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‘High Solemn Ceremonies’: The Funerary Practice of the Late Medieval English Higher Clergy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
Abstract
Medieval funerals combined the accumulation of merit for the soul of the deceased with social display. During the late medieval period funerary practice became more elaborate, formalised and expensive, a reflection of its eschatological and social importance. An extended funeral lasting several weeks, comprising a vigil, procession, liveried mourners, a hearse, heraldic elements, almsgiving and a feast, developed. Several of these elements were repeated a week, a month and a year after death. The late medieval higher clergy shared the same funeral culture as the wealthy laity but with significant differences, particularly greater liturgical sophistication and more generous charity.
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References
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2 Most recent studies have been either general surveys or have focused on the early modern period: P. Ariès, The hour of our death, Harmondsworth 1983; J. Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité de l'au-delà: les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la région d'Avignon à la fin du moyen âge (vers 1320–vers 1480), Rome 1980; C. Daniell, Death and burial in medieval England, London 1997; R. Dinn, ‘Death and rebirth in late medieval Bury St Edmunds’, in S. Basset (ed.), Death in towns: urban responses to the dying and the dead, 100–1600, Leicester 1995, 151–69; C. Gittings, Death, burial and the individual in early modern England, London 1995; R. Houlbrooke, Death, religion and the family in England, 1480–1750, Oxford 1998; J. Litten, The English way of death, London 1991.
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13 Heytesbury was a noted logician and natural philosopher resident at Wingham and his parish of Ickham, Kent, at the time of his death: Emden, Oxford, ii. 927–8; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a. For residence details see: Colyns (York Minster Library, E1/60, H2/3, fo. 216v); Dalby (York Minster Library, E1/16–29); Duffield (TE iii. 125); Greenwood (TE iii. 61); Kilkenny (Lepine, ‘Getting and spending’, 43); Nassington (Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms Ashmole 794, fos 58v–125); and Waynflete (The acts of the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of Chichester, 1472–1544, [the white act book], ed. W. D. Peckham [Sussex Record Society, 1952], 5, 120).
14 The figures used here are gross probate valuations of moveable goods which include debts owed to and by the deceased.
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19 Death and memory in medieval Exeter, ed. D. N. Lepine and N. I. Orme (Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 2003), 171–202.
20 PIYD, 82–91.
21 Bishop Bytton of Exeter's executors accounted for £5,395: Account of the executors of Richard, bishop of London, 1303 and of the executors of Thomas, bishop of Exeter, 1310, ed. W. H. Hale and H. T. Ellacombe (Camden n.s. x, 1874), 22.
22 Early fifteenth-century Exeter canons' estates ranged between £51 and £372: The register of Edmund Stafford, bishop of Exeter (AD 1395–1419), ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph, Exeter 1886, 402–3, 404–5, 408–9. Thomas Cotte (d. 1384), chancellor of Lincoln, left an estate of £659 3s: Lincolnshire Archives Office, dean and chapter Dvi/14/1.
23 CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
24 TE iii. 44–7.
25 TE iii. 2–9. The accounts of Nassington and Waynflete do not contain asset totals.
26 Peter Burnel (d. 1529), rector of Ellington, Hunts., had an estate of £122: TNA, PROB 2/481; Emden, Oxford, i. 316. Bartholomew Northern (d. 1499), rector of Blickling, had an estate of £136: The register of John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, 1486–1500, ed. C. Harper-Bill (Canterbury and York Society, 1987–2000), iii. 145; Emden, Cambridge, 427.
27 Simon Lastingham (d. 1399) a York chaplain was worth £7 13s. 4d. and William Leek (d. 1499), vicar of Bubwith, £18 6s. 11d.: PIYD, 24–6, 340–2.
28 Steer, F. W., ‘A medieval inventory’, Essex Review lxiii (1954), 4–20.Google Scholar John Fyncham (d. 1499), a Norfolk gentleman, William Wilford (d. 1413), an Exeter merchant, and Robert Talkarn (d. 1415), a York girdler, were worth £215, £228 and £133 respectively: Reg. Morton, iii. 145; Reg. Stafford, 402; PIYD, 35.
29 PROB 11/17, fo. 196.
30 TE i. 47.
31 TE iii. 8–9; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
32 Kexby £22 3s. 8½d., Nassington £26 16s. 0½ d., Greenwood £29 8s. 6d., Kilkenny, £32 9s. 1d.: TE iii. 46–7; Catalogue of muniments and manuscript books of the dean and chapter of Lichfield and of the Lichfield vicars, ed. J. C. Cox (William Salt Society, 1886), 225–30; PIYD, 90; Death and memory, 185–7.
