ominican Order of Black Friars into the
Convent. They had started rebuilding the nave when the accession of
Elizabeth meant a return to the policy of her father, the expulsion of
the friars, and the restitution of the Priory estate to Richard (then
Lord) Rich and his heirs "in free socage," by a renewal of the previous
grant.[11]

Some idea of the strong ecclesiastical influence broken up at the
Dissolution may be gathered from a glance at any old map of London,
showing the numerous religious foundations by which the Priory was then
surrounded, now for the most part swept away, or only surviving here and
there in institutions which retain the ancient names under modern
conditions. Immediately to the north lay the Carthusian monastery,
familiarly known as the Charterhouse. On the north-west was the Priory
of St. John-of-Jerusalem, founded by the Knights Hospitallers. The
Franciscan Convent of the Grey Friars extended along the southern
boundary of St. Bartholomew's, between the Priory walls and St. Paul's
Cathedral. To the south-west, near the Thames, there was the monastery
of the Carmelites, or White Friars, with the church and houses of the
Knights Templars beyond it. Within the City, to the east, were the great
establishments of the Austin Friars and St. Helen's nunnery, while east
and west the churches spread--many of monastic origin--culminating in
two of the most important buildings in Europe, the Tower of London and
the palace of Westminster, each with its ecclesiastical dependencies,
the whole dominated by the mediaeval spirit about to be dispelled, for
good or evil, by the great movements of the Renaissance and Reformation.

A conjectural restoration of the Priory buildings, as they stood in
Prior Bolton's time, based on the records available in 1893, and the
architectural fragments which then remained, shows them to have been
bounded on the northern side by the Church, which extended from the Lady
Chapel at its eastern extremity to somewhere near the line indicated by
the small archway now leading from the public square into the churchyard
on the west. This churchyard covers the ground formerly occupied by the
nave, a mutilated portion of which remains within the building, attached
to the lower stage of the central tower. It seems clear that the choir
once extended over the tower-space, and was separated from the nave by a
screen, with a parish-altar on its western side for public worship,
while the chancel w