If history tells how Maud cared for lepers and provided for them in St. Giles’, London, tradition relates that Adela of Louvain, the second wife of Henry I, was herself a leper, and that she built St. Giles’, Wilton. A Chantry Certificate reports that “Adulyce sometym quene of Englande” was the founder. The present inmates of the almshouse are naturally not a little puzzled by the modern inscription Hospitium S. Egidii Adelicia Reg. Hen. Fund. The local legend was formerly to be seen over the chapel door in a more intelligible and interesting form:—
“This hospitall of St. Giles was re-edified (1624) by John Towgood, maior of Wilton, and his brethren, adopted patrons thereof, by the gift of Queen Adelicia, wife unto King Henry p074 the First. This Adelicia was a leper. She had a windowe and dore from her lodgeing into the chancell of the chapel, whence she heard prayer. She lieth buried under a marble gravestone.”
Although in truth the widowed queen made a happy marriage with William d’Albini, and, when she died, was buried in an abbey in Flanders, she did endow a hospital at that royal manor—maybe to shelter one of her ladies, whose affliction might give rise to the tale of “the leprosy queen” and her ghost. When a person of rank became a leper, the terrible fact was not disclosed when concealment was possible. This is illustrated by another Wiltshire tradition—that of the endowment of the lazar-house at Maiden Bradley by one of the heiresses of Manser Bisset, dapifer of Henry II. The story is as old as Leland’s day; and Camden says that she “being herselfe a maiden infected with the leprosie, founded an house heere for maidens that were lepers, and endowed the same with her owne Patrimonie and Livetide.” Margaret Bisset was certainly free from all taint of leprosy in 1237, when she sought and gained permission to visit Eleanor of Brittany, the king’s cousin. She was well known at court at this time, and a Patent Roll entry of 1242 records that:—“At the petition of Margery Byset, the king has granted to the house of St. Matthew [sic], Bradeleg, and the infirm sisters thereof, for ever, five marks yearly . . . which he had before granted to the said Margery for life.” Another contemporary deed (among the Sarum Documents) may support the legend of the leper-lady. It sets forth how Margaret Bisset desired to lead a celibate and contemplative life; and therefore left her lands to the leper-hospital of Maiden Bradley on condition that she herself was maintained there. p075
Many famous churchmen, statesmen and warriors were hospital builders. Among the episcopal founders who figured prominently in public affairs were the following. Ranulf Flambard—“the most infamous prince of publicans” under William Rufus—founded Kepier hospital, Durham. The warlike Henry de Blois, half-brother of Stephen, erected St. Cross near Winchester. Hugh de Puiset, being, as Camden says, “very indulgently compassionate to Lepres,” gathered them into his asylum at Sherburn, but it is hinted that his bounty was not altogether honestly come by. Again, “the high-souled abbot” Sampson—he who dared to oppose Prince John and also visited Richard in captivity—was the founder of St. Saviour’s, at Bury St. Edmunds.
Even in the troublous days of Stephen there were barons who were tender towards the afflicted. William le Gros, lord of Holderness, was one of these. He was the founder of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Newton-by-Hedon, for a charter speaks of “the infirm whom William, Earl of Albemarle, placed there.” The Chartulary of Whitby relates how the earl—“a mighty man and of great prowess and power”—was wasting the eastern parts of Yorkshire. Nevertheless he “was a lover of the poor and especially of lepers and was accustomed to distribute freely to them large alms.” Abbot Benedict therefore bethought him of a plan whereby he might save the threatened cow-pastures of the abbey from devastation: he permitted the cattle belonging to the Whitby hospital to join the herds of the convent; consequently the earl was merciful to that place on account of the lepers, and the herds fed together henceforth undisturbed.
[♦ ] 11. THE TOMB OF RAHERE
(Founder and first prior of St. Bartholomew’s)
Another charitable lord was Ranulf de p076 Glanvill—“justiciary of the realm of England and the king’s eye”—who with his wife Berta founded a leper-hospital at West Somerton upon land granted to him by Henry II. His nephew Gilbert de Glanvill built St. Mary’s, Strood, near his cathedral city of Rochester (circa 1193); the loyal bishop declaring in his charter that it was founded amongst other things “for the reformation of Christianity in the Holy Land and for the liberation of Richard the illustrious king of England.” After the royal captive had been freed, he endowed his faithful friend’s foundation with seven hundred acres of land. Among the leading men of the day who built hospitals were Geoffrey Fitz-Peter and William Briwere, Peter des Roches and Hubert de Burgh, together with Hugh and Joceline of Wells. Yet another distinguished bishop of this period must be p077 mentioned, namely, Walter de Suffield, who was very liberal to the poor, especially in his city of Norwich. During his lifetime he established St. Giles’ and drew up its statutes. He directed that as often as any bishop of the See went by, he should enter and give his blessing to the sick, and that the occasion should be marked by special bounty. His will shows a most tender solicitude for the welfare of the house, which he commended to his successor and his executors.
Benefactors included not only men eminent in church and state, but “others of divers estates,” clerical and lay commoners. Foremost of these stands Rahere, born of low lineage, but court-minstrel and afterwards priest. In obedience to a vision, he determined to undertake the foundation of a hospital. He sought help from the Bishop of London, by whose influence he obtained from Henry I the site of St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield. While many founders are forgotten, men delight to honour Rahere. The chronicler, who had talked with those who remembered him, records how he sympathized with the tribulation of the wretched, how he recognized their need, supported them patiently, and finally helped them on their way. Rahere’s character is delightfully portrayed in the Book of the Foundation:—