INDULGENCES AND SOLIDARITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by ANN F. BRODEUR A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto Copyright by Ann F. Brodeur, 2015 Indulgences and Solidarity in Late Medieval England Ann F. Brodeur Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2015 Abstract Medieval indulgences have long had a troubled public image, grounded in centuries of confessional discord. Were they simply a crass form of medieval religious commercialism and a spiritual fraud, as the reforming archbishop Cranmer charged in his 1543 appeal to raise funds for Henry VIII’s contributions against the Turks? Or were they perceived and used in a different manner? In his influential work, Indulgences in Late Medieval England: Passports to Paradise, R.N. Swanson offered fresh arguments for the centrality and popularity of indulgences in the devotional landscape of medieval England, and thoroughly documented the doctrinal development and administrative apparatus that grew up around indulgences. How they functioned within the English social and devotional landscape, particularly at the local level, is the focus of this thesis. Through an investigation of published episcopal registers, my thesis explores the social impact of indulgences at the diocesan level by examining the context, aims, and social make up of the beneficiaries, as well as the spiritual and social expectations of the granting bishops. It first explores personal indulgences given to benefit individuals, specifically the deserving poor and ransomed captives, before examining indulgences ii given to local institutions, particularly hospitals and parishes. Throughout this study, I show that both lay people and bishops used indulgences to build, reinforce or maintain solidarity and social bonds between diverse groups. Bishops used indulgences for indigent individuals to promote solidarity and support for the deserving poor. Ransomed English captives used indulgences to seek communal assistance to purchase their freedom. Hospitals used indulgences to draw the healthy and wealthy of society to the geographic and social peripheries where the sick and the leprous lay, calling for support and solidarity. Finally, parishes used indulgences as a means to smooth over parochial divisions and to encourage greater unity among parishioners, both living and dead. In sum, I demonstrate that, in the years prior to the Reformation, the function of indulgences was multivalent and played an important, unifying role in local communities: they offered spiritual gain as well as social benefits that redounded beyond the mutuality they represented and effected between benefactor and beneficiary. iii Acknowledgements I have many people to thank for their friendship, encouragement, assistance, patience and criticism, and without whom this project never would have come to fruition. To Joe Goering, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude for his supervision of this work. While Joe has had tremendous influence on my research, he has, more than anything, informed and widened my approach to the academy. From him I have learned generosity in my estimations, warmth and optimism in my dealings with students and colleagues, curiosity and the habit of mind to prod gently at things that seem dead or overdone, only to find them still full of life. He has married these virtues to a wonderfully creative intellect. I have been so honored to observe and appreciate these in him and, hopefully, to inhabit these same traits one day myself. I also wish to thank Giulio Silano, for asking the very hard questions that allow no easy answer and force one to look at things anew. This thesis also benefitted from many conversations with Isabelle Cochelin, particularly over the question of medieval poverty and responses to it. To Lawrin Armstrong and Robert Shaffern, who also read and commented on this thesis: thank you for your sharp eyes and thoughtful questions. To my friends, parents and siblings, who never take my work seriously—or me, for that matter—thank you for reminding of the truly important things. You all have made me and this work more human and humane. To my colleagues at the University of St. Thomas, thank you for your encouragement and assistance. It has been such a pleasure to work among such good people! And to the Department of History at the University of Toronto, especially Nick Terpstra and Steve Penfold, I owe thanks for your generous support in enabling me to write and finish this dissertation, which was born in the most out-of-ordinary ways. And finally, to Laurence, Lucy and Lily, sine quibus, non. iv Table of Contents Chapter One: What is an Indulgence? 1 Origins and History Historiography Early Modern Modern New Directions Indulgences in their Religious Context Indulgences in Late Medieval England Method Sources Chapter Two: Indulgences and Solidarity with the Poor 33 Defining Poverty and Beggary in Medieval England Modern approaches Medieval approaches Indulgences in Context: Strategies toward Sufficiency Analysis of Episcopal Grants for the Deserving Poor By Status and Gender By Primary Cause Indulgences and Solidarity with the Poor Chapter Three: The Expectation of Solidarity: Ransom Indulgences 75 Ransom and Captivity in the Hundred Years’ War Other Strategies Toward Freedom Voices of Captives in Ransom Indulgences The Process of Constructing Indulgences Voices of Bishops in Ransom Indulgences Why an Indulgence? Response Chapter Four: Indulgences and Hospitals 113 English Hospitals from Conquest to Dissolution Scope and Standards of Care Challenges to Charity Indulgences, Hospitals and Solidarity Sources A Strategy for Benefaction A Mechanism for Solidarity Responses to Hospital Indulgences v Chapter Five: The Pursuit of Peace and Solidarity: Indulgences and the Parish 158 The Parish Defining the Parish Challenges to Unity Indulgences in the Parish Context Indulgences, Confession and Peacemaking Indulgences, Dedication Festivals and Solidarity Indulgences, Pilgrimage, and Prayers for the Dead Indulgences and Fraternities in the Parish Indulgences and Parish Fundraising Conclusion 219 Bibliography 222 vi Abbreviations CPR Calendar of Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland EETS Early English Text Society EEA Early English Acta Reg. Register CYS Canterbury and York Society WHS Worcestershire Historical Society SS Surtees Society vii Chapter One: What is an Indulgence? The year 1430 was a trying one for John Whitby, a well-to-do burgess and