in the Archbishopricke Out of his learned braine he brought forth into the world many profound works at the least fiftie seuerall bookes or Treatises many of which are still extant The miracles likewise attributed to his holinesse are many mentioned by Capgraue The next that comes into this Catalogue is that farre famed Saint Thomas Becket of whom I haue already spoken enough in another place Thus much then at this time out of Polyolbion as followeth Saint Thomas Becket then which Rome so much did hery As to his christned name it added Canterbury There to whose sumptuous Shrine the neere succeeding ages So mighty offerings sent and made such pilgrimages Concerning whom the world since then hath spent much breath And many questions made both of his life and death If he were truly iust he hath his right if no Those times were much to blame that haue him reckon'd so Edmund a man famous for his vertue and great learning was borne at Abingdon in Barkeshire being sonne to one Edward Rich a Merchant his mothers name was Mabell In their elder yeares they forsooke each other by mutuall consent and betooke themselues to a Monasticall life Edmund their sonne
are curiously engrauen these words Credo quod redemptor meus viuit And vpon the basis of the same Crosse these obsolete Latine rimes Es test is Christe quod non iacet hic lapis iste Corpus vt ornetur sed Spiritus vt memoretur Hem tu qui transis magnus medius puer an sis Pro me funde preces quia sic mihi fit venie spes Hic iacet Matilda nuper vxer Willelmi Laken Seruiens ad Legem qui ob 2. die Decemb. 1408. iuxta eam ex parte australi Iohanna filia sepelitur que obijt 3. die Octob. anno supradicto O mercifull Iesew Haue mercy on the sowl of Sir Iohn Dew Here lye interred diuers of the Chapmans who were sometime owners of Stone-castle Hic Christi versus Payname iacet ecce Rogerus Pauperibus multum dedit hic pecunia cultum ........ M. C. quater deca ...... In Maij vicena rapit hunc mors .... Here lies William Banknot and Anne his wyff Swete Iesew grant to them and vs euerlastyng lyff Pray yow hertely for cheritie Say a Pater Noster and an Aue. 1400. Here lyeth the bodyes of Sir Iohn Wilshyre knight and of Dame Margaret his wife Which Sir Iohn dyed 28. Decemb. 1526. And Margaret dyed ... of .... This knight is entombed in a faire Chappell of his owne foundation he was Controller of the Towne and Marches of Calleis Ann. 21. Hen. 7. 1506. He had onely one daughter and heire named Bridget married to Sir Richard Wingfield As I haue it in these words out of the Visitation booke of Huntingtonshire by Nicholas Charles Lancaster Herald Sir Richard Wingfield knight of the Garter Chancellour of the Duchie of Lancaster and of the Bed-chamber to King Henry the eight by his wife Bridget who was daughter and heire to Sir Iohn Wilshyre knight had Stone house or Stone-castle in Kent neare Grauesend To whom the king gaue Kimboulton Castle he was of the priuie Councell and died Embassadour in Spaine and was buried at Toledo Dartford Hic iacet Iohannes Hornley Theologie Baccal qui obijt 1477. Si fterent Artes Hornley tacuisse Iohannem Non possent ista qui tumulatur humo In septem fuerat liberalibus ille magister Prudens castus maximus atque fide Doctrine sacre tunc Baccalareus ingens Oxonie cunctis semper amandus erat Consilio valuit sermones pandere sacros Nouerat et doctos semper amare viros Pauperibus largus fuerat quos nouerat aptos In studijs patiens sobrius atque fuit Moribus insignis cunctis virtute refulgens Pro tantis meritis spiritus astra petit O pytefull Creater concerning erthly sepulter Of Katryn Burlton at x day wythin Iun. Thousand IIII C. LXXXXVI yer Occurrent wyth Rychard Burlton Iantlman Spows to the Katryn ..... Expired thousand ..... Throu the prayor of thes twein Sal he be savyd fro endlysse pein King Edward the third founded here a goodly faire Monastery about the yeare of his raigne of England the thirtieth and of France the seuenteenth In which he placed women religious Votaries or white Nunnes Which Nunnery at the generall dissolution was found to bee well worth three hundred and eightie pounds by yeare This Priory for so it was called by the Founder was taken as all the rest into the hands of king Henry the eight of which he made a fit dwelling place for himselfe and his Successours which remaines to this day howsoeuer somewhat ruinous But will it please you peruse this Memorandum not impertinent to this matter in the visitation of Kent and Sussex made by Clarentieux Beuolt the 21. yeare of king Henry the eight Dame Elizabeth Cresner being Lady Prioresse of Dartford at that time Memorand that the said Lady doth witnesse that king Edward the third was first Founder of the said place and the second Founder was king Richard the second And in the said place lieth buried the Lady Bridget daughter to king Edward the fourth a religious women in the same place Also Dame Ioane daughter to the Lord Scrope of Bolton and Prioresse of the same place and Dame Margaret daughter of the Lord Beaumont also sometime Prioresse of the same place And also there lyeth daughter and wife to Sir Maurice Berkeley This Lady Bridget here interred was the fourth daughter of Edward the fourth by his wife Queene Elizabeth she was borne at Eltham here by the tenth of Nouember 1480. She tooke the habite of Religion when she was young and so spent her life in contemplation vnto the day of her death which happened about the yeare 1517. the eight of King Henry the eight Crayford Orate pro animabus Roberti Woodford Iohanne vxoris eius qui Robertus obijt .... 1489. Hic iacent Rogerus Apleton vnus Auditorum serenissimorum Regum Hen. quinti Hen. sexti ac Iohanne vxoris Hen. quarti Katherine vxoris Hen. sexti Reginarum Anglie Principatus totius Wallie Ducatus Cornubie Com. Cestrie qui ob .... 1400. Agnes vxor eius Domina de Holbury que ob 1437. Cum venerit dies Domini in miserecordia eius egrediemur Hic iacet Henricus Elham vnus Auditorum .... et Elisabetha vxor eius filia Rogeri Apleton ... ob ... 1479. Hic iacet Iohannes Elham vnus Auditorum ... 1481. Vite probitas mortis despectio Erith In the vpper end of the South Isle of this Church stands a faire tombe with this Inscription left at the first imperfect Elisabeth second wife to George late Earle of Shrewsbury Lord Steward to king Henry the seuenth and to king Henry the eight his Houshold by whom she had issue Iohn and Lady Anne wife to William Earle of Penbroke Lord Steward of Queene Elizabeths Houshold which Lady Anne had beene married before to M. Peter Compton Esquire by whom she had issue Sir Henry Compton knight now liuing This Elizabeth Countesse of Shrewsbury was daughter and one of the heires of Sir Richard Walden knight Lord of the Towne of Erith whose body lyeth here likewise entombed Pray for the sowl of Syr Richard Walden knight and Lady Margerie his wife which Syr Richard decessyd 25 of March 1536. And Margery decessyd the sixth of May 1528. whos sowls god pardon Orate pro anima Richardi Walden Armig. Elisabethe vxoris eius que ob 25. Octob. 1496. et Richardus obiit ... die ... mens ... Ann. miles quorum animabus Ellin Atticor gist icy Dieu de sa alme eit mercy Orate pro anima Domini Iohannis Stone quondam vicarij Ecclesie parochialis de Lesnes alias Erith qui ob 13. April 1475. O vos omnes qui hic transitis prome orate Precibus vestris qui fratres estis meque iurate Hic iacet Radulphus Criel Ar. qui obiit 6. Decemb. 1447. Cuius anime propitietur altissimus Hic iacet Rogerus Sentcler quondam
the holy crosse so denominated of wearing a Crosse anciently called a Crouch vpon their garments and of bearing the crosse for the badge and Armes of their house This house was valued at the suppression to 52 l. 13 s. 2 d. of annuall profits A Petition to Secretary Cromwell against the Prior of this house a little before the dissolution thereof Pleasethe it your honourable mastoreship to be aduertesid that in the time of Lent last past your continuall orator Iohn Bartelote with others to the number of fiue persons of good conuersation found the Priore of the Crossyd Friores in London at that time being in bed with his whoore both naked about xi of the clocke in the forenoone vpon a Friday at which time the said Priore to the intent his misdemeanour and shamefull fact should not be knowne whereby he should sustaine open shame kneeled vpon his knees and not onely desired your said orator and his company to keepe secret his said act and not to disclose in any wife the same but for the same intent freely and of his owne motion gaue amongst them about xxx l. which he then was possessed of of the which summe your Orator had by the said gift about vii l. And also the said Priore promised to giue amongst the said company xxx l. more by a certaine day and after by mediation of friends of the said Priore the said xxx l. was released to the summe of vi l. which sixe pounds the said Priore bound himselfe to pay to the said Orator by his Bill obligatory at a certaine day in the same limeted Yet this notwithstanding for by cause your said Orator for non paiment of the said vi l. did arrest the said Priore he hath so hainously informed the Lord Chancelour against your Orator that