Brome, ex-prioress of Wroxall. Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 89 note. For the
case of Isabel Spynys, prioress of Wilberfoss (1348), see _V.C.H. Yorks._
III, p. 126; and for an example of such an arrangement at a priory of
monks see the very detailed ordinance for the living of John Assheby,
ex-prior of Daventry, by Bishop Flemyng of Lincoln in 1420. _Linc. Visit._
I, pp. 39-42. It was not unusual to make provision in the form of
corrodies such as these for other nuns, who were prevented by age and
infirmity from taking part in the communal life of the convent. Isabel
Warde of Moxby, "impotens et surda," held such a grant for life at the
time of the dissolution (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239) and Margaret de
Shyrburn of Yedingham, who was ill of dropsy, had a secular girl to wait
on her in 1314. _Ib._ p. 127 note. Compare the amusing case of Joan
Heyronne of St Helen's, Bishopsgate (1385), who was ill of gout and not
sympathised with by her sisters (_V.C.H. London_, I, p. 458), and see also
cases at Romsey (1507), Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 230; Malling (1400), _Cal.
of Pap. Letters_, V, p. 355; and St Mary's, Neasham, _V.C.H. Durham_, II,
p. 107.
[178] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 120-1. Compare an amusing and very similar
disturbance at Flixton between 1514 and 1532. _Visit. of Dioc. Norwich_,
ed. Jessopp (Camden Soc.), pp. 142-4, 185, 190, 261, 318.
[179] The abbess's or prioress's chamber is constantly mentioned in the
surveys of nunneries made at the time of the Dissolution, e.g. at
Arthington, Wykeham, Basedale and Kirklees (_Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ IX,
pp. 212, 326, 327, 332); at Cheshunt (Cussans, _Hist. of Herts., Hertford
Hundred_, II, p. 270), Sheppey (Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, _Inventories of
St Mary's Hospital, Dover, etc._ p. 28), Kilburn (Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p.
424). See also the inventory of the goods of Langley in 1485 (Walcott,
_Inventory of St Mary's Benedictine Nunnery at Langley_ [Leic. Architec.
Soc. 1872], p. 4). The last three contain interesting inventories of the
furniture of the prioress's chamber. At Sheppey it was hung with green
"saye" and contained "a trussyng bed of waynscot with testar, sylar and
cortens of red and yelow sarcenet"; at Kilburn it was hung with "four
peces of sey redde and grene, with a bordure of story," and contained "a
standinge bedd with four posts of weynscott, a trundle bedd under the same
... a syller of yelowe and redde bokerame and three curteyns of the same
work." At Langley also there were two beds in the prioress's chamber "hur
owne bed" and "ye secunde bed in hur chambur." Clearly the prioress nearly
always had a nun to sleep with her, and the evidence of visitations bears
this out; see e.g. cases at Redlingfield, 1427 (_V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p.
83), Littlemore, 1445 (_Linc. Visit._ II, p. 217, "iacet de nocte in eodem
lecto cum priorissa"), Flamstead, 1530 (_V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 433). For
the position of the prioress's chamber see plan of the nunnery buildings
of St Radegund's, Cambridge (now Jesus College) (Gray, _Priory of St
Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 53).
[180] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 458.
[181] _Ib._ I, pp. 443, 445.
[182] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Series), I, p. 84.
[183] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, II, pp. 651-2.
[184] _Ib._ II, pp. 659-60, 662-3. For another instance of a prioress
faring better than her nuns, see Archbishop Lee's injunctions to
Nunappleton in 1534: "That their be no difference betwene the breade and
ale prepared for the prioresse and the bredde and ale provided for the
covent, but that she and they eatt of oon breade, and drinke of oon drinke
and of oon ale." _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI. pp. 443-4.
[185] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 214.
[186] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50.
[187] _Ib._ II, p. 124.
[188] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp. 155, 131-2.
[189] Sometimes, however, bishops licenced the head of a house to hear the
service separately, e.g. in 1401 Wykeham licenced dame Lucy Everard,
abbess of Romsey, to hear divine service in her oratory during one year,
in the presence of one of her sisters and of her servants (_familia_).
_Wykeham's Reg._ (Hants. Rec. Soc.), II, p. 538. Cf. similar licence to
the prioress of Polsloe in 1388. _Reg. of Bishop Brantyngham of Exeter_,
pt. II, p. 675.
[190] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 8. The same injunction was sent to Stixwould.
_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 75_d_.
[191] _Ib._ f. 83_d_. The next year when Alnwick came again this prioress
announced that she did not lie in the dorter, nor keep frater, cloister
and church on account of bodily weakness; she alleged that he had
dispensed her from these observances, which he denied. _Ib._ f. 39_d_.
Compare injunctions to Godstow, Gracedieu and Langley, _Linc. Visit._ II,
pp. 115, 125, 177. For other injunctions on these points, see _Alnwick's
Visit._ MS. f. 78 (Nuncoton, 1440); _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 119
(Nunburnholme, 1318), 120 (Nunkeeling, 1314), 124 (Thicket, 1309), 188
(Arthington, 1318), 239 (Moxby, 1318).
[192] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Series), II, p. 662. Compare
_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 239 and _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6.
[193] Before it was realised that this office was often held by a woman in
nunneries, scholars were much exercised to explain this passage in
Chaucer's _Prologue_, though a search through Dugdale would have provided
them with several instances. The office is still held in modern convents,
and Dr Furnivall printed an interesting letter from a Benedictine nun,
describing the duties attached to it. "It is in fact the nun who has
special charge of attending on the Abbess and giving assistance when she
needs it, either in writing when she (the Abbess) is busy, or in attending
when sick, etc., but that which comes most often to claim her services is,
on the twelve or fourteen great festivals," when the chaplain attends the
Abbess in the choir and holds her crosier, while she reads the hymns,
lesson, etc. _Anglia_, IV, pp. 238-9. In the middle ages the chief stress
was laid on the constant presence of a witness to the superior's mode of
life, that it might be beyond suspicion. Miss Eckenstein has pointed out
that in the allegory of the "Ghostly Abbey," by the beguine Mechthild of
Magdeburg, in which the nuns are personified Virtues, Charity is Abbess
and Meekness her Chaplain; and in the English version of the poem printed
by Wynkyn de Worde (1500), Charity was Abbess and Mercy and Truth were to
be her "chapeleyns" and to go about with her wherever she went. The
Prioress (Wisdom) and the Sub-Prioress (Meekness) were also to have
chaplains (Righteousness and Peace) because they were "most of worship."
Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, pp. 339, 377.
[194] _New College_ MS., f. 88_d_.
[195] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 15.
[196] _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 190.
[197] _Ib._ p. 108.
[198] _Ib._ p. 138.
[199] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50. For other references to the abbess's
nun-chaplain at Elstow, see _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 52 and Dugdale,
_Mon._ III, p. 415.
[200] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6. The Prioress was Denise Loweliche (see
p. 458 below) and at the visitation Dame Margaret Loweliche "_cappellana
priorisse_" (evidently a relative) said that she had held the office for
the last eight years. Another nun said "that the Prioress ever holds and
has held for seven years, one and the same nun as chaplain, without ever
replacing her by another, and when she goes out she always has this young
nun with her."
[201] E.g. at Campsey (1532) and Redlingfield (1526 and 1532). _Visit. of
Dioc. of Norwich_, pp. 224, 291, 297. At Elstow (1539). Dugdale, _Mon._
III, p. 415. At Barking (still in receipt of pension in 1553). _Ib._ I, p.
438 note.
[202] _Litt. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Series), II, pp. 658-9. Compare
injunctions to the Abbess of Chatteris in 1345. Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p.
619.
[203] _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 108, 109, 138-9,
143, 185, 190-1.
[204] See _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 3, 48, 120, 130, 133; and _Alnwick's
Visit._ MS. ff. 83, 75_d_, 26_d_.
[205] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 49.
[206] _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 108.
[207] _Ib._ pp. 143, 191.
[208] See below, p. 216 ff.
[209] Among "greuous defautes" enumerated in the "additions to the rules"
of Syon Abbey (fifteenth century) is the following: "If any lye in a
wayte, or in a spye, or els besyly and curyously serche what other sustres
or brethren speke betwene themselfe, that they afterwardes may revele or
schewe the saynge of the spekers to ther grete hurte"; others are, "if any
sowe dyscorde amonge the sustres and brethren," and "if any be founde a
preuy rowner or bakbyter." Aungier, _Hist. and Antiquities of Syon
Monastery_, p. 257.
[210] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 121, 123.
[211] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 123, 185, 133.
[212] See e.g. _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 143, 290.
[213] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 186. Compare _ib._ pp. 124, 135 (Gracedieu and
Heynings); _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, ff. 139-40 (Elstow, 1359);
_Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 343 (Elstow, 1387), 397 (Heynings,
1392); _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 117 (Moxby, 1252), 164 (Hampole, 1314).
[214] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 359-60. There are various other references
to "Wynge" (i.e. Wing in Buckinghamshire) in the account, e.g. "Item
receyvid of Richard Saie for the ferme of the personage of Wynge for a
yere and a half within the tyme of this accompte xlviij_li_. Item. rec. of
the same Richard Saie as in party of payment of the same ferme for a
quarter of a yere x_s_," "item, paid to the bisshop of Lincolns officers
for the licens of Wynge for ij yere xxij_s_ viij_d_. Item paid to the
ffermour of Wynge for his goune for ij yere xiij_s_ iiij_d_." For the
London lawsuit see below, p. 202.
[215] See _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260, _passim_. The London references are
in 1260/7 and 1260/17 respectively.
[216] Constitutions of the legate Ottobon in 1268. Wilkins, _Concilia_,
II, p. 18.
[217] Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of the County of Somerset, Minchin
Barrow_, p. 81.
[218] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 187.
[219] _Wykeham's Reg._ (Hants Rec. Soc.), p. 500.
[220] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 89. In 1374 the Abbess of Canonsleigh had
licence to have divine service celebrated in her presence in the chapel of
St Theobald in the parish of Burlescombe "dicto monasterio contigua," but
her nuns were not to leave the claustral precincts on this pretext. _Reg.
of Bishop Brantyngham_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, pt I, p. 335.
[221] Wood, _op. cit._ II, pp. 156-7. Even Ap Rice seems to have
considered Dr Legh's enforcement of enclosure as overstrict "for as many
of these houses stand by husbandry they must fall to decay if the heads
are not allowed to go out." Gairdner, _Letters and Papers, etc._ IX, no.
139; cf. preface, p. 20.
[222] Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, p. 8.
[223] _Linc. Dioc. Documents_, ed. A. Clark (E.E.T.S.), pp. 50, 53.
[224] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 314.
[225] For instance Margaret Fairfax of Nunmonkton was one of the
_supervisores testamenti_ of John Fairfax, rector of Prescot, in 1393 and
of Thomas Fairfax of Walton in 1394. _Ib._ I, pp. 190, 204. The abbess of
Syon was one of the three overseers of the will of Sir Richard Sutton,
steward of her house in 1524. Aungier, _Hist. and Antiquities of Syon
Mon._ p. 532. Emmota Farethorpe, Prioress of Wilberfoss, was executrix of
John Appilby of Wilberfoss in 1438. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 126 note.
Margaret Delaryver, Prioress of St Clement's York, was executrix of
Elizabeth Medlay (probably a boarder there). _Ib._ III, p. 130. Joan Kay
in 1525 left most of her property to her daughter the Prioress of
Stixwould to found an obit there and made her executrix. _Linc. Wills_,
ed. C. W. Foster (Linc. Rec. Soc.), I, p. 155. Sir John Beke, vicar of
Aby, who left the greater part of his property to Greenfield for the same
purpose, made the Prioress Isabel Smith executrix. _Ib._ I, p. 162. These
offices were sometimes filled by nuns other than heads of houses, e.g. the
will of John Suthwell, rector of St Mary's South Kelsey, Lincs., was
witnessed by his sister Margaret, a nun, in 1390. Gibbons, _Early Linc.
Wills_, p. 76. Alice Conyers of Nunappleton was made coadjutress of the
executors of Master John de Woodhouse in 1345. _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 15. For
Carrow nuns (usually the prioress) as executors, supervisors and
witnesses, see Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, pp. xv, xvi, xxii, xxiii, xxix.
[226] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 2.
[227] _V.C.H. Sussex_, II, p. 84. See _Rot. Parl._ I, p. 147.
[228] _An Alphabet of Tales_, ed. M. M. Banks (E.E.T.S., 1904), no. XV,
pp. 13-14. I have modernised spelling. This fifteenth century English
version is ultimately derived from an _exemplum_ by Jacques de Vitry, of
which it is a close translation. _Exempla e sermonibus vulgaribus J.
Vitriacensis_, ed. T. F. Crane, no. LIX, pp. 23-4.
[229] "Item Priorissa raro venit ad matutinas aut missas. Domina Katerina
Hoghe dicit quod quedam moniales sunt quodammodo sompnolentes, tarde
veniendo ad matutinas et alias horas canonicas." _Linc. Visit._ II, p.
133.
[230] J. P. Krapp, _The Legend of St Patrick's Purgatory; its later
Literary History_ (1899), pp. 75-6.
[231] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 3, 4, 5, 8. The Prioress of Brewood White
Ladies in Shropshire was severely rebuked in the first part of the
fourteenth century for _expensae voluptuariae_, dress and laxity of rule.
_Reg. of Roger de Norbury_ (Will. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Collections, I), p.
261.
[232] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.
[233] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, pp. 7-9.
[234] Compare the anecdote related by Caesarius of Heisterbach about
Ensfrid of Cologne. "One day he met the abbess of the holy Eleven Thousand
Virgins; before her went her clerks, wrapped in mantles of grey fur like
the nuns; behind her went her ladies and maidservants, filling the air
with the sound of their unprofitable words; while the Dean was followed by
his poor folk who besought him for alms. Wherefore this righteous man,
burning with the zeal of discipline, cried aloud in the hearing of all:
'Oh, lady Abbess, it would better adorn your religion, that ye, like me,
should be followed, not by buffoons, but by poor folk!' Whereat she was
much ashamed, not presuming to answer so worthy a man." Translated in
Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, p. 251.
[235] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 148.
[236] _V.C.H. Warwick_, II, p. 71.
[237] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 155. Sometimes however, the heads of houses
received episcopal dispensations to reside for a period outside their
monasteries, for the sake of health. Joan Formage, Abbess of Shaftesbury,
received one in 1368, allowing her to leave her abbey for a year and to
reside in her manors for air and recreation. _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 78.
Josiana de Anlaby (the Prioress of Swine about whose election there had
been so much trouble) had licence in 1303 to absent herself on account of
ill-health. Dugdale, _Mon._ V, p. 493.
[238] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 638.
[239] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 187.
[240] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 619.
[241] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, pp. 18-19.
[242] _Ib._ V, p. 256.
[243] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 78.
[244] _Archaeologia_, XLVIII, pp. 56, 58.
[245] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 83 and _d_, 39_d_, 96.
[246] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 120, 121.
[247] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 2-4, 6.
[248] _Cal. of Pat. Rolls_ (1441-6), p. 141.
[249] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 46-52.
