LEPER KNIGHTS The Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, c.1150–1544 Studies in the History of Medieval Religion ISSN 0955–2480 General Editor Christopher Harper-Bill Previously published titles in the series are listed at the back of this volume LEPER KNIGHTS The Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, c.1150–1544 David Marcombe THE BOYDELL PRESS © David Marcombe 2003 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 2003 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 0 85115 893 5 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604–4126, USA website: www.boydell.co.uk A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marcombe, David. Leper knights : the order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, c.1150–1544 / David Marcombe. p. cm. – (Studies in the history of medieval religion, ISSN 0955–2480 ; v. 13) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–85115–893–5 (alk. paper) 1. Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem – History. 2. Hospitalers – England – History. 3. Military religious orders – England – History. 4. Orders of knighthood and chivalry – England – History. I. Title. II. Series. CR5037 .M37 2003 271'.791 – dc21 2002154333 This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xv Introduction xix Chapter 1: Lepers and knights Historians of the order 1 Who was St Lazarus? 3 The order in the Holy Land, c.1130–1291 6 Papal support for the order 15 European hospitals and preceptories 16 The order in Europe, 1291–2000 20 Archaeology and iconography 25 Chapter 2: Lands and Patrons Patrons and their motives 32 The extent of the estate in 1291 48 Henry II’s grant of alms and the gift of St Giles’s, Holborn 49 The London estate and its problems 51 Holy Innocents’,Lincoln 53 The value of the estate 54 Privileges and feudal obligations 58 Chapter 3: Crusading, Crisis and Revival The English province 66 The years of crisis, c.1330–1420 75 The order redefined, c.1420–1500 86 Chapter 4: Land and Livelihood The outlying estates 101 The Burton Lazars demesne 109 The St Giles’s demesne 120 Relations with tenants 123 Industrial activity and milling 125 Difficulties and responses 129 Chapter 5: Care and community Medieval lepers and leprosy 135 Burton Lazars: leprosarium or preceptory? 142 The daughter houses 154 St Giles’s, Holborn, and Holy Innocents’,Lincoln 161 Provision for the poor 171 Chapter 6: Privileges, pardons and parishes Spiritual privileges 175 Alms gathering 178 Indulgences 181 The confraternity 186 Support from the laity 194 Parish churches 197 Appropriation of tithes 201 The importance of spiritual income 203 The provision of clergy 206 Parochial life 208 Parish church architecture 209 Chapter 7: Dissolution and Dispersal The order under the Tudors, 1485–1526 215 Sir Thomas Ratcliffe, 1526–1537 217 Sir Thomas Legh, 1537–1544 225 Redistribution of property 234 The archaeology of Burton Lazars 237 Conclusion 247 Appendix 1: Masters-General of the Order of St Lazarus, Masters of Burton 251 Lazars and its daughter houses Appendix 2: Letters of Confraternity and Indulgence 256 Appendix 3: The Valor Ecclesiasticus (1535) 258 Bibliography 265 Index 291 Illustrations Plates Chapter 1 Plate 1: Lazarus the beggar (seventeenth-century Bible; photograph 3 David Marcombe) Plate 2: ‘The Raising of Lazarus’ (Arena Chapel, Padua; University of 4 Nottingham Centre for Local History) Plate 3: The castle of Boigny (Archives Nationales; Cliché Bibliothèque 18 Nationale de France) Plate 4: The chapel at Grattemont (Trevor Clayton) 26 Plate 5: St Antony corbel, Grattemont (Trevor Clayton) 27 Plate 6: Memorial of Thomas de Sainville (Sibert, Histoire)29 Plate 7: Seal of James de Besnes (Österreichischen Staatsarchivs; Haus-, 30 Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Fotostudio Otto, Vienna) Chapter 2 Plate 8: Burton Lazars Cartulary (By permission of the British Library, 33 Cotton MS, Nero Cxii) Plate 9: Seal of Roger de Mowbray (Reproduced by kind permission from 36 Temple Balsall. The Warwickshire Preceptory of the Templars and their Fate by Eileen Gooder, published in 1995 by Phillimore & Co. Ltd, Shopwyke Manor Barn, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 2BG) Plate 10: Memorial of Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk (Archaeologia)41 Plate 11: Seal of St Giles’s Hospital, Holborn (By permission of the British 52 Library, Catalogue of Seals, V, pp. 635–6) Plate 12: Effigy of Roger Beler (Trevor Clayton) 62 Chapter 3 Plate 13: A brother of St Lazarus (Trevor Clayton) 70 Plate 14: Piscina and sedilia, Chaddesden church (Trevor Clayton) 79 Plate 15: Reconstruction of Perpendicular columns (Bernard Martin) 94 Plate 16: Fifteenth-century tiles from Burton Lazars (© British Museum) 96 Plate 17: Heraldry from the collegiate church at Burton Lazars 98 (By permission of the College of Arms) viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter 4 Plate 18: Choseley Manor, Norfolk (David Marcombe) 104 Plate 19: Earthworks at Burton Lazars from the air (R.F. Hartley, courtesy 108 of Leicestershire Museums) Plate 20: Lease of land at Wymondham, Norfolk (Leicestershire Record 111 Office/Trevor Clayton) Plate 21: Common seal of the order of St Lazarus (By permission of the 112 British Library, Seal lxiv 47) Plate 22: Seal of the preceptory of Burton Lazars (By permission of the 113 British Library, Seal D.CH.37) Plate 23: Stone cistern on Harehope Moor, Northumberland 126 (David Marcombe) Chapter 5 Plate 24: Leper sculpture, Angel Choir, Lincoln Cathedral (Trevor Clayton) 139 Plate 25: ‘Leper head’,Burton Lazars church (Trevor Clayton) 151 Plate 26: Sir Richard Sutton (Reproduced by kind permission of 165 Brasenose College, Oxford) Plate 27: St Giles’s Hospital, Holborn (The Master and Fellows of Corpus 170 Christi College, Cambridge) Chapter 6 Plate 28: Westwade bridge-chapel, Norfolk (Norfolk Record Office, 179 Rye MS 4) Plate 29: The ‘hypocrite brother’ (This item is reproduced by permission 186 of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, HM 160, f. 129) Plate 30: Effigies of Sir Lambert de Trickingham and his wife 188 (Trevor Clayton) Plate 31: Letter of confraternity (1486) (Cheshire Record Office) 190 Plate 32: Letter of confraternity (1510) (By permission of the British 191 Library, c18 e2 (7)) Plate 33: Seal of the confraternity of St Lazarus (By permission of the 192 British Library, Seal lxvi 48a) Plate 34: All Saints, Lowesby (Trevor Clayton) 210 Plate 35: St Peter, Threckingham (Trevor Clayton) 211 Plate 36: St Mary, Chaddesden (Trevor Clayton) 213 Chapter 7 Plate 37: Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk (The Royal Collection 222 © 2002, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) Plate 38: Memorial of Sir Thomas Legh (By permission of the British 232 Library, Add Mss 27348) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix Plate 39: Heraldic glass from the collegiate church at Burton Lazars 238 (By permission of the College of Arms) Plate 40: Fragment of late-medieval column from Burton House 241 (Trevor Clayton) Tables Chapter 2 Table 1: The family of Roger de Mowbray 38–39 Table 2: Temporalities according to the Taxatio 49 Table 3: Income from selected estates, 1291 and 1535 56 Chapter 4 Table 4: Land use on the Burton Lazars demesne, c.1552–3 117 Table 5: Animals, crops and equipment at St Giles’s, June 1371 121 Table 6: Animals, crops and equipment taken away from St Giles’s, 121 September 1391 Chapter 6 Table 7: Spiritualities according to the Taxatio 203 Table 8: Spiritualities according to the Valor Ecclesiasticus 205 Graphs Chapter 2 Graph 1: Temporalities according to the Taxatio and the Valor Ecclesiasticus 57 Chapter 6 Graph 2: Spiritualities according to the Taxatio and the Valor Ecclesiasticus 204 Chapter 7 Graph 3: Temporalities and spiritualities according to the Valor 219 Ecclesiasticus Maps Chapter 1 Map 1: Jerusalem in the twelfth century 7 Map 2: Acre in the thirteenth century 12 x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter 2 Map 3: Distribution of temporalities 54 Map 4: Distribution of temporalities: Leicestershire and Rutland 55 Chapter 4 Map 5: Hospitals and preceptories 102 Map 6: Burton Lazars, c.1520 118 Chapter 6 Map 7: Distribution of spiritualities 198 Plans Chapter 3 Plan 1: Locko Preceptory 77 Chapter 4 Plan 2: Man Mill, Burton Lazars 127 Chapter 5 Plan 3: Burton Lazars Preceptory 147 Plan 4: Burton Lazars Preceptory: a possible interpretation 150 Plan 5: Harehope Hospital 158 Plan 6: Tilton Hospital 160 Plan 7: Holy Innocents’ Hospital, Lincoln 167 Plan 8: St Giles’s Hospital, Holborn 169 Chapter 7 Plan 9: Vaudey Grange, Burton Lazars 224 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements It is sobering, and a little humbling, to sit down and write a set of acknowledge- ments for a book on this scale. Any author who may be seduced by delusions of grandeur at this stage should recall the words of the slave whispering in the ear of the successful general during the Roman Triumph – ‘you are but mortal’. Similarly with a book. Though an author takes the credit as the one who puts it all together, he is only as good as the numerous people who have offered help and support during the long hours of its compilation. It is appropriate that these individuals should be thanked and share in the pride rightly felt on the comple- tion of a major undertaking such as this.