PROGRESS OF THE DISEASE IN LONDON AND THE SOUTH.
For a time the people of Gloucester strove, but in vain, to protect
their city by prohibiting all intercourse with plague-stricken
Bristol. The contagion passed from one district to another, from
town to town, and village to village, soon involving the entire land
in one common misfortune. "There was no city, nor town, nor hamlet,
nor even, save in rare instances, any house," writes an English
contemporary, "in which this plague did not carry off the whole,
or the greater portion, of the inhabitants." And so great was the
destruction of life "that the living scarcely sufficed to tend the
sick and bury the dead." . . . In some places, on account of the
deficiency of cemeteries, the Bishop consecrated new burial grounds.
"In that time there was sold a quarter of wheat for 12d., a quarter
of barley for 9d., a quarter of beans for 8d., a quarter of oats
for 6d., a large ox for 40d., a good horse for six shillings, which
formerly was worth 40 shillings, a good cow for two shillings, and
even for eighteen-pence. And even at this price buyers were only
rarely to be found. And this pestilence lasted for two years and more
before England was freed from it."
"When, by God's mercy it ceased, there was such a scarcity of
labourers that none could be had for agricultural purposes. On
account of this scarcity, women, and even small children, were to be
seen with the plough and leading the waggons."[154]
The rapidity with which the contagion spread from place to place
makes it now impossible to follow its course with [p093] any
certainty; the more so because it seems likely that many towns on
the southern and western coasts became fresh starting points for
the disease. London, in constant communication with other ports, is
said by one contemporary to have been attacked as early as September
29th, 1348,[155] whilst other authorities fix, at latest, All Saints'
day—November 1st—as the date when the epidemic declared itself in
London. It lasted in the city and its neighbourhood till about the
feast of Pentecost next following, and according to the contemporary
Robert of Avesbury, it was most severe in the two months from
February 2nd to Easter. During the time, he says, "almost every day
there were buried in the new cemetery, then made at Smithfield, more
than 200 bodies of the dead, over and above those buried in other
cemeteries of the city."[156]
Parliament, which was to have assembled at Westminster in January,
1349, was at the beginning of the month prorogued, because, as the
King says, "the plague of deadly pestilence had suddenly broken out
in the said place and the neighbourhood, and daily increased in
severity so that grave fears were entertained for the safety of those
coming there at that time."[157] The churchyards of the city were
quickly found to be insufficient, and two, if not three, cemeteries
were opened. Of the one in Smithfield referred to in the quotation
already given from Robert of Avesbury, the historian Stowe gives the
following account:—"In the year 1348 (23 Edward III.) the first great
pestilence in his time began, and increased so sore that from want of
room in churchyards to bury the dead of the city and of the suburbs,
one John Corey, clerk, procured of Nicholas, prior of the Holy
Trinity within Aldgate, one toft of ground near unto East Smithfield
for the burial of them that died, with condition that it might be
called 'the churchyard of the Holy Trinity;' which ground he caused,
by the aid of [p094] divers devout citizens, to be enclosed with a
wall of stone. Robert Elsing, son of William Elsing, gave five pounds
thereunto; and the same was dedicated by Ralph Stratford, Bishop
of London, where innumerable bodies of the dead were afterwards
buried, and a chapel built in the same place, to the honour of God."
Subsequently Edward III. founded there a monastery of Cistercian
monks dedicated to our Lady of Graces.[158]
The same author also relates the establishment of the better-known
new cemetery, where subsequently the Charterhouse was founded.
"The churchyards," he writes of this time, "were not sufficient to
receive the dead, but men were forced to choose out certain fields
for burials. Whereupon Ralph Stratford, Bishop of London, in the
year 1348, bought a piece of ground, called 'No man's land,' which
he enclosed with a wall of brick and dedicated for the burial of the
dead, building thereupon a proper chapel, which is now (_i.e._, 1598)
enlarged and made a dwelling-house; and this burying plot is become a
fair garden, retaining the old name of 'Pardon Churchyard.'
"After this, in the year 1349, the said Sir Walter Manny, in respect
of the danger that might befal in this time of so great a plague and
infection, purchased thirteen acres and a rood of ground, adjoining
to the said 'No man's land,' and lying in a place called 'Spittle
Croft,' because it belonged to St. Bartholomew's Hospital (since that
called 'New Church Haw'), and caused it to be consecrated by the said
Bishop of London to the use of burials.
"In this plot of ground there were (in that year) more than 50,000
persons buried, as I have read in the Charters of Edward the Third.
"Also I have seen and read an inscription, fixed on a stone cross
sometime standing in the same churchyard, and having these words:
_Anno Domini 1349._ _Regnante_, &c. That is in English, 'A great
plague raging in the year of [p095] our Lord 1349, this churchyard
was consecrated; wherein, and within the bounds of the present
monastery, were buried more than 50,000 bodies of the dead, besides
many others from thence to the present time, whose souls God have
mercy upon. Amen."[159]
Whilst it is perfectly possible, and even probable, that the
number 50,000, named by Stowe as buried in one churchyard, is an
exaggerated estimate, it is on the other hand more than likely that
the pestilence found the sanitary condition of the London of that
period very favourable for its rapid development. The narrow and
ill-cleansed streets, the low, unventilated and undrained houses,
and the general condition of living at the time would all favour the
growth of so contagious a disease as that which visited the city in
the middle of the fourteenth century. One slight glimpse of the state
of the streets about this time is afforded in a document issued by
the King to the Mayor and Sheriffs, when in 1361 a second visitation
threatened to become as destructive to human life as that of 1349.
