Florilegium urbanum - Death - Introductory essay
Keywords: medieval society attitudes religion death ritual wills testaments
probate court jurisdiction funerals cemeteries memorial services chantries
Purgatory
Media vita in morte sumus
Death and the fate of the soul were matters that must have weighed
more heavily on the thoughts of medieval townspeople than those of today.
In a society with a propensity for violence, in which executions
were usually public events and and corpses were openly displayed
or body parts of criminals hung on city walls, where the rate of
infant mortality was very high, poverty at a level now associated
with Third World countries, sanitation and medical care crude and
often ineffective, and which was visited periodically by famine
and pestilence, death was almost a part of everyday life and
perhaps many people were hardened against it even though
the loss of a loved one could occasion extreme grief to the point
of insanity.
Homicides and death by misadventure we hear about primarily through
coroners' records. These give us a good sense of the spectrum of
mortal dangers existing in medieval society. Both these and other
court records point to deaths of criminals, whether in the
foul conditions of gaols or through capital punishment, applied
more liberally then than today. For deaths from natural causes
we rely more on archaeological investigation of medieval burials;
a number of excavations of cemeteries have taken place in the
late twentieth century, but not so much in urban contexts, as
burials there have been much disturbed by changes in the Late Middle Ages
and afterwards, such as redigging for new burials, extensions to
churches, or encroachments on the churchyard by new building
(e.g. almshouses, housing for priests).
Death was to be feared not merely for its own sake, but because it
was believed to propel the soul on to a possibly worse fate. Concern
about divine judgement provided a daily influence over moral behaviour.
The messages that death and judgement were the fate of all and that
sinners faced consignment to the torments of Hell were driven home by
the Church: through sermons, in architectural and funerary sculpture
or inscriptions, and in the wall-paintings and stained glass windows
that decorated many medieval churches, giving them a rather more
dramatic and less sombre appearance than they tend to have today.
These messages were further reinforced by the design of personal
devotional items, as well as by secular drama (e.g. the
Dance of Death
),
literature (e.g. Chaucer's
Pardoner's Tale
), and art Bosch
and Bruegel providing some of the better-known examples of artists
depicting the nightmarish imagery that reflect, if in an extreme fashion,
popular dread of the Apocalypse and Hell. Death came to be personified
and depicted as a skeleton summoning or leading people to the next world.
The need to constantly warn of the afterlife punishments of sinners
shows that fear of Hell was effective only to an extent. For it was
also believed that a life of sin could be redeemed on the death-bed
by true repentance and by recompense through charitable and pious works.
The medieval philosophy of balance in all things frowned on economic
inequalities, which were perceived as a form of injustice, and at
one extreme the accumulation of riches was seen as inherently wicked.
Such inequality was a fact of life, but it was felt that some
redistribution of wealth at death could help redress the balance.
Bequests to the mendicant orders, to the poor or downtrodden, and to
the community (whether parochial or urban) were therefore a
common feature of the testaments of wealthier townspeople, even
though they accounted for only a small portion of the total wealth
bequeathed. In return, the recipients especially the
"blessed poor" were expected to intercede through prayer for
the soul of the testator.
Sudden death was particularly to be feared since it left no time
for repentance or charity, unless a last will and testament had been
drawn up in advance. Setting off on an overseas journey provided
the catalyst for some merchants to draw up such a document; however,
it was more common for people to have wills drafted within a year or
less of their death and, given the lack of medical relief for illness
or physical decline, it may have been easier for medieval townspeople
to sense when their time was approaching.
The traumatic effect of the Black Death which, given
the state of medical science, could only be understood by the masses
as a divine punishment stimulated depictions of death and
judgement in art and encouraged greater ceremonial in funerals,
during a period when ceremony was taking a larger place in society
as a whole. Repeated, if lesser, visitations of plague after the
initial disastrous bout emphasised the imminence of death and the
need to be prepared. The act of dying itself came to be perceived
by some as an "art" requiring a measure of ritual and even spectacle:
with the gathering of family, friends and even neighbours around
the death-bed, the expression of last will if none had been written down,
farewells exchanged, the priest's visit to hear the death-bed contrition
and administer the last rites. By the close of the Middle Ages tracts
were being written to instruct people in this art. The importance of
such ritual was another reason for dreading a sudden death that would
rob one of the opportunity of a death-bed ceremony.
