A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Chapter Five,
Caister Castle, and the
Monastic Settlements
at Yarmouth.
81
The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
Arms of Fastolf,
Watercolour by
C.J.W.Winter, 1847.
Milicentia, daughter of Sir Robert
Tibelot and widow of Sir Stephen Scroope.
As a result of the marriage, John acquired
a considerable fortune. Soon after this
he obtained some important positions in
Gascony and went to live over there. In 1415
together with the Duke of Dorset, he was
Governor of Harfleur. After distinguishing
himself in battle at Agincourt under Henry V,
he was promoted, and in 1425 was awarded
the Order of the Garter. At the Battle of the
Herrings, he achieved fame and honour in
routing 4-9,000 French, whilst in command
of some 4,000 English troops. A convoy of
provisions, mainly herring, was then escorted
to the camp at Orleans. He shared in the
problems brought about by Jeanne D’Arc,
Maid of Orleans, but was given a succession
of diplomatic and civil appointments
afterwards. In 1435, the Duke of Bedford,
Regent of France, died, and Fastolf was
one of his executors. In 1436 Fastolf was
Governor of Normandy, returning to England
in 1440.
Above, Harfleur; Fastolf would still recognise it.
Photo. 20.4.06.
In 1450 Sir John Fastolf was living in
Southwark. He had left the army and was a
Privy Counsellor, serving the king. He was
quite unpopular both at court and earlier
in his army days when he had once been
accused of cowardice at the battle of Patay,
but this was subsequently disproved. He
gave advice concerning the maintenance of
the English conquests in France, which was
recorded by his secretary William Worcester,
but ignored. Popular rumour held him partly
responsible for the loss of Calais.
The Manor of Caister was in the possession of the Fastolf
family as early as 1363. John Fastolf was born at Yarmouth
in or before 1380. His father died when he was still young,
and he was made the ward of a nobleman. He was trained
up in the household of the Duke of Norfolk. In 1405-6
he went to Ireland with Thomas of Lancaster, second son
of Henry IV, who became afterwards Duke of Clarence.
Thomas of Lancaster was then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Two years later, John Fastolf, whilst in Ireland, married
It seems that the Duke of York and other Royal
Ref 1
. The Paston Letters, Gairdner’s edition,
p.lvii.
82
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Caister Castle 1939, photo by Rumbelow showing
excavations.
Lords had been excluded from the King’s Council,
and kept away from Court. A Captain called Cade
had roused some rebels in the cause of the Duke
of York and they were camped at Blackheath. In
consequence Sir John Fastolf sent his servant
John Payne and a companion, on two of his best
horses from Southwark to Blackheath. To save
the horses, Payne sent them straight back with his
attendant. Cade took Payne prisoner and asked
why he had come, and why he had sent the man
off with his horses. Payne replied that he had
come to join his wife’s brothers, who were there
camped among the insurgents. A man shouted
out to Captain Cade that Payne was a man of
Fastolf’s, and the horses were those of Sir John.
There was a cry of “treason”, and Payne was sent
through the camp with the herald of the Duke of
Exeter. The herald proclaimed that Payne was
a spy, sent by the greatest spy in England and
France - Sir John Fastolf! “Who had diminished
the garrisons of Normandy, Le Mans and Maine,
and thereby caused the loss of the King’s overseas
territory”. It was said that Fastolf had garrisoned
his place at Southwark with the old soldiers of
Normandy. Payne was taken to Cade’s tent, and
an axe and block brought out. Payne however
had friends including Robert Poynings, Cade’s
sword bearer and carver, who subsequently
married John Paston’s sister, Elizabeth. Poynings
declared that if Payne were to die then so would
several hundred others there. Payne was spared
and sent back to Fastolf, telling him to send
away his troops. Fastolf left only two men at
Southwark, and Payne it seems was one of them,
who then had to entertain the rebels there at his
own expense. Payne’s goods were seized, also
his house at Kent was ransacked. Cade was
seriously wounded in battle at London Bridge,
and a year later Payne had to secure a pardon in
person from the King.
