Rotha Mary Clay

“To the which hospitals the founders have given largely of their moveable goods for the building of the same, and a great part of their lands and tenements therewith to sustain impotent men and women.”

(Parliament of Leicester.)

ENDOWMENTS were to a certain extent supplied by the pat­ron, but were sup­ple­ment­ed by pub­lic charity. The emol­u­ments in­clud­ed gifts of money, food and fuel, grants of prop­erty, admis­sion fees, the profits of fairs, and col­lec­tions. Receipts in kind are seldom recorded, and the changing scale of values would involve points beyond the scope of this volume. Par­ticu­lars may be found in the ex­tant man­us­cripts of cer­tain hos­pitals and abbeys, in Valor Ecclesiasticus, etc. Extracts from the account-books of St. Leonard’s, York, have been pub­lished in a lecture by Canon Raine. The finance of such an in­sti­tu­tion, with scat­tered and extensive property, neces­si­tated a depart­ment which required a special clerk to super­in­tend it, and the ex­che­quer had its par­tic­ular seal. Reports of the His­tori­cal MSS. Com­mis­sion give details of the working expenses of hos­pitals at South­ampton and Win­chester.

? PLATE XXI. ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S, WINCHESTER

(a) MASTER’S HOUSE AND CHAPEL. (b) CHAPEL

(a) Endowments in money.—The earliest subscriptions are recorded in the Pipe Rolls, consisting of royal alms p179 (EleemosynÆ ConstitutÆ) paid by the Sheriff of the county from the profits of Crown lands. Three entries in the year 1158 will serve as specimens:—

• Infirmis de Dudstan. xxs.
• Infirmis super Montem. lxs.
• Infirmis de Lundon. lxs.

At first sight this seems not to concern hospitals; but a closer examination proves that sums are being paid to sick communities—in fact to lazar-houses. For the lepers of Gloucester dwelt in the suburb of Dudstan, and the infected inmates of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Winchester, were known locally as “the infirm people upon the hill”—now Maun Hill. The grant was paid out of the farm of the city until, in 1442, the citizens were unable to contribute that and other sums on account of pestilence and depopulation. The infirm of London were the lepers of St. Giles’; and the sixty shillings, originally granted by Henry I and Maud, was still paid in Henry VII’s reign, for a writ of 1486 refers “to the hospitallers of St. Giles for their annuity of lxs.” Between the years 1158 and 1178 subscriptions were paid to infirmi at the following places:—

• Regular payments—
  • “Dudstan,”
  • Hecham,
  • Hereford,
  • Lincoln,
  • London,
  • Maldon,
  • Newport,
  • Richmond,
  • Rochester,
  • St. Albans,
  • St. Edmunds,
  • Shrewsbury,
  • “Super Montem.”
• Occasional payments—
  • Barnstaple,
  • Barnwell or Stourbridge,
  • Bradley,
  • Burton Lazars,
  • Chichester,
  • Clattercot,
  • Derby,
  • Canterbury and Harbledown,
  • Ely,
  • Ilford,
  • Leicester,
  • Liteport,
  • Newark,
  • Northampton,
  • Oxford,
  • Saltwood, and
  • Windsor.

Of the latter, some were grants on account of a vacant bishopric. In ad­di­tion to the above, sums were given to p180 lep­rosi of South­amp­ton and Peter­bo­rough, and to hos­pi­tals of Grave­send, of Nor­wich, and “of the Queen.” These con­tri­bu­tions vary from 12d. paid to Here­ford up to £6 given to Hecham (Higham Ferrers). In some cases corn and clothing were also con­tri­bu­ted. There is a con­tem­po­rary rep­re­sen­ta­tion of one of these “infirm” persons on the seal of the lepers of Lincoln, dating from the days of Henry II and St. Hugh. The doc­u­ment to which it is at­tached con­tains a cov­e­nant be­tween Bul­ling­ton Priory and the hos­pi­tal of the Holy In­no­cents, Lin­coln, con­cern­ing a rent of three shil­lings from the hos­pi­tal.

Revenues also consisted largely in annual rents arising from land and house property, some being appropriated to specific works. An early grant to St. Bartholomew’s, Gloucester (circa 1210), was to be expended upon the maintenance of a lamp in the chapel, and shoes for inmates, whilst the sum of 5d. was to go towards the provision of five beds.

