Chapter XLVII: Appendix: IV (6)

[861] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 120, 127, 183. Greenfield may have so enjoined other houses; the injunctions are not always fully summarised. As to nuns' embroidery there is an interesting passage in the thirteenth century German poem _Helmbrecht_ by Wernher "the Gardener": "Old farmer Helmbrecht had a son. Young Helmbrecht's yellow locks fell down to his 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 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, II, pp. 52 ff.).

[862] _Manners and Household Expenses_ (Roxburghe Club 1841), p. 18.

[863] Gasquet, _Engl. Monastic Life_, p. 170.

[864] _Trans. St Paul's Eccles. Soc._ VII, pt II (1912), p. 54.

[865] _Ancren Riwle_, ed. Gasquet, p. 318.

[866] See below, p. 655.

[867] Wood, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, II, pp. 229-31.

[868] 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, also the father or brother, to have access to them." _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, I, p. 84. Cf. _ib._ II, pp. 652, 663. For nuns and medicine see S. Luce, _La Jeunesse de Bertrand de Guesclin_ (1882), p. 10.

[869] 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 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._ III, 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 Polsloe in 1319 to enter convent offices outside the cloistral precincts "pour estre seigne ou pur autre encheson feynte." _Reg. Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 317.

[870] On the custom of periodical bleeding in monasteries see J. W. Clark, _The Observances ... at Barnwell_, Introd. pp. lxi, ff. It is interesting to note that medieval treatises on the diseases of women occasionally refer specifically to nuns, e.g. in a fourteenth century English MS. a certain "worschipfull sirop" for use in cases of anaemia is said to be "for ladyes & for nunnes and other also şat ben delicate." Brit. Mus. MS. Sloane 2463, f. 198 vº.

[871] 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 Husting_, 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._ III, p. 130.

[872] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 88, 88_dº_.

[873] _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.

[874] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 5, 6.

[875] _Visit. of Dioc. Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 243.

[876] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, 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._ II, 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." _Linc. 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.

[877] The controversy was roused by an article by Mr J. E. G. de Montmorency 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).

[878] For the rest of this chapter I shall not give full references in footnotes, because they can easily be traced in Note B, p. 568 below.

[879] _Cistercian Statutes_, 1256-7, ed. J. T. Fowler (reprinted from _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._), p. 105.

[880] Probably, however, after the dissolution of her house.

[881] 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).

[882] N. Sanderus, _de Schismate Anglicana_, ed. 1586, p. 176. The statement is not in the original Sanders. A well-known passage in the _Paston Letters_ illustrates the practice as regards girls; Margaret Paston 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.

[883] Quoted by Mr Leach, _Journ. of Educ._ (1910), p. 668.

[884] 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, Amesbury, 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.

[885] 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.

[886] 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.

[887] Quoted in Fosbroke, _British Monachism_ (1802), II, p. 35.

[888] _Ancren Riwle_, ed. Gasquet, p. 319.

[889] Notice the recognition of the financial reasons for taking schoolchildren. 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.

[890] 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 tellis how that in Essex" (really in Saxony, but the translator was anxious to introduce local colour for the sake of his audience), "in a monasterye of nonnys, ther was a litle damysell, and on a grete solempne nyght hur maistres 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 she commaundid hur befor Te Deum to go vnto the dortur to her bed agayn. And at hur commandment sho went furth of the where, thuff all it war with ill wyll, and abade withoute the where and thoght to here the residue of matyns"; whereat she saw a vision of the nuns caught up to heaven praising God among the angels, at the _Te Deum_. _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S. 1905), II, p. 406.

[891] Fuller, _Church Hist._ See p. 255 above, note 3.

[892] Quoted in Gasquet, _Eng. Monastic Life_, p. 177.

[893] Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of Somerset_ (_Minchin Buckland_), p. 107.

[894] G. Hill, _Women in Eng. Life_ (1896), p. 79.

[895] _Times Educational Supplement_ (Sept. 4, 1919). This seems to be taken from Fosbroke, _Brit. Monachism_, II, pp. 6-7, who takes it from Sir H. Chauncey's _Hist. and Antiqs. of Hertfordshire_, p. 423; it is the first appearance of dancing; as Fosbroke sapiently argued, "The dancing of nuns will be hereafter spoken of and if they dance they must somewhere learn how."

[896] _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 prominent 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."

