In Agas’ Map of London, “Civitas Londinum,” circa 1560 (see end of London in the Time of the Tudors), there is represented, lying on the west of Aldersgate Street, an irregular square or place called Charter House Square: it has a small church in the middle, and on the north side are monastic buildings; on the north of these are gardens and orchards; one of them with a small building which may be meant for a church enclosed with a wall. Some of these monastic buildings, with later additions and alterations, still remain to the present day; the square remains, but the orchards and gardens are built over, with the exception of the ground once enclosed by the cloister, which is now the play-ground of the Merchant Taylors’ School. Before the middle of the fourteenth century this place formed part of “No Man’s Land,” a swampy plain, covered, like Smithfield and Moorfield, with ponds and reeds and rushes. In the year 1349 the Black Death arrived; and as the City churchyards were becoming so full that they could hold no more, the Bishop of London bought a piece of this ground which he enclosed for a burial-place, building a chapel, “which is now,” says Stow, “enlarged and made a dwelling-house,” and the place was called Pardon Churchyard. It was afterwards used as a burial-place for suicides and criminals and persons who died a violent death. The body was put into a cart, hung with black cloth, belonging to St. John’s Hospital; on the black cloth was the white cross of St. John; within the cart hung a bell which rang with the jolting and the shaking of the hearse—a doleful sound and a doleful sight.
In 1350 or 1351, the plague still continuing, Sir Walter Manny bought thirteen acres of ground, adjacent to the Pardon Churchyard, and gave this to the City as a new burial-ground; the chapel stood somewhere in Charter House Square, perhaps about the middle of it. There used to be a stone cross in this burial-ground with the following inscription:—
“Anno Domini 1349, regnante magnâ pestilentiâ, consecratum fuit hoc cœmiterium in quo et infra septa presentis monasterii sepulta fuerunt mortuorum corpora plus quam quinquaginta millia præter alia multa abhinc usque ad presens: quorum animabus propitietur Deus, Amen.”
In the Charter House Precinct, to this day, whenever the ground is opened bones are found.
Some years later Sir Walter Manny, with Michael de Northburgh, Bishop of London, founded on the spot a House which they at first intended to be only a College of twelve Chaplains, one of whom was to preside; they enlarged their plan, however, and converted this college into a House of Carthusians, whose Prior obtained a Bull of the Pope in 1362 for the acquisition of certain benefices valued at £200 a year. Nine years later, in February 1471-72, the House obtained license to hold twenty acres of ground for their Precinct, together with a Chapel dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin. It had already received, by the will of Bishop Michael, who died in 1361, £2000 in money, many rents and tenements, the Bishop’s Library, and his best Vestments. The House was, further, largely endowed by other Kings and Princes. Sir Walter Manny, who died in 1471, was buried in the Choir of the Church.
THE CHARTER HOUSE
From the Grangerised edition of Brayley’s London and Middlesex in Guildhall Library.
No House commanded greater respect than this of the Carthusians, for the simple reason that while the Rule in other Houses was relaxed, or was scandalously neglected, successive generations of Carthusians showed no change in their austerities and no deviation from their Rule. They came to England about 1180, and settled first at Witham, near Bath. Their austerities are thus described:—
“They wear nothing made from furs or linen, nor even that finely-spun linen garment which we call Staminium; neither breeches, unless when sent on a journey, which at their return they wash and restore. They have two tunics with cowls, but no additional garment in winter, though, if they think fit, in summer they may lighten their garb. They sleep clad and girded, and never after matins return to their beds; but they so order the time of matins that it shall be light ere the lauds begin: so intent are they on their rule, that they think no jot or tittle of it should be disregarded. Directly after the hymns, they sing the prime, after which they go out to work for stated hours. They complete whatever service or labour they have to perform by day without any other light. No one is ever absent from the daily services, or from complines, except the sick. The cellarer and hospitaller, after complines, wait upon the guests, yet observing the strictest silence. The abbot allows himself no indulgence beyond the others, everywhere present, everywhere attending to his flock, except that he does not eat with the rest, because his table is with the strangers and the poor. Nevertheless, be he where he may, he is equally sparing of food and speech; for never more than two dishes are served to him or to his company: lard and meat never but to the sick. From the Ides of September till Easter, through regard for whatever festival, they do not take more than one meal a day except on Sunday. They never leave the cloister but for purpose of labour, nor do they ever speak, either there or elsewhere, save only to the abbot or prior. They pay unwearied attention to the canonical services, making no addition to them except for the defunct. They use in their divine service the Ambrosian chants and hymns, as far as they were able to learn them at Milan. While they bestow care on the stranger and the sick, they inflict intolerable mortifications on their own bodies for the health of their souls.” Add to this list of austerities that they wore a hair cloth next the skin; that they were not permitted to buy fish, but that they might accept it; that they made bread of bran and drank their wine diluted.