he will onely put him to shewertie making the premisses a hainous Robbery saying openly that your Orator is worthy to be hanged but also will by his high authoritie compell your Orator to repay agen to the said Priore the some of xxx l. vnlesse your most charetable goodnesse bee therein otherwise shewed It may therefore plese your good Mastershipe of your abundant goodnesse to prouide that the premeses may be duly examined according to equitie for this is the very and hole truth in the same And your seid Oratore shall prey to God for your honor and preseruation long to endure By your humble Oratore to his power during his life Iohn Bartelote Saint Katherines by the Tower This was the Church belonging to the Hospitall dedicated to the honour of Saint Katherine founded by Queene Maud the wife of King Stephen and much augmented by Eleanor the wife of King Edward the first and Philip wife to King Edward the third who left to it sufficient liuelihood for a Master 3 Brethren Chaplaines and 3 Sisters tenne poore women and sixe poore Clarkes This house was valued at the generall suppression at 315 l. 14 s. 2 d. per annum Here vnder an Ancient monument â—ouly defaced lieth entombed the body of Iohn Holland Duke of Exceter Earle of Huntington and of Iuory in Normandy Lord of Sparre Admirall of England Ireland and Aquitaine Lieuetenant Generall of the Duchie of Aquitaine Fellow of the honourable order of the Garter and Constable of the Tower of London as he writ in his stile when Henry the fift in the fift of his raigne was to goe ouer into Normandy this puissant Iohn Holland as then but Earle of Huntington was sent before to scoure the seas who meeting with nine Carrickes of Genoa which were going to aide the French King fought with them and sunke sixe of them and tooke the other three with great store of money and treasure and brought them with his prisoners to the King This battaile was fought nere Harflew vpon the fall of the Riuer Seyne into the narrow seas of which an old versifier They faught full sore afore the water of Sayn With Carrickes many well stuffed and arayed And many other shippes great of Hispayn Barges Balyngers and Galleys vnfrayed Whiche proudly came vpon our Shippes vnprayed And by th'euen their sailes aualed were set Their enemies slaine in battayll and sore bet And many dryent were that daye in the Sea That as our flete rode there then alway Vnto the feast next of his Natiuitee The Bodies flete among our Shippes eche daye Full piteous was and to see theim ay That thousandes were twenty as they then told That taken were in that same batayll bold This valiant braue Duke died full of yeares the fift of August in the 25. yeere of King Henry the sixt Anno 1447. Here lye entombed by him his two wiues the first was Anne daughter of Edmund Earle Stafford by his wife Anne the heire of Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester by whom hee had issue Henry Duke of Exceter She had bin formerly married vnto Edmund Mortimer Earle of March and Vlster I cannot finde the time of her death His second wife here entombed was also Anne daughter of Io. Mountague the third of that name Earle of Salisbury who formerly had bin twise married to Sir Richard Hanckford to Sir Iohn Fitz-Lewis Knights She died the 27 of Nouember 1457. Here lieth likewise entombed the body of Constance sister of the foresaid Iohn Duke of Exceter daughter of Iohn Holland first of that name Duke of Exceter married to Thomas Lord Mowbray the sonne of Thomas who died in banishment Duke of Norfolke Earle of Nottingham and Earle Marshall of England and remarried to Sir Iohn Grey Lord Grey of Ruthin she died the sixteenth of Henry the sixt New Abbey in East-Smithfield Before the foundation of this Abbey there stood in the same place a little Chappell within a Coemitorie or Church-yard dedicated to the honour of God by Raph Stratford Bishop of London wherein were interred innumerable many of such persons as died in the first great Pestilence the 23 of King Edward the third Now the said King liking well this plot of ground and hauing before in a tempest on the sea and perill of drowning made a vow to build a Monastery to the honour of God and our Lady of Grace if God would grant him grace to come safe to land builded here a Monastery wherein he placed white Monkes of the Cistercian order which house at the generall suppression was valued at 546 l. 10 d. yearely The Kings store-house for victuall and for baking of Biskets to serue his Maiesties Ships is built in the same place where this Abbey stood The Minories Here was an Abbey of Nunnes of the order of Saint Clare founded by Blanch Queene of Nauarre and her husband Edmund Earle of Lancaster Leicester and Darby brother to King Edward the first in the yeere 1293. This house was valued to dispend yeerely 418 l. 8 s. 5 d. and was surrendred by Dame Elizabeth Sauage the last Abbesse there vnto King Henry
of the pot There hath also beene found in the same field diuers coffins of stone containing the bones of men these I suppose to be the burials of some speciall persons in time of the Brittaines or Saxons Moreouer there were also found the sculls and bones of men without coffins or rather whose coffines being of great timber were consumed Diuers great Nailes of Iron were there found such as are vsed in the wheeles of shod carts being each of them as bigge as a mans finger and a quarter of a yard the heads two inches ouer Those Nailes were more wondred at then the rest of the things there found and many opinions of men were there vttered of them namely that the men there buried were murthered by driuing those Nailes into their heads a thing vnlikely for a smaller Naile would more aptly serue to so bad a purpose and a more secret place would lightly be imployed for such buriall But to set downe what I obserued concerning this matter I there beheld the bones of a man lying as I noted the head North the feet South and round about him as thwart his head along both his sides and thwart his feet such Nailes were found Wherefore I coniectured them to be Nailes of his coffin Which had beene a trough cut out of some great tree and the same couered with a planke of a great thicknesse fastened with such Nailes and therefore I caused some of the Nailes to be reached vp to 〈◊〉 found vnder the broad heads of them the old wood â—eane turned into earth but still retaining both the graine and proper colour Of these Nailes with the wood vnder the head thereof I reserued one as also the 〈◊〉 bone of the man the teeth being great sound and fixed which amongst many other Monuments there found I haue yet to shew but the nayle lying dry is by scaling greatly wasted And thus much of ancient Funerall Monuments in the fields Certaine Burials of British Kings in and about London the places of their interments vncertaine And first to begin with Guentoline the sonne of Gurgunstus King of Britaine who flourished about the yeare of the world 3614. Who was a wise Prince graue in counsell and sober in behauiour and studied with great care and diligence to reforme anew and to adorne with iustice lawes and good orders the British commonwealth by other Kings not so framed as stood with the greatnesse thereof But as he was busie in hand herewith death tooke him away from these worldly employments when hee had raigned 27. yeares He had a wife named Martia Proba a woman of perfect beautie and wisedome incomparable as by her prudent gouernment and equall administration of iustice after her husbands decease during her sonnes minoritie it most manifestly appeared She was a woman expert and skilfull in diuers sciences but chiefely being admitted to the gouernment of the Realme she studied to preserue the common wealth in good quiet and decent order and therefore deuised established and writ a booke in the British tongue of profitable and conuenient Lawes the which after her name were called Martian Lawes These Lawes afterwards Gildas Cambrius the Historicall Welch Poet translated into Latine and a long time after him Alured King of the West Saxons holding these lawes necessarie for the preseruation of the common wealth put them into English Saxon speech and then they were called after that translation Marchenclagh that is to meane the Lawes of Martia adding thereunto a Booke of his owne writing of the Lawes of England which he called A certaine Breuiarie extracted out of diuers Lawes of the Troians Grecians Britaines Saxons and Danes She flourished before the birth of our Lord and Sauiour 348. yeares or thereabouts Her sonnes name was Sicilius who vpon the death of his Father was but young for I reade that Martia his mother deliuered vp the gouernment of the kingdome to her sonne when he came to lawfull age which she had right politiquely guided and highly for her perpetuall renowne and commendation the space of fourteene yeares He died when hee had raigned seuen yeares some say fifteene yeares Of Bladud king of Britaine the sonne of Lud hurdibras many incredible passages are deliuered by our old British writers and followed by sundrie Authors of succeeding ages which say that he was so well seene in the Sciences of Astronomie and Necromancie that thereby