[250] Compare the complaint of the sisters of the hospital of St James
outside Canterbury in 1511, that the Prioress was a _diffamatrix_ of the
sisters and used to say publicly in the neighbourhood that they were
incontinent _et publice meretrices_, to the great scandal of the house.
The ages of the sisters were 84, 80, 50 and 36 respectively and the
Prioress herself was 74. _Eng. Hist. Rev._ VI, p. 23.
[251] Compare Archbishop Bowet's injunction to the Prioress of Hampole in
1411 that "Alice Lye, her nun who held the office of _hostilaria_, or
anyone who succeeded her in office, should henceforth be free from
entering the rooms of guests to lay beds, but that the porter should
receive the bedclothes from the _hostilaria_ at the lower gate, and when
the guests had departed, should give them back to her at the same place."
_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 165. For the charge that the Prioress made the
nuns work, compare the case of Eleanor Prioress of Arden in 1396 (pp. 85-6
below) and the case of the Prioress of Easebourne in 1441: "Also the
Prioress compels her sisters to work continually like hired workwomen (_ad
modum mulieres conducticiarum_) and they receive nothing whatever for
their own use from their work, but the prioress takes the whole profit
(_totum percipit_)." _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 7.
[252] Compare the case of Denise Loweliche, p. 458 below.
[253] _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 283-5 (summary in _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp.
114-5).
[254] An analysis of receipts and expenditure by the Prioress during her
term of office, given at the end of the _comperta_, stands thus:
In the first year: Receipts L22. 7_s._ 6_d._ Expenses L27. 6_s._ 8_d._
In the second year: Receipts L25. 3_s._ 0_d._ Expenses L40.
In the third year: Receipts L26. 9_s._ 6_d._ Expenses L27. 3_s._ 0_d._
[255] The nuns of Swine made the same complaint in 1268. "Binis, tamen,
diebus in ebdomada aqua pro cervisia eisdem subministratur." _Reg. of
Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 148.
[256] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 506 note.
[257] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, p. 55.
[258] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, pp. 83-4. The other cases may be noted more
briefly. For the story of Denise Loweliche, Prioress of Markyate (Beds.),
see _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 82-6, and below, pp. 458-9. Alice de Chilterne,
Prioress of White Hall, Ilchester, was deprived for incontinence with the
chaplain and for wasting the goods of the house to such an extent that the
nuns were reduced to begging their bread (1323). Hugo, _Med. Nunneries of
Somerset, Whitehall in Ilchester_, pp. 78-9 and _Reg. John of Drokensford_
(Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 227, 245, 259. In 1325 Joan de Barton, Prioress
of Moxby, was deprived _super lapsu carnis_ with the chaplain. _V.C.H.
Yorks._ III, p. 240. In 1495 Elizabeth Popeley was deprived, two years
after her confirmation as Prioress of Arthington, for having given birth
to a child and for wasting the goods of the house. _Ib._ p. 189. The case
of Katherine Wells, Prioress of Littlemore, who put her nuns in the stocks
and took the goods of the house to provide a dowry for her illegitimate
daughter is noted below, Note F. See also the stories of Elizabeth Broke,
Abbess of Romsey, and Agnes Tawke, Prioress of Easebourne. Liveing, _Rec.
Romsey Abbey_, pp. 211-222 and _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, pp. 14-19.
Joan Fletcher, Prioress of Basedale, resigned from fear of deposition in
1527 and then cast aside her habit and left the house. _Yorks. Archaeol.
Journ._ XVI, pp. 431-2.
[259] It was translated by the Rev. Dr Cox in _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp.
132-3, from a chartulary of Wherwell Abbey compiled in the fourteenth
century (_Brit. Mus. Egerton MS._ 2104) and quoted by Gasquet, _English
Monastic Life_, pp. 155-8.
[260] See the account in the _Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery_, ed. Mary Bateson
(_Norfolk Archaeology_, XI, pp. 59-63). Also a charming account of
Crabhouse (founded largely on this register) in Jessopp, _Ups and Downs of
an Old Nunnery_ (_Frivola_, 1896, pp. 28 ff.). The English portion of the
register was written some time after 1470.
[261] _Reliquiae Antiquae_, I, p. 314. See also a little further on in the
Crabhouse Register: "And xx mark we hadde of the gifte of Edmunde Peris
persoun of Watlington before seyde sekatoure to the same Roger wiche was
nought payed tyl xvj yere aftyr his day." Compare the complaint at Rusper
in 1478: "Item dicit quod Johannes Wood erat executor domini Ricardi
Hormer ... qui fuit a retro in solucione pensionis v_s._ per xxx annos
priorisse et conventui de Rushper." But this may mean that the late
Richard (a rector) had failed to pay. _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ V, p. 255.
[262] With this account of the building of Crabhouse church it is
interesting to compare the costs incurred in building the "newe chirch" of
Syon Abbey in 1479-80. Two small schedules of accounts dealing with this
work are preserved in the Public Record Office. The first is particularly
interesting for its list of workmen employed: "Summa of the wages of
Werkmen wirchyng as well opon and wyane the newe chirch of the monastery
of Syun, as opon parte of the newe byldyng of the Brether Cloyster,
chapitirhous and library, that is to sey fr. the xth day of October in the
xixth yere of the reigne of kyng E. the iiijth vnto the vijth day of
October in the xxth yere of the reigne of the same kyng, as it is declared
partelly in ij jurnalles of work thereof examyned. It. ffremasons ccxlv
li. xij s. xj d. It. harde-hewers xxx li. xj s. vij d. ob. It. Brekeleyers
xvj li. xvj s. ij d. It. chalk-hewers xlj s. iij d. It. Carpenters and
joynours xlvj s. ix d. It. Tawyers ix li. xvj s. iiij d. It. Smythes
xliiij li. xix s. x d. It. Laborers xxxvj li. xix s. vij d. It. Paied to
James Powle Brekeman for makyng of breks lxxvj li. viij s. iiij d. Summa
to{l}, cccclxvij li. viij s. iij d. ob." (_P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1261/2).
The other schedule gives further details: "Expenses vpon our newe churche.
The makyng of the rof w{t} tymber and cariage and workmanship ix{c}lxv li.
xviij s. iij d. q{a}, lede castyng, jynyng, leyyng sawdir with diuers
cariage v{c}xxxv li. x s. x d. Iron bought with cariage, weyng and
whirvage lxxiij li. xvi s. x d. Ragstone, assheler ffreston with cariage,
masons and labourers for the vantyng and ffurryng of the pilers and
purvyaunes vnto the xxvij of maii m{l}m{l}v{c}xlix li. xj s. j d. ob.
Summa total for the church m{l}m{l}m{l}m{l}cxxxiiij li. xvij s. ob. q{a}.
Expenses of the cloystor and dortour vnto the xxvij day of maii
vj{c}iiij{xx}xviij li. ix s. x d. Summa to{l}.
m{l}m{l}m{l}m{l}viij{c}xxxiij li. vj s. x d. ob. q{a}." (_Ib._ 1261/3.)
[263] Mr Coulton suggests the reading 'a mason hewande,' i.e. a hard-hewer
or rough hewer, as opposed to the better freemason.
[264] The _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ was published in six volumes by the
Record Commission (1810-34). It is the subject of a detailed study by
Professor Alexander Savine, "English Monasteries on the Eve of the
Suppression," in _Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History_, ed.
Vinogradoff, vol. I (1909). For this reason, and also because of their
greater interest, I have preferred to base my study of nunnery finance on
the account rolls of the nuns. The _Valor_ as it affects nunneries has
been largely drawn upon in an unpublished thesis by Miss H. T. Jacka, _The
Dissolution of the English Nunneries, Thesis submitted for the Degree of
M.A. in the University of London_ (Dec. 1917). It is a pity that this
useful little work is not published. I have been able to consult it and
have made use (as will be seen from footnotes to this chapter) of the
admirable chapter II on "The Property of the Nunneries"; for my quotations
from the _Valor_ I have invariably used her analysis. Anyone wishing for
an intensive study of the Dissolution from the point of view of monastic
houses for women cannot do better than consult this thesis, which is far
more detailed, exact and judicial in tone than any other modern account.
[265] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260.
[266] The wardens' accounts are in _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 867/21-6 and the
prioress's accounts, _ib._ 867/30, 32, 33-36. and _Hen. VII_, no. 274.
They are briefly described in _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 430-1 (notes 30, 31,
39). An excellent prioress's account for 2-4 Hen. VII is printed by
Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 358-61, the prioress being Christian Bassett.
[267] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10. See Gasquet, _Eng. Monastic Life_,
pp. 158-176.
[268] A. Gray, _Priory of St Radegund's, Cambridge_, pp. 145-85.
[269] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, pp. 278-83. Compare
_P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/1 for a Catesby account roll for 11-14 Hen. IV.
[270] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, pp. 458-60. See also _P.R.O._ 1257/2 for Denney,
14 Hen. IV-1 Hen. V.
[271] See Ch. IV, _passim_.
[272] _Valor Eccles._ IV, p. 302.
[273] _Ib._ III, p. 103.
[274] _Ib._ I, p. 119.
[275] _Ib._ I, p. 397.
[276] _Ib._ I, p. 424.
[277] Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 44.
[278] Jacka, _op. cit._ ff. 27, 29-30. The information about Syon and the
Minoresses is taken from _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 424 and I, p. 397
respectively.
[279] See Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 25.
[280] If the demesne land were let out in farm the customary ploughing and
other services of the villeins would no longer be needed and if only a
portion of it were so farmed the number of villein services required would
be proportionately less. This, as well as the increasing employment of
hired labour on the demesne during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
accounts for the item "Sale of Works" which appears in the Romsey account
for 1412. Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 194. From another point
of view the number of rent-payers was increased by the fact that both free
and unfree tenants could rent pieces of the demesne. As to the farming of
the demesne, note however the conclusion to which Miss Jacka comes from a
study of the _Valor_ and the Dissolution _Surveys_ now in the Augmentation
Office: "The question 'to what extent did the nuns in 1535 farm their
demesnes?' cannot be confidently answered on the evidence of any of the
records before us. Apart from the fact that in many cases there is no
statement at all, the word 'firma' or 'farm' is used so ambiguously that
even where it occurs it is impossible to be certain that a lease
existed.... There are, of course, unmistakeable cases in which the
demesnes were farmed: Tarrant Keynes kept in hand the demesnes of 3 manors
and farmed that of 7; Shaftesbury occupied the demesne of one manor and
farmed that of 18 (_Valor Eccles._ I, pp. 265, 276). But in none of the
few cases in which the whole of the demesne is described as yielding a
'firma,' should we be justified, in view of the several uses of the word,
in asserting that it had the definite character of a lease. That is to
say, whatever may be our suspicions, the evidence before us does not
warrant the assertion that in a single case did the nuns farm the whole of
their demesnes; and this conclusion is an unexpected and remarkable one,
for we might well expect them to be among the first land holders who
seized this method of simplifying their manorial economy." Jacka, _op.
cit._ f. 47.
[281] In the account roll of Dame Christian Bassett, Prioress of Delapre
(St Albans) for 2-4 Hen. VII, the "rente fermys" range between L7 from
Robert Pegge for the farm of the whole manor of Pray, to 2_s._ received
from Richard Franklin "for the ferme of vj acres of londe in Bacheworth";
one John Shon pays 6_s._ 8_d._ "for the ferme of certeyne londs in
Bacheworth and ij tenements in Seint Mighell strete with a lyme kylne";
Richard Ordeway pays 10_s._ for rent farm of "an hous w{t}in the Pray" and
Robert Pegge 8_s._ for rent farm of "an hous and a stable w{t}in
Praygate." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 358-9. In this account her assize
rents amount to L2. 11_s._ 2_d._ within the town of St Albans and her
rents farm to L4. 13_s._ 2_d._; while outside the town the rents of assize
amount to L2. 5_s._ 0_d._ and the rents farm to L11. 19_s._ 8_d._, while
four items amounting to L1. 19_s._ 11_d._ are doubtful, but probably
represent farms. That is to say very nearly three quarters of the lands
and houses belonging to Delapre were farmed out, and if we except payments
from the town of St Albans, which were probably house-rents, over
four-fifths of its possessions were in farm. Similarly in the account roll
of Margaret Ratclyff, Prioress of Swaffham, for 22 Ed. IV. the rents are
classified as _Redditus Assise_ (L6. 0_s._ 4_d._ in all), _Firma Terrae_
(L13. 0_s._ 3-1/2_d._ in all) and _Firma Molendini_, the farm of a mill
(L3. 14_s._ 4_d._). _Ib._ IV, p. 459.
[282] References to money paid in fees to rent-collectors, or in
gratuities to men who had brought rents up to the house often occur in
account rolls, e.g. in the Catesby roll for 1414-15, "Also in expenses of
collecting rents wheresoever to be collected ... xix_s._ Also paid to
divers receivers of rent for the time viij_s._ viij_d._" Baker, _Hist. of
Northants._ I, p. 280. In the Delapre account of 2-4 Hen. IV, "Item paid
to a man that brought money from Cambryg for a rewarde viij_d._ Item for
dyvers men y{t} brought in their rent at dyvers tymes xx_s._ ij_d._"
Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359. In the St Radegund's Cambridge account of
1449-51, "In the expenses of Thomas Key (xvij_d._ ob.) at Abyngton,
Litlyngton, Whaddon, Crawden, Bumpsted and Cambridge for the business of
the lady (prioress) and for levying rent ... and in the stipend of Thomas
Key collecting rents in Cambridge and the district this year xiii_s._
iiij_d._" Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 173-4.
[283] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 148, 164.
[284] See for a translation of the whole charter, Aungier, _Hist. of
Syon_, pp. 60-67. The original is given _ib._ pp. 411-8.
[285] See the valuation of Syon Monastery, A.D. 1534, translated from the
_Valor Ecclesiasticus_, _ib._ pp. 439-450. At Romsey in 1412 the
perquisites of courts brought in a total of L14 out of an annual income of
L404. 6_s._ 0-1/2_d._, made up of the rents and farms, sale of works, sale
of farm produce and perquisites of courts on six manors. Liveing, _Records
of Romsey Abbey_, p. 194.
[286] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 135.
[287] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 370. So apparently had the Prioress of
Carrow. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, p. 21.
[288] See p. 70 above. Compare the Catesby roll for 1414-15. "And in the
expenses of the steward at the court this year and at other times vi_s._
viii_d._" Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 280.
[289] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 118.
[290] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1272-9, p. 392.
[291] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1296-1302, p. 238.
[292] In the account of the Prioress of Delapre already quoted occurs the
item "Receyvid for ij standyngs at Prayffayre at ij tymes v_s._" Dugdale,
_Mon._ III, p. 359. The fair time was the feast of the Nativity of the
B.V.M. (Sept. 8th) and the account for another year shows that over L1 was
spent on the convent and visitors at this time. The accounts for 1490-3
include payments for making trestles and forms in connection with the
fair. _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 430 (note 31) and p. 439 (note 39). The nuns
of St Radegund's, Cambridge, were granted by Stephen a fair, which was
afterwards known as Garlick fair, and was held in their churchyard for two
days on August 14th and 15th. They did not receive much from it; in 1449
the tolls amounted only to 5_s._ 2_d._; moreover they had to give the toll
collectors 6_d._ for a wage and they evidently made the occasion one for
entertainment, for they hired an extra cook for 3_d._ "to help in the
kitchin at the fair time." Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp.
