Chapter XLIX: Part I: chs. 1-16 of a very interesting little book, the Traite de la (1)

Cloture des Religieuses_, 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 permitted 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.

[1077] _Sext. Decret._ lib. III, tit. XVI. Quoted in _Reg. Simonis de Gandavo_, pp. 10 ff.; from which I quote. See also Thiers, _op. cit._ pp. 45-9.

[1078] See Thiers, _op. cit._ pp. 53-60 for these, except the reforms of Busch, for which see below, App. III. Three papal bulls were published in the sixteenth century reinforcing _Periculoso_, viz. the Bull _Circa pastoralis_ (1566) and _Decori et honestati_ (1570) of Pius V and the Bull _Deo sacris_ of Gregory XIII (1572).

[1079] "Cependant il n'y a gueres aujourd'hui de point de Discipline Ecclesiastique qui soit ou plus neglige, ou plus ignore que celui de la cloture des Religieuses; et quoique les Conciles, les Saints Docteurs et les Peres des Monasteres, ayent en divers temps et en divers rencontres, employe leur zele et leur authorite pour en etablir la pratique; nous ne laissons pas neanmoins de voir souvent 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 facon a ses gemissemens, que j'entreprens de le combattre dans ce Traite." _Op. cit._ Preface.

[1080] Wilkins, _Concilia_, II., p. 18.

[1081] See, however, the injunctions of Thomas of Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, to Lymbrook in 1277, which are in part a recital of Ottobon's Constitutions. _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_, p. 201. Peckham, in the injunctions 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, and it is probable that both of these prelates had attempted to enforce Ottobon's Constitutions. _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, I, p. 81; II, p. 846.

[1082] 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.

[1083] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, II, p. 247.

[1084] _Ib._ I, pp. 85-6.

[1085] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, I, pp. 265-6, and in Wilkins, _op. cit._ II, p. 61.

[1086] Wilkins, _op. cit._ II, 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 l'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 scavoir ne la vie ni les moeurs des personnes qui exercent l'hospitalite envers elles. On rendroit, ce me semble, un grand service a l'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 Convents 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.

[1087] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, II, pp. 659, 664-5.

[1088] _Ib._ II, pp. 707, 806.

[1089] _Reg. Simonis de Gandavo_, pp. 10 ff., 109.

[1090] _Reg. Godfrey Giffard_, II, pp. 515, 517.

[1091] _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, p. 546.

[1092] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 9.

[1093] _Ib._ ff. 9_d_, 10_d_, 11, 12_d_, 15_d_.

[1094] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 10_d_.

[1095] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 35_d_.

[1096] _Ib._ f. 16. See below, p. 441.

[1097] _Ib._

[1098] Agnes Flixthorpe. See below, p. 443.

[1099] _Ib._ f. 152.

[1100] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton_, ff. 5_d_, 32_d_, 154. For these and other cases of apostasy see Chap. XI, _passim_.

[1101] Lyndwood, _Provinciale_ (1679), Pt II, p. 155. Quoted by Mr Coulton in _Med. Studies_, No. 10, "Monastic Schools in the Middle Ages," p. 21.

[1102] Apparently friends and relatives in the world outside sometimes intervened, by threats or prayers, to save a nun from punishment. A _compertum_ 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 for equal faults, and follows with long dislike those whom she dislikes until 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 mitigation of her severity by means of the threats of their kinsfolk." _Reg. Walter Giffard_, p. 147.

[1103] _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 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 18th he sent a licence to Canonsleigh, recapitulating his former mandate 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, 511.

[1104] 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." _Worc. 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.

[1105] See e.g. Fairwell, 1367. _Reg. Robert de Stretton_, p. 118. The necessity for an injunction against favouritism is shown by the _comperta_ of Archbishop 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. 76_d_. She was also charged with allowing them to receive suspected visitors. See below, p. 399.

[1106] 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."

[1107] But Archbishop Melton said twice a year at Arthington in 1315. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 188.

