Faith and the Lucys

As would be expected, the Lucys who lived prior to the Tudor period were devout Catholics, promoting their beliefs through their actions while alive and via their bequests on their death. However, by Elizabeth’s reign the Lucys were well known for their Protestant beliefs - and in the case of Thomas I for his persecution of Catholics.

The early Lucys’ daily life and outward actions were dominated by their Catholic faith. The earliest reference to a chapel at Charlecote is in March 1125, ‘liberties’ were granted to it at its dedication. There is also the reference by Jane Hungerford in 1514 to the Chapel in the house at Charlecote, but whether or not these are the same place is unclear. The family was granted ‘special dispensation… for private worship’ because the family had founded Thelsford Priory in the 13th century. This was regarded as a major act of devotion to the Church. (See previous snapshot for further details on Thelsford).

As such important landowners of Warwickshire, the Lucy family were members of local guilds. These particular guilds promoted, among other things, Catholic practices allowing the family to give freedom of expression to their faith. They were prominent members of the Guild of the Holy Cross in Stratford-upon-Avon. Their names first appear from 1426/27 in ‘The Register of the Guild of the Holy Cross, Stratford upon Avon’. Later Alice wife of William (1441 – 1492) was a member of the guild of Knowle in 1494.

In death, Catholic practices were just as vital. The practice of ‘buying a ticket to heaven’ continued through the support of church building and repairs in life and by leaving monies in wills. In 1492 Sir William Lucy bequeathed £3 6s 8d for reparation of the high altar of Charlecote Church and £6 13s 4d towards work in the body of that church although he asked to be, and was, buried in Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Jane Hungerford’s will begins with a typical Catholic opening ‘ Fyrst I bequeath and recom[m]end my soule to Almyghty god my maker and saviour to oure blissed Lady seynt Mary, And to all the seynts of hevyn my body to be buried at Ilford in oure Lady Chapell ’. She also made arrangements for songs to be sung for the souls of her family and left donations to different chapels. Her first concern in contemplating her death was her after-life and the well-being of her soul.

Despite being in significant debt, Jane’s son also chose to closely follow religious practice on his death in 1525. Thomas’ funeral was very elaborate; the four orders of friars in London escorted his body to Greyfriars for burial. Four large candles, weighing 2lbs each were to burn about his hearse and be kept alight during the high mass in the church for a year. His wife spent £135 4s 8d on black cloth, bread, beer, torches, a litter for his body and alms to the poor. Thomas bequeathed alms to the poor in the parishes of Charlecote and Ashby St Ledgers. This reinforces his desire for his soul’s security.

Why then was Thomas’ son, William (1510 – 1551), the first to move from the Catholic faith of his forbearers? Across Europe there were murmurings of unhappiness with practices such as the sale of indulgences and in Britain with such practices as Benefit of Clergy, Absenteeism and Pluralism, all activities which favoured the Church as opposed to the laity. Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517 presented an alternative view which could now be formed and put into practice. More immediate for the Lucy family was the duplicity of Thelsford Priory, found to have been deeply immersed in fraud. The agent reporting back to Henry VIII’s advisor Thomas Cromwell wrote, “ There was a fond fashion of Idolatry. In the body of the Church was an Image at an altar's end called Maiden Cutbrogh and under her foot was a trough of wood descending under the altar which was hollow. Theither resorted such as were troubled with the head ache, or had any sluttish widows lockes viz. Hair grown together in a tuft. There must they put in to the trough a peck of oats, and when they were once slidded under the altar the cross friar behind the altar [should] privily steal them out! and the sick persons must give to the friar a penny for a pint of these Maiden Cutbroghe oats and then their heads should ache no more till next time. I have pulled the Idol down with her manger. ”

Despite this, William still fought to try and keep Thelsford because of its long-standing connection to the family.

William was influenced by men of ‘New Learning’ such as the Curate of Bishop’s Hampton, Edward Large whom he supported against the ‘leader of the Anti Reform party in Stratford”, William Clopton. Clopton appears to have openly bribed potential witnesses to provide evidence to incriminate Large. Clopton himself claimed men were too scared of Lucy to tell the truth. This was not only a struggle between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ faiths but could also be seen as a local power struggle, with the Lucy family coming out on top. More specifically William’s wife’s cousin was Bishop Hugh Latimer, later burnt at the stake for his Protestant beliefs, and he employed John Falkner and the famous Martyrologist John Foxe as tutors for his own children.

Unsurprisingly then having been taught (albeit for only a year) by John Foxe, and being William’s son, Thomas Lucy I, as he is known, was zealous in practising his Protestant beliefs. Recognised as such by being commissioned “ for the searche and finding out of certen Semynaries, Jesuites and fugitives, latelie crept into the Realme (as it is thought) in great nombers. And touching certen Recusants and other who obstinatelie refuse to come to the Churche ” by Henry Berkley on behalf of Queen Elizabeth.

Some may question whether or not William and subsequently Thomas I’s beliefs were also politically astute. Undoubtedly Thomas I’s position was only enhanced because of his faith, being honoured by a visit by Queen Elizabeth. However, the family continued to practice their Protestant faith with Alice Spencer (born c1594) being described as ‘a puritan gentlewoman known for her charity and piety’ possibly an even more devout believer than the men who pre-deceased her. She exerted her beliefs through the reading of the scriptures to her children and servants, rather than through the exercise of the law.

Whatever their beliefs, and precisely because of them, the Lucys have left a most valuable and important legacy. They owned many religious books and commentaries include such delights as the Book of Hours, Erasmus’ ‘Institutio Principis Christiiani’, Henry VIII’s ‘ Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, adversus Martin Lutherum’ (his rebuttal of Luther’s treatise on the Catholic Church) and of course the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs, better known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Consequently the library at Charlecote contains some of the most important, and valuable, religious books to be found today.

All work by the Research Group is fully referenced please ask Jess for further details