CCA

Canterbury Cathedral Archives

MCO

Magdalen College, Oxford

LPL

Lambeth Palace Library, London

PIYD

Probate inventories of the York diocese, 1350–1500, ed. P. M. Stell and L. Hampson, York 1998

TE

Testamenta eboracensis, ed. J. Raine (Surtees Society, 1836–1902)

TNA

The National Archives

When, in 1529, Thomas More spoke of the ‘hygh solempne ceremonyes about our funerallys’ it was not in approbation but in complaint. He was particularly critical of the ‘superfluouse charge used for boste and ostentacyon’, singling out for censure the ‘blak gownys … many tapers & torchys’, the ‘herawdys at our hersys … settyng up our skouchyn and cote armours’, the ‘doctour … [to] preche to our prayse wyth some fond fantesy’, and the ‘festyng ryotouse and costly’.Footnote ¹ More's criticisms were directed at the growing elaboration and expense of late medieval funerals, especially heraldic funerals, a process which reflected their great eschatological and social importance in the later Middle Ages. Yet funerals, unlike other post mortem strategies for salvation, have been relatively neglected by medieval historians.Footnote ² The aim of this paper is to explore this process by examining the funerals of one particular group, the higher clergy, about which an unusual degree of evidence has survived.

Late medieval funerals were the culmination of three distinct but overlapping stages in the development of medieval funerary practice. In the first, between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, ceremonies became longer and more complex and developed into what might be called an ‘extended funeral’, a succession of rituals spread over several weeks.Footnote ³ During the ninth century new rites of death, burial and commemoration were developed bringing a judicial approach that sought mercy and forgiveness for the soul in its suffering after death.Footnote ⁴ Although primarily intended for use in monastic burials, the new liturgy was extended to the secular clergy and laity. By the end of the thirteenth century it had crystallised at parish level into a standard pattern consisting of a vigil, a procession to church, the offices of the dead (often known as the Placebo and Dirige), a requiem mass and burial.

In the second stage, between the late twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries, these liturgical innovations were underpinned by theological developments which gave them added significance. The formulation of the doctrine of purgatory fuelled the elaboration of funerals in the later Middle Ages by mitigating the penal and judgemental view of death of the ninth-century rites.Footnote ⁵ Purgatory, an intermediate place between heaven and hell where contrite souls could be cleansed of their sins, offered the prospect of heaven to all repentant sinners instead of the stark choice of either heaven, for which few were deemed worthy, or hell. The amount of suffering in purgatory required to cleanse sins was determined not only by the seriousness of the sins committed and the merit accumulated from good works performed during life, but also, crucially, by the prayers and good works of others after the death. There was thus a powerful incentive to secure the prayers and good works of the living for the dead. Furthermore, there was a strong incentive to attend to the needs of the dead since as well as bringing relief to their souls it accumulated merit for the living. The late medieval extended funeral provided many opportunities for the multiplication of prayers and masses for individual souls in purgatory. As John Mirk's model funeral sermon put it ‘Placebo and Dirige with the nine lessons, the Laudes, and the requiem mass nourish souls and make them strong to suffer their pain with more patience’.Footnote ⁶

The third stage of development, the elaboration and formalisation of funerals, began before the first two were complete. Two notable early thirteenth-century funerals, those of St Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, in 1200 and William Marshal in 1219 had many of the features of a late medieval extended funeral: vigils, processions, torches, bell ringing, almsgiving and a feast.Footnote ⁷ Over the next three centuries these features became more elaborate and formalised, reaching their apogée in heraldic funerals. Existing features, such as processions and the use of torches and candles, were developed and formalised and new ones were added, the most important of which were liveried mourners, hearses (a framework for candles placed over the coffin) and heraldic displays. These developments, to which royal funerals made a significant contribution, combined religious and social elements, softening the pains of purgatory while simultaneously expressing the devotion and status of the deceased.Footnote ⁸ The carefully regulated heraldic funerals of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries precisely reinforced the social hierarchy and were confined to the aristocracy and prelates. But other features, such as hearses and liveried mourners, spread during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from their origins among a small elite to those who could afford them, but remained marks of status and wealth.

The main evidence used to analyse the funerals of the higher clergy will be probate accounts, a class of document somewhat neglected by medieval historians. The general scarcity of medieval probate accounts, especially complete ones, means that only a small sample of ten can be used.Footnote ⁹ Nevertheless, even in small numbers they provide a valuable corrective to testamentary studies which only reflect intentions rather than what actually happened. Wills have the further disadvantage of being often opaque about funerals, either leaving them to the discretion of executors in a stock phrase or barely mentioning them because the testator's wishes were already known, perhaps set out in other instructions now lost. The accounts used in this analysis come from some of the most successful, high-ranking and wealthy members of the late medieval Ecclesia anglicana. They were members of the higher clergy, the sublimes et litterati, who occupied the most senior positions in the Church just below the rank of bishop. A combination of ability, university education, patronage and sometimes birth opened their way to ecclesiastical and royal service in the course of which they were rewarded with valuable benefices, frequently cathedral prebends and dignities. The ten accounts that form the basis of the following analysis have been chosen because of their completeness. Five of the ten were canons of York: Martin Colyns (d. 1509), Thomas Dalby (d. 1400), William Duffield (d. 1453), Thomas Greenwood (d. 1421) and William Kexby (d. 1410).Footnote ¹⁰ William Heytesbury (d. 1372) was a canon of Salisbury, Andrew Kilkenny (d. 1302) dean of Exeter, Roger Nassington (d. 1364) chancellor of Lichfield and John Waynflete (d. 1479) dean of Chichester.Footnote ¹¹ John Scardeburgh (d. 1402) is something of an exception.Footnote ¹² Though in episcopal service at York, he was not rewarded with a cathedral prebend but had to make do with a canonry in the collegiate church of St Mary and Holy Angels there. All but Heytesbury, who owed his promotion to his reputation as a scholar, rose through service, and all except him, Kexby and Scardeburgh were resident at their cathedrals.Footnote ¹³ In terms of their origins and careers the sample, though small, is typical of the higher clergy as a whole but it does include a preponderance of the wealthiest as well as some of more modest wealth.