[1108] See e.g. Bishop Spofford's regulation at Lymbrook in 1437: "nor to be absent lyggyng oute by nyght out of their monastery, but with fader and moder, excepte causes of necessytee." _Hereford Epis. Reg. Spofford_, 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 Godstow (1358), "par necessarie et resonable cause ouesque lour parents, honestement au profit de vostre mesoun." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 100_d_. 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._ III, 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." _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 186.

[1109] 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 1 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." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_. 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.

[1110] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 120, 128, 175, 177, 178.

[1111] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 100_d_.

[1112] _Linc. Visit._ II, 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.

[1113] Ff. 28_d_, 77_d_, 95_d_. To Catesby, _op. cit._ p. 51. Compare injunctions to Godstow, Gracedieu, Nuncoton and St Michael's, Stamford, pp. 116, 125.

[1114] 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.

[1115] See e.g. Drokensford's injunction to Minchin Barrow [i.e. Barrow Gurney] in 1315: "quod tunc 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.

[1116] See e.g. the synodal Constitutions of c. 1237, 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. Linc._ I, pp. 50-1.

[1117] 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.

[1118] 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_, II, 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 sufficiente, ad idem monasterium, redeuntes de eodem citra solis occasum." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343.

[1119] At Wroxall in 1338 it was specially ordered "qe deux jeunes ne issent poynt ensemble pur male suspecioun qe de ceo purra legerement sourdre, ke Dieuz defent." _Worc. Reg. Sede Vacante_, p. 276. At Lymbrook in 1437 Bishop Spofford 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," a practice which (according to the usual custom) he forbids in the dorter. _Hereford Epis. Reg. Spofford_, f. 77.

[1120] See Thiers, _op. cit._ Pt I, chs. XVIII, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXXI. He quotes the stories of the nuns of Arles in the fifth century and of Marcigny in the eleventh century, who refused to break their enclosures even for fire and were miraculously preserved, pp. 12-13, 32-5.

[1121] The rhymed Northern Rule of St Benedict for nuns (l. 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), promulgating _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, _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 154-5.

[1122] See _ib._ XXV, XXVI, XXVII. 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, _Mon._ 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. Linc._ I, p. 156). Sometimes the prioress of one house left it to rule another, e.g. Elizabeth Davell, Prioress of Basedale, became Prioress of Keldholme in 1467 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 169). Alice Davy, who occurs as Prioress of Castle Hedingham in 1472 and was afterwards Prioress of Wix (_V.C.H. Essex_, II, 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 communiali, 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, Neasham, "Whilk Postulacion I graunt fully with assent of my chapiter atte Reverence of God and in plesing of yor gracious lordship; not wythstondyng yat she is ful necessarye and profitable to us both in spirituall governance and temporall" (1428). (_V.C.H. Durham_, II, 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, Premonstratensians 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.

[1123] See Thiers, I, ch. XXII, 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 Alnwick'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." _Linc. Visit._ II, 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.

[1124] 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 quem 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.

[1125] 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._ III, pp. 180-1.

[1126] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 127, note 13.

[1127] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, 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. See Thiers 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 unanimiter 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.

[1128] "Si quae vero moniales ad balnea qualitercumque 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.

[1129] See Thiers, _op. cit._ Pt I, ch. XLII-XLVII. From the fact that he thinks 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 was very prevalent.

[1130] _Decret._ III, 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.

[1131] See his letter to a superior, quoted by Thiers: "Je suis tout-a-fait d'avis que l'on 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 procedent des jugemens des superieurs et non du desir des filles, qui ne scauroient mieux declarer qu'elles ne doivent point estre gratifiees, que quand elles se laissent emporter a des desirs si peu justes. Il faut donc demeurer la, et laisser chaque rossignol dans son nid; car autrement le moindre deplaisir qui arriveroit a une fille, seroit capable de l'inquieter et luy faire prendre le change: Et au lieu de se changer elle-meme, elle penseroit d'avoir suffisament remedie a son mal, quand elle changeroit de Monastere." Thiers, _op. cit._ pp. 160-1.

[1132] 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." _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 26.

[1133] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 127-9.

[1134] The three anchoresses of _The Ancren Riwle_ and their maids will be remembered.

