Rotha Mary Clay

“Hospitals ... founded to the honour of God and of His glorious Mother.” (Parliament of Leicester.)

THE words “God’s House,” and “Maison Dieu” were familiar enough in mediÆval England. A hospital was the house of God, for therein Christ was received in the person of the needy:—“I was a stranger and ye took Me in, sick, and ye visited Me.” It was also built in His Name and to His honour, for the principle underlying all dedications was, says Hooker, that they “were consecrated unto none but the Lord only.” But with God’s Name that of one of His saints was often associated, and by this the hospital was commonly called; thus a charter of Basingstoke ran:—“I have given and granted to God and to the glorious Virgin His Mother, and to my venerable patron St. John the Baptist the house called St. John.”

The Holy Trinity.—Hospitals bearing this title are not very numerous, though it often occurs as first of a group. There are a few single dedications early in the thirteenth century, which may be partly attributed to the institution of the Feast of Trinity by St. Thomas of Canterbury. Two hundred years later it was a fairly common p245 dedication for almshouses. The seals depict various symbols. The “majesty” representing the Three Persons, occurs at Walsoken; the Almighty seated upon a rainbow (Salisbury); our Lord enthroned (Berkeley); whilst a triple cross ornaments the Dunwich seal. Bonde’s almsmen at Coventry bore upon their gowns “the cognizance of the Trinity.”

The Holy Saviour; Christ; Corpus Christi.—The Second Person of the Godhead is seldom commemorated, but the dedication to the Blessed Trinity was regarded as synonymous, for the almshouse at Arundel occurs indifferently as Christ’s or Holy Trinity. The Maison Dieu at York, commonly called Trinity, was properly that of the Holy Jesus—or Christ—and the Blessed Virgin, and the chantry certificate is headed “The Hospital of the Name of Jhesus and Our Blessyd Ladye.” St. Saviour was the invocation of houses at Norwich and Bury, and the fair in connection with the latter charity was held at the feast of the Transfiguration. “Y^e masendew of Chryste” at Kingston-upon-Hull was originally “Corpus Christi,” but it is remarkable to find that rarely-preserved dedication-name upon an Elizabethan table of rules. The seal of the Holloway hospital, near London, shows Christ (with the orb) and St. Anthony.

The Holy Ghost.—This sacred title, closely associated with the mediÆval charities of Germany and famous in Rome, was rarely used in England. At Sandon (Surrey) was a hospital “commonly called of the Holy Ghost,”158 though an alternative name occurs. A hidden dedication is sometimes revealed, for the houses usually known as St. Thomas’, Canterbury, St. Margaret’s, Taunton, p246 St. John’s, Warwick, and St. John’s, Hereford, are mentioned once in documents as being built in honour of the Holy Ghost as well as of the saints named; all the above instances refer to the years 1334–1353. At Lyme there was the suggestive commemoration of the “Blessed Virgin and Holy Spirit.”

The Annunciation; St. Gabriel; St. Michael; The Holy Angels.—Two fourteenth-century foundations at Leicester and Nottingham commemorate the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. The seal of the former house depicts St. Gabriel delivering his salutation. A kindred thought underlies the dedication “to our lady St. Mary the Mother of Christ and to St. Gabriel the Archangel” at Brough. (It is noteworthy that the parish church was St. Michael’s.) Another institution, built by Bishop Bronescombe of Exeter, who had a special devotion to the Archangel, left its name to Clist Gabriel. The more ancient dedication to St. Michael occurs at Whitby and elsewhere in Yorkshire. Michael de la Pole founded an almshouse at Kingston-upon-Hull, partly in honour of “St. Michael the Archangel and all archangels, angels and holy spirits.” A fraternity at Brentford commemorated “The Nine Orders of Holy Angels,” and in the Valor it is termed hospitalis Angelorum.

The Blessed Virgin; The Three Kings of Cologne; The Holy Innocents.—The statement referring to hospitals in general as “founded to the honour of God and of His glorious Mother” explains more than one difficult point. First, numerous as are the dedications to St. Mary, they are fewer than those of some other saints, for instance, St. Mary Magdalene. Secondly, a certain number of houses are set down as having two patrons, yet the second p247 saint appears to eclipse the Blessed Virgin; that of Newport in Essex (given as St. Mary and St. Leonard) usually bore St. Leonard’s name and kept its fair on his festival. In many such cases there was in truth no double dedication; and although gifts were made by charter to found a hospital at Bristol “in honour of God, St. Mary and St. Mark”, later documents omit the formula and call it “the house of St. Mark.”