hee made the hote springs in the Citie of Bathe that he built the Citie of Bathe that he went to Athens and brought with him foure Philosophers and by them instituted an Vniuersitie at Stanford in Lincolnshire And further to shew his Art and cunning that he tooke vpon him to flie into the aire and that hee broke his necke by a fall from the Temple of Apollo in Troynouant before the incarnation of Christ 852. yeares in the twentieth yeare of his raigne Geffrey of Monmouth and Mathew of Westminster would approue as much as here is spoken of him And learned Selden in his Illustrations vpon Draytons Polyolbion sets downe an ancient fragment of rimes wherein these strange things of him are exprest But of him here in this place will it please you take a peece out of Harding and you shall haue more hereafter Bladud his sonne after him did succede And reigned after then full xx yere Cair Bladud so that now is Bath I rede He made anone the hote bathes there infere When at Athens he had studied clere He brought with hym iiii Philosophers wise Schole to hold in Brytaine and exercyse Stanforde he made that Stanforde hight this daye In which he made an Vniuersitee His Philosophers as Merlin doth saye Had scholers fele of grete habilitee Studyng euer alwaye in vnitee In all the seuen liberall science For to purchase wysedome and sapience In Cair Bladim he made a temple right And sette a Flamyne therein to gouerne And afterward a Fetherham he dight To flye with winges as he could best discerne Aboue the aire nothyng him to werne He flyed on high to the temple Apoline And ther brake his necke for all his grete doctrine Likewise the vncertaine buriall of Vortimer that victorious British king was in some part of this Citie he was the eldest sonne of Vortigern king of the Britaines and raigned as king in his fathers dayes who demeaned himselfe towards his sonne then his Soueraigne in all dutifull obedience and faithfull counsell for the space of foure yeares euen vntill Vortimer was poysoned by the subtiltie of Rowena the heathen daughter of Hengist the Saxon the wife or concubine of his Brother and the mother of the Britaines mischiefe which happened about the yeare of Grace 464. This Vortimer was a man of great valour which altogether he employed for the redresse of his countrey according to the testimonie of William Malmesbury whose words are these Vortimer saith he thinking not good to dissemble the matter for that he saw himselfe and countrey daily
broghte his mattores to passe without brekyng vppe of any grate or yet counterfettyng of keayes such capassetye God hathe sent him From Syone this sondaye xii Decembere By the speedy hand of your assured poore Preeste Richard Layton Not farre from hence was a fraternitie founded by Iohn Somerset Chancellor of the Exchequor and the Kings Chaplaine which he called Ecclesia omnium Angelorum Thistleworth Al yow that doth this Epitaph rede or see Of yowr mere goodnesse and grete cheritie Prey for the sowl of Maister Antony Sutton Bacher of Diuinity Who died in secundo die Augusti Annoque Domini M. ccccc.xl and three Orate pro anima Henrici Archer qui obijt 2 die Septemb. Anno Domini 480. cuius anime ..... If the date of this Inscription were true this Archer did line in the raigne of Lucius the first Christian King of this Monarchie but questionlesse this was the ouersight of him which inlaid the monument leauing out the figure of one which might haue made it right 1480. Here lyeth Iohn Robinson With his wyfs Katherin and Ione Who dyed M. ccccc and three On whos sowls Iesu haue mercy Hic iacet Clemens Colyns de Isleworth Vicarius vtriusque iuris Doctor qui obijt 1498. Prey for the sowls of Iohn Holt Margerie and Elizabeth his wyffs and for the sowls of all his children who died Anno Dom. 1520. In the yere of owr Lord God M. ccccc the fourth dey of December Margerie to God her sowl she did surrender Iesu full of mercy on her sowl haue mercy For in thy mercy she trusted fully Pray for the sowl of Audry the wyf of Gedeon Aundesham who dyed 1502. Here lyeth Iohn Sampol yeoman Vsher of the Kings Chamber who dyed the yeare 1535. Sampoll antiently called Saint Paul a familie of which name flourished at Melwood in Lincolnshire of which hereafter Hic Dominus Iohannes Payne Vicarius ..... 1470. Quisquis eris qui transieris sta perlege plora Sum quod eris fueram quod es pro me precor ora Hownslow Chappell Which belonged sometime to a Frierie thereunto adioyning now a Chappell of ease for the Inhabitants which are of two parishes Heston and Thistleworth by whom this fraternitie was founded I cannot learne except by the Windsores a familie of many descents euer since the comming in of the Norman Conqueror who had their habitation at Stanwell not farre off and chose this Friers Chappell for their place of buriall which together with the house was after the dissolution giuen by exchange to the Lord Windsore by King Henry the eight Orate pro animabus Georgij Windsore filij Andree Windsore de Stanwell militis et Vrsule vxoris eius .......... suorum et heredis apparentis .... Iohannis comitis Oxonie ..... Orate pro anima Willelmi Iacob qui dedit vnam clausuram vocatam Bushiheme ad inueniendam vnam Lampadem ....... qui ob ..... 1478. Vermibus hic donor et sic ostendere conor Qualiter hic ponor ponitur omnis honor Quisquis ades tu morte cades sta respice plora Sum quod eris quod es ipse fui pro me precor ora Vnder the picture of the blessed Virgine these verses following were depainted now almost quite worne out Virginis intacte cum veneris ante figuram Pretereundo caue ne fileatur Aue. Stanes Here sometimes stood a Priorie founded by Raph Lord Stafford some of which family as noble and ancient as any lye here interred namely Nicholas Baron Stafford who died 10. Kal. Nouemb. 1288. as I haue it out of an old Manuscript Obijt Nicholaus Baro Stafford 1288. et 10. Kalend Nouembris apud Stanes sepultus est Hellingdon great In this Church lieth buried vnder a Tombe couered with a marble stone Iohn Lord Strange of Knocking vpon which this Inscription is ingrauen Sub hac Tumba iacet nobilis Iohannes Dominus le Strange Dominus de Knocking Mahun Wasset Warnell et Lacy et Dominus de Colham vna cum pictura Iagnette quondam vxoris sue que quidem Iagnetta suit sâ—ror Elizabethe Regine Anglie quondam vxoris Regis Edwardi quarii qui quidem Iohannes obijt 15 die Octobris Anno regni Regis Ed. quarti 17 quam quidem Tumbam Iohanna Dominale Strange vna cum pictura lagnette ex sumptibus suis proprijs fieri fecit 1509. This race of le Strange continued for many descents in the dignity of Lord Barons in latine Records called Extranei for that they were Strangers brought hither by King Henry the second the yeare 1148. This Iohn Lord Strange here intombed was the laft of that Surname Baron of Knocking for Sir George Stanley sonne and heire of Thomas Lord Stanley Earle of Darby the first of that name married Ioane the sole daughter and heire of the aforesaid Iohn Lord Strange here mentioned who to her fathers memory made this monument with whom he had both her fathers honours and ample inheritance of which Thomas Stanley sometime Lord Bishop of Man in his pedegree of the Stanleyes speaking of Thomas the first Earle thus makes his rime a Mss. He maried his first sonne George to no Ferme nor Grange But honourably to the heire of the Lord Strange Who liued in such loue as no man els had For at the death of him diuars went almost madd At an vngodly banquet alas he was poysoned And at London in Saint Iames Garlikhith lyes buried The stile title and dignitie of Lord Strange Iames Stanley eldest sonne and heire of William Earle of Darbie a gentleman of laudable endowments both of minde and bodie now at this day happily enioyeth Harrow on the Hill I finde diuers of the Surname of Flamberds of Flamberds in this Parish now the habitation of a worthy Gentleman Sir Gilbert Gerard knight and Baronet to be here interred One of whose Tombes is thus inscribed Ion me do marmore numinis ordine slam tumulatur Barde quoque verbere stigis è funere hic tucatur Edmund Flambard Elisabeth gisont icy Dieu de â—almes eyt mercy Amen Flambard Edmundus iacet hic tellure sepultus Coniux addetur Elisabeth et societur Sta moriture vide docent te massa Iohannis Birkhed sub lapide trux necat Atropos annis M. Domini C quater X octo numeratis Iungitur iste Pater Cuthherge luce beatur Hunc charitas grauitas fides prudentia morum Presulibus primus Regni fecere decorum O Deus in celis tua nunc fouet alma maiestas Quem tantum terris morum perfecit honestas Acton Pray for the soul of Sir Thomas Cornwal Baron of Burford in the County of Salop knight and Baâ—neret which tooke to wyf Anne the dawghter of Sir Richard Corbet of the same County who departyd this lyf the xix of August M. D.xxx.vii on whos soul c. Learned Camden speaking of the Ancestors of this
