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Origins
The
early history of St Wulfstan's Hospital is undocumented. However,
this has not prevented the creation of an early history for it,
which through constant repetition has come to take on an aura of
authority. The original purpose of the Hospital, it is said, was
to provide shelter for travellers arriving at Worcester in the hours
of darkness, and so prevented from entering the city by the closure
of the nearby Sidbury gate: thus the location of the hospital is
explained. Later, the additional burden of care for the poor and
infirm was taken on because the brethren in their piety felt an
urge to make good use of the daylight hours as well (Marsh 1890,
p.xii). The traditionally acknowledged founder of this hospital
was St Wulfstan himself, 'probably about 1085' according to the
Victoria County History, reciting a well-worn formula (Marsh 1890,
p.1; VCH Worcs. ii, p.175). Certainly in later centuries the hospital
was in the patronage of the bishops of Worcester, and the role said
to have been played in the foundation by St Wulfstan was plausible
enough. Nevertheless the story has only its plausibility to commend
it, for there is no authority for it, no medieval account of the
act of foundation. Significantly, there is no account of the foundation
in the comprehensively laudatory Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury,
which seems to lose no opportunity to tell of sick people cured
by Wulfstan, amongst his countless good deeds. The tone and contents
of the Vita leave no room for doubt that had William known of any
such foundation by Wulfstan he would surely have given it due prominence.
Nor is any mention of the hospital made in other accounts of the
miracles, canonization and translation of the saint, except for
an anecdote firmly dated to 1221 (Darlington 1928, pp. 168-75, and
passim). This remains the earliest reference to the Hospital. It
recounts how a man called Thomas, sentenced to be castrated and
blinded after losing a judicial duel, had his sight and his virility
miraculously restored by the intercession of the saint and through
the tender care of a sister of the hospital; her usual task was
to pray for deceased paupers, and the master and brethren of the
hospital were opposed to her caring for this grievously wounded
man. After his recovery, Thomas showed his gratitude by becoming
a brother of the hospital. The basic facts of the case are certainly
true, as they are to be found in the Assize Roll of the same eyre,
edited by F.W. Maitland (1884, pp.21-2) - see The
Tale of Thomas of Eldersfield.
Is
it possible to deduce any more of its early history than this? An
act of foundation by Wulfstan himself would appear to be ruled out;
a foundation in his name by the largely undistinguished bishops
of the twelfth century may be thought unlikely - particularly considering
their Norman origins. Certainly the most logical time for the foundation
of this hospital was around the time of the canonization of St Wulfstan
in 1203. The attribution of miracles to his relics began, apparently,
only in January 1201, and after a year of seeming hysteria during
which as many as fifteen or sixteen sick were cured each day, a
deputation of monks was sent to Rome to secure the canonization
(Darlington 1928, pp.115-88; VCH Worcs.,ii, p.98). Whether this
popular feeling had spontaneously arisen, or was being orchestrated
by the monks as a necessary prelude to the acquisition of a new,
local saint who might be presumed to add considerably to Worcester's
reputation as a centre for pilgrimages, need not concern us; whichever
the circumstances, these were propitious times for Bishop Mauger
to found a hospital associated with Wulfstan's name and reputation
as a healer. Mauger himself, who became bishop in 1199, had been
physician to Richard I; whether he had indeed accompanied him to
the Holy Land, as the Victoria County History asserts (VCH Worcs.,
ii, p.11), is not known.
But
the foundation of the hospital was not a straightforward tribute
to the new saint, judging by the dedication of its chapel to St
Godwald, Godwal or Gudwal, an obscure Breton saint who at first
sight appears to have been an odd choice. How are we to account
for this? An obvious inference to draw is that the hospital was
already in being before 23 April 1203, when Wulfstan was canonized
at Rome, for had it not been so then surely he himself would have
been chosen for the dedication. Alternatively, the hospital could
have been founded after the canonization but incorporated an already
existing church or chapel of St Gudwal. These possibilities are
not mutually exclusive, of course; it may be that an institution
dedicated to St Gudwal formed the basis of a hospital already in
existence before 1203. Support for the existence of such an institution,
which provided a landmark for the district before any association
with Wulfstan, and which held its own lands, is to be found in those
few early deeds that use 'St Gudwal's' as a means of locating properties:
a Robert of St Godwal witnessed Worcester deeds during the early
thirteenth century (D&C B1012, 1015) and served as reeve of the
city (D&C B1014); his heir, John Payn, inherited his windmill which
if it is to be identified with that mentioned in the Priory rental
of 1240 was situated outside the Sidbury gate (D&C B1316; Hale 1865,
pp.105b-106a). Not long after 1240, judging by the witness lists,
John Payn sold the mill to the Almoner of the Priory; it was described
as being built on a croft outside Worcester towards St Godewal (D&C
B1316, 1317). As late as 1294, agricultural land situated on this
side of Worcester in the manor of Battenhall was described as lying
next to land of St Godewal (B1440).
