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Abstract
This article studies illegitimacy, which was a canonical impediment to ordination, within the English clergy between 1198 and 1348. Scholarship on illegitimacy in the clergy has previously relied on canon law, conciliar decrees, and dispensations preserved in papal registers. Using these sources, historians have concluded that the papacy tightly controlled illegitimate men's access to orders, that the burdens of obtaining dispensations for illegitimacy (the defectus natalium) could pose substantial obstacles to a man's clerical career, and that priests' sons made up a significant percentage of the illegitimate clergy. This article, which draws on the large and previously untapped body of dispensations surviving in English episcopal registers to supplement the papal sources, reaches different conclusions. It argues that the great majority of illegitimate clerics in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century English clergy were the sons of unmarried lay parents. It further argues that dispensations were more readily accessible than has previously been suggested, and emphasises the importance of local branches of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to an individual's efforts to attain a dispensation to enter holy orders.
Notes
1 Lincoln, Lincolnshire Archives Office (hereinafter cited as LAO), Episcopal register 3, f.119. Research for this article was carried out through the generous support of Cleveland State University, the Huntington Library, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. An early version was presented as ‘Illegitimacy and episcopal investigation in the thirteenth-century English clergy’ at the 1998 International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds. Thanks are due to the audience and also to Dr Elizabeth Lehfeldt and Dr Joyce Mastboom for their comments.
2 R. Génestal, Histoire de la légitimation des enfants naturels en droit canonique (Paris, 1905); Michael Haren, ‘Social structures of the Irish church: a new source in papal penitentiary dispensations for illegitimacy’, in: Illegitimität im Spämittelalter, ed. Ludwig Schmugge (Munich, 1994), 207-26; Constance Rousseau, ‘Pope Innocent III and the familial relationships of the clergy’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, new ser. 14 (1993), 107-48; Bernhard Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati: studies on the position of priests’ sons from the twelfth to the fourteenth century’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 2 (1980), 3-50; and Ludwig Schmugge, ‘Cleansing on consciences: some observations regarding the fifteenth-century registers of the papal penitentiary’, Viator, 29 (1998), 345-61.
3 Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 46; Rousseau, ‘Pope Innocent III’, 120.
4 Although it is customary to refer to this movement as the ‘Gregorian reform’, scholarship has questioned the value of both the terms ‘Gregorian’ and ‘reform’. See J. T. Gilchrist, ‘Was there a Gregorian reform movement in the eleventh century?’, Canadian Catholic Historical Association Study Sessions, 37 (1970), 1-10, repr. in: J. T. Gilchrist, Canon law in the age of reform, 11th-12th centuries (Aldershot, 1993), essay 7; and Gerd Tellenbach, The church in western Europe from the tenth to the early twelfth century, trans. by Timothy Reuter (Cambridge, 1993), 157-8.
5 See Medieval purity and piety. Essays on medieval clerical celibacy and religious reform, ed. Michael Frassetto (New York, 1998); Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Married priests and the reforming papacy. The eleventh-century debate (New York, 1982); Dyan Elliott, Fallen bodies. Pollution, sexuality, and demonology in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1999); JoAnn McNamara, ‘The Herrenfrage: the restructuring of the gender system, 1050-1150,’ in: Medieval masculinities. Regarding men in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare A. Lees (Minneapolis, 1994), 3-29; and Kathryn Ann Taglia, ‘“On account of scandal…” Priests, their children, and the ecclesiastical demand for celibacy’, Florilegium 14 (1995-6), 57-70.
6 X 1.17.1-18 (Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Emile Friedberg (Graz, 1879-91), vol. 2, 135-41); see Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 12-16, for discussion of the church's policies on priests’ children prior to the Gregorian era.
7 Each of the eighteen capitula in X 1.17 refers to clerics’ sons in particular; fourteen address questions about sons ministering in their fathers’ churches. The exceptions are capitula 1, 6, 14, and 18. See Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, for discussion of extra-decretal collections. At times canonical texts seem to have used ‘clerics’ sons’ and ‘priests’ sons’ interchangeably, but in other instances they distinguished between the two, particularly when dealing with inheritance of clerical office.
8 X 1.6.20 (Friedberg, vol. 2, 61-3). For discussion see C. R. Cheney, Pope Innocent III and England (Stuttgart 1976), 60-63; and Selected letters of Pope Innocent III concerning England (1198-1216), ed. C. R. Cheney and W. H. Semple (London, 1953), 16-22.
9 Secular law, however, did not accept legitimisation by subsequent marriage for inheritance purposes; see R. H. Helmholz, ‘Bastardy litigation in medieval England’, American Journal of Legal History 13:4 (1969), 360-83.
