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Westminster stands unrivalled in the hearts of Englishmen as the evidence of what Gothic architecture has produced from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. The story of its foundation is legendary, but it is attributed to Sebert, King of the East Saxons, in the seventh century. No doubt, however, exists about the work of Edward the Confessor; his abbey and church dedicated to St. Peter on Holy Innocents' Day, 1066, with most gorgeous ceremonial, and placed under Benedictine rule. Thus this first and greatest of all the religious Orders found a home in England. The worthies it has produced since its foundation in 529 are thus enumerated by its annalists :-" Forty popes, two hundred cardinals, fifty patriarchs, one thousand six hundred archbishops, four thousand six hundred bishops, and three thousand six hundred canonical saints"; but, says Mrs. Jameson, "It is a more legitimate source of pride that by their Order were either laid or preserved the foundations of all the eminent schools of learning of modern Europe".

But to return to Westminster: very little of the Confessor's Abbey remains, because Henry III, as a mark of piety, pulled it nearly all down, in order to erect the magnificent structure which still remains to us, and which was finished at subsequent periods. It is a curious touch of irony that, in the fifteenth century, Henry VII should have destroyed the then existing Lady Chapel to build his own splendid mausoleum.

It is stated on authority that again Westminster Abbey narrowly escaped destruction by the Protestant vandal, Protector Somerset, in the reign of Edward VI, to furnish stone for his great palace in the Strand. He, however, obtained the necessary material by demolishing, instead, the Priory of St. John's, Clerkenwell.

The other Benedictine foundations in London were two nunneries, St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and St. Mary's, Clerkenwell. The former is said to have been founded by Constantine the Great, and dedicated to his mother, the Empress Helena, but Stow claims the honour for one William Basing, a goldsmith, and Dean of St. Paul's, 1212. Crosby Square, originally part of the nunnery, was sold by a Prioress, Alicia Ashfield, in 1466, to Sir John Crosby, by whom the Hall was built. The Nuns' Hall, with the other conventual houses, were purchased at the Dissolution by the Company of Leathersellers, and made into their common hall, which it continued to be until 1799, when it was demolished with the remnants of the priory to make way for the foundations of St. Helen's Place. In confirmation of its legendary foundation, the seal represents St. Helen under the Cross, having the nails in her hand, and preaching to a multitude of women. In a niche beneath is the half-figure of a monk, praying.

The nunnery at Clerkenwell (as previously stated) was founded by Jordan de Brisset, who gave to Robert, a priest, "fourteen acres of land, lying in a field next adjoining to the said Clerke's well, thereupon to build a house of religious persons, which he founded to the honour of God and the Assumption of our Lady, and placed therein black nuns". Henry II granted three charters to this monastery. The first Prioress was Christina, 1144, the twenty-fifth and last, Isabel Sackville, who was granted a pension of £50 at the Dissolution. She belonged to the family of Sackvilles, ancestors of the Dukes of Dorset.

The origin of the name Clerkenwell was Clarke's well : this wells till remains about 100 ft. from the Sessions House, and about 4 ft. to the west of the present pump.

Of the Charterhouse it is not necessary to speak, as it came under the immediate notice of the British Archæological Association at the recent Congress.

Apparently, the Cistercians had only one abbey in London belonging to their Order; this was "Eastminster" - in contradistinction to Westminster - or "S. Mary Graces", or "New Abbey without the Walls of London", on Tower Hill. According to Newcourt, it was founded by King Edward III in the year 1349, upon the following occasion :

"In 1348 the first great pestilence of his reign began, and increased 'so sore' that there was no room in the churchyards to bury the dead of the City and the suburbs. So John Corey, clerk, procured from Nicholas, prior of the Holy Trinity without Aldgate, one toft of ground near East Smithfield for burial of them that died. It was duly dedicated by Ralph, Bishop of London, and a chapel built to the honour of God."

King Edward, having been in danger of shipwreck, made a vow to build a monastery to the honour of God and the Lady of Graces if God would grant him to come safe to land. He there built a monastery, causing it to be called East Minster, and placing in it an abbot and monks of the Cistercian Order. The King and his grandson richly endowed this house, and it must certainly have been one of considerable importance, and yet only the scantiest knowledge of it remains. The names of two of its abbots are known: the first, William de Sancta Cruce, 1349, and his successor, William Warden, 1360. It was surrendered in 1539, and was valued by Speed at £602 11s. 6d. Newcourt says: "Of the manner of surrender we find no account, which gives occasion to guess that it was done by such as were in no authority, and therefore it was thought fit to conceal the knowledge thereof." Henry VIII granted it to Sir Henry Davey, and afterwards it was "clean pulled down" and victualling storehouses and convenient ovens to bake biscuits for the Royal Navy were erected on its site, and "its place knows it no more". What if this had happened to Westminster ?

