[1398] See, besides the references given above, cases in which a priest or

chaplain was implicated at St Stephen's Foukeholm (abduction of Cecilia by

William, Chaplain of Yarm, 1293), _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113; Nunkeeling

(Avice de Lelle had confessed to incontinence; ordered not to talk to

Robert de Eton, chaplain, or any other person, 1318), _ib._ p. 121;

Keldholme, 1318 (Mary de Holm and Sir William Lely, chaplain, 1318), _ib._

p. 169; Kirklees (Joan de Heton and Sir Michael, called the Scot, priest,

1315), _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 361; Godstow (Sir Hugh Sadylere of

Oxford, chaplain, and Alice Longspee, 1445), _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 114;

Littlemore (Prioress Katherine Wells and Richard Hewes, priest of Kent,

1517), _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 76; Wintney (Prioress and Thomas Ferring, a

secular priest, 1405), _Cal. Papal Letters_, VI, p. 55; Romsey (charge

against Emma Powes and the vicar of the parish church, 1502), _V.C.H.

Hants._ II, p. 130; Easebourne (Sir John Smyth, chaplain, concerned in

abduction of two nuns, 1478), _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 17; and various

other instances of suspicious behaviour or of chaplains and priests warned

off the premises. Some of these cases are described in detail below,

_passim_.

[1399] E.g. "Fatebatur se carnaliter cognitam a D.B. apud S. in domo

habitacionis sue ibidem situata," _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 71. "Item dicit

quod priorissa consueuit sola accedere ad villam de Catesby ad gardinas

cum vno solo presbytero." _Ib._ II, p. 47.

[1400] E.g. "Domina Agnes Smyth inquisita dicit quod Simon Prentes

cognovit eam et suscitavit prolem ex ea infra prioratum, extra tamen

claustrum." Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. Norwich_, p. 109. There are many

references to and injunctions against suspicious confabulations with men

in the nave and other parts of the priory church.

[1401] See above, pp. 386-9, 401.

[1402] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, II, p. 708.

[1403] _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo, Epis. Herefordensis_ (Canterbury and York

Society), p. 265.

[1404] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.

[1405] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 83. See above, p. 310.

[1406] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 91, 116.

[1407] R. E. G. Cole, _The Priory of Brodholme_ (_Assoc. Architec. Soc.

Reports and Papers_, XXVIII), p. 66.

[1408] At Markyate in 1336 "an apostate nun was received back again and

absolved by Bishop Burghersh and three others sought absolution at the

same time for having aided and abetted her in her escape." _V.C.H. Beds._

I, p. 360.

[1409] It must be conceded that the Church gave the nuns every inducement

to take measures to prevent such disasters; for instance in the _Liber

Poenitentialis_ of Theodore the Anglo-Saxon nun guilty of immorality is

given eight years of penance and ten if there be a child; a married layman

and a nun who are lovers have six years of penance and seven if there be a

child. Here, as ever, the Church went on the principle that sin was bad

but scandal worse; _si non caste tamen caute_. Of the practice of abortion

I find no record in English pre-Reformation documents, though Henry VIII's

disreputable commissioner, Dr Layton, accused the Yorkshire nuns of taking

potations "ad prolem conceptum opprimendum." _Letters Relating to the

Suppression of the Monasteries_ (Camden Soc. 1843), p. 97. There is a

proved case of it in Eudes Rigaud's visitation of St-Aubin (1256), and a

suspicion at St Saens (1264), _Reg. Visit. Rigaud_, ed. Bonnin, pp. 255,

491. See below, p. 668. One of Caesarius of Heisterbach's _exempla_ hangs

upon it. Caes. Heist. _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, II, p. 331. In

seventeenth and eighteenth century Italy the practice seems to have been

common, witness Casanova.

[1410] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 96.

[1411] _Wykeham's Reg._ II, pp. 114-5.

[1412] "Et proles obiit immediate post." Jessopp, _op. cit._ p. 109.

[1413] See e.g. faculty given "to dispense twenty persons of illegitimate

birth of the realms of France and England, whether sons of priests or

married persons, or monks, _or nuns_, to be ordained and to hold two

benefices apiece." _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 170.

[1414] M. E. Lowndes, _The Nuns of Port Royal_ (1909), p. 13. The Abbess

in question was Angelique d'Estrees, sister of Gabrielle, Henry IV's

mistress, and famous for her scandalous life and her struggle with her

successor, the famous Mere Angelique (Jacqueline Arnauld) of Port Royal.

[1415] _Letters Relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries_ (Camden

Soc. 1843), p. 58. But it must be remembered that we cannot believe

uncorroborated a single word that Layton says.

[1416] See below, Note F.

[1417] _Reg. Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Som. Rec. Soc.), pp. 683-4; the charge

is not given in full in this edition of the Register and must be eked out

from the extract in Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 416 (note).

[1418] _Reg. John of Drokensford_, pp. 60, 126, 167, 287.

[1419] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, pp. 17-19.

[1420] _Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis_, ed. Stubbs, Rolls

Ser., I, pp. 135-6.

[1421] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 334.

[1422] _Cal. of Pap. Letters_, III, p. 169. She was born 11 March 1278 and

took the veil at the age of seven years. Some annalists put the date of

her profession at 1285 and some at 1289; in any case the Warenne charge

was not made until 1345. See above, p. 381, note 1.

[1423] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 161.

[1424] _Ib._ VII, p. 373.

[1425] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_, III, p. 851.

[1426] See Note G, p. 597, below.

[1427] In general an apostate may be said to mean a lover, but there must

also have been cases of nuns apostatising out of general discontent with

the convent or Prioress.

[1428] Two of these, St Mary de Pre (St Albans) and Sopwell ought not,

however, to be counted, being entirely under the control of the Abbey of

St Albans and exempt from episcopal visitation. It was concerning St Mary

de Pre that Archbishop Morton made the charges against St Albans, rendered

famous by Froude.

[1429] Above, p. 440.

[1430] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 101 (note), from _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo.

Sutton_, f. 154.

[1431] _V.C.H. Beds._ I, p. 389.

[1432] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 126.

[1433] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 103.

[1434] _V.C.H. Beds._ I, p. 360.

[1435] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179.

[1436] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 383.

[1437] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 114.

[1438] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 101.

[1439] See A. H. Thompson, "Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln,

for the Years 1347-1350." _Archaeol. Journ._ 2nd ser., vol. XVIII, p. 331.

[1440] _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 81-2.

[1441] _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 82-6.

[1442] _Ib._ pp. 111-2. It should be noted that the word "incest" is used

in its religious sense; it was properly used of intercourse between

persons who were both under ecclesiastical vows and thus in the relation

of spiritual father and daughter, or brother and sister, but it soon came

to be used loosely to denote a breach of chastity in which one party was

professed.

[1443] Lambeth, _Reg. Courtenay_, I, f. 336.

[1444] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50. Flemyng adds "or manifestly suspect."

[1445] _Ib._ p. 54.

[1446] _Ib._ p. 65.

[1447] _Ib._ pp. 69-71.

[1448] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6.

[1449] See above, p. 449.

[1450] See above, pp. 82-4, 388.

[1451] See above, pp. 80, 310, 449.

[1452] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 3. The form of her admission is curious:

"Fatetur totidem moniales recessisse, absque tamen sciencia sua."

[1453] Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. Norwich_ (Camden Soc.) gives also Bishop

Goldwell's visitations some ten years before, which brought to light no

cases of immorality among nuns.

[1454] _Ib._ p. 109.

[1455] See _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 129-31 (Romsey, where the date is

wrongly given as 1312 by a slip), 124, 135, 151. Unfortunately all but the

Romsey visitation are given in the barest summary.

[1456] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 130.

[1457] Above, pp. 453-4.

[1458] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, pp. 25-6.

[1459] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 48.

[1460] In Archbishop Walter Giffard's York Register occurs the following

entry of payments for Agatha: "Item A. Giffard xx_s._ Item Thomae de

Habinton ad Expensas versus Elnestowe" (1271), _Reg. W. Giffard_ (Surtees

Soc.), p. 115. This seems sufficient reason for identifying the Elstow

sister as Agatha, though the editor identifies her with Mabel "afterwards

abbess of Shaftesbury," _ib._ p. 164.

[1461] _Reg. W. Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.) p. 164 and _Hist. Letters and

Papers from the Northern Regs._ ed. J. Raine (Rolls Ser.), pp. 33-4.

[1462] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 78.

[1463] She was in trouble in 1287 for refusing to pay certain moneys left

for an obit and had to be threatened with excommunication; see _Worc. Reg.

Godfrey Giffard_, Introd. pp. cxxxvi-vii.

[1464] _Worc. Reg. Godfrey Giffard_, II, pp. 278-80. It is followed by a

letter enjoining the Abbess and convent of Wilton to receive back the two

nuns.

[1465] For another version of the penance see _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_,

III, pp. 916-7. This forbids him to enter any nunnery or speak with any

nuns without special licence from their metropolitan.

[1466] _V.C.H. Beds._ I, p. 389.

[1467] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 39_d_. Compare the case of Thomas de

Raynevill who in 1324 was ordered, as penance for seducing a nun of

Hampole, to stand on a Sunday, while high mass was being celebrated, in

the conventual church of Hampole, bareheaded, wearing only his tunic and

holding a lighted taper of one pound weight of wax in his hand, which he

was to offer, after the offertory had been said, to the celebrant, who was

to explain to the congregation the cause of the oblation. Also on feast

days he was to be beaten round the parish church of Campsall. But two

years later the Archbishop was still repeating directions for the

performance of the penance. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164.

[1468] From Nunkeeling to Yedingham (1444); from Arthington to Yedingham

(1310); from St Clement's, York, to Yedingham (1331); from Basedale to

Sinningthwaite (1308); from Hampole to Swine (1313); four disobedient nuns

of Keldholme to Handale, Swine, Nunappleton and Wallingwells respectively

(1308); and two others to Esholt and Nunkeeling (1309); from Nunappleton

to Basedale (1308); from Rosedale to Handale (1321); from Swine to Wykeham

(1291); from Wykeham to Nunappleton (1444); from Arthington to Nunkeeling

(1219). _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 121, 127, 130, 159, 163-4, 168, 171, 175,

180, 183, 189. Also from Kirklees to Hampole (1323) and from Basedale to

Rosedale (1534). _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 362, 431-3.

[1469] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 84.

[1470] See for instance the insistence on costs and charges in Archbishop

Lee's letter transferring Joan Fletcher, ex-Prioress of Basedale, from

Rosedale where she was doing (or not doing) her penance, back to Basedale

again. _Loc. cit._ pp. 431-3.

[1471] Joan Trimelet of Cannington was to be shut up for a year, fasting

thrice a week on bread and water, _suos calores macerans juveniles_.

Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 416. Margaret de Tang of Arthington was "if need be

to be bound by the foot with a shackle, but without hurting her limbs or

body." _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 189. The runaway Agnes de Flixthorpe was

similarly to be bound, see above, p. 444; Anne Talke was imprisoned for a

month. Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 244. Joan Hutton of Esholt,

who had had a child (1535), for two years unless the Archbishop relaxed

her penance. _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI. p. 453.

[1472] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 456-7. The recorded penances given

by Archbishop Melton are all very severe, though it must be admitted that

the state of the nunneries in his diocese gave him cause for severity and

that the penitents were all hardened sinners. Compare penances given by

him in _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 175, 189. There is an extremely severe

penance imposed by Archbishop Zouche on a nun who had several times run

away from Thicket, _ib._ p. 124, and another by Archbishop Lee in 1535

cited in the last note.

[1473] Jessopp, _Visit. in Dioc. Norwich_, p. 110.

[1474] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 84.

[1475] "Expresse inhibentes, ne infuturum aliqua monialis de crimine

incontinencie conuicta vel publice diffamata, antequam de innocencia sic

diffamate constiterit, ad aliquod officium domus predicte et precipue ad

ostiorum custodiam admittatur." Lambeth, _Reg. Courtenay_, I, f. 336.

Injunction to Elstow in 1390 and repeated by Bishop Flemyng in 1421. See

above, p. 396. Compare the charge against Margaret Fairfax, Prioress of

Nunmonkton, in 1397: "_Item_, moniales quae lapsae fuerint in fornicatione

faciliter restituit." Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.

[1476] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239.

[1477] _Ib._ p. 183.

[1478] _Ib._ p. 120. For those Yorkshire cases see below, Note G,

_passim_.

[1479] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 213-6.

[1480] See below, Note F.

[1481] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, X, p. 471. The dispensation mentions that

she "has secretly lost her virginity and has not yet been publicly

defamed."

[1482] _Ib._ V, p. 161 and VII, p. 373.

[1483] The Pope writes to Mitford, Bishop of Salisbury, desiring him to

restore Alice Wilton, nun of Shaftesbury, to the position which she had

forfeited by the sin of incontinence. The Bishop reinstates the nun and

declares her eligible for all offices except that of Abbess. _V.C.H.

Dorset_, II, p. 78, note 93.

[1484] See Chs. IX, X, above.

[1485] See below, p. 491.

[1486] Bede, _Eccles. Hist._ Book IV, ch. 25.

[1487] Benedict of Peterborough, _Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi_, ed. Stubbs

(Rolls Series, 1867), I, pp. 135-6. Ralph Niger describes the transaction

thus: "Juratus se tria monasteria constructurum, duos ordines transvertit,

personas de loco ad locum transferens, meretrices alias aliis,

cenomannicas Anglicis substituens." _Ib._ II, p. XXX.

[1488] "Et quod indignum scribi, ad domos religiosarum veniens, fecit

exprimi mammillas earundem, ut sic physice si esset inter eas corruptela

experiretur" [1251]. Matt. Paris, _Chron. Majora_, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls

Series, 1880), V, p. 227. In 1248 he had deposed an abbess of Godstow,

Flandrina de Bowes, and Adam Marsh writes to him: "Plurimum credo fore

salutiferam visitationem quam in domo Godestowe fieri fecistis.

Paternitatis vestrae sollicitudinem largitio divina remuneret." _Monumenta

Franciscana_, ed. J. S. Brewer (Rolls Series, 1858), p. 117. If Matthew

Paris' account of his procedure be true it would seem almost to rival the

behaviour of Layton and Legh, however different the character and motive

which inspired it.

