VOWESSES
Not wholly aloof from the subject treated in the previous chapter is the
custom that prevailed in the Middle Ages for widows to assume vows of
chastity. The present topic might possibly have been reserved for the
pages devoted to domestic customs, but the recognition accorded by the
Church to a state which was neither conventual nor lay, but partook of
both conditions in equal measure, decides its position in the economy of
the work. We must deal with it here.
Before discussing the custom in its historical and social relations, it
will be well to advert to the soil of thought out of which it sprang,
and from which it drew strength and sustenance. Already we have spoken
of the heritage of human sentiment. Now there is ample evidence that the
indifference to the marriage of widows which marks our time did not
obtain always and everywhere. On the contrary, among widely separated
races such arrangements evoked deep repugnance, as subversive of the
perfect union of man and wife, and clearly also of the civil inferiority
of females. The notion that a woman is the property of her husband,
joined to a belief in the immortality of the soul, appears to lie at the
root of the dislike to second marriages--which, according to this view,
imply a degree of freedom approximating to immorality. The culmination
of duty and fidelity in life and death is seen in the immolation of
Hindu widows. The Manu prescribes no such fiery ordeal, but it states
the principles leading to this display of futile heroism: "Let her
consecrate her body by living entirely on flowers, roots, and fruits.
Let her not, when her lord is deceased, ever pronounce the name of
another man. A widow who slights her deceased lord by marrying again
brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the
seat of her lord."
A similar feeling permeated the early Church. "The argument used against
the unions," says Professor Donaldson, "was that God made husband and
wife one flesh, and one flesh they remained even after the death of one
of them. If they were one flesh, how could a second woman be added to
them?" He alludes, of course, to the re-marriage of the husband, but the
argument, whatever it may be worth, applies equally to both parties. An
ancient example of renunciation is afforded by Judith, of whom it is
recorded: "She was a widow now three years and six months, and she made
herself a private chamber in the upper part of the house, in which she
abode shut up with her maids and she wore hair-cloth upon her loins, and
fasted all the days of her life, except the Sabbaths and new moons, and
the feasts of the house of Israel; and on festival days she came forth
in great glory, and she abode in her husband's house a hundred and five
years."
An order of widows is said to have been founded or confirmed by St.
Paul, who fixed the age of admission at sixty. This assertion, one
suspects, grew out of a passage in the First Epistle to Timothy, in
which the apostle employs language that would, at least, be consonant
with such a proceeding: "Honour widows that are widows indeed.... Now
she that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth
in supplications and prayers night and day." Simple but very striking is
the epitaph inscribed on the wall of the Vatican:
OCTAVIÆ MATRONÆ VIDVÆ DEI.
The order of deaconesses appears to have been mainly composed of pious
widows, and only those were eligible who had had but one husband. This
order came to an end in the eleventh or twelfth century, but the
vowesses, as a class, continued to subsist in England until the
convulsions of the sixteenth century, and in the Roman Church survive as
a class with some modifications in the order of Oblates, who, says Alban
Butler in his life of St. Francis, "make no solemn vows, only a promise
of obedience to the mother-president, enjoy pensions, inherit estates,
and go abroad with leave." Their abbey in Rome is filled with ladies of
the first rank.
The chief distinction between deaconesses and widows was the obligation
imposed on the former to accomplish certain outward works, whereas
widows vowed to remain till death in a single life, in which, like nuns,
they were regarded as mystically espoused to Christ. Unlike nuns,
however, vowesses usually supported the burdens entailed by their
previous marriage--superintending the affairs of the household and
interesting themselves in the welfare of their descendants. St.
Elizabeth of Hungary, though she bound herself to follow the injunctions
of her confessor and received from him a coarse habit of undyed wool,
did not become a nun, but, on his advice, retained her secular estate
and ministered to the needs of the poor. But instances occur in which
vowesses retired from the world and its cares. Elfleda, niece of King
Athelstan, having resolved to pass the remainder of her days in
widowhood, fixed her abode in Glastonbury Abbey; and as late as July 23,
1527, leave was granted to the Prioress of Dartford to receive "any
well-born matron widow, of good repute, to dwell perpetually in the
monastery without a habit according to the custom of the monastery." Now
and then a widow would completely embrace the religious life, as is
shown by an inscription on the brass of John Goodrington, of Appleton,
Berkshire, dated 1519, which states that his widow "toke relygyon at y^e
monastery of Sion."
The position of vowesses in the eyes of the Church may be illustrated in
various ways. For example, the homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Ælfric
testify to a triple division of the people of God. "There are," says he,
"three states which bear witness of Christ; that is, maidenhood, and
widowhood, and lawful matrimony." And with the quaintness of mediæval
symbolists, he affirms that the house of Cana in Galilee had three
floors--the lowest occupied by believing married laymen, the next by
reputable widows, and the uppermost by virgins. Emphasis is given to the
order of comparative merit thus defined by the application to it of one
of our Lord's parables, for the first are to receive the thirty-fold,
the second the sixty-fold, and the third and highest division the
hundred-fold reward. Similarly, a hymn in the Sarum Missal for the
festival of Holy Women asserts:
Fruit thirty-fold she yielded,
While yet a wedded wife;
But sixty-fold she rendered,
When in a widowed life.