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The association made between sin, punishment and death was intended to
inspire (through horror) men and women to live a moral life in conformity
with laws of Church and state. The strong belief in the inevitability
of judgement and the efficacy of prayers to persuade God to mercy,
is suggested by surviving evidence although we cannot be sure
whether the attitude was pervasive across the different social strata.
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information)
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Last will and testament
The ability to dispose, at death, of one's property and possessions
as one wished was a privilege, a freedom from the power of one's lord
to dictate the disposal; it became one of the principal distinguishing
features of burgage tenure. In theory a testator did not own his
property outright but held it in essence as a loan from
his lord. Unless freedom of devise was to be offered by a lord among
other privileges intended to attract tenants into towns founded or
fostered by them, it was advisable to persuade the lord to allow
a testament by bequeathing some portion or some valuable item to
the lord. This incentive to respect the instructions set out in
a will or testament continued later in the Middle Ages through bequests
to urban authorities and to executors.
In the past the testament was, strictly speaking, the device by
which personal property (moveables) was bequeathed and the will
the instrument for devising real property principally
real estate acquired during the testator's lifetime, for the property
he had inherited was expected to be devised to his own heirs.
However,
testamentum
was the term usually applied to both types
of document, although we occasionally hear of an
ultima voluntas
,
and sometimes these terms appear to be used synonymously. A testator
sometimes drew up separate documents as testament and last will, and
often only one of these documents has survived; but in most cases
realty and personalty were bequeathed within the same document.
(The term "devise" likewise came to apply strictly speaking to realty
and "bequest" to personalty, but again the distinction is little used.)
Since the real estate devised by townspeople was primarily situated
within the town of residence, it was advisable to register wills in
borough court records, and we know of a number of cases where
local government required registration and probate before it, at
least as regards those clauses concerning lands within the borough.
Having a will proved before and enrolled by the borough authorities
publicized the intent of the testator and established an evidentiary
foundation, even a warrant, for
livery of seisin
(the formal transfer of ownership of a property). Possibly the
occasionally lengthy delays between probate in ecclesiastical and
borough courts may have been due to a lack of need for the latter,
until a situation arose involving a transaction or challenge
affecting some of the property bequeathed.
Wills can give some sense of what real estate an individual owned.
Some was probably ignored by wills because it passed automatically
to the immediate heirs although it may be that some testators
specified the division anyway while the widow also had claim
upon a portion specified by local custom or common law, although
the testament would often deal with this, because of the need to
specify what would happen to it after the widow's death. Husbands
similarly had a lifetime claim on property brought by wives to
the marriage. It may be that testators with direct male heirs are
slightly under-represented in the record, because they felt less
pressure to make wills and were more prone to dying intestate.
Most borough courts had jurisdiction in transactions regarding
burgage tenements and this included disputes arising from devise
of such property, perhaps most notably those relating to claims of
the spouse; they were prepared to make ordinances regulating such
matters. It was natural that they would encourage the entering of
relevant documents into the official record, as a source of future
knowledge in the event of disputes arising; or demand this course
of action, failing which they reserved the right to override
the terms of the will. The enrollment may, at first, have been
secondary to the public reading of the documents and the authorization
of executors to proceed with administration. While we do find
examples of burgesses drawing up separate wills and testaments,
commonly a document dealt with both real and personal property,
and the terms were often used indistinctively in medieval documents;
today lawyers use them interchangeably.
The Church encouraged the use of the testament for a final
act of contrition, to ensure salvation of the soul, through
charitable and pious bequests. Anyone dying unexpectedly would
miss confession and the last rites and their souls would rely that
much more on gifts for pious works. The Church therefore frowned upon
wilful intestacy. Nuncupative wills, often dictated by a testator
in extremis
, were also looked upon with suspicion, since
subject to misinterpretation or fraud, unless well witnessed.
But even written wills could be the subject of fraud and forgery.
It was also possible for a written will, often drawn up well in
advance of death, to be augmented by a written codicil or by
oral directions to executors shortly before death; Richard Whittington's
is a case in point where his executors were at pains to justify some
of their disposal of the testator's wealth on the grounds of
death-bed instructions
.
