RELIGIOUS HOUSES a plot of land loo ft. by 60 ft. for the enlarge- ment of their house without royal licence.' In 1348 they obtained the grant of the church of St. Michael Conesford from Sir Edmund de Thorp, lent. The friars were permitted to in- clude the church within their precincts on undertaking to have there a chapel in honour of St. Michael, to the reverence of the saint and for the devotion of the faithful, who were frequently to make mention in their prayers of the deceased whose bodies rested in the churchyard. The friars further undertook never to apply the church- yard to any other use than for preaching, for sepulture, or for the building of a church, and to have three masses celebrated in the chapel every week by one of their own priests, in especial re- membrance of the Thorp family.^ On their much enlarged site these friars pro- ceeded to build a fine church, with cloister on the south side, of which William of Worcester gives the dimensions.' One of the most interesting of the numerous bequests made to these Austin Friars, as cited by Kirkpatrick and Blomefield, is that of Margaret Wetherbey,i457, late wife of Thomas Wetherbey, esq., who willed to be buried in the friary church by the side of her husband. She left 100 marks for building a new library, on condition that the names of her husband and herself were inscribed on the glass of the windows and on each of the book-rests. Weever gives an account of various distinguished persons who obtained sepulture in this conventual church. His list includes such names as Bigot, UfFord, Hastings, Clifton, Morley, and Wynd- ham.* Various gilds held their services in the nave of this church, namely, the gilds of St. Christopher, of St. Margaret, of the Holy Cross, and of St. Austin pertaining to the shoemakers.' Several of the bequests refer to masses at Scala Cell in connexion with this conventual church. The Scala Celt or Ladder of Heaven was the name of a celebrated chapel and altar at Rome, to which special indulgences were granted. The Lady chapel of the Austin church at Norwich was permitted to bear this name, and a like privilege was granted to chapels at Westminster and Boston. To each of these English Scalae Celt indulgences were assigned almost as great as those at their Roman counterpart. This Austin Scala Celt was a great attraction to the devout of East Anglia.^ The house of the Austin Friars was dissolved It eventually came into 29 August, 1538.' ' Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37. ' Kirkpatrick, Relig. Old. ofNortv. 136-8. ' Itin. (Rolls Ser.), 307. ' Weever, Fun. Monti. 804. ' Toulmin Smith, Gilds, 22 ; Kirkpatrick, Relig. Ord. ofNorvi. 147. ' Kirkpatrick, Relig. Ord. o/Norw. 145 ; Blomefield, Hist, of N Off. iv, 90. ' L. and P. Hen. I'll!, xiii (2), 1 14. the hands of the Duke of Norfolk, and the site was known as ' My Lord's Garden.' ' These friars,' says Blomefield, ' to do them justice, were always reckoned a society of learned men, good disputants, and eloquent preachers, and were truly industrious in propagating litera- ture ; the most remarkable men among them were priors thereof.' Priors of the Austin Friars of Norwich ' Benedict, Janus, or Bennet of Norfolk (titular Bishop of Sardis), and suffragan to Bishop Bek, died 1340 Richard ChefFer, died c. 1354 Richard de Lammesse, 1367 Roger Twyford, 1390 John de Sloley, 1420 John Tony, 1478 John de Langham Hugh Lovemere, 1 501 Dr. Stokes A (if in cast of the oval thirteenth-century seal by I in.) of this house shows a finely-cut St. Michael in combat with the dragon. Legend : S' PRIORIS . ET . FRATRU . ORDINIS . SCI . AUGUSTINI . NORWICi' 57-59. FRIARS OF THE LESSER ORDERS, NORWICH The short-lived sojourn of the Friars of the Sack at Norwich has been mentioned under the account of the Black Friars. The Friars of St. Mary, or ' De Domina,' were in Norwich as early as 1290, for in that year Roger de Tybenham gave them a legacy. Their house stood on the south side of the churchyard of St. Julian, with the east end abutting on the street. They continued here till the Black Death of 1349, which so grievously afflicted Norwich, when they perished, and their house became private property.'" The Friars ' de Pica,' or Pied Friars, are said by Blomefield to have had a house at the north- east corner of the churchyard of St. Peter Mountergate. At the time when they were obliged to join one of the four principal orders their house became the property of the hospital of Bek. The master of Bek made it his city house, and their various chanting priests and others lived after a collegiate fashion." 60. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF THETFORD The Friar Preachers were not established at Thetford until the year 1335, an unusually late
- Blomefield, Hist. o/Norf. iv, 90, 91.
='B.M. Iviii, 17. '» Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iv, 83 ; Diigdale, Men. vi, 161 1 ; Taylor, Index Monasticus, 45. " Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iv, 96 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 161 1 ; Taylor, Index Monasticus, 46. 433 55