Fastolf was a ship owner and merchant as well as
a lawyer and soldier. His ships plied trade between
Yarmouth and London. They carried building
materials to Caister, and malt and other produce
from Norfolk to London. He had licence from the
crown to keep six ships, of which one was the
“Blythe”, and he had two “playtes”, a “cogship”,
and a “farecroft” and two “balingers”.
Window inside the Priory, 19.11.2005.
The Manor of Caister had come to him by inherit-
ance from his father. His mother had tenancy as
a widow, but gave it up to her son when he was
twenty six. From then on he served in France
with Henry V at Agincourt and at the siege of
Rouen. He served under the Regent Bedford, and
captured the Duke of Alencon. He was governor
of the conquered districts, and had fought with
success and glory in almost every battle of the
period.
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The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
these transactions were in this part
of East Anglia, although his usual
residence seems to have remained
in Southwark. He must have had
his principal aim to retire to a grand
house at Caister from the time that he
acquired Bozuns, acquired to add to
the land he had inherited. Presumably
the properties elsewhere were all let
out at good rents.
(Sir John Fastolf
and the Land Market, in East Anglia’s
History
, Ed. C Harper Bill, 2002. Also
see A. Smith, “The Acquisition of Sir
John Fastolf’s Estates”, in
Rulers
and Ruled in Late medieval England
,
Essays presented to Gerald Harriss,
ed. R. E .Archer and S. Walker,
London, 1995).
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
C J W Winter’s painting of the Fastolf Tomb in St
Nicholas Church.
As well as being a soldier, Fastolf was a property developer.
He traded in land and estates. In 1431 he bought the Manor
of Titchwell, Norfolk, from John Roys. A man called William
Norwich was retained by Fastolf as a lawyer to act in land
transactions, including the purchase of Mundham in Norfolk,
and of Cockfield Hall, Suffolk. Land dealing then was fraught
with difficulty involving theft, murder, fraud and disputed
titles. It is no wonder that Fastolf retained his own lawyer.
In 1425 or 1428, Fastolf exchanged the manor of Peak Hall,
Tittleshall, Whissonnet (near Halesworth) for the manor of
Bozuns in Caister, with Richard Bozun. In 1428, Fastolf bought
Loundhall in Saxthorpe from Sir William Oldhall. Fastolf and
Okdhall were both very active in property dealing, may have
been competitors but not averse to trading between themselves.
In 1434, Fastolf bought the Hainford estate, Norwich. All
Fastolf had licence to fortify the house
at Caister during the reign of Henry V.
Only when he was over 70 years old was his
house nearing completion. The foundations
enclosed a space of over six acres. This is
apparent from Dawson Turner’s “Sketch of
Caister Castle”. A plan of the castle was drawn
in watercolour by Henry Swinden, and is in
the Turner collection in the British Library.
The inventory at Fastolf’s death showed 26
bedrooms, public rooms, chapel and offices.
Lady Millicent Fastolf, Sir John’s wife, had a
bedroom completed before her death in 1446,
but the building had not been completed in
Below, Caister Castle from the Norwich
Road, 10.9.06. Left, photo by Rumbelow.
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A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
1453. At that time John Paston had a hand in
the supervision of building and an apartment
for his office.
In 1454 Fastolf moved from London to reside at
the castle, which was seemingly then sufficiently
finished. Thereafter he only ever visited London
once again. After just 5 years of leisure at the
castle Fastolf died there in 1459. There were
three wills in which he left his estates to trustees,
with the special request to establish a college
or religious community at Caister.
Above, Hall Quay Club 1987, site of Fastolf’s Town
House
Below, one of Rumbelow’s pictures of Caister Castle, 1939.
Philip Rumbelow writes about the toilet
arrangements at Caister Castle in his Diary of
1936. He describes four apartments at Caister,
one above the other in a rectangular turret and
took some photos outside the tower. He has
drawn a section of the tower, depicting the
plumbing arrangements which he compares
to those at Framlingham Castle and Orford.
He refers to the toilets as being known as a
“Guarderobe”. This French name for the room
arose because the room doubled as a clothes’
airer where the ammonia in the air from the
urine was found to kill fleas in the clothing
left hanging there.