? PLATE XXVII. HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE

On the other hand many houses were dedicated solely in honour of the Blessed Virgin, including five important institutions in London alone. In addition to St. Mary (without Bishopsgate), St. Mary of Roncevalles (Charing Cross) and Our Lady of Elsyng (Cripplegate), there was St. Mary’s hospital or the House of Converts,—a witness to the doctrine of the Incarnate Christ,—and St. Mary of Bethlehem, a name chosen on account of the founder’s intense reverence for the holy Nativity. Stow quotes the deed of gift made by Simon, “son of Mary”:—

“having speciall and singulor deuotion to the Church of the glorious Virgin at Bethlehem, where the same Virgin brought forth our Saviour incarnate ... and where [to] the same Child to us there borne, the Chiualrie of the heavenly Company sang the new Hymne Gloria in excelsis Deo.”

The Holy Innocents were commemorated in the ancient leper-house outside Lincoln. The existing chapel of an almshouse in Bristol built “in the honour of God and the Three Kings of Cologne” (Leland’s fanam trium regum) is the sole witness in the way of dedication in England to the veneration of the Magi. The title is said to have been the choice of an Abbot of Tewkesbury at the close of the fifteenth century. p248

Holy Cross and Holy Sepulchre.—Names commemorating the Death and Burial of the Saviour are not infrequent. The history of St. Cross, Winchester, touches that of the Knights of Jerusalem, with whom both name and badge are connected. (See p. 207.) On the common seal the master and priests are shown kneeling at the foot of the Cross; the descent from the Cross is depicted upon the walls of the church. This dedication is also appropriately associated with the hospitals usually known as St. Mary Magdalene’s at Stourbridge and near Bath, the fairs of which houses were held on the festivals of the Invention and Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The chapel of St. Thomas of Acon in Cheapside—under the Knights Templars—was dedicated to St. Cross. The church attached to St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, was probably named out of veneration for the relics of “the tree of life” which the founder used in healing (see p. 95); and once exemptions were granted “out of the king’s reverence for the Holy Cross, in honour of which the church of the hospital of St. Bartholomew is dedicated.”159

The connection between St. Helen and the Holy Cross is best told in reference to the hospital at Colchester. Although authentic records only carry its history back to 1251, an illustrious antiquity is claimed in an episcopal indulgence purporting to be issued about 1406. The tradition is quoted (but with modernized spelling) from the Antiquarian Repertory:—

“Moreover, in the year of our Lord 670, Constantine, the son of the blessed and holy woman Saint Elyn, sent his mother unto Jerusalem to inquire of the Holy Cross that our Saviour Christ Jesu died upon, likewise as it was shewed to him by p249 token in the air and also by revelation of the Holy Ghost. Then the holy woman, seeing the Will of Almighty God, departed out of the town of Colchester where she was born (there where the said hospital is founded in the honour of Almighty God, the holy Cross and St. Elyn) and took her journey unto Jerusalem and there ... did win the same Cross. ... Then the holy victorious woman gave laud and loving to God and took one part of the Holy Cross and closed it with gold and sent it to her hospital to Colchester evermore to be abiding, with her ring, her girdle, and her purse, with other 24 curious reliques.”

Finally, after relating a visit of St. Thomas of Canterbury to that house, the story of the relic, inciting to devotion, pilgrimage visits and contributions, is brought up to date:—

“Also in the year of our Lord 1401, there came thieves unto the hospital by night and brake up the locks where the glorious relique was, and took it away ... then they took the blessed Holy Cross (as it was, closed in gold the weight of 21 ounces) and cast it into the pond, but it would not sink ... and so the folks that did pursue took it up and brought it home to the place again.”

This Colchester foundation was associated with the gild of St. Cross (p. 18) and other gilds of that name maintained charities at Stratford-on-Avon, Abingdon and Hedon. In the latter place the hospital of St. Sepulchre gave its title to Newton St. Sepulchre. There were pilgrim-houses at Nottingham and Stamford with the same dedication.

St. John Baptist, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Lazarus.—The cult of these saints is intertwined with the history of the Religious Military Orders of Jerusalem. The work of the Knights Hospitallers was to care for sick and p250 needy pilgrims. They maintained two important infirmaries at Jerusalem, St. John’s for men, and St. Mary Magdalene’s for women. Grateful guests returning from pilgrimage bore the report of these houses far and wide; thus it came to pass that, throughout Europe, hospitals unconnected with the order were founded, and by force of association consecrated in honour of these saints. That of St. John Baptist, Lechlade, is referred to in one deed as “St. John of Jerusalem.” Such “houses of St. John” were usually for travellers. One writer remarks that almost every town had a place to accommodate the sick and wayfarers, and that they “were invariably dedicated to St. John Baptist in connection with his wandering life.” Although this saint did not monopolize the protection of strangers, he was certainly adopted as patron by some hundred hospitals (excluding commanderies of the Order of St. John).