The Augustine Canons were next in order of importance, and many priories were erected under their rule in London. In St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, and St. Saviour's, or St. Mary Overie's, Southwark, we have two splendid examples of their work remaining. Elsing Spital in Monkswell Street, founded by William Elsing as a college for seculars in 1329, but re-founded 1340 as a priory of five regular canons, has disappeared, except that certain portions of the conventual church remain in the present parish church, notably the porch. Upon its site arose Sion College.

At Aldgate stood the Priory of the Holy Trinity, one of the oldest religious houses, having been founded by Henry I's queen, Maud, 1109; she endowed it with a

yearly stipend of £25, and with the proceeds of the port of Aldgate and other gifts. Stephen, Henry II, and others added to its wealth and privileges. It possessed a magnificent church. Its prior was elected alderman for Portsoken Ward. Henry's iron hand came down early upon this priory, as it surrendered in February 1531. Sir Thomas Audley became its possessor, and, like his master and Thomas Cromwell, he showed his vandalism by pulling down the great church and conventual buildings entirely,

Another priory, with a name of somewhat pathetic interest, St. Mary Bethlehem without London, i.e., in Moorfields, remains to be noticed. "Simon Fitz-Mary, alderman and sheriff of London, gave to the Bishop and Church of Bethlehem in the Holy Land where our Saviour was born, all his houses and grounds in the parish of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, that there might be thereupon built an hospital for a prior, canons, brethren and sisters of the Order of Bethlem or the Star, wherein the Bishop of Bethlem was to be entertained when he came to England, and to whose visitation and correction all the members of the house were subjected."

At the Dissolution, Henry gave it to the City of London, and they turned it into a hospital for lunatics and distracted people. The site is now occupied by Liverpool Street Station. In 1664 the hospital was removed to Little Moorfields, and again to Lambeth, where it now stands in more commodious grounds.

In such a brief sketch only a passing mention can be made of the Mendicant Friars who sprang into existence in the thirteenth century. It is almost impossible to estimate the influence of these "spiritual democrats", as they have been called. Vowed as they were to lives of perpetual poverty, they possessed nothing they could call their own; from their lay brethren they were to beg food and raiment, and in return they were to go about doing good, offering sympathy, comfort, help and guidance. The Dominicans, or Blackfriars, Franciscans, or Greyfriars, and Carmelites, or Whitefriars, bave their names preserved in those districts of London where their religious houses stood: for the friars grew tired of poverty, and accepted with alacrity offers from rich London citizens to build them houses to dwell in. So it came to pass that the Dominican convent just within the City walls, on the land stretching from Fleet Street to the river, became a place of great historical importance; the royal and noble were buried in its church, parliaments assembled within its walls, and here Wolsey pronounced the sentence of divorce upon Katherine of Arragon. We can hardly picture such splendour and importance casting a glamour over the prosaic Blackfriars Bridge and Station of our own London.

The Franciscans had their convent built for them by a mercer, John Ewin, in 1225, a little to the north of the Blackfriars, near the present site of Christ's Hospital. Remains of the foundation walls still form the east end of Christ Church. Sir Richard Whittington was one of their great benefactors; he built a fine library and spent £400 in furnishing the same. Unfortunately, their magnificent church was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. In it were interred many royal personages, amongst them four queens-Margaret, wife of Edward I; Isabella, queen of Edward II; Joan, queen of Edward Bruce; and Isabella, titular queen of the Isle of Man.

The convent of the Carmelites was built on a plot of ground in Fleet Street, between the Temple and Salisbury Court, which was given to the prior by Edward I.

Of the military knights, hospitals, colleges and guilds, there is no time to speak, but enough has been said to show the immense power which was yielded by the religious Orders in London. They must have been a large factor in the making of the history of our great City during the time of their strength and importance.

I would conclude my paper with a quotation from the Preface of Dr. Harnack's book on Monasticism : its Ideals and its History, written by the Rev. A. C. McGiffert, of New York:

"Within monasticism's mighty bosom have surged the passions and the longings of multitudes of the noblest and of the meanest of the sons of earth. Hope, fear, love, hate, humility, pride, selfeffacing devotion, self-asserting ambition, world-renunciation and