Zadius Sky: Discovery of the Unseen

(Note: For today, I will bring forth an extensive article on the impact of the Black Death on the Benedictine Houses in Kent County of England based on my year-old research.)

—

The Black Death, also known as "the Great Pestilence," was the most virulent and deadly disease during the mid-fourteenth century anno domini. It first came as a bubonic plague, aided by the black rats (also known as rattus rattus), and secondly came as a pneumonic plague that was spread by an airborne contagion.(1) Once the bubonic plague infected the person via the rat fleas, and from coughing or sneezing to another person, the plague became a pneumonic plague. However, the Black Death did not originate in Europe. It crept from China to Europe along the trading routes during the mid-1340s and reached Sicily and the rest of the continent in early 1348.(2) At this time, it reached the British Isles when the black rats traveled there by the use of ships from France.

There is uncertainty about the first port of England to become infected with the Black Death. The Anonimalle Chronicle stated that "the Great Pestilence" first appeared in Bristol, but a canon of Leicester, Henry Knighton, pointed out that it first emerged in Southampton, one of the English Channel ports.(3) Southampton was one of the major ports of southern England, but it is doubtful that it was the first to contract the plague from the continent. Other documents suggest that Melcombe Regis was the first to acquire the plague.(4) What if several ports of England contracted the Black Death simultaneously? Since the trading route from the continent to the British Isles became highly active, it is likely that the Channel ports from Sandwich to Bristol were infected with the black rats, and those ports and towns became affected by the plague. The number of the black rats in each port depends "on the frequency of arrival of ships," and the greater the number of infected rats increases the number of mortality among the English people.(5)

From these ports, the new arrivals and the returning English people went on to their own destination on separate roads, but the exact locations that these people visited along the way cannot be determined because no direct evidence was discovered to specify who went where in medieval England. As one will see, the ports on the western part of England seem to have been affected more greatly than the ports of eastern England. However, J.F.D. Shrewsbury stated that the mortality of the Black Death appeared to have been "greater in East Anglia than in the rest of England and Wales with the exception of London and certain other urban foci" because a large number of black rats were evident in the eastern England due to their dependence on humans and their need for grain.(6) The spread of the Black Death reached Kent County in late 1348 and early 1349. The mortality of Kent County generated an impact on the Benedictine houses, including both the nunneries and the monasteries.

Since both the nunneries and the monasteries in England were significantly affected by the Black Death because "the mortality was greater where numbers were gathered together," such as religious houses, it seem reasonable that some Benedictine houses suffered more than others in Kent County.(7) The Benedictine nunneries in Kent County are discussed briefly due to a lack of evidence to support the aftereffects of the Black Death on the nunneries. The nunneries included are Davington, Lillechurch, Shepey, St. Sepulchre, and Malling.

The first of these nunneries to be discussed is Davington Nunnery, which was situated near Feversham on the eastern part of Kent County. No visible evidence of any mortality occurred at Davington Nunnery as a result of the Black Death. However, at the time of this virulent plague, there were fewer numbers of nuns at this nunnery. According to Sir William Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, "the original number of the nuns was twenty-six, but in the reign of Edward the Third, from the scantiness of their revenues, they [were] reduced to fourteen."(8) There were not enough nuns at Davington to perform the services, and this shortage of nuns may be one of the factors why there was no mortality at this nunnery during the time of the Black Death. Due to the scanty revenues over a long period of time, Davington Nunnery became extinct in 1511.(9) The downfall or collapse of Davington Nunnery was not the result of the Black Death.

The next two nunneries, the Nunnery of Lillechurch and Le Minstre in Shepey, were also spared by the Black Death. Situated near Gravesend, the Nunnery of Lillechurch (or Heyham) originally consisted of sixteen nuns.(10) There is very little information on Lillechurch’s history or mortality during the time of the Black Death because no death or misfortune was recorded. Secondly, Le Minstre in Shepey was situated on the Isle of Shepey just north of Kent County. This nunnery "got well endowed for seventy-seven nuns."(11) Like the Nunnery of Lillechurch, Le Minstre in Shepey did not show any primary document to shed some light on its condition during the period of the plague. Founded on an island, it is likely that the spread of the Black Death did not reach Le Minstre in Shepey.

