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National Sentiment and Religious Vocabulary in Fourteenth-Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2009

ANDREA RUDDICK
ANDREA RUDDICK
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, Cambridge CB2 1RF; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines the neglected role of religious ideas and vocabulary in expressions of English national sentiment in the fourteenth century, particularly in official rhetoric. Many official uses of religious language followed well-established literary conventions. However, documents requesting nationwide prayers during national crises suggest that the government encouraged the concept of a special relationship between God and England, modelled on Old Testament Israel, well before the Protestant Reformation. National misfortunes were explained as divine punishment for national sins, with England presented as a collective moral community. Parallels with Israel were then drawn out more explicitly in public preaching, bringing this interplay between religion and politics to a wider audience.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

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References

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2 P. J. Horner, ‘Preachers at St Paul's Cross: religion, society and politics in late medieval England’, in J. Harnesse and others (eds), Medieval sermons and society: cloister, city, university, Louvain-la-Neuve 1998, 261–82; Siegfrid Wenzel, Latin sermon collections from later medieval England: orthodox preaching in the age of Wyclif, Cambridge 2005, 308–9; G. R. Owst, Preaching in medieval England, Cambridge 1926, 198.

3 For example, William Haller, Foxe's Book of martyrs and the elect nation, London 1963; Christopher Hill, God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English revolution, New York 1970; David Loades, ‘The origins of Protestant nationalism’, in Stuart Mews (ed.), Religion and national identity (Studies in Church History xviii, 1982), 297–307; and Anthony Fletcher, ‘The first century of English Protestantism and the growth of national identity’, in Mews, Religion and national identity, 309–17, cf. J. W. McKenna, ‘How God became an Englishman’, in D. J. Guth and J. W. McKenna (eds), Tudor rule and revolution: essays for G. R. Elton, Cambridge 1982, 25–43.

4 For example, Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities: reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism, London 1991. Although on the religious roots of modern secular nationalisms see also A. D. Smith, Chosen peoples: sacred sources of national identity, Oxford 2003.

5 For example, Colette Beaune, trans. S. R. Huston, The birth of an ideology: myths and symbols of nation in late-medieval France, Berkeley–Los Angeles 1991; Bernard Guenée, ‘Etat et nation en France en moyen âge’, Revue historique ccxxxvii (1967), 17–30; Joseph R. Strayer, ‘France: the Holy Land, the chosen people, and the Most Christian King’, in his Medieval statecraft and the perspectives of history, Princeton 1971, 300–14; and Peter Linehan, ‘Religion, nationalism and national identity in medieval Spain and Portugal’, in Mews, Religion and national identity, 161–99.

6 For example, R. R. Davies, ‘The peoples of Britain and Ireland, 1100–1400’, TRHS 6th ser. iv (1994), 1–20; v (1995), 1–20; vi (1996), 1–23; vii (1997), 1–23; G. W. S. Barrow, The kingdom of the Scots: government, Church and society from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, London 1973; Thorlac Turville-Petre, England the nation: language, literature and national identity, Oxford 1996; J. Lydon, ‘Nation and race in medieval Ireland’, in S. Forde, L. Johnson and A. V. Murray (eds), Concepts of national identity in the Middle Ages, Leeds 1995; and John Gillingham, The English in the twelfth century: imperialism, national identity and political values, Woodbridge 2000.

7 For example, Turville-Petre, England the nation, and M. T. Clanchy, From memory to written record: England, 1066–1307, London 1979.

8 For example, G. R. Harriss, King, parliament and public finance in medieval England to 1369, Oxford 1975, and ‘Political society and the growth of government in late medieval England’, Past & Present cxxxviii (1993), 28–57; J. R. Maddicott, ‘The county community and the making of public opinion in fourteenth century England’, TRHS 5th ser. xxviii (1978), 27–43, and ‘Parliament and the constituencies, 1272–1377’, in R. G. Davies and J. H. Denton (eds), The English parliament in the Middle Ages, Manchester 1981, 61–87; and W. M. Ormrod, Political life in medieval England, c. 1300–1450, Basingstoke 1995, 1–7, 39–60.

