evil times, in consequence of the ceremonies which the illfated and pious Laud had used at the consecration, and was, in common with many other churches in the metropolis profaned by the puritans at that period, the restoration of the altar being one of the crimes alleged against the martyred bishop, the fury of the sacrilegious revolutionists no doubt destroyed the original altar, and with it the remainder of the wood-work and the stained glass in the windows. This will account for the altar-screen and pulpit being more modern than the building, having been restored after the royal government was reinstated,

Priory of the Holy Trinity.

To the north of Aldgate formerly stood the magnificent priory of the Holy Trinity, called Christ-church. It was founded by queen Maud,* daughter to Malcolm, king of Scotland, wife to Henry I., by the persuasions of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Beaumeis, bishop of London, A. D. 1108, in the same place where Siredus had begun to erect a church in honour of the Holy Cross and St. Mary Magdalene, out of which the dean and chapter of Waltham were entitled to receive thirty shillings; but the queen gave them a mill in exchange, and had this agreement confirmed by king Henry, her husband, giving the care of the church to Norman, the first canon regular in all England, for canons of his own rule.

The same queen also endowed this church, and those that served God therein, with the port of Aldgate, and the soke thereunto belonging, with all customs, as mentioned in the following deed:

Maud, by the grace of God, queen of England, to R. bishop of London, and all the faithful of the holy church, greeting. Be it known to you, that I, by the advice of archbishop Anselm, and with the consent and confirmation of my lord king Henry, have given and confirmed the church of Christ, seated near the walls of London, free and discharged from all subjection, as well to the church of Waltham as all other churches, except the church of St. Paul, London, and the bishops, with all things appertaining to the same, for the honour of God, to the cannons regularly serving God in the same, with Norman, the prior, for ever, for the redemption of our souls, and of those of our parents. I have in like manner given them the gate of Algate, with the soct belonging to the same, which was my lordship, and two parts of the revenue of the city of Exeter. And it is my will, and I command, that the said canons hold their lands, and all things belonging to their church, well and peaceably, and honourably and freely, with all the liberties and customs which my lord king Henry, by

* Cotton makes prior Norman to be he founder, A D. 1107.

+ From the Saxon rocne, signifying

a cause, was the liberty of holding a court, and exercising jurisdiction over tenants within the demesne or franchise.

his charter, confirmed to them; so that neither wrong nor injury be done to them. Witness William, bishop of Winchester, Roger, bishop of Salisbury, Robert, bishop of Lincoln.'

Henry I. subsequently strengthened this charter by considerable privileges; he confirmed the grant of Maud, and granted them further to hold their possessions with sac* and soc, and toll+ and them, and infangentheof,§ and all their customs, as well within the city as without.'

The same king also confirmed to them the soc of the English knightengild,' which was also confirmed to them by the bull of pope Innocent III.

There was another charter, whereby this priory was privileged to inclose the way along London-wall, and stop the passage, and enlarge their priory to the very wall.

The rights and privileges of this noble foundation were repeatedly confirmed by charters of Henry II. and III. and Edward I.

Norman became Prior of Christchurch in the year 1108, in the parishes of St. Mary Magdalene, St. Michael, St. Catherine, and the Blessed Trinity, which now were made but one Parish of the Holy Trinity.

This priory occupied a piece of ground upwards of three hundred feet long, in the parish of St. Catherine, towards Aldgate, near the parochial chapel of St. Michael. In process of time it became a very large church, rich in lands and ornaments, and surpassed all the priories in the city of London or shire of Middlesex, the prior whereof was alderman of Portsoken ward.

In 1132, this priory, with its church, was consumed by fire, but was immediately rebuilt.

After this, priory had swallowed up those four parishes abovenamed, and was appointed the parish church, the inhabitants of the parish of St. Catherine's prevailed with the prior to let them build a chapel in the church-yard of the priory, for their more convenient and quiet resort to perform their divine service in, and to appoint them one uf his canons to say mass to them, on condition that they continued to christen their childreu in the conventual church, and to come thither at all solemn times; their devotions at the altar of St. Mary Magdalene, where they had before resorted, being greatly disturbed by the noise of several celebrating mass together. But in time, the parishioners neglecting to come to the conventual church, the prior insisted upon their

This was the right of imposing fines in cases of trespass, arising between the tenants, determined in the court of the franchise.

+ An exemption from payment of toll of things bought and sold in al markets.

Jurisdiction over the villeins or bondmen of the franchise, with their

suits and chattels wherever they might be found in the realm, except any villein should have resided in any corporate town for the space of a year and a day; by which residence he was emancipated from his villeinage.

§ The right of apprehending robbers taken within the franchise, and of convicting and judging them in its court

agreement to resort to the great church for the christening of their children, and upon all the holidays, especially the greater, as in the night and day of our Lord's nativity, Good Friday, the day of the benediction of the Faster wax-candle, the morning of Easter-day, the vespers and vigils of the feasts of the Holy Trinity, and the dedication of the conventual church of the Holy Trinity; on which days he would allow no service to be performed in the parochial chapel. This occasioned great contentions between the prior, Robert Exeter, the convent, and the aforesaid parishioners; which continued to the time of William Haradou, and Richard Clifford, bishop of London, who, in the year 1414, accommodated their differences by a composition between them on the following terms, viz.-That the said parishioners of St. Catherine's, Christ's, or Cree-church, should have a baptismal font anew set up in their church, or chapel, for baptising of children, and to have other solemnities to be there performed (about which such contentions had before arisen among them), for all times hereafter. That they should resort to the conventual church on the festivals and dedication of the said conventual church in the eve of St. Bartholomew yearly; and there, in token of their submission and acknowledgment, each should, in those festivals, offer their pence, halfpence, and farthings; and that they might, if they pleased, keep the dedication of St. Catherine in their own said chapel or church; which he, the bishop, out of his paternal affection towards them, yielded unto Further, that they might not ring the bells on Easter-day, till the mass was finished at the conventual church. That one of the canons, to be placed or removed at the pleasure of the prior, should serve in the said chapel, as was usual before this present ordinance, to administer to the said parishioners the sacraments, as anciently was done. That the prior and convent henceforth be not obliged to find the ornaments, nor be at other charges for the chapel. All which ordination and composition the prior and convent, and the said parishioners received and promised inviolably to observe perpetually.*

This priory was once taken into the king's hands (40 Hen. III.) for receiving a thief within its precincts that had escaped from Newgate.

Eustacius, the eighth prior, about the year 1264, because he would not deal with temporal matters, instituted Theobald FitzJuonis, or Ivo, as deputy alderman of Portsoken ward under him; and William Rising, prior of Christ-church, was sworn alderman of the said Portsoken ward in the first of Richard II. These priors sat and rode among the aldermen of London, in the same livery, only the prior's habit was in shape of a spiritual person, as Stow saith he himself saw in his childhood; at which time the prior

Maitland's History of London, iì. 781.

kept a most bountiful house, both for rich and poor, as well within the house as at the gates, to all comers, acccording to their conditions.

The following is an account of the spiritualities and temporalities of this priory, circa 1291*

Spiritualia Prioris Sancte Trinitatis, London.

Ecclesia Sancti Bothr ext' Algate..

x marc.

Capella Sancte Kat'ine, et Sancti Mich'is in atrio ste

Taxatio Spiritualium et Temporalium cleri intra Diœcesim London.--Bib

Harl. No. 63.