The fourth nunnery, Nunnery of St. Sepulchre, was situated on the eastern outskirts of Canterbury, under the protection of the archbishop.(12) This nunnery also did not reveal any primary materials on its mortality due to the plague. However, Francis Gasquet stated that the prioress of St. Sepulchre died at the time of the plague, but the information about the cause or any other deaths is not revealed.(13) A lack of evidence suggested that these three nunneries might not have faced the wrath of the Black Death. However, one cannot assume that the Black Death entirely spared the nuns or the people in these three locations because there is no evidence to support or deny the number of deaths during the time of the Black Death.

On the other hand, the Benedictine Nunnery of Malling, situated in West Malling in the western part of Kent County, was not spared by the Black Death. William de Dene’s Historia Roffenfis is a fascinating and the only reliable document thus far to describe what had happened at the Nunnery of Malling. In his own words, William de Dene wrote:

Anno xxiii. regni Regis Edwardi III…Apud Mallinges fecit duas Abbatiffas; & mox obierunt. Nec remanferunt ibidem nifi iv. profeffae & quatuor non profeffae Moniales; de quibus Epifcopus uni fpiritualia alteri temporalia cuftodienda commifit, quia non inveniebatur fufficiens perfona ad officium Abbatiffae.(14)

As Dene pointed out, in 1348, two abbesses of Malling were killed by the pestilence and very few nuns were left alive to run the nunnery. It is important to point out that this nunnery became the first Benedictine house in Kent County to become infected with the Black Death. The information on how the pestilence reached this nunnery is not known, but the impact is obvious. Due to such mortality and a lack of strong administration, the Nunnery of Malling fell into decay. Dene pointed out that the Bishop of Rochester visited the nunnery in 1349 and found it difficult to restore to its old glory.(15) The Nunnery of Malling was not destroyed or left in ruins entirely, but it was never restored.

Out of five nunneries in Kent County at the time of the Black Death, the Nunnery of Malling was severely affected. Unlike the nunneries, a couple of the monasteries in Kent County did not fare so well. The monasteries to be discussed included are Faversham, Folkstone, St. Martin, Rochester, St. Augustine, and Christchurch, Canterbury.

The first three monasteries will be discussed briefly. The Abbey of Faversham and the Priory of Folkstone were the two Benedictine monasteries that seem to have no visible evidence of experiencing certain deaths as a result of the Black Death. Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum revealed no deaths of either priors or abbots in the years of 1348 to 1350. There appears to be a gap where those years should have appeared in Dugdale’s document.(16) How the Black Death affected the monasteries of Faversham and Folkstone is uncertain.

The third monastery, the Priory of St. Martin, was situated in Dover, one of the English Channel ports. This monastery appeared to have ten to fifteen monks residing at this monastery during "the Great Pestilence."(17) The port of Dover is a likely candidate to have been infected with the plague, but there was no evidence of any plague-related death at the monastery there. However, the Calendar of Close Rolls reveals an order addressing all ports of England to not let any ships or people to enter the country "without the king’s licence."(18) It is likely that rattus rattus did not make their way into England through the port of Dover, and thus, the plague did not infect the townspeople or its monastery at this time. However, one should be cautious before making such assumptions without engaging in a further investigation to uncover new evidence regarding the presence of rattus rattus in Dover.

The fourth monastery, Rochester Cathedral, situated on the west side of Kent County, housed close to sixty monks in the mid-fourteenth century.(19) The reliable account of this monastery during the Black Death is William de Dene’s Historia Roffenfis. Dene was one of the monks in residence at the Rochester monastery. According to his account, Dene stated that the Bishop of Rochester "lost four priests, five esquires, ten attendants, seven young clerics, and six pages, so that nobody was left to serve him in any capacity" at the time of the plague.(20) If this death count was correct at the time of Dene’s writing, an estimated thirty-two deaths occurred at this monastery. No doubt those deaths severely affected the administration of the church. The Bishop of Rochester was named Hamund, who served at Rochester until 1353 when he resigned, and he was succeeded by John Shepey, a prior of Rochester.(21) Hamund’s resignation as a bishop was an interesting occurrence because the deaths at Rochester seemed to have affected his ability to perform as a bishop.

