[♦] PLATE II. HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS, CANTERBURY FOR PILGRIMS

It is recorded that the two London infirmaries of St. Mary without Bishopsgate and St. Bartholomew p009 undertook this work; in both institutions the touching provision was made that if the mother died, her child should be brought up there until the age of seven.[8] In the year 1437 privileges were granted to the latter hospital “in consideration of their great charges in receiving the poor, feeble and infirm, keeping women in childbirth until their purification, and sometimes feeding their infants until weaned.” William Gregory, a citizen of London, describing in his commonplace book various foundations, says of “Bartholomewe ys Spetylle”:—

“Hyt ys a place of grete comforte to pore men as for hyr loggyng, and yn specyalle unto yong wymmen that have mysse done that ben whythe chylde. There they ben delyueryde, and unto the tyme of puryfycacyon they have mete and drynke of the placys coste, and fulle honestely gydyd and kepte.”

General hospitals for the sick were thus in process of development. St. Bartholomew’s was steadily fulfilling its founder’s vow to provide a place for the “recreacion of poure men.” After three and a half centuries of usefulness, a roll of 1464 records with approbation “works done within the hospital in relief of poor pilgrims, soldiers, sailors and others of all nations.”

FOURTH PERIOD (circa 1470–1547)

(a) It is evident that pilgrimage was no longer an important factor in the social life of the country. The daily resort to shrines had practically ceased, but the special anniversaries were kept. Such pious travellers as there were, lodged chiefly in inns. At Glastonbury a Pilgrims’ Inn was built by Abbot John, about the year 1475, to accommodate those visiting the holy places of p010 St. Joseph of Arimathæa and St. Dunstan. A later abbot, Richard Beere, writing to Archbishop Warham to defend the genuineness of St. Dunstan’s relics, stated that people had come from far and near to visit the new shrine, especially upon St. Dunstan’s Day (1508).[9] Although the regular stream of pilgrims to Canterbury was no longer seen day by day, the great “Jubilee” celebrations were popular, the last one being kept in 1520. At that time the needs of visitors were met by special provision, a post being set up in the main street with “letters expressing the ordering of uitell and lodyng for pylgrymes.” Probably the bailiffs and citizens made all arrangements for bed and board as they had done in 1420.

Vagrancy still constituted an increasingly grave problem. By “An Acte agaynst vacabounds and beggers,” in 1495 (re-enacted 1503), previous legislation was amended and “every vagabound heremyte or pilgryme,” partially exempt hitherto, was henceforth compelled to fare like wandering soldier, shipman or university clerk. In a letter from Henry VIII to the Mayor of Grimsby it is observed that the relief of the impotent is much diminished by the importunate begging of the sturdy and idle, and it is required that measures be taken “that the weedes over growe not the corne.”[10] The Statutes became increasingly stern, and able-bodied beggars were scourged with the lash from town to town by the Act of 1530–1. But “the greatest severities hitherto enacted were mild in comparison with the severe provisions of the enactment” of the first year of Edward VI (1547). If the young king’s father had literally chastised beggars with whips, his own counsellors desired that they should be chastised with p011 scorpions. They might be reduced to the condition of slaves: their owners might put a ring round their necks or limbs, and force them to work by beating and chains, whilst a runaway could be branded on the face with a hot iron.[11] This brutal law was repealed two years later.

(b) Where towns were few and far between, the need of shelter for strangers was especially felt. Extensive works of hospitality were done by religious houses, particularly in the northern counties. That fresh provision, although on a small scale, was still made for shelter, indicates its necessity. When an almshouse was built at Northallerton (1476), accommodation was made not only for thirteen pensioners, but for two destitute and distressed travellers, who should stay a night and no longer. A hostel solely for temporary shelter was founded at Durham (1493). One Cuthbert Billingham directed the provision of eight beds in a “massendeue or spittel,” where “all poore trauellyng people ther herbery or logyng asking for the loue of Gode shall be herbered and logide.” In Westmorland, a little hospital, with two beds for passers-by, was built by John Brunskill at Brough-under-Stainmoor (1506): it was situated on the pass into Yorkshire.

At seaports and in places of thoroughfare, shelter was still provided for travellers. God’s House, Southampton, expended £28 annually upon “daily hospitality to wayfarers and strangers from beyond the sea,” and similar charity was provided at Dover. Leland describes St. Thomas’, Canterbury, as “An Hospital within the Town on the Kinges Bridge for poore Pylgrems and way faring men.” At Sandwich there was a “Harbinge” attached to St. John’s almshouse. Provision was made for lodgers, p012 and the buildings included “the chambre of harber for strange wemen, the gentilmen chambre and the long harbur chamber” (1489). The town authorities ordered “that no persons do harbour beggars, who are to resort to St. John’s Hospital” (1524).

The existing provision for temporary relief was in fact wholly inadequate. In the metropolis, for example, there was a crying need. It was stated by Henry VII in 1509 that:—