"Because," says the royal letter, "by the killing of great beasts,
from whose putrid blood running down the streets and the bowels cast
into the Thames, the air in the city is very much corrupted and
infected, whence abominable and most filthy stench proceeds, sickness
and many other evils have happened to such as have abode in the said
city, or have resorted to it; and great dangers are feared to fall
out for the time to come, unless remedy be presently made against
it; we, willing to prevent such dangers, ordain, by consent of the
present Parliament, that all 'bulls, oxen, hogs, and other gross
creatures' be killed at either Stratford or Knightsbridge."[160]
[p096]
There are indeed many indications that the number of those who
died in the city was very great.[161] The extraordinary increase in
the number of wills proved in the "Court of Hustings" affords some
indication of this. During the three previous years the average
number in that Court was twenty-two. In 1349 they reached the number
of 222; and the wills themselves afford further evidence of the
rapidity with which members of the same family followed each other
to the grave. In one instance a son, who was appointed executor to
his father's will, died before probate could be obtained, and his
own will was passed through the Court together with that of his
father.[162] The number of probates granted in each month is some
indication of the time when the mortality was highest. May, with a
total of 121, and July, with 51, are the largest numbers, whilst it
is curious to observe that the large number in May is accounted for
by the fact that none were proved in April.[163] It may be surmised
that this was brought about by the complete paralysis of all business
about the month of April in consequence of the sickness; [p097] this
view being strengthened by the fact that no Easter sittings of the
Courts of Justices were held.
Westminster was grievously visited by the sickness. On March 10th,
1349, in proroguing the Parliament for the second time, the King
declared that the plague had increased in Westminster and London more
seriously than ever.[164] Some weeks later the great monastery was
attacked; early in May abbot Bircheston died, and at the same time 27
of his monks were committed to a common grave in the southern walk
of the cloister. To relieve the urgent necessities of the house and
those about it jewels and other ornaments to the value of £315 13s.
8d.—a large sum in those days—were sold during the visitation out of
the monastic treasury.[165]
At Westminster, too, the Hospital of St. James was left without
inmates. "The then guardian and all the other brethren and sisters,
except one," had died; and in May, 1349, William de Weston, the
survivor, was appointed guardian. Charged with dilapidation, he
was deposed in 1351, but in 1353 the house still remained without
inmates.[166]
What happened at St. Albans has been recorded by Walsingham in the
_Gesta Abbatum_. Speaking of abbot Michael Mentmore, he writes: "The
pestilence, which carried off well-nigh half of all mankind, coming
to St. Albans he was struck by a premature death, being touched by
the common misery amongst the first of his monks, who were carried
off by the deadly disease. And although on Maundy Thursday (_i.e._,
Thursday in Holy Week) he felt the beginning of the ailment, still
out of devotion to the feast, and in memory of our Lord's humility,
he celebrated solemnly the High Mass, and after that, before dinner,
humbly and reverently washed the feet of the poor. Then, after
partaking of food, he washed and kissed the [p098] feet of all the
brethren. And all the offices of that day he performed alone and
without assistance.
"On the morrow, the sickness increasing, he betook himself to bed,
and like a true catholic, having made, with contrite heart, a sincere
confession, he received the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. And so in
sorrow and sadness he lasted till noon of Easter-Day.
"And because the plague was then raging, and the air was corrupt,
and the monks were dying day by day," he was buried as quickly as
possible. "And there died at that time, forty-seven monks" over
and above those who were carried off in great numbers, in (the
monasteries which are) the cells (of St. Albans)."[167]
In another place the same writer adds: "By God's permission came the
pestilence which swept away such numbers. Amongst the abbots was Dom
Michael of pious memory, abbot of St. Albans. At that same time the
prior of the monastery, Nicholas, and the sub-prior of the place
also died. By the advice, therefore, of those learned in the law the
convent chose Dom Thomas de Risburgh, professor of Holy Scripture, as
prior of the Monastery."[168]
From the date of the death of the abbot of St. Albans, on April the
12th, 1349, it would appear that the epidemic was then at its height
in that part of Hertfordshire. The institutions for the portion of
the county in the diocese of Lincoln, however, show that it must
have lingered on, at any rate in the northern part, till the late
summer.[169]
"In Hertfordshire Manors," writes Mr. Thorold Rogers, "where it
(_i.e._, the great plague of 1349) was specially [p099] destructive,
it was the practice, for thirty years, to head the schedule of
expenditure with an enumeration of the lives which were lost and the
tenancies which were vacated after 1348."[170]
The neighbouring counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and
Berkshire suffered in the same way. Although the chronicles make no
special mention of the ravages of the epidemic in them, it would,
indeed, from other sources of information, appear that during the
first half of 1349 the mortality in this district was as great as
in most other parts of the country. Thus, the general state of the
country after the plague had passed may be illustrated from a class
of documents known as _Inquisitiones post mortem_. Theoretically,
at least, the whole country belonged to the Sovereign; the actual
possessors holding as tenants of the Crown, just as the smaller
farmers and peasants held from the tenant _in capite_. On the death
of landowners, therefore, the Crown exercised certain rights and
claimed certain dues, which it levied on the estates, the King's
officers holding them until the rights of the Sovereign over the
in-coming heir were satisfied. To secure these in each county, an
official was appointed known as the Escheator, whose duty it was on
the death of any landowner, in response to the King's writ, to summon
a jury bound by oath to inquire into, and testify to, the extent and
value of the land held by the deceased person. The record of their
sworn verdict is known as the _Inquisitio post mortem_.
