The Religion of the Yorkshire Gentry, 1509–31: The Evidence of Wills

Abstract

Using the evidence of wills, this paper focuses on the religion of the Yorkshire gentry from 1509 to 1531. The religion of this group of testators in the years immediately preceding the Reformation has not been studied before. It is argued that they remained resolutely committed to their traditional faith. Belief in the fundamental pre-Reformation Christian doctrines of purgatory, mass, the ‘communion of saints’ and the efficacy of intercession was almost universal. Furthermore, the majority believed that redemption could be achieved through charity and good works. There was also continuing support for the religious orders, but the parish church remained the primary focus for their piety. The flexibility of medieval religion, which accommodated both communal and private faith, has been suggested as a reason why the Yorkshire gentry remained so committed to Catholicism. However surrogate pilgrimage, bequests to local saints and funeral anniversaries, as strategies for the afterlife, appear to have been in decline.

Keywords:

• gentry
• Yorkshire
• wills
• religion
• pre-Reformation
• Reformation

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr Emilia Jamroziak, Prof. Ted Royle, Dr Gill Cookson and an anonymous referee for their invaluable help and advice on this paper.

Notes

1 A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation (London, 1989).

2 Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975).

3 J. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People (Oxford, 1984).

4 Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 — c. 1580 (Yale, 2005).

5 Ethan Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge, 2003), p. 5; for other recent surveys of the historiography, which make similar observances see Norman Jones, The English Reformation: Religion and Cultural Adaption (Oxford, 2002), p. 2; Nicholas Tyacke, England’s Long Reformation, 1500–1800 (London, 1998), pp. 1–4.

6 This is by no means an exhaustive list: A. D. Brown, Popular Piety in Late Medieval England. The Diocese of Salisbury, 1250–1550 (Oxford, 1995); C. Burgess, ‘“By Quick and by Dead”: Wills and Pious Provision in Late-Medieval Bristol’, English Historical Review, 102 (1987), 837–58; P. Heath, ‘Urban Piety in the Later Middle Ages: the Evidence of Hull Wills’, in The Church, Politics and Patronage in the Fifteenth Century, ed. B. Dobson (Gloucester, 1984), pp. 209–34; N. Tanner, The Church in Late Medieval Norwich, 1370–1532 (Toronto, 1984).

7 C. Carpenter, ‘Religion’, in Gentry Culture in Late-Medieval England, ed. R. Radulescu and A. Truelove (Manchester, 2005), pp. 134–50; P. W. Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent, 1442–1529’, in Property and Politics: Essays in Later Medieval English History, ed. A. J. Pollard (Gloucester, 1984), pp. 36–58; C. Carpenter, ‘The Religion of the Gentry of Fifteenth-Century England’, in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 53–74; M. G. A. Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy among the Yorkshire Gentry, 1370–1480 (York, 1976); C. Richmond, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, in Church, Politics and Patronage in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Dobson, pp. 193–208; N. Saul, ‘The Religious Sympathies of the Gentry in Gloucestershire, 1200–1500’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 98 (1980), 99–112.

8 J. Kermode, Medieval Merchants: York, Beverley and Hull in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1998); J. M. Jennings, ‘The Distribution of Landed Wealth in the Wills of London Merchants, 1400–50’, Medieval Studies, 39 (1977), 261–80.

9 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. xxxiii.

10 J. T. Cliffe, The Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation to the Civil War (London, 1969).

11 Cliffe, Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation, pp. 166–9.

12 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, p. 229.

13 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 31.

14 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 152.

15 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy.

16 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 31.

17 Testamenta Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, V, ed. James Raine, Surtees Society 79 (1884). (Hereafter Test. Ebor.)

18 Attreed checked Test. Ebor. V and VI against the originals in the probate registers at York and concluded that they are accurate and representative of the whole documents. She also comments pertinently that the editor of volume V, Raine, was a nineteenth-century antiquary with a reputation for accuracy: Lorraine C. Attreed, ‘Preparation for Death in Sixteenth Century Northern England’, Sixteenth-Century Journal, 13 (1982), 37–66 (p. 38).

19 Test. Ebor., nos. 3, 8, 11, 12, 17, 20, 25, 34, 36, 39, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 58, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 87, 89, 93, 100, 101, 104, 113, 123, 125, 129, 133, 136, 139, 141, 152, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219. The Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties in 1530 recorded exactly 100 members of the armigerous class in Yorkshire. While this is no doubt an underestimate, even if we were to double or triple this figure, 53 wills is still a sufficiently representative sample: Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties in 1530, ed. W. H. D. Longstaffe, Surtees Society 41 (1863).

