1 - Religious Houses and the Laity in Eleventh- to Thirteenth-Century England: An Overview

Summary

Testificacio primi doni

R. de Gant omnibus ecclesie filiis salutem. Notum sit vobis me presentem fuisse ubi Gilbertus comes frater meus fecit diuisam suam in extrema egritudine sua coram hominibus suis qui presentes fuerunt et dedit Ecclesie Brid' cum corpore suo in liberam etperpetuam elemosinam Burtonam cum omnibus suis pertinenciis …

Hec omnia confirmauit eidem ecclesie cum libertatibus que sunt in Carta sua et precepit mihi sicut fratri suo et homini ut ego ad scribendum et ad sigillandum presens essem cumhominibus suis qui tunc erant cum eo et cum lecte essent carte de hiis coram nobis per consilium et assensum eorundem hominum suorum de manu mea accepit. Johannes Camerarius sigillum et sub testimonio nostro sigillauit eas de hac re testis sum ego et si aliquis contradicere uoluerit paratus sum ego de hoc facere quicquid pertinet ad testem legittimum. Valete.

A benefaction to a religious house, even by a lay magnate such as de Gant, and even to the family's foundation whose inmates had been described in proprietary fashion by Gilbert de Gant, earl of Lincoln, as canonici mei, was thus a momentous occasion, inscribed in local memory. In this case, the occasion washeightened by death-bed anxiety and the congregation of the lord's followers. Exceptional it certainly was, therefore, in the context of the multitudinous benefactions to religious houses. With few exceptions, English charters notifying benefactions to religious houses are cursory, indeed little more than notifications.