9 For example, R. R. Davies, The first English empire: power and identity in the British Isles, 1093–1343, Oxford 2000; Robin Frame, The political development of the British Isles, 1100–1400, Oxford 1990; and Malcolm Vale, The Angevin legacy and the Hundred Years War, 1250–1340, Oxford 1990, 9–15, 48–79.

10 For example, A. K. McHardy, ‘Liturgy and propaganda in the diocese of Lincoln during the Hundred Years War’, in Mews, Religion and national identity, 215–27, and ‘Some reflections on Edward iii's use of propaganda’, in J. S. Bothwell (ed.), The age of Edward III, York 2001, 171–89; H. J. Hewitt, The organisation of war under Edward III, 1338–1362, Manchester 1966, 161–4; W. R. Jones, ‘The English Church and royal propaganda during the Hundred Years War’, Journal of British Studies xix (1979), 18–30; and J. A. Doig, ‘Propaganda, public opinion and the siege of Calais in 1436’, in Rowena Archer (ed.), Crown, government and people in the fifteenth century, Stroud 1995, 83–5.

11 For example, John Barnie, War in medieval society: social values and the Hundred Years War, 1337–99, London 1974, 8–9, 12–13, 102–3, 112–13; V. J. Scattergood, Politics and poetry in the fifteenth century, London 1971, 49–56, 72–5; McKenna, ‘How God became an Englishman’, 30–3; and Patrick Collinson, The birthpangs of Protestant England: religion and cultural change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Basingstoke 1988, 6–7.

12 For example, Smith, Chosen peoples, 118–19, and McKenna, ‘How God became an Englishman’, 27–31.

13 See E. H. Kantorowicz, The king's two bodies: a study in medieval political theology, Princeton 1957.

14 Calendar of close rolls; Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed. David Wilkins, London 1737.

15 J. A. Doig, ‘Political propaganda and royal proclamations in late medieval England’, Historical Research lxxi (1998), 253–75; Maddicott, ‘County community’, and ‘Parliament and the constituencies’; Hewitt, Organisation of war, 155–60; Doig, ‘Siege of Calais’, 81–2.

16 Bertie Wilkinson, The chancery under Edward III, Manchester 1929, 64–94, 147–88; J. L. Grassi, ‘Royal clerks from the archdiocese of York in the fourteenth century’, Northern History v (1970), 12–34.

17 For example, Concilia, ii. 426–7, 442, 447, 514, 538–9, 558; iii. 121–2; cf. Rotuli Scotiae in Turri Londinensi et in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi asservati, ed. D. Macpherson, London 1814, i. 60, 84, 114, 119, 125, 191 and passim.

18 For example, Concilia, ii. 439 (1314), 458 (1316); cf. Rotuli Scotiae, i. 114–34 (documents from 1314).

19 For example, Parliamentary writs, ed. F. Palgrave, London 1827–34, ii. 544; cf. Concilia, ii. 439.

20 For example, Concilia, iii. 66–7.

21 For example, ibid; cf. Chronicon de Lanercost, 1201–1346, ed. J. Stevenson, Edinburgh 1839, 155, 171, 274, 344–6, 349, 351; Adae Murimuth continuatio chronicarum Robertus de Avesbury de gestis mirabilus regis Edwardi tertii, ed. E. M. Thompson (RS xciii, 1889), 66–7, 108, 128–9, 169, 202–3, 216–18, 296–7, 312–13, 356, 377, 465; Political poems and songs relating to English history, composed during the period from the accession of Edward III to that of Richard III, ed. Thomas Wright (RS xiv, 1859), i. 26–7, 33, 43–4, 51–2, 221–2; and The poems of Lawrence Minot, ed. J. Hall, Oxford 1914, 9, 23–4, 101–2.

