chapter II

on "The Property of the Nunneries"; for my quotations from the _Valor_ I have invariably used her analysis. Anyone wishing for an intensive study of the Dissolution from the point of view of monastic houses for women cannot do better than consult this thesis, which is far more detailed, exact and judicial in tone than any other modern account.

[265] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260.

[266] The wardens' accounts are in _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 867/21-6 and the prioress's accounts, _ib._ 867/30, 32, 33-36. and _Hen. VII_, no. 274. They are briefly described in _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 430-1 (notes 30, 31, 39). An excellent prioress's account for 2-4 Hen. VII is printed by Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 358-61, the prioress being Christian Bassett.

[267] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10. See Gasquet, _Eng. Monastic Life_, pp. 158-176.

[268] A. Gray, _Priory of St Radegund's, Cambridge_, pp. 145-85.

[269] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, pp. 278-83. Compare _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/1 for a Catesby account roll for 11-14 Hen. IV.

[270] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, pp. 458-60. See also _P.R.O._ 1257/2 for Denney, 14 Hen. IV-1 Hen. V.

[271] See Ch. IV, _passim_.

[272] _Valor Eccles._ IV, p. 302.

[273] _Ib._ III, p. 103.

[274] _Ib._ I, p. 119.

[275] _Ib._ I, p. 397.

[276] _Ib._ I, p. 424.

[277] Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 44.

[278] Jacka, _op. cit._ ff. 27, 29-30. The information about Syon and the Minoresses is taken from _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 424 and I, p. 397 respectively.

[279] See Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 25.

[280] If the demesne land were let out in farm the customary ploughing and other services of the villeins would no longer be needed and if only a portion of it were so farmed the number of villein services required would be proportionately less. This, as well as the increasing employment of hired labour on the demesne during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, accounts for the item "Sale of Works" which appears in the Romsey account for 1412. Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 194. From another point of view the number of rent-payers was increased by the fact that both free and unfree tenants could rent pieces of the demesne. As to the farming of the demesne, note however the conclusion to which Miss Jacka comes from a study of the _Valor_ and the Dissolution _Surveys_ now in the Augmentation Office: "The question 'to what extent did the nuns in 1535 farm their demesnes?' cannot be confidently answered on the evidence of any of the records before us. Apart from the fact that in many cases there is no statement at all, the word 'firma' or 'farm' is used so ambiguously that even where it occurs it is impossible to be certain that a lease existed.... There are, of course, unmistakeable cases in which the demesnes were farmed: Tarrant Keynes kept in hand the demesnes of 3 manors and farmed that of 7; Shaftesbury occupied the demesne of one manor and farmed that of 18 (_Valor Eccles._ I, pp. 265, 276). But in none of the few cases in which the whole of the demesne is described as yielding a 'firma,' should we be justified, in view of the several uses of the word, in asserting that it had the definite character of a lease. That is to say, whatever may be our suspicions, the evidence before us does not warrant the assertion that in a single case did the nuns farm the whole of their demesnes; and this conclusion is an unexpected and remarkable one, for we might well expect them to be among the first land holders who seized this method of simplifying their manorial economy." Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 47.

[281] In the account roll of Dame Christian Bassett, Prioress of Delapre (St Albans) for 2-4 Hen. VII, the "rente fermys" range between L7 from Robert Pegge for the farm of the whole manor of Pray, to 2_s._ received from Richard Franklin "for the ferme of vj acres of londe in Bacheworth"; one John Shon pays 6_s._ 8_d._ "for the ferme of certeyne londs in Bacheworth and ij tenements in Seint Mighell strete with a lyme kylne"; Richard Ordeway pays 10_s._ for rent farm of "an hous w{t}in the Pray" and Robert Pegge 8_s._ for rent farm of "an hous and a stable w{t}in Praygate." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 358-9. In this account her assize rents amount to L2. 11_s._ 2_d._ within the town of St Albans and her rents farm to L4. 13_s._ 2_d._; while outside the town the rents of assize amount to L2. 5_s._ 0_d._ and the rents farm to L11. 19_s._ 8_d._, while four items amounting to L1. 19_s._ 11_d._ are doubtful, but probably represent farms. That is to say very nearly three quarters of the lands and houses belonging to Delapre were farmed out, and if we except payments from the town of St Albans, which were probably house-rents, over four-fifths of its possessions were in farm. Similarly in the account roll of Margaret Ratclyff, Prioress of Swaffham, for 22 Ed. IV. the rents are classified as _Redditus Assise_ (L6. 0_s._ 4_d._ in all), _Firma Terrae_ (L13. 0_s._ 3-1/2_d._ in all) and _Firma Molendini_, the farm of a mill (L3. 14_s._ 4_d._). _Ib._ IV, p. 459.

[282] References to money paid in fees to rent-collectors, or in gratuities to men who had brought rents up to the house often occur in account rolls, e.g. in the Catesby roll for 1414-15, "Also in expenses of collecting rents wheresoever to be collected ... xix_s._ Also paid to divers receivers of rent for the time viij_s._ viij_d._" Baker, _Hist. of Northants._ I, p. 280. In the Delapre account of 2-4 Hen. IV, "Item paid to a man that brought money from Cambryg for a rewarde viij_d._ Item for dyvers men y{t} brought in their rent at dyvers tymes xx_s._ ij_d._" Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359. In the St Radegund's Cambridge account of 1449-51, "In the expenses of Thomas Key (xvij_d._ ob.) at Abyngton, Litlyngton, Whaddon, Crawden, Bumpsted and Cambridge for the business of the lady (prioress) and for levying rent ... and in the stipend of Thomas Key collecting rents in Cambridge and the district this year xiii_s._ iiij_d._" Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 173-4.

[283] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 148, 164.

[284] See for a translation of the whole charter, Aungier, _Hist. of Syon_, pp. 60-67. The original is given _ib._ pp. 411-8.

[285] See the valuation of Syon Monastery, A.D. 1534, translated from the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_, _ib._ pp. 439-450. At Romsey in 1412 the perquisites of courts brought in a total of L14 out of an annual income of L404. 6_s._ 0-1/2_d._, made up of the rents and farms, sale of works, sale of farm produce and perquisites of courts on six manors. Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 194.

[286] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 135.

[287] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 370. So apparently had the Prioress of Carrow. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, p. 21.

[288] See p. 70 above. Compare the Catesby roll for 1414-15. "And in the expenses of the steward at the court this year and at other times vi_s._ viii_d._" Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 280.

[289] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 118.

[290] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1272-9, p. 392.

[291] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1296-1302, p. 238.

[292] In the account of the Prioress of Delapre already quoted occurs the item "Receyvid for ij standyngs at Prayffayre at ij tymes v_s._" Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359. The fair time was the feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. (Sept. 8th) and the account for another year shows that over L1 was spent on the convent and visitors at this time. The accounts for 1490-3 include payments for making trestles and forms in connection with the fair. _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 430 (note 31) and p. 439 (note 39). The nuns of St Radegund's, Cambridge, were granted by Stephen a fair, which was afterwards known as Garlick fair, and was held in their churchyard for two days on August 14th and 15th. They did not receive much from it; in 1449 the tolls amounted only to 5_s._ 2_d._; moreover they had to give the toll collectors 6_d._ for a wage and they evidently made the occasion one for entertainment, for they hired an extra cook for 3_d._ "to help in the kitchin at the fair time." Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 49-50.

[293] The _Valor Eccles._ occasionally notes income derived from fairs. Tarrant Keynes had L2 from the fair at Woodburyhill, Shaftesbury had L2. 4_s._ 6_d._ from Shaftesbury fair, Malling received L3. 6_s._ 8_d._ from Malling market and fair and L3 from a market "cum terris et tenementis" at Newheth, Blackborough had L1 from Blackborough fair and Elstow had L7. 12_s._ 0_d._ from Elstow fair. _Valor Eccles._ I, pp. 265, 276, 106; II, p. 205; III, p. 395; IV, p. 188.

[294] The mill belonging to the home farm would be in the charge of a miller, who was one of the hired servants of the house and was paid a regular stipend. Other mills would probably be farmed out. The nuns of Catesby had two mills, which brought them in 12_s._ and 22_s._ a year respectively; one, a wind-mill, was probably farmed, but the water-mill was in charge of Thomas Milner, at a wage of 20_s._ and his servant, who was paid 2_s._ 6_d._ The nuns also received tolls of grain in kind from the mill; a certain proportion of which was handed over to the miller for his household. The mill does not seem to have paid very well, for a heavy list of "Costs of the Mill," amounting to 31_s._ 6_d._ appears in the account; it includes the wages of the miller and his boy and payments to a carpenter for making the mill-wheel for seventeen days and in damming the mill-tail and buying shoes with nails for the mill horses. Baker, _op. cit._ I, pp. 279, 281. At Swaffham Bulbeck the "Firma Molendini" brought in L3. 14_s._ 4_d._ Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 457. Malling Abbey had a fulling-mill. _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 276.

[295] For instance in Hone, _The Manor and Manorial Records_ (1906).

[296] Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 591.

[297] Baker, _op. cit._ I, pp. 279, 282.

[298] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 370.

