INVENTORIES OF THE CORNISH FRIARIES. 23 



possessions, were usually rich in jewels and vestments; but in 

 many cases the bareness of the church and vestry, and the 

 accumulated debts show that the inmates had foreseen the coming 

 storm which left their buildings unroofed, unpaved, and dis- 

 mantled, to crumble into ruins by the slow hand of time, or the 

 more destructive one of man. 



The visitation of the Cornish Friaries took place in Septem- 

 ber, 1538, and the Inventories and deeds of dissolution are 

 appended to this paper. 



The former supply us with valuable information as to the 

 state of the houses of that period. 



The Grey Friars at Bodmin had a much richer list of church 

 goods than the Black Friars at Truro, as will be seen by a care- 

 ful perusal of the inventories themselves. The silver plate 

 amounted to 286 ounces at the former, and 360 ounces at the 

 latter house. The vestments at Bodmin were rich, but at Truro 

 very poor ; here there were a pair of organs, whilst ;it Bodmin 

 the organ was simply a frame without pipes, although the war- 

 dens had a pair to pay the debts with, it is supposed by some 

 authorities that one of the organs was placed at the west end of 

 the church for voluntaries and processions, and that the second 

 was in the choir for use in the services. 



In the deed of voluntary dissolution the names of the monks 

 present great difficulty in being read, as in addition to the 

 character of writing at the time some names are so badly written 

 as to be almost illegible. 



Although the author has spent considerable time in seaiching 

 for further inventories of the Monastic Houses in Cornwall, he 

 has been unable to find any up to the present time. 



One fact it may be interesting to note that Henry VHP'' 

 intended to have appropriated the revenues of Launceston, 

 Bodmin, and another house for founding a new bishop's see for 

 Cornwall, as a memorandum in his own handwriting in the 

 Cottonian M.S. of the British Museum attests. 



TRURO. 

 Chapter House Books, b^b P- 127. 



The blacke freeres of Trurey. 

 This indenture makith mencyon of all y** stufiFe of y" blacke 

 frereis of trurey receyved by the lorde visitor under y« lorde 



