medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
--- Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
> religion and culture
> >If the particular monastery, church, or whatever,
> that you are working on had
> him as patron in the 11th c, I would also like to
> know about it.
> as i mentioned in that previous string, it seems to
> me that i was constantly
> comming across, in the charters, chapels dedicated
> to St. Nick in various
> _castra_ ("castles") in the Chartrain in the later
> 11th c. i and had a working
> theory that it was a question of Norman influence
> (duh) amongst the "knightly"
> class, though i was never able to distinguish
> between chapels which were in
> the "castle" proper (if, indeed, there was one) or
> in the _castrum_ as a
> larger area within the fortification walls.
>
> at that date i rather think that the distinction
> wouldn't have been made (and,
> indeed, isn't, in the charters).
>
> my servey was anything but systematic, however, and
> it just seemed like i came
> across quite a few examples.
>
> i'd be interested in hearing anything else anyone
> might have come across
> relative to this subject.
Dear Listmembers,
May I revive this discussion with two examples from
eleventh-twelfth century Yorkshire? At Pontefract
there was outside, but adjacent to, the castle a
hospital dedicated to St Nicholas. Local historians
have identified this with land described in Domesday
Book as the almsland of the poor, and John Leland in
the sixteenth century recorded the tradition that the
Cluniac monks of the priory of St John the Evangelist,
whose foundation by the second Norman lord of
Pontefract is usually attributed to 1090, lived in the
hosital whilst their priory was being built. This
would at least suggest that the hospital was founded
before the priory, but perhaps not long before - the
hospital itself was founded around an older chapel
dedicated to St Helen. This chapel was itself part of
a series of chapels which were assimilated to new
spiritual uses in the wake of the Norman conquest.
The castle at Tickhill had a chapel inside its walls
which was, if my memory serves me aright, also
decicated to St Nicholas. There are some remains of it
incorporated in the house that stands within the
castle ruins; its building has been associated,though
I am not sure on what evidence, with Eleanor of
Aquitaine.
There are therefore at least two Yorkshire examples
which appear to corroborate the Chartrain examples.
Writing this reminds me that in Scarborough, also in
Yorkshire there is a St Nicholas Street, which I think
was linked to a hospital; without the VCH to hand I am
not sure of its date, but it may well date from the
time of the construction/development of the castle at
Scarborough in the reign of Henry II. At Nottingham
there is a church dedicated to St Nicholas close by
the castle - so close that it was damaged in the Civil
war fighting around the castle and rebuilt in the
later seventeenth century.
I hope this may be of some interest to list members.
John Whitehead
Oriel College
Oxford
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