One of the most striking features of many of this group is their wealth.Footnote ¹⁴ Their executors had large estates to disperse. Between them they amassed over £6,500 in moveable goods, about the yield of a half tenth for the province of Canterbury in the early fifteenth century.Footnote ¹⁵ Three had estates valued at over £1,000, Dalby, £1,542 6s. 9d.,Footnote ¹⁶ Colyns, £1,437 15s. 5¾d.Footnote ¹⁷ and Duffield £1,317 18s. 1¼d.Footnote ¹⁸ They were almost matched by Kilkenny and Greenwood with estates of £916 18s. 0¾d.Footnote ¹⁹ and £899 13s. 4d. respectively.Footnote ²⁰ Though they did not reach episcopal levels of wealth,Footnote ²¹ these six were amongst the richest clerics of their day whom few could match, not even the rest of the higher clergy who generally had smaller estates of between £200 and £600.Footnote ²² Not all the sample were as wealthy: Heytesbury's executors accounted for £151 9s. 11d.,Footnote ²³ Kexby's for £150 1s. 1d.Footnote ²⁴ and Scardeburgh's for £116 2s. 9d.Footnote ²⁵ The value of their moveable goods was similar to that of the better off beneficed clergy, whose estates ranged between £50 and £150.Footnote ²⁶ They were, however, significantly richer than the poor beneficed and unbeneficed clergy who had estates of between £10 and £20.Footnote ²⁷ Comparisons with the laity are more difficult to make because the latter usually held land which was not included in probate accounts. In general the probate values of the moveable goods of the higher clergy of middle-ranking wealth were similar to those knights, esquires and gentlemen and the wealthy members of urban society: Sir Thomas Ursewick (d. 1479), an Essex knight and chief baron of the exchequer, had moveable goods valued at £317.Footnote ²⁸

Because of their eschatological and social importance, the funerals of the higher clergy were generally grand and lavish. Elaborate religious rites for the salvation of the departed were combined with social display that reflected their rank and means. Sometimes wills set out their testator's intentions. Richard Judde (d. 1512), treasurer of Hereford, wished to be ‘brought to earth worshipfully to the pleasure of God and my soul's health’.Footnote ²⁹ The funeral was an opportunity to praise God by increasing divine worship as well as pray for the soul of the deceased. The social purpose, alluded to in Judde's wish to be buried ‘worshipfully’, was less frequently expressed but can occasionally be found in aristocratic wills such as that of Sir Thomas Chaworth (d. 1347) who wanted to be buried according to his estate with the honour due to a knight.Footnote ³⁰ Coming from landowning families as many did, the higher clergy shared this approach. These two contrasting approaches to funerals in the later Middle Ages reflect the dichotomy between their religious and social functions.

Large sums were spent on the funerals of the ten higher clergy. The funeral costs discussed here include expenditure on octaves and month's minds but exclude tomb costs because they were often accounted for separately. Even the cheapest funerals, those of Scardeburgh and Heytesbury, cost £9 10s. and £12 17s. 9d. respectively.Footnote ³¹ Four others cost between £22 and £32, and the rest were more expensive still.Footnote ³² Dalby's totalled £53, Waynflete's £71, Duffield's £90 and Colyns's £95.Footnote ³³ Although medieval funeral costs varied considerably according to individual wishes, some comparisons can be made. The funeral costs of the higher clergy were similar to those of the wealthier and more important knights, esquires and gentlemen. While episcopal and magnate funerals cost hundreds of pounds and sometimes more, those of the gentry rarely exceeded £30.Footnote ³⁴ Among the more expensive were those of Dame Margaret Rede (d. 1510), wife of Sir Robert Rede, chief justice of the common pleas, and Thomas Romayn (d. 1313), pepper and alderman of London, which totalled £106 and £111 respectively.Footnote ³⁵ The funeral of Lady Anne Fortescue (d. 1518), wife of Sir Adrian Fortescue, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, at Pyrton, Oxon., cost almost £79, but those of Sir Thomas Urswick, at £13 17s., and Joan Belknap, mother of Sir Thomas Stonor, at £18, were more typical.Footnote ³⁶ The funerals of York craftsmen and merchants, prosperous husbandmen and beneficed clergy generally cost less than £10.Footnote ³⁷