One of the reasons why probate was necessary, besides ensuring that
the written document was genuinely that embodying the testator's wishes,
was to confirm with the executors that they were prepared to carry out
those wishes. Where the executors were faced with an onerous task,
or there was some concern of dispute between them or a risk of
negligence or embezzlement, the testator had the option of appointing
a supervisor to ensure action was taken and decisions were reached.
With its view of testaments, the Church not surprisingly contested
the jurisdiction of borough authorities in matters of probate, and
probate of testaments (in the strict definition) was really within
the ecclesiastical sphere. This had not been the case in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries, where the Church had shown interest in testaments
only as regards pious legacies; but in the thirteenth century it
extended its jurisdiction over testaments, notably challenges to
their validity, and the performance of executors. Where a testator
held property in two or more jurisdictions, it was generally necessary
to obtain probate from an ecclesiastical court. In cases where wills
and testaments were enrolled in borough records, sometimes the clerk
extracted only those sections dealing with borough property; but it
was often less intellectual effort just to transcribe the whole document.
We even find them enrolling documents dealing only with moveables;
similarly, ecclesiastical courts are sometimes found proving wills
dealing only with real estate within a single secular jurisdiction.
In most towns there was collaboration with ecclesiastical authorities
in the area of probate; and probate in ecclesiastical court
typically preceded probate in borough court. In the Cinque Ports,
however, borough probate acquired an unusual degree of independence;
at Fordwich, for example, the validity of even a nuncupative testament
was unquestioned if the mayor and jurats were the witnesses, and even
in cases of intestacy officials of the Church were specifically
prohibited from intervening
.
Wills and testaments provide us with the best single source of information
about the extent of landholding (unless there was an
inquisition post mortem
, which was rare in the case of townsmen),
and the household items and personal possessions of townspeople; they
are also an important source of information about family relationships.
However, it is largely the wealthier urban residents, particularly
landowners, who are represented in this kind of record. The majority
of wills, or the extracts copied into official records, are relatively
short; typically, the estate simply went to the heir with a life
interest in a share for the widow, and there was not the need in most
cases for lengthy provisions. The wills presented in this, or other,
sections of
Florilegium Urbanum
are not to be considered "typical";
they have been chosen because they present a more detailed or more
intimate look at a testator's arrangements, possessions, and
attitudes insofar as we can take these as normal, given that
the testator's mind was on death.
Historians continue to debate to what extent we can trust wills
as evidence of the religious attitudes of the testators. To what
extent did convention play a part in dictating the arrangements
testators made for their funeral ceremonies and related pious and
charitable investments post-mortem? To what extent do they reflect
testators' behaviour during life? These questions are not easy to
answer. However, despite the formulaic elements in wills, there
is sufficient variety of approach and expression especially
in those that are highly detailed that we may imagine seeing
the personality of the testator emerging.
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An emaciated and dying Richard Whittington conveys to his executors his
last wishes
.
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more information)
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Funerals
In principle, people could choose for themselves where they were buried,
although before the twelfth century lay burials within churches were
prohibited (and excavations suggest this restriction was respected).
Although wills often specified the location, there was no legal
requirement for this all that was needed was the testimony
of a credible witness to the deceased's wishes in this regard;
wills were sometimes used to specify funerary arrangements in more
detail, but this seems the exception rather than the rule. In cases
where no preference for place of burial or funeral arrangements was
expressed before death, kin and executors doubtless had a say, and
in certain cases they could even override impractical requests by
the deceased. In practice, choice of place of burial was often dictated
by factors such as residence, place of death, location of family members'
graves (particularly those of spouses), or whether the deceased had
provided for the establishment of a chantry or other yearly
commemorative services at a particular altar in a church.
It was most common for townspeople to be buried in the cemetery or
even within the church of their parish, and the parish priests
encouraged this, since it was a source of income for them: not
formally, but the practice of gifts, in money or goods, to
the church a kind of mortuary payment in recompense
for the officiating of priests became general. Many of the more
important urban churches seem to have originated with often
large graveyards attached or surrounding; some of these grounds
may have been absorbed into marketplaces, if such arose beside
the church, or were taken up by buildings such as almshouses.
Lesser churches may often have come into being without the provision
of any graveyard, particularly if they originally had the status
only of a chapel. Alternate choices to the parish cemetery
could be made and friaries or even cathedrals were
popular with wealthier townspeople, although even then
financial compensation was often made to the parish church.
