THE MEDIÆVAL HOSPITALS OF ENGLAND, BY ROTHA MARY CLAY; A PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK. THE ANTIQUARY’S BOOKS GENERAL EDITOR: J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. THE MEDIÆVAL HOSPITALS OF ENGLAND [Illustration: _THE SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL OR MAISON-DIEU AT DOVER._ ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL, DOVER] THE MEDIÆVAL HOSPITALS OF ENGLAND BY ROTHA MARY CLAY WITH A PREFACE BY THE LORD BISHOP OF BRISTOL WITH 78 ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published in 1909_ DEDICATED TO FRANCES ARNOLD-FORSTER WITH GRATEFUL AFFECTION PREFACE When the able author of this book asked me to write a Preface to a work on Hospitals, I replied that I must first see the sheets in proof. This was not due to any doubt of the ability of the writer, it was due to some doubt as to the adequacy of the material at her disposal. This doubt has been much more than removed. The mass of the material collected is remarkable. Still more remarkable is the evidence of the very large part played by Hospitals—in the widest senses of the word—in the social life of the people of this land in the earlier Middle Ages. For the fuller understanding of the social life of our ancestors, this book contributes information of the most luminous character. It will serve also as an example and pattern for young and earnest students of real history, the history of ordinary human beings rather than of generals and of kings. And it must be added that, although the division into numerous headings leads to frequent repetitions of the names and characters of institutions of the nature of Hospitals, it has the great advantage of reducing to order a mass of material which might under less careful treatment have had a chaotic appearance. As a book of reference for readers and writers, this treatise on the Mediæval Hospitals of England ought to hold a distinguished place. G. F. BRISTOL _July, 1909._ CONTENTS Preface by the Lord Bishop of Bristol . . . vii Introduction . . . xvii PART I CHAPTER I Hospitals for Wayfarers and the Sick . . . 1 CHAPTER II Homes for the Feeble and Destitute . . . 15 CHAPTER III Homes for the Insane . . . 31 CHAPTER IV The Lazar-House . . . 35 CHAPTER V The Leper in England . . . 48 CHAPTER VI Founders and Benefactors . . . 70 CHAPTER VII Hospital Inmates . . . 91 CHAPTER VIII Hospital Dwellings . . . 106 CHAPTER IX The Constitution . . . 126 CHAPTER X The Household and its Members . . . 143 CHAPTER XI Care of the Soul . . . 158 CHAPTER XII Care of the Body . . . 167 CHAPTER XIII Hospital Funds . . . 178 CHAPTER XIV Relations with Church and State . . . 194 CHAPTER XV Decline of the Hospitals . . . 212 CHAPTER XVI The Dissolution of Religious Houses and its Effect upon Hospitals . . . 226 PART II Hospital Patron-Saints . . . 244 APPENDIX A Office at the Seclusion of a Leper . . . 273 APPENDIX B