Outside Bishopsgate, on the site now occupied by Spital Square, stood that most venerable and most beneficent House called Domus Dei, or Domus Beatæ Mariæ. It was founded by Walter Brune and Rosia his wife, for Canons Regular, in the year 1197. Walter, Archdeacon of London, laid the foundation stone, and William, Bishop of London, dedicated it to Jesus Christ and His Mother, by the name of Domus Dei et Beatæ Mariæ extra Bishopsgate. The place carried on a blameless and most useful existence for three hundred and fifty years. When it was dissolved it was found to contain no fewer than a hundred and eighty beds for the sick poor. Now beds were not considered as intended for one person only, but for as many as, in case of need, could be crammed in, so we may reckon that at least three hundred and sixty poor persons were always received and treated in this House.
The boundaries of the House are laid down by Stow:—
“The Bounds whereof, as appeareth by Composition betwixt the Parson and Prior of the said Hospital, concerning Tythes, begin at Berward’s Lane, toward the South, and extend, in Breadth, to the Parish of St. Leonard, Soresditch, towards the North; and, in Length, from the King’s Street, on the West, to the Bishop of London’s Field, called Lollesworth, on the East. The Prior of this St. Mary Spittle, for the Emortising and Appropriation of the Priory of Bikenacar, in Essex, to his said House of St. Mary Spittle, gave to Henry the Seventh £400, in the 22nd Year of his Reign.
This Hospital, surrendered to Henry the Eighth, was valued to expend £478 wherein, besides Ornaments of the Church, and other Goods pertaining to the Hospital, there were found standing one Hundred and eighty Beds well furnished, for receipt of the Poor of Charity; for it was an Hospital of great Relief....”
“A part of the large Churchyard pertaining to this Hospital, and severed from the rest with a Brick Wall, yet remaineth as of old time, with a Pulpit Cross therein, somewhat like to that in Paul’s Churchyard. And against the said Pulpit on the South Side before the Charnel and Chapel of St. Edmond the Bishop, and Mary Magdalen (which Chapel was founded about the Year 1391 by W. Evesham, Citizen and Pepperer of London, who was there buried), remaineth also one fair builded House of two Stories in height for the Maior, and other honourable Persons, with the Aldermen and Sheriffs to sit in, there to hear the Sermons preached upon Easter Holidays. In the Loft over them stood the Bishop of London, and other Prelates; now the Ladies and Aldermen’s Wives do there stand at a fair Window, or sit at their Pleasure.
And here it is to be noted, that time out of mind it hath been a laudable Custom, that on Good Friday in the Afternoon, some especial learned Man, by Appointment of the Prelates, doth preach a Sermon at Paul’s Cross, treating of Christ’s Passion: and upon the three next Easter Holidays, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the like learned Men, by the like Appointment, do use to preach on the Forenoon at the said Spittle, to persuade the Articles of Christ’s Resurrection: and then on Low Sunday, before Noon, one other learned Man at Paul’s Cross is to make Rehearsal of those four former Sermons, either commending or reproving them, as to him (by Judgment of the learned Divines) is thought convenient. And that done, he is to make a Sermon of himself, which in all were five Sermons in one. At these Sermons so severally preached, the Maior with his brethren and Aldermen are accustomed to be present in their Violets at Paul’s on Good Friday; and in their Scarlets, both they and their Wives, at the Spittle in the Holidays, except Wednesday, in Violet: and the Maior with his Brethren on Low Sunday in Scarlet at Paul’s Cross, continued until this Day.
Touching the Antiquity of this Custom, I find none other than that in the Year 1398. King Richard having procured from Rome Confirmation of such Statutes and Ordinances as were made in the Parliament begun at Westminster, and ended at Shrewsbury, he caused the same Confirmation to be read and pronounced at Paul’s Cross and at St. Mary Spittle, in the Sermons before all the People. Philip Malpas, one of the Sheriffs in the Year 1439 the 18th of Henry VII. gave 20s. by the Year to the three Preachers at the Spittle. Stephen Forster, Maior in the Year 1454 gave 40l. to the Preachers of Paul’s Cross and Spittle. I find also, that the aforesaid House, wherein the Maior and Aldermen do sit at the Spittle, was builded (for that purpose) of the Goods, and by the Executors of Rich. Rawson, Alderman, and Isabel his Wife, in the year 1488. In the year 1594 this Pulpit being old, was taken down, and a new one set up, the Preacher’s Face turned towards the South, which was before toward the West. Also a large house (on the East side of the said Pulpit) was then builded, for the Governors and Children of Christ’s Hospital to sit in: and this was done of the Goods of William Elkins, Alderman, late deceased. But within the first Year, the same House decaying, and like to have fallen, was again (with great cost) repaired at the City’s charge.” (Survey, vol. i)
In Spital Square, Bishopsgate Street Without, we have the site of the cloisters, or perhaps the outer court of the House of St. Mary Spital. At the Suppression its income was £478; and it contained one hundred and eighty hospital beds. This means that the hospital contained accommodation, according to the meaning of the word at the time, for four or five hundred patients. On an estimate of maintenance at £5 a head, one asks with wonder how all these beds were kept up, and whether the Hospital depended partly on voluntary donations. The Hospital of St. Bartholomew, we know, sent its people to beg meat in the Shambles; did St. Mary’s also send men on the same quest?
One custom survived the House—that of the Easter sermons. It was the rule that on Good Friday, in the afternoon, some learned man, by appointment of the Bishop, should preach a sermon at Paul’s Cross on the Passion; that on the three Easter Holidays, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, other learned men should preach in the forenoon at the Spital Cross on the subject of the Resurrection; and that on Low Sunday another learned man should “make rehearsal” at Paul’s Cross of these four sermons, either commending or reproving them. This was surely the one single function in the whole of Christendom in which one preacher was ever invited to criticise publicly the sermons of four other preachers. These sermons were of great antiquity. In the year 1398 Richard the Second made use of them for the publication or the confirming of certain statutes by the Pope. In 1439 Philip Malpas, sheriff, gave twenty shillings annually; in 1454 Stephen Forster gave forty pounds for the preachers; the “house” in which the Mayor and Aldermen, with their wives, sat to hear the sermon at St. Mary Spital, was a kind of double gallery open in front. If the Mayor and Aldermen wore their violet cloaks on Good Friday; their scarlet on Monday and Tuesday at the Spital; their violet on Wednesday; and their scarlet on Low Sunday, as Stow says, the sermons of St. Mary Spital must have been very gorgeous and ceremonial functions.
[CHAPTER XVIII]
ST. MARY OF BETHLEHEM
St. Mary of Bethlehem, from which we get the word Bedlam, was founded by Simon FitzMary, sheriff, in 1247. The deed of gift is preserved among the archives of the Bethlehem Hospital. I am indebted for the following copy to the Rev. E. G. O’Donoghue, Chaplain to the Hospital. The name of the principal witness, “Peter Fitz-Alwyn,” is probably a misreading of “Peter Fitz Alan.” The preamble is omitted.
By REASON of my reverence for my Lord Himself and for the same His most tender mother, to the honour and glory also of my Lord Henry the illustrious King of England (may the aforesaid mother of God and her Only Begotten Son take his wife and children under their care and protection!), to the benefit in manifold ways of the City of London, in which I was born, as well as for the salvation of my own soul, and of the souls of my ancestors and descendants, for the salvation of the souls of my parents and of my friends, and specially for the souls of Guy of Marlow, John Durant, Ralph Aswy, of Matilda, Margery, and Dionysia their wives.