Despite that, there was rivalry and sometimes animosity between
the parties responsible for potential burial places; in particular,
parish clergy resisted burial rights being accorded to detached
chapels lacking parochial status. Jewish cemeteries were generally
located just outside the town walls and were not associated with
any synagogue.
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Medieval townspeople were mostly buried in the cemetery attached
to their parish church, or occasionally inside the church itself.
A handful of greater wealth and status might aspire to a more
prestigious burial place in abbey or cathedral. Testators' requests
concerning burial location were governed by factors such as associations
with specific places of worship when alive, attachment to some
particular saint, or the place of interment of previously deceased
family members.
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Coffins were the preserve of the wealthier members of society.
Rank-and-file townspeople were buried without coffins; women
sometimes in a shroud and men in a hair shirt. Even poor people
were entitled to burial in their parish church. The parish priest
could only turn down some select categories of deceased, such as
the unbaptized, suicides, heretics, excommunicates, and notorious
and unrepentant sinners. Even this may have been more honoured in
the breach than in the observance, since the idea of burials outside
consecrated ground was repugnant to the Church; there are indications
that some churches had separate churchyards for such undesirables,
perhaps with burials carried out unsanctioned or in private. Because
of demands on space within a church and even in the churchyard,
older burials were periodically disturbed and the bones transferred
to charnel houses established on church property. Nonetheless, in
recent decades cemeteries particularly those abandoned,
forgotten and therefore undisturbed (such as at friary sites) have
proven fruitful for archaeologists, giving a sense of
population characteristics such as life expectancy, gender mix,
health problems and diet. Even so, relatively few have been
systematically excavated as yet.
Death, where not sudden, might be considered the prelude to
funerary ceremonies, in the sense that a range of preparations
was desirable. This might include the dictation of a will,
although the timing of will-drafting seems more influenced by
the onset of old age or declining health more than by imminent death.
Possibly even existing wills were reviewed and confirmed on
the death-bed, for they represented a kind of rite of passage,
with the testator indicating the intent to divest himself or
herself of material possessions. A priest would be summoned
to hear confession and, by asking a series of prescribed questions,
ensure the dying person was repentant and free of animosity towards
anyone; this was another form of divestment: this time, of
worldly concerns. Extreme unction and the sacrament would be
administered when death was considered close. Throughout this
period the death-bed might be surrounded by family members, friends,
executors, servants, doctors, and clerics dying could be
quite a public matter.
Under normal circumstances, funerals usually commenced one to three days
after death. A longer interlude might be requested by a testator,
although there were concerns over having decaying bodies lying around.
In the interim the corpse would lie in the place of death, and be put
in its shroud. Funerals were to an extent a communal affair;
the community after all had lost one of its members. The community
was alerted to a death and a funeral by the tolling of the church bell
and by public announcements made by bedemen (or bellmen), often
minor civic officials, who also exhorted townspeople to pray for
the soul of the deceased; specific testamentary provision was
sometimes made for the associated costs. Those who belonged
to socio-religious gilds could anticipate their fellow members
to attend their funeral in numbers, and these gilds often had as
one of their core functions the arrangement of funerals of members.
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Funerals were elaborate ceremonials that some men planned in detail and
were prepared to spend lavishly on, as they approached death, although
others took a more frugal approach.
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information)
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The first stage (if one discounts the preparation of the dying person
by confession and prayers around the death-bed) was to convey
the body to the church altar, where funeral rites would be celebrated.
This procession could entail some ceremony again particularly
if a gild was involved with the carrying of lights, ringing
of a handbell, and chanting of psalms. Burial was preceded by
a sequence of religious rites covering parts of two days: Placebo,
Dirige, and Requiem Mass. The Placebo was simply a slight variant
of the Vespers (Evensong) service, while the Dirige a variant
of Matins; a vigil might connect the two events. Candles were
lit around the coffin and kept alight throughout the services,
if not overnight. Later in the morning the Mass, followed by
a Commendation, completed the services, and led into the burial proper.
By the fifteenth century these services were often being sung
(performed "by note"), rather than said, and sometimes testators
specifically requested this. The actual burial was of lesser
importance in the funerary sequence.
