The revenues of all the lands belonging to the late Mesondiew of Ospring, which were enjoyed, but not fully and legally assured till after Dr Metcalf was master.

The sum of the whole revenues abovesaid amounts to . .

Of the which must be deducted the yearly value of £48 for the foundations of bishop Fisher, Dr Riplingham, Sir Marm. Constable, Mr Ediall, and Mr Docket; so that deduction is.

And that deducted remains towards the foundation the yearly value of . .

The ordinary charges incident to these revenues in outrents, pensions, fall or vacation of rents, wages of curates, chaplains, repairs, fees, costs in law and other expenses (there specified) will be at least, one year with another .

And so there remains to the sustentation etc. of all such as be to be found of the said lands, i. e. for their only commons, stipend and livery yearly

The charges of these, viz. of the master, twenty-eight fellows, six scholars and of several servants, is yearly And so the yearly charges of these lands, after this rate charged, exceeds the receipts

101 03 05

This was the infant state of the house as Dr Metcalf

found it, the revenues small, and those burdened with annual charges of £100 above the receipts; and yet by his prudent management and happy endeavours, under the countenance and protection of his excellent patron, it grew 5 up to so full a stature under his prefecture, that to look upon it after he had done with it, it seems to be a new foundation. The estate at Ospring was not yet legally assured; this was his first care, which was at last effectually secured to the college in the year 1519, after much 10 pains and many journeys undertaken by his patron and him, much solicitatiou both at court and with the archbishop, and the expense of £200 and upwards paid out of the foundress' chest.

And though the structure or building was finished before 15 the opening of the college, yet either it was not complete in all its offices and outworks, or a discharge had not been taken care of till the year after this, an. 1520; for then it is that Oliver Scalis signs a full release to Dr Metcalf as master, attested by Alan Percy and Robert Shorton; for so Dr 20 Shorton writes his name, which I mention, not as material in itself, but because the several different ways of writing his name has been made a matter of observation by bishop Wren' in his accurate account of the masters of Pembroke hall.

25

It would be expected after such an account of the revenue, that Dr Metcalf should have been for retrenching the number of fellows, or at least the scholars who were not limited by statute: so far from that, that the very next year after this account commences' the number of the scho30 lars is enlarged from six to twenty-three, and are maintained so some years after. But this being a greater charge than with all his care and frugality could be tolerably borne, at his instance and suggestion the bishop of Rochester begun to cast about for some further augmen 35 tation. No other way could be thought of but by applying to the king for a further compensation for the college losses by the grant of some nunnery or religious house: nothing could be hoped for immediately from the crown, but the

1 De custod. Pembr.

2 Computus Nich. Metcalf inter archiva coll.

king, who had been always sparing of his own revenue to such uses, had never shewn any great aversion to give up religious houses.

There was a house of nuns at Higham near Rochester, which had stood since king Stephen's reign, who was their 5 founder, and might have stood some time longer, had they preserved their innocence: this with another nunnery at Bromehall in Berkshire by the cardinal's interest with the king were begged and obtained'. The king's grant is dated Oct. 21 in the fourteenth of his reign, the bishop of 10 Rochester's confirmation was not granted till Mar. 28 an. 1524, and that confirmed by the prior and chapter and the archdeacon of Rochester, Dr Metcalf, the year after.

The bishop's proceedings herein were very regular, by a solemn process against the nuns; an act whereof was 15 made and is yet preserved, and will justify the bishop in his proceedings to all the world. It sets forth that the priory by its original foundation had maintained sixteen nuns, that their number for several years had been reduced to three or four by waste of their endowments, by resort 20 of loose and lascivious persons to the house, and the incontinence of the nuns, who had been noted for their incontinent lives; that two of the nuns, Elizabeth Penney and Godline Laurence, by their own confession had been debauched and impregnated by Edward Sterope vicar of 25 Higham, that Elizabeth Penney had borne a child to him, whereof proof was made by the midwife, nurse and other persons. The resignation of the three nuns is there recited, Agnes Swayne, Elizabeth Penney and Godline Laurence, (for the last prioress Anchoreta Ungothorpe was either 30 dead or gone) in the presence of a public notary, whereby freely and not compelled by fear or dread, nor circumvented by guile or deceit, but of their own free will, for certain just and lawful causes, they renounce and resign all their right, title, interest and possession that they had to the monastery 35

1 The pope Clement the Seventh confirms the dissolution and suppression of these two houses by his bull dat. 4to kal. Oct. anno Dni 1524, pont. Imo, together with the grant

of them by the king, which seems
to have been an early stretch of
regal authority.