(b) Endowments in kind.—The kings were generous in grants from royal forests. Henry III granted one old oak from Windsor to the sick of St. Bartholomew’s, London (1224). He afterwards gave to St. Leonard’s, p181 York, “licence to take what they need in the forest of Yorkshire for building and burning, and also of herbage and pasture for flocks and anything needful for their ease, as they had in the time of Henry II.” Food was also supplied by patrons, especially in what might be termed manorial hospitals, consisting generally of a grant of tithes on produce. Another form of endowment was to impropriate livings. St. Giles’, Norwich, owned six manors and the advowson of eleven churches. When funds were low at Harbledown, the archbishop impropriated Reculver church, thus augmenting the income by parochial tithes. This disgusted the parishioners who sought redress, thinking it “ill to be subject to lepers.”

2. BEQUESTS

The money chest, larder and wardrobe were replenished largely by legacies. Amongst the earliest recorded are those of Henry II and his son, William LongespÉe. Henry left a large sum to religious houses in England and Normandy, and particularly to lepers. LongespÉe bequeathed cows to lepers in the hospitals of Salisbury, Maiden Bradley and Wilton, as well as to St. John’s, Wilton, and St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield (1225). Men in humbler circumstances were likewise generous. A certain William de Paveli left 12d. each to eight hospitals in Northampton, Brackley, Towcester, Newport Pagnell, Hocclive and Stra[t]ford (circa 1240).107 Wills abound in references of a similar character. Early legacies were made to the hospital as a body, but when the renunciation of individual property by the staff ceased, money was given to individuals; a benefactor of St. p182 Giles’, Norwich, left 20 marks to the master and brethren, 40d. each to other officials, and 2s. to each bed (1357).108 Gifts were frequently made to patients; Stephen Forster desired that 100s. should be given away in five city hospitals, besides five marks in pence to inmates of St. Bartholomew’s, Bristol (1458). An endowment of penny doles was provided by Lady Maud Courtenay in Exeter, namely thirteen pence annually for twenty years “to xiii pore men of Symon Grendon is hous” (1464). Testamentary gifts were also made in the form of clothes, bedding, utensils, etc. The founder of St. Giles’, Norwich, left to it “the cup out of which the poor children drank,” probably some vessel of his own hitherto lent for the scholars daily meal.

3. PROFITS BY TRADING

The fair was a great institution in mediÆval England, and the funds of privileged charities were assisted in this way. At Maiden Bradley the leprous women and their prior held a weekly market and an annual fair. The Chesterfield fair was exchanged for a yearly payment of six pounds of silver from the royal Exchequer, which indicates the value set upon it. The most notable hospital-fairs were that of the leper-house near Cambridge (originally held in the close and still held on Stourbridge Common), and those connected with St. Bartholomew’s and St. James’ near London. The story of the former has been told by H. Morley; and the “May-Fair” of St. James’ leper-house was also famous. These galas were usually at the patronal festival and lasted two or three days, but occasionally these profitable festivities were carried on for a fortnight. Fairs were held at the following hospitals:— p183

• Aynho,
• Bath (Holloway),
• Bury (St. Nicholas,
• St. Saviour),
• Baldock,
• Colchester (St. Mary Magdalene),
• Devizes (St.
• James & St. Denys),
• Dover (Buckland),
• Harting,
• Ipswich,
• Lingerscroft,
• Newbury,
• Newport,
• Newton Garth,
• Racheness,
• Royston (St. Nicholas),
• Swinestre near Sittingbourne,
• Thetford (St. John),
• Wycomb (2),
• etc.

This curious and interesting custom survives in connection with St. Bartholomew’s, Newbury. The fair, originally granted by charter of King John (1215),109 still takes place annually on the day and morrow of St. Bartholomew (Old Style), upon lands belonging to the hospital. A “Court of Pie Powder” is held on the morrow of St. Bartholomew’s day; the proctor of this ancient charity with the steward and bailiff attend, and proclamation is made opening the Court. Tolls derived from stallages are collected, together with an impost of 2d. on every publican in Newbury (the latter due being resisted in a few cases). The following day the Court meets again, when the proceeds are divided amongst the almsmen.110

4. ADMISSION FEES

A considerable pecuniary benefit accrued to hospitals by the custom of receiving contributions from newly-admitted members of the household. In some cases a benefaction was made when persons were received into a community; thus Archbishop Wichwane as patron granted permission for a certain Gilbert and his wife to bestow their goods upon Bawtry hospital and dwell there (1281).111 p184

5. INVOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

Rates were levied for hospital maintenance on an organized system in some foreign countries. Sometimes a compulsory Hospital Sunday Fund was instituted, one penny being demanded from the richer, one halfpenny from the middle-class, and a loaf from lesser folk. In England, however, the only obligatory support was an occasional toll on produce, perhaps first ordered by the feudal lord, but afterwards granted by custom. The Bishop of Exeter (1163) confirmed to lepers their ancient right to collect food twice a week in the market, and alms on two other days,—a custom resented by the citizens. (See p. 54.) King John conferred upon Shrewsbury lazars the privilege of taking handfuls of corn and flour from sacks exposed in the market (1204). By charter of the Earls, the Chester lepers were entitled to extensive tolls—upon salt, fish, grain, malt, fruit and vegetables, to a cheese or salmon from every load, and even one horse from the horse-fair. The lepers of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Southampton, received “from time immemorial” a penny upon every tun of wine imported.

The mayor and commonalty of Carlisle granted every Sunday to the lepers a pottle of ale from each brew-house of the city, and a farthing loaf from every baker who displayed his bread for sale on Saturday. Their hospital was also endowed “time out of mind” with a corn-tax known as the “thraves of St. Nicholas” from every carucate of land in Cumberland. (The thrave is variously computed at twelve, twenty or twenty-four sheaves.) This county had a heavy poor-rate, for the great York hospital collected likewise from every plough working in p185 the northern Archiepiscopate (Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire and Yorkshire). These “thraves of St. Leonard,” or “Petercorn,” belonged to the hospital by virtue of Athelstan’s gift, which had been originally granted to him by his northern subjects in recognition of his destruction of wolves. The lands of the Durham Bishopric contributed “thraves of St. Giles” to Kepier hospital. The collection of such tolls was a constant difficulty, for it was resented by landowners, who had also the ordinary tithes to pay.

(6) VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

(a) Donations.—At first, freewill-offerings were mainly in kind. The earliest collector whose name occurs is Alfune, Rahere’s friend. While the founder was occupied at St. Bartholomew’s, Alfune was wont “to cumpasse and go abowte the nye placys of the chirche besily to seke and prouyde necessaries to the nede of the poer men, that lay in the hospitall.” It fell on a day that as Alfune visited the meat-market, he came to a butcher whose persistent refusal of help grieved him. After working what was regarded as a miracle, Alfune won him over, and departed with flesh in his vessel: henceforth butchers were more prompt to give their alms. Almsmen used sometimes to collect in person. It was customary for some of the brothers of St. John’s House to “attend the churches in Sandwich every Sunday, with a pewter dish, soliciting money to buy meat for dinner on that day.” Another brother was deputed to travel on an ass through Kent asking alms—“and he collects sometimes ten shillings a year, sometimes a mark, above his expenses.”

All save richly-endowed houses were dependent upon p186 casual charity. In St. Mary’s, Yarmouth, it is recorded “live a multitude of poor brethren and sisters, for whose sustenance a daily quest has to be made.” One of the London statutes, enrolled in Liber Albus, directs that lepers shall have a common attorney to go every Sunday into the parish-churches to gather alms for their sustenance. Lest charitable offerings should diminish when lepers were removed from sight, a clause was added to the proclamation of 1348:—“it is the king’s intention that all who wish to give alms to lepers shall do so freely, and the sheriff shall incite the men of his bailiwick to give alms to those so expelled from the communion of men.” It would appear from a London will of 1369, that special chests were afterwards provided; for bequests are then made to the alms-boxes (pixidibus) for lepers around London. Alms-boxes were carried about by collectors, and also hung at the gate or within the hospital. The proctor of the staff went on his mission with a portable money-box; upon one occasion, a false proctor was convicted of pretending to collect for St. Mary of Bethlehem, for which fraud he was pilloried, the iron-bound box with which he had paraded the streets being tied round his neck. Boxes of this kind, sometimes having a chain attached, remain in almshouses at Canterbury, Leicester and Stamford. It was directed by the statutes of Higham Ferrers that a common box with a hole in the top should be set in the midst of the dormitory so that well-disposed people might put in their charity; at certain times also two of the poor men were to “go abroad to gather up the devotions of the brotherhood,” the contents being afterwards divided.