Lanfranc’s foundation in his cathedral city was placed by him under the patronage of St. John Baptist, on one of whose festivals (August 29) the archbishop had been consecrated. The hospital at Thetford kept a fair on that day called “The Decollation of St. John Baptist”; but the lepers of Harting celebrated their wake on June 24, “The Nativity of St. John Baptist.” The strange customs connected with this latter festival were especially observed in houses of which he was patron; in memory of St. John Baptist it was usual at Sherborne for a garland to be hung up on Midsummer Eve at the door of St. John’s, which the almsmen watched till morning.

Seals usually depict the saint with his symbol of the Holy Lamb; sometimes he points to a scroll (Ecce Agnus Dei). In two instances (Banbury and Bristol) a patriarchal p251 cross, one of the symbols of the Knights Hospitallers, is shown; this double-armed cross is likewise found on the gable of St. John’s, Northampton, where it is considered a unique architectural feature.

St. Lazarus became the guardian of lepers partly through the influence of the Order whose aim was to relieve the sick, and especially the leprous, members of their brotherhood. They were introduced into England in Stephen’s reign, when the hospital of the Blessed Virgin and St. Lazarus was founded at Burton, afterwards known as Burton St. Lazarus. The seal of this house depicts a bishop carrying in one hand a fork or trident,160 in the other a book; Dugdale ascribes the figure to St. Augustine, but Mr. de Gray Birch attributes the mitred effigy to St. Lazarus, traditional Bishop of Marseilles. Of the other dedications to St. Lazarus little is known, some being of doubtful authenticity.

The question naturally arises—why were lepers called lazars in common parlance, and why was Lazarus chosen as their patron? A curious confusion of ideas is revealed. The original person intended was he who lay full of sores at the rich man’s gate. The banner of a Flemish lazaretto displays scenes from the life of this Lazarus, who appears clad as a mediÆval leper, and carries a clapper.161 The same idea was familiar in England. David of Huntingdon having founded a leper-house, Aelred the chronicler prays at his death:—“Receive his soul into the bosom of Abraham with Lazarus whom he did not despise but cherished.” A similar allusion occurs in Langland’s p252 Piers the Plowman: “And ich loked in hus lappe · a lazar lay ther-ynne.” The lazarus ulceribus plenus of the allegory, however, soon became associated with the historical Lazarus of Bethany. Thus a colony of north-country lepers dwelt in Sherburn hospital founded “in honour of the Saviour, the Blessed Virgin, St. Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha.” This dedication was abbreviated into St. Mary Magdalene, and the principal altar was in her honour. St. Mary Magdalene, universally identified with St. Mary of Bethany, was thus commonly involved in the curious double personality of St. Lazarus. In England, she was the most popular of leper-patrons, no one save St. Leonard attaining to half her number of dedications. We are told that St. Lazarus held this place in France, St. James in central Europe, St. George in the North; but in England, the Magdalene was supreme. The “Maudlin-house” was almost synonymous with leper-hospital. Place-names testify to the devotion of our forefathers to St. Mary Magdalene, and in several places “Mawdlyn lands” mark the site of a leper-colony.

St. Bartholomew had sixteen hospitals in England, chiefly in the South. An old hymn, quoted by Dr. Norman Moore, describes the Apostle’s medical powers. “Lepers he cleanses”—and to him were dedicated ancient lazar-houses at Rochester, Oxford, Dover, etc. “The sick p253 he restores”—the Apostle having appeared to Rahere, sick with fever in Rome (perhaps, it is suggested, upon the island of St. Bartholomew in the Tiber), he builds upon his recovery a house of healing near London, which for nearly eight hundred years has been a place of restoration. “The lunatic are made whole”—and the Book of the Foundation tells of such a cure at St. Bartholomew’s:—

“ther yn a shorte space his witte was recoueryd, where a litill tyme he taried, blessyng God that to his apostles hath uouchsaf to commytte his excellent power, to hele syke, to clense lepers, and to caste owte feendys.”

At St. Bartholomew’s, Oxford, a relic was treasured, namely, a portion of the saint’s skin. The legend of his martyrdom is depicted upon the seal of the Gloucester foundation, and he is shown knife in hand on the Rochester seal. (Tail-piece of this chapter.)

St. James.—Of all the Apostles, St. James has the largest number of hospitals, namely, twenty-six partly or wholly dedicated to him. This is doubtless due to the fact that his shrine at Compostella was the goal of Christendom, and the miracles of “Santiago” world-famous. St. James’, Northallerton, was named as the direct result of a pilgrimage to Compostella in the year 1200 by Philip, Bishop of Durham. Several ports (Dunwich, Seaford, Shoreham) had houses in his honour. Hospital seals depict the saint as a pilgrim, with water-bottle and scrip, whilst one shows the token of escallop shells.

