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CAMBRIDGE  STUDIES 
IN  MEDIEVAL  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 

Edited  by  G.  G.  COULTON,  M.A. 

Fellow  of  St  John's  College,  Cambridge 
and  University  Lecturer  in  English 


MEDIEVAL  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 


CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

C.  F.  CLAY,  MANAGER 
LONDON  :  FETTER  LANE,  E.G.  4 


NEWYORK  :  THE  MACMILLAN  CO. 

BOMBAY      ) 

CALCUTTA  I  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LTD. 

MADRAS      J 

TORONTO  :  THE   MACMILLAN    CO. 

OF  CANADA,  LTD. 
TOKYO  :  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


PLATE  I 


PAGE  FROM   LA  SAINTE  ABBATE 


(At  the  top  of  the  picture  a  priest  with  two  acolytes  prepares  the  sacrament ;  behind  them 
stand  the  abbess,  holding  her  staff,  her  chaplain  and  the  sacristan,  who  rings  the  bell ; 
behind  them  a  group  of  four  nuns,  including  the  cellarcss  with  her  keys.  At  the  bottom 
is  a  procession  of  priest,  acolytes  and  nuns  in  the  quire.) 


MEDIEVAL 
ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 

c.  1275  to  X535 


BY 


EILEEN  POWER 

SOMETIME   FELLOW  AND  LECTURER  OF  GIRTON  COLLEGE 
CAMBRIDGE 


MADAME  EGLENTYNE 
(From  the  Ellesmere  MS.) 


CAMBRIDGE 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1922 


TO 

M.  G.  J. 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


GENERAL  PREFACE 

'npHERE  is  only  too  much  truth  in  the  frequent  complaint 
JL  that  history,  as  compared  with  the  physical  sciences,  is 
neglected  by  the  modern  public.  But  historians  have  the 
remedy  in  their  own  hands;  choosing  problems  of  equal 
importance  to  those  of  the  scientist,  and  treating  them  with 
equal  accuracy,  they  will  command  equal  attention.  Those 
who  insist  that  the  proportion  of  accurately  ascertainable 
facts  is  smaller  in  history,  and  therefore  the  room  for  specu 
lation  wider,  do  not  thereby  establish  any  essential  dis 
tinction  between  truth-seeking  in  history  and  truth-seeking 
in  chemistry.  The  historian,  whatever  be  his  subject,  is  as 
definitely  bound  as  the  chemist  "to  proclaim  certainties  as 
certain,  falsehoods  as  false,  and  uncertainties  as  dubious." 
Those  are  the  words,  not  of  a  modern  scientist,  but  of  the 
seventeenth  century  monk,  Jean  Mabillon;  they  sum  up  his 
literary  profession  of  faith.  Men  will  follow  us  in  history  as 
implicitly  as  they  follow  the  chemist,  if  only  we  will  form 
the  chemist's  habit  of  marking  clearly  where  our  facts  end 
and  our  inferences  begin.  Then  the  public,  so  far  from  dis 
couraging  our  speculations,  will  most  heartily  encourage 
them ;  for  the  most  positive  man  of  science  is  always  grateful 
to  anyone  who,  by  putting  forward  a  working  theory,  stimu 
lates  further  discussion. 

The  present  series,  therefore,  appeals  directly  to  that 
craving  for  clearer  facts  which  has  been  bred  in  these  times 
of  storm  and  stress.  No  care  can  save  us  altogether  from 
error;  but,  for  our  own  sake  and  the  public's,  we  have  elected 
to  adopt  a  safeguard  dictated  by  ordinary  business  common- 
sense.  Whatever  errors  of  fact  are  pointed  out  by  reviewers 
or  correspondents  shall  be  publicly  corrected  with  the  least 
possible  delay.  After  a  year  of  publication,  all  copies  shall 
be  provided  with  such  an  erratum-slip  without  waiting  for 


vi  GENERAL  PREFACE 

the  chance  of  a  second  edition ;  and  each  fresh  volume  in  this 
series  shall  contain  a  full  list  of  the  errata  noted  in  its 
immediate  predecessor.  After  the  lapse  of  a  year  from  the 
first  publication  of  any  volume,  and  at  any  time  during  the 
ensuing  twelve  months,  any  possessor  of  that  volume  who 
will  send  a  stamped  and  addressed  envelope  to  the  Cambridge 
University  Press,  Fetter  Lane,  Fleet  Street,  London,  E.G.  4, 
shall  receive,  in  due  course,  a  free  copy  of  the  errata  in 
that  volume.  Thus,  with  the  help  of  our  critics,  we  may 
reasonably  hope  to  put  forward  these  monographs  as  roughly 
representing  the  most  accurate  information  obtainable  under 
present  conditions.  Our  facts  being  thus  secured,  the  reader 
will  judge  our  inferences  on  their  own  merits;  and  something 
will  have  been  done  to  dissipate  that  cloud  of  suspicion 
which  hangs  over  too  many  important  chapters  in  the  social 
and  religious  history  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

G.  G.  C. 

October,  1922. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

THE  monastic  ideal  and  the  development  of  the  monastic 
rule  and  orders  have  been  studied  in  many  admirable 
books.  The  purpose  of  the  present  work  is  not  to  describe  and 
analyse  once  again  that  ideal,  but  to  give  a  general  picture 
of  English  nunnery  life  during  a  definite  period,  the  three 
centuries   before   the   Dissolution.     It   is   derived   entirely 
from  pre-Reformation  sources,  and  the  tainted  evidence  of 
Henry  VIIFs  commissioners  has  not  been  used;  nor  has  the 
story  of  the  suppression  of  the  English  nunneries  been  told. 
The  nunneries  dealt  with  are  drawn  from  all  the  monastic 
orders,  except  the  Gilbertine  order,  which  has  been  omitted, 
both  because  it  differed  from  others  in  containing  double 
houses  of  men  and  women  and  because  it  has  already  been 
the  subject  of  an  excellent  monograph  by  Miss  Rose  Graham. 
It  remains  for  me  to  record  my  deep  gratitude  to  two 
scholars,  in  whose  debt  students  of  medieval  monastic  history 
must  always  lie,  Mr  G.  G.  Coulton  and  Mr  A.  Hamilton 
Thompson.    I  owe  more  than  I  can  say  to  their  unfailing 
interest  and  readiness  to  discuss,  to  help  and  to  criticise.  To 
Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  I  am  specially  indebted  for  the  loan 
of  his  transcripts  and  translations  of  Alnwick's  Register, 
now  in  course  of  publication,  for  reading  and  criticising  my 
manuscript  and  finally  for  undertaking  the  arduous  work  of 
reading  my  proofs.    I   gratefully  acknowledge  suggestions 
received  at  different  times  from  Mr  Hubert  Hall,  Miss  Rose 
Graham  and  Canon  Foster,  and  faithful  criticism  from  my 
friend  Miss  M.  G.  Jones.    I  have  also  to  thank  Mr  H.  S. 
Bennett  for  kindly  preparing  the  index,  and  Mr  Sydney 
Cockerell,  Director  of  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum,  for  assistance 
in  the  choice  of  illustrations. 

EILEEN  POWER. 

GIRTON  COLLEGE, 

CAMBRIDGE. 
September  1922 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.    THE  NOVICE 

Situation,  income  and  size  of  the  English  nunneries         .        .  i 

ONuns  drawn  from  (i)  the  nobles  and  gentry       ....  4  * 

(2)  the  middle  class 9 

Nunneries  in  medieval  wills  ........  14 

The  dowry  system 16 

•^Motives  for  taking  the  veil : 

(1)  a  career  and  a  vocation  for  girls 25  « 

(2)  a  '  dumping  ground '  for  political  prisoners       ...  29 

(3)  for  illegitimate,  deformed  or  half-witted  girls  ...  30 

(4)  nuns  forced  unwillingly  to  profess  by  their  relations      .  33 

(5)  a  refuge  for  widows  and  occasionally  for  wives       .        .  38 

CHAPTER  II.  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE 

Superiors  usually  women  of  social  standing        .        .        .        .  42  •* 

Elections  and  election  disputes 43 

.Resignations 56 

^Special  temptations  of  a  superior : 

(1)  excessive  independence  and  comfort          ....  59* 

(2)  autocratic  government 64 

(3)  favouritism 66 

The  superior  a  great  lady  in  the  country  side    .        .        .        .  68  * 

^Journeys 69  * 

A  Luxurious  clothes  and  entertainments 73  tj 

Picture  of  heads  of  houses  in  Bishop  Alnwick's  Lincoln  visita 
tions  (1436-49) 80 

Wicked  prioresses 82 

Good  prioresses 89 

\General  conclusion :  Chaucer's  picture  borne  out  by  the  records  94- 

CHAPTER  III.    WORLDLY  GOODS 

Evidence  as  to  monastic  property  in 

(1)  the  Valor  Ecclesiasticus 96 

(2)  monastic  account  rolls 97 

Variation  of  size  and  income  among  houses        ....  98 

Methods  of  administration  of  estates 99 

Sources  of  income : 

(i)  rents  from  land  and  houses 100 

2)  manorial  perquisites  and  grants 103 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

(3)  issues  of  the  manor 109 

(4)  miscellaneous  payments 112 

(5)  spiritualities 113 

Expenses n- 

(1)  internal  expenses  of  the  convent 119 

(2)  divers  expenses 123 

(3)  repairs 123 

(4)  the  home  farm 125 

(5)  the  wages  sheet 129 

CHAPTER  IV.    MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES 

The  obedientiaries 131 

Allocation  of  income  and  obedientiaries'  accounts     .        .        .  134 

Chambresses'  accounts  (clothes) 137 

Cellaresses'  accounts  (food) 137 

Servants x^3 

(1)  chaplain 144 

(2)  administrative  officials 146 

(3)  household  staff 150 

(4)  farm  labourers 150 

Nunnery  households I5i 

Relations  between  nuns  and  servants  .        .        .        .        .        .  154 

Occasional  hired  labour 157 

Villages  occasionally  dependent  upon  nunneries  for  work        .  158 

CHAPTER  V.    FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES 

Poverty  of  nunneries 161 

(1)  prevalence  of  debt 162 

(2)  insufficient  food  and  clothing 164 

(3)  ruinous  buildings 168 

(4)  nuns  begging  alms 172 

Reasons  for  poverty: 

(1)  natural  disasters 176 

(2)  ecclesiastical  exactions  and  royal  taxes     .        .        .        .  183 

(3)  feudal  and  other  services 185 

(4)  right  of  patrons  to  take  temporalities  during  voidance  .  186 

(5)  right  of  bishop  and  king  to  nominate  nuns  on  certain 

occasions r88 

(6)  pensions,  corrodies,  grants  and  liveries     .        .        .        .  194 

(7)  hospitality 2Oo 

(8)  litigation         .                201 

(9)  bad  management 203 

(10)  extravagance 211 

(n)  overcrowding  with  nuns 212 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

Methods  adopted  by  bishops  to  remedy  financial  distress : 

1 i )  devices  to  safeguard  expenditure  by  the  head  of  the  house  217 

(2)  episcopal  licence  required  for  business  transactions        .  225 

(3)  appointment  of  a  custos 

CHAPTER  VI.    EDUCATION 

The  education  of  the  nuns: 

Learning  of  Anglo-Saxon  nuns,  and  of  German  nuns  at  a 

later  date .237 

Little  learning  in  English  nunneries  during  the  later  middle 

ages 238* 

Nunnery  libraries  and  nuns'  books 24° 

Education  of  nuns 244  ••» 

Latin  in  nunneries 24^ 

Translations  for  the  use  of  nuns 251 

Needlework 255 

Simple  forms  of  medicine 258 

Nunneries  as  schools  for  children  : 

The  education  of  novices 260  * 

The  education  of  secular  children 261 

Boys 263 

Limitations : 

(1)  not  all  nunneries  took  children 264 

(2)  only  gentlefolk  taken 265 

(3)  disapproval  and  restriction  of  nunnery  schools  by  the 

ecclesiastical  authorities 27° 

What  did  the  nuns  teach  ?  274 

Life  of  school  children  in  nunneries 279 

'  Piety  and  breeding ' 281 

CHAPTER  VII.    ROUTINE  AND  REACTION 

Division  of  the  day  by  the  Benedictine  Rule      ....  285 

The  Benedictine  combination  of  prayer,   study  and  labour 

breaks  down 288 

Dead  routine 289 

\The  reaction  from  routine 290 

(1)  carelessness  in  singing  the  services 291 

(2)  accidia 293 

(3)  quarrels 297 

(4)  gay  clothes 3°3<~ 

(5)  pet  animals 3°5 " 

(6)  dancing,  minstrels  and  merry-making       ....  309 


xu  CONTENTS 

P\GE 

CHAPTER   VIII.    PRIVATE   LIFE   AND   PRIVATE 
PROPERTY 

The  monastic  obligation  to  (i)  communal  life,  (2)  personal 

poverty  ...........  3I- 

The  breakdown  of  communal  life  :  division  into  familiae  with 

private  rooms  ..........  3I6 

The  breakdown  of  personal  poverty     ......  322 

(1)  the  annual  peculium     ........  323 

(2)  money  pittances    .........  323 

(3)  gifts  in  money  and  kind       .......  324 

(4)  legacies    ...........  325 

(5)  proceeds  of  a  nun's  own  labour  ......  330 

Private  life  and  private  property  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 

centuries    ...........  33I 

Attitude  of  ecclesiastical  authorities    ......  336 

CHAPTER  IX.    FISH  OUT  OF  WATER 

4-  Enclosure  in  the  Benedictine  Rule       ......  341  • 

The  movement  for  the  enclosure  of  nuns    .....  343 

>The  Bull  Periculoso         .........  344 

^Attempts  to  enforce  enclosure  in  England  .....  346 

^.Attempts  to  regulate  and  restrict  the  emergence  of  nuns  from 

their  houses       ..........  ^,-3 

The  usual  pretexts  for  breaking  enclosure  : 

(1)  illness      ...........  36l 

(2)  to  enter  a  stricter  rule  ........  363 

(3)  convent  business   ........  36~ 

(4)  ceremonies,  processions,  funerals        .....  368 
\-(5)  pilgrimages     ..........  3?I 

(6)  visits  to  friends      .........  375  „ 

(7)  short  walks,  field  work         .....  38  r 
The  nuns  wander  freely  about  in  the  world        ....  385 


Conclusion 


CHAPTER  X.    THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER 

Visitors  in  the  cloister  are  another  side  of  the  enclosure  problem       394 
The  scholars  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  and  the  neighbouring 
nunneries  ....... 

Regulations  to  govern  the  entrance  of  seculars  into  nunneries: 

(1)  certain  persons  not  to  be  admitted    .....        401 

(2)  certain  parts  of  the  house  and  certain  hours  forbidden  .       402 

(3)  unsuccessful    attempts    to    regulate    the    reception    of 

boarders    ...........       409 

The  nuns  and  political  movements       ....  4ig 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PAGE 

Robbery  and  violence 422 

Border  raids  in  Durham  and  Yorkshire 425 

The  strange  tale  of  Sir  John  Arundel's  outrage  on  a  nunnery  .  429 

The  sack  of  Origny  in  Raoul  de  Cambrai 432 

CHAPTER  XI.  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE 

Nuns  and  the  celibate  ideal 436 

Sources  of  evidence  for  the  moral  state  of  the  English  nunneries  439 

Apostate  nuns 440 

Nuns'  lovers 446 

Nuns'  children 450 

Disorder  in  two  small  houses,  Cannington  (1351)  and  Ease- 
bourne  (1478) 452 

Disorder  in  the  great  abbeys  of  Amesbury  and  Godstow         .  454 
Moral  state  of  the  nunneries  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  at  two 

periods 456 

Attempted    statistical    estimate    of   cases   of   immorality   in 
Lincoln  (1430-50),  Norwich  (1514)  and  Chichester  (1478, 

1524)  dioceses 460 

Punishment  of  offenders 462 

General  conclusions 47^ 

CHAPTER  XII.  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM 

The  chapter  meeting 475 

Reform  by  external  authorities : 

(1)  a  parent  house 478 

(2)  the  chapter  general  of  the  order 481 

(3)  the  bishop  of  the  diocese 482 

The  episcopal  visitation  and  injunctions 483 

How  far  was  this  control  adequate  ? 

(1)  concealment  of  faults 488 

(2)  visitation  too  infrequent 490 

(3)  difficulty  of  enforcing  injunctions 492 

Value  of  visitation  documents  to  the  historian  .        .        .        .  493 

CHAPTER  XIII.  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERA 
TURE 

Value  of  literary  evidence 499 

Autobiographies  and  biographies  of  nuns 500 

Popular  poetry  (chansons  de  nonnes) 502 

Popular  stories  (fabliaux,  exempla] 515 

Didactic  works  addressed  to  nuns 523- 

Satires  and  moral  treatises 533 

Secular  literature  in  general 555 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

APPENDICES 

I.   ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT: 

A.  The  daily  fare  of  Barking  Abbey 563 

B.  School  children  in  nunneries 568 

C.  Nunnery  disputes      .........  581 

I).   Gay  clothes 585 

E.  Convent  pets  in  literature 588 

F.  The  moral  state  of  Littlemore  Priory  in  the  sixteenth  cen 

tury         595 

G.  The  moral  state  of  the  Yorkshire  nunneries  in  the  first  half 

of  the  fourteenth  century 597 

H.  The  disappearance  or  suppression  of  eight  nunneries  prior 

to  1535 602 

I.  Chansons  de  Nonnes 604 

J .  The  theme  of  the  nun  in  love  in  medieval  popular  literature  622 
K.  Nuns  in  the  Dialogus  Miraculorum  of  Caesarius  of  Heister- 

bach         ...........  627 

II.  VISITATIONS  OF  NUNNERIES  IN  THE  DIOCESE  OF 
ROUEN  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  (1248- 
1269) 634 

III.  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY    SAXON    VISITATIONS    BY 

JOHANN  BUSCH 670 

IV.  LIST  OF  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES,  c.  1275-1535        .       685 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 693 

INDEX 7o4 


LIST  OF  PLATES 

PLATE 

I  Page  from  La  Sainte  A  bbaye  .         .         .         .      FRONTISPIECE 
(Brit.  Mus.  MS.  Add.  39843.    Folio  6v°.) 

TO  FACE  PAGE 

II   Abbess  receiving  the  pastoral  staff  from  a  bishop  .         .         44 

(From  The  Metz  Pontifical,  82  (b)  v°  and  9ov°,  in  the  Fitz- 
william  Museum,  Cambridge.) 

III  Page  from  La  Sainte  A  bbaye  .         .         .         .         .         .144 

(Folio  29.) 

IV  Brass  of  Ela  Buttry,  the  stingy  Prioress  of  Campsey 

(f  1546),  in  St  Stephen's  Church,  Norwich     .         .         .168 

(From  Norfolk  Archaeology,   Vol.   vi;    Norf.   and    Norwich 
Archaeol.  Soc.  1864.) 

V  Page  from  La  Sainte  Abbaye 260 

(Folio  iv°.) 

VI   Dominican  nuns  in  quire        .         .         .         .         .         .286 

(From  Brit.  Mus.  Cott.  MSS.  Dom.  Axuf.) 

VII  The  nun  who  loved  the  world 388 

(From  Queen  Mary's  Psalter,  Brit.  Mus.  Royal  MS.  2  B.  vn.) 

VIII  Plan  of  Lacock  Abbey  ...  .  .      403 

(From  Archaeologia,  LVII,  by  permission  of  the  Society  of 
(Antiquaries  and  Mr  Harold  Brakspear.) 


MAP 

Map  showing  the  English  Nunneries  in  the  later  middle  ages     AT  END 


MEDIEVAL  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  NOVICE 

Then,  fair  virgin,  hear  my  spell, 

For  I  must  your  duty  tell. 

First  a-mornings  take  your  book, 

The  glass  wherein  yourself  must  look ; 

Your  young  thoughts  so  proud  and  jolly 

Must  be  turn'd  to  motions  holy; 

For  your  busk,  attires  and  toys, 

Have  your  thoughts  on  heavenly  joys: 

And  for  all  your  follies  past, 

You  must  do  penance,  pray  and  fast. 

You  shall  ring  your  sacring  bell, 

Keep  your  hours  and  tell  your  knell, 

Rise  at  midnight  to  your  matins, 

Read  your  psalter,  sing  your  Latins; 

And  when  your  blood  shall  kindle  pleasure, 

Scourge  yourself  in  plenteous  measure. 

You  must  read  the  morning  mass, 

You  must  creep  unto  the  cross, 

Put  cold  ashes  on  your  head, 

Have  a  hair  cloth  for  your  bed, 

Bind  your  beads,  and  tell  your  needs, 

Your  holy  Aves  and  your  Creeds ; 

Holy  maid,  this  must  be  done, 

If  you  mean  to  live  a  nun. 

The  Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton . 

THERE  were  in  England  during  the  later  middle  ages  (c.  1270- 
1536)  j>ome  138  nunneries,  excluding  double  houses  of  the  Gil- 
bertine  order,  which  contained  brothers  as  well  as  nuns.  Of  these 
over  one  half  belonged  to  the  Benedictine  order  and  about  a 
quarter  (localised  almost  entirely  in  Lincolnshire  and  Yorkshire) 
to  the  Cistercian  order.  The  rest  were  distributed  as  follows :  17  to 
the  order  of  St  Augustine  and  one  (Minchin  Buckland),  which 
belonged  to  the  order  of  St  John  of  Jerusalem  and  followed  the 
Austin  rule,  four  to  the  Franciscan  order,  two  to  the  Cluniac  order, 
two  to  the  Premonstratensian  order  and  one  to  the  Dominican 


2  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

order.  There  was  also  founded  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  very 
famous  double  house  of  the  Brigittine  order,  Syon  Abbey.  Twenty- 
one  of  these  houses  had  the  status  of  abbeys;  the  rest  were 
priories.  They  were  distributed  all  over  the  country,  Surrey, 
Lancashire,  Westmorland  and  Cornwall  being  the  only  counties 
without  one,  but  they  were  more  thickly  spread  over  the  eastern 
than  over  the  western  half  of  the  island.  They  were  most  numerous 
in  the  North,  East  and  East  Midlands,  to  wit,  in  the  dioceses 
of  York,  Lincoln  (which  was  then  very  large  and  included  Lin 
colnshire,  Northamptonshire,  Rutland,  Bedfordshire,  Hunting 
donshire,  Leicestershire,  Buckinghamshire,  Oxfordshire  and  part 
of  Hertfordshire)  and  Norwich;  there  were  27  houses  in  the 
diocese  of  York,  31  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  ten  in  the 
diocese  of  Norwich  and  in  London  and  its  suburbs  there  were 
seven.  On  the  other  hand  if  nunneries  were  most  plentiful  in 
the  North  and  East  Midlands  it  was  there  that  they  were  smallest 
and  poorest.  The  wealthiest  and  most  famous  nunneries  in  England 
were  all  south  of  the  Thames.  Apart  from  the  new  foundation 
at  Syon,  which  very  soon  became  the  largest  and  richest  of  all, 
the  greatest  houses  were  the  old  established  abbeys  of  Wessex, 
Shaftesbury,  Wilton,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Romsey  and  Wher- 
well,  which,  together  with  Barking  in  Essex  were  all  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  foundation ;  and  Dartford  in  Kent,  founded  by  Edward  III. 
The  only  houses  north  of  the  Thames  which  approached  these 
in  importance  were  Godstow  and  Elstow  Abbeys,  in  Oxfordshire 
and  Bedfordshire  respectively;  the  majority  were  small  priories 
with  small  incomes. 

An  analysis  of  the  incomes  and  numerical  size  of  English 
nunneries  at  the  dissolution  gives  interesting  and  somewhat 
startling  results.  Out  of  106  houses  for  which  information  is 
available  only  seven  had  in  1535  a  gross  annual  income  of  over 
£450  a  year.  The  richest  were  Syon  and  Shaftesbury  with  £1943 
and  £1324  respectively;  then  came  Barking  with  £862,  Wilton 
with  £674,  Amesbury  with  £595,  Romsey  with  £528  and  Dartford 
with  £488.  Five  others  (St  Helen's  Bishopsgate,  Haliwell  and 
the  Minories  all  in  London,  Elstow  and  Godstow)  had  from  £300 
to  £400;  nine  others  (Nuneaton,  Clerkenwell,  Mailing,  St  Mary's 
Winchester,  Tarrant  Keynes,  Canon  sleigh,  Campsey,  Minchin  Buck- 
land  and  Lacock)  had  from  £200  to  £300.  Twelve  had  between 


ij  THE  NOVICE  3 

£100  and  £200  and  no  less  than  73  houses  had  under  £100,  of 
which  39  actually  had  under  £50;  and  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  net  annual  income,  after  the  deduction  of  certain  annual 
charges,  was  less  still1.  An  analysis  of  the  numerical  size  of 
nunneries  presents  more  difficulties,  for  the  number  of  nuns  given 
sometimes  differs  in  the  reports  referring  to  the  same  house  and 
it  is  doubtful  whether  commissioners  or  receivers  always  set 
down  the  total  number  of  nuns  present  at  the  visitation  or  dis 
solution  of  a  house ;  while  lists  of  pensions  paid  by  the  crown  to 
ex-inmates  after  dissolution  are  still  more  incomplete  as  evidence. 
A  rough  analysis,  however,  leaves  very  much  the  same  impres 
sion  as  an  analysis  of  incomes2.  Out  of  in  houses,  for  which  A 
some  sort  of  numerical  estimate  is  possible,  only  four  have  over  v 
thirty  inmates,  viz.  Syon  (51),  Amesbury  (33),  Wilton  (32)  and  <^ 
Barking  (30).  Eight  (Elstow,  the  Minories,  Nuneaton,  Denny, 
Romsey,Wherwell,Dartfordand  St  Mary's  Winchester)  have  from 
20  to  30 ;  thirty-six  have  from  10  to  20  and  sixty- three  have  under- 
10.  These  statistics  permit  of  certain  large  generalisations.  First, 
that^the  majority  of  English  nunneries  were  small  and  poor. 
Secondly,  that,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  largest  and 
richest  houses  were  allinLondon  and  south  of  theThames;  only  four- 
houses  north  of  that  river  had  gross  incomes  of  over  £200  and  only 
three  could  boast  of  more  than  20  inmates.  Thirdly,  the  nunneries 
during  this  period  owned  land  and  rents  to  the  annual  value  of 
over  £15, 500  and  contained  perhaps  between  1500  and  2000 nuns^ 
To  understand  the  history  of  the  English  nunneries  during 
the  later  middle  ages  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  understand  the 
smallness  and  poverty  of  many  of  the  houses  and  the  high  repute 
of  others;  it  is  necessary  also  to  understand  what  manner  of 
women  took  the  veil  in  them.  From  what  social  classes  were  the 
nuns  drawn,  and  for  what  reason  did  they  enter  religion?  What 

1  Based  on  Professor  Savine's  analysis  of  the  returns  in  the  Valor  Ec- 
clesiasticus  (Oxford  Studies  in  Social  and  Legal  History),  I,  269-288. 

2  I  have  based  this  estimate  partly  on  a  list  compiled  by  M.  E.  C.  Wal- 
cott,  English  Minsters,  vol.  n  ("The  English  Student's  Monasticon"),  partly 
on  one  compiled  by  Miss  H.  T.  Jacka  in  an  unpublished  thesis  on  The 
Dissolution  of  the  English  Nunneries;  the  figures,  if  not  always  exactly 
correct,  are  approximately  correct  as  far  as  the  classification  into  groups, 
according  to  size,  is  concerned.    It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
there  were  more  nuns  at  the  beginning  than  at  the  end  of  the  period  1270- 
1536;  the  convents  tended  to  diminish  in  size,  especially  those  which  were 
poor  and  small  to  begin  with. 

I — 2 


THE  NOVICE 


[CH. 


function  did  monasticism,  so  far  as  it  concerned  women,  fulfil 
in  the  life  of  medieval  society? 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  proportion  of  women  who  became 
nuns  was  very  small  in  comparison  with  the  total  female  popula 
tion.  It  has  indeed  been  insufficiently  recognised  that  the  medi 
eval  nunneries  were  recruited  almost  entirely  from  among  the 
upper  classes.  They  were  essentially  aristocratic  institutions,  the 
refuge  of  the  gently  born.  At  Romsey  Abbey  a  list  of  91  sisters 
at  the  election  of  an  abbess  in  1333  is  full  of  well-known  county 
names1.  The  names  of  Bassett,  Sackville,  Covert,  Hussey,  Tawke 
and  Farnfold  occur  at  Easebourne2;  Lewknor,  St  John,  Okehurst, 
Michelgrove  and  Sidney  at  Rusper3,  the  two  small  and  poor 
nunneries  in  Sussex.  The  return  of  the  subsidy  in  1377  enumerates 
the  sisters  of  Minchin  Barrow  and,  as  their  historian  points  out, 
"among  the  family  names  of  these. ladies  are  some  erf  the  best 
that  the  western  counties  could  produce"4.  The  other  Somerset 
houses  were  equally  aristocratic,  and  an  examination  of  the  roll 
of  prioresses  for  almost  any  medieval  convent  in  any  part  of 
England  will  give  the  same  result,  even  in  the  smallest  and 
poorest  nunneries,  the  inmates  of  which  were  reduced  to  begging 
alms 5.  These  ladies  appear  sometimes  to  have  had  the  spirit  of 
their  race,  as  they  often  had  its  manners  and  its  tastes. j  For 
21  years  Isabel  Stanley,  Prioress  of  King's  Mead,  Derby,  refused  to 
pay  a  rent  due  from  her  house  to  the  Abbot  of  Burton  ;  at  last  the 
Abbot  sent  his  bailiff  to  distrain  for  it  and  she  spoke  her  mind  in 
good  set  terms.  "  Wenes  these  churl es  to  overlede  me,"  cried  this 
worthy  daughter  of  a  knightly  family,  "or  sue  the  lawe  agayne 
me?  They  shall  not  be  so  hardy  but  they  shall  avye  upon  their 
bodies  and  be  nailed  with  arrows;  for  I  am  a  gentlewoman, 
comen  of  the  greatest  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire,  and  that  they 
shall  know  right  well"6.  A  tacjl-xecognition  of  the  aristocratic 

1  These  are  discussed  in  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  112  sqq. 

2  V.C.H.  Sussex,  n,  p.  84.  8  Ib.  11,  p.  63. 

4  Hugo,  Medieval  Nunneries  of  the  County  of  Somerset,  Minchin  Barrow, 
p.  108. 

*  Well-known  names  occur,  for  instance,  among  the  prioresses  of  the 
poor  convents  of  Ivinghoe,  Ankerwyke  and  Little  Marlow  in  Bucks.    V.C.H. 
Bucks,  i,  p.  355. 

•  Lysons,  Magna  Britannia,  v,  p.  113.    Compare  the  remark  of  a  nun 
of  Wenningsen,  near  Hanover,  who  considered  herself  insulted  when  the 
great  reformer  Busch  addressed  her  not  as  "  Klosterfrau"  but  as  "Sister." 
"You  are  not  my  brother,  wherefore  then  call  me  sister?    My  brother  is 


THE  NOVICE 
c" 


:haracler  of  the  convents  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  bishops 
were  often  at  pains  to  mention  the  good  birth  of  the  girls  whom" 
in  accordance  with  a  general  right,  they  nominated  to  certain 
houses  on  certain  occasions.  Thus  Wykeham  wrote  to  the  Abbess 
of  St  Mary's  Winchester,  bidding  her  admit  Joan  Bleden,  "quest 
de  bone  et  honeste  condition,  come  nous  sumes  enformes"1.  More 
frequently  still  the  candidates  were  described  as  "domicella" 
or  "damoysele"2.  At  least  one  instance  is  extant  of  a  bishop 
ordering  that  all  the  nuns  of  a  house  were  to  be  of  noble  condition3. 

The  fact  that  the  greater  portion  of  the  female  population  / 
was  unaffected  by  the  existence  of  the  outlet  provided  by  con-  ) 
ventual  life  for  women's  energies  is  a  significant  one.  The  reason  ") 
for  it — paradoxical  as  this  may  sound — lies  in  the  veryjiarrowness 
of  the  sphere  to  which  women  of  gentle  birth  were  confined.  The 
disadvantage,  of  rank,  is  that  so  Jnan-y_honest_Qccu.pations  are 
not,  injte_eyes,  honourable  occupations.  In  the  lowest  ranks 
of  society  the  poor  labourer  u^on_thejand  had  no'need't^get 
^rid  of  hJs  -Daughter,  if  he  could  notlndlier  a  husband,  nor  would 
ijhave  beenjp  his  interest  to  do  so;  for,  working  in  the  fields 
among  his  sons,  or  spinning  and  brewing  with  his  wife  at  home, 
she  could  earn  a  supplementary  if  not  a  living  wage.  The  trades- 
maji_pr_artisan  in  the  town  was  in  a  similar  position.  He  recog 
nised  that  the  ideal  course  was  to  find  a  husband  for  his  growing 
girl,  but  the  alternative  was  in  no  sense  that  she  should  eat  out 
her  heart  and  his  income  during  long  years  at  home;  and  if  he 
were  too  poor  to  provide  her  with  a  sufficient  dower,  he  could  and 
often  did  apprentice  her  to  a  trade.  Thejnumber  of  industries 
which  were  carneoLoa  by_:w^ojn^ 

for  the  burgess  and  lower  classes  there  were  other  outlets  besides 
marriage;  and  then,  a^now,  domestic  seryice.provided  for  many.  - 
But  the  case  of  ti^^ell-born  lady  was  different.  The  knight 
or  the  county  gentleman  could  not  apprentice  his  superfluous 

clad  in  steel  and  you  in  a  linen  frock"  (1455).  Quoted  in  Coulton,  Medieval 
Garner,  p.  653. 

1  Wykeham' s  Register  (Hants.  Rec.  Soc.),  n,  p.  462.    Cf.  ib.  u,  p.  61. 

2  E.g.  Reg.... of  Rigaud  de  Asserio  (Hants.   Rec.  Soc.),  p.  394;  Reg.... 
Stephani  Gravesend  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.) ,  p.  200 ;  Wykeham' s  Register,  loc.  cit. 

Bishop  Cobham  of  Worcester  at  Wroxall  in  1323  (V.C.H.  Warwick, 
n,  p.  71).  Cf.  the  case  of  Usk  in  Monmouthshire,  "in  quo  monasterio  soluni 
virgmes  de  nobili  prosapia  procreate  recipi  consueverunt  et  solent"  (Chron 
of  Adam  of  Usk,  ed.  E.  M.  Thompson,  p.  93). 


6  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

daughters  to  a  pursemaker  or  a  weaver  in  the  town;  not  from 
them  were  drawn  the  regrateresses  in  the  market  place  and  the 
harvest  gatherers  in  the  field;  nor  was  it  theirs   to  make  the 
parti-coloured  bed  and  shake  the  coverlet,  worked  with  grapes 
and  unicorns,  in  some  rich  vintner's  house.  There  remained._ior 
hiUklf  he_dl4  no*  wish  ^  coul(i  not  anC°r(l to  ^p  them  at  home 
andJojLthem,  if  they  desired  some  scope  for  their  young  energies, 
only  marriage  or  else  a  convent,  where  they  might  go  with  a 
smaller  dower  than  a  husband  of  their  own  rank  would  demand. 
To  say  that  the  convents  were  the  refuge  of  the  gently  born 
is  not  to  say  that  there  was  no  admixture  of  classes  within  them. 
The  term  gentleman  was  becoming  more  comprehensive  in  the 
later  middle  ages.  It  included  the  .upper  class  proper,  the  families 
of  noble  birth;  and  it  included  alsojhe  country  gentry.  The  con 
vents  were  probably  at  first  recruited  almost  entirely  from  these 
two  ranks  of  society,  and  a  study  of  any  collection  of  medieval 
wills  shows  how  large  a  proportion  of  such  families  took  advantage 
of  this  opening  for  women.  A  phrase  will  sometimes  occur  which 
shows  that  it  was  regarded  as  the  natural  and  obvious  alternative 
f      to  marriage.  \Sir  John  Daubriggecourt  in  1415  left  his  daughter 
Margery  40  marks,  "if  she  be  wedded  to  a  worldly  husband,  and 
N    if  she  be  caused  to  receive  the  sacred  veil  of  the  order  of  holy 
nuns"  ten  pounds  and  twenty  shillings  rent1,  and  Sir  John  le 
Blund  in  1312  bequeathed  an  annuity  to  his  daughter  Ann,  "  till 
she  marry  or  enter  a  religious  house"2.  Xhe_ajmety;X)i  the  upper 
classes Josecure  a  place  for  their  children  in  nunneries  sometimes 
evenJedTo  overcrowding.    At  Carrow  the  Prioress  was  forced 
to  complain  that  "  certain  lords  of  England  whom  she  was  unable 
to  resist  because  of  their  power"  forced  their  daughters  upon 
the  priory  as  nuns,  and  in  1273  a  papal  bull  forbade  the  reception 
of  more  inmates  than  the  revenues  would  support^* Archbishop 
William  Wickwane  addressed  a  similar  mandate  to  two  York 
shire  houses,  Wilberfoss  and  Nunkeeling,  which  public  rumour 
had  informed  him  to  be  overburdened  with  nuns  and  with  secular 
boarders  "at  the  instance  of  nobles"4;    and  in  1327  Bishop 

1  Gibbons,  Early  Lincoln  Wills,  p.  117. 

2  Sharpe,  Col.  of  Wills  enrolled  in  the  Court  of  Husting,  I,  p.  236.   Cf.  ib. 
i,  P-  35°  an<i  Testamenta  Eboracensia  (Surtees  Soc.),  I,  pp.  17°.  354- 

8  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  71. 

•  Reg.  of  Archbishop  William  Wickwane  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  H3- 


Z]  THE  NOVICE  7 

Stratford  wrote  to  Romsey  Abbey  that  the  house  was  notoriously 
burdened  with  ladies  beyond  the  established  number,  and  that 
he  had  heard  that  the  nuns  were  being  forced  to  receive  more 
"  damoyseles "  as  novices,  which  he  forbade  without  special 
licence1.  A  very  strong  personal  connection  must  in  time  have  • 
been  established  between  a  nunnery  and  certain  families  from  -' 
which,  in  each  generation,  it  received  a  daughter  or  a  niece  and/'" 
her  dower.  Such  was  the  connection  between  Shouldham  and  - 
the  Beauchamps2  and  between  Nunmonkton  and  the  Fairfaxes3. 
A  close  linjc_bound  each  nunnery  to  the  family  of  its  patron. 
Thus  we  find  a  Clinton  at  Wroxall  and  a  Darcy  at  Heynings; 
nor  is  it  unlikely  that  these  noble  ladies  sometimes  expected 
privileges  and  homage  more  than  the  strict  equality  of  convent 
life  would  allow,  if  it  be  permissible  to  generalise  from  the  be 
haviour  of  Isabel  Clinton4  and  from  the  fact  that  Margaret  Darcy 
received  a  rather  severe  penance  from  Bishop  Gynewell  in  1351 
and  a  special  warning  against  going  beyond  the  claustral  precincts 
or  speaking  to  strangers  5,  while  in  1393  there  occurs  the  signifi 
cant  injunction  by  Bishop  Bokyngham  that  no  sister  was  to 
have  a  room  to  herself  except  Dame  Margaret  Darcy  (doubtless 
the  same  woman  now  grown  elderly  and  ailing)  "on  account  of 
the  nobility  of  her  race";  an  old  lady  of  firm  will  and  (despite 
his  careful  mention  of  extra  pittances  and  of  tolerating  for  a 
while)  a  somewhat  sycophantic  prelate6. 

1  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  98. 

2  William  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  mentions  two  daughters, 
nuns  at  Shouldham,  in  his  will  (1296).    Sir  Guy  de  Beauchamp  mentions 
his  little  daughter  Katherine,  a  nun  there  (1359)  and  his  father  Thomas  de 
Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  mentions  the  same  Katherine  and  his  own 
daughter  Margaret,  nuns  there  (1369).    Katherine  was  still  alive  in  1400, 
when  she  is  mentioned  in  the  next  Earl's  will.   Test-amenta  Vetusta,  i,  pp.  52, 

63,  79,  153- 

3  See  below,  p.  15. 

4  See  below,  pp.  39-40. 

5  "  Et  pur  certayn  cause  nous  auens  enioynt  a  dame  Margaret  Darcy, 
vostre  soer,  qel  ne  passe  les  lieus  de  cloistre,  cest  assauoir  de  quoer,  de  cloistre, 
de  ffraitour,  dormitorie  ou  fermerie,  tantque  nous  en  aueroms  autre  ordeigne, 
et  qele  ne  parle  od  nul  estraunge  gentz,  et  soit  darreyn  enstalle,  et  en  chescun 
lieu  qele  ne  porte  anele,  et  qele  die  chescun  iour  un  sautier  et  June  la  quarte 
et  la  sexte  ferie  a  payn  et  eu.   Ensement  voilloms  qe  la  dit  dame  Margaret 
se  puisse  confesser  au  confessour  de  vostre  couent  quant  ele  auera  mester." 
Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^.    It  looks  like  the  penance  for 
immorality. 

6  "  Item  quod    nulla  monialis  ibidem  cameram  teneat  priuatam,  sed 
quod  omnes  moniales  sane  in  dormitorio  et  infirme  in  infirmaria  iaceant 


8  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Chaucer  has  drawn  an  unmistakable 
"lady"  in  his  typical  prioress.  There  is  her  delicate  behaviour 
at  meals: 

At  mete  wel  ytaught  was  she  with-alle  ; 

She  leet  no  morsel  from  her  lippes  falle, 

Ne  wette  hir  fingres  in  hir  sauce  depe. 

Wel  coude  she  carie  a  morsel,  and  wel  kepe, 

That  no  drope  ne  fille  upon  hir  brest. 

In  curteisye  was  set  ful  muche  hir  lest. 

Hir  over  lippe  wyped  she  so  clene, 

That  in  hir  coppe  was  no  ferthing  sene 

Of  grece,  whan  she  dronken  hadde  hir  draughte. 

Ful  semely  after  hir  mete  she  raughte1. 

This  was  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  feudal  table  manners;  Chaucer 
might  have  been  writing  one  of  those  books  of  deportment  for 
the  guidance  of  aristocratic  young  women,  which  were  so  numerous 
in  France.  So  the  Clef  d' Amors  counsels  ladies  who  would  win 
them  lovers2,  and  even  so  Robert  de  Blois  depicts  the  perfect 
diner.  Robert  de  Blois'  ideal,  the  chivalrous,  frivolous,  sensuous 
ideal  of  "courtesy,"  which  underlay  the  whole  aristocratic  con 
ception  of  life  and  the  attainment  of  which  was  the  criterion 
of  polite  society,  is  the  ideal  of  the  Prioress  also: 

"Gardez  vous,  Dames,  bien  acertes," 
"  Qu'au  mengier  soiez  bien  apertes; 
C'est  une  chose  c'on  moult  prise 
Que  Ik  soit  dame  bien  aprise. 
Tel  chose  torne  a  vilonie 
Que  toutes  genz  ne  sevent  mie; 
Se  puet  cil  tost  avoir  mespris 
Qui  n'est  cortoisement  apris3." 

Later  he  warns  against  the  greedy  selection  of  the  finest  and 
largest  titbit  for  oneself,  on  the  ground  that  "  n'est  pas  cortoisie." 

atque  cubant,  preter  dominam  Margaretam  Darcy,  monialem  prioratus 
antedicti,  cui  ob  nobilitatem  sui  generis  de  camera  sua  quam  tenet  in  privata, 
absque  tamen  alia  liberata  panis  et  ceruisie,  extra  casum  infirmitatis  mani- 
feste,  volumus  ad  tempus  tollerare."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Buckingham, 

*•  397d- 

1  Canterbury  Tales  (ed.  Skeat),  Prologue,  11.  127  ff.    It  is  interesting  to 
notice  that  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  of  which  Chaucer  translated  a  fragment, 
contains  some  remarks  upon  this  subject  which  are  almost  paraphrased  in 
his  description  of  Madame  Eglentyne. 

2  La  Clef  d' Amors...,  ed.  Doutrepont  (1890),  v,  3227  ff. 

3  Le  Chastiement  des  Dames  (Barbazon  and  M6on,  Fabliaux  et  Conies, 
ii,  p.  200). 


I]  THE  NOVICE  9 

The  same  consideration  preoccupies  Madame  Eglentyne  at  her 
supper:  "in  curteisye  was  set  ful  muche  hir  lest."  Good  manners, 
elegant  deportment,  the  polish  of  the  court,  all  that  we  mean 
by  nurture,  these  are  her  aim  : 

And  sikerly  she  was  of  greet  disport, 
And  ful  plesaunt,  and  amiable  of  port, 
And  peyned  her  to  countrefete  chere 
Of  court,  and  been  estatlich  of  manere, 
And  to  be  holden  digne  of  reverence. 

Her  pets  are  the  pets  of  ladies  in  metrical  romances  and  in 
illuminated  borders;  "  smalehoundes,"  delicately  fed  with  "  rested 
flesh,  or  milk  and  wastel-bread."  Her  very  beauty 

(Hir  nose  tretys  ;  hir  eyen  greye  as  glas, 
Hir  mouth  ful  smal,  and  ther-to  soft  and  reed  ; 
But  sikerly  she  hadde  a  fair  f  orheed  ; 
It  was  almost  a  spanne  brood,  I  trowe; 
For,  hardily,  she  was  nat  undergrowe) 

conforms  to  the  courtly  standard.  Only  the  mention  of  her 
chanting  of  divine  service  (through  the  tretys  nose)  differentiates 
her  from  any  other  well-born  lady  of  the  day;  and  if  Chaucer 
had  not  told  us  whom  he  was  describing,  we  might  never  have 
known  that  she  was  a  nun.  It  was  in  these  ideals  and  traditions 
that  most  of  the  inmates  of  English  convents  were  born  and 
bred. 

During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  however,  an- 
other  class  mse-inifl.,  pnnniiie_nce  .....  and^pejrhaps_.because  it  was 
originally  drawn  to  a  great  extent  from  the  younger  sons  of 
^  with  the  gentry  easy. 


The  development  of  trade  and  the  new  openings  for  the  employ 
ment  of  capital  had  brought  about  the  rise  of  the  English  mer- 
chanixlassk  Hitherto  foreigners  had  financed  the  English  crown, 
but  during  the  first  four  years  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  it 
became  clear  that  English  merchants  were  now  rich  and  powerful 
enough  to  take  their  place;  and  the  triumph  of  the  native  was 
complete  when,  in  1345,  Edward  III  repudiated  his  debts  to  the 
Italian  merchants  and  the  Bardi  and  Peruzzi  failed.  Henceforth 
the  English  merchants  were  supreme;  on  the  one  hand  their 
trading  ventures  enriched  them;  on  the  other  they  made  vast 
sums  out  of  farming  the  customs  and  the  war  subsidies  in  return 


10  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

for  loans  of  ready  money,  and  out  of  all  sorts  of  government 
contracts.  The  successful  campaigns  of  Crecy  and  Poitiers  were 
entirely  financed  by  these  English  capitalists.  Not  only  trade 
but  industry  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  nouveaux  riches  and  the 
clothiers  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  grew  rich  and 
prospered.  Evidences  of  the  wealth  and  importance  of  this 
middle  class  are  to  be  found  on  all  sides.  The  taxation  of  mov 
ables,  which  from  1334  became  an  important  and  in  time  the 
main  source  of  national  revenue,  indicates  the  discovery  on  the 
part  of  the  government  that  the  wealth  of  the  nation  no  longer 
layjn  land,  but  in  trade.  The  frequent  sumptuary  acts,  the 
luxury  of  daily  life,  bear  witness  to  the  wealth  of  the  nouveaux 
riches',  and  so  also  do  their  philanthropic  enterprises,  the  beauti 
ful  churches  which  they  built,  the  bridges  which  they  repaired, 
the  gifts  which  they  gave  to  religious  and  to  civic  corporations. 
And  it  was  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  there  began  that 
steady  fusion  between  the  country  gentry  and  the  rich  burgesses, 
which  was  accomplished  before  the  end  of  the  middle  ages  and 
which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  solid  and  powerful  middle 
class.  The  political  amalgamation  of  the  two  classes  in  the  lower 
house  of  Parliament  corresponded  to  a  social  amalgamation  in 
the  world  outside.  The  country  knights  and  squires  saw  in  busi 
ness  a  career  for  their  younger  sons ;  they  saw  in  marriage  with 
the  daughters  of  the  mercantile  class  a  way  to  mend  their  for 
tunes  ;  the  city  merchants,  on  the  other  hand,  saw  in  such  alliances 
a  road  to  the  attainment  of  that  social  prestige  which  went  with 
land  and  blood,  and  were  not  loath  to  pay  the  price.  "  Merchants 
or  new  gentlemen  I  deem  will  proffer  large,"  wrote  Edmund 
Paston,  concerning  the  marriage  of  one  of  his  family.  "Well  I 
wot  if  ye  depart  to  London  ye  shall  have  proffers  large"1. 

This  social  amalgamation  between  the  country  gentry  and 
the  "new  gentlemen,"  who  had  made  their  money  in  trade,  was 
naturally  reflected  in  the  nunneries.  The  wills  of  London  bur 
gesses,  which  were  enrolled  in  the  Court  of  Husting,  show  that 
the  daughters  of  these  well-to-do  citizens  were  in  the  habit  of 
taking  the  veil.  There  is  even  more  than  one  trace  of  the  aristo 
cratic  view  of  religion  as  the  sole  alternative  to  marriage.  Lang1 
land,  enumerating  the  good  deeds  which  will  win  pardon  for 

1  See  Mrs  Green,  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  11,  pp.  77-80. 


ii]  THE  NOVICE  II 

i|  the  merchant,  bids  him  "  marie  maydens  or  maken  hem  nonnes  "1. 
;  At  Ludlow  the  gild  of  Palmers  provided  that : 

I  If  any  good  girl  of  the  gild  of  marriageable  age,  cannot  have  the  means  ^ 
l|  found  by  her  father,  either  to  go  into  a  religious  house  or  to  marry,     s 
:|  whichever  she  wishes  to  do,  friendly  and  right  help  shall  be  given    <^ 
I  her  out  of  our  common  chest,  towards  enabling  her  to  do  whichever  v 
of  the  two  she  wishes2. 

I  Similarly  at  Berwick-on-Tweed  the  gild  "ordained  by  the  pleasure 
of  the  burgesses"  had  a  provision  entitled,  "Of  the  bringing  up 
of  daughters  of  the  gild,"  which  ran:  " If  any  brother  die  leaving 

I  a  daughter  true  and  worthy  and  of  good  repute,  but  undowered, 
the  gild  shall  find  her  a  dower,  either  on  marriage  or  on  going 

I  into  a  religious  house"3.  So  also  John  Syward,  "stockfissh- 
mongere"  of  London,  whose  will  was  proved  at  the  Court  of 
Husting  in  1349,  le^>  "To  Dionisia  his  daughter  forty  pounds 
for  her  advancement,  so  that  she  either  marry  therewith  or 
become  a  religious  at  her  election,  within  one  year  after  his 
decease"4;  and  William  Wyght,  of  the  same  trade,  bequeathed 
"to  each  of  his  daughters  Agnes,  Margaret,  Beatrix  and  Alice 
fifty  pounds  sterling  for  their  marriage  or  for  entering  a  religious 
house"  (i393)5;  while  William  Marowe  in  1504  bequeathed  to 
"Elizabeth  and  Katherine  his  daughters  forty  pounds  each,  to 

|  be  paid  at  their  marriage  or  profession"6.  Sometimes,  however, 
the  sound  burgess  sense  prevailed,  as  when  Walter  Constantyn 
endowed  his  wife  with  "the  residue  of  his  goods,  so  that  she 
assist  Amicia,  his  niece, . . .  towards  her  marriage  or  to  some  trade 
befitting  her  position"7. 

The  mixture  of  classes  must  have  been  more  frequent  in 
convents  which  were  situate  in  or  near  a  large  town,  while  the 
country  gentry  had  those  lying  in  rural  districts  more  or  less 

Langland,  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman,  ed.  Skeat,  passus  A,  vm,  i.  31. 

English  Gilds,  ed.  L.  T.  Smith  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  194. 

Ibid.  p.  340. 

Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  589. 

Sharpe,  op.  cit.  u,  p.  299.  The  Fishmongers,  who,  up  to  1536,  were 
divided  into  the  two  companies  of  salt-fishmongers  and  stock-fishmongers, 
were  a  powerful  and  important  body,  as  the  annals  of  the  City  of  London  in 
the  fourteenth  century  show,  "these  fishmongers"  in  the  words  of  Stow 
"having  been  jolly  citizens  and  six  mayors  of  their  company  in  the  space 
of  twenty-four  years."  Stow's  Survey  of  London  (ed.  Kingsford),  i,  p.  214. 

6  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  n,  p.  606. 

7  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  594. 


12  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

tojthemselves._  The  nunnery  of  Carrow,  for  instance,  was  a 
favourite  resort  for  girls  of  noble  and  of  gentle  birth,  but  it  was 
also  recruited  from  the  daughters  of  prosperous  Norwich  citizens; 
among  nuns  with  well-known  county  names  there  were  also 
ladies  such  as  Isabel  Barbour,  daughter  of  Thomas  Welan,  barber, 
and  Joan  his  wife,  Margery  Folcard,  daughter  of  John  Folcard, 
alderman  of  Norwich,  and  Catherine  Segryme,  daughter  of  Ralph 
Segryme,  another  alderman;  the  latter  attained  the  position  of 
prioress  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century1.  These  citizens, 
wealthy  and  powerful  men  in  days  when  Norwich  was  one  of 
the  most  important  towns  in  England,  probably  met  on  equal 
terms  with  the  country  gentlemen  of  Norfolk,  and  both  sent  their 
daughters  with  handsome  dowries  to  Carrow.  The  nunneries  of 
London  and  of  the  surrounding  district  contained  a  similar  mix 
ture  of  classes,  ranging  from  some  of  the  noblest  ladies  in  the  land 
to  the  daughters  of  city  magnates,  men  enriched  by  honourable 
trade  or  by  the  less  honourable  capitalistic  ventures  of  the  king's 
merchants.  The  famous  house  of  Minoresses  without  Aldgate  illus 
trates  the  situation  very  clearly.  It  was  always  a  special  favourite 
of  royalty;  and  the  storm  bird,  Isabella,  mother  of  Edward  III, 
is  by  some  supposed  to  have  died  in  the  order.  She  was  certainly 
its  constant  benefactress2  as  were  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  Duke 
of  Gloucester  and  his  wife,  whose  daughter  Isabel  was  placed 
in  the  nunnery  while  only  a  child  and  eventually  became  its 
abbess3.  Katherine,  widow  of  John  de  Ingham,  and  Eleanor 
Lady  Scrope  were  other  aristocratic  women  who  took  the  veil 
at  the  Minories4.  But  this  noble  connection  did  not  prevent  the 
house  from  containing  Alice,  sister  of  Richard  Hale,  fishmonger5, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Thomas  Padyngton,  fishmonger6,  Marion, 
daughter  of  John  Charteseye,  baker7,  and  Frideswida,  daughter 
of  John  Reynewell,  alderman  of  the  City  of  London8,  girls  drawn 
from  the  elite  of  the  burgess  class.  An  investigation  of  the  wills 
enrolled  in  the  Court  of  Husting  shows  the  relative  popularity 

1  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  App.  ix,  pp.  xvi,  xvii,  xviii. 

2  See  Archaeologia,  xv  (1806),  pp.  100-101 ;  ib.  xxxv  (1853),  p.  464. 

3  V.C.H.  London,  i,  p.  518.  4  Ib.  pp.  518-9. 

8  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  ii,  p.  267.  Two  years  previously  (1396)  John  de  Nevill 
had  left  legacies  to  his  sister  Eleanor  and  to  his  daughter  Elizabeth,  minor- 
esses  of  St  Clare;  Durham  Wills  and  Inventories  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  39. 

'  Sharpe,  op,  cit.  n,  p.  589. 

7  Ib.  ii,  p.  331.  8  Ib.  ii,  p.  577. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  13 

of  different  convents  among  the  citizens  of  London.  Between 
the  years  1258  and  the  Dissolution,  52  wills  contain  references 
to  one  or  more  nuns  related  to  the  testators1.  From  these  it 
appears  that  the  most  popular  house  was  Clerkenwell  in 
Middlesex,  which  is  mentioned  in  nine  wills2.  Barking  in 
Essex  comes  next  with  eight  references3,  and  St  Helen's  Bishops- 
gate  with  seven4;  the  house  of  Minoresses  without  Aldgate  is  five 
times  mentioned5,  Haliwell6  in  London  and  Stratford-atte- 
Bowe 7  outside,  having  five  and  four  references  respectively,  Kil- 
burn  in  Middlesex  three8,  Sopwell  in  Hertfordshire  two9,  Mailing10 
and  Sheppey11  in  Kent  two  each.  Other  convents  are  mentioned 
once  only  and  in  some  cases  a  testator  leaves  legacies  to  nuns 
by  name,  without  mentioning  where  they  are  professed.  All 
these  houses  were  in  the  diocese  of  London  and  either  in  or  near 
the  capital  itself;  they  lay  in  the  counties  of  Middlesex,  Kent, 
Essex,  Hertford  and  Bedford12.  It  was  but  rarely  that  city  girls 
went  as  far  afield  as  Denny  in  Cambridgeshire,  where  the  famous 
fishmonger  and  mayor  of  London,  John  Philpott,  had  a  daughter 
Thomasina. 

Thus  the  nobles,  the  gentry  and  the  superior  rank  of  burgess 
— the  upper  and  the^pper-middle  classes — sent  their  daughters 
to  nunneries.  But  nuns  were  drawn  from  no  lower  class ;  poor 
girls  of  the  lowest  rank — whether  the  daughters  of  artisans  or 
of  country  labourers — seem  never  to  have  taken  the  veil.  _A  certain^ 
degree  of  education  was  demanded  in  a  nun  before  her  admission 
and  the  poor  man's  daughter  would  have  neither  the  money,  the 

1  Not  counting   legacies   left   to   various   nunneries,   without  specific 
reference  to  a  relative  professed  there. 

2  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  pp.  107,  300,  313,  324,  408,  501,  585,  701.    Philip 
le  Taillour  had  three  daughters  here  in  1292  (i,  p.  107),  and  William  de  Leyre 
had  three  daughters  here  in  1322  (i,  p.  300). 

3  Ib.  i,  pp.  222,  303,  569,  638,  688;  n,  pp.  20,  76,  115. 

4  Ib.  i,  pp.  229,  303,  342,  400,  435;  ii,  pp.  47,  170.  Ten  nuns  in  all. 

5  Ib.  n,  pp.  119,  267,  331,  577,  589. 

6  Ib.  i,  pp.  26,  126,  238,  349,  628.   Ralph  le  Blund's  three  daughters  and 
his  sister-in-law  were  all  nuns  here  in  1295  (i,  p.  126)  and  Thomas  Romayn, 
alderman  and  pepperer,  left  bequests  to  two  daughters  and  to  their  aunt 
in  1313  (ib.  i,  p.  288). 

7  Ib.  i,  pp.  34,  in,  611;  ii,  p.  119. 

8  Ib.  ii,  pp.  167,  271,  274.  9  Ib.  n,  pp.  474,  564. 

10  Ib.  i,  pp.  510,  638.  "  Ib.  i,  p.  119;  ",  P-  306. 

12  There  are  two  exceptions,  Greenfield  (Lines.)  (ib.  n,  p.  327),  and 
Amesbury  (Wilts.)  (ib.  ii,  p.  326),  but  the  testators  in  these  cases  are  not 
burgesses,  but  a  knight  and  a  clerk. 


14  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 


noLtl^  it.  The  manorial  fine  paid 

"by  a  villein  when  he  wished  to  put  his  son  to  school  and  make 
a  religious  of  him,  had  no  counterpart  in  the  case  of  girls1;  the 
taking  of  the  veil  by  a  villein's  daughter  was  apparently  not 
contemplated.  The  chief  barrier  which  shut  out  the  poor  from 
the  nunneries  was  doubtless  the  dower  whichr  in  spite  of  the 
strict  prohibition  of  the  rule,  was  certainly  required  from  a 
novice  in  almost  every  convent.  The  lay  sisters  of  those  nunneries 
which  had  lay  sisters  attached  were  probably  drawn  mainly 
from  the  lower  class2,  but  it  must  have  been  in  the  highest 
degree  exceptional  for  a  poor  or  low-born  girl  to  become 
a  nun. 

Medieval  wills  (our  most  trusty  source  of  information  for  the 
personnel  of  the  nunneries)  make  it  possible  to  gauge  the  extent 
to  which  the  upper  and  middle  classes  used  the  nunneries  as 
receptacles  for  superfluous  daughters.  In  these  wills,  in  which 
the  medieval  paterfamilias  laboriously  catalogues  his  offspring 
and  divides  his  wealth  between  them,  it  is  easy  to  guess  at  the 
embarrassments  of  a  father  too  well-blessed  with  female  progeny. 
What  was  poor  Simon  the  Chamberlain  of  the  diocese  of  Wor 
cester  to  do,  with  six  strapping  girls  upon  his  hands  and  sons 
Robert  and  Henry  to  provide  for  too?  Fortunately  he  had  a 
generous  patron  in  Sir  Nicholas  de  Mitton  and  it  was  perhaps 
Sir  Nicholas  who  provided  the  dowers,  when  two  of  them  were 
packed  off  to  Nuneaton;  let  us  hope  that  Christiana,  Cecilia, 
Matilda  and  Joan  married  themselves  out  of  the  legacies  which 
he  left  them  in  his  will,  when  he  died  in  1290*.  William  de 
Percehay,  lord  of  Ryton,  who  made  his  will  in  1344,  had  to 
provide  for  five  sons  and  one  is  therefore  not  surprised  to  find 
that  two  of  his_three  daughters  were  nuns4.  It  is  the  same  with 

1  The  corresponding  fines  for  girls  were  merchet  if  they  married  off  the 
manor  and  leyrwite  if  they  dispensed  with  that  ceremony.  The  medieval  lord, 
concerned  above  all  with  keeping  up  the  supply  of  labour  upon  his  manor, 
naturally  held  the  narrow  view  of  the  functions  of  women,  which  has  been 
expressed  in  our  day  by  Kipling:  "Now  the  reserve  of  a  boy  is  tenfold 
deeper  than  the  reserve  of  a  maid,  she  having  been  made  for  one  end  only 
by  blind  Nature,  but  man  for  several"  (Stalky  and  Co.  p.  212). 

*  Henry  de  Causton,  mercator  of  London,  left  a  bequest  to  Johanna,  a 
'sister"  at  Ankerwyke,  formerly  servant  to  his  father  (1350).  Sharpe,  op. 
cit.  i,  p.  638. 

1  Register  of  Bishop  Godfrey  Giffard  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  n,  pp.  288-9. 

4  Testamenta  Eboracensia  (Surtees  Soc.),  I,  p.  6. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  15 

I  the  rich  citizens  of  London  and  elsewhere;  Sir  Richard  de  la 
Pole,  of  a  great  Hull  merchant  house  (soon  to  be  ennobled), 
mentions  in  his  will  two  sons  and  two  daughters,  one  of  whom 
was  a  nun  at  Barking  while  the  other  received  a  legacy  towards 
her  marriage1;  Hugh  de  Waltham,  town  clerk,  mentions  three 
daughters,  one  at  St  Helen's2;  John  de  Croydon,  fishmonger, 
leaves  bequests  to  one  son  and  four  daughters,  one  at  Clerken- 
well3;  William  de  Chayham  kept  Lucy,  Agnes  and  Johanna  with 
him,  but  made  Juliana  a  nun4.  The  will  of  Joan  Lady  Clinton 
illustrates  the  proportion  in  which  a  large  family  of  girls  might 
be  divided  between  the  convent  and  the  world ;  in  1457  she  left 
certain  sums  of  money  to  Margaret,  Isabel  and  Cecily  Francyes, 
on  condition  that  they  should  pay  four  pounds  annually  to  their 
sisters  Joan  and  Elizabeth,  nuns5.  L^_was  not  infrequent  for 
several  members  of  a  family  to  enter  the  same  convent,  as  the 
lists  of  inmates  given  in  visitation  records,  or  in  the  reports  of 
HenryJMIVcQmmissioners^as  well  as  the  evid^nce.oiJiie^wills, 
bear  witness6.  The  case  of  Shouldham,  already  quoted,  shows 
that  different  generations  of  a  family  might  be  represented  at 
the  same  time  in  a  convent7,  but  it  was  perhaps  not  usual  for 
so  many  sisters  to  become  nuns  as  in  the  Fairfax  family;  in 
1393  their  brother's  will  introduces  us  to  Mary  and  Alice,  nuns 
of  Sempringham,  and  Margaret  and  Eleanor,  respectively  prioress 
and  nun  of  Nunmonkton8.  Margaret  (of  whom  more  anon)  took 
convent  life  easily;  it  is  to  be  feared  that  she  had  all  too  little 
vocation  for  it.  Sometimes  these  family  parties  in  a  nunnery 
led  to  quarrels;  the  sisters  foregathered  in  cliques,  or  else  they 
continued  in  the  cloister  the  domestic  arguments  of  the  hearth; 
there  was  an  amusing  case  of  the  kind  at  Swine  in  I2689,  and 
some  years  later  (in  1318)  an  Archbishop  of  York  had  to  forbid 

1  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  g,  dated  1345.  Cf.  will  of  Roger  de  Moreton  "civis  et 
mercerus  Ebor."  1390 ;  two  of  four  daughters  nuns  at  St  Clement's,  York 

(ib.  i,  p.  133). 

2  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  400,  dated  1335.  3  Ib.  i,  p.  501,  dated  1349- 
4  Ib.  i,  p.  503,  dated  1348.                          6  Testamenta  Vetusta,  i,  p.  286. 

6  See  above,  p.  7.    There  were  two  Welbys,  two  Lekes  and  two  Pay- 
nelles  at  Stixwould;  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  76.   Other  references  might  be 
multiplied. 

7  Cf.  also  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  238;  and  Reg.  of  Bishop  Ginsborough 
(Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  p.  51. 

8  Testamenta  Eboracensia  (Surtees  Soc.)  i,  pp.  187  ff.  (will  of  Sir  John 
Fayrfax,  rector  of  Prescot,  1393).  9  See  below,  p.  302. 


16  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

the  admission  of  more  than  two  or  three  nuns  of  one  family 
to  Nunappleton,  without  special  licence,  for  fear  of  discord1. 

mjdetermining  the  socialjclass  from 


which  the  convents  were  recruited,  was  not  one  of  rank,  but  one 
K  of  money.  The  practice  of  demanding  dowries  from  those  who 
^  )  wished  to  become  nuns  was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  monastic 
rulejmd  by  canon  law2.  To  spiritual  minds  any  taint  of  Com 
merce  was  repugnant;  Christ  asked  no  dowry  with  his  bride. 
The  didactic  and  mystical  writers  of  the  period  often  draw  a 
contrast  between  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  groom  in  this 
matter.  The  author  of  Hali  Meidenhad  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
urging  the  convent  life  upon  his  spiritual  daughter,  sets  against 
his  picture  of  Christ's  virgin-brides  that  of  the  well-born  girl, 
married  with  disparagement  through  lack  of  dower: 

What  thinkest  thou  of  the  poor,  that  are  indifferently  dowered  and 
ill-provided  for,  as  almost  all  gentlewomen  now  are  in  the  world,  that 
have  not  wherewith  to  buy  themselves  a  bridegroom  of  their  own 
rank  and  give  themselves  into  servitude  to  a  man  of  low  esteem,  with 
all  that  they  have?  Wellaway  !  Jesu  !  what  unworthy  chaffer3. 

Thomas  of  Hales'  mystical  poem  A  Luue  Ron,  in  the  same 
century,  also  lays  stress  upon  this  point,  half  in  ecstatic  praise 
of  the  celibate  ideal,  half  as  a  material  inducement4,  and  the 
same  idea  is  repeated  at  the  end  of  the  next  century  in  Clene 
Maydenhod  : 

He  asketh  with  the  nouther  lond  ne  leode, 
Gold  ne  selver  ne  precious  stone. 
To  such  thinges  hath  he  no  neode, 
Al  that  is  good  is  with  hym  one, 
Gif  thou  with  him  thi  lyf  wolt  lede 
And  graunte  to  ben  his  owne  lemman6. 

In  ecclesiastical  language  the  same  sentiment  is  expressed  by 
the  injunction  of  Archbishop  Greenfield  of  York,  who  forbade 
the  nuns  of  Arden  to  receive  any  one  as  a  nun  by  compact, 
^  since  that  involved  guilt  of  simony,  but  only  to  receive  her  "from 
promptings  of  love"8. 

1   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  172.         *  On  this  subject  see  Coulton,  Monastic 
Schools  in  the  Middle  Ages  (Medieval  Studies),  pp.  34-5. 
8  Hali  Meidenhad,  ed.  Cockayne  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  8. 
4  Old  English  Miscellany,  ed.  Morris  (E.E.T.S.,  1872),  p.  96. 

*  Clene  Maydenhod,  ed.  Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  5-6. 

•  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  113. 


THE  NOVICE  17 

This  sentiment  was,  however,  set  aside  in  practice  from  early 
times;  and  a  glance  at  any  conventual  register,  such  as  the 
famous  Register  of  Godstow  Abbey,  shows  something  like  a 
regular  system  of  dowries,  dating  certainly  from  the  twelfth 
century.  The  Godstow  Register  contains  19  deeds,  ranging  be 
tween  1139  and  1278,  by  which  grants  are  made  to  the  nunnery 
on  the  entrance  of  a  relative  of  the  grantor,  the  usual  phrase 
being  that  such  and  such  a  man  gave  such  and  such  rent- 
charges,  pasture-rights,  lands  or  messuages,  "with"  his  mother 
or  sister  or  daughter  "  to  be  a  nun }>1.  One  very  curious  deed  dated 
1259,  shows  that  the  reception  of  a  girl  at  Godstow  was  definitely 
a  pecuniary  matter.  Ralph  and  Agnes  Chondut  sold  to  the 
nunnery  a  piece  of  land  called  Anfric, 

for  thys  quite  claime  and  reles,  the  seyd  abbas  and  holy  mynchons 
of  Godstowe  gafe  to  the  seyde  raph  and  Agnes  hys  wyfe  liii°  marke, 
and  made  Katherine  the  sustur  of  the  seyd  Agnes  (wyfe  of  the  seyd 
raph)  Mynchon  in  the  monasteri  of  Godstowe,  with  the  costys  of  the 
hows,... and  the  seyd  holy  mynchons  of  Godstowe  shold  pay  to  the 
seyd  raph  and  Agnes  hys  wyfe  xxv  marke  of  the  forseyd  liii  marke 
in  that  day  in  whyche  the  foreseyd  Katerine  should  be  delyuerd  to 
hem  to  be  norysshed  and  to  be  mad  mynchon  in  the  same  place  and 
in  the  whyche  the  seyd  penyes  shold  be  payd, 

and  a  second  instalment  at  a  place  to  be  agreed  upon  when 
[confirmation  of  the  grant  is  obtained2.  That  is  to  say  the  price 
I  of  the  land  was  £35.  6s.  8^.  together  with  the  cost  of  receiving 

1  The  English  Register  of  Godstow  Nunnery  (E.E.T.S.),  introduction, 
pp.  xxv-xxvi.    Cf.  Cartulary  of  Buckland   Priory    (Somerset   Rec.  Soc.), 
introd.  pp.  xxii-xxiii. 

2  Reg.  of  Godstow,  u.s.  no.  76,  pp.  78-9.  See  also  an  exceedingly  interesting 
action  of  quare  impedit  brought  by  John  Stonor  (probably  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice)  against  the  Prioress  of  Marlow  in  1339,  probably  merely  to  secure  a 
record.  He  had  bought  the  advowsons  of  the  two  moieties  of  the  church  of 

I  Little  Marlow  and  an  acre  of  land  with  each  and  conveyed  the  whole  to  the 
j  Prioress,  subject  to  the  provision  "  that  out  of  it  the  said  Prioress  and  nuns 
I  shall  find  Joan  and  Cecily,  sisters  of  the  aforesaid  John,  and  Katherine, 
I  daughter  of  the  aforesaid  John,  nuns  of  the  aforesaid  place,  405.  a  year  each 
j  during  their  lives,  and  also  for  the  sustenance  of  all  the  nuns  towards  their 
i  kitchen  half  a  mark  of  silver  each  year  and  for  the  vesture  of  the  twenty 
j  nuns  serving  God  there  each  year  ros.  of  silver,  to  be  divided  equally  between 
|  them."  After  the  deaths  of  the  Stonor  ladies  all  the  money  is  to  go  to  the 
:  common  funds  of  the  house,  with  certain  provisions.  Year  Books  of  Ed- 
,  ward  III,  years  xn  and  xm,  ed.  L.  O.  Pike  (Rolls  Series,  1885),  pp.  cxi- 

cxvii,  260-2.    For  the  appropriation  of  these  money  dowries  to  the  use  of 

the  individual  nuns,  see  below,  Ch.  VIII,  passim. 

P.N  2 


1 8  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

Katherine,  which  was  equivalent  to  a  further  sum  of  money, 
unfortunately  not  specified. 

Any  collection  of  wills  provides  ample  evidence  of  this  dowry 
system.  Not  only  do  they  frequently  contain  legacies  for  the 
support  of  some  particular  nun  during  the  term  of  her  life,  but 
bequests  also  occur  for  the  specific  purpose  of  paying  for  the 
admission  of  a  girl  to  a  nunnery,  in  exactly  the  same  way  as 
other  girls  are  provided  with  dowries  for  their  marriage.  The 
Countess  of  Warwick,  in  1439,  left  a  will  directing  "that  lane 
Newmarch  have  cc  mark  in  gold,  And  I  to  bere  all  Costes  as  for 
her  bryngynge  yn-to  seynt  Katrens,  or  where-ever  she  woll  be 
elles"1.  Even  the  clergy.  who^sJiQiild  have  been  the  last  to 
recognise  a  system  so  flagrantly  contrary  to  canon  law,  followed 
the  general  custom ;  William  Peke,  rector  of  Scrivelsby,  left  one 
Isabella  ten  marks  to  make  her  a  nun  in  the  Gilbertine  house 
of  Catley2  and  Robert  de  Playce,  rector  of  the  church  of  Bromp- 
ton,  made  the  following  bequest: 

Item  I  bequeath  to  the  daughter  of  John  de  Playce  my  brother  loos, 
in  silver,  for  an  aid  towards  making  her  a  nun  in  one  of  the  houses  of 
Wickham,  Yedingham  or  Muncton,  if  her  friends  are  willing  to  give 
her  sufficient  aid  to  accomplish  this,  but  if,  through  lack  of  assistance 
from  friends,  she  be  not  made  a  nun, 

she  was  to  have  none  of  this  bequest  (1345) 3.  Sometimes,  as  has 
already  been  noted,  the  money  is  left  alternatively  to  marry  the 
girl  or  to  make  her  a  nun,  which  brings  out  very  clearly  the 
dower-like  nature  of  such  bequests 4.  The  accounts  of  great  folk 

1  Nicolas,  Testamenta  Vetusta,  i,  p.  118. 

2  Gibbons,  Early  Lincoln  Witts,  p.  113. 

3  Testamenta  Eboracensia,  i,  p.  n. 

4  See  above,  p.  6.    See  also  the  interesting  deed  (1429-30)  in  which 
Richard  Fairfax  "scwyer,"  made  arrangements  for  the  entrance  of  his 
daughter  "Elan,"  to  Nunmonkton,  always  patronised  by  the  Fairfaxes. 
He  left  an  annual  rent  of  five  marks  in  trust  for  her  "yat  my  doghtir  Elan 
be  made  nun  in  ye  house  of  Nun  Monkton,  and  yat  my  saydes  ferns  graunt 
a  nanuel  rent  of  fourty  schilyngs...terme  of  ye  lyffe  of  ye  sayd  Elan  to  ye 
tym  be  at  sche  be  a  nun."    His  feoffees  were  to  pay  nineteen  marks  "for 
ye  makyng  ye  sayd  Elan  nun."   And  "if  sche  will  be  no  nun"  his  wife  and 
feoffees  were  to  marry  her  at  their  discretion.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  123.  Cf. 
an  interesting  case  in  which  Matilda  Toky,  the  orphan  of  a  citizen  of  London, 
is  allowed  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen  to  become  a  nun  of  Kilburn  in  1393, 
taking  with  her  her  share  (£38.  55.  4^.)  of  her  father's  estate,  after  which 
the  prioress  of  the  house  comes  in  person  to  receive  the  money  from  the 
chamberlain  of  the  city.    Riley,  Memorials  of  London,  p.  535.   The  father's 
will  is  in  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  n,  pp.  288-9;  he  had  three  sons  and  a  daughter 
besides  Matilda. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  19 

often  tell  the  same  tale.  When  Elizabeth  Chaucy — probably  a 
relative  of  the  poet  Chaucer — became  a  nun  at  Barking  Abbey 
in  1381,  John  of  Gaunt  paid  £51.  8s.  2d.  in  expenses  and  gifts 
on  the  occasion  of  her  admission1,  and  the  privy  purse  expenses 
of  Elizabeth  of  York  contain  the  item,  "Delivered  to  thabbesse 
of  Elnestowe  by  thands  of  John  Duffyn  for  the  costes  and 
charges  of  litle  Anne  Loveday  at  the  making  of  her  nonne 
there  £6.  135.  4d."2. 

It  is  possible  to  determine  the  exact  nature  of  these  costs 
and  charges  from  an  account  of  the  expenses  of  the  executors 
of  Elizabeth  Sewardby,  who  died  in  1468.  This  lady,  the  widow 

I  of  William  Sewardby  of  Sewardby,  had  left  a  legacy  of  £6. 135. 4^. 
to  her  namesake,  little  Elizabeth  Sewardby,  to  be  given  her  if 
she  should  become  a  nun.  The  executors  record  certain  payments 
made  to  the  Prioress  of  Nunmonkton  during  the  period  when 
Elizabeth  was  a  boarder  there,  before  taking  the  vows,  and  then 

I  follows  a  list  of  "expenses  made  for  and  concerning  Elizabeth 
Sewardby  when  she  was  made  a  nun  at  Monkton  " : 

rThey  say  that  they  paid  and  gave  to  the  Prioress  and  Convent  of 
Monkton,  for  a  certain  fee  which  the  said  Prioress  and  Convent 
claim  by  custom  to  have  and  are  wont  to  have  from  each  nun  at  her 
entrance  £^  And  in  money  paid  for  the  habit  of  the  said  Elizabeth 
Sewardby  and  for  other  attire  of  her  body  and  for  a  fitting  bed, 
And  in  expenditure  made  in  connection  with  the  afore- 


said  Prioress  and  Convent  and  with  the  friends  of  the  aforesaid 
Elizabeth  coming  together  on  the  Sunday  next  after  the  feast  of  the 
Nativity  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  A.D.  1460,  £3.  us.  qd.  In  a 
gratuity  given  to  brother  John  Hamilton,  preaching  a  sermon  at  the 
aforesaid  Monkton  on  the  aforesaid  Sunday,  2s.  And  in  a  certain 
remuneration  given  to  Thomas  Clerk  of  York  for  his  wise  counsel 
concerning  the  recovery  of  the  debts  due  to  the  said  dame  Elizabeth 
Sewardby,  deceased,  I2d.  Total  £10.  75.  io^d.3 

1  V.C.H.  Essex,  u,  p.  117. 

2  Quoted  in  V.C.H.  Beds,  i,  p.  254. 

3  Testamenta  Eboracensia,  in,  p.  168.  The  sum  left  for  entrance  of  Ellen 
Fairfax  to  Nunmonkton  was  about  the  same,  £10.  135.  $d.  (16  marks). 
Above,  p.  18,  note  4.   There  is  an  interesting  note  of  the  outfit  provided  for 
an  Austin  nun  of  Lacock  on  her  profession  in  1395,  attached  to  a  page  of 
the  cartulary  of  that  house.   "Memorandum  concerning  the  expenses  of  the 
veiling  of  Joan,  daughter  of  Nicholas  Samborne,  at  Lacock,  viz.  in  the  igth 
year  of  the  reign  of  King  Richard  the  second  after  the  conquest.  First  paid 
to  the  abbess  for  her  fee  205.  then  to  the  convent  405.,  to  each  nun  2s. 
Item  paid  to  John  Bartelot  for  veils  and  linen  cloth  1025."  (this  large  sum 
may  include  a  supply  for  the  whole  house).    "Item  to  a  certain  woman  for 
one  veil  40^.    Item  for  one  mantle  los.   Item  for  one  fur  of  shankes  (a  cheap 

2 — 2 


20  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 


f 


will  be  noticed  that  Elizabeth  took  with  her  not  only  a  lump 
um  of  money,  but  also  clothes  and  a  bed,  the  cost  of  which 
than  doubled  the  dowry.  Canonjaw  specifically  allowed 
the  provision  of  a  habit  by  friends,  when  the  poverty  ofaThouse 
rendered  this  necessary;  and  it  is  clear  from  other  sources  that 
TTwas  not  unusual  for  a~no  vice  to  be  provided  also  with  furniture. 
The  inventory  of  the  goods  belonging  to  the  priory  of  Minster 
in  Sheppey,  at  the  Dissolution,  contains,  under  the  heading  of 
"the  greate  Chamber  in  the  Dorter,"  a  note  of 

stuff  in  the  same  chamber  belonging  to  Dame  Agnes  Davye,  which 
she  browghte  with  her;  a  square  sparver  of  payntyd  clothe  and  iiij  peces 
hangyng  of  the  same,  iij  payre  of  shets,  a  cownterpoynt  of  corse  verder 
and  i  square  cofer  of  ashe,  a  cabord  of  waynscott  carved,  ij  awndyrons, 
a  payre  of  tonges  and  a  fyer  panne. 

And  under  "Dame  Agnes  Browne's  Chamber"  is  the  entry: 

Stuff  given  her  by  her  f  rends  :  —  A  fetherbed,  a  bolster,  ij  pyllowys,  a 
payre  of  blankatts,  ij  corse  coverleds,  iiij  pare  of  shets  good  and  badde, 
an  olde  tester  and  selar  of  paynted  clothes  and  ij  peces  of  hangyng 
to  the  same;  a  square  cofer  carvyd,  with  ij  bad  clothes  upon  the  cofer, 
and  in  the  wyndow  a  lytill  cobard  of  waynscott  carvyd  and  ij  lytill 
chestes;  a  small  goblet  with  a  cover  of  sylver  parcel  gylt,  a  lytill 
maser  with  a  bryme  of  sylver  and  gylt,  a  lytyll  pece  of  sylver  and  a 
spone  of  sylver,  ij  lytyll  latyn  candellstyks,  a  fire  panne  and  a  pare 
of  tonges,  ij  small  aundyrons,  iiij  pewter  dysshes,  a  porrenger,  a 
pewter  bason,  ij  skyllots,  a  lytill  brasse  pot,  a  cawdyron  and  a  drynk- 
yng  pot  of  pewter. 

She  had  apparently  been  sent  into  the  house  with  a  complete 
equipment  in  furniture  and  implements1. 

fur  made  from  the  underpart  of  rabbit  skin)  for  another  mantle,  165.  Item 
for  white  cloth  to  line  the  first  mantle,  i6s.  Item  for  white  cloth  for  a  tunic 
i  os.  Item  one  fur  for  the  aforesaid  pilch  205.  Item  for  a  maser  (cup)  105. 
Item  for  a  silver  spoon  2s.  6d.  Item  for  blankets  6s.  3d.  Item  in  canvas  for 
a  bed  2s.  Item  for  the  purchase  of  another  mantle  of  worsted  205.  Item 
paid  at  the  time  of  profession  at  one  time  205.  Item  for  a  new  bed  205.  Item 
for  other  necessaries  205  ____  Item  paid  to  the  said  Joan  by  the  order  of  the 
abbess."  The  total  (excluding  the  last  item)  is  £ij.  6s.  2d.  Archaeol.  Journ. 
1912,  LXIX,  p.  117. 

1  Mackenzie  E.  C.  Walcott,  Inventories  of...  the  Benedictine  Priory  of 
St  Mary  and  Sexburga  in  the  Island  of  Shepey  for  Nuns  (1869)  (reprinted  from 
Archaeologia  Cantiana,  vn,  pp.  272-306).  Compare  the  letter  to  Cromwell 
from  Sir  Thomas  Willoughby,  who  asks  that  Elizabeth  Rede,  his  sister- 
in-law,  who  had  resigned  the  office  of  Abbess  of  Mailing,  may  have  suitable 
lodging  within  the  monastery,  "not  only  that  but  such  plate  as  my  father- 
in-law  did  deliver  her  to  occupy  in  her  chamber,  that  she  may  have  it  again." 
Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  u,  p.  153. 


[I]  THE  NOVICE  21 

Throughout  the  middle  ages  a  struggle  went  on  between  the 
Church,  which  forbade  the  exaction  of  dowries,  and  the  convents 
which  persisted  in  demanding  them,  sometimes  in  so  flagrant  a 
manner  as  to  incur  the  charge  of  simony.  The  earliest  prohibition 
of  dowries  in  English  canon  law  occurred  at  the  Council  of 
WgStminqtpT-  in  XI751  and  was  repeated  at  the  Council  of  London 
in  I2OO2  and  at  the  Council  of  Oxford  in  I222*rthls  last  had 
been  anticipated  by  a  decree  of  the  fourth  Lateran  Council.  The 
history  of  the  struggle  to  apply  it  is  to  be  gathered  from  visita- 
tional  records.  Archbishop  Walter  Giffard,  visiting  Swine  in  1268, 
finds  that  Alicia  Brun  and  Alicia  de  Adeburn  were  simoniacally 
veiled4;  Bishop  Norbury  has  to  rebuke  the  Prioress  of  Chester  for 
the  simoniacal  receipt  of  bribes  to  admit  nuns5;  Bishop  Ralph 
of  Shrewsbury  has  heard  that  the  Prioress  of  Cannington  re 
ceived  four  women  as  sisters  of  that  house  for  £20  each,  falling 
into  the^pravity  of  simony6;  William  of  Wykeham  writes  to  the 
nuns  of  Romsey  in  1387  that 

in  our  said  visitations  it  was  discovered  and  declared  that,  on  account 
of  the  reception  of  certain  persons  as  nuns  of  your  said  monastery, 
several  sums  of  money  were  received  by  the  Abbess  and  Convent 
by  way  of  covenant,  reward  and  compact,  not  without  stain  of  the 
pravity  of  simony  and,  if  it  were  so,  to  the  peril  of  your  souls, 

and  he  proceeds  to  forbid  the  exaction  of  a  do  wry 'lion  pretext 
of  any  custom  (consuetudinis)  whatsoever,  which  is  rather  to  be 
esteemed  a  corruption  (corruptela)  ,r'\  significant  phrase^which 
shows  that  the  practice  was  well  established7.  Bishop  Bucking- 

1  "Nullus  praelatus  in  recipiendo  monacho,  vel  canonico,  vel  sancti- 
mouiali  pretium  sumere  vel  exigere  ab  hiis,  qui  ad  conversionem  veniunt, 
aliqua  pacti  occasione  praesumat.   Si  quis  autem  hoc  fecerit  anathema  sit." 
Wilkins,  Concilia,  I,  p.  477. 

2  "Monachi  etiam  sub  pretio  non  recipiantur  in  monasterio....Si  quis 
autem  exactus  pro  sua  receptione  aliquid  dederit,  ad  canonicos  ordines  non 
accedat."   Ib.  p.  508. 

3  "Praeterea  statuimus,   praesenti  concilio  approbante,   ut  nullus  de 
cetero  pro  receptione  alicujus  in  religionis  domum  pecuniam  vel  quicquam 
aliud  extorquere  praesumat;  adeo  ut  si  pro  paupertate  domus  ingrediens 
debeat  vestire  seipsum  praetextu  vestimentorum  ultra  justum  pretium 
eorum  ab  eo  nihil  penitus  recipiatur."   Ib.  p.  591. 

4  Reg.  of  Walter  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  147. 

6  Reg.  of  Roger  de  Norbury  (Will.  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Collections,  i), 

P-  259- 

6  Reg.  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  684. 

7  MS.  Register  at  New  College,  f.  87^. 


22  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

ham  of  Lincoln  warns  the  nuns  of  Heynings  against  "the  recep 
tion  or  extortion  of  money  or  of  anything  else  by  compact  for 
the  reception  of  anyone  into  religion"  (I3Q2)1;  and  Bishop 
Flemyng  enjoins  at  Elstow  in  1422 

that  hereafter  fit  persons  be  received  as  nuns ;  for  whose  reception  or 
entrance  let  no  money  or  aught  else  be  demanded ;  but  without  any 
simoniacal  bargain  and  covenant  of  any  sum  of  money  or  other  thing 
whatsoever,  which  were  accustomed  to  be  made  by  the  crime  of 
simony,  let  them  henceforth  be  admitted  to  your  religion  purely, 
simply  and  for  nothing2. 

But  the  most  detailed  information  as  to  the  prevalence  of  the 
dowry-system  is  contained  in  the  records  of  Bishop  Amwick's 
visitations  of  religious  houses  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  in  1440 3. 
When  the  Bishop  came  to  Heynings  (which  had  already  been 
in  trouble  under  Bokyngham)  one  of  the  nuns,  Dame  Agnes 
Sutton,  gave  evidence  to  the  effect  that 

her  friends  came  to  the  Prioress  and  covenanted  that  she  should  be 
received  as  a  nun  for  twelve  marks  and  the  said  money  was  paid  down 
before  she  was  admitted,  and  she  says  that  no  one  is  admitted  before 
the  sum  agreed  upon  for  her  reception  is  paid. 

She  added  that  nothing  was  exacted  save  what  was  a  free  offering, 
but  from  her  previous  words  it  is  obvious  that  no  nuns  were 
received  at  Heynings  without  a  dowry.  Similarly  at  Langley 
Dame  Cecily  Folgeham  said  that  her  friends  gave  ten  marks  to 
the  house  "when  she  was  tonsured,  but  not  by  covenant."  The 
most  interesting  case  of  all  was  that  of  Nuncoton.  The  Sub- 
prioress,  Dame  Ellen  Frost,  said  "Jhat  it  was  the  custom  in 
time  past  to  take  twenty  pounds  or  less  for  the  admission  of 
nuns,  otherwise  they  would  not  be  receiveolT*7  The  Bishop  pro 
ceeded  to  examine  other  members  of  the  house;  Dame  Maud 
Saltmershe  confirmed  what  the  Subprioress  had  said  about  the 
price  for  the  reception  of  nuns ;  two  other  ladies,  who  had  been 
in  religion  for  fifteen  and  eight  years  respectively,  deposed  to 
having  paid  twenty  pounds  on  their  entrance  and  Dame  Alice 
Skotte  said  that  she  did  not  know  how  much  she  had  paid,  but 
that  she  thought  it  was  twenty  pounds.  Clearly  there  was  a 
fixed  entrance  fee  to  this  nunnery  and  it  was  impossible  to  become 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  i.  397^. 

2  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  49. 

*  See  Line.  Visit,  n,  and  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.,  passim. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  23 

a  nun  without  it;  all  pretence  of   free-will  offerings  had  been 

i  dropped.  When  it  is  considered  that  this  entrance  fee  was  twenty- 

I  pounds  (i.e.  about  £200  of  modern  money)  it  is  easy  to  see  why 

I  poor  girls  belonging  to  the  lower  orders  never  found  their  way 

into  convents ;  such  a  luxury  was  far  beyond  their  means/^) 

In  each  of  these  cases  and  at  two  other  houses  (St  Michael's 

|  Stamford,  and  Legbourne)  Alnwick  entered  a  stern  prohibition, 

on  pain  of  excommunication,  against  the  reception  of  anything 

except  free  gifts  from  the  friends  of  a  novice.    His  injunction 

to  Heynings  may  be  quoted  as  typical  of  those  made  by  medieval 

|  bishops  on  such  occasions: 

For  as  mykelle  as  we  founde  that  many  has  been  receyvede  here  afore 
|  into  nunne  and  sustre  in  your  sayde  pryory  by  covenaunt  and  paccyons 
made  be  fore  thair  receyvyng  of  certeyn  moneys  to  be  payed  to  the 
|  howse,  the  whiche  is  dampnede  by  alle  lawe,  we  charge  yowe  under 
the  payn  of  the  sentence  of  cursyng  obove  wrytene  that  fro  hense 
forthe  ye  receyve  none  persons  in  to  nunne  ne  sustre  in  your  sayde 
pry  ore  by  no  suche  couenant,  ne  pactes  or  bargaines  made  before. 
Whan  thai  are  receyvede  and  professede,  if  thaire  frendes  of  thaire 
almesse  wylle  any  gyfe  to  the  place,  we  suffre  wele,  commende  and 
conferme  hit  to  be  receyvede1. 

But  the  efforts  at  reform  made  by  Alnwick  and  other  visitors 
were  never  very  successful;  Nuncoton  evidently  continued  to 
demand  its  entrance  fee,  for  in  1531  the  practice  was  once  more 
forbidden  by  Bishop  Longland2.  Moreover  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
the  distinction  between  the  reception  of  what  was  willingly 
offered  by  friends  (which  was  specifically  permitted  by  the  rule 
of  St  Benedict  and  by  synods  and  visitors  throughout  the  middle 
ages),  and  what  was  given  by  agreement  as  payment  for  the 
entry  of  a  novice  (which  was  always  forbidden)  might  become 
a  distinction  without  a  difference,  as  it  clearly  was  in  the  case 
of  Heynings  quoted  above.  The  Prioress  of  Gokewell,  who  de 
clared  to  Alnwick  that  "they  take  nothing  for  the  admission 
of  nuns,  save  that  which  the  friends  of  her  who  is  to  be  created 
offer  of  their  free-will  and  not  by  agreement"3,  may  have  acted 
in  reality  not  very  differently  from  her  erring  sisters  of  Heynings, 
Nuncoton  and  Langley.  The  temptation  was  in  fact  too  great. 

1  Line.   Visit,  n,  pp.  133,  134.    See  also  the  very  sternly  worded  pro 
hibition  sent  by  Bishop  Spofford  of  Hereford  to  Aconbury  in  1438.    Reg. 
Thome  Spofford  (Cantilupe  Soc.),  pp.  223-4. 

2  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  57.  8  Line.  Visit,  II,  p.  117. 


24  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

The  clause  of  the  Oxford  decree,  which  permitted  poor  houses 
if  necessary  to  receive  a  sum  sufficient  for  the  vesture  of  a  new 
member  and  no  more,  broadened  the  way  already  opened  by 
the  permission  of  free-will  offerings.  The  concluding  words  of 
Bishop  Flemyng's  prohibition  of  dowries  at  Elstow  in  1422  show 
that  this  permission  had  been  abused;  "if  they  must  be  clothed 
at  their  own  or  their  friends'  expense,  let  nothing  at  all  be  in 
any  sort  exacted  or  required,  beyond  their  garments  or  the  just 
price  of  their  garments"1.  Throughout  the  later  middle  ages  an 
increase  in  the  cost  of  living  went  side  by  side  with  a  decrease  in 
the  monastic  ideal  of  poverty,  showing  itself  on  the  one  hand  in 
the  constant  breach  of  the  rule  against  private  property,  on  the 
other  in  the  exaction  of  money  with  novices,  until  the  dowry 
system  (although  never  during  the  middle  ages  recognised  by 
law)  became  in  practice  a  matter  of  course. 

Lest  it  should  seem  that  everyone  who  had  enough  money 
could  become  a  nun,  it  must,  however,  be  added  that  the  bishops 
took  some  pains  that  the  persons  who  were  received  as  novices 
should  be  suitable  and  pleasing  to  their  sisters.  They  seldom 
exercised  their  right  of  nomination  without  some  assurance  that 
their  nominee  was  of  honest  life  and  station, ' '  Mulierem  honestam, 
ut  credimus"2,  "  bonae  indolis,  ut  credimus,  juvenculam"3,  "  jeo- 
vene  damoisele  et  de  bone  condicion,  come  nous  sumez  en- 
formez"4,  "competeter  ad  hujusmodi  officii  debitum  litterate"5. 
They  were  always  ready  to  hear  complaints  if  unsuitable  persons 
had  been  admitted  by  the  prioress ;  and  they  sometimes  made 
special^ injunctions  upon  the  matter.  Bokyngham  at  Heynings 
in  1392  ordered  "that  they  receive  no  one  to  the  habit, 
nor  even  to  profession,  unless  she  be  first  found  by  diligent 
inquisition  and  approbation  to  be  useful,  teachable,  capable,  of 
legitimate  age,  discreet  and  honest  "6.  At  Elstow  Bishop  Gray 
made  a  very  comprehensive  injunction: 

Furthermore  we  enjoin  and  charge  you  the  Abbess... that  hence 
forward  you  admit  no  one  to  be  a  nun  of  the  said  monastery,  unless 

Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  49. 

Reg.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Series),  I,  p.  189. 

Ib.  i,  pp.  40-1,  356. 

Wykeham's  Reg.  n,  pp.  60-61.   Cf.  ib.  p.  462. 

Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara,  pp.  240,  252. 

Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  397^. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  25 

with  the  express  consent  of  the  greater  and  sounder  part  of  the  same 
convent;  and  no  one  in  that  case,  unless  she  be  taught  in  song  and 
reading  and  the  other  things  requisite  herein,  or  probably  may  be 
easily  instructed  within  short  time,  and  be  such  that  she  shall  be 
able  to  bear  the  burdens  of  the  quire  (with)  the  rest  that  pertain  to 
religion1. 

Nevertheless,  for  all  their  precautions,  some  strange  inmates 
found  their  way  into  the  medieval  nunneries. 

The  novice  who  entered  a  nunnery,  to  live  there  as  a  nun 
for  the  rest  of  her  natural  life,  might  do  so  for  very  various 
reasons.    ~Foi  those  who  entered  youn^_ajnL£)iJ±Leir  own  will, 
rejigion  was  either  a  profession  or  a  vocation.  They  might  take  (\  ^ 
the  veil  because  it  offered  an  honourable  career  for  superfluous 
girls,  who  were  unwilling  or  unable  to  marry ;  or  they  might  take 
it  in  a  real  spirit  of  devotion,  with  a  real  call  to  the  religious  ^ 
]ife.  Fox  .other  girls  the  nunnery  might  be  a  prison,  into  which/O) 
they  were  thrust,  unwilling  but  often  afraid  to  resist,  by  elders 
who  wished  to  be  rid  of  them ;  and  many  nunneries  contained 
also,  another  class  of  inmates,  older  women,  often  widows,  who ."-• 
had  rerirejLthrther..  to  end  their  days  in  peace.   A  (Sreer,  a  voca-^J) 
tion,  a^prison,  a  (refuge;  to  its  different  inmates  the  medieval 
nunnery  was  all  these  things. 

The  nunnery  as  a  c.axe£ii_arid. .as, ja  vocation  does  not  needCL^ 
separate  treatment.    It  has  already  been  shown  that  in  larger  *^f( 
families  it  was  a  very  usual  custom  to  make  one  or  more  of  the     *  \i&&-' 
daughters  nuns.  Ijideed  the  youth  of  many  of  the  girls  who  took 
^he^eiLisJn  itself  proof  that  anything  like  a  vocation,  or  even  ^ 
a  f ree  _choice^was  seldom  possible  and  was  hardly  anticipated, 
e^.Iljiri-JJie_Qry.  The  age  of  profession  was  sixteen,  but  much 
younger  children  were  received  as  novices  and  prepared  for  the 
veil;  they  could  withdraw  if  they  found  the  life  distasteful,  but 
as  a  rule,  being  brought  up  from  early  childhood  for  this  career, 
it  as  a  matter  of  course ;  moreover  the  Church 


was  rather  apt  to  regard  the  withdrawal  of  novices  as  apostasy. 
Sir  Guy  de  Beauchamp  in  his  will  (dated  1359)  describes  his 
daughter  Katherine  as  a  nun  of  Shouldham  and  Dugdale  notes 
that  Katherine,  aged  seven  years,  and  Elizabeth,  aged  about  one 
year,  were  found  to  be  daughters  and  heirs  of  the  said  Guy,  who 

1  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  53.   Cf.  Flemyng's  injunction  in  1422,  ib. 


26  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

died  in  the  following  year1.  It  might  be  supposed  that  this  child 
of  seven  was  being  brought  up  as  a  lay  boarder  in  the  convent, 
but  legacies  left  to  Katherine  "a  nun  at  Shouldham"  by  her 
grandfather  and  by  her  uncle,  in  1369  and  in  1400  respectively, 
show  that  she  had  been  thus  vowed  in  infancy  to  a  religious  life2. 
One  of  the  daughters  of  Thomas  of  Woodstock  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
was  "in  infancy  placed  in  the  monastery  (of  the  Minoresses 
without  Aldgate)  and  clad  in  the  monastic  habit"  and  in  1401 
the  Pope  gave  her  permission  to  leave  it  if  she  wished,  but  she 
remained  and  became  its  abbess3.  Bishops' registers  constantly 
give  evidence  of  the  presence  of  mere  children  in  nunneries. 
vVhelTAlnwick  visited  Ankerwyke  in  1441,  three  of  the  younger 
nuns  complained  that  they  lacked  a  teacher  (informatrix)  to  teach 
them  "reading,  song,  or  religious  observance";  and  at  the  end 
of  the  visitation  the  Bishop  noted  that  he  had  examined  all 
the  nuns  save  three,  whom  he  had  omitted  "on  account  of  the 
heedlessness  of  their  age  and  the  simplicity  of  their  discretion, 
since  the  eldest  of  them  is  not  older  than  thirteen  years"4.  At 
Studley  in  1445  he  found  a  girl  who  had  been  in  religion  for 
two  years  and  was  then  thirteen;  she  complained  that  one  of 
the  maid-servants  had  slapped  a  fellow  nun  (doubtless  also  a 
child)  in  church  !5  At  Littlemore  there  was  a  certain  Agnes 
Marcham,  who  had  entered  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  had  re 
mained  there  unprofessed  for  thirteen  years ;  she  now  refused  to 
take  the  full  vows6.  Some  of  the  nuns  at  Romsey  in  1534  were 
very  young,  two  being  fourteen  and  one  fifteen7.  Indeed  the 
reception  of  girls  at  a  tender  age  was  rather  encouraged  than 
otherwise  by  the  Church.  Archbishop  Greenfield  gave  a  licence 
to  the  Prioress  of  Hampole  to  receive  Elena,  daughter  of  the 
late  Reyner  Sperri,  citizen  of  York,  who  was  eight  years  old, 
and  (he  added  solemnly)  "of  good  conversation  and  life"8,  and 
Archbishop  John  le  Romeyn  described  Margaret  de  la  Batayle, 
whom  he  sent  to  Sinningthwaite,  as  "juvencula"9.  The  great 

1  Testamenta  Vetusta,  i,  pp.  63-4.  2  See  above,  p.  7,  note  2. 

8   V.C.H.  London.  I,  p.  518.  4  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  5. 

6  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  z6d.  •  Line.  Visit.  II,  p.  217. 

7  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  248. 

8  V.C.H.  Yorks,  in,  p.  163.    In  1312  the  prioress  of  Hampole  was  re 
buked  for  receiving  a  little  girl  (puellulatn),  not  on  account  of  her  youth, 
but  because  she  had  omitted  to  obtain  the  archbishop's  licence.   Ib. 

9  Reg.  of  Archbishop  John  le  Romeyn  (Surtees  Soc.),  I,  p.  66. 


I]  THE  NOVICE  27 

Peckham  went  out  of  his  way  to  make  a  specific  defence  of  the 
practice  in  1282,  when  the  Prioress  and  Convent  of  Stratford 
sought  to  excuse  themselves  from  veiling  a  little  girl  called 
Isabel  Bret,  by  reason  of  her  youth,  "since  on  account  of  this 
minority  she  is  the  more  able  and  capable  to  learn  and  receive 
those  things  which  concern  the  discipline  of  your  order"1. 

It  is  impossible  to  make  the  generalisation  that  even  children 
professed  at  such  an  early  age  could  have  had  no  consciousness 
of  a  vocation  for  the  religious  life;  the  history  of  some  of  the 
women  saints  of  the  middle  ages  would  be  enough  to  disprove 
this2.  The  German  monk  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  who  is  to  be 
equalled  as  a  gossip  only  by  the  less  pious  Salimbene,  has  some 
delightful  stories  of  youthful  enthusiasts  in  the  Dialogus  Miracu- 
lorum,  which  he  wrote  between  1220  and  1235  f°r  the  instruction 
of  the  novices  in  his  own  Cistercian  house.  One  child,  destined 
for  a  worldly  match,  protests  daily  that  she  will  wed  Christ  only; 
and,  when  forced  to  wear  rich  garments,  asserts  "even  if  you 
turn  me  to  gold  you  cannot  make  me  change  my  mind,"  until 
her  parents,  worn  out  by  her  prayers,  allow  her  to  enter  a 
nunnery  where,  although  very  young,  she  is  soon  made  governess 
of  the  novices.  Her  sister,  given  to  an  earthly  husband  while 
yet  a  child,  is  widowed  and,  "  ipsa  adhuc  adolescentula"  enters 
the  same  house.  Another  girl,  fired  by  their  example,  escapes 
to  a  nunnery  in  man's  clothes;  her  sister,  trying  to  follow,  is 
caught  by  her  parents  and  married,  "but  I  hope,"  says  the 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Series),  i,  p.  356.  Compare  Caesarius 
of  Heisterbach :  "  In  the  diocese  of  Treves  is  a  certain  convent  of  nuns  named 
Lutzerath,  wherein  by  ancient  custom  no  girl  is  received  but  at  the  age  of 
seven  years  or  less;  which  constitution  hath  grown  up  for  the  preservation 
of  that  simplicity  of  mind  which  maketh  the  whole  body  to  shine"  (Dial. 
Mirac.  i,  p.  389,  quoted  in  Coulton,  Medieval  Garner,  p.  255).  The  thirteenth 
century  visitations  of  the  diocese  of  Rouen  by  Eudes  Rigaud  make  it  clear 
that  novices  there  were  often  very  young,  e.g.  at  St-Saens  in  1266  "una 
earum  erat  novicia  et  minima"  (Reg.   Visit.  Archiepiscopi  Rothomagensis, 
ed.  Bonnin,  p.  566).  The  Archbishop  ordered  novices  to  be  professed  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  and  not  before  (ib.  pp.  51,  121,  207). 

2  For  example  the  beguine  Christina  von  Stommeln,  who  said  of  herself, 
"  So  far  back  as  my  memory  can  reach,  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  my  child 
hood,  whensoever  I  heard  the  lives  and  manners,  the  passion  and  the  death 
of  saints  and  especially  of  our  Lord  Christ  and  His  glorious  Mother,  then 

!in  such  hearing  I  was  delighted  to  the  very  marrow"  (quoted  in  Coulton, 
\op.  cit.  p.  403).    At  the  age  of  ten  she  contracted  a  mystic  marriage  with 

Christ,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  she  joined  the  beguines  at  Cologne.    Cf. 

St  Catherine  of  Siena. 


28  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

appreciative  Caesarius,  "that  God  may  not  leave  unrewarded 
so  fervent  a  desire  to  enter  religion"1.  But  the  most  charming 
tale  of  all  is  that  of  the  conversion  of  Helswindis,  Abbess  of 
Burtscheid2. 

She,  although  the  daughter  of  a  powerful  and  wealthy  man... burned 
so  from  her  earliest  childhood  with  zeal  to  be  converted  (i.e.  to  become 
a  nun),  that  she  used  often  to  say  to  her  mother:  "Mother,  make  me 
a  nun."  Now  she  was  accustomed  with  her  mother  to  ascend  Mount 
St.  Saviour,  whereon  stood  at  that  time  the  convent  of  the  sisters  of 
Burtscheid.  One  day  she  climbed  secretly  in  through  the  kitchen 
window,  went  up  to  the  dorter  and  putting  on  the  habit  of  one  of 
the  maidens,  entered  the  choir  with  the  others.  When  the  Abbess 
told  this  to  her  mother,  who  wanted  to  go,  she,  thinking  that  it  was 
a  joke,  replied  "Call  the  child;  we  must  go."  Then  the  child  came 
from  within  to  the  window,  saying:  "  I  am  a  nun;  I  will  not  go  with 
thee."  But  the  mother,  fearing  her  husband,  replied:  "Only  come 
with  me  now,  and  I  will  beg  thy  father  to  make  thee  a  nun."  And  so 
she  went  forth.  It  happened  that  the  mother  (who  had  held  her 
peace)  once  more  went  up  the  mountain,  leaving  her  daughter  asleep. 
And  when  the  latter  rose  and  sought  her  mother  in  vain  in  the  church, 
she  suspected  her  to  be  at  the  convent,  followed  her  alone,  and,  getting 
in  by  the  same  window,  once  more  put  on  the  habit.  When  her 
mother  besought  her  to  come  away  she  replied:  "Thou  shalt  not 
deceive  me  again,"  repeating  the  promise  that  had  been  made  to  her. 
Then  indeed  her  mother  went  home  in  great  fear,  and  her  father  came 
up  full  of  rage,  together  with  her  brothers,  broke  open  the  doors  and 
carried  off  his  screaming  daughter,  whom  he  committed  to  the  care 
of  relatives,  that  they  might  dissuade  her.  But  she,  being  (as  I  believe) 
not  yet  nine  years  of  age,  answered  them  so  wisely  that  they  mar 
velled.  What  more?  The  Bishop  of  Liege  having  excommunicated  her 
father  and  those  by  whom  she  had  been  taken  away,  she  was  restored 
to  the  place  and  after  a  few  years  was  elected  Abbess  there3. 

1  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Dialogus  Miraculorum,  ed.  Joseph  Strange, 
I.  PP-  53-4- 

2  This  was  Helswindis  von  Gimmenich,  first  abbess  of  Burtscheid  after 
the  transference  thither  of  the  nuns  of  St  Saviour  of  Aachen  c.  1220-1222. 
See  Quix,  Gesch.  der  ehemaligen  Reichs-Abtei  Burtscheid  (Aachen  1834). 

3  Caesarius,  op.  cit.  i,  pp.  54-5.  For  another  case  of  children  in  this  convent 
see  the  charming  story  of  Gertrude's  purgatory,  ib.  pp.  344-5.   There  are 
fifteenth  century  English  translations  in  the  MyroureofOure  Ladye(E.E.T.S.), 
pp.  46-7  and  in  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  249.    A  little  girl  of 
nine  years  old  had  died,  and,  after  death,  appeared  in  broad  daylight  in  her 
own  place  in  the  choir,  next  to  a  child  of  her  own  age.  The  latter  was  so 
terrified  that  she  was  noticed  and  on  being  questioned  told  the  vision  to  the 
Abbess  (from  whom  Caesarius  professes  to  have  had  the  story).  The  Abbess 
says  to  the  child  "Sister  Margaret,... if  Sister  Gertrude  come  to  thee  again, 
say  to  her :  Benedicite,  and  if  she  reply  to  thee,  Do-minus,  ask  her  whence  she 
comes  and  what  she  seeks."    On  the  following  day  (continues  Caesarius) 
"she  came  again  and  since  she  replied  Dominus  when  she  was  saluted,  the 


I]  THE  NOVICE  29 

After  these  examples  of  infant  zeal  it  is  impossible  to  assert 
that  even  the  extreme  youth  of  many  novices  made  a  real  voca 
tion  for  religious  life  impossible.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that 
such  a  vocation  was  less  probable,  than  in  cases  when  a  girl 
of  more  mature  years  entered  a  convent.  And  it  is  also  certain 
that  the  tendency  to  regard  monasticism  as  the  natural  career 
for  superfluous  girls  and  as  the  natural  alternative  to  marriage, 
was  capable  of  grave  abuse.  When  medieval  convents  are  com 
pared  unfavourably  with  those  of  the  present  day,  and  when  the 
increasing  laxity  with  which  the  rule  was  kept  in  the  later  middle 
ages  is  condemned,  it  has  always  to  be  remembered  that  the 
I  majority,  of  .girls,  in  Jhp-Se_.daysL_|nn1ike  .those  of  today)  entered 
^  the  nunneries  as  a  career,  without  any  particular  spiritual  qualifi 
cation,  because  there  was  nothing  else  for  them  to  do.  Even  in  « 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  monasticism  produced 
saintly  women  and  great  mystics  (especially  in  Germany) ;  but 
it  is  remarkable  that  in  England,  although  there  must  have  been 
many  good  abbesses  like  Euphemia  of  Wherwell,  there  are  no 
outstanding  names.  Monasticism  was  pre-eminently  a  respect 
able  career. 

It  has  been  said  that  this  tendency  to  regard  monasticism 
as  a  career  was  capable  of  abuse;  and  there  were  not  wanting 
men  to  abuse  it  and  to  use  the  nunnery  as  a  '^.umping^round  " 
f^yrjinwapted  and  often  unwilling  girls,  whom  it  was  desirable 
to  pjuitjout  of Jthe  world,  by  a  means  as  sure  as  death  itself  and 
without  the  risk  attaching  to  murder.  Kings  themselves  were 
wont  thus  to  jrnmure  the  wives  and  daughters  of  defeated  rebels. 

maiden  added :  '  Good  Sister  Gertrude,  why  come  you  at  such  a  time  and 
what  seek  you  with  us  ? '  Then  she  replied : '  I  come  here  to  make  satisfaction. 
Because  I  willingly  whispered  with  thee  in  the  choir,  speaking  in  half  tones, 
therefore  am  I  ordered  to  make  satisfaction  in  that  place  where  it  befell  me 
j  to  sin.    And  unless  thou  beware  of  the  same  vice,  dying  thou  shalt  suffer 
[  the  same  penance.'   And  when  she  had  four  times  made  satisfaction  in  the 
j  same  way  (by  prostrating  herself)  she  said  to  her  sister :  '  Now  have  I  com- 
j  pleted  my  satisfaction;  henceforth  thou  shalt  see  me  no  more.'    And  thus 
I  it  was  done.   For  in  the  sight  of  her  friend  she  proceeded  towards  the  ceme 
tery,  passing  over  the  wall  by  a  miracle.    Behold  such  was  the  purgatory 
j  of  this  virgin."    It  is  a  tender  little  tale,  and  kinder  to  childish  sins  than 
j  medieval  moralists  sometimes  were;  Saint  Douceline  beat  a  little  girl  of 
I  seven  (one  of  her  beguines)  "so  shrewdly  that  the  blood  ran  down  her  ribs, 
,  saying  meanwhile  that  she  would  sacrifice  her  to  God"  simply  because  she 
'  had  looked  at  some  men  who  were  at  work  in  the  house  (see  Coulton, 
op.  cit.  p.  321). 


3o  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

^    Wencilian  (Gwenllian}  daughter  of  Llewelyn^was  sent  to  Sem- 
pringham  as  a  child,  after  her  father's  death  in  1283,  and  died 
I       a  nun  there  in  1337,  and  the  two  daughters  of  Hugh  Despenser 
^vthe  elder  were  forced  to  take  the  veil  at  the  same  convent  after 
xtheir  father's  fall1.  The  nunnery  must  often  have  served  the 
•'purpose  of  lesser  men,  desirous  of  shaking  off  an  encumbrance. 
T^The  guilty  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Tuddenham,  unhappily  married 
V  for  eight  years  and  ruined  by  an  intrigue  with  her  father's 
:  servant,  was  sent  to  Crabhouse,  where  she  lived  for  some  forty 
years;  and  none  thought  kindly  of  her  save — strangely  enough— 
/  her  husband's  sister2.   Sir  Peter  de  Montfort,  dying  in  1367,  left 
shillings  to  the  lady  Lora  Astley,  a  nun  at  Pinley,  called  by 
Dugdale  "his  old  concubine"3.  Illegitimate  children  too  were 
c;nmpfirne^^eirLto  convents.    One  r^mernbers  LanglancTs  ^nun 
nery,  where 

Dame  lohanne  was  a  bastard, 

And  dame  Clarice  a  kni3tes  dorter  •  ac  a  kokewolde  was  hire  syre. 

Nor  were  the  clergy  loath  to  embrace  this  opportunity  of  re 
moving  the  fruit  of  a  lapse  from  grace.  Hugh  de  Tunstede, 
rector  of  Catton,  left  ten  shillings  and  a  bed  to  his  daughter 
Joan,  a  nun  of  Wilberfoss4,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Dissolution 
there  was  a  child  of  Wolsey  himself  at  Shaftesbury5.  It  is 

1  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  184.    But  the  usual  custom  was  to  place  such 
women  as  lay  boarders  in  the  custody  of  a  nunnery.   See  below,  pp.  419  ff. 

2  "  Processus  et  sententia  divortii  inter  Thomam  Tudenham  militem  et 
Aliciam  filiam  quondam  Johannis  Woodhous  armigeri,  racione  quia  est 
monialis  professa  in  prioratu  de  Crabhous  et  nunquam  carnaliter  cognita 
per  maritum  suum  predictum  durante  matrimonio  predicto,  licet  matri- 
monium  predictum  duravit  et  ut  vir  et  UXOT  cohabitaverunt  per  spacium 
viij  annorum.    Durante  matrimonio  unicus  films  ab  eadem  suscitatus,  non 
tamen  per  dictum  Thomam  maritum  suum,  sed  per  Ricardum  Stapleton 
servientem  patris  ipsius  Aliciae"  (1437).    Her  husband's  sister  Margaret 
Bedingfield  left  her  a  legacy  of  10  marks  in  1474.    Norfolk  Archaeology 
(Norf.  and  Norwich  Arch.  Soc.),  xiu,  pp.  351-2. 

8  Testamenta  Vetusta,  I,  p.  74. 

4  Testamenta  Eboracensia,  i,  p.  18. 

*  See  the  letter  from  John  Clusey  to  Cromwell  in  her  favour:  "Rygthe 
honorable,  after  most  humyll  comendacyons,  I  lykewyce  besuche  you  that 
the  Contents  of  this  my  symple  Letter  may  be  secret ;  and  that  for  as  myche 
as  I  have  grete  cause  to  goo  home  I  besuche  your  good  Mastershipe  to 
comand  Mr  Herytag  to  give  attendans  opon  your  Mastershipe  for  the  know- 
lege  off  youre  plesure  in  the  seyd  secrete  mater,  whiche  ys  this,  My  Lord 
Cardinall  causyd  me  to  put  a  yong  gentyll  homan  to  the  Monystery  and 
Nunry  off  Shafftysbyry,  and  there  to  be  provessyd,  and  wold  hur  to  be 
namyd  my  doythter;  and  the  troythe  ys  shew  was  his  dowythter;  and  now 


i]  THE  NOVICE  31 

significant  that  it  was  sometimes  necessary  to  procure  the  papal 
dispensation  of  an  abbess-  or  prioress-elect  for  illegitimacy,  before 
she  could  hold  office.  The  dispensation  in  1472  of  Joan  Ward, 
a  nun  of  Esholt,  who  afterwards  became  prioress,  is  interesting, 
for  the  Wards  were  patrons  of  the  house  and  her  presence  illus 
trates  one  of  the  uses  to  which  such  patronage  could  be  put1. 
The  diocese  of  York  affords  other  instances  (they  were  common 
enough  in  the  case  of  priests)  of  dispensation  "super  defectu 
natalium";  in  1474  one  was  granted  to  Cecily  Conyers,  a  nun 
at  Ellerton,  "born  of  a  married  man  and  a  single  woman"2  and 
in  1432  Alice  Etton  received  one  four  days  before  her  confirma 
tion  as  Prioress  of  Sinningthwaite3.  At  St  Mary's  Neasham  in 
1437,  the  Bishop  of  Durham  appointed  Agnes  Tudowe  prioress 
and  issued  a  mandate  for  her  dispensation  for  illegitimacy  and 
her  installation  on  the  same  day4. 

Less  defensible  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  house  was  the 
practice,  which  certainly  existed,  of  placing  in  nunneries  girls 
in  some  way  deformedL_or  suffering  from  an  incurable  defect. 

Now  earth  to  earth  in  convent  walls, 

To  earth  in  churchyard  sod. 
I  was  not  good  enough  for  man, 

And  so  am  given  to  God. 

by  your  Visitacyon  she  haythe  commawynment  to  departe,  and  knowythe 
not  whether  Wherefore  I  humely  besuche  youre  Mastershipe  to  dyrect 
your  Letter  to  the  Abbas  there,  that  she  may  there  contynu  at  hur  full  age 
to  be  professed.  Withoute  dowyte  she  ys  other  xxiiij  yere  full,  or  shalbe  at 
shuche  tyme  of  the  here  as  she  was  boren,  which  was  abowyte  Mydelmas. 
In  this  your  doyng  your  Mastershipe  shall  do  a  very  charitable  ded,  and 
also  bynd  hur  and  me  to  do  you  such  servyce  as  lyzthe  in  owre  lytell  powers ; 
as  knowythe  owre  Lord  God,  whome  I  humely  besuche  prosperyusly  and 
longe  to  preserve  you.  Your  orator  John  Clusey."  Ellis,  Original  Letters, 
Series  I,  n,  pp.  92-3.  An  injunction  had  been  made  that  profession  made 
under  twenty-four  years  was  invalid,  and  that  novices  or  girls  professed  at 
an  earlier  age  were  to  be  dismissed. 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  161. 

2  Test.  Ebor.  in,  p.  289,  note.    She  was  one  of  the  Conyers  of  Hornby 
(Richmondshire)  and  is  mentioned  in  the  will  of  her  brother  Christopher 
Conyers,  rector  of  Rudby  in  1483. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  177. 

4  V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107.   For  another  instance  of  dispensation  and 
installation  on  the  same  day  see  Reg.  of  Bishop  Bronescombe  of  Exeter, 
ed.   Hingeston-Randolph,  p.    163.    For  other  dispensations  super  defectu 
natalium,  see  Col.  of  Papal  Letters,  in,  p.  470  (cf.  Cal.  of  Petit,  i,  p.  367), 
v,p.  549  and  Reg.  Johannis  de  Trillek  Episcopi  Herefordensis  (Cantilupe  Soc.), 
p. 404. 


32  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  practice  roused  the  disapproba 
tion  of  Gargantua,  whose  abbey  of  Theleme  contained  only 
beautiful  and  amiable  persons. 

Item,  parcequ'en  icelluy  temps  on  ne  mettoit  en  religion  des  femmes, 
sinon  celles  qu'estoyent  borgnes,  boiteuses,  bossues,  laides,  deffaictes, 
folles,  insensees,  maleficiees  et  tarees,...("a  propos,  dist  li  moyne, 
une  femme  qui  n'est  ny  belle,  ny  bonne,  a  quoi  vault  elle? — A  mettre 
en  religion,  dist  Gargantua.— Voyre,  dist  le  moine,  et  a  faire  des 
chemises. ")...feut  ordonne  que  la  (i.e.  a  Theleme)  ne  seroyent  receues, 
sinon  les  belles,  bien  formees  et  bien  naturees,  et  les  beaux,  bien 
fonnez  et  bien  naturez1. 

/  Occasionally  the  nuns  seem  to  have  resented  or  resisted  these 
attempts  to  foist  the  deformed  and  the  half-witted  upon  them. 
One  of  the  reasons  urged  by  the  obstinate  inmates  of  Stratford 
against  receiving  little  Isabel  Bret  was  that  she  was  deformed 
in  her  person2.  It  was  complained  against  the  Prioress  of  Anker- 
wyke  at  Alnwick's  visitation  in  1441  that  she  made  ideotas  and 
other  unfit  persons  nuns3;  and  in  1514  the  Prioress  of  Thetford 
was  similarly  charged  with  intending  shortly  to  receive  illiterate 
and  deformed  persons  as  nuns  and  especially  one  Dorothy 
Sturges,  a  deaf  and  deformed  gentlewoman.  Her  designs  were 
frustrated,  but  the  nuns  of  Blackborough  were  less  particular 
and  in  1532  Dorothy  answered  among  her  sisters  that  nothing 
was  in  need  of  reform  in  that  little  house4. 

At  the  time  of  the  Dissolution  the  Commissioners  found  that 
one  of  the  nuns  of  Langley  was  "  in  regard  a  fool  "5;  and  a  certain 
Jane  Gowring  (the  name  of  whose  convent  has  not  been  preserved) 
sent  a  petition  to  Cromwell,  demanding  whether  two  girls  of 
twelve  and  thirteen,  the  one  deaf  and  dumb  and  the  other  an 

1  Rabelais,  Gargantua,  ch.  LII. 

2  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham   (Rolls  Ser.),  i,  p.  367.    Cf.  pp.  191  ff. 
below. 

*  Line.   Visit.  11,  p.  4.    She  was  also  charged  with  the  introduction  of 
unsuitable  persons  as  lay  boarders,   etc.     "Item  priorissa  introducit  in 
prioratum  diuersos  extraneos  et  ignotos,  tarn  mares  quam  feminas  et  eos 
sustentat  communibus  expensis  domus  et  aliquas  quasi  ideotas  et  alias 
inhabiles  fecit  moniales.  Negat  articulum."     But  ideota  probably  simply 
means  unlearned  here,  and  in  the  case  of  Agnes  Hosey,  below  p.  33.  Com 
pare  the  case  at  Bival  in  Normandy  1251.     "  Ibi  est  quedam  filia  burgensis 
de  Vallibus  que  stulta  est."  Reg.  Visit.  Archiep.  Rothomag,  ed.  Bonnin,  p.  1 1 1. 

4   Visitations  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  91,  311. 

*  Gasquet,  Henry   VIII  and  the  English  Monasteries  (pop.  ed.   1899), 
P-  293. 


j]  THE  NOVICE  33 

idiot,  should  depart  or  not1.  At  Nuncoton  in  1440  a  nun  informed 
Bishop  Alnwick  that  two  old  nuns  lay  in  the  fermery  and  took 
their  meals  in  the  convent's  cellar  "and  likewise  the  infirm,  the 
weak  minded  (imbecilles)  and  they  that  are  in  their  seynies  do 
eat  in  the  same  cellar"2.  Complaints  of  the  presenoejxj :_idiots 
were  Jairl^reojient.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  exasperation 
of  Thetford  over  the  case  of  Dorothy  Sturges,  when  one  finds 
Dame  Katherine  Mitford  complaining  at  the  same  visitation 
that  Elizabeth  Haukeforth  is  " aliquando  lunatica"3;  but  a  few 
years  later  Agnes  Hosey,  described  as  "  ideota,"  gave  testimony 
with  her  sisters  at  Easebourne  and  excited  no  adverse  comment4. 
In  an  age  when  faith  jmd L  superstition  went  hand  in  hand  a  mad 
nun  might  even  bring  glory  to  her  house ;  the  tale  of  Catherine, 
nun  of  Bungay,  illustrates  this.  In  1319  an  inquiry  was  held 
into  the  miracles  said  to  have  been  performed  at  the  tomb  of  the 
saintly  Robert  of  Winchelsea,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whose 
canonisation  was  ardently  desired  by  the  English;  among  these 
miracles  was  the  following : 

Sir  Walter  Botere,  chaplain,  having  been  sworn,  says  that  the  miracle 
happened  thus,  to  wit  that  he  saw  a  certain  Catherine,  who  had  been 
(so  they  say)  a  nun  of  Bungay,  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich,  mad 
(furiosam)  and  led  to  the  tomb  of  the  said  father;  and  there  she  was 
cured  of  the  said  madness  and  so  departed  sane;  and  he  says  that 
there  is  public  talk  and  report  of  this. 

Three  other  witnesses  also  swore  to  the  tale5.  Even  cases  of 
violent  and  dangerous  madness  seem  at  times  to  have  occurred, 
judging  from  a  note  at  Aln wick's  visitation  of  Stainfield  in  1440, 
in  which  it  is  said  that  all  the  nuns  appeared  separately  before 
the  Bishop,  "with  the  exception  of  Alicia  Benyntone,  who  is  out 
of  her  mind  and  confined  in  chains"6. 

'-x"'''T'ay  and  ecclesiastical  opinion  alike  condemned  another  prac 
tice,  which  seems  to  have  been  fairly  widespread  in  medieval 
England,  that  of  forcing  into  convents  children  too  young  to 
realise  their  fate,  or  even  girls  old  enough  to  resist,  of  whom 

1  Gairdner,  Letters  and  Papers,  etc.,  ix,  no.  1075. 

2  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  jid. 

3  Visitations  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich,  p.  91. 

4  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  26. 

5  Wilkins,  Concilia,  n,  p.  487. 

6  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  77. 

P.N.  * 


34  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

unscrupulous  relatiyes_desired  to  be  rid,  generally  in  order  to 
gain  possession  of  their  inheritance ;  for  a  nunjdead  in  the  eyes 
of  the  law  which  governed  the  world,  could  claim  no  share  in 
her  father's  estate1.  It  is  true  that  influential  people,  who  could 
succeed  in  proving  that  a  nun  was  unwillingly  professed,  might 
obtain  her  release2;  but  many  little  heiresses  and  unwanted 
children  must  have  remained  for  ever,  without  hope  of  escape, 
in  the  convents  to  which  they  had  been  hurried,  for  it  is  evident 
that  the  religious  houses  themselves  did  all  they  could  to  dis 
courage  the  presentation  of  such  petitions,  or  the  escape  of  un 
willing  members.  The  chanson  de  nonne,  the  song  of  the  nun 
unwillingly  professed,  is  a  favourite  theme  in  medieval  popular 
poetry3;  and  dry  documents  show  that  it  had  its  foundation  in 
fact.  It  is  possible  to  collect  from  various  sources  a  remarkable 
series  of  legal  documents  which  illustrate  the  practice  of  putting 
girls  into  nunneries,  so  as  to  secure  their  inheritance. 

As  early  as  1197  there  is  a  case  at  Ankerwyke,  where  a  nun 
who  had  been  fifteen  years  professed  returned  to  the  world  and 

1  Hence  the  certificates  sometimes  required  from  bishops  to  testify 
whether  or  not  a  girl  had  actually  been  professed.  Such  a  certificate  occurs 
in  Wykeham's  Register  (n,  p.  192),  announcing  that  Joan,  daughter  of 
Stephen  Asshewy,  deceased,  was  not  yet  professed  at  St  Mary's  Winchester 
or  at  any  other  house.  The  case  of  Isabel,  daughter  of  Sir  Philip  de  Coverle, 
is  also  interesting;  she  left  the  wretchedly  poor  house  of  Sewardsley  to 
claim  her  share  of  her  mother's  inheritance,  therewith  to  provide  fit  main 
tenance  for  herself  among  the  nuns ;  but  she  was  excluded  from  inheriting 
with  her  sisters  on  account  of  her  religious  profession  (V.C.H.  Northants. 
n,  pp.  125-6).  Compare  also  the  case  of  Joan,  wife  of  Nicholas  de  Grene 
( 1*357-8);  on  a  question  of  inheritance  the  King's  court  issued  a  writ  of 
inquiry  as  to  whether  she  had  been  professed  at  Nuneaton  (Reg.  of  Bishop 
Roger  de  Norbury  (William  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Collections,  i),  pp.  285-7. 

2  See  e.g.  the  commission  for  the  release  of  a  novice  preserved  in  the 
register  of  Ralph  Baldock,  Bishop  of  London  (1310).  "We  have  lately 
received  the  supplication  of  our  beloved  daughter  in  Christ,  Cristina  de 
Burgh,  daughter  of  the  noble  Sir  Robert  Fitzwalter,  to  the  effect  that 
whereas  she  was  delivered  by  her  parents,  while  not  yet  of  a  marriageable 
age,  into  the  order  of  St  Augustine  in  the  monastery  of  Haliwell  of  our 
diocese,  and  for  some  time  wore  the  habit  of  a  novice  therein  and  still 
wears  it,  nevertheless  there  is  no  canonical  reason  why  she  should  not  freely 
return  to  the  world  at  her  own  free  will ;  and  whereas  we  do  condescend  to 
licence  her  to  return  to  the  world,  having  diligently  made  inquiries  in  the 
aforesaid  monastery  for  our  information  as  to  the  truth  of  the  aforesaid 
matters,  etc.  etc.  ";  the  Bishop  having  no  time  to  finish  the  inquiry  himself 
commissions  his  official  to  carry  it  on  and  to  release  Cristina  if  the  result  is 
satisfactory.  Reg.  Radulphi  Baldock  (Cant,  and  York  Soc.),  p.  129.  But 
note  that  this  girl  is  only  a  novice. 

»  See  below,  pp.  502-9,  and  Note  H. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  35 

claimed  a  share  of  her  father's  property,  on  the  ground  that  she 
had  been  forced  into  the  monastery  by  a  guardian,  who  wished 
to  secure  the  whole  inheritance.  Her  relatives  energetically  re 
sisted  a  claim  by  which  they  would  have  been  the  losers  and 
appealed  to  the  Pope.  The  runaway  nun  was  excommunicated 
and  her  case  came  into  the  Curia  Regis,  but  the  result  has  not 
survived  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  her  story  was  true1. 
The  case  of  Agnes,  nun  of  Haverholme,  illustrates  at  once  the 
reason  for  which  an  unwilling  girl  might  be  immured  in  a  nunnery 
and  the  obstacles  which  her  order  would  place  in  the  way  of 
escape.  She  enters  history  in  a  papal  mandate  of  1304,  by  which 
three  ecclesiastics  are  ordered  to  take  proceedings  in  the  case 
of  Agnes,  whose  father  and  stepmother  (how  familiar  and  like 
a  fairy  tale  it  sounds)  in  order  to  deprive  her  of  her  heritage, 
shut  her  up  in  the  monastery  of  Haverholme.  "The  canons  and 
nuns  of  Sempringham  (to  which  order  Haverholme  belonged)  de 
clare,"  continues  the  mandate,  "that  she  took  the  habit  out  of 
devotion,  but  refuse  to  confirm  their  assertion  by  oath"2.  The 
inference  is  irresistible.  Another  case,  the  memory  of  which  is 
preserved  in  a  petition  to  Chancery,  concerns  Katherine  and 
Joan,  the  two  daughters  of  Thomas  Norfolk,  whose  widow  Agnes 
married  a  certain  Richard  Haldenby.  Agnes  was  seised  of  certain 
lands  and  tenements  in  Yorkshire  to  the  value  of  £40  a  year, 
as  the  nearest  friend  of  the  two  girls,  whose  share  of  their  father's 
estate  the  lands  were.  But  her  remarriage  roused  the  wrath  of 
the  Norfolk  family  and  an  uncle,  John  Norfolk,  dispossessed  her 
of  the  land  and  took  the  children  out  of  her  guardianship,  "with 
great  force  of  armed  men  against  the  peace  of  our  lord  the  king," 
breaking  open  their  doors  and  carrying  away  the  deeds  of  their 
possessions.  Then,  according  to  the  petition  of  Agnes  and  her 
second  husband,  "did  he  make  the  said  Katherine  a  nun,  when 
she  was  under  the  age  of  nine  years,  at  a  place  called  Walling- 
wells,  against  her  will,  and  the  other  daughter  of  the  aforesaid 
Thomas  Norfolk  he  hath  killed,  as  it  is  said."  The  mother  begs 
for  an  inquiry  to  be  held3. 

But  the  most  vivid  of  all  these  little  tragedies  of  the  cloister 
are  those  concerned  with  Margaret  de  Prestewych  and  Clarice 

1  V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  355.  2  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  I,  p.  17. 

3  P.R.O.  Early  Chanc.  Proc.  7/70. 

3—2 


36  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

Stil.  The  case  of  Margaret  de  Prestewych  has  been  preserved  in 
the  register  of  Robert  de  Stretton,  Bishop  of  Coventry  and 
Lichfield;  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  one  energetic  girl 
at  least  succeeded  in  making  good  her  protests  and  in  escaping 
from  her  prison.  In  her  eighth  year  or  thereabouts,  according 
to  her  own  petition  to  the  Pope,  her  friends  compelled  her 
against  her  will  to  enter  the  priory  of  the  nuns  of  Seton,  of  the 
order  of  St  Augustine,  and  take  on  her  the  habit  of  a  novice. 
She  remained  there,  as  in  a  prison,  for  several  years,  always  pro 
testing  that  she  had  never  made  nor  ever  would  willingly  make 
any  profession.  And  then,  seeing  that  she  must  by  profession 
be  excluded  from  her  inheritance,  she  feigned  herself  sick  and 
took  to  her  bed.  But  this  did  not  prevent  her  being  carried  to 
the  church  at  the  instance  of  her  rivals  and  blessed  by  a  monk, 
in  spite  of  her  cries  and  protests  that  she  would  not  remain  in 
that  priory  or  in  any  other  order.  On  the  first  opportunity  she 
went  forth  from  the  priory  without  leave  and  returned  to  the 
world,  which  in  heart  she  had  never  left,  and  married  Robert 
de  Holand,  publicly  after  banns,  and  had  issue.  The  bishop,  to 
whom  the  case  had  been  referred  by  the  Pope,  found  upon  in 
quiry  that  these  things  were  true,  and  in  1383  released  her  from 
the  observance  of  her  order1. 

Within  a  few  years  of  this  high  spirited  lady's  escape  the 
case  of  little  Clarice  Stil  engaged  the  attention  of  the  King's 
court.  The  dry-as-dust  pages  of  the  medieval  law-books  hide 
many  jewels  for  whoever  has  patience  to  seek  them,  but  none 
brighter  than  this  story.  It  all  arose  out  of  a  writ  of  wardship 
sued  by  one  David  Carmayngton  or  Servyngton  against  Walter 
Reynold,  whom  he  declared  to  have  unjustly  deforced  him  of  the 
wardship  of  the  land  and  heir  of  Robert  Stil,  the  heir  being 

1  Reg.  of  Bishop  Robert  de  Stretton  (Will.  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Collections, 
N.S.  vin),  pp.  149-50.  With  her  case  compare  that  of  Jane  Wadham, 
which  came  up  after  the  Dissolution  in  1541.  She  "after  arriving  at  years 
of  discretion  was  forced  by  the  threats  and  machinations  of  malevolent 
persons  to  become  a  regular  nun  in  the  house  of  nuns  at  Romsey,  but  having 
both  in  public  and  in  private  always  protested  against  this  seclusion,  she 
conceived  herself  free  from  regular  observance  and  in  that  persuasion  joined 
herself  in  matrimony  with  one  John  Foster,  per  verba  de  presenti,  intending 
to  have  the  marriage  solemnised  as  soon  as  she  was  free  from  her  religion." 
For  the  further  vicissitudes  of  her  married  life,  see  Liveing,  Records  of 
Romsey  Abbey,  p.  255.  Compare  also  the  case  of  Margery  of  Hedsor  who 
left  Burnham  in  1311.  V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  383. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  37 

Clarice.  Walter,  however,  said  that  no  action  lay  against  him, 
because  Clarice  had  entered  into  the  order  of  St  John  of  Jerusalem, 
of  which  the  Prioress  of  Buckland  was  prioress,  and  had  been 
professed  in  that  order  on  the  very  day  of  the  purchase  of  the 
writ.  In  answer  David  unfolded  a  strange  story.  He  alleged  that 
William  Stil,  the  father  of  Robert,  had  married  twice;  by  his 
first  wife  Constance  he  had  one  daughter  Margaret,  who  was 
now  the  wife  of  Walter  Reynold;  by  his  second  wife  Joan  he 
had  two  children,  Robert  and  Clarice.  William  died  seised  of 
certain  tenements  which  were  inherited  by  Robert,  who  died 
without  an  heir  of  his  body;  whereupon  (David  alleged)  Walter, 
by  connivance  with  the  Prioress  of  Buckland  and  in  order  to 
disinherit  Clarice  (in  which  case  his  own  wife  Margaret  would 
be  the  next  of  kin),  took  Clarice  after  her  brother's  death  and 
conveyed  her  to  Buckland  Priory,  she  being  then  eight  years  of 
age,  and  kept  her  there  under  guard.  David's  counsel  gave  a 
dramatic  account  of  the  proceeding : 

Sir,  we  say  that  the  same  Walter  by  covinage  to  compel  the  said 
Clarice  to  be  professed,  took  the  said  Clarice  when  she  was  between 
the  ages  of  seven  and  eight  years,  to  the  house  of  nuns  at  Buckland, 
and  in  that  place  were  two  ladies,  nuns,  who  were  of  his  assent  to 
cause  the  infant  to  be  professed,  and  they  told  the  child  that  if  she 
passed  the  door  the  devil  would  carry  her  away. 

It  was  furthermore  pleaded  that  on  the  day  of  purchase  of  the 
writ,  Clarice  was  within  the  age  of  twelve  years  and  that  she 
was  still  within  that  age,  and  that  therefore  she  could  not  be 
considered  professed  by  the  law  of  the  land.  By  this  time  one's 
sympathies  are  all  on  the  side  of  David,  and  of  terrified  little 
Clarice,  with  whom  the  devil  was  to  run  away.  Unfortunately 
the  judges  referred  the  matter  to  an  ecclesiastical  court  and 
ordered  a  writ  to  be  sent  to  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  The 
Bishop  made  his  return 

{  that  the  said  Clarice  on  August  ist,  1383,  of  her  own  free  will,  was 
taken  to  the  said  Prioress  of  Buckland  by  Stephen  Joseph,  rector 
of  the  church  of  Northeleye,  without  any  connivance  on  the  part 
of  the  said  Walter  and  the  said  Prioress,  and  she  remained  at 
the  said  priory  for  two  years  to  see  if  the  life  would  please  her. 
Afterwards,  on  October  i8th,  1385,  she  assumed  the  religious  habit 
and  made  profession  according  to  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
said  house.  And  on  the  day  when  Clarice  entered  the  house  she  was 
more  than  eight  years  old  and  on  the  day  of  purchase  of  the  writ 


38  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

more  than  twelve  years  old,  and  at  the  present  time  is  more  than 
fourteen  years  old,  and  is  well  contented  with  the  religious  life. 

The  Bishop  also  found  that  no  guards  had  been  placed  over 
Clarice  by  Walter,  or  by  the  Prioress.  So  David  lost  his  suit 
and  was  in  mercy  for  a  false  claim;  and  he  also  lost,  upon  a 
technical  point,  another  suit  which  he  had  brought  against  the 
Prioress  of  Buckland.  Nevertheless  one's  sympathies  remain 
obstinately  on  his  side.  That  touch  about  the  devil  assuredly 
never  sprang  even  from  the  fertile  brain  of  a  lawyer1. 

the  feeble-minded  and  the 


unwilling  represent  a  not  very  pleasant  side  of  the  conventual 
system.  The  nunneries  contained  other  and  less  tragic  inmates, 
who  may  be  distinguished  from  the  majority;  for  to  them  went 
in^oiuntary  retirement  a  large  number  of  widows2.  If  the  nun 
unwillingly  professed  has  always  been  a  favourite  theme  in 
popular  literature,  so  also  has  the  broken-hearted  wife  or  lover, 
Guinevere  hiding  her  sorrows  in  the  silent  cloister. 

Many  of  the  widows  who  took  the  veil  were,  however,  less 
\romantic  figures.  Although  their  presence  as  secular  boarders 
discouraged,  because  it  brought  too  much  of  the  world 


Year  Book  of  12  Richard  II,  ed.  G.  F.  Deiser  (Ames  Foundation,  1914), 
pp.  71-7.  Cf.  pp.  150-3.  It  may  be  noticed  that  Marvell,  in  his  poem 
"Upon  Appleton  House"  (dedicated  to  the  great  Lord  Fairfax),  preserves 
the  tradition  of  another  of  these  cases.  In  the  time  of  Anna  Langton,  the 
last  Prioress  of  Nunappleton,  a  certain  Isabella  Thwaites,  who  had  been 
placed  in  her  charge,  fell  in  love  with  William  Fairfax.  The  Prioress,  who 
wished  her  to  become  a  nun,  shut  her  up,  but  eventually  Fairfax,  having 
got  the  law  upon  his  side,  broke  his  way  into  the  nunnery  and  released  her 
and  she  married  him  in  1518.  It  was  her  sons  who  obtained  the  house  on 
its  dissolution  (see  Markham,  Life  of  the  great  Lord  Fairfax,  pp.  3,  4). 

For  a  somewhat  similar  case  to  that  of  Clarice  Stil,  see  Gentleman's  Maga 
zine,  vol.  102,  p.  615.  A  widow  Joan  de  Swainton  married  a  widower  Hugh 
de  Tuthill.  She  had  four  daughters  by  her  first  husband,  and  of  these 
.Hugh  married  two  to  his  own  two  sons  by  his  first  wife,  and  placed  the  other 
two  (they  being  under  twelve  years  of  age)  in  the  nunnery  of  Kirklees,  in 
order  that  his  two  sons  might  obtain  through  their  wives  the  whole  inherit 
ance  of  the  co-heiresses.  But  the  wardship  of  the  girls  belonged  to  a  certain 
William  de  Notton,  who  prepared  to  dispute  the  arrangement,  but  was 
dissuaded  by  one  of  the  young  nuns. 

*  It  was  probably  more  common  for  widows  to  take  a  simple  vow  of 
chastity  and  to  remain  in  the  world.  But  the  will  of  Thomas  de  Kent, 
fishmonger,  seems  to  show  that  it  would  be  considered  quite  natural  for  a 
widow  to  take  the  veil,  even  in  the  burgess  class,  which  possibly  remarried 
more  frequently  than  the  nobles.  He  left  his  wife  a  tenement  for  life,  adding 
that  should  she  wish  to  enter  any  religious  house  the  same  was  to  be  sold 
and  half  the  proceeds  given  for  her  maintenance  (Sharpe,  op.  cit.  I,  p.  124). 


i]  THE  NOVICE  39 

within  cloister  walls,  those  who  desired  to  make  regular  profes 
sion  were  willingly  received,  the  more  so  as  they  often  brought 
a  substantial  dower  with  themjfhus  when  Margaret,  Countess 
of  Ulster,  assumed  the  habit  at  Campsey  in  1347,  sne  took  with 
her,  by  licence  of  the  Crown,  the  issues  of  all  her  lands  and  rents 
in  England  for  a  year  after  her  admission,  and  after  that  date 
200  marks  yearly  were  to  be  paid  for  her  sustenanc^M  Such 
widows  often  enjoyed  a  resp^t  rpri^nnant 
position  in  society  and  not  infrequentlyj 
houses.  Katherine'de  Ingham  and  Eleanor  Lady  Scrope  both 
entered  the  Minories  in  their  widowhood  and  eventually  became 
abbesses2.  But  it  does  not  need  much  imagination,  nor  an  unduly 
cynical  temperament,  to  guess  that  this  element  of  convent  life 
must  occasionally  have  been  a  disturbing  one.  The  conventual^ 
jatmosphere  did  notjilwjiyjy^ce^d  in  j^illing  the  prof aner  pas-_ 
sions  of  the  soul ;  and  the  advent  of  an  opinionated  widow,  ripe 
irTthe  experience  of  all  those  things  which  her  sistejs  riad  never^ 
known,_with  the  aplomb  of  ^one^who__had  long  enjoyed  an^ 
honoured  position  as  wifeand  mother  and  lady  of  the  manor, 
must  at  times  have  caused  T^ufter  "ampn£L the  doves;  such  a 
situation,  for  instance,  as  Bishop  Cobharn  found  at  Wroxall 
when  he  visited  it  in  1323 3.  Isabel^Lady  ''Clinton  of  Maxstoke, 
wjdqw_of_the  patron  of  the  Jiouse^  had  re^tjreoTlhitrl5.jajid-.had, 
evidently  taken  with  her  a  not  too  modest  opinion  of  her  own 
nrTportance.  She_found  it  impossjMejtg_Jorgetjthat  she^vas  a 
€Imton  andto  realise  that  she,  who  had  in  time  gone  by  given 


her  easy  patronage  to  the  nuns  andloUged  with  them  when  she 
would,  was  now  a  simple  sister  amongTKiem".  Was  she  tcTsubmit  * 
fo  the  rule  of  rrioresr^gh~e¥~oF^  whose  ^ 

goodwill  Frioress  Agnes  had  never  been  appointed?  Was  she  to 
listen  meekly  to  chiding  in  the  dorter,  and  in  the  f rater  to  beaT" 
with  sulks?  Impossible.  How  she,  comported  herself  we  know 
not,  but  the  bishop  "found  grave  discord  existing  between  the 
^noress~and  dame  Isabel  ClintonTsome  of  the  sisters  adhering* 
to  one~and  some  to  the  other."  Evidently  a  battle  royal.  The 

1  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  n,  p.  113.   Cf.  Testamenta  Eboracensia,  I,  p.  117. 

2  V.C.H.  London,  i,  p.  519.    Cf.  Sybil  de  Felton,  widow  of  Sir  Thomas 
Morley,  who  became  Abbess  of  Barking  in  1393,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four. 
V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  p.  121. 

3  V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  71. 


40  THE  NOVICE  [CH. 

bishop,  poor  man,  did  his  best.  He  enjoined  peace  and  concord 
among  the  inmates;  the  sisters  were  to  treat  the  prioress  with 
reverence  and  obedience;  those  who  had  rebelled  against  her 
were  to  desist  and  the  prioress  was  to  behave  amicably  to  all 
in  f rater,  dorter,  and  elsewhere.  And  so  my  lord  went  his  way. 
He  may  have  known  the  pertinacity  of  the  late  patroness;  and 
it  was  perhaps  with  resignation  and  without  surprise  that  he 
confirmed  her  election  as  prioress  on  the  death  of  the  harassed 
Agnes. 

The  occasional^ cjises  in  which  wives  left  their  husbands  to 
enter  a  convent  were  less  likely  to  provoke  discord.  Such  women 
as  left  husband  and  children  to  take  the  veil  must  have  been 
moved  by  a  very  strong  vocation  for  religion,  or  else  by  excessive 
weariness,  fiome  may  perhaps  have  found  married  life  even  such 
an  odious  tale,  "a  licking  of  honey  off  thorns,"  as  the  misguided 
realist  who  wrote  Hali  Meidenhad  sought  to  depict  it.  In 
any  case,  whether  the  mystical  faith  of  a  St  Bridget  drew  her 
thither,  or  whether  matrimony  had  not  seemed  easy  to  her  that 
had  tried  it,  the  presence  of  a  wedded  wife  was  unlikely  to  pro 
voke  discord  in  the  convent;  the  devout  and  the  depressed  are 
quiet  bedeswomen.  It  was  necessary^  for  a  wife  to_  obtain  Jier 
husband's  permission^before  she  could  take  the  veil,  since  her 
action  ervfailed  celibacy  on  his  part  also,  during  her  lifetime. 
Sometimes  a  husband  would  endow  his  wife  liberally  on  her 
entry  into  the  house  which  she  had  selected.  There  are  two  such 
dowers  in  the  Register  of  Godstow  Nunnery.  About  1165  William 
de  Seckworth  gave  the  tithes  of  two  mills  and  a  grant  of  five 
acres  of  meadow  to  the  convent,  "  for  the  helth  of  hys  sowle  and 
of  hys  chyldryn  and  of  hys  aunceters,  with  hys  wyfe  also,  the 
whyche  he  toke  to  kepe  to  the  forseyd  holy  mynchons  to  serve 
god"1;  and  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  Geoffrey  Durant  and 
Molde  his  wife,  "whan  J?e  same  Moole  yelded  herself  to  be  a 
mynchon  to  the  same  chirch,"  granted  one  mark  of  rent  to  be 
paid  annually  by  their  son  Peter,  out  of  certain  lands  held  by 
him,  "which  were  of  the  mariage  of  the  said  Moolde"2.  Nor 
did  Walter  Hauteyn,  citizen  of  London,  in  his  solicitude  for  his 

1  English  Register  of  Godstow  Nunnery  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  43. 
1  Ib.  p.  383.   Confirmation  of  this  deed  of  grant  by  Peter  Durant,  about 
1200.   Ib.  p.  384. 


i]  THE  NOVICE  41 

son  and  three  daughters,  forget  the  mother  who  had  left  her 
husband  and  children  for  the  service  of  God;  to  Alice  his  wife, 
a  nun  of  St  Sepulchre's  Canterbury,  he  bequeathed  in  1292  his 
dwelling  place  and  rents  upon  Cornhill  for  life,  with  remainder 
to  his  heirs1. 

1  Sharpe,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  108. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE 

"  My  lady  Prioresse,  by  your  leve 

So  that  I  wiste  I  sholde  you  not  greve, 

I  wolde  demen  that  ye  tellen  sholde 

A  tale  next,  if  so  were  that  ye  wolde. 

Now  wol  ye  vouche-sauf,  my  lady  dere?  " 

"Gladly"  quod  she,  and  seyde  as  ye  shal  here. 

CHAUCER. 

IT  usually  happened  that  the  head  of  a  nunnery  was  a  woman 
of  some  social  standing  in  her  own  right.  All  nuns  were  Christ's 
brides,  but  an  earthly  father  in  the  neighbourhood,  with  broad 
acres  and  loose  purse  strings,  was  not  to  be  despised.  If  a 
great  lady  retired  to  a  nunnery  she  was  very  like  to  end  as  its 
head;  Barking  Abbey  in  Essex  had  a  long  line  of  well-born 
abbesses,  including  three  queens  and  two  princesses;  and  when 
Katherine  de  la  Pole  (the  youngest  daughter  of  that  earl  of 
Suffolk  who  was  slain  at  Agincourt)  is  found  holding  the  position 
of  abbess  at  the  tender  age  of  twenty-two,  it  is  an  irresistible 
inference  that  her  birth  was  a  factor  in  the  choice1.  The  advantage 
in  having  a  woman  of  local  influence  and  rich  connections  as 
prioress  is  illustrated  in  the  history  of  Crabhouse  nunnery  under 
Joan  Wiggenhall2;  how  she  worked  and  built  "be  the  grace  of 

1  V.C.H.   Essex,   n,    pp.    120-2.    Margaret  Botetourt  became  Abbess 
of  Polesworth  in  1362,  by  episcopal  dispensation,  when  under  the  age  of 
twenty.   "  This  early  promotion  was  not  the  only  mark  of  favour  which  this 
prioress  obtained.    In  1390  the  Pope  granted  her  exemption  from  the  juris 
diction  of  the  Archbishop  or  Bishop  of  Lichfield."     V.C.H.   Warwick,  n, 
p.  63. 

2  "I  take  it  that  Prioress  Joan  was  an  heiress,  and,  in  fact,  the  last 
representative  of  the  elder  line  of  her  family,  and  the  nuns  knew  perfectly 
well  what  they  were  about  when  they  chose  a  lady  of  birth  and  wealth,  and 
highly  connected  to  boot,  to  rule  over  them.  They  certainly  were  not  dis 
appointed  in  any  expectations  they  may  have  formed.  The  new  prioress 
set  to  work  in  earnest  to  make  the  nunnery  into  quite  a  new  and  imposing 
place  and  her  friends  and  kinsfolk  rallied  round  her  nobly."   Jessopp,  Ups 
and  Downs  of  an  Old  Nunnery  in  Frivola,  pp.  59-60. 


CH.  ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  43 

oure  Lord  God  an  be  the  helpe  of  Edmund  Perys,  Person  of 
Watlington,"  her  cousin;  and  how 

whanne  this  good  man  beforeseyde  was  passid  to  God,  oure  Lord 
that  is  ful  graciouse  to  alle  his  servauntis  that  have  nede  and  that 
troste  on  hym,  sente  hem  anothir  goode  frende  hem  to  helpe  and 
comforte  in  her  nede,  clepid  Mayster  Jon  Wygenale,  Doctoure  of 
Canon  and  person  of  Oxborow,  and  Cosyn  to  the  same  Prioresse ; 

and  how 

in  the  xix  yere  of  the  same  Prioresse,  ffel  a  grete  derth  of  corne, 
wherefore  sche  muste  nedis  have  lefte  werke  with  oute  relevynge  and 
helpe  of  sum  goode  creature,  so,  be  the  steringe  of  oure  Lord,  Mayster 
Jon  Wygenale  befor  sayde  sente  us  of  his  charite  an  100  cowmbe 
malte  and  an  100  coumbe  Barly  and  besyde  this  procurid  us  xx  mark. 
And  for  the  soule  of  my  lord  of  Exetyr,  of  whos  soule  God  of  hys 
pyte  he  wil  have  mercy,  we  had  of  him  xl  pounte  and  v  mark  to  the 
same  werke,  whiche  drewe  ccc  mark,  without  mete  and  drinke.  And 
within  these  vij  yere  that  the  dortoure  was  in  makynge  the  place  at 
Lynne  clepped  Corner  Bothe  was  at  the  gate  downe  and  no  profite 
came  to  the  place  many  yeris  beforne.  So  that  maystir  Jon  before 
seyde  of  hys  gret  charite  lente  the  same  prioresse  good  to  make  it 
up  ageyne  and  procured  hir  xx  mark  of  the  sekatouris  of  Roger 
Chapeleyn1. 

The  election  of  a  superior  was  a  complicated  business,  as 
may  be  gathered  from  the  list  of  seventeen  documents  relating 
to  the  election  of  Alice  de  la  Flagge  as  Prioress  of  Whiston  in 
1308,  and  enrolled  in  the  Sede  Vacante  Register  of  Worcester 
diocese2.  Indeed  there  were  so  many  formalities  to  be  fulfilled 

1  Reg.  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery,  ed.  Mary  Bateson  (Norf.   Archaeology, 
xi),  pp.  57-62  passim. 

2  They  are  as  follows:  (i)  conge  d'elire  by  the  Bishop-Elect  as  patron, 
(2)  notification  by  the  subprioress  and  nuns  of  the  date  appointed  for  the 
election,  (3)  formal  warning  by  the  subprioress  that  all  who  ought  not  to  be 
present  should  leave  the  chapter  house,  (4)  notification  of  the  election  of 
Alice  de  la  Flagge,  (5)  declaration  of  Alice's  assent,  (6)  letter  from  subprioress 
and  convent  to  the  Bishop-Elect  praying  him  to  confirm  the  election 

(7)  letter  from  the  Prior  of  Worcester  to  the  same  effect,  to  the  Bishop-Elect, 

(8)  the  same  to  the  commissary  general,  (9)  commission  from  the  Bishop- 
Elect  to  the  Prior  and  to  the  commissary-general,  empowering  them  to 
receive,  examine  and  confirm  the  election,  (10)  instrument  by  the  subprioress 
and  convent  appointing  Richard  de  Bereburn,  chaplain,  their  proctor  to 
present  the  elect  to  the  Bishop-Elect,  (n)  another  appointing  two  of  the 
nuns  as  proctors  "to  instruct  and  do  things  concerning  the  business  of  the 
election,"  (12)  decree  by  the  subprioress  and  convent,  describing  the  method 
and  result  of   the  election  and  addressed  to  the  Bishop-Elect,   (13)  acts 
concerning  the  election  made  before  the  Bishop's  commissaries  by  Richard 


44  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

that  the  nuns  seem  often  to  have  found  great  difficulty  in  making 
a  canonical  election,  and  there  are  frequent  notices  in  the  epis 
copal  registers  that  their  election  has  been  quashed  by  the 
Bishop  on  account  of  some  technical  fault;  in  such  cases,  how 
ever,  the  Bishop's  action  was  merely  formal  and  he  almost 
always  reappointed  the  candidate  of  their  choice1.  An  election 
was,  moreover,  not  only  complicated  but  expensive;  it  began 
with  a  journey  to  the  patron  to  ask  for  his  conge  d'elire  and  it 
ended  with  more  journeys,  to  the  patron  and  to  the  Bishop, 
to  ask  for  confirmation,  so  that  the  cost  of  travel  and  the  cost 
of  paying  a  clerk  to  draw  up  the  necessary  documents  were 
sometimes  considerable;  moreover  a  fee  was  payable  to  the 
Bishop's  official  for  the  installation  of  the  new  head.  The  account 
of  Margaret  Ratclyff,  Prioress  of  Swaffham  Bulbeck  in  1482, 
contains  notice  of  payments  "to  the  official  of  the  lord  bishop, 
at  the  installation  of  the  said  prioress  for  his  fee  i.  li."  and  to 
one  Bridone  "for  the  transcript  of  the  decree  of  election  of  the 
prioress  v.  s."2.  An  account  roll  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  for 
the  year  1375-6  illustrates  the  process  in  greater  detail;  under 
the  heading  of  "  expenses  de  nostre  Elit "  are  the  following  items : 

Paid  for  the  hire  of  horses  with  expenses  going  to  the  abbot  of  Peter 
borough  [the  patron]  to  get  licence  to  elect  our  choice  g±d.  Paid  for 
the  hire  of  horses  going  to  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  and  to  the  abbot  of 
Peterborough  and  for  their  expenses  at  our  election  45.  8%d.  Paid 
for  bread,  ale  and  meat  for  our  election  on  the  election  day  2s.  n^d. 

de  Bereburn,  proctor,  by  the  subprioress  and  by  the  two  nuns,  instructrices, 
examined  on  oath,  (14)  certificate  by  the  Dean  of  the  Christianity  of  Wor 
cester  that  he  had  proclaimed  the  election,  (15)  confirmation  of  the  election 
by  the  commissaries,  (16)  final  declaration  by  the  Prior  of  this  confirmation 
and  of  the  installation  and  benediction  of  the  new  prioress  and  of  the  in 
junction  of  obedience  upon  the  nuns,  and  (17)  a  certificate  by  the  commis 
saries  of  the  Bishop-Elect  that  the  business  was  completed.  Reg.  Sede  Va- 
cante  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),.  pp.  111-4;  the  text  in  Nash,  Hist,  and  Antiquities 
of  Worcestershire  (1781),  i,  pp.  212-6,  which  also  contains  many  documents 
relating  to  the  election  of  other  prioresses  of  this  house.  There  are  frequent 
notices  of  elections  in  episcopal  registers;  for  other  very  detailed  accounts, 
see  Reg.  of  Bishop  Grandisson  of  Exeter,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  pt  in, 
PP-  099-1002  (Canonsleigh)  and  Reg.  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Somerset  Rec. 
Soc.)  pp.  284-7  (Cannington).  See  also  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Monastic- 
ism,  pp.  367-8. 

1  See  e.g.  V.C.H.  Glouc.  n,  p.  93;  Reg.  of  Bishop  Grandisson,  pt  n, 
p.  742;  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  114-5,  120,  124;  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  636; 
ib.  v,  p.  207;  V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107. 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  458. 


PLATE  II 


ABBESS   RECEIVING  THE   PASTORAL   STAFF   FROM   A   BISHOP 


BENEDICTION   OF  AN   ABBESS   BY   A   BISHOP 


n]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  45 

Paid  for  a  letter  to  the  abbot  of  Peterborough  for  a  licence  to  elect  3^. 
Paid  for  the  installation  of  our  elect,  los.1  Total  i8s.  8%d.2 

The  only  necessary  qualifications  for  the  head  of  a  house  were 
that  she  should  be  above  the  age  of  twenty-one3,  born  in  wedlock 
and  of  good  reputation ;  a  special  dispensation  had  to  be  obtained 
for  the  election  of  a  woman  who  was  under  age  or  illegitimate. 

As  a  rule  the  nuns  possessed  the  right  of  free  election,  subject 
to  the  conge  d'elire  of  their  patron  and  to  the  confirmation  of 
the  bishop,  and  they  secured  without  very  much  difficulty  the 
leader  of  their  choice.  Often  enough  it  must  have  been  clear, 
especially  in  small  communities,  that  one  of  the  nuns  was  better 
fitted  to  rule  than  her  sisters,  and,  as  at  Whiston,  they 

unanimously,  as  if  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit4,  chose  dame  Alice  de 
la  Flagge,  a  woman  of  discreet  life  and  morals,  of  lawful  age,  professed 
in  the  nunnery,  born  in  lawful  matrimony,  prudent  in  spiritual  and 
temporal  matters,  of  whose  election  all  approved,  and  afterwards, 
solemnly  singing  Te  Deum  Laudamus,  carried  the  said  elect,  weeping, 
resisting  as  much  as  she  could,  and  expostulating  in  a  high  voice, 
to  the  church  as  is  the  custom,  and  immediately  afterwards,  brother 
William  de  Grimeley,  monk  of  Worcester,  proclaimed  the  election. 
The  said  elect,  after  being  very  often  asked,  at  length,  after  due 
deliberation,  being  unwilling  to  resist  the  divine  will,  consented5. 

But  Jocelin  of  Brakelond  has  taught  us  that  a  monastic  election 
was  not  always  a  foregone  conclusion,  that  discussion  waxed 
hot  and  barbed  words  flew  in  the  season  of  blood-letting  "when 
the  cloistered  monks  were  wont  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  their 
hearts  in  turn  and  to  discuss  matters  one  with  another,"  and 
that  "many  men  said  many  things  and  every  man  was  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  Nuns  were  not  very  different  from 
monks  when  it  came  to  an  election,  and  the  chance  survival  of 
a  bishop's  register  and  of  another  formal  document  among  the 

1  Evidently  this  was  the  usual  payment  here,  for,  in  the  roll  for  1392-3, 
there  is  an  item  "  Paye  al  officiate  pour  stalling  de  prioris  xs."  P.R.O.  Mins. 
Accts.  1260/4. 

z  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260. 

3  The  Cistercians  fixed  the  age  at  30.   Later  the  Council  of  Trent  fixed 
it  at  40  including  8  years  of  profession. 

4  An  election  by  acclamation  was  said  to  be  conducted  via  Spiritus 
sancti  or  per  inspirationem.    For  this  and  the  methods  of  election  via 
scrutinii  and  via  compromissi,  see  J.  Wickham  Legg,  On  the  Three  Ways  of 
Canonical  Election  (Trans.  St  Paul's  Eccles.  Soc.  in,  299-312). 

6  Reg.  Sede  Vacante  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  p.  114,  and  Nash,  op.  cit.  I,  p.  214. 


46  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

muniments  of  Lincoln,  has  preserved  the  record  of  an  election 
comedy  at  Elstow  Abbey,  almost  worthy  to  rank  with  Jocelin's 
inimitable  account  of  the  choice  of  Samson  the  subsacrist. 

After  the  death  of  Abbess  Agnes  Gascoigne  in  July  1529,  the 
nineteen  nuns  of  Elstow,  having  received  Henry  VIII's  conge 
d'elire,  assembled  in  their  chapter  house  on  August    Qth,  to 
elect  her  successor.  They  chose  Master  John  Rayn  "  utriusque 
juris  doctor  em,"  as  director,  Edward  Watson,  notary  public  as 
clerk,  and  the  Prior  of  Caldwell  and  the  rectors  of  Great  Billing 
and  Turvey  as  witnesses.  Three  novices  and  other  lay  persons 
having  departed,  the  director  and  the  other  men  explained  the 
forms  of  election  to  the  nuns  in  the  vulgar  tongue  and  they 
agreed  to  proceed  by  way  of  scrutiny.    Matilda  Sheldon,  sub- 
prioress,  Alice  Boifeld,  precentrix,  and  Anne  Preston,  ostiaria 
(doorkeeper)  were  chosen  as  scrutineers  and  withdrew  into  a 
corner  of  the  chapter  house,  with  the  notary  and  witnesses.  There 
Matilda  Sheldon  and  Anne  Preston  nominated  Cecilia  Starkey, 
rejector  aria,  while  Alice  Boifeld  nominated  Elizabeth  Boifeld,  sacrist, 
evidently  a  relative.  The  three  scrutineers  then  called  upon  the 
other  nuns  to  give  their  votes;  Anne  Wake,  the  prioress,  named 
Cecilia  Starkey;  Elizabeth  Boifeld  and  Cecilia  Starkey  (each  un 
able  to  vote  for  herself,  but  determined  not  to  assist  the  other) 
voted  for  a  third  person,  the  subsacrist  Helen  Snawe;  and  Helen 
Snawe  and  all  the  other  nuns,  except  two,  gave  their  votes  in 
favour  of  Elizabeth  Boifeld.    Consternation  reigned  among  the 
older  nuns,   prioress,  subprioress,  refectoraria  and  doorkeeper, 
when  this  result  was  announced.  "  Well,"  said  the  Prioress, "  some 
of  thies  yong  Nunnes  be  to  blame,"  and  on  the  director  asking 
why,  she  replied:  "For  they  wolde  not  shewe  me  so  muche;  for 
I  asked  diverse  of  them  before  this  day  to  whome  they  wolde 
gyve  their  voices,  but  they  wolde  not  shewe  me."  "What  said 
they  to  you?"  asked  the  director.   "They  said  to  me,"  replied 
the  flustered  and  indignant  prioress,  "they  wolde  not  tell  to 
whome  they  wolde  gyve  their  voices  tyll  the  tyme  of  thellection, 
and  then  they  wolde  gyve  their  voices  as  God  shulde  put  into 
their  mynds,  but  this  is  by  counsaill.  And  yet  yt  wolde  have 
beseemed  them  to  have  shewn  as  much  to  me  as  to  the  others." 
And  then  she  and  Dame  Cecilia  said,  "What,  shulde  the  yong 
nunnes  gyve  voices?    Tushe,  they  shulde  not  gyve  voices!" 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  47 

Clearly  the  situation  was  the  same  which  Jocelin  of  Brakelond 
had  described  over  three  centuries  before:  "The  novices  said  of 
their  elders  that  they  were  invalid  old  men  and  little  capable 
of  ruling  an  abbey."  However  the  Prioress  was  obliged  to  admit 
that  the  younger  nuns  had  voted  in  the  last  election  and  the 
subprioress  thereupon,  in  the  name  of  the  scrutineers,  announced 
the  election  of  Dame  Elizabeth  Boifeld  by  the  "  more  and  sounder 
part  of  the  convent"  (poor  Anne  Wake!).  But  the  Prioress  and 
disappointed  Dame  Cecilia  still  showed  fight ;  the  votes  must  be 
referred  to  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  Further  discussion;  then 
Dame  Cecilia  gracefully  gave  way ;  she  consented  to  the  election 
of  Dame  Elizabeth  Boifeld  and  would  not  proceed  further  in 
the  matter.  Master  John  Rayn  published  the  election  at  the 
steps  of  the  altar.  Helen  Snawe  (whom  after  events  showed  to 
be  a  leading  spirit  in  the  affair)  and  Katherine  Wingate  were 
chosen  as  proctors,  to  seek  confirmation  from  the  Bishop,  and 
Dame  Elizabeth  was  taken  to  the  altar  (amid  loud  chanting 
of  Te  Deum  Laudamus  by  the  triumphant  younger  nuns)  and 
her  election  announced.  She,  however,  preserved  that  decorous 
semblance  of  unwillingness,  or  at  least  of  indifference,  which 
custom  demanded  from  a  successful  candidate,  even  when  she 
had  been  pulling  strings  for  days,  for  when  the  proctors  came  to 
her  at  two  o'clock  "in  a  certain  upper  chamber  called  Marteyns, 
in  our  monastery"  and  asked  her  consent  to  her  election,  "she 
neither  gave  it  nor  refused."  Away  went  the  proctors,  without 
so  much  as  a  wink  to  each  other;  let  us  leave  our  elect  to  meditate 
upon  the  will  of  God.  At  four  p.m.  they  came  to  her  "  in  a  certain 
large  garden,  called  the  Pond  Yard,  within  our  monastery";  and 
at  their  repeated  instances  she  gave  her  consent.  "Wherefore 
we,  the  above-named  nuns,  pray  the  Lord  Bishop  to  ratify  and 
confirm  our  election  of  the  said  Elizabeth  Boy f eld  as  our  Abbess." 
Which  the  Lord  Bishop  did1. 

But  this  was  by  no  means  the  end  of  the  matter.  A  year 
later  the  whole  nunnery  was  in  an  uproar2.  The  bishop,  for 
reasons  best  known  to  himself,  had  removed  the  prioress  Dame 
Anne  Wake  and  had  appointed  Dame  Helen  Snawe  in  her  place ; 

1  From  a  document  preserved  at  the  Exchequer  Gate,  Lincoln. 

2  For  the  following  account,  see  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Visit.  Longland,  ft.  22— 
25- 


48  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

perhaps  Dame  Anne  had  said  "Tush"  once  too  often  under  the 
new  regime;  perhaps  she  was  getting  too  old  for  her  work;  or 
perhaps  Abbess  Elizabeth  Boifeld  had  only  commanded  Dame 
Snawe's  intrigues  at  a  price;  evidently  the  subsacrist  was  no 
less  adroit  than  that  other  subsacrist  of  Bury  St  Edmund's.  At 
any  rate  Dame  Anne  Wake  was  put  out  of  her  office  and  Dame 
Helen  Snawe  ruled  in  her  stead.  It  might  have  been  expected 
that  this  change  would  be  welcomed  by  the  nuns,  considering 
how  strong  the  Boifeld  faction  had  been  at  the  election  of  the 
Abbess.  But  no;  during  the  year  of  triumph  Helen  Snawe  had 
aroused  the  hearty  dislike  of  her  sisters;  led  by  Dames  Barbara 
Gray  (who  had  voted  against  the  Abbess  at  the  last  election) 
and  Alice  Bowlis  they  had  strenuously  opposed  her  substitution 
for  the  old  Prioress;  they  had  been  impertinent  to  the  Abbess 
of  their  own  choice  (indeed  she  was  only  a  figure-head);  they 
had  written  letters  to  their  friends  and  refused  to  show  them  to 
her;  and  finally  when  the  election  of  Dame  Snawe  was  announced, 
they  had  risen  in  a  body  and  left  the  chapter-house  as  a  protest. 
This  was  intolerable,  and  the  Bishop's  vicar-general  came  down 
to  examine  the  delinquents.  Matilda  Sheldon,  the  subprioress, 
admitted  to  having  left  the  chapter,  but  denied  that  she  had 
done  so  for  the  reason  attributed  and  said  that  she  did  not  know 
of  the  departure  of  the  other  nuns,  until  she  saw  them  in  the 
dorter.  Margaret  Nicolson  showed  more  spirit;  she  said  that 
she  went  out  "  because  she  wold  not  consent  that  my  lady  Snawe 
shulde  be  priores,"  and  that  "ther  was  none  that  ded  councell 
hir  to  goo"  and  that  "my  lady  abbes  did  commaunde  them  to 
tary,  that  not  withestandyng  they  went  forthe " ;  and  she  gave 
the  names  of  eight  nuns  who  had  followed  the  subprioress  out. 
Dame  Barbara  Gray  was  next  asked  "yf  she  ded  aske  licence 
of  my  Lady  Abbas  to  wryte  letters  to  hir  frends,"  and  replied 
"  that  she  ded  aske  licens  to  wryte  to  hir  frends  and  my  Lady 
Abbas  sade,  '  Yf  ye  showe  me  what  ye  wryte  I  am  content,'  and 
she  saide  agene,  '  I  have  done  my  devoir  to  aske  licence,  and  yf 
ye  wyll  nede  see  it  I  will  wryte  noo  letters.'"  Asked  whether 
she  had  left  the  chapter  house,  this  defiant  young  woman  de 
clared  that  "  yf  it  were  to  do  agene  she  wolde  soo  doo,"  and  more 
over  "  that  she  cannot  fynde  in  hir  hert  to  obbey  my  lady  Snawe 
as  priores,  and  that  she  wyll  rather  goo  out  of  the  house  by 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE 


49 


my  lord's  licence,  or  she  wyll  obbey  hir.  .  .and  that  she  wyll 
never  obbey  hir  as  priores,  for  hir  hert  cannot  serve  hir. "  Asked 
for  her  objection  to  Dame  Snawe,  she  said  that  "she  wyll  she  we 
noo  cause  at  thys  tyme  wherfor  she  cannot  love  hir";  but  after 
a  little  pressure  she  declared  with  heat  that  "the  priores  maks 
every  faute  a  dedly  syne"1,  treats  all  of  them  ill  except  her  own 
self  and  if  she  "doo  take  an  oppynyon  she  wyll  kepe  itt,"  whether 
it  be  right  or  wrong.   Dame  Margery  Preston  was  next  examined 
and  was  evidently  rather  frightened  at  the  result  of  her  actions  ; 
she  said  that  she  had  left  the  chapter-house  as  a  protest  against 
the  deposition  of  the  old  prioress  and  not  for  any  ill  will  that 
she  bore  Dame  Snawe,  "and  she  sais/'  the  record  continues, 
"that  she  ys  well  content  to  obbey  my  lady  Snawe  as  priores. 
And  she  desiers  my  lord  to  be  a  good  lord  to  the  olde  priores, 
because  of  her  age/'  Ill-used  Dame  Cecilia  Starkey,  so  unkindly 
circumvented  by  Dame  Snawe  a  year  ago,  next  appeared  before 
the  vicar-general  and  said  "that  she  went  forthe  of  the  chapter 
howse,  but  she  sais  she  gave  noo  occasion  to  eny  of  hir  susters 
to  goo  forthe.   And  says  she  knewe  not  howe  many  of  hir  susters 
went  forthe  whyle  she  come  intoo  the  dorter;  saynge  that  she 
cannot  fynde  in  hir  hert  nor  wyll  not  accepte  and  take  my  lady 
Snawe  as  priores"  (an  amusing  comment  on  her  vote  in  1529). 
Next  came  Dame  Alice  Foster,  who  admitted  to  having  left  the 
chapter-house 

and  sais  that  they  war  commanded  by  the  Abbes  to  tare  styll.  But 
she  and  other  went  forth  because  the  olde  priores  was  put  done  [i.e. 
down]  wrongfully  and  my  lady  Snawe  put  in  agenst  ther  wylle, 
saynge  that  she  wyll  never  agre  to  hir  as  long  as  she  ly vys ;  she  says 
the  sub-prioress  went  forthe  of  the  chapiter  howse  fyrst  and  then  she 
and  other  folowyde ; 

and  evidence  in  almost  the  same  words  was  given  by  Dame 
Anne  Preston  and  by  Dame  Elizabeth  Sinclere,  the  latter  adding 
that  "she  wyll  take  tholde  priores  as  priores  as  longe  as  she  levys 
and  no  other,  and  she  says  yf  my  lord  commaunde  vs  to  take 
my  lady  Snawe  to  be  priores,  she  had  lever  goo  forthe  of  the 
[  Ihowse  to  sum  other  place  and  wyll  not  tare  ther."  Dame  Alice 
Bowlis,  another  young  rebel,  asked 

1  Compare  the  complaint  of  one  of  the  nuns  at  St  Michael's  Stamford  in 
X445>  "Dicit  quod  priorissa  est  sibi  nimis  rigorosa  in  correccionibus,  nam 
pro  leuibus  punit  earn  rigorose."  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  96. 


50  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

yf  she  ded  aske  lycence  of  the  Abbes  to  wryte,  she  sais  she  ded  aske 
licens  to  wryte  and  my  lady  Abbes  seyde  "  My  lord  hathe  gevyn  vs 
soo  strate  commaundement  that  none  shuld  wryte  no  (letter)  but  ye 
shewe  it  to  me,  what  ye  doo  wryte  " ;  and  she  sais  she  mayde  aunswer 
agene  to  thabbes,  "It  hathe  not  bene  soo  in  tymis  paste  and  I  have 
done  my  dewty.  I  wyll  not  wryte  nowe  at  this  tyme" ;  she  admitted 
that  she  left  the  chapter  house,  "  but  she  says  that  nobody  ded  move 
hyr  to  goo  forthe;  she  says  that  she  must  neds  nowe  obbey  the 
priores  at  my  lords  commaundement,  saynge  that  my  lady  Snawe  ys 
not  mete  for  that  offes,  butt  she  wolde  shewe  noo  cause  wherfor." 

Two  other  nuns  declared  with  great  boldness  "That  my  lord  ded 
not  commaunde  vs  to  tak  my  lady  Snawe  as  priores,  but  he 
saide, '  Yf  ye  wyll  not  take  hir  as  priores  I  wyll  make  hir  priores ' " 
and  that  "they  was  wont  to  have  the  priores  chosyn  by  the 
Abbes  and  the  convent,  and  not  by  my  lord,  after  seynte  Rennet's 
rule,"  one  of  them  remarking  cryptically  "that  she  wyll  take 
my  lady  Snawe  as  priores  as  other  wyll  doo  "  and  not  otherwise. 
Meek  little  Dame  Katherine  Cornwallis  was  then  interrogated 
and  said, 

"that  she  was  going  forthe  of  the  chapiter  howse  wt.  other  of  hir 
susters  and  then  when  she  herde  my  lady  abbes  commaund  them  to 
tary,  she  ded  tary  behynde,  but  she  sais  that  she  thynks  that  none 
of  the  oder  susters  that  went  forthe  ded  here  hyr,  but  only  she  "  (kind 
little  Dame  Katherine),  "and  she  is  sory  that  tholde  priores  ys  put  out 
of  hir  offes.  She  says  that  my  lady  abbes  ded  tare  styll  and  domina 
Alicia  Boyfelde,  domina  Snawe,  domina  Katherina  Wyngate,  domina 
Dorothia  Commaforthe,  domina  Elizabethe  Repton,  and  domina 
Elizabeth  Stanysmore." 

Finally  the  ill-used  abbess  made  her  complaint ;  she  had  bidden 
saucy  Dame  Alice  Bowlis  and  others  to  stand  up  at  matins, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  house,  "and  went  out  of  hir  stall 
to  byde  them  soo  doo,  and  lady  Bowlis  ded  make  hir  awnswer 
agene  that,  'ye  have  mayde  hir  priores  that  mayde  ye  abbes!', 
brekyng  her  silence  ther."  Evidently  poor  Elizabeth  Boifeld 
had  not  succeeded  in  living  down  the  intrigues  which  had 
preceded  her  election,  and  the  convent  suspected  her  of  rewarding 
a  supporter  at  the  expense  of  an  old  opponent. 

Here  was  a  pretty  state  of  affairs  in  the  home  of  buxomness 
and  peace.  But  the  vicar-general  acted  firmly.  Barbara  Gray 
and  Alice  Bowlis  were  given  a  penance  for  their  disobedi 
ence;  they  were  to  keep  silence;  neither  of  them  was  to  come 
within  "the  howse  calde  the  misericorde "  (where  meat  was 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  51 

allowed  to  be  eaten),  but  they  were  always  to  have  their  meals 
in  the  frater;  neither  of  them  was  to  write  any  letters;  and 
they  were  to  take  the  lowest  places  of  all  among  the  sisters  in 
"processions  and  in  other  placys."  Finally  all  the  nuns  were 
enjoined  to  be  obedient  to  the  abbess  and  to  the  hated  prioress. 
Their  protests  that  they  would  never  obey  Dame  Alice  Snawe, 
while  the  old  prioress  lived,  were  all  in  vain ;  and  when  some  ten 
years  later  the  Reformation  put  an  end  to  their  dissensions  by 
casting  them  all  upon  the  world,  Dame  Elizabeth  Boyvill  (sic), 
"abbesse,"  received  an  annual  pension  of  £50,  Dame  Helen 
Snawe,  "prioresse,"  one  of  £4  and  Dame  Anne  Wake,  "prioresse 
quondam,"  one  of  66s.  8d.1 

The  turbulent  diocese  of  York  provides  us  with  an  even  more 
striking  picture  of  an  election-quarrel.  In  1308,  after  a  vacancy, 
the  election  of  the  Prioress  of  Keldholme  lapsed  to  the  Arch 
bishop,  who  appointed  Emma  of  York.  But  the  nuns  would  have 
none  of  Emma.  Six  of  them  refused  obedience  to  the  new  prioress 
and,  six  being  probably  at  least  half  of  the  whole  convent,  Emma 
of  York  resigned.  Not  to  be  daunted  the  Archbishop  returned 
to  the  charge;  on  August  5th  he  wrote  to  the  Archdeacon  of 

( Cleveland  stating  that  as  he  found  no  one  in  the  house  capable 
of  ruling  it  he  had  appointed  Joan  de  Pykering,  a  nun  of  Rose- 

]  dale,  to  be  Prioress. 

As  a  number  of  persons  (named)  had  openly  and  publicly  obstructed 

the  appointment  of  the  new  prioress  the  Archdeacon  was  to  proceed 

i  immediately  to  Keldholme  and  give  her  corporal  possession  and  at 

the  same  time  he  was  to  admonish  other  dissentient  nuns  (named) 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  415.  For  another  instance  of  disturbances  in  a 
j  convent  caused  by  the  appointment  of  a  Prioress  (here  the  head  of  the 
!  house)  by  the  Bishop  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  nuns,  see  two  letters  written 
i[  by  the  nuns  of  Stratford  to  Cromwell,  about  the  same  time  that  Longland 
:  was  having  such  trouble  at  Elstow.  In  one  they  ask  his  help  "for  the  re- 
1  moving  of  our  supposed  prioress,"  explaining  "Sir,  since  the  time  that  we 
!  put  up  our  supplication  unto  the  king,  we  have  been  worse  entreated  than 
i  ever  we  were  before,  for  meat,  drink  and  threatening  words ;  and  as  soon 
I  as  we  speak  to  have  anything  remedied  she  biddeth  us  to  go  to  Cromwell 
I  and  let  him  help  us;  and  that  the  old  lady,  who  is  prioress  in  right,  is  like 
to  die  for  lack  of  sustenance  and  good  keeping,  for  she  can  get  neither  meat, 
drink  nor  money  to  help  herself."  In  another  letter  they  report  "that  the 
j  chancellor  of  my  lord  of  London  (the  Bishop)  hath  been  with  us  yesterday 
I  and  that  he  sayeth  the  prioress  shall  continue  and  be  prioress  still,  in  spite 
1  of  our  teeth,  and  of  their  teeths  that  say  nay  to  it,  and  that  he  commanded 
1  her  to  assault  us  and  to  punish  us,  that  other  may  beware  by  us."  Wood, 
Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  i,  nos.  xxx  and  xxxi,  pp.  68-70. 


4 — 2 


I! 


52  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

that  they  and  all  others  must  accept  Joan  de  Pykering  as  prioress  and 
reverently  obey  her. 

It  is  clear  in  this  case  that  the  feuds  of  the  convent  had  spread 
beyond  its  walls,  for  the  Archbishop  at  the  same  time  warned 
all  lay  folk  to  cease  their  opposition  on  pain  of  excommunication 
and  shortly  afterwards  imposed  a  penance  upon  one  of  those 
who  had  interfered.  But  pandemonium  still  reigned  at  Keld- 
holme  and  he  went  down  in  person  to  interview  the  refractory 
nuns;  the  result  of  his  visitation  appears  in  a  mandate  issued 
to  the  official  of  Cleveland  on  September  3rd,  stating  that  he 
had  found  four  nuns,  Isabella  de  Langetoft,  Mary  de  Holm,  Joan 
de  Roseles  and  Anabilla  de  Lokton  (all  had  been  among  the 
original  objectors  to  Emma  of  York)  incorrigible  rebels.  They 
were  therefore  to  be  packed  off  one  after  another,  Isabella  to 
Handale,  Mary  to  Swine,  Joan  to  Nunappleton  and  Anabilla 
to  Wallingwells,  there  to  perform  their  penances.  In  spite  of 
this  ruthless  elimination  of  the  discordant  elements,  the  convent 
of  Keldholme  refused  to  submit.  On  February  ist  following  the 
Archbishop  wrote  severely  to  the  subprioress  and  convent  bidding 
them  at  once  to  direct  a  letter  under  their  common  seal  to  their 
patroness,  declaring  that  they  had  unanimously  elected  Joan 
de  Pykering  as  prioress;  on  February  5th  he  issued  a  commission 
to  correct  the  crimes  and  excesses  revealed  at  his  visitation ;  and 
on  February  iyth  he  directed  the  commissioners  "to  enquire 
whether  Joan  de  Pickering"  (luckless  exile  in  the  tents  of  Kedar) 
"desired  for  a  good  reason,  of  her  own  free  will,  to  resign  and 
if  they  found  that  she  did  to  enjoin  the  subprioress  and  convent 
to  proceed  to  the  canonical  election  of  a  new  prioress";  and  on 
March  yth  the  triumphant  convent  elected  Emma  of  Stapelton. 
At  the  same  time  the  Archbishop  ordered  the  transference  of 
two  other  nuns  to  do  penance  at  Esholt  and  at  Nunkeeling, 
perhaps  for  their  share  in  these  disorders  but  more  probably 
for  immorality. 

But  this  was  not  the  end.  Emma  of  York  could  not  forget 
that  she  had  once  been  prioress;  Mary  de  Holm  (who  had  either 
returned  from  or  never  gone  to  Swine)  was  a  thoroughly  bad 
character;  and  in  1315  the  Archbishop 

directed  Richard  del  Clay,  custos  of  the  monastery,  to  proceed  at  once 
to  Keldholme  and  to  summon  before  him  in  the  chapter  Emma  of 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  53 

York  and  Mary  de  Holm,  who  like  daughters  of  perdition  were  dis 
obedient  and  rebels  against  the  Prioress.  Having  read  the  Archbishop's 
letter  in  the  mother  tongue  in  the  chapter,  he  was  to  admonish  the 
two  nuns  for  the  first,  second  and  third  times  that  they  must  humbly 
obey  the  Prioress  in  all  lawful  and  canonical  injunctions.  They  were 
not  to  meddle  with  any  internal  or  external  business  of  the  house  in 
any  way,  or  to  go  outside  of  the  enclosure  of  the  monastery,  or  to 
say  anything  against  the  Prioress,  on  pain  of  expulsion  and  of  the 
greater  excommunication. 

At  the  end  of  the  year,  however,  harassed  Archbishop  Green 
field  went  where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling;  and  the  two 
malcontents  at  Keldholme  seized  the  opportunity  to  triumph. 
Scarcely  a  couple  of  months  after  his  death  Emma  of  Stapelton 
resigned;  she  said  she  was  "oppressed  by  age,"  but  since  Emma 
of  York  was  at  once  elected  and  confirmed  in  her  place,  it  is 
probable  that  the  rage,  like  Joan  de  Pickering's  free  will,  was 
something  of  a  euphemism;  her  reason  doubtless  took  a  concrete 
and  menacing  shape  and  wore  a  veil  upon  its  undiminished  head. 
The  last  we  hear  of  these  very  unsaintly  ladies  is  in  1318,  when 
the  new  Archbishop  enjoined  a  penance  on  Mary  de  Holm  for 
incontinence  with  a  chaplain1.  It  is  noticeable  that  this  was 
the  second  case  of  the  kind  which  had  occurred  in  the  diocese 
of  York  within  fifteen  years.  At  Swine  in  1290  the  appoint 
ment  by  Archbishop  Romeyn  of  Josiana  de  Anlaby  as  Prioress 
had  been  followed  by  similar  disorders  and  he  ordered  an 
inquiry  to  be  held  and  the  rebellious  nuns  to  be  sent  to 
Rosedale2. 

Much  trouble  might  arise  within  a  convent  over  the  election 
of  its  head,  as  these  stories  show.  But  sometimes  external  persons 
interfered;  great  ladies  used  their  influence  and  their  wealth  to 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  167-9. 

2  Ib.  in,  p.  1 80  and  Reg.  of  John  le  Romeyn  (Surtees  Soc.),  i,  pp.  213-4. 
Whether  any  nuns  were  sent  to  Rosedale  does  not  appear,  but  shortly 
afterwards  two  nuns,  Elizabeth  de  Rue  and  Helewis  Darains,  were  sent  to 
Nunburnholme  and  to  Wykeham  respectively;  these  punishments  may  not 
have  been  connected  with  the  election  trouble.  Reg.  Romeyn,  i,  pp.   177, 
214  note,  225;  compare  p.  216.   Josiana  appears  to  have  been  twice  Prioress; 
she  was  confirmed  in  1290  and  finally  resigned  because  of  old  age  in  1320, 
but  Joan  de  Moubray  is  mentioned  as  Prioress  in  1308  and  she  resigned  in 
1309.     V.C.H.   Yorks.  in,  p.   181.    There  was  discord  over  an  election  at 
St  Clement's,  York,  in  1316,  one  party  in  the  convent  electing  Agnes  de 
Methelay,  and  the  other  Beatrice  de  Brandesby.    Sede  vacante,  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  appointed  the  former.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  129.    See  also  a 
case  at  Goring.    V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  103. 


54  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

secure  the  coveted  post  for  a  protegee  of  their  own;  and  the 
protegee  herself  was  not  averse  to  oiling  the  palms  of  those  in 
authority  with  good  marks  of  silver;  "blood-abbesses,"  Ensfrid 
of  Cologne  would  have  called  them  ("that  is,  foisted  in  by  their 
kinsfolk")  or  "jester-abbesses"  ("that  is,  such  as  had  been 
thrust  in  by  the  power  of  great  folks")  or  "simoniacs,  who  had 
crept  in  through  money  or  through  worldly  services"1.  In  these 
cases  there  was  likely  to  be  more  trouble  still,  for  great  ladies 
were  not  always  careful  of  the  character  of  a  friend  or  relative 
whom  they  wished  to  settle  comfortably  as  head  of  a  convent.  In 
1528  the  Abbess  of  Wilton  died  and  Mr  John  Carey  thought  he 
would  like  the  appointment  for  his  sister  Eleanor,  one  of  the 
nuns.  He  was  brother-in-law  to  lovely  Anne  Boleyn,  and  a  word 
in  her  ear  secured  her  warm  support ;  the  infatuated  King  wished 
to  please  Anne ;  and  Wolsey,  steering  his  bark  in  troubled  waters, 
wished  to  please  the  King;  so  he  promised  that  the  lady  should 
have  the  post,  the  election  to  which  had  been  placed  in  his  hands 
by  the  nuns.  It  seemed  that  all  would  go  well  with  Dame 
Eleanor  Carey,  when  Anne  Boleyn  pulled  the  strings;  but  trouble 
arose,  and  the  action  taken  by  the  Cardinal  and  by  the  future 
oppressor  of  the  monasteries  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  them  both, 
for  both  had  much  to  lose  from  Anne.  "As  touching  the  matter 
of  Wilton"  Henry  wrote  to  her 

My  lord  cardinal  hath  had  the  Nuns  before  him,  and  examined  them, 
Mr.  Bell  being  present;  which  hath  certified  me,  that  for  a  truth  that 
she  hath  confessed  herself,  (which  we  would  have  had  abbesse)  to  have 
had  two  children  by  two  sundry  priests ;  and  f urder,  since,  hath  been 
kept  by  a  servant  of  the  Lord  Broke,  that  was,  and  that  not  long  ago; 
wherefore  I  would  not  for  all  the  gold  in  the  world  clog  your  con 
science  nor  mine  to  make  her  a  ruler  of  a  house,  which  is  of  so  ungudly 
demeanor,  nor  I  trust  you  would  not  that  neither  for  brother  nor 
sister  I  should  so  destain  mine  honor  or  conscience.  And  as  touching 
the  prioress  [Isabel  Jordan]  or  Dame  Eleanor's  eldest  sister,  though 
there  is  not  any  evident  case  proved  against  them,  and  that  the  prioress 
is  so  old  that  of  many  years  she  could  not  be  as  she  was  named  [ill- 
famed]:  yet  notwithstanding  to  do  you  pleasure  I  have  done  that 
neither  of  them  shall  have  it,  but  that  some  other  good  and  well 
disposed  woman  shall  have  it,  whereby  the  house  shall  be  the  better 
reformed  (whereof  I  ensure  you  it  had  much  need)  and  God  much  the 
better  served2. 

1  Translated  from  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach's  Dialogus  Miraculorum  in 
Coulton,  A  Medieval  Garner,  pp.  251-2.  *  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  318. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  55 

Wolsey,  however,  gave  the  appointment  to  Isabel  Jordan,  who 
in  spite  of  her  having  been  the  subject  of  some  scandal  in  her 
youth,  was  favoured  by  the  greater  part  of  the  convent  as  being 
"  ancient,  wise  and  discreet " ;  whereupon  he  brought  down  upon 
himself  a  severe  rebuke  from  Henry,  who  had  "both  reported 
and  promised  to  divers  friends  of  Dame  Elinor  Carey  that  the 
Prioress  should  not  have  it"1.  Without  doubt  pretty  Mistress 
Anne  was  sulking  down  at  Hever. 

Not  only  did  outside  persons  thus  concern  themselves  in  a 
conventual  election;  the  nuns  themselves  were  not  always  un- 
willng  to  bribe,  where  they  desired  advancement.  A  series  of 
letters  written  by  Margaret  Vernon  to  Cromwell,  concerning  the 
oftce  of  Prioress  of  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  throws  a  lurid  light 
upon  the  methods  which  were  sometimes  employed: 

"Sir,"  she  wrote  to  her  powerful  friend  in  1529,  "Pleaseth  it  you  to 
understand  that  there  is  a  goldsmith  in  this  town,  named  Lewys,  and 
he  sheweth  me  that  Mr.  More  hath  made  sure  promise  to  parson  Larke 
tlat  the  subprioress  of  St.  Helen's  shall  be  prioress  there  afore  Christ 
mas-day.  Sir,  I  most  humbly  beseech  you  to  be  so  good  master  unto  me, 
as  to  know  my  lord's  grace's  [the  kind's]  pleasure  in  this  case  and  that 
J  may  have  a  determined  answer  whereto  I  shall  trust,  that  I  may 
settle  myself  in  quietness;  the  which  I  am  far  from  at  this  hour.  And 
farthermore  if  it  might  like  you  to  make  the  offer  to  my  said  lord's 
grace  of  such  a  sum  of  money  as  we  were  at  a  point  for,  my  friends 
thinketh  that  I  should  surely  be  at  an  end." 

Soon  afterwards  she  wrote  again: 

Sir,  it  is  so  that  there  is  divers  and  many  of  my  friends  that  hath 
written  to  me  that  I  should  make  labour  for  the  said  house  unto  your 
mastership,  showing  you  that  the  King's  grace  hath  given  it  to  master 
Harper,  who  saith  that  he  is  proffered  for  his  favour  two  hundred 
marks  of  the  King's  saddler,  for  his  sister;  which  proffer  I  will  never 
make  unto  him,  nor  no  friend  for  me  shall,  for  the  coming  in  after 
that  fashion  is  neither  godly  nor  worshipful.  And  beside  all  this  I 
must  come  by  my  lady  Orell's  favour,  which  is  a  woman  I  would  least 
meddle  with.  And  thus  I  shall  not  only  be  burdened  in  conscience 
for  payment  of  this  great  sum,  but  also  entangled  and  in  great  cum- 
brance  to  satisfy  the  avidity  of  this  gentlewoman.  And  though  I  did, 
in  my  lord  cardinal's  days,  proffer  a  hundred  pounds  for  the  said 
house,  I  beseech  you  consider  for  what  purpose  it  was  made.  Your 
mastership  knoweth  right  well  that  there  was  by  my  enemies  so  many 
high  and  slanderous  words,  and  your  mastership  had  made  so  great 
instant  labour  for  me,  that  I  shamed  so  much  the  fall  thereof  that 

1  See  Brewer,  Reign  of  Henry  VIII,  n,  pp.  281-3. 


56  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

I  foresaw  little  what  proffer  was  made;  but  now,  I  thank  our  Lord, 
that  blast  is  ceased,  and  I  have  no  such  singular  love  unto  it;  for  now 
I  have  two  eyes  to  see  in  this  matter  clearly,  the  one  is  the  eye  of  my 
soul,  that  I  may  come  without  burthen  of  conscience  and  by  the 
right  door,  and,  laying  away  all  pomp  and  vanity  of  the  world,  looking 
warily  upon  the  maintenance  and  supportation  of  the  house,  which 
I  should  take  in  charge,  and  cannot  be  performed,  master  Harper's 
pleasure  and  my  lady  Orell's  accomplished.  In  consideration  whereof 
I  intend  not  willingly,  nor  no  friend  of  mine  shall  not,  trouble  your 
mastership  in  this  case. 

In  another  letter  she  mentions  a  saying  of  Master  Harper,  tnat 
from  the  good  report  he  has  heard  of  her,  he  would  rather  adaiit 
her  without  a  groat  than  others  who  offer  money;  but  her  con 
scientious  scruples  were  not  rewarded  with  St  Helen's,  though 
she  almost  immediately  obtained  an  appointment  as  prioress  at 
Little  Marlow,  and  on  the  dissolution  of  that  house  among  the 
lesser  monasteries,  received  and  held  for  a  brief  space  the  great 
Abbey  of  Mailing1.  It  is  true  that  these  instances  of  simony  ard 
of  the  use  of  influence  belong  to  the  last  degenerate  years  of  tr.e 
monasteries  in  England.  But  cases  hardly  less  serious  ur- 
doubtedly  occurred  at  an  early  date.  The  gross  venality  of  tfo 
papal  curia2,  even  in  the  early  thirteenth  century,  is  not  a  verj 
happy  omen  for  the  behaviour  of  private  patrons;  smaller  folk 
than  the  Pope  could  summon  a  wretched  abbot  "Amice,  ut 
off  eras";  nor  was  it  only  abbots  who  thus  bought  themselves 
into  favour.  The  thirteenth  century  jurist  Pierre  Du  Bois,  whose 
enlightened  plans  for  the  better  education  of  women  included 
the  suppression  of  the  nunneries  and  the  utilisation  of  their 
wealth  to  form  schools  or  colleges  for  girls,  mentioned  the  re 
ception  of  nuns  for  money  and  rents,  by  means  of  compacts 
(i.e.  the  dowry  system)  and  the  election  of  abbesses  and  prioresses 
by  the  same  illicit  bargains,  as  among  the  abuses  practised  in 
nunneries3. 

1  See  Wood,  op.  cit.  n,  nos.  xxi,  xxii,  pp.  52-6.    (See  nos.  xxiii,  xxiv, 
xxv,  Ixxiii  and  Ixxiv  for  further  letters  from  Margaret  Vernon.) 

2  See,  for  example,  the  account  in  the  St  Albans  Chronicles  (Rolls  Series) 
of  the  great  costs  incurred  by  the  Abbots  of  St  Albans  in  seeking  confirmation 
here.  A  detailed  account  of  expenses  incurred  at  Rome  for  the  confirmation 
of  Abbot  John  IV  in  1302  has  been  translated  in  Coulton,  Medieval  Garner, 
p.  517;  the  total  was  2561  marks  sterling,  i.e.  about  £34,000  in  modern 
money.    See  also  Froude's  essay  entitled  "Annals  of  an  English  Abbey" 
in  his  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  3rd  ser.  pp.  i  sqq. 

8  Pierre  Du  Bois,  De  Recuperatione  Terre  Sancte,  ed.  Ch.-V.  Langlois 
(Paris,  1891),  p.  83. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  57 

Once  having  been  installed,  the  head  of  a  house  held  office 
until  she  died,  resigned  or  was  deprived  for  incompetence  or 
for  ill  behaviour.  Sometimes  prioresses  continued  to  hold  office 
until  a  very  great  age,  as  did  Matilda  de  Flamstead,  Prioress" 
of  Sopwell,  who  died  in  1430  aged  eighty-one,  having  lived  in 
the  rules  of  religion  for  over  sixty  years1.  But  the  cases  (quoted 
below)  of  the  prioresses  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  and  of  Grace- 
dieu  prove  that  an  aged  and  impotent  head  was  bad  for  the 
discipline  of  the  house,  and  it  appears  that  a  prioress  who  was  too 
old  or  in  too  weak  health  to  fulfil  her  arduous  duties,  was  often 
allowed  to  resign  or  was  relieved  of  her  office2.  Sometimes  an 
ex-superior  continued  to  live  a  communal  life  as  an  ordinary 
nun,  under  her  successor,  but  sometimes  she  was  granted  a 
special  room  and  a  special  allowance  of  food  and  attendance. 
In  some  houses  certain  apartments  were  reserved  for  the  occupa 
tion  of  a  retired  superior.  Sir  Thomas  Willoughby,  writing  to 
Cromwell  on  behalf  of  his  sister-in-law,  who  had  resigned  her 
office  as  Abbess  of  Mailing,  begs  that  she  may 

have  your  letter  to  my  lady  abbess  of  Mailing  (her  successor),  that 
she  at  your  contemplation  will  be  so  good  to  her  as  to  appoint  her 
that  room  and  lodging  within  the  said  monastery  that  she  and  other 
of  her  predecessors  that  hath  likewise  resigned  hath  used  to  have, 
and  as  she  had  herself  a  little  space,  or  else  some  other  meet  and  con 
venient  lodging  in  the  same  house3. 

When  Katherine  Pilly,  Prioress  of  Flixton,  "who  had  laudably 
ruled  the  house  for  eighteen  years,"  resigned  in  1432  because 
of  old  age  and  blindness,  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  made  special 
arrangements  for  her  sustenance : 

she  was  to  have  suitable  rooms  for  herself  and  her  maid ;  each  week 
she  and  the  maid  were  to  be  provided  with  two  white  loaves,  eight 
loaves  of  "  hool "  bread  and  eight  gallons  of  convent  beer,  with  a  daily 
dish  for  both  from  the  kitchen,  the  same  as  for  two  nuns  in  the  re 
fectory,  and  with  two  hundred  faggots  and  a  hundred  logs  and  eight 
pounds  of  candles  a  year.  Cecilia  Crayke,  one  of  the  nuns,  was  to 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  363. 

2  At  the  time  of  the  suppression  Joan  Scott  "late  prioress"  is  placed 
second  in  the  list  of  nuns  at  Handale  and  is  described  as  "  aet.  90  and  blynd." 
V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  166.    At  Esholt  the  ex-prioress  was  over  70  and  is 
described  as  "decrepita  et  non  abilis  ad  equitandum,  neque  eundum." 
Ib.  p.  162. 

3  Wood,  op.  cit.  n,  p.  153.    See  A.  H.  Thompson,  English  Monasteries, 
p.  123. 


58  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

read  divine  service  to  her  daily  and  to  sit  with  her  at  meals,  having 
her  portion  from  the  refectory1. 

These  aged  ladies  probably  ended  their  days  peacefully,  with 
drawn  from  the  common  life  of  the  house.  But  sometimes  a 
prioress  resigned  while  still  young  enough  to  miss  her  erstwhile 
autocracy  and  to  torment  her  unlucky  successor.  Then  indeed 
the  new  head  could  do  nothing  right  and  feuds  and  factions  tore 
the  sisterhood.  Such  a  case  occurred  at  Nunkeeling  early  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  A  vice  de  la  More  resigned  in  1316,  and  the 
Archbishop  wrote  to  the  nuns  making  the  usual  provision  for 
her;  she  had  "for  a  long  period  laudably  and  usefully  super 
intended  the  house";  she  was  to  have  a  chamber  to  herself  and 
one  of  the  nuns  assigned  to  her  by  the  Prioress  as  a  companion ; 
and  daily  she  was  to  receive  the  portion  of  two  nuns  in  bread, 
ale  and  victuals  and  her  associate  that  of  one  nun ;  an  end,  one 
might  suppose,  of  Avice  de  la  More.  But  the  Yorkshire  nuns 
were  quarrelsome  ladies;  and  two  years  later  the  Archbishop 
addressed  a  severe  letter  to  Avice,  threatening  to  remove  the 
provision  made  for  her  if  she  persisted  in  her  "conspiracies, 
rebellions  and  disobedience  to  the  prioress"  and  imposing  a 
severe  penance  upon  her.  But  seven  penitential  psalms  with 
the  litany  upon  Fridays,  a  discipline  in  chapter  and  fasting  diet 
could  not  calm  the  temper  of  Avice  de  la  More;  she  stirred  up 
the  nuns  to  rebellion  and  spread  the  tale  of  her  grievances  "to 
seculars  and  adversaries  outside. "  There  was  some  family  feud 
perhaps  between  her  relatives  and  the  St  Quintins  to  whose 
house  the  unhappy  Prioress  belonged;  at  any  rate  "clamorous 

1  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  ii,  p.  1 1 6.  See  also  the  provision  made  for  Joyce  Brome, 
ex-prioress  of  Wroxall.  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  89  note.  For  the  case  of  Isabel 
Spynys,  prioress  of  Wilberfoss  (1348),  see  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  126;  and  for 
an  example  of  such  an  arrangement  at  a  priory  of  monks  see  the  very  detailed 
ordinance  for  the  living  of  John  Assheby,  ex-prior  of  Daventry,  by  Bishop 
Flemyng  of  Lincoln  in  1420.  Line.  Visit.  I,  pp.  39-42.  It  was  not  unusual 
to  make  provision  in  the  form  of  corrodies  such  as  these  for  other  nuns,  who 
were  prevented  by  age  and  infirmity  from  taking  part  in  the  communal  life 
of  the  convent.  Isabel  Warde  of  Moxby,  "impotens  et  surda,"  held  such 
a  grant  for  life  at  the  time  of  the  dissolution  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  HI,  p.  239)  and 
Margaret  de  Shyrburn  of  Yedingham,  who  was  ill  of  dropsy,  had  a  secular 
girl  to  wait  on  her  in  1314.  Ib.  p.  127  note.  Compare  the  amusing  case  of 
Joan  Heyronne  of  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate  (1385),  who  was  ill  of  gout  and 
not  sympathised  with  by  her  sisters  (V.C.H.  London,  i,  p.  458),  and  see  also 
cases  at  Romsey  (1507),  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  230;  Mailing  (1400),  Col.  of  Pap. 
Letters,  v,  p.  355;  and  St  Mary's,  Neasham,  V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  59 

information"  reached  the  Archbishop  concerning  the  intrigues 
of  certain  of  the  nuns.  Once  more  he  wrote  to  Avice  "with  a 
bitter  heart."  She  had  broken  her  vow  of  obedience  in  arrogancy 
and  elation  of  heart  towards  her  prioress,  "who  was  placed  in 
charge  of  her  soul  and  body  and  without  whom  she  had  no  free 
will";  let  her  desist  at  once  and  study  to  live  according  to  the 
rule;  and  a  commission  was  sent  to  inquire  into  the  misdeeds 
of  the  rebellious  nuns  of  Keeling.  But  alas,  the  finding  of  that 
commission  has  long  since  powdered  into  dust  and  we  hear  no 
further  news  of  Avice  de  la  More1. 

The  head  of  a  house  was  an  important  person  and  enjoyed 
a  considerable  amount  of  freedom,  in  relation  both  to  her  convent 
and  to  the  outside  world.  In  relation  to  her  convent  her  position 
laid  her  open  to  various  temptations:  she  was,  for  instance, 
beset  by  three  which  must  be  faced  by  all  who  rule  over  com 
munities.  The  first  was  the  temptation  to  live  with  too  great 
luxury  and  independence,  escaping  from  the  daily  routine  of 
communal  life,  to  which  her  vows  bound  her.  The  second  was 
the  temptation  to  rule  like  an  autocrat,  instead  of  consulting 
her  sisters.  The  third  was  the  temptation  to  let  human  predilec 
tions  have  their  way  and  to  show  favouritism.  To  begin  with 
the  first  of  these  temptations,  it  is  obvious  that  the  fact  that 
the  superior  nearly  always  had  a  separate  room,  or  suite  of 
rooms2,  and  servants,  and  had  the  duty  of  entertaining  important 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  pp.  1 20-1.    Compare  an  amusing  and  very  similar 
disturbance  at  Flixton  between  1514  and  1532.     Visit,  of  Dioc.  Norwich, 
ed.  Jessopp  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  142-4,  185,  190,  261,  318. 

2  The  abbess's  or  prioress's  chamber  is  constantly  mentioned  in  the 
surveys  of  nunneries  made  at  the  time  of  the  Dissolution,  e.g.  at  Arthington, 
Wykeham,  Basedale  and  Kirklees  (Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  ix,  pp.  212.  326, 
327,  332) ;  at  Cheshunt  (Cussans,  Hist,  of  Herts,  Hertford  Hundred,  n,  p.  270), 
Sheppey   (Mackenzie  E.   C.   Walcott,   Inventories  of  St  Mary's  Hospital, 
Dover,  etc.  p.  28),  Kilburn  (Dugdale,  Mon.  m,  p.  424).  See  also  the  inventory 
of  the  goods  of  Langley  in  1485  (Walcott,  Inventory  of  St  Mary's  Benedictine 
Nunnery  at  Langley  [Leic.  Architec.  Soc.  1872],  p.  4).   The  last  three  contain 
interesting  inventories  of   the  furniture    of   the    prioress's  chamber.     At 
Sheppey  it  was  hung  with  green  "saye"  and  contained  "a  trussyng  bed  of 
waynscot  with  testar,  sylar  and  cortens  of  red  and  yelow  sarcenet";  at 
Kilburn  it  was  hung  with  "  four  peces  of  sey  redde  and  grene,  with  a  bordure 
of  story,"  and  contained  "a  standinge  bedd  with  four  posts  of  weynscott, 
a  trundle  bedd  under  the  same... a  syller  of  yelowe  and  redde  bokerame  and 
three  curteyns  of  the  same  work."   At  Langley  also  there  were  two  beds  in 
the  prioress's  chamber  "hur  owne  bed"  and  "ye  secunde  bed  in  hur  cham- 
bur."   Clearly  the  prioress  nearly  always  had  a  nun  to  sleep  with  her,  and 
the  evidence  of  visitations  bears  this  out;  see  e.g.  cases  at  Redlingfield, 


60  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

guests,  gave  her  much  freedom  within  her  house,  especially  if 
she  were  the  head  of  one  of  the  great  abbeys.  The  Abbess  of 
St  Mary's  Winchester,  at  the  Dissolution,  had  her  own  house 
and  a  staff  consisting  of  a  cook,  an  undercook,  a  woman  servant 
and  a  laundress,  and  she  had  also  a  gentlewoman  to  wait  upon 
her,  like  any  great  lady  in  the  world1.  The  Abbess  of  Barking 
had  her  gentlewoman,  too,  and  her  private  kitchen;  she  dined 
in  state  with  her  nuns  five  times  a  year,  and  "  the  under  celeresse 
must  remember,"  says  the  Charthe  longynge  to  the  Office  of  Celer 
esse, 

at  eche  principall  fest,  that  my  lady  sytteth  in  the  fraytour;  that  is 
to  wyt  five  times  in  the  yere,  at  eche  tyme  schall  aske  the  clerke  of 
the  kychyn  soper  eggs  for  the  covent,  and  that  is  Estir,  Wytsontyd, 
the  Assumption  of  our  Lady,  seynt  Alburgh  and  Cristynmasse,  at 
eche  tyme  to  every  lady  two  eggs,  and  eche  double  two  egges,  that  is 
the  priorisse,  the  celeresse  and  the  kychener2. 

The  stern  reformer  Peckham  was  forced  to  take  in  hand  the 
conduct  of  the  Abbesses  of  Barking,  Wherwell  and  Romsey,  who 
were  abusing  their  independence  of  ordinary  routine.  The  Abbess 
of  Barking  was  forbidden  to  remain  in  her  private  room  after 
sunset,  at  which  hour  all  doors  were  to  be  locked  and  all  strangers 
excluded ;  she  might  do  so  only  very  rarely,  in  order  to  entertain 
distinguished  guests  or  to  transact  important  business;  and  he 
ordered  her  to  eat  with  the  convent  as  often  as  possible,  "especially 
on  solemn  days"  (i.e.  great  feasts)3.  The  Abbess  of  Wherwell 
had  apparently  stinted  her  nuns  in  food  and  drink,  but  caused 
magnificent  feasts  to  be  prepared  for  her  in  her  own  room,  and 
Peckham  ordered  that  whenever  there  was  a  shortage  of  food 
in  the  convent,  she  was  to  dine  with  the  nuns,  and  no  meal  was 
to  be  laid  in  her  chamber  for  servants  or  strangers,  but  all 
visitors  were  to  be  entertained  in  the  exterior  guest-hall;  if  at 
such  times  she  were  in  ill  health,  and  unable  to  use  the  common 
diet,  she  might  remain  in  her  room,  in  the  company  of  one  or 
two  of  the  nuns.  At  times  when  there  was  no  lack  of  food  in 
1427  (V.C.H.  Suffolk,  ii,  p.  83),  Littleraore,  1445  (Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  217, 
'iacet  de  nocte  in  eodem  lecto  cum  priorissa"),  Flamstead,  1530  (V.C.H. 
Herts,  iv,  p.  433).  For  the  position  of  the  prioress's  chamber  see  plan  of  the 
nunnery  buildings  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge  (now  Jesus  College)  (Gray 
Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  53). 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  458. 
Ib.  i.  pp.  443,  445. 

•  Rtg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Series),  i,  p.  84. 


n]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  6 1 

the  convent  and  when  she  was  entertaining  guests  in  her  own 
room,  all  potations  were  to  cease  and  all  servants  and  visitors 
to  depart  at  the  hour  of  compline1.  About  the  same  time  (1284) 
Peckham  wrote  two  letters  to  the  Abbess  of  Romsey,  who  had 
evidently  been  guilty  of  the  same  behaviour.  She  was  not  to 
keep  "a  number  of"  dogs  or  monkeys,  or  more  than  two  maid 
servants,  and  she  was  not  to  fare  splendidly  in  her  own  rooms 
while  the  nuns  went  short;  his  injunctions  to  her  are  couched 
in  almost  precisely  the  same  language  as  those  which  he  addressed 
to  the  Abbess  of  Wherwell2. 

According  to  the  Benedictine  rule  the  superior,  when  not 
entertaining  guests,  was  permitted  to  invite  the  nuns  in  turn 
to  dine  with  her  in  her  own  room,  for  their  recreation,  and  notices 
of  this  custom  sometimes  occur  in  visitation  reports ;  at  Thicket 
(1309)  the  Prioress  was  enjoined  to  have  them  one  by  one  when 
she  dined  in  her  room3;  at  Elstow  (1421-2)  the  Abbess  was  to 
invite  those  nuns  whom  she  knew  to  be  specially  in  need  of 
refreshment4;  at  Gracedieu  (1440-1)  the  Prioress  was  ordered 
that  ye  do  the  fraytour  be  keppede  day  lye...  item  that  no  mo  of  your 
susters  entende  up  on  yowe,  save  onely  your  chapeleyn,  and  other- 
while,  as  your  rule  wylle,  ye  calle  to  your  refeccyone  oon  or  two  of 
your  susters  to  thair  recreacyone5  ; 

at  Greenfield  (1519)  there  was  a  complaint  that  the  Prioress  did 
not  invite  the  nuns  to  her  table  in  due  order,  and  at  Stainfield 
it  was  said  that  she  frequently  invited  three  young  nuns  to  her 
table  and  showed  partiality  to  them  and  she  was  ordered  to 
invite  all  the  senior  sisters  in  order6.  In  Cistercian  and  Cluniac 
houses  the  superior  was  supposed  to  dine  in  the  frater  and  to 
sleep  in  the  dorter  with  the  other  nuns,  and  even  in  Benedictine 
houses  it  was  considered  desirable  that  she  should  do  so.  But 
the  temptation  to  live  a  more  private  life  was  irresistible,  and 
visitation  records  contain  many  complaints  that  the  head  of  the 
house  is  lax  in  her  attendance  at  dorter  and  frater  and  even  in 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  n,  pp.  651-2. 

2  Ib.  n,  pp.  659-60,  662-3.    For  another  instance  of  a  prioress  faring 
better  than  her  nuns,  see  Archbishop  Lee's  injunctions  to  Nunappleton 
in  1534:  "That  their  be  no  difference  betwene  the  breade  and  ale  prepared 
for  the  prioresse  and  the  bredde  and  ale  provided  for  the  covent,  but  that 
she  and  they  eatt  of  oon  breade,  and  drinke  of  oon  drinke  and  of  oon  ale" 
Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xvi.  pp.  443-4. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  214.  4  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  50. 

5  Ib.  n,  p.  124.  6   V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  pp.  155,  131-2. 


62  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

following  the  divine  services  in  the  choir1.  Bishops  frequently 
made  injunctions  like  that  given  by  Alnwick  to  the  Prioress  of 
Ankerwyke  in  1441 : 

'  that  nyghtly  ye  lygge  in  the  dormytorye  to  ouersee  your  susters  how 
thai  are  there  gouernede  after  your  rewle,  and  that  often  tyme  ye 
come  to  matynes,  messe  and  other  houres...also  that  oftentymes  ye 
come  to  the  chapitere  for  to  correcte  the  defautes  of  your  susters... 
also  that  aftere  your  rewle  ye  kepe  the  fray  tour  but  if  resonable  cause 
excuse  yowe  there  fro2. 

Sometimes  a  minimum  number  of  attendances  was  demanded. 
At  St  Michael's  Stamford  Alnwick  ordered  the  old  Prioress 

that  nyghtly  ye  lyg  in  the  dormytorye  emong  your  susters  and  that 
euery  principale  double  fest  and  festes  of  xij  or  ix  lessouns  ye  be  at 
matynes,  but  if  grete  sekenes  lette  yowe;  and  that  often  tymes  ye 
be  at  other  howres  and  messes  in  the  qwere,  and  also  that  ye  be 
present  in  chapitres  helpyng  the  supprioresse  in  correctyng  and 
punisshyng  of  defautes3. 

It  was  further  attempted  to  restrict  the  dangerous  freedom 
of  a  superior's  life,  by  ordering  her  always  to  have  with  her  one 
of  the  nuns  as  a  companion  and  as  witness  to  her  behaviour. 
So  Peckham  ordered  the  Abbess  of  Romsey  to  "elect  a  suitable 
companion  for  herself  and  to  change  her  companions  yearly,  to 
the  end  that  her  honesty  should  be  attested  by  many  witnesses  4 '  . 
Usually  the  nun  whose  duty  it  was  to  accompany  the  superior 
acted  as  her  chaplain.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Chaucer  says 
of  his  Prioress  "another  Nonne  with  hir  hadde  she,  That  was 

1  Sometimes,  however,  bishops  licenced  the  head  of  a  house  to  hear  the 
service  separately,  e.g.  in  1401  Wykeham  licenced  dame  Lucy  Everard, 
abbess  of  Romsey,  to  hear  divine  service  in  her  oratory  during  one  year, 
in  the  presence  of  one  of  her  sisters  and  of  her  servants  (familia).   Wykeham' s 
Reg.  (Hants.  Rec.  Soc.),  u,  p.  538.    Cf.  similar  licence  to  the  prioress  of 
Polsloe  in  1388.  Reg.  of  Bishop  Brantyngham  of  Exeter,  pt.  II,  p.  675. 

2  Line.    Visit,  n.  p.  8.    The  same  injunction  was  sent  to  Stixwould. 
Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  75^. 

3  Ib.  f.  8$d.    The  next  year  when  Alnwick  came  again  this  prioress 
announced  that  she  did  not  lie  in  the  dorter,  nor  keep  frater,  cloister  and 
church  on  account  of  bodily  weakness;  she  alleged  that  he  had  dispensed  her 
from  these  observances,  which  he  denied.  Ib.  f.  39^.  Compare  injunctions 
to  Godstow,  Gracedieu  and  Langley,  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  115,  125,  177.    For 
other  injunctions  on  these  points,  see  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  78  (Nuncoton, 
1440);  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  119  (Nunburnholme,  1318),  120  (Nunkeeling, 
1314),  124  (Thicket,  1309),  188  (Arthington,  1318),  239  (Moxby,  1318). 

4  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Series),   n,   p.  662.    Compare 
V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  113,  239  and  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  6. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  63 

hir  chapeleyne  " 1,  and  episcopal  registers  contain  frequent  allu 
sions  to  the  office.  William  of  Wykeham  gave  a  comprehensive 
account  of  its  purpose  when  he  wrote  to  the  Abbess  of  Romsey 
in  1387, 

since,  according  to  the  constitutions  of  the  holy  fathers,  younger 
members  must  take  a  pattern  from  their  rulers  (prelati)  and  those 
prelates  ought  to  have  a  number  of  witnesses  to  their  own  behaviour, 
we  strictly  order  you  (lady  abbess)  in  virtue  of  obedience,  that  you 
annually  commit  the  office  of  chaplain  to  one  of  your  nuns... and  thus 
the  nuns  themselves,  who  shall  have  been  with  you  in  the  aforesaid 
office,  shall  (by  means  of  laudable  instruction)  be  the  better  enabled 
to  excel  in  religion,  while  you  will  be  able  immediately  to  invoke  their 
testimony  to  your  innocence,  if  (which  God  forbid)  any  crime  or 
scandal  should  be  imputed  to  you  by  the  malice  of  any  person2. 

So  at  Easebourne  in  1478  the  Prioress  was  ordered 

that  every  week,  beginning  with  the  eldest... she  should  select  for 
herself  in  due  course  and  in  turns,  one  of  her  nuns  as  chaplain  for 
divine  services  and  to  wait  upon  herself3. 

The  Norwich  visitations  of  Bishop  Nykke  afford  further  informa 
tion  ;  at  Flixton  discontented  Dame  Margaret  Punder  complained 
that  the  Prioress  had  no  sister  as  chaplain,  but  slept  alone  as 
she  pleased,  in  a  chamber  (cubiculo)  outside  the  dorter,  "without 
the  continual  testimony  of  her  sisters,"  and  the  visitors  enjoined 

1  Before  it  was  realised  that  this  office  was  often  held  by  a  woman  in 
nunneries,  scholars  were  much  exercised  to  explain  this  passage  in  Chaucer's 
Prologue,  though  a  search  through  Dugdale  would  have  provided  them  with 
several  instances.  The  office  is  still  held  in  modern  convents,  and  Dr  Furni- 
vall  printed  an  interesting  letter  from  a  Benedictine  nun,  describing  the 
duties  attached  to  it.  "It  is  in  fact  the  nun  who  has  special  charge  of 
attending  on  the  Abbess  and  giving  assistance  when  she  needs  it,  either 
in  writing  when  she  (the  Abbess)  is  busy,  or  in  attending  when  sick,  etc., 
but  that  which  comes  most  often  to  claim  her  services  is,  on  the  twelve  or 
fourteen  great  festivals,"  when  the  chaplain  attends  the  Abbess  in  the  choir 
and  holds  her  crosier,  while  she  reads  the  hymns,  lesson,  etc.  Anglia,  iv, 
pp.  238-9.  In  the  middle  ages  the  chief  stress  was  laid  on  the  constant  pre 
sence  of  a  witness  to  the  superior's  mode  of  life,  that  it  might  be  beyond 
suspicion.  Miss  Eckenstein  has  pointed  out  that  in  the  allegory  of  the 
"Ghostly  Abbey,"  by  the  beguine  Mechthild  of  Magdeburg,  in  which  the 
nuns  are  personified  Virtues,  Charity  is  Abbess  and  Meekness  her  Chaplain ; 
and  in  the  English  version  of  the  poem  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  (1500), 
Charity  was  Abbess  and  Mercy  and  Truth  were  to  be  her  "chapeleyns"  and 
to  go  about  with  her  wherever  she  went.  The  Prioress  (Wisdom)  and  the 
Sub-Prioress  (Meekness)  were  also  to  have  chaplains  (Righteousness  and 
Peace)  because  they  were  "most  of  worship."  Eckenstein,  Woman  under 
Monasticism,  pp.  339,  377. 

2  New  College  MS.,  f.  88d 

3  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  15. 


64  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

that  henceforth  she  should  have  with  her  one  sister  in  the  office 
of  chaplain  for  a  witness,  and  especially  when  she  slept  outside 
the  dorter1.  At  Blackborough  one  of  the  nuns  complained  that 
the  Prioress  had  kept  the  same  chaplain  for  three  years2  and  at 
Redlingfield  it  was  said  that  she  never  changed  her  chaplain3; 
the  Abbess  of  Elstow  in  1421-2*  and  the  Prioress  of  Markyate 
in  1442 5  were  ordered  to  change  their  chaplains  every  year,  and 
this  seems  to  have  been  the  customary  arrangement.  The  title 
of  "chaplain"  is  sometimes  found  after  the  name  of  a  nun  in 
lists  of  the  inmates  of  nunneries6. 

Besides  the  temptation  to  live  too  independent  an  existence 
the  head  of  a  house  had  also  the  temptation  to  abuse  the  con 
siderable  power  given  to  her  by  the  monastic  rule.  She  was  apt 
to  govern  autocratically,  keeping  the  business  of  the  house  en 
tirely  in  her  own  hands,  instead  of  consulting  her  sisters  (assem 
bled  in  chapter)  before  making  any  important  decision.  There 
were  constant  complaints  by  the  nuns  that  the  Prioress  kept 
the  common  seal  in  her  own  custody  and  performed  all  business 
without  consulting  them.  Peckham's  letter  to  the  Abbess  of 
Romsey  illustrates  the  variety  of  matters  which  might  thus  be 
settled  without  any  reference  to  the  nuns;  she  had  evidently 
been  misusing  her  power,  for  he  wrote  sternly : 

Know  that  thou  art  not  mistress  of  the  common  goods,  but  rather 
the  dispenser  and  mother  of  thy  community,  according  to  the  meaning 
of  the  word  abbess.... We  strictly  command  thee  that  thou  study  to 
transact  all  the  more  important  business  of  the  house  with  the  con 
vent.  And  by  the  more  important  business  we  intend  those  things 
which  may  entail  notable  expenditure  in  temporalities  or  in  spiritual 
ities,  with  which  we  wish  to  be  included  the  provision  of  a  steward ; 
we  order  for  the  peace  of  the  community,  that  H.  de  Chalfhunte,  whom 
thou  hast  for  long  kept  in  the  office  of  steward  contrary  to  the  will 

1  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  190. 

2  Ib.  p.  108.  3  Ib.  p.  138. 

4  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  50.  For  other  references  to  the  abbess's  nun-chaplain 
at  Elstow,  see  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  52  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  ill,  p.  415. 

6  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  6.  The  Prioress  was  Denise  Loweliche  (see  p.  458 
below)  and  at  the  visitation  Dame  Margaret  Loweliche  "cappellana  priorisse" 
(evidently  a  relative)  said  that  she  had  held  the  office  for  the  last  eight  years. 
Another  nun  said  "that  the  Prioress  ever  holds  and  has  held  for  seven 
years,  one  and  the  same  nun  as  chaplain,  without  ever  replacing  her  by 
another,  and  when  she  goes  out  she  always  has  this  young  nun  with  her." 

•  E.g.  at  Campsey  (1532)  and  Redlingfield  (1526  and  1532).  Visit,  of 
Dioc.  of  Norwich,  pp.  224,  291,  297.  At  Elstow  (1539).  Dugdale,  Mon.  in, 
p.  415.  At  Barking  (still  in  receipt  of  pension  in  1553).  Ib.  I,  p.  438  note. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  65 

of  the  convent,  no  longer  intermeddle  in  any  way  with  this  or  with 
any  other  bailiff's  office  (bajulatu)  of  the  monastery.  Moreover  we 
make  the  same  order  concerning  John  le  Frikiere.  Let  each  of  them, 
having  accounted  for  his  office  before  Master  Philip  our  official... look 
out  for  an  abode  elsewhere.  Besides  this  thou  shalt  transact  all  minor 
business  of  the  church  according  to  the  rule  with  at  least  twelve  of 
the  senior  ladies.  And  because  thou  hast  been  wont  to  do  much 
according  to  the  prompting  of  thine  own  will,  we  adjoin  to  thee  three 
coadjutresses  of  laudable  testimony,  to  wit  dames  Margery  de  Ver 
dun,  Philippa  de  Stokes  and  Johanna  de  Revedoune,  without  whose 
counsel  and  attempt  thou  shalt  not  dare  attempt  anything  pertaining 
to  the  rule  of  the  convent  in  temporalities  or  in  spiritualities.  And 
whensoever  thou  shalt  wittingly  do  the  contrary  in  any  important 
matter,  thou  shalt  know  thyself  to  be  on  that  account  suspended  from 
the  office  of  administration.  And  we  mean  by  an  important  matter 
the  provision  of  bailiffs  of  the  manors  and  internal  obedientiaries, 
the  punishment  of  delinquents,  all  alienation  of  goods  in  gifts  or 
presents,  or  in  any  other  ways,  the  sending  forth  of  nuns  and  the 
assignment  of  companions  to  those  going  forth,  the  beginning  of 
lawsuits  and  all  manner  of  church  business.  And  if  it  befall  that  any 
of  the  aforesaid  three  be  ill  or  absent,  do  thou  receive  in  her  stead 
Dame  Leticia  de  Montegomery  or  Dame  Agnes  de  Lidyerd,  having 
called  into  consultation  the  others  according  to  the  number  fixed 
above.  And  whenever  thou  shalt  happen  to  fare  forth  upon  the 
business  of  the  church,  thou  shalt  always  take  with  thee  the  aforesaid 
three  ladies,  whom  we  have  joined  with  thee  as  coadjutresses  in  the 
rule  of  the  monastery  both  within  and  without ;  and  if  ever  thou  goest 
forth  for  recreation  thou  shalt  always  have  with  thee  two;  in  such 
wise  that  thou  shalt  in  no  manner  concern  thyself  to  pursue  any 
business  without  the  three1. 

The  danger  of  autocratic  government  to  the  convent  is  ob 
vious;  and  it  is  significant  that  a  really  bad  prioress  is  nearly 
always  charged  with  having  failed  to  communicate  with  her 
sisters  in  matters  of  business,  turning  all  the  revenues  to  any 
use  that  she  pleased.  Moreover  the  head  of  a  house  not  only 
sometimes  failed  to  consult  her  convent;  she  constantly  also 
omitted  to  render  an  annual  account  of  her  expenditure,  and  by 
far  the  most  common  complaint  at  visitations  was  the  complaint 
that  the  Prioress  non  reddidit  compotum.  At  Bishop  Nykke's 
Norwich  visitations  the  charge  was  made  against  the  heads  of 
Flixton,  Crabhouse,  Blackborough  and  Redlingfield2.  At  Bishop 

1  Litt.    Johannis    Peckham    (Rolls    Series),    n,    pp.    658-9.     Compare 
injunctions  to  the  Abbess  of  Chatteris  in  1345.   Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  619. 

2  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  108,  109,  138-9,  143, 
185,  190-1. 

P.N.  * 


66  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CM. 

Alnwick's  Lincoln  visitations  it  was  made  against  the  heads  of 
Ankerwyke,  Catesby,  Gracedieu,  Harrold,  Heynings,  St  Michael's 
Stamford,  Stixwould,  Studley;  at  Ankerwyke  Dame  Clemence 
Medforde  had  not  accounted  since  her  arrival  at  the  house;  at 
St  Michael's  Stamford  the  Prioress  had  held  office  for  twelve  years 
and  had  never  done  so ;  at  Studley  it  was  said  that  the  last  Prioress 
who  ruled  for  58  years  never  once  rendered  an  account  during 
the  whole  of  that  period,  nor  had  the  present  Prioress  yet  done 
so,  though  she  had  been  in  office  for  a  year1.  Sometimes  the 
delinquent  gave  some  excuse  to  the  Bishop;  the  Prioress  of 
Catesby  said  she  had  no  clerk  to  write  the  account2;  at  Black- 
borough  one  of  the  nuns  said  that  her  object  had  been  to  avoid 
the  expense  of  an  auditor  and  another  that  she  gave  the  convent  a 
verbal  report  of  the  state  of  the  house3.  Sometimes  she  flatly 
refused,  and  the  bishop's  repeated  injunctions  on  the  subject 
seem  to  have  been  of  little  avail;  the  Prioress  of  Flixton  had 
not  rendered  account  since  her  installation  et  dicit  quod  non  vult 
redder e ;  she  was  superseded,  but  six  years  later  the  same  complaint 
was  made  against  her  successor  and  the  visitors  ordered  the 
latter  to  amend  her  ways,  sub  poena  privationis,  quia  dixit  se 
nolle  talem  redder  e  compotum*.  The  bishops  always  inquired  very 
carefully  into  the  administration  of  the  conventual  income  and 
possessions  by  the  head  of  each  house,  and  invented  a  variety 
of  devices  for  controlling  her  actions5. 

There  remains  to  be  considered  the  third  pitfall  into  which 
the  head  of  a  house  was  liable  to  fall.  The  wise  Benedictine  rule 
contained  a  special  warning  against  favouritism,  for  indeed  human 
nature  cannot  avoid  preferences  and  it  is  the  hardest  task  of  a 
ruler  to  subdue  personal  predilections  to  perfect  fairness.  The 
charge  of  favouritism  is  a  fairly  common  one  in  medieval  visita 
tions.  Alnwick  met  with  an  amusing  case  when  he  visited 
Gracedieu  in  1440-1.  The  elder  nuns  complained  that  the  old 
prioress  did  not  treat  all  equally;  some  of  them  she  favoured 
and  others  she  treated  very  rigorously;  Dame  Philippa  Jecke 
even  said  that  corrections  were  made  so  harshly  and  so  fussily 

1  See  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  3,  48,  120,  130.  133;  and  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS. 
ff.  83,  75d,  26d. 

1  Line.  Visit.  II,  p.  49. 

8  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  108. 

4  Ib.  pp.  143,  191.  5  See  below,  p.  2i6ff. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  67 

that  all  charity  and  all  happiness  had  gone  from  the  house. 
Moreover  there  were  two  young  nuns  whom  she  called  her 
disciples  and  who  were  always  with  her;  these  nuns  had  many  un 
suitable  conversations,  so  their  sisters  thought,  with  the  Prioress' 
secular  visitors;  worse  than  this,  they  acted  as  spies  upon  the 
other  nuns  and  told  the  Prioress  about  everything  that  was  said 
and  done  in  the  convent,  and  then  the  Prioress  scolded  more 
severely  than  ever1;  but  her  disciples  could  do  no  wrong.  These 
nuns,  indeed,  were  among  the  most  voluble  that  Alnwick  visited, 
and  he  must  have  remarked  with  a  smile  that  the  two  disciples 
were  the  only  ones  who  answered  "  Omnia  bene " ;  but  he  did 
not  intend  to  let  them  off  without  a  rebuke. 

"Agnes  Poutrelle  and  Isabel  Jurdane"  runs  the  note  in  his  Register, 
"who  style  themselves  the  Prioress's  disciples,  are  thereby  the  cause 
of  quarrel  between  her  and  her  sisters,  forasmuch  as  what  they  hear 
and  see  among  the  nuns  they  straightway  retail  to  the  prioress.  They 
both  appeared,  and,  the  article  having  been  laid  to  their  charge, 
expressly  deny  it  and  all  things  that  are  contained  therein;  wherefore 
they  cleared  themselves  without  compurgators ;  howbeit,  that  they 
may  not  be  held  suspect  hereafter  touching  these  matters  or  offend 
herein,  they  both  sware  upon  the  holy  gospels  of  God  that  henceforth 
they  will  discover  to  the  prioress  concerning  their  sisters  nothing 
whereby  cause  of  quarrel  or  incentive  to  hatred  may  be  furnished 
among  them,  unless  they  be  such  matters  as  may  tend  to  the  damage 
of  the  prioress'  body  or  honour  "2. 

At  two  other  houses  there  were  complaints  against  the  head; 
at  Legbourne  Dame  Sibil  Papelwyk  said  that  the  Prioress  was 
not  indifferent  in  making  corrections,  but  treated  some  too  hardly 
and  others  too  favourably;  and  at  Heynings  Dame  Alice  Porter 
said  that  the  Prioress  was  an  accepter  of  persons  in  making 
corrections, 

for  those  whom  she  loves  she  passes  over  lightly,  and  those  whom  she 
holds  not  in  favour  she  harshly  punishes... and  she  encourages  her 
secular  serving- women,  whom  she  believes  more  than  her  sisters, 

^  Among  "  greuous  defautes  "  enumerated  in  the  "  additions  to  the  rules  " 
of  Syon  Abbey  (fifteenth  century)  is  the  following:  "If  any  lye  in  a  wayte, 
or  in  a  spye,  or  els  besyly  and  curyously  seiche  what  other  sustres  or 
brethren  speke  betwene  themselfe,  that  they  afterwardes  may  revele  or 
schewe  the  saynge  of  the  spekers  to  ther  grete  hurte";  others  are,  "if  any 
sowe  dyscorde  amonge  the  sustres  and  brethren,"  and  "if  any  be  founde 
a  preuy  rowner  or  bakbyter."  Aungier,  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of  Syon  Mon 
astery,  p.  257. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  121,  123. 


68  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

in  their  words,  to  scold  the  same  her  sisters,  and  for  this  cause  quarrels 
do  spring  up  between  her  and  her  sisters1. 

In  neither  of  these  cases,  however,  was  the  charge  corroborated 
by  the  evidence  of  the  other  nuns.  Probably  the  two  malcontents 
considered  themselves  to  have  a  grievance  against  their  ruler; 
at  Legbourne  Dame  Sibil's  complaint  that  the  Prioress  would 
not  let  her  visit  a  dying  parent  gives  a  clue  to  her  annoyance. 
Another  charge  sometimes  made  was  that  the  Prioress  gave  more 
credence  to  the  young  nuns  than  to  those  who  were  older  and 
wiser2.  Injunctions  that  the  head  of  a  house  was  to  show  no 
favouritism  were  often  made  by  visitors.  One  of  Alnwick's  in 
junctions  may  stand  as  representative: 

Also  we  charge  yow,  prioress,  vnder  payn  of  contempte  and  vndere 
the  peynes  writen  here  benethe,  that  in  your  correccions  ye  be  sad, 
sowbre  and  indifferent,  not  cruelle  to  some  and  to  some  fauoryng 
agayn  your  rule,  but  that  ye  procede  and  treet  your  susters  moderly, 
the  qualytee  and  the  quantitee  of  the  persons  and  defautes  wythe 
owten  accepcyone  of  any  persone  euenly  considerede  and  weyed 
(Legbourne)3. 

So  far  the  position  of  a  superior  has  been  considered  solely 
from  the  point  of  view  of  internal  government,  of  her  power  over 
the  convent  and  of  the  peculiar  temptations  by  which  she  was 
assailed.  But  the  head  of  a  house  was  an  important  person,  not 
only  in  her  own  community,  but  also  in  the  circumscribed  little 
world  without  her  gates;  though  Here  the  degree  of  importance 
which  she  enjoyed  naturally"  varied  witlTtrie  size  and  wealth  of 
her  house.  In  the  middle~ages  fame  and  power  were  largely 
local  matters ;  roads  were  bad  and  news  moved  slowly  and  a  man 
might  live  no  further  away  than  the  neighbouring  town  and  be 
a  foreigner.  The  country  gentry  were  not  great  travellers ;  occa 
sionally  they  jaunted  up  to  London,  to  court,  or  to  parliament  or 
to  the  law-courts;  sometimes  they  followed  the  King  and  his 
lords  to  battles  over  sea  or  on  the  Scottish  border;  but  for  the 
most  part  they  stayed  at  home  and  died  in  the  bed  wherein  their 
mother  bore  them.  The  comfortable  burgesses  of  the  town  travelled 

1  Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  123,  185,  133. 

*  See  e.g.  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camd'jn  Soc.),  pp.  143,  290. 

3  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  186.  Compare  ib.  pp.  124,  135  (Gracedieu  and  Hey- 
nings);  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  8.  139-40  (Elstow,  1359);  Line. 
Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  6.  343  (Elstow,  1387),  397  (Heynings,  1392); 
V.C.H.  Yorks,  in,  pp.  117  (Moxby,  1252),  164  (Hampole,  1314). 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  69 

still  less;  perhaps  they  betook  themselves  upon  a  pilgrimage, 
"clothed  in  a  liveree  of  a  solempne  and  greet  fraternitee,"  and 
bearing  a  cook  with  them,  lest  they  should  lack  the  "chiknes 
with  the  marybones,"  the  " poudre-marchant  tart,"  the  "galin- 
gale,"  the  "mortreux,"  the  "  blankmanger "  of  their  luxurious 
daily  life;  but  they  seldom  had  the  Wife  of  Bath's  acquaintance 
with  strange  streams.  And  the  lesser  folk — peasants  and  artisans- 
looked  across  the  chequered  expanse  of  the  common  fields  at  a 
horizon,  which  was  in  truth  a  barrier,  an  impassable  line  drawn 
round  the  edge  of  the  world.  The  fact  that  life  was  lived  by  the 
majority  of  men  within  such  narrow  limits  gave  a  preeminent 
importance  to  the  local  magnate;  and  among  the  most  local  of 
local  magnates  (since  a  corporation  never  moved  and  never  ex 
pired  and  never  relaxed  the  grip  of  its  dead  fingers)  must  be 
j  reckoned  the  heads  of  the  monastic  houses.  Socially  in  all  cases, 
and  politically  when  their  houses  werej.arge  and  rich,  abbots  ancf 
abbesses7~prief»  and  [k'ibresses,  ranked  among  the  great  folk  of 
the  country  side.  They  enjoyed  the  same  prestige  as  the  lords 
of  the  neighbouring  manors  and  some  extra  deference  on  account 
of  tHeir  religions  It :--wa^HatH^4feat^Ornoresr"6f"a-iinmnery 
should  be  "holden  digne  of  reverence."  The  gentlemen  whose  j 
estates  adjoined  her  own  sent  their  daughters  to  her  as  novices, 
or  (if  her  house  were  poor  and  the  Bishop  not  too  strict)  as  school 
girls  to  receive  their  "nortelrye";  and  they  did  not  themselves 
scorn  the  discreet  entertainment  of  her  guest-chamber  and  a 
dinner  of  capons  and  wine  and  gossip  at  her  hospitable  board. 
The  artisans  and  labourers  on  her  land  lived  by  her  patronage. 
All  along  the  muddy  highroads  the  beggars  coming  to  town 
passed  word  to  each  other  that  there  stood  a  nunnery  in  the 
i  meadows,  where  they  might  have  scraps  left  over  from  the  con- 
I  vent  meals  and  perhaps  beer  and  a  pair  of  shoes.  The  head  of  a 
house,  indeed,  was  an  important  person  from  many  points  of 
view,  as  a  neighbour,  as  a  landlord  and  as  a  philanthropist. 

The  journeys  which  a  prioress  was  sometimes  obliged  to  take  y 
upon  the  business  of  the  convent  offered  many  occasions  of  sociaU 
intercourse  with  her  neighbours.  It  is,  indeed,  striking  how  great! 
a  freedom  of  movement  was  enjoyed  by  these  cloistered  women,  j 
There  are  constant  references  to  journeys  in  account  rolls.  When 
Dame  Christian  Bassett,  Prioress  of  St  Mary  de  Pre,  rode  to 


70  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

London  for  the  suit  against  her  predecessor  in  the  Common 
Pleas,  she  was  accompanied  on  one  occasion  by  her  priest,  a 
woman  and  two  men ;  on  two  other  occasions  she  took  four  men  ; 
and  during  the  whole  time  that  the  suit  dragged  on,  she  was 
continually  riding  about  to  take  counsel  with  great  men  or  with 
lawyers  and  journeying  to  and  fro  between  St  Albans  and  London. 
On  another  occasion  the  account  notes  a  payment 

in  expenses  for  the  prioresse  and  the  steward  with  their  servants  and 
for  hors  hyre  and  for  the  wages  of  them  that  wente  to  kepe  the 
courte  wyth  the  prioresse  atte  Wynge  atte  two  tymes  xvjs  vd, 
whereof  the  stewards  fee  was  that  of  vjs  viijd;  item  paid  to  the 
fermour  of  Wynge  for  his  expenss  ixd1. 

The  accounts  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  are  full  of  items  such  as 
"in  the  expenses  of  the  Prioress  on  divers  occasions  going  to  the 
Bishop,  with  hire  of  horses  35."  "in  the  expenses  of  the  Prioress 
going  to  Rockingham  about  our  woods  is.  2 \d.,""  paid  for  the  hire 
of  two  horses  for  the  prioress  and  her  expenses  going  toLiddington 
to  the  Bishop  for  a  certificate  2s.  8d.,"  "paid  for  the  expenses 
of  the  Prioress  at  Burgh  (i.e.  Peterborough)  for  two  days  55.  SW."; 
twice  the  Prioress  went  very  far  afield,  as  usual  (it  would  appear) 
on  legal  business,  for  in  1377-8  there  is  an  entry,  "Item  for 
the  expenses  of  the  Prioress  and  her  companions  at  London  for 
a  month  and  more,  in  all  expenses  £5.  135.  4^."  (a  large  sum,  a 
long  distance  and  a  lengthy  stay),  and  in  1409-10  there  is 
another  payment  "to  the  Prioress  for  expenses  in  London  155. "2 
In  spite  of  repeated  efforts  to  enforce  stricter  enclosure  upon 
nuns,  it  is  evident  that  the  head  of  the  house  rode  about  on  the 
business  of  the  convent  and  overlooked  its  husbandry  in  person, 
even  where  (as  at  St  Michael's  Stamford)  there  was  a  male  prior 
or  custos  charged  with  the  ordering  of  its  temporal  affairs.  The 
general  injunction  that  an  abbess  was  never  to  leave  her  house 
save  "for  the  obvious  utility  of  the  monastery  or  for  urgent 

1  Dugdale,  Mow.  in,  pp.  359-60.  There  are  various  other  references  to 
"Wynge"  (i.e.  Wing  in  Buckinghamshire)  in  the  account,  e.g.  "Item 
recey  vid  of  Richard  Saie  for  the  ferme  of  the  personage  of  Wynge  for  a  yere 
and  a  half  within  the  tyme  of  this  accompte  xlviij/i.  Item.  rec.  of  the  same 
Richard  Saie  as  in  party  of  payment  of  the  same  ferme  for  a  quarter  of  a  yere 
xs,"  "item,  paid  to  the  bisshop  of  Lincolns  officers  for  the  licens  of  Wynge 
for  ij  yere  xxijs  viijcf.  Item  paid  to  the  ffermour  of  Wynge  for  his  goune  for 
ij  yere  xiijs  iiijd."  For  the  London  lawsuit  see  below,  p.  202. 

a  See  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260,  passim.  The  London  references  are  in 
1260/7  and  1260/17  respectively. 


ji]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  71 

necessity"1  was  capable  of  a  very  wide  interpretation,  and  it  is 
clear  from  the  evidence  of  visitations  and  accounts  that  it  was 
interpreted  to  include  a  great  deal  of  temporal  business  outside 
the  walls.   If  a  house  possessed  a  male  custos  the  Prioress  would 
have  less  occasion  and  less  excuse  for  journeys,  though  for  im 
portant  affairs  her  presence  was  probably  always  necessary; 
I  Bishop  Drokensford,  appointing  a  custos  to  Minchin  Barrow, 
warns  the  Prioress  no  longer  "to  intermeddle  with  rural  business 
I  (negociis  campestribus)  and  other  secular  affairs  "  but  to  leave  these 
!  to  the  custos  and  to  devote  herself  to  the  service  of  God  and  to 
the  stricter  enforcement  of  the  rule2.    But  in  houses  where  no 
such  official  existed  the  prioress  doubtless  undertook  a  certain 
I  amount  of  general  estate  management.  One  of  Alnwick's  orders 
to  the  Prioress  of  Legbourne  in   1440  was  "that  ye  bysylly 
ouersee  your  baylly,  that  your  husbandry  be  sufficyently  gouer- 
j  nede  to  the  avayle  of  your  house"3;  and  in  the  intervals  of  their 
I  long  struggle  to  keep  nuns  within  their  cloisters,  the  Bishops 
seem  to  have  recognised  the  necessity  for  some  travel  on  the 
part  of  the  heads  of  houses,  and  to  have  facilitated  such  travel 
by  granting  them  dispensations  to  have  divine  service  celebrated 
wherever  they  might  be.  Thus  in  1400  the  Prioress  of  Haliwell 
1  obtained  a  licence  to  hear  divine  service  in  her  oratory  within 
her  mansion  of  Camberwell,  or  elsewhere  in  the  diocese,  during 
the  next  two  years4,  and  in  1406  the  Abbess  of  Tarrant  Keynes 
I  was  similarly  allowed  to  have  the  service  celebrated  for  herself 
I  and  her  household  anywhere  within  the  city  and  diocese  of 
Salisbury5. 

It  is  significant  that  among  the  arguments  used  to  oppose 
;  Henry  VIII's  injunction  that  monks  and  nuns  should  be  strictly 
I  enclosed  (which  was,  for  the  nuns,  only  a  repetition  of  Pope 
1  Boniface's  decree  of  three  centuries  earlier)  was  that  of  the 

1  Constitutions  of  the  legate  Ottobon  in   1268.    Wilkins,  Concilia,  n, 
|  p.  1 8. 

2  Hugo,  Medieval  Nunneries  of  the  County  of  Somerset,  Minchin  Barrow, 
p.  81. 

3  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  187. 

4  Wykeham's  Reg.  (Hants  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  500. 

5  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  89.  In  1374  the  Abbess  of  Canonsleigh  had  licence 
to  have  divine  service  celebrated  in  her  presence  in  the  chapel  of  St  Theobald 
in  the  parish  of  Burlescombe  "dicto  monasterio  contigua,"  but  her  nuns 
were  not  to  leave  the  claustral  precincts  on  this  pretext.    Reg.  of  Bishop 
Brantyngham,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  pt  I,  p.  335. 


72  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

difficulty  of  supervising  the  husbandry  of  a  house,  if  its  head 
were  confined  to  cloistral  precincts. 

"Please  it  you  to  be  advertised,"  wrote  Cecily  Bodenham,  the  last 
Abbess  of  Wilton,  to  Cromwell  in  1535,  "that  master  doctor  Leigh, 
the  King's  grace's  special  visitor  and  your  deputy  in  this  behalf, 
visiting  of  late  my  house,  hath  given  injunction  that  not  only  all  my 
sisters,  but  I  also,  should  continually  keep  and  abide  within  the 
precincts  of  my  house :  which  commandment  I  am  right  well  content 
with  in  regard  of  my  own  person,  if  your  mastership  shall  think  it  so 
expedient;  but  in  consideration  of  the  administration  of  mine  office 
and  specially  of  this  poor  house  which  is  in  great  debt  and  requireth 
much  reparation  and  also  which  without  good  husbandry  is  not  like, 
in  long  season,  to  come  forward,  and  in  consideration  that  the  said 
husbandry  cannot  be,  by  my  poor  judgment,  so  well  by  an  other 
overseen  as  by  mine  own  person,  it  may  please  your  mastership  of 
your  goodness  to  license  me,  being  associate  with  one  or  two  of  the 
sad  and  discreet  sisters  of  my  house,  to  supervise  abroad  such  things 
as  shall  be  for  the  profit  and  commodity  of  my  house.  Which  thing 
though,  peradventure,  might  be  done  by  other,  yet  I  ensure  you  that 
none  will  do  it  so  faithfully  for  my  house's  profit  as  mine  own  self. 
Assuring  your  mastership  that  it  is  not,  nor  shall  be  at  any  time 
hereafter,  my  mind  to  lie  forth  of  my  monastery  any  night,  except 
by  inevitable  necessity  I  cannot  then  return  home"1. 

It  is,  however,  very  plain  that  the  journeys  taken  by  abbesses 
and  prioresses  were  not  always  strictly  concerned  with  the  busi 
ness  of  their  convents,  or  at  least  they  combined  business  most 
adroitly  with  pleasure.  These  ladies  were  of  good  kin  and  they 
took  their  place  naturally  in  local  society,  when  they  left  their 
houses  to  oversee  their  husbandry,  to  interview  a  bishop  or  a 
lawyer  about  their  tithes,  or  quite  openly  to  visit  friends  and 
relatives.  They  emerged  to  attend  the  funerals  of  great  folk; 
the  Prioress  of  Carrow  attended  the  funeral  of  John  Paston  in 
I4662,  and  Sir  Thomas  Cumberworth  in  his  will  (1451)  left  the 
injunction: 

I  will  that  like  prior  and  priores  that  comes  to  my  beryall  at  yt  day 
hafe  iiis  \\\\d  and  ilke  chanon  and  Nune  xijrf...and  like  prior  and 
priores  that  comes  to  the  xxx  day  (the  month's-mind)  hafe  vjs  viij^f 
and  like  chanon  or  none  that  comes  to  the  said  xxx  day  haf  xxd3. 

1  Wood,  op.  cit.  n,  pp.  156-7.  Even  Ap  Rice  seems  to  have  considered 
Dr  Legh's  enforcement  of  enclosure  as  overstrict  "for  as  many  of  these 
houses  stand  by  husbandry  they  must  fall  to  decay  if  the  heads  are  not 
allowed  to  go  out."  Gairdner,  Letters  and  Papers,  etc.  ix,  no.  139;  cf.  preface, 
p.  20.  *  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  p.  8. 

1  Line.  Dioc.  Documents,  ed.  A.  Clark  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  50,  53. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  73 

I  Sometimes  they  attended  the  deathbeds  of  relatives;  among 

I    witnesses  to  the  codicil  to  the  will  of  Walter  Skirlaw,  Bishop  of 

Durham,  in  1404  was  "  religiosa  femina  Domina  Johanna  Priorissa 

de  Swyna,  soror  dicti  domini  episcopi"1;  and  it  was  not  unusual 

i    for  an  abbess  or  prioress  to  be  made  supervisor  or  executrix 

of  a  will2.   Nor  was  the  sad  business  of  deathbeds  the  only  share 

taken  by  these  prioresses  in  public  life.    Clemence  Medforde, 

Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  went  to  a  wedding  at  Bromhale;  and 

!    unfortunately  a  sheepfold,  a  dairy  and  a  good  timber  granary 

I   chose  that  moment  to  catch  fire  and  burn  down,  setting  fire 

also  to  the  smouldering  indignation  of  her  nuns;  whence  many 

recriminations  when  the  Bishop  came  on  his  rounds3.  Stranger 

still  at  times  were  the  matters  for  which  their  friends  sought 

their  good  offices.  The  aristocratic  Isabel  de  Montfort,  Prioress 

of  Easebourne,  was  one  of  the  ladies  by  whose  oath  Margaret 

de  Camoys  purged  herself  on  a  charge  of  adultery  in  1295  4. 

The  fact  that  these  ladies  were  drawn  from  the  wealthy 
classes  and  constantly  associated  on  terms  of  equality  with  their 
friends  and  relatives,  sometimes  led  them  to  impart  a  most  un- 
monastic  luxury  into  their  own  lives.  They  came  from  the  homes 
of  lords  like  Sir  John  Arundel,  who  lost  not  only  his  life  but 
"two  and  fiftie  new  sutes  of  apparell  of  cloth  of  gold  or  tissue," 

1  Test.  Ebor.  I,  p.  314. 

z  For  instance  Margaret  Fairfax  of  Nunmonkton  was  one  of  the  super- 
•visor es  testamenti  of  John  Fairfax,  rector  of  Prescot,  in  1393  and  of  Thomas 
Fairfax  of  Walton  in  1394.  Ib.  i,  pp.  190,  204.  The  abbess  of  Syon  was  one 
of  the  three  overseers  of  the  will  of  Sir  Richard  Sutton,  steward  of  her  house 
in  1524.  Aungier,  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of  Syon  Mon.  p.  532.  Emmota  Fare- 
thorpe,  Prioress  of  Wilberfoss,  was  executrix  of  John  Appilby  of  Wilberfoss 
in  1438.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  126  note.  Margaret  Delaryver,  Prioress  of 
St  Clement's  York,  was  executrix  of  Elizabeth  Medlay  (probably  a  boarder 
there).  Ib.  in,  p.  130.  Joan  Kay  in  1525  left  most  of  her  property  to  her 
daughter  the  Prioress  of  Stixwould  to  found  an  obit  there  and  made  her 
executrix.  Line.  Wills.ed.  C.  W.  Foster  (Line.  Rec.  Soc.),  i,  p.  155.  Sir  John 
Beke,  vicar  of  Aby.who  left  the  greater  part  of  his  property  to  Greenfield  for 
the  same  purpose,  made  the  Prioress  Isabel  Smith  executrix.  Ib.  I,  p.  162. 
These  offices  were  sometimes  filled  by  nuns  other  than  heads  of  houses,  e.g. 
the  will  of  John  Suthwell,  rector  of  St  Mary's  South  Kelsey,  Lines.,  was 
witnessed  by  his  sister  Margaret,  a  nun,  in  1390.  Gibbons,  Early  Line.  Wills, 
p.  76.  Alice  Conyers  of  Nunappleton  was  made  coadjutress  of  the  executors 
of  Master  John  de  Woodhouse  in  1345.  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  15.  For  Carrow  nuns 
(usually  the  prioress)  as  executors,  supervisors  and  witnesses,  see  Rye, 
Carrow  Abbey,  pp.  xv,  xvi,  xxii,  xxiii,  xxix. 

3  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  2. 

4  V.C.H.  Sussex,  n,  p.  84.   See  Rot.  Parl.  i,  p.  147. 


74  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

when  he  was  drowned  off  the  Irish  coast ;  or  Lord  Berkeley  who 
travelled  with  a  retinue  of  twelve  knights,  twenty-four  esquires 
"of  noble  family  and  descent"  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  men-at- 
arms,  in  coats  of  white  frieze  lined  with  crimson  and  embroidered 
with  his  badge;  or  else  of  country  squires  and  franklins,  like 
the  white-bearded  gentleman  of  whom  Chaucer  says  that 

To  liven  in  delyt  was  ever  his  wone, 
For  he  was  Epicurus  owne  sone, 

Withoute  bake  mete  was  never  his  hous, 
Of  fish  and  flesh,  and  that  so  plentevous 
It  snewed  in  his  hous  of  mete  and  drinke, 
Of  alle  deyntees  that  men  coude  thinke  ; 

or  else  their  fathers  were  wealthy  merchants,  living  in  great 
mansions  hung  with  arras  and  lighted  with  glass  windows,  rich 
enough  to  provoke  sumptuary  laws  and  to  entertain  kings.  It 
is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  abbesses  and  prioresses  should 
have  found  it  hard  to  change  the  way  of  life,  which  they  had 
led  before  they  took  the  veil  and  which  they  saw  all  around 
them,  when  they  rode  about  in  the  world.  Carousings,  gay 
garments,  pet  animals,  frivolous  amusements,  many  guests, 
superfluous  servants  and  frequent  escapes  to  the  freedom  of  the 
road,  are  found  not  only  at  the  greater  houses  but  even  at  those 
which  were  small  and  poor.  The  diverting  history  of  the  flea  and 
,  the  gout  shows  that  the  luxurious  abbess  was  already  a  byword 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  tale  runs  as  follows : 

The  lopp  (flea)  and  the  gout  on  a  time  spake  together,  and  among 
other  talking  either  of  them  asked  [the]  other  of  their  lodging  and 
how  they  were  harboured  and  where,  the  night  next  before.  And  the 
flea  made  a  great  plaint  and  said,  "  I  was  harboured  in  the  bed  of  an 
abbess,  betwixt  the  white  sheets  upon  a  soft  mattress  and  there 
I  trowed  to  have  had  good  harbourage,  for  her  flesh  was  fat  and 
tender,  and  thereof  I  trowed  to  have  had  my  fill.  And  first,  when 
I  began  for  to  bite  her,  she  began  to  cry  and  call  on  her  maidens  and 
when  they  came,  anon  they  lighted  candles  and  sought  me,  but  I  hid 
me  till  they  were  gone.  And  then  I  bit  her  again  and  she  came  again 
and  sought  me  with  a  light,  so  that  I  was  fain  to  leap  out  of  the  bed  ; 
and  all  this  night  I  had  no  rest,  but  was  chased  and  chevied  ['  charrid '] 
and  scarce  gat  away  with  my  life."  Then  answered  the  gout  and  said, 
"  I  was  harboured  in  a  poor  woman's  house  and  anon  as  I  pricked  her 
in  her  great  toe  she  rose  and  wetted  a  great  bowl  full  of  clothes  and 


n]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  75 

went  with  them  unto  the  water  and  stood  therein  with  me  up  to  her 
knees ;  so  that,  what  for  cold  and  for  holding  in  the  water,  I  was  near- 
hand  slain."  And  then  the  flea  said,  "This  night  will  we  change  our 
harbourage";  and  so  they  did.  And  on  the  morn  they  met  again  and 
then  the  flea  said  unto  the  gout,  "This  night  have  I  had  good  har 
bourage,  for  the  woman  that  was  thine  host  yesternight  was  so  weary 
and  so  irked,  that  I  was  sickerly  harboured  with  her  and  ate  of  her 
blood  as  mickle  as  I  would."  And  then  answered  the  gout  and  said 
unto  the  flea:  "Thou  gavest  me  good  counsel  yestereven,  for  the 
abbess  underneath  a  gay  coverlet,  and  a  soft  sheet  and  a  delicate, 
covered  me  and  nourished  me  all  night.  And  as  soon  as  I  pricked  her 
in  her  great  toe,  she  wrapped  me  in  furs,  and  if  I  hurt  her  never  so  ill 
she  let  me  alone  and  laid  me  in  the  softest  part  of  the  bed  and  troubled 
me  nothing.  And  therefore  as  long  as  she  lives  I  will  be  harboured 
with  her,  for  she  makes  mickle  of  me."  And  then  said  the  flea,  "  I  will 
be  harboured  with  poor  folk  as  long  as  I  live,  for  there  may  I  be  in 
good  rest  and  eat  my  full  and  nobody  let  [hinder]  me"1. 

The  Durham  man,  William  of  Stanton,  who  went  down  St 
Patrick's  hole  on  September  2Oth,  1409,  and  was  shown  the 
souls  in  torment  there,  has  much  the  same  tale  to  tell.  He 
witnessed  the  trial  of  a  prioress,  whose  soul  had  come  there  for 
judgment,  and 

the  fendis  accusid  hir  and  said  that  she  come  to  religion  for  pompe 
and  pride  and  for  to  have  habundaunce  of  the  worldes  riches,  and  for 
ese  of  hir  bodi  and  not  for  deuocion,  mekenesse  and  lowenesse,  as 
religious  men  and  women  owte  to  do;  and  the  fendes  said,  "  It  is  wel 
knowen  to  god  and  to  al  his  angels  of  heven  and  to  men  dwellyng  in 
that  contree  where  she  dwellid  ynne,  and  all  the  fendes  of  hell,  that 
she  was  more  cosluer  (sic]  in  puler  [fur]  weryng,  as  of  girdelles  of 
siluer  and  overgilt  and  ringes  on  hir  fingers,  and  siluer  bokeles  and 
ouergilt  on  hir  shone,  esy  lieng  in  nyghtes  as  it  were  [a  quene]  or  an 
emprise  in  the  world,  not  daynyng  hir  for  to  arise  to  goddis  servis2; 
and  with  all  delicate  metes  and  drinkes  she  was  fedde...and  then  the 
bisshop  [her  judge]  enioyned  hir  to  payne  enduryng  evermore  til 
the  day  of  dome"3. 

Our  visitation  documents  show  us  many  abbesses  and  prior 
esses  like  the  gout's  hostess  or  the  tormented  lady  in  St  Patrick's 

1  An  Alphabet  of  Tales,  ed.  M.  M.  Banks  (E.E.T.S.,   1904),  no.  xv, 
pp.   13-14.    I  have  modernised  spelling.  This  fifteenth  century  English 
version  is  ultimately  derived  from  an  exemplum  by  Jacques  de  Vitry,  of 
which  it  is  a  close  translation.   Exempla  e  sermonibus  vulgaribus  /.  Vitria- 
censis,  ed.  T.  F.  Crane,  no.  LIX,  pp.  23-4. 

2  "Item  Priorissa  raro  venit  ad  matutinas  aut  missas.  Domina  Kater- 
ina  Hoghe  dicit  quod  quedam  moniales  sunt  quodammodo  sompnolentes, 
tarde  veniendo  ad  matutinas  et  alias  horas  canonicas."  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  133. 

3  J.  P.  Krapp,  The  Legend  of  St  Patrick's  Purgatory;  its  later  Literary 
History  (1899),  pp.  75-6. 


76  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

Purgatory.  In  the  matter  of  dress  the  accusations  brought  against 
Clemence  Medforde,  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  in  1441,  will  suffice 
for  an  example: 

The  Prioress  wears  golden  rings  exceeding  costly  with  divers  precious 
stones  and  also  girdles  silvered  and  gilded  over  and  silken  veils,  and 
she  carries  her  veil  too  high  above  her  forehead,  so  that  her  forehead, 
being  entirely  uncovered,  can  be  seen  of  all,  and  she  wears  furs  of 
vair....Also  she  wears  shifts  of  cloth  of  Reynes  which  costs  sixteen 
pence  the  ell.... Also  she  wears  kirtles  laced  with  silk  and  tiring  pins 
of  silver  and  silver  gilt  and  has  made  all  the  nuns  wear  the  like.... 
Also  she  wears  above  her  veil  a  cap  of  estate  furred  with  budge.  Item 
she  has  round  her  neck  a  long  cord  of  silk,  hanging  below  her  breast 
and  on  it  a  gold  ring  with  one  diamond. 

She  confessed  all  except  the  cloth  of  Rennes,  which  she  totally 
denied,  but  pleaded  that  she  wore  fur  caps  "because  of  divers 
infirmities  in  the  head."  Alnwick  made  an  injunction  carefully 
particularising  all  these  sins : 

And  also  that  none  of  yow,  the  prioresse  ne  none  of  the  couente,  were 
no  vayles  of  sylke  ne  no  syluere  pynnes  ne  no  gyrdles  herneysed  with 
syluere  or  golde,  ne  no  mo  rynges  on  your  fyngres  then  oon,  ye  that 
be  professed  by  a  bysshope,  ne  that  none  of  yow  vse  no  lased  kyrtels, 
but  butoned  or  hole  be  fore,  ne  that  ye  vse  no  lases  a  bowte  your 
nekkes  wythe  crucyfixes  or  rynges  hangyng  by  thame,  ne  cappes  of 
astate  abowe  your  vayles... and  that  ye  so  atyre  your  hedes  that  your 
vayles  come  downe  nyghe  to  your  yene1. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  truth  of  Chaucer's  portrait  of  a  prioress, 
or  its  satirical  intent,  he  has  only  to  read  that  incomparable 
observer's  words  side  by  side  with  this  injunction  of  Alnwick: 

But  sikerly  she  hadde  a  fair  forheed ; 
It  was  almost  a  spanne  brood,  I  trowe; 
For,  hardily,  she  was  nat  undergrowe. 
Ful  fetis  was  her  cloke,  as  I  was  war. 
Of  smale  coral  aboute  hir  arm  she  bar 
A  peire  of  bedes,  gauded  al  with  grene; 
And  ther-on  heng  a  broche  of  gold  ful  shene, 
On  which  ther  was  first  write  a  crowned  A 
And  after,  Amor  vincit  omnia. 

Margaret  Fairfax  of  Nunmonkton  (1397)  and  the  lady  (her 
name  is  unknown)  who  ruled  Easebourne  in  1441  are  other 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  3,  4,  5,  8.  The  Prioress  of  Brewood  White  Ladies 
in  Shropshire  was  severely  rebuked  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century 
for  expensae  voluptuariae,  dress  and  laxity  of  rule.  Reg.  of  Roger  de  Norbury 
(Will.  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Collections,  i).  p.  261. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  77 

examples  of  worldly  prioresses ;  they  clearly  regarded  themselves 
as  the  great  ladies  they  were  by  birth,  and  behaved  like  all  the 
other  great  ladies  of  the  neighbourhood.  Margaret  Fairfax  used 
divers  furs,  including  even  the  costly  grey  fur  (gris) — the  same 
with  which  the  sleeves  of  Chaucer's  monk  were  "purfiled  at  the 
hond";  she  wore  silken  veils  and  "she  frequently  kept  company 
with  John  Munkton  and  invited  him  to  feasts  in  her  room .  . .  and 
John  Munkton  (by  whom  the  convent  had  for  long  been  scan 
dalised)  frequently  played  at  tables"  (the  fashionable  game  for 
ladies,  a  kind  of  backgammon)  "with  the  Prioress  in  her  room 
and  served  her  with  drink."  No  wonder  she  had  to  sell  timber  in 
order  to  procure  money1.  The  Prioress  of  Easebourne  was  even 
more  frivolous ;  the  nuns  complained  that  the  house  was  in  debt 
to  the  amount  of  £40  and  this  principally  owing  to  her  costly 
expenses : 

because  she  frequently  rides  abroad  and  pretends  that  she  does  so 
on  the  common  business  of  the  house,  although  it  is  not  so,  with  a 
train  of  attendants  much  too  large,  and  tarries  long  abroad,  and  she 
feasts  sumptuously  both  when  abroad  and  at  home,  and  she  is  very 
choice  in  her  dress,  so  that  the  fur  trimmings  of  her  mantle  are  worth 
j  a  hundred  shillings, 

1  as  great  a  scandal  as  Clemence  Medforde's  cloth  of  Rennes  at 
sixteen  pence  the  ell.  The  Bishop  took  strong  measures  to  deal 
with  this  worldly  lady;  she  was  deposed  from  all  administration 
of  the  temporal  goods  of  the  priory,  which  administration  was 
committed  to  "Master  Thomas  Boleyn  and  John  Lylis,  Esquire, 
until  and  so  long  as  when  the  aforesaid  house  or  priory  shall  be 
freed  from  debt."  It  was  also  ordered 

that  the  Prioress  with  all  possible  speed  shall  diminish  her  excessive 
household  and  shall  only  retain,  by  the  advice  and  with  the  assent 
of  the  said  John  and  Thomas,  a  household  such  as  is  merely  necessary 
and  not  more.  Also  that  the  Prioress  shall  convert  the  fur  trimmings, 
superfluous  to  her  condition  and  very  costly,  to  the  discharge  of  the 
debts  of  the  house.  Also  that  if  eventually  it  shall  seem  expedient 
to  the  said  Masters  Thomas  and  John  at  any  time,  that  the  Prioress 
should  ride  in  person  for  the  common  business  of  the  house,  on  such 
occasions  she  shall  not  make  a  lengthened  stay  abroad,  nor  shall  she 
in  the  interval  incur  expenses  in  any  way  costly  beyond  what  is 
needful,  and  thus  when  despatched  to  go  abroad  she  must  and  ought 
rightly  to  content  herself  with  four  horses  only; 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194. 


78  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

and  those  perhaps  "bothe  foul  and  lene,"  like  the  jade  ridden 
by  the  Nonnes  Preeste  when  Chaucer  met  him  on  the  Canterbury 
road1. 

The  charge  of  gadding  about  the  country  side,  sometimes  (as 
in  the  Prioress  of  Easebourne's  case)  with  a  retinue  which  better 
beseemed  the  worldly  rank  they  had  abjured,  was  one  not  in 
frequently  made  against  the  heads  of  nunneries2.  The  Prioress 
of  Stixwould  was  accused,  in  1519,  of  spending  the  night  too 
often  outside  the  cloister  with  her  secular  friends  and  the  Bishop 
ordered  that  in  future  she  should  sleep  within  the  monastery, 
but  might  keep  a  private  house  in  the  precincts,  for  her  greater 
refreshment  and  for  receiving  visitors3.  The  Prioress  of  Wroxall 
was  ordered  to  stay  more  at  home  in  1323  4,  and  in  1303  Bishop 
Dalderby  even  found  that  the  Prioress  of  Greenfield  had  been 
absent  from  her  house  for  two  years5.  Even  more  frequent  was 
the  charge  that  abbesses  and  prioresses  repaid  too  lavishly  the 
hospitality  which  they  doubtless  received  at  neighbouring  manors. 
Many  abbesses  gave  that  "dyscrete  enterteynement,"  which 
Henry  VIII's  commissioners  so  much  admired  at  Catesby6;  but 
others  entertained  too  often  and  too  well,  in  the  opinion  of  their 
nuns;  moreover  family  affection  sometimes  led  them  to  make 
provision  for  their  kinsfolk  at  the  cost  of  the  house.  In  1441 
one  of  the  nuns  of  Legbourne  deposed  that  many  kinsmen  of 

1  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  7-9. 

2  Compare  the  anecdote  related  by  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  about 
Ensfrid  of  Cologne.   "One  day  he  met  the  abbess  of  the  holy  Eleven  Thou 
sand  Virgins;  before  her  went  her  clerks,  wrapped  in  mantles  of  grey  fur 
like  the  nuns;  behind  her  went  her  ladies  and  maidservants,  filling  the  air 
with  the  sound  of  their  unprofitable  words;  while  the  Dean  was  followed  by 
his  poor  folk  who  besought  him  for  alms.    Wherefore  this  righteous  man, 
burning  with  the  zeal  of  discipline,  cried  aloud  in  the  hearing  of  all :  « Oh, 
lady  Abbess,  it  would  better  adorn  your  religion,  that  ye,  like  me,  should  be 
followed,  not  by  buffoons,  but  by  poor  folk!'    Whereat  she  was  much 
ashamed,  not  presuming  to  answer  so  worthy  a  man."  Translated  in  Coulton, 
A  Medieval  Garner,  p.  251. 

1   V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  148.  «   V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  71. 

8  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  155.  Sometimes,  however,  the  heads  of  houses 
received  episcopal  dispensations  to  reside  for  a  period  outside  their  monas 
teries,  for  the  sake  of  health.  Joan  Formage,  Abbess  of  Shaftesbury,  re 
ceived  one  in  1368,  allowing  her  to  leave  her  abbey  for  a  year  and  to  reside 
in  her  manors  for  air  and  recreation.  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  78.  Josiana  de 
Anlaby  (the  Prioress  of  Swine  about  whose  election  there  had  been  so  much 
trouble)  had  licence  in  1303  to  absent  herself  on  account  of  ill-health. 
Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  493. 

•  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  638. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  79 

the  prioress  had  frequent  access  to  the  house,  though  she  did 
not  know  whether  it  was  financially  burdened  by  their  visits; 
Alnwick  ordered 

that  ye  susteyn  none  of  your  kynne  or  allyaunce  wythe  the  commune 
godes  of  the  house,  wythe  owten  the  hole  assent  of  the  more  hole 
parte  of  the  couent,  ne  that  ye  suffre  your  saide  kynne  or  allyaunce 
hafe  suche  accesse  to  your  place,  where  thurghe  the  howse  shall  be 
chargeede1. 

A  similar  injunction  had  been  made  at  Chatteris  in  1345,  where 
the  abbess  was  warned  not  to  bestow  the  convent  rents  and 
goods  unlawfully  upon  any  of  her  relatives2.  The  charge  was, 
however,  most  common  in  later  times,  when  discipline  was  in 
all  ways  relaxed.  At  Easebourne  in  1478  one  of  the  nuns 
complained  "that  kinsmen  of  the  prioress  very  often  and  for 
weeks  at  a  time  frequent  the  priory  and  have  many  banquets 
of  the  best  food,  while  the  sisters  have  them  of  the  worst"3. 
The  neighbouring  nunnery  of  Rusper  was  said  in  1521  to  be 
ruinous  and  "greatly  burdened  by  reason  of  friends  and  kinsmen 
of  the  lady  prioress  who  continually  received  hospitality  there  "  4; 
at  Studley  in  1520  there  were  complaints  that  the  brother  of 
the  prioress  and  his  wife  stayed  within  the  monastery,  and  ten 
years  later  it  was  ordered  that  no  corrody  should  be  given  to 
the  prioress'  mother,  until  more  was  known  of  her  way  of  life5. 
At  Flixton  in  the  same  year  one  of  the  nuns  asserted  that 
the  mother  of  the  prioress  had  her  food  at  the  expense  of  the 
house,  but  whether  she  paid  anything  or  not  was  unknown;  it 
appears,  however,  that  she  was  in  charge  of  the  dairy,  so  that 
she  may  have  been  boarded  in  return  for  her  services.  A  charac 
teristic  instance  is  preserved  in  Bishop  Longland's  letter  to  the 
Prioress  of  Nuncoton  in  1531,  charging  her 

that  frome  hensforth  ye  do  nomore  burden  ne  chardge  your  house 
with  suche  a  nombre  of  your  kinnesfolks  as  ye  haue  in  tymes  past 
used.  Your  good  mother  it  is  meate  ye  haue  aboute  yow  for  your 
comforte  and  hirs  bothe.  And  oon  or  ij  moo  of  suche  your  saddest 
kynnes  folke,  whome  ye  shall  thynk  mooste  conuenyent  but  passe 
not.... And  that  ye  give  nomore  soo  lyberally  the  goods  of  your 
monastery  as  ye  haue  doon  to  your  brother  george  thomson  and 
your  brodres  children,  with  grasing  of  catell,  occupying  your  lands, 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  187.  2  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  619. 

8  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  18-19. 

*  16.  v,  p.  256.  5  7.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  78. 


80  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

making  of  Irneworke  to  pleugh,  and  carte,  and  other  like  of  your 
stuff  and  in  your  forge1. 

Much  information  about  the  conduct  of  abbesses  and  prior 
esses  may  be  obtained  from  a  study  of  episcopal  registers,  and 
in  particular  of  visitation  documents.  An  analysis  of  Bishop 
Alnwick's  visitations  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  (1436-49)  gives 
interesting  results.  In  all  but  four  houses  there  were  few  or  no 
complaints  against  the  head.  Sometimes  it  was  said  that  she 
failed  to  dine  in  the  frater  or  to  sleep  in  the  dorter,  sometimes 
that  she  was  a  poor  financier,  and  in  two  cases  the  charge  of 
favouritism  was  made ;  but  the  complaints  at  these  sixteen  houses 
were,  on  the  whole,  insignificant.  The  four  remaining  heads  were 
unsatisfactory.  The  Prioress  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  was  so 
incompetent  (owing  to  bodily  weakness)  that  she  took  little  part 
in  the  common  life  of  the  house  and  regularly  stayed  away  from 
the  choir,  dined  and  slept  by  herself,  though  the  Bishop  refused 
to  give  her  a  dispensation  to  do  so.  The  administration  of  the 
temporalities  of  the  house  was  committed  by  Alnwick  to  two 
of  the  nuns,  but  when  he  came  back  two  years  later  one  of  these 
had  had  a  child  and  the  other  was  unpopular  on  account  of  her 
autocratic  behaviour.  The  moral  condition  of  the  house  (one  nun 
was  in  apostasy  with  a  man  in  1440,  and  in  1442  and  1445  two 
nuns  were  found  to  have  borne  children)  must  in  part  be  set 
down  to  the  lack  of  a  competent  head2.  The  Prioress  of  Gracedieu 
was  also  old  and  incompetent ;  her  subprioress  deposed  that 
by  reason  of  old  age  and  incapacity  the  prioress  has  renounced  for 
herself  all  governance  of  matters  temporal,  nor  does  she  take  part 
in  divine  service,  so  that  she  is  of  no  use ;  but  if  she  makes  any  correc 
tions,  she  makes  them  with  words  of  chiding  and  abuse. ...She  makes 
the  secrets  of  their  religious  life  common  among  the  secular  folk  that 
sit  at  table  with  her... and  under  her  religious  discipline  almost  al 
together  is  at  an  end. 

Other  nuns  gave  similar  evidence  and  all  complained  of  her 
favouritism  for  two  young  nuns,  whom  she  called  her  disciples. 
Here,  as  at  St  Michael's  Stamford,  the  autocratic  behaviour  of 
the  nun  who  was  in  charge  of  the  temporalities  had  aroused 
the  resentment  of  her  sisters  and  the  whole  convent  was  evidently 
seething  with  quarrels3.  The  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  Clemence 

1  Archaeologia,  XLVIII,  pp.  56,  58. 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  83  and  d,  39^,  96. 

*  Line.  Visit.  II,  pp.  120,  121. 


II] 


THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE 


8l 


Medforde,  was  equally  unpopular  with  her  nuns.  The  ringleader 
against  her  was  a  certain  Dame  Margery  Kirkby,  who  poured 
out  a  flood  of  complaints  when  Alnwick  came  to  the  house. 
The  chief  charge  against  her  was  that  of  financial  mis 
management.  She  was  obliged  to  admit  that  she  received,  paid 
and  administered  everything  without  consulting  the  convent, 
keeping  the  common  seal  in  her  own  custody  all  the  year  round 
and  never  rendering  account.  She  was  also  said  to  have  allowed 
the  sheepfold,  dairy  and  granary  to  be  burned  down  owing  to 
her  carelessness,  one  result  of  which  was  that  all  the  grain  had 
to  stand  in  the  church.  She  had  alienated  the  plate  and  psalters 
of  the  house,  having  lent  three  of  the  latter  and  pawned  a 
chalice;  another  chalice  and  a  thurible  had  been  broken  up  to 
make  a  drinking  cup,  but,  as  she  had  been  unable  to  pay  the 
sum  demanded,  the  pieces  remained  in  the  hands  of  a  monk, 
who  had  undertaken  to  get  the  work  done.  She  was  charged 
with  having  alienated  timber  in  large  quantities  and  with  having 
cut  down  trees  at  the  wrong  time  of  year,  so  that  no  new  wood 
grew  again;  but  she  denied  this  accusation.  Another  charge 
made  against  her  by  Margery  Kirkby,  that  of  wearing  jewels  and 
rich  clothes,  has  already  been  described;  she  admitted  it  and 
the  fault  was  the  more  grave  in  that  she  omitted  to  provide 
suitable  clothes  for  the  nuns,  who  went  about  in  rags.  It  was 
also  complained  that  she  behaved  with  undue  severity  to  her 
sisters;  she  made  difficulties  about  giving  them  licence  to  see 
their  friends;  and  she  had  a  most  trying  habit  of  coming  late 
to  the  services,  and  then  making  the  nuns  begin  all  over  again. 
It  is  obvious  that  she  was  greatly  disliked  by  the  convent,  per 
haps  because  she  was  a  stranger  in  their  midst,  having  been 
imported  from  Bromhale  to  be  Prioress;  she  evidently  sought 
relief  from  the  black  looks  of  her  sisters  by  visiting  her  old  home, 
for  she  was  away  at  a  wedding  in  Bromhale  when  the  farm 
buildings  caught  fire,  and  one  of  the  missing  psalters  had  been 
lent  to  the  prioress  of  that  place.  Her  regime  at  Ankerwyke 
had  been  fraught  with  ill  results  to  the  convent,  for  no  less 
than  six  nuns  had  (without  her  knowledge,  so  she  said)  gone 
into  apostasy;  perhaps  to  escape  from  her  too  rigorous  sway. 
Nevertheless  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  Margery  Kirkby  may 
have  been  a  difficult  person  to  live  with;  the  Prioress  complained 


P.N. 


82  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

that  the  nuns  were  often  very  easily  moved  against  her  and  that 
Dame  Margery  had  called  her  a  thief  to  her  face;  and  though 
it  may  have  been  conducive  to  economy  that  the  triumphant 
accuser  (elected  by  the  convent)  should  share  with  the  Prioress 
the  custody  of  the  common  seal,  it  can  hardly  have  been  con 
ducive  to  harmony1.  At  any  rate  poor  luxury-loving  Clemence 
died  in  the  following  year  and  Margery  Kirkby  ruled  in  her 
stead2. 

But  the  most  serious  misdemeanours  of  all  were  brought  to 
light  when  Alnwick  visited  Catesby  in  1442*.  Here  the  bad 
example  of  the  Prioress,  Margaret  Wavere,  seems  to  have  con 
taminated  the  nuns,  for  all  of  them  were  in  constant  communica 
tion  with  seculars  and  one  of  them  had  given  birth  to  a  child. 
The  Prioress'  complaint  that  she  dared  not  punish  this  offender 
is  easily  intelligible  in  the  light  of  her  own  evil  life.  The  most 
serious  charge  against  her  was  that  she  was  unduly  intimate 
with  a  priest  named  William  Taylour,  who  constantly  visited 
the  nunnery  and  with  whom  she  had  been  accustomed  to  go 
into  the  gardens  in  the  village  of  Catesby;  and  one  of  the  younger 
nuns  had  surprised  the  two  inflagrante  delicto.  She  was  a  woman 
of  violent  temper;  two  nuns  deposed  that  when  she  was  moved 
to  anger  against  any  of  them  she  would  tear  off  their  veils  and 
drag  them  about  by  the  hair,  calling  them  beggars  and  harlots4, 
and  this  in  the  very  choir  of  the  church;  if  they  committed 
any  fault  she  scolded  and  upbraided  them  and  would  not  cease 
before  seculars  or  during  divine  service;  "she  is  very  cruel  and 
severe  to  the  nuns  and  loves  them  not,"  said  one;  "she  is  so 
harsh  and  impetuous  that  there  is  no  pleasing  her,"  sighed 
another;  "she  sows  discord  among  the  sisters,"  complained  a 
third,  "saying  so-and-so  said  such-and-such  a  thing  about 
thee,  if  the  one  to  whom  she  speaks  has  transgressed."  More 
serious  still,  from  the  visitor's  point  of  view,  were  the  threats 
by  which  she  sought  to  prevent  the  nuns  from  revealing  any- 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  2-4,  6. 

»  Cal.  of  Pat.  Rolls  (1441-6),  p.  141.  8  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  46-52. 

4  Compare  the  complaint  of  the  sisters  of  the  hospital  of  St  James 
outside  Canterbury  in  1511,  that  the  Prioress  was  a  diffamatrix  of  the  sisters 
and  used  to  say  publicly  in  the  neighbourhood  that  they  were  incontinent 
et  publics  meretrices,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  house.  The  ages  of  the 
sisters  were  84,  80,  50  and  36  respectively  and  the  Prioress  herself  was  74. 
Eng.  Hist.  Rev.  vi,  p.  23. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  83 

thing  at  the  visitation;  two  of  them  declared  that  she  had  beaten 
and  imprisoned  those  who  gave  evidence  when  Bishop  Gray 
came  to  the  house,  and  sister  Isabel  Benet  whispered  that 
the  Prioress  had  boasted  of  having  bribed  the  bishop's  clerk 
with  a  purse  of  money,  to  reveal  everything  that  the  nuns 
had  said  on  that  occasion.  Her  practice  of  compelling  the 
nuns  to  perform  manual  labour  was  greatly  resented — why 
should  they 

Swinken  with  hir  handes  and  laboure 
As  Austin  bit  ?   How  shal  the  world  be  served  ? 
Lat  Austin  have  his  swink  to  him  reserved. 

It  appeared,  however,  that  they  were  anxious  to 

studie  and  make  hemselven  wood 
Upon  a  book  in  cloistre  alwey  to  poure, 

or  so  they  informed  Alnwick.  One  Agnes  Halewey  complained 
that,  though  she  was  young  and  wished  to  be  instructed  in  her 
religion  and  such  matters,  the  Prioress  set  her  to  make  beds 
and  to  sew  and  spin;  another  sister  declared  that  when  guests 
came  the  Prioress  sent  the  young  nuns  to  make  up  their  beds, 
which  was  "full  of  danger  and  a  scandal  to  the  house"1;  another 
deposed  that  the  choir  was  not  properly  observed,  because  the 
Prioress  was  wont  to  employ  the  younger  nuns  upon  her  own 
business.  There  were  also  the  usual  charges  of  financial  mis 
management  and  of  wasting  the  goods  of  the  convent;  she  had 
let  buildings  fall  to  ruin  for  want  of  repair  and  two  sheepfolds 
had  stood  roofless  for  two  whole  years,  so  that  the  wood  rotted 
and  the  lambs  died  of  the  damp.  Whereas  thirteen  years  ago, 
when  she  became  prioress,  the  house  was  worth  £60  a  year,  now 
it  was  worth  a  bare  £50  and  was  in  debt,  owing  to  the  bad  rule 

1  Compare  Archbishop  Bowet's  injunction  to  the  Prioress  of  Hampole 
in  1411  that  "Alice  Lye,  her  nun  who  held  the  office  of  hostilaria,  or  anyone 
who  succeeded  her  in  office,  should  henceforth  be  free  from  entering  the 
rooms  of  guests  to  lay  beds,  but  that  the  porter  should  receive  the  bed 
clothes  from  the  hostilaria  at  the  lower  gate,  and  when  the  guests  had  de- 
;  parted,  should  give  them  back  to  her  at  the  same  place."  V.C.H.  Yorks. 
in,  p.  165.  For  the  charge  that  the  Prioress  made  the  nuns  work,  compare 
the  case  of  Eleanor  Prioress  of  Arden  in  1396  (pp.  85-6  below)  and  the  case 
of  the  Prioress  of  Easebourne  in  1441 :  "  Also  the  Prioress  compels  her  sisters 
to  work  continually  like  hired  workwomen  (ad  modum  mulieres  conducti- 
ciarum)  and  they  receive  nothing  whatever  for  their  own  use  from  their 
work,  but  the  prioress  takes  the  whole  profit  (totum  percipit)."  Sussex 
Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  7. 

6 — 2 


84  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

of  the  Prioress  and  of  William  Taylour,  and  this  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  she  had  on  her  entry  received  from  Joan  Catesby  a 
sack  and  a  half  of  wool  and  twelve  marks,  with  which  to  pay 
debts  and  make  repairs.  She  had  cut  down  woods.  She  had 
pawned  a  sacramental  cup  and  other  silver  pieces;  the  table 
cloths"  fit  for  a  king"  (map p alia  conueniencia  pro  seruiendo  regi), 
and  the  set  of  a  dozen  silver  spoons  which  she  had  found  at 
the  priory,  all  had  vanished  away.  She  had  not  provided  the 
nuns  with  clothes  and  money  for  their  food  for  three  quarters 
of  the  year,  and  she  never  rendered  an  account  to  them.  More 
over  all  things  in  the  house  were  ordered  by  her  mother  and  by 
a  certain  Joan  Coleworthe,  who  kept  the  keys  of  all  the  offices; 
and  both  the  Prioress  and  her  mother  revealed  the  secrets  of  the 
chapter  to  people  in  the  village.  Examined  upon  these  separate 
counts,  the  Prioress  denied  the  majority  of  them;  she  said  that 
she  had  not  been  cruel  to  the  nuns  or  laid  violent  hands  upon 
them,  or  called  them  liars  and  harlots  or  sowed  discord  among 
them;  that  she  had  not  set  them  to  make  beds  or  to  do  other 
work ;  that  she  had  never  punished  the  nuns  for  giving  evidence 
at  the  last  visitation  or  bribed  the  Bishop's  clerk;  that  she  had 
never  allowed  her  mother  and  Joan  to  rule  everything;  and  that 
she  had  never  revealed  the  secrets  of  the  chapter;  on  the  contrary 
those  secrets  were  spread  abroad  by  the  secular  visitors  of  the 
nuns.  She  admitted  her  failure  to  render  account,  and  gave  as 
a  reason  that  she  had  no  clerk  to  write  it  for  her ;  she  said  that 
she  had  pawned  the  cup  with  the  consent  of  the  convent,  in 
order  to  pay  tithes,  and  that  she  had  cut  down  trees  for  the  use 
of  the  house,  partly  with  and  partly  without  the  consent  of  the 
house;  as  to  the  ruinous  buildings,  she  said  that  some  had  been 
repaired  and  some  not,  and  as  to  the  outside  debts  she  professed 
herself  ready  to  render  an  account.  The  most  serious  charge  of 
all,  concerning  William  Taylour,  she  entirely  denied.  The  Bishop 
thereupon  gave  her  the  next  day  to  purge  herself  with  four  of 
her  sisters  for  the  things  which  she  denied;  but  she  was  unable 
to  produce  any  compurgatresses1  and  Alnwick  accordingly  found 
her  guilty  and  obliged  her  to  abjure  all  intercourse  with  Taylour 
in  the  future. 

It  might  be  imagined  that  such  a  case  as  that  of  Margaret 
1  Compare  the  case  of  Denise  Loweliche,  p.  458  below. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  85 

Wavere  was  in  the  highest  degree  exceptional,  likely  to  occur 
but  once  in  a  century.  Unfortunately  it  appears  to  have  occurred 
far  more  often.  In  the  fifty  years,  between  1395  and  1445, 
Margaret  Wavere  can  be  matched,  in  different  parts  of  the 
country,  by  no  less  than  six  other  prioresses  guilty  of  immorality 
and  bad  government ;  and  it  must  be  realised  that  this  is  probably 
an  understatement,  because  so  much  evidence  has  been  destroyed, 
or  is  as  yet  unexplored  in  episcopal  registries.  Of  these  cases 
two  belong  to  the  diocese  of  York,  one  (besides  the  case  of 
Margaret  Wavere)  to  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  one  to  the  diocese 
of  Salisbury,  one  to  the  diocese  of  Winchester  and  one  to  the 
diocese  of  Norwich.  Fully  as  bad  a  woman  as  Margaret  Wavere 
was  Eleanor,  prioress  of  Arden,  a  little  Yorkshire  house  which 
contained  seven  nuns,  when  it  was  visited  by  Master  John  de 
Suthwell  in  1396  (during  the  vacancy  of  the  see  of  York)1.  The 
nuns  were  unanimous  and  bitter  in  their  complaints.  The  Prioress 
kept  the  convent  seal  in  her  possession,  sometimes  for  a  year 
at  a  time,  and  did  everything  according  to  her  own  will  without 
consulting  her  sisters.  She  sold  woods  and  trees  and  disposed 
of  the  money  as  she  would,  and  all  rents  were  similarly  received 
and  expended  by  her.  When  she  assumed  office  the  house  was 
in  good  condition,  owing  some  five  marks  only,  but  now  it  owed 
great  sums  to  divers  people,  amounting  to  over  £16  in  the 
detailed  list  given  by  the  nuns2,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  she  had  received  many  alms  and  gifts  during  her  year  of 
office — £18.  135.  4^.  in  all;  indeed  the  two  marks  which  had 
been  given  her  by  Henry  Arden's  executors  that  the  convent 
might  pray  for  his  soul,  had  been  concealed  by  her  from  the 
nuns,  "to  the  deception  of  the  said  Henry's  soul,  as  it  appeared 
to  them."  She  had  pawned  the  goods  of  the  house,  at  one  time 
a  piece  of  silver  with  a  cover  and  a  maser  worth  405.,  at  another 
time  a  second  maser  and  the  Prioress'  seal  of  office  itself,  for 
which  she  got  55.;  even  the  sacred  vestments  were  not  safe  in 
her  rapacious  hands  and  a  new  suit  was  pawned,  with  the  result 

1  Test.  Ebor.  i,  pp.  283-5  (summary  in  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  114-5)- 

2  An  analysis  of  receipts  and  expenditure  by  the  Prioress  during  her 
term  of  office,  given  at  the  end  of  the  comperta,  stands  thus: 

In  the  first  year:        Receipts  £22.  75.  6d.         Expenses  ^27.  65.  Sd. 

In  the  second  year:   Receipts  £25.  35.  od.         Expenses  ^40. 

In  the  third  year:       Receipts  ^26.  95.  6d.         Expenses  ^27.  35.  od. 


86  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

that  it  was  soiled  and  worn  and  not  yet  consecrated.  The  walls 
and  roof  of  the  church  and  dorter  and  the  rest  of  the  house  were 
in  ruins;  there  were  no  waxen  candles  round  the  altar,  no  lights 
for  matins  or  for  the  other  canonical  hours,  no  Paschal  candles; 
when  she  first  took  office  she  found  ten  pairs  of  sheets  of  good 
linen  cloth  (cloth  of  "lake"  and  "inglyschclath,"  to  wit)  and 
now  they  were  worn  out  and  in  all  her  time  not  one  new  pair 
had  been  made;  the  nuns  had  only  two  sacred  albs  and  one  of 
them  had  been  turned  to  secular  uses,  viz.  to  "bultyng  mele," 
and  on  several  occasions  had  been  found  on  the  beds  of  laymen 
in  the  stable.  The  allowances  of  bread  and  beer  due  to  the  nuns 
were  inadequately  and  unpunctually  paid;  sometimes  she  would 
withdraw  them  altogether  and  the  sisters  would  be  reduced  to 
drinking  water1.  She  was  not  even  a  good  bargainer,  for  by  her 
negligence  a  bushel  of  corn  was  bought  by  an  agreement  for 
lid.,  when  it  could  have  been  had  in  the  public  market  for  9^., 
Sd.  or  yd.  Domineering  she  was,  too,  and  sent  three  young  nuns 
out  haymaking,  so  that  they  did  not  get  back  before  nightfall 
and  divine  service  could  not  be  said  until  then ;  and  she  provoked 
secular  boys  and  laymen  to  chatter  in  the  cloister  and  church  in 
contempt  of  the  nuns.  There  were  graver  charges  against  her  in 
connection  with  a  certain  married  man,  John  Bever,  with  whom 
she  was  wont  to  go  abroad,  resting  in  the  same  house  by  night  ; 
and  once  they  lay  alone  within  the  priory,  in  the  Prioress'  chamber 
by  night ;  and  during  the  whole  summer  she  slept  alone  in  her 
principal  room  outside  the  dorter  and  was  much  suspected  on 
account  of  John  Bever.  It  will  be  noticed  that  this  case  presents 
many  points  of  similarity  with  that  of  Margaret  Wavere,  the 
chief  difference  being  that  at  Arden  the  Prioress  alone  seems 
to  have  been  in  grave  fault;  she  made  no  accusation  against 
her  nuns,  save  that  they  talked  in  the  choir  and  in  the  offices 
and  that  the  sacrist  was  negligent  about  ringing  the  bell  for 
divine  service.  Nor  had  they  anything  to  say  against  each  other. 
The  other  Yorkshire  case  came  to  light  in  1444,  when  Archbishop 
Kemp  stated  that  at  his  visitation  of  the  Priory  of  Wykeham 
very  grave  defaults  and  crimes  had  been  detected  against  the 

1  The  nuns  of  Swine  made  the  same  complaint  in  1268.  "Binis,  tamen, 
diebus  in  ebdomada  aqua  pro  cervisia  eisdem  subministratur."  Reg.  of 
Walter  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  148. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  87 

Prioress,  Isabella  Westirdale,  "who  after  she  had  been  raised  to 
that  office  had  been  guilty  of  incontinence  with  many  men,  both 
within  and  outside  the  monastery";  she  was  deprived  and  sent 
to  do  penance  at  Nunappleton. 

After  the  case  of  Eleanor  of  Arden  the  next  scandal  con 
cerning  a  prioress  was  discovered  in  1404  at  Bromhale  in  Berk 
shire.  The  nuns  complained  in  that  year  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  that  the  Prioress  Juliana  had  for  twenty  years  led 
an  exceedingly  dissolute  life  and  of  her  own  temerity  and  without 
their  consent  had  usurped  the  rule  of  Prioress,  in  which  position 
she  had  wasted,  alienated,  consumed  and  turned  to  her  own 
nefarious  uses  the  chalices,  books,  jewels,  rents  and  other  property 
of  the  house1.  The  next  year  an  even  more  serious  case  occurred 
at  Wintney  in  Hampshire,  if  the  charges  contained  in  a  papal 
commission  of  1405  were  true2.  The  Archdeacon  of  Taunton  and 
a  canon  of  Wells  were  empowered  to  visit  the  house : 

the  Pope  having  heard  that  Alice,  who  has  been  Prioress  for  about 
twenty  years,  has  so  dilapidated  its  goods,  from  which  the  Prioress 
for  the  time  being  is  wont  to  administer  to  the  nuns  their  food  and 
clothing,  that  it  is  200  marks  in  debt;  that  she  specially  cherishes 
two  immodest  nuns  one  of  whom,  her  own  (suam)  sister,  had  apostatized 
and  left  the  monastery  and,  remaining  in  the  world,  had  had  children, 
the  other  like  the  first  in  evil  life  and  lewdness  but  not  an  apostate, 
and  feeds  and  clothes  them  splendidly,  whilst  she  feeds  the  other 
honest  nuns  meanly  and  for  several  years  past  has  not  provided  them 
with  clothing;  that  she  has  long  kept  and  keeps  Thomas  Ferring, 
a  secular  priest,  as  companion  at  board  and  in  bed  (in  commensalem 
et  sibi  contubernalem),  who  has  long  slept  and  still  sleeps,  contrary 
to  the  institutes  of  the  order,  within  the  monastery,  beneath  the 
dorter,  in  a  certain  chamber  (domo],  in  which  formerly  no  secular  had 
ever  been  wont  to  sleep  and  in  which  the  said  priest  and  Alice  meet 
together  at  will  by  day  and  night,  to  satisfy  their  lust  (pro  explenda 
libidine),  on  account  of  which  and  other  enormous  and  scandalous 
crimes,  which  Alice  has  committed  and  still  commits,  there  is  grave 
and  public  scandal  against  her  in  those  parts,  to  the  great  detriment 
of  the  monastery. 

If  these  things  were  found  to  be  true  the  commissioners  were 
ordered  to  deprive  the  Prioress.  In  1427  there  occurred  another 
very  serious  case  of  misconduct  in  a  Prioress,  which  (as  at 
Catesby)  seems  to  have  tainted  the  whole  flock  and  is  a  still 
further  illustration  of  the  fact  that  a  bad  prioress  often  meant 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  506  note.         *  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  vi,  p.  55. 


88  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

an  ill-conducted  house.  By  her  own  admission  Isabel  Hermyte, 
Prioress  of  Redlingfield  in  Suffolk,  had  never  been  to  confession 
nor  observed  Sundays  and  principal  double  feasts  since  the  last 
visitation,  two  years  before.  She  and  Joan  Tates,  a  novice,  had 
not  slept  in  the  dorter  with  the  other  nuns,  but  in  a  private 
chamber.  She  had  laid  violent  hands  on  Agnes  Brakle  on  St 
Luke's  day;  and  she  had  been  alone  with  Thomas  Langeland, 
bailiff,  in  private  and  suspicious  places,  to  wit  in  a  small  hall 
with  closed  windows  "  and  sub  heggerowes."  Nor  was  the  material 
condition  of  the  house  safer  in  her  hands.  'There  were  only  nine 
nuns  instead  of  the  statutory  number  of  thirteen  and  only  one 
chaplain  instead  of  three ;  no  annual  account  had  been  rendered, 
obits  had  been  neglected,  goods  alienated  and  trees  cut  down 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  convent.  Altogether 
she  confessed  that  she  was  neither  religious  nor  honest  in  con 
versation  and  the  effect  of  her  conduct  upon  her  charges  was 
only  too  apparent,  for  the  novice  Joan  Tates  confessed  to  in 
continence  and  asserted  that  it  had  been  provoked  by  the  bad 
example  of  the  Prioress.  The  result  of  this  exposure  was  the 
voluntary  resignation  of  the  guilty  woman,  in  order  to  save  a 
scandal,  and  her  banishment  to  the  priory  of  Wix;  the  whole 
convent  was  ordered  to  fast  on  bread  and  beer  on  Fridays,  and 
Joan  Tates  was  to  go  in  front  of  the  solemn  procession  of  the 
convent  on  the  following  Sunday,  wearing  no  veil  and  clad  in 
white  flannel1. 