[1489] The earliest list of _comperta_ which we possess is the result of

Archbishop Walter Giffard's visitation of Swine in 1268. Though there is

no charge of actual immorality the house was in a thoroughly

unsatisfactory state. The Archbishop's two sisters, the one Prioress of

Elstow and the other Abbess of Shaftesbury, were both in serious trouble

in 1270 and 1298 respectively, their nuns being also involved, and in 1296

there occurred the famous Giffard abduction from Wilton. Peckham's

injunctions to nunneries show widespread breach of enclosure and some

suspicious conduct during the '80s, a nun of Lymbrook is guilty with a

monk of Leominster in 1282, and besides Matthew Paris' account of

Grosseteste's proceedings in the diocese of Lincoln in 1251, we have

notice of apostates there in 1295, 1296 and 1298 and in the York diocese

in 1286, 1287, 1293 and 1299. See this chapter and notes, _passim_.

[1490] For the disappearance or suppression of eight small nunneries prior

to 1535 see Note H below.

[1491] At Chicksand, for instance, Layton "fownde two of the nunnes not

baron," and at Harrold "one of them hade two faire chyldren, another one

and no mo"; but is this so much worse than what Alnwick found at Catesby

and St Michael's, Stamford, in the same diocese a century before? Or take

Layton's description of the Prior of Maiden Bradley, quoted above; is it

not much less serious than the description of Alexander Black of Selby in

one of Archbishop Giffard's visitation _detecta_ in 1275? "Alexander

Niger, monachus, tenet Cristinam Bouere et Agnetem filiam Stephani, de qua

suscitavit prolem, et quamdam mulierem nomine Anekous, de qua suscitavit

vivam prolem apud Crol, et aliam apud Sneyth quae vocatur Nalle, et alias

infinitas apud Eboracum et Akastre et alibi, et quasi in qualibet villa

unam; et fetidissimus est, et recte modo captus fuit cum quadam muliere in

campis, sicut audivit." _Reg. Walter Giffard_, p. 326. Or than what

Alnwick discovered at the New Collegiate Church at Leicester in 1440?

Layton's general charges against the monks and nuns of Yorkshire are pure

gossip or invention; but we should not have been deeply surprised to find

them in a York archiepiscopal register of the early fourteenth century.

[1492] Of some of the Anglo-Saxon kings it was said, and said with horror,

that they most willingly chose their mistresses from convents. See a

letter from St Boniface to Ethelbald King of Mercia on this point,

instancing the similar habits and evil fates of Ceolred of Mercia and

Osred of Northumbria (_Bon. Epis._ XIX).

[1493] For these ladies, see references in p. 451, note 5, and below, p.

501, note 3.

[1494] _Memoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt_ (edition Garnier, 1910), tt.

II, III, IV.

[1495] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 365-6. Compare a _detectum_ at Crabhouse

(1514): "Item, the younger nuns are disobedient and when the seniors

charge them with their faults the prioress punishes alike the reformers

and the sinners." _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp, p. 109.

[1496] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50. Compare _Reg. Walter Giffard_, p. 249;

_Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp ("Item Dna. A. D. et Dna. G. S.

... revelant secreta religionis et correctionis factae in conventu")

_Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 397, 397_d_ ("Et quod nullum

decetero capitulum in domo capitulari in presencia secularis seu extranee

persone quoquomodo teneatur sub pena iniunccionis nostre infrascripta").

[1497] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 120, 167-8.

[1498] See below, Note F.

[1499] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164.

[1500] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 47, 120.

[1501] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 118.

[1502] For an account of the house, see _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 428-32.

The regulations made by Abbot Richard de Wallingford (1328-36) are given

in _Gesta Abbat._ II, pp. 213-4 and those by Abbot Michael or his

successor Thomas de la Mare in Cott. MS. Nero D. i. ff. 173-4_d_;

regulations by Thomas de la Mare (1349-96) occur in _Gesta Abbat._ II, p.

402. See also W. Page, "Hist. of the Monastery of St Mary de Pre" (_St

Albans and Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans._ (New Series) I).

[1503] For an account of the house, see _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 422-6.

[1504] The accounts of the warden of St Mary de Pre for 1341-57 are

preserved in the Public Record Office (_Mins. Accts._, bundle 867, Nos.

21-6) and are described in _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 430 (notes). In the

second half of the fifteenth century the accounts seem to have been kept

by the Prioress; those for 1461-93 have survived. _Ib._ p. 431 (note).

[1505] See _Gesta Abbat._ II, p. 212.

[1506] Quoted from _P.R.O. Early Chancery Proceedings_, 181/4 in _V.C.H.

Herts._ IV, pp. 424-5.

[1507] Wilkins, _Concilia_, III, p. 632.

[1508] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 425.

[1509] Printed in Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 365-6 and _Gesta Abbat._ ed.

Riley, II, App. D. pp. 511-19.

[1510] _Gesta Abbat._ III, p. 519.

[1511] See _V.C.H. Northants._ II, pp. 98-101.

[1512] _E.H.R._ 1914, p. 38 (note 60).

[1513] The religious houses were also subject to metropolitan visitation

by the Archbishop. Among important records of visitations of nunneries by

the Archbishop of Canterbury or by his commissioners are Peckham's

visitations (_Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, _passim_) in the last quarter

of the thirteenth century, Courtenay's visitations in the last quarter of

the fourteenth century (see Lambeth, _Reg. Courtenay_, I, f. 335_d_, for

his injunctions to Elstow in 1389, used by Flemyng as a model for his own

injunctions in 1421-2, _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 48) and Archbishop Morton's

visitations in the last quarter of the fifteenth century (see Liveing,

_Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 217-22 for the visitation of Romsey in

1492). The visitations of the Winchester diocese by Dr Hede, commissary of

the Prior of Canterbury, during the vacancy of the sees of Canterbury and

Winchester in 1501-2 were made in the same right (see _V.C.H. Hants._ II,

pp. 124, 129, 135, 151).

[1514] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 176 (quoting Dugdale, _Mon._ V, pp. 464-5

and _Reg. Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 295).

[1515] See _Linc. Visit._ II, _passim_, and also the Editor's admirable

introduction to _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. ix-xiii.

[1516] See above, p. 250.

[1517] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 119. 126-7.

[1518] Sometimes the bishop's clerk summarises the information given as to

the financial state of the house, which would seem to indicate that the

prioress gave and the bishop accepted merely a verbal account. See

_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 38. In _Linc. Epis. Reg. Atwater_, f. 42, is a

brief account of a visitation of Ankerwyke in 1519, to which is added the

_status domus_ as submitted by the nuns, comprising an inventory.

[1519] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 49-50.

[1520] See e.g. the case of Denise Loweliche at Markyate in 1433, _Linc.

Visit._ I, pp. 83-5.

[1521] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, II, pp. 706-8 (injunctions), 708-9

(mandate to commissary). Compare the proceedings at Ankerwyke six months

after Alnwick's visitation. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 7.

[1522] _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 82-3.

[1523] G. G. Coulton in _Eng. Hist. Review_ (1914), p. 37. "The _locus

classicus_ here is the Evesham Chronicle, in which one of the most

admirable abbots of the thirteenth century tells us how solemnly he and

his brethren had promised to conceal all their former abbot's blackest

crimes from the visiting bishop; and how they would never have complained

even to the legate (whose jurisdiction they did recognize) if only the

sinner had kept his pact with them in money matters."

[1524] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 47, 48, 49, 52. At Heynings (where nothing

seriously amiss transpired) one nun said that "the prioress reproaches her

sisters, saying that if they say aught to the bishop, she will lay on them

such penalties that they shall not easily bear them." _Ib._ p. 133. The

wicked Prioress of Littlemore was found in 1517 to have ordered her nuns

on virtue of their obedience to reveal nothing to the commissioners and in

1518 it was stated that she had punished them for speaking the truth at

the visitation. _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 75. At Flixton in 1514 it was said:

"The sisters scarce dare to depose the truth on account of the fierceness

of the prioress." _Visit. of the Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp (Camden

Soc.), p. 143. For episcopal injunctions against revealing or quarrelling

over _detecta_ made at the visitation, see _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 51, 124,

etc., _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 442, _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_,

II, p. 661.

[1525] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 184-5.

[1526] _Ib._ p. 4.

[1527] _Ib._ pp. 120, 122, 123-4.

[1528] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 76.

[1529] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 83, 39_d_, 96. Similarly at Ankerwyke,

where there was great discord between Prioress and nuns, he prorogued his

visitation for six months and then sent down commissioners to expound his

injunctions, inquire how they were followed and deal with further

grievances. _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 6-8.

[1530] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp. 76-7.

[1531] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 39_d_.

[1532] See above, pp. 388-9, 460.

[1533] See above, p. 469.

[1534] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 220.

[1535] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 5.

[1536] As full reports containing _detecta_ or _comperta_ are specially

valuable, it may be useful to indicate those concerning nunneries, which

have been published: (1) The earliest _comperta_ extant are those of

Archbishop Giffard's visitation of Swine in Yorkshire in 1267-8; the

individual _detecta_ are absent, but there is a fine set of injunctions,

issued two months later, the earliest English nunnery injunctions which we

possess, _Reg. Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8, 248-9. (2) The

_comperta_ of Archbishop Wittlesey's metropolitan visitation of St

Radegund's, Cambridge (including only _interim_ injunctions) have been

published in Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 35-6. (3) The

_Sede Vacante_ visitation of Arden in 1396 includes _detecta_ but no

injunctions, _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 283-5 (note) and that of Nunmonkton in

the same year includes _comperta_ and injunctions, Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p.

194; both of these are concerned almost entirely with charges against the

respective prioresses. (4) The finest collection in existence is Alnwick's

book of Lincoln visitations, which is in the course of publication, _Linc.

Visit._ II and III (in the press). (5) Records of visitations of Rusper

and Easebourne from the Chichester registers of the fifteenth and

sixteenth centuries contain _detecta_ and some injunctions, _Sussex Arch.

Coll._ V and IX, _passim_. (6) Records of the visitations of monastic

houses in the diocese of Norwich by Bishops Goldwell (1492-3) and Nykke

(1514-32) include _detecta_ and _injunctions_ (sometimes only _interim_),

_Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, ed. Jessopp, _passim_. (7) Dr Hede's _Sede

Vacante_ visitations of the four houses in the diocese of Winchester in

1501-2, summarised in _V.C.H. Hants._ II, _passim_, include _detecta_, but

not injunctions. (8) Archbishop Warham's visitations of houses in the

diocese of Canterbury (Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, the hospital of St

James, Canterbury, Sheppey and Davinton) in 1511 include _detecta_ and

sometimes injunctions, _Eng. Hist. Review_, VI. When more registers are

published other _detecta_ and _comperta_ will doubtless appear; there are

some valuable sets, still in manuscript in _Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit.

Atwater_ and _ib._ _Reg. Visit. Longland_.

[1537] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. xlviii; for an admirable and detailed

discussion of the whole question, in the light of Alnwick's records, Mr

Hamilton Thompson's introduction to this volume (especially pp. xliv-li)

should be studied. See also the learned article by Mr Coulton on "The

Interpretation of Visitation Documents," _E.H.R._ 1914, pp. 16-40.

[1538] Liveing, _op. cit._, pp. 99, etc.

[1539] _Revelationes Gertrudianae ac Mechthildianae_, ed. Oudin (Paris,

1875). See also Preger, _Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter_

(1874), I, pp. 70-132; Eckenstein, _Woman under Mon._ pp. 328-53; Taylor,

_The Medieval Mind_, I, pp. 481-6; A. M. F. Robinson (Mme Darmesteter),

_The End of the Middle Ages_ (1889), pp. 45-72 (the Convent of Helfta); A.

Kemp-Welch, _Of Six Medieval Women_ (1913), pp. 57-82 (Mechthild of

Magdeburg); G. Ledos, _Ste Gertrude_ (Paris, 1901). The name of the Abbess

Gertrude of Hackeborn, who ruled the house during the greater part of the

time that these three mystics lived there, deserves to be added to theirs.

For her life see _Revelationes, etc._, I, pp. 497 ff.

[1540] See her life by Thomas of Chantimpre, _Acta SS. Jun._, t. III, pp.

234 ff. See also Taylor, _op. cit._ I, pp. 479-81.

[1541] See E. Gilliat Smith, _St Clare of Assisi, her Life and

Legislation_ (1914); Mrs Balfour, _Life and Legend of the Lady St Clare_,

with introd. by Father Cuthbert (1910); Fr. Marianus Fiege, _The Princess

of Poverty_ (Evansville, Ind. 1900) which contains a translation of Thomas

of Celano's _Life of St Clare_ (_Acta SS. Aug._ t. II, pp. 754-67),

Paschal Robinson, _Life of St Clare_ (1910), Locatelli, _Ste Claire

d'Assise_ (Rome, 1899-1900). Also _La Vie et Legende de Madame Sainte

Claire par Frere Francoys de Puis_, 1563, ed. Arnauld Goffin (Paris,

1907).

[1542] _Acta SS. Mar._ t. I, pp. 501-31. See also Jentsch, _Die Selige

Agnes von Boehmen._ She is always regarded as a saint but was never

officially canonised.

[1543] Pirckheimer, _B. Opera_, ed. Goldast (1610). See also, T. Binder,

_Charitas Pirkheimer_ (1878), and Eckenstein, _op. cit._ pp. 458-76.

[1544] _The Life of St Theresa of Jesus, written by Herself_, tr. D.

Lewis, ed. Zimmerman (1904). _The Letters of St Theresa_, tr. J. Dalton

(1902). See also G. Cunningham Grahame, _Santa Teresa_, 2 vols. (1894).

[1545] See A. Gagniere, _Les Confessions d'une Abbesse du xvi{e} siecle_

(Paris, 1888), based on a manuscript at Ravenna ("Vita della Madre Donna

Felice Rasponi, Badessa di S. Andrea, scritta da una Monaca") which the

author considers to be an autobiography. Some interesting details as to

the scandalous condition of Italian convents at the end of the century are

to be found in J. A. Symonds' _Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic

Reaction_, pt. I (1886), pp. 341-70, dealing with the careers of Virginia

Maria de Leyva, in the convent of S. Margherita at Monza and Lucrezia

Buonvisi (sister Umilia) in the convent of S. Chiara at Lucca.

[1546] _La Vie de Ste. Douceline, fondatrice des beguines de Marseille_,

ed. J. H. Albanes (Marseille, 1879). See also A. Macdonell, _Saint

Douceline_ (1905).

[1547] _Acta SS. Aprilis_, t. II, pp. 266-365. See also Huysmans, _Ste.

