Small gifts, but big rewards: the symbolism of some gifts to the religious

Abstract

Although gifts to religious houses for specific purposes were numerically only a small proportion of benefactions to religious houses in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they had great significance. Gifts towards celebration of the mass, the fabric and chantries in religious houses often provided only inconsiderable amounts of land or rent. [The author intends to consider some other small benefactions, such as pittances, elsewhere]. Through this relationship with the religious, however, lay people anticipated spiritual recompense. The ramifications of that association are explored in this paper.