City, Cult, and Company: The Skinners’ Procession and Corpus Christi Celebrations in Later Medieval London

Abstract

The Corpus Christi procession in the City was a highlight of London’s annual spiritual calendar before the Reformation. Extraordinarily, the procession was organised not by the civic authorities, as it was in both York and Coventry, but by one Company, the Skinners’ of London, whose fraternity was dedicated to the cult. The event was a source of pride for the brethren who remembered the fraternity in their wills and who contributed to the torch-lit parade with significant bequests to highlight their status and wealth. The London parish celebrations for Corpus Christi were of a different order, focused on the coming together of a community within a neighbourhood and not on rank. A study of the Skinners’ London procession has, hitherto, not been undertaken. Set in the context of the cult’s first appearance in England in the fourteenth century, and the development of fraternities, the research is based on a study of the Skinners’ Corpus Christi Fraternity register, a selection of Skinners’ wills, and the Skinners’ Company accounts.