Education in English ecclesiastical legislation of the later Middle Ages

Roy M. Haines

doi:10.1017/S042420840001651X

Education in English ecclesiastical legislation of the later Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016

Roy M. Haines

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Roy M. Haines*: Affiliation:
Department of History, Dalhousie University

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Provincial and diocesan legislation provided a coherent system of religious education at a time when opportunities for study were few. It is true that in content little was new, but there was much in the way of reiteration, development and expansion, with particular attention to the practical details of implementation.

Mediaeval education is often discussed in terms of clerical education on the one hand, and of lay education on the other. In this context they are one. The priest had first to learn before he could teach, and what was taught can roughly be summed up as faith, morals, and knowledge of the Church’s law. It remains true that some things were more appropriate for the clerical than the lay ear.

Type: Research Article
Information: Studies in Church History , Volume 7: Councils and Assemblies , 1971 , pp. 161 - 175

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S042420840001651X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1971

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^{Page No 161 Note 1} The education of the clergy is discussed by Moorman, J. R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge 1946, chap. 8 Google Scholar. For the following century much can be learned from parts 2 and 3 of Pantin, W. A., The English Church in the Fourteenth Century, Cambridge 1955 Google Scholar. See also chap. 1, ‘The Fifteenth-century background’, in Simon, Joan, Education and Society in Tudor England, Cambridge 1967 Google Scholar; Heath, Peter, The English Parish Clergy on the Eue of the Reformation, London/Toronto 1969, chaps. 5, 6 Google Scholar; Richardson, H. G., ‘The parish clergy of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’, TRHS, 3rd ser., vi (1912), 118-19, 124-5Google Scholar.

^{Page No 161 Note 2} Statutes of Winchester I (1224), c. 51: Councils and Synods, ed. Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., 2 vols. Oxford 1964, 134 Google Scholar. Hereafter this work is quoted as C & S with page reference (the pagination being continuous through both volumes).

^{Page No 161 Note 3} Legatine Council of London (1268), c. 8: C & S, 756-7.

^{Page No 162 Note 1} Council of Reading (1279), c. 13: C & S, 851.

^{Page No 162 Note 2} Lyndwood, W., Provinciale, Oxford 1679, p. 1 Google Scholar ad ver. sciat.

^{Page No 162 Note 3} Statutes of Salisbury I (1217 × 1219): C&S, 59 et seq. Robertson, D. W. jr., ‘Frequency of Preaching in Thirteenth-Century England’, Speculum xxiv (1949), 378-9Google Scholar, argues the novelty, with respect to both formulation and content, of those of Poore’s constitutions which deal with matters of faith.

^{Page No 162 Note 4} Or so it appears. At one time Professor Cheney considered that Grosseteste’s statutes leaned heavily on those of Cantilupe. Compare English Synodalia of the Thirteenth Century, Oxford 1941,119-24, with C &S, 265-6. They are now dated ‘1239?’: Statutes of Lincoln, c. 1: C&S, 268. Cf. Worcester III (1240), c. 34; Norwich (1240 × 1243), c. 1; “Winchester 11 (1247?), c. 1; Durham II (1241 × 1249), cc. 1, 2; Ely (1239 × 1256), c. 1; Wells (1258?), c. 43; Exeter II (1287), c. 20: C&S, 304, 345, 403, 423-4, 516-17. 609-10, 1017.

^{Page No 162 Note 5} M. W. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins, Michigan 1952, 43-4, warns against confusing the ‘cardinal’, ‘chief’, or ‘capital’ sins with the ‘deadly’ or ‘mortal’ sins, the latter being those which inevitably lead to damnation. In the statutes ‘criminalia’ and ‘capitalia’ are regularly used of superbia, invidia, ira, accidia, avaritia, luxuria, and gula, but these are also termed ‘mortalia’ by those who commented upon or implemented Pecham’s legislation: e.g. Lambeth MS. 460 (15th cent.), fol. 3r; Wykeham’s Register, ed. Kirby, T. F., Hants. Ree. Soc. XIII (1899), 11, 371 Google Scholar; The Register of John Stafford, Bishop of Bath & Wells 1421-1443, ed. Holmes, T. S., Som. Ree. Soc. xxxn (1916), 11, 173 Google Scholar.

^{Page No 163 Note 1} The Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds. Cf. BM Add. MS 6158, fol. 134V (‘Incipit tractatus domini Roberti Grosteth’ de confessione’), which contains the same syllabus.