Lydwine de Schiedam_ (3rd ed. Paris, 1901).

[1548] _Acta SS. Jun._ t. IV, pp. 270 ff. See also Th. Wollersheim, _Das

Leben der ekstatischen Jungfrau Christina von Stommeln_ (Cologne, 1859);

and Renan, _Nouvelles Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse_ (1884) (_Une Idylle

Monacale au xiii{e} siecle: Christine de Stommeln_), pp. 353-96. Extracts

from Christina's correspondence and life by Peter of Sweden are translated

in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 402-21.

[1549] On these saintly and learned women see Eckenstein, _op. cit._ cc.

III and IV, and Montalembert, _The Monks of the West_ (introd. Gasquet),

vol. IV, Book XV. The great fourteenth century mystic Julian of Norwich

(1343-c. 1413) was, it is true, connected with Carrow Priory, but she was

an anchoress and never a nun there; see above, p. 366.

[1550] On these songs see A. Jeanroy, _Les Origines de la Poesie Lyrique

en France au moyen age_ (2nd ed. 1904), pp. 189-92; and P. S. Allen in

_Modern Philology_, V (1908), pp. 432-5. The songs themselves have to be

collected from various sources; see below, Note I.

[1551] Langland, _Piers Plowman_, ed. Skeat. C text, Passus X, 72-5.

[1552] There was (as usual) however, more chance for a man than for a

woman of villein status to enter a monastery and even to rise to the

highest ecclesiastical dignities. A villein who could save enough to pay a

fine to his lord might put his son to school and might buy that son's

enfranchisement, so that he would be eligible for a place in a monastery.

And though it was forbidden by canon and by temporal law to ordain a serf,

once ordained he was free. Pollock and Maitland, _Hist. of Engl. Law_

(1911), I, p. 429; the lower ranks of the clergy probably contained many

men of low or villein birth (see e.g. Chaucer's Poor Parson, whose brother

was a ploughman and the complaint in "Pierce the Plouman's Crede" that

beggars' brats become bishops). Sometimes, though very rarely, a villein

rose high, for once he was a churchman, it was _la carriere ouverte aux

talents_: Bishop Grosseteste was of very humble, probably of servile,

origin; and Sancho Panza's motto will be remembered: "I am a man and I may

be Pope." For a woman, however, the Church offered no such chance of

advancement through the religious orders; the nunneries were essentially

upper and middle class institutions.

[1553] From a charming round, sung in Saintonge, Aunis and Bas-Poitou.

"Dans l'jardin de ma tante

Plantons le romarin!

Y'a-t-un oiseau qui chante,

Plantons le romarin,

Ma mie,

Au milieu du jardin, etc."

Bujeaud, J., _Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l'ouest_

(1866), I, pp. 136-7.

[1554] M. Vattasso, _Studi Medievali_, I (1904), p. 124. A long poem of

seven verses, much mutilated in parts.

[1555] Uhland, _Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_ (1844-5), t.

II, p. 854 (No. 328). A slightly modernised version. Also printed in _Des

Knaben Wunderhorn_, ed. von Arnim and Brentano (Reclam ed.), p. 25, and in

_Deutsches Leben im Volkslied um 1530_, ed. Liliencron (1884), p. 226.

Translation by Bithell, _The Minnesingers_, I (1909), p. 200, except the

last two lines, which are by Mr Coulton; there is another in Coulton,

_Med. Garn._ p. 476.

[1556] Ferrari, _Canzone per andare in maschera per carnesciale_, pp.

31-2. Referred to in Jeanroy, _op. cit._ I have been unable to consult the

book.

[1557] Bartsch, _Altfranzoesische Romanzen und Pastourellen_ (1870), pp.

28-9 (No. 33).

[1558] Bartsch, _op. cit._ pp. 29-30 (No. 34).

[1559] _Oeuvres Completes d'Eustache Deschamps_ (Soc. des Anc. Textes

Fr.), IV, pp. 235-6. (Virelay, DCCLII, sur une novice d'Avernay.)

[1560] Blade, J. F. _Poesies populaires de la Gascogne_ (1882), III, pp.

372-4. Also in Lenac-Moncaut, _Litterature populaire de la Gascogne_

(1868), pp. 291-2.

[1561] Damase Arbaud, _Chants Populaires de la Provence_ (1862-4), II, pp.

118-22.

[1562] See below, p. 611.

[1563] _The Court of Love in Chaucer's Poetical Works_, ed. R. Morris

(1891), IV, pp. 38-40.

[1564] Lydgate's _Temple of Glas_, ed. J. Schick (E.E.T.S. 1891), p. 8.

[1565] _The Kingis Quair in Medieval Scottish Poetry_, ed. G. Eyre-Todd

(1892), p. 47.

[1566] _Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits_, by Sir David Lyndesay, ed.

Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S., 2nd ed., 1883), p. 514.

"And seis thou now yone multitude, on rawe

Standing behynd yon trauerse of delyte?

Sum bene of thayme that haldin were full lawe

And take by frendis, nothing thay to wyte,

In youth from bye into the cloistre quite;

And for that cause are cummyn, recounsilit,

On thame to pleyne that so thame had begilit."

[1567] _An Alphabet of Tales_, ed. M. M. Banks (E.E.T.S.). No. CCCCLXVIII,

pp. 319-20. (In this and the following quotations from this work in this

chapter I have modernised the spelling.) This version is translated from

Caesarius of Heisterbach. _Dial. Mirac._, ed. Strange, II, pp. 42-3, which

is the original version of all the widespread legends on this theme. From

Caesarius it found its way into many other collections of miracles, in

prose and in verse, in Latin, French, Spanish, German, Icelandic, Dutch

and English. Perhaps the most beautiful is the Dutch poem (c. 1320)

published by W. J. A. Jenckbloet, _Beatriij_ (Amsterdam, 1846-59) and

re-edited with a grammatical introduction and notes in English by A. J.

Barnouw (_Pub. of Philol. Soc._ III, 1914). An edition with illustrations

by Ch. Doudelet accompanied by a translation into French by H. de Marez

was published in Antwerp (1901) and was also issued with an English

translation by A. W. Sanders vaz Loo. The best English translations are

those in prose by L. Simons and L. Housman in _The Pageant_, ed. C. H.

Shannon and J. W. Gleeson White (1896) pp. 95-116 and in verse by H. de

Wolf Fuller (_Harvard Coop. Soc._, Cambridge, U.S.A. 1910). Modern writers

have retold the tale almost as often as their medieval forebears; see for

example Maeterlinck's play, _Soeur Beatrice_, John Davidson's poem, _The

Ballad of a Nun_, one of Villier de l'Isle-Adam's _Contes Cruels_ (_Soeur

Natalia_), one of Charles Nodier's _Contes de la Veillee_ (_La Legende de

Soeur Beatrice_), and one of Gottfried Keller's _Sieben Legenden_ (_Die

Jungfrau und die Nonne_). For a study of the Beatrice story see Heinrich

Watenphul, _Die Geschichte der Marienlegende von Beatrix der Kuesterin_

(Neuwied, 1904); also P. Toldo, _Die Sakristanin_ (with bibliography by J.

Bolte) in _Zeitschrift des Vereins fuer Volkskunde_ (1905), J. van der

Elst, _Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Legende van Beatrijs_ in

_Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde_, XXXII, pp. 51 ff.,

and Mussafia, _Studien zu den Mittelalterlichen Marienlegenden_ (Vienna,

1887), I, p. 73. See also A. Cotarelo y Valledor, _Una Cantiga celebre del

Rey Sabio, fuentes y desarollo de la leyenda de sor Beatriz,

principalmente en la literatura espanola_ (1914). For other variants of

the _Nonne Enlevee_ see below, Note J.

[1568] Chambers and Sidgwick, _Early English Lyrics_ (1907), No. XC, p.

163. But perhaps the most beautiful of medieval English poems which

moralise on this theme is the _Luue Ron_ which Thomas of Hales wrote in

the thirteenth century for a nun:

"Hwer is Paris and Heleyne

That weren so bryght and feyre on bleo?

Amadas, Tristram and Dideyne,

Yseude and alle theo,

Ector with his scharpe meyne,

And Cesar riche of worldes feo?

Heo beoth iglyden ut of the reyne,

So the scheft is of the cleo,"

--they have passed away as a shaft from the bowstring. It is as if they

had never lived. All their heat is turned to cold. (_An Old English

Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris (E.E.T.S. 1872), p. 95.) This catalogue of the

lovely dead was a favourite device, immortalised later by "ung povre petit

escollier, qui fust nomme Francoys Villon" (who certainly was not a

moralist) in his _Ballade des Dames du Temps jadis_.

[1569] For an entertaining and stimulating account of the popular cult of

the Virgin see Henry Adams, _Mont St Michel and Chartres_ (1913),

especially chs. VI and XIII.

[1570] Modern poets who have written upon the same theme have drawn this

moral more overtly than the medieval authors. Maeterlinck's Virgin in

_Soeur Beatrice_ sings:

Il n'est peche qui vive

Quand l'amour a prie;

Il n'est ame qui meure

Quand l'amour a pleure....

Davidson's sacristan (in _A Ballad of a Nun_) cries:

"I care not for my broken vow;

Though God should come in thunder soon,

I am sister to the mountains now

And sister to the sun and moon,"

and the Virgin, welcoming her back on her return, tells her:

"You are sister to the mountains now,

And sister to the day and night;

Sister to God." And on her brow

She kissed her thrice, and left her sight.

[1571] "Cum in hyemis intemperie post cenam noctu familia divitis ad

focum, ut potentibus moris est, recensendis antiquis gestis operam daret."

_Gesta Romanorum_, ed. Oesterley (1872), ch. CLV. Quoted in Jusserand,

_Lit. Hist. of the Eng. People_, I, p. 182.

[1572] One particular kind of story, the _fabliau_ (defined by Bedier as

"un conte a rire en vers") was brought to great perfection by French

jongleurs. See Montaiglon and Raynaud, _Recueil general et complet des

Fabliaux_ (Paris, 1872-90), 6 vols.; and Bedier, _Les Fabliaux_ (Paris,

1873).

[1573] See Dante, _Paradiso_, XXIX, 11, for a violent attack on the

practice. Compare the decree of the Council of Paris in 1528: "Quodsi

secus fecerint, aut si populum more scurrarum vilissimorum, dum ridiculas

et aniles fabulas recitant, ad risus cachinnationesque excitaverint, ...

nos volumus tales tam ineptos et perniciosos concionatores ab officio

praedicationis suspendi," etc., quoted in _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_,

ed. T. F. Crane (1890), Introd. p. lxix. The great preacher Jacques de

Vitry himself, while advocating the use of _exempla_, adds "infructuosas

enim fabulas et curiosa poetarum carmina a sermonis nostris debemus

relegare ... scurrilia tamen aut obscena verba vel turpis sermo ex ore

predicatoris non procedant." _Ib._ Introd., pp. xlii, xliii.

[1574] For instance _exempla_ were much used by Jacques de Vitry (see _op.

cit._). Etienne de Bourbon (see _Anecdotes Historiques, etc., d'Etienne de

Bourbon_, ed. A. Lecoy de la Marche (Soc. de l'Hist. de France)), and John

Herolt. On the whole subject of _exempla_ see the Introduction to T. F.

Crane's edition of the _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, and the references

given there.

[1575] The most famous is the _Gesta Romanorum_. _Gesta Romanorum_, ed.

Oesterley (Berlin, 1872); and see _The Early English Version of the Gesta

Romanorum_, ed. S. J. H. Herrtage (E.E.T.S. 1879). The largest is the

_Summa Praedicantium_ of John Bromyard, a fourteenth century English

Dominican. See also an interesting fifteenth century English translation

of a similar collection, the _Alphabetum Narrationum_ (which used to be

attributed to Etienne de Besancon), _An Alphabet of Tales_, ed. M. M.

Banks (E.E.T.S. 1904-5); many of the _exempla_ in this come from Caesarius

of Heisterbach. Specimens of _exempla_ from these and other sources are

collected in Wright's _Latin Stories_ (Percy Soc. 1842), and many tales

from Caesarius of Heisterbach, Jacques de Vitry, Etienne de Bourbon,

Thomas of Chantimpre, etc., are translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._

[1576] For instance Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dialogus Miraculorum_, ed.

Strange (1851); Thomas of Chantimpre (Cantimpratanus), _Bonum Universale

de Apibus_ (Douay, 1597); and the knight of la Tour Landry, who wrote a

book of deportment for his daughters, copiously illustrated with stories.

_The Book of the Knight of la Tour Landry_, ed. T. Wright (E.E.T.S.

revised ed. 1906). For some account of Caesarius of Heisterbach's stories,

other than those quoted in the text, see below Note K.

[1577] Collections of stories, such as those of the _Decameron_, the _Cent

Nouvelles Nouvelles_, the _Il Pecorone_ of Ser Giovanni, the _Novelle_ of

Bandello, the _Heptameron_ of Margaret of Navarre, became very popular.

But individual stories have also given plots to many great writers from

the middle ages to the present day; it is only necessary to mention

Chaucer, Shakespeare, Moliere and La Fontaine, to illustrate the use which

has been made of them.

[1578] For examples of medieval mission sermons, with their

colloquialisms, interruptions from the audience and strings of stories,

the reader cannot do better than turn to the sermons of Berthold of

Regensburg (1220-72) and of St Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444). Specimens

of these are translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 348-64, 604-19. See

also for Berthold, Coulton, _Medieval Studies_, 1st series. No. II ("A

Revivalist of Six Centuries Ago") and for St Bernardino, Paul

Thureau-Dangin, _St Bernardine of Siena_, trans. Baroness von Huegel

(1906), and A. G. Ferrers Howell, _St Bernardino of Siena_ (1913).

[1579] Chaucer, _Cant. Tales, Wife of Bath's Prol._ ll. 556-8.

[1580] Translated from Jacques de Vitry (_Exempla ..._, ed. T. F. Crane,

p. 22) in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 95 (No. CXXXVI). The story

is a very old one, first found in the _Vitae Patrum_, X, cap. 60. It is

sometimes attributed to St Bridget of Ireland, but Etienne de Bourbon, who

repeats the story twice, tells it of Richard King of England and "a

certain nun" (_Anec. Hist., etc., d'Etienne de Bourbon_, ed. Lecoy de la

Marche, Nos. 248 and 500); and other medieval versions make the

persecuting lover "a king of England." (See T. F. Crane, _op. cit._ p.