And a Good Friday prayer in the same missal is introduced with the
words: "Let us also pray for all bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons,
acolytes, exorcists, readers, door-keepers, confessors, virgins, widows,
and all the holy people of God."
In the pontifical of Bishop Lacy of Exeter may be found the office of
the Benediction of a Widow. The ceremony was performed during mass, and
prefixed to the office is a rubric directing that it shall take place on
a solemn day or at least upon a Sunday. Between the epistle and gospel
the bishop, seated in his chair, turned towards the people, asked the
kneeling widow if she desired to be the spouse of Christ. Thereupon she
made her profession in the vulgar tongue, and the bishop, rising, gave
her his blessing. Then followed four prayers, in one of which the bishop
blessed the habit, after which he kneeled, began the hymn "Veni Creator
Spiritus," and at the close bestowed upon the vowess the mantle, the
veil, and the ring. More prayers were said, wherein the bishop besought
God to be the widow's solace in trouble, counsel in perplexity, defence
under injury, patience in tribulation, abundance in poverty, food in
fasting, and medicine in sickness; and the rite ended with a renewed
commendation of the widow to the merciful care of God.
It is worthy of note that in these supplications mention is made of the
sixty-fold reward which the widow is to receive for her victory over her
old enemy the Devil; and also, that the postulant is believed to have
made her vow with her hands joined within those of the bishop, as if
swearing allegiance.
Several witnesses were necessary on the occasion. When, for instance,
the widow of Simon de Shardlowe made her profession before the Bishop of
Norwich, as she did in 1369, the deed in which the vow was registered,
and upon which she made the sign of the cross in token of consent, was
witnessed by the Archdeacon of Norwich, Sir Simon de Babingle, and
William de Swinefleet. In the same way the Earl of Warwick, the Lords
Willoughby, Scales, and others, were present at the profession of
Isabella, Countess of Suffolk. This noble lady made her vow in French,
as did also Isabella Golafré, when she appeared for the purpose on
Sunday, October 18, 1379, before William of Wykeham, Bishop of
Winchester. Notwithstanding the direction in Bishop Lacy's pontifical,
the vow was sometimes spoken in Latin, an instance of which is the case
of "Domina Alicia Seynt Johan de Baggenet," whose profession took place
on April 9, 1398, in the chapel of the Lord of Amberley, Sussex.
That the vow was restricted to the obligation of perpetual chastity, and
in no way curtailed the freedom and privileges which the vowess shared
with other ladies, is demonstrated by the contents of various wills,
like that of Katherine of Riplingham, dated February 8, 1473. Therein
she styles herself an "advowess"; but, having forfeited none of her
civil rights, she devises estates, executes awards, and composes family
differences. This is quite in the spirit of St. Paul's words: "If any
widows have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at
home, and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable to
God."
Allusion has been made to the ring as the symbol of the spiritual
espousal. As such it was the object of peculiar reverence, and its
destination was frequently specified in the vowess's will. Thus in
"Testamenta Vetusta" we find the abstract of the will of Alice, widow of
Sir Thomas West, dated 1395, in which the lady bequeaths "the ring with
which I was spoused to God" to her son Sir Thomas. In like manner
Katherine Riplingham leaves a gold ring set with a diamond--the ring
with which she was sacred--to her daughter Alice Saint John. To some
vowesses the custody even of a son or daughter appeared unworthy of so
precious a relic; and thus we learn that Lady Joan Danvers, by her will
dated 1453, gave her spousal ring to the image of the Crucifix near the
north door of St. Paul's, while Lady Margaret Davy presented hers to the
image of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In certain instances the formality of episcopal benediction was
dispensed with, a simple promise sufficing. As a case in point, John
Brackenbury, by his will dated 1487, bequeathed to his mother certain
real estate subject to the condition that she did not marry again--a
condition to which she assented before the parson and parish of
Thymmylbe. "If," says the testator, "she keep not that promise, I will
that she be content with that which was my father's will, which she had
every penny." But, in compacts or wills in which the married parties
themselves were interested, the vow seems to have been usually exacted.
Wives sometimes engaged with their husbands to make the vow; and the
will of William Herbert, Knight, Earl of Pembroke, dated July 27, 1469,
contains an affecting reminder of duty--"And, wife, that you may
remember your promise to take the order of widowhood, so that you may
be the better maistres of your owen, to perform my will, and to help my
children, as I love and trust you," etc.