^{Page No 163 Note 2} Statutes of Chichester I (1245 × 1252), c. 1: C &S, 452. An earlier expanded version is to be found in Bishop Poore’s Salisbury statutes (1217 × 1219), c. 15: C&S, 65; Cf. Exeter I (1225 × 1237), c. 14: C & S, 232. A later one is in Exeter II (1287), c. 1: C &S, 986. See also Provinciale, p. 43 ad ver. Baptisma, Confirmatio, Poenitentia, Eucharistia, Extrema Unctio.

^{Page No 163 Note 3} The subject had many exponents. See Bloomfield, M. W., The Seven Deadly Sins, and the same author’s ‘A preliminary list of Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, mainly of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Cen- turies’, Traditio xi (1955), 259–379 CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{Page No 163 Note 4} Statutes of Coventry (1224 × 1237), c. 27: C&S, 214; and for the tracts, C&S, 214-20, 220-6.

^{Page No 163 Note 5} This short piece is printed by Professor Cheney, English Synodalia, 149-52, from Bodley MS 57, fols. 96r-97v.

^{Page No 163 Note 6} Bodleian Lib., Bodley MS 631, Rawlinson MS. A. 384.

^{Page No 164 Note 1} There are some 70 extant manuscripts ( Boyle, L. E., ‘The Ocultis Sacerdotis and some other works of William of Pagula’, TRHS, 5th ser., v (1955), 82 n. 3 Google Scholar) of which 65 are listed by S. H. Thomson, The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, Cambridge 1940, 138-40. Cf. Bloomfield, ‘A preliminary list of Incipits’.

^{Page No 164 Note 2} Statutes of Worcester III (1240), cc. 35, 97: C&S, 305, 320. It could have been at Syon in the early sixteenth century: C&S, 305 n. 1, quoting Bateson, M., Catalogue of the Library of Syon Monastery, Isleworth, Cambridge 1898, 191 Google Scholar. The index to the catalogue has ‘William’ rather than ‘Walter’ (ibid. 244), so William de Blois remains a possibility.

^{Page No 164 Note 3} Statutes of Exeter II (1287), c. 20: C&S, 1018. For the text of the summula: ibid. 1061-77.

^{Page No 164 Note 4} Council of Lambeth (1281), c. 9: C&S, 900-5.

^{Page No 164 Note 5} Dr Pantin (in this following Professor Leonard Boyle) lists eight, including the Templum Domini: The English Church, 219. See also, Pfander, H. G., ‘Some Medieval Manuals of Religious Instruction in England and Observations on Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology xxxv (1936), 243-58Google Scholar; Arnould, E.J., Le Manuel des Péchés dans la Littérature Religieuse de l’Angleterre, Paris 1940, 1–59 Google Scholar.

^{Page No 164 Note 6} Sermo Exhortatorius cancellarli Eboracensis his qui ad sacros ordines petunt promoveri, Argentorati 1514 (Bodl. Fase. e. 186). The BM copy is by Wynkyn de Worde (London 1510?). Heath, English Parish Clergy, 70 et seq., discusses this sermon.

^{Page No 165 Note 1} IV Lateran, c. 27: Extra 1, 14, c. 14.

^{Page No 165 Note 2} Legatine Council of London (1237), c. 2: C&S, 246-7: ‘.. .set quia non est leve canonum girare volumina et ignorare medico medicinale officium nimis grave...’

^{Page No 165 Note 3} Statutes of Worcester II (1229), c. 61: С &S, 180. Haines, R. M., The Administra tion of the Diocese of Worcester, London 1965, 172 Google Scholar.

^{Page No 165 Note 4} Statutes of Salisbury II (1238 × 1244), c. 19: C&S, 373-4.

^{Page No 165 Note 5} Statutes of Salisbury I (1217 × 1219), c. 3: C&S, 61. Cf.Durham II (1241 × 1249), c. 4: C&S, 424. Extra 1, 1, c. 1.

^{Page No 165 Note 6} Legatine Council of London (1237), c. 2: C&S, 246-7: reiterated by Cardinal Ottobon (1268), c. 19: C &S, 768. Cf. Chichester I (1245 × 1252), c.40: C &S, 459.

^{Page No 166 Note 1} Statutes of London II (1245 × 1259), c. 1: C &S, 634. Cf. Statutes of Salisbury I (1217 × 1219), c. 114: C&S, 96; Statutes of Norwich (1240 × 1243), c. 55: C&S, 354; etc.

^{Page No 166 Note 2} Statutes of Exeter II (1287), c. 56: C&S, 1059: ‘.. .totiens illam respiciant et revolvant donee quasi cordetenus eam intelligant et sciant pandendam laicis facilius exponere in vulgari’.

^{Page No 166 Note 3} Statutes of Worcester II (1229), c. 51: C&S, 179.

^{Page No 166 Note 4} Statutes of Worcester III (1240), c. 102: C&S, 321.