[299] For examples of mortuary law-suits, receipts and results, see Coulton, _Med. Garn._, pp. 561-6. On the whole subject of mortuaries and the unpopularity which they entailed upon the church, see Coulton, _Medieval Studies_, no. 8 ("Priests and People before the Reformation," pp. 3-7).

[300] Translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 323. Compare another of Caesarius' tales of the usurer who was taken by the devil through various places of torment: "There also he saw a certain honest knight lately dead, Elias von Rheineck, castellan of Horst, seated on a mad cow with his face towards her tail and his back to her horns; the beast rushed to and fro, goring his back every moment so that the blood rushed forth. To whom the usurer said, 'Lord, why suffer ye this pain?' 'This cow,' replied the knight, 'I tore mercilessly from a certain widow; wherefore I must now endure this merciless punishment from the same beast.'" _Ib._ p. 214. Certainly the medieval imagination had a genius for making the punishment fit the crime.

[301] A nunnery in a large town would be far more dependent on buying food. Thus an account of the household expenses of St Helen's Bishopsgate, in the sixteenth century shows that the nuns had to pay L22 for buying corn and L60. 13_s._ 4_d._ for meat and other foodstuffs. They were heavily in debt, and their creditors included a brewer, a "cornman," two fishmongers and a butcher. _V.C.H. London_, I, p. 460.

[302] Baker, _op. cit._ I, pp. 281-3.

[303] The convent bought 4-1/2 qrs. of salt for 25_s._ for the operation this year. Baker, _op. cit._ I, p. 280. Compare, for the operation at Gracedieu, Gasquet, _Eng. Mon. Life_, p. 174.

[304] The account of the cellaress of Syon for the year 1536-7 gives very full details of the income derived from the sale of hides and fells. John Lyrer, tanner, buys from her fifty-five ox-hides at 3_s._ 6_d._ each, and three cow-hides, two steer-hides, one bull-hide, and one murrain ox-hide at 2_s._ 4_d._ each, making a total of L10. 8_s._ 10_d._ The same John Lyrer buys 230 calf-skins for L3. 16_s._ 8_d._ John Cockes, fellmonger, buys 287 "shorling felles," at 3_s._ the dozen, 190 "skynnes of wynter felles" at 6_s._ the dozen, 77 "skynnes somerfelles" at 8_s._ the dozen, for a total for L10. 18_s._ 1_d._ The different qualities of wool were always carefully distinguished and priced. _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt, p. xxix.

[305] A few examples taken at random will suffice: "By the sale of wool 4 marks 11_s._ 8_d._ From Gilbert of Chesterton for the wool _del aan ke est aveni_ 100_s._" (32-3 Edw. I). _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/1. "From the sale of 14 stone of wool, price per stone 7_s._, 4_l._ 18_s._" (48-9 Edw. III). _Ib._ 1260/4. "Received for one sack of 20 stone of wool sold last year, at 4_s._ per stone, 13 marks, 10_s._ 8_d._ Received for one sack of this years wool, at 4_s._ 6_d._ per stone, 5_l._ 17_s._ 0_d._" (either 46-7 or 47-8 Edw. III). _Ib._ 1260/21. "From John of the Pantry for 11-1/2 stone of wool at 6_s._ the stone, 69_s._" (1-2 Rich. II). _Ib._ 1260/7. In 1412 Romsey Abbey derived L60 out of a total income of L404. 6_s._ 4-1/2_d._ from the sale of wool. Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 194.

[306] See, for this very interesting document, Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_ (1905 ed.), I, App. D, pp. 628-41. The nunneries mentioned, with the amount of wool obtainable from each annually, are Stainfield (from 12 sacks), Stixwould (from 15 sacks), Nuncoton (from 10 sacks), Hampole (from 6 sacks), St Leonard's Grimsby (from 2 sacks), Heynings (from 2 sacks), Gokewell (from 4 sacks), Langley (from 5 sacks), Arden (from 10 sacks), Keldholme (from 12 sacks), Rosedale (from 10 sacks), St Clement's York (from 3 sacks), Swine (from 8 sacks), Marrick (from 8 sacks), Wykeham (from 4 sacks), Ankerwyke (from 4 sacks), Thicket (from 4 sacks), Nunmonkton (number missing), Yedingham (do.), Legbourne (from 3 sacks). A similar Flemish list mentions Hampole, Nuncoton, Stainfield and Gracedieu (33 lbs.). Varenbergh, _Hist. des Relations Diplomatiques entre le Comte de Flandre et l'Angleterre au Moyen Age_ (Brussels, 1874), pp. 214-7.

[307] "The Libel of English Policie," in _Hakluyt's Voyages_ (Everyman's Lib. edit.), I, p. 186.

[308] See, for instance, a petition from the nuns of Carrow asking to be allowed to appropriate the church of Surlingham, of which they had the advowson, "qar, tres dute seignour, lauoesoun ne les fait bien eynz de les mettre en daunger de presentement en chescune voedaunce"; _P.R.O. Anct. Petit._ 232/11587. It appears that the prioress had letters patent to appropriate the church, probably in answer to this petition in 22 Edw. II; Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. p. xxxvi. It may be useful to give a few out of very many references to the appropriation of a church to a nunnery on account of poverty: Clifton to Lingbrook (_Reg. R. de Swinfield_, p. 134), Wolferlow and Bridge Sollers to Aconbury (_Reg. A. de Orleton_, pp. 176, 200), Rockbeare to Canonsleigh (_Reg. Grandisson_, II, p. 698), Compton and Upmardon to Easebourne (_Bp. Rede's Reg._ p. 137), Itchen Stoke to Romsey (_Reg. Sandale_, p. 269), Whenby to Moxby (_Reg. Wickwane_, p. 290), Horton to St Clement's York (_Reg. Gray_, p. 107), Bishopthorpe to the same (_Reg. Giffard_, p. 59), Dallington to Flamstead (Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 301), Quadring to Stainfield (_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 131), Easton Neston to Sewardsley and Desborough to Rothwell (_V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 137), Lidlington to Barking (_V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 119), Bradford, Tisbury and Gillingham to Shaftesbury (_V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77).

[309] An analysis of the possessions of Carrow gives some good examples of this. The churches of Earlham, Stow Bardolph, Surlingham, Swardeston, East Winch and Wroxham were all appropriated soon after their advowsons had been granted to the priory, which also possessed the advowsons of four churches in Norwich, the moiety of another advowson, the moiety of a rectory and various tithes or portions of tithes in different manors and parishes. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. X.

[310] Gasquet, _Eng. Mon. Life_, p. 194.

[311] For the abuses of appropriation, see Coulton, _Medieval Studies_, no. 8, pp. 6-8. For the part played by the lower clergy in the Peasants' Revolt, see Petit-Dutaillis, _Studies Supplementary to Stubbs' Constit. Hist._ II, pp. 270-1, and Kriehn, _Studies in the Sources of the Social Revolt_ in 1381 (_Amer. Hist. Review_, 1901), VI, pp. 480-4.

[312] _Valor Eccles._ IV, p. 188.

[313] _Ib._ III, p. 276.

[314] _Ib._ I, p. 897.

[315] Jacka, _op. cit._ f. 35. See the list of "Farms and Pensions" in the prioress of Catesby's accounts for 1414-5. Baker, _Hist. and Antiqs. of Northants._ I, p. 279.

[316] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 98.

[317] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.

[318] This appears from the regular entry of the amount brought in by the farms of the two churches in the account rolls. In 1458 the nuns received formal permission from the bishop to lease out and dispose of the fruits and revenues of any of the appropriated churches. Madox, _Form. Anglic._ dxc.

[319] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/7.

[320] See for instance Norris' note (quoted by Rye) on the grant to Carrow Priory of the tithes of all wheat growing in the parishes of Bergh and Apton, which tithes "occasioned many disputes between the Rector and the Convent, till at length about the year 1237 it was agreed by the Prioress and Convent and Thomas, the then Rector, ... that the Rector should pay to the Convent 14 quarters of wheat in lieu of all their tithes there, which was constantly paid, with some little allowance for defect of measure, until 29 Edw. III, when there was a suit between Prioress and Rector about them. What was the event of it I find not, but they soon after returned to the old payment of 14 qrs., which continued until 21 Hen. VI, when the dispute was revived and in a litigious way they continued above ten years, but I find they afterwards returned again to the old agreement and kept to it, I believe, to the dissolution of the Priory." Rye mentions a suit between the Rector and Prioress in 1321. Similarly the nuns were involved in a tedious suit (10 Edw. I) about the tithes of the demesne of the manor of Barshall in Riston, with the Rector of Riston. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. pp. xxx, xxxv.

[321] See below, p. 199, for the other side of the matter.

[322] Similarly the nuns of Kingsmead, Derby, had part of the shirt of St Thomas of Canterbury, and the nuns of Gracedieu had the girdle and part of the tunic of St Francis, both of which were good for the same purpose. _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43; Nichols, _Hist. of Leic._ III, p. 652.

[323] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 115, 119, 130, 159, 178, 189.

[324] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 122.

[325] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 118.