Husbands left chattels to their wives provided that they took the vow of
chastity. The will of Sir Gilbert Denys, Knight, of Syston, dated 1422,
sets out: "If Margaret, my wife, will after my death vow a vow of
chastity, I give her all my moveable goods, she paying my debts and
providing for my children; and if she will not vow the vow of chastity,
I desire my goods may be divided and distributed in three equal parts."
On like terms wives were appointed executrices. William Edlington, Esq.,
of Castle Carlton, in his will dated June 11, 1466, declares: "I make
Christian, my wife, my sole executor on this condition, that she take
the mantle soon after my decease; and in case she will not take the
mantle and the ring, I will that William my son [and other persons
named] be my executors, and she to have a third part of all my goods
moveable."
Such is the frailty of human nature that even when widows accepted the
obligation of faith and chastity in the most solemn manner, the vow was
occasionally broken. This will hardly excite surprise when we consider
the youth, or comparative youth, of some of the postulants. Mary, the
widow of Lewis, King of Hungary, was only twenty-three at the time of
her profession. Our English annals yield striking instances of promises
followed by repentance. Thus Eleanor, third daughter of King John, "on
the death of her first husband, the Earl of Pembroke, 1231, in the first
transports of her grief, made in public a solemn vow in the presence of
Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, that she would never again become a
wife, but remain a true spouse of Christ, and received a ring in
confirmation, which she, however, broke, much to the indignation of a
strong party of the laity and clergy of England, on her marriage with
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester." Another delinquent was Lady
Elizabeth Juliers, Countess of Kent. When her first husband died, in
1354, she took a vow of chastity before William de Edyndon, Archbishop
of Canterbury. Six years later she was wedded privately and without
licence to Sir Eustace Dabridgecourt, Knight. As the result, the
Archbishop of Canterbury instituted proceedings against her, and she was
condemned to severe penance for the remainder of her life. In the light
of these examples it is unnecessary to observe that the infraction of a
vow so strict and stringent brought the utmost discredit on any widow
who might be guilty of it.
The question has been raised why widows did not, instead of making their
especial vow, enter the third orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis,
both of them intended for pious persons remaining in the world. The
answer has already, in some degree, been given in what was said
regarding the extinct order of deaconesses. Followers of St. Dominic and
St. Francis were bound to recite daily a shortened form of the Breviary,
supposing that they were able to read, or, if they were not able, a
certain number of Aves and Paternosters. They were further expected to
observe sundry fasts over and above those commanded by the Church, and
thus they became qualified for all the benefits accruing to the first
two orders, Dominican and Franciscan. With the vowesses it was
different. The one condition imposed upon them was that of chastity, as
tending to a state of sanctification. They took upon themselves no other
obligation whatever, and consequently acquired no title to the blessings
and privileges flowing from the strict observance of rules to which they
did not subscribe. Even after the Reformation the custom did not
absolutely cease. At any rate, Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, who
died in 1676, is stated, after the death of her last husband, to have
dressed in black serge and to have been very abstemious in the matter of
food.
Here and there may be found funeral monuments containing representations
of vowesses. Leland remarks, with reference to a member of the Marmion
family at West Tanfield, Yorkshire: "There lyeth there alone a lady with
the apparill of a vowess"; and in Norfolk there are still in existence
two brasses of widows and vowesses. The earlier and smaller, of about
the year 1500, adjoins the threshold of the west door of Witton church,
near Blofield, and bears the figure of a lady in a gown, mantle, barbe
or gorget, and veil, together with the inscription:
ORATE ANIMA DOMINE JULIANE ANGELL
VOTRICIS CUJUS ANIME PROPRICIETUR DEUS.
The other example is in the little church of Frenze, near Diss, which
contains, among a number of other interesting brasses, that of a lady
clothed, like the former, in gown, mantle, barbe, and veil. This figure,
however, shows cuffs; the gown is encircled with an ornamental girdle,
and depending from the mantle on long cords ending in tassels.
Underneath runs the legend:
HIC JACET TUMULATA DOMINA JOHANNA
BRAHAM VIRDUA AC DEO DEDICATA. OLIM UXOREM
JOHANNIS BRAHAM ARMIGERI QUI OBIT XVIII DIE
NOVEMBRIS ANNO DOMINI MILLINO CCCCXIX CU
JUS ANIME PROPICIETUR DEUS. AMEN.
Below are three shields, of which the dexter bears the husband's arms,
the sinister those of Dame Braham's family, and the middle the coats
impaled. In neither of these examples is the ring--the most important
symbol--displayed on the vowess's finger. This omission may be
explained, perhaps, by the fact that it was not buried with her, being,
as we have seen, sometimes bequeathed as an heirloom and sometimes left
as a gift to the Church.
Notwithstanding the desire of so many husbands that their widows should
live "sole, without marriage," it is well known that second and even
third marriages were not uncommon in the Middle Ages, and, provided that
they did not involve an infraction of some solemn engagement, do not
appear to have incurred social censure any more than at present.
ECCLESIASTICAL