INDULGENCES AND SOLIDARITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by ANN F. BRODEUR A thesis ...

258 Pages·2015·1.57 MB·English

by  Laurence Brodeur

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
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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.
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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.
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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

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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
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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

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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
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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.
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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
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