[897] _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S. 1905), p. 272, from Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dialog. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, p. 196.

[898] 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 vault mieulx de le scavoir et cognoist mieulx la foy et les perils de l'ame et son saulvement, et n'en est pas de cent une qui n'en vaille mieulx; car c'est chose esprouvee." Quoted in A. A. Hentsch, _De la litterature didactique du moyen age s'addressant specialement aux femmes_ (Cahors, 1903), p. 133. So Philippe de Novare ([dagger] 1270) refuses to allow women to learn reading or writing, because they expose her to evil, and Francesco da Barberino ([dagger] 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.

[899] See below, p. 388.

[900] _Archaeologia_, XLIII (1871), p. 245 (Redlingfield and Bruisyard).

[901] See below, p. 309.

[902] Wood, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, II, pp. 213-7.

[903] Quoted Gasquet, _Hen. VIII and the Eng. Monasteries_ (1899), p. 227.

[904] _The Catechism of Thomas Bacon, S.T.P._, ed. John Ayre (Parker Soc. 1894), p. 377.

[905] See above, p. 82.

[906] _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 Sinningthwaite, no specific accusations are made, but the Archbishop enjoins that the nuns shall "observe chastity" (Sec. IX, p. 440) and avoid the suspicious company of men (Sec. V, p. 441).

[907] 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.

[908] The hours seem to have varied in length according to the season; see Butler, _Benedictine Monachism_, ch. XVII.

[909] _Reg. W. de Stapeldon_, p. 316.

[910] Aungier, _op. cit._ pp. 405-9. It is unlikely, however, that Betsone actually invented any of the signs, for similar lists are to be found in the early consuetudinaries of Cluniac houses and other sources. The signs were probably to a great extent "common form."

[911] _Ib._ p. 298.

[912] Bernold, _Chron._ (1083) in _Mon. Germ. Hist._ V, p. 439, quoted in Workman, _The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal_, p. 157.

[913] E.g. a nun asks that sufficient clothes and food be ministered to her "ut fortis sit ad subeundum pondus religionis et diuini seruicii." _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 5. A bishop orders no nun to be admitted unless she be "talem que onera chori ... ceteris religionem concernentibus poterit supportare." _Ib._ I, p. 53.

[914] Vattasso, _Studi Medievali_ (1904), I, p. 124. Quoted in _Mod. Philology_ (1908), V, pp. 10-11. I have ventured to combine parts of two verses.

[915] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 1_d_; but some of these would be absent from the monastery.

[916] _Ib._ ff. 71_d_, 72. For other injunctions against "cutting" services, see Heynings, 1351 and 1392 (_Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_, and _Bokyngham_, f. 397), Elstow 1387 and 1421 (_ib._ _Bokyngham_, f. 343 and _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 51), Godstow 1279 and 1434 (_Reg. J. Peckham_, III, p. 846, _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 66), Romsey 1387 (_New Coll._ MS. f. 84), Cannington 1351 (_Reg. R. of Shrewsbury_, p. 684), Nunkeeling 1314, Thicket 1309, Yedingham 1314, Swine 1318, Wykeham 1314, Arthington 1318 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 120, 124, 127, 181, 183, 188), Sinningthwaite 1534 (_Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 443), etc.

[917] See e.g. _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 1, 8, 67, 131, 133, 134-5, _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_, _Sede Vacante Reg._ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), p. 276, _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, II, pp. 651-2, etc.

[918] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 131. For other instances of lateness at matins, see Heynings 1442 (_Linc. Visit._ II, p. 133), Godstow 1432 (_Linc. Visit._ I, p. 66), Flixton 1514 (Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 143), Romsey 1302 (Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 100), Easebourne 1478, 1524 (_Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, pp. 17, 26-7), St Radegund's, Cambridge (Gray, _Prior of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 36).

[919] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 48; Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 209; _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. Com. Rep._ IX, App. p. 57).

[920] "These are they who wickedly corrupt the holy psalms: the dangler, the gasper, the leaper, the galloper, the dragger, the mumbler, the foreskipper, the forerunner and the over leaper: Tittivillus collecteth the fragments of these men's words." G. G. Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 423. He also collected the gossip of women in church. On Tittivillus see my article in the _Cambridge Magazine_, 1917, pp. 158-60.

[921] _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt (E.E.T.S.), p. 54.

