So 
THE MONKS OF MARMOUTIER. 
monastery, entered into divers of its possessions, wasted the 
issues, goods and jewels, imprisoned some of the monks and 
threatened the others.” 
No wonder that in 1478, after a time of this kind, the Prior 
and Convent had to plead their poverty before the Duke of 
Gloucester, asking for his help on account of their “ great 
penury, poverty and trouble, with many other great and 
intolerable hurts and mischiefs done and committed against 
the weal of the Priory by Darnton late called Prior of the 
same.” 
Darnton was evidently a really turbulent sort of fellow, and 
attained to an unenviable notoriety. He seems to have been 
one of the best known of the Trinity Priors, though one of 
whom the Convent could never be proud. There was, how¬ 
ever, one happy consequence of his riotous conduct : through 
the trials recorded concerning him there has come down to us 
a splendid testimony of the excellent character borne by the 
Trinity monks generally ; for when Thomas Wrangwish, an 
alderman of the City, the City M.P., and twice its Lord Mayor, 
pleaded the cause of the monks before the Duke of Gloucester, 
these words formed part of his speech,—a splendid tribute to 
the good character of the House and its religious usefulness in 
the City ; and they form a sort of counterblast to that dis¬ 
graceful and, I believe, untruthful report made by the Ministers 
of Henry VIII., when he went a monk-hunting. These are 
Wrangwislrs words : 
“ Remembering the great honour had and kept by 
the Priors thereof in times past, as well in main¬ 
taining of Divine Service, said guiding of their 
religion, nurture, and welfare, as in all other things 
concerning the pleasure of God, and good rule of 
religion and worship of the city.” 
A striking contrast this to the hurried report of 153S, when 
the Priory was surrendered by the Prior and ten Priests, its 
value at that time being £196 17s. 2d., and Richard Speght, 
its last Prior, receiving an annual pension of £22. 
This paper would be incomplete if I did not say a few words 
about the fabric of the Church. The domestic part of the 
