Pilgrimage in medieval East Anglia A regional survey of the shrines and pilgrimages of Norfolk and Suffolk Michael Schmoelz Student Number: 3999017 Word Count: 101157 (excluding appendices) Presented to the School of History of the University of East Anglia in partial fulfilment of the requirement for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2nd of June 2017 © This thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone wishing to consult it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation must include full attribution. 1 Contents List of Appendices 6 List of Figures 6 Abstract 11 Methodology 12 Introduction 13 Part One – Case Studies 1. Walsingham 18 1.1. Historiography 18 1.2. Origins: the case against 1061 20 1.3. The Wishing Wells 23 1.4. The rise in popularity, c. 1226-1539 29 1.5. Conclusions 36 2. Bromholm 38 2.1. The arrival of the rood relic: two narratives 39 2.2. Royal patronage 43 2.3. The cellarer’s account 44 2.4. The shrine in the later middle ages: scepticism and satire 48 2.5. Conclusions 52 3. Norwich Cathedral Priory 53 3.1. Herbert Losinga 53 3.2. ‘A poor ragged little lad’: St. William of Norwich 54 3.3. Blood and Bones: other relics at Norwich Cathedral 68 3.4. The sacrist’s rolls 72 3.5. Conclusions 81 2 4. Bury St. Edmunds 83 4.1. Beginnings: Eadmund Rex Anglorum 83 4.2. Lives of St. Edmund 89 4.2.1. Abbo of Fleury’s Passio Sancti Edmundi 91 4.2.2. Herman the Archdeacon’s De Miraculis 94 4.2.3. Goscelin of St. Bertin’s De Miraculis 97 4.2.4. Geoffrey of Wells’ De Infantia Sancti Eadmundi 100 4.2.5. Three verse lives and a chronicle: the evidence for the cult in the later twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries 103 4.2.6. Abbot Samson and Osbert of Clare 105 4.2.7. New material: The Vita et Passio cum Miraculis Sancti Edmundi 108 4.2.8. ‘Blyssyd Edmund, kyng martir and vyrgyne’: John Lydgate’s Lives of SS Edmund & Fremund 113 4.3. Beyond Bury: St. Edmund abroad 114 4.4. Conclusions 117 4.5. Robert of Bury 118 5. Ely 123 5.1. The evidence for the early cult 123 5.2. Collecting the set: The female saints of Ely 125 5.3. The Ely sacrist’s rolls: plague and endurance 130 5.4. Conclusions 136 Part Two – Gazetteer 1. Suffolk 139 1.1. Ashfield cum Thorpe 139 1.2. Blythburgh 1.3. Haughley 139 1.4. Ipswich 140 1.4.1. A damsel in distress: A sixteenth century miracle at Ipswich 143 1.5. Kersey 147 3 1.6. Laxfield 148 1.7. Long Melford 148 1.8. Stanton 150 1.9. Stoke-by-Clare 151 1.10. Sudbury 152 1.11. Woolpit 153 2. Norfolk 158 2.1. Bawburgh 158 2.2. Bixley 165 2.3. Bracondale 166 2.4. Castle Acre 168 2.5. Cringleford 169 2.6. Crostwight 170 2.7. East Dereham 172 2.8. Elsing 178 2.9. Foulsham 179 2.10. Great Hautbois 179 2.11. Great Yarmouth 181 2.12. Holkham 187 2.13. Hoveton 189 2.14. King’s Lynn 191 2.15. Lakenham 194 2.16. Long Stratton 195 2.17. Martham 195 2.18. Norwich, St. Stephen 197 2.19. Reepham 200 2.20. Thetford 201 2.21. Thorpe Hamlet 206 2.22. Tibenham 210 2.23. Trimingham 212 4 2.24. West Acre 214 2.25. West Dereham 215 2.26. Winfarthing 216 Part Three – Non-textual evidence: patterns and mechanics 1. Pilgrim Souvenirs 220 1.1. The evidence from the continent 220 1.2. Walsingham souvenirs 221 1.3. Mechanics of production and distribution 226 1.4. Badges and ampullae from other East Anglian shrines 230 1.5. Souvenirs from Europe 232 1.6. Deposition in water: certainty or fallacy? 233 1.7. Conclusions 237 2. Rood Screens 238 2.1. Surviving material evidence 239 2.2. Trends and patterns 240 2.3. Conclusions 246 3. ‘Holy’ wells 248 Conclusion 256 Bibliography 266 Appendices 284 5 Appendices 1. Appendix 1: Members of the East Anglian royal kin group of the seventh century posthumously venerated as saints 284 2. Appendix 2: Royal visits to Walsingham 1216-1538 286 3. Appendix 3: St. William 288 4. Appendix 4: Saints on East Anglian rood screens 290 5. Appendix 5: Offerings received at shrines, altars, chapels etc. at Norwich Cathedral (not detailed in the text) 293 6. Appendix 6: Subsidiary altars and shrines at St. Leonard’s Priory, Thorpe Hamlet, Norwich (not detailed in the text) 295 7. Appendix 7: Examples of comparative annual income in offerings to selected saints at Norwich Cathedral Priory and two of its cells 297 8. Appendix 8: Selected badges, ampullae and related items in the collections of the Norfolk Museums