Saving The Souls Of Medieval London

St Paul's Cathedral stood at the centre of religious life in medieval London. It was the mother church of the diocese, a principal landowner in the capital and surrounding countryside, and a theatre for the enactment of events of national importance. The cathedral was also a powerhouse of commemoration and intercession, where prayers and requiem masses were offered on a massive scale for the salvation of the living and the dead. This spiritual role of St Paul's Cathedral was carried out essentially by the numerous chantry priests working and living in its precinct. Chantries were pious foundations, through which donors, clerks or lay, male or female, endowed priests to celebrate intercessory masses for the benefit of their souls. At St Paul's Cathedral, they were first established in the late twelfth century and, until they were dissolved in 1548, they contributed greatly to the daily life of the cathedral. They enhanced the liturgical services offered by the cathedral, increased the number of the clerical members associated with it, and intensified relations between the cathedral and the city of London. Using the large body of material from the cathedral archives, this book investigates the chantries and their impacts on the life, services and clerical community of the cathedral, from their foundation in the early thirteenth century to the dissolution. It demonstrates the flexibility and adaptability of these pious foundations and the various contributions they made to medieval society; and sheds light on the men who played a role which, until the abolition of the chantries in 1548, was seen to be crucial to the spiritual well-being of medieval London.

St Paul's Cathedral stood at the centre of religious life in medieval London and this investigation of its chantries - pious foundations through which donors endowed priests to celebrate intercessory masses for the benefit of their souls - sheds light on the role chantries played in promoting the spiritual well-being of medieval London.

The Routledge History of Medieval Christianity explores the role of Christianity in European society from the middle of the eleventh-century until the dawning of the Reformation. Arranged in four thematic sections and comprising 23 originally commissioned chapters plus introductory overviews to each part by the editor, this book provides an authoritative survey of a vital element of medieval history. Comprehensive and cohesive, the volume provides a holistic view of Christianity in medieval Europe, examining not only the church itself but also its role in, influence on, and tensions with, contemporary society. Chapters therefore range from examinations of structures, theology and devotional practices within the church to topics such as gender, violence and holy warfare, the economy, morality, culture, and many more besides, demonstrating the pervasiveness and importance of the church and Christianity in the medieval world. Despite the transition into an increasingly post-Christian age, the historic role of Christianity in the development of Europe remains essential to the understanding of European history – particularly in the medieval period. This collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of medieval studies across a broad range of disciplines.

This volume brings together innovative research on miracles in the Christian West 1100-1500, and includes chapters on Anglo-Norman saints’ cults, late medieval Portugal and the legacy of medieval hagiography in the immediate Post-Reformation period. Contributors investigate miracle narratives in conjunction with broader socio-cultural ideals, practices and developments in medieval society. They also reassess the legacy of Peter Brown, challenge established dichotomies such as ‘medicine and religion’, and examine relics, lay beliefs and the liturgical evidence of a saint’s cult, moving beyond the traditional focus on canonization. Medical history features prominently alongside other approaches; these clarify the contexts of our sources, and demonstrate the methodological vibrancy in this field.

This book provides fascinating studies of English religious men and women through their reading and writing during the turbulent period of the Dissolution.

This is a brilliant, original, and broadly defined history of the hospital, drawing extensively on narratives written by patients and caregivers to give vivid pictures of hospital life at key stages in the development of the institution.

The first study of the poetics of vocational crisis in Langland, Hoccleve, and Audelay, and many unattributed works, The Clerical Proletariat and the Resurgence of Medieval English Poetry discusses class, meritocracy, the gig economy, precarity, and the breaking of intellectual elites, speaking to both past and present employment urgencies.

An examination of the growth of civic power in the turbulent arena of late medieval London. In the late fourteenth century, London's government, through mismanagement and negligence, experienced a series of crises. Relationships with the crown were tested; competing factions sought to wrest power from the hands of the once all-powerful victualling guilds; revolt in the streets in 1381 targeted the institutions of royal as well as civic power; and, between 1392 and 1397, King Richard removed the liberties of the city and appointed his own wardensto govern in place of the mayor of London. This book examines the strategies employed by the generation of London aldermen who governed after 1397 to regain control of their city. By examining a range of interdisciplinary sources, including manuscript and printed books, administrative records, accounts of civic ritual and epitaphs, the author shows how, by carefully constructing the idea of a civic community united by shared political concerns and spiritual ambitions, a small number of men virtually monopolised power in the capital. More generally, this is an exploration of the mentalities of those who sought civic power in the late Middle Ages and provokes the question: whygovern, and for whom? DAVID HARRY is Lecturer in History at the University of Chester.