medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Fascinating stuff about the church at Peretola doubling as an inn. My example is not quite so vivid, but an excerpt from a 1301 visitation record for the diocese of Exeter (in Bp. Stapledon's Register) speaks to security in churches. It mentions that the vicar of Colyton, a rural parish, was at fault for no longer maintaining a deacon, as had his predecessors, to sleep in the church to guard it from robbery. I'm not sure how widespread the practice was but it could be that "security guards" like this kept a watch on some unlocked churches. But break-ins must have been at least a minor problem for unsecured churches; I can think of other visitations and inventories of other dioceses from the period where parishes reported missing books or church plate due to theft. It could be that internal locks stood in place of a locked entrance. At least in England it was the custom to keep a lockable cover on the baptismal font to prevent anyone from stealing its water for nefarious–-i.e., black magic–purposes. The same applied to the pyx which stored consecrated hosts and the vessels that stored holy oil for Extreme Unction–-or at least ecclesiastical visitors in Exeter regularly noted it with approval when they found these items locked. Likewise a church's books and plate were usually kept in a chest with a lock. Church wardens–-sometimes in pairs-–kept the keys to the chest which was sometimes stored in the rood loft to keep it even more out of reach.
Pilgrim churches must have had some sort of open door policy since so many accounts of miracles at saints' shrines report that petitioners slept overnight near or even on the shrine inside the church.
Best,
John
------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4501
www.saintmarys.edu/~hust
----- Original Message -----
From: Diana Wright <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 00:52:28 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [M-R] Use of churches
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The rest of this fascinating text can be found on my website at the link
below.
> On the 27th day of July 1439, I, Giovanni di Jacopo di Latino de'
> Pigli, finding myself, at the hour of terce or a little before, in the
> public square of Peretola, saw coming along the road from Prato Messer
> Angelo di Jacopo Acciaiuoli with some servants. He went right up to
> the door of the church of Peretola, and knocked several times. Seeing
> that it was not opened, I went up to him and asked what he was doing,
> and what he wanted of the prior, if he did not mind my inquiring. He
> answered me:
> "I come from Pistoia and Prato in the suite of the Emperor of
> Constantinople, who wanted to go see Pistoia and the Girdle of Our
> Lady at Prato, and I was assigned to his suite by the Signoria. And
> because the hour is late for us to get to Florence to eat, and he is
> tired and sick as you know, I wanted to put him up in the church until
> this evening."
http://nauplion.net/CP-John-Texts.html [scroll down]
I had always assumed that locking churches was a modern thing, but this
suggests it is not. Could people camp out in churches when they were
travelling? [My father and I did in West Africa in the 50s.]
Comments?
DW
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