§8. The Order of Friers-minors was founded by St Francis in the city of Assisa in Italy, where he was born. Hearing one day the directions which our Saviour gave to his disciples, when he sent them to preach, (h) he determined on observing them all. He took off his shoes from his feet, he wore only one garment and that a mean one, he changed his leather thong for a cord [from whence they were called Cordeliers] and established his society of friers near the city Assisa A'D' 1206. Many persons noble and ignoble, clergy and laity, followed St Francis, despising worldly pomp, and keeping close to his footsteps: whom this holy father taught to fulfill evangelical perfection, to lay hold on poverty, and to walk in the way of holy simplicity. When he drew near to his last day, being worn out by a long sickness, he caused himself to be laid on the bare ground, and joyfully met death, hateful as she is, and terrible to others, and invited her to his house, saying, welcome, my sister death. sister death. He fell asleep in the Lord Oct' 4, 1226. The friers Minors came into England on St Bartholomew's day in the preceding year, that is in 1224.-There is some inconsistency in the preceding dates; if St. Francis really came to Bristol, as our Calendars say, his visit could scarcely have been so late as in the year of his death 1226.

minors.

§ 9. Matth' Westm' gives the following account of the Friers"About this time [1207] the Preachers, who are called the Minors, by the encouragement of Pope Innocent issued forth and filled the land; dwelling in cities and corporate towns by tens and sevens, possessing no property at all, living by the gospel, exhibiting a true and voluntary poverty in their food and dress, going about barefooted, girded with knotted cords, they afforded a very great example of humility to all persons. Nevertheless they occasioned great fear to many of the Prelates; because they began to weaken their authority by their preachings, and at first by their private confessions, afterward by their open admission [manifestis receptionibus]." "Only nine (i) years after the foundation of the Order of Franciscans, there were found at a general Chapter holden near Assisa 5000 deputies from it's convents. Even at present," (i) Encycl' Franc'.

(h) Matth' 10.-Luke 9 and 10.

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although the Protestants have removed a vast number of their Monasteries, they have still 7000 houses for men under different names, and more than 900 convents of women. There have been counted by their last Chapters 115,000 men, and about 29,000 women. The similarity, which exists in many respects between these Orders and the early converts to some of our own sects, cannot escape the notice of an attentive observer.

§ 10. In the year 8 Henry III [1225] the revenues of our town, which had been hitherto (k) let to farm to different persons were now let (7) to the burgesses themselves at a rent of £245 per annum: an advanced rent which marks an increased population and wealth; and which they must have paid willingly, because they now raised the money in the manner most convenient to themselves, and were thereby released from the exactions and the presence of a revenue-farmer. I translate the original authority, which may be worth the reader's perusal. "The account of Bristol [compotus Bristolli] from the feast of St Gregory [March 12] in the 8 year of the King to the feast of St Gregory in the 9th year. The burgesses of Bristol account for 245£ for the foresaid term out of the firm of their town, which town the King demised to them for that rent so that they are to answer for two parts of that rent at Michaelmas, and for the remainder at the feast of St Hilary: Saving to the King, for the use of the Constable and his people in the castle of Bristoll, the prisage of Beer, as much as they want; so that the Burgesses may have the remainder; and saving to the King the Bailiwick of the Barton of Bristol, and of the chace of Brull et de chascia Brull [ij] of Keinesham and of the wood of Furches [et de bosco de Furches]; which bailiwick the King has retained in his own hand."

§ 11. On May 1, 11 Henry III [1227] the King being at Westminster signed a (m) new Charter to the burgesses of Bristol. It is

(k) See Chapt' IV, 51; and XI, 23, 24.

(1) Madox Exch' Vol' 1, p' 333 note, (s), 2d ediť (m) See the Charters of Bristol p' 12. I take this opportunity of correcting a mistake in the note of that page. Lord Coke had said that king John was the first of our kings, who used the plural style Nos in his grants; and I thought myself safe under his authority. But there is in Berkeley castle a

merely a confirmation of Henry II's charter, and was granted probably not at the request of the burgesses, but for the purpose of drawing money from them, as the King had done or was doing from all the Corporations in the kingdom; which afterward became a regular practice at the accession of every new King. It contains no confirmation of earl John's important charter; that was reserved for the purpose of a future exaction.