We
still have to explain the choice of this unlikely saint for the
dedication. The matter demands attention, as its dedication is the
only clue to the antiquity of this possible church of St Gudwal
- treacherous as the unwary use of dedications as evidence for the
Anglo-Saxon period can be (see, for instance, Butler 1986, pp.44-50).
In
England, the cult of Gudwal has been peculiar to the Church of Worcester.
Two possible dedications to him in Cornwall have now been discounted
(Ekwall 1960, p.207), leaving only that of St Wulfstan's Hospital,
and the chapel of Finstall, in the parish of Stoke Prior, Worcestershire
- a manor of Worcester Cathedral Priory (Arnold-Forster 1899, iii,
pp.124, 365). The four medieval references to Gudwal all come in
Worcester manuscripts: in a calendar of the early thirteenth century
contained in the Worcester Antiphonar; in a calendar of the same
period and a Litany, both part of a Worcester Psalter at Magdalene
College; in the calendar of a thirteenth-century psalter originally
used at St Helen's Church, and now at Exeter Cathedral; and in a
fifteenth-century Litany attached to a thirteenth-century commentary
on the Psalter (Worc Cath Lib F160; Floyer and Hamilton 1906, pp.
90-3. Magdalene College, Oxford, no. 100; Turner 1916, lxiii. Exeter
Cathedral Library 3508; Morgan 1978, 100. Bodleian Library 862,
fo. 201b; Turner, Early Worcester Manuscripts, lxvi-lxvii. These
sources are cited by N. Molyneux 1981, p. 4).
Gudwal
himself is known to have been a prominent figure in the Breton Church
during the sixth century, from whence his relics were removed during
a period of Viking activity. They were translated with due ceremony
in 959 to the abbey of Mont Blandin, Ghent, where subsequently his
feast was kept on 6 June (Bollandus 1695, Junii 1, pp. 728-42).
Clearly it was from Ghent that his cult came to Worcester; but when?
The obvious time would seem to have been the twelfth century. After
the death of Wulfstan in 1095, the see was filled by a succession
of Norman and French clerics, any one of whom might have formed
a devotion to Gudwal at Ghent, or could have acquired relics through
a close connection with the abbey. The period within which this
devotion could have been introduced to Worcester was limited, however;
St Gudwal's feast was celebrated already under Bishop Simon (1125-49),
so that only he or one of his two Norman predecessors can be regarded
as a candidate for the introduction of the cult of the saint (Darlington
1968, no.65). Samson (1096-1112) and Theolf (1113-23) were both
canons of Bayeux, unprepossessing men who were appointed to Worcester
for political reasons; Simon, too, was a courtier, and was still
only a deacon when he was elected to the see (VCHii, p.9). But if
the opening years of the twelfth century were not a propitious time
for the establishment of the cult of St Gudwal at Worcester, during
what earlier period might it have taken root there?
For
only one brief period of time does there seem to have been close
contact between Worcester and Ghent, when moreover the relationship
that was formed was a particularly intimate one. Not only that,
but the close coincidence in time with the translation of St Gudwal
is surely not coincidental. For after his exile by Edwig in 955,
it was to Mont Blandin that Dunstan retreated: there he saw for
the first time a great reformed monastery (Farmer 1975, p. 13).
The reform of Ghent had occurred not long before Dunstan's exile
(Bullough 1975, p.31), and in the two years before his recall, to
the See of Worcester, he had leisure to experience at first hand
what before he had only heard of. Dunstan's stay at Ghent was thus
of crucial importance to the subsequent course of the reform movement
in England, and he himself must have regarded his time there as
a formative period in his life. Monks from Ghent were present at
the assembly held at Winchester around 970, and helped Dunstan and
Aethelwold in the composition of the Regularis Concordia, which
has been described as 'this most characteristic document of the
revival' (Symons 1975, p.45-59; Farmer 1975, p.13). Undoubtedly
it was at Ghent that Dunstan heard of Gudwal; the preparations for
the translation must have been under way before Edgar summoned him
to Worcester. That Dunstan returned to England with a devotion to
Gudwal is possible; that he would have returned bearing what relics
he had been able to acquire for the endowment of churches in his
new diocese is virtually certain.