158.)

[1581] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, No. LVIII, pp. 22-3. For other

versions of this story, see _ib._ p. 159.

[1582] Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, p. 389. I

have used the translation by Mr Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 124. The story is

a variant of the theme of "the novice and the geese," one of the most

popular of medieval stories (see Coulton, _ib._ p. 426); for analogues,

see A. C. Lee, _The Decameron, its Sources and Analogues_, pp. 110-16.

[1583] Robert of Brunne's _Handlyng Synne_, ed. F. J. Furnivall (Roxburghe

Club, 1862), pp. 50-52. (This is an amplified translation of William of

Wadington's _Le Manuel des Pechiez_.) See also _Exempla of Jacques de

Vitry_, No. CCLXXII, p. 113, which is translated in _An Alphabet of Tales_

(E.E.T.S.), p. 303.

[1584] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, No. CXXX, p. 59. For other versions,

see _ib._ p. 189. There is an English version in _An Alphabet of Tales_

(E.E.T.S.), p. 78 (No. CVIII).

[1585] Caesarius of Heisterbach, II. pp. 160-1. Compare the tale of Abbess

Sophia whose small beer was miraculously turned into wine. _Ib._ p. 229.

[1586] Boccaccio, _Decameron_, 9th day, novel 2. But the story is older

than Boccaccio, who constantly uses old tales. There is a French version

by Jean de Conde: "Le Dit de la Nonnete" (Montaiglon et Raynaud, _op.

cit._ t. VI, pp. 263-9). It was often afterwards copied in various forms

in French, German and Italian jest- and story-books and there is an

extremely gross dramatic version entitled "Farce Nouvelle a cinq

personnages, c'est a scavoir l'Abesse, soeur de Bon Coeur, seur Esplouree,

seur Safrete et seur Fesne" in a collection of sixteenth century French

farces (_Rec. de farces, moralites et sermons joyeux_, ed. Le Roux de

Lincy et Francisque Michel, Paris, 1837, vol. II). It is also referred to

in _Albion's England_:

It was at midnight when a Nonne, in trauell of a childe,

Was checked of her fellow Nonnes, for being so defilde;

The Lady Prioresse heard a stirre, and starting out of bed,

Did taunt the Nouasse bitterly, who, lifting up her head,

Said "Madame, mend your hood" (for why, so hastely she rose,

That on her head, mistooke for hood, she donde a Channon's hose).

For these and references to other analogues see A. C. Lee, _The Decameron,

its Sources and Analogues_ (1909), pp. 274-7. See also a curious folk-song

version, below, p. 611. La Fontaine founded his fable of _Le Psautier_ on

Boccaccio's version.

[1587] Boccaccio, _Decameron_ (3rd day, novel 1). For analogues and

imitations, see A. C. Lee, _op. cit._ pp. 59-62. The story is the source

of La Fontaine's _Mazet de Lamporechio_. For other ribald stories about

nuns see Note J, below, p. 624.

[1588] I have made no attempt to describe the many treatises in praise of

virginity composed by the fathers of the church. These include works by

Evagrius Ponticus, St Athanasius, Sulpicius Severus, St Jerome, St

Augustine, St Caesarius of Arles and others. Among the most interesting is

one of English origin, the _De Laudibus Virginitatis_ of Aldhelm ([dagger]

709). For short analyses of these works, see A. A. Hentsch, _De la

Litterature Didactique du Moyen Age, s'adressant specialement aux Femmes_

(Cahors, 1903), _passim_. From the eleventh century onwards several

imitations of these treatises occur. A few of the more interesting will be

noted later.

[1589] Uhland, _Alte hoch und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_ (1845), II, pp.

857-62 (No. 331). The first verse may be quoted to give the style:

Es war ein jungfrau edel

Si war gar wol getan,

in ainen schonen paungarten

wolt si spacieren gan,

in ainen schonen paungarten

durnach stuont ir gedank,

nach pluomen mangerlaie,

nach vogelein suessem gesank.

[1590] Uhland, _op. cit._ II, p. 852 (No. 326). See also Nos. 332 and 334.

[1591] _An Old English Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris [E.E.T.S. 1872], pp.

93-99.

[1592] Printed in _The Stacions of Rome_, etc., ed. F. J. Furnivall

(E.E.T.S. 1867), and again in _Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._, Part II,

ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1901), No. XLII, pp. 464-8.

[1593] _Hali Meidenhad_, ed. O. Cockayne (E.E.T.S. 1866).

[1594] See on this point Taylor, _The Medieval Mind_ (2nd ed. 1914), I,

pp. 475 ff.

[1595] _Hali Meidenhad_, ed. O. Cockayne (E.E.T.S. 1866), p. 20.

[1596] _Hali Meidenhad_, ed. O. Cockayne (E.E.T.S. 1866), p. 22.

[1597] _Ib._ pp. 8, 30.

[1598] _Ib._ p. 36.

[1599] See e.g. p. 28. "Under a man's protection thou shalt be sore vexed

for his and the world's love, which are both deceptive and must lie awake

in many a care not only for thyself as God's spouse must, but for many

others and often as well for the detested as the dear; and be more worried

than any drudge in the house, or any hired hind and take thine own share

often with misery and bitterly purchase it. Little do blessed spouses of

God know of thee here, that in so sweet ease without such trouble in

spiritual grace and in rest of heart love the true love and in his only

service lead their life."

[1600] The _Ancren Riwle_ was translated and edited by J. Morton for the

Camden Soc. (1853). I quote from the cheap and convenient reprint of the

translation, with introduction by Gasquet, in The King's Classics, 1907.

For the most recent research as to the different versions, authorship,

etc., see article by G. C. Macaulay, "The _Ancren Riwle_" in _Modern

Language Review_, IX (1914), pp. 63-78, 145-60, 324-31, 464-74, Father

MacNabb's article _ib._ XI (1916), and Miss Hope Emily Allen's thesis,

_The Origin of the Ancren Riwle_ (Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assoc. of

Amer. XXXIII, 3, Sept. 1918); see also her note in _Mod. Lang. Review_

(April 1919), XIV, pp. 209-10, and Mr Coulton's review of her thesis,

_ib._ (Jan. 1920), XV, p. 99; also Father MacNabb's attack on her theory,

_ib._ (Oct. 1920) XV and her reply, _ib._ Research is gradually pushing

the date of the first English translation (if indeed it be not after all

the original) further and further back.

[1601] _Ancren Riwle_ (King's Classics), p. 12.

[1602] _Ancren Riwle_, p. 259.

[1603] Pp. 164-5.

[1604] Pp. 294-6.

[1605] Pp. 313-4.

[1606] Pp. 317-8.

[1607] P. 68.

[1608] Pp. 319-20.

[1609] Pp. 316-19, _passim_.

[1610] P. 325-6.

[1611] _The Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. J. H. Blunt (E.E.T.S. 1873, 1898).

[1612] _Op. cit._ pp. 65-9, _passim_.

[1613] As for instance the various other books written or translated for

the nuns of Syon (on which see Eckenstein, _op. cit._ pp. 394-5) and the

mystical treatise "Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat," which was written by

Richard Rolle of Hampole for a nun of Yedingham. Rolle was kindly

cherished by the nuns of Hampole, where he settled; they often sought his

advice during his lifetime and after his death they tried to obtain his

canonisation; an office for his festival was composed and a collection of

his miracles made. (See _Cambridge Hist. of Engl. Lit._ II, pp. 45, 48.)

For similar treatises of foreign origin, see the _Opusculum_ of Hermann

der Lahme (1013-54), Francesco da Barbarino's _Del Reggimento e Costumi di

Donne_ (which contains a section dealing with nuns), (c. 1307-15),

Francisco Ximenes' _Libre de les dones_ ([dagger] 1409) and John Gerson's

([dagger] 1429) letter to his sister. See Hentsch, _op. cit._ pp. 39, 114,

151, 152.

[1614] Printed from the Thornton MS. in _Religious Pieces in Prose and

Verse_, ed. G. G. Perry (E.E.T.S. 1867, 1914), No. III, pp. 51-62. Compare

_Brit. Mus. MS._ Add. 39843 (La Sainte Abbaye), some pictures from which

are reproduced in this book.

[1615] Mechthild von Magdeburg, _Offenbarungen, oder Das fliessende Licht

der Gottheit_, ed. Gall Morel (1869), pp. 249 ff.; see Eckenstein, _op.

cit._ p. 339. The same idea is found in a little German Volkslied:

Wir wellen uns pawen ein heuselein

Und unser sel ain klosterlein,

Jesus Crist sol der maister sein,

Maria jungfraw die schaffnerein.

Goetliche Forcht die pfortnerein,

Goetliche Lieb die kelnerein,

Diemuetikait wont wol do pei

Weisheit besleust daz laid all ein.

--Uhland, _Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_, II, pp. 864-5.

[1616] English text in Furnivall, _Early English Poems_ (Berlin, 1862),

printed in _Trans. of Philological Soc._ 1858, pt. II, pp. 156-61; and in

Goldbeck and Maetzner, _Altenglische Sprachproben_ (Berlin, 1867). pt. I,

p. 147; W. Heuser, _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (Bonn, 1904), p. 145; and in a

slightly modernised form in Ellis, _Specimens of Early English Poets_,

1801, I, pp. 83 ff., who took it from Hickes' _Thesaurus_, pt. I, p. 231.

I have here used the modernised version for the sake of convenience. An

attempt has been made to identify the religious houses mentioned in the

poem with real monasteries in Kildare; the poem is certainly of

Anglo-Irish origin and occurs in the famous "Kildare Manuscript" (MS.

Harl. 913). See W. Heuser, _op. cit._ pp. 141-5. There is a French version

in Barbazon et Meon, _Fabliaux_ III, p. 175.

[1617] "It is not until French wit flashes across English seriousness that

we travel to the Land of Cokaygne," G. Hadow, _Chaucer and His Times_, p.

35. Stories of a food country are, however, common in medieval literature,

being sometimes legends of a vanished golden age, as in the Irish "Vision

of MacConglinne" (late twelfth century), and sometimes ideal pictures of a

life of lazy luxury, as in the French and English Lands of Cokaygne and

the German Schlaraffenland. On the whole subject, see Fr. Joh. Poeschel,

_Das Maerchen von Schlaraffenland_ (Halle, 1878), and the introduction by

W. Wollner to _The Vision of MacConglinne_, ed. Kuno Meyer (1892).

[1618] _Polit. Songs of England_, ed. T. Wright (Camden Soc. 1839), pp.

137-48.

[1619] The idea of the _Ordre de Bel-Eyse_ is probably taken from the

twelfth century Anglo-Latin poem by Nigel Wireker entitled _Speculum

Stultorum_, which tells the story of the ass Burnellus, who goes out into

the world to seek his fortune. At one point Burnellus decides to retire to

a convent and passes the different orders under review, to see which will

suit him. This gives the author an opportunity for some pointed satire,

including a reference to nuns; "they never quarrel save for due cause, in

due place, nor do they come to blows save for grave reasons"; their morals

are very questionable, "Harum sunt quaedam steriles et quaedam

parturientes, virgineoque tamen nomine cuncta tegunt. Quae pastoralis

baculi dotatur honore, illa quidem melius fertiliusque parit. Vix etiam

quaevis sterilis reperitur in illis, donec eis aetas talia posse negat."

Finally Burnellus decides to found a new order; from the Templars he will

borrow their smoothly pacing horses, from the Cluniacs and the black

Canons their custom of eating meat, from the order of Grandmont their

gossip, from the Carthusians the habit of saying mass only once a month,

from the Premonstratensians their warm and comfortable clothes, from the

nuns their custom of going ungirdled; and in this order every brother

shall have a female companion, as in the first order which was instituted

in Paradise. _Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the Twelfth Century_, ed. T.

Wright (Rolls Series, 1872), I, pp. 94-6.

[1620] With these two highly successful _jeux d'esprit_ at the expense of

monastic luxury may be compared a passage in the curious thirteenth

century poem entitled "A Disputison bytwene a cristene mon and a Jew," in

which an incidental shaft is perhaps aimed at nunneries, which affected

the habits of Cokaygne and Fair Ease. _The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._,

pt. II, ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1901), No. XLVI, p. 490.

[1621] See e.g. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, cap. LII (Comment Gargantua fit

bastir pour le moine l'abbaye de Theleme).

[1622] Text in _Dits et Contes de Badouin de Conde et de son fils Jean de

Conde_, pub. par Aug. Scheler, Ac. Roy. de Belgique, Brussels, 1866-7,

III, No. XXXVII, pp. 1-48. The portion of the poem containing the lawsuit

is translated in part into modern French by Le Grand d'Aussy, in _Fabliaux

et Contes_, ed. Le Grand d'Aussy et Renouard, 1829, I, pp. 326-36.

[1623] A convenient collection of these is summarised in an excellent

little book by Ch.-V. Langlois, entitled _La Vie en France au Moyen Age

d'apres quelques Moralistes du Temps_ (2me ed. 1911).

[1624] The text of both _La Bible Guiot_ and _La Bible au Seigneur de

Berze_ is printed in _Fabliaux et Contes_, ed. Barbazon-Meon, t. II

(Paris, 1808), and both are fully analysed, with extracts in Langlois,

_op. cit._ pp. 30-88. The text of _La Bible Guiot_ is also printed in San

Marte, _Parcival Studien_ (Halle, 1861), with a translation into German

verse.

[1625] _Les Lamentations de Matheolus_, pub. A. G. Van Hamel (_Bib. de

l'Ecole des Chartes_, 1892, t. I, pp. 89-90). See also the analysis in

Langlois, _op. cit._ pp. 223-75, especially p. 248.

[1626] Langlois, _op. cit._ pp. 248-9, Note 2.

[1627] _Poesies de Gilles li Muisis_, pub. Kervyn de Lettenhove (Louvain,

1882), t. I, pp. 209-36. The whole register is analysed in Langlois, _op.

cit._ pp. 305-53.

[1628] See above, p. 298.

[1629] See _Vox Clamantis_, Lib. IV, ll. 578-676 in _The Complete Works of

John Gower_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, _Latin Works_ (1902), pp. 181-5. The same

subject is treated more shortly by Gower in his _Mirour de l'Omne_, ll.

9157-68. (_Ib._ _French Works_, p. 106.)

