THE CHARTER HOUSE
In Agas’ Map of London, “Civitas Londinum,” _circa_ 1560 (see end of
_London in the Time of the Tudors_), there is represented, lying on
the west of Aldersgate Street, an irregular square or place called
Charter House Square: it has a small church in the middle, and on the
north side are monastic buildings; on the north of these are gardens
and orchards; one of them with a small building which may be meant for
a church enclosed with a wall. Some of these monastic buildings, with
later additions and alterations, still remain to the present day; the
square remains, but the orchards and gardens are built over, with the
exception of the ground once enclosed by the cloister, which is now the
play-ground of the Merchant Taylors’ School. Before the middle of the
fourteenth century this place formed part of “No Man’s Land,” a swampy
plain, covered, like Smithfield and Moorfield, with ponds and reeds
and rushes. In the year 1349 the Black Death arrived; and as the City
churchyards were becoming so full that they could hold no more, the
Bishop of London bought a piece of this ground which he enclosed for a
burial-place, building a chapel, “which is now,” says Stow, “enlarged
and made a dwelling-house,” and the place was called Pardon Churchyard.
It was afterwards used as a burial-place for suicides and criminals and
persons who died a violent death. The body was put into a cart, hung
with black cloth, belonging to St. John’s Hospital; on the black cloth
was the white cross of St. John; within the cart hung a bell which rang
with the jolting and the shaking of the hearse—a doleful sound and a
doleful sight.
In 1350 or 1351, the plague still continuing, Sir Walter Manny bought
thirteen acres of ground, adjacent to the Pardon Churchyard, and gave
this to the City as a new burial-ground; the chapel stood somewhere in
Charter House Square, perhaps about the middle of it. There used to be
a stone cross in this burial-ground with the following inscription:—
“Anno Domini 1349, regnante magnâ pestilentiâ, consecratum fuit hoc
cœmiterium in quo et infra septa presentis monasterii sepulta fuerunt
mortuorum corpora plus quam quinquaginta millia præter alia multa
abhinc usque ad presens: quorum animabus propitietur Deus, Amen.”
In the Charter House Precinct, to this day, whenever the ground is
opened bones are found.
Some years later Sir Walter Manny, with Michael de Northburgh, Bishop
of London, founded on the spot a House which they at first intended to
be only a College of twelve Chaplains, one of whom was to preside; they
enlarged their plan, however, and converted this college into a House
of Carthusians, whose Prior obtained a Bull of the Pope in 1362 for
the acquisition of certain benefices valued at £200 a year. Nine years
later, in February 1471-72, the House obtained license to hold twenty
acres of ground for their Precinct, together with a Chapel dedicated to
the Annunciation of the Virgin. It had already received, by the will
of Bishop Michael, who died in 1361, £2000 in money, many rents and
tenements, the Bishop’s Library, and his best Vestments. The House was,
further, largely endowed by other Kings and Princes. Sir Walter Manny,
who died in 1471, was buried in the Choir of the Church.
[Illustration: THE CHARTER HOUSE
From the Grangerised edition of Brayley’s _London and Middlesex_ in
Guildhall Library.]
No House commanded greater respect than this of the Carthusians, for
the simple reason that while the Rule in other Houses was relaxed,
or was scandalously neglected, successive generations of Carthusians
showed no change in their austerities and no deviation from their Rule.
They came to England about 1180, and settled first at Witham, near
Bath. Their austerities are thus described:—
“They wear nothing made from furs or linen, nor even that finely-spun
linen garment which we call Staminium; neither breeches, unless when
sent on a journey, which at their return they wash and restore. They
have two tunics with cowls, but no additional garment in winter,
though, if they think fit, in summer they may lighten their garb. They
sleep clad and girded, and never after matins return to their beds;
but they so order the time of matins that it shall be light ere the
lauds begin: so intent are they on their rule, that they think no jot
or tittle of it should be disregarded. Directly after the hymns, they
sing the prime, after which they go out to work for stated hours. They
complete whatever service or labour they have to perform by day without
any other light. No one is ever absent from the daily services, or
from complines, except the sick. The cellarer and hospitaller, after
complines, wait upon the guests, yet observing the strictest silence.
The abbot allows himself no indulgence beyond the others, everywhere
present, everywhere attending to his flock, except that he does not
eat with the rest, because his table is with the strangers and the
poor. Nevertheless, be he where he may, he is equally sparing of food
and speech; for never more than two dishes are served to him or to
his company: lard and meat never but to the sick. From the Ides of
September till Easter, through regard for whatever festival, they do
not take more than one meal a day except on Sunday. They never leave
the cloister but for purpose of labour, nor do they ever speak, either
there or elsewhere, save only to the abbot or prior. They pay unwearied
attention to the canonical services, making no addition to them except
for the defunct. They use in their divine service the Ambrosian chants
and hymns, as far as they were able to learn them at Milan. While they
bestow care on the stranger and the sick, they inflict intolerable
mortifications on their own bodies for the health of their souls.” Add
to this list of austerities that they wore a hair cloth next the skin;
that they were not permitted to buy fish, but that they might accept
it; that they made bread of bran and drank their wine diluted.
The House of the Salutation stood for 200 years. During that long
period the Brethren continued the same austerities; there is no record
of any falling-off; they remained all their lives within the walls of
their House; all that the world knew of them came from their servants
and their visitors. Other Houses might relax, into other Houses luxury
might creep, but not with the Carthusians, they remained true till
the end. The story of the end belongs to that of the Dissolution of
Religious Houses. (See _London in the Time of the Tudors_.)