So it came about that in 1486 Bishop Waynflete was
compelled to reduce the recipients of Beaufort's charity to one priest
and two brethren. Fortunately, St. Cross was spared at the
Reformation, and its endowments were not confiscated. The Vicar-General
reported that there were "certain things requiring reformation", and
that sturdy beggars were to be "driven away with staves"; also that the
Lord's Prayer and the Creed were to be taught in English, and that
relics and images were not to be brought out for the devotion of
pilgrims. In 1632 Archbishop Laud caused a strict enquiry to be made,
with the result that the Master, Dr. Lewis, reported that the fabric was
in a state of great dilapidation. This Master lost his post through his
loyalty to Church and King, and John Lisle, the regicide, became Master
of the Hospital until Cromwell made him a peer, when his place was
filled by John Cooke, the Solicitor-General who drew up the indictment
against Charles I. Both these regicides met with misfortune, for Cooke
was executed and Lisle assassinated, so that at the Restoration Dr.
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