Despite the large sums involved, the ten left few surviving instructions for their funerals. In their wills, which are extant for all but Kilkenny, Nassington and Waynflete, they tend to give generalised guidance rather than explicit instructions and leave much to executors' discretion. Only Dalby issued detailed instructions, though Kexby and Scardeburgh were precise about the amount of wax to be burned in candles.Footnote ³⁸ Dalby and Colyns both set upper limits for the cost of their funerals, £40 and £100 respectively.Footnote ³⁹ Dalby stipulated that there should be black liveries for his household and twelve paupers carrying torches, and asked his executors to avoid ‘vain or superfluous’ spending. Greenwood similarly wanted his funeral expenses to be ‘modest and in no way ostentatious, neither in food or any other matters’.Footnote ⁴⁰ Probate accounts enable us to see what such exhortations meant in practice. Greenwood's ‘modest’ funeral none the less cost £29 8s. 6d. and Dalby's executors, despite his strictures, spent £53 on his funeral excluding the cost of his tomb which he had included in his original £40 limit.Footnote ⁴¹ Moreover, Dalby's executors were not the only ones to exceed the sums stipulated in wills. Heytesbury bequeathed only five marks for his funeral and a distribution of a penny for each pauper present, but his funeral cost nearly £13.Footnote ⁴²

Late medieval ‘extended funerals’ began immediately after death with the saying of the Commendatio animarum and the preparation of the body, which usually consisted of washing it and wrapping it in a shroud.Footnote ⁴³ Next a vigil was held after which the body was taken in procession to church accompanied by torches and the tolling of bells. The offices of the dead, which began the night before burial, were said and followed by a requiem mass. After a second procession to the place of burial and interment the ceremonies concluded with a funeral feast. However, the office of the dead and the requiem mass were often repeated a week, a month and a year after death. The wealth of these ten clergy ensured that they could afford the most elaborate funerals. As well as washing and wrapping in a shroud, there is evidence that some canons' bodies were embalmed, a practice generally reserved for the wealthy and powerful. Nassington's funeral took place a week after his death, which suggests that some measures had been taken to prevent decay.Footnote ⁴⁴ Colyns's corpse, as well as being washed, underwent ‘sering’, a crude form of embalming consisting of wrapping the body in cerecloth, wax cloth used for winding sheets, at a substantial cost: 10s. 11d. for materials and 22s. for fees.Footnote ⁴⁵ The bodies of most of the ten were placed in coffins. These were probably wooden as they cost about 2s., though a stone coffin and a lead chest were purchased for Kilkenny.Footnote ⁴⁶ Coffins were predominately used for intramural burials and, like embalming, were an indication of status.Footnote ⁴⁷ Two accounts, those of Scardeburgh and Kexby, the least wealthy of the ten, contain no payments for coffins and they were probably buried in their shrouds. Once prepared the body was placed on a bier and covered with a pall (Dalby's was made of black cloth), and remained in the deceased's house until the eve of the funeral.

It was customary for the burial of important people to take place three days after death, partly to allow sufficient time for its organisation.Footnote ⁴⁸ Given the elaborate scale of some of the York funerals, even longer was sometimes required to make the arrangements, in particular to prepare the feast and make funeral liveries and candles. It took four days to organise Dalby's, and cooks were paid for six days' work preparing Nassington's feast.Footnote ⁴⁹ In the days leading up to the funeral candles burned around the corpse, and a vigil was held at which the Placebo and Dirige, and psalters, were said.Footnote ⁵⁰ At Dalby's five tapers burned around his body, probably in the shape of a cross but also in remembrance of the five wounds of Christ, and the night before his burial the cathedral sacrists kept a vigil.Footnote ⁵¹ Colyns had eight clergy watching his corpse for two nights.Footnote ⁵² Nassington's arrangements were even more elaborate: candles burned round his body for a week before his burial and widows were paid to sit round his corpse and pray for his soul for seven days and nights.Footnote ⁵³

The day before, or sometimes on the funeral day itself, the corpse was taken in procession to the place of burial. The elaboration of the procession was one of the main developments in late medieval funerary practice.Footnote ⁵⁴ It became a grand and solemn but carefully regulated spectacle, what Chiffoleau has called a ‘theatre of death’, with liveried mourners, torches, banners and embroidered palls, and, for the aristocracy, an array of heraldic devices, as its props. The procession combined religious and social functions which are hard to separate. Its length and solemnity not only honoured God and proclaimed the devotion of the deceased but was also a conspicuous display of status, being confined to the wealthy and influential. The solemnity of the procession was enhanced by the funeral liveries, gowns and hoods, worn by mourners.Footnote ⁵⁵ Perhaps derived from monastic habits, they were symbols of the piety and chastity of the wearer and were often given to a group of paupers who also carried torches around the corpse. Here the religious symbolism was more overt, as clothing the naked was one of the seven Christian corporal works of mercy. Liveries given to paupers were of particular merit because Christ was closely identified with the poor and as a result their prayers were considered especially efficacious. The expectation that they would pray for the soul of the donor is explicit in the will of Robert Aiscough, archdeacon of Exeter (d. 1482), which required them to say a psalter of the Virgin.Footnote ⁵⁶ Yet liveries were also a conspicuous display of wealth and status, first used at royal funerals and later copied by the aristocracy and urban and clerical elites.Footnote ⁵⁷ The black cloth widely used was expensive and by the late fifteenth century the quantities used and the style of livery was carefully prescribed and closely regulated by heralds according to rank.

