“for the helpynge relief and comforte of a certeyn nomber of poore people there to contynue and haue their liuinge from tyme to tyme for euer, is without the compasse of the statute and the King’s Majestie not entitled thereunto by force of the same.” In the preface to the _Yorkshire Chantry Surveys_, it is stated that most, if not all, of the hospitals which were returned on the certificates there printed were left undissolved, save that in a few cases funds were transferred to educational purposes. Testimony is borne in 1552 to the usefulness of one of the Pontefract almshouses, where fourteen bedemen were supported:— [Illustration: _PLATE XXVI._ ABINGDON ALMSHOUSES] “Thes persons be called cremettes and le pore and agyd people, and placyd in a howse, callyd Seynt Nycoles Hospytell, [p235] and when any of them dyeth another ys placyd in the dedes roome, and ys very convenyent to be contynuyd, as well for the helpe of the pore and agyd people of the towne as for others.” In many places, however, endowments were seized by virtue of this Act. A sixteenth-century MS. states:— “Item, there ar within the towne and parishe of Taunton xliiij^{or} almshowses full of poore people whereunto there was certen Lande belonginge which by the Suppression of Chaunteries was taken awaie soe that now thinhabitaunts doe beare the whole burden them selues.”[154] The dissolution of fraternities also affected the maintenance of the poor. Of almshouses associated with gilds at Colchester, Stratford and Abingdon, none survived save the latter, which was incorporated by Edward VI. St. John’s hospital in Winchester outlived the fraternity annexed to it. St. Thomas’, York, which had been united to Corpus Christi Gild, weathered the storm, its officials afterwards diplomatically inviting the mayor and aldermen “to be brether with us in the same hospital.”