[1135] Raine, _Letters from Northern Registers_ (Rolls Ser.), pp. 196-8. See also Rotha Clay, _Hermits and Anchorites of England_, pp. 93-4.

[1136] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113 (cf. _Test. Ebor._ II, p. 98). Two other Yorkshire 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 professed 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 (1280). _Reg. Wm. Wickwane_, p. 92. She had probably tried being an anchoress.

[1137] _Visit. of Relig. Houses in Dioc. Linc._ I, pp. 113-15. The prioress' licence addressed to Beatrice is also printed. It may be well here to repeat 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).

[1138] Celestria (? Celestina), nun, and Adilda, nun, are mentioned as anchoresses there. Clay, _op. cit._ pp. 222-3.

[1139] _Ib._ p. 184. An "ancress" was found at this house at the time of the Dissolution.

[1140] 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 anchoresses 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.

[1141] _Linc. 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 them to be ankeris and reclusys withinne fewe yerys comonly eyther they falle in reuersys or eresyes or they breke out for womans loue or for inkyede of ther lufe or by some gile of şe fend. But of wimen ancres so inclusid is seldome herde any of these defautys, but holely they beginne and holely they ende." _Dives and Pauper_, com. VI, ch. B.

[1142] See above, pp. 69-71.

[1143] Wilkins, _Concilia_, II, p. 18. Compare William of Wykeham's injunctions to Romsey in 1387: "Constitutiones bone memorie domini Othoboni quondam sedis apostolice in Anglia legati in hoc casu editas ut conuenit imitantes, vobis sub penis infrascriptis districcius inhibemus, ne ad officinas aliquas aut alias cameras quascumque forinsecas extra septa claustri, vel 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.

[1144] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 122, 125.

[1145] _Cistercian Stat._ A.D. 1257-88, ed. J. T. Fowler, 1890, p. 106.

[1146] Blunt, _Myroure of Oure Ladye_ (E.E.T.S.), Introd. pp. xxviii, xxxii.

[1147] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/3.

[1148] "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 L2. 11. 0. ... 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 8_d._" _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 Fishmere went with Robert Clark to Clapton. _Ib._ 1260/7

[1149] _Reg. of John de Sandale and Rigaud de Asserio_, p. 418. Similar letter to Prior and Convent of the Cathedral Church, p. 576.

[1150] Wilkins, _Concilia_, II, p. 18.

[1151] _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_, p. 201.

[1152] _New Coll._ MS. f. 85_d_.

[1153] Quoted in Thiers, _op. cit._ p. 133, who considers the question in his ch. XIX.

[1154] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 52-3.

[1155] 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, f. 6.

[1156] Amundesham, _Annales_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 65-9, _passim_.

[1157] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 424.

[1158] "I will that Ilke prior and priores that comes to my beryall at y{t} day hafe iii s iiij d and Ilke chanon and Nune xij d ... and Ilke prior and priores that comes to the xxx day [i.e. the so-called "month's-mind"] hafe vj s viij d and Ilke 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.

[1159] _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 roll is unfortunately illegible, but from this internal evidence it should probably be dated 1393-4. There is another entry "paye a couent pur lalme le Duk de Lancastre vij s iij d," in which "Duk" is possibly a slip for "Duchesse."

[1160] There were over seventy places of pilgrimage in Norfolk alone. Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_ (3rd ed. 1911), p. 162.

[1161] Jacques de Vitry does not mince his words: "I have seen many pilgrims 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 incautious 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.

[1162] 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.

[1163]

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 şe garden, to se the herbis growe?
And aftir, with our hostis wyff, in hir parlour rowe,
I wol gyve ghewe the wine, and yee shull me also:
ffor tyll wee go to soper, wee have naught ellis to do."
The Priores, as womman taught of gentil blood and hend,
Assentid to hir counsell; and forthe (tho) gon they wend
Passyng forth (ful) softly in-to the herbery:
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 sprinkler.

[1164] Langland, _Piers Plowman_, B Text, Passus XII, 36-38.

