[225] Ibid. p. 31.
[226] Even Dr. Stubbs seems to imply this when he alludes to “the conversion of the cnihtengild into a religious house” (‘Const. Hist.’ [1874], i. 406).
[227] Compare “the retirement at one time of seven or eight aldermen” only three pages before (p. 30).
[228] p. 33. So also pp. 34, 42, 90.
[229] Coote, ut supra, p. 478.
[230] Good instances in point are found in the Ramsey cartulary, where, in 1081, a benefactor to the abbey “suscepit e contra a domno abbate et ab omnibus fratribus plenam fraternitatem pro rege Willelmo, et pro regina Matilda, et pro comite Roberto, et pro semetipso, et uxore sua, et filio qui ejus erit heres, et pro patre et matre ejus, ut sunt participes orationum, elemosinarum, et omnium beneficiorum ipsorum, sed et omnium fratrum sive monasteriorum a quibus societatem susceperunt in omnibus sicut ex ipsis” (i. 127–8). Better still is this parallel: “Reynaldus abbas, et totus fratrum conventus de Rameseya cunctis fratribus qui sunt apud Ferefeld in gilda, salutem in Christo. Volumus ut sciatis quod vobis nostrum fraternitatem concessimus et communionem beneficii quam pro nobismet ipsis quotidie agimus, per Serlonem, qui vester fuit legatus ad nos, ut sitis participes in hoc et in futuro sæculo” (i. 131). The date of this transaction was about the same as that of the admission of the cnihtengild to a share in the “benefits” of Holy Trinity; and the grant was similarly made in return for an endowment.
[231] See “The First Mayor of London” (‘Antiquary,’ April, 1887).
[232] Coote, ut supra, p. 478.
[233] Report, ut supra, p. 68 a.
[234] Ibid. p. 62 a.