Religious Reform and Religious Orders in England, 1490–1540: The Case of the Crutched Friars

Thirty years ago the then pre-eminent historian of English religious orders, Dom David Knowles, wrote that he doubted whether the documentation existed to learn anything more about the Crutched Friars. In particular: "Spiritually and intellectually, we are presented with a total blank." ¹

In fact, subsequent research has made it possible to provide more details not only about the lives but also the minds and the religion of the Crutched Friars. Further, this information, though sparse, can now be combined with recent work of historians and archaeologists to provide important information about religious life in England during the period 1490-1540.

The disappearance of the Crutched Friars from England in 1538 was a minor and almost unnoticed result of the policies of King Henry VIII which led to the closing of the religious houses because of the alleged moral, religious, and financial abuses of their inhabitants.

The involvement of several members of the London priory of the Crutched Friars in events resulting from Henry's religious policies and, perhaps, the "quaint" name of the order, has led some historians to mention the Crutched Friars in passing, often in a footnote or two. For most historians, however, the Crutched Friars remain what a historian of London churches once called them, "one of the dim little orders. . . ." ²

In so far as is possible, given the extant records, this article moves the Crutched Friars from the footnotes to the text of the religious history of early sixteenth-century England. It will be argued that a careful reading of government and ecclesiastical records reveals that Henry VIII was wrong about one religious order and probably many more. The Crutched Friars were striving successfully to maintain a reformed way of life while they resisted what would come to be called the English Reformation.

The purposes of the article are twofold. The first is to propose a model of the response to Henry VIII's religious policies by a number of religious orders whose English members received significant religious direction from outside England. The second purpose of this article is to contribute to the evidence being gathered by a number of historians which indicates that throughout the fifty years between 1490 and 1540 traditional Catholic religion, as well as many convents and friaries, maintained strong popular support in England because it and they fulfilled the spiritual needs of many ordinary people. ³

The Crutched Friars made up only about 0.3% of the some 12,000 male and female members of religious orders in England in the 1530's. Nevertheless, their activities and reputation during the period from about 1490 to 1540 provide important insights for historians studying the responses of religious orders to the Protestant Reformation.

The story of the Crutched Friars' experience is particularly relevant for scholars interested in the response to the realities of life in England of the eight international orders that were able to closely monitor the spiritual lives of members in that country. ⁴ Together, the members of these orders made up about seven percent of the religious in England. Further, if, as suggested below, the popularity of the Crutched Friars bears a resemblance to that of many houses of nuns and friars in the years 1490-1540, then the history of the Crutched Friars is relevant to the history of perhaps forty percent of the members of religious orders in early modern England. ⁵

Bringing the Crutched Friars from the footnotes to the text will be accomplished by describing their efforts to maintain moral, religious, and financial discipline from the late fifteenth century onward and their attempts to confront the challenge posed by the policies of Henry VIII. This account centers on the Crutched Friar monasteries in Donnington and London, the two of the then five existing Crutched Friars' priories in England for which sufficient records exist...