[326] See for instance the receipts of the nuns of St Michael's Stamford from _Almes, Almoignes et Auenture_ entered in their roll for 45-6 Edw. III. "From Sir John Weston for a soul, 13_s._ 4_d._ For the soul of Simon the Taverner, 1_s._ For the soul of Sir Robert de Thorp, L20. 6_s._ 7_d._ For the soul of William Apethorp, 3_s._ 4_d._ For the soul of Alice atte Halle, 3_s._ 4_d._ In alms from William Ouneby, 6_s._ 8_d._ In alms from Emma of Okham L5. Received from the pardon at the church 6_s._ 8_d._ For the pardon from Lady Idayne and from Emma Okham L1." _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/3. But this was an unusually good year.

[327] The account rolls of St Michael's Stamford usually arrange expenses under the following headings: (1) rents, (2) petty expenses, (3) convent expenses, (4) cost of carts and ploughs, (5) repair of houses, (6) purchase of stock, (7) weeding corn and mowing hay, (8) threshing and winnowing, (9) harvest expenses, (10) hire of servants, (11) chaplains' fees. See _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/_passim_. The active prioress of St Mary de Pre, Christian Bassett, classifies her payments as for (1) "comyns, pytances and partycions," (2) "yerely charges," (3) "wagys and ffees," (4) "reparacions," (5) "divers expensis." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, pp. 358-61. The prioress of Catesby (1414-5) classifies (1) rents, (2) petty expenses, (3) expenses of the houses (i.e. repairs), (4) household expenses, (5) necessary expenses (miscellaneous), (6) expenses of carts, (7) purchase of livestock, (8) customary payments (to nuns, pittancers, farmers, cottagers, etc. in clothing; details not given); (9) purchase of corn, (10) rewards (various small tips to nuns and servants), (11) tedding and making hay, harvest expenses, stubble, thrashing and winnowing corn, (12) costs of the mill, (13) servants' wages. Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, pp. 278-83.

[328] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 194-5.

[329] See below, p. 323.

[330] See below, pp. 157-8.

[331] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 156.

[332] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/10.

[333] _Valor Eccles._ I, p. 84.

[334] _Ib._ I, p. 119.

[335] _Ib._ I, p. 394.

[336] _Ib._ III, p. 76.

[337] _Ib._ III, p. 77.

[338] _Archaeol. Journ._ LXIX (1912), pp. 120-1.

[339] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 172.

[340] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359. The heading under which this item comes is _Yerely Charges_.

[341] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 281.

[342] A. G. Little, _Studies in English Franciscan History_ (1917), pp. 25, 43.

[343] See below, p. 199.

[344] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 156, 172.

[345] _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt, introd. p. xxxi.

[346] See below, p. 202.

[347] See e.g. above, p. 70.

[348] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 153-5.

[349] Mackenzie Walcott, _Inventories of ... Shepey_, pp. 32-3.

[350] Maurice Hewlett, _The Song of the Plow_ (1916), pp. 9-10.

[351] Baker, _Hist. and Antiq. of Northants._ I, p. 283. Compare the St Radegund's Cambridge accounts: "Et in butumine empto cum pycche hoc anno pro bidentibus signandis et ungendis, ij s j d. Et in clatis emptis ad faldam, iij s iij d. Et solutum pro remocione falde per diversas vices, iij d. ... Et in bidentibus hoc anno lavandis et tondendis ij s iij d." Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 155, 171.

[352] They are a regular item in the St Michael's, Stamford, accounts and compare the accounts of St Radegund's, Cambridge: "And in viij pairs of gloves bought for divers hired men at harvest as was needful xij d." Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 157, 172.

[353] Tusser, _Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_, ed. W. Payne and S. J. Herrtage (Eng. Dialect. Soc. 1878), pp. 129-30.

[354] Tusser, _op. cit._ p. 132.

[355] _Ib._ p. 181.

[356] C. T. Flower, _Obedientiars' Accounts of Glastonbury and other Religious Houses_ (St Paul's Ecclesiological Soc. vol. VII, pt II (1912)), pp. 50-62. The nunnery accounts described include accounts of the Abbess of Elstow (22 Hen. VII), the Prioress of Delapre (4 and 9 Hen. VII), the Cellaress of Barking, the Cellaress of Syon, the Sacrist of Syon and the Chambress of Syon. On obedientiaries and their accounts in general, see the introduction to _Compotus Rolls of the Obedientiaries of St Swithun's Priory, Winchester_, ed. G. W. Kitchin (Hants. Rec. Soc. 1892).

[357] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 236. At St Mary's Winchester at the same date the 14 nuns included the abbess, prioress, subprioress, infirmaress, _precentrix_ and three sub-chantresses, _scrutatrix_, _dogmatista_ and librarian. _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 124.

[358] Aungier, _Hist. of Syon Mon._ p. 392.

[359] _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, ed. Blunt (E.E.T.S.), introd. p. xxviii.

[360] Aungier, _op. cit._ pp. 392-3.

[361] See below, Note A.

[362] Aungier, _op. cit._ p. 395.

[363] I have been unable to discover what is meant by _feri_ and _asser_.

[364] _Tabite_ was a sort of _moire_ silk. Probably carpets or tablecloths here.

[365] _Register of Crabhouse Nunnery_, ed. M. Bateson (Norfolk Archaeology, XI, 1892), pp. 38-9.

[366] See, for instance, the Godstow Register; charters nos. 105, 139, 556 and 644 concern grants appropriated to clothing and nos. 52, 250, 536, 619 and 630 to the infirmary. No. 862 is a grant of five cartloads of alderwood yearly "to be take xv dayes after myghelmasse to drye their heryng." _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Nunnery_, ed. A. Clark (E.E.T.S. 1905-11), pp. 102, etc. In the Crabhouse Register it is noted that a certain meadow is set aside so that "all the produce of the said meadow be forever granted for the vesture of the ten ladies who are oldest in religion of the whole house, so that each of the ten ladies receive yearly from the aforesaid meadow four shillings at the feast of St Margaret." _Op. cit._ p. 37. When Wothorpe was merged in St Michael's, Stamford, the diocesan stipulated that the proceeds of the priory and rectory of Wothorpe should be applied to the support of the infirmary and kitchen of St Michael's. Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.

[367] See, for instance, the payment of a yearly pension of five marks from the appropriated church of St Clement's for the clothing of the nuns of St Radegund's, Cambridge, and similar assignations of the income from appropriated churches at Studley, St Michael's Stamford, and Marrick. Gray, _Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, p. 27.

[368] See C. T. Flower, _loc. cit._, for an account of the Syon, Barking and Elstow accounts; also Blunt, _Myroure of Oure Ladye_, introd. pp. xxvi-xxxi, for Syon chambresses' and cellaresses' accounts (1536-7) and _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1261/4 for a Syon cellaress's account (1481-2). See _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/14 for a St Michael's Stamford chambress's account (1408-9).

[369] See below, Ch. VIII.

[370] Blunt, _op. cit._ pp. xxvi-xxviii.

[371] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 149, 165, 167.

[372] A barrel contained ten great hundreds of six score each.

[373] A cade contained six great hundreds of six score each.

[374] A warp was a parcel of four dried fish.

[375] Gray, _op. cit._ See the accounts, pp. 145-79 _passim_.

[376] _Ib._ pp. 10-11.

[377] _Catholicon Anglicum_, ed. S. J. Herrtage (E.E.T.S. 1881), p. 365.

[378] Blunt, _op. cit._ p. xxx. In 1481-2 their Lenten store included "saltfysshe," "stokfyssh," "white heryng," "rede haryng," "muddefissh," "lyng," "aburden," "Scarburgh fysshe," "salt samon," "salt elys," "oyle olyue" (34-3/4 gallons), a barrel of honey and figs. At other times this year the cellaress purchased beans (1 qr. 4 bushels), green peas (7 bushels), "grey" (i.e. dried) peas (4 bushels), "harreos" (3 bushels), oatmeal (2 qrs. 7 bushels), bread, wheat, malt, various animals for meat and to stock the farm, a kilderkin of good ale, 15 lbs. of almonds, 39 Essex cheeses, 111-1/2 gallons of butter, white salt and bay salt, also firewood and coals. _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1261/4.

[379] _Poems of John Skelton_, ed. W. H. Williams, pp. 107-8 (from "Colyn Cloute," ll. 210-13). For the curious custom of eating dried peas on the fifth Sunday in Lent, called Passion or Care Sunday, see Brand, _Observations On Popular Antiquities_ (1877 ed.), pp. 57 ff. In the north of England peas boiled on Care Sunday were called _carlings_. Compare the St Mary de Pre (St Albans) accounts (2-4 Hen. VII) "Item paid for ij busshell of pesyn departyd amongs the susters in Lente xvj d." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359, and the Barking cellaress' _Charthe_, below, Note A.

[380] See below, p. 568.

[381] Blunt, _op. cit._ pp. xxx-xxxi.

[382] Shakespeare, _Winter's Tale_, IV, ii, 38 sqq.

[383] For _sowce_, see below, p. 565.