These returns made into the King's Court of Chancery, even as
they now exist—many of them having been lost, or having otherwise
disappeared—show a great increase in number in the year 1349. The
average number of these inquisitions for the two years 1346 and 1347
is less than 120; in 1348 there are 130, whilst in 1349 there still
exist 311 such records. That the number was very considerably [p100]
more than this appears from the entry of the writs to the various
Escheators upon the "Originalia Roll" for 1349. From this source it
may be gathered that the number of writs issued by the King upon
information of the death of landed proprietors was 619. Sometimes
several such writs are addressed at one time to the Escheator to
inquire into many deaths in the same place.[171]
These records afford evidence of the numbers of landowners swept off
by the scourge, but their special value lies in the testimony they
afford to the state of various manors and holdings examined in regard
to their value after the plague had abated. The smaller tenants
paying rent or performing land services were, of course, the chief
element in the value of an estate, and especially where the land was
in common, as was generally the case, empty farmsteads and cottages
meant a proportional decrease in the yearly value.
Thus, to take some examples of the evidence of the epidemic in this
district. Of the manor of Sladen in Buckinghamshire, not far from
Berkhampstead, a jury, about the beginning of August, 1349, declared
upon oath that the mill was of no value, since the miller was dead
and there were no tenants left to want any corn ground, "because of
the mortality." The rents derived hitherto from the free tenants,
natives of the soil and cottagers, had been £12 a year, now it is
declared that there are no tenants at all, and that the land is
lying untilled and useless. On the whole manor one little cottage,
with a strip of land, held by one John Robyns on a service rent
worth seven shillings a year, was apparently all that was considered
to be worth anything. At another place on the same estate all the
tenants and cottars except one were dead, and at a third not one had
survived.[172]
[p101] In Bedfordshire, by the end of May, 1349, the same tale is
told. A cloth mill on the manor of Storington is said to be idle and
worthless, and the reason assigned is that "it stands empty through
the mortality of the plague, and there is no one who wishes to use
it or rent it for the same reason." Land, too, is described as lying
uncultivated, and woods cannot be sold because there is no one to
buy.[173]
In Berkshire, in July, 1349, on a manor belonging to the Husee family
the rents and services of the natives of the soil, "now dead," which
were formerly worth thirty-two shillings a year, are declared to be
without any value at all, because, as the Inquisition says, "there is
no one willing to buy or to hire the land of the said dead tenants,"
and since the land lay all in common it could not be cultivated, and
was thus useless.[174] In the same way, on the manor of Crokham,
which had belonged to Catherine, wife of the Earl of Salisbury,
even as early as April 23rd of this year the free tenants and other
holders, who had paid yearly £13, were all dead, and no tenants could
be got to take up their lands.[175] In other places there are no
Court fees, no services performed, and no mills used, because all
on the land are dead; houses and tenements also are in hand, and
rents everywhere are either reduced or are nothing at all, because
some or all of those who held the lands and cottages have been swept
away.[176]
The institutions for the county of Buckingham show that in the
year 1349[177] there were eighty-three appointments made to vacant
livings. This is slightly less than half the total number of
benefices in the county, which appears to have been 180. From the
appointments that are dated it [p102] appears probable that the
sickness was at its worst in the county in the months from May till
September, 1349.[178]
On the other side of London, the dioceses of Canterbury and
Rochester divide between them the county of Kent. The Archbishop had
jurisdiction over the south-eastern portion with its long line of
coast stretching from the Medway to the boundaries of Sussex. The
diocese of Rochester included the western portion of Kent, which lies
on the southern bank of the Thames from London to Sheerness. The
diocese of Canterbury was in many respects peculiarly exposed to the
chances of contagion. In it were situated both Dover and Sandwich,
the two chief points of communication with the ports of France, and
through the city of Canterbury passed the main line of road between
the coast and London.
Thrice, within a few months, the Archiepiscopal See was deprived by
death of its ruler; and one, at least, of these, and very probably
two, died of the prevailing sickness. The register of the prior
and convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, during the vacancy, shows
that institutions to livings in the diocese followed one another
in rapid succession, and that deaths must have occurred in a large
proportion of the benefices of this part of England.[179] "In the
year of our Lord, 1348, immediately after the close of the Nativity,"
writes Stephen Birchington, in his history of the Archbishops of
Canterbury, "arrived the common death of all people; and it lasted
continuously till the end of the month of May, in the year 1349.