After the death of Sir John Fastolf, his estates
were left to be used largely for charitable
purposes and to establish a college at Caister.
One of his executors, John Paston, had however
procured a new will from Fastolf on his death
bed. It seems unlikely that Fastolf knew much
if anything of this new will. The will was
disputed for years after Fastolf’s death, and
the acquisition of the castle by Paston did him
little good. He was incarcerated in the Fleet
prison. Although freed he was clearly in poor
shape and died not long after. Caister Castle
then passed to his son, Sir John
1939.
The Benedictine Priory
Herbert De Lozinga, Bishop of Norwich,
founded the priory, attached to St. Nicholas
Church, at some time prior to his death, in 1119.
It constituted a cell of the Priory of the Holy
Trinity of Norwich Cathedral. The services
were performed by a deacon and three chaplains
appointed by the prior. The mother house was
supported by benefactors such as Oliver Wyth
of Great Yarmouth, whose two daughters were
nuns at the infirmary at Carrow. Oliver Wyth
gave in his will, rents of 13 shillings and 4
pence a year or a cash sum of £6. 13s. 4d. to
the infirmarer of Carrow Priory, for the solace
of feeble ladies and the infirm. (P. Rutledge,
“The Will of Oliver Wyth” in Norfolk Record
Society Miscellany, NRS LV1 1991, 20).
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The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Paston, a knight who was mainly stationed
at Calais. In 1468 the will of Fastolf was
again disputed, and Thomas Howes offered
the estate to the Duke of Norfolk. In 1469 the
Duke of Norfolk summonsed Paston to quit
the castle. He was given 15 days to leave.
Paston defended Caister with only a small
staff of 28 against the troops of the Duke
of Norfolk, led by Sir John Heveningham.
The siege of Caister lasted some three
weeks, when inevitably, supplies of food
and gunpowder ran out, in September 1469.
After years of haggling and bribery, the Duke
of Norfolk died suddenly in January 1475.
In 1476, Caister was restored to Paston, but
considerable damage was done to the castle
in a fire caused somehow by a girl who was
making a bed, probably a straw mattress set
alight by a candle or rush light. Sir John
Paston died in 1471, and the castle passed to
his younger son John. In 1487 he was High
Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was made
a knight banneret at the battle of Stoke by
Henry VII. He died in 1503, and the castle
remained in ownership of the Paston family
until Clement Paston built the new house at
Oxnead, now in ownership of the National
Trust. The castle at Caister was then left to
fall into ruins. (Ref. The Saturday Magasine,
no. 380, Saturday June 2nd., 1838, copy in
Rumbelows Diary, 1939).
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
8.10.2006.
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A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
The dedication service for the church and
the chapels took place in 1251. It was
dedicated to St. Nicholas, the Patron Saint
of fishermen. The Convent consisted of
a Prior and three or four monks, later
increased to eight, with three Parish
Deacons and one Chaplain. Even in the
15th century, Yarmouth was a place in
which to rest and recuperate from illness.
The sea air was considered beneficial to
health, and the priory was used by the
mother house at Norwich as a place to
send elderly and convalescent patients
to recuperate by the sea. (“Care for the
sick in East Anglian Monasteries”, Carol
Rawcliffe, in East Anglia’s History, Ed.
Christopher Harper Bill, 2002, p. 71.)
Robert De Jernemouth was “Infirmarer” at
the Norwich Priory 1440-41, and studied
at Cambridge or Oxford University.
(Norfolk Record Office, DCN 1/10/1-
38) The Priory was valued with Norwich
Priory at the dissolution, and granted in
1538 to the Dean and Chapter of Norwich,
who leased the priory and parsonage to
Robert Lowel Esq. in 1551 for eighty
years, and in 1607 to William Gostyling,
gentleman. The refectory of the priory is
still standing, south-east of the church.
Refectory Hall of the Priory,
19.11.05
The Priory of the
Grey Friars
The institution of the friaries was an attempt
to return to the austerity of earlier religious
groups. Friaries were established in
centres of population where they
could reach the people. From
the early 13th century
considerable numbers
of these houses were
established in the more
important towns and
cities. It was common
to find establishments
of all the different
groups in separate
parts of the town. The
friars concentrated on
preaching and teaching.