49-50.
[293] The _Valor Eccles._ occasionally notes income derived from fairs.
Tarrant Keynes had L2 from the fair at Woodburyhill, Shaftesbury had L2.
4_s._ 6_d._ from Shaftesbury fair, Malling received L3. 6_s._ 8_d._ from
Malling market and fair and L3 from a market "cum terris et tenementis" at
Newheth, Blackborough had L1 from Blackborough fair and Elstow had L7.
12_s._ 0_d._ from Elstow fair. _Valor Eccles._ I, pp. 265, 276, 106; II,
p. 205; III, p. 395; IV, p. 188.
[294] The mill belonging to the home farm would be in the charge of a
miller, who was one of the hired servants of the house and was paid a
regular stipend. Other mills would probably be farmed out. The nuns of
Catesby had two mills, which brought them in 12_s._ and 22_s._ a year
respectively; one, a wind-mill, was probably farmed, but the water-mill
was in charge of Thomas Milner, at a wage of 20_s._ and his servant, who
was paid 2_s._ 6_d._ The nuns also received tolls of grain in kind from
the mill; a certain proportion of which was handed over to the miller for
his household. The mill does not seem to have paid very well, for a heavy
list of "Costs of the Mill," amounting to 31_s._ 6_d._ appears in the
account; it includes the wages of the miller and his boy and payments to a
carpenter for making the mill-wheel for seventeen days and in damming the
mill-tail and buying shoes with nails for the mill horses. Baker, _op.
cit._ I, pp. 279, 281. At Swaffham Bulbeck the "Firma Molendini" brought
in L3. 14_s._ 4_d._ Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 457. Malling Abbey had a
fulling-mill. _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 276.
[295] For instance in Hone, _The Manor and Manorial Records_ (1906).
[296] Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 591.
[297] Baker, _op. cit._ I, pp. 279, 282.
[298] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 370.
[299] For examples of mortuary law-suits, receipts and results, see
Coulton, _Med. Garn._, pp. 561-6. On the whole subject of mortuaries and
the unpopularity which they entailed upon the church, see Coulton,
_Medieval Studies_, no. 8 ("Priests and People before the Reformation,"
pp. 3-7).
[300] Translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 323. Compare another of
Caesarius' tales of the usurer who was taken by the devil through various
places of torment: "There also he saw a certain honest knight lately dead,
Elias von Rheineck, castellan of Horst, seated on a mad cow with his face
towards her tail and his back to her horns; the beast rushed to and fro,
goring his back every moment so that the blood rushed forth. To whom the
usurer said, 'Lord, why suffer ye this pain?' 'This cow,' replied the
knight, 'I tore mercilessly from a certain widow; wherefore I must now
endure this merciless punishment from the same beast.'" _Ib._ p. 214.
Certainly the medieval imagination had a genius for making the punishment
fit the crime.
[301] A nunnery in a large town would be far more dependent on buying
food. Thus an account of the household expenses of St Helen's Bishopsgate,
in the sixteenth century shows that the nuns had to pay L22 for buying
corn and L60. 13_s._ 4_d._ for meat and other foodstuffs. They were
heavily in debt, and their creditors included a brewer, a "cornman," two
fishmongers and a butcher. _V.C.H. London_, I, p. 460.
[302] Baker, _op. cit._ I, pp. 281-3.
[303] The convent bought 4-1/2 qrs. of salt for 25_s._ for the operation
this year. Baker, _op. cit._ I, p. 280. Compare, for the operation at
Gracedieu, Gasquet, _Eng. Mon. Life_, p. 174.
[304] The account of the cellaress of Syon for the year 1536-7 gives very
full details of the income derived from the sale of hides and fells. John
Lyrer, tanner, buys from her fifty-five ox-hides at 3_s._ 6_d._ each, and
three cow-hides, two steer-hides, one bull-hide, and one murrain ox-hide
at 2_s._ 4_d._ each, making a total of L10. 8_s._ 10_d._ The same John
Lyrer buys 230 calf-skins for L3. 16_s._ 8_d._ John Cockes, fellmonger,
buys 287 "shorling felles," at 3_s._ the dozen, 190 "skynnes of wynter
felles" at 6_s._ the dozen, 77 "skynnes somerfelles" at 8_s._ the dozen,
for a total for L10. 18_s._ 1_d._ The different qualities of wool were
always carefully distinguished and priced. _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed.
Blunt, p. xxix.
[305] A few examples taken at random will suffice: "By the sale of wool 4
marks 11_s._ 8_d._ From Gilbert of Chesterton for the wool _del aan ke est
aveni_ 100_s._" (32-3 Edw. I). _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/1. "From the
sale of 14 stone of wool, price per stone 7_s._, 4_l._ 18_s._" (48-9 Edw.
III). _Ib._ 1260/4. "Received for one sack of 20 stone of wool sold last
year, at 4_s._ per stone, 13 marks, 10_s._ 8_d._ Received for one sack of
this years wool, at 4_s._ 6_d._ per stone, 5_l._ 17_s._ 0_d._" (either
46-7 or 47-8 Edw. III). _Ib._ 1260/21. "From John of the Pantry for 11-1/2
stone of wool at 6_s._ the stone, 69_s._" (1-2 Rich. II). _Ib._ 1260/7. In
1412 Romsey Abbey derived L60 out of a total income of L404. 6_s._
4-1/2_d._ from the sale of wool. Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 194.
[306] See, for this very interesting document, Cunningham, _Growth of
English Industry and Commerce_ (1905 ed.), I, App. D, pp. 628-41. The
nunneries mentioned, with the amount of wool obtainable from each
annually, are Stainfield (from 12 sacks), Stixwould (from 15 sacks),
Nuncoton (from 10 sacks), Hampole (from 6 sacks), St Leonard's Grimsby
(from 2 sacks), Heynings (from 2 sacks), Gokewell (from 4 sacks), Langley
(from 5 sacks), Arden (from 10 sacks), Keldholme (from 12 sacks), Rosedale
(from 10 sacks), St Clement's York (from 3 sacks), Swine (from 8 sacks),
Marrick (from 8 sacks), Wykeham (from 4 sacks), Ankerwyke (from 4 sacks),
Thicket (from 4 sacks), Nunmonkton (number missing), Yedingham (do.),
Legbourne (from 3 sacks). A similar Flemish list mentions Hampole,
Nuncoton, Stainfield and Gracedieu (33 lbs.). Varenbergh, _Hist. des
Relations Diplomatiques entre le Comte de Flandre et l'Angleterre au Moyen
Age_ (Brussels, 1874), pp. 214-7.
[307] "The Libel of English Policie," in _Hakluyt's Voyages_ (Everyman's
Lib. edit.), I, p. 186.
[308] See, for instance, a petition from the nuns of Carrow asking to be
allowed to appropriate the church of Surlingham, of which they had the
advowson, "qar, tres dute seignour, lauoesoun ne les fait bien eynz de les
mettre en daunger de presentement en chescune voedaunce"; _P.R.O. Anct.
Petit._ 232/11587. It appears that the prioress had letters patent to
appropriate the church, probably in answer to this petition in 22 Edw. II;
Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. p. xxxvi. It may be useful to give a few out of
very many references to the appropriation of a church to a nunnery on
account of poverty: Clifton to Lingbrook (_Reg. R. de Swinfield_, p. 134),
Wolferlow and Bridge Sollers to Aconbury (_Reg. A. de Orleton_, pp. 176,
200), Rockbeare to Canonsleigh (_Reg. Grandisson_, II, p. 698), Compton
and Upmardon to Easebourne (_Bp. Rede's Reg._ p. 137), Itchen Stoke to
Romsey (_Reg. Sandale_, p. 269), Whenby to Moxby (_Reg. Wickwane_, p.
290), Horton to St Clement's York (_Reg. Gray_, p. 107), Bishopthorpe to
the same (_Reg. Giffard_, p. 59), Dallington to Flamstead (Dugdale, _Mon._
IV, p. 301), Quadring to Stainfield (_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 131), Easton
Neston to Sewardsley and Desborough to Rothwell (_V.C.H. Northants._ II,
p. 137), Lidlington to Barking (_V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 119), Bradford,
Tisbury and Gillingham to Shaftesbury (_V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77).
[309] An analysis of the possessions of Carrow gives some good examples of
this. The churches of Earlham, Stow Bardolph, Surlingham, Swardeston, East
Winch and Wroxham were all appropriated soon after their advowsons had
been granted to the priory, which also possessed the advowsons of four
churches in Norwich, the moiety of another advowson, the moiety of a
rectory and various tithes or portions of tithes in different manors and
parishes. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. X.
[310] Gasquet, _Eng. Mon. Life_, p. 194.
[311] For the abuses of appropriation, see Coulton, _Medieval Studies_,
no. 8, pp. 6-8. For the part played by the lower clergy in the Peasants'
Revolt, see Petit-Dutaillis, _Studies Supplementary to Stubbs' Constit.
Hist._ II, pp. 270-1, and Kriehn, _Studies in the Sources of the Social
Revolt_ in 1381 (_Amer. Hist. Review_, 1901), VI, pp. 480-4.
[312] _Valor Eccles._ IV, p. 188.
[313] _Ib._ III, p. 276.
[314] _Ib._ I, p. 897.
[315] Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 35. See the list of "Farms and Pensions" in the
prioress of Catesby's accounts for 1414-5. Baker, _Hist. and Antiqs. of
Northants._ I, p. 279.
[316] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 98.
[317] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.
[318] This appears from the regular entry of the amount brought in by the
farms of the two churches in the account rolls. In 1458 the nuns received
formal permission from the bishop to lease out and dispose of the fruits
and revenues of any of the appropriated churches. Madox, _Form. Anglic._
dxc.
[319] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/7.
[320] See for instance Norris' note (quoted by Rye) on the grant to Carrow
Priory of the tithes of all wheat growing in the parishes of Bergh and
Apton, which tithes "occasioned many disputes between the Rector and the
Convent, till at length about the year 1237 it was agreed by the Prioress
and Convent and Thomas, the then Rector, ... that the Rector should pay to
the Convent 14 quarters of wheat in lieu of all their tithes there, which
was constantly paid, with some little allowance for defect of measure,
until 29 Edw. III, when there was a suit between Prioress and Rector about
them. What was the event of it I find not, but they soon after returned to
the old payment of 14 qrs., which continued until 21 Hen. VI, when the
dispute was revived and in a litigious way they continued above ten years,
but I find they afterwards returned again to the old agreement and kept to
it, I believe, to the dissolution of the Priory." Rye mentions a suit
between the Rector and Prioress in 1321. Similarly the nuns were involved
in a tedious suit (10 Edw. I) about the tithes of the demesne of the manor
of Barshall in Riston, with the Rector of Riston. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_,
App. pp. xxx, xxxv.
[321] See below, p. 199, for the other side of the matter.
[322] Similarly the nuns of Kingsmead, Derby, had part of the shirt of St
Thomas of Canterbury, and the nuns of Gracedieu had the girdle and part of
the tunic of St Francis, both of which were good for the same purpose.
_V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43; Nichols, _Hist. of Leic._ III, p. 652.
[323] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 115, 119, 130, 159, 178, 189.
[324] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 122.
[325] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 118.
[326] See for instance the receipts of the nuns of St Michael's Stamford
from _Almes, Almoignes et Auenture_ entered in their roll for 45-6 Edw.
III. "From Sir John Weston for a soul, 13_s._ 4_d._ For the soul of Simon
the Taverner, 1_s._ For the soul of Sir Robert de Thorp, L20. 6_s._ 7_d._
For the soul of William Apethorp, 3_s._ 4_d._ For the soul of Alice atte
Halle, 3_s._ 4_d._ In alms from William Ouneby, 6_s._ 8_d._ In alms from
Emma of Okham L5. Received from the pardon at the church 6_s._ 8_d._ For
the pardon from Lady Idayne and from Emma Okham L1." _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._
1260/3. But this was an unusually good year.
[327] The account rolls of St Michael's Stamford usually arrange expenses
under the following headings: (1) rents, (2) petty expenses, (3) convent
expenses, (4) cost of carts and ploughs, (5) repair of houses, (6)
purchase of stock, (7) weeding corn and mowing hay, (8) threshing and
winnowing, (9) harvest expenses, (10) hire of servants, (11) chaplains'
fees. See _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/_passim_. The active prioress of St
Mary de Pre, Christian Bassett, classifies her payments as for (1)
"comyns, pytances and partycions," (2) "yerely charges," (3) "wagys and
ffees," (4) "reparacions," (5) "divers expensis." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp.
358-61. The prioress of Catesby (1414-5) classifies (1) rents, (2) petty
expenses, (3) expenses of the houses (i.e. repairs), (4) household
expenses, (5) necessary expenses (miscellaneous), (6) expenses of carts,
(7) purchase of livestock, (8) customary payments (to nuns, pittancers,
farmers, cottagers, etc. in clothing; details not given); (9) purchase of
corn, (10) rewards (various small tips to nuns and servants), (11) tedding
and making hay, harvest expenses, stubble, thrashing and winnowing corn,
(12) costs of the mill, (13) servants' wages. Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of
Northants._ I, pp. 278-83.
[328] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 194-5.
[329] See below, p. 323.
[330] See below, pp. 157-8.
[331] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 156.
[332] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/10.
[333] _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 84.
[334] _Ib._ I, p. 119.
[335] _Ib._ I, p. 394.
[336] _Ib._ III, p. 76.
[337] _Ib._ III, p. 77.
[338] _Archaeol. Journ._ LXIX (1912), pp. 120-1.
[339] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 172.
[340] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359. The heading under which this item comes
is _Yerely Charges_.
[341] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 281.
[342] A. G. Little, _Studies in English Franciscan History_ (1917), pp.
25, 43.
[343] See below, p. 199.
[344] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 156, 172.
[345] _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt, introd. p. xxxi.
[346] See below, p. 202.
[347] See e.g. above, p. 70.
[348] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 153-5.
[349] Mackenzie Walcott, _Inventories of ... Shepey_, pp. 32-3.
[350] Maurice Hewlett, _The Song of the Plow_ (1916), pp. 9-10.
[351] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 283. Compare the St
Radegund's Cambridge accounts: "Et in butumine empto cum pycche hoc anno
pro bidentibus signandis et ungendis, ij s j d. Et in clatis emptis ad
faldam, iij s iij d. Et solutum pro remocione falde per diversas vices,
iij d. ... Et in bidentibus hoc anno lavandis et tondendis ij s iij d."
Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 155, 171.
[352] They are a regular item in the St Michael's, Stamford, accounts and
compare the accounts of St Radegund's, Cambridge: "And in viij pairs of
gloves bought for divers hired men at harvest as was needful xij d." Gray,
_op. cit._ pp. 157, 172.
[353] Tusser, _Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_, ed. W. Payne and
S. J. Herrtage (Eng. Dialect. Soc. 1878), pp. 129-30.
[354] Tusser, _op. cit._ p. 132.
[355] _Ib._ p. 181.
