By tJk Rev. W. Q. Clark-Mwwell 



25 



as stated above, in July. 1538; and on the 2nd October of that 

 year tin* Black Friars of Salisbury surrendered. The document is 

 given in vol. xviii., p. 161 of the Magazine, in an article on the 

 Black Friar- of Wiltshire by the Rev. C. A. R. Palmer. It is 

 signed by the prior, John Hesskyns, and thirteen "brethren. An 

 inventory of the goods of the monastery is also given, which 

 certainly bears out the Bishop of Dover's statement as to the 

 penury of the friars' houses, especially since this is mentioned as 

 one of the better ones. 



The fall of Salisbury Black Friars involved that of Wilton as a 

 dependent house, and synchronised with that of the Grey Friars in 

 the same town. The inventory of this house also is given. 1 

 The sites, etc , were disposed of as follows : — 



The White Friars, at Marlborough, to John Pye and Robert 

 Brown, 34 Hen. VIII. 



The Black Friars, at Salisbury, to John Pollard and William 

 Byrte. Jan. 6th, 1545. 



The Black Friars, at Wilton, to Sir William Herbert, in 1547. 



The Grey Friars, at Salisbury, to John Wroth. 36 Hen. VIII. 

 The Visitors* reports, taken as a whole, reveal a much greater 

 embarassment in pecuniary matters in the houses of friars than in 

 monasteries. The reason for this, is not, I think, far to seek. The 

 rule of St. Francis forbade not only the possession of private 

 property by the individual friar, but even the holding of corporate 

 estates by the community, and though, no doubt, this primitive 

 severity had become in many cases relaxed, yet the fact remains 

 that friaries on the whole did not enjoy the settled income which 

 arose from landed property, and consequently lived in a much more 

 hand-to-mouth fashion than did their elder rivals, the monk?. So 

 long as offerings from the faithful continued to flow in unchecknl 

 all was well : but when once it became evident, as must have been 

 the case before 1538,that all religious houses were marked for destruc- 

 tion, the tide of almsgiving slackened apace : and naturally so, for 

 who will give to a body whose possession* may to-morrow be seized 

 by the king ? And so, apart from the question of bad management 



1 See Appendix. 