(b) Small Subscriptions.—Some fraternities formed p187 associations for the maintenance of charities. That of St. John Baptist, Winchester, helped to support St. John’s hospital with the shillings contributed by its 107 members. The modern hospital of St. Leonard, Bedford, is kept up on this principle.

(c) Appeals authorized by the King.—The work of the proctor was not confined to the neighbourhood. Having first possessed himself of letters-testimonial, he journeyed in England, or even in Wales and Ireland. A “protection” or warrant was necessary, for unauthorized collectors were liable to arrest; it was in the form of a royal letter addressed to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, bailiffs, lieges, etc. Henry III pleads with his subjects the cause of St. Giles’, Shrewsbury:—“that when the brethren come to you to beg alms, you will favourably admit them, and mercifully impart to them your alms of the goods conferred by God upon you.” Many letters-patent license the proctors, messengers or attorneys to collect in churches, or, as at St. Anthony’s, Lenton (1332), in towns, fairs and markets. Sometimes the collector went forth supported by Church and State; as when the king issued mandates (1317, 1331) to welcome the proctor of the Romsey lepers “authorized by John, Bishop of Winchester and other prelates.”

(d) Appeals authorized by the Church, as Briefs, Indulgences, etc.—Bishops likewise issued briefs, or letters of recommendation, on behalf of institutions in their own dioceses or beyond. The infirm of Holy Innocents’, Lincoln, received from their diocesan a mandate (1294), ordering the parochial clergy to allow their agent to solicit alms after mass on three Sundays or festivals each year; later, the stipulation was added, that the Cathedral p188 fabric fund should not suffer thereby. A typical document is found in the Winchester Register in favour of St. Leonard’s, Bedford (1321). The mandate was addressed to the archdeacons, deans, rectors, vicars and chaplains, commanding them to receive accredited messengers of that needy hospital, to cause their business to be expounded by the priest during mass, after which the collection should be delivered without deduction. The brief was in force for two years and the clergy were bidden to help effectually by word and example at least once a year.

Episcopal Registers include many such documents, some being granted on special occasions, to make good losses by murrain, to enlarge premises, or to rebuild after fire, flood or invasion. Some briefs were not unlike modern appeals, with their lists of presidents and patrons; for that on behalf of Romney hospital (1380) was signed by both archbishops and eleven bishops. It was a recognized source of raising funds. John de Plumptre in making arrangements for his almshouse at Nottingham (1414), provided that the widows, for the bettering of their sustenance, should “have and hold an episcopal bull and indulgence ... procured from the archbishops and bishops of England, Wales and Ireland.”112

It is curious to watch the increase of the privileges offered. The earlier bishops remitted penance for seven or thirteen days, those of a later period, for forty days. Roman indulgences knew no such limits. The form of a papal brief (1392) was as follows:—

“Relaxation of seven years and seven quadragene to penitents who on the principal feasts of the year and those of p189 St. James in the month of July and the dedication, the usual octaves and six days; and of a hundred days to those who during the said octaves and days visit and give alms for the sustentation and recreation of the chapel of St. James’ poor hospital without the walls, London.”

William, Lord Berkeley directed the executors of his will (1492):—

“to purchase a pardon from the court of Rome, as large as may be had, for this Chapple [Longbridge], from evensonge to evensonge, in the feast of Trinity for ever, for pleyne remission to them that will be confessed and contrite.”

Offerings stimulated by such pardons were in money or in kind. A deed belonging to the Bridport Corporation sets forth that the writer has seen letters from famous ecclesiastics—including St. Thomas and St. Edmund of Canterbury—in favour of Allington leper-house, one being an indulgence of Alexander IV:—

“Item, to alle thos that gevyn broche, rynge, boke, belle, candell, vestimente, bordclothe, towelle, pygge, lambe, wolle, peny, or penyworthe, be whiche the sayde hows and hospitale is amended and mentaynde, the sayd Pope grauntethe the remission of the vijth parte of penance injunct[ed].”

