ry de Blois, bishop of
Winchester, who instituted it, between the years 1132 and 1136; and
required that "thirteen poor men, so decayed and past their strength
that without charitable assistance they cannot maintain themselves,
shall abide continually in the hospital, who shall be provided with
proper clothing and beds suitable to their infirmities; and shall have
an allowance daily of good wheat bread, good beer, three messes each for
dinner, and one for supper. That beside these thirteen poor, a hundred
other poor, of modest behaviour and the most indigent that can be found,
shall be received daily at dinner-time, and shall have each a loaf of
coarser bread, one mess, and a proper allowance of beer, with leave to
carry away with them whatever remains of their meat and drink after
dinner." They were to dine in a hall appointed for the purpose, and
called _Hundred Mennes Hall_, from this circumstance. The establishment
also contained an endowment for a master, a steward, four chaplains,
thirteen clerks, and seven choristers.

But, in those "good old times," abuses in institutions formed for the
best and wisest purposes were not uncommon; and in the case of St.
Cross, so early did evil begin to counteract good, that, in little more
than two centuries from its foundation, the revenues assigned for the
annual fulfilment of the founder's wishes, were grossly misapplied.
They had increased in value, and the masters and brethren of
the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, who were guardians and
administrators, seized the surplus and put it into their own pockets.
Bishop Wykeham, who was appointed to the see of Winchester, in 1366,
set about the reform of these abuses, which he was enabled to do by his
canonical jurisdiction:--"he determined that the whole revenue of the
hospital should be dedicated to the poor, as was the intention of the
founder, and having in vain tried admonition and remonstrance, summoned
the four masters to appear before him and answer for their stewardship.
They were bold enough to set Wykeham at defiance, and availed themselves
of all the subtleties of the law, and of all manner of evasion, by
appeal and otherwise, to thwart and throw him. The upright bishop
persisted--he called them to the severest account--had them fined, and
till they made restitution, excommunicated--and finally restored the
whole endowment to its primitive purpose."[4]

The propriety and good effects of Wykeham's restoration were s