ship owner from Hartlepool in the north of England. Mr. Whitby, like many others in the region, was a victim of the economic disruptions brought about by war: the ongoing battles for Scottish Independence and the never-ending Hundred Years’ War with England’s perennial enemy (and Scotland’s ally), France. Even in the best of times, maritime trade carried great risk for those involved, but in times of war, the depredations of enemy seizure and piracy could make the risk unbearable. Whitby’s financial position had become precarious when the enemy French and Scots seized several of his ships in 1429 and 1430. He took a calculated risk, taking out lines of credit to finance his attempts to ransom back his ships and merchandise and redeem the crews from enemy prisons. Whitby’s efforts had left him deep in debt, so when yet another of his ships was captured, he lost everything, unable to redeem his crews, pay his creditors or even feed his family. Thus he gambled and lost, and by the summer of 1430, he was in financial ruin. John Whitby, a once wealthy and influential burgess of a bustling port town, was reduced to relying on the generosity of others.1 1 Reg. Langley, 3:198. Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, etc. Thomas etc. salutem etc. Inter opera pietatis ad que fidelis quilibet obligatus existit illud reputamus meritorium et precipua laude dignum pauperibus et egenis affectuose compati, illis specialiter qui de statu felici sine ipsorum culpa et neglicgencia in egestatem et inopiam casu inciderint et eorum miserie elimosinarum largicionibus misericorditer subvenire. Cum itaque sicut accepimus Johannes Whitby burgensis ville de Hertilpole nostre diocesis, cujus naves ac homines et diversa mercimonia sua in eisdem existencia per nonnullos Regis emulos sepius et diversis vicibus in mari capta extiterunt, et jam quedam nuper navis sua cum hominibus et bonis suis contentis in eadem una cum aliis navibus ville predicte per nonnullos Scotos et Britones Regis et regni inimicos eciam in mari capta fuit, tanto et tam graves pro redempcione et financia navium hominum et mercimoniorum suorum predictorum fecerat a diu sumptus et expensas, per quos ad tantam jam devenit paupertatem et inopiam quod non habet unde navem suam predictam nuper captam cum hominibus et bonis 1 We know Whitby’s story because he asked his bishop, Thomas Langley, the bishop of Durham, for help in the form of an indulgence. Langley granted Whitby the most liberal indulgence he could, according to canon law: forty days’ indulgence to all those in the diocese who could give something of their own God-given goods to help the destitute Whitby in the next year. This indulgence meant that anyone who gave money, goods, shelter or any form of assistance to John and his family would receive a spiritual reward for their generosity. Indeed, in his letter of indulgence, the bishop reminded his audience that it is precisely generosity toward the poor, particularly those who fell into hard times through no fault of their own—illis specialiter qui de statu felici sine ipsorum culpa et negligencia in egestatem et inopiam casu inciderint—that wins the generosity of Heaven. This was not the first time the bishop had issued this sort of grant. In his long tenure as bishop of Durham, the impoverishing effects of war, instability, and the vicissitudes of life had shown themselves in the faces of bankrupt merchants, widows, craftsmen, and families of captive soldiers and sailors. In a time and place without government programs or social safety nets, it was to the informal social networks of family and friends and to the local Church that people in difficult situations turned. Although indulgences were a popular form of religious activity in the Middle Ages, earlier generations of historians have tended to dismiss this popularity as evidence suis contentis in eadem redimere ac creditoribus suis quibus ex causis predictis indebitatus existit satisfacere nec unde se et suos poterit sustentare nisi sibi Christi fidelium elemosinis in hac parte misericorditer succurratur; nos igitur ipsius Johannis inopie pio compacientes affectu, de dei omnipotentis misericordia etc omnibus parochianis nostris et aliis etc qui ad subsidium et relevamen predicti Johannis aliquid de bonis sibi a deo collatis etc xl dies indulgencie misericorditer in domino concedimus per presentes per unum annum a data earundem tantummodo duraturas. Datum sub sigillo nostro in manerio nostro de Aukland xxv die mensis Augusti anno domini etc. ut supra proximo et nostre consecracionis xxv. 2 of decadence and decline in the late medieval Church. Such dismissal has led to scholarly oversight: the basic questions of why indulgences were so popular and how they fit into the social and devotional landscape have not been explored until recently. Episcopal and papal registers offer a wealth of information in this regard. Clerks often noted in the records that an indulgence was granted on behalf of a person or institution, and many times, also described the circumstances of the beneficiary. These descriptions offer clues as to why and how indulgences mattered to the late medieval world: they carry not only administrative and legal characteristics of process and technique, but also possess a performative quality that reveals the situation and aspirations of both the bishop and the petitioner. In this regard, Whitby’s story and others like it are ports of entry into this late medieval English world. The central argument of this essay is that indulgences were an important tool in encouraging and fostering greater social solidarity at the local level in late medieval England. In addition to playing a significant role in the religious and devotional landscape, they also performed a social function. Individual petitioners sought episcopal indulgences for assistance after catastrophic property loss, for a helping hand in life-cycle or disability poverty, or for help in ransoming captive loved ones. For such persons in marginal or distressed situations, indulgences offered important material assistance while drawing attention to these people and their situations, validating their claims and active presence in society, and encouraging solidarity with them. Indulgences could also work to counteract divisive forces that could threaten unity in local parish life by encouraging participation in communal activities. Local parishes sought them as a way to reaffirm communal unity and identity as well as to foster greater contribution to communal 3