20 Clive Burgess, ‘Late Medieval Wills and Pious Convention: Testamentary evidence Reconsidered’, in Profit, Piety and the Professions in Later Medieval England, ed. M. A. Hicks (Gloucester, 1990), pp. 14–33 (p. 16).

21 Burgess, ‘Late Medieval Wills and Pious Convention’, p. 16.

22 Clive Burgess, ‘“A Fond Thing Vainly Invented”: An Essay on Purgatory and Pious Motive in Late-Medieval England’, in Parish Church and People: Local Studies in Lay Religion, 1350–1750, ed. S. J. Wright (London, 1988), pp. 56–84 (p. 59).

23 Clive Burgess, ‘“For the Increase of Divine Service”: Chantries in the Parish in Late- Medieval Bristol’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 36 (1985), 46–65 (p. 46).

24 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 119; for the impact of scribes see also John H. Arnold, Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe (London, 2005), p. 25; Burgess, ‘Late Medieval Wills and Pious Convention’, p. 15. Duffy sagely comments that ‘the formulaic character of most late medieval wills offers evidence not of shallowness, but of overwhelming social consensus in religious convictions and priorities’: Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 355.

25 Carpenter, ‘Religion’, p. 141.

26 Richmond, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, pp. 197–9; and see Colin Richmond, ‘Religion’, in Fifteenth-Century Attitudes: Perceptions of Society in Late Medieval England, ed. Rosemary Horrox (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 183–201 (pp. 198–200); Saul, ‘Religious Sympathies of the Gentry’, p. 109.

27 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 121–3; more recently see Duffy, ‘Elite and Popular Religion: The Book of Hours and Lay Piety in the Later Middle Ages’, in Elite and Popular Religion, ed. Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory (Woodbridge, 2006), pp. 140–61. Duffy’s interpretation was found convincing by P. D. Clarke, ‘New Evidence of Noble and Gentry Piety in Fifteenth-Century England and Wales’, Journal of Medieval History, 34 (2008), 23–35 (pp. 23–4).

28 M. Aston, ‘Death’, in Fifteenth-Century Attitudes, ed. Horrox, pp. 202–28 (p. 210); Burgess, ‘Fond Thing Vainly Invented’, p. 63.

29 P. Binski, Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation (London, 1996), p. 186.

30 Test. Ebor., no. 17.

31 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 11, 12, 20, 25, 34, 36, 39, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 58, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 87, 89, 93, 100, 101, 104, 113, 123, 125, 129, 133, 136, 139, 141, 152, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

32 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 355–6.

33 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 36.

34 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy.

35 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’.

36 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 20, 36, 39, 45, 47, 53, 68, 70, 75, 78, 87, 93, 100, 104, 125, 129, 139, 141, 152, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

37 Test. Ebor., no. 93.

38 Test. Ebor., no. 219.

39 Test. Ebor., no. 75.

40 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 356–7.

41 Giles Constable, ‘Resistance to Tithes in the Middle Ages’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 13 (1962), 172–85 (pp. 181–2).

42 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 356.

43 Unlike the payment of debts, historians analysing wills have not overlooked this strategy for the afterlife: Burgess, ‘By Quick and by Dead’, p. 841; Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 44; Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, pp. 224–5; Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 145; Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 7.

44 R. N. Swanson, Church and Society in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 1993), pp. 300–8; Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 28.

45 Carpenter, ‘Religion of the Gentry’, pp. 71–4.

46 An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York: South-West of the Ouse. 3 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (1975), p. 8.

47 The York Plays, ed. R. Beadle (London, 1982), p. 279.

48 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 358.

49 Test. Ebor., nos 11, 17, 20, 34, 36, 39, 45, 46, 55, 58, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 78, 101, 129, 141, 159, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 211.

50 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 146.

51 Burgess, ‘Late Medieval Wills and Pious Convention’, p. 27.

52 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 359.

53 Test. Ebor., no. 78.

54 This represented 75 per cent of 2,286 testators whose wills were registered between 1321 and 1500: P. H. Cullum and P. J. P. Goldberg, ‘Charitable Provision in Late Medieval York: ‘To the Praise of God and the Use of the Poor’, Northern History, 29 (1993), 24–39 (p. 24).

55 Test. Ebor., nos 36, 67, 185, 186, 206, 211.

56 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 25, 47, 53, 70, 75, 76, 87, 89, 93, 100, 104, 113, 123, 125, 133, 136, 139, 152, 164, 176, 206, 218, 219.