According to Speed the
monastery of the Grey
Friars in Yarmouth was founded by Sir
William Gerbridge, Knight and Bailiff,
during the reign of Henry III, 1216-1272.
Alternatively, Stow gives the reign of
Edward II as the time of its foundation
(1307-1327). This establishment was
dedicated to St. Francis. It was supported by
Above, interior and south side
of the Priory, 19.11.2005.
Left, drawing of the Priory,
drawn by C J W Winter,
September 1851.
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The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
a number of benefactors including
several burgesses and Walter De
Suffield, Bishop of Norwich, in
1256.
Detail of Swinden’s Map, 1758
Five
Main entrance to St Nicholas Church
Caister
The Franciscan order, also known
as Grey Friars, Friars Minor,
or Conventual Friars, were
founded by Francis of Assisi in
Italy in the early 13th century.
They arived in England in 1224
with a preconceived plan of
campaign, since within weeks
they had established themselves
at Canterbury, London, Oxford,
Northampton and Cambridge.
By 1230 they were in Bristol,
Gloucester, Hereford and Kings
Lynn.
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
In 1541 the Yarmouth Friary was
granted to Thomas, Lord Cromwell,
Visitor General, and Sir Richard
Williams obtained a grant of the
Franciscan Convent and the whole
site with its buildings. Later the
corporation had ownership, and
in 1657 sold for £2,600, Claude
Messent wrote in his
Monastic
Remains of Norfolk and Suffolk,
The remains of the building could
be entered from Row 91
1/2
, and
were open to the public in the
summer for a small charge. In
1941, Rumbelow’s Diary recorded
Refectory Hall of Priory, 1758
the wreckage at the site
after the bombing, and
photos were supplied by
the Yarmouth Mercury.
Rumbelow relates that
Mr. Haward the architect
had (made) some good
drawings of the vaulting and of the interior of
the cloister. An article in the Yarmouth Mercury,
January 11th. 1952, recorded the proceedings
of the Yarmouth section of the Norfolk and
Norwich Archaeological Society at Yarmouth
Town Hall. A. J. Middleton reported that the
The Priory roof, 19.11.2005.
88
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Photos at the Priory, 19.11.05
The Priory, 1987, left.
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The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Old Merchant’s House and the remains of
the Greyfriars’ cloister had been given into
ownership of the Ministry of Works (now
English Heritage). Arrangements were to be
made for repairs and public inspection. Later in
the same meeting, Rainbird Clark, the museum
curator of Norwich, expressed regret th of May
27th 1937 appear in Rumbelow’s Diary of that
year depicting walls of the Friary supported
by timbers ranging across to some cottages
opposite. The timbers were rotting away.
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
The Carmelite (White
Friars) Priory
The White Friars were called that because of
their white cloaks.They were of the order of
the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, and
were generally known as the Carmelites. They
wore a white mantle and a loose hood. The
Relics from Blackfriars, drawn by C.J.W.Winter
Photo top left, Greyfriars’ Half Row. Above, Greyfriars’ Monastery, before bombing.
90
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Greyfriars’, 12.9.2006.
Remains of Greyfriars’ 12.3.2005, and views pre-war
91
The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Pictures of the Greyfriars’ Monastery, 17.3.05
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
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A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
93
The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Carmelites established themselves in Scotland
at Banff in the reign of Alexander III. They came
to England in 1240, settled in Norwich in 1256,
and arrived inYarmouth in about 1278
1
. They
acquired extensive property, thought to have
extended from White Friars Quay to the Market
Place. Individual monks could own nothing,
and were sworn to poverty, nevertheless they
acquired for their monastery considerable riches.