22 For example, Concilia, ii. 624, 695–6; iii. 100–1.

23 For example, ibid. ii. 576, 582; iii. 3, 34–5, 44, 66–7, 146–7, 198–9.

24 Chronicon de Lanercost, 113.

25 Concilia, ii. 582; iii. 27–8, 34–5, 66–7, 146–7, 198–9.

26 For example, The parliament rolls of medieval England, 1275–1504, ed. C. Given-Wilson and others, Woodbridge–London 2005, v. 397; Concilia, ii. 576, 624–5; iii. 66. See also Fasciculus morum: a fourteenth century preacher's handbook, ed. Siegfrid Wenzel, University Park, Pa 1989, 499–501.

27 On beliefs about the biblical origins of nations see Adrian Hastings, The construction of nationhood: ethnicity, religion and nationalism, Cambridge 1997, 12–19, 195–6; Susan Reynolds, ‘Medieval origines gentium and the community of the realm’, History lxviii (1983), 375–6; Colin Kidd, British identities before nationalism: ethnicity and nationhood in the Atlantic world, 1600–1800, Cambridge 1999, 27–33; and Robert Bartlett, ‘Medieval and modern concepts of race and ethnicity’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies xxxi (2001), 45.

28 For example, Vita Edwardi Secundi, ed. Wendy R. Childs, Oxford 2005, 110–12, 122; Chronica Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuariensis, ed. J. Tait, Manchester 1914, 109–11, 150, 167–8; ‘Annales londonienses’, in Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and II, ed. William Stubbs (RS lxxvi, 1883), i. 231; and Thomas Wright's political songs of England, ed. Peter Coss, Cambridge 1996, 340.

29 Concilia, ii. 453–4.

30 Ibid. ii. 453–4.

31 Ibid. iii. 100–1.

32 Ibid. ii. 738. For an identical phrase see also iii. 155–6 (1382).

33 Pembroke College, Cambridge, ms 257, fo. 75v.

34 Smith, Chosen peoples, 49–65; Hastings, Construction of nationhood, 4.

35 Beaune, Birth of ideology, 180–1; Smith, Chosen peoples, 73–7, 116–18, 144–5; H. E. J. Cowdrey, ‘Bede and the “English people”’, Journal of Religious History xi (1981), 501–23; Patrick Wormald, ‘Bede, the Bretwaldas and the origins of the gens Anglorum’, in Patrick Wormald, Donald Bullough and Roger Collins (eds), Ideal and reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon society, Oxford 1983, 99–129.

36 Chronicon de Lanercost, 180, 171.

37 Concilia, ii. 507 (1321); iii. 28 (1353).

38 Ibid. iii. 155–6.

39 Ibid. iii. 121–2. For similar examples see also ii. 507; iii. 28.

40 See n. 23 above.

41 Concilia, iii. 155–6.

42 Thomas Brinton, i. 198; ii. 495; R. O'Brien, ‘Two sermons at York synod of William Rymington, 1372 and 1373’, Cîteaux: commentarii cistercienses xix (1968), 52.

43 Collinson, Birthpangs, 29; cf. Luke xi. 29–32, and Matthew xii. 38–41.

44 Latin sermon collections, 16–19, 242–5; H. S. Offler, ‘Thomas Bradwardine's “victory sermon” in 1346’, in his Church and crown in the fourteenth century: studies in European history and political thought, edited by A. I. Doyle, Aldershot 2000, no. 13, pp. 4–5.

45 Pembroke College, ms 257, fo. 79r. For similar examples see also Offler, ‘Thomas Bradwardine’, 16–17, 24–8, and O'Brien, ‘William Rymington’, 53. For Rogation Day as an occasion for public preaching see Owst, Preaching, 199–201.

46 Katherine Walsh, A fourteenth century scholar and primate: Richard Fitzralph in Oxford, Avignon and Armagh, Oxford 1981, 228–30.

47 See n. 1 above. See also, for example, O'Brien, ‘William Rymington’, 52; Fasciculus Morum, 151–5, 197, 317–19, 503–5; G. R. Owst, Literature and pulpit in medieval England, Cambridge 1933, 406, and Preaching, 205–7.

48 For example, Concilia, ii. 439, 624–5; Treaty rolls, 1337–9, ed. J. Ferguson, London 1972, 168.

49 Concilia, ii. 623–4.

50 Thomas Brinton, i. 47 (Amos ix. 8); ii. 339 (Jeremiah xiv).

51 Ibid. ii. 373.

52 For example, Cambridge University Library, ms Ii.iii.8, fo. 155v; Fasciculus morum, 197; and Thomas Brinton, i. 92; ii. 246.