57 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 361; Clare Gittings, Death, Burial and the Individual in Early Modern England (London, 1984), pp. 26–8.

58 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 47, 53, 75, 76, 87, 89, 93, 100, 104, 113, 125, 164, 176, 219.

59 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 47, 53, 76, 93, 104, 125, 164, 176, 219.

60 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 93, 100, 113, 219.

61 Gittings, Death, Burial and the Individual, p. 29; David Postles, ‘Lamps, Lights and Layfolk: “Popular” Devotion before the Black Death’, Journal of Medieval History, 25 (1999), 97–114 (p. 105).

62 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 362.

63 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 47, 53, 76, 89, 93, 100, 113, 125, 164, 194, 211, 219.

64 Clive Burgess, ‘“Longing to be Prayer for”: Death and Commemoration in an English Parish in the Later Middle Ages’, in The Place of the Dead: Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. B. Gordon and P. Marshall (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 44–65 (p. 52).

65 The concern here is not with contrasting the popularity of these different religious institutions and their changing fortunes: for this, see below.

66 Test. Ebor., nos 25, 47, 53, 75, 87, 93, 100, 123, 159, 164, 177, 179, 202, 218, 219.

67 Test. Ebor., no. 186.

68 Test. Ebor., no. 125.

69 Burgess, ‘Longing to be Prayer for’, p. 52.

70 T. P. Cooper, ‘The Medieval Highways, Streets, Open Ditches and Sanitary Conditions of the City of York’, YAJl, 28 (1913), 270–286 (pp. 280–1).

71 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 151.

72 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 367.

73 Test. Ebor., no. 139.

74 Test. Ebor., no. 176.

75 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 47.

76 A. N. Galpern, ‘The Legacy of Late Medieval Religion in Sixteenth-Century Champagne’, in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, ed. C. Trinkaus and H. O. Obeman (Leiden, 1974), pp. 141–176 (p. 149).

77 B. McGuire, ‘Purgatory, the Community of Saints, and Medieval Change’, Viator, 20 (1989), 61–84 (p. 66); J. Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory (Aldershot, 1991), p. 370.

78 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 25, 39, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 58, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

79 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 47, 53, 55, 76, 87, 93, 101, 104, 123, 125, 129, 141, 164, 176, 179, 186, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

80 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 87, 123, 141, 176, 218.

81 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 25, 39, 47, 53, 55, 58, 76, 87, 93, 101, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 141, 164, 176, 179, 202, 211, 218, 219.

82 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 40.

83 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 368–9.

84 Test. Ebor., nos 87, 164, 176, 179. 219.

85 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 369.

86 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 87, 104, 141, 211, 219.

87 Test. Ebor., no. 87.

88 Test. Ebor., no. 219.

89 Test. Ebor., no. 8.

90 Test. Ebor., no. 25.

91 Test. Ebor., no. 12.

92 Burgess, ‘By Quick and by Dead’, pp. 847–8.

93 B. Kumin, The Shaping of a Community: The Rise and Reformation of the English Parish, c. 1400–1560 (Aldershot, 1996), p. 109; Burgess, ‘By Quick and by Dead’, p. 848.

94 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 12, 123, 141, 176, 206.

95 C. Burgess, ‘A Service for the Dead: The Form and Function of the Anniversary in Late Medieval Bristol’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 105 (1987), 183–211 (p. 193).

96 Burgess, ‘A Service for the Dead’, 193.

97 Burgess, ‘Late Medieval Wills and Pious Convention’.

98 K. L. Wood-Legh, Perpetual Chantries in Britain (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 3–4.

99 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 125, 129, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

100 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 91.

101 J. Bossy, ‘The Mass as a Social Institution, 1200–1700’, Past and Present, 100 (1983), 29–61 (p. 33).

102 Test. Ebor., no. 53.

103 Test. Ebor., no. 176.

104 Test. Ebor., no. 206.

105 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 87, 123, 164, 186, 218, 219.

106 B. Dobson, ‘Citizens and Chantries in Late-Medieval York’, in Church and City, 1000–1500, ed. D. Abulafia, M. Franklin and M. Rubin (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 311–32 (p. 314). Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, pp. 22–3, touches on chantries only briefly and imprecisely.

107 Dobson, ‘Citizens and Chantries in Late-Medieval York’, p. 327.

108 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 23.

109 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 22.

