time of the suppression, while
the pensions would be the "convenient charity" of the Crown.

When enforcing their surrender the king had said that the monks were to
go, that the endowment they had so long possessed "might be tornyd to
better use as heraffter shall folow, werby Gods word myght the better be
sett forthe, cyldren brought up in learning, clerks nuryshyd in the
universites," etc. We shall now see how he tried to secure this
improvement, and how, in some respects, at any rate, his scheme was
good. It was not hurried forth at once, the letters patent for the new
establishment not being issued till the 20th of June, 1542. It was then
incorporated under the title of "the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral
Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Rochester."[7] Provision
was made for a dean, six prebendaries, six minor canons, a deacon,
a sub-deacon, six lay clerks, a master of the choristers, eight
choristers, an upper and an under master of the grammar school, twenty
scholars, six poor men, a porter, who was also to be barber, a butler, a
chief cook, and an assistant. A yearly pension of L5 was to be paid also
to four scholars, of whom two were to be members of each University.

[7] The original dedication was to St. Andrew.

The offices of deacon and sub-deacon were disused after the Reformation,
and the butler and cooks ceased to be appointed when there was no longer
a common table. Charles I. attached one of the prebends to the
archdeaconry of Rochester in 1637; a union which is still maintained.
Another was annexed by letters patent of 1713 to the provostship of
Oriel College, Oxford, and this connection was confirmed by Parliament
in the same year, though it has, of course, to lapse when, as has been
the case, the provost is a layman. On the whole, the establishment, thus
originally provided for, is maintained, but the full numbers are not
just now kept up throughout, owing to a great loss of income due to the
gradual decrease in value of landed property. With regard to the
educational provisions, it will, perhaps, be interesting just to mention
here, that it was chiefly owing to the late Rev. R. Whiston, long the
head master of the Rochester Grammar School, that this and similar
institutions were, about the middle of this century, made to conform
more to the spirit of their original foundations, by the making of
alterations, especially in the terms of scholarships, to meet the great
changes tha