RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



namely that of Titchfield (1222), remarkable for its well-arranged 

 library. 



The military orders of both the Templars and the Hospitallers had 

 property in the county, but it was only at North Baddesley (twelfth 

 century) that there was a preceptory of the latter. 



The four chief mendicant orders of itinerant friars had houses at 

 Winchester (Dominicans, 1231-4; Franciscans, circa 1235; Austin 

 Friars, temp. Edward I.; and Carmelites, 1278). The Franciscans 

 were also established at Southampton about 1237. 



The old hospitals of England were invariably closely connected 

 with religion, and were not infrequently under the control of a master 

 and brethren, or master brethren and sisters who followed the Austin 

 rule ; hence they were occasionally termed priories, and the master a 

 prior. They were for the accommodation and relief of poor wayfarers 

 and for the more permanent relief of the sick and infirm ; hence they 

 were found in or near towns, or, if for lepers, on the outskirts beyond 

 the gates. Winchester had its three hospitals : the richly endowed St. 

 Cross (1136), whose funds were often so grievously misused ; St. Mary 

 Magdalen (circa 1 17489) ; and St. John Baptist (1275). Southampton 

 had one of special interest in God's House (circa 1197), as well as the 

 lazar house of St. Mary Magdalen (1173-4). Portsmouth had another 

 Maison Dieu (12358) ; Walter de Merton turned the old hospital of 

 Basingstoke (123040) into a resting-place for aged and infirm priests ; 

 and there was another hospital at Fordingbridge (before 1282) of which 

 but little is known. 



Of colleges and collegiate churches Hampshire had but three 

 examples, in addition to the great educational establishment of William 

 of Wykeham. The usual college or collegiate church was in no sense 

 a place of education, save that provision was occasionally made for the 

 instruction of the quire boys. The college, though no two foundations 

 were exactly alike, was a collection of secular priests, guided in their 

 life by certain statutory rules which ensured a certain amount of common 

 life, and whose chief occupation was the rendering of a continuous round 

 of choral worship and the celebration of masses for the souls of the 

 founders. Occasionally the chaplains or fellows had poor brethren living 

 in the college or infirm and sick under their charge, but they were 

 in the main large chantry foundations. The small country college of 

 Marwell owed its origin to Bishop Henry de Blois (1129-71), and the 

 later and more important one of St. Elizabeth (1301) at Winchester to 

 Bishop Pontoise. To these must be added, in its later development, 

 the Gild of the Holy Ghost at Basingstoke (before 1244). 



The chief feature however of the religious houses of the county 

 was the number of alien priories. They were more numerous in Hamp- 

 shire than in any other county, which was doubtless chiefly owing to the 

 easy accessibility of so much of the shire, with its extensive seaboard, to 

 visitors from Normandy. 



The influence of these foreign monks from the great abbeys of 

 H 105 M 