[922] Greek [Greek: akedia]; whence _acedia_ or _accidia_ in Latin; English _accidie_. It is a pity that the word has fallen out of use. The disease has not.

[923] 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_ (1919).

[924] See book X of Cassian's _De Coenobiorum Institutis_, 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 II are paraphrased 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.

[925] Dante, _Inferno_, VII, l. 121 ff. Translation by J. A. Carlyle.

[926] Chaucer, _The Persones Tale_, Sec.Sec. 53-9.

[927] See the translation of the episode (from Busch, _Chronicon Windeshemense_, 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.

[928] Caes. of Heist. _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, pp. 209-10.

[929] _Ib._ I. pp. 210-11. For a case of doubt in an anchoress, which, however ended well, see _ib._ I, pp. 206-8.

[930] Langland, _Piers Plowman_, ed. Skeat, B, passus X, 300-5.

[931] Langland, _Piers Plowman_, ed. Skeat, B, passus V, ll. 153-65. The C 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 written the beautiful description of convent life quoted on p. 297.

[932] See above, p. 82 and below, Note F.

[933] From "Why can't I be a nun," _Trans. of Philol. Soc._ 1858, Pt II, p. 268.

[934] _Wykeham's Reg._ II, pp. 361-2 (1384). Compare case at Shaftesbury (1298) where the nuns had incurred excommunication. _Reg. Sim. de Gandavo_, p. 14.

[935] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 8. Compare Winchelsey's injunctions to Sheppey in 1296. _Reg. Roberti Winchelsey_, pp. 99-100.

[936] 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, 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 namely of our blessyd lady"; among "more greuous defautes" is "yf they swere be the sacramente, or be the body of Cryste, or be hys passion, or be 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 horrybly 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 had been guilty of incontinence and apostasy) to St Clement's York, Archbishop 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._ III, p. 130.

[937] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 383 and _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 155.

[938] 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._ III, 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._ III, pp. 124, 127, 175, 177, 188). 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.

[939] _York Reg. Giffard_, pp. 147-8. For further instances, see Note C below.

[940] Injunctions against dicing and other games of chance are common in the case of monks (see e.g. _Linc. 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.

[941] Quoted from St Aldhelm's _De Laudibus Virginitatis_ in Eckenstein, _Woman under Mon._ p. 115. Compare Bede's account of the nuns of Coldingham some years before: "The virgins who are vowed to God, laying aside all respect for their profession, whenever they have leisure spend all their time in weaving fine garments with which they adorn themselves like brides, to the detriment of their condition and to secure the friendship of men outside." _Ib._ pp. 102-3.

[942] For detailed examples, see Note D below.

[943] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 118. Similar _detecta_ and injunctions at Catesby, Rothwell and Studley (_ib._ pp. 47, 52; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 38, 26_d_) and at Ankerwyke (quoted above, p. 76). Also at Studley (1531), _Archaeol._ XLVII, p. 55, and Romsey (1523), Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 244.

[944] _Archaeol._ XLVII, p. 52. For an equally detailed account see the case of the Prioress of Ankerwyke, quoted above p. 76.

[945] See below, p. 543.

[946] See below, pp. 325-30.

[947] 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.

[948] "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.

[949] "Mem. quod apud manerium de Newenton fuerunt quedam moniales.... Et postea contingit [_sic_] quod priorissa eiusdem manerii strangulata fuit de 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 Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury_ (British Acad. 1915), I, p. 283. In Thorn's Chronicle, however, the crime is attributed to the prioress' _cook_. See Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, p. 1620. The nuns were afterwards removed to Sheppey.

[950] 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 Marie de Bretagne, "Item xviij serviecttes en une aultre piece, led. linge estant en ung coffre de cuir boully, en la chambre ou est la papegault (perroquet)." Alfred Jubien, _L'Abbesse Marie de Bretagne_ (Angers and Paris 1872), p. 156. It is interesting to note that J. B. Thiers, writing on enclosure in 1681, mentions "de belles volieres a petits oiseaux" as one of those unnecessary works for which artisans may not be introduced into the cloister. Thiers, _De la Cloture_, p. 412.

[951] _Reg. Epis. Peckham_ (R.S.), II, p. 660.

[952] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 619 (Chatteris) and _Camb. Antiq. Soc. Proc._ XLV (1905), p. 190 (Ickleton).

