Abstract
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Reaching England in 1348, the Black Death ravaged towns and countryside causing widespread disruption and death. In a novel approach, this thesis assesses how a medieval diocese dealt with both its clergy and with its estates in meeting the challenges provided by the Black Death, as it swept through the Winchester Diocese. Details of the specific and differing strategies employed by William Edington, bishop at the time, are compared and analysed. The different ‘hats’ of manorial landlord and ecclesiastical leader that Bishop Edington had to wear are revealed as the body count from the pestilence rose.The Winchester pipe rolls provided a rich legacy of information for this thesis. The pipe rolls contain a vast amount of details of the economic side of manorial organisation. Sharp focus has been placed on entries for selected Somerset and North Hampshire manors for the period of the Black Death. Entries under the chilling heading ‘Defectus per Pestilentiam’ record the names of many of the people who worked on the land and who died from the pestilence. The resulting mortality rates calculated for these selected manors of the Winchester Diocese are compared with other studies completed on other areas of England during the Black Death.
The impact of the Black Death on the clergy of the Winchester Diocese is another major feature of this thesis. Using the registers of Bishop Edington, Bishop of Winchester, a key source of clergy data, assumptions about clerical mortality and pastoral care are analysed and re-assessed. The calculation of a mortality rate for the clergy of the diocese during the Black Death has broken new ground. The data collected has enabled a number of short and long term issues to be addressed, for example, ‘What was Bishop Edington’s reaction to the Black Death?’ and ‘Did many priests really shamefully desert from their cures?’
The compatibility of mortality suffered by the selected manors of the Winchester Diocese, compared to other areas of England, helps add a new contribution to knowledge of the period. The mortality rate calculated in this thesis provides fresh insight into the impact of the Black Death on the clergy. The percentage of deaths calculated correlrates well with studies of the clergy in other dioceses of medieval England at the time. This study, then, reveals for the first time, how the manorial organisation and ecclesiastical administration of the medieval diocese of Winchester coped during one of the most challenging periods in England’s history.
| Date of Award | 3 Aug 2021 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Tina Welch (Supervisor) & Patricia Skinner (Supervisor) |