It is important to point out, using Dene’s account, that the Rochester’s monastery suffered more deaths than any other Benedictine monastery in Kent County. How this monastery contracted the plague is subjected to several theories. However, one theory will be addressed here. According to Augustus Jessopp:

From the stricken towns, people fled to the monasteries, lying away there in their seclusion, lonely, favoured of God. If there was hope anywhere it must be there. As frightened widows and orphans flocked to these havens of refuge, they carried the Black Death with them, and when they dropped death-stricken at the doors, they left the contagion behind them as their only legacy.(22)

The townspeople, since they might have caught the pestilence either from the travelers or from the infected water, could be one of the factors that brought the plague into the secluded monastery of Rochester in 1349. It is likely that the Rochester Cathedral was poorly maintained for a short time. However, this monastery was able to re-fill its number of monks over time since the outbreak. Nevertheless, the monastery of Rochester did not fall into decay and it appeared to have remained stable throughout "the Great Pestilence."

The last two monasteries, the Monastery of St. Augustine and the Christchurch Cathedral Priory, were situated in Canterbury on the east side of Kent County. The monastery of St. Augustine was smaller than the Christchurch Cathedral Priory, housing between sixty-five and eighty monks during the mid-fourteenth century.(23) There was no direct evidence of mortality at St. Augustine. Some scholars believed that the town of Canterbury had a good water-supply and drainage since Prior Wibert installed a spring water running from the hills to the monastery in a century earlier because the townspeople and the monks of Canterbury seem to have enjoyed a firm immunity from the first outbreak of the Black Death.(24) While St. Augustine’s monastery did not lose any of its monks, Christchurch Cathedral Priory lost a few monks and some of its important leaders.

The Christchurch Cathedral Priory was one of two archiepiscopal sees in England, housing about eighty monks before the Black Death.(25) Since Canterbury had a good water-supply during the time of "the Great Pestilence," Christchurch lost only four monks to the plague. Thomas Gyllyngham was first of these four monks to die by the plague in 21st of May 1349, followed by William Wynborne, John de London, and William de Beaumond in the month of June.(26) The loss of four monks during the time of the plague does not seem to have severely affected the administration of the monastery or its ability to function. At the height of the plague, Canterbury received a large number of visitors, who might have brought the disease to the town and the monastery.(27) Christchurch Cathedral also lost three archbishops within the same year as the Black Death crept across the land of England.

First, John Stratford was an Archbishop of Canterbury from 1333 until his death in 1348, but there is no evidence of him succumbing to the Black Death. He died at his manor in Sussex.(28) Secondly, John Offord was chosen to succeed the late John Stratford. However, he evidently died of the pestilence in May of 1349 before he "could be enthroned" as an archbishop.(29) Lastly, the learned Thomas Bradwardine, recommended by King Edward III, became the next archbishop. Shortly thereafter, in August of 1349, he soon died at a palace in London by the plague. He was then succeeded by Simon Islip, who was not infected with the Black Death.(30)

The obvious reason for both Offord and Bradwardine to contract the plague was because of their travels, not from their short stay in Canterbury. The Chancery records reveal a number of entries regarding the vacancies or voidance in the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which shows that the administration of both the monastery and the escheators’ office were slowly affected by the mortality.(31) However, the administration and the economy of the Christchurch Cathedral Priory in Canterbury were not impacted severely by the Black Death.(32)

Since there were four monks who died at Canterbury and three archbishops who died elsewhere, the town and the monastery of Canterbury appears to have been suffered slightly than the monastery of Rochester in terms of mortality. On the other hand, it is likely that the monastery of Rochester was able to re-gain its number of monks by letting the laymen or widowers to join their order to avoid a severe labour or monastic shortage.(33) In the case of the Benedictine nunneries, the Nunnery of Malling suffered slightly from the plague. Of the eleven houses, Christchurch Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral, and the Nunnery of Malling appear to have been the only three Benedictine houses that were infected with the Black Death.

