BULLETIN OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CARMELITE PROVINCE (serving England, Wales and Scotland) MARCH 1999 30 No.1
25 spiritual and temporal help and encouragement given to us, and we assure them of our continued prayers for them. Jean Macaskill THB CARMELITB HOUSB, NORWICH In July this year, the Richard III Society are holding a memorial service in Norwich for Lady Eleanor Butler, who was buried in the Carmelite house there in 1468. She was the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, sister of the Duchess of Norfolk, and the widow of Sir Thomas Butler. Her significance lies in the fact that, under king Richard III, it was claimed that she had made a marriage precontract with king Edward IV, which rendered his two sons (the princes in the Tower), born later to Elizabeth Woodville, illegitimate. The Norwich house was one of the most important in the mediaeval province, and, according to John Bale (who himself joined the house in 1506), it was founded when a small group of Carmelites from Burnham Norton travelled to Norwich and took over a building given to them by Philip Cowgate, "the son of Warin, son of Adam Arnald." For legal purposes, Philip had given the house into the hands of William of Southfield, archdeacon of Norwich, and on 27th September 1257 a declaration was read in court whereby the property was entrusted to the Carmelites, but, it continued, "If the friars of Carmel there shall not inhabit the said messuage, or, after they have begun to inhabit it, shall leave it with the purpose of not dwelling there any longer, it shall revert to the said Philip and his heirs." From this wording, it would seem that the Carmelites did not take up permanent residence until after this date. The foundation in Norwich marked a turning point for the fortunes of the Carmelites in East Anglia. Burnham Norton, the earliest foundation in the area, was begun sometime between 1242 and 1247, but it was situated on the north coast of Norfolk, well away from any large towns. The move into Norwich signified a presence in one of the maj or towns in the country and a flourishing commercial centre, especially for the East Anglian wool trade. The site given to the Carmelites was on the east of
26 the city, just across the river from the cathedral priory. This was a marshy area and, because of the cattle that grazed there, the nearby city gate and road were known as Cowgate. Little is known about the early years of the community, but they must have been well-accepted by the locals, as sometime after 1260, an agreement was made with the Benedictine monks of the cathedral, whereby the Carmelites under their prior, "Roger," agreed not to accept offerings from people in the local parishes and to pass on any received to the cathedral. This agreement was re-made in 1376, when the community agreed to repay one quarter of all burial offerings to the respective local parishes. The number in the community must have grown quickly for in the 1270s and 1280s there were 30 friars there, and this total had risen to approaching 50 in the 1320s. Such an increase clearly called for more accommodation, and, from 1319 onwards, the community acquired a series of extensions to their property. These enabled the community to undertake a major building programme, and, on the Feast of the Assumption 1343, the community took possession of the new choir to their church, and, in 1344, John Paschal, the Carmelite Bishop of Llandaff, consecrated the new cemetery. The Black Death significantly affected the city, and it is claimed that 57,104 people died of the plague in the city. A prayer of deliverance from the plague survives, which, it is said, was compiled by the prior and community. Fortunately for the Carmelites, around this time a number of knights joined the Order, and one of them, Hugh Dowdale, became a noted benefactor to the Norwich community. In 1351 he was made a participant in the spiritual benefits of the Norwich community, as he had given " 100 towards the cost of a new dormitory, a set of vestments worth 22, a censer, two phials and a basin of silver worth 7, a stone gate worth 10(?) marks and...begun and completed at his own cost the south aisle of the church." The major part of the buildings must have been largely completed soon after, as provincial chapters were held in Norwich in 1353, 1360, and 1377. However, the new church was not finally dedicated until 1382. William of Worcester, who visited it in 1479, records that the cloister, which ran alongside the choir
27 of the church, was 35 yards (60 paces) long on the south side. He measured the walking space under the belfry tower, between the door to the choir and the door (called Parclose) to the nave which was 23 paces long and the nave of the church which measured 46 paces long and 36 paces wide. Some other details about the church are preserved in wills or bequests; there was a chapel to Our Lady on the south side and another chapel dedicated to the Holy Cross, in which were statues to Our Lady and St. Anne. There was also an altar to St. Gratian, a statue to St. Lawrence on the south side and a light which burned before the statue of Our Lady "at the high altar end." A number of local gilds met in the church, notably those of St, Mary (the candlemakers), St. Barbara and St. Gataian. By this time the Carmelites of East Anglia were the main group in the English province, and, from the early 1300s, complaints were made about the way in which