1  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  n,  pp.  83-4.  The  other  cases  may  be  noted  more 
briefly.  For  the  story  of  Denise  Loweliche,  Prioress  of  Markyate  (Beds.), 
see  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  82-6,  and  below,  pp.  458-9.  Alice  de  Chilterne,  Prioress 
of  White  Hall,  Ilchester,  was  deprived  for  incontinence  with  the  chaplain 
and  for  wasting  the  goods  of  the  house  to  such  an  extent  that  the  nuns  were 
reduced  to  begging  their  bread  (1323).  Hugo,  Med.  Nunneries  of  Somerset, 
Whitehall  in  Ilchester,  pp.  78-9  and  Reg.  John  of  Drokensford  (Somerset  Rec. 
Soc.),  pp.  227,  245,  259.  In  1325  Joan  de  Barton,  Prioress  of  Moxby,  was 
deprived  super  lapsu  carnis  with  the  chaplain.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  240.  In 
1495  Elizabeth  Popeley  was  deprived,  two  years  after  her  confirmation  as 
Prioress  of  Arthington,  for  having  given  birth  to  a  child  and  for  wasting 
the  goods  of  the  house.  Ib.  p.  189.  The  case  of  Katherine  Wells,  Prioress 
of  Littlemore,  who  put  her  nuns  in  the  stocks  and  took  the  goods  of  the 
house  to  provide  a  dowry  for  her  illegitimate  daughter  is  noted  below, 
Note  F.  See  also  the  stories  of  Elizabeth  Broke,  Abbess  of  Romsey,  and 
Agnes  Tawke,  Prioress  of  Easebourne.  Liveing,  Rec.  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  211- 
222  and  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  14-19.  Joan  Fletcher,  Prioress  of 
Basedale,  resigned  from  fear  of  deposition  in  1527  and  then  cast  aside  her 
habit  and  left  the  house.  Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  431-2. 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  89 

It  is  the  darker  side  of  convent  life  that  these  ancient  scandals 
call  up  before  our  eyes.  The  system  produced  its  saints  as  well 
as  its  sinners;  we  have  only  to  remember  the  German  nunnery 
of  Helfta  to  be  sure  of  that.  The  English  nunneries  of  the  later 
middle  ages  produced  no  great  mystics,  but  there  have  come 
down  to  us  word-pictures  of  at  least  two  heads  of  houses  worthy 
to  rank  with  the  best  abbesses  of  any  age ;  not  women  of  genius, 
but  good,  competent  housewives,  careful  in  all  things  of  the 
welfare  of  their  nuns,  practical  as  well  as  pious.  The  famous 
description  of  the  Abbess  Euphemia  of  Wherwell  (1226-57)  is  too 
well-known  to  be  quoted  here  in  full1 : 

"It  is  most  fitting,"  says  her  convent  chartulary,  "that  we  should 
always  perpetuate  the  memory,  in  our  special  prayers  and  suffrages, 
of  one  who  ever  worked  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  for  the  weal  of 
both  our  souls  and  bodies.  For  she  increased  the  number  of  the  Lord's 
handmaids  in  this  monastery  from  forty  to  eighty,  to  the  exaltation 
of  the  worship  of  God.  To  her  sisters,  both  in  health  and  sickness, 
she  administered  the  necessaries  of  life  with  piety,  prudence,  care 
and  honesty.  She  also  increased  the  sum  allowed  for  garments  by 
I2d.  each.  The  example  of  her  holy  conversation  and  charity,  in 
conjunction  with  her  pious  exhortations  and  regular  discipline,  caused 
each  one  to  know  how,  in  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  to  possess  her 
vessel  in  sanctification  and  honour.  She  also,  with  maternal  piety 
and  careful  forethought,  built,  for  the  use  of  both  sick  and  sound, 
a  new  and  large  farmery  away  from  the  main  buildings  and  in  con 
junction  with  it  a  dorter  and  other  necessary  offices.  Beneath  the 
farmery  she  constructed  a  watercourse,  through  which  a  stream 
flowed  with  sufficient  force  to  carry  off  all  refuse  that  might  corrupt 
the  air.  Moreover  she  built  there  a  place  set  apart  for  the  refreshment 
of  the  soul,  namely  a  chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  which  was  erected 
outside  the  cloister  behind  the  farmery.  With  the  chapel  she  enclosed 
a  large  place,  which  was  adorned  on  the  north  side  with  pleasant 
vines  and  trees.  On  the  other  side,  by  the  river  bank,  she  built  offices 
for  various  uses,  a  space  being  left  in  the  centre,  where  the  nuns  are 
able  from  time  to  time  to  enjoy  the  pure  air.  In  these  and  in  other 
numberless  ways,  the  blessed  mother  Euphemia  provided  for  the 
worship  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  her  sisters." 

Nor  was  she  less  prudent  in  ruling  secular  business:  "she  also 
so  conducted  herself  with  regard  to  exterior  affairs,"  says  the 
admiring  chronicler,  "that  she  seemed  to  have  the  spirit  of  a 

1  It  was  translated  by  the  Rev.  Dr  Cox  in  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  pp.  132-3. 
from  a  chartulary  of  Wherwell  Abbey  compiled  in  the  fourteenth  century 
(Brit.  Mus.  Egerton  MS.  2104)  and  quoted  by  Gasquet,  English  Monastic 
Life,  pp.  155-8. 


90  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

man  rather  than  of  a  woman."  She  levelled  the  court  of  the 
abbey  manor  and  built  a  new  hall,  and  round  the  walled  court 
"she  made  gardens  and  vineyards  and  shrubberies  in  places 
that  were  formerly  useless  and  barren  and  which  now  became 
both  serviceable  and  pleasant " ;  she  repaired  the  manor-houses 
at  Tuf ton  and  at  Middleton ;  when  the  bell  tower  of  the  dorter 
fell  down,  she  built  a  new  one  "of  commanding  height  and  of 
exquisite  workmanship";  and  one  of  the  last  acts  of  her  life  was 
to  take  down  the  unsteady  old  presbytery  and  to  lay  with  her 
own  hands,  "having  invoked  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  with 
prayers  and  tears,"  the  foundation  stone  of  a  new  building, 
which  she  lived  to  see  completed: 

These  and  other  innumerable  works  our  good  superior  Euphemia 
performed  for  the  advantage  of  the  house,  but  she  was  none  the  less 
zealous  in  works  of  charity,  gladly  and  freely  exercising  hospitality, 
so  that  she  and  her  daughters  might  find  favour  with  One  Whom  Lot 
and  Abraham  and  others  have  pleased  by  the  grace  of  hospitality. 
Moreover,  because  she  greatly  loved  to  honour  duly  the  House  of 
God  and  the  place  where  His  glory  dwells,  she  adorned  the  church 
with  crosses,  reliquaries,  precious  stones,  vestments  and  books. 

Finally,  she  "who  had  devoted  herself  when  amongst  us  to  the 
service  of  His  house  and  the  habitation  of  His  glory,  found  the 
due  reward  for  her  merits  with  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  died 
amid  the  blessings  of  her  sisters. 

Less  famous  is  the  name  of  another  mighty  builder,  who 
ruled,  some  two  centuries  later,  the  little  Augustinian  nunnery  of 
Crabhouse  in  Norfolk1.  Joan  Wiggenhall  was  (as  has  already 
been  pointed  out)  a  lady  of  good  family  and  had  influential 
friends;  she  was  installed  as  Prioress  in  1420,  and  began  to 
build  at  once.  In  her  first  year  she  demolished  a  tumble-down 
old  barn  and  caused  it  to  be  remade;  this  cost  £45.  gs.  6d., 
irrespective  of  the  timber  cut  upon  the  estate  and  of  the  tiles 
from  the  old  barn,  but  the  friends  of  the  house  helped  and  Sir 
John  Ingoldesthorpe  gave  £20  "to  his  dyinge,"  and  the  Arch 
deacon  of  Lincoln  10  marks.  Cheered  by  this,  the  Prioress  con 
tinued  her  operations;  in  her  second  year  she  persuaded  the 

1  See  the  account  in  the  Reg,  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery,  ed.  Mary  Bateson 
(Norfolk  Archaeology,  xi,  pp.  59-63).  Also  a  charming  account  of  Crab- 
house  (founded  largely  on  this  register)  in  Jessopp,  Ups  and  Downs  of  an 
Old  Nunnery  (Fnvola,  1896,  pp.  28  ff.).  The  English  portion  of  the  register 
was  written  some  time  after  1470. 


n]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  91 

Prior  of  Shouldham  to  co-operate  with  her  in  roofing  the  chancel 
of  Wiggenhall  St  Peter's,  towards  which  she  paid  20  marks/and 
she  also  made  the  north  end  of  her  own  chamber  for  10  marks, 
and  in  her  third  year  she  walled  the  chancel  of  St  Peter's  and 
completed  the  south  end  of  her  chamber.  Then  she  began  the 
great  work  of  her  life,  the  church  of  the  nunnery  itself,  and  for 
three  years  this  was  the  chief  topic  of  conversation  in  all  the 
villages  round,  and  the  favourite  charity  of  all  her  neighbours: 

"Also  in  the  iiij  yere  of  the  same  Jone  Prioresse,"  runs  the  account 
'in  Crabhouse  Register,  "Ffor  myschefe  that  was  on  the  chyrche 
whiche  myght  not  be  reparid  but  if  it  were  newe  maid,  with  the 
counseyle  of  here  frendys  dide  it  take  downe,  trostynge  to  the  helpe 
of  cure  Lorde  and  to  the  grete  charite  of  goode  cristen  men  and  so 
with  helpe  of  the  persone  before  seyde  (her  cousin,  Edmund  Perys,  the 
parson  of  Watlington)  and  other  goode  frendes  as  schal  be  shewyd 
aftyrward,  be  the  steringe  of  oure  Lorde  and  procuringe  of  the  person 
forseyde  sche  wrowght  there  upon  iij  yere  and  more  contynuan 
and  made  it,  blessyd  be  God,  whiche  chirche  cost  cccc  mark,  whereof 
William  Harald  that  lithe  in  the  chapel  of  Our  Lady  payde  for  the 
ledynge  of  the  chirch  vij  skore  mark.  And  xl  li.  payede  we  for  the 
roofe,  the  whiche  xl  li.  we  hadde  of  Richard  Steynour,  Cytesen  of 
Norwiche,  and  more  hadde  we  nought  of  the  good  whiche  he  bequeathe 
us  on  his  ded-bedde  in  the  same  Cyte,  a  worthly  place  clepyd  Tom- 
londe  whiche  was  with  holde  fro  us  be  untrewe  man  his  seketoures. 
God  for  his  mekyl  mercy  of  the  wronge  make  the  ryghte." 

The  indignant  complaint  of  the  nuns,  balked  of  their  "  worthly 
place  clepyd  Tomlonde,"  is  very  typical;  there  was  always  an 
executor  in  hell  as  the  middle  ages  pictured  it,  and  a  popular 
proverb  affirmed  that  "too  secuturs  and  an  overseere  make  thre 
theves  "1.  In  this  case,  however,  other  friends  were  ready  to  make 
up  for  the  deficiencies  of  those  untrue  men : 

And  the  stallis  with  the  reredose,  the  person  beforeseyde  payde  fore 
xx  pounde  of  his  owne  goode.  And  xxvi  mark  for  ij  antiphoneres 
whiche  liggen  in  the  queer.  And  xx  li.  Jon  Lawson  gaf  to  the  chirche. 
And  xx  mark  we  hadde  for  the  soule  of  Jon  Watson.  And  xx  mark 
for  the  soule  of  Stevyn  York  to  the  werkys  of  the  chirche  and  to  other 

1  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  I,  p.  314.  See  also  a  little  further  on  in  the  Crab- 
house  Register:  "And  xx  mark  we  hadde  of  the  gifte  of  Edmunde  Peris 
persoun  of  Watlington  before  seyde  sekatoure  to  the  same  Roger  wiche 
was  nought  payed  tyl  xvj  yere  aftyr  his  day."  Compare  the  complaint  at 
Rusper  in  1478:  "Item  dicit  quod  Johannes  Wood  erat  executor  domini 
Ricardi  Hornier... qui  fuit  a  retro  in  solucione  pensionis  vs.  per  xxx  annos 
priorisse  et  conventui  de  Rushper."  But  this  may  mean  that  the  late 
Richard  (a  rector)  had  failed  to  pay.  Sussex  ArchaeoL  Coll.  v,  p.  255. 


92  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

werkys  doon  before.  And  xxi  mark  of  the  gylde  of  the  Trinite  which 
Neybores  helde  in  this  same  chirche.  The  glasynge  of  the  chirche,  the 
scripture  maketh  mencyon;  onli  God  be  worshipped  and  rewarde  to 
all  cristen  soules. 

After  the  death  of  the  good  parson  of  Watlington,  another 
cousin  of  the  Prioress,  Dr  John  Wiggenhall,  came  to  her  aid, 
and  in  her  ninth  year,  she  set  to  work  once  more  upon  the 
church,  and  she 

arayed  up  the  chirche  and  the  quere,  that  is  for  to  seye,  set  up  the 
ymagis  and  pathed  the  chirche  and  the  quere,  and  stolid  it  and  made 
doris,  which  cost  x  pownde,  the  veyl  of  the  chirche  with  the  auter- 
clothis  in  sute  cost  xls.1 

During  the  building  of  the  church  the  Prioress  had  not 
neglected  other  smaller  works  and  a  long  chamber  on  the  east 
side  of  the  hall  was  built;  but  it  was  not  until  her  tenth  year, 
when  the  building  and  "arraying"  of  the  church  was  finished, 
that  she  had  time  and  money  to  do  much ;  then  she  made  some 
necessary  repairs  to  the  barn  at  St  Peter's  and  built  a  new  malt- 
house,  which  cost  ten  marks.  In  her  twelfth  year  "for  mischeef 
that  was  on  the  halle  she  toke  it  downe  and  made  it  agen"; 
but  alas,  on  the  Tuesday  next  after  Hallowmas  1432,  a  fire  broke 

1  With  this  account  of  the  building  of  Crabhouse  church  it  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  costs  incurred  in  building  the  "  newe  chirch  "  of  Syon  Abbey 
in  1479-80.  Two  small  schedules  of  accounts  dealing  with  this  work  are 
preserved  in  the  Public  Record  Office.  The  first  is  particularly  interesting 
for  its  list  of  workmen  employed:  "Summa  of  the  wages  of  Werkmen 
wirchyng  as  well  opon  and  wyane  the  newe  chirch  of  the  monastery  of 
Syun,  as  opon  parte  of  the  newe  byldyng  of  the  Brether  Cloyster,  chapitir- 
hous  and  library,  that  is  to  sey  fr.  the  xth  day  of  October  in  the  xixth  yere 
of  the  reigne  of  kyng  E.  the  iiijth  vnto  the  vijth  day  of  October  in  the  xxth 
yere  of  the  reigne  of  the  same  kyng,  as  it  is  declared  partelly  in  ij  jurnalles 
of  work  thereof  examyned.  It.  ffremasons  ccxlv  li.  xij  s.  xj  d.  It.  harde- 
hewers  xxx  li.  xj  s.  vij  d.  ob.  It.  Brekeleyers  xvj  li.  xvj  s.  ij  d.  It.  chalk- 
hewers  xlj  s.  iij  d.  It.  Carpenters  and  joynours  xlvj  s.  ix  d.  It.  Tawyers 
ix  li.  xvj  s.  iiij  d.  It.  Smythes  xliiij  li.  xix  s.  x  d.  It.  Laborers  xxxvj  li. 
xix  s.  vij  d.  It.  Paied  to  James  Powle  Brekeman  for  makyng  of  breks 
Ixxvj  li.  viij  s.  iiij  d.  Summa  to1,  cccclxvij  li.  viij  s.  iij  d.  ob."  (P.R.O. 
Mins.  Accts.  1261/2).  The  other  schedule  gives  further  details:  "Expenses 
vpon  our  newe  churche.  The  makyng  of  the  rof  w*  tymber  and  cariage  and 
workmanship  ixclxv  li.  xviij  s.  iij  d.  qa,  lede  castyng,  jynyng,  leyyng 
sawdir  with  diuers  cariage  vcxxxv  li.  x  s.  x  d.  Iron  bought  with  cariage, 
weyng  and  whirvage  Ixxiij  li.  xvi  s.  x  d.  Ragstone,  assheler  ffreston  with 
cariage,  masons  and  labourers  for  the  vantyng  and  ffurryng  of  the  pilers 
and  purvyaunes  vnto  the  xxvij  of  maii  m^vCxlix  li.  xj  s.  j  d.  ob.  Summa 
total  for  the  church  m^m'm'cxxxiiij  li.  xvij  s.  ob.  q».  Expenses  of  the 
cloystor  and  dortour  vnto  the  xxvij  day  of  maii  vjciiijxxxviij  li.  ix  s.  x  d. 
Summa  to1,  n^m'm'n^viijcxxxiij  li.  vj  s.  x  d.  ob.  q»."  (Ib.  1261/3.) 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  93 

out  and  burned  down  the  new  malt-house,  and  another  malt- 
house  with  a  solar  above,  full  of  malt.  This  misfortune  (so 
common  in  the  middle  ages)  only  put  new  heart  into  Joan 
Wiggenhall : 

thanne  the  same  prioresse  in  here  xiij  yere  with  the  grace  of  owre  Lord 
God  and  with  the  helpe  of  mayster  Johnne  Wygenale  beforseyd,  and 
with  helpe  of  good  cristen  men  which  us  relevid  made  a  malthouse 
with  a  Doffcote,  that  now  ovyr  the  Kylne,  whiche  house  is  more  than 
eyther  of  thoo  that  brent.  And  was  in  the  werkynge  fulli  ij  yere  tyl 
her  xiiij  yere  were  passyd  out,  which  cost  1  pounde.  Also  the  same 
prioresse  in  her  xv  yere,  sche  repared  the  bakhous  an  inheyned 
[heightened]  it  and  new  lyngthde  it,  which  cost  x  marc.  And  in  the 
same  yere  she  heyned  the  stepul  and  new  rofyd  it  and  leyde  therupon 
a  fodyr  of  led  whiche  led,  freston,  tymbur  and  werkmanshipe  cost 
x  pounde.  Also  in  the  same  yere  sche  made  the  cloy  stir  on  the  Northe 
syde  and  slattyd  it,  and  the  wal  be  the  stepul,  which  cost  viij  li. 

Then  she  began  her  greatest  work,  after  the  building  of  the 
church : 

Also  in  the  xvj  yere  of  the  occupacion  of  the  same  prioresse  (1435) 

the  dortoure  that  than  was,  as  fer  forthe  as  we  knowe,  the  furste 

j  that  was  set  up  on  the  place,  was  at  so  grete  mischeef  and  at  the 

gate-downe  [falling  down],  the  Prioresse  dredyinge  perisschyng  of 

her  sistres  whiche  lay  thereinne  took  it  downe  for  drede  of  more 

|  harmys  and  no  more  was  doon  thereto  that  yere,  but  a  mason  he 

j  wande1  with  hise  prentise,  and  in  that  same  yere  the  same  prioresse 

made  the  litil  soler  on  the  sowthe  ende  of  here  chaumber  stondyng 

in  to  the  paradise,  and  the  wal  stondinge  on  the  weste  syde  of  the 

halle,  with  the  lityl  chaumber  stondynge  on  the  southe  syde,  and  the 

Myllehouse  with  alle  the  small  houses  dependynge  there  upon,  the 

Carthouse,  and  the  Torfehouse,  and  ij   of  stabulys  and  a  Beerne 

stondynge  at  a  tenauntry  of  oure  on  the  Southe  syde  of  Nycolas 

Martyri.    Alle  these  werkys  of  this  yere  with  the  repare  drewe  iiij 

I  skore  mark.    In  the  xvij  yere  of  the  same  Prioresse,  be  the  help  of 

J  God  and  of  goode  cristen  men  sche  began  the  grounde  of  the  same 

!  dortoure  that  now  stondith,  and  wrought  thereupon  fulli  vij  yere 

j  betymes  as  God  wolde  sende  hir  good. 

In  the  twenty-fourth  year  of  her  reign  Joan  Wiggenhall  saw 
the  last  stone  laid  in  its  place  and  the  last  plank  nailed.  The 
future  was  hid  from  her  happy  eyes;  she  could  not  foresee  the 
day,  scarcely  a  century  later,  when  the  walls  she  had  reared  so 
carefully  should  stand  empty  and  forlorn,  and  the  molten  lead 
of  the  roof  should  be  sold  by  impious  men.  She  must  have  said 

1  Mr  Coulton  suggests  the  reading  '  a  mason  hewande,'  i.e.  a  hard-hewer 
or  rough  hewer,  as  opposed  to  the  better  freemason. 


94  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  [CH. 

with  Solomon,  as  she  looked  upon  her  great  church,  "I  have 
surely  built  thee  an  house  to  dwell  in,  a  settled  place  for  thee 
to  abide  in  for  ever " ;  and  no  flash  of  tragic  prescience  showed 
her  the  sheep  feeding  peacefully  over  the  spot  where  its  "heyned 
stepul"  pointed  to  the  sky.  In  1451  she  departed  to  the  heaven 
she  knew  best,  a  house  of  many  mansions;  and  her  nuns,  who 
for  four  and  twenty  years  had  lived  a  proud  but  uncomfortable 
life  in  clouds  of  sawdust  and  unending  noise,  buried  her  (one 
hopes)  under  a  seemly  brass  in  her  church. 

The  mind  preserves  a  pleasant  picture  of  Euphemia  of  Wher- 
well  and  of  Joan  Wiggenhall,  when  Margaret  Wavere,  Eleanor 
of  Arden,  Isabel  Hermyte  and  the  rest  are  only  dark  memories, 
not  willingly  recalled.  Which  is  as  it  should  be.  The  typical 
prioress  of  the  middle  ages,  however,  was  neither  Euphemia  nor 
Margaret.   As  one  sees  her,  after  wading  through  some  hundred 
and  fifty  visitation  reports  or  injunctions,  she  was  a  well-meaning 
lady,  doing  her  best  to  make  two  ends  of  an  inadequate  income 
meet,  but  not  always  provident ;  ready  for  a  round  sum  in  hand 
to  make  leases,  sell  corrodies,  cut  down  woods  and  to  burden 
her  successor  as  her  predecessor  had  burdened  her.    She  found 
it  difficult  to  carry  out  the  democratic  ideal  of  convent  life  in 
consulting  her  sisters  upon  matters  of  business;  she  knew,  like 
all  rulers,  the  temptation  to  be  an  autocrat;  it  was  so  much 
quicker  and  easier  to  do  things  herself:  "What,  shulde  the 
yong    nunnes    gyfe    voices?     Tushe,    they    shulde    not    gyfe 
voices!"    So    she    kept   the    common    seal    and    hardly  ever 
rendered  an  account.    She  found  that  her  position  gave  her 
the  opportunity  to  escape  sometimes  from  that  common  life, 
which  is  so  trying  to  the  temper;  and  she  did  not  always  keep 
the  dorter  and  the  f rater  as  she  should.  She  was  rarely  vicious, 
but  nearly  always  worldly;  she  could  not  resist  silks  and  furs, 
little  dogs  such  as  the  ladies  who  came  to  stay  in  her  guest-room 
cherished,  and  frequent  visits  to  her  friends.  When  she  was  a 
strong  character  the  condition  of  her  house  bore  witness,  for 
good  or  evil,  to  her  strength;  when  she  was  weak  disorder  was 
sure  to  follow.  Very  often  she  won  a  contented  "omnia  bene" 
from  her  nuns,  when  the  Bishop  came;  at  other  times,  she  said 
that  they  were  disobedient  and  they  said  that  she  was  harsh,  or 
impotent,  or  addicted  to  favourites.  In  the  end  it  is  to  Chaucer 


ii]  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE  95 

that  we  turn  for  her  picture;  as  the  Bishops  found  her,  so  he 
saw  her,  aristocratic,  tender-hearted,  worldly,  taking  pains  to 
"  countrefete  chere  of  court,"  smiling  "  f ul  simple  and  coy  "  above 
her  well-pinched  wimple;  a  lady  of  importance,  attended  by  a 
nun  and  three  priests,  spoken  to  with  respect  and  reverence  by 
the  not  too  mealy-mouthed  host  (no  "by  Corpus  Dominus," 
or  "  cokkes  bones,"  or  "  tel  on  a  devel  wey !  "  for  her,  but "  cometh 
neer  my  lady  prioresse,"  and  "  my  lady  prioresse,  by  your  leve  ") ; 
clearly  enjoying  a  night  at  the  Tabard  and  some  unseemly 
stories  on  the  road  (though  her  own  tale  was  exquisite  and  fitting 
to  her  state).  Religious?  perhaps;  but  save  for  her  singing  the 
divine  service  "  entuned  in  her  nose  ful  semely  "  and  for  her  lovely 
address  to  the  Virgin,  Chaucer  can  find  but  little  to  say  on  the 
point : 

But  for  to  speken  of  hir  conscience 
She  was  so  charitable  and  so  pitous — 

that  she  would  weep  over  a  mouse  in  a  trap  or  a  beaten  puppy ! 
For  charity  and  pity  we  must  go  to  the  poor  Parson,  not  to  friar 
or  monk  or  nun.  A  good  ruler  of  her  house?  doubtless ;  but  when 
Chaucer  met  her  the  house  was  ruling  itself  somewhere  at  the 
"shires  ende."  The  world  was  full  of  fish  out  of  water  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  and,  by  seynt  Loy,  Madame  Eglentyne  (like 
Dan  Piers)  held  a  certain  famous  text  "nat  worth  an  oistre." 
So  we  take  our  leave  of  her — characteristically,  on  the  road  to 
Canterbury. 


CHAPTER  Til 
WORLDLY  GOODS 

Tomorrows  shall  be  as  yesterdays ; 
And  so  for  ever !  saints  enough 
Has  Holy  Church  for  priests  to  praise; 

But  the  chief  of  saints  for  workday  stuff 
Afield  or  at  board  is  good  Saint  Use, 
Withal  his  service  is  rank  and  rough  ; 

Nor  hath  he  altar  nor  altar-dues, 

Nor  boy  with  bell,  nor  psalmodies, 
Nor  folk  on  benches,  nor  family  pews. 

MAURICE  HEWLETT,  The  Song  of  the  Plow. 

IN  many  ways  the  most  valuable  general  account  of  monastic 
property  at  the  close  of  the  middle  ages  is  to  be  found  in  the 
great  Valor  Ecclesiasticus,  a  survey  of  all  the  property  of  the 
church,  compiled  in  1535  for  the  assessment  of  the  tenth  lately 
appropriated  by  the  King1.  It  is  true  that  only  100  out  of  the 
126  nunneries  then  in  existence  are  described  with  any  detail 
and  that  the  amount  of  detail  given  varies  very  much  for  dif 
ferent  localities.  Nevertheless  the  record  is  of  the  highest  im 
portance,  for  in  order  to  assess  the  tax  the  gross  income  of  each 
house  is  given  (often  with  the  sources  from  which  it  is  drawn, 

1  The  Valor  Ecclesiasticus  was  published  in  six  volumes  by  the  Record 
Commission  (1810-34).  It  is  the  subject  of  a  detailed  study  by  Professor 
Alexander  Savine,  "English  Monasteries  on  the  Eve  of  the  Suppression," 
in  Oxford  Studies  in  Social  and  Legal  History,  ed.  Vinogradoff,  vol.  1(1909). 
For  this  reason,  and  also  because  of  their  greater  interest,  I  have  preferred 
to  base  my  study  of  nunnery  finance  on  the  account  rolls  of  the  nuns.  The 
Valor  as  it  affects  nunneries  has  been  largely  drawn  upon  in  an  unpublished 
thesis  by  Miss  H.  T.  Jacka,  The  Dissolution  of  the  English  Nunneries,  Thesis 
submitted  for  the  Degree  of  M.A.  in  the  University  of  London  (Dec.  1917). 
It  is  a  pity  that  this  useful  little  work  is  not  published.  I  have  been  able  to 
consult  it  and  have  made  use  (as  will  be  seen  from  footnotes  to  this  chapter) 
of  the  admirable  chapter  n  on  "The  Property  of  the  Nunneries";  for  my 
quotations  from  the  Valor  I  have  invariably  used  her  analysis.  Anyone 
wishing  for  an  intensive  study  of  the  Dissolution  from  the  point  of  view  of 
monastic  houses  for  women  cannot  do  better  than  consult  this  thesis, 
which  is  far  more  detailed,  exact  and  judicial  in  tone  than  any  other  modern 
account. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  97 

classified  as  temporalities  and  spiritualities)  and  the  net  income, 
on  which  the  tenth  was  assessed,  is  obtained  by  subtracting  from 
the  gross  income  all  the  necessary  charges  upon  the  house, 
payments  of  synodals  and  procurations,  rents  due  to  superior 
lords,  alms  and  obits  which  had  to  be  maintained  under  the  will 
of  benefactors,  and  the  fees  of  the  regular  receivers,  bailiffs, 
auditors  and  stewards. 

Such  a  survey  as  the  Valor  Ecclesiasticus,  though  valuable, 
could  not  by  its  nature  give  more  than  the  most  general  indica 
tion  of  the  main  classes  of  receipts  and  expenditure  of  the 
nunneries.  The  accounts  kept  by  the  nuns  themselves,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  a  mine  of  detailed  information  on  these  subjects. 
Every  convent  was  supposed  to  draw  up  an  annual  balance 
sheet,  to  be  read  before  the  nuns  assembled  in  chapter,  and 
though  it  was  a  constant  source  of  complaint  against  the  head 
of  a  house  that  she  failed  to  do  so,  nevertheless  enough  rolls 
have  survived  to  make  it  clear  that  the  practice  was  common. 
Indeed  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  run  a  community  for 
long  without  keeping  accounts.  The  finest  set  of  these  rolls  which 
has  survived  from  a  medieval  nunnery  is  that  of  St  Michael's 
Stamford,  in  Northamptonshire1.    There  are  twenty-four  rolls, 
beginning  with  one  for  the  year  32-3  Edward  I,  and  ranging 
over  the  greater  part  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 
A  study  of  them  enables  the  material  life  of  the  convent  for  two 
!  centuries  to  be  reconstructed  and  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  its 
j  difficulties,  for  though  the  nuns  only  once  ended  the  year  without 
a  deficit  and  a  list  of  debts,  yet  the  debts  owed  by  various 
j  creditors  to  them  were  often  larger  than  those  which  they  owed. 
A  very  good  series  also  exists  for  St  Mary  de  Pre,  near 
I  St  Albans,  kept  by  the  wardens  1341-57  and  by  the  Prioress 
j  1461-932;  and  there  is  in  the  Record  Office  a  valuable  little  book 
of  accounts  kept  by  the  treasuresses  of  Gracedieu  (Belton)  during 
the  years  1414-18,  which  has  been  made  familiar  to  many  readers 
by  the  use  made  of  it  by  Cardinal  Gasquet  in  English  Monastic 

1  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260. 

2  The  wardens'  accounts  are  in  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  867/21-6  and  the 
prioress's  accounts,  ib.  867/30,  32,  33-36.  and  Hen.  VII,  no.  274.   They  are 
briefly  described  in    V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,   pp.  430-1  (notes  30,   31,   39).    An 
excellent  prioress's  account  for  2-4  Hen.  VII  is  printed  by  Dugdale,  Mon.  in, 
PP-  358-6i,  the  prioress  being  Christian  Bassett. 

P.N.  7 


98  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

Life1.  Very  full  and  interesting  accounts  have  also  survived  from 
St  Radegund's  Cambridge  (1449-51,  1481-2)2,  Catesby  (1414- 
45) 3  and  Swaffham  Bulbeck  (i483~4)4.  These  are  a11  prioresses' 
or  treasuresses'  accounts  of  the  total  expenditure  of  the  different 
houses;  but  there  are  in  existence  also  a  few  obedientiaries' 
accounts,  chambresses'  accounts  from  St  Michael's  Stamford  and 
Syon  and  cellaresses'  accounts  from  Syon5.  An  analysis  of  these 
accounts  shows,  better  than  any  other  means  of  information,  the 
various  sources  from  which  a  medieval  nunnery  drew  its  income, 
and  the  chief  classes  of  expenditure  which  it  had  to  meet.  It 
will  therefore  be  illuminating  to  consider  in  turn  the  credit  and 
debit  side  of  a  monastic  balance  sheet. 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  postulate  that  since  monastic 
houses  differed  greatly  in  size  and  wealth,  the  sources  of  their 
income  would  differ  accordingly.  A  very  poor  house  might  be 
dependent  upon  the  rents  and  produce  of  one  small  manor;  a 
large  house  sometimes  had  estates  all  over  England.  The  entire 
income  of  Rothwell  in  Northamptonshire  was  derived  from  one 
appropriated  rectory,  valued  in  the  Valor  at  £10.  T.OS.  4^.  gross 
and  at  £5.  195.  Sd.  net  per  annum6.  The  Black  Ladies  of  Brewood 
(Staffs.)  had  an  income  of  £11.  is.  6d.  derived  from  demesne  in 
hand,  rents  and  alms7.  On  the  other  hand  Dartford  in  Kent 
held  lands  in  Kent,  Surrey,  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Wiltshire,  Wales 
and  London8,  the  Minoresses  without  Aldgate  held  property  in 
London,  Hertfordshire,  Kent,  Berkshire,  Staffordshire,  Derby 
shire,  Bedfordshire,  Buckinghamshire,  Norfolk  and  the  Isle  of 
Wight9.  The  splendid  Abbey  of  Syon  held  land  as  far  afield  as 
Lancashire  and  Cornwall,  scattered  over  twelve  counties 10.  Simi 
larly  the  proportionate  income  derived  from  house-rents  and 
land-rents  would  differ  with  the  geographical  situation  of  the 
nunnery.  London  convents,  for  instance,  would  draw  a  large 

1  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1257/10.  See  Gasquet,  Eng.  Monastic  Life, 
pp.  158-176. 

»  A  Gray   Priory  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  pp.  I45~85- 

»  Baker, 'Hist,  and  Antiq.  oj  Northants.  i;  pp.  278-83.  Compare  P.R.O. 
Mins  Accts.  1257/1  for  a  Catesby  account  roll  for  11-14  Hen.  IV. 

«  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  pp.  458-60.  See  also  P.R.O.  1257/2  for  Denney, 
14  Hen.  IV-i  Hen.  V. 

6  See  Ch.  iv,  passim. 

«   Valor  Eccles.  iv,  p.  302.  7  /&.  ni,  p.  103. 

•  76.  I,  p.  119-  '  ^•I'P-397- 

10  Ib.  I,  p.  424. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  99 

income  from  streets  of  houses,  whereas  a  house  in  the  distant 
dales  of  Yorkshire  would  be  dependent  upon  agriculture.  At 
the  time  of  the  Valor  twenty-two  nunneries  were  holding 
urban  tenements  in  fifteen  towns,  amounting  in  total  value  to 
£1076.  os.  yd.,  but  of  this  sum  £969.  us.  lod.  was  held  by  the 
seven  houses  in  London1.  With  this  proviso  the  conclusion  may 
be  laid  down  that  the  money  derived  from  the  possession  of  agri 
cultural  land,  and  in  particular  the  rents  paid  by  tenants  in 
freehold,  copyhold,  customary  and  leasehold  land,  was  the  main 
stay  of  the  income  paid  into  the  hands  of  the  treasuress. 

A  word  may  perhaps  be  said  as  to  the  method  by  which  the 
nuns  administered  their  estates.  Miss  Jacka  distinguishes  two 
main  types  of  administration,  discernible  in  the  Valor: 

The  London  houses,  except  Syon  and  a  number,  chiefly,  of  the  smaller 
nunneries  scattered  throughout  the  country,  had  a  single  staff  of 
officials,  steward,  bailiff,  auditor,  receiver;  their  revenues  were  drawn 
from  scattered  rents  and  other  profits  rather  than  from  entire  manors. 
There  seem  to  have  been  about  forty  houses  of  this  type  in  addition 
to  the  London  houses.  The  second  group  comprises  the  great  country 
nunneries  in  the  south  of  England,  including  Syon  and  a  number  of 
smaller  houses  whose  revenues  were  reckoned  under  the  headings 
of  various  manors  each  managed  by  its  own  bailiff.... The  staff  of 
Syon  may  be  taken  as  an  unusually  complete  and  elaborate  example 
of  the  usual  system,  whose  principle  appears  worked  out  on  a  smaller 
scale,  in  the  case  of  smaller  nunneries.  The  nuns  had  in  the  first  place 
what  may  be  called  a  central  staff,  a  steward  at  £3.  6s.  8d.,  a  steward 
of  the  hospice  at  ^23.  155.  4^.,  a  general  receiver  at  £19.  135.  4^.  and 
an  auditor  at  £8.  35.  ^d.   Their  lands  in  Middlesex  were  managed  by 
their  steward  of  Isleworth,  Lord  Wyndesore,  whose  fee  was  £3,  a 
steward  of  courts  at  £i  and  a  bailiff  at  £2.  135.  4^.,  who  had  a  separate 
fee  of  135.  4^.  as  bailiff  of  the  chapel  of  the  Angels  at  Brentford.  Their 
extensive  possessions  in  Sussex  were  managed  by  a  receiver  and  a 
steward  of  courts  for  the  whole  county,  whose  fees  were  £3  and  £2 
respectively,  by  four  stewards  for  various  districts  with  fees  from 
\£i.  6s.  8d.  down  to  135.  4^.  and  by  13  bailiffs  arranged  under  the 
[stewards,  of  whom  one  received  £2.  35.  ^d.  and  the  rest  from  £i  to 
6s.  8d.  Their  one  manor  in  Cambridgeshire  was  managed  by  a  steward 
at  135.  4^.  and  a  bailiff  at  £i.   With  the  central  staff  was  reckoned 
ja  receiver  for  Somerset,  Dorset  and  Devon,  whose  fee  was  £6. 135.  ^d. ; 
jthe  ladies  held  no  temporalities  in  Somerset;  in  Dorset  they  had  a 
Ichief  steward,  £i.  6s.  8d.,  a  steward  of  courts,  6s.  8d.,  and  a  bailiff, 
iis.,  and  their  large  possessions  in  Devon  were  managed  by  two 
stewards  (£2.  135.  4^.),  two  stewards  of  courts  (135.  4^.,  6s.  8d.),  six 

1  Jacka,  op.  cit.  f.  44. 

7—2 


100  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

bailiffs,  with  fees  ranging  from  45.  to  £2  and  an  auditor,  35.  4^.  They 
received  ^100  a  year  from  unspecified  holdings  in  Lancashire  and  had 
there  a  steward  of  courts  at  £i.  Their  possessions  in  Lincolnshire 
were  mainly  spiritual,  but  they  employed  a  receiver,  whose  fee  was 
135.  4,d.  In  Gloucestershire  they  had  large  possessions.  The  two  chief 
stewards  of  Cheltenham  received  each  £3.  65.  8d.  and  the  chief  steward 
of  Minchinhampton  £2 .  Two  stewards  of  courts  each  received  £i.6s.8d. 
and  the  two  stewards  at  Slaughter  £i.  Three  bailiffs  received 
£2.  135.  4fd.,  £2  and  135.  4^.,  with  livery.  A  bailiff  and  receiver  of 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  woods  was  paid  £4  and  the  steward 
of  the  abbot  of  Cirencester  was  paid  6s.  8d.  for  holding  the  abbess* 
view  of  frankpledge.  In  Wiltshire  the  nuns  held  a  manor  and  a  rectory 
and  paid  £i  to  a  steward  for  both:  they  seem  to  have  been  leased. 
In  counties  where  all  their  possessions  were  spiritual  they  had  no 
local  officials;  in  Somerset  both  the  rectories  they  held  were  leased 
and  in  Kent,  although  that  is  not  stated,  it  is  suggested  by  the  round 
sums  which  were  received  (£26.  135.  4^.,  £10,  £20).  The  leasing  of 
property  for  a  fixed  sum  of  course  made  the  administration  of  it  very 
much  simpler.  All  the  temporalities  of  the  Minoresses  without  Aldgate 
were  leased  and  their  staff  consisted  of  a  chief  steward,  Lord  Wynde- 
sore,  whose  fee  was  £2.  135.  4^.,  a  receiver  at  ^4.  55.  lod.  and  an 
auditor  at  135.  ^d.1 

A  closer  analysis  of  the  chief  sources  of  income  of  a  medieval 
nunnery,  as  they  may  be  distinguished  in  the  Valor  and  in.; 
various  account  rolls,  is  now  possible.  They  may  be  classified 
as  follows:  Temporalities,  comprising:  (i)  rents  from  lands  and 
houses,  (2)  perquisites  of  courts,  fairs,  mills,  woods  and  other 
manorial  perquisites,  (3)  issues  of  the  manor,  i.e.  sale  of  farm 
produce,  (4)  miscellaneous  payments  from  boarders,  gifts,  etc.;! 
and  Spiritualities,  comprising  (5)  tithes  from  appropriated  bene-  j 
fices,  alms,  mortuaries,  etc.  The  distinction  between  temporalities 
and  spiritualities  is  a  technical  one  and  there  was  sometimes  little 
difference  between  the  sources  of  the  two  kinds  of  income,  but 
the  temporal  revenues  were  usually  larger2. 

(i)    Rents  from  lands  and  houses.  A  house  which  possessed  : 
several  manors  besides  its  home  farm  would  either  lease  them 
to  tenants  ("farm  out  the  manor"  as  it  was  called),  or  put  in  f 
bailiffs,  who  were  responsible  for  working  the  estates  and  handing 
over  to  the  convent  the  profits  of  their  agriculture,  and  who  may 
also  have  collected  rents  where  no  separate  rent  collector  was 

1  Jacka,  op.  cit.  ff.  27,  29-30.    The  information  about  Syon  and  the 
Minoresses  is  taken  from  Valor  Eccles.  i,  p.  424  and  I,  p.  397  respectively. 
*  See  Jacka,  op.  cit.  f.  25. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  101 

employed.  For  besides  the  profits  arising  from  the  demesne 
land  (of  which  some  account  will  be  given  below),  the  convent 
derived  a  much  more  considerable  income  from  the  rents  of  all 

I  tenants  (whatever  the  legal  tenure  by  which  they  held)  who 
held  their  land  at  a  money  rent.  The  number  of  such  tenants 
was  likely  to  increase  by  the  commutation  of  customary  services 
for  money  payments;  since,  except  in  the  particular  manor 

I  or  manors  wherein  the  produce  of  the  demesne  was  reserved 
for  the  actual  consumption  of  the  community,  it  was  to  the 

I  interest  of  a  convent  to  lease  a  great  part  of  the  demesne  land 
to  tenants  at  a  money  rent  and  so  save  itself  the  trouble  of 

:  farming  the  land  under  a  bailiff1.  In  addition  to  these  rents 
from  agricultural  land  an  income  was  sometimes  derived, 

I  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  from  the  rent  of  tenements 

I  in  towns. 

In  most  account  rolls  a  careful  distinction  was  drawn  between 
"rents  of  assize"  and  "farms."  The  former  were  the  payments 
due  from  the  tenants  (whether  freehold  or  customary)  who  held 

i  their  holdings  at  a  money  rent;  these  rents  were  collected  by 

1  If  the  demesne  land  were  let  out  in  farm  the  customary  ploughing 
|  and  other  services  of  the  villeins  would  no  longer  be  needed  and  if  only  a 
j  portion  of  it  were  so  farmed  the  number  of  villein  services  required  would 
be  proportionately  less.  This,  as  well  as  the  increasing  employment  of  hired 
labour  on  the  demesne  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  ac 
counts  for  the  item  "Sale  of  Works"  which  appears  in  the  Romsey  account 
I  for  1412.    Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  194.    From  another  point 
of  view  the  number  of  rent-payers  was  increased  by  the  fact  that  both  free 
i.  and  unfree  tenants  could  rent  pieces  of  the  demesne.    As  to  the  farming  of 
i  the  demesne,  note  however  the  conclusion  to  which  Miss  Jacka  comes  from 
H  a  study  of  the  Valor  and  the  Dissolution  Surveys  now  in  the  Augmentation 
[[Office:  "The  question  'to  what  extent  did  the  nuns  in  1535  farm  their 
i!  demesnes  ? '  cannot  be  confidently  answered  on  the  evidence  of  any  of  the 
:<  records  before  us.   Apart  from  the  fact  that  in  many  cases  there  is  no  state- 
j  ment  at  all,  the  word  '  firma '  or  '  farm '  is  used  so  ambiguously  that  even 
|  where  it  occurs  it  is  impossible  to  be  certain  that  a  lease  existed.... There 
are,  of  course,  unmistakeable  cases  in  which  the  demesnes  were  farmed: 
i  Tarrant  Keynes  kept  in  hand  the  demesnes  of  3  manors  and  farmed  that  of  7 : 
|  Shaftesbury  occupied  the  demesne  of  one  manor  and  farmed  that  of  18 
,  (Valor  Eccles.  i,  pp.  265,  276).    But  in  none  of  the  few  cases  in  which  the 
whole  of  the  demesne  is  described  as  yielding  a  'firma,'  should  we  be  justi- 
'  fied,  in  view  of  the  several  uses  of  the  word,  in  asserting  that  it  had  the 
j  definite  character  of  a  lease.  That  is  to  say,  whatever  may  be  our  suspicions, 
1  the  evidence  before  us  does  not  warrant  the  assertion  that  in  a  single  case 
!  did  the  nuns  farm  the  whole  of  their  demesnes :  and  this  conclusion  is  an 
1  unexpected  and  remarkable  one,  for  we  might  well  expect  them  to  be 
among  the  first  land  holders  who  seized  this  method  of  simplifying  their 
•j  manorial  economy."    Jacka,  op.  tit.  i.  47. 


102  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

the  different  collectors  of  the  nunnery  or  brought  to  the  treasurers 
by  the  tenants  themselves.  "Farms"  were  leases,  i.e.  payments 
for  land  or  houses  which  were  held  directly  in  demesne  by  the 
nunnery,  but  instead  of  being  worked  by  a  bailiff,  or  occupied 
by  the  household,  were  "farmed  out"  at  an  annual  rent.  A 
"farmer"  might  thus  hold  in  farm  an  entire  manor,  and,  for  the 
payment  of  an  annual  sum  to  the  nuns,  he  would  have  the  right 
to  the  produce  of  the  demesne  and  to  the  rents  of  rent-paying 
tenants.  He  might  be  quite  a  small  person  and  hold  in  farm 
only  a  few  acres  of  the  demesne  (in  addition  perhaps  to  an 
ordinary  tenant's  holding  on  the  manor).  He  might  hold  the 
farm  of  a  mill,  or  a  stable,  or  a  single  house1.  In  any  case  he 
paid  a  rent  to  the  nuns  and  made  what  he  could  out  of  his  "  farm  "  ; 
while  they  much  preferred  these  regular  payments  to  the  trouble 
of  superintending  the  cultivation  of  distant  lands,  in  an  age  when 
communication  was  difficult  and  slow. 

Nevertheless  the  rents  were  not  always  easy  to  collect,  for 
all  the  diligence  of  the  bailiff  and  of  the  various  rent-collectors2. 

1  In  the  account  roll  of  Dame  Christian  Bassett,  Prioress  of  Delapr6 
(St  Albans)  for  2-4  Hen.  VII,  the  "rente  fermys"  range  between  £j  from 
Robert  Pegge  for  the  farm  of  the  whole  manor  of  Pray,  to  2s.  received  from 
Richard  Franklin  "for  the  ferme  of  vj  acres  of  londe  in  Bacheworth"; 
one  John  Shon  pays  65.  8d.  "for  the  ferme  of  certeyne  londs  in  Bacheworth 
and  ij  tenements  in  Seint  Mighell  strete  with  a  lyme  kylne";  Richard 
Ordeway  pays  105.  for  rent  farm  of  "an  hous  wlin  the  Pray"  and  Robert 
Pegge  85.  for  rent  farm  of  "an  hous  and  a  stable  w*in  Praygate."  Dugdale, 
Mon.  m,  pp.  358-9.  In  this  account  her  assize  rents  amount  to  £2.  us.  2d. 
within  the  town  of  St  Albans.  and  her  rents  farm  to  £4.  135.  2d.;  while  out 
side  the  town  the  rents  of  assize  amount  to  £2.  55.  od.  and  the  rents  farm 
to  £11.  IQS.  8^.,  while  four  items  amounting  to  £i.  igs.  lid.  are  doubtful, 
but  probably  represent  farms.  That  is  to  say  very  nearly  three  quarters  of 
the  lands  and  houses  belonging  to  Delapre  were  farmed  out,  and  if  we  except 
payments  from  the  town  of  St  Albans,  which  were  probably  house-rents, 
over  four-fifths  of  its  possessions  were  in  farm.  Similarly  in  the  account  roll 
of  Margaret  Ratclyff,  Prioress  of  Swaffham,  for  22  Ed.  IV.  the  rents  are 
classified  as  Redditus  Assise  (£6.  os.  ^d.  in  all),  Firma  Terrae  (^13.  os.  3%d. 
in  all)  and  Firma  Molendini,  the  farm  of  a  mill  (^3.  145.  <\d.).  76.  iv,  p.  459. 

1  References  to  money  paid  in  fees  to  rent-collectors,  or  in  gratuities 
to  men  who  had  brought  rents  up  to  the  house  often  occur  in  account  rolls, 
e.g.  in  the  Catesby  roll  for  1414-15,  "Also  in  expenses  of  collecting  rents 
wheresoever  to  be  collected... xixs.  Also  paid  to  divers  receivers  of  rent 
for  the  time  viijs.  viij^."  Baker,  Hist,  of  Northants.  i,  p.  280.  In  the 
Delapr6  account  of  2-4  Hen.  IV,  "Item  paid  to  a  man  that  brought  money 
from  Cambryg  for  a  rewarde  viijrf.  Item  for  dyvers  men  y*  brought  in 
their  rent  at  dyvers  tymes  xxs.  ijd."  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  359.  In  the 
St  Radegund's  Cambridge  account  of  1449-51,  "  In  the  expenses  of  Thomas 
Key  (xvijrf.  ob.)  at  Abyngton,  Litlyngton,  Whaddon,  Crawden,  Bumpsted 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  103 

There  are  some  illuminating  entries  in  the  accounts  of  St  Rade- 
gund's  Cambridge.  In  1449-50  the  indignant  treasuress  debits 
herself  with  "one  tenement  in  Walleslane  lately  held  by  John 
Walsheman  for  6s.  8d.  a  year,  the  which  John  fled  out  of  this 
town  within  the  first  half  of  this  year,  leaving  nought  behind 
him  whereby  he  could  be  distrained  save  yd.,  collected  there 
from";  and  in  the  following  year  she  again  debits  herself  "for 
part  of  a  tenement  lately  held  by  John  Webster  for  125.  a  year, 
whence  was  collected  only  75.  for  that  the  aforesaid  John 
Webster  did  flit  [literally,  devolavit]  by  night,  leaving  naught 
behind  him  whereby  he  could  be  distrained."  Yet  these  nuns 
seem  to  have  been  indulgent  landlords ;  in  this  year  the  treasuress 
debits  herself  "  for  a  tenement  lately  held  by  Richard  Pyghtesley, 
because  it  was  too  heavily  charged  before,  2s.  3d.,... and  for 
a  portion  of  the  rent  owed  by  Stephen  Brasyer  on  account  of  the 
poverty  and  need  of  the  said  Stephen,  by  grace  of  the  lady 
Prioress  this  time  only,  i$d."  and  there  are  other  instances  of 
lowered  rents  in  these  accounts1.  Other  account  rolls  sometimes 
make  mention  of  meals  and  small  presents  of  money  given  to 
tenants  bringing  in  their  rents. 

(2)  Various  manorial  perquisites  and  grants.  Besides  the  rents 
from  land  and  houses  the  position  of  a  religious  community  as 
lord  of  a  manor  gave  it  the  right  to  various  other  financial 
payments.  Of  these  the  most  important  were  the  perquisites  of 
the  manorial  courts.  These,  varied  very  much  according  to  the 
extent  and  number  of  the  liberties  which  had  been  granted  to 
any  particular  house.  To  Syon,  beloved  of  kings,  vast  liberties 
had  been  granted  (notably  in  1447),  so  that  the  tenants  upon  its 
estates  were  almost  entirely  exempt  from  royal  justice.  The 
abbess  and  convent  had 

view  of  frankpledge,  leets,  lawe-days  and  wapentakes  for  all  people, 
tenants  resiant  and  other  resiants  aforesaid,  in  whatsoever  places, 
by  the  same  abbess  or  her  successors  to  be  limited,  where  to  them  it 
shall  seem  most  expedient  within  the  lordships,  lands,  rents,  fees 
and  possessions  aforesaid,  to  be  holden  by  the  steward  or  other  officers. 

and  Cambridge  for  the  business  of  the  lady  (prioress)  and  for  levying  rent... 
and  in  the  stipend  of  Thomas  Key  collecting  rents  in  Cambridge  and  the 
district  this  year  xiiis.  iujd."  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge, 

PP-  I73-4- 

1  Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  148,  164. 


104  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

They  had  the  assizes  of  bread  and  ale  and  wine  and  victuals  and 
weights  and  measures.  They  had  all  the  old  traditional  emolu 
ments  of  justice,  which  lords  had  striven  to  obtain  since  the  days 
before  the  conquest, 

soc,  sac,  infangentheof,  outfangentheof,  waif,  estray,  treasure-trove, 
wreck  of  the  sea,  deodands,  chattels  of  felons  and  fugitives,  of  outlaws, 
of  waive,  of  persons  condemned,  of  felons  of  themselves  [suicides], 
escapes  of  felons,  year  day  waste  and  estrepement  and  all  other 
commodities,  forfeitures  and  profits  whatsoever. 

They  had  the  right  to  erect  gallows,  pillory  and  tumbrel  for  the 
punishment  of  malefactors.  They  even  had 

all  issues  and  amercements,  redemptions  and  forfeitures  as  well 
before  our  [the  king's]  heirs  and  successors,  as  before  the  chancellor, 
treasurer  and  barons  of  our  exchequer,  the  justices  and  commissioners 
of  us,  our  heirs  or  successors  whomsoever,  made,  forfeited  or  adjudged 
...of  all  the  people... in  the  lordships,  lands,  tenements,  fees  and 
possessions  aforesaid1. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  middle  ages  justice  had  one  outstanding 
characteristic:  it  filled  the  pocket  of  whoever  administered  it. 
"  Justitia  magnum  emolumentum  est,"  as  the  phrase  went.  All 
the  manifold  perquisites  of  justice,  whether  administered  in  her 
own  or  in  the  royal  courts,  went  to  the  abbess  of  Syon  if  any 
of  her  own  tenants  were  concerned.  It  is  no  wonder  that  out 
of  a  total  income  of  £1944.  us.  $%d.  the  substantial  sum  of 
£133.  os.  6d.  was  derived  from  perquisites  of  courts2. 

Few  houses  possessed  such  wholesale  exemption  from  royal 
justice,  but  all  possessed  their  manorial  courts,  at  which  tenants 
paid  their  heriots  in  money  or  in  kind  as  a  death-duty  to  the  lord, 
or  their  lines  on  entering  upon  land,  and  at  which  justice  was 
done  and  offenders  amerced  (or  fined  as  we  should  now  call  it). 
Most  houses  possessed  the  right  to  hold  the  assize  of  bread  and 
ale  and  to  fine  alewives  who  overcharged  or  gave  short  measure. 
Some  possessed  the  right  to  seize  the  chattels  of  fugitives,  and 
the  abbess  of  Wherwell  was  once  involved  in  a  law  suit  over 

1  See  for  a  translation  of  the  whole  charter,  Aungier,  Hist,  of  Syon, 
pp.  60-67.  The  original  is  given  ib.  pp.  411-8 

2  See  the  valuation  of  Syon  Monastery,  A.D.  1534,  translated  from  the 
Valor  Ecclesiasticus,  ib.  pp.  439-450.    At  Romsey  in  1412  the  perquisites 
of  courts  brought  in  a  total  of  ^14  out  of  an  annual  income  of  ^404.  6s.  o^d., 
made  up  of  the  rents  and  farms,  sale  of  works,  sale  of  farm  produce  and 
perquisites  of  courts  on  six  manors.  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  194. 


ni]  WORLDLY  GOODS  105 

this  liberty,  which  she  held  in  the  hundred  of  Mestowe  and 
which  was  disputed  by  the  crown  officials.  One  Henry  Harold 
of  Wherwell  had  killed  his  wife  Isabel  and  fled  to  the  church 
of  Wherwell  and  the  Abbess  had  seized  his  chattels  to  the  value 
of  £35.  45.  Sd.  by  the  hands  of  her  reeve1.  A  less  usual  privilege 
was  that  of  the  Abbess  of  Marham,  who  possessed  the  right  of 
proving  the  wills  of  those  who  died  within  the  precincts  or 
jurisdiction  of  the  house2.  The  courts  at  which  these  liberties 
were  exercised  were  held  by  the  steward  of  the  nunnery,  who 
went  from  manor  to  manor  to  preside  at  their  sittings;  but 
sometimes  the  head  of  the  house  herself  would  accompany 
him.  Christian  Bassett,  the  energetic  Prioress  of  Delapre  (St 
Albans),  not  content  with  journeying  up  to  London  for  a  law 
suit,  went  twice  to  preside  at  her  court  at  Wing3. 

In  rather  a  different  class  from  grants  of  j  urisdictional  liberties 
were  special  grants  of  free  warren,  felling  of  wood  and  fairs. 
Monasteries  which  possessed  lands  within  the  bounds  of  a  royal 
forest  were  not  allowed  to  take  game  or  to  cut  down  wood  there 
without  a  special  licence  from  the  crown;  but  such  grants  to 
exercise  "free  warren"  (i.e.  take  game)  and  to  fell  wood  were 
often  granted  in  perpetuity,  as  an  act  of  piety  by  the  king,  or 
for  special  purposes.  The  Abbess  of  Syon  had  free  warren  in  all 
her  possessions,  and  in  1489  it  was  recorded  that  the  Abbess  of 
Barking  had  free  chase  within  the  bailiwick  of  Hainault  to  hunt 
all  beasts  of  the  forest  in  season,  except  deer,  and  free  chase 
within  the  forest  and  without  to  hunt  hares  and  rabbits  and  fox, 
badger,  cat  and  other  vermin  4.  Grants  of  wood  were  more  often 
made  on  special  occasions;  thus  in  1277  the  keeper  of  the  forest 
of  Essex  was  ordered  to  permit  the  Abbess  of  Barking  and  her 
men  to  fell  oak-trees  and  oak-trunks  in  her  demesne  woods 
within  the  forest  to  the  value  of  £40  5,  while  in  1299  the  Abbess 
of  Wilton  was  given  leave  to  fell  sixty  oaks  in  her  own  wood 
I  within  the  bounds  of  the  forest  of  Savernake,  in  order  to  rebuild 

1  V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  p.  135. 

8  V.C.H.  Norfolk,  II,  p.  370.   So  apparently  had  the  Prioress  of  Carrow. 
Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  p.  21. 

3  See  p.  70  above.   Compare  the  Catesby  roll  for  1414-15.    "And  in  the 
expenses  of  the  steward  at  the  court  this  year  and  at  other  times  vis.  viiid." 
Baker,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Northants.  I,  p.  280. 

4  V.C.H.  Essex,  u,  p.  118. 

5  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls,  1272-9,  p.  392. 


106  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

some  of  her  houses,  which  had  been  burnt  down1.  The  grant  of 
fairs  and  markets  was  even  more  common  and  more  lucrative, 
for  the  convent  profited  not  only  from  the  rents  of  booths  and 
from  the  entrance-tolls,  but  not  infrequently  from  setting  up 
a  stall  of  its  own,  for  the  sale  of  spices  and  other  produce2. 
Henry  III  granted  the  nuns  of  Catesby  a  weekly  market  every 
Monday  within  their  manor  of  Catesby  and  a  yearly  fair  for  three 
days  in  the  same  place;  and  almost  any  monastic  chartulary  will 
provide  other  instances  of  such  rights3. 

The  majority  of  the  special  perquisites  which  have  been  de 
scribed  would  originate  in  special  grants  from  the  Crown ;  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  every  manorial  lord  could  count  on 
certain  perquisites  ex  officio,  for  which  no  specific  grant  was  re 
quired.  For  his  manor  provided  him  with  more  than  agricultural 
produce  on  the  one  hand  and  rents  and  farms  on  the  other. 
Through  the  manor  court  he  also  received  certain  payments 
due  to  him  from  all  free  and  unfree  tenants,  in  particular  those 
connected  with  the  transfer  of  land,  the  heriot  and  the  fines 
already  mentioned.  From  unfree  tenants  he  could  also  claim 
various  other  dues,  the  mark  of  their  status;  merchet,  when 
their  daughters  married  off  the  estate,  leyrwite,  when  they  en 
joyed  themselves  without  the  intermediary  of  that  important 
ceremony,  a  fine  when  they  wished  to  send  their  sons  to  school 

1  Cal.  rj  Close  Rolls,  1296-1302,  p.  238. 

2  In  the  account  of  the  Prioress  of  Delapr6  already  quoted  occurs  the 
item  "  Receyvid  for  ij  standyngs  at  Prayffayre  at  ij  tymes  vs."    Dugdale, 
Mon.  m,  p.  359.   The  fair  time  was  the  feast  of  the  Nativity  of  the  B.V.M. 
(Sept.  8th)  and  the  account  for  another  year  shows  that  over  £i  was  spent 
on  the  convent  and  visitors  at  this  time.  The  accounts  for  1490-3  include 
payments  for    making    trestles    and  forms  in  connection  with  the  fair. 
V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  430  (note  31)  and  p.  439  (note  39).  The  nuns  of  St  Rade- 
gund's,  Cambridge,  were  granted  by  Stephen  a  fair,  which  was  afterwards 
known  as  Garlick  fair,  and  was  held  in  their  church-yard  for  two  days  on 
August  1 4th  and  I5th.  They  did  not  receive  much  from  it;  in  1449  the  tolls 
amounted  only  to  55.  id. ;  moreover  they  had  to  give  the  toll  collectors 
6d.  for  a  wage  and  they  evidently  made  the  occasion  one  for  entertainment, 
for  they  hired  an  extra  cook  for  $d.  "to  help  in  the  kitchin  at  the  fair  time." 
Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  pp.  49-50. 

3  The    Valor   Eccles.    occasionally    notes   income   derived    from    fairs. 
Tarrant  Keynes  had  {2  from  the  fair  at  Woodburyhill,  Shaftesbury  had 
£2.  45.  6d.  from  Shaftesbury  fair,  Mailing  received  ^3.  6s.  8d.  from  Mailing 
market  and  fair  and  ^3  from  a  market  "cum  terriset  tenementis"  at  Newheth, 
Blackborough  had  £i  from  Blackborough  fair  and  Elstow  had  £7.  125.  od. 
from  Elstow  fair.    Valor  Eccles.  i,  pp.  265,  276,  106;  II,  p.  205;  in,  p.  395; 
iv,  p.  188. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  107 

I  and  a  number  of  other  customary  payments,  exacted  at  the 
manor  court  and  varying  slightly  from  manor  to  manor.  More 
over  the  tolls  from  the  water-  or  wind-mill  at  which  villeins  had 
to  grind  their  corn  all  went  to  swell  the  purse  of  the  lord1.  This 

|  is  not  the  place  for  a  detailed  description  of  manorial  rights, 
which  can  be  studied  in  any  text-book  of  economic  history2;  a 
word  must,  however,  be  said  about  the  mortuary  system,  which 

I  did  not  a  little  to  enrich  the  medieval  church. 

When  a  peasant  died  the  lord  of  the  manor  had  often  the 

|  right  to  claim  his  best  animal  or  garment  as  a  mortuary  or 
heriot,  and  by  degrees  there  grew  up  a  similar  claim  to  his 
second  best  possession  on  the  part  of  the  parish  priest. 

"  It  was  presumed,"  says  Mr  Coulton,  "  that  the  dead  man  must  have 
failed  to  some  extent  in  due  payment  of  tithes  during  his  lifetime 
and  that  a  gift  of  his  second  best  possession  to  the  Church  would 
therefore  be  most  salutary  to  his  soul"3. 

From  these  claims,  partly  manorial  and  partly  ecclesiastical, 
religious  houses  benefited  very  greatly,  and  their  accounts  some 
times  mention  mortuary  payments.  The  Prioress  of  Catesby  in 
the  year  1414-15  records  how  her  live  stock  was  enriched  by 
I  one  horse,  one  mare  and  two  cows  coming  as  heriots,  while  she 
[received  a  payment  of  2os.  for  two  oxen  coming  as  heriot  of 
Richard  Sheperd4.    In  the  chartulary  of  Marham  is  recorded  a 
mortuary  list  of  sixteen  people,  who  died  within  the  jurisdiction 
I  of  the  house,  and  the  mortuaries  vary  from  a  sorrel  horse  and 
a  book  to  numerous  gowns  and  mantles5.    The  system  was 

1  The  mill  belonging  to  the  home  farm  would  be  in  the  charge  of  a  miller, 
who  was  one  of  the  hired  servants  of  the  house  and  was  paid  a  regular  stipend. 
Other  mills  would  probably  be  farmed  out.  The  nuns  of  Catesby  had  two 
mills,  which  brought  them  in  125.  and  225.  a  year  respectively;  one,  a  wind 
mill,  was  probably  farmed,  but  the  water-mill  was  in  charge  of  Thomas 

!  Milner,  at  a  wage  of  205.  and  his  servant,  who  was  paid  2s.  6d.   The  nuns 

also  received  tolls  of  grain  in  kind  from  the  mill;  a  certain  proportion  of 

which  was  handed  over  to  the  miller  for  his  household.  The  mill  does  not 

seem  to  have  paid  very  well,  for  a  heavy  list  of  "  Costs  of  the  Mill,"  amounting 

to  3 is.  6d.  appears  in  the  account;  it  includes  the  wages  of  the  miller  and 

,  his  boy  and  payments  to  a  carpenter  for  making  the  mill-wheel  for  seventeen 

j  days  and  in  damming  the  mill-tail  and  buying  shoes  with  nails  for  the  mill 

horses.    Baker,  op.  cit.  I,  pp.  279,  281.    At  Swaffham  Bulbeck  the  "Firma 

Molendini"  brought  in  £3.  145.  4^.    Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  457-    Mailing 

Abbey  had  a  fulling-mill.    Valor  Eccles.  I,  p.  276. 

2  For  instance  in  Hone,  The  Manor  and  Manorial  Records  (1906). 

3  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  p.  591. 

4  Baker,  op.  cit.  I,  pp.  279,  282.  6   V.C.H.  Norfolk,  n,  p.  370. 


108  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

obviously  capable  of  great  abuse,  and  Mr  Coulton  considers  that 
it  did  much  to  precipitate  the  Reformation,  for  the  unhappy 
peasant  resented  more  and  more  bitterly  the  greed  of  the  church, 
which  chose  his  hour  of  sorrow  to  wrest  from  him  the  best  of  his 
poor  possessions ;  it  must  have  seemed  hard  to  him  that  his  horse 
or  his  ox  should  be  driven  away,  if  he  could  not  buy  it  back, 
to  the  well-stocked  farm  of  a  community  which  was  vowed  to 
poverty,  far  harder  than  if  his  lord  were  a  layman,  as  free  as  he 
was  himself  to  accumulate  possessions  without  soiling  the  soul. 
When  the  parish  priest  followed  the  convent  with  a  claim  upon 
what  was  best,  his  despair  must  have  grown  deeper  and  his 
resentment  more  bitter.  It  was  often  difficult  to  collect  these 
payments,  just  as  it  was  often  difficult  to  collect  tithes,  even 
when  a  priest  was  less  loth  to  curse  for  them  than  Chaucer's 
poor  parson.  Vicars  were  obliged  to  sue  their  wretched  parishioners 
in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  monasteries  were  sometimes  fain 
to  commute  such  payments  for  an  annual  rent,  collected  by  the 
tenants1.  But  the  best  ecclesiastics  recognised  that  the  system 
was  somewhat  out  of  keeping  with  Christian  charity.  Caesarius 
of  Heisterbach  has  a  story  of  Ulrich,  the  good  head  of  the 
monastery  of  Steinfeld,  who  one  day 

came  to  one  of  his  granges,  wherein,  seeing  a  comely  foal,  he  enquired 
of  the  [lay]  brother  whose  it  was  or  whence  it  came.  To  whom  the 
brother  answered,  "such  and  such  a  man,  our  good  and  faithful 
friend,  left  it  to  us  at  his  death."  "By  pure  devotion,"  asked  the 
provost,  "or  by  legal  compulsion?"  "It  came  through  his  death," 
answered  the  other,  "for  his  wife,  since  he  was  one  of  our  serfs, 
offered  it  as  a  heriot."  Then  the  provost  shook  his  head  and  piously 
answered:  "Because  he  was  a  good  man  and  our  faithful  friend, 
therefore  hast  thou  despoiled  his  wife."  Render  therefore  her  horse 
to  this  forlorn  woman;  for  it  is  robbery  to  seize  or  detain  other  men's 
goods,  since  the  horse  was  not  thine  before  [the  man's  death]"2. 

1  For  examples  of  mortuary  law-suits,  receipts  and  results,  see  Coulton, 
Med.  Garn.  pp.  561-6.    On  the  whole  subject  of  mortuaries  and  the  un 
popularity  which  they  entailed  upon  the  church,  see  Coulton,  Medieval 
Studies,  no.  8  ("Priests  and  People  before  the  Reformation,"  pp.  3-7). 

2  Translated  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  p.  323.  Compare  another  of  Caesar 
ius'  tales  of  the  usurer  who  was  taken  by  the  devil  through  various  places 
of  torment:  "There  also  he  saw  a  certain  honest  knight  lately  dead,  Elias 
von  Rheineck,  castellan  of  Horst,  seated  on  a  mad  cow  with  his  face  towards 
her  tail  and  his  back  to  her  horns;  the  beast  rushed  to  and  fro,  goring  his 
back  every  moment  so  that  the  blood  rushed  forth.    To  whom  the  usurer 
said,  'Lord,   why  suffer  ye  this  paid?'    'This  cow,'  replied  the  knight, 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  109 

(3)  Issues  of  the  manor.  Before  passing  on  to  sources  of 
income  of  a  more  specifically  ecclesiastical  character,  some  ac 
count  must  be  given  of  the  third  great  class  of  receipts  which 

I  came  to  a  convent  in  its  capacity  of  landowner,  to  wit.  the  "issues 
of  the  manor."  Attached  to  almost  every  nunnery  was  its  home 
farm,  which  provided  the  nuns  with  the  greater  part  of  their 
food1.  A  large  nunnery  would  thus  reserve  for  its  own  use  several 
manors  and  granges,  but  usually  other  manors  in  its  possession 
would  be  farmed  by  bailiffs,  who  sold  the  produce  at  market 

,  and  paid  in  the  profits  to  the  treasuress  or  to  one  of  the  obedienti 
aries;  or  else  a  manor  would  be  leased  to  a  tenant.  The  surplus 
produce  of  the  home  farm,  which  could  not  be  used  by  the  nuns, 
was  also  sold.  The  treasuress  usually  entered  the  receipts  and 
expenditure  of  the  home  farm  in  her  household  account  and  she 
had  to  keep  two  sets  of  records,  the  one  a  careful  account  of  all 
the  animals  and  agricultural  produce  on  the  farm,  with  details 
as  to  the  use  made  of  them;  and  the  other  (under  the  heading 

I  of  "issues  of  the  manor")  a  money  record  of  the  sums  obtained 
from  sales  of  live  stock,  wool  or  grain.  An  analysis  of  the 
produce  of  the  home  farm  of  Catesby  (1414-5) 2  shows  that  the 

|  chief  crops  grown  were  wheat  and  barley.  Of  these  a  certain 
proportion  was  kept  for  seed  to  sow  the  new  crops;  almost  all 
the  rest  of  the  wheat  was  paid  in  food  allowances  to  the  servants 
and  i  qr.  3  bushels  in  alms  "to  friars  of  the  four  orders  and 
other  poor";  most  of  the  barley  was  malted,  except  6  qrs. 
delivered  to  the  swineherd  to  feed  hogs ;  and  what  remained  was 
stored  in  the  granaries  of  the  convent.  Oats  and  peas  were  also 
grown  and  part  of  the  crop  used  for  seed,  part  for  food-allowances 
to  the  servants  and  oatmeal  for  the  nuns.  The  Prioress  also  kept 
a  most  meticulous  account  of  the  livestock  on  her  farm.  All 
were  numbered  and  classified,  cart-horses,  brood-mares,  colts, 
foals,  oxen,  bulls,  cows,  stirks  (three-year  old),  two-year  old, 

'  I  tore  mercilessly  from  a  certain  widow ;  wherefore  I  must  now  endure  this 
merciless  punishment  from  the  same  beast."'  Ib.  p.  214.  Certainly  the 
medieval  imagination  had  a  genius  for  making  the  punishment  fit  the  crime. 
1  A  nunnery  in  a  large  town  would  be  far  more  dependent  on  buying 
food.  Thus  an  account  of  the  household  expenses  of  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate, 
in  the  sixteenth  century  shows  that  the  nuns  had  to  pay  ^22  for  buying 
corn  and  £60.  135.  4^.  for  meat  and  other  foodstuffs.  They  were  heavily 
in  debt,  and  their  creditors  included  a  brewer,  a  "  cornman,"  two  fishmongers 
and  a  butcher.  V.C.H.  London,  I,  p.  460.  2  Baker,  op.  cit.  I,  pp.  281-3. 


no  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

yearlings,  calves,  sheep,  wethers,  hogerells,  lambs,  hogs,  boars, 
sows,  hilts,  hogsters  and  pigs.  In  each  class  it  was  carefully 
set  down  how  many  animals  remained  in  stock  at  the  end  of  the 
year  and  what  had  been  done  with  the  others.  We  know  some 
thing  of  the  consumption  of  meat  by  the  nuns  of  Catesby  and 
their  servants  in  this  year  of  grace  1414-5,  when  the  old  rule 
against  the  eating  of  meat  was  relaxed;  and  we  see  something 
of  the  cares  of  a  medieval  housewife  in  those  days  before  root- 
crops  were  known,  when  the  number  of  animals  which  could  be 
kept  alive  during  the  winter  was  strictly  limited  by  the  amount 
of  hay  produced  on  the  valuable  meadow  land.  Only  in  summer 
could  the  convent  have  fresh  meat;  and  on  St  Martin's  day 
(Nov.  n)  the  business  of  killing  and  salting  the  rest  of  the 
stock  for  winter  food  began1.  From  good  Dame  Elizabeth 
Swynford's  account  it  appears  that  five  oxen,  one  stirk,  thirty 
hogs  and  one  boar  were  delivered  to  the  larderer  to  be  salted; 
in  summer  time,  when  the  convent  could  enjoy  fresh  meat,  five 
calves,  fourteen  sheep,  ten  hogs  and  twelve  pigs  were  sent  in 
to  the  kitchen ;  and  twenty  cows  were  divided  between  the  larder 
and  the  kitchen,  to  provide  salt  and  fresh  beef.  There  is  un 
fortunately  no  record  of  the  produce  of  the  dairy,  which  supplied 
the  convent  with  milk,  cheese,  eggs  and  occasional  chickens. 

But  the  home-farm  served  the  purpose  of  providing  money 
as  well  as  food.  The  hides  of  the  oxen  and  the  "wool  pells"  of 
the  sheep,  which  had  been  killed  for  food  or  had  fallen  victim 
to  that  curse  of  medieval  farming,  the  murrain,  were  by  no  means 
wasted.  Five  hides  belonging  to  animals  which  had  died  of 
murrain  were  tanned  and  used  for  collars  and  other  cart  gear 
on  the  farm ;  but  all  the  rest  were  sold,  thirty-six  of  them  in  all. 
Most  lucrative  of  all,  however,  was  the  sale  of  wool  pells  and 
wool,  and  Dame  Elizabeth  Swynford  is  very  exact;  eighteen  wool 
pells,  from  sheep  which  the  convent  had  eaten  as  mutton,  sold 
before  shearing  for  355.  iod.,  thirty-eight  sold  after  shearing  for 
gs.  6d.,  thirty-six  lamb  skins  for  is.;  and  6d.  was  received  "for 
wynter  lokes  sold."  Moreover  the  convent  also  sold  one  sack 
and  eight  weight  of  wool  at  £5.  45.  the  sack,  for  a  total  of  £6.  165. 

1  The  convent  bought  4$  qrs.  of  salt  for  255.  for  the  operation  this  year. 
Baker,  op.  cit.  I,  p.  280.  Compare,  for  the  operation  at  Gracedieu,  Gasquet, 
Eng.  Mon.  Life,  p.  174. 


I  III]  WORLDLY  GOODS  ill 

Altogether  the  "issues  of  the  manor"  amounted  to  the  sub- 
Bstantial  sum  of  £24.  8s.  8d.,  chiefly  derived  from  these  sales  of 
wool  and  wool  pells  and  from  the  sale  of  some  timber  for 
£6.  135.  ^d.1  These  details  about  wool  are  interesting,  for  it  is 
I  well  known  that  the  monastic  houses  of  England,  especially  in 
I  the  northern  counties,  were  great  sheep  farmers.   Most  accounts 
mention  this  important  source  of  revenue  and  in  the  series  of 
rolls  kept  by  the  treasuresses  of  St  Michael's  Stamford,  it  is 
regularly  entered  under  the  heading  "Fermes,  dismes,  leynes  et 
pensions,"  a  somewhat  miscellaneous  classification2.  In  the  thir 
teenth-century  Pratica  delta  Mercatura  of  Francesco  Pergolotti 
|  there  is  incorporated   a  list  of  monasteries  which  sell  wool, 
compiled  for  the  use  of  Italian  wool  merchants  and  giving  the 
prices  per  sack  of  the  different  qualities  of  wool  at  each  house. 
The  list  contains  a  section  specially  devoted  to  nunneries,  in 
[which  twenty  houses  are  mentioned,  all  but  two  of  them  in 
Lincolnshire  or  Yorkshire3.  Armed  with  this  information  the 

1  The  account  of  the  cellaress  of  Syon  for  the  year  1536-7  gives  very 
i  full  details  of  the  income  derived  from  the  sale  of  hides  and  fells.    John 
I  Lyrer,  tanner,  buys  from  her  fifty-five  ox-hides  at  35.  6d.  each,  and  three 
I  cow-hides,  two  steer-hides,  one  bull-hide,  and  one  murrain  ox-hide  at  2s.  4^. 
[I  each,  making  a  total  of  £10.  85.  lod.   The  same  John  Lyrer  buys  230  calf- 

I  skins  for  ^3.  i6s.  8d.  John  Cockes,  fellmonger,  buys  287  "shorling  felles," 
at  35.  the  dozen,  190  "skynnes  of  wynter  felles"  at  6s.  the  dozen,  77 
I  "skynnes  somerfelles"  at  8s.  the  dozen,  for  a  total  for  £10.  i8s.  id.  The 
i  different  qualities  of  wool  were  always  carefully  distinguished  and  priced. 
[  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  Blunt,  p.  xxix 

2  A  few  examples  taken  at  random  will  suffice:  "By  the  sale  of  wool 
[:[  4  marks  us.  8d.  From  Gilbert  of  Chesterton  for  the  wool  del  aan  ke  est  aveni 

loos.  "  (32-3  Edw.  I).  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/1.  "From  the  sale  of  14  stone 
of  wool,  price  per  stone  75.,  4/.  i8s. "  (48-9  Edw.  III).  Ib.  1260/4.  "  Received 
for  one  sack  of  20  stone  of  wool  sold  last  year,  at  45.  per  stone,  13  marks, 
xos.  8d.  Received  for  one  sack  of  this  years  wool,  at  45.  6d.  per  stone, 
5l.  ijs.  od."  (either  46-7  or  47-8  Edw.  III).  Ib.  1260/21.  "From  John  of 
the  Pantry  for  n£  stone  of  wool  at  6s.  the  stone,  695."  (1-2  Rich.  II). 
Ib.  1260/7.  In  1412  Romsey  Abbey  derived  £60  out  of  a  total  income  of 
^404.  6s.  4%d.  from  the  sale  of  wool.  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  194. 

3  See,  for  this  very  interesting  document,  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English 
Industry  and  Commerce  (1905  ed.),  i,  App.  D,  pp.  628-41.  The  nunneries 
mentioned,  with  the  amount  of  wool  obtainable  from  each  annually,  are 
Stainfield  (from  12  sacks),   Stixwould  (from   15  sacks),  Nuncoton  (from 
10  sacks),  Hampole  (from  6  sacks),  St  Leonard's  Grimsby  (from  2  sacks), 
Heynings  (from  2  sacks),  Gokewell  (from  4  sacks),  Langley  (from  5  sacks), 
Arden  (from  10  sacks),  Keldholme  (from  12  sacks),  Rosedale  (from  10  sacks), 
St  Clement's  York  (from  3  sacks),  Swine  (from  8  sacks),  Marrick  (from 
8  sacks),  Wykeham  (from  4  sacks),  Ankerwyke  (from  4  sacks),  Thicket 
(from  4  sacks),  Nunmonkton  (number  missing),  Yedingham  (do.),  Legbourne 


112  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

Italians  would  journey  from  nunnery  to  nunnery  and  bargain 
with  the  nuns  for  their  wool:  the  whole  crop  would  sometimes 
be  commissioned  by  them  in  advance,  sold  on  the  backs  of 
the  sheep.  The  English  distrusted  these  dark  smooth-spoken 
foreigners ;  many  years  later  the  author  of  the  Libel  of  English 
Policie  charged  them  with  dishonest  practices  and  complained 
of  the  freedom  with  which  they  were  allowed  to  buy  in  England : 

In  Cotteswold  also  they  ride  about, 
And  all  England,  and  buy  withouten  doubte 
What  them  list  with  freedome  and  franchise, 
More  than  we  English  may  gitten  many  wise1. 

But  it  must  have  been  a  great  day  for  the  impoverished  nuns 
of  Yorkshire  when  slim  Italian  or  stout  Fleming  came  riding 
down  the  dales  under  a  spring  sun  to  bargain  for  their  wool 
crop.  What  a  bustling  hither  and  thither  there  would  be,  and 
what  a  confabulation  in  the  parlour  between  my  lady  Prioress 
and  her  steward  and  her  chaplain  and  the  stranger  sitting  op 
posite  to  them  and  speaking  his  reasons  "ful  solempnely."  What 
a  careful  distinguishing  of  the  best  and  the  medium  and  the 
worst  kind  of  wool,  which  the  Italian  calls  buona  lana  and  mojano 
lana  and  locchi.  What  a  haggling  over  the  price,  which  varies 
from  nunnery  to  nunnery,  but  always  allows  the  merchant  to 
sell  at  a  good  profit  in  the  markets  of  Flanders  and  Italy.  What 
sighs  of  relief  when  the  stranger  trots  off  again,  sitting  high  on 
his  horse  and  taking  with  him  a  silken  purse,  or  a  blood-band 
or  a  pair  of  gloves  in  "courtesy"  from  the  nuns.  What  blessings 
on  the  black-faced  sheep,  when  the  sorely-needed  silver  is 
locked  up  in  the  treasury  chest  and  debts  begin  to  look  less 
terrible,  leaking  roofs  less  incurable,  pittances  less  few  and  far 
between. 

(4)  Miscellaneous  payments.  A  last  source  of  temporal  revenue 
consisted  in  the  sums  paid  for  board  and  lodging  by  visitors, 
regular  boarders  and  schoolchildren.  Though  such  visitors  were 
frowned  at  by  bishops  as  subversive  of  discipline,  the  nuns 
welcomed  their  contributions  to  the  lean  income  of  the  convent, 

from  3  sacks).  A  similar  Flemish  list  mentions  Hampole,  Nuncoton,  Stain- 
field  and  Gracedieu(33  Ibs.).  Varenbergh,  Hist,  des  Relations  Diplomatiques 
entre  le  Comte  de  Flandre  et  I'Angleterre  au  Moyen  Age  (Brussels,  1874), 
pp.  214-7. 

i  "The  Libel  of  English  Policie,"  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages  (Everyman's 
Lib.  edit.),  I.  p.  186. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  113 

and  in  most  nunnery  accounts  payments  by  boarders  will  be 
found  among  other  miscellaneous  receipts. 

(5)  Spiritualities.  In  the  revenues  which  have  hitherto  been 
considered,  the  monastic  rent-rolls  differed  in  no  way  from  those 
of  any  lay  owner  of  land.  The  source  of  revenue  now  to  be  dis 
tinguished  was  more  specifically  ecclesiastical.  All  monasteries 
derived  a  more  or  less  large  income  from  certain  grants  made 
to  them  in  their  capacity  as  religious  houses.  Most  important 
of  these  was  the  appropriation  of  benefices  to  their  use.  When  a 
church  was  appropriated  to  a  monastery,  the  monastery  was 
usually  supposed  to  put  in  a  vicar  at  a  fixed  stipend  to  serve 
the  parish,  and  the  great  tithes  (which  would  otherwise  have  sup 
ported  a  rector)  were  taken  by  the  corporation.  Sometimes  half 
a  church  was  so  appropriated  and  half  the  tithes  were  taken. 
The  practice  of  appropriating  churches  was  widespread ;  not  only 
the  king  and  other  lay  patrons,  but  also  the  bishops  used  this 
means  of  enriching  religious  bodies  and  the  favourite  petition 
of  an  impecunious  convent  was  for  permission  to  appropriate 
a  church1.  Over  and  over  again  the  gift  of  the  advowson  of  a 
j  church  to  a  monastery  is  followed  by  appropriation2.  The  per- 

1  See,  for  instance,  a  petition  from  the  nuns  of  Carrow  asking  to  be 
I  allowed  to  appropriate  the  church  of  Surlingham,  of  which  they  had  the 

advowson,  "qar,  tres  dute  seignour,  lauoesoun  ne  les  fait  bien  eynz  de  les 

mettre  en  daunger  de  presentement  en  chescune  voedaunce";  P.R.O.  And. 

Petit.  232/1 1587.  It  appears  that  the  prioress  had  letters  patent  to  appropriate 

the  church,  probably  in  answer  to  this  petition  in  22  Edw.  II ;  Rye,  Carrow 

i  Abbey,  App.  p.  xxxvi.    It  may  be  useful  to  give  a  few  out  of  very  many 

references  to  the  appropriation  of  a  church  to  a  nunnery  on  account  of 

poverty:  Clifton  to  Lingbrook  (Reg.  R.  de  Swinfield,  p.  134),  Wolferlow  and 

I  Bridge  Sellers  to  Aconbury  (Reg.  A.  de  Orleton,  pp.  176,  200),  Rockbeare 

i  to  Canonsleigh  (Reg.  Grandisson,  u,  p.  698),  Compton  and  Upmardon  to 

i  Easebourne  (Bp.  Rede's  Reg.  p.  137),  Itchen  Stoke  to  Romsey  (Reg.  Sandale, 

i  p.  269),  Whenby  to  Moxby  (Reg.  Wickwane,  p.  290),  Horton  to  St  Clement's 

j  York  (Reg.  Gray,  p.  107),  Bishopthorpe  to  the  same  (Reg.  Giffard,  p.  59), 

i  Dallington  to  Flamstead  (Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  301),  Quadring  to  Stainfield 

I  (V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  131),  Easton  Neston  to  Sewardsley  and  Desborough 

j  to  Rothwell  (V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  p.  137),  Lidlington  to  Barking  (V.C.H. 

I  Essex,  u,  p.  119),  Bradford,  Tisbury  and  Gillingham  to  Shaftesbury  (V.C.H. 

Dorset,  u,  p.  77). 

2  An  analysis  of  the  possessions  of  Carrow  gives  some  good  examples 
of  this.  The  churches  of  Earlham,  Stow  Bardolph,  Surlingham,  Swardeston, 

|  East  Winch  and  Wroxham  were  all  appropriated  soon  after  their  advowsons 
I  had  been  granted  to  the  priory,  which  also  possessed  the  advowsons  of  four 
I  churches  in  Norwich,  the  moiety  of  another  advowson,  the  moiety  of  a 
!  rectory  and  various  tithes  or  portions  of  tithes  in  different  manors  and 
parishes.  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  App.  x. 


114  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

mission  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  and  of  the  pope  was  necessary 
for  the  transaction,  but  it  seems  rarely  to  have  been  refused;  and 
it  has  been  calculated  that  at  least  a  third  part  of  the  tithes  of  the 
richest  benefices  in  England  were  appropriated  either  in  part  or 
wholly  to  religious  and  secular  bodies,  such  as  colleges,  military 
orders,  lay  hospitals,  guilds,  convents;  even  deans,  cantors,  treasurers 
and  chancellors  of  cathedral  bodies  were  also  largely  endowed  with 
rectorial  tithes1. 

The  practice  of  appropriation  became  a  very  serious  abuse, 
for  not  all  monasteries  were  conscientious  in  performing  their 
duties  to  the  parishes  from  which  they  derived  such  a  large 
income,  and  ignorant  and  underpaid  vicars  often  enough  left 
their  sheep  encumbered  in  the  mire,  or  swelled  with  their  misery 
and  discontent  the  democratic  revolution  known  by  the  too 
narrow  name  of  the  Peasants'  Revolt2.  Moreover  there  is  no 
doubt  that  sometimes  the  monks  and  nuns  neglected  even  the 
obvious  duty  of  putting  in  a  vicar,  and  the  hungry  sheep  looked 
up  and  were  not  fed.  The  Valor  Ecclesiasticus  throws  an  inter 
esting  light  on  this  subject.  The  nuns  of  Elstow  Abbey  held  no 
less  than  eleven  rectories,  from  which  they  derived  £157.  6s.  8d., 
but  they  paid  stipends  to  four  vicars  only,  and  the  total  of  the 
four  was  £6.  6s.  8d.3  The  nuns  of  Westwood  received  £i2.i2s.iod. 
from  two  rectories  and  paid  to  a  deacon  in  one  of  them  us.  4^.* 
The  Minoresses  without  Aldgate  held  four  rectories ;  from  that 
of  Potton  (Beds.)  they  received  £16.  6s.  Sd.  and  paid  the  vicar 
£2 ;  from  that  of  Kessingland,  Suffolk,  £g  and  paid  the  vicar 
£2.  45.  4^.5  Another  very  common  practice  which  cannot  have 
conduced  to  the  welfare  of  the  parishioners  was  that  of  farming 
out  the  proceeds  of  appropriated  churches,  just  as  manors  were 
farmed  out.  The  farmer  paid  the  nuns  a  lump  sum  annually 
and  took  the  proceeds  of  the  tithes.  The  purpose  of  such  an 
arrangement  was  convenience,  since  it  saved  the  convent  the 
trouble  of  collecting  the  revenues  and  tithes.  It  was  open  to 
objection  from  ail  points  of  view;  for  on  the  one  hand  the 

1  Gasquet,  Eng.  Mon.  Life,  p.  194. 

*  For  the  abuses  of  appropriation,  see  Coulton,  Medieval  Studies,  no.  8, 
pp.  6-8.  For  the  part  played  by  the  lower  clergy  in  the  Peasants'  Revolt, 
see  Petit- Dutaillis,  Studies  Supplementary  to  Stubbs'  Constit.  Hist,  n, 
pp.  270-1,  and  Kriehn,  Studies  in  the  Sources  of  the  Social  Revolt  in  1381 
(Amer.  Hist.  Review,  1901),  vi,  pp.  480-4. 

3   Valor  Eccles.  IV,  p.  188. 

1  Ib.  in,  p.  276.  •  Ib.  i,  p.  897. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  115 

nuns  might,  and  often  did,  make  bad  bargains,  and  on  the 
other  they  were  still  less  likely  to  care  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  the  unfortunate  parishioners,  whose  souls  were  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  farmed  out  with  their  tithes;  though  the  pay 
ment  of  a  vicar  was  sometimes  made  by  the  nuns  or  stipulated 
for  in  the  agreement  with  the  farmer.  The  Valor  Ecclesiasticus 
gives  the  total  spiritual  revenue  of  the  84  nunneries  holding 
spiritualities  as  £2705.  175.  5^.  and  of  this  sum  spiritualities 
to  the  value  of  £1075.  os.  6d.,  belonging  to  33  houses  were 
entered  as  being  at  farm1. 

Account  rolls  often  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  income 
derived  from  appropriated  churches.  To  the  nuns  of  St  Michael's 
Stamford  had  been  assigned  by  various  abbots  of  Peterborough 
the  churches  of  St  Martin,  St  Clement,  All  Souls,  St  Andrew 
and  Thurlby,  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II  two  pious  ladies  gave 
them  the  moieties  of  the  church  of  Corby  and  chapel  of  Upton2. 
Moreover  in  1354,  after  the  little  nunnery  of  Wothorpe  had  been 
ruined  by  the  Black  Death,  all  its  possessions  were  handed 
over  to  St  Michael's  and  included  the  appropriation  of  the  church 
of  Wothorpe;  the  bishop  stipulated  that  the  proceeds  of  the 
priory  with  the  rectory  should  be  applied  to  the  support  of 
the  infirmary  and  kitchen  of  St  Michael's  and  that  the  nuns 
should  keep  a  chaplain  to  serve  the  parish  church  of  Wothorpe3. 
Corby  and  Thurlby  were  afterwards  farmed  out  by  the  nuns4 
and  in  1377-8  they  brought  in  £19  and  £20  respectively,  while 
the  nuns  got  £26.  os.  Sd.  from  "  the  church  of  All  Saints  beyond 
the  water/'  £i.  135.  4^.  from  the  parson  of  Cottesmore  and  a 
pension  of  6s.  Sd.  from  the  church  of  St  Martin.  They  paid  the 
vicar  of  Wothorpe  a  stipend  of  £2  a  year5.  Over  half  their 
income  was  usually  derived  from  "farms,  tithes  and  pensions," 
i.e.  from  ecclesiastical  sources  of  revenue. 

It  was  also  very  common  to  make  grants  of  tithes  out  of 

1  Jacka,  op.  cit.  f.  35.  See  the  list  of  "Farms  and  Pensions"  in  the 
prioress  of  Catesby's  accounts  for  1414-5.  Baker,  Hist,  and  Antiqs.  of 
Northants.  I,  p.  279. 

z  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  98.  3  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  268. 

*  This  appears  from  the  regular  entry  of  the  amount  brought  in  by  the 
farms  of  the  two  churches  in  the  account  rolls.  In  1458  the  nuns  received 
formal  permission  from  the  bishop  to  lease  out  and  dispose  of  the  fruits  and 
revenues  of  any  of  the  appropriated  churches.  Madox,  Form.  Anglic,  dxc. 

5  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/7 

8—2 


Ii6  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

piety  to  a  monastery,  even  when  a  grant  of  the  advowson  of 
the  church  was  not  made.  A  lord  would  make  over  to  it  the 
tithes  of  wheat,  or  a  portion  of  the  tithes,  in  certain  parishes, 
or  perhaps  the  tithes  of  his  own  demesne  land.  Sometimes  the 
rector  of  a  parish  would  pay  the  monks  or  nuns  an  annual  rent 
in  commutation  of  their  tithes ;  sometimes  he  would  dispute  their 
claim  and  the  tedious  altercation  would  drag  on  for  years,  ending 
perhaps  in  the  expense  of  a  law-suit x.  Besides  advowsons  and 
tithes  various  other  pensions  and  payments  were  bestowed  upon 
religious  houses  by  benefactors,  who  would  leave  an  annual 
pension  to  a  monastery  as  a  charge  upon  a  particular  piece 
of  land,  or  church,  or  upon  another  monastery2. 

Another  "spiritual"  source  of  revenue  consisted  in  alms  and 
gifts  given  to  the  nuns  as  a  work  of  piety.  Sometimes  a  nunnery 
possessed  a  famous  relic,  and  the  faithful  who  visited  it  showed 
their  devotion  by  leaving  a  gift  at  the  shrine.  The  Valor  some 
times  gives  very  interesting  information  about  these  cherished 
possessions,  described  under  the  unkind  heading  Superstitio.  The 
Yorkshire  nuns  possessed  among  them  a  great  variety  of  relics, 
some  of  them  having  the  most  incongruous  virtues.  At  Sinning- 
thwaite  was  to  be  found  the  arm  of  St  Margaret  and  the  tunic  of 
St  Bernard  "  believed  to  be  good  for  women  lying  in  "3,  at  Arden 
was  an  image  of  St  Bride,  to  which  women  made  offerings 

1  See  for  instance  Norris'  note  (quoted  by  Rye)  on  the  grant  to  Carrow 
Priory  of  the  tithes  of  all  wheat  growing  in  the  parishes  of  Bergh  and  Apton, 
which  tithes  "occasioned  many  disputes  between  the  Rector  and  the  Con 
vent,  till  at  length  about  the  year  1237  it  was  agreed  by  the  Prioress  and 
Convent  and  Thomas,  the  then  Rector,... that  the  Rector  should  pay  to  the 
Convent  14  quarters  of  wheat  in  lieu  of  all  their  tithes  there,  which  was 
constantly  paid,  with  some  little  allowance  for  defect  of  measure,  until 
29  Edw.  Ill,  when  there  was  a  suit  between  Prioress  and  Rector  about  them. 
What  was  the  event  of  it  I  find  not,  but  they  soon  after  returned  to  the  old 
payment  of  14  qrs.,  which  continued  until  21  Hen.  VI,  when  the  dispute  was 
revived  and  in  a  litigious  way  they  continued  above  ten  years,  but  I  find  they 
afterwards  returned  again  to  the  old  agreement  and  kept  to  it,  I  believe,  to 
the  dissolution  of  the  Priory."  Rye  mentions  a  suit  between  the  Rector 
and  Prioress  in  1321.  Similarly  the  nuns  were  involved  in  a  tedious  suit 
(10  Edw.  I)  about  the  tithes  of  the  demesne  of  the  manor  of  Barshall  in 
Riston,  with  the  Rector  of  Riston.  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  App.  pp.  xxx, 

XXXV. 

1  See  below,  p.  199,  for  the  other  side  of  the  matter. 

8  Similarly  the  nuns  of  Kingsmead,  Derby,  had  part  of  the  shirt  of 
St  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  and  the  nuns  of  Gracedieu  had  the  girdle  and  part 
of  the  tunic  of  St  Francis,  both  of  which  were  good  for  the  same  purpose. 
V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  43;  Nichols,  Hist,  of  Leic.  ill,  p.  652. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  117 

for  cows  that  had  strayed  or  were  ill.  The  nuns  of  Arthington 
had  a  girdle  of  the  Virgin  and  the  nuns  of  St  Clement's  York 
and  Basedale  both  had  some  of  her  milk;  at  St  Clement's 
pilgrimages  were  made  to  the  obscure  but  popular  St  Syth1.  In 
other  parts  of  the  country  it  was  the  same.  St  Edmund's  altar  in 
the  conventual  church  of  Catesby  was  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  for  he 
had  bequeathed  his  pall  and  a  silver  tablet  to  his  sister  Margaret 
Rich,  prioress  there2;  and  in  1400  Boniface  IX  granted  an  indult 
to  the  Abbess  of  Barking  to  have  mass  and  the  other  divine 
offices  celebrated  in  an  oratory  called  "Rodlofte"  (rood-loft), 
in  which  was  preserved  a  cross  to  which  many  people  resorted3. 
The  nuns  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  not  infrequently  record  sums 
received  from  a  pardon  held  at  one  of  their  churches,  and  almost 
every  year  they  received  sums  of  money  in  exchange  for  their 
prayers  for  the  souls  of  the  dead.  "Almes  et  aventures,"  souls 
and  chance  payments,  was  a  regular  heading  in  their  account 
roll,  and  the  name  of  the  person  for  whose  soul  they  were  to 
pray  was  entered  opposite  the  money  received.  Miscellaneous 
alms  from  the  faithful  were  always  a  source  of  revenue,  though 
necessarily  a  fluctuating  source4. 

Such  were  the  chief  sources  from  which  a  medieval  nunnery 
derived  its  income.  We  must  now  consider  the  chief  expenses 
which  the  nuns  had  to  meet  out  of  that  income.  It  has  already 
been  shown  that  the  total  income  of  a  nunnery  was  paid  into 
the  hands  of  the  treasuress  or  treasuresses,  save  when  the  office 
of  treasuress  was  filled  by  the  head  of  the  house,  or  when  a  male 
custos  was  appointed  by  the  bishop  to  undertake  the  business. 
It  has  also  been  shown  that  the  treasuress  paid  out  certain 
sums  to  the  chief  obedientiaries  (notably  to  the  cellaress),  to 
whose  use  certain  sources  of  income  were  indeed  sometimes 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  115,  119,  130,  159,  178,  189. 

2  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  122. 

3  V.C.H.  Essex,  11,  p.  118. 

4  See  for  instance  the  receipts  of  the  nuns  of  St  Michael's  Stamford 
from  Almes,  Almoignes  et  Auenture  entered  in  their  roll  for  45-6  Edw.  III. 
"From  Sir  John  Weston  for  a  soul,  135.  ^d.    For  the  soul  of  Simon  the 
Taverner,  is.  For  the  soul  of  Sir  Robert  de  Thorp,  £20.  6s.  jd.  For  the  soul 
of  William  Apethorp,  35.  4^.    For  the  soul  of  Alice  atte  Halle,  35.  $d.    In 
alms  from  William  Ouneby,  65.  Sd.    In  alms  from  Emma  of  Okham  £5. 
Received  from  the  pardon  at  the  church  6s.  8d.    For  the  pardon  from 
Lady  Idayne  and  from  Emma  Okham  £i."    P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/3. 
But  this  was  an  unusually  good  year. 


Ii8  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

earmarked,  and  that  these  obedientiaries  kept  their  separate  ac 
counts.  The  majority  of  nunnery  accounts  which  have  survived 
are,  however,  treasuresses'  accounts ;  that  is  to  say  they  represent 
the  general  balance  sheet  at  the  end  of  the  year,  including  all  the 
chief  items  of  income  and  expenditure.  The  different  houses 
adopt,  as  is  natural,  different  methods  of  classifying  their  ex 
penses1.  The  great  abbey  of  Romsey  classifies  thus:  (i)  The 
Convent,  including  sums  for  clothing,  for  the  kitchen  expenses 
and  for  pittances,  amounting  in  all  to  £105.  175.  lod.  (2)  The 
Abbess,  who  kept  her  separate  household  in  state;  this  includes 
provisions  for  herself  and  for  her  household  and  divers  of  their 
expenses,  a  sum  of  £8.  I2s.  in  gifts,  a  sum  in  liveries  for  the 
household  and  spices  for  the  guest-house  and  a  sum  in  servants' 
wages,  amounting  to  £108.  175.  in  all.  (3)  Divers  outside  expenses, 
including  repairs  of  houses  belonging  to  the  Romsey  mills,  a 
sum  for  legal  pleas,  another  for  annuities  to  the  convent  and  to 
the  king's  clerks,  who  had  stalls  in  the  abbey,  over  £40  in  royal 
taxes  and  £i.  145.  8d.  in  procurations,  amounting  to  £108  in 
all.  (4)  Miscellaneous  expenses  include  £8.  195.  4^.  in  alms  to 
the  poor,  £6.  135.  4^.  in  wine  for  nobles  visiting  the  abbess, 
a  sum  for  mending  broken  crockery,  a  sum  for  shoeing  the 
horses  of  the  Abbess'  household,  and  in  horse-hire  and  expenses 
of  men  riding  on  her  business,  145.  in  oblations  of  the  Abbess 
and  her  household  and  £  10  in  gift  to  Henry  Bishop  of  Winchester 
on  his  return  from  the  Holy  Land.  (5)  Repairs  and  other  expenses 
at  six  manors  belonging  to  this  wealthy  house,  amounting  to 

1  The  account  rolls  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  usually  arrange  expenses 
under  the  following  headings:  (i)  rents,  (2)  petty  expenses,  (3)  convent 
expenses,  (4)  cost  of  carts  and  ploughs,  (5)  repair  of  houses,  (6)  purchase 
of  stock,  (7)  weeding  corn  and  mowing  hay,  (8)  threshing  and  winnowing, 
(9)  harvest  expenses,  (10)  hire  of  servants,  (n)  chaplains'  fees.  See  P.R.O. 
Mins.  Accts.  I26o/passim.  The  active  prioress  of  St  Mary  de  Pr6,  Christian 
Bassett,  classifies  her  payments  as  for  ( i ) "  comyns,  pytancesand  partycions," 
(2)  "yerely  charges,"  (3)  "wagys  and  ffees,"  (4)  "reparacions,"  (5)  "divers 
expensis."  Dugdale,  Mon.  ill,  pp.  358-61.  The  prioress  of  Catesby  (1414-5) 
classifies  (i)  rents,  (2)  petty  expenses,  (3)  expenses  of  the  houses  (i.e.  re 
pairs),  (4)  household  expenses,  (5)  necessary  expenses  (miscellaneous), 
(6)  expenses  of  carts,  (7)  purchase  of  livestock,  (8)  customary  payments 
(to  nuns,  pittancers,  farmers,  cottagers,  etc.  in  clothing;  details  not  given); 
(9)  purchase  of  corn,  (10)  rewards  (various  small  tips  to  nuns  and  servants), 
(n)  tedding  and  making  hay,  harvest  expenses,  stubble,  thrashing  and 
winnowing  corn,  (12)  costs  of  the  mill,  (13)  servants' wages.  Baker,  Hist, 
and  Antiq.  of  North  ants.  I,  pp.  278—83. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  119 

£77.  2s.  6%d.  The  total  expenses  of  the  abbey  this  year  (1412) 
came  to  £431.  i8s.  8d.,  against  a  revenue  of  £404.  6s.  id.,  drawn 
from  six  manors  and  including  rents,  the  commutation  fees  for 
villein  services,  the  sale  of  wool,  corn  and  other  stores  and  the 
perquisites  of  the  courts.  The  deficit  is  characteristic  of  nun 
neries1. 

An  interesting  picture  of  many  sides  of  monastic  life  is  given 
by  a  general  analysis  of  the  chief  classes  of  expenditure  usually 
mentioned  in  account  rolls.  They  may  be  classified  as  follows: 
(i)  internal  expenses  of  the  convent,  (2)  divers  miscellaneous 
expenses  connected  with  external  business,  (3)  repairs,  (4)  the 
expenses  of  the  home  farm  and  (5)  the  wage-sheet. 

(i)  The  internal  expenses  of  the  convent.  The  details  of  this 
expenditure  are  sometimes  not  given  very  fully,  because  they 
were  set  forth  at  length  in  the  accounts  of  the  cellaress  and 
chambress;  but  a  certain  amount  of  food  and  of  household 
goods  and  clothes  was  bought  directly  by  the  treasuress  and 
occasionally  the  office  of  cellaress  and  treasuress  was  doubled 
by  the  same  nun,  whose  account  gives  more  detail.  Expenditure 
on  clothing  appears  in  one  of  two  forms,  either  as  dress-allowances 
paid  annually  to  the  nuns2,  or  as  payments  for  the  purchase  of 
linen  and  cloth  and  for  the  hiring  of  work-people  to  spin  and 
weave  and  make  up  the  clothes3.  Expenditure  on  food  is  usually 
concerned  with  the  purchase  of  fish  and  of  spices,  the  only 
important  foods  which  could  not  be  produced  by  the  home 
farm. 

Among  other  internal  expenses  are  the  costs  of  the  guest 
house  and  the  alms,  in  money  and  in  kind,  which  were  given  to 
the  poor.  Account  rolls  sometimes  throw  a  side  light  on  the 
fare  provided  for  visitors:  for  instance  the  treasuress  of  St 
Radegund's,  Cambridge,  enters  upon  her  roll  in  1449-50  the  fol 
lowing  items  under  the  heading  Providencia  Hospicii : 

And  paid  to  William  Rogger,  for  beef,  pork,  mutton  and  veal  bought 
for  the  guest  house,  by  the  hand  of  John  Grauntyer,  245.  8d.  And  for 
bread,  beer,  beef,  pork,  mutton,  veal,  sucking  pigs,  capons,  chickens, 
eggs,  butter  and  fresh  and  salt  fish,  bought  from  day  to  day  for  the 
guest  house  during  the  period  of  the  account,  as  appears  more  fully 
set  out  in  detail,  in  a  paper  book  examined  for  this  account, 

1  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  194-5. 

2  See  below,  p.  323.  3  See  below,  pp.  157-8. 


120  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

£11.  75.  4$d.  And  for  one  cow  bought  of  Thomas  Carrawey  for  the 
guest  house  vj  s  viij  d.  Total:  £13.  8s.  8$d.1 

In  this  year  the  total  receipts  were  £77.  8s.  6$d.  and  the  expendi 
ture  £72.  6s.  4fd.,  so  that  quite  a  large  proportion  of  the  nuns' 
income  was  spent  on  hospitality.  On  the  other  hand  the  food 
was  no  doubt  partly  consumed  by  these  "divers  noble  persons/' 
who  paid  the  convent  £8.  145.  $d.  this  year  for  their  board  and 
lodging.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  the  separate  guest-house  account 
book  referred  to  has  not  survived.  At  St  Michael's  Stamford 
the  roll  for  15-16  Richard  II  contains  a  payment  of  26s.  lod. 
"for  the  expenses  of  guests  for  the  whole  year,"  and  6s.  8d. 
"for  wine  for  the  guests  throughout  the  year"2;  this  is  a  very 
small  amount  out  of  a  total  expenditure  of  £116.  155.  $\d.  and 
it  seems  likely  that  the  greater  part  of  the  food  used  for  guests 
was  not  accounted  for  apart  from  the  convent  food. 

The  expenditure  of  nuns  on  alms  is  interesting,  since  alms 
giving  to  the  poor  was  one  of  the  functions  enjoined  upon  them 
by  their  rule;  and  many  houses  held  a  part  of  their  property 
on  condition  that  they  should  distribute  certain  alms.  Some 
information  as  to  these  compulsory  alms,  though  not  of  course 
as  to  the  voluntary  almsgiving  of  the  nuns,  is  given  in  the  Valor 
Ecclesiasticus.  A  few  entries  may  be  taken  at  random.  St 
Sepulchre's,  Canterbury,  paid  6s.  8d.  for  one  quarter  of  wheat 
to  be  given  for  the  soul  of  William  Calwell,  their  founder,  the 
Thursday  next  before  Easter3.  Dartford  was  allowed  £5. 12s.  8d. 
for  alms  given  twice  a  week  to  thirteen  poor  people4;  Haliwell 
distributed  i2s.  Sd.  in  alms  to  poor  folk  every  Christmas  day 
in  memory  of  a  Bishop  of  Lincoln5.  Nuneaton  was  allowed  "for 
certain  quarters  of  corn  given  weekly  to  the  poor  and  sick  at 
the  gate  of  the  monastery  at  izd.  a  week,  by  order  of  the 
foundress,  £2.  12s.  od. ;  for  certain  alms  on  Maundy  Thursday 
in  money,  bread,  wine,  beer  and  eels  by  the  foundation,  to  poor 
and  sick  within  the  monastery,  £2.  55.  ^d.6  Polesworth  gave  "on 
Maundy  Thursday  at  the  washing  of  the  feet  of  poor  persons, 
in  drink  and  victuals,  by  the  foundation  £i.  6s.  od."7  A  chartulary 

Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  156. 
P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/10. 

Valor  Eccles.  I,  p.  84.  4  Ib.  i,  p.  UQ. 

Ib.  i,  p.  394-  •  Ib.  in,  p.  76. 

Ib.  m,  p.  77. 


ni]  WORLDLY  GOODS  12 1 

of  the  great  Abbey  of  Lacock,  drawn  up  at  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  contains  an  interesting  list  of  alms  payable 
to  the  poor  and  pittances  to  the  nuns  themselves  on  certain 
feasts  and  anniversaries.  It  runs : 

We  ought  to  feed  on  All  Souls'  day  as  many  poor  as  there  are  ladies, 
to  each  poor  person  a  dry  loaf  and  as  a  relish  two  herrings  or  a  slice 
of  cheese,  and  the  convent  the  same  day  shall  have  two  courses.  On 
the  anniversary  of  the  foundress  (24  Aug.  1261)  100  poor  each  shall 
have  a  wheaten  loaf  and  two  herrings,  be  it  a  flesh-day  or  not,  and  the 
convent  shall  have  to  eat  simnels  and  wine  and  three  courses  and 
two  at  supper.  On  the  anniversary  of  her  father  (17  April  1196)  each 
year  thirteen  poor  shall  be  fed.  On  the  anniversary  of  her  husband 
thirteen  poor  shall  be  fed,  and  the  convent  shall  have  half  a  mark 
for  a  pittance.  On  the  anniversary  of  Sir  Nicholas  Hedinton  they 
should  distribute  to  the  poor  8s.  and  4^.,  or  corn  amounting  to  as 
much  money,  i.e.  wheat,  barley  and  beans,  and  the  convent~half  a 
j  mark  for  a  pittance.  The  day  of  the  burial  of  a  lady  of  the  convent 
100  poor,  to  each  a  mite  or  a  dry  loaf.... The  day  of  the  Last  Supper, 
after  the  Maundy,  they  shall  give  to  each  poor  person  a  loaf  of  the 
weight  of  the  convent  loaf,  and  of  the  dough  of  full  bread,  and  half  a 
gallon  of  beer  and  two  herrings,  and  half  a  bushel  of  beans  for  soup1. 

Account  rolls  sometimes  contain  references  to  food  or  money 
distributed  to  the  poor  on  the  great  almsgiving  day  of  Maundy 
Thursday,  or  on  special  feast  days.  The  nuns  of  St  Michael's 
Stamford  regularly  bought  herrings  to  be  given  to  the  poor  on 
Ash  Wednesday,  Maundy  Thursday,  St  Laurence's  day,  St 
Michael's  day  and  St  Andrew's  day.  The  nuns  of  St  Radegund's, 
Cambridge,  in  1450-1  distributed  2s.  id.  among  the  poor  on 
Maundy  Thursday  and  gave  lod.  "to  certain  poor  persons  lately 
labouring  in  the  wars  of  the  lord  king"2.  The  Prioress  of  St  Mary 
de  Pre,  St  Albans,  has  an  item  "paid  in  expenses  for  straungers, 
ipore  men  lasours,  tennents  and  fermours  for  brede  and  ale  and 
lother  vitaills  xxxvjs  viij^"3.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  nun 
neries  are  not  infrequently  found  giving  alms  in  money  or  kind 
to  the  mendicant  friars.  The  Prioress  of  Catesby  gave  away 
|i  qr.  3  bushels  of  wheat  "to  brethren  of  the  four  orders  and 
:other  poor"  in  1414-5*  The  Oxford  friary  received  from 
iGodstow  in  memory  of  the  soul  of  one  Roger  Whittell  fourteen 

1  Archaeol.  Journ.  LXIX  (1912),  pp.  120-1. 

2  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  172. 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  359.  The  heading  under  which  this  item  comes 
iis  Yerely  Charges. 

4  Baker,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Northants.  I,  p.  281. 


122  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

loaves  every  fortnight  and  35.  4^.  in  money  and  one  peck  of 
oatmeal  and  one  of  peas  in  Lent.  The  Friars  Minor  of  Cambridge 
were  sometimes  sent  a  pig  by  the  Abbess  of  Denny1.  It  will  be 
seen  in  a  later  chapter  that  the  poor  Yorkshire  nunneries  of 
St  Clement's  York  and  Moxby  were  considerably  burdened  by 
the  obligation  to  pay  14  loaves  weekly  to  the  friars  of  York2.  In 
general,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  form  any  just  estimate  as  to 
how  much  almsgiving  was  really  done  by  the  nuns.  There  is  no 
evidence  as  to  whether  they  daily  gave  away  to  the  poor,  as 
their  rule  demanded,  the  fragments  left  over  from  their  own 
meals ;  for  such  almsgiving  would  be  entered  neither  in  account 
rolls  nor  in  chartularies  and  surveys  dealing  with  endowments 
earmarked  for  charity. 

Another  class  of  gifts  which  deserves  some  notice  consists 
of  gratuities  to  friends,  well-wishers  or  dependents  of  the  house, 
for  benefits  solicited  or  received.  No  one  in  the  middle  ages  was 
too  dignified  to  receive  a  tip.  The  nuns  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
regularly  give  what  they  euphemistically  term  "gifts"  or 
"courtesies"  to  a  large  number  of  persons,  ranging  from  their 
own  servants  at  Christmas  to  men  of  law,  engaged  in  the  various 
suits  in  which  they  were  involved.  To  the  high  and  mighty  they 
present  wine,  or  a  capon,  or  money  discreetly  jingling  in  the 
depths  of  a  silken  purse.  To  the  lowly  they  present  a  plain  un 
varnished  tip.  The  nuns  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  pay  izd. 
"  for  a  crane  bought  and  given  to  the  chancellor  of  the  university 
of  Cambridge,  for  his  good  friendship  in  divers  of  my  lady's 
affairs  in  the  interest  of  the  convent";  and  "the  four  waits  of 
the  Mayor  of  Cambridge  "  receive  a  Christmas  box  of  2s.  %d.  "  for 
their  services  to  the  lady  Prioress  and  convent."  Dono  Data  is  a 
regular  heading  in  their  accounts,  and  in  1450-1  there  is  a  long 
list  of  small  gifts  to  dependents,  ranging  from  id.  to  iod.,  and 
a  sum  of  2s.  for  linen  garments  bought  for  gifts  at  Christmas3. 
Similarly  the  cellaress  of  Syon  in  1536-7  gave  her  servants  at 
Christmas  a  reward  of  2os.  "with  their  aprons"4.  Whether  to 
ensure  that  a  lawsuit  should  go  in  favour  of  the  convent,  or 
merely  to  reward  faithful  service  or  to  celebrate  a  feast,  such 

1  A.  G.  Little,  Studies  in  English  Franciscan  History  (1917),  pp.  25,  43. 

2  See  below,  p.  199. 

8  Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  156,  172. 

4  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  Blunt,  introd.  p.  xxxi. 


ii]  WORLDLY  GOODS  123 

payments  were  well  laid  out  and  no  careful  housekeeper  could 
afford  to  neglect  them. 

(2)  Divers    expenses  include    payments   for   various  fines, 
amercements  and  legal  expenses  and  also  for  the  numerous 
lourneys  undertaken  by  the  prioress  or  by  their  servants  on 
convent  business.  The  legal  expenses  which  fell  upon  the  nuns 
pf  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  ranged  from  a  big  suit  in  London 
and  various  cases  over  disputed  tithes  at  the  court  of  the  bishop 
of  Lincoln,  to  divers  small  amercements,  when  the  convent  pigs 
'trespassed  in  Castle  meadow"1.  The  payments  for  journeys 
3ften  give  a  vivid  picture  of  nuns  inspecting  their  manors  and 
visiting  their  bishop2.    Under  this  heading  is  also  included  a 
payment  for  ink  and  parchment  and  for  the  fee  of  the  clerk  who 
vrote  out  the  account. 

(3)  Repairs  were  a  very  serious  item  in  the  balance  sheet 
of  every  monastic  house,  and  in  spite  of  the  amount  of  money, 
which  account  rolls  show  to  have  been  spent  upon  them,  visita 
tion   reports   have   much   to   say  about  crumbling  walls   and 

eaking  roofs.  It  was  seldom  that  a  year  passed  without  several 
visits  from  the  plumbers,  the  slaters  and  the  thatchers,  to  the 
precincts  of  a  nunnery;  and  once  arrived  they  were  not  easy 
to  dislodge.  If  perchance  the  nunnery  buildings  themselves 
stood  firm,  then  the  houses  of  the  tenants  would  be  falling  about 
their  ears;  and  once  more  the  distracted  treasuress  must  sum 
mon  workmen.  Usually  the  nuns  purchased  the  materials  used 

or  repairs  and  hired  the  labour  separately,  and  the  workers  were 
sometimes  fed  in  the  nunnery  kitchen;  for  it  was  customary 
i  at  this  time  to  include  board  with  the  wages  of  many  hired 
jworkmen. 

The  accounts  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  in  1449-50  will 
'serve  as  an  example  of  the  expenditure  under  this  heading3.  It 
jwas  a  heavy  year,  for  the  nuns  were  having  two  tenements  built 
tin  "Nunneslane"  adjoining  their  house,  and  the  accounts  give 
fan  interesting  picture  of  the  building  of  a  little  medieval  house 
jof  clay  and  wattle,  with  stone  foundations,  whitewashed  walls 
and  thatched  roof.  First  of  all  Henry  Denesson,  carpenter,  a 
most  important  person,  was  hired  to  set  up  all  the  woodwork 

1  See  below,  p.  202.  2  See  e.g.  above,  p.  70. 

3  Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  153-5. 


124  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

at  a  wage  of  235.  4^.  for  the  whole  piece  of  work;  he  had  an 
assistant  John  Cokke,  who  was  paid  14^.  for  ten  days'  work; 
Simon  Maydewell  was  kept  hard  at  work  sawing  timber  for  his 
use  for  ten  days  at  14^.  and  over  a  cart  load  and  a  half  of 
"  splentes  "  (small  pieces  of  wood  laid  horizontally  in  a  stud  wall) 
were  purchased  at  a  cost  of  6s.  2d.  Henry  and  John  spent  ten 
days  setting  up  the  framework  of  the  two  cottages,  but  they 
were  not  the  only  workers.  The  "gruncill"  (or  beam  laid  along 
the  ground  for  the  rest  to  stand  on)  had  to  be  laid  firmly  on  a 
stone  foundation;  the  walls  had  to  be  filled  between  the  beams 
with  clay,  strengthened  with  a  mixture  of  reeds  and  sedge  and 
bound  with  hemp  nailed  firmly  to  the  beams.  The  account  tells 
us  all  about  these  operations: 

and  in  hemp  with  nails  bought  for  binding  the  walls  i6d.,  and  in  stone 
bought  from  Thomas  Janes  of  Hynton  to  support  the  gruncill  6s.  8d.t 
and  in  one  measure  of  quicklime  bought  for  the  same  work  35.,  and 
in  six  cartloads  of  clay  bought  of  Richard  Poket  of  Barnwell  i8d., 
and  in  the  hire  of  Geoffrey  Sconyng  and  William  Brann,  to  lay  the 
gruncill  of  the  aforesaid  tenements  and  to  daub  the  walls  thereof 
(i.e.  to  make  them  of  clay),  for  the  whole  work  175.  $d.  And  in  reeds 
bought  of  John  Bere,  "reder,"  for  the  aforesaid  tenements  2s.  4^., 
and  in  "  1000  de  les  segh"  (sedge)  for  the  same  work  55.  And  in 
22  bunches  of  wattles  22d.,  and  in  boards  bought  at  the  fair  of  St  John 
the  Baptist  to  make  the  door  and  windows  2s.  iod.,  and  in  1000  nails 
for  the  said  work,  together  with  1000  more  nails  bought  afterwards 
2s.  8±d. 

Finally  the  houses  had  to  be  roofed  with  a  thatch  of  straw  and 
a  fresh  set  of  workmen  were  called  in : 

and  for  the  hire  of  John  Scot,  thatcher,  hired  to  roof  with  straw  the 
two  aforesaid  tenements,  for  12  days,  taking  4^.  a  day,  at  the  board 
of  the  Lady  (Prioress)  45.  And  for  the  hire  of  Thomas  Clerk  for  8£  days 
and  of  Nicholaus  Burnefygge  for  10  days,  carrying  straw  and  serving 
the  said  thatcher  35.  id.;  and  in  the  hire  of  Katherine  Rolf  for  the 
same  work  (women  often  acted  as  thatchers'  assistants)  for  12  days 
at  i±d.  a  day,  iSd. 

And  behold  two  very  nice  little  cottages. 

But  let  not  the  ignorant  suppose  that  this  completed  the 
expenditure  of  the  nuns  on  building  and  repairs.  Henry  Denes- 
son,  the  indispensable,  soon  had  to  be  hired  again  to  set  up  some 
woodwork  in  a  tenement  in  Precherch  Street,  and  to  build  a 
gable  there.  A  kitchen  had  to  be  built  next  to  these  tenements, 


I  in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  125 

|  and  the  business  of  hiring  carpenters,  daubers  and  thatchers  was 
repeated;  John  Scot  and  John  Cokke  once  more  scaled  the 
roofs.  Then  a  house  in  Nun's  Lane  was  burnt  and  sedge  had  to 
be  bought  to  thatch  it.  Then  three  labourers  had  to  be  hired 
for  four  days  to  mend  the  roofs  of  the  hall,  kitchen  and  other 
parts  of  the  nunnery  itself,  taking  $d.  a  day  and  their  board. 
Then  the  roofs  of  the  frater  and  the  granary  began  to  leak  and 
the  same  labourers  had  to  be  hired  for  four  more  days.  Then, 
just  as  the  treasuress  thought  that  she  had  got  rid  of  the 
ubiquitous  Henry  Denesson  for  good,  back  he  had  to  be  called 
with  a  servant  to  help  him,  to  set  up  the  falling  granary  again. 
Then  a  lock  had  to  be  made  for  the  guests'  kitchen  and  for  three 
other  rooms  in  the  nunnery ;  and  when  John  Egate,  tiler,  and 
John  Tommesson,  tenants  of  the  nuns,  got  wind  that  locks  were 
being  made,  they  must  needs  have  some  for  their  tenements. 
Then  a  defect  in  the  church  had  to  be  repaired  by  John  Corry 
and  a  cover  made  for  the  font.  There  was  more  purchase  of 
reeds  and  sedge,  boards  and  "300  nails  (i2d.)  and  100  nails  (2d.) 
bought  at  Stourbridge  Fair"  for  14^.  Last  came  the  inevitable 
plumber : 

,  And  for  a  certain  plumber  hired  to  mend  a  gutter  between  the  tene- 

j  ment  wherein  Walter  Ferror  dwells  and  a  tenement  of  the  Prior  of 

i  Barn  well,  with  lead  found  by  the  said  Prior,  together  with  the  mending 

|  of  a  defect  in  the  church  of  St  Radegund  14^.  And  in  the  hire  of  the 

aforesaid  plumber  to  mend  a  lead  pipe  extending  from  the  font  to 

the  copper  in  the  brewhouse,  together  with  the  solder  of  the  said 

plumber  8d. 

In  all  the  cost  of  repairs  and  buildings  came  to  £8.  35.  yd.  out 
of  a  total  expenditure  of  £72.  6s.  4fd. 

(4)    Expenses  of  the  home  farm.    The  home  farm  was  an 

essential  feature  of  manorial  economy  and  particularly  so  when 

the  lord  of  the  manor  was  a  community.  The  nuns  expected  to 

draw  the  greater  part  of  their  food  from  the  farm;  livestock, 

j  grain  and  dairy  all  had  to  be  superintended.   A  student  of  these 

j  account  rolls  may  see  unrolled  before  him  all  the  different  opera- 

!  tions  of  the  year,  the  autumn  ploughing  and  sowing,  the  spring 

i  ploughing  and  sowing,  the  hay  crop  mown  in  June  and  the 

strenuous  labours  of  the  harvest.   He  may,  if  he  will,  know  how 

many  sheep  the  shepherd  led  to  pasture  and  how  many  oxen 

the  oxherd  drove  home  in  the  evening,  for  the  inventory  on  the 


126  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

back  of  an  account  roll  enumerates  minutely  all  the  stock.  There 
is  something  homely  and  familiar  in  lists  such  as  the  tale  of 
cattle  owned  by  the  nuns  of  Sheppey  at  the  Dissolution: 

v  centre  oxen  and  iij  western  oxen  fatt,...xviij  leane  centre  oxen 
workers,  xij  leane  centre  sterys  of  ij  or  iij  yere  age,  xxviij  yeryngs, 
xxxviii  kene  and  heifors...xxvi  cattle  of  thys  yere,  an  horse,  j  olde 
baye,  a  dunne,  a  whyte  and  an  amblelyng  grey,  vj  geldings  and 
horse  for  the  plow  and  harowe,  with  v  mares,  xliij  hogges  of  dyvers 
sorts,  in  wethers  and  lammys  ccccxxx,...and  in  beryng  ewes  vijc,... 
in  twelvemonthyngs,  ewes  and  wethers  vicxxxv...in  lambys  at  this 
present  daye  v'lx1. 

How  these  lean  country  oxen,  the  "one  old  bay,  a  dun,  a 
white  and  an  ambling  grey,"  bring  the  quiet  English  landscape 
before  the  reader's  eyes.  Time  is  as  nothing;  and  the  ploughman 
trudging  over  the  brown  furrows,  the  slow,  warm  beasts, 
breathing  heavily  in  the  darkness  of  their  byre,  are  little  changed 
from  what  they  were  five  hundred  years  ago — save  that  our 
beasts  to-day  are  larger  and  fatter,  thanks  to  turnips  and  Mr 
Bakewell.  Kingdoms  rise  and  fall,  but  the  seasons  never  alter, 
and  the  farm  servant,  conning  these  old  accounts,  would  find 
nothing  in  them  but  the  life  he  knew : 

This  is  the  year's  round  he  must  go 

To  make  and  then  to  win  the  seed : 

In  winter  to  sow  and  in  March  to  hoe 

Michaelmas  plowing,  Epiphany  sheep; 

Come  June  there  is  the  grass  to  mow, 

At  Lammas  all  the  vill  must  reap. 

From  dawn  till  dusk,  from  Easter  till  Lent 

Here  are  the  laws  that  he  must  keep : 

Out  and  home  goes  he,  back-bent, 

Heavy,  patient,  slow  as  of  old 

Father,  granfer,  ancestor  went 

O'er  Sussex  weald  and  Yorkshire  wold. 

0  what  see  you  from  your  gray  hill  ? 
The  sun  is  low,  the  air  all  gold, 
Warm  lies  the  slumbrous  land  and  still. 

1  see  the  river  with  deep  and  shallow, 
I  see  the  ford,  I  hear  the  mill; 

I  see  the  cattle  upon  the  fallow ; 
And  there  the  manor  half  in  trees, 
And  there  the  church  and  the  acre  hallow 
Where  lie  your  dead  in  their  feretories.... 

1  Mackenzie  Walcott,  Inventories  of...Shepey,  pp.  32-3. 


in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  127 

I  see  the  yews  and  the  thatch  between 
The  smoke  that  tells  of  cottage  and  hearth, 
And  all  as  it  has  ever  been 
From  the  beginning  of  this  old  earth1. 

The  farm  labourer  to-day  would  well  understand  all  these 
items  of  expenditure,  which  the  monastic  treasuress  laboriously 
enters  in  her  account.  He  would  understand  that  heavy  section 
headed  "Repair  of  Carts  and  Ploughs."  He  would  understand 
the  purchases  of  grain  for  seed,  or  for  the  food  of  livestock, 
of  a  cow  here,  a  couple  of  oxen  there,  of  whip-cord  and  horse- 
collars,  traces  and  sack-cloth  and  bran  for  a  sick  horse.  Farm 
expenses  are  always  the  same.  The  items  which  throw  light  on 
sheep-farming  are  very  interesting,  in  view  of  the  good  income 
which  monastic  houses  in  pastoral  districts  made  by  the  sale 
of  their  wool.  The  Prioress  of  Catesby's  account  for  1414-5 
notes: 

In  expences  about  washing  and  shearing  of  sheep  v  s  vj  d.  In  ale 
bought  for  caudles  ij  s.  In  pitchers  viij  d.  In  ale  about  the  carriage 
of  peas  to  the  sheepcote  iv  d  ob.  In  a  tressel  bought  for  new  milk 
viij  d.  In  nails  for  a  door  there  iv  d  ob.  In  thatching  the  sheepcote 
viij  d.  In  amending  walls  about  the  sheepcote  ix  d ; 

and  in  her  inventory  of  stock  she  accounts  for 

1 1 8  sheep  received  of  stock,  whereof  there  was  delivered  to  the  kitchen 
after  shearing  by  tally  14,  in  murrain  before  shearing  12,  and  there 
remains  101 ;  and  for  5  wethers  of  stock  and  2  purchased,  whereof  in 
murrain  before  shearing  3,  and  there  remains  4;  and  for  144  lambs 
of  issues  of  all  ewes,  whereof  in  murrain  23;  and  there  remains  i2i2. 

The  nuns  of  Gracedieu  in  the  same  spring  had  a  flock  of  103 
ewes  and  52  lambs;  and  there  is  mention  in  their  accounts  of 
the  sale  of  30  stone  of  wool  to  a  neighbour2;  and  the  nuns  of 
Sheppey,  as  the  inventory  quoted  above  bears  witness,  had  a 
j  very  large  flock  indeed. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  entries  in  the  accounts  are  the 
|  payments  for  extra  labour  at  busy  seasons,  to  weed  corn,  make 
i  hay,  shear  sheep,  thresh  and  winnow.  The  busiest  season  of  all, 


1  Maurice  Hewlett,  The  Song  of  the  Plow  (1916),  pp.  9-10. 

2  Baker,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Northants.  I,  p.  283.  Compare  the  St  Rade- 
;  gund's  Cambridge  accounts:  "Et  in  butumine  empto  cum  pycche  hoc  anno 

pro  bidentibus  signandis  et  ungendis,  ij  s  j  d.  Et  in  clatis  emptis  ad  faldam, 
iij  s  iij  d.  Et  solutum  pro  remocione  falde  per  diversas  vices, ,,iij  d....Et 
in  bidentibus  hoc  anno  lavandis  et  tondendis  ij  s  iij  d."  Gray,  op.  cit. 
PP-  *55,  171- 


; 


128  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH. 

the  climax  of  the  farmer's  year,  was  harvest  time;  and  most 
monastic  accounts  give  it  a  separate  heading.  The  nuns  of  St 
Michael's,  Stamford,  year  after  year  record  the  date  "when  we 
began  to  reap"  and  the  payments  to  reapers  and  cockers  for 
the  first  four  or  five  weeks  and  to  carters  for  the  fortnight 
afterwards.  Extra  workers,  both  men  and  women,  came  in 
from  among  the  cottagers  of  the  manor  and  of  neighbouring 
manors ;  in  some  parts  of  the  country  migrant  harvesters  came, 
as  they  do  to-day,  from  distant  uplands  to  help  on  the  farms 
of  the  rich  cornland.  To  oversee  them  a  special  reap-reeve  was 
hired  at  a  higher  rate  (the  nuns  of  St  Michael's  paid  him  135.  Sd. 
in  1378) ;  gloves  were  given  to  the  reapers  to  protect  them  from 
thistles1 ;  special  tithers  were  hired  to  set  aside  the  sheaves  due 
to  the  convent  as  tithes  (the  convent  paid  "to  one  tither  of 
Wothorpe,"  an  appropriated  church,  "ios.,  and  to  two  of  our 
tithers  135.4^.").  The  honest Tusser  sets  out  the  usage  in  jingling 
rhyme: 

Grant  haruest  lord  more  by  a  penie  or  twoo 

to  call  on  his  f ellowes  the  better  to  doo : 
Giue  gloues  to  thy  reapers,  a  larges  to  crie, 

and  dailie  to  loiterers  haue  a  good  eie. 
Reape  wel,  scatter  not,  gather  cleane  that  is  shorne, 

binde  faste,  shock  apace,  haue  an  eie  to  thy  corne. 
Lode  safe,  carrie  home,  follow  time  being  faire, 

goue  iust  in  the  barne,  it  is  out  of  despaire. 
Tithe  dulie  and  trulie,  with  hartie  good  will 

that  God  and  his  blessing  may  dwell  with  thee  still: 
Though  Parson  neglecteth  his  dutie  for  this, 

thank  thou  thy  Lord  God,  and  giue  erie  man  his2. 

Usually  the  workers  got  their  board  during  harvest  and  very 
well  they  fared.  The  careful  treasuresses  of  St  Michael's  get  in 
beef  and  mutton  and  fish  for  them,  to  say  nothing  of  eggs  and 
bread  and  oatmeal  and  foaming  jugs  of  beer.  Porringers  and 
platters  have  to  be  laid  in  for  them  to  feed  from;  and  since  they 
work  until  the  sun  goes  down,  candles  must  be  bought  to  light 

1  They  are  a  regular  item  in  the  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  accounts  and 
compare  the  accounts  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge:  "And  in  viij  pairs 
of  gloves  bought  for  divers  hired  men  at  harvest  as  was  needful  xij  d." 
Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  157,  172. 

2  Tusser,  Fiue  Hundred  Pointes  of  Good  Husbandrie,  ed.  W.  Payne  and 
S.  J.  Herrtage  (Eng.  Dialect.  Soc.  1878),  pp.  129-30. 


1    in]  WORLDLY  GOODS  129 

the  board  in  the  summer  dusk.  At  the  end  of  all,  when  the  last 
sheaf  was  carried  to  the  barn  and  the  last  gleaner  had  left  the 
fields,  the  nuns  entertained  their  harvesters  to  a  mighty  feast. 

It  was  a  time  for  hard  work  and  for  good  fellowship.    Says 
Tusser: 

In  haruest  time,  haruest  folke,  seruants  and  all, 

should  make  all  togither  good  cheere  in  the  hall : 
And  fill  out  the  black  boule  of  bleith  to  their  song, 

and  let  them  be  merie  all  haruest  time  long. 
Once  ended  thy  haruest  let  none  be  begilde, 

please  such  as  did  helpe  thee,  man,  woman  and  childe. 
Thus  dooing,  with  alway  such  helpe  as  they  can, 

those  winnest  the  praise  of  the  labouring  man1. 

The  final  feast  was  associated  with  the  custom  of  giving  a  goose 
to  all  who  had  not  overturned  a  load  in  carrying  during  harvest, 
and  the  nuns  of  St  Michael's  always  enter  it  in  their  accounts  as 
"the  expenses  of  the  sickle  goose"  or  harvest  goose. 

For  all  this  good  feasting,  yet  art  thou  not  loose 

till  ploughman  thou  giuest  his  haruest  home  goose. 
Though  goose  go  in  stubble,  I  passe  not  for  that, 

let  goose  haue  a  goose,  be  she  leane,  be  she  fat2. 
i 

I  An  echo  of  old  English  gaiety  sounds  very  pleasantly  through 
I  these  harvest  expenses. 

(5)    The  wages  sheet.    The  last  set  of  expenses  which  the 

monastic  housewife  entered  upon  her  roll  was  the  wages  sheet 

of  the  household,  the  payments  for  the  year,  or  for  a  shorter 

|  period,  of  all  her  male  and  female  dependents,  together  with  the 

cost  of  their  livery  and  of  their  allowance  of  "mixture,"  when 

the  convent  gave  them  these.  We  saw  in  the  last  chapter  that 

|  the  nuns  were  the  centre  of  a  small  community  of  farm  and 

household  servants,  ranging  from  the  reverend  chaplains  and 

[dignified  bailiff  through  all  grades  of  standing  and  usefulness, 

down  to  the  smallest  kitchen-maid  and  the  gardener's  boy. 

Such  is  the  tale  of  the  account  rolls.    It  may  be  objected 

I  by  some  that  this  talk  of  tenement-building,  and  livestock, 

'ploughshares  and  harvest-home  has  little  to  do  with  monastic 

|  life,  since  it  is  but  the  common  routine  of  every  manor.    But 

this  is  the  very  reason  for  describing  it.  The  nunneries  of  England 

1  Tusser,  op.  cit.  p.  132.  2  Ib.  p.  181. 

P.N. 


130  WORLDLY  GOODS  [CH.  in 

were  firmly  founded  on  the  soil  and  the  nuns  were  housewives  and 
ladies  of  the  manor,  as  were  their  sisters  in  the  world.  This 
homely  business  was  half  their  lives ;  they  knew  the  kine  in  the 
byre  and  the  corn  in  the  granary,  as  well  as  the  service-books 
upon  their  stalls.  The  sound  of  their  singing  went  up  to  heaven 
mingled  with  the  shout  of  the  ploughmen  in  the  field  and  the 
clatter  of  churns  in  the  dairy.  When  a  prioress'  negligence  lets 
the  sheepfold  fall  into  disrepair,  so  that  the  young  lambs  die 
of  the  damp,  it  is  made  a  charge  against  her  to  the  bishop, 
together  with  more  spiritual  crimes.  The  routine  of  the  farm  goes 
on  side  by  side  with  the  routine  of  the  chapel.  These  account 
rolls  give  us  the  material  basis  for  the  complicated  structure 
of  monastic  life.  This  is  how  nuns  won  their  livelihood;  this  is 
how  they  spent  it. 


CHAPTER  IV 
MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES 

Some  respit  to  husbands  the  weather  may  send, 
But  huswiues  affaires  haue  neuer  an  end. 

TUSSER,  Fiue  Hundred  Pointes  of  Good  Husbandrie  (1573). 

EVERY  monastic  house  may  be  considered  from  two  points  of 
view,  as  a  religious  and  as  a  social  unit.  From  the  religious 
point  of  view  it  is  a  house  of  prayer,  its  centre  is  the  church,  its 
raison  d'etre  the  daily  round  of  offices.  From  the  social  point  of 
view  it  is  a  community  of  human  beings,  who  require  to  be  fed 
and  clothed ;  it  is  often  a  landowner  on  a  large  scale ;  it  maintains 
a  more  or  less  elaborate  household  of  servants  and  dependents  ; 
it  runs  a  home  farm;  it  buys  and  sells  and  keeps  accounts. 
The  nun  must  perforce  combine  the  functions  of  Martha  and 
of  Mary;  she  is  no  less  a  housewife  than  is  the  lady  of  the 
manor,  her  neighbour.  The  monastic  routine  of  bed  and  board 
did  not  work  without  much  careful  organisation ;  and  it  is  worth 
while  to  study  the  method  by  which  this  organisation  was  carried 
out. 

The  daily  business  of  a  monastery  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
number  of  officials,  chosen  from  among  the  older  and  more 
experienced  of  the  inmates  and  known  as  obedientiaries.  These 
obedientiaries,  as  Mr  C.  T.  Flower  has  pointed  out  in  a  useful 
article1,  fall  into  two  classes:  (i)  executive  officials,  charged  with 
the  general  government  of  a  house,  such  as  the  abbess,  prioress, 
subprioress  and  treasuress,  and  (2)  nuns  charged  with  particular 
functions,  such  as  the  chantress,  sacrist,  fratress,  innrmaress, 

1  C.  T.  Flower,  Obedientiars'  Accounts  of  Glastonbury  and  other  Religious 
Houses  (St  Paul's  Ecclesiological  Soc.  vol.  vn,  pt  n  (1912)),  pp.  50-62.  The 
nunnery  accounts  described  include  accounts  of  the  Abbess  of  Elstow 
(22  Hen.  VII),  the  Prioress  of  Delapre  (4  and  9  Hen.  VII),  the  Cellaress  of 
Barking,  the  Cellaress  of  Syon,  the  Sacrist  of  Syon  and  the  Chambress  of 
Syon.  On  obedientiaries  and  their  accounts  in  general,  see  the  introduction 
to  Compotus  Rolls  of  the  Obedientiaries  of  St  Swithun's  Priory,  Winchester, 
ed.  G.  W.  Kitchin  (Hants.  Rec.  Soc.  1892). 

9—2 


I32  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

mistress  of  the  novices,  chambress  and  cellaress.  The  number 
of  obedientiaries  differed  with  the  size  of  the  house.  In  large 
houses  the  work  had  naturally  to  be  divided  among  a  large 
number  of  officials  and  those  whose  offices  were  heaviest  had 
assistants  to  help  them.  A  list  of  the  twenty-six  nuns  of  Romsey 
in  1502,  for  instance,  distinguishes  besides  the  abbess,  a  prioress, 
subprioress,  four  chantresses,  an  almoness,  cellaress,  sacrist 
and  four  subsacrists,  kitcheness,  fratress,  infirmaress  and  mis 
tress  of  the  school  of  novices1.  But  in  a  small  house  there  was 
less  need  of  differentiation,  and  though  complaint  is  sometimes 
made  of  the  doubling  of  offices  (perhaps  from  jealousy  or  a 
desire  to  participate  in  the  doubtful  sweets  of  office),  one  nun 
must  often  have  performed  many  functions.  It  is  common,  for 
instance,  to  find  the  head  of  the  house  acting  as  treasuress,  a 
practice  which  undoubtedly  had  its  dangers. 

The  following  were  the  most  important  obedientiaries,  whose 
duties  are  distinguished  in  the  larger  convents",  (i)  The  Treasuress, 
or  more  often  two  treasuresses.  Her  duty  was  to  receive  all  the 
money  paid,  from  whatever  source,  to  theTibuse  and  to  super 
intend  disbursements ;  she  had  the  general  management  of  busi 
ness  and  held  the  same  position  as  a  college  bursar  to-day. 
(2)  The  Chantress  or  Precentrix  had  the  management  of  the 
church  services,  trained  the  novices  in  singing  and  usually  looked 
after  the  library.  (3)  The  Sacrist  had  the  care  of  the  church 
fabric,  with  the  plate,  vestments  and  altar  cloths  and  of  the 
lighting  of  the  whole  house,  for  which  she  had  to  buy  the  wax 
and  tallow  and  wicks  and  hire  the  candle-makers.  (4)  The 
Fratress  had  charge  of  the  frater  or  refectory,  kept  the  chairs 
and  tables  in  repair,  purchased  the  cloths  and  dishes,  super 
intended  the  laying  of  meals  and  kept  the  lavatory  clean.  (5)  The 
Almoness  had  charge  of  the  almsgiving.  (6)  The  Chambress 
ordained  everything  to  do  with  the  wardrobe  of  the  nuns;  the 
Additions  to  the  Rules  of  Syon  thus  describe  her  work: 

The  Chaumbress  schal  haue  al  the  clothes  in  her  warde,  that  perteyne 
to  the  bodyly  araymente  of  sustres  and  brethern,  nyghte  and  day, 
in  ther  celles  and  fermery,  as  wel  of  lynnen  as  of  vvollen;  schapynge, 

1  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  236.  At  St  Mary's  Winchester  at 
the  same  date  the  14  nuns  included  the  abbess,  prioress,  subprioress, 
infirmaress,  precentrix  and  three  sub-chantresses,  scrutatrix,  dogmatista  and 
librarian.  V.C.H.  Hants.u,  p.  124. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  133 

sewynge,  makyng,  repayryng  and  kepyng  them  from  wormes, 
schakyng  them  by  the  help  of  certayne  sustres  depute  to  her,  that 
they  be  not  deuoured  and  consumed  of  moughtes.  So  that  sche  schal 
puruey  for  canuas  for  bedyng,  fryses,  blankettes,  schetes,  bolsters, 
pelowes,  couerlites,  cuschens,  basens,  stamens,  rewle  cotes,  cowles, 
mantelles,  wymples,  veyles,  crounes,  pynnes,  cappes,  nyght  kerchyfes, 
pylches,  mantel  furres,  cuffes,  gloues,  hoses,  schoes,  botes,  soles, 
sokkes,  mugdors,  gyrdelles,  purses,  knyues,  laces,  poyntes,  nedelles, 
threde,  wasching  bolles  and  sope  and  for  al  suche  other  necessaryes 
after  the  disposicion  of  the  abbes,  whiche  in  no  wyse  schal  be  ouer 
curyous,  but  playne  and  homly,  witheoute  weuynge  of  any  straunge 
colours  of  sylke,  golde,  or  syluer,  hauynge  al  thynge  of  honeste  and 
profyte,  and  nothyng  of  vanyte,  after  the  rewle;  ther  knyues  un- 
poynted  and  purses  beyng  double  of  lynnen  clothe  and  not  of  sylke1. 

(7)  The  Cellaress  looked  after  the  food  of  the  house  and  the 
domestic  servants,  and  usually  superintended  the  management 
of  the  home  farm.  It  was  her  business  to  lay  in  all  stores, 
obtaining  some  from  the  home  farm  and  some  by  purchase  in 
the  village  market,  or  at  periodical  fairs.  She  had  to  order  the 
meals,  to  engage  and  dismiss  servants  and  to  see  to  all  repairs. 
As  one  writer  very  well  says,  her  "manifold  duties  appear  to 
have  been  a  combination  of  those  belonging  to  the  offices  of 
steward,  butler  and  farmer's  wife"2.  The  Rules  of  Syon  again 
deserves  quotation: 

The  Celeres  schal  puruey  for  mete  and  drynke  for  seke  and  hole,  and 
for  mete  and  drynke,  clothe  and  wages,  for  seruantes  of  householde 
outwarde,  and  sche  shall  haue  all  the  vessel  and  stuffe  of  housholde 
under  her  kepynge  and  rewle,  kepynge  it  klene,  hole  and  honeste. 
So  that  whan  sche  receyueth  newe,  sche  moste  restore  the  olde  to  the 
abbes.  Ordenyng  for  alle  necessaryes  longynge  to  al  houses  of  offices 
concernyng  the  bodyly  fode  of  man,  in  the  bakhows,  brewhows, 
kychen,  buttry,  pantry,  celer,  freytour,  fermery,  parlour  and  suche 
other,  bothe  outewarde  and  inwarde,  for  straungers  and  dwellers, 
attendyng  diligently  that  the  napery  and  al  other  thynge  in  her  office 
be  honest,  profitable  and  plesaunte  to  al,  after  her  power,  as  sche 
is  commaunded  by  her  souereyne3. 

A  very  detailed  set  of  instructions  how  to  cater  for  a  large  abbey 
is  to  be  found  in  a  Barking  document  called  the  Charthe 
longynge  to  the  office  of  the  Celer esse  of  the  Monastery  e  of  Barkinge*. 
(8)  The  Kitcheness  superintended  the  kitchen,  under  the  direction 

1  Aungier,  Hist.  af.-Syon  Man.  p.  ^2.. 

2  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  Blunt  (E.E.T.S.),  introd.  p.  xxviii. 

3  Aungier,  op.  cit.  pp.  392-3.  4  See  below.  Note  A. 


£34  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

•  of  the  cellaress.  (9)  The  Infirmaress  had  charge  of  the  sick  in 
the  infirmary;  the  author  of  the  Additions  to  the  Rules  of  Syon, 
a  person  of  all  too  vivid  imagination,  charges  her  often  to 

chaunge  ther  beddes  and  clothes,  geue  them  medycynes,  ley  to  ther 
piastres  and  mynyster  to  them  mete  and  drynke,  fyre  and  water 
and  al  other  necessaryes,  nyghte  and  day,  as  nede  requyrethe,  after 
counsel  of  the  phisicians,...not  squames  to  wasche  them,  and  wype 
them,  nor  auoyde  them,  not  angry  nor  hasty,  or  unpacient  thof  one 
haue  the  vomet,  another  the  fluxe,  another  the  frensy,  which  nowe 
syngethe,  now  wel  apayde,  ffor  ther  be  some  sekenesses  vexynge 
the  seke  so  gretly  and  prouokynge  them  to  ire,  that  the  mater  drawen 
up  to  the  brayne  alyenthe  the  mendes1. 

(10)  The  Mistress  of  the  Novices  acted  as  schoolmistress  to  the 
novices,  teaching  them  all  that  they  had  to  learn  and  super 
intending  their  general  behaviour. 

Certain  of  these  obedientiaries,  more  especially  the  cellaress, 
chambress  and  sacrist,  had  the  control  and  expenditure  of  part 
of  the  convent's  income,  because  their  departments  involved 
a  certain  number  of  purchases;  indeed  while  the  treasuress  acted 
as  bursar,  the  housekeeping  of  the  convent  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  cellaress  and  chambress.  Every  well  organised  nunnery^ 
therefore  divided  up  its  revenues,  allocating  so  much  to  the 
church^_sj>  much  to  clothing,  so  much  to  food,  etc.  Rules  for 
the  disposition  of  the  income  of  a  house  were  sometimes  drawn 
up  by  a  more  than  usually  thrifty  treasuress  for  the  guidance 
of  her  successors,  and  kept  in  the  register  or  chartulary  of  the 
nunnery.  The  Register  of  Crabhouse  Priory  contains  one  such 
document  written  (in  the  oddest  French  of  Stratford-atte-Bowe) 
during  the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century : 

"The  wise  men  of  religion  who  have  possessions,"  says  this  careful 
dame,  "consider  according  to  the  amount  of  their  goods  how  much 
they  can  spend  each  year  and  according  to  the  sum  of  their  income 
they  ordain  to  divers  necessities  their  portions  in  due  measure.  And 
in  order  that  when  the  time  comes  the  convent  should  not  fail  to 
have  what  is  necessary  according  to  the  sum  of  our  goods,  we  have 
ordained  their  portions  to  divers  necessary  things.  To  wit,  for  bread 
and  beer,  all  the  produce  of  our  lands  and  tenements  in  Tilney  and 
all  the  produce  of  our  half  church  of  St  Peter  in  Wiggenhall,  and,  if 
it  be  necessary,  all  the  produce  of  our  land  in  Gyldenegore.  For  meat 
and  fish  and  for  herrings  and  for  feri  and  asser2  and  for  cloves  is  set 

1  Aungier,  op.  cit.  p.  395. 

2  I  have  been  unable  to  discover  what  is  meant  by  feri  and  asser. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  135 

aside  all  the  produce  of  our  houses  and  rents  in  Lynn  and  in  North 
Lynn  and  in  Gaywood.  For  clothing  and  shoes  all  the  produce  of  our 
meadow  in  Setchy,...and  the  remnant  of  the  land  in  Setchy  and 
in  West  Winch  is  ordained  for  the  purchase  of  salt.  For  the  prioress' 
chamber,  for  tablecloths  and  towels  and  tabites1  in  linen  and  saye, 
and  for  other  things  which  are  needed  for  guests  and  for  the  house 
hold,  is  set  aside  all  the  produce  of  our  land  and  tenements  in  Thorpland 
and  in  Wallington.  For  the  repair  of  our  houses  and  of  our  church 
in  Crabhouse  and  for  sea  dykes  and  marsh  dykes  and  for  the  wages 
of  our  household  and  for  other  petty  expenses  is  ordained  all  the 
produce  of  our  lands,  tenements  and  rents  in  Wiggenhall,  with  the 
exception  of  the  pasture  for  our  beasts  and  of  our  fuel.  Similarly 
the  breeding  of  stock,  and  all  the  profits  which  may  be  drawn  from 
our  beasts  in  Tilney,  in  Wiggenhall  and  in  Thorpland,  and  in  all 
other  places  (saving  the  stock  for  our  larder,  and  draught-beasts 
for  carts  and  ploughs  and  saving  four-and-twenty  cows  and  a  bull) 
are  assigned  and  ordained  for  the  repair  of  new  houses  and  new 
dykes,  to  the  common  profit  of  the  house2." 

This  practice  of  earmarking  certain  sources  of  income  may 
be  illustrated  from  almost  any  monastic  chartulary,  for  it  was 
common  for  benefactors  to  earmark  donations  of  land  and  rent 
to  certain  special  purposes,  more  especially  for  the  clothing  of  the 
nuns,  for  the  support  of  the  infirmary,  or  for  a  special  pittance 
from  the  kitchen  3.  Similarly  bishops  appropriating  churches  to 
monastic  houses  sometimes  set  aside  the  proceeds  for  special  pur 
poses4.  The  result  of  the  practice  was  that  the  obedientiaries  of 
certain  departments,  more  especially  the  cellaress,  chambress  and 

1  Tabite  was  a  sort  of  moire  silk.    Probably  carpets  or  tablecloths  here. 

2  Register  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery,  ed.  M.  Bateson  (Norfolk  Archaeology, 
I  xi,  1892),  pp.  38-9. 

3  See,  for  instance,  the  Godstow  Register;  charters  nos.  105,  139,  556 
and  644  concern  grants  appropriated  to  clothing  and  nos.  52,  250,  536, 

I  619  and  630  to  the  infirmary.  No.  862  is  a  grant  of  five  cartloads  of  alder- 
[  wood  yearly  "to  be  take  xv  dayes  after  mygnelmasse  to  drye  their  heryng." 
Eng.  Reg.  of  Godstow  Nunnery,  ed.  A.  Clark  (E.E.T.S.  1905-1 1),  pp.  102,  etc.  In 
the  Crabhouse  Register  it  is  noted  that  a  certain  meadow  is  set  aside  so  that 
I  "all  the  produce  of  the  said  meadow  be  forever  granted  for  the  vesture  of 
j  the  ten  ladies  who  are  oldest  in  religion  of  the  whole  house,  so  that  each  of 
}  the  ten  ladies  receive  yearly  from  the  aforesaid  meadow  four  shillings  at  the 
!  feast  of  St  Margaret."  Op.  cit.  p.  37.  When  Wothorpe  was  merged  in  St 
I  Michael's,  Stamford,  the  diocesan  stipulated  that  the  proceeds  of  the  priory 
'  and  rectory  of  Wothorpe  should  be  applied  to  the  support  of  the  infirmary 
;  and  kitchen  of  St  Michael's.  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  268. 

4  See,  for  instance,  the  payment  of  a  yearly  pension  of  five  marks  from 
the  appropriated  church  of  St  Clement's  for  the  clothing  of  the  nuns  of 
St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  and  similar  assignations  of  the  income  from 
appropriated  churches  at  Studley,  St  Michael's  Stamford,  and  Marrick. 
Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  27. 


136  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

sacrist,  had  to  keep  careful  accounts  of  their  receipts  and  ex 
penditure,  which  were  submitted  annually  to  the  treasuress,  when 
she  was  making  up  her  big  account.  Very  few  separate  obedien 
tiaries'  accounts  survive  for  nunneries,  partly  because  the  maj ority 
were  small  and  the  treasuress  not  infrequently  acted  as  cellaress 
and  did  the  general  catering  herself.  Cellaresses'  accounts,  how 
ever,  survive  for  Syon  and  Barking,  chambresses'  accounts  for 
Syon  and  St  Michael's  Stamford  (the  latter  merely  recording  the 
payment  to  the  nuns  of  their  allowances)  and  sacrists'  accounts 
for  Syon  and  Elstow1.  In  one  column  these  accounts  set  out 
the  sources  from  which  the  office  derives  its  income.  This  might 
come  to  the  obedientiary  in  one  of  two  ways,  either  directly 
from  the  churches,  manors  or  rents  appropriated  to  her,  or  by 
the  hands  of  the  treasuress,  who  received  and  paid  her  the  rents 
due  to  her  office,  or  if  no  revenues  were  appropriated  to  it, 
allocated  her  a  lump  sum  out  of  the  general  revenues  of  the 
house.  Thus  at  Syon  the  cellaress  drew  her  income  from  the  sale 
of  hides,  oxhides  and  fleeces  (from  slaughtered  animals  and  sheep 
at  the  farm),  the  sale  of  wood,  and  the  profits  of  a  dairy  farm 
at  Isleworth,  while  the  chambress  simply  answered  for  a  sum 
of  £10  paid  to  her  by  the  treasuresses.  In  another  column  the 
obedientiary  would  enter  her  expenditure.  This  might  take  two 
forms.  According  to  the  Benedictine  rule  and  to  the  rule  of 
the  newly  founded  and  strict  Brigittine  house  of  Syon,  all 
clothes  and  food  were  provided  for  the  nuns  by  the  chambress 
and  cellaress ;  and  accordingly  their  accounts  contain  a  complete 
picture  of  the  communal  housekeeping.  In  the  later  middle 
ages,  however,  it  became  the  almost  universal  custom  to  pay  the 
nuns  a  money  allowance  instead  of  clothing,  a  practice  which 
deprived  the  office  of  chambress  of  nearly  all  its  duties  and 
possibly  accounts  for  the  rarity  of  chambresses' account  rolls.  The 
Syon  chambress'  account  is  an  example  of  the  first  or  regular 
method;  the  St  Michael's, Stamford,  account  of  the  second.  More 
rarely  the  nuns  received  money  allowances  for  a  portion  of  their 
food.  The  growth  of  this  custom  of  paying  money  allowances 

1  See  C.  T.  Flower,  loc.  cit.,  for  an  account  of  the  Syon,  Barking  and 
Elstow  accounts;  also  Blunt,  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  introd.  pp.  xxvi-xxxi, 
for  Syon  chambresses'  and  cellaresses'  accounts  (1536-7)  and  P.R.O.  Mins. 
Accts.  1261/4  f°r  a  Syon  cellaress's  account  (1481-2).  See  P.R.O.  Mins. 
Accts.  1260/14  for  a  St  Michael's  Stamford  chambress's  account  (1408-9). 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  137 

will  be  described  in  a  later  chapter1;  here  it  will  suffice  to  con 
sider  the  housekeeping  of  a  nunnery  in  which  that  business  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  chambress  and  cellaress. 

The  accounts  throw  an  interesting  light  on  the  provision  of 
clothes  for  a  convent  and  its  servants.  An  account  of  Dame 
Bridget  Belgrave,  chambress  of  Syon  (who  had  to  look  after 
the  brothers  as  well  as  the  sisters  of  the  house)  has  survived 
for  the  year  1536-7.  It  shows  her  buying  "russettes,"  "white 
clothe,"  "kerseys,"  "gryce,"  "Holand  cloth  and  other  lynen 
cloth,"  paying  for  the  spinning  of  hemp  and  flax,  for  the  weaving 
of  cloth,  for  the  dressing  of  calves'  skins  and  currying  of  leather, 
and  for  3000  "pynnes  of  dyuerse  sortes."  She  pays  wages  to 
"the  yoman  of  the  warderobe,"  "the  grome,"  the  skinner  and 
the  shoemakers  and  she  tips  the  "sealer"  of  leather  in  the 
market  place2.  Treasuresses'  accounts  also  often  give  interesting 
information  about  the  purchase  and  making  up  of  various  kinds 
of  material.  At  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  the  nuns  were  in 
receipt  of  an  annual  dress  allowance,  but  the  house  made  many 
purchases  of  stuff  for  the  livery  of  its  household  and  in  1449-50 
the  account  records  payments 

to  a  certain  woman  hired  to  spin  21  Ibs.  of  wool,  22^.;  and  to  Alice 
Pavyer  hired  for  the  same  work,  containing  in  the  gross  36  Ibs .  of  woollen 
thread  6s.;  and  paid  to  Roger  Rede  of  Hinton  for  warping  certain 
woollen  thread  i$d. ;  and  to  the  same  hired  to  weave  77  ells  of  woollen 
cloth  for  the  livery  of  the  servants  35.  $d. ;  and  paid  to  the  wife  of 
John  Howdelowe  for  fulling  the  said  cloth  35.  6d. ;  and  paid  to  a  certain 
shearman  for  shearing  (i.e.  finishing  the  surface  of)  the  said  cloth  14^. 

The  next  year  the  nuns  make  similar  payments  for  cleaning, 
spinning,  weaving,  warping,  fulling  and  shearing  wool  (an  inter 
esting  illustration  of  the  subdivision  of  the  cloth  industry)  and 
disburse  95.  gd.  to  William  Judde  of  St  Ives  for  dyeing  and 
making  up  this  cloth  into  green  and  blue  liveries  for  the  servants 
of  the  house3. 

The  cellaresses'  accounts,  which  show  us  how  the  nun-house 
keeper  catered  for  the  community,  are  even  more  interesting 
than  the  chambresses'  accounts.  The  convent  food  was  derived 
from  two  main  sources,  from  the  home  farm  and  from  purchase. 
The  home  farm  was  usually  under  the  management  of  the  / 

1  See  below,  Ch.  vru.  z  Blunt,  op.  cit.  pp.  xxvi-xxviii. 

3  Gray,  op,  cit.  pp.  149,  165,  167. 


138  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

cellaress  and  provided  the  house  with  the  greater  part  of  its 
meat,  bread,  beer  and  vegetables,  and  with  a  certain  amount  of 
dairy  produce  (butter,  cheese,  eggs,  chickens).  Anything  which 
the  farm  could  not  produce  had  to  be  bought,  and  in  particular 
three  important  articles  of  consumption,  to  wit  the  salt  and 
dried  fish  eaten  during  the  winter  and  in  Lent,  the  salt  for  the 
great  annual  meat-salting  on  St  Martin's  day,  and  the  spices  and 
similar  condiments  used  so  freely  in  medieval  cooking  and  eaten 
by  convents  more  especially  in  Lent,  to  relieve  the  monotony 
of  their  fasting  fare.  The  nuns  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge, 
used  to  get  most  of  their  salt  fish  at  Lynn,  whence  it  was  brought 
up  by  river  to  Cambridge.  From  the  accounts  of  1449-51  it 
appears  that  the  senior  ladies  made  the  occasion  one  for  a 
pleasant  excursion.  There  is  a  jovial  entry  in  1450-1  concerning 
the  carriage  by  water  from  Lynn  to  Cambridge  of  one  barrel1 
and  a  half  of  white  herrings,  two  cades2  of  red  herrings,  two 
cades  of  smelts,  one  quarter  of  stockfish  and  one  piece  of  timber 
called  "a  Maste"  out  of  which  a  ladder  was  to  be  made  (2s.  ^d.), 
together  with  the  fares  and  food  of  Dame  Joan  Lancaster,  Dame 
Margaret  Metham,  Thomas  Key  (the  bailiff)  and  Elene  Herward 
of  Lynn  to  Cambridge  (zs.  8d.).  Another  entry  displays  to  us 
Dame  Joan  Lancaster  bargaining  for  the  smelts  and  the  stock 
fish  at  Lynn.  Fish  was  usually  bought  from  one  John  Ball  of 
Lynn,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  general  merchant  of  considerable 
custom,  for  the  nuns  also  purchased  from  him  all  the  linen  which 
they  needed  for  towels  and  tablecloths,  and  some  trenchers. 
Occasionally,  also,  however,  they  purchased  some  of  their  fish 
at  one  or  other  of  the  fairs  held  in  the  district;  in  1449-50  they 
thus  bought  8  warp3  of  ling  and  6  warp  of  cod  from  one  John 
Antyll  at  Ely  fair  and  14  warp  of  ling  from  the  same  man  at 
Stourbridge  fair,  an  interesting  illustration  of  how  tradesmen 
travelled  from  fair  to  fair.  At  St  John  Baptist's  fair  in  the  same 
year  they  bought  a  horse  for  gs.  6d.,  2  qrs.  5  bushels  of  salt, 
some  timber  boards  and  three  "pitcheforke  staves."  In  the 
following  year  they  bought  timber,  pewter  pots,  a  churn,  10  Ibs. 
of  soap  and  3  Ibs.  of  pepper  at  the  famous  fair  of  Stourbridge, 

1  A  barrel  contained  ten  great  hundreds  of  six  score  each. 

2  A  cade  contained  six  great  hundreds  of  six  score  each. 

3  A  warp  was  a  parcel  of  four  dried  fish. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  139 

and  salt  and  timber  at  the  fair  of  St  John  Baptist.   In  1481-2 
I  they  bought  salt  fish,  salt,  iron  nails,  paper,  parchment  and 
'  'other  necessities ' '  at  the  fairs  of  S  tourbridge  and  of  St  Etheldreda 
the  Virgin1. 

The  fish-stores  illustrate  a  side  of  medieval  housekeeping, 
which  is  unfamiliar  to-day.  Fresh  fish  was  eaten  on  fish-days 
whenever  it  could  be  got.  Most  monastic  houses  had  fishing 
rights  attached  to  their  demesnes,  or  kept  their  own  fish-pond 
or  st&w.  The  nuns  of  St  Radegund's  had  fishing  rights  in  a  certain 
part  of  the  Cam  known  as  late  as  1505  as  "Nunneslake"2.  But 
a  great  deal  of  dried  and  salted  fish  was  also  eaten.  In  their 
storehouse  the  nuns  always  kept  a  supply  of  the  dried  cod  known 
as  stockfish  for  their  guest-house  and  for  the  frater  during  the 
winter.  It  was  kept  in  layers  on  canvas  and  was  so  dry  that  it 
had  to  be  beaten  before  it  could  be  used ;  it  is  supposed  to  have 
derived  its  name  from  the  stock  on  which  it  was  beaten,  or,  as 
Erasmus  preferred  to  say,  "because  it  nourisheth  no  more  than 
a  dried  stock  "3.  For  Lent  the  chief  articles  of  food  were  herrings 
and  salt  salmon,  but  the  list  of  salt  store  purchased  by  the 
cellaress  of  Syon  in  1536-7  shows  a  great  variety  of  fish,  to 
wit  200  dry  lings,  700  dry  haberden  (salted  cod),  100  "Iceland 
fish,"  i  barrel  of  salt  salmon,  I  barrel  of  [white]  herring,  i  cade 
of  red  herring  and  420  Ibs.  of  "stub"  eels4.  The  chief  food 
during  Lent,  besides  bread  and  salt  fish,  was  dried  peas,  which 
could  be  boiled  or  made  into  pottage.  Thus  Skelton  complains 
of  the  monks  of  his  day : 

Saltfysshe,  stocfysshe,  nor  heryng, 
It  is  not  for  your  werynge ; 
Nor  in  holy  Lenton  season 
Ye  wyll  nethyr  benes  ne  peason5. 

1  Gray,  op.  cit.   See  the  accounts,  pp.  145-79  passim.       2  Ib.  pp.  10-11. 

3  Catholicon  Anglicum,  ed.  S.  J.  Heritage  (E.E.T.S.  1881),  p.  365. 

4  Blunt,  op.  cit.  p.  xxx.    In  1481-2  their  Lenten  store  included  "salt- 
fysshe,"    "stokfyssh,"    "white   heryng,"    "rede   haryng,"    "muddefissh," 
"lyng,"  "aburden,"  "Scarburgh  fysshe,"  "salt  samon,"  "salt  elys,"  "oyle 
olyue"  (34!  gallons),  a  barrel  of  honey  and  figs.    At  other  times  this  year 
the  cellaress  purchased  beans  (i  qr.   4  bushels),   green  peas  (7  bushels), 
"grey"  (i.e.  dried)  peas  (4  bushels),  "harreos"  (3  bushels),  oatmeal  (2  qrs. 
7  bushels),  bread,  wheat,  malt,  various  animals  for  meat  and  to  stock  the 
farm,  a  kilderkin  of  good  ale,  15  Ibs.  of  almonds,  39  Essex  cheeses,  ni£ 
gallons  of  butter,  white  salt  and  bay  salt,  also  firewood  and  coals.   P.R.O. 
Mins.  Accts.  1261/4. 

6  Poems  of  John  Skellon,  ed.  W.  H.  Williams,  pp.  107-8  (from  "Colyn 


140  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

In  Lent  also  were  eaten  dried  fruits,  in  particular  almonds  and 
faisins  and  figs,  the  latter  being  sometimes  made  into  little  pies 
called  risschewes1.  The  nuns  of  Syon  purchased  olive  oil  and 
honey  with  their  other  Lenten  stores.  The  list  of  condiments 
which  they  bought  during  the  year,  for  ordinary  cooking  pur 
poses,  or  for  consumption  as  a  relief  to  their  palates  in  Lent, 
or  as  a  pittance  on  high  days  and  holidays,  includes,  in  1536-7, 
sugar  (749}  lb.),  nutmegs  (i81b.),  almonds  (500  lb.),  currants 
(4lb.),  ginger  (6  lb.),  isinglass  (loolb.),  pepper  (61b.),  cinna 
mon  (i  lb.),  cloves  (i  lb.),  mace  (i  lb.),  saffron  (2  lb.),  rice 
(3  qrs.),  together  with  figs,  raisins  and  prunes2.  Surely  the  poor 
clown,  whom  Autolycus  relieved  so  easily  of  his  purse,  was 
sent  to  stock  a  convent  storehouse,  not  to  furnish  forth  a 
sheep-shearing  feast  and  the  sister  who  sent  him  was  a  sister 
in  Christ: 

Let  me  see,  what  am  I  to  buy. . .  ?  Three  pound  of  sugar ;  five  pound  of 
currants;  rice, — what  will  this  sister  of  mine  do  with  rice?... I  must 
have  saffron,  to  colour  the  warden  pies;  mace,  dates, — none;  that's 
out  of  my  note;  nutmegs  seven;  a  race  or  two  of  ginger, — but  that 
I  may  beg; — four  pound  of  prunes  and  as  many  of  raisins  of  the  sun3. 

Lent  fare  was  naturally  not  very  pleasant,  for  all  the  mitiga 
tions  of  almonds  and  figs.  At  other  times  of  the  year  the  convent 
ate  on  fish-days  fresh  fish,  when  they  could  get  it,  otherwise 
dried  or  salt  fish,  and  on  meat-days  either  beef  or  some  form  of 
pig's  flesh,  eaten  fresh  as  pork,  cured  and  salted  as  bacon,  or 
pickled  as  sowce*.  Mutton  was  also  eaten,  though  much  more 
seldom,  for  the  sheep  in  the  middle  ages  was  valued  for  its  wool, 
rather  than  for  its  meat,  and  was  indeed  a  scraggy  little  animal, 
until  the  discovery  of  winter  crops  and  the  experiments  of 
Bakewell  revolutionised  stock-breeding  and  the  English  food- 
supply  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  nuns  also  had  fowls  on 
festive  occasions,  eggs,  cheese  and  butter  from  the  dairy  and 

Cloute,"  11.  210-13).  For  the  curious  custom  of  eating  dried  peas  on  the 
fifth  Sunday  in  Lent,  called  Passion  or  Care  Sunday,  see  Brand,  Observations 
on  Popular  Antiquities  (iSyyed  ),  pp.57ff.  In  the  north  of  England  peas  boiled 
on  Care  Sunday  were  called  curlings.  Compare  the  St  Mary  de  Pr6  (St  Al- 
bans)  accounts  (2-4  Hen.  VII)  "  Item  paid  for  ij  busshell  of  pesyn  departyd 
amongs  the  susters  in  Lente  xvj  d."  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  359,  and  the 
Barking  cellaress'  Charthe,  below,  Note  A. 

1  See  below,  p.  568.  *  Blunt,  op.  cit.  pp.  xxx-xxxi. 

3  Shakespeare,  Winter's  Tale,  iv,  ii,  38sqq. 

4  For  sowce,  see  below,  p.  565. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  141 

vegetables  from  the  garden.  The  staple  allowance  of  bread  and 
beer  made  on  the  premises  was  always  provided  by  the  convent, 
even  when  the  nuns  had  a  money  allowance  to  cater  for  them 
selves  in  other  articles  of  food1.  Some  idea  of  the  menu  of  an 
average  house  is  given  in  the  Syon  rule: 

For  the  sustres  and  brethren  sche  [the  cellaress]  shal  euery  day  for 
the  more  parte  ordeyne  for  two  maner  of  potages,  or  els  at  leste  for 
one  gode  and  that  is  best  of  alle.  If  ther  be  two,  that  one  be  sewe 
[broth]  of  flesche  and  fische,  after  [according  to  what]  the  day  is ;  and 
that  other  of  wortes  or  herbes,  or  of  any  other  thing  that  groweth  in  the 
yerthe,  holsom  to  the  body,  as  whete,  ryse,  otemele,  peson  and  suche 
other.  Also  sche  schal  ordeyne  for  two  sundry  metes,  of  flesche  and 
of  fysche,  one  fresche,  another  powdred  [salted],  boyled,  or  rosted, 
or  other  wyse  dyghte,  after  her  discrecion,  and  after  the  day,  tyme 
and  nede  requyreth,  as  the  market  and  purse  wylle  stretche.  And 
thys  schal  stonde  for  the  prebende,  which  is  a  pounde  of  brede,  welle 
weyed,  with  a  potel  of  ale  and  a  messe  of  mete.... On  fysche  dayes  sche 
schal  ordeyn  for  whyte  metes,  yf  any  may  be  hadde  after  the  rewle, 
be  syde  fysche  metes,  as  it  is  before  seyd.  Also,  ones  a  wyke  at  the 
leste,  sche  schal  ordeyn  that  the  sustres  and  brethren  be  serued  withe 
newe  brede,  namely  on  water  dayes,  but  neuer  withe  newe  ale,  nor 
palled  or  ouer  sowre,  as  moche  as  sche  may.  For  supper  sche  schal 
ordeyn  for  some  lytel  sowpyng,  and  for  fysche  and  whyte  mete,  or  for 
any  other  thynge  suffred  by  the  rewle,  lyghte  of  dygestyon  equyua- 
lente,  and  as  gode  to  the  bodyly  helthe....On  water  dayes  sche  schal 
ordeyne  for  bonnes  or  newe  brede,  water  grewel,  albreys  and  for  two 
maner  of  froytes  at  leste  yf  it  may  be,  that  is  to  say,  apples,  peres 
or  nuttes,  plummes,  chiryes,  benes,  peson,  or  any  suche  other,  and 
thys  in  competent  mesure,  rosten  or  sothen,  or  other  wyse  dyghte 
to  the  bodyly  helthe,  and  sche  must  se  that  the  water  be  sothen  with 
browne  brede  in  maner  of  a  tysan,  or  withe  barley  brede,  for  coldenes 
and  feblenes  of  nature,  more  thys  dayes,  than  in  dayes  passed  regnynge2. 

1  The  weekly  allowance  of  beer  to  each  member  was  supposed  to  be 
seven  gallons,  four  of  the  better  sort  and  three  weaker,  but  the  amount 
varied  from  house  to  house.  See  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  89  (note).  The  Syon  nuns 
had  water  on  certain  days,  but  doubtless  as  a  mortification  of  the  flesh, 
for  it  was  sometimes  complained  of  as  a  hardship  when  nuns  had  to  drink 
water.    ("Item  they  say  that  they  do  not  get  their  corrody  (i.e.  weekly 
allowance  of  bread  and  beer)  at  the  due  times,  but  it  is  sometimes  omitted 
for  a  fortnight  and  sometimes  for  a  month,  so  that  the  nuns,  by  reason  of 
the  non-payment  of  the  corrody,  drink  water."    Test.  Ebor.  I,  p.  284.)  The 
weekly  allowance  of  bread  was  seven  loaves.    A  note  in  the  Register  of 
Shaftesbury  Abbey  (i5th  century)  which  then  numbered  about  50  nuns 
and  a  large  household,  says:  "  Hit  is  to  wytyng  that  me  baketh  and  breweth 
by  the  wike  in  the  Abbey  of  Shaftesbury  atte  leste  weye  xxxvj  quarters 
whete  and  malt.   And  other  while  me  baketh  and  breweth  xlj  quarters  and 
ij  bz.  whete  and  malte."   Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  473. 

2  Aungier,  op.  cit.  pp.  393~4- 


I42  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

On  certain  special  days  the  nuns  received  a  pittance,  or  extra 
allowance  of  food,  sometimes  taking  the  shape  of  some  special 
delicacy  consecrated  to  the  day.  On  Shrove  Tuesday  they  often 
had  the  traditional  pancakes,  or  fritters,  called  crisps  at  Barking1 
andflawnes  at  St  Michael's,  Stamford2.  Maundy  Thursday,  other 
wise  called  Shere  Thursday  (the  Thursday  before  Easter)  was 
the  great  almsgiving  day  of  the  year.  On  this  day  the  kings 
and  queens  of  England,  as  well  as  the  greatest  dignitaries  of 
the  church  and  of  the  nobility,  were  accustomed  to  give  gowns, 
food  and  money  to  the  poor,  who  clustered  round  their  gates 
in  expectance  of  the  event,  and  ceremonially  to  wash  the  feet 
of  a  certain  number  of  poor  men  and  women,  to  commemorate 
Christ's  washing  of  His  disciples'  feet.  Benefactors  who  left  land 
to  monastic  houses  for  purposes  of  almsgiving  often  specified 
Maundy  Thursday  as  the  day  on  which  the  alms  were  to  be 
distributed.  It  was  customary  also  for  monks  and  nuns  to 
receive  a  pittance  on  this  day ;  and  welcome  it  must  have  been 
after  the  long  Lenten  fast.  The  nuns  of  Barking  had  baked 
eels,  with  rice  and  almonds  and  wine.  The  nuns  of  St  Mary  de 
Pre  (St  Albans)  had  "Maundy  ale"  and  "Maundy  money" 
given  to  them.  The  nuns  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  had  beer 
and  wafers  and  spices3.  There  was  always  a  feast  on  Christmas 

1  See  below,  p.  568. 

2  They  are  diversely  defined  as  pancakes,  cheese  cakes  or  custards,  but 
they  differed  from  our  pancakes  in  being  made  in  crusts.    See  the  recipe  in 
Liber  Cure  Cocorum  for  flawns  made  with  cheese : 

Take  new  chese  and  grynde  hyt  fayre, 

In  morter  with  egges,  without  dysware; 

Put  powder  therto  of  sugur,  I  say, 

Coloure  hit  with  safrone  ful  wele  thou  may; 

Put  hit  in  cofyns  that  ben  fayre, 

And  bake  hit  forthe,  I  the  pray. 

Liber  Cure  Cocorum,  ed.  Morris  (Phil.  Soc.  1862),  p.  39.  A  fifteenth 
century  cookery  book  gives  this  recipe  for  Flathouns  in  lente:  "Take  and 
draw  a  thrifty  Milke  of  Almandes;  temper  with  Sugre  Water;  than  take 
hardid  cofyns  [pie-crusts]  and  pore  thin  comad  [mixture]  theron;  blaunch 
Almaundis  hoi  and  caste  theron  Pouder  Gyngere,  Canelle,  Sugre,  Salt  and 
Safroun;  bake  hem  and  seme  forth."  Two  Fifteenth  Century  Cookery  Books, 
ed.  T.  Austen  (E.E.T.S.  1888),  p.  56. 

8  For  Maundy  Thursday,  see  Brand,  op.  cit.  pp.  75-9.  For  the  Barking 
Maundy  see  below,  p.  568,  for  the  St  Mary  de  Pre  Maundy  see  Dugdale, 
Mon.  in,  p.  359,  and  for  the  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  Maundy,  see  P.R.O. 
Mins.  Accts.  1260  passim.  The  nuns  of  St  Radegund's  owned  certain  lands 
in  Madingley  which  were  held  by  the  Prior  of  Barnwell  on  payment  of  a 
rent  of  2s.  3^.,  called  "Maundy  silver."  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  146.  Maundy 
money  is  still  distributed  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  143 

day  and  on  most  of  the  great  feasts  of  the  church  and  the  various 
feasts  connected  with  the  Virgin.  There  was  a  pittance  on  the 
dedication  day  of  the  convent  and  sometimes  on  other  saints' 
days.  There  were  also  pittances  on  the  anniversaries  of  bene 
factors  who  had  left  money  for  this  purpose  to  the  convent, 
and  sometimes  also  on  profession-days,  which  were  "the  official 
birthdays  of  the  nuns"1.  In  the  monotonous  round  of  convent 
life  these  little  festivities  formed  a  pleasant  change  and  were 
looked  forward  to  with  ardour;  in  some  of  the  larger  houses  a 
special  obedientiary  known  as  the  Pittancer  had  charge  over 
them. 

Food  is  one  of  the  housekeeper's  cares;  servants  are  another; 
and  between  them  they  must  have  wrinkled  many  a  cellaress' 
brow,  though  the  servant  problem  at  least  was  a  less  complicated 
one  in  the  middle  ages  than  it  is  to-day.  The  persons  to  whom 
regular  yearly  wages  were  paid  by  a  convent  fall  into  four 
classes:  (i)  the  chaplains,  (2)  the  administrative  officials,  steward, 
rent-collectors,  bailiff,  (3)  the  household  staff  and  (4)  the  hinds 
and  farm-servants. 

1  See  below,  p.  566,  for  the  Barking  pittances.  The  following  extracts 
from  one  of  the  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  accounts  is  typical  of  the  rest: 
"Item  paid  for  wassail  4^.... paid  to  the  convent  on  the  Feast  of  St  Michael 
and  the  dedication  of  the  church  6s.  Item  paid  for... on  All  Saints  Day  and 
St  Martin's  Day  35.  Item  paid  for  a  pittance  of  pork  on  two  occasions  6s. 
Item  paid  for  fowls  at  Christmas  for  the  convent  55.  6d.  Item  paid  for 
herrings  on  St  Michael's  Day  for  the  poor  is.  8^.  Item  paid  for  beer  for  the 
convent  on  Maundy  Thursday  (Jour  de  Cene)  lod.  Item  paid  for  bread  and 
wafers  on  the  same  day  6d.  Item  paid  for  spices  on  the  same  day  35.  Item 
paid  for  herrings  for  the  poor  on  the  same  day  is.  8d.  Item  given  to  the  poor 
on  the  same  day  is.  gd.  Item  for  holy  bread  on  Good  Friday  2d.  Item  paid 
for  fflaunes  2d.  Item  paid  for  herrings  on  St  Laurence's  Day  gd."  P.R.O. 
Mins.  A ccts.  1260/1 1 .  At  this  convent  "holy  bread "  was  always  brought  for 
Good  Friday,  "  flaunes  "  (or  sometimes  eggs,  saffron  and  spices  to  make  them) 
for  Rogationtide,  beer  and  spices  on  Maundy  Thursday,  herrings  on  St  Law 
rence's  Day,  and  various  money  pittances  were  paid  to  the  nuns  from  time 
to  time  for  the  misericord  of  Corby  and  sometimes  of  Thurlby,  the  appro 
priated  churches.  On  one  occasion  there  is  an  entry  "Paid  to  the  convent 
for  the  misericord  of  Thurlby,  to  wit  28  fowls,  12  gallons  of  beer  and  mustard 
and  a  gift  to  the  prioress  gs.,  paid  to  the  convent  for  the  misericord  of  Corby 
95.,  paid  to  the  pittancer  for  a  pittance  from  Thurlby  throughout  the  year 
145.  4^."  Ib.  1260/3.  See  an  interesting  list  of  pittances  payable  on  forty 
different  feasts  throughout  the  year  to  the  nuns  of  Lillechurch  or  Higham : 
they  are  either  extra  portions  of  food  or  special  sorts  of  food,  e.g.  "crepis" 
on  the  Sunday  before  Ash  Wednesday,  "flauns"  on  Easter  Day  and  I2d. 
on  St  Radegund's  Day.  R.  F.  Scott,  Notes  from  the  Records  of  St  John's  Coll. 
Cambridge,  ist  series  (from  The  Eagle,  1893,  vol.  xvn,  no.  101,  pp.  5-7). 


144  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

(i)  The  chaplains.  The  account  rolls  of  a  nunnery  of  average 
size  usually  contain  payments  to  more  than  one  priest.  The  nuns 
had  to  pay  the  stipend  of  their  own  chaplain  or  mass-priest, 
of  any  chaplains  or  vicars  whom  they  were  bound  to  provide 
for  appropriated  churches,  and  sometimes  of  a  confessor.  The 
number  of  chaplains  naturally  varied  with  the  size  of  the  house 
and  with  the  number  of  appropriated  churches.  Great  houses 
such  as  Barking,  Shaftesbury  and  Wilton  had  a  body  of  resident 
chaplains  attached  to  the  nunnery  church  and  paid  the  stipends 
of  priests  ministering  to  appropriated  parishes.  Poor  and  small 
nunneries,  such  as  Rusper,  paid  the  fee  of  one  resident  chaplain. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  certain  important  and  old  established 
abbeys  in  Wessex  had  canons'  prebends  attached  to  their 
churches.  At  each  of  the  abbey  churches  of  Shaftesbury,  St 
Mary's  Winchester,  Wherwell  and  Wilton  there  were  four  pre 
bendary  canons,  at  Romsey  there  were  two  (one  of  whom  was 
known  as  sacrist).  Moreover  at  Mailing  in  Kent  there  were  two 
secular  prebends,  known  as  the  prebends  of  magna  missa  maioris 
altar  is  and  alia  missa.  These  prebends  were  doubtless  originally 
intended  for  the  maintenance  of  resident  chaplains,  but  as  early 
as  the  thirteenth  century  the  prebends  were  almost  invariably 
held  by  non-residents  and  pluralists  as  sinecures,  the  reason 
being,  as  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  points  out,  "the  rise  in  value 
of  individual  endowments  and  the  consequent  readiness  of  the 
Crown,  as  patron  of  the  monasteries,  to  discover  in  them  sources 
of  income  for  clerks  in  high  office."  Thus  these  great  abbeys 
also  followed  the  usual  custom  of  hiring  chaplains  to  celebrate 
in  their  churches,  though  some  of  the  wealthier  prebends 
were  taxed  with  stipendiary  payments  towards  the  cost  of 
these1. 

The  chaplain  of  a  house  usually  resided  on  the  premises, 
sometimes  receiving  his  board  from  the  nuns;  occasionally  in 
ventories  mention  his  lodgings,  which  were  outside  the  nuns' 
cloister.  Thus  the  Kilburn  Dissolution  inventory,  after  describing 
all  the  household  offices,  goes  on  to  describe  the  three  chambers 
for  the  chaplain  and  the  hinds,  the  "confessor's  chamber'*  and 

1  For  these  prebendal  canonries  see  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson's  article 
on  "Double  Monasteries  and  the  Male  Element  in  Nunneries,"  in  The 
Ministry  of  Women,  A  Report  by  a  Committee  appointed  by  his  Grace  the 
Lord  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  app.  viil,  pp.  150  sqq. 


PLATE  III 


PAGE   FROM  LA  SAINTE  ABBATE 

(In  the  top  left  hand  corner  is  a  nun  at  confession;  in  the  other  corners  are  A'isions 
appearing  to  a  nun  at  prayer.) 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  145 

the  church1.  At  Sheppey  the  chamber  over  the  gatehouse  was 
called  "the  confessor's  chamber"  and  was  furnished  forth  with 

a  hangyng  of  rede  clothe,  a  paynted  square  sparver  of  lynen,  with 
iij  corteyns  of  lynyn  clothe,  a  good  fetherbed,  a  good  bolster,  a 
pece  of  blanketts  and  a  good  counterpeynt  of  small  verder,  in  the 
lowe  bed  a  fetherbed,  a  bolster,  a  pece  of  blanketts  olde,  and  an  image 
coverled,  a  greate  joynyd  chayer  of  waynscot,  an  olde  forme,  and 
a  cressar  of  iron  for  the  chymneye2. 

The  relations  between  the  nuns  and  their  priest  were  doubtless 
very  friendly;  he  would  be  their  guide,  philosopher  and  friend, 
sometimes  acting  as  custos  of  their  temporal  affairs  and  always 
ready  with  advice. 

Madame  Eglentyne,  it  will  be  remembered,  took  three  priests 
with  her  upon  her  eventful  pilgrimage  to  Canterbury,  and  one 
was  the  never-to-be-forgotten  Sir  John,  whom  she  mounted 
worse  than  his  inimitable  skill  as  a  raconteur  deserved: 

Than  spak  our  host,  with  rude  speche  and  bold 

And  seyde  un-to  the  Nonnes  Freest  anon, 

"  Com  neer,  thou  preest,  com  hider  thou  sir  John, 

Tel  us  swich  thing  as  may  our  hertes  glade, 

Be  blythe,  though  thou  ryde  up-on  a  jade. 

What  though  thyn  hors  be  bothe  foule  and  lene, 

If  he  wol  serve  thee,  rekke  not  a  bene ; 

Look  that  thyn  herte  be  mery  evermo." 

"  Yis,  sir"  quod  he,  "yis,  host,  so  mote  I  go, 

But  I  be  mery,  y-wis  I  wol  be  blamed": — 

And  right  anon  his  tale  he  hath  attamed, 

And  thus  he  seyde  unto  us  everichon, 

This  swete  preest,  this  goodly  man,  sir  John3. 

Certainly  the  convent  never  went  to  sleep  in  a  sermon  which 
j  had  the  tale  of  Chauntecleer  and  Pertelote  for  its  exemplum. 

Yet  the  nuns  were  not  always  happy  in  their  priests.  There 
I .  is  the  case  (not,  it  must  be  admitted,  without  its  humour)  of 
i  Sir  Henry,  the  chaplain  of  Gracedieu  in  1440-41.  Sir  Henry 
j  was  an  uncouth  fellow,  it  seems,  who  was  more  at  home  in  the 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  424. 

2  Walcott,  M.  E.  C.    Inventories  of... the  Priory  of  Minster  in  Shepey 
(Arch.  Cant.  1869),  p.  30.  This  house  paid  stipends  to  three  chaplains,  one 
being  "curat  of  the  Paryshe  churche";  a  "Vycar's  chamber"  is  described 
among  what  are  obviously  outlying  buildings.    At  Cheshunt  the  "  Prestes 
Chamber"  contained  a  feather  bed,  with  sheets  and  coverlet  and  a.  "celer 
of  blewe  cloth,"  valued  at  45.  lod.  Cussans,  Hist,  of  Herts.  Hertford  Hundred, 
ii,  p.  7°- 

3  Chaucer,  Cant.  Tales,  Prologue  of  the  Nonne  Prestes  Tale,  11.  3998  ff . 

P.N.  10 


I46  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

stable  than  at  the  altar.  He  went  out  haymaking  alone  with 
the  cellaress,  and  in  the  evening  brought  her  back  behind  him, 
riding  on  the  same  lean  jade.  Furthermore  "Sir  Henry  the 
chaplain  busies  himself  with  unseemly  tasks,  cleansing  the  stables, 
and  goes  to  the  altar  without  washing,  staining  his  vestments. 
He  is  without  devotion  and  irreverent  at  the  altar  and  is  of  ill 
reputation  at  Loughborough  and  elsewhere  where  he  has  dwelt." 
Poor  Sir  Henry,— 

See,  whiche  braunes  hath  this  gentil  Freest, 
So  greet  a  nekke,  and  swich  a  large  breest ! 
He  loketh  as  a  sperhauk  with  his  yen  ; 
Him  nedeth  nat  his  colour  for  to  dyen 
With  brasil,  ne  with  greyn  of  Portingale. 

The  bishop  swore  him  to  "  behave  himself  devoutly  and  reverently 
henceforward  at  the  altar  in  making  his  bow  after  and  before 
his  masses"1. 

(2)  The  administrative  officials.  These  varied  in  number  with 
the  size  of  the  house  and  the  extent  of  its  possessions.  The  chief 
administrative  official  was  the  steward,  who  is  not,  however, 
found  at  all  houses.  Sometimes  the  office  of  steward  was  compli 
mentary  and  the  fee  attached  was  nominal.  The  Valor  Ecclesi- 
asticus  shows  that  great  men  did  not  disdain  the  post;  Andrew 
Lord  Windsor  was  steward  of  the  Minoresses  without  Aldgate,  of 
Burnham  and  of  Ankerwyke 2.  Henry  Lord  Daubeney  was  steward 
of  Shaftesbury3,  George  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  of  Wilton4,  Henry 
Marquess  of  Dorset  of  Nuneaton5,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  of  Mailing6, 
Sir  W.  Percy  of  Hampole,  Handale  and  Thicket7,  Lord  Darcy 
of  Swine8,  the  Earl  of  Derby  of  St  Mary's  Chester9,  and 
Mr  Thomas  Cromwell  himself  of  Syon  and  Catesby10.  Some 
houses,  such  as  W7ilton,  had  more  than  one  steward,  and  Syon 
maintained  stewards  as  well  as  bailiffs  in  most  of  the  counties 
in  which  it  had  land.  Some  of  these  great  men  were  obviously 
not  working  officials;  but  many  of  the  houses  maintained 
stewards  at  a  good  salary,  who  superintended  their  business  affairs, 
kept  the  courts  of  their  manors,  and  were  sometimes  lodged 

1  Line.  Visit.  II,  pp.  120-1,  123. 

2  Valor.  Eccles.  I,  p.  397,  IV.  p.  220. 

3  Ib.  I,  p.  276.  *  Ib.  ii,  p.  109. 

6  Ib.  in,  p.  76.  6  Ib.  i,  p.  106. 

7  Ib.  v,  pp.  43,  87,  94.  •  Ib.  i,  p.  114. 

•  Ib.  v,  p.  206.  10  Ib.  I,  p.  424,  iv,  p.  339- 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  147 

on  the  premises1.  The  larger  houses  also  paid  one  or  more 
receivers  and  rent-collectors  and  sometimes  an  auditor,  but  in 
the  average  house  the  most  important  administrative  official 
was  the  bailiff. 

While  large  landowners  kept  bailiffs  at  each  of  the  different 
manors  which  they  held,  most  nunneries  employed  a  single 
bailiff,  an  invaluable  factotum  who  performed  a  great  variety 
of  business  for  them,  besides  collecting  rents  from  their  tenants 
and  superintending  the  home  farm.  Thomas  Key,  the  bailiff  of 
St  Radegund's  Cambridge,  1449-51,  is  an  active  person;  he 
receives  a  stipend  of  135.  4^.  per  annum  and  an  occasional  gift 
from  the  nuns ;  he  rides  about  collecting  their  rents  in  Cambridge 
shire;  he  accompanies  them  to  Lynn  on  the  annual  journey  to 
buy  the  winter  stock  of  salt  fish,  or  sometimes  goes  alone;  he 
can  turn  his  hand  to  mending  rakes  and  ladders  (for  which  he 
gets  8d.  for  four  days'  work),  or  to  making  the  barley  mows  at 
harvest  time,  taking  $d.  a  day  for  his  pains;  and  indeed  he  is 
regularly  hired  to  work  during  harvest,  at  a  fee  of  6s.  8d.  and 
two  bushels  of  malt2.  Often  the  bailiff's  wife  was  also  employed 
by  the  nuns ;  the  nuns  of  Sheppey  paid  their  bailiff,  his  wife  and 
his  servant  all  substantial  salaries3.  Some  nunneries  had  a 
lodging  set  apart  for  him  in  the  convent  buildings,  outside  the 
nuns'  cloister4. 

Evidence  often  crops  up  from  a  variety  of  sources  concerning 
the  relations  between  the  nuns  and  this  important  official.  That 
these  might  be  very  pleasant  can  well  be  imagined.  Sometimes 
a  bailiff  of  substance  and  standing  will  place  his  daughter  in 
the  nunnery  which  he  serves5;  sometimes  when  he  dies  he  will 
remember  it  in  his  will 6.  But  all  bailiffs  were  not  good  and  faithful 

1  E.g.  in  the  Sheppey  inventory,  after  "the  chamber  over  the  Gate 
Howse  called  the  Confessor's  Chamber,"  comes  "  the  Chamber  next  to  that," 
"the  Steward's  chamber"  (well  furnished),  "the  next  chamber  to  the  same," 
"the  chamber  under  the  same,"  and  "the  Portar's  Lodge,"  all  evidently 
outside  the  cloister.   Walcott,  M.  E.  C.  op.  cit.  p.  31. 

2  Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  163,  167,  173.   Cf.  pp.  156,  157,  158. 

3  Walcott,  M.  E.  C.  op.  cit.  pp.  30,  33. 

4  E.g.  Brewood  (Black  Ladies).   See  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  500. 

6  A  Joan  Key  or  Kay  votes  at  the  election  of  Joan  Lancaster  as  prioress 
of  St  Radegund's  in  1457  and  is  receiver- general,  keeping  the  account 
in  1481-2.  Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  38,  176. 

6  See,  for  instance,  an  item  in  the  accounts  of  St  Radegund's  Cambridge: 
"Paid  in  a  pittance  for  the  convent... at  the  month's  mind  of  John  Brown, 
lately  bailiff  there... in  accordance  with  his  last  will."  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  151. 


I48  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

servants.  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  considers  that  male 
stewards  and  bailiffs  were  often  "responsible  for  the  financial 
straits  to  which  the  nunneries  of  the  fifteenth  century  were 
reduced,  and . . .  certainly  did  much  to  waste  the  goods  of 
the  monasteries,  generally  in  their  own  interests"1.  Such  a 
man  was  Chaucer's  Reeve,  though  he  did  not  waste  land, 
for  the  reason  that  one  does  not  kill  the  goose  that  lays 
the  golden  eggs: 

His  lordes  sheep,  his  neet,  his  dayerye, 

His  swyn,  his  hors,  his  stoor  and  his  pultrye, 

Was  hoolly  in  this  reves  governing, 

And  by  his  covenaunt  yaf  the  rekening... 

His  woning  was  ful  fair  upon  an  heeth, 

With  grene  trees  shad  wed  was  his  place. 

He  coude  bettre  than  his  lord  purchace. 

Ful  riche  he  was  astored  prively, 

His  lord  wel  coude  he  plesen  subtilly, 

To  yeve  and  lene  him  of  his  owne  good, 

And  have  a  thank,  and  yet  a  cote  and  hood2. 

Several  records  of  law-suits  are  extant,  in  which  prioresses  are 
obliged  to  sue  their  bailiffs  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench  for  an 
account  of  their  periods  of  service3,  and  visitation  documents 
sometimes  give  a  sorry  picture  of  the  convent  bailiff.  The  bailiff 
of  Godstow  (1432)  went  about  saying  that  there  was  no  good 
woman  in  the  nunnery4;  the  bailiff  of  Legbourne  (1440)  persuaded 
the  prioress  to  sell  him  a  corrody  in  the  house  and  yet  he  "is 
not  reckoned  profitable  to  the  house  in  that  office,  for  several  of 
his  kinsfolk  are  serving  folk  in  the  house,  who  look  out  for 

1  The  Ministry  of  Women,  loc.  cit.  pp.  162-3.  So  in  1492  it  is  complained 
at  Carrow  "quod  mali  servientes  Priorissae  fecerunt  magnum  dampnum 
in  bonis  prioratus."  Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  16. 

*  Chaucer,  Cant.  Tales,  Prologue,  11.  59?  ff- 

3  See,  for  instance,  the  Prioress  of  Marrick  v.  Simon  Wayt,  to  give  an 
account  for  the  time  when  he  was  her  bailiff  in  Fletham  (1332);  the  Prioress 
of  Molseby  (Moxby)t;.  Lawrence  de  Dysceford,  chaplain,  to  give  an  account 
of  the  time  when  he  was  bailiff  of  Joan  de  Barton,  late  Prioress  of  Molseby 
at  Molseby  (1330) — an  interesting  case  of  a  chaplain  acting  as  bailiff  for 
a  small  and  poor  house;  Idonia,  Prioress  of  Appleton  v.  John  Boston  of 
Leven  for  an  account  as  bailiff  and  receiver  in  Holme  (1413)-  Notes  on  Relig. 
and  Secular  Houses  of  York,  ed.  W.  P.  Baildon  (Yorks.  Arch.  Soc.  1895), 
i,  pp.  127,  139,  161.  Visitation  injunctions  sometimes  regulate  the  presenta 
tion  of  accounts  by  bailiffs  and  receivers,  e.g.  Exeter  Reg.  Stapeldon,  p.  318, 
V.C.H.  Beds.  I,  p.  356. 

4  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  67. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  149 

themselves  more  than  for  the  house"1;  the  bailiff  of  Redlingfield 
(1427)  was  the  prioress's  lover2. 

Romsey  Abbey  seems  at  various  times  to  have  been  peculiarly 
unfortunate  in  its  administrative  officials.  In  1284  Archbishop 
Peckham  had  to  write  to  the  abbess  Agnes  Walerand  and  bid 
her  remove  two  stewards,  whom  she  had  appointed  in  defiance 
of  the  wishes  of  the  convent  and  who  were  to  give  an  account 
of  their  offices  to  his  official3.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  when  the  abbey  was  in  a  very  disorderly  state  under 
Elizabeth  Broke,  there  was  serious  trouble  again.  In  1492  this 
Abbess  was  found  to  have  fallen  under  the  influence  of  one 
Terbock,  whom  she  had  made  steward.  She  herself  confessed 
that  she  owed  him  the  huge  sum  of  8o/.  and  the  nuns  declared 
that  in  part  payment  of  it  she  had  persuaded  them  to  make  over 
to  him  for  three  years  a  manor  valued  at  40^.  and  had  given 
him  a  cross  and  many  other  things.  His  friends  haunted  her 
house,  especially  one  John  Write,  who  begged  money  from  her 
for  Terbock.  The  nuns  suspected  him  of  dishonesty,  asked  that 
the  rolls  of  account  for  the  years  of  his  stewardship  might  be 
seen  and  declared  that  the  house  was  brought  to  ill-fame  by 
him4.  In  1501  Elizabeth  Broke  had  fallen  under  the  influence 
of  another  man,  this  time  a  priest  called  Master  Bryce,  but  she 
died  the  next  year.  Her  successor  Joyce  Rowse  was  equally 
unsatisfactory  and  equally  unable  to  control  her  servants. 
Bishop  Foxe's  vicar-general  in  1507  enjoined  that  a  nun  should 
be  sought  out  and  corrected  for  having  frequent  access, 
suspiciously  and  beyond  the  proper  time,  to  the  house  of 
the  bailiff  of  the  monastery,  and  others  who  went  with  her 
were  to  be  warned  and  corrected  too;  moreover  he  summoned 
before  him  Thomas  Langton,  Christopher  George  and  Thomas 
Leycrofte,  bailiffs,  and  Nicholas  Newman,  villicum  agricultorem, 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  185.  An  illustration  may  be  found  in  the  Gracedieu  rolls 
where  on  one  occasion  the  nuns  paid  wages  to  the  bailiff  John  de  Northton, 
to  his  wife  Joan,  to  his  daughter  Joan,  to  Philip  de  Northton  (doubtless  his 
son)  and  to  Philip's  wife  Constance.  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1257/10,  ff.  203-5. 

2  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  n,  p.  84. 

3  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  n,  pp.  658-9.  Compare  p.  662.  The 
injunction  that  the  head  of  the  house  should  not  appoint  stewards,  bailiffs 
or  receivers  without  the  consent  of  the  major  part  of  the  convent  was  a 
common  one;  cf.  ib.  n,  p.  652;  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  619. 

4  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  218-22  passim. 


150  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

and  admonished  them  to  behave  better  in  their  offices  on  pain 
of  removal1. 

(3)  The  household  staff  naturally  varied  in  size  with  the  size 
of  the  nunnery.  The  Rule  of  St  Benedict  contemplated  the 
performance  of  a  great  deal  if  not  all  of  the  necessary  domestic 
and  agricultural  work  of  a  community  by  the  monks  themselves. 
But  this  tradition  had  been  largely  discarded  by  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  if  the  nuns  of  a  small  convent  are  found  doing  their 
own  cooking  and  housework,  it  is  by  reason  of  their  poverty 
and  they  not  infrequently  complain  at  the  necessity.  They  were 
of  gentle  birth  and  ill  accustomed  to  menial  tasks.  The  weekly 
service  in  the  kitchen  would  seem  to  have  disappeared  completely. 
The  larger  houses  employed  a  male  cook,  sometimes  assisted  by 
a  page,  or  by  his  wife,  and  supervised  by  the  cellaress,  or  by  the 
kitcheness,  where  this  obedientiary  was  appointed.  There  were 
also  a  maltster,  to  make  malt,  and  a  brewer  and  baker,  to  prepare 
the  weekly  ration  of  bread  and  ale;  sometimes  these  offices  were 
performed  by  men,  sometimes  by  women.  There  was  a  deye  or 
dairy-woman,  who  milked  the  cows,  looked  after  the  poultry,  and 
made  the  cheeses.  There  was  sometimes  a  lavender  or  laundress, 
and  there  were  one  or  more  women  servants,  to  help  with  the 
housework  and  the  brewing.  The  gate  was  kept  by  a  male  porter; 
and  there  was  sometimes  also  a  gardener.   In  large  houses  there 
would  be  more  than  one  servant  for  each  of  these  offices;  in 
small  houses  the  few  servants  were  men  or  maids  of  all  work 
and  extra  assistance  was  hired  when  necessary  for  making  malt 
or  washing  clothes.    In  large  houses  it  was  not  uncommon  for 
each  of  the  chief  obedientiaries  to  have  her  own  servant  attached 
to  her  checker  (office)  and  household,  who  prepared  the  meals 
for  her  mistress  and  for  those  nuns  who  formed  her  familia 
and  messed  with  her.  The  head  of  the  house  nearly  always  had 
her  private  servant  when  its  resources  permitted  her  to  do  so,  and 
sometimes  when  they  did  not. 

(4)  The  farm  labourers.    Finally  every  house  which  had  at 
tached  to  it  a  home  farm  had  to  pay  a  staff  of  farm  labourers. 
These  hinds,  whose  work  was  superintended  by  the  bailiff  and 
cellaress,  always  included  one  or  two  ploughmen,  a  cowherd  and 
oxherd,  a  shepherd,  probably  a  carter  or  two  and  some  general 

1  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  229-30,  232. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  151 

labourers.  Again  the  number  varied  very  considerably  according 
to  the  size  of  the  house  and  was  commonly  augmented  by  hiring 
extra  labour  at  busy  seasons.  The  farm  was  cultivated  partly 
by  the  work  of  these  hired  servants,  partly  by  the  services  owed 
by  the  villeins.  v. 

The  nuns,  with  their  domestic  and  farm  servants,  were  the 
centre  of  a  busy  and  sometimes  large  community,  and  a  very 
good  idea  of  their  social  function  as  employers  may  be  gained 
from  the  lists  of  wage-earning  servants  to  be  found  in  account 
rolls  or  in  Dissolution  inventories.  We  may  take  in  illustration 
the  large  and  famous  abbey  of  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  and  the 
little  house  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge.  St  Mary's,  Winchester, 
had  let  out  the  whole  of  its  demesne  in  1537,  and  the  inventory 
drawn  up  by  Henry  VII I 's  commissioners  therefore  contains  no 
list  of  farm  labourers.  The  household  consisted  of  the  Abbess 
and  twenty-six  nuns,  thirteen  "poor  sisters,"  twenty-six  "chyl- 
dren  of  lordys  knyghttes  and  gentylmen  browght  vp  yn  the  sayd 
monastery,"  three  corrodians  and  five  chaplains,  one  of  whom 
was  confessor  to  the  house,  and  twenty-nine  officers  and  servants. 
The  Abbess  had  her  own  household,  consisting  of  a  gentlewoman, 
a  woman  servant  and  a  laundress,  and  the  prioress,  subprioress, 
sacrist  and  another  of  the  senior  nuns  each  had  her  private 
woman  servant  "  yn  her  howse."  There  were  also  two  laundresses 
for  the  convent.  The  male  officers  and  servants  were  Thomas 
Legh,  generall  Receyver  (who  also  held  a  corrody  and  had  two 
little  relatives  at  school  in  the  convent),  Thomas  Tycheborne 
clerke  (who  likewise  had  two  little  girl  relatives  at  school  and 
a  boy  who  will  be  mentioned),  Lawrens  Bakon,  Curtyar  (officer 
in  charge  of  the  secular  buildings  of  the  nunnery),  George 
Sponder,  Cater  (caterer  or  manciple,  who  purchased  the  victuals 
for  the  community),  William  Lime,  Botyler,  Rychard  Bulbery, 
Coke,  John  Clarke,  Vndercoke,  Richard  Gefferey,  Baker,  May 
Wednall,  convent  Coke,  John  Wener,  vndercovent  Coke,  John 
Hatmaker,  Bruer,  Wylliam  Harrys,  Myller,  Wylliam  Selwod, 
porter,  Robert  Clerke,  vnderporter,  William  plattyng,  porter  of 
Estgate,  John  Corte  and  Hery  Beale,  Churchemen,  Peter  Tyche 
borne,  Chyld  of  the  hygh  aulter,  Rychard  Harrold,  seruaunt  to 
the  receyver  and  John'Serle,  seruaunt  to  the  Clerke1-. 

1  Essays  on  Chaucer,  2nd  Series,  vu  (Chaucer  Soc.),  pp.  iQi-41  also  in 
Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  456-7. 


152  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  in  1450  was  a  much  smaller  com 
munity,  numbering  about  a  dozen  nuns.  In  the  treasurers' 
accounts  the  wage-earning  household  is  given  as  follows,  together 
with  the  annual  wages  paid  by  the  nuns.  The  confessor  of  the 
house  came  from  outside  and  was  a  certain  friar  named  Robert 
Palmer,  who  received  6s.  8d.  a  year  for  his  pains ;  they  also  paid 
a  salary  of  5/.  a  year  to  their  mass-priest,  John  Herryson, 
2s.  4^.  to  John  Peresson,  the  chaplain  celebrating  (but  only 
per  vices,  from  time  to  time)  at  the  appropriated  church  of 
St  Andrew's,  and  135.  4^.  to  the  "clerk"  of  that  church,  a  per 
manent  official.  Thomas  Key,  the  invaluable  bailiff  and  rent- 
collector  mentioned  above,  got  the  rather  small  salary  of  135.  4^., 
but  added  to  it  by  exactly  half  as  much  again  during  harvest. 
Richard  Wester,  baker  and  brewer  to  the  house,  received  26s.  8^., 
John  Cokke,  maltster  (and  probably  also  cook,  as  his  name 
suggests)  received  135.  4^.  The  women  servants  included  one 
of  those  domestic  treasures,  who  effectively  run  the  happy  house 
hold  which  possesses  them,  or  which  they  possess:  her  name  was 
Joan  Grangyer  and  she  is  described  as  dairy -woman  and  purveyor 
or  housekeeper  to  the  Prioress;  the  nuns  paid  her  2os.  in  all, 
including  6s.  8^.  for  her  livery  and  2s.  4^.  as  a  special  fee  for 
catering  for  the  Prioress.  Then  there  was  Elianore  Richemond, 
who  seems  to  have  been  an  assistant  dairy-maid,  for  in  the 
following  year  the  nuns  had  replaced  her  by  another  woman, 
hired  "for  all  manner  of  work  in  milking  cows,  making  cheese 
and  butter,"  etc.;  her  wages  were  8s.  4^.,  including  a  "reward" 
or  gift  of  20^.  The  other  women  servants  were  Elizabeth 
Charterys,  who  received  35.  id.  for  her  linen  and  woollen  clothes 
and  her  shoes,  but  no  further  wages,  and  Dionisia  yerdwomman, 
who  received  95.  and  doubtless  did  the  rough  work.  This  com 
pleted  the  domestic  household  of  the  nuns.  Their  hinds  included 
three  ploughmen,  John  Everesdon  (265.  8^.),  Robert  Page  (i6s.) 
and  John  Slibre  (135.  4^.  and  2s.  6d.  for  livery);  the  shepherd, 
John  Wyllyamesson,  who  received  22s.  3d.  and  Sd.  for  a  pair 
of  hose;  the  oxherd  Robert  Pykkell,  who  took  6s.  8^.;  and 
Richard  Porter,  husbandman,  who  was  hired  to  work  from 
Trinity  Sunday  to  Michaelmas  for  135.  ^d.1 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  size  of  a  convent  household 
might  vary  considerably.  The  twenty-six  nuns  of  St  Mary's 
1  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  158;  cf.  p.  174. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  153 

Winchester  had  gathered  round  themselves  a  large  household 
of  nine  women  servants,  five  male  chaplains  and  twenty  male 
officers  and  servants ;  but  they  boarded  and  educated  twenty-six 
children,  gave  three  corrodies  and  supported  thirteen  poor  sisters 
(who  may  however  have  done  some  of  the  work  of  the  house). 
The  twelve  nuns  of  St  Radegund's  lived  more  economically, 
with  three  male  and  four  female  servants  and  six  hinds,  besides 
the  chaplains;  but  even  their  household  seems  a  sufficiently 
large  one.  The  ten  nuns  of  Wintney  Priory  employed  two  priests, 
a  waiting  maid  for  the  prioress,  nine  other  women  servants  and 
thirteen  hinds1.  It  is  notable  that  the  maintenance  of  a  larger 
household  than  the  revenues  of  the  house  could  support  is  not 
infrequently  censured  in  injunctions  as  responsible  for  its  financial 
straits.  At  Nuncoton  in  1440  the  Prioress  said  that  the  house 
employed  more  women  servants  than  was  necessary2  and  a 
century  later  Bishop  Longland  spoke  very  sternly  against  the 
same  fault : 

that  ye  streight  upon  sight  herof  dymynishe  the  nombre  of  your 
seruants,  as  well  men  as  women,  which  excessyve  nombre  that  ye 
kepe  of  them  bothe  is  oon  of  the  grette  causes  of  your  miserable 
pouertye  and  that  ye  are  nott  hable  to  mayntene  your  houshold 
nouther  reparacons  of  the  same,  by  reason  whereof  all  falleth  to 
ruyne  and  extreme  decaye.  And  therefore  to  kepe  noo  moo  thenne 
shalbe  urged  necessarye  for  your  said  house3. 

On  the  other  hand  many  nunneries  could  by  no  means  be 
charged  with  keeping  up  an  excessive  household.  Rusper,  which 
had  leased  all  its  demesnes,  had  only  two  women  servants  in 
its  employ  at  the  Dissolution4,  and  nuns  sometimes  complained 
to  their  visitors  that  they  were  too  poor  to  keep  servants  and 
had  to  do  the  work  of  the  house  themselves,  to  the  detriment 
of  their  religious  duties  in  the  choir.  At  Ankerwyke  one  of  the 
nuns  deposed  that 

1  V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  151. 

2  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  jid.  The  Bishop  forbade  them  to  keep  more 
than  the  necessary  servants  and  made  the  same  injunction  at  Legbourne. 
Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  187. 

3  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  pp.  57-8.    Compare  his  injunction  to  Studley, 
ib.  pp.  54-5.    In  1306  every  useless  servant  who  was  a  burden  to  the  im 
poverished  house  of  Arden  was  to  be  removed  within  a  week.    V.C.H.  Yorks. 
in,  p.  113.    In  1326  the  custos  of  Minchin  Barrow  was  told  to  remove  the 
onerosa  familia.  Reg.  John  of  Drokensford  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  242. 

4  P.R.O.  Suppression  Papers,  833/39. 


154  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

they  had  not  serving  folk  in  the  brewhouse,  bakehouse  or  kitchen 
from  the  last  festival  of  the  Nativity  of  St  John  the  Baptist  last  year 
to  the  Michaelmas  next  following,  in  so  much  that  this  deponent, 
with  the  aid  of  other  her  sisters,  prepared  the  beer  and  victuals  and 
served  the  nuns  with  them  in  her  own  person. 

At  Gracedieu  there  was  no  servant  for  the  infirmary  and  the 
subcellaress  had  to  sleep  there  and  look  after  the  sick,  so  that 
she  could  not  come  to  matins.  At  Markyate  and  Harrold  the 
nuns  had  no  washerwoman;  at  the  former  house  it  was  said 
"that  the  nuns  have  no  woman  to  wash  their  clothes  and  to 
prepare  their  food,  wherefore  they  are  either  obliged  to  be 
absent  from  divine  service  or  else  to  think  the  whole  time  about 
getting  these  things  ready  " ;  at  the  latter  a  nun  said  "  that  they 
have  no  common  washerwoman  to  wash  the  clothes  of  the  nuns, 
save  four  times  a  year,  and  at  other  times  the  nuns  are  obliged 
to  go  to  the  bank  of  the  public  stream  to  wash  their  clothes"1. 
It  was  probably  on  account  of  the  poverty  of  Sinningthwaite 
that  Archbishop  Lee  ordered  "the  susters  and  the  nonys  there 
[that]  they  kepe  no  seculer  women  to  serve  them  or  doe  any 
busynes  for  them,  but  yf  sekenes  or  oder  necessitie  doe  require  "2. 
As  to  the  relations  between  the  servants  and  their  mistresses 
both  visitation  reports  and  account  rolls  sometimes  give  meagre 
scraps  of  information,  which  only  whet  the  appetite  for  more. 
The  payment  of  the  servants  was  partly  in  money,  partly  in 
board  or  in  allowances  of  food,  partly  in  livery;  stock-inventories 
constantly  make  mention  of  allowances  of  wheat,  peas,  oats  or 
oatmeal  and  maslin  (a  mixture  of  wheat  and  rye)  paid  to  this 
or  that  servant,  and  account  rolls  as  constantly  mention  a 
livery,  a  pair  of  hose,  a  pair  of  shoes,  or  the  money  equivalent 
of  these  things,  as  forming  part  of  the  wage.  The  more  important 
agricultural  servants  had  also  sometimes  the  right  to  graze  a 

1  Line.  Visit.  II,  pp.  4,  121,  131 ;  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  6.  At  Ankerwyke 
Alnwick  enjoined   "that  ye  hafe  an  honeste  woman  seruaund  in  your 
kychyne,  brewhowse  and  bakehowse,  deyhowse  and  selere  wythe  an  honeste 
damyselle  wythe  hire  to  saruf  yowe  and  your  sustres  in  thise  saide  offices, 
so  that  your  saide  sustres  for  occupacyone  in  any  of  the  saide  offices  be  ne 
letted  fro  diuine  seruice."  Compare  the  complaint  of  the  nuns  of  Sheppey 
that  they  had  no  "covent  servante"  to  wash  their  clothes  and  tend  them 
when  they  were  ill,  unless  they  hired  a  woman  from  the  village  out  of  their 
own  pockets.  E.H.R.  vi,  pp.  33-4.  The  provision  of  a  laundress  was  ordered 
at  Nunappleton  in  1534.    Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  444. 

2  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  443. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  155 

cow,  or  a  certain  number  of  sheep  on  the  convent's  pastures. 
Some  servants,  however,  received  wages  without  board,  others 
wages  without  livery.  Account  rolls  seem  to  bear  witness  to 
pleasant  relations;  there  is  constant  mention  of  small  tips  or 
presents  to  the  servants  and  of  dinners  made  to  them  on  great 
occasions.  This  was  Merry  England,  when  the  ploughman's 
feasts  enlivened  his  hard  work  and  comfortless  existence;  he 
must  have  his  Shrovetide  pancakes,  his  sheep-shearing  feast, 
his  "sickle  goose"  or  harvest-home,  and  his  Christmas  dinner; 
and  the  household  servants  must  as  often  as  may  be  have  a 
share  in  the  convent  pittance.  The  very  general  custom  of 
allowing  the  female  servants  to  sleep  in  the  dorter  (against 
which  bishops  were  continually  having  to  make  injunctions)  must 
have  made  for  free  and  easy  and  close  relations  between  the 
nuns  and  the  secular  women  who  served  them;  and  sometimes 

; 

|  one  of  these  would  save  up  and  buy  herself  a  corrody  in  the  house 
I  to  end  her  days1.  Occasionally  these  close  relations  led  to 
difficulties;  a  trusted  maid  would  gain  undue  influence  over  the 
prioress  and  the  nuns  would  be  jealous  of  her.  Thus  at  Heynings 
in  1440  it  was  complained  that  the  prioress  "encourages  her 
secular  serving  women,  whom  she  believes  more  than  her  sisters 
in  their  words,  to  scold  the  same  her  sisters"2.  Sometimes  also 
a  servant  would  act  as  a  go-between  between  the  nuns  and  the 
outside  world,  smuggling  in  and  out  tokens  and  messages  and 
sundry  billets  doux3. 

On  the  other  hand  there  were  sometimes  difficulties  of  a 
j  different  nature.  The  servants  got  out  of  hand;  they  brought 
discredit  on  the  nuns  by  the  indiscretions  of  their  lives;  they 
gossiped  about  their  mistresses  in  the  neighbourhood,  or  were 
quarrelsome  and  pert  to  their  faces.  At  Gracedieu  in  1440-41 
a  nun  complained  "that  a  Frenchwoman  of  very  unseemly 
conversation  is  their  maltstress,  also  that  the  secular  serving 
folk  hold  the  nuns  in  despite;  she  prays  that  they  may  be 
restrained;  and  chiefly  are  they  rebellious  in  their  words  against 

1  "Also  she  says  that  secular  servingwomen  do  lie  among  the  sisters  in 
the  dorter,  and  especially  one  who  did  buy  a  corrody  there  "  (Heynings,  1440). 
Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  133.  The  Abbess  of  Mailing  in  1324  was  forbidden  to  give 
a  corrody  to  her  maid.  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  I,  p.  364. 

2  Line.  Visit.  II,  p.  133. 

3  See  below,  pp.  395,  396. 


156  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

the  kitchener"1;  evidently  the  author  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  spake 
not  utterly  from  his  imagination  when  he  bade  his  ladies  "be 
glad  in  your  heart  if  ye  suffer  insolence  from  Slurry,  the  cook's 
boy,  who  washeth  dishes  in  the  kitchen"2.  At  Markyate  also  the 
servants  had  to  be  warned  "that  honestly  and  not  sturdyly  ne 
rebukyngly  thai  hafe  thaym  in  thaire  langage  to  the  sustres"3 
and  at  Studley  a  maidservant  had  boxed  the  ears  of  a  novice 
of  tender  age4.  At  Sheppey  in  1511  it  was  said  that  "the  men 
servants  of  the  prioress  do  not  behave  properly  to  the  prioress, 
but  speak  of  the  convent  contemptuously  and  dishonestly,  thus 
ruining  the  convent"5. 

The  peculiar  difficulties  suffered  in  this  respect  by  an  im 
portant  house,  which  maintained  a  large  body  of  servants,  are 
best  illustrated,  however,  in  the  case  of  Romsey  Abbey.  At  this 
house  in  1302  Bishop  John  of  Pontoise  ordained 

that  a  useless,  superfluous,  quarrelsome  and  incontinent  servant  and 
one  using  insolent  language  to  the  ladies  shall  be  removed  within  a 
month,... and  especially  John  Chark,  who  has  often  spoken  ill  and 
contumaciously  in  speaking  to  and  answering  the  ladies,  unless  he 
correct  himself  so  that  no  more  complaints  be  made  to  the  bishop*. 

John  Chark  possibly  learned  to  bridle  his  tongue,  but  the  tone 
among  the  Romsey  servants  was  not  good,  for  in  1311  Bishop 
Henry  Woodlock  ordered  that  "no  women  servants  shall  re 
main  unless  of  good  conversation  and  honest;  pregnant,  in 
continent,  quarrelsome  women  and  those  answering  the  nuns 
contumaciously,  all  superfluous  and  useless  servants,  [are]  to  be 
removed  within  a  month"7.  In  1387  the  difficulties  were  of 
another  order;  writes  William  of  Wykeham: 

the  secular  women  servants  of  the  nuns  are  wont  too  often  to  come 
into  the  frater,  at  times  when  the  nuns  are  eating  there,  and  into 

1  Line.  Visit.  11,  p.  121.  Alnwick  notes  "  Amoueatur  quedam  francigena 
manens  in  prioratu  propter  vite  inhonestatem,  nam  omnes  admittit  vni- 
formiter  ad  concubitus  suos  " ;  and  see  his  general  injunction,  ib.  pp.  122,  125. 

1  Ancren  Riwle,  introd.  Gasquet  (King's  Classics),  p  287. 

3  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  7.  4  Ib.  i.  26  d. 

6  E.H.R.  vi,  p.  33.  6  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  101. 

7  Ib.  p.  104.   Compare  Peckham's  injunctions  to  Wherwell  in  1284  "Et 
si  quis  inveniatur,  serviens  masculus  aut  femina,  qui  amaris  responsionibus 
consueverit  monialem  aliquam  vel  aliquas  molestare,   nisi  se  monitione 
praemissa  sufficienter  corrigat  in  futurum,  illico  expellatur."    Reg.  Epist. 
J.  Peckham,  II,  p.  654;  also  his  injunctions  to  Barking  and  Holy  Sepulchre, 
Canterbury,  ib.  I,  p.  85;  n,  p.  707.   Also  Thomas  of  Cantilupe's  injunctions 
to  Lingbrook,  c.  1277.   Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  202. 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  157 

the  cloister  while  the  nuns  are  engaged  there  in  chapter  meetings, 
contemplation,  reading  or  praying,  and  there  do  make  a  noise  and 
behave  otherwise  ill,  in  a  way  which  beseems  not  the  honesty  of 
religion.  And  these  secular  women  often  keep  up  their  chattering, 
carolling  (cantalenas)  and  other  light  behaviour,  until  the  middle  of 
the  night,  and  disturb  the  aforesaid  nuns,  so  that  they  cannot  pro 
perly  perform  the  regular  services.  Wherefore  we... command  you 
that  you  henceforth  permit  not  the  aforesaid  things,  nor  any  other 
things  which  befit  not  the  observances  of  your  rule,  to  be  done  by  the 
said  servants  or  by  others,  and  that  you  permit  not  these  servants 
to  serve  you  henceforth  in  the  frater,  and  a  servant  or  any  other 
secular  person  who  does  the  contrary  shall  be  expelled  from  the 
monastery.  Moreover  we  forbid  on  pain  of  the  greater  excommunica 
tion  that  any  servants  defamed  for  any  offence  be  henceforth  admitted 
to  dwell  among  you,  or  having  been  admitted,  be  retained  in  your 
service,  for  from  such  grave  scandals  may  arise  concerning  you  and 
your  house1. 

We  have  spoken  hitherto  about  the  regular  hired  servants 
of  the  house;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  nuns  normally 
had  a  larger  community  dependent  in  part  upon  them.  From 
time  to  time  they  were  wont  to  hire  such  additional  labour  as 
they  required,  whether  servants  in  husbandry  taken  on  for  the 
haymaking  and  harvest  season,  artificers  hired  to  put  up  or 
repair  buildings,  workers  in  various  branches  of  the  cloth  industry 
to  make  the  liveries  of  the  servants,  itinerant  candle-makers  to 
prepare  the  winter  dips,  or  a  variety  of  casual  workers  hired 
at  one  time  or  another  for  specific  purposes.  The  nuns  of  St 
Radegund's,  Cambridge,  entered  in  their  accounts  a  large 
number  of  payments  besides  those  to  their  regular  servants.  In 
moments  of  stress  they  were  wont  to  fall  back  upon  a  paragon 
named  Katherine  Rolf.  We  first  meet  her  in  1449-50  weeding 
the  garden  for  four  days,  for  the  modest  sum  of  ^\d. ;  but  soon 
afterwards  behold  her  on  the  roof,  aiding  the  thatchers  to  thatch 
two  tenements,  at  i^d.  a  day  for  twelve  days.  In  the  next  year 
she  is  more  active  still;  first  of  all  she  is  found  helping  the 
candle-makers  to  make  up  14  Ibs.  of  tallow  candles  for  the 
guest-house.  Then  she  combs  and  cleans  a  pound  of  wool  for 
spinning.  Then  she  appears  in  the  granary  helping  the  maltster 
to  thresh  and  winnow  grain.  In  the  midst  of  these  activities  she 
turns  an  honest  penny  by  selling  fat  chickens  to  the  convent. 
The  nuns  also  disburse  small  sums  of  money  to  the  man  who 
i  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  87d. 


158  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  [CH. 

cleanses  the  convent  privies,  to  the  slawterman  for  killing  beasts 
for  the  kitchen,  to  Richard  Gardyner  for  beating  stockfish,  to 
Thomas  Osborne  for  making  malt,  to  Thomas  the  Smith  for 
providing  a  variety  of  iron  implements  and  cart-clowtes,  for 
shoeing  the  horses  and  for  mending  the  ploughshares,  and  for 
"blooding  the  horses  on  St  Stephen's  day"  (Dec.  26),  to  Thomas 
Boltesham,  cowper,  for  mending  wooden  utensils,  to  Thomas 
Speed  for  helping  in  the  kitchen  on  fair-day  and  to  John  Speed 
for  working  in  the  garden.  Besides  these  they  hire  various  day- 
labourers  to  work  in  the  fields  during  the  sowing  season,  hay 
making  and  harvest,  or  to  lop  trees  round  the  convent  and  hew 
up  firewood,  or  to  prune  and  tie  up  the  vines  (for  there  were 
English  vineyards  in  those  days).  Then  there  is  a  long  list  of 
carpenters,  builders,  thatchers,  and  plumbers  engaged  in  making 
and  repairing  the  buildings  of  the  convent  and  its  tenants. 
Finally  there  are  the  various  cloth  workers,  spinners,  weaver, 
fuller,  shearman,  dyer  and  tailor  hired  to  make  the  servants' 
clothes,  concerning  whom  something  has  already  been  said1. 

Thus  many  persons  came  to  depend  upon  a  nunnery  for  part 
of  their  livelihood,  who  were  not  the  permanent  servants  of  the 
house,  and  this  goes  further  than  any  imagined  reverence  for  the 
lives  and  calling  of  their  inmates  to  explain  the  anxiety  shown 
in  some  places  for  the  preservation  of  nunneries  when  the  day  of 
dissolution  came.  The  convents  were  not  only  inns  and  boarding- 
houses  for  ladies  of  the  upper  class  and  occasionally  schools  for 
their  daughters ;  they  were  the  great  employers  and  consumers  of 
their  districts,  and  though  their  places  must  sooner  or  later  be 
taken  by  other  employers  and  consumers,  yet  at  the  moment  many 
a  husbandman  and  artificer  must  have  seen  his  livelihood  about 
to  slip  away  from  him.  The  nuns  of  Sheppey,  in  their  distant 
and  lonely  flats,  clearly  employed  a  whole  village2.  They  could 

1  Gray.  op.  cit.  passim. 

2  "  Names  of  the  Servants  now  in  Wages  by  the  yere.  Mr  Oglestone,  taking 
wages  by  the  yere.  Mr  White,  taking  26  s  8  d  by  the  yere  and  lyvere.   John 
Coks,  butler,  lyvere,  xxvi  s  viij  d,  whereof  to  pay  i  quarter  and  lyvere. 
Alyn  Sowthe  bayly,  taking  by  yere  for  closure  and  hys  servant  61  13  s  4  d 
and  two  lyveryes.    Jhon  Mustarde  20  s  a  kowes  pasture  and  a  lyvere. 
William  Rowet,  carpentar,  40  s  and  lyvere.    Richard  Gyllys  26  s  8  d  and 
lyvere.  The  carter  33  s  4  d  and  no  lyvere.    Thomas  Thressher  by  yere 
33  s  4  d  and  no  lyvere.   Robert  Dawton  by  yere  33  s  4  d  and  no  lyvere.  The 
kowherd  for  kepyng  of  the  kene  and  hoggys  by  yere  30  s  and  no  lyvere. 
Jhon  Hartnar  by  yere  28  s  and  no  lyvere.   Robard  Welshe,  brewer,  by  yere 


iv]  MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES  159 

not  count  on  hiring  carpenter  and  thatcher  for  piece-work  when 
they  wanted  them  in  that  thinly  populated  spot,  so  they  must 
hire  them  all  the  year  round.  Twenty-six  hinds  and  seven 
women  they  had  in  all,  working  in  their  domestic  offices  or  on 
the  wide  demesne,  most  of  which  they  farmed  themselves,  for 
food  was  far  to  buy  if  they  did  not  grow  it.  Three  shepherds 
kept  their  large  flock,  a  cowherd  drove  their  kine  and  hogs,  a 
horse-keeper  looked  to  their  17  horses.  All  the  other  men  and 
women  were  busy  with  the  beasts  and  the  crops  in  the  field,  or 
with  work  in  the  brew  house,  the  "bultyng  howse,"  the  bake 
house  and  the  dairy.  So  also  at  the  abbey  of  Polesworth,  where 
fifteen  nuns  employed  in  all  thirty-eight  persons,  women  servants, 
yeomen  about  the  household  and  hinds.  "In  the  towne  of 
Pollesworth,"  said  the  commissioners,  who  were  gentlemen  of 
the  district  and  not  minded  to  lose  the  house : 

ar44tenementes  and  never  a  plough  but  one,  the  resydue  be  artifycers, 
laborers  and  vitellers,  and  lyve  in  effect  by  the  said  house.... And 
the  towne  and  nonnery  standith  in  a  harde  soile  and  barren  ground, 
and  to  our  estymacions,  yf  the  nonnery  be  suppressed  the  towne 
will  shortely  after  falle  to  ruyne  and  dekaye,  and  the  people  therin, 
to  the  nombre  of  six  or  seven  score  persones,  are  nott  unlike  to  wander 
and  to  seke  their  lyvyng  as  our  Lorde  Gode  best  knowith1. 

So  also  at  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  whose  household  we  have 
described : 

the  seid  Monastery... standith  nigh  the  Middell  of  the  Citye,  of  a 
great  and  large  Compasse,  envyroned  with  many  poore  housholdes 

20  s  and  no  lyvere.  A  thatcher  33  s  4  d,  a  hose  cloth  and  no  lyvere.  William 
Nycolls  20  s  and  no  lyvere.  Jhon  Andrew  22  s  4  d  and  no  lyverye.  Jhon 
|  Putsawe  13  s  4  d  and  a  shyrt  redy  made.  George  My  liar  21  s  8  d  and  no 
lyverye.  Robert  Rychard,  horse  keper,  20  s  and  no  liverye.  Jhon  Harryes, 
Frencheman,  13  s  4  d,  a  shyrt  and  no  lyverye.  Jhon  Gyles  the  shepherd, 
14  s,  a  payre  of  hoses,  a  payre  of  shoys  and  no  lyverye.  Richard  Gladwyn 
for  to  make  malte,  26  s  8  d  by  yere,  he  hath  ben  here  8  wekes,  and  no 
lyverye.  Dorothe  Sowthe,  the  baylyffe  wyfe,  owing  for  a  yere's  wages  at 
40  s  by  yere  and  no  liverye.  Ales  Barkar  13  s  4  d  and  lyvere.  Also  Sykkers 
13  s  4  d  and  lyverye.  Gladwyn's  wyfe  13  s  4  d  and  lyverye.  Ellyn  at  my  ladyes 
lyndyng.  Emme  Cawket  12  s  and  lyvere.  Rose  Salmon  12  s,  she  hath  been 
here  a  month.  Marget  Lambard  13  s  4  d  and  lyvere.  Sir  Jhon  Lorymer, 
curat  of  the  Parysche  churche,  3  1  16  s  8  d  and  no  lyvere.  Sir  Jhon  Ingram, 
chaplen,  3  1  3  s  3  d  and  no  lyvere.  Jhon  Gayton  shepard  53  s  4  d  and  no 
•  |  lyvere.  Jhon  Pelland  20  s  and  no  lyverye.  Jhon  Marchant  13  s  4  d  and 
pasture  for  40  shepe  and  no  lyverye.  Jhon  Helman  16  s  and  10  shepes 
pasture  and  no  lyverye.  Jhon  Cannyng  shepard  by  yere  20  s  and  no  lyverye." 
Walcott,  E.  C.  M.  op.  cit.  pp.  33-4. 

1  Letters  relating  to  the  Suppression  of  the  Monasteries,  ed.  Thomas  Wright 
<Camden  Soc.  1843),  p.  140. 


i6o 


MONASTIC  HOUSEWIVES 


[CH.  IV 


which  haue  theyr  oonly  lyuynge  of  the  seid  Monastery,  And  have 
no  demaynes  whereby  they  may  make  any  prouysion,  butt  lyue  oonly 
by  theyr  landes,  making  theyr  prouysion  in  the  markettes1. 

The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new,  and  a  livelihood 
fulfils  itself  in  many  ways;  yet  many  labouring  folk  as  well  as 
gentlemen  must  have  felt  like  the  commissioners  at  Polesworth 
and  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  when  the  busy  monastic  housewives 
were  dispersed  and  the  grain  and  cattle  sold  out  of  barn  and  byre. 
There  is  no-one  so  conservative  as  your  bread-winner,  and  for 
the  best  of  reasons. 


Essays  on  Chaucer,  2nd  Series  (Chaucer  Soc.),  p.  189. 


CHAPTER  V 
FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES 

Annual  income  twenty  pounds,  annual  expenditure  nineteen,  nineteen, 
six;  result,  happiness.  Annual  income  twenty  pounds,  annual  ex 
penditure  twenty  pounds,  ought  and  six;  result,  misery. 

Mr  Micawber. 

IN  the  history  of  the  medieval  nunneries  of  England  there  is 
nothing  more  striking  than  the  constant  financial  straits  to  which 
they  were  reduced.  Professor  Savine's  analysis  of  the  Valor 
Ecclesiasticus  has  shown  that  in  1535  the  nunneries  were  on  an 
average  only  half  as  rich  as  the  men's  houses,  while  the  average 
number  of  religious  persons  in  them  was  larger1;  and  yet  it  is 
clear  from  the  evidence  of  visitation  documents  that  even  the 
men's  houses  were  continually  in  debt.  It  is  therefore  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  there  was  hardly  a  nunnery  in  England,  which 
did  not  at  one  time  or  another  complain  of  poverty.  These 
financial  difficulties  had  already  begun  before  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  and  they  grew  steadily  worse  until  the  moment 
of  the  Dissolution.  The  worst  sufferers  of  all  were  the  nunneries 
of  Yorkshire  and  the  North,  a  prey  to  the  inroads  of  the  Scots, 
who  time  after  time  pillaged  their  lands  and  sometimes  dispersed 
their  inmates;  Yorkshire  was  full  of  nunneries  and  almost  all 
of  them  were  miserably  poor.  But  in  other  parts  of  the  country, 
without  any  such  special  cause,  the  position  was  little  better. 
When  Bishop  Alnwick  visited  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  in  the  first 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  fourteen  out  of  the  twenty-five 
houses  which  he  examined  were  in  financial  difficulties.  More 
over  not  only  is  this  true  of  small  houses,  inadequately  endowed 
from  their  foundation  and  less  likely  to  weather  bad  times,  but 
the  largest  and  richest  houses  frequently  complained  of  insuffi 
cient  means.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  distress  of  the  poor 
nuns  of  Rothwell;  their  founder  Richard,  Earl  of  Gloucester, 

1  Savine,  English  Monasteries  on  the  Eve  of  the  Dissolution  (Oxford  Hist. 
I  Studies,  ed.  Vinogradoff,  I,  pp.  221-2).  See  also  above,  Ch.  I,  pp.  2-3. 

P.N.  II 


162  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

had  died  before  properly  endowing  the  house,  and  the  prioress 
and  convent  could  expend  for  their  food  and  clothing  only  four 
marks  and  the  produce  of  four  fields  of  land,  in  one  of  which 
the  house  was  situated1.  But  it  is  less  easy  to  account  for  the 
constant  straits  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Shaftesbury,  which  had 
such  vast  endowments  that  a  popular  saying  had  arisen:  "  If  the 
Abbot  of  Glastonbury  could  marry  the  Abbess  of  Shaftesbury, 
their  heir  would  hold  more  land  than  the  King  of  England  "2. 
It  is  comprehensible  that  the  small  houses  of  Lincolnshire  and 
the  dangerously  situated  houses  of  Yorkshire  should  be  in  diffi 
culties ;  but  their  complaints  are  not  more  piteous  than  those 
of  Romsey,  Godstow  and  Barking,  richly  endowed  nunneries,  to 
which  the  greatest  ladies  of  the  land  did  not  disdain  to  retire. 

The  poverty  of  the  nunneries  was  manifested  in  many  ways. 
One  of  these  was  the  extreme  prevalence  of  debt.  On  the  occa 
sion  of  Bishop  Alnwick's  visitations,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  above,  no  less  than  eleven  houses  were  found  to  be  in 
debt3.  At  Ankerwyke  the  debts  amounted  to  £40,  at  Langley 
to  £50,  at  Stixwould  to  80  marks,  at  Harrold  to  20  marks,  at 
Roth  well  to  6  marks.  Markyate  was  "  indebted  to  divers  creditors 
for  a  great  sum."  Heynings  was  in  debt  owing  to  costly  repairs 
and  to  several  bad  harvests,  and  about  the  same  time  a  petition 
from  the  nuns  stated  that  they  had  "mortgaged  for  no  short 
time  their  possessions  and  rents  and  thus  remain  irrecoverably 
pledged,  have  incurred  various  very  heavy  debts  and  are  much 
depressed  and  brought  to  great  and  manifest  poverty  "4.  In  some 
cases  the  prioresses  claimed  to  have  reduced  an  initial  debt ;  the 
Prioress  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  said  that  on  her  installation 
twelve  years  previously  the  debts  stood  at  £20  and  that  they 
were  now  only  20  marks;  the  Prioress  of  Gracedieu  said  that 

1  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  IV,  p.  436.    In  1442  its  numbers  (which  should 
have  been  fourteen)  had  sunk  to  seven  and  it  was  six  marks  in  debt  (Aln 
wick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  38).    The  clear  annual  value  of  the  house  in  the  Valor 
Ecclesiasticus  was  only  £5.  igs.  8$d.   Compare  the  case  of  Heynings,  whose 
founder,  Sir  John  Darcy,  had  also  died  without  completing  its  endowment. 
Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  347. 

2  Fuller,  Church  History,  in,  p.  332.    Its  net  income  at  the  Dissolution 
was  ^1329.  is.  3^.  Compare  The  Italian  Relation  of  England  (Camden  Soc.), 
pp.  40-1. 

3  Line.  Visit.  II,  pp.  I,  49,  117,  119,  130,  133,  175,  184;  Alnwick's  Visit. 
MS.  ff.  6d,  38,  83. 

4  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  347. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  163 

she  had  reduced  debts  from  £48  to  £38 ;  the  Prioress  of  Legbourne 
said  that  the  debts  were  now  only  £14  instead  of  £63 l.  But  from 
the  miserable  poverty  of  some  of  these  houses  (for  instance 
Gokewell,  where  the  income  in  rents  was  said  to  be  £10  yearly 
and  Langley,  where  it  was  £20,  less  than  half  the  amount  of 
the  debts)  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  struggle  to  repay  creditors 
out  of  an  already  insufficient  income  was  a  hopeless  one;  and 
the  effort  to  do  so  out  of  capital  was  often  more  disastrous  still. 
Nothing  is  more  striking  than  the  lists  of  debts  which  figure  in 
the  account  rolls  of  medieval  nunneries.  In  thirteen  out  of 
seventeen  account  rolls  belonging  to  St  Michael's  Stamford2  and 
ranging  between  1304  and  1410,  the  nuns  end  the  year  with  a 
deficit;  and  in  fourteen  cases  there  is  a  schedule  of  debts  added 
to  the  account.  Sometimes  the  amount  owed  is  small,  but  occa 
sionally  it  is  very  large.  In  the  first  roll  which  has  survived 
(1304-5)  the  deficit  on  the  account  is  some  £5  odd;  the  debts 
are  entered  as  £23.  is.  lid.  on  the  present  year  (which  were 
apparently  afterwards  paid,  because  the  items  were  marked 
"vacat  pour  ceo  ke  le  deners  sount  paye")  and  fifteen  items 
amounting  to  £52.  35.  8d.  and  described  as  "nos  auncienes 
dettes  estre  cest  aan";  in  fact  the  debts  amount  to  considerably 
more  than  the  income  entered  in  the  roll3.  Similarly  in  1346-47 
the  debts  amount  to  £51  odd  and  in  1376-77  to  £53  odd,  and  in 
other  years  to  smaller  sums.  In  some  cases  a  list  of  debts  due 
to  the  convent  is  also  entered  in  the  account,  but  in  only  four 
of  these  does  the  money  owed  to  the  house  exceed  the  amount 
owing  by  it;  and  "argent  aprompte"  or  "money  borrowed"  is 
a  regular  item  in  the  credit  account.  Similarly  the  treasuresses' 
accounts  of  Gracedieu  end  with  long  schedules  of  debts  due  by 
the  house4.  Nor  was  it  only  the  small  houses  which  got  into 

1  The  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke  also  claimed  to  have  reduced  the  debt  from 
300  marks  to  ^40,  but  one  of  the  nuns  said  that  it  had  been  only  ^30  on  her 
installation  and  that  it  had  not  been  paid  by  the  Prioress  but  from  other 
sources.    Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  i,  3. 

2  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260  passim. 

3  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/1.   It  should,  however,  be  noted  that  some 
of  the  items  which  go  to  make  up  the  total  of  the  debts  are  sums  of  money 
owing  to  members  of  the  convent  (e.g.  the  Prioress  and  Subprioress)  by  the 
treasuresses,  though  the  sums  owing  to  outsiders  are  larger. 

4  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1257/10  ff.  34  and  34^,  $gd.  Similarly  the  Prioress's 
account  of  Delapre  for  4  Henry  VIII  contains  a  long  list  of  debts.  St  Paul's 
Ecclesiological  Soc.  vn  (1912),  p.  52.    An  analysis  of  Archbishop  Eudes 


164  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

debt.  Tarrant  Keynes  was  quite  well  off,  but  as  early  as  1292 
the  nuns  asked  the  royal  leave  to  sell  forty  oaks  to  pay  their 
debts1.  Godstow  was  rich,  but  in  1316  the  King  had  to  take  it 
under  his  protection  and  appoint  keepers  to  discharge  its  debts, 
"on  account  of  its  poverty  and  miserable  state,"  and  in  1335 
the  profits  during  vacancy  were  remitted  to  the  convent  by  the 
King  "because  of  its  poverty  and  misfortunes"2.  St  Mary's, 
Winchester,  was  a  famous  house,  but  it  also  was  in  debt  early 
in  the  fourteenth  century3.  It  should  be  noticed  that  the  last 
cases  (and  that  of  St  Michael's  Stamford,  1304-5)  are  anterior 
to  the  Black  Death,  to  whose  account  it  has  been  customary 
to  lay  all  the  financial  misfortunes  of  the  religious  houses.  It  is 
undeniable  that  the  Black  Death  completed  the  ruin  of  many  of 
the  smaller  houses,  and  that  matters  grew  steadily  worse  during 
the  last  half  of  the  fourteenth  and  throughout  the  fifteenth 
century;  but  there  is  ample  evidence  that  the  finances  of  many 
religious  houses,  both  of  men  and  of  women,  had  been  in  an 
unsatisfactory  condition  at  an  earlier  date ;  and  even  the  golden 
thirteenth  century  can  show  cases  of  heavy  debt4. 

In  the  smaller  houses  the  constant  struggle  with  poverty 
must  have  entailed  no  little  degree  of  discomfort  and  discourage 
ment.  Sometimes  the  nuns  seem  actually  to  have  lacked  food 
and  clothes,  and  it  seems  clear  that  in  many  cases  the  revenues 
of  these  convents  were  insufficient  for  their  support  and  that 
they  were  dependent  upon  the  charity  of  friends.  A  typical 
case  is  that  of  Legbourne,  where  one  of  the  nuns  informed 
Bishop  Alnwick  (1440)  that  since  the  revenues  of  the  house 
did  not  exceed  £40  and  since  there  were  thirteen  nuns  and  one 
novice,  it  was  impossible  for  so  many  of  them  to  have  sufficient 
food  and  clothing  from  such  inadequate  rents,  unless  they  re- 

Rigaud's  visitations  of  nunneries  in  the  Diocese  of  Rouen  gives  even  more 
startling  information  on  this  point;  all  but  four  of  the  fourteen  houses  show 
a  list  of  debts  growing  heavier  year  by  year  and  this  was  in  the  thirteenth 
century  (1249-69).  See  Reg.  Visit.  Archiep.  Rothomag.  ed.  Bonnin  passim. 
1  V.C.H.  Dorset,  11,  p.  88.  2  V.C.H.  Oxon.  II,  p.  73. 

3  Col.  of  Papal  Petit,  i,  pp.  56,  122,  230. 

4  For  other  cases  of  debt,  in  different  centuries,  see  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
pp.  124,  161, 163-4,  188,  239,  240;  Reg.  WalterGiffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  148; 
V.C.H.  Oxon.  ii,  pp.  78,  104;  V.C.H.  Essex,  p.  122;  V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  43; 
V.C.H.  Norfolk,  ii,  p.  351 ;  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  150;  V.C.H.  Bucks.  I,  p.  355; 
Visit,  of  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  108,  109;  Test.  Ebor.  i, 
pp.  284-5 ;  Col.  of  Papal  Letters,  vi,  p.  25 ;  Sussex  A  rchaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  7. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  165 

ceived  assistance  from  secular  friends1.  Fosse  in  1341  was  said 
to  be  so  slenderly  endowed  that  the  nuns  had  not  enough  to 
live  on  without  external  aid2;  and  in  1440  Alnwick  noted  "all 
the  nuns  complain  ever  of  the  poverty  of  the  house  and  they 
receive  nothing  from  it  save  only  food  and  drink  "3.  Of  Buckland 
it  was  stated  that  "its  possessions  cannot  suffice  for  the  sus 
tenance  of  the  said  sisters  with  their  household,  for  the  emenda 
tion  of  their  building,  for  their  clothes-  and  for  their  other 
necessities  without  the  help  of  friends  and  the  offering  of  alms  "  4. 
Cokehill  in  1336  was  excused  a  tax  because  it  was  so  inadequately 
endowed  that  the  nuns  had  not  enough  to  live  upon  without 
outside  aid5.  Davington  in  1344  was  m  tne  same  position; 
although  the  nuns  were  reduced  to  half  their  former  number, 
they  could  not  live  upon  their  revenues  without  the  charity 
of  friends6.  Alnwick's  visitations,  indeed,  show  quite  clearly  that 
in  poor  houses  the  nuns  were  often  expected  to  provide  either 
clothes  or  (on  certain  days)  food  for  themselves,  out  of  the  gift 
of  their  friends7.  At  Sinningthwaite,  in  the  diocese  of  York,  the 
position  appears  even  more  clearly;  in  1319  it  was  declared  that 
the  nuns  who  had  no  elders,  relatives  or  friends,  lacked  the 
necessary  clothes  and  were  therefore  afflicted  with  cold,  where 
upon  the  Archbishop  ordered  them  to  have  clothes  provided 
out  of  the  means  of  the  house8.  The  clause  of  the  Council  of 
Oxford  which  permitted  poor  houses  to  receive  a  sum  sufficient 
for  the  vesture  of  a  new  member  was  evidently  stretched  to 
include  the  perpetual  provision  of  clothing  by  external  friends, 
and  this  is  sometimes  indicated  in  the  wording  of  legacies.  Thus 
Roger  de  Noreton,  citizen  and  mercer  of  York,  left  the  following 
bequest  in  1390: 

I  bequeath  to  Isabel,  my  daughter,  a  nun  of  St  Clement's,  York,  to 
buy  her  black  flannels  (pro  flannelis  suis  nigris  emendis],  according 
to  the  arrangement  of  my  wife  Agnes  and  of  my  other  executors,  at 
fitting  times,  according  to  her  needs,  four  marks  of  silver9. 

1  Line,  Visit,  n,  p.  186. 

2  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  157.  3  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  92. 

4  The  Knights  Hospitallers  in  England  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  20. 

5  V.C.H.  Worcs.  ii,  pp.  157-8.  •  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv.  p.  285. 
7  See  below,  p.  340.                                  8   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  177. 

9  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  133.  The  account  book  of  Gracedieu  (1414-8)  con 
tains  entries  of  money  paid  by  William  Roby  "for  the  clothes  of  his  relation 
Dame  Agnes  Roby"  and  at  another  time  by  Margaret  Roby  for  the  same 
purpose  (6s.  8d.)  Gasquet,  English  Monastic  Life,  p.  170. 


166  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Sir  Thomas  Cumberworth,  dying  in  1451,  specifically  directed 
that  "ye  blak  Curteyne  of  lawne  be  cut  in  vailes  and  gyfyn  to 
pore  nones"1. 

The  nuns  were  not  always  able  to  obtain  adequate  help 
from  external  friends  in  the  matter  of  food  and  clothes;  and 
evidence  given  at  episcopal  visitations  shows  that  they  some 
times  went  cold  and  hungry.  Complaints  are  common  that  the 
allowance  paid  to  the  nuns  (in  defiance  of  canon  law)  for  the 
provision  of  food  and  of  garments  had  been  reduced  or  with 
drawn;  and  so  also  are  complaints  that  the  quality  of  beer 
provided  by  the  convent  was  poor,  though  here  the  propensity 
of  all  communities  to  grumble  at  their  food  has  to  be  taken  into 
account2.  But  more  specific  information  is  often  given;  and 
though  it  is  clear  that  financial  mismanagement  was  often  as 
much  to  blame  as  poverty,  the  sufferings  of  the  nuns  were  not 
for  that  reason  any  less  real.  The  Yorkshire  nunnery  of  Swine 
is  a  case  in  point.  It  was  never  rich,  but  at  Archbishop  Giffard's 
visitation  in  1268  the  nuns  complained  that  the  maladministra 
tion  of  their  fellow  canons3  had  made  their  position  intolerable. 
Although  the  means  of  the  house,  if  discreetly  managed,  sufficed 
to  maintain  them,  they  nevertheless  had  nothing  but  bread  and 
cheese  and  ale  for  meals  and  were  even  served  with  water  instead 
of  ale  twice  a  week,  while  the  canons  and  their  friends  were 
provided  for  "abundantly  and  sumptuously  enough";  the  nuns 
were  moreover  insufficiently  provided  with  shoes  and  clothes; 
they  had  only  one  pair  of  shoes  each  year4  and  barely  a  tunic  in 
every  three  and  a  cloak  in  every  six  years,  unless  they  managed 
to  beg  more  from  relatives  and  secular  friends5.  Fifty  years  later 
there  was  still  scarcity  at  Swine,  for  the  Prioress  was  ordered 
to  see  that  the  house  was  reasonably  served  with  bread,  ale  and 
other  necessities6.  At  Ankerwyke  (1441)  the  frivolous  and  in 
competent  Prioress,  Clemence  Medforde,  reduced  her  nuns  to 

1  Lincoln  Diocese  Documents  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  57. 

7  It  is  amusing  to  notice  the  indignation  of  the  nuns  when  their  beer  was 
not  strong  enough.  See  e.g.  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  6.  jidt  72;  Visit,  of  Dioc. 
of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  209;  Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journal,  xvi,  p.  443. 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  pp.  493-4- 

4  When  little  Elizabeth  Sewardby  was  boarding  in  Nunmonkton  she 
had  ten  pairs  in  eighteen  months!    Test.  Ebor.  HI,  p.  168. 

6  Reg.  of  Walter  Gifjard  (Surtees  Soc.),  pp.  147-8. 
•   V.C.H.  Yorks.  HI,  p.  181. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  167 

similar  discomfort.  Margery  Kirkby,  whose  tongue  nothing  could 
stop,  announced  that  "she  furnishes  not  nor  for  three  years' 
space  has  furnished  fitting  habits  to  the  nuns,  insomuch  that 
the  nuns  go  about  in  patched  clothes.  The  threadbareness  of 
the  nuns"  added  the  bishop's  clerk  "was  apparent  to  my  lord. 
(Patebat  domino  nuditas  monialium.)"  Three  of  the  younger 
nuns  also  made  complaints;  Thomasine  Talbot  had  no  bed 
clothes  "insomuch  that  she  lies  in  the  straw,"  Agnes  Dychere 
"asks  that  sufficient  provision  be  made  to  her  in  clothing 
for  her  bed  and  body,  that  she  may  be  covered  from  the  cold, 
and  also  in  eatables,  that  she  may  have  strength  to  undergo 
the  burden  of  religious  observance  and  divine  service,  for  these 
hitherto  had  not  been  supplied  to  her";  and  Margaret  Smith 
also  complained  of  insufficient  bedclothes.  Poor  little  sister 
Thomasine  also  remarked  sadly  that  she  had  no  kirtle  provided 
for  her  use1. 

The  history  of  Romsey  shows  that  even  the  rich  houses 
suffered  from  similar  inconveniences.  In  1284  Peckham  speaks 
of  a  scarcity  of  food  in  the  house  and  forbids  the  Abbess  to  fare 
sumptuously  in  her  chamber,  while  the  convent  went  short2;  in 
1311  it  was  ordered  that  the  bread  should  be  brought  back  to 
the  weight,  quantity  and  quality  hitherto  used3;  and  in  1387 
William  of  Wykeham  rather  severely  commanded  the  Abbess 
and  officiaries  to  provide  for  the  nuns  bread,  beer  and  other  fit 
and  proper  victuals,  according  to  ancient  custom  and  to  the 
means  of  the  house4.  Campsey  was  another  flourishing  house, 
but  in  1532  a  chorus  of  complaint  greeted  the  ears  of  the  visitor, 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  4,  5.   This  lack  of  bedclothes  for  the  younger  nuns 
was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Prioress  did  not  want  them  to  sleep  in 
the  dorter,  for  Thomasine  adds  "and  when  my  lord  had  commanded  this 
deponent  to  lie  in  the  dorter  and  this  deponent  asked  bedclothes  of  the 
Prioress,  she  said  chidingly  to  her  'Let  him  who  gave  you  leave  to  lie  in 
the  dorter  supply  you  with  raiment.'  "  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  thinks  that 
"probably  sister  Thomasine  had  previously  been  lodged  separately  with 
the  other  younger  nuns  and  the  Prioress  and  elders  objected  to  the  crowding 
of  the  dorter."    But  poverty  was  the  main  cause,  for  at  a  later  visitation 
the  Prioress  stated  that  she  was  unable  to  supply  the  sisters  with  sufficient 
raiment  for  their  habits  "because  of  the  poverty  and  insufficiency  of  the 
resources  of  the  house."     Ib.  p.  7. 

2  The  same  injunction  was  sent  to  Wherwell.  Reg.  Epist.  Johanms  Feck- 

ham  (Rolls  Ser.),  n,  pp.  651,  659-60. 

3  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  103. 

4  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  S6d. 


168  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

and  (as  in  so  many  cases)  the  ills  were  all  put  down  to  the 
mismanagement  of  the  Prioress,  Ela  Buttry.  She  was  not  too 
luxurious,  but  too  stingy;  Katherine  Symon  said  that  noble 
guests,  coming  to  the  priory,  complained  of  the  very  great 
parsimony  of  the  Prioress ;  Margaret  Harmer  said  that  the  sisters 
were  sometimes  served  with  very  unwholesome  food;  Isabel 
Norwich  said  that  the  friends  of  the  nuns,  coming  to  the  house, 
were  not  properly  provided  for;  Margaret  Bacton  said  that 
dinner  was  late  through  the  fault  of  the  cook  and  that  the 
meat  was  burnt  to  a  cinder;  Katherine  Grome  said  that  the 
beef  and  mutton  with  which  the  nuns  were  served  were  some 
times  bad  and  unwholesome  and  that  within  the  past  month 
a  sick  ox,  which  would  otherwise  have  died,  had  been  killed  for 
food,  and  that  the  Prioress  was  very  sparing  both  in  her  own 
meals  and  in  those  with  which  she  provided  the  nuns;  and  four 
other  sisters  gave  evidence  to  the  same  effect1.  One  has  the 
impression  that  the  nuns  were  elderly  and  fussy,  but  there  was 
evidently  a  basis  for  their  unanimous  complaint,  and  it  is  easy 
to  imagine  that  food  may  sometimes  have  been  very  bad  in 
convents  which  (unlike  Campsey)  were  burdened  with  real 
poverty2. 

Another  sign  of  the  financial  distress  of  the  nunneries  was 
the  ruinous  condition  of  their  buildings.  The  remark  written  by 
a  shivering  monk  in  a  set  of  nonsense  verses  may  well  stand 
as  the  plaint  of  half  the  nunneries  of  England: 

Haec  abbathia  ruit,  hoc  notum  sit  tibi,  Christe, 
Intus  et  extra  pluit,  terribilis  est  locus  iste. 

("This  abbey  falleth  in  ruins,  Christ  mark  this  well!  It  raineth 
within  and  without ;  how  fearful  is  this  place !  ")3.  Time  after  time 

1  Visit,  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  290-2.    Cf.  the 
complaint  of  the  nuns  of  Studley  in  1530:  "  They  be  oftentymes  served  with 
beffe  and  no  moton  upon  Thursday  at  nyght  and  Sondays  at  nyght  and  be 
served  oftentymes  with  new  ale  and  not  hulsome."     V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  78. 

2  Other  houses  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich  which  complained  of  bad  food 
were  Flixton  (1520)  and  Carrow  (1492,  1514,  1526).   Carrow  was  one  of  the 
most  famous  nunneries  in  England,  but  in  1492  one  of  the  Bishop's  comperta 
ran:  "  That  the  present  sisters  are  restricted  to  eight  loaves,  and  this  is  very 
little  for  ten  sisters,  for  the  whole  day.   Item  there  is  often  a  lack  of  bread  in 
the  house,  contrary  to  the  good  repute  of  the  place. "  See  Visit,  of  the  Diocese 
of  Norwich,  pp.  16-17,  145>  l^5~^>  2°9- 

8  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  i,  p.  291.  Translated  in  Coulton,  A  Mediaeval 
Garner,  p.  597. 


PLATE  IV 


Brass  of  Ela  Buttry,  the  stingy  Prioress  of  Campsey  (fi546),  in  St  Stephen's 
Church,  Norwich.  Stingy  even  in  death,  she  has  appropriated  to  her  own  use 
the  brass  of  a  i4th  century  laywoman. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  169 

visitations  revealed  houses  badly  in  need  of  repair  and  roofs 
letting  in  rain  or  even  tumbling  about  the  ears  of  the  nuns; 
time  after  time  indulgences  were  granted  to  Christians  who  would 
help  the  poor  nuns  to  rebuild  church  or  frater  or  infirmary.  The 
thatched  roofs  especially  were  continually  needing  repairs.  It 
will  be  remembered  how  the  Abbess  Euphemia  of  Wherwell 
rebuilt  the  bell  tower  above  the  dorter, 

which  fell  down  through  decay  one  night,  about  the  hour  of  mattins, 
when  by  an  obvious  miracle  from  heaven,  though  the  nuns  were  in 
the  dorter,  some  in  bed  and  some  in  prayer  before  their  beds,  all 
escaped  not  only  death  but  any  bodily  injury1. 

At  Crabhouse  in  the  time  of  Joan  Wiggenhall 

the  dortour  that  than  was,  as  fer  forthe  as  we  knowe,  the  furste  that 
was  set  up  on  the  place,  was  at  so  grete  mischeef  and,  at  the  gate- 
downe,  the  Prioresse  dredyinge  perisschyng  of  her  sistres  whiche  lay 
thereinne  took  it  doune  for  drede  of  more  hermys, 

and  next  year  "sche  began  the  grounde  of  the  same  dortoure 
that  now  stondith  and  wrought  thereupon  fulli  vij  yere 
betymes  as  God  wolde  sende  hir  good2."  The  Prioress  of 
Swine  was  ordered  in  1318  to  have  the  dorter  covered 
without  delay,  so  that  the  nuns  might  quietly  and  in  silence 
enter  it,  without  annoyance  from  storms,  and  to  have  the 
roofs  of  the  other  buildings  repaired  as  soon  as  might  be3.  At 
St  Radegund's  Cambridge,  in  1373,  the  Prioress  was  charged 
with  suffering  the  frater  to  remain  unroofed,  so  that  in  rainy 
weather  the  sisters  were  unable  to  take  their  meals  there,  to 
which  she  replied  that  the  nunnery  was  so  burdened  with  debts, 
subsidies  and  contributions,  that  she  had  so  far  been  unable  to 
carry  out  repairs,  but  would  do  so  as  quickly  as  possible4.  At 
Littlemore  in  1445  the  nuns  did  not  sleep  in  the  dorter  for  fear  it 
should  fall5.  At  Romsey  in  1502  the  wicked  Abbess  Elizabeth 
Broke  had  allowed  the  roofs  of  the  chancel  and  dorter  to  become 
defective,  "so  that  if  it  happened  to  rain  the  nuns  were  unable 

1  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  135.  The  belfry  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  fell 
down  and  injured  the  church  in  1277.  Gray,  Hist,  of  the  Priory  of  St  Rade- 
gund,  Cambridge,  pp.  37-8;  cf.  p.  79.  That  of  Esholt  fell  in  1445.    V.C.H. 
Yorks.  in,  p.  161. 

2  Reg.  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery  (Norfolk  Archaeology,  xi,  1892),  pp.  61, 
62. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  181.  4  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  32. 
5  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  217. 


170  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

to  remain  either  in  the  quire  in  time  of  divine  service  or  in  their 
beds  and  the  funds  that  the  abbess  ought  to  have  expended 
on  these  matters  were  being  squandered  on  Master  Bryce" ;  the 
fabric  of  the  monastery  in  stone  walls  was  also  going  to  decay 
through  her  neglect,  and  so  were  various  tenements  belonging 
to  the  house  in  the  town  of  Romsey1.  Over  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years  before,  William  of  Wykeham  had  found  Romsey  hardly 
less  dilapidated,  with  its  church,  infirmary  and  nuns'  rooms 
"full  of  many  enormous  and  notable  defects,"  and  the  buildings 
of  the  monastery  itself  and  of  its  different  manors  in  need  of 
repair2.  Of  the  unfortunate  houses  within  the  area  of  Scottish 
inroads,  Arden,  Thicket,  Keldholme,  Rosedale,  Swine,  Wykeham, 
Arthington  and  Moxby  were  all  ruinous  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century;  the  monotonous  list  includes  the  church, 
frater  and  chapter  house  of  Arden,  the  cloister  of  Rosedale, 
the  bakehouse  and  brewhouse  of  Moxby,  the  dorter  and  frater  of 
Arthington3. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  distress  was,  as  usual,  at  its 
worst.  At  the  visitation  of  the  Chichester  diocese  by  Bishop 
Sherburn  in  1521  the  cloister  of  Easebourne  needed  roofing  and 
Rusper  was  "in  magno  decasu";  six  years  later  Rusper  was 
still  "  aliqualiter  ruinosa  "4.  At  the  Norwich  visitations  of  Bishop 
Nykke  the  church  of  Blackborough  was  in  ruins,  and  the  roofs 
of  cloister  and  frater  at  Flixton  were  defective;  while  at  Crab- 
house  buildings  were  in  need  of  repair  and  the  roof  of  the  Lady 
chapel  was  ruinous5;  Joan  Wiggenhall  must  have  turned  in  her 
grave.  Bishop  Longland's  visitations  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln 
show  a  similar  state  of  affairs.  In  1531  he  commanded  the 

1  V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  pp.   129-31  passim.    For  another  complaint  that 
tenements  and  leasehold  houses  belonging  to  a  priory  were  ruinous  and  like 
to  fall  down,  through  the  negligence  of  the  prioress  and  bailiff,  see  the  case 
of  Legbourne  in  1440.  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  185. 

2  New  Coll.  MS.  ff.  87^-88.    He  ordered  the  Abbess  to  repair  defects 
at  once  out  of  the  common  goods  of  the  house.    Better  still,  he  would  seem 
to  have  assisted  them  from  his  own  pocket  to  carry  out  the  injunction,  for 
by  his  will  (1402)  he  remitted  to  them  a  debt  of  ^40,  for  the  repair  of  their 
church  and  cloister.   Nicolas,  Testamenta  Vetusta,  u,  p.  708. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  113,  124,  168,  174,  181,  183,  188,  240;  Yeding- 
ham  and  Esholt  (ib.  pp.  128,  161)  and  St  Mary,  Neasham  (V.C.H.  Durham, 
II,  p.  107)  needed  repair  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

4  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  23;  v,  pp.  256,  258. 

6  Visitations  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  107-8,  109, 
261,  311. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  171 

Abbess  of  Elstow  "  that  suche  reparacons  as  be  necessarye  in  and 
upon  the  buildinges  within  the  said  monasterye,  and  other 
houses,  tenements  and  f earmes  thereto  belonging,  be  suffycyently 
doon  and  made  within  the  space  of  oon  yere,"  and  the  Prioress 
of  Nuncoton,  "that  ye  cause  your  firmary,  your  chirche  and  all 
other  your  houses  that  be  in  ruyne  and  dekaye  within  your 
monastery  to  be  suffycyently  repayred  within  this  yere  if  itt 
possible  may";  and  reminded  the  nuns  of  Studley  that  they 
"muste  bestowe  lardge  money  upon  suche  reparacons  as  are  to 
be  doon  upon  your  churche,  quere,  dortor  and  other  places 
whiche  ar  in  grete  decaye"1.  At  Goring,  also,  the  nuns  all  com 
plained  that  the  buildings  were  utterly  out  of  repair,  especially 
the  choir,  cloister  and  dorter2. 

The  frequency  of  fires  in  the  middle  ages  was  probably 
often  to  blame  for  the  ruin  of  buildings.  There  were  then  no 
contrivances  for  extinguishing  flames,  and  the  thatched  and 
wooden  houses  must  have  burned  like  stubble.  Thus  it  was  that 
"thorow  the  negligens  of  woman3  with  fyre  brent  up  a  good 
malt-house  with  a  soler  and  alle  her  malt  there"  at  Crabhouse, 

1  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  pp.  52,  54,  59. 

2  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.   104.    A  few  out  of  many  other  references  to 
ruinous  buildings  may  be  given  here.   Easebourne  (1411).    Bishop  Rede's 
Reg.  p.  137.  Polsloe  (1319).  Reg.  of  Bishop  Stapeldon  of  Exeter,  p.  318.  DelaprS 
(Northampton)   (1303),  Wothorpe  (1292),   Rothwell  (fourteenth  century), 
Catesby    (1301,    1312).    V.C.H.    Northants.    n,    pp.    101,    114,    138,    123. 
Rowney  (1431).    V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  435-6.  St  Radegund's  Cambridge 
Gray,  op.  cit.  pp.  36-8,   79.   St  Clare  without  Aldgate  (1290).  Ely  Epis. 
Records,  ed.  Gibbons,  p.  415.  St  Mary's  Winchester  (1343-52).  Cal.  of  Pap. 
Pet.  i,  pp.  56,  122,  230. 

3  Perhaps  in  the  same  way  that  a  fire  broke  out  at  Sempringham  in  the 
lifetime  of  St  Gilbert.  "  A  nun,  bearing  a  light  through  the  kitchen  by  night, 
fixed  a  part  of  a  burnt  candle  to  another  she  was  going  to  burn,  so  that  both 
were  alight  at  once.    But  when  the  part  fixed  on  to  the  other  was  almost 
consumed,  it  fell  on  the  floor,  on  which  much  straw  was  collected,  ready  for 
a  fire.  The  nun  did  not  heed  it,  and  believing  that  the  fire  would  go  out  by 
itself,  she  went  away  and  shut  the  door.    But  the  flame,  finding  food,  first 
devoured  the  straw  lying  close  by,  then  the  whole  house  with  the  adjacent 
offices  and  their  contents,  whence  a  great  loss  happened  to  the  church." 
Quoted  from  MS.  Cott.  Cleop.  B.  i,  f.  77  by  R.  Graham,  St  Gilbert  of  Semp 
ringham  and  the  Gilbertines,  p.  135.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  author  of 
the  thirteenth  century  treatise,  called  "Seneschaucie,"  is  most  careful  to 
declare  that  ploughmen,  waggoners  and  cowherds  must  not  carry  fire  into 
the  byres,  stables  and  cowhouse,  either  for  light  or  to  warm  themselves, 
"unless  the  candle  be  in  a  lantern  and  this  for  great  need  and  then  it  must 
be  carried  and  watched  by  another  than  himself."     Walter  of  Henley's 
Husbandry,  ed.  E.  Lamond  (1890),  p.  113. 


172  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

and  Joan  Wiggenhall  had  to  repair  it  at  a  cost  of  five  pounds1. 
There  is  a  piteous  appeal  to  Edward  I  from  the  nuns  of  Cheshunt, 
who  had  been  impoverished  by  a  fire  and  sought  "help  from  the 
King  of  his  special  grace  and  for  God's  sake";  but  " ' Nihil  fiat 
hac  vice,"  replied  red  tape2;  an  undated  petition  in  the  Record 
Office  says  that  the  house,  church  and  goods  of  the  nuns  had 
twice  been  burned  and  their  charters  destroyed3.  In  1299  the 
Abbess  of  Wilton  received  permission  to  fell  fifty  oaks  in  the 
forest  of  Savernake  "in  order  to  rebuild  therewith  certain  houses 
in  the  abbey  lately  burnt  by  mischance"4.  At  Wykeham,  in 
Edward  Ill's  reign,  the  priory  church,  cloisters  and  twenty-four 
other  buildings  were  accidentally  burned  down  and  all  the  books, 
vestments  and  chalices  of  the  nuns  were  destroyed5.  Similarly 
the  nuns  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  lost  their  house  and  all 
their  substance  by  fire  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  in  1376  their  buildings  were  again  said  to  have  been  burned ; 
either  they  had  never  recovered  from  their  first  disaster  or  a 
second  fire  had  bfoken  out6.  The  nuns  of  St  Leonard's,  Grimsby, 
apparently  lost  their  granaries  in  1311,  for  they  sought  licence 
to  beg  on  the  ground  that  their  houses  and  corn  had  been  con 
sumed  by  fire,  and  in  1459  they  asked  for  a  similar  licence, 
because  their  buildings  had  been  burnt,  and  their  land  inundated7. 
The  convent  of  St  Bartholomew's,  Newcastle,  gave  misfortune 
by  fire  as  one  reason  for  wishing  to  appropriate  the  hospital  or 
chapel  of  St  Edmund  the  King  in  Gateshead  8. 

Sometimes  poverty,  misfortune  and  mismanagement  reduced 
the  nuns  to  begging  alms.  About  1253  the  convent  of  St  Mary 
of  Chester  wrote  to  Queen  Eleanor,  begging  her  to  confirm  the 
election  of  a  prioress  "to  our  miserable  convent  amidst  its 
multiplied  desolations;  for  so  greatly  are  we  reduced  that  we 
are  compelled  every  day  to  beg  abroad  our  food,  slight  as  it 
is  " 9.  Similarly  the  starving  nuns  of  Whitehall,  Ilchester,  were 
reduced  to  "begging  miserably,"  after  the  regime  of  a  wicked 

Reg.  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery  M.S.  p.  61. 

Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  328.   See  also  V.C.H.  Herts,  rv,  p.  426. 

V.C.H.  Herts,  he.  cit. 

Col.  of  Close  Rolls,  1296-1302,  p.  238. 

V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  183.  •  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  79. 

V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  179. 

Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  485. 

Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  i,  p.  35. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  173 

prioress  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century1.  In  1308 
the  subprioress  and  convent  of  Whiston  mentioned,  in  asking 
for  permission  to  elect  Alice  de  la  Flagge,  that  the  smallness 
of  their  possessions  had  compelled  the  nuns  formerly  to  beg, 
"to  the  scandal  of  womanhood  and  the  discredit  of  religion"2. 
In  1351  Bishop  Edyndon  of  Winchester  "counted  it  a  merciful 
thing,"  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  great  Abbeys  of  Romsey 
and  St  Mary's  Winchester,  "when  overwhelmed  with  poverty, 
and  when  in  these  days  of  increasing  illdoing  and  social  deteriora 
tion  they  were  brought  to  the  necessity  of  secret  begging"3.  At 
Cheshunt  in  1367  the  nuns  declared  that  they  often  had  to  beg 
in  the  highways4.  At  Rothwell  in  1392  the  extreme  poverty  of 
the  nuns  compelled  some  of  them  "to  incur  the  opprobrium 
of  mendicity  and  beg  alms  after  the  fashion  of  the  mendicant 
friars"5.  In  all  these  cases  it  is  evident  that  objection  was  taken 
to  personal  begging  by  the  nuns,  and  it  is  clear  that  such  a 
practice,  which  took  the  nuns  out  into  the  streets  and  into 
private  houses,  was  likely  to  be  subversive  of  discipline.  The 
custom  of  begging  through  a  proctor  was  open  to  no  such 
objection;  and  it  was  common  for  bishops  to  give  to  the  poorer 
houses  licences,  allowing  them  to  collect  alms  in  this  manner. 
Early  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  nuns  of  Rowney  in  Hertford 
shire  petitioned  the  Chancellor  for  letters  patent  for  a  proctor  to 
go  about  the  country  and  collect  alms  for  them,  and  their  request 
was  granted6.  Many  such  licences  to  beg  occur  in  episcopal 
registers;  Bishop  Dalderby  of  Lincoln  granted  them  to  Little 

1  Reg.  of  John  of  Drokensford  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  227.   Text  in  Hugo, 
\Medieval  Nunneries  of  Somerset:  Whitehall  in  Ilchester,  p.  78.    But  seven 

years  before  they  had  been  begging,  according  to  the  Bishop,  by  the  com- 
|  pulsion  of  this  expelled  prioress,  whose  case  was  sub  judice .  Reg.  p.  115 
!  and  Hugo,  loc.  cit. 

2  Reg.  Sede  Vacante  (Wore.  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  112-3. 

3  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  145. 

4  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  427.  6  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  137. 
6   V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  434-5.    The  text  of  their  petition  is  as  follows: 

"A  tres  reverend  pier  en  dieu,  mon  treshonure  seigneur  le  chaunceller 
j  dengleterre,  suppliant  voz  pouers  oratrices  la  prioresse  et  les  noneyns  de 
Rowney  en  le  countee  de...qe  come  lour  esglise  et  autres  mesons  sont  en 
poynt  de  cheyer  a  terre  pur  defaute  de  reparacion  et  ils  nount  dont  lez  re- 
parailler,  si  noun  dalmoigne  de  bones  gens,  qe  plese  a  vostre  treshonure 
seignurie  de  vostre  grace  eux  granter  vn  patent  pur  vn  lour  procuratour, 
de  aler  en  la  paiis  a  coiller  almoigns  de  bones  gentz  pur  la  sustenance  et 
releuacioun  du  dit  pouere  mesoun  et  en  noun  de  charite."  P.R.O.  Ancient 
Petitions,  302/15063. 


174  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH, 

Marlow  (1300  and  131 1)1,  St  Leonard's  Grimsby  (13  n)2,  and 
Roth  well  (I3i8)3;  and  St  Michael's  Stamford  (1359)  and  Se- 
wardsley  (1366)  received  similar  licences  from  his  successors4. 
The  distinction  between  begging  by  the  nuns  and  begging  by 
a  proctor  is  clearly  drawn  in  the  licence  granted  by  Bishop 
Dalderby  to  Rothwell.  Addressing  the  clergy  in  the  Archi- 
diaconates  of  Northampton  and  Buckingham  he  writes: 

Pitying,  with  paternal  affection,  the  want  of  the  poor  nuns  of  Roth- 
well  in  our  diocese,  who  are  oppressed  by  such  scarcity  that  they  are 
obliged  to  beg  the  necessities  of  life,  we  command  and  straitly  enjoin 
you,  that  when  there  shall  come  to  you  suitable  and  honest  secular 
proctors  or  messengers  of  the  same  nuns  (not  the  nuns  themselves, 
that  they  may  have  no  occasion  for  wandering  thereby),  to  seek  and 
receive  the  alms  of  the  faithful  for  their  necessities,  ye  shall  receive 
them  kindly  and  expound  the  cause  of  the  said  nuns  to  the  people 
in  your  churches,  on  Sundays,  and  feast  days  during  the  solemnisation 
of  mass,  and  promote  the  same  by  precept  and  by  example  once  every 
year  for  the  next  three  years,  delivering  the  whole  of  whatever  shall 
be  collected  to  these  proctors  and  messengers5. 

The  Bishops  sought  to  relieve  necessitous  convents  by  offering 
particular  inducements  to  the  faithful  to  give  alms,  when  they 
were  thus  requested.  Along  with  mending  roads  and  bridges, 
ransoming  captives,  dowering  poor  maidens,  building  churches 
and  endowing  hospitals,  the  assistance  of  impecunious  nunneries 
was  generally  recognised  as  a  work  of  Christian  charity,  and 
indulgences  were  often  offered  to  those  who  would  aid  a  particular 
house6.  The  same  Bishop  Dalderby,  for  instance,  granted  in 
dulgences  for  the  assistance  of  Cheshunt,  Flamstead7,  Sewardsley, 

1  v.c.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  358. 

1  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  179.    Another  licence  in  1459. 

3   V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  137.  «  Ib.  pp.  100,  126. 

6  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  i.  374.    (Pro  monialibus  de  Rowell.} 
It  is  surprising,  however,  that  Peckham,  in  his  constitution  forbidding  nuns 
to  be  absent  from  their  convents  for  longer  than  three,  or  at  the  most  six, 
days,  adds:  "We  do  not  extend  this  ordinance  to  those  nuns  who  are  forced 
to  beg  their  necessities  outside,  while  they  are  begging."   Wilkins,  Concilia, 
n»  P-  59-    It  is  certain  that  the  nuns  did  beg  in  their  own  persons.    When 
Archbishop  Eudes  Rigaud  visited  St-Aubin  in  1261  he  ordered  that  the 
younger  nuns  should  not  be  sent  out  to  beg  (pro  questu);  and  in  1263  two 
of  them  were  absent  in  France,  seeking  alms.    Reg.   Visit.  Archiepiscopi 
Rothomagensis,  ed.  Bonnin,  pp.  412,  471. 

9  On  this  subject  see  an  interesting  article  by  C.  Wordsworth,  "  On  some 
Pardons  or  Indulgences  preserved  in  Yorkshire  1412-1527"  (Yorks.  Arch. 
Journ.  xvi,  pp.  369  flf.). 

7  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  426,  432. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  175 

Gatesby,  Delapre1,  Ivinghoe2,  Fosse3,  St  James'  outside  Hunting 
don  and  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge4.  Archbishop  Kemp  of  York 
granted  an  indulgence  of  a  hundred  days  valid  for  two  years 
to  all  who  should  assist  towards  the  repair  of  Arden  (1440)  and 
of  Esholt  (1445),  and  Archbishop  William  Booth  (1456)  granted 
an  indulgence  of  forty  days  to  penitents  contributing  to  the 
repair  of  Yedingham5;  indeed  it  is  probable  that  the  money  for 
the  much  needed  work  of  roofing  a  building  could  be  collected 
only  by  means  of  such  special  appeals.  The  Popes  also  sometimes 
granted  indulgences;  Boniface  IX  did  so  to  penitents  who  on 
Ithe  feasts  of  dedication  visited  and  gave  alms  towards  the  con 
servation  of  the  churches  and  priories  of  Wilberfoss,  St  Clement's, 
York,  and  Handale6.  The  history  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge, 
will  serve  to  illustrate  the  method  by  which  the  Church  thus 
organised  the  work  of  poor-relief  in  the  middle  ages;  and  it  will 
jbe  noticed  that  this  nunnery  was  an  object  of  care  to  Bishops 
|of  other  dioceses  beside  that  of  Ely7.  In  1254  Walter  de  Suffield, 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  granted  a  relaxation  of  penance  for  twenty- 
five  days  to  persons  contributing  to  the  aid  of  the  nuns;  in  1268 
Richard  de  Gravesend,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  ordered  collections  to 
be  made  in  the  churches  of  the  Archidiaconates  of  Northampton 
and  Huntingdon  on  their  behalf;  in  1277  Roger  de  Skerning, 
[Bishop  of  Norwich,  ordered  collections  to  be  made  in  his  diocese 
for  the  repair  of  the  church;  in  1313  the  Official  of  the  Arch 
deacon  of  Ely  wrote  to  the  parochial  clergy  of  the  diocese  re 
commending  the  nuns  to  them  as  objects  of  charity,  having 
lost  their  house  and  goods  by  fire,  and  in  the  same  year  Bishop 
Dalderby  granted  an  indulgence  on  their  behalf  for  this  reason  8  ; 
(while  in  1314  John  de  Ketene,  Bishop  of  Ely,  confirmed  the 
|  grants  of  indulgence  made  by  his  brother  bishops  to  persons 
[contributing  to  their  relief  and  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  house. 
The  next  indulgence  mentioned  is  one  of  forty  days  granted  by 

V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  pp.  114,  123,  116. 

V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  353.  3   V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  157. 

Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  ff.  g6d,  244^. 

V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  pp.  115,  128,  161. 

Col.  of  Papal  Letters,  iv,  p.  393;  v,  p.  373. 

Except  where  otherwise  stated  the  following  references  all  occur  in 
Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  79  and  are  printed  in  full  in  R.  Willis,  Architectural  Hist, 
of  the  Univ.  of  Cambridge,  ed.  J.  Willis  Clark  (1886),  n,  pp.  183-6. 
8  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.  g6d. 


176  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Thomas  Arundel,  Bishop  of  Ely,  in  1376,  also  on  the  occasion  of  ^ 
a  fire;  in  1389  Bishop  Fordham  of  Ely  granted  another  forty 
days  indulgence  for  the  repair  of  the  church  and  cloister  and 
for  the  relief  of  the  nuns1,  and  in  1390  William  Courtenay, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  made  a  similar  grant,  mentioning 
that  the  buildings  had  been  ruined  by  violent  storms;  finally 
in  1457  Bishop  Grey  of  Ely  granted  a  forty  days  indulgence  for 
the  repair  of  the  bell-tower  and  for  the  maintenance  of  books, 
vestments  and  other  church  ornaments2.  There  is  no  need  to 
suppose  that  St  Radegund's  was  in  any  way  a  particularly 
favoured  house ;  and  such  a  list  of  grants  shows  that  the  Church 
fulfilled  conscientiously  the  duty  of  organising  poor-relief  and 
that  the  objects  for  which  indulgences  were  granted  were  not 
always  as  unworthy  as  has  sometimes  been  supposed3. 

The  financial  straits  to  which  the  smaller  convents  were 
continually  and  the  greater  convents  sometimes  reduced  grew 
out  of  a  number  of  causes;  and  it  is  interesting  to  inquire  what 
brought  the  nuns  to  debt  or  to  begging  and  why  they  were  so 
often  in  difficulties.  A  study  of  monastic  documents  makes  it 
clear  that  a  great  deal  of  this  poverty  was  in  no  sense  the  fault 
of  the  nuns.  Apart  from  obvious  cases  of  insufficient  endow 
ment,  the  medieval  monasteries  suffered  from  natural  disasters, 
which  were  the  lot  of  all  men,  and  from  certain  exactions  at 
the  hands-  of  men,  which  fell  exclusively  upon  themselves.  Of 
natural  disasters  the  frequency  of  fires  has  already  been  men 
tioned.  Another  danger,  from  which  houses  situated  in  low  lying 
land  near  a  river  or  the  sea  were  never  free,  was  that  of  floods. 
The  inundation  of  their  lands  was  declared  one  of  the  reasons  for 
appropriating  the  church  of  Bradford-on-Avon  to  Shaftesburyin 
1343 ;  and  in  1380  the  nuns  were  allowed  to  appropriate  another 
church,  in  consideration  of  damage  done  to  their  lands  by  en 
croachments  of  the  sea  and  losses  of  sheep  and  cattle4.  In  1377 
Barking  suffered  the  devastation  by  flood  of  a  large  part  of  its 
possessions  along  the  Thames  and  never  recovered  its  former 

1  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  36.  *  Ib.  pp.  37-8. 

8  A  few  other  references  may  be  given:  Bishop  Fordham  of  Ely  for 
Kowney  (1408)  and  Bishop  Alcock  of  Ely  for  the  Minories  (1490)-  Gibbons, 
Ely  Epis.  Records,  pp.  406,  414.  Bishop  Sutton  of  Lincoln  to  Wothorpe 
(1292).  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  114. 

«   V.C.H.  Wilts,  n,  p.  77. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  177 

prosperity1;  and  in  1394  Bishop  Fordham  of  Ely  granted  an 
indulgence  for  the  nuns  of  Ankerwyke,  whose  goods  had  been 
destroyed  by  floods2.  In  the  north  the  lands  of  St  Leonard's, 
Grimsby,  were  flooded  in  T-4593;  in  1445  the  nuns  of  Esholt 
suffered  heavy  losses  from  the  flooding  of  their  lands  near  the 
river  Aire,  which  had  been  cultivated  at  great  cost  and  from 
which  they  derived  their  maintenance4;  and  in  1434  Archbishop 
Rotherham  appealed  for  help  for  the  nuns  of  Thicket,  whose 
fields  and  pasturages  had  been  inundated  and  who  had  suffered 
much  loss  by  the  death  of  their  cattle5.  Heavy  storms  are 
mentioned  as  contributing  to  the  distress  of  Shaftesbury  in 
1365 6  and  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  in  1390 7.  Moreover 
some  houses  suffered  by  their  situation  in  barren  and  unpro 
ductive  lands.  Easebourne  in  1411  complained  of  "the  sterility 
of  the  lands,  meadows  and  other  property  of  the  priory,  which 
is  situated  in  a  solitary,  waste  and  thorny  place"8;  Heynings 
put  forward  the  same  plea  in  1401 9;  and  Flamstead  in  1380 10. 

But  far  more  terrible  than  fire  and  flood  were  those  two  other 

scourges,  with  which  nature  afflicted  the  men  of  the  middle 

ages,  famine  and  pestilence.  The  Black  Death  of  1348-9  was 

!  only  one  among  the  pestilences  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  it 

i  had  the  result  of  "domesticating  the  bubonic  plague  upon  the 

i  soil  of  England";  for  more  than  three  centuries  afterwards  it 

|  continued  to  break  out  at  short  intervals,  first  in  one  part  of 

the  country  and  then  in  another  u.  The  epidemics  of  the  fourteenth 

1  V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  p.  119.   References  to  this  occur  in  1380,  1382,  1384, 
i  1392,  1402  and  1409. 

2  Gibbons,  Ely  Epis.  Records,  p.  399. 

3  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  179.   Cf.  Thetford.    V.C.H.  Norfolk,  u,  p.  355. 

4  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  161.  5  Ib.  p.  124. 

6  V.C.H.  Wilts,  n,  p.  77.  The  reference  is  perhaps  to  the  famous  storm 
;  of  St  Maur's  Day,  1362,  which,  together  with  the  Black  Death,  is  com- 
!  memorated  in  a  graffito  in  the  church  of  Ash  well  (Herts.)  and  in  a  distich 
J  quoted  by  Adam  Murimuth 

C  ter  erant  mille,  decies  sex  unus  et  ille. 
Luce  tua  Maure,  vehemens  fuit  impetus  aurae. 
Ecce  flat  hoc  anno,  Maurus  in  orbe  tonans. 

7  Gray,  op.  cit.  p.  79. 

8  Bishop  Rede's  Reg.  (Sussex  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  137. 

9  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  347. 

10  Dugdale,  Mon.    iv,    p.  301. 

11  The  following  account  of  medieval  plagues  and  famines  is  taken  mainly 
from  Creighton,  Hist,  of  Epidemics  in  Britain,  i,  pp.  202-7,  215-223.    See 

|  also  Denton,  England  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  pp.  91-105. 

P.N.  " 


178  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

century  were  so  violent  that  in  forty  years  the  chroniclers  count 
up  five  great  plagues,  beginning  with  the  Black  Death,  and 
Langland,  in  a  metaphor  of  terrible  vividness,  describes  the 
pestilence  as  "the  rain  that  raineth  where  we  rest  should."  The 
Black  Death  was  preceded  by  a  famine  pestilence  in  1317-8, 
when  there  was  "a  grievous  mortalitie  of  people  so  that  the 
sicke  might  vnneath  burie  the  dead."  It  was  followed  in  1361 
by  the  Second  Plague,  which  was  especially  fatal  among  the 
upper  classes  and  among  the  young.  The  Third  Plague  in  1368-9 
was  probably  primarily  a  famine  sickness,  mixed  with  plague. 
The  Fourth  Plague  broke  out  in  1375 ;  and  the  Fifth,  in  1390-1 
was  so  prolonged  and  so  severe  as  to  be  considered  comparable 
with  the  Black  Death  itself.  Moreover  these  are  only  the  great 
landmarks,  and  scattered  between  them  were  smaller  outbreaks 
of  sickness,  due  to  scarcity  or  to  spoiled  grain  and  fruit.  The 
pestilences  continued  in  the  fifteenth  century  (more  than  twenty- 
one  are  recorded  in  the  chronicles),  but,  except  perhaps  for  the 
great  plague  of  1439,  they  were  seldom  universal  and  came  by 
degrees  to  be  confined  to  the  towns,  so  that  all  who  could  used 
to  flee  to  the  country  when  the  summer  heat  brought  out  the 
disease  in  crowded  and  insanitary  streets.  But  if  country  con 
vents  escaped  the  worst  disease,  those  situated  in  borough  towns 
ran  a  heavy  risk. 

Often  enough  these  plagues  were  preceded  and  accompanied 
by  famines,  sometimes  local  and  sometimes  general.  The  English 
famines  had  long  been  notorious  and  were  enshrined  in  a  popular 
proverb:  "Tres  plagae  tribus  regionibus  appropriari  solent,  An- 
glorum  fames,  Gallorum  ignis,  Normannorum  lepra"1.  The  three 
greatest  outbreaks  took  place  in  1194-6,  in  1257-9  an(i  m 
1315-6  (before  the  plague  of  1318-9).  The  dearth  which  cul 
minated  in  the  last  of  these  famines  had  begun  as  early  as  1289; 
and  the  misery  in  1315  was  acute: 

"The  beastes  and  cattell  also,"  says  Stow,  translating  from  Troke- 
lowe,  "  by  the  corrupt  grane  whereof  they  fed,  dyed,  whereby  it  came 
to  passe  that  the  eating  of  flesh  was  suspected  of  all  men,  for  flesh  of 
beasts  not  corrupted  was  hard  to  finde.  Horse-flesh  was  counted 
great  delicates  the  poore  stole  fatte  dogges  to  eate;  some  (as  it  was 
sayde)  compelled  through  famine,  in  hidden  places  did  eate  the  flesh 
of  their  owne  children,  and  some  stole  others,  which  they  devoured. 

1  Creighton,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  19. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  179 

Theeves  that  were  in  prisons  did  plucke  in  peeces  those  that  were 
newly  brought  among  them  and  greedily  devoured  them  halfe  alive." 

There  was  another  severe  famine  in  1322,  and  in  1325  a  great 
drought,  so  that  the  cattle  died  for  lack  of  water.  Famine  accom 
panied  the  pestilences  of  1361,  1369,  1391  and  1439;  and  these 
are  only  the  more  outstanding  instances.  Here  again,  however, 
the  fourteenth  century  was  on  the  whole  worse  off  than  the 
fifteenth;  almost  every  year  was  a  year  of  scarcity  and  the 
average  price  of  wheat  during  the  period  1261  to  1400  was 
nearly  six  shillings  (i.e.  nearly  six  pounds  of  modern  money)1. 
Moreover  the  ravages  of  murrain  among  cattle  and  sheep  were 
hardly  intermittent  from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century2.  The  fatal  years  1315-9  included  not 
only  a  famine  and  a  plague  but  also  (1318-9)  a  murrain  among 
the  cattle,  which  was  so  bad  that  dogs  and  ravens,  eating  the 
dead  bodies,  were  poisoned  and  died,  and  no  man  dared  eat  any 
beef.  In  the  year  of  the  Black  Death  also  there  was  "a  great 
plague  of  sheep  in  the  realm,  so  that  in  one  place  there  died  in 
pasturage  more  than  five  thousand  sheep  and  so  rotted  that 
neither  beast  nor  bird  would  touch  them  " ;  and  murrains  accom 
panied  the  four  other  great  plagues  of  the  century.  Indeed 
dearth,  murrain  and  pestilence  went  hand  in  hand,  in  that  un 
happy  time  we  call  the  "good  old  days." 

These  natural  disasters  could  not  but  have  an  adverse  effect 

upon  the  fortunes  of  the  monastic  houses;  and  many  charters 

and  petitions  contain  clauses  which  specifically  attribute  the 

distress  of  this  or  that  nunnery  to  one  of  the  three  causes 

described  above.    During  the  famine  years  of  1314-5  Walter 

Reynolds,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  wrote  to  the  Bishop   of 

I  Winchester,  urging  him  to  take  some  steps  for  the  relief  of  the 

!  nuns  of  Wintney,  who  were  dispersing  themselves  in  the  world, 

!  because  no  proper  provision  was  made  for  their  food  3,  and  about 

j  the  same  time  the  convent  of  Clerkenwell  addressed  a  petition 

to  Queen  Isabel,  stating  that  they  were  "moet  enpouerees  par 

les  durs  annez"  and  begging  her  to  procure  for  them  the  King's 

;  leave  to  accept  certain  lands  and  rents  to  the  value  of  twenty 

1  Denton,  op.  cit.  p.  93. 

2  Ib.  p.  93  sqq. 

3  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  150.    He  attributed  their  condition  to  negligence 
!  and  bad  administration. 


l8o  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH.    j 

pounds1.  In  1326  (after  the  great  drought)  the  nuns  of  King's 
Mead,  Derby,  begged  the  King  to  take  them  under  his  special 
protection,  granting  the  custody  of  the  house  to  two  custodes,  I 
on  the  ground  that,  owing  to  the  badness  of  past  years  and  the 
unusually  heavy  mortality  among  cattle  their  revenues  were  .i 
reduced  and  they  were  unable  to  meet  the  claims  made  by 
guests  upon  their  hospitality2.  The  ravages  of  the  Black  Death  I 
were  most  severe  of  all  and  many  houses  never  recovered  from 
it3.  In  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  the  nunnery  of  Wothorpe  lost  all 
its  members  save  one,  whom  the  Bishop  made  Prioress;  and  in 
1354  it  was  annexed  to  St  Michael's  Stamford  4.  Greenfield  Priory, 
when  he  visited  it  in  1350,  "per  tres  menses  stetit  et  stat 
priorisse  solacio  destituta"5;  and  other  houses  in  this  large 
diocese  which  lost  their  heads  were  Fosse,  Markyate,  Hinchin- 
brooke,  Gracedieu,  Rothwell,  Delapre,  Catesby,  Sewardsley, 
Littlemore  and  Godstow6.  In  the  diocese  of  York  the  prioresses 
of  Arthington,  Kirklees,  Wallingwells  and  St  Stephen's  Fouke- 
holm  died;  the  latter  house,  like  Wothorpe,  failed  to  recover 
and  is  never  heard  of  again 7.  Other  parts  of  the  country  suffered 
in  the  same  way.  At  Mailing  Abbey  in  Kent  the  Bishop  made 
two  abbesses  in  succession,  but  both  died  and  only  four  professed 
nuns  and  four  novices  remained,  to  one  of  whom  the  Bishop 
committed  the  custody  of  the  temporalities  and  to  another  that 
of  the  spiritualities,  because  there  was  no  fit  person  to  be  made  | 
Abbess8.  At  Kenwood,  in  August  1349, tnere  was no  Prioress,"  and 
of  the  fifteen  nuns  who  were  lately  there,  three  only  remain  " 9. 
The  death  of  the  nuns  themselves  was,  moreover,  the  least 
disastrous  effect  of  the  pestilence;  it  left  a  legacy  of  neglected 
lands,  poverty  and  labour  troubles  which  lasted  for  long  after 

1  P.R.O.  Ancient  Correspondence,  xxxvi,  no.  201. 

2  V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  43.    See  below,  p.  200. 

3  See  P.   G.   Mode,    The  Influence  of  the  Black  Death   on  the  English 
Monasteries  (Univ.  of  Chicago,  1916),  passim. 

*  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  268. 

6  A.  Hamilton  Thompson,  Registers  of  John  Gynewell,  Bishop  of  Lincoln 
for  the  years  1347-1350  (reprinted  from  Archaeol.  Journ.  LXVIII,  pp.  301- 
360,  1912),  p.  328. 

•  Ib.  pp.  359-60. 

7  A.  Hamilton  Thompson,  The  Pestilences  of  the  Fourteenth  Century  in 
the  Diocese  of   York  (reprinted  from  Archaeol.  Journ.  LXXI,  pp.  97-I54» 

1914),  pp.   I2I-2. 

8  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  i,  pp.  364,  375. 

9  V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  65. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  181 

a  new  generation  of  sisters  had  forgotten  the  fate  of  their  pre 
decessors.  The  value  of  Flixton  dwindled  after  the  Black  Death 
to  half  its  former  income,  and  the  house  was  never  prosperous 
again1.  In  1351  the  nuns  of  Romsey  petitioned  for  leave  to 
annex  certain  lands  and  advowsons  and  gave  as  one  of  the 
reasons  for  their  impoverishment  "the  diminution  or  loss  of  due 
and  appointed  rents,  because  of  the  death  of  tenants,  carried 
off  by  the  unheard  of  and  unwonted  pestilence"2,  and  in  1352 
j  the  house  of  St  Mary's  Winchester  made  special  mention,  in  peti 
tioning  for  the  appropriation  of  a  church,  of  the  reduction  of  its 
rents  and  of  the  cattle  plague 3.  The  other  great  plagues  of  the 
century  aggravated  the  distress.  St  Mary's  Winchester  and 
Shaftesbury  mentioned  the  pestilence  (of  1361)  in  petitions  to 
the  King  three  years  later4.  Four  of  the  sixteen  nuns  of  Carrow 
died  in  the  year  of  the  third  pestilence  (1369) 5,  and  in  1378,  three 
years  after  the  fourth  pestilence,  the  licence  allowing  Sewardsley 
to  appropriate  the  church  of  EastonNeston,  recites  that  the  value 
of  its  lands  had  been  so  diminished  by  the  pestilence  that  they 
no  longer  sufficed  to  maintain  the  statutory  numbers 6.  In  1381 
(mentioned  as  a  plague  and  famine  year  in  some  of  the  chronicles) 
a  bull  of  Urban  IV,  appropriating  a  church  to  Flamstead,  after 
recapitulating  the  slender  endowments  of  the  house,  repeats  the 
complaint  that 

the  servants  of  the  said  priory  are  for  the  most  part  dead,  and  its 
houses  and  tenants  and  beasts  are  so  destroyed  that  its  lands  and 
|  possessions  remain  as  it  were  sterile,  waste  and  uncultivated,  where- 
|  fore,  unless  the  said  Prioress  and  Convent  be  by  some  remedy  suc 
coured,  they  will  be  obliged  to  beg  for  the  necessities  of  life  from  door 
to  door7. 

In   1395,  four  years   after   the  "Fifth"   pestilence   and  itself 
a  year  of  bad  plague  and  famine,  the  nuns  of  Legbourne  com 
plained  that   their  lands   and   tenements   were   uncultivated, 
"on  account  of  the  dearth  of  cultivators  and  rarity  of  men, 
j  arising  out  of  unwonted  pestilences  and  epidemics"8.  The  out- 
;  break  of  1405-7  was  followed  by  a  petition  from  Easebourne 

1   V.C.H.  Suffolk,  ii,  p.  116.  2  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  146. 

3  Cal.  of  Papal  Petitions,  i,  p.  230.     4  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  1364,  pp.  21,  485. 

5  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  p.  37.  6   V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  p.  126. 

7  Dugdale,  Mow.  iv,  p.  301.  Their  petition  had  been  presented  in  1380. 
|  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  433. 

8  Cal.  o   Papal  Letters,  iv,  p.  521. 


182  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

for  licence  to  appropriate  two  churches,  on  the  ground  of 
"epidemics,  death  of  men  and  of  servants,"  and  because 

the  lands  and  tenements  of  the  Prioress  and  Convent  notoriously 
suffer  so  great  ruin  that  few  tenants  can  be  found  willing  to  occupy 
the  lands  in  these  days,  and  the  said  lands,  ever  falling  into  a  worse 
state,  are  so  poor  that  they  cannot  supply  the  religious  women  with 
sufficient  support  for  themselves  or  for  the  repair  of  their  ruinous 
buildings1. 

The  worst  of  these  natural  disasters  was  not  the  actual 
damage  done  by  each  outbreak,  but  the  fact  that  famine,  mur 
rain  and  pestilence  followed  upon  pestilence,  murrain  and  famine 
with  such  rapidity,  that  the  poorer  houses  had  no  chance  of 
recovery  from  the  initial  blow  dealt  them  by  the  Black  Death. 
The  nuns  of  Thetford,  for  instance,  were  excused  from  the 
taxation  of  religious  houses  under  Henry  VI,  on  the  ground  that 
their  revenues  in  Norfolk  and  in  Suffolk  were  much  decreased 
by  the  recent  mortality  and  had  so  continued  since  1349 2-  Even 
the  well-endowed  houses  found  recovery  difficult,  and  the  history 
of  the  great  abbey  of  Shaftesbury  illustrates  the  situation  very 
clearly.  In  1365,  shortly  after  the  pestis  secunda,  the  nuns  re 
ceived  a  grant  of  the  custody  of  their  temporalities  on  the  next 
voidance,  and  losses  by  pestilence  were  mentioned  as  one  reason 
for  the  decline  in  their  fortunes.  In  1380  their  lands  were  flooded 
and  they  suffered  heavy  losses  in  sheep  and  cattle.  In  1382  (the 
year  of  the  fifth  plague)  they  were  obliged  to  petition  once  again 
for  help,  representing  that  although  their  house  was  well-endowed, 

toutes  voies  voz  dites  oratrices  sont  einsi  arreriz  a  jour  de  huy,  quoy 
par  les  pestilences  en  queles  lours  tenantz  sont  trez  toutz  a  poy 
mortz,  et  par  murryne  de  lour  bestaille  a  grant  nombre  et  value, 
nemye  tant  seulement  a  une  place  et  a  une  foitz,  einz  a  diverses  foitz  en 
toutes  leurs  places,  quoy  par  autres  grandes  charges  quelles  lour  con- 
vient  a  fine  force  de  jour  en  autre  porter  et  sustenir,  q'eles  ne  purront, 
sinoun  qe  a  moelt  grant  peine,  sanz  lour  endangerer  al  diverses  bones 
gentz  lours  Creditours,  mesner  1'an  a  bon  fyn3. 