Their property included the “Half Moon Tavern”,
and they had leave to enlarge their monastic
house in 1377. They sold letters of fraternity,
and burial places within their church. They also
sold perpetual prayers for the dead*1. Several
persons are known as having been interred at the
Church of the White Friars, including in about
1309, a Nicholas Castle and his wife Elizabeth;
Dame Maud, wife of Sir Thomas Huntingdon in
1330; and Sir John De Monte Acuto, Steward to
the household of Richard III, in 1382*3a. John
Tylney was Prior in 1435, 1437, and 1455, both
Prior and Sub-Prior being elected annually. In
1509 both the Church and the Convent were
burned to the ground, Manship recording that
there was insufficient water to put it out. One
of the Priors, John Tylney, also known as John
of Yarmouth, Prior in 1435, 1437, and 1455,
was Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, and
wrote many famous and well used sermons and
lectures.(ref. Manship I , p. 427.) The suffix
“of Yarmouth”, was apparently quite common.
One “Adam of Yarmouth” was bearer of the
King’s Seal at the court of Henry II. Robert
Denton and Robert Nottingham in 1544 had a
grant of all the property which had belonged
to the White Friars, and in 1567 they obtained
licence from the Crown to sell it, when the land
was divided. It is not recorded what happened in
the interim, assuming that on part of this land,
William Browne was to build his residence in
1756, except that the deeds do refer to an earlier
right of way to the north.
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
This old brick and flint wall
(above) was still present in
Red Lion Alley in 1987 and may have been
part of the
Carmelite, “White Friars” Monastic buildings.
Below is the archway into Red Lion Alley on North
Quay. (1990)
Throughout history, Carmelites have hit the
headlines from time to time. A Carmelite
called Robert Baston was taken by Edward
II to celebrate his victory in verse.
Instead Baston was captured by
the Scots and forced to write for
them. The results are said to be very
unremarkable! [W.D. Macray Eng.
Hist.Rev.xix (1904) p.507-8] When
Edward II was deposed, there was a
formal deputation that included two
Carmelite Friars. [Lanercost, p.258]
In the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, in the
reign of Richard II, many monasteries
were plundered. In Cambridge a chest
full of parchments was taken from the
house of the Carmelites and publicly
94
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
Detail of Henry Swinden’s map, 1758.
to the gallows by
the latter at North
Walsham.[Oxford
Hist. of Eng.,
McKisack, p.417]
This may be the cottage with
the undercroft, approached
by steps in the passage on the
north side of the row. see P.P.
vol I, page 214 (Row 30).
1
The founding of a
Carmelite Convent
in Yarmouth was
ascribed by Speed,
Weaver and Tanner ,
to the year 1278, in
the reign of Edward
I. (Bishop Tanner
bought items in an
auction at Norwich
in 1731, which are
now in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford.)
passage
y
Garden
North
Quay
“Extensive
Malthouses”
burned in the Market Square. On the
17th.of June there was a band of rebels,
one of whom, called Litster, assembled
with his fellows on Mousehold Heath,
Norwich, from where gangs of rebels
went to nearby towns and villages. One
such gang, under Roger Bacon, was sent
to Yarmouth. Rolls were destroyed, and
several persons executed after mock
trials. Litster was later apprehended
by Bishop Despenser’s forces, and led
Ancient walls still present in 1987 behind
55 North Quay, demolished in about 1990
by Getliff and King
(more detail, volume 2).
x
These old walls behind
(x, y,)
55 North Quay in 1987, were
on the site of the White friars monastery. (See “North
Quay”, volume two, for more detail).
This is the old part of the wall
95
The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Five
Caister
Castle
Messent in his History of the Monasteries
in Norfolk, states that the foundation of the
Whitefriars’ priory is ascribed to the year
1278, in the reign of Edward I, 1272-1307.
In 1377 the White Friars had a patent to
enlarge their house. It was dedicated to St.
Mary. Several bailiffs and burgesses were
benefactors, and some nobility were buried in
the priory church, including Dame Maud, wife
of Sir Lawrence Huntingdon in 1330, and
Sir John De Montacute, in 1392. The priory
was burned down in 1509. After the fire, the
site and remains were granted in 1544 to Sir
Thomas Denton and R. Nottingham. Later it
was divided and sold off in parts.
and
the
Monasteries
Above another very
ancient wall in the
cellar of 55 North Quay,
probably monastic
remains.
The vaulted roof of the
cellar (left) dates from
about 1600, I suggest.
The north cellar wall is
clearly very much older
(above).
The old house, no. 55 North Quay,
1990.