53 For example, Thomas Brinton, i. 77, an application of Jeremiah viii. 15 to ‘nos Anglici’ in 1376.

54 Ibid. ii. 497–500. See also i. 48, 69, 198, 203; ii. 245–6, 261–2, 277, 318, 339, 356–7; CUL, ms Ii.iii.8, fos 154v–157r; and O'Brien, ‘William Rymington’, 52, 59–61, 64–7.

55 Owst, Literature and pulpit, 210–470.

56 Thomas Brinton, i. 203. See also ii. 388.

57 Ibid. i. 54, 77, 202–3; ii. 323, 339. See also Offler, ‘Thomas Bradwardine’, passim; Pembroke College, ms 257, fos 75v, 77r, 77v, 79v; and CUL, ms Ii.iii.8, passim.

58 Thomas Brinton, ii. 276, 338.

59 For example, ibid. ii. 390, and CUL, ms Ii.iii.8, fo. 154v. Such motifs also appear in poetry: Political poems, i. 54.

60 CUL, ms Ii.iii.8, fo. 154v.

61 R. W. Hanning, The vision of history in early Britain, from Gildas to Geoffrey of Monmouth, New York–London 1966, 56–7, 128–9, 136–9, 170–2; W. R. Leckie, The passage of dominion: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the periodization of Insular history in the twelfth century, Toronto 1981, 13–14, 56–8, 69–70. For some examples in fourteenth-century chronicles see The chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. Thomas Wright (RS xlvii, 1866–8), i. 287, 261–3; The metrical chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, ed. W. A. Wright (RS lxxxvi, 1887), 4–5, 541–2; and Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden monachi cestrensis, ed. Churchill Babington and Joseph R. Lumby (RS xli, 1865–86), ii. 150–2, 172–4.

62 Pembroke College, ms 257, fo. 79v.

63 Parliament rolls, v. 397.

64 For example, ‘Commendatio lamentabilis in transitu magni regis Edwardi’, in Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and II, ii.11, 19–20; Chronicon de Lanercost, 334; and Political poems, i. 30, 31, 33, 37, 39.

65 Offler, ‘Thomas Bradwardine’, 25.

66 McKenna, ‘How God became an Englishman’, 29–32.

67 Concilia, ii. 439. See also ii. 507; iii. 28, 34.

68 For example, ibid. ii. 439, 453–4, 468, 529, 582, 738, 752; iii. 28, 37, 43, 79.

69 Owst, Preaching, 215–18.

70 Thomas Brinton, i. 198–9. See also ii. 320, 500.

71 Ibid. ii. 501.

72 Concilia, iii. 42–3.

73 Owst, Literature and pulpit, 434–41, and Preaching, 170–88; Fasciculus morum, 85, 635.

74 Thomas Brinton, ii. 495.

75 For example, Concilia, ii. 197, 217, 447, 468, 507, 582, 623–4, 738; iii. 3, 74, 28, 34, 100–1, 147, 155–6, 177, 198–9.

76 For example, ibid. ii. 217, 439, 454, 468, 499, 507, 582, 625; iii. 3, 28, 37, 43–4, 47, 74, 79, 101, 122, 147, 176–8, 195, 199.

77 Owst, Preaching, 218.

78 Thomas Brinton, i. 202; ii. 263; Offler, ‘Thomas Bradwardine’, 17–21.

79 For example, J. Boffey and J. J. Thompson, ‘Anthologies and miscellanies: production and choice of texts’, in D. Pearsall and J. Griffiths (eds), Book production and publishing in Britain, 1375–1475, Cambridge 1989; Clanchy, Memory to written record, 231–40; Derek Pearsall (ed.), Manuscripts and readers in fifteenth century England: the literary implications of manuscript study, Woodbridge 1983; and T. F. Tout, ‘Literature and learning in the English civil service in the fourteenth century’, Speculum iv (1929), 365–89.