^{Page No 166 Note 5} The Register of Walter de Stapeldon, ed. Randolph, H. C. Hingeston, London/ Exeter 1892, 242 Google Scholar. The incident is quoted by Edwards, K., ‘Bishops and Learning in the Reign of Edward II’, CQR cxxxviii (1944), 80 Google Scholar, and by Walker, H. H. ‘Notes for a study of Bishop Walter de Stapledon and the Church in the West Country in the early 14th century’, Devonshire Assoc. Trans, xciii (1961), 319 Google Scholar.

^{Page No 167 Note 1} Legatine Council of London (1268), c. 36: C&S, 782-3.

^{Page No 167 Note 2} For the synod and its functions, see English Synodalia, chap. 1.

^{Page No 167 Note 3} Council of Reading (1279), c. 1: C&S, 834-6, 851, and Cf. 474-5.

^{Page No 167 Note 4} C&S, 900-5.

^{Page No 168 Note 1} D. 38, c. 1.

^{Page No 168 Note 2} Douie, D. L., Archbishop Pecham, Oxford 1952, 134 Google Scholar et seq.; English Synodalia, 149-52 (Weseham’s Instituta).

^{Page No 168 Note 3} Un Traité de Théologie inédit de Gautier de Bruges, ed. A. de Poorter, Société d’Emulation de Bruges, Mélanges V, Bruges 1911, 1-44.

^{Page No 168 Note 4} C&S, 887-8.

^{Page No 168 Note 5} ‘The Ocultus Sacerdotis’, 82.

^{Page No 168 Note 6} Art. cit., Speculum xxiv, pp. 385-6.

^{Page No 169 Note 1} Statutes of Winchester III (1262 × 1265), c. 95: C&S, 721. Cf. Statutes of Worcester III (1240), c. 67: C&S, 313.

^{Page No 169 Note 2} Registrum Johannis de Pontissara, ed. Deedes, C., C & Y Soc. xix (1915), 207 Google Scholar. Cf. English Synodalia, 103-8.

^{Page No 169 Note 3} Statutes of Exeter II, c. 20: C&S, 1017; D. 38 c. 1. The seven sins are here termed ‘mortalia’. On the continent a version of the statutes of Daniel Vigier, Bishop of Nantes, which have been dated 1320, commences: ‘Cum propter ignorantiam sacerdotum, maxime curatorum, multa pericula immineant animabus.’ Répertoire des Statuts Synodaux des Diocèses de l’Ancienne France du XIII’ à la fin du XVIII’ siècle, ed. Artonne, André et al., Paris 1963, 317 Google Scholar.

^{Page No 170 Note 1} C&S, 901.

^{Page No 170 Note 2} See J. L. Peckham, Archbishop Peckham as a Religious Educator, Yale Studies in Religion no. 7, Scottdale, Pennsylvania 1934. The author goes into much greater detail than is possible here, tracing (pp. 83-97) Pecham’s influence upon ecclesi astical legislation and (pp. 98-113) on clerical manuals and other works in Latin and English. But the statement that ‘As far as the writer knows, no other important ecclesiastical legislation existed in England which prescribed a definite outline of religious instruction for the laity except that which flows in the general channel marked out by the Lambeth decrees’ (pp. 93-4), is to ignore Grosseteste and all that went before Pecham.

^{Page No 170 Note 3} Ed. T.F.Simmons and H. E. Nolloth, EETS, orig. ser., cxvrn (1891); Pantin, English Church, 211-12. Archbishop Islip’s lost brevis libellus (Pantin, 212 n. 3: a reference to Lambeth Reg. Islip fol. 182 provided by Dr Highfield) could also have looked back to Pecham.

^{Page No 170 Note 4} Provinciale, 1, 42, 54. Ignorantia sacerdotum provides Lyndwood’s initial gloss.

^{Page No 170 Note 5} Lambeth MS 460.

^{Page No 170 Note 6} Bodleian Lib. MS Eng. th. c. 57. There is an introduction to this manuscript by Hodgson, P., ‘Ignorantia sacerdotum: a fifteenth century discourse on the Lam beth constitutions’, Review of English Studies xxrv (1948), 1–11 CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{Page No 171 Note 1} Bodleian Lib., MS Eng. th. c. 57, fols. 3r, 6r.

^{Page No 171 Note 2} Lyndwood, Provinciale, Const. Prov., 65.

^{Page No 171 Note 3} The Register of John Stafford, 11, 173. Stafford was archbishop of Canterbury 1443-52.

^{Page No 171 Note 4} Wilkins, 111, 599-601, 662, 664-5.

