Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture Volume 3 Issue 3 66-82 2012 Personal Piety or Priestly Persuasion: Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474 Matthew Champion MJC Associates Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Champion, Matthew. "Personal Piety or Priestly Persuasion: Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474." Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 3, 3 (2012): 66-82. https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol3/iss3/3 This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Art History at Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture by an authorized editor of Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Champion Personal Piety or Priestly Persuasion: Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474 By Matthew Champion, Heritage Consultant and Project Manager, MJC Associates Despite the complex contemporary arguments surrounding the legitimacy of pilgrimage as a concept, it is clear that during the later Middle Ages popular pilgrimage was an accepted and acceptable part of the lay religious experience. Whilst serving a number of personal functions, from the highly spiritual search for enlightenment to the provision of "holy day" entertainment, the physical and religious act of pilgrimage has become the subject of an entire discipline of study. Drawing upon multiple sources of evidence, which include everything from the architectural and archaeological to the purely literary, such studies have led to the recognition of pilgrimage as a fascinating insight into the spiritual and religious beliefs of the age.1 However, despite the diversity of the sources, and the quantity of material available, one area of pilgrimage studies remains largely in the shadows. The ultimate objects of medieval pilgrimage, the saints, shrines and buildings that housed them, have been studied in depth by numerous scholars.2 Likewise the account rolls and finances of individual shrines, ranging from the internationally famous sites such as Canterbury down to the localized and short-lived sites such as St Leonard's outside Norwich, have been examined and scrutinized in painstaking detail.3 The routes of pilgrimage have been mapped, the logistics studied and even their souvenirs have been analyzed to such a degree that, alongside observations on artistic and stylistic content, we can now be certain of the metal composition itself and, in some cases, its likely source.4 However, when we consider the number of individuals, particularly from the lower orders, who actually undertook a pilgrimage at some point in their lives, we find that we actually know remarkably little about them. Whilst we can with some confidence record that 40,000 pilgrims passed through the gates of Munich on a single day in 1392, or that 142,000 arrived at 1 J. Sumption, Pilgrimage: an image of medieval religion, London (1975), D. Webb, Pilgrimage in Medieval England, Hambledown and London (2000), R. Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England, Sutton (2004). 2 J. Crook, J., English Medieval Shrines, Boydell (2011). 3 D. Webb, Pilgrimage in Medieval England (2000); M. R. V Heale, “Veneration and renovation at a small Norfolk priory: St Leonard’s, Norwich in the later Middle Ages,” Historical Research vol. 76, no. 194 (November 2003), pp. 431-49. 4 B. Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges: Medieval finds from excavated London, 2nd Edition, Boydell (2010), pp. 7-13. 66 Published by Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange, 2012 Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, Vol. 3, Iss. 3 [2012] Aachen on a single day in 1496, we know next to nothing about the pilgrims themselves.5 The beliefs, hopes and motivations that inspired a large percentage of the late medieval population to undertake a pilgrimage are almost as much of a mystery to modern scholars as the exact geography of the world was to the medieval pilgrims who traversed it. With regard to the individuals who undertook, or expressed the wish to undertake, a pilgrimage we have two key primary sources to draw upon. Putting aside analysis of the literary tradition, of which Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is by far the best-known work, and the guidebook-like "itineraries" to the major shrines, the individual pilgrim's voice is found in both the wills of those who left bequests for pilgrimages to be undertaken and in those collections of miracles, most usually compiled by clerics, to support claims to sainthood. This last source, of which a good number survive, would appear on the surface to be an extremely useful source for historians of pilgrimage and social history alike. Many of these accounts give details of the individuals involved, their place of origin, occupation and occasionally an indication of social status.6 However, although detailed analysis of these documents has been attempted, even down to a geographical analysis in some cases, the voice that is heard is not that of the pilgrims themselves, but that of the scribe who compiled the collection.7 Indeed, attempts by clerics such as William Fitz Stephen to transpose the testimony given by witnesses to miracles into the first person are so artificial in their construction as to widen rather than narrow the gulf of understanding.8 The wills of the late Middle Ages, of which a very large number survive in one form or another, have long been regarded as true reflections of lay piety and an important source in the study of medieval pilgrimage. These post-mortem pilgrimages specified in these documents largely take two forms. Most commonly they appear as bequests that a pilgrimage should be undertaken, often to a specific site for a specified sum, for the sake of the health of their everlasting soul. Alternatively they appear, though far more rarely, as a final bequest to fulfill a vow of pilgrimage that was made during the testator's life but, for various reasons, were not fulfilled prior to the making of the will.9 Although in both these cases the inclusion of a specific bequest regarding a post-mortem pilgrimage has been recognized as being both unusual and subject to external influence, these documents have remained one of the key forms of evidence regarding pilgrimage amongst the commonality. However, recent analysis of one corpus of surviving wills, those belonging to the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in the mid- fifteenth century, would suggest that these documents were far more open to external influence than previously thought.10 Indeed, the demonstrable level of external influence exhibited by these documents 5 B. Spencer, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, Medieval Catalogue, Pt.2: Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museums (1990), p.8. 6 Webb, Pilgrimage in Medieval England, pp.181-82. 7 H. Forrest, “The Miracle of Henry VI in Northamptonshire,” Northamptonshire Past and Present (1971/2), pp. 363-65. 8 J.C. Robertson (ed.), Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Rolls Series (1881). 9 Webb, Pilgrimage in Medieval England, p. 191. 10 The wills of the archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-74, have been published in two volumes by the Suffolk Records Society. P. Northeast (ed.), “Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-74: Wills from the register ‘Baldwyne,’” Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art & Architecture Vol. III/No. 3 67 https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol3/iss3/3 Champion makes their value as a direct source of information concerning intended pilgrimage amongst the commonality highly questionable. The popularity of pilgrimage amongst all classes is well-attested during the late Middle Ages. The massive numbers of medieval pilgrims attending continental shrines such as Aachen and Munich, already mentioned. Although associated with particular festivals or offers of indulgence, which might make these figures atypical, popular shrines such as Wilsnack in northern Germany regularly received in excess of 100,000 pilgrims per annum which, for a town whose likely population was no more than 1000, was an impressive feat of logistics.11 Similar popularity is shown at the major English shrines in the 15th century. Although exact numbers of pilgrims visiting the major shrines of St Thomas at Canterbury and Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk are harder to establish, the revenues produced by these shrines, derived largely from pilgrims' offerings, suggest that they continued to attract very large numbers of pilgrims, right up until the dissolution. Indeed, by the very end of the 15th century the shrine at Walsingham, and the relatively new shrine of Henry VI at Windsor, were both generating an income over seven times that generated by the pilgrims to Canterbury.12 It was not just the major shrines that continued to derive large parts of their income from pilgrims' donations. The chapel of St Leonard at Norwich was a small priory that acted as a cell of Norwich cathedral priory and, for such a small institution, is exceedingly well- documented.13 Over 140 account rolls survive that record in the greatest detail its financial dealings for the two centuries prior to its dissolution in the 1530s. St Leonard's was situated only a short walk from the main priory, across the river Wensum on the edge of Thorpe Woods and outside the city itself. Although the site may well have acted as some form of retreat for the members of the mother house St Leonards was financially independent, albeit not exceedingly wealthy, for much of its existence. The principal income of the priory was derived from offerings left before the images within the priory chapel.

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