Three York canons, Colyns, Dalby and Duffield, spent very large sums providing liveries for their households, the poor and others attending their funerals. While this is partly a reflection of their wealth, as only the wealthiest could afford to provide liveries, it also reflects the pace of elaboration in late medieval funerals. Neither Kilkenny's executors in 1302, who undoubtedly had the resources, nor Nassington's in 1364, provided liveries and neither had a group of poor mourners carrying torches. This seems not to have been the custom at Exeter Cathedral in the early fourteenth century, where not even Bishop Bytton (d. 1307) had liveried mourners,Footnote ⁵⁸ though the practice had been established by 1381 when Canon Robert Vaggescombe asked for six poor mourners to be provided with such liveries.Footnote ⁵⁹ The earliest testamentary evidence of liveried mourners comes from the diocese of York in the 1340s.Footnote ⁶⁰ Dalby's executors spent almost £18, Duffield's £38 15s. 2d., and Colyns's as much as £56;Footnote ⁶¹ by comparison £18 10s. 4d. was spent on liveries at the funeral of Lady Anne Fortescue in 1518.Footnote ⁶² They favoured black liveries rather than russet, though Duffield's executors also bought white cloth. The provision of funeral liveries for the poor usually took the form of clothing a small group who also carried torches in the procession and at the funeral. The number chosen, thirteen by Duffield and Colyns and twelve by Dalby, had symbolic importance representing the twelve Apostles and Christ. Dalby's executors provided them with hose and shoes as well as the togas and hoods given by Duffield and Colyns. There were eight poor mourners at Waynflete's funeral liveried in a less expensive cloth, ‘whitefryse’, a coarse woollen cloth; the 40½ yards used cost 20s.Footnote ⁶³ However, the other six canons placed much less emphasis on liveries and did not have groups of poor carrying torches. Kexby's executors spent only 8s. 2d. on black cloth and the others nothing at all.

A significant minority of the higher clergy shared Thomas More's concerns about the elaboration of funerals and were anxious to avoid excessive social display, what was termed ‘funeral pomp’. John Newton (d. 1414), a distinguished and learned treasurer of York, requested that his executors use his wealth to provide a funeral to the honour of God, the refreshment of the poor and the salvation of his soul and those of the faithful departed, but without any pomp.Footnote ⁶⁴ John Wotton (d. 1417), a canon of Chichester, set out his anxieties more fully asking for the avoidance of all funeral pomp that ‘gave solace to the living rather than relief to the dead’.Footnote ⁶⁵ Such concerns, one of the features of what have been described as ‘Lollard wills’, though a minority view, are quite commonly encountered in late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century wills, both clerical and lay. They were as much a reaction against the growing elaboration of funerals as an expression of sympathy for Lollardy. Furthermore, for the higher clergy at least, as the funerals of Dalby and Greenwood show, a request for the absence of funeral pomp is best understood as a relative term, avoiding extravagance like Colyns's £100 funeral, rather than an absolute demand for a simple funeral costing a few pounds or less. Dalby's avoidance of ‘vain or superfluous’ expenditure none the less included clothing his household and twelve paupers in black liveries and an upper limit of £40.

The funeral processions of the higher clergy were grand and impressive.Footnote ⁶⁶ Customarily they were led by a bell man ringing a handbell followed by a cross-bearer flanked by two acolytes carrying tapers, together with a thurifer and aspergers; the parish clerk of St John del Pyke was paid 2d. to carry the cross at Colyn's funeral.Footnote ⁶⁷ Next came the clergy, priests vested in albs and amices and the choir in black copes, leading a group of paupers and senior members of the deceased's household. They were followed by the coffin, covered with a black pall, carried on a bier by clergy acting as pall-bearers. At the grandest funerals liveried mourners carried torches around the coffin. Behind the coffin came the chief mourners, the kin and friends of the deceased and their households and other servants of the deceased. The cathedral bells tolled for the duration of the procession. Yet though impressive, such processions were usually relatively brief in distance and time because most of the ten died in their houses in the close and were buried nearby in the cathedral. The exceptions were Dalby who died at Deighton, four miles south of York and Heytesbury who died at Wingham, Kent, and was buried a mile and a half away in the neighbouring parish of Ickham where he had been rector.Footnote ⁶⁸ Seven horses and two carts were taken to Deighton for Dalby's funeral procession and 6s. was distributed in alms on the journey to York. Generally speaking the higher clergy did not match the lengthy last journeys of magnates, such as that of Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter, who died at his manor of Greenwich and was buried in the abbey at Bury St Edmunds.Footnote ⁶⁹ Even so, their wills suggest that sometimes there might be a long journey; Colyns requested burial at York if he died ‘in the north’.Footnote ⁷⁰ On reaching the cathedral the body was taken to the choir where it was placed under a hearse. It was then asperged and censed in preparation for the vigil and burial the next day.