10 See Kenneth Pennington, Pope and bishops. The papal monarchy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Pennsylvania, 1984), ch. 2, for discussion of the development of papal fullness of power.
11 For example, Councils and synods with other documents relating to the English church II (AD 1205-1313), ed. F. M. Powicke and C. R. Cheney, 2 vols (Oxford, 1964), vol. 2, 60; Thomas of Chobham, Summa confessorum, ed. F. Broomfield (Louvain and Paris, 1968), 67-8.
12 VI 1.11.1-2 (Friedberg, vol. 2, 977).
13 R. N. Swanson, Church and society in late medieval England (Oxford, 1989), 12.
14 Rousseau, ‘Pope Innocent III’, 111-12.
15 Dispensations rarely identified the exact benefice the man would obtain, but they normally specified whether it was a sinecure position or one with the care of souls, and usually stated that the dispensation applied to a single benefice.
16 This point was explicated in both papal directives such as Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal letters, ed. W. H. Bliss, C. Johnson, and J. A. Twemlow (London, 1893-1950) (hereinafter cited as CPL), vol. 1, 434, and pastoral works, such as William of Pagula's Summa summarum, San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS EL 9 H 3, f.74. Nonetheless, in 1345 the papal curia complained that some scholars did not consider this additional dispensation necessary: Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Petitions to the pope, ed. W. H. Bliss (London, 1896) (hereinafter cited as CPP), 87.
17 ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 46.
18 ‘Pope Innocent III’, 120.
19 Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 40-41.
20 Haren, ‘Social structures’, 219, 224-5; Schmugge, ‘Cleansing on consciences’, 359.
21 This has most recently been argued by Swanson, Church and society, 39-40.
22 Bernhard Schimmelpfennig, The papacy, trans. James Sievert (New York, 1992), 189-90; Swanson, Church and society, 12.
23 The potential of bishops’ registers as a source for a study of illegitimacy was recognised by Michael Sheehan, who began such a study but passed away before completing it. Michael M. Sheehan, ‘Illegitimacy in late medieval England: laws, dispensation and practice’, in: Illegitimität im Spämittelalter, ed. Ludwig Schmugge (Munich, 1994), 115-21.
24 Lincoln and York began keeping records early in the thirteenth century, while most of the other English dioceses began the practice in the mid- to late thirteenth century: M. T. Clanchy, From memory to written record (Oxford, 1993), 74-6.
25 Papal records pertaining to England are published in two different series: the Calendar series (n. 16 above), which includes only documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, and the editions of the papal registers published by the Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome. This article cites the more widely available Calendar references in all instances, adding the French School references only when they provide additional detail. For discussion of the Calendar series see Leonard Boyle, A survey of the Vatican archives and of its medieval holdings (Toronto, 1972), 110-11; and Leslie Macfarlane, ‘The Vatican archives: with special reference to sources for British medieval history, 1’, Archives 4 (1959), 29-44.
26 For discussion of these offices and their role in the growth of papal authority, see Richard Schmutz, ‘Medieval papal representatives: legates, nuncios, and judges-delegate’, Studia Gratiana 15 (1972), 443-63; I. S. Robinson, The papacy 1073-1198. Continuity and innovation (Cambridge, 1990), ch. 4; and Jane E. Sayers, Papal judges delegate in the province of Canterbury 1198-1254. A study in ecclesiastical jurisdiction and administration (Oxford, 1971), 25-34.
27 CPL vol. 1, 399, also to dispense three men in his delegation to take a bishopric.
28 CPL vol. 1, 429.
29 CPL vol. 2, 105, 117.
30 CPL vol. 2, 131, 539. See also Jean XXII. Lettres communes analysées d'après les registres dits d'Avignon et du Vatican, ed. G. Mollat, 16 vols in 18 (Paris, 1904-6), vol. 1, no. 5171; Benoit XII. Lettres communes analysées d'après les registres dits d'Avignon et du Vatican, ed. J. M. Vidal, 3 vols (Paris, 1901-11), vol. 1, no. 5200. The latter mandate pertained to clerics in both England and France.
31 CPL vol. 3, 72, 196-7, 202. See also Clément VI. Lettres closes, patentes et curiales se rapportant à la France publiées ou analysées d'après les registres du Vatican, ed. E. Déprez, 4 vols, (Paris, 1901), vol. 1, nos. 138-9; vol. 2, nos. 2090-1, 2125. The latter nunciate delegation was to both England and France; the grant to dispense twelve sons of priests specified in the kingdom of England, while the other probably pertained to both countries.
32 CPL vol. 3, 254.
33 CPP 168, in which the bishop of Sodor received the ability to dispense eight illegitimate individuals as part of ‘the usual privileges, dispensations, and faculties’ that also included granting licences to eat meat and creating notaries public.