[953] 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 continuelment que l'en pourra, et aucune fois le perchier emmi les rues pour veoir gens, chevaulx, charettes, chiens, et toutes choses congnoistre." Gaces de la Bugne gives the same advice. _Le Menagier de Paris_ (Paris, 1846), II, p. 296.

[954] Below, p. 412.

[955] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 168, 175.

[956] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 88-88_d_, translated in Coulton, _Soc. Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation_, p. 397.

[957] _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep._ IX, app. pt. I, p. 57.

[958] Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 191.

[959] 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, ll. 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" (Dunstable 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 without 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. _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 27, 47, 78, 97.

[960] 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 nec falcones nec 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.

[961] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 123, and see above, p. 105.

[962] The nuns of St Mary de Pre, St Albans, kept a huntsman. _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 430 (note).

[963] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 431 (note); Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 359-60.

[964] _Hereford Reg. Thome Spofford_, p. 82. (This was combined with an injunction against going to "comyn wakes and festes, spectacles and other worldly vanytees" outside the convent. Below, p. 377.).

[965] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 554.

[966] Quoted in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 304.

[967] See Chambers, _op. cit._ I, pp. 38-41.

[968] _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."

[969] _Ib._ I, pp. 39, 56 (notes).

[970] Langland, _Piers the Plowman_, C, Text VIII, l. 97.

[971] "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, Winchester, 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._ II, pp. 240-6. At Finchale there was even a room called "le Playerchambre," _ib._ II, 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_, II, p. 189.

[972] "Histrionibus potest dari cibus, quia pauperes sunt, non quia histriones; et eorum ludi non videantur, vel audiantur vel permittantur fieri coram abbate vel monachis." _Annales de Burton_ (_Ann. Monast. R. S._ I, p. 485), quoted Chambers, _op. cit._ I, p. 39 (note).

[973] _Alnwick's Visit._ f. 83.

[974] _Aucassin and Nicolete_, ed. Bourdillon (1897), p. 22.

[975] See the well-known story of "Le Tombeor de Notre Dame" (_Romania_, II, p. 315), and "Du Cierge qui descendi sus la viele au vieleeux devant l'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).

[976] 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.

[977] See below, p. 662.

[978] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, I, pp. 82-3. For a similar injunction to Godstow, see _ib._ III, p. 846. At Romsey the Archbishop forbade the festivities altogether: "Superstitionem vero quae in Natali Domini et Ascensione Ejusdem fieri consuevit, perpetuo condemnamus," _ib._ II, p. 664. The superstition was probably the election of the youngest nun as abbess.

[979] _Norwich Visit._ pp. 209-10.

[980] _Archaeol._ XLVII, p. 56. On the Lord of Misrule, see Chambers _op. cit._ I, ch. XVII. There is a vivid account (from the Puritan point of view) in Philip Stubbes, _The Anatomie of Abuses_ (1583) quoted in _Life in Shakespeare's England_, ed. J. D. Wilson (1915), pp. 25-7.

[981] Chambers, _op. cit._ I, p. 361 (note 1).

[982] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 360.

[983] Cussans, _Hist. of Herts., Hertford Hundred_, app. II, p. 268.

[984] Walcott, _Inventory of Shepey_, p. 23. There is perhaps another reference in the inventory of Langley in 1485: "iij quesyns (cushions) of olde red saye, ij smale quechyns embrodred and ij qwechyns namyde Seynt Nicolas qwechyns," Walcott, _Inventory of Langley_, p. 6.

[985] E.g. (besides the well-known case of Dr Rock in _The Church of Our Fathers_), Gayley, _Plays of our Forefathers_, pp. 67-8.

[986] Leach, _op. cit._ p. 137.

[987] _Ib._ p. 131.

[988] Leach, _op. cit._ p. 137 (from _Martene_, III, p. 39). I have slightly altered the translation.

[989] On Benedictine poverty, see Dom Butler, _Benedictine Monachism_, ch. X.

[990] The alteration was made even by the Cistercians in 1335. See _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 238 (under _Misericord_). Among Black Monks it began much earlier.

[991] _Linc. 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 1440). "Also she says that they feed on fish and milk foods in the upper frater and on flesh in the lower" (Stixwould 1440). _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 76.

[992] "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 orent 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 per servir a tut le Covent" (1319). _Exeter Reg. Stapeldon_, pp. 317-8. Compare _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 165 (Hampole 1411).