Again  towards  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  Bishop 
Ayscough  sanctioned  the  appropriation  of  a  church  to  the  abbey, 
which  had  pleaded  its  great  impoverishment  through  pestilence, 
failure  of  crops,  want  of  labourers,  and  through  the  excessive 

1  Bishop  Rede's  Reg.  p.  137.  *  V.C.H.  Norfolk,  n,  p.  335. 

3  Rot.  Parl.  in,  p.  129  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  485. 


vj  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  183 

demands  of  such  labourers  as  could  be  obtained1.  If  Shaftesbury 
found  recovery  so  difficult,  it  may  easily  be  imagined  what  was 
the  effect  of  the  natural  disasters  of  the  fourteenth  century  upon 
smaller  and  less  wealthy  houses. 

The  revenues  of  the  nunneries,  often  scant  to  begin  with  and 
liable  to  constant  diminution  from  the  ravages  of  nature,  were 
still  more  heavily  burdened  by  a  variety  of  exactions  on  the  part 
of  the  authorities  of  Church  and  State.  The  procurations  payable 
to  the  Bishop  on  his  visitation  fell  heavily  upon  the  smaller 
houses;  hence  such  a  notice  as  that  which  occurs  in  Bishop 
Nykke's  Register  under  the  year  1520:  "Item  the  reverend 
father  with  his  colleagues  came  down  to  the  house  of  nuns  that 
afternoon,  and  having  seen  the  priory  he  dissolved  his  visitation 
there,  on  account  of  the  poverty  of  the  house"2.  St  Mary 
Magdalen's,  Bristol,  was  on  account  of  its  poverty  exempt  from 
the  payment  of  such  procurations3  and  the  Bishops  doubtless 
often  exercised  their  charity  upon  such  occasions  4.  Papal  exac 
tions  were  even  more  oppressive;  John  of  Pontoise,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  pleaded  with  the  papal  nuncio  in  1285  that  he 
would  forbear  to  exact  procurations  from  the  poor  nuns  of 
Wintney,  whom  the  Bishop  himself  excused  from  all  charges 
in  view  of  their  deep  poverty 5;  and  in  1300  Bishop  Swinfield 
of  Hereford  made  a  similar  appeal  to  the  commissary  of  the 
nuncio,  and  secured  the  remission  of  procurations  due  from  the 
nuns  of  Lingbrook  and  the  relaxation  of  the  sentence  of  excom 
munication,  which  they  had  incurred  through  non-payment6. 

1  V.C.H.  Dorset,  u,  p.  77. 

2  Visit,  of  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  155. 

3  V.C.H.  Glouc.  n,  p.  93. 

4  On  other  occasions,  however,  they  were  careful  to  take  all  their  due. 
Vide  the  great  Bishop  Grandisson's  letter  to  the  abbess  and  convent  of 
Canonsleigh,  announcing  his  forthcoming  visitation  and  "mandantes  quod 
in  ilium  eventum  de  procuracione  ea  occasione  nobis  debita  providere 
curetis  in  pecunia  numerata."    Reg.  of  Bishop  Grandisson,  ed.  Hingeston- 
Randolph,  pt  n,  p.  767.    At  Davington  in  1511  the  Prioress  deposed  that 
"the  house  has  to  pay  2os.  to  the  Archbishop  for  board  at  the  time  of  his 
visitation."   E.H.R.  vi,  p.  28. 

5  Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  I,  p.  299. 

6  Reg.    Rich,    de    Swinfield   (Cantilupe   Soc.),   p.    366.     Other  cases  of 
excommunication  are  sometimes  to  be  found  in  Bishops'  Registers,  e.g.  in 
1335  the  Prioresses  of  Cokehill  and  Brewood  were  excommunicated  for 
failure  to  pay  the  tenth;  one  owed  g^d.  and  the  other  is.  8%d. — paltry  sums 
for  which  to  damn  a  poor  nun's  soul !   Reg.  Thomas  de  Charlton  (Cantilupe 
Soc.),  p.  57. 


184  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

The  obligation  to  pay  tithes  also  fell  heavily  upon  the  poorer 
houses ;  it  was  for  this  reason  that  Archbishop  John  le  Romeyn 
appealed  to  the  Prior  of  Newburgh  in  1286  not  to  exact  tithes 
from  the  food  of  animals  in  Nether  Sutton,  belonging  to  the 
poor  nuns  of  Arden1;  and  in  1301  the  Prior  of  Worcester  desired 
his  commissary  to  spare  the  poverty  of  the  nuns  of  Westwood 
and  not  to  exact  tithes  or  any  other  things  due  to  him  from  them 
or  from  their  churches2.  Added  to  ecclesiastical  exactions  were  the 
taxes  due  to  the  Crown.  In  1344  the  nuns  of  Davington  addressed 
a  petition  to  Edward  III,  representing  that,  owing  to  their  great 
poverty,  they  were  unable  to  satisfy  the  King's  public  aids 
without  depriving  themselves  of  their  necessary  subsistence,  a 
plea  which  was  found  to  be  true3.  The  frequency  with  which 
such  petitions  for  exemption  from  the  payment  of  taxes  were 
made  and  granted,  is  in  itself  a  proof  that  the  burden  of  taxation 
was  a  real  one,  for  the  Crown  would  not  have  excused  its  dues, 
unless  the  need  for  such  an  act  of  charity  had  been  great4;  and 
it  is  obvious  that  the  sheer  impossibility  of  collecting  the  money 
from  a  poverty-stricken  house  must  often  have  left  little  alterna 
tive.  The  houses  that  did  contribute  were  not  slow  to  complain. 
"The  unwonted  exactions  and  tallages  with  which  their  house 
and  the  whole  of  the  English  Church  has  been  burdened"  were 
pleaded  by  the  nuns  of  Heynings  as  in  part  responsible  for  their 
poverty  in  1401 5;  similarly  "  the  necessary  and  very  costly  exac- 

1  Reg.  John  le  Romeyn  (Surtees  Soc.),  I,  p.  159. 

2  Reg.  Sede  Vacante  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  p.  62.  Cf.  remission  of  tithes  by 
Bishop  Dalderby  to  Greenfield,   because  of   its  poverty.     V.C.H.  Lines. 
n,  p.  155.    Some  Cistercian  houses  held  papal  bulls  exempting  them  from 
the  payment  of  tithes,  e.g.  Sinningthwaite  and   Swine.     Dugdale,  Mon. 
v,  pp.  463,  494. 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  288. 

4  For  a  few  out  of  many  instances  of  remission  of  payment  on  account 
of  poverty  see  Ivinghoe,  Little  Marlow,  Burnham  (V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  pp.  353, 
358,  382);  Cheshunt  (V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  426-7);  Stixwould,  Heynings, 
Greenfield,  Fosse,  St  Leonard's  Grimsby  (V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  pp.  122,  147, 
149,  155,  157,  179);  Catesby  (V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  122);  Ickleton,  Swaff- 
ham,  Chatteris,  St   Radegund's  Cambridge  (Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  439); 
Mailing  (Ib.  in,  p.  382) ;  St  Mary  Magdalen's  Bristol  ( V.C.H.  Glouc.  n,  p.  93) ; 
Minchin  Barrow  (Hugo,  op.  cit.  p.  108);   Blackborough   (V.C.H.  Norfolk, 
II,  p.  351);  Arden  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  113);  Nunkeeling  and  Nunappleton 
(Reg.  John  le  Romeyn,  i,  pp.  140,  234);  Wintney  (V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  150). 

6  Col.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  347.  Compare  the  case  of  the  hospital  of 
St  James  of  Canterbury  which  "  grievoussement  ad  estez  chargez  pur  diverse 
contribucions  faitz  au  Royentreles  laiz,oulesbiens...nesufncentmyeala  sus- 
tinaunce  de  la  Priouresse  et  les  secures. "  Hist.  MSS.  Comm.  Report,  ix,  p. 87. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  185 

tions  of  tenths  and  other  taxes  and  unsupportable  burdens" 
occurs  in  a  complaint  by  Romsey  in  1351;  and  the  Abbess  and 
Convent  of  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  stated  in  1468,  that  they 
were  so  burdened  with  the  repair  of  their  buildings  and  with 
the  payment  of  imposts,  that  they  could  not  fulfil  the  obliga 
tions  of  their  order  as  to  hospitality1. 

Nor  was  taxation  for  public  purposes  the  only  demand  made 
upon  the  religious  houses.  Abbeys  holding  of  the  King  in  chief 
had  to  perform  many  services  appertaining  to  tenants  in  chief, 
which  seem  oddly  incongruous  in  the  case  of  nunneries.  The  Ab 
besses  of  Shaftesbury,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Wilton  and  Barking, 
were  baronesses  in  their  own  right;  the  privilege  of  being  sum 
moned  to  parliament  was  omitted  on  account  of  their  sex;  but 
the  duty  of  sending  a  quota  of  knights  and  soldiers  to  serve  the 
King  in  his  wars  was  regularly  exacted2.  In  1257  Agnes  Ferrar, 
Abbess  of  Shaftesbury,  was  summoned  to  Chester  to  attend 
the  expedition  against  Llewelyn  ap  Griffith,  and  her  successor, 
Juliana  Bauceyn,  was  also  summoned  in  1277  to  attack  that 
intrepid  prince3.  The  Abbess  of  Romsey  had  to  find  a  certain 
number  of  men-at-arms  with  their  armour  for  the  custody  of 
the  maritime  land  in  the  county  of  Southampton;  she  resisted 
when  an  attempt  was  made  to  exact  an  archer  as  well  and 
successfully  showed  the  King  "that  she  has  only  two  marks' 
rent  in  Pudele  Bardolveston  in  that  county  "  4.  Less  lawful  exac 
tions  were  even  more  burdensome,  and  the  nunneries  suffered 
with  the  rest  of  the  nation  under  the  demand  for  loans  and  the 
burden  of  purveyance  5.  In  December  1307  the  Abbess  of  Barking, 
in  common  with  the  heads  of  ten  other  religious  houses,  was 
requested  to  lend  the  King 

two  carts  and  horses  to  be  at  Westminster  early  on  the  day  of 
St  Stephen  to  carry  vessels  and  equipments  of  the  King's  household 
to  Dover,  the  King  having  sent  a  great  part  of  his  carts  and  sumpter 
horses  to  sea,  so  that  he  may  find  them  ready  when  he  arrives 6  ; 

1  Cal.  of  Pat.  Rolls,  1467-77,  pp.  138,  587. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  472.   Cf.  p.  328. 

3  Ib.  p.  473.   Cf.  Parl.  Writs  (Rec.  Comm.),  n,  div.  3,  1424. 

4  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls,  1339-41,  pp.  215,  217. 

5  On  this  subject  see  Rose  Graham,  St  Gilbert  of  Sempringham  and  the 
\  Gilbertines,  pp.  90-2. 

6  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls,  1307-13,  p.  50.  Compare  the  entry  in  the  treasur- 
esses'  account  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  for  1392-3.  "  Item  done  en  curtasy 
a  le  Balyf  de  Roy  quant  nostre  carre  fuist  areste  al  seruice  del  roy  viijd." 
P.R.O.  Ministers'  Accounts,  1260/10. 


1 86  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

it  is  true  that  he  engaged  to  pay  out  of  his  wardrobe  the  costs 
of  the  men  leading  the  carts  and  of  the  horses  going  and  returning, 
but  meanwhile  the  Abbey  lost  their  services,  and  carts  and  horses 
were  very  necessary  on  a  manor;  moreover  it  was  common 
complaint  that  the  tallies  given  by  the  King's  servants  for  what 
they  took  were  sometimes  of  no  more  value  than  the  wood 
whereof  they  were  made: 

I  had  catell,  now  have  I  none; 
They  take  my  beasts  and  done  them  slon, 
And  payen  but  a  stick  of  tree. 

Similarly  in  June  1310  the  King  sent  out  a  number  of  letters 
to  the  heads  of  religious  houses,  requesting  the  "  loan  "  of  various 
amounts  of  victuals  for  his  Scottish  expedition,  and  among  the 
houses  upon  whom  this  call  was  made  were  the  nunneries  of 
Catesby,  Elstow,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Romsey,  Wherwell, 
Barking,  Nuneaton,  Shaftesbury  and  Wilton1. 

The  nunneries  also  suffered  considerable  pecuniary  loss  by 
the  right  possessed  in  certain  cases  by  the  patron  of  a  house,  to 
take  the  profits  of  its  temporalities  during  voidance  through  the 
death  or  resignation  of  its  superior,  sometimes  enjoying  them 
himself  and  sometimes  granting  the  custody  of  the  house  to 
someone  else2.  It  is  obvious  that  serious  loss  might  be  entailed 
upon  the  community,  if  the  patron  refrained  for  some  time  from 
granting  his  conge  'd'elire.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  Convent 
of  Whiston  wrote  in  1308  to  the  Bishop-elect  of  Worcester,  their 
patron,  praying  that  "considering  the  smallness  of  the  posses 
sions  of  the  nuns  of  Whiston,  in  his  patronage,  which  compelled 
the  nuns  formerly  to  beg,  and  for  the  honour  of  religion  and 
the  frailness  of  the  female  sex"  he  would  grant  them  licence 
to  elect  a  new  prioress  and  would  confirm  the  same  election; 
and  the  Prior  of  Worcester  also  addressed  a  letter  to  the  com 
missary-general  on  their  behalf3.  The  King  exercised  with  great 
regularity  his  rights  of  patronage,  and  the  direct  pecuniary  loss, 
sustained  by  a  house  in  being  deprived  of  the  profits  of  its 
temporalities,  seems  to  have  been  the  least  of  the  evils  which 

1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls,  1307-13,  pp.  262-6,  passim. 

*  For  instance  in  1275  the  King  granted  the  custody  of  Barking  Abbey, 
void  and  in  his  hands,  to  his  mother,  Queen  Eleanor.    Cal.  of  Close  Rolls, 

1272-9,  p.   2IO. 

•  Reg.  Sede  Vacante  (Wore.  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  112-3.  Compare  the  petition 
of  St  Mary's  Chester  to  Queen  Eleanor,  p.  172  above. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  187 

resulted,  if  the  state  of  affairs  described  in  the  petition  addressed 
to  the  crown  by  the  Abbess  and  Convent  of  Shaftesbury  in  1382 
was  at  all  common.  After  a  moving  description  of  the  straits 
to  which  they  were  reduced1,  they  begged  that  the  King  would, 
on  future  occasions  of  voidance,  allow  the  community  to  retain 
the  administration  of  the  Abbey  and  of  its  temporalities,  rendering 
the  value  thereof  to  the  King  while  the  voidance  lasted,  so  that 
no  escheator,  sheriff  or  other  officer  should  have  power  to  meddle 
with  them : 

understanding,  most  redoubtable  lord,  that  by  means  of  your  grace  in 
this  matter  great  relief  and  amendment,  please  God,  shall  come  to  your 
same  house,  and  no  damage  can  ensue  to  you  or  to  your  heirs,  nor  to 
any  other,  save  only  to  your  officers,  who  in  such  times  of  voidance 
are  wont  to  make  great  destructions  and  wastes  and  to  take  therefrom 
great  and  divers  profits  to  their  own  use,  whence  nothing  cometh  to 
your  use,  as  long  as  the  said  voidance  endures,  if  only  for  a  short  time  2. 

St  Mary's,  Winchester,  also  pleaded  the  royal  administration  of 
its  temporalities  as  one  reason  for  its  impoverishment,  when 
petitioning  the  Pope  for  leave  to  appropriate  the  church  of 
Froyle  in  1343  and  I3463. 

Sometimes  the  abbeys  found  it  cheaper  to  compound  with 
the  King  for  a  certain  sum  of  money  and  thus  to  purchase  the 
right  of  administering  their  own  temporalities,  saving  to  the 
King,  as  a  rule,  knights'  fees,  advowsons,  escheats  and  some 
times  wards  and  marriages.  Romsey  Abbey  secured  this  privi 
lege,  after  the  escheator  had  already  entered,  in  1315,  for  a  fine 
of  forty  marks;  but  in  1333,  when  there  was  another  voidance, 
the  convent  had  to  agree  to  pay  £40  for  the  first  two  months 
and  pro  rata  for  such  time  as  the  voidance  continued,  saving  to 
the  King  knights'  fees,  advowsons  and  escheats4.  In  1340  the 
royal  escheator  was  ordered  to  let  the  Prioress  and  Convent  of 

1  See  above,  p.  182. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  u,  p.  485  and  Rot.  Parl.  m,  p.  129.    The  petition  was 
granted,  but  the  nuns  seem  to  have  shown  themselves  unworthy  of  the 
royal  clemency,  for,  after  the  death  of  Abbess  Joan  Furmage  in  1394,  the 
King  was  forced  to  abrogate  the  grant,  because  by  fraudulent  means  an 

i  election  had  been  obtained  of  an  unfit  person,  who,  with  the  object  of 
securing  confirmation,  had  repaired  with  an  excessive  number  of  men  to 
places  remote,  to  the  waste  and  desolation  of  the  convent.  Cal.  of  Pat.  Rolls, 
I39I-6,  p.  511. 

3  Cal.  of  Papal  Petitions,  i,  pp.  56-7. 

4  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1313-8),  p.  189  and  ib.  (1333-7),  pp-  70-1!  cf- 
ib.  (1307-13),  p.  i  and  ib.  (1323-7).  P-  252  and  tb.  (i349~54).  P-  29- 


188  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Wherwell  have  the  custody  of  their  temporalities,  in  accordance 
with  a  grant  made  some  years  previously,  by  which  the  house 
was  to  render  £230  for  a  year  and  pro  rata1.  In  1344  a  similar 
order  was  made  in  the  case  of  Wilton,  whose  late  Abbess  (prudent 
woman)  had  seized  the  opportunity  to  purchase  the  right  for 
£60  from  the  King,  when  he  lay  at  Orwell  before  crossing  the 
sea2.  Similarly,  the  next  year,  Shaftesbury  received  the  custody 
of  its  temporalities  in  consideration  of  a  fine  of  £100,  made  with 
the  King  by  its  Abbess,  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign3.  With 
four  great  abbeys  falling  vacant  in  little  over  ten  years,  the 
royal  exchequer  reaped  a  good  harvest ;  and  though  the  payment 
of  a  lump  sum  was  better  than  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
escheator,  and  though  the  nuns  would  make  haste  to  elect  a  new 
abbess  as  soon  as  possible,  a  voidance  was  always  a  costly  matter. 
But  perhaps  the  most  serious  tax  upon  the  resources  of  the 
nunneries  was  the  right,  possessed  by  some  dignitaries  (notably 
the  King  and  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese),  to  nominate  to  houses 
in  their  patronage  persons  whom  the  nuns  were  obliged  to  receive 
as  members  of  their  community  or  to  support  as  corrodians, 
pensioners  or  boarders.  The  right  of  nominating  a  nun  might 
be  exercised  upon  a  variety  of  occasions.  The  Archbishop  might 
do  so  to  certain  houses  in  his  province  on  the  occasion  of  his  conse 
cration,  and  this  right  was  energetically  enforced  by  Peckham, 
who  nominated  girls  to  Wherwell,  Castle  Hedingham,  Burnham, 
Stratford,  Easebourne  and  Catesby*.  A  Bishop  possessed,  in 
some  cases,  a  similar  right  on  the  occasion  of  his  consecration. 
Rigaud  d'Assier,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  sent  nuns  to  Romsey, 
St  Mary's  Winchester  and  Wherwell5;  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury, 
Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  nominated  to  Minchin  Barrow  and  to 
Cannington6;  Stephen  Gravesend,  Bishop  of  London,  sent  a  girl 

1  CaL  of  Close  Rolls  (1339-41),  p.  377. 

2  Ib.  (1343-6),  pp.  407-8.   Cf.  p.  418. 

8  Ib.  (1343-6),  p.  599-  The  profits  during  vacancy  were  similarly  re 
mitted  to  Godstow  in  1385  "because  of  its  poverty  and  misfortunes" 
(V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  73). 

4  Reg.  Epist.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  i.  pp.  40-1,  56-7,  189-90, 
356-7,  366-7,  577. 

6  Reg.  of... Rigaud  de  Asserio  (Hants.  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  387,  388,  394-5. 
Compare  nominations  of  John  de  Pontoise.  Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara 
(Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  i.  pp.  240,  241,  252  and  of  William  of  Wykeham, 
Wykeham's  Reg.  (Hants.  Rec.  Soc.),  n,  pp.  60,  61. 

•  Reg.  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  26,  39,  146. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  189 

to  Barking1;  and  the  successive  bishops  of  Salisbury  exercised 
the  prerogative  of  placing  an  inmate  in  Shaftesbury  Abbey  and 
of  appointing  one  of  the  nuns  to  act  as  her  instructor2.  The 
existence  of  this  right  seems  to  have  varied  with  different 
dioceses  and  its  exaction  with  different  bishops,  if  it  is  possible 
to  judge  from  the  absence  of  commendatory  letters  in  some 
registers  and  their  presence  in  others.  The  Bishop  of  a  diocese 
also  sometimes  had  the  right  of  presenting  a  nun  to  a  house 
when  a  new  superior  was  created  there.  This  was  the  case  at 
Romsey,  where  nuns  were  thus  nominated  in  1307,  1333  and 
I3973,  and  at  Romsey  also  there  occurs  one  instance  (the  only 
one  of  the  kind  which  search  has  yet  yielded)  of  the  nomination 
of  a  nun  by  the  bishop,  because  of  "  a  profession  of  ladies  of  that 
house  which  he  had  lately  made/'  Bishop  Stratford  thus  ap 
pointed  Jonette  de  Stretford  (perhaps  a  poor  relative)  "en  regard 
de  charite"  in  1333,  a  month  after  having  appointed  Alice  de 
Hampton  by  reason  of  the  Abbess'  creation4. 

The  King  possessed  in  houses  under  his  patronage  rights  of 
nomination  corresponding  to  those  of  the  Bishop.  That  of  pre 
senting  a  nun  on  the  occasion  of  his  coronation  was  frequently 
exercised.  Edward  II  sent  ladies  to  Barking,  Wherwell  and 
St  Mary's  Winchester5;  Barking  received  nuns  from  Richard  II, 
Henry  IV  and  Henry  VI6  and  Shaftesbury  from  Richard  II, 
Henry  V  and  Henry  VI 7.  He  also  possessed  the  right  in  certain 
abbeys  of  presenting  a  nun  on  the  occasion  of  a  voidance  and 
there  are  many  such  letters  of  presentation  enrolled  upon  the 
Close  rolls;  for  instance  Joan  de  la  Roche  was  sent  to  Wilton 
in  1322 8,  Katherine  de  Arderne  to  Romsey  in  1333 9  and  Agnes 
Turberville  to  Shaftesbury  in  1345 10. 

Sometimes  similar  rights  to  these  were  exercised  by  private 
i  persons,  who  held  the  patronage  of  a  house  or  with  whom  it  was 
i  connected  by  special  ties;  the  family  of  le  Rous  of  Imber,  for 

1  Reg....Stephani  de  Gravesend  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  p.  200. 
Dugdale,  Mon.  u,  p.  473  and  V.C.H.  Dorset,  u,  p.  75. 
Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  97-8  and  Wykeham's  Reg.  u,  pp.  461-2. 
Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  98. 

Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1307-8),  pp.  48,  53,  134. 

V.C.H.  Essex,  u,  p.  117.  7   V.C.H.  Dorset,  u,  pp.  76-7. 

Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1318-23),  p.  517.   She  was  still  unadmitted  in  1327, 
I  when  the  order  was  repeated.    Ib.  (1327-30),  p.  204. 

9  Ib.  (1333-7),  P-  175-  10  Ib.  (1343-6),  p-  604. 


IQO  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

example,  had  the  right  (resigned  in  1313)  of  presenting  two  nuns, 
with  a  valet,  to  Romsey  Abbey1.  But  the  royal  rights  were 
always  the  most  burdensome  and,  though  such  privileges  as 
those  described  above,  and  the  even  more  burdensome  right  to 
demand  corrodies  and  pensions,  normally  affected  only  great 
abbeys  such  as  Barking,  Romsey,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  and 
Shaftesbury,  the  smaller  houses  (not  under  royal  patronage) 
were  not  always  exempt  from  sudden  demands — witness  the 
case  of  Polsloe  below — and  a  wide  range  of  nunneries  was 
affected  by  archiepiscopal  and  episcopal  rights.  Moreover  even 
the  great  houses,  in  spite  of  their  large  endowments,  were 
crippled  by  the  system,  as  may  be  gathered  from  their  constant 
complaints  of  poverty  and  of  overcrowding.  The  obligation  to 
receive  fresh  inmates  by  nomination  was  especially  burdensome 
when  it  was  incurred  on  more  than  one  occasion  by  the  same 
house  and  coincided  with  other  exactions.  The  case  of  Shaftesbury 
is  noticeable  in  this  connection ;  the  King  claimed  the  right  to 
administer  its  temporalities  during  voidance,  to  nominate  a  nun 
on  his  own  coronation  and  on  the  election  of  an  Abbess,  to 
demand  a  pension  for  one  of  the  royal  clerks  on  the  latter  occa 
sion,  and  to  send  boarders  or  corrodians  for  maintenance;  and 
the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  could  nominate  a  nun  on  his  own  pro 
motion  to  the  see  and  could  demand  a  benefice  for  one  of  his 
clerks  on  the  election  of  an  Abbess.  It  is,  of  course,  possible 
that  all  these  prerogatives  were  not  invariably  exercised  and 
that  a  new  inmate  was  not  sent  to  Shaftesbury  every  time  a 
King  was  crowned,  a  Bishop  consecrated  or  an  Abbess  elected; 
but  it  was  exercised  sufficiently  often  to  be  a  strain  upon  the 
house. 

Even  when  the  right  of  nomination  was  confined  to  one 
occasion,  it  seems  to  have  been  generally  resented  and  frequently 
resisted.  The  reason  for  resistance  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  house 
was  forced  to  support  another  inmate  without  the  hope  of  re 
ceiving  the  donation  of  land  or  rents,  which  medieval  fathers 
gave  to  the  convents  in  which  their  daughters  took  the  veil; 
and  as  the  dowry  system  became  more  and  more  common,  the 

1  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  99,  and  in  the  Register  of  Bishop  Norbury  of  Lich- 
field  there  is  a  certificate  (dated  1358)  of  "having  admitted,  twenty  years 
ago,  thirty  nuns  at  Nuneaton  at  the  request  of  the  patron,  the  E.  of  Lan 
caster,"  Will  Salt  Arch.  Soc.  Coll.  I,  p.  286.  Perhaps  there  is  a  clerical  error. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  191 

hardship  of  having  to  receive  a  nun  for  nothing  would  soon 
appear  intolerable.  In  some  cases  a  sturdy  resistance  against 
this  "dumping"  of  nuns  finds  an  echo  in  the  bishops'  Registers. 
Four  houses  out  of  the  six  to  which  Peckham  nominated  new 
inmates  attempted  a  refusal,  and  the  excuses  which  they  offered 
are  interesting.  Two  years  after  his  consecration  the  nuns  of 
Burnham  were  still  refusing  to  receive  his  protegee,  Matilda 
de  Weston;  they  had  begun  by  trying  to  question  his  right  to 
nominate  and  he  seems  to  have  taken  legal  action  against  them, 
after  which  they  pleaded  poverty  (resulting  from  an  unsuccessful 
i  lawsuit)  and  also  an  obligation  to  receive  no  novice  without  the 
consent  of  Edmund  Earl  of  Cornwall,  son  of  their  founder.  The 
Archbishop  directed  a  stern  letter  to  them,  rejecting  both  their 
excuses  and  announcing  his  intention  of  pursuing  his  right,  but 
the  end  of  the  matter  is  not  known1.  An  equally  determined 
resistance  was  offered  by  the  Prioress  of  Stratford,  who  had  been 
ordered  to  receive  Isabel  Bret.  In  1282  Peckham  wrote  to  her 
for  the  third  time,  declaring  that  her  excuses  were  frivolous ;  she 
had  apparently  objected  that  the  girl  was  too  young  and  that 
her  house  was  too  heavily  burdened  with  nuns,  lay  sisters  and 
debts  for  another  inmate  to  be  received,  but  the  Archbishop 
j  declared  the  youth  of  the  candidate  to  be  rather  a  merit  than 
I  a  defect  and  pointed  out  that,  so  far  from  being  a  burden  to 
their  house,  she  would  bring  it  honour,  for  by  receiving  her  they 
would  multiply  distinguished  friends  and  benefactors  and  would 
|be  able  to  rely  on  his  own  special  protection  in  their  affairs2. 
|  A  further  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London  is  interesting,  because 
'it  mentions  a  third  objection  made  by  the  recalcitrant  nunnery. 

i  We  have  received  your  letter,"  writes  Peckham,  "in  favour  of  the 
I  Prioress  and  Convent  of  Stratford,  urgently  begging  us  to  moderate 
jour  purpose  concerning  a  certain  burden  which  is  alleged  to  be 
i  threatening  them  from  us,  on  account  of  the  insupportable  weight 
{ and  the  poverty  of  the  house  and  the  deformity  of  the  person,  whom 
I  we  have  presented  to  them  for  admission.  Concerning  which  we  would 
|  have  you  know  that  already  in  the  lifetime  of  your  predecessor  of 
igood  memory,  we  had  ordered  them  to  receive  that  same  person  and 
for  two  years  we  continued  to  believe  that  they  would  yield  to  our 

1  Reg.  Epist.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  i,  pp.  189-90. 

2  Ib.  i,  pp.  356-7.  The  reference  to  "distinguished  friends  and  bene 
factors"  is  interesting,   because  she  was  the  daughter  of  Robert  Bret, 
"  civis  London." 


192  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

wishes  in  the  matter,  yet  without  burden  to  themselves,  by  the  pro 
vision  of  the  parents  of  the  said  little  maid;  especially  seeing  that 
never  yet  have  we  been  burdensome  to  any  monastery  making  a 
truthful  plea  of  indigence.  We  believe  that  what  they  allege  about 
deformity  would  be  an  argument  in  favour  of  our  proposal;  would 
that  not  only  these  women  of  Stratford,  concerning  whom  so  many 
scandals  abound,  but  also  all  who  so  immodestly  expose  themselves 
to  human  conversation  and  company,  were  or  at  least  appeared 
notable  for  such  deformity  that  they  should  tempt  no  one  to  crime ! 
We  have  moreover  heard  that  the  greater  part  of  the  convent  would 
willingly  consent  to  the  reception  of  the  girl,  were  they  not  hindered 
by  the  malice  of  the  prioress;  nevertheless,  lest  we  should  seem  deaf 
to  your  entreaties,  we  suspend  the  whole  business  until  we  come  to 
London,  to  ascertain  how  our  purpose  may  be  carried  out  without 
notable  damage  to  them1." 

The  Archbishop  had  his  way  however;  for  eleven  years  later  the 
will  of  Robert  le  Bret  was  enrolled  in  the  Court  of  Husting  and 
contained  a  legacy  of  rents  on  Cornhill  "  to  Isabella  his  daughter, 
a  nun  of  Stratford  "2.  Peckham  also  wrote  in  a  tone  of  strained 
patience  to  the  nuns  of  Castle  Hedingham,  who  had  refused  to 
receive  Agnes  de  Beauchamp,  warning  them  that  besides  in 
curring  severe  punishment  at  his  own  hands,  further  obstinacy 
would  offend  the  Queen  of  England,  at  whose  instance  he  had 
undertaken  the  promotion  of  the  said  Agnes3.  The  Prioress  of 
Catesby  was  equally  troublesome  and  as  late  as  1284  the  Arch 
bishop  wrote  reprimanding  her  for  her  inconstancy  and  feigned 
excuses,  because,  after  promising  to  receive  the  daughter  of  Sir 
Robert  de  Caynes  and  after  repeated  requests  on  his  part  that 
they  should  admit  the  girl,  she  and  her  nuns  had  written  asking 
to  be  allowed  to  admit  another  person  in  her  stead4. 

Real  poverty  often  nerved  the  nuns  to  such  bold  resistance. 
In  the  Register  of  Bishop  Grandisson  of  Exeter  there  is  a  letter 
from  Polsloe  Priory,  written  in  1329  and  addressed  to  Queen 
Philippa,  on  the  subject  of  a  certain  Johanete  de  Tourbevyle5, 

1  Op.  cit.  i,  pp.  366-7.  The  assertion  that  the  convent  was  required  to> 
receive  Isabel "  without  burden  to  themselves  by  the  provision  of  the  parents 
of  the  said  little  maid"  is  interesting,  partly  because  it  suggests  that  the 
royal  and  episcopal  nominees  were  not  always  received  at  a  loss,  partly 
because  it  looks  suspiciously  like  a  condonation  of  the  dowry  system  by  an 
otherwise  strict  disciplinarian. 

2  Sharpe,  Col.  of  Wills,  i,  p.  in. 

3  Op.  cit.  i,  pp.  56-7.  4  lb.  ii,  p.  704. 

6  An  Agnes  Turberville  was  sent  by  the  King  to  Shaftesbury  in  1345. 
Cal.  of  Close  Rolls,  1343-6,  p.  604. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  193 

whom  she  had  requested  the  nuns  to  receive  as  a  lay  sister. 
Written  in  the  French  of  their  daily  speech,  with  no  attempt  at 
formal  phraseology,  their  naive  plea  still  rings  with  the  agitation 
of  the  "poor  and  humble  maids,"  torn  between  anxiety  not  to 
burden  their  impecunious  house,  and  fear  of  offending  the  new- 
made  Queen  of  England: 

To  their  very  honourable  and  very  powerful  and  redoubtable  lady, 
my  lady  Dame  Philippa,  by  the  grace  of  God  queen  of  England,  etc., 
her  poor  and  humble  maids,  the  nuns  of  Polsloe,  in  all  that  they  may  of 
reverence  and  honour ;  beseeching  your  sweet  pity  to  have  mercy  on 
our  great  poverty.  Our  very  noble  dame,  we  have  received  your  letters, 
by  the  which  we  understand  that  it  is  your  will  that  we  receive 
Johanete  de  Tourbevyle  among  us  as  sister  of  the  house,  to  take  the 
dress  of  a  nun  in  secular  habit.  Concerning  the  which  matter,  most 
debonair  lady,  take  pity  upon  us,  if  it  please  you,  for  the  love  of  God 
and  of  His  mother.  For  certainly  never  did  any  queen  demand  such 
a  thing  before  from  our  little  house;  though  mayhap  they  be  accus 
tomed  to  do  so  from  other  houses,  founded  by  the  kings  and  holding 
of  them  in  chief;  but  this  do  not  we,  wherefore  it  falls  heavily  upon  us. 
And  if  it  please  your  debonair  highness  to  know  our  simple  estate,  we 
are  so  poor  (God  knows  it  and  all  the  country)  that  what  we  have 
suffices  not  to  our  small  sustenance,  who  must  by  day  and  night  do 
I  the  service  of  God,  were  it  not  for  the  aid  of  friends;  nor  can  we  be 
i  charged  with  seculars  without  reducing  the  number  of  us  religious 
( women,  to  the  diminution  of  God's  service  and  the  perpetual  prejudice 
of  our  poor  house.  And  we  have  firm  hope  in  God  and  in  your  great 
bounty  that  you  will  not  take  it  ill  that  this  thing  be  not  done  to  the 
peril  of  our  souls;  for  to  entertain  and  to  begin  such  a  new  charge  in 
such  a  small  place,  a  charge  which  would  endure  and  would  be  de- 
|inanded  for  ever  afterwards,  would  be  too  great  a  danger  to  your  soul, 
|my  Lady,  in  the  sight  of  God,  wherefrom  God  by  His  grace  defend 
jyou  !  Our  most  blessed  Lady,  may  God  give  you  a  long  and  happy  life, 
jto  His  pleasure  and  to  the  aid  and  solace  of  ourselves  and  of  other 
•poor  servants  of  God  on  earth;  and  we  should  have  great  joy  to  do 
iyour  behests,  if  God  had  given  us  the  power1. 

The  nuns  evidently  asked  the  support  of  the  Bishop  (which 
|accounts  for  the  presence  of  their  letter  in  his  Register)  for 
iabout  the  same  time  Grandisson  also  wrote  an  informal  letter 
Jin  French  to  the  King,  begging  him  to  give  up  his  design  to 
place  his  cousin  Johanete  de  Tourbevyle  at  Polsloe,  on  the 
jground  that  the  nuns  held  all  that  they  possessed  in  frank 
lalmoign  and  were  so  poor  that  it  would  be  unpardonable  to 

1  Reg.  of  Bishop  Grandisson,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  I,  pp.  213-4. 
P.N.  13 


194  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

entail  upon  them  a  charge,  which  would  become  a  precedent 
for  ever: 

"Wherefore,  dear  Sire,"  he  continued,  "If  it  please  you,  hold  us  ex 
cused  of  this  thing  and  put  this  thought  from  you.  And  for  love  of' 
you,  to  whom  we  are  much  beholden  aforetime,  and  to  show  you  that 
we  make  no  feigned  pretence,  ordain,  if  it  please  you,  elsewhere 
for  her  estate,  and  we  will  very  willingly  give  somewhat  reasonable 
out  of  our  own  goods  towards  it;  for  this  we  may  safely  do1." 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  disinclination  of  the  nunneries 
to  receive  royal  and  episcopal  nominees  was  in  part  due  to  dis 
like  of  taking  an  entirely  unknown  person  into  the  close  life  of 
the  community,  in  which  so  much  depended  upon  the  character 
and  disposition  of  the  individual.  The  right  seems  nearly  always 
to  have  been  exercised  in  favour  of  well-born  girls,  but  though 
the  bishops  endeavoured  to  send  only  suitable  novices,  their 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  their  protegees  would  sometimes 
appear  to  have  rested  upon  hearsay  rather  than  upon  personal 
acquaintance — "ut  credimus,"  "come  nous  sumez  enformez."  Oni 
at  least  one  occasion  the  nuns  who  resisted  a  bishop's  nominee 
were  to  our  knowledge  justified  by  later  events.  In  1329  Ralph 
of  Shrewsbury,  the  new  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  wrote  to  the 
Prioress  and  Convent  of  Cannington,  desiring  them  to  receive 
Alice,  daughter  of  John  de  Northlode,  to  whom  he  had  granted1 
the  right,  "par  resoun  de  nostre  premiere  creacion,"  on  the: 
request  of  Sir  John  Mautravers;  four  years  later  he  was  obliged 
to  repeat  the  order,  because  the  convent  "had  not  yet  been 
willing  to  receive  the  said  Alice."  The  end  of  the  story  is  to 
be  found  in  the  visitation  report  of  135 12.  It  is  impossible  toi 
say  whether  the  convent  corrupted  Alice  or  Alice  the  convent;, 
but  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  Bishop's  nominee  should  have 
been  implicated; 

The  obligation  to  receive  a  nun  on  the  nomination  of  thei 
king  or  the  bishop  was  not  the  only  burden  upon  the  finances 
of  the  nunneries.  Abbeys  in  the  patronage  of  the  Crown  were  i 
upon  occasion  obliged  also  to  find  maintenance  for  other  persons, 
men  as  well  as  women,  who  never  became  members  of  their 
community.  The  right  to  demand  a  pension  for  one  of  the  royal 

1  Op.  cit.  i,  pp.  222-3.  Does  the  Bishop  mean  that  he  will  help  to  provide 
a  dowry  for  Johanete  out  of  his  private  purse,  in  another  religious  house?   ' 

2  See  below,  p.  452. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  195 

clerks  was  sometimes  exercised  on  the  occasion  of  a  voidance, 
and  the  money  had  in  most  cases  to  be  paid  until  such  time  as 
the  young  man  was  provided  with  a  suitable  benefice  by  the 
Abbey.  The  Abbess  of  Romsey  was  ordered  to  give  a  pension 
to  William  de  Dereham  in  1315  by  reason  of  her  new  election1; 
John  de  St  Paul  was  sent  to  the  same  house  in  1333 2,  William 
de  Tydeswell  in  I3493.  The  right  is  also  found  in  exercise  at 
Wherwell4,  St  Mary's,  Winchester5,  Shaftesbury6,  Wilton7,  De- 
lapre  (Northampton)8,  Barking9  and  Elstow10.  In  certain  cases 
the  Bishop  possessed  a  similar  right  on  the  occasion  of  his  own 
consecration;  for  instance  John  of  Pontoise,  Bishop  of  Win 
chester,  wrote  to  the  Abbess  of  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  in  1283, 
complaining 

that  whereas  his  predecessors  had  by  a  laudable  custom  presented 
their  own  clerks  to  the  first  benefice  in  the  patronage  of  a  religious 
house  vacant  after  their  establishment  in  the  bishopric,  they  (the 
nuns)  had  recently  presented  a  nominee  of  their  own  to  a  benefice 
then  vacant. 

Two  years  later  the  Abbess  and  Convent  of  Wherwell  wrote  to 
him,  voluntarily  offering  him  the  next  vacant  benefice  in  their 
patronage  for  one  of  his  clerks;  and  in  1293  he  reminded  the 
inuns  of  Romsey  that  they  were  bound  by  agreement  to  do  like- 
Wise11.  Similarly  Simon  of  Ghent,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  directed 
[the  Abbess  of  Shaftesbury  to  provide  for  Humphrey  Wace  in 
JI29712.  The  demand  to  pension  a  clerk,  like  the  demand  to  receive 
b-  nun,  was  sometimes  resisted  by  the  convents.  In  the  early 
part  of  his  reign  Edward  II  ordered  the  Sheriff  of  Bedford 

!to  distrain  the  Abbess  of  Elstow  by  all  her  lands  and  chattels  in  his 
Bailiwick  and  to  answer  to  the  King  for  the  issues  and  to  have  her 

1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1313-8),  p.  210.    A  few  months  later,  however, 
Richard  de  Ayreminn  was  sent  on  the  same  pretext  (p.  312). 

2  Op.  cit.  (1333-7).  P-  !?5-  3  Op.  cit.  (1349-54),  p.  82. 
4  Op.  cit.  (1339-41),  p.  466.                     5  Op.  cit.  (1337-9),  P-  286. 

6  Op.  cit.  (1343-6),  p.  652. 

7  Op.  cit.  (1318-23),  p.  517;  (1343-6),  p-  475- 

8  Op.  cit.  (1327-30),  p.  366. 

9  Op.  cit.  (1313-8),  p.  611;  (1327-30),  P-  564:  (I34I-3),  P-  133- 

10  See  below.    For  the  prebendal  stalls  in  the  churches  of  five  of  these 
nbbeys  (Romsey,  Wherwell,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Shaftesbury  and  Wilton) , 
tee  above,  p.  144. 

11  Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  I,  pp.  243-4, 300-1, 
M5-6. 

12  Reg.  Simonis  de  Gandavo  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  pp.  2-3. 

13—2 


196  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

body  before  the  King  at  the  octaves  of  Hilary  next,  to  answer  why, 
whereas  she  and  her  convent,  by  reason  of  the  new  creation  of  an 
Abbess,  were  bound  to  give  a  pension  to  a  clerk,  to  be  named  by  the 
King  and  he  had  transferred  the  option  to  his  sister  Elizabeth 
Countess  of  Hereford  and  had  asked  the  Abbess  to  give  it  to  her 
nominee  they  had  neglected  to  do  so1. 

The  end  of  the  story  is  contained  in  a  petition  printed  in  the 
Rolls  of  Parliament,  wherein  the  Abbess  and  Convent  of  "Dune- 
stowe"  (Elstow)  informed  the  King  in  1320 

que,  come  il  les  demaunde  par  son  Brief  devant  Sire  H.  le  Scrop  et 
ses  compaignons  une  enpensione  pur  un  de  ses  clercs  par  reson  de  la 
novele  Creacion  la  dite  Abbesse  et  tiel  enpensione  unqs  devant  ces 
temps  ne  fust  demaunde  ne  donee  de  la  dite  meson,  fors  tant  soule- 
ment  que  la  dereyn  predecessere  dona  a  la  requeste  nostre  Seigneur 
le  Roy  a  la  Dameysele  la  Countesse  de  Hereford,  un  enpension  de  c  s. 
Par  qi  eles  prient  que  nostre  Seigneur  le  Roy  voet,  si  lui  plest,  com- 
ander  de  soursere  de  execucion  faire  de  la  dite  demaunde,  que  la  dite 
Abbay  est  foundee  de  Judit,  jadis  Countess  de  Huntingdon,  et  la  dite 
enpension  unques  autrement  done2. 

The  reference  to  the  Countess  of  Hereford's  "dameysele"  shows 
that  the  pension  was  not  invariably  given  to  a  clerk,  and  it 
appears  that  the  King  tried  to  substitute  corrodies,  pensions 
and  reception  as  a  nun  for  each  other  according  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  moment.  In  1318  he  sent  Simon  de  Tyrelton  to  the  Abbess 
and  Convent  of  Barking, 

they  being  bound  to  grant  a  pension  to  one  of  the  King's  clerks,  by 
reason  of  the  new  creation  of  an  abbess,  and  the  King  having  re 
quested  them  to  grant  in  lieu  of  such  pension  the  allowance  of  one 
of  their  nuns  to  Ellen,  daughter  of  Alice  de  Leygrave,  to  be  received 
by  her  for  life,  to  which  they  replied  that  they  could  not  do  so,  for 
certain  reasons3. 

In  1313,  in  pursuance  of  his  right  to  nominate  a  nun  on  the  new 
creation  of  an  abbess,  he  had  sent  Juliana  de  Leygrave  "niece 
of  the  King's  foster-mother,  who  suckled  him  in  his  youth,"  to 
St  Mary's,  Winchester,  in  order  that  she  might  be  given  a  nun's 
corrody  for  life  (the  value  of  which  was  to  be  given  her  wherever 
she  might  be)  and  a  suitable  chamber  within  the  nunnery  for 
her  residence,  whenever  she  might  wish  to  stay  there4. 

1  Hist.  MSS.  Comm.  Report,  iv,  p.  329. 

2  Rot.  Parl.  i,  p.  381.   John  de  Houton,  clerk,  had  been  sent  to  Elstow 
in  1318  (Col.  of  Close  Rolls  (1318-23),  p.  119). 

3  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1313-8),  p.  611. 

4  Op.  cit.  (1307-13),  pp.  581-2. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  197 

The  obligation  to  provide  corrodies  for  royal  nominees  pressed 
more  heavily  than  the  duty  of  pensioning  royal  clerks.  A  corrody 
was  originally  a  livery  of  food  and  drink  given  to  monks  and 
nuns,  but  the  term  was  extended  to  denote  a  daily  livery  of 
food  given  to  some  person  not  of  the  community  and  frequently 
accompanied  by  suitable  clothing  and  a  room  in  which  to  live. 
Hence  corrodians  were  often  completely  kept  in  board  and 
lodging,  having  the  right  to  everything  that  a  nun  of  the  house 
would  have  (a  "nun's  corrody")  and  sometimes  allowed  to  keep 
a  private  servant,  who  had  the  right  to  the  same  provision  as 
the  regular  domestics  of  the  house  (a  "servant's  corrody").  The 
King,  indeed,  looked  upon  the  monastic  houses  of  his  realm  as 
a  sort  of  vast  Chelsea  Hospital,  in  which  his  broken-down 
servants,  yeomen  and  officials  and  men-at-arms,  might  end  their 
days.  Thus  he  obtained  their  grateful  prayers  without  putting 
his  hand  into  his  purse.  There  must  have  been  hundreds  of  such 
old  pensioners  scattered  up  and  down  the  country,  and  judging 
from  the  number  of  cases  in  which  one  man  is  sent  to  receive 
the  maintenance  lately  given  to  another,  deceased,  some  houses 
had  at  least  one  of  them  permanently  on  the  premises.  Many  a 
hoary  veteran  found  his  way  into  the  quiet  precincts  of  a 
nunnery: 

His  helmet  now  shall  make  a  hive  for  bees ; 

And,  lovers'  sonnets  turn'd  to  holy  psalms, 
A  man-at-arms  must  now  serve  on  his  knees, 

And  feed  on  prayers,  which  are  Age  his  alms. 

:    In  the  intervals  between  feeding  on  prayers  he  must  have  been 

I  vastly  disturbing  and  enthralling  to  the  minds  of  round-eyed 

!  novices,  with  his  tales  of  court  and  camp,  of  life  in  London 

:    town  or  long  campaigns  in  France,  or  of  how  John  Copeland  had 

j1 ;  the  King  of  Scots  prisoner  and  what  profit  he  got  thereby. 

In  the  last  three  months  of  1316  Edward  II  sent  seventeen 
old  servants  to  various  religious  houses,  and  among  them  Henry 
i  de  Oldyngton  of  the  avenary  was  sent  to  Barking,  to  receive 
such  maintenance  as  William  de  Chygwell,  deceased,  had  in  that 
house1.  In  1328  Roger  atte  Bedde,  the  King's  yeoman,  who  served 
the  King  and  his  father,  was  sent  to  St  Mary's,  Winchester, 

1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1313-8),  p.  437.  The  avenere  was  an  officer  of  the 
household  who  had  the  charge  of  supplying  provisions  for  the  horses.  See 
Promptorium  Parvulorum  (Camden  Soc.),  I,  p.  19,  n.  2. 


198  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

instead  of  James  le  Porter,  deceased1;  and  in  1329  the  Abbess 
and  Convent  of  Shaftesbury  were  requested  to  admit  to  their 
house  Richard  Knight,  spigurnel  of  the  King's  chancery,  who 
had  long  served  the  King  and  his  father  in  that  office,  and  to 
administer  to  him  for  his  life  such  maintenance  in  all  things 
as  Robert  le  Poleter,  deceased,  had  in  their  house2.  The  unlucky 
convent  of  Wilton  apparently  had  to  support  two  pensioners, 
for  in  1328  Roger  Liseway  was  sent  there  in  place  of  Roger 
Danne  and  the  next  year  John  de  Odiham,  yeoman  of  the 
chamber  of  Queen  Philippa,  took  the  place  of  John  de  Asshe3. 

It  was  doubtless  even  more  common  for  the  widows  of  the 
King's  dependents  to  be  sent  to  nunneries,  and  he  must  often 
have  received  such  a  petition  as  was  addressed  by  Agnes  de 
Vylers  to  Edward  III: 

A  nostre  Seigneur  le  Roi  et  a  son  Conseil,  prie  vostre  poure  veve 
Agneys,  qi  fut  la  femme  Fraunceys  de  Vylers,  jaditz  Bachiler  vostre 
piere,  qe  vous  pleise  de  vostre  grace  avoir  regard  du  graunt  service 
qe  le  dit  Fraunceys  ad  fait  a  vostre  dit  piere  et  ed  vostre  ayel,  en  la 
Terre  Seinte,  Gascoigne,  Gales,  Escoce,  Flaundres  et  en  Engleterre, 
et  graunter  au  dit  Agneys  une  garisoun  en  1'Abbeye  de  Berkyng, 
c'est  assaver  une  mesoun  &  la  droite  de  une  Noneyme  pour  la  sustin- 
aunce  de  lui  et  de  sa  file  a  terme  de  lour  vie,  en  allegaunce  de  1'alme 
vostre  dit  piere,  qi  promist  al  dit  Fraunceys  eide  pour  lui,  sa  femme  et 
ses  enfaunz. 

"II  semble  a  conseil  q'il  est  almoigne  de  lui  mander  la  ou  ail- 
lours,  s'il  plest  a  Roi,"  was  the  reply;  so  Agnes  and  her  daughter 
might  end  their  days  in  peace,  and  Barking  be  the  poorer  for 
their  appetites4.  At  Barking  the  King  had  the  right  to  claim  a 
corrody  at  each  new  election  of  an  abbess,  as  Agnes  de  Vylers 
doubtless  knew;  as  early  as  1253  its  Abbess  was  exempted  from 
being  charged  with  conversi  and  others,  because  she  had  granted 
food  and  vesture  for  life  to  Philippa  de  Rading  and  her  daughter5. 
Other  nunneries  in  the  royal  patronage  were  under  a  similar 
obligation.  In  1310  Juliana  la  Despenser  was  sent  to  Romsey, 
to  be  provided  with  fitting  maintenance  for  herself  and  for  her 
maid  during  her  lifetime6  and  in  1319  Mary  Ridel  was  sent  to 

1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1327-30),  p.  393. 

«  Ib.  p.  523.  »  Ib.  pp.  396,  534. 

4  Rot.  Part,  ii,  pp.  381-2.  Letters  patent  were  duly  sent  to  Barking 
bidding  them  admit  Agnes,  on  Nov.  6th,  1331.  Cal.  of  Patent  Rolls  (1330-3), 
p.  407. 

6  V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  p.  117.  •  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1307-13),  p.  267. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  199 

Stainfield  to  be  maintained  for  life1.  There  were  the  usual 
attempts  to  escape  from  a  costly  and  burdensome  obligation; 
Romsey  seems  to  have  been  successful  in  repelling  Juliana  la 
Despenser,  for  in  the  following  month  the  King  sent  her  to 
Shaftesbury,  requesting  the  nuns  to  "find  her  for  life  the  neces 
sities  of  life  according  to  the  requirements  of  her  estate,  for 
herself  and  for  the  damsel  serving  her,  and  to  assign  her  a 
chamber  to  dwell  in,  making  letters  patent  of  the  grant"2. 
Stainfield  was  less  successful  in  the  matter  of  Mary  Ridel;  the 
usual  plea  of  poverty  was  considered  insufficient  and  the  convent 
was  ordered  to  receive  her,  to  supply  her  with  food,  clothing 
and  other  necessities  and  to  make  letters  patent,  specifying  what 
was  due  to  her3. 

Certain  convents  were  in  addition  handicapped  by  the  obliga 
tion  to  make  certain  "grants  or  liveries,  in  kind  or  in  money, 
to  other  monastic  houses.  The  nunneries  of  St  Clement's,  York, 
and  Moxby  seem  to  have  involved  themselves — as  a  condition, 
perhaps,  of  some  past  benefaction — in  a  curious  obligation  to  the 
friars  of  their  districts.  At  a  visitation  of  the  former  house  in 
1317,  Archbishop  Melton  found  that  the  Friars  Minor  of  York, 
every  alternate  week  of  the  year,  and  the  Friars  Preachers  of 
York  in  the  same  manner,  had  for  a  long  time  been  receiving 
fourteen  conventual  loaves;  the  nuns  were  ordered  to  show  the 
friars  the  Archbishop's  order  and  to  cease  from  supplying  the 
loaves  as  long  as  their  own  house  was  burdened  with  debt; 
and  in  no  case  was  the  grant  to  be  made  without  special  leave 
from  the  Archbishop4.  The  next  year,  on  visiting  Moxby,  Melton 
was  obliged  to  make  an  injunction  as  to  the  bread  and  ale 
called  "levedemete,"  which  the  Friars  Minor  were  accustomed 
to  receive  from  the  house ;  if  it  were  owed  to  them  it  was  to  be 
given  as  due,  if  not  it  was  not  to  be  given  without  the  will  of 
the  head5.  At  Alnwick's  first  visitation  in  1440  the  Prioress  of 
St  Michael's,  Stamford,  declared  that  the  house  was  burdened 
with  the  payment  of  an  annual  pension  of  6os.  to  the  monastery 
of  St  Mary's,  York,  "and  that  for  tithes  not  worth  more  than 
forty  pence  annually;  also  it  is  in  arrears  for* twenty  years  and 

1  Op.  cit.  (1318-23),  p.  117. 

2  Op.  cit.   (1307-13),  p.  328.    She  was  the  niece  of  John  de  London, 
late  the  King's  escheator  south  of  Trent. 

3  Loc.  cit.  4   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  129.  5  Ib.  p.  237. 


200  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

more"1.  The  nuns  also  had  to  pay  various  small  sums  to  Peter 
borough  Abbey,  by  which  they  had  been  founded  and  to  which 
they  always  remained  subordinated2. 

The  support  of  resident  corrodians  and  the  payment  of 
pensions  and  liveries  were,  however,  less  onerous  than  the  duty 
of  providing  hospitality  for  visitors,  which  the  nunneries  per 
formed  as  one  of  their  religious  obligations.  Date  and  Dabitur 
did  not  always  accompany  each  other.  The  great  folk  who  held 
the  Pope's  indult  to  enter  the  houses  of  Minoresses  were  probably 
generous  donors;  but  the  unenclosed  orders  had  to  lodge  and 
feed  less  wealthy  guests  and  often  enough  they  found  the  obliga 
tion  a  strain  upon  their  finances.  When  the  nuns  of  King's 
Mead,  Derby,  in  1326,  petitioned  the  King  to  take  the  house 
into  his  special  protection,  they  explained  that  great  numbers 
of  people  came  there  to  be  entertained,  but  that  owing  to  the 
reduction  in  their  revenue  they  were  unable  to  exercise  their 
wonted  hospitality3;  and  the  number  of  guests  was  mentioned 
by  the  nuns  of  Heynings  in  1401  as  one  reason  for  their  im 
poverishment4.  At  Nunappleton  in  1315  the  Archbishop  of  York 
had  to  forbid  two  sets  of  guests  to  be  received  at  the  same  time, 
until  the  house  should  be  relieved  of  debt ;  and  at  Moxby  (which 
was  also  in  debt)  he  ordained  that  relatives  of  the  nuns  were  not 
to  visit  the  house  for  a  longer  period  than  two  days ;  Nunappleton 
was  evidently  a  favourite  resort,  for  in  1346  another  archbishop 
speaks  of  guests  flocking — hospites  confluentes — to  the  priory  and 
orders  them  to  be  admitted  to  a  hostelry  constructed  for  the 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  83.  The  Taxation  of  Pope  Nicholas  mentions  a 
pension  due  to  the  Abbot  of  York  of  ^3  for  the  church  of  Corby,  which  was 
appropriated  to  the  nuns,  and  for  other  tithes  elsewhere.  The  sum  of  ^3 
is  occasionally  mentioned  in  the  account  rolls  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
as  having  been  paid  to  "our  Lady  of  York,"  or  as  being  still  due. 

8  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  pp.  256  ff .  Payments  to  the  abbot  and  to  other 
ofnciaries  of  Peterborough  also  occur  very  frequently  in  the  conventual 
accounts. 

3  See  above,  p.  180.   Compare  the  case  of  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  where 
the  nuns  complained  in  1468  that  they  were  so  burdened,  that  they  could 
not  fulfil  the  obligations  of  their  order  as  to  hospitality.    V.C.H.  Hants. 
ii,  pp.  123-4.    Tne  difficulty  of  keeping  up  the  accustomed  hospitality  was 
one  of  the  reasons  for  annexing  Wothorpe  to  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  after 
the  Black  Death.   Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  268. 

4  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  347.    Compare  Gynewell's  injunction  in 
1351 :  "  E  vous,  Prioresse,  chastiez  les  soers  qils  ne  acuillent  mie  trop  souent 
lour  amys  en  la  Priorie,  a  costage  e  damage  de  dit  mesoun."    Line.  Epis. 
Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  2OI 

purpose.  At  Marrick  in  1252  it  was  ordered  that  guests  were 
not  to  stay  for  more  than  one  night,  because  the  means  of  the 
house  barely  sufficed  for  the  maintenance  of  the  nuns,  sisters 
and  brethren1. 

Another  charge  which  fell  heavily  upon  the  nunneries,  some 
times  not  entirely  by  their  own  fault,  was  that  of  litigation. 
This  was  only  an  occasional  expense,  but  when  it  occurred  it 
was  heavy,  and  a  suit  once  begun  might  drag  on  for  years. 
Moreover  the  incidental  expenses  in  journeys  and  bribes,  which 
all  had  to  be  paid  out  of  the  current  income  of  a  house  already 
(perhaps)  charged  with  the  payment  of  tithes  and  taxes  and 
badly  in  need  of  repair,  were  often  almost  as  heavy  as  the  costs 
of  the  litigation.  For  instance  an  account  of  Christian  Bassett, 
Prioress  of  St  Mary  de  Pre  (near  St  Albans),  contains  the  fol 
lowing  list  of  expenses  incurred  by  her  in  the  prosecution  of  a 
law  suit  in  1487,  during  the  rule  of  her  predecessor  Alice  Wafer: 

Item  when  I  ryde  to  London  for  the  suyt  that  was  taken  ayenst  dame 
Alice  Wafer  in  the  commen  place,  for  myself  and  my  preest  and  a 
woman  and  ij  men,  their  hyre  and  hors  hyre  and  mete  and  drynke,  in 
the  terme  of  Ester  ye  secunde  yere  of  the  regne  of  kyng  Henry  the 
vijth  xx.  s.    Item  paid  aboute  the  same  suyt  at  Mydsomer  tyme,  for 
iiij  men,  a  woman  and  iiij  horses  xvi  s.   Item  paid  for  the  costs  of  a 
man  to  London  at  Mighelmas  terme  to  Master  Lathell,  to  have  know 
ledge  whethir  I  shuld  have  nede  to  come  to  London  or  not  xij  d2. 
Item  for  the  same  suyt  of  Dame  Alice  Wafer  for  herself  and  a  suster  wt. 
her,  ij  men,  ij  horses,  in  costs  at  the  same  time  xiiij  s.    Item  for  the 
same  suyt  whan  I  cam  from  London  to  have  councell  of  Master  More 
I  and  men  of  lawe  for  the  same  pie  x  s.    Item  whan  I  went  to  Master 
I  Fforster  to  the  Welde  to  speke  wt.  him,  to  have  councell  for  the  wele 
I  of  the  place,  for  a  kercher  geven  to  hym,  ij  s.   Item  on  other  tyme  for 
j  a  couple  of  capons  geven  to  Master  Fforster  ij  s.    Item  for  a  man 
'  rydyng  to  London  at  Candilmas  to  speke  wt.  Master  Lathell  and 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  117,  171,  172,  239.  On  the  subject  of  abuse  of 
monastic  hospitality,  see  Jusserand,  English  Wayfaring  Life,  p.  121.  Ed 
ward  I  forbade  anyone  to  eat  or  lodge  in  a  religious  house,  unless  the  superior 
had  invited  him  or  that  he  were  its  founder,  and  even  then  his  consumption 
was  to  be  moderate. 

z  Pope  Boniface  VIII's  edict  for  the  stricter  enclosure  of  nuns  contained 
a  clause  warning  secular  lords  against  summoning  nuns  to  attend  in  person 
at  the  law  courts ;  they  were  to  act  through  their  proctors  (see  version  pro 
mulgated  by  Simon  of  Ghent,  Bishop  of  Salisbury  in  1299.  Reg.  Simonis  de 
Gandavo  [Cant,  and  York  Soc.],  p.  1 1).  The  heads  of  the  larger  houses  often 
did  act  through  proctors,  but  less  wealthy  convents  usually  sent  the  head  or 
one  of  the  other  nuns  in  person.  See  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Monasticism, 
PP-  362-3. 


202  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Master  More  and  for  iiij  hennys  geven  to  them  and  for  the  costs  of 
the  same  man  and  his  hors  iij  s.  iiij  d.  Item  whan  I  went  to  London 
to  speke  wt.  Master  Lathell  for  to  renewe  our  charter  of  the  place 
and  other  maters  of  our  place  xj  s.  Item  in  expenses  made  upon 
Master  Ffortescue  atte  dyvers  tymes,  whan  I  wente  to  hym  to  have 
his  councell  for  the  same  suyt  in  the  common  place  xiij  s.  iiij  d.  Item 
paid  to  a  man  to  ryde  to  Hertford  to  speke  wt.  Norys,  that  he  shuld 
speke  to  Master  Ffortescue  for  the  same  pie  viij  d.  Item  in  costs  for 
a  man  to  go  to  Barkhamsted  to  Thomas  Cace  viij  d.  Item  whan  I 
went  to  Master  Ffortescue  to  his  place,  for  mens  hire  and  hors  hire 
for  the  same  mater  ij  s.  Item  whan  I  went  to  London  at  an  other 
tyme  for  the  same  plee,  for  iiij  men  and  iiij  hors  hire  xvj  s.1 

After  this  one  does  not  wonder  that  in  1517  the  convent  of 
Goring  pleaded  that  owing  to  lawsuits  it  was  too  poor  to  repair 
its  buildings2. 

The  account  rolls  of  the  Priory  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
are  full  of  references  to  expenses  incurred  in  legal  business.  On 
one  occasion  the  nuns  bought  a  "bill"  in  the  Marshalsea  "to 
have  a  day  of  accord"  and  the  roll  for  1375-6  contains  items 
such  as, 

Paid  for  a  purse  to  the  wife  of  the  Seneschal  of  the  Marshalsea  xx  d. 
Paid  for  beer  bought  for  the  Marshalsea  by  the  Prioress  ij  s.  ij  d.  Paid 
for  capons  and  chickens  for  the  seneschal  of  the  Marshalsea  xxiij  d.  ob.8 

Poor  Dames  Margaret  Redynges  and  Joan  Ffychmere  "del  office 
del  tresorie,"  ending  the  year  £16.  8s.  8%d.  in  debt,  must  often 
have  sighed  with  Langland 

Lawe  is  so  lordeliche.  and  loth  to  make  ende, 
Withoute  presentz  or  pens,  she  pleseth  wel  fewe. 

Nor  was  it  only  the  expenses  of  great  lawsuits  which  bore  heavily 
upon  the  nunneries;  a  great  deal  of  lesser  legal  business  had  to 
be  transacted  from  year  to  year.  The  treasuresses'  accounts  of 
St  Michael's,  Stamford,  contain  many  notices  of  such  business; 
the  expenses  of  Raulyn  at  the  sessions,  expenses  of  the  clerks 
at  the  Bishop's  court  or  at  the  last  session  at  Stamford,  a  suit 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  360. 

2  V.C.H.  Oxon.  11,  p.  104.    Compare  a  long  lawsuit  waged  by  Carrow 
Priory.    Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  App.  p.  xxi. 

3  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/4.  Compare  the  amusing  account  of  how  the 
Prior  of  Barnwell  secured  a  favourable  judgment  from  the  itinerant  justices. 
"  Ipsis  eciam  justiciariis  dedit  herbagium  alicui  tres  acras  et  alicui  quatuor, 
et  exennia  panis,  ceruisie  et  vini  frequenter,  in  tantum  quod  in  recessu  suo 
omnes  tarn  justiciarii  quam  clerici,  seruientes  et  precones,  gracias  uberes 
referebant,  et  ipsi  Priori  (et)  canonicis  se  et  sua  obligabant."   Liber  Memo- 
randorum  Ecdesie  de  Bernewelle,  ed.  J.  Willis  Clark  (1907),  p.  171. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  203 

against  a  neighbouring  parson  over  tithes,  four  shillings  to  Henry 
Oundyl  for  suing  out  writs ;  and  innumerable  entries  concerning 
the  inevitable  "presentz  or  pens,"  a  douceur  to  the  Bishop's 
clerk,  a  courtesy  to  the  king's  escheator,  a  present  to  the  clerks 
at  the  sessions,  a  gift  "to  divers  men  of  law  for  their  help  on 
divers  occasions."  All  nunneries  had  constantly  to  meet  such 
petty  expenses  as  these;  and  if  we  add  an  occasional  suit  on  a 
larger  scale  the  total  amount  of  money  devoured  by  the  Law 
is  considerable. 

So  far  mention  has  been  made  only  of  such  reasons  for  their 
poverty  as  cannot  be  considered  the  fault  of  the  nuns.  The 
inclemency  of  nature,   the  rapacity  of  lay  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities  and  the  law's  delays  could  not  be  escaped,  however 
wisely  a  Prioress  husbanded  her  resources.   Nevertheless  it  can 
not  be  doubted  that  the  nuns  themselves,  by  bad  management, 
contributed  largely  to  their  own  misfortunes.    Bad  administra 
tion,  sometimes  wilful,  but  far  more  often  due  to  sheer  incom 
petence,  was  constantly  given  as  a  reason  for  undue  poverty. 
It  was  "  negligence  and  bad  administration  "  which  nearly  caused 
!  the  dispersion  of  the  nuns  of  Wintney  during  the  famine  year 
i  of  I3I61;  and  those  of  Hampole  in  I3532.  At  Davington  in  1511 
I  one  of  the  nuns  deposed  that  "the  rents  and  revenues  of  the 
j  house  decrease  owing  to  the  guilt  of  the  officers"3.  The  fault  was 
j  often  with  the  head  of  the  house,  who  loved  to  keep  in  her  own 
I  hands  the  disposal  of  the  convent's  income,  omitted  to  consult 
!  the  chapter  in  her  negotiations,  retained  the  common  seal  and 
I  did  not  render  accounts.  An  illustration  of  the  straits  to  which  a 
house  might  be  reduced  by  the  bad  management  of  its  superior  is 
provided  by  the  history  of  Mailing  Abbey  in  the  early  part  of 
;  the  fourteenth  century,  as  told  by  William  de  Dene  in  his 
I  Historia  Roffensis.   In  1321   an  abbess  had  been  deposed,  os 
tensibly  on  the  complaint  of  her  nuns  and  because  the  place 
had  been  ruined  by  her ;  but  too  much  importance  must  not  be 
assigned  to  the  charge,  for  she  was  a  sister  of  Bartholomew  de 
Badlesmere,  at  that  time  a  leader  of  the  baronial  party  against 

1  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  150. 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  164.  The  "misrule  of  past  presidents  "  is  mentioned 
as  a  contributory  cause  of  distress  at  Lilleshall  (1351),  St  Mary's  Winchester 
(1364)  and  Tarrant  (1366).    Col.  Pat.  Rolls,   1351,   p.  177;   1364.  P-  485I 
1366,  p.  239.  3  E.H.R.  vi,  p.  28. 


204  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Edward  II,  and  it  was  by  the  King's  command  that  Hamo  of 
Hythe,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  visited  Mailing  and  deprived  her1; 
her  deposition  was  probably  a  political  move.  The  same  cannot 
however  be  said  of  Lora  de  Retlyng,  who  became  abbess  in  1324. 

"The  Bishop,"  says  William  de  Dene,  "although  unwilling,  knowing 
her  to  be  insufficient  and  ignorant,  set  Lora  de  Retlyng  in  command 
as  abbess,  a  woman  who  lacked  all  the  capacity  and  wisdom  of  a 
leader  and  ruler,  the  nuns  enthusiastically  applauding;  and  the  next 
day  he  blessed  her,  which  benediction  was  rather  a  malediction  for 
the  convent.  Then  the  Bishop  forbade  the  Abbess  to  give  a  corrody 
to  her  maid-servant,  as  it  had  been  the  ill  custom  to  do,  and  he  se 
questrated  the  common  seal,  forbidding  it  to  be  used,  save  when  his 
licence  had  been  asked  and  obtained2. 

Twenty-five  years  passed  and  in  1349  tne  chronicler  writes: 

The  Bishop  of  Rochester  visited  the  abbeys  of  Lesnes  and  Mailing, 
and  he  found  them  so  ruined  by  longstanding  mismanagement,  that 
it  is  thought  they  never  can  recover  so  long  as  this  world  lasts,  even 
to  the  day  of  judgment3. 

Mailing  had  suffered  severely  from  the  Black  Death  in  the 
previous  year,  but  our  knowledge  of  the  character  of  Lora  de 
Retlyng  and  the  plain  statement  of  William  de  Dene  ("  destructa 
per  malam  diutinam  custodiam  ") ,  make  it  clear  that  bad  manage 
ment  and  not  the  pestilence  was  to  blame  for  its  poverty4. 

Financial  mismanagement  was,  indeed,  the  most  frequent  of 
all  charges  brought  against  superiors  at  the  episcopal  visitations. 
When  Alnwick  visited  his  diocese  of  Lincoln  several  cases  of 
such  incompetence  came  to  light.  At  St  Michael's,  Stamford 
(1440),  it  was  found  that  the  Prioress  had  never  rendered  an 
account  during  the  whole  of  her  term  of  office,  and  one  of  the 
nuns  declared  that  she  did  not  rule  and  supervise  temporal 
affairs  to  the  benefit  of  the  house;  two  years  later  the  Bishop 
visited  the  convent  again  and  the  Prioress  herself  pleaded  bodily 
weakness,  adding 

that  since  she  was  impotent  to  rule  the  temporalities,  nor  had  they 
any  industrious  man  to  supervise  these  and  to  raise  and  receive  the 
produce  of  the  house,  and  since  the  rents  of  the  house  remained  un 
paid  in  the  hands  of  the  tenants,  she  begged  that  two  nuns  might  be 
deputed  to  rule  the  temporalities,  and  to  be  responsible  for  receipts 
and  payments. 

1  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  I,  p.  362.         •  Ib.  I,  p.  364.          3  Ib.  i,  p.  377. 
4  Gasquet,  however,  mistakenly  attributes  its  state  entirely  to  the  plague. 
The  Great  Pestilence,  p.  106. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  205 

In  1445,  however,  one  of  the  appointed  treasuresses,  Alice  de 
Wyteryng,  admitted  that  she  neither  wrote  down  nor  accounted 
for  anything  concerning  her  administration,  and  another  nun 
complained  that,  if  Wyteryng  were  to  die,  it  would  be  impossible 
for  any  of  them  to  say  in  what  state  their  finances  stood1.  At 
the  poor  and  heavily  indebted  house  of  Legbourne  (1440)  the 
Prioress,  unknown  to  the  Bishop,  but  with  the  consent  of  the 
Convent,  had  sold  a  corrody  to  the  bailiff  of  the  house,  Robert 
Warde,  who  was  nevertheless  not  considered  useful  to  the  house 
in  this  post ;  the  tenements  and  leasehold  houses  belonging  to  the 
house  were  ruinous  and  like  to  fall  through  the  carelessness  of 
the  Prioress  and  bailiff,  and  one  aggrieved  nun  stated  that  "the 
prioress  is  not  circumspect  in  ruling  the  temporalities  and  cares 
not  whether  they  prosper,  but  applies  all  the  common  goods 
of  the  house  to  her  own  uses,  as  though  they  were  her  own2." 
At  Godstow  also  it  was  complained  that  the  steward  had  an 
annual  fee  of  ten  marks  from  the  house  and  was  useless3.  At 
Heynings  (1440)  the  Prioress  was  charged  with  never  rendering 
accounts  and  with  cutting  down  timber  unnecessarily,  but  she 
denied  the  last  charge  and  said  she  had  done  so  only  for  necessary 
reasons  and  with  the  express  consent  of  the  convent4.  At  Nun- 
coton  corrodies  had  been  sold  and  bondmen  alienated  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  nuns5.  At  Harrold  it  was  found  that  no 
accounts  were  rendered,  that  a  corrody  had  been  sold  for  twenty 
marks,  and  that  when  the  Prioress  bought  anything  for  the 
convent,  no  tallies  or  indentures  were  made  between  the  con 
tracting  parties,  so  that  after  a  time  the  sellers  came  and  de 
manded  double  the  price  agreed  upon;  one  nun  also  asked  that 
the  Bishop  should  prevent  the  selling  or  alienation  of  woods6. 
At  Langley  (which  was  miserably  poor)  there  was  a  similar  com 
plaint  of  the  sale  of  timber7.  These  are  the  less  serious  cases 
of  financial  mismanagement ;  the  cases  of  Gracedieu,  Ankerwyke 
and  Catesby  have  already  been  considered.  Sometimes  the  ex 
travagance  or  incompetence  of  a  Prioress  became  so  notorious 
as  to  necessitate  her  suspension  or  removal;  as  at  Basedale  in 
I3078,  Rosedale  in  I3io9,  Hampole  in  I35310,  Easebourne  in 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  39^,  83,  96.  2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  185. 

3  Ib.  n,  p.  114.  4  Ib.  n,  p.  133.  5  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  72. 

6  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  130,  131.  7  Ib.  u,  p.  175. 

8  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  159.  9  Ib.  p.  174.  10  Ib.  p.  164. 


206  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

1441 l  and  St  Mary  de  Pre  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century2. 
But  more  frequently  the  bishops  endeavoured  to  hem  in  expendi 
ture  by  elaborate  safeguards,  which  will  be  described  below. 

Besides  cases  of  incompetence  and  cases  of  misappropriation 
of  revenues  by  an  unscrupulous  prioress,  the  mismanagement 
of  the  nuns  may  usually  be  traced  to  a  desperate  desire  to 
obtain  ready  money.  One  means  by  which  they  sought  to  aug 
ment  their  income  was  by  the  sale  of  corrodies  in  return  for  a 
lump  sum3.  A  man  (or  woman)  would  pay  down  a  certain  sum 
of  money,  and  in  return  the  convent  would  engage  to  keep  him 
in  board  and  lodging  for  the  rest  of  his  natural  life;  at  Arden 
for  instance,  in  1524,  Alice  widow  of  William  Berre  paid  twelve 

1  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  7. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  353. 

3  It  must  be  understood  that  the  judicious  sale  of  corrodies  was  not 
necessarily  harmful  to  a  house.    Sometimes  it  might  lead  to  the  acquisition 
of  land  or  rents  at  comparatively  little  expense  to  the  convent,  as  a  glance 
at  some  of  the  charters  in  the  English  Register  of  Godstow  Abbey  will  show. 
See  Eng.  Reg.  of  Godstow  Abbey  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  xxvii-xxviii.   The  convent 
probably  drove  a  good  bargain  when  in  1230  the  harassed  Stephen,  son  of 
Waryn  the  miller  of  Oxford,  conveyed  all  his  Oxford  property  to  Godstow 
"and  for  this  graunte,  &  cetera,  the  forsaid  mynchons  yaf  to  them  to  ther 
grete  nede,  that  is  to  sey,  to  aquyte  hym  of  the  Jewry  and  otherwise  where 
he  was  endited,   X  markes  of  siluer  in  warison.    And  furthermore  they 
graunted  to  hym  and  to  hys  wyf  molde,  with  ther  seruant  to  serve  them 
while  they  lived,  two  corrodies  of  ij  mynchons  and  a  corrodye  of  one  seruant 
to  their  systeynynge"  (op.  cit.  p.  392).   Nor  was  there  much  harm  in  grants 
for  a  term  of  years,  such  as  the  grant  of  board  and  lodging  made  by  the 
convent  of  Nunappleton  in  1301  to  Richard  de  Fauconberg,  in  return  for 
certain  lands  bringing  in  an  annual  rent  of  two  marks  of  silver,  both  the 
corrody  and  the  tenure  of  these  lands  being  for  a  term  of  twelve  years. 
Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  653.  Sometimes,  again,  corrodies  were  granted  in  return 
for  specified  services;  in  1270  Richard  Grene  of  Cassington  surrendered 
5^  acres  of  arable  and  2  roods  of  meadow  land  to  Godstow  in  return  for  "  the, 
seruyce  under  the  porter  for  ever  at  the  yate  of  Godestowe  and  j  half  mark 
in  the  name  of  his  wagis  yerely.  "  Eng.  Reg.  of  Godstow,  p.  305.  At  Yedingham 
in  1352  an  interesting  grant  of  a  corrodium  moniale  was  made  to  one  Emma 
Hart,  who,  in  return  for  a  sum  of  money,  was  given  the  position  of  deye 
or  dairy  woman;  she  was  to  have  the  same  food-allowance  as  a  nun  and  a 
share  in  all  their  small  pittances,  and  a  building  called  "le  chesehouse" 
with  a  solar  and  cellar  to  inhabit  and  was  allowed  to  keep  ten  sheep  and  ten 
ewes  at  the  convent's  charge.    In  return  she  was  to  do  the  dairy- work  and 
when  too  old  to  work  any  longer  the  convent  engaged  to  grant  her  a  place 
in  "le  sisterhouse."   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  128.    Sometimes  also  corrodies 
were  granted  by  way  of  pensioning  off  old  servants,  as  when,  in  1529,  the 
nuns  of  Arden  granted  one  to  their  chaplain  "for  the  gud  and  diligent 
seruice  yt  oure  wellbeloued  sir  Thomas  parkynson,  preste,  hav  done  to  vs 
in  tyme  paste."    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  115.  To  corrodies  such  as  these  there 
was  little  objection  (though  the  last  might  lead  to  financial  loss).  The  danger 
came  from  life-grants  in  return  for  an  inadequate  sum  of  ready  money. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  207 

pounds  and  was  granted  "mett  and  drynke  as  their  convent 
hath"  at  their  common  table,  or  when  sick  in  her  own  room, 
and  "on  honest  chamber  with  sufficient  fyer  att  all  tyme,  with 
sufficient  apperell  as  shalbe  nedful"1.  Obviously,  however,  such 
an  arrangement  could  only  be  profitable  to  the  nuns,  if  the  grantee 
died  before  the  original  sum  had  been  expended  in  boarding 
her.  The  convent,  in  fact,  acted  as  a  kind  of  insurance  agency 
and  the  whole  arrangement  was  simply  a  gamble  in  the  life  of 
the  corrodian.  The  temptation  to  extricate  themselves  from 
present  difficulties  by  means  of  such  gambles,  was  one  which 
the  nuns  could  never  resist.  They  would  lightly  make  their  grant 
of  board  and  lodging  for  life  and  take  the  badly  needed  money; 
but  it  would  be  swallowed  up  only  too  soon  by  their  creditors 
and  often  vanish  like  fairy  gold  in  a  year.  Not  so  the  corrodian. 
Long-lived  as  Methusaleh  and  lusty  of  appetite,  she  appeared 
year  after  year  at  their  common  table,  year  after  year  consumed 
their  food,  wore  their  apparel,  warmed  herself  with  their  firewood. 
Alice  Berre  was  still  hale  and  hearty  after  twelve  years,  when  the 
commissioners  came  to  Arden  and  would  doubtless  have  lasted 
for  several  more  to  come,  if  his  Majesty's  quarrel  with  Rome 
had  not  swept  her  and  her  harassed  hostesses  alike  out  of  their 
ancient  home ;  but  she  must  long  before  have  eaten  through  her 
original  twelve  pounds2.  There  is  an  amusing  complaint  in  the 
Register  of  Crabhouse;  early  in  the  fourteenth  century  Aleyn 
Brid  and  his  wife  persuaded  the  nuns  to  buy  their  lands  for  a 
sum  down  and  a  corrody  for  their  joint  and  separate  lands.  But 
the  lands  turned  out  barren  and  the  corrodians  went  on  living 
and  doubtless  chuckling  over  their  bargain,  and  "si  cher  terre 
de  cy  petit  value  unkes  ne  fut  achate,"  wrote  the  exasperated 
chronicler  of  the  house3.  Bishop  Alnwick  found  two  striking 
instances  of  a  bad  gamble  during  his  visitations  in  1440-1;  at 
Langley  the  late  Prioress  had  sold  a  corrody  to  a  certain  John 
Fraunceys  and  his  wife  for  the  paltry  sum  of  twenty  marks,  and 
they  had  already  held  it  for  six  years4;  worse  still,  at  Nuncoton 
there  were  two  corrodians,  each  of  whom  had  originally  paid 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  115. 

2  She  received  68s.  4^.  in  part  payment  for  the  commutation  of  the 
corrody. 

3  Jessopp,  Frivola,  pp.  55-6. 
5  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  175. 


208  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

twenty  marks,  and  they  had  been  there  for  twelve  and  for  twenty 
years  respectively1. 

In  the  face  of  cases  like  these  it  is  difficult  not  to  suspect  that 
unscrupulous  persons  took  advantage  of  the  temporary  diffi 
culties  of  the  nuns  and  of  their  lack  of  business  acumen.  There 
is  comedy,  though  not  for  the  unhappy  Convent,  in  the  history 
of  a  corrody  which,  in  1526,  was  said  to  have  been  granted  by 
Thetford  to  "a  certain  Foster."  Six  years  later  there  was  a 
great  to-do  at  the  visitation.  The  nuns  declared  that  John 
Bixley  of  Thetford,  "bocher,"  had  sold  his  corrody  in  the  house 
to  Thomas  Foster,  gentleman,  who  was  nourishing  a  large  house 
hold  on  that  pretext,  to  wit  six  persons,  himself,  his  wife,  three 
children  and  a  maid ;  but  Bixley  said  that  he  had  never  sold  his 
corrody  and  there  in  public  displayed  his  indenture.  What 
happened  we  do  not  know;  Thomas  Foster,  gentleman,  must  be 
the  same  man  who  had  a  corrody  in  1526,  and  how  John  Bixley 
came  into  it  is  not  clear.  It  looks  as  though  the  Convent  (which 
was  so  poor  that  the  Bishop  had  dissolved  his  visitation  there 
some  years  previously)  was  trying  by  fair  means  or  foul  to  get 
rid  of  Thomas  Foster  and  his  family;  doubtless  they  had  not 
bargained  for  a  wife,  three  children  and  a  maid  when  they  rashly 
granted  him  one  poor  corrody2.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why 
medieval  bishops,  at  nearly  every  visitation,  forbade  the  granting 
of  fees,  corrodies  or  pensions  for  life  or  without  episcopal  consent ; 
"forasmoche  as  the  graunting  of  corrodyes  and  ly verves  hath 
bene  chargious,  bardynouse  and  greuouse  unto  your  monastery  " 
wrote  Longland  to  Studley  in  1531: 

As  itt  apperithe  by  the  graunte  made  to  Agnes  Mosse,  Janet  bynbrok, 
Elizabeth  todde  and  other  whiche  has  right  score  hyndrede  your  place, 
In  consideracon  therof  I  charge  you  lady  priores  upon  payne  of 
contempte  and  of  the  lawe,  that  ye  give  noo  moo  like  graunts, 
and  that  ye  joutt  away  Elizabeth  Todde  her  seruant...and  that 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  7 id. 

z  Visit,  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  243,  303-4.  There 
is  in  the  Record  Office  a  petition  to  the  Chancellor  from  Richard  Englyssh 
and  Marjorie  his  wife,  setting  out  that  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  had  granted 
Marjorie  for  life  a  corrody  in  Mailing  Abbey  of  seven  loaves  and  four  gallons 
of  convent  ale  and  three  pence  for  cooked  food  weekly,  which  corrody  she 
and  her  husband  had  held  for  some  time,  but  that  now  the  abbess  and  con 
vent  withheld  it.  Evidently  it  was  a  burden  to  the  house,  but  it  is  not  clear 
whether  the  bishop  had  forced  a  corrodian  on  the  nuns,  or  had  merely 
confirmed  a  grant  by  them.  P.R.O.  Early  Chanc.  Proc.  4/196. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  209 

Elizabeth  Todde  haue  noo  kowe  going  nor  other  bestes  within  eny 
of  your  grounds1; 

and  Dean  Kentwood,  visiting  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate  in  1432 
found  that  "diverce  fees  perpetuelle,  corrodies  and  lyuers  have 
been  grauntyd  befor  this  tyme  to  diverce  officers  of  your  house 
and  other  persones,  which  have  hurt  the  house  and  be  cause  of 
delapidacyone  of  the  godys  of  youre  seyde  house"2.  Even  the 
nuns  themselves  sometimes  realised  that  the  sale  of  corrodies 
had  brought  them  no  good ;  they  often  complained  at  visitations 
that  the  Prioress  had  made  such  grants  without  consulting 
them;  and  the  convent  of  Heynings  gave  "the  multiplication 
of  divers  men  who  have  acquired  corrodies  in  their  house,"  as 
one  reason  for  their  extreme  poverty,  when  they  petitioned  for 
the  appropriation  of  the  church  of  Womersley3. 

The  nuns  were  wont  to  have  recourse  to  other  equally  im 
provident  expedients  for  obtaining  money  without  regard  to 
future  embarrassment.  They  farmed  their  churches  and  alienated 
their  lands  and  granges  or  let  them  out  on  long  leases.  These 
practices  were  constantly  forbidden  in  episcopal  injunctions4;  at 
the  visitation  of  Easebourne  in  1524  the  Prioress,  Dame  Margaret 
Sackfelde,  being  questioned  as  to  what  grants  they  had  made 
under  their  convent  seal,  said  that  they  had  made  four,  to  wit, 
one  to  William  Salter  to  farm  the  rectory  there,  another  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  chapel  of  Farnhurst,  another  of  the  proceeds 
of  the  chapel  of  Midhurst  and  another  to  William  Toty  for  his 
corrody;  this  was  corroborated  by  the  subprioress,  who  also 

j  mentioned  a  grant  of  the  proceeds  of  the  church  of  Easebourne 
to  a  rather  disreputable  person  called  Ralph  Pratt;  and  this  is 
only  a  typical  case  5.  The  nunnery  of  Wix  was  reduced  to  such 

I  penury  in  1283  on  account  of  various  alienations  that  Pope 
Martin  IV  granted  the  nuns  a  bull  declaring  all  such  grants  void : 

I  It  has  come  to  our  ears  that  our  beloved  daughters  in  Christ,  the 
I  Prioress  and  convent  of  the  monastery  of  Wix  (who  are  under  the 

! 

1  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  58. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  554.   He  had  once  before  ordered  the  holders  of 
corrodies  there  to  display  their  grants,  that  it  might  be  known  whether  they 

I  had  fulfilled  the  services  due  from  them.    V.C.H.  London,  i,  p.  459. 

3  The  appropriation  was  confirmed  by  the  Pope  in  1401.    Cal.  of  Papal 
Letters,  v,  p.  347.   In  1440  Bishop  Alnwick  made  an  injunction  at  Heynings 
against  the  granting  of  corrodies.   Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  135. 

4  See  below,  pp.  225-6.  5  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  p.  25. 

P.N.  14 


210  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH.   ! 

rule  of  a  prioress),  of  the  order  of  St  Benedict,  in  the  diocese  of  London, 
as  well  as  their  predecessors,  have  conceded  tithes,  rents,  lands, 
houses,  vineyards,  meadows,  pastures,  woods,  mills,  rights,  juris 
dictions  and  certain  other  goods  belonging  to  the  said  monastery  to 
several  clerks  and  laymen,  to  some  of  them  for  life,  to  some  for  no 
short  time,  to  others  in  perpetuity  at  farm  or  under  an  annual  pay 
ment,  and  have  to  this  effect  given  letters,  taken  oaths,  made  re 
nunciations,  and  drawn  up  public  instruments,  to  the  grave  harm  of 
the  said  monastery;  and  some  of  the  grantees  are  said  to  have  sought 
confirmatory  letters  in  common  form,  concerning  these  grants,  from 
the  apostolic  see1. 

This  comprehensive  catalogue  gives  some  indication  of  the  losses 
which  a  house  would  suffer  from  reckless  grants.  The  sale  of  I 
timber  and  the  alienation  or  pawning  of  plate  were  other  ex 
pedients  to  which  the  nuns  constantly  resorted  and  which  were 
as  constantly  prohibited  by  the  bishops2.  The  Prioress  of  Nun- 
monkton  in  1397,  "alienated  timber  in  large  quantities  to  the 
value  of  a  hundred  marks"3;  the  cutting  down  of  woods  was 
charged  against  the  Prioresses  of  Heynings,  Harrold,  Langley, 
Gracedieu,  Catesby  and  Ankerwyke  at  Alnwick's  visitations;  at 
Langley  it  was  moreover  found  that  the  woods  were  not  properly 
fenced  in  after  the  trees  were  felled  and  so  the  tree-stumps  were 
damaged4;  the  necessity  for  raising  the  money  was  sometimes 
specifically  pleaded,  as  at  Markyate,  where  a  small  wood  had 
been  sold  "to  satisfy  the  creditors  of  the  house"5.  These  sales 
of  timber  were  a  favourite  means  of  obtaining  ready  money; 
but  too  often  the  loss  to  the  house  by  the  destruction  of  its  woods 
far  outweighed  the  temporary  gain  and  the  Abbeys  of  St  Mary's 
Winchester  and  Romsey  made  special  mention  of  this  cause 
of  impoverishment  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century6. 
The  alienation  or  pawning  of  plate  and  jocalia  was  often  re 
sorted  to  in  an  extremity.  At  Gracedieu  in  1441  the  jewels  of  « 
the  house  had  been  pawned  without  the  knowledge  of  the< 
convent,  so  that  the  nuns  (as  one  of  them  complained)  had  not 
one  bowl  from  which  to  drink  7;  the  next  year  it  was  asserted  that 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  516. 

2  See  below,  pp.  225-6.  *  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194. 

*  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  175.  5  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  6. 

•  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  146;  Cal.  of  Papal  Petitions,  i,  p.  122.    At  Studley 
in  1530  it  was  found  that  the  woods  of  the  priory  had  been  much  diminished 
by  the  late  prioress  and  by  "  Thomas  Cardinal  of  York  for  the  construction 
of  his  college  in  the  university  of  Oxford."    V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  78. 

7  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  120. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  21 1 

the  Prioress  of  Catesby  "pawned  the  jewels  of  the  house  for  ten 
years,  to  wit  one  cup  for  the  sacrament,  which  still  remained 
in  pawn,  and  also  other  pieces  of  silver  " 1.  When  Bishop  Longland 
visited  Nuncoton  in  1531  he  found  that  the  Prioress  had  in 
times  past  sold  various  goods  belonging  to  her  house,  "viz.  a 
bolle  ungilte  playn  with  a  couer,  oon  nutt  gilte  with  a  couer, 
ij  bolles  white  without  couers,  oon  Agnus  of  gold,  oon  bocle  of 
gold,  oon  chalice,  oon  maser  and  many  other  things"2;  and  in 
1436  it  was  ordered  that  the  chalices,  jewels  and  ornaments  of 
St  Mary's  Neasham,  which  were  then  in  the  hands  of  sundry 
creditors,  were  to  be  redeemed3.  In  the  case  of  Sinningthwaite 
in  1534  the  convent  was  in  such  a  reduced  state  that  Archbishop 
Lee  was  actually  obliged  to  give  the  nuns  licence  to  pledge 
jewels  to  the  value  of  £15*.  The  charge  of  pawning  or  selling 
jewels  for  their  own  purposes  was  often  made  against  prioresses 
whose  conduct  in  other  ways  was  bad;  for  instance  against 
Eleanor  of  Arden  in  1396  5,  Juliana  of  Bromhale  in  1404^  Agnes 
Tawke  of  Easebourne  in  I4787  and  Katherine  Wells  of  Little- 
more  in  I5I78. 

To  financial  incompetence  and  to  the  employment  of  im 
provident  methods  of  raising  money,  the  nuns  occasionally 
added  extravagance.  The  bishops  forbade  them  to  wear  gay 
clothes  for  reasons  unconnected  with  finance ;  nevertheless  their 
silks  and  furs  must  have  cost  money  which  could  ill  be  spared, 
and  it  is  amusing  to  notice  that  even  at  Studley,  Rothwell  and 
Langley,  which  were  among  the  smallest  and  poorest  houses  in 
the  diocese  of  Lincoln  and  in  debt,  the  nuns  had  to  confess  to 
silken  veils.  The  maintenance  of  a  greater  number  of  servants 
than  the  revenues  of  the  house  could  support  was  another  not 
uncommon  form  of  extravagance9.  Instances  of  luxurious  living 
on  the  part  of  the  heads  of  various  houses  have  been  given  else 
where10;  it  need  only  be  remarked  that  a  self-indulgent  prioress 
might  cripple  the  resources  of  a  house  for  many  years  to  come, 
whether  by  spending  its  revenues  too  lavishly,  or  by  raising 
money  by  the  alienation  of  its  goods. 

Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  147.  2  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  pp.  58~9- 

V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107.  4  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  17?- 

Test.  Ebor.  I,  pp.  283-4.  6  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  506,  note  b. 

Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  19.  8   V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  76- 

See  above,  p.  153.  10  See  Ch.  iv. 

14—2 


212  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

One  other  cause  of  the  poverty  of  nunneries  must  be  noticed, 
before  turning  to  the  attempts  of  bishops  and  other  visitors  to 
find  a  remedy.  Overcrowding  was,  throughout  the  earlier  period 
under  consideration,  a  common  cause  of  financial  distress;  and 
the  admission  of  a  greater  number  of  nuns  than  the  revenues 
of  the  convent  were  able  to  support  was  constantly  forbidden 
in  episcopal  injunctions.  Certainly  this  was  not  invariably  the 
fault  of  the  nuns.  They  suffered  (as  we  have  seen)  from  the 
formal  right  of  bishop  or  of  patron  to  place  a  nun  in  their  house 
on  special  occasions,  and  they  suffered  still  more  from  the  con 
stant  pressure  to  which  they  were  subjected  by  private  persons, 
anxious  to  obtain  comfortable  provision  for  daughters  and  nieces. 
It  was  sometimes  impossible  and  always  difficult  to  resist  the 
importunity  of  influential  gentlemen  in  the  neighbourhood,  whose 
ill-will  might  be  a  serious  thing,  whether  it  showed  itself  in  open 
violence  or  in  closed  purses.  The  authorities  of  the  church  had 
sometimes  to  step  in  and  rescue  houses  which  had  thus  been 
persuaded  to  burden  themselves  beyond  their  means.  In  1273 
Gregory  X  issued  a  bull  to  the  Priory  of  Carrow,  with  the  inten 
tion  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  practice. 

Your  petition  having  been  expounded  to  us,  containing  a  complaint 
that  you  have,  at  the  instant  requests  of  certain  lords  of  England, 
whom  you  are  unable  to  resist  on  account  of  their  power,  received 
so  many  nuns  already  into  your  monastery,  that  you  may  scarce  be 
fitly  sustained  by  its  rents,  we  therefore,  by  the  authority  of  these 
present  letters,  forbid  you  henceforth  to  receive  any  nun  or  sister  to 
the  burden  of  your  house1. 

Some  nine  years  later  Archbishop  Wickwane  wrote  in  the  same 
strain  to  the  nuns  of  Nunkeeling  and  Wilberfoss: 

Because  we  have  learned  from  public  rumour  that  your  monastery 
is  sometimes  burdened  by  the  reception  of  nuns  and  by  the  visits  of 
secular  women  and  girls,  at  the  instance  of  great  persons,  to  whom  you 
foolishly  and  unlawfully  grant  easy  permission,  we  order  you... hence 
forward,  to  receive  no  one  as  nun  or  sister  of  your  house,  or  to  lodge 
for  a  time  in  your  monastery,  without  our  special  licence2. 

Bishop  Stratford,  in  his  visitation  of  Romsey  in  1311,  forbade 
additions  to  the  nuns,  the  proper  number  having  been  exceeded, 
and  again  in  1327  he  wrote: 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  71. 

»  Keg.  of  Archbishop  William  Wickwane  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  113. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  213 

It  is  notorious  that  your  house  is  burdened  with  ladies  beyond  the 
established  number  which  used  to  be  kept ;  and  I  have  heard  that  you 
are  being  pressed  to  receive  more  young  ladies  (damoyseles)  as  nuns, 
wherefore  I  order  you  strictly  that  no  young  lady  received  by  you 
be  veiled,  nor  any  other  received,  until  the  Bishop's  visitation,  or 
until  they  have  special  orders  from  him1. 

The  situation  at  the  great  Abbey  of  Shaftesbury  was  the  same. 
As  early  as  1218  the  Pope  had  forbidden  the  community  to 
admit  nuns  beyond  the  number  of  a  hundred  because  they  were 
unable  to  support  more  or  to  give  alms  to  the  poor;  in  1322 
Bishop  Mortival  wrote  remonstrating  with  them  for  their  neglect 
of  the  Pope's  order  and  repeating  the  prohibition  to  admit  more 
nuns  until  the  state  of  the  Abbey  was  relieved,  on  the  ground 
that  the  inmates  of  the  house  were  far  too  many  for  its  goods 
to  support ;  and  in  1326  (in  response  to  a  petition  from  the  Abbess 
asking  him  to  fix  the  statutory  number)  the  Bishop  issued  an 
order  stating  that  the  house  was  capable  of  maintaining  a 
hundred  and  twenty  nuns  and  no  more  and  that  no  novices 
were  to  be  received  until  the  community  was  reduced  to  that 
number2. 

Episcopal  prohibitions  to  receive  new  inmates  without  special 
licence  were  very  common,  especially  in  the  late  thirteenth  and 
early  fourteenth  centuries.  Bishops  realised  that  overcrowding 
only  increased  the  growing  poverty  of  the  nunneries.  In  the 
poor  diocese  of  York,  between  1250  and  1320,  the  nuns  were  over 
and  over  again  forbidden  to  receive  nuns,  lay  sisters  or  lay 
brothers  without  the  licence  of  the  Archbishop.  Injunctions  to 
this  effect  were  issued  to  Marrick  (1252),  Swine  (1268),  Wilber- 
foss  (1282),  Nunappleton  (1282,  1290,  1346),  Hampole  (1267, 
1308,  1312),  Arden  (1306),  Thicket  (1309,  1314),  Nunkeeling 
(1282,  1314),  Nunburnholme  (1318),  Esholt  (1318),  Arthington 

1  Liveing,  Records  of  Ramsey  Abbey,  p.  98.    Similarly  Bishop  Edyndon 
)  wrote  in  1346  and  again  in  1363  to  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Wherwell  and 
i  Romsey,  forbidding  them  to  take  a  greater  number  of  nuns  than  was 
I  anciently  accustomed  or  than  could  be  sustained  by  them  without  penury. 
I  Ib.  p.  165. 

2  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  77.   Nevertheless  at  Romsey  and  at  Shaftesbury 
the  King  and  the  Bishop  himself  continued  to  "dump"  nuns,  in  accordance 
with  their  prerogative  right,  throughout  the  career  of  both  houses.    In  the 
six  years  following  this  prohibition  of  1326  Bishop  Stratford  not  only  gave 
permission  for  a  novice  to  be  received  at  the  nuns'  own  request,  but  deposited 
no  less  than  three  there  himself.  The  words  and  the  actions  of  bishops 
sometimes  tallied  ill. 


214  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

(1318)  and  Sinningthwaite  (1319) l.  At  Swine,  after  the  visita 
tion  by  Archbishop  Walter  Giffard  in  1267-8,  it  was  noted 
among  the  comperta 

that  the  house  of  Swine  cannot  sustain  more  nuns  or  sisters  than  now 
are  there,  inasmuch  as  those  at  present  there  are  ill  provided  with 
food,  as  is  said  above,  and  that  the  house  nevertheless  remains  at 
least  a  hundred  and  forty  marks  in  debt;  wherefore  the  lord  Arch 
bishop  decreed  that  no  nun  or  sister  should  thenceforward  be  received 
there,  save  with  his  consent2. 

A  very  severe  punishment  was  decreed  at  Marrick,  where  the 
Archbishop  announced  that  any  man  or  woman  admitted  with 
out  his  licence  would  be  expelled  without  hope  of  mercy,  the 
Prioress  would  be  deposed  and  any  other  nuns  who  agreed 
condemned  to  fast  on  bread  and  water  for  two  months  (except 
on  Sundays  and  festivals)3.  In  other  dioceses  the  bishops  pur 
sued  a  similar  policy.  But  it  was  not  easy  to  enforce  these 
prohibitions.  Four  years  after  Archbishop  Greenfield's  injunc 
tion  to  Hampole  (1308)  he  was  obliged  to  address  another  letter 
to  the  convent,  having  heard  that  the  prioress  had  received 

a  little  girl  (puellulam),  by  name  Maud  de  Dremeld,  niece  of  the  Abbot 
of  Roche,  and  another  named  Jonetta,  her  own  niece,  at  the  instance 
of  Sir  Hugh  de  Cressy,  her  brother,  that  after  a  time  they  might  be 
admitted  to  the  habit  and  profession  of  nuns4. 

The  predicament  of  the  Prioress  is  easily  understood ;  how  was 
she  to  refuse  her  noble  brother  and  the  Abbot  of  Roche?  They 
could  bring  to  bear  far  more  pressure  than  a  distant  archbishop, 
who  came  upon  his  visitations  at  long  intervals.  Moreover  the 
ever  present  need  of  ready  money  made  the  resistance  of  nuns 
less  determined  than  it  might  otherwise  have  been ;  for  a  dowry 
in  hand  they  were,  as  usual,  willing  to  encumber  themselves 
with  a  new  mouth  to  feed  throughout  long  years  to  come. 

Prohibitions  from  increasing  the  number  of  nuns  become  more 
rare  in  the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth  and  during  the  fifteenth 
century.  Even  when  the  population  recovered  from  the  havoc 

1  See  V.C.H  Yorks.  in,  pp.  113,  117,  119,  120,  124,  161,  163,  171-2,  188; 
Reg.  of  Archbishop  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  148;  Reg.  of  Archbishop  Wick- 
wane  (Surtees  Soc.),  pp.  112,  113,  140-1. 

2  Reg.  Giffard,  loc.  cil.  3   V.C.H.  Yorks.  HI,  p.  117. 

*  76.  in,  p.  163.  The  house  was  heavily  in  debt  at  the  time  and  though 
the  Bishop  had  forbidden  the  granting  of  corrodies  and  liveries  without 
leave,  the  Prioress  was  also  charged  with  having  "  sold  or  granted  corrodies 
very  burdensome  to  the  house." 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  215 

wrought  by  the  Black  Death,  the  numbers  in  the  nunneries  con 
tinued  steadily  to  decline.  Perhaps  fashion  had  veered,  con 
scious  that  the  golden  days  of  monasticism  were  over;  more 
likely  the  growing  poverty  of  the  houses  rendered  them  a  less 
tempting  retreat.  A  need  for  restricting  the  number  of  nuns 
still  continued,  because  the  decline  in  the  revenues  of  the  nun 
neries  was  swifter  than  the  decline  in  the  number  of  the  nuns. 
Thus  in  1440-1  Alnwick  included  in  his  injunctions  to  seven 
houses  a  prohibition  to  receive  more  nuns  than  could  competently 
be  sustained  by  their  revenues1,  and  the  evidence  given  at  his 
visitations  shows  the  necessity  for  such  a  restriction.  The  injunc 
tion  to  Heynings  is  particularly  interesting: 

For  as  mykelle  as  we  fonde  that  agayn  the  entente  and  the  forbedyng 
of  the  commune  lawe  there  are  in  your  saide  pryorye  meo  nunnes  and 
susters  professed  then  may  be  competently  susteyned  of  the  revenews 
of  your  sayde  pryorye,  the  exilitee  of  the  saide  revenews  and  charitees 
duly  considered,  we  commaunde,  ordeyn,  charge  and  enioyne  yowe 
vnder  payne  etc.  etc.  that  fro  this  day  forthe  ye  receyve  no  mo  in  to 
nunnes  ne  sustres  in  your  saide  pryory  wyth  owte  the  advyse  and 
assent  of  hus  (and)  of  our  successours  bysshope  of  Lincolne,  so  that 
we  or  thai,  wele  informed  of  the  yerely  valwe  of  your  saide  revenews 
may  ordeyn  for  the  nombre  competente  of  nunnes  and  susters2. 

Nevertheless  even  at  Nuncoton,  one  of  the  houses  to  which  a 
similar  injunction  was  sent,  a  nun  gave  evidence  "that  in  her 
oun  time  there  were  in  the  habit  eighteen  or  twenty  nuns  and 
now  there  are  only  fourteen,"  and  the  Bishop  himself  remarked 
that  "ther  be  but  fewe  in  couent  in  regarde  of  tymes  here  to 
fore"3.  Everywhere  this  decline  in  the  number  of  nuns  went 
steadily  on  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries4. 
And  from  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  appear, 
here  and  there  among  visitatorial  injunctions,  commands  of  a 

1  Heynings,  Ankerwyke,  Legbourne,  Nuncoton,  St  Michael's  Stamford, 
Gracedieu,  Langley. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  134.  3  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  jid.,  jjd. 

4  It  would  be  interesting  to  collect  statistics  as  to  the  relative  size  of 
different  nunneries  at  different  periods.  It  is  here  possible  to  give  only  a 
few  examples  of  the  decline  in  the  number  of  inmates.  The  numbers  at 
Nuneaton  varied  as  follows:  93  (1234),  80  (1328),  46  (1370),  40  (1459), 
2  3  (J539)-  (V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  pp.  66-9.)  At  Romsey  (where  the  statutory 
number  was  supposed  to  be  100)  as  follows:  91  (1333)  and  26  (from  1478  to 
the  Dissolution).  (Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  passim.}  At  Shaftes- 
bury  as  follows:  forbidden  to  receive  more  than  100  in  1218  and  in  1322; 
number  fixed  at  120  in  1326;  between  50-57  (from  1441  to  the  Dissolution). 
V.C.H.  Dorset,  u,  p.  77. 


2l6  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

very  different  nature;  here  and  there  a  Bishop  is  found  trying, 
not  to  keep  down,  but  to  keep  up  the  number  of  nuns.  Instead 
of  the  repeated  prohibitions  addressed  to  Romsey  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  there  is  an  injunction  from  William 
of  Wykeham  in  1387,  ordering  the  Abbess  to  augment  the  number 
of  nuns,  which  had  fallen  far  below  the  statutory  number1. 
Similarly  in  1432  Bishop  Gray  wrote  to  Elstow, 

since  the  accustomed  number  of  nuns  of  the  said  monastery  has  so 
lessened,  that  those  who  are  now  received  scarcely  suffice  for  the 
chanting  of  divine  service  by  night  and  day  according  to  the  require 
ment  of  the  rule,  we  will  and  enjoin  upon  you  the  abbess,  in  virtue 
of  obedience  and  under  the  penalties  written  above  and  beneath,  that, 
with  what  speed  you  can,  you  cause  the  number  of  nuns  in  the  said 
monastery  to  be  increased  in  proportion  to  its  resources 2. 

At  Studley  in  1531,  although  the  house  was  badly  in  debt,  the 
nuns  were  ordered  to  live  less  luxuriously  and  "  to  augment  your 
nombre  of  ladyes  within  the  yere"3.  In  this  connection  Arch 
bishop  Warham's  visitation  of  Sheppey  in  1511  is  significant. 
The  Prioress,  when  questioned  as  to  the  number  of  nuns  in 
the  house,  said  that  "she  had  heard  there  were  seventeen;  she 
knew  of  fourteen ;  she  herself  wished  to  increase  the  number  to 
fourteen  if  she  could  find  any  who  wished  to  enter  into  religion  "*. 
It  is  an  interesting  reflection  that  Henry  VIII  may  simply  have 
accelerated,  by  his  violent  measure,  a  gradual  dissolution  of  the 
nunneries  through  poverty  and  through  change  of  fashion. 

This  account  of  the  attempts  of  medieval  bishops  to  prevent 
the  nunneries  from  burdening  themselves  with  inmates,  beyond 
the  number  which  could  be  supported  by  their  revenues,  leads 
to  a  consideration  of  the  other  methods  employed  by  them  to 
remedy  the  financial  distress  in  which  the  nuns  so  often  found 
themselves.  These  methods  may  be  divided  into  three  classes; 
(i)  arrangements  to  safeguard  expenditure  by  the  head  of  the 
house  and  to  impose  a  check  upon  autocracy,  (2)  arrangements  to 
prevent  rash  expenditure  or  improvident  means  of  raising  money, 
by  requiring  episcopal  consent  before  certain  steps  could  be 

1  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  5$d.  *  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  53. 

8  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  55. 

4  E.H.R.  vi,  pp.  33-4.  From  the  fact  that  the  Prioress  was  ordered  to 
make  up  the  number  again  to  fourteen,  as  soon  as  she  conveniently  could,  it 
appears  that  the  ten  nuns  who  gave  evidence  before  the  Archbishop  repre 
sented  the  full  strength  of  the  house. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  217 

taken,  and  (3)  if  the  incompetence  of  the  nuns  were  such  that 
even  these  restrictions  were  insufficient,  the  appointment  of  a 
male  custos,  master  or  guardian,  to  manage  the  finances  of  the 
house. 

Arrangements  for  safeguarding  expenditure  by  the  head  of 
the  house  were  of  four  kinds:  (i)  provision  for  the  consultation 
of  the  whole  convent  in  important  negotiations,  (2)  provision 
for  the  safe  custody  of  the  common  seal,  (3)  provision  for  the 
regular  presentation  of  accounts,  and  (4)  the  appointment  of  co- 
adjutresses  to  the  Prioress,  or  of  two  or  three  treasuresses,  to 
be  jointly  responsible  for  receipts  and  expenditure.  It  was  a 
common  injunction  that  the  whole  convent,  or  at  least  "the 
more  and  sounder  part  of  it,"  should  be  consulted  in  all  important 
negotiations,  such  as  the  alienation  of  property,  the  leasing  of 
land  and  farms,  the  cutting  down  of  woods,  the  incurring  of 
debts  and  the  reception  of  novices1.  It  has  already  been  shown 
that  Prioresses  acted  autocratically  in  performing  such  business 
on  their  own  initiative,  and  the  injunction  sent  by  Peckham  to 
the  Abbess  of  Romsey  shows  the  lengths  to  which  this  in 
dependence  might  lead  them2.  Flemyng's  injunction  to  Elstow 
in  1421-2  is  typical: 

That  the  Abbess  deliver  not  nor  demise  to  farm  appropriated  churches, 
|  pensions,  portions,  manors  or  granges  belonging  to  the  monastery, 
!  nor  do  any  other  such  weighty  business,  without  the  express  consent 

of  the  greater  and  sounder  part  of  the  convent3. 

At  Arthington  in  1318  the  Prioress  was  specially  ordered  to 

I  consult  the  convent  in  sales  of  wool  and  other  business  matters4; 

i  the  Prioress  of  Sinningthwaite  the  next  year  was  told  to  take 

I  counsel  with  the  older  nuns  and  in  all  writings  under  the  common 

i  seal  to  employ  a  faithful  clerk  and  to  have  the  deed  read,  dis- 

[  cussed  and  sealed  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  convent,  those 

who  spoke  against  it  on  reasonable  grounds  being  heard  and 

the  deed  if  necessary  corrected5.  Provision  for  the  safe  custody 

1  A  few  out  of  many  specific  instances  may  be  given:  Wroxall  1323 
(V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  71) ;  Polesworth  1456  (ib.  p.  63) ;  Fairwell  1367  (Reg. 
of  Bishop  Stretton,  p.   119);   Romsey  1302   (Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara 

I  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.  p.  127);  Moxby  1318  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  239); 
Nuncoton  1531  (Arch.  XLVII,  p.  58);  Sinningthwaite  1534  (Yorks.  Arch. 
Journ.  xvi,  p.  441). 

2  See  above,  pp.  64-5.  3  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  50. 
4  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  188.                 5  Ib.  in,  p.  177. 


2l8  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

of  the  common  seal,  and  for  the  assent  of  the  whole  convent 
to  all  writings  which  received  its  imprint,  was  a  necessary 
corollary  to  the  demand  that  the  Prioress  should  consult  her 
nuns  in  matters  of  business.  Medieval  superiors  were  constantly 
charged  with  keeping  the  common  seal  in  their  own  custody1 
and  nuns  and  bishops  alike  objected  to  a  custom  which  rendered 
the  convent  responsible  for  any  rash  agreement  into  which  the 
Prioress  might  enter.  Elaborate  arrangements  for  the  custody 
of  the  seal  are  therefore  common  in  visitatorial  injunctions.  In 
1302  Bishop  John  of  Pontoise  wrote  to  Romsey  that 

whereas  from  the  bad  keeping  of  the  common  seal  many  evils  to  the 
house  have  hitherto  happened  (as  the  Bishop  has  now  learned  from 
the  experience  of  fact),  and  also  may  happen  unless  wholesome  remedy 
be  applied,  three  at  least  of  the  discreeter  ladies  shall  be  appointed 
by  the  Abbess  and  by  the  larger  and  wiser  part  of  the  convent  to  keep 
the  seal;  and  when  any  letter  shall  be  sealed  with  the  common  seal 
in  the  chapter  before  the  whole  convent,  it  shall  be  read  and  explained 
in  an  intelligible  tongue  to  all  the  ladies,  publicly,  distinctly  and 
openly  and  afterwards  sealed  in  the  same  chapter,  (not  in  corners  or 
secretly,  as  has  hitherto  been  the  custom,)  and  signed  as  it  is  read,  so 
that  what  concerns  all  may  be  approved  by  all.  Which  done  the 
seal  shall  be  replaced  in  the  same  place  under  the  said  custody2. 

These  injunctions  were  repeated  by  Bishop  Woodlock  nine  years 
later,  but  in  1387  William  of  Wykeham  laid  down  much  more 
stringent  rules.  The  seal  was  to  be  kept  securely  under  seven, 
or  at  least  five  locks  and  keys,  of  which  one  key  was  to  be  in 
the  custody  of  the  abbess  and  the  others  to  remain  with  some 
of  the  more  prudent  and  mature  nuns,  nominated  by  the  con 
vent  ;  no  letter  was  to  be  sealed  without  first  being  read  before 
the  whole  convent  in  the  vulgar  tongue  and  approved  by  all 
or  by  the  greater  and  wiser  part  of  the  nuns3.  Seven  locks 
was  an  unusually  large  number;  usually  three,  or  even  two,  were 
ordered.  At  Mailing,  where,  as  we  have  seen,  Bishop  Hamo  of 
Hythe  unwillingly  confirmed  an  "insufficient  and  ignorant" 
woman  as  Abbess,  he  took  the  extreme  step  of  sequestrating 
the  common  seal  and  forbidding  it  to  be  used  without  his  per 
mission  4. 

1  E.g.  Clemence  Medforde  at  Ankerwyke  in  1441  and  Eleanor  of  Arden 
in  1396.   See  above,  pp.  81,  85. 

2  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  100-101. 

*  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  88d.  *  See  above,  p.  204. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  219 

Another  method  of  keeping  some  control  over  the  expenditure 
not  only  of  the  head  or  treasuress  of  the  house,  but  also  of  the 
other  obedientiaries,  was  by  ordering  the  regular  presentation 
of  accounts  before  the  whole  convent;  and  in  spite  of  the  in 
junctions  of  councils  and  of  bishops  no  regulation  was  more 
often  broken.  Bishop  Stapeldon's  rules,  drawn  up  for  the  guidance 
of  Polsloe  and  Canonsleigh,  afford  a  good  example  of  these  in 
junctions,  and  deal  with  the  presentation  of  accounts  by  the 
bailiffs  and  officers  of  the  house,  as  well  as  by  the  Prioress : 

Item,  let  the  accounts  of  all  your  bailiffs,  reeves  and  receivers,  both 
foreign  and  denizen,  be  overlooked  every  year,  between  Easter  and 
Whitsuntide,  and  between  the  Feast  of  St  Michael  and  Christmas, 
after  final  account  rendered  in  the  Priory  before  the  Prioress,  or  before 
those  whom  she  is  pleased  to  put  in  her  place,  and  before  two  or  three 
of  the  most  ancient  and  wise  ladies  of  the  said  religion  and  house, 
assigned  by  the  Convent  for  this  purpose;  and  let  the  rolls  of  the 
accounts  thus  rendered  remain  in  the  common  treasury,  so  that  they 
may  be  consulted,  if  need  shall  arise  by  reason  of  the  death  of  a 
Prioress,  or  of  the  death  or  removal  of  bailiffs,  receivers  or  reeves. 
Item,  let  the  Prioress  each  year,  between  Christmas  and  Easter, 
before  the  whole  convent,  or  six  ladies  assigned  by  the  convent  for 
this  purpose,  show  forth  the  state  of  the  house,  and  its  receipts  and 
expenses,  not  in  detail  but  in  gross  (ne  mie  par  menue  parceles  mes 
\par  grosses  sommes),  and  the  debts  and  the  names  of  the  debtors 
and  creditors  for  any  sum  above  forty  shillings.  And  all  these  things 
are  to  be  put  into  writing  and  placed  in  the  common  treasury,  to  the 
intent  that  it  may  be  seen  each  year  how  your  goods  increase  or 
decrease1. 

j  Bishop  Pontoise  ordered  that  at  Romsey  an  account  should  be 
rendered  twice  a  year  and  at  the  end  thereof  the  state  of  the 
house  should  be  declared  by  the  auditors  of  the  convent,  or  at 
|  least  by  the  seniors  of  the  convent,  but  finding  the  practice 
|in  abeyance  in  1302  he  ordered  the  account  to  be  rendered  once 
|  a  year2;  his  ordinance  was  repeated  by  Bishop  Woodlock  in  I3ii3 
land  by  William  of  Wykeham  in  1387 4,  both  of  whom  specially 
refer  to  the  rendering  of  accounts  by  officials  and  obedientiaries 

1  Reg.  of  Bishop  Stapeldon,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  p.  318. 

2  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  99-100. 

3  Ib.  pp.  102-3. 

4  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  87.    In  1492,  at  the  visitation  by  Archbishop  Morton's 
commissioners,    a   nun   prays  that    injunctions   be   made   to   the  sisters 
and  abbess  that  they  choose  no  one  as  auditor  without  consulting  the 

1  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.   Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  218-9. 


220  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

as  well  as  by  the  Abbess1.  More  frequently,  especially  in  the 
smaller  houses,  the  Bishops  confined  their  efforts  to  extracting 
the  main  account  from  the  Prioress,  with  the  double  object,  so 
ungraciously  expressed  by  Archbishop  Lee,  "that  it  may  appere 
in  whate  state  the  housse  standith  in,  and  also  that  it  may  be 
knowen,  whethur  she  be  profitable  to  the  house  or  not"2.  How 
far  it  was  a  common  practice  that  the  accounts  should  be  audited 
by  some  external  person,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Our  only 
evidence  lies  in  occasional  injunctions  such  as  those  sent  by 
Bishops  Pontoise  and  Woodlock  to  Romsey,  or  by  Bishop 
Buckingham  to  Heynings ;  or  an  occasional  remark,  such  as  the 
Prioress  of  Blackborough's  excuse  that  she  did  not  render  account 
in  order  "to  save  the  expenses  of  an  auditor"3;  or  an  occasional 
order  addressed  by  a  Bishop  to  some  person  bidding  him  go  and 
examine  the  accounts  of  a  house.  In  1314  William,  rector  of 
Londesborough,  was  made  custos  of  Nunburnholme  on  peculiar 
terms,  being  ordered  to  go  there  three  times  a  year  and  hear 
the  accounts  of  the  ministers  and  prepositi  of  the  house;  his 
duties  were  thus,  in  effect,  those  of  an  unpaid  auditor  and  no 
more4.  It  is  probable  that  the  accounts  of  bailiffs  and  other 
servants  were  audited  by  the  custos,  in  those  houses  to  which 
such  an  official  was  attached5;  whether  his  own  accounts  were 
scrutinised  is  another  matter.  In  1309  Archbishop  Greenfield 
wrote  to  his  own  receiver,  William  de  Jafford,  to  audit  the 
accounts  of  Nunappleton  6,  and  after  the  revelations  of  Margaret 
Wavere's  maladministration  at  Catesby  in  1445,  a  commission 
for  the  inspection  of  the  accounts  was  granted  to  the  Abbot  of 
St  James,  Northampton 7.  In  some  cases  the  annual  statement 

1  For  other  mentions  of  the  rendering  of  accounts  by  bailiffs,  ofnciaries, 
etc.  see  Arden  1306  and  Arthington  1315  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  113,  188), 
Fairwell  1367  (Reg.  of  Robert  de  Stretton,  p.  119),  Elstow  1422  (Line.  Visit. 
I,  p.  50). 

2  Writing  to  Sinningthwaite  in   1534.     Yorks.   Archaeol.  Journ.  xvi, 
pp.  442-3. 

*  Visit,  of  the  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  108. 

4  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ui,  p.  119. 

5  Sometimes  specific  mention  is  made  of  this  duty,  e.g.  in  1318  Thomas 
de  Mydelsburg,  rector  of  Loftus,  was  ordered  to  administer  the  temporal 
goods  of  the  Cistercian  house  of  Handale,  to  receive  the  accounts  of  the 
servants  and  to  substitute  more  capable  ones  for  those  who  were  useless. 
Ib.  in,  p.  166.   Cf.  the  commission  to  the  rector  of  Aberford  to  be  custos  of 
Kirklees  about  the  same  time.    Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  362. 

•  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  171.  7  Line.  Visit,  ir,  pp.  52-3. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  221 

of  accounts  was  ordered  to  be  made  before  the  Bishop  of  the 
diocese,  as  well  as  the  nuns  of  the  house,  and  in  such  cases  he 
would  act  as  auditor  himself1. 

It  was  also  a  common  practice  for  the  Visitor  to  demand 
that  the  current  balance  sheet  and  inventory  (the  status  domus) 
of  a  monastic  house  should  be  produced,  together  with  its 
foundation  charter  and  various  other  documents,  before  he  took 
the  evidence  of  the  inmates  at  a  visitation.  The  register  of  Bishop 
Alnwick's  visitations  shows  the  procedure  very  clearly;  usually 
there  is  simply  a  note  to  the  effect  that  the  Prioress  handed  in 
the  status  domus,  but  at  some  houses  the  Bishop  encountered 
difficulties.  At  St  Michael's  Stamford,  in  1440,  the  old  Prioress 
(who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  rendered  no  account  at  all 
during  her  twelve  years  of  office)  was  unable  to  produce  a  balance 
sheet,  or  one  of  the  required  certificates,  and  Alnwick  was  obliged 
to  proceed  with  her  examination  "hiis  exhibendis  non  exhibitis." 
He  made  shift  however  to  extract  some  verbal  information  from 
her;  she  said  that  the  house  was  in  debt  /2O  at  her  installation 
and  now  only  20  marks,  that  it  could  expend  £40,  besides  10 
marks  appropriated  to  the  office  of  pittancer  and  besides  "the 
perquisites  of  the  stewardship" ;  she  said  also  "that  they  plough 
with  two  teams  and  they  have  eight  oxen,  seven  horses,  a 
bailiff,  four  serving-folk,  a  carter  for  the  teams,  and  a  man  who 
is  their  baker  and  brewer,  whose  wife  makes  the  malt"2.  At 
Legbourne  also  the  Prioress 

showed  the  state  of  the  house,  as  it  now  stands,  as  they  say,  but  not 
annual  charges,  etc.... She  says  that  the  house  owed  ^43  at  the  time 
of  her  confirmation  and  installation  and  now  only  £14;  nevertheless 
because  the  state  of  the  house  is  not  fully  shown,  she  has  the  next  day 
at  Louth  to  show  it  more  fully3. 

;  At  Ankerwyke  also  Clemence  Medforde  gave  in  an  incomplete 
:  balance  sheet: 

!  she  shewed  a  roll  containing  the  rents  of  the  house,  which,  after 
)  deducting  rent-charges,  reach  the  total  of  £22.  6.  7.  Touching  the 

1  In  1442,  for  instance,  the  Prioress  of  Rusper  was  ordered  to  render 
accounts  yearly  before  the  Bishop  of  Chichester  and  the  nuns  of  the  house 
(Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  v,  p.  255),  and  at  Sheppey  in  151 1,  two  nuns  having  com 
plained  that  the  Prioress  did  not  account,  she  was  ordered  to  render  accounts, 
with  an  inventory  to  the  convent  and  to  Archbishop  Warham  (E.H.R. 
VI,  p.  34)- 

2  Alnwick  Visit.  MS.  f.  83.  3  Line.  Visit.  11,  p.  184. 


222  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

stewardship  of  the  temporalities  and  touching  the  other  receipts,  as 
from  alms  and  other  like  sources,  she  shews  nothing,  and  says  that 
at  the  time  of  her  preferment  the  house  was  300  marks  in  debt, 
and  now  is  in  debt  only  £40,  and  she  declares  some  of  the  names  of 
the  creditors  of  this  sum1. 

A  special  demand  for  a  complete  statement  of  accounts  was 
sometimes  made  in  cases  where  gross  maladministration  was 
charged  against  a  prioress.  Thus  in  1310  Archbishop  Greenfield 
ordered  an  investigation  of  certain  charges  (unspecified,  but 
clearly  of  this  nature)  made  against  the  Prioress  of  Rosedale; 
her  accounts, 

as  well  as  those  of  all  bailiffs  and  other  officials  and  servants  who  were 
bound  to  render  accounts,  were  to  be  examined  and  the  prioress  was 
ordered  to  render  to  the  commissioners  full  and  complete  accounts 
from  the  time  of  her  promotion,  as  well  as  a  statement  of  the  then 
position  of  the  house, 

and  a  further  letter  from  the  Archbishop  to  the  Subprioress  and 
nuns  ordered  them  to  display  the  status  domus  to  the  com 
missioners,  as  it  was  when  the  Prioress  took  office  and  as  it 
was  at  the  time  he  wrote.  She  resigned  shortly  afterwards, 
sentiens  se  impotentem;  but  in  1315  her  successor  was  enjoined 
to  draw  up  a  certified  statement  showing  the  credit  and  debit 
accounts  of  the  house  and  to  send  it  to  the  Archbishop  before 
a  certain  date2.  Usually  the  Bishop  demanded  not  only  the 
account  roll  of  a  house,  but  also  an  inventory,  doubtless  in  order 
that  he  might  see  whether  anything  had  been  alienated,  and 
these  inventories  sometimes  remain  attached  to  the  account  of 
the  visitation  preserved  in  the  episcopal  register3. 

1  Line.  Visit,  ii,  p.  i.  2   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in.  p.  174. 

3  An  inventory  of  the  goods  of  Easebourne  Priory,  drawn  up  for  the 
Bishop  of  Chichester  on  May  2jth,  1450,  has  survived.  It  is  very  complete 
and  comprises  all  departments  of  the  house,  together  with  a  list  of  land, 
chapels  and  appropriated  churches  and  a  note  that  the  house  can  expend  in 
all  £22.  35.  on  repairs  and  other  expenses  and  that  the  debts  "for  repairs 
and  other  necessary  expenses  this  year"  amount  to  £66.  6s.  Sd.  Sussex 
Arch.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  10-13.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  quote  the  briefer  inventory 
of  the  poor  house  of  Ankerwyke,  as  presented  to  Bishop  Atwater  at  his 
visitation  in  1519  and  copied  by  his  clerk  into  the  register.  There  were  at 
the  time  five  nuns  in  the  house  and  one  in  apostasy.  "  Redditus  ibidem  ex- 
tendunt  prima  facie  ad  xxxiij  li.  x  s.  Inde  resoluunt  pro  libris  (sic)  redditibus 
v  li.  x  s.  Et  sic  habent  clare  ad  reparacionem  &  alia  onera  sustinenda  ultra 
xl  marcas.  Jocalia  in  Ecclesia:  Habent  ibidem  vestimenta  sacerdotalia  ad 
minus  serica  xiij.  Habent  eciam  vnicam  capam  de  serica  &  auro.  j  calicem 
de  argento  deaurato.  j  par  Turribulorum.  j  pixidem  de  argento  pro  sacra- 
mento.  ij  libros  missales  impresses,  j  magnum  par  candelabrorum  ante 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  223 

If  a  Prioress  were  found  to  be  hopelessly  incompetent  or 
unscrupulous,  but  not  bad  enough  to  be  deprived  of  her  position, 
Bishops  sometimes  took  the  extreme  measure  of  appointing  one 
or  more  coadjutresses,  to  govern  the  house  in  conjunction  with 
her;  and  often  (even  when  there  was  no  complaint  against  the 
Prioress)  the  nuns  were  ordered  to  elect  treasuresses,  to  receive 
and  disburse  the  income  of  the  house  from  all  sources.  One  of  the 
comperta  at  the  visitation  of  Swine  in  1268  was  to  the  effect  that 

the  sums  of  money  which  are  bestowed  in  charity  upon  the  convent, 
for  pittances  and  garments  and  other  necessary  uses,  are  received 
by  the  Prioress;  which  ought  the  rather  to  be  in  the  custody  of  two 
honest  nuns  and  distributed  to  those  in  need  of  them,  and  in  no  wise 
converted  to  other  uses1. 

At  Nunkeeling  in  I3T4  it  was  ordained  that  all  money  due  to 
the  house  should  be  received  by  two  bursars,  elected  by  the 
convent2,  and  in  1323  Bishop  Cobham  of  Worcester  made  a 
similar  injunction  at  Wroxall,  that  two  sisters  were  to  be  chosen 
by  the  chapter,  to  do  the  business  of  the  convent  in  receiving 
rents,  etc.3  Elaborate  arrangements  for  the  appointment  of 
treasuresses  were  made  by  Bishop  Bokyngham  at  Elstow  and 
at  Heynings,  in  1388  and  1392  respectively,  and  by  Bishop 
Flemyng  at  Elstow  in  1421-2*.  It  will  suffice  here  to  quote 

I  the  much  earlier  arrangement  made  by  Archbishop  Peckham  at 

|  Usk  in  1284: 

"Since,"  he  wrote,  "lately  visiting  you  by  our  metropolitan  right, 

we  found  you  in  a  most  desolate  state  (multipliciter  desolatas),  desiring 

!  to  avoid  such  desolation  in  future,  we  order,  by  the  counsel  of  dis- 

•  I  creet  men,  that  henceforth  two  provident  and  discreet  nuns  be  elected 

j  by  the  consent  of  the  prioress  and  community;  into  whose  hands  all 

j  the  money  of  the  house  shall  be  brought,  whether  from  granges,  or 

summum  altare.  j  paruum  par  candelabrorum  super  summum  altare. 
,  ij  urciolos  argenteos.  j  paxbread  de  argento,  una  parua  campana  argentea. 
'  Catalla:  Habent  vaccas  duas,  ij  equas,  boues  senes  iij,  unus  bouiculus  (sic), 

j  vaccam  anne  (sic)  (blank),  iij  equas  pro  aratro.  Vtensilia  vj  plumalia, 
1  x  paria  linthiaminum,  iiij  superpellectilia,  iiij  paria  de  le  blanketts,  ij  le 
<  white  Testers.  Habent  Redditus  Annuales  preter  terras  ipsarum  domini- 
i  calium  (sic)  in  earundem  manibus  occupatas  xlvj  li.  xj  s.  x  d."  Line.  Epis. 
|  Reg.  Visit.  Atwater,  f.  42.  A  fair  number  of  inventories  of  convent  property 

made  for  this  or  for  other  purposes  is  extant;  notably  those  drawn  up,  for 
l  purposes  of  spoliation  instead  of  preservation,  at  the  Dissolution.  See 
j  Bibliography. 

1  Reg.  of  Walter  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  147. 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  120. 

3  V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  71.  4  See  below,  p.  226. 


224  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

from  appropriated  churches,  or  coming  from  any  other  offerings,  to 
be  carefully  looked  after  by  their  consent.  And  as  well  the  Prioress 
as  the  other  nuns  shall  receive  (money  for)  all  necessary  expenses 
from  their  hands  and  in  no  manner  otherwise.  And  we  will  that  these 
nuns  be  called  Treasuresses,  which  Treasuresses  thrice  in  the  year, 
to  wit  in  Lent,  Whitsuntide  and  on  the  Feast  of  St  Michael,  shall 
render  account  before  the  Prioress  for  the  time  being  and  before  five 
or  six  elders  of  the  chapter." 

In  addition  they  were  to  have  a  priest  as  custos  or  administrator 
of  their  temporal  and  spiritual  possessions1. 

The  appointment  of  a  coadjutress  to  the  head  of  a  house  in 
the  administration  of  its  affairs  is  of  the  same  nature.  The 
appointment  of  coadjutresses  was  a  favourite  device  with  Arch 
bishop  Peckham,  to  check  an  extravagant  or  incapable  head. 
At  the  great  abbey  of  Romsey  three  coadjutresses  were  ap 
pointed,  without  whose  testimony  and  advice  the  Abbess  was 
to  undertake  no  important  business2.  At  Wherwell  one  co 
adjutress  only,  a  certain  J.  de  Ver,  was  appointed  in  1284,  and 
the  same  year  the  Archbishop  wrote  to  his  commissary  on  the 
subject  of  the  Priory  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  Canterbury: 

Since  by  the  carelessness  and  neglect  of  the  Prioress  the  goods  of  the 
house  are  said  to  be  much  wasted,  we  wish  you  to  assign  to  her  two 
coadjutresses,  to  wit  Dame  Sara  and  another  of  the  more  honest  and 
wise  ladies ;  but  let  neither  be  Benedicta,  who  is  said  to  have  greatly 
offended  the  whole  community  by  her  discords. 

Here,  as  at  Usk,  Peckham  appointed  in  addition  a  master  to 
look  after  their  affairs3.  At  the  disorderly  house  of  Arthington 
Isabella  Couvel  was  in  1312  associated  with  the  Prioress  Isabella 
de  Berghby,  but  the  Prioress  seems  to  have  resented  the  ap 
pointment  and  promptly  ran  away4.  In  the  Exeter  diocese 
Bishop  Stapeldon  made  Joan  de  Radyngton  coadjutress  to 
Petronilla,  Abbess  of  Canonsleigh  in  1320 5;  and  in  the  diocese 
of  Bath  and  Wells  Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  in  1335  appointed 
two  coadjutresses  to  Cecilia  de  Draycote,  Prioress  of  White  Hall, 
Ilchester,  and  in  1351,  when  his  visitation  had  revealed  many 
scandals  at  Cannington,  including  the  simoniacal  admission  of 
nuns  and  unauthorised  sale  of  corrodies  by  the  Prioress,  the 

1  Reg.  Epi$.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  in,  pp.  805-6. 

2  See  below,  pp.  337-8. 

3  See  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls.  Ser.),  n,  pp.  654-5,  659.  7°8. 
«  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ii,  pp.  187-8. 

4  Reg.  of  Bishop  Stapeldon,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  p.  96. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  225 

Bishop,  instead  of  depriving  her  "tempered  the  rigour  of  the 
law  with  clemency"  and  appointed  two  coadjutresses  without 
whose  consent  she  was  to  do  nothing1.  Bishop  Alnwick  made 
use  of  this  method  of  controlling  a  superior  in  several  cases 
where  serious  mismanagement  had  come  to  light  at  his  visita 
tion2,  and  other  instances  of  this  method  of  controlling  the 
administration  of  a  superior  might  be  multiplied  from  the  epis 
copal  registers. 

The  appointment  of  treasuresses  and  of  coadjutresses  and 
the  provision  for  due  consultation  of  the  chapter,  custody  of 
the  common  seal  and  presentment  of  accounts  had  the  purpose 
of  safeguarding  the  nuns  against  reckless  expenditure  or  mal 
administration  by  the  head  of  the  house,  and,  where  the  injunc 
tions  of  the  Visitor  were  carried  out,  such  precautions  doubtless 
proved  of  use.    Some  further  check  was,  however,  necessary,  to 
safeguard  the  nuns  against  themselves,  and  to  prevent  the  whole 
convent  from  rash  sales  of  land,  alienation  of  goods  and  from 
all  those  other  improvident  devices  for  obtaining  ready  money, 
to  which  they  were  so  much  addicted.  The  Bishop  often  at 
tempted  to  impose  such  a  check  by  forbidding  certain  steps  to 
be  taken  without  his  own  consent.  The  business  for  which  an 
episcopal  licence  was  necessary  usually  comprised  the  alienation 
of  land  or  its  lease  for  life  or  for  a  long  term  of  years,  the  sale 
of  any  corrodies  or  payment  of  any  fees  or  pensions,  and  (as 
has  already  been  pointed  out)  the  reception  of  new  inmates, 
who  might  overcrowd  the  house  and  thus  impose  a  strain  upon 
I  its  revenues3.    Other  business,  such  as  the  sale  of  woods,  was 
sometimes  included4.   The  prohibition  of  corrodies,  fees  and 
pensions  was  doubtless  intended  to  protect  the  nuns  against  the 
exactions  of  patrons  and  other  persons,  who  claimed  the  right 
to  pension  off  relatives  or  old  servants  by  this  means,  as  well 
as  against  their  own  improvidence  in  selling  such  doles  for 

1  Reg.  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  240-1,  684. 

2  At  Ankerwyke,  Catesby,  Gracedieu  and  St  Michael's  Stamford.   Line. 
Visit,  n,  pp.  6,  9,  52,  125;  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  f.  39^. 

3  To  this  reception  of  boarders  was  sometimes  added,  but  with  a  different 
purpose,  viz.  to  protect  the  nuns  from  contact  with  the  world. 

4  At  Moxby  in  1318  no  fresh  debts,  especially  large  ones,  were  to  be 
incurred  without  the  convent's  consent  and  the  Archbishop's  special  licence. 
V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  239.   At  Nuncoton  in  1440  "ne  that  ye  aleyne  or  selle 
any  bondman"  was  added  to  the  usual  prohibition.    Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS. 
1  77d. 

P.N.  15 


226  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

inadequate  sums  of  ready  money.  As  typical  of  such  prohibitions 
may  be  quoted  Alnwick's  injunction  (given  in  two  parts)  to 
Harrold  in  1442-3: 

Also  we  enioyne  yo\v,  prioresse,  and  your  sucessours  vndere  payne  of 
pry[v]acyone  and  perpetuelle  amocyone  fro  your  and  thaire  astate  and 
dygnyte  that  fro  hense  forthe  ye  ne  thai  selle,  graunte  ne  gyfe  to  ony 
persone  what  euer  thai  be  any  corrody,  lyverye,  pensyone  or  anuyte 
to  terme  of  lyve,  certeyn  tyme  or  perpetuelly,  but  if  ye  or  thai  fyrste 
declare  the  cause  to  vs  or  our  successours  bysshoppes  of  Lincolne,  and 
in  that  case  have  our  specyalle  licence  or  of  our  saide  successours  and 
also  the  fulle  assent  of  the  more  hole  parte  of  your  couent.  Also  we 
enioyne  yow  prioresse  and  your  successours  vndere  the  payne  of 
priuacyone  afore  saide  that  ye  ne  thai  selle,  gyfe,  aleyne,  ne  felle  no 
grete  wode  or  tymbere,  saue  to  necessary  reparacyone  of  your  place 
and  your  tenaundryes,  but  if  ye  and  thai  hafe  specyalle  licence  ther 
to,  of  vs  or  our  successours  bysshoppes  of  Lincolne  and  the  cause 
declared  to  vs  or  our  successours1. 

An  exceptionally  conscientious  Bishop  would  sometimes  send 
even  more  full  and  elaborate  instructions  to  a  nunnery  on  the 
management  of  its  property,  and  examples  of  such  minute  regula 
tions  are  to  be  found  in  the  injunctions  sent  to  Elstow  Abbey 
at  different  times  by  Bishop  Bokyngham  (1387)2,  Archbishop 
Courtenay  (1389) 3  and  Bishop  Flemyng  (I42I-2)4.  Bishop 
Bokyngham  also  sent  very  full  injunctions  to  Heynings  in  1392 
and  these  may  be  quoted  to  illustrate  the  care  which  the  Visitors 
sometimes  took  to  set  a  house  upon  a  firm  financial  footing,  so 
far  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so  by  the  mere  giving  of  good  advice : 

The  Prioress,  indeed,  shall  attempt  to  do  nothing  without  the  counsel 
of  two  nuns,  elected  by  the  convent  to  assist  her  in  the  government 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  131.   A  few  other  instances  of  these  injunctions  may 
be  given:  Arden  (1306),  Marrick  (1252),  Nunburnholme  (1318),  Nunkeeling 
(1314),  Thicket  (1309),  Yedingham  (1314),  Esholt  (1318),  Hampole  (1308, 
1312),    Xunappleton    (1489),    Rosedale     (1315),    Sinningthwaite     (1315), 
Arthington  (1318),  Moxby  (1314,  1318,  1328),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ill,  pp.  113, 
117,  119,  124,   128,  161,  163,  172,  174,  177,  188,  239-40;  Sinningthwaite 
(1534),   Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  441;  Arthington  (1286),  Reg.  John  le 
Romeyn  (Surtees  Soc.  I,  p.  55) ;  Ankerwyke,  Godstow,  Gracedieu,  Heynings, 
Langley,  Legbourne,  Markyate,  Nuncoton,  Stixwould,  St  Michael's  Stam 
ford  (all  1440-5),  Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  8,  115,  124,  134,  186  and  Alnwick's  Visit. 
MS.  ff.  6d,  jjd,  8id,  75^;  Elstow  (1359),  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell, 
f.  139^;  Elstow  (1421),  Burnham  (1434),  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  24,  49;  Studley, 
Nuncoton  (1531),  Arch.  XLVII,  pp.  54,  58;  Polsloe  and  Canonsleigh  (1319). 
Reg.  Stapeldon  of  Exeter,  p.  317;  Romsey  (1302),  Reg.  J.  de  Pontissara,  p.  127. 

2  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343. 

3  Lambeth  Reg.  Courtenay  I,  f.  336.  4  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  49-50. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  227 

of  the  aforesaid  priory,  both  within  and  without;  and  when  any 
important  business  has  to  be  done  concerning  the  state  of  the  priory, 
the  same  Prioress  shall  expound  it  to  the  convent  in  common,  and 
shall  settle  and  accomplish  it  according  to  their  counsel,  to  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  aforesaid  house.  And  each  year  the  receiver  shall 
display  fully  in  chapter  to  the  convent  in  common  the  state  of  the 
house  and  an  account  of  the  administration  of  its  goods,  clearly  and 
openly  written.... Item  we  command  and  ordain  that  the  common 
seal  and  muniments  of  the  house  be  faithfully  kept  under  three  locks, 
of  which  one  key  shall  be  in  the  custody  of  the  prioress,  another  of 
the  subprioress  and  the  third  of  a  nun  elected  for  this  purpose  by  the 

convent Item  we  enjoin  and  command  that  two  receivers  be  each 

year  elected  by  the  chapter,  who  shall  receive  all  money  whatsoever, 
forthcoming  from  the  churches,  manors  or  rents  of  the  said  priory, 
the  which  two  elected  (receivers),  together  with  the  Prioress  and  with 
an  auditor  deputed  in  the  name  of  the  convent,  shall  hear  and  receive 
in  writing  the  computation,  account  and  reckoning  of  all  bailiffs  with 
out  the  precincts  of  the  house,  who  receive  any  moneys,  or  any  other 
goods  whatsoever  in  the  name  of  the  said  convent,  from  churches, 
manors  or  rents.  And  afterwards  the  same  two  elected  receivers, 
before  the  Prioress  and  two  other  of  the  greater,  elder  and  more  pru 
dent  nuns,  elected  to  this  end  by  the  convent,  shall  faithfully  render 
at  least  twice  every  year  the  account  and  computation  of  all  the  receipts 
and  expenses  of  the  same  (receivers)  within  the  precincts  of  the  afore 
said  house,  to  the  said  Prioress  and  two  sisters  elected  and  deputed 
in  the  name  of  the  convent.  And  when  this  has  been  done,  we  will 
and  enjoin  that  twice  in  every  year  the  Prioress  of  the  aforesaid  house 
show  the  whole  state  of  the  aforesaid  house  in  chapter,  the  whole 
convent  being  assembled  on  a  certain  day  for  this  purpose.  And  we 
will  that  the  roll  of  the  aforesaid  balance  sheet,  or  paper  of  account  or 
reckoning,  remain  altogether  in  the  archives  of  the  aforesaid  house, 
that  the  prioress  and  the  elder  and  more  prudent  (nuns)  of  the  aforesaid 
house  may  be  able  easily  to  learn  the  state  of  the  same  in  future  years 
and  whenever  any  difficulty  may  arise.  And  let  bailiffs  be  constituted 
of  sufficient  faculties  and  of  commendable  discretion  and  fidelity,  the 
best  that  can  be  found,  and  let  them  similarly  render  due  account 
every  year  before  the  same  prioress  and  con  vent....  Furthermore  we 
will  that  the  Prioress  and  convent  of  the  aforesaid  house  do  not  sell 
or  concede  in  perpetuity  or  grant  for  a  term  corrodies,  stipends, 
liveries  or  pensions  to  clerics  or  to  laymen,  save  with  our  licence  first 
sought  and  obtained1. 

At  Elstow  Bokyngham  gave  a  more  detailed  injunction  about 
the  appointment  of  bailiffs  and  other  officers. 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  £E.  397-397^.  These  injunctions 
are  scattered  among  the  others,  but  have  been  placed  together  here  for  the 
sake  of  reference. 

15—2 


228  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

Let  the  Abbess  for  the  government  of  the  aforesaid  monastery  have 
faithful  servants,  in  especial  for  the  government  and  supervision 
without  waste  of  the  husbandry  and  the  manors  and  stock  and  woods 
of  the  aforesaid  house;  the  which  the  Abbess  herself  is  bound,  if  she 
can,  to  supervise  each  year  in  person,  or  else  let  her  cause  them  to  be 
industriously  supervised  by  others;  and  to  look  after  the  external 
and  internal  business  of  the  house  and  to  prosecute  it  outside  let  her 
appoint  also  some  man  of  proven  experience  and  of  mature  age1. 

The  purpose  of  those  regulations  and  restrictions  which  have 
hitherto  been  described,  was  to  assist  the  nuns  in  managing 
their  own  finances.  But  the  nuns  were  never  very  good  business 
women,  and  they  were  moreover  in  theory  confined  to  the  pre 
cincts  of  the  cloister,  so  that  it  was  difficult  for  them  to  manage 
their  own  business,  unless  they  imperilled  their  souls  by  excur 
sions  into  the  world.  During  the  thirteenth  and  early  fourteenth 
centuries,  therefore,  a  common  method  of  extricating  them  from 
their  difficulties  was  by  appointing  a  male  guardian,  known  in 
different  places  as  Custos,  Prior,  Warden  or  Master,  to  supervise 
the  temporal  affairs  of  a  house  and  to  look  after  its  finances. 
In  the  early  history  of  Cistercian  nunneries  each  house  was 
governed  jointly  by  a  Prior  and  Prioress  and  in  some  cases  a 
few  canons  are  found  holding  the  temporalities  jointly  with  the 
nuns.  Of  these  Cistercian  houses  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  says: 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Gilbertine  priories,  such  nunneries  are  rarely 
found  outside  Lincolnshire  and  Yorkshire:  they  were  under  the 
bishop's  supervision  and  their  connexion  with  the  order  of  Citeaux 
was  nominal.  Their  geographical  distribution,  as  well  as  the  fact  that 
St  Gilbert  attempted  to  affiliate  his  nunneries  to  the  Cistercian  order 
and  modelled  them  upon  its  rule,  provokes  the  suspicion  that  such 
houses  were  a  result  of  the  growth  of  the  Gilbertine  order,  and,  if 
not  intended  to  become  double  houses,  were  at  any  rate  imitations  of 
the  corporations  of  nuns  at  Sempringham  and  elsewhere2. 

References  to  canons  occur  in  connection  with  the  houses  of 
Stixwould,  Heynings  and  Legbourne  in  Lincolnshire3,  Catesby 
in  Northamptonshire4  and  Swine  in  Yorkshire5.  The  comperta 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343.    Compare  Flemyng's  in 
junctions  in  1422.    Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  49. 

2  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  151. 

8  V.C.H.  Lines,  u,  pp.  148,  150,  154  (note  i). 

4  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  121. 

5  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  178-9,  and  Reg.  of  Archbishop  Giffard  (Surtees 
Soc.),  pp.  147-8.  The  canons  at  these  houses  must  be  distinguished  from  the 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  229 

of  Archbishop  Giffard's  visitation  of  Swine  in  1267-8  show  that 
the  house  at  that  time  closely  resembled  the  double  houses 
belonging  to  the  Gilbertine  order. 

Item  compertum  est,  that  the  two  windows,  by  which  the  food  and 
drink  of  the  canons  and  lay  brothers  are  conveyed  (to  them),  are  not 
at  all  well  guarded  by  the  two  nuns  who  are  called  janitresses,  in 
asmuch  as  suspicious  conversations  are  frequently  held  there  between 
the  canons  and  lay  brothers  on  the  one  hand  and  the  nuns  and  sisters 
on  the  other.  Item  compertum  est  that  the  door  which  leads  to  the 
church  is  not  at  all  carefully  kept  by  a  certain  secular  boy,  who 
permits  the  canons  and  lay  brothers  to  enter  indiscriminately  in  the 
twilight,  that  they  may  talk  with  the  nuns  and  sisters,  the  which 
door  was  wont  to  be  guarded  diligently  by  a  trusty  and  energetic 
lay  brother. 

It  has  already  been  described  how  the  ill-management  of  the 
canons  and  lay  brothers  ("who  dissipate  and  consume,  under 
colour  of  guardianship,  the  goods  outside,  which  were  wont  to 
be  committed  to  the  guardianship  of  one  of  the  nuns")  caused 
the  nuns  to  go  short  in  clothes  and  food  and  even  to  be  reduced 
to  drinking  water  instead  of  beer  twice  a  week,  though  the 
canons  and  their  friends  "did  themselves  very  well"  (satis 
habundanter  et  laute  procurantur)1.  In  most  cases  this  double 
constitution  of  nuns  and  canons  was  in  abeyance  in  Cistercian 
houses  before  the  fourteenth  century,  though  a  prior  and  canons 
are  mentioned  at  Stixwould  in  1308 2  and  Richard  de  Staunton, 

canons  who  held  prebendal  stalls  in  the  Abbeys  of  Romsey,  St  Mary's, 
Winchester,  Wherwell,  Wilton  and  Shaftesbury;  these  were  often  bad 
pluralists  and  could  have  been  of  little  use  to  the  abbeys,  as  chaplains  or  as 
custodes.  See  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  pp.  122-3  and  p.  144  above,  note  i. 

1  Loc.  cit.  Compare  the  complaint  of  the  nuns  of  Brodholme  in  1321-2. 
"A  nostre  Seyngnur  le  Roy  e  a  son  Counsaill  monstrent  le  Prioresse  el 
Covente  de  Brodholme,  qe  lour  Gardayns  de  la  dit  meson  par  lour  defaute 
sount  lour  Rentes  abatez,  e  lour  meson  a  poy  ennente  e  le  dit  Gardayns 
ne  vollent  nulle  entent  mettre  ne  despender  pur  les  ayder  kaunt  eles  sount 
empleydie,  mes  come  eles  meymes  defendent  a  graunt  meschef.  Pur  qoi 
eles  prient  pur  I'amour  de  Dieu,  trescher  Seygnour,  pur  1'alme  vostre  Pier, 
e  ouir  de  charite,  qe  Vous  vollez  graunter  vostre  Charter  qe  1'avantdit 
Prioresse  el  covent  pouissent  avoir  lour  rentes  e  lour  enproumens,  de  ordiner 
a  lour  voluntes,  e  al  profist  de  la  dit  meson,  si  pleiser  Vous  soit.Kare  autre- 
ment  ne  poivent  eles  viver."  The  reply  was  "  Injusta  est  peticio,  ideo  non 
potest  fieri."  Rot.  Parl.  I,  pp.  393-4.  Brodholme  was  one  of  the  only  two 
convents  of  Premonstratensian  nuns  in  England ;  the  guardians  were  prob 
ably  the  canons  of  the  Premonstratensian  Abbey  of  Newhouse ;  for  an  ordi 
nance  (1354,  confirmed  1409)  regulating  the  relations  between  the  two  houses, 
see  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  vi,  pp.  159-60. 

*  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  148  (from  Pat.  2  Edw.  II,  pt  ii,  m. 


230  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

"canon  of  Catesby,"  was  made  master  of  that  house  as  late  as 


In  other  houses  where  no  trace  of  canons  has  survived  there 
are  often  references  to  the  resident  Prior,  especially  in  the 
dioceses  of  York  and  Lincoln,  and  this  official  is  sometimes  found 
in  Benedictine  houses  (e.g.  Godstow2,  St  Michael's  Stamford3,  and 
King's  Mead,  Derby  4)  .  He  seems  to  have  acted  as  senior  chaplain 
and  confessor  to  the  nuns  as  well  as  supervising  their  financial 
business.  In  cases  where  a  nunnery  was  in  some  sort  of  depen 
dence  upon  an  abbey  or  priory  of  monks,  it  is  usual  to  find  a 
religious  of  that  house  acting  as  custos  of  the  nuns.  At  St 
Michael's  Stamford,  for  instance,  the  abbots  of  Peterborough 
had  the  right  of  nominating  a  resident  prior,  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  the  office  was  often 
held  by  a  monk  of  Peterborough  5.  Similarly  a  monk  of  St  Albans 
acted  as  custos  of  Sopwell6  and  a  canon  of  Newhouse  dwelt  at 
Brodholme  "to  say  daily  mass  for  the  sisters  and  to  overlook 
their  temporalities"7.  The  joint  rule  of  Cistercian  houses  by  a 
Prior  and  Prioress  seems  to  have  died  out  in  most  cases  by  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  but  it  was  customary  for  some 
secular  or  regular  cleric  to  be  appointed  in  most  of  the  small 
and  poor  houses  of  York  and  Lincoln  to  look  after  their  business8. 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo,  Dalderby,  i.  330.   Roger  de  Dauentry,  canon  of 
Catesby,  had  been  made  master  in  1297.    Reg.  Memo.  Sutton.  f.  175. 

2  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  in,  pp.  850-1. 

8   V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  98.  *   V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  43. 

5  Loc.  cit.  see  also  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Institution  Roll  (Northampton)  of 
Sutton  for  the  presentation  of  William  de  Stok,  monk  of  Peterborough  as 
Prior  of  St  Michael's  Stamford,  by  the  Abbot,  and  the  Bishop's  ratification. 

•  Walsingham,  Gesta  Abbatum  (Rolls  Ser.),  u,  p.  519,  and  V.C.H.  Herts. 
iv,  p.  429.  On  their  misdeeds  see  Archbishop  Morton's  famous  letter  in 
1490.  Wilkins,  Concilia,  in,  p.  632. 

7  See  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  vi,  pp.  159-160. 

8  Mention  of  custodes  occurs  at  the  following  houses,  in  addition  to  those 
mentioned  in  the  text:  Studley  (1290),  Goring  (1309),    V.C.H.  Oxon.  n, 
pp.  78,  104;  Markyate  (1323),  Harrold  (late  thirteenth  century),  V.C.H.  Beds. 
i.  PP-  359,  388;   Flamstead  (1337),  Rowney  (1302,  1328),   V.C.H.  Herts. 
iv,  pp.  432,  434;  Arden  (1302,  1324),  Marrick  (1252),  Nunburnholme  (1314), 
Yedingham  (1280),  Basedale  (1304),  Hampole  (1268,  1280,  1308),  Handale 
(1318),  Nunappleton  (1306),  Swine  (1267,  1291,  1298),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
pp.   113,  117,  119,  127,  159,  163,  166,  171,  180;  all  in  Lincoln  or  York, 
For  mention  of  custodes  in  other  dioceses,  see  Cookhill  (1285),  Reg.  of  Godfrey 
Giffard  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  n,  p.  267;  St  Sepulchre's  Canterbury,  Davington, 
Usk,  Whitehall  (Ilchester),  Minchin  Barrow,  Easebourne,  St  Bartholomew's 
Newcastle,  King's  Mead,  Derby,  below,  pp.  231-5  passim.    The  frequency 
with  which  custodes  occur  in  houses  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  and  York  and 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  231 

Usually  the  custos  appointed  was  the  vicar  or  rector  of  some 
neighbouring  parish.  Archbishop  Romeyn,  for  instance,  placed 
Sinningthwaite,  Wilberfoss  and  Arthington  under  the  guardian 
ship  of  the  rectors  of  Kirk  Deighton,  Sutton-on-Derwent  and 
Kippax  respectively,  and  he  made  the  vicars  of  Thirkleby  and 
Bossall  successively  masters  of  Moxby1.  Bishop  Dalderby  of 
Lincoln  appointed  neighbouring  rectors  and  vicars  to  be  masters 
of  Legbourne,  Godstow,  Rowney,  Sewardsley,  Fosse,  Delapre, 
St  Leonard's  Grimsby,  and  Nuncoton2. 

Sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  canons  or  monks  of  religious 
houses  in  the  vicinity  were  charged  with  looking  after  the  affairs 
of  nunneries.  Swine  was  managed  by  Robert  de  Spalding,  a 
canon  of  the  Premonstratensian  house  of  Croxton,  and  in  1289- 
90  Archbishop  Romeyn  wrote  remonstrating  with  the  Abbot  of 
Croxton  for  recalling  him,  and  begging  that  he  might  be  allowed 
to  continue  at  Swine,  "cum  idem  vester  canonicus  proficuos 
labores  ibidem  impenderit  ad  relevacionem  probabilem  depres- 
sionis  notorie  dicte  domus";  but  the  capable  Robert  was  not 
allowed  to  return  and  in  1290  John  Bustard,  canon  of  St  Robert's 
Knaresborough,  was  appointed  in  his  place.  John  was  not  a 
success  and  the  next  year  the  Abbot  removed  him;  in  1295 
Robert  of  Spalding  became  master  again  and  in  1298  the  rector 
of  Londesborough  was  appointed3.  At  Catesby  in  1293  the  office 
of  master  was  held  by  a  certain  Robert  de  Warden,  a  canon  of 
Canons  Ashby,  who  had  apparently  left  the  nuns  and  gone 
back  to  his  own  house,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  nunnery, 
for  Bishop  Sutton  wrote  in  1293  to  the  Prior  of  Canons  Ashby, 
bidding  him  send  back  the  truant 4.  Similarly  a  canon  of  Wellow 
is  found  as  warden  of  St  Leonard's  Grimsby  in  1232  and  in 

their  rarity  in  other  dioceses  would  seem  to  support  the  theory  of  Gilbertine 
influence.  Of  the  cases  quoted  from  other  dioceses  all  are  either  custodes 
appointed  as  a  deliberate  policy  by  Archbishop  Peckham,  or  custodes 
appointed  to  meet  some  special  moral  or  financial  crisis,  not  regular  officials. 
King's  Mead,  Derby,  seems  to  be  the  only  nunnery  outside  the  two  dioceses 
of  York  and  Lincoln  (with  the  exception  of  those  in  direct  dependence  on 
a  house  of  monks)  which  started  its  career  under  the  joint  government  of 
a  custos  and  a  Prioress.  V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  43. 

1  Reg.  of  John  le  Romeyn  (Surtees  Soc.),  I,  pp.  xii,  xiii,  86,  125,  157,  180. 

2  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  ff .  23^,  37, 44, 6od,  jgd,  1 1 8d,  328^,  366, 
373'  3?8,  382,  388.    (These  comprise  two  appointments  to  Rowney,  Godstow 
and  Nuncoton;  the  dates  are  between  1301  and  1318.) 

3  Reg.  of  John  le  Romeyn,  i,  pp.  203-4,  209,  211,  217. 

4  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Sutton,  ff.  82^-83. 


232  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH. 

1303 l,  a  monk  of  Whitby  as  guardian  of  Handale  and  Basedale 
in  I2682,  a  canon  of  Newburgh  at  Arden  in  I3O23  and  a  canon  of 
Lincoln  at  Heynings  in  1291 :  concerning  the  latter  Bishop  Sutton 
wrote  to  the  nuns  that  since,  "because  of  private  business  and 
various  other  impediments  he  is  prevented  from  looking  after 
your  business  as  much  as  it  requires,  the  vicar  of  Upton  your 
neighbour  is  to  look  after  your  affairs  in  his  absence,"  and  in 
1294  he  was  definitely  replaced  by  the  rector  of  Blankney4.  It 
is  clear  from  this  letter  that  the  masters  of  nunneries  could  be 
non-resident  and  this  was  no  doubt  usually  the  case  when  the 
office  was  held  by  the  rector  of  a  neighbouring  parish.  Indeed 
sometimes  the  same  man  would  be  master  of  more  than  one 
nunnery ;  as  in  the  case  of  the  monk  of  Whitby  mentioned  above. 
It  was  probably  rare  after  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century  for  a  custos  to  reside  at  a  nunnery,  as  the  early  Cistercian 
priors  had  done5. 

The  appointment  of  custodes  to  manage  the  finances  of 
nunneries  was  a  favourite  policy  with  Archbishop  Peckham, 
doubtless  because  it  facilitated  the  enforcement  of  strict  en 
closure  upon  the  nuns.  At  Godstow  there  was  already 
at  the  time  a  master,  but  Peckham  also  gave  the  custody  of 
Davington  to  the  vicar  of  Faversham  in  1279,  and  ^at  of  HolY 
Sepulchre,  Canterbury,  to  the  vicar  of  Wickham  in  1284,  while 
at  Usk  in  1284  he  ordered  the  nuns  to  have  "some  senior  priest 
circumspect  in  temporal  and  in  spiritual  affairs  to  be,  with  the 
consent  of  the  diocesan,  master  of  all  your  goods,  internal  and 
external,  temporal  and  spiritual  "6.  At  other  times  a  custos  would 
be  appointed  to  meet  a  particular  difficulty  when  the  financial 
state  of  a  house  had  become  specially  weak.  About  1303,  for 

1  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  179.   But  in  1318  Dalderby  appointed  the  vicar 
of  Little  Coates,  loc.  cit.  i.  373.    Originally  St  Leonard's  Grimsby.  had  been 
placed  under  the  protection  of  the  canons  of  Wellow. 

2  Reg.  of  Archbishop  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  54- 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in.  p.  113. 

*  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Sutton,  ff.  25,  g2d. 

5  Sometimes  the  chaplain  of  the  house  must  have  acted  as  an  unofficial 
custos  and  sometimes  he  held  the  position  by  special  mandate,  e.g.  in  1285 
Bishop  Giffard  ordered  the  nuns  of  Cookhill  that  "  for  the  better  conduct  of 
temporal  business  and  for  the  increase  of  divine  praise,"  Thomas  their 
chaplain  was  to  have  full  charge  of  their  temporal  affairs.    Reg.  of  Godfrey 
Giffard  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  11.  p.  267. 

6  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  i,  pp.  72-3;  n,  pp.  708-9, 
in,  p.  806. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  233 

instance,  a  monk  of  Peterborough  was  made  for  a  season  special 
warden  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  "with  full  powers  over  the 
temporalities  and  of  adjudicating  and  ordering  all  temporal 
matters  both  within  and  without  the  convent  as  he  should  think 
profitable";  the  appointment  is  specially  interesting  because 
there  was  at  the  time  a  resident  prior  at  St  Michael's  and  the 
"spiritual  disposition  of  all  things  concerning  the  house"  is 
reserved  to  this  prior  and  to  the  prioress1.  A  more  serious  crisis 
occurred  at  the  Priory  of  White  Hall,  Ilchester,  which  was 
evidently  in  a  disorderly  condition  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.   In  1323  Bishop  John  of  Drokensford  wrote 
to  Henry  of  Birlaunde,  rector  of  Stoke  and  to  John  de  Herminal, 
announcing  that  the  Prioress,  Alice  de  Chilterne,  was  defamed 
of  incontinence  with  a  chaplain  and  had  so  mismanaged  and 
turned  to  her  own  nefarious  uses  the  revenues  of  the  house  that 
her  sisters  were  compelled  to  beg  their  bread ;  she  had  however 
submitted  herself  to  the  Bishop,  but  as  public  affairs  called  him 
to  London  and  as  he  did  not  wish  to  leave  the  nunnery  un 
provided  for,  he  committed  the  custody  to  these  two  men, 
ordering  them  to  administer  the  necessities  of  life  to  the  Prioress 
and  sisters,  according  to  the  means  of  the  house,  until  his  return2. 
I  Some  ten  years  later  Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  similarly 
i  gave  the  custody  of  White  Hall,  Ilchester,  to  the  rectors  of 
Limington  and  St  John's  Ilchester3.  The  nunnery  of  Barrow, 
near  Bristol,  was  also  in  a  disorderly  condition;  in  1315  John 
of  Drokensford  wrote  to  the  Prioress  ordering  her  to  leave  the 
I  management  of  secular  matters  to  a  custos  appointed  by  him, 
and  the  same  day  appointed  William  de  Sutton;  and  in  1324-5, 
when  he  had  been  obliged  to  remove  the  Prioress  Joanna  Gurney, 
I  he  committed  the  custody  of  the  house  to  William,  rector  of 
!  Backwell,  ordering  him  to  do  the  best  he  could  with  the  advice 
i  of  the  subprioress  and  one  of  the  nuns4.    More  often  sheer 
1  financial  distress,  rather  than  moral  disorder,  was  the  reason 
j  for  which  a  custos  was  appointed  to  a  house.    At  St  Sepulchre's 

1  V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  p.  99. 

2  V.C.H.  Somerset,  n,  p.  157.   Text  in  Hugo,  Medieval  Nunneries  of  the 
County  of  Somerset:  Whitehall  in  Ilchester,  App.  vn,  pp.  78-9. 

3  Reg.  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.),  p.  177. 

4  Hugo,  op.  cit.  Minchin  Barrow  Priory,  App.  n,  pp.  81-3.   With  these 
cases  compare  the  appointment  of  custodes  to  the  worldly  Prioress  of  Ease- 
bourne  in  1441.   See  above,  p.  77. 


234  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH.    i 

Canterbury,  the  rector  of  Whitstable  was  made  custos,  "by  'j 
reason  of  the  miserable  want  and  extreme  poverty  of  the  said 
house"  (1359)  and  f°r  tne  same  reason  another  secular  cleric  re 
ceived  the  "supervision,  custody  or  administration"  of  the  same 
house  in  1365 l.    In  1366  Thomas  Hatfield,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

pitying  the  miserable  state  of  St  Bartholomew's  at  Newcastle-on-    i 
Tyne,  both  as  to  spirituals  and  temporals,  and  dreading  the  immediate 
ruin  thereof,  unless  some  speedy  remedy  should  be  applied,  committed 
it  to  the  care  of  Hugh  de  Arnecliffe,  priest  in  the  church  of  St  Nicholas 
in  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  strictly  enjoining  the  prioress  and  nuns  to   ) 
be  obedient  to  him  in  every  particular  and  trusting  to  his  prudence 
to  find  relief  for  the  poor  servants  of  Christ  here,  in  their  poverty  and 
distress2. 

Sometimes  the  nuns  themselves  begged  for  a  custos  to  assist 
them,  in  terms  which  show  that  they  found  the  management 
of  their  own  finances  too  much  for  them.  At  Godstowin  1316  the  , 
King  was  obliged,  at  the  request  of  the  Abbess  and  nuns,  to 
take  the  Abbey  into  his  special  protection  "on  account  of  its 
miserable  state,"  and  he  appointed  the  Abbot  of  Eynsham  and 
the  Prior  of  Bicester  as  keepers,  ordering  them  to  pay  the  nuns 
a  certain  allowance  and  to  apply  the  residue  to  the  discharging 
of  their  debts  3.  Similarly  in  1327  the  Prioress  and  nuns  of  King's 
Mead,  Derby,  represented  themselves  as  much  reduced,  and 
begged  the  King  to  take  the  house  into  his  special  protection,  .1 
granting  the  custody  of  it  to  Robert  of  Alsop  and  Simon  of 
Little  Chester,  until  it  should  be  relieved.  Three  months  later 
Edward  III  granted  it  protection  for  three  years  and  appointed 
Robert  of  Alsop  and  Simon  of  Little  Chester  custodians,  who, 
after  due  provision  for  the  sustenance  of  the  prioress  and  nuns, 
were  to  apply  the  issues  and  rents  to  the  discharge  of  the  liabilities 
of  the  house  and  to  the  improvement  of  its  condition4.  Some  : 
interesting  evidence  in  this  connection  was  given  during  Alnwick's 
visitations  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln.  When  Clemence  Medforde, 
the  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  was  asked  whether  she  had  observed 
the  Bishop's  injunctions,  she  answered 

that  such  injunctions  were,  and  are,  well  observed  as  regards  both 
her  and  her  sisters  in  effect  and  according  to  their  power,  except  the 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  413. 

1  Ib.  iv,  p.  485.  8  V.C.H.  Oxon.  u,  p.  73. 

*   V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  pp.  43-4  (from  Ancient  Petitions,  No.  11730);  cf. 
Col.  Pat.  Rolls,  1327-30,  p.  139.   See  above,  p.  180. 


v]  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  235 

injunction  whereby  she  is  bound  to  supply  to  her  sisters  sufficient 
raiment  for  their  habits,  and  as  touching  the  non-observance  of  that 
injunction  she  answers  that  she  cannot  observe  it,  because  of  the 
poverty  and  insufficiency  of  the  resources  of  the  house,  which  have 
been  much  lessened  by  reason  of  the  want  of  a  surveyor  or  steward 
(yconomus).  Wherefore  she  besought  my  lord's  good- will  and  assist 
ance  that  he  would  deign  with  charitable  consideration  to  make 
provision  of  such  steward  or  director.... And  when  these  nuns,  all  and 
several,  had  been  so  examined  and  were  gathered  together  again  in 
the  chapter  house,  the  said  Depyng  (the  Visitor)  gave  consideration 
to  two  grievances,  wherein  the  priory  and  nuns  alike  suffer  no  small 
damage,  the  which,  as  he  affirmed,  were  worthy  of  reform  above  the 
rest  of  those  that  stood  most  in  need  of  reform,  to  wit  the  lack  of 
raiment  for  the  habit,  of  bedclothes  and  of  a  steward  or  seneschal, 
but  in  these  matters,  as  he  averred,  he  could  not  apply  a  remedy  for 
the  nonce  without  riper  deliberation  and  consultation  with  my  lord1. 

Similarly  the  old  Prioress  of  St  Michael's  Stamford,  when  asking 
for  the  appointment  of  two  nuns  as  treasuresses,  complained  "that 
she  herself  is  impotent  to  rule  temporalities,  nor  have  they  an 
industrious  man  to  supervise  these  and  to  raise  and  receive 
(external  payments)";  another  nun  said  that  "they  have  not 
a  discreet  layman  to  rule  their  temporalities,"  and  a  third 
also  complained  of  the  lack  of  a  "receiver"2.  At  Gokewell,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Prioress  said  "  that  the  rector  of  Flixborough 
is  their  steward  (yconomus)  and  he  looks  after  the  temporalities 
and  not  she";  he  was  evidently  a  true  friend  to  the  nuns,  for 
she  said  "that  the  house  does  not  exceed  £ioin  rents  and  is 
greatly  in  debt  to  the  rector  of  Flixborough"3.  The  terms  of 
!  appointment  of  custodes  often  specify  the  inexpertness  of  the 
nuns,  or  their  need  for  someone  to  supervise  the  management 
I  of  their  estates4.  Perhaps  the  fullest  set  of  instructions  to  a 
\custos  which  have  survived  are  those  given  by  Archbishop  Melton 
|to  Roger  de  Saxton,  rector  of  Aberford,  in  making  him  custos 
!of  Kirklees  in  1317: 

Trusting  in  your  industry,  we  by  tenour  of  the  present  (letters)  give 
you  power  during  our  pleasure  to  look  after,  guard  and  administer 
| the  temporal  possessions  of  our  beloved  religious  ladies,  the  Prioress 
land  convent  of  Kirklees  in  our  diocese,  throughout  their  manors  and 
;  buildings  (loco)  wherever  these  be,  and  to  receive  and  hear  the  account 
of  all  servants  and  ministers  serving  in  the  same,  and  to  make  those 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  7.  2  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  39  d. 

3  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  117. 

4  See  e.g.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  113,  117,  119- 


236  FINANCIAL  DIFFICULTIES  [CH.  v 

payments  (allocandum)  which  by  reason  ought  to  be  made,  as  well 
as  to  remove  all  useless  ministers  and  servants  and  to  appoint  in  their 
place  others  of  greater  utility,  and  to  do  all  other  things  which  shall 
seem  to  you  to  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  place,  firmly  enjoining  the 
said  prioress  and  convent,  as  well  as  the  sisters  and  lay  brothers  of  : 
the  house,  in  virtue  of  holy  obedience,  that  they  permit  you  freely 
to  administer  in  all  and  each  of  the  aforesaid  matters1. 

9 

It  must  have  been  of  great  assistance  to  the  worried  and  in 
competent  nuns  to  have  a  reliable  guardian  thus  to  look  after 
their  temporal  affairs,  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the 
practice  of  having  a  resident  prior  died  out  at  the  Cistercian 
houses  and  at  Benedictine  houses  (e.g.  St  Michael's,  Stamford) 
which  had  such  an  official  in  the  thirteenth  and  early  fourteenth 
centuries.  Even  the  appointment  of  neighbouring  rectors  as 
custodes  of  nunneries  in  the  York  and  Lincoln  dioceses  ceased, ' 
apparently,  to  be  common  by  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century2.  It  is  a  curious  anomaly  that  this  remedy  should  have 
been  applied  less  and  less  often  during  the  very  centuries  when 
the  nunneries  were  becoming  increasingly  poor,  and  stood  daily 
in  greater  need  of  external  assistance  in  the  management  of 
their  temporal  affairs. 

1  Yorks.  Arch.  Journal,  xvi,  p.  362. 

2  It  will  be  noticed  that  all  the  references  to  custodes  given  on  p.  230, 
note  8,  belong  to  the  thirteenth  and  early  fourteenth  centuries;  appoint-1 
ments  at  a  later  date  are  generally  made  to  meet  some  regular  crisis.  There 
are  no  references  to  the  Prior  of  St  Michael's  Stamford  in  the  later  account 
rolls  of  that  house,  though  one  or  two  rolls  belonging  to  the  beginning  of'. 
the  century  mention  him.   One  of  the  few  references  to  the  regular  appoint 
ment  of  a  master  in  a  Cistercian  house  after  the  first  quarter  of  the  four-: 
teenth  century  is  at  Legbourne,  where  "later  Lincoln  regulations  record  thei 
appointment  of  several  masters  from  1294-1343  and  in  1366  the  same  official 
is  apparently  called  an  yconomus  of  Legbourne"  (V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  i54»k 
note  i).  The  will  of  Adam,  vicar  of  Hallington,  "  custos  sive  magister  domus 
monialium  de  Legbourne,"  dated  1345,  has  been  preserved.  Gibbons,  Early'i 
Lincoln  Wills,  p.  17.    The  yconomus  of  Gokewell  in  1440  is  a  very  late  in-* 
stance.    (Compare  Bokyngham's  advice  to  the  Abbess  of  Elstow  in  1387; 
above,  p.  228.)    Much  the  same  function  as  that  of  the  custos,  was,  however,;: 
probably  performed  by  the  steward  (senescallus] ,  an  official  often  mentioned 
during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 


CHAPTER  VI 
EDUCATION 

Abstinence  the  abbesse  myn  a.  b.  c.  me  tau3te. 

Piers  Plowman. 

THE  Benedictine  ideal  set  study  together  with  prayer  and  labour 
as  the  three  bases  of  monastic  life  and  in  the  short  golden  age  of 
English  monasticism  women  as  well  as  men  loved  books  and 
learning.  The  tale  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  nuns  who  corresponded 
with  St  Boniface  has  often  been  told.  Eadburg,  Abbess  of 
Thanet,  wrote  the  Epistles  of  St  Peter  for  him  in  letters  of  gold 
and  sent  books  to  him  in  the  wilds  of  Germany.  Bugga,  Abbess 
of  a  Kentish  house,  exchanged  books  with  him.  The  charming 
Lioba,  educated  by  the  nuns  of  Wimborne,  sent  him  verses 
which  she  had  composed  in  Latin,  which  "divine  art"  the  nun 
Eadburg  had  taught  her,  and  begged  him  to  correct  the  rusticity 
of  her  style.  Afterwards  she  came  into  Germany  to  help  him 
and  became  Abbess  of  Bischofsheim  and  her  biographer  tells  how 

she  was  so  bent  on  reading  that  she  never  laid  aside  her  book  except 
to  pray  or  to  strengthen  her  slight  frame  with  food  and  sleep.  From 
childhood  upwards  she  had  studied  grammar  and  the  other  liberal 
[arts,  and  hoped  by  perseverance  to  attain  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
|  religion,  for  she  was  well  aware  that  the  gifts  of  nature  are  doubled 
!by  study.  She  zealously  read  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
jments  and  committed  their  divine  precepts  to  memory;  but  she 
ifurther  added  to  the  rich  store  of  her  knowledge  by  reading  the 

,  iwritings  of  the  holy  Fathers,  the  canonical  decrees  and  the  laws  of 

;•  'the  Church. 

:  iSo  also  an  anonymous  Anglo-Saxon  nun  of  Heidenheim  wrote 
(the  lives  of  Willibald  and  Wunebald1. 

|  The  Anglo-Saxon  period  seems,  however,  to  have  been  the 
ionly  one  during  which  English  nuns  were  at  all  conspicuous 
for  learning.  There  is  indeed  very  scant  material  for  writing  their 
|history  between  the  Norman  Conquest  and  the  last  years  of 
|the  thirteenth  century,  when  Bishops'  Registers  begin.  It  is 

^H^H  • 

1  See  account  in  L.  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Monasticism,  ch.  iv. 


238  EDUCATION  [CH. 

never  safe  to  argue  from  silence  and  some  nuns  may  still  have 
busied  themselves  over  books ;  but  two  facts  are  significant :  we 
have  no  trace  of  women  occupying  themselves  with  the  copying 
and  illumination  of  manuscripts  and  no  nunnery  produced  a 
chronicle.  The  chronicles  are  the  most  notable  contribution  of 
the  monastic  houses  to  learning  from  the  eleventh  to  the  four 
teenth  centuries;  and  some  of  the  larger  nunneries,  such  as 
Romsey,  Lacock,  and  Shaftesbury,  received  many  visitors  and 
must  have  heard  much  that  was  worth  recording,  besides  the 
humbler  annals  of  their  own  houses.  But  they  recorded  nothing. 
The  whole  trend  of  medieval  thoughlwasjigainstleamed-women 
ancl  even  in  Benedictine  nunneries,  for  which  a  period  of  study 
was  enjoined  by  the  rule,  it  was  evidently  considered  altogether 
outside  the  scope  of  women  to  concern  themselves  with  writing. 
While  the"  monks  composed  chronicles,  the  nuns  embroidered 
copes;  and  those  who  sought  the  gift  of  a  manuscript  from  the 
monasteries,  sought  only  the  gift  of  needlework  from  the  nunneries. 
It  is  not,  perhaps,  surprising  that  the  nuns  should  have 
written  no  chronicles  and  copied  few,  if  any,  haoks^JBiit  it  is 
surprising  that  England  should  after  the  eighth  century  be  able 
to-~Srrowr  so  little  recordjof  gifted. individuals.  Even  if  the  rule 
of  a  professedly  learned  order  were  unlikely  to  prevail  against 
the  general  trend  of  civilisation  and  to  produce  learned  women, 
still  it  might  have  been  expected  that  here  and  there  a  genius, 
or  a  woman  of  some  talent  for  authorship,  might  have  flourished 
in  that  favourable  soil ;  or  even  that  a  whole  house  might  have 
enjoyed  for  a  brief  halcyon  period  the  zest  for  learning,  when 
"alle  was  buxomnesse  there  and  bokes  to  rede  and  to  lerne." 
In  Germany,  at  various  periods  of  the  middle  ages,  this  did 
happen.  The  Abbey  of  Gandersheim  in  Saxony  was  renowned 
for  learning  in  the  tenth  century  and  here  lived  and  flourished 
the  nun  Roswitha,  who  not  only  wrote  religious  legends  in 
Latin  verse,  but  even  composed  seven  dramas  in  the  style  of 
Terence,  a  poem  on  the  Emperor  Otto  the  Great  and  a  history 
of  her  own  nunnery.  From  the  internal  evidence  of  her  works 
it  has  been  thought  that  this  nun  was  directly  familiar  with  the 
works  of  Virgil,  Lucan,  Horace,  Ovid,  Terence  and  perhaps 
Plautus,  Prudentius,  Sedulius,  Fortunatus,  MartianusCapella  and 
Boethius;  but  apart  from  this  evidence  of  learning,  her  plays 


vi]  EDUCATION  239 

show  her  to  have  been  a  woman  of  originality  and  some  genius ; 
they  are  strange  productions  to  have  emanated  from  a  tenth 
century  convent1.  It  was  in  Germany  again,  at  Hohenburg  in 
Alsace,  that  the  Abbess  Herrad  in  the  twelfth  century  compiled 
and  decorated  with  exquisite  illuminations  the  great  encyclo 
pedia  known  as  the  Hortus  Deliciarum.  This  book,  one  of  the 
finest  manuscripts  which  had  survived  from  the  middle  ages  and 
a  most  invaluable  source  of  information  for  the  manners  and 
appearance  of  the  people  of  Herrad's  day,  was  destroyed  in  the 
German  bombardment  of  Strasburg  in  1870 2.  The  same  century 
saw  the  lives  of  the  two  great  nun-mystics,  St  Hildegard  of 
Bingen  and  St  Elisabeth  of  Schonau,  who  saw  visions,  dreamed 
dreams  and  wrote  them  down3.  In  the  next  century  the  convent 
of  Helfta  in  Saxony  was  the  home  of  several  literary  nuns  and 
mystics  and  was  distinguished  for  culture;  its  nuns  collected 
books,  copied  them,  illuminated  them,  learned  and  wrote  Latin, 
and  three  of  them,  the  beguine  Mechthild,  the  nun  Saint 
Mechthild  von  Hackeborn  and  the  nun  Gertrud  the  Great,  have 
won  considerable  fame  by  their  mystic  writings 4.  Even  in  the 
decadent  fifteenth  century  examples  are  not  wanting  of  German 
nuns  who  were  keenly  interested  in  learning;  and  in  the  early 
sixteenth  century  Charitas  Pirckheimer,  nun  of  St  Clare  at 
I  Nuremberg  and  sister  of  the  humanist  Wilibald  Pirckheimer, 
!  was  in  close  relations  with  her  brother  and  with  many  of  his 
friends  and  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  new  learning5. 

It  is  strange  that  in  England  there  is  no  record  of  any  house 
j  which  can  compare  with  Gandersheim,  Hohenburg  or  Helfta;  no 
I  record  of  any  nun  to  compare  with  the  learned  women  and  great 
I  mystics  who  have  been  mentioned.  The  air  of  th_e_J£nglisli-- 

!  nunneries  would  seem  to  have  beerL..ujifavoural>le  to  learning. 

[The  sole  works  ascriBeoT't 6" "monastic  authoresses  are  a  Life  of 

\  St  Catherine,  written  in  Norman-French  by  Clemence,  a  nun  of 

Barking,  in  the  late  twelfth  century6,  and  The  Boke  of  St  Albans, 

1  L.  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Monasticism,  ch.  iv,  pp.  160  ff. 

2  Ib.  pp.  238  fit.  3  Ib.  pp.  256  ff.  4  Ib.  pp.  328  ff. 

5  Ib.  pp.  416,  419,  428,  458  ff. 

6  See  Romania  xm  (1884),  pp.  400-3. 

"Je  ke  la  vie  ai  translatee 
Par  nun  sui  Climence  numee, 
De  Berekinge  sui  nunain; 
Par  s'amur  pris  ceste  oevre  en  main." 


240  EDUCATION  [CH. 

a  treatise  on  hawking,  hunting  and  coat  armour,  printed  in  1486, 
by  one  Dame  Juliana  Berners,  whom  a  vague  and  unsubstantiated 
tradition  declares  to  have  been  Prioress  of  Sopwell.  Nor  do 
nuns  seem  to  have  been  more  active  in  copying  manuscripts. 
Several  beautiful  books,  which  have  come  down  to  our  own  day, 
can  be  traced  to  nunneries,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  they 
were  written  there  and  all  other  evidence  makes  it  highly  im 
probable  that  they  were.  It  is  true  that  in  1335  we  find  this 
entry  among  the  issues  of  the  Exchequer: 

To  Isabella  de  Lancaster,  a  nun  of  Amesbury,  in  money  paid  to  her 
by  the  hands  of  John  de  Gynewell  for  payment  of  100  marks,  which 
the  lord  the  King  commanded  to  be  paid  her  for  a  book  of  romance 
purchased  from  her  for  the  King's  use,  which  remains  in  the  chamber 
of  the  lord  the  King,  66  1.  13  s.  4  d1, 

but  it  is  unlikely  that  the  book  thus  purchased  by  the  King 
from  his  noble  kinswoman  wasjier  own  work. 

This  period  of  the  later  agesVas,  indeed,  unfavourable  to 
learning  among  monks  ^s~w^ts~"among  nuns.  As  the  univer 
sities  grew,  so  the  monasteries  declined  in  lustre;  learning  had. 
no  longer  need  to  seek  refuge  behind  cloister  walls,  and  the  mo&4 
promising  monks  now  went  to  the^universities,  instead  of  studying 
at  home  in  their  own  houses.  The  standard  of  the  chronicles 
rapidly  declined  and  the  best  chronicler  of  the  fourteenth  century 
was  not  a  monk  like  Matthew  Paris,  but  a  secular,  a  wanderer, 
a  hanger-on  of  princes,  Froissart.  As  the  fifteenth  century  passed 
learning  declined  still  further;  and  it  is  evident  from  the  visita 
tions  of  the  time  that  the  monks,  whatever  else  they  might  be, 
were  not  scholars.  We  should  expect  the  decline  in  learning  to  be 
more  marked  still  among  the  nuns,  considering  how  little  they 
had  possessed  in  preceding  centuries;  and  the  matter  is  worth 
some  study,  because  it  concerns  not  only  the  education  of  the 
nuns  themselves,  but  the  education  which  they  were  qualified 
to  give  to  the  children  who  were  sent  to  school  with  them. 

A  word  may  first  be  said  on  the  subject  of  nunnery  libraries. 
Concerning  these  we  have  very  little  information;  and,  such  as 
it  is  it  does  not  leave  the  impression  that  nunneries  were  rich 
in  books.  No  catalogue  of  a  nunnery  library2  has  come  down  t< 

i  Devon,  Issues  of  the  Exchequer,  p.  M4- 

»  There  does  exist  a  catalogue  of  Syon  library,  but  unluckily  !t  is  that 
of  the  brothers'  library  and  the  catalogue  of  the  sisters'  library  is  missing, 


vi]  EDUCATION  241 

us  and  such  references  to  libraries  as  occur  in  inventories  show 
great  poverty  in  this  respect,  the  books  being  few  and  chiefly 
service-books.  An  inventory  of  the  small  and  poor  convent  of 
Easebourne,  taken  in  1450,  shows  what  was  doubtless  quite  a 
large  library  for  a  house  of  its  size.  It  contained  two  missals, 
two  portiforia  (breviaries),  four  antiphoners,  one  large  Legenda, 
eight  psalters,  one  book  of  collects,  one  tropary,  one  French 
Bible,  two  ordinalia  in  French,  one  book  of  the  Gospels  and  one 
martyrology1.  The  inventories  of  Henry  VIII's  commissioners 
give  very  little  information  as  to  books  and  seem  to  have  found 
few  that  were  of  any  value.  The  books  found  at  Sheppey  are 
thus  described:  "ij  bokes  with  ij  sylver  elapses  the  pece,  and  vj 
bokes  with  one  sylver  clasp  a  pec,  1  bokes  good  and  bad"  (in 
the  church),  "  vij  bokes,  whereof  one  goodly  mase  boke  of  parche- 
ment  and  dyvers  other  good  bokes"  (in  the  vestry),  and  "an 
olde  presse  full  of  old  boks  of  no  valew"  (in  a  chapel  in  the 
churchyard)  and  "a  boke  of  Saynts  lyfes"  (in  the  parlour)2.  At 
Kilburn  were  found  "two  books  of  Legenda  Aurea,  one  in  print, 
the  other  written,  both  English,  ^d." ;  the  one  in  print  must  have 
been  Caxton's  edition,  thus  valued,  together  with  a  manuscript, 
at  something  like  6s.  Sd.  in  present  money  for  the  pair!  Also 
"two  mass  books,  one  old  written,  the  other  in  print,  2od.,  four 
processions  in  parchment  (35.)  and  paper  (iod.),  two  Legends 
in  parchment  and  paper,  8^.,  and  two  chests,  with  divers  books 
pertaining  to  the  church,  of  no  value"3.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  books  are  almost  always  connected  with  the  church  services. 
It  is  perhaps  significant  tliat  in  qnly_one  list  of  the  inmates 
of  a  hotrse  is  a  nun  specifically  described  as  librarian4. 

\  it  was  probably  a  good  one  since  we  have  notice  of  several  books  written  for 
j  them.  See  M.  Bateson,  Cat.  of  the  Lib.  of  Syon  Mon.  (1898).  Only  three 
i  continental  library  catalogues  survive,  of  which  two  are  printed  and  acces- 
>  sible;  one  is  of  the  library  of  the  Dominican  nuns  of  Nuremberg,  made 
I  between  1456-69  and  containing  350  books,  the  other  belonged  to  the 
,  Franciscan  tertiaries  of  Delft  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century 
j  and  contained  109  books;  the  third  comes  from  the  women's  cloister  at 
I  Wonnenstein  in  1498.  See  M.  Deanesly,  The  Lollard  Bible,  pp.  110-5. 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  12. 

2  Mackenzie,  Walcott,  Inventories  of,.. the  Ben.  Priory... of  Shepey  for 
Nuns,  pp.  21,  23,  28. 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  424. 

4  At  a  visitation  of  St  Mary's  Winchester  by  Dr  Hede  in  1501,  "Elia 
Pitte,  librarian,  was  also  well  satisfied  with  that  which  was  in  her  charge." 
V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  p.  124. 

P.N.  16 


242  EDUCATION  [CH. 

Something  may  be  gleaned  also  from  the  legacies  of  books 
left  to  nuns  in  medieval  wills.  These  again  are  nearly  always 
psalters  or  service  books  of  one  kind  or  another;  and  indeed 
the  average  layman  was  more  likely  to  possess  these  than  other 
books,  for  all  alike  attended  the  services  of  the  church.  Thus 
Sir  Robert  de  Roos  in  1392  leaves  his  daughter,  a  nun,  "a  little 
psalter,  that  was  her  mother's"1;  Sir  William  de  Thorp  in  1391 
leaves  his  sister-in-law,  a  nun  of  Greenfield,  a  psalter2;  William 
Stow  of  Ripon  in  1430  leaves  the  Prioress  of  Nunmonkton  a 
small  psalter3,  William  Overton  of  Helmsley  in  1481  leaves  his 
niece  Elena,  a  nun  of  Arden,  "one  great  Primer  with  a  cover  of 
red  damask  "  4,  and  so  on.  There  may  be  some  significance  in  the 
fact  that  John  Burn,  chaplain  at  York  Cathedral,  leaves  the 
Prioress  and  Convent  of  Nunmonkton  "  an  English  book  of  Pater 
Noster"5.  It  strikes  a  strange  and  pleasant  note  when  Thomas 
Reymound  in  1418  leaves  the  Prioress  and  Convent  of  Polsloe 
2os.  and  the  Liber  Gestorum  Karoli,  Regis  Francie6,  and  when 
Eleanor  Roos  of  York  in  1438  leaves  Dame  Joan  Courtenay 
"  unum  librum  vocatum  Mauldebuke,"  whatever  that  mysterious 
tome  may  have  contained7. 

Some  light  is  also  thrown  backward  upon  their  possessors 
by  isolated  books  which  have  come  down  to  our  own  day  and 
are  known  to  have  belonged  to  nuns.  These  come  mostly,  as 
might  be  expected,  from  the  great  abbeys  of  the  south,  where 
the  nuns  were  rich  and  of  good  birth,  from  Syon  and  Barking, 
Amesbury,  Wilton  and  Shaftesbury,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  and 
Wherwell8.  Sometimes  the  MS.  records  the  name  of  the  nun 
owner.  Wright  and  Halliwell  quote  from  a  Latin  breviary,  in 

Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  179.  *  Sharpe,  Cal.  of  Wills,  11,  p.  327. 

Test.  Ebor.  n,  p.  13.  4  Ib.  in,  p.  262. 

Ib.  in,  p.  199.  See  an  interesting  list  of  books  left  by  Peter,  vicar  of 
Swine,  to  Swine  Priory  some  time  after  1380.  King's  Descrip.  Cat.  MS.  18. 

Reg.  Stafford  of  Exeter,  p.  419.  7  Test.  Ebor.  n,  p.  66. 

For  Barking  books  (including  a  book  of  English  religious  treatises) 
see  M.  Deanesly,  The  Lollard  Bible,  pp.  337-9.  Besides  the  books  mentioned 
in  the  text  there  are  fine  psalters  written  for  nuns  at  St  Mary's  Winchester, 
Amesbury  and  Wilton  in  the  libraries  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  All 
Souls  College,  Oxford,  and  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  respectively. 
There  is  an  interesting  book  in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum,  Cambridge  (McClean 
MS.  123),  which  belonged  to  Nuneaton;  it  contains  (i)  the  metrical  Bestiary 
of  William  the  Norman,  (2)  the  Chasteau  d' Amours  of  Robert  Grosseteste, 
(3)  exposition  of  the  Paternoster,  (4)  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  (5)  Apocalypse 
with  pictures,  (6)  Poema  Morale,  etc. 


vi]  EDUCATION  243 

which  is  an  inscription  to  the  effect  that  it  belonged  to  Alice 
Champnys,  nun  of  Shaftesbury,  who  bought  it  for  the  sum  of 
los.  from  Sir  Richard  Marshall,  rector  of  the  parish  church  of 
St  Rumbold  of  Shaftesbury.  There  follows  this  prayer  for  the 
use  of  the  nun: 

Trium  puerorum  cantemus  himnum  quern  cantabant  in  camino  ignis 
benedicentes  dominum.  O  swete  Jhesu,  the  sonne  of  God,  the  endles 
swetnesse  of  hevyn  and  of  erthe  and  of  all  the  worlde,  be  in  my  herte, 
in  my  mynde,  in  my  wytt,  in  my  wylle,  now  and  ever  more,  Amen. 
Jhesu  mercy,  Jhesu  gramercy,  Jhesu  for  thy  mercy,  Jhesu  as  I  trust 
to  thy  mercy,  Jhesu  as  thow  art  fulle  of  mercy,  Jhesu  have  mercy 
on  me  and  alle  mankynde  redemyd  with  thy  precyouse  blode.  Jhesu, 
Amen 1. 

A  manuscript  of  Capgrave's  Life  of  St  Katharine  of  Alexandria, 
which  belonged  to  Katherine  Babyngton,  subprioress  of  Campsey 
in  Suffolk,  has  a  very  different  inscription: 

Iste  liber  est  ex  dono  Kateryne  Babyngton  quondam  subpriorisse 
de  Campseye  et  si  quis  ilium  alienauerit  sine  licencia  vna  cum  con- 
sensu  dictarum  [sanctimonialium]  conuentus,  malediccionem  del 
omnipotentis  incurrat  et  anathema  sit2. 

Sometimes  the  owner  of  a  manuscript  is  known  to  us  from  other 
sources.  There  is  a  splendid  psalter,  now  in  St  John's  College, 
I  Cambridge,  which  belonged  to  the  saintly  Euphemia,  Abbess  of 
iWherwell  from  1226  to  1257,  whose  good  deeds  were  celebrated 
in  the  chartulary  of  the  house3.  In  the  Hunterian  Library  at 
Glasgow  there  is  a  copy  of  the  first  English  translation  of  Thomas 
ja  Kempis's  Imitatio  Christi,  which  belonged  to  Elizabeth  Gibbs, 
JAbbess  of  Syon  from  1497  to  1518;  it  is  inscribed 

|0  vos  omnes  sorores  et  ffratres  presentes  et  futuri,  orate  queso  pro 
Ivenerabili  matre  nostra  Elizabeth  Gibbis,  huius  almi  Monasterii 
'Abbessa  [sic],  necnon  pro  deuoto  ac  religioso  viro  Dompno  Willielmo 
[Darker,  in  artibus  Magistro  de  domo  Bethleem  prope  sheen  ordinis 
Cartuciensis,  qui  pro  eadem  domina  Abbessa  hunc  librum  conscripsit ; 

Ithe  date  1502  is  given  4. 

1  Wright  and  Halliwell,  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  n,  p.  117. 

2  Capgrave,  Life  of  St  Katharine  of  Alexandria,  ed.  Horstmann  (E.E.T.S. 
:i893),  Introd.  p.  xxix. 

3  St  John's  Coll.  MS.  68.   Other  psalters  from  the  aristocratic  house  of 
Wherwell  are  MS.  add.  27866  at  the  British  Museum  and  MS.  McClean  45 
it  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum,  Cambridge. 

'•  MS.  136  (T.  6.  1 8).  See  J.  Young  and  P.  Henderson  Aitkin,  Cat.  of 
MSS.  in  the  Lib.  of  the  Hunterian  Museum  in  the  Univ.  of  Glasgow  (1908). 
Jo.  124.  In  the  introduction  the  book  is  conjectured  to  have  belonged  to  the 

1 6— 2 


244  EDUCATION  [CH, 

The  books  known  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of  nuns 
throw,  as  will  be  seen,  but  a  dim  light  upon  the  educational 
attainments  of  their  owners.  More  specific  evidence  must  be 
sought  in  bishops'  registers,  and  in  such  references  to  the  state 
of  learning  in  nunneries  as  occur  in  the  works  of  contemporary 
Writers.  Itjs  clear  that  nuns  were,  expected  to  be  "literate 
bishops  sending  new  inmates  to  convents  occasionally  assure 
their  prospective  heads  that  the  girls  are  able  to  undertake  the 
duties  of  their  new  state1.  What  to  be  sufficiently  lettered 
meant,  from  the  convent  point  of  view,  appears  in  injunctions 
sent  to  the  Premonstratensian  house  of  Irford,  forbidding  the 
reception  of  any  nun  "save  after  such  fashion  as  they  are 
received  at  Irford  and  Brodholme,  to  wit  that  they  be  able; 
to  read  and  to  sing,  as  is  contained  in  the  statute  of  the! 
order"2;  and  again  in  injunctions  sent  by  Bishop  Gray  to  Elstow 
about  1432: 

We  enjoin  and  charge  you  the  abbess  and  who  so  shall  succeed  you...] 
that  henceforward  you  admit  no  one  to  be  a  nun  of  the  said  monastery 
...unless  she  be  taught  in  song  and  reading  and  the  other  things 
requisite  herein,  or  probably  may  be  easily  instructed  within  a  short 
time3. 

Further  light  is  thrown  on  the  question  by  an  episode  in  thei 
life  of  Thomas  de  la  Mare,  Abbot  of  St  Albans  from  1349(1 
to  1396.  At  that  time  the  subordinate  nunnery  of  St  Mary  de 
Pre  consisted  of  two  grades  of  inmates,  nuns  and  sisters,  who- 
were  never  on  good  terms.  The  Abbot  accordingly  transformed 
the  sisters  into  nuns  and  ordained  that  no  more  sisters  should 
be  received,  but  only  "literate  nuns."  But  hitherto  the  nuns 
also  had  been  illiterate;  "they  said  no  service,  but  in  the  place< 
of  the  Hours  they  said  certain  Lord's  Prayers  and  Angelicj 
Salutations."  The  Abbot  therefore  ordered  that  they  should  be 

Carthusian  monastery  at  Sheen,  where  it  obviously  was  written;  but  the 
reference  to  "sorores  et  ffratres"  and  the  name  of  Elizabeth  Gibbs  (see 
Blunt,  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  xxiii),  show  clearly  that  it 
belonged  to  Syon. 

1  So  John  of  Pontoise  sends  Juliana  de  Spina  to  Romsey  on  the  occasion 
of  his  consecration  (1282),  with  the  recommendation  "  Ejusdem  Juliane 
competenter  ad  hujusmodi  officii  debitum  litterate  laudabile  propositunc 
speciali  gracia  prosequentes,  etc."  Reg.  J.  de  Pontissara  (Cant,  and  York 
Soc.),  i,  p.  240.  Cp.  ib.  p.  252. 

*  Collectanea  Anglo-Praemonstratensia,  n,  p.  267. 

3  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  53. 


vi]  EDUCATION  245 

taught  the  service  and  that  in  future  they  should  observe  the 
canonical  hours,  saying  them  without  chanting,  but  singing  the 
offices  for  the  dead  at  certain  times.  Since  they  had  apparently 
no  books,  from  which  to  read  the  services,  he  gave  them  six 
or  seven  ordinals,  belonging  to  the  Abbey  of  St  Albans,  which 
caused  not  a  little  annoyance  among  the  monks.  In  order  that 
nuns  should  not  be  rashly  and  easily  admitted,  he  ordered  that 
henceforth  all  who  entered  the  house  were  to  profess  the  rule 
of  St  Benedict  in  writing1. 

The  requirements  seem  to  be  tJiaJLJ&£.jmn  should  be  able 
to  take  pafflrrfrTe^aily"  ofiices  in  the  quire,  for  which  reading 
and  singing  were  essential.  It  was  not,  it  should  be  noted, 
essential  to  write,  though  Abbot  Thomas  de  la  Mare  required 
the  nuns  of  SI'' Mary"  de  Pre  to  profess  the  rule  in  writing  and 
about  1330  the  nuns  of  Sopwell  (another  dependency  of  St  Albans) 
were  enjoined  by  the  commissary  of  a  previous  Abbot  to  give 
their  votes  for  a  new  Prioress  in  writing2.  Nevertheless,  strange 
as  this  may  appear  to  many  who  are  wont  to  credit  the  nuns 
with  teaching  reading,  writing,  arithmetic  and  a  number  of  other 
accomplishments  to  their  pupils,  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the 
nuns  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were  unable  to 

I 

j  write.  The  form  of  profession  of  three  novices  at  Rusper  in  1484 

has  survived  and  ends  with  the  note  "Et  quelibet  earum  fecit 

tale  signum  crucis  manu  sua  propria  >{<"3  which  might  possibly 

imply  that   these   nuns  could   not  write  their  names.    It  is 

I  significant  that  the  official  business  of  convents,  their  annual 

|  accounts  and  any  certificates  which  they  might  have  to  draw 

|  up,  were  done  by  professional  clerks,  or  sometimes  by  their 

I  chaplains.    Payment  to  the  clerk  who  made  the  account  occurs 

;  regularly  in  their  account  rolls;  and  the  Visitations  of  Bishop 

Alnwick,  to  which  reference  will  be  made  below,  show  that  they 

1  Gesta  Abbatum  (Rolls  Ser.  1867),  n,  pp.  410-2.    But  professions  were 
often  written  by  others,  and  the  postulant  only  put  his  or  her  cross.   So  also 
with  the  vote. 

2  Ib.  n,  p.  213.  This  was  a  not  uncommon  method  of  voting.   It  is  clear, 
too,  from  prohibitions  of  letter- writing  in  various  injunctions  that  nuns 
could  sometimes  write. 

3  Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  v,  p.  256.    Compare  the  editor's  note  on  the 
education  of  Christina  von  Stommeln:  "  Simul  cum  psalterio  videtur  tantum 
didicisse  linguae  latinae,  quantum  satis  erat  non  solum  illi  legendo,  sed  etiam 
epistolis  ad  se  Latine  scriptis  pro  parte  intelligendis,  ac  vicissim  dictandis : 
nam  scribendi  ignoram  fuisse  habeo."    Ada  SS.  Junii,  t.  iv,  p.  279. 


246  EDUCATION  [CH. 

were  often  completely  at  a  loss,  when  writing  had  to  be  done  and 
there  was  no  clerk  to  do  it. 

Again  it  would  seem  clear  that  the  nun  who  was  fully 
qualified  to  "bear  the  burden  of  the  choir"  ought  to  be  able 
to  understand  what  she  read,  as  well  as  to  read  it,  and  this  raises 
at  once  the  study  of  Latin  in  nunneries.  Here  again  the  nuns  do 
not  emerge  very  well  from  inquiry.  Some  there  were  no  doubt 
who  knew  a  little  Latin,  even  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries;  but  the  more  the  inquirer  studies  con 
temporary  records,  the  more  he  is  driven  to  conclude  that  the 
majority  of  nuns  during  this  period  knew  no  Latin;  they  must 
have  sung  the  offices  by  rote  and  though  they  may  have  under 
stood,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  majority  of  them  could  not 
construe  even  a  Pater  Noster,  an  Ave  or  a  Credo.  Let  us  take 
the  evidence  for  the  different  centuries  in  turn.  The  language 
of  visitation  injunctions  affords  some  clue  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  nuns.  It  must  be  remembered  that  throughout  the  whole 
period  Latin  was  always  the  learned  and  ecclesiastical  language; 
and  the  communications  addressed  by  a  bishop  to  the  monastic 
houses  of  his  district,  notices  of  visitation,  mandates  and  in 
junctions  would  normally  be  in  Latin;  and  when  he  was  ad 
dressing  monks  they  were  in  fact  almost  always  in  this  tongue. 
After  Latin  the  language  next  in  estimation  was  French.  This 
had  been  the  universal  language  of  the  upper  class  and  up  till 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  still  par  excellence 
the  courtly  tongue.  But  it  was  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  language 
in  general  use  and  the  turning-point  is  marked  by  a  statute  of 
1362,  which  ordains  that  henceforth  all  pleas  in  the  law  courts 
shall  be  conducted  in  English,  since  the  French  language  "is  too 
unknown  in  the  said  realm."  At  the  close  of  the  century  even 
the  upper  classes  were  ceasing  to  speak  French  and  the  English 
ambassadors  to  France  in  1404  had  to  beseech  the  Grand  Council 
of  France  to  answer  them  in  Latin,  French  being  "like Hebrew" 
to  them1.  In  the  fifteenth  century  French  was  a  mere  educa 
tional  adornment,  which  could  be  acquired  by  those  who  could 
get  teachers. 

The  linguistic  learning  of  English  nuns  at  different  periods 
was  similar  to  that  of  the  gentry  outside  the  convent.  It  was  not 

1  Jusserand,  A  Literary  History  of  the  English  People,  i,  pp.  239-40. 


vi]  EDUCATION 


247 


possible  after  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  (perhaps 
even  during  the  last  half  of  the  thirteenth  century)  to  assume 
in  them  that  acquaintance  with  Latin,  the  learned  and  ecclesias 
tical  tongue,  which  was  generally  assumed  in  their  brothers 
J:he  monks.  Their  learning  was  similar  to  that  of  contemporary 
laymen  of  their  class,  rather  than  of  contemporary  monks ;  and 
it  went  through  exactly  the  same  phases  as  did  the  coronation 
oath.  About  1311  the  King's  oath  occurs  in  Latin  among  the 
State  documents,  with  the  note  appended  that  "if  the  King 
were  illiterate"  he  was  to  swear  in  French,  as  Edward  II  did 
in  1307;  but  in  1399  when  Henry  IV  claimed  the  throne,  he 
claimed  it  in  English,  "In  the  name  of  the  Fadir,  Son  and  Holy 
Gost,  I  Henry  of  Lancastre,  chalenge  J?is  Rewme  of  Yngland"1. 
Similarly  towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  English 
bishops  begin  to  write  to  their  nuns  in  French,  because  they 
are  no  longer  "literate,"  in  the  sense  of  understanding  Latin. 
Throughout  this  century  the  nuns  are  able  to  speak  the  courtly 
tongue;  they  use  it  for  their  petitions;  and  Chaucer's  Prioress 
boasts  it  among  her  accomplishments  at  the  close  of  the  century, 

And  Frensh  she  spak  ful  faire  and  fetisly 
After  the  scole  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe, 
For  French  of  Paris  was  to  her  unknowe. 

But  French,  like  Latin,  is  beginning  to  die  away.  It  hardly  ever 
occurs  in  petitions  after  the  end  of  the  century;  and  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  the  Bishops  almost  invariably 
send  their  injunctions  to  the  nuns  in  English.  The  majority  of 

j  nuns  during  these  two  centuries  would  seem  to  have  understood 

!  neither  French  nor  Latin2. 

The  evidence  of  the  bishops'  registers  is  worth  considering 
in  more  detail.  The  bishops  were  genuinely  anxious  that  the 
reforms  set  forth  in  their  injunctions  should  be  carried  out  by 
the  nuns,  and  they  were  therefore  at  considerable  pains  to  send 
the  injunctions  in  language  which  the  nuns  could  understand. 
There  are  few  surviving  injunctions  belonging  to  the  thirteenth 
century ;  and  their  evidence  is  missed.  Archbishop  Walter  Giff  ard 

1  Jusserand,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  236.  .    , 

2  It  is  interesting  to  find  the  Master-General  of  the  Dominicans  in  1431 
giving  Jane  Fisher,  a  nun  of  Dartford,  leave  to  have  a  master  to  instruct 
her  in  grammar  and  the  Latin  tongue.    Jarrett,  The  English  Dominicans, 
p.  ii. 


248  EDUCATION  [CH. 

in  I2681  and  Archbishop  Newark  in  12982  write  to  the  nuns 
of  Swine  in  Latin,  a  language  which  they  seem  to  have  employed 
habitually  when  writing  to  nunneries.  Archbishop  Peckham 
sometimes  writes  to  the  Godstow  nuns  in  Latin  (1279)  and 
sometimes  in  French  (1284) 3;  it  is  to  be  noted  that  his  French 
letter  is  of  a  more  familiar  type.  Bishop  Cantilupe  of  Hereford 
writes  about  1277  to  the  nuns  of  Lymbrook  in  Latin,  but  his 
closing  words  raise  considerable  doubt  as  to  whether  an  under 
standing  of  Latin  can  be  generally  assumed  in  nunneries  at  this 
period,  for  he  says  "you  are  to  cause  this  our  letter  to  be 
expounded  to  you  several  times  in  the  year  by  your  penancers, 
in  the  French  or  English  tongue,  whichever  you  know  best " 4. 
The  evidence  for  the  next  century  is  even  less  ambiguous, 
for  nearly  all  injunctions  are  in  French  and  sometimes  it  is 
specifically  mentioned  that  the  nuns  do  not  understand  Latin. 
Bishop  Norbury  in  1331  translates  his  injunctions  to  Fairwell 
into  French5,  because  the  nuns  do  not  understand  the  original 
in  Latin,  and  Bishop  Robert  de  Stretton,  writing  to  the  same 
house  in  1367,  orders  his  decree  to  be  "read  and  explained  in 
the  vulgar  tongue  by  some  literate  ecclesiastical  person  on  the 
day  after  its  receipt"6.  Bishop  Stapeldon's  interesting  injunc 
tions  to  Polsloe  and  Canonsleigh  in  1319  are  in  French,  but  he 
seems  to  assume  some  knowledge  of  Latin  in  the  nuns,  for  he 
orders  that  if  it  be  necessary  to  break  silence  in  places  where 
silence  is  ordained,  speech  should  be  held  in  Latin,  though  not 
in  grammatically  constructed  sentences,  but  in  isolated  words7. 
In  1311  Bishop  Woodlock  sending  a  set  of  Latin  injunctions 
to  the  great  Abbey  of  Romsey,  announces  that  he  has  caused 
them  to  be  translated  into  French,  that  the  nuns  may  more 


Reg.  Walter  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  pp.  147-8. 

Reg.  John  le  Romeyn,  etc.  (Surtees  Soc.),  n,  pp.  222-4. 

Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  in,  pp.  845-52. 

Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilnpo  (Cant,  and  York  Soc.  and  Cantilupe  Soc.) 
p.  202. 

Reg.  R.  de  Norbury  (Wm.  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Coll.  i),  p.  257. 

Reg.  R.  de  Stretton  (ib.  New  Series,  vm),  p.  119. 

Reg.  W.  de  Stapeldon,  p.  316.  See  below,  p.  286.  In  the  same  year 
Archbishop  Melton  writes  to  the  nuns  of  Sinningthwaite  that  in  all  writings 
under  the  common  seal  a  faithful  clerk  is  to  be  employed  and  the  deed  is 
to  be  sealed  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  convent,  the  clerk  reading  the 
deed  plainly  in  the  mother  tongue  and  explaining  it.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
p.  177. 


vi]  EDUCATION  249 

easily  understand  them1;  but  Wykeham  writes  to  them  in  Latin 
in  1387 2.  In  the  Lincoln  diocese  during  this  century  the  custom 
of  the  bishops  varies.  Gynewell  writes  to  Heynings  and  to 
Godstow  in  French,  but  to  Elstow  in  Latin3;  Bokyngham  writes 
to  both  Heynings  and  Elstow  in  Latin,  but  in  ordering  the  nuns 
of  Elstow  in  1387  to  keep  silence  at  due  times,  he  adds  "Et 
vulgare  gallicum  addiscentes  inter  se  eo  utantur  colloquentes  "  4, 
a  significant  contrast  to  Stapeldon's  recommendation  of  Latin 
in  similar  circumstances  some  seventy  years  earlier. 

When  we  pass  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  fifteenth  century  it 
is  clear  that  even  French  was  becoming  an  unknown  tongue  to 
the  nuns;  nearly  all  injunctions  are  from  this  time  forward 
written  in  English.  At  Redlingfield  in  1427,  the  seven  nuns  and 
two  novices  were  assembled  in  the  chapter  house,  where  the 
deputy  visitor  read  his  commission,  first  in  Latin  and  then  in 
the  vulgar  tongue,  in  order  that  the  nuns  might  better  under- 

j  stand  it 5.  It  is  true  that  Bishops  Flemyng  and  Gray  send  Latin 
injunctions  to  Elstow  and  Delapre  Abbeys  in  1422  and  1433 
respectively;  but  Flemyng  orders  "that  the  premises,  all  and 
sundry,  be  published  and  read  openly  and  in  the  vulgar  mother 
tongue  eight  times  a  year"6,  and  Gray  writes  that  his  injunc 
tions  are  to  be  translated  into  the  mother  tongue  and  fastened 
in  some  conspicuous  place  7.  The  best  evidence  of  all  for  the  state 
of  learning  in  nunneries  during  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  is  to  be  found  in  the  invaluable  records  of  Alnwick's 
visitations  of  the  Lincoln  diocese.  Now  it  should  be  noted  that 
when  Alnwick  visited  houses  of  monks  or  canons,  the  sermon, 
which  was  generally  preached  on  such  occasions  by  one  of  the 
learned  clerics  who  accompanied  him,  was  invariably  preached 
in  Latin.  Moreover,  all  injunctions  sent  to  male  houses  after 
visitation  were  sent  in  Latin  also.  The  assumption  still  was  that 

i  these  monasteries  were  homes  of  learning  and  acquainted  with 

|  the  language  of  learning.  With  the  nunneries  it  was  otherwise. 

j  The  sermons  were  always  preached  "in  the  vulgar  tongue"  and 

1  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  105.  2  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  84. 

3  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  ff.  34,  139^,  lood. 
|         *  Ib.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  ff.  343  (Elstow),  397  (Heynings). 

e  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  ii,  p.  83.  6  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  52. 

7  Ib.  i,  p.  45.  At  Kyme  and  Wellow,  houses  of  canons,  however,  the 
|  injunctions  are  also  to  be  expounded  in  the  mother  tongue. 


250  EDUCATION  [CH. 

the  injunctions  were  always  sent  in  English.  It  was  not  even 
pretended  that  the  nuns  would  understand  Latin.  Moreover 
it  is  quite  plain  that  when  the  preliminary  notices  of  visitation 
had  been  sent  in  Latin,  they  had  been  very  imperfectly  under 
stood;  and  that  when  it  was  necessary  for  a  Prioress  herself  to 
draw  up  a  certificate  in  writing,  she  was  often  quite  unable  to 
do  sb7 

A  few  extracts  from  Alnwick's  records  will  illustrate  the 
complete  ignorance  of  Latin  and  general  illiteracy  in  these  houses.- 
At  Ankerwyke  (1441)  it  is  noted: 

And  then  when  request  had  been  made  of  the  prioress  by  the  reverend 
father  for  the  certificate  of  his  mandate  conveyed  to  the  said  prioress 
for  such  visitation,  the  same  prioress,  instead  of  the  certificate  delivered 
the  original  mandate  itself  to  the  said  reverend  father,  affirming  that 
she  did  not  understand  the  mandate  itself,  nor  had  she  any  man  of 
skill  or  other  lettered  person  to  instruct  what  she  should  do  in  this 
behalf1. 

At  Markyate  (1442),  when  the  same  certificate  was  asked  for, 
the  Prioress 

said  that  she  had  not  a  clerk  who  was  equipped  for  writing  such  a 
certificate,  on  the  which  head  she  submitted  herself  to  my  lord's 
favour  and  then  showed  my  lord  in  lieu  of  a  certificate  the  original 
mandate  itself  and  the  names  of  the  nuns  who  had  been  summoned2. 
Similarly  the  Prioress  of  Fosse  showed  the  original  mandate  in 
place  of  the  certificate,  and  the  Prioresses  of  St  Michael's  Stamford 
and  Rothwell  had  failed  to  draw  up  the  certificate3.  The  Prioress 
of  Gokewell  (1440)  was  said  to  be  "exceedingly  simple,"  all  the 
temporalities  of  the  house  being  ruled  by  a  steward;  she  also 
declared  that  "  she  knows  not  how  to  compose  a  formal  certificate, 
in  that  she  has  no  lettered  persons  of  her  counsel  who  are  skilled 
in  this  case,"  and  she  had  been  unable  to  find  the  document 
reciting  the  confirmation  of  her  election  4.  The  poor  convent  of 
Langley  seems  to  have  been  reduced  to  complete  confusion  by 
the  episcopal  mandate.  The  Prioress 
says  that  she  received  my  lord's  mandate  on  the  feast  of  St  Denis 
last.  Interrogated  whether  she  has  a  certificate  touching  execution 
thereof,  she  says  no,  because  she  did  not  understand  it,  nor  did  her 
chaplain  also,  to  whom  she  showed  it;  concerning  the  which  she 
surrendered  herself  to  my  lord's  favour.  \Vherefore,  when  the  original 

1  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  i.  2  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  6. 

8  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  91;  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  83,  38. 
4  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  117. 


vi]  EDUCATION  251 

mandate  had  been  delivered  to  my  lord  and  read  through  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  my  lord  asked  her  if  she  had  executed  it.  She  says 
yes,  as  regards  the  summons  of  herself  and  her  sisters.... Interrogated 
if  she  has  the  foundation  charter  of  the  house  and  who  is  the  founder, 
she  says  that  Sir  William  Pantolfe  founded  the  house,  but  because 
they  are  unversed  in  letters  they  cannot  understand  the  writings1. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  the  evidence  of  visitation  records 
for  the  rest  of  the  fifteenth  and  for  the  early  sixteenth  century: 
the  general  effect  is  to  show  us  nuns  who  know  only  the  English 
language2.  Let  us  turn  to  the  interesting  corroborative  evidence 
provided  by  those  who  were  at  pains  to  make  translations  for 
their  use.  It  must  be  admitted  that  this  evidence  only  confirms 
the  suggestion  made  abovejthaj^jthe^ujis.^^ 
stand  the  very  services' which  they  sang,  let  alone  the  Latin 
version  of  their  rule*  or  .the...  Latin. .charters  by  which  they  held 
their  lands.  That  they  often  sang  the  services  uncomprehendingly 
liEe " pamftsris  actually  stated  by  Sir  David  Lyndesay,  the 
Scottish  poet,  in  his  Dialog  concerning  the  Monarche  (i553)«  He 
apologises  for  writing  in  his  native  tongue,  unlike  those  clerks, 
who  wish  to  prohibit  the  people  from  reading  even  the  scriptures 
for  themselves,  and  adds 

Tharefore  I  thynk  one  gret  dirisioun 
To  heir  thir  Nunnis  &  Systeris  nycht  and  day 
Syngand  and  say  and  psalmes  and  orisoun, 
Nocht  vnderstandyng  quhat  thay  syng  nor  say, 
Bot-lykerone  stirlyng  or  ane  Papingay 
Quhilk  leirnit  ar  to  speik  be  lang  usage 
Thame  I  compair  to  byrdis  in  ane  cage3. 

Several  translations  of  the  rule  of  St  Benet  were  made  for 
the  special  use  of  nuns,  who  knew  no  Latin.  A  northern  metrical 
version  of  the  early  fifteenth  century  explains 

Monkes  and  als  all  leryd  men 

In  Latin  may  it  lyghtly  ken, 

And  wytt  tharby  how  they  sail  wyrk 

To  sarue  god  and  haly  kyrk. 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  174. 

2  Archbishop  Lee's  visitations  of  the  York  diocese  on  the  eve  of  the 
Dissolution  (1534-5)  are  typical.  The  injunctions  sent  to  the  nunneries  of 
Sinningthwaite,  Nunappleton  and  Esholt   (Yorks.  Archaeol.   Jomn.  xvi, 
pp.  440,  443,  451)  are  in  English,  but  those  sent  to  the  houses  of  monks  and 
canons  are  all  in  Latin. 

3  Sir  David  Lyndesay's  Poems,  ed.  Small,  Hall  and  Murray  (E.E.T.S- 
2nd  ed.  1883),  p.  21. 


252  EDUCATION  [CH. 

Bott  tyll  women  to  mak  it  couth, 
That  lens  no  latyn  in  thar  youth, 
In  inglis  is  it  ordand  here, 
So  that  thay  may  it  lyghtly  lere1. 

About  a  century  later,  in  1517,  Richard  Fox,  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  published  for  the  benefit  of  the  nuns  of  his  diocese 
another  English  translation  of  the  Rule  of  St  Benedict.  In  the 
preface  he  rehearses  how  nuns  are  professed  under  the  Rule  and 
are  bound  to  read,  learn  and  understand  it: 

and  also  after  their  profession  they  should  not  onely  in  them  selfe 
kepe  observe  execute  and  practise  the  said  rule  but  also  teche  other 
and  heir  sisters  the  same,  and  so  moche  that  for  the  same  intent  they 
daily  rede  and  cause  to  be  rede  some  parte  of  the  sayd  rule  by  one  of 
the  sayd  sisters  amonges  them  selfe  as  well  in  their  Chapiter  House 
after  the  redinge  of  the  Martyrologe  as  some  tyme  in  their  Fraitur 
in  tyme  of  refections  and  collacions,  at  the  which  reding  is  always  don 
in  the  latin  tonge,  whereof  they  have  no  knowledge  nor  understandinge 
but  be  utterly  ignorant  of  the  same,  whereby  they  do  not  only  lose 
their  tyme  but  also  renne  into  the  evident  danger  and  perill  of  the 
perdicion  of  their  soules. 

He  adds  that  in  order  to  save  the  souls  of  his  nuns,  and  in  par 
ticular  to  ensure  that  novices  understand  the  Rule  before  pro 
fession, 

so  that  none  of  them  shall  nowe  afterward  probably  say  that  she 
wyste  not  what  she  professed,  as  we  knowe  by  experience  that  some 
of  them  have  sayd  in  tyme  passed,  for  these  causes  at  thinstant 
requeste  of  our  ryght  dere  and  well-beloved  daughters  in  oure  Lorde 
Jhesu,  the  Abbasses  of  the  Monasteries  of  Rumsay,  Wharwel,  Seynt 
Maries  within  the  Citie  of  Winchester  and  the  Prioresses  of  Wintnay, 
our  right  religious  diocesans,  we  have  translated  the  sayd  rule  unto 
our  moders  tonge;  comune,  playne  rounde  Englishe,  easy  and  redy 
to  be  understande  by  the  sayde  devoute  religiouse  women2. 

/The  inconvenience  of  not  being  able  to  read  the  foundation 
cparter  and  other  legal  documents  of  the  house,  as  confessed  by 
tihe  Prioress  of  Langley  at  Aln wick's  visitation,  was  very  great; 
and  about  1460  Alice  Henley,  the  Abbess  of  Godstow,  caused 

1  Three  Middle  Eng.  Versions  of  the  Rule  of  St  Benet  (E.E.T.S.  1902), 
p.  48. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Caxton  abstract  at  the  end  of  the  century  is 
translated  "for  men  and  wymmen,  of  the  habyte  therof,  the  whiche  vnder- 
stande  lytyll  laten  or  none."  Ib.  p.  119. 

2  The  preface  is  quoted  in  The  Register  of  Richard  Fox  while  Bishop  of. 
Bath  and  Wells,  with  a  Life  of  Bishop  Fox,  ed.  E.  C.  Batten  (1889),  pp.  102-4. 


vi]  EDUCATION  253 

a  translation  to  be  made  of  the  Latin  register,  in  which  were 
copied  all  the  charters  of  her  abbey.  The  translator's  preface 
to  the  work  is  interesting: 

The  wyseman  tawht  hys  chyld  gladly  to  rede  bokys  and  hem  well 
vndurstonde  for,  in  defaute  of  vndyrstondyng,  is  ofttymes  caused 
neclygence,  hurte,  harme  and  hynderaunce,  as  experyence  prevyth 
in  many  a  place.  And  for  as  muche  as  women  of  rely gy one  in  redynge 
bokys  of  latyn,  byn  excusyd  of  grete  vndurstandyng,  where  it  is 
not  her  modyr  tonge ;  Therf ore,  how  be  hyt  that  they  wolde  rede  her 
bokys  of  remembraunce  of  her  munymentys  wryte  in  latyn,  for 
defaute  of  undurstondyng  they  toke  ofte  tymes  grete  hurt  and 
hyndraunce ;  and,  what  for  defaute  of  trewe  lernyd  men  that  all  tymes 
be  not  redy  hem  to  teche  and  counsayl,  and  feere  also  and  drede  to 
shewe  her  euydence  opynly  (that  oftyntyme  hath  causyd  repentaunce), 
Hyt  wer  ryht  necessary,  as  hyt  semyth  to  the  undyrstondyng  of 
suche  relygyous  women,  that  they  myght  haue,  out  of  her  latyn 
bokys,  sum  wrytynge  in  her  modyr  tonge,  wher-by  they  might  haue 
bettyr  knowlyge  of  her  munymentys  and  more  clerely  yeue  infor- 
macyon  to  her  serauntys,  rent  gedurarys,  and  receyuowrs,  in  the 
absent  of  her  lernyd  councell.  Wher-fore,  a  poore  brodur  and  wel- 
wyller...to  the  goode  Abbas  of  Godstowe,  Dame  Alice  henley,  and  to 
all  her  couent,  the  whych  byn  for  the  more  party  in  Englyssh  bokys 
'well  y-lernyd,  hertyly  desyryng  the  worship,  profyt  and  welfare  of 
that  deuoute  place,  that,  for  lak  of  vndurstondyng  her  munymentys 
sholde  in  no  damage  of  her  lyflod  huraftur  fallyn,  In  the  worship  of 
our  lady  and  seynt  John  Baptist  patron  of  thys  seyd  monastery,  the 
sentence  for  the  more  partyre  of  her  munymentys  conteynd  in  the 
boke  of  her  regystr  in  latyn,  aftyr  the  same  forme  and  ordyr  of  the 
seyd  boke,  hath  purposyd  with  goddys  grace  to  make,  aftur  hys 
conceyt,  fro  latyn  into  Englyssh,  sentencyosly,  as  foloweth  thys 
symple  translacion1. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  benevolent  translator  of  this 
Godstow  register  says  that  the  nuns  are  for  the  most  part  well 
learned  in  English  books.  The  same  impression  is  given  by  the 
translations  which  were  made  for  the  nuns  of  Syon.  The  most 
famous  of  these  is  the  Myroure  of  Cure  Ladye,  written  for  the 
nuns  by  Thomas  Gascoigne  (1403-58)  and  first  printed  in  1530. 
This  book  contains  a  devotional  treatise  on  divine  service,  with 
a  translation  and  explanation  of  the  "Hours"  and  "Masses" 
of  our  Lady,  as  they  were  used  at  Syon.  The  author  explains 
his  purpose  thus: 

Forasmoche  as  many  of  you,  though  ye  can  synge  and  rede,  yet  ye 
can  not  se  what  the  meanynge  therof  ys ;  therefore  to  the  onely  worshyp 

1  Eng.  Reg.  of  Godstow  Nunnery  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  25-6. 


254 


EDUCATION 


[CH. 


and  praysyng  of  cure  lorde  Jesu  chryste  and  of  hys  moste  mercyfull 
mother  oure  lady  and  to  the  gostly  comforte  and  profyte  of  youre 
soules,  I  haue  drawen  youre  legende  and  all  youre  seruyce  in  to  Eng- 
lyshe,  that  ye  shulde  se  by  the  vnderstondyng  therof,  how  worthy  and 
holy  praysynge  of  cure  gloryous  Lady  is  contente  therin  &  the  more 
deuoutely  and  knowyngly  syngeyt  &  redeyt  and  sayyttoherworshyp. 

He  adds  that  he  has  explained  the  various  parts  of  the  divine 
service  for  "symple  soulles  to  vnderstonde,"  but  that  he  has 
translated  few  psalms,  "for  ye  may  haue  them  of  Rycharde 
hampoules  drawynge,  and  out  of  Englysshe  bibles,  if  ye  haue 
lysence  therto"1. 

From  a  passage  in  the  Myroure  it  appears  that  the  sisters 
were 'accustomed  to  spend  some  of  their  time  in  reading  and 
advice  is  given  to  them  as  to  the  sort  of  books  to  read  and  the 
way  in  which  to  profit  by  them;  from  this  it  is  quite  clear  that 
secular  learning  had  no  place  among  them,  their  reading  being 
confined  to  works  of  ghostly  edification2.  It  was  their  ignorance 
ofJLatin  _which,  caused  the  insertion  of  English  rubrics  in  the 
Latin  Processionale  of  the  house  and  which  inspired  Richard 
Whytford,  one  of  the  brothers,  to  translate  the  splendid  Marti- 
logium,  which  is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  "  for  the  edificacyon 
of  certayn  religyous  persones  unlerned  that  dayly  dyd  rede  the 
same  martiloge  in  Latyn,  not  understandynge  what  they  redde  " ; 
his  translation  was  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  I5263. 
Gascoigne's  mention  of  English  bibles  is  interesting.  Miss 
Deanesly,  in  her  study  of  The  Lollard  Bible,  has  shown  that  "it 
is  likely  that  English  nuns  were  the  most  numerous  orthodox 
users  of  English  bibles  between  1408  and  1526,"  but  that  the 
evidence  for  this  use  is  slight  and  drawn  almost  entirely  from 
Syon  and  Barking,  two  large  and  important  houses  4.  Her  con 
clusion  is  that 

it  was  not  the  case  that  the  best  instructed  nuns  used  Latin  Bibles 
and  the  most  ignorant  English  ones:  but  that  the  best  instructed 

1  The  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  2-3.  2  Ib.  pp.  63 

3  Ib.  pp.  xliv-xlvi;  Eckenstein,  op.  cit.  p.  395.    Wynkyn  de  Worde's 
edition  was  reprinted  for  the  Henry  Bradshaw  Society  in  1893. 

4  Deanesly,  The  Lollard  Bible,  pp.  320,  336-7.    It  may  be  noted  as 
some  interest  that  when  in  1528  a  wealthy  London  merchant  was  im 
prisoned  for  distributing  Tyndale's  books  and  for  similar  practices, 
pleaded  that  the  abbess  of  Denney,  Elizabeth  Throgmorton,  had  wishe 
to  borrow  Tyndale's  Enchiridion  and  that  he  had  lent  it  to  her.    Dugdale, 
Mon.  vi,  p.  1549. 


vi]  EDUCATION  255 

nuns  were  allowed  to  use  English  translations,  perhaps  by  themselves, 
perhaps  to  help  in  the  understanding  of  the  Vulgate,  while  the  smaller 
nunneries  and  least  instructed  nuns  almost  certainly  did  not  have 
them  at  all. 

This  goes  to  confirm  the  conclusion  that  even  in  the  greatest 
houses,  where  the  nuns  were  drawn  from  the  highest  social 
classes  and  might  be  supposed  to  be  best  educated,  the  know 
ledge.^  T.atjn  was  dying  out. 

Other  occupations  besides  reading  filled  the  working  hours 
of  the  nuns  and  of  these  spinning  and  needlework  were  the  most 
I  important.  Most  women  in  the  middle  ages  possessed  the  art 
of  spinning  and  Aubrey's  Old  Jacques  may  have  remembered 
aright  how  "he  saw  from  his  house  the  nuns  of  the  priory 
(Kington  St  Michael)  come  forth  into  the  nymph-hay  with  their 
rocks  and  wheels  to  spin,"  though  his  memory  misled  him  sorely 
as  to  the  number  of  these  ladies.  Sometimes  a  visitation  report 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  nuns  at  work:  at  Easebourne  in  1441 
the  nuns  say  that  the  Prioress  "compels  her  sisters  to  work 
continually  like  hired  workwomen  and  they  receive  nothing 
whatever  for  their  own  use  from  their  work,  but  the  prioress 
Itakes  the  whole  profit"1  and  at  Catesby  in  the  following  year 
la  young  nun  complains  that  the  Prioress  "setts  her  to  make 
[beds,  to  sewing  and  spinning  and  other  tasks"2.  Nevertheless 
lit  does  not  seem  that  the  nuns  were  in  the  habit  of  spinning 
the  wool  and  flax  for  their  own  and  their  servants'  clothes  and 
'account  rolls  often  contain  payments  made  to  hired  spinsters, 
jas  well  as  to  fullers  and  weavers. 

It  is  more  probable  that  they  busied  themselves  with .  needle^- 
[work  and  embroidery,  which  were  the  usual  occupations  of  ladies 
iof  gentle  birth3.  Very  few  traces  have  unfortunately  survived 
pflfie  work  of  English  nuns.  In  earlier  centuries  English  needle- 
jwork  had  been  famous  and  the  nuns  had  been  pre-eminent  in 
jthe  making  of  richly  embroidered  vestments.  In  the  thirteenth 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  7. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  49.  At  Bondeville  in  1251  Archbishop  Eudes  Rigaud 
lias  to  forbid  the  nuns  to  sell  their  thread  and  their  spindles  to  raise  money, 
;'quod  moniales  non  vendant  nee  distrahant  filum  et  lor  fusees,"  Reg.  Visit, 
'drchiepiscopi  Roth.  ed.  Bonnin  (1852),  p.  in. 

3  "Nuns  with  their  needles  wrote  histories  also,"  as  Fuller  prettily 
bays,  "that  of  Christ  his  passion  for  their  altar  clothes,  as  other  Scripture 
[and  moe  legend)  Stories  to  adorn  their  houses."    Fuller,  Church  Hist.  (ed. 
1837),  n,  p.  190. 


256  EDUCATION  [CH. 

century,  too,  English  embroidery  far  surpassed  that  made  in 
other  countries  and  it  has  been  conjectured  that  "the  most 
famous  embroidered  vestments  now  preserved  in  various  places 
in  Italy  are  the  handiwork  of  English  embroiderers  between  1250 
and  1300  though  their  authorship  is  not  as  a  rule  recognised  by 
their  present  possessors"1.  Some  of  these  may  have  been  made 
by  nuns;  it  is  thought  that  the  famous  Syon  cope,  for  long  in 
the  possession  of  the  nuns  of  Syon,  may  have  been  made  in  a 
thirteenth  century  convent  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Coventry; 
but  such  examples  of  medieval  embroidery  as  have  survived 
usually  bear  no  trace  of  their  origin;  since  a  vestment 
cannot  be  signed  like  a  book  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
there  was  a  large  class  of  professional  "  embroideresses  "  in  the 
country. 

Some,  however,  of  the  splendid  vestments  and  altar  cloths 
possessed  by  the  richer  nunneries  were  probably  the  work  of 
the  nuns.  At  Langley  in  1485  there  were,  among  other  rich 
pieces  of  embroidery 

iiij  fronteys  (altar  frontals)  of  grene  damaske  powdered  with  swanys 
and  egyls,...iiij  fronteys  of  blake  powdered  with  swanys  and  rosys,... 
a  vestment  of  blew  silke  brodyt  complete  with  all  yt  longyth  to  hyt, 
a  vestment  of  grene  velwett  complete  with  a  crucinxe  of  silver  and 
gylte  apon  ye  amys,  a  complete  vestiment  of  redvelwet,  a  vestiment 
of  swede  (sewed)  work  complete,  a  vestiment  of  blake  damaske  brodyrt 
with  rosys  and  sterys,  a  complete  vestiment  of  white  brodyrte  with 
rede  trewlyps  (true-love  knots},...]  gret  cloth  (banner)  of  rede  powderyd 
with  herts  heds  and  boturfleys...a  large  coverlet  of  red  and  blew  with 
rosys  and  crossys,  a  tapett  of  ye  same;  j  large  coverlett  of  rede  and 
yowlowe  with  flowrs  de  luce,  a  tapett  of  ye  same;  a  large  coverlett 
of  blew  and  better  blew  with  swanys  and  coks,  a  tapett  of  ye  same; 
a  coverlett  of  grene  and  yowlowe  with  borys  and  draguyns,  a  tapett  of 
ye  same;... a  coverlett  of  ostrych  fydyrs  and  crounyd  Emmys 
(monogram  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary] ;  a  coverlet  of  grene  and  yow 
lowe  with  vynys  and  rosys;  a  coverlet  of  grene  and  yowlowe  with 
lylys  and  swannys;  a  coverlet  of  blew  and  white  whyl  knotts  (wheel 
knots]  and  rosys;  a  coverlet  of  red  and  white  with  traylest  (trellis) 
and  Bryds;  a  coverlet  of  red  and  blew  with  sterrys  and  white  rosys 
in  mydste;  a  coverlet  of  yowlowe  and  grene  with  egyles  and  emmys; 
v  coveryngs  of  bedds,  yat  hys  to  sey  A  coveryng  of  red  saye,  a  coveryng 
of  panes  (stripes]  of  red  and  grene  and  white  saye,  a  coveryng  of  red 

1  J.  H.  Middleton,  Illuminated  MSS.  (1892),  p.  112.  On  nunnery  em 
broidery  at  different  periods  see  ib.  pp.  224-30;  but  the  book  must  be  read 
with  great  caution. 


vi]  EDUCATION  257 

and  blake  saye,  a  coveryng  of  red  and  blew  poudyrd  with  white 
esses  and  sterys,  a  blew  saye  with  a  red  dragne1. 

Many  of  these  embroideries  and  tapestries  were  doubtless  legacies 
or  gifts ;  but  it  is  impossible  not  to  picture  the  white  fingers  of 
the  nuns  at  work  on  swans  and  roses,  harts'  heads  and  butterflies, 
stars  and  true-love  knots.  One  may  deduce  that  the  nuns  of 
Yorkshire,  at  least,  busied  themselves  in  these  pursuits  from 
an  injunction  sent  to  Nunkeeling,  Yedingham  and  Wykeham  in 
1314  that  no  nun  should  absent  herself  from  divine  service  "on 
account  of  being  occupied  with  silk  work  "  (propter  occupacionem 
operis  de  serico)2. 

Reference  to  the  sale  of  embroidery  by  nuns  is  surprisingly 
rare  in  account  rolls.  The  household  roll  of  the  Countess  of 
Leicester  in  1265  contains  an  item, "  Paid  to  the  nuns  of  Wintney, 
for  one  cope  to  be  made  for  the  use  of  Brother  J.  Angelus  by  the 
gift  of  the  Countess  at  Panham  iod."B,  which  small  sum  must 
have  been  a  part  payment  in  advance,  perhaps  towards  the 
purchase  of  materials;  the  nuns  of  Gracedieu,  too,  sold  a  cope 
to  a  neighbouring  rector  for  £10,  early  in  the  fifteenth  century4, 
and  on  one  occasion  the  cellaress  of  Barking  derived  a  part  of 
her  income  for  the  year  from  the  sale  of  a  cope5,  but  search 
has  revealed  no  further  instances.  The  nuns  also  probably  made 
little  presents  for  their  friends,  such  as  purses  (though  the 
Gracedieu  nuns  always  bought  the  purses  which  they  gave  to 
their  bailiff,  to  Lady  Beaumont,  or  to  other  visitors)  and  the 
so-called  "blood-bands."  In  an  age  when  bleeding  was  the  most 

1  Mackenzie  Walcott,  Inventory  of  St  Mary's  Ben.  Nunnery  at  Langley, 

Co.  Leic.  1485  (Leic.  Architec.  Soc.  1872),  pp.  3,  4. 

z  V.C.H.   Yorks.  m,  120,  127,   183.    Greenfield  may  have  so  enjoined 

other  houses;  the  injunctions  are  not  always  fully  summarised.  As  to 
j  nuns'  embroidery  there  is  an  interesting  passage  in  the  thirteenth  century 
|  German  poem  Helmbrecht  by  Wernher  "  the  Gardener  " :  "  Old  farmer  Helm- 
ibrecht  had  a  son.  Young  Helmbrecht's  yellow  locks  fell  down  to  his 
j  shoulders.  He  tucked  them  into  a  handsome  silken  cap,  embroidered  with 

doves  and  parrots  and  many  a  picture.  This  cap  had  been  embroidered  by 
!  a  nun  who  had  run  away  from  her  convent  through  a  love  adventure,  as 
[happens  to  so  many.  From  her  Helmbrecht's  sister  Gotelind  had  learned 
j  to  embroider  and  to  sew.  The  girl  and  her  mother  had  well  earned  that  from 
:the  nun,  for  they  gave  her  in  pay  a  calf,  and  many  cheeses  and  eggs." 

J.  Harvey  Robinson,  Readings  in  Eur.  Hist,  i,  pp.  418-9,  translated  from 

Freytag,  Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit  (1876,  n,  pp.  52  ff.). 

3  Manners  and  Household  Expenses  (Roxburghe  Club  1841),  p.  18. 

4  Gasquet,  Engl.  Monastic  Life,  p.  170. 

5  Trans.  St  Paul's  Eccles.  Soc.  vn,  pt  n  (1912),  p.  54. 

P.N.  17 


258  EDUCATION  [CH.  I 

common  treatment  for  almost  every  illness  and  when  monks,  in 
particular,  were  regularly  bled  several  times  a  year,  these  little 
bandages  were  common  presents,  being  sometimes  made  of  silk. 
The  author  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  thus  bade   his    anchoresses 
"make  no  purses  to  gain  friends  therewith,  not  blodbendes  of 
silk,  but  shape  and  sew  and  mend  church  vestments  and  poor 
people's  clothes"1.  The  nuns  of  the  diocese  of  Rouen  in  the  mid- 
thirteenth  century  were  accustomed  to  knit  or  embroider  silken 
purses,  tassels,  cushions  or  needlecases  for  sale  or  as  gifts,  and 
Archbishop  Eudes  Rigaud  was  continually  forbidding  them  to  ! 
do  any  silk  work  except  for  church  ornament2.    There  is  some 
reason  to  think  that  the  nuns,  then  as  now,  sometimes  eked  out 
their  income  by  doing  fine  needlework  for  ladies  of  the  world, 
though  there  is  no  mention  of  it  in  nunnery  accounts,  or  indeed  in  1 
any  English  records.  Among  the  correspondence  of  Lady  Lisle  in 
the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  however,  are  several  letters  : 
to  and  from  a  certain  Antoinette  de  Favences  at  Dunkirk,  who 
would  appear  to  have  been  a  nun,  for  she  signs  herself  sister  \ 
Antoinette  de  Favences  and  is  addressed  by  Lady  Lisle  as<j 
Madame  and  Dame.  This  woman  was  employed  to  make  caps  j 
and  coifs  for  Lady  Lisle's  family  and  friends  and  there  is  much 
correspondence  between  them  as  to  night-caps  which  are  too 
wide,  lozenge-work  and  such  matters;  in  one  letter  Lady  Lisle   : 
speaks  of  sending  "  16  rozimbos  and  2  half  angels  of  Flanders, 
a  Carolus  of  gold,"  in  payment  for  the  caps3. 

What  other  accomplishments  the  nuns  may  have  possessed! 
we  do  not  know.  They  were  possibly  skilled  in  herbs  and  in  thetl 
more  simple  forms  of  home  medicine  and  surgery,  for  it  was  the  j 
function  of  the  lady  of  the  manor  to  know  something  of  these .  j 
things,  though  doctors  were  available  (for  nuns  as  well  as  for  A 
lay  folk)  in  more  serious  illnesses4.  They  doubtless  bled  each?] 
other  as  did  the  monks,  else  how  was  the  wicked  Prioress  of r  1 
Kirklees,  who  slew  Robin  Hood,  so  skilled? : 

1  Ancren  Riwle,  ed.  Gasquet,  p.  318.  2  See  below,  p.  655. 

3  Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  n,  pp.  229-31. 

4  Peckham,  forbidding  the  nuns  of  Barking  (1279)  to  eat  or  sleep  in 
private  rooms  or  to  receive  mass  there,  makes  an  exception  for  those  who 
are  seriously  ill,  "in  which  case  we  permit  the  confessor  and  the  doctor,    1 
also  the  father  or  brother,  to  have  access  to  them."    Keg.  Epis.  Johannis 
Peckham,  I,  p.  84.   Cf.  ib.  n,  pp.  652,  663.     For  nuns  and  medicine  see 
S.  Luce,  La  Jeunesse  de  Bertrand  de  Guesclin  (1882),  p.  10. 


vi]  EDUCATION  259 

Doun  then  came  Dame  Prioress 

Doun  she  came  in  that  ilk, 
With  a  pair  of  blood-irons  in  her  hand, 

Were  wrapped  all  in  silk 

She  laid  the  blood-irons  to  Robin's  vein 

Alack  the  more  pitye  ! 
And  pierc'd  the  vein  and  let  out  the  blood 

That  full  red  was  to  see. 

There  is  an  occasional  brief  reference  to  the  recreation  of  nuns 
in  their  "seynys"  in  visitations^,  but  the  precaution  was  less 
necessary  and  less  frequent  than  it  was  in  houses  of  monks2.  No 
doubt,  also,  the  nuns  sometimes  nursed  their  boarders,  some  of 
whom  must  have  been  old  and  ailing;  wills  are  occasionally 
dated  from  nunneries3.  The  nuns  of  Romsey  had  a  hospital 
attached  to  the  house,  in  whicE^w;ereT:ei5eivedr~aS  sisters  'any 
parents  and  relatives  of  the  nuns,  who  were  poor  and  ill 4,  but 
this  does  not  prove  that  the  nuns  nursed  them,  and  references 
in  visitation  reports  show  that  even  sick  nuns  were  often  looked 
after  by  lay  servants  in  the  infirmary,  or  if  permanently  disabled, 
occupied  a  separate  room,  with  a  separate  maid  to  attend  them. 
It  is  not  likely  that  the  nuns  left  their  convents,  save  very 

1  At  Romsey  Abbey  a  pittance  of  sixpence  was  due  to  each  nun  "when 
blood  is  let"  (see  Bishop  John  de  Pontoise's  injunctions  in  1302  and  those 
of  Bishop  Woodlock  in  1311,  both  of  which  refer  to  the  payments  not  having 
j  been  made).  Bishop  Woodlock  enjoined  that  "Nuns  who  have  been  bled 
shall  be  allowed  to  enter  the  cloister  if  they  wish."  Liveing,  Records  of 
Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  100,  103,  104.  In  1338  Abbot  Michael  of  St  Albans  orders 
all  the  nuns  of  Sopwell  to  attend  the  service  of  prime,  "  horspris  les  malades 
et  les  seynes."  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  366.  At  Nuncoton  in  1440  the  sub- 
prioress  deposed  that  "the  infirm,  the  weakminded  and  they  that  are  in 
their  seynies...do  eat  in  the  convent  cellar."  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  71  d. 
Bishop  Stapeldon  forbids  the  nuns  of  Pol  sloe  in  1319  to  enter  convent 
offices  outside  the  cloistral  precincts  "pour  estre  seigne  ou  pur  autre  en- 
cheson  feynte."  Reg.  Stapeldon,  ed.  Hingeston-Randolph,  p.  317. 

z  On  the  custom  of  periodical  bleeding  in  monasteries  see  J.  W.  Clark, 
The  Observances. ..atBarnwetl,  Introd.  pp.  Ixi,  if.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
|  medieval  treatises  on  the  diseases  of  women  occassionally  refer  specifically 
I  to  nuns,  e.g.  in  a  fourteenth  century  English  MS.  a  certain  "  worschipfull 
i  sirop  "  for  use  in  cases  of  anaemia  is  said  to  be  "for  ladyes  &  for  nunnes 
j  and  other  also  J>at  ben  delicate."  Bnt.  Mus.  MS.  Sloane  2463,  f.  198  v°. 

3  E.g.  Nicholaa  de  Fulham  dates  her  will  in  1327  from  Clerkenwell  and 

:  leaves  certain  rents  for  life  to  Joan  her  sister,  a  nun  there.  Sharpe,  Cal.  of 
\  Wills  enrolled  in  Court  of  Rusting,  I,  p.  324.  The  will  of  Elizabeth  Medlay 
"of  the  house  of  St  Clement's  in  Clementthorpe "  directs  her  body  to  be 
buried  in  the  conventual  church,  bequeathes  legacies  to  the  high  altar,  the 
Prioress  and  each  nun  there  and  appoints  dame  Margaret  Delaryver,  prioress, 
as  executor  (1470).  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  130. 

4  New  Coll.  MS.  ff.  88,  88<Z°. 

17—2 


260  EDUCATION  [CH. 

occasionally,  to  undertake  sick-nursing;  this  would  have  been 
against  the  spirit  of  their  rule,  for  their  main  business  was  not 
(as  was  that  of  the  sisters  who  looked  after  spitals)  to  care  for 
the  sick,  but  to  live  enclosed  in  their  houses,  following  the 
prescribed  round  of  church  services.  It  is  however  of  interest 
that  the  will  of  Sir  Roger  Salwayn,  knight  of  York  (1420)  con 
tains  this  legacy:  "Also  I  will  that  the  Nunne  that  kepid  me 
in  my  seknes  haue  ij  nobles,  and  that  ther  be  gif  into  the  hous 
that  she  wonnes  in  xxs,  for  to  syng  and  pray  for  me"1.  Nuns 
may  have  emerged  sometimes  to  nurse  friends  and  relatives, 
whose  sick-beds  they  were  always  allowed  to  attend;  but  there 
is  no  documentary  evidence  for  the  belief  of  modern  writers,  who 
would  fain  turn  the  nun  into  a  district  visitor,  smoothing  the 
pillows  of  all  who  ailed  in  her  native  village. 

./These  then  were  the  educational  attainments  of  the  English 
'nuns  in  the  later  middle  ages:  reading  and  singing  the  services 
of  the  church,  sometimes  but  not  always  writing,  Latin  very 
rarely  after  the  thirteenth  century,  French  very  rarely  after  the 
fourteenth  century;  needlework  and  embroidery;  and  perhaps 
that  elementary  knowledge  of  physic,  which  was  the  possession 
of  most  ladiejj^iJJieicxliiss.  It  was,  in  fact,  very  little  more  than 

ie  education  possessed  by  laywomen  of  the  same  social  rank 
outside  and  there  is  little  trace  of  anything  approaching  scholar 
ship.  The  study  of  the  education  of  the  nuns  during  this  period 
leads  naturally  to  one  of  the  most  vexed  questions  in  the  field 
of  monastic  history,  the  extent  to  which  the  nunneries  acted 
as  girls'  schools.  There  is  no  doubt  that  every  nunnery  was 
prepared  to  educate  young  girls  who  entered  in  order  to  take 
the  veil;  if  the  nunnery  were  fairly  large  these  scolae  internae 
probably  included  several  novices  at  a  time.  At  Ankerwyke  in  j 
i44TThree~ybungliuns  complained  that  they  had  no  governess 
to  instruct  them  in  "reading,  song  and  religious  observance/'; 
and  mention  is  made  of  three  other  sisters  "of  tender  age  and 
slender  discretion,  seeing  that  the  eldest  of  them  is  not  more  than 
thirteen  years  of  age";  the  Bishop  appointed  a  nun  to  be  their 
teacher,  "enjoining  her  to  perform  the  charge  laid  upon  her  and 
to  instruct  them  in  good  manners"2.  Similarly  atThetford,  where 

1  The  Fifty  Earliest  Wills  in  the  Court  of  Probate,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall 
(E.E.T.S.),  p.  54.    But  she  may  have  been  a  sister  from  a  hospital. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  4,  5,  6. 


PLATE  V 


PAGE   FROM   LA  SAINTE  ABB  ATE 

In  the  bottom  left  hand  corner  the  mistress  of  the  novices,  with  birch  in  hand,  is 
nstructing  two  young  novices;  in  the  bottom  right  hand  corner  the  abbess  and  a  nun 
U'e  at  prayer.) 


vi]  EDUCATION  261 

there  were  three  novices  in  1526,  the  Bishop  found  "non  habent 
eruditricem  "1.  At  the  larger  houses,  such  as  Romsey,  the  magistra 
noviciarum  was  a  regular  obedientiary2. 

The  vexed  question,  however,  does  not  concern  these  schools 
for  novices.  It  has  been  the  custom,  not  only  of  writers  on 
monasticism  but  also  of  the  man  in  the  street,  to  assume  that 
the  nunneries  were  almost  solely  responsible  for  the  education 
of  girls  in  the  middle  ages.  There  was  little  evidence  for  the 
assumption,  but  it  was  always  made,  and  until  the  combined 
attack  made  upon  it  in  1910  by  Mr  Coulton  and  Mr  Leach  it 
was  unchallenged3.  With  the  publication  of  bishops'  registers, 
however,  we  have  something  more  definite  to  go  upon  and  it 
is  now  possible  to  come  to  some  sort  of  conclusion,  based  on  the 
evidence  of  visitation  injunctions,  account  rolls  and  other  mis 
cellaneous  sources.  This  conclusion  may  be  summarised  as  follows. 
It  was  a  fairly  general  custom  among  the  English  nuns,  in  the 
two  and  a  half  centuries  before  the  Dissolution,  to  receive 
children  for  education.  But  there  are  four  limitations,  within 
which  and  only  within  which,  this  conclusion  is  true.  First jthSit 
by  no  means  all  nunneries  took  children  and  those  which  did 
take  them  seldom  had  large  schools;  secondly,  that  the  children 

1  Visit,  of  Dioc.  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  243. 

2  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  A  bbey,  pp.  226,  236.  William  of  Wykeham  in 
1387  ordered  that  three  or  four  at  least  of  the  more  discreet  nuns  of  this  large 
abbey,  "in  regula  sancti  benedicti  et  obseruanciis  regularibus  sufficienter 
erudite"  should  be  chosen  to  instruct  the  younger  nuns  in  these  matters. 
New  Coll.  MS.  f.  86.  At  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  in  1501,  besides  Margaret  Legh, 
mistress  of  the  novices,  there  was  Agnes  Cox,  senior  teacher  (dogmatista). 
V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  124.    At  Elstow  in  1421-2  the  bishop  ordered  "That 
a  more  suitable  nun  be  deputed  and  ordained  to  be  precentress;  and  that 
elder  nuns,  if  they  shall  be  capable  and  fit  for  such  offices,  be  preferred  to 
younger."  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  50.  Dean  Kentwode's  injunction  to  St  Helen's 
Bishopsgate  in  1432  runs:  "That  ye  ordeyne  and  chese  on  of  yowre  sustres, 
honest,  abille  and  cunnyng  of  discretyone,  the  whiche  can,  may  and  schall 
have  the  charge  of  techyng  and  informacyone  of  yowre  sustres  that  be 
uncunnyng,  for  to  teche  hem  here  service  and  the  rule  of  here  religione." 
Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  554. 

3  The  controversy  was  roused  by  an  article  by  Mr  J.  E.  G.  de  Mont- 
morency  entitled  "The  Medieval  Education  of  Women  in  England"  in 
the  Journal  of  Education  (June,  1909),  pp.  427-31.  This  was  challenged  by 
Mr  Coulton,  loc.  cit.  (July,  1910),  pp.  456-7;  see  the  correspondence  passim, 
especially  the  two  articles  by  Mr  A.  F.  Leach,  loc.  cit.  (Oct.  and  Dec.  1910), 
pp.  667-9,  838-41.  The  subject  was  afterwards  treated  with  great  erudition 
by  Mr  Coulton  in  a  paper  read  before  the  International  Congress  of  Historical 
Studies  in  1913,  reprinted  with  notes  as  Monastic  Schools  in  the  Middle  Ages 
(Medieval  Studies,  x,  1913). 


262  EDUCATION  [CH. 

who  thus  received  a  convent  education  were  drawn  exclusively 
from  the  upper  and  the  wealthy  middle  classes,  from  people, 
that  is  to  say,  of  birth  and  wealth;  thirdly,  that  the  practice 
was^a  purely  financial  expedient  on  the  part  of  the  nuns,  at  first 
forbidden,  afterwards  restricted  and  always  frowned  upon  by 
the  bishops,  who  regarded  it  as  subversive  of  discipline;  and 
fourthly,  that  the  education  which  the  children  received  from 
the.  nunsr.-so.  far  .as -book4earning  -as.  -distinct,  from  .nurture  is 
concerned,  was.. .exlrem pi y_£xiguous .  In  fine,  though  nunneries 
3id  act  as  girls'  schools,  they  certainly  did  not  educate  more 
than  a  small  proportion  even  of  the  children  of  the  upper  classes, 
and  the  education  which  they  gave  them  was  limited  by  their 
own  limitations1. 

That  the  custom  of  receiving  schoolgirls  was  fairly  general 
appears  from  the  wide  area  over  which  notices  of  such  children 
are  spread.  The  references  range  in  date  from  1282  to  1537;  they 
give  us,  if  a  douBttul  reierence  to  King's  Mead,  T)erby,  be 
accepted,  the  names  of  forty-nine  convents,  which  at  one  time 
or  other  had  children  in  residence.  These  convents  are  situated 
in  twenty-one  counties.  The  greater  number  of  references 
naturally  occur  in  those  dioceses  for  which  the  episcopal  registers 
are  most  complete ;  Yorkshire  affords  fifteen  names  and  two  which 
are  doubtful;  Lincolnshire,  Northamptonshire,  Buckingham 
shire,  Bedfordshire,  Oxfordshire,  Hertfordshire  and  Leicester 
shire,  counties  in  the  large  Lincoln  diocese,  afford  seventeen 
between  them,  five  from  Lincolnshire  and  two  from  each  of  the 
others.  These  references  do  not  prove  that  the  houses  in  question 
had  continuously  throughout  their  career  a  school  for  girls; 
sometimes  only  one  or  two  children  are  mentioned  and  usually 
the  evidence  concerns  but  a  single  year  out  of  two  and  a  half 
centuries.  Sometimes,  however,  a  happy  chance  has  preserved 
several  references  to  the  same  house,  spread  over  a  longer  period, 
from  which  it  is  perhaps  not  too  rash  to  conclude  that  it  was  the 
regular  practice  of  that  house  to  receive  children.  For  Elstow, 
for  instance,  there  is  an  early  reference  to  a  boy  of  five  sent 
there  for  education  by  St  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  towards  the 
close  of  the  twelfth  century.  In  1359  Bishop  Gynewell  prohibited 


1  For  the  rest  of  this  chapter  I  shall  not  give  full  references  in  foot 
notes,  because  they  can  easily  be  traced  in  Note  B,  p.  568  below. 


,1 


vi]  EDUCATION  263 

all  boarders  there,  except  girls  under  ten  and  boys  under  six.  In 
1421  Bishop  Flemyng  prohibited  all  except  children  under  twelve 
and  in  1432  Bishop  Gray  altered  this  to  girls  under  fourteen 
and  boys  under  ten,  and  children  are  mentioned  at  Alnwick's 
visitation  in  1442.  Similarly  at  Godstow  there  are  references 
to  children  in  1358,  1445  and  1538,  at  Esholt  in  Yorkshire  in 
1315,  1318  and  1537,  at  Sopwell  in  1446  and  1537,  at  Heynings 
in  1347,  1387  and  1393,  at  Burnham  in  1434  and  1519. 

The  mention  of  boys  in  these  references  needs  perhaps  some 
further  emphasis,  for  it  is  not  usually  recognised  that  the  nun 
neries  occasionally  acted  as  dame-schools  for  very  young  boys. 
"Abstinence  the  abbesse  myn  a.b.c.  me  tau3te,"  says  Piers 
Plowman,  "And  conscience  com  aftur  and  kennide  me  betere." 
It  is  true  that  a  Cistercian  statute  of  1256-7  forbade  the  educa 
tion  of  boys  in  nunneries  of  that  order1,  but  the  ordinance  soon 
became  a  dead  letter,  and  five  of  the  convents  at  which  Alnwick 
found  schoolboys  (c.  1445)  were  Cistercian  houses.  Boys  were 
specifically  forbidden  at  Wherwell  in  1284,  at  Heynings  in  1359 
and  at  Nuncoton  in  1531,  which  argues  that  they  were  then 
present,  and  they  are  mentioned  at  Romsey  (1311),  at  five 
Yorkshire  convents  (1314-17),  at  Burnham  (1434)*  at  Lyrnbrook 
(1437),  at  Swaffham  Bulbeck  (1483)  and  at  Redlingfield  (1514),  a 
chronologically  and  geographically  wide  range  of  houses.  Occa 
sionally  some  details  as  to  a  particular  boy  may  be  gleaned ;  the 
five  year  old  Robert  de  Noyon,  sent  by  Bishop  Hugh  to  Elstow 
"to  be  taught  his  letters,"  the  two  Tudor  boys  commended  to 
Katharine  de  la  Pole,  the  noble  Abbess  of  Barking;  the  little  son 
and  heir  of  Sir  John  Stanley,  who  made  his  will  in  1527  and  then 
became  a  monk,  leaving  the  boy  to  be  brought  up  until  twelve 
years  of  age  by  another  Abbess  of  Barking,  after  which  he  was 
to  pass  to  the  care  of  the  Abbot  of  Westminster;  and  Cromwell's 
son  Gregory  and  his  little  companion,  sent  to  be  supervised, 
though  not  taught  by  Margaret  Vernon,  Prioress  of  Little 
Marlow2.  But  as  a  rule  the  boys  in  nunneries  were  very  young; 
it  was  not  considered  decorous  for  them  to  stay  with  the  nuns 
later  than  their  ninth  or  tenth  year;  the  bishop  forbade  it  and 

1  Cistercian  Statutes,  1256-7,  ed.  J.  T.  Fowler  (reprinted  from  Yorks. 
1    Archaeol.  Journ.),  p.  105. 

z  Probably,  however,  after  the  dissolution  of  her  house. 


264 


EDUCATION 


[CH. 


besides,  the  education  which  the  good  sisters  could  give  them 
would  not  have  been  considered  sufficient.  The  rule  which  gives 
a  man  child  to  a  man  for  education  is  of  very  old  standing. 

Such  is  the  evidence  for  concluding  that  the  custom  of  re 
ceiving  children  for  education  in  nunneries  was  widespread.  It 
remains  to  consider  carefully  the  limitations  within  which  this 
conclusion  is  true.  In  the  first  place,  not  all  nunneries  received 
children.  It  is  obviously  impossible,  considering  the  gaps  in  our 
evidence,  to  attempt  an  exact  estimate  of  the  proportion  which 
did  so.  Some  sort  of  clue  may  be  obtained  by  an  analysis  of  the 
Yorkshire  visitations  of  Archbishops  Greenfield  and  Melton  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  (1306-20)  and  of  Aln- 
wick's  Lincoln  visitations  (1440-5).  The  Yorkshire  evidence  is 
rather  scanty,  being  based  on  the  summaries  of  injunctions, 
which  are  given  in  the  Victoria  County  Histories,  and  any  statistics 
must  needs  be  approximate  only.  The  two  archbishops  between 
them  visited  nineteen  nunneries  and  mention  of  children  is  made 
at  twelve,  i.e.  about  two-thirds.  The  information  given  by  the 
invaluable  Alnwick  is  more  exact.  From  the  detecta  of  some  of 
the  nuns  and  from  the  number  of  prohibitions  of  this  practice, 
it  is  obvious  that  Alnwick  was  accustomed  to  ask  at  his  visita 
tions  whether  children  were  sleeping  in  the  nuns'  dorter;  he  also 
made  careful  inquiry  as  to  the  boarders.  The  probability,  there 
fore,  is  that  we  have  in  his  register  an  exact  record  of  those 
houses  in  which  children  were  received.  Analysis  shows  that  of 
the  twenty  houses  which  he  visited  he  found  children,  often 
boys  as  well  as  girls,  at  twelve,  i.e.  a  little  over  two-thirds,  which 
is  substantially  the  same  result  as  was  given  by  the  Yorkshire 
analysis  a  century  earlier.  The  estimate  is  interesting,  but  it 
cannot  be  considered  conclusive  without  the  corroborative 
evidence  from  other  dioceses,  which  is  unfortunately  lacking. 
It  is  a  hint,  a  straw,  which  shows  which  way  the  wind  of  research 
is  blowing,  for  if  it  is  unsafe  to  argue  from  silence  that  the  nuns 
of  other  convents  did  take  pupils,  it  is  equally  unsafe  to  argue 
that  they  did  not. 

/  The  fact  is,  however,  clearly  established  that  all  nunneries 
Aid  not  take  children;  possibly  about  two-thirds  of  them  did. 
yThe  further  fact  has  then  to  be  recognised  that  even  those  nun 
neries  had  not  necessarily  what  we  should  regard  as  a  sch< 


vi]  EDUCATION  265 

for  girls.  Not  only  does  it  sometimes  seem  as  though  children 
were  taken  occasionally  and  intermittently,  rather  than  regularly, 
but  the  numbers  taken  were  rarely  great.  Sometimes  we  do 
hear  of  a  house  with  a  large  number  of  pupils.  At  St  Mary's 
Winchester  in  1536  there  were  as  many  as  twenty-six  children, 
to  twenty-six  nuns;  and  at  Polesworth  in  1537  Henry  VIII's 
commissioners  state  vaguely  that  "repay re  and  resort  ys  made 
to  the  gentlemens  childern  and  studiounts  that  ther  doo  lif, 
to  the  nombre  sometyme  of  xxxu  and  sometyme  xju  and  moo." 
There  were  fifteen  nuns  in  the  house  at  the  time  and  it  is  likely 
that  the  number  of  children  given  is  a  pardonable  exaggeration 
by  local  gentlemen  who  were  interested  in  preserving  the  nun 
nery;  but  it  seems  undoubted  that  there  was  a  comparatively 
large  school  there.  At  Stixwould,  again,  in  1440  there  were 
about  eighteen  children  to  an  equal  number  of  nuns.  These, 
however,  are  the  largest  schools  of  which  we  have  record.  At 
St  Michael's  Stamford  in  1440  there  were  seven  or  eight 
children  to  twelve  nuns,  at  Catesby  in  1442  six  or  seven  children 
to  seven  nuns.  At  Swaffham  Bulbeck,  where  there  were  probably 
eight  or  nine  nuns,  there  were  nine  children  in  1483.  These  also 
are  schools,  though  small  schools.  But  at  other  houses  there  were 
only  one  or  two  children  at  a  time.  The  accounts  of  the  Prioress 
of  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate  in  1298  mention  only  two  children, 
there  were  only  two  at  Littlemore  in  1445  and  two  at  Sopwell 
at  the  time  of  the  Dissolution.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
many  nunneries  were  themselves  very  small  and  their  inmates 
could  not  have  looked  after  a  large  number  of  children.  The 
examples  quoted  above  suggest  that  the  number  of  children 
hardly  ever  exceeded  the  number  of  nuns.  To  what  conclusion  are 
we  driven  when  we  find  that  a  possible  two-thirds  of  the  convents 
of  England  received  children  and  that  the  largest  school  of  which 
we  have  record  numbered  only  twenty-six  children  (or  thirty 
if  we  take  the  higher  and  less  probable  figure  for  Polesworth), 
while  most  had  far  fewer?  Surely  to  represent  a  majority | 
of  girls,  or  even  a  majority  of  girls  of  gentle  birth,  as  having 
received  their  nurture  in  convents,  would  be  on  the  evidence 
absurd. 

The  second  limitation  of  convent  education  in  medieval 
England  is   contained  in  the  words   "girls   of  gentle  birth." 


266  EDUCATION  [CH. 

Tanner's  statement  that "  the  lower  rank  of  people,  who  could  not 
pay  for  their  learning1,"  as  well  as  noblemen's  and  gentlemen's 
daughters,  were  educated  in  nunneries  has  not  a  shred  of  evidence 
to  support  it,  though  it  has  been  repeated  ad  nauseam  ever  since 
he  wrote  it.  Every  scrap  of  evidence  which  has  come  down  to  us 
goes  to  prove  that  the  girls  educated  in  nunneries  were  of  gentle 
birth,  daughters  of  great  lords,  or  more  often  daughters  of 
country  gentlemen,  or  of  those  comfortable  and  substantial 
merchants  and  burgesses,  who  were  usually  themselves  sprung 
from  younger  sons  of  the  gentry.  The  implication  is  plain  in 
Chaucer's  description,  in  The  Reves  Tale,  of  the  Miller's  wife, 
who  was  "y-comen  of  noble  kin"  and  daughter  of  the  parson 
of  the  toun,  and  who  "was  y-fostred  in  a  nonnerye": 

Ther  dorste  no  wight  clepen  hir  but  "dame"... 

And  eek,  for  she  was  somdel  smoterlich 

She  was  as  digne  as  water  in  a  dich; 

And  ful  of  hoker  and  of  bisemare. 

Her  thoughte  that  a  lady  sholde  hir  spare, 

What  for  hir  kinrede  and  hir  nortelrye 

That  she  had  lerned  in  the  nonnerye. 

An  analysis  of  some  of  the  schoolgirls  whose  names  have 
come  down  to  us  confirms  this  impression.  The  commissioners 
who  visited  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  in  1536  drew  up  a  list  of 
the  twenty-six  "chyldren  of  lordys,  knyghttes  and  gentylmen 
brought  up  yn  the  saym  monastery."  They  were 

Bryget  Plantagenet,  dowghter  unto  the  lord  vycounte  Lysley  (i.e. 
Lisle);  Mary  Pole,  dowghter  unto  Sir  Geffrey  Pole  knyght;  Brygget 
Coppeley,  dowghter  unto  Sir  Roger  Coppeley  knyght;  Elizabeth 
Phyllpot,  dowghter  unto  Sir  Peter  Phyllpot,  knyght;  Margery  Tyrell; 
Adrian  Tyrell;  Johanne  Barnabe;  AmyDyngley;  Elizabeth  Dyngley; 
JaneDyngley;  Frances  Dyngley;  Susan  Tycheborne;  Elizabeth  Tyche- 
borne;  Mary  Justyce;  Agnes  Aylmer;  Emma  Bartue;  Myldred  Clerke; 
Anne  Lacy;  Isold  Apulgate;  Elizabeth  Legh;  Mary  Legh;  Alienor 
North;  Johanne  Sturgys;  Johanne  Ffyldes;  Johanne  Ffrances;  Jane 
Raynysford. 

The  house  was  evidently  at  this  time  a  fashionable  seminary  for 
young  ladies.  It  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  a  general 

1  Tanner,  Notitia  Monastica  (1744  edit.),  p.  xxxii  (basing  his  opinion 
on  three  secondary  authorities  and  on  a  misunderstanding  of  two  medieval 
entries,  one  of  which  refers  to  lay  sisters  and  the  other  to  an  adult 
boarder). 


vi]  EDUCATION  267 

custom  among  the  English  nobility  and  gentry  to  send  their 
children  away  to  the  household  of  a  lord,  or  person  of  good 
social  standing,  in  order  to  learn  breeding  and  it  was  not  un 
common  to  send  boys  to  the  household  of  an  abbot.  In  1450 
Thomas  Bromele,  Abbot  of  Hyde,  thus  entertained  in  his  house 
eight  "gentiles  pueri,"  there  were  many  "pueri  generosi"  at 
Westacre  in  1494,  and  Richard  Whiting,  the  last  Abbot  of 
Glastonbury,  is  stated  by  Parsons  to  have  had,  among  his  300 
servants,  "multos  nobilium  filios"1.  It  was  doubtless  much  in 
the  same  way  that  the  children  of  lords,  knights  and  gentlemen 
were  put  in  the  charge  of  the  Abbess  of  St  Mary's  Winchester, 
a  great  lady,  who  had  her  own  "gentlewoman"  to  attend  upon 
her  and  her  own  private  household.  It  is  probable  that  the  nuns 
taught  these  children,  but  the  boys  who  went  as  wards  to  abbeys 
seem  often  to  have  taken  their  tutors  with  them,  or  at  least  to 
have  been  taught  by  special  tutors.  At  Lilleshall,  for  instance, 
the  commissioners  found  four  "gentylmens  sons  and  their  scole- 
master"2  and  it  is  significant  that  when  little  Gregory  Cromwell 
was  sent  to  be  brought  up  by  Margaret  Vernon,  Prioress  of 
Little  Marlow,  he  was  taught  by  a  private  tutor  and  not  by  the 
nun. 

Other  references  to  the  children  received  in  nunneries  con 
firms  the  impression  that  they  were  of  gentle  birth.    At  Poles- 
worth,  as  at  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  the  commissioners  specified 
"gentylmens  childern  and  studiounts."  At  Thetford  a  daughter 
of  John  Jerves,  generosus,  is  mentioned  in  1532  and  two  daughters 
of  Laurens  Knight,  gentleman,  were  at  Cornworthy,  c.  1470.  The 
accounts  of  Sopwell  in  1446  mention  the  daughter  of  Lady  Anne 
Norbery;  at  Littlemore  in  1445  the  daughter  of  John  FitzAleyn, 
steward  of  the  house,  and  the  daughter  of  Ingelram  Warland 
I  are  boarders.  Among  the  Carrow  boarders,  who  may  be  set  down 
j  as  children,  are  the  son  and  two  daughters  of  Sir  Roger  Wellisham, 
. 

1  N.  Sanderus,  de  Schismate  Anglicana,  ed.  1586,  p.  176.     The  state- 
|  ment    is   not   in   the   original   Sanders.     A    well-known   passage    in    the 
\Paston  Letters  illustrates  the  practice  as  regards  girls;  Margaret  Paston 
i  writes  to  her  son  in  1469  "  Also  I  would  ye  should  purvey  for  your  sister  to 

be  with  my  Lady  of  Oxford,  or  with  my  Lady  of  Bedford,  or  in  some  other 
worshipful  place  whereas  ye  think  best,  for  we  be  either  of  us  weary  of  other." 
It  is  probable  that  this  method  of  educating  girls  was  more  common  than 
nunnery  education. 

2  Quoted  by  Mr  Leach,  Journ.  of  E due.  (1910),  p.  668. 


268  EDUCATION  [CH. 

the  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  de  Wachesam,  a  niece  of  William 
Bateman,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  girls  with  such  well-known 
names  as  Fastolf,  Clere,  Baret,  Blickling,  Shelton  and  Ferrers, 
though  the  last  two  may  be  adult  boarders.  The  Gracedieu 
boarders  nearly  all  bear  the  names  of  neighbouring  gentry  and 
one  was  the  daughter  of  Lord  Beaumont.  In  the  course  of  time, 
as  the  urban  middle  class  grew  and  flourished,  the  daughters  of 
the  well-to-do  bourgeoisie  were  sometimes  sent  to  convents  for 
their  education.  Thus  among  the  Carrow  boarders  we  find  a 
daughter  of  John  de  Erlham,  a  merchant  and  citizen  of  Norwich, 
and  Isabel  Barber,  daughter  of  Thomas  Welan,  barber,  who 
afterwards,  however,  became  a  nun.  It  is  plain  from  the  wills 
which  have  been  preserved  that  the  wealthy  Norwich  burgesses 
were  in  the  habit  of  sending  their  daughters  as  nuns  to  Carrow, 
and  it  is  a  natural  supposition  that  they  should  have  sent  them 
sometimes  as  schoolgirls ;  but  by  birth  and  by  wealth  these  city 
magnates  were  not  far  removed  from  the  neighbouring  gentry. 
The  school  at  Swaffham  Bulbeck  in  1483  was  less  fashionable 
than  that  at  Carrow  and  did  not  cater  for  the  nobly  born ;  it  was 
a  small  house  and  the  names  of  the  children  suggest  a  sound 
middle  class  establishment,  perhaps  the  very  one  in  which 
Chaucer's  Miller's  wife  of  Trumpington  was  educated,  full  of 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  burgesses  of  Cambridge,  Richa 
Potecary  of  Cambridge,  William  Water,  Thomas  Roch,  unnam 
fathers  "of  Cambridge,"  "of  Chesterton,"  Parker  "of  Walden, 
and  "the  merchant." 

None  of  these  examples  can  possibly  be  twisted  into  a  case 
for  the  free,  or  even  the  cheap,  education  of  the  poor.  Just  as 
we  never  find  low-born  girls  as  nuns,  so  we  never  find  them  as 
schoolgirls  and  for  the  same  reason;  "dowerless  maidens,"  as 
Mr  Leach  says,  "were  not  sought  as  nuns."  As  will  be  seen 
hereafter,  the  reception  of  school  children  was  essentially  a 
financial  expedient;  one  of  the  many  methods  by  which  the 
nuns  sought  to  raise  the  wind1.  The  fees  paid  by  these  children 

1  Possibly,  as  Mr  Coulton  points  out  (Med.  Studies,  x,  p.  26),  this  may 
account  for  the  fact  that  evidence  of  girl  pupils  is  wanting  for  some  of  the 
wealthier  and  more  important  nunneries;  he  instances  Shaftesbury,  Ames- 
bury,  Syon,  Studley  and  Lacock.  For  the  life  of  the  nuns  at  Lacock  and 
Amesbury  we  have  very  little  information  of  any  kind,  but  our  information 
is  fairly  full  for  Shaftesbury,  and  very  full  for  Syon  and  for  Studley. 


vi]  EDUCATION  269 

are  recorded  here  and  there,  in  nunnery  accounts;  education 
was  apparently  thrown  in  with  board,  and  the  usual  rate  for 
board  for  children  during  the  century  and  a  half  before  the 
Dissolution  seems  to  have  been  about  6d.  a  week,  though  the 
charge  at  Cornworthy  c.  1470  was  lod.  a  week  and  at  Littlemore 
in  1445  only  4^.  a  week1.  Occasionally  the  good  nuns  suffered, 
like  so  many  schoolmistresses  since  their  day,  from  the  difficulty 
of  extracting  fees.  Among  the  debts  owing  to  the  nuns  of  Esholt 
at  the  Dissolution  was  one  of  335.  from  Walter  Wood  of  Timble 
in  the  parish  of  Otley  for  his  child's  board  for  a  year  and  a  half ; 
and  at  Thetford  in  1532  the  poor  nuns  complained  that  "John 
Jerves,  gentleman,  has  a  daughter  being  nurtured  in  the  priory 
and  pays  nothing."  The  most  melancholy  case  of  all  has  been 
preserved  to  us  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  nuns,  goaded  to 
desperation,  sought  help  from  the  Chancellor.  About  1470 
Thomasyn  Dynham,  Prioress  of  Cornworthy,  made  petition  to 
the  effect  that  Laurens  Knyghte,  gentleman,  had  agreed  with 
Margaret  Wortham  the  late  Prioress,  that  she  should  take  his 
two  daughters  "to  teche  them  to  scole,"  viz.  Elizabeth,  aged 
seven  years,  and  "Jahne,"  aged  ten  years,  at  the  costs  and 
charges  of  Laurens,  who  was  to  pay  2od.  a  week  for  them.  So 
at  Cornworthy  they  remained  during  the  life  of  Margaret,  to 
the  great  costs  and  charges  and  impoverishing  of  the  said  poor 
place,  by  the  space  of  five  years  and  more,  until  the  money  due 
amounted  to  £21.  13$.  4^.,  "the  which  sum  is  not  contented  ne 
paid,  nor  noo  peny  thereof."  Laurense  meanwhile  departed  this 
I  life,  leaving  his  wife  "Jahne"  executrix,  and  Jahne,  unnatural 
mother  that  she  was,  married  again  a  certain  John  Barnehous 
I  and  utterly  refused  to  pay  for  her  unhappy  daughters.  One  is 
I  uncertain  which  to  pity  most,  Thomasyn  Dynham,  a  new  Prioresj^ 
(left  with  this  incubus  on  her  hands,  or  Elizabeth  and  Jane 
j  Knyghte,  trying  hard  to  restrain  their  appetites  and  not  to 
i  grow  out  of  their  clothes  under  her  justly  incensed  regard.  Jane 
|  was  by  now  grown  up  and  marriageable  according  to  the 
|  standards  of  the  time  and  it  is  tantalising  not  to  know  the  end 
,  of  the  dilemma.  A  proneness  to  forget  fees  seems  to  have  been 

1  For  a  discussion  of  these  charges  and  of  other  prices  and  payments, 
with  which  they  may  be  compared,  see  J.  E.  G.  de  Montmorency  in  Journ.  of 
Educ.  (1909),  pp.  429-30  and  Coulton,  op.  cit.  app.  iv.  (School  Children  in 
Nunnery  Accounts),  pp.  38-40. 


270  EDUCATION  [CH. 


shared  by  greater  folk  than  Mistress  Knyghte,  as  the  petition 
pi  Katherine  de  la  Pole,  Abbess  of  Barking,  concerning  Edmond 
(and  Jasper  Tudor,  whose  "charges,  costs  and  expenses"  she 
nad  taken  upon  herself,  will  show. 

Both  this  matter  of  fees  and  the  names  of  schoolgirls  which 
have  survived  are  against  any  suggestion  that  the  nuns  gave 
schooling  to  poor  girls.  There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  for 
anything  like  a  day  school,  and  the  only  hint  for  any  care  for 
village  girls  on  the  part  of  the  nuns  is  contained  in  a  letter  from 
Cranmer,  when  fellow  of  Jesus  College,  to  the  Abbess  of  Godstow : 

Stephen  Whyte  hath  told  me  that  you  lately  gathered  round  you  a 
number  of  wild  peasant  maids  and  did  make  them  a  most  goodly 
discourse  on  the  health  of  their  souls;  and  you  showeth  them  how 
goodly  a  thing  it  be  for  them  to  go  oftentimes  to  confession.  I  am 
mighty  glad  of  your  discourse1. 

But  this  is  obviously  an  isolated  discourse  and  in  any  case  it 
has  nothing  to  do  with  education.  So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  be 
certain  of  anything  for  which  evidence  is  scanty,  we  may  be 
certain  that  poor  or  lower-class  girls  were  no  more  received  in 
nunneries  for  education,  than  they  were  received  there  as  nuns. 
No  single  instance  has  ever  been  brought  of  a  lowborn  nun  or 
a  lowborn  schoolgirl,  in  any  English  nunnery,  for  the  three 
centuries  before  the  nunneries  were  dissolved. 

/^The  third  limitation  to  which  convent  education  was  sub 
jected  is  an  important  one ;  the  reception  of  children  by  the  nuns 
/was  never  approved  and  always  restricted  by  their  ecclesiastical 
I  superiors.  The  greater  number  of  references  to  schoolchildren 
which  have  come  down  to  us  are  these  restrictive  references.  The 
attitude  of  monastic  visitors  towards  children  was  in  essence 
the  same  as  their  attitude  towards  boarders.  The  nuns  received 
both,  because  they  were  nearly  always  in  low  water  financially 
and  wished  to  add  to  their  scanty  finances  by  the  familiar  ex 
pedient  of  taking  paying  guests.  But  the  bishops  saw  in  all 
boarders,  whether  adults  or  schoolchildren,  a  hindrance  to  disci 
pline;  they  objected  to  them  for  the  same  reason  that  they 

1  Quoted  in  S.  H.  Burke,  The  Monastic  Houses  of  England,  their  Accusers 
and  Defenders  (1869),  p.  32.  Compare  the  words  of  a  Venetian  traveller, 
Paolo  Casenigo:  "The  English  nuns  gave  instructions  to  the  poorer  virgins 
as  to  their  duties  when  they  became  wives ;  to  be  obedient  to  their  husbands 
and  to  give  good  example,"  a  curious  note.  Ib.  p.  31. 


vil  EDUCATION  271 

objected  to  pet  dogs  and  silver  girdles  and  with  just  as  little 
success. 

The  ecclesiastical  case  against  schoolchildren  may  be  found 
delightfully  set  forth  in  the  words  addressed,  it  is  true,  to 
anchoresses,  but  expressing  the  same  spirit  as  was  afterwards 
shown  by  Eudes  Rigaud,  Johann  Busch  and  other  great  medieval 
visitors  towards  nuns.  Aelred,  the  great  twelfth  century  Abbot 
of  Rievaulx,  writes  thus: 

Allow  no  boys  or  girls  to  have  access  to  you.  There  are  certain  an 
choresses,  who  are  busied  in  teaching  pupils  and  turn  their  chambers 
into  a  school.  The  mistress  sits  at  the  window,  the  child  in  the  cloister. 
She  looks  at  each  of  them;  and,  during  their  puerile  actions,  now  is 
angry,  now  laughs,  now  threatens,  now  soothes,  now  spares,  now 
kisses,  now  calls  the  weeping  child  to  be  beaten,  then  strokes  her  face, 
bids  her  hold  up  her  head,  and  eagerly  embracing  her,  calls  her  her 
child,  her  love1. 

Similarly  the  author  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  warns  his  three 
anchoresses : 

An  anchoress  must  not  become  a  schoolmistress,  nor  turn  her  anchoress  - 
house  into  a  school  for  children.  Her  maiden  may,  however,  teach 
any  little  girl,  concerning  whom  it  might  be  doubtful  whether  she 
should  learn  among  boys,  but  an  anchoress  ought  to  give  her  thoughts 
to  God  only2. 

The  gist  of  the  matter  was  that  the  children  constituted  a 
hindrance  to  claustral  discipline  and  devotion.  It  is  plain,  how 
ever,  that  in  this,  as  in  so  many  other  matters,  the  reformers 
were  only  "beating  the  air"  in  vain  with  their  restrictions. 
Sympathy  must  be  with  the  needy  nuns,  for  even  if  discipline 
were  weakened  thereby,  the  reception  of  children  was  in  itself 
a  very  harmless,  not  to  say  laudable  expedient;  and  so  the 
neighbouring  gentry  as  well  as  the  nuns  considered  it. 

An  analysis  of  the  attitude  of  medieval  visitors  to  school- 
'children  shows  us  the  usual  attempt  to  limit  what  it  was  beyond 
their  power  to  prohibit.  Eudes  Rigaud,  the  great  Archbishop  of 
Rouen,  habitually  removed  all  the  girls  and  boys  whom  he  found 
in  the  houses  of  his  diocese,  when  he  visited  them  during  the 
'years  1249  to  I269-  But  in  England,  at  least,  the  nuns  very  soon 
'became  too  strong  for  the  bishops,  who  gradually  adopted  the 
|policy  of  fixing  an  age  limit  beyond  which  no  children  might 

1  Quoted  in  Fosbroke,  British  Monachism  (1802),  n,  p.  35. 

2  Ancren  Riwle,  ed.  Gasquet,  p.  319. 


272  EDUCATION  [CH. 

remain  in  a  nunnery  and  sometimes  of  requiring  their  own  licence 
to  be  given  before  the  boys  and  girls  were  admitted.  Since  the 
danger  of  secularisation  could  not  be  removed,  it  was  at  least 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  by  ensuring  that  only  very  young  boys 
and  only  girls,  who  had  not  yet  attained  a  marriageable  age, 
should  be  received.  The  age  limit  varied  a  little  with  different 
visitors  and  different  houses.  In  the  Yorkshire  diocese  early  in 
the  fourteenth  century  the  age  limit  was  twelve  for  girls;  boys 
are  rarely  mentioned,  but  at  Hampole  in  1314  the  nuns  were 
forbidden  to  permit  male  children  over  five  to  be  in  the  house, 
as  the  bishop  finds  has  been  the  practice.  Bishop  Gynewell  in 
1359  allowed  girls  up  to  ten  and  boys  up  to  six  at  Elstow,  but 
forbade  boys  altogether  at  Heynings.  Bishop  Gray  allowed  girls 
under  fourteen  and  boys  under  eight  at  Burnham  in  1434  and 
Bishop  Stretton  in  1367  allowed  boys  up  to  seven  at  Fairwell. 
The  age  limit  tended,  it  will  be  seen,  to  become  higher  in  the 
course  of  time;  Alnwick  writing  to  Gracedieu  in  1440,  forbade 
all  boarders  "save  childerne,  males  the  ix  and  females  the 
xiiij  yere  of  age,  whom  we  licencede  you  to  hafe  for  your  relefe  "l; 
he  allowed  boys  often  at  Heynings  and  Catesby  and  boys  of 
eleven  (an  exceptionally  high  age)  at  Harrold. 

There  was  a  special  reason,  besides  the  general  interference 
with  discipline,  for  which  the  bishops  objected  to  children  in 
nunneries.  It  seems  very  often  to  have  been  the  custom  for  the 
nuns  to  take,  as  it  were,  private  .pupils,  each  child  having  its 
own  particular  mistress.  This  custom  grew  as  the  practice  of 
keeping  separate  households  grew.  Thus  at  Catesby  the  Prioress 
complained  to  Alnwick  that  sister  Agnes  Allesley  had  "six  or 
seven  young  folk  of  both  sexes,  that  do  lie  in  the  dorter";  at 
St  Michael's  Stamford,  he  found  that  the  Prioress  had  seven 
or  eight  children,  at  Gracedieu  the  cellaress  had  a  little  boy  and 
at  Elstow,  where  there  were  five  households  of  nuns,  it  was  said 
that  "certain  nuns"  brought  children  into  the  quire.  In  fact, 
the  nuns  would  appear  to  have  kept  for  their  own  personal  use 
the  money  paid  to  them  for  the  board  of  their  private  pupils, 
This  was  a  sin  against  the  monastic  rule  of  personal  poverty 

1  Notice  the  recognition  of  the  financial  reasons  for  taking  school 
children.  So  also  in  1489  the  nuns  of  Nunappleton  are  to  take  no  boarders 
"but  if  they  be  childern  or  ellis  old  persons  by  which  availe  by  likelihod 
may  grow  to  your  place  " — fees  or  legacies,  in  fact.  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  654. 


vj]  EDUCATION  273 

and  the  bishops  took  special  measures  against  such  manifesta 
tions  of  proprietas.  William  of  Wykeham  in  1387  forbids  the 
nuns  of  Romsey  to  make  wills  and  to  have  private  rooms  or 
private  pupils,  giving  this  specific  reason,  and  at  St  Helen's 
Bishopsgate  in  1439  Dean  Kentwode  enjoined  "that  no  nonne 
have  ne  recey ve  noo  schuldrin  wyth  hem . . .  but  yf  that  the 
profite  of  the  comonys  turne  to  the  vayle  of  the  same  howse." 
Similarly  the  number  of  children  who  might  be  taken  by  a  single 
nun  was  sometimes  limited;  Gynewell  wrote  to  Godstow  in 
1358  "that  no  lady  of  the  said  house  is  to  have  children,  save 
only  two  or  three  females  sojourning  with  them  "  and  at  Fairwell 
in  1367  no  nun  might  keep  with  her  for  education  more  than 
one  child. 

Another  habit  against  which  bishops  constantly  legislated\ 

was  that  of  having  the  children  to  sleep  in  the  dorter  with  the    J 

nuns.  This  practice  was  exceedingly  common,  for  many  of  the  j 

j nunneries  which  took  children  were  small  and  poor;  they  had 

'possibly  no  other  room  to  set  aside  for  them,  and  no  person  who 

could  suitably  be  placed  in  charge  of  them.    Moreover  in  some 

cases  adult  boarders  and  servants  also  slept  in  the  dorter. 

!  Am  wick  was  constantly  having  to  bid  his  nuns  "that  ye  suffre 

jne  seculere  persones,  wymmen  ne  childern  lyg  by  nyghte  in  the 

jdormytory,"  but  At  water  and  Longland  in  the  sixteenth  century 

still  have  to  make  the  same  injunction.    Bokyngham  in  1387 

ordered  that  a  seemly  place  outside  the  cloister  should  be  set 

'apart  for  the  children  at  Heynings ;  the  reason  was  that  (as  Gyne- 

jwell  had  expressly  stated  on  visiting  this  house  forty  years  before) 

I"  the  convent  might  not  be  disturbed."   Indeed  little  attempt 

jwas  made  by  the  nuns  to  keep  the  children  out  of  their  way. 

They  seem  to  have  dined  in  the  refectory,  when  not  in  the  separate 

'rooms  of  their  mistresses,  for  Greenfield  forbids  the  Prioress 

imd  Subprioress  of  Sinningthwaite  (1315)  to  permit  boys  or  girls 

\o  eat  flesh  meat  in  Advent  or  Sexagesima,  or  during  Lent  eggs 

pr  cheese,  in  the  refectory,  "contrary  to  the  honesty  of  religion/' 

put  at  those  seasons  when  they  ought  to  eat  such  things,  they 

jvere  to  be  assigned  other  places  in  which  to  eat  them.  There 

lire  references,  too,  to  disturbances  and  diversions  created  by 

he  children  in  the  quire.  At  Elstow  in  1442  Dame  Rose  Walde- 

|rrave  said  that  "certain  nuns  do  sometimes  have  with  them  in 

P.N.  18 


274 


EDUCATION 


[CH. 


time  of  mass  the  boys  whom  they  teach  and  these  do  make  a 
noise  in  quire  during  divine  service  "l.  To  us  the  picture  of  these 
merry  children  breaking  the  monotony  of  convent  routine  is  an 
attractive  one;  more  attractive  even  than  the  pet  dogs  and  the 
Vert-Verts.  But  to  stern  ecclesiastical  disciplinarians  it  was  not 
so  attractive,  and  their  constant  restriction,  though  it  never  suc 
ceeded  in  turning  out  the  children,  must  have  kept  down  the 
number  who  were  admitted. 

The  evidence  which  has  so  far  been  considered  shows  that, 
though  the  reception  of  children  to  be  boarded  and  taught  in 
nunneries  was  fairly  common,  it  was  subjected  to  well  marked 
limitations.  There  remains  to  be  considered  one  more  question 
the  answer  to  which  is  in  some  sort  a  limitation  likewise. 
What  exactly  did  the  nuns  teach  these  children?  We  are 
hampered  in  answering  this  question  by  the  difficulty  of  ob 
taining  exact  contemporary  evidence.  Most  modern  English 
writers  content  themselves  with  a  glib  list  of  accomplishments, 
copied  without  verification  from  book  to  book,  and  all  apparently 
traceable  in  the  last  resort  to  Fuller  and  John  Aubrey,  the  one 
writing  a  century,  the  other  almost  a  century  and  a  half  after 
the  nunneries  had  been  dissolved.  Fuller  (whom  Tanner  copies) 
says: 

Nunneries  also  were  good  Shee-schools,  wherein  the  girles  and  maids 
of  the  neighbourhood  were  taught  to  read  and  work;  and  some 
times  a  little  Latine  was  taught  them  therein.  Yea,  give  me  leave 
to  say,  if  such  Feminine  Foundations  had  still  continued... haply 
the  weaker  sex  (besides  the  avoiding  modern  inconveniences)  might 
be  heightened  to  a  higher  perfection  than  hitherto  hath  been 
obtained 2. 

1  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  gives  a  picture  of  a  less  disturbing  child  in 
quire  (though  she  was  more  probably  a  little  girl  who  was  intended  for  a 
nun).    This  is  the  English  fifteenth  century  translation:  "Caesarius  telK« 
how  that  in  Essex"  (really  in  Saxony,  but  the  translator  was  anxious 
introduce  local  colour  for  the  sake  of  his  audience),  "in  a  monasterye 
nonnys,  ther  was  a  litle  damysell,  and  on  a  grete  solempne  nyght  hur  mai 
tres  lete  hur  com  with  hur  to  matyns.    So  the  damysell  was  bod  a  wayke 
thyng,  and  hur  maistres  was  ferd  at  sho  sulde  take  colde,  and  sho 
maundid  hur  befor  Te  Deum  to  go  vnto  the  dortur  to  her  bed  agayn. 

at  hur  commandment  sho  went  furth  of  the  where,  thuff  all  it  war  with 
wyll,  and  abade  withoute  the  where  and  thoght  to  here  the  residue 
matyns  " ;  whereat  she  saw  a  vision  of  the  nuns  caught  up  to  heaven  praisi: 
God  among  the  angels,  at  the  Te  Deum.    An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S. 
1905),  n,  p.  406. 

2  Fuller,  Church  Hist.    See  p.  255  above,  note  3. 


vi]  EDUCATION  275 

Aubrey,  speaking  of  Wiltshire  convents  says : 

There  the  young  maids  were  brought  up... at  the  nunneries,  where 
they  had  examples  of  piety,  and  humility,  and  modesty,  and  obedience 
to  imitate,  and  to  practise.  Here  they  learned  needle-work,  the  art 
of  confectionary,  surgery  (for  anciently  there  were  no  apothecaries  or 
surgeons — the  gentlewomen  did  cure  their  poor  neighbours:  their 
hands  are  now  too  fine),  physic,  writing,  drawing  etc.1 

One  would  have  thought  the  familiar  note  of  the  laudator 
temporis  acti  to  be  plainly  audible  in  both  these  extracts.  But 
a  host  of  modern  writers  have  gravely  transcribed  their  words 
and  even,  taking  advantage  no  doubt  of  Aubrey's  "etc."  (much 
virtue  in  etc.),  improved  upon  them.  In  the  work  of  one  more 
recent  writer  the  list  has  become  "reading,  writing,  some 
knowledge  of  arithmetic,  the  art  of  embroidery,  music  and 
French  'after  the  scole  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe,'  were  the  recog 
nised  course  of  study,  while  the  preparation  of  perfumes,  balsams, 
simples  and  confectionary  was  among  the  more  ordinary  depart 
ments  of  the  education  afforded"2.  Another  adds  a  few  more 
deft  touches:  "the  treatment  of  various  disorders,  the  com 
pounding  of  simples,  the  binding  up  of  wounds, . . .  fancy  cookery, 
such  as  the  making  of  sweetmeats,  writing,  drawing,  needlework 
of  all  kinds  and  music,  both  vocal  and  instrument al"3.  The  most 
recent  writer  of  all  gives  the  list  as  "English  and  French. . . 
writing,  drawing,  confectionary,  singing  by  notes,  dancing,  and 
playing  upon  instruments  of  music,  the  study  also  of  medicine 
and  surgery"4.  Though  the  historian  must  groan,  the  student 
of  human  nature  cannot  but  smile  to  see  music  insinuate  itself 
iinto  the  list  and  then  become  "both  instrumental  and  vocal"; 
confectionery  extend  itself  to  include  perfumes,  balsams,  simples, 
^nd  the  making  of  sweetmeats;  arithmetic  appear  out  of  nowhere; 
3Jid  (most  magnificent  feat  of  the  imagination)  dancing  trip  in 
;pn  light  fantastic  toe.  From  this  compound  of  Aubrey,  memories 

of   continental   convents   in   the   seventeenth   and   eighteenth 

i 

1  Quoted  in  Gasquet,  Eng.  Monastic  Life,  p.  177. 

2  Hugo,  Medieval  Nunneries  of  Somerset  (Minchin  Buckland),  p.  107. 

3  G.  Hill,  Women  in  Eng.  Life  (1896),  p.  79. 

4  Times  Educational  Supplement  (Sept.  4,  1919).  This  seems  to  be  taken 
fom  Fosbroke,  Brit.  Monachism,  n,  pp.  6-7,  who  takes  it  from  Sir  H. 
^hauncey's  Hist,  and  Antiqs.  of  Hertfordshire,  p.  423;  it  is  the  first  appear- 
j-nce  of  dancing;  as  Fosbroke  sapiently  argued,  "The  dancing  of  nuns  will 
;>e  hereafter  spoken  of  and  if  they  dance  they  must  somewhere  learn  how." 

1 8— 2 


276  EDUCATION  [CH. 

centuries  and  familiarity  with  the  convent  schools  of  our  own 
day,  let  us  turn  to  the  considered  opinion  of  a  more  sober 
scholar,  who  bases  it  only  upon  contemporary  evidence : 

"  No  evidence  whatever,"  says  Mr  Leach,  "  has  been  produced  of  what 
was  taught  in  nunneries.  That... something  must  have  been  taught, 
if  only  to  keep  the  children  employed,  is  highly  probable.  That  the 
teaching  included  learning  the  Lord's  Prayer,  etc.  by  heart  may  be 
conceded .  Probably  Fuller  is  right  in  guessing  that  it  included  reading  ; 
but  it  is  only  a  guess.  One  would  guess  that  it  included  sewing  and 
spinning.  As  for  its  including  Latin,  no  evidence  is  forthcoming  and 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  those  who  did  not  know  Latin  could  teach  it1." 

Direct  evidence  is  therefore  absolutely  lacking;  all  we  can 
do  is  to  deduce  probabilities  from  what  we  know  of  the  education 
of  the  nuns  themselves,  and  it  must  be  conceded  that  this  was 
not  always  of  a  very  high  order.  It  is  quite  certain,  from  the 
wording  of  some  of  the  visitation  injunctions,  that  the  quality 
and  extent  of  the  teaching  must  have  varied  considerably  from 
house  to  house.  It  was  probably  good  (as  the  education  ol 
women  then  went)  at  the  larger  and  more  fashionable  houses, 
mediocre  at  those  which  were  small  and  struggling.  Latin  could 
not  have  been  taught,  because,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out, 
the  nuns  at  this  period  did  not  know  it  themselves;  but  the 
children  were  probably  taught  the  Credo,  the  Ave  and  the 
Pater  Noster  in  Latin  by  rote.  They  may  have  been  taught 
French  of  the  school  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe,  as  long  as  that 
language  was  fashionable  in  the  outside  world  and  known  to 
the  nuns,  but  it  died  out  of  the  convents  after  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  It  seems  pretty  certain  that  the  children 
must  have  been  taugfit  to  read.  "Abstinence  the  abbesse  myn 
a.b.c.  me  tau3te,"  says  Piers  Plowman;  the  Abbess  of  St  Mary's 
Winchester  buys  the  matins  books  for  little  Bridget  Plantagenet; 
and  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  nuns  of  Godstow  were  said 

1  Journ.  of  Education,  1910,  p.  841.  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  sends  me- 
this  note:  "Probably,  so  far  as  any  systematic  teaching  went,  they  were 
taught  'grammar'  and  song,  which  would  vary  in  quality  according  to  the 
teacher.  These  are  the  only  two  elements  of  which  we  regularly  hear  in  the 
ordinary  schools  of  the  day.  I  do  not  see  any  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
were  taught  more  or  less.  Song  (i.e.  church  song)  takes  such  a  very  promi 
nent  part  in  medieval  education  that  I  think  it  would  not  have  been 
neglected ;  it  was  also  one  of  the  things  which  nuns  ought  to  have  been  able 
to  teach  from  their  daily  experience  in  quire.  Bridget  Plantagenet's  book 
of  matins  (see  below)  would  be  an  appropriate  lesson  book  for  both  grammar 
and  song,  as  nuns  would  understand  them." 


vi]  EDUCATION  277 

about  1460  (fifteen  years  after  Alnwick  visited  the  house  and 
gave  permission  for  children  to  be  boarded  there)  to  be  "for  the 
more  party  in  Englyssh  bokys  well  y-lernyd."  Caesarius  of 
Heisterbach  has  a  delightful  story,  repeated  thus  in  a  fifteenth 
century  Alphabet  of  Tales: 

Caesarius  tellis  how  that  in  Freseland  in  a  nonrie  ther  was  ii  little 
maydens  that  lernyd  on  the  buke,  and  euer  thai  strafe  whethur  of 
thaim  shulde  lern  mor  than  the  toder.  So  the  tane  of  thaim  happened 
to  fall  seke  and  sho  garte  call  the  Priores  vnto  hur  &  sayd :  "  Gude 
ladie !  suffre  nott  my  felow  to  lern  vnto  I  cover  of  my  sekenes,  and 
I  sail  pray  my  moder  to  gif  me  vj  d  &  that  I  sail  giff  you  &  ye  do  so, 
ffor  I  drede  that  whils  I  am  seke,  that  sho  sail  pas  me  in  lernyng,  & 
that  I  wolde  not  at  sho  did."  And  at  this  wurde  the  priores  smylid 
&  hadd  grete  mervayle  of  the  damysell  conseyte1. 

Whether  girls  were  taught  to  write,  as  well  as  to  read,  is  far 
more  doubtful.  It  is  probable  that  the  nuns  did  not  always 
possess  this  accomplishment  themselves,  nor  did  sober  medieval 
opinion  consider  it  wholly  desirable  that  girls  should  know  how 
to  write,  on  account  both  of  the  general  inferiority  of  their  sex, 
and  of  a  regrettable  proclivity  towards  clandestine  love  letters2. 
Still,  writing  may  sometimes  have  formed  part  of  the  curriculum; 
there  is  no  evidence  either  way.  For  drawing  (by  which  presum 
ably  the  art  of  illumination  must  be  meant)  there  is  no  warrant ; 
a  medieval  nunnery  was  not  a  modern  "finishing"  school. 