[1165] "Let it never be permitted to any abbess or any other nun, whosoever she may be, to undertake the journey to Rome or to any other holy places; for it is the Devil, taking the form of an angel of light, who inspires such pilgrimages under a false pretext of piety: and there is no one so foolish and so devoid of reason as not to know how irreligious and blameworthy a thing it is for Virgins vowed to God to hold converse with men, through the 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.

[1166] Wilkins, _Concilia_, I, p. 502.

[1167] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 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 especial 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 tenuz par sa religion, nous lui relessoms tut maner de tel auowe, issint qil se poet doner entirement a sa religion parfaire." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_.

[1168] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 172, and Dugdale, _Mon._ V, p. 654.

[1169] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 124.

[1170] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 56-7.

[1171] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 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.

[1172] Quoted in Gregorovius, _Hist. of Rome in the Middle Ages_, III, p. 78 note. See the fifteenth century Florentine carnival song, quoted below, pp. 617-8.

[1173]

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.

[1174] 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.

[1175] _Reg. Walter de Stapeldon_, p. 95. Cf. injunctions to Polsloe, above, p. 355.

[1176] _All the Familiar Colloquies of Erasmus_, ed. N. Bailey, 2nd ed. 1733, p. 379.

[1177] _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 laicos frequentius se immiscent." J. T. Fowler, _Memorials of Ripon Minster_ (Surtees Soc.), II, 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." _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 140.

[1178] _Manners and Meals in Olden Time_, ed. Furnivall (E.E.T.S.), p. 40.

[1179] See above, p. 81, and compare the injunctions sent by Cardinal Nicholas 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.

[1180] 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.

[1181] See above, p. 309 and below, p. 388.

[1182] 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_, II, p. 409. Dugdale notes that Henry VIII is said to have married one of his wives in the Chapel at Sopwell. Dugdale, _Mon._ III, 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 Erle of Ruttlandes place, where the Erle of Oxfordes sonne and heyer, called Lord Bulbeke maryed the Erle of Westmorelandes eldest daughter named Ladye Dorytye and the Erle of Westmorelandes sonne and heyre, called Lord Nevell, maryed the Erle of Ruttlandes eldyste daughter, named Ladye Anne, and the Erle of Rutlandes sonne and heire called Lord Roosse maryed the Erle of Westmorelandes daughter, named Ladye Margaret; and all these three lordes were maryed at one masse, goinge to churche all 3 together 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 l'abbesse se marioit et faisoit sa feste en l'abbaye; et y avoit grosse assemblee des gens du pais; et estoit madame l'abbesse fort empeschee de festoyer les gens de bien qui estoyent venuz a la feste faire honneur a sa niepce."

[1183] From "Proofs of Age, temp. Henry IV," quoted in _Trans. R. Hist. Soc._ N.S. XVI (1902), p. 163.

[1184] "Or viennent 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 tousjours boyvent 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 l'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.... Briefment tout se despend; les commeres s'en vont bien coiffees, 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.

[1185] G. G. Coulton, _French Monasticism in 1503_ (Medieval Studies No. XI. 1915), p. 22 note 2.

[1186] _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 godfather to forty children of noble or wealthy families." Coulton, _loc. cit._

[1187] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 77_d_.

[1188] "That frome hensforthe ye give noo more licence ne suffre eny of your susters to be godmother to eny child, nither at the christening nother at the confirmacon, and undre like payne chardge you nott to be godmother to eny child in christening nor confirmacon." _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 54. Compare 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." _Linc. Visit._ II, 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.

[1189] For her life see M. A. E. Green, _Lives of the Princesses of England_, II, pp. 404-42.

[1190] 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 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 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. Lincs._ II, p. 131. The nuns of Sinningthwaite (1319) were ordered to provide themselves with a competent gardener for their curtilage, so that they might always have an abundance of vegetables. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177. Christine de Pisan's description of the great gardens of the convent of Poissy is most attractive. See below, p. 560.

[1191] Quoted in Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_, p. 177.

[1192] 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.

[1193] _Alnwick's Visit._ f. 71_d_.

[1194] _Ib._ pp. 120, 121, 123, 125. At Bishop Atwater's visitation of Legbourne in 1519 it was stated that the nuns often worked at haymaking, but only in the presence of the Prioress. _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 154.