With a final understanding of the mortality of Benedictine monasteries and nunneries in Kent County under the impact of the Black Death, one shall compare and contract the combined houses in Kent County with the monastery of St. Albans in Herefordshire. The Abbey of St. Albans was situated further north of Kent County in eastern England, housing close to one hundred monks.(34) During the outbreak of the Black Death, the monastery of St. Albans suffered a higher mortality than the combined Benedictine houses in Kent County. The abbot of St. Albans, a learned Michael de Mentmore, along with forty-seven monks succumbed to the plague within a few days on the Easter of 1349.(35) A large number of deaths at the monastery generated a strong impression on the English people, but a number of deaths among the townspeople themselves are not known.

How St. Albans became severely infected by the plague falls under several factors, but they will not be discussed here due to a lack of more accurate research. However, the impact of the Black Death on St. Albans was felt strongly by the English people, but the progress of the town and the monastery has not been changed. According to Elsie Toms:

The town of St. Albans itself was decimated [by the Black Death and]…the heartbreak and suffering [were] endured…by the people who still survived the pestilence, bereavement, and starvation.(36)

While there was a high mortality in the town of St. Albans and the people became severely affected by the plague, the business and the administration of the town and the monastery were not seriously impacted. In her Studies in Manorial History, Ada Elizabeth Levett emphasized that:

There is absolutely no evidence in the court books of any break in the system [of St. Albans]. The courts met at the usual date, or an extra court was interpolated, to dispatch exceptional business…but, in substance, the record remains unchanged.(37)

While the monks of St. Albans ran their administration as usual, the memory of the deaths that occurred at the monastery remained unforgettable. The Abbey of St. Albans evidently fared worse than the combined Benedictine houses in Kent County.

Indeed, the impact of the Black Death on the Benedictine houses in Kent County was significant, but there is no strong proof that the mortality rate of this county was greater than any other county in England. If one would recognize that a pneumonic plague remained active in Kent County in the years of 1348 and 1349, if not a bubonic plague, one can discover some minor evidence from the primary materials about the presence of infected people at these religious houses. If such evidence can be discovered, it will shed some light on the conditions of these nunneries and monasteries. It would be unwise to establish a solid theory or theories regarding the mortality rate of Kent County as a whole since the firm details are lacking. As for the reminder of this article, it is interesting to note that a single mortality rate of St. Albans in Herefordshire was significantly higher than the combined mortality rate of Kent County. It has been learnt by the research this article has gathered that the mortality did not severely affected the administration of the churches under the impact of the Black Death in Kent County.

Notes:

(1)Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (New York: Harper & Rows, 1969), 24, 26-28; J.F.D. Shrewsbury, A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles (London: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 4; Rose Tremain, "Black Death," British History Illustrated 1, no. 5 (December 1974): 5; J.M.W. Bean, "Plague, Population, and Economic Decline in England in the Later Middle Ages," The Economic History Review, New Series, vol. 15, no. 3 (1963): 425.
(2)Tremain, 8; William Naphy and Andrew Spicer, The Black Death and the History of Plagues, 1345 – 1730 (Charleston: Tempus Publishing, 2000), 32; Ziegler, 17.
(3)The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381, edited by V.H. Galbraith (New York: Manchester University Press, 1970), 30; Chronicon Henrici Knighton, Vol. II, edited by Joseph Rawson Lumby, Roll Series 92 (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1895), 61; The Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward III, prepared under the superintendence of the Deputy Keepers of the Records, Vol. 9 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1971), 56.
(4)Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume One: From A.D. 664 to The Great Plague (New York: Barnes & Noble, inc., 1894), 123; Francis Aidan Gasquet, The Black Death of 1348 and 1349 (London: George Bell and Sons, 1908), 82-3; Shrewsbury, 38, 43.
(5)David E. Davis, "The Scarcity of Rats and the Black Death: An Ecological History," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 16, no. 3 (Winter 1986): 458.
(6)Shrewsbury, 31.
(7)Francis Aidan Gasquet, Henry VIII and The English Monasteries, Vol. 1 (Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1887 – 1888), 3.
(8)Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. IV (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ormes, & Brown, 1817), 288.
(9)David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971), 258.
(10)Knowles and Hadcock, 259.
(11)Dugdale, Vol. II, 49.
(12)Dugdale, Vol. IV, 413.
(13)Gasquet, The Black Death, 119.
(14)Willelmi Dene, Historia Roffenfis, In Anglia Sacra, Sive, Collectio Historiarum, Partim antiquitus, partim recenter feriptarum, de Archiepiscopis & Episcopis Anglia, A prina Fidei Chriftiana fufceptione ad Annum MDXL, ed. Henry Wharton, 358 – 377 (Londoni: Impenfis Richardi Chiswel ad Infigne Rofa Coronata, 1691), 375; See Dugdale, Vol. III, 381.
(15)Dene, 377.
(16)Dugdale, Vol. IV, 568-70, 672.
(17)Dugdale, Vol. IV, 528; Knowles and Hadcock, 64.
(18)The Calendar of the Close Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward III, 1327 – 1377, prepared under the superintendence of the Deputy Keepers of the Records, Vol. 9 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1972), 206-7, 239, 267, 402; Creighton, 180-1.
(19)Dugdale, Vol. I, 153; Knowles and Hadcock, 74.
(20)Dene, 375-6; See Ziegler, 161.
(21)C. P. R., Edward III, Vol. IX, 419; Thomas Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, Vol. I, edited by Henry Thomas Riley, Roll Series 28 (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863), 276; Dugdale, Vol. I, 158.
(22)Augustus Jessopp, "The Black Death In East Anglia," In The Coming of the Friars and other historical essays (Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1892), 218-9.
(23)Dugdale, Vol. I, 81, 120; Knowles and Hadcock, 61.
(24)R.J.E. Boggis, A History of St. Augustine’s Monastery, Canterbury (Canterbury: Cross & Jackson, 1901), 99; J.E.T. Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1884), 221; C.E. Woodruff and William Danks, Memorials of the Cathedral & Priory of Christ in Canterbury (London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1912), 148.
(25)Dugdale, Vol. I, 81; Knowles and Hadcock, 61.
(26)Joan Greatrex, Biographical Register of the English Cathedral Priories of the Province of Canterbury: c. 1066 to 1540 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 83, 185, 224-5, 330.
(27)Ziegler, 163; Woodruff and Danks, 148.
(28)Dugdale, Vol. I, 85; Woodruff and Danks, 148.
(29)Ziegler, 159; Dugdale, Vol. I, 85.
(30)Dugdale, Vol. I, 85-6; Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, 275; Creighton, 129; Gasquet, The Black Death, 122.
(31)C.C.R., Edward III, Vol. IX, 170; C.P.R., Edward III, Vol. IX, 12; The Calendar of the Fine Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward III, prepared under the superintendence of the Deputy Keepers of the Records, Vol. 7 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1971), 94-6, 119, 149-50, 161, 163, 176, 184, 238, 303; The Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, prepared under the superintendence of the Deputy Keepers of the Records, Vol. 9 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1973), 166-7, 240, 273, 319, 427.
(32)R.A.L. Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory: A Study in Monastic Administration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1943), 144.
(33)I.F.C. Hecker, The Black Death in the Fourteenth Century, translated by B.G. Babington (London: A. Schloss, 1833), 68-9; R.P. Mander, "The Black Death and other plagues in East Anglia," East Anglian 7, no. 6 (February 1948): 295.
(34)Dugdale, Vol. II, 178; Knowles and Hadcock, 74-75.
(35)Thomas Walsingham, Monasterii Sansti Albani, Vol. II, edited by Henry Thomas Riley, Roll Series 28 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867), 369-70, 381; Dugdale, Vol. II, 197; Elsie Toms, The Story of St. Albans (St. Albans: Abby Mill Press, 1962), 50; Christopher Harper-Bill, "The English Church and English Religion after the Black Death," In The Black Death in England, edited by W.M. Ormrod and P.G. Lindley (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1996), 97; D. David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, Volume II: The End of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955), 10.
(36)Toms, 50-1.
(37)Ada Elizabeth Levett, Studies in Manorial History (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963), 252-53.