Just how many of the heraldic trappings of late medieval aristocratic funerals, the standards, banners, bannerols, penons and scutcheons so carefully regulated by the heralds, were used by the higher clergy is uncertain.Footnote ⁷¹ While they were used at some episcopal exequies from at least the mid-fifteenth century, they rarely appear in surviving probate accounts of the higher clergy, even those of the wealthiest.Footnote ⁷² This may be partly because these accounts lack sufficient detail, being final probate accounts for the whole estate rather than detailed subsidiary accounts of the funeral. The only known example is Waynflete's funeral at Chichester in 1479 when 5s. was paid for thirty scutcheons of his arms.Footnote ⁷³ Waynflete's heraldic funeral reflects his armigerous status, his decanal office and the active role of his brother William, bishop of Winchester, in organising his funeral.Footnote ⁷⁴ The absence of other examples, particularly in the relatively detailed accounts of Colyns and Duffield, two armigerous and wealthy York canons, suggests either that this type of funeral was not widespread among the higher clergy or that it was done on a small scale and so not mentioned.Footnote ⁷⁵ The less wealthy would not have been able to afford the considerable extra expense of a heraldic funeral.Footnote ⁷⁶ The higher clergy were certainly aware of these heraldic developments and some like Nicholas Upton (d. 1457), precentor of Salisbury and author of a heraldic manual, De officio militari, were directly involved in them. Upton helped to organise the funeral of Walter Hungerford in the cathedral in 1449 and had been present at the burial of Thomas Montagu, earl of Salisbury in 1428.Footnote ⁷⁷ Given the significance of rank in medieval society, and developments in ecclesiastical heraldry, it seems likely that heraldic devices were used at some higher clergy funerals, especially the grander ones at St Paul's and York.Footnote ⁷⁸ While it remains uncertain how many had heraldic funerals, there is clearer evidence of special funeral customs at cathedrals to honour the status of canons and dignitaries, even though the details were rarely recorded.Footnote ⁷⁹ At Hereford in the early sixteenth century the custom was for the torch bearers at canons' funerals to be liveried in black and white.Footnote ⁸⁰ At Salisbury the office of the dead on the eve of burial was sung in the manner used for double feasts.Footnote ⁸¹

Many who organised medieval funerals sought to attract as large an attendance as possible. This not only maximised intercession for the soul of the deceased in a quantitative way, but also reflected their devotion and social status. The presence of two groups, the clergy and the poor, was particularly encouraged, because their prayers were considered to be of special merit.Footnote ⁸² Both groups were offered financial incentives: fees to the clergy and distributions of money, food or clothing to the poor. Both Dalby and Greenwood offered 6s. 8d. to their fellow canons at York, a standard fee at many cathedrals and a significant sum, and a few offered as much as 10s.Footnote ⁸³ At Colyns's octave canons were paid 5s., vicars, deacons and chantry priests 20d., thurifers 6d. and choristers 4d.Footnote ⁸⁴ It should not be concluded, however, that cathedral clergy were mercenary and attended only because they were paid. At Exeter canons regularly attended the funerals of the poor despite very small payments.Footnote ⁸⁵ Ensuring a large clerical attendance was relatively easy for most of the ten because they had access to the clerical resources of their cathedrals but Scardeburgh and Heytesbury had to be more resourceful. Both turned to friars, the former to the Dominicans of York, where he asked to be buried, and the latter to Franciscans who were paid 8s.Footnote ⁸⁶

The York probate accounts enable some quantification of attendance at higher clergy funerals. No overall totals are given but figures survive recording the payments made to some clergy. There were eighty-nine minster clergy alone in attendance at Duffield's: five canons, twenty-one chantry priests, thirty-four vicars choral, six deacons, five thurifers, twelve choristers, two vestry clerks, three sacrists and the sub-treasurer. In addition the clergy of the chapel of Holy Cross were present.Footnote ⁸⁷ Duffield was able to mobilise the full complement of minster clergy. There were almost as many, seventy-four, at Dalby's.Footnote ⁸⁸ Generally there were more clergy at these funerals than at their lay equivalents; there were twelve priests, four clerks and twelve children present at Anne Fortescue's burial and thirty-two chaplains attended the month's mind of Thomas Vicars, a wealthy Yorkshire husbandman.Footnote ⁸⁹ In addition there were likely to be some other clergy, friars, liveried poor mourners and an unknown number of other paupers as well as the deceased's household, kin and friends. On such an important occasion the whole household of between five and fifteen servants, would have attended, often, as Duffield's were, liveried at his expense. Fellow canons probably brought their own households. When Dean Worsley of St Paul's attended the funeral of Edward iv he was accompanied by his household vested in black.Footnote ⁹⁰ Overall, it is probable that between 150 and 200 and sometimes more attended the grandest clergy funerals at York, to say nothing of the uncounted poor. The numbers were smaller at other cathedrals, where there were fewer minor clergy, and for less wealthy canons. There were only thirty-one cathedral clergy at Waynflete's funeral at Chichester, though they were accompanied by an unrecorded number of priests from the city and surrounding area.Footnote ⁹¹ High attendance levels were expensive for the estate of the deceased and substantial sums were spent on cathedral clergy by executors, as much as £9 by Duffield's.Footnote ⁹²

The principal funeral services were usually spread over two days. Owen Pole (d. 1509), treasurer of Hereford, set out in his will the standard practice for the higher clergy.Footnote ⁹³ He asked for his body to be brought into the cathedral choir the day before the funeral, that a vigil be held with prayers for his soul and three masses be celebrated before his burial. The services began the evening before burial with the Placebo and a vigil. This was followed by the Dirige early the next morning and a series of three masses, usually one of the Trinity, another of the Virgin, culminating in the requiem mass. At some funerals a sermon was preached; a certain Dr Lasyn was paid 6s. 8d. for doing so at Duffield's.Footnote ⁹⁴ As soon as the requiem mass had finished the ceremony of interment, consisting of a series of antiphons, Psalms and prayers, began. First the corpse was censed and asperged three times before a procession to the grave, which was also censed and asperged, and sometimes, like Dalby's, covered with black cloth.Footnote ⁹⁵ The body was then placed in the grave, and the grave closed. Two further censings and aspergings were made and final prayers said.Footnote ⁹⁶ While the cathedral was the main focus of most of these funerals some executors arranged supplementary obsequies elsewhere on the day of the funeral. Pittances to the friars, bequests of food in return for prayers, were sometimes made and are mentioned in relation to Heytesbury, Kexby, Kilkenny and Waynflete.Footnote ⁹⁷ Colyns's executors went to the greatest lengths. Payments were made to seven priests from the York Corpus Christi gild to pray for him and to another six priests each to celebrate five masses of the Five Wounds. A further 259 priests were employed to say mass on the day of his burial, consisting of forty minster clergy and 219 ‘regulars and seculars’. The four orders of friars in the city were paid 10s. each to be present at the burial and to say the office of dead and a requiem mass the next day.Footnote ⁹⁸ In addition small payments were made to the bedels of three city gilds.

