Memorials of Old London Part 8

"Floreat aeternum Carthusiana Domus."

FOOTNOTES:

[60] _Statuta Ordinis Cartusiensis a domino Guigone Priore Cartusiense._ Edita Basle, 1510.

[61] For an interesting and accurate account of the Carthusian order, see an article in the _Yorkshire Archaeological Journal_, vol. xviii., pp. 241-252, by the Rev. H. V. Le Bas, Preacher of the London Charterhouse, to whom I am indebted for much valuable information.

[62] For further details an article by Archdeacon Hale may be consulted.

_Transactions of the London and Middles.e.x Archaeological Society_, vol.

iii., part x.

[63] Some interesting extracts from the archives of the Order bearing on the London Charterhouse during this period may be found in _The London Charterhouse_, by Laurence Hendriks, himself a Carthusian Father.

[64] _Historia aliquot Martyrum Anglorum maxime octodecim Cartusianorum._

[65] P.R.O. _State Papers_, Henry VIII., abridged in _Letters and Papers_, vol. viii., 566. Quoted by Hendriks, p. 141.

[66] See Hendriks in loc. as against Froude, who a.s.serts that the trial was concluded in one day.

[67] Bearcroft, _An Historical Account of Thomas Sutton, Esq., and of his Foundation in Charterhouse_. In this work many original doc.u.ments here quoted may be found _in extenso_.

[68] Fuller's _Church History of Britain_, iv., 20, 21.

[69] _Historical Account of Charterhouse_, by Thomas Smythe, p. 201.

[70] W. Haig Brown, _Charterhouse Past and Present_, p. 144.

GLIMPSES OF MEDIaeVAL LONDON

BY GEORGE CLINCH, F.G.S.

Everything connected with mediaeval life in London offers a peculiarly fascinating field for the author, the student, and the reader. It reflects and epitomizes all that is most important and really worthy of notice in the story of England during what one may properly call its most picturesque period.

The story of mediaeval London presents much romance and poetry, as well as strenuous activity; much religion and genuine piety, as well as superst.i.tion and narrowness of vision. It would not, indeed, be difficult to write lengthy volumes on such a subject, but it will of course be quite understood that in the present brief chapter anything of the nature of minute detail will be impossible. All that can be attempted is to give one or two glimpses of mediaeval life in London from points of view which may possibly be novel, or, at any rate, worthy of the consideration of those who desire to study the past in its human interests, and as something more than mere bricks and mortar.

THE JEWS IN LONDON

The a.s.sociation of the Jews with London forms an important and interesting chapter of ancient history. As has been justly pointed out,[71] the history of the Jews in England is divided into two marked sections by the dates 1290 and 1656; at the former period they were expelled, at the latter they began to be readmitted. No trace has been found of Jews in England prior to the Norman Conquest. Soon after the Conquest, however, the Jews came from Rouen by special invitation of William. They were introduced as part of a financial experiment of the Norman kings. The need of large sums of ready money such as the Jews, and the Jews only, could furnish was specially felt at this time. The system of barter was going out of fashion, and money was required for commercial operations. Stone buildings, too, were taking the place of those of wood, and the new works involved a large outlay.

Money-lending on interest among Christians was expressly forbidden by the canon law, and it was therefore from the frugal and careful Jews alone that large sums of ready money could be obtained when required.

The author of the interesting article just referred to writes:--

"Though it is a moot point how far the money lent by the Jews was actually the King's in the first instance, there is no doubt that the Exchequer treated the money of the Jews as held at the pleasure of the King. There was a special Exchequer of the Jews, presided over by special Justices of the Jews, and all the deeds of the Jews had to be placed in charge of Exchequer officers, or else they ceased to be legal doc.u.ments.

The Jews thus formed a kind of sponge which first drained the country dry owing to the monopoly of capitalist transactions given them by the canon law, and then were squeezed into the royal treasury."

Although the Jews were useful, and indeed, in the conditions of social life at that time, almost indispensable, they suffered many disabilities. They were unable, from the very fact of their religion, to enter the guilds founded on religious principles. Similarly they were debarred from holding land, because their possession of would have put into their hands spiritual benefices.

By the order of the Lateran Council of 1215 the Jews were compelled to wear a distinctive mark on their clothing. In England this was made of cloth in the shape of the two tables of the law.

The worst parts of the towns seem to have been devoted to the use of the Jews. Thus, at Southampton there are Jews' houses built close against the town wall. At Leicester the Jewry was situated quite close to the town wall, and some of the residences appear to have been built against the inside of the Roman wall there, a considerable portion of which still remains. In London in the thirteenth century there was a Jewry, or dwelling-place for Jews, within the liberty of the Tower of London. The street now known as Old Jewry, leading northward from Cheapside to Lothbury, had become deserted by the Jews, it is believed, before the date of the expulsion in 1291, and the inhabitants had removed to a quarter in the eastern part of the city afterwards indicated by the street-names "Poor Jewry Lane" and "Jewry Street."

In several cases, therefore, it is evident that the pomerium, or the s.p.a.ce between the inhabited part of the town and the actual walls of its outer defence, was devoted to the Jews, who took up their residence there.

One circ.u.mstance which embittered the Church against the Jews was the spread of Judaism among certain cla.s.ses. One Jewish list of martyrs includes twenty-two proselytes burnt in England, and even if the number be exaggerated, there is other evidence of Jewish proselytism in this country. To counteract the movement the Church founded a conversionist establishment in "New Street" on the site of the present Record Office.

Here converts were supported for life, and the building continued to be utilized for this purpose down to the time of Charles II.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD LONDON BRIDGE: SHOWING ITS WOODEN HOUSES WITH PROJECTING STORIES.]