[1630] Compare the priestly logic of Alvar Pelayo who enumerates the abuse

of the confessional among the habitual sins of _women_! _De Planctu

Ecclesiae_, Lib. II, Art. 45, n. 84. (See Lea, _Hist. of Sacerdotal

Celibacy_, I, 435-6 for this and other medieval complaints of the

corruption of nuns by their confessors.)

[1631] Text in Furnivall, _Early Engl. Poems_ (Berlin, 1862), printed in

_Trans. of Philological Soc._ 1858, pt. II, pp. 138-48 (from Cotton MS.

Vesp. D. IX, f. 179).

[1632] _All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam_,

trans. N. Bailey (2nd ed. 1733), pp. 147-55.

[1633] "Nec omnes virgines sunt, mihi crede, quae velum habent.... Nisi

fortasse elogium, quod nos hactenus judicavimus esse Virgini matri

proprium, ad plures transiit, ut dicantur et a partu virgines ... quin

insuper, nec alioqui inter illas virgines sunt omnia virginea ... quia

plures inveniuntur, quae mores aemulentur Sapphus, quam quae referant

ingenium." Erasmus, _Colloquia, accur. Corn. Schrevelio_ (Amsterdam,

1693), p. 196.

[1634] _Op. cit._ pp. 155-7.

[1635] This account of Katherine's experiences, whether they were due (as

the translator suggests) to "the crafty tricks of the monks, who terrify

and frighten unexperienced minds into their cloysters by feigned

apparitions and visions," or (as was more probably Erasmus' meaning) to

the mere power of suggestion upon a hysterical girl, should be compared

with the numerous accounts of such apparitions seen by novices or

intending novices, which are to be found in lives of saints and in

edifying _exempla_. See the examples quoted from Caesarius of Heisterbach,

below, pp. 628 _sqq._

[1636] For the expenses incidental to taking the veil, see above, pp.

19-20.

[1637] _Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits_, in Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_,

ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S. 2nd ed., 1883), pp. 421-3.

[1638] _Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits_, in Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_,

ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S. 2nd ed., 1883), p. 506.

[1639] _Ib._ p. 514.

[1640] _Ib._ p. 521.

[1641] Quoted from the ballad by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe ("The Murder

of Caerlaverock") in McDowall, W., _Chronicles of Lincluden_, p. 28.

[1642] Constans, _Chrestomathie de l'Ancien Francais_ (1890), pp. 178-9.

[1643] Malory, _Morte Darthur_, ed. Strachey (Globe ed., 1893), pp. 481-5.

[1644] See above, p. 529.

[1645] See _Le Livre du Dit de Poissy_, ll. 220-698, _passim_, in _Oeuvres

Poetiques de Christine de Pisan_, ed. Maurice Roy (Soc. des Anc. Textes

Fr. 1891), t. II, pp. 160-80. With this may be compared another, but much

slighter "courtly" description of a nunnery, contained in the _roman

d'aventure_, _L'Escoufle_, written at the close of the twelfth century. At

the beginning of the poem the author describes the service of the mass in

the Abbey of Montivilliers (see below, p. 637), on the occasion of the

departure of the Count of Montivilliers on a crusade; the Archbishop of

Rouen and the Bishop of Lisieux took part in the service and a large

concourse of lords and ladies was present. The author describes the

singing of the service,

Li couvens avoit ja la messe

Commencie et l'abbesse

Commanda a ij damoiseles

Des mix cantans et des plus beles

Les cuer a tenir, por mix plaire

Et por la feste grignor faire.

He describes the rich offerings made at the altar by the Count and the

rest of the congregation; and the stately visit of farewell paid by them

afterwards to the nuns in the chapter house, when the Count asked for

their prayers and in return gave them an annual rent of 20 or 30 silver

marks. _L'Escoufle_, ed. H. Michelant and P. Meyer (Soc. des Anc. Textes

Fr. 1894), pp. 7-9, _passim_. The other notable twelfth century

description of a nunnery (in Raoul de Cambrai) is very different. See

above. pp. 433-5.

[1646] Chaucer, Prologue to _The Canterbury Tales_, ed. Skeat. ll. 118-64.

[1647] See Dugdale, _Mon._ I, pp. 442-5.

[1648] 'Pudding' was a sausage.

[1649] Tyre was a favourite sweet wine in the middle ages; "if not of

Syrian growth [it] was probably a Calabrian or Sicilian wine, manufactured

from the species of grape called _tirio_." _Early Eng. Meals and Manners_,

ed. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1868), p. 90.

[1650] Sowce (Lat. _salsagium_, verjuice) was a sort of pickle for hog's

flesh. _Promptorium Parvulorum_, ed. A. L. Mayhew (E.E.T.S. 1908), notes,

p. 701. See the rather ominous verse in Tusser:

Thy measeled bacon, hog, sow, or thy bore,

Shut up for to heale, for infecting thy store:

Or kill it for bacon, or sowce it to sell,

For Flemming, that loues it so deintily well.

Tusser, _Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_ (Eng. Dialect Soc.

1878), p. 52. The word is still in use in the north of England for a

concoction of mincemeat, vegetables, cloves and vinegar and in 'soused

herrings' i.e. herrings cooked in vinegar.

[1651] I.e. St Ethelburga, for whom the Abbey was founded by her brother

Erconwald, Bishop of London, in 666.

[1652] Probably _gris_, i.e. a little pig. Compare _Piers Plowman_, Prol.

l. 226:

Cokes and here knaues crieden, 'hote pies, hote!

Gode gris and gees gowe dyne, gowe!'

[1653] "White worts," was a kind of _potage_ ("potage is not so moche used

in all Chrystendome as it is used in Englande. Potage is made of the

licour in the whiche flesshe is sod in, with puttynge to, chopped herbes

and Otmell and salte," _Early Eng. Meals and Manners_, p. 97). This is a

recipe for _White Worts_, written down, c. 1420: "Take of the erbys as

thou dede for _jouutes_ and sethe hem in water tyl they ben neyshe; thanne

take hem up, an bryse hem fayre on a potte an ley hem with flowre of Rys;

take mylke of almaundys and cast therto and hony, nowt to moche, that it

be nowt to swete, an safron and salt; an serve it forth ynne, rygth for a

good potage." The herbs used for _jouutes_ are "borage, violet, mallows,

parsley, young worts, beet, avens, buglos and orach"; and it is

recommended to use two or three marrow bones in making the broth. _Two

Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, ed. T. Austen (E.E.T.S. 1888), pp. 5, 6.

[1654] Frumenty or Furmety (Lat. _frumentum_, wheat) is wheat husked and

boiled soft in water, then boiled in milk, sweetened and spiced. Here is a

recipe for it from the same book as that for white worts: "Take whete and

pyke it clene and do it in a morter, an caste a lytel water theron; an

stampe with a pestel tyl it hole [hull, lose husks]; than fan owt the

holys [hulls, husks], an put it in a potte, an let sethe tyl it breke;

than set yt douun, an sone after set it ouer the fyre an stere it wyl; an

whan thow hast sothyn it wyl, put therinne swete mylke, an sethe it yfere,

an stere it wyl; and whan it is ynow, coloure it wyth safron, an salt it

euene, and dresse it forth." _Op. cit._ pp. 6-7. See the rhymed recipe in

the _Liber cure cocorum_ (c. 1460), ed. Morris (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 7.

[1655] Crisps (Mod. Fr. _crepe_) were fritters. Here is a recipe for them

in a cookery book written c. 1450: "Take white of eyren [eggs], Milke, and

fyne flowre, and bete hit togidre and drawe hit thorgh a streynour, so

that hit be rennyng, and noght to stiff; and caste thereto sugar and salt.

And then take a chaffur ful of fressh grece boyling; and then put thi

honde in the batur and lete the bater ren thorgh thi fingers into the

chaffur; And whan it is ren togidre in the chaffre, and is ynowe, take a

skymour and take hit oute of the chaffur, and putte oute al the grece, And

lete ren; and putte hit in a faire dissh and cast sugur thereon ynow and

serue it forth." _Op. cit._ p. 93.

[1656] Buns. Compare the instructions to the cellaress of Syon: "On water

days [i.e. days when the sisters drank water instead of beer] sche schal

ordeyne for bonnes or newe brede." Aungier, _Hist. and Antiq. of Syon

Mon._ p. 393.

[1657] Here is a recipe: "_Risshewes._ Take figges and grinde hem all rawe

in a morter and cast a litull fraied oyle there-to; and then take hem vppe

yn a versell, and caste thereto pynes, reysyns of corance, myced dates,

sugur, Saffron, pouder ginger, and salt: And then make Cakes of floure,

Sugur, salt and rolle the stuff in thi honde and couche it in the cakes,

and folde hem togidur as risshewes, and fry hem in oyle, and serue hem

forth." _Op. cit._ p. 93. There are other recipes, _ib._ pp. 43, 45, 97.

The word survives in _rissole_.

[1658] _Reg. Epis. Peckham_, II, p. 706.

[1659] _Worc. Sede Vac. Reg._ p. 276.

[1660] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 366.

[1661] _Linc. MS. Reg. Bokyngham Mem._ f. 397_d_.

[1662] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 120-1.

[1663] _Ib._ I, p. 51.

[1664] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 101.

[1665] See above, p. 397.

[1666] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 115.

[1667] _Ib._ p. 115.

[1668] Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll. IX, pp. 25-7.

[1669] Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll. V, p. 257.

[1670] _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, I, p. 125.

[1671] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 51.

[1672] _Linc. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343. Compare Buckingham's similar

injunction to Heynings, _ib._ f. 397, Gynewell's injunction to Elstow in

1359, _ib._ _Reg. Gynewell_, ff. 139_d_-140, Pontoise's injunction to

Wherwell in 1302, _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, I, p. 125, and Peckham's

injunction to the Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, in 1284, _Reg. Ep. Peckham_.

II, p. 706.

[1673] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 104.

[1674] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 174.

[1675] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 99.

[1676] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 168.

[1677] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 434.

[1678] Translated from his _Bonum Universale de Apibus_, Lib. II, c. 30,

written about 1260, in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 372-3.

[1679] Aungier, _Hist. and Antiq. of Syon Mon._ pp. 256, 257, 259, 261-2.

For further instances of quarrels in the province of Rouen, see below, pp.

664-6.

[1680] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 508.

[1681] _Ib._ pp. 590-1. Compare a decree of the contemporary Council of

Trier (1227) for German nuns, Harzheim, _Conc. Germ._ III, p. 534.

[1682]

And, whan he rood, men might his brydel here

Ginglen in a whistling wind as clere,

And eke as loude as dooth the chapel-belle

Ther as this lord was keper of the celle.

[1683] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 660.

[1684] _New Coll._ MS. f. 86.

[1685] Aungier, _op. cit._ p. 392.

[1686] _Reg. Ep. Peckham_, III, p. 849.

[1687] Ful semely hir wimpel pinched was!

[1688] Gresset, _Vert Vert_, ll. 142-6. See below, p. 593.

[1689]

I seigh his sleves purfiled at the hond

With grys, and that the fyneste of a lond.

Chaucer, _Prologue_, ll. 193-4.

[1690] _Linc. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343_d_.

[1691] _Hereford Reg. Spofford_, I, f. 77_d_.

[1692] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.

[1693] _Ib._ p. 126.

[1694] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.

[1695] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 119, 120, 127, 164, 168, 174-5, 181, 183,

240.

[1696] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 176; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 26_d_, 38.

[1697] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, 124.

[1698] _Norwich Visit._ p. 274.

[1699] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 130, where the date is wrongly given as

1512.

[1700] See below, p. 663.

[1701] _Prologue_, ll. 146-9. Chaucer was certainly a dog-lover: a passage

in the _Book of the Duchess_ (ll. 387 ff.) puts it beyond doubt:

I was go walked fro my tree,

And as I wente ther cam by me

A whelp, that fauned me as I stood

That hadde y-folowed, and coude no good.

Hit com and creep to me as lowe,

Right as hit badde me y-knowe,

Hild doun his heed and joyned his eres,

And leyde al smothe doun his heres.

I wolde han caught hit, and anoon

Hit fledde, and was fro me goon.

[1702] _The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry_, ed. T. Wright (E.E.T.S.

revised ed. 1906), pp. 28-9.

[1703] Printed in _The Cambridge Songs_, ed. Karl Breul (1915), No. 29, p.

62; and in _Denkmaeler_, ed. Muellenhoff und Scherer, _Deutscher Poesie und

Prosa aus dem_ VIII-XII _Jahrhundert_ (Berlin, 1892), I, pp. 51-3 (No.

XXIV). I have ventured to attempt a translation.

[1704] Skelton, _Selected Poems_, ed. W. H. Williams (1902). pp. 57 ff.

[1705] Translation by Robin Flower in _The Poem Book of the Gael_, ed.

Eleanor Hull (1913), p. 132. The poem has also been translated by Kuno

Meyer and by Alfred Perceval Graves.

[1706] Quoted in Fosbroke, _Brit. Monachism_, II, p. 34.

[1707] _Oeuvres Choisies de Gresset_ (Coll. Bibliotheque Nationale), pp. 3

ff. There is an eighteenth century English translation (1759) by J. G.

Cooper in Chalmers, _English Poets_, XV, pp. 528-36.

[1708] Summarised in _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, pp. 76-7.

[1709] When the nuns exhorted her to abstain from his company, she replied

"quod ipsum amavit et amare volet." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Atwater_, f.

87.

[1710] See above, p. 58.

[1711] So also was Nunkeeling, where there was a particularly violent

election struggle, but no mention of immorality.

[1712] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 159.

[1713] _Ib._ pp. 167-9.

[1714] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 456-7.

[1715] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 187-9. A Prioress was deposed here for

incontinence in 1494.

[1716] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 239-40.

[1717] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 457-8. Queen Isabella, wife of

Edward II, is referred to.

[1718] See above, p. 427.

[1719] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, III, p. 1345.

[1720] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 355, 358-62. Another nun apostatised

and lived a dissolute life for some time in the world, returning in 1337.

_Ib._ p. 363.

[1721] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 179-81. The house was in an unsatisfactory

condition as early as 1268. _Reg. Walter Giffard_, pp. 147-8.

[1722] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 129-30.

[1723] _Ib._ III, p. 113. The house seems to have been in much the same

condition later. A nun had run away in 1372 and the misdeeds of the bad

prioress Eleanor came to light in 1396. _Ib._ 114-5.

[1724] _Ib._ p. 124.

[1725] _Ib._ p. 126.