duo Factus Eques magni custos fuit ipse sigilli Gloria sit soli tota tributa Deo Mediocria firma Vpon the frontispice of a gate entring into an Orchard with a garden and a wildernesse ouer the statue of Orpheus these verses are depicted Horrida nuper eram aspectu latebraeque ferarum Ruricolis tantum numinibusque locus Edomitor faustò huc dum forte supervenis Orpheus Vlterius qui me non finit esse rudem Conuocat avulsis virgulta virentia truncis Et sedem quae vel Dijs placuisse potest Sicque mei cultor sic est mihi cultus Orpheus Floreat o noster cultus amorque diu In the said Orchard is a little banquetting house most curiously adorned round about which the liberall Artes are deciphered with the pictures of some of those men which haue beene excellent in euery particular Art And first he begins with the Art of Grammer Thus. Lex sum sermonis linguarum regula certa Qui me non didicit caetera nulla petat The pictures of Donatus Lily Seruius and Priscian Arithmaticke Ingenium exacuo numerorum arcana recludo Qui memores didicit quid didicisse nequit Stifelius Budeus Pythagoras Logicke Diuido multiplices res explanoque latentes Vera exquiro falsa arguo cuncta probo Aristoteles Rodulphus Porphirius Setonus Musicke Mitigo maerores acerbas lenio cur as Gestiat vt placidis mens hilerata sonis Arion Terpander Orpheus Rhetoricke Me duce splendescit gratis prudentia verbis Iamque ornata nitet quae fuit ante rudis Cicero Isocrates Demostines Quintilian Geometrie Corpora describo rerum quo singula pacto Apte sunt formis appropriata suis Archimedes Euclydes Strabo Apollinius Astrologie Astrorum lustrans cursus viresque potentes Elicio miris fata futura modis Regiomontanus Haly Coopernicus Ptolomeus Redborne This Redborne in times past was a place renowned and resorted vnto in regard of Amphibalus the Martyrs reliques here found Who instructed S. Alban in the Christian faith as I haue said before and for Christs sake suffered death vnder Dioclesian He was surnamed Deuanius for that he was borne vpon the riuer of Dee in Wales the sonne of a Prince saith his Legend A man saith Bale both for learning and good life vnmatchable preaching and that with happie successe the glad tidings of the Gospell throughout all the parts of Britaine For to escape the execution of the Edict of the Emperour hee fled from Verulam with a great number of such as he had conuerted into the kingdome of Scotland and into the Isle of Anglesey in Wales whereof hee was made Bishop preaching in all places the true and liuely word disputing and writing against the worshippers of false Gods But being afterwards apprehended he was brought to the same place where his Scholler Saint Alban suffered martyrdome and whipped about a stake whereat his intrailes were tied so winding his bowels out of his body was lastly stoned to death like another Stephen For whose body some of the persecuted Christians got a stolne buriall here at Redborne from whence it was remoued with all celebritie and enshrined by the reliques of his Scholler Saint Alban in the yeare of Grace 1178. the 25. day of Iune Nullum vnquam tam iucundum tam salutarem diem videt Verulamium saith Harpsfeeld occurrebat enim Martyr martyri Magistro discipulus hospes H. spiti caelestis cruis conciuicaelesti The Couent of Saint Albans had such a care that his reliques should bee deuoutly preserued that a decree was made by Thomas then Abbot that a Prior and three Monkes should be appointed for so sacred an office for which they were to receiue twenty pounds yearely allowance Such was the price and estimation in those dayes of the bones and ashes of religious persons remarkable for their holinesse This Amphibalus was a rare Linguist and a profound Diuine for those times He writ a booke against the errours of the Gentiles and certaine Homilies vpon the foure Euangelists with other learned works mentioned by Bale Sir Richard Read knight lieth here entombed Of whom hereafter according to my method Mergate Neare to this Village sometime was a little religious house of Nunnes of which I neuer read nor heard further then by an old petition in rime which runnes by tradition from one traueller to another as they passe along this thorrow fare Vpon which I lately happened in a very ancient Manuscript in Sir Robert Cottons Library and thus it was deliuered in their English the words are significant and modest if you do not misinterpret The petytiown of thre pore Nuns of Mergate We thre pore Nuns of Mergate Pyteously compleyneth to yowr gud estate Of one Syr Iohnne of Whipesuade Who hath stoppyd owr water gate Wyth too stons and a stake Help vs Lorde for Cryst hys sake Flamsted Hic iacet Iohannes Oundeley Rector istius Ecclesie et de Barugby Lincoln Dioces Canon in Eccles. Colleg. beate Marie de Warwick Camerarius ex parte comitis War in Scaccario Domini Regis qui obijt 7. Maij 1414. Miserere miserator quia vere sum peccator Vnde precor licet reus miserere mei Deus Here are in this Church three wondrous ancient Monuments whose inscriptions are quite perisht supposed by the Inhabitants to haue beene made for certaine Noblemen Lords of this Mannor Which may very well be true by these words of our grand Antiquarie Master Camden Somewhat aboue saith hee Flamsted sheweth it selfe vpon the hill which in the time of King Edward the Confessour Leosstane the Abbot of Saint Albans gaue vnto three Knights Turnot Waldefe and Turman for to defend and secure the countrey thereby against theeues But William the Conquerour tooke it from them and gaue it to Roger Todeney or Tony a noble Norman whose possession it was but by a daughter it was transferred at length to the Beauchamps Earles of Warwicke Hempstede Vpon a faire Tombe of marble and Tuch inlaid with brasse with the pourtraiture of a man armed of goodly lineaments together with his wife I reade this French Inscription Roberd Albyn gist icy Et Margarete sa femme ouvike luy Deiu de lez Almes eyt mercy Berkamsted In the body of this Church stands a stately Tombe of an antique rich fabricke strangely depainted whereon the shape of a man in knightly habiliments with his wife lying by him are cut in Alabaster and about the verge of a large marble thereunto adioyning this Inscription engrauen in brasse Hic iacet Richardus Torynton Margareta vxor eius qui quidem Richardus obijt 4. die Martij .... 1306. Margareta ob 9. Martii 13 ... This Torynton as I haue it by relation was the founder of this Church a man in speciall fauour with Edmond Plantaginet Duke of Cornwall who was sonne of Richard Plantaginet second sonne of king Iohn Earle of Cornwall and king of the Romanes Which Richard
full of honours and yeares ended his life here at his Castle of Berkamsted but was buried at his Abbey of Hales Of whom hereafter Here are diuers Tombes to the memory of the name of Waterhouse whose inscriptions of antiquitie are all taken away with the brasse and the carefull preseruing of the rest altogether neglected Hic iacent Iohannes Waterhouse Margaret vxor eius ..... Ecce sub hoc tumulo coniux vxorque iacemus Eternam pacem donet vterque Deus Nil vnquam abstulimus si quid benefecimus vlli Est qui pro meritis premia digna dabit Est tamen vna salus Christi miseratio quam qui Transis ambobus sepe precâ—re Deum Hic iacet Richardus Westbroke qui obiit 29. Septemb. 1485. supplicans vobis ex charitate vestra pro anima sua dicere Pater Noster Ave. Here lieth Katherin the wyfe of Robert Incent the father and mother to Iohn Incent Doctor of the Law who hath done many benefytes and ornaments to this Chappell of St. Iohn Baptist ..... the twelâ—th yeere of Henry the eight This Iohn Incent Doctor of the Law was Deane of Saint Paules London who built in this Towne a free-Schoole allowing to the Master a stipend of twenty pound per annum And to the Vsher ten pound which was confirmed by Act of Parliament Here lyeth Robert Incent late Servant to that noble Princesse Cicely Duchesse of Yorke who dyed of the sweating sicknesse the first yeere of Henry the seuenth Hic iacet Edwardus de le hay ... 1510. This is an ancient name flourishing euer since the raigne of Hen. the second Stow. Annal. Hic iacet Margarita Briggs que ob 17. Aug. 1374. Here is an ancient monument to the memory of one Iohn Rauen Esquire who died in the yeere 1395. Vnder the Armes of King Edward the sixth painted vpon a table these verses Quid sextum dicis nulli virtute secundus Ingenio nulli nullus in arte prior Edwardi insignis sunt haec insignia Iudiâ— In Signis illum deliniare nequis Vnder the cote and crest of Doctor Incent these Hexameters Mira cano nondum denos compleuerat annos Cum Pater est Patriae Edwardus Musisque Patronus Ille tuis avibus sublatas reddidit alas Incenti obtusis aciem pugionibus ille Ille cruci vires Infanti adiecit amictum Ille Rosam suavi perfudit odore caducam Kings Langley So named of the Kings house thereunto adioyning wherein Edmund Plantaginet the fifth sonne of King Edward the third was borne and thereupon surnamed Edmund of Langley Hereby was a religious House for preaching Friers founded by Roger the sonne of Robert Helle an English Baron valued to be yeerely worth at the suppression one hundred and fifty pound fourteene shillings eight pence in the Church of this monasterie the foresaid Edmund was interred He was Lord of Tindale Earle of Cambridge and Duke of Yorke He married Isabell second daughter and one of the heires of Peter King of Castile and Leon who died before him in the yeare 1393 and was buried in this Friery by whom hee had issue Edward Earle of Rutland Duke