Volume 2
An historical account of the origin, progress, and present state of Bethlem Hospital. Founded by Henry the eighth, for the cure of lunatics, and enlarged ... for the reception and maintenance of incurables / [Thomas Bowen].
- Bowen, Thomas, -1800.
- Date:
- 1783
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical account of the origin, progress, and present state of Bethlem Hospital. Founded by Henry the eighth, for the cure of lunatics, and enlarged ... for the reception and maintenance of incurables / [Thomas Bowen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[ *'] The hospital oe Bethlem owes it’s name, and original etta- blifhment to the piety of a citizen of London. In the year 1247, in the 39th of Henry the third, Simon Fitz Mary, who had been fheriff, influenced by the prevailing fuperftition of -the age, was defirous to found a religious houfe. Accordingly, he appropriated by a deed of gift, which is ftill'extant, all his lands in the parifh of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, being the fpot now known by the name of Old Bethlem, to the foundation of a priory. The prior, canons, brethren and fitters, for whofe maintenance he pro¬ vided, were diftinguifhed by a ftar upon their mantles, and were ef- pecially dire&ed to receive and entertain the Bishop of St. Mary of Bethlehem, and the canons, brothers, and mettengers of that their mother church, as often as they might come to England. Such was the original defign of this foundation, a dcfign as far fhort of the ufes to which it has been fince converted, as the contra&ed views of monkifh hofpitality are exceeded by the more enlarged fpirit of PROTESTANT BENEVOLENCE* We hear but little more of this houfe for the fpace of two hun¬ dred years. When the vaft fabric of papal fuperftiuon in England began to totter, and the votaries of Rome were expelled from their ancient retirements, it was feized by Henry the eighth, who, in the year 1547, granted the hofpital of Bethlem, with all it’s revenues, to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, from which time it became an hospital for the cure oe lunatics. It /](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30792630_0002_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