Those who were wealthier could afford showier funerals, although
this was not always the personal inclination, and some explicitly
discouraged it. The deceased could enlarge the body of mourners
by making testamentary provision for additional priests and for
paupers to attend the services, in return for payment and sometimes
they were provided with mourner's gowns as well. Post-burial meals
and/or charitable doles were also a commonplace of funerals, and
very occasionally in the case of the wealthiest and proudest
townsmen lavish; the intent was to maximize the reach of
the charity through small handouts, so that many individuals would
offer a prayer for the deceased.
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Many of those who could afford it liked to leave some memorial to
themselves. This was not simply a case of ego or pride; remembrance
was the key to continued prayers for the soul of the deceased. These
memorials could take a variety of forms.
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The funeral did not conclude things, for there remained things that
could be done to assist the deceased in deliverance from Purgatory
to Heaven, as well as to show that the deceased was not forgotten.
The funeral's sequence of services was mirrored at commemorative
ceremonies typically held, for those who could afford them, a week
and/or a month after the funeral and each year on the anniversary
of the funeral. During the initial month after death or burial,
considered to be a crucial period for the soul, daily services might
occasionally be funded, with a view to an intense period of intercession.
Longer-term arrangements were also made for services and charity,
to remind priests and community on at least an annual basis of
the needs of the deceased's soul. Aside from commissioning anniversaries,
which repeated the funeral rites and sometimes the alms-giving,
long-term arrangements involved founding institutions such as
chantries or almshouses
.
Testamentary provision for anniversary obits (a term derived from
the Latin for "departure" or "passing on") might be thought of as
akin to an insurance policy, but to protect the soul rather than
the body. Even those whose religiosity during life was lower than
the standard expected could not afford to ignore the risks of
Purgatory
, fear of which intensified
as the Late Middle Ages progressed. On the contrary, they could
afford to indulge the possibilities for lightening the burden on
their souls. Every prayer, every mass said for the dead was considered
to lighten the suffering of the soul in Purgatory.
While testators' provisions for lavish funeral ceremonies and
periodic commemorations were selfish, they nonetheless provided
an important source of relief for the poorer members of the
urban community, in the form of gifts of money, food or drink.
Others might also benefit similarly: the clergy, friars, and
borough officials who were asked to attend were also rewarded
with a meal and/or payment often the payment could be generous;
this perhaps became a minor but not insignificant source of
supplementary income. Chantries provided long-term employment
for some priests, just as some of the wealthier founders had
employed priests to serve in their private chapels; in the larger
cities there may have been a sizable group of priests employed by
townsmen living and dead. Thus, while death deprived towns of
citizens who contributed to economic, social and administrative
well-being, the other side of the coin was a redistribution of wealth,
including an injection of funds into the physical and social fabric.
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The best assurance of remembrance and prayers was to found a
chantry, although this could be an expensive proposition; perpetual
chantries required a long-term source of funding, usually in the form
of assigned revenues from rental properties. Medieval parish churches
often had several altars (besides the high altar) dedicated to
particular saints; there the chantry services were held. The
chapel shown above is, however, Jesus Chapel in Norwich cathedral;
the altar is Norman.
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Further reading
ASTON, Margaret. "Death", pp.202-28 in
Fifteenth-century Attitudes:
Perceptions of society in late medieval England
, ed. Rosemary Horrox.
Cambridge: University Press, 1994.
BASSETT, Steven, ed.
Death in Towns: Urban Responses to the Dying
and the Dead, 100-1600
, Leicester: University Press, 1992.
BATESON, Mary.
Borough Customs
, volume II. Selden Society,
vol.21 (1906).
DANIELL, Christopher.
Death and Burial in Medieval England,
1066-1550
. London: Routledge, 1997.
DAVIS, Christopher and Crystal WILSON.
Chaucer and Death in
Medieval England
. Auburn University, 1999.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/engl/0405/
DUCLOW, Donald. "Ars Moriendi", in
Encyclopedia of Death and Dying
http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Ars-Moriendi.html
JACOB, E. F., ed.
The Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 1414-1443
. Vol.II: Wills proved before the archbishop
or his commissaries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938.
MARTIN, G. H., ed.
The Ipswich Recognizance Rolls 1294-1327: A
Calendar
. Suffolk Records Society, 1973.
SHARPE, Reginald, ed.
Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the
Court of Husting, London, A.D. 1258-A.D. 1688
. London:
Corporation of London, 1889.