[1195] See below, p. 653.

[1196] See below, p. 589.

[1197] 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 point de vaches dans leur cloture, estant indecent que les Religieuses s'occupent a les mener paistre, a les retirer des pasturages, et a faire tout ce qui est necessaire pour en recevoir quelque profit. Je dis la meme choses des asnesses, qu'elles y retiennient pour en prendre le lait dans leurs infirmitez. Car elles peuvent les avoir au dehors et en tirer a peu pres les memes avantages, que si elles les renoient au dedans. Aussi est-il dit dans les Statuts du Couvent de Saint Estienne de Reims, de l'ordre des Chanoinesses regulieres de Saint Augustin: Il ne sera loisible de recevoir dans le Monastere aucun gros bestail: ce qui est parfaitement conforme a cette defense du 1. Concile Provincial de Milan en 1565. _Moniales ne intus in septis Monasterii boves, equos et jumenta cujusvis generis alant._" _Op. cit._ p. 415.

[1198] _Ancren Riwle_ (King's Classics), pp. 316-7.

[1199] _Lambeth Reg. Courtenay_, I, f. 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, inhibemus decetero ne moniales hujusmodi pro colloquentium conductu, locutorii januam exeant ullo modo, nec etiam stent exterius in atrio, ubi saecularium est concursus, _sed interius tantum in hortis et pomeriis_ quatenus requirit necessitas et honestas patitur, si non desit omnimoda securitas, consolentur." _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, III, 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 confined 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._ III, p. 129.

[1200] _Hereford Epis. Reg. Spofford_, p. 82.

[1201] William Salt Archaeol. Soc. Coll. New Series, VIII, pp. 118-9.

[1202] Coulton, _Chaucer and his England_, p. 109. He quotes one such rule from the "Menagier de Paris." "When thou goest into town or to church, walk with thine head high, thine eyelids lowered and fixed on the ground at four 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 upward."

[1203] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 124.

[1204] Cf. Coulton, _Medieval Studies_ (first series, 2nd ed., p. 61) and Bishop Hallam's admonition to Shaftesbury in 1410. _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 78. Also Peckham's Constitution in 1281. Wilkins, _Concilia_, II, p. 58.

[1205] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239.

[1206] _Reg. Godfrey Giffard_, p. 267.

[1207] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), p. 276.

[1208] _Reg. Ralph of Shrewsbury_, p. 241.

[1209] _Reg. Walter de Stapeldon_, p. 317.

[1210] _A Boke of Precedence_, ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. Extra Ser. VIII), p. 39.

[1211] _The Wife of Bath's Prologue_, ll. 545-7.

[1212] _Reg. Epis. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, p. 664.

[1213] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 114. Cf. Gray's injunction in 1432. _Visit. of Relig. Houses in Dioc. of Linc._ I, p. 67.

[1214] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 139_d_.

[1215] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343.

[1216] _Visit. of Relig. Houses in Dioc. Linc._ I, pp. 25, 51.

[1217] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 57.

[1218] _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_, pp. 251-2.

[1219] _Reg. Epis. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, p. 707.

[1220] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 50. With this account of the entertainment provided 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.

[1221] _Exempla e sermonibus vulgaribus Jacobi Vitriacensis_, ed. T. F. Crane, p. 131.

[1222] _Anecdotes Historiques, etc. d'Etienne de Bourbon_, ed. Lecoy de La Marche, p. 229.

[1223] See below, p. 460.

[1224] See also below, pp. 448-50.

[1225] Dugdale, _Mon._ V, p. 654.

[1226] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 218.

[1227] _Poetical Works of John Skelton_, ed. Dyce, I, p. 95.

[1228] Langland, _Piers Plowman_, ed. Skeat, Text B, Passus V, ll. 304 ff.

[1229] See above, p. 373.

[1230] _Songs and Carols_, ed. Th. Wright (Percy Soc.), pp. 91-5.

[1231] Gower, _Mirour de l'Omne_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, p. 289. Translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 577-8.