^{Page No 171 Note 5} Wykeham’s Register, 11, 371.

^{Page No 171 Note 6} Pecham’s canon is entitled in many MSS ‘De informatione simplicium sacerdotum’.

^{Page No 171 Note 7} TheExoneratorium Curatorum, London 1520? (Richard Pynson), or Exornatorium Curatorum, London 1520? (Wynkyn de Worde), is based on Pecham’s canon.

^{Page No 172 Note 1} Statutes of York I (1241 × 1255), c. 1: C&S, 485-6; Chichester II (1289), c. 1: C&S, 1082-3.

^{Page No 172 Note 2} C&S, 1079.

^{Page No 172 Note 3} Statutes of Salisbury I (1217 × 1219), c. 5: C&S, 61. Later, Exeter statutes add ‘vel saltern instruí faciant ab expertis’: Exeter I (1225 × 1237), c. 2: C&S, 228.

^{Page No 172 Note 4} Bodley MS 631, fol. 190V.

^{Page No 172 Note 5} E.g. C&S, 269, 346, etc.

^{Page No 172 Note 6} Statutes of Norwich (1240 × 1243), c. 7: C&S, 346.

^{Page No 172 Note 7} E.g. Statutes of Winchester II (1247?), c. 10: C&S, 405.

^{Page No 172 Note 8} Statutes of Exeter II (1287), c. 20: C&S, 1017-18: ‘.. .tanto tenentur studiosius informare quanto quilibet qui fidem catholicam firmiter non credent salvus esse non potent’.

^{Page No 173 Note 1} Statutes of Canterbury I (1213 × 1214), cc. 31, 32: C &S, 31; Salisbury I (1217 × 1219), c. 22: C&S, 68-9; Council of Oxford (1222), c. 29—it being one of the archdeacon’s duties to see that proper instruction was given: C&S, 115; etc.

^{Page No 173 Note 2} Bodleian Lib., MS Eng. th. c. 57, fol. 9r.

^{Page No 173 Note 3} Statutes of Worcester III (1240), cc. 25, 27: C&S, 302.

^{Page No 173 Note 4} Ibid. c. 15: C&S, 110.

^{Page No 173 Note 5} c&S, 214-20.

^{Page No 173 Note 6} Council of Lambeth (1281), c. 9: C &S, 901. For Pecham’s own use of the sermon see Douie, D. L., ‘Archbishop Pecham’s Sermons and Collations’, Studies in Medieval History presented to F. M. Powicke, ed. Hunt, R. W. et al., Oxford repr. 1969, 269-82Google Scholar. On the general problem of the frequency of preaching in the thirteenth century, see Robinson, art. cit., Speculum xxrv.

^{Page No 174 Note 1} Extra 5, 38, c. 12. Cantilupe advised the faithful to make confession before Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, so that ‘ confessione purgati digne possint suum recipere Salvatorem’. Statutes of Worcester III (1240), c. 31: C&S, 304. Cf. Salisbury I (1217 × 1219), c. 38: C&S, 72-3.

^{Page No 174 Note 2} C. 51: C&S, 134.

^{Page No 174 Note 3} Statutes of Worcester II (1229), c. 24: C&S, 174.

^{Page No 174 Note 4} These are the constitutions of the second and third series glossed by Lyndwood. There was also a first (draft?) series. Wilkins, n, 675-8, 696-702, 702-9; Cheney, , ‘Legislation of the Medieval English Church’ (part 2), EHR, cxcix (1935) 415-17Google Scholar Discussed by Brenda Bolton, ‘The Council of London of 1342’, in this volume. BM Add. MS 6716 contains (fol. 81r) a form which the ‘curatus’ of one church could use to notify the ‘curatus’ of another that (marriage) banns had been called three times. This was to implement [Stratford’s] constitution ‘Humana concupiscentia’.

^{Page No 175 Note 1} For a set of ‘minor constitutions’, see Haines, R.M., ‘Bishop Carpenter’s Injunctions to the Diocese of Worcester in 1451’, BIHR xi (1967), 203-7Google Scholar.

^{Page No 175 Note 2} Boyle, L. E., ‘The Constitution Cum ex eo of Boniface VIII: Education of Parochial Clergy’, Mediaeval Studies xxiv (1962), 263–302 CrossRef Google Scholar; Haines, R.M., ‘The Education of the English Clergy during the later Middle Ages: some observa tions on the operation of Boniface VIlI’s constitution Cum ex eo (1298)’, Canadian Journal of History iv (1969), 1–22 CrossRef Google Scholar.

^{Page No 175 Note 3} See Caplan, H., Mediaeval ‘Artes Praedicandi’, a Hand-List, New York 1934 Google Scholar.

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