Almsgiving to the poor was a major part of post mortem provision for souls and the funeral was usually the first opportunity for it. Bequests for distributions on the burial day are common in wills; Greenwood left instructions for six marks in pence to be distributed.Footnote ⁹⁹ In return the poor were expected to intercede for the soul of the deceased. Distributions were made at the funerals of all ten canons except Scardeburgh's. The sums distributed varied considerably from Greenwood's very modest bequest to the £20 given by Colyns's executors in accordance with the instruction in his will that his funeral should include almsgiving to the poor.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ At Waynflete's funeral 33s. 4d. was distributed in penny doles to 400 people, ‘every man, woman and child’.Footnote ¹⁰¹ There was a similar though larger distribution of 53s. 10d. to 646 paupers at the lay funeral of Anne Fortescue, but a much larger one at Waynflete's month's mind when £10 7s. 5d. was given in penny doles to 2,489 people.Footnote ¹⁰² Distributions were mainly in cash, but sometimes bread was given as well and clothing was provided for liveried mourners. Kilkenny's executors spent the huge sum of £12 15s. 11d. on bread for the poor. The distribution of large sums must have posed logistical problems and sometimes attracted disorderly crowds.Footnote ¹⁰³ Almsgiving formed a significant proportion of the total funeral costs, between a fifth and a third.

The ceremonies on the burial day usually concluded with a funeral feast. Even modest funerals included a few shillings for a wake for the deceased's friends and neighbours. The funeral feast was particularly important to most of the higher clergy in this survey; Dalby's accounts refer to it as ‘the great feast’.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ Like other aspects of their funerals the feast combined religious and secular elements. Feeding the hungry was the second corporal work of mercy, a charitable act and Christian duty. The funeral feast was the last occasion for resident canons to dispense the hospitality which was such an important responsibility for them, but its magnificence was also a final reminder of their status and good lordship. The purpose of the feast was most clearly expressed by John Chandler (d. 1417), a notable dean of Salisbury before he became its bishop. He invited all the cathedral clergy to dinner on his burial day as a gesture of ‘charity, peace and friendship’ and afterwards asked them to sing an antiphon and the De Profundis for his soul.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ The feasts were usually dinners and took place after the interment. The importance of these feasts is reflected in their cost, the care taken in their organisation and the conspicuous display of luxury. The cheapest, like Kexby's, which cost £5, were substantial and the most expensive, costing over £20, lavish; by comparison the dinner at Anne Fortescue's funeral cost £10 13s. 6d.Footnote ¹⁰⁶ Elaborate preparations were made for them; it took four days to prepare Dalby's and six days for Nassington's. Cooks were specially employed at considerable expense, 24s. 6d. at Duffield's feast. Reynold, cook to the earl of Arundel, was hired for Waynflete's feast for which he was paid 6s. 8d.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ The food served matched the aristocratic lifestyle of the higher clergy: the finest white bread, expensive spices used in large quantities, venison, swan and high status fish, such as sturgeon, roach and bream. At Nassington's funeral, which fell during Lent, over £5 was spent on fish alone. The food at these canons' feasts was similar to that provided by their gentry counterparts such as Thomas Stonor.Footnote ¹⁰⁸ Even at Scardeburgh's more modest feast, costing £5, geese, partridge and game, salt and river fish and sauces costing 5s. were provided for the mourners.Footnote ¹⁰⁹

The lavishness of the food was matched by the numbers attending the feast. About a hundred attended those of Dalby and Nassington and more than ‘eighteen dozen vessels’ were hired for Waynflete's.Footnote ¹¹⁰ Exactly who attended remains obscure: presumably the cathedral clergy, chief mourners and senior members of the deceased's household. It is not clear whether the poor were invited as a matter of course. Duffield, whose feast was the most expensive, costing £28, left instructions that only paupers should attend.Footnote ¹¹¹ They were certainly present at Waynflete's which was attended by ‘many people rich and poor’, and probably in large numbers, as sixteen yards of cloth was bought to cover their tables.Footnote ¹¹² At equivalent feasts of the laity, such as Thomas Stonor's, the poor were present but ate humbler fare, which none the less included meat.Footnote ¹¹³ However, at two funerals, those of Kilkenny and Colyns, there were only modest refreshments. The feast at Kilkenny's cost just 57s. 11¾d. and the only reference to food in Colyns's accounts is to ‘comfettes’, sweetmeats, for which no total is given.Footnote ¹¹⁴ Refreshment was also provided on other occasions during the exequies, principally the office of the dead. Bread, ale and wine was supplied for those attending the Dirige at Waynflete's funeral. At York sweetmeats were provided for the choir and its ministers by Dalby and Kexby, probably during the vigil.