34 CPP 186, which permitted the bishop to dispense twenty illegitimate men born to lay parents, and ten of clerical parentage. The request almost certainly derived from the crisis of the plague, which struck England most severely in 1349. The pope (Clement VI) markedly increased the ability of English bishops to dispense illegitimate men, on several occasions citing the mortality among the clergy as the reason for this and other concessions, such as waiving the minimum age to enter holy orders: for example, CPP 178.
35 CPL vol. 2, 121.
36 Unless stated otherwise it should be assumed that the mandates permitted the bishops to dispense men born of simple fornication to enter all orders and take a benefice with pastoral obligations. In 1246 to the bishop of Durham, ten individuals: CPL vol. 1, 224; in 1247, to the bishop of Lincoln, five illegitimate individuals not born to incest or adultery: CPL vol. 1, 237 (also Les registres d'Innocent IV ed. Élie Berger, 4 vols (Paris, 1884), vol.1, no. 3352); in 1248, to the bishop of Bath and Wells, forty illegitimate individuals not born from incest or adultery: CPL vol. 1, 245 (Also Les registres d'Innocent IV vol. 1, no. 4003); in 1245, to the bishop of London, ten individuals within religious orders: CPL vol. 1, 340 (also Les registres d'Alexandre IV, ed. Bourel de la Roncière, J. de Loye and A. Coulon, 3 vols (Paris, 1895), vol. 1, no. 1612); in 1309, to the bishop of Worcester, a total of ten individuals, including two sons of priests: CPL vol. 2, 52; in 1314, to the archbishop-elect of Canterbury, 100 clerks or scholars: CPL vol. 2, 121; in 1342, to the archbishop of York, ten individuals: CPL vol. 3, 87; in 1343, to the bishop of Exeter, seven individuals: CPP 63; in 1345, to the bishop-elect of Winchester, twelve individuals born to single parents and eight of clerical or adulterous parentage; to the bishop-elect of Durham, twelve individuals plus six of adulterous parentage and six sons of priests, and to the abbot of Waltham, three individuals: CPL vol. 3, 214-5; in 1346, to the bishop of Ely, twelve born of simple fornication, six of clerical parentage and six born to married persons: CPL vol. 3, 214, duplicated in CPP 101; in 1347, to the bishop-elect of Lincoln, thirty born from simple fornication and twenty others of clerical or adulterous parentage: CPL vol. 3, 250; to the abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, seven individuals: CPL vol. 3, 250; again to the abbot of St. Augustine's, six individuals: CPL vol. 3, 302; in 1348, to the archbishop of Canterbury, thirty persons of any birth: CPL vol. 3, 303; in 1348, to the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, twelve persons: CPP 138.
37 For example, Bishop Robert Grosseteste's receipt of the ability to dispense twelve illegitimate men: LAO MCD 959 f.65v. See also n. 65.
38 In two nunciate delegations, however, the dispensations could have been used in France as well as England. See n. 30 and 31 above.
39 Registrum Hamonis Hethe, diocesis Roffensis, AD 1319-1352, ed. C. Johnson (Canterbury and York Society, 48, 49, Oxford, 1948), vol. 2, 710-12. Compare CPL vol. 2, 539.
40 Rousseau, ‘Pope Innocent III’, 113, 132.
41 CPP 82, 101.
42 Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 46. It should be noted that most of the men dispensed through these means would enter the secular clergy, not religious houses, which could and did establish their own policies against the illegitimate; Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 35-6.
43 Compare Schimmelpfennig, who suggests that these powers were never delegated: ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 36-7. See CPL vol. 2, 214 and Clément VI, vol. 2, no. 2090 (also printed in CPL vol. 3, 196).
44 Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 41.
45 The dispensations of 316 clerics in English dioceses appear in the papal records between 1198 and 1348; of these 212 state the birth status of the recipients. Eighty-three were the sons of priests, thirteen were the sons of deacons or subdeacons, forty-nine were born to adulterous unions, fifty-five to simple fornication, eight to single women and clerics in minor orders, and the remaining four to unions which were invalid by reason of consanguinity or affinity. Dispensations referred to the circumstances of an individual's birth; if a man's father was a subdeacon at the time of his birth, the petition would identify him as the son of a subdeacon even if the father later advanced to the priesthood.
46 See David M. Smith, Guide to bishops’ registers of England and Wales. A survey from the Middle Ages to the abolition of episcopacy in 1646 (London, 1981), for a discussion of the surviving episcopal records in each diocese. Excepting gaps in the records, the periods covered are: Exeter, 1258-1348; Hereford, 1275-1348; Lincoln, 1209-1347; Salisbury, 1297-1348; and Worcester, 1268-1348.