By this pestilence barely a third part of mankind were left alive.
Then, also, there was such a scarcity and dearth of priests that
the [p103] parish churches remained almost unserved, and beneficed
persons, through fear of death, left the care of the benefices, not
knowing where to go."[180]
At Canterbury itself there is some evidence of the epidemic. The
abbot of St. Augustine's had died of the disease at Avignon; but no
information has been preserved of what took place at the monastery
itself, although the fact that abbot Thomas asked for and obtained
from Pope Clement VI dispensations, "on account of defect of birth,"
for six monks, whom he desired to have ordained at this time, makes
it more than probable that the pestilence had carried off many
members of the community, whose places it was necessary to fill.
At Christchurch only four of the community died at the time, and
this comparative immunity has been ascribed to the excellent
water supply obtained a century before for the monastery from the
hills.[181] Later on in the summer, however, when the new abbot of
St. Albans rested at Canterbury, on his way to the Pope at Avignon,
one of the two companions whom he had with him died of the sickness
there.[182] In the city, also, two masters were appointed to the
Hospital of Eastbridge, one quickly after the other. The prioress of
St. Sepulchre's and the prior of St. Gregory's both died; but we can
only suspect what happened in the communities at this anxious time,
and among the people at large. At Sandwich, in the June of 1349, the
plague was still raging. The old cemetery was full to overflowing,
and the suffragan bishop was commissioned to proceed thither and
consecrate a new piece of ground, given for the purpose by the Earl
of Huntingdon.[183]
One example may be given here of the rapidity with which during the
great sickness members of a family [p104] followed one another
to the grave. Sir Thomas Dene, of Ospring, about three miles from
Faversham, in the northern part of the diocese of Rochester,
died on May the 18th, 1349. At the time of his death he had four
daughters—Benedicta, five years old, Margaret, four years, and Martha
and Joan, younger still. By July the 8th Martha, the wife of Sir
Thomas, had also died, and from the inquisition, taken on Monday, the
3rd of August, 1349, it appears that of the children the two youngest
were now also dead. Thus, out of a family of six, the father, mother,
and two children had been carried off by the disease.[184]
In this second half of the county of Kent, which forms the diocese
of Rochester, the sickness was felt as severely as in the Canterbury
diocese. What happened here is told in the account of William Dene,
a monk of Rochester, and a contemporary of the events he describes.
"A plague such as never before had been heard of," he writes,
"ravaged England in this year. The Bishop of Rochester out of his
small household lost four priests, five gentlemen, ten serving men,
seven young clerks, and six pages, so that not a soul remained who
might serve him in any office. At Malling (a Benedictine nunnery)
he blessed two abbesses, and both quickly died, and there were left
there only four professed nuns and four novices. To one of these the
Bishop committed the charge of the temporals, to another that of the
spirituals, because no proper person for abbess could be found."
"The whole of this time," says the writer in another place, "the
Bishop of Rochester remained at Halling[185] and Trotterscliff,[186]
and he conferred orders in both places at certain intervals. Alas,
for our sorrow! this mortality swept away so vast a multitude of both
sexes that none could be found to carry the corpses to the grave. Men
and women bore their own offspring on their shoulders to the church
[p105] and cast them into a common pit. From these there proceeded
so great a stench that hardly anyone dared to cross the cemeteries."
The chronicler calls attention, in the most distinct terms, to a
fact mentioned by Birchington of Canterbury, and touched on by the
Bishop of Bath and Wells (p. 81), namely, that dread of the contagion
interfered even with the exercise of priestly functions. These are,
perhaps, the only cases in England which recall the terrible and
uncontrollable fear which in Italy issued in an abandonment of all
principle.
Again, he says: "In this pestilence many chaplains and paid clerics
refused to serve, except at excessive salaries. The Bishop of
Rochester, by a mandate addressed to the archdeacon of Rochester,
on the 27th of June, 1349, orders all these, on pain of suspension,
to serve such cures;"[187] "and some priests and clerics refuse
livings, now vacant in law and fact," writes the Bishop, "because
they are slenderly provided for; and some, having poor livings, which
they had long ago obtained, are now unwilling to keep them, because
their stipend, on account of the death of their parishioners, is so
notoriously diminished that they cannot get a living and bear the
burden of their cure. It has accordingly happened that parishes have
remained unserved for a long time, and the cure attached to them has
been abandoned to the great danger of souls. We, desiring to remedy
this as soon as possible, by the present letters permit and grant
special leave to all rectors and vicars of our city and diocese
instituted, or hereafter to be instituted, to such slender benefices
as do not produce a true revenue of ten marks sterling a year, to
receive during their poverty an anniversary mass, or such a number of
masses as may bring their stipends to this annual sum."[188] [p106]
Then after noting that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas
Bradwardine, had died in the Bishop of Rochester's palace in London,
William Dene continues: "So great was the deficiency of labourers
and workmen of every kind in those days that more than a third of
the land over the whole kingdom remained uncultivated. The labourers
and skilled workmen were imbued with such a spirit of rebellion that
neither king, law, nor justice could curb them. The whole people for
the greater part ever became more depraved, more prone to every vice,
and more inclined than before to evil and wickedness, not thinking
of death, nor of the past plague, nor of their own salvation. . . .