The higher clergy, like other wealthy members of late medieval society, left the world dramatically, aurally and visually, accompanied by tolling bells and in a blaze of candles. Both were powerfully symbolic to Christians and thought to banish demons and ward off the devil. Three stages of the funeral were marked by the tolling of bells: the moment of death, the procession to the church and the procession from the church to the grave.Footnote ¹¹⁵ The primary purposes were to announce what was going on and solicit prayers for the soul of the deceased. On hearing the tolling bell Christians were urged to say the Subvenite and pray for the soul of the deceased. Bells were first rung to announce a death, the number of tolls indicating the status of the deceased. According to William Durand they should be rung twice for a woman, three times for a man and for a cleric for as long as he had been in orders finishing with a full peal.Footnote ¹¹⁶ The duration of tolling matched the status of the deceased, lasting about half an hour for those of high rank.Footnote ¹¹⁷ At Exeter Cathedral in the fifteenth century the peals and bells rung varied according to the rank of the deceased: deans ranked alongside bishops, next came canons and below them vicars choral.Footnote ¹¹⁸ As well as church bells, in towns bellmen were employed to walk the streets ringing handbells to announce deaths. At York a bellman usually announced the deaths of canons; he was paid 8d. by Dalby's executors.Footnote ¹¹⁹ There was extensive bell-ringing at Nassington's funeral: 16d. was paid for fifteen ringers and 18d. for clerks ringing handbells in Lichfield and at his prebend of Alrewas.Footnote ¹²⁰ But much larger sums were spent by some executors, 5s. by Heytesbury's and 10s. by Kilkenny's.Footnote ¹²¹ The most striking devotion to bell-ringing can be found in the will of Thomas Morton (d. 1511), a canon of Hereford, who requested that St Thomas's bell be rung at night from 6·00 p.m. to 7·30 p.m. for forty days after his death.Footnote ¹²²

The symbolism of light, which is so pervasive in Christian imagery from the New Testament onwards, was even more potent than that of bells. The invocation that ‘perpetual light’ might shine on the deceased was an important part of even the humblest exequies.Footnote ¹²³ In an unusual benefaction Kilkenny stipulated that his chantry foundation in Exeter Cathedral, which had burial rights for the whole city, should provide six candles for the funerals of those too poor to afford them.Footnote ¹²⁴ Such was the powerful resonance of this symbolism that candles burned around Dalby's tomb for eight days after his burial.Footnote ¹²⁵ The prominence of lights in the exequies of the higher clergy is evident from the sheer quantity of candles burned, the very large sums spent on them and the meticulous arrangements drawn up for their use. Though the funerals of the ten canons did not match the magnificence of Abbot Islip's hearse pictured in the Islip Roll, they often included an impressive display of lights. At Dalby's funeral a staggering 313½ lbs of wax was purchased at a cost of £7 5s. 8d. This was used to make twelve torches to be carried by liveried mourners, five ‘great tapers’ for the hearse, small candles for the choir, another five tapers to burn round the body before the funeral and candles to burn round the tomb after the interment.Footnote ¹²⁶ In comparison 400 candles burned at the funeral of Thomas Romayn (d. 1313), a London alderman, at a cost of £10 8s. and £8 was spent on a hearse of thirty torches for Margaret Rede's in 1510.Footnote ¹²⁷ Even the modest funerals of Scardeburgh and Heytesbury included substantial expenditure on this, £3 3s. 9d. for six torches, 25 lbs wax and a hearse for the former, and £2 1s. 5d. on torches and wax for the latter.Footnote ¹²⁸ Scardeburgh was the only one to provide a hearse, the others presumably used those of their cathedrals or parish churches.

Although interment was often a somewhat perfunctory part of medieval funerals and not always attended by the principal mourners, the place of burial and tomb were matters of greater concern. Most higher clergy wished to be buried in their cathedral or collegiate churches. A few chose one of the parish churches that they held, or more rarely another religious house or occasionally expressed no preference. The place of burial within cathedrals was determined partly by custom and partly by individual preference in negotiation with the chapter. Generally the choir, with its proximity to the high altar, was reserved for bishops, and consequently canons were usually buried in aisles, the nave or side chapels. Among the ten studied here individual preference varied: Duffield requested burial in front of the altar in the chantry of his patron Archbishop Kempe, Kilkenny was buried in the chapel of his patron saint, St Andrew, a chapel for whose dedication he was largely responsible.Footnote ¹²⁹ Scardeburgh asked to be buried in the Dominican friary in York and Heytesbury in his parish church of Ickham, Kent.Footnote ¹³⁰ As priests, the ten canons would have been buried with the insignia of their office.Footnote ¹³¹ Both Kilkenny and Nassington were buried with chalices, 4d. being paid for a pewter one in the latter case.Footnote ¹³² Archaeological evidence from Hereford and Lincoln cathedrals has confirmed that this was standard practice in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries but it seems to have died out in the fifteenth.Footnote ¹³³ Nassington was buried with additional insignia of office, in a set of specially purchased vestments, examples of which are rare for those below the rank of bishop. Kilkenny may have been interred wearing shoes; there is an entry in his accounts for shoes and slippers, which cost 18d. A possible explanation for this can be found in the Rationale divinorum officiorum by the canon lawyer William Durand which recommends it as a sign of readiness for judgement.Footnote ¹³⁴

