medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Yes, Jim, these are corrodies and the holders are often called
> corrodians. John
Well, in that case, it was certainly not necessary for the corrodian
to become a religious. At least in England in the later Middle Ages,
monasteries regularly exploited corrodies for more purely financial
reasons: in recompense for a donation of perpetual resources,such as
land, or sometimes for substantial service, a person was
given food and lodgings at a monastery for the rest of their life.
Once granted, corrodies could even be sold. Some of the larger
monastic precincts must have been peppered with corrodians' lodgings,
but such lodgings did not necessarily have to be located within the
precinct. In fact, sometimes no lodging is specified but
only a pension. Sometimes the numbers were substantial. The 45
monks of Winchcombe are said to have been maintaining 15 corrodies by
1282, and in 1322/23 there are records of 19 corrodians at
Glastonbury. Papal interference in this system is suggested by the
fact that Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) promised that in future he would
not intrude his nominees into corrodies at Christchurch, Canterbury.
And the English kings of the later Middle Ages increasingly exploited
this situation to pension off loyal retainers as corrodians at
various monasteries. Edward I made this practice common. Not all
corrodians were secular, however, and after the mid-13th century,
corrodies began to be granted to superiors of religious houses who
had "retired" or been deposed. And in fact, there appear to have
been different classes or values of corrodies. By 1322 there were
six different values of corrodies at Glastonbury: "The first class
corrody corresponded to the prior's portion, or double that of a
monk; at the other end of the scale were the corrodies worth about
three halfpence a day, equivalent in value to the wages of servants
or to the pittance paid to the twenty inferior brethren of the
convent (novices and lay brethren)." See I. Keil, "Corrodies of
Glastonbury Abbey in the Later Middle Ages," Proceedings of the
Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 108
(1963-64), 113-131, esp. p. 113. The number of corrodians eventually
became a problem at some monasteries. At Romsey in 1302 the
injunctions of an episcopal visitation forbade the sale of corrodies
and grants of pensions without the bishop's permission, and later, in
1346, Romsey was warned by Bishop Edington not to sell or give
corrodies when the old ones became vacant. Another useful work on
corrodies is A. Hamilton Thompson, "A Corrody from Leicester Abbey
A.D. 1393-94 with some Notes on Corrodies," Transactions of the
Leicestershire Archaeological Society, vol. XIV (1925), 113-134. All
this suggests a practice very different from nobles becoming tonsured
on their deathbeds.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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