33 TE iii. 18–19; MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1; TE iii. 143–4; TE iv. 301–3.
34 That of Bishop Gravesend of London in 1303 cost £270 16s. 10½ d.: Account of executors, 99–100; that of Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter (d. 1426), over £500: TNA, E101/514/22.
35 BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158; E. Ives, The common lawyers of pre-Reformation England, Cambridge 1983, 474–5; CCA DCc-ChAnt/W/209a; S. Thrupp, The merchant class of medieval London, Ann Arbor 1948, 364.
36 T. Fortescue, A history of the family of Fortescue, London 1880, 280–5; Steer, ‘Medieval inventory’, 16; The Stonor letters and papers, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Camden 3rd ser. xxix, 1919), 40–1. Other funeral costs for comparison include Margaret Pigot, widow of Sir Geoffrey (d. 1485), £7 19s. 6d.; John Sayer (d. 1530), esquire of Worsall, Yorks., £21 19s. 4d.; Sir Thomas Stonor (d. 1474), of Stonor, Oxon., £74 2s. 5d.; John Trevelyan (d. 1492) esquire, of Yarnscombe, Devon, £23 19s. 9½d.; and Thomas Vicars of Strensall, Yorks., £23: PIYD, 301–2; Wills and inventories from the registry of the archdeaconry of Richmond, ed. J. Raine (Surtees Society xxvi, 1853), 110; Stonor letters, 143–4, 162; Trevelyan papers prior to AD 1558, ed. J. Payne Collier (Camden o.s. lxvii, 1857), 96–7; PIYD, 185–6.
37 The funeral of Hugh Grantham, mason (d. 1410) cost £7 5s. 1d.; that of Richard Talkarn, girdler (d. 1415) £5 11s. 10d.; and those of Thomas Smyth, husbandman (d. 1479) £4 18s. 8d. and Richard Hawkesworth, vicar of St Lawrence York (d. 1466) £5 5s. 8½ d.: PIYD, 66, 75–6, 276, 246–7.
38 TE i. 261–4; iii. 43–4, 1–2.
39 TE iv. 277–9.
40 TE iii. 61.
41 PIYD, 90; TE iii. 18–19.
42 LPL, Reg. Whittlesey, fo. 126v.; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
43 Manuale ad usum percelebris ecclesia Sarisburiensis, ed. A. Jeffries Collins (Henry Bradshaw Society, 1960), 118. There is much much useful detail about medieval funeral liturgy in D. Rock, The Church of our fathers, ed. G. W. Hart and W. H. Frere, London 1903–4, ii. 377–419.
44 Catalogue of muniments, 226.
45 Litten, English way of death, 35–9, 123; TE iv. 302.
46 Death and memory, 186.
47 Litten, English way of death, 88; Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité, 122.
48 R. Finucane, ‘Sacred corpse: profane carrion: social ideas and death rituals in the later Middle Ages’, in J. Whaley (ed.), Mirrors of mortality: studies in the social history of death, London 1981, 40–60 at p. 41. Dean Tregrisiou of Exeter wanted his funeral within three days of his death or on the morning of the fourth: Reg. Stafford, 406. Magnate funerals took place up to a month after death: Houlbrooke, Death, religion and the family, 259.
49 TE iii. 19; Catalogue of muniments, 226.
50 Thomas Barton, canon of Exeter, asked for the Placebo and Dirige to be said daily while his body lay in his house: Reg. Stafford, 411.
51 TE iii. 18.
52 TE iv. 302.
53 Catalogue of muniments, 226.
54 Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité, 126–8, 135, 138, 140–1.
55 L. Taylor, Mourning dress, London 1983, 22–6, 65–77.
56 PROB 11/7, fo. 45.
57 Mourners were dressed in black at the funeral of Philip iii of France in 1285: Erlande-Brandenburg, Roi est mort, 22.
58 Accounts of executors, 22–6.
59 LPL, Reg. Courtenay, fo. 200.
60 TE i. 6, 18, 50, 53. No liveries were provided for Thomas Romayn's funeral in 1313.
61 TE iii. 18–19, 143–4; iv. 302–3.
62 Fortescue, History, 280. Margaret Rede's executors spent £5 10s. on liveries for 30 poor mourners and £46 12s. 6d. for liveries for 62 gentlemen, yeomen and others: BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158. Six cloaks and hoods were provided for poor mourners at Margaret Pigot's funeral at a cost of 20s.: PIYD, 301. Both Sayer's and Trevelyan's executors spent £6 on liveries: Wills and inventories, 110; Trevelyan papers, 96–7.
63 MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
64 TE i. 364–71.
65 The register of Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury, ed. E. F. Jacob (Canterbury and York Society, 1937–47), ii. 130, and also pp. 18, 390–1.
