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A Note on Corrodies in the Fourteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Richard I. Harper
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Extract

The corrody is harshly judged by many medieval historians; it is condemned because it introduced into the cloister a distracting and often boistrous presence from the secular world. With sharp hindsight, they argue that the corrodies were poor financial policy and often saddled a convent with an unwelcome boarder who lived off its resources long after his original investment had been consumed. But the corrody was most often used, at least in the fourteenth century by bishops and archbishops, to reward a faithful servant or to provide care and maintenance for those who were unable to sustain themselves. In this article, the corrody and its recipients are examined in an effort to redress the balance and demonstrate its praiseworthy character as an institution of medieval charity.

But first things first. What is a corrody? Following the etymological derivation of the word made by A. Hamilton Thompson, corredium, corradium, corrodium and other variations are derived from conredum and conredium, which have “the primary connotation of equipage, and among others, it was especially applied to the provision made by a feudal vassal for the entertainment of his lord when he made his round. The corrody was the provender or prebend which was the lord's due …. [The[ corrody became first and foremost a grant of money or victuals, or of other means of livelihood, made by a monastery or other religious or charitable corporation to dependents upon its bounty.” According to one authority, the first usage of the word in this sense in England was in a deed of 1197.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Summer 1983 , pp. 95 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1983

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References

1 See, Wilson, James M. and Jones, Ethel C., Corrodies at Worcester in the Fourteenth Century (London, 1917), p. 5Google Scholar, and Thompson, A. Hamilton, The English Clergy and their Organization in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1947), p. 174.Google Scholar

2 Thompson, A. Hamilton, “A Corrody from Leicester Abbey,” Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions 14 (1926): 116.Google Scholar

3 Wilson, and Jones, , Corrodies at Worcester (London, 1917), p. 5 n.2Google Scholar. (“Et pro hac concessione predicti canonici concesserunt predicto Robert Triket unum corredium ad servientem, scilicet qualibet die unum panem etc”).

4 Thompson, , The English clergy and their Organization, pp. 174–75.Google Scholar

5 Thompson, A. Hamilton, ed., Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of Lincoln, 2 vols. (London, 1915), 1: passim.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 2:45; Sec, Canons Ashby: an accusation that the state of the house had come to ruin because of the sale of corrodies and of copses is a typical charge against the prior.

7 Thompson, , “A Corrody from Leicester Abbey,” pp. 120–21.Google Scholar

8 Thompson, , Visitations, 2:141.Google Scholar

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., 2: 175. Langley Priory also offers proof of the disruptive potential of the presence of a lay person in a monastic community. It was reported that “lady Audely [presumably Eleanor, second wife of James Tuchet, lord Audley c. 1398-1459], who boards in the same, has a great abundance of dogs, insomuch that whenever she comes to church there follow her twelve dogs, who make a great uproar in church, hindering them in their psalmody, and the nuns thereby are made terrified.” Gracedieu Priory was likewise plagued by the troublesome behavior of a pensioner, for there was there a “Frenchwoman who dwells in the priory and [who] should be removed because of the unseemliness of her life, for she receives all alike to her embraces” (ibid., p. 122).

11 London, Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Simonis Islip, f. 73v. Simon et cetera dilecto nobis in Christo Philippo de Milton salutem, gratiam et benedictionem. Attendentes labores indefessos quos in nostris et Celebris memorie Domini Johannis de Stretford predecessoris nostri obsequiis dum tibi viguerint robora iuventutis impendisti ut tibi iam vergenti in senectam in vite necessariis ob tua precedencia merita et futura succuramus singulis septimanis dum in nostris steteris obsequiis decern denarios et obolum et postmodum ad terminum vite tue man-sionem tuam et diebus singulis tantum in esculentis et poculentis seu pecunia pro eisdem quantum unius fratrum in hospitali nostro de Maydenstan percipiet in et de hospitali predicto tibi damus et convenimus per presentes sigillo nostro signatas in testimonium premissorum. Datum apud Maydenstan [14 July 1353] et consecrationis nostre quarto.