And priests, little weighing the sacrifice of a contrite spirit,
betook themselves to places where they could get larger stipends than
in their own benefices. On which account many benefices remained
unserved, whose holders would not be stayed by the rule of their
Ordinary. Thus, day by day, the dangers to soul both in clergy and in
people multiplied."
"Throughout the whole of that winter and spring the Bishop of
Rochester, an old and decrepid man, remained at Trotterscliff,
saddened and grieving over the sudden change of the age. And in
every manor of the Bishopric buildings and walls fell to ruins, and
that year there was hardly a manor which returned a hundred pounds.
In the monastery of Rochester, also, there was such a scarcity of
provisions that the community were troubled with great want of food;
so much so that the monks were obliged to grind their own bread."
The prior, however, adds the writer, always lived well. William Dene
also relates much that will come under consideration when the results
of the great pestilence are dealt with. Here, however, it may be
noted that he speaks of "the Bishop visiting the abbey of Malling
and the monastery of Lesnes," when he found them so poor "that, as
is thought, from the present age to the Day of Judgment they can
never recover." Moreover, he notes that Simon Islep, on the day of
his enthronisation [p107] as Archbishop of Canterbury, did not keep
the feast, as was usual, with great display, but to avoid all expense
kept it simply with the monks in their refectory at Christchurch.[189]
To this account of the state of the diocese of Rochester, written at
the time, it is only necessary to add that the number of benefices
in this portion of Kent was some 230, which will serve as some
indication of the number of clergy carried off by the prevailing
sickness.
The diocese of Winchester includes the two counties of Surrey and
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. On the 24th of October, 1348, Bishop
Edyndon, the occupant of the see, addressed a letter to his clergy
ordering prayers.[190] It bears upon it the stamp of the horror which
had seized upon the minds of all by reason of the reports now coming
to hand of what had taken place in other countries. "William, by
Divine providence, Bishop," he writes, "to the prior and chapter of
our Church of Winchester, health, grace, and benediction. A voice in
Rama has been heard; much weeping and crying has sounded throughout
the various countries of the globe. Nations, deprived of their
children in the abyss of an unheard plague, refuse to be consoled
because, as is terrible to hear of, cities, towns, castles, and
villages, adorned with noble and handsome buildings, and wont up to
the present to rejoice in an illustrious people, in their wisdom and
counsel, in their strength, and in the beauty of their matrons and
virgins; wherein, too, every joy abounded, and whither multitudes
of people flocked from afar for relief; all these have already been
stripped of their population by the calamity of the said pestilence,
more cruel than any two-edged sword. And into these said places now
none dare enter, but fly far from them as from the dens of wild
beasts. Every joy has ceased in them; pleasant [p108] sounds are
hushed, and every note of gladness is banished. They have become
abodes of horror and a very wilderness; fruitful country places,
without the tillers, thus carried off, are deserts and abandoned to
barrenness. And, news most grave which we report with the deepest
anxiety, this cruel plague, as we have heard, has already begun to
singularly afflict the various coasts of the realm of England. We
are struck with the greatest fear lest, which God forbid, the fell
disease ravage any part of our city and diocese. And although God,
to prove our patience, and justly to punish our sins, often afflicts
us, it is not in man's power to judge the Divine counsels. Still, it
is much to be feared that man's sensuality, which, propagated by the
tendency of the old sin of Adam, from youth inclines all to evil, has
now fallen into deeper malice and justly provoked the Divine wrath by
a multitude of sins to this chastisement.
"But because God is loving and merciful, patient, and above all
hatred, we earnestly beg that by your devotion He may ward off
from us the scourge we have so justly deserved, if we now turn to
Him humbly with our whole heart. We exhort you in the Lord, and in
virtue of obedience we strictly enjoin you to come before the face
of God, with contrition and confession of all your sins, together
with the consequent due satisfaction through the efficacious works of
salutary penance. We order further that every Sunday and Wednesday
all of you, assembled together in the choir of your monastery, say
the seven Penitential psalms, and the fifteen gradual psalms, on
your knees, humbly and devoutly. Also on every Friday, together with
these Psalms, we direct that you chant the long litany, instituted
against pestilences of this kind by the holy Fathers, through the
market-place of our city of Winchester, walking in procession,
together with the clergy and people of the said city. We desire that
all should be summoned to these solemn processions and urged to
make use of other devout exercises, and [p109] directed to follow
these processions in such a way that during their course they walk
with heads bent down, with feet bare, and fasting; whilst with pious
hearts they repeat their prayers and, putting away vain conversation,
say, as often as possible, the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary. Also
that they should remain in earnest prayer to the close of the Mass,
which at the end of the procession we desire you to celebrate in your
church." The Bishop then concludes by granting indulgences to those
who approach the Sacrament of Confession, and shall in these public
devotions pray that God "may cause the severity of the plague to be
stayed."[191]
On the same day, October 24th, 1348, Bishop Edyndon issued other
mandates to his clergy generally, and to the archdeacon of
Surrey in particular. He charges them to see that, in view of
the terrible plague which was approaching, all are exhorted to
frequent the Sacrament of Penance and to join in the public prayers
and processions to be made with bare feet in towns through the
market-places, and in villages in the cemeteries round about the
churches.