[384] The weekly allowance of beer to each member was supposed to be seven gallons, four of the better sort and three weaker, but the amount varied from house to house. See _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 89 (note). The Syon nuns had water on certain days, but doubtless as a mortification of the flesh, for it was sometimes complained of as a hardship when nuns had to drink water. ("Item they say that they do not get their corrody (i.e. weekly allowance of bread and beer) at the due times, but it is sometimes omitted for a fortnight and sometimes for a month, so that the nuns, by reason of the non-payment of the corrody, drink water." _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 284.) The weekly allowance of bread was seven loaves. A note in the Register of Shaftesbury Abbey (15th century) which then numbered about 50 nuns and a large household, says: "Hit is to wytyng that me baketh and breweth by the wike in the Abbey of Shaftesbury atte leste weye xxxvj quarters whete and malt. And other while me baketh and breweth xlj quarters and ij bz. whete and malte." Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 473.

[385] Aungier, _op. cit._ pp. 393-4.

[386] See below, p. 568.

[387] They are diversely defined as pancakes, cheese cakes or custards, but they differed from our pancakes in being made in crusts. See the recipe in _Liber Cure Cocorum_ for flawns made with cheese:

Take new chese and grynde hyt fayre, In morter with egges, without dysware; Put powder therto of sugur, I say, Coloure hit with safrone ful wele thou may; Put hit in cofyns that ben fayre, And bake hit forthe, I the pray.

_Liber Cure Cocorum_, ed. Morris (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 39. A fifteenth century cookery book gives this recipe for _Flathouns in lente_: "Take and draw a thrifty Milke of Almandes; temper with Sugre Water; than take hardid cofyns [pie-crusts] and pore thin comad [mixture] theron; blaunch Almaundis hol and caste theron Pouder Gyngere, Canelle, Sugre, Salt and Safroun; bake hem and serue forth." _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, ed. T. Austen (E.E.T.S. 1888), p. 56.

[388] For Maundy Thursday, see Brand, _op. cit._ pp. 75-9. For the Barking Maundy see below, p. 568, for the St Mary de Pre Maundy see Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 359, and for the St Michael's, Stamford, Maundy, see _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260 _passim_. The nuns of St Radegund's owned certain lands in Madingley which were held by the Prior of Barnwell on payment of a rent of 2_s._ 3_d._, called "Maundy silver." Gray, _op. cit._ p. 146. Maundy money is still distributed at Magdalen College, Oxford.

[389] See below, p. 566, for the Barking pittances. The following extracts from one of the St Michael's, Stamford, accounts is typical of the rest: "Item paid for wassail 4_d._ ... paid to the convent on the Feast of St Michael and the dedication of the church 6_s._ Item paid for ... on All Saints Day and St Martin's Day 3_s._ Item paid for a pittance of pork on two occasions 6_s._ Item paid for fowls at Christmas for the convent 5_s._ 6_d._ Item paid for herrings on St Michael's Day for the poor 1_s._ 8_d._ Item paid for beer for the convent on Maundy Thursday (_Jour de Cene_) 10_d._ Item paid for bread and wafers on the same day 6_d._ Item paid for spices on the same day 3_s._ Item paid for herrings for the poor on the same day 1_s._ 8_d._ Item given to the poor on the same day 1_s._ 9_d._ Item for holy bread on Good Friday 2_d._ Item paid for _fflaunes_ 2_d._ Item paid for herrings on St Laurence's Day 9_d._" _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/11. At this convent "holy bread" was always brought for Good Friday, "flaunes" (or sometimes eggs, saffron and spices to make them) for Rogationtide, beer and spices on Maundy Thursday, herrings on St Lawrence's Day, and various money pittances were paid to the nuns from time to time for the _misericord_ of Corby and sometimes of Thurlby, the appropriated churches. On one occasion there is an entry "Paid to the convent for the misericord of Thurlby, to wit 28 fowls, 12 gallons of beer and mustard and a gift to the prioress 9_s._, paid to the convent for the misericord of Corby 9_s._, paid to the pittancer for a pittance from Thurlby throughout the year 14_s._ 4_d._" _Ib._ 1260/3. See an interesting list of pittances payable on forty different feasts throughout the year to the nuns of Lillechurch or Higham: they are either extra portions of food or special sorts of food, e.g. "crepis" on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, "flauns" on Easter Day and 12_d._ on St Radegund's Day. R. F. Scott, _Notes from the Records of St John's Coll. Cambridge_, 1st series (from _The Eagle_, 1893, vol. XVII, no. 101, pp. 5-7).

[390] For these prebendal canonries see Mr Hamilton Thompson's article on "Double Monasteries and the Male Element in Nunneries," in _The Ministry of Women, A Report by a Committee appointed by his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury_, app. VIII, pp. 150 _sqq._

[391] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 424.

[392] Walcott, M. E. C. _Inventories of ... the Priory of Minster in Shepey_ (_Arch. Cant._ 1869), p. 30. This house paid stipends to three chaplains, one being "curat of the Paryshe churche"; a "Vycar's chamber" is described among what are obviously outlying buildings. At Cheshunt the "Prestes Chamber" contained a feather bed, with sheets and coverlet and a "celer of blewe cloth," valued at 4_s._ 10_d._ Cussans, _Hist. of Herts. Hertford Hundred_, II, p. 70.

[393] Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, Prologue of the Nonne Prestes Tale, ll. 3998 ff.

[394] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 120-1, 123.

[395] _Valor. Eccles._ I, p. 397, IV, p. 220.

[396] _Ib._ I, p. 276.

[397] _Ib._ II, p. 109.

[398] _Ib._ III, p. 76.

[399] _Ib._ I, p. 106.

[400] _Ib._ V, pp. 43, 87, 94.

[401] _Ib._ I, p. 114.

[402] _Ib._ V, p. 206.

[403] _Ib._ I, p. 424, IV, p. 339.

[404] E.g. in the Sheppey inventory, after "the chamber over the Gate Howse called the Confessor's Chamber," comes "the Chamber next to that," "_the Steward's chamber_" (well furnished), "the next chamber to the same," "the chamber under the same," and "the Portar's Lodge," all evidently outside the cloister. Walcott, M. E. C. _op. cit._ p. 31.

[405] Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 163, 167, 173. Cf. pp. 156, 157, 158.

[406] Walcott, M. E. C. _op. cit._ pp. 30, 33.

[407] E.g. Brewood (Black Ladies). See Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 500.

[408] A Joan Key or Kay votes at the election of Joan Lancaster as prioress of St Radegund's in 1457 and is receiver-general, keeping the account in 1481-2. Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 38, 176.

[409] See, for instance, an item in the accounts of St Radegund's Cambridge: "Paid in a pittance for the convent ... at the month's mind of John Brown, lately bailiff there ... in accordance with his last will." Gray, _op. cit._ p. 151.

[410] _The Ministry of Women_, _loc. cit._ pp. 162-3. So in 1492 it is complained at Carrow "quod mali servientes Priorissae fecerunt magnum dampnum in bonis prioratus." Jessopp, _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_, p. 16.

[411] Chaucer, _Cant. Tales_, Prologue, ll. 597 ff.

[412] See, for instance, the Prioress of Marrick _v._ Simon Wayt, to give an account for the time when he was her bailiff in Fletham (1332); the Prioress of Molseby (Moxby) _v._ Lawrence de Dysceford, chaplain, to give an account of the time when he was bailiff of Joan de Barton, late Prioress of Molseby at Molseby (1330)--an interesting case of a chaplain

## acting as bailiff for a small and poor house; Idonia, Prioress of Appleton

_v._ John Boston of Leven for an account as bailiff and receiver in Holme (1413). _Notes on Relig. and Secular Houses of York_, ed. W. P. Baildon (Yorks. Arch. Soc. 1895), I, pp. 127, 139, 161. Visitation injunctions sometimes regulate the presentation of accounts by bailiffs and receivers, e.g. _Exeter Reg. Stapeldon_, p. 318, _V.C.H. Beds._ I, p. 356.

[413] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 67.

[414] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185. An illustration may be found in the Gracedieu rolls where on one occasion the nuns paid wages to the bailiff John de Northton, to his wife Joan, to his daughter Joan, to Philip de Northton (doubtless his son) and to Philip's wife Constance. _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10, ff. 203-5.

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

[416] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, pp. 658-9. Compare p. 662. The injunction that the head of the house should not appoint stewards, bailiffs or receivers without the consent of the major part of the convent was a common one; cf. _ib._ II, p. 652; Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 619.

[417] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 218-22 _passim_.

[418] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 229-30, 232.

[419] _Essays on Chaucer_, 2nd Series, VII (Chaucer Soc.), pp. 191-4; also in Dugdale, _Mon._ II, 456-7.

[420] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 158; cf. p. 174.

[421] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, 151.

[422] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 71_d._ The Bishop forbade them to keep more than the necessary servants and made the same injunction at Legbourne. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 187.

[423] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 57-8. Compare his injunction to Studley, _ib._ pp. 54-5. In 1306 every useless servant who was a burden to the impoverished house of Arden was to be removed within a week. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113. In 1326 the _custos_ of Minchin Barrow was told to remove the _onerosa familia_. _Reg. John of Drokensford_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), p. 242.

[424] _P.R.O. Suppression Papers_, 833/39.