96
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
The Blackfriars Priory
Thomas Fastolf and Geoffrey De Pykering
founded the Convent of the Black Friars in
about 1270. The Priory Church was completed
in about 1380 and dedicated to St. Dominic.
It had many benefactors, including several
burgesses and bailiffs. Burned down in 1525,
it was granted in 1542 to Richard Andrews and
Leonard Chambellyn. Later the property was
divided among several persons. Some re-used
materials in the town wall appear to have come
from the monastery. The Dominicans had been
founded by St Dominic, a Spaniard, in southern
France. They arrived in England from Italy in
about 1221 and settled at Oxford. Most of their
establishments are slightly later than those
of the Franciscans, in 1230-40, but they also
centre on the main medieval towns and were
prolific, with centres at York (1227), Shrewsbury
(1232), Northampton (1226), London (1224)
and Exeter 1232). Poverty was important to their regime,
and although they had large numbers of establishments,
they never acquired large landed estates. Within towns, as at
Yarmouth, their houses were often extensive and significant.
All the friaries in Yarmouth were within the walled area. At
Kings Lynn three of the friaries were to the south and east
of the built up area, though still within the town bank and
ditch. At Norwich, three of the friaries were central, but two
of those, the Austin and Dominican Friaries, were on low
level marshy land. The fourth, the Carmelite Friary was in
the extreme north-east of the walled area.ref:
Monasteries
,
Michael Aston, Batsford, London, 1993. pp. 84-88. The
Yarmouth Blackfriars had their premises at the extreme
south-east corner of the town, and the town wall seems to
have deliberately been structured around their buildings
from the outset.
(For St. Nicholas Church and Priory Plain,
see Volume 2.)
The area of Blackfriars, on Swinden’s map, 1758. This
was drawn long after the monastery was burned down,
but it still looks to follow an earlier ground-plan.
These buildings
could represent the
ancient cloisters.
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The Revised History of Great Yarmouth
Chapter
Five
Caister
Castle
and
the
Monasteries
Plan derived from one in “Norfolk Archaeology”.
Friars Lane
The Hospital of St. Mary.
The hospital was founded in the reign of Edward I.
Thomas Fastolf and William Gerbrigge, Burgess of
Great Yarmouth, gave by will made 1278, an annual
rent for the maintenance of two priests in the hospital.
Many donations were made, especially in 1349, when
Both of these structures could
be remnants of the Monastery
Church
Back of the Hospital School, 17.11.2005.
St Mary’s Hospital, Victorian re-build.
Above, Friars Lane and the Blackfriars
site on the Elizabethan pictorial map.
98
A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth
there was an outbreak of Black Death.
Eighteen houses in Yarmouth were left to
the Hospital Prior to the year 1392. John,
Bishop of Ely, granted an indulgence of
forty days to all who would assist in the
support and reparation of the hospital
in 1419.
Pictures of the Great
Hospital at Norwich.
The Leper Hospital
at Yarmouth was
a sister house and
would have been
very similar in
form
The hospital was dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and valued at the dissolution
at £4.13.6d. The hospital had a warden,
two or more chaplains or priests, eight
brethren and eight sisters. The hospital
lodgings and chapel were converted into
a Grammar School after the dissolution.
They have been rebuilt and are held
in trust by the Mayor, Aldermen and
commonality of the town.
L e f t ,
the girls
entrance.
The Leper Houses
There were two leper houses near to the North
Gate. One at least was just outside the gate, and
as called the “Leper House Without the Walls”.
At the other end of the road to Norwich, just
outside the Bishops Gate of that city was a Leper
Hospital that stands to this day and still cares for
over one hundred elderly impoverished persons.
Much of the fabric of that building stands
intact and gives a guide to the likely layout
of the Leper House at Yarmouth which was
a daughter establishment. The sick lay within
Hospital School, 19th C.
Hospital School, 17.11.2005
the aisle of the church
behind a screen over
which they could see the
host rise at communion.
This observation of the
host combined with rest
and good food, was the
main method of cure.
Most patients were
malnourished and food
and rest was no doubt
beneficial.
(For more on
the Hospital School, see
Market Place, Volume
3.)
99