Judging by their cost and the care taken over them, their tombs were important to this group of higher clergy. These were expensive items, costing between £6 and £15.Footnote ¹³⁵ Duffield and Heytesbury had theirs prepared in their lifetimes.Footnote ¹³⁶ The others left the responsibility to their executors who often went to considerable trouble. Ten shillings was paid to transport Kilkenny's Purbeck marble slab from the quarry to Exeter Cathedral. Nassington's executors, perhaps seeking the latest metropolitan fashion, bought his from a London woman and Colyns purchased his from Newark. With a handful of exceptions, the higher clergy were commemorated by ledger-stones rather than raised tombs or effigies, which were generally reserved for episcopal and aristocratic burials. Heytesbury was perhaps one of them, since the late fourteenth-century effigy of a priest in Ickham church probably commemorates him.Footnote ¹³⁷ The ledger-stones, which sometimes contained brasses, were inscribed with their names, the offices they held, the date of their death and a request for prayers. More elaborate ones at Hereford and Lincoln had brasses with their images or those of saints, coats of arms and verses.Footnote ¹³⁸ Only Kilkenny's, a floriated cross with the figure of a priest in a quatrefoil in the centre, has survived though in a much-mutilated form.Footnote ¹³⁹ However, descriptions of two York ledger-stones were made before they were lost. Greenwood's had a simple inscription round the edge but that on Colyns's tomb contained a longer account of his career and his coat of arms (a bend and three martlets), engraved on it.Footnote ¹⁴⁰ Scardeburgh's accounts contain no payments for a tomb and it is possible that he did not have one.

Many elements of the funeral, with the obvious exceptions of the preparation and interment of the body, were regularly repeated for the salvation of the deceased's soul. Indeed, obits and chantries principally consisted of repeating key elements of the funeral liturgy, the office of the dead and the requiem mass. The first formal occasion for repetition was usually the octave, or week's mind, after which the month's mind and anniversary were celebrated. The latter was usually celebrated for as long as funds allowed and often established on a long-term basis with an endowment. The extent of the ceremonies on these three occasions varied considerably according to the wishes and means of the individual and were sometimes as elaborate and expensive as those on the day of burial and of almost equal importance. Among the ten canons there was wide variation: none had all three observed, three had octaves celebrated, two the month's minds but seven the anniversary. Colyns's octave was almost as grand as his burial day and cost £8 15s. Seventy-five minster clergy and thirteen paupers in black livery carrying torches attended, 100lbs of wax was made into candles and comfettes, bread and beer were provided in the choir.Footnote ¹⁴¹ The octaves of Dalby and Scardeburgh were on a much smaller scale, a mass for the former and some feasting for the latter.Footnote ¹⁴² Kilkenny and Waynflete were the only ones to have their month's mind marked. In Kilkenny's case exequies in the choir of Exeter Cathedral were followed by a major distribution of bread to the poor and a gift to the Franciscan friars, at a total cost of £4 9d.Footnote ¹⁴³ In Waynflete's case the ceremonies were more elaborate and expensive than those on his burial day.Footnote ¹⁴⁴ As well as prayers in church, distributions to the poor and a grand feast at Chichester, the event was marked at Farnham and Southampton. Commemorations on the anniversaries of deaths were generally observed on a relatively large scale, especially at the end of the first year.Footnote ¹⁴⁵ As well as the office of the dead and a requiem mass there was usually substantial almsgiving and sometimes a feast. At Nassington's, which was the cheapest, 4 marks was distributed in bread and money to the poor, 8s. 6d. paid to city clergy for masses and a dinner costing 19s. 8d. was provided for the vicars choral. Like the funeral, anniversaries were marked with bell-ringing and candles. The York bellman announced the anniversary of Dalby's death as well as his burial.

The higher clergy shared the wish of other wealthy people in late medieval society, in the words of Jacques Chiffoleau, ‘to surround death with a new theatrical, dazzling ceremonial’ in their funerary practice.Footnote ¹⁴⁶ The twin eschatological and social aims of their funerals were generally combined remarkably harmoniously but the tension between two is evident in the rejection of funeral pomp by some. The huge late medieval investment in post mortem intercession, most familiar from commemorative masses, obits and chantries, began with the extended funeral which provided a series of opportunities for prayers on a large scale for the soul of the deceased. From the first toll of the knell announcing a death to the final grace at the feast and through all the intervening stages, the vigil, offices of the dead, processions, almsgiving and masses, and their repetition a week and a month after death, prayers were said for the deceased. In addition, three of the seven corporal works of mercy were usually performed. Extended funerals were part of the ‘mathematics of salvation’, the desire to accumulate merit for the soul on as large a scale as possible. This eschatological purpose was usually achieved flamboyantly and ostentatiously. The large sums spent, the long hierarchical procession, the liturgical elaboration, the extravagant feast, the privileged burial place and tomb expressed the status and wealth of the higher clergy. Their funerals were a major event in the cathedral cities concerned and must have had a considerable impact on the local community.

The higher clergy and wealthy laity shared a broadly similar funeral culture: a common liturgical framework, conspicuous display and high levels of expenditure. Both left the world in a prolonged, grand spectacle that ensured maximum benefit for their souls while simultaneously proclaiming their rank and importance in the community. However, despite the similarities, notable differences can also be observed. With access to the resources of cathedral and collegiate churches higher clergy funerals often had greater liturgical sophistication and a larger clerical presence. But of more importance is the greater emphasis on charity. Generally there were significantly higher levels of almsgiving at the funerals of the higher clergy than at those of their lay counterparts. This is also evident in their funeral feasts which were more expensive than those of the wealthy laity, a reflection of both the importance of the duty of hospitality for resident canons and their reputation for generous provision. The higher clergy, or at least their executors, took particular care to make full use of the late medieval ‘extended funeral’ to nourish their souls in purgatory.