110 Emile Màle, Religious Art in France: The Late Middle Ages (Princeton, 1986), p. 147.

111 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 156.

112 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 12, 20, 25, 34, 46, 47, 53, 55, 67, 68, 70, 73, 75, 76, 89, 100, 101, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 164, 179, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

113 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 11, 17, 36, 39, 45, 58, 71, 72, 78, 87, 93, 113, 136, 141, 152, 159, 176, 177, 185.

114 A. Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2005) pp. 466–77; Aston, ‘Death’, p. 220; Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 178.

115 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 15.

116 Test. Ebor., no. 12.

117 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 11, 17, 34, 36, 39, 45, 46, 47, 55, 58, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 76, 78, 87, 89, 93, 101, 113, 123, 125, 133, 136, 141, 152, 159, 176, 177, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206.

118 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 20, 25, 53, 70, 75, 100, 104, 139, 164, 179, 211, 218, 219.

119 Test. Ebor., no. 100.

120 D. M. Palliser, The Reformation in York, 1534–53 (York, 1971), p. 19; Attreed, ‘Preparation for Death’, 41.

121 Attreed, ‘Preparation for Death’, 41.

122 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, pp. 214, 223.

123 J. Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Medieval Religion (London, 1975), p. 131.

124 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 34, 46, 47, 53, 55, 68, 76, 89, 101, 123, 164, 179, 186, 194, 202.

125 Test. Ebor., nos 20, 45, 73, 93, 125.

126 Binski, Medieval Death, p. 14.

127 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 46, 47, 53, 55, 68, 76, 101, 123.

128 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 16.

129 Test. Ebor., no. 34.

130 Test. Ebor., no. 89.

131 Test. Ebor., no. 179.

132 Test. Ebor., no. 194.

133 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 46, 70.

134 Test. Ebor., no. 202.

135 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 34.

136 Test. Ebor., nos 133, 218.

137 Test. Ebor., nos 47, 73, 125.

138 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 34, 46, 47, 67, 70, 73, 125, 129, 133, 139, 202, 206, 218, 219.

139 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 46, 47, 67, 70, 73, 125, 129, 133, 202, 206, 218.

140 Test. Ebor., no. 3.

141 Test. Ebor., no. 139.

142 G. Beech, ‘England and Aquitaine in the Century Before the Norman Conquest’, Anglo-Saxon England, 19 (1990), 81–102 (p. 89).

143 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 157, 191; R. C. Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England (London, 1977), pp. 191–202.

144 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 193.

145 Test. Ebor., no. 129.

146 Test. Ebor., no. 206.

147 It is not clear if the testator wanted the pilgrim to go to the Church of St Mary at Scala Coeli in Rome, or to one of the churches in England where this indulgence was made available. See Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 375–6, for a discussion of the ‘Scala Coeli’ indulgence.

148 Test. Ebor., no. 139.

149 R. N. Swanson, Indulgences in Late Medieval England: Passports to Paradise? (Cambridge, 2007), p. 21.

150 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 126.

151 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, p. 224.

152 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 43.

153 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 43.

154 There is a good general discussion which details the continuing popularity of pilgrimage until the Reformation in Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims, pp. 191–202; see also Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 191–3.

155 Kermode, Medieval Merchants, p. 125.

156 Sumption, Pilgrimage, p. 297.

157 For discussion of the thousands of Marian shrines that sprung up all over Christendom from the High Middle Ages onwards, see Diana Webb, Medieval European Pilgrimage, c. 700 — c. 1500 (Basingstoke, 2002), p. 28.

158 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, p. 229.

159 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 364–6.

160 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 18.

161 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 125, 129, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

162 Test. Ebor., nos 45, 47, 53, 68, 70, 72, 93, 100, 101, 129, 159, 176, 177, 185, 186, 194, 202.

163 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 27.

164 Test. Ebor., no. 139.

165 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 25, 47, 53, 70, 75, 76, 87, 89, 93, 100, 104, 113, 123, 125, 133, 136, 139, 152, 164, 176, 206, 218, 219.

166 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 25, 123, 139, 176, 219.

167 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 15.

168 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, p. 16.

169 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 25, 39, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 58, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

170 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 12, 133, 139, 141, 164, 179, 206, 218, 219.

171 R. W. Pfaff, New Liturgical Feasts in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 1970), pp. 84–90.

172 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 47, 176, 211, 218.

173 R. W. Pfaff, ‘The English Devotion of St Gregory’s Trental’, Speculum, 49 (1974), 75–90 (pp. 75–7).

174 Test. Ebor., no. 219.

175 Test. Ebor., no. 139.

176 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 375.