[356] C. T. Flower, _Obedientiars' Accounts of Glastonbury and other
Religious Houses_ (St Paul's Ecclesiological Soc. vol. VII, pt II (1912)),
pp. 50-62. The nunnery accounts described include accounts of the Abbess
of Elstow (22 Hen. VII), the Prioress of Delapre (4 and 9 Hen. VII), the
Cellaress of Barking, the Cellaress of Syon, the Sacrist of Syon and the
Chambress of Syon. On obedientiaries and their accounts in general, see
the introduction to _Compotus Rolls of the Obedientiaries of St Swithun's
Priory, Winchester_, ed. G. W. Kitchin (Hants. Rec. Soc. 1892).
[357] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 236. At St Mary's Winchester
at the same date the 14 nuns included the abbess, prioress, subprioress,
infirmaress, _precentrix_ and three sub-chantresses, _scrutatrix_,
_dogmatista_ and librarian. _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 124.
[358] Aungier, _Hist. of Syon Mon._ p. 392.
[359] _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt (E.E.T.S.), introd. p. xxviii.
[360] Aungier, _op. cit._ pp. 392-3.
[361] See below, Note A.
[362] Aungier, _op. cit._ p. 395.
[363] I have been unable to discover what is meant by _feri_ and _asser_.
[364] _Tabite_ was a sort of _moire_ silk. Probably carpets or tablecloths
here.
[365] _Register of Crabhouse Nunnery_, ed. M. Bateson (Norfolk
Archaeology, XI, 1892), pp. 38-9.
[366] See, for instance, the Godstow Register; charters nos. 105, 139, 556
and 644 concern grants appropriated to clothing and nos. 52, 250, 536, 619
and 630 to the infirmary. No. 862 is a grant of five cartloads of
alderwood yearly "to be take xv dayes after myghelmasse to drye their
heryng." _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Nunnery_, ed. A. Clark (E.E.T.S. 1905-11),
pp. 102, etc. In the Crabhouse Register it is noted that a certain meadow
is set aside so that "all the produce of the said meadow be forever
granted for the vesture of the ten ladies who are oldest in religion of
the whole house, so that each of the ten ladies receive yearly from the
aforesaid meadow four shillings at the feast of St Margaret." _Op. cit._
p. 37. When Wothorpe was merged in St Michael's, Stamford, the diocesan
stipulated that the proceeds of the priory and rectory of Wothorpe should
be applied to the support of the infirmary and kitchen of St Michael's.
Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.
[367] See, for instance, the payment of a yearly pension of five marks
from the appropriated church of St Clement's for the clothing of the nuns
of St Radegund's, Cambridge, and similar assignations of the income from
appropriated churches at Studley, St Michael's Stamford, and Marrick.
Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 27.
[368] See C. T. Flower, _loc. cit._, for an account of the Syon, Barking
and Elstow accounts; also Blunt, _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, introd. pp.
xxvi-xxxi, for Syon chambresses' and cellaresses' accounts (1536-7) and
_P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1261/4 for a Syon cellaress's account (1481-2). See
_P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/14 for a St Michael's Stamford chambress's
account (1408-9).
[369] See below, Ch. VIII.
[370] Blunt, _op. cit._ pp. xxvi-xxviii.
[371] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 149, 165, 167.
[372] A barrel contained ten great hundreds of six score each.
[373] A cade contained six great hundreds of six score each.
[374] A warp was a parcel of four dried fish.
[375] Gray, _op. cit._ See the accounts, pp. 145-79 _passim_.
[376] _Ib._ pp. 10-11.
[377] _Catholicon Anglicum_, ed. S. J. Herrtage (E.E.T.S. 1881), p. 365.
[378] Blunt, _op. cit._ p. xxx. In 1481-2 their Lenten store included
"saltfysshe," "stokfyssh," "white heryng," "rede haryng," "muddefissh,"
"lyng," "aburden," "Scarburgh fysshe," "salt samon," "salt elys," "oyle
olyue" (34-3/4 gallons), a barrel of honey and figs. At other times this
year the cellaress purchased beans (1 qr. 4 bushels), green peas (7
bushels), "grey" (i.e. dried) peas (4 bushels), "harreos" (3 bushels),
oatmeal (2 qrs. 7 bushels), bread, wheat, malt, various animals for meat
and to stock the farm, a kilderkin of good ale, 15 lbs. of almonds, 39
Essex cheeses, 111-1/2 gallons of butter, white salt and bay salt, also
firewood and coals. _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1261/4.
[379] _Poems of John Skelton_, ed. W. H. Williams, pp. 107-8 (from "Colyn
Cloute," ll. 210-13). For the curious custom of eating dried peas on the
fifth Sunday in Lent, called Passion or Care Sunday, see Brand,
_Observations On Popular Antiquities_ (1877 ed.), pp. 57 ff. In the north
of England peas boiled on Care Sunday were called _carlings_. Compare the
St Mary de Pre (St Albans) accounts (2-4 Hen. VII) "Item paid for ij
busshell of pesyn departyd amongs the susters in Lente xvj d." Dugdale,
_Mon._ III, p. 359, and the Barking cellaress' _Charthe_, below, Note A.
[380] See below, p. 568.
[381] Blunt, _op. cit._ pp. xxx-xxxi.
[382] Shakespeare, _Winter's Tale_, IV, ii, 38 sqq.
[383] For _sowce_, see below, p. 565.
[384] The weekly allowance of beer to each member was supposed to be seven
gallons, four of the better sort and three weaker, but the amount varied
from house to house. See _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 89 (note). The Syon nuns
had water on certain days, but doubtless as a mortification of the flesh,
for it was sometimes complained of as a hardship when nuns had to drink
water. ("Item they say that they do not get their corrody (i.e. weekly
allowance of bread and beer) at the due times, but it is sometimes omitted
for a fortnight and sometimes for a month, so that the nuns, by reason of
the non-payment of the corrody, drink water." _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 284.)
The weekly allowance of bread was seven loaves. A note in the Register of
Shaftesbury Abbey (15th century) which then numbered about 50 nuns and a
large household, says: "Hit is to wytyng that me baketh and breweth by the
wike in the Abbey of Shaftesbury atte leste weye xxxvj quarters whete and
malt. And other while me baketh and breweth xlj quarters and ij bz. whete
and malte." Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 473.
[385] Aungier, _op. cit._ pp. 393-4.
[386] See below, p. 568.
[387] They are diversely defined as pancakes, cheese cakes or custards,
but they differed from our pancakes in being made in crusts. See the
recipe in _Liber Cure Cocorum_ for flawns made with cheese:
Take new chese and grynde hyt fayre,
In morter with egges, without dysware;
Put powder therto of sugur, I say,
Coloure hit with safrone ful wele thou may;
Put hit in cofyns that ben fayre,
And bake hit forthe, I the pray.
_Liber Cure Cocorum_, ed. Morris (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 39. A fifteenth
century cookery book gives this recipe for _Flathouns in lente_: "Take and
draw a thrifty Milke of Almandes; temper with Sugre Water; than take
hardid cofyns [pie-crusts] and pore thin comad [mixture] theron; blaunch
Almaundis hol and caste theron Pouder Gyngere, Canelle, Sugre, Salt and
Safroun; bake hem and serue forth." _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_,
ed. T. Austen (E.E.T.S. 1888), p. 56.
[388] For Maundy Thursday, see Brand, _op. cit._ pp. 75-9. For the Barking
Maundy see below, p. 568, for the St Mary de Pre Maundy see Dugdale,
_Mon._ III, p. 359, and for the St Michael's, Stamford, Maundy, see
_P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260 _passim_. The nuns of St Radegund's owned
certain lands in Madingley which were held by the Prior of Barnwell on
payment of a rent of 2_s._ 3_d._, called "Maundy silver." Gray, _op. cit._
p. 146. Maundy money is still distributed at Magdalen College, Oxford.
[389] See below, p. 566, for the Barking pittances. The following extracts
from one of the St Michael's, Stamford, accounts is typical of the rest:
"Item paid for wassail 4_d._ ... paid to the convent on the Feast of St
Michael and the dedication of the church 6_s._ Item paid for ... on All
Saints Day and St Martin's Day 3_s._ Item paid for a pittance of pork on
two occasions 6_s._ Item paid for fowls at Christmas for the convent 5_s._
6_d._ Item paid for herrings on St Michael's Day for the poor 1_s._ 8_d._
Item paid for beer for the convent on Maundy Thursday (_Jour de Cene_)
10_d._ Item paid for bread and wafers on the same day 6_d._ Item paid for
spices on the same day 3_s._ Item paid for herrings for the poor on the
same day 1_s._ 8_d._ Item given to the poor on the same day 1_s._ 9_d._
Item for holy bread on Good Friday 2_d._ Item paid for _fflaunes_ 2_d._
Item paid for herrings on St Laurence's Day 9_d._" _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._
1260/11. At this convent "holy bread" was always brought for Good Friday,
"flaunes" (or sometimes eggs, saffron and spices to make them) for
Rogationtide, beer and spices on Maundy Thursday, herrings on St
Lawrence's Day, and various money pittances were paid to the nuns from
time to time for the _misericord_ of Corby and sometimes of Thurlby, the
appropriated churches. On one occasion there is an entry "Paid to the
convent for the misericord of Thurlby, to wit 28 fowls, 12 gallons of beer
and mustard and a gift to the prioress 9_s._, paid to the convent for the
misericord of Corby 9_s._, paid to the pittancer for a pittance from
Thurlby throughout the year 14_s._ 4_d._" _Ib._ 1260/3. See an interesting
list of pittances payable on forty different feasts throughout the year to
the nuns of Lillechurch or Higham: they are either extra portions of food
or special sorts of food, e.g. "crepis" on the Sunday before Ash
Wednesday, "flauns" on Easter Day and 12_d._ on St Radegund's Day. R. F.
Scott, _Notes from the Records of St John's Coll. Cambridge_, 1st series
(from _The Eagle_, 1893, vol. XVII, no. 101, pp. 5-7).
[390] For these prebendal canonries see Mr Hamilton Thompson's article on
"Double Monasteries and the Male Element in Nunneries," in _The Ministry
of Women, A Report by a Committee appointed by his Grace the Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury_, app. VIII, pp. 150 _sqq._
[391] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 424.
[392] Walcott, M. E. C. _Inventories of ... the Priory of Minster in
Shepey_ (_Arch. Cant._ 1869), p. 30. This house paid stipends to three
chaplains, one being "curat of the Paryshe churche"; a "Vycar's chamber"
is described among what are obviously outlying buildings. At Cheshunt the
"Prestes Chamber" contained a feather bed, with sheets and coverlet and a
"celer of blewe cloth," valued at 4_s._ 10_d._ Cussans, _Hist. of Herts.
Hertford Hundred_, II, p. 70.
[393] Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, Prologue of the Nonne Prestes Tale, ll. 3998
ff.
[394] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 120-1, 123.
[395] _Valor. Eccles._ I, p. 397, IV, p. 220.
[396] _Ib._ I, p. 276.
[397] _Ib._ II, p. 109.
[398] _Ib._ III, p. 76.
[399] _Ib._ I, p. 106.
[400] _Ib._ V, pp. 43, 87, 94.
[401] _Ib._ I, p. 114.
[402] _Ib._ V, p. 206.
[403] _Ib._ I, p. 424, IV, p. 339.
[404] E.g. in the Sheppey inventory, after "the chamber over the Gate
Howse called the Confessor's Chamber," comes "the Chamber next to that,"
"_the Steward's chamber_" (well furnished), "the next chamber to the
same," "the chamber under the same," and "the Portar's Lodge," all
evidently outside the cloister. Walcott, M. E. C. _op. cit._ p. 31.
[405] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 163, 167, 173. Cf. pp. 156, 157, 158.
[406] Walcott, M. E. C. _op. cit._ pp. 30, 33.
[407] E.g. Brewood (Black Ladies). See Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 500.
[408] A Joan Key or Kay votes at the election of Joan Lancaster as
prioress of St Radegund's in 1457 and is receiver-general, keeping the
account in 1481-2. Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 38, 176.
[409] See, for instance, an item in the accounts of St Radegund's
Cambridge: "Paid in a pittance for the convent ... at the month's mind of
John Brown, lately bailiff there ... in accordance with his last will."
Gray, _op. cit._ p. 151.
[410] _The Ministry of Women_, _loc. cit._ pp. 162-3. So in 1492 it is
complained at Carrow "quod mali servientes Priorissae fecerunt magnum
dampnum in bonis prioratus." Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 16.
[411] Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, Prologue, ll. 597 ff.
[412] See, for instance, the Prioress of Marrick _v._ Simon Wayt, to give
an account for the time when he was her bailiff in Fletham (1332); the
Prioress of Molseby (Moxby) _v._ Lawrence de Dysceford, chaplain, to give
an account of the time when he was bailiff of Joan de Barton, late
Prioress of Molseby at Molseby (1330)--an interesting case of a chaplain
acting as bailiff for a small and poor house; Idonia, Prioress of Appleton
_v._ John Boston of Leven for an account as bailiff and receiver in Holme
(1413). _Notes on Relig. and Secular Houses of York_, ed. W. P. Baildon
(Yorks. Arch. Soc. 1895), I, pp. 127, 139, 161. Visitation injunctions
sometimes regulate the presentation of accounts by bailiffs and receivers,
e.g. _Exeter Reg. Stapeldon_, p. 318, _V.C.H. Beds._ I, p. 356.
[413] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 67.
[414] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185. An illustration may be found in the
Gracedieu rolls where on one occasion the nuns paid wages to the bailiff
John de Northton, to his wife Joan, to his daughter Joan, to Philip de
Northton (doubtless his son) and to Philip's wife Constance. _P.R.O. Mins.
Accts._ 1257/10, ff. 203-5.
[415] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 84.
[416] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, pp. 658-9. Compare p. 662.
The injunction that the head of the house should not appoint stewards,
bailiffs or receivers without the consent of the major part of the convent
was a common one; cf. _ib._ II, p. 652; Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 619.
[417] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 218-22 _passim_.
[418] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 229-30, 232.
[419] _Essays on Chaucer_, 2nd Series, VII (Chaucer Soc.), pp. 191-4; also
in Dugdale, _Mon._ II, 456-7.
[420] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 158; cf. p. 174.
[421] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, 151.
[422] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 71_d._ The Bishop forbade them to keep
more than the necessary servants and made the same injunction at
Legbourne. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 187.
[423] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 57-8. Compare his injunction to Studley,
_ib._ pp. 54-5. In 1306 every useless servant who was a burden to the
impoverished house of Arden was to be removed within a week. _V.C.H.
Yorks._ III, p. 113. In 1326 the _custos_ of Minchin Barrow was told to
remove the _onerosa familia_. _Reg. John of Drokensford_ (Somerset Rec.
Soc.), p. 242.
[424] _P.R.O. Suppression Papers_, 833/39.
[425] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 121, 131; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6. At
Ankerwyke Alnwick enjoined "that ye hafe an honeste woman seruaund in your
kychyne, brewhowse and bakehowse, deyhowse and selere wythe an honeste
damyselle wythe hire to saruf yowe and your sustres in thise saide
offices, so that your saide sustres for occupacyone in any of the saide
offices be ne letted fro diuine seruice." Compare the complaint of the
nuns of Sheppey that they had no "covent servante" to wash their clothes
and tend them when they were ill, unless they hired a woman from the
village out of their own pockets. _E.H.R._ VI, pp. 33-4. The provision of
a laundress was ordered at Nunappleton in 1534. _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI,
p. 444.
