Monky Pensions

 Ever come across corrodies? It's a rather antique word that only surfaces sometimes in books about monasteries. Historians nowadays tend to give them a bad press. So what are corrodies about?

It 's when a monastic foundation agrees to provide stuff ( e.g.food, drink, accommodation, victuals, clothing,  ) to an individual ( the corrodian) 

-who has donated land, 

-or as a reward for work done for the monastery, 

-or for cash furnished by that individual, 

-or for one of the Royal employees by command of the King.

Therefore there are several types of corrody. The first ones involved landowners who decided to sign over parts of their land to the monastery in return for agreed provisions. This could be a good insurance in times of political unrest especially if you were getting old. This might mean regular food, beer, or accommodation in or near the monastery. The monastery should welcome this additional property as a good investment for the future.  So far so good for both sides. A monastery might want to reward a member of staff after years of service and therefore grant the person a corrody. This might mean a room in the monastic precinct or nearby, plus regular meals, drink and other benefits - i.e. like a retirement home. 

 In tough economic times monasteries began to  grant corrodies to individuals  for quick money.  However if they granted a corrody to someone who lived ten years this would be a drain on resources. There was risk involved. How much should a monastery charge for a corrody? The risks involved encouraged monasteries to live beyond their means. How could their infrastructure cope? Kitchens had to be stocked and extra meals provided. Shoes, clothing bought. Sounds like a supermarket. It must have become like a business rather than just a place to provide for its own trusty valued former servants.  This involved risk because there was no guarantee how long the individual might live and the agreement might also include his family. Short term gain to meet debts became long term burdens.See Corrody examples 1 and 2 for the kind of stuff that monasteries agreed to provide.

Then there monasteries where the King might demand a corrody for one of his old retainers. Kings believed that this was their right in monasteries which were Royal foundations.e.g.in 1325 a Royal huntsman maimed on a hunt in the New Forest was sent to Buckfast. Such Royal impositions might also include grooms or servants. see Corrody example 3.

Gatehouse of Thornton Abbey

A corrody was a deal between the monastery and the individual and the provisions and length did vary. Usually it was made in perpetuity. We can also think of it as a payment in lieu of money, although in some cases a monastic employee corrodian might get a mix of provisions and monetary allowance. Often it included a standard food allowance of daily bread and ale plus 2 dishes of cooked food a day and might also have pittances like cheese included in the deal. Sometimes monastic servants would already have had food and drink and other benefits as part of their "wages." 

 Accomodation must have been a problem. Perhaps the sick and infirm could go in a separate room in the Infirmary block. Perhaps the best examples of corrodians' rooms are at Cleeve Abbey in Somerset where there are two separate apartments on the ground floor below the magnificent new Refectory built by Abbot David Juyner (1435-87). Each of these apartments has its own living room, bedroom and latrine. Gatehouses were a possible location. eg Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire. Sometimes corrodians died and left their wives and families and servants as a burden on monasteries. Maybe our gatehouse at St Albans was used for corrodians.

Corrodian's room at Cleeve Abbey
CC Licence Michael Garlick, 2015

The number of corrodians in the monasteries will have varied. To gain an idea  of scale  in 1322-3 Glastonbury had 60 monks and 19 corrodians (11 by purchase, 6 Royal and 2 former officials). Gloucester  granted 96 corrodies from 1280-1539.

Did the food and drink supplied to corrodians from the kitchens affect the amount given to the poor? It was usual for surplus food to be distributed regularly at he monastery gate. The provision of meals to corrodians likely meant that less was available for the poor. For example the practice of putting food out in the refectory for a deceased monk for a year and later distributing it to the poor, was perverted at Westminster by the selling off of this practice as a corrody.

All this may come as quite a shock seeing monasteries as providers  : servants calling in to collect food, clothing, firewood, beer agreed as part of the deal of their corrody. The management of these services must have become complex and burdensome. What may have seemed a good ides to deal with short term financial problems may have led to real longer term headaches.

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Corrody example 1

A Corrody at Shrewsbury Abbey 1272 made to Adam of Bispham and wife  in perpetuity

2 loaves

3 gallons of ale of better sort

1 dish of food from abbot' s table, 2 when he was there!

their servant and maid to get 2 servants loaves, 2 gallons of lesser ale 

and one servant dish

Adam to get a robe each year

Wife to get 10 shillings for a gown

Servant's allowance for a horse

Use of a house for life

Allowances halved if one of them died.

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Corrody example 2

A corrody at Worcester Priory 1308  made to Richard de la Lynde, clerk : services for money lent.

in perpetuity

A room in the priory

Straw and firewood as needed

6lb of candles of Paris tallow

20 shillings from the cellarer at Michaelmas

1 monk's loaf per day

2 gallons superior beer

Pottage as for a monk every day

1 dish of meat per day as for a monk:  raw or cooked as preferred 

Supper at the kitchen hatch as for 2 monks

A stable nearby with hay, and 6 horse shoes and nails

Attendant : 1  larger servant's loaf per day

1 gallon servant's beer

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Corrody example 3

Corrody at Stratford 1317 sent by the King for John de Sutton, the King's cook 

A chamber in the monastery

Food

Clothing : 2 robes a year

2 grooms in attendance

2 horses

Candles

Firewood

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Some sources

Bottomley, F. Abbey explorer’s guide (Otley, 1995) 

Burton, J. Monastic and religious Orders in Britain, 100-1300 (Cambridge, 1994)

Cook, G.H. English monasteries in the Middle Ages (London, 1961)

Crossley, F.H. The English abbey 3^rd ed, (London,1949)

Greene, J.P. Medieval monasteries (Leicester, 1992)

Harvey, B. Living and dying in England 110-1540 the monastic experience. (Oxford, 1993)

Kerr, J. Life in the Medieval cloister (London, 2009)

Williams, D.H. The Cistercians in the early Middle Ages (1998)