So  much  for  what  may  be  called  book  learning.  Let  us  now 
examine  for  a  moment  the  other  accomplishments  with  which 
nunnery-bred  young  ladies  have  been  credited.  We  may,  as 
Mr  Leach  suggests,  make  a  guess  at  spinning  and  needlework, 
though  here  also  there  is  no  evidence  for  their  being  taught  to 

1  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.  1905),  p.  272,  from  Caesarius  of 
i  Heisterbach,  Dialog.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange,  I,  p.  196. 

|  2  See  e.g.  the  Knight  of  La  Tour  Landry,  p.  178,  "Et  pour  ce  que 
aucuns  gens  dient  que  ilz  ne  voudroient  pas  que  leurs  femmes  ne  leurs  filles 
sceussent  rien  de  clergie  ne  d'escripture,  je  dy  ainsi  que,  quant  d'escryre, 
;  n'y  a  force  que  femme  en  saiche  riens;  mais  quant  a  lire,  tout  femme  en 
j  vault  mieulx  de  le  scavoir  et  cognoist  mieulx  la  foy  et  les  perils  de  1'ame 
Jet  son  saulvement,  et  n'en  est  pas  de  cent  une  qui  n'en  vaille  mieulx;  car  c'est 
I  chose  esprouvee."  Quoted  in  A.  A.  Hentsch,  De  la  litter ature  didactique 
du  moyen  age  s'addressant  specialement  aux  femmes  (Cahors,  1903),  p.  133. 
jSo  Philippe  de  Novare  (f  1270)  refuses  to  allow  women  to  learn  reading  or 
|  writing,  because  they  expose  her  to  evil,  and  Francesco  da  Barberino  (f  1348) 
refuses  to  allow  reading  and  writing  except  to  girls  of  the  highest  rank  (not 
including  the  daughters  of  esquires,  judges  and  gentlefolk  of  their  class) ; 
(both,  however,  make  exception  for  nuns.  Ib.  pp.  84,  106-7. 


278  EDUCATION  [CH. 

schoolgirls.  Jane  Scroupe,  into  whose  mouth  Skelton  puts  his 
"  Phyllyp  Sparowe,"  was  apparently  being  brought  up  at  Carrow, 
and  describes  how  she  sewed  the  dead  bird's  likeness  on  her 
sampler, 

I  toke  my  sampler  ones, 

Of  purpose,  for  the  nones, 

To  sowe  with  stytchis  of  sylke 

My  sparow  whyte  as  my  Ike. 

Confectionery  does  not  seem  very  probable,  for  at  this  period 
the  cooking  for  the  convent  was  nearly  always  done  by  a  hired 
male  cook  and  not  (as  laid  down  in  the  Benedictine  rule)  by 
the  nuns  themselves,  who  were  apt  to  complain  if  they  had  to 
prepare  the  meals.  For  "home  medicine"  there  is  absolutely 
no  evidence,  though  all  ladies  of  the  day  possessed  some  know 
ledge  of  simples  and  herb-medicines  and  the  girls  may  equally 
well  have  learned  it  at  home  as  among  the  nuns.  It  is  probable 
that  the  children  learned  to  sing,  if  the  nuns  took  them  into  the 
quire ;  but  for  this  there  is  no  definite  evidence,  nor  has  any  docu 
ment  been  quoted  to  prove  that  they  learned  to  play  upon  in 
struments  of  music.  It  is  true  that  the  flighty  Dame  Isabel  Benet 
"did  dance  and  play  the  lute"  with  the  friars  of  Northampton1 
and  that "  a  pair  of  organs  "  occurs  twice  in  Dissolution  inventories 
of  nunneries2;  but  an  organ  is  hardly  an  instrument  of  secular 
music  to  be  played  by  the  daughter  of  the  house  in  a  manorial 
solar;  and  Dame  Benet's  escapade  with  the  lute  was  a  lapse  from 
the  strict  path  of  virtue.  Finally  to  suggest  that  the  nuns  taught 
dances  verges  upon  absurdity.  That  they  did  sometimes  dance 
is  true,  and  grieved  their  visitors  were  to  hear  it3;  but  what 
Alnwick  would  have  said  to  the  suggestion  that  they  solemnly 
engaged  themselves  to  teach  dancing  to  their  young  pupils  is 
an  amusing  subject  for  contemplation.  Evidence  for  everything 
except  the  prayers  of  the  church  and  the  art  of  reading  is  non 
existent;  we  can  but  base  our  opinion  upon  conjecture  and 
probability;  and  the  probability  for  instrumental  music  is  so 
slight  as  to  be  non-existent.  If  it  be  argued  that  gentlewomen 
were  expected  to  possess  these  arts,  it  may  be  replied  that  the 
children  whom  we  find  at  nunneries  probably  had  opportunity 

1  See  below,  p.  388. 

2  Archaeologia,  XLIII  (1871),  p.  245  (Redlingfield  and  Bruisyard). 
8  See  below,  p.  309. 


vi]  EDUCATION  279 

to  learn  them  at  home,  for  they  seem  sometimes  to  have  spent 
only  a  part  of  the  year  with  the  nuns.  It  is  true  that  board  is 
sometimes  paid  for  the  whole  year,  and  that  little  Bridget 
Plantagenet  stayed  at  St  Mary's  Winchester  for  two  or  three 
years,  while  her  parents  were  absent  in  France;  moreover  we 
have  already  heard  of  poor  Elizabeth  and  Jane  Knyghte,  left 
for  over  five  years  at  Cornworthy.  But  an  analysis  of  the 
Swaffham  Bulbeck  accounts  shows.  tjb,at..the  children  (if  indeed 
they  are  children)  stayed  for  the  following  periods  during  the 
year  1483 ,_  viz.  t  two  for  forty  weeks,  one  for  thirty  weeks,  one 
for  twenty-six  weeks,  two  for  twenty-two  weeks,  one  for  sixteen 
weeks,  one  for  twelve  weeks  and  one  for  six  weeks.  It  is  much 
more  likely  that  girls  were  sent  to  the  nuns  for  elementary 
schooling  than  for  the  acquirement  of  worldly  accomplishments. 
As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  it  is  difficult  to  get  any 
specific  information  as  to  the  life  led  by  the  schoolchildren  in 
nunneries.  But  by  good  fortune  some  letters  written  by  an 
abbess  shortly  before  the  Dissolution  have  been  preserved  and 
give  a  pleasant  picture  of  a  little  girl  boarding  in  a  nunnery. 
The  correspondence  in  question  took  place  between  Elizabeth 
Shelley,  Abbess  of  St  Mary's  Winchester,  and  Honor,  Vis 
countess  Lisle,  concerning  the  latter's  stepdaughter,  the  lady 
Bridget  Plantagenet,  who  was  one  of  the  twenty-six  aristocratic 
young  ladies  then  at  school  in  the  nunnery1.  Lord  Lisle  was 
an  illegitimate  son  of  Edward  IV,  and  had  been  appointed  Lord 
Deputy  of  Calais  in  1533;  and  when  he  and  his  wife  departed 
to  take  up  the  new  office,  they  were  at  pains  to  find  suitable 
homes  for  their  younger  children  in  England.  A  stepson  of  Lord 
Lisle's  was  boarded  with  the  Abbot  of  Reading  and  his  two 
younger  daughters,  the  ladies  Elizabeth  and  Bridget  Plantagenet, 
were  left,  the  one  in  charge  of  her  half-brother,  Sir  John  Dudley, 
and  the  other  in  that  of  the  energetic  Abbess  of  St  Mary's 
Winchester.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  correspondence 
between  the  abbess  and  Lady  Lisle  shows  a  greater  preoccupa 
tion  with  dress  than  with  learning.  The  Lady  Bridget  grew  like 
the  grass  in  springtime;  there  was  no  keeping  her  in  clothes. 

"After  due  recommendation,"  writes  the  abbess,  "Pleaseth  it  your 
good  ladyship  to  know  that  I  have  received  your  letter,  dated  the 

1  Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  n,  pp.  213-7. 


280 


EDUCATION 


[CH. 


4th  day  of  February  last  past,  by  the  which  I  do  perceive  your  pleasure 
is  to  know  how  mistress  Bridget  your  daughter  doth,  and  what 
things  she  lacketh.  Madam,  thanks  be  to  God,  she  is  in  good  health, 
but  I  assure  your  ladyship  she  lacketh  conVenient  apparel,  for  she 
hath  neither  whole  gown  nor  kirtle,  but  the  gown  and  kirtle  that  you 
sent  her  last.  And  also  she  hath  not  one  good  partlet  to  put  upon  her 
neck,  nor  but  one  good  coif  to  put  upon  her  head.  Wherefore,  I  be 
seech  your  ladyship  to  send  to  her  such  apparel  as  she  lacketh,  as 
shortly  as  you  may  conveniently.  Also  the  bringer  of  your  letter 
shewed  to  me  that  your  pleasure  is  to  know  how  much  money  I 
received  for  mistress  Bridget's  board,  and  how  long  she  hath  been 
with  me.  Madam,  she  hath  been  with  me  a  whole  year  ended  the 
8th  day  of  July  last  past,  and  as  many  weeks  as  is  between  that  day 
and  the  day  of  making  this  bill,  which  is  thirty  three  weeks;  and  so 
she  hath  been  with  me  a  whole  year  and  thirty  three  weeks,  which  is 
in  all  four  score  and  five  weeks.  And  I  have  received  of  mistress 
Katherine  Mutton,  ios.,  and  of  Stephen  Bedham,  205. ;  and  I  received 
the  day  of  making  this  bill,  of  John  Harrison,  your  servant,  405. ;  and 
so  I  have  received  in  all,  since  she  came  to  me,  toward  the  payment 
for  her  board,  705.  Also,  madam,  I  have  laid  out  for  her,  for  mending 
of  her  gowns  and  for  two  matins  books,  four  pair  of  hosen,  and  four 
pairs  of  shoes,  and  other  small  things,  35.  $d.  And,  good  madam,  any 
pleasure  that  I  may  do  your  ladyship  and  also  my  prayer,  you  shall 
be  assured  of,  with  the  grace  of  Jesus,  who  preserve  you  and  all  yours 
in  honour  and  health.  Amen." 

But  for  the  matins  books,  sandwiched  uncomfortably  between 
gowns  and  hosen,  there  is  no  clue  here  as  to  what  the  Lady 
Bridget  was  learning. 

The  tenor  of  the  next  letter,  written  about  seven  months 
later,  is  the  same,  for  still  the  noble  little  lady  grew : 

"  Mine  singular  and  special  good  lady,"  writes  the  Abbess,  "  I  heartily 
recommend  me  to  your  good  ladyship;  ascertaining  you  that  I  have 
received  from  your  servant  this  summer  a  side  of  venison  and  two 
dozen  and  a  half  of  pee-wits." 

(What  flesh-days  there  must  have  been  in  the  refectory !) 
"And  whereas  your  ladyship  do  write  that  you  sent  me  an  ermine  cape 
for  your  daughter,  surely  I  see  none ;  but  the  tawny  velvet  gown  that 
you  write  of,  I  have  received  it.  I  have  sent  unto  you,  by  the  bring* 
of  your  letter,  your  daughter's  black  velvet  gown ;  also  I  have  caused 
kirtles  to  be  made  of  her  old  gowns,  according  unto  your  writing; 
and  the  ios.  you  sent  is  bestowed  for  her,  and  more,  as  it  shall  appear 
by  a  bill  of  reckoning  which  I  have  made  of  the  same.  And  I  trust  she 
shall  lack  nothing  that  is  necessary  for  her." 

Another  letter  shows  that  the  wardrobe  difficulty  was  no 
whit  abated,  but  the  Abbess  dealt  with  it  by  the  rather  hard- 


vi]  EDUCATION  281 

hearted  expedient  of  sending  poor  Bridget  away  on  a  visit  to 
her  father's  steward  at  Soberton  in  Hampshire,  in  her  outgrown 
clothes,  in  order  that  he  might  be  moved  to  amend  her  state. 
Clearly  it  was  not  always  easy  to  get  what  was  requisite  for  a 
schoolgirl  from  a  gay  and  busy  mother,  disporting  herself  across 
the  sea: 

"This  is  to  advertise  your  ladyship,"  says  the  Abbess,  "Upon  a  four 
teen  or  fifteen  days  before  Michaelmas,  mistress  Waynam  and 
mistress  Fawkenor  came  to  Winchester  to  see  mistress  Bridget  Lisle, 
with  whom  came  two  of  my  lord's  servants,  and  desired  to  have 
mistress  Bridget  to  sir  Anthony  Windsor's  to  sport  her  for  a  week. 
And  because  she  was  out  of  apparel,  that  master  Windsor  might  see 
her,  I  was  the  better  content  to  let  her  go;  and  since  that  time  she 
came  no  more  at  Winchester :  Wherein  I  beseech  your  ladyship  think  no 
unkindness  in  me  for  my  light  sending  of  her :  for  if  I  had  not  esteemed 
her  to  have  come  again,  she  should  not  have  come  there  at  that  time." 

The  reason  why  lucky  little  Bridget  was  enjoying  a  holiday 
appears  in  a  letter  from  the  steward,  Sir  Anthony  Windsor,  to 
Lord  Lisle,  in  which  he  not  only  takes  a  firm  line  over  the  dress 
problem  (as  the  Abbess  foresaw),  but  seems  also  to  cast  some 
aspersion  upon  the  nunnery;  the  nuns,  he  evidently  thought, 
had  no  idea  how  to  feed  a  growing  girl,  or  how  to  spoil  her,  as 
she  ought  to  be  spoiled: 

Also  mistress  Bridget  recommendeth  her  to  your  good  lordship,  and 
also  to  my  lady,  beseeching  you  of  your  blessing.  She  is  now  at  home 
with  me,  because  I  will  provide  for  her  apparel  such  things  as  shall 
be  necessary,  for  she  hath  overgrown  all  that  she  ever  hath,  except 
such  as  she  hath  had  of  late :  and  I  will  keep  her  here  still  if  it  be  your 
lordship's  and  my  lady's  pleasure  that  I  shall  so  do,  and  she  shall 
fare  no  worse  that  I  do,  for  she  is  very  spare  and  hath  need  of  cherish 
ing,  and  she  shall  lack  nothing  in  learning,  nor  otherwise  that  my 
wife  can  do  for  her. 

;  Apparently  she  never  went  back  to  the  nunnery,  and  a  few 
|  years  later  it  was  dissolved : 

And  when  (s)he  came  to  Saynte  Marie's  aisle 

Where  nonnes  were  wont  to  praie, 
The  vespers  were  songe,  the  shryne  was  gone, 

And  the  nonnes  had  passyd  awaie. 

A  word  should  perhaps  be  added  as  to  the  "piety  and 
breeding,"  which  Lady  Bridget  and  other  little  schoolgirls  learned 
from  the  nuns,  for  good  sentimentalists  of  later  days  often  looked 
back  and  regretted  the  loss  of  a  training,  presumably  instinct 


282  EDUCATION  [CH. 

with  religion  and  morality.  It  is  well  nigh  impossible  to  generalise 
in  this  matter,  so  greatly  did  convents  differ  from  each  other. 
St  Mary's  Winchester  was  of  very  good  repute,  and  for  this  we 
have  not  only  the  testimony  of  the  local  gentlemen,  who  were 
commissioned  to  visit  it  by  Henry  VIII  in  1536,  but  also  of  the 
visitation  which  was  held  by  Dr  Hede  in  1501.  Undoubtedly  the 
aristocratic  young  ladies  who  went  there  did  not  lack  the  precept 
and  example  of  pious  and  well  bred  mistresses.  The  statement 
of  the  commissioners  at  Polesworth  that  the  children  there  were 
"right  virtuously  brought  up"  has  often  been  quoted.  So  also 
has  the  plea  of  Robert  Aske,  who  led  the  ill-fated  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,  by  which  the  people  of  Yorkshire  sought  to  bring  back 
the  old  religion,  and  in  particular  the  monastic  houses;  in  the 
/abbeys  fee  said,  'all  gentlemen  (were)  much  succoured  in  their 
\needs,  with  many  their  young  sons  there  assisted  and  in  nunneries 
tfiTT^daughters  brought  up  in  virtue"1.  Less  well-known  is  the 
tribute  of  the  reformer  Thomas  Becon  (1512-67),  the  more 
striking  in  that  he  was  a  staunch  Protestant,  who  had  suffered 
for  his  faith.  Although  he  refers  in  disparagement  to  the  nun 
neries  of  his  own  day,  his  description  of  the  relations  between 
nuns  and  their  pupils  cannot  be  founded  solely  upon  an  imaginary 
golden  age: 

"The  young  maids,"  he  writes,  "were  not  enforced  to  wear  this  or 
that  apparel ;  to  abstain  from  this  or  that  kind  of  meats ;  to  sing  this 
or  that  service;  to  say  so  many  prayers;  to  shave  their  heads;  to 
vow  chastity;  and  for  ever  to  abide  in  their  cloister  unto  their  dying 
day.  But  contrariwise,  they  might  wear  what  apparel  they  would, 
so  that  it  were  honest  and  seemly  and  such  as  becometh  maidens  that 
profess  godliness.  They  might  freely  eat  all  kinds  of  meats  according 
to  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  avoiding  all  excess  and  superfluity,  yea,  and 
that  at  all  times.  Their  prayers  were  free  and  without  compulsion, 
everyone  praying  when  the  Holy  Ghost  moved  their  hearts  to  pray; 
yea,  and  that  such  prayers  as  present  necessity  required,  and  that 
also  not  in  a  strange  tongue,  but  in  such  language  as  they  did  right 
well  understand.  To  shave  their  heads  and  to  keep  such-like  super 
stitious  observances  as  our  nuns  did  in  times  past  and  yet  do  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  pope,  they  were  not  compelled.  For  all  that  they  were 
commanded  to  do  of  their  schoolmistresses  and  governesses  was 
nothing  else  than  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel  and  matters  appertaining 
unto  honest  and  civil  manners;  whom  they  most  willingly  obeyed. 
Moreover,  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  go  out  of  the  cloister  when  they 

1  Quoted  Gasquet,  Hen.  VIII  and  the  Eng.  Monasteries  (1899),  p.  227. 


I    vi]  EDUCATION  283 

I  would,  or  when  they  were  required  of  their  friends ;  and  also  to  marry 
when  and  with  whom  they  would,  so  that  it  were  in  the  Lord.  And 
would  God  there  were  some  consideration  of  this  matter  had  among 

I  the  rulers  of  the  Christian  commonwealth,  that  young  maids  might 
be  godly  brought  up,  and  learn  from  their  cradles  '  to  be  sober-minded, 
to  love  their  husbands,  to  love  their  children,  to  be  discreet,  chaste, 
housewifely,  good,  obedient  to  their  husbands'"1. 

These  eulogies  are  all  necessarily  tinged  by  the  knowledge 
that  the  nunneries  either  were  about  to  disappear,  or  had  dis 
appeared,  from  England.  They  had  filled  a  useful  function  and 
men  were  willing  to  be  to  their  faults  a  little  blind.  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that  the  gentry  and  the  substantial  middle  class 
appreciated  them ;  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  Dissolution  legacies 
to  monastic  houses  are  a  common  feature  in  wills.  Only  an 
inadequate  conclusion,  however,  is  to  be  reached  from  a  study 
of  tributes  such  as  those  of  the  commissioners  at  St  Mary's 
Winchester  and  Polesworth  and  of  Robert  Aske.  If  we  turn 
to  pre-Reformation  visitation  reports,  which  are  free  from  the 
desire  to  state  a  case,  the  evidence  is  more  mixed.  It  is  only 
reasonable  to  conclude  that  many  nunneries  did  indeed  bring 
children  up,  with  the  example  of  virtue  before  their  eyes,  and 

|  the  omnia  bene  of  many  reports  reinforces  such  a  conclusion. 

I  But  it  is  impossible  also  to  avoid  the  conviction  that  other 

I  houses  were  not  always  desirable  homes  for  the  young,  nor  nuns 
their  best  example.  When  Alnwick  visited  his  diocese  in  the  first 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  were  children  at  Godstow, 
where  at  least  one  nun  was  frankly  immoral  and  where  all 
received  visits  freely  from  the  scholars  of  Oxford ;  nor  was  the 
general  reputation  of  the  house  good  at  other  periods.  There  were 
children  also  at  Catesby  and  at  St  Michael's  Stamford,  which 
were  in  a  thoroughly  bad  state,  under  bad  prioresses.  At  Gatesby 
the  poor  innocents  lay  in  the  dorter,  where  lay  also  sister  Isabel 
Benet,  far  gone  with  child;  and  they  must  have  heard  the 
Prioress  screaming  "  Beggars !  "  and  "  Whores ! "  at  the  nuns  and 

\  dragging  them  round  the  cloister  by  their  hair2.  At  St  Michael's 

Stamford,  all  was  in  disorder  and  no  less  than  three  of  the  nuns 

were  unchaste,  one  having  twice  run  away,  each  time  with  a 

{different  partner.     The   visitation  of  Gracedieu  on  the  same 

1  The  Catechism  of  Thomas  Bacon,  S.T.P.,  ed.  John  Ayre  (Parker  Soc 
1894),  P-  377-  See  above,  p.  82. 


284  EDUCATION  [CH.  vi 

occasion  shows  too  much  quarrelling  and  misrule  to  make  possible 
a  very  high  opinion  of  its  piety  or  of  its  breeding.  If  we  turn 
to  another  set  of  injunctions,  the  great  series  for  the  diocese  of 
York,  it  must  be  conceded  that  though  the  gentry  of  the  county 
doubtless  found  the  convents  useful  as  schools  and  lodging 
houses,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Aske's  plea  that  "  their  daughters 
(were)  brought  up  in  virtue"  could  possibly  have  been  true  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  morals  and  manners  of  the 
nuns  were  extremely  bad.  There  is  not  much  evidence  for  the 
period  of  which  Aske  could  speak  from  his  own  knowledge ;  but 
at  Esholt,  where  two  children  were  at  school  in  1537,  one  of  the 
nuns  was  found  to  have  "lyved  incontinentlie  and  vnchast  and 
. . .  .broght  forth  a  child  of  her  bodie  begotten"  and  an  alehouse 
had  been  set  up  within  the  convent  gates,  in  1535 l.  The  only 
safe  generalisation  to  make  about  this,  as  about  so  many  other 
problems  of  medieval  social  history,  is  that  there  can  be  no 
generalisation.  The  standard  of  piety  and  breeding  likely  to  be 
acquired  by  children  in  medieval  nunneries  must  have  differed 
considerably  from  time  to  time  and  from  house  to  house. 

1  Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  452-3.  Unluckily  among  Archbishop 
Lee's  injunctions  there  remain  only  three  sets  addressed  to  nunneries;  there 
are  also  two  letters  concerning  an  immoral  and  apostate  ex-Prioress  of 
Basedale.  At  the  other  two  nunneries  addressed,  Nunappleton  and  Sinning- 
thwaite,  no  specific  accusations  are  made,  but  the  Archbishop  enjoins  that 
the  nuns  shall  "observe  chastity"  (§  ix,  p.  440)  and  avoid  the  suspicious 
company  of  men  (§  v,  p.  441). 


CHAPTER  VII 
ROUTINE  AND  REACTION 

Where  is  the  pain  that  does  not  become  deadened  after  a  thousand 
years  ?  or  what  is  the  nature  of  that  pleasure  or  happiness  which  never 
wearies  by  monotony?  Earthly  pleasures  and  pains  are  short  in 
proportion  as  they  are  keen;  of  any  others,  which  are  both  intense 
and  lasting,  we  can  form  no  idea.... To  beings  constituted  as  we  are, 
the  monotony  of  singing  Psalms  would  be  as  great  an  affliction  as  the 
pains  of  hell  and  might  even  be  pleasantly  interrupted  by  them. 

JOWETT,  Introduction  to  Plato's  Phaedo. 

ST  BENEDICT'S  common  sense  is  nowhere  more  strikingly  shown 
than  in  his  division  of  the  routine  of  monastic  life  between  the 
three  occupations  of  divine  service,  manual  labour  and  reading. 
Not  only  has  this  arrangement  the  merit  of  developing  the 
different  sides  of  men's  natures,  spirit,  body  and  brain,  but  it 
fulfils  a  deep  psychological  necessity.  The  essence  of  communal 
life  is  regularity,  but  no  human  being  can  subsist  without  a 
further  ingredient  of  variety.  St  Benedict  knew  well  enough 
that  unless  he  provided  the  stimulus  of  change  within  the  Rule, 
outraged  nature  would  seek  for  it  outside.  Hence  the  careful 
adjustment  of  occupations  to  combine  variety  with  regularity. 
The  services  were  the  supreme  joy  and  duty  of  the  monk  and  nun 
and  the  life  of  the  convent  was  centred  in  its  church.  But  these 
services  were  not  excessively  long  and  were  divided  from  each 
other  by  periods  of  sleep  by  night  and  of  work,  or  study,  or 
meditation  by  day,  after  the  manner  which  Crashaw  inimitably 
set  forth  in  his  Description  of  a  Religious  House  and  Condition 
[of  Life: 

A  hasty  portion  of  prescribed  sleep  ; 

Obedient  slumbers,  that  can  wake  and  weep, 

And  sing,  and  sigh,  and  work,  and  sleep  again; 

Still  rolling  a  round  sphere  of  still-returning  pain. 

Hands  full  of  hearty  labours ;  pains  that  pay 

And  prize  themselves;  do  much,  that  more  they  may, 

And  work  for  work,  not  wages ;  let  tomorrow's 

New  drops  wash  off  the  sweat  of  this  day's  sorrows. 

A  long  and  daily-dying  life,  which  breathes 

A  respiration  of  reviving  deaths. 


286  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

The  monastic  day  was  divided  into  seven  offices  and  the 
time  at  which  these  were  said  varied  slightly  according  to  the 
season  of  the  year.  The  night  office  began  about  2  a.m.,  when  the 
nuns  rose  from  their  beds  and  entered  their  choir,  where  Matins 
were  said,  followed  immediately  by  Lauds.  The  next  service  was 
Prime,  said  at  6  or  7  a.m.,  and  then  throughout  the  day  came 
Tierce,  Sext,  None,  Vespers,  and  Compline,  with  an  interval  of 
about  three  hours  between  them.  The  time  of  these  monastic 
Hours  (as  they  were  called)  changed  gradually  after  the  time  of 
St  Benedict,  and  later  None,  which  should  have  been  at  3  p.m., 
was  said  at  noon,  leaving  the  nuns  from  about  12  midday  \o 
5  p.m.  in  the  winter  and  I  p.m.  to  8  p.m.  in  the  summer  for 
work.  Compline,  the  last  service  of  all,  was  said  at  7  p.m.  in 
winter  and  at  8  p.m.  in  summer,  after  which  the  nuns  were 
supposed  to  retire  immediately  to  bed  in  their  dorter,  where  (in 
the  words  of  the  Syon  Rule)  "none  shal  jutte  up  on  other 
wylfully,  nor  spyt  up  on  the  stayres,  goyng  up  or  down,  nor  in 
none  other  place  repreuably ,  but  yf  they  trede  it  out  f  orthwy th ' '  I1 
They  had  in  all  about  eight  hours  sleep,  broken  in  the  middle 
by  the  night  service;  and  they  had  three  meals,  a  light  repast 
of  bread  and  beer  after  Prime  in  the  morning,  a  solid  dinner 
to  the  accompaniment  of  reading  aloud,  and  a  short  supper 
immediately  after  vespers  at  5  or  6  p.m.2 

Except  for  certain  specified  periods  of  relaxation,  strict  silence 
was  supposed  to  be  observed  for  a  large  part  of  the  day,  and  if 
it  were  necessary  for  the  nuns  to  communicate  with  each  other, 
they  were  urged  to  do  so  in  an  abbreviated  form,  or  by  signs.  Thus 
in  1319  Bishop  Stapeldon  of  Exeter  wrote  to  the  nuns  of  Polsloe 

that  silence  be  kept  in  due  places,  according  to  the  Rule  and  obser 
vances  of  St  Benedict;  and,  if  it  be  desirable  that  any  word  be  spoken 
in  the  aforesaid  places,  for  any  reasonable  occasion,  then  let  it  be 
gently  and  so  low  that  it  be  scarce  heard  of  the  other  nuns,  and  in 
as  few  words  as  may  be  needed  for  the  comprehension  of  those  who 
hear;  and  better  in  Latin  than  in  any  other  tongue;  yet  the  Latin 
need  not  be  well-ordered  by  way  of  grammar,  but  thus,  candela, 
liber,  missale,  gradale,  panis,  vinum,  cervisia,  est,  non,  sic  and  so  forth3. 

1  Aungier,  Hist,  of  Syon  Mon.  p.  385.   Compare  also  the  regulations  for 
behaviour  in  choir,  "  There  also  none  shal  use  to  spytte  ouer  the  stalles,  nor 
in  any  other  place  wher  any  suster  is  wonte  to  pray,  but  yf  it  anone  be 
done  oute,  for  defoylyng  of  ther  clothes."   Ib.  p.  320. 

2  The  hours  seem  to  have  varied  in  length  according  to  the  season;  see 
Butler,  Benedictine  Monachism,  ch.  xvn.         8  Reg.  W.  de  Stapeldon,  p.  316. 


PLATE  VI 


DOMINICAN  NUNS  IN   QUIRE 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  287 

The  nuns  of  Syon  had  a  table  of  signs  drawn  up  for  them  by 
Thomas  Betsone,  one  of  the  brethren  of  the  house,  a  person  of 
extraordinary  ingenuity  and  no  sense  of  humour1.  The  sort  of 
dumb  pandemonium  which  went  on  at  the  Syon  dinner  table 
must  have  been  more  mirth  provoking  than  speech.  The  sister 
who  desired  fish  would  "wagge  her  hande  displaied  sidelynges 
in  manere  of  a  fissh  taill,"  she  who  wanted  milk  would  "draw 
her  left  little  fynger  in  maner  of  mylkyng";  for  mustard  one 
would  "hold  her  nose  in  the  uppere  part  of  her  righte  fiste  and 
rubbe  it,"  and  another  for  salt  would  "philippe  with  her  right 
thombe  and  his  forefynger  ouere  the  left  thombe";  another, 
desirous  of  wine,  would  "meue  her  fore  fynger  vp  and  downe 
vpon  the  ende  of  her  thombe  afore  her  eghe";  and  the  guilty 
sacristan,  struck  by  the  thought  that  she  had  not  provided 
incense  for  the  mass,  would  "put  her  two  fyngers  vnto  her  nose 
thirles  (nostrils)."  There  are  no  less  than  106  signs  in  the  table 
and  on  the  whole  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Rule  enjoins  that 
"it  is  never  leful  to  use  them  witheoute  some  reson  and  profitable 
nede,  ffor  ofte  tyme  more  hurt  ethe  an  euel  sygne  than  an  euel 
worde,  and  more  offence  it  may  be  to  God"2. 

The  time  set  apart  in  the  monastic  day  for  work  was  divided 
\  between  brain  work  and  manual  labour.   In  the  golden  days  of 
!  monasticism  the  time  devoted  to  reading  enabled  the  monasteries 
i  to  become  homes  of  learning;  splendid  libraries  were  collected 
I  for  the  use  of  the  monks  and  in  the  scriptorium  men  skilled  in 
!  writing  and  in  illumination  copied  books  and  maintained  the 
great  series  of  chronicles,  in  which  the  middle  ages  live  again. 
The  nuns  of  certain  Anglo-Saxon  houses,  and  of  certain  con 
tinental  houses  at  a  later  date,  had  some  reputation  for  learning. 
In  early  days,  too,  the  hours  devoted  to  labour  were  spent  in 
the  fields,  or  more  often  in  the  workshops  of  the  house ;  and  those 
who  had  been  skilled  in  crafts  in  the  world  continued  to  exercise 
1  them.  The  nuns  of  Anglo-Saxon  England  were  famed  for  the 
'  needlework  executed  during  the  hours  of  work.    Besides  this 
!  labour  the  Rule  ordained  that  the  monks  and  nuns  should  take 
;it  in  turns  to  serve  their  brethren  in  the  kitchen  every  week 
and  an  eleventh  century  chronicler  records  "in  the  monasteries 

1  Aungier,  op.  cit.  pp.  405-9.  It  is  unlikely,  however,  that  Betsone 
I  actually  invented  any  of  the  signs,  for  similar  lists  are  to  be  found  in  the 
1  early  consuetudinaries  of  Cluniac  houses  and  other  sources.  The  signs  were 
:  probably  to  a  great  extent  "common  form."  2  Ib.  p.  298. 


288  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

I  saw  counts  cooking  in  the  kitchens  and  margraves  leading  the 
pigs  out  to  feed"1.  It  was  by  reason  of  this  intellectual  and 
manual  labour  that  the  early  monks  rendered,  as  it  were  inci 
dentally,  an  immense  service  to  civilisation.  Their  aim  and 
purpose  was  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  but  because  the  Rule 
under  which  they  lived  declared  that  labour  was  one  of  the 
means  to  that  salvation,  they  added  many  of  the  merits  of  the 
active  to  those  of  the  contemplative  life.  The  early  Benedictines 
were  great  missionaries,  ardent  scholars,  enlightened  landowners 
and  even  energetic  statesmen.  The  early  Cistercians  made  the 
woods  and  wildernesses,  in  which  they  settled,  blossom  like  a 
rose.  But  apart  from  the  social  services  thus  rendered  to  civilisa 
tion,  the  threefold  division  of  monastic  life  into  prayer,  study 
and  labour  was  vital  to  monasticism  itself,  since  it  afforded  the 
essential  clement  of  variety  in  routine. 

The  benefits  of  routine  are  obvious :  any  life  which  exists  for 
the  regular  performance  of  specific  duties,  above  all  any  life 
which  is  carried  on  in  a  community,  must  depend  very  largely 
upon  fixed  hours  and  carefully  organised  occupations.  The  Rule 
of  St  Benedict  made  a  serious  attempt  to  render  monastic  life 
possible  and  beneficial  to  the  average  human  being,  by  the 
combination  of  regularity  and  variety  which  has  been  described 
above.  There  was  constant  change  of  occupation,  but  there  was 
no  waste  and  no  muddle.  It  is  extremely  significant  that 
monasticism  broke  down  directly  St  Benedict's  careful  adjust 
ment  of  occupations  became  upset.  With  the  growing  wealth  of 
the  monasteries  manual  labour  became  undigntfed;  some  orders 
relied  on  lay  brethren,  the  majority  on  servants.  Gone  was  the 
day  when  counts  cooked  in  the  kitchens;  in  the  fourteenth 
century  monks  and  nuns  paid  large  wages  to  their  cooks  and  . 
even  in  a  small  nunnery  it  was  regarded  as  legitimate  cause  for 
complaint  not  to  have  a  convent  servant.  Learning  also  fell 
away  after  the  growth  of  the  universities  in  the  twelfth  century; 
the  poverty  of  the  monastic  chronicles  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  is  one  witness  to  the  fact ;  the  necessity  to 
send  injunctions  to  nunneries  first  in  French  and  then  in  English, 
as  the  knowledge  of  Latin  and  then  of  French  died  out  in  them, 
is  another.  Of  the  three  occupations,  learning,  manual  labour 

1  Bernold,  Chron.   (1083)  in  Mon.  Germ.  Hist,  v,  p.  439,  quoted  in 
Workman,  The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal,  p.  157. 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  289 

and  divine  service,  only  the  last  was  left.  Is  it  surprising  that 
that  also  began  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  weary  and  monotonous 
routine,  when  the  monks  and  nuns  came  to  it,  not  fresh  from  the 
stimulus  of  study  or  of  labour,  but  from  indolence,  or  from  the 
worldly  pleasures  of  the  tavern,  the  hunt,  the  gambling  board, 
the  flirtation,  the  gossip,  wherewith  they  often  filled  the  spare 
time,  which  the  wise  Benedictine  Rule  would  have  filled  with 
a  change  of  occupation? 

All  safeguards  against  a  petrifying  routine  were  now  broken 
down.  We  are  wont  to-day  to  look  with  disquiet  upon  the  life 
of  a  clerk  in  an  office,  endlessly  adding  up  rows  of  figures,  with 
an  interval  for  luncheon;  but  the  clerk  has  his  evenings,  his 
Sundays,  his  annual  holiday,  his  life  as  son,  or  husband,  or  father. 
For  the  medieval  monk  there  was  no  such  relaxation.  When  the 
salutary  labour  of  hand  and  brain  ordained  by  St  Benedict  no 
longer  found  a  place  in  his  life,  he  was  delivered  over  bound 
to  an  endless  routine  of  dorter,  church,  frater  and  cloister, 
which  stretched  from  day  to  night  and  from  night  to  day  again . 
For  nuns  the  monotony  was  even  greater,  for  they  had  lost 
more  completely  than  monks  their  early  tradition  of  learning 
and  they  could  not  pass  happy  years  in  study  at  a  university 
(as  a  few  monks  from  great  abbeys  were  able  to  do),  nor  find 
some  solace  in  exercising  the  functions  of  a  priest;  moreover 
women  were  more  apt  even  than  men  to  enter  the  religious  life 
without  any  real  vocation  for  it,  since  there  was  hardly  any 
other  career  for  unmarried  ladies  of  gentle  birth.  It  would  be 
I  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  this  uneventful  life  was  necessarily 
distasteful.  To  the  majority  it  was  doubtless  a  happy  existence; 
monotony  appears  peace  to  those  who  love  it. 

No  cruel  guard  of  diligent  cares,  that  keep 
Crown'd  woes  awake,  as  things  too  wise  for  sleep : 
But  reverent  discipline  and  religious  fear, 
And  soft  obedience,  find  sweet  biding  here; 
Silence  and  sacred  rest;  peace  and  pure  joys; 
Kind  loves  keep  house,  lie  close  and  make  no  noise. 

'Here  behind  the  walls  of  the  convent  "a  common  grayness 
i silvered  everything"  and  all  care  was  remote,  save  that,  never 

to  be  escaped  by  womankind,  of  making  two  ends  meet. 

Nevertheless  the  danger  was  there.    Only  a  minority,  one 

may  be  sure,  revolted  actively  against  the  duties  which  are 

P.N.  I 


290 


ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 


sometimes,  most  significantly,  called  "the  burthen  of  religion"1. 
That  minority  is  known  to  us,  for  the  sinner  and  the  apostate, 
whether  inspired  by  lust  or  by  levity,  mere  victims  to  their  own 
weakness,  or  active  rebels  against  an  intolerable  dulness,  have 
left  their  mark  in  official  documents.  But  the  number  can  only 
be  guessed  at  of  those  others,  who  carried  in  their  hearts  for  all 
their  staid  lives  the  complaint  of  the  Latin  song: 

Sono  tintinnabulum 

Repeto  psalterium, 

Gratum  linquo  somnium 

Cum  dormire  cuperem, 
Heu  misella ! 

Nichil  est  deterius  tali  vita 

Cum  enim  sim  petulans  et  lasciva2. 

The  bell  I  am  ringing, 

The  psalter  am  singing, 

And  from  my  bed  creeping 

Who  fain  would  be  sleeping, 
Misery  me ! 

O  what  can  be  worse  than  this  life  that  I  dree, 

When  naughty  and  lovelorn  and  wanton  I  be  ? 
"  Nuns  fret  not  at  their  convent's  narrow  room  "  is  a  charming 
justification  of  the  sonnet,  but  it  is  neither  good  psychology  nor 
good  history. 

It  can  never  be  too  often  repeated  that  many  monks  and 
nuns  entered  religion  as  a  career  while  still  children,  with  no 
particular  vocation  for  the  religious  life.  To  such,  even  though 
they  might  experience  no  longing  for  the  forbidden  pleasures  of 
the  world,  the  monotony  of  the  cloister  would  often  be  hard  to 
bear.  Their  young  limbs  would  kick  against  its  restrictions  and 
the  changing  moods  of  adolescence  would  turn  and  twist  in  vain 
within  the  iron  bars  of  its  unadaptable  routine.  Even  to  those 
no  longer  young  happiness  would  depend  at  the  best  upon  the 
fostering  of  a  quick  spiritual  life,  at  the  worst  upon  lack  of 
imagination  and  of  vitality.  The  undaunted  daughter  of  desires, 
the  man  in  whom  religion  burned  as  a  strong  fire,  could  find 

1  E.g.  a  nun  asks  that  sufficient  clothes  and  food  be  ministered  to  t 
"ut  fortis  sit  ad  subeundum  pondus  religionis  et  diuini  seruicii."^  Lit 
Visit.  II,  p.  5.  A  bishop  orders  no  nun  to  be  admitted  unless  she  be  "  tale 
que  onera  chori...ceteris  religionem  concernentibus  poterit  supportare.' 

•'Vattasso,  Studi  Medievali  (1904),  i,  p.  124.  Quoted  in  Mod.  Philology 
(1908),  v,  pp.  lo-n.  I  have  ventured  to  combine  parts  of  two  verses. 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  291 

happiness  in  the  life.  But  lesser  brethren  could  not.  Ennui, 
more  deadly  even  than  sensual  temptation,  was  the  devil  who 
tormented  them.  So  in  the  convents  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  a  sympathetic  eye  and  an  understanding 
mind  will  diagnose  the  fundamental  disease  as  reaction  against 
routine  by  men  and  women  in  whom  Nature,  expelled  by  a 
pitchfork,  had  returned  a  thousand  times  more  strong. 

This  reaction  from  routine  took  several  forms.  It  is  some 
where  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  more  serious  sins,  which  the  pitch 
fork  method  of  attaining  salvation  brought  upon  human  creatures 
I  with  bodies  as  well  as  souls.  In  this  chapter,  however,  we  are 
concerned  not  with  these  graver  faults  of  immorality,  but  with 
things  less  gross,  and  yet  in  their  cumulative  effect  no  less  fatal 
to  monastic  life.  Such  was  the  neglect  of  that  praise  of  God, 
which  was  the  primary  raison  d'etre  of  the  monk  and  nun,  so 
that  services  sometimes  became  empty  forms,  to  be  hurried 
I  through  with  scant  devotion,  occasionally  with  scandalous  ir 
reverence.  Such  was  the  deadly  sin  of  accidie,  the  name  of 
which  is  forgotten  today,  though  the  thing  itself  is  with  us  still. 
Such  were  the  nerves  on  edge,  the  small  quarrels,  the  wear  and 
tear  of  communal  life ;  such  also  the  gay  clothes,  the  pet  animals 
i and  the  worldly  amusements,  with  which  nuns  sought  to  enliven 
their  existence.  For  all  these  things  were  in  some  sense  a  reaction 
rom  routine. 

Carelessness  in  the  performance  of  the  monastic  hours  was 
an  exceedingly  common  fault  during  the  later  middle  ages  and 
often  finds  a  place  in  episcopal  injunctions.  Sometimes  monks 
and  nuns  "cut"  the  services,  as  at  Peterborough  in  1437,  when 
only  ten  or  twelve  of  the  44  monks  came  on  ordinary  days  to 
phurch1,  or  at  Nuncoton  in  1440,  where  many  of  the  nuns  failed 
ito  come  to  compline,  but  busied  themselves  instead  in  various 
'domestic  offices,  or  wandered  idly  in  the  garden2.  Often  they 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  id',  but  some  of  these  would  be  absent  from  the 
[nonastery.  « 

2  Ib.  8.  jid,  72.    For  other  injunctions  against  "cutting"  services,  see 
ieynings,  1351  and  1392  (Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^,  and  Bokyng- 
}am,  f.  397),  Elstow  1387  and  1421  (ib.  Bokyngham,  f.  343  and  Line.  Visit,  i, 
?•  51),  Godstow  1279  and  1434  (Reg.  J.  Peckham,  in,  p.  846,  Line.  Visit,  i, 
p.  66),Romsey  1387  (New  Coll. MS. i.  84),Cannington  1351  (Reg.  R.  of  Shrews- 
kry,  p.  684),  Nunkeeling  1314,  Thicket  1309,  Yedingham  1314,  Swine  1318, 
IVykeham  1314,  Arthington  1318  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  120,  124,  127,  181, 
183,  188),  Sinningthwaite  1534  (Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  443),  etc. 

19—2 


292  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

came  late  to  matins,  a  fault  which  was  common  in  nunneries, 
for  the  nuns  were  prone  to  sit  up  drinking  and  gossiping  after 
compline,  instead  of  going  straight  to  bed1 ;  and  these  nocturnal 
carousals,  however  harmless  in  themselves,  did  not  conduce  to 
wakefulness  at  one  a.m.  Consequently  they  were  somewhat 
sleepy,  quodammodo  sompnolentes ,  at  matins  and  found  an  almost 
Johnsonian  difficulty  in  getting  up  early.  At  Stainfield  in  1519 
Atwater  found  that  half  an  hour  sometimes  elapsed  between 
the  last  stroke  of  the  bell  and  the  beginning  of  the  office  and 
that  some  of  the  nuns  did  not  sing  but  dozed,  partly  because 
they  had  not  enough  candles,  partly  because  they  went  to  bed 
late;  they  also  performed  the  offices  very  negligently2.  But  most 
often  of  all  the  fault  of  monks  and  nuns  lay  in  gabbling  through 
the  services  as  quickly  as  possible  in  order  to  get  them  over. 
They  left  out  syllables  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  words,  they 
omitted  the  dipsalma  or  pausacio  between  two  verses,  so  that 
one  side  of  the  choir  was  beginning  the  second  half,  before  the 
other  side  had  finished  the  first;  they  skipped  sentences;  they 
mumbled  and  slurred  over  what  should  have  been  "entuned  in 
their  nose  ful  semely." 

Episcopal  injunctions  not  infrequently  animadvert  against 
this  irreverent  treatment  of  the  offices.  At  Catesby  in  1442 
Isabel  Benet  asserted  that  "divine  service  is  chanted  at  so  great 
speed  that  no  pauses  are  made,"  and  at  Carrow  in  1526  several 
of  the  older  nuns  complained  that  the  sisters  sang  and  said  the 
service  more  quickly  than  they  ought,  without  due  pauses. 
A  strong  injunction  sent  to  Nuncoton  in  1531  declares  that  thf 
hours  have  been  "doon  with  grete  festinacon,  haste  and  withoul 
deuocon,  contrarye  to  the  good  manner  and  ordre  of  religion"5 

1  See  e.g.  Line.  Visit,  11,  pp.  i,  8,  67,  131,  133,  134-5,  Line.  Epis.  Reg 
Memo.  Gynewell,  i.  34^,  Sede  Vacante  Reg.  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  p.  276 
Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  pp.  651-2,  etc. 

1  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  131.  For  other  instances  of  lateness  at  matins,  se 
Heynings  1442  (Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  133),  Godstow  1432  (Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  66) 
Flixton  1514  (Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  143),  Romsey  130: 
(Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  100),  Easebourne  1478,  1524  (Susse 
Arch.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  17,  26-7),  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge  (Gray,  Priory  < 
St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  36). 

8  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  48;  Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  200 
Arch.  XLVII,  p.  55;  compare  Romsey  1387,  1507  (New  Coll.  MS.  f.  84 
Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  231),  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate,  c.  1432  (Hist.  MS.  Con 
Rep.  ix,  App.  p.  57). 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  293 

Indeed  so  common  was  the  fault  that  the  Father  of  Evil  was 
obliged  to  employ  a  special  devil  called  Tittivillus,  whose  sole 
business  it  was  to  collect  the  dropped  syllables  and  gabbled 
verses  and  carry  them  back  to  his  master  in  a  sack.  One  rhyme 
distinguishes  carefully  between  the  contents  of  his  sack: 

Hii  stint  qui  psalmos  corrumpunt  nequiter  almos, 
Dangler,  cum  jasper,  lepar,  galper  quoque  draggar, 
Momeler,  forskypper,  forereynner,  sic  et  overleper, 
Fragmina  verborum  Tutivillus  colligit  horum1. 

A  holy  Cistercian  abbot  once  interviewed  Tittivillus;  this  is 
the  tale  as  the  nuns  of  Syon  read  it  in  their  Myroure  of  Oure 
Ladye : 

We  rede  of  an  holy  Abbot  of  the  order  of  Cystreus  that  whyle  he  stode 
in  the  quyer  at  mattyns,  he  sawe  a  fende  that  had  a  longe  and  a 
greate  poke  hangynge  about  hys  necke,  and  wente  aboute  the  quyer 
i  from  one  to  an  other,  and  wayted  bysely  after  all  letters,  and  syllables, 
land  wordes,  and  faylynges,  that  eny  made;  and  them  he  gathered 
Idylygently  and  putte  them  in  hys  poke.  And  when  he  came  before 
[the  Abbot,  waytynge  yf  oughte  had  escaped  hym,  that  he  myghte 
have  gotten  and  put  in  hys  bagge ;  the  Abbot  was  astoned  and  af erde 
of  the  foulenes  and  mysshape  of  hym,  and  sayde  vnto  hym.  What 
art  thow;  And  he  answered  and  sayd.  I  am  a  poure  dyuel,  and  my 
name  ys  Tytyuyllus,  and  I  do  myne  offyce  that  is  commytted  vnto 
I  me.  And  what  is  thyne  offyce  sayd  the  Abbot,  he  answeryd  I  muste 
eche  day  he  sayde  brynge  my  master  a  thousande  pokes  full  of  fayl 
ynges,  and  of  neglygences  in  syllables  and  wordes,  that  ar  done  in 
youre  order  in  redynge  and  in  syngynge.  And  else  I  must  be  sore 
beten2. 

Carelessness  in  the  singing  of  the  services  was  not,  however, 
the  most  serious  result  of  reaction  against  routine.  If  the  men 
and  women  of  sensibility  failed  to  keep  intelligence  active  in  the 
'pursuit  of  spiritual  or  temporal  duties,  if  they  cared  no  longer 
jto  use  brain  and  spirit  as  they  performed  the  daily  round, 
wccidia*,  that  dread  disease,  half  ennui  and  half  melancholia, 
jwhich,  though  common  to  all  men,  was  recognised  as  the  peculiar 

1  "These  are  they  who  wickedly  corrupt  the  holy  psalms:  the  dangler, 
jthe  gasper,  the  leaper,  the  galloper,  the  dragger,  the  mumbler,  the  fore- 
pkipper,  the  forerunner  and  the  over  leaper :  Tittivillus  collecteth  the  frag 
ments  of  these  men's  words."    G.  G.  Coulton,  Med.  Gam.  p.  423.    He  also 
Collected  the  gossip  of  women  in  church.    On  Tittivillus  see  my  article  in 
jthe  Cambridge  Magazine,  1917,  pp.  158-60. 

2  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  Blunt  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  54. 

3  Greek  aiajdia,;  whence  acedia  or  accidia   in  Latin;    English  accidie. 
jtt  is  a  pity  that  the  word  has  fallen  out  of  use.  The  disease  has  not. 


294  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

menace  of  the  cloister,  lay  ever  in  wait  for  them.  Against  this 
sin  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  sloth  all  the  great  churchmen 
of  the  middle  ages  inveigh,  recognising  in  it  the  greatest  menace 
of  religious  life,  from  which  all  other  sins  may  follow1.  If  accidia 
once  laid  hold  upon  a  monk  he  was  lost;  ceasing  to  perform 
with  active  mind  his  religious  duties,  he  would  find  them  a 
meaningless,  endless  routine,  filling  him  with  irritation,  with 
boredom  and  with  a  melancholy  against  which  he  might  struggle 
in  vain.  The  fourth  century  cenobite  Cassian  has  left  a  detailed 
description  of  the  effects  of  accidia  in  the  cloister,  declaring 
that  it  was  specially  disturbing  to  a  monk  about  the  sixth  hour 
"like  some  fever  which  seizes  him  at  stated  times,"  so  that  many 
declared  that  this  was  "the  sickness  that  destroyeth  in  the  noon 
day,"  spoken  of  in  the  ninetieth  psalm2.  Many  centuries  later 
Dante  crystallised  it  in  four  unsurpassable  lines.  As  he  passed 
through  the  fifth  circle  of  hell  he  saw  a  black  and  filthy  marsh,  in 
which  struggled  the  souls  of  those  who  had  been  overcome  by 
anger;  but  deeper  than  the  angry  were  submerged  other  souls, 
whose  sobs  rose  in  bubbles  through  the  muddy  water  and  who 
could  only  gurgle  their  confession  in  their  throats.  These  were  the 

1  An  interesting  modern  study  of  this  moral  disease  is  to  be  found  in 
a  book  of  sermons  by  the  late  Bishop  of  Oxford,  Dr  Paget,  The  Spirit  of 
Discipline  (1891),  which  contains  an  introductory  essay  "concerning 
Accidie,"  in  which  the  subject  is  treated  historically,  with  illustrations  from 
the  writings  of  Cassian,  St  John  of  the  Ladder,  Dante  and  St  Thomas 
Aquinas,  in  the  middle  ages,  Marchantius  and  Francis  Neumayer  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  Wordsworth,  Keble,  Trench,  Matthew  Arnold, 
Tennyson  and  Stevenson  in  the  nineteenth  century.  See  also  Dr  Paget's 
first  sermon  "  The  Sorrow  of  the  World,"  which  deals  with  the  same  subject. 
He  diagnoses  the  main  elements  of  Accidia  very  ably:  "As  one  compares  the 
various  estimates  of  the  sin  one  can  mark  three  main  elements  which  help 
to  make  it  what  it  is — elements  which  can  be  distinguished,  though  in 
experience,  I  think,  they  almost  always  tend  to  meet  and  mingle,  they  are 
gloom  and  sloth  and  irritation."  Op.  cit.  p.  54.  On  Accidia,  see  also  H.  B. 
Workman,  The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal  (1913),  pp.  326-31.  During 
the  great  war  the  disease  of  accidie  was  prevalent  in  prison  camps,  as  any 
account  of  Ruhleben  shows  very  clearly.  For  a  short  psychological 
study  of  this  manifestation  of  it,  see  Vischer,  A.  L.,  Barbed  Wire  Disease 
(I9I9)- 

•  See  book  X  of  Cassian's  De  Coenobiorum  Institutes,  which  is  entitled 
"De  Spiritu  Acediae"  (Wace  and  Schaff,  Select  Library  of  Nicene  and  Post- 
Nicene  Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  2nd  ser.,  vol.  xi,  Sulpitius  Severus, 
Vincent  of  Lerins  and  John  Cassian,  pp.  266  ff. ;  chapters  I  and  n  are  para 
phrased  by  Dr  Paget,  op.  cit.  pp.  8-10);  Book  IX,  on  the  kindred  sin  of 
Tristitia  is  also  worthy  of  study;  the  two  are  always  closely  connected,  as 
is  shown  by  the  anecdotes  quoted  below. 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  295 

souls  of  men  who  had  fallen  victims  to  the  sin  of  accidia  in  their 

lives  Fitti.  nel  limo  dicon :  Tristi  f ummo 

Nel'  aer  dolce  che  dal  sol  s'  allegra, 

Portando  dentro  accidioso  fummo: 
Or  ci  attristiam  nella  belletta  negra. 

Fixed  in  the  slime,  they  say,  "  Sullen  were  we  in  the  sweet  air,  that  is 
gladdened  by  the  sun,  carrying  lazy  smoke  in  our  hearts ;  now  lie  we 
sullen  here  in  the  black  mire" 1. 

But  the  working  of  the  poison  is  most  brilliantly  described  by 
Chaucer,  in  his  Persones  Tale: 

"After  the  sinnes  of  Envie  and  of  Ire,  now  wol  I  speken  of  the  sinne 
of  Accidie.  For  Envye  blindeth  the  herte  of  a  man,  and  Ire  troubleth 
a  man;  and  Accidie  maketh  him  hevy,  thoghtful  and  wrawe.  Envye 
and  Ire  maken  bitternesse  in  herte;  which  bitternesse  is  moder  of 
Accidie  and  binimeth  him  the  love  of  alle  goodnesse.  Thanne  is  Accidie 
the  anguissh  of  a  trouble  herte.... He  dooth  alle  thing  with  anoy  and 
with  wrawnesse,  slaknesse  and  excusacioun,  and  with  ydelnesse  and 
unlust....Now  comth  Slouthe,  that  wol  nat  suffre  noon  hardnesse  ne 
no  penaunce.... Thanne  comth  drede  to  biginne  to  werke  any  gode 
werkes;  for  certes  he  that  is  enclyned  to  sinne,  him  thinketh  it  is  so 
greet  an  empryse  for  to  undertake  to  doon  werkes  of  goodnesse.... 
Now  comth  wanhope,  that  is  despeir  of  the  mercy  of  God,  that  comth 
somtyme  of  to  muche  outrageous  sorwe,  and  somtyme  of  to  muche 
drede;  imagininge  that  he  hath  doon  so  much  sinne,  that  it  wol  nat 
availlen  him,  though  he  wolde  repenten  him  and  forsake  sinne: 
thurgh  which  despeir  or  drede  he  abaundoneth  al  his  herte  to  every 
maner  sinne,  as  seith  seint  Augustin.  Which  dampnable  sinne,  if 
that  it  continue  unto  his  ende,  it  is  cleped  sinning  in  the  holy  gost.... 
Soothly  he  that  despeireth  him  is  lyk  the  coward  champioun  recreant, 
that  seith  creant  withoute  nede.  Alias !  alias !  nedeles  is  he  recreant 
and  nedeles  despeired.  Certes  the  mercy  of  God  is  euere  redy  to  every 
penitent  and  is  aboven  alle  hise  werkes.... Thanne  cometh  sompno- 
lence,  that  is  sluggy  slombringe,  which  maketh  a  man  be  hevy  and 
dul  in  body  and  in  soule;  and  this  sinne  comth  of  Slouthe." 
He  proceeds  to  describe  further  symptoms, 

"Necligence  or  recchelesnesse... ydelnesse... the  sinne  that  man  clepen 
Tarditas"  and  "Lachesse," 
and  concludes  thus, 

"Thanne  comth  a  manere  coldnesse,  that  freseth  al  the  herte  of  man. 
Thanne  comth  undevocioun,  thurgh  which  a  man  is  so  blent,  as  seith 
seint  Bernard,  and  hath  swiche  langour  in  soule,  that  he  may  neither 
rede  ne  singe  in  holy  chirche,  ne  here  ne  thinke  of  no  devocioun,  ne 
travaille  with  his  handes  in  no  good  werk,  that  it  nis  him  unsavory 
and  al  apalled.  Thanne  wexeth  he  slow  and  slombry,  and  sone  wol 
1  Dante,  Inferno,  vn,  1.  121  ff.  Translation  by  J.  A.  Carlyle. 


296  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

be  wrooth,  and  sone  is  enclyned  to  hate  and  to  envye.  Thanne  comth 
the  sinne  of  worldly  sorwe,  swich  as  is  cleped  tristicia,  that  sleeth  man, 
as  seint  Paul  seith.  For  certes  swich  sorwe  werketh  to  the  deeth  of  the 
soule  and  of  the  body  also;  for  therof  comth,  that  a  man  is  anoyed  of 
his  owene  lyf .  Wherfore  swich  sorwe  shorteth  ful  ofte  the  lyf  of  a  man, 
er  that  his  tyme  be  come  by  wey  of  kinde"1. 

This  masterly  diagnosis  of  the  sin  of  spiritual  sloth  and  its 
branches  is  illustrated  by  several  stories  which  bear  unmistak 
ably  the  impress  of  a  dreadful  truth.  Johann  Busch's  account 
of  his  early  temptations  and  doubts  has  often  been  quoted. 
A  strong  character,  he  overcame  the  temptation  and  emerged 
stronger2.  But  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  has  two  anecdotes  of 
weaker  brethren  which  show  how  exactly  Chaucer  described  the 
anguish  of  a  troubled  heart.  The  first  is  of  particular  interest 
to  us  because  it  concerns  a  woman : 

"A  certain  nun,  a  woman  of  advanced  age,  and,  as  was  supposed, 
of  great  holiness,  was  so  overcome  by  the  vice  of  melancholy  (tristitiae) 
and  so  vexed  with  a  spirit  of  blasphemy,  doubt  and  distrust,  that 
she  fell  into  despair.  And  she  began  altogether  to  doubt  those 
things  which  she  had  believed  from  infancy  and  which  it  behoved 
her  to  believe,  nor  could  she  be  induced  by  anyone  to  take  the  holy 
sacraments;  and  when  her  sisters  and  also  her  nieces  in  the  flesh 
besought  her  why  she  was  thus  hardened,  she  answered  "  I  am  of  the 
lost,  of  those  who  shall  be  damned."  One  day  the  Prior,  growing  angry, 
said  to  her,  "  Sister,  unless  you  recover  from  your  unbelief,  when  you 
die  I  will  have  you  buried  in  a  field."  And  she,  hearing  him,  was  silent 
but  kept  his  words  in  her  heart.  One  day,  when  certain  of  the  sisters 
were  to  go  on  a  journey  I  know  not  whither,  she  secretly  followed  them 
to  the  banks  of  the  river  Moselle,  whereon  the  monastery  is  situated, 
and  when  the  ship,  which  was  carrying  the  sisters,  put  off,  she  threw 
herself  from  the  shore  into  the  river.  Those  who  were  in  the  ship 
heard  the  sound  of  a  splash,  and  looking  out  thought  her  body  to  be 
a  dog,  but  one  of  them,  desiring  (by  God's  will)  to  know  more  certainly 
what  it  was,  ran  quickly  to  the  place  and  seeing  a  human  being, 
entered  the  river  and  drew  her  out.  Then  when  they  perceived  that 
it  was  the  aforesaid  nun,  already  wellnigh  drowned,  they  were  all 
frightened,  and  when  they  had  cared  for  her  and  she  had  coughed  up 
the  water  and  could  speak,  they  asked  her,  "  Why,  sister,  didst  thou 
act  thus  cruelly?"  and  she  replied,  pointing  to  the  Prior,  "My  lord 
there  threatened  that  I  should  be  buried  when  dead  in  a  field,  where 
fore  I  preferred  to  be  drowned  in  the  flood  rather  than  to  be  buried 

1  Chaucer,  The  Persones  Tale,  §§  53-9. 

*  See  the  translation  of  the  episode  (from  Busch,  Chronicon  Windes- 
hemense,  ed.  K.  Grube,  p.  395)  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garner,  pp.  641-4.  On  the 
subject  of  medieval  doubt  and  despair  see  Coulton  in  the  Hibbert  Journal, 
xiv  (1916),  pp.  598-9  and  From  St  Francis  to  Dante,  pp.  313-4. 


vn]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  297 

like  a  beast  in  the  field."  Then  they  led  her  back  to  the  monastery 
and  guarded  her  more  carefully.  Behold  what  great  evil  is  born  of 
melancholy  (tristitia) .  That  woman  was  brought  up  from  infancy  in 
the  monastery.  She  was  a  chaste,  devout,  stern  and  religions  virgin, 
and,  as  the  mistress  [of  the  novices]  of  a  neighbouring  monastery  told 
me,  all  the  maidens  educated  by  her  were  of  better  discipline  and  more 
devout  than  others1. 

The  other  anecdote  tells  of  an  old  lay  brother,  who  at  the  end 
of  a  long  life  fell  into  despair: 

"I  know  not,"  says  Caesarius,  "by  what  judgment  of  God  he  was 
made  thus  sad  and  fearful,  that  he  was  so  greatly  afraid  for  his  sins 
and  despaired  altogether  of  the  life  eternal.  He  did  not  indeed  doubt 
in  his  faith,  but  rather  despaired  of  salvation.  He  could  be  cheered 
by  no  scriptural  authorities  and  brought  back  to  the  hope  of  forgive 
ness  by  no  examples.  Yet  he  is  believed  to  have  sinned  but  little. 
When  the  brothers  asked  him,  'What  makes  you  fear,  why  do  you 
despair?'  he  answered,  'I  cannot  pray  as  I  was  used  to  do,  and  so 
I  fear  hell.'  Because  he  laboured  with  the  vice  of  tristitia,  therefore 
he  was  filled  with  accidia,  and  from  each  of  these  was  despair  born  in 
his  heart.  He  was  placed  in  the  infirmary  and  on  a  certain  morning 
he  prepared  him  for  death,  and  came  to  his  master,  saying,  '  I  can  no 
longer  fight  against  God.'  And  when  his  master  paid  but  little  at 
tention  to  his  words,  he  went  forth  to  the  fish  pond  of  the  monastery 
near  by  and  threw  himself  into  it  and  was  drowned2." 

Only  a  small  minority,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was  driven  to 
this  anguish  of  despair.  For  the  majority  the  strain  of  conventual 
life  found  outlet,  not  in  these  black  moods,  but  in  a  tendency  to 
bicker  one  with  another,  to  get  excitement  by  exaggerating  the 
small  events  of  daily  existence  into  matter  for  jealousies  and 
'.disputes.    For  the  strain  was  a  double  one;  to  monotony  was 
added  the  complete  lack  of  privacy,  the  wear  and  tear  of  com 
munal  life;  not  only  always  doing  the  same  thing  at  the  same 
time,  but  always  doing  it  in  company  with  a  number  of  other 
people.  The  beauty  of  human  fellowship,  the  happy  friendliness 
!of  life  in  a  close  society  are  too  obvious  to  need  description. 
j       For  if  heuene  be  on  this  erthe  •  and  ese  to  any  soule, 
It  is  in  cloistere  or  in  scole  •  by  many  skilles  I  fynde; 
For  in  cloistre  cometh  no  man  -  to  chide  ne  to  fi3te, 
But  alle  is  buxomnesse  there  and  bokes  •  to  rede  and  to  lerne, 
In  scole  there  is  scorne  •  but  if  a  clerke  wil  lerne, 
And  grete  loue  and  lykynge  •  for  eche  of  hem  loueth  other3. 
|      x  Caes.  of  Heist.  Dial.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange,  i,  pp.  209-10. 

2  Ib.i.  pp.  210-1 1.  For  a  case  of  doubt  in  an  anchoress,  which,  however 
mded  well,  see  ib.  I,  pp.  206-8. 

3  Langland,  Piers  Plowman,  ed.  Skeat,  B,  passus  x,  300-5. 


298  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

But  it  is  necessary  also  to  remember  the  other  side  of  the 
picture.  Personal  idiosyncrasies  were  no  less  apt  to  jar  in  the 
middle  ages  than  they  are  today;  there  are  unfortunates  who 
are  born  to  be  unpopular;  there  are  tempers  which  will  lose 
themselves;  and  in  conventual  life  there  is  no  balm  of  solitude 
for  frayed  nerves.  These  nuns  were  very  human  people ;  a  mere 
accident  of  birth  had  probably  sent  them  to  a  convent  rather 
than  to  the  care  of  husband  and  children  in  a  manor-hall;  just 
as  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  a  mere  accident 
of  birth  made  one  son  the  squire,  another  the  soldier  and  a  third 
the  parson.  No  special  saintliness  of  disposition  was  theirs  and 
no  miracle  intervened  to  render  them  immune  from  tantrums 
when  they  crossed  the  convent  threshold.  Nothing  is  at  once 
more  striking  and  more  natural  than  the  prevalence  of  little 
quarrels,  sometimes  growing  into  serious  disputes,  among  thei 
inmates  of  monasteries.  Browning's  Spanish  Cloister  was  no 
mere  figment  of  his  inventive  brain;  indeed  it  is,  if  anything, 
less  startling  than  the  medieval  Langland's  description  of  the 
convent,  where  Wrath  was  cook  and  where  all  was  far  from  i 
"buxomnesse."  Certainly  Langland's  indictment  is  a  violent 
one ;  the  satirist  must  darken  his  colours  to  catch  the  eye ;  and, 
had  Chaucer  been  the  painter,  we  might  have  had  a  dispul 
couched  in  more  courteous  terms  and  more  "estatlich 
manere."  But  the  satirist's  account  is  significant,  becai 
his  very  office  demands  that  he  shall  exaggerate  only  whal 
exists;  his  words  are  a  smoke  which  cannot  rise  without  fii 
So  Langland  may  speak  through  the  lips  of  Wrath,  with  t) 
white  eyes : 

I  have  an  aunte  to  nonne  •  and  an  abbesse  bothe, 

Hir  were  leuere  swowe  or  swelte  •  >an  suffre  any  peyne. 

I  haue  be  cook  in  hir  kichyne  •  and  J>e  couent  serued 

Many  monthes  with  hem  •  and  with  monkes  bothe. 

I  was  t>e  priouresses  potagere  •  and  other  poure  ladyes 

And  made  hem  ioutes  of  iangelynge  •  Pat  dame  lohanne  was 

bastard, 
And  dame  Clarice  a  kni3tes  doi^ter  •  ac  a  kokewolde  was 

syre, 

And  dame  Peronelle  a  prestes  file  •  Priouresse  worth  she  neuere 
For  she  had  childe  in  chirityme  •  all  owre  chapitere  it  wiste  • 
Of  wycked  wordes  I,  Wrath  •  here  wortes  imade, 
Til  "thow  lixte"  and  "thow  lixte"  lopen  oute  at  ones, 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  299 

And  eyther  hitte  other  -  vnder  the  cheke  ; 

Hadde  thei  had  knyves,  by  Cryst  •  her  eyther  had  killed  other1. 

From  "thow  lixte"  to  "Gr-r-r  you  swine"  how  little  change! 

Sober  records  bear  out  Langland's  contention  that  Wrath 
was  at  home  in  nunneries.  Some  of  the  worst  cases  have  already 
been  described;  election  disputes,  disputes  arising  from  a 
prioress's  favouritism,  Margaret  Wavere  dragging  her  nuns  about 
the  choir  by  their  hair,  and  screaming  insults  at  them,  Katherine 
Wells  hitting  them  on  the  head  with  fists  and  feet2.  Doubtless 
quarrels  seldom  got  as  far  as  blows ;  but  bad  temper  and  wordy 
| warfare  were  common.  Insubordination  was  sometimes  at  the 
root  of  the  discord ;  nuns  refused  to  submit  meekly  to  correction 
after  the  proclamation  of  their  faults  in  chapter,  or  to  obey  their 
uperiors.  The  words  of  another  satirist  show  that  the  monastic 
vow  of  obedience  sometimes  sat  lightly  upon  their  shoulders : 

Also  another  lady  there  was 

That  hy3t  dame  dysobedyent 

And  sche  set  now3t  by  her  priores. 

Ans  than  me  thow3t  alle  was  schent, 

For  sugettys  schulde  euyr  be  dylygent 

Bothe  in  worde,  in  wylle  and  dede, 

To  plese  her  souerynes  wyth  gode  entent, 

And  hem  obey,  ellys  god  forbede. 

And  of  alle  the  defawtes  that  I  cowde  se 

Thorow3  schewyng  of  experience, 

Hyt  was  one  of  the  most  that  grevyd  me, 

The  wantyng  of  obedyence 

For  hyt  schulde  be  chese  in  consciens 

Alle  relygius  rule  wytnesseth  the  same 

And  when  I  saw  her  in  no  reverence, 

I  my3t  no  lenger  abyde  for  schame, 

For  they  setten  not  by  obedyence. 

And  than  for  wo  myne  hert  gan  blede 

Ne  they  hadden  her  in  no  reuerence, 

But  few  or  none  to  her  toke  hede3. 

1  Langland,  Piers  Plowman,  ed.  Skeat,  B,  passus  v,  u.  153-65.    The 
I!  text  has  a  variant  for  the  last  four  lines : 

Thus  thei  sitte  the  sustres  •  somtyme,  and  disputen, 
Til  "thow  lixt"  and  "thow  lixt"  •  be  lady  over  hem  alle; 
And  then  awake  ich,  Wratthe  •  and  wold  be  auenged. 
Thanne  ich  crie  and  cracche  •  with  my  kene  nailes, 
Bothe  byte  and  bete  •  and  brynge  forthe  suche  thewes, 
That  alle  ladies  me  lothen  •  that  louen  eny  worschep. 
It  is  strange  that  the  same  hand  which  wrote  these  lines  should  have 
kitten  the  beautiful  description  of  convent  life  quoted  on  p.  297. 

2  See  above,  p.  82  and  below,  Note  F. 

;    3  From  "Why  can't  I  be  a  nun,  "Trans,  of  Philol.  Soc.  1858,  Ptn,  p.  268. 


300  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

Again  the  colours  are  darkened,  but  the  eyes  of  the  satirist  had 
seen. 

At  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  insubordination  was  evidently  the 
chief  fault.  William  of  Wykeham  writes  to  the  Abbess: 

By  public  rumour  it  has  come  to  our  ears  that  some  of  the  nuns  of  the 
aforesaid  house... care  not  to  submit  to  or  even  to  obey  you  and  the 
deans  and  other  obedientiaries  lawfully  constituted  by  you  in  those 
things  which  concern  regular  observances  nor  to  show  them  due 
reverence,  and  that  they  will  not  bear  or  undergo  the  reproofs  and 
corrections  inflicted  upon  them  by  their  superiors  for  their  faults,  but 
break  out  into  vituperation  and  altercation  with  each  other  and  in 
no  way  submit  to  these  corrections;  meanwhile  other  nuns  of  your 
house  by  detractions,  conspiracies,  confederacies,  leagues,  obloquies, 
contradictions  and  other  breaches  of  discipline  (insolenciis)  and 
laxities  (concerning  which  we  speak  not  at  present) 

neglect  the  rule  of  St  Benedict  and  other  due  observances.  The 
Abbess  is  warned  to  punish  the  nuns  and  to  enforce  the  rule  more 
firmly  than  heretofore  and  to  furnish  the  Bishop  with  the  names 
of  rebels.  At  the  same  time  he  addresses  a  letter  to  the  nuns 
bidding  them  show  obedience  to  their  superiors  and  receive 
correction  humbly  "henceforth  blaming  no  one  therefore  nor 
altercating  one  with  another,  saying  that  these  or  those  were 
badly  or  excessively  punished"1.  It  would  seem  that  discipline 
had  become  lax  in  the  convent  and  that  the  Bishop's  attempt 
to  introduce  reform  by  the  agency  of  the  abbess  was  meeting 
with  opposition  from  unruly  nuns.  Visitors  were  forced  con 
stantly  to  make  the  double  injunction  that  nuns  should  show 
obedience  to  their  superiors  and  that  those  superiors  should  be 
equable  and  not  harsh  in  correction: 

Also  we  enioyne  you,  pryoresse,...that  oftentymes  ye  come  to  the 
chapitere  for  to  correcte  the  defautes  of  your  susters,  and  that  as  wele 
then  as  att  other  tymes  and  places  ye  treyte  your  said  susters  moderlie 
wyth  all  resonable  fauour;  and  that  ye  rebuke  ne  repreue  thaym 
cruelly  ne  feruently  at  no  tyme,  specyally  in  audience  of  seculeres, 
and  that  ye  kepe  pryvye  fro  seculeres  your  correccyons  and  actes  of 
your  chapitere.... Also  we  enioyne  yowe  of  the  couent  and  euerychc 
oon  of  yowe  vndere  peyn  of  imprisonyng,  that  mekely  and  buxumly 
ye  obeye  the  prioresse  procedyng  discretely  in  hire  correccyone,  and 
also  that  in  euery  place  ye  do  hire  dewe  reuerence,  absteynyng  yowe 
fro  all  elacyone  of  pryde  and  wordes  of  disobeysaunce  or  debate2. 

1  Wykeham'sReg.  n,  pp.  361-2  (1384).  Compare  case  at  Shaftesbury  (1298) 
where  the  nuns  had  incurred  excommunication.  Reg.  Sim.  deGandavo,  p.  14. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  8.    Compare  Winchelsey's  injunctions  to  Sheppey  in 
1296.    Reg.  Roberti  Winchelsey,  pp.  99-100. 


vn]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  301 

Sometimes  it  was  one  unruly  member  who  set  the  convent 
by  the  ears.  There  is  an  amusing  case  at  Romsey,  which  is 
reminiscent  of  David  Copperfield: 

On  1 6  January  1527  in  the  chapter  house  of  the  monastery  of  Romsey, 
before  the  vicar  general,  sitting  judicially,  Lady  Alice  Gorsyn  ap 
peared  and  confessed  that  she  had  used  bad  language  with  her  sisters 
[her  greatest  oath  evidently  transcended  "  by  se'ynt  Loy  "]  and  spread 
abroad  reproachful  and  defamatory  words  of  them.  He  absolved  her 
from  the  sentence  of  excommunication  and  enjoined  on  her  in  penance 
that  if  she  used  bad  language  in  future  and  spread  about  defamatory 
words  of  them,  a  red  tongue  made  of  cloth  should  be  used  on  the  barbe 
under  the  chin  (in  sua  barba  alba)  and  remain  there  for  a  month1. 

a  kinder  punishment  than  the  scold's  bridle  or  the  ducking 
stool  of  common  folk.  Occasionally  an  inveterate  scold  would 
be  removed  altogether  by  the  Bishop  and  sent  to  some  convent 
where  she  was  not  known;  two  nuns  were  transferred  from 
Burnham  to  Goring  in  1339  "  for  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  house  " 
and  in  1298  a  quarrelsome  nun  of  Nuncoton  was  sent  to  Green 
field  to  be  kept  in  solitary  confinement  as  long  as  she  remained 
incorrigible,  "until  according  to  the  discipline  of  her  order  she 
shall  know  how  to  live  in  a  community"2.  It  was  more  difficult 
to  restore  peace  when  a  whole  nunnery  was  seething  with  dispute 
and  heart-burnings.  General  injunctions  to  cease  quarrelling 
would  seem  to  show  that  this  was  sometimes  the  case,  and, 
without  having  recourse  to  such  an  extreme  instance  as  that 
of  Littlemore  in  the  sixteenth  century,  it  is  possible  to  quote 
from  bishops'  registers  documents  which  go  far  to  bear  out  even 
Langland's  picture.  One  such  document  may  be  quoted  in 

1  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  245-6.    The  "bad  language"  may  be  scolding  or 
defamation  rather  than  swearing.    It  is  rare  to  find  a  nun  accused  of  using 
oaths.    But  see  the  list  of  faults  drawn  up  for  the  nuns  of  Syon  Abbey; 
among  "greuous  defautes"  is  "if  any... be  take  withe... any  foule  worde', 

i  or  else  brekethe  her  sylence,  or  swerethe  horribly  be  Criste,  or  be  any  parte 
:  of  hys  blyssed  body,  or  unreuerently  speketh  of  God,  or  of  any  saynte,  and 
i  namely  of  our  blessyd  lady";  among  "more  greuous  defautes"  is  "yf  they 
I  swere  be  the  sacramente,  or  be  the  body  of  Cryste,  or  be  hys  passion,  or  be 
i  hys  crosse,  or  be  any  boke,  or  be  any  other  thynge  lyke  " ;  and  among  "  most 
| greuous  defautes"  is  "yf  any  in  her  madness  or  drunkenesse  blaspheme 
jhorrybly  God,  or  our  Lady,  or  any  of  hys  sayntes"  (Aungier,  Hist,  of  Syon 
'  Mon.  pp.  256,  259,  262).   In  1331,  on  readmitting  Isabella  de  Studley  (who 
i  had  been  guilty  of  incontinence  and  apostasy)  to  St  Clement's  York,  Arch 
bishop  Melton  announced  that  if  she  were  disobedient  to  the  Prioress  or 
quarrelsome  with  her  sisters  or  indulged  in  blasphemy  he  would  transfer 
her  to  another  house.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  130. 

2  V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  383  and  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  155, 


302  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

illustration,  the  comperta  of  Archbishop  Giffard's  visitation  of 
Swine  in  1268: 

It  is  discovered  that  Amice  de  Rue  is  a  slanderer  and  a  liar  and  im 
patient  and  odious  to  the  convent  and  a  rebel;  and  so  are  almost  all 
the  convent  when  the  misdeeds  of  delinquents  are  proclaimed  in 
chapter;  wherefore  the  prioress  or  whoever  is  acting  for  her  is  not 
sufficient,  without  the  help  of  the  lord  archbishop,  to  make  corrections 
according  to  the  requirements  of  the  rule.... Item,  it  is  discovered  that 
three  sisters  in  the  flesh  and  spirit,  to  wit,  Sibyl,  Bella  and  Amy, 
frequently  rebel  against  the  corrections  of  the  Prioress,  and  having 
leagued  together  with  them  several  other  sisters,  they  conspire  against 
their  sisters,  to  the  great  harm  of  the  regular  discipline;  and  Alice 
de  Scrutevil,  Beatrice  de  St  Quintin  and  Maud  Constable  cleave  to 
them....  I  tern,  it  is  discovered  that  the  Prioress  is  a  suspicious  woman 
and  too  credulous  and  breaks  out  at  a  mere  word  into  correction,  and 
frequently  punishes  unequally  for  the  same  fault  and  pursues  with 
long  rancour  those  whom  she  dislikes,  until  the  time  of  their  vindica 
tion  cometh;  whence  it  befals  that  the  nuns,  when  they  suspect  that 
they  are  going  to  be  burdened  with  too  heavy  a  correction,  procure 
the  mitigation  of  her  severity  by  means  of  the  threats  of  their  relatives. 
Item,  it  is  discovered  that  the  nuns  and  the  sisters  are  at  discord 
in  many  things,  because  the  sisters  contend  that  they  are  equal  to 
the  nuns  and  use  black  veils  even  as  the  nuns1,  which  is  said  not  to  be 
the  custom  in  other  houses  of  the  same  order2. 

Apostasy,  accidia,  quarrels,  all  rose  in  part  from  monotony. 
The  majority  of  nuns  were  probably  content  with  their  life,  but 
they  strove  to  bring  some  excitement  and  variety  into  it,  not 
only  unconsciously  by  cliques  and  contentions,  but  also  by  a 
conscious  aping  of  the  worldly  amusements  which  enlivened 
their  mothers  and  sisters  outside  the  convent  walls.  The  chate 
laine  or  mistress  of  a  manor,  when  not  busied  with  the  care  of 
an  estate,  amused  herself  in  the  pursuit  of  fashion;  even  the 
business-like  Margaret  Paston  hankered  after  a  scarlet  robe. 
She  amused  herself  with  keeping  pets,  those  little  dogs  which 
scamper  so  gaily  round  the  borders  of  manuscripts,  or  play  so 

1  In  1311  Archbishop  Greenfield  issued  a  general  order  that  nuns  only 
and  not  sisters  were  to  use  the  black  veil;  sisters  wore  a  white  veil  (V.C.H. 
Yorks.  m,  p.  188  note,  and  Journ.  of  Education,  1910,  p.  841).  This  order 
was  repeated  at  various  houses,  which  shows  that  there  must  have  been 
a  widespread  attempt  to  usurp  the  black  veil  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  124, 
I27.  J75.  177>  l88)-   At  Sinningthwaite  the  Prioress  was  also  ordered  not  to 
place  the  sisters  above  the  nuns.    A  common  punishment  in  this  district 
was  to  remove  the  black  veil  from  a  nun  and  this  was  reserved  for  the  more 
serious  misdeeds. 

2  York  Reg.  Giffard,  pp.  147-8.   For  further  instances,  see  Note  C  below. 


vn]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION 


303 


gallant  a  part  in  romances  like  the  Chatelaine  of  Vergi.  She 
hawked  and  she  hunted,  she  danced  and  she  played  at  tables1. 
All  these  occupations  served  to  break  the  monotony  of  daily 
life.  The  nuns,  always  in  touch  with  the  world  owing  to  the 
influx  of  visitors  and  to  the  neglect  of  enclosure,  remembered 
these  forbidden  pleasures.  And  they  sought  to  spice  their 
monotonous  life,  as  they  spiced  their  monotonous  dishes.  Gay 
clothes,  pet  animals,  a  dance,  a  game,  a  gossip,  were  to  them 
"a  ferthyngworth  of  fenel-seed  for  fastyngdayes."  So  we  find 
all  these  worldly  amusements  in  the  convent. 

Dear  to  the  soul  of  men  and  women  alike,  dear  to  monks 
and  nuns  as  well  as  to  the  children  of  the  world,  were  the  gay 
colours  and  extravagant  modes  of  contemporary  dress.  Popular 
preachers  inveighed  against  the  devils'  trappings  of  their  flocks, 
but  when  those  trappings  flaunted  themselves  in  the  cloister 
there  was  matter  for  more  than  words,  As  early  as  the  end  of 
the  seventh  century  St  Aldhelm  penned  a  severe  indictment  of 
the  fashionable  nuns  of  his  day: 

A  vest  of  fine  linen  of  a  violet  colour  is  worn,  above  it  a  scarlet  tunic 
with  a  hood,  sleeves  striped  with  silk  and  trimmed  with  red  fur; 
the  locks  on  the  forehead  and  the  temples  are  curled  with  a  crisping 
iron,  the  dark  head-veil  is  given  up  for  white  and  coloured  head-dresses, 
which,  with  bows  of  ribbon  sewn  on,  reach  down  to  the  ground;  the 
nails,  like  those  of  a  falcon  or  sparrow-hawk,  are  pared  to  resemble 
;  talons2. 

!  Synods  sat  solemnly  over  silken  veils  and  pleated  robes  with 
long  trains ;  they  shook  their  heads  over  golden  pins  and  silver 
belts,  jewelled  rings,  laced  shoes,  cloth  of  burnet  and  of  Rennes, 
dresses  open  at  the  sides,  gay  colours  (especially  red)  and  fur  of 
gn's3.  High  brows  were  fashionable  in  the  world  and  the  nuns 
could  not  resist  lifting  and  spreading  out  their  veils  to  expose 

1  Injunctions  against  dicing  and  other  games  of  chance  are  common  in 
the  case  of  monks  (see  e.g.  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  30,  46,  77,  89).    I  have  found 
none  in  nunneries,  but  a  more  stately  game  of  skill,  the  fashionable  tables, 
was  played  by  Margaret  Fairfax  with  John  Munkton.   Above,  p.  77. 

2  Quoted  from  St  Aldhelm's  De  Laudibus  Virginitatis  in  Eckenstein, 
Woman  under  Mon.  p.  115.  Compare  Bede's  account  of  the  nuns  of  Colding- 
ham  some  years  before:  "The  virgins  who  are  vowed  to  God,  laying  aside 

I  all  respect  for  their  profession,  whenever  they  have  leisure  spend  all  their 
jtime  in  weaving  fine  garments  with  which  they  adorn  themselves  like  brides, 
;to  the  detriment  of  their  condition  and  to  secure  the  friendship  of  men 
loutside."  Ib.  pp.  102-3. 

3  For  detailed  examples,  see  Note  D  below. 


304  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

those  fair  foreheads  ("almost  a  spanne  brood,  I  trowe");  when 
Alnwick  visited  Goring  in  1445  he 

saw  with  the  evidence  of  his  own  eyes  that  the  nuns  do  wear  their 
veils  spread  out  on  either  side  and  above  their  foreheads,  (and)  he 
enjoined  upon  the  prioress... that  she  should  wear  and  cause  her  sisters 
to  wear  their  veils  spread  down  to  their  eyes1. 

The  words  of  Beatrix's  maid  in  Much  Ado  About  Nothing  spring 
to  the  mind:  "But  methinks  you  look  with  your  eyes  as  other 
women  do."  For  three  weary  centuries  the  bishops  waged  a  holy 
war  against  fashion  in  the  cloister  and  waged  it  in  vain,  for  as 
long  as  the  nuns  mingled  freely  with  secular  women  it  was 
impossible  to  prevent  them  from  adopting  secular  modes.  Occa 
sionally  a  conscientious  visitor  found  himself  floundering  un 
handily  through  something  very  like  a  complete  catalogue  o; 
contemporary  fashions.  So  Bishop  Longland  at  Elstow  in  1531 

We  ordeyne  and  by  way  of  Iniuncon  commande  undre  payne  of  dis- 
obedyence  from  hensforth  that  no  ladye  ne  any  religious  suster  within 
the  said  monasterye  presume  to  were  ther  apparells  upon  ther  hedes 
undre  suche  lay  fashion  as  they  have  now  of  late  doon  with  cornerec 
crests,  nether  undre  suche  manour  of  hight  shewing  ther  forhedes 
moore  like  lay  people  than  religious,  butt  that  they  use  them  without 
suche  crestes  or  secular  fashions  and  off  a  lower  sort  and  that  ther 
vayle  come  as  lowe  as  ther  yye  ledes  and  soo  contynually  to  use  the 
same,  unles  itt  be  at  suche  tymes  as  they  shalbe  occupied  in  eny  handy- 
crafte  labour,  att  whiche  tymes  itt  shalbe  lefull  for  them  to  turne  upp 
the  said  vayle  for  the  tyme  of  suche  occupacon.  And  undre  like  payne 
inoyne  that  noon  of  the  said  religious  susters  doo  use  or  were  here 
after  eny  such  voyded  shoys,  nether  crested  as  they  have  of  late  ther 
used,  butt  that  they  be  of  suche  honeste  fashion  as  other  religious 
places  both  use  and  that  ther  gownes  and  kyrtells  be  closse  afore  anc 
nott  so  depe  voyded  at  the  breste  and  noo  more  to  use  rede  stomachers 
but  other  sadder  colers  in  the  same2. 

It  is  interesting  to  conjecture  how  the  nuns  obtained  these 
gay  garments  and  ornaments.  The  growing  custom  of  giving 
them  a  money  allowance  out  of  which  to  dress  themselves 
instead  of  providing  them  with  clothes  in  kind  out  of  the  common 
purse,  certainly  must  have  given  opportunity  for  buying  th( 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  118.    Similar  detecta  and  injunctions  at  Catesby: 
Rothwell  and  Studley  (ib.  pp.  47,  52;  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  ft.  38,  ?6d}  am 
at  Ankerwyke  (quoted  above,  p.  76).    Also  at  Studley  (1531),  Archaeol 
XLVII,  p.  55,  and  Romsey  (1523),  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  244. 

2  Archaeol.  XLVII,  p.  52.    For  an  equally  detailed  account  see  the  cas« 
of  the  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  quoted  above  p.  76. 


vn]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  305 

gilt  pins,  barred  belts  and  slashed  shoes  which  so  horrified  their 
visitors.  We  know  from  Gilles  li  Muisis  that  Flemish  nuns  at 
least  went  shopping1.  But  an  even  more  likely  source  of  supply 
lies,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  legacies  of  clothes  and  ornaments, 
which  were  often  left  to  nuns  by  their  relatives2. 

Not  only  in  their  clothes  did  medieval  nuns  seek  to  enliven 
existence  after  the  manner  of  their  lay  sisters.  The  bishops 
struggled  long  and  unsuccessfully  against  another  custom  of 
worldly  women,  the  keeping  of  pet  animals3.  Dogs  were  certainly 
the  favourite  pets.  Cats  are  seldom  mentioned,  though  the  three 
anchoresses  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  were  specially  permitted  to 
keep  one4,  and  Gyb,  that  "cat  of  carlyshe  kynde,"  which  slew 
Philip  Sparrow,  apparently  belonged  to  Carrow;  perhaps  there 
was  spread  among  the  nunneries  of  England  the  grisly  tradition 
of  the  Prioress  of  Newington,  who  was  smothered  in  bed  by 
her  cat5.  Birds,  from  the  larks  of  the  Abbaye-aux-Dames  at 
Caen,  to  the  parrot  Vert-Vert  at  Nevers,  are  often  mentioned6.. 
Monkeys,  squirrels  and  rabbits  were  also  kept.  But  dogs  and 
puppies  abounded.  Partly  because  the  usages  of  society  in 
evitably  found  their  way  into  the  aristocratic  convents,  partly 

1  See  below,  p.  543. 

2  See  below,  pp.  325-30. 

3  For  nunnery  pets  as  a  literary  theme,  see  Note  E  and  for  pet  animals 
[in  the  nunneries  of  Eudes  Rigaud's  diocese  see  below,  p.  662. 

"Ye  shall  not  possess  any  beasts,  my  dear  sisters,  except  only  a  cat." 
\Ancren  Riwle,  p.  316.  At  the  nunnery  of  Langendorf  in  Saxony,  however, 
a  set  of  reformed  rules  drawn  up  in  the  early  fifteenth  century  contains  the 
proviso  "Cats,  dogs  and  other  animals  are  not  to  be  kept  by  the  nuns,  as 
(they  detract  from  seriousness."  Eckenstein,  op.  cit.  p.  415. 

"Mem.  quod  apud  manerium  deNewenton  fuerunt  quedam  moniales.... 

-t  postea  contingit  [sic]  quod  priorissa  eiusdem  manerii  strangulata  fuit 
pe  cato  suo  in  lecto  suo  noctu  et  postea  tractata  ad  puteum  quod  vocatur 
Nunnepet."  Quoted  from  Sprott's  Chronicle  in  The  Black  Book  of  St  Au 
gustine's  Abbey,  Canterbury  (British  Acad.  1915),  i,  p.  283.  In  Thorn's 
Phronicle,  however,  the  crime  is  attributed  to  the  prioress'  cook.  See 
pugdale,  Mon.  vi,  p.  1620.  The  nuns  were  afterwards  removed  to 
pheppey. 

6  There  really  seems  to  have  been  a  parrot  at  Fontevrault  in  1477,  to 
judge  from  an  item  in  the  inventory  of  goods  left  on  her  death  by  the  Abbess 
I'larie  de  Bretagne,  "  Item  xviij  serviecttes  en  une  aultre  piece,  led.  linge 
jstant  en  ung  coffre  de  cuir  boully,  en  la  chambre  ou  est  la  papegault 
Iperroquet)."  Alfred  Jubien,  L'Abbesse  Marie  de  Bretagne  (Angers  and 
!Jans  1872),  p.  156.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  J.  B.  Thiers,  writing  on 

nclosure  in  1681,  mentions  "de  belles  volieres  a  petits  oiseaux"  as  one  of 
pose  unnecessary  works  for  which  artisans  may  not  be  introduced  into 
^  cloister.  Thiers,  De  la  Cloture,  p.  412. 


20 


306  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

because  human  affections  will  find  an  outlet  under  the  most 
severe  of  rules: 

(Objet  permis  &  leur  oisif  amour, 
Vert- Vert  6ta.it  Tame  de  ce  sejour), 

the  nuns  clung  to  their  "smale  houndes."  Archbishop  Peckham 
had  to  forbid  the  Abbess  of  Romsey  to  keep  monkeys  or 
"a  number  of  dogs"  in  her  own  chamber  and  she  was  charged 
at  the  same  time  with  stinting  her  nuns  in  food ;  one  can  guess 
what  became  of  the  "rested  flesh  or  milk  and  wastel-breed"1. 
At  Chatteris  and  at  Ickleton  in  1345  the  nuns  were  forbidden 
to  keep  fowls,  dogs  or  small  birds  within  the  precincts  of  the 
convent  or  to  bring  them  into  church  during  divine  service2. 
This  bringing  of  animals  into  church  was  a  common  custom  in 
the  middle  ages,  when  ladies  often  attended  service  with  dog 
in  lap  and  men  with  hawk  on  wrist3;  Lady  Audley's  twelve  dogs, 
which  so  disturbed  the  nuns  of  Langley,  will  be  remembered4. 
Injunctions  against  the  bringing  of  dogs  or  puppies  into  choir 
by  the  nuns  are  also  found  at  Keldholme  and  Rosedale  early  in 
the  fourteenth  century5.  But  the  most  flagrant  case  of  all  is 
Romsey,  to  which  in  1387  William  of  Wykeham  wrote  as  follows: 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Peckham  (R.S.),  n,  p.  660. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,   p.  619   (Chatteris)   and  Camb.  Antiq.  Soc.  Proc. 
XLV  (1905),  p.  190  (Ickleton). 

3  A  decree  of  the  Council  of  Vienne  (1311)  complains  that  many  church 
ministers  come  into  choir  "  bringing  hawks  with  them  or  causing  them  to  be 
brought  and  leading  hunting  dogs."   Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  p.  588.   Similarly 
Geiler  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  complains,  in  his  Navicula  Fatuorum, 
that  "  some  men,  when  they  are  about  to  enter  a  church,  equip  themselves 
like  hunters,  bearing  hawks  and  bells  on  their  wrists  and  followed  by  a  pack 
of  baying  hounds,  that  trouble  God's  service.    Here  the  bells  jangle,  there 
the  barking  of  dogs  echoes  in  our  ears,  to  the  hindrance  of  preachers  and 
hearers."    He  goes  on  to  say  that  the  habit  is  particularly  reprehensible 
in  clergy.   The  privilege  of  behaving  thus  was  an  adjunct  of  noble  birth  and 
in  the  cathedrals  of  Auxerre  and  Nevers  the  treasurers  had  the  legal  right 
of  coming  to  service  with  hawk  on  wrist,  because  these  canonries  were 
hereditary  in  noble  families.    Ib.  pp.  684-5.    Medieval  writers  on  hawking 
actually  advise  that  hawks  should  be  taken  into  church  to  accustom  them 
to  crowds.   "  Mais  en  cest  endroit  d'espreveterie,  le  convient  plus  que  devant 
tenir  sur  le  poing  et  le  porter  aux  plais  et  entre  les  gens  aux  eglises  et  es 
autres  assamblees,  et  emmy  les  rues,  et  le  tenir  jour  et  nuit  le  plus  continuel- 
ment  que  Ten  pourra,  et  aucune  fois  le  perchier  emmi  les  rues  pour  veoii 
gens,  chevaulx,  charettes,  chiens,  et  toutes  choses  congnoistre."  Gaces  dc 
la  Bugne  gives  the  same  advice.    Le  Menagier  de  Paris  (Paris,  1846),  II, 
p.  296. 

4  Below,  p.  412. 

•  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  168,  175. 


vn]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  307 

Item,  because  we  have  convinced  ourselves  by  clear  proofs  that  some 
of  the  nuns  of  your  house  bring  with  them  to  church  birds,  rabbits, 
hounds  and  such  like  frivolous  things,  whereunto  they  give  more  heed 
than  to  the  offices  of  the  church,  with  frequent  hindrance  to  their 
own  psalmody  and  that  of  their  fellow  nuns  and  to  the  grievous  peril 
of  their  souls;  therefore  we  strictly  forbid  you,  all  and  several,  in 
virtue  of  the  obedience  due  unto  us,  that  you  presume  henceforward 
to  bring  to  church  no  birds,  hounds,  rabbits  or  other  frivolous  things 
that  promote  indiscipline;  and  any  nun  who  does  to  the  contrary, 
after  three  warnings  shall  fast  on  bread  and  water  on  one  Saturday 
for  each  offence,  notwithstanding  one  discipline  to  be  received  publicly 
in  chapter  on  the  same  day.... Item,  whereas  through  the  hunting- 
dogs  and  other  hounds  abiding  within  your  monastic  precincts,  the 
alms  that  should  be  given  to  the  poor  are  devoured  and  the  church  and 
cloister  and  other  places  set  apart  for  divine  and  secular  services  are 
foully  defiled,  contrary  to  all  honesty,  and  whereas,  through  their 
inordinate  noise,  divine  service  is  frequently  troubled,  therefore  we 
strictly  command  and  enjoin  you,  Lady  Abbess,  in  virtue  of  obedience, 
that  you  remove  these  dogs  altogether  and  that  you  suffer  them  never 
henceforth,  nor  any  other  such  hounds,  to  abide  within  the  precincts 
of  your  nunnery1. 

But  the  crusade  against  pets  was  not  more  successful  than  the 
crusade  against  fashions.  The  feminine  fondness  for  something 
small  and  alive  to  pet  was  not  easily  eradicated  and  it  seems 
that  visitors  were  sometimes  obliged  to  indulge  it.  The  wording 
of  Peckham's  decree  leaves  an  opening  for  the  retention  of  one 
humble  and  very  self-effacing  little  dog,  not  prone  to  unseemly 
yelps  and  capers  before  the  stony  eye  of  my  lord  the  Archbishop 
on  his  rounds ;  Dean  Kentwode  in  the  fifteenth  century  ordered 
the  Prioress  of  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate,  to  remove  dogs  "and 
content  herself  with  one  or  two"2,  and  in  1520  the  Prioress  of 
Flixton  was  bidden  to  send  all  dogs  away  from  the  convent 
"except  one  which  she  prefers"3.  Perhaps  the  welcome  of  a 
thumping  tail  and  damp,  insinuating  nose  occasionally  overcame 
the  scruples  even  of  a  Bishop,  who  probably  kept  dogs  himself 
and  mourned 

if  oon  of  hem  were  deed, 
Or  if  men  smoot  it  with  a  yerde  smerte. 

Dogs  kept  for  hunting  purposes  come  into  rather  a  different 
category.    It  is  well  known  that  medieval  monks  were  mighty 

1  New  Coll.  MS.  ff.  88-S8d,  translated  in  Coulton,  Soc.  Life  in  Britain 
from  the  Conquest  to  the  Reformation,  p.  397. 

2  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  ix,  app.  pt.  i,  p.  57. 
8  Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  191. 


3o8  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

hunters  before  the  Lord1,  and  the  mention  of  sporting  dogs  at 
Romsey  and  at  Brewood  (where  Bishop  Norbury  found  canes 
venatici2)  encourages  speculation  as  to  whether  the  nuns  also 
were  not  "pricasours  aright"  and 

yaf  not  of  that  text  a  pulled  hen 
That  seith  that  hunters  been  nat  holy  men. 

It  is  significant  that  Dame  Juliana  Berners  is  supposed  by 
tradition  (unsupported,  however,  by  any  other  evidence)  to  have 
been  a  prioress  of  Sopwell.  The  gift  of  hunting  rights  to  a  nunnery 
is  a  common  one;  for  instance,  Henry  II  granted  to  Wix  the 
right  of  having  two  greyhounds  and  four  braches  to  take  hares 
through  the  whole  forest  of  Essex3.  Doubtless  these  rights  were 
usually  exercised  by  proxy4;  but  considering  the  popularity  of 
hunting  and  hawking  as  sports  for  women,  a  popularity  so  great 
that  no  lady's  education  was  complete  if  she  knew  not  how  to 
manage  a  hawk  and  bear  herself  courteously  in  the  field,  it  is 

1  Chaucer's  description  of  the  monk  is  well  known : 

Therfore  he  was  a  pricasour  aright; 

Grehoundes  he  hadde,  as  swifte  as  fowel  in  flight; 

Of  priking  and  of  hunting  for  the  hare 

Was  al  his  lust,  for  no  cost  wolde  he  spare. 

Compare  Langland's  picture  of  the  monk,  riding  out  on  his  palfrey  from 
manor  to  manor,  "  an  hepe  of  houndes  at  hus  ers  as  he  a  lord  were"  (Piers 
Plowman,  C  Text  vi,  n,  157-61).  Visitation  documents  amply  bear  out 
these  accounts;  in  a  single  set  of  visitations  (those  by  Bishops  Flemyng 
and  Gray  of  Lincoln  during  the  years  1420-36)  we  have  "Furthermore  we 
enjoin  and  command  you  all  and  several... that  no  canon  apply  himself  in 
any  wise  to  hunting,  hawking  or  other  lawless  wanderings  abroad"  (Dun- 
stable  Priory  1432);  "further  we  enjoin  upon  you,  the  prior  and  all  and 
several  the  canons  of  the  convent  aforesaid... that  you  utterly  remove  and 
drive  away  all  hounds  for  hunting  from  the  said  priory  and  its  limits;  and 
that  neither  you  nor  any  one  of  you  keep,  rear,  or  maintain  such  hounds  by 
himself  or  by  another's  means,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  priory  or  with 
out  the  priory,  under  colour  of  any  pretext  whatsoever"  (Huntingdon 
Priory  1432);  "also  that  hounds  for  hunting  be  not  nourished  within  the 
precinct  of  your  monastery"  (St  Frideswide's  Oxford,  1422-3)  and  a  similar 
injunction  to  Caldwell  Priory.  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  27,  47,  78,  97. 

2  Wm.  Salt  Arch.  Soc.  Coll.  I,  p.  261.   Compare  also  the  provision  in  one 
of  Charlemagne's  capitularies:  "  Ut  episcopi  et  abbates  et  abbatissae  cupplas 
canum  non  habeant  nee  falcones  nee  accipitres,"  Baretius,  Capit.  Reg. 
Franc.  (1853),  p.  64.    Some  of  the  birds  at  Romsey  may  have  been  hawks,    | 
though  it  is  more  likely  that  they  were  larks  and  other  small  pets,  such  as    ] 
Eudes  Rigaud  found  in  his  nunneries. 

3  V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  p.  123,  and  see  above,  p.  105. 

4  The  nuns  of  St  Mary  de  Pr6,  St  Albans,  kept  a  huntsman.    V.C.H. 
Herts,  iv,  p.  430  (note). 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  309 

surprising  that  there  is  not  actual  mention  of  these  pastimes 
among  nuns  as  well  as  am&ng  monks. 

Besides  gay  clothes  and  pets  other  frivolous  amusements 
broke  at  times  the  monotony  of  convent  life.  Dancing  and 
mumming  and  minstrelsy  were  not  unknown  and  the  nuns  shared 
in  the  merrymaking  on  feasts  sacred  and  profane,  as  is  witnessed; 
by  the  account  rolls  of  St  Mary  de  Pre  (1461-90),  with  their  list 
of  payments  for  wassail  at  New  Year  and  Twelfth  Night,  for 
May  games,  for  bread  and  ale  on  bonfire  nights  and  for  harpers 
and  players  at  Christmas1.  In  1435  the  nuns  of  Lymbrook  were 
forbidden  "all  maner  of  mynstrelseys,  enterludes,  daunsyng  or 
reuelyng  with  in  your  sayde  holy  place"2,  and  about  the  same 
time  Dean  Kentwode  wrote  to  St  Helen's  Bishopsgate:  "Also 
we  enioyne  you  that  all  daunsyng  and  reuelyng  be  utterly  for 
borne  among  yow,  except  Christmasse  and  other  honest  tymys 
of  recreacyone  among  yowre  self  usyd  in  absence  of  seculars  in 
all  wyse"3.  The  condemnation  of  dancing  in  nunneries  is  not 
surprising,  for  the  attitude  of  medieval  moralists  generally  to 
this  pastime  is  summed  up  in  Etienne  de  Bourbon's  aphorism, 
"  The  Devil  is  the  inventor  and  governor  and  disposer  of  dances 
and  dancers"4.  Minstrels  were  similarly  under  the  ban  of  the 
church,  and  clerks  were  forbidden  by  canon  law  and  by  numerous 
papal,  conciliar  and  episcopal  injunctions  to  listen  to  their 
"ignominious  art"5,  a  regulation  which,  needless  to  say,  went 
unobeyed  in  an  age  when  many  a  bishop  had  his  private 
histrio*,  and  when  the  same  stern  reformer  Grosseteste,  who 
warned  his  clergy  "ne  mimis,  ioculatoribus  aut  histrioni- 
|  bus  intendant,"  loved  so  much  to  hear  the  harp  that  he  kept 
his  harper's  chamber  "next  hys  chaumbre  besyde  hys  stody  "7. 
Langland  asserts  that  churchmen  and  laymen  alike  spent  on 

1  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  431  (note);  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  pp.  359-60. 

2  Hereford  Reg.  Thome  Spofford,  p.  82.    (This  was  combined  with  an 
|  injunction  against  going  to  "comyn  wakes  and  festes,  spectacles  and  other 
I  worldly  vanytees"  outside  the  convent.    Below,  p.  377.) 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  554. 

4  Quoted  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  p.  304. 

5  See  Chambers,  op.  cit.  i,  pp.  38-41. 

6  Ib.  i,  p.  56  (note).  "The  bishops  of  Durham  in  1355,  Norwich  in  1362, 
and  Winchester  in  1374,  1422,  and  1481  had  'minstrels  of  honour'  like  any 
secular  noble." 

7  Ib.i,  pp.  39,  56  (notes). 


310  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

minstrels  money  with  which  they  well  might  have  succoured 
the  poor: 

Clerkus  and  knyjtes  •  welcometh  kynges  mynstrales, 
And  for  loue  of  here  lordes  •  lithen  hem  at  festes; 
Muche  more,  me  thenketh  •  riche  men  auhte 
Haue  beggars  by-fore  hem  •  which  beth  godes  mynstrales1. 

Even  in  monasteries  they  found  a  ready  welcome2  and  the  re 
forming  council  of  Oxford  passed  an  ineffectual  decree  forbidding 
their  performances  to  be  seen  or  heard  or  allowed  before  the 
abbot  or  monks,  if  they  came  to  a  house  for  alms3.  Indeed  there 
was  sometimes  need  for  care.  Where  but  at  one  of  those  min 
strelsies  or  interludes  forbidden  at  Lymbrook  did  sister  Agnes 
of  St  Michael's  Priory,  Stamford,  meet  a  jongleur,  who  sang 
softly  in  her  ear  that  Lenten  was  come  with  love  to  town?  The 
Devil  (alas)  had  all  the  good  tunes,  even  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
"One  Agnes,  a  nun  of  that  place,"  reported  the  Prioress,  "has 
gone  away  into  apostasy  cleaving  to  a  harp-player,  and  they 
dwell  together,  as  it  is  said,  in  Newcastle-on-Tyne  "4.  For  her 
no  longer  the  strait  discipline  of  her  rule,  the  black-robed  nuns 

1  Langland,  Piers  the  Plowman,  C,  Text  vni,  i,  97. 

2  "Payments  for  performances  are  frequent  in  the  accounts  of  the 
Augustinian  priories  at  Canterbury,  Bicester  and  Maxstoke  and  the  great 
Benedictine  houses  of  Durham,  Norwich,  Thetford  and  St  Swithin's,  Win 
chester,  and  doubtless  in  those  of  many  another  cloistered  retreat.  The 
Minorite  chroniclers  relate  how,  at  the  coming  of  the  friars  in  1224,  two  of 
them  were  mistaken  for  minstrels  by  the  porter  of  a  Benedictine  grange  near 
Abingdon,  received  by  the  brethren  with  unbecoming  glee,  and  when  the  error 
was  discovered,  turned  out  with  contumely,"  Chambers,  op.  cit.  i,  pp.  56-7. 
In  the  Register  of  St  Swithun's  it  is  recorded  under  the  year  1374  that  "on 
the  feast  of  Bishop  Alwyn...six  minstrels  with  four  harpers  performed  their 
minstrelsies.  And  after  dinner  in  the  great  arched  chamber  of  the  lord  Prior, 
they  sang  the  same  geste....And  the  said  jongleurs  came  from  the  household 
of  the  bishop,"  ib.  i,  p.  56  (note).    See  extracts  from  the  account  books  of 
Durham,  Finchale,  Maxstoke  and  Thetford  Priories  relating  to  the  visits 
of  minstrels,  ib.  n,  pp.  240-6.    At  Finchale  there  was  even  a  room  called 
"  le  Playerchambre,"  ib.  n,  p.  244.   In  1258  Eudes  Rigaud  had  to  order  the 
Abbot  of  Jumieges  "that  he  should  send  strolling  players  away  from  his 
premises."  Reg.  Visit.  Arch.  Roth.  p.  607.   At  a  later  date,  in  1549,  a  council 
at  Cologne  directed  a  canon  against  comedians  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  the  German  nunneries  and  by  their  profane  plays  and  amatory 
acting  excited  to  unholy  desires  the  virgins  dedicated  to  God.    Lea,  Hist, 
of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,  u,  p.  189. 

8  "  Histrionibus  potest  dari  cibus,  quia  pauperes  sunt,  non  quia  his- 
triones;  et  eorum  ludi  non  videantur,  vel  audiantur  vel  permittantur  fieri 
coram  abbate  vel  monachis."  Annales  de  Burton  (Ann.  Monast.  R.  S.  l, 
p.  485),  quoted  Chambers,  op.  cit.  I,  p.  39  (note). 

4  Alnwick's  Visit,  f.  83. 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  311 

and  heaven  at  the  end.  For  her  the  life  of  the  roads,  the  sore 
.foot  and  the  light  heart;  for  her  the  company  of  ribalds  with 
their  wenches,  and  all  the  thriftless,  shiftless  player-folk;  for 
her,  at  the  last,  hell,  with  "the  gold  and  the  silver  and  the  vair 
and  the  gray, . .  .harpers  and  minstrels  and  kings  of  the  world  "l, 
or  a  desperate  hope  that  the  Virgin's  notorious  kindness  for 
minstrels  might  snatch  her  soul  from  perdition2. 

But  the  merrymakers  in  nunneries  were  not  necessarily 
strange  jongleurs  or  secular  folk.  The  dancing  and  revelry,  which 
were  forbidden  at  Lymbrook  and  allowed  in  Christmastime  at 
St  Helen's,  were  probably  connected  with  the  children's  feast  of 
St  Nicholas.  As  early  as  the  twelfth  century  the  days  immediately 
before  and  after  Christmas  had  become,  in  ecclesiastical  circles, 
the  occasion  for  uproarious  festivities3.  The  three  days  after 
Christmas  were  appropriated  by  the  three  orders  of  the  Church. 
On  St  Stephen's  Day  (Dec.  26)  the  deacons  performed  the  service, 
elected  their  Abbot  of  Fools  and  paraded  the  streets,  levying 
contributions  from  the  householders  and  passers-by ;  on  St  John 
the  Evangelist's  Day  (Dec.  27)  the  deacons  gave  way  to  the 
priests,  who  "gave  a  mock  blessing  and  proclaimed  a  ribald 
form  of  indulgence";  and  on  Innocents'  Day  it  was  the  turn 
of  the  choir  or  schoolboys  to  hold  their  feast.  In  cathedral  and 
monastic  churches  the  Boy  Bishop  (who  had  been  elected  on 
December  5th,  the  Eve  of  St  Nicholas,  patron  saint  of  schoolboys) 
attended  service  on  the  eve  of  Innocents'  Day,  and  at  the  words 
of  the  Magnificat  "He  hath  put  down  the  mighty  from  their 
seat"  changed  places  with  the  Bishop  or  Dean  or  Abbot,  and 
similarly  the  canons  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  church  changed 
places  with  the  boys.  On  Innocents'  Day  all  services,  except 
the  essential  portions  of  the  mass,  were  performed  by  the  Boy 
Bishop;  he  and  his  staff  processed  through  the  streets,  levying 
I  large  contributions  of  food  and  money  and  for  about  a  fortnight 


1  Aucassin  and  Nicolete,  ed.  Bourdillon  (1897),  p.  22. 

2  See  the  well-known  story  of  "  Le  Tombeor  de  Notre  Dame"  (Romania, 
n,  p.  315),  and  "Du  Cierge  qui  descend!  sus  la  viele  au  vieleeux  devant 

i  1'ymage  Nostre  Dame,"  Gautier  de  Coincy,  Miracles  de  Nostre  Dame,  ed. 
|  Poquet  (1859),  p.  310.  Both  are  translated  in  Of  The  Tumbler  of  Our  Lady 
\  and  Other  Miracles  by  A.  Kemp- Welch  (King's  Classics  1909). 

3  For  the  following  account,  see  A.  F.  Leach's  article  on  "  The  Schoolboy's 
'.  Feast,"  Fortnightly  Review,  N.S.  LIX  (1896),  p.  128,  and  Chambers,  op.  cit. 

i,  ch.  xv. 


312  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH. 

his  rule  continued,  accompanied  by  feasting  and  merrymaking, 
plays,  disguisings  and  dances.  These  Childermas  festivities  took 
place  in  monastic  as  well  as  in  secular  churches,  but  they  seem 
to  have  been  more  common  in  nunneries  than  in  male  com 
munities.  Our  chief  information  about  the  revelries  comes  from 
Archbishop  Eudes  Rigaud's  province  of  Rouen1;  but  English 
records  also  contain  scattered  references  to  the  custom.  Evidently 
a  Girl  Abbess  or  Abbess  of  Fools  was  elected  from  among  the 
novices,  and  at  the  Deposuit  she  and  her  fellow  novices,  or  the 
little  schoolgirls,  took  the  place  of  the  Abbess  and  nuns,  just  as 
the  Boy  Bishop  held  sway  in  cathedral  churches,  and  feasting, 
dancing  and  disguising  brought  a  welcome  diversion  into  the 
lives  of  both  nuns  and  children.  Even  the  strict  Peckham  was 
obliged  to  extend  a  grudging  consent  to  the  puerilia  solemnia 
held  on  Innocents'  Day  at  Barking  and  at  Godstow  (1279), 
insisting  only  that  they  should  not  be  continued  during  the 
whole  octave  of  Childermas-tide  and  should  be  conducted  with 
decency  and  in  private: 

The  celebration  of  the  Feast  of  Innocents  by  children,  which  we  do 
not  approve,  but  rather  suffer  with  disapproval,  is  on  no  account  to 
be  undertaken  by  those  children,  nor  are  they  to  take  any  part  in  it, 
until  after  the  end  of  the  vespers  of  St  John  the  Evangelist's  Day;  and 
the  nuns  are  not  to  retire  from  the  office,  but  having  excluded  from  the 
choir  all  men  and  women... they  are  themselves  to  supply  the  absence 
of  the  little  ones  lest  (which  God  forbid)  the  divine  praise  should 
become  a  mockery2. 

A  more  specific  reference  still  is  found  at  Carrow  in  1526; 
Dame  Joan  Botulphe  deposed  at  a  visitation  that  it  was  cus 
tomary  at  Christmas  for  the  youngest  nun  to  hold  sway  for 
the  day  as  abbess  and  on  that  day  (added  the  soured  ancient) 
was  consumed  and  dissipated  everything  that  the  house  had 
acquired  by  alms  or  by  the  gift  of  friends3.  The  connection 
between  these  revels  and  the  Feast  of  Fools  appears  clearly  in 
the  injunction  sent  by  Bishop  Longland  to  Nuncoton  about  the 
same  time: 

1  See  below,  p.  662. 

2  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  i,  pp.  82-3.    For  a  similar  injunction  to  God- 
stow,  see  ib.  in,  p.  846.    At  Romsey  the  Archbishop  forbade  the  festivities 
altogether:   "  Superstitionem  vero  quae  in  Natali  Domini  et  Ascensione 
Ejusdem  fieri  consuevit,  perpetuo  condemnamus,"  ib.  n,  p.  664.   The  super 
stition  was  probably  the  election  of  the  youngest  nun  as  abbess. 

3  Norwich  Visit,  pp.  209-10. 


i 


vii]  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  313 

We  chardge  you,  lady  priores,  that  ye  suffre  nomore  hereafter  eny 
lorde  of  mysrule  to  be  within  your  house,  nouther  to  suffre  hereafter 
eny  suche  disgysinge  as  in  tymes  past  haue  bene  used  in  your  mon 
astery  in  nunnes  apparell  ne  otherwise1. 

The  admission  of  seculars  dressed  up  as  nuns,  and  of  boys 
dressed  up  as  women,  the  performance  of  interludes  and  the 
wild  dancing  were  reason  enough  for  the  distaste  with  which 
ecclesiastical  authorities  regarded  these  festivities.  For  the  nuns 
clearly  did  not  exclude  strangers  as  Peckham  had  bidden.  Indeed 
it  seems  probable  that  where  they  did  not  elect  a  Girl  Abbess, 
they  admitted  a  Boy  Bishop,  either  from  some  neighbouring 
church,  or  just  possibly  one  of  their  own  little  schoolboys. 
Among  the  accounts  of  St  Swithun's  monastery  at  Winchester 
for  1441  there  is  a  payment 

for  the  boys  of  the  Almonry  together  with  the  boys  of  the  chapel  of 
St  Elizabeth,  dressed  up  after  the  manner  of  girls,  dancing,  singing 
and  performing  plays  before  the  Abbess  and  nuns  of  St  Mary's  Abbey 
in  their  hall  on  the  Feast  of  Innocents2; 

and  the  account  of  Christian  Bassett,  Prioress  of  St  Mary  de 
Pre,  contains  an  item  "paid  for  makyng  of  the  dyner  to  the 
susters  upon  Childermasday  iij  s  iiij  d,  item  paid  for  brede  and 
ale  for  seint  Nicholas  clerks  iij  d"3.  The  inventories  of  Cheshunt 
and  Sheppey  at  the  time  of  the  Dissolution  contain  further  refer 
ences  to  the  custom  and  seem  to  show  that  nunneries  occasionally 
"  ran  "  a  St  Nicholas  Bishop  of  their  own ;  at  Cheshunt  there  was 
found  in  the  dorter  "a  chisell  (chasuble)  of  white  ffustyan  and 
a  myter  for  a  child  bysshoppe  at  xx  d"*,  and  at  Sheppey,  in  a 
chapel,  "ij  olde  myters  for  S.  Nicholas  of  fusty  an  brodered"5. 
These   childish   festivities   sound   harmless   and   attractive 
I  enough,  and  modern  writers  are  sometimes  apt  to  sentimentalise 
I  over  their  abolition  by  Henry  VIII6.    But  in  this,  as  in  his 

1  Archaeol.  XLVII,  p.  56.    On  the  Lord  of  Misrule,  see  Chambers  op.  cit. 
1 1,  ch.  xvn.  There  is  a  vivid  account  (from  the  Puritan  point  of  view)  in 
| Philip  Stubbes,  The  Anatomic  of  Abuses  (1583)  quoted  in  Life  in  Shake- 
\speare' s  England,  ed.  J.  D.  Wilson  (1915),  pp.  25-7. 

2  Chambers,  op.  cit.  i,  p.  361  (note  i).  3  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  360. 

4  Cussans,  Hist,  of  Herts.,  Hertford  Hundred,  app.  n,  p.  268. 

5  Walcott,  Inventory  of  Shepey,  p.  23.  There  is  perhaps  another  reference 
Jin  the  inventory  of  Langley  in  1485:  "iij  quesyns  (cushions)  of  olde  red 
jsaye,  ij  smale  quechyns  embrodred  and  ij  qwechyns  namyde  Seynt  Nicolas 
iqwechyns,"  Walcott,  Inventory  of  Langley,  p.  6. 

6  E.g.  (besides  the  well-known  case  of  Dr  Rock  in  The  Church  of  Our 
\  Fathers),  Gayley,  Plays  of  our  Forefathers,  pp.  67-8. 


314  ROUTINE  AND  REACTION  [CH.VII 

injunction  of  enclosure,  Henry  was  fully  in  accordance  with  the 
best  ecclesiastical  precedent.  For  the  Boy  Bishop  was  originally 
a  part  of  the  Feast  of  Fools  and  the  Feast  of  Fools  had  an  ancient 
and  disreputable  ancestry  in  the  Roman  Saturnalia.  At  a  very 
early  date  a  regulation  made  to  curtail  such  performances  at 
St  Paul's  declared  that  "what  had  been  invented  for  the  praise 
of  sucklings  had  been  converted  into  a  disgrace"1.  In  1445,  at 
Paris,  it  was  stated  by  the  Faculty  of  Theology  at  the  University 
that  the  performers 

appeared  in  masks  with  the  faces-  of  monsters  or  in  the  dresses  of 
women,  sang  improper  songs  in  the  choir,  ate  fat  pork  on  the  horns 
of  the  altar,  close  by  the  priest  celebrating  mass,  played  dice  on  the 
altar,  used  stinking  incense  made  of  old  shoes,  and  ran  about  the  choir 
leaping  and  shouting2; 

and  about  the  same  time  the  Synod  of  Basle  had  specifically 
denounced  the  children's  festival  in  hardly  less  violent  terms  as 

that  disgraceful,  bad  custom  practised  in  some  churches,  by  which 
on  certain  high  days  during  the  year  some  with  mitre,  staff  and 
pontifical  vestments  like  Bishops  and  others  dressed  as  kings  and 
princes  bless  the  people;  the  which  festival  in  some  places  is  called 
the  Feast  of  Fools  or  Innocents  or  Boys,  and  some  making  games  with 
masks  and  mummeries,  others  dances  and  breakdowns  of  males  and 
females,  move  people  to  look  on  with  guffaws,  while  others  make 
drinkings  and  feasts  there3. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  compare  these  denunciations  with  such 
accounts  of  the  festivities  in  nunneries  as  have  survived,  to 
understand  that  the  revelling  and  disguising  were  less  harmless 
than  modern  writers  are  apt  to  represent  them.  Mr  Leach 
attributes  the  schoolboys'  feast  to  the  fact  that  regular  holidays 
were  unknown  in  the  medieval  curriculum  and  that  the  boys 
found  in  the  ribaldries  of  Childermastide  some  outlet  for  their 
long  suppressed  spirits.  Similarly  the  cramped  and  solemn 
existence  led  by  the  nuns  for  the  rest  of  the  year  probably  made 
their  one  outbreak  the  more  violent.  Nevertheless  one  cannot 
avoid  feeling  somewhat  out  of  sympathy  with  the  bishops.  "  Dost 
thou  think  because  thou  art  virtuous  there  shall  be  no  more 
cakes  and  ale?"  Nuns  were  ever  fond  of  ginger  "hot  i'  the 
mouth." 

1  Leach,  op.  cit.  p.  137.  2  Ib.  p.  131. 

3  Leach,  op.  cit.  p.  137  (from  Marttne,  in,  p.  39).   I  have  slightly  altered 
the  translation. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY 

All  things  are  to  be  common  to  all. 

Rule  of  St  Benedict,  ch.  xxxni. 

The  Rule  of  seint  Maure  or  of  seint  Beneit, 
Because  that  it  was  old  and  somdel  streit 
This  ilke  monk  leet  olde  thinges  pace 
And  held  after  the  newe  world  the  space. 

CHAUCER,  Prologue,  11.  173-6. 

THE  reaction  from  a  strict  routine  of  life  led  monks  and  nuns  to 
a  more  serious  modification  of  the  Rule  under  which  they  lived 
than  that  represented  by  pet  dogs  and  pretty  clothes,  which 
were  after  all  only  superficial  frivolities.  They  sought  also  to 
modify  two  rules  which  were  fundamental  to  the  Benedictine 
ideal.  One  was  the  rigidly  communal  life,  the  obligation  to  do 
everything  in  company  with  everyone  else.  The  other  was  the 
obligation  of  strict  personal  poverty.  A  monastery  was  in  its 
essence  a  place  where  a  number  of  persons  lived  a  communal 
(life,  owning  no  private  property,  but  holding  everything  in  the 
name  of  the  community.  The  normal  routine  of  conventual  life, 
as  laid  down  in  the  Benedictine  Rule,  secured  this  end.  The 
inmates  of  a  house  spent  almost  the  whole  of  their  time  together. 
They  prayed  together  in  the  choir,  worked  together  in  the  cloister, 
ate  together  in  the  frater,  and  slept  together  in  the  dorter. 
Moreover  the  strictest  regulations  were  made  to  prevent  the  vice 
of  private  property,  one  of  the  most  serious  sins  in  the  monastic 
calendar,  from  making  its  appearance.  All  food  was  to  be  cooked 
in  a  common  kitchen  and  served  in  the  common  frater,  in  which 
no  meat  was  allowed.  All  clothes  were  to  be  provided  out  of 
the  common  goods  of  the  house,  and  it  was  the  business  of  the 
|chamberer  or  chambress  to  see  to  the  buying  of  material,  the 
making  of  the  clothes  and  their  distribution  to  the  religious;  so 
j  carefully  was  proprietas  guarded  against,  that  all  old  clothes 
|had  to  be  given  back  to  the  chambress,  when  the  new  ones  were 


316          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

distributed.  Above  all  it  was  forbidden  to  monks  and  nuns  to 
possess  and  spend  money,  save  what  was  delivered  to  them  by 
the  superior  for  their  necessary  expenses  upon  a  journey1. 

But  this  combination  of  rigid  communism  with  rigid  personal 
poverty  was  early  discovered  to  be  irksome.  It  seems  as  though 
the  craving  for  a  certain  privacy  of  life,  a  certain  minimum  of 
private  property,  is  a  deeply  rooted  instinct  in  human  nature. 
Certainly  the  attempt  of  monasticism  to  expel  it  with  a  pitchfork 
failed.  Step  by  step  the  rule  was  broken  down,  more  especially 
by  a  series  of  modifications  in  the  prescribed  method  of  feeding 
and  clothing  the  community.  Here,  as  in  the  enclosure  question, 
the  monks  and  nuns  came  into  conflict  with  their  bishops, 
though  the  conflict  was  never  so  severe.  Here  also,  the  result  of 
the  struggle  was  the  same.  A  steady  attempt  by  the  bishops 
to  enforce  the  rule  was  countered  by  a  steady  resistance  on  the 
part  of  the  religious  and  the  end  was  usually  compromise. 

The  most  marked  breakdown  of  the  communal  way  of  life 
in  the  monasteries  of  the  later  middle  ages  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
gradual  neglect  of  the  f rater,  in  favour  of  a  system  of  private  i 
messes,  and  in  the  increasing  allocation  of  private  rooms  to 
individuals.  The  strict  obligation  upon  all  to  keep  f  rater  daily, 
was  at  first  only  modified  in  favour  of  the  head  of  the  house, 
who  usually  had  her  own  lodgings,  including  a  dining  hall,  in 
which  the  rule  permitted  her  to  entertain  the  guests  who  claimt 
her  hospitality  and  such  nuns  as  she  chose  to  invite  for  the 
recreation.  From  quite  early  times,  however,  there  existed  in 
many  houses  a  room  known  as  the  misericord  (or  indulgence), 
where  the  strict  diet  of  the  frater  was  relaxed.  Here  the  occi 
pants  of  the  infirmary,  those  in  their  seynies  and  all  who  need< 
flesh  meat  and  more  delicate  dishes  to  support  them,  were  serv 
From  the  fourteenth  century  onwards,  however,  the  rules 
diet  became  considerably  relaxed  and  flesh  was  allowed  to  evei 
one  on  three  days  a  week2.  This  meant  that  the  misericord  w< 
in  constant  use  and  in  many  monasteries  the  frater  was  divided 
into  two  stories,  the  upper  of  which  was  used  as  the  frater 
proper,  where  no  meat  might  be  eaten,  and  the  lower  as  a  miseri- 

1  On  Benedictine  poverty,  see  Dom  Butler,  Benedictine  Monachism, 
ch.  x. 

2  The  alteration  was  made  even  by  the  Cistercians  in  1335.  See  Line.  Visit. 
I,  p.  238  (under  Misericord).    Among  Black  Monks  it  began  much  earlier. 


vin]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          317 

cord1.  According  to  this  arrangement  a  nun  might  sometimes  be 
dining  in  the  upper  frater,  sometimes  in  the  misericord  and 
sometimes  in  the  abbess'  or  prioress'  lodgings;  and,  of  these 
places,  there  was  a  distinct  tendency  for  the  upper  frater  to 
fall  into  disuse,  since  it  could  in  any  case  only  be  used  on  fish 
(or,  according  to  later  custom,  white  meat)  days. 

But  a  habit  even  more  subversive  of  strictly  communal  life 
and  more  liable  to  lead  to  disuse  of  the  frater  was  rapidly 
spreading  at  this  period.  This  was  the  division  of  a  nunnery 
mtofamiliae,  or  households,  which  messed  together,  eachfamilia 
taking  its  meals  separately  from  the  rest.  The  common  frater 
was  sometimes  kept  only  thrice  a  week  on  fish  days,  sometimes 
only  in  Advent  and  Lent,  sometimes  (it  would  seem)  never.  This 
meant  the  separate  preparation  of  meals  for  each  household,  a 
practice  which,  though  uneconomical,  was  possible,  because  each 
nun's  food  allowance  was  fixed  and  could  be  drawn  separately. 
Moreover,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  the  growing  practice  of 
granting  an  annual  money  allowance  to  each  individual,  though 
used  for  clothes  more  often  than  for  food,  enabled  the  nuns  to 
buy  meat  and  other  delicacies  (if  not  provided  by  the  convent) 
for  themselves.  The  aristocratic  ladies  of  Polsloe  even  had  their 
private  maids  to  prepare  their  meals2. 

This  system  was  evidently  well  established  at  a  comparatively 
early  date.  It  is  mentioned  in  Peckham's  injunctions  in  1279 
and  in  Exeter  and  York  injunctions  belonging  to  the  early  years 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  To  illustrate  how  it  worked,  we  may 
analyse  the  references  to  familiae  in  Alnwick's  visitations  of  the 

|  diocese  of  Lincoln  (1440-5) 3.    The  number  of  households  in  a 
i 

1  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  238.    Alnwick's  visitations  sometimes  mention  this 
division  of  the  frater.    "  Also  she  prays  that  frater  may  be  kept  every  day, 
since  there  is  one  upper  frater  wherein  they  feed  on  fish  and  food  made  with 
milk,  and  another  downstairs,  wherein  they  feed  of  grace  on  flesh"  (Nuncoton 

j  1440) .  "Also  she  says  that  they  feed  on  fish  and  milk  foods  in  the  upper  frater 
I  and  on  flesh  in  the  lower"  (Stixwould  1440).  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  jid,  76. 

2  "Et  qe  nule  Dame  de  Religion  ne  mange  hors  du  Refreytour  en 
chambre  severale  si  ceo  ne  soit  en  compaignie  la  Priouresse,  ou  par  maladie 

ou  autre  renable  encheson Item,  purceo  qe  ascune  foitz  ascunes  Dames  de 

vostre  Religion  prent  lur  damoiseles  severales  por  faire  severalement  lur 
viaunde,  si  ordinoms,  voloms  et  establioms  qe  totes  celles  damoiseles  soyent 
de  tut  oste  de  la  cusine,  et  qe  un  keu  covenable,  qi  eit  un  page  desoutz  lui 
soit  mys  por  servir  a  tut  le  Covent "  (1319).  Exeter  Reg.  Stapeldon,  pp.  317-8. 

1  Compare  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  165  (Hampole  1411). 

3  For  the  following  references,  see  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  46,  89,  114,  117, 
119,  121,  175;  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  yid,  76,  77,  83. 


3l8          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

nunnery  necessarily  differed  with  the  size  of  the  house  and  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  determine  the  proportion  of  households  to 
nuns,  because  internal  evidence  sometimes  shows  that  all  the 
inmates  were  not  present  and  enumerated  at  the  visitation.  Thus 
at  Elstow  the  abbess  "says  that  there  are  five  households  of 
nuns  kept  in  the  monastery,  whereof  the  first  is  that  of  the 
abbess,  who  has  five  nuns  with  her;  the  second  of  the  prioress, 
who  has  two;  the  third  of  the  subprioress,  who  has  two;  the 
fourth  of  the  sacrist,  who  has  three;  and  the  fifth  of  Dame 
Margaret  Aylesbury,  who  has  two  " ;  but  only  thirteen  nuns  gave 
evidence1.  In  this  house  the  frater  was  kept  on  certain  days  of 
the  week,  one  nun  deposing  "that  on  the  days  whereon  they 
eat  together  in  frater,  they  eat  larded  food  in  the  morning  and 
sup  on  flesh,  and  they  eat  capons  and  other  two-footed  creatures 
in  frater."  At  Catesby  the  prioress  deposed  that  she  had  four 
nuns  in  her  familia  and  that  there  were  three  other  households 
in  the  cloister.  At  Stixwould  there  were  "five  separate  and 
distinct  households";  at  Nuncoton  there  were  three;  at  St 
Michael's  Stamford,  the  prioress  and  subprioress  each  had  one, 
but  all  ate  together  in  the  frater  on  fish-days ;  at  Stainfield  the 
prioress,  the  cellaress  and  the  nun-sisters  each  kept  a  house 
hold.  At  Gokewell  and  Langley  the  nuns  were  said  to  keep 
divers  households  "  by  two  and  two  "  and  at  Langley  the  prioress 
added,  "but  they  do  eat  in  the  frater  every  day;  also  she  says 
that  she  herself  has  three  women  who  board  with  her  and  the 
subprioress  one ;  also  she  says  that  the  nuns  receive  naught  from 
the  house  but  their  meat  and  drink  and  she  herself  keeps  one 
household  on  her  own  account.  At  Gracedieu  the  prioress 
deposed 

that  frater  is  not  kept  nor  has  it  been  kept  for  seven  years  and  that 
the  nuns  sit  in  company  with  secular  folk  at  table  in  her  hall  every 
day  and  that  they  have  reading  during  meals ;  also  she  says  there  are 
two  households  only  in  the  house,  to  wit  in  her  hall  and  the  infirmary, 
where  there  are  three  at  table  together; 

here  the  prioress'  hall  simply  took  the  place  of  the  frater.  There 
were  four  households  at  Godstow  and  apparently  several  at 
Legbourne. 

_This  division  into  households  which  messed  separately  went 
1  Pupils  or  boarders  may  account  for  these  discrepancies. 


vin]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          319 

hand  in  hand  with  another  practice,  which  also  softened  the 
rigours  of  a  strictly  communal  life,  to  wit  the  allocation  of 
separate  rooms  to  certain  nuns.  The  obedientiaries  of  a  house 
often  had  private  offices,  or  checkers,  in  which  to  transact  their 
business,  and  the  custom  grew  by  which  the  head  of  e&chfamitia 
had  her  own  room,  in  which  her  household  dined.  The  visitation 
reports  continually  refer  to  these  private  cells  and  to  their  use 
as  dining  rooms  and  places  of  reception  for  visitors.  Sometimes 
the  nuns  even  slept  in  them,  though  the  dorter  was  always  much 
more  strictly  kept  than  the  f rater;  at  Godstow  in  1432  for 
instance,  Bishop  Gray  enjoins  "that  the  beds  in  the  nuns' 
lodgings  (domicilia)  be  altogether  removed  from  their  chambers, 
save  those  for  small  children"  (apparently  their  pupils)  "and 
that  no  nun  receive  any  secular  person  for  any  recreation  in  the 
nuns'  chambers  under  pain  of  excommunication"1.  Some  light 
is  thrown  upon  these  camerae  by  the  inventories  of  medieval 
nunneries.  Thus  the  inventory  of  the  Benedictine  Priory  of 
Sheppey  made  at  the  Dissolution  describes  the  contents  of  "the 
greate  chamber  in  the  Dorter,"  which  was  used  as  a  treasury 
in  which  to  keep  the  linen,  vestments  and  plate  of  the  house, 
and  in  which  one  of  the  nuns  Dame  Agnes  Davye  seems  to  have 
slept ;  there  follows  a  description  of  the  chambers  of  eight  nuns, 
with  the  furniture  in  each,  from  which  it  is  clear  that  they  had 
brought  their  own  furniture  with  them  to  the  monastery.  These 
" chambers"  may  have  been  separate  rooms  or  may  have  been 
partitions  of  the  dorter,  but  if  the  latter  they  were  evidently 
so  large  as  to  be  to  all  intents  and  purposes  separate  rooms,  for 
the  furniture  commonly  includes  painted  cloth  or  paper  hangings 
for  the  room,  a  chest  and  a  cupboard,  besides  the  bed ;  in  three 
there  is  mention  of  windows  and  in  two  of  fire  irons.  The  most 
likely  conjecture  is  that  the  dorter  was  used  as  a  treasury  and 
I  bedroom  for  one  nun  and  the  other  chambers  are  separate 
i  rooms2.  At  some  other  houses  the  dorter  is  mentioned  but  was 
i  clearly  divided  into  separate  cells  by  wainscot  partitions,  and 
the  wainscotting  was  sometimes  sold  at  the  Dissolution3. 

|        x  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  67  (and  note  3) ;  compare  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  181. 

2  Walcott,  M.  E.  C.,  Inventories  of... the  Ben.  Priory  of...Shepeyfor  Nuns 
;  (Arch.  Cant.  1869),  pp.  23  ff. 

3  E.g.  at  Gracedieu  "  The  dorter,  item  ther  three  nunnes  selles  whyche  as 
1  sould  for  30  s."  Nichols,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Leic.  (1804),  in,  p.  653;  at 


320          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

The  attitude  of  ecclesiastical  authorities  to  the  modification 
of  the  communal  rule  involved  in  familiae  and  earner ae  was,  for 
various  reasons,  one  of  strict  disapproval.  The  custom  of  pro 
viding  separate  messes  was  extremely  uneconomical ;  the  passing 
of  much  time  in  private  rooms  was  open  to  suspicion,  especially 
when  male  visitors  were  received  there;  communal  .life  was  an 
essential  part  of  the  monastic  idea;  finally  the  amenities  of 
private  life  were  apt  (as  we  shall  see)  to  bring  in  their  train  the 
amenities  of  private  property.  The  policy  of  the  bishops  was, 
for  all  these  reasons,  to  restore  communal  life.  They  made 
general  injunctions  that  frater  and  dorter  should  duly  be  kept 
by  all  the  nuns,  they  made  special  injunctions  for  the  abolition 
of  separate  households,  and  above  all  they  condemned  private 
rooms : 

"  Also  we  enioyne  yow,  pryoresse,"  writes  Alnwick  to  Catesby  in  1442, 
"that  ye  dispose  so  for  your  susters  that  the  morne  next  aftere 
Myghelmasse  day  next  commyng  wythe  owten  any  lengare  delaye, 
ye  and  thai  aftere  yowre  rewle  lyfe  in  commune,  etyng  and  drynkyng 
in  oon  house,  slepyng  in  oon  house,  prayng  and  sarufyng  [serving] 
God  in  oon  oratorye,  levyng  vtterly  all  pryuate  hydles  [hiding-places], 
chaumbres  and  syngulere  housholdes,  by  the  whiche  hafe  comen  and 
growen  grete  hurte  and  peryle  of  sowles  and  noyesfulle  sklaundere 
of  your  pryorye1. 

Catesby  where  the  "  sells  in  the  dorter  were  sold  at  6s.  Sd.  apiece,"  Archaeo- 
logia,  XLIII,  p.  241.  In  theory  the  nuns  were  supposed  to  get  up  and  lie 
down  in  full  view  of  each  other  and  curtains  were  forbidden  by  Woodlock 
at  Romsey  in  1311.  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  104.  On  the  other  hand  at  Redling- 
field  in  1514  a  nun  complained  that  "sorores  non  habent  curricula  inter 
cubilia,  sed  una  potest  aliam  videre  quando  surgit  vel  aliquid  aliud  facit" 
and  the  Bishop  ordered  the  Prioress  to  provide  curtains  between  the  cubicles 
in  the  dorter.  Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  139-40. 
Dom  Butler  thus  traces  the  transition  from  the  open  dorter  to  private  cells: 
open  dorter;  side  partitions  between  the  beds;  curtains  in  front;  a  latticed 
door  in  front,  making  a  cubicle;  a  solid  door  with  a  large  window;  the 
window  grew  smaller  and  smaller  until  it  became  a  peephole;  the  dorter 
became  a  gallery  of  private  rooms.  Downside  Review  (1899),  pp.  119-21. 

1  Line.  Visit.  IT,  pp.  51-2.  See  also  among  many  other  injunctions  and 
references  to  the  custom  the  following:  Gracedieu  (1440-1),  ib.  n,  p.  125; 
Godstow  (1432),  ib.  i,  pp.  67-8;  Barking  (1279);  Wherwell  (1284),  Reg.  Epis. 
Johannis  Peckham,  I,  p.  84,  H,  p.  653;  Hampole  (1311),  V.C.H.  Yorks. 
m,  p.  181;  Swine  (1318),  ib.  p.  163;  Nunappleton  (1346  and  1489),  ib. 
pp.  171-2;  Fairwell  (1367),  Reg.  Stretton  of  Lichfield,  p.  119;  Romsey  (1387 
and  1492),  New  Coll.  MS.  ff.  85,  85^,  86,  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey, 
p.  218;  Aconbury  (1438),  Reg.  Spofford  of  Hereford,  p.  224;  Stixwould  (1519), 
V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  148;  Sinningthwaite  (1534),  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi, 
p.  441.  Sometimes  the  system  can  be  traced  in  one  house  over  a  long  period 
of  years.  At  Elstow,  for  instance,  in  1 387,  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham, 


viu]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          321 

But  such  injunctions  were  not  easily  enforced,  and  the  politic 

bishops  sometimes  tried  to  reduce  rather  than  to  abolish  the 

i  households  and  private  rooms.    It  was  often  necessary — and 

I  indeed  reasonable — to  recognise  the  three  familiae  of  the  abbess* 

or  prioress'  lodgings,  the  misericord  or  infirmary  and  the  f rater1, 

I  Sometimes  the  bishops  tried  to  enforce  the  rule,  laid  down  by 

the  legate  Ottobon  (1268),  to  limit  the  number  who  dined  at 

the  superior's  table,  viz.  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  convent 

were  to  eat  each  day  in  the  frater2.  At  Godstow  Bishop  Gray,  in 

1432,  allowed  three  households  besides  that  of  the  frater3.  The 

condemnation  of  private   rooms,  and  more  especially  of  the 

reception  of  visitors  therein,  was  more  severe;  but  here  too,  it 

f.  343;  in  1421-2,  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  50,  51;  in  1432,  ib.  i,  p.  53;  in 
R42-3,  t6.  II,  p.  89;  and  in  i53i,Archaeologia,XLVii,p.  51.  For  an  admonition 
to  a  nun  by  name  see  "  Moneatis  insuper  dominam  Johannam  de  Wakefelde 
commonialem  quod  illam  cameram  quam  modo  inhabitat  contra  debitam 
honestatem  religionis  predicte  solitarie  commorando  omnino  dimittat  et 
sequatur  conventum  assidue  tarn  in  choro,  claustro,  refectorio  et  dormitorio 
quam  in  ceteris  locis  et  temporibus  opportunis,  prout  religionis  convenit 
honestati"  (Kirklees  1315),  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  359. 

1  See,  for  instance,  Longland's  careful  injunction  to  Elstow  in  1531: 
"Foras  moche  as  the  very  ordre  off  sainct  benedicte  his  rules  ar  nott  ther 
obserued  in  keping  the  ffratrye  att  meale  tymes...butt  customably  they 
resorte  to  certayn  places  within  the  monasterye  called  the  housholdes, 
where  moche  insolency  is  use  contrarye  to  the  good  rules  of  the  said  religion, 
by  reason  of  resorte  of  seculars  both  men  women  and  children  and  many 
other  inconvenyents  hath  thereby  ensewed...we  inioyne...that  ye  lady  ab- 
besse  and  your  successours  see  that  noo  suche  householdes  be  then  kepte 
frome  hensforth,  butt  oonly  oon  place  which  shalbe  called  the  mysericorde, 
where  shalbe  oon  sadde  lady  of  the  eldest  sorte  oversear  and  maistres  to 
all  the  residue  that  thidre  shall  resorte,  whiche  in  nombre  shall  nott  passe 
fyve  att  the  uttermoost,  besides  ther  saide  ladye  oversear  or  maistres  and 
those  fyve  wekely  to  chaunge  and  soo...all  the  covent  have  kepte  the  same, 
and  they  agen  to  begynne  and  the  said  gouernour  and  oversear  of  them 
contynally  to  contynue  in  thatt  roome  by  the  space  of  oon  quarter  of  a 
yere,  and  soo  quarterly  to  chaunge  att  the  nominacon  and  plesure  of  the 
ladye  abbesse  for  the  tyme  being.  Over  this  it  is  ordered  undre  the  said  payne 
and  Iniunction  that  the  ladye  abbesse  haue  no  moo  susters  from  hensforth 
in  hir  householde  butt  oonly  foure  with  hir  chapleyne  and  likewise  wekely 

j  to  chaunge  till  they  have  goon  by  course  thrugh  the  hole  nomber  off  susters, 
:  and  soo  ajen  to  begynne  and  contynue.  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  51. 

2  Wilkins,  Cone,  n,  p.  16.  See  also  "  Et  fetez  qe  lez  deuz  parties  du  covent 
|  a  meyns  mangent  checun  jour  en  le  refreytour"   (Wroxall   1338);   Sede 
i  Vacante  Reg.  (Wore.),  p.  276;  cf.  Elstow  (c.  1432),  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  53.    It  is 
j  often  accepted  that  the  nuns  shall  keep  frater  only  on  the  three  fish  days, 
ibut  see  Gray's  injunction  to  Delapre  Abbey  (c.  1432—3)  enjoining  its  ob 
servance  on  the  three  accustomed  days  (Sunday,  Wednesday  and  Friday) 

!  and  on  Monday  as  well.  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  45. 
8  Ib.  i,  p.  68. 

P.N.  21 


322 


PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY 


[CH. 


was  necessary  in  large  convents  for  the  obedientiaries  to  have 
their  offices,  and  other  individuals  were  sometimes  given  special 
permission  to  use  separate  camerae.  Some  bishops  allowed 
them  to  sick  nuns,  but  others  enforced  the  use  of  the  common 
infirmary1. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  this  approximation  to  private 
life  was  bound  to  bring  with  it  an  approximation  to  private 
property  and  it  remains  now  to  analyse  the  process  by  which 
these  new  methods  of  providing  food,  and  even  more  effectively, 
new  methods  of  providing  clothes,  resulted  in  a  spread  of 
proprietas,  which  was  considered  perfectly  legitimate  by  the 
nuns  and  within  limits  condoned  by  the  bishops.  The  impression 
left  upon  the  mind  by  a  study  of  monastic  records  during  the 
last  two  centuries  of  the  middle  ages  is  that  in  many  houses 
the  rule  of  strict  personal  poverty  was  in  practice  almost  com 
pletely  abrogated,  for  it  is  quite  obvious  that  the  nuns  had  the 
private  and  individual  disposal  of  money  and  goods.  Indeed 
some  convents  seem  almost  like  the  inmates  of  a  boarding  house, 
each  of  whom  receives  lodging  and  a  certain  minimum  of  food 
from  the  house,  but  otherwise  caters  for  herself  out  of  her 
private  income.  This  is  a  considerable  departure  from  the  rule 
of  St  Benedict,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  analyse  the  sources  from 
which  the  nuns  drew  the  money  and  goods  of  which  they 
disposed.  These  sources  may  be  classified  under  five  headings: 
(i)  the  annual  allowance  of  pocket  money  (called  peculium) 
which  was  allowed  to  each  nun  from  the  funds  of  the  house  and 
out  of  which  she  had  to  provide  herself  with  clothes  and  other 

1  See,  for  instance,  Bokyngham's  injunction  to  Heynings  in  1392: 
"  Item  that  no  nun  there  shall  keep  a  private  chamber,  but  that  all  the  nuns, 
who  are  in  good  health,  shall  lie  and  sleep  in  the  dorter  and  those  who  are 
ill  in  the  infirmary,  saving  dame  Margaret  Darcy,  nun  of  the  aforesaid  house, 
to  whom  on  account  of  her  noble  birth  we  wish  for  the  time  being  to  allow 
that  room  which  she  now  occupies,  but  without  any  service  of  bread  and 
beer,  save  in  case  of  manifest  illness,"  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham, 
f.  397^.  But  see  Gynewell's  injunctions  to  the  convent  in  1351.  Line.  Epis. 
Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^.  For  the  use  of  separate  rooms  allowed  to  ill 
nuns,  see  Nunappleton  (1489),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  172.  At  Romsey  in 
1507  the  nuns,  under  the  eye  of  the  visitor,  "concluded  and  provided  that 
Joan  Patent,  nun,  who  had  hurt  her  leg,  by  her  consent  shall  in  future  have 
meals  in  her  own  chamber  and  shall  daily  have  in  her  chamber  the  right  of 
one  nun."  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  230.  But  usually  the  use 
of  the  common  infirmary  is  enjoined.  Separate  lodgings  were  also  allowed 
to  ex-superiors  after  resignation.  See  above,  p.  57. 


vin]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          323 

necessities;  (2)  pittances  in  money;  (3)  gifts  in  money  and  kind 
from  friends;  (4)  legacies;  (5)  the  proceeds  of  their  own  labour. 

(1)  The  practice  of  giving  a  peculium  in  money  out  of  the 
common  funds  of  the  house  to  monks  and  nuns  began  at  quite 
an  early  date  (it  is  mentioned  at  the  Council  of  Oxford  in  1222) 
and  was  so  much  an  established  custom  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  that  to  withhold  it  was  considered  by  bishops 
a  legitimate  cause  of  complaint  against  superiors.  The  amount 
of  the  peculium  varied  at  different  houses.    In  the  majority  of 
cases  it  was  intended  to  be  used  for  clothes  and  its  payment  is 
sometimes  entered  in  account  rolls.   At  Gracedieu  the  nuns  had 
"salaries "  of  6s.  8^.  a  year  each  for  their  vesture  and  the  careful 
treasuress  enters  all  their  names1.  At  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
a  chambress'  account,  which  has  been  preserved  among  the 
treasuress'   accounts,  shows  that  in   1408-9   the   prioress  was 
paid  55.  for  her  "camise"  and  all  the  other  eleven  nuns  45. 
each,  while  the  two  lay  sisters  had  35.  each2.  Similarly  at  St 
Radegund's,  Cambridge,  a  certain  pension  from  St  Clement's 
Church  was  ear-marked  for  the  clothing  of  the  nuns  and  was 
paid  over  directly  to  them3;  and  the  Prioress  of  Catesby  in 
1414-5   includes   under  "customary  payments"    money    paid 
"  to  the  lady  Prioress  and  her  six  nuns  and  to  one  sister  and  her 
three  brethren  by  the  year  for  clothing"4.  The  fact  that  the 
peculium  was  a  payment  made  from  the  common  funds  and  not 
the  privately  owned  income  of  an  individual  allowed  it  to  escape 
the  charge  of  proprietas,  but  it  was  nevertheless  an  obvious 
departure  from  the  Benedictine  rule,  which  forbade  the  individual 
disposal  of  property  and  made  quite  different  arrangements  for 
the  provision  of  clothing. 

(2)  Another  class  of  payments  made  to  individuals  from  the 
convent  funds  was  that  of  pittances.   A  pittance  was  originally 
an  extra  allowance  of  food  and  it  was  quite  common  for  a 
benefactor  to  leave  money  to  a  convent  for  a  pittance  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  death.  These  pittances  were,  however,  some 
times  paid  in  money  and  most  account  rolls  will  provide  examples 
of  both.  The  nuns  of  Barking  receive  "  Ruscheaw  silver"  as  well 

1  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1257/10,  ff.  46,  119,  170,  214. 

2  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/14. 

3  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  pp.  27,  147,  155,  163,  171. 

4  Baker,  Hist,  of  Northants.  i,  p.  280. 


324          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

as  the  little  pies  called  "risshowes"  in  Lent;  the  nuns  of  St 
Mary  de  Pre  (St  Albans)  had  "Maundy  silver"  as  well  as  ale 
and  wine  on  Maundy  Thursday;  the  nuns  of  St  Michael's 
Stamford  receive  their  pittances  sometimes  in  money,  sometimes 
in  spices  or  pancakes,  wine  or  beer.  The  nuns  of  Romsey  had 
a  pittance  of  6d.  each  on  the  feast  of  St  Martin  and  another  of 
6d.  each  "when  blood  is  let"1. 

(3)  The  third  source  from  which  nuns  obtained  private  pos 
sessions  lay  in  the  gifts,  both  in  money  and  in  kind  bestowed 
upon  them  by  their  friends.  It  has  already  been  shown,  in 
Chapter  I,  that  there  was  a  growing  tendency  in  the  later 
middle  ages  for  a  nun  to  be  supported  by  means  of  an  annuity, 
paid  by  her  relatives  and  often  ending  with  her  life.  The 
fact  that  these  annuities  were  ear-marked  for  the  support  of 
individuals  must  have  increased  the  temptation  to  regard 
them  as  the  property  of  those  individuals,  a  temptation  which 
was  not  present  in  the  old  days  when  an  aristocratic  nun  brought 
with  her  a  grant  of  land  to  the  house.  One  is  tempted  to  con 
jecture  that  individuals  occasionally  retained  in  their  own  hands 
the  expenditure  of  part  at  least  of  their  annuities.  Specific 
information  from  English  sources  is  unfortunately  rare;  but  in 
the  diocese  of  Rouen  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century 
Archbishop  Eudes  Rigaud  sometimes  found  it  necessary  to 
enjoin  that  certain  nuns  who  possessed  rents  which  were  reserved 
for  their  own  use,  should  either  transfer  them  to  the  common 
funds,  or  else  dispose  of  them  only  with  the  consent  of  the 
prioress,  a  significant  modification,  which  suggests  that  he  was 
unable  to  eradicate  a  deeply  rooted  custom,  although  it  was 
strictly  against  the  rule2.  It  was  some  twenty  years  later 
(c.  1277)  that  Bishop  Thomas  of  Cantilupe,  writing  to  the  nuns 
of  Lymbrook,  enjoined: 

Let  none  of  you  keep  in  her  own  hand  any  possession  or  rent  for 
clothing  and  shoeing  herself,  even  with  the  consent  of  the  prioress, 
albeit  such  possession  or  rent  may  be  given  to  her  by  parents  or 
friends,  because  the  goods  of  your  community  suffice  not  thereto; 
but  let  it  be  given  up  wholly  to  your  prioress,  that  out  of  it  she  may 

1  Reg.  J.  de  Pontissara,   i,   p.    126.    William  of  Wykeham  writes  to 
Wherwell    in    1387    concerning   the  abbess'   illicit  detention   of   "certain 
distributions  and  pittances  as  well  in  money  as  in  spices,"  which  divers 
benefactors  had  endowed.   New  Coll.  MS.  f.  89  v°. 

2  See  below,  p.  653.. 


vin]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          325 

minister  to  those  to  whom  the  gift  was  made,  according  to  their  needs ; 
otherwise  they  may  easily  fall  into  the  sin  of  property  and  a  secular 
craving  for  gifts,  thus  rashly  violating  their  vow1. 

There  are  also  occasional  references  to  "poor"  nuns,  without 
such  annuities  or  dress-allowances,  which  suggest  that  the  an 
nuitants  had  personal  disposal  of  their  own  money.  Thus  John 
Heyden,  esq.,  in  1480,  bequeaths  "to  every  nun  in  Norfolk  not 
having  an  annuity  4od"2,  and  Bishop  Gray  in  1432  refers  to 
"a  certain  chest  within  the  monastery  [of  Godstow]  for  the 
relief  of  needy  nuns,"  to  which  the  sum  of  a  hundred  shillings 
was  to  be  restored3. 

But  whether  or  not  nuns  were  in  the  habit  of  retaining  in 
their  own  possession  regular  annuities,  it  is  plain  that  they  did 
so  retain  the  various  gifts  in  kind  and  in  money,  brought  to 
them  from  time  to  time  by  their  friends;  and,  judging  from  the 
constant  references  in  the  visitation  reports,  these  presents  must 
have  been  fairly  numerous.  They  varied  from  the  gifts,  rewards, 
letters,  tokens  and  skins  of  wine,  which  the  gatekeeper  of  God- 
stow  smuggled  in  to  the  nuns  from  the  scholars  of  Oxford,  to  the 
more  sober  presents  of  money,  clothes  and  food  given  to  them 
by  fond  relatives  for  their  relief  "as  in  hire  habyte  and  suste- 
naunce." 

(4)  One  kind  of  gift  deserves,  however,  a  more  careful  con 
sideration,  for  the  preservation  of  many  thousands  of  medieval 
wills  allows  us  to  speak  in  detail  of  legacies  to  individual  nuns, 
which  occur  sometimes  in  company  with  legacies  to  the  whole 
community,  sometimes  alone.  These  bequests  took  many  dif 
ferent  forms.  Sometimes  a  father  leaves  an  annuity  for  the 
support  of  his  daughter  in  her  convent4.  More  frequently  a 
nun  becomes  the  recipient  of  a  lump  sum  of  money  and  from 
the  wording  of  the  legacies  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  these  sums 
are  to  be  delivered  into  her  own  hands  for  her  own  use.  Let  us, 
for  instance,  analyse  the  legacies  left  by  Sir  John  Depeden,  a 
northern  knight  who  was  a  good  friend  to  poor  nuns.  He  first 
of  all  leaves  twenty  shillings  each  to  the  following  twelve 

1  Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  202.    Compare  Archbishop  Winchelsey's 
injunction  to  Sheppey  (1296)   "ne  qua  monialis  pecuniam  vel  aliam  rem 
sibi  donatam  aut  aliqualiter  adquisitam  sibi  retineat  sine  expressa  licencia 
priorisse  "  (a  loophole).    Reg.  Roberti  Winchelsey,  p.  100. 

2  W.  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  app.  ix,  p.  xix. 

3  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  68.  4  See  above,  pp.  15,  17,  18. 


326          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

nunneries,  that  they  may  pray  for  his  soul  and  his  wife's :  Esholt 
Arthington,  Wilberfoss,  Thicket,  Moxby,  Kirklees,  Yedingham, 
Clementhorpe,  Hampole,  Keldholme,  Marrick  (all  in  Yorkshire) 
and  Burnham  (in  Buckinghamshire).  He  then  continues: 

And  I  give  and  bequeath  to  dame  Joan  Waleys,  nun  of  Watton,  to 
her  own  use  (ad  usum  suum  proprium),  405.  And  I  give  and  bequeath 
to  dame  Margaret  Depeden,  nun  of  Barking,  to  her  own  use,  5  marks 
and  one  salt  cellar  of  silver.  And  I  give  and  bequeath  to  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  John  FitzRichard,  nun  of  Appleton,  to  her  own  use, 
405.  ; 

moreover  he  leaves  to  the  Prioress  of  the  last  mentioned  house 
6s.  Sd.  and  to  each  nun  there  2s.1  There  is  an  obvious  distinction 
here  between  the  lump  sums  left  to  the  common  funds  of  the 
twelve  nunneries  grouped  together  and  the  gifts  to  individuals 
which  follow.  It  is  moreover  quite  common  for  a  testator,  who 
wishes  to  give  money  in  charity  to  a  whole  house  (as  distinct 
from  one  who  makes  a  bequest  to  a  relative  or  friend  therein), 
to  distinguish  the  amounts  to  be  paid  to  the  prioress  and  to 
each  of  the  nuns.  Thus  John  Brompton,  merchant  of  Beverley 
(n.d.,  c.  1441-4)  while  leaving  a  lump  sum  of  2os.  to  the  nuns 
of  Watton  "for  a  pittance,"  IDS.  to  the  nuns  of  Nunkeeling  and 
55.  to  the  nuns  of  Burnham,  thus  provides  for  all  the  inmates 
of  Swine: 

Item  I  bequeath  to  the  Prioress  of  Swine,  35.  4^.,  and  to  each  nun  of 
the  said  house  25.,  and  to  the  vicar  there  35.  4^.  and  to  each  chaplain 
there  celebrating  divine  service  in  the  churches  of  the  said  town  120"., 
item  to  Hamond,  servant  there  izd.,  and  to  each  woman  serving  the 
aforesaid  nuns  within  the  aforesaid  abbey,  6d.2 

Thus  also  James  Myssenden  of  Great  Limber  (1529)  distinguishes 
between  the  convent  and  the  individual  nuns  of  Nuncoton:  "To 
the  monastery  of  Cotton,  3!.  6s  8d,  to  Dame  Johan  Thomson, 
prioress  of  the  same  405,  to  Dame  Margaret  Johnson  6s  8d,  to 
Dame  Elynor  Hylyarde  6s  8d,  to  every  other  nun  of  the  convent 
I2d  " ;  and  Dame  Jane  Armstrong,  vowess,  of  Corby,  in  the  same 
year  leaves  the  nuns  of  Sempringham  6s.  8^.,  "of  which  Dame 
Agnes  Rudd  is  to  have  4od  "  3.  Similar  instances  may  be  multiplied 
from  any  collection  of  wills4. 

1  Test.  Ebor.  I,  pp.  296-7.  2  Ib.  n,  p.  97. 

1  Lincolnshire  Wills,  ed.  A.  R.  Maddison  (1880),  pp.  4,  6. 
4  See,  for  example,  Test.  Ebor.  I,  pp.  6,  9,  n,  12,  14,  15,  16,  18,  19,  31, 
43.  54.  62,  90,  98,  109,  143,  166,  179,  216,  292,  337,  345,  349,  363,  376,  382 


vni]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          327 

Moreover  it  seems  plain  that  the  money  thus  willed  was 
actually  paid  over  to  individuals  by  their  convent.  The  account 
roll  of  the  treasuress  of  St  Radegund's  Cambridge,  in  1449-50, 
contains  an  item: 

And  to  Dame  Alice  Patryk  lately  dead  in  full  payment  of  all  debts 
35.  4^.  from  the  legacy  of  Peter  Erie,  chaplain,  lately  deceased.  And 
to  Dame  Joan  Lancaster  in  part  payment  of  65.  8d.  bequeathed  to 
her  by  the  aforesaid  Peter  35.  4^.,  and  to  Dame  Agnes  Swaffham, 
subprioress,  in  part  payment  of  6s.  8d.,  2od.1 

But  it  was  not  only  money  which  was  bequeathed  to  nuns. 
They  often  received  quite  considerable  legacies  of  jewels  and 
plate,  robes  and  furniture.  What  would  we  not  give  today  to 
look  for  a  moment  at  the  beautiful  things  which  Walter  Skirlaw, 
Bishop  of  Durham,  left  to  his  sister  Joan,  the  Prioress  of  Swine, 
in  1404? 

Item,  one  large  gilded  cup,  with  a  cover  and  a  round  foot,  and  in  the 
bottom  a  chaplet  of  white  and  red  roses  and  a  hind  carven  in  the 
midst  and  all  round  the  outside  carven  with  eagles,  lions,  crowns  and 
other  ingenious  devices  (babonibus),  and  in  the  pommel  a  nest  and 
three  men  standing  and  taking  the  chicks  from  the  nest,  of  the  weight 
of  18  marks. ...Item  a  robe  of  murrey  cloth  of  Ypres  (1  yp'ri)  con 
taining  a  mantle  and  hood  furred  with  budge  (?purg'),  another  hood 
furred  with  ermine,  a  cloak  furred  with  half  vair,  a  long  robe  (garnach') 
furred  with  vair.. .  .Item  one  bed  of  tapestry  work  of  a  white  field,  with 
a  stag  standing  under  a  great  tree  and  on  either  side  lilies  and  a  red 
border,  with  the  complete  tester  and  three  curtains  of  white  boulter 2. 

In  the  same  year  Anne  St  Quintin  left  the  same  noble  lady  "  one 
silken  quilt  and  one  pair  of  sheets  of  cloth  of  Rennes"3.  Eleven 
years  earlier  Sir  John  Fairfax,  rector  of  Prescot,  had  left  his 
|  sister  Margaret  Fairfax,  Prioress  of  Nunmonkton  (of  whom  we 
have  already  heard  much  that  was  not  to  her  good) : 

one  silver  gilt  cup  with  a  cover,  and  one  silver  cup  with  a  cover,  one 
mazer  with  a  cover  of  silver  gilt,  one  pix  of  silver  for  spices,  six  silver 

(chiefly  wills  of  clergy  and  country  gentry) ;  Nicolas,  Test.  Vetusta,  i,  pp.  52, 
70,  76,  79,  85,  115,  116,  120,  121,  123,  137,  155,  170,  196,  300,  37V  (chiefly 
wills  of  the  aristocracy);  Gibbons,  Early  Lincoln  Wills,  pp.  18,  21,  25,  26, 
40,  41,  56,  60,  67,  71,  76,  80,  87,  97,  125,  138,  139,  150,  160  (chiefly  wills  of 
clergy  and  country  gentry).  The  wills  of  the  citizens  of  London  preserved 
in  the  court  of  Husting  contain  many  legacies  to  nuns,  chiefly  annual  rents. 

1  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  156. 

2  Test.  Ebor.  I,  pp.  317,  322,  324.  The  items  occur  in  the  inventory  of  the 
Bishop's  goods  and  against  each  is  written  "Detur  Priorissae  de  Swyna 
sorori  meae." 

3  Ib.  i,  p.  332. 


328          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

spoons,  one  cloak  of  black  cloth  furred  with  gray,  one  round  silver 
basin  and  ten  marks  of  silver1. 

Master  John  de  Wodhouse  in  1345  leaves  Dame  Alice  Gonyers, 
nun  of  Nunappleton,  "fifteen  marks  [and]  a  long  chest  standing 
against  my  bed  at  York,  one  maser  cup  with  an  image  of  St 
Michael  in  the  bottom  and  one  cup  of  silver,  which  I  had  of  her 
gift,  with  a  hand  in  the  bottom  holding  a  falcon"2,  and  Isabella, 
widow  of  Thomas  Corp,  a  London  pepperer,  in  1356,  leaves 
to  Margaret,  sister  of  William  Heyroun,  vintner,  nun  at  Barking, 
a  silver  plated  cup  with  covercle,  twelve  silver  spoons,  two  cups  of 
mazer  and  a  silver  enamelled  pix,  together  with  three  gold  rings,  with 
emerald,  sapphire  and  diamond  respectively  and  divers  household 
goods3. 

Possibly  some  of  these  splendid  pieces  of  plate  found  their 
way  to  the  altar,  and  the  cups  and  spoons  to  the  frater  of  the 
house,  but  the  nuns  undoubtedly  sometimes  kept  them  for 
private  use  in  their  own  camerae.  Here  also  were  kept  the  beds, 
such  as  that  splendid  one  left  by  Bishop  Skirlaw  to  his  sister,' 
the  "bed  of  Norfolk"  which  Sir  Robert  de  Roos  left  to  his 
daughter  Joan  (1392)*,  the  "bed  of  worstede  with  sheets,  which 
she  kindly  gave  me,"  left  by  William  Felawe,  clerk,  to  Katherine 
Slo,  Prioress  of  Shaftesbury  (141 1)5.  Doubtless  Juliana  de 

1  Test.  Ebor.  i,  pp.  187-9.  He  also  left  the  Prioress  135.  4d.  and  each  nun 
6s.  8rf.  and  each  sister  35.  4d.   To  certain  nuns  he  left  special  bequests  to 
Margaret  de  Pykering,  "one  piece  of  silver,  with  the  head  of  a  stag  in  the 

)ttom  and  25.,"  to  Elizabeth  Fairfax  265.  8d.  and  to  Margaret  de  Cotam 

s.  46. ;  also  to  the  Prioress  and  convent  "  my  white  vestment  with  the  gold 

stars  and  all  the  appurtenances  thereof  and  my  cross  with  Mary  and  John  in 

silver  and  one  gilt  chalice."  Nor  were  his  legacies  confined  to  Nunmonktoir 

t  his  two  sisters  at  Sempringham  loos,  and  two  nuns  of  Nunappleton 

and  Marrick  respectively,  a  cow  each. 

2  Ib.  i,  pp.  I4-I5.   He  also  leaves  4os.  to  the  Prioress  and  convent  "  for 
a  pittance,"  205.  to  another  nun  there  and  65.  Sd.  to  a  nun  of  Watton    He 
evidently  had  great  confidence  in  Alice  Conyers,  for  the  injunctions  of  his 
will  are  to  be  earned  out  "according  to  the  counsel  and  help  of  the  said 
Alice  Conyers  and  of  my  executors."  For  other  gifts  of  plate  to  individuals, 
see  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  216,  Somerset  Med.  Wills,  i,  pp.  18,  i44,  Reg.  Stafford  of 

ter,  pp.  392,  4i5,  4i6,  TestamentaLeodiensia  (ThoresbySoc.Pub.  n,  1890), 

3  Sharpe,  Col.  of  Wills... in  the  Court  of  Husting,  i,  p.  688.    She  also 
leaves  Margaret  and  two  other  nuns  a  piece  of  blanket  to  be  divided 
between  them. 

4  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  1^9.    He  also  leaves  her  4os.  and  a  silver  cup 

5  Somerset  Medieval  Wills,  i,  p.  47.    Eleanor,  Duchess  of  Gloucester, 
:t  a  bed  among  other  things  to  her  daughter,  a  nun  of  the  house  of 

Mmoresses  without  Aldgate  (1399).    Nicolas,  Test.  Vetusta,  i,  p.  i48 


vm]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          329 

Crofton,  nun  of  Hampole,  knew  what  use  to  make  of  "six 
shillings  and  eightpence  and  a  cloak  lined  with  blue  and  two 
tablets  and  one  saddle  with  a  bridle  and  two  leather  bowls"1; 
here  at  one  gift  was  the  wherewithal  for  writing  a  letter  to 
announce  a  visit  and  for  paying  that  visit  on  horseback,  in 
gay  and  unconventual  attire.  Indeed  the  constant  legacies  of 
clothes  to  nuns  go  far  to  explain  where  it  was  that  they  obtained 
those  cheerful  secular  garments,  against  which  their  bishops 
waged  war  in  vain.  In  days  when  clothes  were  made  of  heavy 
and  valuable  stuffs  and  richly  adorned,  it  was  a  very  common 
custom  for  a  woman  to  divide  up  her  wardrobe  between  different 
legatees,  and  men  also  handed  on  their  best  garments.  When 
in  1397  Margaret  Fairfax  is  found  using  "divers  furs  and  even 
gray  fur  (gris)"2,  one  remembers,  with  a  sudden  flash  of  com 
prehension,  the  "cloak  of  black  cloth  furred  with  gray"  which 
her  brother  left  her  four  years  earlier.  What  did  Elizabeth  de 
Newemarche,  nun,  do  with  the  mantle  of  brounemelly  left  her 
by  Lady  Isabel  Fitzwilliam?3  What  did  Sir  William  Bonevyll's 
sister  at  Wherwell  do  with  "his  best  hoppelond  with  the  fur"?4 
What  above  all  did  the  Prioress  of  Swine  do  with  all  those  costly 
fur  trimmings  left  her  by  the  Bishop  of  Durham?  Yorkshire 
nunneries  were  apt  to  be  undisciplined  and  worldly ;  great  ladies 
there,  if  Archbishop  Melton  is  to  be  believed,  sometimes  con 
sidered  that  they  might  dress  according  to  their  rank5.  We  may 
safely  guess  that  the  Prioress  of  Swine,  like  her  contemporary 
at  Nunmonkton,  wore  the  furs;  and  visitation  records  do  not 
lead  us  to  suppose  that  other  nuns  sold  their  blue-lined  cloaks 
and  houppelonds  for  the  sake  of  their  convents,  or  bestowed 
!  them  on  the  poor. 

It  is  a  common  injunction  that  nuns  are  to  wear  no  other 
ring  than  that  which,  at  their  consecration,  made  them  brides 

1  Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  382. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194.  3  Test.  Ebor.  I,  p.  51. 

4  Reg.  Stafford  of  Exeter,  p.  392.   For  other  gifts  of  clothes   see  Rye, 
Carrow  Abbey,  app.  p.  xix  (a  habit  cloth),  Lincoln  Wills,  ed.  Foster,  p.  84 
("a  fyne  mantyll  of  ix  yerds  off  narow  cloth"),  Test.  Ebor.  I,  p.  59  (my  two 
robes  with  mantles),  ib.  n,  p.  255  (my  best  harnassed  belt). 

5  At  Hampole  in  1320  he  warned  the  prioress  to  correct  those  nuns  who 
;used  new-fangled  clothes,  contrary  to  the  accustomed  use  of  the  order, 

"whatever  might  be  their  condition  or  state  of  dignity,"   V.C.H.   Yorks. 
in,  p.  164  (where  the  date  is  wrongly  given  as  1314). 


330          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

of  Christ1;  but  the  rule  was  often  disobeyed  and  Dame  Clemence 
Medforde's  "golden  rings  exceeding  costly  with  divers  precious 
stones2"  are  explained  when  we  remember  the  "  three  gold  rings, 
one  having  a  sapphire,  another  an  emerald  and  the  third  a 
diamond"  which  the  rich  pepperer's  widow  left  to  Dame 
Margaret  Heyroun3.  Madame  Eglentyne  herself  may  have  owed 
to  one  of  the  many  friends,  who  held  her  digne  of  reverence,  her 
"peire  of  bedes,  gauded  al  with  grene,"  of  small  coral.  When 
Sir  Thomas  Cumberworth  died  in  1451  he  ordered  that  "the 
prioris  of  Coton,  of  Irford,  of  Legburn  and  of  Grenefeld  have 
Ilkon  of  yam  a  pare  bedys  of  corall,  as  far  as  that  I  have  may 
laste,  and  after  yiff  yam  gette  [give  them  jet]  bedes"4,  and  so 
also  Matilda  Latymer  left  her  daughter  at  Buckland  a  set  of 
"Bedys  de  corall"5  and  Margerie  de  Crioll  left  a  nun  of  Shaftes- 
bury  "my  paternoster  of  coral  and  white  pearls,  which  the 
Countess  of  Pembroke  gave  me"6. 

(5)  The  fifth  and  last  source  from  which  nuns  could  derive 
a  private  income  was  by  the  work  of  their  own  hands  and 
brains.  It  has  been  stated  above  that  very  little  is  known  about 
the  sale  of  fine  needlework  by  nuns,  but  a  very  interesting  case 
at  Easebourne  seems  to  show  that  they  sometimes  considered 
themselves  entitled  to  retain  for  their  own  private  use  the  sums 
which  they  earned.  In  1441  one  of  the  complaints  against  the  I 
gay  prioress  was  that  she  "compels  her  sisters  to  work  con 
tinually  like  hired  workwomen,  and  they  receive  nothing 
whatever  for  their  own  use  from  their  work,  but  the  prioress 

1  See  e.g.  Wilkins,  Cone,  i,  p.  591;  V.C.H.  Bucks.  I,  p.  383;  Line.  Visit. 
i,  p.  52;  ib.  n,  pp.  3,  8. 

2  See  above,  p.  76. 

3  See  above,  p.  328.    For  other  bequests  of  rings,  see  the  wills  of  Sir  Guy 
de  Beauchamp,  1359  (his  fourth  best  gold  ring  to  his  daughter  Katherine 
at  Shouldham),  Robert  de  Ufford,  Earl  of  Suffolk,  1368  ("to  the  Lady  of  i 
Ulster,  a  Minoress...a  ring  of  gold,  which  was  the  duke's,  her  brother's"), 
Thomas  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  1369  (rings  to  his  daughter  and  grand-  " 
daughter  at  Shouldham).   Nicolas,  Test.  Vetusta,  i,  pp.  63,  74,  79.   But  rings 
might  be  put  to  pious  uses.  The  inventory  of  jocalia  in  the  custody  of  the 
sacrist  of  Wherwell  (c.  1333-40)  contains  the  item,  "a  small  silver  croun, 
with  eleven  gold  rings  fixed  in  it,  for  the  high  altar;  another  better  croun 
of  silver,  with  nineteen  gold  rings."    V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  135. 

4  Line.  Dioc.  Doc.  ed.  A.  Clark  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  50. 

5  Reg.  Stafford  of  Exeter,  p.  415. 

•  Gibbons,  Early  Line.  Wills,  p.  5.  In  the  Prioress'  room  at  Sheppey 
at  the  Dissolution  were  found  "iiij  payre  of  corall  beds,  contaynyng  in  all 
Iviij  past  gawdy  (ed.)."  Walcott,  Invent.  of...Shepey,  p.  29. 


vni]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          331 

takes  the  whole  profit."  The  bishop's  injunction  is  extremely 
significant : 

the  prioress  shall  by  no  means  compel  her  sisters  to  continual  work 
of  their  hands  and  if  they  should  wish  of  their  own  accord  to  work, 
they  shall  be  free  to  do  so,  but  yet  so  that  they  may  reserve  for  them 
selves  the  half  part  of  what  they  gain  by  their  hands ;  the  other  part 
shall  be  converted  to  the  advantage  of  the  house  and  unburdening 
it  from  debt1. 

In  fine,  the  Bishop  is  obliged  to  acquiesce  in  a  serious  breach 
of  the  Benedictine  rule :  the  plea  of  the  nuns  to  commit  the  sin 
of  proprietas  is  considered  as  a  reasonable  demand;  and  the 
compromise  that  half  their  earnings  should  go  to  the  common 
[fund  is  intended  rather  to  check  the  prioress  than  the  nuns. 
From  the  injunctions  of  other  bishops  it  would  appear  that  the 
private  boarders  and  private  pupils  taken  by  individual  nuns 
sometimes  paid  their  fees  to  those  individuals  and  not  to  the 
house2;  the  "household"  system  made  the  reception  of  such 
boarders  easy. 

From  whatever  source  nuns  obtained  control  of  money  and 
goods,  whether  from  the  peculium,  from  gifts,  from  legacies,  or 
[rom  the  proceeds  of  their  own  labour,  one  thing  is  clear :  in  a 
fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century  house,  where  the  system  of  the 
peculium  and  the  familia  obtained,  there  was  a  considerable 
approximation  to  private  life  and  to  private  property.  The 
control  of  money  and  goods  and  the  division  into  households, 
catering  separately  for  themselves,  worked  in  together.  The 
responsibility  of  the  convent  towards  its  members  was  some- 
jtimes  limited  to  a  bare  minimum  of  food,  such  as  the  staple 
bread  and  beer,  and  perhaps  a  small  dress  allowance.  All  the 
rest  was  provided  by  the  nuns  themselves.  In  strict  theory 
annuities,  gifts  and  legacies,  were  put  into  common  stock  and 
administered  by  the  convent.  In  practice  they  were  obviously 
;  retained  in  individual  possession  and  administered  as  private 
:  property  by  the  nuns.  Even  legacies  of  lump  sums  to  a  whole 
:  :onvent  were  probably  divided  up  between  the  nuns,  an  equal 
sum  being  paid  to  each  and  perhaps  double  to  the  prioress. 

An  analysis  of  the  conditions  revealed  at  Alnwick's  visita 
tion  of  the  Lincoln  diocese  in  1440-5  throws  an  exceedingly 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  8.  2  See  pp.  272-3. 


332          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

interesting  side-light,  not  only  on  the  vow  of  monastic  poverty,  as 
understood  in  the  fifteenth  century,  but  also  on  the  domestic 
economy  of  the  houses,  the  majority  of  which  were  small  and 
poor.  It  may  also  conveniently  be  compared  with  the  evidence 
given  by  the  same  visitations  as  to  the  system  of  familiae  in 
these  houses.  At  some  the  house  supplied  all  food  and  clothes 
or  a  peculium  for  clothes,  at  some  it  provided  only  a  bare  mini 
mum  of  food,  at  some  neither  dress  nor  dress  allowance  was 
provided.  At  Legbourne 

every  nun  has  one  loaf,  one  half  gallon  of  beer  a  day,  one  pig  a  year, 
i8d.  for  beef,  every  day  in  Advent  and  Lent  two  herrings,  and  a  little 
butter  in  summer  and  sometimes  two  stone  of  cheese  a  year  and  8d. 
a  year  for  raiment  and  no  more  ; 

the  sum  of  2s.  2d.  a  year  for  beef  and  clothes  was  certainly 
not  excessive1.  At  Stixwould 

every  nun  receives  in  the  year  one  pig,  one  sheep,  a  quarter  of  beef, 
two  stones  of  butter,  three  stones  of  cheese,  every  day  in  Advent  and 
Lent  three  herrings,  six  salt  fish  and  twelve  doughcakes  a  year;  and 
they  were  wont  to  have  6s.  8d.  for  their  raiment,  but  for  several  years 
back  (one  nun  said  for  twenty  years)  as  regards  raiment  they  have 
received  nothing. 

At  St  Michael's  Stamford,  the  house  provided  only  "bread  and 
beer  and  a  mark  for  fish  and  flesh  and  other  things  and  as  to  i 
their  raiment  they  receive  naught  of  the  house";  out  of  the! 
mark  the  nuns  catered  for  themselves.    Other  houses  provided  i 
still  less  out  of  the  common  funds :  at  Gokewell  the  nuns  received  I 
nothing  from  the  house  but  bread  and  beer  and  at  Markyate 
(a  poor  house,  of  not  unblemished  reputation  and  badly  in  debt) 
"they  receive  of  the  house  only  bread,  beer  and  two  marks  for 
their  raiment  and  what  else  is  necessary  for  their  living,  which 
are  less  than  enough  for  their  sundry  needful  wants";  Alnwick 
ordered  all  victuals  to  be  given  them  "of  the  commune  stores  j 
of  the  house  owte  of  one  selare  and  one  kytchyne"  and  fixed 
the  dress  allowance  at  a  noble  yearly,  but  he  did  not  say  how 
the  house  was  to  raise  funds.   At  Nuncoton  the  allowance  was  • 

1  Another  nun  says  that  she  has  nothing  at  all  for  raiment  and  another  I 
deposes,  "seeing  that  the  revenues  of  the  house  are  not  above  forty  pounds 
and  the  nuns  are  thirteen  in  number  with  one  novice,  so  many  out  of  rents 
so  slender  cannot  have  sufficient  food  and  clothing,  unless  some  help  be.1 
given  them  from  other  sources  by  their  secular  friends."    Line    Visit    n,  I 
pp.  184,  1 86. 


vni]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          333 

I  8s.  a  year,  but  when  Alnwick  came  the  nuns  had  received  only 
I  is.  each.  At  Fosse,  Langley  and  Ankerwyke  the  houses  provided 
I  meat  and  drink,  but  no  dress  or  dress  allowance;  and  at  Catesby 
lit  was  complained  that  "the  prioress  does  not  give  the  nuns 
jj  satisfaction  in  the  matter  of  their  raiment  and  money  for  victuals 
d  and  touching  the  premises  the  prioress  is  in  the  nuns'  debt  for 
jj  three-quarters  of  the  year"1.  From  these  references  it  is  plain 
ii  that  the  nuns  usually  bought  their  own  clothes  and  often  catered 
!  for  themselves  in  flesh  food ;  also  that  the  poverty  of  many 
(i  houses  was  so  great  that  the  nuns  could  not  have  lived  decently 
ii|  without  the  help  of  friends,  whether  because  their  dress  al- 
pi  lowances  were  always  in  arrears,  or  because  the  house  recognised 
HI  no  responsibility  to  clothe  them  from  its  exiguous  funds.  Yet 
I  as  regards  food  at  least,  the  habit  of  catering  separately  for 
ji  separate  messes  was  undoubtedly  less  economical  than  the 
^regular  maintenance  of  a  common  table  would  have  been. 

A  highly  interesting  light  on  the  control  of  money  allowances 

•for  the  purchase  of  food  by  the  individual  nuns  of  a  convent 

I  is  thrown  by  convent  account  rolls.  These  accounts  show  two 

I  different  methods  of  catering  in  force.    In  one  all  the  house- 

M  keeping  was  done  by  the  cellaress,  who  bought  such  stores  as 

I  were  needed  to  supplement  the  produce  of  the  home  farm  and 

j  provided  the  nuns  with  the  whole  of  their  food.  This  is  the 

I  normal  method,  which  accords  with  the  Rule;  it  is  to  be  found 

;in  the  Syon  cellaresses'  rolls  and  in  the  roll  of  Elizabeth  Swynford, 

[Prioress  of  Catesby  (1414-15).  The  latter  sets  forth:   (i)  the 

produce  of  the  home  farm,  how  many  animals  were  delivered 

to  the  larder,  how  many  to  the  kitchen,  how  much  grain  was 

! malted,  etc.;  (2)  the  payments  for  food  bought  to  supplement 

'this  home  produce: 

in  flesh  and  eggs  bought  from  the  feast  of  St  Michael  until  Lent 
33/oJ,  and  in  expenses  of  the  house  from  Easter  unto  the  feast  of 
St  Michael  in  beef  and  eggs  bought,  £j.  i.  9.,... in  2  barrels  4  kemps 
of  oil  and  salt  fish  bought  in  time  of  Lent  £3.  o.  6, 

besides  sundry  odd  purchases  of  red  herrings,  pepper,  saffron, 
salt,  garlic  and  fat2. 

1  For  these  references,  see  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  7,  47,  92,  117,  184,  186; 
Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  6,  jid,  76,  83.  Also  injunctions  as  to  food  at  Elstow 
ib.  ii,  p.  39  (and  note). 

z  Baker,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Northants.  i,  pp.  280,  282-3. 


334          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

But  some  account  rolls  show  an  entirely  different  method 
of  housekeeping.  By  this  the  convent  provided  the  nuns  with 
their  daily  ration  of  bread  and  beer  and  perhaps  with  a  certain 
amount  of  green  food  and  dairy  produce,  but  paid  them  an 
allowance  of  money  with  which  to  buy  their  meat  and  fish 
food  for  themselves.  On  this  system  the  convent  still  had  to 
provide  the  nuns  with  their  pittances,  though  often  enough 
these  too  were  paid  in  money,  and  usually  also  with  the  bulk  of 
their  Lenten  fare  of  salt  fish  and  spices,  which  was  bought  in 
large  quantities  at  a  time  and  stored.  An  extreme  example  of 
this  system  is  found  in  the  account  of  Christian  Bassett,  Prioress 
of  St  Mary  de  Pre  (St  Albans)  in  1486-8.  Under  the  heading 
Comyns,  Pytances  and  Partycions  she  pays  to  herself  as 
prioress : 

for  her  comyns  for  xxj  monethes...vj  1.  viij  s  iiij  d....Item  paid  to 
dame  Alice  Wafyr  for  her  comyns  for  xxj  monethes...vj  1.  viij  s  iiij  d. 
...Item  paid  to  vij  susters  of  the  same  place  for  their  comons  for 
xxj  monethis...xxj  li.  vj  s  viij  d.  Item  paid  to  dame  Johan  Knollys 
for  her  comyns  for  v  monethis  xvj  s  viij  d....Item  paid  for  brede  and 
ale  and  fewell  departyd  amongs  the  susters  by  a  yere  and  a  half  lij  s. 
Item  paid  for  ij  bushell  of  pesyn  departyd  amongs  the  susters  in 
Lente  xvj  d. 

The  rest  of  the  section  contains  notices  of  special  pittances,  paid 
sometimes  in  money  and  sometimes  in  kind;  for  instance  los.  6d. 
is  paid  for  "Maundy  Ale"  and  lod.  for  wine  on  two  Maundy 
Thursdays,  but  the  sisters  also  get  "  Maundy  money  "  amounting 
to  2id.  One  interesting  item  runs:  "delyvered  of  the  rente  in 
Cambrigge  amongs  the  susters  for  the  tyme  of  this  accompte 
xlviijs";  these  rents,  which  are  entered  among  the  receipts, 
were  no  doubt  ear-marked  for  the  nuns,  possibly  as  peculia  for 
the  purchase  of  clothes,  possibly  as  a  pittance1.  The  same  system 
of  housekeeping  was  obviously  also  in  vogue  at  St  Michael's,, 
Stamford,  at  the  time  of  Alnwick's  visitation;  but  the  account 
rolls  of  this  house  are  not  easy  to  interpret,  because  although 
they  contain  no  reference  to  catering,  other  than  certain  pittances 
and  feasts  on  Maundy  Thursday  and  other  festal  occasions, 
neither  do  they  contain  any  reference  to  commons  money.  No 
separate  cellaress'  accounts  have  survived  to  throw  any  further 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  359. 


vni]          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          335 

light  upon  the  subject.    At  Elstow  Abbey  some  years  later  the 
practice  of  paying  "commons"  money  was  well  established1. 

It  is  tempting  to  conjecture  what  considerations  may  have 
prevailed  to  make  some  houses  substitute  money  grants  for  the 
provision  of  food  in  kind.  The  tendency  certainly  grew  with 
the  custom  of  forming  familiae  which  messed  separately  and  it 
certainly  increased  with  time.  Even  at  Catesby,  which  we  saw 
to  be  a  typical  example  of  communal  housekeeping  in  1414-5, 
it  seems  to  have  become  customary  to  give  money  for  some  at 
least  of  the  victuals  in  1442.  The  tendency  also  grew  with 
poverty,  as  appears  from  Alnwick's  visitations,  though  it  is  not 
clear  whence  the  nuns  obtained  the  wherewithal  to  feed  them 
selves  adequately,  unless  they  had  the  use  of  extra  funds  of 
their  own.  It  may  also  be  conjectured  that  the  system  would 
be  easier  to  work  in  a  town  than  in  the  depths  of  the  country. 
In  a  town  the  nuns  could  buy  in  the  open  market,  and  it  was  as 
easy  for  individuals  to  buy  in  small  quantities  as  for  the  cellaress 

(I to  buy  wholesale.    In  the  country,  however,  the  convent  would 

I  not  only  be  more  dependent  on  the  home  farm,  but  such  pur 
chases  as  had  to  be  made  at  occasional  fairs  and  weekly  markets 

I  could  more  easily  be  made  in  bulk,  a  consideration  which  also 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  barrels  and  cades  of  salt  fish  for 
Lent  were  usually  laid  in  wholesale  by  the  cellaress.  Moreover 
it  would  often  be  convenient  for  a  town  house  to  lease  out  the 
[greater  number  of  its  demesnes  and  to  depend  upon  what  it 
could  purchase  for  its  daily  fare.  St  Mary  de  Pre  is  particularly 
interesting  in  this  respect;  the  1486-8  account  shows  no  sign 
;of  any  home  farm;  the  income  of  the  house  is  derived  almost 
[entirely  from  "  rents  of  assise  and  rents  farm  "  within  the  town  of 

:  St  Albans  and  in  other  places  and  from  tithes,  and  the  pro- 
Iportion  of  farms  or  leases  is  noticeably  large.  Even  the  bread 

'•  |and  beer  distributed  among  the  sisters  did  not  come  from  a 
home  farm;  it  was  bought  with  525.  received  from  the  Abbot 

•  iof  St  Albans  for  that  purpose ;  the  kitchener  of  the  parent  abbey 

1  Temp.  Henry  VII  the  Abbess  of  Elstow's  account  records  the  pay- 
"  bient  of  double  commons  of  is.  a  week  to  the  Prioress  and  6d.  a  week  single 
pommons  to  each  of  the  nuns.  Pittances  (double  to  the  prioress)  are  paid  on 
days  of  profession  and  on  the  greater  feast.  The  nuns  also  had  dress  allow- 
jmces  in  money.  C.  T.  Flower,  Obedientiars'  Accounts  of  Glastonbury  and 
bther  Relig.  Houses  (St  Paul's  Ecclesiol.  Soc.  vn,  pt  n,  1912),  pp.  52,  55. 


336          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

similarly  provided  the  nuns  with  I2S.,  "for  potage  money  de- 
partyd  amongs  the  susters  for  a  yere,"  and  at  the  forester's 
office  they  received  8s.  for  their  fuel. 

Occasional  references  show  what  a  variety  of  household 
charges  the  nuns  sometimes  had  to  bear  out  of  their  peculia,  and 
the  other  sources  of  their  private  income.  At  Campsey  in  1532, 
for  instance, 

the  subprioress  says  that  the  prioress  will  not  allow  her  servants  to 
go  out  upon  the  necessary  errands  of  the  nuns,  but  they  hire  outsiders 
at  their  own  cost  and  Dame  Isabella  Norwiche  says  that  sick  nuns  in 
the  time  of  their  sickness  bear  the  cost  of  what  is  needful  to  them  and 
it  is  not  provided  at  the  charge  of  the  house1. 

At  Sheppey  also,  in  1511,  there  was  no  infirmary  and  when  ill 
the  nuns  had  to  hire  women  for  themselves  and  pay  for  them 
out  of  their  own  money2.  At  Langley  in  1440  Alnwick  ordered 
that  each  nun  should  have  yearly  a  cartload  of  fuel,  cut  at  the 
cost  of  the  house,  but  carried  at  the  cost  of  the  nuns3.  At 
Wherwell  there  was  a  custom  by  which,  on  the  first  occasion 
that  a  nun  took  her  turn  in  reading  from  the  pulpit,  a  certain 
sum  of  money  or  a  pittance  was  exacted  from  her  for  the  benefit 
of  the  convent,  a  custom  forbidden  by  Bishop  John  of  Pontoise 
in  1302*;  and  there  is  mention  of  another  pittance  in  1311,  when 
Bishop  Woodlock  ordered  that  for  digging  the  grave  and  pre 
paring  the  coffin  of  a  nun  who  had  died  and  for  pittances  to 
the  sisters  on  the  day  of  her  burial,  the  goods  of  the  deceased 
nun  should  not  be  expended,  because  she  ought  not  to  have 
private  property,  but  the  common  goods  of  the  church  were 
to  be  spent;  which  seems  like  locking  the  stable  door  after  the 
horse  has  gone6. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  attitude  of  ecclesiastic  authorities 
to  these  various  manifestations  of  proprietas.  The  bishops  found 
some  difficulty  in  persuading  nuns,  accustomed  to  expend  money 
for  themselves  and  to  dine  in  familiae  in  separate  rooms,  ac 
customed  also  to  receive  gifts  and  legacies  in  money  and  kind, 
that  they  must  hold  all  things  in  common.  At  Arthington,  in 
1307,  two  nuns,  Agnes  de  Screvyn  (who  had  resigned  the  post 

1  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp,  p.  290. 

2  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.  vi,  p.  34.  '  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  176,  177. 

*  Reg-  J-  de  Pontissara,  I,  p.  125. 

•  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  103. 


vni]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          337 

of  Prioress  in  1303)  and  Isabella  Couvel,  asserted  that  certain 
I  animals  and  goods  belonging  to  the  priory  were  their  private 
|  property  and  Archbishop  Greenfield  bids  the  Prioress  admonish 
|  them  to  resign  these  within  three  days  "to  lawful  and  honest 

uses,"  according  to  her  judgment1.  Similarly  Bishop  Bokyngham 

writes  to  Heynings  in  1392: 

I  We  order  that  cows,  sows,  capons,  hens  and  all  animals  of  any  kind 

I  soever,  together  with  wild  or  tame  birds,  which  are  held  by  certain 

of  the  nuns  (whether  with  or  without  licence)... shall  be  delivered  up 

to  the  common  use  of  the  convent  within  three  days,  without  the 

alienation  or  subtraction  of  any  of  them2. 

I  In  the  light  of  these  passages  it  is  interesting  to  find  that  cows 
j  and  pigs  are  among  the  legacies  sometimes  left  to  nuns3.  At 
Nuncoton,  in  1440,  where  certain  nuns  were  in  the  habit  of 
wandering  in  their  gardens  and  gathering  herbs  instead  of  at 
tending  Compline, 

Dame  Alice  Aunselle  prays  that  they  may  all  live  in  common  and 

that  no  nun  may  have  anything,  such  as  cups  and  the  like,  as  her  own ; 

|  but  that  if  any  such  there  be,  they  be  kept  in  common  by  their 

I  common  servant  and  that  they  may  not  have  houses  or  separate 

gardens  appointed,  as  it  were,  to  them4, 

which  illustrates  how  easily  the  household  system  slid  into 
\proprietas.  It  was  sometimes  even  necessary  to  forbid  nuns  to 
|  make  wills  and  bequeath  their  property.  This  was  forbidden  by 
!  the  Council  of  Oxford  in  1222  5  and  in  1387  William  of  Wykeham 
;  sent  a  stern  injunction  to  the  nuns  of  Romsey,  pointing  out  that 

by  making  wills  they  were  falling  into  the  sin  of  property6. 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  164. 

z  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  397^.  Compare  Eudes  Rigaud's 
difficulties  with  the  hens  at  Saint- Aubin,  below,  p.  653. 

3  E.g.  in  the  will  of  Agnes  de  Denton,  1356  (Item  to  dame  Cecilie  de 
Hmythwayt  two  cows),  Testamenta  Karleolensia,  p.  12;  Sir  John  Fairfax, 

I  J393  (Item  I  bequeath  to  dame  Katherine  de  Barlay,  nun  of  Appleton,  one 
i  cow.  Item  to  dame  Custance  Colvyll,  nun  of  Marrick,  one  cow) ;  Sir  William 
I  Dronsfeld,  1406  (Item  I  bequeath  to  dame  Alice  de  Totehill,  nun,  one  cow. 
i  Item  I  bequeath  to  dame  Margaret  de  Barneby,  one  cow) ;  Sir  Thomas 
iRednes  1407  (Item  to  Alice  Redness  nun  [of  Hampole]  one  cow  and  one 
ifat  pig).  Test.  Ebor.  i,  pp.  189,  345,  349. 

4  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  72. 

5  Wilkins,  Cone,  i,  p.  593. 

6  New  Coll.  MS.  ff.  85^,  86.  The  sin  of  proprietas  seems  to  have  been 
:serious  in  this  house,  for  the  Bishop  couples  his  prohibition  of  wills  with  a 

prohibition  of  private  rooms  and  pupils,  and  later  (f.  S6d)  makes  a  general 
injunction  against  private  property. 

P.N.  22 


338          PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          [CH. 

In  1394,  on  the  death  of  Joan  Furmage,  Abbess  of  Shaftes- 
bury, 

the  bishop  ordered  the  Abbey  to  be  sequestrated  and  annulled  the 
will  by  which  she  had  alienated  the  goods  of  the  house  in  bequests 
to  friends,  declaring  such  a  disposition  to  be  injurious  to  the  com 
munity  and  contrary  to  the  usage  of  religious  women1. 

The  history  of  the  attitude  of  ecclesiastical  authorities  to 
two  sources  of  private  income,  the  peculium  and  the  gifts  from 
friends  to  individuals,  is  of  even  greater  significance  than  these 
attempts  to  cope  with  private  goods,  for  it  shows  how  powerless 
the  bishops  were  against  the  steady  weakening  of  discipline  in 
monastic  houses.  Here,  as  in  the  enclosure  struggle  and  the 
struggle  against  familiae,  they  were  forced  into  compromise  at 
best  and  at  worst  into  acquiescence.  At  its  first  appearance 
the  custom  of  giving  a  peculium  to  individuals  was  severely  con 
demned  as  a  manifest  breach  of  the  rule : 

"Moneys  shall  not  be  assigned  to  each  separately  for  clothes,"  says 
the  Council  of  Oxford  in  1222,  "  But  such  shall  be  diligently  attended 
to  by  certain  persons  deputed  to  this  purpose,  chamberers  or  cham- 
bresses,  who  according  to  the  need  of  each  and  the  resources  of  the 
house,  shall  minister  garments  to  them.... Also  it  shall  not  be  lawful 
for  the  chamberer  or  chambress  to  give  to  any  monk,  canon  or  nun, 
monies  or  anything  else  for  clothes,  nor  shall  it  be  lawful  for  monk, 
canon  or  nun  to  receive  anything;  otherwise  let  the  chamberer  be 
deposed  from  office  and  the  monk,  canon  or  nun  go  without  new 
clothes  for  that  year"2. 

Similarly,  in  the  Constitutions  of  the  legate  Ottobon  in  1268, 
the  peculium  is  grouped  with  other  forms  of  property;  ch.  XL 
enacts  that  no  religious  is  to  possess  property  and  that  the  head 
of  the  house  is  to  make  diligent  search  for  such  property  twice 
a  year3,  and  ch.  XLI  enacts  that  no  money  is  to  be  given  to  a 
religious  for  clothes,  shoes  and  other  necessities,  but  he  is  to  be 

1   V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  78.  2  Wilkins,  Cone.  I,  p.  592. 

3  In  connection  with  this,  see  Wickwane's  injunction  to  Nunappleton 
in  1281,  "We  also  forbid  locked  boxes  and  chests,  save  if  the  prioress  shall 
have  ordained  some  seemly  arrangement  of  the  kind  and  shall  often  see 
and  inspect  the  contents."  Reg.Wickwane  (SurteesSoc.).p.  141.  Also  Newark's 
injunction  to  Swine  in  1298  that  the  Prioress  and  two  senior  nuns  should 
cause  the  boxes  of  any  nuns  of  whom  suspicion  [of  property  J  should  arise 
to  be  opened  in  her  presence  and  the  contents  seen.  And  if  anyone  will  not 
open  her  box...  then  let  the  prioress  break  it  open."  Reg.  of  John  le  Romayn 
and  Hen.  of  Newark  (Surtees  Soc.),  ii,  p.  223;  compare  Eudes  Rigaud's 
struggle  against  locked  boxes,  below,  p.  652. 


vin]         PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY          339 

given  the  article  itself1.  In  1438  a  severe  injunction  from  Bishop 
I  Spofford  of  Hereford  to  the  nuns  of  Aconbury  shows  the  close 
;  connection  between  the  peculium  and  the  private  camera  of  the 
'nuns2.  Yet  in  1380  we  find  a  bishop  of  Salisbury  assigning  a 
(weekly  allowance  of  zd.  to  each  nun  of  Shaftesbury  from  the 
j issues  of  the  house3;  and  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
I  nuns  regularly  complain  to  their  visitors  when  their  allowances 
are  in  arrears  and  the  bishops  regularly  ordain  that  the  money 
is  to  be  paid4.  In  the  thirteenth  century  it  is  a  fault  in  the 
j  Prioress  to  give  the  nuns  a  peculium;  in  the  fifteenth  century 
tit  is  a  fault  to  withhold  it. 

The  custom  as  to  presents  from  friends  was  that  the  nuns 
jmight  receive  gifts,  only  by  the  permission  of  their  superior, 
to  whom  everything  must  be  shown5.  Thus  Archbishop  Wick- 
wane  writes  to  Nunappleton  in  1281 :  "  that  no  nun  shall  appro- 
jpriate  to  herself  any  gift,  garment  or  shoes  of  the  gift  of  anyone, 
:   without  the  consent  and  assignment  of  the  prioress"6;  Arch- 
;  bishop  Greenfield  in  1315  forbids  the  nuns  of  Rosedale  to  accept 
lor  give  any  presents  without  the  consent  of  the  Prioress 7 ;  and 
Archbishop  Bowet  in  1411  enacts  that  any  nun  of  Hampole 
:  [receiving  gifts  or  legacies  from  friends  is  at  once  on  returning 
1  po  reveal  them  to  the  Prioress8.  Occasionally  a  Prioress,  whether 
lout  of  zeal  for  the  Rule  or  for  some  other  reason,  showed  herself 
iunwilling  to  allow  the  nuns  to  receive  presents.   The  nuns  of 

1  Wilkins,  Cone,  u,  p.  16. 

,;;         2  "Where  the  lawe  and  the  professyon  of  yche  religyouse  person  that 
thei  have  shuld  have  one  fraitoure  and  house  to  ete  in  in  commyn  and  not 
'"    in  private  chaumbers,  and  so  to  lygg  and  slepe  in  one  house,  in  youre  said 
I;    sovent  sustren  reteynen  money  and  proveis  thame  selfe  privatly  ayensthe 
)rdir  of  religion,  etc."    The  injunction  is  coupled  with  a  strong  injunction 
against  dowries.  Hereford  Reg.  T.  Spofford,  p.  224.   Compare  the  injunction 
5:    to  Lymbrook,  p.  324  above. 
8  V.C.H.  Dorset,  u,  p.  77. 

*  For  other  references  to  the  peculium  for  clothing,  see  Visit,  of  Dioc. 
'.:    !>/ 'Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp,  p.  274;  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  23;  Liveing,  Records 
'..-    )f  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  130. 

*  Thus  William  of  Wykeham,  in  the  course  of  his  severe  injunction  against 
;;    broprietas  at  Romsey  (1387),  thus  defines  it:  "  Vt  autem  quid  sit  proprium 
c    i/obis  plenius  innotescat,  nos  sancti  Benedict!  regulam  imitantes,  id  totum 
10    proprium  siue  proprietatem  fore  dicimus  et  eciam  declaramus,  quicquid 

videlicet  dederitis  vel  receperitis  sine  iussu  vestre  Abbatisse  aut  retinueritis 
"     ine  permissione  illius."   New  Coll.  MS.  f.  S6d. 
'  Reg.  Wickwane  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  140. 
7  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  174.  8  Ib.  m,  p.  164. 


340      PRIVATE  LIFE  AND  PRIVATE  PROPERTY       [CH.VIII 

Flixton  in  1514  complained:  "that  they  receive  no  annual 
pensions  and  that  the  prioress  is  angry  when  anything  is  given 
to  them  by  their  friends"1  and  Alnwick  in  1441  wrote  to  the 
Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  whose  nuns  complained  both  of  in 
sufficient  clothes  and  of  her  bad  temper  when  their  friends  came 
to  see  them, 

And  what  euer  thise  saide  frendes  wyll  gyfe  your  sustres  in  relefe 
of  thaym  as  in  hire  habyte  and  sustenaunce,  ye  suffre  your  sustres 
to  take  hit,  so  that  no  abuse  of  euel  come  therbye  noyther  to  the 
place  ne  to  the  persones  therof2. 

It  was  indeed  almost  a  necessity  to  encourage  the  reception  oi 
presents,  when  (as  so  often  happened  towards  the  close  of  the 
middle  ages)  nuns  were  dependent  for  clothes  upon  their  friends. 
But  with  Bishop  Praty  ordering  that  the  nuns  of  Easebourne 
shall  receive  half  the  sums  paid  them  for  their  work,  and  with 
Bishop  Alnwick  encouraging  presents  and  enforcing  the  pay 
ment  of  peculia,  it  is  plain  that  the  Lady  Poverty  had  fallen 
upon  evil  days. 

1  Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  p.  143. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  IX 
FISH  OUT  OF  WATER 

De  sorte  qu'une  Religieuse  hors  de  sa  cloture  est  comme  une  pierre 
hors  de  son  centre;  comme  un  arbre  hors  de  terre;  comme  Adam  et 
Eve  hors  du  Paradis  terrestre;  comme  le  corbeau  hors  de  1'arche  qui 
ne  s'arreste  qu'a  des  charognes;  comme  un  poisson  hors  de  1'eau, 
selon  le  grand  Saint  Antoine  et  Saint  Bernard;  comme  une  brebis 
hors  de  sa  bergerie  et  en  danger  d'estre  devoree  des  loups,  selon  Saint 
Theodore  Studite ;  comme  un  oiseau  hors  de  son  nid  et  une  grenouille 
hors  de  son  marais,  selon  le  meme  Saint  Bernard;  comme  un  mort 
hors  de  son  tombeau,  qui  infecte  les  personnes  qui  s'en  approchent, 
selon  Pierre  le  Venerable  et  la  Regie  attribuee  a  Saint  Jerome;  et 
par  consequent  dans  un  £tat  tout  a  fait  oppose  a  la  vie  Reguliere 
qu'elle  a  embrassee. 

J.  B.  THIERS  (1681). 

THE  famous  chapter  LXVI  of  the  Benedictine  Rule  enunciated 
the  principle  that  the  professed  monk  should  remain  within  the 
precincts  of  his  cloister  and  eschew  all  wandering  in  the  world1. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  Rule  allowed  a  certain  latitude  and 
that  monks  and  nuns  were  to  be  allowed  to  leave  their  houses 
under  certain  conditions  and  for  necessary  causes.  Brethren 
working  at  a  distance  or  going  on  a  journey  may  be  excused 
attendance  at  the  divine  office,  if  they  cannot  reach  the  church 
in  time2.  Brethren  sent  upon  an  errand  are  forbidden  to  accept 
invitations  to  eat  outside  the  house  without  the  consent  of  their 
superior3.  Moreover  longer  journeys  are  plainly  contemplated, 
in  which  they  might  have  to  spend  a  night  or  more  outside  their 
monastery4.  But  no  one  might  ever  leave  the  cloister  bounds 

1  "  The  monastery,  however,  itself  ought  if  possible  to  be  so  constructed 
as  to  contain  within  it  all  necessaries,  that  is,  water,  mill,  garden  and  [places 
for]  the  various  crafts  which  are  exercised  within  a  monastery,  so  that  there 
be  no  occasion  for  monks  to  wander  abroad,  since  this  is  in  no  wise  expedient 
for  their  souls."   Rule  of  St  Benedict,  tr.  Gasquet,  pp.  117-8, 

2  Chap.  L,  ib.  p.  88.  3  Chap.  LI,  ib.  p.  89. 

4  Chap.  LXVII,  ib.  p.  118.  This,  however,  is  clearly  exceptional;  the 
regulation  comes  in  a  later  chapter  and  not  in  the  first  edition  of  the  rule. 
The  translations  of  the  rule  made  at  a  later  date  for  nuns,  sometimes  specify 
visits  "to  fadir  or  moder  or  o]>er  frend"  not  mentioned  in  the  original. 


342  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

without  the  permission  of  the  superior;  and  it  was  the  obvious 
intention  of  St  Benedict  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  all  wandering 
in  the  world.  Strictly  speaking  this  system  of  enclosure  applied 
equally  to  monks  and  to  nuns;  but  from  the  earliest  times  it 
was  considered  to  be  a  more  vital  necessity  for  the  well  being  of 
the  latter;  and  the  history  of  the  enclosure  movement  is  in  effect 
the  history  of  an  effort  to  add  a  fourth  vow  of  claustration  to 
the  three  cardinal  vows  of  the  nun1.  The  reasons  for  this  severity 
are  sufficiently  obvious,  and  show  that  curious  contradiction 
of  ideas  which  is  so  common  in  all  general  theories  about  women. 
On  the  one  hand  the  immense  importance  attached  by  the 
medieval  Church  to  the  state  of  virginity,  exemplified  in  St  John 
Chrysostom's  remarks  that  Christian  virgins  are  as  far  above  the 
rest  of  mankind  as  are  the  angels,  made  it  all  important  that 
this  priceless  jewel  should  not  be  exposed  to  danger  in  a  wicked 
world2.  On  the  other  hand  the  medieval  contempt  for  thCj 
fragility  of  women  led  to  a  cynical  conviction  that  only  when 
they  were  shut  up  behind  the  high  walls  of  the  cloister  was  it 
possible  to  guarantee  their  virtue;  aut  virum  aut  murum  oportet 
mulierem  habere*.  Both  views  received  support  from  the  deep- 

1  In  some  reformed  orders  founded  at  a  later  date  the  formula  of  pro 
fession  actually  contained  a  vow  of  perpetual  enclosure,  e.g.  the  Poor  Clares, 
whose  vow,  under  the  second  rule  given  to  them  by  Urban  IV  in  1263,  com 
prised  obedience,  poverty,  chastity  and  enclosure.    Thiers,  De  la   Cldture 
(1681),  pp.  41-2.   Compare  the  formula  given  in  the  rule  of  the  Order  of  the 
Annunciation,  founded  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  Jeanne  de 
France,  daughter  of  Louis  XI.    Ib.  p.  55.  The  nuns  of  the  older  orders  did 
not  make  any  specific  vow  of  enclosure,  and  it  was  enforced  upon  them  only 
as  an  indispensable  condition  for  the  fulfilment  of  their  other  vows,  which 
accounts  for  the  obstinacy  of  their  opposition;  some  jurisconsults,  indeed, 
were  of  the  opinion  that  the  Pope  could  not  oblige  a  nun  to  be  enclosed 
against  her  will.   Ib.  p.  50. 

2  The  passage  is  quoted  in  the  preface  to  Thiers,  op.  cit.  For  the  Church's  • 
view   of  virginity,    see   especially   St   Jerome's   famous  Epistola   (22)    ad 
Eustochium. 

3  Thiers,  op.  cit.  p.  245.  Quoting  the  jurisconsult  Philippus  Probus.  For  I 
a  good  example  of  the  mixture  of  ideas,  see  Mr  Coulton's  account  of  the 
arguments  used  by  the  monk  Idung  of  St  Emmeram  in  favour  of  enclosure: 
"  He  begins  with  the  usual  medieval  emphasis  on  feminine  frailty,  of  which 
(as  he  points  out)  the  Church  reminds  us  in  her  collect  for  every  Virgin 
Martyr's  feast  'Victory... even  in  the  weaker  sex.'   Then  comes  the  usual 
quotation  from  St  Jerome,  with  its  reference  to  Dinah,  which  Idung  is 
bold  enough  to  clinch  by  a  detailed  allusion  to  Danae.    This,  of  course,  is  < 
little  more  than  the  usual  clerkly  ungallantry ;  but  it  is  followed  by  a  passage  • 
of  more  cruel  courtesy.  The  monk  must  needs  go  abroad  sometimes  on 
business,  as  for  instance,  to  buy  and  sell  in  markets;  'but  such  occupations 


IX] 


FISH  OUT  OF  WATER 


343 


rooted  idea  as  old  as  the  Greeks  and  an  unconscionable  time  in 
dying,  that  "a  free  woman  should  be  bounded  by  the  street 
door"1.  Medieval  moralists  were  generally  agreed  that  inter 
course  with  the  world  was  at  the  root  of  all  those  evils  which 
dimmed  the  fair  fame  of  the  conventual  system,  by  affording 
a  constant  temptation  to  frivolity  and  to  grosser  misconduct. 
Moreover  the  tongue  of  scandal  was  always  busy  and  the  nun's 
reputation  was  safe  only  if  she  could  be  placed  beyond  reproach. 
Hence  those  regulations  which  Mr  Coulton  compares  to  "the 
minutely  ingenious  and  degrading  precautions  of  an  oriental 
harem"2. 

Based  upon  such  considerations  as  these,  the  movement  for 
the  enclosure  of  nuns  began  very  early  in  their  history  and  con 
tinued  with  unabated  vigour  long  after  the  Reformation3.  Some 
years  before  the  compilation  of  the  Benedictine  Rule  St  Caesarius 
of  Aries,  in  his  Rule  for  nuns,  had  forbidden  them  ever  to  leave 
their  monastery;  and  from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century 
decrees  were  passed  from  time  to  time  by  various  provincial 
councils,  advocating  a  stricter  enclosure  of  monks  and  nuns,  but 
especially  of  the  latter.  Already  by  the  twelfth  century  mon- 
asticism  had  declined  from  its  first  fervour,  and  it  is  significant 
that  the  reformed  orders  which  sprang  up  during  the  great 
renaissance  of  that  century  all  made  a  special  effort  to  enforce 
enclosure  upon  their  nuns.  The  nuns  of  Premontre  and  Fonte- 
vrault  were  strictly  enclosed  and  in  the  middle  of  the  following 

as  these  would  be  most  indecent  for  even  an  earthly  queen,  and  far  below 
the  dignity  of  a  bride  of  the  King  of  Heaven.'"  Coulton,  Med.  Studies, 
No.  10,  "Monastic  Schools  in  Middle  Ages  "  (1913),  pp.  21-2. 

1  Words  which  Menander  puts  in  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters. 
Compare  the  famous  Periclean  definition  of  womanly  virtue,  which  is  "not 
to  be  talked  about  for  good  or  for  evil  among  men." 

2  Coulton,  Chaucer  and  his  England,  p.  in. 

3  The  following  references  will  be  found  conveniently  collected  in  Part  I 
chs.  1-16  of  a  very  interesting  little  book,  the  Tvaiti  de,  la  Cldture  des  Reli- 
gieuses,   published  in  Paris  in   1681   by  Jean-Baptiste  Thiers,   "Prestre, 
Bachelier  en  Theologie  de  la  Faculte  de  Paris  et  Cure  de  Chambrond."  The 
treatise  is  divided  into  two  parts,  one  of  which  shows  "that  it  is  not  per 
mitted  to  nuns  to  leave  their  enclosure  without  necessity,"  the  other  "that 
it  is  not  permitted  to  strangers  to  enter  the  enclosure  of  nuns  without 
necessity."     The   author   contends   that   enclosure   was   the   immemorial 
practice  of  the  Church,  though  the  first  general  decree  on  the  subject  was 
the  Bull  Periculoso ;  but  what  he  proves  is  really  that  the  demand  grew  up 
gradually  and  naturally  out  of  the  effort  to  reform  the  growing  abuses  in 
conventual  life,  which  sprang  from  too  free  an  intercourse  with  the  world. 


344  FJSH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

century  the  statutes  promulgated  by  the  Chapter-General  of  the 
Cistercian  Order  (1256-7)  contain  a  clause  ordering  nuns  to 
remain  in  their  convents,  except  under  certain  specified  con 
ditions,  while  the  rule  given  by  Urban  IV  to  the  Franciscan 
nuns   (1263)   went  further  than   any  previous  enactments  in 
binding  them  by  a  vow  of  perpetual  enclosure,  against  whid 
no  plea  of  necessity  might  avail.  Various  synods  and  council 
continued  to  repeat  the  order  that  nuns  were  not  to  leave  thei 
houses,  except  for  a  reasonable  cause,  but  it  is  plain  from  th 
evidence  of  ecclesiastics,  moralists  and  episcopal  visitations  tha 
the    nuns    all  over  Europe   paid  small  heed   to  their  words 
Finally,  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  century,  came  the  firs 
general  regulation  on  the  subject  which  was  binding  as  a  law 
upon  the  whole  church,  the  famous  Bull  Periculoso,  promulgatec 
by  Boniface  VIII  about  the  year  1299. 

This   decree,    often    afterwards    confirmed    by    Popes    am 
Councils,  remained  the  standard  regulation  upon  the  subject 
and  in  view  of  its  cardinal  importance  its  terms  are  worthy  o 
notice: 

Desiring  to  provide  for  the  perilous  and  detestable  state  of  certain 
nuns,  who,  jjhaving^  slackened  the  reins  of  decency  and  having  shame 
lessly  cast  asT3e"the  mo'desty  of  their  order  jmcT  ol '  then-sex'^sumetimes 
gad  about  outside  thekjn^na^ries7ythe^dwellings  of  secular  persons 
and  frequently  admit  s'uspected  persons  within  the  same  monasteries 
to  the  grave  offence  of  Him  to  Whom  they  have,  of  their  own  will 
vowed  their  innocence,  to  the  opprobrium  of  religion  and  to  the 
scandal  of  very  many  persons ;  WP  hy  ft*  prffifint  fiP^'llHtP"  which 
shall  be  irrefragably  valid,  decree  with  heal^jFujJnj^ni;  flia.f  all  and 
sundry  nuns,  present  and  future,  to  whatever  order  thrv  hi-lcui^  am 
in  whatever  part  of  the  world,  shall  henceforth  remain  perpetually 
enclosed  within  their  monasteries;  so  that  no  nun  tacitly  or  expressly 
professed  in  religion  shall  henceforth  have  or  be  able  to  have  the 
power  of  going  out  of  those  monasteries  for  whatsoever  reason  or 
cause,  unless  perchance  any  be  found  manifestly  suffering  from  a 
disease  so  great  and  of  such  a  nature  that  she  cannot,  without  grave 
danger  or  scandal,  live  together  with  others;  and  to  no  dishonest  or 
even  honest  person  shall  entry  or  access  be  given  by  them,  unless  for 
a  reasonable  and  manifest  cause  and  by  a  special  licence  from  the 
person  to  whom  [the  granting  of  such  a  licence]  pertains;  that  so, 
altogether  withdrawn  from  public  and  mundane  sights,  they  may 
serve  God  more  freely  and,  all  opportunity  for  wantonness  being  re 
moved,  they  may  more  diligently  preserve  for  Him  in  all  holiness 
their  souls  and  their  bodies. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  345 

The  Bull  further,  in  order  to  avoid  any  excuse  for  wandering 
abroad  in  search  of  alms,  forbids  the  reception  into  any  non- 
mendicant  order  of  more  sisters  than  can  be  supported  without 
penury  by  the  goods  of  the  house;  and,  in  order  to  prevent 
nuns  being  forced  to  attend  lawcourts  in  person,  requires  all 
secular  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  to  allow  them  to  plead 
by  proctors  in  their  courts;  but  if  an  Abbess  or  Prioress  has  to 
do  personal  homage  to  a  secular  lord  for  any  fief  and  it  cannot 
be  done  by  a  proctor,  she  may  leave  her  house  with  honest  and 
fit  companions  and  do  the  homage,  returning  home  immediately. 
Finally  Ordinaries  are  enjoined  to  take  order  as  soon  as  may  be 
for  proper  enclosure  where  there  is  none  to  provide  that  it  is 
strictly  kept  according  to  the  terms  of  the  decree,  and  to  see 
that  all  is  completed  by  Ash  Wednesday,  notifying  any  reasonable 
impediment  within  eight  days  of  Candlemas1. 

For  the  next  three  centuries  Councils  and  Bishops  struggled 
manfully  to  put  into  force  the  Bull  Periculoso,  but  without 
success;  the  constant  repetition  of  the  order  that  nuns  should 
not  leave  their  convents  is  the  measure  of  its  failure.  In  the 
various  reformed  orders,  which  were  founded  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  the  insistence  upon  enclosure  bears  witness 
to  the  importance  which  was  attached  to  it  as  a  vital  condition 
of  reform:  Boniface  IX's  ordinances  ior  the  Dominicans  (1402), 
St  Francis  of  Paula's  rule  for  his  order  in  Calabria  (1435),  tne 
rule  of  the  Order  of  the  Annunciation,  founded  by  Jeanne, 
daughter  of  Louis  XI,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
Johann  Busch's  reforms  in  Saxony,  the  reformed  rules  given 
by  Etienne  Poncher,  Bishop  of  Paris,  to  the  nuns  of  Chelles, 
Montmartre  and  Malnoue  (1506)  and  by  Geoffrey  de  Saint  Belin, 
Bishop  of  Poitiers,  to  the  nuns  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Poitiers  (1511), 
all  insist  upon  strict  enclosure2.  Similarly  a  long  list  might  be 
drawn  up  of  general  and  provincial  councils  and  synods  which 
i  repeated  the  ordinance,  culminating  in  the  great  general  Council 
iof  Trent,  which  renewed  the  decree  Periculoso  and  was  itself 

1  Sext.  Decret.  lib.  in,  tit.  xvi.    Quoted  in  Reg.  Simonis  de  Gandavo, 
'pp.  10  ff. ;  from  which  I  quote.    See  also  Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  45-9- 

2  See  Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  53-60  for  these,  except  the  reforms  of  Busch, 
'for  which  see  below,  App.  in.    Three  papal  bulls  were  published  in  the 

sixteenth  century  reinforcing  Periculoso,  viz.  the  Bull  Circa  pastor  alis  (1566) 
and  Decori  et  honestati  (1570)  of  Pius  V  and  the  Bull  Deo  sacris  of  Gregory 
XIII  (1572). 


346  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

followed  by  another  long  series  of  provincial  councils,  which 
endeavoured  to  put  its  decree  into  force.  But  these  efforts  were 
still  attended  by  very  imperfect  success,  for  the  worldly  nuns 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  chafed  at  the  irksome 
restriction  no  less  than  did  their  predecessors  of  the  middle  ages. 
When,  in  1681,  Jean-Baptiste  Thiers  published  his  treatise  on 
the  enclosure  of  nuns  he  announced  his  reason  to  be  that  no 
point  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  was  in  his  day  more  completely 
neglected  and  ignored1. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  enclosure  movement  in  the  Western 
Church  is  necessary  to  a  right  understanding  of  the  special 
attempts  which  were  made  in  England  to  keep  the  nuns  in  their 
cloisters  by  means  of  an  absolute  enforcement  of  the  Benedictine 
Rule.  Visitatorial  injunctions  on  this  subject  during  the  four 
teenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  and  up  to  the  Reformation  were 
based  upon  three  enactments:  the  constitutions  of  the  legate 
Ottobon  in  1268,  the  vigorous  reforms  of  Archbishop  Peckham 
(1279-92)  and  the  Bull  Periculoso.  The  Cardinal  Legate  Ottobon 
had  come  to  England  in  1265,  on  the  restoration  of  Henry  III 
after  Evesham,  with  the  purpose  of  punishing  bishops  and 
clergy  who  had  supported  the  party  of  Simon  de  Montfort  and 
the  barons.  When  peace  was  finally  signed  in  1267,  largelY  by 
his  intervention,  he  was  able  to  turn  his  attention  to  general 
abuses  prevalent  in  the  English  church  and  one  of  the  reforms 
which  he  attempted  to  enforce  was  the  stricter  enclosure  of  nuns. 
Chapter  LII  of  his  Constitutions  [Quod  moniales  a  certis  locis  non 
exeant]  is  an  amplification  of  the  Benedictine  rule  of  enclosure, 
made  far  more  rigid  and  severe.  "Lest  by  repeated  intercourse 
with  secular  folk  the  quiet  and  contemplation  of  the  nuns  should 
be  troubled,"  minute  regulations  were  laid  down  as  to  their 
movements.  They  were  allowed  to  enter  their  chapel,  chapter, 

"Cependant  il  n'y  a  gueres  aujourd'hui  de  point  de  Discipline  Ecclesi-, 
astique  qui  soit  ou  plus  neglige,  ou  plus  ignore  que  celui  de  la  cloturc  de»[ 
Religieuses;  et  quoique  les  Conciles,  les  Saints  Docteurs  et  les  Peres  dear 
Monasteres,  ayent  en  divers  temps  et  en  divers  rencontres,  employe  leiff 
zele  et  leur  authority  pour  en  etablir  la  pratique;  nous  ne  laissons  pa* 
neanmoins  de  voir  sou  vent  avec  douleur  qu'on  le  viole  empunement,  sans 
scrupule,  sans  reflexion  et  sans  necessite.  L'Eglise  gemit  tous  les  jours  en 
veue  de  ce  desordre  qui  la  deshonore  notablement;  et  c'est  pour  compatir 
en  quelque  fagon  a  ses  gemissemens,  que  j'entreprens  de  le  combattre  dans 
ce  Traite."  Op.  cit.  Preface. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  347 

'   dorter  and  f rater  at  due  and  fixed  times;  otherwise  they  were 
I   to  remain  in  the  cloister;  and  none  of  these  places  were  to  be 
entered  by  seculars,  save  very  seldom  and  for  some  sufficient 
reason.   No  nun  was  to  converse  with  any  man,  except  seriously 
and  in  a  public  place,  and  at  least  one  other  nun  was  always  to 
be  present  at  such  conversations.    No  nun  was  to  have  a  meal 
outside  the  house  except  with  the  permission  of  the  superior 
and  then  only  with  a  relative,   or  some  person  from  whose 
company  no  suspicion  could  arise.  All  other  places,  beyond  those 
specified,  were  entirely  forbidden  to  the  nuns,  with  the  exception, 
in  certain  circumstances,  of  the  infirmary.    No  nun  was  to  go 
I  to  the  different  offices,  except  the  obedientiaries,  whose  duties 
1  rendered  it  necessary  and  they  were  never  to  go  without  a 
|  companion.  The  Abbess  or  head  of  the  house  was  never  to  leave 
it,  except  for  its  evident  advantage  or  for  urgent  necessity,  and 
she  was  always  to  have  an  honest  companion,  while  the  lesser 
nuns  were  never  to  be  given  licence  to  go  out,  except  for  some 
fit  cause  and  in  company  with  another  nun.   Finally  nuns  were 
I  not  to  leave  their  convents  for  public  processions,  but  were  to 
hold  their  processions  within  the  precincts  of  their  own  houses. 
The  legate  strictly  enjoined  that  "the  prelates  to  whose  juris 
diction  belonged  the  visitation  of  each  nunnery  should  cause 
these  statutes  to  be  observed"1. 

It  will  be  realised  that  these  injunctions  were  exceedingly 

|  severe  and  that  the  visitors  were  not  likely  to  find  their  task 

I  a  sinecure.  There  is  little  evidence  for  determining  how  far  any 

serious  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  the  legate's  Constitutions2, 

but  if  we  may  judge  from  the  language  of  Peckham,  some  ten 

years  later,  any  attempts  which  may  have  been  made  had  not 

been  strikingly  successful.     One   of   the   first   actions   of   this 

I  energetic  archbishop  on  his  elevation  to  the  see  of  Canterbury 

I  was  to  carry  out  a  visitation  of  the  nunneries  of  Barking  and 

1  Wilkins,  Concilia,  u.  p.  18. 

2  See,  however,   the  injunctions  of  Thomas  of  Cantilupe,   Bishop  of 
I  Hereford,  to  Lymbrook  in  1277,  which  are  in  part  a  recital  of  Ottobon's 
i  Constitutions.    Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  201.    Peckham,  in  the  injunc- 
|  tions  which  he  sent  to  Barking  and  Godstow  in  1279,  states  that  they  are 
\  based  respectively  upon  those  issued  by  John  de  Chishull,  Bishop  of  London, 
•  and  by  Robert  de  Kilwardby,  his  predecessor  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
l  and  it  is  probable  that  both  of  these  prelates  had  attempted  to  enforce 

Ottobon's  Constitutions.   Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  i,  p.  81;  n,  p.  846. 


348  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

Godstow  and  to  send  to  both  houses  injunctions  laying  great 
stress  on  strict  enclosure  (1279).  ^n  I2^r  he  followed  up  these 
injunctions  by  two  general  decrees  for  the  enclosure  of  nuns; 
and  in  1284  he  visited  the  three  nunneries  of  Romsey,  Holy 
Sepulchre  (Canterbury)  and  Usk  and  sent  injunctions  enforcing 
the  Constitutions  of  I28I1.  In  these  injunctions  he  laid  down 
with  great  exactness  the  conditions  to  be  observed  in  granting 
nuns  permission  to  leave  their  convents.  The  Godstow  injunction 
runs  thus: 

For  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  surer  witness  to  chastity,  we  ordain 
that  nuns  shall  not  leave  the  precincts  of  the  monastery,  save  for 
necessary  business  which  cannot  be  performed  by  any  other  persons. 
Hence  we  condemn  for  ever,  by  these  present  [letters]  those  sojourns 
which  were  wont  to  be  made  in  the  houses  of  friends,  for  the  sake  of 
pleasure  and  of  escaping  from  discipline  [ad  solatium  et  ad  subterfugium 
disciplinae].  And  when  it  shall  befall  any  [nuns]  to  go  out  for  any 
necessity,  we  strictly  order  these  four  [conditions]  to  be  observed. 
First,  that  they  be  permitted  to  go  out  only  in  safe  and  mature  com 
pany,  as  well  of  nuns  as  of  secular  persons  helping  them.  Secondly 
that  having  at  once  performed  their  business,  so  far  as  it  can  be  by 
them  performed,  they  return  to  their  house;  and  if  the  performance 
of  the  business  demand  a  delay  of  several  days,  after  the  first  or  second 
day  it  shall  be  left  to  proctors  to  finish  it.  Thirdly  that  they  never 
lodge  in  the  precincts  of  men  of  religion  or  in  the  houses  of  clergy,  or 
in  other  suspected  habitations.  Fourthly  that  no  one  absent  herself 
from  the  sight  of  her  companion  or  companions,  in  any  place  where 
human  conversation  might  be  held,  nor  listen  to  any  secret  whispering, 
except  in  the  presence  of  the  nuns  her  companions,  unless  perchance 
father  or  mother,  brother  or  sister  have  something  private  to  say  to 
her2. 

The  Barking  injunctions  are  slightly  different  and  the  first  con 
dition  imposed  therein  is  interesting:  "That  they  be  sent  forth 
only  for  a  necessary  and  inevitable  cause,  that  is  in  particular 
the  imminent  death  of  a  parent,  beyond  which  cause  we  can 
hardly  imagine  any  other  which  would  be  sufficient  "3.  These 
injunctions  are  very  severe,  since  they  limit  the  occasions  upon 
which  a  nun  might  leave  her  convent  to  the  performance  of 
some  negotiation  connected  with  the  business  of  the  house  and 

1  He  visited  Wherwell  in  the  same  year,  but  his  injunctions  to  that  house 
dealt  with  the  entrance  of  seculars  into  the  nunnery,  not  with  the  exit  of 
nuns. 

*  Keg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  p.  247.  *  Ib.  I,  pp.  85-6. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  349 

to  attendance  at  the  deathbeds  of  relatives  and  entirely  forbid 
all  visits  for  pleasure  to  the  houses  of  friends. 

In  1281  Peckham  published  a  mandate  directed  against  the 
seducers  of  nuns;  after  excommunicating  all  who  committed  or 
attempted  to  commit  this  crime  and  declaring  that  absolution 
for  the  sentence  could  be  given  only  by  a  Bishop  or  by  the  Pope 
(except  on  the  point  of  death),  he  proceeded  to  deal  with  the 
question  of  the  enclosure  of  nuns,  on  the  ground  that  their 
wandering  in  the  world  gave  opportunity  for  such  crimes,  and 
sternly  forbade  them  to  pay  visits  for  the  sake  of  recreation, 
even  to  the  closest  relatives,  or  to  remain  out  of  their  houses 
for  more  than  two  days  on  business1.  The  same  year  he  also 
dealt  with  the  subject  in  the  course  of  a  set  of  constitutions, 
concerning  various  abuses,  which  he  considered  to  be  in  need 
of  reform.  The  language  of  the  chapter  in  which  he  treats  of 
the  claustration  of  nuns  is  in  parts  the  same  as  that  of  the 
ordinance  against  seducers,  but  it  is  less  severe,  for  it  enacts 
only  that  nuns  shall  not  stay  "more  than  three  natural  days 
for  the  sake  of  recreation,  or  more  than  six  days  for  any  necessary 
reason,  save  in  case  of  illness."  Moreover  the  Archbishop  adds: 
"we  do  not  extend  this  ordinance  to  those  who  are  obliged  to 
beg  necessities  of  life,  while  they  are  begging"2.  It  was  this 
j  modified  version  of  his  ordinance  which  he  tried  to  impose  in 
i  his  visitation  of  1284,  for  at  Romsey  he  recognised  that  the  nuns 
i  might  be  leaving  the  house  for  recreation  and  not  merely  upon 

1  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  i,  pp.  265-6,  and  in  Wilkins,  op.  cit.  u,  p.  61. 

2  Wilkins,  op.  cit.  n,  pp.  53-9.  Thiers'  remarks  on  the  practice  of  begging 
by  nuns  are  interesting  in  this  connection.    He  contends  that  only  sheer 
famine  justifies  the  breach  of  enclosure  and  adds:  "C'est  pourquoy  je  ne 
comprends  pas  d'ou  vient  que  nous  voyons  a  Paris  et  ailleurs,  tant  de 
Religieuses,  quelquefois  assez  jeunes  et  assez  bien  faites  qui  sous  pretexte 
que  leurs  Monasteres  sont  dans  le  besoin,  demandent  1'aumone  aux  portes 
des  Eglises,  qui  courent  par  les  maisons  des  seculiers  et  qui  demeurent  un 
temps  considerable  hors  de  leurs  Monasteres,  le  plus  souvent  sans  S£avoir 
ne  la  vie  ni  les  moeurs  des  personnes  qui  exercent  1'hospitalite  envers  elles. 
On  rendroit,  ce  me  semble,  un  grand  service  a  1'Eglise  si  on  les  reduisoit 
aux  termes  de  la  Bulle  de  Gregoire  XIII.  Deo  sacris,  qui  leur  procure  les 
moyens  de  subsister  honnestement  dans  leurs  Monasteres,  sans  rompre  leur 
cloture.    Car  ainsi  les  gens  de  bien  ne  seroient  point  scandalisez  de  leurs 
sorties  ne  de  leurs  courses,  et  elles  feroient  incomparablement  mieux  leur 
salut  dans  leurs  Couvents  que  dans  le  Monde,  ou  je  n'estime  pas  qu'elles 
puissent  rester  en  seurete  de  conscience."    He  quotes  an  ordinance  of  the 
General  of  the  Franciscan  Order  in  1609,  forbidding  even  the  sisters  of  the 
Tertiary  Order  to  beg.   Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  167-9. 


350  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

the  business  of  the  convent;  the  Abbess,  for  instance,  is  to  take 
her  three  coadjutresses  with  her  when  she  goes  out  on  business, 
and  two  of  them  if  she  go  causa  solatii.  At  this  house  he  forbade 
nuns  to  go  out  without  a  companion,  or  to  stay  for  more  than 
three  days  with  seculars  and  condemned  their  practice  of  eating 
and  drinking  in  the  town;  no  nun,  either  on  leaving  or  returning 
to  the  convent,  was  to  enter  any  house  in  the  town  of  Romsey, 
or  to  eat  or  drink  there,  and  no  cleric  or  secular  man  or  woman 
was  to  give  them  any  food  outside  the  precincts1.  At  St  Sepulchre 
(Canterbury)  Peckham  regulated  the  visits  of  nuns  to  confessors 
outside  the  house,  and  at  Usk  he  ordered  that  no  nun  was  to  go 
out  without  suitable  companions,  or  to  stay  more  than  three 
or  four  days  in  the  houses  of  secular  persons2. 

The  next  effort  made  in  England  to  enforce  enclosure  upon 
nuns  was  the  result  of  Boniface  VIII's  Bull  Periculoso.  Bishops' 
registers  about  the  year  1300  sometimes  contain  copies  of  this 
severe  enactment.  One  of  the  earliest  efforts  to  carry  it  out  was 
made  by  Simon  of  Ghent,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  who  on  November 
28th,  1299,  issued  a  long  letter  to  the  Abbess  of  Wilton  (obviously 
inserted  in  the  register  as  a  specimen  of  a  circular  sent  to  each 
nunnery  in  the  diocese),  embodying  the  text  of  the  bull  and 
ordering  her  to  put  it  into  force,  and  in  1303  he  issued  a  mandate 
for  the  enclosure  of  the  nuns  of  Shaftesbury,  Wilton,  Amesbury, 
Lacock,  Tarrant  Keynes  and  Kington3.  The  Register  of  Godfrey 
Giffard,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  contains  a  note  in  the  year  1300 : 

As  to  the  shutting  up  of  nuns.  It  is  expedient  that  a  letter  of  warning 
be  sent  according  to  the  form  of  the  constitution  and  directed  to  every 
house  of  nuns,  that  they  do  what  is  necessary  for  their  inclusion  and 
cause  themselves  to  be  enclosed  this  side  the  Gule  of  August. 

The  Bishop  seems  however  from  the  beginning  to  have  doubted 
his  capacity  to  carry  out  the  decree,  for  further  on  the  register 
contains  another  note,  "As  to  whether  it  is  expedient  to  enclose 
the  nuns  of  the  diocese  of  Worcester"4.  An  undated  note  of 
Inhibiciones  facie  monialibus  de  Werewell  in  the  Register  of  John 
of  Pontoise,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  among  other  documents  be 
longing  to  1299-1300,  is  probably  in  part  a  result  of  Periculoso: 

1  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  pp.  659,  664-5. 

1  Ib.  ii,  pp.  707,  806.  *  Reg.  Simonis  de  Gandavo,  pp.  10  ff.,  109. 

4  Reg.  Godfrey  Giffard,  n,  pp.  515,  517. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  351 

We  forbid  on  pain  of  excommunication  any  nun  or  sister  to  go  outside 
the  bounds  of  the  monastery  until  we  have  made  some  ordinance 
concerning  enclosure.  Item  let  no  one  be  received  as  nun  or  sister 
until  we  have  enquired  more  fully  into  the  resources  of  the  house. 
Item  we  order  the  abbess  to  remove  all  secular  women  and  to  receive 
none  henceforth  as  boarders  in  their  house.  Item  let  her  permit  no 
secular  clerk  or  layman  to  enter  the  cloister  to  speak  with  the  nuns1. 

But  the  most  detailed  information  as  to  the  efforts  of  a  con 
scientious  bishop  to  enforce  Boniface  VIII's  decree  in  England 
is  contained  in  the  Register  of  Bishop  Dalderby  of  Lincoln. 
Dalderby  was  a  new  broom  in  the  diocese  and  he  determined 
to  sweep  clean.  On  June  I7th,  1300,  he  directed  a  mandate  to 
the  archdeacons  of  his  diocese  ordering  each  to  associate  with 
himself  some  other  mature  and  honest  man  and  to  visit  the 
religious  houses  in  his  own  archdeaconry,  explaining  the  terms 
of  the  new  bull  intelligibly  to  the  nuns  and  ordering  them  to 
remain  within  their  nunneries  and  to  permit  no  one  to  enter 
the  precincts  contrary  to  the  tenour  of  the  decree,  until  the  Bishop 
should  be  able  to  visit  them  in  person;  the  heads  of  the  houses 
were  to  be  specially  warned  to  carry  out  the  decree  and  for  better 
security  a  sealed  copy  of  it  was  to  be  deposited  in  each  house 
by  the  commissioners2. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  two  months  Dalderby  visited, 
either  in  person  or  by  commissioners,  Marlow,  Burnham,  Flam- 
stead,  Markyate,  Elstow,  Goring,  Studley,  Godstow,  Delapre 
(Northampton)  and  Sewardsley3.  At  each  house  the  bull  was 
carefully  explained  to  the  nuns  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  they  were 
ordered  to  obey  it  and  a  copy  was  left  with  them.  But  this 
campaign  was  not  unattended  with  difficulties.  The  nuns  were 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  restriction  of  a  freedom  to  which  they 
were  accustomed  and  which  they  heartily  enjoyed,  and  an  entry 
in  Dalderby's  Register,  describing  his  visitation  of  Markyate, 
shows  that  even  in  the  middle  ages  a  bishop's  lot  was  not  a 
,happy  one: 

On  July  3rd,  in  the  first  year  [of  his  consecration],  the  Bishop  visited 
the  house  of  nuns  of  Markyate  and  on  the  following  day  he  caused 
co  be  recited  before  the  nuns  of  the  same  [house]  in  chapter  the  statute 
)ut  forth  by  the  lord  Pope  Boniface  VIII  concerning  the  enclosure 

1  Reg.  J .  de  Pontissara,  p.  546. 

2  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.  9. 

3  Ib.  £E.  gd,  iod,  ii,  i2d,  i$d. 


352  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

of  nuns,  explained  it  in  the  vulgar  tongue  and  giving  them  a  copy  of 
the  same  statute  under  his  seal,  ordered  them  in  virtue  of  obedience 
henceforth  to  observe  it  in  the  matter  of  enclosure  and  of  all  things 
contained  in  it,  and  especially  to  close  all  doors  by  which  entrance  is 
had  into  the  inner  places  of  their  house  and  to  permit  no  person, 
whether  dishonest  or  honest,  to  enter  in  to  them,  without  reasonable 
and  manifest  cause  and  licence  from  the  person  to  whom  [the  granting 
of  such  a  licence]  pertains.  Furthermore  he  specially  enjoined  the 
Prioress  to  observe  the  said  statute  in  all  its  articles  and  to  cause  it 
to  be  observed  by  the  others.  But  when  the  Bishop  was  going  away, 
certain  of  the  nuns,  disobedient  to  these  injunctions,  hurled  the  said 
statute  at  his  back  and  over  his  head,  and  as  well  the  Prioress  as  the 
convent  appeared  to  consent  to  those  who  threw  it,  following  the 
bishop  to  the  outer  gate  of  the  house  and  declaring  unanimously  that 
they  were  not  content  in  any  way  to  observe  such  a  statute.  On 
account  of  which,  the  Bishop,  who  was  then  directing  his  steps  to 
Dunstable,  returned  tke  next  day  and  having  made  inquisition  as  to 
the  matters  concerned  in  the  said  statute,  imposed  a  penance  on  four 
nuns,  whom  he  found  guilty  and  on  the  whole  convent  for  their  con 
sent,  as  is  more  fully  contained  in  his  letters  of  correction  sent  to  the 
aforesaid  house. 

Afterwards  he  sent  letters  to  the  recalcitrant  convent  warning 
them  for  the  third  time  (they  had  already  been  warned  once  by 
the  Official  of  the  Archdeacon  of  Bedford  and  a  second  time  at 
the  visitation  which  has  just  been  described)  to  keep  the  new 
decree,  on  pain  of  the  major  excommunication,  from  which  only 
the  Pope  could  absolve  them1. 

There  was  opposition  at  other  convents,  too,  though  we  hear 
of  no  more  attacks  on  the  episcopal  shoulders.  On  August  igth 
Dalderby  wrote  as  follows  to  Master  Benedict  de  Feriby,  rector 
of  Broughton,  Northants  (a  church  in  the  presentation  of  the 
Abbess  and  Convent  of  Delapre) : 

It  has  come  to  our  ears,  by  clamorous  rumour,  that  some  of  the  nuns 
of  our  diocese,  spurning  good  obedience,  slackening  the  reins  of 
honesty  and  shamelessly  casting  aside  the  modesty  of  their  sex, 
despise  the  papal  statute  concerning  enclosure  directed  to  them,  as 
well  as  our  injunctions  made  to  them  upon  the  subject,  and  frequent 
cities  and  other  public  places  outside  their  monasteries,  and  mingle 
in  the  haunts  of  men; 

he  proceeded  to  order  Feriby  to  visit  nunneries  wherever  he 
considered  it  expedient  to  do  so,  and  to  punish  those  who  were 
guilty  of  breaking  the  statute,  signifying  to  the  Bishop,  by  a 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.  lod. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  353 

certain  date,  the  names  of  all  who  had  been  accused  of  doing  so, 
whether  they  had  been  found  guilty  or  not1.  This  mandate  is 
no  doubt  in  part  explained  by  two  other  letters  which  he  dis 
patched  on  the  same  day;  one  of  them  was  directed  to  the 
Archdeacon  of  Northampton  and  set  forth  (in  language  which 
often  repeats  verbatim  the  phrases  of  the  papal  bull)  that  at  the 
Bishop's  recent  visitation  of  Delapre  (Northampton)  he  had 
found  three  nuns  in  apostasy,  having  cast  off  their  habits  after 
being  a  long  time  professed,  and  left  their  house  to  live  a  secular 
life  in  the  world2.  The  other  letter  contains  a  sentence  of  the 
greater  excommunication  against  a  nun  of  Sewardsley ,  for  similar 
conduct3.  These  cases  of  apostasy  were  less  rare  than  might  be 
imagined;  Dalderby  had  to  deal  with  two  others  during  his 
episcopate,  one  at  St  Michael's,  Stamford4,  and  the  other  at 
Goring5;  and  during  the  rule  of  his  predecessor  Sutton  three 
nuns  had  escaped  from  Godstow  and  one  from  Wothorpe 6.  They 
illustrate  the  undoubted  truth  that  it  was  only*"  the  existence 
(already  in  the  thirteenth  century)  of  very  grave  disorders,  which 
led  reformers  like  Ottobon,  Peckham  ancT  Boniface  VIII  to 
beat  the  air"  with  such  severe  restrictions. 

These  three  documents,  the  Constitutions  of  Ottobon  and  of 
Peckham  and  the  Bull  Periculoso,  were  the  standard  decrees  on 
the  subject  of  the  claustration  of  nuns  in  England  and  were 
used  as  a  model  by  visitors  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
jcenturies.  William  of  Wykeham,  for  example,  in  the  exceptionally 
full  and  formal  injunctions  which  he  sent  to  Romsey  and  to 
Wherwell  in  1387  continually  refers  by  name  to  Ottobon  and 
to  Peckham,  and  the  wording  of  the  Bull  Periculoso  is  followed 
verbatim  in  the  mandate  directed  by  Bishop  Grandisson  of 
Exeter  to  Canonsleigh  in  1329  and  in  the  commission  sent  by 
lis  successor  Bishop  Brantyngham  to  two  canons  of  Exeter  in 
[376,  concerning  the  wanderings  of  the  nuns  of  Polsloe.  But  a 
;;tudy  of  the  visitation  documents  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
Centuries  makes  it  clear  that  the  nuns  never  really  made  any 
ittempt  to  obey  the  regulations  which  imposed  a  strict  enclosure 
ipon  them;  and  that  the  bishops  upon  whom  fell  the  brunt  of 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.  35^.      2  Ib.  f.  16.  See  below,  p.  441. 
1  Ib.  *  Agnes  Flixthorpe.    See  below,  p.  443.  *  Ib.  f.  152. 

6  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Sutton,  ft.  5<l,  32^,  154.    For  these  and  other 
iases  of  apostasy  see  Chap,  xi,  passim. 

23 


354  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

administering  Periculoso  themselves  allowed  a  considerable  lati 
tude,  directing  their  efforts  towards  regulating  the  conditions 
under  which  nuns  left  their  convents,  rather  than  to  keeping 
them  within  the  precincts.  Le  mieux  est  I'ennemi  du  bien  and 
the  steady  opposition  of  the  nuns  forced  a  compromise  upon 
their  visitors.  The  canonist  John  of  Ay  ton,  reciting  the  decrees 
of  Ottobon  and  of  Boniface,  with  their  injunction  that  bishops 
shall  "cause  them  to  be  observed,"  exclaims 

Cause  to  be  observed !  But  surely  there  is  scarce  any  mortal  man  who 
could  do  this:  we  must  therefore  here  understand  "so  far  as  lieth  in 
the  prelate's  power."  For  the  nuns  answer  roundly  to  these  statutes 
or  to  any  others  promulgated  against  their  wantonness,  saying  "In 
truth  the  men  who  made  these  laws  sat  well  at  their  ease,  while  they 
laid  such  burdens  upon  us  by  these  hard  and  intolerable  restrictions ! " 
Wherefore  we  see  in  fact  that  these  statutes  are  a  dead  letter  or  are 
ill-kept  at  the  best.  Why,  then,  did  the  holy  fathers  thus  labour  to 
beat  the  air  ?  Yet  indeed  their  toil  is  none  the  less  to  their  own  merit ; 
for  we  look  not  to  that  which  is  but  to  that  which  of  justice  should  be1. 

Dalderby's  experience  at  Markyate  shows  that  John  of  Ayton's 
picture  was  not  too  highly  coloured,  and  since  it  was  impossible 
to  enforce  "hard  and  intolerable  restrictions"  without  at  least 
a  measure  of  co-operation  from  the  nuns  themselves,  the  bishops 
took  the  only  course  open  to  them  in  trying  to  minimise  the 
evil.  Their  expedients  deserve  some  study,  and  as  a  typical 
set  of  episcopal  injunctions  dealing  with  journeys  by  nuns  out 
side  their  cloisters  it  will  suffice  to  quote  those  sent  by  Walter 
Stapeldon,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  to  the  nunneries  of  Polsloe  and 
Canonsleigh.  These  rules  were  drawn  up  in  1319,  only  twenty 
years  after  the  publication  of  the  Bull  Periculoso,  but  they  are 
already  far  removed  from  the  strict  ideal  of  Boniface  VIII. 
Stapeldon  was  a  practical  statesman  and  he  evidently  realised 
that  the  enforcement  of  strict  enclosure  was  impossible  in  a 
diocese  where  the  nuns  had  been  used  to  considerable  freedom 
and  where  all  the  counties  of  the  West  saw  them  upon  their 
holidays. 

The  clauses  dealing  with  the  subject  run  as  follows: 

De  visitacione  amicorum.  No  lady  of  religion  is  to  go  and  visit  her 
friends  outside  the  priory,  but  if  it  be  once  a  year  at  the  most  and  then 
for  reasonable  cause  and  by  permission;  and  then  let  her  have  a 

1  Lyndwood,  Provincials  (1679),  Pt  n.  p.  155-    Quoted  by  Mr  Coulton 
in  Med.  Studies,  No.  10,  "Monastic  Schools  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  p.  21. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  355 

companion  professed  in  the  same  religion,  not  of  her  own  choice, 
but  whomsoever  the  Prioress  will  assign  to  her  and  she  who  is  once 
assigned  to  her  for  companion  shall  not  be  assigned  the  next  time, 
so  that  each  time  a  lady  goes  to  visit  her  friends  her  companion  is 
changed;  and  if  she  have  permission  to  go  to  certain  places  to  visit 
her  friends,  let  her  not  go  to  other  places  without  new  permission. 
De  absentia  Dominarum  et  regressu  earum.  Item,  when  any  lady  of 
religion  eats  at  Exeter,  or  in  another  place  near  by,  for  reasonable 
cause  and  by  permission,  whenever  she  can  she  ought  to  return  the 
same  or  the  following  day  and  each  time  let  her  have  a  companion 
and  a  chaplain,  clerk  or  serving-man  of  good  repute  assigned  by  the 
prioress,  who  shall  go,  remain  and  return  with  them  and  otherwise 
they  shall  not  go ;  and  then  let  them  return  speedily  to  the  house,  as 
they  be  commanded,  and  let  them  not  go  again  to  Exeter,  wandering 
from  house  to  house,  as  they  have  oftentimes  done,  to  the  dishonour 
of  their  state  and  of  religion.  De  Dominabus  "  Wakerauntes "  [i.e. 
vagantibus] .  Item,  a  lady  who  goes  a  long  distance  to  visit  her  friends, 
in  the  aforesaid  form,  should  return  to  the  house  within  a  month  at 
the  latest,  or  within  a  shorter  space  if  it  be  assigned  her  by  the  Prioress, 
having  regard  to  the  distance  or  proximity  of  the  place,  where  dwell 

|  the  friends  whom  she  is  going  to  visit,  but  a  longer  term  ought  the 
Prioress  never  to  give  her,  save  in  the  case  of  death,  or  of  the  known 

j  illness  of  herself  or  of  her  near  friends.  Pena  Dominarum  Vagancium. 
And  if  a  lady  remain  without  for  a  long  time  or  in  any  other  manner 
than  in  the  form  aforesaid,  let  her  never  set  foot  outside  the  outer 
gate  of  the  Priory  for  the  next  two  years ;  and  nevertheless  let  her  be 
punished  otherwise  for  disobedience,  in  such  manner  as  is  laid  down 
by  the  rule  and  observances  of  the  order  of  St  Benet  for  the  fault; 
and  leave  procured  by  the  prayer  of  her  friends  ought  not  to  excuse 
her  from  this  penance1.  No  lady  of  your  religion,  professed  or  un- 
professed,  shall  come  to  the  external  offices  outside  the  door  of  the 
cloister  to  be  bled  or  for  any  other  feigned  excuse,  save  it  be  by  leave 
of  the  Prioress  or  of  the  Subprioress,  and  then  for  a  fit  reason  and  let 
her  have  with  her  another  professed  lady  of  your  religion,  to  the  end 
that  each  of  them  may  see  and  hear  that  which  the  other  shall  say 

j  and  do2. 

1  Apparently  friends  and  relatives  in  the  world  outside  sometimes 
!  intervened,  by  threats  or  prayers,  to  save  a  nun  from  punishment.   A  com- 
\pertum  of  Archbishop  Giffard's  visitation  of  Swine  in  1267-8  runs:  "Item 
:  compertum  est  that  the  Prioress  is  a  suspicious  woman  and  far  too  credulous, 
*  and  easily  breaks  out  into  correction,  and  often  punishes  some  unequally 
i  for  equal  faults,  and  follows  with  long  dislike  those  whom  she  dislikes  until 
j  occasion  arise  to  punish  them;  hence  it  is  that  the  nuns,  when  they  suspect 

that  they  are  going  to  be  troubled  with  excessive  correction,  procure  the 
I  mitigation  of  her  severity  by  means  of  the  threats  of  their  kinsfolk."  Reg. 
.Walter  Giffard,  p.  147. 

2  Reg.  Walter  de  Stapeldon,  p.  317.    Cf.  p.  95.    When  the  London  mob 
had  beheaded  Stapeldon  in  Cheapside,  his  place  was  filled  (after  the  short 
rule  of  Berkeley)  by  an  even  greater  bishop,  John  Grandisson,  who,  in  the 

23—2 


356  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

The  main  lines  along  which  the  bishops  attempted  to  regulate 
the  movements  of  the  nuns  outside  their  houses  appear  clearly 
in  these  injunctions.  It  was  their  invariable  practice  to  forbid 
unlicensed  visits,  in  accordance  with  the  Benedictine  rule;  no 
nun  might  leave  her  house  without  a  licence  from  her  superior 
and  such  licences  were  not  to  be  granted  too  easily1  or  with  any 
show  of  favouritism2;  sometimes  the  licence  of  the  Bishop  was 
required  as  well3.  Such  licences  were  not  to  be  granted  often 
(once  a  year  is  usually  the  specified  rule)4  and  the  bishops  some 
times  tried  to  confine  the  visits  of  nuns  to  parents  or  to  near 
relatives5.  An  attempt  was  also  made  to  regulate  the  length  of 

year  of  his  consecration,  directed  a  mandate  to  the  nuns  of  Canonsleigh 
in  which  he  attempted  to  carry  out  more  closely  than  his  predecessor,  though 
still  not  exactly,  the  terms  of  Periculoso.  He  forbade  the  abbess  to  allow 
any  nuns  to  leave  the  precincts  before  his  visitation  "that  is  to  such  a 
distance  that  it  is  not  possible  for  them  to  return  the  same  day."  This  was 
on  June  23rd  1329;  a  month  later  he  was  obliged  to  compromise,  for  on 
July  1 8th  he  sent  a  licence  to  Canonsleigh,  recapitulating  his  former  man 
date  but  adding  a  special  indulgence,  permitting  ("for  certain  legitimate 
reasons")  the  nuns  to  absent  themselves  from  the  monastery  "with  honest 
and  senior  ladies  to  visit  near  relatives  and  friends  of  themselves  and  of  the 
house,  who  are  free  from  all  suspicion,"  and  fixing  the  limit  of  their  visit 
at  fifteen  days,  an  improvement  on  Stapeldon's  month,  but  still  far  removed 
from  the  spirit  of  Boniface  VIII's  bull.  Reg.  John  de  Grandisson,  I ,  pp.  508, 5 1 1 . 

1  See  e.g.  Wroxall  1338,  "  Et  vous  emouvums   [?   enioiniums],  dame 
prioresse,  qe  vous  ne  seyez  mes  si  legere  de  doner  licence  a  vos  soers  de 
isser  de  le  encloystre  et  nomement  la  priourie  cume  vous  avez  este  en  ces 
houres  saunz  verreye  et  resonable  enchesun  et  cause."    Wore.  Reg.  Sede 
Vacante,  p.  276;  and  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  1373:  "Item,  the  Prioress 
is  too  easily  induced  to  give  permission  to  the  nuns  to  go  outside  the  cloister." 
Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge,  p.  36. 

2  See  e.g.  Fairwell,  1367.    Reg.  Robert  de  Stretton,  p.  118.  The  necessity 
for  an  injunction  against  favouritism  is  shown  by  the  comperta  of  Arch 
bishop    Langham's   visitation   of   St   Sepulchre,    Canterbury,    in    1367-8. 
"Prioressa  non  permittit  moniales  ire  in  villam  ad  visitandum  amicos  suos 
nisi  Margeriam  Child  et  Julianam  Aldelesse  que  illuc  vadunt  quociens  eis 
placet."  Lambeth  Reg.  Langham,  f.  -j6d.   She  was  also  charged  with  allowing 
them  to  receive  suspected  visitors.  See  below,  p.  399. 

»  An  example  of  such  a  licence  for  a  particular  nun  to  leave  her  house  is 
printed  in  Fosbroke,  British  Monachism  (1817),  p.  361  (note  g)  and  also  in 
Taunton,  Engl.  Black  Monks  of  St  Benedict,  I,  p.  108,  note  2.  It  is  said  to 
be  granted  on  the  prayer  of  "  Lady  J.  wife  of  Sir  W.  knight,  of  our  diocese/ 
whom  the  nun  is  to  be  allowed  to  visit,  with  a  companion  from  the  same 
priory  and  to  go  thither  on  horseback  "notwithstanding  your  customs  to 
the  contrary." 

4  But  Archbishop  Melton  said  twice  a  year  at  Arthington  in  1315- 
V.C.H.  Yorks.  HI,  p.  188. 

6  See  e.g.  Bishop  Spofford's  regulation  at  Lymbrook  in  1437:  nor  t< 
be  absent  lyggyng  oute  by  nyght  out  of  their  monastery,  but  with  fader 
and  moder,  excepte  causes  of  necessytee."  Hereford  Epis.  Reg.  Spofford, 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  357 

the  visits.  A  maximum  number  of  days  was  fixed  and  the  nun 
was  to  be  punished  if  she  outstayed  her  leave1,  except  when  she 
was  detained  by  illness.  This  maximum  differed  from  time  to 
time  and  from  place  to  place.  Bishop  Stapeldon,  it  will  be  re 
called,  allowed  the  nuns  in  his  diocese  to  remain  away  for  a 
month  and  longer;  how  he  reconciled  such  laxity  with  his 
conscience  and  the  Bull  Periculoso  is  not  plain.  Archbishop 
Greenfield,  at  the  same  date,  permitted  his  Yorkshire  nuns  a 
maximum  visit  of  fifteen  days2,  and  in  1358  Bishop  Gynewell  of 
Lincoln  forbade  the  nuns  of  Godstow  to  remain  away  for  longer 
than  three  weeks3.  When  Alnwick  visited  the  diocese  of  Lincoln 

I,  f.  77;  and  Archbishop  Lee's  injunction  to  Sinningthwaite  in  1534:  "that 
she  from  henceforth  licence  none  of  her  susters  to  go  fourth  of  the  housse, 
onles  it  be  for  the  profitt  of  the  house,  or  visite  their  fathers  and  modres, 
or  odre  nere  kynsfolkes,  if  the  prioresse  shall  think  it  conuenient."  Yorks. 
Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  442.  Compare  Bishop  Gynewell's  injunction  to  God- 
stow  (1358),  "par  necessarie  et  resonable  cause  ouesque  lour  parents, 
honestement  au  profit  de  vostre  mesoun."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell, 
f.  lood.  Sometimes,  however,  friends  were  mentioned,  e.g.  at  Nunkeeling 
(1314)  none  was  to  go  out  "except  on  the  business  of  the  house  or  to  visit 
friends  and  relations."  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  120.  Sometimes  the  sickness 
of  friends  was  specified.  At  Marrick  (1252)  none  was  to  go  out  unless  "the 
sickness  of  friends  or  some  other  worthy  reason"  demanded  it,  ib.  p.  117; 
and  at  Studley  in  1530-1  Bishop  Longland  ordained  "that  ye  lycence  not 
eny  of  your  ladyes  to  passe  out  of  the  precincte  of  our  monastery  to  visite 
their  kynsfolks  or  frendes,  onles  it  be  for  ther  comforte  in  tyme  of  ther 
sikenes,  and  yett  not  than  onles  it  shall  seme  to  you,  ladye  priores,  to  be 
behouefull  and  necessarye,  seing  that  undre  suche  pretence  moche  insolency 
have  been  used  in  religion,"  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  54.  One  of  the  nuns  of 
Legbourne  in  1440  complained  bitterly  that  the  Prioress  will  not  suffer  this 
deponent  to  visit  her  parent  who  is  sick  [even]  when  it  was  thought  that 
he  would  die."  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  186. 

1  As,  needless  to  say,  she  sometimes  did.   In  1351  Bishop  Gynewell  was 
obliged  to  write  to  Heynings  rebuking  such  disobedience:  "encement  si 
auoms  entenduz  que  les  dames  de  dit  mesoun  sount  acustumez  demurrer 
od  lour  amys  outre  le  terme  par  vous,  Prioresse,  assigne,  nous  commandoms 
a  vous,  Prioress  auant  dit,  qe  taunt  soulement  une  foith  en  i  an  donez 
conge  a  les  dames  de  visiter  lour  amys,  et  certeyn  terme  resonable  pur 
reuenir,  outre  qeule  terme  sils  facent  demoer,  saunz  cause  resonable  par 
vous  accepte,  les  chastes  pur  le  trespasse  solonc  les  obseruances  de  vostres 
ordre  saunz  delay."   Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^.   At  Ivinghoe 
in  1530  it  was  discovered  that  one  of  the  nuns  had  gone  on  a  visit  to  her 
friends  without  permission  and  had  stayed  away  from  the  Feast  of  St  Michael 
to  Passion  Sunday  in  the  following  year  (i.e.  over  six  months),  which  came 
perilously  near  to  apostasy,  V.C.H.  Bucks.  I,  p.  355.     In  the  Vitae  Patrum, 
xc,  206,  however,  there  is  a  tale  of  a  nun  who  was  lent  by  her  Abbess  to 
a  certain  religious  matron  and  lived  with  her  for  a  year.   See  the  version  in 
Exempla  e  sermonibus,  etc.  ed.  T.  F.  Crane,  pp.  26-7. 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  120,  128,  175,  177,  178. 

3  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  lood. 


358  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

in  1440-5,  he  made  careful  inquiry  into  the  length  of  the  visits 
paid  by  the  nuns  and  at  Goring,  Gracedieu,  Markyate,  Nuncoton 
and  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  he  found  that  the  superior  usually 
gave  the  nuns  licence  to  remain  away  a  week,  though  the 
Prioress  of  Studley  gave  exeats  for  three  or  four  days  only1. 
A  week  does  not  seem  a  very  lengthy  absence,  but  Alnwick 
would  have  lifted  horrified  eyebrows  at  the  action  of  his  pre 
decessor  Gynewell,  for  he  ordered  the  superiors  "  that  ye  gyfe  no 
sustere  of  yowres  leue  to  byde  wythe  thaire  frendes  whan  thai 
visite  thaym,  overe  thre  dayes  in  helthe,  and  if  thai  falle  seke, 
that  he  do  fecche  thaym  home  wythe  yn  sex  dayes"2.  He  shared 
the  views  of  an  even  stricter  reformer,  Peckham3.  It  was  often 
stipulated  that  the  nuns,  whether  they  went  on  long  or  on  short 
journeys,  were  to  go  only  to  the  place  which  they  had  received 
permission  to  visit4;  and  sometimes  they  were  specially  told 
that  if  they  were  obliged  to  spend  the  night  away  from  their 
friends  they  were  to  do  so,  whenever  possible,  in  another  nunnery5. 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  118,  122,  ff.  6-7,  25,  72,  83,  109.    At  Godstow  the 
prioress  said  "that  the  nuns  have  often  access  to  Oxford  under  colour  of 
visiting  their  friends,"  p.  114;  and  at  Heynings  a  discontented  nun  said 
"that  sisters  Ellen  Bryg  and  Agnes  Bokke  have  often  recourse  to  Lincoln 
and  there  make  long  tarrying."  They  denied  the  charge,  but  a  note  in  the 
register  states,  "The  nuns  have  access  too  often  to  the  house  of  the  treasurer 
of  Lincoln,  abiding  there  sometimes  for  a  week."    The  Bishop  forbade 
"accesse  suspecte  to  Lincolne,"  pp.  132,  133,  135. 

2  Ff.  28^,  77^,  95^.    To  Catesby,  op.  cit.  p.  51.    Compare  injunctions  to 
Godstow,  Gracedieu,  Nuncoton  and  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  pp.  116,  125. 

3  Above,  p.  348.    And  compare  William  of  Wykeham's  injunction  to 
Romsey,  which  repeats  Peckham's  constitution  on  this  point  word  for  word. 
New  Coll.  MS.  f.  85. 

4  See  e.g.  Drokensford's  injunction  to  Minchin  Barrow  [i.e.  Barrow  Gurney] 
in  1315:  "quod  tune  bene  incedant  et  in  habitu  moniali  et  non  ad  alia  loca 
quam  se  extendit  licencia  se  diuertant  quoque  modo,  et  ultra  tempus  licencie 
sue  se  voluntarie  non  absentent."  Hugo,  Med.  Nunneries  of  Somerset,  Barrow, 
App.  ii,  p.  81. 

6  See  e.g.  the  synodal  Constitutions  of  c.  1 237,  Wilkins,  Concilia,  i,  p.  650. 
Archbishop  Courtenay  in  1389  sent  an  interesting  injunction  to  Elstow 
Abbey,  which  had  evidently  been  remiss  in  offering  hospitality  to  travelling 
nuns:  "  Inasmuch  as  it  has  happened  that  nuns  coming  to  the  monastery 
on  their  return  from  a  visit  to  their  friends,  have  been  refused  necessities 
for  themselves  and  for  their  horses,  inhumanly  and  contrary  to  the  good 
repute  of  religion,  which  we  wish  to  remedy,  we  order  that  for  each  nun  thus 
tarrying  provision  be  made  according  to  the  resources  of  the  house,  for 
four  horses  at  least  if  by  day  for  a  whole  day,  and  if  [she  come]  by  night 
or  after  the  hour  of  nones  for  the  rest  of  the  day  and  for  the  night  following.' 
Lambeth  Reg.  Courtenay,  i,  f.  336.  Injunction  repeated  by  Bishop  Flemyng 
of  Lincoln  in  1421-2.  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Line,  i,  pp.  50-1. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  359 

But  they  were  strictly  forbidden  to  harbour  in  the  houses 
of  monks,  friars,  or  canons1.  On  short  journeys,  or  on  errands 
which  could  be  speedily  accomplished,  they  were  forbidden  to 
eat  or  drink  out  of  their  monasteries  or  to  make  unnecessary 
delay,  but  were  to  return  at  once  and  in  no  case  to  be  out  after 
nightfall2.  Moreover  it  was  invariably  ordered  that  a  nun  was 
on  no  account  to  leave  her  house,  without  another  nun  of  mature 
age  and  good  reputation  who  would  be  a  constant  witness  to 
her  behaviour3;  and  both  were  to  wear  monastic  dress4. 

The  chief  aim  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  was,  however, 
to  secure  that  leave  of  absence  should  be  granted  only  for  a 
reasonable  cause.  All  conciliar  and  other  injunctions  for  en 
closure  added  a  saving  clause  of  "manifest  necessity"  and  this 
gave  an  opening  for  an  infinite  variety  of  interpretation.  The 
nuns,  indeed,  could  fall  back  upon  a  threefold  line  of  defence 
against  the  intolerable  restrictions.  They  could  appeal  to  the 
undoubted  fact  that  strict  and  perpetual  enclosure  went  beyond 
the  requirements  of  their  rule.  They  could  adduce  the  custom 
by  which,  as  long  as  their  memory  ran,  nuns  had  been  allowed 
to  leave  their  convents  under  conditions.  Finally  they  could 
with  a  little  skill,  stretch  the  "manifest  necessity"  clause  to 
cover  almost  all  their  wanderings.  Thus  it  happened  that  in 

1  See  e.g.  Peckham's  injunctions  to  Barking  and  Godstow.  Above,  p.  348. 
Religious  houses  of  men  were  sometimes  specially  ordered  not  to  receive 
them,  e.g.  Bridlington  in  1287.  Reg.  John  le  Romeyn,  i,  p.  200.  The  necessity 
for  such  an  order  appears  below,  pp.  446  ff. 

2  E.g.  Peckham  to  St  Sepulchre,  Canterbury  (1284):  "Nullum  quoque 
potum  aut  cibum  ibidem  sumat,  moram  non  protrahat,  sed  statim  expedita 
causa  accessus  hujusmodi  redeat  indilate."  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  p.  707 ; 
and  Bokyngham  to  Elstow  (1387):  "Cum  vero  recreacionis  causa,  obtenta 
superioris  licencia,  moniales  antedicte  egrediuntur  monasterii  sui  septa, 
incedant  cum  familiarium  honesta  comitiua  et  sumciente,  ad  idem  monas- 
terium,  redeuntes  de  eodem  citra  solis  occasum."   Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo. 
Bokyngham,  f.  343. 

3  At  Wroxall  in  1338  it  was  specially  ordered  "qe  deux  jeunes  ne  issent 
poynt  ensemble  pur  male  suspecioun  qe  de  ceo  purra  legerement  sourdre, 

i  ke  Dieuz  defent."  Wore.  Reg.  Sede  Vacante,  p.  276.  At  Lymbrook  in  1437 
!  Bishop  Spoff  ord  ordered  that  no  nun  was  to  go  out  without  a  companion,  and 
"in  case  they  lygge  owte  be  nyght,  two  sustres  to  lye  togeder  in  on  bed," 
j  a  practice  which  (according  to  the  usual  custom)  he  forbids  in  the  dorter. 
!  Hereford  Epis.  Reg.  Spofford,  f.  77. 

4  See  Thiers,  op.  cit.  Pt  i,  chs.  xviu,  xxn,  xxm,  xxiv,  xxxi.   He  quotes 
i   the  stories  of  the  nuns  of  Aries  in  the  fifth  century  and  of  Marcigny  in  the 
j   eleventh  century,  who  refused  to  break  their  enclosures  even  for  fire  and 
I   were  miraculously  preserved,  pp.  12-13,  32-5. 


360  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

enforcing  the  Bull  Periculoso  the  visitors  of  the  later  middle  ages 
found  themselves  obliged  to  define,  more  or  less  widely  according 
to  local  conditions,  what  was  and  what  was  not  a  reasonable 
cause,  and  to  combat  one  after  another  certain  specific  excuses 
put  forward  by  the  nuns.  The  sternest  reformers  were  agreed 
that  enclosure  might  be  broken,  when  the  lives  of  the  nuns 
were  endangered.  Fire,  flood,  famine,  war  and  the  ruin  of  their 
buildings  were  universally  accepted  as  reasonable  excuses1.  A  nun 
could  leave  her  house  to  be  superior  of  another  nunnery  (a  not 
infrequent  practice),  or  to  found  new  houses  or  to  establish 
reform  elsewhere2.  Moreover  when  a  culprit  stood  in  need  of 

1  The  rhymed  Northern  Rule  of  St  Benedict  for  nuns  (1.  2094)  says  that 
when  they  go  away  into  the  country  they  should  wear  "more  honest" 
clothes.    "  In  habitu  moniali"  is  one  of  the  conditions  imposed  on  the  nuns 
of  Barrow  Gurney  in  1315.  See  above,  p.  358,  note  4.   The  necessity  for  such 
a  regulation  appears  in  the  decree  made  by  Henry  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
executing  an  enactment  of  the  Provincial  Council  of  Cologne  (1310),  pro 
mulgating  Periculoso.   "Nevertheless  we  often  see  that  having  come  out  of 
their  monasteries  they  [the  nuns]  wander  about  the  roads  and  public  places 
and  frequent  the  houses  of  secular  persons.    And,  what  is  more  deplorable, 
having  put  off  their  religious  habit,  they  appear  in  secular  dress  and  bear 
themselves  in  public  with  so  much  vanity  that  their  conduct  may  justly 
be  considered  suspicious,  although  their  conscience  be  really  pure  and  without 
sin.    And  although  hitherto  they  have  been  menaced  with  divers  penalties, 
nevertheless  the  more  strictly  they  are  forbidden  to  live  after  this  fashion, 
the  more  eagerly  they  disobey,  so  strongly  do  they  hanker  after  forbidden 
things."  The  whole  injunction  is  worthy  of  study.  Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  491-3. 
Discipline  was  laxer  in  German  convents  than  in  those  of  England.    In 
England,  however,  there  are  sometimes  complaints  that  male  religious  leave 
their  convents  in  secular  attire;  see  a  case  at  Huntingdon  Priory  in  1439, 
Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  154-5. 

2  See  ib.  xxv,  xxvi,  xxvu.  A  few  examples  may  be  given  of  nuns  leaving 
their  houses  to  become  superiors  elsewhere:  Basedale  got  prioresses  from 
Rosedale  in  1524  and  1527  (Yorks.  Arch.  Soc.  xvi,  p.  431  note);  Rosedale 
from  Clementhorpe  in  1525  (Dugdale,  Mow.  iv,  pp.  317,  385) ;  Kington  from 
Bromhale  in  1326  (ib.  iv,  p.  398)  and  Ankerwyke  from  Bromhale  in  1421 
(Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Line.  I,  p.  156).    Sometimes  the  prioress 
of  one  house  left  it  to  rule  another,  e.g.  Elizabeth  Davell,  Prioress  of  Base- 
dale,  became  Prioress  of  Keldholme  in  1467  (V.C.H.   Yorks.  in,  p.   169). 
Alice  Davy,  who  occurs  as  Prioress  of  Castle  Hedingham  in  1472  and  was 
afterwards  Prioress  of  Wix  (V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  p.  123),  and  Eleanor  Bernard, 
Prioress  of  Little  Marlow  (c.  1516)  became  Abbess  of  Delapre  (Dugdale, 
Mon.  iv,  p.  149).    For  a  form  of  licence  from  a  prioress,  permitting  a  nun  to 
accept  the  office  of  prioress  elsewhere,  see  MS.  Harl.  862,  f.  94  ("Literae 
Priorissae  de  Bromhale  quibus  licenciam  impertit  Clementiae  Medforde 
ejusdem  Domus,  consorori  et  commoniali,  ut  Prioratui  de  Ankerwyke  sicut 
Priorissa  praeesse  valeat");   and  compare  the  reply  of  the  Prioress  of 
St  Bartholomew's,  Newcastle,  to  the  Bishop  of  Durham  about  the  election 
of  Dame  Margaret  Danby,  a  nun  of  her  house,  to  be  Prioress  of  St  Mary's, 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  361 

condign  punishment,  she  might  be  and  often  was  sent  to  another 
house  to  do  penance  among  strangers,  who  would  neither 
sympathise  with  her  nor  run  the  risk  of  being  contaminated 
by  her1. 

At  this  point,  however,  agreement  ceased.  The  question  of 
illness  was  beset  with  difficulties.  It  was  agreed  that  a  nun 
might  leave  her  house,  if  she  suffered  from  some  contagious 
disease  which  threatened  the  health  of  her  sisters2,  but  opinions 

Neasham,  "Whilk  Postulacion  I  graunt  fully  with  assent  of  my  chapiter 
atte  Reverence  of  God  and  in  plesing  of  yor  gracious  lordship;  not  wyth- 
stondyng  yat  she  is  ful  necessarye  and  profitable  to  us  both  in  spirituall 
governance  and  temporall"  (1428).  (V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107.)  Sometimes 
a  mother  house  from  over  the  sea  tried  to  assert  its  right  to  nominate  the 
head  of  one  of  its  daughter  houses,  but  Cluniacs,  Cistercians,  Premon- 
stratensians  and  houses  affiliated  to  Fontevrault  were  all  extremely  jealous 
of  French  interference.  See  the  letter  written  by  Mary,  daughter  of  Edward  I, 
a  nun  of  Amesbury,  to  her  brother  the  King  in  1316  protesting  against  the 
action  of  the  Abbess  of  Fontevrault,  who  was  reputed  to  be  sending  "a 
prioress  from  beyond  the  sea,"  instead  of  acceding  to  the  convent's  request 
that  one  of  their  own  number  might  succeed  to  the  office.  Wood,  Letters  of 
Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  I,  pp.  60-63.  It  was  always  held  desirable  if 
possible  to  take  a  superior  from  among  the  nuns  of  the  house  in  which  the 
vacancy  occurred,  but  sometimes  no  suitable  person  could  be  found. 

1  See  Thiers,  I,  ch.  xxn,  who  mentions  the  corollary  that  the  superior 
of  another  house  may  be  called  in  to  correct  rebellious  nuns  if  their  own 
head  is  unable  to  do  so.    See  below,    p.    466.    In   1501   Emma  Powes, 
then  at  Romsey,   is  said  to  have  been  professed  at  King's  Mead  near 
Derby  "and  from  that  place  had  been  removed  to  another  priory  in  the 
Hereford  diocese,  where  she  had  been  prioress,  and  thence  had  come  to  this 
house."   A  charge  of  incontinence  was  made  against  her,  and  we  know 
from   another  source  that  she  had  been  prioress  of  Lymbrook  (she  was 
deprived  on  or  about  24  Nov.  1488,  Hereford  Reg.  Myllyng,  p.  112).    It  is 
interesting  that  in  1492  one  of  the  nuns  had  asked  that  "a  nun  who  has 
been  brought  in,  be  restored  to  the  place  to  which  she  is  professed."  Liveing, 
Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  pp.  219,  225.    One  of  Aln wick's  injunctions  to 
Clemence  Medforde,  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke  in  1441,  was  "that  henceforth 
she  should  not  admit  that  nun  of  Hinchinbrooke  either  into  the  house  or  to 
dwell  among  them,  and  also  that  she  should  not  deliver  to  her  that  bond 
which  she  has  from  the  house  of  Hinchinbrooke,  or  any  other  goods  which 
she  has  of  the  same  house."    Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  6.    In  a  list  of  the  nuns  of 
Thetford  in  1526  occurs  the  name  of  "Domina  Elianora  Hanam,  professa 
in  Wyke  (Wix)."   Jessopp,  Visit,  in  Dioc.  Norwich,  p.  243. 

2  Such,  for  instance,  as  leprosy.    In  1287  Archbishop  John  le  Romeyn 
sent  a  request  to  the  master  of  Sherburn  Hospital,  Durham,  to  receive  Basilia 
de  Cotum,  a  nun  of  Handale,  "quia,...lepre  deformitate  aspersa,  propter 
suspectam  morbi  contagionem,  morari  non  poterit  inter  sanos,  devocionem 
vestram  rogamus  quatinus  ipsam  in  hospitali  vestro  velitis  recipere  et 
seorsum  in  necessariis  exhibere,  ita,  tamen,  quod  sub  religioso  habitu  quern 
gerit  Deo  serviat  dum  subsistit."   Reg.  John  le  Romeyn,  i,  p.  163.    Richard 
de  Wallingford,  the  great  abbot  of  St  Albans,  was  a  leper,  but  remained  in 
his  house. 


362  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

differed  as  to  whether  any  relaxation  was  to  be  allowed  in  less 
severe  cases,  when  only  her  own  health  was  in  question.  The 
visitors  sometimes  issued  licences  for  nuns  to  leave  their  houses 
in  order  to  recruit  their  health;  thus  in  1303  Josiana  de  Anelaby, 
Prioress  of  Swine,  had  licence  to  absent  herself  from  her  house 
on  account  of  ill-health1,  in  1314  Archbishop  Greenfield  licenced 
a  nun  of  Yedingham,  who  was  suffering  from  dropsy,  to  visit 
friends  and  relatives  with  honest  company,  for  the  sake  of  im 
proving  her  health2  and  in  1368  Joan  Furmage,  Abbess  of 
Shaftesbury,  actually  received  a  dispensation  to  leave  the  abbey 
for  a  year  and  reside  in  her  manors,  for  the  sake  of  air  and 
recreation3.  It  is  significant  that  the  Novellas  Definitiones  of  the 
Cistercian  Order  in  1350  strictly  forbade  nuns  to  go  to  the 
public  baths  outside  their  houses,  which  shows  that  they  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  doing  so4.  But  strict  reformers  were  always 
opposed  to  such  licences,  and  the  specific  prohibition  of  exeats 
for  purposes  of  cures  and  convalescences  was  common  in  the 


1  Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  493.   Dugdale  remarks  that  "a  little  scandal  also 
appears  to  have  been  attached  to  her  character."    She  finally  resigned  on 
account  of  old  age  in  1320,  and  perhaps  the  leave  of  absence  referred  to 
accounts  for  the  appearance  of  another  Prioress  in  1308  who  resigned  in 
1309.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  180-1. 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  127,  note  13. 

3  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  78.   In  1427  the  papal  licence  was  granted  to  one 
Isabel  Falowfeld,  nun  of  St  Bartholomew's,  Newcastle  on  Tyne,  to  transfer 
herself  to  another  monastery  of  the  same  order,  on  account  of  her  weak 
constitution  and  the  inclemency  of  the  air  near  St  Bartholomew's.    Cal.  of 
Papal  Letters,  vii,  p.  516.  SeeThiers  on  the  subject,  op.  cit.  pp.  140-2,  213-5. 
He  quotes  the  decision  of  the  University  of  Salamanca  on  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  General  or  any  minor  official  of  the  Minorites  had  the  power 
to  give  permission  to  a  nun  of  the  order  who  was  dangerously  ill,  to  leave 
her  house  and  enter  another  of  the  same  order,  so  as  to  recover  her  health. 
"  Exactissima  discussione  facta  circa  praesentem  difficultatem,  omnes  unz 
nimiter  atque  uno  ore  responderunt  atque  dixerunt,  non  posse  id  fieri  stando 
in  jure  communi,  quod  et  multis  juribus  atque  rationibus  comprobarunt " 
(p.  214).    He  also  quotes  the  case  of  a  nun  of  the  Annunciation  of  Agen,  of 
whom  the  doctors  said  that  if  she  stayed  in  her  house  she  would  infallibly 
die,  but  if  she  went  out  for  a  change  of  air  and  medicinal  baths  she  would 
infallibly  be  cured.  To  which  alternative  the  General  of  the  Order,  on  being 
asked  to  give  her  a  dispensation  to  go  out,  replied  in  one  word  "  Moriatur" 
(p.  217).    But  these  were  both  strictly  enclosed  orders. 

"Si  quae  vero  moniales  ad  balnea  qualitcrcumque  processerint  extra 
monasteria,  irremissibiliter  priventur  habitu  regulari ;  et  licentiantes  easdem 
ut  praedicta  petant  balnea,  sententiam  excommunicationis  incurrant." 
Nomasticon  Cisterciense,  p.  533,  also  in  Thiers  op.  cit.  p.  220;  cf.  pp.  216  ff. 
But  the  public  baths  were  of  notoriously  bad  reputation. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  363 

sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  when  the  practice  had 
become  almost  universal  in  France1. 

Again  there  was  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  a 
nun  might  leave  her  house,  in  order  to  enter  one  professing  a 
stricter  rule.  Such  a  desire  was  in  theory  laudable  and  by 
Innocent  Ill's  decretal  Licet  the  principle  was  laid  down  that 
a  bishop  was  bound  de  jure  to  grant  leave  for  migration  "sub 
praetextu  majoris  religionis  et  ut  vitam  ducant  arctiorem,"  as 
long  as  the  motive  of  the  petitioner  was  love  of  God  and  not 
merely  temeritas2.  But  temeritas  was  often  to  be  suspected; 
women,  as  St  Francis  de  Sales  complained,  were  full  of  whimsies3  ; 
ennui,  fancy,  a  craving  for  change,  a  friend  in  another  house, 
might  masquerade  as  a  desire  to  lead  a  stricter  life  elsewhere. 
Moreover  a  nun  who  desired  to  remove  herself  was  not  unlikely 
to  encounter  opposition  from  her  own  convent.  An  interesting 
case  of  such  opposition  occurred  at  Gracedieu  in  1447-8. 
Margaret  Crosse,  a  nun  of  that  house,  desired  to  be  transferred 
to  the  Benedictine  Priory  of  Ivinghoe  "of  a  straiter  order  of 
religion  and  observance,  not  for  a  frivolous  or  empty  reason, 
but  that  she  may  lead  a  life  altogether  and  entirely  harder." 
She  obtained  letters  of  admission  from  the  Prioress  of  Ivinghoe, 
but  when  she  came  to  ask  for  leave  to  migrate,  the  Prioress  and 
Convent  of  Gracedieu  refused  to  release  her  from  her  obedience 
and  confiscated  the  letters.  Bishop  Alnwick  then  wrote  to 
Gracedieu,  requiring  the  Prioress  either  to  let  her  go,  or  to  furnish 

1  See  Thiers,  op.  cit.  Pt  i,  ch.  XLII-XLVII.  From  the  fact  that  he  thinks 
I  it  necessary  to  devote  five  chapters  to  the  subject  and  from  the  evidence 
!  which  he  adduces  and  the  language  which  he  uses,  it  is  clear  that  the  practice 
i  was  very  prevalent. 

!  2  Decret.  in,  tit.  xxxi,  c.  18.  See  Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  161-2.  Licences  to 
migrate  to  a  convent  professing  a  stricter  rule  are  sometimes  found  in 
episcopal  registers.  See  e.g.  Hereford  Reg.  Caroli  Bothe,  p.  241. 

3  See  his  letter  to  a  superior,  quoted  by  Thiers :  "  Je  suis  tout-a-fait  d'avis 
que  Ton  n'ouvre  point  la  porte  au  changement  des  Maisons  pour  le  souhait 
des  filles :  car  ce  changement  est  tout-a-fait  contraire  au  bien  des  Monasteres 
qui  ont  la  cloture  perpetuelle  pour  article  essentiel.  Les  filles  comme  foibles, 
sont  sujettes  aux  ennuis  et  les  ennuis  leur  font  trouver  des  expediens 
et  importuns  et  indiscrets.  Que  les  changemens  doncques  precedent  des 
jugemens  des  superieurs  et  non  du  desir  des  filles,  qui  ne  S9auroient  mieux 
declarer  qu'elles  ne  doivent  point  estre  gratifiees,  que  quand  elles  se  laissent 
emporter  a  des  desirs  si  peu  justes.  II  faut  done  demeurer  la,  et  laisser 
chaque  rossignol  dans  son  nid;  car  autrement  le  moindre  deplaisir  qui 
arriveroit  a  une  fille,  seroit  capable  de  1'inquieter  et  luy  faire  prendre  le 
change:  Et  au  lieu  de  se  changer  elle-meme,  elle  penseroit  d'avoir  suffisa- 
ment  remedie  a  son  mal,  quand  elle  changeroit  de  Monastere."  Thiers,  op.  cit. 
pp.  160-1. 


364  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

him  with  a  reason  for  their  refusal.  The  Prioress  and  Convent 
replied  with  some  acerbity.  Margaret,  they  said,  desired  to  lead 
a  life  of  less  and  not  of  more  restraint  and  her  real  object  was 
to  join  her  sister,  who  was  at  that  time  Prioress  of  Ivinghoe, 
if  indeed  her  request  were  not  a  mere  pretext  for  apostasy;  for 

the  said  Margaret  Crosse  has  caused  and  commanded  certain  goods, 
property  and  jewels  belonging  to  our  priory  to  be  stealthily  conveyed 
by  certain  of  the  said  Margaret's  friends  in  the  flesh  from  our  priory 
to  foreign  and  privy  places,  and  to  such  conveyance  done  in  her  name 
has  lent  her  authority,  with  the  purpose,  as  is  strongly  suspected,  of 
taking  advantage  of  the  darkness  one  night... and  transferring  herself 
utterly  and  entirely  of  her  own  motion  to  places  wholly  strange, 
without  having  or  asking  and  against  our  will1. 

Moreover  had  the  holy  father  considered  the  merits  of  their 
house  and  the  loss  to  it,  if  Margaret  seceded? 

Inasmuch  as  in  our  priory  according  to  the  observances  of  the  rule 
God  is  served  and  quire  is  ruled  both  in  reading  and  singing  and 
chanting  the  psalms  and  toiling  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth 
at  the  canonical  hours  by  day  and  night,  while  we  also  patiently 
endure  grievous  cares,  fastings  and  watchings  and  further  are  instant 
together  in  contemplation,  even  as  the  holy  Spirit  designs  to  give  us 
His  inspiration.  And  the  said  Margaret  Crosse,  who  is  sufficiently 
trained  in  such  regular  observances  and  is  very  needful  for  the  service 
of  God  in  our  priory  aforesaid,  wherein  such  regular  observances  and 
contemplations  are  not  so  fully  kept  as  in  our  aforesaid  priory... would 
give  herself  to  secular  business  in  all  matters,  rather  than  to  such 
contemplation  or  observance  of  the  rule;  and  thereout  shall  arise  to 
us  and  our  priory  not  only  grievous  ill  repute,  but  also  no  small  loss, 
especially  in  that  such  chantings  and  regular  observances  would  in 
likelihood  suffer  damage  by  reason  of  the  said  Margaret's  absence*. 

There  is  an  air  of  verisimilitude  about  the  injured  convent's 
argument,  though  the  visitation  report  of  1440-1  does  not  show 
them  as  the  strict  and  pious  community  which  they  claim  to  be; 
but  what  came  of  the  affair  we  do  not  know. 

One  plea  to  lead  a  stricter  life  was,  however,  less  open  to 
suspicion;  that  was  the  request  to  be  enclosed  as  an  anchoress. 

1  Plainly  she  regarded  the  things  as  her  own  private  property  and  was 
thus  guilty  of  the  sin  of  proprietas  as  well.  Compare  the  evidence  of  the 
Abbot  of  Bardney  concerning  one  of  his  monks  in  1439-40.  "  Also  he  deposes 
that  brother  John  Hale  sent  out  privily  all  his  private  goods,  with  the  mind 
and  intent,  as  it  appeared,  to  leave  the  house  in  apostasy  and  especially  a 
silver  spoon  and  a  mazer  garnished  with  silver;  and  yet  he  has  not  yet  gone, 
nor  will  he  disclose  to  the  abbot  where  such  goods  are."  Line.  Visit,  n, 
p.  26. 

1  Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  127-9. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  365 

Sometimes  an  anchoress  had  a  companion,  sometimes  a  servant1, 
but  in  any  case  her  life  was  stricter  than  that  of  a  nun,  for  she 
devoted  herself  to  constant  prayer  and  was  bound  to  remain 
always  in  her  little  cell,  which  was  usually  attached  to  a  church. 
There  are  several  instances  of  nuns  who  left  their  communities 
to  lead  a  solitary  life  in  some  anchorage.  On  one  occasion  when 
the  nuns  of  Coldingham  had  been  dispersed  by  the  Scots, 
Beatrice  de  Hodesak  left  her  convent  and  with  the  permission 
of  the  Archbishop  and  of  her  Prioress  retired  to  an  anchorage 
at  St  Edmund's  Chapel,  near  the  bridge  of  Doncaster;  another 
anchoress  Sibil  de  Lisle  was  already  living  there  (c.  1300) 2.  Twenty 
years  later  Archbishop  Melton  gave  Margaret  de  Punchardon, 
nun  of  Arden,  permission  to  be  enclosed,  as  an  anchoress,  in  the 
cell  attached  to  St  Nicholas'  Hospital  at  Beverley,  in  company 
with  Agnes  Migregose  [?  Mucegrose,  i.e.  Musgrave]  already  a 
recluse  there3.  The  register  of  Bishop  Gray  of  Lincoln  contains 
an  interesting  commission  (1435-6)  addressed  to  the  Abbot  of 
Thornton,  bidding  him  enclose  Beatrice  Franke,  a  nun  of  Stain- 
field,  in  the  parish  church  of  Winterton,  together  with  the 
Abbot's  certificate  that  he  has  examined  her  and  found  her 
steadfast  in  her  purpose  and  therefore 

shutting  up  the  aforesaid  sister  Beatrice  in  a  building  and  enclosure 
j  constructed  on  the  north  side  of  the  church  and  making  fast  the  door 
I  thereof  with  bolts,  bars  and  keys,  we  left  her  in  peace  and  calm  of 
1  spirit,  as  it  is  believed  by  the  more  part,  in  the  joy  of  her  Saviour4. 

1  The  three  anchoresses  of  The  Ancren  Riwle  and  their  maids  will  be 
remembered. 

2  Raine,  Letters  from  Northern  Registers  (Rolls  Ser.),  pp.  196-8.   See  also 
1  Rotha  Clay,  Hermits  and  Anchorites  of  England,  pp.  93~4- 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  113  (cf.  Test.  Ebor.  n,  p.  98).    Two  other  York- 
!  shire  nuns  are  found  as  anchoresses  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

Joan  Sperry,  nun  of  Clementhorpe,  was  anchoress  at  Beeston  near  Leeds  in 
1322,  and  in  1348  Margaret  la  Boteler,  nun  of  Hampole,  was  anchoress  at 
the  chapel  of  East  Layton,  Yorks.  Clay,  op.  cit.  pp.  254-5,  256.  See  also 
the  curious  case  of  Avice  of  Beverley,  a  nun  of  Nunburnholme,  concerning 
whom  "the  Prioress  and  nuns  say  that  Avice  of  Beverley,  sometime  pro 
fessed  nun  of  Nunburnholme,  thrice  left  the  house  to  the  intent  that  she 
might  lead  a  stricter  life  elsewhere.  They  say  that  fourteen  years  at  least 
have  passed  since  she  last  went  away;  howbeit  they  believe  her  to  have 
lived  in  chastity.  They  say  that  she  was  disobedient  every  year  and  very 
often  while  she  was  with  them.  They  say  that  she  dwelt  with  them  for 
thirty  years  before  she  left  the  monastery  for  the  first  time."  The  inquiry 
which  elicited  this  information  was  made  because  she  wanted  to  return  (i  280) . 
Reg.  Wm.  Wickwane,  p.  92.  She  had  probably  tried  being  an  anchoress. 

4  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.   Line,  i,  pp.   113-15-    The  prioress' 
licence  addressed  to  Beatrice  is  also  printed.  It  may  be  well  here  to  repeat 


366  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

Some  nunneries  themselves  had  anchorages  attached,  for  instance 
Davington1,  Polesworth2  and  Carrow;  and  Julian  of  Norwich, 
anchoress  at  the  parish  church  of  Carrow  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  was  one  of  the  most  famous  mystical  writers  of  the 
middle  ages3.  Anchoresses  do  not  seem  always  to  have  been 
content  with  their  life  and  the  strict  preliminary  examination 
of  Beatrice  Franke  "concerning  her  withdrawal  from  the  life 
of  a  community  to  the  solitary  life,  concerning  the  length  of 
time  wherein  she  had  continued  in  this  purpose,  concerning  the 
perils  of  them  that  choose  such  a  life  and  afterwards  repent 
thereof"  was  probably  a  necessary  precaution.  The  register  of 
Bishop  Dalderby  of  Lincoln  contains  a  mandate  to  the  nuns  of 
Marlow,  to  readmit  one  such  faint-heart,  Agnes  de  Littlemore, 
a  lay  sister  of  the  house,  who  had  left  it  to  become  an  anchoress 
and  had  repented  of  her  decision  4. 

Illness  and  the  desire  to  embrace  a  stricter  rule  were  exceptional 

the  editor's  warning  that  "acts  of  this  description  probably  form  the 
foundation  for  the  ridiculous  superstition,  made  famous  by  a  striking  passage 
of  Scott's  Marmion,  that  nuns  and  others  who  had  broken  the  laws  of  the 
church  were  commonly  walled  up  and  left  to  perish."  Another  and  perhaps 
more  probable  explanation  of  the  superstition  is  that  Scott  probably,  and 
certainly  others  after  him,  misinterpreted  the  words  immuratio,  emmurer, 
which  are  constantly  used  of  strict  imprisonment  by  inquisition  officials 
and  others.  See  on  the  subject,  H.  Thurston,  S.J.,  The  Immuring  of  Nuns 
(Catholic  Truth  Soc.  Historical  Papers,  No.  v). 

1  Celestria  (?  Celestina),  nun,  and  Adilda,  nun,  are  mentioned  as  an 
choresses  there.  Clay,  op.  cit.  pp.  222-3. 

-  Ib.  p.  184.  An  "ancress"  was  found  at  this  house  at  the  time  of  the 
Dissolution. 

3  For  her  works  see  Revelations  of  Divine  Love,  recorded  by  Julian, 
Anchoress  at  Norwich,  ed.  Grace  Warrack  (1901).    She  is  apparently  not  to 
be  confused  with  another  famous  anchoress,  Julian  Lampet,  bequests  to 
whom  are  often  recorded  in  Norwich  wills  between  1426  and  1478.  The  priory 
seems  to  have  had  a  succession  of  two  or  even  three  anchoresses  named 
Julian.   See  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  pp.  7-8  and  App.  ix,  passim.   For  anchor 
esses  enclosed  at  conventual  houses  of  men,  see  Clay,  op.  cit.  pp.  77-8; 
anchoresses  are  sometimes  described  as  "nun,"  ib.  pp.  224,  232,  238,  244. 
Matilda  Newton,  a  nun  of  Barking,  who  had  been  appointed  to  rule  the 
new  Abbey  of  Syon,  but  for  some  reason  did  not  become  abbess,  returned 
to  her  own  house  as  a  recluse  in  1417.   Ib.  p.  144. 

4  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.   10  (date  1300).  The  author  of 
Dives  and  Pauper  declares  that  such  secessions  were  rare  among  women: 
"We  se  that  whanne  men  take  the  to  be  ankeris  and  reclusys  withinne 
fewe  yerys  comonly  eyther  they  falle  in  reusys  or  eresyes  or  they  breke  out 
for  womas  loue  or  for  inkyede  of  ther  lufe  or  by  some  gile  of  \>e  fend.    But 
of  wim€  ancres  so  inclusid  is  seldome  herde  any  of  these  defautys,  but 
holely  they  begine  and  holely  they  ende."    Dives  and  Pauper,  com.  vi, 
ch.  B. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  367 

causes  for  a  temporary  breach  of  enclosure.  The  great  difficulty 
in  administering  Periculoso  arose  over  more  usual  pretexts.  The 
least  objectionable  occasion  for  leaving  cloistral  precincts  was 
when  convent  business  demanded  it  and  this  happened  frequently 
to  the  superior  and  the  treasuress  or  cellaress.  The  journeys 
which  were  frequently  taken  by  the  head  of  a  house  have  already 
been  considered1 ;  but  the  obedientiaries  also  found  much  scope 
for  wandering  in  the  duties  of  their  offices.  The  treasuress  and 
cellaress  might  be  obliged  day  by  day  to  visit,  in  the  course 
of  their  duties,  offices  and  buildings  which  lay  outside  the  walls, 
and  if  they  were  not  sober  minded  women  there  were  ample 
opportunities  for  lingering  and  gossiping  with  secular  persons 
and  with  servants.  The  Constitutions  of  the  Legate  Ottobon  in 
1268  attempted  to  minimise  this  danger  by  enacting  that  no 
nun  was  to  go  into  the  different  officinae,  except  those  whose 
offices  rendered  it  necessary  to  do  so,  and  they  were  never  to  go 
unaccompanied2.  The  complaints  brought  by  the  nuns  of  Grace- 
dieu  in  1440-1  against  their  self-confident  cellaress  Margaret 
Belers  show  that  some  such  regulation  was  necessary;  it  was 
said  that  she  was  accustomed  to  visit  all  the  offices  by  herself, 
even  the  granges  and  other  places  where  menfolk  were  working, 
and  that  she  went  there  (good  zealous  housewife!)  "over  early 
in  the  morning  before  daybreak";  whereupon  Bishop  Alnwick 
ordered  the  Prioress  to  "suffre  none  of  thaym,  officiere  ne  other, 
to  go  to  any  house  of  office  wythe  owte  the  cloystere,  but  if 
ther  be  an  other  nunne  approveded  in  religyone  assigned  to  go 
wythe  hire,  eyther  to  be  wytnesse  of  others  conversatyon " 3. 
Convent  business,  however,  frequently  took  the  officials  further 
afield  than  outlying  granges  and  they  undertook  journeys  hardly 

less  often  than  did  the  head  of  the  house.  The  Cistercian  statutes 
I 

1  See  above,  pp.  69-71. 

j  2  Wilkins,  Concilia,  n,  p.  18.  Compare  William  of  Wykeham's  injunctions 
>  to  Romsey  in  1387:  "  Constitutiones  bone  memorie  domini  Othoboni 
i  quondam  sedis  apostolice  in  Anglia  legati  in  hoc  casu  editas  ut  conuenit 
j  imitantes,  vobis  sub  penis  infrascriptis  districcius  inhibemus,  ne  ad  offtcinas 
j  aliquas  aut  alias  cameras  quascumque  forinsecas  extra  septa  claustri,  vel 
i  ad  alia  loca  in  villam  vel  alibi  extra  vestrum  monasterium,  illis  quibus  hoc 
!  ex  officio  competit  dumtaxat  exceptis...exeatis."  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  84. 
;  Compare  also  the  injunctions  (likewise  modelled  on  Ottobon's  constitution) 
,  sent  by  Thomas  of  Cantilupe,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  to  Lymbrook  about  1277. 

Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  201. 
3  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  122,  125. 


368  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

of  1256-7,  in  forbidding  nuns  to  leave  their  convents,  make 
exception  "for  the  Abbess  with  two  or  at  most  three  nuns  and 
for  the  cellaress  with  one,  who  are  permitted  to  go  forth  to  look 
after  the  business  of  the  house  or  for  other  inevitable  causes"1. 
The  evidence  of  account  rolls  is  invaluable  in  this  connection 
and  shows  us  the  nuns  going  marketing  or  seeking  tithes  from 
recalcitrant  farmers,  or  interviewing  tenants  about  rent.  The 
Chambress  of  Syon  went  to  London  three  times  in  1536,  doubtless 
to  buy  the  russets,  white  cloth,  kerseys,  friezes  and  hollands 
which  figure  so  largely  in  her  account  and  to  take  the  spectacles 
to  be  mended;  she  was  a  thrifty  lady  and  her  expenses  were 
only  6d.,  2d.  and  2od.  respectively.  Her  sister  the  cellaress  also 
went  to  London  that  year  and  spent  6d.  on  the  jaunt2.  The 
nuns  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  sometimes  took  long  journeys 
on  convent  business;  in  1372-3  Dame  Katherine  Fitzaleyn 
went  "to  London  and  other  places  about  our  tithes,"  at  the 
heavy  cost  of  155.  Sd.a  From  Stamford  to  London  was  a  con 
siderable  journey,  but  the  convent  could  not  afford  to  lose  its 
tithes.  The  same  business  took  Dame  Katherine  to  the  capital 
another  year;  she  hired  three  horses  for  six  days  and  a  serving 
man  to  go  with  them  and  she  took  with  her  Dame  Ida,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  regulations ;  the  whole  cost  of  the  expedition 
was  £2.  us.,  a  very  large  sum,  and  we  will  hope  that  the  tithes 
brought  in  more  than  enough  to  cover  it4. 

