Religious Institutions and Urban Society: The Nature of Lay-Religious Gift Giving in Angevin York and London

This thesis explores the ways in which lay benefactors in the cities of London and York interacted with their local religious houses through ostensibly pious gifts and what this might indicate about their ideas of law, spiritual belief and practices, and personal piety and charity c.1150-c.1250. The focus is on the cartulary records of four religious institutions. These are the nunnery of St. Mary Clerkenwell and Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, in London; and St. Mary’s Abbey, and St. Leonard’s Hospital in York. Using the charters copied into the cartularies, the thesis argues that through a close reading of the source material, with a focus on grants made for ostensibly pious purposes, it is possible to examine the relationship between lay and religious from a nuanced position. Furthermore, research into Angevin London and York, seeks to investigate an earlier time-period that has generally received less attention from historians.
The body of the following work is divided informally into an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter is an examination of the purpose and function of the cartularies of religious houses, including a detailed description of the five main sources used. The second chapter discusses the cities of London and York, their citizens and the place (both physically and conceptually) of the religious institutions within them. These are followed by two chapters that seek to develop ideas about lay interaction with religious houses. The charter diplomatic and manipulation of legal patterns in charitable and pious benefactions is the focus of Chapter Three, while Chapter Four draws attention to the specific bequests and requests made by lay donors. What emerges is a visible connection between the donation patterns of the laity and developing legal structures, and ideas of personal piety and charity.