[425] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 121, 131; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 6. At Ankerwyke Alnwick enjoined "that ye hafe an honeste woman seruaund in your kychyne, brewhowse and bakehowse, deyhowse and selere wythe an honeste damyselle wythe hire to saruf yowe and your sustres in thise saide offices, so that your saide sustres for occupacyone in any of the saide offices be ne letted fro diuine seruice." Compare the complaint of the nuns of Sheppey that they had no "covent servante" to wash their clothes and tend them when they were ill, unless they hired a woman from the village out of their own pockets. _E.H.R._ VI, pp. 33-4. The provision of a laundress was ordered at Nunappleton in 1534. _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 444.

[426] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 443.

[427] "Also she says that secular servingwomen do lie among the sisters in the dorter, and especially one who did buy a corrody there" (Heynings, 1440). _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 133. The Abbess of Malling in 1324 was forbidden to give a corrody to her maid. Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, p. 364.

[428] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 133.

[429] See below, pp. 395, 396.

[430] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 121. Alnwick notes "Amoueatur quedam francigena manens in prioratu propter vite inhonestatem, nam omnes admittit vniformiter ad concubitus suos"; and see his general injunction, _ib._ pp. 122, 125.

[431] _Ancren Riwle_, introd. Gasquet (King's Classics), p 287.

[432] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 7.

[433] _Ib._ f. 26_d_.

[434] _E.H.R._ VI, p. 33.

[435] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 101.

[436] _Ib._ p. 104. Compare Peckham's injunctions to Wherwell in 1284 "Et si quis inveniatur, serviens masculus aut femina, qui amaris responsionibus consueverit monialem aliquam vel aliquas molestare, nisi se monitione praemissa sufficienter corrigat in futurum, illico expellatur." _Reg. Epist. J. Peckham_, II, p. 654; also his injunctions to Barking and Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, _ib._ I, p. 85; II, p. 707. Also Thomas of Cantilupe's injunctions to Lingbrook, c. 1277. _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_, p. 202.

[437] _New Coll._ MS. f. 87_d_.

[438] Gray, _op. cit._ _passim_.

[439] "_Names of the Servants now in Wages by the yere._ Mr Oglestone, taking wages by the yere. Mr White, taking 26 s 8 d by the yere and lyvere. John Coks, butler, lyvere, xxvi s viij d, whereof to pay 1 quarter and lyvere. Alyn Sowthe bayly, taking by yere for closure and hys servant 6 l 13 s 4 d and two lyveryes. Jhon Mustarde 20 s a kowes pasture and a lyvere. William Rowet, carpentar, 40 s and lyvere. Richard Gyllys 26 s 8 d and lyvere. The carter 33 s 4 d and no lyvere. Thomas Thressher by yere 33 s 4 d and no lyvere. Robert Dawton by yere 33 s 4 d and no lyvere. The kowherd for kepyng of the kene and hoggys by yere 30 s and no lyvere. Jhon Hartnar by yere 28 s and no lyvere. Robard Welshe, brewer, by yere 20 s and no lyvere. A thatcher 33 s 4 d, a hose cloth and no lyvere. William Nycolls 20 s and no lyvere. Jhon Andrew 22 s 4 d and no lyverye. Jhon Putsawe 13 s 4 d and a shyrt redy made. George Myllar 21 s 8 d and no lyverye. Robert Rychard, horse keper, 20 s and no liverye. Jhon Harryes, Frencheman, 13 s 4 d, a shyrt and no lyverye. Jhon Gyles the shepherd, 14 s, a payre of hoses, a payre of shoys and no lyverye. Richard Gladwyn for to make malte, 26 s 8 d by yere, he hath ben here 8 wekes, and no lyverye. Dorothe Sowthe, the baylyffe wyfe, owing for a yere's wages at 40 s by yere and no liverye. Ales Barkar 13 s 4 d and lyvere. Also Sykkers 13 s 4 d and lyverye. Gladwyn's wyfe 13 s 4 d and lyverye. Ellyn at my ladyes lyndyng. Emme Cawket 12 s and lyvere. Rose Salmon 12 s, she hath been here a month. Marget Lambard 13 s 4 d and lyvere. Sir Jhon Lorymer, curat of the Parysche churche, 3 l 16 s 8 d and no lyvere. Sir Jhon Ingram, chaplen, 3 l 3 s 3 d and no lyvere. Jhon Gayton shepard 53 s 4 d and no lyvere. Jhon Pelland 20 s and no lyverye. Jhon Marchant 13 s 4 d and pasture for 40 shepe and no lyverye. Jhon Helman 16 s and 10 shepes pasture and no lyverye. Jhon Cannyng shepard by yere 20 s and no lyverye." Walcott, E. C. M. _op. cit._ pp. 33-4.

[440] _Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries_, ed. Thomas Wright (Camden Soc. 1843), p. 140.

[441] _Essays on Chaucer_, 2nd Series (Chaucer Soc.), p. 189.

[442] Savine, _English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution_ (Oxford Hist. Studies, ed. Vinogradoff, I, pp. 221-2). See also above, Ch. I, pp. 2-3.

[443] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 436. In 1442 its numbers (which should have been fourteen) had sunk to seven and it was six marks in debt (_Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 38). The clear annual value of the house in the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ was only L5. 19_s._ 8-1/2_d._ Compare the case of Heynings, whose founder, Sir John Darcy, had also died without completing its endowment. _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.

[444] Fuller, _Church History_, III, p. 332. Its net income at the Dissolution was L1329. 1_s._ 3_d._ Compare _The Italian Relation of England_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 40-1.

[445] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 1, 49, 117, 119, 130, 133, 175, 184; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 6_d_, 38, 83.

[446] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.

[447] The Prioress of Ankerwyke also claimed to have reduced the debt from 300 marks to L40, but one of the nuns said that it had been only L30 on her installation and that it had not been paid by the Prioress but from other sources. _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 1, 3.

[448] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260 _passim_.

[449] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/1. It should, however, be noted that some of the items which go to make up the total of the debts are sums of money owing to members of the convent (e.g. the Prioress and Subprioress) by the treasuresses, though the sums owing to outsiders are larger.

[450] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1257/10 ff. 34 and 34_d_, 39_d_. Similarly the Prioress's account of Delapre for 4 Henry VIII contains a long list of debts. _St Paul's Ecclesiological Soc._ VII (1912), p. 52. An analysis of Archbishop Eudes Rigaud's visitations of nunneries in the Diocese of Rouen gives even more startling information on this point; all but four of the fourteen houses show a list of debts growing heavier year by year and this was in the thirteenth century (1249-69). See _Reg. Visit. Archiep. Rothomag._ ed. Bonnin _passim_.

[451] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 88.

[452] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73.

[453] _Cal. of Papal Petit._ I, pp. 56, 122, 230.

[454] For other cases of debt, in different centuries, see _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 124, 161, 163-4, 188, 239, 240; _Reg. Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 148; _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, pp. 78, 104; _V.C.H. Essex_, p. 122; _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43; _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 351; _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150; _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 355; _Visit. of Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 108, 109; _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 284-5; _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, p. 25; _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 7.

[455] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 186.

[456] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 157.

[457] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 92.

[458] _The Knights Hospitallers in England_ (Camden Soc.), p. 20.

[459] _V.C.H. Worcs._ II, pp. 157-8.

[460] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 285.

[461] See below, p. 340.

[462] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177.

[463] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 133. The account book of Gracedieu (1414-8) contains entries of money paid by William Roby "for the clothes of his relation Dame Agnes Roby" and at another time by Margaret Roby for the same purpose (6_s._ 8_d._). Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_, p. 170.

[464] _Lincoln Diocese Documents_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 57.

[465] It is amusing to notice the indignation of the nuns when their beer was not strong enough. See e.g. _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 72; _Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 209; _Yorks. Archaeol. Journal_, XVI, p. 443.

[466] Dugdale, _Mon._ V, pp. 493-4.

[467] When little Elizabeth Sewardby was boarding in Nunmonkton she had ten pairs in eighteen months! _Test. Ebor._ III, p. 168.

[468] _Reg. of Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8.

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

[470] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 5. This lack of bedclothes for the younger nuns was partly due to the fact that the Prioress did not want them to sleep in the dorter, for Thomasine adds "and when my lord had commanded this deponent to lie in the dorter and this deponent asked bedclothes of the Prioress, she said chidingly to her 'Let him who gave you leave to lie in the dorter supply you with raiment.'" Mr Hamilton Thompson thinks that "probably sister Thomasine had previously been lodged separately with the other younger nuns and the Prioress and elders objected to the crowding of the dorter." But poverty was the main cause, for at a later visitation the Prioress stated that she was unable to supply the sisters with sufficient raiment for their habits "because of the poverty and insufficiency of the resources of the house." _Ib._ p. 7.

[471] The same injunction was sent to Wherwell. _Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), II, pp. 651, 659-60.

[472] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 103.

[473] _New Coll._ MS. f. 86_d_.

[474] _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 290-2. Cf. the complaint of the nuns of Studley in 1530: "They be oftentymes served with beffe and no moton upon Thursday at nyght and Sondays at nyght and be served oftentymes with new ale and not hulsome." _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 78.

