A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



mastership with Roger Cloun for the rectory 

 of Campsall, Yorkshire. 1 



The scandals of St. Cross were now to be 

 arrested. Bishop Wykeham was a very dif- 

 ferent diocesan to his predecessors. Stowell 

 resigned on 22 March, 1368, and on the 

 following day the bishop demanded of him an 

 inventory of the stock received by him from 

 Edingdon and handed over to Lyntesford. 3 

 The story is a piteous one ; whilst episcopal 

 and royal and papal nominees to this benefice 

 were spending the hospital's incomes in their 

 own selfish ways, the great hall had fallen in, 

 the hundred poor were ejected from their daily 

 meal, and the thirteen infirm inmates were 

 turned away to seek shelter where they could. 



From 1368 to 1375 Bishop Wykeham, with 

 rare persistency, followed up the iniquities of 

 the four living masters, and at last gained the vic- 

 tory. 3 On 6 January, 1375, Cloun made his 

 submission to the bishop, and swore he would 

 render an annual account to his diocesan when- 

 ever called upon to do so. 4 The bishop how- 

 ever was now strong enough to refuse the 

 master any power of administration, and put 

 in a relative of his own, Nicholas Wykeham, 

 to superintend the affairs of the hospital. By 

 this arrangement further peculation was pre- 

 vented, the buildings began to be repaired, and 

 the endowments mainly used for the poor. 

 In 1382, Roger Cloun, the nominal master, 

 died, and Wykeham appointed his great friend 

 John de Campeden, rector of Cheriton, to the 

 mastership. 5 



Wykeham's successor, Cardinal Beaufort 

 (140447), with the consent of Thomas 

 Forest, then master, and the brethren, added, 

 in 1445, to the original foundation a hospital 

 or almshouse of ' Noble Poverty,' the buildings 

 of which were to be erected to the west of the 

 church. 8 The troublous times and the triumph 

 of the Yorkists prevented his intentions being 

 carried out in his lifetime, and it was left to 

 Bishop Waynflete to further to some extent 

 the cardinal's intentions. The bishop pro- 

 cured an enabling charter in 1455, but it was 

 not until 1486 that he carried out his plan and 

 remodelled the statutes. 7 The cardinal's in- 

 tended endowments were lost, so that the 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, i. f. 25. 

 3 Ibid. iii. f. 93. 



3 Mr. T. F. Kirby has conveniently gathered 

 all the instruments relative to this at the beginning 

 of the znd vol. of Wykeham's Registers (Hants Re- 

 cord Series, 1899), pp. 28-59. See also Mober- 

 ley's Wykeham, ch. v. and Harl. MS. 1616. 



4 Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. f. 103. 

 8 Ibid. i. f. 131. 



Pat. 33 Hen. VI. pt. 2, m. 18. 



7 Winton. Epis. Reg., Waynflete, ii. f. 132. 



additional foundation, designed for two priests, 

 thirty-five brethren and three sisters, was re- 

 duced to one priest and two brethren. Those 

 of the new foundation wore a cloak of deep 

 red with a cardinal's hat embroidered in white ; 

 whilst those of the old foundation retained 

 the black cloak, with silver cross-potent, as 

 ordained by the Hospitallers. 



The Reformation made but little change at 

 St. Cross. The hospital, though threatened in 

 the time of Henry VIII., escaped confiscation. 

 At a visitation held by Dr. Legh, as Crom- 

 well's commissary, in 1 535, it was directed that 

 the thirteen brethren should receive sufficient 

 meat and drink and not money in lieu thereof, 

 and that the 1 00 men be daily fed, but sturdy 

 beggars repulsed. 



It was further ordained that some discreet 

 and honest priest of the house should hear 

 and teach the poor brethren the Our Father 

 and the Creed in English, which they were 

 to say together in the church before dinner ; 

 that the master was to have a library in the 

 house which was to contain printed volumes 

 of the Old and New Testaments and the 

 works of Jerome, Augustine, Theophylact 

 and others of the most ancient fathers ; and 

 that mass was to be said for the soul of the 

 founder and for the good estates of the king 

 and Queen Anne. 8 



In 1696, when Dr. Markland was master, 

 it was alleged that all documents and registers 

 pertaining to the hospital had been burnt, and 

 a ' customary ' (consuetudinariuni) was drawn up 

 by the master for its future management, and 

 ratified by the bishop. When the scandals of 

 the abuse of this charity were brought before 

 the Queen's Bench in 1851, the judge in de- 

 livering judgment described this 'customary* 

 as a ' barefaced and shameless document ' and 

 ' a wilful breach of trust. 1 He was equally 

 severe on the nineteenth century continuation 

 of the scandal. The present wholesome 

 scheme was devised in 18557. 



MASTERS OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. CROSS, 

 WINCHESTER 8 



Robert de Limosia, 1136 ? 

 Roger, 1 185 



Alan de Sancta Cruse, 10 1190 

 Alan de Stoke, appointed 1204 



8 Woodward's Hist, of Hants, i. 235 ; and 

 Humbert's Memorials of the Hospital of St. Cross, 

 PP- 37, 38. 



9 Many of the names of the masters have 

 been obtained from the register of the hospital 

 (Harl. MS. 1616). 



10 Dean and Chap, of St. Paul, Charter 291. 



196 