of Albamarle and Yorke Richard Earle of Cambridge and a daughter whose name was Constance He had a second wife whose name was Ioane daughter of Thomas Holland Earle of Kent who after his death was married to William Lord Willoughby of Eresby to Henry Lord Scroope and to Henry Bromflet Lord Vescy He is reckoned for one of the Knights of the Garter and in the absence of his father in France is said to be Protectour of the Realme of England Hee is much commended for his affabilitie and gentle deportment as also for his valour of which will you heare my often alledged Author Io. Harding Sir Edmond Langley full of gentylnesse Sir Thomas Woodstok full of corage For his valour in another Chapter thus At whiche battaill duke Iohn of Gaunt indede And his brother Edmond then faught full sore Were neuer twoo better knightes then thei indede That better faught vpon a feld afore It was but grace that thei escaped thore Thei putte theimselfes so fer furth ay in prees That wounded wer thei bothe full sore no lees This renowned Duke deceased saith Stow in the yeare 1402. the third of Henry the fourth and was here buried neare to his wife with two of his brethren who died young Here sometime lay entombed the body of Pierce Gaueston a Gascoigne borne Lord of the Isle of Man and Earle of Cornwall A man in such fauour with Edward the second hauing before ensnared his youth by the allurements of a corrupt life that hee had from the said King whatsoeuer could be poured vpon him For though it might seeme incredible saith Speed out of the booke of Dunstable he both gaue him his Iewels and ancestors treasure and euen the Crowne it selfe of his victorious father not sticking to professe if it lay in him hee should succeed him in the kingdome But his insolencie and presumption vpon the kings fauour made him so farre to forget himselfe as that he scorned the best of the Nobilitie as much as they hated him miscalling and giuing them scoffes with bitter iests which left behinde them a sowre remembrance and the sting of reuenge Of all which my old timer who flourished about those dayes thus speaketh more seriously in Prose Perys went into the kyngys Tresorye in ye Abbey of Westminstre saith he and yer toke away a tabil of gold wyth the tressel and oyer ryche Iuwels the whyche wer sumtym king Arthurys and hem he toke to a merchant yat het Aymery of Friscomband and bar hem ouer the see into Gascoigne and yay wer neuer brought ayen yat was gret harme to yet Reme And this Sure Perys gretly despysyd the Lordys of ye londe and atte yat tym Sure Perys clupyd Robard of Clare ye Erle of Gloucetre Hore sone and ye Erle of Penbrok Ioseph ye Iew and ye Erle of Nycol Sure Henry de Lacy Brokbely and Gowy of Warwike Blak hound of Ardern and also he clupyd ye nobiâ— and gentyl Erle of Lancastre Eherle and oyer meny despytes he sâ—yd to ye Lordys of Englonde wherfor yay weryn sore agreuyd And so much agrieued they were that they surprised him in the night at a viliage or mannour called Dathington or Deddington betweene Oxford and Warwick from whence Guy Earle of Warwick tooke him to his Castle of Warwicke where in a place called Blacklow afterward Gaueshead his head was stricken off the nineteenth of Iune 1311. at the commandement and in the presence of the Earles of Lancaster Warwicke and Hereford as of one that had beene a subuerter of the Lawes and an open Traitour to the kingdome A violent and vnaduised part of these Lords to put to death an Earle so dearly loued of the King without any iudiciall proceeding by triall of his Peeres
Sone men cluped Constantyn Without the walls of this Towne stood a large and stately Monastery which Eudo Sewar to king Henry the firsâ— founded and consecrated to the honour of Christ and Saint Iohn Baptist wherein he placed blacke Monkes The Ancestors of the right honourable Sir Edward Sackvile knight of the Bath and Earle of Dorset were great benefactours or rather cofounders of this religious structure For in the booke of the Abbey of Colchester I haue read that Iordanus de Saukevil miles et Baro de Bergholt Saukevil filius heres Roberti Saukevil superstes tempore Stephani Regis Henrici secundi confirmavit Ecclesie Sancti Iohannis de Colecestria in perpetuam Eleemosinam manerium de Wicham or Witham quod pater sâ—us Robertus eidem Ecclesie donauerat The foresaid Eudo founded likewise in this Towne an Hospitall for people infected with the contagious disease of Leprosie which he dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalen Here was another religious house wherein were placed brethren of the holy Crosse but by whom founded I cannot finde Valued at the suppression to 7. l. 7.5.8 d. per annum Robert Lord Fitzwater in the yeare 1309. founded here an Abbey for Friers Minors into whose order and House he entred himselfe in the yeare 1325. and then and there tooke vpon him the habite of a religious Votary wherein he spent the rest of his dayes Ann. M.ccc.ix saith the booke of Dunmow Robertus filius Walteri custos de Essex fundamentum posuit Ecclesie Fratrum Minorum de Colcestria And in the Catalogue of such Emperours Kings Princes and other potent personages which from the beginning haue entred into this religious order This Robert is reckoned for one These are the words Frater Dominus Robertus Fitzwater Baro fundator Conventus Colcestrie intrauit ibidem ordinem Ann. Domini Milesimo tricentesimo vicesimo quinto This house was valued at the suppression at 113. l. 12. s 8. d. of yearely reuenewes Earles Colne So called of the Sepulture of the Earles of Oxford which deriue their descent saith Camden from the Earles of Guines in France and haue the surname of Vere from Vere a Towne in Zeland In this parish Church are two Monuments of this familie of the Veres the one lieth crosse-legd with a Sarasins head vpon his tombe which Sarasin say the Inhabitants this Earle slew in the holy Land The other of them with his wife lieth entombed at her feet is the Talbot at his feet the Boare they are both shamefully defaced They were remooued out of the Priory neare adioining at the suppression as I was told This Priorie was first founded by Aubrey de Vere soone after the Conquest which he dedicated to the honour of God and Saint Andrew and placed therein black Monks translated from Abingdon to which Abbey he made this Priory to be subiect vpon this occasion as I haue it out of the booke of Abingdon Godfrey de Vere the sonne and heire of the foresaid Aubrey by Beatrice his wife dying in his fathers life time was buried in the Monastery of Abingdon to which he had beene a benefactor whereupon saith the Story Aubrey his father and Beatrice his mother were determined to choose Abingdon for their buriall place in respect of the tender affection they bore to their child But their Lands lying here in Essex farre off they procured a Grant from King Henry the first to build a religious House at Colne in Essex for their soules health their Sonnes and others as also for their Sepultures et hanc domum Sancto Andrâ—e Apostolo dedicatam subiectam et coherâ—ntem Ecclesie Abingdonen si faciebant Not long after the finishing of this worke and a little before his death Aubrey the Founder tooke vpon him the habite of Religion in this his owne house wherein hee died and was here buried by a younger sonne of his named William in whose remembrance this Epitaph was engrauen vpon their Monument Cedunt a vita votis animisque cupita Barbarus et Scita Gentilis et lsraelita Has pariter metas habet omnis sexus et et aes En puer en senior Pater alter filius alter Legem fortunam terram venere sub unam Non iuvenie â—ote quas epotavit Athene Non vâ—tulo vote vires velopes valuere Sed valuere fides et predia quae memoramus Vt valeant valeant per secula cuncta precamus For the said Aubrey de Vere and Beatrice his wife I found this Inscription to be engrauen vpon their Monument in the booke of Colne Priory Here lyeth Aulbery de Veer the first Erle of Guisnes the sonne of Alphonsus de Veer the whyche Aulbery was the fownder of this place and Bettrys hys wyf syster of kyng Wylliam the Conquerour This Priorie was valued at the fatall ouerthrow of such like buildings to be yearely worth 175. l. 14. s. 8 d ob The house is standing at this day conuerted into a priuate dwelling place as also the old Chappell to it wherein are diuers Monuments vnder which lie buried many of this thrice honourable Familie of the Veres but they are all gone to decay and their Inscriptions by time and stealth quite taken away Vpon one Tombe of Alabaster which is thought to bee the ancientest is the pourtraiture of a man lying in his armour crosse-legged but what was carued at his feet cannot be discerned Vpon another is one lying armed wtih the blew Bore vnder his head which was also crosse-legged as I was informed but now is nothing remaining from the middle downeward A third of wood armed crosse-legged on his Target the Armes of the house of Oxford and there lieth by him a woman made of wood which is thought to haue beene his Lady and Countesse Here are two more likewise in wood armed and crosse-legged the one hath an Hound or Talbot vnder his feet the cote Armour of the other is quite broken away with his Target Here is one in Alabaster not crosse-legged the Garter about one of his legges what is vnder his feet cannot be discerned A woman pourtrayed in Alabaster with a Falcon vnder her feet and a little Monument of Alabaster vpon which is the image of one in a Gowne with a purse hanging at his girdle hee is in length about foure foot But I will shew the Reader the names of such Earles and others of this house which by supposition and certainty are said to haue beene heere interred which may giue some light to the further knowledge of these in this manner intombed Aubrey de Vere the sonne of Aubrey Chamberlaine vnder King Henry the first or Camerarius Anglie as I finde it in old Cartularies hauing lost this his Office of great Chamberlaine and other dignities in the turmoiles betweene King Stephen and Maude the Empresse was by the said Empresse and Henry the second as you may haue it more fully in Vincents discouery of errours