[426] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 443.
[427] "Also she says that secular servingwomen do lie among the sisters in
the dorter, and especially one who did buy a corrody there" (Heynings,
1440). _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 133. The Abbess of Malling in 1324 was
forbidden to give a corrody to her maid. Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, p.
364.
[428] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 133.
[429] See below, pp. 395, 396.
[430] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 121. Alnwick notes "Amoueatur quedam
francigena manens in prioratu propter vite inhonestatem, nam omnes
admittit vniformiter ad concubitus suos"; and see his general injunction,
_ib._ pp. 122, 125.
[431] _Ancren Riwle_, introd. Gasquet (King's Classics), p 287.
[432] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 7.
[433] _Ib._ f. 26_d_.
[434] _E.H.R._ VI, p. 33.
[435] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 101.
[436] _Ib._ p. 104. Compare Peckham's injunctions to Wherwell in 1284 "Et
si quis inveniatur, serviens masculus aut femina, qui amaris
responsionibus consueverit monialem aliquam vel aliquas molestare, nisi se
monitione praemissa sufficienter corrigat in futurum, illico expellatur."
_Reg. Epist. J. Peckham_, II, p. 654; also his injunctions to Barking and
Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, _ib._ I, p. 85; II, p. 707. Also Thomas of
Cantilupe's injunctions to Lingbrook, c. 1277. _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_,
p. 202.
[437] _New Coll._ MS. f. 87_d_.
[438] Gray, _op. cit._ _passim_.
[439] "_Names of the Servants now in Wages by the yere._ Mr Oglestone,
taking wages by the yere. Mr White, taking 26 s 8 d by the yere and
lyvere. John Coks, butler, lyvere, xxvi s viij d, whereof to pay 1 quarter
and lyvere. Alyn Sowthe bayly, taking by yere for closure and hys servant
6 l 13 s 4 d and two lyveryes. Jhon Mustarde 20 s a kowes pasture and a
lyvere. William Rowet, carpentar, 40 s and lyvere. Richard Gyllys 26 s 8 d
and lyvere. The carter 33 s 4 d and no lyvere. Thomas Thressher by yere 33
s 4 d and no lyvere. Robert Dawton by yere 33 s 4 d and no lyvere. The
kowherd for kepyng of the kene and hoggys by yere 30 s and no lyvere. Jhon
Hartnar by yere 28 s and no lyvere. Robard Welshe, brewer, by yere 20 s
and no lyvere. A thatcher 33 s 4 d, a hose cloth and no lyvere. William
Nycolls 20 s and no lyvere. Jhon Andrew 22 s 4 d and no lyverye. Jhon
Putsawe 13 s 4 d and a shyrt redy made. George Myllar 21 s 8 d and no
lyverye. Robert Rychard, horse keper, 20 s and no liverye. Jhon Harryes,
Frencheman, 13 s 4 d, a shyrt and no lyverye. Jhon Gyles the shepherd, 14
s, a payre of hoses, a payre of shoys and no lyverye. Richard Gladwyn for
to make malte, 26 s 8 d by yere, he hath ben here 8 wekes, and no lyverye.
Dorothe Sowthe, the baylyffe wyfe, owing for a yere's wages at 40 s by
yere and no liverye. Ales Barkar 13 s 4 d and lyvere. Also Sykkers 13 s 4
d and lyverye. Gladwyn's wyfe 13 s 4 d and lyverye. Ellyn at my ladyes
lyndyng. Emme Cawket 12 s and lyvere. Rose Salmon 12 s, she hath been here
a month. Marget Lambard 13 s 4 d and lyvere. Sir Jhon Lorymer, curat of
the Parysche churche, 3 l 16 s 8 d and no lyvere. Sir Jhon Ingram,
chaplen, 3 l 3 s 3 d and no lyvere. Jhon Gayton shepard 53 s 4 d and no
lyvere. Jhon Pelland 20 s and no lyverye. Jhon Marchant 13 s 4 d and
pasture for 40 shepe and no lyverye. Jhon Helman 16 s and 10 shepes
pasture and no lyverye. Jhon Cannyng shepard by yere 20 s and no lyverye."
Walcott, E. C. M. _op. cit._ pp. 33-4.
[440] _Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries_, ed. Thomas
Wright (Camden Soc. 1843), p. 140.
[441] _Essays on Chaucer_, 2nd Series (Chaucer Soc.), p. 189.
[442] Savine, _English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution_ (Oxford
Hist. Studies, ed. Vinogradoff, I, pp. 221-2). See also above, Ch. I, pp.
2-3.
[443] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 436. In 1442 its numbers (which
should have been fourteen) had sunk to seven and it was six marks in debt
(_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 38). The clear annual value of the house in the
_Valor Ecclesiasticus_ was only L5. 19_s._ 8-1/2_d._ Compare the case of
Heynings, whose founder, Sir John Darcy, had also died without completing
its endowment. _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.
[444] Fuller, _Church History_, III, p. 332. Its net income at the
Dissolution was L1329. 1_s._ 3_d._ Compare _The Italian Relation of
England_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 40-1.
[445] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 1, 49, 117, 119, 130, 133, 175, 184;
_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 6_d_, 38, 83.
[446] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.
[447] The Prioress of Ankerwyke also claimed to have reduced the debt from
300 marks to L40, but one of the nuns said that it had been only L30 on
her installation and that it had not been paid by the Prioress but from
other sources. _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 1, 3.
[448] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260 _passim_.
[449] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/1. It should, however, be noted that some
of the items which go to make up the total of the debts are sums of money
owing to members of the convent (e.g. the Prioress and Subprioress) by the
treasuresses, though the sums owing to outsiders are larger.
[450] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10 ff. 34 and 34_d_, 39_d_. Similarly the
Prioress's account of Delapre for 4 Henry VIII contains a long list of
debts. _St Paul's Ecclesiological Soc._ VII (1912), p. 52. An analysis of
Archbishop Eudes Rigaud's visitations of nunneries in the Diocese of Rouen
gives even more startling information on this point; all but four of the
fourteen houses show a list of debts growing heavier year by year and this
was in the thirteenth century (1249-69). See _Reg. Visit. Archiep.
Rothomag._ ed. Bonnin _passim_.
[451] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 88.
[452] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73.
[453] _Cal. of Papal Petit._ I, pp. 56, 122, 230.
[454] For other cases of debt, in different centuries, see _V.C.H. Yorks._
III, pp. 124, 161, 163-4, 188, 239, 240; _Reg. Walter Giffard_ (Surtees
Soc.), p. 148; _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, pp. 78, 104; _V.C.H. Essex_, p. 122;
_V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43; _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 351; _V.C.H. Hants._
II, p. 150; _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 355; _Visit. of Diocese of Norwich_
(Camden Soc.), pp. 108, 109; _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 284-5; _Cal. of Papal
Letters_, VI, p. 25; _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 7.
[455] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 186.
[456] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 157.
[457] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 92.
[458] _The Knights Hospitallers in England_ (Camden Soc.), p. 20.
[459] _V.C.H. Worcs._ II, pp. 157-8.
[460] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 285.
[461] See below, p. 340.
[462] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177.
[463] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 133. The account book of Gracedieu (1414-8)
contains entries of money paid by William Roby "for the clothes of his
relation Dame Agnes Roby" and at another time by Margaret Roby for the
same purpose (6_s._ 8_d._). Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_, p. 170.
[464] _Lincoln Diocese Documents_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 57.
[465] It is amusing to notice the indignation of the nuns when their beer
was not strong enough. See e.g. _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 72;
_Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 209; _Yorks. Archaeol.
Journal_, XVI, p. 443.
[466] Dugdale, _Mon._ V, pp. 493-4.
[467] When little Elizabeth Sewardby was boarding in Nunmonkton she had
ten pairs in eighteen months! _Test. Ebor._ III, p. 168.
[468] _Reg. of Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8.
[469] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.
[470] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 5. This lack of bedclothes for the younger
nuns was partly due to the fact that the Prioress did not want them to
sleep in the dorter, for Thomasine adds "and when my lord had commanded
this deponent to lie in the dorter and this deponent asked bedclothes of
the Prioress, she said chidingly to her 'Let him who gave you leave to lie
in the dorter supply you with raiment.'" Mr Hamilton Thompson thinks that
"probably sister Thomasine had previously been lodged separately with the
other younger nuns and the Prioress and elders objected to the crowding of
the dorter." But poverty was the main cause, for at a later visitation the
Prioress stated that she was unable to supply the sisters with sufficient
raiment for their habits "because of the poverty and insufficiency of the
resources of the house." _Ib._ p. 7.
[471] The same injunction was sent to Wherwell. _Reg. Epist. Johannis
Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, pp. 651, 659-60.
[472] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 103.
[473] _New Coll._ MS. f. 86_d_.
[474] _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 290-2. Cf. the
complaint of the nuns of Studley in 1530: "They be oftentymes served with
beffe and no moton upon Thursday at nyght and Sondays at nyght and be
served oftentymes with new ale and not hulsome." _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 78.
[475] Other houses in the diocese of Norwich which complained of bad food
were Flixton (1520) and Carrow (1492, 1514, 1526). Carrow was one of the
most famous nunneries in England, but in 1492 one of the Bishop's
_comperta_ ran: "That the present sisters are restricted to eight loaves,
and this is very little for ten sisters, for the whole day. Item there is
often a lack of bread in the house, contrary to the good repute of the
place." See _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_, pp. 16-17, 145, 185-6,
209.
[476] _Reliquiae Antiquae_, I, p. 291. Translated in Coulton, _A Medieval
Garner_, p. 597.
[477] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 135. The belfry of St Radegund's, Cambridge,
fell down and injured the church in 1277. Gray, _Hist. of the Priory of St
Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 37-8; cf. p. 79. That of Esholt fell in 1445.
_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 161.
[478] _Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery_ (_Norfolk Archaeology_, XI, 1892), pp.
61, 62.
[479] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.
[480] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 32.
[481] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 217.
[482] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 129-31 _passim_. For another complaint that
tenements and leasehold houses belonging to a priory were ruinous and like
to fall down, through the negligence of the prioress and bailiff, see the
case of Legbourne in 1440. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185.
[483] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 87_d_-88. He ordered the Abbess to repair
defects at once out of the common goods of the house. Better still, he
would seem to have assisted them from his own pocket to carry out the
injunction, for by his will (1402) he remitted to them a debt of L40, for
the repair of their church and cloister. Nicolas, _Testamenta Vetusta_,
II, p. 708.
[484] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 124, 168, 174, 181, 183, 188, 240;
Yedingham and Esholt (_ib._ pp. 128, 161) and St Mary, Neasham (_V.C.H.
Durham_, II, p. 107) needed repair in the middle of the fifteenth century.
[485] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 23; V, pp. 256, 258.
[486] _Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 107-8,
109, 261, 311.
[487] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 52, 54, 59.
[488] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 104. A few out of many other references to
ruinous buildings may be given here. Easebourne (1411). _Bishop Rede's
Reg._ p. 137. Polsloe (1319). _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon of Exeter_, p.
318. Delapre (Northampton) (1303), Wothorpe (1292), Rothwell (fourteenth
century), Catesby (1301, 1312). _V.C.H. Northants._ II, pp. 101, 114, 138,
123. Rowney (1431). _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 435-6. St Radegund's
Cambridge. Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 36-8, 79. St Clare without Aldgate (1290).
_Ely Epis. Records_, ed. Gibbons, p. 415. St Mary's Winchester (1343-52).
_Cal. of Pap. Pet._ I, pp. 56, 122, 230.
[489] Perhaps in the same way that a fire broke out at Sempringham in the
lifetime of St Gilbert. "A nun, bearing a light through the kitchen by
night, fixed a part of a burnt candle to another she was going to burn, so
that both were alight at once. But when the part fixed on to the other was
almost consumed, it fell on the floor, on which much straw was collected,
ready for a fire. The nun did not heed it, and believing that the fire
would go out by itself, she went away and shut the door. But the flame,
finding food, first devoured the straw lying close by, then the whole
house with the adjacent offices and their contents, whence a great loss
happened to the church." Quoted from MS. Cott. _Cleop. B._ I, f. 77 by R.
Graham, _St Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines_, p. 135. It will
be remembered that the author of the thirteenth century treatise, called
"Seneschaucie," is most careful to declare that ploughmen, waggoners and
cowherds must not carry fire into the byres, stables and cowhouse, either
for light or to warm themselves, "unless the candle be in a lantern and
this for great need and then it must be carried and watched by another
than himself." _Walter of Henley's Husbandry_, ed. E. Lamond (1890), p.
113.
[490] _Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery u.s._ p. 61.
[491] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 328. See also _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 426.
[492] _V.C.H. Herts._ _loc. cit._
[493] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1296-1302, p. 238.
[494] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 183.
[495] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79.
[496] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179.
[497] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 485.
[498] Wood, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, I, p. 35.
[499] _Reg. of John of Drokensford_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), p. 227. Text in
Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of Somerset: Whitehall in Ilchester_, p. 78. But
seven years before they had been begging, according to the Bishop, by the
compulsion of this expelled prioress, whose case was _sub judice_. _Reg._
p. 115 and Hugo, _loc. cit._
[500] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Rec. Soc.), pp. 112-3.
[501] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 145.
[502] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 427.
[503] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 137.
[504] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 434-5. The text of their petition is as
follows: "A tres reverend pier en dieu, mon treshonure seigneur le
chaunceller dengleterre, suppliant voz pouers oratrices la prioresse et
les noneyns de Rowney en le countee de ... qe come lour esglise et autres
mesons sont en poynt de cheyer a terre pur defaute de reparacion et ils
nount dont lez reparailler, si noun dalmoigne de bones gens, qe plese a
vostre treshonure seignurie de vostre grace eux granter vn patent pur vn
lour procuratour, de aler en la paiis a coiller almoigns de bones gentz
pur la sustenance et releuacioun du dit pouere mesoun et en noun de
charite." _P.R.O. Ancient Petitions_, 302/15063.
[505] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 358.
[506] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. Another licence in 1459.
[507] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 137.
[508] _Ib._ pp. 100, 126.
[509] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 374. (_Pro monialibus de
Rowell._) It is surprising, however, that Peckham, in his constitution
forbidding nuns to be absent from their convents for longer than three, or
at the most six, days, adds: "We do not extend this ordinance to those
nuns who are forced to beg their necessities outside, while they are
begging." Wilkins, _Concilia_, II, p. 59. It is certain that the nuns did
beg in their own persons. When Archbishop Eudes Rigaud visited St-Aubin in
1261 he ordered that the younger nuns should not be sent out to beg (_pro
questu_); and in 1263 two of them were absent in France, seeking alms.
_Reg. Visit. Archiepiscopi Rothomagensis_, ed. Bonnin, pp. 412, 471.
[510] On this subject see an interesting article by C. Wordsworth, "On
some Pardons or Indulgences preserved in Yorkshire 1412-1527" (_Yorks.
Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 369 ff.).
[511] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 426, 432.
[512] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, pp. 114, 123, 116.
[513] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 353.
[514] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 157.
