The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-30 00:00:00

NAMES OF STREETS.-(CRUTCHED FRIARS.)

This street still retains a memorial of the an-
dent Catholic times, and of the monastery froM
which it derives its name—the Crossed, or Crutch-
ed Friars ; namely, the alms-houses called Ma.
bourn's Alms-houses, which were erected adjoin-
ing to the Friary Church, and the original build-
ings of which stand to this day but little altered,
though as old as the year 1533.
By the original constitutions of their founder,
Sir John Milward (who was a wealthy draper
of London in the reign of Henry VIII.), the
alms-people belonging to this charity, then called
beadsmen, were to come daily into the Friar's
Church, and to seat themselves conveniently near
their benefactor's tomb, which he had caused to
1)0 erected in his lifetime, and there to stop dur-
ing the whole time of mass, which was to begin
at 8 o'clock, in the.morning, ut the altar called our
Lady's Altar, in, tha, middle aisle of the church
(founded also by him), where the said thirteen
poor beadsmen, before the beginning of mass,
one of them standing right' over against the
other, about, and encompassing the same tomb
or burial-place of Sir John Milburn," were se-
verally, two and two of then together, to say the
Psalm of De Prefundi,.and a Paternoster, Ave,
and Creed, with a Collect, thereunto belonging;
and such of them as could not repeat the Psalm,
were to say the Paternoster, Ave, and Creed
only, for the prosperous state of the said Sir
I,John, his wife, and children, &c. while living,
' and for their souls when dead.
The Crutched Friars' House itself stood at
the corner of Hart-street, now called Crutched
Friars ; and its grounds extended over part of
Great Tower Hill, where first the old Navy
Office, and now the Trinity House, stands. The
church occupied the site of Savage-gardens, and
was of considerable size, consisting of a middle
and side aisles, body and choir, or chancel, be-
sides side chapels, and contained several altars.
On its destruction, the site wns first converted
into a carpenter's yard, and the friary hall into
a glass-house ; which house, Stowe tells us, In the
year 1575, burst out Into a terrible fire, and
having in It about forty thousand billets of wood,
was consumed to the stone-walls, wliclive were
thick that they prevented the fire spreadingi
further. Nt)9 o.l_ e
110
.alt of the monastery site
was built-o 0 y,4trhomas Wyatt, the elder,
In the reigwef:.fienay VIII., and the mansion,
afterwards
i
rdsi
iiiue. hoatslted4filer°emit;s of this,
rdaruml"w er
sgall
edtheConvent, now exist.

This 'order of Crutched Friars, it is said, was
instituted, or at least reformed, by one Gerrard,•
Prior of St. Mary of Morello, at Bologna,..and
contirtned, In the year'lls9, by Pope Alexander
111. who brought those religious under SEAustio's.
rule, and madeaetne other 'Constitutions for their
government. They are supposed to have derived,'
their -origin .from .the order of Cross-hearing, or
Crossed Friars, In Italy, now suppressed. Their
dress at first.N.ras gray, with a cross 'of red cleth,
or ocarict, worked on it ; but, one of the later
Popes ordained that they
.should.. for the future
weat a tunic with a scapular, and, overall actual;
or mantle,' and a'great cat-nail or rocket, all blue ;
and that' instead of wearing a cross embroidered
on:their habits, they shOuld always Ottrry.a silver
cross in their hands. This, IS said to have Anton
as hints', brought up by the vanity of some Su-
'periors; arid that *at tirst they only carried an iron
cross ; 'anti that they did, 'hot assume this letter
sari of habit until t 401,. at their general chapter.
Mattheei Paris inentiens the. first corning :of
these' Friars, and Indeed the 041,4.0 t the, enter
gene
gerillly, with 'lt'degrep,o.t,conternpt. "In the
tWetitY:Uitith year of ICIUg Henry
W I" says her
•

" there came to the Synod of the Bishop of no.
chester, some persons appearing to be of a new
order, namely, the Friars called Cross•beares,
or crouched ; so
called because they carried their
crosses on staves. They acquired an habitation
from the wealthy
men, showing an unheard pd-
vllege granted them by the Pope, viz. that none
should be allowed to reprove their order, or re-
proach and command over them, they had also
power granted them to excommunicate all such
persons. All wise and discreet persons Wm-
d'ring, yea being astonished, at so many new or-
ders daily rising and starting up, without aid ;
and that so many learned men, despising the rules
of the blessed Benedict, and of the most =gni-
ficent Saint Augustin, should of a sudden tly to
unheard-of and new-invented orders ; and this
notwithstanding that it was enacted in general
council (which admitted and authorized the or-
ders of preachers and minors), that from thence-
forward no new orders should be invented, or if
invented, thy should not e dmitted lest thoss
which were authentic, and a already, received,
should become contemptible."
Their settlement in London took place in the
year 1298, on this spot, which was the only foot-
ing they were permitted to gain in the metropolis.
It was founded by two citizens of the names of
Ralph Hosier and William Saberns, who bought
a piece of ground of the neighbouring priory of
the Holy Trinity for that purpose, and afterwards
themselves became friars of the Cross. Their
first priors name was Adam, and their last Robt.
,stretham, of whom Stowe tells the following

