RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the two other manors so far as was consistent 

 with the shelter and support of the scholars. 



There has been considerable discussion as 

 to the nature of this ordinance and to what 

 purpose the house at Maiden was devoted at 

 the outset and subsequently. As Manning 

 puts it : 'It seems, by all the expressions used 

 in the several charters and other instruments, 

 that there was a house at Maiden for the use 

 of the foundation in some respect ; but it has 

 been much questioned whether the founder 

 first settled his scholars here, and afterwards 

 removed them to Oxford, or whether it was 

 for the ministers only who resided here to 

 take care of the estates, whom he afterwards 

 sent to Oxford to form one body with the 

 scholars.' * On the whole the latter theory 

 seems to be the soundest, and is that which 

 has been adopted by the latest historian of 

 Merton College." At all events it is clear 

 that when 1264 is reached, the domus 

 scolarium de Merton was not to afford lodging 

 for a band of scholars on the manor of Mai- 

 den, but to find perpetual sustenance for 

 twenty exhibitioners at Oxford or some 

 other university, and to sustain two or three 

 ministers of the altar of Christ, residing at 

 Maiden. The foundation, according to Mr. 

 Henderson, fell into two halves. The 

 domus was at Maiden in Surrey, where lived 

 the custos or warden of the property, certain 

 brethren of the foundation, and the ministers 

 of the altar ; but the congregatio or societas of 

 the scholars was at Oxford. Once in the 

 year some of the scholars visited the Surrey 



domus, for on every recurring feast of the 

 Exaltation of the Cross, eight or ten of the 

 older and more discreet of the scholars were 

 to come to the house at Maiden, to inquire 

 into the administration of the estates by the 

 warden. If the scholars thought that the 

 warden had failed to guard the property as 

 though it was his own, they could appeal to 

 the Bishop of Winchester. The election of 

 the warden rested with the twelve senior of 

 the twenty scholars. 



When Walter de Merton published his 

 second code of statutes in 1270, the domus 

 at Maiden still existed. The Maiden house 

 had its warden then elected by the thirteen 

 senior scholars with the advice of the brethren 

 [seu aeconomi), who resided there and helped 

 in the administration ; its other inmates were 

 the chaplains or ministers of the altar, then 

 described as three or four, and the young 

 scholars, parvuli, waiting for their promotion 

 to Oxford. The senior member of the con- 

 gregation of scholars at Oxford still annually 

 visited Maiden in July for administrative and 

 audit purposes. 



The final code of statutes, put forth in 

 1274, ^brought to an end the duplicate 

 government of the house of trust and main- 

 tenance at Maiden and the house of learning 

 and literature at Oxford. The society had 

 at that date property distributed in many 

 parts of England ; it was found that it could 

 be administered as well from Oxford as from 

 Surrey, and the Maiden establishment came 

 to an end.* 



ALIEN HOUSE 



20. THE PRIORY OF TOOT- 

 ING" 



The name of Tooting Beck or Tooting 

 Bee still preserves the former association of a 

 part of this town with the great Benedictine 

 abbey of Bee in Normandy. A certain part 

 of Upper Tooting, in the parish of Streat- 

 ham, was "given to the abbey of Bee in the 

 life of the Conqueror by Richard de Tone- 

 bridge, and the abbey placed some monks 

 there in charge of their property establishing 

 a grange or small priory. The chapel at 



Streatham mentioned in the Domesday 

 Survey" as paying 8x. may have been the 

 church or chapel of this priory. The estate 

 was sometimes accounted as a distinct alien 

 priory and sometimes as a member of Oke- 

 burn, Wilts, which was the chief English 

 cell of Bee. 



The prior of Tooting (Theuteng) was 

 appointed by Pope Innocent IV., in 1251, 

 conservator of certain pensions from certain 

 churches granted to the abbot and convent 

 of Westminster,* 



The taxation roll of 1291 returns the 

 abbot of Bee as holding an income of £4^ °"t 



\ Sr«%'iT; by ^Btmlrd W. Henderson * Brodrick's Memorials of Merton College 317- 

 (1899) 2-5 4°; Henderson's Hist, of Merton College, 17-20. 



3 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surrey, iii. 382-3 ; = V.C.H. Surrey (i. 315)- 



Dugdale, Monasticon, vi. 1053. " Cal. of Papal Letters, .. 271. 



I! 129 