On November 17th, on the nearer approach of the epidemic, the Bishop
granted faculties to absolve from all reserved cases, reminding his
people of "the approved teaching of the holy Fathers, that sickness
and premature death often come from sin; and that by the healing of
souls this kind of sickness is known to cease." To guard against any
possible danger of cloistered nuns being left by the death of their
chaplains without confessors, he at the same time sent to every
abbess and superior of religious women in his diocese permission to
appoint two or three fit priests, to whom he gave faculties to hear
the confessions of the nuns.[192]
Before Christmas time the sickness was already in the diocese,
although it was only beginning. On the 19th of [p110] January, 1349,
Bishop Edyndon wrote to his official that he had good tidings to
announce—tidings which he had received with joy—that "the most holy
father in Christ, our lord the Supreme Pontiff, had in response to
the petition of himself and his subjects, on account of the imminent
great mortality, granted to all the people of the diocese, religious
and secular, ecclesiastic and lay, who should confess their sins
with sincere repentance to any priest they might choose—a plenary
indulgence at the hour of death if they departed in the true faith,
in unity with the holy Roman Church, and obedience and devotion to
our lord the Supreme Pontiff and his successors the Roman Bishops."
The Bishop consequently ordered that this privilege should be made
known to all as quickly as possible.[193]
At Winchester, as at this time in other places, difficulties about
the burial of the dead who were carried off by the pestilence soon
arose. By January many benefices in the city had been rendered
vacant, and without doubt the daily death-roll was becoming alarming.
The clergy for many reasons were desirous of restricting burials
to the consecrated cemeteries, but a party of the citizens had
clearly made up their minds that in such an emergency as the present
the ordinary rules and laws should be, and must be, set aside. In
order, apparently, the better to enforce their views they set upon
and seriously wounded a monk of St. Swithun's, who was conducting
a funeral in the usual burial place. The Bishop took a serious
view of the offence. On January the 21st, 1349, he addressed an
order to the prior of Winchester and the abbot of Hyde ordering
sermons to be preached on the Catholic doctrine of the resurrection
of the flesh, and excommunication to be denounced against [p111]
those who had laid violent hands upon brother Ralph de Staunton,
monk of Winchester. "The Catholic Church spread over the world,"
he says, "believes in the resurrection of the bodies of the dead.
These have been sanctified by the reception of the Sacraments, and
are hence buried, not in profane places, but in specially enclosed
and consecrated cemeteries, or churches, where with due reverence
they are kept, like the relics of the Saints, till the day of the
resurrection." Winchester, he continues, should set an example to
the whole diocese, and above other places ought to reflect the
brightness of the Catholic Faith. Some people there, however, not,
he thanks God, citizens, or even those born in the city (who are
wont to be conspicuous in their upright lives and in their devotion
to the Faith), but low class strangers and degenerate sons of the
Church, lately attacked brother Ralph de Staunton whilst burying in
the appointed place, and when by his habit and tonsure they knew him
to be a monk, beat him and prevented him from continuing to bury the
dead amongst those there waiting for the resurrection. Thinking,
therefore, that mischief was likely to ensue in regard to the true
Catholic belief in the resurrection of the dead, he orders the
doctrine to be preached in the churches of Winchester. From all this
it is quite evident that the crisis had brought to the surface, as it
had previously done in Italy, a denial of the first principles of the
Catholic Faith.
Bishop Edyndon further adds that seeing that "at this time" the
multitude of the faithful who are dying is greater than ever before,
provision should be made "that the people of the various parishes
may have prompt opportunity for speedy burial," and that the old
cemeteries should be enlarged and new ones dedicated.[194]
This, however, did not end the difficulties. On the 13th of February,
1349, letters were directed by the King to the abbot of Hyde, John
de Hampton, Robert de Popham, [p112] and William de Fyfhide,[195]
ordering them to hear and determine a complaint made by the Venerable
Father, William de Edyndon, Bishop of Winchester, concerning the
breaking down of walls and other boundaries of the enclosure, whereon
the abbey of Hyde formerly stood, adjoining the cemetery of the
Cathedral church of St. Swithun's, Winchester, which had been granted
to the priory by the King, Henry I., on the removal of the abbey. It
appears from the document that "the Mayor, bailiffs, and citizens
had entered upon the usurped portions of the said land, and employed
the site thereof to hold a market twice in the week and a fair twice
in the year." By this "the bodies of the dead had been iniquitously
disturbed because, owing to the great mortality and pestilence of
late, and the smallness of the parochial burial grounds, the Bishop
in the exercise of his office had consecrated the said ground, and
many interments had taken place in it." The Commissioners, or two or
three of them, are directed to view the said area, cemeteries, and
closes, "to empanel a jury, and to examine evidence and generally to
try the case."[196]
Taking the dates of the institutions to livings in the county of
Hampshire[197] as some indication of the period [p113] when the
deaths were most frequent, it would appear that the height of the
plague was reached in the months of February, March, and April, 1349.