[1726] _Ib._ p. 161. In 1535 Archbishop Lee found that a nun here, Joan

Hutton, "hath lyved incontinentlie and unchast and hath broght forth a

child of her bodie begotten." _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 453.

[1727] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164.

[1728] _Ib._ p. 164.

[1729] _Ib._ p. 116 and _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ IX, p. 334.

[1730] _Ib._ pp. 176-7.

[1731] _Ib._ p. 175.

[1732] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194; see also _Cal. of Pap. Letters_, X, p.

471.

[1733] _Ib._ p. 183.

[1734] It may be noted that five nunneries had already disappeared between

1300 and 1500, viz. Waterbeach (transferred to Denny, 1348), Wothorpe

(annexed to St Michael's, Stamford, 1354) and St Stephen's, Foukeholme,

all of which owed their end to the Black Death; Lyminster (dissolved as an

alien priory, 1414); and Rowney (suppressed on account of poverty, 1459).

[1735] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund_, pp. 44-5. For evidence of the decay

of the nunnery during the last half of the fifteenth century, see _ib._

pp. 39-44.

[1736] Eckenstein, _Woman under Mon._ p. 436.

[1737] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV. p. 378.

[1738] _Selected Poems of John Skelton_, ed. W. H. Williams (1902), p.

113. There is an interesting _compertum_ at Dr Rayne's visitation of

Studley in 1530 to the effect that "the woods of the priory had been much

diminished by the late prioress and also by Thomas Cardinal of York for

the construction of his College in the University of Oxford." _V.C.H.

Oxon._ II, p. 78.

[1739] See above, Note F.

[1740] See above, p. 480.

[1741] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 288.

[1742] Uhland, _Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_ (1844-5), II,

p. 854 (No. 329); also in R. v. Liliencron, _Deutsches Leben im Volkslied

um 1530_ (1884), p. 226, and (in a slightly different and modernised

version) in L. A. v. Arnim and Clemens Brentano, _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_

(Reclam edit.), p. 24.

[1743] Translated in Bithell, _The Minnesingers_ (Halle, 1909), I, p. 200.

I have been unable to trace the original. I have slightly altered the

wording of the translation.

[1744] Karl Bartsch, _Deutsche Liederdichter des zwoelften bis vierzehnten

Jahrhunderts_ (4th ed. Berlin, 1901), p. 379 (No. XCVIII, ll. 581-616).

Slightly modernised version in Uhland, _op. cit._ II, p. 853 (No. 327).

[1745] _Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie_, V (1881), p. 545 (No. 28).

A slightly different version in Moriz Haupt, _Franzoesische Volkslieder_

(Leipzig, 1877), p. 152.

[1746] In a round the last two lines of each verse are repeated as the

first two lines of the following verse, and the refrain is repeated at the

end of each verse. The songs lose much of their charm by being quoted in

compressed form, for the cumulative effect of the repetition is

exceedingly graceful and spirited.

[1747] Haupt, _op. cit._ p. 40.

[1748] Weckerlin, _L'Ancienne Chanson Populaire en France_ (1887), p. 354.

[1749] _Ib._ p. 319.

[1750] Bujeaud, J., _Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de

l'ouest_ (1866), I, p. 137.

[1751] _Ib._ I, p. 132.

[1752] _Romania_, X, p. 391.

[1753] _Ib._ X, p. 395 (No. XLVIII).

[1754] _Ib._ VII, p. 72 (No. XX). Another version in De Puymaigre, _Chants

Populaires recueillis dans le Pays Messin_ (1865), p. 39 (No. X).

[1755] _Ib._ VII, p. 73 (No. XXI). Other versions in Jean Fleury,

_Litterature Orale de la Basse-Normandie_ (Paris, 1883), p. 311, and De

Puymaigre, _op. cit._ p. 35 (No. IX), and note on p. 37. Compare

Schiller's ballad _Der Ritter von Toggenburg_.

[1756] Fleury, _op. cit._ p. 313.

[1757] Nigra, _Canti Popolari del Piemonte_ (1888), No. 80, pp. 409-14.

[1758] T. Casini, _Studi di Poesia antica_ (1913). There is a very racy

French song called _Le Comte Orry_ which deserves notice here: see H. C.

Delloye, _Chants et Chansons Populaires de la France_ (1{re} serie), 1843.

[1759] Hagen, _Carmina Medii Aevi_ (Berne, 1877), pp. 206-7. There is an

exceedingly long and tedious sixteenth century French version, evidently

founded on the Latin poem, in Montaiglon, _Rec. de Poesies Francoises des

XVI{e} et XVII{e} siecles_, t. VIII, pp. 170-5.

[1760] _The Cambridge Songs_, ed. Karl Breul (1915), No. 35, p. 16. See

also Koegel, _Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur_ (1867), I, pp. 136-9.

[1761] _Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie_, V (1881), p. 544, No. 27.

Also in Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 405 (under date 1614).

[1762] Rolland, _Rec. de Chansons Populaires_, II, p. 81.

[1763] _Ib._ I, pp. 226-7.

[1764] Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 355.

[1765] Haupt, _Franzoesische Volkslieder_ (1877), p. 84. A slightly

different version in Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 297.

[1766] Haupt, _op. cit._ p. 63.

[1767] Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 262; also in E. Rolland, _Rec. de Chansons

Populaires_ (1883-90), t. II, p. 36.

[1768] "A gentle gallant went hunting in the wood and there he met a nun.

She was so lovely, so fresh and so fair. Said the gentle gallant to her:

'Come, sit with me in the shade and never more shalt thou be a little

nun.' 'Gentle gallant, wait here for me; I will go and put off my habit

and then I will come back to you in the shade.' He waited for her three

days and three nights and never came the fair one. The gentle gallant goes

to the monastery and knocks at the great door; out comes the mother

abbess: 'What are you looking for, gentle gallant?' 'I am looking for a

little nun, who promised to come into the shade.' 'You once had the quail

at your feet and you let it fly away. Even so has flown the pretty nun.'"

Nigra, _Canti Populari del Piemonte_ (1888), No. 72, p. 381. With these

two songs should be compared the English poem in Percy's _Reliques_,

called _The Baffled Knight or Lady's Policy_, and the Somerset folksong,

_Blow away the morning dew_, with its _denouement_:

But when they came to her father's gate

So nimble she popped in,

And said "There is a fool without

And here's the maid within.

We have a flower in our garden

We call it marygold--

And if you will not when you may

You shall not when you wolde."

_Folk Songs from Somerset_ (1st Series, 1910), ed. Cecil Sharp and Charles

Marson, No. VIII, pp. 16-17.

[1769] Fleury, _op. cit._ p. 308. Other versions in De Puymaigre, _op.

cit._ pp. 145-8 (Nos. XLV-XLVI).

[1770] Rolland, _op. cit._ IV, p. 31. Cf. versions on pp. 30, 32, 33. The

theme recalls a pretty poem by Leigh Hunt:

If you become a nun, dear,

A friar I will be;

In any cell you run, dear,

Pray look behind for me.

The roses all turn pale, too;

The doves all take the veil, too;

The blind will see the show.

What! you become a nun, my dear?

I'll not believe it, no!

If you become a nun, dear,

The bishop Love will be;

The Cupids every one, dear,

Will chant "We trust in thee."

The incense will go sighing,

The candles fall a-dying,

The water turn to wine;

What! you go take the vows, my dear?

You may--but they'll be mine!

[1771] Rolland, _op. cit._ I, p. 253, cf. pp. 249-54.

[1772] _Chants de Carnaval Florentins (Canti Carnascialeschi) de l'epoque

de Laurent le Magnifique._ Pub. par P. M. Masson (Paris, 1913). For a copy

of the song and for the suggestion that it refers to English nuns I am

indebted to Mr E. J. Dent of King's College, Cambridge. But the mention of

Low Germany sounds more like German nuns.

[1773] Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, _Essays in the Study of Folksongs_

(Everyman's Lib. Ed.), pp. 191-2.

[1774] L. A. v. Arnim and Clemens Brentano, _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_

(Reclam ed.), p. 50.

[1775] _The Oxford Book of Ballads_, ed. Quiller-Couch (1910), p. 635 (No.

125). In the long collection of ballads narrating Robin Hood's career

known as _A Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny_ (which was in print

early in the sixteenth century) the Prioress is said to have conspired

with her lover, one Sir Roger of Doncaster, to slay Robin. _Ib._ p. 574.

In the version in Bishop Percy's famous folio MS. "Red Roger" is described

as stabbing the weakened outlaw, but losing his own life in the act.

_Bishop Percy's Folio MS._ ed. Hales and Furnivall (1867), I, pp. 50-58.

"In 'Le Morte de Robin Hode,' a quite modern piece printed in Hone's

_Every-day Book_ from an old collection of MS. songs in the Editor's

possession, the prioress is represented as the outlaw's sister and as

poisoning him." _Ib._ p. 53.

[1776] _Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages_, pub. G. Paris and U.

Robert (Soc. des Anc. Textes Francais, 1876), t. I, pp. 311-51.

[1777] Translated in Evelyn Underhill, _The Miracles of Our Lady Saint

Mary_ (1905), pp. 195-200.

[1778] Caesarius of Heisterbach, II, pp. 41-2. "Although the buffet was

hard," says Caesarius, conscious perhaps that the Virgin had acted with

less than her wonted gentleness, "she was utterly delivered from

temptation by it. A grievous ill requires a grievous remedy."

[1779] Gautier de Coincy, _Miracles de N.D._, ed. Poquet, p. 474.

[1780] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, ed. Crane, p. 24. See variant in _An

Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 321.

[1781] Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, pp. 222-3.

[1782] Wright, _Latin Stories_, p. 96.

[1783] Etienne de Bourbon, _Anecdotes Historiques_, ed. Lecoy de la

Marche, p. 83 (translated in Taylor, _The Medieval Mind_, I, pp. 508-9).

[1784] I have used the version in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), pp.

11-12. For other versions, see _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ (Soc. des Anc.

Textes) I, pp. 59-100. For other versions, see Etienne de Bourbon, _op.

cit._ p. 114, Wright, _op. cit._, p. 114, Barbazon et Meon, _Nouveau

Recueil de Fabliaux_, II, p. 314, _Dodici conti morali d'anonimo Senese:

Teste inedite de sec._ XIII (Bologna, 1862), No. 8; Small, _Eng. Metrical

Homilies_, p. 164. There is a very interesting Ethiopian version (told of

Sophia the abbess of Mount Carmel) in _Miracles of the B.V.M._ (Lady Meux

MSS.), ed. E. A. Wallis Budge (1900), pp. 68-71. Most versions preserve

the interesting detail that the nuns dislike their abbess and are anxious

to betray her on account of her strictness and particularly because she

will not give them easy licence to see their friends. In the French

dramatic version Sister Isabel stays away from a sermon and gives as her

excuse that a cousin came to see her, with some cloth to make a veil and a

"surplis," whereupon she is scolded and then pardoned by the Abbess.

[1785] _Le Cento Novelle Antiche_, ed. Gualteruzzi (Milan, 1825), No. 62.

I quote the translation by A. C. Lee, _The Decameron, its Sources and

Analogues_, p. 60.

[1786] Francesco da Barberino, _Del Reggimento e Costumi di Donne_, ed.

Carlo Baudi di Vesme (Bologna, 1875), p. 273. See A. C. Lee, _loc. cit._

[1787] A. C. Lee, _op. cit._ p. 125. The story is of Eastern origin and

for its many analogues see _ib._ pp. 123-35.

[1788] _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, ed. Th. Wright (Bib. Elzevirienne,

1858), t. I, pp. 81-4, 114-20, 283-7.

[1789] Montaiglon et Raynaud, _Rec. Gen. des Fabliaux_, III, pp. 137-44.

[1790] _Ib._ IV, pp. 128-32.

[1791] Barbazon et Meon, _Nouv. Rec. de Fabliaux_, IV, p. 250.

[1792] _Erzaehlungen und Schwaenke_, hrsg. von Hans Lambel (Leipzig, 1888),

No. VIII, pp. 309-22.

[1793] Koeppel, _Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Novelle in der

englischen Litteratur des XVI Jahrhunderts_ (1892), p. 183.

[1794] _King John by William Shakespeare together with the Troublesome

Reign of King John_, ed. F. G. Fleay, (1878), pp. 158-62.

[1795] Printed in _A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate_,

ed. J. O. Halliwell (Percy Soc. 1840), pp. 107-17. Professor MacCracken

denies the authorship to Lydgate, see _The Minor Poems of John Lydgate_,

ed. H. N. MacCracken (E.E.T.S. 1911), I, p. xlii (note).

[1796] The edition used is that of Joseph Strange in two volumes (Cologne,

Bonn and Brussels, 1851). For a study of the life and times of Caesarius,

see A. Kaufmann, _Caesarius von Heisterbach, Ein Beitrag zur

Kulturgeschichte des zwoelften und dreizehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Cologne,

1850). For anecdotes from this source already quoted in the text, see pp.

27-9, 296-7, 511, 520 ff., etc.

[1797] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 1-2.

[1798] I.e. "_Ave Maria, gratia plena._" The Virgin Mary was always the

most potent help against the devil, as may be seen from any collection of

her miracles (e.g. that made by Gautier de Coincy in French verse in the

thirteenth century and edited by the Abbe Poquet).

[1799] _Ib._ I, pp. 125-7. For an abbreviated version of this story, taken

from Caesarius, see _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 178-9 (No.

CCLV).

[1800] Used in the common medieval sense of entering a religious order.

[1801] _Ib._ I, pp. 328-30. At the end of this story the novice asks: "Why

is it that the good Lord allows maidens so tender and so pure to be thus

cruelly tormented by rough and foul spirits?" And the monk replies: "Thou

hast experienced how if a bitter drink be first swallowed a sweet one

tastes the sweeter, and how if black be placed beneath it, white is all

the more dazzling. Read the Visions of Witinus, Godescalcus and others, to

whom it was permitted to see the pains of the damned and the glory of the

elect, and almost always it was the vision of punishment which came first.

The Lord, wishing to show his bride his secret joys, permitteth well that

she should first be tempted by some dreadful visions, that afterwards she

may the better deserve to be made glad, and may know the distance between

sweet and bitter, light and darkness."

[1802] _Ib._ I, pp. 330-31.