Sometimes,  again,  nuns  left  their  houses  to  take  part  in 
ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  such  as  processions.  There  does  not 

1  Cistercian  Stat.  A.D.  1257-88,  ed.  J.  T.  Fowler,  1890,  p.  106. 

2  Blunt,  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye  (E.E.T.S.),  Introd.  pp.  xxviii,  xxxii. 
s  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/3. 

4  "  Paid  for  the  hire  of  three  horses  for  six  days  going  to  London  for  our 
tithes...,  paid  for  the  hire  of  a  serving-man  and  for  his  expenses  going  with 
the  said  horses  2/3,  item  sent  to  Dame  Katherine  Fitzaleyn  at  the  same 
time  6/8"  (Prioress'  Account),  ib.  1260/4.  The  treasuress'  account  for  the 
same  year  throws  further  light  upon  her  movements.  "Paid  for  the 
expenses  of  Dame  Katherine  Fitzaleyn  and  Dame  Ida  going  to  London  and 
for  the  hire  of  their  horses  going  and  returning,  for  our  tithes  £2.  1 1.  o.... 
In  the  expenses  of  the  sub-Prioress  and  Dame  Katherine  Fitzaleyn  and  two 
men  and  three  horses  going  to  Fleet  for  rent  and  for  salt  3/8.  In  the 
expenses  of  Dame  Katherine  Fitzaleyn  and  dame  Joan  Fishmere  the 
treasuress]  for  hire  of  horses  Sd."  Ib.  1260/5.  Dame  Katherine  also  went 
to  the  Bishop  to  get  a  certificate  and  in  1377-8  she  went  with  the  treasuress 
Dame  Margaret  Redinges  to  Corby  and  to  Sempringham  (perhaps  to  visit 
the  Gilbertine  nuns  there)  and  Dames  Margaret  Redinges  and  Joan  Fish- 
mere  went  with  Robert  Clark  to  Clapton.  Ib.  1260/7. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  369 

seem  much  harm  in  the  whole  convent  sallying  forth  on  these 
solemn  occasions  and  indeed  bishops  sometimes  gave  orders  that 
they  were  to  do  so.  In  1321  Rigaud  de  Asserio,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  sent  a  letter  to  the  Prior  of  St  Swithun's  monastery 
"to  pray  for  peace,  with  solemn  processions";  he  was  to  cause 
the  Abbot  and  Convent  of  Hyde,  the  Abbess  and  Convent  of 
St  Mary's,  Winchester,  and  all  the  other  religious  houses  and 
parish  priests  of  Winchester  to  come  together  in  the  Cathedral 
and  then  to  proceed  in  solemn  procession  through  the  town1. 
The  strictest  disciplinarians,  however,  looked  with  suspicion  even 
upon  religious  processions  and  sought  to  keep  nuns  within  the 
precincts  of  their  cloister.  Ottobon's  Constitutions  contain  a 
proviso  that  nuns  are  not  to  go  out  for  public  processions,  but 
are  to  hold  their  processions  within  the  bounds  of  their  own 
house2  and  the  prohibition  was  repeated  by  Thomas  of  Cantilupe, 
Bishop  of  Hereford,  writing  to  Lymbrook  in  I2jj3,  and  by 
William  of  Wykeham  (who  specifically  based  his  words  upon 
Ottobon),  writing  to  Romsey  in  1387*.  A  century  later  the 
custom  was  forbidden  in  France  at  the  provincial  Council  of 
Sens,  in  1460  and  again  in  1485,  where  it  was  referred  to  as 
"  a  dangerous  and  evil  abuse  "5.  Some  explanation  of  this  severity, 
which  seems  excessive,  may  perhaps  be  gleaned  from  an  injunc 
tion  sent  by  Bishop  Longland  to  Elstow  in  1531: 

.  Moreover  forasmoche  as  the  ladye  abbesse  and  covent  of  that  house 

I  be  all  oon  religious  bodye  unite  by  the  profession  and  rules  of  holy 
sainct  benedicte,  and  is  nott  conuenyent  ne  religious  to  be  disseuerd 
or  separate,  we  will  and  Inioyne  that  frome  hensforth  noon  of  the 
said  abbesse  seruauntes  nor  no  ther  secular  person  or  persones,  what- 

I  soeuer  he  or  they  be,  goo  in  eny  procession  before  the  said  abbesse 
betwene  hir  and  hir  said  covent,  undre  payne  of  exccommunycacon, 
and  that  the  ladye  abbesse  ne  noon  of  hir  successours  hereafter  be 

I  ladde  by  the  arme  or  otherwise  in  eny  procession  ther  as  intymes  paste 
hath  been  used,  undre  the  same  payne 6. 

Other  religious  ceremonies  of  a  less  formal  nature  occasionally 
i  called  nuns,  in  a  body  or  individually,  out  of  their  cloister.   For 

i  1  Reg.  of  John  de  Sandale  and  Rigaud  de  Asserio,  p.  418.  Similar  letter 
j  to  Prior  and  Convent  of  the  Cathedral  Church,  p.  576. 

2  Wilkins,  Concilia,  u,  p.  18. 

3  Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  201.  *  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  85^. 

6  Quoted  in  Thiers,  op.  cit.  p.  133,  who  considers  the  question  in  his 
ch.  xix. 

6  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  pp.  52-3. 


P.  N. 


370  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

instance  some  of  the  greater  abbeys  were  accustomed  to  receive 
into  their  fraternity  benefactors  and  persons  of  distinction,  both 
men  and  women,  whom  they  wished  to  honour,  nor  were  kings 
too  proud  to  call  themselves  the  confratres  of  Bury  St  Edmunds 
or  St  Albans  and  to  receive  from  the  monks  the  kiss  of  peace1. 
The  ceremony  took  place  with  great  solemnity  in  the  chapter 
house  and  it  is  recorded  that  on  one  occasion  (in  1428),  when  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  and  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  their  house 
holds  were  received  into  the  Fraternity  of  St  Albans,  Cecilia 
Paynel  and  Margaret  Ewer,  nuns  of  Sopwell,  were  also  admitted. 
At  another  time  the  Prioress  of  Sopwell,  together  with  a  certain 
John  Crofton  and  his  wife,  were  received  and  gave  the  abbey 
a  pittance  and  wine  and  a  sum  of  money;  while  on  another 
occasion  still  the  Prioress  and  another  nun  of  St  Mary  de  Pre 
were  similarly  made  consorores  of  the  abbey,  and  marked  their 
appreciation  by  the  gift  of  a  frontal  for  the  high  altar  in  the  lady 
chapel2.  Sopwell  and  St  Mary  de  Pre  were  dependents  of  St 
Albans  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  their  superiors  and  seniors 
often  visited  it  on  great  occasions  such  as  this;  certainly  the 
great  magnates  of  the  realm  often  called  at  Sopwell  on  their  way 
from  St  Albans,  and  nuns  of  the  house  figure  in  its  book  of 
benefactors  as  donors  of  embroidery  to  the  church3,  while  in 
matters  of  government  the  Abbot  always  kept  a  tight  hand 
upon  both  houses.  Again  nuns  sometimes  attended  the  funerals 
of  great  folk;  not  only  priors  and  prioresses,  but  also  canons 
and  nuns  were  expected  to  be  present  at  Sir  Thomas  Cumber- 
worth's  funeral  and  ''month's-mind''4  and  in  an  account  roll 
of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  there  is  an  entry  "paye  a  nos  corn- 
pay  gnounes  alaunt  a  Leycestre  al  enterment  la  Duchesse  ij  s"5. 

1  See  illustration  of  Henry  VI  being  received  as  a  Confrater  at  Bury 
St  Edmunds,  reproduced  in  Gasquet,  Engl.  Mon.  Life,  facing  p.  126,  from 
Harl.  MS.  2278,  I.  6. 

8  Amundesham,  Annales  (Rolls  Ser.),  i.  pp.  65-9,  passim. 

»  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  424. 

4  "I  will  that  like  prior  and  priores  that  comes  to  my  beryall  at  y* 
day  hafe  iii  s  iiij  d  and  like  chanon  and  Nune  xij  d...and  like  prior  and 
priores  that  comes  to  the  xxx  day  [i.e.  the  so-called  " month's-mind"]  hafe 
vj  s  viij  d  and  like  chanon  or  none  that  comes  to  the  said  xxx  day  haf 
xx  d."  Lincoln  Diocese  Documents,  ed.  A.  Clark  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  50,  53. 

6  P.R.O.  Mins.  Accts.  1260/20.  This  was  probably  Constance  of  Castile, 
second  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who  died  on  March  24, 
1394,  and  was  buried  with  great  magnificence  at  The  Newarke,  Leicester. 
S.  Armitage  Smith,  John  of  Gaunt  (1904),  pp.  357~8.  The  date  of  the  account 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  371 

Attendance  at  religious  processions  and  ceremonies  might  be, 
and  attendance  at  funerals  undoubtedly  was,  regarded  by  the 
more  moderate  and  reasonable  visitors  as  a  legitimate  reason 
for  going  outside  the  precincts  of  the  cloister.  One  other  excuse 
of  the  same  nature,  however,  sometimes  took  a  nun  away  from 
her  convent  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  and  was  never 
looked  upon  with  any  favour  by  the  authorities  of  the  church. 
Yet  it  is  an  excuse  which  we  have  the  best  of  reasons  for  recog 
nising,  which  is,  indeed,  bound  up  with  all  that  most  people 
know  of  the  medieval  nun — for  Chaucer  has  taught  us  that 
nuns  were  wont  to  go  upon  pilgrimages.  All  pilgrimages  did  not, 
indeed,  involve  as  long  a  journey  as  that  taken  by  Madame 
Eglentyne.  The  ladies  of  Nuncoton  could  make  a  pilgrimage  to 
St  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  without  being  away  for  more  than  a  night 
and  the  ladies  of  Blackborough  would  not  have  to  follow  for  a 
long  distance  the  milky  way  to  Walsingham1.  Nevertheless  it 
is  unnecessary  to  go  further  than  Chaucer  to  understand  why 
it  was  that  medieval  bishops  offered  a  strenuous  opposition  to 
the  practice;  one  has  only  to  remember  some  of  the  folk  in 
whose  company  the  Prioress  travelled  and  some  of  the  tales 
they  told.  If  one  could  be  certain  that  she  rode  with  her  nun 
and  her  priests,  or  at  least  between  the  Knight  and  the  poor 
Parson !  But  there  were  also  the  Miller  and  the  Summoner  and, 
worst  of  all,  that  cheerful  and  engaging  sinner  the  Wife  of  Bath. 

ilf  one  could  be  certain  that  she  listened  only  to  the  tale  of 
Griselda,  or  of  Palamon  and  Arcite,  or  yawned  over  Melibeus, 
and  that  she  fell  discreetly  to  the  rear  when  the  company  laughed 

iover  the  "nyce  cas  of  Absalon  and  hende  Nicholas"!    If  one 

jcould  be  certain  that  it  was  to  the  Wife  of  Bath  alone  that  the 

jMerchant  made  his  apology 

Ladies,  I  prey  yow  that  ye  be  nat  wrooth; 
I  can  nat  glose,  I  am  a  rude  man. 

'Certainly  the  Wife  of  Bath  was  a  host  in  herself,  but  the  plural 
is  ominous  and  the  two  nuns  were  the  only  other  ladies  in  the 

•HL  • 

troll  is  unfortunately  illegible,  but  from  this  internal  evidence  it  should 
probably  be  dated  1393-4.  There  is  another  entry  "  paye  a  couent  pur  lalme 
M  Duk  de  Lancastre  vij  s  iij  d,"  in  which  "Duk"  is  possibly  a  slip  for 
/Duchesse." 

1  There  were  over  seventy  places  of  pilgrimage  in  Norfolk  alone.   Cutts, 
Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages  (3rd  ed.  1911),  p.  162. 


372  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

company.  The  sterner  moralists  of  the  middle  ages  bear  out 
Chaucer's  picture  of  a  typical  pilgrimage  with  most  unchaucerian 
denunciation1.  Pilgrims  got  drunk  at  times,  as  drunk  as  the 
Miller,  "  so  that  vnnethe  up-on  his  hors  he  sat,"  on  the  very  first 
day  of  the  journey,  as  drunk  as  the  "sory  palled  gost"  of  a 
cook,  when  the  cavalcade  reached  that 

litel  toun 

Which  that  y-cleped  is  Bob-up-&-doun 
Under  the  Blee  in  Canterbury  weye. 

Again,  there  are  pilgrims,  says  Etienne  de  Bourbon,  "who  when 
they  visit  holy  places  sing  lecherous  lays,  whereby  they  inflame 
the  hearts  of  such  as  hear  them  and  kindle  the  fire  of  lechery  " ; 
and  like  an  echo  rise  the  well-known  words: 

Ful  loude  he  song  "Come  hider,  love,  to  me," 
This  somnour  bar  to  him  a  stif  burdoun 
Was  never  trompe  of  half  so  greet  a  soun, 

and  shrill  and  clear  sound  the  miller's  bagpipes,  bringing  the 
pilgrims  out  of  town2.  No  place  for  a  cloistered  nun  was  the  inn 
though  one  feels  that  mine  host's  wife,  "big  in  arme,"  would 
have  kept  the  Tabard  respectable,  whatever  might  be  said  of  the 
Chequer-on-the-Hoop.  No  place  for  her  the  road  to  Canterbury, 

1  Jacques  de  Vitry  does  not  mince  his  words:  "I  have  seen  many  pil 
grims  who,  weary  of  wayfaring,  used  to  drink  themselves  tipsy.... You  will 
find  many  harlots  and  evil  women  in  the  inns,  who  lie  in  wait  for  the  in 
cautious  and  reward  their  guests  with  evil,  even  as  a  mouse  in  a  wallet, 
a  serpent  in  the  bosom."  Etienne  de  Bourbon  has  the  same  tale  to  tell: 
"A  pilgrimage  should  be  sober,  lest  the  pilgrims  be  despoiled  and  slain  and 
turned  to  scorn,  both  materially  and  spiritually.  For  I  have  seen  a  person 
who  had  laboured  greatly  making  a  pilgrimage  overseas  lose  both  his  virtue 
and  his  money,  when  drunk  and  lying  with  a  chambermaid  in  an  inn." 
Anecdotes  Historiques  etc.,  d' Etienne  de  Bourbon,  ed.  Lecoy  de  la  Marche 
(1877),  pp.  167-8.  Mine  Host's  words  to  the  drunken  cook  (Manciple's  Prol. 
ii,  pp.  15-19)  are  significant  in  the  light  of  these  quotations.  So  also  are 
the  adventures  of  "that  loose  fish  the  Pardoner"  with  the  tapster  Kit  at 
the  Chequer  Inn.  Tale  of  Beryn,  ed.  Furnivall  and  Stone  (Chaucer  Soc.  1887). 
See  also  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  258,  No.  CCCLXXVI. 

*  Compare  the  words  of  the  Lollard  William  Thorpe  in  1407:  "Such 
fond  people  waste  blamefullie  Gods  goodes  in  their  vaine  pilgrimages, 
spending  their  goods  upon  vitious  hostelars,  which  are  oft  uncleane  women 

of  their  bodies Also,  sir,  I  knowe  well  that  when  divers  men  and  women 

will  goe  thus  after  their  oun  willes  and  finding,  out  on  pilgrimage,  they  will 
ordaine  with  them  before  to  have  with  them  some  men  and  women  that 
can  well  sing  wanton  songes;  and  some  other  pilgrimages  will  have  them 
with  bagge-pipes,"  etc.  This  and  other  information  about  pilgrimages  may 
be  found  in  Coulton,  Chaucer  and  his  England,  pp.  138-43.  See  also  The 
Book  of  the  Knight  of  La  Tour-Landry  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  47  ff. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  373 

!   nor  yet  Canterbury  itself,  where   the   monk  with   the   holy- 
water  sprinkler  was  so  anxious  for  a  peep  at  her  face  and  where 

[   she  hobnobbed  over  wine  in  the  parlour,  with  the  hostess  and 

|   the  Wife  of  Bath1. 

Madame  Eglentyne,  for  all  her  simplicity,  must  have  circum 
vented  her  Bishop  before  she  got  there.    For  the  Bishops  were 

I  quite  clear  in  their  minds  that  pilgrimages  for  nuns  were  to  be 
discouraged.  They  were  of  Langland's  way  of  thinking : 

Right  so,  if  thow  be  religious,  renne  thow  neuere  ferther, 

To  Rome  ne  to  Rochemadore,  but  as  thi  reule  techeth, 

And  holde  the  vnder  obedyence,  that  heigh  wey  is  to  heuene2. 

I  As  early  as  791  the  Council  of  Frejus  had  forbidden  the  practice3 
|  and  in  1195  the  Council  of  York  decreed  "In  order  that  the 

opportunity  of  wandering  about  may  be  taken  from  them  [the 
|  nuns],  we  forbid  them  to  take  the  road  of  pilgrimage"4.  In  1318 
R  Archbishop  Melton  strictly  forbade  the  nuns  of  Nunappleton  to 

leave  their  house  "by  reason  of  any  vow  of  pilgrimage,  which 
i  they  might  have  taken ;  if  any  had  taken  such  vows  she  was  to 
I  say  as  many  psalters  as  it  would  have  taken  days  to  perform 

1  The  wyff  of  bath  was  so  wery,  she  had  no  will  to  walk; 
She  toke  the  Priores  by  the  hond:  "madam,  wol  ye  stalk 
Pryuely  in-to  J?e  garden,  to  se  the  herbis  growe? 

And  aftir,  with  our  hostis  wyff,  in  hir  parlour  rowe, 
I  wol  gyve  3 ewe  the  wine,  and  yee  shull  me  also: 
ffor  tyll  wee  go  to  soper,  wee  have  nau}t  ellis  to  do. 
The  Priores,  as  womman  taujt  of  gentil  blood  and  hend, 
Assentid  to  hir  counsell;  and  forthe  (tho)  gon  they  wend 
Passyng  forth  (ful)  softly  in-to  the  berbery: 
ffor  many  a  herbe  grewe,  for  sewe  and  surgery; 
And  al  the  Aleyis  fair  I-parid,  I-ralid  and  I-makid: 
The  sauge  and  the  Isope,  I-frethid  and  I-stakid. 

Tale  of  Beryn,   p.   10.     Cf.  p.    6  for  the  scene  with  the  holy  water 
I  sprinkler. 

2  Langland,  Piers  Plowman,  B  Text,  Passus  xn,  36-38. 

3  "  Let  it  never  be  permitted  to  any  abbess  or  any  other  nun,  whosoever 
j she  may  be,  to  undertake  the  journey  to  Rome  or  to  any  other  holy  places; 
i  for  it  is  the  Devil,  taking  the  form  of  an  angel  of  light,  who  inspires  such 
j  pilgrimages  under  a  false  pretext  of  piety:  and  there  is  no  one  so  foolish 
j  and  so  devoid  of  reason  as  not  to  know  how  irreligious  and  blameworthy 
ia  thing  it  is  for  Virgins  vowed  to  God  to  hold  converse  with  men,  through 
jthe  necessity  of  a  journey.  If  after  the  prohibition  of  this  venerable  Council, 

•  there  be  found  anyone  so  bold  as  to  disobey  this  ordinance,  which  has  been 
!  promulgated  by  unanimous  consent,  let  him  be  punished  according  to  the 
'rigour  of  the  canons,  to  wit  let  him  be  excommunicated."  Thiers,  op.  cit. 

P-  135- 

4  Wilkins,  Concilia,  i,  p.  502. 


374 


FISH  OUT  OF  WATER 


[CH. 


the  pilgrimage  so  rashly  vowed"1.  One  has  a  melancholy  vision 
of  Madame  Eglentyne  saying  psalters  interminably  through  her 
"tretys"  nose,  instead  of  jogging  along  so  gaily  with  her  motley 
companions  and  telling  so  prettily  her  tale  of  little  St  Hugh. 
But  the  nuns  of  Nunappleton  retained  their  taste  for  pilgrimages 
and  nearly  two  centuries  later  (in  1489)  we  find  Archbishop 
Rotherham  admonishing  their  successors: 

yat  ye  prioresse  lycence  none  of  your  susters  to  goe  pilgremage  or 
visit  yer  frendes  wkmte  a  grete  cause,  and  yen  such  a  sister  lycencyate 
by  you  to  have  w*  her  oon  of  ye  most  sadd  and  well  disposid  sistirs 
to  she  come  home  agayne  2. 

At  Wix,  twenty  years  later,  the  nuns  were  forbidden  to  undertake 
pilgrimages  without  the  consent  of  the  diocesan3,  and  in  1531 
Bishop  Longland  wrote  to  the  Prioress  of  Nuncoton: 

Forasmoche  as  by  your  negligent  sufferaunce  dyuers  of  your  susters 
hath  wandred  a  brode  in  the  world,  some  under  the  pretence  of  pyl- 
grymage,  some  to  see  ther  frends,  and  otherwise  whereby  hath  growen 
many  Inconuenyences  insolent  behauiours  and  moche  slaunder,  as 
well  to  your  house  as  to  those  susters,  as  by  the  texts  of  my  said 
visitation  doth  euydently  appere,  I  chardge  you  lady  priores  that 
from  hensforthe  ye  neyther  licence  ne  suffre  eny  your  susters  to  goo 
out  of  your  monastery, 

without  good  cause  and  company  of  a  "wise  sobre  and  discrete 
suster,"  and  an  injunction  not  to  "tary  out  of  the  monastery 
in  the  nighte  tyme"4.  But  most  significant  of  all  is  a  case  which 
occurred  at  the  little  Cistercian  priory  of  Wykeham  in  Yorkshire 
in  the  fifteenth  century.  In  1450  Archbishop  Kemp  wrote  to 
the  Prioress,  bidding  her  readmit  an  apostate  nun  Katherine 
Thornyf : 

who,  seduced  by  the  Angel  of  Darkness,  under  the  colour  of  a  pil 
grimage  in  the  time  of  the  Jubilee,  without  leave  of  the  archbishop, 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  172.    Compare  Bishop  Gynewell's  injunction  to 
Heynings  in  1351:  "Item  pur  ceo  que  ascun  de  les  dames  de  dit  mesoun 
sount  trop  acustumez  de  faire  auowes  de  pilgrimage  et  dautres  abstinences, 
saunz  conge  de  lour  souerayn,  par  quar  ils  ount  souent  occasion  de  les  retrer 
de  lour  religion;  si  vous  comandoms  sur  peyn  descomengement  que  nul  de 
vous  face  tiel  maner  auowe  en  destourbance  de  vostre  religion,  saunz  es 
pecial  conge  de  vostre  souereyn.    Et  que  nul  tiel  auowe  soit  fait  par  ascun 
de  vous,  pur  faire  paregrinage  ou  autre  abstinence  a  quel  il  nest  pas  tenur 
par  sa  religion,  nous  lui  relessoms  tut  maner  de  tel  auowe,  issint  qil  se  poet 
doner  entirement  a  sa  religion  parfaire."   Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell, 
f-  34<*- 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  172,  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  654. 

3  V.C.H.  Essex,  11,  p.  124.  *  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  pp.  56-7.         I 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  375 

or  officials  or  even  of  the  prioress,  set  out  on  a  journey  to  the  court 
of  Rome,  in  the  company  of  another  nun  of  the  house,  who,  as  it  was 
reported,  had  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh  and  on  whose  soul  the  Arch 
bishop  prayed  for  mercy.  After  the  death  of  this  nun,  Katherine 
Thorny  f  had  lived  in  sin  with  a  married  man  in  London. 

Then  she  had  been  moved  to  penitence,  after  who  knows  what 
agony  of  soul,  and  had  gone  to  the  Archbishop  seeking  absolu 
tion  ;  and  so  the  prodigal,  weary  of  her  husks,  came  back  to  the 
nunnery  she  had  left1.  The  melancholy  tale  is  borne  Tmt  by  all 
we  know  about  medieval  pilgrimages.  Centuries  before — in  774 
— an  Archbishop  of  Milan  had  written  to  an  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  advising  that  the  Synod  should  prohibit  women  and 
nuns  from  travelling  to  Rome,  on  account  of  the  dangers  and 
temptations  of  the  journey,  "for  very  few  are  the  cities  in 
Lombardy . . .  France . . .  Gaul,  wherein  there  is  not  to  be  found 
a  prostitute  of  English  race"2;  and  the  trouvere  Rutebeuf,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  spoke  with  less  pity  and  a  more  biting 
satire  of  the  pilgrimages  of  French  nuns  to  Paris  and  Montmartre3. 
Excursions  on  convent  business  or  for  attendance  at  ecclesi 
astical  ceremonies  (other  than  pilgrimages)  were  regarded  as 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  183.  This  episode  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
complaint  made  about  those  Jubilee  pilgrimages  by  the  abbots  of  Fountains, 
St  Mary  Graces  and  Stratford,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  Abbot  and 
Chapter-General  of  Citeaux  to  report  on  the  condition  of  English  monasteries 
of  that  order.  Writing  to  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux  in  1500,  they  beg  that  several 
bulls  of  Jubilee  indulgence  should  be  sent  to  England,  adding,  "for  many 
lesser  religious  of  the  order,  under  pretext  of  obtaining  the  grace  of  this 
indulgence,  led  by  a  spirit  less  of  devotion  than  of  levity  and  curiosity,  are 
begging  their  superiors  for  licence  to  go  to  the  Roman  curia,  and  we  have 
besought  them  to  remain  at  home  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  this  jubilee 
[indulgence] .  For  we  rarely  see,  in  this  country  of  ours,  any  good  and  devout 
secular  or  religious  man  visiting  the  Mother  City  (most  justly  though  it 
be  accounted  holy),  who  returns  home  again  in  better  holiness  and  devotion." 
Melanges  d'Histoire  offerts  a  M.  Charles  Bemont  (Paris,  1913).  P-  429- 

2  Quoted  in  Gregorovius,  Hist,  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in,  p.  78  note. 
See  the  fifteenth  century  Florentine  carnival  song,  quoted  below,  pp.  617-8. 

3  Les  blanches  et  les  grises  et  les  noires  nonains 
Sont  sovent  pelerines  aus  saintes  et  aus  sainz; 
Les  Diex  lor  en  set  gre,  je  n'en  suis  pas  certains, 
S'eles  fussent  bien  sages  eles  alassent  mains. 

Quant  ces  nonains  s'en  vont  par  le  pays  esbatre  / 

Les  unes  a  Paris,  les  autres  a  Montmartre, 

Tels  foiz  enmaine  deus  qu'on  en  ramaine  quatre, 

Quar  s'on  en  perdroit  une  il  les  covenroit  batre. 

From  "De  la  vie  dou  Monde,"    Rustebeufs  Gedichte  hg.  v.  Adolf  Krefaner 

(1885),  p.  185. 


376  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

legitimate,  though  strict  disciplinarians  sought  to  restrict  them 
to  occasions  of  real  urgency.  But  for  the  most  part  we  hear 
about  journeys  undertaken  for  pleasure  and  not  for  business, 
or  at  any  rate  the  elastic  term  business  is  stretched  to  cover 
some  very  pleasant  wandering  in  the  world  and  much  hob 
nobbing  with  friends.  In  spite  of  the  Bull  Periculoso1  bishops 
were  never  able  to  prevent  nuns  from  going  to  stay  with 
their  friends,  and  sometimes  the  ladies  made  very  long  journeys 
for  this  purpose.  Bishop  Stapeldon,  for  instance,  ordained  that 
when  the  nuns  of  Canonsleigh  in  Devon  went  to  visit  their 
friends  "in  Somerset,  Dorset,  Devonshire  or  in  Cornwall"  they 
might  not  stay  for  longer  than  a  month ;  but  if  they  went  outside 
these  four  counties  the  Abbess  might  allow  them  to  stay  longer 
still,  having  regard  to  the  distance  of  their  destination  and  to 
the  time  which  would  be  spent  in  travelling2.  The  bishops  indeed 
were  forced  to  regard  such  visits  as  "reasonable  occasions"  for 
a  breach  of  enclosure,  and  their  efforts,  as  has  already  been  shown, 
were  confined  to  regulating  rather  than  to  stopping  the  practice  ; 
for  the  relatives  of  the  nuns,  as  well  as  the  ladies  themselves, 
would  have  been  the  first  to  resent  any  interference  with  their 
visits.  Whatever  might  be  the  theory  of  the  Church  on  the 
subject,  blood  was  thicker  than  holy  water;  family  affections 
and  family  interests  persisted  in  the  cloister  and  the  nun  was 
welcomed  at  many  a  hospitable  board  for  her  family's  sake  as 
well  as  for  her  own.  All  this  seems  natural  and  obvious  today 
and  few  would  think  the  worse  of  the  nuns  for  their  opposition 
to  the  stricter  form  of  enclosure.  Nevertheless  the  authorities 
of  the  Church  had  reason  for  their  distrust  of  these  absences 
from  the  convent.  Once  away  from  the  cloister  and  staying  in 
a  private  house  there  was  nothing  to  keep  a  nun  from  joining 
in  the  secular  revelries  of  friends,  and  though  her  behaviour 
might  be  exemplary  the  convent  rule  aimed  at  keeping  her  un 
spotted  even  by  temptation.  An  anecdote  related  by  Erasmus  in 
his  dialogue  "  Ichthyophagia  "  shows  that  the  danger  of  allowing 

1  And  of  such  specific  decrees  as  that  of  the  Council  of  Oxford  (1222) 
which  forbade  them  to  go  merely  to  visit  relatives  or  for  recreation  except 
(there  was  always  a  saving  clause  under  which  nuns  and  bishops  alike  could 
shelter)  in  such  case  as  might  arouse  no  suspicion.  Wilkins,  Concilia,  i, 
P  592. 

8  Reg.  Walter  de  Stapeldon,  p.  95.  Cf.  injunctions  to  Polsloe,  above,  p.  355. 


jx]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  377 

nuns  to  visit  their  friends  might  be  a  real  one.  Two  nuns  had 
gone  to  stay  with  their  kinsfolk,  and  at  supper 

they  began  to  grow  merry  with  wine;  they  laughed  and  joked  and 
kissed  and  not  over-modestly  neither,  till  you  could  hardly  hear  what 
was  said  for  the  noise  they  made.... After  supper  there  was  dancing 
and  singing  of  lascivious  songs  and  such  doings  I  am  ashamed  to 
speak  of,  inasmuch  as  I  am  much  afraid  the  night  hardly  passed  very 
honestly1. 

Moreover  even  if  nuns  visited  their  friends  for  a  very  short 
time,  staying  only  one  night,  or  even  returning  before  nightfall 
to  the  convent,  there  was  danger  that  they  might  join  in  the 
various  revelries  practised  among  secular  folk,  and  reprobated 
by  the  Church  as  occasions  for  unseemly  and  licentious  behaviour. 
Bishop  Spofford  of  Hereford,  indeed,  found  it  necessary  in  1437 
to  send  a  special  warning  against  doing  so  to  the  nuns  of  Lym- 
brook;  the  Prioress  was  to  "yife  no  lycence  too  noon  of  hur 
sustres  her  after  to  go  to  no  port  townes,  no  to  noon  othir  townes 
to  comyn  wakes  or  festes,  spectacles  and  othir  worldly  vanytees, 
and  specially  on  holy-dayes,  nor  to  be  absent  lyggying  oute  by 
nyght  out  of  thair  monastery,  but  with  fader  and  moder,  except 
causes  of  necessytee  "  2.  The  words  which  the  Good  Wife  spoke 
to  her  daughter  come  to  mind: 

Go  not  to  ]?e  wrastelings  ne  schotynge  at  cok 

As  it  were  a  strumpet  or  a  giggelot, 

Wone  at  horn,  dou}ter,  and  love  ]?i  work  myche3. 

Clemence  Medforde,  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  went  to  a  wedding 
at  Bromhale4;  yet  weddings  were  of  all  those  "comyn  wakes 
and  festes"  most  condemned  by  the  Church  for  the  unseemly 

1  AH  the  Familiar  Colloquies  of  Erasmus,  ed.  N.  Bailey,  2nd  ed.  1733, 

!  P-  379- 

2  Hereford  Epis.  Reg.  Spofford,  p.  81.  Compare  the  charge  made  against 
the  clergy  of  Ripon  Minster  in  1312:  "Vicarii  capellani,  et  caeteri  ministri 

;  ...spectaculis  publicis,  ludibriis  et  coreis,  immo  teatricalibus  ludis  inter 
:  I  laicos  frequentius  se  immiscent."  J.  T.  Fowler,  Memorials  of  Ripon  Minster 
,  '  (Surtees  Soc.),  n,  p.  68.  Also  one  of  the  comperta  at  Alnwick's  visitation 
of  Humberstone  Abbey  in  1440,  "  He  says  that  Wrauby  answered  the  abbot 
saucily  and  rebelliously  when  [the  abbot]  took  him  to  task  for  climbing  up 
a  gate  to  behold  the  pipe-players  and  dancers  in  the  churchyard  of  the 
parish  church."  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  140. 

3  Manners  and  Meals  in  Olden  Time,  ed.  Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  40. 

4  See  above,  p.  81,  and  compare  the  injunctions  sent  by  Cardinal  Nicho 
las  of  Cues  to  the  Abbess  of  Sonnenburg,  c.  1454,  forbidding  her  to  go  on 
pilgrimages  or  to  visit  health  resorts  or  to  attend  weddings.    Eckenstein, 
Woman  under  Monasticism,  p.  425. 


378  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

revelries  which  followed  them.  The  Christen  State  of  Matrimony, 
written  in  1543,  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  subject: 

When  they  come  home  from  the  Church,  then  beginneth  excesse  of 
eatyng  and  dryncking — and  as  much  is  waisted  in  one  daye,  as  were 
sufficient  for  the  two  newe  maried  Folkes  halfe  a  yere  to  lyve  upon.... 
After  the  Bancket  and  Feast,  there  begynnethe  a  vayne,  madde  and 
unmanerlye  fashion,  for  the  Bryde  must  be  brought  into  an  open 
dauncynge  place.  Then  is  there  such  a  rennynge,  leapynge,  and  flyng- 
ynge  among  them,  then  is  there  suche  a  lyftynge  up  and  discoverynge 
of  the  Damselles  clothes  and  other  Womennes  apparell,  that  a  Man 
might  thynke  they  were  sworne  to  the  Devels  Daunce.  Then  muste 
the  poore  Bryde  kepe  foote  with  al  Dauncers  and  refuse  none,  how 
scabbed,  foule,  droncken,  rude  and  shameles  soever  he  be.  Then  must 
she  oft  tymes  heare  and  se  much  wyckednesse  and  many  an  uncomely 
word;  and  that  noyse  and  romblyng  endureth  even  tyll  supper1. 

It  may  be  urged  that  the  Brides  of  Heaven  need  not  necessarily 
have  attended  these  merry-makings  after  the  ceremony;  but  the 
example  of  Isabel  Benet,  nun  of  Catesby,  and  the  tenour  of  certain 
episcopal  injunctions,  show  that  nuns  by  no  means  despised 
dancing2.  The  strict  disciplinarian's  view  of  weddings  is  shown 
in  the  fact  that  members  of  the  Tertiary  Order  of  St  Francis  were 
forbidden  to  attend  them;  and  even  the  civic  authorities  of 
London  found  it  necessary  to  regulate  the  disorders  which  were 
prevalent  on  such  occasions3. 

1  Quoted  in  Brand's  Observations  on  Popular  Antiquities  (ed.    1877), 
pp.    382,   394.    Compare  the  almost  precisely  similar  account  given  by 
Erasmus  in  his  Guide  to  Christian  Matrimony  (1526),  quoted  in  Coulton, 
Social  Life  in  Britain  from  the  Conquest  to  the  Reformation,  pp.  439-40. 

2  See  above,  p.  309  and  below,  p.  388. 

3  Coulton,  Chaucer  and  his  England,  pp.  108-9.  Weddings  were,  however, 
occasionally  celebrated  in  convent  churches,  e.g.  on  Jan.  3rd,  1465-6  the 
Bishop  of  Ely  addressed  a  licence  to  Thomas  Trumpington,  "  President  of 
religion  of  the  Minoresses  of  the  convent  of  Denny,"  authorising  him  to 
celebrate  matrimony  in  the  convent  church  between  William  Ketterich 
junior  and  Marion  Hall,  domestic  servants  in  the  monastery,  the  bans  to  be 
put  up  in  the  parish  church  of  Waterbeach.  Ely  Epis.  Records,  ed.  Gibbons, 
p.  145.    Compare  case  at  Crabhouse  in  1476,   V.C.H.  Norfolk,  n,  p.  409. 
Dugdale  notes  that  Henry  VIII  is  said  to  have  married  one  of  his  wives,  in 
the  Chapel  at  Sopwell.    Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  364.    Such  weddings  would 
necessarily  have  taken  place  in  convent  churches  where  the  nave  was  also 
used  as  a  parish  church,  but  this  was  not  so  at  Denny.    Wriothesley's 
Chronicle  contains  an  account  of  a  triple  wedding  held  at  Haliwell  in  1536. 
"  This  yeare,  the  3  daye  of  July,  beinge  Mondaye,  was  a  greate  solempnytie 
of  marriage  kept  at  the  nonnerye  of  Halywell,  besyde  London,  in  the  Erie 
of  Ruttlandes  place,  where  the  Erie  of  Oxfordes  sonne  and  heyer,  called 
Lord  Bulbeke  maryed  the  Erie  of  Westmorelandes  eldest  daughter  named 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  379 

Again  not  only  weddings,  but  also  christenings,  often  in 
volved  unseemly  revels  and  this  could  not  fail  to  affect  nuns 
who,  despite  canonical  prohibition,  were  somewhat  in  demand 
as  godmothers.  Christening  parties  were  gay  affairs ;  the  gossips 
would  return  to  the  house  of  the  child's  parents  to  eat,  drink 
and  make  merry:  "adtunc  et  ibidem  immediate  venerunt  in 
domam  suam  ad  comedendum  et  bibendum  et  adtunc  sibi  revel- 
averunt  de  baptismo"1.  If  Antoine  de  la  Sale's  witty  account  of 
the  "third  joy  of  marriage"  has  any  truth2,  and  it  is  upheld  by 
more  sober  documents,  bishops  did  well  to  mislike  the  christening 
parties  for  nuns;  Mrs  Gamp  was  quite  at  home  in  the  middle 
ages;  she  was  probably  a  crony  of  the  Wife  of  Bath.  It  was  in 
fact  forbidden  for  monks  and  nuns  to  become  godparents,  not 
only,  as  Mr  Coulton  has  pointed  out,  "because  this  involved 
them  in  a  fresh  spiritual  relationship  incompatible  with  their 

Ladye  Dorytye  and  the  Erie  of  Westmorelandes  sonne  and  heyre,  called 
Lord  Nevell,  maryed  the  Erie  of  Ruttlandes  eldyste  daughter,  named  Ladye 
Anne,  and  the  Erie  of  Rutlandes  sonne  and  heire  called  Lord  Roosse  maryed 
the  Erie  of  Westmorelandes  daughter,  named  Ladye  Margaret;  and  all 
these  three  lordes  were  maryed  at  one  masse,  goinge  to  churche  all  3  to 
gether  on  by  another  and  the  laydes,  there  wyfes,  followinge,  one  after 
another,  everye  one  of  the  younge  ladyes  havinge  2  younge  lordes  goinge 
one  everye  syde  of  them  when  they  went  to  church  and  a  younge  ladye 
bearinge  up  everye  of  their  gowne  traynes;  at  wh.  maryage  was  present  all 
the  greate  estates  of  the  realme,  both  lordes  and  ladyes."  Afterwards  they 
all  went  home  and  had  a  great  feast,  followed  by  a  dance,  to  which  the 
King  came  dressed  as  a  Turk.  Wriothesley's  Chronicle,  ed.  W.  D.  Hamilton 
(Camden  Soc.  1875),  i,  pp.  50-1.  A  reference  may  also  be  made  to  No.  XLVI 
of  Les  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  ed.  Th.  Wright,  t.  i,  p.  284:  "Or  advint 
toutesfoiz  ung  jour  que  une  des  niepces  de  madame  1'abbesse  se  marioit 
et  faisoit  sa  feste  en  1'abbaye;  et  y  avoit  grosse  assemblee  des  gens  du  paVs; 
et  estoit  madame  1'abbesse  fort  empeschee  de  festoyer  les  gens  de  bien  qui 
estoyent  venuz  a  la  feste  faire  honneur  a  sa  niepce." 

1  From  "  Proofs  of  Age,  temp.  Henry  IV,"  quoted  in  Trans.  R.  Hist.  Soc. 
N.S.  xvi  (1902),  p.  163. 

2  "Or  vienneht  commeres  de  toutes  pars;  or  convient  que  le  pauvre 
homme  [i.e.  the  husband]  face  tant  que  elles  soient  bien  aises.  La  dame  et 
les  commeres  parlent  et  raudent,  et  dient  de  bonnes  chouses  et  se  tiennent 
bien  aises,  quiconques  ait  la  peine  de  le  querir,  quelque  temps  qu'il  face... 
et  tous  jours  boy  vent  comme  bottes....Lors  les  commeres  entrent,   elles 
desjunent,  elles  disnent,  elles  menjent  a  raassie,  maintenant  boivent  au  lit 
de  la  commere,  maintenant  a  la  cuve,  et  confondent  des  biens  et  du  vin  plus 
qu'il  n'en  entreroit  en  une  bote;  et  a  1'aventure  il  vient  a  barrilz  ou  n'en  y 
a  que  une  pipe.  Et  le  pauvre  homme,  qui  a  tout  le  soussy  de  la  despense,  va 
souvent  veoir  comment  le  vin  se  porte,  quant  il  voit  terriblement  boire — 
Brief ment  tout  se  despend;  les  commeres  s'en  vont  bien  coiff£es,  parlant 
et  janglant,  et  ne  se  esmoient  point  dont  il  vient."  Les  Quinzes  Joyes  de 
Mariage  (Bib.  Elzevirienne,  1855),  pp.  27-8,  30,  37-8. 


380  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

ideal,  but  because  it  entangled  them  with  worldly  folk  and 
worldly  affairs"1.  Thus  in  1387  William  of  Wykeham  wrote  to 
the  nuns  of  Romsey :  "  We  forbid  you  all  and  singly  to  presume 
to  become  godmothers  to  any  child,  without  obtaining  our  licence 
to  do  so,  since  from  such  relationships  expense  is  often  entailed 
upon  religious  houses"2.  At  Nuncoton  in  1440  two  nuns  asked 
that  their  sisters  might  be  forbidden  the  practice  and  Alnwick 
enjoined  "that  none  of  yowe  have  no  children  at  the  fount  ne 
confirmyng"3  and  nearly  a  century  later  a  similar  in  junction  was 
sent  by  Bishop  Longland  to  Studley4. 

There  does  indeed  seem  a  certain  incongruity  in  the  presence  • 
of  one  who  had  renounced  the  world  at  a  wedding  or  a  christening, 
even  had  such  ceremonies  not  been  accompanied  by  very  worldly 
revels.   But  they  were  less  incongruous  than  was  the  attendance 
of  Mary,  daughter  of  Edward  I,  the  nun-princess  of  Amesbury, 

1  G.  G.  Coulton,  French  Monasticism  in  1503  (Medieval  Studies  No.  xi. 
I9I5).  P-  22  note  2. 

2  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  87.    On  the  other  hand  such  connections  with  rich 
families  might  be  a  source  of  wealth  to  a  house.  Mr  Coulton  draws  attention 
to  "the  letter  of  an  abbot  at  Bordeaux  in  Father  Denifle's  Desolation  des 
Eglises,  etc.  i,  p.  583  (A.D.  1419).  The  abbey  had  been  so  impoverished  by 
war  that  the  Abbot  begged  for  a  papal  indult  permitting  him  to  stand  god 
father  to  forty  children  of  noble  or  wealthy  families."   Coulton,  loc.  cit. 

3  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  jjd. 

4  "That  frome  hensforthe  ye  give  noo  more  licence  ne  sufrre  eny  of  your 
susters  to  be  godmother  to  eny  child,  nither  at  the  christening  nother  at  the 
connrmacon,  and  undre  like  payne  chardge  you  nott  to  be  godmother  to 
eny  child  in  christening  nor  connrmacon."  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  54.  Com 
pare  similar  prohibitions  by  Eudes  Rigaud,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  addressed 
to  the  nuns  of  Montivilliers  in   1257   and    1265.    Reg.    Visit.   Archiepis. 
Rothomag.  ed.  Bonnin  (1852),  pp.  293,  517.  The  prohibition  was  frequently 
broken  by  monks  as  well  as  by  nuns.    See  e.g.  the  comperta  at  Alnwick's 
visitation  of  Higham  Ferrers  College  in  1442 :  "  Also  Sir  William  Calverstone 
haunts  suspect  places  and  especially  the  house  of  Margery  Chaumberleyn, 
for  whose  son  he  stood  sponsor  at  his  confirmation,  and,  though  warned 
by  the  master,  he  does  not  desist.  The  same  does  also  haunt  the  house  of 
one  Plays,   for  whose   son  he    likewise   stood    sponsor."    Line.    Visit,  n, 
p.  138.    Also  the  complaint  of  Guy  Jouenneaux,  Abbot  of  St  Sulpice  de 
Bourges  in  his  Defence  of  Monastic  Reform  (1503) :  "  Sometimes  they  eat  in 
the  houses  of  their  gossips,  though  the  law  forbids  them  such  relationships, 
or  again  among  citizens,  at  whose  houses  they  are  as  frequent  guests,  or 
more  frequent,  than  even  worldly-minded  folk."    Coulton,  loc.  cit.    It  is 
interesting  that  Barbara  Mason,  ex-Prioress  of  Marham,  who  died  shortly 
after  the  dissolution  in  1538,  mentions  two  god-daughters.   "  I  wyll  Barbara 
Barcom  my  goddowter  and  seruant,  shall  haue  my  wosted  kyrtyll  and  clothe 
kyrtell  and  my  frok  in  Hayll.    Itm.  I  bequeth  to  Elyn  Mason's  chyld,  my 
goddowter  xij  d."  Bury  Wills  and  Inventories,  ed.  S.  Tymms  (Camden  Soc.), 
p.  134.    Henry  VIII's  visitors  gave  her  a  bad  character. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  381 

upon  her  step-mother  Queen  Margaret  and  later  upon  her  niece 
Elizabeth  de  Burgh,  during  their  confinements.  A  king's  daughter, 
however,  could  not  be  subjected  to  ordinary  restraints;  Mary  led 
a  particularly  free  life,  constantly  visiting  court  and  going  on 
pilgrimages,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  ordinary 
nuns  shared  her  privileges1. 

Naturally  occasions  when  a  nun  was  away  from  her  convent 
for  the  night,  whether  on  business  or  on  pleasure,  were  com 
paratively  rare.  For  the  most  part  the  bishops  had  to  deal  with 
casual  absences  during  the  day  and  it  was  found  extraordinarily 
difficult  to  confine  such  excursions  to  the  "convent  business" 
and  "necessary  reasons"  laid  down  by  the  various  enactments 
on  enclosure.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  great  deal  of  wandering 
about  without  any  specific  purpose.  Short  errands  perhaps  took 
the  nuns  out  for  a  few  hours,  or  they  went  simply  for  air  and 
exercise.  Their  rule  and  their  bishops  would  have  had  them  hear 
the  "smale  fowles  maken  melodye"  and  tread  "the  smalle, 
softe,  sweete  grass"  within  the  narrow  cloister  court,  or  at  least 
in  the  privacy  of  their  own  gardens2.  But  the  nuns  liked  high 
ways  and  hedges,  and  often  in  springtime  it  was  farewell  their 
books  and  their  devotion.  Certainly  the  convent  often  did  come 
out  to  take  the  air  in  its  own  meadows;  John  Aubrey  (in  a 
much-quoted  passage)  tells  of  the  nuns  of  Kington  in  Wiltshire, 
and  how  "  Old  Jacques"  could  see  them  from  his  house 

come  forth  into  the  nymph-hay  with  their  rocks  and  wheels  to  spin : 
and  with  their  sewing  work.  He  would  say  that  he  had  told  three 
score  and  ten,  but  of  nuns  there  were  not  so  many,  but  in  all,  with 
lay  sisters  and  widows,  old  maids  and  young  girls,  there  might  be 

such  a  number3, 
i 

1  For  her  life  see  M.  A.  E.  Green,  Lives  of  the  Princesses  of  England,  u, 

|   PP-  4°4-42- 

2  Their  gardens  are  often  mentioned,  e.g.  at  Nuncoton  in  1440  it  was 
!  complained  that  the  nuns  had  private  gardens  and  that  some  of  them  did 
1  not  come  to  Compline,  but  wandered  about  in  the  gardens,  gathering  herbs. 
!  Alnwick's  Visit,  f.  72.    At  Stainfield  in  1519  a  similar  complaint  was  made 
I  that  on  feast  days  they  did  not  stay  in  the  church  and  occupy  themselves  in 
!  devotion,  between  the  Hours  of  Our  Lady  and  High  Mass,  but  came  out 
!  and  walked  about  the  garden  and  cloisters.    V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  131.   The 
I  nuns  of  Sinningthwaite  (1319)  were  ordered  to  provide  themselves  with 
i  a  competent  gardener  for  their  curtilage,  so  that  they  might  always  have 

an  abundance  of  vegetables.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  177.  Christine  de  Pisan's 
j  description  of  the  great  gardens  of  the  convent  of  Poissy  is  most  attractive. 
See  below,  p.  560. 

3  Quoted  in  Gasquet,  English  Monastic  Life,  p.  177. 


382  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

Sometimes,  indeed,  at  the  busy  harvest-time,  when  every  pair 
of  hands  was  needed  on  the  manor  farm,  the  nuns  even  went 
hay-making  in  the  meadows.  The  visitations  of  Bishop  Alnwick 
provide  two  instances  of  this  and  show  also  the  abuses  to  which 
it  might  give  rise,  since  the  fields  were  full  of  secular  workers. 
At  Nuncoton  in  1440  the  subprioress  deposed  that 

in  the  autumn  season  the  nuns  go  out  to  their  autumn  tasks,  whereby 
the  quire  is  not  kept  regularly1,  and... in  seed  time  the  nuns  clear  the 
crops  of  weeds  in  the  barns,  and  there  secular  folks  do  come  in  and 
unbecoming  words  are  uttered  between  them  and  the  nuns,  where- 
from,  as  is  feared,  there  are  evil  consequences2. 

At  Gracedieu  the  subprioress  mentioned  that  "sometimes  the 
nuns  do  help  secular  folk  in  garnering  their  grain  during  the 
autumn  season,"  but  the  most  amusing  revelations  concern 
the  conduct  of  the  haughty  cellaress  Margaret  Belers,  who, 
whether  on  account  of  her  autocratic  government  or  because 
she  was  of  better  birth  than  they,  was  regarded  by  her  sisters 
with  the  utmost  jealousy.  Belers,  ran  one  of  the  detecta  to  the 
Bishop, 

goes  out  to  work  in  autumn  alone  with  Sir  Henry  [the  chaplain],  he 
reaping  the  harvest  and  she  binding  the  sheaves,  and  at  evening  she 
comes  riding  behind  him  on  the  same  horse.  She  is  over  friendly  with 
him  and  has  been  since  the  doings  aforesaid. 

Here  was  a  pretty  scandal;  the  Bishop  (hiding,  we  will  hope,  a 
smile)  made  inquiries ;  Sir  Henry  was  charged  with  the  heinous 
crime  of  going  hay-making  with  Dame  Belers.  But  Sir  Henry 
specifically  denied  his  solitary  roaming  in  the  fields  with  the 
cellaress;  he  said  however  "that  he  has  been  in  the  fields  with 
the  others  and  Belers,  carting  hay  and  helping  to  pile  the  sheaves 
in  stacks  in  the  barns";  and  Alnwick  contented  himself  with 
enjoining  the  Prioress  "that  ye  suffre  none  of  your  susters  to 
go  to  any  felde  werkes  but  alle  onely  in  your  presence  "3. 

Such  field  work,  when  it  was  undertaken,  must  have  afforded 
not  only  wholesome  exercise,  but  a  very  pleasant  relaxation 

1  One  of  the  charges  against  Eleanor  Prioress  of  Arden  in  1396  was  that 
"she  compelled  three  young  nuns  to  go  out  haymaking  very  early  in  the 
morning  and  they  did  not  come  back  before  nightfall  and  so  divine  service 
was  not  yet  said."    Test.  Ebor.  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  283. 

2  Alnwick' s  Visit,  f.  7 id. 

8  Ib.  pp.  120,  121,  123,  125.  At  Bishop  Atwater's  visitation  of  Leg- 
bourne  in  1519  it  was  stated  that  the  nuns  often  worked  at  haymaking,  but 
only  in  the  presence  of  the  Prioress.  V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  154. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  383 

from  the  cramping  life  of  the  cloister;  and  the  necessities  of 
harvest  overrode  all  rules.  Whether  the  nuns  took  part  in  farm 
work  at  other  seasons  of  the  year  is  more  difficult  to  discover; 
one  is  tempted  to  think  that  they  must  sometimes  have  given 
a  helping  hand  with  their  own  cattle  and  poultry,  especially 
at  very  poor  houses.  The  private  cocks  and  hens  which  occasioned 
such  rivalry  at  Saint-Aubin1,  the  never-to-be-forgotten  donkey 
of  Alfrad2,  bear  witness  not  only  to  the  sin  of  proprietas,  but 
also  to  the  personal  care  of  the  nuns  for  such  livestock.  But 
authority  discouraged  the  practice  at  a  later  date,  partly  because 
it  encouraged  private  property,  partly  because  it  brought  the 
nuns  into  too  close  contact  with  the  world3.  Nowhere  has  the 
attitude  been  better  stated  than  in  the  amusing  description 
given  in  the  Ancren  Riwle  of  the  anchoress'  cow: 

An  anchoress  that  hath  cattle  appears  as  Martha  was,  a  better  house 
wife  than  anchoress :  nor  can  she  in  any  wise  be  Mary,  with  peaceful- 
ness  of  heart.  For  then  she  must  think  of  the  cow's  fodder  and  of  the 
herdsman's  hire,  flatter  the  heyward,  defend  herself  when  her  cattle 
is  shut  up  in  the  pinfold  and  moreover  pay  the  damage.  Christ 
knoweth  it  is  an  odious  thing  when  people  in  the  town  complain  of 
the  anchoresses'  cattle.  If,  however,  any  one  must  needs  have  a  cow, 
let  her  take  care  that  she  neither  annoy,  nor  harm  any  one,  and  that 
her  own  thoughts  be  not  fixed  thereon4. 

The  more  human  bishops  made  allowance  for  a  natural  in 
stinct  by  giving  the  convent  permission  to  go  for  walks,  though 
as  a  rule  the  grounds  of  the  nunnery  were  specified : 

"Let  the  door  be  closed  at  the  right  time,"  wrote  Archbishop  Courte- 
nay  to  Elstow  in  1390,  "And  let  no  nun  go  out  without  licence  of 

1  See  below,  p.  653. 

2  See  below,  p.  589. 

3  See  Thiers  on  the  subject:  "  Si  les  Religieuses  estoient  aussi  soigneuses 
de  leur  honneur  et  de  leur  reputation  comme  elles  devroient,  si  elles  vouloient 
asseurer  la  grace  de  leur  vocation  et  de  leur  election... elles  ne  nourriroient 

i  point  de  vaches  dans  leur  cloture,  estant  indecent  que  les  Religieuses  s'occu- 
ipent  a  les  rnener  paistre,  a  les  retirer  des  pasturages,  et  k  faire  tout  ce  qui 
>est  necessaire  pour  en  recevoir  quelque  profit.  Je  dis  la  meme  choses  des 
jasnesses,  qu'elles  y  retiennient  pour  en  prendre  le  lait  dans  leurs  infirmitez. 
jCar  elles  peuvent  les  avoir  au  dehors  et  en  tirer  a  peu  pres  les  memes 
lavantages,  que  si  elles  les  renoient  au  dedans.  Aussi  est-il  dit  dans  les  Statuts 
jdu  Couvent  de  Saint  Estienne  de  Reims,  de  1'ordre  des  Chanoinesses  regu- 
jlieres  de  Saint  Augustin:  II  ne  sera  loisible  de  recevoir  dans  le  Monastere 
iaucungros  bestail:  ce  qui  est  parfaitement  confer  me  k  cette  defense  du  i. 
,,Concile  Provincial  de  Milan  en  1565.  Moniales  ne  intus  in  septis  Monasterii 
\boves,  equos  etjumenta  cujusvis  generis  alant."  Op.  cit.  p.  415. 

4  Ancren  Riwle  (King's  Classics),  pp.  316-7. 


384  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

the  abbess  or  other  president,  yet  so  that  leave  of  walking  for  recrea 
tion  in  the  orchard  or  in  any  other  seemly  and  close  place  at  suitable 
times  be  not  out  of  malice  denied  to  the  nuns  provided  that  the 
younger  do  not  go  without  the  society  of  the  elder1. 

Bishop  Spofford  of  Hereford  went  even  further;  after  forbidding 
any  revelries  to  be  held  in  the  nunnery  of  Lymbrook,  he  added: 

and  what  dysport  of  walkyng  forward  in  dewe  tyme  and  place,  so  that 
yee  kepe  the  dewe  houres  and  tymes  of  dyuyne  seruyce  with  inforth, 
and  with  honest  company,  and  with  lycence  specyally  asked  and 
obteyned  [from]  the  pryoresse  or  suppryoresse  in  her  absence,  and 
at  yee  be  two  to  geder  at  the  leest,  we  holde  us  content"  (i437)2. 

So  in  1367  Robert  de  Stretton,  Bishop  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield, 
forbade  any  nun  of  Fairwell  to  go  into  Lichfield  without  the 
Prioress'  leave,  ordering  that  she  should  be  accompanied  by  two 
sisters  and  should  "  make  no  vain  and  wanton  delays,"  but  added 
that  "  this  is  not  intended  to  interfere  with  the  laudable  custom 
of  the  whole  or  greater  part  of  the  convent  walking  out  together 
on  certain  days  to  take  the  air"3.  This  forerunner  of  the  school 
girls'  "crocodile"  was  not,  however,  what  the  nuns  desired.  It 
was  wandering  about  the  roads  in  twos  and  threes  (sometimes, 
alas,  in  ones  also)  that  they  really  enjoyed,  and  against  this 
freedom  the  bishops  continually  fulminated.  It  must  be  remem 
bered  that  walking  in  the  public  streets  in  the  middle  ages  was 
very  different  from  what  it  is  today ;  it  is  impossible  otherwise, 
as  Mr  Coulton  has  pointed  out,  to  explain  the  extraordinary 
severity  of  all  rules  for  the  deportment  of  girls4.  The  streets 

1  Lambeth  Reg.  Courtenay,  i,  i.  336.    The  injunction  was  repeated  by 
Bishop  Flemyng  in  1421-2.    Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Lincoln,  i,  p.  52. 
At  Godstow  Peckham  made  the  following  order  concerning  the  conversations 
of  nuns  with  seculars:  "  Cum  insuper  talia  sunt  colloquia  terminata,  inhibe- 
mus  decetero  ne  moniales  hujusmodi  pro  colloquentium  conductu,  locutorii 
januam  exeant  ullo  modo,  nee  etiam  stent  exterius  in  atrio,  ubi  saecularium 
est  concursus,  sed  interius  tantum  in  hortis  et  pomeriis  quatenus  requirit . 
necessitasethonestaspatitur.si  non  desit  omnimoda  securitas.consolentur." 
Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  in,  p.  848.    At  Romsey  in  1311  Bishop  Woodlock 
ordered  that "  there  shall  be  an  entrance  into  the  garden  by  a  gate  or  postern 
for  the  sick  in  loco  non  suspecto  for  their  recreation  and  solace."    Liveing, 
Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  104.    At  Clementhorpe  in  1310  a  nun  con 
fined  to  the  cloister  for  penance  might  "for  recreation  and  solace  go  into 
the  orchard  and  gardens  of  the  nunnery  accompanied  by  nuns."    V.C.H. 
Yorks.  in,  p.  129. 

2  Hereford  Epis.  Reg.  Spofford,  p.  82. 

8  William  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc.  Coll.  New  Series,  vm,  pp.  118-9. 
4  Coulton,  Chaucer  and  his  England,  p.  109.    He  quotes  one  such  rule 
from  the  "  MSnagier  de  Paris."   "  When  thou  goest  into  town  or  to  church, 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  385 

were  full  of  rough  pastimes,  hocking  and  hoodsnatching,  football 
and  the  games  of  noisy  prentices  in  the  town ;  and  in  the  country 
villages  they  resounded  with  the  still  more  boorish  sports  of 
country  folk  and  with  the  shrill  quarrels  of  alewives  and  re- 
grateresses  and  all  the  good-natured  but  short-tempered  people, 
whom  court  rolls  show  us  raising  the  hue  and  cry  upon  each 
other  and  drawing  blood  from  each  other's  noses.  There  is 
perhaps  solicitude  for  the  nuns  in  the  injunction  which  Bishop 
Fitzjames  sent  in  1509  to  the  convent  of  Wix  in  Essex,  forbidding 
them  to  permit  ''any  public  spectacles  of  seculars,  javelin-play , 
dances  or  trading  in  streets  or  open  places"1.  Manners  were  free 
in  that  age  and  the  nuns  would  see  and  hear  much  that  were 
best  hidden  from  their  cloistered  innocence.  Moreover  if  once 
they  began  to  stop  and  pass  the  time  of  day  with  their  neigh 
bours,  religious  and  secular,  or  to  go  into  houses  for  some  more 
private  gossip,  there  was  no  knowing  where  such  perilous 
familiarity  would  end ;  and  the  outspokenness  with  which  bishops 
condemned  such  conduct  by  references  to  Dinah,  the  daughter 
of  Jacob,  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  what  they  feared2. 

But  nothing  availed  to  keep  the  nuns  within  their  cloisters  ; 
and  hardly  a  set  of  episcopal  injunctions  but  bears  witness  to 
the  freedom  with  which  they  wandered  about  the  streets  and 
fields.  The  nuns  of  Moxby  are  not  to  go  out  of  the  precincts 
of  their  monastery  often,  nor  at  any  time  to  wander  about  the 
Iwoods3.  Alas,  poor  ladies : 

In  somer  when  the  shawes  be  sheyne, 

And  leves  be  large  and  long, 
Hit  is  full  mery  in  feyre  foreste 

To  here  the  foulys  song. 

The  nuns  of  Cookhill  are  more  urban;  they  are  not  to  wander 

about  in  the  town  (i285)4  and  the  nuns  of  Wroxall  are  not  to 

1  £o  on  foot  to  Coventry  or  to  Warwick  "  cum  eles  ount  fet  desorde- 

J  jvvalk  with  thine  head  high,  thine  eyelids  lowered  and  fixed  on  the  ground  at 
jfour  fathoms  distance  straight  in  front  of  thee,  without  looking  or  glancing 
(sideways  at  either  man  or  woman  to  the  right  hand  or  the  left,  nor  looking 
jipward." 

1   V.C.H.  Essex,  11,  p.  124. 

z  Cf.  Coulton,  Medieval  Studies  (first  series,  2nd  ed.,  p.  6i)and  Bishop 
;Jallam's  admonition  to  Shaftesbury  in  1410.  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  78.  Also 
3eckham's  Constitution  in  1281.  Wilkins,  Concilia,  n,  p.  58. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  239. 

*  Reg.  Godfrey  Giffard,  p.  267. 

P.N.  25 


386  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

ment  en  ces  houres"  (I338)1.  The  nuns  of  White  Hall,  Ilchester, 
"walk  through  the  strets  and  places  of  the  vill  of  Ilchester  and 
elsewhere,  the  modesty  of  their  sex  being  altogether  cast  off  and 
they  do  not  fear  to  enter  the  houses  of  secular  men  and  suspected 
persons"  (i335)2.  The  nuns  of  Polsloe  are  not  to  go  without 
permission  into  Exeter  and  are  to  return  at  once  when  their 
errand  is  accomplished,  instead  of  "wascrauntes  de  hostel  en 
hostel,  si  come  eles  unt  maynte  foiz  fait,  en  deshonestete  de  lur 
€stat  et  de  la  Religioun"  (1319) 3— an  echo  here  of  the  Good 
Wife's  advice,  "and  run  thou  not  from  house  to  house,  like  a 
St  Anthony's  pig"4,  or  of  the  reminiscences  of  that  other  Wife 

of  Bath : 

For  ever  yet  I  lovede  to  be  gay, 

And  for  to  walke,  in  March,  Averille  and  May, 

Fro  hous  to  hous,  to  here  sondry  talis5. 

The  nuns  of  Romsey  "  enter  houses  of  laymen  and  even  of  clerics  j 
in  the  town,  eating  and  drinking  with  them"  (i284)6.  The  nuns 
of  Godstow  "  have  often  access  to  Oxford  under  colour  of  visiting 
their  friends"  (i445)7.  The  nuns  of  Elstow  are  a  great  trial  to 
their  diocesan;  Bishop  Gynewell  finds  that  "there  is  excessive «' 
and  frequent  wandering  of  nuns  to  places  outside  the  same 
monastery,   whereby   gossip   and   laxity   are   brought   about" 
(1359)8;  Bishop  Bokyngham  boldly  particularises: 

We  order  the  nuns  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to  abstain  from  any 
dishonest  and  suspicious  conversation  with  secular  or  religious  men 
and  especially  the  access  and  frequent  confabulations  and  colloquies 
of  the  canons  of  the  Priory  of  Caldwell  or  of  mendicant  friars,  in  the 
monastery  or  about  the  public  highways  and  fields  adjoining  (1387)'-' 

But  the  sisters  of  Elstow  remain  on  good  terms  with  their 
neighbours ;  Bishop  Flemyng  forbids  the  nuns  "  to  have  access  to 
the  town  of  Bedford  or  to  the  town  of  Elstow  or  to  other  towns  or: 

1  Reg.  Sede  Vacante  (Wore.  Hist.  Soc.),  p.  276. 
Reg.  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury,  p.  241. 
Reg.  Walter  de  Stapeldon,  p.  317. 
A  Boke  of  Precedence,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.  Extra  Ser.  vm), 

P  39- 

The  Wife  of  Bath's  Prologue,  11.  545~7- 
Reg.  Epis.  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  n,  p.  664. 

Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  114.  Cf.  Gray's  injunction  in  1432.   Visit,  of  Rety 
Houses  in  Dioc.  of  Line,  i,  p.  67. 

Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  139^. 
Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  387 

neighbouring  places"  and  straitly  enjoins  the  canons  "that  no 
canon  of  the  said  priory,  under  what  colour  of  excuse  soever, 
have  access  to  the  monastery  of  the  nuns  of  Elstow;  nor  shall 
the  same  nuns  for  any  reason  whatever  be  allowed  to  enter  the 
said  priory,  save  for  a  manifest  cause,  from  which  reproach  or 
suspicion  of  evil  could  in  no  way  arise ;  nor  even  shall  the  same 
canons  and  nuns  meet  in  any  wise  one  with  another,  in  any 
separate  or  private  places ;  nor  shall  they  talk  together  anywhere 
one  with  another,  save  in  the  presence  and  hearing  of  more  than 
one  trustworthy,  who  shall  bear  faithful  witness  of  what  they 
say  or  do"  (142 1-2) 1.  The  nuns  of  Nuncoton  in  the  sixteenth 
century  are  even  more  addicted  to  the  society  of  canons  and 
Bishop  Longland  writes  to  them  in  stern  language: 

And  that  ye,  lady  prioresse,  cause  and  compell  all  your  susters  (those 
oonly  excepte  that  be  seke)  to  kepe  the  quere  and  nomore  to  be 
absent  as  in  tymes  past  they  haue  been  wont  to  use,  being  content 
yf  vj  haue  been  present,  the  residue  to  goo  att  lybertie  where  they 
wold,  some  att  thornton  [Augustinian  house  at  Thornton-upon- 
Humber],  some  at  Newsom  [or  Newhouse,  a  Premonstratensian 
house  close  to  Nuncoton,  in  the  same  parish  of  Brocklesby],  some  at 
hull,  some  att  other  places  att  their  pleasures,  which  is  in  the  sight 
of  good  men  abhomynable,  high  displeasur  to  God,  rebuke  shame  and 
reproache  to  religion  and  due  correction  to  be  doon  according  unto 
your  religion  frome  tyme  to  tyme2. 

Indeed  these  colloquies  with  monks  and  canons  in  their  own 
monastery  were  nothing  unusual.  Bishops  and  Councils  con 
stantly  forbade  nuns  to  frequent  houses  of  monks,  or  to  be 
received  there  as  guests,  but  the  practice  continued.  Sometimes 
they  had  an  excuse;  the  nuns  of  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  were  in 
the  habit  of  going  to  St  Swithun's  monastery  to  confess  to  one 
of  the  brothers,  who  was  their  confessor  and  in  ill-health,  and 
Bishop  Pontoise  appointed  another  monk  in  his  place,  who 
;  should  come  to  the  nuns  when  summoned,  thus  avoiding  the 
•  risk  of  scandal3.  Similarly  Peckham  forbade  the  nuns  of  Holy 
(Sepulchre,  Canterbury,  to  enter  "any  place  of  religious  men  or 
jelsewhere,  under  colour  of  confessing,"  unless  they  had  no  other 
|  confessor,  in  which  case  they  were  to  return  directly  their  business 

1  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Line,  i,  pp.  25,  51. 

2  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  57. 

3  Reg.  Johannis  de  Pontissara,  pp.  251-2. 

25—2 


388  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

was  accomplished  and  not  to  stay  eating  and  drinking  there1. 
But  sometimes  the  nuns  had  less  good  reason.  At  Elstow,  as 
we  know,  they  gossiped  in  the  fields  and  highways;  and  if  nuns 
were  sometimes  frivolous,  so  were  monks.  What  are  we  to  think 
of  that  nun  of  Catesby  (gone  to  rack  and  ruin  under  the  evil 
rule  of  Margaret  Wavere),  who 

on  Monday  last  did  pass  the  night  with  the  Austin  friars  at  Northamp 
ton  and  did  dance  and  play  the  lute  with  them  in  the  same  place  until 
midnight  (saltauit  et  citherauit  usque  ad  mediam  noctem)  and  on  the 
night  following  she  passed  the  night  with  the  Friars  preachers  at 
Northampton,  luting  and  dancing  in  like  manner2. 

There  rises  to  the  memory  an  irresistibly  comic  sonnet  of 
Wordsworth : 

Yet  more — round  many  a  convent's  blazing  fire 
Unhallowed  threads  of  revelry  are  spun; 
There  Venus  sits  disguised  like  a  nun, — 
While  Bacchus,  clothed  in  semblance  of  a  friar 
Pours  out  his  choicest  beverage  high  and  higher 
Sparkling,  until  it  cannot  choose  but  run 
Over  the  bowl,  whose  silver  lip  hath  won 
An  instant  kiss  of  masterful  desire — 
To  stay  the  precious  waste.   Through  every  brain 
The  domination  of  the  sprightly  juice 
Spreads  high'  conceits  to  madding  Fancy  dear, 
Till  the  arched  roof,  with  resolute  abuse 
Of  its  grave  echoes,  swells  a  choral  strain, 
Whose  votive  burthen  is  "Our  kingdom's  here." 

Alack,  had  the  nun  of  Catesby  forgotten  that  "even  as  the  cow 
which  goeth  before  the  herd  hath  a  bell  at  her  neck,  so  likewise 
the  woman  who  leadeth  the  song  and  dance  hath,  as  it  were, 
the  devil's  bell  bound  to  hers,  and  when  the  devil  heareth  the 
tinkle  thereof  he  feeleth  safe,  and  saith  he:  'I  have  not  lost  my 
cow  yet'"?3  Had  she  forgotten  the  awful  vision  of  that  holy 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  n,  p.  707. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  50.    With  this  account  of  the  entertainment  pro 
vided  by  the  Friars  of  Northampton  for  their  visitors,  compare  the  evidence 
given  at  Bishop  Nykke's  visitation  of  the  Cathedral  priory  of  Norwich  in 
1514.    "Item,  the  Brethren  are  wont  to  dance  in  the  guesten-house,  by 
favour  of  the  guest-master,  by  night  (and)  up  to  noon."    Visit,  of  the  Dioc. 
of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  75.    One  of  the  Bishop's  comperta  was  that 
suspicious  women  had  access  to  the  house  of  the  guest-master,  which  throws 
further  light  on  the  Catesby  case.  Incidentally  the  latter  bears  out  Chaucer's 
description  of  the  Friar,  who  was  so  fond  of  harping. 

3  Exempla  e  sermonibus  vulgaribus  Jacobi  Vitriacensis,  ed.  T.  F.  Crane, 
p.  131. 


PLATE  VII 


"Isabel  Benet  did  pass  the  night  with  the  Austin  friars  at  Northampton  and  did 
dance  and  play  the  lute  with  them."    (See  page  388.) 


°\ 


Eftir 


The  Legend  of  Beatrice  the  Sacristan.    (See  page  511.) 
THE   NUN  WHO   LOVED  THE  WORLD 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  389 

man,  to  whom  the  devil  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  tiny  blacka 
moor,  standing  above  a  woman  who  was  leading  a  dance,  guiding 
her  about  as  he  wished  and  dancing  on  her  head?1  But  indeed 
Isabel  (or  Venus)  Benet  was  not  the  woman  to  care  for  so  slight 
a  matter  as  the  rule  of  her  order  or  the  dreams  of  holy  men2. 
Her  case  provides  an  admirable  illustration  of  the  motives  which 
prompted  the  extreme  severity  of  episcopal  attempts  to  enforce 
enclosure  and  to  cut  nuns  off  from  the  society  of  neighbouring 
monasteries3. 

Even  if  they  did  not  often  go  to  such  extremes  as  to  spend 
a  night  dancing  with  friars,  the  nuns  foregathered  sometimes  in 
the  most  strange  places.  The  complaint  that  priests  and  monks 
and  canons  were  tavern-haunters  occurs  with  wearisome  iteration 
in  medieval  visitation  documents,  but  surely  a  tavern  was  the 
last  place  where  one  would  expect  to  find  a  nun;  "Deus  sit 
propitius  isti  potatori,"  were  a  strange  invocation  on  lips  that 
prayed  to  "Our  blisful  lady,  Cristes  moder  dere."   Yet  nuns 
sometimes  abused  their  liberty  to  frequent  such  places.    Arch 
bishop  Rotherham  wrote  to  the  Prioress  of  Nunappleton  in 
1489  "yat  noon  of  your  sistirs  use  ye  alehouse  nor  ye  watirside, 
wher  concurse  of  straungers  dayly  resortes"4;  and  at  Romsey 
in  1492  Abbess  Elizabeth  Broke  deposed  that  she  suspected  the 
!  nuns  of  slipping  into  town  by  the  church  door  and  prayed  that 
!  they  might  not  frequent  taverns  and  other  suspected  places, 
I  while  her  Prioress  also  said  that  they  frequented  taverns  and 
continually  went  to  town  without  leave5.   Bald  statements,  but 
I  it  is  easy  to  call  up  a  picture  of  what  lies  behind  them,  for  of 
j  medieval  taverns  we  have  many  a  description  touched  by  master 
hands.  So  we  shall  see  nuns  at  the  tunning  of  Elynour  Rummynge, 
edging  in  by  the  back  way  "over  the  hedge  and  pale,"  to  drink 
her  noppy  ale  6.  Or  again  we  shall  see  Beton  the  Brewster  standing 
in  her  doorway  beneath  the  ivy  bush,  hailing  Dame  Isabel  and 
Dame  Matilda,  as  they  patter  along  upon  their  "  fete  ful  tendre  "  ; 
and  we  shall  hear  her  seductive  cry  "I  have  good  ale,  gossip" 
\  (no  nun  ever  despised  good  ale — only  when  it  was  valde  tennis  did 

1  Anecdotes  Historiques,  etc.  d'Etienne  de  Bourbon,   ed.   Lecoy  de  La 
I  Marche,  p.  229.  *  See  below,  p.  460. 

3  See  also  below,  pp.  448-50.  4  Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  654. 

5  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  218. 

6  Poetical  Works  of  John  Skelton,  ed.  Dyce,  i,  p.  95. 


3QO  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

she  object)  "  I  have  peper  and  piones  and  a  pounde  of  garlike, 
A  ferthyngworth  of  fenel-seed  for  fasting  days."  We  shall  never 
— thanks  to  Langland — have  any  difficulty  in  seeing  that  in 
terior,  when  the  nuns  have  scuttled  through  the  door,  the  heat, 
the  smell  of  ale  and  perspiring  humanity,  the  babel  of  voices  as 
all  the  riff-raff  of  the  village  greets  the  nuns  and  gives  them 
"with  glad  chere  good  ale  to  hansel " ;  and  the  scene  that  follows, 
"the  laughyng  and  lowrying  and  'let  go  the  cuppe/"  the 
singing,  the  gambling,  the  drinking,  the  invincible  good  humour 
and  the  complete  lack  of  all  decency.  We  can  only  hope  that 
Dame  Isabel  and  Dame  Matilda  left  before  Glutton  got  drunk1. 
But  it  is  consoling  to  reflect  that  the  alehouses  frequented  by 
the  nuns  of  Nunappleton  and  of  Romsey  were  probably  less  low 
places,  for  it  is  not  easy  to  picture  Chaucer's  Prioress  on  a  bench 
between  Clarice  of  Cokkeslane  and  Peronelle  of  Flanders. 
Probably  their  taverns  at  the  waterside  were  more  like  the 
Chequer-on-the-Hoop,  where  Madame  Eglentyne  and  the  Wife 
of  Bath  pledged  each  other  in  the  hostess'  parlour2;  or  like  the 
tavern  where  the  good  gossips 

Elynore,  Jone  and  Margery 
Margaret,  Alis  and  Cecely 

met  and  feasted,  all  unknown  to  their  husbands  and  cherished 
the  heart  with  muscadel3;  or  liker  still,  perhaps,  to  that  lordly 
tavern  kept  by  Trick,  where  the  city  dames  come  tripping  in 
the  morning,  as  readily  as  to  minster  or  to  market  and  where 
he  draws  them  ten  sorts  of  wine,  all  out  of  a  single  cask,  crying: 
"dear  ladies,  Mesdames,  make  good  cheer,  drink  freely  your 
good  pleasure,  for  we  have  leisure  enough"4.  But  however  select 
the  house,  whether  they  met  there  buxom  city  dames  drinking 
away  their  husbands'  credit,  or  merely  Tim  the  tinker  and  twain 
of  his  prentices,  whether  they  were  quizzed  by  "those  idle 
gallants  who  haunt  taverns,  gay  and  handsome,"  or  hobnobbed 
with  "travellers  and  tinkers,  sweaters  and  swinkers,"  the  ale 
house  was  assuredly  no  place  for  nuns5. 

1  Langland,  Piers  Plowman,  ed.  Skeat,  Text  B,  Passus  v,  11.  304  ff. 

2  See  above,  p.  373. 

3  Songs  and  Carols,  ed.  Th.  Wright  (Percy  Soc.),  pp.  91-5. 

4  Gower,  Mirour  de  I'Omne,  ed.  G.  C.  Macaulay,  p.  289.   Translated  in 
Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  pp.  577-8. 

6  At  Esholt  in   1535  Archbishop  Lee  even  had  to  enjoin  "that  the 
prioress  suffer  no  ale  house  to  be  kept  within  the  precinct  of  the  gates  of 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  391 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  why  the  authorities  of  the 
Church  tried  so  hard  to  force  enclosure  upon  nuns,  and  why 
they  strove  at  least  to  limit  excursions  to  "necessary  occasions" 
and  "convent  business,"  to  prevent  unlicensed  wandering  and 
to  provide  that  no  nun  went  out  without  a  companion.  And 
enough  has  perhaps  also  been  said  to  show  how  completely  they 
failed.  The  modern  student  of  monasticism,  bred  in  an  age  which 
regards  freedom  as  its  summum  bonum  and  holds  discipline  at 
a  discount,  cannot  but  feel  sympathy  with  the  nuns.  The  en 
closure  movement  did  go  beyond  the  restriction  imposed  upon 
them  by  their  rule;  they  were  themselves  so  often  unsuited  to 
the  life  into  which  circumstances,  rather  than  a  vocation,  had 
forced  them;  and  they  would  have  been  something  less  than 
human  if  they  had  not  answered — as  John  of  Ayton  made  them 
answer — "In  truth  the  men  who  made  these  laws  sat  well  at 
their  ease  while  they  laid  such  burdens  upon  us."  It  was  the 
bishops,  not  the  popes  and  the  councils,  who  knew  where  the 
shoe  pinched.  Dalderby,  rubbing  his  insulted  shoulders,  Alnwick, 
laboriously  framing  his  minute  injunctions,  Rigaud,  going  away 
from  Saint-Saens  "quasi  impaciens  et  tristis,"  these  had  little 
time  to  sit  well  at  their  ease;  and  the  compromises  which  were 
|  forced  upon  them  are  the  best  proof  that  the  ideal  of  Periculoso 
|  was  too  high.  Nevertheless  sympathy  with  thes  nuns  must  not 
!  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  hardly  a  moralist  of  the  middle  ages  but 
i  inveighs  against  the  wandering  of  nuns  in  the  world  and  adds 
his  testimony  to  the  fact  (already  clear  from  the  visitation 

the  saide  monasterie. "    Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  452.    An  explanation 

j   of  this  may  be  found  by  comparing  the  evidence  at  Archbishop  Warham's 

visitation  of  the  Hospital  of  St  James  outside  Canterbury  in  1511.    "The 

Prioress  complains  that  Richard  Welles  stays  and  talks  in  the  precincts  of 

the  house  and  his  wife  sells  beer  in  the  precincts.  They  are  very  quarrelsome 

!  people,  brawlers  and  sowers  of  discord.   There  is  always  a  crowd  of  people 

|  at  the  house  of  Richard."  E.H.R.  vi,  p.  22.   At  both  these  houses  the  nuns 

i  probably  employed  a  secular  alewife  to  make  their  beer  and  she  sold  also 

!  to  other  customers  within  their  precincts.    Compare  Peckham's  injunction 

i  to  Wherwell  in  1284:  "Iterum  ob  Dei  reverentiam  et  ecclesiae  honestatem 

|  perpetuo  inhibemus  ne  mercatores  sedere  in  ecclesia  cum  suis  mercibus 

j  permittantur."    Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham  (Rolls  Ser.),  n,  p.  654.   Also 

!  Bishop  Bokyngham's  letter  forbidding  merchants  to  sell  their  wares  in  the 

!  conventual   church   or    churchyard   of    Stainfield   under  pain   of  excom- 

;  munication  (1392).    V.C.H.  Lines,  u,  p.  131.    Medieval  churches  were  put 

to  strange  uses.  They  served  sometimes  as  a  market-place,  sometimes  as 

a  granary,  sometimes  as  a  playground,  sometimes  as  a  stage. 


392  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  [CH. 

comperta)  that  all  the  graver  abuses  which  discredited  monasticism 
rose  in  the  first  instance  from  the  too  great  ease  with  which 
monks  and  nuns  could  leave  their  convents.  "  De  la  cloture,"  as 
St  Francois  de  Sales  wrote  long  afterwards, "  depend  le  bon  ordre 
de  tout  le  reste."  It  is  significant  that  on  the  very  eve  of  the 
Reformation  in  England  a  last  attempt  was  made  to  enforce 
a  strict  and  literal  enclosure.  That  ardent  reformer  of  nunneries, 
Bishop  Fox,  frankly  pursued  the  policy  in  his  diocese  of  Win 
chester  and  was  apparently  accused  of  undue  severity,  for  in 
1528  he  wrote  to  Wolsey  in  defence  of  his  action: 

Truth  it  is,  my  lord,  that  the  religious  women  of  my  diocese  be  re 
strained  of  their  going  out  of  their  monasteries.  And  yet  so  much 
liberty  appeareth  some  time  too  much;  and  if  I  had  the  authority 
and  power  that  your  grace  hath,  I  would  endeavour  me  to  mure  and 
enclose  their  monasteries  according  to  the  observance  of  good  religion. 
And  in  all  other  matters,  concerning  their  living  or  observance  of 
their  religion,  I  assure  your  grace  they  be  as  liberally  and  favourably 
dealt  with  as  be  any  religious  women  within  this  realm1. 

Wolsey  himself  was  driven  to  the  same  conclusion  as  to  the 
necessity  of  enclosure,  and  tried  to  enforce  it  at  Wilton,  after 
the  scandals  which  came  to  light  there  before  the  election  of 
Isabel  Jordan  as  Abbess.  His  chaplain,  Dr  Benet,  who  had  been 
sent  to  reform  the  nunnery,  wrote  to  him  on  July  i8th  and  de 
scribed  his  difficulty  in  "causing  to  be  observed"  the  unpopular 
decree : 

Please  it  your  grace  to  be  advertised,  that  immediately  after  my  return 
from  your  grace  I  repaired  to  the  monastery  of  Wilton,  where  I  have 
continually  made  mine  abode  hitherto  and  with  all  diligence  en 
deavoured  myself  to  the  uttermost  of  my  power  to  persuade  and  train 
the  nuns  there  to  the  accomplishment  of  your  grace's  pleasure  for 
enclosing  of  the  same;  whom  I  find  so  untoward  and  refusal  (sic)  as 
I  never  saw  persons,  insomuch  that  in  nowise  any  of  them,  neither 
by  gentle  means  nor  by  rigorous, — and  I  have  put  three  or  four  of  the 
captains  of  them  in  ward, — will  agree  and  consent  to  the  same,  but 
only  the  new  elect  and  her  sisters  that  were  with  your  grace;  which 
notwithstanding,  I  have  closed  up  certain  doors  and  ways  and  taken 
such  an  order  there  that  none  access,  course  or  recourse  of  any  person 
shall  be  made  there2. 

About  the  same  time  the  Abbess-Elect  herself  wrote  to  Wolsey, 
telling  him  that : 

1  Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  n.  p.  35,  note  b. 

2  Wood,  op.  cit.  pp.  35-6. 


ix]  FISH  OUT  OF  WATER  393 

since  my  coming  home  I  have  ordered  me  in  all  things  to  the  best  of 
my  power,  according  to  your  gracious  advertisement  by  the  advice 
of  your  chancellors  and  have  ofttime  motioned  my  sisters  to  be  re- 
clused  within  our  monastery;  wherein  they  do  find  many  difficulties 
and  show  divers  considerations  to  the  contrary; 

she  besought  him  to  have  patience  and  promised  to  "order  my 
sisters  in  such  religious  wise  and  our  monastery  according  to 
the  rule  of  religion,  without  any  such  resort  as  hath  been  of 
late  accustomed"1.  Evidently  nuns  had  not  changed  since  the 
day  when  the  sisters  of  Markyate  threw  the  Bull  Periculoso  at 
Bishop  Dalderby's  retreating  back. 

But  their  struggles  were  in  vain  and  a  worse  fate  awaited 

them.  The  Dissolution  of  the  monasteries  by  Henry  VIII  was 

preceded  by  an  order  to  his  commissioners,  that  they  should 

enforce  enclosure  upon  the  nuns.  The  injunction  met  with  the 

usual  resistance  at  the  time  and  later  apologists  of  the  monastic 

houses  have  blamed  the   King  for  undue   and   unreasonable 

harshness.  But  if  Henry  VIII  was  too  strict,  so  also  was  Ottobon, 

so  Peckham,  so  Boniface  VIII,  so  almost  every  bishop  and  council 

of  the  past  three  hundred  years.  In  this  at  least,  low  as  his  motives 

may  have  been,  the  man  who  was  to  claim  the  headship  of  the 

English  Church  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  most  masterful 

of  medieval  popes.  The  instructions  given  to  the  commissioners 

were  the  last  of  a  long  series  of  injunctions,  in  which  it  was 

attempted  to  reform  the  nunneries  by  shutting  them  off  from  the 

world.   It  is  plain  that  even  in  the  thirteenth  century  some  such 

reform  was  necessary,  and  the  history  of  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth 

and  sixteenth  centuries  only  shows  the  necessity  becoming  more 

j  urgent.  Whatever  may  have  been  Henry  VIII's  motives,  how- 

(  ever  greedy,  however  licentious,  however  unspiritual,  it  would 

|  be  impossible  to  contend  that  his  decree  of  enclosure  was  not 

I  in  accordance  with  the  best  ecclesiastical  tradition  and  amply 

|  justified  by  the  condition  of  the  monastic  houses. 

1  Wood,  op.  cit.  pp.  36-37  (No.  xv). 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER 

Es  maisons  de  nonnains  aucun  sont  bien  venut, 
Et  as  gens  festyer  n'a  nul  r£gne  tenut; 
On  y  va  volen  tiers  et  sou  vent  et  menut 
Mais  mieuls  sont  festyet  jovene  que  li  kenut. 

GILLES  LI  MUISIS  (f  1352). 

IN  the  last  chapter  the  question  of  enclosure  was  considered  only 
from  one  point  of  view,  that  of  keeping  the  nuns  within  the 
precincts  of  their  cloister.  But  there  was  another  side  to  the 
problem.  In  order  to  preserve  them  unspotted  from  the  world 
it  was  necessary  not  only  that  the  nuns  should  keep  within  their 
cloisters,  but  that  secular  persons  should  keep  outside.  It  was 
useless  to  pass  regulations  forbidding  nuns  to  leave  their  houses, 
if  visitors  from  the  world  had  easy  access  to  them  and  could 
move  freely  about  within  the  precincts.  Ottobon,  Peckham, 
Boniface  VIII,  Henry  VIII,  and  all  who  legislated  on  the  subject 
from  the  earliest  years  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  combined  a 
prohibition  against  the  entrance  of  seculars,  with  their  prohibi 
tion  against  the  exit  of  nuns1.  Some  intercourse  with  seculars  was 
bound  to  occur,  even  in  the  best  regulated  nunnery.  The  nuns 
were  often  served  by  layfolk  and  it  was  a  recognised  obligation 
that  they  should  show  hospitality  to  guests.  In  both  cases  they 
were  of  necessity  brought  in  contact  with  worldly  folk,  and  as 
usual  they  made  the  most  of  their  opportunity. 

Even  more  disturbing  to  monastic  discipline  were  the  casual 
visits  of  friends  in  the  neighbourhood,  coming  to  see  and  talk 
with  the  nuns  for  a  few  hours.  Visitation  documents  show  that 
there  was  a  steady  intercourse  between  the  convent  and  the 
world.  Letters  and  messages  passed  between  the  nuns  and  their 
friends  outside,  and  a  great  many  of  the  private  affairs  of  the 
convent  found  their  way  to  the  ears  of  seculars.  "  From  miln  and 

1  On  this  subject  see  Part  II  of  Thiers'  treatise  De  la  Cldlure,  pp.  265-497. 


CH.  x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  395 

from  market,  from  smithy  and  from  nunnery,  men  bring  tidings  " 
ran  the  proverb1,  and  complaints  were  common  that  the  secrets 
of  the  chapter  were  spread  abroad  in  the  country  side.  At  the 
ill-conducted  house  of  Catesby  in  1442  the  Prioress  (herself  the 
blackest  sheep  in  all  the  flock)  complained  that 

secular  folk  have  often  recourse  to  the  nuns'  chambers  within  the 
cloister,  and  talkings  and  junketings  take  place  there  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  Prioress;... also  the  nuns  do  send  out  letters  and 
receive  letters  sent  to  them  without  the  advice  of  the  prioress.  Also. . . 
that  the  secrets  of  the  house  are  disclosed  in  the  neighbourhood  by 
such  seculars  when  they  come  there.  Also  the  nuns  do  send  out  the 
serving-folk  of  the  priory  on  their  businesses  and  do  also  receive  the 
persons  for  whom  they  send  and  with  whom  they  hold  parleyings  and 
conversations,  whereof  the  Prioress  is  ignorant2. 

At  Goring  in  1530  the  Prioress  complained  that  one  of  the  nuns 
persisted  in  sending  messages  to  her  friends3,  and  at  Romsey 
in  1509  Alice,  wife  of  William  Coke,  the  cook  of  the  nunnery, 
was  enjoined  "that  she  shall  not  be  a  messenger  or  bearer  of 
messages  or  troths  or  tokens  between  any  nun  and  any  lay  person 
on  pain  of  excommunication  and  as  much  as  in  her  lies  shall 
hinder  communications  of  lay  persons  with  nuns  at  the  kitchen 
window"4.  At  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  it  was  even  necessary  to 
order  the  nuns  to  refrain  from  kissing  secular  persons5. 

Sometimes  the  visitation  detecta  or  comperta  or  injunctions 

give  specific  details  as  to  the  visitors  who  were  most  assiduous 

in  haunting  a  nunnery.    It  is  amusing  to  follow  the  reference 

to  scholars  of  Oxford  in  the  records  of  those  houses  which  were 

in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  University.  Godstow  was  the  nearest 

i  and  the  students  seem  to  have  regarded  it  as  a  happy  hunting 

j  ground  constituted  specially  for  their  recreation.    Peckham,  in 

i  his  set  of  Latin  injunctions  to  the  Abbey,  wrote  after  giving 

minute  regulations  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  nuns  might 

i  converse  with  visitors: 

!  When  the  scholars  of  Oxford  come  to  talk  with  you,  we  wish  no  nun 
to  join  in  such  conversations,  save  with  the  licence  of  the  Abbess 

1  Ancren  Riwle  (King's  Classics),  p.  67. 

2  Line.   Visit,  n,   pp.  46-7.  The  Benedictine  rule  runs:   "It  is  by  no 
means  lawful,  without  the  abbot's  permission,  for  any  monk  to  receive  or 
give  letters,  presents  and  gifts  of  any  kind  to  anyone,  whether  parent  or 
other."    Cap.  LIV. 

3  V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  104.  4  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  232. 
5  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Report,  ix,  App.  p.  57  (early  fifteenth  century). 


396  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

and  unless  they  be  notoriously  of  kin  to  her,  in  the  third  grade  of 
consanguinity  at  least;  we  order  the  nuns  to  refuse  to  converse  with 
all  scholars  so  coming ;  nor  shall  you  desire  to  be  united  in  any  special 
tie  of  familiarity  with  them,  for  such  affection  often  excites  unclean 
thoughts1. 

The  most  detailed  information,  however,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
injunctions  sent  by  Bishop  Gray  to  Godstow  in  1432: 

That  no  nun  receive  any  secular  person  for  any  recreation  in  the 
nuns'  chambers  under  pain  of  excommunication.  For  the  scholars 
of  Oxford  say  they  can  have  all  manner  of  recreation  with  the  nuns, 
even  as  they  will  desire.... Also  that  the  recourse  of  scholars  of  Oxford 
to  the  monastery  be  altogether  checked  and  restrained.... Also  that 
(neither)  the  gatekeeper  of  the  monastery,  nor  any  other  secular 
person  convey  any  gifts,  rewards,  letters  or  tokens  from  the  nuns  to 
any  scholars  of  Oxford  or  other  secular  person  whomsoever,  or  bring 
back  any  such  scholars  or  persons  to  the  same  nuns,  nay,  not  even 
skins  containing  wine,  without  the  view  and  knowledge  of  the  abbess 
and  with  her  special  licence  asked  and  had,  under  pain  of  expulsion 
from  his  office  (and)  from  the  said  monastery  for  ever ;  and  if  any  nun 
shall  do  the  contrary  she  shall  undergo  imprisonment  for  a  year2. 

In  a  commission  addressed  two  years  later  to  the  Abbot  of  Oseney 
and  to  Master  Robert  Thornton  the  Bishop  spoke  in  very  severe 
terms  of  the  bad  behaviour  of  the  nuns,  and  ordered  the  com 
missioners  to  proceed  to  Godstow  and  to  inquire  whether  a  nun, 
who  had  been  with  child  at  the  time  of  his  visitation,  had  been 
preferred  to  any  office  or  had  gone  outside  the  precincts  and 
whether  his  other  injunctions  had  been  obeyed,  especially  "if 
any  scholars  of  the  university  of  Oxford,  graduate  or  non- 
graduate,  have  had  access  to  the  same  monastery  or  lodging  in 
the  same,  contrary  to  the  form  of  our  injunctions  aforesaid"3. 
But  the  situation  was  unchanged  when,  thirteen  years  later, 

1  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckhatn,  m,  p.  847.    From  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to 
the  Abbess  on  Nov.  12,  1284,  it  appears  that  the  Prioress  had  been  defamed 
of  incontinence,  for,  while  professing  his  belief  in  her  innocence,  he  repeated 
his  prohibition  of  casual  conversation  between  nuns  and  seculars,  adding 
"Oveke  ceo  nous  defendons  de  part  Deu  ke  nule  nonein  ne  parle  a  escoler 
de  Oxeneford,  se  il  nest  sun  parent  prechein,  e  ovekes  ceo  saunz  le  conge  la 
abbcsse  especial.    E  ceo  meismes  entendons  nous  de  tou3  prestres  foreins, 
le  queus  font  mout  de  maus  en  mout  de  lus,  e  aussi  de  touj  religieus  ki  ne 
venent  pur  precher  u  pur  confesser  oue  lautorite  le  apostoile  e  le  eveske  de 
Nichole."  Ib.  HI,  p.  851.    Compare  an  injunction  to  Nunmonkton  in  1397: 
"  Item   non   permittatis  clericos  prioratum  vestrum  frequentare  absque 
causa  rationabili."    Dugdale,  A/on,  iv,  p.  194. 

2  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  67-8. 

3  Ib.  p.  65. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  397 

Alnwick  came  to  Godstow.  Elizabeth  Felmersham,  the  Abbess, 
deposed 

that  secular  folk  have  often  access  to  the  nuns  during  the  divine 
office  in  quire,  and  to  the  f rater  at  meal- time.... She  cannot  restrain 
students  from  Oxford  from  having  common  access  in  her  despite  to 
the  monastery  and  the  claustral  precincts.  The  nuns  hold  converse 
with  the  secular  folk  that  come  to  visit  the  monastery,  without  asking 
any  leave  of  the  abbess. 

Other  nuns  deposed  that  sister  Alice  Longspey1  often  conversed 
in  the  convent  church  with  Hugh  Sadler,  a  priest  from  Oxford, 
who  obtained  access  to  her  on  the  plea  that  she  was  his  kins 
woman  and  that  Dame  Katherine  Okeley: 

holds  too  much  talk  with  the  strangers  that  come  to  the  monastery 
in  the  church,  in  the  chapter-house,  at  the  church-door,  the  hall  door 
and  divers  other  places;  nor  is  she  obedient  to  the  orders  and  com 
mands  of  the  abbess  according  to  the  rule2. 

Other  houses  also  found  the  clerks  of  Oxford  too  attractive. 
At  Alnwick's  visitation  of  Littlemore  Dame  Agnes  Marcham  (a 
lady  with  a  tongue)  spoke  of  "the  ill-fame  which  is  current 
thereabouts  concerning  the  place,"  and  said 

that  a  certain  monk  of  Rievaulx,  who  is  a  student  at  Oxford  and  is 
of  the  Cistercian  order,  has  common  and  often  access  to  the  priory, 
eating  and  drinking  with  the  prioress  and  spending  the  night  therein, 
sometimes  for  three,  sometimes  for  four  days  on  end.  Also  she  says 
that  master  John  Herars,  master  in  arts,  a  scholar  of  Oxford  and  a 
kinsman  of  the  prioress,  has  access  in  like  manner  to  the  priory, 
breakfasting,  supping  and  spending  the  night  in  the  same3. 

The  state  of  the  house  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  infinitely 
worse  and  it  well  merited  its  early  suppression  in  1526*.  At 
another  house,  Studley,  visited  by  Alnwick  in  1445,  the  significant 
request  was  made: 

that  the  vicar  of  Bicester,  who  is  reckoned  to  be  of  ripe  judgment  and 
age  and  sufficient  knowledge,  may  be  appointed  as  confessor  to  the 

1  See  below,  p.  449. 

2  Line.    Visit,    u,   p.    114.     Alnwick  made  a  very  strong  injunction: 
"For  as  mykelle  as  your  saide  monastery  and  diuerse  singulere  persones 
ther  of  are  greuously  noysed  and  sclaundred  for  the  grete  and  contynuelle 
accesse  and  recourse  of  seculere  and  regulere  persones,  and  in  specyalle  of 

'  scolers  of  Oxenford  to  your  said  monastery  and  seculere  persones  ther  of, 
i  that  fro  hense  forthe  ye  suffre  no  seculere  persones  scolers  no  othere...to 
i  hafe  any  accesse  or  recourse  to  your  said  monastery  ne  to  any  singulere 
persone  ther  of,  ne  there  to  abyde  nyght  ne  daye,  etc."   Ib.  pp.  115-6. 

3  Ib.  n,  p.  218.  4  ,See  V.C.H.  Oxon.  u,  pp.  76-7. 


398  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

convent  and  in  no  wise  an  Oxford  scholar,  since  it  is  not  healthy  that 
scholars  of  Oxford  should  have  a  reason  for  coming  to  the  priory1. 

Nor  does  the  proximity  of  Cambridge  appear  to  have  had  a  less 
disturbing  effect  upon  morals  and  discipline.  In  1373  it  was 
found  that  the  Prioress  of  St  Radegund's 

did  not  correct  Dame  Elizabeth  de  Cambridge  for  withdrawing  herself 
from  divine  service  and  allowing  friars  of  different  orders,  as  well  as 
scholars,  to  visit  her  at  inopportune  times  and  to  converse  with  her, 
to  the  scandal  of  religion2, 

and  in  1496,  when  John  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely,  converted  the 
nunnery  into  the  college  afterwards  known  as  Jesus  College,  its 
dilapidation  was  ascribed  to  "the  negligence  and  improvidence 
and  dissolute  disposition  and  incontinence  of  the  religious  women 
of  the  same  house,  by  reason  of  the  vicinity  of  Cambridge 
University"3.  Plainly  the  scholars  who  hung  about  the  portals 
and  tethered  their  horses  in  the  paddocks  of  Godstow,  and  who 
gossiped  with  the  sisters  of  Studley  and  Littlemore  and  St 
Radegund's,  were  not  of  the  type  of  that  clerk  of  Oxenford,  who 
loved  his  twenty  red  and  black-clad  books  better  than  "robes 
riche  or  fithele  or  gay  sautrye  " ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  their 
speech  was  not  "souninge  in  moral  vertu."  Rather  they  belonged 
to  the  tribe  of  Absolon,  who  could  trip  and  dance  in  twenty 
manners : 

After  the  scole  of  Oxenforde  tho, 

And  with  his  legges  casten  to  and  fro, 

And  pleyen  songes  on  a  small  rubible, 

or  of  hende  Nicholas  ("of  derne  love  he  coude  and  of  solas"),  or 
of  those  two  clerks  of  Cambridge,  Aleyn  and  John,  who  harboured 
with  the  Miller  of  Trumpington,  or  of  "joly  Jankin,"  the  Wife 
of  Bath's  first  husband.  The  nuns  certainly  got  no  good  from 
these  young  men  of  light  heart  and  slippery  tongue. 

Sometimes,  as  it  appears  from  the  cases  of  Alice  Longspey, 
Katherine  Okeley  and  Elizabeth  de  Cambridge,  certain  nuns 
rendered  themselves  particularly  conspicuous  for  intercourse 
with  seculars,  or  certain  men  were  assiduous  nunnery-haunters 
and  forbidden  by  name  to  frequent  the  precincts.  At  a  visita- 

1  Op.  cit.  f.  26d. 

2  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge,  p.  35. 
*  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  190.    See  below  p.  602. 


x] 


THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER 


399 


tion  of  St  Sepulchre's,  Canterbury,  in  1367-8,  it  was  found 
that 

Dame  Johanna  Chivynton,  prioress  there,  does  not  govern  well  the 
rule  nor  the  religion  of  the  house,  because  she  permits  the  rector  of 
Dover  Castle  and  other  suspect  persons  to  have  too  much  access  to 
sisters  Margery  Chyld  and  Juliana  Aldelesse,  who  have  a  room  con 
trary  to  the  injunction  made  there  on  another  occasion  by  the  Lord 
[Archbishop],  and  these  suspect  persons  often  spend  the  night  there1. 

At  Nuncoton  in  1531  Longland  writes: 

We  chardge  you,  lady  prioresse,  undere  payne  of  excommunicacon 
that  ye  from  hensforth  nomore  suffre  Sir  John  Warde,  Sir  Richard 
Caluerley,  Sir  William  Johnson,  nor  parson...,  ne  the  parson  of 
Skotton,  ne  Sir  William  Sele  to  come  within  the  precincts  of  your 
monasterye,  that  if  they  by  chance  do  unwares  to  you  that  ye  streight 
banish  them  and  suffre  not  theme  ther  to  tary,  nor  noone  of  your 
sustres  to  commune  with  them  or  eny  of  them.  And  that  ye  voyde 
out  of  your  house  Robert  lawrence  and  he  nomore  resorte  to  the  same2. 

Incidents  such  as  these  can  be  multiplied  from  the  records  of 
episcopal  visitations3  and  general  complaints  are  even  more 
common.  It  appears  that  secular  persons  set  at  naught  the  rule 

1  Lambeth  Reg.  Langham,  f.  76^.   Compare  the  note  in  Alnwick's  visita 
tion  of  Studley  (1445) :  "  Sister  Isabel  Bartone.   It  is  said  that  there  is  great 
recourse  of  seculare  guests  to  the  aforesaid  Isabel  and  to  her  chamber." 
Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  z6d. 

2  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  57. 

3  A  few  more  examples  may  be  quoted.    At  Swine  one  of  the  comperta 
of  Giffard's  visitation  in  1267-8  runs:  "The  household  of  Sir  Robert  de 
Hilton,  knight,  wanders  about  far  too  freely  (nimis  dissolute)  in  the  cloister 
and  parlour,  and  often  holds  very  suspicious  conversations  with  the  nuns 
and  sisters,  whence  it  is  feared  that  harm  may  come.   And  this  same  Robert 
is  very  injurious  and  dangerous  to  them,  wherefore,  for  fear  of  his  oppression, 
the  canons  of  the  house  lately,  without  the  consent  of  the  convent,  gave  him 
a  barn  full  of  corn,  with  which  the  convent  should  have  been  maintained." 
Reg.  Walter  Giffard,  p.  148.   At  Nunmonkton  in  1397  the  Prioress,  Margaret 
Fairfax,  was  ordered  to  see  that  John  Munkton  (the  same  who  scandalised 
the  convent  by  feasting  and  playing  tables  with  her  in  her  room) ,  Sir  William 
Aschby,  chaplain,  William  Snowe  and  Thomas  Pape  held  no  conversation 
nor  kept  company  with  her,  nor  with  any  nun  of  her  house,  except  in  the 
presence  of  two  of  the  elder  nuns,  and  she  was  warned  not  to  allow  clerks 
to  frequent  the  priory  without  reasonable  cause.   Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194. 
At  Rusper  in  1524  "a  certain  William  Tychenor  has  frequent  access  to  the 
said  priory  and  there  sows  discord  between  the  prioress  and  sisters  and  others 
living  there."    Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  v,  p.  257.    It  will  be  noticed  how  often 
these  suspected  visitors  are  clerics ;  the  prefix  "  sir  "  in  the  Nuncoton  extract 
quoted  in  the  text  almost  certainly  denotes  a  churchman  and  the  persons 
mentioned  are  probably  secular  clergy  or  canons  from  neighbouring  houses 
such  as  Newhouse,  probably  chantry-priests  and  parish  chaplains.     See 
below,  p.  416. 


400  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

which  confined  them  to  the  prioress'  hall,  the  parlour  and  the 
guest-house,  and  penetrated  at  will  into  the  private  parts  of 
the  monastery,  haunting  now  the  cloister,  now  the  infirmary, 
now  the  f rater,  now  the  choir1.  Bishop  Gynewell's  injunction 
to  Heynings  in  1351  called  attention  to  a  state  of  affairs  which 
was  common  enough  in  the  century  which  opened  with  Pcriculoso : 

" Because,"  he  wrote,  "we  have  heard  that  great  disturbance  of  your 
religion  hath  been  made  by  seculars,  who  enter  into  your  cloister  and 
choir,  we  charge  you  that  henceforth  ye  suffer  no  secular  man,  save 
your  patron  or  other  great  lord2  to  enter  your  cloister,  nor  to  hold 
therein  parley  or  other  dalliance  with  any  sister  of  your  house,  where 
by  your  silence  or  religion  may  suffer  blame"3. 

Moreover  it  is  clear  that  the  nuns  sometimes  escaped  to  the 
guest-house  to  enjoy  a  gossip  with  their  visitors;  at  Alnwick's 
visitation  of  Heynings  in  1440  a  lay  sister  deposed  "that  the 
nuns  do  hold  drinkings  of  evenings  in  the  guest-chamber  even 
after  compline,  especially  when  their  friends  come  to  visit  them  " 
and  the  Bishop  enjoined 

for  as  muche  as  we  founde  that  there  are  vsede  late  drynkynges  and 
talkyng  by  nunnes  as  wele  wythe  yn  as  wythe  owte  the  cloystere 
wythe  seculeres,  where  thurgh  some  late  ryse  to  matynes  and  some 
come  not  at  thayme,  expressly  agayns  the  rule  of  your  ordere,  we 

1  The  following  examples  are  typical  of  a  host  of  others.   At  Nunapple- 
ton  (1281)  external  visitors  come  into  frater  and  cloister.    Reg.   William 
Wickwane,  p.  141.   At  Rosedale  (1306)  the  infirmary  is  to  be  kept  from  the 
passing  to  and  fro  of  seculars;  at  Arthington  (1318)  they  are  not  to  frequent 
cloister,  infirmary  or  other  private  places;  at  Nunburnholme  (1318)  there 
is  scandal  from  the  frequent  access  and  gossiping  of  seculars  with  certain 
of  the  nuns.    V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  119,  174.    At  Ickleton  (1345)  the  pre 
cincts  are  not  to  be  made  the  resort  of  any  secular  woman,  nor  is  any  such 
person  to  come  into  the  choir  during  the  hours  of  service.  Goddard,  Ickleton 
Church  and  Priory  (Cambridge  Antiq.  Soc.  Proc.  XLV,  p.  190).   At  Gracedieu 
(1440-1)  seculars  and  nuns  eat  together  commixtim  in  the  Prioress'  hall. 
Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  122.   At  Heynings  (1440)  the  infirmary  was  occupied  by 
secular  folk,  "to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  sisters."    Ib.  p.   133.    At 
Romsey  (1492)  people  stand  about  chatting  in  the  middle  of  the  choir. 
Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  220. 

2  On  the  right  of  the  patron  or  founder  of  a  monastery,  or  of  persons  of 
noble  birth,  to  enter  the  cloistral  precincts,  see  Thiers,  op.  cit.  pp.  296-309. 
He  quotes  the  rule  of  Fontevrault  (cap.  vn) :  "  If  the  most  Christian  King, 
the  Queen,  the  Dauphin  and  other  princes  of  the  blood-royal,  the  founders 
and  foundresses,   being  instantly  besought,  refuse  nevertheless  to  desist 
from  entering  the  precincts,  let  them  enter  with  as  small  a  suite  of  attendants 
as  you  can  arrange,  in  long  and  decent  garments  and  not  otherwise;  but  let 
them  not  seek  to  pass  the  night  on  pain  of  excommunication."   Ib.  p.  297. 
It  was  never  possible  in  practice  to  keep  out  great  lords  and  ladies. 

3  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  401 

charge  yow  and  yche  oon  singulere  that  fro  this  day  forthe  ye  neyther 
vse  spekyng  ne  drynkyng  in  no  place  aftere  complyne,  but  that  after 
collacyone  and  complyne  sayde  ych  oon  of  yow  go  wythe  owte  lengere 
tarying  to  the  dormytorye  to  your  reste1. 

In  the  course  of  time  a  series  of  regulations  was  devised  to 
govern  the  entrance  of  seculars  into  the  nunneries,  hardly  less 
detailed  than  those  which  governed  the  visits  of  nuns  to  the 
world.  An  attempt  was  made  to  prevent  certain  classes  of 
persons  from  being  allowed  to  sleep  in  a  house ;  also  to  keep  all 
visitors  out  of  certain  places  and  during  certain  hours;  and 
elaborate  rules  were  made  fixing  the  conditions  under  which 
nuns  might  hold  conversations  or  exchange  letters  with  seculars. 
The  rule  which  forbade  nuns  to  harbour  in  houses  of  religious 
men  was  often  supplemented  by  a  regulation  forbidding  friars, 
or  other  men  belonging  to  religious  orders,  from  being  received 
as  guests  by  nuns.  At  Godstow  in  1284  Peckham  forbade  the 
reception  of  religious  men  for  the  night2  and  in  1358  Bishop 
Gynewell  enjoined  the  same  convent  "for  certain  reasons,  that 
no  friars  of  any  order  whatever  be  harboured  by  night  within 
the  doors  of  your  house,  nor  by  day  save  it  be  for  great  necessity 
and  reasonable  cause,  and  not  habitually  "  3.  William  of  Wykeham 
directed  a  special  mandate  on  the  subject  to  Wherwell  in  1368: 

"Lately,"  he  says,  "it  has  come  to  our  ears  by  popular  report  of 
trusty  men,  that  contrary  to  the  honesty  of  religion  you  admit 
various  religious  men,  especially  of  the  mendicant  orders,  lightly  and 
promiscuously  to  pass  the  night  in  your  habitations,  from  which  grows 
much  matter  for  laxity  and  scandal,  since  the  cohabitation  of  religious 
clerks  and  nuns  is  altogether  forbidden  by  the  constitutions  of  the 
holy  fathers." 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  133-5,  passim.  Compare  the  injunctions  to  some 
Yorkshire  houses:  at  Marrick  (1252)  the  nuns  were  forbidden  to  sit  with 
guests  or  anyone  else  outside  the  cloister  after  curfew,  or  for  a  long  time 
unless  the  guests  arrived  so  late  that  it  was  impossible  to  serve  them  sooner, 
nor  was  a  nun  to  remain  alone  with  a  guest.  At  Hampole  (1302)  no  nun 
except  the  hostillaria  was  to  eat  or  drink  in  the  guest-house,  save  with 
worthy  people,  and  at  Wilberfoss  (1302)  they  were  forbidden  to  linger  in 
the  guest-house  or  elsewhere,  for  amusement  with  seculars.  V.C.H.  Yorks. 
m,  pp.  117,  126,  163.  At  Elstow  in  1432,  however,  Bishop  Gray  enjoined 
"that  when  parents  or  friends  or  kinsfolk  of  nuns,  or  other  persons  of  note 
and  honesty,  shall  journey  to  the  same  monastery  to  visit  any  nuns  of  the 
said  monastery,  the  same  nuns  be  nowise  bound  for  that  day  to  observance 
of  f rater,  but  be  excused  to  this  end  by  grace  of  the  abbess  or  president." 
Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Line,  i,  p.  54. 

z  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  in,  pp.  851-2. 

3  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  lood. 

P.N.  26 


402  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

He  proceeds  to  forbid  the  reception  of  friars  or  other  religious 
men  to  lodge  in  the  abbey,  though  food  might  be  given  them 
in  alms1.  As  in  the  rules  regulating  visits  paid  by  nuns,  attempts 
were  sometimes  made  though  not  insisted  upon  with  any  severity, 
to  restrict  the  visitors  who  might  spend  the  night  to  near  rela 
tives.  At  Godstow,  for  instance,  Bishop  Gray  ordered  in  1432 
that  strangers  "in  no  wise  pass  the  night  there,  unless  they  be 
father  and  mother,  brother  and  sister  of  that  nun  for  whose 
sake  they  have  so  come  to  the  monastery"2;  and  Archbishop 
Lee  wrote  to  Sinningthwaite  in  1534  forbidding  any  visitor  to 
have  recourse  to  the  Prioress  or  nuns  "onles  it  be  their  fathers 
or  moders  or  other  ther  nere  kynesfolkes,  in  whom  no  suspicion 
of  any  yll  can  be  thought"3. 

The  chief  efforts  of  the  authorities  were,  however,  directed 
not  towards  keeping  certain  persons  altogether  out  of  the  nun 
neries,  but  towards  keeping  all  visitors  out  of  certain  parts  of 
the  house  and  during  certain  hours.  The  general  rule  was  that 
no  secular  was  to  enter  after  sunset  or  curfew,  and  elaborate 
arrangements  were  made  for  locking  and  unlocking  the  doors 
at  certain  times.  At  Esholt  and  Sinningthwaite  Archbishop 
Lee  enjoined 

that  the  prioress  provide  sufficient  lockes  and  keys  to  be  sett  upon  the 
cloyster  doores,  incontinent  after  recept  of  thies  injunctions  and  that 
the  same  doores  surely  be  lockid  every  nyght  incontinent  as  complane 
is  doone,  and  not  to  be  unlocked  in  wynter  season  to  vij  of  the  clock 
in  the  mornyng  and  in  sommer  vnto  vj  of  the  clock  in  the  mornyng; 
and  that  the  prioresse  kepe  the  keyes  of  the  same  doores,  or  committ 
the  custodie  of  them  to  such  a  discrete  and  religious  suster,  that  no 
fault  nor  negligence  may  be  imputed  to  the  prioresse,  as  she  will 
avoyde  punyshment  due  for  the  same4. 

1  Wykeham's  Reg.   n,   pp.    73-4.    The  special  prohibition  of  friars  i% 
significant,  for  their  reputation  was  growing  worse  and  worse  throughout 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.   See  also  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  164, 
171,  181  and  Arch.  XLVII,  p.  57.   On  the  other  hand  it  should  be  noted  that 
"during  the  later  thirteenth  and  earlier  fourteenth  centuries  the  bishops 
in  many  dioceses  made  a  point  of  insisting  that  the  confessors  to  the  nuns 
should  be  chosen,  not  from  the  secular  clergy,  but  from  the  Mendicant 
Orders,  especially  from  the  Minorites."    A.  G.  Little,  Studies  in  English 
Franciscan  Hist.  (1917),  p.  119  (and  the  references  which  he  gives). 

2  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Line.  I,  p.  66. 

'  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  441.  Compare  Alnwick's  injunctions  to 
Catesby  (1442),  Langley  (1440-1)  and  St  Michael's,  Stamford  (1440). 
Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  51,  117.  Alnwick's  MS.  f.  83^. 

4   Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  452  (cf.  p.  440).   These  injunctions  were 


PLATE  VIII 


1^4-i^xW  #    X 

«  -jp_ ';»>>>  K»<<  ti  v      - 

^'>4*yfe^ 


PLAN   OF   LACOCK  ABBEY 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  403 

At  the  same  time,  for  better  security,  he  ordered  the  nuns  to  be 
locked  into  their  dorter  every  night  until  service  time.  Some 
times  the  nuns  objected  to  being  shut  in  the  house  so  early 
in  the  summer  time,  when  the  days  were  long  and  the  trees  in 
the  convent  garden  green.  The  nuns  of  Sheppey  were  plaintive 
on  the  subject  in  1511.  Amicia  Tanfeld  said 
that  the  gate  of  the  cloister  is  closed  immediately  after  the  bell  rings 
for  vespers  and  remains  shut  until  it  rings  for  prime1;  this,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  convent  is  too  strict,  especially  in  summer  time, 
because  it  might  remain  open  until  after  supper,  as  she  says. 

Elizabeth  Chatok,  cantarista2,  said  the  same  "clauditur  nimis 
tempestive  tempore  presertim  estiuali";  perhaps  she  was  thinking 
of  better  singers  than  herself,  who  piped  their  vespers  outside 
that  closed  door, 

And  songen,  everich  in  his  wyse 

The  most  solempne  servyse 

By  note,  that  ever  man,  I  trowe, 

Had  herd ;  for  som  of  hem  song  lowe 

Some  hye  and  al  of  oon  accord3. 

Her  sisters  agreed  with  her,  but  the  stern  archbishop  took  no 
notice  of  their  plaints4. 

Strict  regulations  were  also  made  for  keeping  secular  visitors 
out  of  certain  parts  of  the  convent.  The  dorter,  f rater,  fermery, 
chapter  and  cloister  and  the  internal  offices  of  the  house  were 
supposed  to  be  entered  only  by  the  nuns5: 

very  common,  for  the  rule  was  often  broken.  Peckham's  regulation  for 
Wherwell  (1284)  was  that  no  man  was  to  enter  after  sunset  at  night,  or 
before  the  end  of  chapter  (which  followed  directly  after  Prime)  in  the 
morning.  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  p.  653.  For  other  examples  see  Romsey 
(1302-11),  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  102,  103;  Moxby  (1318),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
p.  239;  Sopwell  (1338),  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  366;  Wroxall  (1338),  Wore. 
Reg.  Sede  Vacante,  p.  275;  Heynings  (1351),  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell, 
f.  34<Z;  Elstow  (1387),  ib.,  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343 ;  St  Mary's  Neasham 
(1436),  V.C.H.  Durham,  n,  p.  107;  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate  (1439),  Dugdale, 
Mon.  iv,  p.  552;  Nunappleton  (1489),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  172;  Studley 
(1530-1),  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  59;  Nuncoton  (1531),  ib.  pp.  56,  59- 

1  This  certainly  seems  very  strict,  for  (as  appears  from  the  injunctions 
quoted)  it  was  customary  to  order  the  doors  to  be  shut  when  the  bell  rang 
for  Compline,  the  last  office  of  the  day.  Vespers  was  the  service  immediately 
before  supper. 

2  Cantarista  usually  means  a  chantry-priest.    The  more  usual  word  is 
Precentrix. 

3  Chaucer,  Boke  of  the  Duchesse,  11.  300-4-  4  E.H.R.  vi,  pp.  33-4. 

5  This  was  reiterated  in  Ottobon's  Constitutions  and  in  the  Bull  Pericu- 
loso.  See  also  Thomas  of  Cantilupe's  letter  to  Lymbrook  in  1277  (Reg. 

26 2 


404  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH 

"And  in  order  that  the  quiet  of  your  cloister  be  in  future  observed 
better  than  has  been  customary,"  wrote  Peckham  to  the  nuns  of 
Wherwell  in  1284,  "we  order... that  no  secular  or  religious  person 
be  permitted  to  enter  the  cloister,  nor  the  interior  offices,  save  for 
a  manifest  and  inevitable  reason,  that  is  bodily  infirmity,  for  which 
a  confessor  or  doctor  or  near  relative  may  be  allowed  to  enter,  but 
always  in  safe  and  praiseworthy  company.  So  that  no  one  shall  hear 
the  confession  of  a  healthy  nun  or  woman  in  cloister  or  chapter  or  in 
the  interior  offices.... And  we  consider  healthy  anyone  who  is  able, 
conveniently  and  without  danger  to  life,  to  enter  the  church  or  the 
parlour1." 

At  Romsey  he  further  ordered  four  nuns  to  be  made  scrutineers: 
"Who  shall  expel  from  the  cloister  as  suspect  all  persons  of 
whatsoever  condition  wishing  to  stare  at  the  nuns  or  to  chatter 
with  them"2.  But  the  rule  was  constantly  broken  and  it  has 
been  shown  that  seculars  penetrated  to  all  parts  of  the  convents. 
Injunctions  order  them  to  be  excluded  now  from  dorter,  now 
from  frater,  now  from  fermery,  according  as  visitation  showed 
them  to  be  in  the  habit  of  entering  one  part  of  a  house  or  another. 
Sometimes  special  orders  were  given  for  the  making  and  locking 
of  doors  separating  the  cloister  from  the  outside  court,  or  the 
nuns'  choir  from  the  rest  of  the  church,  a  necessary  precaution 
when  the  nave  of  a  conventual  church  was  used  as  a  parish 
church.  Bishop  Longland  wrote  to  Elstow  (1531) : 

Forasmoche  as  the  more  secrete  religious  persones  be  kepte  from  the 
sight  and  visage  of  the  world  and  straungers,  the  more  close  and  en- 
tyer  ther  mynd  and  devoc[i]on  shalbe  unto  god,  we  ordeyn  and  Inioyne 
to  the  lady  abbesse  that  before  the  natiuyte  of  our  lorde  next  ensewing 
she  cause  a  doore  with  two  leves  to  be  made  and  sett  upp  att  the 
lower  ende  of  the  quere  and  that  doore  to  be  fyve  foote  in  hight  att 
the  leaste  and  contynually  to  stand  shitt  the  tymes  of  dyvyne  seruice 
excepte  it  be  att  comming  in  or  out  of  eny  off  the  ladyes  and  mynys- 
tres  off  the  said  churche.  And  under  like  payne  as  is  afore  we  chardge 
the  said  ladye  abbess  that  she  cause  the  doore  betwene  the  convent 
and  the  parishe  churche  contynually  to  be  shitt,  unless  itt  be  oonly 
the  tymes  of  dyvyne  service,  and  likewise  she  cause  the  cloistre  door 

Thome  de  Cantilupo,  p.  201)  and  Archbishop  Peckham's  injunction  to 
Godstow,  both  based  upon  Ottobon.  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  in,  p.  848. 
Also  Bishop  Brantyngham's  commission  concerning  the  nuns  of  Polsloe  in 
1376,  which  is  based  upon  Periculoso.  Reg.  of  Bishop  Brantyngham,  pt.  II, 
PP-  152-3. 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  n,  pp.  652-3.    Compare  injunctions  to 
Barking,  ib.  I,  p.  84,  and  to  St  Sepulchre's,  Canterbury,  ib.  n,  p.  706. 

2  Ib.  n,  p.  663  "volentes  ibi  moniales  curiose  respicere  vel  cum  eis 
garrulas  attemptare." 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  405 

towardes  the  outward  court  to  be  continually  shitt,  unles  itt  be  att 
suche  tymes  as  eny  necessaryes  for  the  convent  shall  be  brought  in 
or  borne  out  att  the  same,  and  thatt  she  suffre  noo  other  back  doures 
to  be  opened  butt  upon  necessarye,  grett  and  urgent  causes  by  her 
approved1. 

Special  attempts  were  made  to  prevent  secret  communications 
between  nuns  and  secular  persons  in  corners  and  passages  or 
through  windows,  and  to  block  up  unnecessary  doors  by  which 
persons  might  enter: 

"We  ordeyn  and  injoyne  yow,  prioresse  and  convent,"  writes  Dean 
Kentwode  to  St  Helens,  "  That  ye,  ne  noone  of  yowre  sustres  use  nor 
haunte  any  place  withinne  the  priory,  thoroghe  the  wiche  evel  sus- 
peccyone  or  sclaundere  mythe  aryse ;  weche  places  for  certeyne  causes 
that  move  us,  we  wryte  here  inne  owre  present  iniunccyone,  but  wole 
notyfie  to  yow,  prioresse :  nor  have  no  lokyng  nor  spectacles  owtewarde, 
thorght  the  wiche  ye  mythe  fall  into  worldly  dilectacyone2." 

Archbishop  Lee  showed  no  such  desire  to  spare  the  feelings  of 
the  nuns  of  Esholt  by  not  openly  specifying  the  places  where 
they  were  wont  to  whisper  with  their  friends: 

Item  where  there  is  on  the  backside  of  certen  chambres,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  church  where  the  sustres  worke,  an  open  way  goyng  to  the 
watirside,  and  to  the  brige  goyng  over  the  water,  without  wall  or 

1  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  52.  Compare  Bishop  Gray's  injunction  to 
Godstow  in  1432-4.  "Also  that  all  the  doors  of  the  nuns'  lodgings  towards 
the  outer  court,  through  which  it  is  possible  to  enter  into  the  cloister  pre 
cinct,  even  if  the  other  doors  of  the  cloister  be  shut  for  the  time  being,  be 
altogether  blocked  up,  or  that  such  means  of  barring  or  shutting  be  placed 
upon  them  that  approach  or  entrance  through  the  same  doors  may  not  be 
given  to  secular  folk."  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  68,  Compare  also  Dean  Kentwode's 
injunction  to  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  in  1432 :  "Also  we  injoyn  yow,  Prioresse, 
that  there  may  be  a  doore  at  the  Nonnes  quere,  that  noo  straungers  may  loke 
on  them,  nor  they  on  the  straungers,  wanne  thei  bene  at  dyvyne  service. 
Also  we  ordene  and  injoyne  yow,  prioresse,  that  there  be  made  a  hache  of 
conabyll  heythe,  crestyd  with  pykys  of  herne  to  fore  the  entre  of  yowre 
kechyne,  that  noo  straunge  pepille  may  entre  with  certeyne  cleketts  avysed 
be  yow  and  be  yowre  steward  to  suche  personys  as  yow  and  hem  thynk 
onest  and  conabell.  Also  we  injoyne  yow,  prioresse,  that  non  nonnes  have 
noo  keyes  of  the  posterne  doore  that  gothe  owte  of  the  cloystere  into  the 
churche  yerd  but  the  prioresse,  for  there  is  moche  comyng  in  and  owte 

i  unlefulle  tymys."  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  554. 

|         z  Loc.  cit.  With  this  compare  Alnwick's  visitation  of  Ankerwyke  in 

\  1441,  at  which  one  of  Margery  Kyrkeby's  charges  against  the  Prioress 
Clemence  Medeforde  was :  "Also  she  has. .  .blocked  up  the  view  Thamesward, 

!  which  was  a  great  diversion  to  the  nuns.  She  confesses  blocking  up  the 
view,  because  she  saw  that  men  stood  in  the  narrow  space  close  to  the  window 
and  talked  with  the  nuns."  Line.  Visit.  II,  p.  3. 


406  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

doore,  so  that  many  ylles  may  be  committed  by  reason  hereof; 
wherfore  in  avoyding  such  inconveniences  that  myght  folow  yf  it 
shuld  so  remayne,  by  thies  presentes  we  inioyne  the  prioresse,  that 
she,  incontinent  withoutzt  delay  aftre  the  recept  herof  cause  a  strong 
and  heigh  wall  to  be  made  in  the  said  voyde  place1. 

Above  all  it  was  reiterated  at  visitation  after  visitation  that 
no  nun  was  to  receive  a  man  in  her  private  chamber  or  to  hold 
conversations  with  any  stranger  there  and  that  certain  conditions 
were  to  be  observed  in  all  conversations  between  the  nuns 
and  their  visitors.  Archbishop  Rotherham's  injunction  to  Nun- 
appleton  in  1489  is  typical: 

Item  yat  none  of  your  sustirs  bring  in,  receyve  or  take  any  laie  man, 
religiose  or  secular  into  yer  chambre  or  any  secret  place,  daye  or 
knyght,  not  w*  yaim  in  such  private  places  to  commyne  ete  or  drynke 
w'out  lycence  of  you,  Prioresse2. 

At  Sopwell  in  1338  an  interesting  addition  was  made  to  the 
ordinary  rule: 

And  because  it  is  seemly  that  ladies  of  religion  in  the  presence  of 
seculars  should  bear  themselves  according  to  rule  in  dress  and  in 
deportment,  we  will  and  ordain  that  none  of  you  henceforward  come 
to  the  parlour  to  talk  with  seculars  if  she  have  not  her  cowl  and  her 
headdress  of  kerchiefs  and  veil,  according  to  the  rule  (son  cool  et  son 
covert  de  cuverchiefs  et  de  veil  ordine),  as  beseemeth  your  religion.  And 
none  save  honest  persons  shall  be  suffered  to  enter,  and  if  such  person 
wish  to  remain  for  a  meal,  let  him  eat  in  the  parlour,  by  permission 
of  the  confessor,  and  on  no  account  in  the  chambers  without  our 
express  permission,  or  that  of  our  own  prior,  if  we  be  absent.  Con 
cerning  the  workmen,  whom  you  need  for  your  necessities,  to  wit 
tailors  and  furriers,  we  will  for  that  such  workmen  a  place  be  ordained 
near  the  cloister,  where  such  workmen  may  do  their  works,  and  that 
they  be  by  no  means  called  into  the  chambers,  nor  into  any  private 
place.  And  let  the  workmen  be  such  that  no  suspicion  of  evil  may  be 
roused  by  them8. 

1  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  452-3.    Compare  Bishop  Stapeldon's 
injunction  to  Canonsleigh  in  1320:  "Et  pur  ceo  que  nous  avoms  oyi  et 
entendu  par  ascune  gent  qe  par  my  deus  us  deden3  vostre  abbeye  ileoqes 
plusours  mals  esclandres  et  deshonestetes  sunt  avenues  avant  cest  hure, 
et  purront  ensement  avenir  apres,  si  remedie  ne  soit  mys,  ceo  est  asavoir, 
un  us  qe  est  en  lencloistre  au  celer  desouz  la  Sale  la  Abbesse  devers  la  court 
voloms,  ordinoms  et  comaundoms  qe  meisme  ceux  deus  us  soyent  bien 
estupees  par  mur  de  pere,  entre  cy  et  la  Paske  procheyn  avenir."  Reg. 
W.  de  Stapeldon,  p.  96. 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  172.    He  also  said  that  "No  man  loge  undir  the 
dortir  nor  oon  the  baksede.  but  if  hit  be  such  sad  persones  by  whome  your 
house  may  be  holpyne  and  secured  wkmt  slaundir  or  suspicion." 

*  Dugdale,  Mon.  HI,  p.  366.   But  at  Barking  Peckham  ordered  in  1279: 
"In  omen's,  autem,  quae  per  foeminas  fieri  nequeunt,  operariorum  cum 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  407 

At  Barking  Peckham  ordered  in  1279  that  no  secular  man  or 
woman  was  to  enter  the  nuns'  chambers,  unless  a  nun  were  so 
ill  that  it  was  necessary  to  speak  to  her  there,  in  which  case  a 
confessor,  doctor,  father  or  brother  might  have  access  to  her1. 

The  rules  laid  down  for  the  holding  of  conversations  between 
nuns  and  visitors  required  that  the  permission  of  the  head  of 
the  house  should  first  be  obtained,  and  that  the  meeting  should 
take  place  in  the  locutorium  or  parlour,  or  occasionally  in  the 
abbess's  hall2,  and  in  the  hearing  of  "at  least  one  other  nun  of 
sound  character,"  or  more  frequently  two  other  nuns.  Some 
times  it  was  added  that  conversations  were  not  to  be  too  lengthy : 

"Let  it  not  be  permitted  to  any  nun,"  wrote  Peckham  to  Romsey, 
"  to  hold  converse  with  any  man  save  either  in  the  parlour  or  in  the 
side  of  the  church  next  the  cloister.  And  in  order  that  all  suspicion 
may  henceforth  be  removed,  we  order  that  any  nun  about  to  speak 

eisdem  cautelis  introitus  admittatur."  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  i,  p.  84.  On 
the  entrance  of  carpenters,  masons  and  other  workmen  into  convents  see 
Thiers,  op.  cit.  n,  ch.  xxvi.  He  insists  that  the  work  must  be  a  necessity  and 
something  which  could  not  be  done  by  the  nuns  themselves.  "Ainsi  les 
artisans  sont  coupables  du  violement  de  la  cloture,  lorsqu'ils  entrent  pour 
des  ouvrages  de  bienseance  ou  de  commodite,  pour  des  decorations  ou  des 
embelissemens ;  en  un  mot,  pour  des  ouvrages  dont  les  Religieuses  se  peuvent 
passer;  et  je  ne  vois  pas  en  quelle  seurete  de  conscience  les  abbesses,  les 
Prieures  et  les  autres  superieures  des  Religieuses,  les  y  laissent  entrer,  soit 
pour  polir  des  grilles,  pour  tendre  et  pour  detendre  des  chambres  et  des 
lits,  pour  faire  et  pour  peindre  des  plat-fonds  et  des  alcoves,  pour  boiser 
des  chambres,  des  galleries  et  des  cabinets,  pour  faire  de  beaux  vitrages, 
de  belle  volieres  a  petits  oiseaux  et  d'autres  choses  semblables.  Car  outre 
que  tout  cela  est  directement  oppose"  a  la  modestie  et  a  la  pauvrete,  dont 
elles  font  profession,  quel  pretexte  peuvent-elles  alleguer  pour  se  mettre 
a  couvert  de  rexcommunication  que  les  Conciles,  les  Papes  et  les  Eveques 
ontfulminee  centre  les  Religieuses,  qui  laissent  entrer  les  personnes  etrangeres 
[  dans  leur  cloture  sans  necessiteY'  Op.  cit.  pp.  412-3.  He  is  particularly 
|  urgent  that  nuns  should  cultivate  their  own  gardens  and  should  have  their 
vegetable  gardens  outside  the  precincts:  "par  ce  moyen  elles  ne  seroient 
point  obligees  d'ouvrer  et  fermer  si  souvent  les  portes  de  leur  cloture,  a 
des  jardiniers  qui  ne  sont  pas  toujours  exempts  de  scandale"  (ib.  p.  414), 
which  recalls  a  famous  story  of  Boccaccio's.  Decameron,  3rd  day,  novel  I. 

1  Loc.  cit.  and  compare  his  injunction  to  Wherwell,  ib.  p.  268.    Bishop 
Flemyng's  introduction  to  Elstow  is  rather  contradictory:  "Also  that  no 
nun  admit  secretly  to  her  chamber  any  seculars  or  other  men  of  religion 
and  that  if  they  be  admitted  she  do  not  keep  them  there  too  long."  Visit,  of 
Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Lincoln,  I,  p.  51.    At  Godstow  (1432)  the  injunction 
ran:  "Also  that  the  beds  in  the  nuns'  lodgings  be  altogether  removed  from 
their  chambers,  save  those  for  small  children  and  that  no  nun  receive  any 
secular  people  for  any  recreation  in  the  nuns'  chambers  under  pain  of 
excommunication."  Ib.  i,  p.  67. 

2  As  at  Godstow  in  1432.  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  67,  or  Romsey  in  1523,  Liveing, 
Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  244. 


408  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

with  any  man,  save  in  the  matter  of  confession,  have  with  her  two 
companions  to  hear  her  conversation,  in  order  that  they  may  either 
be  edified  by  useful  words,  if  these  are  forthcoming,  or  hinder  evil 
words,  lest  evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners"1. 

Alnwick's  injunction  to  Godstow  in  1445  was  couched  in  very 
similar  terms : 

That  ye  suffre  none  of  your  susters  to  speke  wythe  any  seculere  per- 
sone  ne  religiouse,  but  all  onely  in  your  halle  in  your  presence  and 
audience,  or,  by  your  specyalle  licence  asked  and  had,  in  the  presence 
of  two  auncyent  nunnes  approuved  in  the  religyon  so  that  ye  or  the 
said  two  nunnes  here  and  see  what  that  say  and  do,  and  so  that  thaire 
spekyng  to  gedre  be  not  longe  but  in  shorte  and  few  wordes2. 

It  was  also  attempted  to  exercise  control  over  communication 
between  the  nuns  and  the  world  by  means  of  messages  and 
letters.  Alnwick  sent  injunctions  on  this  point  to  Langley, 
Markyate  and  St  Michael's,  Stamford  ("ne  that  ye  suffre  none 
of  youre  sustres  to  receyve  ne  sende  owte  noyre  gyfte  ne  lettre, 
but  ye  see  the  gyf tes  and  wyte  what  is  contyened  in  the  lettres  ")3, 
and  in  1432  Dean  Kentwode  wrote  to  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate: 

Also  we  ordeyne  and  injoyne  yow,  that  noone  of  yow  speke,  ne  comone 
with  no  seculere  persone;  ne  sende  ne  receyve  letteres  myssyves  or 
gyf  tes  of  any  seculere  persone,  withowte  lycence  of  the  prioresse : . . . 
and  such  letters  or  gyftes  sent  or  receyved,  may  turne  into  honeste 
and  wurchepe  and  none  into  velanye  or  disclaundered  of  yowre 
honeste  and  religione4. 

It  is  common  to  find  among  episcopal  injunctions  to  nunneries 
one  to  the  effect  that  no  secular  woman  is  to  sleep  in  the  dorter 
with  the  nuns.  The  fact  that  this  injunction  had  constantly  to 
be  repeated  shows  that  it  was  as  constantly  broken.  Servants, 
boarders  and  school  children  seem  in  many  houses  to  have  shared 
the  dorter  with  the  nuns,  an  arrangement  which  must  have 
been  exceedingly  disturbing  to  all  parties.  Alnwick  found  the 
practice  at  eleven  out  of  the  twenty  houses  which  he  visited  in 

1  Reg.  Epis.  J .  Peckham,  n,  p.  664.    Cf.  his  injunctions  to  other  nunneries. 

2  Line.    Visit,  n,   p.   116.    Compare  injunctions  to  Catesby,   Langley, 
Markyate  and  St  Michael's,  Stamford.  Ib.  pp.  51,  177,  and  Alnwick's  Visit. 
MS.  ff.  6,  8$d.    For  other  examples  see  Lymbrook  (1277),  Reg.  Thome  de 
Cantilupo,  p.  201;  Polsloe  (1319),  Reg.  W.  de  Stapeldon,  p.  317;  Studley 
(1530),  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  54. 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  83^,  cf.  f.  6,  and  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  177. 
4  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  554.    Compare  Romsey  (1387),  New  Coll.  MS. 
.  86;   Nuncoton  (1531),  Archaeologia,  XLVII,  p.  60.     St  Benedict's  Rule 
forbids  all  letters  (cap.  LIV). 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  409 

1440-5.  At  Catesby,  Langley,  Stixwould  and  St  Michael's,  Stam 
ford,  little  girls,  between  the  ages  of  five  and  ten,  used  to  sleep 
with  the  nuns;  there  were  six  or  seven  of  them  at  that  ill- 
conducted  house,  Catesby,  in  the  charge  of  Agnes  Allesley,  who 
was  so  disobedient  to  the  bishop1.  At  Gracedieu  the  cellaress 
had  a  boy  of  seven  with  her  in  the  dorter2.  At  Legbourne  a  nun 
complained  that  "the  Prioress  suffers  secular  women,  both 
boarders  and  servants,  to  lie  by  night  in  the  dorter  among  the 
nuns,  against  the  rule"3  and  at  Heynings  (which  was  much 
haunted  by  visitors)  a  lay  sister  deposed  that  "the  infirmary  is 
occupied  by  secular  folk,  to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  sisters; 
. . .  also  that  secular  serving  women  do  lie  among  the  sisters  in  the 
dorter,  and  especially  one  who  did  buy  a  corrody  there  "  4.  At  the 
other  houses  (Godstow,  Nuncoton  and  Stainfield)  it  was  simply 
mentioned  that  secular  persons  lay  in  the  dorter,  without  details 
as  to  whether  they  were  servants,  boarders  or  children5.  In  all 
cases  Alnwick  strictly  forbade  the  practice,  and  a  prohibition 
to  this  effect  is  common  in  episcopal  injunctions6. 

These  injunctions  against  the  use  of  the  dorter  by  seculars 
illustrate  another  aspect  of  the  movement  for  enclosure.  The 
majority  of  the  other  injunctions  which  have  been  quoted  were 
attempts  to  regulate  the  intercourse  of  nuns  with  casual  visitors, 
strangers  who  came  for  a  day,  or  perhaps  for  two  or  three  days. 
But  a  far  more  dangerous  menace  to  the  quiet  of  the  cloister 
lay  in  the  constant  presence  of  secular  boarders  and  corrodians, 
who  made  their  home  in  a  nunnery.  Ladies  who  wished  to  end 
their  days  in  peace  sometimes  went  there  as  boarders  or  as 
corrodians;  it  is,  no  doubt,  decent  sober  women  such  as  these, 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  46,  177;  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  ff.  39^.  76,  95^. 

2  Ib.  p.  119.  3  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  185. 

4  Ib.  p.  133.  5  Ib.  pp.  113,  MS.  ff.  -jid,  72,  77. 

6  For  other  examples  see  Romsey  (1311),  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  104;  Clemen- 

thorpe  (1317),  Hampole  (1308,  1314),  Nunappleton  (1346),  Rosedale  (1315). 

Arthington  (1315,  1318);  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  129,  163-4,  172,  174,  188. 

Sopwell  (1338),  Dugdale,  Mon.  m,  p.  366;  Heynings  (1392),  Line.  Epis. 

Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  397^;  Lymbrook  (1437),  Hereford  Epis.  Reg. 
\  Spofford,  p.  81;  Burnham  (1432-6),  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Lincoln, 
|  i,  p.  24;  Redlingfield  (1514),  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  pp.  139-40;  Flam- 
'  stead  (1530),  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  433;  Nuncoton  (1531),  Archaeologia,  XLVII, 

p.  58;  Sinningthwaite  (1534),  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  440-1.  The 
'injunction  to  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate,  in  1432  has  an  odd  variation: 
I  "withowte  specialle  graunte  hadde  in  the  chapetter  house,  among  yow 

alle."  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  pp.  553-4. 


410  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

who  are  sometimes  exempted  by  name  in  episcopal  injunctions 
ordering  the  exclusion  of  boarders  from  a  house.  But  more  often 
women  would  seek  the  temporary  hospitality  of  a  nunnery  when, 
for  some  reason,  they  wished  to  leave  their  homes.  A  monastic 
house  was,  on  the  whole,  a  safe  refuge,  and  many  a  knight  going 
to  the  wars  went  with  a  lighter  heart  when  he  knew  that  his 
wife  or  daughter  was  sleeping  within  convent  walls.  In  1314 
John  of  Drokensford,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  licensed  the 
Prioress  of  Cannington  to  lodge  and  board  the  wife  and  two 
daughters  of  John  Fychet  during  his  absence  abroad1,  and  in 
1372  William  of  Wykeham  sent  letters  to  the  Abbesses  of  Romsey 
and  Wherwell  on  behalf  of  another  wife  left  alone  in  England : 

"The  noble  Earl  of  Pembroke,"  wrote  the  Bishop,  "has  begged  us 
by  his  letters  to  direct  our  special  letters  to  you  on  behalf  of  the  noble 
and  gently-born  lady,  Lady  Elizabeth  de  Berkele,  a  kinswoman  of 
the  aforesaid  Earl,  that  she  may  lodge  within  your  house... while  Sir 
Maurice  Wytht  [sic  ?  knyght]  the  same  lady's  husband,  remains  in 
the  company  of  the  aforesaid  Earl  in  parts  beyond  the  sea"; 

and  so,  in  spite  of  a  recent  prohibition  to  these  houses  to  receive 
boarders,  they  are  to  take  in  Lady  Berkeley2.  Sometimes  the 
wording  of  these  licences  shows  that  the  ladies  required  only  a 
temporary  shelter  and  had  by  no  means  retired  from  the  world. 
Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  gave  leave  to  Joan  Wason  and 
Maude  Poer  to  stay  at  Cannington  from  December  1336  till  the 
following  Easter,  and  Isabel  Fychet  received  a  similar  licence; 
in  J354  Isolda  wife  of  John  Bycombe  was  licensed  to  stay  there 
from  March  till  August3.  Sometimes  these  ladies  brought  their 
servants  or  gentlewomen  with  them;  Joan  Wason  and  Maude 
Poer  had  permission  to  take  two  "  dammoiselles "  and  Isabel 

1  Reg.  of  John  of  Drokensford,  p.  81.  The  Isabel  Fychet  mentioned  in  i 
1336  was  probably  one  of  these  ladies. 

2  Wykeham's  Reg.  n,  pp.  162-3.    On  this  couple,  see  Smyth,  Lives  of 
the  Berkeleys,  pp.  364  ff. 

8  Reg.  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury,  pp.  277,  278,  744-5.  A  few  out  of  many 
other  examples  may  be  quoted :  Alice,  wife  of  John  D'Aumarle,  domicellus. 
may  stay  at  Cornworthy  from  January  till  September  (1333),  Reg.  of  J.  de 
Grandisson,  pt.  n,  p.  724;  Beatrix  Paynell,  sister  of  Sir  John  Foxley,  may 
stay  at  Wintney  from  December  to  the  Feast  of  St  John  the  Baptist  (1367), 
Wykeham's  Reg.  H,  p.  7;  Avice  de  Lyncolnia,  niece  of  William  de  Jafford, 
may  stay  for  four  years  in  Nunappleton  (1309);  he  was  the  Archbishop's 
receiver.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  171;  Alice,  wife  of  Alan  of  Ayste,  may  spend 
two  years  in  Godstow  (1363),  V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  73.  It  will  be  noted  that 
nearly  all  these  are  great  folk,  who  cannot  lightly  be  refused. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  411 

Fychet  one  maid  to  Cannington ;  when  Lady  Margery  Treverbyn, 
a  widow,  went  with  every  profession  of  piety  to  Canonsleigh  in 
1328,  she  was  accompanied  by  "a  certain  priest,  a  squire  (domi- 
cellus)  and  a  damsel  (domicella)"1;  the  widow  of  Sir  John  Pateshull 
was  licensed  to  dwell  in  Elstow  with  her  daughter  and  maids 
in  I3502;  the  familia  of  Elizabeth  Berkeley  is  mentioned  in 
William  of  Wykeham's  licence  and  in  1291  John  le  Romeyn, 
Archbishop  of  York,  gave  the  convent  of  Nunappleton  permission 
to  receive  Lady  Margaret  Percy  as  a  boarder  for  a  year,"  provided 
that  her  household  during  that  time  shall  not  be  other  than 
respectable  (honesta)"*.  In  the  list  (compiled  by  Mr  Rye)  of 
boarders  in  Carrow  Priory  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries,  several  ladies  are  mentioned  as  being  accompanied 
by  servants;  Lady  Maloysel  and  servant,  Isabell  Argentoin  and 
servant,  the  Lady  Margaret  Kerdeston  and  woman,  Margaret 
Wryght  and  servant,  Lady  Margaret  Wetherby,  her  servant 
Matilda  and  her  chaplain  William.  The  same  list  shows  that  not 
only  women  but  men  were  received  as  boarders,  sometimes  alone 
and  sometimes  accompanied  by  their  wives,  and  though  some 
of  the  names  given  are  doubtless  those  of  little  boys,  who  were 
receiving  their  education  in  the  nunnery,  others  can  be  clearly 
identified  as  adults4.  The  Paston  Letters  afford  a  famous  case  in 
which  both  a  girl  and  her  betrothed,  who  had  quarrelled  with 
her  parents,  were  lodged  for  a  time  in  a  nunnery.  Margery 
Paston  had  fallen  in  love  with  her  brother's  bailiff,  Richard  Calle, 
to  the  fury  of  her  family,  who  swore  that  "he  should  never  have 
their  good  will  for  to  make  her  to  sell  candle  and  mustard  in 
Framlingham."  The  two  lovers  plighted  their  troth,  a  ceremony 
as  binding  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church  as  marriage  itself,  and 
Richard  Calle  appealed  to  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  to  set  the 
matter  beyond  doubt  by  an  inquiry.  The  spirited  Margery  "re 
hearsed  what  she  had  said,  and  said,  if  those  words  made  it 
not  sure,  she  said  boldly  that  she  would  make  that  surer  or 
than  she  went  thence,  for  she  said  she  thought  in  her  conscience 

1  Reg.  J .  de  Grandisson,  pt.  I,  p.  190. 

2  V.C.H.  Beds.  I,  p.  355.  3  Reg.  John  le  Romeyn,  I,  p.  114. 
4  See  the  list  in  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey,  pp.  48-52,  passim.  Some  of  the  men 

!  also  brought  servants  or  chaplains  with  them,  e.g.  William  Wryght  and 
servants,  William  Wade  and  William  his  chaplain,  John  Bernard  and  John 
his  chaplain.  The  men  must  have  been  lodged  outside  the  cloister  precincts. 


412  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

she  was  bound,  whatsoever  the  words  were,"  whereupon  her 
mother  refused  to  receive  her  back  into  her  house,  and  the 
Bishop  himself  was  obliged  to  find  a  lodging  for  her.  This  he 
did  at  first  with  some  friends  and  afterwards  at  a  nunnery, 
where  Richard  Calle  also  was  lodged,  for  John  Paston  mentions 
him  shortly  afterwards  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  "As  to  his 
abiding  it  is  in  Blakborow  nunnery  a  little  fro  Lynn  and  our 
unhappy  sister's  also"1. 

It  is  plain  from  visitation  records  that  the  boarders  who 
flocked  to  the  nunneries  were  exceedingly  disturbing  to  con 
ventual  life  and  sometimes  even  brought  disrepute  upon  their 
hostesses  by  behaviour  more  suited  to  the  world  than  to  the 
cloister.  Alnwick's  register  contains  some  amusing  and  instruc 
tive  evidence  on  this  point.  At  Langley,  a  very  worldly  and 
aristocratic  person,  Lady  Audley,  was  occupying  a  house  or  set 
of  rooms  (domum)  within  the  Priory,  paying  405.  yearly  and 
keeping  the  house  in  repair;  but  she  had  no  intention  of  giving 
up  the  ways  of  the  world;  pet  dogs  were  her  hobby,  and  the 
helpless  Prioress  complained  to  Alnwick  (a  Bishop  must  some 
times  have  had  much  ado  to  keep  a  straight  face  at  these 
revelations) : 

Lady  Audley,  who  boards  in  the  house,  has  a  great  abundance  of 
dogs,  insomuch  that  whenever  she  comes  to  church  there  follow  her 
twelve  dogs,  who  make  a  great  uproar  in  church,  hindering  them  in 
their  psalmody  and  the  nuns  hereby  are  made  terrified  !2 
"  Let  a  warning  be  directed  to  Lady  Audley  to  remove  her  dogs 
from  the  church  and  the  choir,"  says  a  note  in  the  Register; 
and  Lady  Audley,  followed  by  her  twelve  dogs,  recedes  for  ever 
from  our  view,  unless  reincarnated  four  centuries  later  in  the 
person  of  Hawker  of  Morwenstow.  A  boarder  at  Legbourne  had 
a  different  taste  in  pets.  Dame  Joan  Pavy  informed  the  Bishop: 
"That  Margaret  Ingoldesby,  a  secular  woman,  lies  of  a  night 

1  Paston  Letters,  ed.  Gairdner  (1900  ed.),  n,  p.  390  (no.  633).    See  also 
no.  617  and  Introd.  pp.  ccxc-ccxcii. 

2  Line.   Visit,  u,  p.  175   (at  this  house  there  were  also  three  women 
boarding  with  the  Prioress  and  one  with  the  Subprioress).    Compare  the 
case  of  Agnes  de  Vescy  at  Watton  in  1272.  The  King  wrote  to  the  sheriff 
of  Yorkshire  that  "Agnes  de  Vescy  has  been  to  the  house  of  Watton  with 
a  great  number  of  women  and  dogs  and  other  things,  which  have  interfei 
with  the  devotions  of  the  nuns  and  sisters."  Graham,  St  Gilbert  of  Semprii 
ham  and  the  Gilbertines,  p.  83.  The  fact  was  that  no  one  had  any  real  con 
over  these  great  ladies,  least  of  all  their  hostesses. 


xj  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  413 

in  the  dorter  among  the  nuns,  bringing  with  her  birds,  by  whose 
jargoning  silence  is  broken  and  the  rest  of  the  nuns  is  disturbed  " 1. 
Exasperated  Dame  Joan,  trying  to  steal  some  sleep  before  groping 
her  way  down  to  matins !  She  had  never  heard  of  Vert- Vert, 
nor  even  of  Philip  Sparrow  and  she  would  not  have  been  of  the 
young  and  pretty  novices,  whose  toilet  the  immortal  parrot 
superintended  with  a  connoisseur's  eye.  The  Bishop  cut  the 
Gordian  knot  for  her  by  ordering  all  seculars  to  be  turned  out 
of  the  dorter.  At  Stixwould  there  were  two  widows,  Elizabeth 
Dymmok  and  Margaret  Tylney,  with  their  maidservants,  staying 
with  the  Prioress,  and  two  other  adult  women  staying  with  the 
cellaress;  and 

there  is  in  the  same  place  a  certain  woman  suspect  [she  was  probably 
a  servant]  who  dwells  within  the  cloister  precincts,  Joan  Bartone  by 
name,  to  whom  one  William  Traherne  had  had  suspicious  access, 
bringing  her  theraf ter  before  the  ecclesiastical  j  udge  in  a  matrimonial 
suit,  and  she  is  very  troublesome  to  the  nuns2. 

At  Gracedieu  it  was  found  that  the  Prioress  divulged  the  secrets 
of  the  house  to  her  secular  boarders3.  At  other  houses  also  it 
was  complained  that  the  boarders  not  only  disturbed  convent 
life,  but  attracted  many  visitors.  At  Nuncoton  the  Subprioress 
"prays  that  the  lodgers  be  removed  from  the  house,  so  that 
they  mingle  not  among  the  nuns,  for  if  there  were  none  the 
I  Prioress  might  be  able  to  come  constantly  to  f rater ;  and  because 
there  is  great  recourse  of  strangers  to  the  lodgers,  to  the  sore 
burthen  of  the  house" ;  another  nun  also  deposed  "that  there  is 
great  recourse  of  guests  on  account  of  the  lodgers"  and  a  third 
asked  that  boarders  of  marriageable  age  should  be  altogether 
removed  from  the  house,  f  rater  and  dorter,  "by  reason  of  the 
divers  disadvantages  which  arise  to  the  house  out  of  their  stay  "  4. 
At  Godstow  in  1432  Bishop  Gray  enjoined: 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  185. 

2  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  76.    Compare  a  compertum  at  St  Sepulchre, 
Canterbury,  in  1367-8.  "  Perhendinantes  male  fame  steterunt  cum  priorissa, 
ad  quas  habebatur  eciam  accessus  nimium  suspectus,"  Lambeth  Reg.  Lang- 
ham,  f.  j6d. 

3  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  120,  122. 

4  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  jid,  72.    Compare  the  state  of  affairs  at  Ham- 
pole  in  1411,  when  the  Archbishop  ordered  the  removal  of  "secular  servants 
and  corrodiarii  who  attracted  to  themselves  other  secular  persons  from  the 
country,  by  whom  the  house  was  burdened."  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  165.  When 
Bishop  Grandisson  of  Exeter  licensed  the  reception  of  Alice  D'Au  marie  at 


4I4  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

that  Felmersham's  wife  with  her  whole  household,  and  other  women 
of  mature  age  be  utterly  removed  from  the  monastery  within  one 
year  next  to  come,  seeing  that  they  are  a  cause  of  disturbance  to 
the  nuns  and  an  occasion  of  bad  example  by  reason  of  their  attire 
and  those  who  come  to  visit  them1. 

It  is  indeed  easy  to  understand  why  bishops  objected  so 
much  to  the  reception  of  these  worldly  women  as  boarders.  If 
instead  of  Felmersham's  wife  we  read  "the  wife  of  Bath"  all 
is  explained.  That  lady  was  not  a  person  whom  a  Prioress 
would  lightly  refuse ;  the  list  of  her  pilgrimages  alone  would  give 
her  the  entree  into  any  nunnery.  Smiling  her  gat-toothed  smile 
and  riding  easily  upon  her  ambler,  she  would  enter  the  gates 
and  alight  in  the  court,  and  what  a  month  of  excitement  would 
pass  before  she  rode  away  again.  It  is  hard  not  to  suspect  that 
it  was  she  who  introduced  "  caps  of  estate  "  (were  they  "  as  broad 
as  is  a  buckler  or  a  targe"?)  to  the  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke  and 
crested  shoes  to  the  nuns  of  Elstow;  and  it  may  have  been  she 
(alas)  who  taught  some  of  them  to  step  "the  olde  daunce"2. 
Bad  enough  for  their  peace  of  mind  to  meet  her  at  a  pilgrimage, 
but  much  worse  to  have  her  settled  in  their  midst,  gossiping  as 
endlessly  as  she  gossiped  in  her  prologue,  and  amplifying  her 
reminiscences  for  a  less  sophisticated  audience.  This  was  one 
reason  why  the  bishops  made  a  special  injunction  against  the 
reception  of  married  women.  The  presence  of  men  was  open  to 
even  more  serious  objections.  At  Hampole  in  1411  the  Arch 
bishop  of  York  made  the  significant  injunction  that  the  Prioress 
was  not  to  allow  any  corrodiarii  or  others  to  retain  suspected 
women  with  them  in  the  house3.  At  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  in 
1442  Alnwick  discovered 

that  Richard  Gray  lately  boarding  in  the  priory  together  with  his 
legitimate  wife,  procreavitprolem  de  domina  Elizabetha  Wylugby  moniali 

Cornworthy  (1333)  he  added  "proviso  quod  ad  vos,  per  moram  hujusmodi, 
secularium  personarum  non  pateat  suspectis  horis  liberior  frequencia  vel 
accessus."  Reg.  Grandisson,  pt.  n,  p.  724. 

1  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  of  Lincoln,  I,  p.  87. 

2  Note  for  instance  the  Archbishop  of  York's  injunction  when  mitigating 
a  severe  penance  on  a  nun  of  St  Clement's,  York,  which  is  clearly  for 
immorality:  "That  twice  a  year  if  necessary  she  might  receive  friends... but 
she  was  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  Lady  de  Walleys  and  if  Lady  de  Walleys 
was  then  in  their  house,  she  was  to  be  sent  away  before  Pentecost  (1310)," 
V.C.H.  Yorks,  m,  p.  129. 

»  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ii,  p.  165. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  415 

ibidem,  and  boarded  there  until  last  Easter  against  the  injunction 
of  the  lord  (bishop)1. 

So  also  at  Easebourne  in  1478  it  was  deposed  that  "  a  certain  Sir 
John  Senoke2  much  frequented  the  priory  or  house,  so  that  during 
some  weeks  he  passed  the  night  and  lay  within  the  priory  or  mon 
astery  every  night,  and  was  the  cause ...  of  the  ruin  "  of  two  nuns 
who  had  gone  into  apostasy  at  the  instigation  of  various  men3. 
The  reception  of  secular  women  as  boarders  without  the 
consent  of  the  diocesan  was  forbidden  as  early  as  1222  by  the 
Council  of  Oxford4  and  the  bishops  henceforth  pursued  a  steady 
policy  of  ejection: 

"Since,"  wrote  Bishop  Flemyng  to  Elstow,  "from  the  manifest  con 
jectures  and  assurances  of  our  eyes  we  have  learned  that  by  reason 
of  the  stay  of  lodgers,  especially  of  married  persons,  in  the  said 
monastery,  the  purity  of  religion  (and)  pleasantness  of  honest  con 
versation  and  character,  (which)  in  their  fragrance  in  our  judgment 
far  surpass  temporal  goods,  and  the  destruction  of  which  far  exceeds 
the  waste  of  temporal  wealth,  have  suffered  grave  shipwreck,  and 
may  suffer,  as  is  likely,  more  heavily  in  future,  we  ordain,  enjoin 
and  charge  you  who  are  now  abbess  and  the  other  several  persons 
who  shall  be  abbesses  in  the  said  monastery,  under  pain  of  depriva 
tion,  beside  the  other  penalties  written  beneath,  which  likewise,  if 
you  do  contrary  to  that  which  we  command,  it  is  our  will  that  you 
incur  thereupon,  that  henceforward  you  admit  or  allow  to  be  admitted 
or  received  to  lodge  or  stay  within  the  limits  of  the  cloister,  no  persons 
male  or  female,  how  honest  soever  they  be,  who  are  beyond  the 
twelfth  year  of  their  age,  nor  any  other  persons  soever,  and  married 
persons  in  special,  without  the  site  of  the  same  monastery,  unless 
you  have  procured  express  and  special  licence  in  the  cases  premised 
from  ourselves  or  from  our  successors,  who  for  the  time  being  shall 
be  bishops  of  Lincoln"5. 

Always  the  reason  given  is  that  these  boarders  are  a  disturbance 
to  conventual  discipline : 

"  Item  because  religion  has  been  much  disturbed  among  you  by  reason 
;  of  secular  women  lodging  in  your  house,"  wrote  Bishop  Gynewell  to 
j  Heynings  in  1351,  "we  forbid  on  pain  of  excommunication  that  after 
;  the  feast  of  St  Michael  next  to  come  any  secular  woman  be  allowed 
I  to  remain  in  your  Priory,  save  your  servants  who  be  necessary  for 
jyour  service"6. 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  39^.  2  Possibly  a  priest. 

3  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  p.  18.  4  Wilkins,  Concilia,  I,  p.  592. 

5  Visit,  of  Relig.  Houses  in  Dioc.  Lincoln,  i,  pp.  48-9.    Compare  Gray's 
njunction,  laying  more  stress  on  married  boarders.    Ib.  p.  53. 

6  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^. 


416  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

"Also  for  as  myche  as  we  fynde  detecte,"  Alnwick  wrote  nearly 
a  century  later  to  the  same  house,  "that  for  the  multitude  of  su- 
journauntes  wythe  [yow]  as  wele  wedded  as  other  ofte  tymes  the 
qwyere  and  the  rest  of  yowe  in  your  obseruances  is  troubled,  we 
charge  [yow]  pryoresse  vnder  payne  of  the  sentence  of  cursyng  that 
fro  this  day  forthe  ye  receyve  no  sodeiyourauntes  that  pas[se  a  man] 
x  yere,  a  woman  xiii  yere  of  age,  wytheowten  specyalle  leve  of  hus 
or  our  successours  bushops  of  Lincolne  asked  [and  had]  "1. 

But  the  attempt  to  clear  the  convents  of  secular  boarders  was 
entirely  unsuccessful.  The  bishops  had  two  powerful  forces 
against  them,  the  desire  of  the  impoverished  nuns  to  make 
money  and  the  desire  of  seculars  for  a  quiet  and  inexpensive, 
hostel;  and  the  nuns  continued  to  take  boarders,  in  spite  of  a 
series  of  prohibitions.  At  Romsey,  for  instance,  Peckham  forbids 
boarders,  c.  1284;  in  1311  Bishop  Woodlock  has  to  repeat  the 
prohibition  "because  of  the  continual  sojourn  of  seculars  we 
find  the  tranquillity  of  the  nuns  to  be  much  disturbed  and  scandals 
to  arise  in  your  monastery  " ;  in  1346  Edynton  orders  the  removal 
of  all  secular  persons  within  a  month;  in  1363  he  has  to  write 
again,  complaining  that  he  has  heard  by  public  report  that  they 
have  not  obeyed  his  former  letter  and  ordering  them  to  remove 
all  perhendinatrices  within  fifteen  days2.  At  Godstow  injunctions 
to  this  effect  are  made  in  succession  by  Gynewell  (1358),  Gray 
(1432-4)  and  Alnwick  (1445) 3;  at  Elstow  by  Gynewell  (1359), 
Bokyngham  (1387),  Flemyng  (1421-2)  and  Gray  (c.  1432)*. 
Moreover  the  bishops  themselves  were  sometimes  obliged  to  leave 
the  nuns  a  loophole  of  escape,  by  excepting  certain  women  from 
the  general  prohibition ;  thus  Alnwick  excepted  the  two  widows 

1  Visit.  Line,  IT,  p.  135.     For  other  injunctions  against  boarders  see 
Godstow,  Gracedieu,  Harrold,  Langley,  Nuncoton,  Stixwould,  ib.  pp.  115, 
124-5,  131,  177,  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  ff.  77^,  75^;  Whenvell,  Romsey  (1284), 
Sheppey  (1286),  Reg.  Epis.  Peckham,  n,  pp.  653-4,  HI,  p.  924;  Wilberfoss, 
Xunkeeling  and  Xunappleton  (1281-2),  Reg.  William  Wickwane,  pp.  112-3, 
140-1;   Polsloe  (1319),  Reg.  W.  de  Stapeldon,  p.  317;    Canonsleigh  (1391), 
Reg.  of  Brantyngham,  pt.  n,  p.  724;   Farwell  (1367),  Reg.  R.  de  Stretton, 
p.  119;  Polesworth  (1352,  1456),  V.C.H.  Warwick,  n,  p.  63.  These  are  only 
a  few  examples  taken  at  random ;  the  registers  of  the  Archbishops  of  York 
and  of  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln  alone  record  many  more.    (See  the  V.C.H. 
for  the  counties  in  these  dioceses,  passim.) 

2  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  p.  664;  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  102,  165. 

8  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  iood;  Line.   Visit,  i,  p.  67;  n, 

P-  "5- 

•  Gynewell,  f.  139^,  V.C.H.  Beds.  I,  p.  355;  Line.  Visit.  I,  pp.  48-9,  53. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  417 

Elizabeth  Dymmok  and  Margaret  Tylney  at  Stixwould1 ;  Bran- 
tyngham  excepted  "  the  noble  woman  Lady  Elizabeth  Courtenay, 
wife  of  the  noble  man  Sir  Hugh  de  Courtenay,  Knight"  at 
Canonsleigh  (1391) 2;  and  Archbishop  Rotherham  at  Nunappleton 
(1489)  excepted  children  "or  ellis  old  persones,  by  which  availe 
biliklyhood  may  growe  to  your  place"3.  Often  too  they  were 
persuaded  to  grant  licences  to  boarders,  at  the  prayer  of  in 
fluential  persons  who  must  not  be  offended4.  The  largest  loophole 
which  they  were  obliged  by  the  pressure  of  circumstances  to 
leave  open  was,  however,  the  permission  to  receive  small  children 
for  education  5. 

It  is  clear  from  the  evidence  of  visitation  documents  that 
nuns  often  took  boarders  of  their  own  free  will,  for  the  sake  of 
the  money  which  thus  accrued  to  their  impecunious  houses; 
certainly  no  episcopal  injunction  was  more  consistently  dis 
obeyed.  On  the  other  hand  great  ladies  often  thrust  themselves 
upon  a  convent,  which  dared  not  say  them  nay,  and  it  is  not  at  all 
unusual  to  find  the  nuns  complaining  of  the  disturbance  caused 
to  their  daily  life  by  visitors.  The  matter  was  complicated  by 
the  fact  that  the  exercise  of  hospitality  was  one  of  the  chief 
functions  of  monastic  houses  in  the  middle  ages,  and  was  so  far 
regarded  as  a  right  by  their  neighbours  that  remonstrances  were 
actually  made  if  the  quality  of  the  entertainment  offered  was 
not  considered  sufficiently  good.  At  Campsey  in  1532  one  of  the 
nuns  declared  that  "well-born  guests  (hospites generosae)  coming 
to  the  priory  complained  of  the  excessive  parsimony  of  the 
Prioress  "  6.  Complaints  by  the  nuns  of  the  spiritual  disturbance 
caused  by  this  influx  of  visitors,  show  that  the  right  was 
vigorously  exercised.  In  1364  the  Pope  granted  permission  to 
Margaret  de  Lancaster,  an  Augustinian  Canoness  of  the  same 
nunnery  of  Campsey,  to  transfer  herself  to  the  Order  of  St  Clare, 

1  "  That  ye  receyve  ne  holde  no  suiournauntes,  men,  women  ne  childerne, 
wyth  ynne  your  place,  and  thoe  that  nowe  are  there,  ye  voyde  thaym  wythe 

i  yn  a  quartere  of  a  yere  after  the  receyvyng  of  thise  our  lettres,  but  if  ye  here 
!  yn  hafe  specyalle  licence  of  hus  or  our  successours,  bysshops  of  Lincolne, 
!  except  our  wele  belufede  doghters,  dame  Elizabeth  Dymmok  and  dame 
|  Margaret  Tylney,  by  whose  abydyng,  as  we  truste,  no  greve  but  rathere 
!  avayle  is  procured  to  your  place."  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  75  d. 

2  Reg.  of  Brantyngham,  pt.  u,  p.  724. 

3  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  173. 

1        4  See  examples  above,  p.  410.  s  gee  ch   VI>  passim^ 

6  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  290. 

27 


4i8  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

she  having  already  caused  herself  to  be  enclosed  at  Campsey  in 
order  to  avoid  the  number  of  nobles  coming  to  the  house1;  and  in 
1375  he  commanded  the  Bishop  of  St  Andrews  to  make  order 
concerning  the  Prioress  and  nuns  of  the  Benedictine  convent  of 
North  Berwick,  "who  have  petitioned  for  perpetual  enclosure, 
they  being  much  molested  by  the  neighbourhood  and  visits  of 
nobles  and  other  secular  persons"2.  Even  enclosure  was  not 
always  a  protection  against  visitors;  for  the  Popes  constantly 
granted  indults  to  great  persons,  allowing  them  to  enter,  with 
a  retinue,  the  houses  of  monks  and  nuns  belonging  to  enclosed 
orders.  A  few  instances  may  be  taken  at  random.  John  of  Gaunt 
in  1371  received  an  indult  to  enter  any  monasteries  of  religious 
men  and  women  once  a  year,  with  thirty  persons  of  good  repute3; 
Joan  Princess  of  Wales  in  1372  was  given  permission  to  enter 
monasteries  of  enclosed  nuns  with  six  honest  and  aged  men  and 
fourteen  women  and  to  eat  and  drink,  but  not  to  pass  the  night 
therein  4 ;  Thomas  of  Gloucester  and  his  wife,  the  notorious  Eleanor 
de  Cobham,  had  an  indult  to  enter  monasteries  of  enclosed 
monks  and  nuns  six  times  a  year,  with  twenty  persons  of  either 
sex5.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  the  visitors  were  forbidden  to  eat, 
drink  or  spend  the  night  in  the  house6,  but  often  they  received 
special  permission  to  do  so;  thus  in  1408  Philippa,  Duchess  of 
York,  was  given  an  indult  allowing  her  to  take  five  or  six  matrons 
and  to  stay  in  monasteries  of  enclosed  nuns  for  three  days  and 
nights  at  a  time7  and  in  1422  Joan  Countess  of  Westmoreland 
received  one  to  enter  any  nunnery  with  eight  honest  women,  and 
to  stay  there  with  the  nuns,  eating,  drinking  and  talking  with 
them  and  spending  the  night8.  An  indult  granted  in  1398  to 
Margery  and  Grace  de  Tylney  "noblewomen,"  to  enter  " as  often 
as  they  please  with  six  honest  matrons,  the  monastery  of  enclosed 
nuns  of  the  Order  of  St  Clare,  Denney"9,  and  a  faculty  granted 
in  1371  to  "John,  Cardinal  of  Sancti  Quatuor  Coronati"10,  em 
powering  him  to  give  leave  to  a  hundred  women  of  high  birth 
of  France  and  England,  to  enter  nunneries  once  a  year,  accom- 

1  Cat.  of  Papal  Letters,  iv,  pp.  37-8.  8  Ib.  iv,  p.  212. 

3  Ib.  iv,  p.  167.  *  Ib.  iv,  p.  182.  6  Ib.  iv,  p.  394. 

6  For  example,  ib.  I,  pp.  522,  526;  iv,  p.  38;  vn,  pp.  70,  440,  617.  Some 
times,  too,  they  were  ordered  to  pay  their  own  expenses,  e.g.  ib.  vi,  p.  293. 

7  Ib.  vi,  p.  132.  8  Ib.  vn,  p.  220.  •  Ib.  v,  p.  91. 

10  I.e.  Jean  deDormans,  bishop  of  Beauvais  1360— 8,  cardinal  1368,  d.  1373. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  419 

panied  each  by  four  matrons1,  give  some  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  it  was  usual  for  guests  to  visit  even  houses  belonging  to 
enclosed  orders. 

Nuns  do  not  seem  to  have  concerned  themselves  with  political 
movements,  unlike  the  monks,  who  in  great  abbeys  were  some 
times  keen  politicians.  But  it  sometimes  happened  that  the 
strife  and  intrigue  and  tragedy  of  the  outside  world  entered  into 
quiet  convents,  through  this  custom  of  using  them  as  boarding 
houses.  Not  otherwise  can  we  account  for  a  curious  case  in  which 
the  nuns  of  Sewardsley  were  involved  in  1470,  when  a  certain 
Thomas  Wake  accused  Jacquetta,  Duchess  of  Bedford,  of  making 
an  image  of  lead  to  be  used  in  witchcraft  against  the  King  and 
Queen,  which  image  he  said  had  been  shown  to  various  persons 
and  exhibited  in  the  nunnery  of  Sewardsley2.  Moreover  echoes 
of  great  doings  came  to  nuns  when  the  hapless  wives  and  daughters 
of  the  King's  enemies  were  placed  in  their  custody,  a  kindlier 
fate  than  imprisonment  in  a  fortress  or  in  charge  of  some  loyal 
noble's  sharp-tongued  wife.  The  course  of  Edward  II's  troubled 
reign  may  be  traced  in  the  story  of  the  women  who  were  suc 
cessively  sent  as  prisoners,  or  (worse  still)  as  nuns,  to  various 
priories.  The  first  to  suffer  was  the  King's  niece  Margaret;  she 
had  been  married  by  him  to  Piers  Gaveston  and  had  seen  her 
husband  miserably  slain  at  Thomas  of  Lancaster's  behest ;  she 
was  married  again  to  Sir  Hugh  Audley  and  ten  years  later,  poor 
pawn  in  the  game  of  politics,  she  suffered  for  her  second  husband's 
share  in  Lancaster's  rebellion,  when  the  crime  of  Blacklow  Hill 
was  expiated  on  the  hill  of  Pontefract. 

"Margarete  countesse  de  Cornewaille,"  says  the  chronicle  of  Sem- 
pringham,  "  La  femme  Sire  Hugh  Daudelee,  e  la  niece  le  roi,  fu  ordinee 
a  demorer  en  guarde  a  Sempringham  entre  les  nonaignes,  a  quel  lieu 
ele  vint  le  xvi  jour  de  Mai  (1322)  e  la  demorra"3. 

1  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  iv,  p.  170. 

2  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  126.  Sewardsley  was  near  Grafton  Regis,  where 
Jacquetta,  then  widow  of  Richard  Wydville,  earl  Rivers,  lived.  This  recalls 
the  more  famous  case  of  Eleanor  de  Cobham,  Duchess  of  Gloucester.    It  is 
worth  noticing  also  that  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  the  famous  Elizabeth 
Barton,  called  "the  Holy  Maid  of  Kent,"  found  refuge  for  a  part  of  her  short 
career  in  the  nunnery  of  St  Sepulchre's,  Canterbury.    Archbishop  Warham 
secured  her  admission  there  in  1526,  and  she  became  a  nun  and  remained 
there  for  seven  years,  until  the  fame  of  her  outspoken  condemnations  of 
the  royal  divorce  finally  brought  about  her  execution  in  1533.  See  Gasquet, 
Hen.  VIII  and  the  English  Monasteries  (Pop.  Edit.  1899),  ch.  in,  passim. 

3  Le  Liver  e  de  Engletere  (Rolls  Series),  p.  344. 

27—2 


420  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

In  the  same  year  the  Abbess  of  Barking  was  ordered  "to  cause 
the  body  of  Elizabeth  de  Burgo,  late  wife  of  Roger  Damory, 
within  her  abbey,  to  be  kept  safely  and  not  to  permit  her  to  go 
outside  the  abbey  gates  in  any  wise  until  further  orders"1.  In 
1324  another  rebel,  Roger  Mortimer,  broke  his  prison  in  the 
Tower  and  escaped  across  the  sea  to  France.  But  three  poor 
children,  his  daughters,  could  not  escape,  and  on  April  yth  of 
the  same  year  the  sheriff  of  Southampton  received  an  order  to 
cause  Margaret,  daughter  of  Roger  Mortimer  of  Wygmore,  to 
be  conducted  to  the  Priory  of  Shouldham,  Joan,  his  second 
daughter,  to  the  Priory  of  Sempringham,  and  Isabella,  his  third 
daughter,  to  the  Priory  of  Chicksand,  "to  be  delivered  to  the 
priors  of  those  places  (all  were  Gilbertine  houses)  to  stay  amongst 
the  nuns  in  the  same  priories."  The  Prior  of  Shouldham  had  15^. 
weekly  for  Margaret's  expenses  and  a  mark  yearly  for  her  robe, 
and  each  of  the  other  two  little  girls  received  I2d.  weekly  for 
expenses  and  a  mark  for  her  robe2.  The  she-wolf  of  France  bided 
her  time,  and  when  the  game  was  hers  she  was  no  less  swift 
to  avenge  her  wrongs ;  to  Sempringham  (where  her  lover's  daughter 
had  gone  two  years  before)  now  went  the  two  daughters  of  the 
elder  Hugh  Despenscr,  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  a  father  and 
brother  done  most  dreadfully  to  death3.  The  perennial  wars  with 
Scotland  also  found  their  echo  in  the  nunneries.  In  1306  the 
Abbess  of  Barking  was  ordered  "to  deliver  Elizabeth,  sister  of 
William  Olifard  [?  Olifaunt]  Knight,  who  is  in  their  custody  by 
the  King's  permission  to  Henry  de  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  the 
King  having  granted  her  to  the  said  Henry  "4;  she  was  doubtless 
a  relative  of  that  "  Hugh  Olyfard,  a  Scot,  the  King's  enemy  and 
rebel,"  who  together  with  one  "William  Sauvage  the  King's 
approver"  had  broken  his  prison  at  Colchester  some  three  years 
before,  and  fled  into  sanctuary  in  the  convent  church5.  Barking 
was  a  favourite  prison,  doubtless  on  account  of  its  situation,  and 
in  1314  the  sheriffs  of  London  were  ordered  "  to  receive  Elizabeth, 
wife  of  Robert  de  Brus,  from  the  Abbess  of  Berkyngg,  with 
whom  she  had  been  staying  by  the  King's  order  and  to  take  her 

1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1318-23),  p.  428. 

2  Ib.  (1323-7),  pp.  88-9;  cf.  Le  Livere  de  Engletere,  p.  350. 

3  V.C.H.  Lines.  11,  p.  184.  *  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1307-13),  p.  114. 
6  Ib.  (1302-7),  p.  419- 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  421 

under  safe  custody  to  Rochester  and  there  deliver  her  to  Henry 
de  Cobham,  constable  of  the  castle"1. 

The  mention  of  the  Scot  Hugh  Olyfard,  who  took  sanctuary 
in  the  church  of  Barking,  recalls  another  reason  for  which  the 
world  might  break  into  the  cloister.  The  terrified  fugitive  from 
justice  would  take  sanctuary  in  a  convent  church  if  it  lay  nearest 
to  him,  and  the  peace  of  chanting  nuns  would  be  rudely  broken, 
when  that  unkempt  and  desperate  figure  sprang  up  the  choir 
between  them  and  flung  itself  upon  their  altar  steps.  The  hand 
of  a  master  has  drawn  for  us  what  the  trembling  novices  saw, 
peeping  from  their  stalls: 

...the  breathless  fellow  at  the  altar  foot, 
Fresh  from  his  murder,  safe  and  sitting  there 
With  the  little  children  round  him  in  a  row 
Of  admiration,  half  for  his  beard  and  half 
For  that  white  anger  of  his  victim's  son 
Shaking  a  fist  at  him  with  one  fierce  arm, 
Signing  himself  with  the  other  because  of  Christ 
(Whose  sad  face  on  the  cross  sees  only  this 
After  the  passion  of  a  thousand  years), 
Till  some  poor  girl,  her  apron  o'er  her  head 
Which  the  intense  eyes  looked  through,  came  at  eve 
On  tiptoe,  said  a  word,  dropped  in  a  loaf, 
Her  pair  of  ear-rings  and  a  bunch  of  flowers 
The  brute  took  growling,  prayed  and  then  was  gone 2. 
1  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls  (1313-18),  p.  43.    Sometimes  the  King  sent  his 
friends  as  well  as  his  enemies  to  board  in  a  convent  and  occasionally  he 
I     endeavoured  to  do  so  without  paying  for  them.    In  1339  he  sent  first  to 
Wilton  and  then  to  Shaftesbury  "Sibyl  Libaud  of  Scotland  who  lately 
came  to  England  to  the  king's  faith  and  besought  that  he  would  provide 
for  her  maintenance,  requesting  them  to  provide  her  and  her  son  Thomas, 
i     who  is  of  tender  age,  with  maintenance  from  that  house,  in  food  and  clothing, 
i     until  Whitsuntide  next,  knowing  that  what  they  do  at  this  request  shall 
|     not  be  to  the  prejudice  of  their  house  in  the  future."  Cal.  of  Close  Rolls 
(I339-4I).  PP-  261,  335-  John  of  Gaunt  made  use  of  the  convent  of  Nuneaton 
to  provide  a  home  for  five  Spanish  ladies,  who  had  doubtless  come  to  England 
'    with  his  duchess  Constance  of  Castile;  early  in  1373  he  wrote  to  his  receiver 

•  at  Leicester  bidding  him  pay  the  prioress  for  their  expenses  135.  ^d.  each 
:    week;  but  evidently  they  found  the  convent  too  dull  for  their  tastes,  for 

•  in  August  one  of  them  was   "demourrant  a  Leycestre  ovesque   Johan 
I    Elmeshalle,"  and  in  December  the  Duke  wrote  to  his  receiver  again  to 
j    say  that  he   had   heard   "que  noz   damoisels  d'Espaigne  demurrantz  a 
I    Nouneton  ne  voullont  pas  illoeques  pluis  longement  demurrer";  so  it  was 
S    "Farewell  and  adieu  to  you,  Spanish  ladies"  at  Nuneaton.    It  is  probable 

that  these  "damoisels"  were  quite  young  girls,  and  had  been  placed  at 
:    the  convent  to  learn  "nortelry."  John  of  Gaunt' s  Reg.  (R.  Hist.  Soc.),  n, 
pp.  128,  231,  276-7.   See,  for  more  about  these  ladies,  pp.  320-1,  328,  338. 
2  Browning,  Fra  Lippo  Lippi. 


422  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

But  sometimes  more  than  a  momentary  disturbance  was  occa 
sioned  to  the  nunnery;  in  1416,  for  instance,  Edith  Wilton, 
Prioress  of  Carrow,  was  attached,  together  with  one  of  her  nuns, 
on  the  charge  of  harbouring  in  sanctuary  the  murderers  of 
William  Koc  of  Trowse,  at  the  appeal  of  his  widow  Margaret. 
She  was  arrested,  imprisoned  and  called  to  answer  at  West 
minster,  but  after  the  court  had  adjourned  many  times  she  was 
acquitted1.  An  abbess  of  Wherwell  was  involved  in  a  lawsuit 
over  a  case  of  sanctuary  for  somewhat  different  reasons;  she 
claimed  the  right  of  seizing  chattels  of  fugitives  in  the  hundred 
of  Mestowe2,  a  right  which  was  disputed  by  the  crown  officials. 
One  Henry  Harold  of  Wherwell  had  killed  his  wife  Isabel  and 
fled  to  the  church  of  Wherwell  and  the  Abbess  had  promptly 
seized  his  chattels  to  the  value  of  over  £35,  by  the  hands  of  her 
reeve3. 

These  cases  of  violence  will  lead  us  to  the  consideration  of 
breaches  of  enclosure  which  were  in  no  sense  the  fault  of  the 
unhappy  nuns.  Visits  from  their  peaceful  friends  they  welcomed; 
the  sojourn  of  great  folk  they  bore;  but  they  would  fain  have 
passed  their  days  undisturbed  by  war's  alarms  and  by  the  assault 
and  battery  of  private  feuds.  But  it  was  not  to  be.  Alarums  and 
excursions  sometimes  shattered  their  peace  and,  especially  in  the 
Northern  counties,  violent  attacks  at  the  hands  of  robbers,  lawless 
neighbours,  or  enemies  of  the  realm  were  only  too  common. 

1  V.C.H.  Norfolk,  n,  p.  352.  This  case  is  particularly  interesting,  because 
it  would  seem  to  show  that  "benefit  of  clergy"  was  not  claimed  by  nuns. 
On  this  point  see  Pollock  and  Maitland,  Hist,  of  Engl.  Law,  2nd  ed.  i,  p.  445. 
"There  seems  no  reason  for  doubting  that  nuns  were  entitled  to  the  same 
privilege,  though,  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  we  have  in  our  period,  found  no 
cases  which  prove  this."  Maitland  cites  Hale,  Pleas  of  the  Crown,  II,  p.  328, 
as  saying:  "Nuns  had  the  exemption  from  temporal  jurisdiction  but  the 
privilege  of  clergy  was  never  granted  them  by  our  law";  but  elsewhere 
(Pleas  of  the  Crown,  n,  p.  371):  "Anciently  nuns  professed  were  admitted 
to  privilege  of  clergy";  he  cites  a  case  from  1348  (Fitzherbert's  Abridgment 
Corone,  pi.  461)  which  speaks  of  a  woman,  not  expressly  called  a  nun, 
being  claimed  by  and  delivered  to  the  ordinary.    Stephen,  Hist,  of  Crim. 
Law  of  England,  n,  p.  461,  thinks  that  "all  women  (except,  till  the  Reforma 
tion,  professed  nuns)  were  for  centuries  excluded  from  benefit  of  clergy, 
because  they  were  incapable  of  being  ordained." 

2  Mr   Hamilton   Thompson   thinks  that   "Mestowe"   is  probably  the 
hundred  of  Meon-Stoke  (Hants.),  in  a  distant  part  of  the  county;  it  is 
difficult  to  see  why  the  Abbess  made  a  general  claim  there  and  in  any  case 
Wherwell,  where  Henry  Harold  lived,  is  in  Wherwell  Hundred. 

3  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  135. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  423 

Disorder  was  general  and  grew  worse  in  the  course  of  the  four 
teenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  The  nunnery  of  Markyate  was 
once  assaulted  in  the  night  by  fifty  robbers  and  the  nuns  pillaged 
and  robbed  of  everything  valuable1,  and  in  1408  the  Bishop  of 
Ely  gave  an  indulgence  for  the  relief  of  the  nuns  of  Rowney, 
"whose  chalices,  books,  ornaments  and  other  goods  have  been 
stolen  by  evil  men,  so  that  they  have  not  the  wherewithal  to 
perform  the  divine  office"2. 

Neighbourly  disagreements  sometimes  developed  into  petty 
warfare,  as  the  Paston  Letters  show,  and  an  almost  exact  parallel 
to  the  dispute  between  John  Paston  and  Lord  Molynes  over  the 
manor  of  Gresham  is  to  be  found  in  a  complaint  made  in  1383 
by  the  Prioress  of  Brodholme,  who  asserted  that  a  gang  of  men 
(whom  she  named) 

had  broken  her  close  at  Brodholme  felled  her  trees  and  underwood, 
dug  in  her  soil,  carried  off  earth,  trees,  underwood  and  other  goods, 
depastured  her  corn  and  grass,  assaulted  her  servants  and  besieged 
her  and  her  nuns  in  the  Priory  and  threatened  them  with  death"1 

Such  instances  might  be  multiplied4.  Sometimes  the  presence  of 
secular  boarders  led  to  unpleasant  experiences  for  the  nuns.  The 
Lincoln  registers  record  two  such  cases,  which  incidentally  furnish 
an  additional  reason  why  the  reception  of  boarders  was  frowned 
upon  by  the  Church.  In  1304  certain 

"satellites  of  Satan  whose  names  we  know  not"  (Bishop  Dalderby 
informs  his  official),  "lately  came  in  great  numbers  to  the  monastery 
of  the  nuns  of  Goring,  where  they  boldly  laid  violent  hands  upon 
Henry,  chaplain  of  the  parish  church  and  brother  John  le  Walleys, 
lay  brother  of  the  same  place  (from  whom  they  drew  blood)  and  upon 
certain  nuns  of  the  house  who  struggled  to  guard  their  monastery, 
and  then  they  entered  and  rode  their  horses  up  to  the  high  altar  of 
the  church,  polluting  that  holy  place  shamefully  with  the  footprints 
and  dung  of  their  horses." 

Their  object  was  apparently  to  seize  a  certain  Isabella  de  Kent, 
a  married  woman  then  dwelling  in  the  nunnery,  and  they  pursued 
her  to  the  belfry,  where  she  had  taken  refuge  and  dragged  her 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  369. 

2  Gibbons,  Ely  Epis.  Records,  p.  406. 

3  Cal.  of  Pat.  Rolls  (1381-5),  P-  355- 

4  On  the  other  hand  for  a  case  of  spoliation  in  which  Juliana  \  ong,  a 
nun,  was  involved  as  one  of  the  aggressors  see  Cal.  of  Pap.  Petit,  i,  pp. 
333-4- 


424  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

away  with  them1.  An  even  worse  disturbance  took  place  at 
Rothwell  in  1421-2.  A  gang  of  ruffians  broke  open  the  cloister 
and  doors,  seized  one  Joan  (a  boarder)  and  carried  her  away 
to  a  lonely  house,  where  their  leader  forcibly  violated  her,  with 
every  circumstance  of  brutality.  She  escaped  back  to  the  priory, 
whereupon  the  leader 

entering  the  same  priory  a  second  time,  like  a  tyrant  and  pirate 
with  a  far  greater  multitude  of  like  henchmen  and  people  untamed 
and  savage  in  his  company,  with  naked  swords  and  other  sorts  of 
divers  weapons  of  offence,  fell... upon  the  same  woman,  who  was  then 
in  the  presence  of  the  prioress  and  the  nuns  in  the  hall  of  the  said 
priory  and... daringly  laid  wicked,  sacrilegious  and  violent  hands, 
notwithstanding  the  worship  both  of  their  persons  and  of  the  place, 
upon  the  prioress  and  nuns  of  the  said  place,  honourable  members 
of  the  church  and  persons  hallowed  to  God  accordingly — who  en 
deavoured  gently  to  appease  their  baseness  and  savagery,  so  far  as 
their  sex  as  women  allowed— and  cudgelled  them  with  cruel  strokes, 
threw  them  down  on  the  ground  and,  trampling  on  them  with  their 
feet,  mercilessly  kicked  them  and  violently  dragged  off  their  garments 
of  their  habits  over  their  heads,  and  even  as  robbers,  having  caught 
their  prey,  carried  off  the  said  woman,  dragging  her  with  them  out 
of  the  priory2. 

Even  more  significant  is  the  licence  granted  to  the  Abbess 
and  Convent  of  Tarrant  Keynes  in  1343  to  cut  down  two  hundred 
acres  of  under-wood  in  their  demesne  land,  "on  their  petition 
setting  forth  that  their  house  and  possessions  in  the  county  of 
Dorset  had  been  burned  and  destroyed  by  an  invasion  of  the 
king's  enemies  in  those  parts"3;  or  the  permission  given  to  the 
Abbess  of  Shaftesbury  in  1367  to  crenellate  her  Abbey,  presum 
ably  for  purposes  of  defence4.  The  south  coast  was  a  constant 

1  Line.  Reg.  Dalderby,  f.  16. 

2  Line.  Visit,  i,  pp.  108-9.    Compare  a  case  in  1375  at  Romsey  when 
certain  persons  broke  into  the  houses  of  the  Abbess  within  the  Abbey  and 
carried  off  Joan,  late  the  wife  of  Peter  Brugge,  and  her  property,  consisting 
of  her  gold  rings,  gold  brooches  or  bracelets  with  precious  stones,  linen  and 
woollen  clothes  and  furs;  her  chaplain  aiding.   Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  166 

8  Col.  of  Pat.  Rolls  (1340-3),  p.  127. 

4  -ft>-(  1 367-70),  p.  10.  The  Abbess  was  the  worldly  Joan  Formage.  Licences 
for  crenellating  monasteries  are  rather  unusual ;  but  cathedral  closes  were  very 
generally  crenellated  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  and  beginning  of  the  four 
teenth  centuries,  e.g.  Lincoln,  York,  Lichfield,  Wells  and  Exeter.  There  is  a 
good  example  of  a  crenellated  monastery  at  the  Benedictine  Priory  of  Ewenny 
near  Bridgend,  Glamorgan,  a  cell  of  Gloucester.  This  is  near  the  south  coast 
of  Wales,  where,  as  along  the  Welsh  border,  towers  either  crenellated  or 
with  certain  defensive  features  are  common.  Cf.  the  numerous  fortified 
churches  in  the  south  of  France,  e.g.  Albi  Cathedral  (Tarn)  and  Les  Saintes- 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  425 

prey  to  pirates,  and  it  was  still  within  the  memory  of  man  that, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  French  war 

the  Normayns  Pycardes  and  Spanyerdes  entred  into  the  toune  (of 
Southampton)  and  robbed  and  pilled  the  toune,  and  slewe  dyvers 
and  defowled  maydens,  and  enforced  wyves,  and  charged  their  vessels 
with  the  pyllage  and  so  entred  agayne  into  their  shyppes1. 

The  sanctity  which  attached  to  the  person  of  a  nun  was  apt  to  be 
forgotten  in  the  brutal  warfare  of  the  day  and  the  Abbess  might 
well  fear  for  her  flock.  The  English  nunneries  did  not,  indeed, 
experience  anything  to  compare  with  the  unimaginable  sufferings 
endured  by  French  convents  during  the  hundred  years'  war2. 
But  they  were  by  no  means  immune  from  the  effects  of  civil 
war;  Wilton,  Wherwell  and  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  were  all 
burned  during  the  struggle  between  Stephen  and  Matilda3,  and 
during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  the  nuns  of  Delapre  were  un 
willing  witnesses  of  the  Battle  of  Northampton  (1460),  which 
was  held  "in  the  medowys  beside  the  Nonry";  after  the  fight 
was  over  the  King,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop 
of  London  rested  at  the  nunnery  and  many  of  the  slain  were 
buried  in  its  churchyard4. 

The  most  striking  example  of  the  effect  of  warfare  upon 
monastic  houses  in  England  is,  however,  provided  by  the  history 
of  the  northern  monasteries,  which  were  throughout  their  history 
(but  especially  during  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century) 
in  danger  from  the  inroads  of  the  Scots.  So  great  was  the  destruc 
tion  wrought  in  1318  that  it  was  necessary  to  make  a  new  assess 
ment  of  church  property  for  purposes  of  taxation,  in  part  of  the 
province  of  York 5.  Nor  was  the  trouble  purely  material,  though 

j  Maries  (Bouches-du-Rhone),  the  latter  close  to  the  shore  of  the  Mediter- 
!  ranean.    (For  this  note  I  am  indebted  to  Mr  A.  Hamilton  Thompson.) 

1  Froissart,  tr.  Berners,  I,  ch.  xxxviii.   For  the  sufferings  of  other  monas- 
j  teries  on  the  south  coast  See  P.  G.  Mode,  The  Influence  of  the  Black  Death 

on  the  English  Monasteries,  p.  31. 

2  See  Denifle,  La  Desolation  des  Eglises... pendant  la  Guerre  de  Cent  Ans 
:  (1899).    In  t.  i  is  a  long  list  of  monasteries  which  had  been  ruined  during 
'  the  fourteenth  century.  The  following  (no.  176)  is  typical:  "Monasterium 
!  monialium  B.  Mariae  de  Bricourt  O.S.B.  Trecen.  dioec.,  causantibus  a  40 
!  annis  guerris  desolatum  et  destructum,  libris  aliisque  destitutum  et  ab 
I  omnibus  monialibus  derelictum  1442"  (pp.  55-6). 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  pp.  316,  452,  636. 

4  Serjeantson,  DelaprS  Abbey  (1909),  pp.  21-3. 

I  5  Graham,  Essay  on  Engl.  Monasteries  (Hist.  Ass.  1913),  p.  29.  The 
text  of  the  assessment  is  given  in  the  notes  to  the  Taxatio  Ecclesiastica  Pape 
Nicholai  (Record  Com.  1802). 


426  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

the  poverty  of  the  nunneries  (in  particular)  was  sometimes  abject 
and  the  harrying  of  their  lands  must  have  made  prosperity  at 
all  times  a  vain  hope.  The  moral  results  of  such  disorder  were 
even  more  serious.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  maintain  an 
ordinary  communal  life,  when  at  any  moment  it  might  be  neces 
sary  to  disperse  the  nuns  and  quarter  them  in  other  houses  out 
of  the  line  of  the  marauders'  march.  Even  in  houses  which  were 
never  actually  attacked,  the  prevalent  unrest,  the  lawlessness 
which  is  naturally  engendered  by  border  warfare,  must  have 
been  disorganising  and  demoralising.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
why  cases  of  immorality  and  grave  disorder  are  more  prevalent 
in  the  convents  of  the  north  of  England  than  in  those  of  any 
other  district. 

In  1296  the  chronicler  of  Lanercost  describes  thus  the  first 
great  raid  of  the  Scots : 

In  this  raid  they  surpassed  in  cruelty  all  the  fury  of  the  heathen; 
when  they  could  not  catch  the  strong  and  young  people,  who  took 
flight,  they  imbrued  their  arras,  hitherto  unfleshed,  with  the  blood 
of  infirm  people,  old  women,  women  in  childbed  and  even  children 
two  or  three  years  old,  proving  themselves  apt  scholars  in  atrocity, 
insomuch  that  they  raised  little  span-long  children  pierced  on  pikes, 
to  expire  thus  and  fly  away  to  the  heavens.  They  burnt  consecrated 
churches ;  both  in  the  sanctuary  and  elsewhere  they  violated  women 
dedicated  to  God  [i.e.  nuns]  as  well  as  married  women  and  girls, 
either  murdering  them  or  robbing  them,  after  gratifying  their  lust. 
Also  they  herded  together  a  crowd  of  little  scholars  in  the  schools 
of  Hexham  and  having  blocked  the  doors  set  fire  to  that  pile  [so]  fair 
[in  the  sight  of  God].  Three  monasteries  of  holy  collegiates  were 
destroyed  by  them,  Lanercost,  of  the  Canons  Regular;  and  Hexham 
of  the  same  order  and  [that]  of  the  nuns  of  Lambley;  of  all  of  these 
the  devastation  can  by  no  means  be  attributed  to  the  valour  of 
warriors,  but  to  the  dastardly  conduct  of  thieves,  who  attacked  a 
weaker  community,  where  they  would  not  be  likely  to  meet  with 
any  resistance1. 

Some  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  indignation  of  a  canon 
Lanercost,  whose  own  house  had  been  burnt;  but  even  so  it 
plain  that  the  religious  houses  must  have  endured  terrible  thin0- 
at  the  hands  of  the  Scots;  and  the  peril  of  the  nuns  was  to  honour 
as  well  as  to  life  and  home. 

In  several  cases  record  of  the  actual  dispersal  of  the  nuns  has 

1  The  Chronicle  of  Lanercost,  translated  by  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell  [1913], 
p.  136. 


;u    <i 

vith 

5 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  427 

been  preserved,  though  such  dispersal  lasted  only  for  a  short 
time.  The  priory  of  Holystone,  which  lay  right  upon  the  border, 
was  in  a  particularly  exposed  position  and  in  1313,  when  Bruce 
was  devastating  the  northern  counties,  a  letter  from  the  Bishop 
of  Durham  bears  vivid  testimony  to  its  miserable  plight : 

"The  house  of  the  said  nuns,"  he  says,  "situated  in  the  March  of 
England  and  Scotland,  by  reason  of  the  hostile  incursions  which  daily 
and  continually  increase  in  the  March,  is  frequently  despoiled  of  its 
goods  and  the  nuns  themselves  are  often  attacked  by  the  marauders, 
harmed  and  pursued  and,  put  to  flight  and  driven  from  their  home, 
are  constrained  miserably  to  experience  bitter  suffering.  Wherefore 
we  make  these  things  known  to  you,  that  you  may  compassionate 
their  poverty,  which  is  increased  by  the  memory  of  happier  things, 
and  that  your  pity  and  benevolence  may  be  shown  them,  lest  (to 
the  disgrace  of  their  estate)  they  be  forced  publicly  to  beg"1. 

The  expiration  of  the  truce  with  Scotland  in  1322  was  followed 
by  another  raid  and  by  Edward  ITs  unsuccessful  campaign,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  Scots  overran  Yorkshire  and  very  nearly 
captured  the  King  at  Byland  Abbey.  The  canons  of  Bridlington 
(whither  he  fled)  departed  with  all  their  valuables  to  Lincoln 
shire,  sending  an  envoy  to  purchase  immunity  from  Bruce  at 
Melton.  The  poor  nuns  of  Moxby  and  Rosedale  did  not  escape 
so  easily.  In  November  Archbishop  Melton  wrote  to  the  Prioress 
of  Nunmonkton,  ordering  her  to  receive  two  nuns  of  the  house 
of  Moxby,  which  had  been  "destroyed  and  devastated  by  the 
Scots  " ;  the  Prioress  tried  to  excuse  herself,  on  the  plea  that  it 
was  unseemly  for  Austin  nuns  to  be  received  in  a  Benedictine 
convent  and  that  her  house  barely  sufficed  to  support  herself 
and  her  sisters;  but  the  Archbishop  sternly  replied  that  he  was 
I  sending  the  nuns  for  a  time  only  and  that  it  behoved  the  convent 
|  of  Nunmonkton  to  receive  them,  in  order  to  avoid  their  being 
;  dispersed  in  the  world.  He  added  that  he  had  placed  a  like 
burden  upon  other  nunneries  in  his  diocese  which  had  escaped 
jthe  horrors  of  the  invasion,  and  a  note  in  his  Register  shows 
j  that  two  nuns  were  sent  to  Nunappleton,  two  to  Nunkeeling  and 
!  two  to  Hampole,  while  the  Prioress  went  to  Swine.  Three  days 
'later  he  boarded  out  the  nuns  of  Rosedale,  who  had  received 

1  Reg.  Palat,  Dunelm.  I,  p.  353.  In  1291  the  number  of  nuns  was  twenty- 
seven,  together  with  four  lay  brothers,  three  chaplains  and  a  master. 
Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  197. 


428  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

similar  injuries  at  the  hands  of  the  Scots,  sending  one  to  each 
of  the  houses  of  Nunburnholme,  Sinningthwaite,  Thicket,  Wyke- 
ham  and  Hampole1.  The  dispersal  of  the  nuns  of  Rosedale  did 
not  extend  beyond  six  months  and  the  nuns  of  Moxby  probably 
returned  about  the  same  time,  for  they  were  back  in  their 
own  house  in  1325,  when  their  Prioress  resigned  "super  lapsu 
carnis"2.  The  moral  record  of  both  houses — and  indeed  of  the 
majority  of  Yorkshire  nunneries— is  bad  at  this  period,  and  at 
least  part  of  the  responsibility  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
Scottish  invasions. 

Yorkshire  also  suffered  in  the  invasion  which  ended  with  the 
Battle  of  Neville's  Cross  (1346),  when  the  Scots 

went  forth  brenning  and  destroying  the  county  of  Northumberland; 
and  their  currours  ran  to  York  and  brent  as  much  as  was  without 
the  walls  and  returned  again  to  their  host  within  a  days  journey, 
of  Newcastle-upon-Tyne3. 

One  of  these  marauding  bands  ("the  most  outrageoust  people 
in  all  the  country,"  Froissart  calls  them)  came  galloping  into 
that  lonely  and  beautiful  dale,  where  the  nunnery  of  Ellerton 
stands  beside  the  brown  torrent  of  Swale.  They  entered  the 
house  and  carried  away  seven  charters  and  writings,  so  the  nuns 
complained  later4;  what  else  they  did  in  that  quiet  spot  and 
whether  the  nunnery  of  Marrick  on  the  hill  above  escaped  them 
history  will  not  tell  us.  Such  disasters  were  common  enough  in 
the  north.  The  records  of  Armathwaite  in  Cumberland  show  that 
an  unlucky  proximity  to  the  border  might  hamper  a  convent 

1  Hist.  Letters  from  the  Northern  Reg.  ed.  Raine,  pp.  319-23. 

3   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  175,  240. 

3  Froissart,  tr.  Berners,  i,  ch.  cxxxvii.  The  English  army  on  its  way  to 
Neville's  Cross  was  also  a  sore  burden  to  the  religious  houses  of  the  neighbour 
hood.  See  the  very  interesting  document  about  Egglestone  Abbey  quoted  • 
from  Archbishop  Zouche's  Register  (under  the  date  1348)  by  A.  Hamilton 
Thompson,  The  Pestilences  of  the  Fourteenth  Century  in  the  Diocese  of  York 
(Archaeol.  Journ.  vol.  LXXI,  New  Series,  vol.  xxi,  p.  120,  n.  4).  It  is  probable 
that  this  campaign,  together  with  the  Black  Death,  which  followed  hard  upon 
it,  brought  about  the  final  ruin  of  the  little  nunnery  of  St  Stephen's  near 
Northallerton,  which  is  not  heard  of  after  1350.  See  ib.  p  121  n  12  and 
V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  116. 

*  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  160,  cp.  the  case  of  Armathwaite  below.  The  muni 
ments  of  Carrow  were  burnt  during  the  Peasants'  Revolt  of  1381 .  Hoare,  C.  M., 
Hist,  of  an  East  Anglian  Soke  (Bedford  1918),  p.  112.  "The  destruction  of 
charters,  privileges  and  muniments  was  a  severe  loss;  evidence  for  the  holding 
of  each  strip  of  land  and  in  support  of  every  custom  was  of  the  utmost  im 
portance."  Graham,  St  Gilb.  of  Semp.  and  the  Gilbertines,  p.  138. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  429 

throughout  the  whole  of  its  career.  In  1318  pasture  for  cattle 
in  Inglewood  Forest  was  granted  to  "the  poor  nuns  of  Arma- 
thwaite,  who  had  been  totally  ruined  by  the  Scots  " ;  in  1331  they 
were  excused  a  payment  of  ten  pounds  for  the  same  reason ;  and 
in  1474  they  were  obliged  to  apply  for  a  ratification  of  their 
possessions,  because  their  house  had  been  almost  destroyed  by 
the  Scots,  who  had  not  only  spoiled  them  of  their  church  orna 
ments,  books,  relics  and  jewels,  but  also  of  all  their  charters 
and  evidences1.  The  obscure  little  nunnery  of  Lambley  on  Tyne 
suffered  in  the  same  way,  for  in  the  Receiver's  Account  made  at 
its  dissolution  in  1536  there  occurs,  under  the  heading  Decasus 
Redditus,  the  entry  of  a  tenement  in  Haltwhistle  called  Redepath, 
"eo  quod  comburatum  (sic)  per  Scottos"2. 

But  the  most  horrible  story  of  outrage  suffered  by  a  nunnery 
in  time  of  war  is  that  strange  tale  reported  by  the  anonymous 
monk  of  St  Albans,  who  wrote  a  Chronicon  Angliae  between 
the  years  1376  and  I3793.  The  suffering  of  French  nunneries  at 
the  hand  of  Free  Companies  and  English  was  not  more  terrible 
than  the  fate  of  these  English  nuns  at  the  hand  of  their  own 
countrymen.  In  1379  an  armY  was  mustered  in  England  to 
replace  Duke  John  of  Brittany  upon  his  throne,  which  had  been 
annexed  by  Charles  V  of  France.  The  main  army,  under  John 
IFitzAlan  of  Arundel,  Marshal  of  England  (the  same  who  had 
"two  and  fiftie  new  sutes  of  apparell  of  cloth  of  gold  or  tissue") 
was  delayed  in  England  for  some  months,  first  by  a  difficulty 
in  raising  the  money  to  equip  it,  and  then  by  contrary  winds, 
and  it  was  December  before  Sir  John  was  ready  to  sail.  Com 
plaints  came  from  all  hands  of  the  depredations  committed  along 
the  coast  by  the  lawless  soldiers,  but  their  other  misdeeds  were 
insignificant  compared  with  the  crime  recorded  in  the  St  Albans 
Chronicle  : 

"When,"  says  the  chronicler,  "Sir  John  Arundel  and  his  companions 
were  come  to  the  sea  and  no  breeze  favoured  them,  he  ordered  that 
a  more  favourable  wind  should  be  awaited.  Meanwhile  he  proceeded 
to  a  certain  monastery  of  virgin  nuns,  which  stood  not  far  away, 
and  entering  with  his  men,  he  asked  the  mother  of  the  monastery 

1  V.C.H.  Cumberland,  u,  p.  190,  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  pp.  271-2. 

2  Aug.  Off.  Misc. Books,  281,  f.  n  [P.R.O.].  For  the  sufferings  of  Northern 
monasteries  from  the  Scots  1330-50  see  references  collected  from  the  patent 
rolls  in  P.  G.  Mode,  op.  cit.  p.  32. 

3  Chronicon  Angliae,  ed.  E.  M.  Thompson  (R.S.  1874),  pp.  247-53. 


430  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

to  permit  his  fellow  soldiers,  engaged  on  the  king's  service,  to  lodge 
there.  But  the  nun,  considering  in  her  mind  that  danger  might  arise 
from  such  guests  and  that  his  request  was  absolutely  contrary  to 
religion,  pointed  out  to  him  with  due  reverence  and  humility  that 
many  of  his  followers  were  young  and  might  easily  be  moved  to 
commit  an  inexpiable  crime,  which  would  not  only  bring  ill  fame  upon 
the  place  but  would  also  be  a  danger  and  an  evil  to  himself  and  his 
men,  who  should  shun  not  only  an  offence  against  chastity  but  all 
manner  of  crimes,  if  they  acted  as  befitted  men  about  to  go  to  the 
wars.  But  he  began  to  insist  with  great  fervour,  declaring  that  her 
suspicions  were  false  and  her  imaginings  without  truth,  whereupon 
she  prostrated  herself  on  the  ground  before  him,  and  answered,  'My 
lord,  I  know  that  your  men  are  unbridled  and  fear  not  even  God. 
It  is  expedient  neither  for  us  nor  for  you  that  they  should  enter  our 
cloister.  Wherefore  I  beseech  and  counsel  you  with  clasped  hands, 
that  you  give  up  this  intention  and  seek  other  hosts  (who  abound 
in  the  neighbourhood)  for  yourself  and  for  your  men.'  But  he  persisted 
and,  contemptuously  bidding  her  arise,  swore  that  he  would  in  no 
wise  give  up  his  determination  to  have  hospitality  for  his  people 
there.  Wherefore  he  straightway  ordered  his  men  to  enter  the  building 
and  to  occupy  the  public  and  private  rooms  until  the  time  came  for 
setting  sail.  And  they,  inspired  (it  is  thought)  by  a  devil,  burst  into 
the  cloister  of  the  monastery,  and  as  is  the  wont  of  such  an  un 
disciplined  mob,  broke  the  one  into  this,  the  other  into  that  room, 
wherein  the  maidens,  daughters  of  the  neighbouring  gentry,  were 
lodged  to  be  taught ;  and  many  of  these  were  already  prepared  to  take 
upon  them  the  habit  of  holy  religion  and  had  set  their  mind  on  the 
purpose  of  virginity.  These,  scorning  reverence  for  the  place  and 
casting  aside  the  fear  of  God,  the  men  oppressed  and  violated  by 
force.  Nor  did  their  lust  rage  against  these  alone,  for  they  feared 
not  to  pollute  the  widow's  continence  and  the  conjugal  tie.  For  many 
widows  had  gathered  there  to  receive  hospitality,  as  is  customary 
in  such  abbeys,  either  for  lack  of  property  or  in  order  the  more 
perfectly  and  safely  to  preserve  their  chastity.  They  forced  into  public 
adultery  the  married  women  who  had  gathered  there  for  the  same 
reasons,  and  not  content  (it  is  said)  with  these  misdeeds  they  sub 
jected  the  nuns  themselves  to  their  lust.  Whereupon  at  first  those 
who  suffered  the  injury,  and  soon  all  who  dwelt  in  the  neighbourhood 
and  who  heard  the  news  of  so  great  a  crime,  heaped  very  horribk 
curses  upon  their  heads  and  called  down  upon  them  whatever  mis 
fortune  and  whatever  adversity  God  might  be  able  to  raise  against 
them." 

The  chronicler  goes  on  to  relate  how,  undeterred  and  indeec 
encouraged  by  Sir  John  Arundel,  the  men  spread  over  th< 
country-side  and  pillaged  it,  carrying  off  a  bride  and  stealing 
plate  from  the  altar  of  a  church,  for  which  sacrilege  they  wen 
solemnly  excommunicated.  At  last,  however,  Sir  John  (in  spit« 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  431 

of  the  protests  of  the  shipman  who  was  to  carry  him)  decided  to 
set  sail.  His  men  carried  off  with  them  the  stolen  bride  and  a 
number  of  wives,  widows  and  virgins  from  the  abbey,  forced 
the  wretched  women  on  board  and  put  to  sea.  But  a  storm 
came  on  and  the  ships  were  driven  out  into  the  Atlantic.  In 
the  midst  of  the  roaring  tempest  the  guilty  soldiers  seemed  to 
see  a  spectre,  more  awful  than  death  itself,  which  stalked  among 
them  on  the  deck  and  foretold  the  loss  of  all  who  sailed  upon 
Sir  John  Arundel's  ship.  Even  more  pitiable  was  the  condition 
of  the  women: 

"Hard  it  is  to  relate,"  says  the  chronicler,  "what  clamour,  what 
lamentation,  what  groans,  what  tears,  arose  among  the  women,  who 
by  force  or  of  their  own  will  had  boarded  the  ship,  when  buffeted 
by  the  winds  and  waves  they  rose  to  the  skies  and  descended  to  the 
depths;  for  now  they  saw  not  the  spectre  of  death,  but  death  itself 
among  them,  and  could  not  doubt  that  they  must  die.  What  mental 
anguish,  what  bodily  fear,  what  remorse  and  anxiety  assailed  the 
conscience  of  the  men,  who  to  satisfy  their  lust  had  dragged  these 
women  into  the  peril  of  the  seas,  they  were  best  able  to  describe 
who,  although  sharers  in  so  great  a  crime,  were  nevertheless  permitted 
by  God's  mercy  to  reach  a  port  of  safety.  Wherefore  the  men  were 
doubtful  what  to  do  in  the  midst  of  the  clamour,  for  on  the  one  hand 
the  wind  and  storm,  on  the  other  the  tears  and  cries  of  the  women, 
urged  them  to  action.  First,  therefore,  they  tried  to  lighten  the 
vessel,  throwing  overboard  first  the  worthless  baggage,  then  precious 
things,  that  perchance  a  hope  of  safety  might  arise.  But  when  they 
perceived  their  desperate  plight  to  be  rather  increased  than  diminished, 
they  cast  the  blame  of  their  misfortune  upon  the  women,  and  in  a 
spirit  of  madness  they  seized  hold  of  them  (with  the  same  hands 
wherewith  before  they  had  sweetly  caressed  them,  the  same  arms 
wherewith  they  had  lustfully  embraced  them)  and  threw  them  into 
the  sea,  to  be  devoured  by  fishes  and  sea  beasts,  to  the  number 
(it  is  said)  of  sixty  women.  But  not  even  thus  was  the  tempest  stayed, 

j  but  rather  it  grew  greater  so  that  it  deprived  them  of  all  hope  of 

j  escaping  the  danger  of  death." 

The  story  is  soon  ended.  The  ships  were  driven  onto  the 
:  coast  of  Ireland,  Sir  John  Arundel's  vessel  ran  upon  a  rock, 
(  and  he  was  drowned,  with  all  his  suits  of  apparel,  his  goods  and 
his  horses ;  and  twenty-five  other  vessels  of  the  ill-fated  expedi 
tion,  laden  with  soldiers  and  horses  and  baggage,  also  went  down 
in  the  storm.    Public  opinion  did  not  fail  to  attribute  these 
j  disasters  to  the  crimes  of  which  Sir  John  and  his  troops  had 
I  been  guilty;  and  so,  with  dramatic  fitness,  ends  this  tale  of  the 


432  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

golden  days  of  chivalry1.  Side  by  side  with  it  must  be  set  another 
episode,  drawn  from  an  earlier  age  and  from  an  epic  instead  of 
a  chronicle.  It  was  part  of  the  chivalrous  convention  to  show  a 
special  respect  to  nunneries,  in  their  double  character  of  religious 
and  aristocratic  institutions.  Yet  the  most  striking  account  of 
a  nunnery  in  the  twelfth  century,  when  this  convention  was  at 
its  height,  has  for  subject  a  brutal  sacrilege  committed  by  a 
great  baron  upon  a  church  of  nuns.  This  is  the  famous  episode 
of  the  burning  of  Origny  in  the  chanson  de  geste  "Raoul  de 
Cambrai.  '  The  writer  of  the  poem  makes  Raoul's  knights  recoil 
in  shame  from  a  crime  in  which  their  allegiance  has  made  them 
unwilling  partners,  and  manifests  the  utmost  horror  and  pity 
at  this  action  so  opposed  to  all  the  ideals  of  chivalry;  but  it 
is  only  one  of  the  many  proofs  that  the  golden  idol  had  feet  of 
clay.  Whether  or  not  the  account  was  founded  upon  an  actual 
incident  is  unknown ;  but  it  deserves  quotation  because  it  illus- 


1  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  identify  the  nunnery  spoken  of  in  the  story. 
According  to  Froissart  the  expedition  sailed  from  Southampton  (Froissart, 
Chron.  i,  ch.  ccclvi);  according  to  another  account  the  port  of  departure 
was  Plymouth  (see  J.  H.  Ramsay,  The  Genesis  of  Lancaster,  n,  p.  131). 
If  Southampton  be  correct,  Romsey  Abbey  would  be  the  nearest  nunnery 
answering  to  the  description  in  the  text,  though  it  stands  some  miles  from 
the  coast.  If  Sir  John  sailed  from  Plymouth  the  only  nunnery  in  the 
vicinity  would  be  the  little  priory  of  Cornworthy,  which  certainly  never 
contained  a  large  number  of  nuns  and  boarders  (though  as  to  this  the 
chronicler  may  be  exaggerating).  It  is  strange  that  no  record  of  the  crime 
appears  to  have  survived  in  episcopal  registers  or  in  any  official  document; 
but  it  seems  unlikely  that  the  story  is  pure  invention,  since  we  know  from 
other  sources  that  the  troops  were  notorious  for  general  depredations  along 
the  coast.  A  petition  presented  to  the  King  in  Parliament  (1379/80)  runs: 
"Item,  beseech  the  commons  and  the  good  folk  who  dwell  near  the  coasts 
of  the  sea,  to  wit,  of  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  Kent,  Surrey,  Hampshire,  Dorset 
and  Cornwall:  That  whereas  they  and  their  chattels  have  oftentimes  been 
robbed,  and  are  destroyed  and  spoiled  by  men-at-arms,  archers  and  others 
coming  and  going  by  the  said  ports  to  the  service  of  our  Lord  the  king  at 
the  war  and  by  their  long  sojourn;  and  chiefly  the  people  of  Hampshire 
during  the  last  expedition  which  was  ruled  and  ordered,  for  by  the  sojourn 
and  destruction  made  by  men  ordered  upon  the  said  expedition,  the  goods 
and  chattels  of  the  good  people  of  Hampshire  are  destroyed,  spoiled  and 
annihilated,  to  the  very  great  abashment  and  destruction  of  all  the  Commons 
of  those  parts,  as  well  folk  of  Holy  Church  as  others;  and  they  willl  odge 
themselves  of  their  own  authority,  having  no  regard  to  the  billets  (herbe- 
gage)  assigned  to  them  by  our  lord  [the  king],  to  the  destruction  of  the 
common  people,  if  it  be  not  remedied  as  soon  as  may  be."  (Rot.  Parl.  ill, 
p.  80.)  The  other  nunneries  in  Hampshire  were  St  Mary's  Winchester, 
Wherwell,  and  Whitney. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  433 

trates  all  too  clearly  the  fate  of  nuns  when  their  quiet  houses 
stood  in  the  way  of  warring  knights.  It  represents  one  side  of 
chivalry  as  truly  as  "Queen  Guenever  in  Almesbury,  a  nun  in 
white  clothes  and  black"  represents  another.  In  the  same  cen 
tury  that  produced  "Raoul  de  Cambrai"  a  chronicler,  writing 
of  the  wars  of  Stephen  and  Matilda  in  England,  records,  "  Burnt 
also  was  the  abbey  of  nuns  of  Wherwell  by  a  certain  William 
of  Ypres,  an  evil  man,  who  respected  neither  God  nor  man, 
because  certain  supporters  of  the  Empress  had  taken  refuge 
therein";  and  another: 

The  famous  town  [of  Winchester]  was  given  to  the  flames,  wherein 
a  convent  of  nuns  with  its  offices,  and  more  than  twenty  churches, 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  town  and  the  monastery  of  St  Grimbald's 
and  the  dwellings  attached  to  it,  were  reduced  to  ashes1. 

What  these  bald  statements  mean  the  chanson  de  geste  can  tell 
us  better. 

Raoul  de  Cambrai,  the  greatest  villain  who  ever  led  knights 
to  war,  had  in  his  train  a  young  knight  Bernier.  One  day  he 
set  out  to  pillage  Origny,  in  which  town  was  a  famous  convent, 
where  Bernier's  fair  mother  Marcens  had  retired  to  end  her  days 
in  peace.  But  as  he  hurled  himself,  with  four  thousand  men, 
upon  the  town,  the  gates  of  the  convent  opened 

and  the  nuns  came  forth  from  the  church,  gentle  ladies,  each  with 
her  psalter,  for  there  they  did  the  service  of  God.  Marcens  was  there, 
who  was  Bernier's  mother.  "Mercy,  Raoul,  in  the  just  God's  name! 
You  do  great  sin  if  you  allow  harm  to  come  to  us,  for  easily  can  we 
be  driven  forth."  In  her  hand  she  held  a  book  of  the  time  of  Solomon 
!  and  she  was  saying  an  orison  to  God. 

j  After  a  tender  inquiry  for  her  son,  Marcens  proceeded  to  plead 
I  with  Raoul  to  raise  the  siege ;  clearly  the  burgesses  regarded  the 
•  abbess  of  the  great  convent  as  their  leader  and  a  fit  person  to 
j  negotiate  with  their  enemy. 

i  "Sir  Raoul,"  she  said,  "shall  I  beseech  you  in  vain  to  withdraw  you? 
We  be  nuns,  by  all  the  saints  of  Bavaria;  we  shall  never  hold  lance 
nor  banner,  nor  by  our  hand  shall  any  man  be  brought  to  his  grave." 

But  Raoul  answered  her  with  a  stream  of  coarse  abuse,  showing 
even  less  respect  for  her  sex  and  calling  than  Sir  John  Arundel 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  u,  pp.  452,  636. 
p.  N.  28 


434  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  [CH. 

showed  to  the  abbess  who  refused  him  lodging1.  Marcens  put 
aside  his  charges  with  a  word  of  dignified  denial  and  proffered 
him  terms  of  truce: 

"  Sir  Raoul,  we  know  not  how  to  wield  arms ;  easily  can  you  destroy 
us  and  put  us  to  flight.  We  have  neither  shield  nor  lance  for  our 
defence.  All  our  livelihood  we  have  from  this  altar  and  within  this 
town;  noble  men  hold  this  place  dear  and  send  us  silver  and  pure 
gold.  Therefore  do  you  grant  us  a  truce  for  hearth  and  church  and 
go  you  and  take  your  ease  in  our  meadows;  of  our  own  substance 
we  will  feed  you  and  your  knights  and  your  squires  shall  have  corn 
and  oats  and  plenty  to  eat  for  your  steeds."  "By  the  body  of  St 
Richier,"  answered  Raoul,  "For  love  of  you  and  since  you  ask  it,  I 
will  grant  you  the  truce,  whoever  may  dislike  it." 

But  Raoul  de  Cambrai  had  no  regard  for  his  knightly  word; 
he  quarrelled  with  the  townsfolk  and  swore  to  burn  Origny  about 
their  ears. 

"The  rooms  burn,"  the  chanson  continues,  "The  ceilings  crumble;  the 
barrels  catch  fire  and  their  hoops  burst.  Woe  and  sin  it  is,  for  the 
children  burn  too.  Evil  has  Count  Raoul  done,  for  the  day  before 
he  gave  his  faith  to  Marcens  that  they  should  not  lose  so  much  as 
a  fold  of  silk;  and  on  the  morrow  he  burned  them  in  his  wrath.  In 
Origny,  that  great  and  rich  town,  the  sons  of  Herbert,  who  love  the 
place  had  put  Marcens,  Bernier's  mother,  and  a  hundred  nuns  to  pray 
to  God.  Count  Raoul,  the  hot-heart,  sets  fire  to  the  streets;  the  houses 
burn,  the  ceilings  melt,  the  wine  spills  and  the  cellars  flow  with  it; 
the  bacon  burns,  the  larders  fall,  the  fat  makes  the  great  fire  burn 
more  fiercely.  It  strikes  up  to  the  tower  and  to  the  high  belfry  and 
the  roofs  fall  in,  so  great  is  the  blaze  between  the  two  walls.  The 
nuns  are  burnt,  all  hundred  of  them  are  burnt  (woe  it  is  to  tell); 
burnt  is  Marcens  that  was  Bernier's  mother,  and  Clamados  the 
daughter  of  Duke  Renier.  The  smell  of  burning  flesh  rises  from  the 
flames  and  the  brave  knights  weep  for  pity.  When  Bernier  sees  the 
fire  grow  worse,  he  is  near  mad  with  grief.  Could  ye  but  have  seen 
him  sling  on  his  shield !  With  drawn  sword  he  comes  to  the  church 
and  sees  the  flames  pouring  from  the  doors;  no  man  can  come  within 

1  To  show  how  a  twelfth  century  baron  might  speak  to  a  cloistered 
nun,  the  mother  of  one  of  his  knights,  his  words  deserve  quotation: 
Voir,  dist  R.  vos  estes  losengiere. 
Je  ne  sai  rien  de  putain,  chanberiere, 
Qi  est  este  corsaus  ne  maaillere, 
A  toute  gent  communax  garsoniere. 
Au  conte  Y.  vos  vi  je  soldoiere, 
La  vostre  chars  ne  fu  onques  trop  chiere; 
Se  nus  en  vost,  par  le  baron  S.  Piere ! 
Por  poi  d 'avoir  en  fustes  traite  ariere. 

Raoul  de  Cambrai,  11.  1328-1335. 


x]  THE  WORLD  IN  THE  CLOISTER  435 

a  shaft's  throw  of  the  fire.  Bernier  sees  a  rich  marble  pavement,  and 
upon  it  lies  his  mother,  with  her  tender  face  laid  on  the  ground  and 
her  psalter  burning  upon  her  breast.  Then  says  the  boy,  'I  am  on 
a  foolish  errand.  Never  will  any  succour  avail  her  now.  Ha!  sweet 
mother,  yesterday  you  kissed  me;  you  have  but  a  poor  heir  in  me, 
for  I  can  neither  aid  nor  help  you.  God,  who  will  judge  the  world, 
keep  your  soul!'"1 

So  ends  this  terrible  episode ;  but  that  chivalry  in  this  matter 
at  least  suffered  no  change  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fourteenth 
century  Froissart's  account  of  the  burning  of  this  same  Origny- 
Saint-Benoit  by  the  peerless  John  of  Hainault  and  his  troops  in 
1339  will  show2.  If  the  code  of  knighthood  and  the  fear  of  God 
could  not  save  the  nuns  from  mischances  such  as  these,  it  is 
plain  that  no  injunctions  against  the  breach  of  their  enclosure 
could  have  done  so.  These  were  the  risks  of  war,  which  nuns 
shared  in  common  with  all  unhappy  women.  But  the  siege  of 
Origny  and  even  the  outrage  at  Goring  were  still  exceptional 
events;  and  the  Church  found  its  chief  problem  not  in  these 
unwelcome  incursions,  but  in  the  number  of  welcome  visitors 
who  hung  about  the  nunneries.  "The  Lord  deliver  them  from 
their  friends"  was  in  effect  the  bishop's  prayer.  The  expulsion 
of  these  friends  was  a  necessary  corollary  to  the  enclosure  move 
ment;  and,  like  the  injunctions  to  nuns  to  keep  within  their 
cloister,  the  injunctions  to  lay  folk  to  keep  outside  remained  a 
dead  letter.  John  of  Ayton's  conclusion  is  true  here  also : 

Why,  then,  did  the  holy  fathers  thus  labour  to  beat  the  air?  Yet 
indeed  their  toil  is  none  the  less  to  their  own  merit ;  for  we  look  not 
to  that  which  is,  but  to  that  which  of  justice  should  be. 

j         l  Raoul  de  Cambrai,  pub.  P.  Meyer  et  A.  Longnon,  Soc.  des  Anc.  Textes 
i  Fr.  1882,  stanzas  LXIII-LXXI,  passim  (pp.  42-50). 

2  "Incontynent  it  was  taken  by  assaut  and  robbed  and  an  abbey  of 
|  ladyes  vyolated  and  the  town  brent."  Froissart,  Chronicles,  tr.  Berners. 


28—2 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  OLDE  DAUNCE 

A  child  of  our  grandmother  Eve,  a  female;  or,  for 
thy  more  sweet  understanding,  a  woman. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  I,  i,  266-8. 

IT  is  difficult  to  form  any  exact  impression  of  the  moral  state 
of  the  English  nunneries  during  the  later  middle  ages.  Certainly 
there  is  widespread  evidence  of  frailty  on  the  part  of  individuals, 
and  there  are  one  or  two  serious  cases  in  which  a  whole  house 
was  obviously  in  a  bad  condition.  It  is  certain  also  that  we 
retain  the  record  of  only  a  portion  of  the  cases  of  immorality 
which  existed ;  some  never  came  to  light  at  all,  some  were  hushed 
up  and  the  records  of  others  are  buried  in  Bishops'  Registers, 
which  are  either  unpublished  or  lost.  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
necessary  to  guard  against  exaggeration.  The  majority  of  nuns 
certainly  kept  their  lifelong  vow  of  chastity.  Moreover  when  the 
conditions  of  medieval  life  are  taken  into  account,  the  lapses 
of  the  nuns  must,  to  anyone  who  considers  them  with  sympathy 
and  common  sense,  appear  comprehensible.  The  routine  of  the 
convent  was  not  always  satisfying  to  the  heart,  and  the  tempta 
tions  to  which  nuns  were  submitted  were  certainly  grosser  and 
more  frequent  than  they  are  in  similar  institutions  today. 

Several  considerations  may  fairly  be  urged  in  mitigation  of 
the  nuns.  The  initial  difficulty  of  the  celibate  ideal  need  not  be 
laboured.  For  many  saints  it  was  the  first  and  necessary  condi 
tion  of  their  salvation;  but  for  the  average  man  it  has  always 
been  an  unnatural  state  and  the  monastic  orders  and  the  priest 
hood  were  full  of  average  men.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  celibacy  is  one  of  the  tragedies 
of  religious  life.  The  vow  was  constantly  being  broken.  The 
focaria  or  priest's  mistress  is  a  well-known  figure  in  medieval 
history  and  fiction;  and  the  priest  who  lived  thus  with  an  un 
official  wife  was  probably  less  dangerous  to  his  female  parishioners 
than  was  he  who  lived  ostensibly  alone.  A  crowd  of  clerks  and 


CH.  xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  437 

chaplains,  sometimes  attached  to  some  church,  chantry  or  great 
man's  chapel,  sometimes  unattached,  filled  the  country  with  an 
" ecclesiastical  proletariat,"  all  vowed  to  chastity;  and  any 
student  of  the  criminal  records  of  the  middle  ages  knows  how 
often  these  men  were  concerned  in  cases  of  rape  and  other  crime. 
A  survey  of  the  monastic  visitations  of  a  careful  visitor  such  as 
Alnwick  shows  that  consorting  with  women  was  a  common  charge 
against  the  monks  and  there  is  some  evidence  which  points  to 
a  suspicion  of  grosser  forms  of  vice.  It  would  be  strange  indeed 
if  the  nuns  were  an  exception  to  the  rule.  Even  if  they  kept 
their  vow,  they  kept  it  sometimes  at  a  cost  which  psychologists 
have  only  recently  begun  to  understand.  The  visions  which  were 
at  once  the  torture  and  the  joy  of  so  many  mystic  women,  were 
sexual  as  well  as  religious  in  their  origin,  as  in  their  imagery1. 
The  terrible  lassitude  and  despair  of  accidia  grew  in  part  at  least 
from  the  repression  of  the  most  powerful  of  natural  instincts, 
accentuated  by  the  absence  of  sufficient  counter  interests  and 
employments. 

The  whole  monastic  ideal  is,  however,  bound  up  with  the 

vow  of  chastity  and,  had  only  women  with  a  vocation  entered 

nunneries,  the  danger  of  the  situation  would  have  been  small. 

Unfortunately  a  large  number  of  the  girls  who  became  nuns  had 

no  vocation  at  all.  They  were  given  over  to  the  life  by  their 

families,  sometimes  from  childhood,  because  it  was  a  reputable 

career  for  daughters  who  could  not  be  dowered  for  marriage 

in  a  manner  befitting  their  estate2.  They  were  often  totally 

uneuited  for  it,  by  the  weakness  of  their  religious  as  well  as  by 

j  the  strength  of  their  sexual  impulses.  The  lighthearted  Chansons 

\  de  Nonnes*,  whose  theme  is  the  nun  unwillingly  professed,  had 

|  a  real  basis  in  fact.   If  cases  of  immorality  in  convents  seem  all 

!  too  frequent,  it  should  be  remembered  how  young  and  often 

|  how  unwilling  were  those  who  took  the  vows : 

Je  sent  les  douls  mals     leis  ma  senturete 
Malois  soit  de  deu  ki  me  fist  nonnete. 

1  See  M.  K.  Brady,  Psycho- Analysis  and  its  Place  in  Life  [1919],  P-  ^T- 
H.  O.  Taylor,  The  Medieval  Mind  [2nd  ed.,  1914].  I>  ch-  xx- 

2  See  above,  p.  29.    For  the  effects  of  this  at  a  later  period  in  Italy 
!  see  J.  A.  Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy.   VI.  The  Catholic  Reaction, 
I  pt.  i  (1886),  pp.  339  ff. 

3  See  below,  p.  502. 


438  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

The  blame  is  justly  placed  and  the  wonder  is  not  how  many  but 
how  few  nuns  went  astray. 

Again  the  nunneries  of  the  middle  ages  were  subjected  to 
temptations  which  rarely  occur  in  our  own  time.  The  chief  of 
these  was  the  ease  with  which  the  nuns  moved  about  outside 
their  houses  in  a  world  where  sex  was  displayed  good-humouredly, 
openly,  grossly,  by  the  populace,  and  with  all  the  subtle  charm 
of  chivalry  by  the  upper  classes.  The  struggle  to  enforce  en 
closure  had  its  root  in  the  recognition  of  this  danger,  as  episcopal 
references  to  the  story  of  Dinah  show;  and  it  has  already  been 
seen  how  unsuccessful  that  struggle  was.  Nuns  left  their  pre 
cincts,  visited  their  friends,  attended  feasts,  listened  to  wandering 
minstrels,  with  hardly  any  restraint  upon  their  movements.  It 
is  true  that  in  church  and  cloister  the  praise  of  virginity  was 
forever  dinned  into  their  ears;  but  outside  in  the  world  it  was 
not  virginity  that  was  praised.  Were  it  a  miller's  tale  or  a  wife 
of  Bath's  prologue,  overheard  on  a  pilgrimage,  were  it  only  the 
lilt  of  a  passing  clerk  at  a  street  corner, 

Western  wind,  when  wilt  thou  blow, 

The  small  rain  down  can  rain  ? 
Christ,  if  my  love  were  in  my  arms 

And  I  in  my  bed  again, 

the  nun's  mind  must  often  have  been  troubled,  as  she  turned 
her  steps  back  to  her  cloister.  Moreover  their  guest  rooms  were 
full  of  visitors,  men  as  well  as  women ;  if  they  copied  so  eagerly 
the  fine  dresses  and  the  pet  dogs  of  worldly  ladies,  is  it  strange 
that  they  sometimes  copied  their  lovers  too?  Other  conditions 
besides  the  imperfect  enforcement  of  enclosure  increased  the 
danger.  The  disorders  of  the  times,  ranging  from  the  armed 
forays  of  the  Scots  in  the  north  to  the  lawlessness  of  everyday 
life  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  were  not  conducive  to  a  fugitive 
and  cloistered  virtue1.  Nor  was  the  constant  struggle  against 
financial  need,  leading  as  it  did  to  many  undesirable  expedients 
for  raising  money,  really  compatible  with  either  dignity  or  un- 
worldliness.  There  is  a  poverty  which  breeds  plain  living  and 
high  thinking,  a  fair  Lady  Poverty  whom  St  Francis  wedded. 
But  there  is  also  an  unworthy,  grinding  poverty,  which  occupies 
the  mind  with  a  struggle  to  make  two  ends  meet  and  dulls  it 

1  See  above,  pp.  422  fif. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  439 

to  finer  issues.  Too  often  the  poverty  of  the  nunneries  was  of 
the  last  type. 

Let  it  be  conceded,  therefore,  that  the  celibate  ideal  was  a 
hard  one,  that  the  nuns  were  often  recruited  without  any  regard 
for  their  fitness  to  follow  it,  and  that  some  of  the  conditions 
of  convent  life,  insufficiently  withdrawn  from  the  temptations 
and  disorders  of  the  outside  world,  served  to  promote  rather 
than  to  restrain  a  breach  of  it.  With  these  preliminary  warnings, 
an  attempt  may  be  made  to  estimate  the  moral  state  of  the 
English  nunneries.  The  evidence  for  such  a  study  falls  into  three 
classes,  the  purely  literary  evidence  of  moralist  and  story-teller, 
the  general  statements  of  ecclesiastical  councils  and  the  exact 
and  specific  evidence  of  the  Bishops'  Registers.  The  literary 
evidence  will  be  treated  more  fully  in  a  further  chapter  and 
need  not  detain  us  here.  Langland's  nun,  who  had  a  child  in 
cherry  time,  Gower's  voice  crying  against  the  frailty  of  woman 
kind,  the  "Dame  Lust,  Dame  Wanton  and  Dame  Nice,"  who 
haunted  the  imaginary  convent  of  the  poem  Why  I  can't  be  a 
Nun,  are  all  well  known,  as  are  the  serious  exempla,  the  pretty 
Mary-miracles,  and  the  ribald  tales,  which  have  for  their  subject 
an  erring  nun.  They  are  useful  as  corroborative  evidence,  but 
without  more  exact  information  they  would  tell  us  little  that 
I  is  of  specific  value.  Similarly  the  enactments  of  church  councils 
!  and  general  chapters  are  quite  general.  By  far  the  most  valuable 
evidence  as  to  monastic  morals  is  contained  in  the  Bishops' 
Registers,  whether  in  the  accounts  of  visitations  and  the  injunc 
tions  which  followed  them,  or  in  the  special  mandates  ordering 
inquiry  into  a  scandal,  search  after  an  apostate,  or  penance 
upon  a  sinner.  The  visitation  documents  are  particularly  useful. 
Where  full  detecta  are  preserved,  the  moral  state  of  a  house  is 
vividly  pictured;  there  you  may  see  the  unworthy  Prioress, 
whose  bad  example  or  weak  rule  has  led  her  flock  astray;  there 
|  the  nuns  conniving  at  a  love  affair  and  assisting  an  elopement, 
1  or  complaining  bitterly  of  the  dishonour  wrought  upon  their 
j  house.  If  the  register  of  visitations  be  a  full  one,  it  is  possible 
to  form  an  approximately  exact  estimate  of  the  moral  condition 
of  all  the  nunneries  in  a  particular  diocese  at  a  particular  time, 
in  so  far  as  it  was  known  to  the  Bishop.  If  a  diocese  possess 
a  long  and  fairly  unbroken  series  of  registers,  as  at  York  and 


440  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

Lincoln,  the  moral  history  of  the  house  may  be  traced  over  a 
long  period  of  years.  Supplementary  evidence  is  sometimes  also 
to  be  found  in  the  Papal  Registers,  when  the  Pope  had  been 
petitioned  in  favour  of  some  nun,  or  had  heard  rumours  of  the 
evil  state  of  some  nunnery;  but  Papal  letters  on  the  subject  are 
comparatively  rare.  The  mass  of  the  information  which  follows 
is  therefore  derived  from  the  invaluable  records  of  the  bishops. 

It  seems  quite  clear  that  the  nuns  who  broke  their  vows  were 
always  willing  parties  to  the  breach.  Few  men  would  have  been 
bold  enough  to  ravish  a  Sponsa  Dei.  Sometimes  a  bishop  was 
led  to  suppose  that  a  nun  had  been  carried  away  against  her 
will,  but  he  always  found  out  in  the  end  that  she  had  been  in 
the  plot;  all  abductions  were  in  reality  elopements.  In  the 
Register  of  Bishop  Sutton  of  Lincoln  there  is  notice  of  an  ex 
communication  pronounced  in  1290  against  the  persons  who 
abducted  Agnes  of  Sheen,  a  nun  of  Godstow.  The  Bishop  an 
nounces  that  she  and  another  nun  were  journeying  peacefully 
towards  Godstow  in  a  carriage  belonging  to  their  house,  when 
suddenly,  in  the  very  middle  of  the  King's  highway  at  Wycombe, 
certain  sons  of  perdition  laid  violent  hands  upon  them  and 
dragged  the  unwilling  Agnes  out  of  her  carriage  and  carried  her 
off.  But  he  seems  to  have  received  a  different  account  of  the 
affair  later,  for  in  the  following  year  he  announces  that  Agnes  of 
Sheen,  Joan  of  Carru  and  "a  certain  kinswoman  of  the  Lady  Ela, 
Countess  of  Warwick,"  professed  nuns  of  Godstow,  have  fled  from 
their  house  and,  casting  off  their  habit,  are  living  a  worldly  and 
dissolute  life,  to  the  scandal  of  the  neighbourhood;  and  he  pro 
nounces  excommunication  against  the  nuns  and  all  their  helpers1. 

Some  nuns  contrived  to  meet  their  lovers  secretly,  within 
the  precincts  of  their  own  convents,  or  outside  during  the  visits 
which  they  paid  so  freely  despite  the  Bull  Periculoso;  they  made 
no  effort  to  leave  their  order,  and  were  only  discovered  if  their 
behaviour  were  such  as  to  create  a  public  scandal  among  the 
other  nuns,  or  in  the  neighbouring  villages.  Others,  smitten 
deeply  by  "amor  che  a  nullo  amato  amar  perdona,"  hailed 
insistently  by  the  call  of  life  outside,  cast  off  their  habits  and 
left  their  convents.  They  risked  their  immortal  souls  by  doing 
so,  for  the  Church  condemned  the  crime  of  apostasy  far  more 
1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Sutton,  S.  $d,  32^. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  441 

severely  than  that  of  unchastity,  since  it  involved  the  breach 
of  all  the  monastic  vows,  instead  of  only  one,  and  brought 
religion  into  dishonour  in  the  eyes  of  laymen.  The  nun  who 
sinned  was  given  a  penance;  the  nun  who  apostatised  was  ex 
communicated;  and  there  were  few  who  could  withstand  for  long 
the  sense  of  utter  isolation,  even  from  a  God  whose  love  they 
had  scorned.  The  bride  of  Christ  who  could  live  happily  under  the 
shadow  of  the  ban,  who  could  marry  knowing  her  union  to  be 
unrecognised  and  even  cursed  by  the  Church1,  must  have  been 
of  a  most  unmedieval  scepticism,  a  most  unfeminine  indifference 
to  the  scorn  of  her  fellows ;  or  drowned  so  deep  in  love  that  she 
counted  Heaven  well  lost.  There  were  not  many  such;  and  the 
majority  of  apostates  returned  to  their  order,  worn  out  by 
remorse  or  by  persecution,  or  convinced  at  last  that  mortal 
love  was  but  what  the  author  of  Hali  Meidenhad  named  it, 
"a  licking  of  honey  off  thorns." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  majority  of  these  apostates  returned. 
What  were  they  but  individuals  ?  Against  them  was  arrayed  the 
might  of  two  great  institutions,  the  Church  and  the  State.  Some 
times  the  might  of  the  Church  alone  availed  to  retrieve  them; 
terror  brought  them  of  their  own  free  will,  or  they  found  them 
selves  caught  in  a  net  of  threats  and  excommunications,  in 
volving  not  only  themselves,  but  all  who  helped  them.  When 
Isabel  Clouvill,  Maud  Titchmarsh  and  Ermentrude  Newark,  for 
some  time  nuns  professed  in  the  house  of  St  Mary  in  the  Meadows 
(Delapre),  Northampton,  left  their  convent  and  went  to  live 
in  sin  in  the  world,  they  were  excommunicated.  Moreover  their 
Bishop  ordered  the  Archdeacon  of  Northampton  to  summon 

1  The  unions  were  sometimes  referred  to  as  "marriages"  and  a  priest 
unaware  of  the  facts  of  the  case  may  have  been  got  to  celebrate  them.  For 
;  instance  Bishop  Gynewell  recites  how  Joan  Bruys,  nun  of  Nuneaton,  was 
'  abducted  by  Nicholas  Green  of  Isham  and  "postmodum  se  in  nostram 
I  diocesim  divertentes  matrimonium  de  facto  in  eadem  nostra  diocesi  scienter 
'  inuicem  contraxerunt  et  incestum  ibidem  commiserunt  et  in  ea  cohabitant 
I  indies  vir  et  vxor."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  102.  Marriage  is 
i  also  referred  to  in  the  case  of  Joyce,  an  apostate  from  St  Helen's,  Bishops- 
|  gate,  in  1388.  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  ix,  App.  pt.  i,  p.  28.  At  Atwater's 
i  visitation  of  Ankerwyke  in  1519  it  was  stated  "Domina  Alicia  Hubbart 
1  stetit  ibidem  in  habitu  per  quatuor  annos  et  tune  in  apostasiam  recessit 
1  et  cuidam...Sutton  consanguineo  Magistri  Ricardi  Sutton  Senescalli  de 
I  Syon  fuit  nupta  et  cum  eo  in  patria  ipsius  Sutton  remanet  in  adulterio." 
Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Visit.  Atwater,  f.  42. 


442  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

them  to  return  within  a  week,  and  all  who  received  them  in 
their  houses  or  gave  them  any  help  and  counsel,  were  to  be 
warned  to  desist  within  three  days  and  to  be  given  a  penance. 
The  names  of  the  villages  where  they  were  received  were  to  be 
notified  to  the  Bishop  and  their  aiders  and  abettors  were  to 
appear  before  him1.  How  many  people  would  suffer  for  long 
the  displeasure  of  the  Church  for  the  sake  of  three  runaway 
nuns?  Lovers  might  be  faithful,  but  even  lovers  must  eat  and 
drink  and  sleep  beneath  a  roof:  a  nun  was  no  nut-brown  maid 
to  live  content  in  greenwood,  "when  the  shawes  be  shene."  If 
the  pair  could  escape  to  a  town  where  their  story  was  not  known, 
there  was  some  chance  for  them ;  but  sooner  or  later  the  Church 
found  them  out. 

Suppose  they  scorned  the  Church;  suppose  powerful  friends 
protected  them,  or  careless  folk  who  snapped  their  fingers  at 
the  priest  and  knew  too  much  about  begging  friars  to  hold  one 
amorous  nun  a  monstrous,  unexampled  scandal.  Then  the  Church 
could  call  in  the  majesty  of  the  State  to  help,  and  what  was  a 
girl  to  do?  Can  one  defy  the  King  as  well  as  the  Bishop?  To  a 
soul  in  hell  must  there  be  added  a  body  in  prison?  Elizabeth 
Arundell  runs  away  from  Haliwell  in  1382,  nor  will  she  return. 
The  Prioress  thereupon  petitions  the  King;  let  His  Highness 
stretch  forth  the  secular  arm  and  bring  back  this  lamb  which 
wanders  from  the  fold.  His  Highness  complies;  and  his  com 
mission  goes  forth  to  Thomas  Sayvill,  sergeant-at-arms,  John 
Olyver,  John  York,  chaplain,  Richard  Clerk  and  John  Clerk  to 
arrest  and  deliver  to  the  Prioress  of  Haliwell  in  the  diocese  of 
London,  Elizabeth  Arundell,  apostate  nun  of  that  house2.  The 

1  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Dalderby,  f.  16.  Translated  in  R.  M.  Serjeant- 
son,  Hist,  of  Delapre  Abbey,  Northampton,  pp.  7-8. 

2  P.R.O.  Chancery  Warrants,  Series  I,  File  1759;  Col.  of  Patent  Rolls 
(1381-5),  p.  235.  This  file  of  Chancery  Warrants  contains  a  large  number  of 
petitions  for  the  arrest  of  vagabond  monks  and  nuns.  These  petitions 
usually  emanate  from  the  head  of  the  apostate's  house,  but  occasionally 
from  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese,  as  in  another  warrant  in  the  same  file  in 
which  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  petitions  for  the  arrest  of  Katherine  Montagu, 
Benedictine  nun  of  Bungay  (1376).    Other  petitions  besides  those  quoted 
in   the  text  concern  Alice  Romayn,  Austin  nun  of  Haliwell  (1314,  ib.)t 
Matilda  Hunter,   Austin  nun  of  Burnham   (1392),   (File   1762);   Alice  de 
Everyngham,  Gilbertine  nun  of  Haverholm  (1366),  (File  1764);  and  the 
following  sisters  of  Hospitals,  Agnes  Stanley  of  St  Bartholomew's,  Bristol 
(1389).  Johanna  atte  Watre  of  St  Thomas  the  Martyr  at  Southwark  (1324) 
and  Elizabeth  Holewaye  of  the  same  house  (File  1769,  nos.  i,  15,  18).  On 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  443 

sheriffs  of  London  and  Middlesex  and  Essex  and  Hertford,  as 
well  as  a  sergeant-at-arms  and  three  other  men,  are  all  set 
hunting  for  Joan  Adeleshey,  nun  of  Rowney,  who  is  wandering 
about  in  secular  dress  to  the  great  scandal  of  her  order1.  The 
net  is  wide;  in  the  end  the  nun  nearly  always  comes  back.  She 
comes  to  the  Bishop  for  absolution.  He  sends  a  letter  on  her 
behalf  to  her  convent,  bidding  them  receive  her  in  sisterly  wise, 
but  abate  no  jot  of  the  penance  imposed  on  her.  The  prodigal 
returns  kneeling  at  the  convent  gate  and  begging  admission, 
for  it  is  an  age  of  ceremony  and  in  these  dramatic  moments 
onlookers  learn  their  lesson2.  The  gates  swing  open  and  close 
again :  Sister  Joan  is  back. 

The  most  interesting  of  all  the  stories  of  apostasy  which  have 
been  preserved  is  the  romantic  affair  of  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe 
(alias  de  Wissenden),  nun  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  which  for 
ten  years  continually  occupied  the  attention  of  Bishop  Dalderby 
of  Lincoln3.  The  story  of  this  poor  woman  is  a  tragic  witness  to 
the  desperation  into  which  convent  life  could  throw  one  who 
was  not  suited  for  it,  as  well  as  to  the  implacable  pursuit  of  her 
by  the  Church;  for  indeed  the  Hound  of  Heaven  appears  in  it 

receipt  of  these  petitions  the  writ  De  apostata  capiendo  would  be  issued 
and  the  royal  commissions  for  the  arrest  of  the  delinquents  are  sometimes 
found  enrolled  on  the  patent  rolls,  as  in  the  cases  quoted  in  the  text.  Alice 
Everyngham  was  excommunicated  by  the  master  of  Sempringham;  but 
on  her  case  being  brought  to  the  papal  court  and  committed  by  the  Pope 
to  the  dean  and  two  canons  of  Lincoln,  she  was  absolved  by  them.  The 
master  appealed  to  the  Pope  against  her  absolution,  and  the  case  was 
committed  for  trial  to  the  Archbishop  of  York.  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters, 
iv,  pp.  69-70.  For  a  royal  commission  to  arrest  Mary  de  Felton  of  the 
House  of  Minoresses  at  Aldgate,  see  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  1385-9,  p.  86. 

1  P.R.O.   Chancery   Warrants,  Series  I,   File  1759;   Cal.  of  Pat.  Rolls, 
1401-5,  pp.  418,  472. 

2  There  are  several  references  to  this  ceremony:  "Dictam  igitur  com- 
monialem  vestram,  iniuncta  ei  penitencia  seculari  pro  suis  reatibus  atque 
culpis,  ad  vos  et  domum  vestram,  a  qua  exiit,  remittimus  absolutam; 
deuocionem  vestram  firmiter  in   Domino  exhortantes  quatinus...dictam 
penitentem...si  in  humilitatis  spiritu,  reclinato  corpore  more  penitencium, 
pulset  ad  portam,  misericordiam  deuote  postulans  et  implorans,  si  suum 

!  confiteatur  reatum,  si  signa  contricionis  ac  correccionis  appareant  in  eadem, 
!  secundum  disciplinam  vestri  ordinis,  filiali  promptitudine  admittatis" 
j  (Maud  of  Terringtonat  Keldholme,  1321),  Yorks.Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  45^-7- 
!  Compare  ib.  xvi,  p.  363  (Margaret  of  Burton  at  Kirklees,  1337);  Wm.  Salt 

Archaeol.  Soc.  Coll.  i,  p.  256  (case  against  Elizabeth  la  Zouche  who,  with 
•  another  nun,  had  escaped  from  Brewood  in  1326;  she  was  not  recovered 

until  1331). 

3  V.C.H.  Lines,  u,  pp.  99-100. 


444  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

in  the  aspect  of  a  bloodhound.  In  1309  Dalderby  excom 
municated  Agnes  for  apostasy  and  warned  all  persons  against 
receiving  her  into  their  houses  or  giving  her  any  help.  The  next 
year  he  was  obliged  to  call  in  the  secular  arm  against  her.  She 
was  then  living  at  Nottingham  and  the  Archdeacon  of  Notting 
ham  was  instructed  to  warn  her  to  return.  Shortly  afterwards 
the  Bishop  wrote  to  the  Abbot  of  Peterborough,  asking  him  to 
see  to  her  being  taken  back  to  her  house  and  there  imprisoned 
and  guarded.  The  combined  efforts  of  the  Sheriff,  the  Archdeacon 
of  Nottingham  and  the  Abbot  of  Peterborough  would  appear 
to  have  succeeded.  The  hapless  woman  was  taken  back  to  her 
house  by  force  and  still  obdurate;  and  the  Bishop  ordered  her 
to  be  confined  in  a  chamber  with  stone  walls,  each  of  her  legs 
shackled  with  fetters  until  she  consented  to  resume  her  habit. 
Her  perseverance  seems,  however,  to  have  worn  out  the  nuns,  and 
in  1311  the  Bishop  wrote  to  one  Ada,  sister  of  William  de  Hele- 
well,  instructing  her  to  take  custody  of  Agnes.  The  reason  for 
thus  placing  her  in  secular  charge  was  that  her  case  was  now 
sub  judice,  for  two  months  later  the  Bishop  sent  two  commis 
sioners  to  inquire  into  the  whole  question  of  the  apostasy.  Agnes 
had  declared  that  she  was  never  professed  at  all,  because  she 
had  been  married  to  one  whose  name  she  refused  to  give,  before 
she  entered  religion;  and  she  still,  said  the  bishop,  continued 
in  obstinacy. 

But  the  Church  did  not  easily  relax  its  clutch.  After  three 
months  the  Bishop  wrote  to  his  colleague  the  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
stating  that  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe,  after  having  been  professed 
for  twenty  years,  left  her  house  and  was  found  wearing  a  man's 
gilt  embroidered  gown,  that  she  was  brought  back  to  her  house, 
excommunicated  and  kept  in  solitude,  and  that  she  remained 
obstinate  and  would  not  put  on  the  religious  habit.  The  Bishop, 
thinking  it  desirable  that  she  should  be  removed  from  the  diocese 
for  a  time,  prayed  his  brother  of  Exeter  that  she  might  be  re 
ceived  into  the  house  of  Cornworthy,  there  to  undergo  penance 
and  to  be  kept  in  safe  custody  away  from  all  the  sisters.  A  clerk, 
Peter  de  Helewell  (the  Helewells  seem  to  have  had  some  special 
interest  in  her),  duly  conveyed  Agnes  far  away  from  the  level 
fields  of  the  Midlands  and  the  friends  who  had  hidden  her  from 
her  persecutors,  to  the  little  Devonshire  priory.  Solitude  and 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  445 

despair  for  the  moment  broke  her  spirit  and  the  next  year,  in  1312, 
she  declared  her  penitence  and  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  was  com 
missioned  to  absolve  her;  but  she  was  kept  in  solitary  confine 
ment  at  Cornworthy  until  1314,  when  Peter  de  Helewell  once 
more  journeyed  across  to  Devonshire  and  brought  her  back  to 
Stamford.  Her  native  air  blew  hope  and  rebellion  once  more  into 
that  wild  heart.  Four  years  later  Dalderby  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  Prioress  stating  that  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe  had  three 
times  left  her  order  and  resumed  a  secular  habit  and  was  now 
in  the  world  again  and  had  been  for  two  years  past ;  reiterating 
once  more  the  futile  injunction  that  the  Prioress  "under  pain 
of  excommunication  and  without  any  dissimulation  "  was  to  bring 
her  back  and  to  keep  her  in  safe  custody  and  solitude;  the 
unfortunate  Prioress  had  doubtless  had  more  than  enough  of 
Agnes  de  Flixthorpe  and  wished  for  nothing  better  than  to  leave 
her  in  the  world.  The  story  ends  abruptly  here  and  it  will  never 
be  known  whether  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe  was  caught  again. 

It  was  perhaps  merciful  to  receive  again  apostates  whose 

hearts  failed  them  and  who  besought  with  tears  to  be  reconciled 

to  the  Church.    But  the  forcible  return  of  a  hardened  sinner 

cannot  have  raised  the  moral  tone  of  a  house.   Sometimes  these 

nuns  had  lived  for  two  or  three  years  in  the  world  before  they 

were  brought  back.    Sometimes  they  broke  out  again,  yielded 

their  easy  virtue  to  a  new  lover,  or  fled  once  more  into  the  world. 

At  Basedale  (1308)  Agnes  de  Thormondby  had  three  times  fallen 

thus  and  left  her  order1;  and  cases  of  more  than  one  lover  are 

not  rare.  Sometimes  the  prioress  of  a  house  struggled  to  preserve 

•  her  flock  from  contagion  by  refusing  to  admit  the  returned  sinner  ; 

thus  the  Prioress  of  Rothwell  in  1414  declined  to  comply  with 

|  the  Bishop's  mandate  to  receive  back  a  certain  Joan,  saying  that 

I  by  her  own  confession  the  girl  had  lived  for  three  years  with 

one  William  Suffewyk ;  whereupon  the  Bishop  cited  her  for  dis- 

|  obedience  and  repeated  his  order2.  The  only  recorded  case  of  a 

i  woman  being  refused  admission  concerns  a  sister  and  not  a 

!  professed  nun;  in  1346  the  Archbishop  of  York  warned  the 

|  Prioress  of  Nunappleton  on  no  account  to  receive  back  Margaret, 

1  V.C.H.  Yovks.  ill,  p.  159. 

2  V.C.H.  Lines,  u,  p.  138.  The  surname  "Suffewyk"  should  probably 
read  Luffewyk,  i.e.  Lowick. 


446  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

a  sister  of  the  house,  who  had  left  it  pregnant,  as  he  found  that 
in  the  past  she  had  on  successive  occasions  relapsed  and  been 
in  a  similar  condition1.  It  is  significant  that  the  same  Archbishop 
wrote  to  the  Convent  of  Sinningthwaite  (where  they  opportunely 
preserved  "  the  arm  of  St  Margaret  and  the  tunic  of  St  Bernard, 
believed  to  be  good  for  women  lying  in  ")  concerning  one  of  their 
nuns  Margaret  de  Fonten,  who  had  left  the  house  pregnant, 
that  "as  she  had  only  done  so  once"  her  penance  was  to  be 
mitigated2.  There  can  be  no  plainer  commentary  on  the  literary 
theme  of  the  nun  unwillingly  professed  than  these  cases  of 
recurring  frailty  and  apostasy.  In  the  world  these  girls  might 
have  been  happy  wives,  each  with  a  lover  or  two  beside  their 
lords,  like  the  ladies  admired  by  Aucassin;  for  convents  they 
were  totally  unsuited  and  obeyed  their  natures  only  with  woe 
and  disgrace  to  themselves  and  to  their  orders. 

The  pages  of  the  Registers  throw  some  light  upon  the  partners 
of  their  misdemeanours.  In  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  the  convents  of  France  and  Italy  were  the 
haunts  of  young  gallants,  monachini,  who  specialised  in  intrigues 
with  nuns3.  But  the  seduction  of  a  Sponsa  Dei  was  not  a  fashion 
able  pursuit  in  medieval  England,  and  it  was  not  as  a  rule  lords 
and  gentlemen  who  hung  about  the  precincts.  Now  we  hear  of  a 
married  man  boarding  in  the  house  4,  now  of  the  steward  of  the 
convent 5,  now  of  the  bailiff  of  a  manor 6,  now  of  a  wandering  harp- 
player  7,  now  of  a  smith's  son8,  now  of  this  or  that  layman ,  married 
or  unmarried.  But  far  more  often  the  theme  is  Clericus  et  Nonna. 
Nuns'  lovers  were  drawn  from  that  great  host  of  vicars,  chaplains 
and  chantry  priests,  themselves  the  children  of  the  Church  and 
under  the  vow  of  chastity,  whose  needs  were  greatest  and  whose 
very  familiarity  with  the  bonds  of  religion  possibly  bred  contempt. 
As  visitors  in  their  convents,  or  as  acquaintances  outside,  the 

1   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  171.  2  Ib.  in,  p.  177. 

3  See  for  Renaissance  Italy,  J.  A.  Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy 
(1886),  vi,  p.  340;  A.  Gagniere,  Les  Confessions  d'une  Abbesse  du  xvie  siecle 
(Paris,  1888),  pp.  128  ff.  (Felice  Rasponi);  G.  Marcotti,  Donne  e  Monache 
(Firenze,  1884);  but  ecclesiastics  were  found  among  these  monachini.    In 
France  the  same  pursuit  became  fashionable  under  the  League.    For  a 
later  date  the  Memoirs  of  Casanova  provide  the  most  striking  illustrations. 

4  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  $gd.  6  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  84. 

«   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  113.  7  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  83,  83**. 

8   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  181. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  447 

nuns  were  constantly  meeting  members  of  this  band  of  celibates, 
who  roamed  about  "as  thick  as  motes  in  the  sunbeam."  They 
knew  well  how  to  sing,  with  Chaucer's  Pardoner,  "  Come  hider, 
love,  to  me,"  and  little  enough  like  priests  they  looked  with 
their  short  tunics,  peaked  shoes  and  silvered  girdles, 

Bucklers  brode  and  swerdes  long, 
Baudrike  with  baselardes  kene, 
Seen  toles  about  her  necke  they  hong, 
With  Antichrist  seche  prestes  been. 

Love  would  light  on  Alison,  even  were  the  lover  a  clerk  and  she 
a  nun,  and  sometimes  where  the  priest  had  tempted  he  could 
absolve.  What  the  young  man  of  fashion  was  to  the  Italian 
convent  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  chaplain  was  to  the  English 
convent  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth.  Sometimes  the  seducer 
was  attached  to  the  convent  as  chaplain  and  even  dwelt  within 
the  precincts.  Bishop  Sutton  had  to  write  to  the  Prioress  of 
Studley  bidding  her  send  away  from  the  house  John  de  Sevek- 
wurth,  clerk,  who  had  borne  himself  in  such  unseemly  wise 
while  he  dwelt  there,  that  he  had  seduced  two  of  the  nuns1.  The 
chaplain  of  the  house  was  involved  in  cases  at  White  Hall, 
Ilchester  (1323)2,  Moxby  (1325) 3  and  Catesby  (1442)*,  which 
may  lend  some  support  to  the  complaints  of  Gower 5  and  other 
medieval  moralists  and  an  additional  sting  to  the  good  humoured 
chaff  addressed  by  Chaucer's  host  to  the  nun's  priest,  Sir  John. 
That  the  spiritual  father  of  the  nuns  could  thus  abuse  his 
position  would  seem  almost  incredible  to  anyone  unfamiliar  with 
medieval  sources;  yet  Gower  goes  further  still,  suggesting  that 
even  the  visitors  of  the  convents  were  not  always  beyond 
suspicion 6. 

1  "En  visitaunt  vostre  mesun  por  plusure  fiez  truuames  nus  ke  Johan 
de  Seuekwurth,  clerk,  se  auoit  si  mauuesement  porte  en  demurant  en  la 
mesun  ke  il  esteit  atteint  de  folie  de  cors  od  vne  de  vos  nuneins  e  vne  autre 
esteit  de  ly  atteinte,  par  defaute  de  purgaciun  ke  ele  ne  se  poeit  de  li 
purger.    Par  quei  nus  defendimes  a  vus  ke  vus  ne  le  suffrissez  en  vostre 
mesun  demurer,  e  a  li  ke  la  euene  demurast."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo. 

\Sutton,  f.  i2gd. 

2  V.C.H.  Somerset,  u,  p.  157.  3   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  240. 
4  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  47.  5  See  below,  p.  545. 

6  Gascoigne  accuses  John  Stafford,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  of  having 
had  sons  and  daughters  by  a  nun  at  a  time  when  he  was  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells.  "In  diebus  meis,  anno  Domini  1443,  electus  fuit,  vel  verius 
intrusus,  unus  archiepiscopus  qui  fuit  genitus  ex  manifesto  adulterio,  et 
existens  genuit  filios  et  filias  ex  una  moniali,  in  episcopal!  gradu  existens 


448  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

More  often  the  lover  had  no  connection  with  the  nunnery, 
but  had  some  post  as  chaplain  or  vicar  in  the  neighbourhood1. 
Opportunities  for  a  meeting  were  not  hard  to  obtain  in  the  houses 
and  gardens  of  the  town2,  even  in  the  church  and  precincts  of 
the  priory  itself3,  as  visitation  comperta  show.  Nor  were  cloistered 
monks  proof  against  temptation.  They  knew  only  too  well  what 
passionate  hearts  could  beat  beneath  a  monastic  habit  and  they 
knew  the  merry  rhyme  of  Cockaygne  land,  where  every  monk 
had  his  nun.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  nuns  and  monks 

antequam  fuit  archiepiscopus."  Loci  e  Libro  Veritatum,  ed.  J.  E.  Thorold 
Rogers  (1881),  p.  231.  Gascoigne  was  a  learned  Doctor  of  Theology  and 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  His  theological  dictionary  gives 
an  extraordinarily  vivid  and  gloomy  picture  of  the  corruptions  of  the 
church  in  his  day.  It  must  be  noted  however  that  Stafford's  support  of 
the  heretical  Bishop  Reginald  Pecok  (author  of  the  Represser  of  Overmuch 
Blaming  of  the  Clergy)  made  Gascoigne  his  implacable  enemy,  while  there 
is  no  foundation  for  his  statement  that  Stafford  was  of  illegitimate  birth. 
His  charge  is  therefore  unworthy  of  belief.  The  scandal  which  later  connected 
the  name  of  John  Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  with  Anne  Colte,  Abbess 
of  Wherwell,  seems  likely  to  be  equally  devoid  of  foundation,  though  she 
was  several  times  summoned  before  the  Council  in  1534;  the  King  and 
Cromwell  evidently  resented  her  refusal  to  give  a  farm  to  one  of  their 
proteges.  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VIII,  vi,  1361,  vn,  527-9,  907;  V.C.H.  Hants.  II, 
p.  136. 

1  See,  besides  the  references  given  above,  cases  in  which  a  priest  or 
chaplain  was  implicated  at  St  Stephen's  Foukeholm  (abduction  of  Cecilia 
by  William,  Chaplain  of  Yarm,  1293),  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  113;  Nunkeeling 
(Avice  de  Lelle  had  confessed  to  incontinence;  ordered  not  to  talk  to  Robert 
de  Eton,  chaplain,  or  any  other  person,  1318),  ib.  p.  121;  Keldholme,  1318 
(Mary  de  Holm  and  Sir  William  Lely,  chaplain,  1318),  ib.  p.  169;  Kirklees 
(Joan  de  Heton  and  Sir  Michael,  called  the  Scot,  priest,  1315),  Yorks.  Arch. 
Journ.  xvi,  p.  361;  Godstow  (Sir  Hugh  Sadylere  of  Oxford,  chaplain,  and 
Alice  Longspee,  1445),  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  114;  Littlemore  (Prioress  Katherine 
Wells  and  Richard  Hewes,  priest  of  Kent,  1517),   V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  76; 
Wintney  (Prioress  and  Thomas  Ferring,  a  secular  priest,  1405),  Cal.  Papal 
Letters,  vi,  p.  55;  Romsey  (charge  against  Emma  Powes  and  the  vicar  of 
the  parish  church,  1502),  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  130;  Easebourne  (Sir  John 
Smyth,  chaplain,  concerned  in  abduction  of  two  nuns,  1478),  Sussex  Arch. 
Coll.  ix,  p.  17;  and  various  other  instances  of  suspicious  behaviour  or  of 
chaplains  and  priests  warned  off  the  premises.    Some  of  these  cases  are 
described  in  detail  below,  passim. 

2  E.g.    "  Fatebatur  se  carnaliter  cognitam  a  D.B.   apud   S.   in  domo 
habitacionis  sue  ibidem  situata,"  Line.   Visit.  I,  p.  71.  "Item  dicit  quod 
priorissa  consueuit  sola  accedere  ad  villam  de  Catesby  ad  gardinas  cum 
vno  solo  presbytero."    Ib.  n,  p.  47. 

3  E.g.  "Domina  Agnes  Smyth  inquisita  dicit  quod  Simon  Prentes  cog 
novit  earn  et  suscitavit  prolem  ex  ea  infra  prioratum,  extra  tamen  claustrum." 
Jessopp,  Visit,  of  Dioc.  Norwich,  p.  109.  There  are  many  references  to  and 
injunctions  against  suspicious  confabulations  with  men  in  the  nave  and 
other  parts  of  the  priory  church. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  449 

met  freely  and  that  Bishops  were  constantly  sending  injunctions 
against  the  admission  of  monks  and  friars  to  convents  and  the 
visits  paid  by  nuns  to  monasteries1.  Yet  we  hear  of  a  nun  of 
St  Sepulchre's,  Canterbury,  whose  name  scandal  connected  with 
the  cellarer  of  the  Cathedral  (1284) 2;  of  a  nun  of  Lymbrook, 
who  was  the  mistress  of  William  de  Winton,  Subprior  of  Leo- 
minster  Priory,  and  not  his  only  mistress  (1282) 3;  of  a  nun  of 
Swine,  who  had  had  two  monks  of  the  Abbey  of  Meaux  for  her 
lovers  (i3io)4.  Bishop  Alnwick's  visitation  of  the  Lincoln  diocese 
brought  to  light  two  such  cases  and  in  both  the  monk  was  not 
the  nun's  sole  lover.  Agnes  Butler  (alias  Pery  alias  Northampton) 
ran  away  from  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  for  a  day  and  a  night 
with  Brother  John  Harreyes,  an  Austin  friar;  her  secret  was 
kept,  but  when  Alnwick  visited  her  house  in  1440  she  had  run 
away  again,  this  time  with  a  harp-player,  and  had  been  living 
with  him  a  year  and  a  half  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  a  far  enough 
cry  from  Stamford5.  In  1445,  when  the  Bishop  went  to  Godstow, 
he  found  Dame  Alice  Longspey  grievously  suspected,  by  reason 
of  her  confabulations  alone  in  the  convent  church  with  an  Oxford 
chaplain,  who  gave  himself  out  to  be  her  kinsman.  A  week  later, 
while  visiting  Eynsham  Abbey,  he  received  a  further  sidelight 
on  her  character  from  the  evidence  of  the  abbot  that 

one  brother  John  Bengeworthe,  a  monk,  who  had  been  imprisoned  for 
his  ill  desert,  brake  prison  and  went  into  apostasy,  taking  with  him 
a  nun  of  Godstow,  but  he  has  now  been  brought  back  to  the  monastery 
and  is  still  doing  penance. 

The  nun  was  Alice  Longspey  and  it  is  significant  that  this 
particular  escapade  had  been  concealed  from  the  Bishop  at  his 
recent  visitation  of  Godstow6.  The  most  spirited  enterprise  of 
all,  however,  was  the  combined  effort  of  William  Fox,  parson 
of  Lea  (near  Gainsborough)  and  John  Fox  and  Thomas  de 
Lingiston,  Friars  Minor  of  Lincoln,  who  were  indicted  before 
I  the  Kings  Justices  at  Caistor,  because  they  came  to  Brodholme 
i  Nunnery  (one  of  the  only  two  Prernonstratensian  houses  in  the 

1  See  above,  pp.  386-9,  401.          2  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  n,  p.  708. 

3  Reg.  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  Epis.  Herefordensis  (Canterbury  and  York 
i  Society),  p.  265. 
j       4  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  181. 

5  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  83.    See  above,  p.  310. 

6  Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  91,  116. 

P.N.  29 


450  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

kingdom)  on  January  I5th,  1350,  and  then  and  there  "violently 
took  and  carried  away,  against  the  peace  of  their  lord  the  King, 
a  certain  nun,  by  name  Margaret  Everingham,  a  sister  of  the 
said  house,  stripping  her  of  her  religious  habit  and  clothing  her 
in  a  green  gown  of  secular  habit,  taking  also  divers  goods  to  the 
value  of  40  shillings"1. 

Much  as  the  church  hated  sin,  it  hated  scandal  even  more 
and  a  nun  might  often  hope  to  have  her  frailty  concealed  by 
her  fellows.  Sometimes  they  may  have  condoned  it,  for  they 
are  occasionally  found  assisting  an  elopement2;  sometimes  they 
feared  episcopal  interference  and  an  evil  reputation  for  their 
house.  But  it  was  not  always  possible  to  conceal  these  unhal 
lowed  unions  and  when  a  child  was  born  the  wretched  nun  could 
not  hope  to  escape  disgrace  and  punishment3. 

And  dame  Peronelle  a  prestes  file — Priouresse  worth  she  neuere 
For  she  had  childe  in  chirityme — all  owre  chapitere  it  wiste. 

Usually  Dame  Pernell  fled  in  despair  to  any  friendly  asylum 
which  she  could  find  and  only  returned  to  her  house  after  the 
birth  and  disposal  of  her  child.  Sometimes  she  remained  there 
in  what  privacy  she  might ;  and  the  affair  was  managed  with  as 
little  scandal  as  possible.  The  nuns  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
knew  that  their  sister  Margaret  Mortimer  had  had  a  child  on 

1  R.  E.  G.  Cole,  The  Priory  of  Brod holme  (Assoc.  Architec.  Soc.  Reports 
and  Papers,  xxvm),  p.  66. 

2  At  Markyate  in  1336  "an  apostate  nun  was  received  back  again  and 
absolved  by  Bishop  Burghersh  and  three  others  sought  absolution  at  the 
same  time  for  having  aided  and  abetted  her  in  her  escape."  V.C.H.  Beds. 
I,  p.  360. 

3  It  must  be  conceded  that  the  Church  gave  the  nuns  every  inducement 
to  take  measures  to  prevent  such  disasters;   for  instance  in  the  Liber 
Poenitentialis  of  Theodore  the  Anglo-Saxon  nun  guilty  of  immorality  is  given 
eight  years  of  penance  and  ten  if  there  be  a  child ;  a  married  layman  and  a 
nun  who  are  lovers  have  six  years  of  penance  and  seven  if  there  be  a  child. 
Here,  as  ever,  the  Church  went  on  the  principle  that  sin  was   bad  but 
scandal  worse;  si  non  caste  tamen  caute.   Of  the  practice  of  abortion  I  find 
no  record  in  English  pre- Reformation  documents,  though  Henry  VIII's 
disreputable  commissioner,  Dr  Layton,  accused  the  Yorkshire  nuns  of  taking 
potations  "ad  prolem  conceptum  opprimendum."  Letters  Relating  to  the 
Suppression  of  the  Monasteries  (Camden  Soc.  1843),  p.  97.  There  is  a  proved 
case  of  it  in  Eudes  Rigaud's  visitation  of  St-Aubin  (1256),  and  a  suspicion 
at  St   Saens  (1264),  Reg.   Visit.  Rigaud,  ed.   Bonnin,   pp.   255,   491.    See 
below,  p.  668.    One   of  Caesarius   of  Heisterbach's  exempla   hangs   upon 
it.  Caes.  Heist.  Dial.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange,  n,  p.  331.  In  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth    century    Italy    the   practice   seems   to    have    been    common, 
witness  Casanova. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  451 

this  side  of  Easter;  but  even  the  Subprioress  did  not  know  (or 
said  she  did  not  know)  "of  whom  she  conceived  or  whether  she 
bare  male  or  female;  howbeit  she  was  absent  from  quire  for  a 
fortnight  "1.  Once  we  hear  of  an  apostate,  deserted  and  pregnant, 
coming  back  to  St  Mary's,  Winchester,  and  the  wise  and  humane 
William  of  Wykeham  writes  to  the  Abbess  bidding  her  receive 
the  girl  gently  and  kindly,  and  keep  her  in  safety  until  the  birth 
of  her  child,  after  which  he  will  himself  make  ordinance  con 
cerning  her2.  It  is  hard  to  discover  what  became  of  these  most 
unwelcome  children.  It  is  not  surprising  that  they  sometimes 
died3.  But  if  they  lived  their  origin  probably  weighed  but  lightly 
on  them  in  those  days,  when  it  was  regarded  as  no  dishonour 
to  have  bastards,  who  were  often  acknowledged  by  their  fathers 
and  provided  for  in  their  wills  side  by  side  with  true  born  sons 
and  daughters.  It  is  true  that,  like  other  illegitimates,  they 
could  not  be  ordained  or  hold  ecclesiastical  preferment,  without 
a  special  dispensation.  But  even  the  son  of  a  nun  could  obtain 
such  dispensation4  and  even  the  daughter  of  a  nun  did  not  always 
go  undowered.  There  were  not  many  monastic  parents  like  that 
seventeenth  century  abbess  of  Maubuisson  who  was  rumoured  to 
have  twelve  children,  who  were  brought  up  diversely,  each  ac 
cording  to  the  rank  of  the  father 5,  or  like  the  Prior  of  Maiden 
Bradley,  as  described  by  Henry  VIII's  commissioner,  "an  holy 
father  prior  and  hath  but  vj  children  and  but  one  dowghter 
mariede,  yet  of  the  goods  of  the  monasteries  trysting  shortly  to 
mary  the  rest,  [and]  his  sones  be  tale  men  waytting  upon  him  "6. 
Yet  we  hear  of  at  least  one  Prioress  who  sold  the  goods  of  her 
I  house  to  make  a  dowry  for  her  daughter7. 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  96. 

2  Wykeham' 's  Reg.  n,  pp.  114-5. 

3  "Et  proles  obiit  immediate  post."  Jessopp,  op.  cit.  p.  109. 

4  See  e.g.  faculty  given  "to  dispense  twenty  persons  of  illegitimate 
i  birth  of  the  realms  of  France  and  England,  whether  sons  of  priests  or 
i  married  persons,  or  monks,  or  nuns,  to  be  ordained  and  to  hold  two  benefices 
'  apiece."  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  iv,  p.  170. 

5  M.  E.  Lowndes,  The  Nuns  of  Port  Royal  (1909),  p.  13.  The  Abbess  in 
!  question  was  Angelique  d'Estrees,  sister  of  Gabrielle,  Henry  IV's  mistress, 
j  and  famous  for  her  scandalous  life  and  her  struggle  with  her  successor,  the 
'  famous  Mere  Angelique  (Jacqueline  Arnauld)  of  Port  Royal. 

6  Letters  Relating  to  the  Suppression  of  the  Monasteries  (Camden  Soc. 
I&43),  P-  58.    But  it  must  be  remembered  that  we  cannot  believe  uncor 
roborated  a  single  word  that  Lay  ton  says. 

7  See  below,  Note  F. 

29—2 


452  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

If  it  be  sought  to  know  whether  any  houses  were  particularly 
liable  to  scandals  and  enjoyed  a  bad  name,  it  must  be  answered 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  say.  But  isolated  cases  of  im 
morality  and  apostasy  come  from  nunneries  so  widely  dis 
tributed  in  different  dioceses,  that  one  must  conclude  that  most  of 
them  had  at  one  time  or  another  a  sinner  in  their  midst.  Often 
enough  the  case  was  isolated;  occasionally  there  was  scandal 
about  the  general  condition  of  a  house  in  its  neighbourhood. 
The  discipline  and  morals  of  convents  were  apt  to  vary  with 
that  of  their  heads.  It  is  significant  that  when  a  house  is  in  a 
bad  moral  state  the  fault  may  nearly  always  be  traced  to  a  weak 
or  immoral  prioress.  So  it  was  at  Wintney  in  1405,  at  Redling- 
field  in  1427,  at  Markyate  in  1433,  at  Catesby  in  1442,  at  St 
Michael's,  Stamford,  in  1445,  at  Littlemore  in  1517,  and  at 
several  Yorkshire  nunneries.  It  is  plain  also  that  when  a  convent 
was  very  small  and  poor,  it  was  apt  to  become  lax  and  disorderly. 
The  small  Yorkshire  houses  bear  witness  to  this  and  if  further 
proof  be  required  the  state  of  Cannington  in  1351  and  Ease- 
bourne  in  1478  may  be  quoted  from  among  several  other  instances. 

Cannington  in  Somerset  was  a  small  and  poor  house,  but  its 
nuns  were  drawn  from  some  of  the  best  county  families.  In  1351 
it  was  visited  by  commissioners  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury,  Bishop 
of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  they  found  something  more  like  a  brothel 
than  a  priory.  Maud  Pelham  and  Alice  Northlode  (a  young  lady 
whom  the  Bishop  had  forced  on  the  unwilling  convent,  on  his 
elevation  to  the  See  some  twenty  years  before)  were  in  the  habit 
of  frequently  admitting  and  holding  discourse  with  suspected 
persons.  The  inevitable  chaplain  was  again  the  occasion  for  a 
fall.  On  dark  nights  they  held  long  and  suspicious  confabula 
tions  with  Richard  Sompnour  and  Hugh  Willynge,  chaplains, 
in  the  nave  of  the  convent  church.  Hugh  was  apparently  only 
too  willing  and  Richard  was  even  as  Chaucer's  summoner,  "as 
hot  he  was  and  lecherous  as  a  sparrow,"  for  (say  the  com 
missioners)  "it  is  suspected  by  many  that  as  a  result  of  these 
conversations  they  fall  into  yet  worse  sin."  Moreover 

"  the  said  sisters,  and  in  particular  the  said  Maud,  not  content  with 
this  evil  behaviour,  are  wont  per  insolencias,  minus  et  tactus  indecentes 
to  provoke  many  of  the  serving  men  of  the  place  to  sin,"  and,  "to 
make  use  of  her  own  words  she  says  that  she  will  never  once  say  Meet 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  453 

culpa  for  these  great  misdeeds,  but  turning  like  a  virago  upon  the 
prioress  and  the  other  sisters  who  abhor  the  aforesaid  things,  when 
they  reproach  her,  she  threatens  to  do  manly  execution  upon  them 
with  knives  and  other  weapons." 

Nor  was  this  all : 

In  the  said  visitation  the  charge  was  made,  dreadful  to  say,  horrible 
to  hear,  and  was  proven  by  much  evidence  as  to  notoriety  and  by 
confession,  that  a  certain  nun  of  the  said  house,  Joan  Trimelet,  having 
cast  away  the  reins  of  modesty. .  .was  found  with  child,  but  not  indeed 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  afterwards  gave  birth  to  offspring,  to  the 
grave  disgrace  and  confusion  of  her  religion  and  to  the  scandal  of 
many. 

These  were  the  most  serious  charges;  but  the  same  visitation 
revealed  that  the  Prioress  was  weak  and  had  been  guilty  of  the 
simoniacal  reception  of  four  nuns,  for  the  sake  of  scraping  together 
some  money,  while  the  subprioress  was  incurably  lazy,  refused 
to  attend  matins  and  other  canonical  hours,  and  neglected  to 
correct  her  delinquent  sisters1.  It  is  plain  that  the  whole  house 
was  utterly  demoralised  and  the  demoralisation  was  possibly  of 
long  standing,  for  there  had  been  one  of  the  usual  election 
quarrels  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  and  in  1328  the  then 
Bishop  had  issued  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  illicit 

i    wanderings  of  certain  nuns2.  Yet  the  priory  was  a  favourite 

I   resort  of  boarders. 

Easebourne,  again,  was  a  poor  but  very  aristocratic  house, 

j  containing  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  from  six 
to  ten  nuns.  In  1478  Bishop  Story  of  Chichester  visited  it  and 
found  grave  need  for  his  interference.  One  of  the  nuns,  Matilda 
Astom,  deposed 

!  that  John  Smyth,  chaplain,  and  N.  Style,  a  married  man  in  the 

J  service  of  Lord  Arundel,  had  and  were  accustomed  to  have  great 

familiarity  within  the  said  priory,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  with  Dame 

Joan  Portsmouth  and  Dame  Philippa  King,  nuns  of  the  said  priory, 

but  whether  the  said  Sir  John  Smyth  and  N.  Style  abducted,  or  caused 

to  be  abducted,  the  said  Joan  Portsmouth  and  Philippa  King  she 

'  knows  not,  as  she  says. 

i  (Another  nun  deposed  that  they  did.) 

1  Reg.  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (Som.  Rec.  Soc.),  pp.  683-4;  the  charge  is 
not  given  in  full  in  this  edition  of  the  Register  and  must  be  eked  out  from 

i  the  extract  in  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  416  (note). 

2  Reg.  John  of  Drokensford,  pp.  60,  126,  167,  287. 


454  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

And  moreover  she  says  that  a  certain  William  Gosden  and  John 
Capron  of  Easebourne  aforesaid,  guarded  and  kept  in  their  own  houses 
the  said  Joan  and  Philippa  for  some  time  before  their  withdrawal 
from  the  said  priory  and  took  their  departure  with  them  and  so  were 
great  encouragers  to  them  in  that  particular. 

Another  nun,  Joan  Stevyn,  deposed  that  the  two  nuns  had  each 
had,  long  before  their  withdrawal,  "  children  or  a  child."  Another 
said  that  Sir  John  Senoke  (i.e.  Sevenoaks,  clearly  the  same  a.s 
John  Smyth) 

much  frequented  the  priory,  so  that  during  some  weeks  he  passed 
the  night  and  lay  within  the  priory  every  night,  and  was  cause,  as 
she  believes,  of  the  ruin  of  the  said  Sir  John  Smyth  (sic,  MS.  ?  Joan 
Portsmouth).  Also  she  says  Sir  John  Smyth  gave  many  gifts  to 
Philippa  King. 

All  the  nuns  agreed  in  blaming  the  Prioress  for  not  having 
properly  punished  the  two  sinners  and  one  raked  up  a  vague 
story  that  "she  had  had  one  or  two  children  several  years  ago"; 
but  as  she  admitted  that  this  was  hearsay  and  as  the  Prioress 
was  then  at  least  fifty  years  old,  too  much  credit  must  not  be 
given  to  it.  On  the  same  day  a  certain  "Brother  William 
Cotnall,"  evidently  attached  in  some  capacity,  perhaps  as  custos, 
to  the  house,  appeared  before  the  Bishop  and  confessed  that  he 
had  sealed  a  licence  to  Joan  Portsmouth  to  go  out  of  the  Priory 
and  had  himself  sinned  with  Philippa  King.  The  two  priests, 
Smyth  and  Cotnall,  had  not  only  debauched  the  convent,  but 
had  done  their  best  to  ruin  it  financially ;  for  they  had  persuaded 
the  Prioress  to  pawn  the  jewels  of  the  house  for  fifteen  pounds, 
in  order  to  purchase  a  Bull  of  Capacity  for  Cotnall,  who  had 
then  sealed  with  the  common  seal  of  the  convent,  against  the 
wish  of  the  Prioress,  a  quittance  for  John  Smyth  concerning  all 
and  every  sort  of  actions  and  suits  which  the  convent  might 
have  against  him,  and  especially  the  matter  of  the  jewels1. 

But  if  small  houses  fell  easily  into  disorder,  great  abbeys 
were  not  exempt  from  contagion.  Cases  of  immorality  are  found 
at  Wilton,  Shaftesbury,  Romsey,  St  Mary's  Winchester,  Wher- 
well  and  Elstow,  all  of  them  abbeys  and  among  them  the  oldest 
and  richest  in  the  land.  It  is  the  same  with  two  other  houses, 
famous  in  legend,  Amesbury,  where  Guinevere  "let  make  herself 
a  nun  and  wore  white  clothes  and  black,"  and  Godstow,  where 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  17-19. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  455 

Fair  Rosamond  lay  buried  in  the  chapter  house.  Here,  where 
deathless  romance  had  its  dwelling  place,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  winged  god  ever  and  again  took  his  toll  of  the  nuns.  But  what 
sorry  substitutes  for  Guinevere  and  Rosamond  were  the  trembling 
apostates,  who  fled  into  hiding  to  bear  their  miserable  infants 
and  were  haled  back  by  bishops  to  do  penance  in  the  cloister. 

Thou  hast  conquered,  O  pale  Galilean;  the  world  has  grown  grey 
from  thy  breath. 

The  ancient  house  of  Amesbury  fell  into  evil  ways  in  the 
twelfth  century.  In  1177  its  abbess  was  said  to  have  borne  three 
children  and  its  nuns  were  notorious  for  their  evil  lives,  where 
upon  the  convent  was  dissolved,  most  of  the  nuns  being  placed 
in  other  houses,  and  Amesbury  was  then  reconstituted  as  a  cell 
of  Fontevrault  and  peopled  with  a  prioress  and  twenty-four 
nuns,  brought  over  from  that  house1.  Queen  Eleanor,  widow 
of  Henry  III,  took  the  veil  there  and  by  her  influence 
Edward  I  allowed  his  daughter  Mary  to  become  a  nun  there, 
together  with  twelve  noble  maidens2.  But  the  sin  of  Guinevere 
haunted  it.  About  Mary  herself  there  is  an  ancient  unexplained 
scandal,  for  in  a  papal  mandate  she  is  declared  to  have  been 
seduced  by  John  de  Warenne,  the  rather  disreputable  Earl  of 
Surrey3 ;  and  she  seems  to  have  been  as  much  out  of  her  house 
as  in  it,  for  she  constantly  visited  court  and  went  on  pilgrim 
ages.  Later  still  the  papal  benevolence  was  exerted  on  behalf  of 
Margaret  Greenfield,  nun  of  Amesbury,  who  had  borne  a  child 
after  her  profession  (i398)4,  and  Cecily  Marmyll,  who  "after 
having  lived  laudably  for  some  time  in  the  said  monastery, 
allowed  herself  to  be  carnally  known  by  two  secular  priests  and 
had  offspring  by  each  of  them"  (i424)5.  These  ladies  were 
doubtless  well  born,  with  wealthy  friends,  who  could  afford  to 
petition  the  Pope  and  buy  restoration  to  the  monastic  dignities 
I  and  offices,  which  they  had  lost  by  their  fault.  The  story  of 

1  Gesta  Regis  Henvici  Secundi  Benedicti  Abbatis,  ed.  Stubbs,  Rolls  Ser., 

!   i,  PP-  135-6. 

2  Dugdale,  Mow.  n,  p.  334- 

3  Cal.  of  Pap.  Letters,  in,  p.  169.   She  was  born  n  March  1278  and  took 
•    the  veil  at  the  age  of  seven  years.  Some  annalists  put  the  date  of  her  pro- 
;    fession  at  1285  and  some  at  1289;  in  any  case  the  Warenne  charge  was  not 
1    made  until  1345.    See  above,  p.  381,  note  i. 

4  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  v,  p.  161.  5  Ib.  vn,  p.  373- 


456  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

Godstow  is  very  similar.  There  seems  to  have  been  some  scandal 
about  the  morals  of  the  subprioress  in  1284,  but  Peckham  an 
nounced  that  he  did  not  believe  a  word  of  it1.  In  1290,  however, 
a  nun  of  noble  birth  was  (as  we  saw)  carried  off  from  her  carriage  ; 
and  she  and  two  others  were  apostate  in  the  following  year. 
Another  apostate  repented  and  was  absolved  in  1339.  In  J432 
a  nun  was  found  by  the  bishop  with  child  and  in  1445  Dame 
Alice  Longspey  indulged  in  the  escapades  already  described  with 
an  Oxford  priest  and  a  monk  of  Eynsham.  All  through  the 
career  of  the  convent,  it  was  continually  being  warned  against 
the  recourse  of  scholars  from  Oxford.  Both  Amesbury  and  God- 
stow  enjoyed  fame  and  good  repute  and  at  the  latter  children 
were  received  for  education.  Their  history  shows  that  even  the 
most  aristocratic  and  popular  houses  fell  sometimes  on  evil  days 
and  sometimes  sheltered  unworthy  inmates. 

It  is  of  considerable  interest  to  study  the  condition  of  all 
the  nunneries  in  a  particular  part  of  the  country  at  a  particular 
date.  An  analysis  of  the  references  to  the  Yorkshire  houses  has 
been  made  elsewhere2;  here  we  may  study  a  diocese  in  which  the 
conditions  of  daily  life  were  less  abnormal  than  they  were  on 
the  Scottish  border.  A  rather  imperfect  view  of  the  state  of. 
the  diocese  of  Lincoln  between  the  years  1290  and  1360  may 
be  gleaned  from  the  registers  of  Bishops  Sutton,  Dalderby, 
Burghersh  and  Gynewell;  it  is  imperfect  because  there  are  not 
many  visitation  records,  and  information  has  chiefly  to  be  derived 
from  episcopal  mandates  for  the  return  of  apostates3,  which  leave 
us  with  little  knowledge  of  the  internal  discipline  of  houses 
from  which  nuns  did  not  happen  to  run  away.  The  names  of 
eleven  out  of  the  four  and  thirty4  nunneries  of  the  diocese  occur 
in  connection  with  apostates  during  these  years,  six  Benedic 
tine,  four  Augustinian  and  one  Cluniac.  The  apostasy  of  three 

1  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  in,  p.  851. 

2  See  Note  G,  p.  597,  below. 

3  In  general  an  apostate  may  be  said  to  mean  a  lover,  but  there  must 
also  have  been  cases  of  nuns  apostatising  out  of  general  discontent  with 
the  convent  or  Prioress. 

4  Two  of  these,  St  Mary  de  Pr6  (St  Albans)  and  Sop  well  ought  not, 
however,  to  be  counted,  being  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  Abbey 
of  St  Albans  and  exempt  from  episcopal  visitation.    It  was  concerning 
St  Mary  de  Pr6  that  Archbishop  Morton  made  the  charges  against  St  Alkms, 
rendered  famous  by  Froude. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  457 

Godstow  nuns  in  1290  has  already  been  described1.  There  was  an 
apostate  at  Wothorpe  in  I2g62  and  two  years  later  a  nun  of 
Harrold  was  found  guilty  of  unchastity3.  Apostates  are  also 
mentioned  from  Sewardsley  in  1300 4,  from  Goring  in  1309  and 
again  in  1358  5,  from  Markyate  in  1336  6  and  from  St  Leonard's, 
Grimsby,  in  1337 7.  At  Burnham  there  is  the  case  of  Margery 
Hedsor,  who  was  excommunicated  at  intervals  for  apostasy 
between  1311  and  1317 8.  St  Mary  in  the  Meadows  (Delapre), 
Northampton,  seems  to  have  been  in  a  bad  state,  for  in 
1300  three  nuns,  said  to  have  been  professed  for  some  years, 
were  excommunicated  for  leaving  their  convent  and  living  in 
carnal  sin  in  the  world,  and  in  1311  there  was  another  apostate 
from  the  house9.  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  provides  the  curious 
story  of  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe,  and  the  almost  equally  tragic  case 
of  Agnes  Bowes,  ex-Prioress  of  Wothorpe,  all  of  whose  fellows 
had  died  in  the  Black  Death  and  whose  house  had  therefore  been 
annexed  to  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  in  1354.  She  was  evidently 
unable  to  settle  down  in  her  new  home  and  she  ran  away  from 
it  five  years  later10.  In  the  plague  year  1349,  Ella  de  Mounceaux, 
a  nun  of  Nuncoton,  who  had  obtained  leave  of  absence  and 
instead  of  returning  had  become  the  mistress  of  John  Haunsard, 
appeared  with  tears  before  the  Bishop  and  begged  to  be  sent 
i  back  to  her  house  n. 

This  list  of  apostates  is,  as  has  been  said,  necessarily  in- 
j  complete  and  gives  no  details  as  to  the  state  of  the  nunneries 
absolved.  A  much  more  exact  impression  can  be  gained  of  the 
diocese  a  century  later,  during  the  twenty  years  between  1430 
land  1450,  when  Bishops  Gray  and  Alnwick  were  visiting  the 
'religious  houses  under  their  control;  Alnwick's  Register  is  par- 
jticularly  valuable,  since  the  verbal  evidence  of  the  nuns  is  pre 
served.  If  we  take  Gray's  Register  first,  we  find  serious  charges 
>of  general  misconduct  made  against  three  houses,  Markyate  and 

1  Above,  p.  440. 

2  V.C.H.  Northants.  II,  p.   101   (note),  from  Line,  Epis.  Reg.  Memo. 
Button,  f.  154. 

3  V.C.H.  Beds.  I,  p.  389.  4   V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  126. 
*  V.C.H.  Oxon.  ii,  p.  103.  6  V.C.H.  Beds,  i,  p.  360. 

7   V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  179.  8   V.C.H.  Bucks,  i,  p.  383- 

i      9  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  114.  10  V.C.H.  Northants.  n,  p.  101. 

11  See  A.  H.  Thompson,  "  Registers  of  John  Gynewell,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
for  the  Years  1347-1350."  Archaeol.  Journ.  2nd  ser.,  vol.  xvm,  p.  331. 


458  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE 


[CH. 


Flamstead  in  1431  and  Sewardsley  in  1432.  The  Bishop  wrote  to 
a  canon  of  Lincoln  that 

abundant  rumour  and  loud  whisperings  have  brought  to  our  hearing 
that  in  the  priories  of  the  Holy  Trinity  of  the  Wood  by  Markyate 
and  of  St  Giles  by  Flamstead... certain  things  forbidden,  hateful, 
guilty  and  contrary  to  holy  religion  and  regular  discipline  are  daily 
done  and  brought  to  pass  in  damnable  wise  by  the  said  prioresses, 
nuns  and  other,  servingmen  and  agents  of  the  said  places;  by  reason 
whereof  the  good  report  of  the  same  places  is  set  in  jeopardy,  the 
brightness  and  comeliness  of  religion  in  the  same  persons  are  grievously 
spotted,  inasmuch  as  the  whole  neighbourhood  is  in  commotion  here- 
from. 

The  canon  is  accordingly  told  to  inquire  into  the  scandals  and 
punish  delinquents1.  Unfortunately  the  result  of  the  inquiry  has 
not  been  preserved;  three  years  later  the  Bishop  deputed  an 
other  commissioner  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  Markyate 
and  from  his  letters  of  commission  it  is  plain  that  he  had  himself  ; 
visited  the  house,  but  that  the  Prioress  and  sisters  had  managed 
to  conceal  their  misdeeds  from  him.  Since  then  he  had  learnt 
that  one  of  the  nuns,  Katherine  Tyttesbury,  had  been  guilty  of 
immorality  and  apostasy  and  that  the  Prioress  herself  had  failed 
to  obey  his  injunctions.  The  commissioner  was  therefore  ordered 
to  go  to  Markyate,  absolve  the  apostate  if  she  made  submission 
and,  if  necessary,  depose  the  Prioress.  The  result  of  the  inquiry 
was  that  the  Prioress,  Denise  Loweliche,  was  charged  with  having 
consorted  with  Richard,  the  steward  of  the  Priory,  for  five 
years  and  more,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  so  that  "public 
talk  and  rumour  during  the  said  time  were  busy  touching  the 
premises  in  the  town  of  Markyate  and  other  places,  neighbouring 
and  distant,  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln  and  elsewhere."  The 
Prioress  denied  the  charge  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  clear 
herself,  so  the  commissioner  ordered  her,  in  addition  to  her  own 
oath,  to  find  five  out  of  her  ten  nuns  as  compurgatresses,  i.e.  to 
swear  to  her  innocence.  She  sought  in  vain  for  help  among  her  ' 
sisters;  at  the  appointed  hour  she  begged  for  an  extension  of 
time  and  the  commissioner  granted  her  this  boon,  "so  that  she 
might  be  able  meanwhile  to  communicate  and  take  counsel  with 
her  sisters,"  and  also  "of  a  more  liberal  grace,"  declared  himself 
ready  to  take  the  word  of  four  nuns  on  her  behalf.  The  picture 

1  Line.  Visit.  1,  pp.  81-2. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  459 

of  the  wretched  Prioress  going  from  nun  to  nun,  imploring  each 
to  forswear  herself,  with  heaven  knows  what  threats  and  en 
treaties,  is  a  melancholy  one.  Not  even  four  nuns  could  be 
found  to  swear  to  her  innocence,  so  clear  and  notorious  was  her 
guilt,  and  she  laid  her  formal  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the 
bishop1. 

The  other  nunnery  against  which  a  general  charge  of  im 
morality  was  made  by  the  Bishop  in  1434  was  the  Cistercian 
house  of  Sewardsley,  of  which  he  said  that  the  Prioress  and  nuns, 

following  the  enticements  of  the  flesh  and  abandoning  the  path  of 
religion  and  casting  aside  the  restraint  of  all  modesty  and  chastity, 
are  giving  their  minds  to  debauchery,  committing  in  damnable  wise 
in  public  and  as  it  were,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  acts  of  adultery, 
incest,  sacrilege  and  fornication2. 

The  report  of  the  inquiry  held  has  not  been  preserved,  but 
there  was  obviously  something  seriously  amiss.  Gray  had  also  to 
deal  with  individual  cases  of  immorality  at  three  other  houses. 
Already  at  Elstow  in  1390  Archbishop  Gourtenay  on  his  metro 
politan  visitation  had  made  a  general  injunction  that 

no  nun  convicted  or  publicly  defamed  of  the  crime  of  incontinency, 
be  deputed  to  any  office  within  the  monastery  and  especially  to  that 
of  gatekeeper,  until  it  be  sufficiently  established  that  she  has  made 
purgation  of  her  innocence3, 

an  injunction  repeated  verbatim  by  Bishop  Flemyng  of  Lincoln 
in  1421*.  Now  in  1432  Gray  found  that  a  nun  named  Pernell 
had  been  "several  times  guilty  of  fleshly  lapse"  and  was  leading 
an  apostate  life  in  secular  dress  outside  the  house ;  which  speaks 
but  ill  for  the  moral  state  of  an  important  abbey5.  In  the  same 
jyear  he  found  one  of  the  nuns  of  Godstow  enceinte*,  and  in  1433 
iinquiry  showed  that  Ellen  Cotton,  nun  of  Heynings,  had  recently 
jhad  a  child7. 

The  worst  cases  found  by  Alnwick  when  he  visited  the 
ireligious  houses  of  the  diocese  ten  years  later  have  already  been 

1  Line.  Visit,  I,  pp.  82-6. 

2  Ib.  pp.  1 1 1-2.   It  should  be  noted  that  the  word  "incest"  is  used  in 
religious  sense;  it  was  properly  used  of  intercourse  between  persons 

Iwho  were  both  under  ecclesiastical  vows  and  thus  in  the  relation  of  spiritual 
'father  and  daughter,  or  brother  and  sister,  but  it  soon  came  to  be  used 
loosely  to  denote  a  breach  of  chastity  in  which  one  party  was  professed. 

3  Lambeth,  Reg.  Courtenay,  I,  f.  336. 

4  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  50.    Flemyng  adds  "or  manifestly  suspect." 