St. James & St. John.—Whereas there was apparently no parish in England commemorating the brother-apostles, three hospitals (Aynho, Royston, and Brackley) bore this double name. About Brackley, indeed, there is some p254 uncertainty. It occurs as “St. John and St. James” (1226), “St. James and St. John Apostle” (1227); but also as “St. John Baptist” (1301, 1471). The seal shows two figures, of which one scantily clad and bearing a palm suggests the Baptist.

St. John Evangelist & St. John Baptist appear in conjunction at Exeter, Sherborne, Newport Pagnell, Northampton, and Leicester. The original and usual title at Exeter was St. John Baptist; but in 1354 Bishop John de Grandisson, a benefactor, mentions “St. John the Baptist and Fore-runner of Christ and St. John His Evangelist and Apostle.” The seal of Northampton shows both saints with their symbols, and the appellations BAPTI and EWA are placed over the figures. On the Leicester seal the eagle of the Apostle is shown, and the scroll in its talons may represent the Ecce Agnus Dei. When “St. John” occurs, the dedication commonly proves to be to the Baptist; and even where the Evangelist is expressly named, some later document reverts to his namesake, e.g. Blyth, Burford, Castle Donington, Cirencester.

St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke were not un­com­mem­or­ated. “The house of St. Mat­thew” at Maiden Bradley, which occurs on one Patent Roll (1242), was commonly called St. Mary’s; the double dedication is mentioned in the Obituary Roll of Prior Elchester of Durham (1484), viz.: Eccles. B. Mar. et S. Math. Ap. The fair, granted p255 in 1215, was upon the vigil and feast of St. Matthew the Apostle. The name of St. Mark’s, Bristol, is preserved in the existing chapel of the hospital; the seal (Fig. 33) shows the saint writing his gospel, the lion by his side. “The lepers of St. Luke the Evangelist at the bridge-end of Beghton” are mentioned in 1334, but the locality is not identified. There was also a hospital of St. Luke at Gorleston.

St. Andrew; St. Thomas; St. Stephen.—There were ded­i­ca­tions to St. Andrew at Flixton, Denwall, Cokes­ford, and Hythe. It seems probable that the last named was a re-foun­da­tion of St. Barth­o­lomew’s, for “St. Andrew” only occurs during the few years following its restoration by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, of which See that saint was patron. It is improbable that any of the hospitals of St. Thomas were under the patronage of that Apostle, although Tanner erroneously gives an instance at Birmingham. They sprang up when St. Thomas the Martyr of Canterbury was of paramount popularity. The ambiguous “St. Thomas-on-the-Green” at Sherborne, for example, is referred to by Leland as the “free chapel of Thomas Becket.” St. Stephen, the almoner of the Early Church, was the appropriate patron of several houses of charity, including three in the eastern counties. One was at Bury St. Edmunds, where there were preserved in the abbey “certain drops of St. Stephen’s blood which sprung from him at such time as he was stoned.” The seals of Norwich and Hempton show their patron respectively as martyr and minister.

St. Paul the Apostle; St. Paul the Hermit; St. Peter; St. Petronilla.—Although St. Peter and St. Paul are commemorated in hundreds of parish-churches, their p256 hospitals number only nine, including those in York and London which were adjuncts of cathedrals and borrowed their dedication-names. At Norwich, St. Paul the Hermit was associated with his namesake. St. Peter and his daughter St. Petronilla were patrons of leper-houses for priests and maidens at Bury St. Edmunds. The virgin saint was famous locally and the skull of St. Petronilla or Pernell, which was preserved in the abbey, was considered efficacious in sickness. Indeed, the eastern counties were rich in her relics, for a casket from the treasury of a Norwich priory, lent to Henry III, contained, it was said, “of St. Petronella, one piece.”

St. Clement; St. Lawrence.—There were dedications to the Bishop of Rome in Oxford, Norwich and Hoddesdon. On one seal, the last-named house is called “the hospital of St. Clement” (Fig. 34), upon another “of St. Anthony”; both depict not only the hermit but a mitred saint in vestments, with hammer and horse-shoe. The connection with the forge is not clear, but St. Clement is referred to as patron of ironworkers in Sussex, and of blacksmiths in Hampshire. He was popularly regarded rather as the seamen’s saint, and was invoked by mariners of a fraternity of St. Clement connected with St. Bartholomew’s hospital, Bristol. St. Lawrence the deacon, whose liberality p257 towards the sick and poor was proverbial, was guardian of twelve hospitals, chiefly for lepers. This beloved martyr of Rome was venerated in Canterbury, and the lepers dependent upon St. Augustine’s Abbey were under his protection on a site now marked by St. Lawrence’s Cricket Ground. “Lawrence Hill,” Bristol, also preserves the memory of a leper-house. The old seal of St. Lawrence’s, Bodmin, shows the martyr with his gridiron.