[475] Other houses in the diocese of Norwich which complained of bad food were Flixton (1520) and Carrow (1492, 1514, 1526). Carrow was one of the most famous nunneries in England, but in 1492 one of the Bishop's _comperta_ ran: "That the present sisters are restricted to eight loaves, and this is very little for ten sisters, for the whole day. Item there is often a lack of bread in the house, contrary to the good repute of the place." See _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_, pp. 16-17, 145, 185-6, 209.

[476] _Reliquiae Antiquae_, I, p. 291. Translated in Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, p. 597.

[477] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 135. The belfry of St Radegund's, Cambridge, fell down and injured the church in 1277. Gray, _Hist. of the Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge_, pp. 37-8; cf. p. 79. That of Esholt fell in 1445. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 161.

[478] _Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery_ (_Norfolk Archaeology_, XI, 1892), pp. 61, 62.

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

[480] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 32.

[481] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 217.

[482] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 129-31 _passim_. For another complaint that tenements and leasehold houses belonging to a priory were ruinous and like to fall down, through the negligence of the prioress and bailiff, see the case of Legbourne in 1440. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185.

[483] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 87_d_-88. He ordered the Abbess to repair defects at once out of the common goods of the house. Better still, he would seem to have assisted them from his own pocket to carry out the injunction, for by his will (1402) he remitted to them a debt of L40, for the repair of their church and cloister. Nicolas, _Testamenta Vetusta_, II, p. 708.

[484] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 124, 168, 174, 181, 183, 188, 240; Yedingham and Esholt (_ib._ pp. 128, 161) and St Mary, Neasham (_V.C.H. Durham_, II, p. 107) needed repair in the middle of the fifteenth century.

[485] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 23; V, pp. 256, 258.

[486] _Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 107-8, 109, 261, 311.

[487] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 52, 54, 59.

[488] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 104. A few out of many other references to ruinous buildings may be given here. Easebourne (1411). _Bishop Rede's Reg._ p. 137. Polsloe (1319). _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon of Exeter_, p. 318. Delapre (Northampton) (1303), Wothorpe (1292), Rothwell (fourteenth century), Catesby (1301, 1312). _V.C.H. Northants._ II, pp. 101, 114, 138, 123. Rowney (1431). _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 435-6. St Radegund's Cambridge. Gray, _op. cit._ pp. 36-8, 79. St Clare without Aldgate (1290). _Ely Epis. Records_, ed. Gibbons, p. 415. St Mary's Winchester (1343-52). _Cal. of Pap. Pet._ I, pp. 56, 122, 230.

[489] Perhaps in the same way that a fire broke out at Sempringham in the lifetime of St Gilbert. "A nun, bearing a light through the kitchen by night, fixed a part of a burnt candle to another she was going to burn, so that both were alight at once. But when the part fixed on to the other was almost consumed, it fell on the floor, on which much straw was collected, ready for a fire. The nun did not heed it, and believing that the fire would go out by itself, she went away and shut the door. But the flame, finding food, first devoured the straw lying close by, then the whole house with the adjacent offices and their contents, whence a great loss happened to the church." Quoted from MS. Cott. _Cleop. B._ I, f. 77 by R. Graham, _St Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines_, p. 135. It will be remembered that the author of the thirteenth century treatise, called "Seneschaucie," is most careful to declare that ploughmen, waggoners and cowherds must not carry fire into the byres, stables and cowhouse, either for light or to warm themselves, "unless the candle be in a lantern and this for great need and then it must be carried and watched by another than himself." _Walter of Henley's Husbandry_, ed. E. Lamond (1890), p. 113.

[490] _Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery u.s._ p. 61.

[491] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 328. See also _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 426.

[492] _V.C.H. Herts._ _loc. cit._

[493] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1296-1302, p. 238.

[494] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 183.

[495] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79.

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

[497] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 485.

[498] Wood, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, I, p. 35.

[499] _Reg. of John of Drokensford_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), p. 227. Text in Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of Somerset: Whitehall in Ilchester_, p. 78. But seven years before they had been begging, according to the Bishop, by the compulsion of this expelled prioress, whose case was _sub judice_. _Reg._ p. 115 and Hugo, _loc. cit._

[500] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Rec. Soc.), pp. 112-3.

[501] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 145.

[502] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 427.

[503] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 137.

[504] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 434-5. The text of their petition is as follows: "A tres reverend pier en dieu, mon treshonure seigneur le chaunceller dengleterre, suppliant voz pouers oratrices la prioresse et les noneyns de Rowney en le countee de ... qe come lour esglise et autres mesons sont en poynt de cheyer a terre pur defaute de reparacion et ils nount dont lez reparailler, si noun dalmoigne de bones gens, qe plese a vostre treshonure seignurie de vostre grace eux granter vn patent pur vn lour procuratour, de aler en la paiis a coiller almoigns de bones gentz pur la sustenance et releuacioun du dit pouere mesoun et en noun de charite." _P.R.O. Ancient Petitions_, 302/15063.

[505] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 358.

[506] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. Another licence in 1459.

[507] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 137.

[508] _Ib._ pp. 100, 126.

[509] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 374. (_Pro monialibus de Rowell._) It is surprising, however, that Peckham, in his constitution forbidding nuns to be absent from their convents for longer than three, or at the most six, days, adds: "We do not extend this ordinance to those nuns who are forced to beg their necessities outside, while they are begging." Wilkins, _Concilia_, II, p. 59. It is certain that the nuns did beg in their own persons. When Archbishop Eudes Rigaud visited St-Aubin in 1261 he ordered that the younger nuns should not be sent out to beg (_pro questu_); and in 1263 two of them were absent in France, seeking alms. _Reg. Visit. Archiepiscopi Rothomagensis_, ed. Bonnin, pp. 412, 471.

[510] On this subject see an interesting article by C. Wordsworth, "On some Pardons or Indulgences preserved in Yorkshire 1412-1527" (_Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 369 ff.).

[511] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 426, 432.

[512] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, pp. 114, 123, 116.

[513] _V.C.H. Bucks._ I, p. 353.

[514] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 157.

[515] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, ff. 96_d_, 244_d_.

[516] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 115, 128, 161.

[517] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 393; V, p. 373.

[518] Except where otherwise stated the following references all occur in Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79 and are printed in full in R. Willis, _Architectural Hist. of the Univ. of Cambridge_, ed. J. Willis Clark (1886), II, pp. 183-6.

[519] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 96_d_.

[520] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 36.

[521] _Ib._ pp. 37-8.

[522] A few other references may be given: Bishop Fordham of Ely for Rowney (1408) and Bishop Alcock of Ely for the Minories (1490). Gibbons, _Ely Epis. Records_, pp. 406, 414. Bishop Sutton of Lincoln to Wothorpe (1292). _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 114.

[523] _V.C.H. Wilts._ II, p. 77.

[524] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 119. References to this occur in 1380, 1382, 1384, 1392, 1402 and 1409.

[525] Gibbons, _Ely Epis. Records_, p. 399.

[526] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. Cf. Thetford. _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 355.

[527] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 161.

[528] _Ib._ p. 124.

[529] _V.C.H. Wilts._ II, p. 77. The reference is perhaps to the famous storm of St Maur's Day, 1362, which, together with the Black Death, is commemorated in a _graffito_ in the church of Ashwell (Herts.) and in a distich quoted by Adam Murimuth

C ter erant mille, decies sex unus et ille. Luce tua Maure, vehemens fuit impetus aurae. Ecce flat hoc anno, Maurus in orbe tonans.

[530] Gray, _op. cit._ p. 79.

[531] _Bishop Rede's Reg._ (Sussex Rec. Soc.), p. 137.

[532] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347.

[533] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 301.

[534] The following account of medieval plagues and famines is taken mainly from Creighton, _Hist. of Epidemics in Britain_, I, pp. 202-7, 215-223. See also Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, pp. 91-105.

[535] Creighton, _op. cit._ I, p. 19.

[536] Denton, _op. cit._ p. 93.

[537] _Ib._ p. 93 _sqq._

[538] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150. He attributed their condition to negligence and bad administration.

[539] _P.R.O. Ancient Correspondence_, XXXVI, no. 201.

[540] _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43. See below, p. 200.

[541] See P. G. Mode, _The Influence of the Black Death on the English Monasteries_ (Univ. of Chicago, 1916), _passim_.

[542] Dugdale. _Mon._ IV, p. 268.

[543] A. Hamilton Thompson, _Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln for the years 1347-1350_ (reprinted from _Archaeol. Journ._ LXVIII, pp. 301-360, 1912), p. 328.

[544] _Ib._ pp. 359-60.

[545] A. Hamilton Thompson, _The Pestilences of the Fourteenth Century in the Diocese of York_ (reprinted from _Archaeol. Journ._ LXXI, pp. 97-154, 1914), pp. 121-2.

[546] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, pp. 364, 375.

[547] _V.C.H. Warwick._ II, p. 65.

[548] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 116.

[549] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 146.

[550] _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, p. 230.

[551] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1364, pp. 21, 485.

[552] Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, p. 37.

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

[554] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 301. Their petition had been presented in 1380. _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 433.

[555] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, IV, p. 521.