In one month, May, indeed, the number of benefices filled was more
than double the average of the whole twelve months of any of the
three previous years.
In the county of Surrey, March, April, and May were apparently the
worst months; and in the last named the number of clergy instituted
to vacant livings was double that of the previous yearly average.[198]
Some districts were affected more than others. Thus in the deanery
of Basingstoke, in the north of Hampshire, at one time or other,
and chiefly in the month of March, by far the greater proportion of
benefices fell vacant. On the western side of the county several
institutions are made in February, and a considerable number in
March. Ivychurch priory, in Wiltshire, where the prior died on
February 2nd, and all the rest of the community but one quickly
followed him to the grave, is situated close to the boundaries of
Hampshire, and an institution was made to a living not far distant
on February the 7th. One of the earliest vacancies was Fordingbridge
vicarage, also not far from Wiltshire, which appointment was made on
the 21st of December, 1348. Only two days later there was apparently
the first beginning of the plague at Southampton. The southern coast
of the county generally round about Portsmouth and Hayling island
suffered chiefly in April and March, and in the later month are
recorded numerous institutions to livings in the Isle of [p114]
Wight and in the country between the southdowns and the sea. On
January the 14th, 1349, a new vicar was appointed to Wandsworth by
Bishop Edyndon, "because to our pastoral office it belongs," he says,
"to have charge of the churches, and to provide for the needs and
wants, especially whilst the present mortality among men continues to
rage."[199]
Mr. F. J. Baigent, who for many years has made the episcopal
registers and other muniments of the diocese of Winchester his
special study, writing of the effects of this great epidemic, says:
"We have no means of ascertaining the actual havoc occasioned among
the religious houses of this diocese . . . but in the hospital of
Sandown, in Surrey, there existed not a single survivor, and of other
religious houses in the diocese (which comprises only two counties)
there perished no fewer than 28 superiors, abbots, abbesses, and
priors."
Of Sussex, the adjoining county to Hampshire, which is conterminous
with the diocese of Chichester, the loss of the episcopal registers
makes it difficult to speak with certainty as to the number of clergy
swept off by the pestilence or as to its effect upon the religious
houses. It is certain, however, that the disease was not less
virulent here than in other places about which definite information
is obtainable.
At Winchelsea the King, in the year of the plague, 1349, granted to
John de Scarle, the parson, a messuage to the east of the cemetery of
the church, which formerly belonged to Matilda Lycotin, who had died
without leaving any heirs. "Out of devotion to St. Thomas," the King
gives this house to the church for a rectory house for ever.[200]
That the town suffered considerably seems clear from the fact that in
this year, 1349, "ninety-four places in the said town lie altogether
deserted and uninhabited."[201] [p115] And both here and at Rye the
bailiffs claim that in 1354 they have not received £8 1s. out of £11.
17s. 5d., supposed to be due from them, for taxes on these towns,
because so many houses are destroyed and lie desolate there."[202]
Incidentally it is known that John de Waring, abbot of Boxgrove, died
some time before May 20th, on which day the monks had leave to elect
another superior. Also from a chance entry in the Ely registers it
appears that on July the 25th, 1349, a new vicar was instituted to
Whaddon, in Cambridgeshire, on the presentation of the fourth prior
of the Monastery of Lewes, to which the living was appropriated. It
is explained that the reason why the fourth superior in the house had
presented was because "the prior, sub-prior, and third prior were
all dead."[203] Lastly, a year or two after the epidemic had passed,
even Battle abbey is said to be in great straits, and "in many ways
dilapidated" (_multipliciter dilapidatur_), about which the King
orders an inquiry.[204]
FOOTNOTES:
[154] _Eulogium Historiarum_ (Rolls series), iii, p. 213.
[155] _Annales de Bermundeseia_ in _Annales Monastici_ (Rolls
series), iii, p. 475.
[156] _De gestis Edwardi III_ (Rolls series), p. 406.
[157] Rymer, _Fœdera_, v, p. 655.
[158] _Survey of London_ (ed. Strype), ii, p. 13.
[159] Dr. Creighton, _History of Epidemics in Britain_, p. 128,
quotes Rickman, _Abstract of the Population Returns of 1831_, as
estimating the total deaths in London at 100,000, and considers even
the 50,000 as altogether impossible. In fact, he is inclined to think
that in 1349 the population of London "was probably not far from"
44,770 only.
[160] Brooke Lambert, _London_, i, p. 241.
[161] Dr. Creighton (_ut sup._, p. 129) mentions that "in the charter
of incorporation of the Company of Cutlers, granted in 1344, eight
persons are named as wardens, and these are stated in a note to have
been all dead five years after, that is to say, in the year of the
Black Death, 1349, although their deaths are not set down to the
plague. Again, in the articles of the Hatters' Company, which were
drawn up only a year before the plague began (December 13, 1347) six
persons are named as wardens, and these according to a note of the
time were all dead before the 7th of July, 1350, the cause of the
mortality being again unmentioned, probably because it was familiar
knowledge to those then living. It is known also that four wardens of
the Goldsmiths' Company died in the year of the Black Death."