5  Ib.  p.  54.  e  Ib.  p.  65.  7  Ib.  pp.  69-71. 


lits 


THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

described  and  the  evidence  of  his  register  can  be  summarised 
briefly.    All  was  well  at  Elstow,  Heynings  and  Markyate ;  Dame 
Pernell  [Gauthorpe],  Dame  Ellen  Cotton  and  Dame  Katherine 
Tyttesbury  were  all  dwelling  peaceably  among  their  sisters ;  even 
the  disreputable  Denise  Loweliche  was  still,  in  spite  of  her  resigna 
tion,  ruling  as  Prioress  of  Markyate.   An  echo  of  old  difficulties 
remained,  however,  at  this  last  house  and  one  nun  begged  the 
Bishop  to  speak  to  the  Prioress,  "  to  the  end  that  she  take  better 
heed  to  the  nuns  who  have  previously  erred,  so  that  they  be 
kept  more  strictly  from  erring  again  than  is  wont"1;  evidently 
discipline  was  not  strict.    At  Godstow  disorders  had  not  yet 
ceased.  The  nuns  received  visitors  and  paid  visits  freely  and 
scholars  of  Oxford  still  haunted  the  house ;  moreover  one  of  the 
nuns,  Dame  Alice  Longspey  (of  whom  we  have  heard  before),  was 
of  very  easy  virtue2.  In  two  other  houses  Alnwick  found  great 
disorder  prevailing :  the  regime  of  Margaret  Wavere,  Prioress  of 
Catesby ,  has  already  been  described,  her  bad  language ,  her  temper, 
her  dishonesty  and  her  priestly  lover;  and  her  chief  accuser 
Isabel  Benet  had  borne  a  child  to  the  chaplain  of  the  house8. 
Similarly  we  have  seen  into  what  a  disreputable  state  St  Michael's, 
Stamford,  fell  under  an  aged  and  impotent  Prioress;  how  one 
nun  ran  away  with  an  Austin  friar  and  then  with  a  wandering 
harp-player,  and  how  two  others  had  borne  children  or  were 
notoriously  held  to  be   unchaste;    this   is    one   of   the  worst 
houses  which  the  records  of  medieval  nunneries  have  brought 
to  light*.  Finally  there  is  the  doubtful  case  of  Ankerwyke,  where 
the  Prioress  is  said  through  negligence  to  have  allowed  no  less 
than  six  nuns  to  go  into  apostasy,  a  fact  which  she  freely 
admitted;  but  whether  they  had  merely  removed  themselves 
through  discontent  with  an  unpopular  prioress,  or  whether  they 
had  eloped  it  is  impossible  to  say.    At  any  rate  they  had  not 
returned5. 

It  is  interesting  to  attempt  a  statistical  estimate  of  the 

moral  condition  of  the  Lincoln  nunneries  during  the  twenty 

years  from  1430  to  1450.    It  is  possible  to  do  so  with  some 

accuracy  because  the  nuns  giving  evidence  in  each  convent  are 

Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  6.  2  See  above,  p.  449. 

1  See  above,  pp.  82-4,  388.  «  See  above,  pp.  80,  310,  449. 

6  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  3.  The  form  of  her  admission  is  curious:  "Fatetur 
totidem  moniales  recessisse,  absque  tamen  sciencia  sua." 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  461 

enumerated  in  Alnwick's  reports.  If  we  omit  the  general  charges 
against  Sewardsley  and  Flamstead  and  the  ambiguous  apostasy 
of  the  six  nuns  of  Ankerwyke,  we  have  twelve  out  of  220  nuns 
guilty  of  immoral  behaviour,  or  a  little  over  five  per  cent. ;  but 
this  is  certainly  an  understatement,  having  regard  to  the  loss 
of  the  Sewardsley  and  Flamstead  inquiries  and  of  other  visita- 
itions  by  the  two  bishops,  to  say  nothing  of  possible  concealment 
:>y  the  nuns.  Between  them  Gray  and  Alnwick  have  left  on 
record  visitations  or  inquiries  relating  to  twenty-four  houses  and 
cases  of  immorality  came  to  light  at  eight,  that  is  to  say  at  one- 
third  of  the  number  visited.  All  except  two  of  these,  Elstow 
and  Heynings,  were  very  seriously  affected,  more  than  one  nun 
laving  succumbed  to  sin;  and  the  Prioress  was  found  guilty  in 
two  and  probably  suspected  in  two  others.  The  situation  seems 
a  serious  one  and  Alnwick's  visitations  of  the  houses  of  monks 
and  canons  which  were  in  his  diocese  show  that  the  men  were 
more  lax  in  their  behaviour  than  the  women. 

A  similar  statistical  estimate  can  be  made  of  the  condition 
of  convents  in  the  diocese  of  Norwich  during  the  visitation  by 
Bishop  Nykke  or  his  commissary  in  15 141.  Eight  convents,  con 
taining  between  them  seventy-two  nuns,  were  visited  and  only 
one  case  of  immorality  was  found,  at  Crabhouse2.  This  is  a  far 
more  favourable  picture  than  that  presented  by  the  diocese  of 
Lincoln  in  the  previous  century.  Again  in  1501  Dr  Hede  visited 
jthe  nunneries  of  the  diocese  of  Winchester  as  commissary  of  the 
iPrior  of  Canterbury,  during  the  vacancy  of  the  sees  of  Canterbury 
find  Winchester3.  The  diocese  contained  only  four  houses,  but 
hree  of  them  were  important  abbeys,  St  Mary's,  Winchester, 
ivith  fourteen  nuns,  Wherwell  with  twenty-two  and  Romsey  with 
'orty;  the  fourth  was  Wintney  Priory,  with  ten  nuns.  All  seem 
to  have  been  in  perfect  order  except  Romsey,  which  had  fallen 
nto  decay  under  the  regime  of  an  abbess  who  had  herself 

n  guilty  of  adultery,  and  where  one  of  the  nuns  was  charged 

1  Jessopp,    Visit,  of  Dioc.  Norwich  (Camden  Soc.)  gives  also  Bishop 
pold well's  visitations  some  ten  years  before,  which  brought  to  light  no 
aases  of  immorality  among  nuns. 

2  Ib.  p.  109. 

3  See  V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  pp.  129-31  (Romsey,  where  the  date  is  wrongly 
kiven  as  1312  by  a  slip),  124,  135,  151.    Unfortunately  all  but  the  Romsey 
dsitation  are  given  in  the  barest  summary. 


462  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

with  incontinence  with  the  vicar  of  the  parish  church.  Unfor 
tunately  the  record  of  the  visitation  is  left  incomplete  and  there 
are  no  injunctions;  hence  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the 
last  charge  was  true,  but  the  abbey  had  been  in  a  disordered 
state  for  some  years  past1.  Another  diocese  for  which  an  estimate 
can  be  made  is  Chichester,  but  it  contained  only  two  nunneries, 
Rusper  and  Easebourne.  At  Bishop  Story's  visitation  in  1478 
all  was  well  at  Rusper,  a  poor  and  ruinous  little  house  containing 
seven  nuns;  but  all  was  very  far  from  well  at  Easebourne,  where 
six  nuns  remained  and  two  had  gone  into  apostasy  after  con 
ducting  themselves  in  the  thoroughly  dissolute  manner  described 
above2.  At  Bishop  Sherborne's  visitation  in  1524  the  number  of 
nuns  at  Rusper  had  fallen  to  four,  but  there  was  no  complaint 
except  that  a  certain  William  Tychenor  had  frequent  access  to 
the  priory  and  sowed  discord  between  the  Prioress  and  her  three 
sisters.  At  Easebourne  there  were  eight  nuns,  but  the  house 
seems  not  to  have  recovered  its  tone  after  the  scandals  of  1524. 
The  subprioress  deposed  that  some  twelve  years  before  a  certain 
Ralph  Pratt  had  seduced  a  sister;  yet  the  convent  had  granted 
him  the  proceeds  of  the  church  of  Easebourne  and  he  still  had 
much  access  to  the  priory3.  It  is  a  pity  that  more  of  these 
statistical  estimates,  imperfect  as  they  are,  cannot  be  made. 

It  remains  to  consider  what  steps  were  taken  to  punish 
offenders  and  to  reform  evils.  The  crime  of  seducing  a  nun  was 
always  considered  an  extremely  serious  one;  she  was  Sponsa 
Dei,  inviolable,  sacrosanct.  Anglo-Saxon  law  fined  the  ravisher 
heavily,  and  a  law  of  Edward  I  declared  him  liable  to  three 
years  imprisonment,  besides  satisfaction  made  to  the  convent. 
There  is,  however,  no  evidence  that  the  State  imprisoned  or 
otherwise  punished  persons  guilty  of  this  crime,  though  it  was 
always  ready  to  issue  the  writ  De  apostata  capiendo,  for  the 
recovery  of  a  monk  or  nun  who  had  fled.  Whenever  the  lover  of 
a  nun  is  found  undergoing  punishment,  it  is  always  a  punishment 
inflicted  by  the  Church.  If  a  man  had  abducted  a  nun,  or  were 
accused  of  seducing  her,  he  was  summoned  before  the  Bishop 
or  Archdeacon  and  required  to  purge  himself  of  the  charge.  If 

1   V.C.H.  Hants,  n,  p.  130. 

•  Above,  pp.  453-4. 

8  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  25-6. 


xij  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  463 

he  pleaded  "Not  guilty"  a  day  was  appointed,  on  which  he  had 

to  clear  himself  by  the  oath  of  a  number  of  compurgators.  Thus 

the  Prioress  of  Catesby's  lover,  the  priest  William  Taylour,  was 

summoned  before  Bishop  Alnwick  in  the  church  of  Brampton; 

there  he  denied  the  crime  and  was  told  to  bring  five  chaplains, 

of  good  report,  who  had  knowledge  of  his  behaviour,  in  a  few 

days'  time  to  the  parish  church  of  Rothwell1.  The  result  of  his 

I  attempt  to  find  compurgators  is  not  known,  but  the  Prioress 

j  had  already  failed  to  get  four  of  her  nuns  to  support  her  and 

j  had  been  pronounced  guilty.  One  wonders  what  happened  when 

j  the  man  produced  compurgators  and  the  lady  failed  to  do  so: 

j  for  these  misdemeanours  a  deux  the  compurgatorial  system  would 

seem  a  little  uncertain. 

If  a  man's  guilt  were  proven  by  his  failure  to  provide  com 
purgators  or  to  come  before  the  Bishop,  it  remained  to  decree 
his  punishment.  The  obdurate  were  excommunicated  until  such 
time  as  they  submitted.  The  penitent  were  adjudged  a  penance. 
There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  penance  given  by  the  Church 
was  always  a  severe  one.  The  classical  instance  is  that  of  Sir 
Osbert  Giffard  in  1286.  The  Giffards  were  a  large  and  influential 
West  country  family  and  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  thirteenth 
century  several  of  the  children  of  Hugh  Giffard  of  Boyton  rose 
to  high  positions  in  the  Church.  His  eldest  son,  Walter,  became 
iin  turn  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  and  Archbishop  of  York,  dying 
Jin  1279,  and  ms  second  son  Godfrey  became  Bishop  of  Worcester. 
Of  his  daughters  one,  Juliana,  is  found  as  Abbess  of  Wilton  in 
1275,  another,  Mabel,  as  Abbess  of  Shaftesbury  in  1291,  and  a 
i  third,  Agatha,  would  seem  to  have  held  a  position  of  some 
jimportance  at  Elstow,  though  she  was  never  Abbess  there2. 
iThese  great  ladies  do  not  seem  to  have  had  a  very  good  influence 
in  their  nunneries,  in  spite  of  the  exalted  position  of  their 
brothers.  In  1270  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  writes  apologetically 
to  Walter  Giffard,  Archbishop  of  York,  concerning  scandals 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  48. 

U2  In  Archbishop  Walter  Giffard's  York  Register  occurs  the  following 
try  of  payments  for  Agatha:  "Item  A.  Giffard  xxs.  Item  Thomae  de 
.Habinton  ad  Expensas  versus  Elnestowe"  (1271),  Reg.  W.  Giffard  (Surtees 
iSoc.),  p.  115.  This  seems  sufficient  reason  for  identifying  the  Elstow  sister 
ias  Agatha,  though  the  editor  identifies  her  with  Mabel  "afterwards  abbess 
(of  Shaftesbury,"  ib.  p.  164. 


464  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

which  have  arisen  in  Elstow,  "whence  more  frequently  than  in 
any  other  house  beneath  our  rule  scandals  of  wicked  deeds 
arise,"  and  it  is  clear  from  his  letter  that  the  Abbess  and  the 
Bishop's  sister  were  implicated1.  In  1298  also  the  Abbess  and 
nuns  of  Shaftesbury  had  incurred  excommunication  "for  their 
offences  against  God  and  by  the  creation  of  scandal"2.  But  the 
most  serious  mishap  occurred  at  Wilton  in  1286.  Here  Juliana 
Giffard3  had  under  her  rule  a  young  relative  named  Alice  Giffard, 
and  in  this  year  Sir  Osbert  Giffard,  knight  (whose  exact  relation 
ship  to  the  Abbess  and  the  Bishop  and  to  Alice  is  not  clear), 
"with  sacrilegious  hand  ravished  and  abducted  in  the  silence  of 
the  night  sisters  Aljce  Russel  and  Alice  Gyffard,  professed  ac 
cording  to  the  rule  of  St  Benedict  in  the  monastery  of  Wylton." 
Archbishop  Peckham  and  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  forthwith 
excommunicated  Sir  Osbert,  who  eventually  made  his  submis 
sion.  It  was  indeed  an  unfortunate  scandal  to  occur  in  a  Bishop's 
family  and  created  a  great  stir  in  the  country  round.  Godfrey's 
concern  is  shown  by  the  appearance  in  his  Worcester  Register 
of  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury's  letter  to  the  Sub-dean  of  Salisbury 
and  others  announcing  the  penance  to  be  imposed  upon  the 
abductor4. 

This  penance  was  as  follows: 

The  bishop  enjoined  upon  him  that  he  should  restore  the  aforesaid 
sisters  and  all  goods  of  the  monastery  withdrawn  and  should  make 
all  the  satisfaction  that  he  possibly  could  to  the  abbess  and  convent. 
And  that  on  Ash  Wednesday  in  the  church  of  Salisbury,  the  said 
crime  being  solemnly  published  before  the  clergy  and  people,  he 
should  humbly  permit  himself  to  be  taken  to  the  door  of  the  church, 
with  bare  feet,  in  mourning  raiment  and  uncovered  head,  with  other 
penitents  and  should  be  beaten  with  sticks  about  the  church  on  three 
holy  days  and  on  three  Tuesdays  through  the  market  of  Salisbury 
and  so  often  and  in  like  manner  about  the  church  of  Wylton  and 
through  the  market  there;  and  he  should  be  likewise  beaten  about 
the  church  of  Amesbury  and  the  market  there  and  about  the  church 
of  Shaftesbury  and  the  market  there.  In  his  clothing  from  henceforth 

1  Reg.  W.  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.)  p.  164  and  Hist.  Letters  and  Papers 
from  the  Northern  Regs,  ed  .J.  Raine  (Rolls  Ser.),  pp.  33-4. 

2  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  78. 

3  She  was  in  trouble  in  1287  for  refusing  to  pay  certain  moneys  left 
for  an  obit  and  had  to  be  threatened  with  excommunication;  see  Wore.  Reg. 
Godfrey  Giffard,  Introd.  pp.  cxxxvi-vii. 

4  Wore.  Reg.  Godfrey  Giffard,  n,  pp.  278-80.    It  is  followed  by  a  letter 
enjoining  the  Abbess  and  convent  of  Wilton  to  receive  back  the  two  nuns. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  465 

there  shall  not  appear  any  cloaks  of  lamb's  wool,  gilt  spurs  or  horse 
trappings,  or  girdle  of  a  knight,  unless  in  the  meantime  he  should 
obtain  special  grace  of  the  king,  but  he  shall  take  journey  to  the 
Holy  Land  and  there  serve  for  three  years1. 

The  penance  was  thus  severe;  but  it  is  another  matter  to 
say  that  it  was  always  duly  performed.  A  man  who  had  already 
risked  his  immortal  soul  once,  by  the  seduction  of  a  nun,  might 
well  choose  to  undergo  excommunication  and  risk  it  a  second 
time,  by  refusing  to  do  penance.  The  lover  of  a  nun  of  Harrold 
in  1298  was  thus  excommunicated  for  refusing  to  be  beaten 
through  the  market-place2.  Moreover  there  were  endless  ways 
of  delaying  the  humiliating  ceremony.  Take  the  case  of  Richard 
Gray,  the  married  boarder  to  whom  Elizabeth  Willoughby  bore 
a  child  at  St  Michael's,  Stamford.  On  July  3rd,  1442,  in  the 
parish  church  of  Wellingborough,  the  Bishop  caused  him  to 
swear  upon  the  Holy  Book  that  he  would  abjure  the  priory  and 
all  communication  with  Elizabeth.  He  then  sentenced  him  to 
four  floggings  round  one  of  the  churches  of  Stamford  on  four 
Sundays  or  feast  days, 

carrying  in  his  hand  before  the  procession  of  the  same  church  a. 
taper  of  one  pound's  worth  of  wax,  being  clothed  in  his  doublet  and 
linen  garments  only,  and  on  the  last  of  the  said  four  days,  after  the 
procession  is  finished,  he  has  to  offer  the  said  taper  to  the  high  altar 
of  the  said  Church. 

Moreover  he  was  to  perform  a  like  penance  on  four  Fridays, 

going  round  the  market-place  of  Stamford,  and  within  a  month 

he  was  also  to  make  pilgrimage  on  horseback  to  Lincoln  Cathedral 

and  when  he  came  within  five  miles  of  Lincoln,  to  dismount  and 

go  barefoot  to  the  cathedral  and  there  offer  to  the  high  altar 

a  taper  of  one  pound's  weight.  The  very  evening,  however,  that 

this  severe  penance  was  imposed,  Richard  Gray  came  before 

;the  Bishop  again  and  made  lowly  supplication  that  he  would 

; deign  to  temper  the  penance;  whereupon  Alnwick,  "moved  with 

;  compassion  on  him,"  commuted  the  penance  round  the  market- 

1  place  to  a  payment  of  twenty  shillings  to  the  nuns  of  St  Michael's, 

•to  be  paid  within  a  month,  and  another  twenty  shillings  to  the 

1  For  another  version  of  the  penance  see  Reg.  Epis.  J.  Peckham,  in, 
pp.  916-7.  This  forbids  him  to  enter  any  nunnery  or  speak  with  any  nuns 
without  special  licence  from  their  metropolitan. 

2  V.C.H.  Beds.  I,  p.  389. 

P.N.  30 


466  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

fabric  of  the  cathedral  church,  to  be  paid  within  six  weeks. 
Gray  was  to  bring  the  Bishop  letters  testimonial  as  to  the 
payment  of  the  forty  shillings  and  the  performance  of  the 
penance  at  Lincoln,  also  within  six  weeks.  But  Richard  had 
no  intention  of  buying  expensive  wax  candles,  paying  forty 
shilling  fines,  catching  cold  in  his  shirt  at  Stamford  or  humiliating 
himself  at  Lincoln.  When  summoned  to  do  his  penance  he  ap 
pealed  to  the  court  of  Canterbury.  The  Bishop  then  got  licence 
from  the  commissary  of  the  official  in  that  court  to  proceed 
against  the  delinquent  and  summoned  him  to  show  cause  why 
he  had  not  done  penance.  On  November  I5th,  1442,  the  slippery 
Richard  appeared  by  proxy  before  the  Bishop's  commissioner 
and  said  that  he  was  "  withheld  by  so  many  and  so  sore  infirmities 
of  fevers  and  other  kinds,  lying  in  his  bed  every  other  day,  that 
he  could  not  without  grievous  bodily  harm  appear  in  person 
in  or  on  the  same  day  and  place."  The  commissioner  postponed 
his  appearance  until  December  nth  and  eventually  he  appeared 
on  that  day,  but  showing  no  cause  why  he  had  not  performed 
his  penance,  and  was  excommunicated  again  by  the  Bishop,  at 
which  point  he  drops  out  of  history,  with  his  penance  still 
unperformed1. 

It  was  no  doubt  an  easier  matter  to  exact  penance  from  a 
nun.  The  apostate  was  excommunicated  until  she  made  sub 
mission  and  returned  to  her  convent.  Sometimes  a  very  obdurate 
sinner  was  transferred  to  do  penance  at  another  nunnery;  the 
punishment  was  a  common  one  in  the  diocese  of  York2  and  a 

1  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  ^gd.  Compare  the  case  of  Thomas  de 
Raynevill  who  in  1324  was  ordered,  as  penance  for  seducing  a  nun  of 
Hampole,  to  stand  on  a  Sunday,  while  high  mass  was  being  celebrated, 
in  the  conventual  church  of  Hampole,  bareheaded,  wearing  only  his  tunic 
and  holding  a  lighted  taper  of  one  pound  weight  of  wax  in  his  hand,  which 
he  was  to  offer,  after  the  offertory  had  been  said,  to  the  celebrant,  who  was 
to  explain  to  the  congregation  the  cause  of  the  oblation.  Also  on  feast 
days  he  was  to  be  beaten  round  the  parish  church  of  Campsall.  But  two 
years  later  the  Archbishop  was  still  repeating  directions  for  the  performance 
of  the  penance.  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ill,  p.  164. 

*  From  Nunkeelingto  Yedingham(i444);  from  Arthington  to  Yedingham 
(1310);  from  St  Clement's,  York,  to  Yedingham  (1331);  from  Basedale  to 
Sinningthwaite  (1308);  from  Hampole  to  Swine  (1313);  four  disobedient 
nuns  of  Keldholme  to  Handale,  Swine,  Nunappleton  and  Wallingwells 
respectively  (1308);  and  two  others  to  Esholt  and  Nunkeeling  (1309); 
from  Nunappleton  to  Basedale  (1308);  from  Rosedale  to  Handale  (1321); 
from  Swine  to  Wykeham  (1291);  from  Wykeham  to  Nunappleton  (1444); 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  467 

wicked  Prioress  of  Redlingfield  was  sent  to  Wix  in  I4271;  but 
nunneries  not  unnaturally  sometimes  objected  to  having  to  sup 
port  at  their  cost  an  evilly  disposed  woman  from  another  house2. 
More  commonly  the  sinner  did  penance  in  her  own  house.  If 
particularly  obdurate,  she  was  imprisoned  for  a  time  and  even, 
if  need  be,  shackled,  in  some  secure  place  in  the  convent3. 
A  severe  penance  was  imposed  in  1321  by  Archbishop  Melton 
upon  Maud  of  Terrington,  an  apostate  nun  of  Keldholme,  who 
had  for  long  lived  in  sin  in  the  world.  She  was  to  be  last  in 
choir  at  all  the  canonical  hours,  and  when  not  in  choir  to  be 
confined  in  solitude.  She  was  never  to  go  out  of  the  precincts 
of  the  cloister  and  was  to  be  forever  debarred  from  speaking 
with  lay  folk  and  from  sending  or  receiving  letters.  She  was 
not  to  be  allowed  to  wear  the  black  Benedictine  veil,  which 
|  marked  her  as  a  nun,  until  such  time  as  the  Archbishop  should 
mitigate  her  penance,  and  should  fast  with  bread  and  vegetables 
on  Wednesdays  and  bread  and  water  on  Fridays.  For  the  rest 
of  her  life  she  was  never  to  wear  a  shift  next  her  skin.  On 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays  she  was  to  go  barefoot  in  the  presence 
of  the  convent  round  the  cloister,  all  secular  persons  having 
been  excluded,  and  there  receive  two  beatings  by  the  hand  of 
the  Prioress  and  on  each  other  day  of  the  week  she  was  to  receive 
|  one  such  discipline.  Every  week  she  was  to  say  two  psalters, 
I  besides  Placebo  and  Dirige  and  the  commendation  for  the  dead, 
i  which  she  was  to  say  each  day  for  the  remission  of  her  sins.  She 
was  never  to  be  present  at  the  daily  consultations  of  the  chapter, 

from  Arthington  to  Nunkeeling  (1219).  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  121,  127, 
130.  159,  163-4,  l68»  J?1.  I75.  l8°.  l83>  l89-  Also  from  Kirklees  to  Hampole 
(1323)  and  from  Basedale  to  Rosedale  (1534).  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi, 
ipp.  362,  431-3- 

*   V.C.H.  Suffolk,  u,  p.  84. 

z  See  for  instance  the  insistence  on  costs  and  charges  in  Archbishop 
:Lee's  letter  transferring  Joan  Fletcher,  ex-Prioress  of  Basedale,  from  Rose- 
,dale  where  she  was  doing  (or  not  doing)  her  penance,  back  to  Basedale 
again.  Loc.  cit.  pp.  431-3. 

3  Joan  Trimelet  of  Cannington  was  to  be  shut  up  for  a  year,  fasting 
thrice  a  week  on  bread  and  water,  suos  calores  macerans  juveniles.  Dugdale, 
[Mon.  iv,  p.  416.  Margaret  de  Tang  of  Arthington  was  "if  need  be  to  be 
ibound  by  the  foot  with  a  shackle,  but  without  hurting  her  limbs  or  body." 
\V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  189.  The  runaway  Agnes  de  Flixthorpe  was  similarly 
to  be  bound,  see  above,  p.  444;  Anne  Talke  was  imprisoned  for  a  month. 
iLiveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  244.  Joan  Hutton  of  Esholt,  who  had 
had  a  child  (1535),  for  two  years  unless  the  Archbishop  relaxed  her  penance. 
\Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi.  p.  453. 

30 2 


468  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

or  at  any  other  convent  business,  but  "let  her  lie  prone  before 
the  convent  at  the  entrance  of  the  choir,  to  be  spurned  by  their 
feet,  if  they  will"1. 

This  was  a  particularly  severe,  not  to  say  inhuman,  penance 
and  it  is  unlikely  that  such  was  the  rule  even  in  the  case  of 
obdurate  offenders.  A  guilty  nun  at  Crabhouse  in  1514  is  told 
to  sit  last  among  her  sisters  for  a  month  and  to  say  seven  psalters 
during  that  period2  and  a  novice  at  Redlingfield  in  1427  is  to 
go  in  front  of  the  solemn  procession  of  the  convent  on  Sunday, 
wearing  no  veil  and  clad  in  white  flannel3.  The  former  was  not 
an  apostate,  though  she  had  had  a  child,  and  the  latter  was 
not  yet  professed  and  had  been  led  away  by  the  bad  example 
of  her  Prioress;  nevertheless  these  penances  seem  sufficiently 
mild,  in  comparison  with  the  orthodox  view  of  their  offence. 
Fasting  and  penitential  psalms  and  some  outward  mark  of 
degradation,  such  as  the  loss  of  the  veil  and  of  the  place  in 
choir  and  chapter,  to  which  the  nun's  standing  in  the  convent 
entitled  her,  were  common  penances.  A  guilty  nun  was  also 
debarred  from  holding  any  conventual  office;  but  it  must  be 
admitted  that  this  salutary  precaution  was  not  always  strictly 
carried  out.  Occasionally  a  visitor  is  obliged  to  make  a  general 
injunction  against  the  holding  of  office  by  nuns  convicted  or 
suspected  of  incontinence ;  Archbishop  Courtenay  mentions  speci 
fically  the  office  of  portress4,  a  necessary  precaution  when  one 
remembers  how  often  the  French  and  Italian  touriere  of  a  later 

1  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  456-7.  The  recorded  penances  given  by 
Archbishop  Melton  are  all  very  severe,  though  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  state  of  the  nunneries  in  his  diocese  gave  him  cause  for  severity  and 
that  the  penitents  were  all  hardened  sinners.    Compare  penances  given  by 
him  in  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  175,  189.  There  is  an  extremely  severe  penance 
imposed  by  Archbishop  Zouche  on  a  nun  who  had  several  times  run  away 
from  Thicket,  tb.  p.  124,  and  another  by  Archbishop  Lee  in  1535  cited  in 
the  last  note. 

2  Jessopp,  Visit,  in  Dioc.  Norwich,  p.  no. 

3  V.C.H.  Suffolk,  ii,  p.  84. 

*  "Expresse  inhibentes,  ne  infuturum  aliqua  monialis  de  crimine  in- 
continencie  conuicta  vel  publice  diffamata,  antequam  de  innocencia  sic 
diffamate  constiterit,  ad  aliquod  ofncium  domus  predicte  et  precipue  ad 
ostionim  custodiam  admittatur."  Lambeth,  Reg.  Courtenay,  I,  f.  336.  Injunc 
tion  to  Elstow  in  1390  and  repeated  by  Bishop  Flemyng  in  1421.  See 
above,  p.  396.  Compare  the  charge  against  Margaret  Fairfax,  Prioress  of 
Nunmonkton,  in  1397:  "Item,  moniales  quae  lapsae  fuerint  in  fornicatione 
faciliter  restituit."  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  469 

date  was  little  better  than  a  procuress.  Frequently  notorious 
evil-doers  retained  their  position,  and  it  is  surprising  to  notice 
how  often  persons  who  were  obviously  unsuitable  and  immoral 
were  elected  to  the  headship  of  a  house,  or  continued  to  hold 
that  position  after  conviction.  Sabina  de  Apelgarth,  who  had 
been  in  apostasy  when  a  simple  nun  of  Moxby  in  1310,  is  found 
holding  office  in  1318,  for  Archbishop  Melton  orders  her  to  be 
removed  from  all  offices  and  not  to  go  outside  the  convent  and 
couples  his  injunction  with  a  general  prohibition  against  any 
office  being  held  by  a  nun  convicted  de  lapsu  carnis.  Yet  she 
apparently  became  Prioress  of  the  house,  for  her  removal  on 
account  of  further  misconduct  is  noted  in  I3281.  Isabel  de 
Berghby,  Prioress  of  Arthington,  apostatised  in  1312,  but  re 
turned  eighteen  months  later  and  was  re-elected  Prioress  in  1349  2- 
In  1310  Isabella  de  St  Quintin  was  ordered  to  be  removed  from 
the  office  of  cellaress  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  convent  of 
Nunkeeling,  and  the  nuns  were  ordered  not  to  appoint  her  to 
any  other  office  nor  allow  her  to  leave  the  house;  but  in  1316 
Isabella  de  St  Quintin  was  elected  Prioress3.  Denise  Loweliche, 
the  Prioress  of  Markyate,  who  had  been  so  ready  to  add  perjury 
to  incontinence  in  1433  and  had  resigned  only  because  she  could 
not  find  four  nuns  to  swear  to  her  innocence,  was  still,  despite 
her  resignation,  Prioress  when  Alnwick  visited  the  house  in  1442. 
Abbess  Elizabeth  Broke  of  Romsey  was  similarly  re-elected,  after 
having  been  found  guilty  of  perjury  and  adultery4.  Even  the 
wicked  Prioress  of  Littlemore  (1517)  was  deprived  but  "allowed 
to  perform  the  functions  of  her  office  for  the  present,  provided 
she  did  nothing  without  the  advice  of  the  Bishop's  commissary" 
and  she  was  still  acting-Prioress  and  behaving  as  badly  as  ever 
when  the  house  was  visited  again  some  nine  months  later5. 
Moreover  it  was  possible  for  an  influential  sinner  to  obtain  a 
dispensation  reinstating  her  to  her  position  and  allowing  her 
!  to  hold  office.  Some  curious  papal  mandates  to  this  effect  are 
!  extant.  Joan  Goldesburgh,  a  nun  of  Nunmonkton,  is  so  dis- 
!  pensed  in  1450  "  to  receive  and  hold  any  dignities,  even  of  Abbess 
!  and  Prioress,  even  conventual,  of  her  order,  even  if  they  be 

1   V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  239.  2  Ib.  p.  183. 

|        3  Ib.  p.  120.   For  these  Yorkshire  cases  see  below,  Note  G,  passim. 
4  Liveing,  op.  cit.  pp.  213-6.  5  See  below,  Note  F. 


47°  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

elective  and  have  cure  of  souls"1,  and  two  nuns  of  Amesbury 
were  restored  to  their  voice  and  place  in  stall  and  chapter,  and 
rendered  eligible  for  all  offices  even  that  of  Abbess  in  1398  and 
14242.  On  the  other  hand  such  a  dispensation  shows  that  the 
penance  had  been  rigorously  enforced;  one  of  the  nuns  (a  serious 
offender  who  had  had  children  by  two  priests)  is  said  to  have 
lived  laudably  in  the  nunnery  for  six  years  since  her  condemna 
tion.  Occasionally,  moreover,  the  office  of  head  of  the  house  is 
specifically  excepted  in  the  dispensation3. 

Besides  punishing  offenders,  the  Bishops  took  steps  to  effect 
a  general  reform  of  convents  which  they  found  in  an  unsatisfac 
tory  moral  state,  by  removing  as  far  as  possible  the  conditions 
which  facilitated  immorality.  Such  steps  usually  consisted  in 
forbidding  the  nuns  to  wander  about  freely  outside  their  houses 
and  in  prohibiting  the  visits  of  men,  except  under  safeguards. 
Sometimes  a  careful  Bishop  issues  a  special  injunction  against 
a  particular  visitor,  sometimes  he  enumerates  painfully  a  list  of 
chaplains  and  others  whose  access  to  the  precincts  of  a  nunnery 
is  forbidden.  These  attempts  to  enforce  enclosure  have  been 
dealt  with  elsewhere  4,  and  a  study  of  convent  morals  shows  how 
necessary  a  principle  of  monastic  life  it  was  and  how  closely  the 
breach  of  it  was  connected  with  moral  decay.  The  attempt  at 
reform  by  stricter  enclosure  was,  as  we  know,  not  a  success.  The 
Bishops  "beat  the  air"  in  vain  with  their  restrictions.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  the  control  exercised  by  any  Bishop  over  the 
monastic  houses  of  his  diocese  varied  according  to  his  own  energy 
or  leisure.  If  visitation  were  made  only  at  rare  intervals,  abuses 
persisted  and  became  public  scandals  before  they  were  reformed, 
and  even  after  visitation  it  by  no  means  followed  that  abuses 
would  be  corrected5.  The  fact  is  that  the  medieval  bishops  were 
too  badly  overworked  to  be  able  to  keep  any  systematic  control 
over  the  monastic  houses  in  their  dioceses,  in  spite  of  the  energy 

1  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  x,  p.  471.  The  dispensation  mentions  that  she 
"has  secretly  lost  her  virginity  and  has  not  yet  been  publicly  defamed." 
*  Ib.  v,  p.  161  and  vn,  p.  373. 

3  The  Pope  writes  to  Mitford,   Bishop  of  Salisbury,   desiring  him  to 
restore  Alice  Wilton,  nun  of  Shaftesbury,  to  the  position  which  she  had 
forfeited  by  the  sin  of  incontinence.  The  Bishop  reinstates  the  nun  and 
declares  her  eligible  for  all  offices  except  that  of  Abbess.  V.C.H.  Dorset,  H, 
p.  78,  note  93. 

4  See  Chs.  ix,  x,  above.  »  See  below,  p.  491. 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  471 

which  some  of  them  gave  to  the  task  and  in  spite  of  a  liberal 
use  of  commissioners. 

To  pass  a  final  judgment  on  the  moral  state  of  English 
nunneries,  as  revealed  by  the  bishops'  registers  during  the  later 
middle  ages,  is,  as  has  already  been  suggested,  a  difficult  task. 
From  the  monastic  standard  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  been 
high,  but  from  the  human  standard  it  is  not  difficult  to  excuse 
these  women,  professed  so  young  and  with  so  little  regard  for 
vocation,  suos  color  es  macer  antes  juveniles.  The  nun  was  not  a 
saint;  she  was  "a  child  of  our  grandmother  Eve,  a  female,  or 
for  thy  more  sweet  understanding,  a  woman  " ;  and  only  a  habit 
of  making  allowances  for  human  nature  can  give  a  right  under 
standing  of  her.  The  explanation  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  that 
monasticism  as  a  career  is  not  for  I'homme  moyen  sensuel,  or 
even  for  la  femme  moyenne  sensuelle',  and  in  the  later  middle 
ages  many  folk  of  average,  or  more  than  average,  passions  entered 
it.  Indeed  its  whole  career  is  from  the  beginning  a  magnificent 
series  of  recoveries  from  a  melancholy  series  of  relapses.  Even 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  period,  the  golden  age  of  the  English  nun 
neries,  the  scandal  of  Coldingham  has  to  be  set  against  the  glory 
of  Whitby1.  In  the  height  of  the  twelfth  century  the  misdeeds 
of  Amesbury  provoke  episcopal,  royal,  and  papal  interference 
and  nuns  from  the  new  order  of  Fontevrault  are  brought  in  to 
reform  the  house2.  In  the  middle  of  the  splendid  thirteenth 
century  that  hammer  of  the  monks,  Bishop  Grosseteste,  who  in 
religiosos  terribiliter  et  in  religiosas  terribilius  consuevit  fulgurare, 
conceived  himself  justified  in  employing  measures  of  incredible 
brutality  for  assuring  himself  of  the  virtue  of  his  nuns3;  and  the 

1  Bede,  Eccles.  Hist.  Book  iv,  ch.  25. 

2  Benedict  of  Peterborough,  Gesta  Regis  Henvici  Secundi,  ed.  Stubbs 
(Rolls  Series,  1867),  I,  pp.  135-6.   Ralph  Niger  describes  the  transaction 
thus:  "  Juratus  se  tria  monasteria  constructurum,  duos  ordines  transvertit, 
personas  de  loco  ad  locum  transferens,  meretrices  alias  aliis,  cenomannicas 
Anglicis  substituens."  Ib.  u,  p.  xxx. 

3  "Et  quod  indignum  scribi,  ad  domos  religiosarum  veniens,  fecit  ex- 
primi  mammillas  earundem,  ut  sic  physice  si  esset  inter  eas  corruptela 
experiretur"  [1251].    Matt.  Paris,  Chron.  Majora,  ed.  H.  R.  Luard  (Rolls 
Series,   1880),  v,  p.  227.    In  1248  he  had  deposed  an  abbess  of  Godstow, 
Flandrina  de  Bowes,  and  Adam  Marsh  writes  to  him:  "Plurimum  credo 
fore  salutiferam  visitationem  quam  in  domo  Godestowe  fieri  fecistis.  Pater- 
nitatis  vestrae  sollicitudinem  largitio  divina  remuneret."  Monumenta  Fran- 
ciscana,  ed.  J.  S.  Brewer  (Rolls  Series,  1858),  p.  117.    If  Matthew  Paris' 


472  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH. 

evidence  of  bishops'  registers  for  the  second  half  of  the  century 
does  not  give  an  impression  of  much  greater  strictness  of  life 
than  is  found  in  the  nunneries  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  when  monasticism  had,  by  the  admission  of  its  apolo 
gists,  passed  its  prime1. 

Nevertheless  there  was  a  steady  movement  downhill  in  the 
history  of  the  monasteries  during  the  last  two  centuries  and  a 
half  before  the  dissolution2.  They  shared  in  the  growing  degrada 
tion  of  the  Church  in  its  head  and  members.  The  "mighty  lord 
who  broke  the  bonds  of  Rome"  may  have  been  actuated  merely 
by  a  desire  to  break  the  bonds  of  matrimony,  but  there  was 
some  need  for  reform  among  the  monastic  houses.  It  is  true 
that  the  so-called  scandalous  comperta  of  Henry  VIII's  visitors 
cannot  be  taken  at  their  face  value;  these  men  had  been  sent 
to  make  a  black  case  and  they  made  it,  nor  was  their  own 
character  such  as  to  encourage  the  slightest  belief  in  their  words. 
Yet  in  those  comperta  themselves  there  is  nothing  which  is  un 
familiar  to  the  student  of  episcopal  registers  for  two  centuries 
before,  and  charges  which  a  Layton  made  with  levity,  an  Alnwick 
was  forced  sometimes  to  make  with  despair3.  Yet  this  may  be 

account  of  his  procedure  be  true  it  would  seem  almost  to  rival  the  behaviour 
of  Layton  and  Legh,  however  different  the  character  and  motive  which 
inspired  it. 

1  The  earliest  list  of  comperta  which  we  possess  is  the  result  of  Arch 
bishop  Walter  Giffard's  visitation  of  Swine  in  1268.  Though  there  is  no 
charge  of  actual  immorality  the  house  was  in  a  thoroughly  unsatisfactory 
state.  The  Archbishop's  two  sisters,  the  one  Prioress  of  Elstow  and  the  other 
Abbess  of  Shaftesbury,  were  both  in  serious  trouble  in  1270  and  1298 
respectively,  their  nuns  being  also  involved,  and  in  1296  there  occurred  the 
famous  Giffard  abduction  from  Wilton.  Peckham's  injunctions  to  nunneries 
show  widespread  breach  of  enclosure  and  some  suspicious  conduct  during 
the  '8os,  a  nun  of  Lymbrook  is  guilty  with  a  monk  of  Leominster  in  1282, 
and  besides  Matthew  Paris'  account  of  Grosseteste's  proceedings  in  the 
diocese  of  Lincoln  in  1251,  we  have  notice  of  apostates  there  in  1295, 
1296  and  1298  and  in  the  York  diocese  in  1286,  1287,  1293  and  1299.  See 
this  chapter  and  notes,  passim. 

*  For  the  disappearance  or  suppression  of  eight  small  nunneries  prior 
to  *535  see  Note  H  below. 

3  At  Chicksand,  for  instance,  Lay-ton  "fownde  two  of  the  nunnes  not 
baron,"  and  at  Harrold  "one  of  them  hade  two  faire  chyldren,  another 
one  and  no  mo";  but  is  this  so  much  worse  than  what  Alnwick  found  at 
Catesby  and  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  in  the  same  diocese  a  century  before? 
Or  take  Layton's  description  of  the  Prior  of  Maiden  Bradley,  quoted  above; 
is  it  not  much  less  serious  than  the  description  of  Alexander  Black  of  Selby 
in  one  of  Archbishop  Giffard's  visitation  detecta  in  1275?  "Alexander  Niger, 
monachus,  tenet  Cristinam  Bouere  et  Agnetem  filiam  Stephani,  de  qua 


xi]  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  473 

said  for  the  nunneries  of  the  age,  over  and  above  the  allowance 
for  human  frailty:  not  all,  nor  even  the  majority,  were  tainted 
with  serious  sin,  though  all  were  worldly.  We  think  a  house 
particularly  disordered,  only  because  we  have  record  of  its 
failings;  of  its  virtues  we  have  no  record  in  inquisitions  which 
were  directed  towards  the  discovery  of  abuses.  It  is  true  that 
this  cuts  both  ways,  and  that  in  dioceses  where  few  or  no  registers 
and  reports  remain  the  fair  fame  of  the  nuns  remains  un 
blemished,  whatever  their  lives  may  have  been.  Happy  the 
nunnery  that  has  no  history.  Nevertheless  in  this  as  in  so  many 
other  tales  of  human  endeavour 

The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them — 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones, 

and  it  will  never  be  known  what  lives  of  self-sacrifice  and  devo 
tion  may  be  hidden  behind  the  Omnia  bene  of  an  obscure  visita 
tion  record.  The  words  of  the  sixteenth  century  poem  are  the 
wisest  judgment  on  medieval  nuns: 

For  sum  bene  devowte,  holy  and  towarde, 
And  holden  the  right  way  to  blysse  ; 
And  sum  bene  feble,  lewde  and  frowarde, 
Now  god  amend  that  ys  amys. 

The  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  amputated  in  England  a 
ilimb  of  the  Church,  which  though  diseased  was  yet  far  from 
(putrid.  We  have  no  means  of  guessing  what  the  later  history 

:  |of  the  nunneries  might  have  been.  The  English  nunneries  com 
pare  on  the  whole  favourably  with  contemporary  French  and 
[German  houses,  as  revealed  by  the  visitations  of  Rigaud  and 
tBusch,  and  they  certainly  never  reached  such  a  laxity  of  morals 
'and  such  a  complete  absence  of  any  spirituality  as  was  reached 

f  !by  the  convents  of  the  Latin  countries  at  a  later  date.  It  was 
never,  in  the  middle  ages,  the  mode  to  be  a  monachino  as  it  was 

suscitavit  prolem,  et  quamdam  mulierem  nomine  Anekous,  de  qua  suscitavit 

„     ^ivam  prolem  apud  Crol,  et  aliam  apud  Sneyth  quae  vocatur  Nalle,  et 

,     {ilias  infinitas  apud  Eboracum  et  Akastre  et  alibi,  et  quasi  in  qualibet  villa 

anam;  et  fetidissimus  est,  et  recte  modo  captus  fuit  cum  quadam  muliere 

.     'n  campis,  sicut  audivit."  Reg.  Walter  Giffard,  p.  326.  Or  than  what  Alnwick 

liscovered  at  the  New  Collegiate  Church  at  Leicester  in  1440?    Layton's 

general  charges  against  the  monks  and  nuns  of  Yorkshire  are  pure  gossip 

pr  invention;  but  we  should  not  have  been  deeply  surprised  to  find  them 

in  a  York  archiepiscopal  register  of  the  early  fourteenth  century. 


474  THE  OLDE  DAUNCE  [CH.  xi 

later  in  France  and  Italy1.  The  life  of  a  nun  had  not  yet  lost 
all  of  its  original  purpose  and  meaning  and  the  careers  of  a 
Virginia  Maria  de  Leyva,  of  a  Lucrezia  Buonvisi,  of  an  Angelique 
d'Estrees,  even  of  such  a  virtuous  flirt  as  Felice  Rasponi,  would 
not  have  been  possible  then2.  No  Casanova  could  have  found 
in  medieval  England  opportunity  for  those  astounding  intrigues 
with  the  M.M.  of  Venice  and  the  M.M.  of  Chambery,  which  fill 
so  large  a  place  in  his  Memoirs  and  are  so  significant  a  com 
mentary  upon  monastic  life  in  the  eighteenth  century3.  The 
reason  lies  perhaps  in  the  less  inflammable  temperament  of  the 
North,  but  still  more  in  the  different  standards  of  the  time.  The 
middle  ages  expressed  and  satisfied  their  passions  freely,  but 
debauchery  was  then  less  all-pervading  and  less  elegant.  Passion 
was  not  yet  degraded  to  fashion  and  the  lover  had  not  yet 
become  the  gallant.  The  sins  of  these  fifteenth  century  nuns  are  •: 
a  matter  of  rude  nature  and  not  of  "all  the  adulteries  of  art." 
That  which  was  expelled  with  a  pitchfork  had  not  yet  returned 
with  a  fan.  The  distinction  is  a  relevant  one.  A  vow  broken  for 
love  may  yet  have  force  and  reality;  a  vow  broken  for  amuse 
ment  has  none.  The  medieval  nunneries  never  sank  to  the  moral 
degradation  of  a  more  refined  and  artificial  age. 

1  Of  some  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  it  was  said,  and  said  with  horror,    j 
that  they  most  willingly  chose  their  mistresses  from  convents.   See  a  letter 
from  St  Boniface  to  Ethelbald  King  of  Mercia  on  this  point,  instancing  the 
similar  habits  and  evil  fates  of  Ceolred  of  Mercia  and  Osred  of  Northumbria 
(Bon.  Epis.  xix). 

2  For  these  ladies,  see  references  in  p.  451,  note  5,  and  below    p    501 
note  3. 

3  Memoires  de  J.  Casanova  de  Seingalt  (edition  Gamier,  1910),  tt.  n,  in,  iv. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM 

And  whan  they  had  resceyuede  [t]her  charge 
They  spared  nether  mud  ne  myer, 
But  roden  over  Inglonde  brode  and  large, 
To  seke  owte  nunryes  in  every  schyre. 

Why  I  can't  be  a  Nun  (i^th  century). 

A  COMMUNITY,  living  together  under  a  somewhat  rigid  rule  and 
obliged  to  concern  itself  with  a  large  measure  of  temporal  busi 
ness,  has  to  face  many  difficulties  and  abuses<  The  strictness  of 
its  discipline  and  the  prosperity  of  its  affairs  will  necessarily 
depend  very  largely  upon  the  character  and  intelligence  of  the 
individuals  who  compose  it.  A  diseased  limb  may  corrupt  the 
whole  body  politic;  or  on  the  other  hand  a  low  state  of  vitality 
in  the  body  politic  may  render  the  limb  liable  to  corruption. 
Again  rule  and  routine  inevitably  tend  in  the  course  of  time  to 
become  slackened,  as  human  nature  wins  its  way  against  the 
austerity  of  a  primitive  ideal.  Every  community,  therefore, 
needs  some  sort  of  machinery  on  the  one  hand  for  keeping  itself 
up  to  the  mark  and  on  the  other  for  the  external  inspection  and 
regulation  of  its  affairs.  The  monastic  houses  of  the  middle  ages 
were  provided  with  internal  machinery  for  self-reform  in  the 
daily  meeting  of  the  whole  convent  in  the  chapter  house,  to 
transact  business  and  to  denounce  and  punish  faults.  The  ex 
ternal  machinery  was  provided  by  an  elaborate  system  of  visita 
tion  by  ecclesiastical  authorities,  sometimes  by  a  parent  house, 
sometimes  by  the  chapter-general  of  the  order,  sometimes  by 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese ;  by  means  of  such  visitation  breaches 
of  discipline  and  morality  could  be  rectified  and  the  temporal 
business  of  the  house  could  be  scrutinised  for  evidence  of  mis- 
jmanagement. 

The  daily  routine  of  the  chapter  house  is  too  well  known  to 
peed  a  detailed  description  here.  The  whole  monastic  community 
was  bound  bv  the  rule  to  meet  every  day,  usually  after  Prime, 


476  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

in  the  chapter  house  on  the  east  side  of  the  cloister,  with  the 
head  of  the  house  (to  use  modern  terminology)  in  the  chair.  At 
this  meeting  a  chapter  of  the  Rule  was  solemnly  read,  after 
which  the  corporate  business  of  the  house  was  discussed.  Leases, 
sales,  and  corrodies  were  approved  or  disapproved,  and  the 
common  seal  of  the  convent  was  affixed  to  letters  and  grants,  in 
the  presence  of  all  the  monks  or  nuns.  The  neglect  to  transact 
common  business  by  common  advice  in  chapter  was  not  in 
frequently  a  legitimate  source  of  complaint  by  a  convent  against 
its  superior.  Besides  temporal  business  of  this  kind,  the  moral 
and  spiritual  welfare  of  the  convent  was  considered.  Wrongdoers 
publicly  accused  themselves  of  fault,  or  were  publicly  accused 
by  their  fellows,  and  correction  was  administered  by  a  "disci 
pline,"  or  by  some  other  penance.  By  means  of  the  chapter, 
a  convent  of  reasonable  seriousness  and  goodwill  could  keep  up 
its  own  standard  of  life  and  control  its  own  backsliders. 

Undoubtedly  the  chapter  was  a  useful  instrument  of  self- 
reform,  but  its  efficacy  obviously  depended  entirely  on  whether 
the  convent  as  a  whole  were  desirous  of  keeping  the  Rule  and 
punishing  black  sheep.  If  the  number  of  sheep  who  were  black, 
or  even  grey,  preponderated  and  if  laxity  were  general  in  the 
community,  the  chapter  would  not  concern  itself  to  raise  its 
own  standard.  From  the  frequent  injunctions  of  medieval  bishops 
that  the  daily  meeting  in  the  chapter  should  not  be  omitted,  it 
would  appear  that  not  only  the  public  transaction  of  business, 
but  also  the  public  confession  and  punishment  of  faults  was 
sometimes  neglected.  Moreover,  unless  entered  into  with  modesty 
and  a  sense  of  responsibility,  the  right  of  every  member  to 
charge  another  with  fault  was  a  sure  source  of  discord,  for  it 
certainly  provided  ample  opportunity  for  frail  human  nature  to 
exhibit  malice.  The  younger  nuns  were  apt  to  indulge  in  what 
their  elders  regarded  as  impudent  criticism;  private  grudges 
found  an  opportunity  to  vent  themselves;  and  rival  cliques 
sometimes  turned  the  meeting  into  an  unseemly  hubbub.  It  was 
perhaps  for  this  reason  that  the  Abbot  of  St  Albans,  visiting 
Sopwell  in  1338,  decreed  that 

for  the  avoidance  of  evils  and  for  the  promotion  and  maintenance 
of  peace  and  charity,  but  three  voices  shall  henceforth  be  heard  in 
chapter,  to  wit  those  of  the  president,  of  the  subprioress  or  of  another 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  477 

official  of  the  order,  and  of  her  who  shall  be  challenged  or  accused 
of  a  fault1. 

Another  common  abuse  was  the  gossip  to  which  such  revela 
tions  in  chapter  sometimes  gave  rise,  gossip  which  was  not  con 
fined  to  the  ears  of  the  nuns.  Bishop  Flemyng's  injunction  to 
Elstow  in  1421-2  "that  the  Abbess  shall  narrowly  espy  what 
secrets  of  chapter  be  in  any  way  disclosed,  punishing  severely 
also  those  who  trangress  in  this  matter"2  is  only  one  of  many 
similar  injunctions;  and  visitation  reports  sometimes  show  con 
siderable  interference  by  lay  folk  in  cloister  disputes.  During 
the  election  quarrel  which  raged  at  Nunkeeling  from  1316  to 
1319  Archbishop  Melton  accused  certain  nuns  of  revealing  the 
secrets  of  the  chapter  to  seculars  and  adversaries  outside,  and 
during  a  similar  quarrel  at  Keldholme  a  number  of  laymen  were 
cited,  together  with  certain  nuns,  for  obstructing  the  appoint 
ment  of  a  new  prioress  in  I3o83.  One  is  left  with  the  impression 
that  the  nuns  called  in  the  support  of  their  friends  and  kinsfolk 
in  the  world,  if  they  found  themselves  at  odds  with  their 
Prioress.  In  the  feud  between  the  wicked  Prioress  of  Littlemore 
and  her  nuns  (1518)  both  parties  had  adherents  in  Oxford:  the 
Prioress  brought  in  her  friends  to  subdue  the  nuns  and  the  nuns 
fled  to  theirs,  when  they  could  no  longer  bear  the  Prioress 4.  At 
i  Hampole,  where  Archbishop  Bowet  found  the  Prioress  and  nuns 
out  of  all  charity  with  each  other  in  1411,  he  even  had  to  ordain 
that  no  nun,  having  any  complaint  against  the  Prioress,  was 
to  ignore  the  Archbishop's  authority  and  call  in  the  aid  of  any 
secular  or  regular  person.  If  any  sister  wished  to  complain  and 
could  find  another  to  join  with  her,  she  was  to  have  access  to 
I  the  Archbishop,  the  necessary  expenses  being  given  her  by  the 
I  Prioress.  If  the  Prioress  refused  leave  or  delayed  it  beyond  three 
|  days,  the  two  nuns  were  to  have  access  to  the  Archbishop,  without 

1  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  pp.  365-6.  Compare  a  detectum  at  Crabhouse  (1514): 

!"Item,  the  younger  nuns  are  disobedient  and  when  the  seniors  charge 

;  them  with  their  faults  the  prioress  punishes  alike  the  reformers  and  the 

I  sinners."  Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp,  p.  109. 

i        2  Line.   Visit,  i,  p.  50.    Compare  Reg.  Walter  Giffard,  p.  249;   Visit,  oj 

'^Dioc.  of  Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp  ("Item  Dna.  A.D.  et  Dna.  G.  S....revelant 

1  secreta  religionis  et  correctionis  factae  in  conventu  ")  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo. 

Bokyngham,  ft.  397,  397^  ("Et  quod  nullum  decetero  capitulum  in  domo 

capitulari  in  presencia  secularis  seu  extranee  persone  quoquomodo  teneatur 

sub  pena  iniunccionis  nostre  infrascripta"). 

3   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  120,  167-8.  *  See  below,  Note  F. 


478  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

incurring  the  charge  of  apostasy1.  Sometimes  the  revelation  of 
convent  secreta  was  made  in  a  spirit  of  pure  gossip,  rather  than 
with  the  object  of  obtaining  external  aid;  the  complaint  of  the 
nuns  of  Catesby  in  1442  that  the  Prioress'  mother  "knows  well 
the  secrets  of  the  chapter  and  publishes  them  in  the  town;  so 
also  does  the  Prioress  publish  them,"  and  that  of  the  nuns  of 
Gracedieu  in  1440-1  that  "the  Prioress  makes  the  secrets  of 
their  religious  life  common  among  the  secular  folk  that  sit  at 
table  with  her"  are  typical  of  many  others2. 

The  meeting  of  the  chapter,  therefore,  though  a  useful  instru 
ment  of  self-reform,  when  the  necessary  goodwill  was  present, 
was  liable  to  abuses.  It  was  apt  to  be  neglected;  it  gave  rise  to 
ill-feeling;  and  it  sometimes  led  to  undesirable  gossip,  both 
inside  and  outside  the  house.  It  is  obvious,  moreover,  that  a 
measure  of  external  control  was  necessary  to  keep  up  the  standard 
of  life  in  the  many  monastic  houses  of  Europe  and  to  reform 
common  breaches  of  discipline.  This  external  control  was  exer 
cised  in  the  middle  ages  by  three  distinct  authorities:  (i)  a 
parent  house,  (2)  the  chapter  general  of  the  Order  and  (3)  the 
diocesan  of  the  see. 

Certain  houses,  which  had  founded  other  houses  as  offshoots 
or  colonies,  retained  the  right  to  visit  and  reform  their  daughter- 
houses.  Some  monasteries  had  small  outlying  priories,  known 
as  "cells,"  founded  originally  to  look  after  distant  estates  of  the 
house ;  sometimes  such  cells  contained  only  one  or  two  monks, 
living  in  an  ordinary  dwelling  house,  and  had  no  real  existence 
apart  from  the  parent  house.  Sometimes,  however,  the  cells 
grew  and  achieved  an  independent  existence,  though  still  main 
taining  their  connection  with  their  founders.  This  frequently 
happened  to  the  English  cells  of  foreign  houses,  and  certain  cells 
of  English  houses  also  grew  into  independent  priories.  Among 
nunneries,  originally  founded  as  cells  of  foreign  houses,  may  be 
mentioned  Lyminster  in  Sussex.  Few  English  nunneries  had 
cells;  but  Seton  in  Coupland  was  a  cell  of  Nunburnholme.  The 
connection  between  mother  house  and  cell  is  illustrated  by  a 
licence  granted  by  Archbishop  Greenfield  to  the  Prioress  of 
Nunburnholme  in  1313  to  visit,  "your  cell  of  Seton  in  Coupland, 
which  is  subject  to  your  monastery,"  taking  with  her  two  honest 
1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in.  p.  164.  a  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  47,  120. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  479 

nuns  of  the  house,  in  order  to  visit  the  nuns  of  Seton,  and 
returning  without  delay1.  The  visitation  of  the  cell  was  usually 
included  in  that  of  the  mother  house  and  the  larger  independent 
cells  were  often  subject  to  episcopal  visitation. 

Rather  different  in  origin  from  a  cell  was  a  house  founded 
by  a  monastery,  less  as  a  colony  than  as  a  distinct  but  dependent 
institution.  The  most  interesting  example  of  this  is  provided  by 
the  great  Abbey  of  St  Albans,  which  founded  two  nunneries, 
St  Mary  de  Pre  and  Sopwell.  Both  the  nunneries  were  always 
I  very  dependent  on  St  Albans  and  are  often  mentioned  in  the 
'  chronicles  of  that  house.  St  Mary  de  Pre,  having  been  founded 
in  the  twelfth  century  as  a  hospital  for  leprous  women  living 
,  under  a  rule,  became  later  an  ordinary  nunnery,  containing  nuns, 
land  both  lay  sisters  and  lay  brothers;  in  the  time  of  Abbot 
Thomas  de  la  Mare  (1349-96)  the  rank  of  sister  was  abolished 
and  a  higher  standard  of  education  was  insisted  upon  for  the 
nuns,  who  were  to  profess  the  rule  of  St  Benedict2.  Sopwell  was 
also  founded  in  the  twelfth  century  as  a  Benedictine  nunnery3. 
In  both  houses  nuns  were  admitted  only  by  consent  of  the  Abbot 
of  St  Albans,  who  also  claimed  the  right  to  appoint  their  prioress. 
In  both  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  convent  were  administered 
by  wardens,  appointed  by  the  Abbot  from  among  the  monks  of 
the  abbey4.  The  close  connection  was  not  always  maintained 
j without  friction.  At  Sopwell  the  nuns  more  than  once  tried  to 
;elect  their  own  prioress  and  seem  to  have  found  the  Abbot 
'.somewhat  high-handed5.  In  1481  Abbot  Wallingford  sent  the 
archdeacon  and  subprior  of  the  house  to  remove  the  prioress 
;from  office  on  account  of  her  age  and  infirmities  and  to  put 

1  V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  118. 

2  For  an  account  of  the  house,  see  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  428-32.  The 
(regulations  made  by  Abbot  Richard  de  Wallingford  (1328-36)  are  given 
in  Gesta  Abbot,  n,  pp.  213-4  and  those  by  Abbot  Michael  or  his  successor 
jThomas  de  la  Mare  in  Cott.  MS.  Nero  D.  i.  ff.  173-4^;   regulations  by 
'Thomas  de  la  Mare  (1349-96)  occur  in  Gesta  Abbot,  n,  p.  402.    See  also 
W.  Page,  "  Hist,  of  the  Monastery  of  St  Mary  de  Pre"  (St  Albans  and  Herts. 
Arch.  Soc.  Trans.  (New  Series)  i). 

3  For  an  account  of  the  house,  see  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  pp.  422-6. 

4  The  accounts  of  the  warden  of  St  Mary  de  Pre  for  1341-57  are  preserved 
Jin  the  Public  Record  Office  (Mins.  Accts.,  bundle  867,  Nos.  21-6)  and  are 
described  in  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  430  (notes).    In  the  second  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century  the  accounts  seem  to  have  been  kept  by  the  Prioress; 
ithose  for  1461-93  have  survived.    Ib.  p.  431  (note). 

5  See  Gesta  Abbot,  n,  p.  212. 


480  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

Elizabeth  Webbe  in  her  place,  but  some  years  later  the  arch 
deacon  deposed  Elizabeth,  whereupon  she  brought  an  action 
against  him  in  the  Court  of  Arches  and  was  reinstated.  There 
upon  "two  monks  of  St  Albans,  sent  by  the  archdeacon,  came 
to  the  nunnery,  broke  down  Elizabeth's  door  with  an  iron  bar, 
beat  her  and  put  her  in  prison,"  after  which  she  appealed  to 
Archbishop  Morton  as  Chancellor1.  She  may  have  been  at  the 
bottom  of  the  famous  letter  written  by  Morton  to  the  Abbot 
of  St  Albans  in  1490,  accusing  him  of  changing  prioresses  at 
Pre  and  at  Sopwell  as  he  pleased  and  deposing  good  and  religious 
persons  for  the  benefit  of  the  evil  and  vicious,  and  stating  that 
the  Prioress  of  St  Mary  de  Pre,  Helen  Germyn,  was  a  married 
woman  who  had  left  her  husband  for  a  lover  and  that  she  and 
some  of  her  nuns  were  leading  immoral  lives  with  monks  of 
St  Albans2.  The  same  letter  accused  the  monks  put  in  as  wardens 
of  using  their  opportunities  to  dissipate  the  goods  of  the  house, 
and  the  turbulent  Prioress  of  Sopwell,  Elizabeth,  is  found  com 
plaining  to  the  Chancellor  that  a  deed  of  lease  by  the  convent 
had  been  secretly  altered  to  their  disadvantage  by  their  "  keeper  " 
and  his  clerk,  who  had  been  bribed  by  a  tenant3. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  much  truth  there  was  in  these 
charges  and  they  certainly  do  not  seem  to  show  overmuch  care 
for  the  reform  of  the  daughter  houses  by  their  august  parent. 
But  it  would  not  be  fair  to  judge  St  Albans  by  this  quarrel  at  - 
the  end  of  its  career,  and  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  past 
abbots  tried  conscientiously  to  maintain  good  order  in  the  de 
pendent  nunneries.  Among  other  rights  the  abbot  possessed 
that  of  visitation,  and  chance  has  fortunately  preserved  an  inter 
esting  set  of  injunctions  sent  by  Abbot  Michael  to  Sopwell,  after  • 
a  visitation  held  in  I3384.  The  orders  given  to  the  Warden  of 
Sopwell  by  Abbot  Thomas  (1349-96)  have  also  been  preserved 
in  the  Gesla  Abbatum5. 

Another  nunnery  founded  by  a  famous  abbey  of  monks  was 
St  Michael's,  Stamford,  founded  by  William  of  Waterville,  Abbot 

1  Quoted  from  P.R.O.  Early  Chancery  Proceedings,  181/4  in  V.C.H.  Herts. 
TV,  pp.  424-5. 

3  Wilkins,  Concilia,  m,  p.  632.  3   V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  425. 

4  Printed  in  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  pp.  365-6  and  Gesta  Abbat.  ed.  Riley, 
ii,  App.  D.  pp.  511-19- 

6  Gesta  Abbat.  in,  p.  519. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  481 

of  Peterborough  in  1155;  and  this  house  remained  for  long 
dependent  upon  its  parent  abbey1.  In  its  early  years  it  was 
customary  for  the  prioress  in  the  name  of  the  chapter  to  pay 
an  annual  pension  of  a  mark  of  silver  to  the  Abbot  and  to  make 
formal  recognition  of  subjection,  once  every  year,  on  the  morrow 
of  the  Feast  of  St  Michael.  The  Abbot  had  the  right  of  receiving 
the  profession  of  the  sisters  and  his  consent  was  necessary  to 
the  election  of  the  prioress.  He  also  had  the  appointment  of 
the  warden  or  prior,  who  looked  after  the  temporalities  of  the 
house.  In  1270  Bishop  Gravesend  sanctioned  the  personal  visita 
tion  of  the  house  once  a  year  by  the  abbot  and  two  or  three 
monks,  with  power  to  correct  and  reform,  and  the  Register  of 
the  Abbey  records  such  visitations  in  1297,  1300,  1303  and  1323. 
The  tendency  was,  however,  for  the  diocesan  to  oust  the  abbey 
from  the  control  of  the  house ;  from  time  to  time  he  claimed  and 
exercised  the  right  of  instituting  the  warden,  and  from  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century  he  regularly  instituted  the  prioress. 
From  this  time  the  bishops'  registers  show  that  the  regulation 
(and  reform  of  the  house  were  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop  and  it 
was  duly  visited  by  Alnwick  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  ac 
counts  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford,  show  that  the  nuns  still  had 
dealings  with  the  Abbey;  but  Peterborough  did  not  retain  over 
this  nunnery  the  exclusive  rights  of  appointment  and  visitation, 
(which  St  Albans,  owing  to  its  exemption  from  diocesan  control, 
jsxercised  to  the  end  overSopwell  and  St  Mary  de  Pre.  There  is  no 
nention  of  either  of  these  houses  in  the  episcopal  registers. 

Nunneries  subject  to  visitation  by  a  parent  abbey  were  highly 
xceptional.  Another  exceptional  method  of  external  control 
vas  visitation  by  the  chapter-general  of  the  order,  to  which  the 
mnnery  belonged.  Nuns  as  well  as  monks  were  constantly  legis- 
ated  for  by  these  chapters-general,  but  they  were  very  rarely 
l-isited,  because  (as  we  shall  see)  they  were  almost  all  subject 
'o  visitation  by  the  bishop  of  their  diocese.  A  trace  of  visitation 
j>y  order  of  the  chapter-general  seems  to  survive  in  a  letter 
jrom  the  Abbot  of  Stratford  (4  December,  1491),  preserved 
jmong  the  Cistercian  documents  in  the  archives  at  Dijon2.  The 
ibbot  relates  that  he  had  visited  Cokehill,  found  it  in  a  very 

1  See  V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  pp.  98-101. 

2  E.H.R.  1914,  p.  38  (note  60). 

P.N.  31 


482  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

unsatisfactory  condition  and  tried  in  vain  to  depose  the  prioress  ; 
at  other  times,  however,  Cokehill  was  visited  by  the  Bishops 
of  Worcester.  The  Cistercian  order  claimed  exemption  from 
episcopal  visitation  for  male  houses  and  we  shall  see  that  it  made 
occasional  attempts  to  exert  its  right  over  nunneries  too. 

By  far  the  most  common  method  of  reforming  nunneries  from 
outside  was  by  means  of  the  control  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese1. 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  not  even  the  greatest  and  most 
important  Benedictine  abbeys  of  women,  such  as  Shaftesbury, 
Amesbury  and  Romsey,  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  exemption 
from  episcopal  jurisdiction  such  as  was  enjoyed  by  St  Albans 
and  some  other  houses;  and  nunneries  belonging  to  "exempt" 
orders  were  invariably  under  episcopal  control.  Bishops,  who 
would  never  have  dreamed  of  interfering  with  houses  of  Cistercian 
or  Cluniac  monks,  visited  the  nuns  of  those  orders  as  a  matter 
of  course  and  no  objection  was  as  a  rule  raised  by  the  houses 
or  by  the  orders.  There  is,  it  is  true,  one  extremely  interesting 
case  in  which  this  right  of  visitation  was  contested.  In  1276 
the  nuns  of  Sinningthwaite  contested  the  right  of  Archbishop 
Giffard  of  York  to  visit  them  and  appealed  against  him  to  the 
Pope.  Unfortunately  the  papal  decision  is  not  recorded,  but  as 
they  were  regularly  visited  until  their  dissolution,  it  was  evi 
dently  against  them.  They  possibly  acted  in  collusion  with  the 
Cistercian  abbots  of  their  diocese,  for  in  the  same  year  Arch 
bishop  Giffard  ordered  them  to  have  Friars  Minor  as  their  con 
fessors,  in  spite  of  the  inhibition  of  Cistercian  abbots,  who  had 
no  jurisdiction  over  them2.  The  Cokehill  case  quoted  above  may 

1  The  religious  houses  were  also  subject  to  metropolitan  visitation  by 
the  Archbishop.    Among  important  records  of  visitations  of  nunneries  by 
the   Archbishop  of  Canterbury  or  by  his  commissioners  are  Peckham's 
visitations  (Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  passim)  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  Courtenay's  visitations  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
fourteenth  century  (see  Lambeth,  Reg.  Courtenay,  i,  f.  335^,  for  his  injunc 
tions  to  Elstow  in  1389,  used  by  Flemyng  as  a  model  for  his  own  injunctions 
in  1421-2,  Line.    Visit,  i,  p.  48)  and  Archbishop  Morton's  visitations  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century  (see  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey 
Abbey,  pp.  217-22  for  the  visitation  of  Romsey  in  1492).  The  visitations 
of  the  Winchester  diocese  by  Dr  Hede,  commissary  of  the  Prior  of  Canter 
bury,  during  the  vacancy  of  the  sees  of  Canterbury  and  Winchester  in 
1501-2  were  made  in  the  same  right  (see  V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  pp.  124,  129. 
135.  151)- 

2  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  176  (quoting  Dugdale,  Mow.  v,  pp.  464-5  and 
Reg.  Giffard  (Surtees  Soc.),  p.  295). 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  483 

represent  a  similar  attempt  of  the  Cistercian  chapter-general  to 
control  a  nunnery  belonging  to  the  order.  For  the  historian  of 
the  English  nunneries  it  is  an  exceedingly  fortunate  thing  that 
the  diocesans  enjoyed  this  unchallenged  right  of  visitation  over 
almost  all  the  nunneries  in  the  kingdom;  for  the  episcopal 
registers  are  the  best  source  of  monastic  history  and  an  exempt 
house  (save  when  it  was  a  famous  abbey  with  a  chronicle)  is  not 
infrequently  a  house  without  history,  because  without  visitation 
records. 

Since  the  periodical  visitation  by  the  diocesan  was  not  only 
the  main  method  of  external  control  and  reformation,  but  also 
incidentally  gave  rise  to  the  records  on  which  so  much  of  this 
history  of  nunneries  is  based,  it  is  worth  while  to  study  what 
exactly  happened  when  a  bishop,  or  his  commissioners,  came  to 
inspect  a  nunnery.  A  regular  routine  was  followed,  which  can 
easily  be  reconstructed  from  such  full  records  as  those  kept  by 
Bishop  Alnwick  of  Lincoln1.  A  formal  summons  was  sent  by  the 
bishop  to  the  house  to  be  visited,  warning  the  convent  to  hold 
itself  in  readiness  for  visitation  by  himself,  or  by  one  or  more 
commissioners  (named).  On  the  appointed  day  he  rode  up  to 
the  house,  accompanied  by  his  clerks,  and  was  met  at  the  door 
of  the  church  by  the  convent  and  conducted  to  the  high  altar. 
Here  high  mass  was  celebrated  and  the  bishop,  his  clerks  and 
the  convent  then  adjourned  to  the  chapter  house  for  the  business 
of  visitation.  The  proceedings  began  with  the  preaching  of  a 
sermon  by  one  of  the  bishop's  clerks;  in  houses  of  monks  this 
was  given  in  Latin,  until  the  end  of  our  period,  but  knowledge 
of  Latin  had  died  out  in  nunneries  before  the  fifteenth  century 
and  at  Alnwick's  visitation  the  sermon  was  always  preached  in 
the  vulgar  tongue,  on  some  such  text  as  "  Go  forth,  0  ye  daughters 
of  Zion  and  behold  king  Solomon"  (Cant.  iii.  n),  "Present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice  .  .  .  unto  God"  (Rom.  xii.  i),  or  others  less 
specifically  appropriate  to  nuns.  When  this  had  been  finished,  the 
head  of  the  house  was  required  to  present  a  certificate  of  receipt  of 
the  summons  to  visitation,  which  had  to  be  drawn  up  according 
to  a  common  form ;  and  this  not  infrequently  caused  some  delay 
in  nunneries,  where  the  inmates  were  often  too  ignorant  of  Latin 

1  See  Line.  Visit,  n,  passim,  and  also  the  Editor's  admirable  introduc 
tion  to  Line.  Visit.  I,  pp.  ix-xiii. 

31—2 


484  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

to  draw  up  the  document  correctly,  unless  they  could  call  in 
the  help  of  a  clerk1.  The  head  of  the  house  then  produced  the 
certificate  of  her  election,  confirmation  by  the  diocesan  and 
installation.  Here  again  there  was  sometimes  a  delay,  for  prioresses 
were  occasionally  all  at  sea  over  documents  and  the  necessary 
certificates  were  apt  to  be  lacking  at  the  last  minute.  Thus  Dame 
Alice  Dunwyche,  the  incompetent  old  Prioress  of  Gracedieu,  was 
unable  to  produce  any  evidence  of  her  confirmation  in  1440  and 
the  bishop  had  to  appoint  a  special  commissary  to  inquire  into 
the  matter;  three  months  later  the  commissary  examined  two 
laymen  brought  by  her  as  witnesses  to  her  confirmation  and 
installation2.  Meanwhile  the  visitation  would  continue;  and  the 
last  formality  to  be  observed  was  the  production  by  the  prioress 
of  the  foundation  charter  of  the  house,  and  the  financial  balance 
sheet  (or  status  domus)  for  the  year,  this  last  an  important 
item,  since  it  enabled  the  bishop  to  see  at  a  glance  whether  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  convent  were  in  a  satisfactory  condition3. 
This  completed  the  preliminary  business. 

There  now  followed  the  main  business  of  the  visitation,  the 
verbal  examination  of  the  nuns,  in  order  to  detect  what  abuses 
might  stand  in  need  of  reform.  Some  abuses  were  patent  to  the 
eyes  of  the  bishop;  he  could  see  garments  in  holes,  and  veils 
spread  wide  to  show  fair  foreheads;  he  might  have  caught  the 
scuttle  of  little  dogs  round  corners  as  he  rode  in  at  the  gates, 
or  the  whisk  of  a  boarder's  murrey-coloured  skirts  behind  a 
pillar.  But  the  bulk  of  his  information  had  to  be  obtained  by 
careful  cross-examination.  The  chapter  house  was  cleared  and 
he  proceeded  to  question  the  nuns  separately  and  in  private, 
beginning  with  the  prioress.  Experience  would  teach  him  what 
were  the  most  common  breaches  of  discipline  about  which  to 
make  specific  inquiry,  but  the  nuns  were  encouraged  to  complain 
freely  and  the  bishop's  clerks  were  kept  busy  scribbling  notes  of 
what  each  shrill  tale-bearer  told,  to  be  written  out  afterwards 
under  her  name  as  detecta,  or  things  discovered  to  the  bishop. 
See  above,  p.  250.  2  ^nc  Visii  n  pp  IIQ>  I26_7 

Sometimes  the  bishop's  clerk  summarises  the  information  given  as  to 
the  financial  state  of  the  house,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
prioress  gave  and  the  bishop  accepted  merely  a  verbal  account.  See 
Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  38.  In  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Atwater,  f.  42,  is  a  brief 
account  of  a  visitation  of  Ankerwyke  in  1519,  to  which  is  added  the  status 
domus  as  submitted  by  the  nuns,  comprising  an  inventory. 


I   xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  485 

These  detecta  are  an  amusing  commentary  on  life  in  a  com- 

|  munity  and  grist  (it  must  be  admitted)   to  the  cynic's  mill. 

i  Serious  charges  of  immorality  are  mingled  with  trivialities,  much 

as  the  chroniclers  of  the  period  mingle  battles,  monastic  gossip 

and  sea  monsters  cast  upon  the  shore.  The  beer  is  too  light ;  swine 

I  do  come  into  the  churchyard  and  root  up  the  earth  and  befoul 

the  churchyard ;  all  corrections  are  made  with  so  great  harshness 

and  so  much  ado  that  charity  and  loving-kindness  are  banished 

I  from  the  house;  the  nuns  do  hold  drinkings  of  evenings  in  the 

guestch amber,  even  after  Compline;  the  prioress  has  pawned  the 

I  jewels  of  the  house;  sister  so-and-so  is  defamed  with  sir  so-and- 

i  so,  sometime  chaplain  in  that  place  and  did  conceive  of  him  and 

j  bear  a  child;  the  buildings  and  tenements  of  the  priory  are 

j  dilapidated   and  many  have  fallen  to  the  ground  because  of 

default  in  repairs;  secular  persons  do  lie  in  the  dorter  near  the 

j  nuns;  the  nuns  wear  silken  veils  and  robes;  in  the  prioress' 

I  default  six  nuns  have  now  left  the  house  in  apostasy ;  the  nuns 

i  frequent  taverns  and  continually  go  into  town  without  leave; 

1  silence  is  not  observed  in  due  places;  the  nuns  do  help  secular 

i  folk  in  garnering  their  grain  during  the  autumn  season ;  the  nuns 

are  somewhat  sleepy  and  come  late  to  matins;  the  prioress  does 

not  render  an  account.  Besides  this  infinite  variety  of  complaint, 

the  detecta  exhibit  also  an  infinite  variety  of  motive,  ranging 

,  from  the  disciplinarian's  zeal  for  reform  to  the  private  grudge 

of  one  individual  against  another.    Sometimes  the  prioress  and 

the  nuns  engage  in  mutual  recriminations :  she  is  harsh,  or  auto- 

cratic,  or  incompetent,  they  are  lax  or  disobedient.   Sometimes, 

j  on  the  other  hand,  a  whole  convent  declares  omnia  bene.  About 

j  some  houses  there  still  hangs  a  gentle  atmosphere  of  peace  and 

|  goodwill,  others  are  rent  with  feud  and  petty  bickering,  others 

:  are  in  a  condition  of  very  lax  morality.   Human  nature  is  truly 

;  unchanging,  for  all  the  types  to  be  met  with  in  a  modern  com- 

•  munity,  be  it  school  or  college,  ship  or  government  office,  have 

j  their  prototypes  among  these  medieval  monks  and  nuns.  The 

i  amateur  in  human  nature  and  the  social  historian  alike  may  find 

|  in  these  little  studied  monastic  detecta  material  of  more  absorbing 

I  interest  and  entertainment  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  other 

class  of  medieval  documents. 

After  the  bishop  had  heard  the  evidence  of  the  nuns,  given 


486  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [en. 

thus  chaotically,  the  next  business  was  to  summarise,  in  some 
sort  of  order,  the  result  of  the  inquiry.  Such  complaints  of  the 
nuns  as  the  bishop  considered  worthy  of  notice  were  therefore 
classified  as  comperta,  or  things  discovered  by  the  bishop.  If  any 
member  of  the  convent  had  been  accused  of  serious  breaches 
of  the  rule,  she  was  summoned  and  the  articles  of  accusation 
were  read  to  her,  and  one  by  one  she  was  invited  to  admit  or 
to  deny  them.  If  she  pleaded  guilty,  a  penance  was  enjoined 
upon  her.  If  she  denied  the  charge,  she  was  ordered  to  find  a 
certain  number  of  compurgators,  who  would  swear  to  her  in 
nocence,  and  to  produce  them  by  a  certain  hour.  The  number 
of  cases  in  which  misconduct  was  sufficiently  serious  to  make 
this  necessary  was  not  great.  During  Alnwick's  visitation  it 
happened  at  Catesby,  where  the  prioress  and  Isabel  Benet  were 
charged  with  immorality;  the  prioress  denied  the  charge,  but 
was  unable  to  find  four  sisters  to  vouch  for  her  and  was  adjudged 
guilty;  Isabel  Benet  admitted  misconduct,  but  not  with  the 
man  whose  name  was  coupled  with  hers,  and  she  seems  to  have 
cleared  herself  of  intercourse  with  him  by  the  oath  of  four  of 
the  nuns1.  Usually  the  bishop  showed  himself  lenient  and  al 
lowed  the  agitated  sinner  an  extension  of  time,  if  she  could  not 
find  her  compurgators  within  the  period  allotted  to  her2.  Whether 
this  leniency  is  to  be  attributed  to  Christian  charity,  or  to  a 
desire  to  avoid  scandal,  is  not  clear;  but  if  a  prioress  could  not 
in  two  hours  find  four  nuns  to  swear  that  she  was  not  guilty, 
the  value  of  their  oaths,  when  they  appeared  after  four  hours' 
canvassing,  would  not  appear  to  be  very  great.  Yet  it  is  impossible 
not  to  understand  the  bishop's  desire  to  give  a  sinner  the  benefit 
of  the  doubt;  fright  and  admonition  alone  might  reform  her, 
and  it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  deal  with  a  really  bad  prioress, 
when  she  could  not  be  ejected  from  her  order. 

The  bishop  having  dealt  with  individual  offenders,  the  whole 
convent  was  summoned  once  more  to  the  chapter  house.  The 
detecta  and  comperta  were  read  aloud  to  the  nuns  and  the  bishop 
made  verbal  injunctions  upon  points  which  stood  in  special  need 
of  reform.  He  then  dissolved  the  visitation;  or,  if  any  further 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  49-50. 

2  See  e.g.  the  case  of  Denise  Loweliche  at  Markyate  in  1433,  Line.  Visit. 
I.  PP-  83-5. 


xn]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  487 

business  remained  to  be  dealt  with,  prorogued  it  until  a  later  date. 
Then  he  rode  away  again,  and  the  fluttered  convent  settled  down 
again  to  gossip  and  to  await  further  injunctions.    For  the  ad 
monitions  of  the  bishop  at  the  visitation  were  only  interim  injunc 
tions;  his  business  was  not  finished  until  he  had  sent  to  the 
nunnery  a  set  of  written  injunctions,  embodying  the  reforms 
shown  to  be  necessary  by  the  comperta.  These  written  injunc 
tions  were  sent  to  the  convent  shortly  after  the  visitation.  Some 
times  the  clerk  who  brought  them  was  ordered  to  expound  them, 
or  some  reverend  commissioner  was  sent  to  complete  at  the  same 
time  any  special  business  arising  out  of  the  visitation.    For 
instance,  when  Peckham  sent  a  set  of  injunctions  on  April  2oth, 
1284,  to  the  Priory  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  Canterbury,  which 
had  been  visited  by  commissioners  on  his  behalf,  he  also  ad 
dressed  a  letter  to  his  commissary  Martin,  bidding  him  go  in 
person  to  the  house  and  expound  the  injunctions  to  the  nuns. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  ordered  (i)  to  appoint  two  coadjutresses 
to  the  prioress,  who  had  been  wasting  the  goods  of  the  house; 
one  of  these  was  named  and  Martin  was  particularly  warned 
against  appointing  another  nun,  who  was  said  to  be  contumelious ; 
(2)  to  beseech  the  Vicar  of  Wickham  on  behalf  of  the  Archbishop 
to  undertake  the  office  of  master  of  the  house,  so  as  to  order  its 
temporal  affairs ;  (3)  to  receive  the  compurgation  of  Isabella  de 
Scorue,  who  was  defamed  with  the  cellarer  of  the  cathedral 
church  and  to  forbid  all  the  nuns  access  to  the  cathedral  and 
the  cellarer  access  to  the  priory1.  These  pieces  of  specific  and 
administrative  business  were  not  mentioned  in  Peckham's  more 
general  injunctions.  The  injunctions  were  left  in  the  hands  of 
the  convent  and  from  that  moment  became  as  canonically  binding 
upon  the  nuns,  as  was  their  original  rule;  any  breach  of  them 
was  liable  to  punishment  by  excommunication.  The  prioress  was 
usually  ordered  to  display  them  in  a  place  where  they  could  be 
easily  read  by  the  sisters,  or  to  have  them  solemnly  read  aloud 
in  chapter  a  certain  number  of  times  each  year. 

It  was  by  this  machinery  of  visitation  and  injunction  that 
the  diocesans  endeavoured  to  control  and  reform  the  nunneries. 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  n,  pp.  706-8  (injunctions),  708-9 
(mandate  to  commissary).  Compare  the  proceedings  at  Ankerwyke  six 
months  after  Alnwick's  visitation.  Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  7. 


488  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

But  how  far  was  the  control  adequate  and  the  reform  successful? 
It  is  obvious  that  the  efficacy  of  the  visitation  system  depended 
on  three  things:  (i)  the  success  of  the  cross-examination  in 
drawing  the  real  state  of  the  convent  from  the  nuns,  (2)  the 
regularity  with  which  visitation  was  repeated,  (3)  the  ability  of 
the  bishop  to  enforce  his  injunctions.  As  to  the  first  of  these 
conditions,  the  extent  to  which  breaches  of  discipline  came  to 
light  depended  on  the  skill  of  the  bishop  in  cross-examination 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the  honesty  of  the  nun's 
desire  to  assist  him.  If  a  convent  were  seriously  discontented 
the  chances  were  that  charges  would  be  freely  made :  thus  Alnwick 
experienced  no  difficulty  in  extracting  an  almost  unanimous 
testimony  against  the  Prioress  of  Catesby.  But  this  did  not 
always  happen;  as  is  shown  by  Gray's  letter  bidding  his  com 
missary  visit  Markyate  in  1433: 

When  we  some  time  ago  made  actual  visitation... of  the  priory  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  of  the  Wood  by  Markyate ,  we,  making  anxious  in 
quiry  touching  the  state  of  the  same  priory  and  the  concerns  of  religion 
in  the  same,  found  that  in  such  our  visitation  certain  crimes,  trans 
gressions  and  offences  worthy  of  reformation  were  discovered  to  us 
by  occasion  whereof... we  enjoined  upon  the  prioress  and  convent  of 
the  same  place  certain  in  junctions....  But...  it  has  lately  come  to 
our  hearing,  as  loud  whispering  abounds  and  the  notoriousness  of  the 
fact  has  made  public,  that  more  grievous  offences  than  were  dis 
covered  to  us  in  the  same  our  visitation  were  before  the  beginning 
of  the  same  unhappily  brought  to  pass  and  done  in  the  same  priory, 
the  which  the  said  prioress  and  her  sisters  of  their  design  aforethought 
concealed  from  us  undiscovered  at  the  time  of  such  our  visitation1. 

One  of  the  matters  thus  concealed  was  the  immorality  of  the 
prioress  with  the  steward  of  the  house,  a  fact  which  seems  to 
have  been  notorious  throughout  the  neighbourhood. 

When  such  a  grave  defect  could  be  successfully  hidden  from 
the  bishop  at  his  visitation,  it  is  obvious  that  he  could  do  little 
against  a  unanimous  determination  on  the  part  of  a  convent  to 
keep  him  in  the  dark.  He  was  really  dependent  upon  disagree 
ment  within  the  house;  a  conscientious  nun  or  a  nun  with 
a  grudge  served  him  equally  well.  But  it  seems  likely  that 
concealment  was  not  seldom  practised,  for,  as  Mr  Coulton 
points  out,  "among  the  earliest  and  most  frequently-repeated 

1  Line.  Visit.  I,  pp.  82-3. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  489 

general  chapter  statutes  are  those  providing  against  (a)  con 
spiracy  of  the  Religious  against  reformation,  or  (b)  vengeance 
wreaked  afterwards  upon  brethren  who  have  dared  to  reveal  the 
truth"1.  Some  of  the  detecta  at  Alnwick's  visitation  throw  light 
on  the  efforts  made  (usually  by  the  prioress)  by  conspiracy  and 
by  vengeance  to  prevent  the  nuns  from  testifying.  At  Catesby 
the  evil  prioress,  Margaret  Wavere,  had  excellent  reasons  for 
fearing  a  disclosure  of  her  way  of  life.  Sister  Juliane  Wolfe 
deposed  "that  the  prioress  did  threaten  that,  if  the  nuns  dis 
closed  aught  in  the  visitation,  they  should  pay  for  it  in  prison." 
Dame  Isabel  Benet  (by  no  means  a  paragon  of  virtue  herself) 
deposed  that  "in  the  last  visitation  which  was  made  by  the  Lord 
William  Graye,  the  prioress  said  that  for  a  purse  and  certain 
moneys  a  clerk  of  the  said  bishop  made  known  what  every  nun 
disclosed  in  that  visitation."  Sister  Alice  Kempe  said  that  "be 
cause  the  nuns  at  the  last  visitation  disclosed  what  should  be 
disclosed,  the  prioress  whipped  some  of  them."  All  of  these 
articles  the  prioress  denied,  but  she  was  undoubtedly  guilty  and 
was  unable  to  find  compurgators2.  At  Legbourne  the  prioress 
took  a  course  with  which  one  cannot  avoid  a  certain  sympathy. 
Dame  Joan  Gyney  deposed  that 

the  prioress,  after  she  received  my  lord's  mandate  for  the  visitation, 
called  together  the  chapter  and  said,  if  there  were  aught  in  need  of 
correction  among  them,  they  should  tell  it  her;  because  she  said  it 

1  G.  G.  Coulton  in  Eng.  Hist.  Review  (1914),  p.  37.  "The  locus  classicus 
here  is  the  Evesham  Chronicle,  in  which  one  of  the  most  admirable  abbots 
of  the  thirteenth  century  tells  us  how  solemnly  he  and  his  brethren  had 
promised  to   conceal  all  their  former  abbot's  blackest  crimes  from  the 
visiting  bishop;  and  how  they  would  never  have  complained  even  to  the 
legate  (whose  jurisdiction  they  did  recognize)  if  only  the  sinner  had  kept 
his  pact  with  them  in  money  matters." 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  47,  48,  49,  52.  At  Heynings  (where  nothing  seriously 
amiss  transpired)  one  nun  said  that  "the  prioress  reproaches  her  sisters, 
saying  that  if  they  say  aught  to  the  bishop,  she  will  lay  on  them  such 
penalties  that  they  shall  not  easily  bear  them."  Ib.  p.   133.  The  wicked 
Prioress  of  Littlemore  was  found  in  1517  to  have  ordered  her  nuns  on  virtue 
of  their  obedience  to  reveal  nothing  to  the  commissioners  and  in  1518.; 
was  stated  that  she  had  punished  them  for  speaking  the  truth  at  the 
visitation.   V.C.H.  Lines,  n,  p.  75.  At  Flixton  in  1514  it  was  said:  "The 
sisters  scarce  dare  to  depose  the  truth  on  account  of  the  fierceness  of  the 
prioress."  Visit,  of  the  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  143. 
For  episcopal   injunctions   against   revealing   or   quarrelling   over   detecta 
made  at  the  visitation,  see  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  51,  124,  etc.,  Yorks.  Arch. 
Journ.  xvi,  p.  442,  Reg.  Epis.  Johannis  Peckham,  n,  p.  661. 


49°  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

was  more  suitable  that  they  should  correct  themselves  than  that  others 
should  correct  them1. 

At  Ankerwyke  Prioress  Clemence  Medforde,  conscious  of  many 
misdeeds  and  of  the  cordial  dislike  of  her  nuns,  "did  invite 
several  outside  folk  from  the  neighbourhood  to  this  visitation 
at  great  cost  to  the  house,  saying  to  them,  '  Stand  on  my  side 
in  this  time  of  visitation,  for  I  do  not  want  to  resign.'  "  She 
admitted  the  entertainment  of  her  friends,  "but  it  was  not  to 
this  end"  .  Recriminations  after  the  visitation  are  even  com 
moner  than  preliminary  attempts  to  circumvent  it.  At  Gracedieu 
the  ill-tempered  old  prioress  confessed,  on  being  confronted  with 
the  detection  of  one  of  her  nuns  to  that  effect,  that  she 
since  and  after  the  visitation  last  held  therein  by  his  [Alnwick's] 
predecessor,  did  reproach  her  sisters,  because  of  the  disclosures  at 
the  same  visitation  and  did  blame  them  therefore  and  has  held  and 
holds  them  in  hatred,  by  reason  whereof  charity  and  loving-kindness 
were  utterly  banished  and  strivings,  hatreds,  back-bitings  and  quar- 
rellings  have  ever  flourished  3. 

The  second  condition  for  the  efficacy  of  episcopal  visitation 
as  a  method  of  reform  is  the  regularity  of  such  visitation. 
Obviously  if  visitations  are  very  rare  the  hold  of  the  diocesan  on 
a  house  will  be  weak;  for  much  water  may  flow  under  the  bridge 
between  one  visitation  and  the  next.  The  general  rule  in  vogue 
in  the  middle  ages  was  that  each  house  should  be  visited  once 
in  every  three  years,  which  was  in  theory  a  very  adequate 
arrangement.  It  seems  clear,  however,  that  it  was  not  always 
carried  out.  The  work  was  done  by  one  overworked  bishop  in 
person  or  by  commissioners  specially  appointed  by  him  for  the 
visitation  of  each  house.  In  a  big  diocese,  such  as  Lincoln  or 
York,  which  abounded  in  monastic  houses,  the  work  of  visitation 
was  a  really  considerable  labour,  for  it  was  only  one  part  of  the 
bishop's  multifarious  duties;  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  conclude 
that  the  regularity  of  visitation  differed  very  much  from  diocese 
to  diocese  and  from  time  to  time.  The  bishops  themselves  varied 
very  much  in  energy  and  conscientiousness,  but  on  the  whole  it 
is  evident  that  they  took  their  duties  seriously  and  honestly 
endeavoured  to  keep  up  the  standard  of  life  in  their  dioceses. 
No  one  can  put  down  the  record  of  Rigaud's  visitations  of  the 

1  Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  184-5.  2  Ib  p    . 

*  Ib.  pp.  120,  122,  123-4. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  491 

diocese  of  Rouen,  Greenfield's  visitations  of  the  diocese  of  York, 
and  Alnwick's  visitations  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  without  a 
profound  respect  for  those  prelates.  But  though  they  did  much, 
they  could  not  do  enough. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  incidental  evidence  in  the  visitation 
reports,  which  shows  that  visitations  were  held  too  seldom  to 
be  really  effectual.  Gracedieu,  for  instance,  had  not  been  visited 
between  1433,  when  Gray  came,  and  1440—1 ;  and  by  this  last 
date  it  had  fallen  into  such  laxity  that  reform  must  have  been 
difficult.  Markyate  was  unvisited  between  1433  and  1442,  in 
spite  of  the  deprivation  of  the  prioress  for  immorality  and  the 
apostasy  of  one  of  the  nuns  in  1433.  There  are  few  houses  in 
the  annals  of  English  nunneries  in  so  bad  a  state  as  Littlemore 
was  in  1517;  yet  the  Prioress,  forced  at  last  to  confess  her  mis 
deeds,  which  comprised  not  only  habitual  incontinence  but  the 
persecution  of  her  nuns,  stated  that  though  these  things  had 
been  going  on  for  eight  years,  yet  no  inquiry  had  been  made  and, 
as  it  seems,  no  visitation  of  the  house  had  been  held ;  only  on  one 
occasion  certain  injunctions  of  a  general  kind  had  been  sent 
her1.  On  the  other  hand  the  registers  show  that  a  real  attempt 
was  often  made  to  grapple  with  a  really  serious  case.  St  Michael's, 
Stamford,  for  instance,  was  visited  by  Alnwick  in  1440  and 
found  to  be  in  a  disorderly  state;  he  gave  careful  interim  injunc 
tions  on  the  spot  and  sent  written  injunctions  afterwards.  The 
house,  however,  was  ruled  by  a  thoroughly  incompetent  prioress, 
and  the  bishop  seems  to  have  made  inquiries  and  found  that 
his  reforms  had  not  been  carried  out,  for  in  1442  he  came  again, 

and  then  after  the  cause  of  such  his  visitation  had  been  set  forth  and 
explained  to  the  said  prioress  and  nuns  by  the  same  reverend  father, 
to  wit  because  his  injunctions  at  his  first  visitation... were  not  duly 
kept,  he  proceeded  to  his  preparatory  inquiry. 

This  inquiry  showed  that  matters  were  if  anything  worse  than 
before;  and  in  1445  the  bishop  visited  the  house  again2.  Similarly, 
when  once  Bishop  Atwater  had  awakened  to  the  moral  condition 

1  V.C.H.  Lines,  u,  p.  76. 

2  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff .  83,  39^,  96.  Similarly  at  Ankerwyke,  where  there 
was  great  discord  between  Prioress  and  nuns,  he  prorogued  his  visitation  for 
six  months  and  then  sent  down  commissioners  to  expound  his  injunctions, 
inquire  how  they  were  followed  and  deal  with  further  grievances.  Line 
Visit,  n,  pp.  6-8. 


492  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

of  Littlemore  in  the  next  century,  he  took  pains  to  reform  it. 
The  scandals  were  brought  to  light  at  the  visitation  by  his 
commissary  Dr  Horde  in  1517;  a  few  months  later  the  bishop 
summoned  the  prioress  before  him  to  answer  the  charges  made 
against  her  and  after  a  lapse  of  nine  months  the  house  was 
visited  again  in  15  iS1. 

But  if  visitations  were  sometimes  not  held  regularly  enough 
to  be  really  effective,  a  still  greater  cause  of  weakness  was  the 
great  difficulty  experienced  by  the  bishops  in  controlling  the 
religious  houses  in  the  period  between  one  visitation  and  the  next 
and  in  enforcing  their  injunctions.  A  bishop  might  send  a  set  of 
the  most  salutary  injunctions  to  an  undisciplined  house;  but  how 
was  he  to  secure  that  the  nuns  followed  them,  save  by  the  most 
solemn  threats  of  excommunication,  which  they  seem  often 
enough  to  have  disregarded.  Markyate,  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
and  Littlemore  went  steadily  from  bad  to  worse  between  each  of 
the  visitations  made  by  Gray,  Alnwick  and  Atwater  respectively. 
In  1442 

Dame  Elizabeth  the  prioress  [of  St  Michael's],  being  asked  whether 
she  has  observed  and  caused  to  be  observed  by  the  others  my  lord's 
injunctions  made  to  them  at  another  time,  says  that,  so  far  as  she 
has  been  able  she  has  kept  them  and  caused  them  to  be  kept  by 
:  howbeit  she  says  that  she  does  not  lie  in  the  dorter  or 
keep  f rater,  or  even  keep  cloister  or  church  according  to  my  lord's 
injunction  and  this  because  of  her  bodily  incapacity.  And  she  avers 
that  my  lord  granted  her  a  dispensation  touching  these  things  the 
which  my  lord  utterly  disavows2. 

These  were  comparatively  trivial  faults;  since  the  last  visitation 
one  of  the  nuns  had  had  a  child;  and  at  the  next  visitation,  three 
years  later,  the  same  fate  was  found  to  have  overtaken  another, 
which  is  a  significant  commentary  on  the  effectuality  of  episcopal 
control. 

The  fundamental  difficulty  was  that  the  bishop  was  obliged 
in  the  nature  of  things  to  trust  largely  to  the  prioress  and  to 
the  nuns  themselves  to  enforce  his  decrees.  Quis  custodiet  ipsos 
custodes?  Sometimes  the  very  women  whom  he  singled  out  for 
special  trust  were  subsequently  found  to  be  worse  than  their 
sisters.  Indeed  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  account  for  the 
principle  on  which  coadjutresses  were  appointed.  It  surely  seems 

1   V.C.H.  Lines,  ii,  pp.  76-7.  «  Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  39<Z. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  493 

somewhat  like  tempting  providence  that  Alnwick  should  have 
selected  Isabel  Benet,  the  only  other  nun  in  the  house  who  was 
defamed  of  incontinence,  to  be  administrator  in  place  of  the 
suspended  Prioress  of  Catesby,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  read 
of  the  later  escapade  of  that  lady  at  a  dance  with  the  friars  of 
Northampton  and  of  their  refusal  to  obey  his  ordinance  against 
private  rooms1.  The  only  intelligible  principle  of  the  bishop 
would  appear  to  have  been  that  applied  by  Henry  VII  to  the 
Earl  of  Kildare,  "All  Ireland  cannot  rule  this  man;  then  he 
shall  rule  all  Ireland."  It  is  moreover  significant  (as  has  already 
been  pointed  out)2  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  a  prioress,  how 
ever  wicked,  was  suspended  rather  than  deprived ;  even  Denise 
Loweliche  and  Katherine  Wells  remained  in  office  after  their 
resignation.  It  was  indeed  too  embarrassing  to  know  what  to 
do  with  a  sinner.  She  could  not  be  expelled  from  her  order; 
if  she  were  kept  in  the  same  house  in  a  subordinate  position 
she  would  probably  make  her  successor's  life  a  burden;  if  she 
were  transferred  to  another  house  she  would  probably  corrupt 
a  hitherto  unblemished  flock.  The  bishops  did  their  best  in  the 
face  of  great  difficulties,  but  it  is  plain  that  the  prioresses  some 
times  thought  little  enough  of  their  authority.  The  rather  dis 
reputable  old  Abbess  of  Romsey,  Joyce  Rowse.  said  openly 
to  her  nuns  that  when  the  inquiry  (held  in  1492)  was  finished 
she  would  do  as  she  had  done  before;  and  she  kept  her  word3. 
At  Ankerwyke  in  1441  one  little  nun  of  tender  age  explained 
to  the  bishop  "that  the  prioress  doth  not  provide  this  deponent 
with  bed-clothes,  insomuch  that  she  lies  in  the  straw;  and  when 
my  lord  had  commanded  this  deponent  to  lie  in  the  dorter,  and 
this  deponent  asked  bed-clothes  of  the  prioress,  she  said  chidingly 
to  her,  '  Let  him  who  gave  you  leave  to  lie  in  the  dorter  supply 
you  with  raiment '  "  4. 

Though  the  bishops  for  the  most  part  did  their  work  con 
scientiously  it  is  difficult,  in  the  light  of  the  considerations  which 
have  been  urged  above,  to  conclude  that  their  visitations  had 
a  lasting  effect.  But  if  the  visitations  and  the  injunctions  based 
on  them  were  sometimes  of  small  value  for  their  purpose,  they 
have  an  incidental  value  to  historians  which  cannot  be  over- 

1  See  above,  pp.  388-9,  460.  2  See  above,  p.  469. 

3  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  220.  *  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  5. 


494  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

estimated.  There  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  bishops'  registers 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  complete  visitation  reports, 
comprising  detecta  and  comperta  (or  sometimes  comperta  only) 
and  injunctions1,  and  a  much  larger  number  of  injunctions, 
without  the  comperta  on  which  they  were  based.  The  similarity 
in  wording  of  episcopal  injunctions,  combined  with  the  fact  that 
the  most  important  collection  of  complete  reports  (Alnwick's 
visitations)  was  until  recently  unknown,  has  led  many  writers 
to  argue  that  injunctions  were  mere  general  "common  form/' 
without  any  relation  to  specific  abuses  found  at  the  house  to 
which  they  were  sent,  "left,"  as  Mr  Hamilton  Thompson  says, 
"like  portentous  visiting  cards  upon  a  convent,  to  show  that 
the  diocesan  had  duly  called  "2.  The  point  is  of  great  importance, 

As  full  reports  containing  detecta  or  comperta  are  specially  valuable, 
it  may  be  useful  to  indicate  those  concerning  nunneries,  which  have  been 
published :  (i)  The  earliest  comperta  extant  are  those  of  Archbishop  Giffard's 
visitation  of  Swine  in  Yorkshire  in  1267-8;  the  individual  detecta  are  absent, 
but  there  is  a  fine  set  of  injunctions,  issued  two  months  later,  the  earliest 
English  nunnery  injunctions  which  we  possess,  Reg.  Walter  Giffard  (Surtees 
Soc.),  pp.  147-8,  248-9.  (2)  The  comperta  of  Archbishop  Wittlesey's  metro 
politan  visitation  of  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge  (including  only  interim 
injunctions)  have  been  published  in  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge, 
PP-  35-6-  (3)  The  Sede  Vacante  visitation  of  Arden  in  1396  includes  detecta 
but  no  injunctions,  Test.  Ebor.  i,  pp.  283-5  (note)  and  that  of  Nunmonkton 
in  the  same  year  includes  comperta  and  injunctions,  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv, 
p.  194:  both  of  these  are  concerned  almost  entirely  with  charges  against 
the  respective  prioresses.  (4)  The  finest  collection  in  existence  is  Alnwick's 
book  of  Lincoln  visitations,  which  is  in  the  course  of  publication,  Line. 
Visit,  ii  and  in  (in  the  press).  (5)  Records  of  visitations  of  Rusper  and 
Easebourne  from  the  Chichester  registers  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  contain  detecta  and  some  injunctions,  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.  v  and  ix, 
passim.  (6)  Records  of  the  visitations  of  monastic  houses  in  the  diocese 
of  Norwich  by  Bishops  Gold  well  (1492-3)  and  Nykke  (1514-32)  include 
detecta  and  injunctions  (sometimes  only  interim),  Visit,  of  Dioc  of  Norwich 
ed.  Jessopp,  passim.  (7)  Dr  Hede's  Sede  Vacante  visitations  of  the  four 
in  the  diocese  of  Winchester  in  1501-2,  summarised  in  V.C  H 
Hants,  ii,  passim,  include  detecta,  but  not  injunctions.  (8)  Archbishop 
Warham's  visitations  of  houses  in  the  diocese  of  Canterbury  (Holy  Sepulchre 
Canterbury,  the  hospital  of  St  James,  Canterbury,  Sheppey  and  Davington) 
in  1511  include  detecta  and  sometimes  injunctions,  Eng.  Hist.  Review  vi 
When  more  registers  are  published  other  detecta  and  comperta  will  doubtless 
appear;  there  are  some  valuable  sets,  still  in  manuscript  in  Line  E-bis 
Reg.  Visit.  Atwater  and  ib.  Reg.  Visit.  Longland. 

2  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  xlviii;  for  an  admirable  and  detailed  discussion  of 
the  whole  question,  m  the  light  of  Alnwick's  records,  Mr  Hamilton  Thomp 
son's  introduction  to  this  volume  (especially  pp.  xliv-li)  should  be  studied 
bee  also  the  learned  article  by  Mr  Coulton  on  "The  Interpretation  of 
Visitation  Documents,"  E.H.R.  1914,  pp.  16-40. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  495 

for  it  involves  the  reliability  of  injunctions  as  evidence  of  the 
state  of  a  particular  convent  at  a  particular  time. 

The  answer  to  this  view  of  "common  form"  is  easily  found 
if  we  study  the  process  by  which  injunctions  were  composed,  as 
revealed  in  the  great  series  of  visitations  by  Bishop  Alnwick. 
They  were  drawn  up  with  great  care  by  the  bishop's  registrar 
and  he  based  them  upon  two  sources,  the  detecta  and  comperta 
of  each  visitation,  which  had  been  noted  down  on  the  spot  by 
clerks,  and  the  sets  of  injunctions  sent  to  other  religious  houses, 
which  were  regularly  copied  into  the  episcopal  register  as  models 
for  future  use.    It  is  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  case  that 
monasteries  subject  to  the  same  original  rule  and  statutory 
regulations  and  living  under  almost  identical  conditions,  should 
be  subject  to  similar  breaches  of  discipline.   It  is  only  necessary 
to  study  those  detecta  which  have  been  preserved  to  perceive 
how  universal,  in  all  dioceses  and  among  both  sexes,  were  (for 
instance)  the  customs  of  drinking  after  Compline,  forming  separate 
"households,"  taking  unlicensed  boarders,  making  unwise  grants 
of  corrodies  and  long  leases,  wandering  abroad  in  the  world,  and 
wearing  worldly  garments.  The  registrar  did  not  wish  to  invent 
new  wording  every  time  these  offences  occurred;  he  used  a 
common  form  for  them.  But "  common  form  "  has  here  a  different 
sense  from  that  in  which  it  is  used  by  those  who  question  the 
value  of  injunctions  as  evidence.  The  registrar  never  made  an 
injunction  which  was  not  based  upon  a  detectum  made  at  the 
house  to  which  the  injunction  was  directed.    Injunctions  are 
common  form  only  because  they  deal  with  common  errors.    If 
an  almost  similar  set  be  sent  to  two  houses,  it  is  because  the 
houses  have  displayed  (as  is  indeed  only  natural)  almost  similar 
faults;  and  where  the  two  sets  differ,  they  differ  not  accidentally, 
but  of  careful  purpose.    It  was  the  business  of  the  registrar  to 
express  the  injunctions  in  general  terms,  even  though  a  fault 
may  have  been  that  of  a  single  individual,  because  they  were 
intended  to  be  canonically  binding  upon  the  whole  convent.  The 
reason  why  injunctions  have  survived  in  much  greater  numbers 
than  the  detecta  upon  which  they  were  based,  is  that  the  clerks 
copied  into  the  bishop's  register  only  common  forms,  which 
would  be  likely  to  be  useful.  The  record  of  individual  evidence 
would  not  help  them;  but  a  carefully  worded  injunction  might 


496  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH. 

be  used  over  and  over  again,  whenever  the  fault  with  which  it 
dealt  recurred  at  the  same  or  another  house.  No  one  who  has 
studied  the  relation  of  detecta  and  injunctions  in  Alnwick's  book 
of  visitations  can  doubt  the  value  of  the  latter  as  evidence,  when 
they  appear  alone;  the  very  process  by  which  "Dame  Alice 
Decun  says  that  only  two  little  girls,  of  six  or  seven  years,  do 
lie  in  the  dorter"  is  transmuted  into  the  common  injunction 
"that  ye  suffre  ne  seculere  persones  wymmen  ne  childern  lyg 
by  nyghte  in  the  dormytory"  is  patent  in  the  register. 

If  the  reliability  of  the  injunctions  be  thus  accepted,  it  is 
almost  unnecessary  to  point  out  what  an  invaluable  source  of 
evidence  is  to  be  found  in  the  bishops'  registers.  Controversialists 
have  fought  ad  nauseam  over  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the 
"scandalous  comperta"  of  Henry  VIII's  commissioners,  without 
understanding  that  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  before  the 
Dissolution  the  comperta  and  injunctions  in  the  registers  give 
a  picture  of  English  monasticism  coloured  by  no  ulterior  motive. 
Even  after  a  large  number  of  the  registers  have  been  published, 
historians  are  still  content  to  paint  monastic  life  in  the  later 
middle  ages  from  the  monastic  rule,  ignoring  the  evidence  of 
practice  which  is  always  necessary  to  supplement  the  evidence 
of  theory.    Not  even  the  chronicles  of  an  earlier  age  are  more 
interesting;  the  record  of  Alnwick  is  as  valuable  as  that  of 
Jocelin  of  Brakelonde.  In  dioceses  where  registers  were  regularly 
kept  and  have  survived  uninjured  and  where  injunctions  were 
punctiliously  copied,   the  history  of  a  house  may  be  traced 
throughout  the  whole  period  covered  by  this  book.  The  dioceses  of 
Winchester,  Lincoln  and  York  are  most  fortunate  in  this  respect. 
To  select  a  few  examples  at  random,  there  are  extant  records  of 
the  visitation  of  Romsey  Abbey  by  Archbishop  Peckham  in 
1284,  by  Bishop  John  of  Pontoise  in  1302,  by  Bishop  Henry 
Woodlock  in   1311,  by  Bishop  William  of  Wykeham  in  1387, 
by    Archbishop    Morton    (through    his    vicar-general,    Robert 
Shirbourne)  in  1492,  by  Dr  Hede,  commissary  of  the  Prior  of 
Canterbury,  during  the  vacancies  of  the  sees  of  Canterbury  and 
Winchester  in  1502,  by  Bishop  Fox  (through  his  vicar-general, 
John  Dowman)  in  1507,  again  (through  Master  John  Incent)  in 
1523  and  again  (through  the  vicar-general)  in  1527^  It  is  thus 
1  Liveing,  op.  cit.,  pp.  99,  etc. 


xii]  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  497 

possible  to  describe  with  approximate  accuracy  the  life  of  this 
great  convent  during  the  whole  period  from  1284  to  the  Dissolu 
tion.  Similarly  records  have  survived  of  visitations  of  Elstow 
Abbey  by  Bishop  Gynewell  in  1359,  Bishop  Buckingham  in 
1387,  Archbishop  Courtenay  in  1389,  Bishop  Flemyngin  1421-2, 
Bishop  Gray  in  1434,  Bishop  Alnwick  in  1442-3,  and  Bishop 
Longland  in  1530  and  1531.  Of  Nunappleton  Priory  there  are 
recorded  visitations  by  Archbishop  Wickwane  in  1281,  Arch 
bishop  Melton  in  1318,  Archbishop  Zouche  in  1346,  Archbishop 
Rotherham  in  1489  and  Archbishop  Lee  in  1534.  Moreover 
mandates  concerning  isolated  pieces  of  business,  elections,  per 
mits  to  receive  boarders,  orders  to  reform  specific  abuses,  are 
scattered  through  the  registers  and  provide  useful  supple 
mentary  information. 

All  houses  are  not  as  well  represented.    In  some  dioceses 

injunctions  are  rarely  recorded:  the  fine  series  of  registers  for 

Hereford  yield   surprisingly  few.    Some   houses  emerge   only 

rarely  into  the  light  with  a  single  set  of  injunctions;  others  (and 

among  them  important  houses  such  as  Lacock  and  Amesbury) 

lack  even  a  single  visitation  report  to  rescue  their  inmates  from 

oblivion.    But  the  geographical  range  of  the  surviving  reports 

is  sufficiently  great  to  enable  the  formation  of  an  accurate  general 

account  of  English  nunneries  during  the  later  middle  ages.   One 

warning  only  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader.    If  it  is 

unhistorical  to  write  an  account  of  monastic  houses  based  solely 

upon  the  rule,  it  is  also  unhistorical  to  write  one  based  solely 

on  visitation  documents.  The  detecta  made  to  a  bishop  were,  and 

were  intended  to  be,  revelations  of  faults;  it  was  not  the  function 

of  the  bishop's  clerk  to  catalogue  virtues,  though  sometimes  a 

string  of  "  omnia  bene,"  or  a  curt  note  to  the  effect  that  my 

\  lord,  finding  little  in  need  of   reformation,  passed   on,  bears 

I   positive  witness  to  a  convent's  good  life.    It  must  always  be 

!   remembered,  in  estimating  the  state  of  a  house  from  a  set  of 

j   detecta  and  injunctions,  that  though  they  are  indubitably  the 

I   truth,  they  are  not  the  whole  truth.  Goodness  is  after  all  largely 

|   a  matter  of  proportion;  and  though  convents  are  to  be  found 

:   which  were  positively  bad,  in  others  there  were  probably  virtues 

i   of  kindness,  piety  and  a  brave  struggle  against  poverty,  which 

would  counterbalance   (if  we  knew   them),   the   unfavourable 

P.N.  32 


498  THE  MACHINERY  OF  REFORM  [CH.  xil 

impression  left  by  a  string  of  accusations.  Moreover  by  far  \he 
larger  number  of  the  detecta  witnesses  to  a  growing  worldliness 
and  to  minor  breaches  of  the  rule,  rather  than  to  serious  moral 
defects.  If  the  community  concerned  were  other  than  a  nunnery 
ostensibly  following  a  strict  rule,  we  should  hardly  consider  the 
faults  to  be  faults  at  all.  The  immorality,  bad  temper  and 
financial  mismanagement  revealed  at  some  houses  would  be 
reprehensible  in  all  communities  at  all  ages;  but  in  themselves 
boarders,  pretty  clothes,  pet  dogs  and  attendance  at  christenings 
are  not  heinous  crimes.  It  is  necessary,  in  dealing  with  medieval 
nuns  as  with  all  other  subjects,  to  preserve  a  sense  of  proportion 
and  a  firm  hold  upon  human  nature. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE 

"Or  dient  et  content  et  fablent." 

Aucassin  et  Nicolette. 

"LA  SCIENCE,"  said  a  wise  Frenchman,  "atteint  1'exactitude; 
il  appartient  a  1'art  seul  de  saisir  la  verite."  And  another, 
"L'histoire  vit  de  documents,  mais  les  documents  sont  pareils 
aux  lettres  ecrites  avec  les  encres  chimiques;  ils  veulent, 
pour  livrer  leur  secret,  qu'on  les  rechauffe,  et  les  eclaire 
par  transparence,  a  la  rlamme  de  la  vie."  The  quotations 
are  complementary,  for  what,  after  all,  is  literature  but  a  form 
of  life;  the  quintessence  of  many  moods  and  experiences, 
the  diffused  flame  concentrated  and  burning  clearly  in  a 
polished  lamp.  The  historian  who  wishes  to  reach  beyond 
accuracy  to  truth  must  warm  those  invisible  writings  of  his  at 
the  flame  of  literature,  as  well  as  at  his  own  life.  He  must  vitalise 
the  visitation  reports  for  himself  (it  is  not  difficult,  they  move 
and  live  almost  without  him) ;  but  he  must  make  use  also  of  the 
life  of  writers  long  since  dead.  There  is  hardly  a  branch  of  litera 
ture  which  has  not  its  contribution  for  him.  The  story-teller  has 
his  tale,  which  holdeth  children  from  play  and  old  men  from 
the  chimney  corner.  The  ballad-man  has  his  own  pithy  judgment 
in  the  guise  of  an  artless  rhyme.  The  teacher  has  his  admonitions, 
whence  may  be  learnt  what  men  conceived  to  be  the  nun's  ideal 
and  purpose  in  this  cloistered  life.  The  moralist  has  his  satire, 
to  show  wherein  she  fell  short  of  such  lofty  heights.  And  the 
poet  himself  will  hold  his  mirror  up  to  nature,  that  we  may  see 
after  five  hundred  years  what  he  saw  with  his  searching  eyes, 
when  Madame  Eglentyne  rode  to  Canterbury,  or  when  the  nuns 
of  Poissy  feasted  a  cavalcade  from  court.  The  world  was  subject 
matter  for  all  these,  whether  they  wrote  with  a  purpose  or  with 
out  one;  there  is  life  even  in  the  crabbed  elegiacs  of  Gower, 
grumbling  his  way  through  the  Vox  Clamantis;  there  is  much 

32—2 


500  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

life  in  the  kindly  counsels  of  the  Ancren  Riwle\  there  is  God's 
plenty  indeed  in  the  stories  and  songs  which  the  people  told. 
It  is  the  historian's  business  to  call  in  these  literary  witnesses 
to  supplement  his  documents.  To  the  account-roll  and  the 
bishop's  register  must  be  added  the  song,  the  satire  and  the 
sermon.  Alnwick's  visitations,  with  the  story  of  "Beatrix  the 
Sacristan"  behind  them,  have  twice  as  much  significance;  Madame 
Eglentyne  and  Margaret  Fairfax  lend  to  each  other  a  mutual 
illumination ;  little  captured  Clarice  Stil  needs  Deschamps'  Novice 
of  Avernay  by  her  side  before  her  case  can  be  well  understood. 
It  is  of  these  composite  portraits  that  truth  is  put  together  and 
history  made. 

An  analysis  of  the  classes  of  medieval  literature  in  which 
there  is  mention  of  nuns  shows  from  how  wide  a  field  the  his 
torian  can  draw.  The  most  obvious  of  these  classes  is  that  which 
contains  biographies  and  autobiographies  of  saints  and  famous 
women  who  were  nuns.  Such  are  the  writings  of  the  great  trio 
who  made  famous  the  nunnery  of  Helfta  in  the  thirteenth  cen 
tury,  the  beguine  Mechthild  of  Magdeburg  and  the  nuns  Mech- 
thild  of  Hackeborn  and  Gertrud  the  Great1 ;  the  lives  and  writings 
of  Luitgardof  Tongres2,of  St  Clare3 and  of  St  Agnes  of  Bohemia4; 
the  memoir  and  letters  of  Charitas  Pirckheimer,  Abbess  of  a 
Franciscan  convent  at  Nuremberg,  who  was  a  sister  of  the 

1  Revelationes  Gertrudianae  ac  Mechthildianae,  ed.  Oudin  (Paris,  1875). 
See  also  Preger,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Mystik  im  Mittelalter  (1874),  i, 
pp.  70-132 ;  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Mon.  pp.  328-53 ;  Taylor,  The  Medieval 
Mind,  i,  pp.  481-6;  A.  M.  F.  Robinson  (Mme  Darmesteter),  The  End  of 
the  Middle  Ages  (1889),  pp.  45-72  (the  Convent  of  Helfta);  A.  Kemp- Welch, 
Of  Six  Medieval    Women   (1913),   pp.   57-82   (Mechthild   of  Magdeburg); 
G.  Ledos,  Ste  Gertrude  (Paris,  1901).  The  name  of  the  Abbess  Gertrude  of 
Hackeborn,  who  ruled  the  house  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time  that 
these  three  mystics  lived  there,  deserves  to  be  added  to  theirs.    For  her 
life  see  Revelationes,  etc.,  I,  pp.  497  ff. 

2  See  her  life  by  Thomas  of  Chantimpre,  Ada  SS.  Jun.,  t.  in,  pp.  234  ff. 
See  also  Taylor,  op.  cit.  i,  pp.  479-81. 

3  See  E.  Gilliat  Smith,  St  Clare  of  Assist,  her  Life  and  Legislation  (1914); 
Mrs  Balfour,  Life  and  Legend  of  the  Lady  St  Clare,  with  introd.  by  Father 
Cuthbert  (1910);  Fr.  Marianus  Fiege,  The  Princess  of  Poverty  (Evansville, 
Ind.   1900)  which  contains  a  translation  of  Thomas  of  Celano's  Life  of 
St  Clare  (A eta  SS.  Aug.  t.  n,  pp.  754-67),  Paschal  Robinson,  Life  of  St 
Clare  (1910),  Locatelli,  Ste  Claire  d'Assise  (Rome,  1899-1900).  Also  La  Vie 
et  Legende  de  Madame  Sainte  Claire  par  Frere  Franpoys  de  Puis,   1563, 
ed.  Arnauld  Coffin  (Paris,  1907). 

4  Acta  SS.  Mar.  t.  i,  pp.  501-31.   See  also  Jentsch,  Die  Selige  Agnes  von  'i 
Bohmen.  She  is  always  regarded  as  a  saint  but  was  never  officially  canonised. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  501 

humanist  Wilibald  Pirckheimer  and  herself  a  scholar  of  repute1. 
The  autobiographies  of  one  or  two  nuns  in  the  later  sixteenth 
century  (for  instance  St  Theresa2  and  Felice  Rasponi3)  have  a 
certain  retrospective  value;  and  the  lives  of  the  three  beguine 
mystics,  St  Douceline  4,  St  Lydwine  of  Schiedam5  and  St  Christina 
of  Stommeln6  afford  supplementary  evidence,  which  is  inter 
esting  as  showing  the  similarities  and  dissimilarities  between 
regular  and  secular  orders.  For  present  purposes,  however,  these 
works  may  be  neglected.  Their  interest  is  always  rather  particular 
than  general,  since  they  deal  with  great  individuals,  and  the 
information  which  they  give  as  to  the  life  of  the  average  nun  is 
conditioned  always  by  the  fact  that  a  woman  of  genius  will 
mould  her  surroundings  to  her  own  form,  even  in  a  convent. 
This  is  true  of  the  medieval  saints;  while  the  careers  of  women 
such  as  Charitas  Pirckheimer,  Felice  Rasponi  and  St  Theresa  owe 
much  of  their  significance  to  the  special  circumstances  of  the 
time.  An  additional  reason  for  neglecting  biographies  and  auto 
biographies  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  class  is  unrepresented  in 
English  literature  belonging  to  this  period.  The  short  panegyric 
of  Euphemia  of  Wherwell  is  the  sole  approach  to  a  biography 
of  an  English  nun  which  has  survived,  unless  we  are  to  count  the 

1  Pirckheimer,  B.  Opera,  ed.  Goldast  (1610).  See  also,  T.  Binder,  Charitas 
Pirkheimer  (1878),  and  Eckenstein,  op.  cit.  pp.  458-76. 

2  The  Life  of  St  Theresa  of  Jesus,  written  by  Herself,  tr.  D.  Lewis,  ed. 
Zimmerman  (1904).  The  Letters  of  St  Theresa,  tr.  J.  Dalton  (1902).   See  also 
G.  Cunningham  Grahame,  Santa  Teresa,  2,  vols.  (1894). 

3  See  A.  Gagniere,  Les  Confessions  d'une  Abbesse  du  xvie  siecle  (Paris, 
1888),  based  on  a  manuscript  at  Ravenna  ("Vita  della  Madre  Donna  Felice 
Rasponi,  Badessa  di  S.  Andrea,  scritta  da  una  Monaca")  which  the  author 
considers  to  be  an  autobiography.    Some  interesting    details  as  to  the 
scandalous  condition  of  Italian  convents  at  the  end  of  the  century  are  to 
be  found  in  J.  A.  Symonds'  Renaissance  in  Italy:  The  Catholic  Reaction, 
pt.  i  (1886),  pp.  341-70,  dealing  with  the  careers  of  Virginia  Maria  de  Leyva, 
in  the  convent  of  S.  Margherita  at  Monza  and  Lucrezia  Buonvisi  (sister 
Umilia)  in  the  convent  of  S.  Chiara  at  Lucca. 

*  La   Vie  de  Ste.  Douceline,  fondatrice  des  beguines  de  Marseille,   ed. 
J.  H.  Albanes  (Marseille,  1879).    See  also  A.  Macdonell,  Saint  Douceline 

(1905)- 

5  Ada  SS.  April-is,  t.  n,  pp.  266-365.  See  also  Huysmans,  Ste.  Lydwine 
de  Schiedam  (3rd  ed.  Paris,  1901). 

6  A  eta  SS.  Jun.  t.  iv,  pp.  270  ff.    See  also  Th.  Wollersheim,  Das  Leben 
der  ekstatischen   Jungfrau   Christina  von   Stommeln  (Cologne,    1859);    and 
Renan,  Nouvelles  Etudes  d'Histoire  Religieuse  (1884)  (Une  Idylle  Monacale 
au  xiiie  siecle:  Christine  de  Stommeln},  pp.  353-96.  Extracts  from  Christina's 
correspondence  and  life  by  Peter  of  Sweden  are  translated  in  Coulton,  Med. 
Garn.  pp.  402-21. 


502  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

description  of  Joan  Wiggenhall's  building  activities.  For  some 
reason  which  it  is  impossible  to  explain,  monasticism  did  not 
produce  in  England  during  the  later  middle  ages  any  women 
of  sanctity  or  genius  who  can  compare  with  the  great  Anglo- 
Saxon  abbesses1. 

Outside  the  personal  records  of  great  individuals,  our  in 
formants  fall  (as  has  already  been  suggested)  into  four  classes': 
the  people,  with  their  songs  and  stories,  the  teachers,  with  their 
didactic  works,  the  moralists,  with  their  satires  and  complaints, 
and  finally  the  men  of  letters,  poets  and  "makers,"  for  whom 
the  nun  is  sometimes  subject-matter.  First,  and  perhaps  most 
interesting  of  all,  must  come  the  people  and  the  people's  songs, 
for  in  the  literature  of  the  continent  there  exists  a  class  of  lyrics 
("Klosterlieder,"  "Nonnenklagen,"  "Chansons  de  Nonnes") 
which  is  specially  concerned  with  nuns2.  There  is  much  to  be 
learned  about  all  manner  of  things  from  such  popular  poetry. 
So  the  people  feel  about  life,  and  so  (reacting  upon  them)  it 
makes  them  feel.  Songs  crooned  over  the  housework  or  shouted 
at  the  plough  steal  back  into  the  singer's  brain  and  subtly 
direct  his  conscious  outlook;  this  was  the  wise  man's  meaning, 
who  said  that  he  cared  not  who  made  the  laws  of  a  nation  if 
he  might  make  its  ballads.  Now  it  is  extremely  significant  that 
almost  all  the  popular  songs  about  nuns,  the  songs  which 

The  spinsters  and  the  knitters  in  the  sun, 

And  the  free  maids  that  weave  their  thread  with  bones 

Do  use  to  chant, 

are  upon  one  theme.  They  deal  always  with  the  nun  unwillingly 
professed.  It  was  the  complaint  of  the  cloistered  love-birds  which 
these  knitters  sang. 

How  can  a  bird  that  is  born  for  joy 
Sit  in  a  cage  and  sing? 

1  On  these  saintly  and  learned  women  see  Eckenstein    op    cit    cc    in 

and  iv,  and  Montalembert,  The  Monks  of  the  West  (introd.  Gasquet)  vol.  iv 

took  xv.  The  great  fourteenth  century  mystic  Julian  of  Norwich  (1343- 

z.  1413)  was,  it  is  true,  connected  with  Carrow  Priory,  but  she  was  an 

anchoress  and  never  a  nun  there;  see  above,  p.  366. 

1  On  these  songs  see  A.  Jeanroy,  Les  Origines  de  la  Poesie  Lyrique  en 
France  au  moyen  dge  (2nd  ed.  1904),  pp.  189-92;  and  P.  S.  Allen  in  Modern 
Philology,  v  (1908),  pp.  432-5.  The  songs  themselves  have  to  be  collected 
Irom  vanous  sources;  see  below,  Note  I. 


xni]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  503 

What,  one  may  ask,  is  the  reason  for  this  unanimity  of  outlook? 
Why  do  the  people  see  a  nun  only  as  a  love-bird  shut  within  a 
cage  and  beating  its  wings  against  the  bars?  Partly,  no  doubt, 
because  such  songs  always  "dally  with  the  innocence  of  love"; 
the  folk  are  capable  of  a  deep  melancholy,  as  of  a  gaiety  which  is 
light  as  thistledown;  but  Love  is  and  was  their  lord  and  king, 
and  so  even  the  nun  must  be  in  love  when  they  sing  her.  It 
may  be,  however,  that  there  is  a  deeper  meaning  in  the  chansons 
de  nonnes.  The  nunneries  were  aristocratic;  the  ideal  of  the 
religious  life  was  out  of  the  reach  of  women  who  lived  among 
fields  and  beasts  of  the  field.  These  spinsters  and  these  knitters 
in  the  sun,  who  seem  so  gay  and  peaceful,  we  know  what  their 
lives  were  like: 

Poure  folke  in  cotes, 

Charged  with  children,  and  chef  lordes  rente, 
That  thei  with  spynnynge  may  spare  spenen  hit  in  hous-hyre, 
Bothe  in  mylk  and  in  mele  to  make  with  papelotes1; 

carding  and  combing,  clouting  and  washing,  suffering  much 
hunger  and  woe  in  winter  time;  no  time  to  think,  and  hardly 
time  to  pray;  but  always  time  to  sing.  "The  wo  of  those  women 
that  wonyeth  in  cotes"  solaced  itself  in  song;  but  when  the  echo 
of  the  convent  bell  came  to  the  singer  at  her  clouting,  or  to  her 
husband,  as  he  drove  his  plough  over  the  convent  acres,  they 
recognised  a  peace  which  was  founded  upon  their  labours  and 
which,  though  it  could  not  exist  without  them,  they  could  never 
share2.  If  the  songs  which  the  slaves  of  Athens  sang  among 

1  Langland,  Piers  Plowman,  ed.  Skeat.    C  text,  Passus  x,  72-5. 

2  There  was  (as  usual)  however,  more  chance  for  a  man  than  for  a 
woman  of  villein  status  to  enter  a  monastery  and  even  to  rise  to  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  dignities.    A  villein  who  could  save  enough  to  pay  a  fine  to 
his  lord  might  put  his  son  to  school  and  might  buy  that  son's  enfranchise 
ment,  so  that  he  would  be  eligible  for  a  place  in  a  monastery.   And  though 
it  was  forbidden  by  canon  and  by  temporal  law  to  ordain  a  serf,  once 
ordained  he  was  free.    Pollock  and  Maitland,  Hist,  of  Engl.  Law  (1911), 
i,  p.  429;  the  lower  ranks  of  the  clergy  probably  contained  many  men  of 
low  or  villein  birth  (see  e.g.  Chaucer's  Poor  Parson,  whose  brother  was  a 
ploughman  and  the  complaint  in   "Pierce  the   Plouman's   Crede"   that 
beggars'  brats  become  bishops).    Sometimes,  though  very  rarely,  a  villein 
rose  high,  for  once  he  was  a  churchman,  it  was  la  cavvieve  ouverte  aux  talents} 
Bishop  Grosseteste  was  of  very  humble,  probably  of  servile,  origin;  and 
Sancho  Panza's  motto  will  be  remembered:  "I  am  a  man  and  I  may  be 
Pope."  For  a  woman,  however,  the  Church  offered  no  such  chance  of  ad 
vancement  through  the  religious  orders ;  the  nunneries  were  essentially  upper 
and  middle  class  institutions. 


504  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

themselves  in  the  slave  quarter  at  night  had  come  down  to  us, 
they  would  surely  have  thrown  a  new  light  upon  those  grave 
philosophers,  artists  and  statesmen,  to  whom  the  world  owes 
almost  all  that  it  cherishes  of  wisdom  and  of  beauty.  Nor  would 
the  Athenians  be  less  great  because  we  knew  the  slaves.  Even 
so  it  is  no  derogation  to  the  monastic  ideal  to  say  that  the 
common  people,  shut  out  of  it,  looked  at  it  differently  from 
the  great  churchmen,  who  praised  it;  and,  unlike  those  of  the 
Athenian  slaves,  their  songs  still  live.  The  popular  mind  (these 
songs  would  seem  to  say)  had  little  sympathy  for  that  career 
in  which  the  daughters  of  the  people  had  no  share.  It  is  im 
material  whether  they  looked  upon  it  with  the  eye  of  the  fox  in 
the  fable,  declaring  that  the  grapes  were  sour,  or  whether  the 
lusty  common  sense  of  those  living  close  to  nature  gave  them  a 
contempt  for  the  bloodless  ecstasies  they  could  not  understand. 
At  all  events  the  cloister  mirrored  in  their  songs  is  a  prison  and 
a  grave : 

Mariez-vous,  les  filles, 
Avec  ces  bons  drilles, 
Et  n'allez  ja,  les  filles, 
Pourrir  derrieV  les  grilles1. 

That  was  how  the  people  and  the  nightingale  envisaged  it ;  and 
no  mystic  will  be  the  less  wise  for  pondering  that  brutal  last 
line,  the  eternal  revolt  of  common  sense  against  asceticism. 

All  over  western  and  southern  Europe  this  theme  was  set 
to  music,  now  with  gaiety  and  insouciance,  now  with  bitterness. 
The  wandering  clerk  goes  singing  on  his  way: 

Plangit  nonna  fletibus  The  nun  is  complaining, 

Inenarrabilibus,  Her  tears  are  down  raining, 

Condolens  gemitibus  She  sobbeth  and  sigheth, 

Dicens  consocialibus :  To  her  sisters  she  crieth:' 
Heu  misella !  Misery  me ! 

1  From  a  charming  round,  sung  in  Saintonge,  Aunis  and  Bas-Poitou. 
"Dans  1'jardin  de  ma  tante 

Plantons  le  romarin ! 
Y'a-t-un  oiseau  qui  chante, 
Plantons  le  romarin, 

Ma  mie, 
Au  milieu  du  jardin,  etc." 

Bujeaud,  J.,  Chants  et  chansons  populates  des  provinces  de  I'ouest  (1866) 
i,  pp.  136-7. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  505 

Nichil  est  detenus  O  what  can  be  worse  than  this 

Tali  vita,  life  that  I  dree, 

Cum  enim  sim  petulans  When  naughty  and  lovelorn, 

Et  lasciva.  and  wanton  I  be. 

And  he  can  tell  the  nun's  desire 

Pernoctando  vigilo  All    the    night    long    I    unwillingly 

Cum  non  vellem  wake, 

luvenem  amplecterer  How  gladly  a  lad  in  mine  arms  would 

Quam  libenter!1  I  take. 

For  those  who  know  no  Latin  it  is  the  same.  "In  this  year," 
[1359]  says  a  Limburg  chronicle,"  Men  sang  and  piped  this  song": 

Gott  geb  im  ein  verdorbeii  jar        God  send  to  him  a  lean  twelve 
der  mich  macht  zu  einer  nunnen    Who  in  mine  own  despite,  [months 
und  mir  den  schwarzen  mantel  gab  A  sooty  mantle  put  on  me, 
der  weissen  rock  darunten !  All  and  a  cassock  white ! 

Soil  ich  ein  nunn  gewerden  And  if  I  must  become  a  nun, 

dann  wider  meinen  willen  Let  me  but  find  a  page, 

so  will  ich  auch  einem  knaben  jung  And  if  he  is  fain  to  cure  my  pain 
seinen  kummer  stillen,  His  pain  I  will  assuage. 

Und  stillt  he  mir  den  meinen  nit     His  be  the  loss,  then,  if  he  fail 
daran  mag  he  verliesen2.  To  still  my  amorous  rage. 

In  Italy  at  Carnival  time  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  favourite 
songs  tell  of  nuns  who  leave  their  convents  for  a  lover3.  But 
above  all  the  theme  is  found  over  and  over  again  in  French 
folk  songs:  "the  note,  I  trowe,  y  maked  was  in  Fraunce."  Two 
little  thirteenth  century  poems  have  survived  to  show  how 
piquant  an  expression  the  French  singers  gave  to  it.  In  one  of 
these  the  singer  wanders  out  in  the  merry  month  of  May,  that 
time  in  which  the  "chanson  populaire"  is  always  set,  in  deep 
and  unconscious  memory  of  the  old  spring  festivals,  celebrated 
by  women  in  the  dawn  of  European  civilisation.  He  goes 

1  M.  Vattasso,  Studi  Medievali,  I  (1904),  p.  124.    A  long  poem  of  seven 
verses,  much  mutilated  in  parts. 

2  Uhland,  Alte  hoch-  und  niederdeutsche  Volkslieder  (1844-5),  t.  n,  p.  854 
(No.  328).    A  slightly  modernised  version.    Also  printed  in  Des  Knaben 
Wunderhorn,  ed.  von  Arnim  and  Brentano  (Reclam  ed.),  p.  25,  and  in 
Deutsches   Leben   im    Volkslied  urn   1530,    ed.    Liliencron    (1884),    p.    226. 
Translation  by  Bithell,  The  Minnesingers,  I  (1909),  p.  200,  except  the  last 
two  lines,  which  are  by  Mr  Coulton;   there  is  another  in  Coulton,  Med. 
Garn.  p.  476. 

3  Ferrari,   Canzone  per  andare  in  maschera  per  carnesciale,   pp.   31-2. 
Referred  to  in  Jeanroy,  op.  cit.    I  have  been  unable  to  consult  the  book. 


506  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

plucking  flowers,  and  out  of  a  garden  he  hears  a  nun  singing 
to  herself: 

ki  nonne  me  fist  Jesus  km  maldie. 

je  di  trop  en  vie  vespres  ne  complies: 

j'amaisce  trop  muels  moneir  bone  vie 

ke  fust  deduissans  et  amerousete. 

Je  sant  les  douls  mals  leis  ma  senturete. 

malois  soit  de  deu  ki  me  fist  nonnete. 

Elle  s'escriait  comceux  esbaihie  ! 

e  deus,  ki  m'ait  mis  en  cest  abaie ! 

maix  ieu  en  istrai  per  sainte  Marie; 

ke  ne  vestirai  cotte  ne  gonnette. 

Je  sant  les  douls  mals  leis  ma  senturete. 

malois  soit  de  deu  ki  me  fist  nonnete. 

Celui  manderai  a  cui  seux  amie, 

k'il  me  vaigne  querre  en  ceste  abaie; 

s'irons  a  Parix  moneir  bone  vie, 

car  il  est  jolis  et  je  seux  jonete. 

Je  sant  les  douls  mals  leis  ma  senturete. 

malois  soit  de  deu  ki  me  fist  nonnete. 

quant  ces  amis  ot  la  parolle  oie, 

de  joie  tressaut,  li  cuers  li  fremie, 

et  vint  a  la  porte  de  celle  abaie : 

si  en  g^tait  fors  sa  douce  amiete. 

Je  sant  les  douls  mals  leis  ma  senturete. 

malois  soit  de  deu  ki  me  fist  nonnete1. 

"The  curse  of  Jesus  on  him  who  made  me  a  nun!  All  unwillingly 
say  I  vespers  and  compline;  more  fain  were  I  to  lead  a  happy  life 
of  gaiety  and  love.  /  feel  the  delicious  pangs  beneath  my  bosom.  The 
curse  of  God  on  him  who  made  me  be  a  nun!  She  cried,  God's  curse 
on  him  who  put  me  in  this  abbey.  But  by  our  Lady  I  will  flee  away 
from  it  and  never  will  I  wear  this  gown  and  habit.  7  feel,  etc.  I  will 
send  for  him  whose  love  I  am  and  bid  him  come  seek  me  in  this 
abbey.  We  will  go  to  Paris  and  lead  a  gay  life,  for  he  is  fair  and  I 
am  young.  I  feel,  etc.  When  her  lover  heard  her  words,  he  leapt  for 
joy  and  his  heart  beat  fast.  He  came  to  the  gate  of  that  abbey,  and 
stole  away  his  darling  love.  I  feel,  etc." 

In  the  other  song  the  setting  is  the  same: 

L'autrier  un  lundi  matin 
m'an  aloie  ambaniant; 
s'antrai  an  un  biau  jardin, 
trovai  nonette  scant. 

1  Bartsch,  Allfranzosische  Romanzen  und  Pastourellen  (1870),  pp.  28-9 
(No.  33). 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  507 

ceste  chansonette 
dixoit  la  nonette 
"longue  demoree 
faites,  frans  moinnes  loialz 
Se  plus  suis  nonette, 
ains  ke  soit  li  vespres, 
je  moral  des  jolis  malz"1. 

"Lately  on  a  Monday  morn  as  I  went  wandering,  I  entered  into  a 
fair  garden  and  there  I  found  a  nun  sitting.  This  was  the  song  that 
the  nun  sang:  'Long  dost  thou  tarry,  frank,  faithful  monk.  If  I 
have  to  be  a  nun  longer  I  shall  die  of  the  pains  of  love  before  vespers.' " 

The  end  hardly  ever  varies.  The  nun  is  either  taken  away  by 
a  lover  (as  in  the  first  of  these  songs) ,  or  finds  occasion  to  meet 
one  without  leaving  her  house  (as  in  the  second) ;  or  else  she 
runs  away  in  the  hope  of  finding  one  like  the  novice  of  Avernay 
in  Deschamps'  poem,  who  had  learned  nothing  during  her  sojourn 
"fors  un  mot  d'amourette,"  and  who  wanted  to  have  a  husband 
"si  comme  a  Sebilette." 

Adieu  le  moniage: 

Jamaiz  n'y  entreray. 

Adieu  tout  le  mainage 

Et  adieu  Avernay ! 

Bien  voy  Taumosne  est  faitte: 

Trop  tart  me  suy  retraitte, 

Certes,  ce  poise  my, 

Plus  ne  seray  nonnette 
(Oez  de  la  nonnette 
Comme  a  le  cuer  joly: 
S'ordre  ne  ly  puet  plere) 2. 

"Farewell  nunhood,  never  shall  I  enter  thy  state.  Farewell  all  the 
household  and  farewell  Avernay !  The  alms  are  given,  too  late  have 
I  left  the  world.  Of  a  truth  this  wearies  me;  I  will  be  a  nun  no  more. 
(Hear  this  tale  of  the  nun,  whose  heart  was  gay  and  whose  order 
could  not  please  her)." 

It  is  but  rarely  that  the  singer's  sympathy  is  against  the 
prisoned  nun ;  and  although  one  or  two  charming  songs  may  be 
found  which  convey  a  warning,  the  moral  sits  all  awry.  A  Gascon 
air  (intended,  like  so  many,  to  accompany  a  dance  and  having 
the  favourite  refrain  "  Va  leger,  legere,  va  legerement ")  threatens 
an  altogether  inadequate  punishment  for  a  nun  who  enjoys  the 
sweets  of  this  world. 

1  Bartsch,  op.  cit.  pp.  29-30  (No.  34). 

2  Oeuvres  Computes  d'Eustache  Deschamps  (Soc.  des  Anc.  Textes  Fr.), 
iv,  pp.  235-6.  (Virelay,  DCCLII,  sur  une  novice  d' Avernay.) 


508  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

"  Down  in  the  meadow,  there  is  a  con  vent.  In  it  a  nun  lies  ill."  "Tell  me, 
little  nun,  for  what  do  you  hunger?  "  "  For  white  apples  and  for  a  young 
lad."  "  Do  not  eat,  little  nun,  they  will  bury  you  not  in  the  church,  nor 
even  in  the  convent,  but  out  in  the  graveyard  with  the  poor  people"1. 

A  Provengal  song  with  a  haunting  air  tells  how  the  Devil  carried 
off  a  nun  who  rebelled  against  her  imprisonment : 

Dedins  Aix  1'y  a'no  moungeto, 
Tant  pourideto, 

Di  que  s'avie  soun  bel  amic 

Sera  la  reino  dou  pays.... 

"In  Aix  there  is  a  little  nun,  a  wicked  little  nun;  she  says  that  with 
her  handsome  lover  she  will  be  queen  of  all  the  land.  She  weeps  and 
weeps,  that  wicked  little  nun,  and  every  day  she  grows  thinner  and 
thinner,  because  she  may  not  put  off  her  habit.  But  her  father  has 
sent  her  a  message,  a  solemn  message,  that  she  cannot  do  as  she  would, 
that  in  the  convent  she  must  stay.  The  little  nun  has  cursed  her 
father,  who  made  her  leave  her  handsome  lover  and  take  the  veil 
and  habit.  The  little  nun  has  cursed  the  trowel  that  made  the  church 
and  the  mason  who  built  it  and  the  men  who  worked  for  him.  The 
little  nun  has  cursed  the  priest  who  said  mass  and  the  acolytes  who 
served  him  and  the  congregation  who  listened  to  him.  The  little  nun 
has  cursed  the  cloth  which  made  the  veil  and  the  cord  of  St  Francis 
and  the  vow  of  poverty.  One  day  when  she  was  all  alone  in  her 
room,  the  devil  appeared  to  her.  '  Welcome,  my  love ! '  '  I  am  not 
your  love  whom  you  desire,  my  pretty.  I  am  the  devil,  don't  you 
see?  I  am  come  to  rescue  you  from  the  convent.'  'You  must  first 
ask  my  father  and  also  my  mother  and  my  friends  and  my  kinsmen, 
to  see  if  they  will  consent.'  'No,  I  will  not  ask  your  father,  nor  yet 
your  mother,  nor  your  friends  nor  your  kinsmen.  Now  and  at  once 
we  will  go.'  'Farewell,  my  sister  nuns,  so  little  and  young,  do  not 
do  as  I  did,  but  praise  God  well  in  the  convent.'  The  devil  has  taken 
the  little  nun,  the  wicked  little  nun ;  he  has  carried  her  high  up  into  the 
sky  and  then  he  has  hurled  her  down  into  hell,  down,  down  into  hell "  * . 

There  is  a  moral  here  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  the  moral  of  a  fairy 
tale,  not  of  a  sermon.  As  to  the  many  variants  of  the  "Clericus 
et  Nonna"  theme  in  which  sometimes  the  nun  makes  love  to  a 
clerk  and  is  repulsed  and  sometimes  the  clerk  makes  love  to  a 
nun  and  is  repulsed 3  it  is  possible  that  the  Church  had  a  hand 
in  them  all.  Wandering  clerks  and  cloistered  monks  were  capable 
of  the  most  unabashed  love-poetry;  but  sometimes  they  chose 
to  set  themselves  right  with  heaven. 

1  Blade,  J.  F.,  Poesies  populaires  de  la  Gascogne  (1882),  in,  pp.  372-4. 
Also  in  Lenac-Moncaut,  Literature  populaire  de  la  Gascogne  (1868),  pp.  291-2. 

2  Damase    Arbaud,    Chants    Populaires   de    la    Provence    (1862-4),    n, 
pp.  118-22.  3  See  below,  p.  611. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  509 

In  England  the  theme  of  the  nun  unwillingly  professed  is 
not  found  in  popular  songs,  such  as  abound  in  France,  Italy  and 
Germany.  It  received,  however,  a  literary  expression  towards 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the  pseudo-Chaucerian 
Court  of  Love  the  lover  sees  among  those  who  do  sacrifice  to 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Love  a  wailing  group  of  priests  and 
hermits,  friars  and  nuns: 

This  is  the  courte  of  lusty  folke  and  gladde, 

And  wel  becometh  hire  abite  and  arraye; 

O  why  be  som  so  sory  and  so  sadde, 

Complaynyng  thus  in  blak  and  white  and  graye? 

Freres  they  ben,  and  monkes,  in  gode  faye: 

Alas  for  rewth !  grete  dole  it  is  to  sene, 

To  se  hem  thus  bewaile  and  sory  bene. 

Se  howe  thei  crye  and  wryng  here  handes  white, 

For  thei  so  sone  wente  to  religion ! 

And  eke  the  nonnes  with  vaile  and  wymple  plight, 

Here  thought  is,  thei  ben  in  confusion. 

"Alas,"  thay  sayn,  "we  fayne  perfeccion, 

In  clothes  wide  and  lake  oure  libertie 

But  all  the  synne  mote  on  oure  frendes  be. 

For,  Venus  wote,  we  wold  as  fayne  do  ye, 

That  ben  attired  here  and  wel  besene, 

Desiren  man  and  love  in  oure  degree 

Ferme  and  feithfull  right  as  wolde  the  quene: 

Oure  frendes  wikke  in  tender  youth  and  grene, 

Ayenst  oure  wille  made  us  religious; 

That  is  the  cause  we  morne  and  waylen  thus." 

And  yet  agaynewarde  shryked  every  nonne, 

The  pange  of  love  so  strayneth  hem  to  cry : 

"Now  woo  the  tyme"  quod  thay  "that  we  be  boune ! 

This  hatef ull  order  nyse  will  done  us  dye ! 

We  sigh  and  sobbe  and  bleden  inwardly 

Fretyng  oure  self  with  thought  and  hard  complaynt, 

That  ney  for  love  we  waxen  wode  and  faynt"  1. 

A  kindred  poem,  The  Temple  of  Glas,  by  Lydgate  (who  seems 
himself  to  have  become  a  monk  of  Bury  at  the  age  of  fifteen) 
contains  the  same  idea.  Among  the  lovers  in  the  Temple  are 
some  who  make  bitter  complaint,  youth  wedded  to  age,  or 
wedded  without  free  choice,  or  shut  in  a  convent : 

1  The  Court  of  Love  in  Chaucer's  Poetical  Works,  ed.  R.  Morris  (1891), 
iv,  pp.  38-40. 


510  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH 

And  rijt  anon  I  herd  oj?er  crie 

With  sobbing  tens  and  with  ful  pitous  soune, 

To  fore  J?e  goddes,  bi  lamentacioun, 

That  were  constrayned  in  hir  tender  youj>e 

And  in  childhode,  as  it  is  ofte  couj?e, 

Y-entred  were  into  religioun, 

Or  J?ei  hade  yeris  of  discresioun, 

That  al  her  life  cannot  but  complein, 

In  wide  copis  perfeccion  to  feine, 

Ful  couertli  to  curen  al  hir  smert, 

And  shew  ]?e  contrarie  outward  of  her  hert. 

Thus  saugh  I  wepen  many  a  faire  maide, 

That  on  hir  freendis  al  ]?i  wite  J?ei  liede1. 

The  same  idea  is  also  repeated  in  King  James  I  of  Scotland's 
poem,  The  King's  Quair2,  and  later  (with  more  resemblance  to 
the  continental  songs)  in  the  complaint  of  the  wicked  Prioress  in 
Sir  David  Lyndesay's  morality  play,  A ne  Satyr e  of  the  Thrie 
Estaits  [c.  1535] : 

I  gif  my  freinds  my  malisoun 
That  me  compellit  to  be  ane  Nun, 
And  wald  nocht  let  me  marie. 
It  was  my  freinds  greadines 
That  gart  me  be  ane  Priores: 

Now  hartlie  them  I  warie. 
Howbeit  that  Nunnis  sing  nichts  and  dayis 
Thau*  hart  waitis  nocht  quhat  thair  mouth  sayis; 

The  suith  I  }ow  declair. 
Makand  }ow  intimatioun, 
To  Christis  Congregatioun 

Nunnis  ar  nocht  necessair. 
Bot  I  sail  do  the  best  I  can. 
And  marie  sum  gude  honest  man, 
And  brew  gude  aill  and  tun. 
Mariage,  be  my  opinioun, 
It  is  better  Religioun 

As  to  be  freir  or  Nun3. 

1  Lydgate's  Temple  of  Glas,  ed.  J.  Schick  (E.E.T.S.  1891),  p.  8. 

2  TheKingisQuairin  Medieval  Scottish  Poetry,  ed.G.  Eyre-Todd  (1892),  p.  4  7. 

3  Ane  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits,  by  Sir  David  Lyndesay,  ed.   Small, 
hall  and  Murray  (E.E.T.S.,  2nd  ed.,  1883),  p.  514. 

"And  seis  thou  now  yone  multitude,  on  rawe 
Standing  behynd  yon  trauerse  of  delyte? 

Sum  bene  of  thayme  that  haldin  were  full  lawe 
And  take  by  frendis,  nothing  thay  to  wyte, 
In  youth  from  bye  into  the  cloistre  quite; 

And  for  that  cause  are  cummyn,  recounsilit, 

On  thame  to  pleyne  that  so  thame  had  begilit." 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  511 

The  concentrated  bitterness  of  The  Court  of  Love  and  the 
social  satire  of  Lindesay  are  only  a  literary  expression  of  the  theme 
treated  more  lightheartedly  in  the  popular  chansons  de  nonnes. 
The  songs  are  one  side  of  the  popular  view  of  asceticism,  the 
gay  side.  The  serious  side  may  be  found  in  the  famous  story  of 
The  Nun  who  Loved  the  World : 

Some  time  there  was  a  nun  that  hight  Beatrice,  a  passing  fair  woman, 
and  she  was  sacristan  of  the  kirk,  and  she  had  great  devotion  unto 
our  Lady;  and  ofttimes  men  desired  her  to  sin.  So  at  last  she  con 
sented  unto  a  clerk  to  go  away  with  him  when  compline  was  done, 
and  ere  she  departed  she  went  unto  an  altar  of  our  Lady  and  said  unto 
her;  "Lady,  as  I  have  been  devout  unto  thee,  now  I  resign  unto  thee 
these  keys,  for  I  may  no  longer  sustain  the  temptation  of  my  flesh." 
And  she  laid  the  keys  on  the  altar  and  went  her  ways  unto  the  clerk. 
And  when  he  had  defouled  her,  within  a  few  days  he  left  her  and  went 
away;  and  she  had  nothing  to  live  on  and  thought  shame  to  gang 
home  again  unto  her  cloister  and  she  fell  to  be  a  common  woman. 
And  when  she  had  lived  in  that  vice  fifteen  years,  on  a  day  she  came 
unto  the  nunnery  gate,  and  asked  the  porter  if  he  knew  ever  a  nun 
in  that  place  that  hight  Beatrice,  that  was  sacristan  and  keeper  of  the 
kirk.  And  he  said  he  knew  her  on  the  best  wise  and  said  she  was  a 
worthy  woman  and  a  holy  from  when  she  was  a  little  bairn,  "  and  ever 
has  kept  her  clean  and  in  good  name."  And  she  understood  not  the 
words  of  this  man  and  went  her  ways.  And  our  Lady  appeared  unto 
her  and  said :  "  Behold,  I  have  fulfilled  thine  office  these  fifteen  years 
and  therefore  turn  again  now  into  thy  place  and  be  again  in  thine  office 
as  thou  wast,  and  shrive  thee  and  do  thy  penance,  for  there  is  no 
creature  here  that  knows  thy  trespass,  for  I  have  ever  been  for  thee  in 
thy  clothing  and  in  thine  habit."  And  anon  she  was  in  her  habit  and 
went  in  and  shrove  her  and  did  her  penance  and  told  all  that  was 
happened  unto  her1. 

1  An  Alphabet  of  Tales,  ed.  M.  M.  Banks  (E.E.T.S.),  No.  CCCCLXVIII, 
pp.  319-20.  (In  this  and  the  following  quotations  from  this  work  in  this 
chapter  I  have  modernised  the  spelling.)  This  version  is  translated  from 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Dial.  Mirac.,  ed.  Strange,  u,  pp.  42-3,  which  is 
the  original  version  of  all  the  widespread  legends  on  this  theme.  From. 
Caesarius  it  found  its  way  into  many  other  collections  of  miracles,  in  prose 
and  in  verse,  in  Latin,  French,  Spanish,  German,  Icelandic,  Dutch  and 
English.  Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  is  the  Dutch  poem  (c.  1320)  published  by 
W.  J.  A.  Jenckbloet,  Beatriij  (Amsterdam,  1846-59)  and  re-edited  with  a 
grammatical  introduction  and  notes  in  English  by  A.  J.  Barnouw  (Pub.  of 
Philol.  Soc.  in,  1914).  An  edition  with  illustrations  by  Ch.  Doudelet 
accompanied  by  a  translation  into  French  by  H.  de  Marez  was  published 
in  Antwerp  (1901)  and  was  also  issued  with  an  English  translation  by 
A.  W.  Sanders  vaz  Loo.  The  best  English  translations  are  those  in  prose 
by  L.  Simons  and  L.  Housman  in  The  Pageant,  ed.  C.  H.  Shannon  and 
J.  W.  Gleeson  White  (1896)  pp.  95-116  and  in  verse  by  H.  de  Wolf  Fuller 


512  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

This  tale  is  interesting,  because  it  is  much  more  than  a  piece 
of  naive  piety.  The  story  of  Beatrice  is  intimately  connected  with 
the  chansons  de  nonnes;  it  is  the  serious,  as  they  are  the  gay, 
expression  of  a  whole  philosophy  of  life.  The  songs  are,  indeed, 
purely  materialistic  and  do  not  attempt  (how  should  the  spinsters 
and  the  knitters  in  the  sun  attempt  it?)  to  give  a  philosophical 
justification  for  their  attitude.  The  miracle  is  simple  and  seems 
on  the  surface  to  draw  no  moral,  save  that  devotion  to  the  Virgin 
will  be  rewarded.  Nevertheless  the  philosophy  and  the  moral 
are  there;  they  are  those  of  the  most  famous  of  all  medieval 
songs,  Gaudeamus  igitur,  juvenes  dum  sumus.  The  theme  of  the 
miracle  and  of  the  songs  alike  is  the  revolt  against  asceticism, 
the  revolt  of  the  body,  which  knows  how  short  its  beauty  and 
its  life,  against  the  spirit  which  lives  forever,  and  yet  will  not 
allow  its  poor  yokefellow  one  little  hour.  The  fact  that  the  story 
of  Beatrice  takes  the  form  of  a  Mary-miracle  is  itself  significant. 
For  the  "Nos  habebit  humus"  argument  can  be  interpreted  in 
two  ways.  On  the  one  hand  stands  the  human  multitude, 
gathering  rosebuds  while  it  may,  crying  up  and  down  the  roads 
of  the  world  to  all  who  pass  to  rejoice  today,  for  "ubi  sunt  qui 
ante  nos  in  mundo  fuere?"  On  the  other  hand  stands  the 
moralist,  singing  the  same  song: 

Were  beth  they  biforen  us  weren, 

Houndes  ladden  and  hauekes  beren, 
And  hadden  feld  and  wode, 

That  riche  levedies  in  hoere  bour,          [ladies,  their 

That  wereden  gold  in  hoere  tressour, 
With  hoere  brightle  rode? —  [complexion 

(Harvard  Coop.  Soc.,  Cambridge,  U.S.A.  1910).  Modern  writers  have 
retold  the  tale  almost  as  often  as  their  medieval  forebears;  see  for  example 
Maeterlinck's  play,  Sceur  Beatrice,  John  Davidson's  poem,  The  Ballad  of  a 
Nun,  one  of  Villier  de  1'Isle-Adam's  Contes  Cruels  (Sceur  Natalia),  one  of 
Charles  Nodier's  Contes  de  la  Veillee  (La  Legende  de  Saeur  Beatrice],  and 
one  of  Gottfried  Keller's  Sieben  Legenden  (Die  Jungfrau  und  die  Nonne).  For 
a  study  of  the  Beatrice  story  see  Heinrich  Watenphul,  Die  Geschichte  der 
M  arienlegende  von  Beatrix  der  Kiisterin  (Neuwied,  19*04);  also  P.  Toldo, 
Die  Sakristanin  (with  bibliography  by  J.  Bolte)  in  Zeitschrift  des  Vereins 
fur  Volkskunde  (1905),  J.  van  der  Elst,  Bijdrage  tot  de  Geschiedenis  der 
Legende  van  Beatrijs  in  Tijdschrift  voor  Nederlandsche  Taal-  en  Letterkunde, 
xxxn,  pp.  51  ff.,andMussafia,S/M<ta?n  zu  den  Mittelalter lichen Marienlegenden 
(Vienna,  1887),  i,  p.  73.  See  also  A.  Cotarelo  y  Valledor,  Una  Cantiga 
celebre  del  Rey  Sabio,  fuentes  y  desarollo  de  la  leyenda  de  sor  Beatnz, 
principalmente  en  la  literatura  espanola  (1914).  For  other  variants  of  the 
Nonne  Enlevee  see  below,  Note  J. 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  513 

—but  drawing  how  different  a  moral, 

Dreghy  here  man,  thenne,  if  thou  wilt     [endure 
A  luitel  pine,  that  me  the  bit  [pain,  bid 

Withdrau  thine  eyses  ofte1.  [ease 

Often  for  long  stretches  at  a  time  the  wandering  clerks  and  the 
singers  were  willing  to  leave  to  the  moralist  this  heaven  which 
was  to  be  won  by  despising  earthly  beauty;  they  were  content 
to  go  to  hell  singing  with  Aucassin  and  Nicolete  and  all  the 
kings  of  the  world.  But  at  other  times  they  ached  for  heaven 
too  and  would  not  believe  that  they  might  win  there  only  by 
the  narrow  path  of  righteousness.  So  they  invented  a  philo 
sophical  justification  for  their  way  of  life.  The  Church  had  for 
gotten  the  love  which  sat  with  publicans  and  sinners ;  the  people 
rediscovered  it,  and  attributed  it  not  to  the  Son  but  to  the 
Mother.  At  one  blow  they  outwitted  the  moralist  by  inventing 
the  cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary  2.  In  their  hands  this  Mary  worship- 
became  more  than  the  worship  of  Christ's  mother;  it  became 
almost  a  separate  religion,  a  religion  under  which  jongleurs  and 
thieves,  fighters  and  tournament-haunters  and  the  great  host  of 
those  who  loved  unwisely  found  a  mercy  often  denied  to  them 
by  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  The  people  created  a  Virgin  to 
whom  justice  was  nothing  and  law  less  than  nothing,  but  to 
whom  love  of  herself  was  all.  "Imperatrix  supernorum,  super- 

1  Chambers  and  Sidgwick,  Early  English  Lyrics  (1907),  No.  xc,  p.  163. 
But  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of  medieval  English  poems  which  moralise 
on  this  theme  is  the  Lune  Ron  which  Thomas  of  Hales  wrote  in  the  thirteenth 
century  for  a  nun: 

"  Hwer  is  Paris  and  Heleyne 

That  weren  so  bryght  and  feyre  on  bleo? 
Amadas,  Tristram  and  Dideyne, 

Yseude  and  alle  theo, 
Ector  with  his  scharpe  meyne, 

And  Cesar  riche  of  worldes  feo? 
Heo  beoth  iglyden  ut  of  the  reyne, 

So  the  scheft  is  of  the  cleo," 

— they  have  passed  away  as  a  shaft  from  the  bowstring.  It  is  as  if  they 
had  never  lived.  All  their  heat  is  turned  to  cold.  (An  Old  English  Miscellany, 
ed.  R.  Morris  (E.E.T.S.  1872),  p.  95.)  This  catalogue  of  the  lovely  dead  was 
a  favourite  device,  immortalised  later  by  "ung  povre  petit  escollier,  qui 
fust  nomme  Francoys  Villon"  (who  certainly  was  not  a  moralist)  in  his 
Ballade  des  Dames  du  Temps  jadis. 

2  For  an  entertaining  and  stimulating  account  of  the  popular  cult  of 
the  Virgin  see  Henry  Adams,  Mont  St  Michel  and  Chartres  (1913),  especially 
chs.  vi  and  xm. 

P.N.  33 


514  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

natrix  infernorum,"  hell  was  emptied  under  her  rule  and  heaven 
became  a  new  place,  filled  with  her  disreputable,  faulty,  human 
lovers.  She  was  not  only  the  familiar  friend  of  the  poor  and 
humble,  she  was  also  the  confidante  of  the  lover,  of  all  the 
Aucassins  and  Nicoletes  of  the  world.  It  is  not  without  signifi 
cance  that  so  great  a  stress  was  always  laid  upon  her  personal 
loveliness.  Her  cult  became  the  expression  of  mankind's  deep 
unconscious  revolt  against  asceticism,  their  love  of  life,  their 
passionate  sense  of  "  beauty  that  must  die."  The  story  of  Beatrice 
has  kept  its  undiminished  attraction  for  the  modern  world  largely 
because  in  it,  more  than  in  all  the  other  Mary-miracles,  life  has 
triumphed  and  has  been  justified  of  heaven1.  Even  the  cold  garb 
given  to  it  by  ecclesiastics  such  as  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  cannot 
conceal  its  underlying  idea  that  all  love  is  akin,  the  most  earthy 
to  the  most  divine ;  the  idea  which  Malory  expressed  many  years 
later,  when  he  wrote  of  Queen  Guinevere  "that  while  she  lived 
she  was  a  true  lover  and  therefore  she  had  a  good  end."  The 
theme  most  familiar  to  us  in  the  didactic  literature  of  the  middle 
ages  is  the  theme  of  the  soul  "here  in  the  body  pent";  for  the 
moralist  has  his  deliberate  purpose  and  sets  down  his  idea  more 
directly  and  with  more  point  than  do  the  story-teller  and  the 
singer,  who  have  no  aim  but  to  say  and  speak  and  tell  the  tale. 
But  when  we  have  been  moved  by  the  theme  of  the  soul,  let  us 
not  fail  also  to  recognise  when  we  meet  it — whether  in  the 
wandering  scholar's  Gaudeamus  or  in  the  miracle  of  the  nun  who 

1  Modern  poets  who  have  written  upon  the  same  theme  have  drawn 
this  moral  more  overtly  than  the  medieval  authors.  Maeterlinck's  Virgin 
in  Saeur  Beatrice  sings : 

II  n'est  peche  qui  vive 
Quand  1'amour  a  pri6; 
II  n'est  ame  qui  meure 
Quand  1'amour  a  pleur6... 

Davidson's  sacristan  (in  A  Ballad  of  a  Nun)  cries: 
"I  care  not  for  my  broken  vow; 

Though  God  should  come  in  thunder  soon, 
I  am  sister  to  the  mountains  now 

And  sister  to  the  sun  and  moon," 

and  the  Virgin,  welcoming  her  back  on  her  return,  tells  her: 
"You  are  sister  to  the  mountains  now, 

And  sister  to  the  day  and  night; 
Sister  to  God."  And  on  her  brow 

She  kissed  her  thrice,  and  left  her  sight. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  515 

loved  the  world — the  theme  of  the  body,  despised  and  maimed 
and  always  beautiful,  crying  out  for  its  birthright.  Even  in  the 
middle  ages  the  Greeks  had  not  lived  in  vain. 

The  miracle  of  Sister  Beatrice  leads  to  the  consideration  of 
another  type  of  popular  literature,  which  throws  much  light  on 
convent  life.  Sometimes  the  people  grow  tired  of  singing  to  them 
selves;  they  want  to  be  told  stories,  which  they  can  repeat  in 
the  long  evenings,  when  the  sun  goes  down  and  the  rushlight 
sends  its  wan  uneven  flicker  over  the  floor.  Even  in  the  house 
holds  of  rich  men  story-telling  round  the  fire  is  the  favourite 
after-dinner  occupation1.  These  stories  come  from  every  con 
ceivable  source,  from  the  East,  from  the  Classics,  from  the 
Lives  of  the  Fathers,  from  the  Legends  of  the  Saints,  from  the 
Miracles  of  the  Virgin,  from  the  accumulated  experience  of 
generations  of  story-tellers.  At  first  their  purpose  is  simply  to 
amuse,  and  the  jongleur  can  always  get  a  hearing  for  his  fabliau; 
from  village  green  to  town  market,  from  the  ale  house  to  the 
manor  and  the  castle  hall  he  passes  with  his  repertoire  of  grave, 
gay,  edifying,  ribald,  coarse  or  delightful  tales  and  when  he  has 
gone  his  enchanted  audience  repeats  and  passes  on  all  that  he 
has  said2.  Then  another  professional  story-teller  begins  to  com 
pete  with  the  jongleur,  a  story-teller  whose  object  is  to  point  a 
moral  rather  than  to  adorn  a  tale.  The  Church,  observing  that 
attentive  audience,  adopts  the  practice.  Preachers  vie  with 
jongleurs  in  illustrating  their  sermons  by  stories,  "examples" 
they  call  them.  Often  they  use  the  same  tales ;  anything  so  that 
the  congregation  keep  awake;  and  though  the  examples  are 
sometimes  very  edifying,  they  are  sometimes  but  ill-disguised 
buffoonery,  and  moralists  cry  out  against  the  preacher,  who 
I  instead  of  the  Gospel  passes  off  his  own  inventions,  jests  and 
gibes,  so  that  the  poor  sheep  return  from  pasture  wind-fed3. 

1  "Cum  in  hyemis  intemperie  post  cenam  noctu   familia  divitis  ad 
!  focum,  ut  potentibus  moris  est,  recensendis  antiquis  gestis  operam  daret." 
j  Gesta  Romanorum,  ed.  Oesterley  (1872),  ch.  CLV.   Quoted  in  Jusserand,  Lit. 
i  Hist,  of  the  Eng,  People,  i,  p.  182. 

2  One  particular  kind  of  story,  the  fabliau  (denned  by  Bedier  as  "un 
|  conte  a  rire  en  vers")  was  brought  to  great  perfection  by  French  jongleurs. 
i  See  Montaiglon  and  Raynaud,  Recueil  general  et  complet  des  Fabliaux  (Paris, 

1872-90),  6  vols.;  and  Be"dier,  Les  Fabliaux  (Paris,  1873). 

3  See  Dante,  Paradiso,  xxix,  n,  for  a  violent  attack  on  the  practice. 
I  Compare  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Paris  in  1528:  "Quodsi  secus  fecerint, 

aut  si  populum  more  scurrarum  vilissimorum,   dum  ridiculas   et    aniles 

33—2 


516  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

But  the  greatest  preachers  win  many  souls  by  a  judicious  use 
of  stories1,  and  diligent  clerks  make  huge  collections  of  such 
exempla,  wherein  the  least  skilled  sermon-maker  may  find  an 
illustration  apt  to  any  text2.  Didactic  writers  and  theologians 
also  adopt  the  practice;  they  trust  to  example  rather  than  to 
precept;  their  ponderous  tomes  are  alive  with  anecdotes,  but 
one  half-pennyworth  of  bread  to  this  intolerable  deal  of  sack3. 
Then  the  literary  men  begin  to  seize  upon  the  fabliaux  and 
exempla  for  the  purpose  of  their  art ;  they  borrow  plots  from  this 
bottomless  treasure-house ;  and  so  come  the  days  of  Boccaccio  and 
Les  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles  and  the  short  story  is  made  at  last4. 

fabulas  recitant,  ad  risus  cachinnationesque  excitaverint,...nos  volumus 
tales  tarn  ineptos  et  perniciosos  concionatores  ab  officio  praedicationis 
suspend!,"  etc.,  quoted  in  Exempla  of  Jacques  de  Vitry,  ed.  T.  F.  Crane 
(1890),  Introd.  p.  Ixix.  The  great  preacher  Jacques  de  Vitry  himself,  while 
advocating  the  use  of  exempla,  adds  "infructuosas  enim  fabulas  et  curiosa 
poetarum  carmina  a  sermonis  nostris  debemus  relegare...scurrilia  tamen 
aut  obscena  verba  vel  turpis  sermo  ex  ore  predicatoris  non  procedant." 
Ib.  Introd.,  pp.  xlii,  xliii. 

1  For  instance  exempla  were  much  used  by  Jacques  de  Vitry  (see  op. 
cit.).    Etienne  de  Bourbon  (see  Anecdotes  Historiques,  etc.,  d'Etienne  de  Bour 
bon,  ed.  A.  Lecoy  de  la  Marche  (Soc.  de  1'Hist.  de  France)),  and  John  Herolt. 
On  the  whole  subject  of  exempla  see  the  Introduction  to  T.  F.  Crane's 
edition  of  the  Exempla  of  Jacques  de  Vitry,  and  the  references  given  there. 

2  The  most  famous  is  the  Gesta  Romanorum.    Gesta  Romanorum,  ed. 
Oesterley  (Berlin,   1872);  and  see  The  Early  English   Version  of  the  Gesta 
Romanorum,  ed.   S.   J.  H.  Herrtage  (E.E.T.S.    1879).  The  largest  is  the 
Summa  Praedicantium  of  John  Bromyard,  a  fourteenth  century  English 
Dominican.    See  also  an  interesting  fifteenth  century  English  translation 
of  a  similar  collection,   the  Alphabetum  Narrationum  (which  used  to  be 
attributed  to  Etienne  de  Besan9on),  An  Alphabet  of  Tales,  ed.  M.  M.  Banks 
(E.E.T.S.  1904-5);  many  of  the  exempla  in  this  come  from  Caesarius  of 
Heisterbach.    Specimens  of  exempla  from  these  and  other  sources  are  col 
lected  in  Wright's  Latin  Stories  (Percy  Soc.  1842),  and  many  tales  from 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Jacques  de  Vitry,  Etienne  de  Bourbon,  Thomas 
of  Chantimpre,  etc.,  are  translated  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garn. 

8  For  instance  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Dialogus  Miraculorum,  ed. 
Strange  (1851);  Thomas  of  Chantimpre  (Cantimpratanus),  Bonum  Univer- 
sale  de  Apibus  (Douay,  1597);  and  the  knight  of  la  Tour  Landry,  who 
wrote  a  book  of  deportment  for  his  daughters,  copiously  illustrated  with 
stories.  The  Book  of  the  Knight  of  la  Tour  Landry,  ed.  T.  Wright  (E.E.T.S. 
revised  ed.  1906).  For  some  account  of  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach's  stories, 
other  than  those  quoted  in  the  text,  see  below  Note  K. 

4  Collections  of  stories,  such  as  those  of  the  Decameron,  the  Cent 
Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  the  //  Pecorone  of  Ser  Giovanni,  the  Novelle  of  Bandello, 
the  Heptameron  of  Margaret  of  Navarre,  became  very  popular.  But 
individual  stories  have  also  given  plots  to  many  great  writers  from  the 
middle  ages  to  the  present  day;  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention  Chaucer, 
Shakespeare,  Moliere  and  La  Fontaine,  to  illustrate  the  use  which  has  been 
made  of  them. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  517 

They  all,  jongleurs,  preachers,  theologians  and  men  of  letters 
repeat  each  other,  for  a  tale  once  told  is  everyone's  property; 
the  people  repeat  them ;  and  so  the  stories  circulate  from  lip  to 
lip  through  the  wide  lands  of  Europe  and  down  the  echoing 
centuries.  And  since  these  tales  deal  with  every  subject  under 
the  sun  (and  with  many  marvels  which  the  sun  never  looked 
upon),  it  is  not  surprising  that  several  of  them  deal  with  nuns. 

Across  six  centuries  we  can,  with  the  aid  of  a  sympathetic 
imagination,  slip  into  the  skins  of  these  inquisitive  and  child 
like  folk,  and  hear  some  of  the  stories  to  which  they  lent  such 
an  absorbed  attention.  Let  us 

Forget  six  counties  overhung  with  smoke, 
Forget  the  snorting  steam  and  piston  stroke, 
Forget  the  spreading  of  the  hideous  town  ; 
Think  rather  of  the  pack-horse  on  the  down, 
And  dream  of  London,  small  and  white  and  clean, 
The  clear  Thames  bordered  by  its  gardens  green. 

Or  rather,  let  us  imagine  not  London  but  some  other  little 
English  town,  on  just  such  an  April  morning  as  moved  Chaucer 
and  his  fellow- voyagers  to  seek  the  holy  blissful  martyr  by  way 
of  the  Tabard  Inn.  Having  sloughed  the  film  of  those  six  hundred 
years  from  off  our  eyes,  we  can  see  more  clearly  the  shadowy 
forms  of  our  fathers  that  begat  us.  We  can  see  a  motley  crowd 
gathered  in  the  market  place,  chiefly  made  up  of  women.  There 
are  girls,  demure  or  wistful  or  laughing,  fresh  from  their  spinning 
wheels  or  from  church;  there  are  also  bustling  wives,  in  fine 
well- woven  wimples  and  moist  new  shoes,  arm  in  arm  with 
their  gossips.  By  craning  a  neck  we  may  see  that  flighty  minx 
Alison,  the  carpenter's  wife,  "long  as  a  mast  and  upright  as  a 
bolt,"  casting  about  her  with  her  bold  black  eyes  and  looking 
jealously  at  the  miller's  wife  from  across  the  brook,  who  is  as 
pert  as  a  pye  and  considers  herself  a  lady.  There  is  a  good  wife 
of  beside  Bath,  with  a  red  face  and  ten  pounds'  weight  of 
kerchiefs  on  her  head;  a  great  traveller  and  a  great  talker  she 
is — we  can  hear  her  chattering  right  across  the  square;  it  is  a 
pity  she  is  so  deaf.  There,  under  her  own  sign-board,  is  the  inn 
keeper's  ill-tempered  dame,  who  bullies  her  husband  and  ramps 
in  his  face  if  her  neighbours  do  not  bow  low  to  her  in  church ; 
and  there  is  the  new-made  bride  of  yonder  merchant  with  the 
forked  beard — they  say  she  is  a  shrew  too.  There  is  Rose  the 


518  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

Regrater,  who  also  weaves  woollen  cloth  and  cheats  her  spinsters. 
There  is  Dame  Emma,  who  keeps  the  tavern  by  the  river — our 
neighbour  Glutton's  wife  would  like  to  scratch  out  her  eyes,  for 
Glutton  always  has  to  be  carried  home  from  that  inn.  There  also 
are  Elinor,  Joan  and  Margery,  Margaret,  Alice  and  Cecily,  merry 
gossips,  their  hearts  well  cherished  with  muscadel.  Mingled 
with  these  good  wives  of  the  town  we  see,  as  we  look  about  us, 
other  folk;  portly  burgesses,  returning  from  a  meeting  of  the 
borough  court,  full  of  wine  and  merchant  law;  a  couple  of  friars, 
their  tippets  stuffed  with  knives  and  pins,  and  a  fat  monk,  with 
a  greyhound  slinking  at  his  heel ;  an  ale-taster,  reeling  home  from 
duties  performed  too  well;  a  Fleming  or  two,  ever  on  the  look 
out  for  snarls  and  sharp  elbows  from  the  true-born  native 
craftsmen;  several  pretty  supercilious  ladies  "with  browen  bliss 
ful  under  hood,"  squired  by  a  gay  young  gentleman,  embroidered 
all  over  with  flowers;  two  giggling  curly-haired  clerks  (Absolon 
and  Nicholas  must  be  their  names)  ogling  the  carpenter's  wife 
and  sniggering  at  their  solemn  faced  companion — that  youth 
there,  with  the  threadbare  courtepy  and  a  book  of  Aristotle 
under  his  arm;  a  bailiff  buying  tar  and  salt  for  the  home  farm 
and  selling  his  butter  and  eggs  to  the  townsmen;  numbers  of 
beggars  and  idlers  and  children;  and  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
crowd  little  sister  Joan  from  St  Mary's  Convent,  who  ought  not  to 
be  out  alone,  but  who  cannot  resist  stopping  to  hear  the  sermon. 
For  we  have  all  come  running  together  in  this  year  of  our 
Lord  1380  to  hear  a  sermon1.  We  look  upon  sermons  as  an 
excellent  opportunity  "for  to  see  and  eek  for  to  be  seen";  in 
the  same  spirit,  compact  one-third  of  sociability,  one-third  of 
curiosity  and  one-third  of  piety,  we  always  crowd 

To  vigilies  and  to  processiouns, 

To  preaching  eek  and  to  thise  pilgrimages, 

To  pleyes  of  miracles  and  manages2. 

1  For  examples  of  medieval  mission  sermons,  with  their  colloquialisms, 
interruptions  from  the  audience  and  strings  of  stories,  the  reader  cannot 
do  better  than  turn  to  the  sermons  of  Berthold  of  Regensburg  (1220-72) 
and  of  St  Bernardino  of  Siena  (1380-1444).    Specimens  of  these  are  trans 
lated  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  pp.  348-64,  604-19.    See  also  for  Berthold, 
Coulton,  Medieval  Studies,  ist  series,  No.  n  ("A  Revivalist  of  Six  Centuries 
Ago  ")  and  for  St  Bernardino,  Paul  Thureau-Dangin,  St  Bernardine  of  Siena, 
trans.  Baroness  von  Hugel  (1906),  and  A.G.  Ferrers  Howell,  St  Bernardino 
of  Siena  (1913). 

2  Chaucer,  Cant.  Tales,  Wife  of  Bath's  Prol.  11.  556-8. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  519 

There  is  the  preacher  under  the  stone  market  cross.  He  is 
bidding  us  shun  the  snares  of  the  world;  if  we  cannot  shut 
ourselves  up  in  a  cloister  (which  is  best),  he  says,  we  must  make 
our  hearts  a  cloister,  where  no  wickedness  will  come.  He  will 
have  to  tell  us  a  story  soon,  for  we  are  restless  folk  and  do  not 
love  to  sit  still  on  the  cobbles  at  his  feet,  but  with  a  story  he 
can  always  hold  us.  Sure  enough  he  has  left  his  theme  now  and 
is  giving  us  an  example : 

Jacobus  de  Vetriaco  tells  how  some  time  there  was  a  mighty  prince 
that  was  founder  of  a  nunnery  that  stood  near  hand  him;  and  he 
coveted  greatly  a  fair  nun  of  the  place  to  have  her  unto  his  leman. 
And  not  withstanding  neither  by  prayer  nor  by  gift  he  could  over 
come  her;  and  at  the  last  he  took  her  away  by  strong  force.  And 
when  men  came  to  take  her  away,  she  was  passing  feared  and  asked 
them  why  they  took  her  out  of  her  abbey,  more  than  her  other 
sisters.  And  they  answered  her  again  and  said,  because  she  had  so 
fair  een.  And  anon  as  she  heard  this  she  was  fain  and  she  gart  put 
out  her  een  anon  and  laid  them  in  a  dish  and  brought  them  unto  them 
and  said:  "Lo,  here  is  the  een  that  your  master  desires  and  bid  him 
let  me  alone  and  lose  neither  his  soul  nor  mine."  And  they  went  unto 
him  therewith  and  told  him  and  he  let  her  alone;  and  by  this  mean 
she  kept  her  chastity.  And  within  three  years  after  she  had  her  een 
again,  as  well  as  ever  had  she,  through  grace  of  God1. 

A  shudder  of  horror  and  admiration  runs  through  us,  but 
the  preacher  continues  with  a  second  example: 

"How  different,"  he  says,  "Was  this  most  chaste  and  wise  virgin 
from  that  wretched  nun  who  was  sought  by  a  noble  knight,  that  he 
might  seduce  her,  and  her  abbess  hid  her  in  a  certain  very  secret 
place  in  the  monastery.  And  when  that  knight  had  sought  her  in 
all  the  offices  and  corners  of  the  monastery  and  could  in  no  wise 
find  her  he  grew  at  length  weary  and  tired  of  the  quest  and  turned 
to  depart.  But  she,  seeing  that  he  had  stopped  looking  for  her, 
because  he  had  been  unable  to  find  her,  began  to  call  'Cuckoo!',  as 
children  are  wont  to  cry  when  they  are  hidden  and  do  not  wish  to  be 
found.  Whereupon  the  knight,  hearing  her,  ran  to  the  place,  and  having 
accomplished  his  will  departed  therefrom,  deriding  the  miserableg  irl2. 

1  Translated  from  Jacques  de  Vitry  (Exempla...,  ed.  T.  F.  Crane,  p.  22) 
in  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  95  (No.  cxxxvi).  The  story  is  a  very 
old  one,  first  found  in  the  Vitae  Patrum,  x,  cap.  60.  It  is  sometimes  attributed 
to  St  Bridget  of  Ireland,  but  Etienne  de  Bourbon,  who  repeats  the  story 
twice,  tells  it  of  Richard  King  of  England  and  "a  certain  nun"  (Anec.  Hist., 
etc.,  d' Etienne  de  Bourbon,  ed.  Lecoy  de  la  Marche,  Nos.  248  and  500);  and 
other  medieval  versions  make  the  persecuting  lover  "a  king  of  England." 
(See  T.  F.  Crane,  op.  cit.  p.  158.) 

2  Exempla  of  Jacques  de  Vitry,  No.  LVIII,  pp.  22-3.    For  other  versions 
of  this  story,  see  ib.  p.  159. 


520  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

"See  how  evil  are  the  ways  of  the  world,"  says  our  preacher ; 
'•  how  much  better  to  be  simple  and  unworldly,  like  that  nun 
of  whom  you  may  read  in  the  book  of  the  wise  Caesarius 
which  he  wrote  to  instruct  novices.  I  will  tell  you  of  her," 

In  the  diocese  of  Treves  is  a  certain  convent  of  nuns  named  Lutze- 
rath,  wherein  by  ancient  custom  no  girl  is  received,  but  at  the  age  of 
seven  years  or  less;  which  constitution  hath  grown  up  for  the  preser 
vation  of  that  simplicity  of  mind,  which  maketh  the  whole  body  to 
shine.  There  was  lately  in  that  monastery  a  maiden  full-grown  in  body, 
but  such  a  child  in  worldly  matters  that  she  scarce  knew  the  difference 
twixt  a  secular  person  and  a  brute  beast,  since  she  had  had  no 
knowledge  of  secular  folk  before  her  conversion.  One  day  a  goat 
climbed  upon  the  orchard  wall,  which  when  she  saw,  knowing  not 
what  it  might  be,  she  said  to  a  sister  that  stood  by  her:  "What  is 
that?"  The  other,  knowing  her  simplicity,  answered  in  jest  to  her 
wondering  question,  "That  is  a  woman  of  the  world,"  adding,  "when 
secular  women  grow  old  they  sprout  to  horns  and  beards."  She, 
believing  it  to  be  the  truth,  was  glad  to  have  learned  something  new1. 

All  this  time  the  preacher  has  been  illustrating  his  sermon 
with  any  story  that  came  into  his  head.  But  he  has  been  doing 
more;  he  has  been  describing  for  the  information  of  posterity 
the  raw  material  (so  utterly  different  in  different  individuals), 
out  of  which  the  unchanging  pattern  of  the  nun  had  to  be 
moulded.  However  we  are  not  (for  the  moment)  posterity ;  and 
we  grow  weary  of  this  praise  of  austerity  and  simplicity.  But, 
brother  John,  we  say  (interrupting)  here  are  we,  living  in  the 
world;  you  would  not  have  us  tear  out  our  eyes  when  our 
husbands  would  be  fondling  us?  You  would  not  have  us  take 
our  good  Dame  Alison  for  a  goat,  which  is  (heaven  save  us)  but 
a  brute  beast  and  no  Christian?  and  what  if  we  cry  cuckoo 
sometimes,  we  girls,  for  a  lover?  there  are  some  we  know  that 
have  married  five  husbands  at  the  church  door,  and  still  think 
themselves  right  holy  women,  and  make  pilgrimages  to  St  James 
beyond  the  sea,  and  will  ever  go  first  to  the  offering  on  Sunday. 
What  have  your  nuns  to  do  with  us?  Tell  us  rather  what  we 
young  fresh  folk  may  do  to  be  saved ;  or  how  we  good  housewives 
should  bear  ourselves  day  by  day.  And  that  I  will  (says  the 

1  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Dial.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange,  i,  p.  389.  I  have 
used  the  translation  by  Mr  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  p.  124.  The  story  is  a  variant 
of  the  theme  of  "the  novice  and  the  geese,"  one  of  the  most  popular  of 
medieval  stories  (see  Coulton,  ib.  p.  426);  for  analogues,  see  A.  C.  Lee, 
The  Decameron,  its  Sources  and  Analogues,  pp.  110-16. 


xni]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  521 

preacher  with  some  acerbity).  Shame  upon  you,  with  your 
chattering  tongues.  You  cannot  even  keep  quiet  at  mass; 
and  at  home  it  is  well  known  to  me  how  ye  pester  your  hus 
bands,  with  your  screeching  and  scolding,  and  how  ye  chatter 
all  day  to  your  gossips,  not  minding  what  lewd  words  ye 
speak.  Remember  therefore  holy  St  Gregory's  example  of 
the  nun  who  spake  naughty  words,  which  brother  Robert  of 
Brunne  of  the  order  of  Sempringham  found  in  the  French 
book  and  set  into  fair  English  rhymes: 

Seynt  Gregori  of  a  nunne  tellys 
pat  }ede  to  helle  for  no  J>yng  ellys 
But  for  she  spake  ever  vyleyny 
Among  her  felaws  al  ahy. 
pys  nunne  was  of  dedys  chaste, 
But  )?at  she  spake  wurdys  waste 
She  made  many  of  here  felawys 
penke  on  synne  for  here  sawys. 

And  then  she  died,  and  she  was  buried  at  the  steps  of  the  altar  ; 
and  in  the  night  the  sacristan  of  the  place  was  awakened  by  a 
great  crying  and  weeping,  and  beheld  fiends  around  that  wretched 
nun,  who  burnt  half  her  body  and  left  the  other  half  unscathed : 

Seynt  Gregorye  sey)?  ]^at  hyt  was  synge 
pat  half  here  lyf e  was  nat  dygne ; 
for  J?oghe  here  dedys  were  chaste, 
Here  wurdys  were  al  vyle  and  waste. 

See  how  her  tungge  made  here  slayn 
and  foule  wurdes  broghte  here  to  payn1. 

Mind  therefore  your  tongues,  and  do  not  whisper  so  lightly 
among  yourselves  when  you  sit  in  the  tavern  (unknown  to 
your  husbands,  fie  upon  you  !),  and  stuff  yourselves  with  capons 
and  Spanish  wine.  Nay  more,  have  a  care  that  greed  does 
not  destroy  you.  Gula,  he  is  one  of  the  seven  sins  that  be 
most  deadly.  Look  to  it  lest  you  one  day  receive  the  devil 
into  your  bodies,  with  a  mouthful  of  hot  spices: 

For  the  same  blessed  Gregory  "  telleth  of  a  certain  nun  who  omitted 
to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  when  she  was  eating  a  lettuce,  and  the 
devil  entered  into  her;  and  when  he  was  ordered  by  a  holy  man  to 

1  Robert  of  Brunne's  Handlyng  Synne,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall  (Roxburghe 
Club,  1862),  pp.  50-52.  (This  is  an  amplified  translation  of  William  of 
Wadington's  Le  Manuel  des  Pechiez.)  See  also  Exempla  of  Jacques  de  Vitry, 
No.  CCLXXII,  p.  113,  which  is  translated  in  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.), 
P-  303- 


522  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

come  forth  he  replied:  'What  fault  is  it  of  mine  and  why  do  you 
rebuke  me?  I  was  sitting  upon  the  lettuce  and  she  did  not  cross 
herself  and  so  ate  me  with  it'"1.  How  different,  now,  was  the  reward 
of  that  saintly  nun  of  whom  Caesarius  telleth.  For  when  "  a  pittance, 
to  wit  fried  eggs,  was  being  distributed  by  the  cellaress  to  the  whole 
convent,  she  was  by  some  chance  neglected.  But  indeed  I  deem  not 
that  it  befel  by  chance,  but  rather  by  divine  ordering,  that  the  glory 
of  God  might  be  manifest  in  her.  For  she  bore  the  deprivation  most 
patiently,  rejoicing  in  the  neglect,  and  therefore,  when  she  was  re 
turning  thanks  to  God,  that  great  Father-Abbot  set  before  her  an 
invisible  pittance;  whereof  the  unspeakable  sweetness  so  filled  her 
mouth,  her  throat  and  all  her  body,  that  never  in  her  life  had  she 
felt  aught  like  to  it.  This  was  bodily  sweetness,  but  next  God  visited 
her  mind  and  soul  so  copiously  with  spiritual  sweetness... that  she 
desired  to  go  without  pittances  for  all  the  days  of  her  life"2. 

Thus  our  preacher  might  be  supposed  to  speak,  but  all  nun 
tales  are  not  so  edifying;  the  ribald  jongleur  was  fond  of  them 
too.  A  good  example  of  the  nun  theme  used  as  a  conte  gras  is 
Boccaccio's  famous  tale  of  the  abbess,  who  went  in  the  dark  to 
surprise  one  of  her  nuns  with  a  lover;  but  having,  when  aroused, 
had  with  her  in  her  own  cell  a  priest  (brought  thither  in  a  chest) 
she  inadvertently  put  upon  her  head  instead  of  her  veil  the 
priest's  breeches.  She  called  all  her  nuns,  seized  the  guilty  girl 
and  came  to  the  chapter  house  to  reprimand  her;  and 
the  girl  happened  to  raise  her  eyes,  when  she  saw  what  the  abbess 
bore  upon  her  head,  and  the  laces  of  the  breeches  hanging  down  on 
each  side  of  her  neck,  and  being  a  little  comforted  with  that,  as  she 
conjectured  the  fact,  she  said:  "Please,  madam,  to  button  your  coif, 
and  then  tell  me  what  you  would  have."  "What  coif  is  it  that  you 
mean,"  replied  she,  "you  wicked  woman,  you?  Have  you  the  as 
surance  to  laugh  at  me?  Do  you  think  jests  will  serve  your  turn  in 
such  an  affair  as  this?"  The  lady  said  once  more,  "I  beg,  madam, 
that  you  would  first  button  your  coif  and  then  speak  as  you  please." 
Whereupon  most  of  the  sisterhood  raised  up  their  eyes  to  look  at 
the  abbess,  and  she  herself  put  up  her  hand.  The  truth  being  thus 
made  evident,  the  accused  nun  said,  "The  abbess  is  in  fault  likewise," 
which  obliged  the  mother  to  change  her  manner  of  speech  from  that 
which  she  had  begun,  saying  that  it  was  impossible  to  resist  the 
temptations  that  assail  the  flesh.  Therefore  she  bade  them,  as  hereto 
fore,  secretly  to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  their  time"3. 

1  Exempla  of  Jacques  de   Vitry,  No.  cxxx,  p.  59.    For  other  versions, 
see  ib.  p.  189.  There  is  an  English  version  in  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.), 
p.  78  (No.  cviii). 

2  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  n,  pp.  160-1.    Compare  the  tale  of  Abbess 
Sophia  whose  small  beer  was  miraculously  turned  into  wine.   Ib.  p.  229. 

8  Boccaccio,  Decameron,  gth  day,  novel  2.    But  the  story  is  older  than 
Boccaccio,  who  constantly  uses  old  tales.  There  is  a  French  version  by 


xni]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  523 

Another  famous  tale  of  Boccaccio's  concerns  the  young  man 
who  pretended  to  be  dumb  and  was  made  gardener  at  a  nunnery1. 
In  a  different  category  from  these  stories  sacred  and  profane 
are  the  didactic  works,  wherein  churchmen  set  down  the  reasons 
for  which  a  conventual  life  was  to  be  preferred  to  all  others, 
or  the  spirit  in  which  such  a  life  was  to  be  lived.  In  this  class 
fall  poems  and  treatises  in  praise  of  virginity  and  books  of 
devotion  or  admonition  addressed  to  nuns.  The  former  are  fairly 
common  in  the  middle  ages2  and,  since  they  throw  little  light 
on  the  actual  life  of  a  professed  nun,  need  not  be  considered  at 
great  length.  Among  the  most  graceful  are  a  series  of  little 
German  songs,  probably  composed  by  clerks  and  generally  classed 
with  folk-songs,  though  they  are  as  different  as  possible  from 
the  popular  Nonnenklagen.  The  longest  of  these  poems  tells  of 
a  fair  and  noble  lady  who  walked  in  a  garden  and  cried  out  at 
the  beauty  of  the  flowers,  vowing  that  could  she  but  see  the 

Jean  de  Conde:  "Le  Dit  de  la  Nonnete"  (Montaiglon  et  Raynaud,  op.  tit. 
t.  vi,  pp.  263-9).  It  was  often  afterwards  copied  in  various  forms  in  French, 
German  and  Italian  jest-  and  story-books  and  there  is  an  extremely  gross 
dramatic  version  entitled   "Farce  Nouvelle  a  cinq  personnages,   c'est  a 
S9avoir  1'Abesse,  soeur  de  Bon  Coeur,  seur  Esplouree,  seur  Safrete  et  seur 
Fesne"  in  a  collection  of  sixteenth  century  French  farces  (Rec.  de  farces, 
morality's  et  sermons  joyeux,  ed.  Le  Roux  de  Lincy  et  Francisque  Michel, 
Paris,  1837,  vol.  u).    It  is  also  referred  to  in  Albion's  England: 
It  was  at  midnight  when  a  Nonne,  in  trauell  of  a  childe, 
Was  checked  of  her  fellow  Nonnes,  for  being  so  defilde ; 
The  Lady  Prioresse  heard  a  stirre,  and  starting  out  of  bed, 
Did  taunt  the  Nouasse  bitterly,  who,  lifting  up  her  head, 
Said  "Madame,  mend  your  hood"  (for  why,  so  hastely  she  rose, 
That  on  her  head,  mistooke  for  hood,  she  donde  a  Channon's  hose). 
For  these  and  references  to  other  analogues  see  A.  C.  Lee,  The  Decameron, 
its  Sources  and  Analogues  (1909),  pp.  274-7.    See  also  a  curious  folk-song 
version,  below,  p.  611.    La  Fontaine  founded  his  fable  of  Le  Psautier  on 
Boccaccio's  version. 

1  Boccaccio,  Decameron  (3rd  day,  novel  i).    For  analogues  and  imita 
tions,  see  A.  C.  Lee,  op.  cit.  pp.  59-62.  The  story  is  the  source  of  La  Fontaine's 
Mazet  de  Lamporechio.    For  other  ribald  stories  about  nuns  see  Note  J., 
below,  p.  624. 

2  I  have  made  no  attempt  to  describe  the  many  treatises  in  praise  of 
virginity  composed  by  the  fathers  of  the  church.  These  include  works  by 
Evagrius  Ponticus,  St  Athanasius,  Sulpicius  Severus,  St  Jerome,  St  Augustine, 
St  Caesarius  of  Aries  and  others.    Among  the  most  interesting  is  one  of 
English  origin,  the  De  Laudibus  Virginitatis  of  Aldhelm  (f  7°9)-   For  short 
analyses  of  these  works,  see  A.  A.  Hentsch,  De  la  Litterature  Didactique 
du  Moyen  Age,  s'adressant  specialement  aux  Femmes  (Cahors,  1903),  passim. 
From  the  eleventh  century  onwards  several  imitations  of  these  treatises 
occur.   A  few  of  the  more  interesting  will  be  noted  later. 


524  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

artist  who  created  so  much  loveliness,  she  would  thank  him  as 
he  deserved.  At  that  moment  a  youth  entered  the  garden  and 
greeted  her  courteously,  answering  her  cry  of  surprise  by  saying 
that  neither  stone  walls  nor  doors  could  withstand  him,  and  that 
all  the  lovely  flowers  in  the  garden  were  his  and  he  made  them, 
for  "I  am  called  Jesus  the  flower-maker."  Then  the  lady  was 
stirred  to  the  heart  and  cried:  "O  my  dearest  lord,  with  all  my 
faith  I  love  thee  and  I  will  ever  be  true  to  thee  till  my  life  ends." 
But  "  the  youth  withdrew  himself  and  went  his  way  to  a  convent 
which  lay  close  by,  and  by  reason  of  his  great  power  he  entered 
speedily  into  it."  The  lady  did  not  linger,  but  fled  after  him  to 
the  convent  and  in  great  woe  knocked  upon  the  gates,  crying, 
"Ye  have  shut  him  in  who  is  mine  only  joy."  Then  the  nuns  in 
the  convent  bespake  her  wrathfully  saying: 

"Why  dost  thou  lament  so  loudly?  thou  speakest  foolishness.  Our 
convent  is  locked  and  no  man  entered  therein.  If  thou  hast  lost  him, 
the  loss  is  thine  and  thou  must  bear  it."  "Ye  have  let  in  the  man  to 
whom  I  am  vowed.  With  mine  own  eyes  I  saw  him  pass  through  the 
gate.  Ye  have  let  in  mine  own  dear  lord.  Were  the  whole  world 
mine  I  would  give  it  up  ere  I  gave  up  him.  Ye  have  let  in  the  man  to 
whom  I  am  vowed  and  truly  I  say  to  you  that  I  will  have  him  again. 
I  will  keep  the  vow  which  I  sware  to  him  and  never  shall  my  deathless 
loyalty  fail." 

Then  the  maidens  in  the  convent  became  wroth  and  they  said: 

"Thou  spakest  foolish  things  and  against  our  honour.  Our  convent 
is  shut  and  no  man  is  allowed  therein  and  the  dear  Lord  Jesus 
knoweth  well  that  this  is  true."  "How  little  ye  know  him,"  said  the 
lovely  lady,  "Ye  have  spoken  the  name  of  mine  own  dear  lord.  Ye 
have  named  him  and  well  is  he  known  to  me;  he  is  also  called  Jesus 
the  flower-maker." 

The  maidens  in  the  convent  deemed  then  that  her  words  were 
of  God  and  marvelled  thereat: 

"  Let  Jesus  our  beloved  lord  stay  with  us  for  ever,  for  all  who  are  in 
this  convent  have  vowed  themselves  to  him."  "If  all  ye  who  are  in 
the  convent  have  vowed  yourselves  to  him,  then  will  I  stay  with  you 
all  my  days  and  I  will  keep  the  troth  I  plighted  with  him  and  never 
will  I  waver  in  my  firm  faith  in  him  "1. 

1  Uhland,  Alte  hoch  und  niederdeutsche  Volkslieder  (1845),  n,  pp.  857-62 
(No.  331).  The  first  verse  may  be  quoted  to  give  the  style: 
Es  war  ein  jungfrau  edel 
Si  war  gar  wol  getan, 
in  ainen  schonen  paungarten 
wolt  si  spacieren  gan, 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  525 

Another  song  contrasts  the  love  of  the  lord  of  many  lands 
with  that  of  the  lord  of  life,  to  the  disparagement  of  the  former1. 
A  similar  contrast  between  earthly  and  heavenly  love  is  the 
motif  of  the  beautiful  English  poem  called  A  Luue  Ron,  made 
by  the  Franciscan  Thomas  of  Hales  at  the  request  of  a  nun2; 
of  a  somewhat  similar  (though  poetically  inferior)  poem  entitled 
dene  Maydenhod3 ;  and  of  a  coarse  and  brutal  treatise  in  praise 
of  virginity  known  as  Hali  Meidenhad*.  This  alliterative  homily 
of  the  thirteenth  century  is  startlingly  different  from  the  two 
other  contemporary  works  in  middle  English,  with  which  its 
subject  would  cause  it  to  be  compared.  It  has  none  of  the  delicate 
purity  of  the  Luue  Ron,  nor  even  of  the  mystical,  ascetic  visions 
of  Mary  of  Oignies,  Luitgard  of  Tongres,  Mechthild  of  Magdeburg, 
and  the  many  saints  and  song  writers  who  realised  the  marriage 
of  the  soul  with  Christ  in  the  concrete  terms  of  human  passion  5. 
Neither,  on  the  other  hand,  has  it  the  moderation  and  urbanity 
of  the  Ancren  Riwle,  though  the  same  hand  was  once  supposed 
to  have  written  both  treatises.  The  author  of  Hali  Meidenhad 
persuades  his  spiritual  daughter  to  vow  her  virginity  to  God  by 
no  better  means  than  a  savage  and  entirely  materialistic  attack 
upon  the  estate  of  matrimony.  He  admits  that  wedlock  is  lawful 
for  the  weak,  for 

this  the  wedded  sing,  that  through  God's  goodness  and  mercy  of  his 
grace,  though  they  have  driven  downwards,  they  halt  in  wedlock  and 
softly  alight  in  the  bed  of  its  law,  for  whosoever  falleth  out  of  the 
grace  of  maidenhood,  so  that  the  curtained  bed  of  wedlock  hold  them 
not,  drive  down  to  the  earth  so  terribly  that  they  are  dashed  limb 
from  limb,  both  joint  and  muscle6. 

And  again: 

of  the  three  sorts,  maidenhood  and  widowhood  and  thirdly  wedlock- 
hood,  thou  mayst  know  by  the  degrees  of  their  bliss,  which  and  by 

in  ainen  schonen  paungarten 
durnach  stuont  ir  gedank, 
nach  pluomen  mangerlaie, 
nach  vogelein  suessem  gesank. 

1  Uhland,  op.  cit.  n,  p.  852  (No.  326).   See  also  Nos.  332  and  334. 

2  An  Old  English  Miscellany,  ed.  R.  Morris  [E.E.T.S.  1872],  pp.  93~99. 

3  Printed  in  The  Stations  of  Rome,  etc.,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall  (E.E.T.S. 
1867),  and  again  in  Minor  Poems  of  the  Vernon  MS.,   Part  n,  ed.  F.  J. 
Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.  1901),  No.  XLII,  pp.  464-8. 

4  Hali  Meidenhad,  ed.  O.  Cockayne  (E.E.T.S.  1866). 

5  See  on  this  point  Taylor,  The  Medieval  Mind  (2nd  ed.  1914).  i.  PP-  475  ft 
•  Hali  Meidenhad,  ed.  O.  Cockayne  (E.E.T.S.  1866),  p.  20. 


526  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

how  much  it  [maidenhood]  surpasses  the  others.  For  wedlock  has 
its  fruit  thirtyfold  in  heaven,  widowhood  sixtyfold ;  maidenhood  with 
a  hundredfold  overpasses  both.  Consider  then,  hereby,  whosoever 
from  her  maidenhood  descended  into  wedlock,  by  how  many  degrees 
she  falleth  downward1. 

This  comparative  moderation  of  tone  does  not,  however,  last  long 
and  the  author  proceeds  to  draw  a  picture  of  the  discomforts 
of  wifehood  and  of  motherhood  so  gross  and  so  entirely  one 
sided  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  sensible  girl  being  con 
verted  by  it: 

Ask  these  queens,  these  rich  countesses,  these  saucy  ladies,  about 
their  mode  of  life.  Truly,  truly,  if  they  rightly  bethink  themselves 
and  acknowledge  the  truth,  I  shall  have  them  for  witnesses  that  they 
are  licking  honey  off  thorns.  They  buy  all  the  sweetness  with  two 
proportions  of  bitter. ...And  what  if  it  happen,  as  the  wont  is,  that 
thou  have  neither  thy  will  with  him  [thy  husband]  nor  weal  either 
and  must  groan  without  goods  within  waste  walls  and  in  want  of 
bread  must  breed  thy  row  of  bairns?... or  suppose  now  that  power 
and  plenty  were  rife  with  thee  and  thy  wide  walls  were  proud  and 
well  supplied  and  suppose  that  thou  hadst  many  under  thee,  herdsmen 
in  hall,  and  thy  husband  were  wroth  with  thee,  and  should  become 
hateful,  so  that  each  of  you  two  shall  be  exasperated  against  the  other, 
what  worldly  good  can  be  acceptable  to  thee?  When  he  is  out  thou 
shalt  have  against  his  return  sorrow,  care  and  dread.  While  he  is  at 
home,  thy  wide  walls  seem  too  narrow  for  thee;  his  looking  on  thee 
makes  thee  aghast;  his  loathsome  voice  and  his  rude  grumbling  fill 
thee  with  horror.  He  chideth  and  revileth  thee  and  he  insults  thee 
shamefully;  he  beateth  thee  and  mawleth  thee  as  his  bought  thrall 
and  patrimonial  slave.  Thy  bones  ache  and  thy  flesh  smarteth,  thy 
heart  within  thee  swelleth  of  sore  rage,  and  thy  face  outwardly 
burneth  with  vexation2. 

Then,  after  an  unquotable  passage,  the  author  considers  the 
supposed  joys  of  maternity  and  gives  a  brutal  and  painfully 
vivid  account  of  the  troubles  of  gestation  and  childbirth  and 
of  the  anxieties  of  the  mother,  who  has  a  young  child  to  rear. 
He  seems  to  feel  that  some  apology  is  needed  for  his  brutality, 
for  he  adds: 

Let  it  not  seem  amiss  to  thee  that  we  so  speak  for  we  reproach  not 
women  with  their  sufferings,  which  the  mothers  of  us  all  endured 
at  our  own  births;  but  we  exhibit  them  to  warn  maidens,  that  they 
be  the  less  inclined  to  such  things  and  guard  themselves  by  a  better 
consideration  of  what  is  to  be  done3. 

1  Mali  Meidenhad,  ed.  O.  Cockayne  (E.E.T.S.  1866),  p.  22. 

2  Ib.  pp.  8,  30.  3  Ib.  p.  36. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  527 

The  point  of  view  is  a  strange  one.  No  girl  of  moderate  strength 
of  character,  good  sense  and  idealism  would  shirk  marriage 
solely  for  the  purely  material  reasons  set  down  by  the  author. 
One  cannot  but  wonder  at  the  lack  of  spiritual  imagination  which 
can  display  convent  life  as  the  easy,  comfortable,  leisured  ex 
istence,  the  primrose  path  which  a  harassed  wife  and  mother 
cannot  hope  to  follow1,  thus  inevitably  securing  for  the  brides 
of  Christ  all  who  are  too  lazy  and  too  cowardly  to  undertake 
an  earthly  marriage.  Self-sacrifice  and  high  endeavour  alike  are 
outside  the  range  of  the  narrow  materialist  who  wrote  Hali 
Meidenhad.  His  treatment  represents  the  ugly,  just  as  A  Luue 
Ron  represents  the  beautiful  side  of  medieval  praise  of  virginity 
and  of  monastic  life. 

Of  all  treatises  for  the  use  of  nuns  the  most  personal  and  the 
most  interesting  is  the  thirteenth  century  Ancren  Riwle  (Anchor 
esses'  Rule).  The  book  was  originally  written  for  the  use  of  three 
anchoresses,  but  the  language  of  the  original  version  (the  English 
version  is  by  most  scholars  considered  to  be  a  translation  from 
a  French  original),  the  author  and  the  anchoresses  for  whom  it 
was  written  are  alike  uncertain2.  The  conjecture  that  it  was 
written  by  Richard  Poore,  Bishop  of  Salisbury  from  1217  to 
1229,  is  discredited  by  recent  research.  It  is  usually  said  that 
the  book  was  compiled  for  the  anchoresses  of  Tarrant  Keynes 

1  See  e.g.  p.  28.  "Under  a  man's  protection  thou  shalt  be  sore  vexed 
for  his  and  the  world's  love,  which  are  both  deceptive  and  must  lie  awake 
in  many  a  care  not  only  for  thyself  as  God's  spouse  must,  but  for  many 
others  and  often  as  well  for  the  detested  as  the  dear;  and  be  more  worried 
than  any  drudge  in  the  house,  or  any  hired  hind  and  take  thine  own  share 
often  with  misery  and  bitterly  purchase  it.  Little  do  blessed  spouses  of 
God  know  of  thee  here,  that  in  so  sweet  ease  without  such  trouble  in  spiritual 
grace  and  in  rest  of  heart  love  the  true  love  and  in  his  only  service  lead  their 
life. 

2  The  Ancren  Riwle  was  translated  and  edited  by  J.  Morton  for  the 
Camden  Soc.    (1853).  I  quote  from  the  cheap  and  convenient  reprint  of 
the  translation,  with  introduction  by  Gasquet,  in  The  King's  Classics,  1907. 
For  the  most  recent  research  as  to  the  different  versions,  authorship,  etc., 
see  article  by  G.  C.  Macaulay,  "The  Ancren  Riwle"  in  Modern  Language 
Review,  ix  (1914),  pp.  63-78,  145-60,  324-31,  464-74,  Father  MacNabb's 
article  ib.  xi  (1916),  and  Miss  Hope  Emily  Allen's  thesis,  The  Origin  of  the 
Ancren  Riwle  (Publications  of  the  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc.  of  Amer.  xxxm,  3, 
Sept.  1918);  see  also  her  note  in  Mod.  Lang.   Review   (April   1919),   xiv, 
pp.  209-10,  and  Mr  Coulton's  review  of  her  thesis,  ib.  (Jan.  1920),  xv,  p.  99; 
also  Father  MacNabb's  attack  on  her  theory,  ib.  (Oct.  1920)  xv  and  her 
reply,  ib.  Research  is  gradually  pushing  the  date  of  the  first  English  trans 
lation  (if  indeed  it  be  not  after  all  the  original)  further  and  further  back. 


528  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

in  Dorsetshire ;  but  this  view  rests  upon  the  evidence  of  a  rubric 
attached  to  a  Latin  version  of  the  rule,  which  states  that  it  was 
written  by  Simon  of  Ghent  Bishop  of  Salisbury  (who  died  in 
1313)  for  his  sisters,  anchoresses  at  Tarrant;  but  though  the 
Latin  translation  was  doubtless  due  to  Simon  of  Ghent,  there  is 
no  evidence  that  the  original  anchoresses  lived  at  Tarrant;  and 
the  most  recent  research  seeks  to  identify  them  with  Emma, 
Gunilda  and  Cristina,  who  were  anchoresses  at  Kilburn  about 
1130  and  whose  settlement  developed  into  Kilburn  Priory.  The 
book  is  certainly  of  English  origin,  though  the  original  seems 
to  have  been  written  in  French.  It  must  be  noticed  that 
the  women  for  whom  the  Ancren  Riwle  was  intended  were 
anchoresses  and  not  professed  nuns ;  the  essence  of  their  life  was 
solitude,  whereas  nuns  were  essentially  members  of  a  community. 
But  the  moment  an  anchoress  ceased  to  live  alone  and  took  to 
herself  companions  the  distinction  between  anchorage  and  con 
vent  tended  to  disappear;  several  English  nunneries  originated 
in  voluntary  settlements  of  two  or  three  women,  who  desired 
to  lead  a  solitary  life  withdrawn  from  the  world.  Nine-tenths 
of  the  Ancren  Riwle  is  equally  applicable  to  a  community  of 
recluses  and  to  a  community  of  nuns  and  may  therefore  with 
advantage  be  used  to  illustrate  convent  life.  The  treatise  has  a 
dual  character.  It  is  partly  a  theological  work,  telling  the  three 
sisters  how  to  think  and  feel  and  believe.  It  is  partly  a  practical 
guide  to  the  ordering  of  their  external  lives.  The  author  cares 
for  the  stalling  and  feeding  of  Brother  Ass  the  Body,  as  well  as 
of  his  rider  the  Soul.  His  book  is  divided  into  eight  parts,  of 
which  the  first  seven  are  concerned  with  the  religious  and  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  anchoress  and  the  eighth  part  is  (in  his  own  words) 
"entirely  of  the  external  rule;  first  of  meat  and  drink  and  of  other 
things  relating  thereto;  thereafter  of  the  things  that  ye  may 
receive  and  what  things  ye  may  keep  and  possess;  then  of  your 
clothes  and  of  such  things  as  relate  thereto;  next  of  your  tonsure 
and  of  your  works  and  of  your  bloodlettings;  lastly  the  rule 
concerning  your  maids,  and  how  you  ought  kindly  to  instruct 
them  "J.  This  mixture  of  soul  and  body,  of  spiritual  and  practical, 
is  amusingly  illustrated  in  the  chapter  on  confession,  when  he 
gives  the  following  summary  of  all  mentioned  and  known  sins, 
1  Ancren  Riwle  (King's  Classics),  p.  12. 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  529 

as  of  pride,  of  ambition  or  of  presumption,  of  envy,  of  wrath,  of 
sloth,  of  carelessness,  of  idle  words,  of  immoral  thoughts,  of  any  idle 
hearing,  of  any  false  joy,  or  of  heavy  mourning,  of  hypocrisy,  of 
meat  and  of  drink,  too  much  or  too  little,  of  grumbling,  of  morose 
countenance,  of  silence  broken,  of  sitting  too  long  at  the  parlour 
window,  of  hours  ill  said,  or  without  attention  of  heart,  or  at  a  wrong 
time;  of  any  false  word,  or  oath;  of  play,  of  scornful  laughter,  of 
dropping  crumbs,  or  spilling  ale,  or  letting  a  thing  grow  mouldy,  or 
rusty,  or  rotten;  clothes  not  sewed,  wet  with  rain,  or  unwashen;  a 
cup  or  a  dish  broken,  or  anything  carelessly  looked  after  which  we 
are  using,  or  which  we  ought  to  take  care  of;  or  of  cutting  or  of 
damaging,  through  heedlessness1. 

The  author  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  shows  throughout  true 
religious  feeling,  compact  of  imagination  and  passion,  but  (as 
the  above  passage  shows)  he  never  loses  hold  on  reality.  He 
is  sober  and  full  of  common  sense,  almost  one  had  said  a  man 
of  the  world.  He  brings  to  his  assistance  (what  writers  on  holy 
maidenhood  so  often  lack)  a  sound  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
a  sense  of  humour  and  a  most  observant  eye.  His  psychological 
power  appears  in  his  account  of  some  of  the  sins  to  which  the 
nun  is  exposed,  in  his  picture  of  the  backbiter,  for  instance,  or 
in  the  passage  in  which  he  explains  that  the  worst  temptations 
of  the  nun  come  not  (as  she  expects)  during  the  first  two  years 
of  her  profession,  when  "it  is  nothing  but  ball-play,"  but  after 
she  has  followed  the  life  for  several  years;  for  Jesus  Christ  is 
like  the  mortal  lover,  gentle  when  he  is  wooing  his  bride,  who 
begins  to  correct  her  faults  as  soon  as  he  is  sure  of  her  love,  till 
in  the  end  she  is  as  he  would  have  her  be  and  there  is  peace  and 
great  joy2.  Not  only  is  the  Ancren  Riwle  full  of  flashes  of  wisdom 
such  as  these.  It  is  illustrated  throughout  by  a  profusion  of 
metaphors  and  homely  illustrations  drawn  from  the  author's 
own  observation  of  the  busy  world  outside  the  anchorage.  More 
over  it  contains  passages  of  a  high  and  sustained  eloquence 
almost  unmatched  in  contemporary  literature,  such  as  the  famous 
allegory  of  the  wooing  of  the  soul  by  Christ,  under  the  guise 
of  a  king  relieving  a  lady  who  loved  and  scorned  him  from  the 
castle  where  she  was  besieged3. 

Even  more  interesting  than  the  spiritual  counsels  of  the 
Ancren  Riwle  are  its  practical  counsels.  The  moderation  and 
humanity  of  this  most  unfanatical  author  are  never  more  striking 

1  Ancren  Riwle,  p.  259.  2  Pp.  164-5.  3  Pjx  294-6. 

P.N.  34 


; 


530  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

than  when  he  is  dealing  with  the  domestic  life  of  the  anchoresses. 
When  laying  down  the  general  rule  that  no  flesh  nor  lard  should 
be  eaten,  except  in  great  sickness,  and  that  they  should  accustom 
themselves  to  little  drink,  he  adds:  "nevertheless,  dear  sisters, 
your  meat  and  drink  have  seemed  to  me  less  than  I  would  have 
it.  Fast  no  day  upon  bread  and  water,  except  ye  have  leave"1, 
and  again: 

Wear  no  iron,  nor  haircloth  nor  hedgehog  skins  and  do  not  beat 
yourselves  therewith,  nor  with  a  scourge  of  leather  thongs  nor  leaded ; 
and  do  not  with  holly  nor  with  briars  cause  yourselves  to  bleed  without 
leave  of  your  confessor  and  do  not,  at  one  time,  use  too  many 
flagellations2. 

When  he  describes  the  sin  of  idle  gossip,  he  breaks  off  with 
"  Would  to  God,  dear  sisters,  that  all  the  others  were  as  free  as 
ye  are  of  such  folly"3.  Nothing  could  be  more  sensible  than  his 
regulations  for  their  behaviour  after  the  quarterly  blood-letting : 

When  ye  are  let  blood  ye  ought  to  do  nothing  that  may  be  irksome 
to  you  for  three  days;  but  talk  with  your  maidens  and  divert  your 
selves  together  with  instructive  tales.  Ye  may  often  do  so  when  ye 
feel  dispirited,  or  are  grieved  about  some  worldly  matter,  or  sick. 
Thus  wisely  take  care  of  yourselves  when  you  are  let  blood  and  keep 
yourselves  in  such  rest  that  long  thereafter  ye  may  labour  the  more 
vigorously  in  God's  service  and  also  when  ye  feel  any  sickness,  for 
it  is  great  folly,  for  the  sake  of  one  day,  to  lose  ten  or  twelve. 

He  clearly  has  no  belief  in  the  theory  of  the  medieval  ascetic 
that  filthiness  is  next  to  godliness,  for  he  bids  his  dear  sisters 
"wash  yourselves  wheresoever  it  is  necessary,  as  often  as  ye 
please"4.  Some  of  the  precepts  in  this  section  of  the  Riwle  are 
obviously  more  closely  applicable  to  anchoresses  than  to  nuns; 
for  instance  the  instructions  against  hospitality  and  almsgiving. 
Others  are  equally  suitable  for  both: 

Of  a  man  whom  ye  distrust,  receive  ye  neither  less  nor  more — not 
so  much  as  a  race  of  ginger.... Carry  ye  on  no  traffic.  An  anchoress 
that  is  a  buyer  and  a  seller  selleth  her  soul  to  the  chapman  of  hell. 
Do  not  take  charge  of  other  men's  property  in  your  house,  nor  of 
their  cattle,  nor  their  clothes,  neither  receive  under  your  care  the 
church  vestments,  nor  the  chalice,  unless  force  compel  you,  or  great 
fear,  for  oftentimes  much  harm  has  come  from  such  caretaking.  Let 
no  man  sleep  within  your  walls.... Because  no  man  seeth  you,  nor  do 
ye  see  any  man,  ye  may  be  well  content  with  your  clothes,  be  they 

1  Pp.  313-4.  2  Pp.  3I7-8-  3  P-  68.  4  Pp.  319-20. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  531 

white,  be  they  black;  only  see  they  be  plain  and  warm  and  well 
made — skins  well  tawed;  and  have  as  many  do  you  need,  for  bed 
and  also  for  back.... Have  neither  ring  nor  brooch,  nor  ornamented 
girdle,  nor  gloves,  nor  any  such  thing  that  is  not  proper  for  you  to 
have.  I  am  always  the  more  gratified,  the  coarser  the  works  are  that 
ye  do.  Make  no  purses  to  gain  friends  therewith,  nor  blodbendes  of 
silk;  but  shape  and  sew  and  mend  church  vestments  and  poor  people's 
clothes.... Ye  shall  not  send,  nor  receive,  nor  write  letters  without 
leave.  Ye  shall  have  your  hair  cut  four  times  a  year  to  disburden 
your  head ;  and  be  let  blood  as  oft  and  of tener  if  it  is  necessary ;  but 
if  anyone  can  dispense  with  this,  I  may  well  suffer  it1. 

There  follows  a  short  account  of  the  kind  of  servants  who  should 
attend  upon  the  anchoresses  and  the  way  in  which  these  must 
behave  and  be  ruled ;  and  then  the  author  ends  characteristically : 

In  this  book  read  every  day,  when  ye  are  at  leisure — every  day,  less 
or  more ;  for  I  hope  that,  if  ye  read  it  often,  it  will  be  very  beneficial 
to  you,  through  the  grace  of  God,  or  else  I  shall  have  ill  employed 
much  of  my  time.  God  knows,  it  would  be  more  agreeable  to  me  to 
set  out  on  a  journey  to  Rome,  than  to  begin  to  do  it  again.... As  often 
as  ye  read  anything  in  this  book,  greet  the  Lady  with  an  Ave  Mary 
for  him  who  made  this  rule,  and  for  him  who  wrote  it  and  took 
pains  about  it.  Moderate  enough  I  am,  who  ask  so  little2. 

And  six  centuries  later,  as  we  lay  down  this  delightful  little  book, 
we  cannot  but  agree  that  the  claim  is  "moderate  enough." 

Other  didactic  works  addressed  to  nuns  may  be  considered 
more  briefly,  for  the  majority  are  purely  devotional  and  throw 
little  light  upon  the  daily  life  of  the  nun.  The  largest  and  most 
important  book  in  English  is  the  Myroure  of  Our e  Ladye,  written 
for  the  Brigittine  sisters  6f  Syon  Monastery  at  Isleworth  by  the 
famous  theologian  and  chancellor  of  Oxford,  Thomas  Gascoigne 
(1403-58) 3.  It  consists  of  a  devotional  treatise  on  the  divine 
service,  followed  by  a  translation  and  explanation  of  the  Hours 
and  Masses  of  Our  Lady  as  used  by  the  sisters.  The  first  treatise  is 
profusely  illustrated  throughout  by  exempla  taken  from  Caesarius 
of  Heisterbach  and  similar  sources  and  makes  lively  reading. 
Speaking  of  attendance  at  divine  service  Gascoigne  remarks : 

They  that  have  helthe  and  strengthe  and  ar  nor  lettyd  by  obedience, 
j  they  ought  to  be  full  hasty  and  redy  to  come  to  this  holy  seruyce 
!  and  lothe  to  be  thense.  They  ought  not  to  spare  for  eny  slowth  or 

dulnes  of  the  body,  ne  yet  though  they  fele  some  tyme  a  maner  of 

I 

1  Pp.  316-19,  passim.  2  P.  325—6. 

3  The  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  J.  H.  Blunt  (E.E.T.S.  1873,  1898). 

34—2 


532  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH 

payne  in  the  stomacke  or  in  the  hed,  for  lacke  of  sleape  or  indyges- 
t yon.... For  lyke  as  they  that  styrre  up  themselfe  with  a  quycke  and  a 
feruent  wyll  thyderwarde  ar  holpe  fourth  and  comforted  by  cure 
lordes  good  aungels;  right  so  fendes  take  power  ouer  them  that  oi 
slowthe  kepe  them  thense,  as  ye  may  se  by  the  example  of  a  monke 
that  was  suffycyently  stronge  in  body  but  he  was  slepy,  and  dul  to 
ryse  to  mattyns.  Often  he  was  spoken  to  for  to  amende,  and  on  a 
nyght  he  was  callyd  sharpely  to  aryse  and  come  to  the  quyer.  Then 
he  was  wrothe  and  rose  up  hastly  and  wente  towarde  the  pryue 
dortour.  And  whan  he  came  to  the  dore,  there  was  redy  a  company 
of  fendes  comynge  to  hym  warde,  that  cryed  agenst  hym  wyth 
ferefull  noyse  and  hasty,  often  saynge  and  cryyng:  Take  hym,  take 
hym,  gette  hym,  holde  hym;  And  with  thys  the  man  was  sodenly 
afrayde  and  turned  agayne  and  ran  to  chyrche  as  fast  as  he  myght 
lyke  a  man  halfe  mad  and  out  of  hys  wytte  for  dreade.  And  when  he 
was  come  in  to  hys  stalle,  he  stode  a  whyle  trembelyng  and  pantyng, 
and  sone  after  he  fel  doune  to  the  grounde,  and  lay  styll  as  dede  a 
longe  tyme  without  felyng  or  sturyng.  Then  he  was  borne  to  the 
farmery  and  after  he  was  come  agayne  to  hym  selfe  he  tolde  his 
bretherne  what  him  eyled  and  from  thense  fourth  he  wolde  be  in 
the  quyer  wyth  the  fyrste.  And  so  I  trowe  wolde  other  that  ar  now 
slowthefull,  yf  they  were  hastyd  on  the  same  wyse. 

The  prevalence  of  such  stories  shows  how  common  was  the  mis 
demeanour  against  which  they  are  directed.  It  may  be  noted 
that  as  preface  to  the  second  part  of  the  Myroure  there  stands 
an  excellent  little  dissertation  on  the  value  and  method  of 
reading1.  It  is  unnecessary  to  deal  further  with  the  other  didactic 
works  in  English  intended  for  the  use  of  nuns,  since  their  interest 
is  purely  religious2. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  didactic  treatises  it  is  however 
necessary  to  mention  one  little  English  prose  work,  for  though 
not  addressed  to  nuns,  it  throws  some  light  upon  the  organisa- 

1  Op.  cit.  pp.  65-9,  passim. 

-  As  for  instance  the  various  other  books  written  or  translated  for  the 
nuns  of  Syon  (on  which  see  Eckenstein,  op.  cit.  pp.  394-5)  and  the  mystical 
treatise  "Ego  dormio  et  cor  meum  vigUat,"  which  was  written  by  Richard 
Rolle  of  Hampole  for  a  nun  of  Yedingham.  Rolle  was  kindly  cherished  by 
the  nuns  of  Hampole.  where  he  settled;  they  often  sought  his  advice  during 
his  lifetime  and  after  his  death  they  tried  to  obtain  his  canonisation;  an 
office  for  his  festival  was  composed  and  a  collection  of  his  miracles  made. 
(See  Cambridge  Hist,  of  Engl.  Lit.  n,  pp.  45,  48.)  For  similar  treatises  of 
foreign  origin,  see  the  Opusculum  of  Hermann  der  Lahme  (1013-54), 
Francesco  da  Barbarino's  Del  Reggimento  e  Costumi  di  Donne  (which  con 
tains  a  section  dealing  with  nuns),  (c.  1307-15),  Francisco  Ximenes' 
Libre  de  les  dones  (f  1409)  and  John  Gerson's  (f  1429)  letter  to  his  sister. 
See  Hentsch,  op.  cit.  pp.  39,  114,  151,  152. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  533 

tion  of  a  convent  and  in  particular  provides  a  very  complete 
list  of  obedientiaries.  This  is  the  A  bbey  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
was  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  1500  and  has  been  erro 
neously  attributed  to  various  authors,  including  Richard  Rolle 
of  Hampole  and  John  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely  (f  1480) l.  The 
allegory  of  a  ghostly  abbey  seems  to  have  been  popular  in  the 
middle  ages.  It  had  already  been  used  by  the  beguine  Mechthild 
in  the  thirteenth  century  and  it  would  be  interesting  to  determine 
whether  there  is  any  direct  connection  between  her  treatise 
Von  einem  geistlichen  closter  and  the  Abbey  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
In  her  convent  Charity  is  abbess,  Meekness  her  chaplain,  Peace 
prioress,  Kindliness  subprioress,  Hope  chantress,  Wisdom  school 
mistress,  Bounty  cellaress,  Mercy  chambress,  Pity  innrmaress, 
Dread  portress  and  Obedience  provost  or  priest2.  The  English 
book  is  addressed  to  men  and  women  who  are  unable  to  take 
regular  vows  in  some  monastic  order,  and  the  allegory  is  carried 
out  in  great  detail. 

The  study  of  didactic  literature  addressed  to  nuns,  in  order 
to  assist  them  in  a  godly  way  of  life,  leads  to  the  consideration 
of  another  type  of  didactic  literature,  didactic  however  with  an 
arriere-pensee,  being  concerned  to  point  out  and  to  condemn 
evils  which  had  crept  into  monasteries.  This  is  the  work  of  the 
satirists  and  moralists,  who  castigated  by  scorn  or  by  condemna 
tion  the  irregularities  of  the  different  orders.  Like  didactic 
writers  they  describe  an  ideal,  but  an  ideal  which  emerges  only 
from  their  attack  on  the  dark  reality,  like  sparks  of  light  which 
the  blacksmith's  hammer  beats  from  iron.  Occasionally  they 

1  Printed  from  the  Thornton  MS.  in  Religious  Pieces  in  Prose  and  Verse, 
ed.  G.  G.  Perry  (E.E.T.S.  1867,  1914),  No.  in,  pp.  51-62.    Compare  Brit. 
Mus.  MS.  Add.  39843  (La  Sainte  Abbaye),  some  pictures  from  which  are 
reproduced  in  this  book. 

2  Mechthild  von  Magdeburg,  Offenbarungen,  oder  Das  fliessende  Licht 
der  Gottheit,  ed.  Gall  Morel  (1869),  pp.  249  ft.;    see  Eckenstein,  op.  cit. 
p.  339.  The  same  idea  is  found  in  a  little  German  Volkslied : 

Wir  wellen  uns  pawen  ein  heuselein 
Und  unser  sel  ain  klosterlein, 
Jesus  Crist  sol  der  maister  sein, 
Maria  jungfraw  die  schaffnerein. 
Gotliche  Forcht  die  pfortnerein, 
Gotliche  Lieb  die  kelnerein, 
Diemuetikait  wont  wol  do  pei 
Weisheit  besleust  daz  laid  all  ein. 
— Uhland,  Alte  hoch-  und  niederdeutsche  Volkslieder,  n,  pp.  864-5 


534  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

use  the  gay  satire  of  the  writer  of  fabliaux;  their  condemnation 
is  an  undercurrent  beneath  a  lightly  flowing  stream,  their  moral 
is  implicit,  they  poke  fun  at  the  erring  monk  or  nun,  rather  than 
chastise  them.  It  is  so  in  that  delicious  poem,  The  Land  of 
Cokaygne1,  which  French  wit  begat  in  the  thirteenth  century 
upon  English  seriousness2.  The  Land  of  Cokaygne  is  partly  an 
attack  on  the  luxury  of  monastic  houses,  and  partly  an  ebullition 
of  irresponsible  gaiety  and  humour,  which  might  just  as  well 
(one  feels)  have  taken  another  form.  The  author  has  perhaps  in 
his  mind  the  idea  of  the  imaginary  abbey  of  the  Virtues,  which 
was  so  popular  among  serious  writers,  but  he  puts  it  to  a  very 
different  use.  Far  in  the  sea  by  West  Spain,  he  says,  there  is  a 
land  which  is  called  Cokaygne  [coquina,  kitchen].  No  land  under 
heaven  is  like  it  for  goodness.  Paradise  may  be  merry  and 
bright,  but  Cokaygne  is  fairer;  for  what  is  there  in  Paradise 
but  grass  and  flower  and  green  branches?  though  there  be  joy 
and  great  delight  there,  there  is  no  meat  but  fruit,  no  hall 
or  bower  or  bench,  nothing  but  water  to  drink.  But  in  Cokaygne 
there  is  plenty  of  meat  and  drink  of  the  best,  with  no  need  to 
labour  for  it;  in  Cokaygne  there  is  muckle  joy  and  bliss  and 
many  a  sweet  sight,  for  it  is  always  day  there  and  always  life ; 
there  is  no  anger,  no  animals,  no  insects 

(N'is  there  fly,  flea  no  louse, 

In  cloth  in  town,  bed,  no  house), 

1  English  text  in  Furnivall,  Early  English  Poems  (Berlin,  1862),  printed 
in  Trans,  of  Philological  Soc.  1858,  pt.  n,  pp.  156-61;  and  in  Goldbeck  and 
Matzner,  Altenglische  Sprachproben  (Berlin,  1867),  pt.  I,  p.  147;  W.  Heuser, 
Die  Kildare-Gedichte  (Bonn,  1904),  p.  145;  and  in  a  slightly  modernised 
form  in  Ellis,  Specimens  of  Early  English  Poets,  1801,  i,  pp.  83  ff.,  who  took 
it  from  Hickes'  Thesaurus,  pt.  I,  p.  231.  I  have  here  used  the  modernised 
version  for  the  sake  of  convenience.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  identify 
the  religious  houses  mentioned  in  the  poem  with  real  monasteries  in  Kildare; 
the  poem  is  certainly  of  Anglo-Irish  origin  and  occurs  in  the  famous  "  Kildare 
Manuscript"  (MS.  Harl.  913).  See  W.  Heuser,  op.  cit.  pp.  141-5.  There  is 
a  French  version  in  Barbazon  et  Meon,  Fabliaux  in,  p.  175. 

"It  is  not  until  French  wit  flashes  across  English  seriousness  that  we 
travel  to  the  Land  of  Cokaygne,"  G.  Hadow,  Chaucer  and  His  Times,  p.  35. 
Stories  of  a  food  country  are,  however,  common  in  medieval  literature,  being 
sometimes  legends  of  a  vanished  golden  age,  as  in  the  Irish  "Vision  of  Mac- 
Conglinne"  (late  twelfth  century),  and  sometimes  ideal  pictures  of  a  life 
of  lazy  luxury,  as  in  the  French  and  English  Lands  of  Cokaygne  and  the 
German  Schlaraffenland.  On  the  whole  subject,  see  Fr.  Joh.  Poeschel,  Das 
Marchen  vom  Schlaraffenland  (Halle,  1878),  and  the  introduction  by 
W.  Wollner  to  The  Vision  of  MacConglinng,  ed.  Kuno  Meyer  (1892). 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  535 

no  vile  worm  or  snail,  no  thunder,  sleet,  hail,  rain  or  wind,  no 
blindness.  All  is  game  and  joy  and  glee  there.  There  are  great 
rivers  of  oil  and  milk  and  honey  and  wine — but  as  for  water, 
it  is  used  only  for  washing. 

Then  the  satire  becomes  slightly  more  pointed: 

There  is  a  well-fair  abbey, 

Of  white  monkes  and  of  grey, 

There  beth  bowers,  and  halls: 

All  of  pasties  beth  the  walls, 

Of  flesh,  of  fish,  and  a  rich  meat, 

The  likefullest  that  man  may  eat. 

Flouren  cakes  beth  the  shingles  all      [tiles 

Of  church,  cloister,  bowers  and  hall. 

The  pinnes  beth  fat  puddings  [sausages 

Rich  meat  to  princes  and  kings. 

All  may  have  as  much  as  they  will  of  the  food.  There  is  also  in 
the  abbey  a  fair  cloister,  with  crystal  pillars,  adorned  with  green 
jasper  and  red  coral.  In  the  meadow  near  by  is  a  tree,  most 
"likeful  for  to  see." 

The  root  is  ginger  and  galingale, 

The  scions  beth  all  sedwale.  [zedoary 

Trie  maces  beth  the  flower,  [choice 

The  rind,  canel  of  sweet  odour;  [cinnamon 

The  fruit  gilofre  of  good  smack  [cloves 

Of  cucubes  there  is  no  lack.  [cubebs  (a  spice) 

There  are  also  red  roses  and  lilies  that  never  fade.  There  are 
in  the  abbey  four  springs  of  treacle  (i.e.  any  rich  electuary), 
halwei  (healing  water),  balsam  and  spiced  wine,  ever  running  in 
full  stream,  and  the  bed  of  the  stream  is  all  made  of  precious 
stones,  sapphire,  pearl,  carbuncle,  emerald,  beryl,  onyx,  topaz, 
amethyst,  chrysolite,  chalcedony  and  others/There  also  are  many 
birds,  throstle,  thrush  and  nightingale,  goldfinch  and  woodlark, 
which  sing  merrily  day  and  night.  Better  still 

...I  do  you  mo  to  wit, 

The  geese  y-roasted  on  the  spit, 

Flee  to  that  abbey,  God  it  wot, 

And  gredith  "  Geese  all  hot !  all  hot ! "      [cry 

Hi  bringeth  garlek,  great  plentee, 

The  best  y-dight  that  man  may  see. 

The  leverokes  that  beth  couth  [larks,  well-known 

Lieth  adown  to  manis  mouth; 

Y-dight  in  stew  full  swithe  well,        [quickly 

Powder'd  with  gingelofre  and  canell. 


536  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

The  writer,  having  set  his  monks  in  the  midst  of  this  abun 
dance  of  good  things,  proceeds  to  describe  their  daily  life.  When 
they  go  to  mass,  he  says,  the  glass  windows  turn  into  bright 
crystal  to  give  them  more  light,  and  when  the  mass  is  ended  and 
the  books  are  laid  away  again,  the  crystal  turns  back  again  into 
glass: 

The  young  monkes  each  day 

After  meat  goeth  to  play; 

N'is  there  hawk,  no  fowl  so  swift, 

Better  fleeing  by  the  lift, 

Than  the  monkes,  high  of  mood, 

With  their  sleeves  and  their  hood. 

When  the  abbot  seeth  them  flee, 

That  he  holds  for  much  glee. 

Ac  natheless,  all  there  among, 

He  biddeth  them  light  to  evesong. 

And  if  the  monks  pursue  for  too  long  their  airy  gambols,  he 
recalls  them  by  means  of  an  improvised  drum,  the  nature  of 
which  is  best  not  indicated  to  a  more  squeamish  generation. 
Then  the  monks  alight  in  a  flock  and  so  "wend  meekly  home  to 
drink,"  in  a  fair  procession. 

So  far  the  Paradise  has  been  without  an  Eve.  But  the  author 
will  provide  these  jolly  monks  with  companions  worthy  of  their 
humour: 

Another  abbey  is  thereby, 

Forsooth  a  great  fair  nunnery : 

Up  a  river  of  sweet  milk, 

Where  is  plenty  great  of  silk. 

When  the  summer's  day  is  hot, 

The  young  nunnes  taketh  a  boat, 

And  doth  them  forth  in  that  river, 

Both  with  oares  and  with  steer. 

When  they  beth  far  from  the  abbey 

They  maketh  them  naked  for  to  play, 

And  lieth  down  into  the  brim, 

And  doth  them  slily  for  to  swim. 

The  young  monks  that  hi  seeeth,  [them 

They  doth  them  up  and  forth  they  fleeeth, 

And  cometh  to  the  nuns  anon. 

And  each  monke  him  taketh  one, 

And  snellich  beareth  forth  their  prey         [quickly 

To  the  mochil  grey  abbey, 

And  teacheth  the  nuns  an  orison 

With  jambleue  up  and  down.  [gambols 


xm]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  537 

The  monk  that  acquits  him  best  among  the  ladies  may  have 
twelve  wives  in  a  year,  if  he  will,  and  if  he  can  outdo  all  his 

companions 

Of  him  is  hope,  God  is  wot, 
To  be  soon  father  abbot ! 

But  whoever  will  come  to  this  delectable  country  must  first 
serve  a  hard  penance;  seven  years  must  he  wade  in  swines' 
muck  up  to  the  chin  ere  he  win  there.  Fair  and  courteous  lordings, 
good  luck  to  you  in  the  test ! 

More  of  a  fairy  tale  than  a  satire,  this  jovial  and  good 
humoured  poem  was  immensely  popular  in  the  middle  ages. 
Another  thirteenth  century  lampoon  on  the  monastic  orders, 
written  in  French  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I,  is  less  well  known, 
possibly  because  its  satire,  while  still  essentially  gay,  is  more 
obvious  than  that  of  The  Land  of  Cokaygne.  The  poem  is  known 
as  L'Ordre  de  Bel-Eyse1.  The  author  has  had  the  happy  idea  (not 
however  a  new  one) 2  of  combining  all  the  characteristic  vices  of 
the  different  orders  into  one  glorious  Order  of  Fair  Ease,  to 
which  belong  many  a  gentleman  and  many  a  fair  lady,  but  no 
ribald  nor  peasant.  From  the  Order  of  Sempringham  it  borrows 
one  custom,  that  of  having  brothers  and  sisters  together,  but 
while  at  Sempringham  there  must  be  between  them  ("a  thing 
which  displeases  many")  ditches  and  high  walls,  in  the  Order 
of  Fair  Ease  there  must  be  no  wall  and  no  watchword  to  prevent 

1  Polit.  Songs  of  England,  ed.  T.  Wright  (Camden  Soc.  1839),  pp.  137-48. 

*  The  idea  of  the  Ordre  de  Bel-Eyse  is  probably  taken  from  the  twelfth 
century  Anglo-Latin  poem  by  Nigel  Wireker  entitled  Speculum  Stultorum, 
which  tells  the  story  of  the  ass  Burnellus,  who  goes  out  into  the  world  to 
seek  his  fortune.  At  one  point  Burnellus  decides  to  retire  to  a  convent 
and  passes  the  different  orders  under  review,  to  see  which  will  suit  him. 
This  gives  the  author  an  opportunity  for  some  pointed  satire,  including 
a  reference  to  nuns;  "they  never  quarrel  save  for  due  cause,  in  due  place, 
nor  do  they  come  to  blows  save  for  grave  reasons";  their  morals  are  very 
questionable,  "Harum  sunt  quaedam  steriles  et  quaedam  parturientes, 
virgineoque  tameii  nomine  cuncta  tegunt.  Quae  pastoralis  baculi  dotatur 
honore,  ilia  quidem  melius  fertiliusque  parit.  Vix  etiam  quaevis  sterilis 
reperitur  in  illis,  donee  eis  aetas  talia  posse  negat."  Finally  Burnellus  decides 
to  found  a  new  order;  from  the  Templars  he  will  borrow  their  smoothly 
pacing  horses,  from  the  Cluniacs  and  the  black  Canons  their  custom  of 
eating  meat,  from  the  order  of  Grandmont  their  gossip,  from  the  Carthusians 
the  habit  of  saying  mass  only  once  a  month,  from  the  Premonstratensians 
their  warm  and  comfortable  clothes,  from  the  nuns  their  custom  of  going 
ungirdled ;  and  in  this  order  every  brother  shall  have  a  female  companion, 
as  in  the  first  order  which  was  instituted  in  Paradise.  Anglo-Latin  Satirical 
Poets  of  the  Twelfth  Century,  ed.  T.  Wright  (Rolls  Series,  1872),  i,  pp.  94-6. 


538  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

the  brethren  from  visiting  the  sisters  at  their  pleasure;  their 
intimacy  must  be  separated  by  nothing,  says  this  precursor  of 
Rabelais,  not  by  linen  nor  wool,  nor  even  by  their  skins !  And 
all  who  enter  the  order  must  feast  well  and  in  company,  thrice 
a  day  and  oftener.  From  the  canons  of  Beverley  they  have  taken 
the  custom  of  drinking  well  at  their  meat  and  long  afterwards 
(the  pun  is  on  bever,  to  drink),  from  the  Hospitallers  that  of 
going  clad  in  long  robes  and  elegant  shoes,  riding  upon  great 
palfreys  that  amble  well.  From  the  Canons  they  borrow  the 
habit  of  eating  meat,  but  whereas  the  canons  eat  it  thrice  a 
week  these  brethren  are  bound  to  eat  it  daily.  From  the  Black 
Monks  (as  from  the  canons  of  Beverley)  they  take  their  heavy 
drinking,  and  if  a  brother  be  visited  by  a  friend  who  shall  know 
how  to  carouse  in  the  evening,  he  shall  sleep  late  in  the  morning 
(for  the  sake  of  his  eyesight),  till  the  evil  fumes  have  issued  from 
his  head.  From  the  secular  Canons  ("who  willingly  serve  the 
ladies")  they  have  taken  a  rule  which  is  more  needful  than  any 
other  to  solace  the  brethren — that  each  brother  must  make  love 
to  a  sister  before  and  after  matins ;  a  point  which  is  elaborated 
with  cheerful  indecency,  under  the  guise  of  borrowing  from  the 
Grey  Monks  their  manner  of  saying  prayers.  From  the  Carthu 
sians  they  take  the  custom  of  shutting  each  monk  up  in  his  cell 
to  repose  himself,  with  fair  plants  on  his  window-ledge  for  his 
solace,  and  his  sister  between  his  arms.  The  Friars  Minor  are 
founded  in  poverty,  which  they  seek  by  lodging  ever  with  the 
chief  baron,  or  knight,  or  churchman  of  the  countryside,  where 
they  can  have  their  full ;  and  so  must  the  brethren  of  Fair  Ease 
do  likewise.  The  Preachers  go  preaching  in  shoes  and  if  they  are 
footsore  they  ride  at  ease  on  horseback ;  but  the  brethren  of  Fair 
Ease  are  vowed  always  to  ride,  and  always  they  must  preach 
within  doors  and  after  they  have  dined.  This  is  our  Order  of 
Fair  Ease ;  he  who  breaks  it  shall  be  chastised  and  he  who  makes 
good  use  of  it  shall  be  raised  to  the  dignity  of  abbot  or  prior 
to  hold  it  in  honour,  for  thus  do  the  Augustine  canons,  who 
know  so  many  devices.  Now  ends  our  Order,  which  agrees  with 
all  good  orders,  and  may  it  please  many  all  too  well!1 

1  With  these  two  highly  successful  jeux  d'esprit  at  the  expense  of 
monastic  luxury  may  be  compared  a  passage  in  the  curious  thirteenth 
century  poem  entitled  "A  Disputison  bytwene  a  cristene  mon  and  a  Jew," 


xni]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  539 

The  inventors  of  these  two  imaginary  orders  were  not  serious 
or  embittered  moralists.  Cokaygne  lies  upon  the  bonny  road  to 
Elfland;  and  Bel  Eyse  is  a  coarser,  stupider  Abbey  of  Theleme1, 
whose  inmates  lack  that  instinct  for  honour  and  noble  liberty 
which  makes  Gargantua's  "Fais  ce  que  vouldras"  an  ideal  as 
well  as  a  satire.  As  a  rule  the  medieval  satirists  of  monasticism 
deal  in  grave  admonitions,  or  in  violent  reproaches.  But  one 
contemporary  poem,  hailing  this  time  from  France,  may  be 
added  to  the  two  English  works  in  which  the  frailties  of  nuns 
are  treated  in  a  jesting  spirit.  This  is  a  piece  by  the  famous 
trouvere  Jean  de  Conde  entitled  La  messe  des  oisiaus  et  li  plais 
des  chanonesses  et  des  grises  nonains2.  The  poem  begins  with  an 
account  of  a  mass  sung  in  due  form  by  all  the  birds  and  followed 
by  a  feast  presided  over  by  the  goddess  Venus.  After  this  un 
wieldy  introduction  comes  the  main  theme,  which  consists  of 
a  lawsuit  brought  by  the  nobly  born  canonesses  against  the 
grey  Cistercian  nuns,  for  the  judgment  of  Venus.  A  canoness 
speaks  first  on  behalf  of  her  order,  attended  by  several  gentlemen 
and  knights,  who  are  proud  to  claim  her  acquaintance: 

"Queen,"  she  says,  "Deign  to  hear  us  and  to  receive  us  favourably, 
for  we  have  ever  been  thy  faithful  subjects  and  we  shall  continue 
ever  to  serve  thee  with  ardour.  For  long  noblemen  held  it  glorious 
to  have  our  love;  the  honour  cost  them  nothing  and  was  celebrated 
by  round-tables,  feasts  and  tourneys.  But  now  the  grey  nuns  are 
stealing  our  lovers  from  us.  They  are  easy  mistresses,  exacting  neither 
many  attentions  nor  long  service  and  sometimes  men  are  base  enough 
to  prefer  them  to  us.  We  demand  justice.  Punish  their  insolence, 
that  henceforward  they  may  not  raise  their  eyes  to  those  who  were 
created  for  us  and  for  whom  we  alone  are  made." 

Venus  then  bids  a  grey  nun  speak  and  the  grey  nun's  words  are 
dry  and  to  the  point: 

Has  not  nature  made  us  too  for  love?  are  not  there  among  us  many 
who  are  as  fair,  as  young,  as  attractive  and  as  loving  as  they.  Do  not 

in  which  an  incidental  shaft  is  perhaps  aimed  at  nunneries,  which  affected 
the  habits  of  Cokaygne  and  Fair  Ease.  The  Minor  Poems  of  the  Vernon  MS., 
pt.  li,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.  1901),  No.  XLVI,  p.  490. 

1  See  e.g.  Rabelais,  Gargantua,  cap.  LII  (Comment  Gargantua  fit  bastir 
pour  le  moine  1'abbaye  de  Theleme). 

2  Text  in  Dits  et  Contes  de  Badouin  de  Condi  et  de  son  fits  Jean  de  Condi, 
pub.  par  Aug.  Scheler,  Ac.  Roy.  de  Belgique,  Brussels,  1866-7,  in,  No.xxxvn, 
pp.  1-48.  The  portion  of  the  poem  containing  the  lawsuit  is  translated  in 
part  into  modern  French  by  Le  Grand  d'Aussy,  in  Fabliaux  et  Contes, 
ed.  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  et  Renouard,  1829,  i,  pp.  326-36. 


540  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

doubt  it.  True  their  dress  is  finer  than  ours,  but  in  affairs  of  the 
heart  we  serve  as  well  as  they.  They  say  we  steal  their  lovers.  In 
truth  it  is  they  who  by  their  pride  and  haughtiness  drive  those  lovers 
away;  we  do  but  reconquer  them  by  courtesy  and  gentleness.  We 
do  not  seek  them  in  love;  but  we  have  pleased  them  and  they  return 
to  us.  And,  if  they  are  to  be  believed,  that  studied  elegance,  which 
must  be  costly,  has  sometimes  offered  them  a  love  less  pure  and 
disinterested  than  that  which  they  find  with  us. 

This  last  charge  pricks  the  canonesses  and  their  faces  grow 
scarlet  with  rage: 

What?  do  these  serving  girls  add  insult  to  injury?  Do  they  dare  to 
claim  to  be  as  good  lovers  as  we,  who  have  ever  had  the  usage  and 
maintenance  of  love?  Their  bodies,  clad  in  wool,  are  not  of  such 
lordship  as  to  be  compared  to  ours  and  grave  shame  were  it  if  a  man 
knew  not  how  to  choose  the  highest.  Bold  and  foolish  grey-robes, 
great  ill  have  you  done.  Without  your  importunities  and  officious 
advances  no  great  lord  or  knight  or  man  of  honour  would  think  of 
you.  This  is  your  secret  and  to  the  shame  of  love  it  is  spoken,  for  you 
degrade  thus  the  joys  which  he  would  have  true  lovers  long  desire 
in  vain.  You  have  your  monks  and  lay  brothers;  love  them,  give 
them  heavy  alms  and  share  your  pittances  with  them:  you  are  wel 
come  to  them  for  our  part.  But  as  to  gentlemen,  leave  them  to  us, 
who  are  gentlewomen. 

The  grey  nun  replies  quietly  that  her  cause  is  too  good  to  be 
weakened  by  insults,  which  can  only  offend  the  assembly  and 
the  respect  due  to  the  goddess,  and  that  love  considers  neither 
birth  nor  wealth: 

Our  grey  robes  of  Citeaux  are  not  as  fine  as  your  vair-lined  mantles 
and  rich  adornments;  but  in  such  things  we  do  not  wish  to  compare 
ourselves  with  you.  It  is  in  the  heart  and  in  love  that  we  claim  to 
be  as  good  as  you. 

There  follows  a  hum  of  discussion  in  the  assembly,  some  taking 
one  side  and  some  the  other,  but  most  favouring  the  grey  nuns. 
Then  Venus  rises  to  give  judgment  and  makes  a  long  speech  on 
the  theme  that  all  are  equal  in  her  eyes : 

"White-robed  canonesses,"  she  concludes,  "I  have  always  held  your 
services  dear.  Your  grace,  your  elegance,  your  fine  manners  will 
always  bring  you  lovers;  keep  them,  but  do  not  drive  from  my  court 
these  modest  nuns,  who  serve  me  with  so  much  constancy  and  whose 
hearts  burn  for  me  the  more  ardently,  owing  to  the  constraint  under 
which  they  live.  You  are  finer  and  know  better,  perhaps,  how  to 
entertain;  but  sometimes  the  labourer's  humble  hackney  goes  further 
than  the  palfrey  of  the  knight.  It  lies  with  yourselves  alone  to 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  541 

keep  your  lovers.  Imitate  your  rivals  and  be  gentle  and  gracious 
as  they  are  and  you  will  not  have  to  fear  for  the  fidelity  of  a  single 
lord." 

Obviously  hitherto  the  poem  has  had  none  of  the  charac 
teristics  of  a  moral  piece.  The  debat  was  a  common  literary 
device,  the  law  court  presided  over  by  Venus  a  favourite  literary 
theme.    Jean  de  Conde  is  merely  concerned  to  amuse  the  court 
of  Hainault  with  a  polished  poem  cast  in  this  familiar  mould, 
just  as  at  other  times  he  might  regale  it  with  the  fabliau  of  Les 
Braies  au  Prestre  or  the  Ait  of  La  Nonnette.   Any  satirical  value 
which  the  poem  has  is  due  simply  to  the  implication  in  his 
choice  of  parties  to  the  suit ;  that  is  to  say  it  is  no  more  a  satire 
than  are  the  numerous  fabliaux,  which  have  for  their  subject 
the  peccadillos  of  the  Church.   But  the  trouvere,  even  an  aristo 
crat  of  the  confraternity,  such  as  Jean,  who  would  have  held 
in  utter  scorn  the  mere  buffoon  at  the  street  corner,  was  never 
able  to  forget  that  he  plied  a  dangerous  trade,  a  "trop  perilous 
mester."  He  was  continually  aware  of  the  necessity  to  put  him 
self  right  with  Heaven,  lest  haply  Aucassin  spoke  truth  and  to 
hell  went  the  harpers  and  singers ;  for  the  Church's  condemnation 
of  his  tribe  was  unequivocal.  Therefore  at  the  end  of  Venus' 
speech  Jean  de  Conde  abruptly  tacks  on  a  most  untimely  moral, 
which  gives  a  sudden  seriousness  to  his  poem.    He  will  sit  in 
the  seat  of  the  moralists.    So  he  interprets  the  whole  debate 
according  to  a  theological  and  moral  allegory,  even  going  so  far 
as  to  compare  the  strife  between  the  canonesses  and  the  grey 
nuns  with  the  resentment  of  the  first  workers  against  those  who 
came  last,  in  the  parable  of  the  Vineyard !    He  concludes  with 
a  bitter  reproach  against  moral  disorders  among  the  nuns,  ac 
cusing  them  of  paying  service  to  Venus  to  their  damnation,  and 
bidding  "canonesses,  canons,  priests,  monks,  nuns  and  all  folk 
of  their  sort "  to  give  up  the  evil  love  of  the  world,  which  passes 
away  like  a  dream,  and  to  cling  to  the  love  of  God  which  endureth 
for  ever.    A  strange  point  of  view;  but  one  which  would  strike 
no  sense  of  incongruity  in  an  audience  accustomed  to  the  moralisa- 
tion  of  the  Gesta  Romanorum  and  of  many  another  profane  story, 
forced  to  do  pious  service  as  an  exemplum.   It  is  the  spirit  which 
built  cathedrals  and  filled  them  with  grotesques. 

Jean  de  Conde  was  not  really  a  moralist,  even  in  the  sense  in 


542  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

which  the  authors  of  The  Land  of  Cokaygne  and  The  Order  of  Fair 
Ease  deserve  the  name.  But  there  were  a  number  of  genuine 
moralists  in  the  last  three  centuries  of  the  middle  ages,  who  shook 
sober  heads  over  the  misdeeds  of  nuns1.  In  two  thirteenth 
century  French  "Bibles,"  by  Guiot  de  Provins  and  the  Seigneur 
de  Berze  respectively2,  their  chastity  is  impugned  and  the  author 
of  Les  Lamentations  de  Matheolus  (c.  1290)  goes  to  the  root  of 
the  matter  and  attributes  their  immorality  to  the  ease  with 
which  they  are  able  to  wander  about  outside  their  convents. 
They  are  continually  inventing  stories,  he  says,  in  order  to  escape 
for  a  moment  from  the  cloister;  their  father,  mother,  cousin, 
sister,  brother  is  ill;  so  they  receive  conge  to  wander  about 
where  they  will — "par  le  pais  s'en  vont  esbattre."  Moreover  he 
has  hard  words  for  the  rapacity  of  nuns  in  love ;  distrust  them, 
he  warns,  for  they  pluck  and  shear  their  lovers  worse  than 
thieves  or  than  Breton  pirates;  you  must  be  always  giving, 
giving,  giving  with  those  ladies — it  is  the  usage  of  their  convent  ; 
you  have  to  reward  the  messenger  and  the  mistress,  the  chamber 
maid,  the  matron  and  the  companion3.  The  mention  of  the  com 
panion  shows  that  the  precaution  of  sending  the  nuns  out  in 
twos  was  not  always  successful,  and  Gui  de  Mori  (writing  about 
the  same  time)  has  the  same  tale  to  tell ;  the  nun's  lover  has  to 
give  to  two  at  least,  to  her  and  to  her  companion;  and  since 
nuns  have  plenty  of  spare  time,  they  are  fond  of  feeding  love 
by  the  exchange  of  messages,  which  mean  more  douceurs  from 
the  purse  of  the  luckless  gallant4. 

The  most  interesting  of  all  French  moralists  who  deal  with 
nuns  is,  however,  Gilles  li  Muisis,  Abbot  of  the  Benedictine 
monastery  of  St  Martin  of  Tournai,  who  began  about  1350  to 
write  a  "  Register"  of  his  thoughts  upon  contemporary  life  and 

1  A  convenient  collection  of  these  is  summarised  in  an  excellent  little 
book  by  Ch.-V.  Langlois,  entitled  La  Vie  en  France  au  Moyen  Age  d'apres 
quelques  Moralistes  du  Temps  (2ine  6d.  1911). 

2  The  text  of  both  La  Bible  Guiot  and  La  Bible  au  Seigneur  de  Berzi 
is  printed  in  Fabliaux  et  Contes,  ed.  Barbazon-Meon,  t.  n  (Paris,  1808),  and 
both  are  fully  analysed,  with  extracts  in  Langlois,  op.  cit.  pp.  30—88.  The 
text  of  La  Bible  Guiot  is  also  printed  in  San  Marte,  Parcival  Studien  (Halle, 
1861),  with  a  translation  into  German  verse. 

3  Les  Lamentations  de  Matheolus,  pub.  A.  G.  Van  Hamel  (Bib.  de  I'Ecole 
des  Charles,  1892,  t.  I,  pp.  89-90).   See  also  the  analysis  in  Langlois,  op.  cit. 
pp.  223-75,  especially  p.  248. 

4  Langlois,  op.  cit.  pp.  248-9,  Note  2. 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  543 

morality,  one  section  of  which  concerns  "Les  maintiens  des 
nonnains"1.  Like  Matheolus,  Gilles  li  Muisis  considers  that  the 
root  of  all  evils  is  the  ease  with  which  nuns  are  able  to  leave 
their  convents : 

"Of  old,"  he  says,  "the  nun  was  approved  by  God  and  man,  when 
she  kept  her  cloister  and  wandered  little  in  the  world;  but  now  I 
see  them  go  out  often,  whereat  I  am  greatly  displeased,  for  if  this 
thing  were  stopped  many  scandals  would  cease  and  it  were  greatly 
to  the  profit  of  their  souls." 

He  represents  the  "tres  doulces  nonnains"  as  behaving  "like 
ladies  " ;  they  keep  open  house  for  visitors ;  and  the  young  men  go 
in  more  easily  than  the  old  and  guilty  love  is  born.  They  exchange 
messages  and  letters  with  their  lovers ;  moreover  they  very  often 
take  conge  without  any  other  reason  than  the  desire  to  meet 
these  young  men,  and  the  sight  of  nuns  upon  every  road  sets 
men's  tongues  chattering.  They  ought  to  sit  at  home,  spinning 
and  sewing  and  mending  their  wimples :  instead  they  hurry  from 
stall  to  stall,  spending  their  money  on  fine  cloths  and  collars. 
The  Pope  would  do  well  if  he  enclosed  them.  The  young  nuns 
are  the  worst  of  all;  they  are  forever  pestering  their  abbesses 
for  leave  to  go  out;  they  will  have  all  their  elders  at  their  will, 
cellaress,  treasuress,  subprioress.  Everything  is  topsy-turvy 
now  and  all  are  in  the  same  rank,  those  who  are  lettered  and 
those  who  are  not;  the  young  desire  to  have  a  finger  in  every  pie. 
Even  their  vow  of  poverty  these  nuns  will  not  keep.  They  will 
have  incomes  of  their  own  and  if  they  have  none  they  grumble 
until  they  obtain  one  somehow:  "It  is  for  this  reason/'  they 
say,  "that  we  desire  the  money — our  houses  are  growing  poor 
and  everywhere  we  grow  weak."  But  it  is  not  so,  for  they  want 
it  in  order  to  be  able  to  go  out  more  often.  "I  recognise,"  says 
Gilles,  "and  it  is  true,  that  nuns  have  many  duties  to  fulfil,  for 
there  is  great  resort  of  guests  to  their  houses,  and  if  it  were 
possible  without  harm  to  diminish  these  expenses,  one  might 
do  something  to  help  them."  But  it  is  necessary  to  remember 
that  the  ownership  of  private  property  is  a  sin ;  canon  law  con 
demns  it,  and  if  there  is  a  rule  permitting  these  private  incomes 
I  have  never  met  it.  Moreover  one  sees  every  day  the  evil 
results  of  such  possessions. 

1  Po6sies  de  Gilles  li  Muisis,  pub.  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove  (Louvain,  1882), 
1. 1,  pp.  209-36.  The  whole  register  is  analysed  in  Langlois,  op.  cit.  pp.  305-53. 


544  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

What  is  the  result  of  this  laxity  of  morals,  of  this  continual 
wandering  of  nuns  in  the  world?  Secular  folk  everywhere  talk 
about  them  and  miscall  them: 

"Religious  ladies,"  says  Gilles,  "if  you  often  heard  what  people  say 
about  many  of  you,  the  hearts  of  good  nuns  would  be  dismayed,  for 
the  world  has  but  a  poor  opinion  of  you.  And  why?  because  men 
see  the  nuns  wandering  so  often ;  see  them  packing  up  all  these  goods 
in  their  carts  and  going  up  and  down  the  hills  and  dales.  It  is  not 
you  alone  who  are  slandered;  everywhere  it  is  the  same;  the  folk  of 
holy  church  are  held  in  little  respect  and  men  complain  because  they 
have  so  many  possessions  and  such  fat  endowments.  But  be  assured, 
all  of  you,  when  you  go  along  the  highways,  that  people  look  and  see 
how  well  you  are  shod  and  how  daintily  you  are  clad;  and  they  hurl 
evil  words  against  you.  'Look  at  those  nuns,  who  are  more  ike 
fairies.  They  are  attired  even  better  than  other  women.  They  go 
about  the  roads,  so  that  men  may  gaze  upon  them ;  what  they  covet 
is  to  be  well  stared  at.  God !  well  they  know  how  to  entertain  men. 
They  have  left  their  cloisters  and  are  going  to  enjoy  themselves. 
Better  were  it  for  them  if  they  prayed  for  people,  instead  of  going 
to  chatter  with  their  friends.'" 

Even  those  who  keep  company  with  these  nuns  are  at  the  same 
time  disturbed  and  a  little  dismayed  by  their  behaviour.  "Such 
men  go  about  with  them  and  have  their  will  of  them;  but  pay 

them  behind  their  backs  with  fierce  slanders "  So  the  worthy 

abbot  continues,  and  every  word  that  he  says  is  borne  out  by  the 
unimpeachable  evidence  of  the  visitation  reports.  His  long  lament 
is  the  most  interesting  of  all  mpral  works  which  have  the  be 
haviour  of  nuns  as  their  subject  and  it  would  be  possible  to  anno 
tate  almost  every  verse  with  a  visitation  compertum  or  injunction. 
Serious  writers  in  condemnation  of  nuns  were  not  lacking  in 
England  as  well  as  in  France  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  when,  as  Gilles  li  Muisis  complained,  "les  gens  de 
Saint-Eglise  petits  sont  deportees."  Langland's  pungent  satire  on 
the  convent  where  Wrath  was  Potager  has  already  been  quoted1. 
Gower,  for  whom  the  world  was  still  more  out  of  joint,  has  a  long 
passage  concerning  nuns  in  that  portentous  monument  of  dulness, 
the  Vox  Clamantis,  and  draws  a  pessimistic  picture  of  their  weak 
ness  and  the  readiness  with  which  they  yield  to  temptation'2. 

1  See  above,  p.  298. 

2  See   Vox  Clamantis,  Lib.  iv,  11.  578-676  in  The  Complete   Works  of 
John  Gower,  ed.  G.  C.  Macaulay,  Latin  Works  (1902),  pp.  181-5.  The  same 
subject  is  treated  more  shortly  by  Gower  in  his  Mirour  de  I'Omne  11  91 S7-68 
(76.  French  Works,  p.  106.) 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  545 

Like  monks,  he  says,  the  nuns  are  bound  to  chastity,  but  since 
they  are  by  nature  more  frail  than  man,  they  must  not  be 
punished  as  severely  as  men  if  they  break  their  vows;  for  the 
foot  of  woman  cannot  stand  or  step  firmly  like  the  foot  of  man 
and  she  has  none  of  those  virtues  of  learning,  understanding,, 
constancy  and  moral  excellence,  with  which  the  more  admirable 
sex  is  endowed: 

Nee  scola,  nee  sensus,  constancia  nullaque  virtus 
Sicut  habent  homines,  in  muliere  vigent ! 

He  proceeds  to  illustrate  the  moral  superiority  of  the  male  by 
the  statement  that  nuns  are  often  led  astray  by  priests,  who  enter 
their  convents  as  confessors  or  visitors,  and  under  guise  of  a 
reforming  visitation  make  the  frail  women  worse  than  they  were 
before.  "  I  should  hold  this  a  most  damnable  crime,"  says  Gower, 
"were  it  not  that — really,  woman  falls  so  easily!" 

Hoc  genus  incesti  dampnabile  grande  putarem 
Sit  nisi  quod  mulier  de  leuitate  cadit1. 

After  further  reflections  in  this  strain,  he  bursts  into  a  long^ 
panegyric  of  virginity  and  then  passes  on  to  attack  the  manners 
of  the  friars. 

Far  more  interesting  than  Gower's  conventional  moralising 
is  a  poem  entitled  Why  I  can't  be  a  Nun,  and  written  early  in 
the  fifteenth  century2.  The  favourite  device  of  a  ghostly  abbey, 
peopled  by  personified  qualities,  is  here  employed,  but  the  in 
mates  of  the  convent  are  chiefly  vices  and  such  virtues  as  have 
a  place  among  the  nuns  are  treated  with  scant  respect  by  their 
companions.  The  poem  is  unfortunately  incomplete  and  begins 
abruptly  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence,  but  the  gist  of  the  missing 
introduction  is  clear  enough.  The  author  represents  herself  as 
a  young  girl  named  Katherine,  whose  desire  to  become  a  pro 
fessed  nun  has  been  opposed  by  her  father.  The  father  charges 
a  number  of  messengers  to  visit  all  the  nunneries  of  England 

1  Compare  the  priestly  logic  of  Alvar  Pelayo  who  enumerates  the  abuse 
of  the  confessional  among  the  habitual  sins  of  women  \  De  Planctu  Ecclesiae, 
Lib.  ii,  Art.  45,  n.  84.  (See  Lea,  Hist,  of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,  i,  435-6  for 
this  and  other  medieval  complaints  of  the  corruption  of  nuns  by  their 
confessors.) 

2  Text  in  Furnivall,  Early  Engl.  Poems  (Berlin,  1862),  printed  in  Trans. 
of  Philological  Soc.  1858,  pt.  n,  pp.  138-48  (from  Cotton  MS.  Vesp.  D.  ix, 

35 


546  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

and  the  poem  opens  with  the  departure  of  these  messengers, 
full  of  zeal  to  accomplish  their  task,  and  their  return  with  the 
news  that  the  nuns  were  ready  to  do  his  will.  Whereupon  her 
father  told  Katherine  that  she  could  not  be  a  nun,  and  merely 
laughing  at  her  protests,  went  his  way.  Then  she  mourned  and 
was  sad  and  thought  that  fortune  was  against  her ;  and  one  May 
morning,  when  her  sorrow  was  more  than  she  could  bear,  she 
walked  in  a  fair  garden,  where  she  was  wont  to  go  daily  to  watch 
the  flowers  and  the  birds  with  their  bright  feathers,  singing  and 
making  merry  on  the  green  bough;  and  going  into  an  arbour, 
she  set  herself  upon  her  knees  and  prayed  to  God  to  help  her 
in  her  distress. 

At  last  she  fell  asleep  in  the  garden  and  in  her  sleep  a  fair 
lady  came  to  her  and  called  her  by  her  name  and  bade  her  awake 
and  be  comforted.  This  lady  was  called  Experience  and  told 
Katherine  that  she  had  come  to  take  pity  on  her  and  teach  her, 
saying: 

Kateryne,  thys  day  schalt  thow  see 

An  howse  of  wommen  reguler, 

And  diligent  loke  that  thow  be, 

And  note  ry3t  welle  what  }>ou  seest  there. 

Then  they  went  through  a  green  meadow  till  they  came  to  a 
beautiful  building  and  entered  boldly  by  the  gates;  and  it  was 
a  house  of  nuns,  "of  dyuers  orderys  bothe  old  and  yong,"  but 
not  well  governed,  after  the  rule  of  sober  living,  for  self-will 
reigned  there  and  caused  discord  and  debate : 

And  what  in  that  place  I  saw 
That  to  religion  schulde  not  long, 
Perad venture  36  wolde  desyre  to  know, 
And  who  was  dwellyng  hem  among. 
Sum  what  counseyle  kepe  I  schalle, 
And  so  I  was  taw)t  whan  I  was  yong, 
To  here  and  se,  and  sey  not  all. 

Then  follows  an  enumeration  of  the  inmates  of  the  convent: 

But  there  was  a  lady,  that  hy}t  dame  pride; 

In  grete  reputacion  they  her  toke 

And  pore  dame  mekenes  sate  be  syde 

To  her  vnnethys  ony  wolde  loke, 

But  alle  as  who  sethe  I  her  forsoke, 

And  set  not  by  her  nether  most  ne  lest; 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE 


547 


Dame  ypocryte  loke  vpon  a  boke 

And  bete  her  selfe  vpon  the  brest. 

On  every  syde  than  lokede  vp  I 

And  fast  I  cast  myne  ye  abowte; 

Yf  I  cowde  se,  beholde  or  aspy, 

I  wolde  have  sene  dame  deuowte. 

And  sche  was  but  wyth  few  of  that  row3t; 

For  dame  slowthe  and  dame  veyne  glory 

By  vyolens  had  put  her  owte ; 

And  than  in  my  hert  I  was  fulle  sory. 

But  dame  envy  was  there  dwellyng 

The  whyche  can  sethe  stryfe  in  every  state. 

And  a  nother  lady  was  there  wonnyng 

That  hy3t  dame  love  vnordynate, 

In  that  place  bo  the  erly  and  late 

Dame  lust,  dame  wantowne,  and  dame  nyce, 

They  ware  so  there  enhabyted,  I  wate, 

That  few  token  hede  to  goddys  servyse. 

Dame  chastyte,  I  dare  welle  say, 

In  that  couent  had  lytylle  chere, 

But  oft  in  poynt  to  go  her  way, 

Sche  was  so  lytelle  beloved  there; 

But  sum  her  loved  in  hert  fulle  dere, 

And  there  weren  that  dyd  not  so, 

And  sum  set  no  thyng  by  her, 

But  }afe  her  gode  leue  for  to  go.... 

And  in  that  place  fulle  besyly 

I  walked  whyle  I  my3t  enduer, 

And  saw  how  dame  enevy 

In  every  corner  had  grete  cure; 

Sche  bare  the  keyes  of  many  a  dore. 

And  than  experience  to  me  came, 

And  seyde,  kateryne,  I  the  ensuer, 

Thys  lady  ys  but  seldom  fro  home. 

Than  dame  pacience  and  dame  charyte 

In  that  nunry  fulle  fore  I  sow3t; 

I  wolde  fayne  have  wyst  where  they  had  be, 

For  in  that  couent  were  they  now3t; 

But  an  owte  chamber  for  hem  was  wrow3t, 

And  there  they  dweldyn  wyth-owtyn  stryfe, 

And  many  gode  women  to  them 

And  were  fulle  wylfulle  of  her  lyfe. 

There  was  also  another  lady,  Dame  Disobedience,  and  says 
Katherine : 

Of  all  the  faults  that  Experience  showed  me,  this  lack  of  obedience 
grieved  me  most,  so  that  I  might  no  longer  abide  for  shame,  for  I 
saw  that  they  had  obedience  in  no  reverence  and  that  few  or  none 

35—2 


548  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

took  heed  of  her;  and  I  sped  at  great  speed  out  of  the  gates,  to  escape 
from  that  convent  so  full  of  sin. 

Then  Katharine  and  the  Lady  Experience  sat  down  upon  the 
grass,  where  they  could  behold  the  place,  and  they  began  to 
talk: 

And  than  I  prayed  experience  for  to  have  wyst 

Why  sche  schewed  me  thys  nunery, 

Sche  seyde  "  now  we  bene  here  in  rest, 

I  thenk  for  to  tellen  the  why, 

Thy  furst  desyre  and  thyne  entent 

Was  to  bene  a  nune  professede, 

And  for  they  fader  wolde  not  consent, 

Thyne  hert  wyth  mornyng  was  sore  oppressede, 

And  thow  wyst  not  what  to  do  was  best ; 

And  I  seyde,  I  wolde  cese  thy  grevaunce, 

And  now  for  the  most  part  in  every  cost 

I  have  schewed  the  nunnes  gouernawnce. 

For  as  thou  seest  wythin  yonder  walle 

Suche  bene  the  nunnes  in  euery  warde, 

As  for  the  most  part,  I  say  not  alle, 

God  forbede,  for  than  hyt  were  harde, 

For  sum  bene  devowte,  holy  and  towarde, 

And  holden  the  ry}t  way  to  blysse ; 

And  sum  bene  feble,  lewde  and  frowarde, 

Now  god  amend  what  ys  amys ! 

And  now  keteryne,  I  have  alle  do 

For  thy  comfort  that  longeth  to  me, 

And  now  let  vs  aryse  and  go 

Vn-to  the  herber  there  I  come  to  the. 

There  Experience  departed  and  Katherine  awakened  from  her 
dream,  determined  never  to  be  a  nun,  unless  the  faults  that  she 
had  seen  were  amended. 

Then  follows  a  long  exhortation  to  the  nuns.  They  are  adjured 
(by  the  well-worn  example  of  Dinah)  not  to  wander  from  their 
convents,  and  are  reminded  that  the  habit  does  not  make  the  nun: 

Yowre  barbe,  your  wympplle  and  your  vayle, 

Yowre  mantelle  and  yowre  devowte  clothyng, 

Maketh  men  wythowten  fayle 

To  wene  36  be  holy  in  levyng. 

And  so  hyt  ys  an  holy  thyng 

To  bene  in  habyte  reguler; 

Than,  as  by  owtewarde  array  in  semyng, 

Beth  so  wythin,  my  lad  yes  dere. 

A  fayre  garland  of  yve  grene 

Whyche  hangeth  at  a  tavern  dore, 


xm]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  549 

Hyt  ys  a  false  token  as  I  wene, 
But  yf  there  by  wyne  gode  and  sewer; 
Ry}t  so  but  36  your  vyes  forbere, 
And  alle  lewde  custom  be  broken, 
So  god  me  spede,  I  yow  ensewer 
Ellys  yowre  habyte  ys  no  trew  token. 

The  poem  ends  as  abruptly  as  it  began  with  a  catalogue  of  holy 
women,  whose  lives  are  worthy  of  imitation,  St  Clare,  St  Edith, 
St  Scolastica  and  St  Bridget,  "that  weren  professed  in  nunnes 
habyte,"  and  a  bevy  of  English  saints,  St  Audrey,  St  Frideswide, 
St  Withburg,  St  Mildred,  St  Sexburg  and  St  Ermenild.  Whether 
or  not  the  author  really  was  a  woman,  the  poem  seems  to  show 
some  knowledge  of  monastic  life;  and  a  certain  sincerity  and 
rugged  directness  render  it  more  impressive  than  Gower's  long- 
winded  accusations. 

There  remain  to  be  considered  two  satires  which  were  written 
on  the  very  eve  of  the  Reformation  and  perhaps  have  a  particular 
significance  by  reason  of  the  cataclysm,  which  was  so  soon  to 
effect  what  all  the  denunciations  of  the  moralists  had  failed  to 
do.  These  are  the  dialogues  on  "The  Virgin  averse  to  Matri 
mony"  and  "The  Penitent  Virgin"  in  Erasmus'  Colloquies 
(c.  1526)  and  a  morality  (which  has  already  been  mentioned)  by 
the  Scottish  poet  Sir  David  Lyndesay,  entitled  Ane  Pleasant 
Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits,  in  commendatioun  of  vertew  and 
vituperatioun  of  vyce  (c.  1535).  Erasmus'  dialogues  are  (as  might 
be  expected)  strongly  anti-monastic  and  the  two  which  concern 
nuns  are  intended  to  attack  those  "  kidnappers  "  as  he  calls  them : 

that  by  their  allurements  draw  young  men  and  maids  into  monasteries, 
contrary  to  the  minds  of  their  parents,  making  a  handle  either  of 
their  simplicity  or  superstition,  persuading  them  there  is  no  hope 
of  salvation  out  of  a  monastery. 

The  dialogue  entitled  "The  Virgin  averse  to  Matrimony"1  takes 
place  between  Eubulus  and  a  seventeen-year  old  girl,  Katherine, 
who  like  that  other  Katherine,  the  heroine  of  Why  I  can't  be  a 
Nun,  has  set  her  heart  upon  entering  a  convent,  but  has  en 
countered  the  opposition  of  her  parents: 

"What  was  it,"  asks  Eubulus,  "that  gave  the  first  rise  to  this  fatal 
resolution?"  "Formerly,"  replies  Katherine,  "when  I  was  a  little 

1  All  the  Familiar  Colloquies  of  Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  trans. 
N.  Bailey  (2nd  ed.  1733),  pp.  147-55- 


550  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

girl,  they  carried  me  into  one  of  these  cloisters  of  virgins,  carried  me 
all  about  it  and  shewed  me  the  whole  college.  I  was  mightily  taken 
with  the  virgins,  they  looked  so  charmingly  pretty,  just  like  angels; 
the  chapels  were  so  neat  and  smelt  so  sweet,  the  gardens  looked  so 
delicately  well-ordered,  that,  in  short,  which  way  soever  I  turned  my 
eye  everything  seemed  delightful.  And  then  I  had  the  prettiest  dis 
course  with  the  nuns;  and  I  found  two  or  three  that  had  been  my 
play-fellows  when  I  was  a  child  and  I  have  a  strange  passion  for  that 
sort  of  life  ever  since. 

Eubulus  argues  with  the  girl.  She  can  live  as  purely  in  her 
father's  house  as  in  a  nunnery;  more  purely  indeed — and  he 
makes  a  grave  indictment  against  the  morality  of  nuns1.  More 
over  she  has  no  right  to  run  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  her  parents 
and  to  exchange  their  authority  for  that  of  a  fictitious  father 
and  a  strange  mother : 

"The  matter  in  question  here,"  he  says,  "is  only  the  changing  of  a 
habit  or  of  such  a  course  of  life,  which  in  itself  is  neither  good  nor  evil. 
And  now  consider  but  this  one  thing,  how  many  valuable  privileges 
you  lose  together  with  your  liberty.  Now,  if  you  have  a  mind  to 
read,  pray  or  sing,  you  may  go  into  your  own  chamber  as  much  and 
as  often  as  you  please.  When  you  have  enough  of  retirement  you 
may  go  to  church,  hear  anthems,  prayers  and  sermons  and  if  you 
see  any  matron  or  virgin  remarkable  for  piety,  in  whose  company 
you  may  get  good,  if  you  see  any  man  that  is  endowed  with  singular 
probity  from  whom  you  may  learn  what  will  make  for  your  bettering, 
you  may  have  their  conversation ;  and  you  may  choose  that  preacher 
that  preaches  Christ  most  purely.  When  once  you  come  into  a  cloister 
all  these  things,  which  are  the  greatest  assistance  in  the  promotion 
of  true  piety,  you  lose  at  once."  "  But,"  says  Katherine,  "in  the  mean 
time  I  shall  not  be  a  nun."  "What  signifies  the  name?"  replies 
Eubulus.  "  Consider  the  thing  itself.  They  make  their  boast  of  obe 
dience  and  will  you  not  be  praiseworthy  in  being  obedient  to  your 
parents,  your  bishop  and  your  pastor,  whom  God  has  commanded 
you  to  obey?  Do  you  profess  poverty?  And  may  not  you  too,  when 
all  is  in  your  parents'  hands?  Although  the  virgins  of  former  times 
were  in  an  especial  manner  commended  by  holy  men  for  their  liberality 
towards  the  poor;  but  they  could  never  have  given  anything  if  they 
had  possessed  nothing.  Nor  will  your  charity  be  ever  the  less  for 
living  with  your  parents.  And  what  is  there  more  in  a  convent  than 
these  ?  A  veil,  a  linen  shift  turned  into  a  stole,  and  certain  ceremonies, 

1  Nee  omnes  virgines  sunt,  mihi  crede,  quae  velum  habent....Nisi 
fortasse  elogium,  quod  nos  hactenus  judicavimus  esse  Virgini  matri  pro- 
prium,  ad  plures  transiit,  ut  dicantur  et  a  partu  virgines... quin  insuper, 
nee  alioqui  inter  illas  virgines  sunt  omnia  virginea...quia  plures  inveniuntur, 
quae  mores  aemulentur  Sapphus,  quam  quae  referant  ingenium."  Erasmus, 
Colloquia,  accur.  Corn.  Schrevelio  (Amsterdam,  1693),  p.  196. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  551 

which  of  themselves  signify  nothing  to  the  advancement  of  piety  and 
make  nobody  more  acceptable  in  the  eyes  of  Christ,  who  only  regards 
the  purity  of  the  mind."  "Are  you  then  against  the  main  institution 
of  a  monastic  life?  "  asks  Katherine.  "  By  no  means,"  answers  Eubulus. 
"  But  as  I  will  not  persuade  anybody  against  it  that  is  already  engaged 
in  this  sort  of  life  to  endeavour  to  get  out  of  it,  so  I  would  most 
undoubtedly  caution  all  young  women,  especially  those  of  generous 
tempers,  not  to  precipitate  themselves  unadvisedly  into  that  state 
from  whence  there  is  no  getting  out  afterwards.  And  the  rather  be 
cause  their  charity  is  more  in  danger  in  a  cloister  than  out  of  it; 
and  beside  that,  you  may  do  whatever  is  done  there  as  well  at 
home." 

But  Katherine  remains  unpersuaded. 

In  the  next  dialogue,  called  "The  Penitent  Virgin"1  Eubulus 
and  Katherine  meet  again,  and  Katherine  informs  her  friend  how 
she  has  entered  the  nunnery,  but  has  repented  and  gone  home 
to  her  parents  before  being  fully  professed: 

"How  did  you  get  your  parents'  consent  at  last?"  asks  Eubulus. 
"First  by  the  restless  solicitations  of  the  monks  and  nuns  and  then 
by  my  own  importunities  and  tears,  my  mother  was  at  length  brought 
over;  but  my  father  stood  out  stiffly  still.  But  at  last  being  plyed 
by  several  engines,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  yield;  but  yet,  rather 
like  one  that  was  forced  than  that  consented.  The  matter  was  con 
cluded  in  their  cups,  and  they  preached  damnation  to  him,  if  he  refused 
to  let  Christ  have  his  spouse ....  I  was  kept  close  at  home  for  three 
days ;  but  in  the  mean  time  there  were  always  with  me  some  women 
of  the  college  that  they  call  convertites,  mightily  encouraging  me  to 
persist  in  my  holy  resolution  and  watching  me  narrowly,  lest  any 
of  my  friends  or  kindred  should  come  at  me  and  make  me  alter  my 
mind.  In  the  meanwhile  my  habit  was  making  ready,  and  the  pro 
vision  for  the  feast."  "Did  not  your  mind  misgive  you  yet?"  asks 
Eubolus.  "No,  not  at  all;  and  yet  I  was  so  horridly  frightened  that 
I  had  rather  die  ten  times  over  than  suffer  the  same  again... I  had  a 
most  dreadful  apparition."  "Perhaps,"  remarks  Eubulus  slyly,  "it 
was  your  evil  genius  that  pushed  you  on  to  this."  "I  am  fully  per 
suaded  it  was  an  evil  spirit,"  replies  Katherine.  "Tell  me  what  shape 
it  was  in?  Was  it  such  as  we  use  to  paint  with  a  crooked  beak, 
long  horns,  harpies  claws  and  swinging  tail? "  "You  can  make  game 
of  it,"  says  poor  Katherine,  "but  I  had  rather  sink  into  the  earth 
than  see  such  another."  "And  were  your  women  solici tresses  with 
you  then?"  "No,  nor  I  would  not  so  much  as  open  my  lips  of  it  to 
them,  though  they  sifted  me  most  particularly  about  it,  when  they 
found  me  almost  dead  with  the  surprise."  "Shall  I  tell  you  what  it 
was?"  says  Eubulus.  "These  women  had  certainly  bewitched  you, 

1  Op.  cit.  pp.  155-7. 


552  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

or  conjured  your  brain  out  of  your  head  rather1.  But  did  you  persist 
in  your  resolution  for  all  this?"  "Yes,  for  they  told  me  that  many 
were  thus  troubled  upon  their  first  consecrating  themselves  to  Christ; 
but  if  they  got  the  better  of  the  Devil  that  bout,  he'd  let  them  alone 
for  ever  after."  "Well,  what  pomp  were  you  carried  out  with?" 
"They  put  on  all  my  finery,  let  down  my  hair  and  dressed  me  just 
as  if  it  had  been  for  my  wedding....!  was  carried  from  my  father's 
house  to  the  college  by  broad  daylight  and  a  world  of  people  staring 
at  me."  "O  these  Scaramouches,"  interrupts  Eubulus,  "how  they 
know  how  to  wheedle  the  poor  people ! " 

Katherine  then  tells  him  that  she  remained  only  twelve  days 
in  the  nunnery,  and  after  six  changed  her  mind  and  besought 
her  father  and  mother  to  take  her  away,  which  they  eventually 
did.  But  what  she  saw  that  made  her  recant  she  refuses  to  tell 
Eubulus,  though  he  announces  himself  well  able  to  guess  what 
it  was.  The  dialogue  ends  on  a  significant  note,  "In  the  mean 
while  you  have  been  at  a  great  charge."  "Above  four  hundred 
crowns."  "O  these  guttling  nuptials!"2 

The  racy  dialogues  of  Erasmus  illustrate  the  characteristic 
hostility  of  the  new  learning  towards  contemporary  monastic 
orders,  and  embody  the  main  charges  which  were  customarily 
made  against  them,  viz.  the  undue  pressure  brought  to  bear 
upon  young  people  to  take  vows  for  which  they  were  not  neces 
sarily  suited,  the  avarice  of  the  convents  and  the  immorality  of 
their  inmates.  Sir  David  Lyndesay's  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits 
dwells  more  specifically  upon  the  latter  accusation.  In  this  lively 
castigation  of  the  vices  of  the  day,  which  was  acted  for  nine 
hours  before  the  court  of  King  James  V  of  Scotland  at  Cupar  in 
1535,  Chastity  comes  upon  the  stage,  lamenting  that  she  has 
long  been  banished,  unheeded  and  unfriended  and  that  neither 
the  temporal  estate,  nor  the  spiritual  estate  nor  the  Princes  will 
befriend  her.  Diligence  bids  her  seek  refuge  among  the  nuns, 
who  are  sworn  to  observe  chastity,  pointing  to  a  Prioress  of 

1  This  account  of  Katherine's  experiences,  whether  they  were  due  (as 
the  translator  suggests)  to  "the  crafty  tricks  of  the  monks,  who  terrify 
and  frighten  unexperienced  minds  into  their  cloysters  by  feigned  apparitions 
and  visions,"  or  (as  was  more  probably  Erasmus'  meaning)  to  the  mere 
power  of  suggestion  upon  a  hysterical  girl,  should  be  compared  with  the 
numerous  accounts  of  such  apparitions  seen  by  novices  or  intending  novices, 
which  are  to  be  found  in  lives  of  saints  and  in  edifying  exempla.    See  the 
examples  quoted  from  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  below,  pp.  628  sqq. 

2  For  the  expenses  incidental  to  taking  the  veil,  see  above,  pp.  19-20. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  553 

renown,  sitting  among  the  other  spiritual  lords.  "I  grant,"  says 

Chastity, 

3  on  Ladie  hes  vowit  Chastitie 
For  hir  prof essioun ;  thairto  sould  accord. 
Scho  maid  that  vow  for  ane  Abesie, 
Bot  nocht  for  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 
Fra  tyme  that  thay  get  thair  vows,  I  stand  for'd, 
Thay  banische  hir  out  of  thair  cumpanie : 
With  Chastitie  thay  can  mak  na  concord, 
Bot  leids  thair  lyfis  in  Sensualitie. 
I  sail  obserue  our  counsall,  gif  I  may. 
Cum  on,  and  heir  quhat  3 on  Ladie  will  say, 
My  prudent,  lustie,  Ladie  Priores, 
Remember  how  36  did  vow  Chastitie. 
Madame,  I  pray  ;ow,  of  your  gentilnes, 
That  36  wald  pleis  to  haif  of  me  pitie, 
And  this  ane  nicht  to  gif  me  harberie : 
For  this  I  mak  3ow  supplicacioun. 
Do  36  nocht  sa,  Madame,  I  dreid,  perdie ! 
It  will  be  caus  of  depravatioun. 

But  the  Prioress  has  given  her  allegiance  to  the  notorious  Lady 
Sensuality,  who,  serving  Queen  Venus,  has  corrupted  the  court 
of  King  Humanity  and  especially  his  clergy.  "Pass  hynd, 
Madame/'  she  says, 

Be  Christ  I  36  cum  nocht  heir: 
36  are  contrair  to  my  cumplexioun... 
Dame  Sensuall  hes  geuin  directioun 
3ow  till  exclude  out  of  my  cumpany. 

Chastity  then  applies  in  vain  to  the  Lords  of  Spirituality  for 
shelter;  an  abbot  jeers  at  her  and  a  parson  bids  her 

Pas  hame  amang  the  Nunnis  and  dwell, 
Quhilks  ar  of  Chastitie  the  well. 
I  traist  thay  will,  with  Buik  and  bell 
Ressaue  3ow  in  thair  Closter; 

to  which  Chastity  replies : 

Sir,  quhen  I  was  the  Nunnis  amang, 
Out  of  thair  dortour  thay  mee  dang, 
And  wold  nocht  let  me  bide  se  lang 
To  say  my  Pater  noster1. 

At  the  end  of  the  play  the  evil  counsellors  of  King  Humanity 
and  corruptors  of  his  Estates  are  punished  by  Sir  Commonweal, 

1  Ane  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits,  in  Sir  David  Lyndesay's  Poems,  ed. 
Small,  Hall  and  Murray  (E.E.T.S.  2nd  ed.,  1883),  pp.  421-3. 


554  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

with  the  assistance  of  Good  Counsel  and  Correction.  Correction, 
with  his  Scribe,  examines  the  spiritual  lords  as  to  how  they  keep 
their  vows,  and  thus  interrogates  the  Prioress: 

Quhat  say  36  now,  my  Ladie  Priores? 
How  have  }e  vsit  )our  office,  can  }e  ges? 
Quhat  was  the  caus  )e  refusit  harbrie 
To  this  young  lustie  Ladie  Chastitie  ? 

and  the  Prioress  replies: 

I  wald  have  harborit  hir,  with  gude  intent; 
Bot  my  complexioun  therto  wald  not  assent. 
I  do  my  office  efter  auld  vse  and  wount : 
To  }our  Parliament  I  will  mak  na  mair  count1. 

The  punishment  of  Flattery  the  Friar,  the  Prioress  and  the  other 
prelates  follows;  and  the  Sergeants  proceed  to  divest  her  of  her 
habit,  gaily  adjuring  her: 

Cum  on,  my  Ladie  Priores. 

We  sail  leir  )ow  to  dance — 
And  that  within  ane  lytill  space — 

Ane  new  pavin  of  France 

(Heir  sail  thay  spuil^e  the  Priores;  and  scho  sail  haue 
ane  kirtill  of  silk  vnder  hir  habite.) 
Now,  brother,  be  the  Masse  ! 

Be  my  iudgement,  I  think 
This  halie  Priores 

Is  turnit  in  ane  cowclink2.       [courtesan 

The  Prioress  then  makes  a  lament,  which  has  already  been  quoted, 
blaming  her  friends  for  making  her  a  nun,  and  declaring  that  nuns 
are  not  necessary  to  Christ's  congregation  and  would  be  better 
advised  to  marry.  Finally  the  Acts  of  Parliament  of  King  Correc 
tion  and  King  Humanity,  for  the  better  regulation  of  the  realm, 
are  proclaimed;  and  these  include  a  condemnation  of  nunneries: 
Because  men  seis,  plainlie, 

This  wantoun  Nunnis  ar  na  way  necessair 

Till  Common-weill,  not  )it  to  the  glorie 

Of  Christ's  kirk,  thocht  thay  be  fat  and  fair. 

And  als,  that  fragill  ordour  feminine 

Will  nocht  be  missit  in  Christ's  Religioun  ; 

Thair  rents  vsit  till  ane  better  fyne 

For  Common-weill  of  all  this  Regioun8. 

1  Ane  Saiyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits,  in  Sir  David  Lyndesay's  Poems   ed 
Small,  Hall  and  Murray  (E.E.T.S.  2nd  ed.,  1883),  p.  506. 
3  Ib-  P-  5M-  »  Ib.  p.  521. 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  555 

The  date  when  these  words  were  first  proclaimed  from  a  stage  is 
significant;  it  was  1535,  the  year  of  the  visitation  of  the  monas 
teries  in  England.  The  confiscation  of  those  rents  was  soon  to 
be  an  accomplished  fact;  but  it  was  a  king  rather  than  a  com 
monweal  that  reaped  the  benefit. 

There  remains  for  consideration  only  one  other  class  of  litera 
ture  which  speaks  of  the  nun.  It  is  interesting  to  see  the  part 
which  she  plays  in  literature  proper,  outside  popular  songs  and 
stories,  or  popular  and  didactic  works  written  for  purposes  of 
edification.  Considering  the  important  part  played  by  monastic 
institutions  in  the  life  of  the  upper  classes  it  is  perhaps  surprising 
that  the  part  played  by  the  nun  in  secular  literature  is  so  small. 
But  the  explanation  lies  in  the  definitely  romantic  basis  of  the 
greater  part  of  such  literature,  combined  with  the  fact  that  it 
was  aristocratic  in  origin  and  therefore  inherited  a  respect  for 
the  nunneries,  which  prevented  a  romantic  treatment  of  the  nun, 
such  as  is  found  in  the  chansons  de  nonnes.  Even  so  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  the  treatment  is  romantic  with  a  difference;  the 
nun  is  willingly  professed,  pious,  aloof,  but  it  is  because  death 
or  misfortune  has  put  an  end  to  lovers'  joys;  the  type  of  nun 
who  appears  in  this  literature  has  retreated  to  a  convent  at  the 
close  of  a  life  spent  in  the  world.  If  the  nun  unwillingly  professed 
has  always  been  a  favourite  theme,  so  also  has  the  broken 
hearted  wife  or  lover,  hiding  her  sorrows  in  the  silent  cloister; 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  nineteenth  century  she  remains 
unchanging,  from  Belle  Doette  and  Guinevere  to  the  Lady 
Kirkpatrick : 

To  sweet  Lincluden's  holy  cells 

Fu'  dowie  I'll  repair: 
There  peace  wi'  gentle  patience  dwells — 

Nae  deadly  feuds  are  there. 
In  tears  I'll  wither  ilka  charm, 
Like  draps  o'  balefu'  dew, 
And  wail  a  beauty  that  could  harm 

A  knight  sae  brave  and  true1. 

The  anonymous  twelfth  century  romance  of  Belle  Doette 
contains  some  charming  verses,  describing  her  grief  at  her 
husband's  death  and  her  determination  to  enter  a  cloister: 

1  Quoted  from  the  ballad  by  Charles  Kirkpatrick  Sharpe  ("The  Murder 
of  Caerlaverock")  in  McDowall,  W.,  Chronicles  of  Lincluden,  p.  28. 


556  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

Bele  Doette  a  pris  son  duel  a  faire : 

"  Tant  mari  fustes,  cuens  Do,  frans  de  bon  aire ! 

For  vostre  amor  vestirai  je  la  haire, 

Ne  SOT  mon  cors  n'avra  pelice  vaire. 

E  or  en  ai  dol. 

For  vos  devenrai  nonne  en  1'eglyse  Saint  Pol. 
For  vos  ferai  une  abbaie  tele 
Quant  iert  li  jors  que  la  feste  i6rt  nomee 
Se  nus  i  vient  qui  ait  s'amor  fausee 
Ja  del  mostier  ne  savera  1'entree. 

E  or  en  ai  dol. 

For  vos  devenrai  nonne  en  1'eglyse  Saint  Pol. 
Bele  Doette  prist  s'abaise  a  faire, 
Qui  mout  est  grande  et  ades  sera  maire : 
Toz  eels  et  celes  vodra  dedans  atraire 
Qui  por  amor  sevent  peine  et  mal  traire. 

E  or  en  ai  dol. 

For  vos  devenrai  nonne  en  1'eglyse  Saint  Pol1. 
Lovely  Doette,  she  weeps  a  husband  fair. 
"  O  count,  my  lord,  frank  wast  thou,  debonair ! 
For  thy  dear  love  I'll  wear  a  shirt  of  hair, 
Never  again  be  clad  in  robe  of  vair. 

Great  grief  have  I. 

Now  in  St  Paul's  a  nun  I'll  live  and  die. 
For  thy  dear  love  an  abbey  I  will  raise. 
And  when  therein  first  sounds  the  song  of  praise 
If  one  shall  come  who  falsely  love  betrays 
Ne'er  shall  she  find  an  entrance  all  her  days. 

Great  grief  have  I. 

Now  in  St  Paul's  a  nun  I'll  live  and  die. 
Lovely  Doette,  she  makes  her  abbey  so. 
Great  now  it  is  and  greater  still  shall  grow. 
And  lovers  all  into  that  church  shall  go 
Who  for  love's  sake  know  pain  and  bitter  woe. 

Great  grief  have  I. 
Now  in  St  Paul's  a  nun  I'll  live  and  die." 

To  English  readers  the  supreme  representative  of  this  type 
must  always  be  Malory's  Guinevere: 

And  when  queen  Guenever  understood  that  king  Arthur  was  slain, 
and  all  the  noble  knights,  Sir  Mordred  and  all  the  remnant,  then  the 
queen  stole  away  and  five  ladies  with  her,  and  so  she  went  to  Almes- 
bury,  and  there  she  let  make  herself  a  nun,  and  wore  white  clothes 
and  black,  and  great  penance  she  took,  as  ever  did  sinful  lady  in 
this  land,  and  never  creature  could  make  her  merry,  but  lived  in 
fasting,  prayers  and  alms-deeds,  that  all  manner  of  people  marvelled 

1  Constans,  Chrestomathie  de  I'Ancien  Franfais  (1890),  pp.  178-9. 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  557 

how  virtuously  she  was  changed.  Now  leave  we  queen  Guenever  in 
Almesbury  a  nun  in  white  clothes  and  black,  and  there  she  was 
abbess  and  ruler  as  reason  would. 

There  follows  that  incomparable  chapter  of  parting,  when 
Launcelot  seeks  his  queen  in  her  nunnery : 

and  then  was  queen  Guenever  ware  of  Sir  Launcelot  as  he  walked 
in  the  cloister,  and  when  she  saw  him  there  she  swooned  thrice,  that 
all  the  ladies  and  gentlewomen  had  work  enough  to  hold  the  queen 
up.  So  when  she  might  speak,  she  called  ladies  and  gentlewomen  to 
her,  and  said,  Ye  marvel,  fair  ladies,  why  I  make  this  fare.  Truly, 
she  said,  it  is  for  the  sight  of  yonder  knight  that  yonder  standeth: 
wherefore,  I  pray  you  all,  call  him  to  me.  When  Sir  Launcelot  was 
brought  to  her,  then  she  said  to  all  the  ladies,  Through  this  man  and 
me  hath  all  this  war  been  wrought,  and  the  death  of  the  most  noblest 
knights  of  the  world;  for  through  our  love  that  we  have  loved 
together  is  my  noble  lord  slain.  Therefore,  Sir  Launcelot,  wit  thou 
well  I  am  set  in  such  a  plight  to  get  my  soul's  health;  and  yet  I  trust, 
through  God's  grace,  that  after  my  death  to  have  a  sight  of  the  blessed 
face  of  Christ  and  at  doomsday  to  sit  at  his  right  side,  for  as  sinful 
as  ever  I  was  are  saints  in  heaven.  Therefore,  Sir  Launcelot,  I  require 
thee  and  beseech  thee  heartily,  for  all  the  love  that  ever  was  betwixt 
us,  that  thou  never  see  me  more  in  the  visage;  and  I  command  thee 
on  God's  behalf  that  thou  forsake  my  company  and  to  thy  kingdom 
thou  turn  again  and  keep  well  thy  realm  from  war  and  wrack.  For 
as  well  as  I  have  loved  thee,  mine  heart  will  not  serve  me  to  see  thee  ; 
for  through  thee  and  me  is  the  flower  of  kings  and  knights  destroyed. 