[556] _Bishop Rede's Reg._ p. 137.

[557] _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 335.

[558] _Rot. Parl._ III, p. 129 and Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 485.

[559] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77.

[560] _Visit. of Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 155.

[561] _V.C.H. Glouc._ II, p. 93.

[562] On other occasions, however, they were careful to take all their due. _Vide_ the great Bishop Grandisson's letter to the abbess and convent of Canonsleigh, announcing his forthcoming visitation and "mandantes quod in illum eventum de procuracione ea occasione nobis debita providere curetis in pecunia numerata." _Reg. of Bishop Grandisson_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, pt II, p. 767. At Davington in 1511 the Prioress deposed that "the house has to pay 20_s._ to the Archbishop for board at the time of his visitation." _E.H.R._ VI, p. 28.

[563] _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, p. 299.

[564] _Reg. Rich. de Swinfield_ (Cantilupe Soc.), p. 366. Other cases of excommunication are sometimes to be found in Bishops' Registers, e.g. in 1335 the Prioresses of Cokehill and Brewood were excommunicated for failure to pay the tenth; one owed 9-1/2_d._ and the other 1_s._ 8-1/4_d._--paltry sums for which to damn a poor nun's soul! _Reg. Thomas de Charlton_ (Cantilupe Soc.), p. 57.

[565] _Reg. John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc.), I, p. 159.

[566] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), p. 62. Cf. remission of tithes by Bishop Dalderby to Greenfield, because of its poverty. _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 155. Some Cistercian houses held papal bulls exempting them from the payment of tithes, e.g. Sinningthwaite and Swine. Dugdale, _Mon._ V, pp. 463, 494.

[567] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 288.

[568] For a few out of many instances of remission of payment on account of poverty see Ivinghoe, Little Marlow, Burnham (_V.C.H. Bucks._ I, pp. 353, 358, 382); Cheshunt (_V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 426-7); Stixwould, Heynings, Greenfield, Fosse, St Leonard's Grimsby (_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp. 122, 147, 149, 155, 157, 179); Catesby (_V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 122); Ickleton, Swaffham, Chatteris, St Radegund's Cambridge (Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 439); Malling (_Ib._ III, p. 382); St Mary Magdalen's Bristol (_V.C.H. Glouc._ II, p. 93); Minchin Barrow (Hugo, _op. cit._ p. 108); Blackborough (_V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 351); Arden (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113); Nunkeeling and Nunappleton (_Reg. John le Romeyn_, I, pp. 140, 234); Wintney (_V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150).

[569] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347. Compare the case of the hospital of St James of Canterbury which "grievoussement ad estez chargez pur diverse contribucions faitz au Roy entre les laiz, ou les biens ... ne sufficent mye ala sustinaunce de la Priouresse et les seoures." _Hist. MSS. Comm. Report_, IX, p. 87.

[570] _Cal. of Pat. Rolls_, 1467-77, pp. 138, 587.

[571] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 472. Cf. p. 328.

[572] _Ib._ p. 473. Cf. _Parl. Writs_ (Rec. Comm.), II, div. 3, 1424.

[573] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1339-41, pp. 215, 217.

[574] On this subject see Rose Graham, _St Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines_, pp. 90-2.

[575] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1307-13, p. 50. Compare the entry in the treasuresses' account of St Michael's, Stamford, for 1392-3. "Item done en curtasy a le Balyf de Roy quant nostre carre fuist areste al seruice del roy viijd." _P.R.O. Ministers' Accounts_, 1260/10.

[576] _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1307-13, pp. 262-6, _passim_.

[577] For instance in 1275 the King granted the custody of Barking Abbey, void and in his hands, to his mother, Queen Eleanor. _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1272-9, p. 210.

[578] _Reg. Sede Vacante_ (Worc. Rec. Soc.), pp. 112-3. Compare the petition of St Mary's Chester to Queen Eleanor, p. 172 above.

[579] See above, p. 182.

[580] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 485 and _Rot. Parl._ III, p. 129. The petition was granted, but the nuns seem to have shown themselves unworthy of the royal clemency, for, after the death of Abbess Joan Furmage in 1394, the King was forced to abrogate the grant, because by fraudulent means an election had been obtained of an unfit person, who, with the object of securing confirmation, had repaired with an excessive number of men to places remote, to the waste and desolation of the convent. _Cal. of Pat. Rolls_, 1391-6, p. 511.

[581] _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, pp. 56-7.

[582] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 189 and _ib._ (1333-7), pp. 70-1; cf. _ib._ (1307-13), p. 1 and _ib._ (1323-7), p. 252 and _ib._ (1349-54), p. 29.

[583] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1339-41), p. 377.

[584] _Ib._ (1343-6), pp. 407-8. Cf. p. 418.

[585] _Ib._ (1343-6), p. 599. The profits during vacancy were similarly remitted to Godstow in 1385 "because of its poverty and misfortunes" (_V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73).

[586] _Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 40-1, 56-7, 189-90, 356-7, 366-7, 577.

[587] _Reg. of ... Rigaud de Asserio_ (Hants. Rec. Soc.), pp. 387, 388, 394-5. Compare nominations of John de Pontoise. _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, pp. 240, 241, 252 and of William of Wykeham, _Wykeham's Reg._ (Hants. Rec. Soc.), II, pp. 60, 61.

[588] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 26, 39, 146.

[589] _Reg. ... Stephani de Gravesend_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), p. 200.

[590] Dugdale, _Mon._ II, p. 473 and _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 75.

[591] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 97-8 and _Wykeham's Reg._ II, pp. 461-2.

[592] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 98.

[593] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1307-8), pp. 48, 53, 134.

[594] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 117.

[595] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, pp. 76-7.

[596] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1318-23), p. 517. She was still unadmitted in 1327, when the order was repeated. _Ib._ (1327-30), p. 204.

[597] _Ib._ (1333-7), p. 175.

[598] _Ib._ (1343-6), p. 604.

[599] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 99, and in the Register of Bishop Norbury of Lichfield there is a certificate (dated 1358) of "having admitted, twenty years ago, _thirty_ nuns at Nuneaton at the request of the patron, the E. of Lancaster," Will Salt Arch. Soc. Coll. I, p. 286. Perhaps there is a clerical error.

[600] _Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 189-90.

[601] _Ib._ I, pp. 356-7. The reference to "distinguished friends and benefactors" is interesting, because she was the daughter of Robert Bret, "_civis London._"

[602] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 366-7. The assertion that the convent was required to receive Isabel "without burden to themselves by the provision of the parents of the said little maid" is interesting, partly because it suggests that the royal and episcopal nominees were not always received at a loss, partly because it looks suspiciously like a condonation of the dowry system by an otherwise strict disciplinarian.

[603] Sharpe, _Cal. of Wills_, I, p. 111.

[604] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 56-7.

[605] _Ib._ II, p. 704.

[606] An Agnes Turberville was sent by the King to Shaftesbury in 1345. _Cal. of Close Rolls_, 1343-6, p. 604.

[607] _Reg. of Bishop Grandisson_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, I, pp. 213-4.

[608] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 222-3. Does the Bishop mean that he will help to provide a dowry for Johanete out of his private purse, in another religious house?

[609] See below, p. 452.

[610] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 210. A few months later, however, Richard de Ayreminn was sent on the same pretext (p. 312).

[611] _Op. cit._ (1333-7), p. 175.

[612] _Op. cit._ (1349-54), p. 82.

[613] _Op. cit._ (1339-41), p. 466.

[614] _Op. cit._ (1337-9), p. 286.

[615] _Op. cit._ (1343-6), p. 652.

[616] _Op. cit._ (1318-23), p. 517; (1343-6), p. 475.

[617] _Op. cit._ (1327-30), p. 366.

[618] _Op. cit._ (1313-8), p. 611; (1327-30), p. 564; (1341-3), p. 133.

[619] See below. For the prebendal stalls in the churches of five of these abbeys (Romsey, Wherwell, St Mary's Winchester, Shaftesbury and Wilton), see above, p. 144.

[620] _Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), I, pp. 243-4, 300-1, 315-6.

[621] _Reg. Simonis de Gandavo_ (Cant. and York. Soc.), pp. 2-3.

[622] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Report_, IV, p. 329.

[623] _Rot. Parl._ I, p. 381. John de Houton, clerk, had been sent to Elstow in 1318 (_Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1318-23), p. 119).

[624] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 611.

[625] _Op. cit._ (1307-13), pp. 581-2.

[626] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1313-8), p. 437. The avenere was an officer of the household who had the charge of supplying provisions for the horses. See _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (Camden Soc.), I, p. 19, n. 2.

[627] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1327-30), p. 393.

[628] _Ib._ p. 523.

[629] _Ib._ pp. 396, 534.

[630] _Rot. Parl._ II, pp. 381-2. Letters patent were duly sent to Barking bidding them admit Agnes, on Nov. 6th, 1331. _Cal. of Patent Rolls_ (1330-3), p. 407.

[631] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 117.

[632] _Cal. of Close Rolls_ (1307-13), p. 267.

[633] _Op. cit._ (1318-23), p. 117.

