The Gilbertine Order, also called the Order of Sempringham, was that of
the reformed Cistercians. Its founder was Gilbert, son of Sir Josceline
de Sempringham; he was Rector of Saint Andrew's Church in that village,
and died in 1189. The chief peculiarity of this Order was that monks
and nuns dwelt under the same roof, but their apartments were entered by
separate doors from without, and had no communication from within. They
attended the Priory Church together, but never mixed among each other
except on the administration of the Sacrament. The monks followed the
rule of Saint Austin; the nuns the Cistercian rule, with Saint
Benedict's emendations, to which some special statutes were added by the
founder. The habit was, for monks, a black cassock, white cloak, and
hood lined with lambskin; for nuns, a white habit, black mantle, and
black hood lined with white fur. There was a Master over the entire
Order, who lived at Sempringham, the mother Abbey also a Prior and a
Prioress over each community. The Prior of Sempringham was a Baron of
Parliament. The site of the Abbey, three miles south-east from
Folkingham, Lincolnshire, may still be traced by its moated area. The
Abbey Church of Saint Andrew alone now remains entire; it is Norman,
with an Early English tower, and a fine Norman north door.
But few houses of the Gilbertine Order existed in England, and those
were mainly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The principal ones--after
Sempringham, which was the chief--were Chicksand, Bedfordshire;
Cambridge; Fordham, near Newmarket; Hitchin, Hertfordshire; Lincoln,
Alvingham, Bolington, Cateley, Haverholme, Ormesby, Newstead (not the
Abbey, which was Augustinian), Cotton, Sexley, Stikeswold, Sixhill,
Lincolnshire; Marmound and Shuldham, Norfolk; Clattercott, Oxfordshire;
Marlborough, Wiltshire; Malton, Sempringham Minor, Watton, and
Wilberfosse, Yorkshire.
The Gilbertine Order "for some centuries maintained its sanctity and
credit; afterwards it departed greatly from both."