66 Rock, Church of our fathers, ii. 391–9.
67 TE iv. 302.
68 TE iii. 18–19; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
69 TNA, E101/514/22.
70 TE iv. 278.
71 For a discussion of heraldic funerals see A. F. Sutton with P. W. Hammond, The reburial expenses of Richard duke of York, 21–30 July 1476, London 1996, and Kleineke, H., ‘The reburial expenses of Sir Thomas Arundell’, The Ricardian xi (1998), 288–96.Google Scholar
72 There is an important discussion of Canterbury funerals in C. Wilson, ‘The medieval monuments’, in P. Collinson, N. Ramsay and M. Sparks (eds), A history of Canterbury cathedral, Oxford 1995, 451–510. Other examples include Bishop Hill of London (d. 1496), Bishop Ruthall of Durham (d. 1523) and Archbishop Savage of York (d. 1507): BL, ms Add. 45,131, fos 203, 147v–50v; TE v. 321.
73 MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
74 V. Davis, William Waynflete: bishop and educationalist, Woodbridge 1993, 124.
75 Colyns's arms appeared on his tomb slab: F. Drake, Eboracum, York 1736, 505. Duffield's brother was styled esquire: TE iii. 126. At the funeral of John Trevelyan, esquire, only 4s. was spent on heraldic devices, twelve ‘papers with arms’: Treevelyan papers, 97.
76 The cost could range from the few shillings spent at Waynflete's funeral to several pounds; £15 12s. 7d. was spent on heraldic devices at the funeral of Thomas Bradbury (d. 1510), former mayor of London: BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 152.
77 A. Brown, Popular piety in late medieval England: the diocese of Salisbury, 1250–1550, Oxford 1995, 65.
78 D. N. Lepine, A brotherhood of canons serving God, Woodbridge 1995, 51–2.
79 The statutes of St Paul's briefly outline the pattern of canons' funerals: the commendatio, procession to the cathedral, night vigil, requiem mass and burial: Registrum statutorum et consuetudinum ecclesie cathedralis Sancti Pauli Londiniensis, ed. W. Sparrow Simpson, London 1873, 62.
80 PROB 11/16, fos 205v–206 (will of Owen Pole, 1509).
81 Manuale Sarisburiensis, 132; Ceremonies and processions of the cathedral church of Salisbury, ed. C. Wordsworth, Cambridge 1901, 211–12.
82 Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité, 137–8.
83 TE ii. 261; iii. 61. David Hopton (d. 1492), archdeacon of Exeter, offered 10s.: PROB 11/9, fo. 60.
84 TE iv. 302–3.
85 Death and memory, 272–311.
86 TE iii. 8–9; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
87 TE iii. 143–4.
88 TE iii. 18–19.
89 Fortescue, History, 281; PIYD, 185–6.
90 The estate and household accounts of William Worsley, dean of St Paul's cathedral, 1479–97, ed. H. Kleineke and S. Hovland (London Records Society, 2004), 70.
91 MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
92 TE iii. 143–4.
93 PROB 11/16, fos 205v–206; Rock, Church of our fathers, ii. 404–5.
94 TE iii. 143. Sermons were preached at the funerals of Anne Fortescue and Margaret Rede: Fortescue, History, 281; BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158.
95 TE iii. 18.
96 Manuale Sarisburiensis, 152–62; G. Duranti, Rationale divinorum officiorum, ed. A. Davril and T. M. Thibodeau, CCCM, 1995–2000, cxlB.98–9.
97 CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a; TE iii. 46; Death and memory, 186–7; MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
98 TE iv. 301–3.
99 TE iii. 61.
100 TE iv. 302. The sums distributed at the other funerals were Dalby £13 9s. 4d., Duffield £10, Heytesbury £4 6s. 1d., Kexby £6 11s. 8d., Kilkenny £12 15s. 11d. and Nassington £9 8s. 8d.: TE iii. 18–19, 143–4; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a; TE iii. 46–7; Death and memory, 186–7; Catalogue of muniments, 226–7.
101 MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
102 Fortescue, History, 281. Generally almsgiving at the lay funerals in this survey was on a smaller scale than at the higher clergy ones: Margaret Pigot £2 1s. 1d., Margaret Rede £7, John Sayer £6 13s. 4d., Joan Belknap 29s. 9d., John Trevelyan 17s., Thomas Urswick £2 13s. 4d., Thomas Vicars £1 4s.: PIYD, 301–2; BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158; Wills and inventories, 110; Stonor letters, 40; Trevelyan papers, 96–7; ‘Medieval inventory’, 16–17; PIYD, 185–6.
103 Clark, E., ‘Institutional and legal responses to begging in late medieval England’, Social Science History xxvi (2002), 447–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The logistical problems of large-scale almsgiving are discussed in Lepine, ‘Getting and spending’, 63–5.