Thus the questionable trade of the pardoner113 was often carried on by the hospital proctor; moreover, spurious bulls were circulated. The abuses to which the practice gave rise were recognized by Bishop Grandisson, who announced that questors collecting alms in the diocese of Exeter were forbidden to preach, or to sell fictitious privileges, or unauthorized pardons. A papal exhortation p190 on behalf of St. Anne’s, Colchester (1402), forbids these presents to be sent by pardoners (questuarii). Those who bought a pardon from the proctor of St. John’s, Canterbury, were informed that the benefit of 30,000 Paternosters and Ave Marias was freely imparted to them. But although indulgences were liable to abuse, it must be remembered that authorized pardons extended to penitents only—to those who, being contrite, had already confessed and received absolution and penance. Upon the indulgenced feast of St. Michael, so many people flocked to St. Mary’s, Leicester, that a special staff of confessors became necessary.

7. ALMS OF PILGRIMS

Such visits to hospitals lead to the further consideration of pilgrimage and devotion to relics, which directly affected charity. An indulgence was offered to penitents visiting Yarmouth hospital and the sacred relics therein and giving a helping hand to the poor inhabitants. The Maison Dieu at Dunwich possessed a holy cross of great reputation “whither many resorted to adore it, who bestowed much alms.” When the precious relic was carried away and detained “by certain evil-wishers” connected with St. Osith’s Abbey, the inmates were greatly impoverished.114 The abbot having been prosecuted, came into chancery in person and rendered the cross to the king, who restored it to the master and brethren “to remain in the hospital for ever.” Holy Cross, Colchester, claimed to keep a portion of the true Cross; an indulgence was offered by various bishops to those paying pilgrimage visits and contributing to the hospital. (See pp. 248–9.) p191

Other treasures visited by pilgrims were of a more personal character. Anthony À Wood found records of choice things formerly preserved in St. Bartholomew’s, Oxford, whereby it was enriched:—“they were possest of St. Edmund the Confessor’s combe, St. Barthelmew’s skin, the bones of St. Stephen, and one of the ribbes of St. Andrew.” The first and foremost of the sacred relics was evidently a personal possession of the local saint, Archbishop Edmund Rich, a native of Abingdon:—“Those that were troubled with continuall headaches,” (University students, perhaps) “frenzies, or light-headed, were by kembing their heads with St. Edmund’s combe restored to their former health.” On high days and holy days these treasures were exposed to view in the chapel. (Pl. XXII.) They were of so great value that the authorities of Oriel College, having acquired the patronage, appropriated them, “which caused great complaints from these hospitalliers.”

The alms of pilgrims and other travellers were a valuable asset in the funds, for it was customary for those so journeying to spend much in charity by the way. On the penitential pilgrimage of Henry II to Canterbury (1174) “as he passed on his way by chapels and hospitals he did his duty as a most devout Christian and son of Holy Church by confession of sin and distribution of offerings and gifts.”115 Halting at Harbledown he left the sum of forty marks, probably because the hospital belonged to the bereaved archbishopric. Long afterwards, another king—John of France—passed along the road, leaving at sundry hospitals a substantial proof of his gratitude for release from captivity. Among his p192 expenses are included gifts to “les malades de 4 maladeries depuis Rocestre jusques À CantobÉrie, pour aumosne”; also to the communities of St. James’, St. John’s at the Northgate, St. Mary’s, and Harbledown, and to the brethren of Ospringe; whilst the king gave as much as twenty nobles to the Maison Dieu, Dover, where he was received as a guest.116 Situated close to the highway, on the hill which eager travellers were about to climb to catch their first sight of the grand tower of Canterbury, the Harbledown lepers benefited by the gifts of pilgrims for three and a half centuries. Treasured in the hospital (Pl. V) was a relic of “the glorious martyr” to whose shrine they wended. “This fragment of his p193 shoe supports this little community of poor men,” says Ogygius in the Colloquy on Pilgrimages,117 where Erasmus describes his visit to Canterbury with Dean Colet sometime before the year 1519. Shortly after leaving the city, where the road becomes steep and narrow, there is, he says, a hospital of a few old men. One of the brethren runs out, sprinkles the travellers with holy water, and presently offers them the upper part of a shoe, set with a piece of glass resembling a jewel. This the strangers are invited to kiss. (Bale satirizes this custom where he says, “here ys the lachett of swett seynt Thomas shewe.”) Colet is indignant, but Erasmus, to appease the injured brother, drops a coin into his alms-box. The quaint old box is still kept at Harbledown, and is figured above.

107 Madox, Formulare Ang., p. 424.