[515] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, ff. 96_d_, 244_d_.
[516] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 115, 128, 161.
[517] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 393; V, p. 373.
[518] Except where otherwise stated the following references all occur in
Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79 and are printed in full in R. Willis,
_Architectural Hist. of the Univ. of Cambridge_, ed. J. Willis Clark
(1886), II, pp. 183-6.
[519] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 96_d_.
[520] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 36.
[521] _Ib._ pp. 37-8.
[522] A few other references may be given: Bishop Fordham of Ely for
Rowney (1408) and Bishop Alcock of Ely for the Minories (1490). Gibbons,
_Ely Epis. Records_, pp. 406, 414. Bishop Sutton of Lincoln to Wothorpe
(1292). _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 114.
[523] _V.C.H. Wilts._ II, p. 77.
[524] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 119. References to this occur in 1380, 1382,
1384, 1392, 1402 and 1409.
[525] Gibbons, _Ely Epis. Records_, p. 399.
[526] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. Cf. Thetford. _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p.
355.
[527] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 161.
[528] _Ib._ p. 124.
[529] _V.C.H. Wilts._ II, p. 77. The reference is perhaps to the famous
storm of St Maur's Day, 1362, which, together with the Black Death, is
commemorated in a _graffito_ in the church of Ashwell (Herts.) and in a
distich quoted by Adam Murimuth
C ter erant mille, decies sex unus et ille.
Luce tua Maure, vehemens fuit impetus aurae.
Ecce flat hoc anno, Maurus in orbe tonans.
[530] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79.
[531] _Bishop Rede's Reg._ (Sussex Rec. Soc.), p. 137.
[532] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.
[533] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 301.
[534] The following account of medieval plagues and famines is taken
mainly from Creighton, _Hist. of Epidemics in Britain_, I, pp. 202-7,
215-223. See also Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, pp. 91-105.
[535] Creighton, _op. cit._ I, p. 19.
[536] Denton, _op. cit._ p. 93.
[537] _Ib._ p. 93 _sqq._
[538] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150. He attributed their condition to
negligence and bad administration.
[539] _P.R.O. Ancient Correspondence_, XXXVI, no. 201.
[540] _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43. See below, p. 200.
[541] See P. G. Mode, _The Influence of the Black Death on the English
Monasteries_ (Univ. of Chicago, 1916), _passim_.
[542] Dugdale. _Mon._ IV, p. 268.
[543] A. Hamilton Thompson, _Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln
for the years 1347-1350_ (reprinted from _Archaeol. Journ._ LXVIII, pp.
301-360, 1912), p. 328.
[544] _Ib._ pp. 359-60.
[545] A. Hamilton Thompson, _The Pestilences of the Fourteenth Century in
the Diocese of York_ (reprinted from _Archaeol. Journ._ LXXI, pp. 97-154,
1914), pp. 121-2.
[546] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, pp. 364, 375.
[547] _V.C.H. Warwick._ II, p. 65.
[548] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 116.
[549] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 146.
[550] _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, p. 230.
[551] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1364, pp. 21, 485.
[552] Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, p. 37.
[553] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 126.
[554] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 301. Their petition had been presented in
1380. _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 433.
[555] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 521.
[556] _Bishop Rede's Reg._ p. 137.
[557] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 335.
[558] _Rot. Parl._ III, p. 129 and Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 485.
[559] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77.
[560] _Visit. of Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 155.
[561] _V.C.H. Glouc._ II, p. 93.
[562] On other occasions, however, they were careful to take all their
due. _Vide_ the great Bishop Grandisson's letter to the abbess and convent
of Canonsleigh, announcing his forthcoming visitation and "mandantes quod
in illum eventum de procuracione ea occasione nobis debita providere
curetis in pecunia numerata." _Reg. of Bishop Grandisson_, ed.
Hingeston-Randolph, pt II, p. 767. At Davington in 1511 the Prioress
deposed that "the house has to pay 20_s._ to the Archbishop for board at
the time of his visitation." _E.H.R._ VI, p. 28.
[563] _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, p. 299.
[564] _Reg. Rich. de Swinfield_ (Cantilupe Soc.), p. 366. Other cases of
excommunication are sometimes to be found in Bishops' Registers, e.g. in
1335 the Prioresses of Cokehill and Brewood were excommunicated for
failure to pay the tenth; one owed 9-1/2_d._ and the other 1_s._
8-1/4_d._--paltry sums for which to damn a poor nun's soul! _Reg. Thomas
de Charlton_ (Cantilupe Soc.), p. 57.
[565] _Reg. John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc.), I, p. 159.
[566] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), p. 62. Cf. remission of
tithes by Bishop Dalderby to Greenfield, because of its poverty. _V.C.H.
Lincs._ II, p. 155. Some Cistercian houses held papal bulls exempting them
from the payment of tithes, e.g. Sinningthwaite and Swine. Dugdale, _Mon._
V, pp. 463, 494.
[567] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 288.
[568] For a few out of many instances of remission of payment on account
of poverty see Ivinghoe, Little Marlow, Burnham (_V.C.H. Bucks._ I, pp.
353, 358, 382); Cheshunt (_V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 426-7); Stixwould,
Heynings, Greenfield, Fosse, St Leonard's Grimsby (_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp.
122, 147, 149, 155, 157, 179); Catesby (_V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 122);
Ickleton, Swaffham, Chatteris, St Radegund's Cambridge (Dugdale, _Mon._
IV, p. 439); Malling (_Ib._ III, p. 382); St Mary Magdalen's Bristol
(_V.C.H. Glouc._ II, p. 93); Minchin Barrow (Hugo, _op. cit._ p. 108);
Blackborough (_V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 351); Arden (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III,
p. 113); Nunkeeling and Nunappleton (_Reg. John le Romeyn_, I, pp. 140,
234); Wintney (_V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150).
[569] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347. Compare the case of the hospital
of St James of Canterbury which "grievoussement ad estez chargez pur
diverse contribucions faitz au Roy entre les laiz, ou les biens ... ne
sufficent mye ala sustinaunce de la Priouresse et les seoures." _Hist.
MSS. Comm. Report_, IX, p. 87.
[570] _Cal. of Pat. Rolls_, 1467-77, pp. 138, 587.
[571] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 472. Cf. p. 328.
[572] _Ib._ p. 473. Cf. _Parl. Writs_ (Rec. Comm.), II, div. 3, 1424.
[573] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1339-41, pp. 215, 217.
[574] On this subject see Rose Graham, _St Gilbert of Sempringham and the
Gilbertines_, pp. 90-2.
[575] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1307-13, p. 50. Compare the entry in the
treasuresses' account of St Michael's, Stamford, for 1392-3. "Item done en
curtasy a le Balyf de Roy quant nostre carre fuist areste al seruice del
roy viijd." _P.R.O. Ministers' Accounts_, 1260/10.
[576] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1307-13, pp. 262-6, _passim_.
[577] For instance in 1275 the King granted the custody of Barking Abbey,
void and in his hands, to his mother, Queen Eleanor. _Cal. of Close
Rolls_, 1272-9, p. 210.
[578] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Rec. Soc.), pp. 112-3. Compare the
petition of St Mary's Chester to Queen Eleanor, p. 172 above.
[579] See above, p. 182.
[580] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 485 and _Rot. Parl._ III, p. 129. The
petition was granted, but the nuns seem to have shown themselves unworthy
of the royal clemency, for, after the death of Abbess Joan Furmage in
1394, the King was forced to abrogate the grant, because by fraudulent
means an election had been obtained of an unfit person, who, with the
object of securing confirmation, had repaired with an excessive number of
men to places remote, to the waste and desolation of the convent. _Cal. of
Pat. Rolls_, 1391-6, p. 511.
[581] _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, pp. 56-7.
[582] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 189 and _ib._ (1333-7), pp. 70-1;
cf. _ib._ (1307-13), p. 1 and _ib._ (1323-7), p. 252 and _ib._ (1349-54),
p. 29.
[583] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1339-41), p. 377.
[584] _Ib._ (1343-6), pp. 407-8. Cf. p. 418.
[585] _Ib._ (1343-6), p. 599. The profits during vacancy were similarly
remitted to Godstow in 1385 "because of its poverty and misfortunes"
(_V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73).
[586] _Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 40-1, 56-7,
189-90, 356-7, 366-7, 577.
[587] _Reg. of ... Rigaud de Asserio_ (Hants. Rec. Soc.), pp. 387, 388,
394-5. Compare nominations of John de Pontoise. _Reg. Johannis de
Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, pp. 240, 241, 252 and of William of
Wykeham, _Wykeham's Reg._ (Hants. Rec. Soc.), II, pp. 60, 61.
[588] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 26, 39, 146.
[589] _Reg. ... Stephani de Gravesend_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), p. 200.
[590] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 473 and _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 75.
[591] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 97-8 and _Wykeham's Reg._ II, pp. 461-2.
[592] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 98.
[593] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1307-8), pp. 48, 53, 134.
[594] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 117.
[595] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, pp. 76-7.
[596] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1318-23), p. 517. She was still unadmitted in
1327, when the order was repeated. _Ib._ (1327-30), p. 204.
[597] _Ib._ (1333-7), p. 175.
[598] _Ib._ (1343-6), p. 604.
[599] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 99, and in the Register of Bishop Norbury of
Lichfield there is a certificate (dated 1358) of "having admitted, twenty
years ago, _thirty_ nuns at Nuneaton at the request of the patron, the E.
of Lancaster," Will Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. I, p. 286. Perhaps there is a
clerical error.
[600] _Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 189-90.
[601] _Ib._ I, pp. 356-7. The reference to "distinguished friends and
benefactors" is interesting, because she was the daughter of Robert Bret,
"_civis London._"
[602] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 366-7. The assertion that the convent was required
to receive Isabel "without burden to themselves by the provision of the
parents of the said little maid" is interesting, partly because it
suggests that the royal and episcopal nominees were not always received at
a loss, partly because it looks suspiciously like a condonation of the
dowry system by an otherwise strict disciplinarian.
[603] Sharpe, _Cal. of Wills_, I, p. 111.
[604] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 56-7.
[605] _Ib._ II, p. 704.
[606] An Agnes Turberville was sent by the King to Shaftesbury in 1345.
_Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1343-6, p. 604.
[607] _Reg. of Bishop Grandisson_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, I, pp. 213-4.
[608] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 222-3. Does the Bishop mean that he will help to
provide a dowry for Johanete out of his private purse, in another
religious house?
[609] See below, p. 452.
[610] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 210. A few months later, however,
Richard de Ayreminn was sent on the same pretext (p. 312).
[611] _Op. cit._ (1333-7), p. 175.
[612] _Op. cit._ (1349-54), p. 82.
[613] _Op. cit._ (1339-41), p. 466.
[614] _Op. cit._ (1337-9), p. 286.
[615] _Op. cit._ (1343-6), p. 652.
[616] _Op. cit._ (1318-23), p. 517; (1343-6), p. 475.
[617] _Op. cit._ (1327-30), p. 366.
[618] _Op. cit._ (1313-8), p. 611; (1327-30), p. 564; (1341-3), p. 133.
[619] See below. For the prebendal stalls in the churches of five of these
abbeys (Romsey, Wherwell, St Mary's Winchester, Shaftesbury and Wilton),
see above, p. 144.
[620] _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, pp. 243-4,
300-1, 315-6.
[621] _Reg. Simonis de Gandavo_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), pp. 2-3.
[622] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Report_, IV, p. 329.
[623] _Rot. Parl._ I, p. 381. John de Houton, clerk, had been sent to
Elstow in 1318 (_Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1318-23), p. 119).
[624] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 611.
[625] _Op. cit._ (1307-13), pp. 581-2.
[626] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 437. The avenere was an officer
of the household who had the charge of supplying provisions for the
horses. See _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (Camden Soc.), I, p. 19, n. 2.
[627] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1327-30), p. 393.
[628] _Ib._ p. 523.
[629] _Ib._ pp. 396, 534.
[630] _Rot. Parl._ II, pp. 381-2. Letters patent were duly sent to Barking
bidding them admit Agnes, on Nov. 6th, 1331. _Cal. of Patent Rolls_
(1330-3), p. 407.
[631] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 117.
[632] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1307-13), p. 267.
[633] _Op. cit._ (1318-23), p. 117.
[634] _Op. cit._ (1307-13), p. 328. She was the niece of John de London,
late the King's escheator south of Trent.
[635] _Loc. cit._
[636] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 129.
[637] _Ib._ p. 237.
[638] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 83. The Taxation of Pope Nicholas mentions
a pension due to the Abbot of York of L3 for the church of Corby, which
was appropriated to the nuns, and for other tithes elsewhere. The sum of
L3 is occasionally mentioned in the account rolls of St Michael's,
Stamford, as having been paid to "our Lady of York," or as being still
due.
[639] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, pp. 256 ff. Payments to the abbot and to other
officiaries of Peterborough also occur very frequently in the conventual
accounts.
[640] See above, p. 180. Compare the case of St Mary's, Winchester, where
the nuns complained in 1468 that they were so burdened, that they could
not fulfil the obligations of their order as to hospitality. _V.C.H.
Hants._ II, pp. 123-4. The difficulty of keeping up the accustomed
hospitality was one of the reasons for annexing Wothorpe to St Michael's,
Stamford, after the Black Death. Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.
[641] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347. Compare Gynewell's injunction in
1351: "E vous, Prioresse, chastiez les soers qils ne acuillent mie trop
souent lour amys en la Priorie, a costage e damage de dit mesoun." _Linc.
Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_.
[642] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 117, 171, 172, 239. On the subject of abuse
of monastic hospitality, see Jusserand, _English Wayfaring Life_, p. 121.
Edward I forbade anyone to eat or lodge in a religious house, unless the
superior had invited him or that he were its founder, and even then his
consumption was to be moderate.
[643] Pope Boniface VIII's edict for the stricter enclosure of nuns
contained a clause warning secular lords against summoning nuns to attend
in person at the law courts; they were to act through their proctors (see
version promulgated by Simon of Ghent, Bishop of Salisbury in 1299. _Reg.
Simonis de Gandavo_ [Cant. and York Soc.], p. 11). The heads of the larger
houses often did act through proctors, but less wealthy convents usually
sent the head or one of the other nuns in person. See Eckenstein, _Woman
under Monasticism_, pp. 362-3.
[644] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 360.
[645] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 104. Compare a long lawsuit waged by Carrow
Priory. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. p. xxi.
[646] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/4. Compare the amusing account of how the
Prior of Barnwell secured a favourable judgment from the itinerant
justices. "Ipsis eciam justiciariis dedit herbagium alicui tres acras et
alicui quatuor, et exennia panis, ceruisie et vini frequenter, in tantum
quod in recessu suo omnes tam justiciarii quam clerici, seruientes et
precones, gracias uberes referebant, et ipsi Priori (et) canonicis se et
sua obligabant." _Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle_, ed. J.
Willis Clark (1907), p. 171.
[647] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150.
[648] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164. The "misrule of past presidents" is
mentioned as a contributory cause of distress at Lilleshall (1351), St
Mary's Winchester (1364) and Tarrant (1366). _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1351, p.
177; 1364, p. 485; 1366, p. 239.
[649] _E.H.R._ VI, p. 28.
[650] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, p. 362.