at dinner vpon the day of his coronation and whether this be she here buried or not I know not Richard Lions held the said Mannor after her by the seruice of making Wafers vpon the day of the Kings Coronation and of seruing the King with the same Wafers as he sits at dinner the same day Leez Abbey This Abbey of old time was founded by the Gernons now it is the seate of the Right Honourable and one right worthy of all his due honours Robert Lord Rich Baron Leez and Earle of Warwicke now liuing An. 1631. This Abbey or Priory was valued at the time of the suppression as it is in the catalogue of Religious houses to be yearely worth one hundred forty one pound fourteene shillings eight pence Rickling Humfrey Waldene le premer gist icy Dieu de salme eit mercy Amen Hic iacet Henricus Langley Armig. qui obijt xx Sept. M. cccc.lviii et Margareta vxor cius vna filiarum et heredum Iohannis Waldene Armigeri que obijt v. Martii M. cccc.liii Hic tacet Thomas Langley Ar. qui obijt 1 Mar. M. cccc.lii Here lyth Henry Langley Esquyr and Dame Katherin his wyff whych Henry departyd this lyff 11 April M. cccc lxxx viii and Dame Katherine died ..... the yere of our Lord God M. ..... on whos Vpon this last marble stone are the portraitures in brasse of the three daughters of Henry Langley amongst whom his inheritance was diuided as I haue it by tradition as Waldens was before whose chiefe seate was at Langley Wilbores in this parish Thaxted This Church is spatious beautifull and built Cathedrall-like but neither in this Church in Braintrie nor scarcely in any other Church seated within a Market Towne shall you finde either Monument or Inscription onely some two or three Inscriptions are here remaining Her lyth Rychard Dammary and Alys his wyff and Rychard Dammary his sonn Ione Elizabyth and Ann on whos soulys God hau mercy Which Rychard the yongyrgawe a Meide callyd Abel Meide for a perpetual mynd yerly to be kept for ther soulys and al christen soulys Syr Walter Clerk gist icy Dieu de s'alme eit mercy Orate pro animabus Richardi Large et Alicie vxoris eius qui quidem Richardus obijt 27. Martij 1458. The Inhabitants say that this Richard Large was brother to a certaine Lord Maior of London named Large who at his death bestowed wondrous largely vpon the poore and the repairing of high waies which I take to haue beene Robert Large Maior of London Anno 1440. who gaue 120. l. to poore prisoners and euery yeare for fiue yeare 403. Shirts and Smockes 40. paire of Sheetes and one hundred and fifty Gownes of good Frize to poore people To poore Maids marriages one hundred markes to repairing high waies one hundred markes to fiue hundred poore people in London euery one sixe shillings viii d the rest of his bountifull charitie you may reade in Stow Suruay Little Easton Here is a goodly Tombe of marble on the north side of the Chancell â—nder which saith Brooke in his Catalogue of Nobility William Bourchier Earle of Ewe in Normandy lyeth interred but Vincent whom I rather beleeue in his discouery of Brookes Errors approues this Earle as also his wife Anne the daughter of Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester to be buried in the Abbey of Lanthonie by Gloucester If this monument could speake like others by her inscription it might haply decide the controuersie but all the words vpon it are Fili Dei miserere mei Mater Dei miserere mei Which seemingly commeth by a labell from a man and a woman thereupon pourtraied Of this Earle more when I come to Lanthony Betweene the Chancell and the Bowsers Isle or Chappell is a very costly arched Tombe of polished marble inlaid with brasse the picture of a man and a woman and in diuers places of the foresaid Arch on the womans side is the Fetter lock and Bowsers knot but without inscription By supposition made to the memorie of Henry Bourchier sonne of William Bourchier aforesaid Earle of Essex and Ewe and Isabell his wife daughter of Richard Earle of Cambridge and sister of Richard Duke of Yorke Which Henry died quarto Aprilis 1483. a valiant and worthie Nobleman he was fortunate in Martiall enterprises and in matters of peace so learned wise and politicke that he was thought fit by Edward the fourth to be Lord Chancellour of England In the same Chappell on the North side remaineth a very faire Altar Tombe of marble within the which lyeth the body of Henry Lord Bourchier and Louaine and Earle of Essex Sonne and heire of William Bourchier that died before his father and grandchilde to Henry Earle of Essex next before mentioned ouer his Tombe hangeth as yet part of his achieuements as the cote of his Armes Helme Crest and sword This Earle brake his necke by a fall from his horse the twelfth day of March in the one and thirtieth yeare of the raigne of King Henry the eight 1539. His horse was young saith Stow and he the oldest Earle in England for if you will reckon the yeares from the death of his Grandfather who liued after his sonne the father of this Henry as I haue said before vntill the yeare of this his fatall misfortune you shall finde them to be fifty sixe and what age he was at his Grandfathers death you may imagine In the Hall of the Mannor house of Newton in the Parish of little Dunmowe remaineth in old painting two postures the one for an ancestor of the Bourchiers combatant with another being a Pagan king for the truth of Christ whom the said Englishman ouercame and in memory thereof his descendants haue euer since borne the head of the said Infidell as also vsed the surname of Bourchier or Bowser Here are foure wondrous ancient Monuments of the Louaines all the Inscriptions of them are worne out these few words excepted Sire Thomas Louaine ici gist Margarie la file Moun .... This noble familie of the Lovaines in former ages did here inhabite by the name of Fitz-Gilbert one of which house namely Maurice Fitz-Gilbert was surnamed de Louaine as descended from Godfrey of Louaine brother to Henry the sixth of that name Duke of Brabant Who being sent hither to keepe the honor of Eye his posterity flourished among the Peeres of this Realme to the time of Edward the third when the heire generall was married to the house of Bourchier This Bowsers Chappell for it is so commonly called is now the buriall place for the noble familie of the Maynards In Northburne natus Robertus sum vocitatus De terra factus in terram sumque redactus Intercedendo spiritum tibi Christe comendo Propitietur Deus Benefactoribus omnibus Ecclesie pauperis huius The treble Bell in the steeple of this Church is called the Bowsers
for ioy of his departure out of this life with merry hearts doe leape and celebrate a solemne feast at Easter At whose death the flouds ceased and the distemperature of the aire had an end and in one word the common sort truely and heartily praise the onely sonne of God Well when this Iustice now dead was once fast folded within a sheet and Coffin of lead the foresaid Countesse with his treasure not worthy to be bestowed among such holy reliques in horrible griefe of heart conueied him ouer into England there to be enterred Orate pro ... Roberti Lambe Alicie Lambe ...... ..... Lambe ...... These Lambes haue beene speciall benefactors to this Church being sometimes men of faire possessions in this parish as I was told their names with the pictures of Lambes are depensild in many places of the woodworke and feeling of the Church Hic iacent Symon Brooke et Emota Margareta et Alicia vxores eius qui quidem Symon obijt 12. octob 1488. An ancient Familie these Brookes were in this parish now extinct as I haue it by relation Orate pro bono statu Christopheri Willoughby Armigeri Margerie vxoris eius this is in a glasse window of the Church Campsey or Camesey This was a Nunnery not farre from Vfford founded by one Theobald and consecrated to the honour of the Virgin Mary which was valued at the suppression to be yearely worth in Lands one hundred eighty and two pounds nine shillings fiue pence These Nunnes were of the order of S. Clare and called Minoresses Maud who was first married to William Lord Burgh Earle of Vlster and after to Raph de Vfford chiefe Iustice of Ireland repenting her selfe belike of her own and her last husbands delinquences committed in Ireland of which I haue spoken before obtained