12 Registrum Islip, f. 184v, Tibi utroque lumine orbato paterno compacientes affectu ac de vite tue necessariis tibi providere volentes intuitu caritatis corrodium in victu et vestitu ac omnibus aliis necessariis in hospitali nostro de Maydenstan [16 February 1365].

13 Registrum Islip, ff. 17r., 73v., 133r., 175r., 179r., 184v., 196r., 203r., 213v., 260r.

14 Registrum Islip, f. 175r. Simon et cetera … Hugoni Cayly …. Statum quem Philippus de Milton nuper serviens noster defunctus in hospitali nostro de Maydenstan habuit dum vive-bat ….

15 Registrum Islip, ff. 184v, (Robert Goldyne) and 260r. (Robert de Burton).

16 Registrum Islip, ff. 73v, (Philip de Milton); 175r (Hugo Cayly); 179r (Robert de Lincoln); 196r (William Chandeler).

17 Registrum Islip, f. 17r, Simon et cetera … Hugoni lavendario nostro. Hugo had been laundryman to John Stratford as well as Islip. He actually promised the corrody that was then being enjoyed by Thomas atte Brome in the Hospital at Haidstone. Edith de Kenynworth (ibid.), who was described with the words “tui corporis senium,” was also granted an expectation to a corrody held at that time by Idania de Mersham.

18 Registrum Islip, f. 203r, Dilecto filio Thome Augmener de burgo Sancti Petri, Lincoln, dioc, … tuam paupertatem in quam iam vergisti et tui corporis senio confracti impotenciam ….

19 Ibid., Moram et habitationem ad terminum vite tue percipiendum diebus singulis quantum unus fratrum sive pauperum eiusdem hospitalis ibidem percipiet et percipere consuevit.

20 Page, William, ed., The Victoria History ofthe County of Kent 2 vols. (London, 1926), 2:232.Google Scholar

21 Registrum Islip, passim.

22 Registrum Islip, f. 260r.

23 Page, , Victoria History of The County of Kent, 2: 219.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., 2: 214. Simon Islip, in an effort to encourage charitable donations to the hospital, granted forty days' indulgence to all who made contributions to it (Registrum, f. 18v).

25 Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Reynolds, f. 262r.

26 Wood, A.C., ed., Registrum Simonis Langham (1366-1368) (Oxford, 1956), pp. 294, 309, 317.Google Scholar

27 Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Wittlesey, ff. 78v., 80r., 91r.

28 Ibid., f. 80r. Considerantes debilitatem persone tue morbo insuperabiliter percusse. Page, , Victoria History of the County of Kent, 2: 211.Google Scholar

29 Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Sudbiria, f. 133r, Corrodium … in victu et vestitu et aliis necessariis ad vite tue terminum [quod habuit dum vivebat] Hugo Keylee ….

30 Registrum Islip, f. 175r. Pro obsequiis nobis hactenus impensis et etiam impendendis ….

31 Canterbury Cathedral Library, Register G., f. 194v. senio confracto ….

32 Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Courtenay, ff. 206v., 220r., 261v.

33 pauperes mulieres.

34 pauper serviens.

35 The Hospital of S. John the Baptist, Northgate, like that of S. Nicholaus, Harbledown, was founded by Lanfranc and had much the same history. According to the ordinances made for both hospitals by archbishop Winchelsey in 1299, neither hospital was to grant corrodies, but clearly that prohibition meant that corrodies could not be granted independently of the archbishop's approval. Page, , Victoria History of the County of Kent, 2: 211.Google Scholar

36 Lambeth Palace Library, Registrum Arundell, ff. 266r., 273v., 274r., 276v., 284r., 296r., 302v. The register of Roger de Waldon (1397-1399) does not survive.

37 Registrum Islip, f. 78r.