2 Inter archiva coll.
3 Ex archivis.

reverend father in The king's grant

of Higham, into the holy hands of the God John bishop of Rochester for ever. is likewise recited, which was made before and without these solemnities: but the bishop's sentence does not pass 5 till proof duly made of all these particulars, and till everything besides had been regularly observed; then he proceeds to sentence and empowers the college to enter and take possession of the priory of Higham.

The nuns were disposed of to other houses; Agnes 10 Swayn to Swafham Bulbeck in the county of Cambridge, and Elizabeth Penney to St Sepulchre's priory at Canterbury, where they were maintained poorly by the college: but Elizabeth Penney, as she was the greater sinner, so she received the smaller pension; Godline Lawrence was 15 provided for another way.

Whether the like regular steps were made and the same order taken with the nuns at Bromehall by the bishop of Sarum, or whether it was thought necessary, I cannot say; for the prioress there Jane Rawlins' resigned volun20 tarily and had a pension assigned her, and the other two sisters abandoned the house, which, being of royal patronage, is said (in an inquisition taken) to have escheated to the crown.

The king's zeal and the cardinal's is very remarkable 25 in the whole proceeding, their letters are yet preserved upon our books3, expressing it in so vehement a manner as if it were their own concern; the two bishops were too slow for them, and these letters are designed to quicken them in their paces; and lest the ordinary power should not be 30 sufficient, the cardinal interposes his legatine authority, and the king descends so low as to send his especial and hearty thanks to the bishop of Sarum for his effectual diligence taken at his desire; and to the bishop of Rochester, he wills and eftesone desires and nevertheless commands 35 him with celerity and diligence, all delays utterly set apart, to proceed in the work.

It can hardly be doubted' but the king and cardinal

1 Sept. 12 an. reg. Hen. 8vi 13tio,

or rather Aug. 9 an. 1521.

* Decem. 5to reg. 13tio.

3 Liber rub.

4 The king's design further ap. pears by the pope's bull, compared

had different views from our bishop, otherwise their zeal and diligence can hardly be accounted for: the cardinal's great design was now brooding, which ended in the dissolution of a crowd of houses at once, which he was willing to make way for by a reputable and leading example; and 5 though the king might not yet have a general dissolution in view, yet as this led to the cardinal's design, so the cardinal's paved the way and led to the king's. And might not the same views, that quickened them in their proceedings, retard the bishop in his good design and 10 make him slow in prosecuting what he at first desired? for could he have foreseen the consequences that probably attended his undertaking, he would never have entered into these measures. But men and providence have different ends, and God is wise in effecting his own good 15 purposes by our blindness.

Here now is the full state of the foundation; for though upon the cardinal's fall the college addressed' the king for some further compensation out of the religious houses suppressed by him, and charge the blame of intercepting the 20 foundress' revenues upon that unhappy minister, yet the king lent a deaf ear to their entreaties; he had now other designs, was out of humour with bishop Fisher, and nothing could be done. It is well so much was done and so seasonably, for the bishop's interest was now in the decline, and 25 no favour was to be shown afterwards to a person so much disaffected to the king's proceedings.

Upon the accession of these two nunneries and bishop Fisher's new and accessional foundations, the college statutes, as they seem to have been altered before in some 30 few particulars, so they received now a considerable enlargement, and as the former statutes were taken from those at Christ's, so these enlargements seem to be principally borrowed from Corpus Christi statutes at Oxford, a copy whereof interlined and altered (with bishop Fisher's own 35 hand, or one like it, when he grew old, for his first

with the first draught here in Eng. land (copies whereof I leave); by comparing whereof it will appear pretty evidently that the king was then paving his way to a dissolution

by regal authority.

1 Liter. D. Chambero.

2 Quære, for he wrote a fair hand to the last.