ASHRIDGE 101 



S. Thomas de Cantelupe (the last Englishman 

 canonised). The treasures at Ashridge, as well as 

 the beauty of the place, attracted many benefactors, 

 among them the Black Prince, who was so lavish 

 with his gifts as often to be mistaken in later years 

 for the original founder, instead of the second, as he 

 is always called. Henry, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop 

 of Winchester, assisted the monastery when it was 

 in dire straits and rebuilt the choir with his own 

 money. The quiet, peaceful reign of the monks, 

 or Bonhommes, amid their lovely surroundings 

 came to an end in the time of Thomas Waterhouse, 

 who was the last of the fifteen rectors. Waterhouse 

 was a scholarly man of good family, and lived for 

 many years after the dissolution of the monasteries. 

 Henry VIII. styled him "his Gentleman Priest." 

 Was it, perhaps, his non-resistance which gained 

 him this title from the impetuous Henry ? 



In 1534 Waterhouse acknowledged Henry's 

 supremacy, and surrendered his house to the King, 

 during whose reign the college and its lands 

 remained in the possession of the Crown, the 

 revenue being at this time, according to Dugdale, 

 416 143. 4d. 



About this date the fraud of "the Precious 

 Blood " was discovered, " when the sunshine of the 

 gospel had pierced through such clouds of darkness 

 and men's eyes were opened to the fact that the 

 worshipped and reverenced relic was nothing but 