Carmelites from this region dominated the offices in the province and also gained more than their share of doctorates at Oxford and Cambridge. The latter complaint arose because only one Carmelite each year was allowed to proceed to the doctorate at each University. The solution chosen was to divide the province into 4 distinctions, centred on London, Oxford, Norwich and York, with each distinction in turn providing the provincial, hosting the provincial chapter (a notable expense), and sending a student forward for the doctorate. The first provision never seemed to take effect, but the East Anglian contingent cleverly traded off the other commitments to their advantage. In theory, the distinctions should have been of equal size, but, in fact, whereas the London and Oxford distinctions had ten houses each, Norwich had only five, and the York distinction had fourteen. The overall effect was that, although the Norwich communities had to host a provincial chapter more often, the chances of a Norwich student being sent for a doctorate were much higher. The Norwich house provided the theology studiurn for the distinction, and the brighter students from the other houses went there. Norwich's importance as a centre is illustrated by the fact that the prior-general visited the house in 1384-5 and made
28 certain important announcements there. Thomas Netter is recorded as lecturing to the students there in the early 1400s, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundell, stopped at the house there when visiting Norwich in 1401. The community furnished many talented and illustrious persons, provincials, theologians, and diplomats, among whom was Walter Disse, chaplain to John of Gaunt and a papal legate. The house was also noted for its spiritual life. William Southfield, who achieved a reputation for holiness, lived there in the early 1400s, and Margery Kemp in her Autobiography mentions going to him for spiritual advice. Attached to the house, there appears to have been an anchorite's cell, and Emma Stapleton is recorded as coming to live there in 1421, but sadly she died the following year. Soon afterwards, the cell was occupied by the Carmelite, Thomas Scrope, who spent over twenty years in seclusion before emerging at the request of the Pope and travelling to Rome to be consecrated Bishop of Dromore in 1450. During his time as a recluse, Scrope translated Felip Ribot's, De Institutione into English and wrote three of his four historical works on the Order. He served as a suffragan in the diocese for many years before retiring in 1479 to spend his last years as rector of Lowestoft, where he died in 1491. In 1465, a brother, John Castleacre, is recorded as living in the cell, and bequests were made in 1494 and 1510 to an unnamed anchorite. In 1450, John Kenninghale was responsible for building a new library in the house and later, c.1496, under prior Thomas Waterpitt the buildings were repaired as they had become seriously dilapidated. In a move which indicated the changing pattern of patronage in the city, the provincial chapter, being held at Burnham Norton in 1486, granted the title of patrons to the mayor, alderman, and citizens of Norwich. The city responded in 1498 with a grant of exemption from tolls and customs for all the friars' property, whether carried by land or water. The house was suppressed by the king's commissioners probably in November 1538, but not before a certain John Pratte had presented himself while the community were at dinner and claimed that he had the chancellor, Thomas Cromwell's commission
I 29 to suppress the house. The prior saw through his pretence, and Pratte ended up by being paraded through the streets with a placard admitting his crime and then having both ears nailed to the pillory and cut off. Apart from John Bale, who left the community to become a parish priest in 1536, another Carmelite, John Barret, embraced the reformed doctrines and was appointed to a teaching post in the cathedral. Some of Barret's notebooks and his declaration of faith under queen Blizabeth are preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Richard Copsey, O. Carm. SUMMARY OF Stefano Possanzini. La dottrina e la mistica mariana del Venerabile Michele di sant Agostino, carmelitano. Rome. 1998 This is a much-needed study of Michael of St. Augustine; the last substantial treatment of his life and teaching was that of the Discalced Carmelite, Valentino Macca, in 1982. The Ancient Observance has shown little interest in this figure, and we have to go back to 1926 to Gabriel Wessels' edition of Timothy of the Presentation's Life of Michael for the last major contribution to understanding his life and thought. Michael was born on 15th April 1621 in Brussels and entered the Order in Louvain in 1637. He was ordained a priest in 1645 and was called on to fill various offices in the Belgian province: novice master, prior, definitor and assistant provincial. He was elected prior provincial in 1656, 1667 and 1677. He died on 2nd February 1684 and is honoured by the Order with the title of Venerable" as an indication of the sanctity of his life. His writings are in both Latin and Flemish, and among his works those considered most significant are his Introduction to the Land of Carmel (1659), a Pious Life in Christ (1661) and the Introduction to the Mystical Life (1671). It is the latter that has an appendix entitled the Mariform and Marian Life", originally published in 1669 in Flemish.