licence of King Edward the third by the procuration of her brother Henry Earle of Lancaster to found a Chantrie in this monastery of fiue Chaplaines secular Priests to pray and sing Masse for the soules of the said William de Burgh and Raph de Vfford whose body was here interred such is the Charter of the Foundation Edwardus c. Sciatis quod 16 die Octobris Anno regni nostri 21. ad requisitionem dilecti consanguinei et fidelis nostri Hen. Com. Lancastrie nec non Matildis comitisse Vltonie consanguinee sororis eiusdem comitis c. dederimus et consesserimus prefate comitisse quod ipsa quondam cantariam quinque capellanorum quorum vnum custodem eiusdem cantarie duxerit nominand in capella virginis gloriose infra Ecclesiam Monasterij siue prioratus monialium de campese diuina celebrar ad laudem Dei dicte virginis matris eius pro salute que Willelmi de Burgh quondam comitis Vltonie primi ac Radulphi de Vfford secundi et virorum suorum Cuius quidem Radulphi corpus in eadem capella quiescit humatum c. Test. meipso apud West c. Letheringham In the parish Church and in the Church of the little Priory adioyning are diuers Tombes and grauestones to the memory of that noble and ancient Family of the Wingfields all of which are fouly defaced This Priory was founded by sir Iohn Boynet of the dedication order or time I am altogether ignorant it was valued at twenty sixe pounds eighteene shillings fiue pence of yearely commings in The Wingfelds here buried were these Sir Robert Wingfeld Lord of Letheringham Sir Robert Wingfeld and Elizabeth Gousall his wife Sir Iohn Wingfeld and Elisabeth his wife Sir Thomas Wingfeld Sir Robert Wingfeld and Elisabeth Russell his wife obijt Robertus 1409. Thomas Wingfeld and Margaret his wife Richard Wingfeld Anne and Mary Inscriptions vpon the monuments of the Wingfelds partly remaining are these which follow Hic iacet tumulatus Dominus Willelmus Wingfeld Miles Dominus istius ville patronus istius Ecclesie qui ob primo die Iulij 1398. Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Hic iacet Willelmus VVingfeld Armig. et Katherina vxor eius .... Dominus et patronus Quorum ... Hic iacet Dominus Robertus VVingfeld miles et Elisabetha vxor eius qui quidem Robertus obijt 3. die Maij 1409. Quorum animabus .... Amen Hic iacet Dominus ...... Wingfild miles quondam Dominus de Letheringham Here is also an ancient faire Tombe very fouly defaced whereupon this fragment of an Inscription following is onely remaining ..... Elizabethe Arundel Ducisse Norfol. Iohannis Paulet militis qui quidem Iohannes obijt x Maij M. cccclxxxi ...... ac Domina Elizabetha Wingfeld vxor predicti Iohannis filia ..... Sir Antony Wingfield of Letheringham Knight sonne and heire of Sir Iohn liued in the raignes of King Henry the eight and Edward the sixth in the 31. of Hen. the 8. he was Captaine of the Guard He was Controller of Edward the sixth his House and of the priuie Councell to King Henry the eight and Edward the sixth and Knight of the Garter Hee died ..... he married Elisabeth daughter and coheire of Sir George Veere Knight and of Margaret his wife the daughter of Sir William Stafford Hee was Vice-chamberlaine to King Henry the eight and together with the Earles of Arundell and Essex and others appointed to be ayding and assisting with his aduise and counsell the Executours of the said Kings last Will and Testament A copie whereof I haue in my custody By which his will he giues to the said Sir Antony two hundred pounds In the Priorie Church here at Letheringham diuers of the ancient familie of the Nantons lie buried Of whom out of their pedegree I haue these notes following Master William Smart affirmeth that he hath seene â—n ancient Euidence dated before the Conquest of England wherein the Nantons are named who saith they were written by the name of Nawnton Roger Awston reporteth that Nawnton came in with the Conquerour and that he hath seene Records of the same who for seruice done had then giuen him in marriage a great inheritrix It is reported that Nawntons lands were at that time 700. markes per annum These Nauntons are Patrons of the Church of Alderton in this County as appeares by this Epitaph there Here lieth Henry Naunton Esquire late Patron of this Church and Tristram Naunton both sonnes of William Naunton Esquire and of Elisabeth his wife and Elisabeth wife to the said Henry daughter of Euerard Asheby Esquire and Elisabeth daughter to the said Henry Naunton and Elisabeth Asheby Patruus ignotus Genetrix vix nota sororque Occumbunt sequeris tu mihi sancte Pater Chara Domus terras fugitis neque sic me fugitis Vos sequar in caelos ..... Patri Patruo Matri Sororulae charissimis Posui fleuique Robertus Naunton 1600. Now Sir Robert Naunton knight one of his Maiesties most Honourable priuie Councell and master of the Court of Wardes and Liueries Of which
it into nine parts according to the nine Orders of the Angels of one part thereof which was most besprinckled with Christs bloud his hands and feete being thereto nailed she made a little crosse which she inclosed in a boxe of gold beset with precious stones and gaue it to her sonne Constantine the Emperour which went successiuely from one Emperour to another vntill it came to Baldwin who kept a Chaplaine to say daily masse before this sacred Relique the said Chaplaine being dead one Hugh a Priest borne here in Norfolke was preferred to his place Baldwin so long as he carried this Crosse with him to battaile had euer the vpper hand of his enemies but forgetting it hee was forthwith slaine vpon which his Chaplaine Hugh stole secretly away with the said Boxe and Crosse came to this Monastery of Bromholme and bestowed them both here vpon the Monkes for which so inestimable a gift he with his two sonnes which he had by his wife before he entred into holy orders were kept of the Monkes with all things necessary vntill the death of Hugh the father and the preferment of both his sonnes By the vertue of this holy Crosse Cooperante Domino God assisting thirty and nine persons were raised from death to life and ninteene which were blinde receiued their sight besides many other miracles which it wrought if you will beleeue my Author Hic apparuit multa superstitio circa crucem quae vocatur the holy Crosse of Bromholme et dicunt illic se habere Zonam beate marie et lac eiusdem et fragmenta crucis sancti petri et sancte Andree saith a booke in the treasury of the Exchequer of the visitation of Abbeys Here appeareth great superstition about a Crosse which is called the Holy Crosse of Bromholme and here they say they haue the girdle and milke of the blessed Virgin and a fragment of the Crosse of Saint Peter and of Saint Andrew I finde that the Founder G. Glanuill was here buried A name as you may reade in that which I haue already written of great account for many ages in diuers parts of this kingdome There be of the later writer saith Camden speaking of the Earles of Suffolke who report that the Glanuils in times past were honoured with this title But seeing they ground vpon no certaine authoritie where as men may easily mistake and I haue found nothing of them in the publike records of the kingdome they must pardon me if I beleeue them not vntill they produce more certainty yet the meane while I confesse that the Familie of the Glanuils in this tract was of right good note and high reputation Antingham Vnder a faire marble lie buried Richard Calthorpe Esquire and Anne his wife daughter of Edmund Hastings by whom he had issue xix sonnes and daughters as appeares in that which remaines of the brasse Here lieth Iohn Cudden the sonne of George Cudden Esquire who maried Anne Berney Here lieth Rafe Berney who married Sir William Fromers sister This is a name of exemplarie note and Baronets degree in this tract Ringland On a flat Grauestone in the said Church is this Inscription Hic iacet Robertus Neue filius et heres Iohannis tertio geniti Roberti le Neue de Tytetishal generosi qui quidem Robertus le Neue obijt anno Domini M. ccccc.lviii Beston A faire Tombe whereon is engrauen in brasse the names of Iohn Deynes and Katherine his wife and these two words Respice Respice Here was a Priory of Nuns yerely worth seuenty sixe pounds three shillings nine pence halfe penny Kinningall Here lieth Iohn Shildgate Prior sometime of Windam who built the Chancell of this Church as appeares by his Tombe Here is a faire Tombe for George Lord Awdley and his wife the daughter of the E. of Bath as I haue it out of master Howldiche his collection Orate pro anima Rogery Dennys Seneschalli castal ... Walsingham One Richold a Widdow dwelling in the Towne of Walsingsame was the first founder of the Chappell there in the yeare of our Lord God 1061. which she dedicated to our blessed Lady and founded the same in all points like to the Chappell of our Lady at Nazareth in that place where she was saluted by the Angell Gabriel It was made a Priory of blacke Canons by Edmond Earle of March and Elisabeth de Burgo in the raigne of Edward the Third and valued at the suppression thereof which happened the fourth of August in the thirtieth yeare of the raign of K. Henry the Eight after the rate of those times to haue of yearely reuenues