Dunstan
remained at Worcester only until 959, being succeeded in due course
by his close associate Oswald, whose own experience of a reformed
continental monastery had been at Fleury (Farmer 1975, p.13). Dunstan
himself could have been responsible for the foundation of the two
churches of St Gudwal during his brief spell at Worcester; alternatively
it could equally well have happened under his successor during the
960s. Finstall was part of the estate of Stoke Prior that had been
given to the Church of Worcester in 770, by Uhtred, sub-regulus
of the Hwicce; in 967 Oswald leased 6 cassates at Stoke to one Eadmaer
for a term of three lives (VCH iii, 528; Hearne 1723, pp.322, 234;
Birch 1883-99, nos.1202, 1203). This would have been an appropriate
occasion for the foundation of a church to serve the new estate.
In any event, if a single guiding hand is to be detected in the
dedication of both churches, then presumably the foundation of St
Gudwal's at Finstall must have happened before the division of the
Church of Worcester's estates and financial affairs between the
bishop and the priory led to a clear demarcation of spheres of interest.
The most serious objection to the dedication of both these churches
in the post-Conquest period is perhaps the improbability that both
bishop and priory should together choose to honour the same unusual
saint.
What
was the original purpose of this church or chapel of St Gudwal?
Throughout its history, both as St Gudwal's and as St Wulfstan's
Hospital, it remained firmly in the hands of the bishops of Worcester,
who founded it. There is no evidence that it had a parish at any
time; from the thirteenth century onwards its brethren and inmates
were maintained by alms and income from its endowments, whereas
before that time we know too little of its function or the personnel
that served it to be certain how they were financed. It is suggested
below that St Gudwal's may have had endowments of land from the
time of its foundation; it may in addition have been able to attract
support from the people of Worcester. If rents and alms were not
forthcoming, then presumably the bishop paid the stipends of the
priests. Why should a tenth-century bishop have founded such a chapel?
A simple desire to found a church as an act of piety and in honour
of St Gudwal is not a sufficient explanation, for had that been
the sole motivation the provision of a church to serve a parish
would have been a more obvious course of action. The position of
St Gudwal's is an interesting one: it was a matter of yards outside
the medieval Sidbury gate, and lay close to the street, according
to the details of a corrody grant of the fifteenth century that
stipulated the chamber to be occupied as one between the great entrance
of the hospital and the chapel (Marsh 1890, no.82). The defensive
circuit of Anglo-Saxon Worcester lay within the line of the later
walls, and so this chapel was founded in either a rural or a suburban
context. It is the latter which is the more likely, for we know
that the nearby church of St Peter the Great was already in being
in the 960s, on the other side of Sidbury Street; the close proximity
of these two churches argues persuasively for this having been already
a built-up area, with a suburban population served by St Peter's.
The probable chapel discovered by workmen in 1883 to the rear of
the buildings belonging to St Wulfstan's, and the fabric of which
suggests an Anglo-Saxon date for its construction, is unlikely to
have been St Gudwal's. More plausibly this is the chapel of St Catharine
that was known to be in the vicinity (Marsh 1890, p. 20n; Baker
1980b, p.122). If this chapel, measuring some 16 feet by 25 feet,
really was of the tenth century or before, then we must postulate
at least three churches of that period clustered together in this
part of suburban Worcester. As to the purpose that St Gudwal's was
intended to serve: clearly it had a specialist function, to which
its position on one of the principal roads leading into Worcester
might be expected to have contributed. Most logically, it was in
origin what it would be later - a hospital, perhaps established
with the accommodation of travellers in mind as much as the care
of the infirm. Interestingly, a grant of a corrody made in February
1407 was from the master of the hospital 'sive domus sanctorum Wlstani
et Godwalt', words which suggest that if this really had been a
hospital before it became associated with St Wulfstan, two centuries
later the facts of the matter had still not been forgotten (Marsh
1890, p.97).
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