[1803] _Ib._ II, pp. 68-9. "As I infer from this vision," says the Novice,

"an indiscreet fervour in prayers is not pleasing to the blessed Virgin,

neither an undisciplined movement in genuflections." On the other hand she

did not like her devotees to hurry over their prayers, for Gautier de

Coincy has a tale of a nun, Eulalie, who was accustomed to say at each

office of the Virgin the full rosary of a hundred and fifty _Aves_; but

she had much work to do and often hurried over her prayers, till one night

she saw a vision of the mother of God, who promised her salvation and told

her that the _Ave Maria_ was a prayer which gave herself much joy;

therefore she bade Eulalie not to hurry over it, but of her bounty

permitted her to say a chaplet of fifty _Aves_, instead of the long

rosary. See Gautier de Coincy, _Les Miracles de la Sainte Vierge_, ed.

Poquet (Paris, 1857).

[1804] _Ib._ II, p. 100.

[1805] _Ib._ II, pp. 121-2.

[1806] _Ib._ II, pp. 122-3. For a variant in which the place of the two

nuns is taken by two doctors of divinity, see _An Alphabet of Tales_

(E.E.T.S.), pp. 274-5.

[1807] _Ib._ II, pp. 343-4. With these holy rivalries should be compared

Caesarius' tales of the drawing of apostles by lot. "It is a very common

custom among the matrons of our province to choose an Apostle for their

very own by the following lottery: the names of the twelve Apostles are

written each on twelve tapers, which are blessed by the priest and laid on

the altar at the same moment. Then the woman comes and draws a taper and

whatsoever name that taper shall chance to bear, to that Apostle she

renders special honour and service. A certain matron, having thus drawn St

Andrew, and being displeased to have drawn him, laid the taper back on the

altar and would have drawn another; but the same came to her hand again.

Why should I make a long story? At length she drew one that pleased her,

to whom she paid faithful devotion all the days of her life; nevertheless

when she came to her last end and was at the point of death, she saw not

him but the Blessed Andrew standing at her bedside. 'Lo,' he said, 'I am

that despised Andrew!' from which we can gather that sometimes saints

thrust themselves even of their own accord into men's devotions." Another

matron was so much annoyed at drawing St Jude the Obscure instead of a

more famous Apostle that she threw him behind the altar chest; whereupon

the outraged Apostle visited her in a dream and not only rated her soundly

but afflicted her with a palsy. See _ib._ II, pp. 129, 133, translated in

Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, pp. 259-60.

[1808] Several of the stories have, however, been translated by Mr

Coulton, _op. cit._ Nos. 102-32.

[1809] Translated in Coulton, _From St Francis to Dante_ (1907), p. 290;

see _ib._ pp. 289-91, for a short account of Eudes Rigaud, also references

on p. 395 (n. 17).

[1810] _Regestrum Visitationum Archiepiscopi Rothamagensis_, ed. Bonnin

(1852). See analysis by L. Delisle in the _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des

Chartes_, 1846.

[1811] There is however a copy of the Bishop's letter of injunctions, sent

on later, appended to his report of the state of Villarceaux in 1249

(_Reg._ pp. 44-5).

[1812] Walcott, M. E. C., _English Minsters, II_ (_The English Student's

Monasticon_), pp. 210 and _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 48.

[1813] _V.C.H. Sussex_, II, p. 121 and Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, pp. 1032-3. The

later history of this cell can be traced from occasional references. It

was a very small house and contained only a prioress and two nuns in 1380.

Dugdale says that after the French wars Richard Earl of Arundel treated

with the Abbess of Almeneches for the purchase of some lands belonging to

Lyminster and in 1404 a papal brief enumerated the possessions of

Almeneches in England and elsewhere, with a threat of penalties against

all who should disturb them. Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, pp. 1032-3. Five years

later a memorandum in the Register of Bishop Rede of Chichester notes the

admission of a new Prioress, Nichola de Hereez, on the presentation of the

Abbess and Convent of Almeneches, in place of Georgete la Cloutiere,

deceased. _Reg. Robert Rede_ (Sussex Rec. Soc. 1908), pp. 38-9. Clearly

French women were ruling over the house, though the nuns may possibly have

been English. Shortly afterwards Henry V finally dissolved the alien

priories in England and the lands belonging to Lyminster were settled by

Henry VI upon Eton College.

[1814] _Reg._ p. 236.

[1815] Walcott, _op. cit._ p. 141 and _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 463, and

Dugdale, _op. cit._ p. 1057.

[1816] Walcott, _op. cit._ p. 173.

[1817] _Reg._ p. 94.

[1818] _Ib._ p. 261. In 1314-5 the Abbess of the Holy Trinity petitioned

the King of England, complaining that she had been distrained in aid of

the marriage of his eldest daughter, whereas she held all her lands in

frank almoin. _Rot. Parl._ I, p. 331.

[1819] Irrespective of double houses such as the Magdalen of Rouen.

[1820] _Reg._ p. 202.

[1821] p. 73.

[1822] p. 471.

[1823] E.g. pp. 43, 207, 323, 361.

[1824] pp. 235, 374.

[1825] pp. 451, 490.

[1826] p. 194.

[1827] p. 299.

[1828] p. 194.

[1829] pp. 636-7.

[1830] p. 298.

[1831] p. 572.

[1832] p. 419.

[1833] p. 298.

[1834] p. 298.

[1835] p. 268.

[1836] pp. 456, 486, 512.

[1837] pp. 419, 451, 491, 598, 634.

[1838] p. 94.

[1839] p. 323.

[1840] p. 338.

[1841] p. 456.

[1842] pp. 16, 121, 201, 326, 512, 588.

[1843] pp. 166, 194.

[1844] E.g. at St Desir de Lisieux (1249), at Bondeville (1259), and at St

Saens (1262). At Bival (1257 and 1259) such a roll was kept. See pp. 62,

299, 339, 348, 451.

[1845] pp. 16, 60, 62, 73, 121, 197, 199, 201, 220, 266, 339, 348, 431,

512.

[1846] pp. 43, 44, 220, 305, 326.

[1847] pp. 43, 44, 326, 431, 588, 602.

[1848] p. 348.

[1849] p. 410.

[1850] See e.g. pp. 100, 274, 299, 339, 361, 402, 407, 410, 451, 468, 471,

523, 602, 619.

[1851] p. 468.

[1852] p. 100.

[1853] p. 361.

[1854] pp. 487, 598, 615.

[1855] pp. 100, 572, 592.

[1856] The exact definition of these measures is a thorny subject, but

probably the _modius_ was roughly a quarter and the _mina_ a little more.

[1857] The list of rents in kind is an interesting illustration of the

monastic economy; such rents were probably retained, where estates

belonged to large communities, for some time after they were commuted for

money on secular lands.

[1858] The same which they sold in 1261.

[1859] pp. 273-4. Compare the inventory of Bondeville, _ib._ p. 299.

[1860] p. 299.

[1861] p. 457.

[1862] p. 384.

[1863] p. 316.

[1864] p. 16.

[1865] pp. 401, 456, 471, 512.

[1866] pp. 187, 273, 310, 338.

[1867] p. 380.

[1868] p. 419.

[1869] p. 491.

[1870] p. 522.

[1871] p. 522: he probably means _vicar_.

[1872] p. 111.

[1873] p. 217.

[1874] pp. 610, 636.

[1875] pp. 197, 295.

[1876] p. 166.

[1877] p. 285.

[1878] For other references to the fondness of nuns for ginger see the

_Life of Christina von Stommeln_: "Item per annum cum dimidio non comedit

aliud quam gingiber" (_Acta SS._ t. IV, p. 454 A). Also the _Ancren

Riwle_, p. 316: "Of a man whom ye distrust receive ye neither less nor

more--not so much as a race of ginger." Cf. _ib._ p. 279.

[1879] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 564.

[1880] See pp. 793-4 for the inquisition. The name of the house is not

given and the editor places the list in the appendix, but the date is 1257

and from internal evidence it is quite clear that it refers to the

resignation of Marie, prioress of Bondeville.

[1881] p. 793.

[1882] pp. 111, 133, 217, 298, 410.

[1883] p. 6.

[1884] p. 610.

[1885] pp. 44, 115, 166, 255, 273, 338, 419, 451, 457, 491, 500, 522, 550.

[1886] p. 522, compare p. 550.

[1887] pp. 166, 194.

[1888] p. 500.

[1889] p. 273.

[1890] p. 457.

[1891] p. 115.

[1892] p. 15.

[1893] pp. 384, 431, 472.

[1894] p. 44.

[1895] p. 575.

[1896] p. 486.

[1897] p. 487.

[1898] pp. 283, 319, 361.

[1899] p. 457.

[1900] p. 305.

[1901] pp. 281, 402.

[1902] pp. 384, 431, 817.

[1903] pp. 268, 299, 339. On one occasion the number is given as 12. p.

207.

[1904] pp. 43, 534. However in 1268 Rigaud noted that they ought to do so

monthly. p. 602.

[1905] p. 412.

[1906] p. 62, but in 1267 Rigaud noted that they were obliged to do so

seven times a year. p. 600.

[1907] pp. 293, 517, 564.

[1908] pp. 298, 487. In 1255 he noted that they did so seven times a year

and ordered fortnightly confessions and communions instead (p. 217), but

from the later visitations it appears that the seven times rule referred

only to lay brothers and sisters.

[1909] p. 410.

[1910] (St Amand), pp. 121, 202, 326, 456; (St Desir de Lisieux), p. 199;

(St Sauveur d'Evreux), pp. 220, 305.

[1911] p. 82.

[1912] p. 374.

[1913] p. 419.

[1914] p. 522.

[1915] p. 245.

[1916] p. 517 (Montivilliers).

[1917] pp. 43, 44 (Villarceaux); 117, 146 (Bival); 170, 310 (St Saens);

261 (Caen); 285, 486 (St Amand); 305 (St Sauveur); 348 (Bondeville).

[1918] pp. 15 (St Amand); 60 (St Leger de Preaux).

[1919] p. 43.

[1920] pp. 15, 121 (St Amand); 207 (St Aubin).

[1921] p. 207 (Bival).

[1922] p. 207 (St Aubin).

[1923] pp. 197, 295, 591 (St Leger-de-Preaux); 201 (St Amand); 261 (Caen).

[1924] p. 170 (St Saens).

[1925] pp. 16 (St Amand): 62, 199 (St Desir de Lisieux); 60 (St Leger de

Preaux); 170, 187 (St Saens).

[1926] pp. 62 (St Desir de Lisieux); 884 (Montivilliers).

[1927] p. 16.

[1928] p. 121.

[1929] p. 512.

[1930] p. 338.

[1931] p. 384.

[1932] pp. 44, 468.

[1933] pp. 431, 451, 472, 517, 564, 600, 624. Cf. also p. 652, below.

[1934] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 600. Cf. St Saens, p. 451.

[1935] p. 638.

[1936] p. 431.

[1937] pp. 111, 285, 486, 625.

[1938] pp. 111, 166, 170, 194.

[1939] p. 94. Cf. p. 261: "Una non clamat aliam" (1256).

[1940] p. 201.

[1941] p. 293.

[1942] _Ancren Riwle_, tr. Gasquet, pp. 151, 192.

[1943] p. 518. An amusing example of convent amenities on these occasions

and particularly of the way in which the younger nuns seized a chance of

"getting even" with their elders is to be found in Johann Busch's account

of his visitation of Dorstadt (in the _Liber de Reformatione

Monasteriorum_ described below, App. III). At this house it was the custom

for the chapter disciplines to be administered to the whole convent by two

of the youngest nuns, who then received discipline themselves. "And," says

Busch, "they had somewhat large rods and beat each other somewhat

severely, because the younger nuns were ordained to give disciplines for

this reason, that they were stronger than the others. I asked one of them

after confession whether she ever gave one more or sharper blows than

another. She answered, 'Truly I do. I hit more sharply and as much as I

can her who in my judgment deserves more.' This girl was about eight or

ten years old. I asked one elderly sister, who was prioress in another

monastery of her order, but because she was unwilling to reform was

expelled from it, whether she received severe disciplines from them. She

replied, 'I have counted ten or eight strokes, which she has often given

me as hard as she could, within the space in which "Misereatur tui" is

read.' Then I said to her, 'You ought to make her a sign, that she may

understand that you have had enough.' She answered, 'When I do that, she

hits me all the more. And I dare not say anything to her on account of the

prioress's presence, but I think to myself: I must bear these on account

of my sins, because the prioress and all the seniors receive from them as

much as they like to give, without contradiction.' And she added, 'before

her profession I used to teach her and often beat her with a rod: now she

pays me back as she likes.'" Busch, _Chron. Wind. et Liber de Ref. Mon._,

ed. Grube, pp. 644-5.

[1944] p. 235.

[1945] p. 591.

[1946] pp. 624-5.

[1947] pp. 512, 588.

[1948] p. 550.

[1949] p. 348. Perhaps one of these is referred to in 1251 when Rigaud

noted "Ibi est quedam filia cuiusdam burgensis de Vallibus que stulta est"

(p. 111). It may however refer to a boarder.

[1950] p. 111.

[1951] pp 348, 615.

[1952] p. 187.

[1953] p. 268.

[1954] p. 412.

[1955] p. 293.

[1956] p. 431.

[1957] pp. 472, 517, 564.

[1958] pp. 170, 187, 522 (St Saens); 201, 326, 401, 512 (St Amand); 298,

348, 455 (Bondeville); 73, 220, 305 (St Sauveur); 117, 146 (Bival); 199,

296 (St Desir de Lisieux); 295-6, 592 (St Leger de Preaux); 402

(Villarceaux); 412 (St Aubin).

[1959] See _Rule of St Benedict_, tr. Gasquet, pp. 95-6: "When receiving

new clothes the monks shall always give back the old ones at the same

time, to be put away in the clothes room for the poor. For it is

sufficient that a monk have two cowls, as well for night wear as for the

convenience of washing. Anything else is superfluous and must be cut off."

[1960] pp. 384, 517, 564 (Montivilliers); 295 (St Leger de Preaux); 62 (St

Desir de Lisieux); 220, 305 (St Sauveur).

[1961] p. 512.

[1962] p. 305.

[1963] pp. 44-5.

[1964] "Abbatissa dat cuilibet moniali per annum xii solidos pro vestibus

tantummodo, et singule earum provident sibi de residuo." p. 339; cf. p.

299. Cf. also Almeneches in 1250, p. 82.

[1965] p. 384.

[1966] p. 207.

[1967] p. 82.

[1968] p. 550.

[1969] p. 587.

[1970] p. 615.

[1971] pp. 62, 199, 296.

[1972] p. 100.