And  so  on,  through  the  last  parting,  and  the  last  kiss  refused, 
and  the  lamentation  "as  they  had  been  stung  with  spears," 
through  the  six  long  years  of  fasting  and  penance,  till  the  day 
when  Guinevere  died  and  a  vision  bade  Launcelot  seek  her  corpse. 
And  when  Sir  Launcelot  was  come  to  Almesbury,  within  the  nunnery, 
queen  Guenever  died  but  half  an  hour  before.  And  the  ladies  told 
Sir  Launcelot  that  queen  Guenever  told  them  all,  or  she  passed,  that 
Sir  Launcelot  had  been  priest  near  a  twelvemonth — And  hither  he 
cometh  as  fast  as  he  may  to  fetch  my  corpse;  and  beside  my  lord 
king  Arthur  he  shall  bury  me.  Wherefore  the  queen  said  in  hearing 
of  them  all,  I  beseech  Almighty  God  that  I  may  never  have  power 
to  see  Sir  Launcelot  with  my  worldly  eyes.  And  thus,  said  all  the 
ladies,  was  ever  her  prayer  these  two  days,  till  she  was  dead1. 

This  is  a  different  romance  from  that  of  the  gay  chansons  de 
nonnes,  but  it  is  romance  all  the  same.  There  is  little  in  common 
between  Queen  Guinevere  and  the  lady  who  was  loved  and 
rescued  by  a  king  in  the  Ancren  Riwle2. 

1  Malory,  Morte  Darthur,  ed.  Strachey  (Globe  ed.,  1893),  pp.  481-5. 

2  See  above,  p.  529. 


558  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

One  of  the  last — as  it  is  one  of  the  most  graceful — pieces  of 
courtly  literature  concerned  with  a  convent  is  the  delightful 
Livre  du  dit  de  Poissy,  in  which  the  French  poetess  Christine 
de  Pisan  tells  of  a  journey,  which  she  took  in  1400,  to  visit  her 
daughter,  a  nun  at  the  famous  convent  of  Poissy.  This  Dominican 
abbey,  founded  in  1304,  was  exceedingly  rich  and  the  special 
favourite  of  the  kings  of  France,  for  it  had  been  put  under  the 
protection  of  St  Louis.  The  number  of  nuns,  originally  fixed  at 
a  hundred  and  twenty,  soon  rose  to  two  hundred,  and  the 
aristocratic  character  of  the  house  was  very  marked,  for  its 
inmates  had  to  be  of  noble  birth  and  to  receive  a  special  authorisa 
tion  from  the  king  before  they  could  be  admitted.  At  the  time  of 
Christine  de  Pisan's  visit  Marie  de  Bourbon,  aunt  of  Charles  VI, 
was  prioress,  and  the  convent  also  contained  the  nine  year  old 
Marie  de  France,  his  daughter  (who  took  the  veil  at  the  age  of 
five)  and  her  cousin  Catherine  d'Harcourt.  There  were  no  nun 
neries  so  large  and  so  rich  in  England  at  this  late  date;  but 
Christine's  description  may  serve  to  suggest  what  great  houses 
like  Shaftesbury  and  Romsey  must  have  been  like  in  the  earlier 
days  of  their  prime.  Her  account  of  the  convent,  with  its  fine 
buildings  and  gardens,  its  church,  its  rich  lands  and  its  gracious 
and  dignified  way  of  life  forms  a  useful  counterpoise  to  the  bald 
and  unidealised  picture  presented  by  the  comperta  of  visitations; 
for  assuredly  truth  lies  somewhere  between  the  comperta,  which 
deal  solely  with  faults,  and  the  poem,  which  deals  solely  with 
virtues. 

Christine  describes  the  brilliant  cavalcade  of  lords  and  ladies 
riding  in  the  spring  morning  through  beautiful  scenery,  enlivening 
their  journey  with  laughter  and  song  and  talk  of  love,  until  they 
came  to  the  great  abbey  of  Poissy.  She  describes  their  reception 
by  the  Prioress  Marie  de  Bourbon  and  by  the  king's  little  daughter 
"joenne  et  tendre": 

Par  les  degrez  de  pierre,  que  moult  pris, 

En  hault  montames 

Ou  bel  hostel  royal,  que  nous  trouvames 
Moult  bien  pare,  et  en  sa  chambre  entrames 
De  grant  beaulty. 

The  Prioress'  lodging  was  evidently  such  as  befitted  a  royal 
princess,  even  though  she  were  a  humble  nun.    Christine  de- 


xin]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  559 

scribes  the  manner  of  life  of  the  nuns,  how  no  man  might  enter 
the  precincts  to  serve  or  see  them,  save  a  relative,  and  how 
they  never  left  the  convent  and  seldom  saw  strangers  from  the 
world : 

Et  de  belles  plusiers  y  a  comme  angelz. 
Si  ne  vestent  chemises,  et  sus  langes 
Gisent  de  nuis;  n'ont  pas  coultes  a  f ranges 

Mais  materas 

Qui  sont  couvers  de  biaulx  tapis  d' Arras 
Bien  ordenees,  mais  ce  n'est  que  baras, 
Car  ils  sont  durs  et  emplis  de  bourras, 

Et  la  vestues 

Gisent  de  nuis  celles  dames  rendues, 
Qui  se  lievent  ou  elles  sont  batues 
A  matines;  la  leurs  chambres  tendues 

En  dortouer 

Ont  pres  a  pres,  et  en  refectouer 
Disnent  tout  temps,  ou  a  beau  lavourer. 
Et  en  la  court  y  a  le  parlouer 

Ou  a  trellices 

De  fer  doubles  a  fenestres  coulices, 
Et  la  en  droit  les  dames  des  offices 
A  ceulz  de  hors  parlent  pour  les  complices 

Et  necessaires 

Qu'il  leur  convient  et  fault  en  leurs  affaires. 
Si  ont  prevosts,  seigneuries  et  maires, 
Villes,  Chastiaulx,  rentes  de  plusieurs  paires 

Moult  bien  assises; 

Et  riches  sont,  ne  nulles  n'y  sont  mises 
Fors  par  congie  de  roy  qui  leurs  franchises 
Leur  doit  garder  et  maintes  autres  guises 

A  la  en  droit. 

Christine  then  tells  how  the  Prioress  invited  the  party  to 
"desjuner"  and  how  in  a  fair  room  they  were  served  with  rich 
wines  and  meats,  in  vessels  of  gold,  and  were  waited  upon  by 
the  nuns.  Then  the  nuns  led  them  through  the  buildings  and 
grounds  of  the  convent,  showing  them  all  the  beauties  of  this 
"paradise  terestre."  She  gives  an  extremely  minute  and  inter 
esting  picture  of  Poissy  as  it  was  in  1400,  the  vaulted  cloister 
with  its  carven  pillars,  surrounding  a  square  lawn  with  a  tall 
pine  in  the  middle ;  the  spacious  f  rater,  with  glass  windows ;  the 
fine  chapter  house;  the  stream  of  fresh  water  carried  in  pipes 
through  all  the  different  buildings ;  the  great  storehouses,  cellars, 
ovens  and  other  offices;  the  large,  airy  dorter;  and  finally  the 


560  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  [CH. 

magnificent  church,  with  its  tall  pillars  and  vaulted  roof,  its 
hangings,  images,  paintings  and  ornaments  of  glittering  gold. 
She  tells  of  the  services  held  there,  when  the  nuns  knelt  within  a 
screen  in  the  nave  and  the  townsfolk  and  visitors  and  priests 
outside  it.  She  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  clothes  worn  by 
the  nuns;  a  woman  she,  and  not  to  be  content  with  Malory's 
simple  "white  clothes  and  black."  Finally  she  describes  the  wide 
gardens  and  woods  of  the  convent,  surrounded  by  a  high  wall 
and  full  of  fruit-trees  and  birds  and  deer  and  coneys,  with  two 
fishponds,  well-stocked  with  fish.  In  the  exploration  of  these 
delights  the  day  passed  quickly.  The  gay  party  retired  at  night 
fall  to  a  neighbouring  inn  and  early  the  next  day  paid  a  farewell 
visit  to  the  hospitable  nuns,  who  gave  them  gifts  of  belts  and 
purses  embroidered  by  themselves: 

Et  reprendre 

De  leurs  joyaulx 

II  nous  covint,  non  fermillez  n'aniaulx 
Mais  boursetes  ouvrees  a  oysiaulx 
D'or  et  soies,  ceintures  et  laz  biaulx, 

Moult  bien  ouvrez, 
Qui  autre  part  ne  sont  telz  recouvrez. 

Then  lords  and  ladies  took  horse  again  and,  debating  of  love, 
rode  back  to  Paris1. 

1  See  Le  Ltvre  du  Dit  de  Poissy,  11.  220-698,  passim,  in  Oeuvres  Poitiques 
de  Christine  de  Pisan,  ed.  Maurice  Roy  (Soc.  des  Anc.  Textes  Fr.  1891), 
t.  n,  pp.  160-80.  With  this  may  be  compared  another,  but  much  slighter 
"courtly"  description  of  a  nunnery,  contained  in  the  roman  d'aventure, 
L'Escoufle,  written  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  poem  the  author  describes  the  service  of  the  mass  in  the  Abbey  of 
Montivilliers  (see  below,  p.  637),  on  the  occasion  of  the  departure  of  the 
Count  of  Montivilliers  on  a  crusade;  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  and  the  Bishop 
of  Lisieux  took  part  in  the  service  and  a  large  concourse  of  lords  and  ladies 
was  present.  The  author  describes  the  singing  of  the  service, 

Li  couvens  avoit  ja  la  messe 

Commencie  et  1'abbesse 

Commanda  a  ij  damoiseles 

Des  mix  cantans  et  des  plus  beles 

Les  cuer  a  tenir,  por  mix  plaire 

Et  por  la  feste  grignor  faire. 

He  describes  the  rich  offerings  made  at  the  altar  by  the  Count  and  the  rest 
of  the  congregation ;  and  the  stately  visit  of  farewell  paid  by  them  afterwards 
to  the  nuns  in  the  chapter  house,  when  the  Count  asked  for  their  prayers 
and  in  return  gave  them  an  annual  rent  of  20  or  30  silver  marks.  L'Escoufle, 
ed.  H.  Michelant  and  P.  Meyer  (Soc.  des  Anc.  Textes  Fr.  1894),  pp.  7-9, 
passim.  The  other  notable  twelfth  century  description  of  a  nunnery  (in 
Raoul  de  Cambrai)  is  very  different.  See  above,  pp.  433-5. 


xiii]  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE  561 

Against  this  courtly  idyll  of  monastic  life  one  more  picture 
of  a  nun  must  be  set  as  complement  and  as  contrast.  It  is 
deservedly  well  known;  but  no  study  of  the  nun  in  medieval 
literature  would  be  complete  without  quoting  in  full  Chaucer's 
description  of  Madame  Eglentyne,  a  masterpiece  of  humorous 
observation,  sympathetic  without  being  idealised,  gently  sar 
castic  without  being  bitter.  It  is  a  fitting  note  on  which  to 
close  this  book : 

Ther  was  also  a  Nonne,  a  Prioresse, 
That  of  her  smyling  was  ful  simple  and  coy; 
Hir  grettest  ooth  was  but  by  seynt  loy; 
And  she  was  cleped  madame  Eglentyne. 
Ful  wel  she  song  the  service  divyne, 
Entuned  in  hir  nose  ful  semely; 
And  Frensh  she  spak  ful  faire  and  fetisly, 
After  the  scole  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe, 
For  Frensh  of  Paris  was  to  hir  unknowe. 
At  mete  wel  y- taught  was  she  with-alle  ; 
She  leet  no  morsel  from  hir  lippes  falle, 
Ne  wette  hir  fingres  in  hir  sauce  depe. 
Wel  coude  she  carie  a  morsel  and  wel  kepe, 
That  no  drope  ne  fille  up-on  hir  brest. 
In  curteisye  was  set  ful  muche  hir  lest. 
Hir  over  lippe  wyped  she  so  clene, 
That  in  hir  coppe  was  no  ferthing  sene 
Of  grece,  whan  she  dronken  hadde  hir  draughte, 
Ful  semely  after  hir  mete  she  raughte, 
And  sikerly  she  was  of  greet  disport, 
And  ful  plesaunt  and  amiable  of  port, 
And  peyned  hir  to  countrefete  chere 
Of  court,  and  been  estatlich  of  manere, 
And  to  be  holden  digne  of  reverence. 
But,  for  to  speken  of  hir  conscience, 
She  was  so  charitable  and  so  pitous, 
She  wolde  wepe,  if  that  she  sawe  a  mous 
Caught  in  a  trap,  if  it  were  deed  or  bledde. 
Of  smale  houndes  had  she,  that  she  fedde 
With  rested  flesh,  or  milk  and  wastel-breed. 
But  sore  weep  she  if  oon  of  hem  were  deed, 
Or  if  men  smoot  it  with  a  yerde  smerte: 
And  al  was  conscience  and  tendre  herte. 
Ful  semely  hir  wimpel  pinched  was  ; 
Hir  nose  tretys ;  hir  eyen  greye  as  glas ; 
Hir  mouth  ful  smal,  and  ther-to  softe  and  reed  ; 
But  sikerly  she  hadde  a  fair  f orheed  ; 
It  was  almost  a  spanne  brood,  I  trowe; 

p.  N.  3& 


562  THE  NUN  IN  MEDIEVAL  LITERATURE      [CH.XIII 

For,  hardily,  she  was  nat  undergrowe. 
Ful  fetis  was  hir  cloke,  as  I  was  war. 
Of  smal  coral  aboute  hir  arm  she  bar 
A  peire  of  bedes,  gauded  al  with  grene; 
And  ther-on  heng  a  broche  of  gold  f  ul  shene, 
On  which  ther  was  first  write  a  crouned  A, 
And  after,  Amor  vincit  omnia1. 

1  Chaucer,  Prologue  to  The  Canterbury  Tales,  ed.  Skeat,  11.    118-64. 


APPENDIX  I 
ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT 

NOTE  A. 

THE  DAILY  FARE  OF  BARKING  ABBEY. 

THE  Charthe  [charter]  longynge  to  the  office  of  the  Celeresse  of  the 
Monastery e  of  Barkinge1  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  domestic 
documents  which  has  survived  from  the  middle  ages.  The  Menagier 
de  Paris  gives  a  first  rate  account  of  the  work  of  a  housewife  who  has 
to  provide  for  a  private  household.  The  Charthe  sets  forth  the  duties 
of  a  housewife  who  has  to  feed  a  large  institution.  No  bursar  of  a 
college  or  housekeeper  of  a  school  can  fail  to  read  it  with  a  sympathetic 
smile.  Like  a  good  business  woman  the  nameless  cellaress,  who  drew 
it  up  for  the  guidance  of  her  successors,  sets  out  first  of  all  the  sources 
of  revenue  by  which  the  charges  of  her  office  were  supported.  These 
are  of  three  sorts:  (i)  the  rents  from  thirteen  rural  manors,  together 
with  certain  annual  rents  from  the  canons  of  St  Paul's,  the  priory 
of  St  Bartholomew's  and  the  lessees  of  various  tenements  in  London, 
which  were  supposed  to  yield  her  a  little  over  ^95  per  annum; 
(2)  "the  issues  of  the  Larder,"  to  wit  all  the  ox  skins,  "inwards" 
of  oxen,  tallow  coming  from  oxen  and  messes  of  beef,  which  she  sells ; 
and  (3)  "the  foreyn  receyte,"  to  wit  the  money  received  for  the  sale 
of  hay  at  any  farm  belonging  to  her  office.  These  represent  only  her 
money  revenues;  but  she  also  received  the  greater  part  of  meat  and 
dairy  produce  consumed  by  the  convent  from  the  home  farm  and 
from  the  demesnes  of  the  manors  appropriated  to  her.  The  Charthe 
warns  her  to  be  certain  of  hiring  pasture  for  her  oxen  at  such  times 
as  it  is  needful,  to  see  that  her  hay  is  duly  mown  and  made  and 
to  keep  all  the  buildings  belonging  to  her  office  in  repair,  both  those 
within  the  monastery  and  those  at  the  outlying  manors  and  farms. 

The  Charthe  throws  some  light  upon  the  domestic  staff  employed 
in  working  the  department.  An  important  gentleman  called  the 
steward  of  the  household  had  the  general  supervision  of  its  business 
affairs;  he  kept  an  eye  on  the  bailiffs  and  rent  collectors  of  the  cel- 
laress's  manors  and  presided  at  their  courts.  The  cellaress  solemnly 
presented  him  with  a  "reward"  of  2od.  every  time  that  he  returned 
with  the  pecuniary  proceeds  of  justice,  and  on  Christmas  day.  The 
management  of  the  department  was  done  by  the  head  cellaress  her 
self,  with  an  under-cellaress  to  assist  her  and  a  clerk  to  keep  her 

1  See  Dugdale,  Mon.  i,  pp.  442-5. 

36—2 


564  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

accounts  and  write  her  business  letters,  at  a  wage  of  135.  4^.  The 
kitchen  was  in  the  special  charge  of  a  nun  kitchener  and  the  actual 
cooking  was  done  by  a  "yeoman  cook,"  a  "groom  cook"  and  a 
"pudding  wife1";  she  paid  her  yeoman  cook  a  wage  of  265.  8d.,  her 
pudding  wife,  2s.  a  year  and  bought  her  groom  cook  a  gown  at  Christ 
mas.  She  wisely  gave  a  Christmas  box  to  each  of  the  underlings,  great 
and  small,  with  whom  she  had  to  do,  2od.  to  the  Abbess'  gentlewoman, 
i6d.  to  every  gentleman,  "and  to  every  yoman  as  it  pleaseth  her  for 
to  doo,  and  gromes  in  like  case";  moreover  it  was  her  pleasant  duty 
to  hand  to  herself  as  cellaress  and  to  her  under-cellaress  2od.  apiece. 

The  Charthe  gives  exceedingly  minute  directions  as  to  the  con 
ventual  housekeeping.  Barking  Abbey  was  a  large  house,  consisting 
at  the  time  this  document  was  drawn  up  of  thirty-seven  ladies.  The 
Abbess  dwelt  in  state  in  her  own  apartments,  with  a  gentlewoman 
to  wait  upon  her  and  a  private  kitchen,  with  its  own  staff,  which  was 
not  under  the  control  of  the  cellaress.  The  cellaress,  however,  sent  in 
to  the  Abbess  4  Ibs.  of  almonds  and  eight  cakes  called  "russheaulx" 
in  Lent,  eight  chickens  at  Shrovetide,  one  pottle  of  wine  called  Tyre  2 
on  Maundy  Thursday  and  a  sugar  loaf  on  Christmas  Day;  while  the 
Abbess'  kitchen  had  to  provide  the  convent  with  "pittances"  and 
"  liveries  "  of  pork,  bacon,  mutton  or  eggs  on  certain  days  of  the  year, 
as  will  appear  hereafter.  From  the  convent  kitchen  the  cellaress  had 
to  purvey  for:  (i)  the  ladies  of  the  convent,  (2)  the  prioress,  two 
cellaresses  and  kitchener,  who  receive  a  double  allowance  of  almost 
all  food  given  out,  and  (3)  the  priory. 

The  Charthe  sets  forth  exactly  how  much  is  to  be  delivered  to 
each  person,  the  separate  allowances  of  meat  being  called  "messes." 
It  will  be  convenient  to  consider  the  stores  to  be  provided  under  the 
five  headings  of:  (i)  meat,  (2)  grain,  (3)  butter  and  eggs,  (4)  fish  and 
condiments  for  Advent  and  Lenten  fare,  and  (5)  pittances,  or  extra 
delicacies  provided  on  certain  days  of  the  year.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  Charthe  deals  for  the  most  part  with  the  special  fare  appro 
priate  to  special  occasions.  There  is  no  mention  of  the  daily  allowance 
of  bread  and  beer  made  on  the  premises;  the  only  fish  mentioned 
is  salt  fish  for  Lent;  the  only  vegetables  are  dried  peas  and  beans; 
the  only  fowls  are  for  a  special  pittance  on  St  Alburgh's  day. 

(i)  Meat.  The  chief  meat  food  of  the  convent,  eaten  three  times 
a  week  (on  Sunday,  Tuesday  and  Thursday),  except  in  Advent  and 
Lent  and  on  vigils,  was  beef.  The  cellaress  had  to  purvey  22  "gud 
oxen"  by  the  year  for  the  convent.  These  oxen  were  fed  on  her  own 
pastures,  and,  says  the  cellaress,  "  she  shall  slay  but  every  fortnyght 
and  yf  sche  be  a  good  huswyff  ";  accordingly  at  the  end  of  the  first 
week,  she  must  look  and  see  if  she  has  enough  beef  to  last  out  the 

1  '  Pudding  '  was  a  sausage. 

2  Tyre  was  a  favourite  sweet  wine  in  the  middle  ages;  " if  not  of  Syrian 
growth  [it]  was  probably  a  Calabrian  or  Sicilian  wine,  manufactured  from 
the  species  of  grape  called  tirio."  Early  Eng.  Meals  and  Manners,  ed. 
Furnivall  (E.E.T.S.  1868),  p.  90. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  565 

fortnight  and  if  not  she  must  buy  what  she  needs  in  the  market. 
It  would  seem  that  besides  the  beef  provided  by  the  cellaress  from 
the  convent  kitchen  the  convent  had  an  extra  allowance  of  beef 
provided  from  some  source  not  mentioned  in  the  Char  the,  or  else 
that  they  did  not  always  eat  each  week  what  was  delivered  to  them. 
For  the  cellaress  sets  down  as  follows  the  entry  which  her  clerk  is 
to  make  in  her  book  each  week :  on  Saturday  20  Sept.  (doubtless  the 
day  on  which  she  was  writing)  she  answers  for  four  or  five  messes 
remaining  in  store  of  the  week  before,  and  of  63  messes  of  beef  from 
an  ox  slain  the  same  week,  also  of  80  messes  of  beef  bought  by  her 
of  the  convent  "  of  that  they  lefte  behynd  of  ther  lyvere,  paying  for 
every  mess  i%d.,"  total  147  messes,  whereof  she  delivers  to  each  lady  for 
the  three  meat  days  three  messes  and  to  the  priory  six  messes.  After 
beef  the  meat  food  most  commonly  eaten  consisted  in  various  forms 
of  pig's  flesh.  At  Martinmas  the  cellaress  had  to  ask  at  the  abbess' 
kitchen  for  a  pittance  of  pork  for  each  lady  and  also  a  livery  of 
"sowsse"1,  thus  defined:  "every  lady  to  have  three  thynges,  that  is 
to  sey,  the  cheke,  the  ere  and  the  fote  is  a  livery;  the  groyne  and  two 
fete  ys  anodyer  leveray;  soe  a  hoole  hoggs  sowsse  shall  serve  three 
ladyes."  At  the  same  time  she  had  to  give  them  "of  so  wee  of  hyre 
owne  provisione  two  thynges  to  every  lady,  so  that  a  hoole  hog 
so  wee  do  serve  four  ladyes."  She  also  had  to  provide  pork  from  her 
own  kitchin  for  two  anniversary  pittances  (of  which  more  anon)  and 
she  notes  that  every  hog  yields  20  messes.  Moreover  on  Christmas 
Day  she  had  to  ask  at  the  abbess'  kitchen  for  "livery  bacon"  for  the 
convent,  four  messes  for  each  lady;  a  flitch  was  reckoned  to  provide 
ten  messes.  Of  mutton  the  convent  ate  very  little.  Three  times  a 
year,  between  the  feasts  of  the  Assumption  (Aug.  15)  and  of  St 
Michael  (Sept.  29),  the  abbess'  kitchen  had  to  provide  "pittance 
mutton"  for  the  ladies,  a  mess  to  each,  "and  every  mutton  yields 
twelve  messes  " ;  and  twice  a  year  on  certain  anniversaries  the  cellaress 
had  to  provide  a  similar  allowance  out  of  her  own  kitchen. 

(2)  Grain.  Under  this  heading  comes  three  quarters  of  malt,  to 
be  brewed  into  ale  for  the  festal  seasons  of  St  Alburgh's2  (or  Foundress') 
Day  (Oct.  n)  and  Christmas ;  one  quarter  and  seven  bushels  of  wheat  to 
be  baked  into  bread  or  cakes  for  various  pittances;  two  bushels  of 

1  Sowce  (Lat.  salsagium,  verjuice)  was  a  sort  of  pickle  for  hog's  flesh. 
Promptorium  Parvulorum,  ed.  A.  L.  Mayhew  (E.E.T.S.  1908),  notes,  p.  701. 
See  the  rather  ominous  verse  in  Tusser: 

Thy  measeled  bacon,  hog,  sow,  or  thy  bore, 

Shut  up  for  to  heale,  for  infecting  thy  store : 
Or  kill  it  for  bacon,  or  sowce  it  to  sell, 

For  Flemming,  that  loues  it  so  deintily  well. 

Tusser,  Five  Hundred  Pointes  of  Good  Husbandrie  (Eng.  Dialect  Soc.  1878), 
p.  52.  The  word  is  still  in  use  in  the  north  of  England  for  a  concoction  of 
mincemeat,  vegetables,  cloves  and  vinegar  and  in  'soused  herrings'  i.e. 
herrings  cooked  in  vinegar. 

2  I.e.  St  Ethelburga,  for  whom  the  Abbey  was  founded  by  her  brother 
Erconwald,  Bishop  of  London,  in  666. 


566  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

dried  peas  to  be  eaten  in  Lent  and  one  bushel  of  dried  beans  "  against 
Midsummer."  The  brewer  and  baker  were  paid  a  tip  of  2od.  and  6d. 
respectively,  when  they  had  to  make  the  extra  pittance  beer  and 
bread.  The  convent  also  had  a  livery  of  oatmeal  from  the  cellaress, 
four  dishes  delivered  once  a  month. 

(3)  Butter  and  Eggs.    The  cellaress  had  to  provide  the  convent 
with  butter  at  certain  times,  to  every  lady  and  double  one  "cobet," 
every  dish  containing  three  cobets.  What  was  called  "feast  butter" 
was  payable  on  St  Alburgh's  Day,  Easter,  Whitsunday  and  Trinity 
Sunday.  What  was  called  "storing  butter"  was  payable  five  times  a 
year,  "to  wit  Advent  and  four  times  after  Christmas."  What  was 
called  "  fortnight  butter  "  was  payable  once  for  every  fortnight  lying 
between  Trinity  Sunday  and  Holy  Rood  Day  (Sept.  14).  The  cellaress 
was  also  responsible  for  providing  the  convent  with  money  to  buy 
eggs  ("ey  silver") ;  each  lady  had  weekly  from  Michaelmas  (Sept.  29) 
to   All   Hallows'   Day   (Nov.   i),    i$d.,   from  All    Hallows'   Day  to 
Advent,    if-rf.,    from   Advent   to   Childermas   Day    (Dec.    28),    i±d., 
from  Childermas  Day  to  Ash  Wednesday,  i$d.,  and  from  Easter  to 
Michaelmas,  i%d. ;  also  an  extra  allowance  of  \d.  on  each  vigil  of  the 
year,  when  no  meat  was  eaten.   Out  of  this  "ey  silver"  the  nuns  had 
to  purvey  eggs  for  themselves  as  best  they  might;  but  the  cellaress 
had  to  give  the  priory  each  week  in  the  year  32  eggs  or  else  2|rf.  in 
money,  except  in  the  four  Advent  weeks  when  she  provided  only  16 
and  in  Lent,  when  none  were  due ;  for  every  vigil  she  gave  them  eight 
eggs,  "or  else  ifd.  and  the  fourth  part  of  \d."  in  money.  At  the  five 
principal  feasts  of  the  year  the  abbess  left  her  hall  and  dined  in  state 
in  the  frater,  to  wit  on  Easter  Day,  Whit  Sunday,  Assumption  Day, 
St  Alburgh's  Day  and  Christmas  Day;  and  on  these  occasions  the 
cellaress  had  to  ask  the  clerk  of  the  abbess'  kitchen  for  "  supper  eggs  " 
for  the  convent,  two  for  each  lady. 

(4)  Lenten  Fare.   For  Lent  and  Advent  the  cellaress  had  to  provide 
the  convent  with  their  diet  of  fish,  enlivened  for  their  comfort  with 
dried  fruits  and  rice.   She  laid  in  two  cades  of  red  herring  for  Advent, 
a  cade  being  600  (counting  six  score  to  the  100). 

For  Lent  she  purveyed  seven  cades  of  red  herring  and  three  barrels 
(containing  1000  at  six  score  to  the  hundred)  of  white  herring.  To 
every  lady  she  gave  four  a  day  (i.e.  in  all  28  a  week),  and  to  the 
priory  she  gave  four  on  every  day  except  Sunday,  when  she  gave  them 
fish,  and  Friday,  when  they  had  figs  and  raisins.  She  also  had  to  lay 
in  1 8  salt  fish  (nature  unspecified),  out  of  which  she  provided  each 
lady  with  a  mess  and  the  priory  with  two  messes  every  other  week 
in  Lent,  each  fish  producing  seven  messes;  in  the  alternate  weeks 
they  received  salt  salmon,  of  which  she  laid  in  fourteen  or  fifteen,  each 
salmon  yielding  nine  messes.  To  spice  this  Lenten  fare  she  bought 
i2oolbs.  of  almonds,  three  "peces"  and  24  Ibs.  of  figs,  one  "pece" 
of  raisins,  28  Ibs.  of  rice  and  12  gallons  of  mustard.  Each  lady 
received  2  Ibs.  of  almonds  and  \  Ib.  of  rice  to  last  for  the  whole  of 
Lent,  and  every  week  i  Ib.  of  figs  and  raisins. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  567 

(5)  Pittances,  or  extra  allowances  of  more  delicate  food,  were  due 
to  the  nuns  on  certain  feasts  of  the  Church  and  on  the  anniversaries 
of  five  benefactors,  viz.  Sir  William  Vicar,  Dame  Alys  Merton 
"dame  Mawte  the  kynges  daughter,"  dame  Maud  Loveland  and 
William  Dun.  The  pittances  on  the  anniversaries  of  William  Vicar 
and  William  Dun  were  of  mutton ;  on  each  occasion  the  cellaress  had 
to  lay  in  three  "carse"  of  mutton,  and  for  William  Dun's  pittance 
she  had  to  make  sure  also  of  12  gallons  of  good  ale.  For  the  pittances 
of  Dame  Alice  Merton  and  Maud  the  king's  daughter  (which  fell  in 
the  winter)  she  had  to  purvey  four  bacon  hogs,  each  hog  producing 
20  messes,  also  six  grecys1,  six  sowcys  and  six  inwardys;  also  100  eggs 
for  "white  puddings,"  together  with  bread,  pepper  and  saffron  for 
the  same,  and  "marrow  bones  for  white  wortys"2;  also  three  gallons 
of  good  ale.  Evidently  the  convent  had  a  royal  feast  on  those  days 
and  had  good  cause  to  remember  their  former  abbesses.  There  are 
no  details  as  to  Dame  Maud  Loveland's  pittance.  Another  red  letter 
day  was  Foundress'  Day  (Oct.  n).  On  this  occasion  the  abbess' 
kitchen  had  to  provide  each  lady  of  the  convent  with  half  a  goose, 
the  two  chantresses,  as  well  as  the  four  usual  recipients,  receiving 
doubles,  and  with  a  hen  or  a  cock,  the  fratresses  and  the  subprioress 
also  receiving  doubles.  Moreover  the  cellaress  had  to  give  the  ladies 
"frumenty"3,  for  which  she  laid  in  wheat  and  three  gallons  of  milk. 
On  the  feast  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin  (Aug.  15)  each  received 
half  a  goose.  At  Shrovetide  the  cellaress  gave  each  lady  "for  their 

1  Probably  gns,  i.e.  a  little  pig.    Compare  Piers  Plowman,  Prol.  1.  226: 
Cokes  and  here  knaues  crieden,  '  hote  pies,  hote  ! 
Gode  gris  and  gees  gowe  dyne,  gowe !  ' 

8  "White  worts,"  was  a  kind  of  potage  ("potage  is  not  so  moche  used 
in  all  Chrystendome  as  it  is  used  in  Englande.  Potage  is  made  of  the  licour 
in  the  whiche  flesshe  is  sod  in,  with  puttynge  to,  chopped  herbes  and  Otmell 
and  salte,"  Early  Eng.  Meals  and  Manners,  p.  97).  This  is  a  recipe  for 
-  White  Worts,  written  down,  c.  1420:  "Take  of  the  erbys  as  thou  dede  for 
jonutes  and  sethe  hem  in  water  tyl  they  ben  neyshe;  thanne  take  hem  up, 
an  bryse  hem  fayre  on  a  potte  an  ley  hem  with  flowre  of  Rys;  take  mylke 
of  almaundys  arid  cast  therto  and  hony,  nowt  to  moche,  that  it  be  nowt 
to  swete,  an  safron  and  salt;  an  serve  it  forth  ynne,  rygth  for  a  good 
potage."  The  herbs  used  for  jouutes  are  "borage,  violet,  mallows,  parsley, 
young  worts,  beet,  avens,  buglos  and  orach";  and  it  is  recommended  to 
use  two  or  three  marrow  bones  in  making  the  broth.  Two  Fifteenth  Century 
Cookery  Books,  ed.  T.  Austen  (E.E.T.S.  1888),  pp.  5,  6. 

3  Frumenty  or  Furmety  (Lat.  frumentum,  wheat)  is  wheat  husked  and 
boiled  soft  in  water,  then  boiled  in  milk,  sweetened  and  spiced.  Here  is 
a  recipe  for  it  from  the  same  book  as  that  for  white  worts:  "Take  whete 
and  pyke  it  clene  and  do  it  in  a  morter,  an  caste  a  lytel  water  theron;  an 
stampe  with  a  pestel  tyl  it  hole  [hull,  lose  husks] ;  than  fan  owt  the  holys 
[hulls,  husks],  an  put  it  in  a  potte,  an  let  sethe  tyl  it  breke;  than  set  yt 
douun,  an  sone  after  set  it  ouer  the  fyre  an  stere  it  wyl;  an  whan  thow 
hast  sothyn  it  wyl,  put  therinne  swete  mylke,  an  sethe  it  yfere,  an  stere 
it  wyl;  and  whan  it  is  ynow,  coloure  it  wyth  safron,  an  salt  it  euene,  and 
dresse  it  forth."  Op.  cit.  pp.  6-7.  See  the  rhymed  recipe  in  the  Liber  cure 
cocorum  (c.  1460),  ed.  Morris  (Phil.  Soc.  1862),  p.  7. 


568  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

cripcis1  and  for  their  crumkakers  2d.";  she  had  also  to  purvey  eight 
chickens  for  the  abbess  and  "bonnes"2  for  the  convent  and  also  four 
gallons  of  milk.  On  Shere  or  Maundy  Thursday  she  had  12  "stub" 
eels  and  60  "shaft"  eels  baked  with  wheat  and  8  Ibs.  of  rice;  and 
she  sent  the  abbess  a  bottle  of  Tyre  and  the  convent  two  gallons  of 
red  wine;  unglorified  by  a  name.  On  Palm  Sunday  they  had  "rus- 
sheaulx"3,  for  which  she  provided  21  Ibs.  of  figs.  These  were  little 
highly  spiced  pies  (rather  like  mince  pies),  of  which  the  chief  in 
gredients  were  figs  and  flour,  and  besides  providing  them  in  kind 
on  Palm  Sunday  the  cellaress  had  to  pay  the  ladies  "Ruscheaw 
silver,  by  xvj  times  payable  in  the  yere  to  every  lady  and  doubill 
at  eche  time  \d.,  but  it  is  paid  nowe  but  at  two  times,  that  is  to  say 
at  Ester  and  Michelmes."  On  Easter  Eve  they  had  three  gallons  of 
ale  and  one  gallon  of  red  wine.  On  St  Andrew's  Day  and  on  every 
Sunday  in  Lent  they  had  fish  (doubtless  fresh  fish,  as  a  welcome 
change  from  salted  herrings). 

NOTE  B. 
SCHOOL  CHILDREN  IN  NUNNERIES. 

The  subject  is  of  such  interest  from  the  point  of  view  of  educational 
as  well  as  of  monastic  history,  that  I  have  thought  it  worth  while 
to  print  in  full  all  the  references  to  convent  education  in  England 
(c.  1250-1537),  which  I  have  been  able  to  find.  For  the  convenience 
of  the  reader  I  have  translated  references  in  Latin  and  Old  French 
and  have  arranged  the  houses  under  counties.  Doubtful  references  are 
marked  with  an  asterisk. 

1  Crisps  (Mod.  Fr.  crSpe)  were  fritters.  Here  is  a  recipe  for  them  in  a 
cookery  book  written  c.  1450:  "Take  white  of  eyren  [eggs],  Milke,  and  fyne 
nowre,  and  bete  hit  togidre  and  drawe  hit  thorgh  a  streynour,  so  that  hit 
be  rennyng,  and  noght  to  stiff;  and  caste  thereto  sugar  and  salt.  And  then 
take  a  chaffur  ful  of  fressh  grece  boyling;  and  then  put  thi  honde  in  the 
batur  and  lete  the  bater  ren  thorgh  thi  fingers  into  the  chaffur;  And  whan 
it  is  ren  togidre  in  the  chaffre,  and  is  ynowe,  take  a  skymour  and  take  hit 
oute  of  the  chaffur,  and  putte  oute  al  the  grece,  And  lete  ren;  and  putte 
hit  in  a  faire  dissh  and  cast  sugur  thereon  ynow  and  serue  it  forth  "  Op 
cit.  p.  93. 

Buns.  Compare  the  instructions  to  the  cellaress  of  Syon:  "On  water 
days  [i.e.  days  when  the  sisters  drank  water  instead  of  beer]  sche  schal 
ordeyne  for  bonnes  or  newe  brede."  Aungier,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Syon  Mon 
n    so? 


P-  393- 


3  Here  is  a  recipe:  "Risshewes.  Take  figges  and  grinde  hem  all  rawe  in 
a  morter  and  cast  a  litull  fraied  oyle  there- to;  and  then  take  hem  vppe 
yn  a  versell,  and  caste  thereto  pynes,  reysyns  of  corance,  myced  dates, 
sugur,  Saffron,  pouder  ginger,  and  salt:  And  then  make  Cakes  of  floure', 
Sugur,  salt  and  rolle  the  stuff  in  thi  honde  and  couche  it  in  the  cakes,  and 
folde  hem  togidur  as  risshewes,  and  fry  hem  in  oyle,  and  serue  hem  forth." 
Op.  cit.  p.  93.  There  are  other  recipes,  ib.  pp.  43,  45,  97.  The  word  survives 
in  rissole. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  569 

BEDFORDSHIRE. 

1.  Elstow. 

Late  1 2th  century.  Bishop  Hugh  of  Lincoln  sent  a  little  boy,  Robert  of 
Noyon,  here.  "He  seemed  to  be  about  five  years  old,  or  a  little 
older;  and  after  a  short  space  of  time  (the  Bishop)  sent  him  to 
Elstow  to  be  taught  his  letters  (literis  informandum) . ' '  Magna 
Vita  S.  Hugonis  Episcopi  Lincolniensis  (Rolls  Ser.),  p.  146. 

1359.  Gynewell  enjoins  boarders  to  be  sent  away  on  pain  of  excom 
munication.  "But  boys  up  to  the  completion  of  their  sixth 
year  and  girls  up  to  the  completion  of  their  tenth  year,... we 
do  not  wish  to  be  understood  or  included  in  the  above  (prohi 
bition)."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  139^. 

1421—2.  Flemyng  enjoins  "that  henceforward  you  admit  or  allow  to 
be  admitted  or  received  to  lodge  or  stay  within  the  limits  of 
the  cloister,  no  persons  male  or  female, ..  .who  are  beyond  the 
twelfth  year  of  their  age."  Line.  Visit.  I,  p.  49. 

c.  1432.  Gray  enjoins  that  all  secular  persons  shall  be  removed  from 
the  cloister  precincts,  "  ...males  to  wit,  who  have  passed  their 
tenth  year,  or  females  who  have  passed  their  fourteenth."  Line. 
Visit,  i,  p.  53. 

1442-3.  "Dame  Rose  Waldegrave  says  that... certain  nuns  do  some 
times  have  with  them  in  the  quire  in  time  of  mass  the  boys 
whom  they  teach,  and  these  do  make  a  noise  in  quire  during 
divine  service."  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  90. 

2.  Harrold. 

1442-3.  At  Bishop  Alnwick's  visitation  "  Dame  Alice  Decun  says  that 
only  two  little  girls  of  six  or  seven  years  do  lie  in  the  dorter." 
Another  nun  says  the  same.  The  Bishop  forbids  adult  boarders, 
"ne  childere  ouere  xj  yere  olde  men  and  xij  yere  olde  wymmen 
wythe  owten  specyalle  leue  of  us  or  our  successours  bysshops 
of  Lincolne  f yest  asked  and  had ;  ne  that  ye  suffre  ne  seculere 
persones,  wymmen  ne  childern,  lyg  by  nyght  in  the  dormytory . 
Line.  Visit,  u,  pp.  130—1. 

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 

3.  Burnham. 

c.  1431-6.  Gray  enjoins  "that  henceforward  no  secular  women  who 
are  past  the  fourteenth  year  of  their  age,  and  no  males  at  all, 
be  admitted  in  any  wise  to  lie  by  night  in  the  dorter  or  be 
suffered  so  to  lie.... That  you  henceforth  admit  or  suffer  to  be 
admitted  and  received  to  lodge  in  the  said  monastery  no 
women  after  they  have  completed  the  fourteenth  year  of  their 
age  and  no  males  after  the  eighth  year  of  their  age...  .That  you 
remove  wholly  from  the  said  monastery  all... secular  folk,  male 
and  female,  who,  being  lodgers  in  the  said  monastery,  have 
passed  the  ages  aforesaid."  Line.  Visit,  i,  p.  24. 


570  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

1519.  Atwater  enjoins  "that  infants  and  small  children  be  not  ad 
mitted  into  the  dorter  of  the  nuns."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Visit. 
Atwater,  f.  42^. 

*4.  Little  Alar  low. 

c.  1530?  Margaret  Vernon,  Prioress  of  Little  Marlow  and  friend  of 
Cromwell,  was  entrusted  by  him  with  the  care  of  his  little 
son  Gregory.  Several  of  her  letters  are  preserved,  but  they 
are  undated  and  it  is  difficult  to  gather  from  those  which  refer 
to  Gregory  Cromwell  whether  they  were  written  before  or  after 
the  dissolution  of  Little  Marlow.  There  was  in  any  case  no 
question  of  her  teaching  the  boy  herself.  He  had  with  him 
a  tutor,  Mr  Copland,  and  the  Prioress  writes  to  tell  Cromwell 
that  Mr  Copland  every  morning  gives  Gregory  and  Nicholas 
Sadler,  his  schoolfellow,  their  Latin  lesson,  "which  Nicholas 
doth  bear  away  as  well  Gregory's  lesson  as  his  own,  and  maketh 
him  perfect  against  his  time  of  rendering,  at  which  their 
Master  is  greatly  comforted."  Master  Sadler  also  had  with  him 
a  "little  gentlewoman,"  whom  Margaret  wished  permission 
to  educate  herself.  In  another  letter  she  speaks  of  a  proposed 
new  tutor  for  Gregory  and  expresses  anxiety  that  he  should 
be  one  who  would  not  object  to  her  supervision.  "  Good  master 
Cromwell,  if  it  like  you  to  call  unto  your  remembrance,  you 
have  promised  me  that  I  should  have  the  governance  of  your 
child  till  he  be  twelve  years  of  age,  and  at  that  time  I  doubt 
not  with  God's  grace  but  he  shall  speak  for  himself  if  any 
wrong  be  offered  unto  him,  whereas  yet  he  cannot  but  by 
my  maintenance;  and  if  he  should  have  such  a  master  which 
would  disdain  if  I  meddled,  then  it  would  be  to  me  great  un- 
quietness,  for  I  assure  you  if  you  sent  hither  a  doctor  of 
divinity  yet  will  I  play  the  smatterer,  but  always  in  his  well 
doing  to  him  he  shall  have  his  pleasure,  and  otherwise  not." 
Wood,  Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies,  n,  57—9. 

CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 

5.  S  waff  ham  Bulbeck. 

1483.  The  following  references  to  boarders  in  the  account  roll  of 
the  Prioress  Margaret  Ratclyff  for  22  Edw.  IV  almost  certainly 
indicate  children.  "  By  Richard  Potecary  of  Cambridge  us.  for 
board  for  22  weeks,  at  6d.  per  week.  By  us.  received  from 
John  Kele  of  Cambridge  for  22  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week.  By 
£i  received  from  William  Water  of... his  son  for  40  weeks,  viz. 
6d.  per  week.  By  135.  received  from  Thomas  Roch...his  son 
for  26  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week.  By  155.  received  from  Manfeld 
for  the  board  of  his  son  for  30  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week.  By 
£i  received  from... of  Cambridge  for  the  board  of  his  daughter 
for  40  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week.  By  8s.  from... of  Chesterton 
for  the  board  of  his  son  for  16  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week.  From... 
Parker  of  Walden  for  the  board  of  his  son  for  12  weeks.  By 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  571 

35.  received  from... the  merchant  for  the  board  of  his  daughter 
for  6  weeks,  viz.  6d.  per  week."  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  pp.  459-60. 
*6.  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge. 

1481-2.  The  account  roll  for  1481-2  contains  the  item  "And  she 
answers  for  20$.  received  from  Richard  Woodcock  for  the 
commons  of  2  daughters  of  the  said  Richard,  as  for  [blank} 
weeks,  at  {blank}  per  week."  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund's, 
Cambridge,  p.  176.  This  is  probably  a  child,  because  I  am  in 
clined  to  think  that  payments  so  worded,  as  from  a  father 
for  a  son  or  daughter,  usually  refer  to  children.  Unfortunately 
the  nuns  of  this  priory  kept  the  details  of  their  receipts  from 
boarders  on  a  separate  sheet,  and  entered  only  the  total, 
thus:  "And  by  £i.  12.  i  received  for  the  board  or  repast  of 
divers  gentlefolk,  particulars  of  whose  names  are  noted  in  the 
paper  book  of  accounts  displayed  above  this  account."  Ib. 
p.  163  (see  also,  p.  147).  These  separate  papers  are  unluckily 
lost,  so  no  details  are  available. 

DERBYSHIRE. 

*y.  King's  Mead,  Derby. 

Dr  J.  C.  Cox  says  "Evidence  of  this  priory  being  used  as  a 
boarding  school  occurs  in  the  private  muniments  of  the  Curzon, 
Fitzherbert  and  Gresley  families."  V.C.H.  Derby,  n,  p.  44 
(note  14).  Without  more  exact  reference  it  is  impossible  to 
say  whether  this  is  correct,  because  adult  boarders  are  so 
often  confused  with  schoolchildren. 

DEVON. 

8.  Cornworthy. 

c.  1470.  Petition  from  Thomasyn  Dynham,  Prioress  of  Cornworthy 
concerning  two  children  at  school  in  her  house,  whose  fees 
have  not  been  paid  for  five  years.  See  description  in  text 
(above,  p.  269). 

ESSEX. 

9.  Barking. 

1433.  Katherine  de  la  Pole,  Abbess  of  Barking,  petitions  Henry  V, 
"  for  as  much  as  she,  afore  this  tyme  hath  bene  demened  and 
reuled,  by  th'advis  of  youre  full  discrete  counsail,  to  take 
upon  hir  the  charge,  costes  and  expenses  of  Edmond  ap 
Meredith  ap  Tydier  and  Jasper  ap  Meredith  ap  Tydier,  being 
yit  in  her  kepyng,  for  the  which  cause  she  was  payed,  fro  the 
xxvii  day  of  Juyll,  the  yere  of  youre  full  noble  regne  xv,  unto 
the  Satterday  the  last  day  of  Feverer,  the  yere  of  your  saide 
regne  xvii,  1  livres:  and  after  the  saide  last  day  of  Feverer, 
youre  saide  bedewoman  hath  borne  the  charges  as  aboven 
unto  this  day  and  is  behynde  of  the  payement  for  the  same 
charge... the  somme  of  lii  livres  xii  sols,"  she  asks  for  payment. 


572  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

Dugdale,  Mon.  i,  437  (note  m),  (quoted  from  Rymer  Foedera 
x,  p.  828). 

1527.  Sir  John  Stanley  made  his  will  on  June  20,  1527,  and  in  1528, 
after  a  solemn  act  of  separation  with  his  wife,  entered  a 
monastery.  The  will  is  largely  concerned  with  provisions  for 
the  education  of  his  son  and  heir,  who  was  at  that  time  three 
years  old.  He  set  aside  the  proceeds  of  a  certain  manor  "  whych 
is  estemed  to  be  of  the  yerly  valewe  of  xl  li.,  to  the  onely  use 
and  fyndynge  of  my  said  sonne  and  heyre  apparaunte,  tyll 
he  comme  and  be  of  the  full  ayge  of  xxj »  yeres ;  and  l'  woll 
that  my  sayd  sonne  and  heyr  shalbe  in  the  custodye  and 
kepynge  of  the  saide  Abbes  of  Barckynge,  tyll  he  accomplyshe 
and  be  of  thayge  of  xij  yeres  and  after  the  sayd  ayge  of  xij 
yeres  I  woll  that  he  shalbe  in  the  custodye  and  guydynge  of 
the  sayd  Abbot  of  Westmynster,  tyll  he  come  and  be  of  hys 
full  ayge  of  xxi"  yeres."  The  Abbess  and  Abbot  were  to  have 
£15  yearly  for  the  use  of  their  houses  in  return  for  their  pains 
and  /2o  yearly  was  to  be  paid  them  "  to  fynde  my  sayd  sonne 
and  heyre  and  hys  servauntes,  mete,  drynke  and  wayges  con- 
venyent  and  all  other  thynges  necessare  un  to  theym,  durynge 
and  by  all  the  tyme  that  he  shalbe  in  the  rule  and  guydynge 
of  the  sayd  Abbesse  and  of  the  sayd  Abbot."  Archaeol  Journ 
xxv  (1868),  pp.  81-2. 

It  should  be  noted  that  there  is  nothing  to  suggest  that  these 
boys  were  being  taught  by  the  nuns;  they  were  young  noble 
men  attached  to  a  noblewoman's  household  to  learn  breeding. 

HAMPSHIRE. 

10.  St  Mary's,  Winchester. 

1536.  Henry  VIII's  commissioners,  who  visited  the  house  i5th  May, 
found  here  twenty-six  "chyldren  of  lordys,  knyghttes  and 
gentylmen  brought  up  yn  the  saym  monastery."  For  the  list 
of  names  (given  in  Dugdale,  Mon.  n.  p.  457),  see  above 
p.  266. 

11.  Romsey. 

1311.  Bishop  Woodlock  decreed  ' '  There  shall  not  be  in  the  dormitory 
with  the  nuns  any  children,  either  boys  or  girls,  nor  shall  they 
be  led  by  the  nuns  into  the  choir,  while  the  divine  office  is 
celebrated."  Liveing,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey,  p.  104. 

*  1387.  William  of  Wykeham  enjoins  (in  an  injunction  dealing  with 
various  manifestations  of  the  vitium  proprietatis]  "Moreover 
let  not  the  nuns  henceforth  presume  to  call  their  own  rooms 
or  pupils  (discipulas] ,  hitherto  assigned  to  them  or  so  assigned 
in  future,  on  pretext  of  such  assignation,  which  is  rather  to 
be  deemed  a  matter  of  will  than  of  necessity;  nathless  it  is 
lawful  for  the  abbess  to  assign  such  rooms  and  pupils  according 
to  merit  as  she  thinks  fit,  etc.,  etc."  But  this  more  probably 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  573 

refers  to  young  nuns  or  novices.  The  word  discipula  is  used  in 
this  sense  in  Alnwick's  visitation  of  Gracedieu.  (See  above, 
p.  80.) 

12.  Wherwell. 

1284.  Archbishop  Peckham  forbids  boarders,  adding  "  Let  not  virgins 
be  admitted  to  the  habit  and  veil  (induendae  virgines  et  velandae] 
before  the  completion  of  their  fifteenth  year  and  let  not  any 
boy  be  permitted  to  be  educated  with  the  nuns."  Reg.  Epis. 
J .  Peckham,  n,  p.  653. 

HEREFORDSHIRE. 

13.  Lymbrook. 

1422.  Bishop  Spofford  writes:  "Wee  ordayne  and  charge  you  under 
payne  of  unobedyence  that  no  suster  hald  nor  receyfe  ony 
surgyner,  man  or  woman  weddyd,  other  maydens  of  lawful 
age  to  be  wedded,  knave  chyldren  aboven  eght  yeer  of  age." 
Reg.  Thome  Spofford  (Cant,  and  York.  Soc.),  p.  82. 

HERTFORDSHIRE. 

14.  Flamstead. 

1530.  At  the  visitation  of  Longland  one  nun  "reported  that  young 
girls  were  allowed  to  sleep  in  the  dormitory.. .  .The  Prioress  was 
en  joined...  to  exclude  children  of  both  sexes  from  the  dormi 
tory."  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  433. 

15.  Sopwell. 

*I446.  In  the  Warden's  Accounts  of  1446  there  is  entered  payment 
of  22/6  for  Lady  Anne  Norbery,  for  the  commons  of  her 
daughter,  apparently  a  boarder  here.  (Rentals  and  Surveys, 
R.  294.)  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  425  (note  41). 

1537.  At  the  time  of  the  Dissolution  two  children  were  living  in  the 
priory.  Ib.  p.  425. 

KENT. 

1 6.  Dartford. 

In  1527  was  confirmed  the  concession  made  to  sister  Elizabeth 
Cresner  by  F.  Antoninus  de  Ferraria,  formerly  vicar  of  Garsias 
de  Lora,  Master  General  of  the  Dominican  order  (1518-24), 
that  she  might  receive  any  well  born  matrons,  widows  of 
good  repute,  to  dwell  perpetually  in  the  monastery,  with  or 
without  the  habit,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  monastery; 
and  also  that  she  might  receive  young  ladies  and  give  them 
a  suitable  training,  according  to  the  mode  heretofore  pursued. 
Archaeol.  Journ.  (1882)  xxxix,  p.  178. 

LEICESTERSHIRE. 

17.  Gracedieu. 

The  following  references  to  boarders  occur  in  the  Gracedieu  accounts 
(P.R.O.  Minister's  Accounts,  1257/10). 


574  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

1413-14.  "Item  received  from  William  Roby  for  the  board  of  his 
daughter  on  the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity  vj  s  viij  d.    Item 
received  from  Robert  Pencil  for  the  board  of  his  daughter  on 
the  same  day  v  s.   Item  received  for  the  board  of  Cecily  Nevell 
on  St  James'  Day  in  part  payment  vj  s  viij  d"  (p.  7). 
I4I4~I5-   "Item   received  from  Giles   Jurdon   for  the  board  of  his 
daughter  in  Whitsun  week  vij  s.    Item  received  from  Thomas 
Hinte  for  the  food  of  a  certain  daughter  of  his,  in  part  payment 
of  liij  s  iiij  d, — xl  s.    Item  received  for  the  board  of  Isabel 
Jurdon  xj  s,  Alice  Strelley  xxij  s,  Alice  Grey  xiij  s  iiij  d,  Robert 
Drewe  xxvj  s  iiij  d,  Philip  Scargell  xxxiij  s  vj  d,  Alice  Smyth, 
iij  s  iiij  d  and  Dame  Joan  Scargell  iiij  s — cxiij  s  ix  d"  (p.  79). 
There  is  a  supplementary  list  for  this  year  written  on  a  loose 
sheet:  "Item,  first,  received  for  the  board  of  Isabel  Jurdon 
for  the  half  year,  in  part  payment  ix  s.    Item  received  for  the 
board  of  Alice  Strelley  from  the  feast  of  the  Finding  of  the 
Holy  Cross  to  the  feast  of  [St  Peter]  in  Chains  in  the  following 
year,  vj  s  viij  d.    Item  received  for  the  board  of  Alice  Gray 
from  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity  to  the  feast  of  the  Purifica 
tion  of  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary  xiij  s  iiij  d.    Item  received  for 
the  board  of  Alice  Strelley  for  ij  quarters  of  the  year  and  v 
weeks,  at  the  Feast  of  St  Gregory  xv  s  iiij  d.    Item  received 
for  the  board  of  the  daughter  of  Robert  Drowe  for  half  a 
year,  xxvj  s  viij  d.  Item  received  for  the  board  of  Philip  Scargell, 
in  part  payment,  from  the  feast  of  St  John  etc.,  paid  for 
the  quarter  xxij  s  iiij  d,  whence  at  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi 
xxij  s  iiij  d.    Item  received  for  the  board  of  Isabel  Jurdon  at 
the  feast  of  the  Translation  of  St  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  in 
part  payment — ij  s.     Item  received  for  the  board  of  Alice 
Smyth  in  part  payment  at  vj  s  viij  d  for  the  quarter,  iij  s 
iiij  d.    Item  received  for  the  board  of  Dame  Skargeyle  for  two 
weeks,  ij  s  per  week,  iiij  s.    Item  received  for  the  board  of 
Philyppe  Skergell  from  the  feast  of  St  Laurence  to  the  feast 
of  St  Michael,  for  the  half  quarter  xj  s  ij  d.   Total,  cxiij  s  x  d." 
1416-17.  "Item  received  for  the  board  of  the  daughter  of  William 

Rowby,  as  for  the  purchase  of  one  ox — xiij  s  iiij  d." 
1417-18.  "  Item  received  for  the  board  of  Mary  de  Ecton  on  the  feast 
of  All  Saints,  in  part  payment  of  a  larger  sum,  xxxiij  s  iiij  d. 
Item  received  for  the  board  of  Joan  Vilers  on  the  Feast  of 
St  Andrew  the  Apostle  vj  s  viij  d.  Item  received  for  the  board 
of  Katerine  Standych  on  the  morrow  of  the  Epiphany  vj  s 
viij  d.  Item  received  for  the  board  of  the  daughters  of  Robert 
Nevell,  knight,  on  the  feast  of  St  Hilary  x  s.  Item  received 
for  the  board  of  Joan  Villars  on  the  feast  of  St  Hilary  xx  d. 
Item  received  for  the  board  of  Mary  de  Ecton  on  the  Sunday 
next  before  the  feast  of  St  Valentine  xx  s.  Item  received  from 
Joan  Villers  for  her  board  on  the  second  Sunday  of  Lent 
vj  s  viij  d.  Item  received  from  Katerine  Standych  in  full 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  575 

payment  of  her  board  on  Whitsunday  x  s.  Item  received  for 
the  board  of  the  daughters  of  Robert  Neuel  on  Good  Friday  x  s. 
Item  received  from  Mary  Ecton  for  her  board  on  the  feast  of 
the  Purification  of  the  B.V.  then  owing  vj  s.  Item  received 
from  Joan  Colyar  in  part  payment  of  xx  s  owing  for  J.  Dalby 
xijs"  (p.  179). 

These  accounts  obviously  contain  ordinary  adult  boarders  as  well 
as  children.  Moreover  in  some  cases  the  visitors  seem  merely  to  have 
come  for  the  great  feasts  and  not  to  have  stayed  for  any  length  of 
time,  a  practice  which  does  not  suggest  schooling.  Mr  Coulton  has 
analysed  the  accounts  closely.  He  writes:  "The  records  of  four  years 
give  us,  at  the  most  liberal  interpretation,  only  nineteen  children, 
whose  total  sojourn  amounted  to  648  weeks;  that  is  an  average  of 
three  pupils  all  the  year  round  and  one  extra  for  two  or  three  months 
of  the  time."  He  adds:  "I  have,  of  course  ruled  out  'Dame  Joan 
Scargill,'  who  paid  2s.  a  week,  or  four  times  the  sum  paid  by  a  child, 
and  Philip  Scargill,  who  paid  eighteen  pence  and  was  pretty  evidently 
the  Dame's  husband;  but  I  have  included  five  others  on  p.  89,  though 
they  are  distinctly  labelled  as  perhendinantes,  and  the  sums  they  pay- 
would  in  any  case  have  suggested  boarders  rather  than  schoolgirls. 
If  these  were  omitted  (and  I  note  that  Abbot  Gasquet  also  interprets 
them  as  merely  boarders),  this  would  bring  down  the  average  of 
actual  children  to  about  two  at  any  given  time."  (Monastic  Schools 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  27.)  He  infers  the  weekly  rate  of  pay  (where 
it  can  be  inferred  with  any  certainty)  to  be  6d.  a  week  for  children 
and  is.  or  more  for  their  elders.  (Ib.  p.  39.) 

1440-1.  At  Bishop  Aln wick's  visitation  the  prioress  deposed  "that 
a  male  child  of  seven  years  sleeps  in  the  dorter  with  the 
cellaress."  Alnwick  makes  an  injunction  forbidding  boarders, 
"save  childerne,  males  the  ix  and  females  the  xiij  yere  of 
age,  whome  we  licencede  yow  to  hafe  for  your  relefe."  Line. 
Visit,  n,  pp.  119,  125. 

1 8.  Langley. 

1440.  At  Bishop  Alnwick 's  visitation  Dame  Margaret  Mountgomerey 
"says  that  secular  children,  female  only,  do  lie  of  a  night  in 
the  dorter."  The  Bishop  forbids  boarders  "men,  women  ne 
childerne"  without  licence.  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  175-6. 

LINCOLNSHIRE. 

19.  Heynings. 

1347.  Bishop  Gynewell  writes  to  Heynings :  "  Item  we  command  you 
on  your  obedience  that  henceforth  no  secular  female  child  who 
has  passed  the  tenth  year  of  her  age  and  no  male  child,  of 
whatever  age  he  may  be,  be  received  to  dwell  among  you; 
and  that  no  child  lie  in  your  dorter  with  the  ladies,  nor  any 
where  else  whereby  the  convent  might  be  disturbed."  (Line. 
Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gynewell,  f.  34^.) 


576  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

1387.  Bishop  Bokyngham  writes:  "Item,  for  the  removal  of  all 
fleshly  wantonness  (carnis  pruritus  quoscumque),  we  will  and 
ordain  that  secular  children  and  especially  males  shall  hence 
forth  in  no  wise  be  permitted  to  sleep  with  the  nuns,  but  let 
an  honest  place  be  set  aside  for  them  outside  the  cloister,  if 
by  our  recent  and  special  grace  they  should  chance  to  be 
staying  there."  (Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  397^.) 

1442.  Alnwick  enjoins  at  his  visitation  and  afterwards  in  his  written 
injunctions  "that  fro  this  day  forthe  ye  receyve  no  sudeiour- 
nauntes  that  passe  a  man  x  yere,  a  woman  xiiij  yere  of  age, 
wythowten  specyalle  leve  of  hus  or  our  successours  bysshops 
of  Lincolne  asked  and  had."  (Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  134-5.) 

20.  Gokewell. 

1440.  At  Alnwick's  visitation  the  Prioress  "says  that  they  have  no 
boarders  above  ten  years  of  age  of  female  and  eight  years  of 
male  sex."  (Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  117.) 

21.  Legbourne. 

1440.  Alnwick  ordains  "that  fro  hense  forthe  ye  suffre  no  seculere 
persone,  woman  ne  childe,  lyg  be  night  in  the  dormytorye." 
(Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  f.  68.) 

22.  Nuncoton. 

1531.  Bishop  Longland  enjoins:  "and  that  ye  suffre  nott  eny  men 
children  to  be  brought  upp,  nor  taught  within  your  monastery, 
nor  to  resorte  to  eny  of  your  susters,  nouther  to  lye  within 
your  monastery,  nor  eny  person  young  ne  old  to  lye  within 
your  dorter,  but  oonly  religious  women."  (Archaeologia  XLVII 
P-  58.) 

23.  Stixwould. 

1440.  At  Alnwick's  visitation:  "Dame  Alice  Thornton  says  that 
young  secular  folk  female,  of  eight  or  ten  years  old,  do  lie 
in  the  dorter,  but  in  separate  beds.... Also  she  says  that,  as 
she  believes,  there  are  males  and  females,  about  eighteen  in 
number,  who  board  with  divers  nuns,  not  passing  fourteen 
or  sixteen  years  in  age.... Dame  Maud  Shirwode  speaks  of  the 
children  that  lie  in  the  dorter."  Alnwick  in  his  injunctions 
forbids  seculars  ("women  ne  childern")  to  lie  in  the  dorter 
or  to  be  received  as  boarders  without  licence.  (Alnwick's  Visit. 
MS.  75d,  76.) 

MIDDLESEX. 

24.  St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate  (London}. 

1298.  The  Prioress'  account  for  25-6  Edward  I,  contains  the  fol 
lowing  items  which  probably  refer  to  child  boarders.  "And  by 
xx  s  received  from  Dionisia  Miles  for  her  daughter  [gap]... after 
the  Nativity  of  St  John  the  Baptist.  And  by  one  mark  received 
for  the  niece  of  Robert  Morton  [?]."  P. R.O.  Ministers' Accounts, 
1258/2. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  577 

1432.  The  injunctions  sent  by  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  St  Paul's 
to  St  Helen's  contain  the  item:  "Also  we  ordeyne  and  injoyne 
yow,  prioresse  and  convent,  that  noo  seculere  be  lokkyd  with 
inne  the  boundes  of  the  cloystere;  ne  no  seculere  persones 
come  withinne  aftyr  the  belle  of  complyne,  except  wymment 
servaunts  and  mayde  childeryne  lerners.. .  .Also  we  ordeyne  and 
injoine  that  nonne  have  ne  receyve  noo  schuldrin  wyth  hem 
into  the  house  forseyde,  but  yif  that  the  profite  of  the  comonys 
turne  to  the  vayle  of  the  same  howse."  (Dugdale,  Mon.  iv, 
PP-  553~4>  wrongly  dated  1439.) 

*25.  Stratford  "  atte  Bowe." 

1346.  In  the  will  of  John  Hamond,  pepperer,  occurs  the  legacy:  "To 
his  niece  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Hamond,  residing  with  the 
nuns  of  Stratford,  he  leaves  a  sum  of  money  for  her  main 
tenance."  (Sharpe,  Cal.  of  Wills... in  the  Court  of  Hustings, 
London,  i,  p.  516.)  The  girl  may  have  been  a  nun,  but  if  so 
the  legacy  is  curiously  worded. 

NORFOLK. 

26.  Carrow. 

In  Rye,  W.,  Carrow  Abbey  (1889),  pp.  49-52,  is  a  list  of  boarders 
at  Carrow,  compiled  by  Norris  from  account  rolls  now  lost. 
Some  of  these  were  almost  certainly  children;  I  should  suggest 
that  those  described  as  "son  of"  or  "daughter  of"  N.  or  M. 
are  children.  On  these  lists,  see  G.  G.  Coulton,  Mon.  Schools 
in  the  Mid.  Ages  (Med.  Studies,  No.  10),  p.  7. 

27.  Thetford. 

1532.  At  Nykke's  visitation  it  was  discovered  that  "John  Jerves, 
gentleman,  has  a  daughter  being  brought  up  (nutritam)  in  the 
priory  and  he  pays  nothing."  (Visit,  of  Dioc.  of  Norwich,  ed. 
Jessopp  (Camden  Soc.),  p.  304.) 

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

28.  Catesby. 

1442.  At  Alnwick's  visitation  the  Prioress,  Margaret  Wavere,  deposed 
that  "sister  Agnes  Allesley  has  six  or  seven  young  folk  of 
both  sexes  that  do  lie  in  the  dorter."  Alnwick  makes  the  usual 
injunction  against  boarders,  "ouer  thage  of  x  yeere,  if  thei 
be  men,  wommene  ouer  thage  of  a  xj  yere."  Line.  Visit,  n, 
PP-  46,  51- 

29.  St  Michael's,  Stamford. 

1440.  At  Alnwick's  first  visitation  the  sacrist  "  says  that  the  prioress 
has  seven  or  eight  children,  some  male,  some  female,  of  twelve 
years  of  age  and  less,  to  her  board  and  to  teach  them." 
Alnwick  forbids  secular  persons  ("women  ne  childrene")  to  lie 
in  the  dorter  and  boarders  ("yong  ne  olde")  to  be  received 
without  licence.  (Alnwick's  Visit.  MS.  ff.  83-83^.) 

37 


578  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

1442.  At  Alnwick's  second  visitation:  "Dame  Maud  Multone  says 
that  little  girls  of  seven  or  five  years  of  age  do  lie  in  the  dorter, 
contrary  to  my  lord's  injunction."  (Ib.  f.  39^.) 

OXFORDSHIRE. 

30.  Godstow. 

1358.  Bishop  Gynewell  writes:  "Item  we  ordain  that  no  lady  of 
your  said  house  shall  have  children,  save  only  one  or  two 
females  sojourning  with  them."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Memo.  Gyne 
well,  f.  100.) 

1445.  Bishop  Am  wick  forbids  boarders  to  be  received  "but  if  ye 
hafe  lefe  of  hus  or  our  successours,  bysshope  of  Lincolne,  but 
if  it  be  yong  childerne,  a  man  not  ouere  ix  yere  of  age  and  a 
woman  of  xii  yere  of  age."  (Line.  Visit,  u,  p.  115.) 

31.  Littlemore. 

1445.  The  Prioress  says  that  "the  daughter  of  John  fitz  Aleyn, 
steward  of  the  house,  and  Ingram  War  land's  daughter  are 
boarders  in  the  house  and  each  of  them  pays  fourpence  a 
week."  These  are  clearly  children,  for  another  boarder  "some 
time  the  serving  woman  of  Robert  fitz  Elys  "  is  mentioned  and 
she  pays  eightpence  a  week.  Alnwick  makes  the  usual  injunc 
tion  forbidding  boarders  "  ouere  the  age  of  a  man  of  nyne  yere 
ne  woman  of  xij  yere,  ne  noght  thaym  wythe  owten  specyalle 
lefe  of  vs  or  our  successours."  (Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  217-8.) 

STAFFORDSHIRE. 

32.  Fairwell. 

1367.  Bishop  Robert  Stretton  of  Lichfield  enjoined  that  "no  nun 
was  to  keep  with  her  for  education  more  than  one  child,  nor 
any  male  child  over  seven  years  of  age  and  even  that  may 
not  be  done  without  the  Bishop's  leave.  If  any  have  more 
they  are  to  be  removed  before  the  Feast  of  Purification  next." 
(Reg.  Robert  de  Stretton,  u,  p.  119.) 

SOMERSET. 

33.  Cannington. 

1407.  The  will  of  Thomas  Woth  contains  the  following  legacy:  "To 
the  Prioress  of  Canyngton  40  marks  to  provide  (inveniendum) 
Elizabeth  my  daughter,  if  she  shall  happen  to  live  to  the  age 
of  ten  years."  He  also  leaves  Elizabeth  u  marks  as  a  marriage 
dowry.  (Somerset  Medieval  Wills,  ed.  F.  W.  Weaver  (Somerset 
Rec.  Soc.),  i,  p.  28.) 

SUFFOLK 

34.  Redlingfield. 

1514.  At  Bishop  Nykke's  visitation  Dame  Grace  Sampson  deposed 
that  "  boys  (pueri)  sleep  in  the  dorter  and  are  harmful  to  the 
convent,"  and  another  nun  said  the  same.  The  Bishop  ordained 


[]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  579 

"that  boys  shall  not  lie  in  the  dorter."   (Visit,  of  Dioc.  of 
Norwich,  ed.  Jessopp  (Camden  Soc.),  pp.  139-40.) 

WARWICKSHIRE. 

35.  Poles-worth. 

1537.  Henry  VIII's  commissioners  addressed  a  letter  to  Cromwell 
on  behalf  of  this  house,  representing  among  other  things  "the 
repayre  and  resort  that  ys  made  to  the  gentylmens  childern 
and  studiounts  that  ther  doo  lif,  to  the  nombre  sometyme 
of  xxxu  and  sometyme  xl11  and  moo,  that  their  be  right 
vertuously  brought  upp."  (Dugdale,  Mon.  n,  p.  363.)  The 
house  at  this  time  contained  an  abbess  and  twelve  nuns. 

YORKSHIRE. 

36.  Arden. 

1306.  Archbishop  Greenfield  decreed  that  no  girls  or  boarders  were 
to  be  taken  without  special  licence  of  the  Archbishop.  All 
girls  staying  in  the  house  without  authority  were  to  be  re 
moved  within  eight  days.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  113.) 

37.  Arthington. 

1315.    Archbishop  Greenfield  decreed  that  no  boys  or  secular  persons 

were  to  sleep  in  the  dorter  with  the  nuns. 

I  1318.  Archbishop  Melton  repeated  the  decree.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
p.  188.) 

38.  Esholt. 

1315.  Archbishop  Greenfield  decreed  that  all  women  boarders  over 
the  age  of  twelve  were  to  be  removed  within  six  days  and  no 
more  taken  without  special  licence. 

|  1318.  Archbishop  Melton  repeated  the  decree.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
p.  161.) 

1537.  Among  the  debts  owing  to  the  Priory  at  the  Dissolution  was 
one  of  335.  from  Walter  Wood  of  Timble,  in  the  parish  of 
Otley,  for  his  child's  board  for  a  year  and  a  half,  ended  at 
Lent,  28  Hen.  VIII.  (Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  ix,  p.  321,  note 
23.) 

39.  Hampole. 

1313.  Archbishop  Greenfield  granted  the  convent  licence  to  receive 
a  young  girl  Agnes  de  Langthwayt  as  a  boarder,  at  the  instance 
"nobilis  viri  Ade  de  Everyngham." 

1314.  He  issued  a  decree  that  no  male  children  over  five  years  of 
age  should  be  permitted  in  the  house,  "  as  the  Archbishop  finds 
has  been  the  practice."  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  163-4.) 

40.  Marrick. 

|  1252.  Archbishop  Gray  forbade  any  girl  or  woman  to  be  taken  as 
boarder  or  to  be  taught  without  special  licence.  (V.C.H. 
Yorks.  in,  p.  117.) 

37—2 


580  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

41.  Moxby. 

1314.  Archbishop  Greenfield  forbade  boarders  or  girls  over  twelve 
to  be  taken  without  licence.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  239.) 

42.  Nunappleton. 

1489.  Archbishop  Rotheram  enjoined:  "Item  )?at  yee  take  noe  per- 
hendinauntes  or  sogerners  into  your  place  from  hensforward, 
but  if  )?ei  be  children  or  ellis  old  persones,  by  which  availe 
by  liklyhod  may  growe  to  your  place."  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
173,  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  v,  p.  654.) 

43.  Nunburnholme. 

1318.  Archbishop  Melton  forbade  persons  of  either  sex  over  twelve 
years  of  age  to  be  maintained  as  boarders.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in, 
p.  119.) 

44.  Nunkeeling. 

1314.  Archbishop  Greenfield  forbade  boarders  to  be  taken,  or  girls 
to  be  kept  in  the  house  after  the  age  of  twelve  years.    (V.C.H. 
Yorks.  in,  p.  120.) 

*45-   Nunmonkton. 
1429.    Isabel  Salvayn  leaves  "xiij  s  iiij  d  to  be  paid  for  Alice  Thorp 
at  Nunmunkton  for  her  board."   (Test.  Ebor.  i,  p.  419.) 

46.  Rose  dale. 

1315.  Archbishop  Greenfield  decreed,  under  pain  of  the  greater  ex 
communication,  that  no  nun  was  to  cause  a  girl  or  boy  to 
sleep  under  any  consideration  in  the  dorter,  and  if  any  nun 
broke  this  command,  the  Prioress,  under  pain  of  deposition, 
was  to  signify  her  name  without  delay  to  the  Archbishop. 
(V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  174.) 

47.  St  Clement's,  York. 

1310.    Archbishop  Greenfield  forbade  girls  over  twelve  as  boarders. 
1317.    Archbishop  Melton  forbade  little  girls,  or  males  of  any  age, 

or  secular  women  to  sleep  in  the  dorter  with  the  nuns.  (V.C.H. 

Yorks.  in,  p.  129.) 

48.  Sinningthwaite . 

1315.  Archbishop  Greenfield  enjoined  the  Prioress  and  Subprioress 
not  to  permit  boys  or  girls  to  eat  flesh  meat  in  Advent  or 
Sexagesima,  or  during  Lent  eggs  or  cheese,  in  the  refectory, 
contrary  to  the  honesty  of  religion,  but  at  those  seasons  when 
they  ought  to  eat  such  things,  they  were  to  be  assigned  other 
places  in  which  to  eat  them. 

1319.  Archbishop  Melton  forbade  girls  over  twelve  to  be  retained 
without  special  licence.  (V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  177.) 

*49.  Swine. 

1345.  Peter  del  Hay  of  Spaldynton  leaves  in  his  will  "to  Joan  my 
daughter  residing  (manenti)  in  Swyn  vj  s  viij  d."  (Test.  Ebor.  I, 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  581 

p.  12.)  This  is  probably  a  boarder  in  the  convent,  perhaps  a 
child. 

1 5th  century.  Thorold  Rogers  (Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  (1909), 
p.  166),  says:  "During  the  course  of  the  [fifteenth]  century 
I  find  it  was  the  practice  of  country  gentlefolks  to  send  their 
daughters  for  education  to  the  nunneries,  and  to  pay  a  certain 
sum  for  their  board.  A  number  of  such  persons  are  enumerated 
as  living  en  pension  at  the  small  nunnery  of  Swyn  in  Yorkshire. 
Only  one  roll  of  expenditure  for  this  religious  house  survives 
in  the  Record  Office,  but  it  is  quite  sufficient  to  prove  and 
illustrate  the  custom."  I  have  been  unable  to  trace  this  roll 
in  the  Record  Office. 


NOTE  C. 

NUNNERY  DISPUTES. 

OTHER  instances  of  nunnery  disputes  may  be  quoted,  among  which 
Peckham's  letter  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  Canterbury,  is  a  good  ex 
ample:  "If  there  be  any  nun  above  you  who  is  quarrelsome  and 
sharp  and  is  of  custom  unbearable  towards  her  sisters,  we  order  her 
to  be  separated  from  the  communion  of  the  convent  according  to 
the  form  of  the  rule,  and  to  be  kept  in  some  solitary  place  (so  that 
meanwhile  no  man  or  woman  have  conversation  with  or  access  to 
her)  until  she  shall  be  brought  back  to  humility  of  spirit  and  show 
herself  amiable  and  devout  to  all.  Therefore  let  there  cease  among 
you  quarrels,  altercations  and  sharp  words,  which  stain  and  deform 
the  splendours  of  monastic  honour.  And  for  such  contumelious 
members  who  have  to  be  separated  as  aforesaid  we  assign  that  dark 
room  under  the  dorter,  if  you  have  none  other  more  suitable"1.  The 
nuns  of  Wroxall  in  1338  were  warned  to  "cease  from  scoldings,  re 
proofs  and  other  evil  words"  and  were  particularly  told  not  to  speak 
"en  reproce  ne  en  vilenie"  of  a  certain  Dame  Margaret  de  Acton, 
who  had  evidently  been  guilty  of  some  serious  fault,  but  had  been 
duly  corrected  by  the  Visitor2;  and  in  the  same  year  it  was  ordained 
at  Sop  well  that  "if  it  happen  that  any  one  scold...  let  her  be  placed 
in  silence  by  all  and  do  penance  for  three  days"3.  At  Heynings  in 
1392  Bokyngham  ordered  "  that  all  the  nuns  treat  their  sisters  affably, 
not  with  an  austere  but  with  a  benignant  countenance  and  with 
sisterly  affection,  nor  visit  them  with  railing  and  hurtful  words  in 
public,  especially  in  the  presence  of  laymen,  nor  threaten  or  scold 
them,  on  pain,  etc"4.  At  Elstow  in  1421-2  there  was  an  injunction 
against  the  formation  of  cliques,  upon  the  need  for  which  light  is 

1  Reg.  Epis.  Peckham,  IT,  p.  706. 

2  Wore.  Sede  Vac.  Reg.  p.  276. 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  in,  p.  366. 

4  Line.  MS.  Reg.  Bokyngham  Mem.  f.  397^- 


582  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

thrown  by  the  detecta  at  Alnwick's  visitation  of  Gracedieu1,  "That 
no  nun  make  any  secret  cabals  or  say  or  imagine  anything  by  way 
of  insinuation  or  disparagement,  whereby  charity,  unity  or  the  comeli 
ness  of  religion  may  be  hindered  or  troubled  in  the  convent"2. 

The  detecta  at  visitations  often  give  details  as  to  the  ill-temper 
or  insubordination  of  individuals.  At  Wothorpe  in  1323  Bishop 
Burghersh  "ordered  inquiry  into  certain  irregularities  within  the 
priory,  caused  by  the  discords  raised  among  the  nuns  by  sister  Joan 
de  Bonnwyche"3.  At  Littlemore  one  of  the  nuns  deposed  that  Dame 
Agnes  Marcham  "is  very  quarrelsome  and  rebellious  and  will  not  do 
her  work  like  the  others";  it  appears  that  the  convent  resented  the 
fact  that  although  she  had  worn  the  habit  of  profession  for  twelve 
years  she  was  not  expressly  professed  and  refused  to  make  public 
profession;  she  on  her  part  asserted  that  "she  does  not  mean  to  make 
express  profession  while  she  stays  in  that  place,  because  of  the  ill- 
fame  which  is  current  thereabouts  concerning  that  place  and  also 
because  of  the  barrenness  and  poverty  which  in  likelihood  will  betake 
the  place  on  account  of  the  slenderness  of  the  place's  revenues," 
and  she  proceeded  to  give  details  of  the  access  to  the  priory  of  two 
scholars  of  Oxford  and  a  parish  chaplain4.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  who 
was  in  the  right;  Littlemore  certainly  was  a  place  of  ill-repute  and 
went  from  bad  to  worse,  but  Agnes  Marcham  had  stayed  there  for 
half  her  lifetime  (she  had  entered  at  the  age  of  thirteen  and  was 
twenty-six  or  twenty-eight  at  the  time  of  the  visitation)  and  it  looks 
as  though  she  had  really  no  intention  of  departing,  but  found  the 
threat  to  do  so  useful5.  At  Godstow  in  the  same  year  it  was  sister 
Maud,  a  laywoman,  who  caused  trouble;  she  was  very  rebellious 
against  the  abbess  and  rumour  ran  high  in  the  convent  that  she  had 
"obtained  a  bull  from  the  apostolic  see  to  the  prejudice  of  the  monas 
tery  and  without  the  abbess's  knowledge"6.  At  Easebourne  (1524) 
the  subprioress  Alice  Hill  said  that  three  of  the  younger  nuns  were 
disobedient  to  her  in  the  absence  of  the  Prioress;  but  the  three 
delinquents  and  another  nun  deposed  that  "Lady  Alice  Hill  is  too 
haughty  and  rigorous  and  cannot  bear  patiently  with  her  sisters  "  and 
the  Visitor  apparently  considered  that  the  complaint  was  justified,  for 

afterwards  Lady  Alice  Hill,  subprioress,  appeared  and  humbly  submitted 
herself  to  correction,  in  the  presence  of  the  said  prioress  and  co-sisters, 
upon  what  has  been  discovered  against  her  in  the  visitation.  Afterwards 
my  lord  enjoined  her  that  from  henceforth  she  should  conduct  herself  well 
and  religiously  in  all  things  towards  the  said  prioress  and  nuns;  and  as  to 
the  other  portion  of  her  penance  he  adjourned  it  for  a  time.  After  doing 
which  (he)  enjoined  all  to  be  obedient  to  the  Lady  Prioress  and  in  her 
absence  to  the  said  subprioress7. 

The  difficulty  was  perhaps  the  old  one,  that  crabbed  age  and  youth 
cannot  live  together.  At  Rusper,  when  the  same  Visitor  came  there, 

1  Line.  Visit,  n,  pp.  120-1.  2  Ib.  i,  p.  51. 

3   V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  p.  101.  *  See  above,  p.  397. 

6  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  115.  8  Ib.  p.  115. 

7  Sussex  Arch.  Soc.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  25-7. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  583 

it  was  found  that  the  four  sisters  were  disturbed  by  the  intrigues  of 
an  external  visitor,  for  the  nuns  deposed  "that  a  certain  William 
Tychenor  hath  frequent  access  to  the  said  priory  and  there  sows 
discord  between  the  prioress,  sisters  and  other  persons  living  there"1; 
sometimes  the  lay  servants  of  a  house  seem  to  have  stirred  up  quarrels 
among  their  mistresses  and  in  1302  John  of  Pontoise  ordered  the  nuns 
of  Wherwell  "  to  punish  well  secular  persons,  both  sisters  and  others, 
whoever  they  may  be,  who  reply  improperly  and  impudently  to  the 
religious  ladies,  and  especially  those  who  sow  quarrels  and  disputes 
among  the  ladies"2. 

Injunctions  as  to  the  making  of  corrections  usually  had  in  view 
the  prevention  of  ill  feeling,  by  ensuring  that  such  corrections  should 
not  be  made  in  a  harsh  or  unfair  manner  and  should  take  place 
only  in  the  chapter-house  and  not  in  the  presence  of  strangers.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  wicked  prioress  of  Catesby,  Margaret 
Wavere,  used  to  rebuke  and  reproach  her  nuns  before  secular  folk, 
and  treat  them  with  great  cruelty;  her  the  Bishop  charged 

vnder  payne  of  cursyng  that  moderly  and  benygnely  ye  trete  your  susters, 
specyally  in  correctyng  thaire  defautes,  so  that  ye  make  your  correcyones 
oonly  in  the  chaptre  hous  of  suche  defautz  and  excesse  as  be  open  and  in 
presence  of  your  sustres8. 

Bokyngham  sent  a  long  and  detailed  injunction  on  the  subject  to 
Elstow  in  1387: 

In  making  corrections  the  abbess,  prioress,  and  others  of  superior  rank  shall 
so  observe  a  moderate  and  modest  temperance  and  an  equitable  reasonable 
ness,  that  having  laid  aside  all  hatred  and  malice  and  excessive  rigour, 
they  shall  in  charitable  zeal  proceed  to  (deal  with)  the  complaints,  offences 
and  faults  reported  to  them  and  shall  hear  the  accused  parties,  silencing 
or  repelling  their  excuses,  punishing,  correcting  and  reforming  their  offences 
and  excesses,  grave  and  venial,  without  harshness  or  railing  words  and 
quarrels  or  abuse,  according  as  the  quality  of  the  fault,  the  compunction 
of  the  delinquents  and  the  repetition  or  frequency  of  the  offence  demand 
it.  And  when  faults  and  offences  have  been  punished  and  excesses  corrected 
let  them  not  reiterate  fresh  reproaches,  but  treat  their  fellow-nuns  affably, 
not  with  an  austere  but  with  a  benignant  countenance,  nor  visit  them  with 
railing  and  insulting  words  in  public,  especially  in  the  presence  of  laymen, 
nor  scold  them  when  they  have  committed  excesses,  but  only  in  the  chapter 
deal  with  all  that  concerns  the  discipline  of  regular  observance4. 

For  an  injunction  to  the  nuns  on  obedience  see  Woodlock's  injunction 
to  Romsey  in  1311: 

Item,  because  they  are  unaware  that  amongst  the  vows  of  religion  the 
vow  of  obedience  is  the  greater,  it  is  ordered  that  the  younger  ladies 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Soc.  Coll.  v,  p.  257.         2  Reg.  J.  de  Pontissara,  i,  p.  125. 

3  Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  51. 

4  Line.  Reg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343.    Compare  Buckingham's  similar 
injunction  to  Heynings,   ib.  f.  397,  Gynewell's  injunction  to  Elstow  in 
I359»  *'&•  Reg-  Gynewell,  if.  139^-140,  Pontoise's  injunction  to  Wherwell 
in  1302,  Reg.  J.  de  Pontissara,  I,  p.  125,  and  Peckham's  injunction  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  Canterbury,  in  1284,  Reg.  Ep.  Peckham,  il,  p.  706. 


584  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

reverently  obey  the  seniors  and  especially  their  presidents  and  if  any  rebels 
are  found  they  shall  be  sharply  rebuked  in  chapter  before  all  and,  the  fault 
growing,  the  penalty  of  disobedience  shall  be  increased1. 

At  Rosedale,  where  in  1306  the  nuns  had  been  warned  not  to  quarrel 
tt  was  enacted  nine  years  later  that 

any  nun  disobedient  or  rebellious  in  receiving  correction  was  for  each  offence 
to  receive  a  discipline  from  the  president  in  chapter  and  say  the  seven 
penitential  psalms  with  the  litany,  and  if  still  rebellious  the  archbishop 
would  impose  a  still  more  severe  penance2. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  these  quarrels  sometimes  got  to  blows. 
Besides  the  notorious  instances  of  Margaret  Wavere  and  Katherine 
Wells,  the  excommunication  of  three  nuns  of  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 
for  laying  violent  hands  upon  a  novice  may  be  quoted3.  Of  another 
kind  were  the  assaults  of  a  certain  nun  of  Romsey,  who  was  excom 
municated  for  attacking  a  vicar  in  church4,  and  of  a  Prioress  of 
Rowney.  It  appears  from  the  court  rolls  of  Munden  Furnivall  (1370) 
that  the  latter  "had  been  guilty  of  a  hand  to  hand  scuffle  with  a 
chaplain,  called  Alexander  of  Great  Munden;  each  was  fined  for 
drawing  blood  from  the  other  and  the  lady  also  for  raising  the  hue 
and  cry  unjustly"*.  In  both  cases  the  nun  was  blamed,  but  it  is 
perhaps  permissible  to  quote  in  this  connection  an  anecdote  told  by 
Thomas  of  Chantimpre" : 

When  I  was  in  Brussels,  the  great  city  of  Brabant,  there  came  to  me  a 
maiden  of  lowly  birth,  but  comely,  who  besought  me  with  many  tears  to 
have  mercy  upon  her.  When  therefore  I  had  bidden  her  tell  me  what  ailed 
her,  then  she  cried  out  amidst  her  sobs:  "Alas,  wretched  that  I  am!  for  a 
certain  priest  would  fain  have  ravished  me  by  force,  and  he  began  to  kiss 
me  against  my  will;  wherefore  I  smote  him  with  the  back  of  my  hand  so 
that  his  nose  bled;  and  for  this,  as  the  clergy  now  tell  me,  I  must  needs'  go 
to  Rome."  Then  I,  scarce  withholding  my  laughter,  yet  speaking  as  in  all 
seriousness,  affrighted  her  as  though  she  had  committed  a  grievous  sin; 
and  at  ^length,  having  made  her  swear  that  she  would  fulfil  my  bidding, 
[  said,  "I  command  thee,  in  virtue  of  thy  solemn  oath,  that  if  this  priest 
or  any  other  shall  attempt  to  do  thee  violence  with  kisses  or  embraces, 
then  thou  shalt  smite  him  sore  with  thy  clenched  fist,  even  to  the  striking 
out,  if  possible,  of  his  eye;  and  in  this  matter  thou  shalt  spare  no  order  of 
men,  for  it  is  as  lawful  for  thee  to  strike  in  defence  of  thy  chastity  as  to 
fight  for  thy  life."  With  which  words  I  moved  all  that  stood  by,  and  the 
maiden  herself,  to  vehement  laughter  and  gladness6. 

The  list  of  faults  given  in  the  "Additions  to  the  Rules"  of  Syon 
Abbey,  contains  several  references  to  ill  temper,  though  such  re 
ferences  are,  to  be  sure,  no  more  proof  that  the  faults  were  com 
mitted  than  are  the  model  forms  of  self-examination  ("Have  I  com 
mitted  murder?  ")  sometimes  given  to-day  to  children  in  preparation 

1  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  104.  *  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  174. 

V.C.H.  Northants.  u,  p.  99.  «  Liveing,  op.  cit.  p.  168. 

•    V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  434. 

c  Translated  from  his  Bonum  Universale  de  Apibus,  Lib.  n,  c.  30  written 
about  1260,  in  Coulton,  Med.  Garn.  pp.  372-3. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  585 

for  the  Communion  service.  Among  "  greuous  defautes  "  are  mentioned, 
"  if  any  suster  say  any  wordes  of  despyte,  reprefe,  schame  or  vylony 
to  any  suster  or  brother,"  "if  any  sowe  dyscorde  amonge  the  sustres 
and  brethren,"  "if  any  be  founde  a  preuy  rouner  or  bakbyter." 
Among  "more  greuous  defautes"  are: 

if  any  whan  thei  fal  chydyng  or  stryuyng  togyder,  if  the  souereyne  or 
priores,  or  any  serche  say  thus — "Sit  nomen  domini  benedictum"  wyl  not 
cese,  knokkyng  themselfe  upon  their  brestes,  answerynge  and  saynge 
mekely,  and  withe  a  softe  spyryte  " Mea  culpa" ...and  so  utterly  cese,  if 
any  manesche  by  chere  or  wordes  to  smyte  another  at  any  tyme,  or  for 
to  auenge  her  own  injurye,  or  els  by  ungodly  wordes  repreve  another  of 
her  contre,  or  kynrede,  or  of  any  other  sclaunderous  fortune,  or  chaunse 
fallen  at  any  tyme. 

Among  "most  greuous  defautes"  are: 

If  any  ley  vyolente  hande  upon  her  souereyne  or  spituosly  smyte  or  wounde 
her  or  elles  make  any  prefer  to  smyte  be  sygne  or  token  leftying  up  her 
fest,  stykke,  staffe,  stone,  or  any  other  wepen  what  ever  it  be,  or  else 
schofte,  pusche,  or  sperne  any  suster  from  her  withe  armes  or  scholders, 
handes  or  fete,  violently,  in  wrekyng  of  her  oun  wrethe1. 

NOTE  D. 

GAY  CLOTHES. 

A  COUNCIL  at  London  in  1200  had  restrained  the  black  nuns  from 
wearing  coloured  headdresses2  but  the  standard  English  decree  on 
the  subject  was  that  issued  by  the  council  of  Oxford  in  1222. 

Since  it  is  necessary  that  the  female  sex,  so  weak  against  the  wiles  of  the 
ancient  enemy,  should  be  fortified  by  many  remedies,  we  decree  that  nuns 
and  other  women  dedicated  to  divine  worship  shall  not  wear  a  silken  wimple, 
nor  dare  to  carry  silver  or  golden  tiring-pins  in  their  veil.  Neither  shall 
they,  nor  monks  nor  regular  canons,  wear  belts  of  silk,  or  adorned  with 
gold  or  silver,  nor  henceforth  use  burnet  or  any  other  unlawful  cloth.  Also 
let  them  measure  their  gown  according  to  the  dimension  of  their  body, 
so  that  it  does  not  exceed  the  length  of  the  body,  but  let  it  suffice  them  to 
be  clad,  as  beseems  them,  in  a  robe  reaching  to  the  ankles;  and  let  none 
but  a  consecrated  nun  wear  a  ring  and  let  her  be  content  with  one  alone s. 

Fifteen  years  later  a  synod  declared : 

Item,  we  forbid  to  monks,  regular  canons  and  nuns  coloured  garments  or 
bed  clothes,  save  those  dyed  black.  And  when  they  ride,  let  them  use 
decent  saddles  and  bridles  and  saddle-cloths4.  And  nuns  are  not  to  use 

1  Aungier,  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Syon  Mon.  pp.  256,  257,  259,  261-2.  For 
further  instances  of  quarrels  in  the  province  of  Rouen,  see  below,  pp.  664-6. 

2  Wilkins,  Cone.  I,  p.  508. 

3  Ib.  pp.  590-1.    Compare  a  decree  of  the  contemporary  Council  of 
Trier  (1227)  for  German  nuns,  Harzheim,  Cone.  Germ,  in,  p.  534. 

4  And,  whan  he  rood,  men  might  his  brydel  here 
Ginglen  in  a  whistling  wind  as  clere, 

And  eke  as  loude  as  dooth  the  chapel-belle 
Ther  as  this  lord  was  keper  of  the  celle. 


586  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

trained  and  pleated  dresses,  or  any  exceeding  the  length  of  the  body,  nor 
delicate  or  coloured  furs;  nor  shall  they  presume  to  wear  silver  tiring-pins 
in  their  veil1. 

These  regulations  were  repeated  almost  word  for  word  by  William 
of  Wykeham  in  his  injunctions  to  Romsey  and  Wherwell  in  I38y2. 
With  them  may  be  compared  the  rule  as  to  dress  in  force  at  Syon 
Abbey  in  the  fifteenth  century : 

whiche  (clothes)  in  nowyse  schal  be  ouer  curyous,  but  playne  and  homly, 
witheoute  weuynge  of  any  straunge  colours  of  silke,  golde  or  syluer,  hauynge 
al  thynge  of  honeste  and  prof yte,  and  nothyng  of  vanyte,  after  the  rewle ; 
ther  knyves  unpoynted  and  purses  beyng  double  of  lynnen  clothe  and  not 
of  sylke3. 

The  unsuccessful  efforts  of  monastic  Visitors  to  enforce  these  rules 
have  been  described;  a  few  instances  may  be  added  here  to  show 
the  directions  in  which  the  nuns  erred.  Peckham  wrote  to  Godstow: 

Concerning  the  garments  of  the  nuns  let  the  rule  of  St  Benedict  be  carefully 
observed.  For  which  reason  we  forbid  them  ever  in  future  to  wear  cloth 
of  burnet,  nor  gathered  tunics  nor  to  make  themselves  garments  of  an  im 
moderate  width  with  excessive  pleats  (nee  etiam  birrorum  immoderantiavestes 
sibifaciant  latitudine  fluctuantes);  with  this  nevertheless  carefully  observing 
what  was  aforetime  ordained  in  such  matters  by  the  Council  of  Oxford4. 

Buckingham's  injunction  to  Elstow  in  1387  gives  some  interesting 
details;  he  forbade  the  nuns  to  wear  any  other  veil  than  that  of 
profession,  or  to  "adorn  their  countenances"  by  arranging  it  in  a 
becoming  fashion,  spreading  out  the  white  veil,  which  was  meant 
to  be  worn  underneath : 

(Ainsi  qu'il  est  pour  le  monde  et  les  cours 

Un  art,  un  gout  de  modes  et  d'atours, 

II  est  aussi  des  modes  pour  le  voile; 

II  est  un  art  de  donner  d'heureux  tours6 

A  1'etamine,  a  la  plus  simple  toile.)6 

They  were  not  to  wear  gowns  of  black  wide  at  the  bottom,  or  turned 
back  with  fur  at  the  wrists7,  and  they  were  in  no  wise  to  use  "wide 
girdles  or  belts  plaited  (spiratis)  or  adorned  with  silver,  nor  wear 
these  above  their  tunics  open  to  the  gaze  of  man"8.  Curious  details 
are  also  given  by  Bishop  Spofford,  writing  to  the  nuns  of  Lymbrook 
in  1437;  their  habit  was  to  "be  formed  after  relygyon  in  sydnesse 
and  wydnesse,  forbedyng  long  traynes  in  mantellys  and  kyrtellys  and 
almaner  of  spaires  and  open  semes  in  the  same  kyrtellys"9.  "Large 
collars,  barred  girdles  and  laced  shoes"  were  forbidden  at  Swine  in 

1  Wilkins,  Cone.  I,  p.  660.  2  New  Coll.  MS.  f.  86. 

J  Aungier,  op.  cit.  p.  392.  4  Reg.  Ep.  Peckham,  in,  p.  849. 

5  Ful  semely  hir  wimpel  pinched  was ! 

6  Cresset,  Vert  Vert,  11.  142-6.    See  below,  p.  593. 

I  seigh  his  sieves  purfiled  at  the  hond 

With  grys,  and  that  the  fyneste  of  a  lond. 

Chaucer,  Prologue,  11.  193-4. 
h  Line.  Rtg.  Memo.  Bokyngham,  f.  343^. 
9  Hereford  Reg.  Spofford,  i,  f.  77^. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  587 

I2Q81,  red  dresses  and  long  supertunics  "like  secular  women"  at 
Wilberfoss  in  I3o82;  at  Nunmonkton  in  1397  (after  Margaret  Fairfax's 
fashionable  clothes  had  been  discovered)  a  general  injunction  was 
made  to  the  nuns  "  not  to  use  henceforth  silken  clothes,  and  especially 
silken  veils,  nor  precious  furs,  nor  rings  on  their  fingers,  nor  tunics 
laced-up  or  fastened  with  brooches  nor  any  robes,  called  in  English 
'gownes,'  after  the  fashion  of  secular  women"3.  These  Northern 
houses  were  continually  in  need  of  admonition,  sometimes  their 
slashed  tunics,  sometimes  their  barred  girdles,  sometimes  their  shoes 
being  condemned4.  Bishop  Alnwick  found  silken  veils  at  Langley, 
Studley  and  Rothwell5;  Bishop  Fitzjames  forbade  silver  and  gilt  pins 
and  kirtles  of  fustian  or  worsted  at  Wix  in  15096;  and  at  Carrow  in 
1532  the  subprioress  complained  that  some  of  the  nuns  not  only 
wore  silk  girdles,  but  had  the  impudence  to  commend  the  use  thereof7. 
Nor  could  nuns  always  resist  the  temptation  to  let  their  shorn 
hair  grow  again,  e.g.  at  the  visitation  of  Romsey  by  the  commissary 
of  the  Prior  of  Canterbury  in  1502,  the  cellaress  deposed  "that  Mary 
Tystede  and  Agnes  Harvey  wore  their  hair  long"8.  Eudes  Rigaud 
had  some  difficulty  in  this  matter  with  the  frivolous  nuns  of  his 
diocese  of  Rouen;  at  Villarceaux  in  1249  he  recorded:  "They  all 
wear  their  hair  long  to  their  chins,"  and  at  Montivilliers  he  had  to 
condemn  ringlets9.  One  is  reminded  of  the  scene  in  Jane  Eyre,  where 
Mr  Brocklehurst  visits  Lowood: 

Suddenly  his  eye  gave  a  blink,  as  if  he  had  met  something  that  either 
dazzled  or  shocked  its  pupil;  turning,  he  said  in  more  rapid  accents  than 
he  had  hitherto  used:  "Miss  Temple,  Miss  Temple,  what — what  is  that  girl 
with  curled  hair?  Red  hair,  ma'am,  curled — curled  all  over?  "  and  extending 
his  cane  he  pointed  to  the  awful  object,  his  hand  shaking  as  he  did  so. 
"It  is  Julia  Severn,"  replied  Miss  Temple,  very  quietly.  "Julia  Severn, 
ma'am!  And  why  has  she,  or  any  other,  curled  hair?  Why,  in  defiance 
of  every  precept  and  principle  of  this  house,  does  she  conform  to  the  world 
so  openly — herein  an  evangelical,  charitable  establishment — as  to  wear 
her  hair  a  mass  of  curls?... Tell  all  the  first  form  to  rise  up  and  direct  their 
faces  to  the  wall. "...He  scrutinised  the  reverse  of  these  living  medals  some 
five  minutes,  then  pronounced  sentence.  These  words  fell  like  the  knell  of 
doom:  "All  those  top-knots  must  be  cut  off." 

Or,  as  Eudes  Rigaud  expressed  it  some  seven  centuries  earlier :  "  Quod 
comam  non  nutriatis  ultra  aures." 

V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  181. 

Ib.  p.  126.  3  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194. 

V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  119,  120,  127,  164,  168,  174-5,  181,  183,  240. 

Line.  Visit,  n,  p.  176;  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS.  ff.  26d,  38. 

V.C.H.  Essex,  n,  124.  7  Norwich  Visit,  p.  274. 

V.C.H.  Hants,  u,  p.  130,  where  the  date  is  wrongly  given  as  1512. 

See  below,  p.  663. 


588  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

NOTE  E. 
CONVENT  PETS  IN  LITERATURE. 

IT  would  be  possible  to  compile  a  pretty  anthology  of  convent  pets, 
which  have  played  a  not  undistinguished  part  in  literature.  The  best 
known  of  all,  perhaps,  are  Madame  Eglentyne's  little  dogs,  upon 
which  Chaucer  looked  with  a  kindly  unepiscopal  eye: 

Of  smale  houndes  had  she,  that  she  fedde 
With  rested  flesh,  or  milk  and  wastel-breed, 
But  sore  weep  she  if  oon  of  hem  were  deed, 
Or  if  men  smoot  it  with  a  yerde  smerte: 
And  al  was  conscience  and  tendre  herte1. 

The  tender-hearted  Prioress  risked  a  terrible  fate  by  so  pampering 
her  dogs,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  awful  warning  related  by  the 
knight  of  La  Tour-Landry,  to  wean  his  daughters  from  similar 
habits : 

Ther  was  a  lady  that  had  two  litell  doggis,  and  she  loued  hem  so  that  she 
toke  gret  plesaunce  in  the  sight  and  feding  of  hem.  And  she  made  euery 
day  dresse  and  make  for  her  disshes  with  soppes  of  mylke,  and  after  gaue 
hem  flesshe.  But  there  was  ones  a  frere  that  saide  to  her  that  it  was  not 
wel  done  that  the  dogges  were  fedde  and  made  so  fatte,  and  the  pore  pepill 
so  lene  and  famished  for  hunger.  And  so  the  lady,  for  his  saieing,  was 
wrothe  with  hym,  but  she  wolde  not  amende  it.  And  after  she  happed 
she  deied,  and  there  fell  a  wonder  meruailous  sight,  for  there  was  seyn 
euer  on  her  bedde  ij  litell  blake  dogges,  and  in  her  deyeng  thei  were  about 
her  mouthe  and  liked  it,  and  whanne  she  was  dede,  there  the  dogges  had 
lyked  it  was  al  blacke  as  cole,  as  a  gentillwoman  tolde  me  that  sawe  it  and 
named  me  the  lady2. 

Poor  Madame  Eglentyne ! 

The  anthologist  would,  however,  have  to  go  further  back  than 
Chaucer,  into  the  eleventh  century,  and  begin  with  that  ill-fated 
donkey,  which  belonged  to  sister  Alfrad  of  Homburg,  and  which  the 

1  Prologue,  11.  146-9.    Chaucer  was  certainly  a  dog-lover:  a  passage  in 
the  Book  of  the  Duchess  (11.  387  ff.)  puts  it  beyond  doubt: 

I  was  go  walked  fro  my  tree, 

And  as  I  wente  ther  cam  by  me 

A  whelp,  that  fauned  me  as  I  stood 

That  hadde  y-folowed,  and  coude  no  good. 

Hit  com  and  creep  to  me  as  lowe, 

Right  as  hit  hadde  me  y-knowe, 

Hild  doun  his  heed  and  joyned  his  eres, 

And  leyde  al  smothe  doun  his  heres. 

I  wolde  han  caught  hit,  and  anoon 

Hit  fledde,  and  was  fro  me  goon. 

2  The  Book  of  the  Knight  of  La  Tour-Landry,  ed.  T.  Wright  (E.E.T.S. 
revised  ed.  1906),  pp.  28-9. 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT 


589 


wit  of  a  nameless  goliard  and  the  devotion  of  the  monks  of  St 
Augustine's,  Canterbury,  have  preserved  for  undying  fame1: 


Est  unus  locus 
Hoinburh  dictus, 
in  quo  pascebat 
asinam  Alfrad 
viribus  fortem 
atque  fidelem. 
Que  dum  in  amplum 
exiret  campum, 
vidit  currentem 
lupum  voracem, 
caput  abscondit, 
caudam  ostendit. 
Lupus  occurrit: 
caudam  momordit, 
asina  bina 
levavit  crura 
fecitque  longum 
cum  lupo  bellum. 
Cum  defecisse 
vires  sensisset, 
protulit  magnam 
plangendo  vocem 
vocansque  suam 
moritur  domnam. 
Audiens  grandem 
asine  vocem 
Alfrad  cucurrit, 
"sorores,"  dixit, 
"  cito  venite, 
me  adiuvate ! 
Asinam  caram 
misi  ad  erbam. 
illius  magnum 
audio  planctum, 
spero  cum  sevo 
ut  pugnet  lupo." 
Clamor  sororum 
venit  in  claustrum, 
turbe  virorum 
ac  mulierum 
assunt,  cruentum 
ut  captent  lupum. 
Adela  namque 
soror  Alfrade, 
Rikilam  querit, 
Agatham  invenit, 
ibant  ut  fortem 
sternerent  hostem. 


There  is  a  township 
(Men  call  it  Homburg) 
There  'twas  that  Alfrad 
Pastured  her  she-ass, 
Strong  was  the  donkey, 
Mighty  and  faithful. 
And  as  it  wandered 
Out  to  the  meadow, 
It  spied  a  greedy 
Wolf  that  came  running, 
Head  down  and  tail  turned, 
Off  the  ass  scampered. 
Up  the  wolf  hurried, 
Seized  tail  and  bit  it. 
Quickly  the  donkey 
Lifted  its  hind  legs, 
With  the  wolf  bravely, 
Long  did  it  battle. 
Then  when  at  last  it 
Felt  its  strength  failing, 
Raised  it  a  mighty 
Noise  of  lamenting, 
Calling  its  mistress, 
So  died  the  donkey. 
Hearing  the  mighty 
Voice  of  her  donkey 
Alfrad  came  running. 
"Come,  sisters"  cried  she 
"Sisters,  come  quickly, 
Come  now  and  help  me ! 
My  darling  donkey 
Out  to  grass  put  I. 
I  hear  a  mighty 
Sound  of  complaining. 
Sure  with  a  cruel 
Wolf  is  it  fighting !  " 
Heard  is  her  crying 
In  the  nuns'  cloister, 
Men  come  and  women, 
Crowding  together, 
All  that  the  bloody 
Wolf  may  be  taken. 
Adela  also, 


sister  of  Alfrad, 
Rikila  seeketh, 
Agatha  findeth, 
All  go  to  vanquish 
The  mighty  foeman. 

1  Printed  in  The  Cambridge  Songs,  ed.  Karl  Breul  (1915),  NO-  29,  P-  62; 
and  in  Denkmaler,  ed.  Miillenhoff  und  Scherer,  Deutscher  Poesie  undProsa 
aus  dem  vm-xii  Jahrhundert  (Berlin,  1892),  I,  pp.  5i~3  (No.  xxiv).  I  have 
ventured  to  attempt  a  translation. 


590 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT 


[APP. 


At  ille  ruptis 
asine  costis 
sanguinis  undam 
carnemque  totam 
simul  voravit, 
silvam  intravit. 
Illud  videntes 
cuncte  sorores 
crines  scindebant, 
pectus  tundebant, 
flentes  insontem 
asine  mortem. 
Denique  parvum 
portabat  pullum; 
ilium  plorabat 
maxime  Alfrad, 
sperans  exinde 
prolem  crevisse. 
Adela  mitis 
Fritherunque  dulcis 
venerunt  ambe, 
ut  Alverade 
cor  confirmarent 
atque  sanarent. 
"Delinque  mestas, 
soror,  querelas ! 
lupus  amarum 
non  curat  fletum : 
dominus  aliam, 
dabit  tibi  asinam." 


But  he  tore  open 
Sides  of  the  donkey, 
Flesh  and  blood  gobbled 
All  up  together, 
Then  helter-skeltered 
Back  to  the  forest. 
And  when  they  saw  him 
Wept  all  the  sisters, 
Tearing  their  tresses, 
Beating  their  bosoms, 
Weeping  the  guiltless 
Death  of  their  donkey. 
Long  time  a  tiny 
Foal  it  had  carried. 
Sadly  wept  Alfrad 
Thinking  upon  it, 
All  her  hopes  ended 

Of  rearing  the  offspring. 

Adela  gentle, 

Fritherun  charming, 

Both  came  together, 

That  they  might  strengthen 

Sad  heart  of  Alfrad, 

Strengthen  and  heal  it. 

"Leave  now  thy  gloomy 

Wailing,  O  sister ! 

Wolf  never  heedeth 

Thy  bitter  weeping. 

The  Lord  will  give  thee 


Another  donkey." 

Exquisite  ending!  "The  Lord  will  give  thee  another  donkey."  With 
what  delighted  applause  must  the  unknown  jongleur  have  been 
greeted  by  the  monks  or  nobles,  who  first  listened  after  dinner  to  this 
little  masterpiece  of  humour. 

All  the  convent  pets  who  are  famed  in  literature  came  by  a 
coincidence  to  a  bad  end.  Our  anthologist  would  seize  on  two  other 
hapless  creatures,  both  of  them  birds,  Philip  Sparrow  and  the  never- 
to-be-forgotten  Vert- Vert.  Philip  Sparrow  needs  no  introduction  to 
English  readers;  Skelton  was  never  in  happier  vein  than  when  he 
sang  the  dirge  of  that  pet  of  Joanna  Scrope,  boarder  at  Carrow 
Priory,  dead  at  the  claws  of  a  "vylanous  false  cat."  Space  allows 
only  a  few  lines  of  the  long  poem  to  be  quoted  here.  It  begins  with 
the  office  for  the  dead,  sung  by  the  mourning  mistress  over  her  bird: 

Pla  ce  bo, 

Who  is  there,  who? 

Di  le  xi, 

Dame  Margery; 

Fa,  re,  my,  my, 

Wherefore  and  why,  why? 

For  the  sowle  of  Philip  Sparowe, 

That  was  late  slayn  at  Carowe, 

Among  the  Nones  Blake, 

For  that  swete  soules  sake, 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT 

And  for  all  sparowes  soules, 

Set  in  our  bederolles 

Pater  nosier  qui, 

With  an  Ave  Mari, 

And  with  the  corner  of  a  Crede 

The  more  shalbe  your  mede. 

Whan  I  remembre  agayn 
How  mi  Philyp  was  slayn, 
Neuer  halfe  the  payne 
Was  betwene  you  twayne, 
Pyramus  and  Thesbe, 
As  than  befell  to  me : 
I  wept  and  I  wayled, 
The  tearys  doune  hayled; 
But  nothynge  it  auayled 
To  call  Phylyp  agayne, 
Whom  Gyb  our  cat  hath  slayne. 

It  was  so  prety  a  fole, 
It  wold  syt  on  a  stole, 
And  lerned  after  my  scole 
For  to  kepe  his  cut, 
With,  Phyllyp,  kepe  your  cut ! 

It  had  a  veluet  cap, 
And  wold  syt  vpon  my  lap, 
And  seke  after  small  wormes, 
And  somtyme  white  bred  crommes; 
And  many  tymes  and  ofte 
Betwene  my  brestes  softe 
It  wolde  lye  and  rest; 
It  was  propre  and  prest. 

Somtyme  he  wolde  gaspe 
Whan  he  sawe  a  waspe; 
A  fly  or  a  gnat, 
He  wolde  flye  at  that; 
And  prytely  he  wold  pant 
Whan  he  saw  an  ant ; 
Lord,  how  he  wolde  pry 
After  the  butterfly ! 
Lorde,  how  he  wolde  hop 
After  the  grassop ! 
And  whan  I  sayd,  Phyp,  Phyp, 
Than  he  wold  lepe  and  skyp, 
And  take  me  by  the  lyp. 
Alas,  it  wyll  me  slo, 
That  Phillyp  is  gone  me  fro ! 

Si  in  i  qui  ta  tes, 
Al  as,  I  was  euyll  at  ease ! 
De  pro  fun  dis  cla  ma  vi, 
Whan  I  sawe  my  sparowe  dye ! 

That  vengeaunce  I  aske  and  crye, 
By  way  of  exclamacyon, 
On  all  the  hole  nacyon 


591 


592  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

Of  cattes  wyld  and  tame ; 

God  send  them  sorowe  and  shame ! 

That  cat  specyally 

That  slew  so  cruelly 

My  lytell  prety  sparowe 

That  I  brought  vp  at  Carowe...1. 
It  is  impossible  for  a  cat-lover  to  leave  the  whole  nation  of  cats 
under  this  terrific  curse.  Yet  literature  will  supply  no  nunnery  cat 
beside  the  unhappy  Gyb  and  the  uncharacterised  cat  of  the  A  ncren 
Riwle.  We  must  needs  turn  to  the  monks,  and  borrow  the  truer 
estimate  of  feline  qualities  made  in  the  eighth  century  by  an  exiled 
Irish  student,  who  sat  over  his  books  in  a  distant  monastery  of 
Carinthia,  and  wrote  upon  the  margin  of  his  copy  of  St  Paul's  Epistles 
this  little  poem  on  his  white  cat : 

I  and  Pangur  Ban,  my  cat, 
'Tis  a  like  task  we  are  at; 
Hunting  mice  is  his  delight, 
Hunting  words  I  sit  all  night. 
Better  far  than  praise  of  men 
'Tis  to  sit  with  book  and  pen; 
Pangur  bears  me  no  ill-will, 
He,  too,  plies  his  simple  skill. 
'Tis  a  merry  thing  to  see 
At  our  tasks  how  glad  are  we, 
When  at  home  we  sit  and  find 
Entertainment  to  our  mind. 
Oftentimes  a  mouse  will  stray 
In  the  hero  Pangur's  way; 
Oftentimes  my  keen  thought  set 
Takes  a  meaning  in  its  net. 
'Gainst  the  wall  he  sets  his  eye 
Full  and  fierce  and  sharp  and  sly; 
'Gainst  the  wall  of  knowledge  I 
All  my  little  wisdom  try. 
When  a  mouse  darts  from  its  den, 
O !  how  glad  is  Pangur  then; 
O !  what  gladness  do  I  prove 
When  I  solve  the  doubts  I  love. 
So  in  peace  our  task  we  ply, 
Pangur  Ban,  my  cat,  and  I ; 
In  our  arts  we  find  our  bliss, 
I  have  mine  and  he  has  his. 
Practice  every  day  has  made 
Pangur  perfect  in  his  trade; 
I  get  wisdom  day  and  night, 
Turning  darkness  into  light2. 
O  cat !  even  at  the  cost  of  relevancy  we  have  done  thee  honour. 

1  Skelton,  Selected  Poems,  ed.  W.  H.  Williams  (1902),  pp.  57  ff. 

2  Translation  by  Robin  Flower  in   The  Poem  Book  of  the  Gael,   ed. 
Eleanor  Hull  (1913),  p.  132.  The  poem  has  also  been  translated  by  Kuno 
Meyer  and  by  Alfred  Perceval  Graves. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  593 

Two  little  tragedies  of  the  cloister  are  concerned  with  parrots — 
yet  with  what  different  birds  and  what  different  mistresses !  In  the 
twelfth  century  Nigel  Wireker  tells  of  an  ill-bred  and  ill-fated  parrot, 
kept  in  a  nunnery,  who  told  tales  about  the  nuns  and  was  poisoned 
by  them  for  his  pains: 

Saepe  mala 

Psittacus  in  thalamum  domina  redeunte  puellas 

Prodit  et  illorum  verba  tacenda  refert; 

Nescius  ille  loqui;  sed  nescius  immo  tacere 

Profert  plus  aequo  Psittacus  oris  habens. 

Hinc  avibus  crebro  miscente  aconita  puella 

Discat  ut  ante  mori  quam  didicisse  loqui; 

Sunt  et  aves  aliae  quae  toto  tempore  vitae 

Religiosorum  claustra  beata  colunt1. 

Quite  other  was  the  fate  of  Vert-Vert,  whose  tragedy  told  with  ex 
quisite  irony  by  Cresset  in  the  eighteenth  century  deserves  a  place 
on  every  shelf  and  in  every  heart  which  holds  The  Rape  of  the  Lock. 
Vert- Vert  was  a  parrot  who  belonged  to  the  nuns  of  Nevers, 
the  most  beautiful,  most  amiable,  the  most  devout  parrot  in  the 
world.  The  convent  of  Nevers  spoiled  Vert- Vert  as  no  bird  has 
ever  been  spoiled: 

Pas  n'est  besoin,  je  pense,  de  decrire 

Les  soins  des  sceurs,  des  nonnes,  c'est  tout  dire; 

Et  chaque  mere,  apres  son  directeur, 

N'aimait  rien  tant.   Meme  dans  plus  d'un  cceur, 

Ainsi  1'ecrit  un  chroniqueur  sincere, 

Souvent  1'oiseau  1'emporta  sur  le  pere. 

II  partageait,  dans  ce  paisible  lieu, 

Tous  les  sirops  dont  le  cher  pere  en  Dieu, 

Grace  aux  bienfaits  des  nonnettes  sucrees, 

Reconfortait  ses  entrailles  sacrees. 

Objet  permis  a  leur  oisif  amour, 

Vert- Vert  etait  Tame  de  ce  sejour.... 

Des  bonnes  soeurs  egayant  les  travaux, 

II  bequetait  et  guimpes  et  bandeaux; 

II  n'etait  point  d'agreable  partie 

S'il  n'y  venait  briller,  caracoler, 

Papillonner,  siffler,  rossignoler; 

II  badinait,  mais  avec  modestie; 

Avec  cet  air  timide  et  tout  prudent 

Qu'une  novice  a  meme  en  badinant. 

He  fed  in  the  frater,  and  between  meals  the  nuns'  pockets  were  always 
ifull  of  bon-bons  for  his  delectation.  He  slept  in  the  dorter,  and  happy 
|the  nun  whose  cell  he  honoured  with  his  presence;  Vert-Vert  always 
'chose  the  young  and  pretty  novices.  Above  all  he  was  learned;  he 
[talked  like  a  book,  and  all  the  nuns  had  taught  him  their  chants  and 
stheir  prayers : 

II  disait  bien  son  Benedicite, 

Et  notre  m&re,  et  votre  charite;... 

1  Quoted  in  Fosbroke,  Brit.  Monachism,  n,  p.  34. 
P  N.  38 


594  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

II  etait  la  maintes  filles  savantes 

Qui  mot  pour  mot  portaient  dans  leurs  cerveaux 

Tous  les  noe'ls  anciens  et  nouveaux. 

Instruit,  forme  par  leurs  Ie9ons  frequentes, 

Bientot  1'eleve  egala  ses  regentes; 

De  leur  ton  meme,  adroit  imitateur 

II  exprimait  la  pieuse  lenteur, 

Les  saints  soupirs,  les  notes  languissantes 

Du  chant  des  soeurs,  colombes  g6missantes. 

Finalement  Vert- Vert  savait  par  cceur 

Tout  ce  que  sait  une  mere  de  choeur. 

Small  wonder  that  the  fame  of  this  pious  bird  spread  far  and  wide; 
small  wonder  that  pilgrims  came  from  all  directions  to  the  abbey 
parlour  to  hear  him  talk.  But  alas,  it  was  this  very  fame  which  led 
to  his  undoing.  The  physical  tragedy  of  Philip  Sparrow,  an  unlearned 
bird  of  frivolous  tastes,  pales  before  the  moral  tragedy  of  Vert-Vert. 
One  day  his  renown  reached  the  ears  of  a  distant  convent  of  nuns 
at  Nantes,  many  miles  further  down  the  river  Loire;  and  they  con 
ceived  a  violent  desire  to  see  him: 

D6sir  de  fille  est  un  feu  qui  devore, 
D6sir  de  nonne  est  cent  fois  pire  encore. 

They  wrote  to  their  fortunate  sisters  of  Nevers,  begging  that  Vert- 
Vert  might  be  sent  in  a  ship  to  visit  them.  Consternation  at  Nevers. 
The  grand  chapter  was  held ;  the  younger  nuns  would  have  preferred 
death  to  parting  with  the  darling  parrot,  but  their  elders  judged  it 
impolitic  to  refuse  and  to  Nantes  must  Vert-Vert  go  for  a  fortnight. 
The  parrot  was  placed  on  board  a  ship;  but  the  ship 

Portait  aussi  deux  nymphes,  trois  dragons, 
Une  nourrice,  un  moine,  deux  Gascons: 
Pour  un  enfant  qui  sort  du  monastere, 
C'etait  echoir  en  dignes  compagnons. 

At  first  Vert- Vert  was  confused  and  silent  among  the  unseemly  jests 
of  the  women  and  the  Gascons  and  the  oaths  of  the  boatmen.  But 
too  soon  his  innocent  heart  was  acquainted  with  evil ;  desiring  always 
to  please  he  repeated  all  that  he  heard;  no  evil  word  escaped  him; 
by  the  end  of  his  journey  he  had  forgotten  all  that  he  had  learned 
in  the  nunnery,  but  he  had  become  a  pretty  companion  for  a  boat 
load  of  sinners.  Nantes  was  reached;  Vert- Vert  (all  unwilling)  was 
carried  off  to  the  convent,  and  the  nuns  came  running  to  the  parlour 
to  hear  the  saintly  bird.  But  horror  upon  horrors,  nothing  but  oaths 
and  blasphemies  fell  from  Vert-Vert's  beak.  He  apostrophised  sister 
Saint- Augustin  with  "la  peste  te  creve,"  and 

Jurant,  sacrant  d'une  voix  dissolue, 
Faisant  passer  tout  1'enfer  en  revue, 
Les  B,  les  F,  voltigeaient  sur  son  bee. 
Les  jeunes  soeurs  crurent  qu'il  parlait  grec. 

The  scandalised  nuns  dispatched  Vert- Vert  home  again  without  delay. 
His  own  convent  received  him  in  tears.  Nine  of  the  most  venerable, 


.1]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  595 

sisters  debated  his  punishment;  two  were  for  his  death;  two  for 
sending  him  back  to  the  heathen  land  of  his  birth;  but  the  votes  of 
the  other  five  decided  his  punishment: 

On  le  condamne  a  deux  mois  d'abstinence, 
Trois  de  retraite  et  quatre  de  silence; 
Jardins,  toilette,  alcove  et  biscuits, 
Pendant  ce  temps,  lui  seront  interdits. 

Moreover   the   ugliest   lay   sister,    a   veiled    ape,    an    octogenarian 

skeleton,  was  made  the  guardian  of  poor  Vert- Vert,  who  had  always 

preferred  the  youngest  and  coyest  of  the  novices.    Little  remains  to 

be  told.  Vert- Vert,  covered  with  shame  and  taught  by  misfortune, 

|  became  penitent,  forgot  the  dragoons  and  the  monk,  and  showed  him- 

I  self  once  more  "plus  devot  qu'un  chanoine."  The  happy  nuns  cut 

short  his  penance;  the  convent  kept  fete,  the  dorters  were  decked 

with  flowers,  all  was  song  and  tumult.    But  alas,  Vert- Vert,  passing 

too  soon  from  a  fasting  diet  to  the  sweets  that  were  pressed  upon  him : 

Bourre  de  sucre,  et  brule  de  liqueurs 
Vert- Vert,  tombant  sur  un  tas  de  dragees, 
En  noir  cypres  vit  ses  roses  changees1. 

Doubtless  so  godly  an  end  consoled  the  nuns  for  his  untimely  death. 
Yet  one  hardly  knows  which  to  prefer,  the  regenerate  or  the  un- 
regenerate  Vert- Vert.  The  appreciative  reader,  remembering  the  in 
spired  volubility  with  which  (after  such  short  practice)  he  greeted 
the  nuns  of  Nantes,  is  almost  moved  to  regret  the  destruction  of 
what  one  of  Kipling's  soldiers  would  call  "  a  wonderful  gift  of  language." 
!  There  is  an  apposite  passage  in  Jasper  Mayne's  comedy  of  The  City 
'Match  (1639),  in  which  a  lady  describes  the  missionary  efforts  of  her 
|  Puritan  waiting- woman : 

Yesterday  I  went 

To  see  a  lady  that  has  a  parrot :  my  woman 
While  I  was  in  discourse  converted  the  fowl. 
And  now  it  can  speak  nought  but  Knox's  works; 
So  there's  a  parrot  lost. 


NOTE  F. 

THE  MORAL  STATE  OF  LITTLEMORE  PRIORY 
IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

LITTLEMORE  PRIORY,  near  Oxford,  in  the  early  sixteenth  century, 
was  in  such  grave  disorder  that  it  may  justly  be  described  as  one  of 
'the  worst  nunneries  of  which  record  has  survived.  Its  state  was,  as 
usual,  largely  due  to  a  particularly  bad  prioress,  Katherine  Wells. 

1  Oeuvres  Choisies  de  Gresset  (Coll.  Bibliotheque  Nationale),  pp.  3  ff. 
There  is  an  eighteenth  century  English  translation  (1759)  by  J.  G.  Cooper 
n  Chalmers,  English  Poets,  xv,  pp.  528-36. 

38-2 


596  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP.I 

The  following  account  of  it  is  taken  from  the  record  of  Bishop 
Atwater's  visitations  in  1517  and  1518,  the  first  held1  by  his  conj] 
missary  Edmund  Horde,  the  second  by  the  bishop  in  person1. 

The  comperta  are  that  the  prioress  had  ordered  the  five  nuns  under  her  to 
say  that  all  was  well;  she  herself  had  an  illegitimate  daughter,  and  was  still 
visited  by  the  father  of  the  child,  Richard  Hewes,  a  priest  in  Kent2;  that 
she  took  the  "pannes,  pottes,  candilsticks,  basynes,  shetts,  pelous,  federe 
bedds  etc."  the  property  of  the  monastery,  to  provide  a  dowry  for  this 
daughter;  that  another  of  the  nuns  had,  within  the  last  year,  an  illegitimate 
child  by  a  married  man  of  Oxford;  that  the  prioress  was  excessive  in  punish 
ments  and  put  the  nuns  in  stocks  when  they  rebuked  her  evil  life;  that 
almost  all  the  jewels  were  pawned,  and  that  there  was  neither  food,  clothing 
nor  pay  for  the  nuns;  that  one  who  thought  of  becoming  a  nun  at  Little- 
more  was  so  shocked  by  the  evil  life  of  the  prioress  that  she  went  elsewhere. 
A  few  months  afterwards  the  bishop  summoned  the  prioress  to  appear 
before  him,  and  after  denying  the  charges  brought  against  her,  she  finally 
admitted  them;  her  daughter,  she  said,  had  died  four  years  before,  but  she 
owned  that  she  had  granted  some  of  the  plate  of  the  monastery  to  Richard 
Hewes.  In  her  evidence  she  stated  that  though  these  things  had  been  going 
on  for  eight  years,  no  inquiry  had  been  made,  and,  as  it  seems,  no  visitation , 
of  the  house  had  been  held;  only,  on  one  occasion,  certain  injunctions  of 
a  general  kind  had  been  sent  her.  As  a  punishment  she  was  deposed  from, 
the  post  of  prioress,  but  was  allowed  to  perform  the  functions  of  the  office 
for  the  present,  provided  that  she  did  nothing  without  the  advice  of  Mr 
Edmund  Horde. 

But  some  months  later  when  the  bishop  himself  made  a  visitation  "to 
bring  about  some  reformation,"  things  were  as  scandalous  as  ever.  The 
prioress  complained  that  one  of  the  nuns  "played  and  romped  (luctando)"  ' 
with  boys  in  the  cloister  and  refused  to  be  corrected.  When  she  was  put  in 
the  stocks,  three  other  nuns  broke  the  door  and  rescued  her,  and  burnt  the 
stocks;  and  when  the  prioress  summoned  aid  from  the  neighbourhood,  the 
four  broke  a  window  and  escaped  to  friends,  where  they  remained  two  or  j 
three  weeks;  that  they  laughed  and  played  in  church  during  mass,  even  at 
the  elevation.  The  nuns  complained  that  the  prioress  had  punished  them 
for  speaking  the  truth  at  the  last  visitation;  that  she  had  put  one  in  the 
stocks  without  any  cause;  that  she  had  hit  another  "on  the  head  with  fists' 
and  feet,  correcting  her  in  an  immoderate  way,"  and  that  Richard  Hewes 
had  visited  the  priory  within  the  last  four  months.  From  the  evidence  it 
is  clear  that  the  state  of  things  was  well  known  in  Oxford,  where  each  party, 
seems  to  have  had  its  adherents. 

Several  morals  may  be  drawn  from  this  lurid  story.  It  shows  how 
inadequate,  in  some  cases,  was  the  episcopal  machinery  for  control 
and  reform  of  religious  houses.  It  shows  that  the  "scandalous 
comperta"  of  Henry  VIII's  commissioners  some  sixteen  years  later 
were  in  no  way  untrue  to  type.  It  shows  also  that  Wolsey  was  not 
entirely  unjustified  in  his  desire  to  dissolve  the  house  and  to  use  its 
revenues  for  educational  purposes;  he  may  have  been  no  more  dis-, 
interested  than  was  his  master  later,  but  in  the  case  of  Littlemore 
at  least  it  is  difficult  not  to  approve  him. 

1  Summarised  in  V.C.H.  Oxon.  u,  pp.  76-7. 

8  When  the  nuns  exhorted  her  to  abstain  from  his  company,  she  replied 
"quod  ipsum  amavit  et  amare  volet."  Line.  Epis.  Reg.  Visit.  Atwater,  f.  87. 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  597 

NOTE  G. 

THE  MORAL  STATE  OF  THE  YORKSHIRE  NUNNERIES  IN 
THE  FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY. 

IT  is  possible  to  study  in  some  detail  the  nunneries  in  the  diocese 
pf  York  during  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  or  roughly 
[between  the  years  1280  and  1360.  The  Archbishops'  Registers  for  most 
pf  the  period  have  survived,  and  have  either  been  printed  or  drawn 
[upon  very  fully  in  the  admirable  accounts  of  monastic  houses  given 
n  the  Victoria  County  History  of  Yorkshire.  As  these  accounts  are 
not  very  widely  known  and  as  Yorkshire  contained  an  unusual  number 

nunneries  (twenty-seven)  it  is  worth  while  to  give  some  descrip 
tion  of  the  state  of  these  houses  during  a  troubled  period  in  their 
career. 

Reasons  have  been  suggested  elsewhere  for  some  of  the  disorder 
Lvhich  prevailed  among  the  monastic  houses  of  the  North.  They  were 
nost  of  them  both  small  and  poor  and,  what  is  of  greater  significance, 
they  lay  in  the  border  country,  exposed  to  the  forays  of  the  Scots,  and 
xmtinually  disturbed  by  English  armies  or  raiders,  riding  north  to 
take  revenge.  Life  was  not  easy  for  nuns  who  might  at  any  moment 
lave  to  flee  before  a  raid  and  whose  lands  were  constantly  being 
"avaged;  they  grew  more  and  more  miserably  poor  and  as  usual 
poverty  seemed  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  laxity.  Moreover  the  con- 
litions  of  life  set  its  stamp  upon  the  character  of  the  ladies  from 
whom  convents  were  recruited.  These  Percies  and  Fairfaxes  and 
(Mowbrays  and  St  Quintins  schooled  their  hot  blood  with  difficulty 
ito  obedience  and  chastity  and  the  Yorkshire  nunneries  were  apt  to 
jreflect  the  fierce  passions  of  the  Border,  quick  to  love  and  quick  to 
fight.  There  were  no  more  quarrelsome  nunneries  in  the  kingdom, 
witness  their  election  fights1,  and  none  in  which  discipline  was  more 
ax.  During  these  sixty  years  nineteen  out  of  the  twenty-seven 
louses  came  before  the  Archbishop  of  York's  notice,  at  one  time  or 
mother,  in  connection  with  cases  of  immorality  and  apostasy. 

It  is  evident  at  once,  from  a  study  of  the  registers,  that  seven 
Louses,  i.e.,  Basedale,  Keldholme,  Kirklees  and  Swine  of  the  Cistercian 
order,  Arthington  and  Moxby  of  the  Cluniac  order  and  St  Clement, 
(York,  of  the  Benedictine  order  were  in  a  serious  condition2.  At 
JBasedale  in  1307  the  Prioress  Joan  de  Percy  was  deprived  for  dilapida- 
j:ion  of  the  goods  of  the  house  and  perpetual  and  notorious  misdeeds ; 
thereupon  she  promptly  left  the  nunnery,  taking  some  of  her  partisans 
iimong  the  nuns  with  her.  The  Archbishop  wrote  to  his  official,  bidding 
jiim  warn  them  to  return  and  not  to  go  outside  the  cloister  precincts 
jmd  "in  humility  to  take  heed  to  the  salutary  monitions  of  their 
iDrioress";  but  humility  dwelt  not  in  the  breast  of  a  Percy  and  in 

1  See  above,  p.  58. 

2  So  also  was  Nunkeeling,  where  there  was  a  particularly  violent  election 
(struggle,  but  no  mention  of  immorality. 


598  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

1308  Joan  was  packed  off  to  Sinningthwaite,  "as  she  had  been  dis 
obedient  at  Basedale."  The  troubles  of  the  house  were  not  ended;  for 
the  same  year  Agnes  de  Thormondby  a  nun,  confessed  that  she  had  on  : 
three  separate  occasions  allowed  herself  to  be  "  deceived  by  the  tempta 
tions  of  the  flesh,"  a  vivid  commentary  on  the  regime  of  Joan  Percy. 
In  1343  another  well-born  Prioress  is  in  trouble  at  the  house  and 
the  Archbishop  issues  a  commission  "  to  inquire  into  the  truth  of  the 
articles  urged  against  Katherine  Mowbray  and  if  her  demerits  required 
it  to  depose  her,  and  the  commission  was  repeated  two  years  later, 
nothing  apparently  having  been  done1." 

The  state  of  Keldholme  was  even  worse.  In  1287  Archbishop 
Romanus  ordered  the  nuns  to  receive  back  an  apostate,  Maud  de 
Tiverington.  In  1299  a  similar  order  was  issued  on  behalf  of  Christiania 
de  Styvelington.  In  1308  began  the  violent  election  struggle  over 
Emma  of  York  and  Joan  of  Pickering,  which  has  already  been 
described.  In  the  course  of  the  struggle  four  nuns  were  sent  as  rebels 
to  other  convents  in  1308  and  two  in  1309,  and  from  the  nature  of 
the  penance  imposed  on  the  last  two  it  would  seem  that  they  had 
been  guilty  of  immorality.  In  1318  Mary  de  Holm,  who  was  one  of  the  ; 
ejected  rebels  of  1308  and  had  been  censured  for  disobedience  to  the 
new  prioress  in  1315,  was  sentenced  to  do  penance  "for  the  vice  of 
incontinence  committed  by  her  with  Sir  William  Lyly,  chaplain"2; 
and  in  1321,  Maud  of  Terrington  (who  may  be  the  Maud  of  Tivering 
ton  who  apostatised  in  1287),  was  given  a  heavy  penance  for  incon 
tinence  and  apostasy3.  The  history  of  the  house  during  the  stormy 
years  from  1308  to  1321  shows  how  far  from  being  a  home  of  peace 
and  good  living  a  nunnery  might  be ;  and  illustrates  well  the  difficulty  ' 
of  reforming  it  while  even  one  incorrigible  rebel  and  sinner  such  as 
Mary  de  Holm  dwelt  there. 

The  state  of  Arthington  was  very  similar.  Here  in  1303  Custance 
de  Daneport  of  Pontefract  had  apostatised  and  was  to  be  received 
back;  trouble  seems  to  have  begun  in  that  year,  for  the  Prioress 
Agnes  de  Screvyn  resigned.  In  1307  a  visitation  revealed  considerable 
disorder  and  Dionisia  de  Hevensdale  and  Ellen  de  Castleford  were 
forbidden  to  go  outside  the  convent  precincts.  In  1312  the  sub- 
prioress  and  convent  were  ordered  to  render  due  obedience  to  the 
Prioress  Isabella  de  Berghby,  who  was  given  Isabella  Couvel  as  a 
coadjutress.  Evidently  she  resented  having  to  share  her  authority 
in  temporal  matters  with  another  nun,  for  soon  afterwards  Isabella 
de  Berghby  and  Margaret  de  Tang  are  said  to  have  cast  off  their 
habits  and  left  the  convent.  Eighteen  months  later  a  new  prioress 
was  appointed  and  the  two  runaways  returned  and  did  penance. 
In  1315  there  is  mention  of  quarrels  among  the  nuns  and  in  1319 
Margaret  de  Tang  once  more  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Archbishop 
and  was  sent  to  Nunkeeling  and  prescribed  the  usual  penalty  for 
immorality.  In  1321  she  was  again  in  trouble;  she  had  apostatised 

1   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  p.  159.  *  Ib.  pp.  167-9. 

1   Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  456-7. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  599 

and  committed  grave  misdemeanours;  and  was  again  sent  back  to 
her  convent,  to  be  imprisoned  and  if  necessary  chained  there,  until 
she  showed  signs  of  repentance.  In  1349  Isabella  de  Berghby,  in 
spite  of  her  past  apostasy,  was  once  more  elected  Prioress1. 

At  Moxby,  the  other  Cluniac  house  in  the  diocese,  Archbishop 
Greenfield  ordered  the  Prioress  to  receive  back  Sabina  de  Apelgarth, 
who  had  apostatised,  but  was  returning  in  a  state  of  penitence.   Her 
penitence  was  of  the  usual  type  of  these  Yorkshire  ladies  and  her 
reputation  did  not  prevent  her  from  rising  to  the  high  rank  in  the 
I  convent,  for  in  1318  Archbishop  Melton  ordered  her  to  be  removed 
from  office  and  ordained  that  henceforward  no  one  convicted  of  in 
continence  was  to  hold  any  office2.    In  1321   a  penance  was  pro 
nounced  on  Joan  de  Brotherton  for  having  been  twice  in  apostasy; 
but  a  note  in  the  margin  of  the  register  where  the  penance  is  entered 
takes  her  history  a  stage  further:    "Memorandum  quod  dominus 
|  Walterus  de  Penbrige,  stans  cum  domina  regina,  postea  impregnavit 
eandem"3.  The  next  year  a  Scottish  raid  dispersed  the  nuns;  Sabina 
de  Apelgarth  and  Margaret  de  Neusom  were  sent  to  Nunmonkton; 
Alice  de  Barton,  the  Prioress,  to  Swine;  Joan  de  Barton  and  Joan 
de  Toucotes  to  Nunappleton;  Agnes  Ampleford  and  Agnes  Jarkesmill 
to  Nunkeeling;  Joan  de  Brotherton  and  Joan  Blaunkfront  to  Ham- 
pole4.  This  disturbance  did  not  improve  their  morals.    In  1325  the 
Prioress  Joan  de  Barton  resigned,  having  been  found  guilty  of  in 
continence  with  the  inevitable  chaplain.  The  nuns  could  find  no 
better  successor  for  her  than  Sabina  de  Apelgarth  and  in  1328  that 
lady  was  once  more  in  difficulties;  the  Archbishop  removed  her  "for 
certain  reasons  "  and  imposed  the  usual  penance  for  immorality  and 
Joan  de  Toucotes  became  Prioress  in  her  stead.    At  the  same  time 
Joan  Blaunkfront's  penance  was  relaxed,  so  she  too  had  apparently 
fallen;  lovely  and  white-browed  she  must  have  been,  from  her  name 
("  But  sikerly  she  hadde  a  fair  foreheed  "),  nor  could  she  bear  to  hide 
her  beauties  beneath  the  hideous  garb  of  a  nun.    Seventeen  long 
years  afterwards,  when  the  forehead  was  growing  wrinkled  and  the 
beauty  fading,  she  wished  to  reconcile  herself  with  the  God  whom  she 
had  flouted.  She  had  powerful  friends  and  could  afford  to  petition  the 
Pope  himself,  and  in  1345  Clement  VI  gave  orders  for  Joan  Blanke- 
f rentes,  nun  of  Moxby,  who  had  left  her  order,  to  be  reconciled  to  it5 
Kirklees,  known  to  romance  as  the  house  where  a  wicked  prioress 
1  bled  Robin  Hood  to  death,  was  in  a  deplorable  state  about  the  same 
|  time.    In  1306  Archbishop  Greenfield  wrote  to  the  house  bidding 
!  them  take  back  Alice  Raggid,  who,  several  times  led  astray  by  the 
I  temptations  of  the  flesh,  had  left  her  convent  for  the  world;  in  1313 


i 

!  1 


V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  187-9.    A  Prioress  was  deposed  here  for  in- 
continence  in  1494. 

"   V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  239-4°- 

a  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  457~8.  Queen  Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II, 

is  referred  to. 

4  See  above,  p.  427.  5  Cal.  of  Papal  Letters,  in,  p.  1345- 


600  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

a  similar  order  was  made  for  Elizabeth  de  Hopton.  The  two  nuns 
seem,  however,  to  have  been  incorrigible,  for  in  1315  the  Archbishop 
wrote  to  the  Prioress  saying  that  public  rumour  had  reached  his  ears 
that  some  of  the  nuns  of  the  house,  and  especially  Elizabeth  de 
Hopton,  Alice  "le  Raggede"  and  Joan  de  Heton,  were  wont  to  admit 
both  secular  and  religious  men  into  the  private  parts  of  the  house 
and  to  hold  many  suspicious  conversations  with  them.  He  forbids 
these  or  any  other  nuns  to  admit  or  talk  with  any  cleric  or  layman 
save  in  a  public  place  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Prioress,  subprioress 
or  two  other  nuns;  and  he  specially  warns  a  certain  Joan  de  Wakefeld 
to  give  up  the  private  room,  which  she  persists  in  inhabiting  by  herself. 
He  refers  also  to  the  fact  that  these  and  other  nuns  were  disobedient 
to  the  Prioress,  "like  rebels  refusing  to  accept  her  discipline  and 
punishment."  On  the  same  day  he  imposed  a  special  penance  on  Joan 
de  Heton  for  incontinence  with  Richard  del  Lathe  and  Sir  Michael, 
"called  Scot,"  a  priest,  and  on  the  unhappy  Alice  Raggid  for  the 
same  sin  with  William  de  Heton  of  Mirfield,  possibly  a  relative  of 
her  fellow  nun1.  Here  again  we  have  an  incorrigible  offender,  guilty 
of  apostasy  and  immorality  off  and  on  during  ten  years.  Swine  was 
not  much  better.  In  1289  a  nun  of  the  great  St  Quintin  family  was 
in  disgrace,  probably  (though  not  certainly)  for  immorality.  In  1290 
there  was  the  usual  trouble  over  a  new  Prioress  and  Elizabeth  de 
Rue  was  sent  to  Nunburnholme  under  the  charge  of  a  brother  of  the 
house  and  a  horseman,  apparently  for  immorality  as  well  as  contumacy. 
At  the  same  time  another  nun,  Elizabeth  Darrains,  had  part  of  her 
penance  lightened;  but  in  1291  she  was  sent  away  to  Wykeham 
Priory.  In  1306  John,  son  of  Thomas  the  Smith,  of  Swine,  was  charged 
with  having  seduced  Alice  Martel,  a  nun  of  the  house,  and  in  1310 
Elizabeth  de  Rue  (whom  we  have  seen  was  in  trouble  twenty  years 
before)  was  said  to  have  sinned  with  two  monks  from  the  Abbey  of 
Meaux.  The  house  had  evidently  not  improved  very  much  at  a  later 
date,  for  in  1358  Alice  de  Cawode  had  twice  been  out  in  apostasy2. 

Even  close  to  the  city  of  York  itself,  the  Benedictine  house  of  St 
Clement's  or  Clementhorpe  did  not  escape  the  prevalent  decay  of 
morals.  In  1300  the  Archbishop  rehearses  unsympathetically  a 
romantic  tale  of  how  "  late  one  evening  certain  men  came  to  the  priory 
gate,  leading  a  saddled  horse;  here  Cecily  a  nun,  met  them  and, 
throwing  off  her  nun's  habit,  put  on  another  robe  and  rode  off  with 
them  to  Darlington,  where  Gregory  de  Thornton  was  waiting  for  her; 
and  with  him  she  lived  for  three  years  and  more."  In  1310  Greenfield 
mitigated  a  penance,  of  the  kind  usually  imposed  for  immorality, 
upon  another  nun  Joan  de  Saxton.  In  1318  there  is  mention  of  Joan 
of  Leeds,  another  apostate,  and  in  1324  the  Prioress  resigned  after 

1  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  pp.  355,  358-62.  Another  nun  apostatised 
and  lived  a  dissolute  life  for  some  time  in  the  world,  returning  in  1337. 
76.  p.  363. 

*  V.C.H.  Yorks.  ui,  pp.  179-81.  The  house  was  in  an  unsatisfactory 
condition  as  early  as  1268.  Reg.  Walter  Giffard,  pp.  147-8. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  601 

serious  trouble  in  the  house,  details  of  which  have  not  been  preserved. 
In  1331  Isabella  de  Studley  (who  had  been  made  a  nun  there  by  express 
permission  of  the  primate  in  1315)  was  found  guilty  of  apostasy  and 
fleshly  sin,  besides  blasphemy  and  other  misdeeds ;  she  had  apparently 
been  sent  to  Yedingham  for  a  penance  some  time  before  and  was 
now  allowed  to  return,  with  the  warning  that  if  she  disobeyed,  quar 
relled  or  blasphemed  any  more  she  would  be  transferred  permanently 
to  another  house1. 

These  houses  were  all  clearly  extremely  immoral,  but  there  is 
evidence  of  less  extreme  trouble  in  other  houses  in  the  same  diocese. 
At  Arden  Joan  de  Punchardon  had  become  a  mother  in  1306  and 
Clarice  de  Speton  confessed  herself  guilty  with  the  bailiff  of  Bulmer- 
shire  in  1311 2.  At  Thicket  Alice  Darel  of  Wheldrake  was  an  apostate 
in  1303  and  in  1334  Joan  de  Crackenholme  was  said  to  have  left  her 
house  several  times3.  At  Wilberfoss  Agnes  de  Lutton  was  in  trouble 
in  I3I24.  At  Esholt  Beatrice  de  Haukesward  left  the  house  pregnant 
in  I3035.  At  Hampole  Isabella  Folifayt  was  guilty  in  1324,  and  Alice 
de  Reygate  in  I3586.  At  Nunappleton  Maud  of  Ripon  apostatised 
in  1309  and  in  1346  Katherine  de  Hugate,  a  nun,  went  away  pregnant 
and  a  lay  sister  was  said  to  have  been  several  times  in  the  same 
condition7.  At  St  Stephen's,  Foukeholm,  a  nun  Cecilia,  who  had  run 
away  with  a  chaplain,  returned  of  her  own  accord  in  1293  anc^  another 
apostate,  Elena  de  Angrom,  returned  in  I3498.  Agnes  de  Bedale,  an 
apostate,  was  sent  back  in  1286;  and  in  1343  Margaret  de  Fenton, 
who  left  the  house  pregnant,  had  her  penance  mitigated  "because 
she  had  only  done  so  once,"  a  startling  commentary  on  the  state  of 
the  Yorkshire  houses9.  At  Rosedale  an  apostate  Isabella  Dayvill  was 
sent  back  to  do  penance  in  i32i10.  Of  Nunmonkton  there  is  little 
record  during  the  first  half  of  the  century,  but  it  was  in  a  bad  state 
at  the  end11;  at  Wykeham  also  there  seems  to  have  been  no  case  of 
apostasy  in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  the 
Prioress  Isabella  Wykeham  was  removed  for  serious  immorality  in 
1444  and  in  1450  two  nuns  had  gone  on  an  unlicensed  pilgrimage 
to  Rome,  which  had  led  to  one  of  them  living  with  a  married  man 
in  London12. 


5  V.C.H.  Yorks.  in,  pp.  129-30. 

2  Ib.  in,  p.  113.    The  house  seems  to  have  been  in  much  the  same 
condition  later.     A  nun  had  run  away  in  1372  and  the  misdeeds  of  the 
bad  prioress  Eleanor  came  to  light  in  1396.    Ib.  114-5. 

3  Ib.  p.  124.  4  Ib.  p.  126. 

6  Ib.  p.  161.    In  1535  Archbishop  Lee  found  that  a  nun  here,   Joan 
Hutton,  "hath  lyved  incontinentlie  and  unchast  and  hath  broght  forth  a 
child  of  her  bodie  begotten."  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  xvi,  p.  453. 

8   V.C.H.  Yorks.  m,  p.  164.  7  Ib.  p.  164. 

8  Ib.  p.  116  and  Yorks.  Arch.  Journ.  ix,  p.  334. 

9  Ib.  pp.  176-7.  10  Ib.  p.  175- 

11  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  194;  see  also  Cal.  of  Pap.  Letters,  x,  p.  471. 
13  76.  p.  183. 


602  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

NOTE  H. 

THE  DISAPPEARANCE  OR  SUPPRESSION  OF  EIGHT 
NUNNERIES  PRIOR  TO  1535. 

IT  seems  clear  that  even  before  the  Dissolution  proper  decay  was 
manifest  in  some  of  the  smaller  nunneries ;  numbers  were  dwindling 
and  morals  were  not  always  beyond  suspicion.  At  all  events  in  the 
forty  years  before  Henry  VII I's  first  act  of  dissolution,  no  less  than 
eight  nunneries1,  all  of  which  had  at  one  time  been  reasonably 
flourishing,  faded  away  or  were  dissolved.  Something  may,  and 
indeed  must,  be  allowed  for  the  ulterior  motives  of  those  who  desired 
the  revenue  of  these  houses;  but  it  is  impossible  to  suspect  men  like 
John  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely,  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  even 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  of  being  willing  without  any  excuse  to  suppress 
helpless  nunneries  in  order  to  endow  their  new  collegiate  foundations 
with  the  spoils.  Some  truth  there  must  be  in  the  allegations  of  ill 
behaviour  brought  against  certain  of  these  houses;  and  the  reduction 
in  numbers  seems  to  point  to  a  decay,  more  spontaneous  than  forced. 
The  first  of  the  houses  thus  to  be  dissolved  was  St  Radegund's, 
Cambridge,  the  accounts  of  which  we  have  so  often  quoted.  In  1496 
John  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Ely,  visited  the  house  and  found  but  two 
sisters  left  there;  and  he  thereupon  obtained  letters  patent  from 
Henry  VII  to  convert  the  nunnery  into  a  college,  founded  (like  the 
nunnery)  in  honour  of  the  Virgin,  St  John  the  Evangelist  and  St 
Radegund,  but  called  henceforward  Jesus  College.  Some  light  is 
thrown  by  these  letters  patent  on  the  condition  of  the  convent  in 
1496.  It  is  therein  stated  that  the  king, 

as  well  by  the  report  of  the  Bishop  as  by  public  fame,  that  the  priory... 
together  with  all  its  lands,  tenements,  rents,  possessions  and  buildings,  and 
moreover  the  properties,  goods,  jewels  and  other  ecclesiastical  ornaments 
anciently  of  piety  and  charity  given  and  granted  to  the  same  house  or 
priory,  by  the  neglect,  improvidence,  extravagance  and  incontinence  of  the 
prioresses  and  women  of  the  said  house,  by  reason  of  their  proximity  to  the 
university  of  Cambridge,  have  been  dilapidated,  destroyed,  wasted,  alienated, 
diminished,  and  subtracted;  in  consequence  of  which  the  nuns  are  reduced 
to  such  want  and  poverty  that  they  are  unable  to  maintain  and  support 
divine  services,  hospitality  and  other  such  works  of  mercy  and  piety,  as 
by  the  primary  foundation  and  ordinance  of  their  founders  are  required; 
that  they  are  reduced  in  number  to  two  only,  of  whom  one  is  elsewhere 
professed,  the  other  is  of  ill-fame,  and  that  they  can  in  no  way  provide  for 
their  own  sustenance  and  relief,  insomuch  as  they  are  fain  to  abandon 
their  house  and  leave  it  in  a  manner  desolate2. 

1  It  may  be  noted  that  five  nunneries  had  already  disappeared  between 
1300  and  1500,  viz.  Waterbeach  (transferred  to  Denny,  1348),  Wothorpe 
(annexed  to  St  Michael's.  Stamford,  1354)  and  St  Stephen's,  Foukeholme, 
all  of  which  owed  their  end  to  the  Black  Death ;  Lyminster  (dissolved  as  an 
alien  priory,  1414);  and  Rowney  (suppressed  on  account  of  poverty,  1459). 

2  Gray,  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  pp.  44-5.    For  evidence  of  the  decay 
of  the  nunnery  during  the  last  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  see  ib.  pp.  39-44. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  603 

The  next  nunneries  to  disappear  were  Bromhale  in  Windsor 
Forest  and  Lillechurch  orHighamin  Kent.  Their  dissolution  was  begun 
in  1521  and  completed  in  1524,  when  their  possessions  were  granted 
to  St  John's  College,  Cambridge,  the  foundation  of  which  was  then 
being  carried  out  by  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  as  executor  of 
the  Lady  Margaret.  Only  three  nuns  were  left  in  Bromhale  and  Wolsey 
directed  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  to  "proceed  against  enormities, 
misgovernance  and  slanderous  living,  long  time  heretofore  had,  used 
and  continued  by  the  prioress  and  nuns"1;  but  there  is  no  further 
evidence  as  to  the  moral  condition  of  the  convent.  The  moral  as  well 
as  the  financial  decay  of  Lillechurch  is  more  certain,  for  the  resigna 
tions  of  the  three  nuns  who  remained,  together  with  the  depositions 
of  those  who  accused  them  of  want  of  discipline,  have  survived.  Their 
revenues  were  stated  to  be  in  great  decay  and  divine  service,  hospitality 
and  almsgiving  had  almost  ceased.  Moreover  it  was  said  that  "the 
same  priory  was  situated  in  a  corner  out  of  sight  of  the  public  and 
was  much  frequented  by  lewd  persons,  especially  clerks,  whereby  the 
nuns  there  were  notorious  for  the  incontinence  of  their  life,"  two  of 
them  having  borne  children  to  one  Edward  Sterope,  vicar  of  Higham. 
Some  witnesses  were  heard  as  to  one  of  them,  including  a  nurse  who 
had  taken  charge  of  her  baby  and  a  former  servant  of  the  nunnery,  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  bishop  to  investigate  the  matter.  "  He  entered 
the  cloister  of  the  aforesaid  priory,  where  he  saw  the  lady  sitting  and 
weeping  and  said  to  her  'Alas  madam,  howe  happened  this  with 
you? '  and  she  answered  him,  'And  [if]  I  had  been  happey  [i.e.  lucky] 
I  myght  a  caused  this  thinge  to  have  ben  unknowen  and  hydden'"2. 

The  next  nunneries  to  be  suppressed  were  a  group  which  went 
to  enrich  Cardinal  Wolsey 's  foundations.  The  Cardinal's  policy  of 
dissolving  small  decayed  houses  in  order  to  devote  their  revenues  to 
collegiate  foundations,  especially  to  his  new  college  at  Oxford,  was 
by  no  means  generally  approved  and  a  passage  in  Skelton's  bitterly 
hostile  Colin  Clout  refers  particularly  to  the  case  of  the  nunneries : 

And  the  selfe  same  game 

Begone  ys  nowe  with  shame 

Amongest  the  sely  nonnes : 

My  lady  nowe  she  ronnes, 

Dame  Sybly  our  abbesse, 

Dame  Dorothe  and  lady  Besse, 

Dame  Sare  our  pryoresse, 

Out  of  theyr  cloyster  and  quere 

With  an  heuy  chere, 

Must  cast  vp  theyr  blacke  vayles5. 

1  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Mon.  p.  436. 

2  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  378. 

3  Selected  Poems  of  John  Skelton,  ed.  W.  H.  Williams  (1902),  p.  113. 
There  is  an  interesting  compertum  at  Dr  Rayne's  visitation  of  Studley  in 
1530  to  the  effect  that  "the  woods  of  the  priory  had  been  much  diminished 
by  the  late  prioress  and  also  by  Thomas  Cardinal  of  York  for  the  construc 
tion  of  his  College  in  the  University  of  Oxford."  V.C.H.  Oxon.  n,  p.  78. 


604  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

The  nunneries  dissolved  were  Littlemore  (1525),  Wix  (1525),  Fair- 
well  (1527),  and  St  Mary  de  Pre,  St  Albans,  of  which  all  went  to 
Cardinal  College,  except  Fairwell,  which  went  to  Lichfield  Cathedral. 
Of  these  Littlemore,  under  the  evil  prioress  Katherine  Wells,  had  been 
in  a  state  of  great  disorder  since  1517*,  while  Cardinal  Morton's 
famous  letter  of  1490  showed  that  there  was  at  least  suspicion  of 
immoral  relations  between  the  nuns  of  St  Mary  de  Pre  and  the  monks 
of  St  Albans2.  Of  the  other  two  nunneries  little  is  known  at  this 
time,  save  that  they  were  very  small;  there  were  four  nuns  at  Wix. 
Another  house,  Davington  in  Kent,  vanished  only  a  few  months 
before  the  act  which  would  have  dissolved  it;  in  1535  it  was  found 
before  the  escheator  of  the  county  that  no  nuns  were  left  in  it3. 


NOTE  I. 
CHANSONS  DE  NONNES. 

THE  theme  of  the  nun  in  popular  poetry  deserves  a  more  detailed 
study  than  it  has  yet  received,  both  on  account  of  the  innate  grace 
of  the  chansons  de  nonnes  and  on  account  of  their  persistence  into 
modern  times.  The  earliest  examples  (with  the  exception  of  the  two 
old  French  poems  quoted  in  the  text)  occur  in  German  literature 
always  rich  in  folk  song.  With  the  song  from  the  Limburg  Chronicle 
and  the  Latin  Plangit  nonna  fletibus  should  be  compared  the  following 
amusing  little  poem : 

Ich  solt  ein  norm*  werden 
ich  hatt  kein  lust  dazu 
ich  ess  nicht  gerne  gerste 
wach  auch  nicht  gerne  fru; 
gott  geb  dem  klaffer  ungliick  vil 
der  mich  armes  magdlein 
ins  kloster  haben  wil ! 

Ins  kloster,  ins  kloster 
da  kom  ich  nicht  hinein, 
da  schneidt  man  mir  die  har  ab, 
das  bringt  mir  schware  pein; 
gott  geb  dem  klaffer  ungltick  vil 
der  mich  armes  magdlein 
ins  kloster  haben  wil ! 

Und  wenn  es  komt  um  mitternacht 
das  glocklein  das  schlecht  an, 
so  hab  ich  armes  magdlein 
noch  keinen  schlaf  getan  ; 
gott  geb  dem  klaffer  ungluck  vil 
der  mich  armes  magdlein 
ins  kloster  haben  wil ! 

1  See  above,  Note  F.  2  See  above  p.  480 

3  Dugdale,  Mon.  iv,  p.  288. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  605 

Und  wenn  ich  vor  die  alten  kom 
so  sehn  sie  mich  sauer  an, 
so  denk  ich  armes  magdlein 
hett  ich  ein  jungen  man 
und  der  mein  stater  bule  sei 
so  war  ich  armes  magdlein 
des  fasten  und  betens  frei. 

Ade,  ade  feins  klosterlein, 
Ade,  nu  halt  dich  wol ! 
ich  weiss  ein  herz  allerliebsten  mein 
mein  herz  ist  freuden  vol; 
nach  im  stet  all  mein  zuversicht, 
ins  kloster  kom  ich  nimmer  nicht, 
ade,  feins  klosterlein!1 

From  the  time  of  the  Minnesingers  comes  a  charming,  plaintive 
little  song,  which  rings  its  double  refrain  on  the  words  "Lonely" 
and  "O  Love,  what  have  I  done?"  It  tells  how  the  nun,  behind  a 
cold  grating,  thinks  of  her  lover  as  she  chants  her  psalter;  and  how 
her  father  and  mother  visit  her  and  pray  together,  clad  like  gay 
peacocks,  while  she  is  shrouded  in  cord  and  cowl;  and  how 

At  even  to  my  bed  I  go — 

The  bed  in  my  cell  is  lonely. 

And  then  I  think  (God,  where 's  the  harm?) 

Would  my  true  love  were  in  my  arm ! 

O  Love — what  have  I  done?2 

A  thirteenth  century  poem,  hailing  from  Bavaria  or  Austria,  strikes 
a  more  tragic  note : 

Alas  for  my  young  days,  alas  for  my  plaint.  They  would  force  me  into  a 
convent.  Nevermore  then  shall  I  see  the  grass  grow  green  and  the  green 
clover  flowers,  nevermore  hear  the  little  birds  sing.  Woe  it  is,  and  dead  is 
my  joy,  for  they  would  part  me  from  my  true  love,  and  I  die  of  sorrow. 
Alas,  alas  for  my  grief,  which  I  must  bear  in  secret!  Sisters,  dear  sisters, 
must  we  be  parted  from  the  world?  Deepest  woe  it  is,  since  I  may  never 
wear  the  bridal  wreath  and  must  make  moan  for  my  sins,  when  I  would 
fain  be  in  the  world  and  would  fain  wear  a  bright  wreath  upon  my  hair, 
instead  of  the  veil  that  the  nuns  wear.  A  las,  alas  for  my  grief,  which  I  must 
bear  in  secret!  I  must  take  leave  of  the  world,  since  the  day  of  parting  is 
come.  I  must  look  sourly  upon  all  joy,  upon  dancing  and  leaping  and 
good  courage,  birds  singing  and  hawthorn  blooming.  If  the  little  birds 
had  my  sorrow  well  might  they  sit  silent  in  the  woods  and  upon  the  green 
branches.  Alas,  alas  for  my  grief,  which  I  must  bear  in  silence*. 

1  Uhland,  Alte  hoch-  und  niederdeutsche  Volkslieder  (1844-5),  n,  p.  854 
(No.  329);  also  in  R.  v.  Liliencron,  Deutsches  Leben  im  Volkslied  um  1530 
(1884),  p.   226,  and  (in  a  slightly  different  and  modernised  version)  in 
L.  A.  v.  Arnim  and  Clemens  Brentano,  Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn  (Reclam 
edit.),  p.  24. 

2  Translated  in  Bithell,  The  Minnesingers  (Halle,  1909),  i,  p.  200.  I  have 
been  unable  to  trace  the  original.    I  have  slightly  altered  the  wording  of 
the  translation. 

3  Karl  Bartsch,  Deutsche  Liederdichter  des  zwolften  bis  vierzehnten  Jahr- 
hunderts  (4th  ed.  Berlin,  1901),  p.  379  (No.  xcvm,  11.  581-616).    Slightly 
modernised  version  in  Uhland,  op.  cit.  n,  p.  853  (No.  327). 


606  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

A  sixteenth  century  French  song  has  something  of  the  same 
serious  tone,  though  it  is  more  sophisticated  and  less  poignant  than 
the  medieval  German  version: 

Une  jeune  fillette 

de  noble  coeur 
gratieuse  et  honeste 

de  grand  valeur, 

centre  son  gre  Ton  a  rendu  nonette 
point  ne  le  voloit  estre 

par  quoy  vit  en  langueur. 

One  day  after  Compline  she  was  sitting  alone  and  lamenting  her  fate 
and  she  called  on  the  Virgin  to  shorten  her  life,  which  she  could 
endure  no  longer: 

If  I  were  married  to  my  love,  who  has  so  desired  me,  whom  I  have  so  desired, 
all  the  night  long  he  would  hold  me  in  his  arms  and  would  tell  me  all 
his  thought  and  I  would  tell  him  mine.  If  I  had  believed  my  love  and  the 
sweet  words  he  said  to  me,  alack,  alack,  I  should  be  wedded  now.  But 
since  I  must  die  in  this  place  let  me  die  soon.  O  poor  heart,  that  must  die 
a  death  so  bitter !  Fare  you  well,  abbess  of  this  convent,  and  all  the  nuns 
therein.  Pray  for  me  when  I  am  dead,  but  never  tell  my  thought  to  my 
true  love.  Fare  you  well,  father  and  mother  and  all  my  kinsfolk;  you  made 
me  a  nun  in  this  convent;  in  life  I  shall  never  have  any  joy;  I  live  unhappy, 
in  torment  and  in  pain1. 

Usually,  however,  the  chanson  de  nonne  is  more  frivolous  than 
this  and  all  ends  happily.  A  well  denned  group  contains  songs  in 
the  form  of  a  round  with  a  refrain,  meant  to  be  sung  during  a  dance2. 
One  of  the  prettiest  has  a  refrain  rejecting  the  life  of  a  nun  for  the 
best  of  reasons : 

Derriere  chez  mon  pere 
II  est  un  bois  taillis 

(Serai-je  nonnette,  oui  ou  non? 

Serai-je  nonnette?  je  crois  que  non!) 
Le  rossignol  y  chante 
Et  le  jour  et  la  nuit. 
II  chante  pour  les  filles 
Qui  n'ont  pas  d'ami. 
II  ne  chante  pas  pour  moi, 
J'en  ai  un,  dieu  mercy3. 

Another  (first  found  in  a  version  belonging  to  the  year  1602)  has 
the  dance-refrain : 

1  Zeitschrift  fttr  romanische   Philologie,   v  (1881),  p.  545   (No.  28).  A 
slightly  different  version  in  Moriz  Haupt,  Franxosische  Volkslieder  (Leipzig 
1877),  p.  152. 

2  In  a  round  the  last  two  lines  of  each  verse  are  repeated  as  the  first 
two  lines  of  the  following  verse,  and  the  refrain  is  repeated  at  the  end  of 
each  verse.  The  songs  lose  much  of  their  charm  by  being  quoted  in  com 
pressed  form,  for  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  repetition  is  exceedingly 
graceful  and  spirited. 

3  Haupt,  op.  cit.  p.  40. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  607 

Trepignez  vous,  trepignez, 
Trepignez  vous  comme  moy, 

and  the  words  seem  to  trip  of  themselves : 

Mon  pere  n'a  fille  que  moy — 
II  a  jure  la  sienne  foy 
Que  nonnette  il  fera  de  moy, 
Et  non  feray,  pas  ne  voudray. 
J'amerois  mieux  mary  avoir 
Qui  me  baisast  la  nuit  trois  fois. 
L'un  au  matin  et  1'autre  au  soir, 
L'autre  a  minuit,  ce  sont  les  trois1. 

Another  song  of  the  same  date  has  the  refrain : 

Je  le  diray, 

Je  le  diray,  diray,  ma  mere, 
Ma  Mere,  je  le  diray, 

and  tells  the  same  tale: 

Mon  pere  aussi  ma  mere 
Ont  jure  par  leur  foy 
Qu'ils  me  rendront  nonnette 
Tout  en  despit  de  moy. 
La  partie  est  mal  faite 
Elle  est  faite  sans  moy. 
J'ay  un  amy  en  France 
Qui  n'est  pas  loin  de  moy, 
Je  le  tiens  par  le  doigt. 
La  nuit  quand  je  me  couche 
Se  met  aupres  de  moy, 
M'apprend  ma  patenostre, 
Et  aussi  mon  ave, 
Et  encore  autre  chose 
Que  je  vous  celeray. 
De  peur  que  ne  1'oublie 
Je  le  recorderay  ! a 

The  passage  of  years  never  diminished  the  popularity  of  these 
gay  little  songs;  age  could  not  wither  them,  and  when  nineteenth 
century  scholars  began  to  collect  the  folk  songs  sung  in  the  provinces 
of  France,  they  found  many  chansons  de  nonnes  still  upon  the  lips 
of  the  people.  In  Poitou  there  is  a  round  whose  subject  is  still  the 
old  distaste  of  the  girl  for  the  convent : 

Dans  Paris  Ton  a  fait  faire 

Deux  ou  trois  petits  couvents, 

Mon  pere  ainsi  que  ma  mere 

Veulent  me  mettre  dedans. 

(Point  de  couvent,  je  ne  veux,  ma  mere, 

C'est  un  amant  qu'il  me  faut  vraiment.) 

*  Weckerlin,  L'Ancienne  Chanson  Populaire  en  France  (1887),  p.  354. 
2  Ib.  p.  319. 


608  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

She  begs  her  parents  to  wait  another  year;  perhaps  at  the  end  of  a 
year  she  will  find  a  lover;  and  she  will  take  him  quickly  enough: 

II  vaut  mieux  conduire  a  vepres 
Son  rnari  et  ses  enfants, 
Que  d'etre  dedans  ces  cloetres 
A  faire  les  yeux  dolents; 
A  jeuner  tout  le  careme, 
Les  quatre-temps  et  1'avent; 
Et  coucher  dessus  la  dure 
Tout  le  restant  de  son  temps. 
Serais-je  plus  heureuse 
Dans  les  bras  de  mon  amant? 
II  me  conterait  ses  peines, 
Ses  peines  et  ses  tourments. 
Je  lui  conterais  les  miennes, 
Ainsi  passerait  le  temps1. 

Another  round  from  the  same  district  sings  the  plaint  of  a  girl  whose 
younger  sister  has  married  before  her;  "lads  are  as  fickle  as  a  leaf 
upon  the  wind,  girls  are  as  true  as  silver  and  gold;  but  my  younger 
sister  is  being  married.  I  am  dying  of  jealousy,  for  they  are  sending 
me  into  a  convent": 

Car  moi,  qui  suis  1'afnee 
On  me  met  au  couvent. 
Si  ce  malheur  arrive 
J'mettrai  feu  dedans! 

(Vous  qui  menez  la  ronde, 

Menez-le  rondement.)2 

Many  folk-songs  take  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  a  mother 
and  daughter,  sometimes  (as  in  two  of  the  rounds  quoted  above) 
preserved  only  in  the  refrain.  An  old  song  taken  down  at  Fontenay- 
le-Marmion  contains  a  charmingly  frivolous  conversation.  "Mother," 
says  the  daughter  of  fifteen,  "  I  want  a  lover."  "  No,  no,  no,  my  child, 
none  of  that,"  says  her  mother,  "you  shall  go  to  town  to  a  convent 
and  learn  to  read."  "But  tell  me,  mother,  is  it  gay  in  a  convent? ": 

"Dites-moi,  ma  mere,  ah!  dites-moi  done, 
Dedans  ce  couvent,  comme  s'y  comporte-t-on? 
Porte-t-on  des  fontanges  et  des  beaux  habits, 
Va-t-on  a  la  danse,  prend-on  ses  plaisis?  " 
"Non,  non,  non,  ma  fille,  point  de  tout  cela; 
Une  robe  noire  et  elle  vous  servira, 
Une  robe  noire  et  un  voile  blanc; 
Te  voila,  ma  fille,  a  l'6tat  du  couvent." 

"No,  mother,  to  a  convent  I  will  not  go;  never  will  I  leave  the  lad 
I  love";  as  she  speaks  her  lover  enters,  "Fair  one,  will  you  keep 
your  promise?"  I  will  keep  all  the  promises  I  ever  made  to  you, 
in  my  youth  I  will  keep  them;  it  is  only  my  mother  who  does  not 

1  Bujeaud,  J.,  Chants  et  Chansons  populaires  des  Provinces  de  I'ouest 
(1866),  i,  p.  137.  2  Ib.  i,  p.  132. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  609 

wish  it — but  all  the  same,  do  not  trouble  yourself,  for  it  shall  be  so. 
My  father  is  very  gentle  when  he  sees  me  cry;  I  shall  speak  to  him 
of  love  and  I  shall  soon  make  him  see  that  without  any  more  delay 
I  must  have  a  lover"1.  In  another  of  these  dialogues  the  seventeen- 
year-old  girl  begs  her  mother  to  find  her  a  husband.  "You  bold 
wicked  girl,"  says  the  mother: 

Effrontee,  helas !  que  vous  etes ! 
Si  je  prends  le  manche  a  balai, 
Au  couvent  de  la  soeur  Babet 
Je  te  mets  pour  la  vie  entiere, 
Et  a  grands  coups  de  martinet 
On  apaisera  votre  caquet ! 

But  "Mother,"  says  the  girl,  "When  you  were  my  age,  weren't  you 
just  the  same  ?  When  love  stole  away  your  strength  and  your  courage, 
didn't  you  love  your  sweetheart  so  well  that  they  wanted  to  put  you 
into  a  convent?  don't  you  remember,  mother,  that  you  once  told  me 
that  it  was  high  time  my  dear  father  came  forward,  for  you  had  more 
than  one  gallant?  "  The  horrified  mother  interrupts  her,  "  I  see  very 
well  that  you  have  a  lover": 

Mariez-vous,  n'en  parlons  plus 
Je  vais  vous  compter  mille  ecus!2 

Another  group  of  songs  (in  narrative  form  and  more  banal  than 
the  rounds  and  dialogues)  deals  with  the  escape  from  the  convent. 
Among  folk-songs  collected  in  Velay  and  Forez  there  is  one  in  which 
the  girl  is  shut  in  a  nunnery,  whence  her  lover  rescues  her  by  the 
device  of  dressing  himself  as  a  gardener  and  getting  employment  in 
the  abbess's  garden3;  and  another  in  which  a  soldier  returns  from  the 
Flemish  wars  to  find  his  mistress  in  a  convent  and  takes  her  away 
with  him  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  abbess4.  In  a  version 
jfrom  Low  Normandy  (which  probably  goes  back  to  the  seventeenth 
century)  the  lover  invokes  the  help  of  a  chimney  sweep,  who  goes  to 
sweep  the  convent  chimneys  and  pretends  to  be  seized  with  a  stomach 
ache,  so  that  the  abbess  hurries  away  for  a  medicine  bottle  and 
bles  him  to  pass  the  young  man's  letter  to  his  mistress;  on  a 
ond  visit  the  sweep  carries  the  girl  out  in  his  sack,  under  the  very 
ose  of  the  reverend  mother5.  An  Italian  version  is  less  artificial: 

In  this  city  there  is  a  little  maid,  a  little  maid  in  love.  They  wish  to  chastise 
er  until  she  loves  no  more.  Says  her  father  to  her  mother :  "  In  what  manner 
phall  we  chastise  her?    Let  us  array  her  in  grey  linen  and  put  her  into  a 
jiunnery."  In  her  chamber  the  fair  maiden  stood  listening.  "Ah,  woe  is  me, 

1  Romania,  x,  p.  391.  2  jb   x   p   395  (No  XLVIII). 

3  Ib.  vii,  p.   72   (No.  xx).    Another  version  in  De  Puymaigre,  Chants 
^opulaives  recueillis  dans  le  Pays  Messin  (1865),  p.  39  (No.  x). 

4  Ib.  vn,  p.  73  (No.  xxi).    Other  versions  in  Jean  Fleury,  Literature 
)rale  de  la  Basse-Normandie  (Paris,  1883),  p.  311,  and  De  Puymaigre,  op. 
\it-  P-  35  (No.  ix),  and  note  on  p.  37.   Compare  Schiller's  ballad  Der  Ritter 
\on  Toggenburg. 

5  Fleury,  op.  cit.  p.  313. 

P.N.  39 


610  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

for  they  would  make  me  a  nun !  "  Weeping  she  wrote  a  letter  and  when  she 
had  sealed  it  well,  she  gave  it  to  her  serving  man,  and  bade  him  bear  it 
to  her  lover.  The  gentle  gallant  read  the  letter  and  began  to  weep  and  sigh: 
"  I  had  but  one  little  love  and  now  they  would  make  her  a  nun ! "  He  goes 
to  the  stable  where  his  horses  are  and  saddles  the  one  he  prizes  most. 
"Arise,  black  steed,  for  thou  art  the  strongest  and  fairest  of  all;  for  one 
short  hour  thou  must  fly  like  a  swallow  down  by  the  sea."  The  gentle 
gallant  mounts  his  horse  and  spurs  forward  at  a  gallop.  He  arrives  just 
as  his  fair  one  is  entering  the  nunnery.  "Hearken  to  me,  mother  abbess, 
I  have  one  little  word  to  say."  As  he  spake  the  word  to  the  maiden,  he 
slipped  the  ring  on  her  finger.  "Is  there  in  this  city  no  priest  or  no  friar 
who  will  marry  a  maiden  without  her  banns  being  called?  "  "Goodbye  to 
you,  Father,  goodbye  to  you,  Mother,  goodbye  to  you  all  my  kinsfolk. 
They  thought  to  make  me  a  nun,  but  with  joy  I  am  become  a  bride"1. 

Another  very  ribald  Italian  folk-song  of  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth 
century  is  specially  interesting  because  it  is  founded  upon  Boccaccio's 
famous  tale  of  the  Abbess  and  the  breeches.  It  is  somewhat  different 
from  the  usual  nun-song;  less  plaintive  and  more  indecent,  as  befits 
its  origin  in  a  conic  gras ;  it  is  a  fabliau  rather  than  a  song,  but  it  is 
worth  quoting: 

Kyrie,  kyrie,  pregne  son  le  monache ! 

lo  andai  in  un  monastiero, 

a  non  mentir  ma  dir  el  vero, 

ov'  eran  done  secrate: 

diezi  n'  eran  tute  inpiate, 

senza  [dir  de]  la  badesa, 

che  la  tiritera  spesa 

faceva  con  un  prete. 

Kyrie,  etc. 
Or  udirete  bel  sermona : 

ciascuna  in  chiesa  andone, 

lasciando  il  dileto 

che  si  posava  in  sul  leto; 

per  rifare  la  danza 

ciascuno  aspetta  1'  amanza 

che  die  retonare. 

Kyrie,  etc. 
Quando  matutin  sonava 

in  chiesa  nesuna  andava, 

[poi]  ch'  eran  acopiate 

qual  con  prete  e  qual  con  frate: 

con  lui  stava  in  oracione 

e  ciascuno  era  garzone 

che  le  serviva  bene. 

Kyrie,  etc. 
Sendo  in  chiesia  tute  andate, 

e  tute  erano  impregnate, 

qual  dal  prete  e  qual  dal  frate, 

1'  una  e  1'  altra  guata; 

ciascuna  cred'  esser  velata 

lo  capo  di  benda  usata; 

avrino  in  capo  brache. 

Kyrie,  etc. 
1  Nigra,  Canti  Popolari  del  Piemonte  (1888),  No.  80,  pp.  409-14- 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  6ll 

E  1'  una  a  1'  altra  guatando 
si  vengon  maravigliando; 
credean  che  fore  celato, 
alor  fu  manifestato 
questo  eale  convenente : 
a  la  badessa  incontenente 
ch'  ognun  godesse  or  dice. 

Kyrie,  etc. 

Or  ne  va,  balata  mia, 
va  a  quel  monastiero, 
che  vi  si  gode  in  fede  mia 
e  questo  facto  e  vero; 
ciascuna  non  li  par  vero, 
e  quale  [e]  la  fanziulla 
ciascuna  si  trastulla 
col  cul  cantano  kyrie. 

Kyrie,  etc.1 

One  characteristic  form  of  the  nun-theme  has  already  been  referred 
to  in  the  text :  the  dialogue  between  the  clerk  and  the  nun,  in  which 
one  prays  the  other  for  love  and  is  refused.  A  terse  version  in  which 
the  nun  is  temptress  exists  in  Latin  and  evidently  enjoyed  a  certain 
popularity : 

Nonna.     Te  mini  meque  tibi  genus,  aetas  et  decor  aequa[n]t: 

Cur  non  ergo  sumus  sic  in  amore  pares? 
Clericus.  Non  hac  ueste  places  aliis  nee  uestis  ametur: 

Quae  nigra  sunt,  fugio,  Candida  semper  amo. 
N.  Si  sim  ueste  nigra,  niueam  tamen  aspice  carnem: 

Quae  nigra  sunt,  fugias,  Candida  crura  petas. 
C.  Nupsisti  Christo,  quem  non  offendere  fas  est: 

Hoc  uelum  sponsam  te  notat  esse  Dei. 
N.  Deponam  uelum,  deponam  cetera  quaeque: 

I  bit  et  ad  lectum  nuda  puella  tuum. 
C.  Si  uelo  careas,  tamen  altera  non  potes  esse: 

Vestibus  ablatis  non  mea  culpa  minor. 
N.  Culpa  quidem,  sed  culpa  leuis  tamen  ipsa  fatetur 

Hoc  fore  peccatum,  sed  ueniale  tamen. 
C.  Uxorem  uiolare  uiri  graue  crimen  habetur, 

Sed  grauius  sponsam  te  uiolare  Dei. 
N.  Cum  non  sit  rectum  uicini  frangere  lectum 

Plus  reor  esse  reum  zelotypare  Deum2. 

In  the  Cambridge  Manuscript  there  is  a  famous  dialogue,  half- 
Latin  and  half-German,  in  which  a  clerk  prays  a  nun  to  love  him  in 
springtime,  while  the  birds  sing  in  the  trees,  but  she  replies :  "  What 
j  care  I  for  the  nightingale?    I  am  Christ's  maid  and  his  betrothed." 

1  T.  Casini,  Studi  di  Poesia  antica  (1913).  There  is  a  very  racy  French 
song  called  Le  Comte  Orry  which  deserves  notice  here :  see  H.  C.  Delloye, 

!  Chants  et  Chansons  Populates  de  la  France  (ire  serie),  1843. 

2  Hagen,  Carmina  Medii  Aevi  (Berne,  1877),  pp.  206-7.  There  is  an 
!  exceedingly  long  and  tedious  sixteenth  century  French  version,  evidently 
j  founded  on  the  Latin  poem,  in  Montaiglon,  Rec.  de  Poesies  Franfoises  des 

XVI*  et  XV 11*  siecles,  t.  vm,  pp.  170-5. 

39—2 


6l2  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

Almost  the  whole  of  the  dialogue,  in  spite  of  the  nun's  irreproach 
able  attitude,  has  been  deleted  with  black  ink  by  the  monks  of  St 
Augustine's,  Canterbury,  who  were  accustomed  thus  to  censor  matter 
which  they  considered  unedifying;  but  modern  scholars  have  been 
at  infinite  pains  to  reconstruct  it1. 

It  is  rare  to  find  in  popular  songs  the  idea  of  the  convent  as  a 
refuge  for  maidens  crossed  in  love;  but  some  pretty  poems  have  this 
theme.  In  a  sixteenth  century  song  a  girl  prefers  a  convent,  if  she 
cannot  have  the  man  she  loves  best,  but  she  wishes  her  lover  could 
be  with  her  there: 

Puis  que  Ton  ne  m'at  donne 
A  celuy  que  j'aymois  tant, 
avant  la  fin  de  1'annee 
quoy  que  facent  mes  parens, 
je  me  rendray  capucine 
capucine  en  un  couvent. 

Si  mon  amis  vient  les  feste 
a  la  grille  regardant, 
je  luy  feray  de  la  teste 
la  reverence  humblement 
come  pauvre  capucine; 
je  n'oserois  aultrement. 

S'il  se  pouvait  par  fortune 

se  couler  secretement 

dedans  ma  chambre  sur  la  brune, 

je  lui  dirois  mon  tourment 

que  la  pauvre  capucine 

pour  luy  souffre  en  ce  couvent. 

Mon  dieu,  s'il  se  pouvoit  faire 
que  nous  deux  ensemblement 
fussions  dans  ung  monastere 
pour  y  passer  nostre  temps, 
capucin  et  capucine 
nous  vindrions  tous  deux  content. 

L'on  me  vera  attissee 
d'ung  beau  voille  de  lin  blanc; 
mais  je  seray  bien  coiffee 
dans  le  cceur  tout  aultrement, 
puis  que  Ton  m'a  capucine 
mise  dedans  ce  couvent. 

N'est  ce  pas  une  grand  raige 
quand  au  gre  de  ses  parens 
il  faut  prendre  en  mariaige 
ceulx  qu'on  n'ayme  nullement? 
j'ameroy  mieulx  capucine 
estre  mise  en  ce  couvent2. 

The  Cambridge  Songs,  ed.  Karl  Breul  (1915),  No.  35,  p.  16.    See  also 
Koegel,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  Litteratur  (1897),  I,  pp.  136-9. 

1  Zeitschrift  fur   romanische  Philotogie,  v  (1881),  p.  544,  No.  27.  Also 
in  Weckerlin,  op.  cit.  p.  405  (under  date  1614). 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  613 

Somewhat  similar  is  the  song  (first  printed  in  1640)  of  the  fifteen 
year-old  girl  married  to  a  husband  of  sixty : 

M'irai-je  rendre  nonette 
Dans  quelque  joly  couvent, 
Priant  le  dieu  d'amourette 
Qu'il  me  donne  allegement 
Ou  que  j'aye  en  mariage 
Celuy  la  que  j'aime  tant?1 

A  round,  with  the  refrain 

Ah,  ah,  vive  1'amour ! 

Cela  ne  durera  pas  tou jours, 

goes  with  a  delightful  swing : 

Ce  matin  je  me  suis  levee 

Plus  matin  que  ma  tante; 

J'ai  descendu  dans  mon  jardin 

Cueillire  la  lavande. 

Je  n'avais  pas  cueilli  trois  brins 

Que  mou  amant  y  rentre; 

II  m'a  dit  trois  mots  en  latin: 

Marions  nous  ensemble. 

— Si  mes  parents  le  veul'  bien, 

Pour  moi  je  suis  contente. 

Si  mes  parents  ne  le  veul'  pas 

Dans  un  couvent  j'y  rentre. 

Tous  mes  parents  le  veul'  bien, 

II  n'y  a  que  ma  tante. 

Et  si  ma  tante  ne  veut  pas 

Dans  un  couvent  je  rentre. 

Je  prierai  Dieu  pour  mes  parents 

Et  le  diable  pour  ma  tante ! 2 

In  another  song,  with  the  refrain 

Je  ne  m'y  marieray  jamais 
Je  seray  religieuse, 

the  girl  laments  her  own  coyness  which  has  lost  her  her  lover3. 
Sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  lover's  falseness  which  drives 
her  to  enter  a  convent.  In  a  song,  which  first  occurs  about  1555, 
the  maiden  laments  "qu'amours  sont  faulses": 

Je  m'en  iray  rendre  bigotte 

Avec  les  autres, 

Et  porteray  le  noir  aussi  le  gris 

(sont  les  couleurs  de  mon  loyal  amy) 

si  porteray  les  blanches  patenostres 

comme  bigotte4. 

1  Holland,  Rec.  de  Chansons  Populates,  n,  p.  81. 
-  Ib.  i,  pp.  226-7. 

3  Weckerlin,  op.  cit.  p.  355. 

4  Haupt,  Franzostsche   Volkslieder  (1877),  p.  84.    A  slightly  different 
version  in  Weckerlin,  op.  cit.  p.  297. 


614  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

In  another  very  graceful  little  ditty  the  lover  goes  through  the  world 
in  rain  and  wind,  seeking  his  true  love  and  finds  her  at  last  in  a  green 
valley : 

Je  luy  ay  dit  "doucette, 

oil  vas  tu  maintenant? 

(m'amour) " 

"m'en  vois  rendre  nonnette 

(helas) 

en  un  petit  couvent. 

Puis  que  d'aultre  que  moy 

vous  estes  amoureux. 

(ra'amour) 

qui  faict  qu'en  grand  esmoy 

(helas) 

mon  coeur  soil  langoureux. 

Helas,  toute  vestue 

je  seray  de  drap  noir 

(m'amour) 

monstrant  que  despourveue 

(helas) 

je  vis  en  desespoir"1. 

Moreover  the  convent  also  plays  its  part  in  that  numerous  class 
of  folk  songs,  which  tells  of  the  discomfiture  of  a  too  bold  gallant 
by  the  wits  of  a  girl.  An  early  example  occurs  in  1542: 

L'autrier,  en  revenant  de  tour 
Sus  mon  cheval  qui  va  le  trou, 

Par  dessoubs  la  couldrette 

L'herbe  y  croit  folyette. 

Je  m'en  entray  en  ung  couvent 
Pour  prendre  mes  esbatemens. 
Par  ung  petit  guinchet  d'argent 

Je  vis  une  nonnette, 

Vray  Dieu,  tant  jolyette. 

Dessoubz  les  drabs  quand  je  la  vys 
Blanche  comme  la  fleur  du  lys, 
Je  masseitys  aupres  du  lit 

En  lui  disans :  nonnette 

Serez  vous  ma  miette? 

Chevallier,  troup  me  detenez, 
D'en  faire  a  vostre  voulente 
Si  m'en  laissez  ung  peu  aller, 

Tant  que  je  soye  par£e, 

Tost  seray  retournee. 

Sire  chevallier,  rassemblez 
A  l'6sperirer  vous  resemblez, 
Qui  tient  la  prove  enmy  ses  pieds 

Et  puis  la  laisse  enfuire 

Ainsi  faictes  vous,  sire. 

1  Haupt,  op.  «'/.  p.  63. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  615 

La  nonnette  si  s'en  alia 
A  son  abbesse  racompta 
La  en  ces  bois  a  ung  musart 

Qui  d'amour  m'a  price, 

Je  luy  suis  eschappee. 

Le  chevallier  il  demeura 
Soulz  la  branche  d'ung  olivier 

Attendant  la  nonnette — 

Encore  y  peust  il  estre!1 

Folk-songs,  like  flowers,  spring  up — or  perhaps  are  transplanted — 
in  the  same  form  in  different  lands  and  under  different  skies;  they 
laugh  at  political  divisions  and  are  a  living  monument  to  the  solidarity 
of  Europe.  Thus  a  song  taken  down  from  the  lips  of  a  Piedmontese 
contadina  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  almost  exactly  the  same  as 
the  sixteenth  century  French  poem  just  quoted,  even  to  such  details 
as  the  olive  and  the  fowler : 

Gentil  galant  cassa'nt  el  bosc, 
S'6  riscuntra-se'nt  iina  munia, 
L'era  tan  bela,  fre'sca  e  biunda. 
Gentil  galant  a  j'a  ben  dit: 
—  Sete-ve  si  cun  mi  a  1'umbreta, 
Mai  pi  viu  sari  munigheta. 

—  Gentil  galant,  spetei-me  si, 
Che  vada  poz&  la  tunicheta 

Poi  turnro  con  vui  a  1'umbreta  — 
A  1'a  speta-la  tre  di,  tre  n6it 
Sut  a  1'umbreta  de  1'oliva. 
E  mai  pi  la  munia  veniva. 
Gentil  galant  va  al  munaste, 
L'a  pica  la  porta  grandeta; 
J'e  sortl  la  madre  badessa. 

—  Coza  cerchei-vo,  gentil  galant? 
—  Mi  ma  cerco  na  munigheta, 

Ch'a  m'a  promess  d'avni  a  1'umbreta. 

-  J'avie  la  quaja  dnans  ai  pe, 
Via  si  lassa-v-la  vu!6  via. 
Cozi  1'a  fait  la  munia  zolia2. 

1  Weckerlin,  op.  cit.   p.    262;   also  in  E.   Holland,   Rec.   de   Chansons 
Populates  (1883-90),  t.  n,  p.  36. 

2  "A  gentle  gallant  went  hunting  in  the  wood  and  there  he  met  a  nun. 
She  was  so  lovely,  so  fresh  and  so  fair.    Said  the  gentle  gallant  to  her: 
'Come,  sit  with  me  in  the  shade  and  never  more  shalt  thou  be  a  little  nun.' 
'  Gentle  gallant,  wait  here  for  me ;  I  will  go  and  put  off  my  habit  and  then 
I  will  come  back  to  you  in  the  shade.'  He  waited  for  her  three  days  and 
three  nights  and  never  came  the  fair  one.  The  gentle  gallant  goes  to  the 
monastery  and  knocks  at  the  great  door;  out  comes  the  mother  abbess: 
'What  are  you  looking  for,  gentle  gallant?'  'I  am  looking  for  a  little  nun, 
who  promised  to  come  into  the  shade.'  'You  once  had  the  quail  at  your 
feet  and  you  let  it  fly  away.    Even  so  has  flown  the  pretty  nun.'  "  Nigra, 
Canti  Popular!  del  Piemonte  (1888),  No.  72,  p.  381.  With  these  two  songs 
should  be  compared  the  English  poem  in  Percy's  Reliques,   called   The 


6l6  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP 

Another  version,  still  sung  in  many  parts  of  France,  is  called  The 
Ferry  Woman.  In  this  a  girl  ferrying  a  gentleman  from  court  across 
a  stream,  promises  him  her  love  in  return  for  two  thousand  pounds 
but  bids  him  wait  till  they  land  and  can  climb  to  the  top  room  o 
a  house.  But  when  the  gallant  leaps  ashore  she  pushes  off  her 
boat,  taking  the  money  with  her  and  crying:  "Galant,  j't'ai  passe 
la  riviere: 

Avec  ton  or  et  ton  argent 

Je  vais  entrer  dans  un  couvent, 
Dans  un  couvent  de  filles  vertueuses 
Pour  etre  un  jour  aussi  religieuse ! 

"Si  je  passe  par  le  couvent, 

J'irai  mettre  le  feu  dedans, 
Je  brulerai  la  tour  et  la  tourniere 
Pour  mieux  bruler  la  belle  bateliere"1. 

Occasionally  the  references  to  nuns  in  folk-songs  have  even  less 
significance.  Thus  one  of  the  metamorphoses  gone  through  by  the 
girl,  who  (in  a  very  common  folk  theme)  assumes  different  shapes 
to  elude  her  lover,  is  to  become  a  nun  : 

"Si  tu  me  suis  encore 
Comme  un  amant 
Je  me  ferai  nonne 
Dans  un  couvent, 
Et  jamais  tu  n'auras 
Mon  coeur  content." 

"  Si  tu  te  fais  nonne 

Dans  un  couvent 

Je  me  ferai 

Moine  chantant 

Pour  confesser  la  nonne 

Dans  le  couvent"2. 

Baffled  Knight  or  Lady's  Policy,  and  the  Somerset  folksong,  Blow  away  the 
morning  dew,  with  its  denouement: 

But  when  they  came  to  her  father's  gate 

So  nimble  she  popped  in, 
And  said  "There  is  a  fool  without 

And  here's  the  maid  within. 

We  have  a  flower  in  our  garden 

We  call  it  marygold — 
And  if  you  will  not  when  you  may 

You  shall  not  when  you  wolde." 

Folk  Songs  from  Somerset  (ist  Series,  1910),  ed.  Cecil  Sharp  and  Charles 
Marson,  No.  vm,  pp.  16-17. 

1  Fleury,  op.  cit.  p.   308.    Other  versions  in  De   Puymaigre,  op.  cit. 
pp.  145-8  (Nos.  XLV-XLVI). 

2  Holland,  op.  cit.  iv,  p.  31.   Cf.  versions  on  pp.  30,  32,  33.  The  theme 
recalls  a  pretty  poem  by  Leigh  Hunt: 

If  you  become  a  nun,  dear, 
A  friar  I  will  be; 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  617 

Again  in  Le  Canard  Blanc  occur  the  question  and  answer: 

Que  ferons  nous  de  tant  d'argent? 
Nous  mettrons  nos  filles  au  couvent 
Et  nos  gar9ons  au  regiment. 
Si  nos  fill's  ne  veul'  point  d'couvent 
Nous  les  marierons  richement1. 

One  very  curious  song  deserves  quotation,  a  Florentine  carnival 
song  of  the  time  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  written  by  one  Guglielmo 
called  //  Giuggiola.  It  retails  the  woes  of  some  poor  "Lacresine"  or 
"Lanclesine"  who  have  come  to  Rome  on  a  pilgrimage  and  been 
robbed  of  all  their  money  on  the  way,  and  the  ingenious  suggestion 
has  been  made  that  "Lacresine"  is  a  corruption  of  "Anglesine"  and 
that  the  song  is  supposed  to  be  sung  by  English  nuns;  certainly  it 
is  in  broken  Italian,  such  as  foreigners  would  use : 

Misericordia  et  caritate 

Alle  pofer  Lacresine 

Che  1'argente  pel  chammine 

Tutt'a  spese  et  consumate. 

Del  paese  basse  Magne, 

Dove  assai  fatiche  afute 

Tutte  noi  pofer  compagne 

Per  ir  Rome  sian  fenute. 

Ma  per  tanto  esser  piofute, 

Non  pofer  Lanclesine. 

Nelle  parte  di  Melane 

State  noi  mal  governate, 

Che  da  ladri  et  gente  strane 

Nostre  robe  star  furate; 

Talche  noi  tutte  bitate 

[Non  mai  pifo  far  tal  chammine.] 

Pero  pofer  Lanclesine 

Buon  messer  da  caritate. 


In  any  cell  you  run,  dear, 

Pray  look  behind  for  me 
The  roses  all  turn  pale,  too; 
The  doves  all  take  the  veil,  too; 

The  blind  will  see  the  show. 
What!  you  become  a  nun,  my  dear? 

I'll  not  believe  it,  no ! 
If  you  become  a  nun,  dear, 

The  bishop  Love  will  be  ; 
The  Cupids  every  one,  dear, 

Will  chant  "We  trust  in  thee." 
The  incense  will  go  sighing, 
The  candles  fall  a-dying, 

The  water  turn  to  wine ; 
What !  you  go  take  the  vows,  my  dear? 

You  may — but  they'll  be  mine ! 
1  Rolland,  op.  oil.  I,  p.  253,  cf.  pp.  249-54. 


618  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

Queste  pofer  Nastasie 
Le  fu  tutte  rotte  stiene 
Talche  sue  gran  malattie 
Per  vergognia  sotto  tiene. 
Cosl  zoppe  far  conviene 
Con  fatiche  suo  chammine 
Pero  pofer  Lanclesine 
Buon  messer  da  caritate. 
Chi  e  dijote  San  Branchatie 
Che  star  tant'  in  ciel  potente. 
Per  afer  sue  sancte  gratie 
Voglia  a  noi  donare  argente, 
Che  le  pofer  malcontente 
Pessin  compier  lor  chammine, 
Per6  pofer  Lanclesine 
Buon  messer  da  caritate1. 

"Pity  and  charity  for  poor  English  ladies,  who  have  spent  and  used 
up  all  their  money  on  the  road.  From  the  land  of  low  Germany,  where  we 
have  had  great  difficulties,  all  we  poor  sisters  are  on  our  way  to  Rome, 
but  because  it  has  rained  so  hard,  we  have  not  been  able  to  continue  our 
road.  Therefore,  good  sirs,  give  alms  to  us  poor  English  ladies.  In  the  district 
of  Milan  ill-used  were  we,  for  thieves  and  strangers  stole  all  our  goods; 
so  buffetted  were  we,  never  again  will  we  go  on  such  a  journey.  Therefore, 
good  sirs,  give  alms  to  us  poor  English  ladies.  Poor  Anastasia  was  so  knocked 
about,  that  in  shame  she  hides  her  ill  and  must  needs  continue  her  road 
limping.  Therefore,  good  sirs,  give  alms  to  us  poor  English  ladies.  Whoever 
is  a  devotee  of  St  Pancras,  who  is  so  powerful  in  heaven,  whoever  wishes 
to  have  his  grace,  let  him  give  us  money,  so  that  we  poor  miserable  creatures 
may  get  to  our  journey's  end;  therefore,  good  sirs,  give  alms  to  us  poor 
English  ladies." 

Sometimes  the  nun  is  found  playing  a  part  in  the  romantic  ballad- 
literature  of  Europe.  A  Rhineland  legend  of  the  dance  of  death, 
interesting  because  it  embodies  the  names  and  dates  of  the  actors, 
has  for  its  setting  a  convent;  it  is  thus  summarised  by  Countess 
Martinengo-Cesaresco 2  : 

In  the  fourteenth  century  Freiherr  von  Metternich  placed  his  daughter  Ida 
in  a  convent  on  the  island  of  Oberworth,  in  order  to  separate  her  from  her 
lover,  one  Gerbert,  to  whom  she  was  secretly  betrothed.  A  year  later  the 
maiden  lay  sick  in  the  nunnery,  attended  by  an  aged  lay  sister.  "Alas!" 
she  said  "I  die  unwed  though  a  betrothed  wife."  "Heaven  forfend !  "  cried 
her  companion,  "then  you  would  be  doomed  to  dance  the  death-dance." 
The  old  sister  went  on  to  explain  that  betrothed  maidens  who  die  without 
having  either  married  or  taken  religious  vows,  are  condemned  to  dance 
on  a  grassless  spot  in  the  middle  of  the  island,  there  being  but  one  chance 
of  escape,  the  coming  of  a  lover,  no  matter  whether  the  original  betrothed 

1  Chants  de  Carnaval  Florentins  (Canti  Carnascialeschi)  de  I'epoque  de 
Laurent  le  Magnifique.  Pub.  par  P.  M.  Masson  (Paris,  1913).  For  a  copy 
of  the  song  and  for  the  suggestion  that  it  refers  to  English  nuns  I  am  in 
debted  to  Mr  E.  J.  Dent  of  King's  College,  Cambridge.  But  the  mention 
of  Low  Germany  sounds  more  like  German  nuns. 

1  Countess  Martinengo-Cesaresco,  Essays  in  the  Study  of  Folksongs 
(Everyman's  Lib.  Ed.),  pp.  191-2. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  619 

or  another,  with  whom  the  whole  party  dances  round  and  round  till  he 
dies;  then  the  youngest  of  the  ghosts  makes  him  her  own  and  may  hence 
forth  rest  in  her  grave.  The  old  nun's  gossip  does  not  delay  the  hapless 
Ida's  departure,  and  Gerbert,  who  hears  of  her  illness  on  the  shores  of  the 
Boden  See,  arrives  at  Coblenz  only  to  have  tidings  of  her  death.  He  rows 
over  to  Oberworth;  it  is  midnight  in  midwinter.  Under  the  moonlight 
dance  the  unwed  brides,  veiled  and  in  flowing  robes;  Gerbert  thinks  he 
sees  Ida  among  them.  He  joins  the  dance;  fast  and  furious  it  becomes, 
to  the  sound  of  a  wild  unearthly  music.  At  last  the  clock  strikes  and  the 
ghosts  vanish — only  one,  as  it  goes,  seems  to  stoop  and  kiss  the  youth, 
who  sinks  to  the  ground.  There  the  gardener  finds  him  on  the  morrow,  and 
in  spite  of  all  the  care  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  sisterhood,  he  dies  before 
sundown. 

Another  German  ballad,  taken  down  fiom  oral  recitation,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  opens  with  a  good  swing: 

Stund  ich  auf  hohen  bergen 
Und  sah  ich  iiber  den  Rhein 
Ein  Schimein  sah  ich  fahren, 
Drei  Ritter  waren  drein. 

"I  stood  upon  a  high  mountain  and  looked  out  over  the  Rhine,  and  I  saw 
three  knights  come  sailing  in  a  little  boat.  The  youngest  was  a  lord's  son, 
and  fain  would  have  wed  me,  young  as  he  was.  He  drew  a  little  golden 
ring  from  off  his  finger,  "Take  this,  my  fair,  my  lovely  one,  but  do  not  wear 
it  till  I  am  dead."  "What  shall  I  do  with  the  little  ring,  if  I  may  not  wear 
it?"  "O  say  you  found  it  out  in  the  green  grass."  "O  that  would  be  a  lie 
and  evil.  Far  sooner  would  I  say  that  the  young  lord  was  my  husband." 
"O  maiden,  were  you  but  wealthy,  came  you  but  of  noble  kin,  were  we 
but  equals,  gladly  would  I  wed  you."  "Though  I  may  not  be  rich  yet  am  I 
not  without  honour,  and  my  honour  I  will  keep,  until  one  who  is  my  equal 
comes  for  me."  "But  if  your  equal  never  comes,  what  then?"  "Then  I 
will  go  into  a  convent  and  become  a  nun."  There  had  not  gone  by  a  quarter 
of  a  year  when  the  lord  had  an  evil  dream;  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  love 
of  his  heart  was  gone  into  a  convent.  "Rise  up,  rise  up,  my  trusty  man, 
saddle  horses  for  thee  and  me.  We  will  ride  over  mountains  and  through 
valleys — the  maid  is  worth  all  the  world."  And  when  they  came  to  the 
I  convent,  they  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  tall  house,  "Come  forth,  my  fair, 
my  lovely  one,  come  forth  for  but  a  minute."  "Wherefore  should  I  come 
forth?  Short  hair  have  I,  my  locks  they  have  cut  off — for  a  long  year  has 
passed."  Despair  filled  the  lord's  heart;  he  sank  upon  a  stone  and  wept 
glittering  tears  and  could  never  be  glad  again.  With  her  snow-white  little 
hands  she  dug  the  lord  a  grave  and  the  tears  fell  for  him  out  of  her  brown 
eyes.  And  to  all  young  men  this  happens  who  seek  after  great  wealth. 
They  set  their  love  upon  beautiful  women;  but  beauty  and  riches  go  not 
always  hand  in  hand1. 

It  is  a  strange  thing  that  in  all  the  ballad  and  folk-song  literature 
of  England  and  Scotland  there  should  be  one  and  only  one  reference 
to  a  nun.  But  that  reference  is  a  profoundly  interesting  one,  for  it 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fine  ballad  of  the  Death  of  Robin  Hood,  which 


1  L.   A.  v.   Arnim  und  Clemens  Brentano,  Des  Kndben   Wunderhorn 
j(Reclam  ed.),  p.  50. 


i 


620  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP.  I 

tells  how  the  great  outlaw  came  to  his  end  through  the  treachery 
of  the  Prioress  of  Kirklees : 

When  Robin  Hood  and  Little  John 

Down  a-down,  a-down,  a-down, 
Went  o'er  yon  bank  of  broom 
Said  Robin  Hood  to  Little  John, 
"We  have  shot  for  many  a  pound: 
Hey  down,  a-down,  a-down. 

"  But  I  am  not  able  to  shoot  one  shot  more, 

My  broad  arrows  will  not  flee; 
But  I  have  a  cousin  lives  down  below, 

Please  God,  she  will  bleed  me." 

"I  will  never  eat  nor  drink,"  he  said, 

"Nor  meat  will  do  me  good, 
Till  I  have  been  to  merry  Kirkleys 

My  veins  for  to  let  blood. 

"The  dame  prior  is  my  aunt's  daughter. 

And  nigh  unto  my  kin; 
I  know  she  wo'ld  me  no  harm  this  day 

For  all  the  world  to  win." 

"That  I  rede  not,"  said  Little  John, 

"Master,  by  th'  assent  of  me, 
Without  half  a  hundred  of  your  best  bowmen 

You  take  to  go  with  yee." 

"An  thou  be  afear'd,  thou  Little  John, 

At  home  I  rede  thee  be." 
"An  you  be  wrath,  my  deare  master 

You  shall  never  hear  more  of  me." 

Now  Robin  is  gone  to  merry  Kirkleys 

And  knocked  upon  the  pin ; 
Up  then  rose  Dame  Prioress 

And  let  good  Robin  in. 

Then  Robin  gave  to  Dame  Prioress 

Twenty  pounds  in  gold, 
And  bade  her  spend  while  that  did  last, 

She  sho'ld  have  more  when  she  wo'ld. 

"Will  you  please  to  sit  down,  cousin  Robin; 

And  drink  some  beer  with  me?  " — 
"No,  I  will  neither  eat  nor  drink 

Till  I  am  blooded  by  thee." 

Down  then  came  Dame  Prioress 

Down  she  came  in  that  ilk, 
With  a  pair  of  blood-irons  in  her  hand, 

Were  wrapped  all  in  silk. 

"Set  a  chafing  dish  to  the  fire,"  she  said. 

"And  strip  thou  up  thy  sleeve." 
— I  hold  him  but  an  unwise  man 

That  will  no  warning  'leeve. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  621 

She  laid  the  blood-irons  to  Robin's  vein, 

Alack  the  more  pitye ! 
And  pierc'd  the  vein,  and  let  out  the  blood 

That  full  red  was  to  see. 

And  first  it  bled  the  thick,  thick  blood, 

And  afterwards  the  thin, 
And  well  then  wist  good  Robin  Hood 

Treason  there  was  within. 

And  there  she  blooded  bold  Robin  Hood 

While  one  drop  of  blood  wou'd  run; 
There  did  he  bleed  the  livelong  day, 

Until  the  next  of  morn. 

Then  Robin,  locked  in  the  room  and  too  weak  to  escape  by  the  case 
ment,  blew  three  weak  blasts  upon  his  horn,  and  Little  John  came 
hurrying  to  Kirklees  and  burst  open  two  or  three  locks  and  so  found 
his  dying  master.  "A  boon,  a  boon!"  cried  Little  John: 

"What  is  that  boon,"  said  Robin  Hood 

"Little  John,  thou  begs  of  me?  "- 
"It  is  to  burn  fair  Kirkleys-hall 

And  all  their  nunnerye." 

"Now  nay,  now  nay,"  quoth  Robin  Hood, 

"That  boon  I'll  not  grant  thee; 
I  never  hurt  woman  in  all  my  life, 

Nor  men  in  their  company." 

"I  never  hurt  maid  in  all  my  time, 

Nor  at  mine  end  shall  it  be; 
But  give  me  my  bent  bow  in  my  hand, 

And  a  broad  arrow  I'll  let  flee; 
And  where  this  arrow  is  taken  up 

There  shall  my  grave  digg'd  be1." 

So  died  bold  Robin  Hood.  The  English  boy  nurtured  on  his  country's 
ballads,  has  little  cause  to  love  the  memory  of  the  nun. 

1  The  Oxford  Book  of  Ballads,  ed.  Quiller-Couch  (1910),  p.  635  (No.  125). 
j  In  the  long  collection  of  ballads  narrating  Robin  Hood's  career  known  as 
A  Little  Geste  of  Robin  Hood  and  his  Meiny  (which  was  in  print  early  in  the 
sixteenth  century)  the  Prioress  is  said  to  have  conspired  with  her  lover,  one 
I  Sir  Roger  of  Doncaster,  to  slay  Robin.  Ib.  p.  574.  In  the  version  in  Bishop 
|  Percy's  famous  folio  MS.  "  Red  Roger  "  is  described  as  stabbing  the  weakened 
S  outlaw,  but  losing  his  own  life  in  the  act.  Bishop  Percy's  Folio  MS.  ed. 
!  Hales  and  Furnivall  (1867),  i,  pp.  5°-58.  "In  'Le  Morte  de  Robin  Hode,' 
I  a  quite  modern  piece  printed  in  Hone's  Every-day  Book  from  an  old  col- 
j  lection  of  MS.  songs  in  the  Editor's  possession,  the  prioress  is  represented 
I  as  the  outlaw's  sister  and  as  poisoning  him."  Ib.  p.  53. 


622  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 


NOTE  J. 

THE  THEME  OF  THE  NUN  IN  LOVE  IN  MEDIEVAL 
POPULAR  LITERATURE. 

IT  may  be  of  interest  to  note  some  further  examples  of  the  nun  in 
love  as  a  theme  for  medieval  tales,  and  in  particular:  (i)  other 
versions  of  the  eloping  nun  theme,  (2)  the  story  of  the  abbess  who 
was  with  child  and  was  delivered  by  the  Virgin,  and  (3)  some  other 
contes  gras. 

(i)  Various  versions  of  the  eloping  nun  tale  enjoyed  popularity, 
though  never  as  great  popularity  as  was  enjoyed  by  the  story  of 
Beatrice  the  Sacristan.  An  old  French  version  in  the  form  of  a  miracle 
play  tells  of  a  knight,  who  loved  a  nun  and  persuaded  her  to  leave 
her  convent  with  him;  but  she  saluted  the  Virgin's  image  in  passing 
and  twice  the  image  descended  from  its  pedestal  and  barred  her  way 
when  she  tried  to  pass  the  door,  until  at  last  she  ran  by  without 
saluting  it  and  escaped  with  her  lover.  They  married  and  had  two 
children  and  lived  happily  together  for  several  years.  Then  one  day 
Our  Lady  came  down  from  heaven  to  seek  her  faithless  friend.  She 
bade  the  nun  return  and  the  husband,  hearing  this,  was  moved  in 
his  heart  and  said  "  since  for  love  of  me  thou  didst  leave  thy  convent, 
for  love  of  thee  I  will  leave  the  world  and  become  a  monk."  Thus 
they  departed  together  and  their  babies  were  left  to  cry  for  mother 
and  father  in  vain1. 

In  another  story  the  nun,  trying  to  insert  the  key  of  the  convent  i 
into  the  lock  and  make  her  escape,  was  prevented  by  some  invisible 
object,  which  formed  a  barrier  between  her  and  the  lock;  she  beat  and 
pushed  in  vain  and  at  last  turned  to  go,  and  saw  in  her  path,  the 
Virgin  with  white  hands  bleeding.  "  Behold,"  said  the  Virgin,  "  it  was 
I  who  withstood  thee  and  see  what,  thou  hast  done  to  me"2.  In 
another  a  nun,  the  sacristan  of  a  convent,  was  tempted  by  a  clerk 
and  agreed  to  meet  him  after  Compline.  But  when  she  was  trying 
to  pass  through  the  door  of  the  chapel,  she  saw  Christ  standing  in 
the  arch,  with  hands  outspread,  as  though  upon  the  cross.  She  ran  to 
another  doorway  and  to  another  and  to  another,  but  in  each  she 
found  the  crucifix.  Then,  coming  to  herself,  she  recognised  her  sin 
and  flung  herself  before  an  image  of  the  Virgin  to  ask  pardon.  The 
image  turned  away  its  face;  then,  as  the  trembling  nun  redoubled 
her  entreaties,  stretched  out  its  arm  and  dealt  her  a  buffet  saying: 
"Foolish  one,  whither  wouldst  thou  go?  return  to  thy  dorter."  And 
so  powerful  was  the  Virgin's  blow  that  the  nun  was  knocked  down 
thereby  and  lay  unconscious  upon  the  floor  of  the  chapel  until 

1  Miracles  de  Nostre  Dame  par  Personnages,  pub.  G.  Paris  and  U.  Robert 
(Sex:,  des  Anc.  Textes  Francais.  1876),  t.  i,  pp.  311-51. 

1  Translated  in  Evelyn  Underbill,  The  Miracles  of  Our  Lady  Saint  Mary 
(1905),  pp.  195-200. 


I]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  623 

morning1.  In  another  version  the  nun  falls  asleep  on  the  night  upon 
which  the  elopement  is  fixed  and  has  a  vivid  dream  of  the  pains  of 
hell,  from  which  she  is  rescued  by  the  Virgin,  who  exhorts  her  to 
chastity,  so  that  she  awakes  and  sends  away  her  lover's  messenger2. 
In  another  the  Virgin's  image  prevents  the  nun  from  going  through 
one  door,  but  she  escapes  by  another  and  is  seduced  3.  A  more  rational 
version  makes  the  nun  strike  her  head  so  violently  against  the  lintel 
of  the  door,  by  which  she  is  trying  to  escape,  that  she  is  rendered 
unconscious  and  when  she  recovers  her  senses  the  temptation  has 
gone  from  her  and  she  returns  to  her  bed4.  In  another  the  nun  packs 
her  clothes  into  two  bundles  and  passes  them  out  of  the  window 
to  her  lover,  climbing  out  after  them  herself;  but  thieves  intercept 
her  and  her  bundles  and  carry  them  off  into  a  wood.  The  unhappy 
nun  calls  upon  the  Virgin  for  help  and  forthwith  falls  into  a  deep 
sleep,  from  which  she  awakes  to  find  herself  back  in  her  dorter,  with 
the  bundles  beside  her5.  A  rather  different  tale  of  the  nun  turned 
courtesan  makes  her  return  after  many  years  to  her  convent,  where 
by  meditating  upon  the  childhood  of  Christ  she  is  reconverted6. 

(2)  Another  theme,  which  is  almost  as  widespread  as  that  of  the 
eloping  nun,  is  that  known  as  I'abbesse  grosse.  In  this  an  abbess,  who 
was  famed  for  the  strict  discipline  which  she  kept  among  her  nuns, 
fell  in  love  with  her  clerk  and  became  his  mistress,  so  that  she  soon 
knew  herself  to  be  with  child : 

Then  it  happened  that  she  waxed  great  and  drew  near  her  time  and  her 
sisters  the  nuns  perceived,  and  were  passing  fain  thereof,  because  she  was  so 
strait  unto  them,  that  they  might  have  a  cause  to  accuse  her  in.  And  her 
accusers  gart  write  unto  the  bishop  and  let  him  wit  thereof  and  desired  him 
to  come  unto  their  place  and  see  her.  So  he  granted  and  the  day  of  him 
coming  drew  near.  And  this  abbess,  that  was  great  with  child,  made  mickle 
sorrow  and  wist  never  what  she  might  do;  and  she  had  a  privy  chapel 
within  her  chamber,  where  she  was  wont  daily  as  devoutly  as  she  couth 
[knew  how]  to  say  Our  Lady's  matins.  And  she  went  in  there  and  sparred 
the  door  unto  her  and  fell  devoutly  on  knees  before  the  image  of  Our  Lady 
and  made  her  prayer  unto  her  and  wept  sore  for  her  sin  and  besought  Our 
Lady  for  to  help  her  and  save  her,  that  she  were  not  shamed  when  the 
bishop  came.  So  in  her  prayers  she  happened  to  fall  on  sleep,  and  Our 
Lady,  as  her  thought,  appeared  unto  her  with  two  angels,  and  comforted 
her  and  said  unto  her  in  this  manner  of  wise:  "I  have  heard  thy  prayer 
and  I  have  gotten  of  my  son  forgiveness  of  thy  sin  and  deliverance  of  thy 

1  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  n,  pp.  41-2.  "Although  the  buffet  was  hard," 
says  Caesarius,  conscious  perhaps  that  the  Virgin  had  acted  with  less  than 
her  wonted  gentleness,  "she  was  utterly  delivered  from  temptation  by  it. 
A  grievous  ill  requires  a  grievous  remedy." 

Gautier  de  Coincy,  Miracles  de  N.D.,  ed.  Poquet,  p.  474. 

Exempla  of  Jacques  de  Vitry,  ed.  Crane,  p.  24.  See  variant  in  An 
Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  p.  321. 

Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  Dial.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange,  i,  pp.  222-3. 

Wright,  Latin  Stones,  p.  96. 

Etienne  de  Bourbon,  Anecdotes  Histonques,  ed.  Lecoy  de  la  Marche, 
p.  83  (translated  in  Taylor,  The  Medieval  Mind,  I,  pp.  5°8-9)- 


624  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

confusion."  And  anon  she  was  delivered  of  her  child  and  Our  Lady  chared 
these  two  angels  to  have  it  unto  an  hermit  and  charged  him  to  bring  it°up 
unto  it  was  seven  years  old;  and  they  did  as  she  commanded  them-  and 
anon  Our  Lady  vanished  away.  And  then  this  abbess  wakened  and  felt 
herself  delivered  of  her  child  and  whole  and  sound. 

In  the  sequel  the  bishop  came  to  the  house  and  could  find  no  sign 
that  the  abbess  was  with  child  and  was  about  to  punish  her  accusers, 
when  she  told  him  the  whole  tale.  He  sent  messengers  to  the  hermit 
and  there  the  child  was  found;  and  (in  fairy  tale  phrase,  for  what  are 
these  but  religious  fairy  tales),  they  all  lived  happy  ever  after 
wards1. 

(3)  Ribald  stories  on  the  same  theme  are,  naturally  enough,  common 
in  medieval  literature,  which  never  spared  the  Church.  A  few  of  the 
more  interesting  may  here  be  added  to  those  quoted  or  referred  to 
in  the  text.  The  Cento  Novelle  Antiche  contains  a  curious  tale  of  a 
Countess  and  her  maidens,  who,  having  disgraced  themselves  with 
a  porter,  retired  to  hide  their  shame  in  a  nunnery;  the  story  continues 
thus: 

They  became  nuns  and  built  a  convent  that  is  called  the  Convent  of  Rimini. 
The  fame  of  this  convent  spread  and  it  became  very  wealthy.  And  this 
story  is  narrated  as  true,  viz.  they  had  a  custom  that  when  any  cavaliers 
passed  by  that  had  rich  armour  the  abbess  and  her  attendants  met  them 
on  the  threshold  and  served  them  with  all  sorts  of  good  fare  and  accompanied 
them  to  table  and  to  bed.  In  the  morning  they  provided  them  with  water 
for  washing  and  then  gave  them  a  needle  and  thread  of  silk  for  them  to 
thread  and  if  they  could  not  accomplish  this  in  three  tries,  she  took  from 
them  all  their  armour  and  accoutrement  and  sent  them  away  empty,  but 
if  they  succeeded  she  allowed  them  to  retain  their  possessions  and  gave 
them  presents  of  jewellery,  etc.2 

Francesco  da  Barberino  in  his  book  of  deportment,  Del  reggimento 
e  costumi  di  donne,  has  a  tale  of  a  convent  in  Spain,  which  Satan 
receives  permission  to  tempt;  accordingly  his  emissary  Rasis  sends 
into  the  house  three  young  men,  disguised  as  nuns,  to  whom  all  the 

1  I  have  used  the  version  in  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  11-12. 
For  other  versions,  see  Miracles  de  Nostre  Dame  (Soc.  des  Aiic.  Textes) 
J-  PP-  59-100.  For  other  versions,  see  Etienne  de  Bourbon,  op.  cit.  p.  114, 
Wright,  op.  cit,  p.  114,  Barbazon  et  M6on,  Nouveau  Recueil  de  Fabliaux, 
II,  p.  314,  Dodici  conti  morali  d'anonimo  Senese:  Teste  inedite  del  sec  xni 
(Bologna,  1862),  No.  8;  Small,  Eng.  Metrical  Homilies,  p.  164.  There  is  a 
very  interesting  Ethiopian  version  (told  of  Sophia  the  abbess  of  Mount 
Carmel)  in  Miracles  of  the  B.V.M.  (Lady  Meux  MSS.),  ed.  E.  A.  Wallis 
Budge  (1900),  pp.  68-71.  Most  versions  preserve  the  interesting  detail 
that  the  nuns  dislike  their  abbess  and  are  anxious  to  betray  her  on  account 
of  her  strictness  and  particularly  because  she  will  not  give  them  easy 
licence  to  see  their  friends.  In  the  French  dramatic  version  Sister  Isabel 
stays  away  from  a  sermon  and  gives  as  her  excuse  that  a  cousin  came  to 
see  her,  with  some  cloth  to  make  a  veil  and  a  "surplis,"  whereupon  she  is 
scolded  and  then  pardoned  by  the  Abbess. 

2  Le  Cento  Novelle  Antiche,  ed.  Gualteruzzi  (Milan,  1825),  No.  62. 
I  quote  the  translation  by  A.  C.  Lee,  The  Decameron,  its  Sources  and 
Analogues,  p.  60. 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  625 

nuns  and  the  Abbess  in  turn  succumb l.  In  one  Italian  version  of  an 
extremely  widespread  theme,  found  among  the  Novelle  of  Masuccio 
Guardata  da  Salerno  (1442-1501),  a  Dominican  friar  deceives  a  devout 
and  high-born  nun.  The  story  is  thus  summarised  by  A.  C.  Lee: 
In  one  of  her  books  of  devotion  were  some  pictures  of  saints,  amongst 
others  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity;  from  the  mouth  of  this  figure  he 
makes  proceed  the  words  in  letters  of  gold,  "Barbara,  you  will  conceive 
of  a  holy  man  and  give  birth  to  the  fifth  evangelist."  He  acts  as  the  holy 
man  and  on  the  lady  becoming  enceinte  he  deserts  her2. 

Among  medieval  French  stories  may  be  mentioned  those  which 
occur  in  Les  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  a  fifteenth  century  collection 
of  tales,  probably  written  by  Antoine  de  la  Sale  in  imitation  of  the 
Cento  Novelle.   No.  XV,  concerning  the  relations  between  two  neigh 
bouring  houses  of  monks  and  nuns  respectively,  is  too  gross  to  be 
summarised;   No.   XXI  is  the  story  of  the  sick  abbess,   who  was 
recommended  by  her  physician  to  take  a  lover  and  out  of  respect 
for  her  all  her  nuns  did  the  same;  No.  XLVI  is  one  of  the  many 
tales  of  a  Jacobin  friar,  who  haunted  a  convent  and  obtained  the 
favours  of  a  nun3.  These  are  really  prose  fabliaux;  and  verse  fabliaux 
on  this  theme  are  not  wanting,  for  example  Watriquet  Brassenal's 
story  of  The  Three  Canonesses  of  Cologne*  and  the  most  indecent 
fabliau  of  The  Three  Ladies5.  There  is  a  rather  delightful  and  merry 
little  German  poem  called  Daz  Maere  von  dem  Sperwaere,  which  is 
a  version  of  the  popular  French  fabliau  of  The  Crane®.  In  this  thirteenth 
century  poem  a  little  nun,  who  has  never  seen  the  world,  looks  over 
her  convent  wall  and  sees  a  knight  with  a  sparrow  hawk ;  she  begs  for 
I  it  and  he  says  he  will  sell  it  her  for  "love,"  a  thing  of  which  she  has 
!  never  heard.    He  teaches  her  what  it  is  and  gives  her  the  sparrow 
!  hawk.    But  the  nun,  her  schoolmistress,  is  so  angry  with  her,  that  she 
j  watches  on  the  wall  again  and  next  time  the  knight  passes,  she  makes 
J  him  give  her  back  her  "love"  and  take  the  sparrow  hawk  again7. 

English  versions  of  these  tales  are  extremely  rare;  for  the  English 
!  were  always  less  adroit  than  the  French  and  the  Italians  in  the  matter 
!  of  contes  gras.  The  nun  theme  occasionally  appears,  however,  in  the 
I  sixteenth  century ;  Boccaccio's  "  breeches  "  story  is  in  Thomas  Twyne's 
*The  Schoolmaster  (i576)8  and  the  behaviour  of  nuns  and  "friars"  at 

1  Francesco  da  Barberino,  Del  Reggimento  e  Costumi  di  Donne,  ed.  Carlo 
jBaudi  di  Vesme  (Bologna,  1875),  p.  273.   See  A.  C.  Lee,  loc.  cit. 

2  A.  C.  Lee,  op.  cit.  p.  125.  The  story  is  of  Eastern  origin  and  for  its 
:many  analogues  see  ib.  pp.  123-35. 

3  Les  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  ed.  Th.  Wright  (Bib.  Elzevirienne,  1858), 
It.  i,  pp.  81-4,  114-20,  283-7. 

4  Montaiglon  et  Raynaud,  Rec.  Gen.  des  Fabliaux,  in,  pp.  137-44. 

5  Ib.  iv,  pp.  128-32. 

6  Barbazon  et  Meon,  Nouv.  Rec.  de  Fabliaux,  iv,  p.  250. 

7  Erzahlungen  und  Schwanke,  hrsg.  von  Hans  Lambel  (Leipzig,  1888), 
No.  vin,  pp.  309—22. 

8  Koeppel,  Studien  zuv  Geschichte  der  italienischen  Novelle  in  der  englischen 
\Litteratur  des  XVI  Jahrhunderts  (1892),  p.  183. 

P.N.  40 


626  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

Swineshead  Abbey  forms  a  comic  interlude  in  The  Troublesome  Raigne 
of  King  John  (1591),  which  was  one  of  the  sources  used  by  Shakespeare 
in  his  more  famous  play.  In  Scene  x  of  the  old  play  Philip  Falcon- 
bridge  comes  to  Swineshead,  with  his  soldiers,  and  bids  a  friar  show 
him  where  the  abbot's  treasure  is  hid.  They  break  open  a  chest  and 
a  nun  is  discovered  inside  it.  The  friar  cries: 

Oh,  I  am  undone 
Fair  Alice  the  nun 
Hath  took  up  her  rest 
In  the  Abbot's  chest. 
Sante  benedicite, 
Pardon  my  simplicity 
Fie,  Alice,  confession 
Will  not  salve  this  transgression. 
Philip  remarks: 

What  have  we  here?  a  holy  nun?  so  keep  me  God  in  health, 

A  smooth-faced  nun,  for  aught  I  know,  is  all  the  abbot's  wealth. 

The  nuns  begs  for  the  life  of  the  first  friar  and  offers  in  exchange  to 
show  Philip  a  chest  containing  the  hoard  of  an  ancient  nun.  They 
pick  the  lock  and  discover  a  friar  within.  The  first  friar  cries: 

Friar  Laurence,  my  lord; 

Now  holy  water  help  us: 

Some  witch  or  some  devil  is  sent  to  delude  us: 

Hand  credo,  Laurentius, 

That  thou  shouldst  be  pen'd  thus 

In  the  press  of  a  nun : 

We  are  all  undone, 

And  brought  to  discredence, 

If  thou  be  Friar  Laurence. 

Philip's  comment  is  pertinent: 

How  goes  this  gear?  the  friar's  chest  fill'd  with  a  sausen  nun. 

The  nun  again  locks  friar  up  to  keep  him  from  the  sun. 

Belike  the  press  is  purgatory,  or  penance  passing  grievous: 

The  friar's  chest  a  hell  for  nuns!    How  do  these  dolts  deceive  us? 

Is  this  the  labour  of  their  lives,  to  feed  and  live  at  ease  ? 

To  revel  so  lasciviously  as  often  as  they  please? 

I'll  mend  the  fault,  or  fault  my  aim,  if  I  do  miss  amending; 

'Tis  better  burn  the  cloisters  down  than  leave  them  for  offending. 

Eventually,  Friar  Laurence  buys  his  freedom  for  a  hundred  pounds1. 
In  conclusion  may  be  mentioned  the  entertaining  little  English 
fabliau,  which  was  at  one  time  attributed  to  Lydgate,  called  The  Tale 
of  the  Lady  Prioress  and  her  three  Suitors',  this  is  not  a  conte  gras,  but 
recounts  the  adroit  expedient,  by  which  a  prioress  succeeded  in  ridding 
herself  of  her  three  wooers,  a  knight,  a  parson  and  a  merchant2. 

1  King  John  by  William  Shakespeare  together  with  the  Troublesome  Reign 
of  King  John,  ed.  F.  G.  Fleay  (1878),  pp.  158-62. 

*  Printed  in  A  Selection  from  the  Minor  Poems  of  Dan  John  Lydgate,  ed. 
J.  O.  Halliwell  (Percy  Soc.  1840),  pp.  107-17.  Professor  MacCracken  denies 
the  authorship  to  Lydgate,  see  The  Minor  Poems  of  John  Lydgate,  ed. 
H.  N.  MacCracken  (E.E.T.S.  1911),  i,  p.  xlii  (note). 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  627 


NOTE  K. 

NUNS  IN  THE  DIALOGUS  MIRACULORUM  OF 
CAESARIUS  OF  HEISTERBACH. 

THE  Dialogus  Miraculorum,  written  between  1220  and  1235  by 
Caesarius,  Prior  and  Teacher  of  the  Novices  in  the  Cistercian  Abbey 
of  Heisterbach  in  the  Siebengebirge,  is  one  of  the  most  entertaining 
books  of  the  middle  ages1.  Caesarius  in  a  prologue  describes  how  it 
came  to  be  written  and  the  plan  upon  which  it  is  arranged,  taking 
as  his  text  a  quotation  from  John  vi.  12:  "Gather  up  the  fragments 
lest  they  perish": 

Since  I  was  wont  to  recite  to  the  novices,  as  in  duty  bound,  some  of  the 
miracles  which  have  taken  place  in  our  time  and  daily  are  taking  place  in 
our  order,  several  of  them  besought  me  most  instantly  to  perpetuate  the 
same  in  writing.  For  they  said  that  it  would  be  an  irreparable  disaster  if 
these  things  should  perish  from  forgetfulness  which  might  be  an  edification 
to  posterity.  And  since  I  was  all  unready  to  do  so,  now  for  lack  of  the  Latin 
tongue,  now  by  reason  of  the  detraction  of  envious  men,  there  came  at 
length  the  command  of  my  own  abbot,  to  say  naught  of  the  advice  of  the 
abbot  of  Marienstatt,  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  me  to  disobey.  Mindful 
also  of  the  aforesaid  saying  of  the  Saviour,  while  others  break  up  whole 
loaves  for  the  crowd  (that  is  to  say,  expound  difficult  questions  of  the 
Scriptures  or  write  the  more  signal  deeds  of  modern  days)  I,  collecting  the 
falling  crumbs,  from  lack  not  of  good  will  but  of  scholarship,  have  filled 
with  them  twelve  baskets.  For  I  have  divided  the  whole  book  into  as  many 
divisions.  The  first  division  tells  of  conversion,  the  second  of  contrition, 
the  third  of  confession,  the  fourth  of  temptation,  the  fifth  of  demons,  the 

j  sixth  of  the  power  of  simplicity,  the  seventh  of  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary, 

I  the  eighth  of  divers  visions,  the  ninth  of  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  the  tenth  of  miracles,  the  eleventh  of  the  dying,  the  twelfth 
of  the  pains  and  glories  of  the  dead.  Moreover  in  order  that  I  might  the 
more  easily  arrange  the  examples,  I  have  introduced  two  persons  in  the 
manner  of  a  dialogue,  to  wit  a  novice  asking  questions  and  a  monk  replying 
to  them.... I  have  also  inserted  many  things  which  took  place  outside  the 

[[Cistercian]  order,  because  they  were  edifying,  and  like  the  rest  had  been 
told  to  me  by  religious  men.  God  is  my  witness  that  I  have  not  invented 
a  single  chapter  in  this  dialogue.  If  anything  therein  perchance  fell  about 

j  otherwise  than  I  have  written  it,  the  fault  should  rather  be  imputed  to  those 

'who  told  it  to  me2. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  sketch  that  the  book  is  really  a  collection 
iof  stories  grouped  round  certain  subjects  which  they  are  intended 
|to  illustrate  and  connected  by  a  slender  thread  of  dialogue.  Such 

1  The  edition  used  is  that  of  Joseph  Strange  in  two  volumes  (Cologne, 
Bonn  and  Brussels,  1851).  For  a  study  of  the  life  and  times  of  Caesarius, 
see  A.  Kaufmann,  Caesarius  von  Heisterbach,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Kulturge- 
\schichte  des  zwolften  und  dreizehnten  Jahrhunderts  (Cologne,  1850).  For 
lanecdotes  from  this  source  already  quoted  in  the  text,  see  pp.  27-9,  296-7, 
'511,  520  ff.,  etc. 

8  Op.  cit.  i,  pp.  1-2. 

40 — 2 


628  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

collections  of  exempla  are  nearly  always  valuable,  but  the  work  of 
Caesarius  is  particularly  so,  because  he  does  not  confine  himself  to 
"stock"  stories,  but  relates  many  with  details  of  time  and  place, 
drawn  from  his  own  experience  and  from  that  of  his  friends.  The  book 
is  full  of  local  colour  and  gives  an  exceedingly  vivid  picture  of  lay 
and  ecclesiastical  life  in  medieval  Germany.  For  our  purpose  it  is 
interesting  because  it  contains  many  exempla  concerning  nuns,  and 
any  reader  attracted  by  this  particular  class  of  didactic  literature 
may  be  glad  to  add  some  more  stories  to  those  quoted  in  the  text. 
Caesarius  has  much  to  say  of  the  devil,  a  very  visible  and  audible 
and  tangible  devil  and  one  who  can  be  smelt  with  the  nose.  His 
tales  of  devil-haunted  nuns  display  a  side  of  convent  life  about  which 
English  records  are  in  the  main  silent;  but  that  they  represent  with 
fair  accuracy  the  sufferings  of  some  half-hysterical,  half-mystical 
women  cannot  be  doubted  by  anyone  familiar  with  the  lives  of 
medieval  saints  and  mystics,  such  as  Mary  of  Oignies,  Christina  of 
Stommeln  and  Lydwine  of  Schiedam.  He  tells  in  his  section  on 
"Confession"  of  a  nun  Alice  or  Aleidis,  who  had  led  an  ill  life  in 
the  world,  but  had  repented  her  when  her  lover,  a  priest,  hanged 
himself,  and  had  taken  the  veil  at  Langwaden  in  the  diocese  of 
Cologne : 

Once  when  she  was  standing  in  the  dorter  and  looking  out  of  the  window, 
she  beheld  a  young  man,  nay  rather  a  devil  in  the  form  of  a  young  man, 
standing  hard  by  a  well,  which  was  near  the  wall  of  the  dorter;  who  in  her 
sight  set  one  foot  upon  the  wooden  frame  which  surrounded  the  well,  and  as 
it  were  flying  with  the  other,  conveyed  himself  to  her  in  the  window,  and 
tried  to  seize  her  head  with  his  extended  hand;  but  she  fell  back  stricken 
with  terror  and  almost  in  a  faint,  and  cried  out  and  hearing  her  call,  her 
sisters  ran  to  her  and  placed  her  upon  her  bed.  And  when  they  had  gone 
away  again  and  she  had  recovered  her  breath  and  lay  alone,  the  demon  was 
once  more  with  her,  and  began  to  tempt  her  with  words  of  love,  but  she 
denied  him,  understanding  him  to  be  an  evil  spirit.  Then  he  answered 
"Good  Aleidis,  do  not  say  so,  but  consent  to  me,  and  I  will  cause  you  to 
have  a  husband,  honest,  worthy,  noble  and  rich.  Why  do  you  torture 
yourself  with  hunger  in  this  poor  place,  killing  yourself  before  your  time 
by  vigils  and  many  other  discomforts?  Return  to  the  world  and  use  those 
delights  which  God  created  for  man;  you  shall  want  for  nothing  under  my 
guidance."  Then  said  she,  "I  grieve  that  I  followed  thee  for  so  long;  begone 
for  I  will  not  yield  to  thee." 

Then  the  foul  fiend  blew  with  his  nostrils  and  spattered  her  with  a 
foul  black  pitch  and  vanished.  Neither  the  sign  of  the  cross,  nor 
sprinkling  with  holy  water,  nor  censing  with  incense  prevailed  against 
this  particular  demon ;  he  would  retreat  for  a  time  and  return  again 
as  soon  as  Aleidis  ceased  to  employ  these  weapons  against  him.  She 
was  in  despair,  when  one  day 

One  of  the  sisters,  of  maturer  years  and  wisdom  than  the  others,  persuaded 
her  when  the  demon  tried  to  approach  her  to  hurl  the  angelic  salutation1 

1  I.e.  "Ave  Maria,  gratia  plena."  The  Virgin  Mary  was  always  the  most  I 
potent  help  against  the  devil,  as  may  be  seen  from  any  collection  of  her 
miracles  (e.g.  that  made  by  Gautier  de  Coincy  in  French  verse  in  the 
thirteenth  century  and  edited  by  the  Abb6  Poquet). 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  629 

in  a  loud  voice  in  his  face;  and  when  she  had  done  so  the  devil,  as  though 
struck  by  a  dart  or  driven  by  a  whirlwind,  fled  away  and  from  that  hour 
never  dared  to  approach  her. 

Another  time  the  same  Aleidis  went  to  confession,  hoping  thus  to 
rid  herself  forever  of  her  tormentor : 

And  behold  as  she  was  hastening  along  the  road,  the  devil  stood  in  her  path 
and  said:  "Aleidis,  whither  away  so  fast?"  And  she  replied:  "I  go  to  con 
found  myself  and  thee."  Then  said  the  devil:  "Nay,  Aleidis,  do  not  so! 
Turn  again!"  And  she  replied:  "Oft  hast  thou  put  me  to  confusion,  now 
will  I  confound  thee.  I  will  not  turn  back."  And  when  he  could  turn  her 
back  neither  by  blandishments  nor  by  threats,  he  followed  her  to  the  place 
of  confession  flying  in  the  air  above  her  in  the  form  of  a  kite;  and  as  soon 
as  she  bent  her  knee  before  the  Prior  and  opened  her  lips  in  confession,  he 
vanished,  crying  and  howling  and  was  never  seen  or  heard  by  her  from 
that  hour.  Behold  here  ye  have  a  manifest  example  of  what  virtue  lieth 
in  a  pure  confession.  These  things  were  told  to  me  by  the  lord  Hermann, 
Abbot  of  Marienstatt1. 

In  his  section  "  De  Daemonibus  "  Caesarius  has  a  yet  more  startling 
collection  of  stories  about  devils.  The  trials  of  sister  Euphemia  are 
described  as  having  been  related  to  him  by  the  nun  herself,  at  the 
instance  of  her  abbess: 

When  the  aforesaid  nun  was  a  little  maid  in  her  father's  house,  the 
devil  ofttimes  appeared  to  her  visibly  in  divers  shapes,  and  in  divers  ways 
affrighted  and  saddened  her  tender  age.  And  since  she  feared  to  be  driven 
mad  she  expressed  her  wish  to  be  converted-  into  our  order.  One  night 
the  devil  appeared  to  her  in  the  form  of  a  man  and  tried  to  dissuade  her, 
saying:  "Euphemia,  do  not  be  converted,  but  take  a  young  and  handsome 
husband  and  with  him  thou  shalt  taste  the  joys  of  the  world.  Thou  shalt 
not  want  for  rich  garments  and  delicate  meats.  But  if  thou  enter  the 
order,  thou  wilt  be  forever  poor  and  ragged,  thou  wilt  suffer  cold  and  thirst, 
nor  will  it  ever  be  well  with  thee  henceforth  in  this  world."  To  which  she 
replied:  "How  would  it  be  with  me  if  I  should  die  amidst  those  delights, 
which  thou  dost  promise  me?"  To  these  words  the  devil  made  no  reply, 
but  seizing  the  maid  and  carrying  her  to  the  window  of  the  chamber  wherein 
she  was  lying,  he  sought  to  throw  her  out.  And  when  she  said  the  angelic 
salutation  the  enemy  let  her  go,  saying,  "If  thou  goest  to  the  cloister,  I 
will  ever  oppose  thee.  For  hadst  thou  not  in  that  hour  called  upon  that 
woman  I  should  have  slain  thee."  And  having  spoken  thus,  squeezing  her 
tightly,  he  sprang  out  of  the  window  in  the  shape  of  a  great  dog  and  was 
seen  no  more.  Thus  was  the  virgin  delivered  by  invoking  the  Virgin  Mother 
of  God.  How  harassing  the  devil  is  to  those  who  have  been  converted  and 
in  how  many  and  divers  ways  he  vexes  and  hinders  them,  the  following 
account  shall  show.  When  the  aforesaid  maiden  had  been  made  a  nun,  one 
night  as  she  lay  in  her  bed  and  was  wakeful,  she  saw  around  her  many 
demons  in  the  form  of  men.  And  one  of  them  of  an  aspect  most  foul  was 
:  standing  at  her  head,  two  at  her  feet  and  the  fourth  opposite  her.  And  he 
1  cried  in  a  loud  voice  to  the  others:  "Why  are  you  standing  still?  Take  her 
wholly  up  as  she  lies  and  come."  And  they  replied:  "We  cannot.  She  has 
called  upon  that  woman. "...Now  the  same  demon,  after  she  had  said  the 

1  Ib.  i,  pp.  125-7.   For  an  abbreviated  version  of  this  story,  taken  from 
Caesarius,'  see  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.),  pp.  178-9  (No.  CCLV). 

2  Used  in  the  common  medieval  sense  of  entering  a  religious  order. 


630  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

angelic  salutation,  seized  the  maiden  by  her  right  arm,  and  squeezed  her 
so  tightly  as  he  dragged  at  it,  that  his  grasp  was  followed  by  a  swelling  and 
the  swelling  by  a  bruise.  Now  when  she  had  her  left  hand  free,  she  in  her 
great  simplicity  dared  not  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  therewith,  deeming 
that  a  sign  with  the  left  hand  would  avail  her  nought.  But  now,  driven  by 
necessity,  she  signed  herself  with  that  hand,  and 'put  the  demons  to  flight. 
Delivered  from  them  she  ran  half  fainting  to  the  bed  of  a  certain  sister, 
and,  breaking  silence,  told  her  what  she  had  seen  and  suffered.  Then,  as  1 
was  informed  by  the  lady  Elizabeth  of  blessed  memory,  abbess  of  the  same 
convent,  the  sisters  laid  her  in  her  bed,  and  reading  over  her  the  beginning 
of  the  Gospel  of  St  John,  found  her  restored  on  the  morrow.  Now  in  the 
following  year,  in  the  dead  of  night  when  the  same  nun  was  lying  awake 
on  her  couch,  she  saw  at  a  distance  the  demons  in  the  shape  of  two  of  the 
sisters  who  were  most  dear  to  her;  and  they  said  to  her:  "Sister  Euphemia, 
arise,  come  with  us  to  the  cellar  to  draw  beer  for  the  convent."  But  she 
suspecting  them,  both  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour  and  of  their 
breach  of  silence,  began  to  tremble,  and,  burying  her  head  in  the  bedclothes, 
replied  nothing.  Straightway  one  of  the  malignant  spirits  drew  near  and 
laying  hold  of  her  breast  with  his  hand,  squeezed  it  until  the  blood  burst 
forth  from  her  mouth  and  nose.  Then  the  demons,  taking  the  shape  of  dogs, 
leaped  out  of  the  window.  When  the  sisters,  rising  for  matins,  beheld  her 
worn  out,  as  it  were  pale  and  bloodless,  they  inquired  of  her  the  reason 
by  signs;  and  when  they  had  learned  it  from  her,  they  were  much  perturbed, 
both  on  account  of  the  cruelty  of  the  demons  and  of  the  distress  of  the 
virgin.  Two  years  before  this,  when  a  new  dorter  had  been  made  for  the 
convent  and  the  beds  had  been  placed  therein,  the  same  nun  saw  a  demon 
in  the  shape  of  a  deformed  and  very  aged  mannikin,  going  round  the  whole 
dorter  and  touching  each  of  the  beds,  as  though  to  say:  "I  will  take  careful 
note  of  each  place,  for  they  shall  not  be  without  a  visit  from  me"1. 

The  abbey  of  Hoven,  which  sheltered  Euphemia,  seems  to  have 
been  subjected  to  a  continual  siege  by  devils;  or  perhaps,  as  the  more 
materially-minded  might  suggest,  Euphemia's  malady  was  contagious. 
Sister  Elizabeth  of  the  same  house  had  a  short  way  with  such  gentry: 
"In  the  same  monastery,"  says  Caesarius,  "was  a  nun  named  Elizabeth, 
who  was  oftentimes  haunted  by  the  devil.  One  day  she  saw  him  in  the  dorter, 
and  since  she  knew  him,  she  boxed  his  ears.  Then  said  he:  'Wherefore  dost 
thou  strike  me  so  hardly?'  and  she  replied:  'Because  thou  dost  often 
disturb  me,'  to  which  the  devil  replied:  'Yesterday  I  disturbed  thy  sister 
the  chantress  far  more,  but  she  did  not  hit  me.'  Now  she  had  been  much 
agitated  all  day,  from  which  it  may  be  gathered  that  anger,  rancour,  im 
patience,  and  other  vices  of  the  sort  are  often  sent  by  the  devil.  On  another 

1  Ib.  i,  pp.  328-30.  At  the  end  of  this  story  the  novice  asks:  "Why  is 
it  that  the  good  Lord  allows  maidens  so  tender  and  so  pure  to  be  thus 
cruelly  tormented  by  rough  and  foul  spirits?  "  And  the  monk  replies :  "  Thou 
hast  experienced  how  if  a  bitter  drink  be  first  swallowed  a  sweet  one  tastes 
the  sweeter,  and  how  if  black  be  placed  beneath  it,  white  is  all  the  more 
dazzling.  Read  the  Visions  of  Witinus,  Godescalcus  and  others,  to  whom 
it  was  permitted  to  see  the  pains  of  the  damned  and  the  glory  of  the  elect, 
and  almost  always  it  was  the  vision  of  punishment  which  came  first.  The 
Lord,  wishing  to  show  his  bride  his  secret  joys,  permitteth  well  that  she 
should  first  be  tempted  by  some  dreadful  visions,  that  afterwards  she  may 
the  better  deserve  to  be  made  glad,  and  may  know  the  distance  between 
sweet  and  bitter,  light  and  darkness." 


i]  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  631 

occasion  when  the  same  Elizabeth,  very  late  for  matins  (owing,  as  after 
wards  appeared,  to  the  machinations  of  the  devil),  was  hurrying  along  to 
the  belfry,  bearing  a  lighted  candle  in  her  hand,  just  as  she  was  about  to 
enter  the  door  of  the  chapel,  she  saw  the  devil  in  the  shape  of  a  man, 
dressed  in  a  hooded  tunic,  standing  in  front  of  her.  Thinking  that  some  man 
had  got  in,  she  recoiled  in  alarm  and  fell  down  the  dorter  stairs,  so  that  for 
some  days  she  lay  ill  of  the  sudden  fright  as  well  as  of  the  fall.... And  when 
she  was  asked  the  cause  of  her  fall  and  her  scream  and  had  expounded 
this  vision,  she  added:  'If  I  had  known  that  it  was  the  devil  and  not  a 
man,  I  would  have  given  him  a  good  cuff.'  By  that  time,  however,  she  had 
girded  her  loins  with  strength  and  strengthened  her  arm  against  the  devil  "1. 

Not  all  the  visions  seen  by  these  nuns  of  whom  Caesarius  writes 
were  evil  visions.  He  has  several  tales  to  tell  of  appearances  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  of  the  saints.  Besides  the  well-known  story  of 
Sister  Beatrice  and  of  the  nun  whose  ears  were  boxed  by  the  Virgin, 
the  most  charming  Mary-miracle  related  by  Caesarius  tells  of  a  nun 
who  genuflected  with  such  fervour  to  the  blessed  Mother  that  she 
strained  her  leg ;  and  as  she  lay  asleep  in  the  infirmary,  she  saw  before 
her  the  Virgin,  bearing  a  pyx  of  ointment  in  her  hand ;  and  the  Virgin 
anointed  her  knee  with  it,  till  the  sweet  odour  brought  the  sisters 
running  to  find  out  the  cause;  but  the  nun  held  her  peace  and  bade 
them  leave  her.  Sleeping  again,  she  found  herself  once  more  in  the 
company  of  the  Virgin,  who  led  her  into  the  orchard,  and 

placing  her  hand  beneath  the  nun's  chin,  said  to  her,  "Now  do  them  kneel 
down  upon  thy  knee  " ;  and  when  she  had  done  so  our  Lady  added :  "  Hence 
forth  do  thou  bow  thy  knee  thus,  modestly  and  in  a  disciplined  manner," 
showing  her  how.  And  she  added:  "Every  day  thou  shouldst  say  to  me 
the  sequence  'Ave  Dei  Genitrix,'  and  at  each  verse  thou  shouldst  bow  thy 

I  knee.  For  I  take  great  delight  therein."  And  the  nun,  waking,  looked  upon 
i  j  her  knee,  to  see  whether  aught  had  been  accomplished  in  the  vision,  and  in 

i  great  surprise  she  saw  that  it  was  whole2. 

Another  pretty  story  tells  how,  when  a  certain  sister  was  reading 
her  psalter  before  a  wooden  statue  of  the  Virgin  and  child,  "the 
little  boy  suddenly  came  to  her  and  as  though  he  would  know  what 
she  was  reading,  peeped  into  her  book  and  went  back  again"3. 

Sometimes  it  is  not  the  Virgin  or  her  Son  but  a  patron  saint  who 

1  Ib.i,  pp.  330-31- 

2  Ib.  II,  pp.  68-9.  "As  I  infer  from  this  vision,"  says  the  Novice,     an 

I  indiscreet  fervour  in  prayers  is  not  pleasing  to  the  blessed  Virgin,  neither 
an  undisciplined  movement  in  genuflections."  On  the  other  hand  she  did 
I  not  like  her  devotees  to  hurry  over  their  prayers,  for  Gautier  de  Coincy  has 
i  a  tale  of  a  nun,  Eulalie,  who  was  accustomed  to  say  at  each  office  of  the 
I  Virgin  the  full  rosary  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  Aves;  but  she  had  much  work 
I  to  do  and  often  hurried  over  her  prayers,  till  one  night  she  saw  a  vision  of 
:  the  mother  of  God,  who  promised  her  salvation  and  told  her  that  the  Ave 
\  Maria  was  a  prayer  which  gave  herself  much  joy;  therefore  she  bade 
i  Eulalie  not  to  hurry  over  it,  but  of  her  bounty  permitted  her  to  say  a 
!  chaplet  of  fifty  Aves,  instead  of  the  long  rosary.  See  Gautier  de  Coincy, 
Les  Miracles  de  la  Sainte  Vierge,  ed.  Poquet  (Paris,  1857). 

3  Ib.  ii,  p.  100. 


632  ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT  [APP. 

appears  to  a  nun  who  holds  him  in  veneration.  Caesarius  tells  the 
j  tale  of  a  nun  who  specially  venerated  St  John  the  Baptist- 
More  than  all  the  saints  she  took  delight  in  him.  Nor  did  it  suffice  her  to 
think  upon  him,  to  honour  him  with  prayers  and  devotions,  to  declare  his 
prerogatives  to  her  sisters,  but  in  order  to  perpetuate  his  memory  she  made 
verses  concerning  his  annunciation  and  nativity  and  the  joy  of  his  parents. 

f h  rh    hWhS  iCarnH     and  S°Ught  theref°re  t0  deSCribe  in  verse  anything 
ich  she  had  read  concerning  his  sanctity.    Moreover  she  exhorted  and 

besought  all  secular  persons  with  whom  she  spoke  to  call  their  children 
John  or  Zachanas,  if  they  were  boys,  Elizabeth  if  they  were  girls  Now 
when  she  was  about  to  die  John  a  monk  of  the  Cloister  came  to  visit  her 
and  knowing  her  affection  towards  St  John,  said:  "My  aunt,  when  you  are 
dead  which  mass  would you  have  me  say  first  for  your  soul,  the  mass  for 

replied    ^Of0lStTJ°h         f'^Yf  \",  1°  which  She  with°Ut  **  hesitation 

St  John,  of  St  John !      And  when  she  was  at  the  point  of 

death,  having  compassion  upon  the  sister  who  was  tending  her   she  said- 

Go  upstairs,  sister,  and  rest  for  a  little."  When  the  sister  had  done  so 
and  was  resting  in  a  light  sleep,  she  heard  in  her  slumber  a  voice  saying 

Why  hcst  thou  here  ?  St  John  the  Baptist  is  below  with  Sister  Hildegunde  "- 
for  that  was  her  name.  Roused  by  this  voice  the  sister,  not  waitin-  to 
put  on  her  clothes,  came  down  in  her  shift  and  found  the  nun  already  d?ad- 
and  round  her  was  so  sweet  a  perfume  that  the  sister  doubted  not  that  St 
John  h  been  there,  to  accompany  the  soul  of  his  beloved  to  the  angelic 

Some  of  Caesarius'  anecdotes  show  an  amusing  rivalry  if  not 
among  the  company  of  heaven,  at  least  among  their  votaries  on 
earth.  Two  delightful  stories  may  be  quoted  to  show  how  deep-rooted 
the  competitive  instinct,  which,  baulked  in  one  direction  by  the 
prohibition  of  property,  showed  itself  in  hot  disputes  as  to  the  rival 
merits  of  patron  saints : 

There  were  and  I  think  still  are,  in  Fraulautern  in  the  diocese  of  Treves 
two  nuns   of  whom  one  took  special  delight  in  St  John  the  Baptist  and  the 
Dther  m  St  John  the  Evangelist.  Whenever  they  met,  they  contended  to 
gether  concerning  which  was  the  greater,  so  that  the  mistress  was  scarce  able 
:o  restrain  them.  The  one  declared  the  privileges  of  her  beloved  in  the  pre- 
of  all,  the  other  set  up  against  them  the  very  real  prerogatives  of  hers. 
One  night,  however,  before  matins  St  John  the  Baptist  appeared  to 
worshipper  in  her  sleep  and  set  forth  a  list  of  the  virtues  of  the 
>t  John,  declaring  that  the  latter  was  far  greater  than  he,  and 
I  her  the  next  morning  call  her  sister  before  the  mistress  and 
tier  pardon  for  having  so  often  annoyed  her  because  of  him. 
hat  morning  after  matins,  however,  St  John  the  Evangelist  also 
I  his  champion  in  her  sleep  and  after  retailing  all  St  John  the 
Bapti     s  claims  to  superiority,  assured  her  that  the  latter  was  far 

r  and  gave  her  a  similar  order  to  ask  pardon  of  her  sister: 

"On  the  morrow,"  says  Caesarius,  "they  came  separately  to  the  mistress 

and  revealed  what  they  had  seen.  Then  together  prostrating  themselves 

and  asking  pardon  of  each  other  as  they  had  been  bidden,   they  were 

by  the  mediation  of  their  spiritual  mother,  who  warned  them 

1    Ib.  II,  pp.   12 1-2. 


I] 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  TO  THE  TEXT 


633 


that  henceforth  they  should  not  contend  about  the  merits  of  the  saints, 
which  are  known  to  God  alone"1. 

In  spite  of  this  excellent  moral,  however,  Caesarius  has  very  clear 
ideas  himself  as  to  the  respective  merits  of  certain  saints;  and,  if  we 
are  to  believe  him,  even  St  John  the  Evangelist  was  sometimes  guilty 
of  a  scandalous  neglect  of  duty : 

"It  is  not  long  ago,"  says  he,  "that  a  certain  nun  of  the  monastery  of 
Rheindorf  near  Bonn,  by  name  Elizabeth,  went  the  way  of  all  flesh.  Now 
this  monastery  is  of  the  rule  of  St  Benedict  the  Abbot.  But  the  said  Elizabeth 
delighted  specially  in  St  John  the  Evangelist,  lavishing  on  him  all  the 
honour  she  could.  She  had  a  sister  in  the  flesh  in  the  same  monastery, 
who  was  called  Aleidis.  One  night  when  the  latter  was  sitting  upon  her 
bed  after  matins  and  saying  the  office  of  the  dead  for  the  soul  of  her  sister, 
she  heard  a  voice  near  her.  And  when  she  demanded  who  was  there,  the 
voice  replied,  'I  am  Elizabeth,  thy  sister.'  Then  said  she,  'How  is  it  with 
thee,  sister,  and  whence  comest  thou  ? '  and  it  answered,  '  111  indeed  has 
it  been  with  me,  but  now  it  is  well.'  Aleidis  asked,  'Did  St  John  in  whom 
thou  didst  so  ardently  delight  avail  thee  aught?' — and  it  replied,  'Truly, 
naught.  It  was  our  holy  father  Benedict  who  stood  by  me.  For  he  bent  his 
knee  on  my  behalf  before  God"2. 

St  John  the  Evangelist,  it  will  be  perceived,  suffered  from  the  in 
calculable  disadvantage  of  never  having  thought  of  founding  a 
monastic  order. 

Caesarius  narrates  a  great  many  other  exempla  concerning  nuns, 
but  I  have  quoted  the  most  characteristic.  There  never  was  a  book 
so  full  of  meat;  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  no  translation 
has  as  yet  placed  it  within  the  reach  of  all  who  are  interested,  not 
only  in  medieval  life  but  in  the  medieval  point  of  view3. 

1  Ib.  II,  pp.  122-3.    For  a  variant  in  which  the  place  of  the  two  nuns 
is  taken  by  two  doctors  of  divinity,  see  An  Alphabet  of  Tales  (E.E.T.S.), 
pp.  274-5. 

2  Ib.   ii,   pp.    343-4.   With  these  holy  rivalries   should   be   compared 
Caesarius'  tales  of  the  drawing  of  apostles  by  lot.  "It  is  a  very  common 
custom  among  the  matrons  of  our  province  to  choose  an  Apostle  for  their 
very  own  by  the  following  lottery:  the  names  of  the  twelve  Apostles  are 
written  each  on  twelve  tapers,  which  are  blessed  by  the  priest  and  laid  on 
the  altar  at  the  same  moment.  Then  the  woman  comes  and  draws  a  taper 
and  whatsoever  name  that  taper  shall  chance  to  bear,  to  that  Apostle 
she  renders  special  honour  and  service.    A  certain  matron,  having  thus 
drawn  St  Andrew,  and  being  displeased  to  have  drawn  him,  laid  the  taper 
back  on  the  altar  and  would  have  drawn  another;  but  the  same  came  to 
her  hand  again.  Why  should  I  make  a  long  story?    At  length  she  drew  one 
that  pleased  her,  to  whom  she  paid  faithful  devotion  all  the  days  of  her 
life;  nevertheless  when  she  came  to  her  last  end  and  was  at  the  point  of 
death,  she  saw  not  him  but  the  Blessed  Andrew  standing  at  her  bedside. 
'Lo/  he  said,  'I  am  that  despised  Andrew ! '  from  which  we  can  gather  that 
sometimes  saints  thrust  themselves  even  of  their  own  accord  into  men's 
devotions."    Another  matron  was  so  much  annoyed  at  drawing  St  Jude 
the  Obscure  instead  of  a  more  famous  Apostle  that  she  threw  him  behind 
the  altar  chest;  whereupon  the  outraged  Apostle  visited  her  in  a  dream 
and  not  only  rated  her  soundly  but  afflicted  her  with  a  palsy.   See  ib.  n, 
pp.  129,  133,  translated  in  Coulton,  A  Medieval  Garner,  pp.  259-60. 

3  Several  of  the  stories  have,  however,  been  translated  by  Mr  Coulton, 
op.  cit.  Nos.  102-32. 


APPENDIX  II 

VISITATION  OF  NUNNERIES  IN  THE  DIOCESE  OF 

ROUEN  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD, 

1248-1269 

FOR  twenty-seven  years  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  Archbishopric 
of  Rouen  was  held  by  a  man  who  was  at  once  a  scholar  and  a  man 
of  action,  a  great  saint  and  a  great  reformer.  Eudes  Rigaud  (Odo 
Rigaldi),  "the  Model  of  Good  Life,"  as  he  was  afterwards  called, 
was  among  the  most  able  and  energetic  churchmen  produced  by  the 
middle  ages.  Salimbene,  that  gossiping  friar  of  Parma  to  whom  we 
owe  perhaps  the  most  entertaining  chronicle  of  all  the  middle  ages, 
describes  him  thus: 

Now  this  Brother  Rigaud  was  of  our  order  [Franciscan]  and  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  in  the  world.  He  had  been  doctor  of  theology  in  the  convent 
[at  Paris] :  being  a  most  excellent  disputator  and  a  most  gracious  preacher. 
He  wrote  a  work  on  the  Sentences;  he  was  a  friend  of  St  Louis,  King  of 
France,  who  indeed  laboured  that  he  might  be  made  Archbishop  of  Rouen. 
He  loved  well  the  Order  of  the  Friars  Preachers,  as  also  his  own  of  the 
Friars  Minor  and  did  them  both  much  good ;  he  was  foul  of  face  but  gracious 
in  mind  and  works,  for  he  was  holy  and  devout  and  ended  his  life  well; 
may  his  soul,  by  God's  mercy,  rest  in  peace1. 

This  great  scholar,  with  an  admirable  devotion  to  duty,  renounced 
for  ever  the  leisure  of  a  man  of  books,  and  spent  his  life,  from  the 
moment  that  he  became  Archbishop,  in  a  ceaseless  peregrination  of 
his  diocese;  and  by  a  dispensation  of  providence  (so  the  historian 
must  think)  he  kept  a  diary.  For  twenty-one  years  (1248-1269)  he 
moved  about  from  parish  to  parish,  from  monastery  to  monastery,  in 
quiring  into  the  life  and  discipline  of  secular  and  of  regular  clergy  alike, 
hearing  complaints,  giving  injunctions,  removing  (though  seldom) 
offenders,  and  making  notes  of  the  results  of  his  visits,  place  by  place 
and  day  by  day,  in  his  great  Regestrum  Visitationum*.  His  diocese 
was  in  a  bad  state ;  and  his  discouragement  sometimes  found  its  way 
into  the  official  record  of  his  inquisitions.  The  few  words  which  betray 
his  feelings,  together  with  the  particularity  and  detail  with  which 
the  visits  are  recorded,  make  the  register  of  Eudes  Rigaud  a  very 
human  document. 

1  Translated  in  Coulton,  From  St  Francis  to  Dante  (1907),  p.  290;  see 
ib.  pp.  289-91,  for  a  short  account  of  Eudes  Rigaud,  also  references  on  p.  395 
(n.  17). 

*  Regestrum  VisitalionumArchiepiscopi Rothomagensts,ed.Bonnin(i852). 
See  analysis  by  L.  Delisle  in  the  Bibliotheque  de  l'£cole  des  Charles,  1846. 


I  APP.II]  VISITATIONS  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD    635 

It  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  book  to  enter  into  any  dis- 

I  cussion  of  the  general  picture  of  the  medieval  church  which  it  leaves 

I   upon  the  mind.   But  it  is  both  useful  and  interesting  to  detach  those 

I  parts  of  it  which  deal  with  the  nunneries  visited  and  reformed  (with 

i   varying  success)  by  the  Archbishop.    In  the  first  place  the  records 

|  of  his  visitations,  though  not  as  complete  as  those  of  the  visitations 

of  the  Lincoln  diocese  by  Bishop  Alnwick  in  the  early  fifteenth 

I  century,  or  of  the  diocese  of  Norwich  by  Bishops  Goldwell  and  Nykke, 

i  during  the  late  fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth  centuries,  or  of  the  Sede 

Vacante  visitations  of  the  Winchester  diocese  by  Dr  Hede  in  1502, 

I  are  nevertheless  a  great  deal  more  detailed  than  any  series  of  English 

j  visitation  records  of  an  equally  early  date.  The  report  of  Walter 

!  Giffard's  visitation  of  Swine  in  1267-8,  which  comprises  both  the 

1  comperta  and  the  injunctions  based  upon  them,  is  indeed  fuller  than 

j  any  of  Rigaud's  notes,  which  contain  only  comperta  and  ad  interim 

I  injunctions1;  but  this  is  an  isolated  case.  The  only  other  thirteenth 

I  century  documents   at  all   comparable  with   those  of   Rigaud   are 

Peckham's  injunctions  to  Barking  (1279),  Godstow  (1279  and  1284), 

.    Wherwell  (1284)  and  Romsey  (?  1284),  and  Wickwane's  injunctions 

to   Nunappleton    (1281)    and   these   are   the  final  injunctions  only, 

i    the  comperta  upon  which  they  were  based  having  disappeared.  There 

is,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  ascertain,  no  English  register  of  the 

I  thirteenth  century  recording  regular  visitations  of  all  the  nunneries 

;[  in  a  diocese  over  a  period  of  years  and  the  study  of  Rigaud's  register 

|  is  therefore  of  unique  interest.    In  the  second  place  it  is  of  special 

i    interest  to  English  readers  because  of  the  close  connection  which  at 

I  one  time  existed  between  the  religious  houses  of  England  and  Nor- 

I  mandy.    Most  of  the  alien  priories  in  England  were  cells  of  Norman 

!  houses  and  several  of  the  nunneries  visited  by  Rigaud  had  possessions 

il  in  England.     Stour  in  Dorset  was  a  cell  of  St  L6ger  de  Preaux, 

:|  founded  by  Roger  de  Beaumont  as  early  as  William   I's   reign2. 

Levenestre  or  Lyminster  in  Sussex  was  founded  some  time  before 

1178  as  a  cell  of  Almeneches  probably  by  Roger  de  Montgomery 

Earl  of  Arundel,  to  whom  the  mother  house  owed    its  foundation 

and  was  apparently  the  only  alien  priory  in  England  in  which  a 

community  of  nuns  actually  resided  during  the  later  middle  ages. 

1  There  is  however  a  copy  of  the  Bishop's  letter  of  injunctions,  sent  on 
later,  appended  to  his  report  of  the  state  of  Villarceaux  in  1249  (Reg. 
pp.  44-5). 

2  Walcott,    M.    E.    C.,    English   Minsters.   II    (The    English   Student's 
Monasticon),  pp.  210  and  V.C.H.  Dorset,  n,  p.  48. 

3  V.C.H.  Sussex,  n,  p.  121  and  Dugdale,  Mon.  vi,  pp.  1032-3.  The  later 
history  of  this  cell  can  be  traced  from  occasional  references.    It  was  a  very 
small  house  and  contained  only  aprioress  and  two  nuns  in  1380.  Dugdale  says 
that  after  the  French  wars  Richard  Earl  of  Arundel  treated  with  the  Abbess 
of  Almeneches  for  the  purchase  of  some  lands  belonging  to  Lyminster  and 
in  1404  a  papal  brief  enumerated  the  possessions  of  AlmenSches  in  England 
and  elsewhere,  with  a  threat  of  penalties  against  all  who  should  disturb  them. 
Dugdale,  Mon.  vi,  pp.  1032-3.    Five  years  later  a  memorandum  in  the 


636  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

In  1255  Almeneches  possessed  twenty-five  marks  of  annual  rent  in 
England1.  The  great  Abbaye  aux  Dames  at  Caen  had  two  cells  in 
England,  Horstead  in  Norfolk  (which  afterwards  became  part  of 
the  endowment  of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  and  was  founded  in 
William  II 's  reign2)  and  Minchinhampton  in  Gloucestershire  (after 
wards  cell  of  Syon)3.  In  Rigaud's  day  this  house  had  rents  to  the 
value  of  £i 60  sterling  in  England4  and  at  the  visitation  of  1256 
the  Abbess  did  not  appear,  because  she  was  absent  there5.  French 
moreover  was  still  the  language  of  daily  speech  in  thirteenth  century 
England,  and  there  was  constant  intercourse  between  the  two 
countries.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  expect  that  we  may  learn 
something  to  our  purpose  by  a  comparison  of  French  and  English 
nunneries. 

The  Register  includes  visitations  of  fourteen  religious  houses  of 
women6.  Seven  of  these  were  visited  with  great  regularity  during 
the  twenty-one  years  covered  by  the  Register;  the  Priory  of  St  Saens 
fourteen  times,  the  abbey  of  Bival  and  the  priory  of  St  Aubin  each 
thirteen  times,  the  abbey  of  Montivilliers  twelve  times,  the  abbeys 
of  Villarceaux  and  St  Amand  of  Rouen  each  eleven  times  and  the 
priory  of  Bondeville  ten  times.  Of  the  others  the  abbeys  of  St  Leger 
de  Preaux  and  St  Desir  de  Lisieux  (both  in  the  diocese  of  Lisieux) 
and  St  Sauveur  of  Evreux  each  received  four  visits  and  the  abbeys  of 
St  Mary  of  Almeneches  and  the  Holy  Trinity  of  Caen  three.  Two 
other  houses,  St  Paul  by  Rouen  (a  dependent  cell  of  Montivilliers) 
and  Ariete  (a  very  poor  and  small  Benedictine  house),  appear  to  have 
been  visited  only  once.  For  the  most  part  these  nunneries  were  large 
houses,  often  having  lay  sisters  and  sometimes  lay  brothers  attached 
to  them.  The  Archbishop  made  very  careful  notes  of  the  temporal 
affairs  of  each  and  generally  entered  in  his  Register  the  number  of 
nuns  and  lay  sisters  and  often  also  the  number  of  secular  maidservants 
in  the  employ  of  each  house.  The  largest  of  all  was  the  Abbaye  aux 
Dames  or  Holy  Trinity  at  Caen,  "one  of  the  great  nunneries  of 
Christendom";  in  Rigaud's  time  its  numbers  ranged  between  sixty- 
Register  of  Bishop  Rede  of  Chichester  notes  the  admission  of  a  new  Prioress, 
Nichola  de  Hereez,  on  the  presentation  of  the  Abbess  and  Convent  of 
Almeneches,  in  place  of  Georgete  la  Cloutiere,  deceased.  Reg.  Robert  Rede 
(Sussex  Rec.  Soc.  1908),  pp.  38-9.  Clearly  French  women  were  ruling  over 
the  house,  though  the  nuns  may  possibly  have  been  English.  Shortly 
afterwards  Henry  V  finally  dissolved  the  alien  priories  in  England  and  the 
lands  belonging  to  Lyminster  were  settled  by  Henry  VI  upon  Eton  College 

1  Reg.  p.  236. 

2  Walcott,  op.  cit.  p.  141  and  V.C.H.  Norfolk,  IT,  p.  463,  and  Dugdale, 
op.  cit.  p.  1057. 

*  Walcott,  op.  cit.  p.  173.  4  Reg.  p.  94. 

&  Ib.  p.  261.  In  1314-5  the  Abbess  of  the  Holy  Trinity  petitioned  the 
King  of  England,  complaining  that  she  had  been  distrained  in  aid  of  the 
marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter,  whereas  she  held  all  her  lands  in  frank 
almoin.  Rot.  Parl.  I,  p.  331. 

•  Irrespective  of  double  houses  such  as  the  Magdalen  of  Rouen. 


li]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  637 

five  and  eighty.  St  Sauveur  of  Evreux  and  Montivilliers  both  con 
tained  at  least  sixty  nuns  and  the  other  houses  were  all  comparatively 
large,  with  the  exception  of  St  Saens,  Villarceaux,  St  Aubin  and  Ariete. 
Even  these,  however,  were  large  compared  with  some  of  the  small 
nunneries  in  England. 

The  financial  condition  of  many  of  these  houses  was  very  bad, 

and  there  is  evidence  both  of  the  poverty  and  of  the  bad  management 

which  seem  to  have  been  characteristic  of  nunneries  everywhere.  The 

care  with  which  Rigaud  entered  into  his  diary,   at  almost  every 

visitation,  the  debts  owed  by  a  house  and  the  condition  of  its  stores, 

makes  it  possible  to  follow  with  some  ease  the  financial  progress  of 

the  nunneries  from  year  to  year.    Some  houses  were  evidently  in  a 

flourishing  condition;  the  abbey  at  Caen  was  very  rich  and  never 

in  difficulties  (its  debts  were  suddenly  assessed  at  the  huge  sum  of 

£1700  in  1267  but  at  the  previous  visitations  it  had  been  stated  that 

more  was  owed  to  the  nuns  than  they  owed) .    Montivilliers  was  also 

well  managed  and  in  a  good  condition;  here  again  the  debts  due  to 

it  were  larger  than  those  which  it  owed,  and  on  several  occasions  the 

Archbishop  found  a  good  round  sum  in  the  treasury,   a  plentiful 

supply  of  stores  and  some  valuable  plate,  which  the  nuns  had  been 

rich  enough  to  purchase  recently.    Similarly  St  Desir  de  Lisieux  and 

j  St  Leger  de  Preaux,  though  debts  are  mentioned,  were  evidently 

j  living  well  within  their  respective  incomes  of  ^500  and  ^700  (in  rents) . 

|  But  the  other  houses  display  a  lamentable  list  of  debts  growing 

heavier  and  heavier.    In  spite  of  St  Amand's  income  of  ^1000  to 

£1200,  its  debts  rose  from  £200  in  1248  to  ^900  in  1269.  Almeneches, 

I  with  an  income  of  a  little  over  ^500,  had  debts  to  the  amount  of 

I  ^500  in  1260.    Bondeville  obviously  had  a  quite  insufficient  income 

!  (it  was  given  as  ^93  in  1257);  on  three  occasions  its  debts  reached 

I  the  sum  of  ^140  and  on  two  other  occasions  they  were  ^200  and  £250. 

j  St  Saens,  St  Aubin,  Bival  and  Villarceaux  (it  is  significant  that  these 

are  the  houses  whose  moral  record  was  bad)  were  always  in  difficulties. 

I  Bival  went  steadily  from  bad  to  worse;  its  debts  rose  from  ^40  in 

i I  1251  to  £60  in  1268  and  in  1269  they  had  exactly  doubled  themselves 

I  (£120)  since  the  previous  visitation.  The  debts  of  St  Saens  rose  from 

•   -£60  in  1250  to  ^100  in  1269;  and  in  1260  they  stood  at  ^350.    At 

I  Villarceaux  (the  income  of  which  was  placed  at  ^100  in  1249)  the 

I  debts  ranged  between  ^30  in  1251  and  £100  in  1264  and  1265.    At 

\  St  Aubin  the  actual  sums  of  money  owed  by  the  nuns  were  small, 

I  ranging  between  £5  and  ^40  (except  in  1257  when  their  debts  were 

i  assessed  at  ^1000,  which  is  probably  a  mistake),  but  the  house  was 

evidently  in  grave  financial  straits.  When  even  a  wealthy  house  such 

j  as  St  Sauveur  of  Evreux  could  not  keep  out  of  debt  (the  amount 

^  I  owed  by  it  varied  from  ^200  to  ^600) ,  one  cannot  wonder  that  smaller 

:  and  poorer  houses  were  deeply  involved.    Occasionally  the  diary 

i  throws  some  light  on  special  causes  of  impoverishment ;  thus  the  nuns 

I  Of  St  Amand  were  in  debt  to  the  large  sum  of  £400  in  1254  and  the 

reason  given  was  "on  account  of  a  conduit  (aqueductum),  which  they 


638  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

had  to  make  again,  because  it  was  needed"1;  St  Sauveur  of  Evreux 
was  burdened  with  the  payment  of  about  £40  in  pensions2;  and  in 
1263  the  nuns  of  St  Aubin  complained  that  they  owed  some  £20 
"for  a  certain  ferm  (or  payment)  by  which  they  held  themselves  to 
be  greatly  burdened"3. 

Other  evidence  besides  that  of  debts  is  not  wanting  to  show  that 
some  of  the  houses  were  in  great  financial  straits.  The  Archbishop 
constantly  gave  poverty  as  a  reason  for  limiting  the  number  of  nuns 
e.g.  at  St  Aubin,  Bival  and  Villarceaux4.    At  Almeneches  poverty 
was  given  as  a  reason  for  the  imperfect  observance  of  the  rule6.  At 
:  Saens  (1262)  and  at  Villarceaux  (1264)  the  roofs  of  the  monastic 
buildings  were  in  need  of  repair*;  in  the  latter  year  the  roofs  of  the 
buildings  at  St  Aubin  were  male  cooperte  also  and  that  of  the  nave  of 
the  church  was  so  bad  that  the  nuns  could  hardly  stay  there  in  rainy 
weather7.  Bondeville  was  so  badly  in  need  of  repairs  in  1257  that  it 
was  said  that  £80  would  not  suffice  for  the  work8.    Sometimes  the 
devices  by  which  the  nuns  strove  to  gain  a  little  ready  money  are 
noted  down  in  Rigaud's  diary.  At  Villarceaux  in  1254  a  book  of 
homilies  and  some  silken  copes  were  in  pledge  to  the  Prior  of  Serqueu9  • 
at  Bival  in  1269  the  old  abbess  had  pledged  a  chalice  which  the  new 
abbess  was  ordered  to  redeem";  and  at  Bondeville  in  1257  the  nuns 
had  pawned  two  chalices  "for  their  needs"11.  When  they  tried  to 
borrow  money  outright  matters  were  even  worse;  at  Villarceaux  in 
1266,  Rigaud  notes,  "they  owed  £100,  of  which  £20  was  owed  to 
the  Jews  and  Caursini  (Catturcensibus)  of  Mantes  at  usury"12.  Some 
times  they  were  reduced  to  selling  part  of  their  property,  as  at  St 
Baens,  where  they  sold  a  wood  at  Esquequeville13,  and  at  Bondeville, 
where  they  parted  with  land  to  the  value  of  ^oo14.  But  they  were 
apparently  bad  women  of  business,  for  at  the  latter  house  in  1257 
the  Archbishop  complained  that  they  had  pledged  a  certain  tithe  for 
£75  for  three  years,  whereas  its  real  value  was  ^40  per  annum15;  and 
in  1256  it  transpired  that  the  nuns  of  Bival  had  given  up  the  manor 
of  Pierremains  (without  Rigaud's  consent)  to  a  certain  Master  William 
of  the  Fishponds  (de  Vivariis]  for  ^50,  while  it  was  really  worth  /i4o16. 
Perhaps  the  difficulty  found  by  so  many  of  the  houses  in  collecting 
the  debts  due  to  them  may  be  set  down  in  part  to  the  incompetence 
of  the  nuns.  At  St  Amand,  for  instance,  in  1262,  as  much  as  £377  75. 
seems  to  have  been  owing  to  the  nuns  at  a  time  when  they  themselves 
were  ^142  in  debt,  and  at  the  next  two  visitations  complaint  was  made 
of  debts  (described  in  1264  as  "bad"  debts,  debilis  male  solubilibus] 
owing  to  them17.  Other  nunneries  were  from  time  to  time  owed  large 

1  Reg.  p.  202.  2  P-  73- 

!  P-  471-  J  E.g.  pp.  43,  207,  323,  361.  6  pp.  235,  374. 

6  PP-  451.  490.  »  p.  194.  8  p   299 

9  P-  J94-  10  pp.  636-7.  11  p.  298. 

*  P-  572-  "  p.  419-  "  p.  298. 

'       P-   298.  W    p.    268 

"    PP-   456,    486,    5I2. 


n]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  639 

sums  of  money,  religiously  recorded  by  Rigaud  in  his  diary.  The 
case  of  St  Saens  illustrates  this  difficulty  particularly  well;  in  1261 
the  nuns  had  sold  part  of  their  wood  at  Esquequeville  for  £350  and 
had  received  £240  of  the  total  sum  owing  to  them;  the  next  year 
the  £110  left  owing  had  swelled  with  interest  to  £160;  in  1264  ^40 
was  said  to  be  owing  on  the  same  sale  and  £55  on  a  sale  of  fallen 
trees  and  wood  (de  caablo);  but  in  1267  the  Archbishop  noted,  "A 
great  sum  of  money  is  to  come  to  them  from  the  sale  of  woods," 
and  in  1269  the  amount  still  owing  on  the  sale  had  risen  with  interest 
to  j£ioo,  while  £80  was  owing  to  the  nuns  from  another  source1. 

Another  instance  of  the  incompetence  of  the  nuns  was  their  laxity 
in  the  matter  of  keeping  accounts,  in  which  the  Rouen  nuns  were 
in  no  way  exceptional.  At  Caen,  in  1250  Rigaud  wrote: 

They  do  not  know  how  much  they  have  in  rents  and  they  say  that  more  is 
owed  to  them  than  they  owe,  neither  do  they  know  the  state  of  the  monas 
tery;  but  the  Abbess  accounts  in  her  chamber  before  several  nuns  annually 
elected  for  this  purpose,  and  the  account  is  announced  in  the  chapter  before 
them  all;  and  they  said  that  this  was  quite  sufficient  for  them. 

The  Archbishop  appears  to  have  obtained  a  statement  of  their  rents 
by  some  means  and  he  contented  himself  with  confirming  the  arrange 
ment  that  the  Abbess  should  account  annually  to  certain  nuns  elected 
ad  hoc2.  Certainly  when  the  head  of  the  house  was  competent  there 
was  no  need  for  the  convent  to  know  the  details  of  administration ; 
but  sometimes  even  the  head  was  unable  to  inform  Rigaud  of  those 
details.  At  Villarceaux  in  1258  he  wrote:  "They  did  not  know  how 
much  they  owed  and  they  were  somewhat  ignorant  of  the  state  of 
the  house"3;  and  in  the  following  year  the  Prioress  of  St  Saens 
was  found  to  be  an  incompetent  administrator  and  was  ordered  to 
draw  up  an  account,  which  two  neighbouring  priors  were  deputed 
to  hear4.  At  St  Amand  in  1262  the  Abbess  had  not  prepared  a  proper 
account,  so  that  the  Archbishop  was  unable  to  get  full  information 
as  to  the  state  of  the  house ;  he  noted  however  that  the  nuns  believed 
that  more  was  owing  to  them  than  they  owed,  and  he  ordered  the 
Abbess  to  inspect  her  papers  and  to  certify  him  concerning  the  state 
of  the  house5.  On  several  other  occasions  he  ordered  her  to  account 
more  often  (on  one  of  these  it  had  transpired  that  she  had  not  done 
so  for  three  years)  before  the  elder  nuns,  and  to  call  in  the  Prioress, 
Subprioress  or  one  of  these  maiores  to  help  her6.  At  Villarceaux  in 
1253  the  Prioress  did  not  account  and  in  1254  a  coadjutress  was 
appointed  to  assist  her7.  Sometimes  Rigaud  ordered  the  income  of  a 
house  to  be  written  down  in  rolls,  or  in  books8.  Sometimes  he  provided 

1  pp.  419,  451,  491,  598,  634.  2  P-  94- 

3  p.  323.  4  P-  338.  «  P-  456. 

6  pp.  16,  121,  201,  326,  512,  588.  7  pp.  166,  194. 

*  E.g.  at  St  Desir  de  Lisieux  (1249),  at  Bondeville  (1259),  and  at  St  Sae'ns 
(1262).  At  Bival  (1257  and  1259)  such  a  roll  was  kept.  See  pp.  62,  299,  339, 
348,  451- 


640  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

for  the  more  frequent  rendering  of  accounts;  twice  or  thrice  yearly 
was  the  usual  injunction,  sometimes  simply  "more  often,"  the  mini 
mum  being  once  a  year1;  occasionally  a  small  account  of  current 
expenses  was  to  be  read  monthly2.  Sometimes  he  ordered  the  accounts 
to  be  read  before  certain  nuns  elected  ad  hoc  (with  the  addition  of 
the  priest  at  Villarceaux  in  1249),  the  elder  nuns  being  often  specified3. 
At  the  same  time,  although  nothing  was  to  be  done  without  the 
knowledge  and  consent  of  the  convent,  the  nuns  were  not  to  interfere 
unduly  in  the  management  of  temporal  affairs,  for  the  prioress  of 
Bondeville  was  sentenced  to  receive  one  discipline  before  the  assembled 
chapter,  as  a  punishment  for  giving  up  the  common  seal  to  them, 
without  the  Archbishop's  knowledge,  "because  of  their  clamour"4. 
Nuns  were  notoriously  bad  financiers,  but  even  where  a  male  custos 
had  charge  of  their  business  the  arrangement  was  not  invariably 
satisfactory;  and  at  Bondeville  in  1261  Rigaud  noted,  "We  removec 
Melchior  the  priest,  who  had  managed  the  business  of  the  convent 
for  some  time,  for  the  reason  that  the  convent  had  not  full  confidence 
in  him  and  that  he  was  odious  to  them."  The  house  was  heavily  in 
debt,  so  that  the  mistrust  of  the  nuns,  if  not  their  dislike,  was  clearly 
justified,  and  the  Archbishop  evidently  decided  not  to  replace  Melchior 
by  another  man,  for  he  ordered  the  Abbess  to  make  one  of  the  nuns 
treasuress  to  look  after  the  expenditure  of  the  house,  receiving  the 
income  and  administering  it5. 

Another  matter  about  which  Rigaud  inquired  and  entered  par 
ticulars  in  his  diary  was  the  amount  of  provisions  in  the  granaries 
and  storehouses  of  the  nuns.  Had  they  enough  corn  and  oats  to 
last  till  the  next  harvest  ?  Had  they  a  good  supply  of  wine  and  cider 
to  drink?  The  number  of  cases  in  which  it  is  noted  that  the  nuns 
had  " pauca  estaur  amenta"  or  not  enough  to  last  till  the  new  year, 
points  to  a  mixture  of  poverty  and  of  bad  management 6.  The  nuns 
of  Bival  in  1263  had  few  stores  and  no  corn  for  sowing7;  those  of 
St  Sae'ns  in  1250  had  no  wine  or  cider  to  drink  nor  corn  to  last  till 
Whitsuntide8;  at  St  Aubin  in  1259  the  Archbishop  noted  compre 
hensively  that  they  had  no  stores9.  Oats  seem  to  have  run  short  in 
a  number  of  cases10,  and  sometimes  wine11. 

But  occasionally  Rigaud 's  diary  contains  even  fuller  information 
about  the  temporal  affairs  of  a  nunnery.  It  was  his  regular  practice 
at  Villarceaux  (why  at  Villarceaux  only  it  is  impossible  to  say)  to 
enumerate  the  live  stock  possessed  by  that  impecunious  house,  horses, 
mares,  foals,  bullocks,  cows,  calves,  sheep  and  pigs.  And  on  two 
occasions  the  happy  accident  of  a  Prioress'  resignation  (always  an 

1  pp.  16,  60,  62,  73,  i2i,  197,  199,  201,  220,  266,  339,  348,  431,  512. 

2  PP-  43.  44.  220,  305,  326.  3  pp.  43,  44,  326,  431,  588,  602. 
4  p.  348.                                                 6  p.  410- 

B  See  e.g.  pp.  100,  274,  299,  339,  361,  402,  407,  410,  451,  468,  471,  523, 
602,  619. 

7  p.  468.  8  p.  100.  9  p.  361. 

10  PP-  487.  598,  615.  »  pp.  loo,  572,  592. 


n]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  641 

occasion  for  the  presentation  of  an  account)  has  left  us  with  complete 
inventories  of  the  possessions  and  expenses  of  two  houses,  St  Saens 
in  1257  and  Bondeville  in  the  same  year.  The  inventory  of  St  Sae'ns 
runs  as  follows: 

They  owe  £212.  The  king  gave  them  Esquequeville  with  its  appurtenances, 
which  is  worth  ^230  and  4  carucates  of  land  worth  £40,  and  thus  they  have 
in  all  rents  to  the  value  of  ^290  (sic).  To  the  house  of  nuns  of  St  Sae'ns  there 
belong  245  acres  of  land  in  all  and  7  acres  of  meadow,  of  which  115  acres 
in  all  are  sown  with  wheat  (fvumento),  corn  (blado,  probably  rye),  barley 
and  other  vegetables  (leguminibus).  They  have  in  money  rents  ^170.  25.  8d.; 
in  corn  rents  8  modii;  in  rents  of  oats  66  minae1;  in  rents  of  capons  220;  item 
in  egg  rents  1 100  eggs2;  item  they  have  in  money  rents,  paid  with  the  capons 
and  the  eggs,  275.  6d.  Item  they  have  a  mill  at  Esquequeville  and  a  wood 
of  which  they  do  not  know  the  size3  and  the  priest  of  the  same  place  takes 
a  tithe  in  the  said  mill.  Item  they  have  rights  of  pannage  and  stubble 
and  multure  (i.e.  payment  by  their  tenants  for  grinding  at  their  mill)  of 
which  they  know  not  the  value.  Item  they  have  a  mill  at  St  Sae'ns  of  small 
value.  Item  they  have  57  sheep,  item  12  plough  horses  and  one  waggon 
(quadrigam);  item  they  have  18  beasts,  as  well  cows  as  oxen.  Item  they 
have  only  2  modii  of  corn  for  their  food  until  harvest.  They  have  nothing 
to  drink.  There  is  owing  to  them  ^26.  55.  2d.  The  debts  which  they  owe 
amount  in  all  to  £234.  35.  3^.4 

The  inventory  of  Bondeville  for  the  same  year  is  equally  interesting: 

These  are  the  goods  and  rents  of  the  house  of  Bondeville:  ^93  tournois; 
of  common  corn  30  modii;  in  the  grange  of  Heaus  they  believe  that  they 
have  7  modii  of  common  corn;  in  the  abbey  grange  about  one  modium  of 
barley;  in  the  other  granges  nothing.  In  the  abbey  there  are  2  waggons 
(quadrige),  with  6  horses  and  one  riding  horse,  6  cows  and  14  calves.  They 
have  in  the  granges  264  sheep;  item  in  the  grange  of  Heaus  27  cows;  item 
30  little  pigs;  item  three  ploughs  (aratra)  in  all,  each  for  three  beasts; 
item  4  little  foals.  These  are  the  debts  of  the  house,  concerning  which  account 
has  been  rendered  to  the  convent:  ^220  in  money  and  2  modii  of  barley; 
[wages]  to  the  household  for  the  harvesting.  Item  they  had  no  oats  save 
for  sowing  time.  They  expend  each  month  at  least  68  minae  of  corn ;  item 
they  have  in  the  cellar  6  barrels  of  wine  and  2  of  cider;  item  they  do  not 
think  that  the  buildings  can  be  repaired  [at  a  less  cost  than]  for  £80  tournois; 
item  after  Easter  they  will  be  obliged  to  buy  all  the  other  foodstuffs  for  the 
house,  save  bread;  peas  and  vegetables5. 

Mention  is  sometimes  made  in  Rigaud's  register  of  dependent  cells 
"   (attached  to  some  of  the  houses.  St  Paul  by  Rouen  was  thus  attached 
1  'to  Montivilliers,  Bourg-de-Saane  to  St  Amand  and  Ste  Austreberte  to 
St  Sae'ns.  These  cells  were  doubtless  used  partly  as  centres  of  adminis 
tration  for  the  more  distant  estates  of  the  convent,  partly  as  places 

1  The  exact  definition  of  these  measures  is  a  thorny  subject,  but  probably 
the  modius  was  roughly  a  quarter  and  the  mina  a  little  more. 

2  The  list  of  rents  in  kind  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  monastic 
economy;  such  rents  were  probably  retained,  where  estates  belonged  to  large 
Communities,  for  some  time  after  they  were  commuted  for  money  on  secular 
ands. 

3  The  same  which  they  sold  in  1261. 

4  PP-  273-4-   Compare  the  inventory  of  Bondeville,  ib.  p.  299. 

5  p.  299. 

P.N.  41 


642  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APR. 

of  recreation  or  convalescence,  where  sick  nuns  could  be  sent  for  a 
change.  For  instance  there  were  six  nuns  of  Montivilliers  at  St  Paul 
by  Rouen  in  1263  and  it  was  noted  that  there  ought  to  be  four,  but 
that  two  others  were  there  because  of  illness;  the  nuns  had  a  lay 
boarder  staying  with  them  and  two  servants;  their  income — as 
assessed  for  the  tithe — was  £140  and  their  debts  amounted  to  £40; 
they  complained  that  the  king's  foresters  oppressed  them  by  frequently 
dining  at  their  expense  and  by  unjustly  molesting  their  servants  in 
the  forest,  although  they  had  usage  (i.e.  rights  of  hunting,  gathering 
wood,  etc.)  there;  the  Archbishop  had  no  fault  to  find  with  them 
except  that  they  did  not  sing  the  service  cum  nota,  because  there 
were  so  few  of  them,  and  that  they  had  only  a  single  mass,  the  i 
parochial  mass,  daily1.  It  is  evident  that  a  close  connection  wasi 
supposed  to  be  kept  up  between  the  mother  house  and  the  cell,  for 
in  1260  the  Abbess  of  Montivilliers  had  been  ordered  to  visit  them 
diligently2;  and  in  1258  Rigaud  noted,  "Alice  prioress  of  Saint  Paul 
by  Rouen  was  presented  to  us  by  the  prioress  of  Montivilliers,  she 
having  been  elected  by  the  convent  of  the  said  place"3.  At  his  first 
visitation  of  St  Amand  in  1248  the  Archbishop  found  that  they  had 
a  single  priory  at  Saane,  where  there  are  four  nuns"4.  In  1261  he 
ordered  the  Abbess  to  visit  these  nuns  at  Saane  more  often  than  had 
been  her  custom  and  at  subsequent  visitations  he  noted  the  number 
of  nuns  (varying  from  four  to  five)  in  residence  there5.  Ste  Austreberte, 
the  daughter  cell  of  St  Sae'ns,  was  hardly  more  than  a  grange  with  a 
chapel  attached.  In  1254  Rigaud  found  that  one  nun  was  living  there 
alone  and  ordered  that  another  should  be  sent  to  join  her;  in  1257 
there  was  still  a  single  inmate,  but  in  1258  and  1259  the  number  had 
been  raised  to  two0.  In  1260  the  Archbishop  decided  to  recall  the 
inmates  to  St  Sae'ns : 

Because  truly  the  place  of  St  Austrebert  is  very  slenderly  endowed  with 
rents,  so  that  these  two  nuns  cannot  live  there  conveniently  and  decently, 
-we  ordered  the  prioress  to  call  them  back  and  forbade  her  henceforth  to 
send  any  more  thither,  on  account  of  the  danger7. 

But  now  complications  arose.  Evidently  the  dependent  house  had 
been  used  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  a  quarrelsome  nun,  for. 
in  1261  Rigaud  found  that  the  Prioress  had  not  obeyed  his  order  to  re 
call  the  two  nuns,  "  because,  as  she  says,  Marie  d'Eu  (de  Augo)  one  of 
these  two,  was  a  scold  and  she  feared  lest  she  should  upset  the  whole 
convent  if  she  returned  "  8.  The  order  was  repeated  and  was  apparently 
obeyed  as  far  as  the  ill-tempered  Marie  was  concerned  (although  there 
were  still  two  nuns  at  Ste  Austreberte  in  1264*),  for  in  1265  the  Arch 
bishop  found  the  whole  convent  "living  in  discord  and  in  disorder, 
especially  the  prioress  and  Marie  d'Eu"10;  he  would  perhaps  have 
done  better  to  leave  her  where  she  was.  An  echo  of  her  regime  at 

1  P-  457.  *  P-  384- 

3  p.  316.  4  p.  16.  5  pp.  401,  456,  471,  512. 

•  pp.  187,  273,  310,  338.  '  p.  380. 

8  p.  419.  '  p.  49i.  10  p.  522. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  643 

Ste  Austreberte  was  heard  in  1265,  when  Marie  d'Eu  was  ordered  to 
return  the  chalice  of  the  chapel  of  Ste  Austreberte  as  quickly  as  possible 
and  to  restore  to  the  Prioress  any  charter  or  letters  concerning  the 
manor  of  Ste  Austreberte,  which  she  had  received  from  the  convent. 
At  the  same  time  the  Prioress  was  ordered  to  provide  the  chapel 
there  with  a  suitable  server  (servitor e] l.  Mention  of  visits  to  the  granges 
or  farms  of  the  convents  sometimes  occurs.  At  Bondeville  in  1251 
it  was  found  that  "the  sisters  drank  in  the  granges"2  and  in  1255 
that  a  lay  sister  and  a  lay  brother  were  living  alone  in  a  grange 
(perhaps  in  the  grange  of  Heaus,  mentioned  in  the  inventory),  where 
upon  the  Archbishop  ordered  the  sister  to  be  withdrawn  or  else  given 
a  companion3.  In  1268  the  Abbess  of  Bival  was  ordered  to  remove 
"a  certain  child,"  whom  she  was  having  brought  up  in  the  grange 
of  Pierremans  (which  had  been  so  improvidently  let  to  William  of 
the  Fishponds  twelve  years  before)  and  a  penance  was  imposed  upon 
her  in  1269  because  she  had  not  obeyed  the  injunction4. 

So  far  only  the  temporal  affairs  of  these  Rouen  nunneries  have 
been  considered ;  there  remains  the  more  important  question  of  their 
social,  moral  and  spiritual  condition.  A  clearer  idea  will  be  formed 
of  the  results  of  Eudes  Rigaud's  investigations,  if  the  chief  sources 
t of  complaint  be  classified  under  the  following  heads: 

(1)  Complaints  of  incompetence  and  irregular  behaviour  against 
the  head  of  a  house, 

(2)  General  laxity  in  keeping  the  rule, 

(3)  The  sin  of  property  and  the  failure  to  live  a  communal  life, 

(4)  Various  attempts  to  make  money  by  illicit  means, 

(5)  Leave  of  absence  and  intercourse  with  seculars,  both  within 
and  without  the  cloister  precincts, 

(6)  Frivolous  clothes  and  amusements,  and 

(7)  Serious  moral  faults,  such  as  drunkenness,  quarrelsomeness 
and  incontinence. 

(i)  Complaints  of  incompetence,  laxity,  self-indulgence  or  favourit 
ism  against  the  head  of  a  house  are  common  in  visitation  records. 
The  charge  of  failure  to  render  accounts  has  already  been  dealt  with, 
but  hardly  less  usual  was  the  charge  of  failure  to  live  a  communal 
life.  The  abbess  or  prioress  of  a  house  had  separate  apartments  and 
it  was  always  a  temptation  to  dine  or  to  sleep  alone,  instead  of 
I  keeping  the  f rater  and  the  dorter.  Again  the  charges  of  favouritism 
on  the  one  hand  and  of  undue  harshness  on  the  other  were  very 
'common.  Rigaud's  register  provides  examples  of  all  these  faults. 
At  two  visitations  (1254  and  1257)  the  Archbishop  remarked  that  the 
Abbess  of  St  Leger  de  Preaux  did  not  live  a  communal  life  in  dorter 
land  f  rater  nor  attend  the  chapter5;  the  same  charge  was  made  against 
'the  Prioress  of  Villarceaux  in  1253  and  it  was  mentioned  that  she 
;did  not  often  get  up  to  matins  nor  daily  hear  mass6;  and  the  Abbess 

1  p.  522:  he  probably  means  vicar.          2  p.  in.  3  p.  217. 

4  pp.  610,  636.  6  pp.  197.  295-          6  P-  l66- 

41—2 


644  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP, 

of  St  Amand  did  not  keep  the  frater,  but  ate  in  her  own  room  and 
always  had  the  same  companions  there,  instead  of  calling  the  others 
for  recreation1.  Not  all  prioresses  were,  like  Chaucer's,  "ful  plesaunt 
and  amiable  of  port."  The  Abbess  of  Montivilliers  seems  to  have  been 
a  forbidding  lady;  in  1260  the  Archbishop  ordered  her  to  minister 
pilches,  cloth  and  other  necessary  things  more  carefully  than  had 
been  her  custom  to  the  nuns,  not  forgetting  their  ginger  "hot  i'  the 
mouth  "2,  and  also  to  bear  herself  more  courteously  and  affably  towards 
their  friends  particularly  in  the  matter  of  their  admission  (on  visits) ; 
at  the  same  time  she  was  warned  to  be  present  in  chapel  more  often 
and  to  live  the  communal  life  better3.  This  warning  apparently  bore 
no  fruit  and  in  1262  the  Archbishop  noted,  "because  she  was  slow 
to  administer  new  pilches,  headdresses  and  cloth  and  other  things 
to  the  nuns  for  their  needs,  we  ordered  her  to  labour  to  minister 
better  and  more  fitly  to  them  in  this  matter  and  to  be  careful  about 
it";  it  was  also  remarked  that  she  frequented  the  convent  but  little 
and  was  seldom  present  at  chapter  and  frater;  and  she  was  ordered 
to  render  a  general  account  once  a  year  and  to  hear  and  receive  the 
particular  accounts  of  the  obedientiaries.  The  next  year  her  failure 
to  frequent  chapter,  dorter  and  choir  was  again  noted  and  some  of 
the  nuns  still  complained  of  her  harshness,  whereupon  the  Archbishop 
(apparently  despairing  of  inducing  her  to  look  after  them  properly 
herself),  ordered  her  to  depute  two  or  three  nuns,  "with  whom  the 
others  could  talk  more  familiarly  and  more  boldly,  to  minister  to 
their  sisters  small  things  for  their  needs,  ginger  and  other  things  of 
the  kind";  the  quality  of  the  wine  was  also  to  be  improved.  The 
difficulties,  however,  continued.  In  1265  the  Abbess  was  ordered  to 
provide  the  nuns  more  carefully  with  pilches  and  in  the  following 
year  she  was  again  ordered 

"prudently  to  cause  the  pilches  and  robes  of  the  nuns  to  be  repaired,  so  that 
she  may  provide  them  with  such  things  more  fitly  than  she  is  used  and 
have  more  workpeople  than  she  has  been  accustomed  to  do.  For  in  this," 
adds  the  Archbishop,  "we  found  a  deficiency"3. 

Rigaud  had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  with  the  Prioress  of  Bonde- 
ville.  In  1251  there  were  many  complaints  against  her;  she  exercised 
favouritism  in  the  distribution  of  clothes  and  in  the  provision  of 
food  in  the  infirmary  and  she  did  not  look  after  the  sick;  when  in 
the  infirmary  she  ate  at  a  table  by  herself  and  she  did  not  live  a 
communal  life;  she  wandered  about  a  great  deal  outside  the  convent, 
even  without  the  excuse  of  convent  business,  and  when  she  went  to 
Rouen  she  stayed  there  for  three  or  four  days;  moreover  she  was 

1  P-  285. 

2  For  other  references  to  the  fondness  of  nuns  for  ginger  see  the  Life  of 
Christina  von  Stommeln:  "Item  per  annum  cum  dimidio  non  comedit  aliud 
quam  gingiber"  (Acta  55.  t.  iv,  p.  454  A).   Also  the  Ancren  Riwle,  p.  316: 
"Of  a  man  whom  ye  distrust  receive  ye  neither  less  nor  more — not  so  much 
as. a  race  of  ginger."   Cf.  ib.  p.  279. 

