Henry the Fifth, in the suppression of alien Houses, gave this House its independence. In the year 1474 Edward the Fourth granted the House the same establishment as that of St. Anthony of Vienne, and in 1485 the House was annexed to, and incorporated with, the College of St. George of Windsor. Other gifts and bequests fell to the Society of St. Anthony’s. In 1411 one John Sauvage, desiring to be buried in the church of St. Anthony, and before the altar of St. Katherine, left all his lands and tenements to the Master and Brethren of the Hospital, with the usual conditions as to observing his obit. In 1435 Thomas Knolles, grocer, bequeathed to Friar John Snell, warden, preceptor, or Master of the House of St. Anthony, a shop in the parish of St. Benedict Fynk for the maintenance of a lamp to burn in the chancel of the church of the said House, and for the observance of the obit—not of himself, but of the said warden; a great, and perhaps unique, mark of friendship thus to provide for a friend’s safe and speedy passage through purgatory, rather than his own. In 1484 William Wyse, barber, left his brewery, “le coupe super le Hoop,” in the parish of Allhallows-in-the-Wall, in order to maintain a clerk to instruct the children of St. Anthony’s in singing to music (in cantico organico) and in plain chant (in plano cantico), and to provide for special prayers on behalf of John Carpenter, Bishop of Worcester, the first Master of the School, with the Collect, “Rege quæsumus, Domine, famulum tuum” while he lives, and upon his death, that beginning “Deus qui inter apostolos.”
A curious privilege is recorded of this House. When the Inspectors of Markets found a pig that was unfit for food, as being too lean, or too old, or from any other cause not proper to be killed, they marked it as such by slitting the animal’s ears. Then the Proctors of St. Anthony’s took possession of the creature, and tied a bill round its neck to denote their ownership. These pigs, and no others, were allowed to run about the streets, and to feed on what they could find, or what was given them. If they grew fat and well, they were killed for the use of the Hospital. But no one ventured to touch them. “But,” says Stow, “if any one gave them bread, they would keep watch for, and daily follow, these donors, whining till they had something given them.” Whereupon was raised a Proverb, “Such an one will follow such an one and whine as it were an Anthony Pig.”
The school was at one time equal in reputation to that of St. Paul, and turned out as many scholars and Bishops—among them Sir Thomas More, Archbishop Heath, and Archbishop Whitgift. It fell into decay after the annexation to St. George’s, Windsor. One Johnson, a Prebendary of Windsor, and Master of St. Anthony’s, seems to have taken advantage of his position to ruin the House. He turned out the bedesmen, dissolved the choir, conveyed away the plate, and sold the bells. Then the school speedily fell into decay.
Once a year—on the 15th of September,—while the school was flourishing, the boys marched in procession from Mile End along Aldgate, down Cornhill to Stocks Market, and thence to Austin Friars, with flags flying and drums beating.
After the Dissolution the church was given to the Walloons, or French Protestants, who kept it, having rebuilt it after the Fire, to recent times.
The school, which was not closed in 1561, was carried on as a Parish Grammar School until the Great Fire destroyed it. Afterwards it was not rebuilt.
It is pleasing to note that the Dissolution of the Houses did not deprive the scholars or the bedesmen of their endowments. In the year 1565 the collector of the rents of the House of St. Anthony shows in his accounts the sum of £17, devoted to the instruction of the scholars in grammar, and £31: 4s. for the stipends of twelve poor persons for one year at the weekly charge of 1s. for each. Also 2s. was paid, as usual, to “le skavinger.”
[CHAPTER IX]
THE PRIORY OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM
The history of this House belongs to the history of the Knights of St. John, or Knights Hospitallers. The Order was founded about the year 1048, beginning, like all great orders, in a small and humble way, with a Hospital for pilgrims at Jerusalem; after the conquest of the city, the Brethren were incorporated into a religious body, bound by vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience; in the year 1118 they became a military body, sworn to defend the Holy Sepulchre. They became, in the course of two centuries, an extremely wealthy body, whose only rivals were the Templars. They wore a red surcoat over their armour, with a Maltese Cross enamelled white and edged with gold for a badge. Their motto was “Pro fide,” with the later addition of “Pro utilitate hominum.”