St. Nicholas.—The dedications in this name amount to twenty-nine, eleven being in Yorkshire. St. Nicholas’, leper-house, Harbledown, was founded by the Italian Lanfranc, whose native land had just acquired the bones of the benevolent bishop, translated to Bari in 1087. The hospitals of Royston and Bury St. Edmunds kept their fairs at the festival of his “Translation.” So great was his popularity that Miss Arnold-Forster remarks that if any dedication to St. Nicholas could be traced in Derbyshire, he would have the distinction of being found in every county. This one lack among the parish churches to which she refers, is supplied by the existence of a hospital in his honour at Chesterfield, and of an almshouse chapel at Alkmonton.

St. Anthony.—Whereas few churches were consecrated in memory of this hermit, twenty-one houses of charity were partly or wholly dedicated to him. His aid was invoked when pestilence (feu sacrÉ) wasted France, and the initiation of the Order of St. Anthony spread his fame. The French priory at Lenton maintained a hospital for “such as were troubled with St. Anthony’s fire,” i.e. erysipelas. An indulgence offered to contributors towards St. Anthony’s in London refers to inmates “of whom p258 some are so tortured and scorched by burnings as of the pit, that being deprived of all use of their limbs, they seem to be rather horrible deformities than human beings.” The saint was invoked against contagion and all diseases. In England most of his foundations were for lepers. One of the latest lazar-houses (Holloway, 1473) had a chapel of St. Anthony; but the full title on the seal is “Holy Jesus and St. Anthony.”

The seals of the London, Hoddesdon, and Holloway hospitals (Figs. 30, 34) show St. Anthony with his tau cross, bell, and pig. When it was forbidden for swine to roam in the streets, the Antonine monks retained the right to turn out their pigs, which were distinguished by a bell. Although the York hospital was not under the Order, the master claimed one pig out of every litter. As late as 1538, when the London house of St. Anthony had been appropriated to Windsor, licence was given “to collect and receive the alms of the faithful, given in honour of God and St. Anthony, ... together with swine and other beasts.”

St. Augustine; St. Benedict; St. Bernard.—Whether the “hospital for lepers of St. Augustine” at Newport (Isle of Wight) should be considered a true dedication is hard to say; like the “Papey” in London it may merely have been a community under the Austin Rule. A leper-house in Norwich bore the name of St. Bennet’s; although situated in St. Benedict’s parish, this must be regarded as a genuine dedication, for the common seal depicts the patron. “St. Nicholas and St. Bernard’s” at Hornchurch took its designation from the Great St. Bernard in Savoy. (See p. 209.) p259

St. Julian the Hospitaller was a singularly appropriate guardian. Gervase of Southampton was himself following the example of St. Julian when he turned his home into a resting-place for travellers. Leland refers to God’s House, Southampton, as “dedicate to Saynct Juliane the Bisshop,” but it was rather the “good harbourer” who was renowned in mediÆval England. The saint has been depicted in art helping a leprous youth out of the ferryboat and welcoming him to his house. (Pl. XXIX.) At the passage of the river at Thetford was a hospital, the chapel of which commemorated St. Julian; and the leper-house near St. Albans was in his honour.

St. Alexis.—The story of Alexis himself is some clue to the unique dedication found at Exeter. He forsook his home for many years, and when at last he returned he was recognized by no one, but his parents welcomed the ragged stranger for the sake of their wandering son. St. Alexis was therefore regarded as the patron of mendicants.

St. George and St. Christopher.—There were hospitals of St. George at Tavistock and Shrewsbury; the latter gave his name to one of the gates and contributed his cross to the arms of the town. That of Yeovil was dedicated to “St. George and St. Christopher the Martyrs”; each pensioner was to wear upon his breast a red cross “as a sign and in honour of St. George the Martyr, patron of the house of alms.” The squire of Thame put his bedemen under the care of St. Christopher, as is set forth upon his tomb:—

“that founded in the church of Thame a chantrie, vi pore men and a fraternitye, In the worship of Seynt Cristofore to be relevid in perpetuyte.” p260

St. Margaret; St. Katherine; St. Ursula.—There are eighteen houses in honour of St. Margaret, and they are chiefly for lepers. It is possible that in the case of Huntingdon the name may enshrine the memory of the saintly lady of Scotland, who died in 1093, although, it is true, she was not canonized until 1250; her son, David of Huntingdon, built St. John’s in that town, and he may have founded St. Margaret’s, of which his daughter and grandson were benefactors. The hospitals dedicated to St. Katherine also number about eighteen. That royal saint was chosen by Stephen’s queen as the protector of her charitable foundation for women. Katharine of Aragon obtained for this house a gift of relics, including part of the tomb of the saint sent by the Pope, “out of respect for the Hospital of St. Katharine.” The seal of this house and of that at Bristol (Fig. 35) show the saint crowned, p261 with sword and wheel, and the latter device was also worn on the habit. Wigston’s hospital, Leicester, was named “St. Ursula and St. Catherine.” Bonville’s almshouse at Exeter includes in its unique dedication St. Ursula’s famed companions; it was in honour of “The Blessed Virgin, the Eleven Thousand Virgins and St. Roch.”