§ 12. The King's misconduct had set him at variance with the best and greatest of his barons. He (n) had imprisoned Hubert de Burgh, Chief Justiciary of England, in the castle of Devizes A' D' 1233 or 1234. "One night by the asistance of his Esquire who was his only attendant, he let himself down through the lattice by means of towels and napkins and took refuge in a parish church adjoining to the ditch of the castle, from whence early the next morning he was dragged out by his keepers and the garrison, and confined more closely than before. But the bishop of Salisbury, supported by all the other bishops, claimed the immunity of the church, and he was consequently carried back into the same church, where he was surrounded by the soldiers and the power of the county, and narrowly watched. Another Baron with whom the King was at variance was William Mareschall, earl of Pembroke, a person of excellent character, and a friend to the King and his country. Him and his adherents the King harrassed in every possible manner by seizing their lands, levelling their houses, parks and gardens, cutting down their woods, filling up their fishponds, and ploughing up their pastures; and they themselves were forced to take refuge on the other side of the Severn. Here they heard of the situation in which Hubert de Burgh was placed; and William Mareschal sent two of his friends to attempt his rescue. He had been in the church for some time, when early one morning Gilbert Basset and Richard Siward arrived with a'

grant to Lord Berkeley from Richard I in perfect preservation and of unquestionable authenticity, granted" when we were in the power of our enemies." In it the plural Nos is used throughout. There is also in Rad' Diceto p' 655 a charter of Richard I in the plural nos; and p' 669 another of the same king A' D' 1193 et sæpe alibi ; and in Bromton; and one of Richard I in Matth' Westm' A' D' 1189 & alib. (n) Chron' Wikes, and Ann' Waverley.

good body of armed men, and going in, the guards not being able or not inclined to make resistance, they armed him in the church, mounted him on a mailed horse, and carried him away, against his will as was said, with a powerful hand across the country to Austiclive [Aust cliffe], and there crossing the arm of the sea in vessels provided for that purpose, they lodged him safely in the castle of Strugoyl [Chepstow] which is on the other side of the river; the guards and the whole county, who followed them with loud cries as far as the bank of the river, being forced to return with great confusion and disgrace.'

§ 13. Sept' 8, 1238, a villain attempted the King's life. Thomas Wikes's account of this affair is as follows. "In this year, 1238, one Richard came to the King's court, who was then abiding at Wodestock, and feigning himself a fool, for some days he made sport in the King's hall among the domestics in the manner of a jester [ad modum morionis]. At length one night when the King being ready wished to go up to his bed-chamber, he was found under the King's bed, lying hid in the straw, intending to kill him with a very long knife. Being taken he was drawn at the tail of horses from Wodestock to Oxford, and there hanged on a gallows. Afterward it was discovered that he had been sent for that purpose by William de Mareys, who had been outlawed for his crimes, and at that time was abiding in an island between Wales and Cornwall, called Lunday, where he maintained himself by plunder and rapines."

§ 14. Matthew Westm' thus relates the attempt to kill the King. "This year, 1238, about the feast of St Matthew, a man having the appearance of a clergyman, pretending to be a fool, until he could discover the secret passages in the King's court, one night at Woodstock privately entered the palace through a window. But the King and Queen, divine mercy protecting them, happening to sleep that night in another chamber, and one Margaret Byset, a very pious gentlewoman, who was sitting up according to her custom for the purpose of singing in her psaltery, and afterwards other young women, whom he found in the chamber itself, giving an alarm, the man was apprehended. Afterwards being bound with ropes, he confessed with his polluted mouth”

"that he had been sent thither for the purpose of killing the King and Queen. After a moderate space of time, he was torn by horses at Coventry limb from limb into four parts, which were sent to the greater cities of the kingdom, to be hung up in memory of so great a crime." This writer afterward relates the story of William de Marisco at Lundy, but he does not speak of any connexion between him and the assassin abovementioned. His words are these: "while our lord the King was beyond sea, a certain noble person, an Irishman by nation, named William de Marsh, being an exile and a fugitive for some crime laid to his charge, went to the island Londeie, which is not far distant from Bristol, and employed himself in robbery and piracy. Being at last taken with his 17 companions he was condemned to a cruel death, and by the King's direction he was drawn with his 17 companions at the tails of horses to the gallows at London, there to be hanged. But his father, one of the most powerful men in Ireland, named Geoffry de Marsh, having heard this, fled into Scotland, hardly there finding a safe retreat : and not long after pining away with grief, he terminated a wretched life by a welcome death."

§ 15. The Annals of Waverley mention the affair in these words : "About the festival of St John Baptist A' D' 1242, William de Marisco [de Marsh] was taken in the island which is called Lunday and many who were there with him, plundering on every side all who passed by them. Being carried to London they were there imprisoned until the vigil of St James the Apostle; on which day the said William having received judgement was drawn from Westminster through the principal streets of the city to the gibbet; and there being hanged and again taken down, his body was divided into four parts and sent to four principal cities (o) in particular. The others who were taken with him were drawn from Westminster to the gibbet and there most vilely hanged." Another narrative is (p) as follows. "A' D' 1242 one William de Marsh [de Marisco], an Irishman by nation, being banished from England, seized on the island Lundey, and plundered the merchants of Bristol. Being afterwards taken with 16 accomplices, he suffered punishment at”

(0) Ad 4 Majores Civitatis, lege ad 4 majores civitates. (p) Anon' apud Leland Coll' 3, 392.