47 A few of those 763 dispensations were episcopal grants to enter lower orders, but the overwhelming majority were papal dispensations to enter higher orders. An additional twenty-four men who appeared in both papal and episcopal registers are included only in the statistics for the papal records.
48 The relatively few offspring of men in lower orders, who were not sworn to celibacy, are included in this category.
49 There were seven such dispensations, all of which appeared also in the papal registers.
50 Schmugge, ‘Cleansing on consciences’, 359; Haren, ‘Social structures’, 219, 224-5.
51 Schmugge notes that even between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there was both a sharp increase in recorded dispensations for illegitimacy and a marked decrease in those handled by the pontiff himself: ‘Cleansing on consciences’, 359. Dispensations for clerics’ sons originating in the sacred penitentiary appear in episcopal registers of the later Middle Ages as well: see for example A calendar of the register of Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, 1398-1405, ed. R. N. Swanson, 2 vols (Borthwick Texts and Calendars, 8, 11, York, 1981-5), vol. 1, 73, vol. 2, 13, 16.
52 In Salisbury, only four of the thirteen men of clerical parentage were the sons of priests, while in Exeter, ten of eighteen were.
53 For example, H. G. Richardson, ‘The parish clergy of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 3rd ser. vol. 6 (1912), 89-128 at 123; Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 39-40.
54 Matthew Paris, Mattaei Parisiensis, monachi Sancti Albani, Historia Anglorum, sive, ut vulgo dicitur, Historia minor, ed. F. Madden, 3 vols. (London, 1866-69), vol. 3, 90; Robert Mannyng of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, ed. Idelle Sullens (Binghamton, NY, 1983), 201-3. Three sons were priests; the fourth was identified as a scholar.
55 See James A. Brundage, Law, sex and Christian society in medieval Europe (Chicago, 1990), 444-7, for concubinage in the later Middle Ages.
56 Schimmelpfennig, ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 28.
57 X 1.17.17 (Friedberg, vol. 2, 140-41); presumably the legate had not himself received papal authority to dispense. The deposed priest's right to appeal to the apostolic see was preserved.
58 VI 1.11.1 (Friedberg, vol. 2, 977).
59 Common formulae were that the dispensation was granted ‘auctoritate nostra’, ‘auctoritate apostolica nobis in hac parte commissa tecum’, or ‘auctoritate sedis apostolice’.
60 Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, episcopi Lincolniensis, AD 1209-1235, ed. W. P. Phillimore and F. N. Davis, 3 vols (Lincoln Record Society, 3, 6, 9, Lincoln, 1912-1914), vol. 2, 254-5. I am grateful to Dr Jeffrey Burton Russell for his assistance in translating this text and those in the register of Robert Winchelsey, below.
61 Worcester, Worcester Cathedral Library, MS A.1 f.40v.
62 Worcester Cathedral Library, MS A.1 f.41v-r.
63 LAO Episcopal register 3, f.119.
64 Registrum Roberti Winchelsey, archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, ed. Rose Graham, 2 vols, (Canterbury and York Society, 51, 52, Oxford, 1956), vol. 1, 15-16.
65 This grant is absent from the surviving papal records. It may have been done by Celestine V, for whom no register is extant: Boyle, ‘Survey of the Vatican archives’, 111 n. 26.
66 Registrum Roberti Winchelsey, vol. 1, 24-5.
67 Registrum Roberti Winchelsey, vol. 1, 25.
68 John R. H. Moorman, Church life in England in the thirteenth century (Cambridge, 1946), 231-2. A title was not necessary for men ordained within religious orders: Virginia Davis, ‘Rivals for ministry? Ordinations of the secular and regular clergy in southern England, c. 1300-1500’, in: The Ministry. Clerical and lay, ed. W. J. Shields and Diana Wood (Studies in church history, vol. 26, Cambridge, MA, 1990), 99-109 at 105.
69 Nicholas Orme, English schools in the Middle Ages (London, 1973), 17-18.
70 H. S. Bennett, ‘Medieval ordination lists in the English episcopal registers’, in: Studies presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson, ed. J. Conway Davies (London, 1957), 20-34 at 23-5, 31; see also Davis, ‘Rivals for ministry?’.
71 Moorman, Church life in England, 92; Swanson, Church and society, 58.
72 Registrum Thome de Cantilupo, episcopi Herefordensis, AD 1275-1283, ed. R. G. Griffiths (Canterbury and York Society, 2, London, 1907), 124, 191; Hereford, Hereford Diocesan Registry, Cantilupe's register, f.36v, f.55.
73 Some such examples exist: Schimmelpfennig notes the case of a cleric whose dispensation took seven separate trips to Rome, to the detriment of both his finances and his health. ‘Ex fornicatione nati’, 37-8.