story
" A prior of this house iu Henry Vlllth's
time was nut so observant as he should be of
the rules of his order, who on a Friday (a day of
somewhat more mortification and devotion than
others) was found at eleven o'clock in bed with
a mistress, and taken by Bartholet and others,
appointed visitors by order of Cromwell, the
Vicar-general. For the concealing of the incon-
tinency, the surprised prior distributed thirtY
pounds presently among them,and promised thirty
pounds more; all which was certified to Crom'
well, in a letter wrote by the said Barth
ol olet.
These scandalous crimes hastened the dissution
of these monasteries."
, History mentions two fraternities being found'
ed in this Crutched Friary Church:he °rain
ances of which are preserved, and gives us a
curious insight into the nature of the Catholic
institutions before the dissolution of momtste-

ries :
The one, dedicated to the
Wilsuack," was said to have been founded " in
honor of Gon, our Lady Seynt Mary, his Moder,
and of the Blessed Blood of hir vine JOU CRIST,
which was by all Cristen people wourshipped at
Wilsuack in Saxon, and opytily called the Holy
131 ode of Wilsuack, and of all the Seynts of
"holy Blood of
Neveyn." And its intention was declared to
be " for to norish, encrease, and engender rove
and peas amonge godo Cristen people." tht .
s
Among other things to be observed in
" outlandish" fraternity were the following-- .
cc What manor brother or suster disklannaretn
or delittneth other of the same bretherhede in
wourdes of malice, or otherwise in
manor, that hit be proved and verified on him,
with good and Crew men, without fraud or illn-,
leengyne," was to pay 'illb. of wax for the use 0'
the brotherhood. " And yf any, of the. sale'
brotherhede did greve, or decese with greveuse
and evill words' the mastris, when they went
about to gadyr money and dewtis, longing to the
bretheritede," on default he should pay one pound
unbonest
of wax. i
When any brother or sister of the same free'
nity was deed, he or she was to have. four torches
of wax of the brotherhood to bring the body t()„.
earth ; and every brother and sister was to atten",
the Mass of Requiem, and to stay till •the Waal
of the .body, and if any brother or sister by for
ttuneion of shouldGo d fall, s
0 thatuto uhtit,n
oa
rt usrhae o
l sykness
and travel to helpe them
sel ve, the same syke, by
warnying to the mastris fro the wile beying, were
tohave 20d. every week, until their recovel'
And lastly, every ' brother and sister of the
ye
same fraternity was to have " a bode of lived
dt to6ty la vli)so4;
every yore, the which was to be kept
for holy days only--and whoept ij Ye'ret the
first
work in his bode the works days, wasorkol bay:
tug on the bode of the same year, to forfeit
,
21h. of WAX."
The other fraternity had similar regulations,
couched ; ~.
in terms squatty qoaint and antiqUated.
Both these (retort • aaPPressed with the
uties were
Friars'
monastery. should
MilburnesAl
roll-lane l Indio to T wer•hill. They have all
.g o - partly to..
Gothic dos:* and windows, and stand
wards the street, and Partly in au adjoining coYnrt .
or yard f
%a portion probably of thp Friary chars!'
yard), the gateway leading to which is likewise
.ms.houses stand at the of
of Gothic Gothic construction, and •contains over it• °I;
a square stone, a bas relief of the Assumption ol
the Virgin Mary, who is represented •
by six.angels, in a cloud of glory. Tse
ifiscriP#
lion 1
3 4c .41d hoiden& Del et gleriose• Virg
il's'
Marie, hoc. opue ererit Dominus Johannes i;11
1:
mikf .4 Alderman hujus , civil* ,A. h
1535." They. now .support thirteen aged mei
and their wives, if they have wives, who , haqe
their dwellings•rent free, and 2s. 4d. a wee,k1,1",.:
first of every month, for ever. The tostnagenlep„;•
of these alms-houses is vested in
.the LW."
Cornpanyof which'the founder was in, pis We..
tams a member.
_____ supported

- . .
laLsaAt. DisTlLLEriy.--Saturday, Lwow
a, Cn-.
Byrne, of the ad Revenue Corps, stationed at °l'm—. guff
u„clusw"? sucoecded in seizing at Ivisanagh, shoat tw. out
irie. units from their quarters, an eighty-gallon cOgr.. ()n-
-ano wcirrn; ,and destroyed a large, quantity
,of I
the return of the party they were attacked by a 'LI f;""boet.
who tired upon them, the balls tearing up the e4d. I ...hel
their feet. The party, after some time, returned the.fins.l",,,e,
the Revenue Corps and the mob commenced a reglit:C27s7.ot
mutt. One man had hit thigh Wounded, and A hag "41' „ted;
on which rather 'a decent-looking person had been 11100"_,• •
'On was heard giving orders to the country people 1°
(friih Obiiitor.)

COAL MARKET, Dsc. 29.
lips at Market. Ship
St s sold '. :406 63
V Sunderlan
Newcastle - - - - tea "'eja to 41s 414
d

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Orbited and Published for the PTIOPRINTORS, !Pt'
OrrACW, N0..112, strand, by J.. 0. CbotAtaik

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