a hundred years had passed away, in
place of their first church, a new one had been built for them, one of
the grandest in the {35} land; its floor and pillars were all of
marble. St. Francis told his followers that they needed no books but a
Prayer-Book; before long the Grey Friars not only had books, but two
hundred years after they settled in London Richard Whittington gave
them a library. They no longer gave all their time to caring for the
poor and wretched, for we hear of some of them teaching at Oxford and
Cambridge; indeed, one of the most learned men of the age, Roger Bacon,
was a Grey Friar.

Thus the years passed on until Henry VIII. became King. Do you
remember how he treated the monks of the Charter House? I have no such
story to tell you of the Grey Friars, for they gave up to the King
their monastery and all they possessed when he called on them to do so.

Were the monks missed? Who did the work they had once done? At first
much of it was left quite undone. Here is a little bit of a letter
which the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Gresham, wrote to the King,
in 1538, on this very subject:--Someone, he says, must come to the
"ayde and comfort of the poor, syke [sick], blynde, aged and impotent
persons beyng not able to help themselffs, nor havyng no place certen
where they may be refreshed or lodged at, tyll they be holpen and cured
of their diseases and sickness." And he goes on to ask that three
ancient hospitals may be given over to the Mayor and Aldermen of the
City to carry on once more their old work. King Henry thought this was
a wise plan, and in 1546 he gave to London Rahere's old hospital, St.
Bartholomew's, and the Grey Friars' monastery.

{36}

Nothing more seems to have been done for five years. Yet the poor
needed help greatly; and under Henry's son, Edward VI., we hear of
sermons being preached, of the King, the Bishop of London, and the
Mayor consulting together and making a new plan--that the house of the
Grey Friars should be set aside as a hospital or home for "fatherless
children and other poore mens children," where they should be fed,
clothed, taught, and properly looked after. Thus Edward VI. is often
spoken of as the chief founder of the new charity, but I think Henry
VIII. and Sir Richard Gresham had more to do with it; don't you? Yet
it was the City's charity, and the citizens provided the money needed
for it. Before the next winter set in nearly 400 boys and gi