[993] For the following references, see _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 46, 89, 114, 117, 119, 121, 175; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 76, 77, 83.

[994] Pupils or boarders may account for these discrepancies.

[995] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 67 (and note 3); compare _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.

[996] Walcott, M. E. C., _Inventories of ... the Ben. Priory of ... Shepey for Nuns_ (_Arch. Cant._ 1869), pp. 23 ff.

[997] E.g. at Gracedieu "_The dorter_, item ther three nunnes selles whyche as sould for 30_s._" Nichols, _Hist. and Antiq. of Leic._ (1804), III, p. 653; at Catesby where the "sells in the dorter were sold at 6_s._ 8_d._ apiece," _Archaeologia_, 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 Redlingfield 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.

[998] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 51-2. See also among many other injunctions and references to the custom the following: Gracedieu (1440-1), _ib._ II, p. 125; Godstow (1432), _ib._ I, pp. 67-8; Barking (1279); Wherwell (1284), _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, I, p. 84, II, p. 653; Hampole (1311), _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 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_d_, 86, Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 218; Aconbury (1438), _Reg. Spofford of Hereford_, p. 224; Stixwould (1519), _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, 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 1387, _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343; in 1421-2, _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 50, 51; in 1432, _ib._ I, p. 53; in 1442-3, _ib._ II, p. 89; and in 1531, _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 tam 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.

[999] 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 abbesse 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 to chaunge till they have goon by course thrugh the hole nomber off susters, and soo aghen to begynne and contynue." _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 51.

[1000] Wilkins, _Conc._ II, p. 16. See also "Et fetez qe lez deuz parties du covent a meyns mangent checun jour en le refreytour" (Wroxall 1338); _Sede Vacante Reg._ (Worc.), p. 276; cf. Elstow (c. 1432), _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 53. It is often accepted that the nuns shall keep frater only on the three fish days, but see Gray's injunction to Delapre Abbey (c. 1432-3) enjoining its observance on the three accustomed days (Sunday, Wednesday and Friday) and on Monday as well. _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 45.

[1001] _Ib._ I, p. 68.

[1002] 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," _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 397_d_. But see Gynewell's injunctions to the convent in 1351. _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_. For the use of separate rooms allowed to ill nuns, see Nunappleton (1489), _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 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.

[1003] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10, ff. 46, 119, 170, 214.

[1004] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/14.

[1005] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 27, 147, 155, 163, 171.

[1006] Baker, _Hist. of Northants._ I, p. 280.

[1007] _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 vº.

[1008] See below, p. 653.

[1009] _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.

[1010] W. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, app. IX, p. xix.

[1011] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 68.

[1012] See above, pp. 15, 17, 18.

[1013] _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 296-7.

[1014] _Ib._ II, p. 97.

[1015] _Lincolnshire Wills_, ed. A. R. Maddison (1880), pp. 4, 6.

[1016] See, for example, _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 31, 43, 54, 62, 90, 98, 109, 143, 166, 179, 216, 292, 337, 345, 349, 363, 376, 382 (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, 377 (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.

[1017] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 156.

[1018] _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."

[1019] _Ib._ I, p. 332.

[1020] _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 187-9. He also left the Prioress 13_s._ 4_d._ and each nun 6_s._ 8_d._ and each sister 3_s._ 4_d._ To certain nuns he left special bequests, to Margaret de Pykering, "one piece of silver, with the head of a stag in the bottom and 2_s._," to Elizabeth Fairfax 26_s._ 8_d._ and to Margaret de Cotam 13_s._ 4_d._; 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 Nunmonkton; he left his two sisters at Sempringham 100_s._ and two nuns of Nunappleton and Marrick respectively, a cow each.

[1021] _Ib._ I, pp. 14-15. He also leaves 40_s._ to the Prioress and convent "for a pittance," 20_s._ to another nun there and 6_s._ 8_d._ to a nun of Watton. He evidently had great confidence in Alice Conyers, for the injunctions of his will are to be carried 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, 144, _Reg. Stafford of Exeter_, pp. 392, 415, 416, _Testamenta Leodiensia_ (Thoresby Soc. Pub. II, 1890), p. 108.

[1022] Sharpe, _Cal. 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.

[1023] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 179. He also leaves her 40_s._ and a silver cup.

