AIMS AND MOTIVES OF BENEFACTORS

It is sometimes asserted that the almsgiving of the Middle Ages was done from a selfish motive, namely, that spiritual benefits might be reaped by the donor. Indeed it is possible that the giver then, like some religious people in every age, was apt to be more absorbed in the salvation of self than in the service of others; but the testimony of deeds and charters is that the threefold aim of such a man was to fulfil at once his duty towards God, his neighbour, and himself. That he was often imbued with a true ministering spirit is shown by his personal care for the comfort of p086 inmates. Doubtless the hidden springs of charity were as diverse as they are now: not every name on a modern subscription list represents one that “considereth the poor.” No one could imagine, for instance, that Queen Maud and King John had a common motive in their charity to lepers; or that the bishops Wulstan and Peter des Roches were animated by the same impulse when they provided for the wants of wayfarers.

The alleged motives of some benefactors are revealed in documents. Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, refers to St. Cross—“which I for the health of my soul and the souls of my predecessors and of the kings of England have founded . . . that the poor in Christ may there humbly and devotedly serve God.” Herbert, Bishop of Salisbury, in making a grant to clothe the lepers of a hospital in Normandy, says that:—“Among all Christ’s poor whom a bishop is bound to protect and support, those should be specially cared for whom it has pleased God to deprive of bodily power,” and these poor inmates “in the sorrow of fleshly affliction offer thanks to the Lord for their benefactors with a joyous mind.” Matthew Paris writes of Henry III that “he being touched with the Holy Ghost and moved with a regard to pity, ordained a certain famous hospital at Oxon.”

In the case of Rahere, the foundation of St. Bartholomew’s was an act of gratitude for deliverance from death, and the practical outcome of a vision and a sick-bed vow. While Rahere tarried at Rome,

“he began to be uexed with greuous sykenesse, and his doloures, litill and litill, takynge ther encrese, he drew to the extremyte of lyf. . . . Albrake owte in terys, than he auowyd yf helthe God hym wolde grawnte, that he myght lefully returne to his contray, p087 he wolde make and hospitale yn recreacion of poure men, and to them so there i gaderid, necessaries mynystir, after his power.”

Now and again a benefactor evinces deep religious feelings, as shown in the charter of Bishop Glanvill at the foundation of St. Mary’s, Strood:—

“Bearing in mind the saying of the Lord: ‘I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in;’ . . . And seeing that the Lord takes upon Himself the needs of those who suffer . . . we have founded a hospital in which to receive and cherish the poor, weak and infirm.”

Another founder showed the zeal of Apostolic days; a layman of Stamford, Brand by name, made an offering to God and held nothing back. This we learn from a papal document (circa 1174):—

“Alexander the bishop to his beloved son Brand de Fossato, greeting . . . we having, been given to understand . . . that you, guided by divine inspiration, having sold all you did possess, have erected a certain hospital and chappel . . . where you have chose to exhibit a perpetual offering to your creator.”[61]

The meritorious aspect of almsgiving was sometimes uppermost. Hugh Foliot, Bishop of Hereford, in founding his hospital at Ledbury, sets forth the importance and advantage of exercising hospitality. He illustrates the point by the case of the patriarchs, who were signally rewarded for their hospitality:—

“Bearing in mind therefore that . . . almost nothing is to be preferred to hospitality, and that so great is its value that Lot and p088 Abraham who practised it were counted worthy to receive angels for guests . . . we have built a certain hospital for strangers and poor people.”

The Church continued to teach the imperative duty of almsgiving. It is stated in the will of Henry VII that in the one act of establishing a hospital the Seven Works of Mercy might be fulfilled:—

“And forasmuch as we inwardly consideir, that the vij. workes of Charite and Mercy bee moost profitable, due and necessarie for the saluation of man’s soule, and that the same vij. works stand moost commonly in vj. of theim; that is to saye in uiseting the sik, mynistring mete and drinke and clothing to the nedy, logging of the miserable pouer, and burying of the dede bodies of cristen people. . . . We therefor of our great pitie and compassion . . . have begoune to erecte, buylde and establisshe a commune Hospital in our place called the Sauoie . . . to the laude of God, the weale of our soule, and the refresshing of the said pouer people, in daily, nightly and hourely exploytyng the said vj. works of Mercy, Pitie, and Charity.”

To the hospital which he had provided, the founder looked not only for spiritual and temporal profit in this life, but above all for help to his soul in the world to come. The desire for the prayers of generations yet unborn was a strong incentive to charity. The bede-houses testify to a purposeful belief in the availing power of intercession. Thus the patrons of Ewelme speak in the statutes of “prayoure, in the whiche we have grete trust and hope to oure grete relefe and increce of oure merite and joy fynally.” The same faith is expressed by the action of the merchants and mariners of Bristol in 1445. Because

“the crafte off maryners is so auenturous that dayly beyng in ther uiages ben sore vexed, trobled and deseased and p089 distried, the which by gode menys of the prayers and gode werkes might be graciously comforted and better releced of such trobles,”

they wished to found a fraternity to support, within the old hospital of St. Bartholomew (Fig. 13), a priest and twelve poor seamen who should pray for those labouring on the sea, or passing to and fro into their port.

[♦ ] 13. ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL, BRISTOL

(Called in 1387 the Domus Dei by Frome Bridge)

An earnest desire to make the world better is shown in one foundation deed, dating probably from the middle of the fourteenth century. It concerns Holy Trinity, Salisbury, erected by Agnes Bottenham on a spot where a p090 house of evil repute had existed “to the great perils of souls”:—

“The founders, by means of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have ordained thirty beds to the sustentation of the poor and infirm daily resorting thither, and the seven works of charity are there fulfilled. The hungry are fed, the thirsty have drink, the naked are clothed, the sick are comforted, the dead are buried, the mad are kept safe until they are restored to reason, orphans and widows are nourished, lying-in women are cared for until they are delivered, recovered and churched.”

The aim of pious benefactors was indeed the abiding welfare of their bedemen. The hard-headed, warm-hearted business men of Croydon and Stamford, no less than the ladies of Heytesbury and Ewelme, expressed a hope that the Domus Dei on earth might be a preparation for the eternal House of God. In the words of the patrons of Ewelme, they desired the poor men so to live:—

“that aftyr the state of this dedely [mortal] lyf they mowe come and inhabit the howse of the kyngdome of heven, the which with oure Lordes mouth is promysed to all men the which bene pore in spirit. So be yt.”

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