The cla.s.sic pages of Sir Walter Scott's romances contain much which ill.u.s.trates the popular antipathy against the Jews. The pictures he draws are, perhaps, somewhat over-coloured for the purpose of romance, but that they were not without foundation in fact is evident from the following curious incident relating to a Jew in London, narrated in the _Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London_, under the date 1256:--

"Thys yere a Jew felle in to a drawte on a satorday, and he wolde not be draune owte that day for the reverens of hys sabbot day, and sir Richard Clare, that tyme beynge erle of Gloucseter, seynge that he wolde not be drawne owte that day, he wolde not suffer hym to be drawne owte on the sonday, for the reverens of the holy sonday, and soo thus the false Jue perished and dyde therein."

Although there was a good deal of prejudice against the Jews, there is reason to think that the idea of anything approaching general ill-treatment of the race is erroneous. The Jews were useful to the King, and therefore, in all cases before the expulsion, excepting during the reign of King John, they enjoyed royal patronage and favour.

The evil of clipping or "sweating" the coin of the realm grew to such an extent during the latter half of the thirteenth century that strong measures had to be taken for its suppression. In November, 1278, the King gave orders for the immediate arrest of all suspected Jews and their Christian accomplices. They were brought to trial, and the result was that nearly three hundred Jews were found guilty and condemned to be hanged. This was during the mayoralty of Gregory de Rokesle (probably Ruxley, Kent), the chief a.s.say master of King's mints, a great wool merchant, and the richest goldsmith of his time. This Mayor pa.s.sed a series of ordinances against the Jews, including one to the effect that the King's peace should be kept between Christians and Jews, another forbidding butchers who were not freemen of the city buying meat from Jews to resell to Christians, or to buy meat slaughtered for the Jews and by them rejected. Still another ordinance provided that "No one shall hire houses from Jews, nor demise the same to them for them to live in outside the limits of the Jewry."

By the time of Edward I. the need for the financial aid of the Jews was no longer felt, and from that moment their fate in England was fixed.

The canon law against usury was extended so as to include the Jews. They were henceforth forbidden to lend money on interest, and, as has been explained, owing to their religion they could not hold lands nor take up any trade. The expulsion followed as a matter of course in a few years.

In order to rearrange the national finances, Italians who had no religious difficulties were subst.i.tuted for the Jews. Certain Jews, it is known, from time to time returned to London disguised as Italians, but it was not until the time of the Commonwealth, when Cromwell took a more tolerant view of the outcast Jews, and when the State recognised the legality of difference of creed, that the return of the Jews became possible. This event is fixed with some precision by the lease of the Spanish and Portuguese burial-ground at Stepney, which bears the date of February, 1657.

LONDON AS A WALLED TOWN

It is not by any means easy to imagine the present London as a walled town. The multiplicity of streets, the lofty and pretentious character of its buildings, and the immense suburban area of bricks and mortar which surrounds it, render it an extremely difficult task to picture in the mind's eye what the ancient city looked like when all the houses were enclosed by a lofty and substantial wall, largely of Roman masonry, and when admission could only be obtained by strongly defended gateways, approached by means of drawbridges spanning the encircling moat of City Ditch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD WOODEN HOUSES AT CRIPPLEGATE (RECENTLY DEMOLISHED).]

Whatever additions or reparations may have been made in the Middle Ages to the wall of London, there is no reason to doubt that the area it enclosed was that which its Roman builders had laid out, with the exception of an extension at the south-western corner made to enclose the house of the Black Friars. What happened to the wall of London when the Roman occupation of Britain was determined by the withdrawal of the legions is a matter which scarcely falls within the scope of this paper.

Whether the place was abandoned, like other Roman walled towns, such as Silchester, etc., or whether it maintained a population throughout the dark ages, are questions which have exercised the ingenuity and imagination of several antiquarian authorities,[72] but it must be confessed that the evidence is insufficient to enable one to settle it conclusively.

Whatever may have been the early history of Londinium after the Romans left it, the fact remains that the limits and bounds of the actual city continued for many centuries afterwards. It is known that Alfred the Great caused the walls to be repaired; but the precise significance of this is not great, because he may have been merely carrying out a long-needed work, and from the very solid character of the Roman wall (judging from the fragments that remain) it seems scarcely conceivable that his operations extended lower than the battlements of the wall, unless indeed they comprised the freeing of the ditch and berme from vegetation, obstructions, or other kinds of weakness.

What the houses of London were like when Alfred repaired the wall is not known. Probably they were constructed of timber and were humble in size and ornamentation. It is doubtful if anything of the nature of a house built of masonry was constructed in London before the twelfth century.

No trace of such a structure is known to remain, but there is reason to think that such buildings existed within the boundary of the city of London.

What the twelfth century house was like is well seen in the charming example standing close by the castle mound at Christchurch, Hampshire.

In plan it is an oblong of modest proportions. The lowest storey was low-pitched and lighted by mere slits for windows. The first floor contained the princ.i.p.al rooms, which were lighted by double-light, round-headed windows. The whole idea was to obtain a residence which would be sufficiently strong to keep out robbers and resist fire.

Many of the architectural peculiarities of the old city of London which the Great Fire swept away may be attributed to the fact that the city was bounded by a wall too small for the requirements of the population.

The problem of adequately housing the people of London must have become acute at a comparatively early period, certainly before the time of the dreadful pestilence commonly known as the Black Death (1348-1349).

The value of s.p.a.ce within the city, and the jealousy with which the rights of property were guarded, are shown by the narrowness and crookedness of the streets and lanes. Every available inch was occupied by houses and shops, and as little as possible was devoted to thoroughfares. The sinuosity of the public ways indicates in another way the great value of land, because it obviously arose from the existence of individual properties, which were probably defined and occupied at an earlier period than the making of the roads.