St. Anne; St. Helen.—The mother of the Blessed Virgin was commemorated at Ripon, and together with other saints at Norwich, Oakham, Stoke-by-Newark, Brentford and Hereford. St. Helen, the mother of Constantine, had hospitals at Derby and Braceford, besides that alluded to under the title “Holy Cross.”

SAINTS OF FRANCE

St. Leonard.—The attitude of France to this hermit-saint was one of deep devotion. Our Norman kings and nobles shared this veneration. Foundations bearing his name at Chesterfield, Derby, Lancaster and Nottingham, had privileges in the adjoining royal forests; and St. Leonard’s, Launceston, was dependent on the Duchy. The hospital at Northampton showed a crown upon its seal, and that of York (re-dedicated to this saint by Stephen) bore the arms of England. St. Leonard’s, Alnwick, was erected on the spot where the Scottish king Malcolm fell. This saint had a reputation as a healer: “il Était le mÉdecin des infirmes.” Some fifty-five charitable foundations had St. Leonard for patron; they were mainly for lepers, and in certain counties (notably Derby and Northampton) even St. Mary Magdalene had to give place to him in this capacity. p262 The “Hospital of St. Leonard the Confessor” in Bedford was revived twenty years ago by a band of brothers who met on St. Leonard’s Day and resolved to restore the lapsed memory of this patron saint.

St. Giles; St. Theobald.—The houses of St. Giles number about twenty-five. The chief one was that “in the fields” near London. He was the cripples’ (and therefore the lepers’) patron, partly because he himself suffered from lameness, and partly on account of the legend of the wounded hart which fled to him, an incident depicted upon seals at Norwich, Wilton and Kepier. Another French hermit, St. Theobald, shares the dedication of the leper-house at Tavistock with St. Mary Magdalene.

St. Denys; St. Martin; St. Leger; St. Laud; St. Eligius.—The hospital at Devizes built by the Bishop of Salisbury was in honour of St. James and St. Denys; the fair granted to the lepers was held on the vigil and day of St. Dionysius. The charitable St. Martin occurs, with or without St. John Baptist, at Piriho. St. Leger was commemorated at Grimsby. St. Laud (or Lo) is an alternative patron at Hoddesdon. St. Eligius (or Eloy) was venerated in houses at York, Stoke-upon-Trent, Cambridge and Hereford.

St. Louis; St. Roch.—These unique dedications are welcome among our patron saints. That to the saintly king occurs in the Ely Registers, contributions being invited in 1393 towards a chapel newly constructed at Brentford (Braynford) in honour of the Blessed Anne and St. Louis (Ludovicus) with houses for the reception of travellers. St. Roch, who ministered to the plague-stricken of Italian hospitals in the fourteenth century, p263 was commemorated at Bonville’s almshouse in Exeter, Rock Lane being a reminder of its chapel of St. Roch.

SAINTS OF ENGLAND

St. Oswald; St. Wulstan.—One hospital at Worcester “beareth the name of St. Oswald as a thinge dedicate of ould tyme to him.” (See p. 2.) The foundation of the other is ascribed to St. Wulstan himself. The house grew in importance after the saint’s canonization in the year 1203, which followed a fresh display of miracles at his shrine. The possession of the faithful bishop’s famous staff was disputed between hospital and priory.162

The common seal shows the patron in the act of benediction, staff in hand.

St. Godwald; St. David.—The chapel of St. Wulstan’s was dedicated to St. Godwald. “Some say he was a bishop” is Leland’s commentary. Miss Arnold-Forster identifies him with Gulval, hermit-bishop in Wales. St. David, the Welsh Archbishop (canonized 1120), was commemorated at Kingsthorpe, by Northampton, the house being frequently called “St. Dewi’s.”

St. Brinstan; St. Chad; St. Cuthbert, etc.—Although Leland had read that “St. Brinstane foundid an hospitale at Winchester,” nothing is known of it. “Here is a hospital of St. Chadde,” he remarks at Shrewsbury, referring to the church and almshouse. Two dedications sometimes ascribed to St. Cuthbert, namely at Gateshead and Greatham, within “the patrimony of St. Cuthbert,” hardly justify his inclusion among patrons, although he is named in the deed of gift. The same may be said p264 of documentary allusions to St. Erkenwald, St. Hilda and St. Richard in connection with foundations at Ilford, Whitby and Chichester.

