Cartulary of the Monastery of St. Fricleswide. Edited by the
Rev. Spencer Robert Wigram, MA. Vol. I., "General and City Charters." (Clarendon Press, for the Oxford Historical Society.) —There is little to be said about this volume except to praise the amtiring industry of the editor in preparing it for publication. There are about seven hundred documents in all, charters, wills, claims, and conveyances, dealing with a great variety of business affairs ; these have been carefully transcribed. They have for the most part but little interest. Generally, they illustrate the perpetual stream of bounty which was flowing to these religious foundations ; 578, for instance, is the conveyance of a house to Reginald, Rector of All Saints', Oxford; 579 is the conveyance of another house from the same to the same ; in 580 the said Reginald conveys this property to the Church and Canons of St. Frideswide, the consideration being that " audito obiter meo facient nomen meum in martilogio suo annotari et fiet pro me Singulis annis in perpetuum die anniversarii mei plenum ser- vicium in Con. Sicut fieri Solet pro uno Can. confesso." Again, 404, is the will of John Peggy, burgess and cordwainer. He leaves 20 marks for a year's masses, and one shilling for a special mass, 40s. to the fabric of All Saints', and 100s. to the fraternity of singers in the same church, and a number of tenements to be sold and the proceeds applied for masses. All the evidence that comes to light makes us see more and more plainly what a boundless appetite the religious corporations had.
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