Service 300 9. Appendix 9: Location co-ordinates of all East Anglian shrines and supposed holy wells discussed in the text List of Figures 1. Findspots of Roman artefacts associated with the Roman settlement at Walsingham shown in relation to the ‘Holy Wells’ 25 2. Findspot containing the only archaeological evidence for Anglo-Saxon activity in the immediate vicinity of the location of the later priory 27 3. The surviving remnant of the east end of the priory church 33 6 4. Walsingham Priory gate house 34 5. Detail of OS map of Little Walsingham 36 6. Income in offerings of a number of shrines both within and outside of East Anglia 47 7. Two fifteenth-century depictions of the Cross of Bromholm 51 8. Locations of pilgrims who experienced miracles at the shrine of William of Norwich 58 9. Annual oblations to the shrine of William at Norwich Cathedral 61 10. Types of offerings received at the shrine of William of Norwich 63 11. Screen panel depicting the martyrdom of William of Norwich 65 12. Detail from screen in St. Peter and St. Paul’s church Eye, Suffolk 66 13. Detail from a woodcut in the Nuremberg Chronicle 67 14. Oblations given at the ‘Reliquary Arch’ at Norwich Cathedral 72 15. Oblations given to St. Hippolyte at Norwich Catehdral 73 16. Oblations to the chapel of St. Mary at Norwich Cathedral 75 17. Oblations to the tomb of Bishop Walter Suffield at Norwich Cathedral 75 18. Oblations to the tomb of John Salmon at Norwich Cathedral 76 19. Offerings to St. Sitha at Norwich Cathedral 77 20. Offerings to St. Eloi at Norwich Cathedral 78 21. Offerings to St. Petronilla at Norwich Cathedral 79 22. Offerings to St. Appolonia at Norwich Cathedral 79 23. Offerings to St. Gatianus and John ‘de Bredlyngton’ at Norwich Cathedral 80 24. British Library Harley MS 2278 6r, detail 92 25. Breakdown by type of the miracles reported in Herman’s De Miraculis 95 26. Simplified breakdown of the miracles of Herman’s De Miraculis 96 27. Breakdown by type of the punitive miracles in the De Miraculis 97 28. Breakdown by type of the miracles reported in Goscelin’s De Miraculis 99 29. Simplified breakdown of the miracles of Goscelin’s De Miraculis 101 30. Breakdown of the new miracles included in the De Miraculis Sancti Aedmundi 106 31. New miracles from MS Bodley 240 109 32. New miracles from Bodley MS 240, Vita et Passio, curative miracles, Breakdown by type 111 7 33. St. Edmund’s stone, Vanylven 117 34. The martyrdom of Robert of Bury 121 35. Income in offerings received at the shrine of St. Etheldreda in Ely 131 36. Offerings to the altar cross at Ely 134 37. Offerings to the font cross at Ely 135 38. Offerings to the ‘Fetters’ at Ely 135 39. Locations of all shrines 138 40. Locations of pilgrims who experienced cures at the shrine of St. Walstan at Bawburgh 162 41. Alms box in the church of St. Walstan, Bawburgh 164 42. Copy of boy-bishop tokens 167 43. Income in offerings to the chapel of St. Mary, Great Yarmouth 184 44. Offerings to the image of St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth 186 45. Offerings received at the chapel of Our Lady at the Mount, King’s Lynn 192 46. Red Mount Chapel, King’s Lynn 192 47. Marian graffiti, Red Mount Chapel 193 48. Pilgrim badge of Richard Caister 199 49. Income from offerings to the shrine of St. Leonard at St. Leonard’s Priory 208 50. Comparative offerings for the year 1472, SS Thomas of Canterbury, Hugh, Edward the Confessor and St. Leonard 208 51. Locations of medieval pilgrim badges and ampullae found in Norfolk 222 52. Pilgrim badge depicting the miracle of the ‘Knight’s gate’ 225 53. Spherical openwork badge of the late 14th century 225 54. Pilgrim ampulla from Attleborough, obverse 226 55. Pilgrim ampulla from Attleborough, reverse 226 56. Mould made from lithographic limestone, obverse 227 57. Mould made from lithographic limestone, reverse 227 58. Lead Ampulla with arrow motif 227 59. Badge cast from mould shown in figure 56 227 60. Scallop shell ampulla 228 61. Scallop shell ampulla 228 62. Scallop shell ampulla 228 8 63. Fourteenth century lead alloy Annunciation badge 229 64. Heart shaped badge with flowers issuing from the top 231 65. Detail from Bromholm pilgrim souvenir 231 66. Heart shaped badge with flowers issuing from the top 231 67. Assemblage of badges found at Bromholm Priory 232 68. Pilgrim badge from Wilsnack, Germany 234 69.