[162] _Calendar of Wills in the Court of Hustings, London_, ed. R. R.
Sharpe, i, p. xxvii.
[163] The following is a table of the numbers:—
+----+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+-------+
|Jan.| Feb.| March.| April.| May.| June.| July. |
+---+------+-------+-------+-----+------+-------+
| 18 | 42 | 41 | 0 | 121 | 31 | 51 |
+----+-----+-------+-------+-----+------+-------+
[164] Rymer, _Fœdera_, v, p. 658.
[165] B. Mus. Cotton MS. Vitell. E. xiv, f. 129b.
[166] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 25 Ed. III., m. 26.
[167] _Gesta Abbatum S. Albani_ (Rolls series), ii, p. 369.
[168] _Ibid._, p. 381.
[169] The following is a table of the Institutions given in
Clutterbuck's _Hertfordshire_:—
+-----+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+
|June.| July.| Aug.| Sept.| Oct.| Nov.| Dec.|
+-----+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+
| 6 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
+-----+------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+
[170] _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, i, p. 225.
[171] Thus, some eight standing on the roll together direct inquiries
into deaths of various landed proprietors at Hornseaburton, in
Holderness. R. O., Originalia Roll, 23 Ed. III., m. 17.
[172] R. O., Chancery Inq. post mortem, 23 Ed. III., No. 85.
[173] _Ibid._, No. 75.
[174] _Ibid._, No. 77.
[175] _Ibid._ (second numbers), No. 58.
[176] _Cf._ four inquisitions in this country: Escheator's Inq. post
mortem, file 103.
[177] See Lipscombe's _History of Buckinghamshire_.
[178] The following is a table of the dated institutions:—
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| May.|June.|July.| Aug.|Sept.| Oct.| Nov.|
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| 3 | 10 | 23 | 11 | 13 | 3 | 3 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
[179] _Hist. MSS. Comm., Eighth Report_, p. 336.
[180] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, i, p. 42.
[181] J. E. Thorold Rogers, _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, i, p.
221.
[182] _Gesta Abbatum_ (Rolls series).
[183] _Hist. MSS. Comm., Eighth Report_, p. 336. Batteley's copy of
this commission is in B. Mus. Add. MS., 22, 665, fol. 183.
[184] Escheator's Inq. p.m., 23 Edw. III., Kent.
[185] Some six miles from Rochester.
[186] Nine miles from Maidstone.
[187] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, i, pp. 375-6. This is an abstract of
Dene's account in the Rochester cartulary, B. Mus. Cotton MS., Faust.
B. v, ff. 96 _et seqq._ _Cf._ also Vitell. E. xiv, ff. 375 _et seqq._
[188] B. Mus. Faust. B., v, f. 98.
[189] _Ibid._, fol. 99.
[190] For the use of his transcripts of the Bishop's Register, as
well as for assistance in all that relates to the Winchester diocese,
I am indebted to the kindness of F. J. Baigent, Esq., of Winchester.
[191] Reg. Edyndon, ii, fol. 17.
[192] _Ibid._, ff. 17b-18.
[193] _Ibid._, fol. 19. The Indulgence was to last until Easter, but
the time was subsequently extended to the feast of St. Michael. This
extension was notified from Avignon by letter dated 28th April, 1349;
the Pope here granted the extension verbally. On 25th May Bishop
Edyndon sent out the announcement of the extension, and ordered it to
be made known at once.
[194] Reg. Edyndon, i, fol. 19b.
[195] Any doubt about the pestilence to which this letter refers is
removed by the dates of the deaths of these last two named. John de
Hampton died 4th August, 1356, and William Fyfhide on 18th May, 1361.
[196] Winchester Cathedral Archives, Book ii, No. 80. In Book i, No.
120, is an "Exemplification of the record and proceedings by the
Bishop of Winchester against the Mayor and others concerning the
limits and boundaries of the churchyard, where the abbey of Hyde once
stood, called the cemetery of St. Peter," Anno 23 Ed. III. (1349).
[197] The following table will give the Institutions for Hants:—
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| Jan. | Feb. | Mar. |April.| May. |June. |July. | Aug. |Sept. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| 5 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 23 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
[198] Table of Institutions for Surrey:—
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------+
|1348.| 1349. |
+-----+----+-----+-----+-------+-----+------+------+-----+------+
| Dec.|Jan.| Feb.| Mar.| April.| May.| June.| July.| Aug.| Sept.|
+-----+----+-----+-----+-------+-----+------+------+-----+------+
| 7 | 12 | 19 | 33 | 46 | 29 | 24 | 18 | 11 | 12 |
+-----+----+-----+-----+-------+-----+------+------+-----+------+
[199] Reg. Edyndon, i, fol. 38.
[200] R. O., Originalia Roll, 23 Ed. III., m. 37.
[201] Pipe Roll, 23 Ed. III., m. 23.
[202] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 28 Ed. III.
[203] B. Mus. Cole MS., 5,824, p. 78 (from Reg. Lisle, fol. 24).
[204] Rot. Pat. 27 Ed. III., pars. 1, m. 4.
[p116]