[1973] pp. 115, 273, 285. Cf. injunctions to Villarceaux in 1249, quoted

above.

[1974] p. 82.

[1975] Cf. the case of Johanna Martel at St Saens, p, 338, quoted below,

p. 668.

[1976] p. 235

[1977] p. 374.

[1978] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 564. In 1260 the injunction was: "Item quod

omnes sane insimul comederent; item inhibuimus ne in refectorio per

conventicula et colligationes comederent sed sederent in mensis

indifferenter et escis communibus vescerentur" (p. 384).

[1979] pp. 170, 380, 522.

[1980] pp. 60, 197, 295.

[1981] p. 146.

[1982] p. 572.

[1983] p. 220.

[1984] pp. 111, 217, 571. The oven room of St Amand was looked after by a

lay brother, p. 588.

[1985] p. 73.

[1986] p. 82.

[1987] p. 111. "Quod moniales non vendant nec distrahant filum et _lor

fusees_."

[1988] pp. 202, 283, 326, 401, 456, 486, 512, 588 (St Amand); 73, 624 (St

Sauveur); 518 (Montivilliers); 451 (St Saens); 534 (Villarceaux).

[1989] _Ancren Riwle_, tr. Gasquet, p. 318.

[1990] The custom of depositing valuables in a monastery for safety was

very general. Caesarius of Heisterbach has an entertaining anecdote on the

point: "A certain usurer committed a large sum of his money to a certain

cellarer of our order to be kept for him. The monk sealed it up and put it

in a safe place together with the money belonging to the monastery.

Afterwards the usurer came to ask for his deposit, but when the cellarer

opened the chest, he found neither that nor his own money. And when he

beheld that the locks of the chest were intact and the seals of the bags

unbroken and that there was no suspicion of theft, he understood that the

money of the usurer had eaten up the money of the monastery." Caes. of

Heist., _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange (1851), I, p. 108. For another example

of goods being deposited for safety in a nunnery see _V.C.H. Herts._ IV,

p. 431 (note 40). A certain Joan Sturmyn entrusted goods to the value of

L50 to the keeping of Alice Wafer, Prioress of St Mary de Pre (near St

Albans), which afterwards gave rise to a case in chancery, 1480-5.

[1991] Coulton, _Monastic Schools in the Middle Ages_ (Medieval Studies,

No. 10) quoting from Martene, _Thesaurus_, IV, col. 175, Sec. IV.

[1992] See references to convent schools by Gerson and by Erasmus quoted

in Coulton, _op. cit._ pp. 22-3, note 17.

[1993] Or grandnieces (_nepotulas_).

[1994] p. 217.

[1995] p. 298.

[1996] p. 410.

[1997] p. 571.

[1998] p. 615.

[1999] Coulton, _op. cit._ p. 5.

[2000] p. 282.

[2001] p. 324.

[2002] p. 572.

[2003] p. 602.

[2004] p. 380.

[2005] p. 419.

[2006] p. 412: "Item ne pueros admitterent ad nutriendum."

[2007] p. 146.

[2008] p. 486.

[2009] p. 60.

[2010] p. 220.

[2011] p. 305.

[2012] pp. 610, 636.

[2013] pp. 43, 44.

[2014] pp. 115, 207, 255, 283, 319.

[2015] p. 361.

[2016] pp. 412, 471, 550, 587.

[2017] p. 310.

[2018] p. 338.

[2019] p. 380.

[2020] p. 419.

[2021] pp. 451, 491.

[2022] pp. 201, 285.

[2023] p. 486.

[2024] p. 512.

[2025] p. 588.

[2026] p. 281.

[2027] p. 323.

[2028] p. 571.

[2029] pp. 44, 572.

[2030] p. 207.

[2031] p. 564.

[2032] pp. 43, 82, 146, 348.

[2033] pp. 348, 410.

[2034] p. 117.

[2035] p. 146.

[2036] pp. 146, 207, 220, 235, 255, 283, 305, 319, 348, 419, 624, 636.

[2037] pp. 43, 207, 255, 283, 305.

[2038] pp. 43, 326.

[2039] p. 117.

[2040] p. 348.

[2041] p. 220.

[2042] pp. 43, 117, 220, 235, 268, 486, 491, 534, 550.

[2043] p. 587.

[2044] p. 44.

[2045] p. 285.

[2046] pp. 43, 197, 296, 338, 348, 374, 380, 419, 451, 455, 486, 491, 534,

591, 624.

[2047] p. 187 (1254); in 1259 it is again complained that the nuns stay

for a long time when they have licence to go outside and on three other

occasions it is noted that the nuns go out alone; in 1262 a penance was

enjoined on the Prioress for allowing one nun to do so. See pp. 338, 380,

419, 451, 491.

[2048] p. 197.

[2049] p. 295.

[2050] p. 591.

[2051] p. 298; cf. p. 455.

[2052] p. 281; cf. pp. 146, 486, 588.

[2053] pp. 293, 517.

[2054] p. 587.

[2055] p. 412.

[2056] p. 471.

[2057] See above, pp. 542 ff.

[2058] p. 44.

[2059] p. 166.

[2060] p. 197.

[2061] p. 261.

[2062] p. 384.

[2063] pp. 431, 517.

[2064] p. 486.

[2065] See above p. 311 and E. K. Chambers, _The Medieval Stage_, I, ch.

XV, _passim_.

[2066] p. 73.

[2067] pp. 305, 624.

[2068] p. 295.

[2069] p. 95.

[2070] p. 201.

[2071] p. 602; compare a similar case at Legbourne, above, p. 412.

[2072] p. 43.

[2073] pp. 518, 564.

[2074] p. 16.

[2075] pp. 73, 207, 220, 305, 624.

[2076] Montaiglon, _Recueil de Poesies Francoises des XVI{e} et XVII{e}

siecles_, t. VIII, pp. 171, 173.

[2077] pp. 43-4.

[2078] But a better example of his wit is shown in his repartee to

another's pun, quoted in Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, p. 289. "A clerical

buffoon once ventured to ask him across the table, 'What is the

difference, my lord, betwixt _Rigaud_ and _Ribaud_ [rascal]?' 'Only this

board's breadth,' replied the Archbishop." The jest is however widespread,

_mutatis mutandis_, in the east as well as in the west. It is told of one

John Scot, 'What difference is there between sot and scot?' 'Just the

breadth of the table.' _Calendar of Jests, Epigrams, Epitaphs etc._

(Edinburgh 1753); it also occurs in Gladwin's _Persian Moonshee_ and in

several Indian collections of _facetiae_. W. A. Clouston, _Popular Tales

and Fictions_ (1887) I, p. 51.

[2079] p. 207.

[2080] p. 146.

[2081] p. 207.

[2082] p. 338.

[2083] p. 522.

[2084] p. 82.

[2085] p. 326.

[2086] p. 456.

[2087] p. 638.

[2088] See pp. 645-6, above.

[2089] _Reg._ p. 348.

[2090] p. 199.

[2091] p. 575. Cf. the case of the Priory of Couz, when it was visited in

1283 by Simon of Beaulieu, Archbishop of Bourges. Baluze, _Miscellanea_,

I, 281.

[2092] pp. 43-4. Notice the disjointed character of the report and the

repetition of charges, e.g. against Johanna of _Alto Villari_ (who is

probably the same as Johanna of _Aululari_) the cellaress and the

Prioress. This probably indicates that it is a verbatim report of evidence

taken down from the lips of the nuns, as they came before the Archbishop.

[2093] pp. 44-5.

[2094] p. 117.

[2095] p. 82.

[2096] p. 6.

[2097] p. 207.

[2098] p. 268.

[2099] p. 207.

[2100] A similar charge was made at the convent of St Saens in 1264 where

scandal imputed to Nicholaa, a notoriously immoral nun, "_quod ipsa nondum

erat mensis elapsus fecerat abortivum_"; but the Archbishop apparently

disbelieved the charge. p. 491. See p. 669, below.

[2101] p. 255.

[2102] p. 283.

[2103] p. 412.

[2104] p. 471.

[2105] p. 500.

[2106] It is noticeable how often in these visitations the nuns are

reported to have been led astray by priests; but when one considers the

character borne by many of the parochial and other clergy of the diocese,

as it is recorded in the Register, this is hardly surprising.

[2107] pp. 550, 587.

[2108] p. 587.

[2109] p. 619.

[2110] p. 187.

[2111] p. 338.

[2112] See above, p. 667, note 6.

[2113] p. 491.

[2114] p. 522.

[2115] p. 566.

[2116] p. 598.

[2117] Or rather on loose sheets, which were not intended for official

preservation and have survived only by accident.

[2118] I.e. abbot. These German Augustinians never used the term _abbas_,

but used _praepositus_ instead.

[2119] _Des Augustinerpropstes Iohannes Busch Chronicon Windeshemense und

Liber de Reformatione Monasteriorum_ ... bearbeitet v. Dr Karl Grube

(_Hist. Com. der Provinz. Sachsen._ Halle, 1886).

[2120] The nunneries dealt with by Busch are the following (A. = Austin,

B. = Benedictine, C. = Cistercian, M.M. = penitentiary order of St Mary

Magdalen, following the Cistercian rule): (1) Wennigsen (S. of Hanover,

dioc. Minden, A.); (2) Mariensee (N. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, C.); (3)

Barsinghausen (S. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, A.); (4) Marienwerder (N. of

Hanover, dioc. Minden, A.); (5) St George, or Marienkammer (in Glaucha, a

suburb of Halle, dioc. Magdeburg, C.); (6) Magdalenenkloster, Hildesheim

(dioc. Hildesheim, M.M.); (7) Derneburg (W. of Hildesheim, dioc.

Hildesheim, A.); (8) Escherde (S.W. of Hildesheim, B.); (9) Heiningen (in

Hanover, between Wolfenbuettel and Goslar, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (10)

Stederburg (near Brunswick, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (11) Frankenburg (in

Goslar, dioc. Hildesheim, M.M.); (12) Kloster zum hl. Kreuze (Holy Cross)

or Neuwerk, Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, A.); (13) St Cyriac's in Erfurt (dioc.

Mainz, B.); (14) Weissfrauenkloster (White Ladies) in Erfurt (dioc. Mainz,

M.M.); (15) St Martin's in Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, C.); (16) Marienberg (near

Helmstedt, dioc. Halberstadt, A.); (17) Marienborn (near Helmstedt, dioc.

Halberstadt, A.); (18) Weinhausen (near Lueneburg, dioc. Hildesheim, C.);

(19) Weissfrauenkloster (White Ladies) in Magdeburg (dioc. Magdeburg,

M.M.); (20) Wuelfinghausen (near Wittenberg, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (21)

Fischbeck (near Rinteln on the Weser, in Hessen-Nassau, dioc. Minden, A.);

(22) Dorstadt (near Wolfenbuettel, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (23) Stendal (in

the mark of Brandenburg, A.). Also (24) Bewerwijk in N. Holland

(Franciscan tertiaries), and (25) Segeberchhus in Luebeck, both houses of

lay sisters.

[2121] But see _Liber_, pp. 600, 637, 640.

[2122] _Liber_, p. 580.

[2123] _Liber_, p. 591.

[2124] _Ib._ p. 610. For interesting lists of money and goods put into

common stock by Busch see also pp. 614, 616, 617, 633.

[2125] _Ib._ pp. 633-4.

[2126] _Ib._ p. 633.

[2127] _Ib._ pp. 571-2.

[2128] See _ib._ pp. 572, 591.

[2129] _Liber_, pp. 573-4. Compare the exertions of Berthold, Prior of

Suelte, to provide the poor nuns of Heiningen with sufficient stores of

food and to pay off their debts, _ib._ pp. 601-2; see also, p. 599.

[2130] _Ib._ p. 614.

[2131] _Ib._ p. 582.

[2132] _Ib._ p. 643.

[2133] _Ib._ p. 614.

[2134] _Ib._ p. 567.

[2135] _Liber_, pp. 582-3; compare pp. 603, 638.

[2136] _Ib._ p. 639.

[2137] _Ib._ p. 633.

[2138] _Liber_, p. 587.

[2139] _Ib._ p. 599.

[2140] _Ib._ p. 617. Compare Marienwerder, _ib._ pp. 567-8.

[2141] _Ib._ pp. 630-2.

[2142] _Ib._ p. 642.

[2143] _Liber_, p. 581.

[2144] _Ib._ pp. 615, 652-3. But the _praepositus_ of Erfurt, when he saw

the result of the reforms, was delighted and thanked Busch.

[2145] _Liber_, pp. 555-62.

[2146] _Liber_, pp. 562-5.

[2147] See _ib._ pp. 591-7.

[2148] _Liber_, pp. 575-6.

[2149] _Ib._ p. 589.

[2150] _Liber_, pp. 597-8.

[2151] _Ib._ pp. 580, 607, 612, 619, 628, 631, 635, 642, 649, 651.

[2152] _Ib._ pp. 618-22.

[2153] _Liber_, pp. 622-7.

[2154] _Liber_, pp. 624-5.

[2155] _Ib._ p. 625. For the learning of reformed nuns, see pp. 576, 607,

642.

[2156] See e.g. _ib._ pp. 585-6, 636, 640.

[2157] _Ib._ p. 596.

[2158] In course of publication, edited by Mr A. Hamilton Thompson. The

printed portion is cited in the text as _Linc. Visit._ II, and the

unprinted portion as _Alnwick's Visit. MS._

[2159] Bishop Lowth says: "This MS. belonged to Wykeham himself, for the

injunctions are the original drafts corrected. It came afterwards into the

hands of Robert Shirborn, Master of St Cross Hospital, afterwards Bishop

of Chichester." It contains a long series of documents relating to a

controversy between the Bishop and the masters of St Cross Hospital and

injunctions sent to the Cathedral Church of Winchester, the monasteries of

Hyde, Merton, Romsey and Wherwell, and the Hospital of St Thomas the

Martyr, Southwark, covering the years 1386 and 1387. It is of the highest

interest and should certainly be published. My thanks are due to Dr Moyle,

Bursar of New College, for permission to transcribe the injunctions sent

to the two nunneries.

[2160] Foreign books mentioned only in ch. XIII are not included here.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.

The yogh symbol has been replaced, without note, with the letters "gh" in

English passages and "z" in French passages.

The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not

represented in this text version. Where appropriate, these forms have

been expanded to improve readability.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these

letters have been replaced with transliterations.

Two symbols are represented by [dagger] and [Maltese cross].