The fifteenth-century episcopate: careers and bequests

Abstract

In this paper I wish to show a possible line of relationship between the careers of some fifteenth-century English bishops and their deathbed bequests. This attempt to correlate episcopal secularity, as revealed by the ‘careerism’ of the bishops, and episcopal sanctity, as revealed by their philanthropy, touches three major themes of historical inquiry. One of these is gift-giving. Anthropologists have taught us to see how the giving of gifts in pre-industrial societies can illuminate the role of symbolic relationships, of ties between lineages, of the bonds of social solidarity, status and hierarchy. Medieval historians know from their own work the importance of gift-giving in the economic sphere. I am also attempting to carry out a ‘group study’, one particular form of sociological history. The purpose of such endeavours is not, as Elton asserts, to reopen the quarrel as to whether history is or is not scientific. It is rather to ask questions about the past which the people of that day did not think to ask about themselves. As such I believe it to be a legitimate and proper form of historical inquiry. Lastly, I seek to shed some light on a particular aspect of medieval espiscopal activity. Anything we can learn about the ecclesiastical élite is that much more known about medieval people and medieval society.