foure hundred forty sixe pounds fourteene shillings foure pence halfe penny qua This village was much renowned throughout all England for a Pilgrimage to our Lady the Virgin Mary whom he who had not in that former age visited and presented with offerings was reputed irreligious But this shall Erasmus an eye witnesse describe in his owne very words Not farre from the Sea saith he about foure miles there standeth a Town liuing almost of nothing else but vpon the resort of Pilgrimes There is a Colledge of Canons yet such as vnto whom the Latinists haue giuen the addition of Regulares a middle kinde betwixt Monkes and those Canons whom they terme Secular This Colledge hath scarse any other reuenues than from the liberality of the said Virgin For certaine of the greater Presents and Oblations are laid vp and preserued But if there be any money offered or ought else of small value that goeth vnto maintenance of the Couent and their Head or President whom they call Prior. The Church is faire and neat yet in it the Virgin dwelleth not that honour forsooth shee hath done vnto her Sonne she hath her Church by her selfe but so as that she may be on the right hand of her Sonne Neither doth she dwell here for all this for why the building is not yet finished and the place hath a through light and ayre on all sides with open dores and wide open windowes the Ocean Sea withall the father and foster of all winds is hard by In that Church which I said was vnfinished there is a small Chappell but all of wood whereunto on either side at a narrow and little dore are such admitted as come with their deuotions and offerings Small light there is in it and none other in manner but by Tapers or waxe Candles yeelding a most deynty and pleasant smell Nay if you looke into it you would say it were the habitation of heauenly Saints indeed so bright shining it is all ouer with precious stones with gold and siluer But within the memory of our fathers saith Camden in the same place when King Henry the eight had set his minde and eye both vpon the riches and possessions of Churches all this vanished quite away Rising Castle So denominated of a Castle sometime there standing the seat anciently of the Albineys
40. plough lands of grouÌ„d of the kings of Mercia and Kent to their Monasterie Vt in charta * Wido the 42. Hugh de Flori 4â— Guliel Spina in bib Cot. Hugh the second 44. Will. Thorne or Gul. Spina in bib Cott. Alexander surnamed Cementariâ—â— Theologus the 48. Hugh the third the 49. Abbot Robert de Bellâ— the 50. Roger the second 51. Thomas Findon 〈…〉 Raph de Borne the 54. Mssan bib Cot. Thomas Poucyn the 55. In bib Cot. William Drulege the â—6 Mâ—re Archbishop then Abbots by three Iulian Counâ—eâ—â—e of Hâ—ntington Catal. in Hunting Io. Speâ—d 〈…〉 Pâ—iory of Haâ—â—baldowne Lamb. peram in Harbaldowne Lora Countesse 〈◊〉 Leicâ—ster 〈…〉 Catal. Caâ—den in Kent Sir Iohn Gower and Sir Iohn Deâ—e Priests Sir Roger Manwoods Almes-house A pilgrimage◠〈◊〉 S. Stephens 〈◊〉 Ethelbert the second king of â—â—nt The end of the Kentish kingdome The found 〈…〉 the Abbey at Reculuer ... Sandwey 〈◊〉 his wife Sir Thomas a Priest â—dila Lady Thorne Thrâ—e vailed Nunnes The foundation of Minster Abbey Io. Caâ—graue in v. â—a Dom. Mssâ—a bib Cot A Maledicton The death of Domneua The buriall of Thunnor 〈◊〉 Dom. â— Mildred 〈◊〉 on of Mildred Hungar and Hubba the sonnes of a Beare Mâ—ssâ—in bib Câ—â—t Caygraue iâ—â—nia 〈◊〉 b. 〈◊〉 Eadburgh 〈◊〉 first English Nunne surnamed 〈◊〉 Camden in K. Speed Hist. The foundation of the white Friers and of the old Hospitall A Manuscript Tho. Legatt Tho. Hadlow William Beckleâ— Iohn Sandwich Denis Plumcooper The foundation â—f the free Schoole Richborow Claudius Contentus Caâ—nd Kenâ— Goshall Leuerick Septvau S. 〈◊〉 Harsletâ— Clitherow ... Oldâ—â—stell Ioane Keriell Stow. Annal. Harding 〈◊〉 Sir Iohn Philpot. knight Lord Maior of London Stow. Annal. Stow. Suruay Speed Hist. 22. Ric. 1 The Walsingham in vita Ric. 1. Sir Thomas Ba knight Wingham Colledge Lamb peramb. Blechendens 〈◊〉 Tho. S. 〈◊〉 and Ioane 〈◊〉 wife Albina the wife of 〈◊〉 Iohn Digge 〈◊〉 Ioane his wife Sir Iohn Digge knight and Ioane his wife Sir Robert Ashton knight Lord Warden Admirall of a 〈◊〉 Chiefe Iustice of Ireland Lord Treasurer Executor to K. Edward the third Foundation of the Castle Church Lamb. peramb. The Priory of S. Martins or Gods-house in Douer Regist. eccl 〈…〉 in bib Cot. S. 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Lond. Stow. 〈◊〉 William 〈◊〉 the sonne of Iudge Fineux Wilâ—iam Sir 〈…〉 the controuler of 〈◊〉 Sir William Scot knight Hollinshed Elisabeth Lady Poynings Camden in Kent Isâ—bell Ladie 〈◊〉 Ioane the wife of Io. Digges Dionisia Finch Vincent Harbard alias Fâ—nch in the genealogie of the 〈◊〉 of Nedde felâ—â— Sir Robert Gower knight Pashley Ioane Pashley in the window â—â—mmatiâ—n of the 〈◊〉 at â—olâ—â—ton â—â—o Godfraâ— Sir Iohn Culâ—peper kniâ—ht and Agnes his wiâ—â— â—â—den in Rut. The Pâ—ioâ—y of 〈◊〉 Iohn Maâ—sâ—â—â— pâ—efeâ—menâ—s Hollins An 1241. Paris â—hinne Anon. in bib Cott Mansels death in 〈◊〉 Ex Epitâ—m Râ—â—geri Houeden in bib Coâ— A Benefice for Dogges meaâ— * Earle of Leiâ—cester Mansel the cause of the warres betweene Henâ—y the third and his Barons Paris â—n 1252 Charge of soules 〈◊〉 Culkin and 〈◊〉 his wife 〈…〉 and Ioane his wife A free Sâ—â—â—ole 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 his sonne Sir 〈◊〉 knight and Dennis his wife Ric. Lâ—â—e to Cely â—enalâ— Deyre Foundation of the Colledge o◠〈◊〉 The Kempe and Beatrice his wife Lamb. peramb. Iohn Andrew a Pilgrime Foundation of the Colledge of Ashford Elisabeth Countesse of Atholl Semane Tong Baron of the fiue ports Io. 〈◊〉 and his wife Wil. Norton and Elisabeth his wife Will. Thorne Richard Norton and Ioane his wife Iohn â—â—st Thomas Read William Vpton Agnes Feuersham William Leedes Henry Hatcher and Ioane his wife Richard Colwell Camden Remaineâ— Foundation of Feuersâ—am Abbey Ex Arch Turris London The death and buriall of King Stephen Addition to Rob. Gloc. 〈◊〉 Paris An. 1154 Harding c. 12â— Rob. Glocest. S. Daniel No subsidies in K Stephens time 〈◊〉 â—omp 〈◊〉 in bib Cot. Spâ—â—d Maud the wife of K Stephen In bib Cot. Eustace King Stephens sonne 〈◊〉 Monkâ— of Chester 〈◊〉 Dâ—rob His death and buriall Rob. Gloc. Margaret Riâ— kill Io. Crowmer and Ioane his wife Will. Crowmer Sir Iames Fienes I.o. Treasurer Iohn Septvaus and Katherine his wife Elisabeth Poodd Iames Bourne Io. Gerard and Ioane his wife Laurence Gerard and Tho his sonne Apuldorfeild Clipeus honoris Glouer Somerset Herald Valentine Barret and Siciliâ— his wife â—â—ll Maries Smersoll Iul-laber Camd. in Kent Io. Frogenhall Will. Mareys Ioane and Ioane his wife Woodokes The Priory 〈◊〉 Horton Monâ—â—â— The order 〈…〉 Alex Clifford and 〈◊〉 his wife Visit of Kent Glouer Sir Arnold Sauage knighâ— and Ioane his wife Sir Arnold Saâ—uage knight Katherine Lady Sauage Foundation of Bradesoke Abâ—bey Eâ— Arch 〈…〉 Iohn and Iohn Norwood Visit. Kent Glouer Thomas Alefe and Margaret his wife Sir Iohn Norton knight and Ioane his wife Stow. Annal. Sir Edward Pâ—ynings Sir Iohn Norton Io. Fogge Iohn Scot Tho. Lynd knights of the field Inter Bundel Indent â—e guerra apud pelles Foundation of the Friary at Eastbridge Iudge Martyn and Anne his wife Visit. Kent Iohn Martyn Ioane Butler Ioane Feuersham Tho. Feuersham and Ioane his wife Found of the Abbey Io. Toke Margaret and Anne his wife Glouer alias Somerset Lancaster king of Armes Stephen Norton Foundation of Minster Nunnery Roger Norwood and Bena his wife Io. Soole and Margaret his wife Shurland Inter Bundellas Indent de guerra apud pel Maidston Found of the Colledge first an Hospitall William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury * Sure he meanes Cardinall for I cannot finde him to be Chancellour Sir Iohn Wotton Priest the first Master of this Colledge Woodvill Chancery of Maidston Leedes Priory Eâ— Arch 〈◊〉 London Io. and William Bloor Iames Donet Io. Paynter Mssâ—n â—ib Cot. A quarrell betweene the Canons of Leedes and the Monkes of S. Albans The Religious House at Motinden Boxley Abbey Cart. Ant. in Arch. Turris London The Roode of Grace at Boxley Lamb. peramb. Camd. in Kent Hollins p. 1402. An. Reg Elis. 27 Nicholas Wotton Lord Maior of London Newenden Priory The first Carmelite Friars in England Lamb peramb. Lambard Combewell Abbey Iohn Elys Sir Nicholas Sandwich Priest Visit. Kent Will. Brent and Elisab his wife Sir W. Walkesley knight Tho. Elys and Thomasin his wiâ—â— William Bâ—rre Glouer alias Somerset The Colledge of Bradgare Dame Elisab Nâ—vill Camd in Cumberland So in this County Sutton Valence Horton Kirby and others haue like distinctiue surnames Richard Derâ—â— â—â—ow Annal. Iohn Dering An Eschurchion Io. Dering and Iulian his wife Nic Dering and 〈◊〉 his wife 〈◊〉 Dering Beneâ— his wife Hen. and Rich. Malemaines Brent the Mad-braine Rich. Dering Tho. his sonne Will. Goldwell and Avice his wife Goldwell Bishop of Norw a repairer of this Church The builders oâ— founders of this Church Bishop Goldwel the founder of the South Chappell Io. Tokâ— Marg. and Anne his wifes Tho. Twesden and Benedict his wife Will. Sharpe and his fiue wiues Margaret the wife