[1024] _Somerset Medieval Wills_, I, p. 47. Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, left a bed among other things to her daughter, a nun of the house of Minoresses without Aldgate (1399). Nicolas, _Test. Vetusta_, I, p. 148.

[1025] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 382.

[1026] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.

[1027] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 51.

[1028] _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._ II, p. 255 (my best harnassed belt).

[1029] 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._ III, p. 164 (where the date is wrongly given as 1314).

[1030] See e.g. Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 591; _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 383; _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 52; _ib._ II, pp. 3, 8.

[1031] See above, p. 76.

[1032] 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 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 granddaughter 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._ II, p. 135.

[1033] _Linc. Dioc. Doc._ ed. A. Clark (E.E.T.S.), p. 50.

[1034] _Reg. Stafford of Exeter_, p. 415.

[1035] Gibbons, _Early Linc. Wills_, p. 5. In the Prioress' room at Sheppey at the Dissolution were found "iiij payre of corall beds, contaynyng in all lviij past gawdy (ed.)." Walcott, _Invent. of ... Shepey_, p. 29.

[1036] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 8.

[1037] See pp. 272-3.

[1038] Another nun says that she has nothing at all for raiment and another 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 given them from other sources by their secular friends." _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 184, 186.

[1039] For these references, see _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 7, 47, 92, 117, 184, 186; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 6, 71_d_, 76, 83. Also injunctions as to food at Elstow _ib._ II, p. 39 (and note).

[1040] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, pp. 280, 282-3.

[1041] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359.

[1042] Temp. Henry VII the Abbess of Elstow's account records the payment of double commons of 1_s._ a week to the Prioress and 6_d._ a week single commons 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 allowances in money. C. T. Flower, _Obedientiars' Accounts of Glastonbury and other Relig. Houses_ (St Paul's Ecclesiol. Soc. VII, pt II, 1912), pp. 52, 55.

[1043] _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp, p. 290.

[1044] _Eng. Hist. Rev._ VI, p. 34.

[1045] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 176, 177.

[1046] _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, I, p. 125.

[1047] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 103.

[1048] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164.

[1049] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 397_d_. Compare Eudes Rigaud's difficulties with the hens at Saint-Aubin, below, p. 653.

[1050] 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, 1393 (Item I bequeath to dame Katherine de Barlay, nun of Appleton, one cow. Item to dame Custance Colvyll, nun of Marrick, one cow); Sir William Dronsfeld, 1406 (Item I bequeath to dame Alice de Totehill, nun, one cow. Item I bequeath to dame Margaret de Barneby, one cow); Sir Thomas Rednes 1407 (Item to Alice Redness nun [of Hampole] one cow and one fat pig). _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 189, 345, 349.

[1051] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 72.

[1052] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 593.

[1053] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 85_d_, 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. 86_d_) makes a general injunction against private property.

[1054] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 78.

[1055] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 592.

[1056] 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_ (Surtees Soc.), 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] 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.

[1057] Wilkins, _Conc._ II, p. 16.

[1058] "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 covent sustren reteynen money and proveis thame selfe privatly ayensthe ordir of religion, etc." The injunction is coupled with a strong injunction against dowries. _Hereford Reg. T. Spofford_, p. 224. Compare the injunction to Lymbrook, p. 324 above.

[1059] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77.

[1060] For other references to the _peculium_ for clothing, see _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp, p. 274; _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 23; Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 130.

[1061] Thus William of Wykeham, in the course of his severe injunction against _proprietas_ at Romsey (1387), thus defines it: "Vt autem quid sit proprium vobis plenius innotescat, nos sancti Benedicti regulam imitantes, id totum proprium siue proprietatem fore dicimus et eciam declaramus, quicquid videlicet dederitis vel receperitis sine iussu vestre Abbatisse aut retinueritis sine permissione illius." _New Coll._ MS. f. 86_d_.

[1062] _Reg. Wickwane_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 140.

[1063] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 174.

[1064] _Ib._ III, p. 164.

[1065] Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 143.

[1066] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 8.

[1067] "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.

[1068] Chap. L, _ib._ p. 88.

[1069] Chap. LI, _ib._ p. 89.

[1070] 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 oşer frend" not mentioned in the original.

[1071] In some reformed orders founded at a later date the formula of profession 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, comprised obedience, poverty, chastity and enclosure. Thiers, _De la Cloture_ (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.

[1072] 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_.