[651] _Ib._ I, p. 364.
[652] _Ib._ I, p. 377.
[653] Gasquet, however, mistakenly attributes its state entirely to the
plague. _The Great Pestilence_, p. 106.
[654] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 39_d_, 83, 96.
[655] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185.
[656] _Ib._ II, p. 114.
[657] _Ib._ II, p. 133.
[658] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 72.
[659] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 130, 131.
[660] _Ib._ II, p. 175.
[661] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 159.
[662] _Ib._ p. 174.
[663] _Ib._ p. 164.
[664] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 7.
[665] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 353.
[666] It must be understood that the judicious sale of corrodies was not
necessarily harmful to a house. Sometimes it might lead to the acquisition
of land or rents at comparatively little expense to the convent, as a
glance at some of the charters in the English Register of Godstow Abbey
will show. See _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Abbey_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. xxvii-xxviii.
The convent probably drove a good bargain when in 1230 the harassed
Stephen, son of Waryn the miller of Oxford, conveyed all his Oxford
property to Godstow "and for this graunte, & cetera, the forsaid mynchons
yaf to them to ther grete nede, that is to sey, to aquyte hym of the jewry
and otherwise where he was endited, X markes of siluer in warison. And
furthermore they graunted to hym and to hys wyf molde, with ther seruant
to serve them while they lived, two corrodies of ij mynchons and a
corrodye of one seruant to their systeynynge" (_op. cit._ p. 392). Nor was
there much harm in grants for a term of years, such as the grant of board
and lodging made by the convent of Nunappleton in 1301 to Richard de
Fauconberg, in return for certain lands bringing in an annual rent of two
marks of silver, both the corrody and the tenure of these lands being for
a term of twelve years. Dugdale, _Mon._ V, p. 653. Sometimes, again,
corrodies were granted in return for specified services; in 1270 Richard
Grene of Cassington surrendered 5-1/2 acres of arable and 2 roods of
meadow land to Godstow in return for "the seruyce under the porter for
ever at the yate of Godestowe and j half mark in the name of his wagis
yerely." _Eng. Reg. of Godstow_, p. 305. At Yedingham in 1352 an
interesting grant of a _corrodium moniale_ was made to one Emma Hart, who,
in return for a sum of money, was given the position of deye or dairy
woman; she was to have the same food-allowance as a nun and a share in all
their small pittances, and a building called "le chesehouse" with a solar
and cellar to inhabit and was allowed to keep ten sheep and ten ewes at
the convent's charge. In return she was to do the dairy-work and when too
old to work any longer the convent engaged to grant her a place in "le
sisterhouse." _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 128. Sometimes also corrodies were
granted by way of pensioning off old servants, as when, in 1529, the nuns
of Arden granted one to their chaplain "for the gud and diligent seruice
yt oure wellbeloued sir Thomas parkynson, preste, hav done to vs in tyme
paste." _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 115. To corrodies such as these there was
little objection (though the last might lead to financial loss). The
danger came from life-grants in return for an inadequate sum of ready
money.
[667] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 115.
[668] She received 68_s._ 4_d._ in part payment for the commutation of the
corrody.
[669] Jessopp, _Frivola_, pp. 55-6.
[670] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 175.
[671] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 71_d_.
[672] _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 243, 303-4.
There is in the Record Office a petition to the Chancellor from Richard
Englyssh and Marjorie his wife, setting out that the Bishop of Rochester
had granted Marjorie for life a corrody in Malling Abbey of seven loaves
and four gallons of convent ale and three pence for cooked food weekly,
which corrody she and her husband had held for some time, but that now the
abbess and convent withheld it. Evidently it was a burden to the house,
but it is not clear whether the bishop had forced a corrodian on the nuns,
or had merely confirmed a grant by them. _P.R.O. Early Chanc. Proc._
4/196.
[673] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 58.
[674] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 554. He had once before ordered the holders
of corrodies there to display their grants, that it might be known whether
they had fulfilled the services due from them. _V.C.H. London_, I, p. 459.
[675] The appropriation was confirmed by the Pope in 1401. _Cal. of Papal
Letters_, V, p. 347. In 1440 Bishop Alnwick made an injunction at Heynings
against the granting of corrodies. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 135.
[676] See below, pp. 225-6.
[677] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 25.
[678] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 516.
[679] See below, pp. 225-6.
[680] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.
[681] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 175.
[682] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6.
[683] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 146; _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, p. 122. At
Studley in 1530 it was found that the woods of the priory had been much
diminished by the late prioress and by "Thomas Cardinal of York for the
construction of his college in the university of Oxford." _V.C.H. Oxon._
II, p. 78.
[684] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 120.
[685] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 147.
[686] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 58-9.
[687] _V.C.H. Durham_, II, p. 107.
[688] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177.
[689] _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 283-4.
[690] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 506, note _b_.
[691] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 19.
[692] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 76.
[693] See above, p. 153.
[694] See Ch. IV.
[695] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 71.
[696] _Reg. of Archbishop William Wickwane_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 113.
[697] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 98. Similarly Bishop Edyndon
wrote in 1346 and again in 1363 to St Mary's Winchester, Wherwell and
Romsey, forbidding them to take a greater number of nuns than was
anciently accustomed or than could be sustained by them without penury.
_Ib._ p. 165.
[698] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77. Nevertheless at Romsey and at
Shaftesbury the King and the Bishop himself continued to "dump" nuns, in
accordance with their prerogative right, throughout the career of both
houses. In the six years following this prohibition of 1326 Bishop
Stratford not only gave permission for a novice to be received at the
nuns' own request, but deposited no less than three there himself. The
words and the actions of bishops sometimes tallied ill.
[699] See _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 120, 124, 161, 163,
171-2, 188; _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 148; _Reg. of
Archbishop Wickwane_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 112, 113, 140-1.
[700] _Reg. Giffard_, _loc. cit._
[701] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 117.
[702] _Ib._ III, p. 163. The house was heavily in debt at the time and
though the Bishop had forbidden the granting of corrodies and liveries
without leave, the Prioress was also charged with having "sold or granted
corrodies very burdensome to the house."
[703] Heynings, Ankerwyke, Legbourne, Nuncoton, St Michael's Stamford,
Gracedieu, Langley.
[704] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 134.
[705] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 77_d_.
[706] It would be interesting to collect statistics as to the relative
size of different nunneries at different periods. It is here possible to
give only a few examples of the decline in the number of inmates. The
numbers at Nuneaton varied as follows: 93 (1234), 80 (1328), 46 (1370), 40
(1459), 23 (1539). (_V.C.H. Warwick._ II, pp. 66-9.) At Romsey (where the
statutory number was supposed to be 100) as follows: 91 (1333) and 26
(from 1478 to the Dissolution). (Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_,
_passim_.) At Shaftesbury as follows: forbidden to receive more than 100
in 1218 and in 1322; number fixed at 120 in 1326; between 50-57 (from 1441
to the Dissolution). _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77.
[707] _New Coll._ MS. f. 55_d_.
[708] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 53.
[709] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 55.
[710] _E.H.R._ VI, pp. 33-4. From the fact that the Prioress was ordered
to make up the number again to fourteen, as soon as she conveniently
could, it appears that the ten nuns who gave evidence before the
Archbishop represented the full strength of the house.
[711] A few out of many specific instances may be given: Wroxall 1323
(_V.C.H. Warwick._ II, p. 71); Polesworth 1456 (_ib._ p. 63); Fairwell
1367 (_Reg. of Bishop Stretton_, p. 119); Romsey 1302 (_Reg. Johannis de
Pontissara_ Cant. and York. Soc. p. 127); Moxby 1318 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III,
p. 239); Nuncoton 1531 (_Arch._ XLVII, p. 58); Sinningthwaite 1534
(_Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 441).
[712] See above, pp. 64-5.
[713] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50.
[714] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 188.
[715] _Ib._ III, p. 177.
[716] E.g. Clemence Medforde at Ankerwyke in 1441 and Eleanor of Arden in
1396. See above, pp. 81, 85.
[717] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 100-101.
[718] _New Coll._ MS. f. 88_d_.
[719] See above, p. 204.
[720] _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 318.
[721] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 99-100.
[722] _Ib._ pp. 102-3.
[723] _New Coll._ MS. f. 87. In 1492, at the visitation by Archbishop
Morton's commissioners, a nun prays that injunctions be made to the
sisters and abbess that they choose no one as auditor without consulting
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 218-9.
[724] For other mentions of the rendering of accounts by bailiffs,
officiaries, etc. see Arden 1306 and Arthington 1315 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III,
pp. 113, 188), Fairwell 1367 (_Reg. of Robert de Stretton_, p. 119),
Elstow 1422 (_Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50).
[725] Writing to Sinningthwaite in 1534. _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI,
pp. 442-3.
[726] _Visit. of the Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 108.
[727] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 119.
[728] Sometimes specific mention is made of this duty, e.g. in 1318 Thomas
de Mydelsburg, rector of Loftus, was ordered to administer the temporal
goods of the Cistercian house of Handale, to receive the accounts of the
servants and to substitute more capable ones for those who were useless.
_Ib._ III, p. 166. Cf. the commission to the rector of Aberford to be
custos of Kirklees about the same time. _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI, p.
362.
[729] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 171.
[730] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 52-3.
[731] In 1442, for instance, the Prioress of Rusper was ordered to render
accounts yearly before the Bishop of Chichester and the nuns of the house
(_Sussex Arch. Coll._ V, p. 255), and at Sheppey in 1511, two nuns having
complained that the Prioress did not account, she was ordered to render
accounts, with an inventory to the convent and to Archbishop Warham
(_E.H.R._ VI, p. 34).
[732] _Alnwick Visit._ MS. f. 83.
[733] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 184.
[734] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 1.
[735] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 174.
[736] An inventory of the goods of Easebourne Priory, drawn up for the
Bishop of Chichester on May 27th, 1450, has survived. It is very complete
and comprises all departments of the house, together with a list of land,
chapels and appropriated churches and a note that the house can expend in
all L22. 3_s._ on repairs and other expenses and that the debts "for
repairs and other necessary expenses this year" amount to L66. 6_s._ 8_d._
_Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, pp. 10-13. It may be of interest to quote the
briefer inventory of the poor house of Ankerwyke, as presented to Bishop
Atwater at his visitation in 1519 and copied by his clerk into the
register. There were at the time five nuns in the house and one in
apostasy. "Redditus ibidem extendunt prima facie ad xxxiij li. x s. Inde
resoluunt pro libris (_sic_) redditibus v li. x s. Et sic habent clare ad
reparacionem & alia onera sustinenda ultra xl marcas. _Jocalia in
Ecclesia_: Habent ibidem vestimenta sacerdotalia ad minus serica xiij.
Habent eciam vnicam capam de serica & auro. j calicem de argento deaurato.
j par Turribulorum. j pixidem de argento pro sacramento. ij libros
missales impressos. j magnum par candelabrorum ante summum altare. j
paruum par candelabrorum super summum altare. ij urciolos argenteos. j
paxbread de argento, una parua campana argentea. _Catalla_: Habent vaccas
duas, ij equas, boues senes iij, unus bouiculus (_sic_), j vaccam anne
(_sic_) (_blank_), iij equas pro aratro. _Vtensilia_ vj plumalia, x paria
linthiaminum, iiij superpellectilia, iiij paria de le blanketts, ij le
white Testers. Habent Redditus Annuales preter terras ipsarum dominicalium
(_sic_) in earundem manibus occupatas xlvj li. xj s. x d." _Linc. Epis.
Reg. Visit. Atwater_, f. 42. A fair number of inventories of convent
property made for this or for other purposes is extant; notably those
drawn up, for purposes of spoliation instead of preservation, at the
Dissolution. See _Bibliography_.
[737] _Reg. of Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 147.
[738] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 120.
[739] _V.C.H. Warwick_, II, p. 71.
[740] See below, p. 226.
[741] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), III, pp. 805-6.
[742] See below, pp. 337-8.
[743] See _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls. Ser.), II, pp. 654-5, 659,
708.
[744] _V.C.H. Yorks._ II, pp. 187-8.
[745] _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 96.
[746] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 240-1, 684.
[747] At Ankerwyke, Catesby, Gracedieu and St Michael's Stamford. _Linc.
Visit._ II, pp. 6, 9, 52, 125; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 39_d_.
[748] To this reception of boarders was sometimes added, but with a
different purpose, viz. to protect the nuns from contact with the world.
[749] At Moxby in 1318 no fresh debts, especially large ones, were to be
incurred without the convent's consent and the Archbishop's special
licence. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239. At Nuncoton in 1440 "ne that ye
aleyne or selle any bondman" was added to the usual prohibition.
_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 77_d_.
[750] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 131. A few other instances of these
injunctions may be given: Arden (1306), Marrick (1252), Nunburnholme
(1318), Nunkeeling (1314), Thicket (1309), Yedingham (1314), Esholt
(1318), Hampole (1308, 1312), Nunappleton (1489), Rosedale (1315),
Sinningthwaite (1315), Arthington (1318), Moxby (1314, 1318, 1328),
_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 124, 128, 161, 163, 172, 174, 177,
188, 239-40; Sinningthwaite (1534), _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 441;
Arthington (1286), _Reg. John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc. I, p. 55);
Ankerwyke, Godstow, Gracedieu, Heynings, Langley, Legbourne, Markyate,
Nuncoton, Stixwould, St Michael's Stamford (all 1440-5), _Linc. Visit._
II, pp. 8, 115, 124, 134, 186 and _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 6_d_, 77_d_,
81_d_, 75_d_; Elstow (1359), _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 139_d_;
Elstow (1421), Burnham (1434), _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 24, 49; Studley,
Nuncoton (1531), _Arch._ XLVII, pp. 54, 58; Polsloe and Canonsleigh
(1319), _Reg. Stapeldon of Exeter_, p. 317; Romsey (1302), _Reg. J. de
Pontissara_, p. 127.
[751] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343.
[752] _Lambeth Reg. Courtenay I_, f. 336.
[753] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 49-50.
[754] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 397-397_d_. These
injunctions are scattered among the others, but have been placed together
here for the sake of reference.
[755] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343. Compare Flemyng's
injunctions in 1422. _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 49.
[756] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 151.
[757] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp. 148, 150, 154 (note 1).
[758] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 121.
[759] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 178-9, and _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_
(Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8. The canons at these houses must be
distinguished from the canons who held prebendal stalls in the Abbeys of
Romsey, St Mary's, Winchester, Wherwell, Wilton and Shaftesbury; these
were often bad pluralists and could have been of little use to the abbeys,
as chaplains or as _custodes_. See _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 122-3 and p.
144 above, note 1.