St. Ethelbert; St. Edmund, King & Martyr; St. Edmund, Archbishop & Confessor.—The royal Ethelbert and Edmund are included among our saints. St. Ethelbert’s, Hereford, is attached to the cathedral and shares its patron. In the case of the ten houses of St. Edmund, it is not always possible to determine whether the Saxon king is intended or Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury. The “spital on the street” in Lincolnshire and the hospital by Doncaster Bridge were in honour of the royal martyr; whilst those of Leicester and Windeham commemorated the archbishop, the latter being founded by his devoted friend, St. Richard of Chichester, who had recently attended the solemn “Translation” at Pontigny.

St. Edmund’s, Gateshead, has puzzled historians because the designations vary between King, Archbishop, Bishop and Confessor. Surtees and others concluded that all had reference to one foundation, but Mr. J. R. Boyle proves that there were two with distinct endowments, and that both chapels were standing a century ago. Now it is recorded that Nicholas of Farnham was the founder of that of “St. Edmund the Bishop.” A sidelight is thrown upon the subject by Matthew Paris, whose narrative of the miraculous recovery of Nicholas in 1244 through the agency of St. Edmund has escaped the notice of local topographers. The emaciated sick man bade farewell and received the last rites when he was restored by the application of a relic of the archbishop. From this incident it seems likely that the hospital was a p265 votive offering and that it was consecrated soon after Archbishop Edmund was enrolled among the saints. The papal letter of canonization (1246) describes his beautiful character and the miraculous events which followed his death. When it declares that “he healed the swelling dropsy by reducing the body to smaller dimensions,” the allusion is surely to the recent recovery of Bishop Nicholas, who had been suffering from that infirmity.

St. Thomas the Martyr of Canterbury was believed to surpass all others in powers of healing. His miracles were usually wrought by means of water mixed with a drop of the martyr’s blood; this was carried away in a leaden ampulla, and its contents worked wonders. (See Fig. 8.) Others would purchase a “sign,” upon which was announced in Latin:—“For good people that are sick Thomas is the best of physicians.” (Fig. 36.) Many of these pilgrims to Canterbury lodged in the hospital of p266 St. Thomas (Pl. II), said to have been founded by the archbishop himself, whose martyrdom is depicted on the walls of the hall. The chapel was dedicated to his special patron, the Blessed Virgin. St. Thomas’, Southwark, also claimed him as founder, and two other houses were intimately connected with him. One was Becket’s early home in Cheapside, enlarged by his sister Agnes and her husband, whose charter grants land “formerly belonging to Gilbert Becket, father of the blessed Thomas the Martyr ... being the birthplace of the blessed martyr.” Privileges were accorded to it long afterwards “from devotion to the saint, who is said to have been born and educated in that hospital.” (This foundation was usually called St. Thomas of Acon, but it is believed that the designation had at first no connection with Acres, but rather with the original owner of the property.) The second house with family associations was at Ilford, for while Becket’s sister was abbess of Barking, the lepers’ chapel was re-consecrated with the addition of the name of St. Thomas.

Nor were his friends less faithful, for when Becket’s chancellor Benedict (afterwards his biographer) was transferred from Canterbury to Peterborough, he completed a foundation in his honour. Probably Benedict was also concerned in the choice of name at Stamford, especially as that dependent house adopted St. John Baptist and St. Thomas as joint patrons; for the fact that the new martyr’s body was laid near the altar of the Baptist called forth from several chroniclers (as Stanley points out) the remark that St. John Baptist was the bold opponent of a wicked king. In a document relating to the Stamford house, St. Thomas is referred to as “the proto-martyr,” but the claim is hard to justify. He was p267 commemorated with St. Stephen at Romney, a dedication which would have given him abundant satisfaction; for previous to his flight in 1164 he celebrated, as having a special portent, the mass “in honour of the blessed proto-martyr Stephen.”

It is a far cry from Kent to Northumberland, but there existed at Bolton a hospital of St. Thomas. Within a few miles had been fought the Battle of Alnwick, a victory won, it was believed, as the result of the king’s public penance the same day (1174). The date of foundation is not recorded, but it was begun before 1225. About the same time a hospital of St. Thomas was being built at Hereford, by one of the Warennes, whose father had bitterly opposed the then unpopular Chancellor. The new devotion to St. Thomas was fanned into flame by the magnificent ceremony of 1220 on the removal of his body to its wonderful shrine. Soon after this, a hospital was founded at Bec, and the patronage annexed to the See of Norwich; it was consecrated by Bishop Pandulph, who had taken a leading part in the “Translation,” an event which was henceforth celebrated on July 7. For centuries the shrine was held in high honour. The Letter Books of Christ Church, Canterbury, record miracles in 1394 and 1445.163 So notable was the first of these that Richard II wrote to congratulate the archbishop, acknowledging his thankfulness to “the High Sovereign Worker of miracles who has deigned to work this miracle in our days, and upon a foreigner, as though for the purpose of spreading ... the glorious fame of His very martyr,” adding a pious wish that it might result in the conversion of those in error at a time when “our faith and belief p268 have many more enemies than they ever had time out of mind.” Such signs were, in fact, an antidote to Lollardy, as is implied by the public testimony of the Chapter to the cure of a cripple from Aberdeen in 1445.