104 TE iii. 18.
105 Reg. Chichele, ii. 351.
106 The sums spent were: Nassington £11 9d., Dalby £21 7s. 3½d., Duffield £28 7s. 3d.: Catalogue of muniments, 225–6; TE iii. 18–19, 143–4; Fortescue, History, 281. The cost of Thomas Romayn's feast was £24 14s. 2d., Thomas Vicars' week's mind, £15 2s. 6d., Margaret Rede's £5 (plus materials in store), John Trevelyan's £3 16s. 8d., and Joan Belknap's 35s. 7½d.: CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/209a; PIYD, 186; BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158; Trevelyan papers, 96–7; Stonor letters, 40.
107 TE iii. 19; Catalogue of muniments, 226; TE iii. 144; MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
108 Stonor letters, 143–4.
109 TE iii. 8–9.
110 124 goblets and 94 pots were bought for Dalby's and 100 dishes for Nassington's: TE iii. 19; Catalogue of muniments, 226; MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
111 TE iii. 126.
112 MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1.
113 Stonor letters, 143–4.
114 Death and memory, 186; TE iv. 302.
115 Daniell, Death and burial, 52–3; Rowell, Liturgy of Christian burial, 66.
116 Duranti, Rationale, cxl. 56.
117 In fifteenth-century Hull bells were rung to signal the funerals of notable men and bellmen marked funerals, octaves, month's minds and anniversaries: P. Heath, ‘Urban piety in the later Middle Ages: the evidence of Hull wills’, in B. Dobson (ed.), The Church, politics and patronage in the fifteenth century, Gloucester 1984, 209–34 at p. 217.
118 Ordinale Exon, ed. J. N. Dalton and G. H. Doble (Henry Bradshaw Society, 1909–41), ii. 537–8.
119 TE iii. 18.
120 Catalogue of muniments, 226.
121 Death and memory, 186; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
122 PROB/11/17, fos 24v–25.
123 Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité, 140.
124 Death and memory, 314.
125 TE iii. 18.
126 60lbs of wax were used at Kilkenny's and 78½ lbs at Duffield's: Death and memory, 185; TE iii. 143.
127 CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/209a; BL, ms Add. 45,131, fo. 158. At Joan Belknap's funeral £10 5s. 10d. was spent on wax: Stonor letters, 40.
128 TE iii. 8–9; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
129 TE iii. 126; Lepine, ‘Getting and spending’, 66.
130 TE iii. 1; Reg. Whittlesey, fo. 126v.
131 Duranti, Rationale, cxlB. 100.
132 Death and memory, 186; Catalogue of muniments, 225, 228.
133 Daniell, Death and burial, 169–71; J. Williams, ‘The ornaments: the plate’, in G. Aylmer and J. Tiller (eds), Hereford cathedral: a history, London 2000, 508.
134 Duranti, Rationale, cxlB.100.
135 Total costs, including construction costs, were: Colyns £6 7s. 4d., Dalby £15 2s. 2d., Kilkenny £8 5d. and Nassington £8 1s. 10d.: TE iv. 302; iii. 18–19; Death and memory, 186; Catalogue of muniments, 226. Kexby's stone cost £1 6s. 8d.: TE iii. 47.
136 TE iii. 144; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a.
137 J. Newman, North East and East Kent, Harmondsworth 1969, 348. Heytesbury is the most likely incumbent to have been able to afford an effigy.
138 S. Badham, ‘Brasses and other minor monuments’, in Aylmer and Tiller, Hereford cathedral, 331–5; R. Sanderson and F. Peck, Lincoln cathedral: an exact copy of all the ancient monumental inscriptions as in 1641, London 1851.
139 Lepine, ‘Getting and spending’, 52.
140 Drake, Eboracum, 501, 505.
141 TE iv. 302–3.
142 TE iii. 18, 8–9.
143 Death and memory, 187.
144 The burial day cost £14 4s. 2d. and the month's mind £64 4s. 4d.: MCO, MC FA9/1/1F/1. The difference between the two is partly the result of accounting methods; much of the food for the burial day feast came from existing stores. There is a similar disparity in the funeral of John Trevelyan which may reflect the speed at which the body was buried: Trevelyan papers, 96–7.
145 The costs were: Colyns £5 4s. 4½d., Dalby £5 9s. 11d., Duffield £8 12s. 11d., Heytesbury £5 15s. 1½ d., Kilkenny £11 8s. 3d., and Nassington £4 2s. 11d.: TE iv. 303; iii. 21, 144; CCA, DCc-ChAnt/W/210a; Death and memory, 187; Catalogue of muniments, 227.
146 Chiffoleau, La Comptabilité, 150.