[760] _Loc. cit._ Compare the complaint of the nuns of Brodholme in
1321-2. "A nostre Seyngnur le Roy e a son Counsaill monstrent le Prioresse
el Covente de Brodholme, qe lour Gardayns de la dit meson par lour defaute
sount lour Rentes abatez, e lour meson a poy ennente e le dit Gardayns ne
vollent nulle entent mettre ne despender pur les ayder kaunt eles sount
empleydie, mes come eles meymes defendent a graunt meschef. Pur qoi eles
prient pur l'amour de Dieu, trescher Seygnour, pur l'alme vostre Pier, e
ouir de charite, qe Vous vollez graunter vostre Charter qe l'avantdit
Prioresse el covent pouissent avoir lour rentes e lour enproumens, de
ordiner a lour voluntes, e al profist de la dit meson, si pleiser Vous
soit, Kare autrement ne poivent eles viver." The reply was "Injusta est
peticio, ideo non potest fieri." _Rot. Parl._ I, pp. 393-4. Brodholme was
one of the only two convents of Premonstratensian nuns in England; the
guardians were probably the canons of the Premonstratensian Abbey of
Newhouse; for an ordinance (1354, confirmed 1409) regulating the relations
between the two houses, see _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, pp. 159-60.
[761] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 148 (from Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt ii, m. 22_d_.).
[762] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 330. Roger de Dauentry, canon
of Catesby, had been made master in 1297. _Reg. Memo. Sutton._ f. 175.
[763] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, III, pp. 850-1.
[764] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 98.
[765] _V.C.H. Derby._ II, p. 43.
[766] _Loc. cit._ see also _Linc. Epis. Reg. Institution Roll_
(_Northampton_) of Sutton for the presentation of William de Stok, monk of
Peterborough as Prior of St Michael's Stamford, by the Abbot, and the
Bishop's ratification.
[767] Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum_ (Rolls Ser.), II, p. 519, and _V.C.H.
Herts._ IV, p. 429. On their misdeeds see Archbishop Morton's famous
letter in 1490. Wilkins, _Concilia_, III, p. 632.
[768] See _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, pp. 159-160.
[769] Mention of _custodes_ occurs at the following houses, in addition to
those mentioned in the text: Studley (1290), Goring (1309), _V.C.H. Oxon._
II, pp. 78, 104; Markyate (1323), Harrold (late thirteenth century),
_V.C.H. Beds._ I, pp. 359, 388; Flamstead (1337), Rowney (1302, 1328),
_V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 432, 434; Arden (1302, 1324), Marrick (1252),
Nunburnholme (1314), Yedingham (1280), Basedale (1304), Hampole (1268,
1280, 1308), Handale (1318), Nunappleton (1306), Swine (1267, 1291, 1298),
_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 127, 159, 163, 166, 171, 180; all
in Lincoln or York. For mention of _custodes_ in other dioceses, see
Cookhill (1285), _Reg. of Godfrey Giffard_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), II, p. 267;
St Sepulchre's Canterbury, Davington, Usk, Whitehall (Ilchester), Minchin
Barrow, Easebourne, St Bartholomew's Newcastle, King's Mead, Derby, below,
pp. 231-5 _passim_. The frequency with which _custodes_ occur in houses in
the diocese of Lincoln and York and their rarity in other dioceses would
seem to support the theory of Gilbertine influence. Of the cases quoted
from other dioceses all are either _custodes_ appointed as a deliberate
policy by Archbishop Peckham, or _custodes_ appointed to meet some special
moral or financial crisis, not regular officials. King's Mead, Derby,
seems to be the only nunnery outside the two dioceses of York and Lincoln
(with the exception of those in direct dependence on a house of monks)
which started its career under the joint government of a _custos_ and a
Prioress. _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43.
[770] _Reg. of John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc.), I, pp. xii, xiii, 86, 125,
157, 180.
[771] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, ff. 23_d_, 37, 44, 60_d_, 79_d_,
118_d_, 328_d_, 366, 373, 378, 382, 388. (These comprise two appointments
to Rowney, Godstow and Nuncoton; the dates are between 1301 and 1318.)
[772] _Reg. of John le Romeyn_, I, pp. 203-4, 209, 211, 217.
[773] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton_, ff. 82_d_-83.
[774] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. But in 1318 Dalderby appointed the vicar
of Little Coates, _loc. cit._ f. 373. Originally St Leonard's Grimsby, had
been placed under the protection of the canons of Wellow.
[775] _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 54.
[776] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113.
[777] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton_, ff. 25, 92_d_.
[778] Sometimes the chaplain of the house must have acted as an unofficial
_custos_ and sometimes he held the position by special mandate, e.g. in
1285 Bishop Giffard ordered the nuns of Cookhill that "for the better
conduct of temporal business and for the increase of divine praise,"
Thomas their chaplain was to have full charge of their temporal affairs.
_Reg. of Godfrey Giffard_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), II, p. 267.
[779] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 72-3; II, pp.
708-9, III, p. 806.
[780] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 99.
[781] _V.C.H. Somerset_, II, p. 157. Text in Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of
the County of Somerset: Whitehall in Ilchester_, App. VII, pp. 78-9.
[782] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), p. 177.
[783] Hugo, _op. cit._ _Minchin Barrow Priory_, App. II, pp. 81-3. With
these cases compare the appointment of _custodes_ to the worldly Prioress
of Easebourne in 1441. See above, p. 77.
[784] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 413.
[785] _Ib._ IV, p. 485.
[786] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73.
[787] _V.C.H. Derby_, II, pp. 43-4 (from _Ancient Petitions_, No. 11730);
cf. _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1327-30, p. 139. See above, p. 180.
[788] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 7.
[789] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 39_d_.
[790] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 117.
[791] See e.g. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119.
[792] _Yorks. Arch. Journal_, XVI, p. 362.
[793] It will be noticed that all the references to _custodes_ given on p.
230, note 8, belong to the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries;
appointments at a later date are generally made to meet some regular
crisis. There are no references to the Prior of St Michael's Stamford in
the later account rolls of that house, though one or two rolls belonging
to the beginning of the century mention him. One of the few references to
the regular appointment of a master in a Cistercian house after the first
quarter of the fourteenth century is at Legbourne, where "later Lincoln
regulations record the appointment of several masters from 1294-1343 and
in 1366 the same official is apparently called an _yconomus_ of Legbourne"
(_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 154, note 1). The will of Adam, vicar of
Hallington, "custos sive magister domus monialium de Legbourne," dated
1345, has been preserved. Gibbons, _Early Lincoln Wills_, p. 17. The
_yconomus_ of Gokewell in 1440 is a very late instance. (Compare
Bokyngham's advice to the Abbess of Elstow in 1387, above, p. 228.) Much
the same function as that of the _custos_, was, however, probably
performed by the steward (_senescallus_), an official often mentioned
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
[794] See account in L. Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, ch. IV.
[795] L. Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, ch. IV, pp. 160 ff.
[796] _Ib._ pp. 238 ff.
[797] _Ib._ pp. 256 ff.
[798] _Ib._ pp. 328 ff.
[799] _Ib._ pp. 416, 419, 428, 458 ff.
[800] See _Romania_ XIII (1884), pp. 400-3.
"Je ke la vie ai translatee
Par nun sui Climence numee,
De Berekinge sui nunain;
Par s'amur pris ceste oevre en main."
[801] Devon, _Issues of the Exchequer_, p. 144.
[802] There does exist a catalogue of Syon library, but unluckily it is
that of the brothers' library and the catalogue of the sisters' library is
missing; it was probably a good one since we have notice of several books
written for them. See M. Bateson, _Cat. of the Lib. of Syon Mon._ (1898).
Only three continental library catalogues survive, of which two are
printed and accessible; one is of the library of the Dominican nuns of
Nuremberg, made between 1456-69 and containing 350 books, the other
belonged to the Franciscan tertiaries of Delft in the second half of the
fifteenth century and contained 109 books; the third comes from the
women's cloister at Wonnenstein in 1498. See M. Deanesly, _The Lollard
Bible_, pp. 110-5.
[803] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 12.
[804] Mackenzie, Walcott, _Inventories of ... the Ben. Priory ... of
Shepey for Nuns_, pp. 21, 23, 28.
[805] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 424.
[806] At a visitation of St Mary's Winchester by Dr Hede in 1501, "Elia
Pitte, librarian, was also well satisfied with that which was in her
charge." _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 124.
[807] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 179.
[808] Sharpe, _Cal. of Wills_, II, p. 327.
[809] _Test. Ebor._ II, p. 13.
[810] _Ib._ III, p. 262.
[811] _Ib._ III, p. 199. See an interesting list of books left by Peter,
vicar of Swine, to Swine Priory some time after 1380. _King's Descrip.
Cat. MS._ 18.
[812] _Reg. Stafford of Exeter_, p. 419.
[813] _Test. Ebor._ II, p. 66.
[814] For Barking books (including a book of English religious treatises)
see M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible_, pp. 337-9. Besides the books
mentioned in the text there are fine psalters written for nuns at St
Mary's Winchester, Amesbury and Wilton in the libraries of Trinity
College, Cambridge, All Souls College, Oxford, and the Royal College of
Physicians respectively. There is an interesting book in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge (_McClean MS._ 123), which belonged to Nuneaton; it
contains (1) the metrical Bestiary of William the Norman, (2) the
_Chasteau d'Amours_ of Robert Grosseteste, (3) exposition of the
Paternoster, (4) the Gospel of Nicodemus, (5) Apocalypse with pictures,
(6) _Poema Morale_, etc.
[815] Wright and Halliwell, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, II, p. 117.
[816] Capgrave, _Life of St Katharine of Alexandria_, ed. Horstmann
(E.E.T.S. 1893), Introd. p. xxix.
[817] _St John's Coll. MS._ 68. Other psalters from the aristocratic house
of Wherwell are _MS. add._ 27866 at the British Museum and _MS. McClean_
45 at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
[818] _MS._ 136 (T. 6. 18). See J. Young and P. Henderson Aitkin, _Cat. of
MSS. in the Lib. of the Hunterian Museum in the Univ. of Glasgow_ (1908),
p. 124. In the introduction the book is conjectured to have belonged to
the Carthusian monastery at Sheen, where it obviously was written; but the
reference to "sorores et ffratres" and the name of Elizabeth Gibbs (see
Blunt, _Myroure of Oure Ladye_ (E.E.T.S.), p. xxiii), show clearly that it
belonged to Syon.
[819] So John of Pontoise sends Juliana de Spina to Romsey on the occasion
of his consecration (1282), with the recommendation "Ejusdem Juliane
competenter ad hujusmodi officii debitum litterate laudabile propositum
speciali gracia prosequentes, etc." _Reg. J. de Pontissara_ (Cant. and
York Soc.), I, p. 240. Cp. _ib._ p. 252.
[820] _Collectanea Anglo-Praemonstratensia_, II, p. 267.
[821] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 53.
[822] _Gesta Abbatum_ (Rolls Ser. 1867), II, pp. 410-2. But professions
were often written by others, and the postulant only put his or her cross.
So also with the vote.
[823] _Ib._ II, p. 213. This was a not uncommon method of voting. It is
clear, too, from prohibitions of letter-writing in various injunctions
that nuns could sometimes write.
[824] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ V, p. 256. Compare the editor's note on the
education of Christina von Stommeln: "Simul cum psalterio videtur tantum
didicisse linguae latinae, quantum satis erat non solum illi legendo, sed
etiam epistolis ad se Latine scriptis pro parte intelligendis, ac vicissim
dictandis: nam scribendi ignoram fuisse habeo." _Acta SS. Junii_, t. IV,
p. 279.
[825] Jusserand, _A Literary History of the English People_, I, pp.
239-40.
[826] Jusserand, _op. cit._ I, p. 236.
[827] It is interesting to find the Master-General of the Dominicans in
1431 giving Jane Fisher, a nun of Dartford, leave to have a _master_ to
instruct her in grammar and the Latin tongue. Jarrett, _The English
Dominicans_, p. 11.
[828] _Reg. Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8.
[829] _Reg. John le Romeyn_, etc. (Surtees Soc.), II, pp. 222-4.
[830] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), III, pp. 845-52.
[831] _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_ (Cant. and York Soc. and Cantilupe Soc.),
p. 202.
[832] _Reg. R. de Norbury_ (Wm. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Coll. I), p. 257.
[833] _Reg. R. de Stretton_ (_ib._ New Series, VIII), p. 119.
[834] _Reg. W. de Stapeldon_, p. 316. See below, p. 286. In the same year
Archbishop Melton writes to the nuns of Sinningthwaite that in all
writings under the common seal a faithful clerk is to be employed and the
deed is to be sealed in the presence of the whole convent, the clerk
reading the deed plainly in the mother tongue and explaining it. _V.C.H.
Yorks._ III, p. 177.
[835] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 105.
[836] _New Coll._ MS. f. 84.
[837] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, ff. 34. 139_d_, 100_d_.
[838] _Ib._ _Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 343 (Elstow), 397 (Heynings).
[839] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 83.
[840] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 52.
[841] _Ib._ I, p. 45. At Kyme and Wellow, houses of canons, however, the
injunctions are also to be expounded in the mother tongue.
[842] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 1.
[843] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6.
[844] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 91; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 83, 38.
[845] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 117.
[846] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 174.
[847] Archbishop Lee's visitations of the York diocese on the eve of the
Dissolution (1534-5) are typical. The injunctions sent to the nunneries of
Sinningthwaite, Nunappleton and Esholt (_Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI, pp.
440, 443, 451) are in English, but those sent to the houses of monks and
canons are all in Latin.
[848] Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_, ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S.
2nd ed. 1883), p. 21.
[849] _Three Middle Eng. Versions of the Rule of St Benet_ (E.E.T.S.
1902), p. 48.
On the other hand the Caxton abstract at the end of the century is
translated "for men and wymmen, of the habyte therof, the whiche
vnderstande lytyll laten or none." _Ib._ p. 119.
[850] The preface is quoted in _The Register of Richard Fox while Bishop
of Bath and Wells, with a Life of Bishop Fox_, ed. E. C. Batten (1889),
pp. 102-4.
[851] _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Nunnery_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 25-6.
[852] _The Myroure of Oure Ladye_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 2-3.
[853] _Ib._ pp. 63 ff.
[854] _Ib._ pp. xliv-xlvi; Eckenstein, _op. cit._ p. 395. Wynkyn de
Worde's edition was reprinted for the Henry Bradshaw Society in 1893.
[855] Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible_, pp. 320, 336-7. It may be noted as of
some interest that when in 1528 a wealthy London merchant was imprisoned
for distributing Tyndale's books and for similar practices, he pleaded
that the abbess of Denney, Elizabeth Throgmorton, had wished to borrow
Tyndale's _Enchiridion_ and that he had lent it to her. Dugdale, _Mon._
VI, p. 1549.
[856] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 7.
[857] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 49. At Bondeville in 1251 Archbishop Eudes
Rigaud has to forbid the nuns to sell their thread and their spindles to
raise money, "quod moniales non vendant nec distrahant filum _et lor
fusees_," _Reg. Visit. Archiepiscopi Roth._ ed. Bonnin (1852), p. 111.
[858] "Nuns with their needles wrote histories also," as Fuller prettily
says, "that of Christ his passion for their altar clothes, as other
Scripture (and moe legend) Stories to adorn their houses." Fuller, _Church
Hist._ (ed. 1837), II, p. 190.
[859] J. H. Middleton, _Illuminated MSS._ (1892), p. 112. On nunnery
embroidery at different periods see _ib._ pp. 224-30; but the book must be
read with great caution.
[860] Mackenzie Walcott, _Inventory of St Mary's Ben. Nunnery at Langley,
Co. Leic. 1485_ (Leic. Architec. Soc. 1872), pp. 3, 4.
[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.