The kings continued to pay pilgrimage visits, and even Henry VIII sent the accustomed offerings to Canterbury. His subsequent animosity towards St. Thomas was a political move, as is shown by the report of Robert Ward in 1535; having spied at the hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon a window depicting the flagellation of Henry II by monks at the shrine, he pointed out to Thomas Cromwell that Becket was slain “in that he did resist the king.” Bale afterwards alludes thus to this burning question:—

“A trayterouse knave ye can set upp for a saynte,

And a ryghteouse kynge lyke an odyouse tyrant paynte.

······

In your glasse wyndowes ye whyppe your naturall kynges.”164

In 1538 Henry thought it expedient to inform his loving subjects that notwithstanding the canonization of St. Thomas “there appeareth nothing in his life and exteriour conversation whereby he should be called a saint, but rather ... a rebel and traitor to his prince.” Henceforth few windows remained depicting the acts of the martyr,—though one representation of the penance of Henry II is familiar to readers at the Bodleian. The name was to be no longer perpetuated; “St. Thomas the Martyr, Southwark,” becomes “Becket Spital” and then “St. Thomas the Apostle,” whilst “Thomas House” is found at Northampton. p269

All Saints.—In spite of many general references to All Saints, the invocation by itself was as rare for a hospital as it was common for a church. Leland and the Valor Ecclesiasticus give the dedication of the Stamford bede-house as “All Saints.” The founder had willed that “there be for ever a certain almshouse, commonly called William Browne’s Almshouse, for the invocation of the most glorious Virgin Mary and of All Saints, to the praise and honour of the Name Crucified.” The almsmen’s special chapel in the parish church of All Saints was in honour of the Blessed Virgin. The existing silver seal shows the Father, seated, supporting between His knees the Saviour upon the Cross, whilst the Spirit appears as a Dove.

Alternative Dedications, etc.

There is frequently an uncertainty as to the invocation, even with documentary assistance. A Close Roll entry (1214) mentions a foundation at Portsmouth in honour of Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, St. Cross, St. Michael and All Saints. Usually the name is simply “God’s House,” but often St. John Baptist or St. Nicholas. The seal seems to suggest the original designation, for it shows a Cross, with the Divine Hand, a scroll and angels. Again, God’s House at Kingston-upon-Hull was called Holy Trinity or St. Michael’s, or from its situation “the Charterhouse hospital”; but its full title was “in honour of God, and the most glorious Virgin Mary His Mother, and St. Michael the Archangel, and all archangels, angels and holy spirits, and of St. Thomas the Martyr, and all saints of God.” It may be observed that inasmuch as the founder Michael Pole was Chancellor of England, p270 he looked to his predecessor in office St. Thomas as patron, no less than to his name-saint. By the foundation-deed of Heytesbury almshouse, it was in honour of “the Holy Trinity, and especially of Christ our Redeemer, the Blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, St. Katherine and all saints.” The almsmen wore the letters JHU. XRT. upon their gowns. The Chantry Certificate, nevertheless, gives St. John’s. The original seal shows a Cross and the name domus elimosinaria, but the post-Reformation seal has St. Katherine. Varying dedications are sometimes merely mistakes. It must, however, be remembered that occasionally hospital and chapel had different patrons, and that both were sometimes rebuilt and, re-consecrated. As civil and ecclesiastical archives continue to reveal their long-hidden information, the dedication-names of many houses will doubtless come to light, together with notices of foundations at present unknown to us.

Some seventy titles of hospitals are here recorded, as compared with over six hundred different dedications of parish churches. In some instances the patron of a charitable institution bequeathed his name to a parish. At Tweedmouth, St. Bartholomew of the hospital was powerful enough to dispossess St. Boisil, the rightful patron of the place. The parishes of St. Mary Magdalene, Colchester, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London, and St. Giles, Shrewsbury, have grown up round a former leper-house. Several modern churches, such as St. John’s, Bridgwater, occupy the site and carry on the name of an old foundation.

In conclusion, it must be observed that since the subject of England’s Patron Saints has been fully dealt with by p271 Miss Arnold-Forster, no attempt has here been made to make more than passing allusions to the lives of hospital saints. The foregoing notes on saints were suggested by her Studies in Church Dedications.

158 Pat. 14 Hen. VI, pt. i. m. 4.