177 W. Brown, ‘Mount Grace Priory: The History of the Priory’, YAJ, 18 (1905), 252–69.

178 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 129, 218.

179 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, p. 229.

180 Carpenter, ‘Religion’, p. 141.

181 Richmond, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, pp. 197–9; more recently, Richmond, ‘Religion’, pp. 198–200.

182 Saul, ‘Religious Sympathies of the Gentry’, p. 109.

183 Carpenter, ‘Religion’, pp. 141–4; Carpenter, ‘Religion of the Gentry’, pp. 63–6.

184 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 121–3; Duffy, ‘Elite and Popular Religion’, pp. 151–7.

185 Carpenter, ‘Religion’, pp. 143–4.

186 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 25, 34, 46, 47, 53, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 113, 125, 133, 136, 139, 164, 176, 179, 186, 194, 202, 218.

187 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 122.

188 Test. Ebor., nos 11, 12, 17, 20, 25, 34, 45, 46, 47, 55, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 87, 89, 93, 101, 104, 113, 123, 125, 133, 136, 164, 176, 179, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218.

189 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, p. 132.

190 Burgess, ‘Longing to be Prayer for’, p. 57.

191 Emma Mason, ‘The Role of the English Parishioner, 1100–1500’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 27 (1976), 17–29 (pp. 28–9).

192 Test. Ebor., no. 218.

193 Burgess, ‘By Quick and By Dead’, pp. 849–50.

194 Carpenter, ‘Religion’, pp. 143–4.

195 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 45, 46, 47, 53, 55, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 125, 129, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

196 Richmond, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, pp. 199–200; Saul, ‘Religious Sympathies of the Gentry’, p. 102.

197 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 25, 34, 46, 47, 53, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 113, 125, 133, 136, 139, 164, 176, 179, 186, 194, 202, 218.

198 Test. Ebor., nos 8, 12, 46, 47, 53, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 87, 93, 125, 164, 176, 179, 186, 194, 202, 218.

199 Test. Ebor., nos 46, 53, 76, 87, 100, 123, 141, 159, 164, 177, 185, 186, 206.

200 Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 42.

201 Test. Ebor., nos 46, 53, 76, 87, 164, 186, 218.

202 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, pp. 8, 20–2.

203 Vale, Piety, Charity and Literacy, pp. 20–1.

204 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 12, 25, 45, 46, 47, 53, 68, 70, 72, 73, 76, 87, 93, 100, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 141, 159, 164, 176, 177, 179, 185, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218, 219.

205 Test. Ebor., nos 12, 39, 47, 58, 75, 87, 93, 100, 104, 123, 125, 129, 133, 139, 141, 164, 176, 179, 194, 202, 218, 219.

206 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 8, 12, 53, 55, 75, 76, 93, 101, 104, 129, 164, 176, 179, 218.

207 Test. Ebor., nos 11, 12, 17, 20, 25, 34, 45, 46, 47, 55, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 87, 89, 93, 101, 104, 113, 123, 125, 133, 136, 164, 176, 179, 186, 194, 202, 206, 211, 218.

208 Test. Ebor., nos 36, 67, 219.

209 Test. Ebor., nos 3, 53, 129.

210 B. Thompson, ‘Monasteries, Society and Reform in Late-Medieval England’, in The Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England, ed. J. G. Clark (Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 165–96 (pp. 187–9); Fleming, ‘Charity, Faith, and the Gentry of Kent’, p. 47; Saul, ‘Religious Sympathies of the Gentry’, p. 101; Tanner, Church in Late Medieval Norwich, p. 44.

211 For a summary of this traditionalist interpretation see J. G. Clark, ‘The Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England’, in Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England, ed. Clark, pp. 3–34 (p. 4).

212 Clark, ‘Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England’, p. 32.

213 Cliffe, Yorkshire Gentry from the Reformation, pp. 167–9.

214 Dobson, ‘Citizens and Chantries in Late-Medieval York’, p. 314.

215 Clark, ‘Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England’, p. 32.

216 Richmond, ‘Religion and the Fifteenth-Century English Gentleman’, pp. 197–9; more recently, Richmond, ‘Religion’, pp. 198–200; Saul, ‘Religious Sympathies of the Gentry’, p. 109.

217 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, pp. 121–3; Duffy, ‘Elite and Popular Religion’, 151–7.

218 Heath, ‘Urban Piety’, p. 229.