3  PP-  384,  431,  472,  517.  564- 


nj  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  645 

quarrelsome  and  stirred  up  discord  in  the  house  "  so  that  she  could 
not  have  peace  with  the  convent  nor  with  anyone."  The  next  year 
she  resigned,  probably  as  a  result  of  these  complaints  and  of  the 
financial  condition  of  the  house,  but  in  1255  the  register  has  an 
entry:  "  We  found  the  Prioress  quarrelsome  and  sharp  of  tongue,  not 
knowing  how  to  make  corrections  and  also  speaking  ill  of  her  sisters ; 
we  warned  her  to  desist  from  these  things";  so  that  her  resignation 
had  evidently  not  been  accepted.  In  1257  she  made  another  attempt 
at  resignation,  and  the  occasion  is  interesting  because  it  provides  us 
not  only  with  an  inventory  of  Bondeville,  but  also  with  the  sole 
complete  list  of  inmates  preserved  among  the  Rouen  nunneries1.  The 
Archbishop  decided  to  take  an  inquisition  in  the  convent  as  to  whether 
the  Prioress  should  or  should  not  be  removed ;  and  the  votes  of  the 
twenty-six  nuns  and  three  brothers  of  the  house  were  taken  upon 
oath.  Of  these  nineteen  were  in  favour  of  her  removal  and  nine  of 
her  retention,  while  Brother  Roger  permitted  himself  to  express  the 
ambiguous  opinion  that  "it  would  be  evil  for  temporal  affairs  and 
good  for  spiritual  affairs  to  remove  the  prioress"  (quod  dampnum 
esset  temporale  et  utilitas  spiritualis  removere  priorissam!)2  It  is  not 
clear  from  the  Register  whether  she  was  removed;  Rigaud  notes: 
''Item  we  received  the  resignation  of  Marie,  late  the  prioress,"  but 
in  1261  there  occurs  a  further  entry:  "Item  the  Prioress  offered  us 
her  seal,  begging  us  to  absolve  her  from  her  office,  but  we,  being 
unwilling  to  condescend  to  her  in  this  matter,  ordered  her  to  exercise 
her  office  with  greater  zeal."  In  particular  she  was  ordered  "to 
frequent  the  convent  at  least  by  day  (viz.  chapter,  f rater  and  choir) 
better  than  she  was  wont  and  not  to  stand  about  talking  in  the 
cemetery  or  outside  the  house  after  Compline,  as  she  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  doing"3.  At  Bival  an  abbess  resigned  in  1248,  doubtless 
owing  to  the  unsatisfactory  moral  conditions  revealed  at  the  visita 
tion4;  there  were  no  complaints  against  her  successor  until  1268 
(though  two  cases  of  immorality  occurred  in  the  convent  before  that 
date) ;  then,  among  minor  injunctions  concerning  matters  of  adminis 
tration,  she  was  ordered  to  bear  herself  more  kindly  and  courteously 
towards  the  nuns5. 

(2)  Besides  injunctions  dealing  specially  with  the  behaviour  of  the 
head  of  a  house,  the  Archbishop  was  obliged  to  deal  with  breaches  of 
the  rule  by  the  convent  generally.  Many  of  his  regulations  were 
concerned  with  the  strictly  religious  duties  of  the  nuns.  Sometimes 
the  church  services  were  not  being  properly  performed,  as  at  St 
Amand,  St  Aubin,  Villarceaux,  St  Saens  and  Monti villiers.  The  most 
common  defect  was  failure  to  sing  these  services  with  music  (cum 

1  See  pp.  793-4  for  the  inquisition.  The  name  of  the  house  is  not  given 
and  the  editor  places  the  list  in  the  appendix,  but  the  date  is  1257  and 
from  internal  evidence  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  refers  to  the  resignation  of 
Marie,  prioress  of  Bondeville. 

2  p.  793.  3  pp.  in,  133.  217,  298,  410. 
4  p.  6.  5  P-  610. 


646  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

nota  or  ad  notam) l ;  at  St  Saens  (a  constant  offender — Rigaud  notes 
the  fault  at  eight  visitations)  the  nuns  did  not  do  so  even  on  Sundays2. 
Occasionally  a  specific  excuse  was  given;  the  nuns  of  Villarceaux 
omitted  the  music  on  the  days  upon  which  they  received  the  periodical 
bleeding  considered  necessary  to  the  health  of  those  who  embraced 
the  monastic  life3;  at  St  Aubin  in  1264  they  complained  that  many 
of  them  were  often  ill4  and  at  St  Saens  also  (in  1257)  they  dwelt  upon 
their  infirmities5.  At  St  Paul's  by  Rouen  they  were  too  few  in  number 
to  perform  the  service  properly8.  The  Archbishop  contented  himself 
at  St  Aubin  (1251)  with  the  injunction  that  they  should  sing  at  least 
in  monotone — saltern  cum  bassa  nota1 .  Moreover  even  when  the  nuns 
did  sing  the  services  they  occasionally  did  so  carelessly.  At  St  Amand 
the  Archbishop  made  a  significant  injunction: 

They  sometimes  sing  the  hours  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  the  psalms  of 
suffrage  with  too  great  haste  and  precipitation  of  words.  We  ordered  them 
to  sing  in  such  a  way  that  the  side  [of  the  choir]  singing  the  first  half  of 
the  verse  should  hear  the  end  of  the  preceding  verse  and  the  side  singing 
the  second  half  should  hear  the  beginning  of  the  next  verse8. 

Evidently  both  sides  of  the  choir  came  in  too  soon  in  their  anxiety 
to  hurry  through  the  service — a  clear  case  for  Tuttivillus.  At  Monti- 
villiers  the  fault  lay  in  beginning  too  late  and  Rigaud  ordered  that 
better  provision  should  be  made  for  ringing  a  bell  at  the  due  hours, 
so  that  the  service  might  be  said  without  haste  and  finished  while  it 
was  light  (de  luce}9.  At  Villarceaux  he  ordered  that  all  the  nuns 
should  at  once  assemble  in  the  church  when  the  bell  rang,  unless  they 
were  ill  or  had  special  leave  of  absence10.  Even  at  the  great  abbey  of 
Caen  the  service  was  being  said  "  confuse  et  male,  one  part  in  the  choir 
and  one  outside"11.  At  St  Amand  (1263),  which  evidently  contained 
young  and  obstreperous — or  perhaps  only  ignorant — members,  it  was 
ordered  that  the  nuns  should  be  equally  divided  in  the  choir,  so  that 
all  the  young  ones  might  not  be  together12.  At  St  Saens  (1254)  a  nun 
served  the  mass  with  the  priest;  and  at  Bondeville  (1263)  the  nuns 
had  not  the  necessary  priests  and  did  not  hear  enough  sermons13. 
St  Aubin  apparently  shared  the  parish  priest;  there  were  only  fifteen 
parishioners  (most  of  them  doubtless  dependents  of  the  nunnery)  and 
the  priest  dwelt  with  the  nuns  and  was  maintained  at  their  expense  ; 
in  1257  tne  Archbishop  ordered  them  to  find  a  clerk  to  assist  him14. 
The  nuns  of  St  Paul's  heard  only  one  mass — that  of  the  parish — 
daily15.  Sometimes  deficiencies  in  the  services  may  have  been  due  to 
lack  of  books.  At  St  Sauveur  d'Evreux,  in  1258,  it  was  found  that 
the  nuns  did  not  possess  adequate  books  and  they  were  ordered  to 
procure  some16;  at  Villarceaux  in  1257  they  lacked  two  antiphonaries 

1  PP-  44.  H5.  166,  255,  273.  338,  419,  451,  457,  491,  500,  522,  550. 
1  p.  522,  compare  p.  550.  »  pp.  166,  194. 

4  P-  500.  5  p.  273.  •  p.  457. 

P-  IX5-  8  p.  15-  *  pp.  384,431,  472. 

<n  "  P- 575-  "  P.  486. 

"  P-  487-  l4  PP.  283,  319,  361.  "  p.  457.  "  p.  305. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  647 

and  in  1261  it  was  again  noted  that  their  books  were  insufficient  and 
worn  out1.  At  Montivilliers  the  Archbishop  in  1260  ordered  the 
chantress  to  have  an  ordinal  of  the  hours  made  at  the  Abbess'  cost; 
this  had  not  yet  been  done  in  1262  and  from  Rigaud's  injunction 
on  this  occasion  it  appears  that  the  nuns  were  expected  to  write  the 
book  themselves,  for  the  ordinal  was  "to  be  made  by  the  chantress 
and  by  the  more  discreet  nuns,  i.e.  by  the  older  ones  who  knew  and 
understood  better  the  service  of  the  order."  At  the  same  house 
reference  was  made  three  years  later  to  a  certain  glossed  psalter 
which  had  been  bequeathed  to  it  by  a  benefactor,  and  had  been 
alienated  without  the  knowledge  of  the  convent ;  the  Abbess  was  told 
to  have  it  restored  without  delay  and  replied  "that  she  could  do  so 
easily  enough,  because  Master  William  de  Beaumont  had  it"2. 

Another  common  fault  was  negligence  in  the  matter  of  confession 
and  communion.  Sometimes  a  house  had  a  fixed  rule  as  to  the  number 
of  times  the  nuns  had  to  confess  and  communicate.  At  Bival,  for 
example,  the  nuns  seem  to  have  attended  communion  seven  times 
a  year,  though  they  confessed  more  often3.  At  Villarceaux  they  con 
fessed  and  communicated  six  times  a  year4.  At  St  Aubin  the  Arch 
bishop  noted  that  they  were  bound  to  confess  and  to  communicate 
seven  times  a  year,  but  that  they  had  sometimes  been  negligent  in 
the  matter;  they  gave  an  inadequate  excuse,  and  Rigaud  ordered 
them  on  no  account  to  be  absent  from  communion  and  warned  the 
Prioress  to  consider  any  such  absence  without  due  cause  as  a  serious 
fault5.  At  St  Leger  de  Preaux  in  1249  he  found  that  the  nuns  con 
fessed  and  communicated  only  four  times  a  year  and  ordered  them 
to  do  so  monthly6.  At  Montivilliers7  and  at  Bondeville8  they  were 
supposed  to  confess  and  to  communicate  monthly,  but  at  the  latter 
house  he  found  them  negligent  in  1261,  and  ordered  that  the  nun 
who  did  not  communicate  with  the  others  or  within  the  next  two  or 
three  days  was  to  be  punished  by  abstention  from  wine  and  pottage 
for  three  days9.  The  Archbishop's  usual  custom  was  to  order  monthly 
confession  and  communion10.  Sometimes  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  difficulty  about  getting  a  confessor;  at  Almeneches  (where, 

1  pp.  281,  402.  z  pp.  384,  431,  817. 

3  pp.  268,  299,  339.   On  one  occasion  the  number  is  given  as  12.   p.  207. 

4  pp.  43,  534.    However  in  1268  Rigaud  noted  that  they  ought  to  do 
so  monthly,  p.  602. 

5  p.  412. 

6  p.  62,  but  in  1267  Rigaud  noted  that  they  were  obliged  to  do  so  seven 
times  a  year.    p.  600. 

7  pp.  293,  517,  564. 

8  pp.  298,  487.  In  1255  he  noted  that  they  did  so  seven  times  a  year  and 
ordered  fortnightly  confessions  and  communions  instead  (p.  217),  but  from 
the  later  visitations  it  appears  that  the  seven  times  rule  referred  only  to 
lay  brothers  and  sisters. 

9  p.  410. 

10  (St  Amand),  pp.  121,  202,  326,  456;   (St  D6sir  de  Lisieux),   p.    199; 
(St  Sauveur  d'Evreux),  pp.  220,  305. 


648  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

in  1250,  the  nuns  had  no  rule  or  term  for  confession  or  communion1)  it 
was  found  in  1260  that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  confessing  to  passing 
friars  when  they  wished  to  do  so,  and  Rigaud  ordered  the  Bishop 
to  provide  them  with  regular  confessors,  friars  minor  or  others2.  At 
St  Saens  in  1261  they  had  not  had  a  confessor  for  a  long  time  and 
were  ordered  to  procure  the  Prior  of  Crissy3,  but  in  1265  the  Arch 
bishop  still  found  that  they  did  not  go  to  confession  as  well  as  they 
should4.  At  Ariete  the  nuns  did  not  all  confess  to  their  own  priest5. 

Other  minor  faults  were  late  rising6,  breach  of  silence7  and  laxity 
in  causing  novices  to  make  their  profession8.  At  Villarceaux  in  1249 
only  four  out  of  the  twenty-three  nuns  had  been  properly  professed9. 
The  Archbishop  ordered  the  vows  to  be  taken  when  the  novices 
reached  the  age  of  fourteen  years10;  this  was  not  to  be  done  before11 
and  if  any  refused  to  do  so  at  the  appointed  age  they  were  to  be  sent 
back  to  the  world12;  he  also  ordered  in  several  cases  that  only  the 
three  vows  of  poverty,  chastity  and  obedience  should  be  taken13. 

Another  set  of  injunctions  is  concerned  with  the  conduct  of  the 
frater,  the  infirmary  and  the  chapter  house.  The  Archbishop  dealt 
with  the  observances  of  the  frater  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
communal  life,  from  that  of  the  food  eaten  by  the  nuns  and  from 
that  of  almsgiving.  The  growing  practice  among  the  nuns  of  dining 
separately  in  their  rooms  or  in  little  cliques,  instead  of  keeping  the 
frater,  was  a  menace  to  a  strictly  communal  life,  and  as  such  will  be 
considered  later,  with  other  practices  which  tended  in  the  same 
direction.  Here  it  may  be  noted  that  already  in  the  thirteenth  century 
the  regulations  of  the  monastic  rule  as  to  diet  were  being  contravened. 
Many  convents  were  convicted  of  eating  meat  unnecessarily,  etiam 
sane,  "  even  when  in  good  health  "  ",  and  it  was  becoming  the  custom 
—in  Rigaud 's  diocese  as  elsewhere— to  use  the  infirmary  as  a  miseri 
cord,  in  which  meat  was  eaten  on  certain  days  of  the  week,  generally 
thrice  a  week15.  Sometimes  even  fast  days  were  not  regularly  kept16. 
Another  breach  of  the  rule  frequently  encountered  by  the  Archbishop 
was  inadequate  almsgiving.  The  nuns  were  supposed  to  give  alms 
regularly  to  the  poor  and  in  particular  to  give  them  the  food  which 
remained  over  from  the  convent  meals;  but  in  view  of  the  poverty 
of  some  of  the  houses  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  rule  was  sometimes 
unobserved.  Very  often  the  nuns,  instead  of  collecting  the  fragments 

!  p-  82'  2  P-  374-  3  p.  419-  4  p.  522. 

P-  245-  6  p.  517  (Montivilliers). 

PP-  43,  44  (Villarceaux);  117,  146  (Bival);  170,  310  (St  Saens);  261 
len);  285,  486  (St  Amand);  305  (St  Sauveur);  348  (Bondeville) 
8  pp.  15  (St  Amand);  60  (St  L6ger  de  Preaux). 
*  P-  43-  10  pp.  15,  121  (St  Amand);  207  (St  Aubin). 

p.  207  (Bival).  12  p.  207  (St  Aubin). 

pp.  197,  295,  591  (St  Leger-de-Preaux);  201  (St  Amand)-  261  (Caen* 
"  p.  170  (St  Saens). 

16  pp.  16  (St  Amand);  62,  199  (St  Desir  de  Lisieux);  60  (St  Leger  de 
Pr6aux);  170,  187  (St  Saens). 

'•  pp.  62  (St  Desir  de  Lisieux);  884  (Montivilliers). 


n]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  649 

left  over  in  frater  and  infirmary,  each  kept  what  remained  of  her  own 
share  and  sold  it  or  gave  it  away  to  people  outside  the  convent.  St 
Amand  was  a  constant  offender;  in  1248  the  Archbishop  had  occasion 
to  forbid  the  unequal  distribution  of  wine  to  the  nuns  "  to  one  more 
and  to  another  less,"  and  he  added  that  if  any  of  them  gave  away 
any  part  of  her  measure  of  wine  to  anyone  outside  the  house  without 
licence  she  was  to  be  punished  by  being  deprived  of  wine  the  next 
day1;  in  1251  he  enjoined  that  no  nun  was  to  put  forth  any  of  her 
food  save  in  the  way  of  alms2;  but  some  thirteen  years  later  St 
Amand  (doubtless  on  account  of  its  poverty)  was  still  remiss  in  the 
matter  of  almsgiving  and  Rigaud  warned  the  nuns  separately  that 
it  must  not  be  diminished  and  that  everything  left  over  from  meals 
must  be  given  to  the  poor3.  At  St  Sae'ns  it  was  discovered  that  the 
nuns  had  separate  portions  of  bread  allotted  to  them  and  that  the 
fragments  were  never  given  in  alms,  because  each  either  sold  or  gave 
away  these  fragments  as  she  pleased4.  At  Monti villiers  almsgiving 
was  diminished  because  the  nuns  gave  away  the  remnants  of  the 
portions  of  bread,  wine  and  other  food  to  "serving  maids  and  other 
acquaintances"5;  and  at  Villarceaux  and  Bival  also  it  was  necessary 
to  warn  the  nuns  not  to  give  away  or  sell  any  of  their  clothes  or  food6. 
The  practice  was  the  more  reprehensible  in  the  Archbishop's  eyes  in 
that  it  savoured  of  the  private  ownership  of  property.  Rigaud  made 
general  orders  for  the  increase  of  almsgiving  and  for  the  more  careful 
collection  of  food  after  meals  in  the  frater  and  in  the  infirmary7. 
Sometimes  the  custom  of  a  house  prescribed  special  obligations ;  the 
Abbess  of  Montivilliers  was  required  to  give  alms  thrice  a  week 
and  to  entertain  thirteen  poor  men  daily8.  Sometimes  the  revenues 
of  a  special  manor  or  rent  were  earmarked  for  the  expenses  of  alms 
giving;  the  recalcitrant  St  Amand  was  found  to  have  abstracted  the 
rents  of  a  certain  manor  from  the  almoness  and  was  ordered  to  restore 
them  to  their  proper  purpose9. 

Other  departments  of  the  convent  of  which  mention  is  made  in 
Rigaud's  Register  are  the  infirmary  and  the  chapter  house.  At  Monti 
villiers  the  Archbishop,  in  1262,  ordered  the  infirmary  to  be  repaired 
and  the  convent  to  be  provided  with  physic10;  and  at  Bondeville, 
St  Sauveur  and  St  Amand  he  was  obliged  to  order  that  sick  nuns 
should  be  better  looked  after11.  There  are  some  interesting  notes  about 
the  meetings  of  the  chapter  in  various  houses.  At  several  (Bondeville, 
St  Sae'ns  and  Villarceaux)  the  Archbishop  found  that  the  chapter  was 
seldom  held12.  At  others  the  duty  incumbent  upon  the  nuns  to  accuse 
or  proclaim  (clamare)  each  other's  faults  was  imperfectly  performed. 
There  was  a  most  natural  reluctance  on  the  part  of  the  elder  nuns  to 

i  p.  16.  2  p.  121.  3  p.  512.  4  p.  338. 

5  p.  384.  6  PP-  44.  468. 

7  pp.  431,  451,  472,  517,  564,  600,  624.   Cf.  also  p.  652,  below. 

8  pp.  384,  431,  472,  517,  600.    Cf.  St  Sae'ns,  p.  451.  9  p.  638. 
10  p.  431.                                    u  PP-  "I.  285,  486,  625. 

12  pp.  in,  166,  170,  194. 


650  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

allow  the  indiscriminate  criticism  of  their  juniors  and  a  tendency 
to  keep  the  latter  in  their  place  by  allowing  them  only  to  be  accused 
and  never  to  retaliate.  At  Caen  (1250)  the  Archbishop  found  that 
none  made  the  statutory  accusations  save  certain  nuns  who  were 
deputed  to  reveal  the  faults  of  the  younger  ones1  and  at  St  Amand 
also  only  the  elder  nuns  made  accusations,  and  he  ordered  that  all 
without  exception  should  reveal  what  they  saw  amiss2.  At  Montivilliers 
the  same  complaint  that  the  nuns  refrained  from  accusing  each  other 
was  made3.  From  one  point  of  view  this  imperfect  performance  of 
their  duty  in  chapter  meant  that  the  nuns  were  winking  at  each 
other's  peccadilloes,  and  it  was  for  the  sake  of  discipline  that  the 
Archbishop  insisted  upon  a  more  strict  obedience  to  the  rule.  From 
another  point  of  view  the  obligation  certainly  gave  rise  to  much  ill- 
feeling;  the  author  of  theAncren  Riwle  placed  "  Exposing  faults  "  and 
"  Backbiting"  among  the  brood  of  seven,  offspring  of  "the  venomous 
serpent  of  hell,  Envy";  for  human  nature  would  need  to  be  very 
perfect  if  the  accusations  were  always  to  be  made  in  the  spirit  of 
sisterly  admonition,  "sweetly  and  affectionately,"  which  the  same 
treatise  describes  so  eloquently  a  few  pages  later4.  It  is  significant 
that  the  Abbess  of  Montivilliers  had  to  be  warned  in  no  way  to  molest 
one  of  her  nuns,  nor  to  conceive  rancour  against  her  on  account  of 
anything  that  she  said  in  chapter6. 

1  p.  g.\.  Cf.  p.  261:  "Una  non  clamat  aliam "  (1256). 
-  p.  201.  a  p   293 

4  Ancren  Riwle,  tr.  Gasquet,  pp.  151,  192. 

5  p.  518.   An  amusing  example  of  convent  amenities  on  these  occasions 
and  particularly  of  the  way  in  which  the  younger  nuns  seized  a  chance  of 
"getting  even"  with  their  elders  is  to  be  found  in  Johann  Busch's  account 
of  his  visitation  of  Dorstadt  (in  the  Liber  de  Reformatione  Monasteriorum 
described  below,  App.  III).    At  this  house  it  was  the  custom  for  the  chapter 
disciplines  to  be  administered  to  the  whole  convent  by  two  of  the  youngest 
nuns,  who  then  received  discipline  themselves.  "And,"  says  Busch,  "they 
had  somewhat  large  rods  and  beat  each  other  somewhat  severely,  because 
the  younger  nuns  were  ordained  to  give  disciplines  for  this  reason,  that 
they  were  stronger  than  the  others.    I  asked  one  of  them  after  confession 
whether  she  ever  gave  one  more   or  sharper  blows  than  another.    She 
answered,  '  Truly  I  do.   I  hit  more  sharply  and  as  much  as  I  can  her  who 
in  my  judgment  deserves  more.'    This  girl  was  about  eight  or  ten  years 
old.    I  asked  one  elderly  sister,  who  was  prioress  in  another  monastery  of 
her  order,  but  because  she  was  unwilling  to  reform  was  expelled  from  it, 
whether  she  received  severe  disciplines  from  them.    She  replied,  'I  have 
counted  ten  or  eight  strokes,  which  she  has  often  given  me  as  hard  as  she 
could,  within  the  space  in  which  "  Misereatur  tui "  is  read.'  Then  I  said  to  her, 
'You  ought  to  make  her  a  sign,  that  she  may  understand  that  you  have 
had  enough.'  She  answered,  '  When  I  do  that,  she  hits  me  all  the  more.  And 
I  dare  not  say  anything  to  her  on  account  of  the  prioress's  presence,  but 
I  think  to  myself:  I  must  bear  these  on  account  of  my  sins,  because  the 
prioress  and  all  the  seniors  receive  from  them  as  much  as  they  like  to  give, 
without  contradiction.'    And  she  added,  'before  her  profession  I  used  to 
teach  her  and  often  beat  her  with  a  rod :  now  she  pays  me  back  as  she  likes.' " 
Busch,  Chron.  Wind,  et  Liber  de  Ref.  Mon.,  ed.  Grube,  pp.  644-5. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  651 

Finally  the  Archbishop  sometimes  found  fault  with  the  manage 
ment  of  the  secular  servants  and  of  the  lay  brothers  and  sisters 
attached  to  different  houses.  It  was  his  custom  to  note  the  number 
of  maidservants  (ancille,  pedissece)  employed  and  to  reprove  the  nuns 
if  he  thought  that  they  were  employing  too  many,  or  falling  into  the 
sin  of  property  by  keeping  certain  maids  in  the  service  of  individual 
nuns,  as  they  did  at  Almeneches  in  I2551,  at  St  Leger  de  Preaux 
in  i26y2  and  at  st  Sauveur  in  1269;  at  the  last  house  he  noted: 

The  convent  had  three  common  maids  and  several  special  maids  were  kept 
at  the  cost  of  the  house;  so  we  ordered  that  there  were  henceforth  to  be 
no  special  maids,  but  that  if  necessary  the  number  of  common  maids  might 
be  increased3. 

At  St  Amand  he  twice  ordered  the  removal  of  all  superfluous  servants, 
adding  in  1267  that  all  were  to  be  paid  at  a  fixed  rate  out  of  the 
common  funds4.  At  St  Aubin  in  1265  he  found  two  servants,  one  of 
whom  was  incontinent  and  of  ill  repute  (little  wonder,  considering 
the  evil  morals  of  the  nuns)  and  he  ordered  her  instant  expulsion5. 
Of  the  lay  sisters  attached  to  some  of  the  houses  there  is  less  mention ; 
in  1259  Rigaud  noted  that  two  of  those  at  Bondeville  were  of  weak 
intellect  (fatue) 6.  There  was  sometimes  trouble  with  the  lay  brothers ; 
at  Bondeville  (1251)  he  made  a  list  of  corrections  for  them7  and  in  1259 
a  certain  brother  Roger  (doubtless  the  same  whose  dark  saying  about 
the  Prioress  has  already  been  recorded)  was  announced  to  be  dis 
obedient  and  rebellious,  and  the  injunction  that  he  should  obey  the 
Prioress  had  to  be  repeated  in  1268,  nearly  ten  years  later8.  There 
was  occasionally  also  need  for  correction  in  the  behaviour  of  the 
convent  priest,  for  it  is  clear  that  an  unsuitable  chaplain  might  give 
great  cause  for  scandal.  The  not  very  reputable  houses  of  St  Sae'ns 
and  Bival  both  suffered  in  this  way;  in  1254  the  Archbishop  found 
that  the  priest  of  the  former  house  was  incontinent  and  ordered  the 
nuns  to  find  another9;  and  in  1256,  at  Bival,  he  noted :  "We  removed 
the  priest  from  this  place  on  account  of  the  scandal  of  the  nuns  and 
of  the  populace,  though  we  found  nothing  which  we  could  prove 
against  him"10.  At  St  Aubin  in  1261  the  nuns  were  ordered  not  to 
drink  with  seculars  in  the  priest's  house11. 

(3)  The  most  frequent  fault  which  Eudes  Rigaud  found  in  the 
nunneries  under  his  care  was  the  persistent  hankering  of  the  nuns 
after  private  property  and  their  failure  to  live  a  communal  life  ac 
cording  to  the  rule.  The  possession  of  private  property  was  a  very 
common  charge.  The  nuns  had  chests  in  which  to  keep  such  possessions 
as  they  were  allowed  and  there  was  a  perpetual  struggle  over  the 

i  p.  235.  2  p.  59i.  3  PP-  624-5- 

4  pp.  512,  588.  6  p.  550. 

6  p.  348.   Perhaps  one  of  these  is  referred  to  in  1251  when  Rigaud  noted 
"Ibi  est  quedam  filia  ciiiusdam  burgensis  de  Vallibus  que  stulta  est" 
(p.  in).    It  may  however  refer  to  a  boarder. 

7  p.    III.  8    pp.    348,   615.  9    p.    187. 

10  p.  268.  "  p.  412. 


652  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

question  as  to  whether  or  not  they  were  to  be  allowed  keys,  with 
which  to  lock  the  boxes.  The  nuns  of  Montivilliers  begged  for  keys 
in  1257  and  the  stern  Rigaud  refused1;  of  this  refusal  they  took  not 
the  smallest  notice,  and  in  1262  the  Register  contains  the  injunction 
that  keys  were  to  be  given  up  and  that  those  who  were  unwilling 
to  obey  were  to  be  severely  punished;  "for,"  added  the  Archbishop, 
We  understood  that  when  the  abbess  asked  them  for  their  keys  certain  of 
them  would  not  give  the  keys  up  for  two  or  three  days,  until  they  should 
have  gone  through  their  things  and  taken  away  those  which  they  did  not 
want  the  Abbess  to  see,  and  so  we  ordered  these  nuns  to  be  punished  for 
disobedience  and  for  the  ownership  of  property2. 

The  injunction  that  the  boxes  should  be  inspected  frequently  was 
repeated  at  three  subsequent  visitations3.  It  was  the  Archbishop's 
usual  custom  to  order  the  Abbess  or  Prioress  to  look  into  the  nuns' 
boxes  often  and  unexpectedly  in  order  to  remove  private  property, 
and  the  injunction  was  repeated  from  year  to  year,  which  looks  as 
though  it  were  greatly  honoured  in  the  breach4.  Besides  the  injunction 
against  closed  boxes  there  was  an  oft-repeated  injunction  to  the  effect 
that,  in  accordance  with  the  rule5,  no  nun  was  to  have  more  than 
one  set  of  garments;  directly  new  clothes  were  given  out  the  old 
ones  were  to  be  handed  back  (and  given  to  the  poor),  so  that  no  nun 
might  rejoice  in  the  semblance  of  a  wardrobe6.  At  St  Amand  in  1264 
the  Archbishop  made  the  following  note  of  his  action : 
Item  we  ordered  them  that  when  they  received  new  pilches,  shifts  and  any 
sort  of  new  garments  or  foot-wear  (calciamentorum),  they  were  to  give  the  old 
in  alms,  whereat  they  murmured  somewhat  to  our  displeasure,  and  we 
forbade  the  abbess  to  give  them  any  new  clothes  until  they  had  rendered 
up  the  old7. 

It  appears  from  an  injunction  given  at  St  Sauveur  in  I2588  that  the 
nuns  sometimes  sold  or  gave  away  their  old  clothes  as  they  did  with 
the  remains  of  their  portions  of  food  and  drink;  in  both  cases  the 
sin  of  property  was  encouraged  and  almsgiving  diminished.  Rigaud 
made  the  most  comprehensive  injunction  on  these  points  at  Villar- 
ceaux  in  1249: 

We  warn  you,  all  and  sundry,  that  ye  observe  the  communism  which  ought 
to  be  observed  in  religion  in  the  matter  of  clothes,  food  and  other  like 

|  P-  293-  *  P-  43i.  a  pp   4?2)  5I?>  564 

170,   187,  522  (St  Saens);  201,  326,  401,  512  (St  Amand);  298, 
>.  455  (Bondeville);  73,  220,  305  (St  Sauveur);  117,  146  (Bival);  199,  296 
(St  D6sir  de  Lisieux);  295-6,  592  (St  L£ger  de  Preaux);  402  ( Villarceaux)  • 
412  (St  Aubin). 

See  Rule  of  St  Benedict,  tr.  Gasquet,  pp.  95-6:  "When  receiving  new 

rthes  the  monks  shall  always  give  back  the  old  ones  at  the  same  time, 

to  be  put  away  in  the  clothes  room  for  the  poor.   For  it  is  sufficient  that  a 

monk  have  two  cowls,  as  well  for  night  wear  as  for  the  convenience  of 

washing.    Anything  else  is  superfluous  and  must  be  cut  off." 

*  PP-  384,  517.  564  (Montivilliers);  295  (St  L6ger  de  Pre"aux);  62  (St 
Desir  dc  Lisieux);  220,  305  (St  Sauveur). 

7  P-  512.  •  p.  305. 


n]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  653 

things,  neither  sell  nor  give  away  at  your  own  will  any  of  those  things  which 
belong  to  the  common  food  or  dress ;  and  if  ye  shall  have  received  anything 
from  your  friends,  ye  shall  apply  it  to  the  use  of  the  community  and  not 
each  to  your  own  use1. 

In  one  case  at  least,  that  of  Bival,  the  practice  (which  afterwards 
became  common)  of  giving  each  of  the  nuns  a  separate  allowance 
with  which  to  buy  her  own  clothes  or  food  was  already  in  force; 
the  Abbess  of  Bival  gave  to  each  an  annual  sum  of  125.  out  of  which 
to  buy  her  clothes2.  At  Montivilliers  Rigaud  ordered  the  nuns  to  be 
clothed  in  common3  and  at  St  Aubin  he  made  a  special  injunction 
that  they  were  to  use  their  scapularies  in  common4. 

But  the  sin  of  property  crept  into  convents  in  every  direction 
and  was  most  difficult  of  all  to  eradicate.  At  Almeneches  in  1250 
Rigaud  noted :  "All  are  proprietarie,  owning  saucepans,  copper  kettles 
and  necklaces  of  their  own  "  5.  At  St  Aubin  in  1265  there  is  the  entry : 

Because  divers  of  the  nuns  have  divers  cocks  and  hens  and  often  quarrel 
over  them,  we  ordered  that  all  cocks  and  hens  were  to  be  nourished  alike 
and  to  be  kept  in  common  and  the  eggs  ministered  equally  among  the  nuns 
and  fowls  sometimes  given  to  the  sick  to  eat  in  the  infirmary6. 

But  in  vain;  each  nun  clung  to  her  own  hen;  still  there  continued 
the  rivalry  when  eggs  were  counted,  the  jealousy  over  the  possession 
of  a  good  layer,  the  turmoil  when  some  fickle  fowl  laid  in  the  wrong 
nest.  After  all  it  was  a  Nonnes  Prest  who  described  that  immortal 
farmyard  lorded  over  by  Chantecler  and  his  seven  wives.  Could  the 
happy  owner  of  "damoysele  Pertelote,"  bearing  herself  so  fair  and 
companionable,  be  expected  to  give  her  up  into  cold  communal 
ownership?  Two  years  later  the  Archbishop  remarked  in  his  diary 
that  nothing  had  been  done  about  the  poultry7.  Some  nuns  even 
had  rents  of  their  own,  which  they  kept  for  their  private  use  instead 
of  adding  the  money  to  the  common  income  of  the  priory.  This  was 
the  case  at  Bondeville8  and  at  St  Desir  de  Lisieux9.  At  the  latter 
Rigaud  began  by  ordering  these  rents  to  be  held  in  common,  but  in 
later  years  contented  himself  with  an  injunction  that  they  should 
be  retained  only  at  the  discretion  of  the  Abbess.  At  St  Saens  in  1250 
it  was  noted :  "  They  receive  gifts  and  retain  and  expend  them  without 
licence"10.  Usually  the  injunction  was  that  the  nuns  were  to  receive 
nothing  from  their  friends  without  licence  from  the  head  of  the 
house11;  the  poverty  of  some  convents  made  it  impossible  altogether 
to  prohibit  such  gifts. 

Closely  connected  with  this  sin  of  property  was  the  failure  to 
live  a  communal  life.  Already  at  this  early  date  the  practice  of  eating 

1  PP-  44-5- 

2  "Abbatissa  dat  cuilibet  moniali  per  annum  xii  solidos  pro  vestibus 
tantummodo,  et  singule  earum  provident  sibi  de  residue."  p.  339;  cf.  p.  299. 
Cf.  also  Almeneches  in  1250,  p.  82. 

3  p.  384.  4  p.  207.  5  p.  82.  6  p.  550. 
7  p.  587.                   8  p.  615.                  9  pp.  62,  199,  296.           10  p.  100. 
11  pp.   115,  273,  285.    Cf.  injunctions  to  Villarceaux  in  1249,  quoted 

above. 


654  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

in  separate  chambers  and  of  receiving  separate  allowances  of  food 
was  becoming  common.  The  most  comprehensive  indictment  was 
made  at  Almeneches.  In  1250  (the  same  year  that  Rigaud  found 
them  to  be  proprietarie,  owning  pots  and  pans)  he  noted : 

They  run  up  debts  in  the  town  and  eat  together  and  sit  at  table  in  cliques 
(per  societates).  To  each  money  is  given  to  provide  herself  with  food.  Many 
stay  away  from  compline  and  from  matins  and  they  drink  after  compline1. 
On  this  occasion  the  moral  record  of  the  convent  was  found  to  be 
peculiarly  bad.  In  1255  there  was  no  further  complaint  of  immorality 
but  the  nuns  were  as  lax  as  ever  in  keeping  the  rule  as  to  communal 
life: 

They  have  chambers  with  partitions  in  the  dorter.  They  have  separate 
maids  of  their  own,  who  do  not  serve  the  community2.  They  do  not  eat 
out  of  the  same  dish  but  have  divers  dishes.  Each  had  one  loaf  to  herself 
and  kept  what  was  over;  we  ordered  the  abbess  to  give  them  bread  without 
livery  (i.e.  in  common)  and  to  take  back  what  was  over.  They  do  not  live 
on  the  same  pittance;  in  short  they  do  not  live  in  common3. 
In  1260  it  was  the  same  story: 

The  frater  was  often  left  empty,  to  wit  because  they  did  not  eat  together 
therein,  but  they  ate  meat  scattered  in  cliques  by  twos  and  by  threes  in 
their  chambers  (due  et  due,  tres  et  tres,  sparsim  et  socialite*  in  cameris).  They 
had  many  chambers  and  five  maid  servants  to  boot.... Each  of  them  had 
one  loaf  daily  and  retained  what  remained  over.  We  ordered  that  the 
remnant  should  be  given  in  alms  and  counselled  them  to  eat  and  to  live 
in  common  and  to  remove  the  chambers4. 

At  Monti villiers  the  order  to  dine  together  was  repeated  at  almost 
every  visitation;  the  nuns  had  separate  dishes  cooked  for  themselves 
in  the  kitchen  and  when  they  were  in  the  infirmary  "  for  recreation 
or  for  slight  ailments"  they  used  to  eat  separately  in  little  companies 
(per  conventicula)*.  At  St  Saens6  and  at  St  Le"ger  de  Pr6aux7  also 
the  nuns  had  separate  food  allowances  and  ate  in  the  infirmary;  at 
Bival  some  of  them  had  food  prepared  separately8  and  at  Villarceaux 
in  1266  the  Archbishop  made  the  following  injunction: 

We  ordered  her  (the  Abbess)  to  permit  them  to  dine  together  twice  a  day 
according  to  their  rule  and  to  have  a  bell  rung  twice,  to  wit  for  dinner  and 
for  supper,  so  that  they  might  come  together  at  the  sound  into  the  frater, 
in  a  more  seemly  way  than  they  have  been  wont.  For  they  often  ate 
separately  in  their  chambers9. 

At  St  Sauveur  also  Rigaud  ordered  all  to  dine  together  in  the  fratei , 
and  in  the  infirmary  all  nuns,  except  those  actually  in  bed,  were  to 

1  p.  82. 

2  Cf.  the  case  of  Johanna  Martel  at  St  Saens,  p.  338,  quoted  below,  p.  668. 

3  P-  235-  *  p.  374- 

pp.  384,  431,  472,  517,  564.  In  1260  the  injunction  was:  "Item  quod 
omnes  sane  insimul  comederent;  item  inhibuimus  ne  in  refectorio  per  con- 
venticula  et  colligationes  comederent  sed  sederent  in  mensis  indifferenter 
et  escis  communibus  vescerentur"  (p.  384). 

*  pp.  170,  380.  522.  7  pp.  60,  197,  295.  8  p.  146. 

•  p.  572. 


n]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  655 

use  the  same  food  at  the  same  table1.  At  Bondeville  the  nuns  seem 
to  have  been  in  the  habit  of  congregating,  with  the  servants  of  the 
house,  in  a  certain  oven  room,  doubtless  for  the  sake  of  the  warmth ; 
and  the  Archbishop  several  times  forbade  the  practice  on  account 
of  possible  scandal3.  Private  drinking  parties  sometimes  occurred; 
at  St  Sauveur  the  nuns  occasionally  drank  outside  the  frater  or 
infirmary  in  their  own  chambers3  and  at  Almeneches  they  drank 
after  Compline4. 

(4)  It  has  already  been  said  that  the  nunneries  were  often  reduced 
to  great  straits  by  poverty.  As  a  result  they  invented  a  number  of 
devices  for  obtaining  ready  money.  Some  of  these  devices  seem  to 
modern  eyes  harmless  enough;  but  they  were  opposed  by  medieval 
Visitors  because  they  brought  the  nunneries  into  too  close  contact 
with  the  world  and  were  subversive  of  discipline.  One  of  their  devices 
has  already  been  described.  At  St  Saens,  Villarceaux,  Bival  and  St 
Sauveur  it  is  evident  that  the  nuns  were  in  the  habit  not  merely  of 
giving  away  but  actually  of  selling  the  food  and  drink  left  over  from 
meals  and  their  old  clothes  to  people  outside  the  convent.  At  Bonde 
ville  Rigaud  had,  in  1251,  to  forbid  them  to  sell  their  thread  and  their 
spindles5.  At  many  houses  they  were  accustomed  to  knit  or  embroider 
silken  purses,  tassels,  cushions  or  needle  cases,  either  for  sale  or  as 
gifts  to  their  friends,  and  the  Archbishop  forbade  them  to  do  any 
silkwork  except  for  church  ornament6.  He  was  not  remarkably  suc 
cessful,  since  he  had  to  repeat  the  injunction  eight  times  at  St  Amand, 
between  1254  and  1267.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  his  attitude  with 
the  similar  prohibition  made  to  the  anchoresses  of  the  Ancren  Riwle 
early  in  the  same  century:  "Make  no  purses  to  gain  friends  there 
with,  nor  blodbendes  of  silk;  but  shape  and  sew  and  mend  church 
vestments  and  poor  people's  clothes"7. 

Another  means  of  getting  money  was  by  taking  school-children 
as  boarders  and  the  general  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  this 
custom  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  Eudes  Rigaud's  Register.  The 
provincial  council  of  Rouen  in  1231,  attempting  to  deal  with  the 
bad  discipline  in  Benedictine  nunneries,  had  promulgated  a  statute 
forbidding  the  reception  of  children  to  be  educated,  and  the  context 
shows  that  the  practice  was  regarded  solely  in  the  light  of  an  inter 
ference  with  convent  discipline,  by  bringing  the  nuns  into  contact 
with  the  world : 

On  account  of  the  scandals  which  rise  out  of  the  conversation  of  nuns,  we 
ordain  for  black  nuns  that  they  shall  receive  nothing  to  be  deposited  with 


2  pp.  in,  217,  571.  The  oven  room  of  St  Amand  was  looked  after  by 
a  lay  brother,  p.  588. 

3  P-  73-  4  P-  82. 

3  p.  in.  " Quod  moniales  non  vendantnecdistrahantfilumet/or/ws^s." 

6  pp.  202,  283,  326,  401,  456,  486,  512,  588  (St  Amand);  73,  624  (St 
Sauveur);  518  ( Monti villiers);  451  (St  Saens);  534  (Villarceaux). 

7  Ancren  Riwle,  tr.  Gasquet,  p.  318. 


656  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

them  in  their  houses  by  any  persons;  above  all  let  them  by  no  means  permit 
the  strong-boxes  of  clergy,  or  of  the  laity  too,  to  be  placed  in  their  custody1. 
Boys  and  girls  who  are  accustomed  to  be  brought  up  and  taught  there  are 
immediately  to  be  put  away2. 

In  accordance  with  this  statute  and  with  the  invariable  custom  of 
ecclesiastical  authorities  it  was  Eudes  Rigaud's  practice  to  order  the 
expulsion  of  children  wherever  he  found  them,  and  the  number  of 
these  prohibitions  increased  during  the  last  years  covered  by  his 
diary,  which  points  to  a  firm  determination  to  eradicate  the  fault, 
though  it  would  also  seem  to  imply  a  certain  flouting  of  his  authority 
by  the  nuns.   In  four  cases  (St  Sae'ns,  St  Aubin,  Bival  and  Villarceaux) 
the  moral  record  of  the  houses  concerned  was  so  disgraceful  that  the 
Archbishop  might  well  be  thought  to  have  been  actuated  by  concern 
for  the  children  growing  up  under  such  evil  influences3;  but  the  fact 
that  he  took  the  same  course  at  Bondeville,  St  Sauveur,  St  Amand 
and  St  Leger  de  Preaux,  against  which  none  but  minor  breaches  of 
the  rule  were  charged,  shows  that  his  policy  was  dictated  by  care 
for  the  nuns  and  not  for  their  pupils.    Bondeville  was  an  obstinate 
offender.  There  in  1255  the  Archbishop  ordered  the  Prioress  and 
Subprioress  to  remove  their  little  nieces4  and  a  certain  other  girl5; 
in  1257  he  noted  the  presence  of  five  ladies  (domicclle)  who  had  not 
been  received  as  novices6;  and  in  1261  he  noted  again  that  "Many 
secular  girls  were  used  to  be  placed  there  with  their  costs"7.  In  the 
two  last  cases  the  Register — probably,  as  Mr  Coulton  suggests,  by 
a  clerical  oversight — contains  no  injunction  to  remove  the  children; 
and  in  1266  only  one  boarder,  "a  lady  of  Rouen,  Laurentia  called 
qnatuor  Homines"  was  ordered  to  be  sent  away,  though  the  Arch 
bishop  explicitly  stated  that  "Certain  girls  (iuvencule],  daughters  of 
burgesses  of  Rouen,  were  there  as  it  were  in  charge  [of  the  nuns], 

1  The  custom  of  depositing  valuables  in  a  monastery  for  safety  was  very 
general.    Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  has  an  entertaining  anecdote  on  the 
point:  "A  certain  usurer  committed  a  large  sum  of  his  money  to  a  certain 
cellarer  of  our  order  to  be  kept  for  him.  The  monk  sealed  it  up  and  put  it 
in  a  safe  place  together  with  the  money  belonging  to  the  monastery. 
Afterwards  the  usurer  came  to  ask  for  his  deposit,  but  when  the  cellarer 
opened  the  chest,  he  found  neither  that  nor  his  own  money.   And  when  he 
beheld  that  the  locks  of  the  chest  were  intact  and  the  seals  of  the  bags  un 
broken  and  that  there  was  no  suspicion  of  theft,  he  understood  that  the 
money  of  the  usurer  had  eaten  up  the  money  of  the  monastery."  Caes   of 
Heist.,  Dial.  Mirac.  ed.  Strange  (1851),  i,  p.  108.    For  another  example 
of  goods  being  deposited  for  safety  in  a  nunnery  see  V.C.H.  Herts,  iv,  p.  431 
(note  40).    A  certain  Joan  Sturmyn  entrusted  goods  to  the  value  of  £50 
to  the  keeping  of  Alice  Wafer,  Prioress  of  St  Mary  de  Pr6  (near  St  Albans), 
which  afterwards  gave  rise  to  a  case  in  chancery,  1480-5. 

2  Coulton,  Monastic  Schools  in  the  Middle  Ages  (Medieval  Studies,  No.  10) 
quoting  from  Martene,  Thesaurus,  iv,  col.  175,  §  iv. 

1  See  references  to  convent  schools  by  Gerson  and  by  Erasmus  quoted 
in  Coulton,  op.  cit.  pp.  22-3,  note  17. 

4  Or  grandnieces  (nepotulas).  5  p.  217. 

6  P-  298.  »  p.  410. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  657 

which  displeased  us"1.  There  was,  however,  no  ambiguity  about  his 
action  in  1268  when  he  ordered  a  certain 

Basiria,  daughter  of  Amelina  of  Aulnay,  who  was  there  as  a  boarder,  to 
be  sent  away  and  forbade  the  Prioress  henceforth  to  keep  any  girl  or  girls 
there,  except  such  as  had  been  received  as  novices2. 

But  it  was  a  difficult  task  to  force  the  needy  nuns,  reduced  already 
to  pawning  the  very  vessels  of  the  altar,  to  give  up  this  more  certain 
and  less  sacrilegious  method  of  adding  to  their  income. 

It  is  indeed  a  significant  fact,  as  Mr  Coulton  has  pointed  out, 
that  "the  prohibitions  are  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  temporal 
prosperity  of  the  convent"3.  The  wealthy  Abbaye-aux-Dames  at 
Caen  had  no  need  to  take  in  school  children.  But  Villarceaux,  ^50 
in  debt  in  1249  and  going  steadily  downhill,  vainly  struggling 
in  the  toils  of  Jews  and  Caursini,  was  the  most  frequent  offender  of 
all  and  resisted  the  most  stubbornly  Rigaud's  attempts  at  reform. 
In  1257  ne  ordered  the  nuns  to  remove  all  the  boys  and  girls  who 
were  in  the  house,  except  one  girl  who  was  going  to  be  veiled4.  The 
next  year  they  were  threatened  with  severe  punishment  if  they  post 
poned  any  longer  the  ejection  of  the  children  "  whom  they  are  bringing 
up  in  their  house  against  our  inhibition"5.  Follows  silence  for  the 
next  three  visitations;  then,  eight  years  later,  "There  were  several 
girls  there,  as  it  were  in  the  charge  of  certain  nuns,  which  displeased 
us  exceedingly  and  shortly  afterwards  we  ordered  the  Prioress  by  our 
letters  to  remove  all  secular  girls"  within  a  certain  date6;  and  in 
1268 

We  ordered,  as  we  had  done  before,  that  the  nuns  should  utterly  put  away 
all  secular  ladies  or  girls  (domicellas  seu  puellulas),  if  any  were  there,  and 
that  they  should  suffer  neither  one  nor  more  of  such  girls  to  remain  there, 
except  such  as  were  to  be  made  nuns7. 

What  of  St  Saens,  with  bad  morals,  growing  debts  and  a  deficiency 
of  cider?  In  1260,  "We  ordered  secular  girls  to  be  removed,"  with 
one  favoured  exception8;  in  1261,  "They  were  keeping  in  the  priory 
two  ladies,  to  wit  the  daughter  of  the  chatelain  of  Belencombre  and 
the  elder  daughter  of  the  lord  of  Mesnieres  (de  Maneriis)  whom  we 
ordered  to  be  sent  away"9.  It  is  the  same  with  St  Aubin,  with  its 
bad  morals  and  its  tumble-down  buildings10;  with  Bival,  immoral 
also,  overcome  with  debts  even  to  its  own  servants  for  their  wages, 
and  always  short  of  stores;  in  1252  the  nuns  had  ten  children  there 
to  be  brought  up  (pueros  decent  nutriendos]  and  Rigaud  ordered  their 
removal11.  It  is  the  same,  too,  with  St  Amand,  where  the  debts  in 
creased  from  year  to  year  and  the  nuns  could  not  even  get  in  the 
money  due  to  them;  in  1263  a  certain  daughter  of  Lady  Aeliz  de 
Synoz  was  found  there  and  removed12.  At  St  Leger  de  Preaux  (1249) 

1  P-  5?i-  z  P-  615. 

3  Coulton,  op.  cit.  p.  5.  *  p.  282. 

5  p.  324.  6  p.  572.  7  p.  602.  8  p.  380.  9  p.  419. 

10  p.  412:  "Item  ne  pueros  admitterent  ad  nutriendum." 

11  p.  146.  12  p.  486. 

P.N.  42 


658  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

secular  girls  were  all  to  be  sent  away1;  and  at  St  Sauveur  d'Evreux 
all  unveiled  children  (infantes  non  velatas)  were  immediately  to  be 
removed2,  while  some  years  later  Rigaud  made  a  general  injunction 
there  against  receiving  relatives  of  the  nuns  as  boarders3.  A  mysterious 
child  was  being  brought  up  in  a  grange  belonging  to  the  Abbey  of 
Bival  at  Pierremans,  but  why  or  whose  we  know  not;  was  it  a  needy 
relative  of  the  Abbess,  or  an  indiscretion  of  sister  Isabel  or  sister 
Florence,  or  merely  an  ordinary  paying  boarder?  History  is  silent, 
but  the  Archbishop  was  sufficiently  annoyed  when  his  order  to  re 
move  it  in  1268  was  still  disregarded  in  the  following  year4. 

The  constant  attempts  of  the  nuns  to  add  to  their  numbers  were 
actuated  by  the  same  desire  to  obtain  ready  money,  in  the  shape  of 
a  dowry;  the  Archbishop  was  more  far-seeing  and  recognised  that 
the  immediate  good  would  be  out-balanced  by  the  strain  on  their 
scanty  revenues  in  the  future;  nor  was  he  unmindful  of  the  fact  that 
the  demand  for  a  dowry  was  contrary  to  the  rule.  The  heavy  debts 
and  the  insufficiency  of  stores,  which  he  found  at  convent  after 
convent,  certainly  seem  to  indicate  that  their  only  hope  lay  in 
a  rigid  limitation  of  membership.  Moreover  overcrowding  was 
certainly  subversive  of  discipline  and  it  looks  as  though  Rigaud  had, 
in  some  cases  (e.g.  at  Villarceaux  in  1 249)5,  been  unwilling  to  permit 
new  recruits  to  enter  a  house  whose  moral  record  was  bad.  This  may 
explain  in  part  his  long  struggle  with  St  Sae'ns  and  with  St  Aubin, 
though  here,  as  at  Villarceaux,  poverty  was  always  the  chief  reason 
noted  in  his  diary.  At  St  Aubin  the  financial  arriere  pensde  is  very 
clear.  In  1251  Rigaud  noted  that  nuns  were  received  simoniacally; 
on  this  and  on  the  four  subsequent  visitations  the  Prioress  was 
forbidden  to  receive  any  girl  as  a  nun  without  special  licence,  and 
girls  received  in  contravention  of  this  rule  were  not  to  be  considered 
veiled  or  recognised  as  nuns6  (this  was  the  usual  form  in  which  his 
prohibition  was  couched).  Then  in  1259  came  another  case  of  simony; 
in  spite  of  the  Archbishop's  former  inhibition  the  nuns  had  received 
and  veiled  a  certain  lady,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Mauvoisin  (Mali 
Vicini),  knight.  Asked  why  they  had  done  this  they  said  that  urgent 
necessity  and  poverty  had  forced  them  to  it  and  that  the  father  of 
the  girl  had  given  them  an  annual  rent  of  los.  with  her;  but  they 
admitted  that  they  had  acted  against  the  wish  of  the  Prioress  and 
without  her  consent.  The  Archbishop  "seeing  them  to  have  acted 
with  cupidity  and  with  the  vice  of  simony"  soon  afterwards  ordered 
the  girl  to  be  removed,  unveiled  and  sent  back  to  her  father's  house 
and  enjoined  a  penance  upon  the  nuns7;  the  prohibition  to  receive 
nuns  without  licence  was  repeated  at  subsequent  visitations8. 
There  were  similarly  protracted  struggles  between  the  Arch 
bishop  and  the  nuns  at  St  Sae'ns  and  at  St  Amand.  At  St  Saens, 

1  p.  60.  2  p.  220. 

3  p.  305-  *  PP.  610,  630. 

*  PP  43.  44-  6  PP.  "5.  207,  255,  283,  319. 

7  P.  36i.  8  pp.  412,  471,  550.  587- 


iij  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  659 

when  he  came  to  visit  it  in  1258,  he  found  two  little  girls  in  residence 
and  in  spite  of  the  prayers  of  the  Prioress  and  some  of  the  nuns  that 
he  would  allow  the  children  (puellule)  to  be  received  and  veiled,  he 
ordered  them  to  be  removed  within  a  week1.  The  next  year,  however, 
he  found  that  the  obstinate  nuns  had  promised  four  girls,  nieces  of 
certain  of  the  nuns,  that  they  should  be  received  if  his  consent  could 
be  obtained,  whereupon  the  Archbishop  in  great  irritation  tore  up 
the  letters  before  the  assembled  chapter  and  once  more  repeated  his 
prohibition2.  In  1260  he  made  an  exception  in  favour  of  one  girl3,  and 
in  1261,  when  the  nuns  asked  permission  to  veil  five  new  inmates 
"in  order  that  the  divine  service  might  be  increased"  (ampliandum), 
he  ordered  them  to  send  the  candidates  or  their  relatives  to  him 
and  promised  to  give  the  necessary  licence  if  it  seemed  expedient4. 
In  1262  and  I2645  the  usual  prohibition  was  repeated. 

The  nuns  of  St  Amand  persisted  with  equal  obstinacy  in  admitting 
novices  without  licence.  In  1254  and  again  in  1257  the  Archbishop 
noted  the  presence  of  four  girls  who  had  been  promised  admission  as 
soon  as  there  was  a  vacancy6.  In  1263  he  ordered  one  of  them  to  be 
removed7.  In  the  next  year  he  found  that  four  ladies  (domicelle)  in 
secular  habit  had  been  received,  one  of  them  in  spite  of  his  inhibition  ; 
the  Abbess  was  punished  for  disobedience  and  the  girl  was  sent 
home8.  In  1267  seven  girls  were  waiting  to  be  veiled,  but  he  seems 
to  have  made  no  objection9.  At  Villarceaux  in  1257  the  niece  of  a 
neighbouring  prior  was  found  in  the  house,  in  secular  dress;  "and 
she  in  the  chapter,"  says  Rigaud,  "throwing  herself  upon  her  knees, 
besought  us  to  permit  her  to  be  received  by  them,  because  the  Prioress 
and  convent  had  promised  to  veil  her" 10.  Whether  he  acceded  to  her 
request  is  not  known,  but  in  the  following  year  there  was  serious 
trouble,  because  the  Prioress  had  raised  the  number  of  nuns  above 
the  statutory  number  of  twenty,  by  receiving  two  girls  against  the 
bishop's  order  and  the  convent's  will,  one  to  be  a  nun  and  the  other 
to  be  a  lay  sister.  The  Archbishop  ordered  their  instant  expulsion  and 
specifically  mentioned  that  his  former  prohibition  had  been  dictated 
by  a  desire  to  do  what  was  best  for  the  convent,  "  since  its  resources 
hardly  suffice  for  a  small  number  of  persons  "  n.  At  Bondeville  also 
a  girl  had  been  received  without  licence  in  1266  and  the  Archbishop 
forbade  her  to  be  veiled12.  Sometimes  it  is  clear  that  he  had  to  protect 
the  nuns,  less  against  their  own  improvidence  than  against  the  en 
forced  reception  of  nuns  "dumped"  upon  them  by  powerful  people 
outside  their  own  ranks.  The  nuns  of  Villarceaux  were  forbidden  to 
receive  any  lay  sister  or  novice  "even  if  the  abbess  of  St  Cyr  send 
her"13.  At  Bival,  in  1254,  where  it  is  specifically  stated  that  no  more 
nuns  are  to  be  received  without  licence  on  account  of  the  poverty 
of  the  house,  he  ordered  no  exception  to  be  made  even  for  two  girls 

1  p.  310.  *  p.  338.  3  P-  380.  *  p.  419. 

5  pp.  451,  491.          6  pp.  201,  285.  '  p.  486. 

8  p.  512.  9  p.  588.  lo  p.  281.  L1  p.  323. 

12  p-  5?i-  13  PP-  44.  572. 

42—2 


660  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

sent  by  the  bishop  and  one  by  Sir  William  of  Poissy1;  and  at  Monti- 
villiers  in  1266  he  noted  that  in  spite  of  his  prohibition  a  girl  had 
been  placed  there  by  the  Legate2. 

(5)  A  very  common  fault  in  these  Rouen  (and  indeed  in  all)  house 
was  the  imperfect  claustration  of  the  nuns;  seculars  entered  the 
precincts;  nuns  left  them.  There  were  constant  injunctions  that  no 
secular  or  suspected  persons  were  to  enter  the  cloister  precincts3  or 
to  talk  with  the  nuns  anywhere  save  in  the  parlour4.  At  Bival,  how 
ever,  a  significant  exception  was  made  to  the  general  prohibition; 
no  one  was  to  be  introduced  except  those  whom  it  would  be  a  scandal 
to  turn  away5 — potential  benefactors  and  other  powerful  folk,  no 
doubt.  It  seems  that  the  nuns  were  in  the  habit  of  dining  and  of 
eating  meat  with  seculars  (at  Bival  they  absented  themselves  from 
Compline  for  this  purpose)  *,  and  the  Archbishop  forbade,  time  after 
time,  the  eating  together  of  nuns  and  seculars7.  No  secular  person 
was  to  sleep  in  the  house8;  and  no  nun  was  to  converse  with  seculars, 
even  in  the  parlour,  without  licence  from  the  head  of  the  house  and 
without  a  suitable  companion,  such  as  the  doorkeeper9.  These  pre 
cautions  seem  to  have  been  necessary,  for  one  is  left  with  the  impres 
sion  that  secular  visitors  gained  access  without  much  difficulty  to 
the  cloister  precincts;  at  Bival  it  was  complained  that  brothers  and 
relatives  of  the  nuns  and  others,  entered  the  house10;  and  at  Bonde- 
ville  friends  and  relatives  used  to  come  into  the  cloister  at  will  and 
talk  with  the  nuns  in  the  meadows  and  guest  rooms  of  the  house11;  at 
a  later  visitation  the  archbishop  remarked  that  the  house  where  guests 
were  received  was  too  close  to  the  cloister  and  to  the  conventual 
buildings12.  The  abuses  to  which  such  freedom  of  access  might  give 
rise  are  obvious.  They  appear  in  the  case  of  St  Aubin,  morally  the 
worst  of  all  the  houses ;  the  state  of  that  community  at  the  visitations 
of  1254,  1256,  1257  and  1261  will  be  referred  to  later;  in  1266  a  certain 
miller  was  not  to  be  allowed  to  frequent  the  house,  as  scandal  had 
arisen  through  him,  and  the  schoolmaster  (Rector  scolarum)  of  Beauvoir 
had  "sometimes  impudently  frequented  the  said  house  or  priory, 
from  which  evil  rumours  had  arisen,"  and  he  was  to  be  warned  to 
desist13;  next  year  the  same  miller  and  two  clerics  (a  rector  and 
a  clerk)  were  frequenting  the  house  and  causing  scandal  and  the 
Archbishop  forbade  them  to  enter  it14. 

The  wandering  of  nuns  outside  the  precincts  was  even  more  danger 
ous,  and  it  is  significant  that  after  the  terrible  revelations  at  Villar- 
ceaux  in  1249  the  Archbishop,  in  his  injunctions,  paid  special  atten 
tion  to  the  entrance  of  seculars  into  the  convent  and  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  nuns  were  wont  to  leave  it.  Rigaud  strictly  forbade 

1  p-  207.  2  p.  564.  3  pp.  43,  82,  146,  348. 
4  pp.  348,  410.               5  p.  117.  •  p.  146. 

7  pp.  146,  207,  220,  235,  255,  283,  305,  319,  348,  419,  624,  636. 
"  PP-  43.  207.  255,  283,  305. 

2  pp.  43,  326.  lo  p.  117.  ll  p.  348.  l2  p.  220. 
18  pp.  43,  117,  220.  235,  268,  486,  491,  534.  550-  14  P-  587- 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  66 1 

any  nun  to  go  out  without  special  licence  from  the  head  of  the  house 
and  that  licence  was  not  to  be  given  except  for  an  adequate  reason1; 
"not  quickly  and  easily  but  with  difficulty  and  for  an  appointed  time 
only"2,  ran  the  injunction  to  the  Abbess  of  St  Amand.  A  term  was 
always  to  be  fixed  by  which  the  nun  had  to  return  and  she  was  always 
to  have  a  suitable  companion  allotted  to  her3.  This  seems  to  have 
been  a  necessary  precaution,  for  at  St  Sae'ns  the  nuns  were  found  to 
stay  away  alone  for  fifteen  days  or  more4;  it  is  perhaps  not  accidental 
that  St  Sae'ns  was  one  of  the  immoral  houses.  At  St  Leger  de  Preaux, 
also,  the  nuns  were  in  the  habit  of  going  out  alone  to  the  houses  of 
relatives5:  "They  go  outside  the  abbey  when  they  can  and  return 
when  they  will,"  says  the  Archbishop6;  in  1267  one  of  them  was  found 
to  be  alone  with  her  mother  at  Argoulles,  "which  displeased  us  and 
we  forbade  the  Abbess  to  give  any  nun  permission  to  go  out  without 
company"7.  At  Bondeville  they  used  often  to  go  to  Rouen8.  Another 
precaution  taken  against  the  wandering  of  nuns  in  the  world  was 
the  closing  or  careful  guarding  of  the  cloister  doors ;  it  was  ordered 
at  Bival  in  1257  that  a  door  opening  on  to  the  meadows,  which  was 
often  unlocked,  should  be  kept  locked9.  The  causes  which  took  nuns 
outside  the  gates  were  many:  sometimes  they  seem  to  have  gone 
simply  to  take  a  walk ;  sometimes  to  visit  relatives  or  to  act  as  god 
mothers  to  the  children  of  friends  (a  practice  which  was  specifically 
forbidden  at  Montivilliers  in  1257  and  again  in  1265) 10;  sometimes  on 
business  to  the  granges  of  the  convent;  sometimes  to  work  in  the 
fields  (three  of  the  nuns  of  St  Aubin  were  absent  at  the  vintage  (in 
vindemiis)  when  the  Archbishop  came  in  1267";  sometimes  to  beg 
(at  St  Aubin  in  1261  it  was  ordered  that  the  younger  nuns  were  not 
to  be  sent  out  to  beg  (pro  questu) 12  and  two  years  later  two  nuns  of 
this  poverty-stricken  house  were  absent  in  France,  seeking  alms)13; 
sometimes  for  less  reputable  reasons.  There  is  no  more  striking  com 
mentary  on  the  writings  of  contemporary  moralists  like  Matheolus 
and  Gilles  li  Muisis  than  the  Register  of  Eudes  Rigaud14;  and  the 
stress  laid  upon  the  ill  results  of  allowing  seculars  to  enter  and  nuns 
to  leave  the  cloister,  shows  that  the  attempts  of  the  medieval  Church 
to  impose  strict  claustration  upon  nuns,  harsh  as  they  seem  to  modern 
minds,  were  dictated  by  a  real  social  necessity. 

(6)  Modern  minds  would  also  be  inclined  to  consider  as  trifling 
offences  the  various  cases  of  frivolous  behaviour— games,  gay  clothes, 
pet  animals— which  the  Archbishop  entered  from  time  to  time  in  his 

1  p.  44.  2  P  285. 

3  PP-  43;  I97>  296,  338>  348.  374.  380,  419,  45*.  455.  486>  49L  534.  59L 
624. 

4  p.  187  (1254);  in  1259  it  is  again  complained  that  the  nuns  stay  for 
a  long  time  when  they  have  licence  to  go  outside  and  on  three  other  occa 
sions  it  is  noted  that  the  nuns  go  out  alone;  in  1262  a  penance  was  enjoined 
on  the  Prioress  for  allowing  one  nun  to  do  so.  See  pp.  338,  380.  419,  45 1,  49*  • 

5  p.  197.  6  p.  295.  7  p.  591.  8  P-  298;  cf.  p.  455. 
»  p.  281;  cf.  pp.  146,  486,  588.                                    L0  pp.  293,  517. 

11  P   587.  12  p.  412.  13  p.  471.  14  See  above,  pp.  542  ff. 


662  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

diary.  The  custom  of  indulging  in  games  on  Innocents'  Day,  which 
prevailed  in  certain  English  nunneries,  was  fairly  common  in  Rigaud's 
diocese.  In  1249  he  made  the  following  injunction  at  Villarceaux: 
Item  we  forbid  you  in  future  to  indulge  in  your  accustomed  gaieties  (ne 
ludibria  exerceatis  consueta)  to  wit,  dressing  yourselves  up  in  secular  clothes 
or  leading  dance-songs  (choreas)  among  yourselves  or  with  seculars1. 
But  the  nuns  clung  to  their  rare  amusements  and  in  1253  the  Arch 
bishop  noted :  "  They  sing  ditties  (cantilenas)  on  the  Feast  of  Inno 
cents"2.  At  St  Leger  des  Preaux  in  1254  the  diary  has:  "We  forbade 
disorders  (inordinaciones]  on  the  Feast  of  Innocents"3  andat  theHoly 
Trinity  of  Caen  two  years  later:  "The  younger  ones  on  the  Feast 
of  Innocents  sing  the  scriptures  with  farsa;  this  we  forbade"4. 
Montivilliers  was  a  serious  offender  and  the  Archbishop's  note  is 
learnedly  technical  over  the  different  kinds  of  songs  sung  by  the  nuns: 
Item  on  the  Feasts  of  St  John,  St  Stephen  and  the  Innocents  they  use 
excessive  frivolity  (nimia  iocositate)  and  scurrilous  songs,  to  wit,  farces 
(farsit),  canticles  (conductis)  and  motets  (motulis);  we  ordered  that  they 
should  bear  themselves  more  fittingly  and  with  greater  devotion6. 
The  order  seems  to  have  borne  fruit,  for  in  1262  he  noted:  "The 
frivolities  which  used  to  take  place  on  Innocents'  Day  have  been 
utterly  given  up,  so  they  say";  and  then,  and  again  in  1265,  ne 
simply  repeated  the  injunction  that  such  things  should  cease*.  At 
St  Amand  in  1263  he  ordered: 

That  the  younger  nuns  are  not  to  remain  behind  in  the  choir  on  the  Feast  of 
Innocents,  as  they  have  done  in  the  past,  singing  the  office  and  proses  which 
belong  to  the  day,  the  seniors  having  gone  away  and  left  the  juniors  there7. 
But  afterwards  we  hear  no  more  of  these  sports  among  the  nuns;  so  per 
haps  Rigaud  succeeded  in  stamping  them  out.  They  were  perhaps  (if 
one  may  judge  from  the  usual  character  of  the  Feast  of  Fools)  more 
scurrilous  and  less  innocently  pretty  than  they  sound ;  but  it  is  difficult 
not  to  feel  a  little  out  of  sympathy  with  the  conscientious  Archbishop8 
The  keeping  of  pet  animals  here,  as  in  England,  was  a  common 
fault  and  one  against  which  Rigaud's  animadversions  were  singularly 
unsuccessful.  The  nuns  of  St  Sauveur  d'Evreux  had  small  dogs, 
squirrels  and  birds,  "and  we  ordered  such  things  to  be  removed; 
they  do  not  profit  the  rule"9;  but  we  had  to  repeat  our  injunction 
in  1258  and  again  in  I26910.  At  St  Leger  des  Preaux  they  had  two 
small  dogs  and  three  squirrels11,  and  at  the  Holy  Trinity  of  Caen  they 
kept  larks  and  little  birds  in  cages,  which  were  to  be  removed12;  but 
the  cage  birds  were  still  there  six  years  later13.  The  most  amusing  case 
was  at  Villarceaux  in  1268,  where  for  once  one  of  the  nuns  gave  the 
Archbishop  a  piece  of  her  mind.  "Eustachia,  late  prioress"  (we  shall 
hear  of  her  again),  "had  a  certain  bird,  which  she  kept  to  the  annoy 
ance  and  displeasure  of  some  of  the  more  elderly  nuns  "  (did  it  disturb 

I  P-  44-  *  P-  166.  »  p.  197.  «  p.  261. 
5  P-  384.                6  pp.  431,  5i7-  7  P-  486. 

8  See  above  p.  311  and  E.  K.  Chambers,  The  Medieval  Stage,  i,  ch.  xv, 
passim.  •  p.  73.  10  pp>  3O5>  624 

II  p.  295.  lf  p.  95-  ls  p.  201. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  663 

their  slumbers?)  "For  the  which  reason  we  ordered  her  to  remove 
it;  and  she  thereupon  bespake  us  with  little  discretion  or  reverence, 
which  greatly  displeased  us"1.  One  may  forgive  the  archbishop  for 
this  lapse  in  his  sense  of  humour ;  he  had  had  trouble  with  Eustachia 
before;  it  was  just  like  her  to  keep  a  bird  that  squawked  in  the  dorter. 
Nor  probably  did  Rigaud  fare  better  than  any  other  medieval 
visitor  in  his  attempts  to  turn  fashionable  clothes  out  of  the  nun 
neries.  The  disreputable  ladies  of  Villarceaux  (1249)  curled  their  hair 
and  scented  their  veils  with  saffron,  they  had  pilches  of  rabbit  and 
hare  and  fox  fur,  they  wore  belts  adorned  with  silver-work  and  steel 
work2.  Those  of  Montivilliers  (1265  and  1266)  were  nearly  as  luxurious, 
though  their  morals  were  unimpeachable;  they  also  wore  their  hair 
in  ringlets,  had  pilches  of  squirrel  fur  and  of  the  costly  "griz,"  and 
used  girdles  curiously  adorned  with  ironwork ;  they  ornamented  their 
collars  and  cuffs  with  expensive  cloth  trimmings  and  possessed 
"excessively  curious  and  precious  knives,  with  carved  and  silvered 
handles"3.  The  nuns  of  St  Amand  also  used  not  only  shifts  and 
pilches,  but  also  pillows  and  bedclothes  soft  with  the  fur  of  rabbit, 
hare,  fox  and  cat4;  and  the  ornamented  girdles  of  ironwork  were 
found  at  St  Aubin  and  at  St  Sauveur5.  The  Archbishop  strenuously 
forbade  long  hair  and  curls,  belts  of  ironwork,  saffron,  rich  cloth  and 
the  more  costly  kinds  of  fur.  It  is  unlikely  that  he  was  successful. 
The  world  never  called  more  seductively  to  medieval  nuns  than  in 
contemporary  fashions.  The  Church  clung  to  the  belief  that  the  habit 
made  the  nun,  but  the  souls  of  sister  Jacqueline  and  sister  Johanna, 
and  sister  Philippa  and  sister  Marguerite  expressed  themselves  ap 
propriately  in  furs  and  saffron  and,  one  fears,  would  not  have  been 
less  frivolous  in  the  regular  garb  of  their  order: 

II  est  bien  vray  que  tourel,  voille  on  guymple 
Fort  scapullaire  ou  autre  habit  de  corps, 
Ne  rend  jamais  homme  ou  femme  plus  simple, 
Mais  rompt  sou  vent  1' union  et  accords 
Mectant  divorce  entre  Tame  et  le  corps6. 

(7)  It  is  now  necessary  to  consider  the  more  serious  faults,  such 
as  quarrelling,  drunkenness  or  immorality,  detected  by  Eudes  Rigaud 
in  his  visitations,  and  to  give  a  fuller  account  of  those  nunneries  which 
were  in  a  particularly  evil  state.  The  quarrels  which  were  inseparable 
from  convent  life  continually  occupied  his  attention;  and  nine  out 
of  the  twelve  houses  which  he  visited  more  than  once  were  at  one 
time  or  another  disturbed  by  petty  squabblings  among  the  nuns.  It 
is  clear — as  might  be  expected — that  the  discord  was  worse  in  those 
convents  where  discipline  was  loose,  and  where  the  behaviour  of  the 
nuns  in  other  directions  was  open  to  grave  censure.  At  the  visitation 

1  p.  602;  compare  a  similar  case  at  Legbourne,  above,  p.  412. 

2  p.  43-  3  PP.  5i8,  564-  4  P-  16. 

5  pp.  73,  207,  220,  305,  624. 

6  Montaiglon,  Recueil  de  Poesies  Francoises  des  XVIe  et  XVII*  sieclest  t. 
viu,  pp.  171,  173. 


664  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

of  Villarceaux  in  1249,  for  instance,  Ermengarde  of  Gisors  and  Johanna 
of  Auvilliers  beat  one  another  and  the  Archbishop  was  obliged  to 
order  the  punishment  of  quarrels  passing  from  words  to  blows1  (de 
verbis  ad  verbera — he  was  not  above  a  mild  ecclesiastical  pun  in  the 
privacy  of  his  diary)2.  At  St  Aubin  (1254)  Agnes  of  the  Bridge  (de 
Ponte)  and  Petronilla  refused  to  speak  to  each  other,  and  Agnes, 
"who  is  a  fomenter  of  discord  and  a  scold,"  was  ordered  to  give  up 
her  rancour  against  Petronilla,  on  pain  of  being  removed  from  the 
convent3.  At  Bival  in  1252  two  sisters  were  described  as  rebellious4 
and  two  years  later  the  Register  contains  the  following  entry: 
There  are  two  sets  of  couples  who  refuse  to  speak  to  one  another  and  we 
caused  them  to  make  peace  with  each  other  and  to  kiss  and  be  friends 
(quantum  ad  os,  el  deosculari  ad  invicem),  and  we  forbade  that  any  mention 
should  henceforth  be  made  of  the  bone  of  contention  between  them,  on 
pain  of  excommunication,  which  we  have  called  down  upon  her  who  shall 
be  the  first  to  mention  it,  and  we  ordered  the  Abbess  to  keep  us  informed 5. 
At  St  Saens  a  certain  Johanna  Martel — evidently  a  lady  of  substance 
with  relatives  in  the  neighbourhood — was  said  in  1259  to  be  rebellious, 
disobedient  and  given  to  wrangling  with  the  Prioress6;  and  in  1265 
the  house  was  full  of  discord7.  At  Almeneches  (1250)  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  quarrelling  in  cloister  and  choir8. 

Quarrels  were  common,  however,  in  houses  against  which  no  grave 
moral  disorders  were  ever  charged.  St  Amand  was  perhaps  the  worst 
of  these;  there  in  1258  the  Archbishop  ordered  that  each  nun  was  to 
forget  the  injury  and  offence  of  the  other,  before  she  presumed  to  re 
ceive  communion9;  but  the  discords  continued  and  in  1262  he  wrote: 
Because  we  found  there  many  heart-burnings  and  rancours  among  the 
nuns,  we  ordered  the  abbess  and  the  confessor  that  they  should  reconcile 
those  whom  they  knew  to  have  fallen  into  this  fault  before,  and  that  they 
should  live  in  charity  as  far  as  they  were  able,  punishing  offenders  by 
taking  away  their  beer  and  pittances10. 

But  it  was  in  vain,  and  after  seven  years  Rigaud  was  still  commanding 
the  Abbess  to  labour  to  the  best  of  her  ability  that  the  nuns  should 
live  in  peace  and  concord11.  At  Bondeville  (1251  and  1255)  it  will  be 
remembered  that  one  of  the  charges  against  the  Prioress  was  her 
quarrelsomeness12;  and  in  1259  a  certain  Lucy  was  found  to  be  a 

1  PP-  43-4- 

1  But  a  better  example  of  his  wit  is  shown  in  his  repartee  to  another's 
pun,  quoted  in  Coulton,  A  Medieval  Garner,  p.  289.  "A  clerical  buffoon 
once  ventured  to  ask  him  across  the  table,  'What  is  the  difference,  my 
lord,  betwixt  Rigaud  and  Ribaud  [rascal]?'  'Only  this  board's  breadth.' 
replied  the  Archbishop."  The  jest  is  however  widespread,  mutatis  mutandis, 
in  the  east  as  well  as  in  the  west.  It  is  told  of  one  John  Scot,  '  What  difference 
is  there  between  sot  and  scot?'  'Just  the  breadth  of  the  table.'  Calendar 
of  Jests,  Epigrams,  Epitaphs  etc.  (Edinburgh  1753);  it  also  occurs  in  Glad- 
win's  Persian  Moonshee  and  in  several  Indian  collections  of  facetiae.  W.  A. 
Clouston.  Popular  Tales  and  Fictions  (1887)  i,  p.  51. 

'  P-  2°7-  *  P-  146.  *  p.  207.  •  p.  338. 

7  p.  522.  •  p.  82.  •  p.  326.  "  p.  456 

11  p.  638.  "  See  pp.  645-6,  above. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  665 

quarrelsome  and  ill-tempered  person,  disobedient  to  the  Prioress  and 
given  to  wrangling  with  her  in  the  frater,  whereupon  the  Archbishop 
enjoined  a  penance  of  silence  upon  her1.  At  St  Desir  de  Lisieux  (1254) 
there  were  two  or  three  nuns  who  would  not  speak  to  the  rest2;  and 
even  at  the  great  Abbaye  aux  Dames  at  Caen  Rigaud  noted  in  1267, 
"There  was  great  contention  among  them  and  concerning  this  they 
had  a  case  in  the  law-courts"3. 

Quarrelsomeness  was,  however,  a  mild  fault  compared  with  the 
really  bad  immorality  which  prevailed  in  some  of  the  houses.  At 
three  of  them,  St  Aubin,  St  Sae'ns  and  Bival,  this  state  of  affairs 
continued  from  visitation  to  visitation ;  they  were  evidently  hopelessly 
corrupt.  At  the  two  others  (Villarceaux  and  Almeneches)  there  is 
mention  of  serious  disorders  only  once  and  from  the  Archbishop's 
silence  on  later  occasions  it  may  be  hoped  that  he  succeeded  in 
reforming  the  houses.  One  of  these  isolated  cases  was  in  many  ways 
the  most  serious  of  all;  Rigaud's  note  of  his  visitation  of  Villarceaux 
in  1249  reads  more  like  a  description  of  La  Maison  Tellier  than  that 
of  a  priory ;  except  that  the  former  was  more  discreet : 
We  visited  the  priory  of  Villarceaux.  There  are  twenty-three  nuns  and  three 
lay  sisters.  [Here  follow  several  minor  disorders.]  Only  four  nuns  there 
are  fully  professed,  to  wit  Eustachia,  Comitissa,  Ermengarde  and  Petronilla. 
Many  of  them  have  pilches  made  from  the  fur  of  rabbits,  hares  and  foxes. 
They  eat  flesh  unnecessarily  in  the  infirmary;  they  do  not  observe  silence 
anywhere  and  they  do  not  keep  within  the  cloister.  Johanna  of  ' '  Aululari 
once  went  out  of  the  cloister  and  lived  with  someone,  by  whom  she  had  a 
child ;  and  she  sometimes  goes  out  of  the  cloister  to  see  that  child ;  item  she 
is  ill-famed  (infamata)  with  a  certain  man  called  Gaillard.  Isabella  la  Treiche 
is  a  fault  finder,  murmuring  against  the  Prioress  and  others.  The  cellaress 
is  ill-famed  with  a  man  called  Philip  of  Villarceaux.  The  Prioress  is  too 
negligent  and  does  not  reprove,  nor  does  she  get  up  [for  matins].  Johanna 
of  Auvilliers  goes  outside  the  house  alone  with  Gayllard  and  within  the  year 
she  had  a  child  by  him.  The  cellaress  is  ill-famed  with  Philip  of  Villarceaux 
and  with  a  certain  priest  of  her  own  neighbourhood.  Item  the  subprioress 
with  Thomas  the  carter.  Idonia  her  sister  with  Crispinatus.  Item  the  prior 
of  Gisors  frequents  the  house  for  the  sake  of  the  said  Idonia.  Philippa  of 
Rouen  is  ill-famed  with  the  priest  of  Suentre,  in  the  diocese  of  Chartres; 
Marguerita  the  treasuress  with  Richard  de  Geneville,  clerk.  Agnes  of  Fonte- 
noy  is  ill-famed  with  the  priest  of  Guerreville,  of  the  diocese  of  Chartres. 
La  Tooliere  [?  the  chambress]  is  ill-famed  with  Sir  Andrew  de  Monchy, 
knight.  They  all  wear  their  hair  long  to  their  chins  (nutriunt  comam  usque 
ad  mentum)  and  scent  their  veils  with  saffron.  Jacqueline  came  back 
pregnant  from  a  certain  chaplain,  who  was  expelled  from  the  house  for 
this.  Item  Agnes  de  Montsec  was  ill-famed  with  the  same.  Ermengarde 
of  Gisors  and  Johanna  of  Auvilliers  beat  each  other.  The  Prioress  is  drunk 
almost  any  night... she  does  not  rise  for  matins  nor  eat  in  the  frater  nor 
correct  faults4. 

1  Reg.  p.  348.  2  P-  199- 

3  p.  575.    Cf.  the  case  of  the  Priory  of  Couz,  when  it  was  visited  in 
1283  by  Simon  of  Beaulieu,  Archbishop  of  Bourges.    Baluze,  Miscellanea, 
i,  281. 

4  pp.  43-4.  Notice  the  disjointed  character  of  the  report  and  the  repeti 
tion  of  charges,  e.g.  against  Johanna  of  Alto  Villari  (who  is  probably  the 


666  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

After  these  terrible  revelations  the  Archbishop  directed  a  letter 
of  injunctions  to  the  convent,  which,  contrary  to  his  usual  practice, 
was  copied  into  his  diary1.  These  injunctions  deal  only  with  general 
breaches  of  the  rule,  which  by  loosening  discipline  would  tend  to  give 
opportunities  for  the  behaviour  described  in  the  comperta,  and  they 
contain  no  reference  to  specific  cases  of  immorality.  Thus  he  provides 
for  the  proper  performance  of  divine  service;  for  the  maintenance  of 
silence;  for  the  simultaneous  entry  of  the  nuns  into  their  dorter,  the 
keys  of  which  and  of  the  cloister  were  to  be  carefully  kept  and  a 
"Visitor"  appointed  to  see  that  the  rule  was  kept  in  these  matters; 
he  forbids  secular  or  suspected  persons  to  be  entertained  or  lodged 
within  the  cloister,  and  nuns  to  be  given  permission  to  go  outside 
without  good  reason  and  a  companion,  or  to  speak  with  any  external 
person  unlicensed  and  unaccompanied;  he  deals  also  with  the  frivolous 
garments,  the  sports  on  Innocents'  Day  and  the  quarrels  which  he 
had  found ;  he  forbids  the  reception  of  any  more  nuns  without  licence, 
orders  the  frequent  rendering  of  accounts,  warns  them  to  live  in 
common,  and  ends  with  an  order  to  recite  his  letter  at  least  once  a 
month  in  the  chapter.  These  injunctions  seem  strangely  superficial 
in  comparison  with  the  comperta  which  precede  them;  but  a  note 
entered  in  the  Register,  on  the  occasion  of  the  next  visitation  of 
Villarceaux,  would  seem  to  suggest  that  the  Archbishop  had  taken 
other  steps  to  deal  with  the  matter.  It  is  there  written:  "Here  are 
twenty  nuns,  but  six  of  them  were  not  present;  for  one  of  them  left 
the  house  and  married  in  the  world  and  two  are  without  the  house, 
according  to  a  previous  mandate  and  ordinance  of  ours"2.  It  is 
possible  that  the  Archbishop  had  sent  separate  letters  (not  copied 
into  his  Register)  dealing  with  the  worst  cases  of  immorality,  and 
that  he  had  sent  two  of  the  erring  nuns  to  do  penance  in  another 
house.  At  any  rate  there  are  no  further  complaints  of  immorality 
against  Villarceaux,  and  perhaps  prompt  measures  at  the  beginning 
of  his  career  as  visitor  had  stayed  the  nuns  on  their  downward  course. 

It  was  on  Rigaud's  first  visitation  of  Almeneches  also  that  moral 
disorders  were  found.  He  went  there  in  1250  and  found  that  the  rule 
had  been  greatly  relaxed.  The  nuns  (who  were  among  the  most 
inveterate  property  owners  recorded  in  the  Register)  used  to  run  up 
debts  in  the  town,  doubtless  with  the  money  given  to  them  for  the 
purchase  of  their  food.  They  did  not  live  a  communal  life,  they 
admitted  seculars  to  talk  with  them  in  the  cloister,  they  remained 
away  from  Matins  and  Compline,  they  had  drinking  parties  after 
Compline,  and  they  were  always  quarrelling.  The  result  of  this  laxity 
showed  in  more  serious  faults.  Sister  Tiphaine  was  a  drunkard 
(ebriosa):  three  other  nuns,  Hola,  Aaliz  the  chantress  and  the  late 
prioress  had  each  had  a  child ;  and  a  fourth,  Dionisia  Dehatim,  was 

same  as  Johanna  of  Aululari)  the  cellaress  and  the  Prioress.  This  probably 
indicates  that  it  is  a  verbatim  report  of  evidence  taken  down  from  the  lips 
of  the  nuns,  as  they  came  before  the  Archbishop. 
1  PP-  44-5-  2  p.  117. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  667 

ill-famed  with  a  certain  Master  Nicholas  de  Bleve.  In  this  case  some 
of  the  disorder  may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  house  was 
without  an  abbess,  she  having  died  shortly  before1.  Here  again  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  what  steps  the  Archbishop  took  to  reform  the  house, 
but  at  his  two  subsequent  visitations,  although  the  nuns  persisted 
in  their  refusal  to  live  a  communal  life,  there  were  no  further  notices 
of  immorality. 

One  may  hope  that  these  were  exceptional  cases  in  the  history 
of  the  houses  concerned.  But  there  was  nothing  exceptional  about 
the  bad  behaviour  of  St  Aubin  and  St  Saens  and  to  a  lesser  degree 
of  Bival.  The  Archbishop  first  visited  the  latter  house  in  1248  and 
found  there  "several  nuns  ill-famed  of  the  vice  of  incontinence" ;  the 
abbess  resigned,  probably  as  a  result  of  this  discovery2.  No  complaint 
of  immorality  was  made  at  the  next  two  visitations;  then  in  1254 
the  Archbishop  noted  that  sister  Isabella  had  had  a  child  at  Whitsun 
tide  by  a  priest3.  At  the  next  visitation  (1256)  he  found  that  Florence 
had  had  a  child  recently  and  that  the  whole  house  had  fallen  into 
ill-repute  because  of  this ;  Rigaud  on  this  occasion  ordered  the  removal 
of  the  convent  priest,  "on  account  of  the  scandal  of  the  nuns  and 
populace,  though  we  found  nothing  that  could  be  proved  against 
him"4.  On  the  eight  subsequent  visitations  there  were  no  further 
charges  of  immorality. 

St  Aubin  and  St  Saens  must  be  charged  with  persistent  immorality, 
continuing  over  a  long  period  of  years.  They  seem  indeed  to  have  been 
little  better  than  brothels.  At  St  Aubin  in  1254  Aeliz  of  Rouen  was 
incontinent  and  had  lately  had  a  child  by  a  priest5.  In  1256  she  was 
in  trouble  again: 

We  unveiled  Aeliz  of  Rouen  and  Eustachia  of  Etrepagny  for  a  time,  on 
account  of  their  fornication.  Item  we  sent  Agnes  of  the  Bridge  (de  Ponte)  [the 
same  whose  quarrelsomeness  had  been  reproved  in  1254]  to  the  lazar-house 
of  Rouen,  because  she  consented  to  Eustachia's  sin  and  even  procured  it, 
as  the  rumour  runs,  et  quia  dedit  dicte  Eustachie  herbas  bibere  ut  inter ficeretuv 
puer  conceptus  in  dicta  Eustachia,  secundum  quod  dicitur  per  f amain  ().  We 
removed  the  Prioress  from  office.  We  postponed  the  infliction  of  a  punish 
ment  upon  Anastasia,  the  subprioress,  for  ill-fame  of  incontinence  against 
her,  until  she  should  be  made  prioress  there7. 

Here  at  last  we  have  definite  information  of  the  steps  taken  by  Rigaud 
to  deal  with  a  bad  case ;  two  nuns  were  unveiled  and  sent  to  do  penance 
among  lepers  and  the  prioress  was  deposed;  but  what  a  confession 
of  weakness  that  Rigaud  should  propose  to  fill  the  place  of  the  latter 
with  a  woman  herself  ill-famed  of  sin.  The  effect  of  his  punishment 
upon  the  two  nuns  whom  he  had  unveiled  was,  moreover,  unfortunate, 
for  they  went  from  bad  to  worse.  The  next  year  Eustachia  was  in 

*  p.  82.  2  p.  6.  3  p.  207.  4  p.  268.  5  p.  207. 

6  A  similar  charge  was  made  at  the  convent  of  St  Saens  in  1264  wher< 
scandal   imputed   to   Nicholaa,   a    notoriously  immoral  nun,   "quod  tpsa 
nondum  erat  mensis  elapsus  fecerat  abortivum" ;   but  the  Archbishop  ap 
parently  disbelieved  the  charge,   p.  491.   See  p.  669,  below. 

7  P-  255- 


668  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITATIONS  [APP. 

apostasy  (vagabunda)  and  had  been  pregnant  when  she  left  the  con 
vent  and  the  blame  for  it  was  set  down  to  John,  the  chaplain  of  Fry. 
Aeliz  of  Rouen  also  was  "in  grave  sin"1.  In  1261  the  Archbishop 
came  again.  Aeliz  had  borne  a  child  since  his  last  visitation  and  she 
was  said  to  have  had  three  children  in  all;  Beatrice  of  Beauvais  had 
had  a  child  at  Blaacort  and  her  lover  was  the  Dean  of  St  Quentin, 
of  the  Diocese  of  Beauvais.  The  Prioress  informed  Rigaud  that  these 
two  had  long  been  in  serious  fault  and  that  they  had  undergone 
penance  according  to  the  rule2.  In  1263  Aeliz  and  Beatrice  had  run 
away  ("led,"  Rigaud  confided  to  his  diary,  "by  the  levity  of  their 
spirits  and  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil")  and  he  ordered  them 
not  to  be  readmitted  without  his  special  licence3.  The  next  year 
Beatrice  was  still  wandering  abroad  and  was  said  to  have  had  several 
children4.  No  more  is  heard  of  these  erring  sisters  at  the  three  sub 
sequent  visitations,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  discipline  of  the  house 
was  still  far  from  good,  and  the  constant  visits  of  a  miller  and  of  several 
other  men  (all  clerics) 6  had  caused  scandals  in  1265  and  again  in  12676. 
In  1267  the  Subprioress  was  punished  for  giving  up  her  office  at  her 
own  will';  and  in  1268  there  is  an  ambiguous  entry  which  leads  one 
to  suppose  that  Anastasia  had  never  become  prioress  after  all  and 
that  Eustachia  (it  may  not  be  the  same  woman)  was  back  again; 
on  that  occasion  Anastasia  "late  subprioress"  was  punished  because 
she  gave  up  her  office  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  Prioress,  while 
Eustachia  and  Margaret  were  punished  because  they  would  not'under- 
take  it,  when  commanded  to  do  so8. 

The  case  of  St  Saens  was  hardly  less  serious;  for  the  first  six 
visitations  there  was  no  charge  of  immorality,  though  it  is  clear  from 
the  Archbishop's  note  in  1254  that  the  discipline  of  the  house  was 
lax  and  in  particular  that  the  nuns  had  leave  of  absence  to  stay  away 
alone  for  as  long  as  a  fortnight  at  a  time  and  that  their  priest  was 
incontinent9.  In  any  case  the  visitation  of  1259  showed  a  state  of 
things  so  disgraceful,  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  it  could  have 
arisen  within  the  two  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the  last  visitation. 

Some  of  them  stayed  away  unduly  long  when  they  happened  to  go  out  with 

cence  of  the  Prioress.  We  ordered  that  such  were  to  be  given  a  shorter 

term  by  which  to  return.    Johanna  Martel  was  rebellious  and  disobedient 

and  she  wrangled  with  the  Prioress  and  went  out  riding  to  see  her  relatives 

wearing  a  mantle  of  burnet  with  sleeves;  and  she  had  a  private  messenger 

she  used  often  to  send  to  those  relatives.    Nicholaa  had  had  a  child 

the  same  house  on  Maundy  Thursday  and  its  father  was  said  to  be  Master 

imon    the  parson  of  St  Saens;  the  boy  was  baptized  in  the  monastery 

and  then  sent  to  a  certain  sister  of  Nicholaa's.    She  lay  in  the  monastery 

erwent  her  churching  with  them;  she  was  attended  in  childbed  by 

1  P-  283.  2  p.  412.  3  p  4?I  4  p   500 

:t  is  noticeable  how  often  in  these  visitations  the  nuns  are  reported 

have  been  led  astray  by  priests;  but  when  one  considers  the  character 
borne  by  many  of  the  parochial  and  other  clergy  of  the  diocese  as  it  is 
recorded  in  the  Register,  this  is  hardly  surprising 

6  PP.  550.  587-  7  p.  587-  8  p.  619.  •  p.  187. 


ii]  BY  ARCHBISHOP  EUDES  RIGAUD  669 

two  midwives  from  the  village.  Item  another  of  the  nuns  had  a  child  by 
the  same  Simon.  The  Prioress  was  held  suspect  with  Richard  of  Maucomble; 
it  was  also  said  that  she  managed  the  goods  and  business  of  the  house 
badly  and  that  she  concealed  some  of  the  rents  and  returns.  The  same 
Richard  had  lodged  in  the  house  together  with  the  brother  and  parents 
of  the  Prioress  and  had  often  dined  there1. 

Five  years  later  (in  1264)  Petronilla  of  Dreux  was  ill-famed  of 
incontinence  with  Ralph,  the  hayward  (messerius)  of  the  Priory,  and 
also  with  a  married  man,  and  the  Archbishop  ordered  the  former  to 
be  removed  from  his  office  and  not  to  be  permitted  to  frequent  the 
priory.  The  Prioress  was  ill-famed  with  a  priest,  and  it  was  said  that  she 
often  went  to  the  manor  of  Esquequeville  and  elsewhere,  where  she 
entertained  many  guests  and  kept  ill  company  (ubi  secum  habebat 
multos  convivas  et  inhonestam  societatem  ducebat],  for  which  Rigaud 
censured  her  and  ordered  her  to  improve .  There  was  more  scandal  about 
Nicholaa  (now  called  "of  Rouen"  and  described  as  the  chantress); 
it  was  apparently  common  talk  in  the  village  that  she  used  to  dine 
with  her  sister  at  Rouen,  in  the  house  of  Master  Simon,  Rector  of 
St  Sae'ns,  and  rumour  made  a  yet  more  serious  charge  against  her2. 
"But,"  says  the  Archbishop,  "we  could  find  nothing  to  prove  con 
cerning  this  in  our  visitation  and  the  nuns  said  that  the  last  charge 
was  falsely  and  mendaciously  imputed  to  her"3.  Nevertheless  it  is 
significant  that  Nicholaa's  name  should  still,  after  five  years,  be 
connected  with  the  Rector  of  St  Sae'ns  and  with  her  complacent  sister. 
In  1265  there  was  no  mention  of  immorality,  but  the  nuns  were 
living  together  "in  discord  and  disorder": 

"Because  indeed,"  wrote  Rigaud,  "we  perceived  them  to  be  in  a  bad  state, 
particularly  as  concerning  certain  observances  of  the  rule,  we  sought  eagerly 
how  we  might  labour  to  reform  them  to  a  more  honest  and  salutary  condi 
tion,  according  to  God  and  to  their  rule"; 

and  he  returned  the  next  day  to  complete  his  measures  for  this  re 
form4.  But  in  1266-7  tlle  cellaress  Petronilla  of  Dreux  was  again  very 
gravely  ill-famed  (plurimum  diffamata)  with  Ralph,  "  a  certain  yeoman 
who  served  them  in  harvest  time"  and  there  can  be  no  better  proof 
that  the  Archbishop's  injunctions  often  went  unfulfilled,  for  he  had 
ordered  Ralph's  expulsion  in  I2645.  Nevertheless  the  rest  of  the 
house  was  in  good  order,  so  perhaps  his  eager  labour  had  not  been 
altogether  in  vain.  In  1267,  however,  things  were  as  bad  as  ever. 
The  Prioress,  Johanna  of  Morcent,  was  ill-famed  with  the  same  priest 
against  whom  she  had  been  warned  in  1264;  Petronilla.  of  Dreux  was 
still  "very  gravely  ill-famed  with  Ralph  de  Maintru,  as  she  was 
before;  and,"  says  the  Archbishop,  with  one  of  those  personal  touches 
which  make  his  Register  a  real  human  document,  "Agnes  of  Equetot 
and  Johanna  of  Morainville  we  found  to  be  liars  and  perjurers,  when 
we  demanded  certain  things  of  them  on  oath;  wherefore  we  came  away 
from  the  place,  as  it  were  impatient  and  s&&... (Quasi  impacientes 
et  tnstes]  "6;  it  was  indeed  no  wonder. 

1  p.  338-  2  See  above,  p.  667,  note  6.  3  p.  491.  *  P-  522. 

5  p.  566.  6  p.  598. 


APPENDIX  III 

FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS 
BY  JOHANN  BUSCH 

THREE  accounts  of  medieval  visitations  stand  out  in  general  interest 
above  all  others,  the  thirteenth  century  Norman  visitations  of  Eudes 
Rigaud,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  described  in  his  diary,  the  fifteenth 
century  English  visitations  of  Alnwick,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  described 
in  his  Register1  and  the  almost  contemporary  German  visitations  of 
the  Austin  Canon  and  reformer  Johann  Busch,  described  in  his  Liber 
de  Reformations  Monasteriorum.  Busch's  account  is  less  formal  and 
more  literary  than  those  of  Rigaud  and  Alnwick;  he  sets  out  not  to 
keep  a  journal,  like  the  former,  nor  to  record  official  documents,  like 
the  latter,  but  to  look  back  in  retrospect  upon  his  work  and  to  make 
for  posterity  a  chronicle  of  the  reforms  connected  with  the  congrega 
tion  of  Windesheim.  For  this  reason,  and  because  Busch  was  a 
remarkable  man,  his  book  will  probably  transcend  the  others  in 
interest  for  the  general  reader;  his  account  of  the  difficulties  which 
he  encountered  is  so  vivid  and  at  times  so  humourous,  the  sidelight 
thrown  upon  his  own  character  shows  him  so  admirable  and  yet  so 
human. 

Johann  Busch  was  born  in  1399  and  in  1419  became  a  canon  in 
the  Austin  monastery  of  Windesheim,  a  new  foundation,  famed  for 
the  strictness  of  its  rule  and  already  the  head  of  a  congregation  of 
daughter  houses.  He  has  left  an  interesting  account  of  the  doubts 
and  temptations  which  assailed  him  during  his  novitiate;  they  were 
the  stormy  dawn  clouds  of  a  day  which  was  to  become  glorious  in 
the  annals  of  his  order.  During  the  next  twenty  years  he  held  from 
time  to  time  various  posts  in  different  houses  of  the  reformed  congrega 
tion;  in  1431  he  was  attached  to  the  nunnery  of  Bronopia,  in  1436 
he  became  Subprior  of  Wittenberg  and  in  1439  he  went  to  Suite, 
near  Hildesheim,  where  he  was  made  Prior  in  the  following  year. 
He  had  therefore  had  considerable  experience  of  monastic  houses  and 
it  was  when  he  became  Prior  of  Suite  that  his  great  work  as  a  reformer 
of  monasteries  began.  He  undertook  it  originally  at  the  request  of 
the  Bishop  and  Chapter  of  Hildesheim,  who  were  appalled  at  the 
decadence  of  monastic  life  in  that  diocese  and  anxious  for  the  intro 
duction  of  reforms  on  the  model  of  Windesheim.  His  success  in 
Hildesheim  prompted  Archbishop  Giinther  of  Magdeburg  to  invite 
him  to  carry  the  reforming  movement  into  that  diocese  and  in  1447 
Busch  became  praepositus  2  of  the  Neuwerk  in  Halle.  This  brought  him 
to  the  notice  of  the  Papal  Legate  Nicholas  of  Cues,  who  came  to  hold 

1  Or  rather  on  loose  sheets,  which  were  not  intended  for  official  preserva 
tion  and  have  survived  only  by  accident. 

2  I.e.  abbot.    These  German  Augustinians  never  used  the  term  abbas, 
but  used  praepositus  instead. 


APP.  in]     SAXON  VISITATIONS  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH        671 

a  provincial  council  in  Magdeburg  in  1451,  and  Nicholas,  himself  an 
ardent  reformer,  issued  a  general  mandate  empowering  him  to  enter 
and  reform  the  Austin  monasteries  of  the  provinces  of  Magdeburg, 
Mainz,  Saxony  and  Thuringia.  Unfortunately  Busch  now  quarrelled 
with  the  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  and  had  to  resign  in  1454.  He 
returned  to  Wittenberg  and  continued  his  campaign  of  reform,  turning 
his  attention  specially  to  nunneries.  Then,  after  a  short  sojourn  at 
Windesheim  he  returned  to  Suite  in  1459,  where  he  remained  until 
his  death  in  1480.  He  left  behind  him  two  books,  a  Chronicon 
Windeshemense,  and  the  Liber  de  Reformations  Monasteriorum,  which 
between  them  give  an  invaluable  account  not  only  of  the  rise  of 
Windesheim  and  of  the  reforming  movement  which  emanated  from 
it,  but  of  the  life  and  character  of  Busch  himself1. 

Book  II  of  the  Liber  de  Reformatione  Monasteriorum  describes  the 
reform  of  twenty-three  nunneries  and  two  houses  of  lay  sisters,  of 
which  the  great  majority  belonged  to  his  own  order  of  Austin  Regular 
Canons2.  The  work  was  not  carried  out  without  considerable  opposi 
tion,  not  only  from  the  nuns  themselves,  for  the  desire  for  reform 
seldom  came  from  within  the  unreformed  orders3,  but  also  from  their 
friends  and  kinsmen  in  the  world,  to  whom  they  frequently  appealed 
for  help.  Moreover  certain  ecclesiastical  magnates,  notably  the  Bishop 
of  Minden,  opposed  and  impeded  reforms  in  their  districts,  and  even 
when  they  submitted  to  such  reforms  lent  them  an  indifferent  and 
easily  discouraged  support.  On  the  other  hand  Busch  received  his 

1  Des  Augustinerpropstes  Johannes  Busch  Chronicon  Windeshemense  und 
Liber  de  Reformatione  Monasteriorum... bearbeitet  v.  Dr  Karl  Grube  (Hist. 
Com.  der  Provinz.  Sachsen.   Halle,  1886). 

2  The  nunneries  dealt  with  by  Busch  are  the  following  (A.  =  Austin, 
B.  =  Benedictine,  C.  =  Cistercian,  M.M.  =  penitentiary  order  of  St  Mary 
Magdalen,  following  the  Cistercian  rule):  (i)  Wennigsen  (S.  of  Hanover, 
dioc.  Minden,  A.);  (2)  Mariensee  (N.  of  Hanover,  dioc.  Minden,  C.);  (3) 
Barsinghausen  (S.  of  Hanover,  dioc.  Minden,  A.);  (4)  Marienwerder  (N.  of 
Hanover,  dioc.  Minden,  A.);  (5)  St  George,  or  Marienkammer  (in  Glaucha, 
a  suburb  of  Halle,  dioc.  Magdeburg,  C.);  (6)  Magdalenenkloster,  Hildesheim 
(dioc.  Hildesheim,  M.M.);  (7)  Derneburg  (W.  of  Hildesheim,  dioc.  Hildes 
heim,  A.);  (8)  Escherde  (S.W.  of  Hildesheim,  B.);  (9)  Heiningen  (in  Hanover, 
between  Wolfenbiittel  and  Goslar,  dioc.  Hildesheim,   A.);  (10)  Stederburg 
(near  Brunswick,  dioc.  Hildesheim,  A.);  (u)  Frankenburg  (in  Goslar,  dioc. 
Hildesheim,  M.M.);  (12)  Kloster  zum  hi.  Kreuze  (Holy  Cross)  or  Neuwerk, 
Erfurt  (dioc.   Mainz,    A.);   (13)   St  Cyriac's  in  Erfurt  (dioc.   Mainz,    B.); 

(14)  Weissfrauenkloster   (White   Ladies)  in  Erfurt  (dioc.   Mainz,   M.M.); 

(15)  St  Martin's  in  Erfurt  (dioc.  Mainz,  C.) ;  (16)  Marienberg  (near  Helmstedt, 
dioc.  Halberstadt,  A.);  (17)  Marienborn  (near  Helmstedt,  dioc.  Halberstadt, 
A.);  (18)  Weinhausen  (near  Liineburg,  dioc.  Hildesheim,  C.);  (19)  Weiss 
frauenkloster  (White  Ladies)  in  Magdeburg  (dioc.  Magdeburg,  M.M.);  (20) 
Wiilnnghausen   (near  Wittenberg,   dioc.  Hildesheim,  A.);  (21)   Fischbeck 
(near  Rinteln  on  the  Weser,  in  Hessen-Nassau,  dioc.   Minden,   A.);  (22) 
Dorstadt  (near  Wolfenbiittel,  dioc.  Hildesheim,  A.);  (23)  Stendal  (in  the 
mark  of  Brandenburg  A.).  Also  (24)  Bewerwijk  in  N.  Holland  (Franciscan 
tertiaries),  and  (25)  Segeberchhus  in  Liibeck,  both  houses  of  lay  sisters. 

3  But  see  Liber,  pp.  600,  637,  640. 


672        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

most  powerful  support  from  great  ecclesiastics  such  as  the  Cardinal 
Legate  Nicholas  of  Cues,  the  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  and  the 
Bishops  of  Halberstadt  and  Hildesheim,  and  also  from  the  superiors 
and  chief  inmates  of  houses  belonging  to  the  congregation  of  Windes- 
heim,  or  already  reformed  under  its  influence.  Men  such  as  Rutger, 
prior  of  Wittenberg,  were  of  the  greatest  assistance  to  him;  they 
accompanied  him  as  co-visitors  and  promoted  his  work  in  every 
possible  way,  while  the  reformed  nunneries  often  provided  him  with 
nuns  to  dwell  for  a  time  in  the  houses  which  he  was  reforming  and  to 
teach  their  inmates  how  to  comport  themselves.  Apart  from  such 
powerful  ecclesiastical  support  Busch  was  particularly  fortunate  in 
the  assistance  which  he  received  from  the  Dukes  of  Brunswick,  Otto, 
William  and  Henry,  who  reigned  during  his  lifetime.  These  nobles, 
especially  Duke  William,  had  the  greatest  esteem  for  Busch  and  not 
infrequently  accompanied  him  on  his  visitations,  lending  the  temporal 
intimidation  of  their  arguments  and  armed  retainers  to  his  more 
spiritual  menaces.  The  support  of  the  secular  arm  was,  indeed,  neces 
sary,  in  view  of  the  opposition  of  lay  kinsfolk  to  the  reform  of  their 
daughters  and  sisters. 

The  monastic  houses  of  Germany  had  by  the  fifteenth  century 
fallen  into  great  laxity  of  rule.  The  nuns  seem  to  have  lost  all  know 
ledge  of  how  to  perform  the  ordinary  offices  of  convent  life,  in  choir, 
chapter  and  frater,  according  to  the  rule,  and  Busch  was  often  at 
pains  to  go  carefully  through  the  routine  with  them,  teaching  them 
what  to  do  at  each  moment.  This  occasionally  gave  rise  to  some 
amusing  scenes.  At  one  of  the  first  houses  to  be  reformed,  St  Mary 
Magdalen  near  Hildesheim  (1440),  Busch  and  an  elderly  monk  of 
Suite  were  teaching  the  nuns  by  ocular  demonstration  how  to  comport 
themselves  in  frater.  Having  arranged  the  sisters  in  seemly  order 
Busch  and  brother  John  Bodiker  began  to  intone  Benedicite,  after 
the  fashion  of  reformed  religious;  but  the  nuns,  who  had  not  been 
accustomed  to  singing  the  Benedicite  at  table,  all  burst  out  laughing, 
instead  of  following.  Busch  and  the  brother,  however,  kept  on  until 
the  nuns  collected  themselves  and  came  in  with  bowed  heads  at  the 
verse  Gloria  patri.  Similarly  when  Busch  was  showing  them  how 
to  confess  their  own  and  proclaim  others'  faults  in  chapter  (a  custom 
which  they  had  completely  lost),  brother  John,  acting  the  sinner, 
rose  up  among  the  sisters  and  cast  himself  flat  upon  the  pavement, 
whereat  "the  astonished  nuns  fell  to  marvelling  that  such  an  old 
brother  should  seek  thus  to  lie  prone"1. 

The  most  serious  fault  found  by  Busch,  serious  not  only  because 
it  was  a  breach  of  one  of  the  three  substantial  vows  of  monasticism, 
but  because  it  brought  in  its  train  other  and  worse  evils,  was  the 
ownership  of  private  property.  The  nuns  were  almost  universally 
proprietarie,  owning  money  and  annual  rents,  to  say  nothing  of  their 
own  private  cooking  and  dining  utensils,  for,  as  always,  communal 
life  had  gone  with  individual  poverty  and  the  nuns  provided  their 

1  Liber,  p.  580. 


in]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  673 

own  meals  and  dined  in  familia.  At  Derneburg  Busch  describes  the 
girls  and  women  of  the  village  coming  up  to  the  doors  and  windows 
of  the  house  with  bread  and  meat  and  cheese  in  sacks  and  baskets 
for  the  nuns  to  buy1.  It  was  his  custom  on  visiting  a  house  to  demand 
that  all  the  private  possessions  of  the  nuns  should  be  brought  and 
heaped  up  before  him.  Unwillingly  they  came  with  the  charters 
reciting  their  private  rents,  the  ready  money  from  their  purses  and 
chests,  the  gold  and  silver  rings,  the  coral  paternosters,  and  all  the 
pots  and  pans  and  basins,  the  cups  and  plates  and  spoons  which  they 
used  for  their  private  meals.  All  these  Busch  carefully  noted  down : 
"I  marvelled,"  he  says  on  one  occasion,  when  he  had  collected  a 
particularly  large  heap  from  quite  a  small  house,  "  how  they  could 
have  collected  from  their  parents  and  predecessors  and  reserved  for 
themselves,  as  it  were  by  right  of  inheritance,  such  a  large  number 
of  utensils"2.  All  the  money,  endowments  and  implements  thus 
brought  together  Busch  then  handed  over  to  the  common  treasury 
and  store-room  of  the  house. 

This  rooting  out  of  private  property  gave  rise  to  the  bitterest 
opposition.  The  nuns  had  been  wont  to  evade  the  charge  of  proprietors 
by  the  merest  quibble,  which  Busch  contemptuously  swept  away. 
They  had  deposited  all  their  money  and  charters  with  the  abbess 
and  when  they  wanted  any  they  had  asked  her  for  it;  but  she  was 
merely  the  guardian  of  their  private  incomes,  which  were  never 
merged  in  a  common  stock3.  When  they  found  that  this  device  was 
rejected  by  Busch,  they  did  all  they  could  to  preserve  their  hoards. 
Sometimes  they  secretly  sent  their  money  out  of  the  house  before 
his  arrival4;  sometimes  they  locked  it  up  and  tried  to  conceal  it5. 
The  attitude  of  their  kinsfolk  also  was  a  stumbling  block.  These 
gentlemen  were  willing  enough  to  endow  their  own  daughters  and 
nieces,  but  not  so  willing  to  support  the  children  of  others  by  gifts 
which  were  turned  to  the  common  use.  Thus  it  was  the  nuns  who 
frequently  protested  that  their  house  was  too  poor  to  permit  of  their 
living  in  common,  since  it  was  only  by  these  individual  endowments 
that  they  maintained  their  existence.  It  was  therefore  Busch 's  prac 
tice,  before  completing  the  reformation  of  a  house,  to  make  the  nuns 
obtain  from  their  kinsfolk  an  undertaking  to  continue,  and  if  possible 
to  augment,  the  rents  which  they  had  been  wont  to  give  their  relatives, 
on  the  threat  of  turning  out  the  nuns  and  distributing  them  among 
other  houses6.  The  nobles  and  burghers  of  the  district  naturally  wished 
!  to  keep  their  kinswomen  near  them  and  the  endowments  were  usually 
|  forthcoming.  At  St  George  (or  Marienkammer)  near  Halle  even  this 
device  did  not  result  in  a  large  enough  income  for  the  nuns ;  so  Busch 
caused  sermons  to  be  preached  in  all  the  churches  of  the  district, 

1  Liber,  p.  591. 

2  Ib.  p.  610.   For  interesting  lists  of  money  and  goods  put  into  common 
stock  by  Busch  see  also  pp.  614,  616,  617,  633. 

3  Ib.  pp.  633-4.  *  Ib.  p.  633. 

6  Ib.  pp.  571-2.  6  See  ib.  pp.  572,  591. 

P.M.  43 


674        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

saying  that  because  of  their  poverty  the  fathers  of  their  order  wished 
to  distribute  the  nuns  in  other  houses  in  the  dioceses  of  Hildesheim 
and  Halberstadt,  but  that  they  would  be  able  to  remain  if  they 
were  helped  by  alms.  Whereupon  the  townsfolk,  out  of  pity  for  them, 
gave  generously  enough  to  support  them  for  a  whole  year.  Busch  led 
the  way  himself,  sending  them  openly  two  large  cartloads  of  corn  and 
a  sack  of  cheeses,  an  example  which  was  soon  followed  by  the  towns 
folk,  who  had  ample  opportunity  of  observing  the  progress  of  the 
cart  from  Busch's  door  to  the  gates  of  the  convent,  "for"  (says  he), 
"I  lived  on  the  eastern,  they  on  the  western  side  of  the  town."  Dr 
Paul,  the  praepositus  of  St  Maurice,  Halle,  also  helped  with  a  cask 
of  wine1. 

Closely  connected  with  the  question  of  private  property  was  the 
dowry  system,  against  which  Busch  also  set  his  face,  for  it  was  not 
only  in  itself  contrary  to  the  rule,  but  it  was  one  method  by  which 
the  nuns  received  those  private  endowments  which  they  afterwards 
turned  to  their  own  uses: 

"All  the  nuns  of  Saxony,"  says  Busch,  "whatever  their  order,  made  a 
simoniacal  entry  into  their  monasteries  before  the  new  reform,  giving  a 
sum  of  money  for  their  reception;  and  according  to  ancient  custom  the 
newcomers  give  a  certain  potation  to  all  the  praepositi,  priests  and  chaplains 
and  a  great  feast  for  their  many  friends  and  for  all  the  nuns  and  inhabitants 
[of  the  house].  This  was  the  common  custom  in  all  the  nunneries  of  Saxony 
and  particularly  in  those  which  were  rich"2. 

Busch  forbade  the  custom  everywhere. 

The  nuns  thus  lived  like  seculars,  performing  the  minimum  number 
of  services  and  owning  private  property.  Like  seculars  also  they 
loved  to  give  that  "  fetis  "  pinch  to  their  wimples,  that  elegant  turn  to 
their  mantles,  which  changed  the  sombre  habit  of  their  order  into 
the  dress  of  a  lady  of  fashion.  Busch,  in  common  with  all  the  reformers 
of  the  later  middle  ages,  has  a  great  deal  to  say  about  their  clothes. 
All  the  nuns  of  Saxony  and  Thuringia  refused  to  crop  their  heads, 
and  contented  themselves  with  cutting  their  hair  short  at  the  neck3. 
The  nuns  of  Wiilfinghausen  and  Fischbeck  wore  long  flowing  white 
veils  over  their  heads,  so  that  it  was  hardly  possible  to  recognise 
them  as  nuns4.  Those  of  St  Cyriac's  appeared  very  pompously  arrayed 
in  long  tunics  and  mantles,  with  tall  peaked  caps  and  flowing  veils, 
"  que  non  monialium  sed  domicellarum  castrantium  apparatum  habu- 
erunt"6.  The  nuns  of  Barsinghausen 

were  very  slender,  having  underneath  long  tight  tunics  of  white  cloth,  and 
above  being  clad  in  almost  transparent  robes  of  black  linen,  which  they 
called  superpellicia,  not  girdled  but  flowing,  with  long  sleeves,  which  they 
turned  back  for  capes,  beneath  which  almost  all  their  form,  which  was 
bare  underneath,  could  be  seen8. 

1  Liber,  pp.  573-4  Compare  the  exertions  of  Berthold,  Prior  of  Suite, 
to  provide  the  poor  nuns  of  Heiningen  with  sufficient  stores  of  food  and  to 
pay  off  their  debts,  ib.  pp.  601-2;  see  also,  p.  599- 

1  Ib.  p.  614.  *  Ib.  p.  582.  4  Ib.  p.  643. 

*  Ib.  p.  614.  •  Ib.  p.  567. 


in]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  675 

The  nuns  of  the  penitential  order  of  St  Mary  Magdalen  near  Hildes- 
heim  wore 

"a  pleated  veil,  called  in  the  vulgar  tongue  Ranse,  such  as  they  imagine 
the  blessed  Mary  Magdalen  used  to  wear,  and  over  tunics  very  straitly 
girdled  at  the  breast,  so  as  to  make  them  appear  slender,  and  with  very 
loose  pleated  trains  behind,  from  the  girdle  to  the  hem,  after  the  fashion 
of  secular  women.  I  and  my  brother  John  Bodiker,"  adds  Busch,  "censured 
their  habit,  for  that  it  was  not  religious  but  rather  ministered  to  worldly 
vanity,  and  with  many  pious  admonishments  we  led  them  all  in  turn  to 
put  off  those  pleated  veils  and  put  over  their  heads  plain  white  veils  without 
folds  and  to  give  up  those  gowns,  which  were  tight  in  the  upper  part  and 
in  the  lower  part  wide  and  pleated,  lest  they  should  seem  to  be  following 
worldly  vanity  and  the  subtlety  of  their  own  hearts,  rather  than  religion"1. 
As  might  be  expected  laxity  of  rule  and  widespread  proprietas 
brought  immorality  in  their  train  and  Busch  in  several  cases  mentions 
that  a  convent  was  ill-famed  for  incontinence.  On  the  other  hand 
this  was  by  no  means  invariably  the  case.  At  Wiilfinghausen,  for 
instance,  Busch  told  the  nuns  that  he  had  never  heard  a  word 
breathed  against  their  chastity2.  At  Weinhausen,  where  the  old  abbess 
withstood  reform  so  strenuously  that  she  had  to  be  removed  by  force, 
and  where  all  the  nuns  possessed  private  incomes,  he  specially  notes 
"these  nuns  observed  well  the  vow  of  chastity,  for  their  lady  the 
old  abbess  ruled  them  very  strictly,  and  they  held  her  in  great  reverence 
and  fear  and  called  her  'gracious  lady,'  because  of  her  high  birth"3. 
Moreover  certain  houses  received  reform  so  readily  and  became  so 
soon  models  of  good  behaviour,  that  there  cannot  have  been  any  very 
serious  moral  decay  in  them.  But  a  passage  in  the  course  of  Busch's 
account  of  the  reform  of  the  Magdalenenkloster  at  Halle,  shows  his 
own  opinion  as  to  the  relation  between  absolute  immorality  and  lesser 
breaches  of  the  rule,  and  shows  in  particular  the  important  part  which 
he  held  to  be  played  by  the  vice  of  proprietas  in  the  downward  path 
of  a  nun.  It  is  interesting  also  because  in  it  he  attributes  a  great 
deal  of  the  decadence  of  nunneries  to  insufficient  control  by  their 
pastors  and  above  all  to  too  infrequent  visitation: 

"The  feminine  sex,"  he  says,  "cannot  long  persist  in  the  due  observance 
of  their  rule  without  men,  who  are  proven,  and  reformed  and  who  often 
call  them  by  wise  counsels  to  better  things.  For  our  eyes  saw  no  monastery 
of  nuns  belonging  to  any  order  (and  there  is  no  small  number  of  them  in 
Saxony,  Misnia  and  Thuringia)  who  remained  for  long  in  their  good  intent, 
holy  life  and  due  reform  without  reformed  fathers.  For  wherever  nuns  and 
holy  sisters  do  not  confess  at  set  times,  nor  communicate,  nor  hold  chapter 
meeting  concerning  their  faults  at  least  once  a  week,  nor  are  visited  by 
their  [spiritual]  fathers  every  year...,  such  nuns  and  sisters  we  saw  and 
heard  often  to  be  fallen  from  the  observance  of  their  rule  and  from  the 
religious  life  to  a  dissolute  life,  odious  in  the  sight  of  God  and  men,  to  the 
grave  peril  and  eternal  damnation  of  their  souls.  For  first  laying  aside  the 
fear  of  God,  they  fall  into  the  sin  of  property  in  small  things,  then  in  greater 
things  and  then  in  the  peculium  of  money  and  clothes,  thence  they  break 

1  Liber,  pp.  582-3;  compare  pp.  603,  638.  *  Ib.  p.  639. 

3  Ib.  p.  633. 

43—2 


676        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

out  into  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  incontinence  of  the  outward  senses  and 
so  to  the  evil  act,  and  thus  they  fear  not  to  give  themselves  over  bit  by  bit 
to  all  uncleanliness  and  foulness"1. 

He  ends  with  an  eloquent  plea  for  a  closer  watch  to  be  kept  over  nuns 
by  those  responsible  for  their  spiritual  welfare. 

Such  were  the  main  faults  which  Busch  strove  to  abolish  in 
bringing  the  nunneries  under  the  reformed  rule  of  Hildesheim.  It 
remains  to  give  some  account  of  the  difficulties  which  he  encountered 
in  the  course  of  his  work.  In  some  houses  he  was  well  received;  at 
Erscherde  he  says  of  the  nuns: 

These  virgins  were  well  obedient,  pious  and  tractable,... dealing  with  us 
and  with  each  other  kindly  and  benignantly  by  word  and  deed,  wherefore 
we  were  no  little  edified  by  them2; 

and  at  St  Martin's,  Erfurt,  he  says : 

We  found  a  prioress  and  nuns  living  in  great  poverty,  very  simple  and 
humble,  but  of  good  will  and  ready  for  all  good  work;  for  they  applied  them 
selves  promptly  to  obedience  and  to  the  observance  of  their  rule,  and  very 
willingly  brought  to  us  all  those  things  which  they  held  in  private  possession  *. 

In  other  houses  reform  was  not  so  easy.  Busch  was  frequently  im 
peded  by  old  and  obstinate  members  of  a  convent,  who  refused  to 
accept  a  change  in  the  routine  which  they  had  followed  for  so  long. 
Such  was  the  nobly  born  abbess  of  Weinhausen,  who  was  over  seventy 
years  of  age  and  had  to  be  removed  by  force  from  the  house,  before 
any  reforms  could  be  carried  out :  "  I  found  this  way  of  life  kept  in 
this  monastery  forty  years  ago;  this  way  have  I  served  during  as 
many  years  and  this  way  and  not  otherwise  will  I  continue  to  serve." 
One  cannot  but  pity  the  poor  old  lady,  brought  out  of  her  house  and 
forced  to  ascend  the  carriage  which  was  to  take  her  away,  with  Busch 
pulling  her  by  one  sleeve  and  the  Abbot  of  St  Michael  by  the  other  ; 
and  one  is  relieved  to  hear  that  she  was  allowed  back  again  shortly 
afterwards,  though  forced  to  resign  the  position  of  Abbess4.  But 
Busch's  experience  in  reforming  monasteries  caused  him  to  dread 
the  opposition  of  men  and  women  who  had  been  long  in  religion. 
In  the  course  of  his  panegyric  on  Fischbeck,  which  had  been  reformed 
from  within  by  a  remarkable  Abbess,  he  says : 

This  monastery  hath  this  advantage  over  many  other  Saxon  houses,  as 
well  of  monks  as  of  nuns,  that  it  contains  no  old  people,  for  these  old  folk 
do  not  fear  God  nor  care  they  for  conscience  or  for  obedience,  but  when 
no  one  is  looking,  then  they  do  all  that  they  think  or  desire,  chattering 
with  one  another  and  with  anyone  else,  by  day  and  by  night,  even  in  places 
where  it  is  forbidden  by  the  rule6. 

Besides  the  obstinacy  of  old  members  of  the  house  Busch  had  also 
to  contend  with  the  occasional  opposition  of  confessors  or  praepositi, 
who  resented  his  interference  in  their  domain.  At  the  Magdalenen- 

1  Liber,  p.  587.  -  Ib.  p.  599. 

3  Ib.  p.  617.  Compare  Marienwerder,  ib.  pp  567-8. 

*  Ib.  pp.  630-2.  5  Ib.  p.  642. 


in]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  677 

kloster  at  Hildesheim,  their  confessor,  who  had  been  with  the  nuns 
for  eight  years,  desired  to  be  released  after  the  reformation  of  the 
house,  saying  to  the  praepositus :  "  I  have  been  their  confessor  for  so 
many  years,  yet  nought  do  I  receive  from  them,  save  one  or  two 
refections  in  three  or  four  weeks.  I  would  fain  be  free  of  them  and 
let  them  get  another  confessor."  Busch  comments  significantly:  "He 
said  this,  because  when  they  were  property-owners,  they  gave  him 
many  little  gifts  in  money,  and  spices.  Now,  because  they  had  no 
private  property,  they  gave  him  nothing"1.  At  the  convent  of  White 
Ladies  and  at  Marienberg  the  praepositus  of  the  house  did  everything 
possible  to  hinder  the  reform2.  Moreover  in  several  cases  Busch  had 
also  to  deal  with  the  opposition  of  laymen,  objecting  either  to  the 
enclosure  of  their  kinswomen,  or  to  the  abolition  of  private  endow 
ments,  or  merely  supporting  on  general  grounds  the  objections  of 
the  nuns. 

The  difficulties  encountered  by  a  fifteenth  century  German  reformer 
are  best  estimated  by  giving  an  account  of  some  of  Busch's  adventures 
at  recalcitrant  houses.  At  his  first  attempt  to  reform  Wennigsen 
in  Hanover  (1455)  he  had  against  him  the  Bishop  of  Minden  and  all 
the  nobles  of  the  neighbouring  castles,  but  he  was  supported  by 
William  Duke  of  Brunswick  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Council 
of  Basel.  Taking  with  him  the  Duke,  his  minister  Ludolph  von 
Barum  and  Rutger,  Prior  of  Wittenberg,  Busch  went  to  the  house 
and  they  all  four  entered  the  nuns'  choir.  The  Duke  addressed  the 
assembled  sisters  and  bade  them  receive  reformation,  but  they,  crossing 
their  hands  above  their  breasts,  replied:  "We  have  all  concluded 
together  and  sworn  that  we  will  not  reform  nor  observe  our  rule. 
We  beseech  you  not  to  make  us  perjured."  Twice  the  Duke  sent  them 
out  to  reconsider  their  decision  and  twice  they  made  the  same  reply, 
finally  throwing  themselves  on  their  faces  on  the  ground,  spreading 
out  their  arms  in  the  form  of  a  cross  and  intoning  in  a  loud  voice 
the  antiphon  "Media  vita  in  morte  sumus."  The  visitors,  however, 
thought  they  were  singing  "  Revelabunt  celi  iniquitatem  lude"  (used 
as  a  spell  in  the  middle  ages)  and  the  Duke  was  terrified,  lest  he  should 
lose  all  his  possessions.  But  Busch  said : 

"  If  I  were  duke  of  this  land  I  would  rather  have  that  song  than  a  hundred 
florins,  for  there  is  no  curse  over  us  and  over  your  land,  but  a  benediction 
and  heavenly  dew,  but  over  these  nuns  is  a  stern  rebuke  and  the  sign  of 
their  reformation.  But  we  are  few,  being  but  our  four  selves,  and  the  nuns 
are  many.  If  they  were  to  attack  us  with  their  distaffs  and  with  stones 
hidden  in  their  long  sleeves,  what  should  we  do?  Let  us  call  in  others  to 
help."  Then  the  duke,  going  up  alone  to  them  said,  "May  what  you  sing 
be  upon  you  and  your  bodies  " ;  and  to  his  servants  who  were  standing  with 
the  nuns  in  the  choir,  he  said,  "come  hither  to  us." 

The  nuns  followed  the  Duke  and  the  servants,  thinking  that  their 
chests  and  money  boxes  were  going  to  be  broken  up,  whereupon  the 

1  Liber,  p.  581. 

2  Ib.  pp.  615,  652-3.    But  the  praepositus  of  Erfurt,  when  he  saw  the 
result  of  the  reforms,  was  delighted  and  thanked  Busch. 


678        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

Duke  rebuked  them,  saying  that  if  they  and  their  noble  friends  and 
the  Bishop  of  Minden  opposed  reform  any  longer,  he  would  turn  them 
off  his  lands.  The  nuns  then  asked  to  be  allowed  to  take  counsel  with 
their  friends  and  relatives,  to  which  the  Duke,  on  Busch's  interces 
sion,  unwillingly  agreed.  The  friends  accordingly  came  to  a  conference, 
but  all  they  did  was  to  repeat  the  nuns'  request  in  the  same  form,  and 
they  continued  to  do  so  after  the  Duke  had  given  them  two  or  three 
chances  to  reconsider  the  matter;  whereupon  he  sent  them  away, 
and  they  rode  off,  followed  by  their  shield-bearers.  The  Duke  then 
ordered  the  gates  of  the  house  to  be  opened  to  Busch,  but  the  nuns 
returned  a  message  that  the  keys  were  lost.  The  Duke,  on  Busch's 
authority,  sent  for  several  rustics  and  villeins,  who  brought  a  long 
bench  and  broke  open  the  door.  The  reformers  went  up  into  the 
choir  and  there  found  the  nuns,  flat  on  their  faces  with  arms  out 
like  a  cross,  and  round  them  a  circle  of  little  wooden  and  stone  images 
of  saints,  with  a  burning  candle  between  each.  Seeing  that  it  was 
useless  to  resist,  they  approached  the  visitors,  and  the  Duke  ad 
dressed  them,  saying  that  if  they  would  receive  reform,  he  would 
keep  them  on  his  land,  and  if  not  carriages  were  ready  to  take  them 
away  for  ever.  The  nuns  begged  him  to  "remove  those  monks  from 
their  necks,"  when  they  would  do  his  will,  but  the  Duke  replied  that 
he  did  everything  by  the  advice  of  Rutger  and  Busch. 

The  nuns  then  gave  way  and  the  reform  was  begun,  after  which 
the  Duke  and  his  followers  rode  away,  leaving  his  councillor  and 
notary  with  Busch.  But  at  nightfall  the  nuns  sent  their  praepositus 
to  Busch,  with  the  message:  "My  ladies  the  prioress  and  nuns  say 
that  they  are  not  willing  to  serve  as  they  promised,  but  they  wish 
to  remain  as  they  were  and  are."  The  Duke  had  to  be  sent  for  once 
more  and  eventually  all  the  nuns  submitted  except  one,  who  seems 
to  have  fallen  into  a  fit,  and  the  reform  went  on  apace: 

"Because  we  instructed  them  kindly  and  not  austerely,"  says  Busch, 
"they  said  to  us,  'At  first  we  thought  that  you  would  be  very  austere  and 
unkind,  but  now  we  see  that  you  are  gentle  as  the  angels  of  heaven.  Now 
we  have  more  faith  in  you  than  in  the  lord  duke.'" 

Busch's  troubles,  however,  were  not  over,  for  twice  within  the  next 
few  days  he  was  attacked  by  armed  men  objecting  to  the  new  en 
closure  of  the  nuns,  and  only  his  native  wit  and  conciliatory  words 
saved  him  from  a  very  dangerous  situation1. 

Almost  equally  difficult  was  the  reform  of  Mariensee,  where  again 
the  Bishop  of  Minden  did  all  in  his  power  to  oppose  reform,  having 
(according  to  Busch)  been  bribed  by  the  nuns  to  defend  them.  The 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  however,  forced  the  nuns  to  admit  the  reformers 
and  forced  the  Bishop  to  send  four  emissaries  to  assist  in  carrying 
out  the  reform.  These  four  prelates  entered  the  house  first  to  ask  the 
nuns  if  they  would  consent  to  receive  reform;  but  they  refused,  and 
one  young  woman  tore  off  her  veil  and  crown  and  casting  them  at 
the  feet  of  the  Bishop's  suffragan  cried:  "Always  hitherto  you  have 
1  Liber,  pp.  555-62. 


ni]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  679 

told  me  that  I  need  not  be  reformed  and  now  you  want  to  compel 
me  to  be  reformed.    Behold  your  crown  and  veil!    I  will  no  longer 
be  a  nun."  The  Bishop's  emissaries  after  this  gave  up  their  half 
hearted  attempt  to  reform  the  house  and  retired,  leaving  the  field 
to  Busch  and  his  companions.  The  Duke  then  caused  four  carriages 
to  be  brought  to  the  door,  in  which  the  rebellious  nuns  could  be  taken 
away,  whereat  the  Abbess  and  the  nuns  climbed  up  into  the  vaults 
of  the  church  and  hid  themselves  there.  The  Duke  ordered  his  servants 
to  fetch  ladders  and  place  them  against  the  roof  and  then  to  climb 
up  and  fetch  down  the  nuns,  but  the  prudent  Busch  prevented  this, 
saying  that  the  nuns  would  push  over  and  kill  the  first  who  went  up 
the  ladder.    Instead  he  went  into  the  choir  and,  finding  one  nun 
still  walking  there,  threatened  her  that  unless  the  whole  convent 
came  down  from  the  roof  at  once,  they  should  be  taken  away  in  the 
carriages,  "to-night  you  shall  be  in  the  Duke's  castle  of  Nyerstadt, 
tomorrow  in  his  castle  of  Calenberg,  and  after  that  outside  his  lands, 
perchance  never  to  return."  Whereupon  the  horrified  nuns  descended. 
Then  followed  an  amusing  scene.    All  the  nuns  agreed  to  accept 
the  new  reforms,  except  one  young  woman,  who  refused : 
"Then  "  says  Busch,  "I  said  to  the  lord  Duke,  'This  sister  scorns  obedience 
and  contradicts  everything.'    Whereupon,  finding  how  perverse  she  was, 
he  seized  her  and  tried  to  draw  her  to  the  carriage.    But  when  he  had 
thrown  his  arms  about  her,  she  fell  back  flat  on  the  ground,  the  Duke  on 
the  top  of  her,  and  the  other  nuns  on  the  top  of  the  Duke,  each  pushing 
the  other  on  to  him,  so  that  the  Duke  could  not  raise  himself  from  off  her, 
especially  as  his  arms  were  crushed  beneath  her  scapular.    And  we,  whc 
saw  him  lying  thus,  stood  away,  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  business.    At 
length  he  got  one  arm  away  from  her,  and  with  it  pushed  off  the  nuns  who 
were  lying  upon  him,  hitting  them  and  drawing  blood  from  their  arms 
for  he  was  a  man  and  the  nuns  were  like  children,  without  strength  and 
resistance." 

(This  was  the  age  of  chivalry!)  When  he  had  got  rid  of  these  nuns 
he  lifted  the  nun  on  whom  he  was  lying,  pulled  his  other  arm  free  and 
sprang  to  his  feet  again,  saying  to  the  vassals  and  servants,  who 
were  standing  round:  "Why  do  you  allow  your  liege  lord  thus  to  be 
trampled  under  foot  by  nuns?  "  One  of  them  replied  for  all,  "  Gracious 
lord !  we  have  ever  stood  by  thee  where  the  war  engines  were  hurling 
their  stones  and  the  bows  their  arrows;  only  tell  us  what  we  are  to 
do  and  we  will  willingly  do  it."  Then  said  he,  "Whichever  nun  I 
seize,  do  you  seize  her  too,"  and  they  replied,  "Willingly,  gracious 
lord  "  Whereupon  the  nuns  gave  in  and  professed  themselves  willing 
to  be  reformed.  But  they  were  still  recalcitrant  at  heart,  and  when 
Busch  Rutger  and  the  Duke  were  going  away,  they  all  began  to 
sing  the  antiphon  "Media  vita"  at  the  top  of  their  voices  and 
pursued  the  hapless  reformers  through  the  church,  pelting  them  with 
burning  candles.  One  girl  followed  them  outside  to  the  cemetery, 
chanted  "Sancte  deus,  sancte,  fortis,  sancte  et  immortalis" 
times  and  falling  on  her  knees,  bit  the  ground  thrice  in  sign  of  a  curse, 
and  threw  stones  and  earth  after  them.  In  the  end,  however,  even 


680        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

this  stormy  convent  was  reduced  to  peace  and  reform,  after  three 
reformed  nuns  from  Derneburg  were  brought  in  to  teach  them1. 

Busch  had  almost  as  much  difficulty  with  the  nuns  of  Derneburg, 
an  Austin  house  near  Hildesheim,  in  which,  as  he  says:  "the  nuns 
had  long  lived  an  irregular  life,  owning  private  property,  and,  ac 
cording  to  public  rumour,  incontinent,"  paying  long  visits  outside 
their  house  as  often  as  they  pleased  and  performing  only  the  minimum 
routine  of  monastic  life.  On  one  occasion,  Busch  tells  us, 
When  I  was  taking  their  private  possessions  away  from  the  nuns  and  placing 
them  in  the  common  stock,  it  happened  that  I  was  going  through  their 
cupboards  and  cellars,  for  several  of  them  had  a  small  cellar  encircling  the 
mastery,  which  was  entered  by  three  or  four  steps  and  had  covered 
vaults,  in  which  they  kept  their  beer  and  other  private  allowances.  They 
were  showing  me  the  cellars,  and  going  down  into  them  before  me,  and  the 
last  nun  said  to  me:  "Do  you  go  first  now,  father,  for  my  cellar  is  the  same 
as  those  of  the  other  sisters,"  and  without  thinking  I  did  so.  But  when  I 
went  down  into  it,  she  suddenly  clapped  to  the  door  or  vault  over  my  head 
and  stood  upon  it.  I  was  shut  up  alone  in  there,  thinking  what  would  have 
happened  if  the  nuns  had  shut  me  up  there  secretly;  and  I  shouted  to  my 
brother,  who  was  standing  outside  with  them,  bidding  him  cause  them  to 
open  the  door  and  let  me  out.  At  length  after  some  delay  they  opened  the 
trap-door  of  the  cellar  and  let  me  come  out.  After  that  I  was  never  willing 

a  first  into  any  closed  place  in  any  nunnery,  lest  anything  of  the  kind 
i  happen,  and  lest  I  should  be  unable  to  get  out  easily.   But  when  two 

hree  preceded  me,  then  I  followed  them.  One  only  going  in  front  did 
not  suffice  me,  lest  they  should  shut  me  up  for  some  time  alone  with  her 

then  spread  tales  about  me.  The  sister  who  did  this  was  good  enough 
and  very  simple,  whence  I  was  astonished  that  she  should  think  of  such  a 
thing. 

It  was  while  he  was  reforming  this  house,  too,  that  he  was  attacked 
by  several  armed  laymen,  who  took  the  part  of  the  nuns.  The  nuns 
of  Derneburg  were  never  effectually  reformed,  although  Busch  gave 
himself  the  greatest  trouble  over  them.  At  the  end  of  three  years 
they  prevailed  upon  their  friends  and  relatives  in  the  neighbourhood 
to  get  rid  of  Busch  and  his  brethren,  and  the  nuns  received  Henry, 
Abbot  of  Marienrode,  as  their  spiritual  father  and  reformer  instead'. 
But  they  did  not  gain  by  the  change,  for  he,  being  a  Cistercian, 
introduced  a  nun  of  his  own  order  as  their  prioress,  and  finally  the 
Bishop  of  Hildesheim,  the  Abbot  of  Marienrode  and  other  reformers 
came  one  morning  to  the  house  and,  rebuking  the  nuns  for  their 
imperviousness  to  reform,  made  them  come  away  in  all  their  old 
clothes,  leaving  their  books  and  possessions  behind  them,  placed 
them  m  carriages  and  distributed  them  among  other  houses,  where 
many  were  forced  to  become  Cistercians.  The  house  itself  was  turned 
into  a  Cistercian  priory.  "Thus,"  says  Busch,  not  without  some 
satisfaction,  "they  lost  the  holy  father  St  Augustine  with  me !  "2. 

The  methods  employed  by  Busch  to  carry  out  a  reform  were  to 
undertake  the  initial  stages  himself  and  if  necessary  to  obtain  a  few 
nuns  from  a  previously  reformed  house  to  live  in  the  convent  and  bring 
.  PP-  562-5.  t  See  # 


in]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  68 1 

it  to  right  discipline.  He  always  began  by  hearing  the  confessions  of  the 
nuns,  which  often  caused  considerable  fluttering  in  the  convent.  At 
St  George,  near  Halle,  he  found  that  the  convent  was  subordinated 
to  the  monastery  of  Zinna,  and  received  its  confessor  from  that  house, 
which  Busch  decided  to  alter,  for  the  Abbot  of  Zinna  was  impeding 
his  reforms.  He  therefore  bade  the  Abbess  send  the  sisters  to  confess 
to  him,  but  she  replied  : 

"The  sisters  dare  not  confess  to  you  by  reason  of  the  apostolic  mandate 
and  the  abbot  of  Zinna  and  our  own  confessor,  who  comes  from  him." 

Then  Busch  said: 

"Because  I  have  authority  to  do  so,  say  to  them:  the  confessor  is  sitting 
in  the  church,  in  front  of  the  window,  where  you  are  wont  to  confess,  so 
you  may  go  there  and  confess."  Then  the  prioress  or  eldest  of  the  sisters 
came  to  the  window  and  confessed  fully  to  me... and  when  she  had  finished 
I  said,  "Sister,  have  you  more  to  say? "  Whereat  she  cried  in  alarm,  "Are 
you  the  provost  of  the  Neuwerk?"  I  answered,  "Even  so."  "Then  have 
I  confessed  to  the  provost?"  "Yea."  "What  now  shall  I  do  and  say?" 
I  replied,  "Be  silent  and  tell  no  one  that  I  have  heard  your  confession,  so 
that  the  others  may  come  to  confess,  otherwise  you  will  be  the  only  one 
to  have  confessed  to  me."  She  did  so  and  receiving  absolution  left  me, 
telling  no  one  that  she  had  confessed  to  me. 

After  that  each  nun  who  came  received  the  same  advice,  until  all 
had  confessed1. 

At  Derneburg  the  nuns  were  afraid  to  come  and  confess  for  another 
reason.  There  was  current  in  the  taverns  and  dining  halls  of  the  whole 
country  side  a  tale  of  the  terrible  penance  imposed  by  Busch  upon 
a  brother  of  his  monastery  of  Suite,  who  took  a  larger  draught  of 
drink  from  the  drinking  cup  than  Busch  thought  seemly,  whereupon 
he  was  said  to  have  caused  the  unfortunate  man  to  lie  for  three 
hours  before  the  dining  table  in  the  frater,  with  his  mouth  stretched 
open  by  a  large  horse-bone;  and  when  one  of  the  brothers  burst  out 
laughing  at  the  sight,  Busch  was  said  to  have  thrown  the  drinking 
cup  in  his  face.  The  weeping  nuns  informed  him  between  their  sobs : 
"We  are  virgins  and  maids,  we  cannot  do  such  a  great  penance  for 
such  a  little  fault."  Busch  was  obliged  to  assure  them  that  the  whole 
tale  was  a  fabrication2.  At  Escherde  he  had  the  same  difficulty. 

The  frightened  nuns  were  afraid  to  confess  to  me,  because  they  had  heard 
that  I  was  wont  to  inflict  very  severe  penances,  which  was  not  true,  as  I 
afterwards  told  them.  Then  their  praepositus  said  to  them:  "The  bishop's 
mandate  orders  you  to  confess  to  him  under  pain  of  excommunication  and 
if  you  refuse  then  you  will  be  under  an  interdict.  My  good  ladies,  I  counsel 
you  to  confess  to  him.  I  will  place  beside  him  my  servant  with  a  drawn 
sword  and  if  he  says  one  bad  or  harsh  word  to  you  it  shall  cleave  his  head." 
When  they  saw  and  heard  that  they  could  not  escape  they  consented  to 
confess  to  me,  but  they  sent  before  them  first  one  bold  nun  in  order  to  beard 
me.  Seated  in  the  confessional,  she  began,  "Sir,  what  do  you  here?"  I 
answered,  "I  lead  you  all  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. "...Half  the  nuns 


! 

I 


1  Liber,  pp.  575-6.  2  Ib.  p.  589. 


682        FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS      [APP. 

confessed  to  me  that  day.  To  the  third  of  them  I  said,  "  Sister,  am  I  as  harsh 
as  you  said  I  was? "  and  she  replied,  "You  are  a  man  of  gold,  gentle  and 
kind  beyond  all  things."  In  the  evening,  when  we  were  supping  I  said  to 
the  praepositus:  "What  are  your  nuns  saying  about  me?  Am  I  as  severe 
as  they  thought?  "  He  replied,  "  When  it  was  their  turn  to  go  to  confession, 
the  hair  of  their  heads  stood  on  end,  but  when  they  came  away  from  you, 
they  returned  in  great  consolation."  The  next  day  I  finished  the  others 
before  dinner,  and  towards  the  end  I  asked  one  of  them,  "Am  I  as  hard  and 
severe  as  you  heard?  "  and  she  replied,  "Now  you  are  honey-tongued.  But 
when  you  have  got  our  consent  and  have  tied  a  rope  to  our  horns  to  drag 
us  along,  then  you  will  say  to  us:  You  must  and  shall  do  all  that  I  desire." 
I  answered  her,  "Beloved  sister,  fear  not,  for  I  shall  always  remain  kind 
and  benign  towards  you"1. 

Besides  confessing  the  nuns  Busch  and  his  fellow  visitors  went 
through  the  conventual  routine  with  them,  showing  them  how  they 
ought  to  perform  divine  service,  to  behave  in  the  frater  and  to  hold 
chapters.  The  most  efficacious  means  of  reform  employed,  however, 
was  to  send  for  some  reformed  nuns  from  another  convent,  to  dwell 
in  the  newly  reformed  house.  Nuns  of  the  order  of  Mary  Magdalen 
in  Hildesheim  went  to  Heiningen,  Stederburg,  Frankenburg,  and  the 
White  Ladies  of  Magdeburg.  Fischbeck  was  reformed  by  nuns  of  the 
Windesheim  order.  Marienberg  was  reformed  by  nuns  of  Bronopia 
and  in  its  turn  sent  reformers  to  Marienborn  and  Stendal,  where  nuns 
of  Dorstadt  had  already  made  reforms,  from  which  the  original 
members  soon  fell  away.  Two  nuns  and  a  conversa  were  sent  from 
Heiningen  to  the  Holy  Cross  at  Erfurt  and  the  Abbess  and  four  nuns 
of  Derneburg  went  to  Weinhausen2.  The  newcomers  were  usually 
gladly  lent  and  graciously  received  in  their  new  homes;  sometimes 
they  remained  and  held  office  in  the  latter  and  sometimes  they 
returned  to  their  own  houses,  when  the  reform  was  firmly  rooted. 
The  tale  of  the  reform  of  Marienberg  is  charming3.  Busch,  with  the 
consent  of  the  chapter-general  of  the  congregation  of  Windesheim, 
took  from  Bronopia  two  nuns,  Ida  and  Tecla  and  a  lay  sister  Aleidis, 
who  for  his  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  the  good  work  left  their  own 
country  and  their  noble  friends  and  relatives,  and  made  a  long  and 
sometimes  dangerous  journey  with  Busch  across  Westphalia  and 
Saxony  to  Helmstedt.  Here  they  were  joyfully  received.  Ida  was 
made  subprioress  to  introduce  reforms  and  to  order  all  the  internal 
discipline  of  the  house;  Tecla,  who  was  a  learned  lady,  was  made 
governess  of  the  novices,  teaching  them  to  sing  and  to  read  Latin 
and  "to  write  letters  and  missives  in  a  masterly  manner,  in  good 
Latin,  as  I  have  seen  and  examined  with  my  eyes."  Aleidis  was  made 
mistress  of  the  conversi. 

For  three  years  these  nuns  dwelt  at  Helmstedt,  beloved  of  all 
and  bringing  the  place  to  excellent  order.  Then  Tecla  fell  ill.  The 
Prioress  sent  for  Busch: 

1  Liber,  pp.  597-8. 

2  Ib.  pp.  580,  607,  612,  619,  628,  631,  635,  642   649,  651. 
*  Ib.  pp.  618-22. 


m]  BY  JOHANN  BUSCH  683 

and  I  came  and  found  her  sitting  in  the  infirmary  and  ordered  her  to  be 
bled  and  to  receive  suitable  medicine.  And  when  I  had  remained  there 
for  two  or  three  days  I  decided  to  go  away  without  taking  them  and  I  bade 
them  farewell  at  eventide ; 

for  Busch  had  decided  that  it  was  time  for  the  sisters  to  return  to 
Bronopia : 

After  this  the  proctress  of  the  house  came  to  me,  saying:  "Beloved  father! 
Sister  Tecla  is  asking  for  you  with  tears,  for  she  says  she  will  never  see  you 
again.  I  beseech  you  that  you  will  go  and  speak  to  her  once  again  tomorrow, 
before  you  leave."  I  answered,  "Willingly,  for  she  is  my  dear  sister  and  for 
God's  sake  and  mine  she  left  all  her  rich  friends  and  her  own  country  and 
followed  me  to  this  strange  and  distant  land."  The  next  day,  therefore,  I 
visited  her  in  her  bed,  in  the  presence  of  Ida  and  Aleidis.  Then  she  was 
better  and  was  well  content  that  I  should  go  away  and  soon  she  recovered 
altogether  from  that  illness. 

Shortly  afterwards  Busch  took  the  three  nuns  with  him  and  they 
set  off  to  drive  back  to  Bronopia,  staying  at  various  monastic  houses 
on  the  way;  and  the  nuns  of  Helmstedt  all  the  time  sent  messengers 
after  them,  with  letters  assuring  the  three  sisters  of  their  love  and 
sorrow.  The  journey  was  at  length  completed  without  any  accident, 
except  that  fat  sister  Ida  tumbled  into  a  cellar  at  Wittenberg  and 
hurt  her  leg,  so  that  Busch  had  to  carry  her  into  the  carriage. 

To  his  account  of  this  episode  Busch  subjoins  four  letters,  one 
from  himself,  one  from  the  prioress  and  stewardess  of  Helmstedt  to 
the  three  sisters,  one  from  the  young  scholars  of  the  house  to  their 
mistress  Tecla,  and  the  reply  of  the  three  sisters  to  the  convent  and 
of  Tecla  to  her  scholars1.  In  the  Prioress'  letter  there  is  a  vivid  descrip 
tion  of  the  sorrow  of  the  nuns  at  the  departure  of  their  three  visitors : 
Our  sister  Geseke  Zeelde  wept  most  tearfully  and  could  not  go  into  the 
workroom,  so  grieved  she  after  sister  Aleydis.  Sister  Mettike  Guestyn  was 
so  miserable  that  she  could  not  eat  or  drink.  When  I  went  into  the  kitchen 
sister  Tryneke  wept  so  much  that  all  who  were  with  her  in  the  kitchen  wept 
too  and  said :  "O  wi,  now  has  our  leader  gone  away !  "  When  sister  Elyzabeth 
Cyriaci  began  the  office  of  the  mass,  she  sang  it  so  dolefully  through  her 
tears,  that  she  could  hardly  sing.  When  she  had  to  begin  the  'Benedictus' 
after  the  '  Sanctus '  she  burst  out  crying,  so  that  she  could  not  sing  at  all, 
but  sister  Elyzabeth  Broysen  had  to  go  on  with  it  and  she  could  hardly 
finish  it.  Geseke  Obrecht  and  Heylewich  the  chantress  are  very  sorrowful, 
because  they  did  not  say  goodbye  to  you,  for  they  did  not  know  you  were 
going  so  early.  They  now  send  you  as  many  good  wishes  as  there  are  sands 
in  the  sea.  When  the  scholars  come  to  school  on  Sunday,  we  cannot  describe 
to  you  how  many  tears  are  shed  there.  The  stewardess  and  I  have  to  console 
the  other  sisters,  but  we  are  the  rather  in  need  of  someone  to  console  us. 
When  we  look  on  your  places  in  choir  and  frater  and  dorter,  then  we  grow 
sad  and  weep,  saying,  "  O  God,  if  only  Bronopia  were  where  Heiningen  is, 
five  miles  away  from  us,  then  we  might  often  visit  each  other,  which  now 
we  cannot  do,  for  we  are  forty  miles  away.  We  are  as  it  were  dead  to  each 
other  at  the  two  ends  of  the  earth."  We  have  many  other  things  to  write 
to  you,  but  because  it  is  the  middle  of  the  night,  we  must  separate  and  go 
to  matins.  Dearest  sisters,  we  give  you  deepest  thanks  for  all  the  good 

1  Liber,  pp.  622-7. 


684      FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  SAXON  VISITATIONS   [APP.  m 

you  have  done  for  us,  in  spiritual  and  in  temporal  matters.  God  speed 
you  a  thousand  times,  in  Jesus'  name.... As  many  as  there  are  pearls,  as 
many  as  there  are  planets  in  the  heaven,  as  many  as  there  are  ends  to  the 
earth,  so  many  godspeeds  send  we  to  you1. 

The  letter  of  the  little  novices  to  sister  Tecla  deserves  quotation, 
to  show  their  progress  under  her  tuition: 

Ihesum  pium  consolatorem  merentium  pro  salute !  Notum  facimus  charitati 
vestre,  charissima  soror  Tecla  magistra  nostra,  quod  nos  omnes  scholares 
vestre  in  magna  sumus  tristitia  et  dolore  de  vestro  a  nobis  recessu.  Non 
enim  possumus  oblivisci  presentiam  vestram,  sed  cotidie  querimus  vos,  et 
dum  non  invenimus,  tune  contristamur  et  dolemus.  Vix  potestis  credere, 
quanta  tristitia  et  quantus  dolor  est  in  claustro  nostro  de  vestra  absentia 
tarn  de  senioribus  quam  de  iunioribus.  Quapropter  petimus  cordintime, 
sicut  amplius  non  sumus  nos  invicem  visure  in  hac  mortali  vita,  ut  oretis 
pro  nobis  deuni,  ut  taliter  vivamus  in  hoc  seculo,  ut  nos  invicem  videre 
valeamus  in  conspectu  sancte  Trinitatis.  Valete,  soror  dilectissima,  cum 
charissimis  sororibus  vestris  Ida  et  Aleide  in  domino  semper  1  Et  deus 
omnipotens  omnem  tribulationem  et  angustiam  a  vobis  removeat  et  vestram 
sanctitatem  conservet  tempora  per  eterna,  Amen2. 

It  is  a  pretty  picture  of  affection  and  concord,  which  is  given  by  these 
letters,  and  may  well  be  set  against  the  pictures  of  conventual 
bickering,  which  are  too  often  to  be  found  in  visitation  reports. 

Busch's  reforms  seem  to  have  been  very  successful.  He  often 
mentions  that  such  and  such  a  house  remained  in  a  good  state  of 
reform  for  such  and  such  a  number  of  years,  or  up  to  the  day  on 
which  he  wrote.  Sometimes  he  describes  reforming  prioresses  or 
other  nuns,  who  did  good  work  in  their  houses3;  sometimes  also  he 
mentions  the  assistance  given  by  a  wise  confessor  or  custos.  His  only 
real  failure  seems  to  have  been  Derneburg;  this  house  withstood  both 
his  efforts  (for  three  years  he  had  acted  as  confessor,  walking  two 
miles  before  breakfast  to  confess  the  nuns  before  communion)  and 
those  of  the  Cistercian  abbot  of  Marienrode,  who  had  been  their 
benefactor  for  over  300  florins;  and  Busch  quotes  rather  bitterly  the 
proverb  current  in  Germany: 

Gratia  nulla  pent,  nisi  gratia  sola  sororum. 
Sic  fuit,  est  et  erit :  '  ondanc '  in  fine  laborum4. 

But  he  seldom  got  ondanc  at  the  end  of  his  work;  and  when  his  life 
drew  to  a  close  he  could  look  back  on  hundreds  of  monks  and  nuns 
not  only  reformed  by  him,  but  also  cherishing  for  him  the  greatest 
gratitude  and  affection.  His  was  a  large  and  humane  spirit,  and  for 
all  his  zeal  for  reform  and  his  reputation  for  sternness,  it  is  plain 
that  he  had  that  greatest  of  gifts,  the  capacity  to  win  the  hearts  of 
men. 

1  Liber,  pp.  624-5. 

2  Ib.  p.  625.    For  the  learning  of  reformed  nuns,  see  pp.  576,  607,  642. 
»  See  e.g.  ib.  pp.  585-6,  636,  640.  4  Ib  p  596 


APP.  iv] 


LIST  OF  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 


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LIST  OF  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 


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Unknown,  twelfth  century 

Eva,  widow  of  Robert  Fitzh; 
Agnes  de  Camville,  wife  of 
temp.  Stephen 
Unknown,  before  1200 
Edward  III,  1366,  at  insti^ 
Duke  of  Clarence 
Henry  II,  c.  1186  (instead  of 
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Theobald  de  Valognes,  c.  119 
Robert  de  Courcy,  c.  1138 
Maud  de  Clare,  Countess  of 
Hertford,  temp.  Edward 
house  of  canons) 
St  Anselm,  noo 
King  Stephen,  1146 
Robert  de  Esseby,  c.  1175 

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Roger  de  Aske,  tern 

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Uncertain,  twelfth  c 

Eustace  de  Merch 

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Alan  de  Mounceaux 
Robert,  Earl  of  Lei 

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Agnes  de  Arches,  wi 

1152 
William  de  Arches 

Stephen 
Robert  de  Pillartoc 
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1169 
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LIST  OF  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 


Conan,  Duke  of  Brita 
mond,  temp.  Henry 
Twelfth  century,  p 
Braose  family 
Uncertain.  Disa 


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LIST  OF  ENGLISH  NUNNERIES 


[APP.  iv 


Founder  and  date 
Sir  Richard  de  Clare,  before  1236 
Ralph  de  Chevrecourt,  temp.  Stephen 
Denise  de  Mountchesney,  1294.  Removed  to 

i^eniiy,  1^40 
Osbert  son  of  Hugh  and  Eustacia  de  Saye,  his 
mother,  temp.  Henry  II  (for  nuns  of  Fonte- 

vraun; 
Queen  Elfrida,  c.  986 

Walter  de  Cantilupe,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
before  1255 
Uncertain,  temp.  Stephen 
St  Alburga,  c.  800:  refounded  by  King  Alfred, 
c.  871 
King  Alfred  and  Queen  Ealhswith,  c.  900. 
Refounded  by  St  Ethelwold,  963 
Richard  Holte  and  Christine  his  wife,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Cobreth,  twelfth  century 

Walter  Mascherell,  Alexander  and  Edith,  chil 
dren  of  Walter  the  Deacon,  temp.  Henry  I 
Uncertain:  united  to  St  Michael's,  Stamford, 

1  154. 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A.   MANUSCRIPT  SOURCES 

I.  EPISCOPAL  REGISTERS 

(a)  Lincoln  Episcopal  Registers 

Register  of  Memoranda,  Sutton  (1280-99). 
Register  of  Memoranda,  Dalderby  (1300-20). 
Register  of  Memoranda,  Gynewell  (1347-62). 
Register  of  Memoranda,  Bokyngham  (1363-98). 
Register  of  Visitations,  Alnwick1  (1436-49). 
Register  of  Visitations,  Atwater  (1514-21). 
Register  of  Visitations,  Longland  (1521-47). 

(b)  Lambeth  Palace  Registers 
Register  of  Langham  (1366-8). 
Register  of  Courtenay  (1381-96). 

(c)  New  College  Oxford 

Register  of  William   of  Wykeham  Bishop  of  Winchester,  for 
1386-7,  ff.  84^-89^  (Injunctions  to  Romsey  and  Wherwell)2. 

II.  DOCUMENTS  IN  THE  PUBLIC  RECORD  OFFICE 
(a)  Account  Rolls 

Ministers  Accounts,   867/21-6,   30,  33-6.     (Delapre,  St  Albans. 

Between  16  Edw.  Ill  and  2  Ric.  III.) 
Ib.  1257/1  (Catesby,  11-14  Hen-  VI). 
Ib.  1257/2  (Denny,  14  Hen.  IV-i  Hen.  V). 
Ib.  1257/10  (Gracedieu,  1-5  Hen.  V). 
Ib.  1260  (St  Michael's,  Stamford,  24  rolls  between  32  Edw.  I  and 

20  Hen.  VI). 

Ib.  1261/4  (Syon,  Cellaress'  Account,  21-2  Edw.  IV). 
Ib.  1307/22  (Syon,  Cellaress'  Account,  36  Hen.  VI). 

1  In  course  of  publication,  edited  by  Mr  A,  Hamilton  Thompson.  The 
printed  portion  is  cited  in  the  text  as  Line.  Visit,  n,  and  the  unprinted 
portion  as  Alnwick' s  Visit.  MS. 

2  Bishop  Lowth  says:  "This  MS.  belonged  to  Wykeham  himself,  for 
the  injunctions  are  the  original  drafts  corrected.    It  came  afterwards  into 
the  hands  of  Robert  Shirborn,  Master  of  St  Cross  Hospital,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Chichester."    It  contains  a  long  series  of  documents  relating  to 
a  controversy  between  the  Bishop  and  the  masters  of  St  Cross  Hospital 
and  injunctions  sent  to  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Winchester,  the  monasteries 
of  Hyde,  Merton,  Romsey  and  Wherwell,  and  the  Hospital  of  St  Thomas 
the  Martyr,  Southwark,  covering  the  years  1386  and  1387.    It  is  of  the 
highest  interest  and  should  certainly  be  published.    My  thanks  are  due  to 
Dr  Moyle,   Bursar  of  New  College,  for  permission  to  transcribe  the  in 
junctions  sent  to  the  two  nunneries. 


694  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(b)  Petitions 

Early   Chancery   Proceedings,    181/4    (Petition   from   Elizabeth 

Webley,  late  Prioress  of  Sopwell,  concerning  her  deposition  and 

imprisonment  by  John  Rothbury,  Archdeacon  of  St  Albans 

Abbey). 
Ib.  4/196  (Petition  from  Richard  English  and  Margery  his  wife 

concerning  a  corrody  withheld  from  them  by  the  Abbess  of 

Mailing). 
Ib.  7/70  (Petition  from  Richard  Haldenby  and  Agnes  his  wife 

concerning  the  daughters  of  Agnes  by  a  former  marriage,  one 

of  whom  has  been  made  to  take  the  veil  by  an  uncle,  for  the 

sake  of  her  inheritance). 

Ib.  44/227  (Petition  from  Thomasyn  Dynham,  Prioress  of  Corn- 
worthy,  concerning  two  children  at  school  in  her  house,  whose 

fees  have  not  been  paid  for  five  years). 
Ancient  Petitions  302/15063  (Petition  from  the  Prioress  and  nuns 

of  Rowney  for  leave  to  have  a  proctor  to  beg  alms  for  them, 

as  their  buildings  are  ruinous). 
Ancient  Correspondence,  36/201  (Petition  to  Queen  Isabel  from 

the  Prioress  and  Convent  of  Clerkenwell,  asking  her  to  obtain 

the  King's  leave  for  them  to  receive  certain  lands,  by  reason 

of  their  poverty) . 
Chancery  Warrants,  Series  1/1759,  1762,  1764,  1769  (Petitions  for 

the  arrest  of  apostate  nuns,  nine  in  all). 

B.   PRINTED  SOURCES 
I.  ARCHIEPISCOPAL  AND  EPISCOPAL  REGISTERS 

(a)  Bath  and  Wells 

Registers  of  Walter  Giffard  (1265-6)  and  of  Henry  Bowet  (1401 
-7),  ed.  T.  S.  Holmes.  (Somerset  Record  Soc.  1899.) 

Register  of  John  of  Drokensford  (1309-29),  ed.  E.  Hobhouse. 
(Somerset  Record  Soc.  1887.) 

Register  of  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (1329-63),  ed.  T.  S.  Holmes. 
(Somerset  Record  Soc.  1896.)  2  vols. 

(b)  Canterbury 

Registrum  Epistolarum  Fratris  Johannis  Peckham  Archiepiscopi 
Cantuariensis  (1279-92),  ed.  C.  Trice  Martin.  (Rolls  Series, 
1882-5.)  3  vols. 

Visitations  of  Archbishop  Warham  in  1511,  ed.  Mary  Bateson. 
(English  Historical  Review,  vi,  1891,  pp.  28  ff.)  (Full  abstracts.) 
See  also  The  British  Magazine,  vols.  xxix-xxxn,  passim 
(abstracts) . 

(c)  Chichester 

Episcopal  Register  of  Robert  Rede,  Bishop  of  Chichester  (1397- 
1415),  ed.  Cecil  Deedes.  (Sussex  Rec.  Soc.  1908.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  695 

Blaauw,  W.  Episcopal  Visitations  of  the  Priory  of  Easebourne 
(1442-1527).  (Sussex  Archaeol.  Collections,  ix,  1857, pp.  1-32.) 

Way,  A.  Notices  of  the  Benedictine  Priory  of  St  Mary  Magdalen 
at  Rusper  (1442-1527).  (Sussex  Archaeol.  Collections,  v,  1852, 
pp.  244-62.) 

(d)  Durham,  York,  Carlisle 

Historical  Papers  and  Letters  from  the  Northern  Registers,  ed. 
James  Raine.  (Rolls  Series,  1873.) 

(e)  Durham 

Registrum  Palatinum  Dunelmense.  Register  of  Richard  de 
Kellawe,  Lord  Palatine  and  Bishop  of  Durham,  1311-16, 
ed.  Sir  T.  Duffus  Hardy.  (Rolls  Series,  1873-8.)  4  vols. 

(/)    Exeter 

Register    of  Walter  de  Stapeldon,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  1308-26 

ed.  F.  C.  Hingeston-Randolph  (1892). 
Register  of  John  de  Grandisson,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  1327-69,  ed. 

F.  C.  Hingeston-Randolph  (1894-9). 
Register  of  Thomas  de  Brantyngham,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Part  I; 

1370-94,  ed.  F.  C.  Hingeston-Randolph  (1901). 
Register  of  Edmund  Stafford,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  i 395-1 4J9,  ed. 

F.  C.  Hingeston-Randolph  (1886). 

(g)  Hereford 

Registrum  Thome  de  Cantilupo,  EpiscopiHerefordensis,  1275-82, 

transcribed  by  R.  C.  Griffiths,  with  an  introduction  by  W.  W. 

Capes.  (Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  and  Cantilupe  Soc.  1907.) 
Registrum  Ricardi  de  Swinfield,  Episcopi  Herefordensis,  1283- 

1317,  ed.  W.  W.  Capes.    (Canterbury  and   York  Soc.   and 

Cantilupe  Soc.  1909.) 
Registrum  Adae  de  Orleton,   Episcopi  Herefordensis,   1317-27, 

ed.  A.  T.  Bannister.   (Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  and  Cantilupe 

Soc.  1908.) 
Registrum   Roberti  Mascall,   Episcopi  Herefordensis,    1404-16, 

transcribed  by  J.  H.  Parry  with  introductory  note  by  Charles 

Johnson.    (Canterbury  and   York  Soc.   and   Cantilupe  Soc. 

1917-) 
Registrum  Thome  Spofford,  EpiscopiHerefordensis,  1422-48,  ed. 

A.  T.  Bannister.    (Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  and  Cantilupe 

Soc.  1919.) 
Registrum  Thome  Myllyng,  EpiscopiHerefordensis,  1472-92,  ed. 

A.  T.  Bannister  (1920). 

(h)  Coventry  and  Lichfield 

Register  of  Roger  de  Norbury,  Bishop  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield, 
1322-59,  ed.  Edmund  Hobhouse.  (William  Salt  Archaeol.  Soc. 
Collections,  I,  1881.)  (Table  of  contents  only.) 


6g6  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Second  Register  of  Bishop  Robert  de  Stretton,  1360-85, 
abstracted  into  English  by  R.  A.  Wilson.  (William  Salt 
Archaeol.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  vm,  1905.)  (Brief 
calendar.) 

(t)    Lincoln 

Visitations  of  Religious  Houses  in  the  Diocese  of  Lincoln,  ed. 
A.  Hamilton  Thompson.  Vol.  i.  Injunctions  and  other  Docu 
ments  from  the  Registers  of  Richard  Flemyng  and  William 
Gray,  1420-36.  (Lincoln  Record  Soc.  and  Canterbury  and 
York  Soc.  1915.) 

Visitations  of  Religious  Houses  in  the  Diocese  of  Lincoln,  ed. 
A.  Hamilton  Thompson.  Vol.  n.  Alnwick's  Visitations 
(1436-49).  (Lincoln  Record  Soc.  and  Canterbury  and  York 
Soc.) 

Injunctions  of  John  Longland,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  to  certain 
Monasteries  in  his  Diocese,  1531,  ed.  E.  Peacock.  (Archaeo- 
logia,  XLVII,  pp.  49-64,  1883.) 

(j)    London 

Registrum  Radulphi  Baldock,  Gilberti  Segrave,  Ricardi  Newport 
et  Stephani  Gravesend,  Episcoporum  Londoniensium,  1306- 
38,  ed.  R.  C.  Fowler.  (Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  1911.) 

(k)  Norwich 

Visitations  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich,  1492-1532,  ed.  A.  Jessopp. 
(Camden  Soc.  1888.) 

(/)    Rochester 

Registrum  Hamonis  Hethe  Episcopi  Roffensis(i3i9-52).  (Canter 
bury  and  York  Soc.  1914!?.,  in  course  of  publication.) 

(m)  Salisbury 

Registrum  Simonis  de  Gandavo  Episcopi  Saresbiriensis  (1297- 
1315),  ed.  C.  T.  Flower.  (Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  1914,  in 
course  of  publication.) 

(n)    Winchester 

Registrum  Johannis  de  Pontissara  (1282-1304,  ed.  C.  Deedes. 

(Canterbury  and  York  Soc.  1913-15.) 
Registers  of  John  de  Sandale  and  Rigaud  de  Asserio,  Bishops  of 

Winchester,  1316-23,  ed.  F.  J.   Baigent.    (Hants.  Rec.  Soc. 

1897.) 

Wykeham's  Register,  1367-1404,  ed.  T.  F.  Kirby.  (Hants  Rec. 
Soc.  1896-9.)  2  vols. 

(o)    Worcester 

Register  of  Godfrey  Giffard,  1268-1302,  ed.  J.  W.  Willis-Bund. 
(Worcester  Hist.  Soc.  1898-1902.)  2  vols. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  697 

Register  of  the  Diocese  of  Worcester  during  the  vacancy  of  the 
see,  usually  called  Registrum  Sede  Vacante,  1301-1435,  ed. 
J.  W.  Willis-Bund.  (Worcester  Hist.  Soc.  1893-7.) 

(p)   York 

Register  of  Walter  Gray,   Archbishop  of  York,    1216-55,   ed- 

J.  Raine.    (Surtees  Soc.  1872.) 
Register  of  Walter  Giffard,  Archbishop  of  York,  1266-79,  ed. 

W.  Brown.    (Surtees  Soc.  1904.) 
Register  of  William  Wickwane,  Archbishop  of  York,  1279-85, 

ed.  W.  Brown.    (Surtees  Soc.  1907.) 
Register  of  John  le  Romeyn,  Archbishop  of  York,  1286-96,  ed. 

W.  Brown.    Vol.  i.    (Surtees  Soc.  1913.) 
Registers  of  John  le  Romeyn  Archbishop  of  York,    1286-96, 

Part  II,  and  of  Henry  of  Newark,  Archbishop  of  York,  1298- 

99,  ed.  W.  Brown.  Vol.  n.   (Surtees  Soc.  1917.) 
Visitations  in  the  Diocese  of  York,  holden  by  Archbishop  Edward 

Lee  (1531-44),  ed.  W.  Brown.    (Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journal, 

xvi,  1901,  pp.  319-68.) 

(q)  Foreign  Visitations 

Des  Augustinerpropstes  lohannes  Busch  Chronicon  Windeshem- 

ense  und  Liber  de  Reformatione  Monasteriorum,  bearbeitet 

von  Dr  Karl  Grube.    (Halle,  1886.) 
Regestrum  Visitationum  Archiepiscopi  Rothomagensis,  Journal 

des  Visites  Pastorales  d'Eude  Rigaud  Archeveque  de  Rouen, 

1248-69,  pub.  par  Th.  Bonnin.    (Rouen,  1852.) 

II.  ACCOUNT  ROLLS 

(a)  Catesby  (2-3  Hen.  V) 

Baker,  History  of  Northampton  (1822-30),  vol.  i,  p.  278. 

(b)  Romsey  (1412-13,  summary) 

Liveing,  H.  G.  D.,  Records  of  Romsey  Abbey  (1906),  p.  194. 

(c)  St  Helen  s,  Bishopsgate  (sixteenth  century,  extracts) 
Victoria  County  History:  London,  i,  p.  460. 

(d)  St  Radegund's,  Cambridge  (1449-51,  1481-2) 

Gray,  A.,  The  Priory  of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge  (1898),  pp.  145- 
179. 

(e)  St  Mary  de  Pre,  St  Albans  (1487-9) 
Dugdale,  Monasticon,  in,  p.  358. 

(/)  Swaffham  Bulbeck  (1483-4) 

Dugdale,  Monasticon,  iv,  p.  458. 
(g)   Syon  (Cellar ess'  and  Chambress  Accounts,  1536-7) 

Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  ed.  J.  H.  Blunt.  (E.E.T.S.  1873.)  Intro 
duction,  pp.  xxvi-xxxi. 


698  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(h)  Miscellaneous  (Extracts) 

C.  T.  Flower,  Obedientiars'  Accounts  of  Glastonbury  and  other 
Religious  Houses.  Trans.  St  Paul's  Ecclesiological  Soc.  vol.  vn, 
Pt.  II  (1912),  pp.  50-62. 

III.  INVENTORIES 

(a)  Brewood  (1536) 

Dugdale,  Monasticon,  iv,  p.  500. 

(b)  Cheshunt  (1536) 

Cussans,  History  of  Hertfordshire,  Hertford  Hundred,  App.  II, 
pp.  267-71. 

(c)  Easebourne  (1450) 

Sussex  Archaeol.  Coll.  ix,  pp.  10-13. 

(d)  Gracedieu  (1536) 

Nichols,  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County  of  Leicester 
(1804),  in,  pp.  653-4. 

(e)  Hedingham,  Castle  (1536) 

Trans.  Essex  Archaeological  Soc.  ix,  pp.  289-92. 
(/)  Kilburn  (1536) 

Dugdale,  Monasticon,  iv,  p.  424. 
(g)   Langley  (1485) 

Walcott,  Mackenzie  E.  C.,  Inventory  of  St  Mary's  Benedictine 
Nunnery  at  Langley,  Co.  Leicester,  1485.  (Leicestershire 
Architec.  Soc.  1872.) 

(h)  Lillechurch  (1525) 

R.  F.  Scott,  Notes  from  the  Records  of  St  John's  College,  Cam 
bridge,  3rd  series  (privately  printed,  1906—13),  pp.  403-8. 
W    Sheppey  (1536) 

Walcott,  Mackenzie  E.  C.,  Inventories  of  St  Mary's  Hospital, 
Dover,  St  Martin  New- Work,  Dover,  and  the  Benedictine 
Priory  of  SS.  Mary  and  Sexburga  in  the  Island  of  Shepey 
for  Nuns.  (Reprinted  from  Archaeologia  Cantiana,  1868, 
pp.  18-35.) 

(j)    Wherwell  (Sacristy,  c.  1340) 

Victoria  County  History,  Hants,  u,  pp.  134-5. 
k)   Wintney  (Prater,  1420) 

Victoria  County  History,  Hants,  n,  pp.  150-1. 
/)    Miscellaneous  Fragments 

Fowler,  R.  C.,  Inventories  of  Essex  Monasteries  in  1536.  (Trans. 

Essex  Archaeol.  Soc.  vol.  ix,  Pt.  IV.) 

Walcott,  Mackenzie  E.  C.,  Inventories  and  Valuations  of  Religious 
Houses  at  the  Time  of  the  Dissolution.  (Archaeologia,  XLIII, 
1871.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  699 

IV.  CARTULARIES 

(a)  Buckland 

A  Cartulary  of  Buckland  Priory  in  the  County  of  Somerset,  ed. 
F.  W.  Weaver.  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc.  1909.) 

(b)  Crabhouse 

The  Register  of  Crabhouse  Nunnery,  ed.  Mary  Bateson.  (Norfolk 
and  Norwich  Arch.  Soc.  Norfolk  Archaeology,  xi,  1892.) 

(c)  Godstow 

The  English  Register  of  Godstow  Nunnery,  ed.  Andrew  Clark. 
(Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1905-11.) 

V.  WILLS 
Calendar  of  Wills  proved  and  enrolled  in  the  Court  of   Husting, 

London,  ed.  R.  R.  Sharpe  (1889). 
Early  Lincoln  Wills,  ed.  A.  Gibbons  (1888). 
The  Fifty  Earliest  English  Wills  in  the  Court  of  Probate,  London,  ed. 

F.  J.  Furnivall.    (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1882.) 

Lincoln  Diocese  Documents,  ed.  A.  Clark.  (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1914.) 
Lincoln  Wills,  ed.  C.  W.  Foster.  Vol.  i.  (Lincoln  Record  Soc.  1914.) 
Testamenta  Eboracensia,  a  Selection  of  Wills  from  the  Registry  at 

York,  ed.  James  Raine.    6  vols.    (Surtees  Soc.  1836-1902.) 
Somerset  Medieval  Wills  (1383-1558),  ed.  F.  W.  Weaver.    3  vols. 

(Somerset  Record  Soc.  1901-5.) 

VI.  MISCELLANEOUS  RECORDS  AND  LETTERS 
Calendar  of  Close  Rolls. 
Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls. 
Calendar  of  Papal  Letters. 
Calendar  of  Papal  Petitions. 
Dugdale.     Monasticon    Anglicanum,    ed.   J.    Caley,    H.    Ellis    and 

B.  Bandinel.  6  vols.  in  8  (1817-30). 
Ellis,  H.   Original  Letters  illustrative  of  English  History,  ist  series, 

vol.  ii  (1824). 
Fowler,  J.  T.    Cistercian  Statutes,  A.D.  1256-7,  with  supplementary 

statutes  of  the  order,  1257-8.   (Reprinted  from  Yorks.  Archaeol. 

Journal,  vols.  ix-xi,  1885-90.) 
Gasquet,  F.  A.  Collectanea  Anglo-Premonstratensia,  3  vols.  (Camden 

Soc.  1906.) 

Gibbons,  A.   Ely  Episcopal  Records  (1891). 
Lyndwood.   Provinciale  (1679). 
Madox.     Formulare  Anglicanum  (1702). 
Paston  Letters,  ed.  J.  Gairdner.   4  vols.  (1900). 
Rotuli  Parliamentorum.  (Record  Com.  6  vols.  n.d.  Index,  1832.) 
Valor  Ecclesiasticus.  (Record  Com.  1810-34). 
Wharton.    Anglia  Sacra,  2  vols.  (1691). 

Wilkins.    Concilia  Magnae  Britanniae  et  Hiberniae,  4  vols.  (1737). 
Wood,  M.  A.  E.    Letters  of  Royal  and  Illustrious  Ladies  of  Great 

Britain.    3  vols.  (1846). 


700  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

VII.  CONTEMPORARY  LITERATURE1 
An   Alphabet  of  Tales,   An   English   i5th  Century  Translation  of 

the  Alphabetum  Narrationum  once   attributed   to  Etienne  de 

Besan9on,  ed.  M.  M.  Banks.    (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1904-5.) 
Amundesham.    Annales  Monasterii  S.  Albani  (Rolls  Series,  1870),  i. 
Ancren  Riwle,  ed.  and  trans.  James  Morton  (Camden  Soc.   1853). 

Also  trans,  (by  Morton)  with  introd.  by  F.  A.  Gasquet  in  The 

King's  Classics,  1907. 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach.  Dialogus  Miraculorum,  ed.  Joseph  Strange, 

2  vols.    (Cologne,  1851.) 
Chaucer,  Complete  Works,  ed.  Skeat  (1906). 

Chronicle  of  Lanercost,  translated  by  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell  (1913). 
Clene  Maydenhod,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall.  (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1867.) 
Court  of  Love,  The,  printed  in  Chaucer's  Complete  Works,  ed.  R. 

Morris  (1891),  vol.  iv. 
Early  English  Lives  of  Saints,  ed.  F.  J.  Furnivall.  (Trans,  of  the 

Philological  Soc.  1858.)    For  The  Land  of  Cokayne  and  Why  I 

can't  be  a  Nun. 
Etienne  de  Bourbon.    Anecdotes  Historiques,  etc.,  ed.  Lecoy  de  la 

Marche.    (Soc.  de  1'Hist.  de  France,  1877.) 
Fifteenth  Century  Cookery  Book,  A,  ed.  R.  W.  Chambers,  and  Two 

Fifteenth  Century  Franciscan  Rules,  ed.  W.  W.  Seton.  (Early 

Eng.  Text  Soc.  1914.) 

Gower.    Vox  Clamantis,  ed.  G.  Macaulay  (1902). 
Hali  Meidenhad,  ed.  O.  Cockayne.    (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc.  1866.) 
Jacobi   Vitriacensis   Exempla  e  Sermonibus   Vulgaribus,  ed.  T.  F. 

Crane.    (Folk  Lore  Soc.  1890.) 
Langland.    Vision  of  William  Concerning  Piers  the  Plowman,  ed. 

Skeat,  2  vols.  (1886). 
Medieval  Garner,  A,  selected,  translated  and  annotated  by  G.  G. 

Coulton  (1910). 
Myroure  of  Cure  Ladye,  The,  ed.  J.  J.  Blunt.   (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc. 


Rule  of  St  Benedict,  ed.  Gasquet.  (King's  Classics,  1909.) 

Tale  of  Beryn,  The,  ed.  Furnivall  and  Stone.  (Chaucer  Soc.  1887.) 

Three  Middle  English  Versions  of  the  Rule  of  St  Benet,  ed.  E.  A. 

Kock.  (Early  Eng.  Text.  Soc.  1902.) 
Walsingham.    Gesta  Abbatum  Monasterii  Sancti  Albani,  ed.  H.  T. 

Riley  (Rolls  Series,  1867-9),  3  vols. 
-  Historia  Anglicana,  ed.  H.  T.  Riley  (Rolls  Series,  1863),  vol.  i. 

VIII.  PLANS 
Burnham  Abbey,  by  H.  Brakspear,  in  Archaeol.  Journal,  LX  (1903). 

(See  Bucks.  Archit.  and  Archaeol.  Soc.  Records,  xxxi.) 
Carrow  Priory,  by  R.  M.  Phipson,  in  Norf.  and  Norw.  Arch.  Soc. 

Trans,  ix,  and  Rye,  Carrow  Abbey  (1889). 

1  Foreign  books  mentioned  only  in  ch.  xm  are  not  included  here. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


701 


Kirklees  Priory,  by  J.  Bilson,  in  Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xx  (1908). 
Lacock  Abbey,  by  H.  Brakspear,  in  Archaeologia,  LVII  (1900).  (See 

also  Wilts.  Archaeol.  Journ.  xxxi.) 

Marlow,  Little,  by  C.  R.  Peers,  in  Archaeol.  Journ.  LIX  (1902). 
Marrick  Priory,  facsimile  of  plan  taken  at  time  of  Dissolution  in 

Coll.  Topog.  et  Gen.  v  (1838). 
St  Radegund,  Cambridge  (now  Jesus  College)  in  Gray,  The  Priory 

of  St  Radegund,  Cambridge  (1898). 

C.    MODERN  WORKS 
I.  ON  PARTICULAR  NUNNERIES  (INCLUDING  CHARTERS,  ETC.) 

Aldgate  (Minoresses).  Fly,  H.  Some  account  of  an  Abbey  of  Nuns, 
formerly  situated  in  the  street  now  called  the  Minories.  Archaeo 
logia,  xv  (1803). 

Barrow  Gurney,  Hugo,  T.  Medieval  Nunneries  of  the  County  of 
Somerset  (1867). 

Brodholme.  Cole,  R.  E.  G.  The  Priory  of  St  Mary  of  Brodholme. 
(Line.  Archit.  and  Archaeol.  Soc.)  in  Assoc.  Archit.  Socs.  Reports 
and  Papers,  xxvm  (1905-6). 

Bromhale.  Scott,  R.  F.  Notes  from  the  Records  of  St  John's  College, 
Cambridge  (reprinted  from  The  Eagle,  1890-1903,  passim), 
Series  I  and  III.  (Documents  from  Bromhale  and  Lille- 
church.) 

Buckland.  Hugo,  T.  History  of  Minchin  Buckland  Priory  and  Pre- 
ceptory  in  Somerset  (1861). 

Cannington.   See  Barrow  Gurney. 

Carrow.    Beecheno,  F.  R.   Notes  on  Carrow  Priory  (1886). 
Rye,  W.    Carrow  Abbey  (1889). 
Rye  and  Tillett  in  Norfolk  Antiq.  Misc.  n. 

Crabhouse.  Jessopp,  A.  Frivola  (1896).  For  'Ups  and  Downs  of  an 
Old  Nunnery'  (Crabhouse). 

Dartford.  C.  F.  Palmer.  Hist,  of  the  Priory  of  Dartford  in  Kent. 
Archaeol.  Journ.  xxxvi  (1879). 

Notes  on  the  Priory  of  Dartford  in  Kent.   Ib.  xxxix  (1882). 

Delaprd,  Northampton.  Serjeantson,  R.  M.  A  History  of  Delapre 
Abbey,  Northampton  (Northampton,  1909). 

Delaprd,  St  Albans.  Page,  W.  History  of  the  Monastery  of  St  Mary 
de  Pre.  St  Albans  and  Herts.  Archit.  and  Archaeol.  Soc.  Trans., 
New  Ser.  x. 

Easebourne.  Hope,  Sir  W.  H.  St  John.  Cowdray  and  Easebourne 
Priory  in  the  county  of  Sussex  (1920). 

Elstow.   Wigram,  S.  R.   Chronicle  of  Elstow  Abbey  (1909). 

Fosse.  Cole,  R.  E.  G.  The  Royal  Borough  of  Torksey,  its  Churches, 
Monasteries  and  Castle.  Line.  Archit.  and  Archaeol.  Soc.  In 
Assoc.  Archit.  Soc.  Reports  and  Papers,  xxvm  (1905-6). 

Ickleton.  Goddard,  A.  R.  Ickleton  Church  and  Priory.  Cambridge 
Antiq.  Soc.  Proc.  and  Commun.  XLV  (1905). 


702  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ilchester,  White  Hall.   See  Barrow  Gurney. 

Kirklees.  Armytage,  Sir  G.   Kirklees  Priory.  Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ. 

xx  (1908). 

Chadwick,  S.  J.    Kirklees  Priory.   Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ. 

xvi  (1901),  xvn  (1902),  xx  (1908). 
Lacock.    Bowles,  W.  L.  and  Nichols,  J.  C.   Annals  of  Lacock  Abbey 

(1835). 

Clark-Maxwell,  W.  G.  Outfit  for  the  Profession  of  an  Austin 

Canoness  at  Lacock,  etc.   Archaeol.  Journ.  LXIX  (1912). 
Lillechurch.    See  Bromhale. 
Marlow.    Peers,  C.  R.   The  Benedictine  Nunnery  of  Little  Marlow. 

Archaeol.  Journ.  LIX  (1902). 
Nunburnholme.   Morris,  M.  C.  K.   Nunburnholme  and  its  Antiquities 

(1907). 

Romsey.   Liveing,  H.  G.  D.   Records  of  Romsey  Abbey  (1906). 
St  Helen's,  Bishopsgate.   Hugo,  T.  The  Last  Ten  Years  of  the  Priory 

of  St  Helen,  Bishopsgate  (1865). 
St  Radegund,  Cambridge.     Gray,  A.    The  Priory  of  St  Radegund, 

Cambridge  (1898). 

Syon.   Aungier,  G.  J.    History  and  Antiquities  of  Syon  (1840). 
Swine.  Duckett,  Sir  G.  Charters  of  the  Priory  of  Swine  in  Holderness. 

Yorks.  Archaeol.  Journ.  vi  (1881). 

Thompson,  T.    History  of  the  Church  and  Priory  of  Swine 

in  Holderness  (1824). 

II.  GENERAL 

BUTLER,  C.   Benedictine  Monachism  (1919). 
CLAY,  R.  M.   Hermits  and  Anchorites  of  England  (1914). 
COULTON,  G.  G.   The  Interpretation  of  Visitation  Documents.  (Eng. 
Hist.  Review,  1914.) 

-  Medieval  Studies.    (First  Series,  1915.) 

-  Monastic  Schools  in  the  Middle  Ages.   (Medieval  Studies,  No.  10, 

I9I3-) 

DEANESLY,  M.  The  Lollard  Bible  (1920). 
ECKENSTEIN,  L.   Woman  under  Monasticism  (1896). 
FOSBROKE,  T.  D.   British  Monachism  (1802). 
FOWLER,  R.  C.  Episcopal  Registers  of  England  and  Wales.  (S.P.C.K. 

1918.) 

GASQUET,  F.  A.   English  Monastic  Life  (1904). 
GRAHAM,  R.   An  Essay  on  English  Monasteries.    (Hist.  Assoc.  1913.) 

-  St  Gilbert  of  Sempringham  and  the  Gilbertines  (1901). 
GREEN,  M.  A.  EVERETT.   Lives  of  the  Princesses  of  England.  Vol.  n 

(1849). 

JACK  A,  H.  T.  The  Dissolution  of  the  English  Nunneries.  Thesis  sub 
mitted  for  the  degree  of  M.A.  in  the  University  of  London. 
(Unpublished;  deposited  at  the  University.) 

JARRETT,  B.   The  English  Dominicans  (1921). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


703 


Journal  of  Education,  1909  and  1910.  (Articles  and  Correspondence 
by  J.  E.  G.  de  Montmorency,  G.  G.  Coulton  and  A.  F.  Leach  on 
"The  Medieval  Education  of  Women  in  England.") 

MODE,  P.  G.  The  Influence  of  the  Black  Death  on  the  English 
Monasteries.  (A  Dissertation  for  the  Degree  of  Ph.D.)  (Privately 
printed,  Univ.  of  Chicago  Libraries,  1916.) 

SAVINE,  A.  English  Monasteries  on  the  Eve  of  the  Dissolution,  in 
Oxford  Studies  in  Social  and  Legal  History,  ed.  P.  Vinogradoff 
(1909),  i. 

THIERS,  J.  B.   Traite  de  la  Cloture  des  Religieuses.  (Paris,  1681.) 

THOMPSON,  A.  HAMILTON.   English  Monasteries  (1913). 

-  Double  Monasteries  and  the  Male  Element  in  Nunneries.    (In 
The  Ministry  of  Women,  A  Report  by  a  Committee  appointed 
by  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (1919),  App.  VIII.) 

-  The  Monasteries  of  Leicestershire  in  the  Fifteenth  Century. 
(Leicester.  Archit.  and  Archaeol.  Soc.  Trans.  1913-14.) 

Registers  of  John  Gynewell,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  for  the  years 

I347-5°-   (Archaeol.  Journ.  vol.  LXVIII  (2nd  Ser.  vol.  xxi),  1914.) 

Visitations  of  Religious  Houses  by  William  Alnwick,  Bishop  of 

Lincoln,  1436-49.    (Proceedings  of  the  Soc.  of  Antiquaries,  2nd 
ser.  xxvi,  1914.) 

Victoria  County  Histories.    Articles  on  Religious  Houses,  passim. 

(Cited  as  V.C.H.) 
WALCOTT,  MACKENZIE  E.  C.   English  Minsters  (1879),  2  vols.  Vol.  n. 

The  English  Student's  Monasticon. 
WORKMAN,  H.  B.   The  Evolution  of  the  Monastic  Ideal  (1913). 


: 


INDEX 


Ff.  after  an  entry  implies  that  there  are  references  to  the  same  subject 
on  at  least  two  immediately  succeeding  pages. 


Abbess,  autocratic  power  of,  64  ff., 
149 

-  chaplain  of  (nun),  62ff.,  112, 
129,  250 

—  entertainment  of  guests  by, 
59  ff.,  69,  118;  nuns  by,  61 

—  executrix    or    supervisor    of 
wills,  73,  73  n.2 

-  lodging  and  household  of,  59, 
135,  151,  167,  316,  317 

—  of  Fools,  311 
Abbey  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  533 
Abbot  of  Fools,  3  1  1 
Aberford,  Rector  of,  22on.6 
Accidia,  2938.,  302,  437 
Accounts,  96ff.,   n8ff.,  245,  333ff., 

639ff.;  annual  statement  of,  221; 
audit  of,  220,  221 

-  presentation  of,   by  head  of 
house,  219,  220;  by  obedientiaries, 
etc.,  219,  224  ;  see  also  Status  domus 

Aconbury  Priory,  2^n.1,  339 

-  Churches     appropriated     to, 


Adeburn,  Alicia  de,  21 
Adeleshey,  Joan,  443 
Aelred,  Abbot  of  Rievaulx,  271 
Alcock,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  398, 

533.  602 

Aldelesse,  Juliana,  399 
Aldgate,  St  Clare  outside,  171  n.2 
Alesbury,  Agnes  of,  39,  40 
Alfrad,  the  donkey  of,  383,  588ff. 
Alice,  Prioress  of  Wintney,  87 
Alienation  of  goods,  225 
Allesley,  Agnes,  272,  409 
Almeneches,  St  Sauveur,  636;  moral 

state  of,  666,  667 
Almoness  of  nunnery,  132 
Almsgiving  by  nuns,  118,  120,  121, 

I32.  649 

Alnwick,  William,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
22,  23,  26,  32,  33,  62,  66ff.,  71,  77, 
79,  80,  82,  83,  154,  161,  162,  164, 
165,  199,  204,  207,  210,  215,  221, 
225,  226,  234,  245,  249,  250,  263, 
264,  272,  273,  277,  278,  283,  304, 
317.  320,  331,  332,  334,  336,  340, 
357.  358,  361  n.1,  363,  367,  377  w.2, 
380.  382,  397,  399  n.1,  400,  402  w.», 


405n.2,   408,  412,  414,  416,  437, 
449,  457,  46i,  463,  481,  483.  486, 
488,  490,  491,  500 
Alphabet  of  Tales,  An,  51  in.,  5i6w.3, 


Alsace,  239 
Alsop,  Robert  of,  234 
Amesbury  Priory,  2,  3,  242  w.8,  268  n., 
350,  36on.2,  454,   455,  470,   482, 

497 

Anchoresses,  271,  528ff. 
Ancren  Riwle,    156,   258,   271,   305, 

383,    500,    525,   527^-,   557-    592. 
650,  655 

Ankerwyke  Priory,  26,  81,  82,  i  nn.s, 
146,  166,  218,  333,  405  ».2,  441  n., 
460,  461,  487w.,  491  w.2 

-  financial  mismanagement  of, 
205,  225  w.2;  illiteracy  of  inmates 
at,    250;   inventory  of  goods  of, 
222w.8;    poverty    of,     153,     154, 
162,  167,  177,  234,  235;  Prioress 
of,  32,  62,  66,  I63W.1,  210,  3O4W.2, 
340,    414,   493;    and  see   Kirkby, 
Margery;      Medforde,     Clarence; 
status  domus  of,  221,  222;  teacher 
for  young  nuns  appointed,   260; 
visitors  at,  490 

Anlaby,  Josiana  de,  53 
Apelgarth,  Sabina  de,  469 
Appropriation  of  benefices,  113,  135, 

144,  224 
Arden,  Henry,  85 

-  Priory,  16,  I53«.3,  184,  213, 
242,  382W.1,  494W.1,  601 

—  accounts  of,  220;  boarders  at, 
579;  corrody  granted  by,  206; 
custos  of,  23ow.8;  dilapidations  at, 
170,  175;  mismanagement  of,  85, 
86  ;  poverty  of,  1  84  n.4  ;  Prioress  of, 
83;  and  see  Eleanor  of  Arden; 
relics  at,  116 

Arderne,  Katherine  de,  189 

Armathwaite  Priory,  428,  429 

Armstrong,  Jane,  326 

Arnecliffe,  Hugh  de,  234 

Arthington,  213,  217,  291  w.a,  356*1.*, 
4Oon.1 

-  accounts  of,  220;  bequests  to, 
326;  children  at,  579;  coadjutress 


INDEX 


705 


appointed  at,  224;  custos  of,  231; 
dilapidations  at,  170;  dorter  of, 
170;  f rater  of,  170;  moral  state  of, 
598,  599)  private  property  at,  336, 
337;  prioresses  of,  180,  217;  and 
see  Berghby,  Isabella  de;  Popeley, 
Elizabeth;  Screvyn,  Agnes  de; 
relics  at,  117 
Arundell,  Elizabeth,  442 

-  Sir  John,  73,  74,  429^. 

Thomas,  Bishop  of  Ely,  176 

Aschby,  William,  399 n.3 

Aske,  Robert,  282 ff. 

Asserio,  Rigaud  de,  Bishop  of  Win 
chester,  1 88,  369 

Asshe,  John  de,  198 

Assize  of  bread  and  ale,  104 

Astley,  Lora,  30 

Astom,  Matilda,  453 

Atwater,  William,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
222w.3,  273,  292,  382^.3,  44i«., 
49i,  596 

Aubrey,  John,  274,  381 

Aucassin  and  Nicolete,  513,  514,  541 

Auditor  of  nunnery  accounts,  99,  100 

Audley,  Lady,  306,  412 
Sir  Hugh,  419 

Aunselle,  Alice,  337 

Avernay,  novice  of,  500,  507 

Avice  of  Beverley,  365 n.3 

Aylesbury,  Margaret,  318 

Ayscough,  Bishop,  182 

Ayton,  John  of,  354,  391,  435 

Babyngton,  Katherine,  243 
Backwell,  Rector  of,  233 
Bacton,  Margaret,  168 
Badlesmere,  Bartholomew  de,  203 
Bailiff  of  nunnery,  99  ff.,  109, 129, 138, 

143,  147,  148,  219,  227,  228,  257 
Bakewell,  Mr,  124,  140 
Baldock,  Ralph,  Bishop  of  London, 

34W.2 

Ball,  John,  138 
Barber,  Isabel,  268 
Bardi,  the,  91 
Bardney,  Abbot  of,  364 
Barking  Abbey,  2,  13,  19,  42,  6^n.f>, 

142,    i$6n.~,    162,    176,    186,    188, 

258*7. 4,  320*1.,  326,  347W.2,  366w.3, 

40472. 5,  4o6w.3,  407,  635 

Abbess  of,  60,  61,  105,  117, 

185,    198,     420;     and    see    Pole, 
Katherine  de  la 

Cellaress  of,  131  n.,  133,  257, 


563;    accounts    of,    136,    I39«.5; 
Charthe  of,  5621!. 

children  at,  571,  572;  church 

appropriated  to,  n^n.1;  claustra- 
tion  at,   348,   349;   Clemence  of. 


P.N. 


239;  corrodies  at,  190,  197,  198; 
library  of,  242  w.8;  pensions  de 
manded  from,  195,  196;  pittances 
at,  I43M.,  323,  324;  Puerilia  so- 
lemnia  at,  312;  resident  chaplains 
at,  144;  sanctuary  at,  420,  421 

Barnehous,  John,  269 

Barnwell,  Prior  of,  125,  142 w.8, 
202  n.3 

Barrow  Priory,  233,  385?*. 4,  360*1. *; 
custos  of,  233;  Prioress  of,  233; 
and  see  Gurney,  Joanna 

Barsinghausen,  674 

Barton,  Elizabeth, 

Bartone,  Isabel,  399*1. 

-  Joan,  413 

Basedale  Priory,  445 ;  custos  of, 
23ow.8,  231;  moral  state  of,  597, 
598;  prioresses  of,  205,  284 n., 
360 n.2;  and  see  Davell,  Elizabeth; 
Fletcher,  Joan;  Percy,  Joan  de 

Basilia  de  Cotum,  361  w.2 

Basle,  Synod  of,  314 

Bassett,  Christian,  69,  97,  102 n., 
105,  1 06,  201;  accounts  of,  u8w., 

313,  334 

Batayle,  Margaret  de  la,  26 
Bateman,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  268 
Bath  and  Wells,  Bishops  of,  37,  38, 

71 ;  and  see  Drokensford,  John  de 
Bauceyn,  Juliana,  185 
Beatrice,  story  of,  512  ff. 
Beau  champ,  Agnes  de,  192 

-  Katherine  de,  25,  26,  33011." 
—  Sir  Guy  de,  25,  33ow.3 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Warwick,  330 

Beaumont,  Lady,  257 

-  Lord,  268 

Beauvais,  John,  Bishop  of,  418 

Becon,  Thomas,  282 

Bedford,  Jacquetta,  Duchess  of,  419 

Bedford,  Sheriff  of,  195 

Belers,  Margaret,  367,  382 

Bel-Eyse,L'Ordrede,  537,  537*?. 2,  542 

Belgrave,  Bridget,  137;  and  see  Syon 
Abbey,  chambress  of 

Belle  Doette,  555,  556 

Benedict,  Rule  of  St,  23,  50,  61,  66, 
136,  150,  245,  278,  285!?.,  300, 
3J5.  322,  34iff-.  356,  4o8w.4 

-  translations     of,     251,     252, 
341  w.1 

Benet,  Isabel,  80,  83,  278,  283,  292, 
310,  378,  389,  449,  460,  486,  489, 

493 

Bengeworth,  John,  449 
Berghby,  Isabella  de,  224,  469,  598, 

599 
Berkeley,  Lady  Elizabeth,  410,  411 

Lord,  74 

45 


706 


INDEX 


Bernard,  Eleanor,  360*1.* 
Berners,  Juliana,  240,  308 
Bernier,  433 ff. 
Berre,  Alice,  206,  207 

-  William,  206 

Berthold  of  Regensburg,  5I8H.1 
Berwick,  North,  Priory  of,  418 
Berwick-on-Tweed,  Gild  at,  n 
Berz6,  Seigneur  de,  542 
Betsone,  Thomas,  287 

Bever,  John,  86 

Beverley,  St  Nicholas'  Hospital,  365 
Bible,  reading  of,  by  nuns,  254,  255 
Bicester,  Prior  of,  234 

—  Priory,  2 ion.2 
Birlaunde,  Henry  of,  233 
Bischofsheim,  Abbess  of,  237 
Bishopsgate,  St  Helen's,  2,   13,  55, 

56,  58 M.,  iogn.,  292 n.3,  309,  311, 

395,     402  n.4,    405,    408,    44in.; 

children   at,    265,   273,   576,   577; 

corrodies  granted  by,  209 ;  Prioress 

of,  55,  56,  265,  307 
Bival  Abbey,  636,  647;  Abbess  of, 

645;  financial  state  of,  637,  638 
Bixley,  John,  208 
Blackborough  Priory,  32,  170,  371, 

412;  fair  of,   io6«.2;  poverty  of, 

184 n.4;  Prioress  of,  64,  65,  220 
Black  Death,  the,  164,  1778.,  215, 

457 

Blacklow  Hill,  419 
Blankney,  Vicar  of,  232 
Bleden,  Joan,  5 
Bleeding    of    nuns,    2575.,    259W.2, 

316,  324,  646;  of  monks,  258,  259 
Blois,  Robert  de,  8 
Blund,  Ann  le,  6 

-  Sir  John  le,  6 

Boarders  in  nunnery,  112,  113,  158 
Boccaccio,  5i6n.4,  522 
Bodenham,  Cecily,  72 
Boleyn,  Anne,  54,  55 

-  Thomas,  77 

Bondeville  Priory,  636,  646;  accounts 
of,  640;  custos  of,  640;  financial 
state  of,  255  n.*,  637,  638;  in 
ventory  of,  641,  645;  Prioress  of, 
644.  645 

Bonevyll,  Sir  William,  329 

Boniface  VIII,  201  n.1,  344,  350,  351, 

353.  354 

-  IX,  117,  175,  345 
Booth,  Archbishop  William,  175 
Bossall,  Vicar  of,  231 
Boteler,  Margaret  la,  365 
Botere,  Walter,  33 
Botulphe,  Joan,  312 

Bourbon,     Etienne    de,     309,     372, 


Bourbon,  Marie  de,  558 

Bowes,  Agnes,  457 

Bowet,  Henry,  Archbishop  of  York, 

83"-.  339,  477 
Bowlis,  Alice,  48  ft. 
Boy  Bishop,  the,  31  iff. 
Boyfield,  Alice,  46 

-  Elizabeth,  46ff. 
Bradford-on-Avon,  Church  of,  176 
Braies  au  Prestre,  Les,  541 
Brakle,  Agnes,  88 

Brampton  Church,  463 
Brantyngham,  Thomas  de,  Bishop 

of  Exeter,  353,  403  w.5,  417 
Brasyer,  Stephen,  103 
Brentford,  Chapel  of  the  Angels,  99 
Brenyntone,  Alicia,  33 
Bret,  Isabel,  27,  32,  191,  192 

-  Robert,  191  w.2,  192 
Brewood  (Staffs.),  98,   147  n.4,  308, 

443W-1 

-  Prioress  of,  i83w.' 
Brid,  Aleyn,  207 
Bridlington,  427 

Bristol,  St  Bartholomew's  Hospital, 
442  w.2 

St     Mary     Magdalen,     183, 


Brittany,  Duke  John  of,  429 
Brodholme  Priory,  229M.1,  244,  449; 

custos  of,  230;  Prioress  of,  423 
Broke,    Elizabeth,    88  n.,    149,    169, 

389,  469 

Bromele,  Thomas,  267 
Bromhale  Priory,  73,  81,  87,  360  w.2, 

377;  dissolution  of,  603  ;  prioresses 

of,  see  Juliana  of  Bromhale 
Brompton,  John,  326 

-  Rector  of,  see  Playce,  Robert 
de 

Bromyard,  John,  516*1.  2 
Broughton  (Northants.),  Rector  of, 

352 

Browne,  Agnes,  20 
Bruce,  Robert,  427 
Brugge,  Joan,  424  w.2 

-  Peter,  424  n.2 
Brun,  Alicia,  21 
Brunne,  Robert  of,  521 
Brus,  Elizabeth  de,  420 

-  Robert  de,  420 
Bruys,  Joan,  44  in. 
Bryce,  Master,  149,  170 
Buckingham,  Archidiaconate  of,  174 

-  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  22, 

24,  220,  223,  226,  249,  273,  322W., 

337,  386,  39ow.6 
Buckland    Priory,    i,    2,    37,    330; 

poverty  of,  165;  Prioress  of  ,  37,  38 
Bugga,  Abbess,  237 


INDEX 


707 


Bungay,  33,  442^.2 

Buonvisi,  Lucrezia,  474 

Burghersh,  Bishop,  450%.  2,  582 

Burgo,  Elizabeth  de,  420 

Burn,  John,  242 

Burnham  Abbey,  146,  188,  191,  301, 
326,  351,  442W.2,  457;  education 
of  children  at,  263,  272,  569; 
poverty  of,  i84W.4 

Burton,  Abbot  of,  4 

—  Margaret  of,  443  n.z 

Burtscheid,  Abbey  of,  28 

Bury  St  Edmunds,  48,  370 

Busch,  Johann,  271,  296,  345,  473, 


Bustard,  John,  231 
Butler,  Agnes,  449 
Bycombe,  Isolda,  410 

-  John,  410 
Byland  Abbey,  427 

Caen,  Abbaye-aux-Daraes,  305,  636, 
646;  accounts  of,  639;  financial 
state  of,  637 

Caesarius  of  Heisterbach's  Dialogus 
Miraculorum,  27,  27  n.1,  28,  108, 
274«.,  277M.1,  296,  297,  45o«.s, 
5iiw.,  5i6w.3,  520,  531,  627ff., 
656 

Caldwell  Priory,  308  n.1,  386;  Prior 
of,  46 

Calle,  Richard,  411,  412 

Caluerley,  Richard,  399 

Calwell,  Thomas,  120 

Camberwell,  71 

Cambridge,  Elizabeth  de,  398 

-  Friars  Minor  of,  122 

-  Jesus  College,  270,  602 

-  Mayor  of,  122 

-  St  John's  College,  603 

St  Radegund's  Priory,  60  n., 
1,    122,    13711.,    148,    i5irf., 


., 

157,  158,  175,  292M.2,  356w.2,  398, 
571;  accounts  of,  98,  102%.  2,  103, 
119,  123,  127,  I28M.1,  142,  152, 
327,  571;  alms  given  by,  121, 
122;  bailiff  of,  see  Key,  Thomas; 
chaplains  of,  153;  church  of,  125; 
churches  appropriated  to,  I35W.6; 
confessor  of,  152;  clothes  of  nuns 
at,  323  ;  dissolution  of,  602  ;  fire  at, 
172;  Garlick  Fair  of,  loGw.1;  gifts 
to,  175,  176;  hospitality  of,  119. 
120;  liveries  of  servants  at,  137; 
poverty  of,  i84«.4;  prioresses  of, 
I47W.6,  152,  169,  177,  366w.2;  and 
see  Lancaster,  Joan;  repairs  at, 
I23ff.,  169;  servants  of,  137,  152; 
visitation  of,  494  n.1 
Camoys,  Margaret  de,  73 


Campsey  Priory,  2,  39,  6^n.9,  167, 
168,  243,  336;  hospitality  at,  417, 
418;  mismanagement  by  Prioress 
of,  168,  417 

Canard  Blanc,  Le,  617 

Cannington  Priory,  188,  194,  410, 
452;  boarders  at,  453,  578;  co- 
adjutresses  appointed  at,  225; 
corrodies,  unauthorised  sale  of,  at, 
224;  Prioress  of,  21,  224,  225, 
410,  453;  simoniacal  admission  of 
nuns  at,  224 

Canons  Ashby  Priory,  231 ;  Prior  of, 
231 

Canonsleigh  Abbey,  2, 1 1 3  n.1, 1 83  n.*, 
248,  353.  376.  406W-1,  411,  4I6W.1, 
417;  Abbess  of,  71  w.4,  224;  co- 
adjutress  appointed  at,  224; 
claustration  relaxed  at,  354,  355, 
355 w.2;  presentation  of  accounts 
at,  219 

Canterbury,  Archbishops  of,  87, 
347M.2,  482W.1 

-  Holy  Sepulchre,  41,   156^.', 
224,  348,  350,  356w.2,  359W-2,  387, 
399,    403%. 5,    4I3W-2,    449,    487> 
494W.1,  581;  alms  given  by,  120; 
custos  of,  230 w.8,  232,  234,  487; 
poverty  of,  234 

-  Hospital  of  St  James,  82  w.4, 


pilgrimage  to,  95,  145 

-  Priory,  2iow.2;  Prior  of,  461, 
482W.1 

Cantilupe,   Thomas   de,    Bishop   of 
Hereford,  248,  324,  347  w.2,  367 w.2, 

369 

Capron,  John,  454 
Carey,  Eleanor,  54,  55 

-  John,  54 

Carinthia,  Monastery  of,  592 
Carmaynton,  David,  36,  37 
Carrow  Priory,  6,  12,  n^n.1,  148 w.1, 

268,  292,  305,  366,  587;  boarders 
at,  411,  577;  children  at,  267,  268; 
churches  appropriated  to,  H3W.2; 
complaints  of  bad  food,  etc.,  at, 
i68w.2;  enforced  reception  of  nuns 
into,  212;  lawsuit  of,  202  «.2; 
pestilence  at,  181 ;  Philip  Sparrow 
at,  59off. ;  Prioress  of,  72,  IO5M.3; 
and  see  Wilton,  Edith;  revels  at, 
312;  sanctuary  at,  422;  titles 
granted  to,  nGw.1 

Cassian,  294 

Castile,  Constance  of,  42  iw.1 

Castle  Hedingham  Priory,  188,  192; 
Prioress  of,  360  «.2 

Catesby,  Joan,  84 
Priory,  78,  82,  83,  87,   106, 

45—2 


708 


INDEX 


107*1. V  no,  146,  186,  188,  225, 
228.  292,  304,  335,  358*. 2,  378, 

388.  395.  402W  *.  4°8«  *.  447.  477. 
486,  489,  5^3;  accounts  of,  98, 
iO2n.a,  io5n.8,  ii$n.1,  n8n.,  127, 
220;  children  at,  265,  272,  409, 
577;  dilapidations  at,  ijin.2; 
home  farm  of,  109,  127;  house 
holds  of  nuns  at,  320;  jewels 
pawned,  211;  master  of,  231; 
peculium  for  clothes,  323,  333; 
pilgrimages  to,  117;  poverty  of, 
175,  1841*.*,  205;  Prioress  of,  66, 
107,  109,  121,  180,  192,  210,  211, 
255,  272,  283,  320,  323,  333,  395, 
452,  463,  477,  488,  493;  and  see 
Rich,  Margaret ;  Wavere,  Margaret 

Catherine,  nun  of  Bungay,  33 

Catley,  18 

Catton,  Rector  of,  30 

Caxton,  241 

Caynes,  Sir  Robert  de,  192 

Cellaress  of  nunnery,  117,  119,  I32ff., 
141,  143,  367,  368;  duties  of,  133, 
138;  accounts  of,  119,  131  n.,  135 

Chambress  of  nunnery,  119,  132, 
T34.  137>  368;  accounts  of,  119, 

131*-.  135 

Champnys,  Alice,  243 
Chansons  de  Nonnes,  502 ff.,  604^. 
Chantimpre,  Thomas  of,  584 
Chantress  of  nunnery,  131,  132 
Chaplains,  143^.,  i48w.3,  151;  resi 
dences  of,  144 
Chapter    house,     249,     252,    475ff., 

648ff.,  672 
Chark,  John,  156 
Charles  V  of  France,  429 
Charter,   foundation,  exhibition  of, 

221,  251 

Charterys,  Elizabeth,  152 
Chatok,  Elizabeth,  403 
Chatteris  Abbey,   19,    i84«.4,    306; 

Abbess  of,  65  -j^ 

Chaucer,   Geoffrey,    19,   62,   74^  77, 

94.  95.  371.  56i,  588 
Chaucy,  Elizabeth,  19 
Checker,  319 
Chelles,  nuns  of,  345 
Cheshunt  Priory,  172,  313;  poverty 

of,  173,  174,  18471.* 

-  priest's  chamber  at,  145 
Chester,  185 

—  St  Mary '5,146;  povertyof,  172 
Chicksand  Priory,  420 
Children,  education  of,  261  ff.,  568 ff.  ; 

costs  of,  269,  270 
Chilterne,  Alice  de,  88 n.,  233 
Chivynton,  Johanna,  399 
Chondut,  Agnes,  17 


Bishop    of 


Chondut  Katherine,  17.  18 

-  Ralph,  17 

Chygwell,  William  de,  197 
Chyld,  Margery,  399 
Citeaux,  Abbot  of,  375  n.1 
Clay,  Richard  del,  52 
Clef  d'A  mors,  La,  8 
Clemence  of  Barking,  239 
Clementhorpe  Priory,   326,   360  n2.. 

365  n.3,  384  n.1,  600,  601 
Clene  Maydenhod,  16,  525 
Clerkenwell  Priory,  2,  13,  179,  259?:.  * 
Cleveland,  Archdeacon  of,  51,  52 
Clinton,  Isabel,  Lady,  7,  39 
Clouvill,  Isabel,  441 
Coadjutress,  223,  224 
Cobham,    Thomas    de, 

Worcester,  39,  223 

-  Eleanor  de,  418, 

-  Henry  de,  421 
Cokaygne,  The  Land  of,  534ff.,  542 
Cokehill   Priory,    165,    232  n.6,    385, 

481,    482;    chaplain    of,    232  w.5; 

Prioress  of,  i85w.6 
Cokke,  John,  124,  152 
Colchester,  420 

Coldingham,  nuns  of,  303  n.  2,  365,  471 
Coleworthe,  Joan,  84 
Cologne,  Provincial  Council  of,  360  n.1 
Colte,  Anne,  447  w.6 
Common  Pleas,  Court  of,  70 
Conde,  Jean  de,  539,  541,  542 
Conge  d'elire,  43  n.*,  44ff. 
Conyers,  Alice,  328  n.a 

-  Cecily,  31 
Cook,  Alice,  395 

-  William,  395 
Copeland,  John,  197 
Cornhill,  41,  192 
Cornwallis,  Katherine,  50 
Cornworthy  Priory,  267,  41  3  w.4,  444, 

445.  57i;  boarders  at,  269,  279; 
Prioress  of,  269;  and  see  Dynham, 
and  Wortham 
Corp,  Isabella,  328 

-  Thomas,  328 
Corrodians,    188,    190,    197,    2o6ff  , 

409  ff. 
Corrodies,     151,     155,     igoff.,     197, 

2o6ff.,  225,  226 
Cotnall,  William,  454 
Coton  Priory,  see  Nuncoton 
Cotton,  Ellen,  459 
Courtenay,  Joan,  242 

-  Lady  Elizabeth,  417 

-  Sir  Hugh  de,  417 

-  William,  Archbishop  of  Can 
terbury,  176,  226,  383,  459,  468 

Court  of  Love,  509,  511 
Couvel,  Isabella,  224,  337 


INDEX 


709 


Coventry,  256 

Cox,  Agnes,  261  n.- 

Crabhouse  Priory,  30,  42,  90  ff.,  169, 
378w.3,  461,  468,  477**.1;  dilapida 
tions  at,  170;  fire  at,  171,  172; 
Prioress  of,  65;  and  see  Wiggen- 
hall;  Register  of,  134,  135.  2O7'> 
repairs  at,  92  ff.,  169 

Cranmer,  270 

Crayke,  Cecilia,  57 

Crecy,  10 

Cressy,  Sir  Hugh  de,  214 
-  Jonetta,  214 

Crioll,  Margery  de,  330 

Crofton,  John,  370 
—  •  Juliana  de,  329 

Cromwell,  Gregory,  263,  267 
-  Thomas,  30?*.  5,  32,  51  ».,  55. 
57,  72,  146,  263 

Crosse,  Margaret,  363,  364 

Croxton,  231 

Cumberworth,  Sir  Thomas,  72,  166, 

33<>.  370 

Cunyers,  Alice,  328 
Gustos  of  nunnery,  22gff. 

Dalderby,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
78,  173,  174,  231,  35lff-,  366,  423, 


Damory,  Roger,  420 
Danby,  Margaret,  360  w.2 
Danne,  Roger,  198 
Dante,  quoted,  294,  295 
Darcy,  Lord,  146 

-  Margaret,  7,  322  n. 
Dartford'  Abbey,   2,   3,  98,  247W.2; 

alms  given  by,  120;  boarders  at,  5  73 
Daubeney,  Henry  Lord,  146 
Daubriggecourt,  Sir  John,  6 

-  Margery,  6 
Davell,  Elizabeth,  360  n.2 
Daventry  Priory,  58 

—  Roger  de,  2$on.1 
Davington   Priory,    165,    184,    366, 
604;  custos  of,  232;  financial  mis 
management  at,  203;  Prioress  of, 


Davy,  Alice,  36ow.2 
Davye,  Agnes,  20,  319 
Decun,  Alice,  496 

Delapre  Priory   (Herts.),   i42«   244> 
245,  313.  456,  479,  481;  accounts 

Of,    97,    I02W.,    Il8w.,    121,    I3IW., 

I39W.5,  i63w.4,  309,  335,  479^.4; 
dissolution  of,  604;  grades  of  in 
mates  at,  244,  245;  huntsman  of, 
308;  illiterate  inmates  at,  244, 
245;  litigation  by,  201  ;  master  of, 
231;  merrymaking  at,  309;  pit 
tances  at,  324;  Prioress  of,  206, 


370,  479  n* ;  see  Bassett,  Christian ; 
Wafer,  Alice 

Delapre  Abbey  (Northants.),  249, 
321  w.2, 425, 457 ;  Abbessof,  360  n.*; 
claustration  at,  35 iff.;  nuns  of, 
excommunicated,  441,  442;  pen 
sions  demanded  from,  195 ;  poverty 

of,  175 

Delft,  Franciscan  tertianes  of,  240 n.' 
Dene,  William  de,  203,  204 
Denesson,  Henry,  I23ff. 
Denny  Abbey,  3,  13,  378?*. 3;  Abbess 

of,    122 

Depeden,  Margaret,  326 

-  Sir  John,  325 
Derby,  Earl  of,  146 
Dereham,  William  de,  195 
Derneburg,  673,  680 
Deschamps,  Eustache,  500,  507 
Despenser,  Hugh,  30,  420 

—  Juliana,  198,  199 
Dialog  concerning  the  Monarche,  251 
Dives  and  Pauper,  366 w.4 
Dorset,  Marquess  of,  146 
Dorter,   155,   i69ff.,   272,  273,  283, 

313,  3!9,  4°9 
Draycote,  Cecilia  de,  224 
Dreffield,  Maud  de,  214 
Drokensford,  John  de,  Bishop  of  Bath 

and  Wells,  71,  233,  358w.4,  41° 
Du  Bois,  Pierre,  56 
Dudley,  Sir  John,  279 
Dunkirk,  258 
Dunstable  Priory,  308  n.1 
Dunwyche,  Alice,  484 
Durant,  Geoffrey,  40 

Molde,  40 

Durham,  Bishops  of,  31,  ^ogn.6,  427; 
see  Hatneld,  Thomas;  Skirlaw, 
Walter 

Priory,  2iow.2 

-  Sherburn  Hospital,  361  n." 
Dychere,  Agnes,  167 
Dymmok,  Elizabeth,  413,  4*7 
Dynham,  Thomasyn,  269,  571 

Eadburg,  Abbess  of  Thanet,  237 

Easebourne  Priory,  4,  33,  63,  79,  188, 
209,  255,  292M.2,  330,  331.  340. 
448W.1,  452,  494W.1,  582;  boarders 
at,  415 ;  churches  appropriated  to, 
H3W.1,  182;  dilapidations  at,  170, 
171 «/;  disorder  at,  453,  454. 
462 ;  inventory  of  goods  of,  222  n.3 ; 
library  of,  241;  poverty  of,  177; 
prioresses  of,  76ff.,  83*1. ,  205,  255, 
454 ;  see  Montfort,  Isabel  de;  Sack- 
felde,  Margaret;  Tawke,  Agnes 

Edmund,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  191 

Edward  I,  455,  462 


INDEX 


Edward  II,  197,  204,  247,  427,  419 

-  Ill,  9,  12,  198,  234 
Edyndon,    \Yilliam    of,    Bishop    of 

Winchester,  173,  2137*. x,  416 

Egglestone  Abbey,  428 n* 

Eleanor,  Prioress  of  Arden,  83,  85, 
87,  94,  2ii,  218,  382W.1 

Eleanor,  wife  of  Henry  III,  455 

Elizabeth,  Countess  of  Hereford,  196 
—  of  York,  19 

Ellerton  Priory,  31,  428 

Elstow  Abbey,  2,  22,  24,  51 «.,  64  n.*, 
186,  217,  226,  29173. 2,  333,  335, 
351.  3^9,  383,  387.  390,  401  w.1, 
402  w.4,  404,  405,  407*2. *,  454, 
459ff.,  463^-,  477.  581.  583: 
Abbesses  of,  19,  61,  64,  171,  195, 
196,  217,  318,  464,  477;  and  see 
Boyfield,  Eliz.,  and  Gascoigne, 
Agnes;  accounts,  131^.,  335 n.\ 
bailiffs  of,  227,  228,  249;  boarders 
at,  411,  415;  dilapidations  at, 
171 ;  education  of  children  at,  262, 
263,  2 72  ff.,  569;  election  of  Abbess 
at,  46ff.;  fair  of,  io6w.2;  fashions 
at,  304, 586;  hospitality  at,  358w.5; 
households  of  nuns  at,  318,  320^., 
32 1  w.1;  learning  of  novices,  244; 
livings  held  by,  114;  number  of 
nuns  at,  216;  pensions  demanded 
from,  195;  Precentress  of,  261  w.2; 
sacrist's  accounts  at,  136;  treasur- 
ess  to  be  appointed  at,  223 ;  visi 
tations  of,  497 

Ely,  Archdeacon  of,  175 

-  Bishops  of,  423;  see  Alcock, 
John;   Arundell,   Thomas;    Ford- 
ham,  John  of;  Grey,  William 

fair,  138 


Embroidery  by  nuns,  255 ff.,  287 
Emma  of  Stapelton,  52,  5* 

-  of  York,  5 iff. 
Ensfrid  of  Cologne,  54 
Erasmus,  139,  376;  Colloquies,  549ff 
Erfurt,  St  Cyriac,  674 

-  St  Martin,  676 
Erie,  Peter,  327 
Erlham,  John  de,  268 
Escherde,  68 1,  682 
Escoufle,  L' ,  560 w. 

Esholt  Priory,  52,  I7ow.8,  177,  213, 
251  n*.  390,  402,  405,  467n.8,  601; 
bequest  to,  326;  children  at,  263, 
269,  284,  579;  indulgence  for 
contributors  to  repairs  at,  175; 
immorality  at,  284;  Prioress  of[ 
3i,  57*-* 

Estates,  management  of,  71,  99,  100 

Estrees,  Angelique  d',  451  «.6,  474 

Eton,  Robert  de,  448 


Etton,  Alice,  31 

Euphemia,  Abbess  of  Wherwell,  29, 

89,  90,  94,  169,  243,  501 
Everesdon,  John,  152 
Everingham,  Margaret,  449 
Everyngham,  Alice  de,  442  w.s 
Evesham  Chronicle,  489W.1 
Evreux,  St  Sauveur,  636ff.,  646 
Ewer,  Margaret,  370 
Excommunication  of  nuns,  183 
Exeter,  Bishops  of,  444,  445 ;  and  see 

Stapeldon,  Grandisson,  etc. 
Eynsham  Abbey,  449;  Abbot  of,  234 

Fairfax  family,  7,  15,  i8«.4,  19,  20 

-  Elizabeth,  328 

-  John,  327 

Margaret,  76,  77,  303  w.1,  327, 

329,  399«.3,  468w.4,  500,  587 

Fairs,  105,  106,  133,  138;  and  see 
Stourbridge  Fair 

Fairwell  Priory,  217*1. ,  22OW.1,  248, 
32ow.,  356 w.8,  384,  4I6M.1;  children 
at,  272, 273, 578 ;  dissolution  of,  604 

Falowfeld,  Isabel,  362 

"Farms,"  101,  102,  209,  335 

Favences,  Antoinette  de,  258 

Faversham,  Vicar  of,  232 

Feast  of  Fools,  3i2ff. 

Felawe,  William,  328 

Felton,  Mary  de,  442  n.2 

Feriby,  Benedict  de,  see  Broughton, 
Rector  of 

Ferrar,  Agnes,  185 

Ferry  Woman,  The,  616 

Ffychmere,  Joan,  202 

Fisher,  Jane,  247^.2 

FitzAleyn,  John,  267 

-  Katherine,  368 

Fitzjames,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Lon 
don,  385 

FitzRichard,  Elizabeth,  326 

-  John,  326 

Fitzwilliam,  Lady  Isabel,  329 
Flagge,  Alice  de  la,  43,  45,  173 
Flamstead,  Matilda  de,  57 

-  Priory,  59«.2,  351,  458,  461; 
children  at,  573;  churches  appro 
priated  to,  H3M.1,  181;  custos  of, 
230 w.8;  poverty  of,  174,  177 

Flemyng,  Richard ,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
22,  24,  217,  223,  226,  249,  263, 
308W.1,  384?*. ',  386,  407W.1,  415, 
459,  477 

Fletcher,  Joan,  88 w.,  467 w.8 
Flixborough,  Rector  of,  235 
Flixthorpe,  Agnes  de,  353,  443 ff., 

457,  467**. 8 

Flixton  Priory,  59W.1,  63,  79,  168, 
292W.2,  340,  489^.2;  cloister  an 


INDEX 


711 


frater  defective  at,  170;  poverty 

of,   181;   Prioress  of,  63,  65,  66, 

307;  and  see  Pilly,  Katherine 
Folgeham,  Cecily,  22 
Fonten,  Margaret  de,  446 
Fontrevrault,    Abbess    of,     305  n.6, 

36ow.2;  cells  of,  455;  nuns  of,  3, 

343;  rule  of,  4OOW.2 
Fordham,  John  of,  Bishop  of  Ely, 

176,  177 
Fosse  Priory,  333;  Master  of,  231; 

poverty    of,     165,     175,     i84W.4; 

Prioress  of,  180,  250 
Foster,  Alice,  49 

Thomas,  208 

Foukeholm,  St  Stephen's,  180,  448  n.1 
Fountains,  Abbot  of,  375  n.1 

Fox,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
149,  252,  392 

John,  449 

William,  449 

Franke,  Beatrice,  365,  366 

Frater,  3i5ff.,  328,  648,  649;  children 

in,  273;  repair  of,  125 
Fratress  of  nunnery,  131,  132 
Fraunceys,  John,  207 
Free  Warren,  Grants  of,  105 
Frejus,  Council  of,  373 
French,     knowledge     of,     in     i4th 

century,  246,  247 
Froissart,  240,  428,  431,  435 
Frost,  Ellen,  22 
Fulham,  Nicholas  de,  259 n.3 
Furmage,  Joan,  187,  338,  362 
Fychet,  John,  410 

Gandersheim     Abbey,     238;     Ros- 
witha's  history  of,  238 

Gascoigne,  Agnes,  46 

-  Thomas,  253,  254,  447w-6>  531 

Gaveston,  Piers,  419 

Geoffrey  de  Saint  Belin,  345 

George,  Christopher,  149 

Germyn,  Helen,  480 

Gertrud  the  Great,  of  Helfta,  239, 5°° 

Gesta  Romanorum,  $i6n.2,  541 

Ghent,   Simon  of,   Bishop  of  Salis 
bury,  195,  201,  350,  528 

Gibbs,  Elizabeth,  243 

Giffard,  Agatha,  463,  464 

Alice,  462 

-  Godfrey,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 

350.  463,  464 

Juliana,  463,  462 

Mabel,  463 

Sir  Osbert,  463!^ 

Walter,  Archbishop  of  York, 

21,  166,  214,  229,  232,  247,  302, 
355W.1,  399W-3,  463,  472W.1,  482, 
494W.1,  635 


Glastonbury,  Abbot  of,  162;  and  see 

Whiting,  Richard 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  26 
Eleanor,  Duchess  of,  328 «.5 

-  Richard,  Earl  of,  161 

-  Thomas  of,  418 
GodstowAbbey,2, 121, 162,  248,  249, 

291  w.2,  292 n.z,  325,  347M-2,  348, 
351,  353,  384W-1,  395ff-,  401,  4°2, 
405W.1,  407M.1,  440,  448W.1,  449. 
460,  582,  586,  635;  Abbess  of,  180, 
270;  and  see  Henley,  Alice;  bailiff 
of,  148;  boarders  forbidden  at, 
414,  416,  578;  books  of,  253,  254, 
277;  claustration  at,  348,  356*1.°, 
357.  358  w.1;  debts  of,  164,  234; 
disorder  at,  456;  education  of 
children  at,  263,  273,  283,  319, 
456;  households  of  nuns  at,  3186. ; 
Prior  of,  23off . ;  Puerilia  solemnia 
at,  312;  Register  of,  17,  40,  2o6n.3, 
253;  steward  of,  205;  visitors  at, 
408,  414 

Gokewell  Priory,  inw.8,  332;  chil 
dren  at,  576;  households  of  nuns 
at,  318;  poverty  of,  163,  235; 
Prioress  of,  23,  250;  steward  of, 
235.  236w.2 

Goldesburgh,  Joan,  469,  470 
Goldwell,  James,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

461  w.1,  494W-1 

Goring  Priory,  53  w.2,  301,  304,  351, 
353,    358,    395,    4.57;    custos    of, 
230«.8;     dilapidations     at,     171; 
poverty  owing  to  lawsuits  of,  202  ; 
violence  at,  423,  424,  435 
Gorsyn,  Alice,  301 
Gosden,  William,  454 
Gower,  John,  447,  499,  5°9,  544,  545 
Gower's  Temple  of  Glas,   The,  500, 
510;  Vox  Clamantis,  499,  544,  545 
Gowring,  Jane,  32 
Gracedieu  Priory,  97,  now.,  inn.3. 
127,    i49«-,    154,    *55>   2°5,   210, 
358,  363,  364,  367,  382,  4oon.*; 
bailiff  of,  257;  boarders  at,  418, 
573  ff.;  cellaress  of,  146,  272,  409; 
chaplain  of,  145,  146;  children  at, 
268,  272,  283,  409;  debts  of,  163; 
embroidery  made  at,  257;  house 
holds    of    nuns    at,    318,    320 n.; 
jewels,  etc.,  pawned  by,  210;  mis 
management  at,  225 w.2;  peculium 
for  clothes  given  at,  323;  Prioress 
of,  57,  61,  66,  80,  162,  180,  318, 
413,  478, 484,  490;  relics  at,  i  i6w.3; 
treasuress  of,  163,  323 
Granary,  repair  of,  125,  157 
Grandisson,  Johnde,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
.*,  192,  193,  353 


712 


INDEX 


Grangyer,  Joan,  152 
Gravesend,   Richard  de,   Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  175 

-  Stephen,  Bishop  of  London 
188,  481 

Gray,  Barbara,  48 

-  Richard,  465,  466 

-  William,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
24    83.   216,  244,  249,   253,  272, 
308 «.'.  319,  321,  325,  365,  396,  402, 
405 n.1.  457,  488,  491 

Great  Billing,  Rector  of,  46 
Green,  Nicholas,  44 in. 
Greenfield,  Margaret,  455 
Priory,    180,    241,    330;   cor- 

rodies,  etc.,  granted  by,  214  n4- 

Prioress    of.    61,    78,    180,    214; 

solitary  confinement  at,  30;  titles 

remitted,  184  w.2 

-  William,  Archbishop  of  York, 

16,  26.  51  ff.,  214,  220,  222,  257n  2 

' 


Gregory  X,  212 

Grey,  William,  Bishop  of  Ely    176 

Grimeley,  William  de,  45 

Grimsby,  St  Leonard's  Priory 
inw.3,  174,  177,  457;  fire  at,  172! 
Master  of,  231,  232  w.1 

Grome.  Katherine,  168 

Grosseteste,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lin 
coln,  309,  471 

Guest-house,  118,  119,  125,  I57; 
accounts  of,  120 

Guiot  de  Provins,  542 

Gurney,  Joanna,  233 

Gynewell,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
7.2oon.4,  249,  262,272,273,  322  w., 
356n.»,  357,  358,  37477,1,  386,  400, 
401,  415,  44iw. 

Gyney,  Joan,  189 

Hainault,  Bailiwick  of,  105 
John  of,  435 

Hales,  Thomas  of.  5i3n.1,  525 

Halewey,  Agnes,  83 

Hali  Meidenhad,  16,  40   441    525ff 

Haliwell  Priory,  2.  13,  34n.2,'422n.2, 
442;  alms  given  by,  120;  Prioress 
of,  71,  442 

Hallam,  Bishop,  385 

Halle,  St  George  (Marienkammer) 
673,  681 

-  St  Maurice,  674 

Hampole  Priory,  u^n.*,  146  213 
214.  32on.,  326,  329,  339,  365n.»,' 
40m.1,  427,  428,  466n.1,  477 
579.  601;  and  Richard  Rolle,' 
532  n.1;  bad  administration  at, 
203;  boarders  at,  413*1.*,  414,' 


children  at,  272;  custos  of,  230?* •• 

Prioress  of,  26,  83 w.,  205    329*1  5' 
T   339,  477 

Hampole,  Richard,  254 
Hampton,  Alice  de,  189 
Hanam,  Elianora,  361  n.1 
Handale  Priory,  52,  57n.2,  146,  175, 

22ow.6,  361  w.8;  custos  of,  23on» 

231 

Harcourt,  Catherine  d',  558 
Harmer,  Margaret,  168 
Harold,  Henry,  105,  422 

-  Isabel,  105 
Harreyes,  John,  449 

Harrold  Priory,  154,  226,  457.  465; 
children  at,  272,  569;  custos  of, 
23on.8;  debts  of,  162;  financial 
mismanagement  at,  205 ;  Prioress 
of,  66,  205,  210 

Harvesting,  128 

Hatfield,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Dur 
ham,  234 

Haukeforth,  Elizabeth,  33 

Haunsard,  John,  457 

Hauteyn,  Alice,  41 

-  Walter,  40,  41 
Haverholme  Priory,  35,  442  w.2 
Head  of  house,  conduct  of,  80,  86, 

87,  94,  643  ff. ;  disciplinary  powers 
of,  300,  302;  dress,  etc.,  of,  76  77 
94;  favouritism  by,  66 ff. ;  financiai 
mismanagement  by,  8iff.,  2033., 
217 ff.;  hospitality  of,  78,  79 • 
journeys  of,  69,  7off . ;  luxurious 
hying  of,  74ff.,  94,  2ii ;  and  see 
Abbess 

Hede,  Dr,  282,  461,  482 
Hedington,  Sir  Nicholas,  121 
Hedsor,  Margery   457 

TT     .    .  t        .  O         ./  '    T*J  / 

rleidenheim,  237 
Helewell,  Ada  de,  444 

~  ^T'  444,  445 
-  William,  444 

Helfta,  Convent  of,  89   ^o    coo 
Helmsley,  242 
Helmstedt,  682ff. 
Helswindis,  Abbess,  28 
Henley,  Alice,  252    25* 
Henry  II,  308 

-  HI,  346 
IV,  247 

-  VIII,  46,  78,  216,  313 
Henwood  Priory,   180;   Prioress  of 

1 80 

Herars,  John,  397 
Hereford,  Countess  of,  196 
Herminal,  John  de,  233 
Hermyte,  Isabel,  Prioress,  88,  94 
Herrad,  Abbess,  239 
Herryson,  John,  152 


INDEX 


713 


Herward,  Elene,  138 
Hexham  Priory,  426 
—  schools  of,  426 
Heyden,  John,  325 
Heynings   Priory,    7,   22ff.,    inn.s, 

155,      22O,       226ff.,      249,       2QIW.2. 

292 n.z,  322 n.,  337,  374 n.1,  400, 
4O2w.4,  459ff.,  489,  581;  accounts 
not  kept  at,  205;  appropriation 
by,  209;  children  at,  263,  272,  273, 
575,  576;  claustration  at,  357W.1, 
358  n.1;  corrodies  at,  granted 
by,  209;  custos  at,  231 ;  hospitality 
at,  200;  poverty  of,  162,  177,  184, 
209;  Prioress  of,  66,  67,  205,  210; 
restriction  of  numbers  at,  215; 
seculars  at,  409,  415,  416;  trea- 
suress  of,  223 
Heyroun,  Margaret,  328,  330 

William,  328 

Higham  Ferrers  College,  380 w.4 
Hildesheim,  St  Mary  Magdalen,  672, 

675,  677,  680,  682 

Hilton,  Sir  Robert  de,  399 n.3 

Hinchinbrooke  Priory,  36  in.1; 
Prioress  of,  180 

Hodesak,  Beatrice  de,  365 

Hohenburg,  239 

Holewaye,  Elizabeth,  442  w.a 

Holland,  Robert  de,  36 

Holm,  Mary  de,  52,  53 

Holystone  Priory,  427 

Home  Farm  of  Nunnery,  1255., 
133,  135,  137,  150, 151 ;  harvesting 
on,  128,  129 

Horde,  Dr,  492 

Hortus  Deliciarum,  239 

Hosey,  Agnes,  33 

Hours,  Canonical,  286,  291  ff.;  ir 
reverence  at,  292,  293 

Hubbart,  Alicia,  44 in. 

Humberstone  Abbey,  377 n.z 

Hunter,  Matilda,  442  w.2 

Huntingdon,  Archidiaconate  of,  175 

-  Priory,  308 n.1,  360 n.1 

-  St  James'  outside,  175 
Hutton,  Joan,  467 n.3 

Hyde  Abbey,  369;  Abbot  of,  see 
Bromele,  Thos. 

Hylyarde,  Elynor,  326 

Hythe,  Hamo  of,  Bishop  of  Roches 
ter,  204,  218 

Ickleton      Priory,       i84W.4,       306, 

4OOW.1 
Ilchester,     St    John's,     Rector    of, 

White  Hall  Priory,  386,  447; 

coadjutresses  appointed  at,  224; 
condition  of,  233;  custodes  of,  233; 


poverty  of,  172;  Prioress  of,  88w., 

172,  224,  233;  and  see  Chilterne; 

Draycote 

Imitatio  Christi,  243 
Indulgences,  174,  175 
Infirmaress,  134 
Infirmary,  316,  322,  649 
Ingham,  Katherine  de,  39 
Inglewood  Forest,  429 
Ingoldesby,  Margaret,  412 
Ingoldesthorpe,  Sir  John,  90 
Innocent  III,  363 
Irford  Priory,  244,  330 
"  Issues  of  the  Manor,"  logff. 
I  vinghoe  Priory,  175,  i84w.4,  357  n.1; 

Prioress  of,  363,  364 

Jafford,  William  de,  220 
James  I  of  Scotland,  510 
James  I's  King's  Quair,  510 
James  V  of  Scotland,  552 
Jeanne  de  France,  342  n.1,  345 
Jecke,  Philippa,  66 
Jerves,  John,  265,  269 
Joan  de  Barton,  88 n. 

-  Princess  of  Wales,  418 
Jocelin  of  Brakelond,  45 ff.,  496 
John    of    Gaunt,    19,    370?*. 5,    418, 

42IW.1 

Johnson,  Margaret,  326 

-  William,  399 
Jordan,  Isabel,  54,  55,  392 
Joseph,  Stephen,  37 
Josiana  de  Anelagby,  362 
Julian  of  Norwich,  366,  502  n.1 
Juliana  of  Bromhale,  87,  211 
Jumieges,  Abbot  of,  3iow.2 
Jurdane,  Isabel,  67 

Keldholme  Priory,  5 iff.,  inw.3,  306, 
36ow.2,  443^-2>  448*-1.  467.  4771 
moral  state  of,  598;  Prioress  of, 
see  Emma  of  Stapelton ;  Emma  of 
York;  Pykering,  Joan  de 

Kemp,  John,  Archbishop  of  York, 
86,  175,  374 

Kempe,  Alice,  489 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  243 

Kent,    Holy  Maid   of,   see   Barton, 

Elizabeth 
Isabella  de,  423,  424 

Kentwood,  Dean,  209,  26 in.z,  273, 

3°7>  3°9,  4°5.  4°8 
Kessingland,  Rectory  of,  114 
Key,  Thomas,  138,  147,  152 
Kilburn     Priory,     13,     i8w.4,     528; 

chaplain's  chamber  at,  144;  library 

of,  241 
King,  Philippa,  453,  454 

45—5 


INDEX 


King's  Mead  Priory,  4,  262,  36m.1; 

children  at,  571;  custodes  of,  234; 

hospitality   of,    200;    poverty   of, 

180,  234;  Prior  of,  230;  relics  at, 

n6n.s 

King's  Quair,  The,  510 
Kington,     St    Michael,     255,    350, 

360  n.a 

Kippax,  Rector  of,  231 
Kirkby,  Margery,  81,  82,  167 
Kirk  Deighton,  Rector  of,  231 
Kirklees  Priory,  320*1. x,  325,  448 w.1; 

custos  of,  22ow.6,  23on.8,  235,  236; 

moral  state  of,  599,  600;  Prioress 

of,  1 80,  258,  620,  621 
Kitcheness  of  nunnery,  13 iff. 
Knaresborough,  St  Robert's,  231 
Knight,  Laurens,  267,  269 

-  Richard,  198 
Knyghte,  Elizabeth,  269,  279 

-  Jane,  269,  279 
Koc,  Margaret,  422 

-  William,  422 
Kyme,  249*1.' 
Kyrkeby,  Margery,  405  w.3 

Lacock  Abbey,  2,  19 w.3,  268n.,  497; 

alms  given  by,  121;   claustration 

at,  350;  visitors  at,  238 
Lacy,  Henry  de,  420 
Lambley  Priory,  426,  429 
Lamentations  de  Matheolus,  Les,  542, 

543 

Lampet,  Julian,  366*1. 8 
Lancaster,  Isabella  de,  240,  455 

-  Joan,  138,  147*1. 6,  327 
Margaret  de,  417,  418 

-  Thomas  of,  419 
Lanercost  Chronicle,  426 
Langeland,  Thomas,  88 
Langeloft,  Isabella  de,  52 
Langcndorf  Nunnery,  305  n.4 
Langland,    William,    30,    178,    202, 

263,  2975.,  301,  3o8n.1,  309,  310, 
373.  390.  544 

Langley  Priory,  22,  23,  32,  inn.3, 
210,  306,  313*1.*,  333,  336,  402W.3, 
408,  412,  587;  children  at,  409, 
575;  corrody  sold  by,  207;  em 
broidery  at,  256,  257;  households 
of  nuns  at,  318;  illiteracy  at,  250; 
poverty  of,  162,  163,  205,  211; 
Prioress  of,  207,  210,  250,  252 

Langton,  Thomas,  149 

Lateran  Council,  Fourth,  21 

Latin,  knowledge  of,  by  nuns,  246, 
247 

Latymer,  Matilda,  330 

Lawrence,  Robert,  399 

Lay-brothers,  288 


Lee,  Edward,  Archbishop  of  York, 
6iw.2,  154,  2x1,  220,  251*1.*, 
284  w.1,  356*1.  5,  390,  402,  405 

Legbourne  Priory,  23,  68,  78,  inn.8, 
153,  228,  330,  332,  356*t.6,  409, 
412,  413;  bailiff  of,  148,  149,  205; 
boarders  at,  576;  corrody  in,  205; 
custodes  of,  231,  236  n*;  dilapidated 
condition  of  property  of,  170*1.  1, 
181;  households  of  nuns  at,  318; 
poverty  of,  164,  205;  Prioress  of, 
67,  71,  163,  170*1.,  205,  221; 
status  domus  of,  221 

Legenda  aurea,  241 

Legh,  Margaret,  261  w.2 

Leicester,  Countess  of,  257 

Lelle,  Avice  de,  448  w.1 

Leominster  Priory,  Sub-prior  of, 
449 

Leycroft,  Thomas 

Leygrave,  Alice  de,  196 

-  Ellen  de,  196 

-  Juliana  de,  196 
Leyva,  Virginia  de,  474 
Libaud,  Sibyl,  42  in.1 

-  Thomas,  42  in.1 
Libel  of  English  Policie,  112 

Liber    Poenitentialis    of    Theodore, 


Lillechurch  Priory,  143*1.,  603 
Lilleshall,  265 
Limburg  Chronicle,  604 
Limington,  Rector  of,  233 
Lincoln,  Archdeacon  of,  90 

-  Bishops  of,  44,  47,  120,  123; 
and   see   Alnwick;    Buckingham; 
Flemyng;  Gravesend;  Longland; 
Sutton 

-  Cathedral,  465,  466 
Lindesay,  Sir  David,  251,  510,  511, 

549,  552ff. 
Lindesay's  Ane  Satyre  of  the  Thrie 

Estaits,  510,  549,  552ff. 
Lingiston,  Thomas  de,  449 
Lioba,  see  Bischofsheim,  Abbess  of 
Liseway,  Roger,  198 
Lisieux,    St    Desir,    636;    financial 

state  of,  637 
Lisle,  Honor,  Viscountess,  258,  279 

-  Sibil  de,  365 

Little  Chester,  Simon  of,  234 

Little  Coates,  Vicar  of,  232  w.1 

Littlemore,  Agnes  de,  366 
-  Priory,  26,  6on.,  265,  267, 
269,  301,  448  n.1,  452,  578,  604; 
dilapidations  at,  169;  ill-fame  of, 
397,  491,  492,  582;  moral  state 
of.  595,  596;  Prioress  of,  180,  469, 
477;  and  see  Wells,  Katherine 

Llewelyn,  30,  185 


INDEX 


715 


Lokton,  Anabilla  de,  52 

Londesborough,  Rector  of,  220,  231 

London,  68,  70,  105,  191,  233 

—  Council  of,  1 200,  21,  585 
nunneries  of,  99 

Longland,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
23,  79,  153.  17°.  208,  2I1'  273, 
304,  312,  321,  356w.5,  369,  374, 
380,  387,  399,  404 

Longspey,  Alice,  397,  398,  449,  456, 
460 

Loughborough,  146 

Loveday,  Anne,  19 

Loweliche,  Denise,  64 n.5,  88 n.,  458, 
460,  469,  48672. 2,  493 

Ludlow,  Gild  of  Palmers,  1 1 

Luitgard  of  Tongres,  500,  525 

Luue  Ron,  A,  16,  513 n.1,  525,  527 

Lylis,  John,  77 

Lymbrook  Priory,  II3*.1,  183, 
248,  263,  309**-,  347W-2'  356w.5, 
359W.3,  367W.2,  367^.2,  369,  377, 
384,  403«.6,  4o8w.2,  449,  5^6; 
children  at,  573;  Prioress  of, 
361  n.1;  private  property  at,  324, 

325,  339«-2 
Lyminster,  478,  635 
Lynn,  King's,  43,  138,  147 

Maiden  Bradley,  Prior  of,  451 
Mailing  Abbey,  2,  13,  56,  58 n.,  146; 
Abbess  of,  2ow.,  57,  I55™.1,  180, 
203,  204,  218;  and  see  Retlyng, 
Lora  de;  corrody  granted  in, 
208  w.2;  fair  of,  io6w.2;  financial 
mismanagement  at,  203,  204; 
falling  mill  of,  IO7W.1;  poverty  of, 
i84M.4;  prebends  of,  144;  seal  of, 
218 

Malnoue,  nuns  of,  345 
Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  514 
Malory's  Morte  Darthur,  556,  557 
Manorial  courts,  103!!. 
Marcens,  433 ff. 
Marcham,  Agnes,  26,  397 
Mare,  Thomas  de  la,  244,  479 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Ulster,  39 
Marham,    Abbess   of,    105,    3 Sow.4; 

chartulary  of,  107 
Marie  de  Bretagne,  305  w.6 

de  France,  558 

Marienberg,  682 
Mariensee,  6782. 

Markyate  Priory,  154,  156,  351,  358, 
408,  423,  45ow.2,  452,  457,  460; 
custos  of,  230 w.8;  debts  of,  162, 
210;  disorder  at,  457,  458,  488, 
491,  492;  domestic  economy  of, 
332;  illiteracy  at,  250;  Prioress  of, 
64,  180,  250,  352;  and  see  Lowel 


iche,  Denise;  visitation  at,  351, 
352,  354 

Marlow,  Little,  Priory  to,  174,  351, 
366;  children  at,  570;  poverty  of, 
i84'«.4;  prioresses  of,  I7«.2;  and 
see  Bernard,  Eleanor;  Vernon, 
Margaret 

Marmyll,  Cecily,  455 

Marrick  Priory,  in  w.3, 201,213,214, 
23ow.8,  326,  328,  356w.5,  401  w.1, 
428,  579;  Prioress  of,  148 w.3,  214 

Marshall,  Richard,  243 

Marshalsea,  the,  201 

Martin  IV,  Pope,  209 

Mason,  Barbara,  380 w.4 

Matheolus,  Les  Lamentations  de,  542, 

Matrimony,   The   Christen   State   of, 

378 

Matthew  Paris,  240 
Maundy    Thursday,     142,     142*1.*, 

I43M. 

Mautravers,  Sir  John,  194 
Maxstoke  Priory,  2 row.2 
Meaux  Abbey,  449 
Mechthild  of  Hackeborn,  239,  500 

of  Magdeburg,  500,  525,  533 

Medforde,  Clemence,  73,  76,  77,  81, 

82,  166,  167,  218,  221,  234,  330, 

361  w.1,  377,  405 w.2,  490 
Melton,  William  de,  Archbishop  of 

York,  199,  235,  2^8n.',  264,  301, 

329,    35&M.4,  365,  373,  427,   467, 

468W.1,  469,  477 
Menagier  de  Paris,  563 
Messe  des  oisiaus,  etc.,  539 
Mestowe,    Hundred    of,    105,    422, 

422W.2 

Metham,  Margaret,  138 
Middle  class,  rise  of,  gff. 
Middleton,  manor-house  at,  90 
Minchin    Barrow    Priory,    4,     188, 

358 w.4;  custos  of,  153;  poverty  of, 

i84W.4;  Prioress  of,  71 
Minories,  the,  2,  3,  12,    13,   26,  39, 

100,  114,  146,  I76w.3,  328w.5 
Minster  Priory,  20 
Misericord,  316 
Mistress  of  novices,  134 
Mitford,  Katherine,  33 
Molynes,  Lord,  423 
Montagu,  Katherine,  442 n.2 
Montfort,  Isabel  de,  73 

Peter  de,  30 

—  Simon  de,  346 
Monti villiers    Abbey,    560 w.,     636, 

641,   647;   Abbess   of,    644,   650; 

financial  state  of,  637 
Montmartre,  nuns  of,  345 
More,  Avice  de  la,  58,  59 


INDEX 


Mori,  Gui  de,  532 

Mortimer,  daughters  of,  420,  450, 
45i 

-  Roger,  420 

Mortival,  Bishop,  213 

Morton,  John,  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury,  219,  23on.«,  480,  482  w.1 

Mortuaries,  loyff. 

Mounceaux,  Ella  de,  457 

Mowbray,  Katharine,  598 

Moxby,  5&n.,  122,  199,  2ijn.,  325, 
385,  402 w.4,  429,  447,  580;  bake 
house  and  brewhouse  of,  di 
lapidated,  170;  debts  of,  200, 
22ow.4;  destroyed  by  Scots,  427; 
masters  of,  231;  moral  state  of, 
599;  prioresses  of,  148^.*,  427; 
and  see  Apelgarth,  Sabina  de,  and 
Bartone,  Joan;  Whenby  Church 
appropriated  to,  ii3n.1 

Muisis,  Gilles  li,  305,  542,  543, 
66 1 

"Register "of,  543,544 

Munkton,  John,  77,  303*. *,  399«.3 

Musgrave,  Agnes,  365 

Mydelsburg,  Thomas,  220 w.6 

Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye,  253,  254, 
293.  53L  532 

Myssenden,  James,  326 

Xeasham,    St    Mary's,    31,    I7ow.s, 

402 w.4;  Prioress  of,  36ow.2 
Needlework  in  nunneries,  255,  256 
Nether  Sutton,  184 
Nevers,  nuns  of,  305,  593;  and  see 

Vert- Vert 

Neville's  Cross,  Battle  of,  428 
Newark,  Henry  of,  Archbishop,  248, 

338«.» 

-  Ermentrude,  441 
Newburgh  Priory,  232;  Prior  of ,  184 
Newcastle,  St  Bartholomew's  Priory, 

362  n.8;    appropriations    to,    172; 

custos     of,     234;     fire     at,     172; 

poverty  of,  234;  Prioress  of,  36on.2 
Newemerche,  Elizabeth  de,  329 
Newhouse  Abbey,  230,  387,  399«.s 
Newington,  Prioress  of,  305 
Newman,  Nicholas,  149 
Newmarch,  Jane,  18 
Newton,  Matilda,  366 w.3 
Nicke,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

63.  65,  183,  388,  461,  484*. * 
Nicolson,  Margaret,  48 
Nonnes,  Chansons  de,  437 
Norbery,  Lady  Anne,  267 
Norbury,  Roger  de,  Bishop  of  Lich- 

field,  21,  igon.,  248 
Noreton,  Roger  de,  165 
Norfolk,  Thomas,  family  of,  35 


Northallerton,  St  Stephen's  nunnery 

428w.» 
Northampton,  Archdeacon  of,  174, 

*75.  353.  44i 

Battle  of,  45 

-  Friary  at,  388 

-  St  James,  Abbot  of,  220 
Northeleye,  Rector  of,  see  Joseph, 

Stephen 
Northlode,  Alice  de,  194,  452 

John  de,  194 

Norwich,  Bishops  of,  57,  63,  65,  175, 

309 «.«,  411;  and  seeGoldvtell  and 

Nicke 

-  Isabel,  168,  336 

-  Priory,  2iow.2,  388 

-  Tombland  in,  91 
Nottingham,  Archdeacon  of,  444 
Novellae  Definitiones  of  Cistercians, 

362 

Novice,  the,  iff.,  352,  260,  261;  mis- 
tressof,  134, 261  w.2;  teacher  of,  260 

Noyon,  Robert  de,  263 

Nun  who  Loved  the  World,  The,  511 

Nun,  Why  I  can't  be  a,  545 ff. 

Nunappleton  Priory,  16,  52,  6iw.2, 
87,  I54W.1,  200,  213,  251  w.2,  284^., 
322^.,  326,  338w.8,  339,  373,  374, 
389,  400,  402 w.4,  406,  410,  445, 
601;  accounts  of,  audited,  220; 
boarders  at,  417,  580;  custos  of, 
230 w.8;  gifts  to,  326if. ;  poverty  of, 
i84n.4,  200;  Prioress  of,  326; 
visitations  of,  497,  635 

Nunburnholme  Priory,  53 n.*,  213, 
365 w.3,  400M.1,  428,  478;  boarders 
at,  580;  custos  of,  220,  23ow.8; 
Prioress  of,  478 

Nuncoton  Priory,  22,  23,  33,  inn.3, 
153,  2ii,  215,  217%.,  263,  291,  292^ 
301,  330,  332,  337.  358,  37L  374, 
380.  381  w.2,  382,  387,  399,  402 n.4, 
408 w.4,  457;  boarders  of,  413, 
576;  bondmen  of,  alienated,  205; 
corrodies  sold  at,  205,  207,  208; 
debts  of,  225tt.4;  fraterat,  3I7W.1; 
households  of  nuns  at,  318;  in 
valids  at,  259 n.1;  jewels,  etc., 
pawned,  211;  master  of,  231; 
Prioress  of,  79,  153,  205,  211,  408; 
revels  at,  3 1 2,  3 1 3 ;  seculars  at,  409 
Nuneaton  Priory,  2,  3,  14,  34 n.1, 
146,  186,  421  w.1,  441  w.;  alms 
given  by,  120;  numbers  of  nuns 
at,  215 

Nunkeeling  Priory,  6,  52,  58,  i84n.4, 
212,  257,  29i«.»,  357M.5,  427, 
448W.1,  477,  598;  boarders  at,  580; 
bursars  of,  223;  cellaress  of,  469; 
enforced  reception  of  nuns  at, 


INDEX 


717 


212;  Prioress  of,  see  More,  A  vice 
de  la;  St  Quintin,  Isabella  de 

Nunmonkton  Priory,  7,  15,  i8w.4, 
iiiw.3,  399«.3,  427,  469,  494 n.1, 
580,  587,  60 1 ;  Prioress  of,  19,  242 ; 
see  Fairfax,  Margaret 

Nunneries,  amusements  in,  303, 
304  ff.,  662;  animals  in,  662,  663; 
aristocratic  members  of ,  3ff.,  I2ff., 
73,  74,  194,  212,  255,  324,  503; 
books  of,  239ff. ;  children  in,  264  ff., 
496,  568ff.,  655^. ;  episcopal  dis 
approval  of,  27off.,  568ff.,  655ff. ; 
custodes  of,  228ff. ;  discipline  in, 
3ooff. ;  disputes  in,  3ooff . ;  educa 
tion  of  girls  in,  26off.,  568ff. ;  and 
see  children  in;  election  of  su 
perior  in,  43  ff.;  expenses  of, 
H7ff.,  134,  183,  211,  636ff. ;  farm 
labourers  of,  150,  151;  financial 
difficulties  of ,  i6iff.,  iSoff.,  2ijfi., 
655;  mismanagement  of,  166 ft., 
i79«.3,  2O3ff.,  235;  food  supplies 
of,  i38ff.,  332ff.,  334ff-.  64off.; 
girls  forced  into,  33ff . ;  home  farms 
of,  logff. ;  hospitality  at,  200, 
201,  401  ff.,  417^.,  649;  household 
staff  of,  150,  151;  illiteracy  in, 
25off. ;  income  of,  2,  3,  iooff.,  134, 
161,  183,  223,  270,  641;  earmarked, 
135;  Latin,  study  of,  in,  246, 
247,  249,  250,  276,  286,  288; 
middle-class  members  of,  ioff., 
26;  moral  state  of,  436ff.,  597^-. 
665 ff.,  675;  numerical  size  of,  2,  3, 
161,  213,  215,  2i5w.4;  overcrowd 
ing  of,  2i2ff.,  225;  payments  for 
reception  into,  i7ff.,  658;  pen 
sions  demanded  from,  ig^fi.; 
private  rooms  in,  3i8ff.,  328,  336, 
1654;  quarrels  in,  663 ff.;  reasons 
for  entering,  25 ff.,  290;  repairs 
to,  I23ff.,  135;  right  of  nominat 
ing  to,  iSgff.,  244 n.1;  routine  in, 
2851!.,  475ff. ;  ruinous  condition 
of,  i68ff.;  satirists  on,  533^-; 
seculars  in,  401  ff.,  446,  470, 
66off. ;  separate  households  (fa- 
miliae]  in,  272^.,  3i6ff.,  332,  335, 
336,  338,  654,  655;  servants  of, 
129,  I43ff.,  651;  status  domus  of, 
221,  484;  weak-minded  in,  33,  34; 
widows  in,  38  ff. 

Nuns,  almsgiving  by,  118,  120,  121, 
132,  649;  annuities  for,  324,  325; 
beer  allowance  of,  141,  141^., 
167,  iGSw.1;  bread  allowance  of, 
141  n.,  167,  i68w.2;  Bible  reading 
by,  254,  255;  claustration  of,  7, 
71,  72,  78,  173,  2oi«.2,  228,  259, 


303,  34 iff.,  543,  660 ff.;  clothes 
of,  119,  135,  136,  211,  235,  255, 
302W.1,  303ff.,  315,  329ff.,  585ff., 
663,  674,  675;  dowries  of,  I7ff., 
191  n.1,  214,  224,  268;  education, 
etc.,  of,  237 ff. ;  food  allowances  for, 
334,  564  ff.,  648,  649;  journeys  out 
of  cloister  by,  354ff. ;  legacies  to, 
325ff. ;  linguistic  learning  of,  246, 
247,  276,  288;  love  and,  in  medi 
eval  popular  literature,  622ff. ; 
money  allowance  of,  141,  338 ff.; 
penances  of,  466ff . ;  personal  pro 
perty  of,  19,  20,  272,  273,  3i5ff., 
322ff.,  337ff.,  65iff.,  672ff.;  pets 
of,  302,  303,  305ff.;  pilgrimages 
of,  37 iff.;  pocket  money  (pecu- 
lium)  of,  322,  323,  331,  334,  336ff.; 
occupations  of,  25 iff.,  2851!.;  re 
creation  of,  259;  songs  about,  502  ff. 
Nuremberg,  library  of  Dominicans 

at,  24072. 2 
St  Clare,  239 

Obedientiaries,  131,  132,  150,  219, 
319,  322,  367;  and  see  Cellaress, 
Treasuress,  etc. 

Odiham,  John  de,  198 

Oignies,  Mary  of,  525 

Okeley,  Katherine,  397,  398 

Oldyngton,  Henry  de,  197 

Olifaunt,  Elizabeth,  420 

-  William,  420 
Olyfard,  Hugh,  420,  421 
Origny,  nunnery  of,  432 ff. 
Orwell,  1 88 

Oseney,  Abbot  of,  396 

Ottobon,  Constitutions  of,  338,  346, 

354.  367.  369 
Oundyl,  Henry,  203 
Overton,  William,  242 
Oxborow,    Parson   of,   see   Wiggen- 

hall,  John 
Oxford,    Council   of,  1222,  21,   165, 

310.  323.  337.  338.  415 

St  Frideswide,  308  w.1 

-  scholars  of,  325,  395,  396,  398, 
456,  460 

Page,  Robert,  152 
Palmer,  Robert,  152 
Panham,  Countess  of,  257 
Pantolfe,  Sir  William,  251 
Pape,  Thomas,  399 n.3 
Papelwyk,  Sibil,  67,  68 
Paris,  Faculty  of  Theology  at,  314 
Paston,  Edmund,  10 

-  John,  ion.,  72,  423 

Margaret,  267 n.1,  302 

Margery,  411,  412 


7i8 


INDEX 


Patent,  Joan,  322 w. 

Pateshull,  Sir  John,  411 

Patryk,  Alice,  327 

Pavy,  Joan,  412 

Paynel,  Cecilia,  370 

Peasants'  Revolt,  114 

Peckham,  John,  Archbishop  of  Can 
terbury,  27,  60,  62,  64,  149,  156**.*, 
167,  188,  191,  217,223, 224, 23on.8, 
232,  248, 258w.4,  306, 307,  312, 313, 
346ff., 353.  358, 385*7. 2,  387, 390n.6, 
407,  416,  456,  464,  487,  581,  586 

Pecok,  Reginald,  Bishop  of  Chiches- 
ter,  447w.6 

Peke,  William,  18 

Pelayo,  Alvar,  545  n.1 

Pelham,  Maud,  452 

Pembroke,  Countess  of,  330 

Percy,  Joan  de,  597,  598 

-  Lady  Margaret,  411 

-  Sir  W.,  146 
Peresson,  John,  152 
Pergolotti,  Francesco,  1 1 1 
Periculoso,  343  n.3,  344 ff.,  350,  353, 

354.  360,  367,  376,  440 
Persones  Tale,  Chaucer's,  295,  296 
Peruzzi,  the,  9 
Perys,  Edmund,  43,  91,  92 
Peterborough  Abbey,  200,  291 

-  Abbots  of,  44,  45,  115,  230, 
444,  481 

Philippa,  Queen,  198 

-  Duchess  of  York,  418 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  282 
Pilgrimages,  3716". 

Pilly,  Katherine,  57,  58 

Pinley,  30 

Pirckheimer,  Charitas,  239,  500 

-  Wilibald,  501 

Pisan,  Christine  de,  Livre  du  dit  de 

Poisy,  558 ff. 
Pittancer,  143 
Pittances,  112,  118,  120,  135,  142, 

143,     147,     155,     221,     223,     323, 

328n.2,  334,  336,  370,  522,  567,  568 
Plagues,   medieval,    i78ff. ;   and  see 

Black  Death 
Plantagenet,  Bridget,  276,  279ff. 

-  Elizabeth,  279 
Playce,  Robert  de,  18 

Pocket  money  (peculium),  322,  323 
Poer,  Maude,  410 
Poisy,  Livre  du  dit  de,  558  ff. 
Poisy,  Priory  of,  558 ff. 

-  Prioress     of,     sec     Bourbon, 
Marie  de 

Poitiers,  Holy  Cross,  345 
Pole,  Katherine  de  la,  42, 263, 270,571 
Polesworth  Abbey,  160,  366,  416*1. *; 
Abbess   of,    42n.1,    2I7W.1;    alms 


given  by,  120;  children  at,  265, 
267,  282,  579;  servants  of,  159 

Poleter,  Robert  le,  198 

Polsloe  Priory,  ijin.2,  190,  242, 
248,  259**.1,  286,  353,  386,  403n.6, 
408 w.2,  416*1. *;  claustration  re 
laxed  at,  354,  355;  meals  at,  317; 
poverty  of,  192,  193;  presentation 
of  accounts  at,  219 

Poncher,  fitienne,  345 

Pontefract,  419 

Pontoise,  John  of,  Bishop  of  Win 
chester,  156,  183,  195,  2i8ff., 
244 w.,  259W.1,  336,  350,  387 

Poore,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 

527 

Popeley,  Elizabeth,  88 w. 
Porter,  Alice,  67 

-  James,  198 

-  Richard,  152 
Portsmouth,  Joan,  453 
Potton,  Rectory  of,  114 
Poutrelle,  Agnes,  67 
Powes,  Emma,  361  w.1 
Pratica  delta  Mercatura,  in 
Pratt,  Ralph,  462 

Praty,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Chiches- 

ter,  340 
Preaux,  St  Leger,  636;   Abbess  of, 

643 ;  financial  state  of,  637 
Precentrix  of   nunnery,   see  Chant- 

ress 

Premontre,  nuns  of,  343 
Prestewych,  Margaret  de,  35,  36 
Preston,  Anne,  46,  49 

-  Margery,  49 
Prioress,  see  Head  of  house 
Proctors  for  begging,  173,  174 
Punchardon,  Margaret  de,  365 
Punder,  Margaret,  63 
Pyghtesley,  Richard,  103 
Pykering,  Joan  de,  5 iff. 

-  Margaret  de,  328 w.1 
Pykkell,  Robert,  152 

Rading,  Philippa  de,  198 
Radyngton,  Joan  de,  224 
Raoul  de  Cambrai,  432ff.,  560*2. 
Rasponi,  Felice,  474,  501 
Ratclyff,  Margaret,  44,  102 
Raulyn,  202 
Rayn,  John,  46,  47 
Raynevill,  Thomas  de,  466**. * 
Reading,  Abbot  of,  279 
Receiver  of  nunnery,  99,  100,   147, 

15?.  2i9 

Redlingfield  Priory,  64  w.6,  249,  263, 
3i9«.8,  452,  468,  578 

-  Prioresses  of,  64,  65,  467;  see 
Hermyte,  Isabel 


INDEX 


719 


Redynges,  Margaret,  202 

Relics,  1 1 6,  117 

Rennes,  Cloth  of,  76,  77 

"Rents  of  Assize,"  101,  102 

Rents  from  lands  and  houses,  100, 
101,  118,  119 

Retlyng,  Lora  de,  204 

Reymound,  Thomas,  242 

Reynolds,  Walter,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  36,  37,  179 

Rich,  Margaret,  117 

Richemond,  Elianore,  152 

Ridel,  Mary,  198,  199 

Rievaulx,  Abbot  of,  see  Aelred 

Rigaud,  Eudes,  Archbishop  of  Rouen, 
163**.*,  255W.2,  258,  271,  305^.*, 
3o8w.2,  3iow.2,  312,  324,  337w-2> 
338M.3,  38ow.4,  45ow.3,  473,  491, 

587.  635 ff- 

Ripon  Minster,  37  7  n.2 
Roche,  Abbot  of,  214 
-  Joan  de  la,  189 
Rochester,  Bishops  of,  2oSn.2;  and 

see  Hythe,  Hamo  of 
Roger  atte  Bedde,  197 
Rolf,  Katherine,  157 
Rolle,  Richard,  of  Hampole,  532  n.2, 

533 

Rolls  of  Parliament,  quoted,  196 

Romayn,  Alice,  442 n.2 

Romeyn,  John  de,  Archbishop  of 
York,  26,  53,  184,  231,  361  n.1, 
411 

Romsey,  Abbess  of,  6off.,  118,  167, 
1707*. 2,  185,  195,  216,  217,  224, 
248,  252,  306,  308,  350,  410, 
461;  and  see  Broke,  Elizabeth; 
Rowse,  Joyce;  Walerand,  Agnes; 
accounts  of,  loin.,  118,  219;  ani 
mals  at,  307;  coadjutress  ap 
pointed  to,  224;  children  at,  572, 
573;  corrodies  at,  190,  198,  199; 
dilapidations  at,  169,  170;  dis 
order  at,  461,  462;  magister  novi- 
ciarum  at,  261 ;  Manor  courts  of, 
104 n.2;  mills  of,  118;  mismanage 
ment  at,  167,  218;  numbers  at, 
215  ?z.4, 216;  obedientiaries  of ,  132; 
pensioners  at,  195;  pittances  at, 
259^-,  324I  poverty  of,  173,  181, 
210;  prebendary  canons  of,  144, 
229;  private  property  at,  337, 
339M.5;  pupils  at,  273;  servants  of, 
156;  taxation  of,  185;  too  many 
nuns  at,  212,  213;  visitations  of 
496;  visitors  at,  238,  407,  408, 
416 

Romsey  Abbey,  2ff.,  7,  21,  26,  58^., 
88w.,  inn.2,  H3W.1,  132,  149, 
162,  i86ff.,  210,  2I3W.1,  217^., 


218,  220,  259,  263,  291  n.z,  292  n. 2, 
301,  3047*. x,  32OM.,  322W.,  348ff., 
353.  358w.3,  361  n.1,  367^2,  369, 
380,  384^.,  386,  389,  395,  4OOM.1, 
4O2W.4,  404,  416,  424,  448W.1,  454, 
482,  558,  583,  584,  586,  587 
Roos,  Eleanor,  242 

-  Joan,  328 

-  Sir  Robert  de,  242,  328 
Rosedale   Priory,    53,    inw.3,    205, 

306,  339,  360,  400M.1,  467^, 
580,  584,  601;  dilapidations  at, 
170;  destruction  of,  by  Scots, 
427;  process  of,  222;  relics  at, 
117;  status  domus  of,  222 

Roselis,  Joan  de,  52 

Roswitha,  238,  239 

Rotherham,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of 
York,  177,  374,  389,  406,  417 

Rothwell  Church,  463 

Roth  well  Priory,  98,  161,  I7iw.2, 
304  w.1;  begging  license  granted 
to,  174;  boarders  at,  424;  debts  of, 
162,  173,  21 1 ;  Desborough  church 
appropriated,  n^n.1;  Prioress  of, 
1 80,  250,  445;  violent  scene  at, 
424 

Rouen,  St  Amand,  636;  Abbess  of, 
644;  accounts  of,  639;  financial 
state  of,  637,  638 

Rouen,  St  Paul  by,  636,  641,  646 

Rowney  Priory,  ijin.2,  ij6n.3, 
423,  443;  alms-collector  appointed 
for,  173;  master  of,  231;  Prioress 
of,  584 

Rowse,  Joyce,  149,  493 

Rudd,  Agnes,  326 

Rummynge,  Elynour,  389 

Rusper  Priory,  4,  79,  91 «.,  144,  245, 
399W.3,  462,  494W.1,  583;  poverty 
of,  153;  Prioress  of,  79,  22 in.1, 
462 

Russel,  Alice,  464 

Rutebeuf,  375 

Sackfelde,  Margaret,  209 

Sacrist  of  nunnery,  131,   132,    134; 

accounts  of,  136 
Sadler,  Hugh,  397 
St  Agnes  of  Bohemia,  500 
St  Albans  Abbey,  70,  230,  245,  335, 

456™. 4,  479,  482 
Abbots     of,     56w.2,     259W.1, 

335,  361  n.2,  476,  480;  see  Mare, 

Thomas  de  la 

St  Albans,  The  Boke  of,  239 
St  Albans  Chronicle,  429 ff. 
St  Aldhelm,  303 
St  Andrews,  Bishop  of,  418 
St  Aubin's  Priory,  636,  646;  finan- 


720 


INDEX 


cial  state  of,  637,  638;  moral  state 

of,  667,  668 

St  Bernardino  of  Siena,  5i8w.1 
St  Boniface,  237 
St  Caesarius  of  Aries,  343 
St  Catherine,  Life  of,  239 
St  Christina  of  Stommeln,  501 
St  Clare,  500 

-  Order  of,  417,  418 
St  Douceline,  501 

St  Elizabeth  of  Schonau,  239 

St  Francis  of  Paula,  345 

St  Francis  de  Sales,  363,  392 

St  Hildegard  of  Bingen,  239 

St  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  262,  263 

St  John  Baptist,  Fair  of,  138,  139 

St  Katherine  of  Alexandria,  Life  of, 

Capgrave's,  243 
St  Lydwine  of  Schiedam,  501 
St  Mary  Graces,  Abbot  of,  375  w.1 
St  Paul,  John  de,  195 
St  Quintin,  Anne,  327 

-  Isabella  de,  469 

St    Saens    Priory,    636,    641,    646; 

financial  state  of,  637^ . ;  inventory 

of,  641;  moral  state  of,  668,  669 
St     Sepulchre's,     Canterbury,     see 

Canterbury,  Holy  Sepulchre 
St  Theresa,  501 
Salimbene,  27,  634 
Salisbury,  Bishops  of,  189,  190 
Saltmershe,  Maud,  22 
Salwayn,  Sir  Roger,  260 
Sanctuary,  4208. 
Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaits,  Ane,  510, 

549,  552tf. 

Sauvage,  William,  420 
Savernake,  Forest  of,  105,  172 
Saxony,  239 
Saxton,  Roger  de,  235 
Scorue,  Isabella  de,  487 
Screvyn,  Agnes  de,  336,  337 
Scrope,  Eleanor  Lady,  39 
Scroupe,  Jane,  278 
Seal,    Common,    of    nunnery,    218, 

225,  248/1.' 

Seckworth,  William  de,  40 
Sele,  William,  399 
Sempringham  Priory,  35,  228,  326, 

328,  420;  fire  at,  171  w.3 
Chronicle  of,  419 

-  Order  of,  537 
Senoke,  Sir  John,  415 
Sens,  Council  of,  369 

Sermons,     medieval,     249,     5i8ff., 

5i8n.1 

Seton  Priory,  36,  478,  479 
Sevekworth,  John  de,  447 
Sewardby,  Elizabeth,  19,  i66n.« 

-  William,  19 


Sewardsley  Priory,  34  w.1,  174,  351, 
353.  4r9.  457ff-.  461;  appropria 
tion  of  church  to,  181;  begging 
license  granted  to,  174;  church 
appropriated  to,  n^n.1;  disorder 
at,  458,  459;  fair  of,  io6w.a; 
master  of,  231 

Shaftesbury,  Abbess  of,  78 w.5,  162, 
185,  1 88,  190,  195;  see  Bauceyn,' 
Juliana;  Ferrar,  Agnes;  Furmage, 
Joan;  Giffard,  Mabel 

-  Abbey,    2,    30,    ioi«.,     146 
181,    186,    188,    189,   243,   268«., 
300W.1,  338,  339,  385*. a,  421  w.», 
464,  482,  558;  appropriations  to, 
H3W.1,  176,  182;  bread  allowance 
at,    i4in.;   claustration   at,    350; 
corrodies  at,    198,    199;    financial 
difficulties  of,  162,  177,  182,  187; 
hospitality    at,    238;    license    to 
crenellate,  424;  number  of  nuns 
at,  213, 215  w.4;  pensions  demanded 
from,  195;  prebendary  canons  of, 
144,     228  n.6;    Prioress    of,    328; 
Register  of,  14 in.;  resident  chap 
lains  at,  144;  steward  of,  146 
Sheen,  Agnes  of,  440 
Sheldon,  Matilda,  46,  48 
Shelley,  Elizabeth,  279ff. 
Sheperd,  Richard,  107 
Sheppey  Priory,  13,  20,  147,  154%. *, 
156,  158,  159,  221  w.1,  3oow.a,  313, 
325W.1,  33ow.6,  336,  403,  494*.1; 
cattle  owned  by,  126,  127;  "con 
fessor's  chamber"  at,  145,  I47M.1; 
dorter  at,    319;   library  at,    241; 
numbers    at,    216;    servants    of, 
159;    "steward's    chamber"    at, 
147/z.1 

Sherburn,  Bishop,  170,  462 
Shouldham  Priory,  7,  25,  26,  330*1. 3, 

420;  Prior  of,  91,  420 
Shrewsbury,  George,  Earl  of,  146 

-  Ralph  of,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  21,  188,  194,  224,  410, 
452 

Sinclere,  Elizabeth,  49 
Sinningthwaite    Priory,    214,    217, 
249«.7,     25iw.2,     284*1.,     29in.a, 
302W.1,   32ow.,   381  w.a,   402,   428, 
446;  children  at,  273,  580;  claus 
tration  relaxed  at,  356*. 6;  custos 
of,     231;    jewels    pledged,     211; 
poverty  of,  154,  165,  211;  Prioress 
of,  31,  217,  273,  302 n.1;  relics  at, 
116;  visitation  of,  resisted,  482 
Skelton,  quoted,  139,  278,  590 ff.,  603 
Skerning,  Roger  de,  Bishop  of  Nor 
wich,  175 
Skirlaw,  Joan,  327,  328 


INDEX 


721 


Skirlaw,  Walter,  Bishop  of  Durham, 

73,  327.  328 
Skotte,  Alice,  22 
Slibre,  John,  152 
Slo,  Katherine,  328 
Smith,  John,  453,  454 

—  Margaret,  167 
Snawe,  Helen,  4&ff. 
Snowe,  William,  399  n.3 
Sompnour,  Richard,  452 
Sonnenburg,  Abbess  of,  377 n.* 
Sopwell  Priory,  13,  245,  259 n.1,  265, 
370, 378w.3, 402«.4, 456w.4, 476, 479, 
481,581;  accounts  of ,  267 ;  custos  of, 
230;  children  at,  263,  573 ;  Prioress 
of,  245,  370,  480;  and  see  Berners, 
Juliana;  Flamstead,  Matilda  de; 
Germyn,  Helen;  Webbe,  Elizabeth; 
seculars  at,  406;  warden  of,  480 
Southwark,  St  Thomas  the  Martyr, 

442^.2 

Spalding,  Robert  de,  231 
Sparrow,  Philip,  305,  412,  590 ff. 
Sperri,  Reyner,  26 
Sperry,  Joan,  365  w.3 
Spina,  Juliana  de,  244 n.1 
Spinning  by  nuns,  255 
Spiritualities,  100,  ii3ff. 
Spofford,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Here 
ford,  23W.1,  339,  356w-5,  377,  384 
Stafford,  John,  Archbishop  of  Can 
terbury,  44  7  n.6 
Stainfield  Churchyard,  $gon.5 

—  Priory,  38,  niw.3,  199,  292, 
365,  381  n.2,  409;  church  appro 
priated  to,  H3W.1;  Prioress  of,  61 
Stamford,  St  Michael's,  23,  44,  49^-. 
70,  117,  122,  123,  128,  129,  i35«-3, 
142,  164,  180,  20ow.,  236,  310, 
332,  334.  350,  358,  368,  402w.3, 
408,  4435.,  449,  450,  457,  4^0, 
465,  480,  481,  584;  accounts  of, 
?o,  97,  98,  115,  1177*. 4,  n8w., 
120,  128,  136,  143*2.,  163,  202, 
221,  323,  370;  alms  given  by,  121 ; 
begging  license  granted  to,  174; 
boarders  at,  414,  415,  577.  578; 
chambress  of,  136,  323;  children 
at,  265,  272,  283,  459;  churches 
appropriated  to,  115,  128,  I35M.4, 
143^.;  debts  of,  221;  disorder  at, 
491,  492;  financial  mismanage- 
mentat,  204,225w.2;guestsat,i2o; 
households  of  nuns  at,  318;  liti 
gation  by,  201;  peculium  for  clothes 
at,  323;  pension  paid  by,  199, 
200;  pittances  at,  143 n.,  324,  334; 
Prior  of,  230,  233;  Prioress  of,  57, 
62,  66,  80,  162,  199,  204,  221,  233, 
235,  250,  310,  318,  323,  368w.4, 


452,  460;  treasuresses  of,  in,  128, 
i85«.6,    202,    205,    235,    368n.4; 
warden,  special,  appointed,  233 
Stanley,  Agnes,  442  n.2 

-  Isabel,  Prioress,  4 
—  Sir  John,  263 

Stapeldon,  Walter  de,  Bishop  of 
Exeter,  219,  224,  248,  25972. *,  286, 

354.  357,  376.  4°6w-1 
Stapelton,  Emma  of,  52,  53 
Starkey,  Cecilia,  46,  47,  49 
Status  domus,  221 
Staunton,  Richard  de,  229 
Steinfeld  Monastery,  108 
Stevyn,  Joan,  454 
Steward  of  nunnery,  99, 100, 103, 112, 

143,  146,  147,  149,  221,  250,  267 
Stil,  Clarice,  35 ff.,  500 

-  Robert,  36,  37 

-  William,  37 

Stixwould  Priory,  niw.3,  228ff. ; 
boarders  at,  413,  417,  576;  chil 
dren  at,  265,  409;  debts  of,  162, 
184^.*;  domestic  economy  of, 
332;  f rater  at,  31 7 n.1;  households 
of  nuns  at,  318,  320 n.;  master  of, 
230;  Prioress  of,  66,  78 

Stok,  William  de,  23ow.5 

Stokesley,  John,  Bishop  of  London, 


Stommeln,  Christina  von,  27 w.2 

Stonore,  John,  17^.2 

Stories,  medieval,  5i5ff. 

Story,  Edward,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 

453 

Stourbridge  Fair,  125,  138 
Stow,  William,  241 
Strasburg,  239 
Stratford,  Abbot  of,  375 n.1,  481 

-  John  de.  Bishop  of  Winches 
ter,  7,  189,  212 

-  Priory,  13,  27,  32,  51  w.,  191, 
577  •  poverty  of,  191,  192;  Prioress 
of,  191,  192 

Stretford,  Jonette  de,  189 

Stretton,  Robert  de,  Bishop  of  Coven 
try  and  Lichfield,  36,  248,  272,  384 

Studley,  Isabella  de,  301  w. 

Priory,  26,  153 w.3,  I56> 

168ft.1,  208,  268^.,  304W.1,  351, 
380,  397,  398,  399 w-1,  408 w. 2,  587; 
claustration  relaxed  at,  356 w.5, 
358;  custos  oi,  23OM.8;  debts  of,  211 ; 
Prioress  of,  66,  208,  209,  358,  447 

Sturges,  Dorothy,  32,  33 

Style,  N.,  453 

Suffewyk,  William,  445 

Suffield,  Walter  de,  Bishop  of  Nor 
wich,  175 

Surlingham  Church,  113 


722 


INDEX 


Suthwell,  John  de,  85 
Sutton,  Oliver,   Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
I76«.3,  231,  232,  440,  447 

-  Richard,  441  n. 

-  William  de,  233 

Sutton-on-Derwent,  Rector  of,  231 

Swan  ham,  Agnes,  327 

Swaffham  Bulbeck  Priory,  263;  ac 
counts  of,  98,  io2n.1,  279;  children 
at,  265,  268,  279,  570,  571 ;  mill  of, 
107 n.1;  Prioress  of;  see  Ratclyff, 
Margaret 

Swine  Priory,  15,  21,  52,  53,  inn.3, 
146,  213,  214,  228,  229,  248, 
291  n. z,  32on.,  337W.3,  355*-1, 
399M.3,  427,  449,  472W.1,  580,  581, 
580;  books  left  to,  242 n.6;  custos 
of,  2 29 ft.,  230 n.8;  dilapidations 
at,  170;  disobedience  at,  302; 
gifts  to,  326;  mismanagement  at, 
166,  223;  papal  exemption  from 
tithes,  i84«.2;  prioresses  of,  73, 
1 66,  169,  223,  302,  329;  and  see 
Anlaby,  Josiana  de;  Skirlaw, 
Joan;  visitation  of,  449  w.1,  635 

Swine,  Vicar  of,  242 

Swinneld,  Richard  de,  Bishop  of 
Hereford,  183 

Swynford,  Elizabeth,  no,  333 

Symon,  Katherine,  168 

Syon  Abbey,  2,  3,  67,  98,  136,  140, 
141  M.1.  146,  253,  256,  268w.,  586; 
Abbesses  of,  104,  105,  366*2. 3;  and 
see  Gibbs,  Eliz. ;  building  accounts 
of,  92 n.;  cellaress  of,  98,  inn1, 
122,  131  w.,  136,  139,  368;  ac 
counts  of,  136,  333;  chambress 
of,  131  n.,  136,  137,  368;  dumb 
signs  at,  287;  library  of,  240 w.2, 
242;  Myroure  of  Oure  Ladye 
written  for,  531,  532;  privileges 
of,  103,  104;  Rule  of,  I32ff.,  141, 
286,  287,  584,  585;  Sacrist's  ac 
counts  of,  131  w.,  136 

Syward,  John,  n 
-  Dionisia,  n 

Talbot,  Thomasine,  167 
Talke,  Anne,  467  w.3 
Tanneld,  Amicia,  403 
Tang,  Margaret  de,  467  w.8 
Tarrant   Keynes   Abbey,    2,    loin., 

350,    424;    Abbess   of,    71;    and 

Ancren  Riwle,  527,  528;  debts  of, 

164;  Fair  of,  io6n.a 
Tates,  Joan,  88 
Tawke,  Agnes,  4,  88 n.,  211 
Taylour,  William,  82,  84,  463 
Temporalities,  iooff.,  182,  186,  187, 

204,  205,  228,  235 


Terbock,  149 

Terrington,  Maud  of,  443  w.»,  467 
Thanet,  Abbess  of,  see  Eadburg 
Theleme,  Abbey  of,  32,  539 
Thetford    Priory,    33,    2iow.2,    260, 
267,    269,    36m.1,    577;    corrody 
granted  by,  208;  poverty  of,  182; 
Prioress  of,  32 

Thicket  Priory,  iii«.»,  146,  177, 
213,  2Qi  w.  2,  428,  601;  bequests  to, 
325;  dilapidations  at,  170;  Prior 
ess  of,  6  1 

Thirkleby,  Vicar  of,  231 
Thomson,  Johann,  326 
Thormondby,  Agnes  de,  445 
Thornton,  Abbot,  365 

-  Robert,  396 

Thornton-upon-Humber,  387 
Thornyf,  Katherine,  374,  375 

T*l  *          t-vr'tf  *-*  '      '          *J  /  »J 

Thorpe,  William,  241,  372  n.a 
Timber,  sale  of,  by  nuns,  210,  217, 

225,  226 

Titchmarsh,  Maud,  441 
Tithes,  107,  113,  114,  128,  184 
Titles,    farming   out   of,    114,    115; 

granted  to  nunneries,  116 
Tittivillus,  293,  646 
Traherne,  William,  413 
Translations  for  nuns,  25  iff. 
Treasuress    of    nunnery,    109,    no, 

117,  118,  132,  134,  136,  219,  223ff.; 

accounts  of,  118,  127,  137 
Trent,  Council  of,  345 
Treverbyn,  Lady  Margery,  411 
Trimelet,  Joan,  453,  467  w.3 
Tuddenham,  Sir  Thomas,  30 
Tudor,  Edmund,  270 

-  Jasper,  270 
Tudowe,  Agnes,  31 
Tufton,  Manor-house  at,  90 
Tunstede,  Hugh  de,  30 
Turberville,  Agnes,  189,  ig2«.6 

-  Johanete  de,  192,  193 
Turvey,  Rector  of,  46 

Tusser,  Thomas,  quoted,   128,   129, 

131 

Tychenor,  William,  399  w.3,  462,  583 
Tydeswell,  William  de,  195 
Tylney,  Grace  de,  418 

-  Margery  de,  413,  417,  418 
Tyrelton,  Simon  de,  196 
Tyttesbury,  Katherine,  458 

Ufford,  Robert  de,  Earl  of  Suffolk, 


Ulrich  of  Steinfeld,  108 
Upton,  Vicar  of,  232 
Urban  IV,  181,  34271.  »,  344 
Usk   Priory,    223,    224,    348,    350; 
custos  of,  230  w.8,  232 


INDEX 


723 


Valor    Ecclesiasticus,    g6ft.,    ii4ff., 

120,  146,  161 
Ver,  J.  de,  224 
Vergi,  Chatelaine  of,  303 
Vernon,  Margaret,  55,  56,  263,  267, 

57° 

Vert- Vert,  413,  593 ff. 

Vienne,  Council  of,  1311,  306  w.3 

Villarceaux  Abbey,  636,  645ff. ;  ac 
counts  of,  639,  640;  financial  state 
of,  637,  638;  live  stock  of,  640, 
641;  moral  state  of,  665;  Prioress 
of,  643 

Virgin,  Cult  of  the,  5i3ff. 

Virgin  averse  to  Matrimony,  The, 
549ff. 

Virgin,  The  Penitent,  549,  55 iff. 

Visitations,  injunctions  after,  494 ff. ; 
regularity  of,  492 ;  routine  of,  483  ff. 

Vitry,  Jacques  de,  372?*. x,  5I6W.1, 
5I9W.1 

Vox  Clamantis,  499,  545 

Vylers,  Agnes  de,  198 

Wace,  Humphrey,  195 
Wachesam,  Sir  Robert  de,  268 
Wafer,  Alice   201 
Wake,  Anne,  46ff. 

-  Thomas,  419 
Waldegrave,  Rose,  273 
Walerand,  Agnes,  149 
Waleys,  Joan,  326 
Wallingford,  Richard  de,  361  n.z,  479 
Wallingwells  Priory,  35,  52;  Prioress 

of,  1 80 

Walsheman,  John,  103 
Ward,  Joan,  31 
Warde,  John,  399 

—  Robert,  205 
Wardon,  Robert  de,  231 
Warenne,  John  de,  455 
Warham,    William,    Archbishop   of 

Canterbury,   216,  221  w.1,  39ow.6, 

494  n.1 

Warland,  Ingelram,  267 
Warwick,  Countess  of,  18 
Wason,  Joan,  410 
Waterville,  William  of,  480,  481 
Watlington,   Parson  of,   see   Perys, 

Edmund 

Watre,  Johanna  atte,  442 w.3 
Watson,  Edward,  46 
Watton  Priory,  326,  412  w.2;  gifts  to, 

326;  pittances  at,  326 
Wavere,  Margaret,  81,  82,  84ff.,  94, 

220,  299,  388,  460,  489,  583,  584 
Webbe,  Elizabeth,  480 
Webster,  John,  103 
Weinhausen,  675 
Welan.  Thomas,  268 


Wellingborough  Church,  465 

Wellisham,  Sir  Roger,  267 

Wellow  Abbey,  231,  232  n.1,  249 n.1 

Wells,  Katherine,  88«.,  211,  299, 
493.  584,  595.  596 

Wennigsen,  677 

Wester,  Richard,  152 

Westirdale,  Isabella,  87 

Westminster,  Abbot  of,  263 
—  Council  of,  1175,  21 

Westmoreland,  Joan,  Countess  of, 
418 

Weston,  Matilda  de,  191 

Westwood  Priory,  114,  184 

Wherwell  Abbey,  2,  3,  29,  i$6n.1, 
i6^n.2,  186,  188,  195,  263,  32ow., 
329.  353.  461,  635;  Abbesses  of, 
60,  61,  104,  105,  224,  252,  324*1. x, 
410,  422;  and  see  Colte,  Anne; 
Euphemia  of  Wherwell;  building 
at,  169;  burning  of,  425,  433; 
claustration  at,  350,  351,  402  n.4, 
404;  children  at,  573;  coadjutress 
appointed  at,  224;  hospitality  at, 
401,  4O2;jocaliaa.t,  330*2. 3;  library 
of,  242  w.8,  243  n.3}  prebendary 
canons  at,  144,  228w.5;  prosperous 
condition  of,  89,  90;  sacrist  of, 
330 w.3;  sanctuary  at,  422 

Whiston  Priory,  43,  45;  poverty  of, 
173,  1 86;  Prioress  of,  see  Flagge, 
Alice  de  la 

Whitby,  471 

Whiting,  Richard,  265 

Whitstable,  Rector  of,  234 

Whittell,  Roger,  121 

Whytford,  Richard,  254 

Wickham,  Vicar  of,  232,  487 

Wickwane,  William,  Archbishop  of 
York,  6,  212,  338w.3,  339 

Wiggenhall,  Joan,  42,  43,  goff.,  169, 
170,  172,  502 

John,  43,  92 

—  St  Peter's,  91,  134 

Wilberfoss  Priory,  6,  30,  175,  212, 
213,  325,  401  w.1,  4i6n.1,  587,  601; 
custos  of,  231;  Prioress  of,  58*1. 

William  of  Stanton,  75 

Willoughby,  Sir  Thomas,  57 

Willynge,  Hugh,  452 

Wilton  Abbey,  2,  3,  146,  186,  188, 
189,  242W.8,  392,  421  w.1;  Abbess 
of,  54,  105,  172,  185,  188,  350;  and 
see  Bodenham,  Cecily;  Giffard, 
Juliana;  and  Jordan,  Isabel;  fire 
at,  172,  425;  pensions  from,  195, 
198;  prebendary  canons  at,  144, 
228«.5;  resident  chaplains  at,  144 

Wilton,  Alice, 

Edith,  422 


\ 


724 


INDEX 


Wimborne  nunnery,  237 
Winchelsea,  Robert,  Archbishop  of 

Canterbury,  33,  30on.2,  325 n.1 
Winchester,  Bishop  of,  118,  179,  252, 

309  M.6;   and  see  Asserio,   Rigaud 

de;  Pontoise,  John  of;  Wykeham, 

William  of.  etc. 

-  St  Swithun's  Priory,  369, 387 ; 
Compotus   Rolls  of,    i$in.,   313; 
register  of,  3iow.2;  revels  at,  313 

-  St  Mary's  Abbey,  2,  3,  34 n.1, 
I5I«    J53.    159>   Ioo»   I7iw-2,    186, 
188,  189,  195,  210,  279,  369,  387, 
451,  454,  461;  Abbess  of,  5,  60, 
185,  195,  252,  265,  276,  300,  451; 
and  see  Shelley,  Elizabeth;  appro 
priation  to,  181,  187;  boarders  at, 
151,  153;  chaplains  of,  151,  153; 
children   at,    265!?.,    279ff.,    572; 
corrodies  at,  190,  196,  197;  debts 
of,   164,   173,   185,   187;  disobedi 
ence  at,  300;  fire  at,  425;  hospi 
tality  at,  185,  2oow.3;  library  of, 
24 1  n.*,  24  2  «.8;  mistress  of  novices 
at,  2oi«.a;  obedientiaries  at,  132; 
prebendal  canons  of,  144,  228  w.5 

Windesheim,  monastery  of,  670;  and 

see  Busch,  Johann 
Windsor,  Lord,  99,  100,  146 

-  Sir  Anthony,  281 
Wing,  Manor-court  at,  105 
Wingate,  Katherine,  47 
Winterton  Church,  365 
Wintney  Priory,  87,  153,  179,  448*2. x, 

461;  bad  management  at,  203; 
embroidery  made  by,  257;  poverty 
of,  183,  184 w.4;  Prioress  of,  252, 
452;  and  see  Alice  of  Wintney 

Winton,  William  de,  449 

Wireker,  Nigel,  593 

Wittlesey,  Archbishop,  494  w.1 

Wix,  Priory  of,  88,  308,  361  n.1,  374, 
385,  467,  587;  poverty  of,  209, 
210;  Prioress  of,  360*1. 2 

Wodhouse.  John  de,  328 

Wolfe,  Juliane,  489 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  30,  54,  55,  392, 
602  ff. 

Womersley.  Church  of,  209 

Wonnenstein,  240*1. 2 

Wood,  grants  of,  105,  172;  un 
authorised  selling  of,  205 

Wood.  Walter,  269 

Woodlock,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Win 


Chester,  156,  2i8ff.,  248,  259*1. *, 
319*1. 8,  336,  416 

Wool,  sale  of,  by  nunneries,  no, 
in,  127,  217 

Worcester,  Priors  of,  184,  186 

Wortham,  Margaret,  269 

Wothorpe Priory,  115, 135*2. 4, 17in.8, 
I76w.8,  180,  200*2. 3,  353,  457,  584; 
Prioress  of,  180;  and  see  Bowes, 
Agnes 

Write,  John,  149 

Wroxall,  7,  39,  217*7. l,  223,  356*1. *, 
359«-3,  385, 402*2. *,  581;  Prioressof, 
58*7.,  78;  and  see  Alesbury,  Agnes  of 

Wiilfinghausen,  675 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  146 

Wykeham  Priory,  18,  53«.a,  inn.3, 
257,  291  n.-,  374,  428;  dilapida 
tions  at,  1 70 ;  fire  at,  1 72 ;  Prioress 
cf;  see  Westirdale,  Isabella 

Wykeham,  William  of,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  5,21,63,  156,  167,  170, 
216,  218,  219,  249,  261*1. 2,  273, 
300,  306,  324 w.,  337,  353,  358 w.2, 
367*2.2,  369,  380,  401,  410,  451 

Wyllyamesson,  John,  152 

Wylughby,  Elizabeth,  465 

Wynkyn  de  Worde,  254,  533 

Wyteryng,  Alice  de,  204 

Yedingham  Priory,  18,  58».,  inw.s, 
170*2. 3,  206*2. 3,  257,  291  w.a,  325, 
362,  532 *2.2;  custos  of,  230*2. 8; 
repairs  at,  175 

Yong,  Juliana,  423*2.* 

York,  Abbot  of,  200 w.1 

-  Archbishops  of,  58,  59,  165; 
and  see  Giffard,   Walter;   Green 
field,  William;  Romeyn,  John  de 

-  Cathedral,    Chaplain   of,    see 
Burn,  John 

—  council  of,  1195,  373 

-  Emma  of,  5 iff. 

-  friars  of,  122,  199 

-  St  Clement's,   53 w.2,   niw.8, 
122,  165,  175,  199,  301*2. l,  414*1. a; 
boarders  at,  580;  churches  appro 
priated  to,  H3M.1;     relics  at,  117 

-  St  Mary's,  199 
Yorkshire,  moral  state  of  nunneries 

in,  597ff. 
Ypres,  William  of,  433 

Zouche,  Elizabeth  la,  443*2.* 


PRINTED  IN  ENGLAND   BY  J.  B.  PEACE,  M.A.,  AT  THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PKESS 


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Cambridge  Studies  in  Medieval  Life  and  Thought 

ERRATA  FOR 
THE  PASTONS  AND  THEIR  ENGLAND 

Add  to  List  of  Authorities  : 

Berkeley  Extracts.  Abstracts  and  extracts  of  Smyth's  Lives  of  the  Berkeley s. 
Fosbroke,  T.  D.  London.  1821. 

Libraries.    Old  English  Libraries.    Savage,  E.  A.    London.    1911. 

p.  9, 1.  6.  For  "  in  the  cathedral "  read  "  at  the  door  of  the  cathedral,"  and  so  on 
pp.  174,  184,  and  221  n. 

p.  53,  11.  14  ff.  I  have  somewhat  exaggerated  the  amount  of  spinning  and 
weaving  done  at  home  for  purely  domestic  use  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  in 
dustry  in  East  Anglia  was  by  then  highly  organised  under  capitalist  clothiers,  who 
employed  workers  to  perform  the  various  processes  of  the  industry  in  their  own 
homes,  providing  the  raw  materials  and  taking  away  the  finished  cloth.  Spinning 
was  thus  essentially  a  bye  industry  as  well  as  a  purely  domestic  occupation.  The 
Bury  citizen  was  probably  a  clothier  "  putting  out "  work  and  following  the  quite 
common  practice  of  having  a  number  of  webbers  or  websters  under  his  eye  in  his 
own  house.  See  The  Paycockes  of  Coggeshall,  Power,  Eileen,  pp.  45-8. 

p.  1 1 3, 11.  1 1  ff.  For"  de  Regimine  Principium  of  Hoccleve  "  read  * '  de  Regimine 
Principum  of  Lydgate  "  and  so  on  p.  261. 

p.  154,  1.  23.   For  "  Brabraham  "  read  "  Babraham." 

p.  168,  1.  i.   For  "  Paston's  "  read  "Fastens'." 

p.  193,  1.  3i-  For  "s-  Peter's  Hungate"  read  "S.  Peter,  Hungate,"  and  so  on 
p.  285. 

p.  198,  1.  32.   For  "herse"  read  "hearse." 

p.  208,  n.  2.    For  "Oddy  "  read  "  Addy." 

p.  219,  n.  i.   For  "Prothero"  read  "Ernie  (Lord)." 

p.  240,  n.  5.   For  "Jessop,  J.  J."  read  "  Jessopp,  A." 

p.  280,  Index,  sub  Cambridge,  corporal  punishment  at.   For  88  read  82. 

p.  284,  Index,  sub  Margaret  of  Anjou.  For  "(Queen  of  Edward  IV)"  read 
"  (Queen  of  Henry  VI)." 

p.  286,  Index,  sub  Paston,  Sir  John  II.  For  "make  knight"  read  "made 
knight." 

p.  288,  Index.    For  "  Straton  Richard,"  read  "Stratton,  Richard." 


ERRATA  FOR 

SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  THE  DAYS  OF 
PIERS  PLOWMAN 

The  main  errata  are  on  matters  of  coinage  (pp.  69-70). 

(«)    There  were  no  "copper"  coins  in  England  in  the  I4th  (or  i5th)  centuries. 
l"  °f  K,n°Kle"  ai\d."groat"  w*re  not  so  exactly  similar  as  the  text 

a  king  with  sword  and  shield  on  a  ship;  the  *"»< 


fewhet^h  Wr/KSt  StrUClt  in  the  reign  °f  Ed'  IH  '>  Jt  is  therefore  question- 
le  whether  they  had  become  the  "commonest"  silver  coins. 

(d)    "Pence"  and  "farthings"  were  of  silver. 

until  then,  ,he 


p.- 

until 


rnTnt  wifr/r6"  *"    ^  ^anchester  Guardian  has  expressed  strong  dis- 
ement  with  these  generalizations  on  the  medieval  woman:  and  we  are  loth  to 

ofCStSToth°m^a  ^T  5°UrCe'  6Ven  When  th^  -nn^t  be  called 


s,  to  a  painful  depre- 


o 


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