The grand Crypt built soon after the foundation of the house of the Priory of St. John at Clerkenwell, which was added to and afterwards made to form an undercroft to the choir, is now one of the most interesting of the remains of mediæval buildings in London. It is below the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, and has been restored with loving care to much of its original beauty. Other portions of the old buildings of the Priory are to be seen in the cellars of some of the houses round about.
The position of the old Charterhouse buildings can still be traced, although little of the old monastery exists, but the east and south walls of the Chapel and Washhouse Court can be seen. The latter was built by the monks to accommodate the lay brothers who acted as servants to the convent. The walls of the monastic refectories surround the present Brothers’ Library. Beneath this is the Monks’ Cellar.
The friaries situated within the walls of old London have left little but their names to tell the Londoner of to-day of their existence. Still even here something of the past remains. The Church of Austin Friars is left to us, and the position of the choir of the great Franciscan house of Grey Friars is marked by the present Christ Church, Newgate Street. Some traces of the buildings of the Whitefriars have also been found underground.
Sanctuary.—One of the privileges of the Middle Ages, which continued on into comparatively modern times, was that of sanctuary, and in its belated form this caused many gross scandals. There are numerous stories connected with the College of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, which was under the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Westminster. One of these relates to Richard III. and Lady Anne. When the Duke of Gloucester desired to marry Anne, the betrothed of the late Edward Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI., her brother-in-law Clarence objected and hid her away. Richard discovered her in London, disguised as a kitchen-maid, and placed her in sanctuary at St. Martin’s-le-Grand.[376]
In 1416 a man was sentenced to the pillory for slandering an alderman, but he escaped and found sanctuary at the monastery of St. Peter’s, Westminster.[377]
Mr. G. M. Trevelyan, in his work on the Age of Wycliffe, gives a full account of the great scandal which occurred in 1378, when two prisoners escaped from the Tower and sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. The governor of the Tower, with his soldiers, entered the nave and attempted to drag one of the prisoners, who was attending Mass, out of sanctuary. He fled for his life, and his pursuers chased him twice round the choir. He was stabbed to death, and one of the attendants of the church, interfering to save him, was killed in the scuffle.