[634] _Op. cit._ (1307-13), p. 328. She was the niece of John de London, late the King's escheator south of Trent.

[635] _Loc. cit._

[636] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 129.

[637] _Ib._ p. 237.

[638] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 83. The Taxation of Pope Nicholas mentions a pension due to the Abbot of York of L3 for the church of Corby, which was appropriated to the nuns, and for other tithes elsewhere. The sum of L3 is occasionally mentioned in the account rolls of St Michael's, Stamford, as having been paid to "our Lady of York," or as being still due.

[639] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, pp. 256 ff. Payments to the abbot and to other officiaries of Peterborough also occur very frequently in the conventual accounts.

[640] See above, p. 180. Compare the case of St Mary's, Winchester, where the nuns complained in 1468 that they were so burdened, that they could not fulfil the obligations of their order as to hospitality. _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 123-4. The difficulty of keeping up the accustomed hospitality was one of the reasons for annexing Wothorpe to St Michael's, Stamford, after the Black Death. Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 268.

[641] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347. Compare Gynewell's injunction in 1351: "E vous, Prioresse, chastiez les soers qils ne acuillent mie trop souent lour amys en la Priorie, a costage e damage de dit mesoun." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 34_d_.

[642] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 117, 171, 172, 239. On the subject of abuse of monastic hospitality, see Jusserand, _English Wayfaring Life_, p. 121. Edward I forbade anyone to eat or lodge in a religious house, unless the superior had invited him or that he were its founder, and even then his consumption was to be moderate.

[643] Pope Boniface VIII's edict for the stricter enclosure of nuns contained a clause warning secular lords against summoning nuns to attend in person at the law courts; they were to act through their proctors (see version promulgated by Simon of Ghent, Bishop of Salisbury in 1299. _Reg. Simonis de Gandavo_ [Cant. and York Soc.], p. 11). The heads of the larger houses often did act through proctors, but less wealthy convents usually sent the head or one of the other nuns in person. See Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, pp. 362-3.

[644] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 360.

[645] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 104. Compare a long lawsuit waged by Carrow Priory. Rye, _Carrow Abbey_, App. p. xxi.

[646] _P.R.O. Mins. Accts._ 1260/4. Compare the amusing account of how the Prior of Barnwell secured a favourable judgment from the itinerant justices. "Ipsis eciam justiciariis dedit herbagium alicui tres acras et alicui quatuor, et exennia panis, ceruisie et vini frequenter, in tantum quod in recessu suo omnes tam justiciarii quam clerici, seruientes et precones, gracias uberes referebant, et ipsi Priori (et) canonicis se et sua obligabant." _Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle_, ed. J. Willis Clark (1907), p. 171.

[647] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 150.

[648] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164. The "misrule of past presidents" is mentioned as a contributory cause of distress at Lilleshall (1351), St Mary's Winchester (1364) and Tarrant (1366). _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1351, p. 177; 1364, p. 485; 1366, p. 239.

[649] _E.H.R._ VI, p. 28.

[650] Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, I, p. 362.

[651] _Ib._ I, p. 364.

[652] _Ib._ I, p. 377.

[653] Gasquet, however, mistakenly attributes its state entirely to the plague. _The Great Pestilence_, p. 106.

[654] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 39_d_, 83, 96.

[655] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 185.

[656] _Ib._ II, p. 114.

[657] _Ib._ II, p. 133.

[658] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 72.

[659] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 130, 131.

[660] _Ib._ II, p. 175.

[661] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 159.

[662] _Ib._ p. 174.

[663] _Ib._ p. 164.

[664] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 7.

[665] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 353.

[666] It must be understood that the judicious sale of corrodies was not necessarily harmful to a house. Sometimes it might lead to the acquisition of land or rents at comparatively little expense to the convent, as a glance at some of the charters in the English Register of Godstow Abbey will show. See _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Abbey_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. xxvii-xxviii. The convent probably drove a good bargain when in 1230 the harassed Stephen, son of Waryn the miller of Oxford, conveyed all his Oxford property to Godstow "and for this graunte, & cetera, the forsaid mynchons yaf to them to ther grete nede, that is to sey, to aquyte hym of the jewry and otherwise where he was endited, X markes of siluer in warison. And furthermore they graunted to hym and to hys wyf molde, with ther seruant to serve them while they lived, two corrodies of ij mynchons and a corrodye of one seruant to their systeynynge" (_op. cit._ p. 392). Nor was there much harm in grants for a term of years, such as the grant of board and lodging made by the convent of Nunappleton in 1301 to Richard de Fauconberg, in return for certain lands bringing in an annual rent of two marks of silver, both the corrody and the tenure of these lands being for a term of twelve years. Dugdale, _Mon._ V, p. 653. Sometimes, again, corrodies were granted in return for specified services; in 1270 Richard Grene of Cassington surrendered 5-1/2 acres of arable and 2 roods of meadow land to Godstow in return for "the seruyce under the porter for ever at the yate of Godestowe and j half mark in the name of his wagis yerely." _Eng. Reg. of Godstow_, p. 305. At Yedingham in 1352 an interesting grant of a _corrodium moniale_ was made to one Emma Hart, who, in return for a sum of money, was given the position of deye or dairy woman; she was to have the same food-allowance as a nun and a share in all their small pittances, and a building called "le chesehouse" with a solar and cellar to inhabit and was allowed to keep ten sheep and ten ewes at the convent's charge. In return she was to do the dairy-work and when too old to work any longer the convent engaged to grant her a place in "le sisterhouse." _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 128. Sometimes also corrodies were granted by way of pensioning off old servants, as when, in 1529, the nuns of Arden granted one to their chaplain "for the gud and diligent seruice yt oure wellbeloued sir Thomas parkynson, preste, hav done to vs in tyme paste." _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 115. To corrodies such as these there was little objection (though the last might lead to financial loss). The danger came from life-grants in return for an inadequate sum of ready money.

[667] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 115.

[668] She received 68_s._ 4_d._ in part payment for the commutation of the corrody.

[669] Jessopp, _Frivola_, pp. 55-6.

[670] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 175.

[671] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 71_d_.

[672] _Visit. of the Diocese of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), pp. 243, 303-4. There is in the Record Office a petition to the Chancellor from Richard Englyssh and Marjorie his wife, setting out that the Bishop of Rochester had granted Marjorie for life a corrody in Malling Abbey of seven loaves and four gallons of convent ale and three pence for cooked food weekly, which corrody she and her husband had held for some time, but that now the abbess and convent withheld it. Evidently it was a burden to the house, but it is not clear whether the bishop had forced a corrodian on the nuns, or had merely confirmed a grant by them. _P.R.O. Early Chanc. Proc._ 4/196.

[673] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 58.

[674] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 554. He had once before ordered the holders of corrodies there to display their grants, that it might be known whether they had fulfilled the services due from them. _V.C.H. London_, I, p. 459.

[675] The appropriation was confirmed by the Pope in 1401. _Cal. of Papal Letters_, V, p. 347. In 1440 Bishop Alnwick made an injunction at Heynings against the granting of corrodies. _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 135.

[676] See below, pp. 225-6.

[677] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ IX, p. 25.

[678] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 516.

[679] See below, pp. 225-6.

[680] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.

[681] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 175.

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

[683] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 146; _Cal. of Papal Petitions_, I, p. 122. At Studley in 1530 it was found that the woods of the priory had been much diminished by the late prioress and by "Thomas Cardinal of York for the construction of his college in the university of Oxford." _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 78.

[684] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 120.

[685] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 147.

[686] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, pp. 58-9.

[687] _V.C.H. Durham_, II, p. 107.

[688] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177.

[689] _Test. Ebor._ I, pp. 283-4.

[690] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 506, note _b_.

[691] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 19.

[692] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 76.

[693] See above, p. 153.

[694] See Ch. IV.

[695] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 71.

[696] _Reg. of Archbishop William Wickwane_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 113.

[697] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 98. Similarly Bishop Edyndon wrote in 1346 and again in 1363 to St Mary's Winchester, Wherwell and Romsey, forbidding them to take a greater number of nuns than was anciently accustomed or than could be sustained by them without penury. _Ib._ p. 165.

[698] _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77. Nevertheless at Romsey and at Shaftesbury the King and the Bishop himself continued to "dump" nuns, in accordance with their prerogative right, throughout the career of both houses. In the six years following this prohibition of 1326 Bishop Stratford not only gave permission for a novice to be received at the nuns' own request, but deposited no less than three there himself. The words and the actions of bishops sometimes tallied ill.

[699] See _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 120, 124, 161, 163, 171-2, 188; _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 148; _Reg. of Archbishop Wickwane_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 112, 113, 140-1.

[700] _Reg. Giffard_, _loc. cit._

[701] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 117.

[702] _Ib._ III, p. 163. The house was heavily in debt at the time and though the Bishop had forbidden the granting of corrodies and liveries without leave, the Prioress was also charged with having "sold or granted corrodies very burdensome to the house."

[703] Heynings, Ankerwyke, Legbourne, Nuncoton, St Michael's Stamford, Gracedieu, Langley.

[704] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 134.

[705] _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 71_d_, 77_d_.

[706] It would be interesting to collect statistics as to the relative size of different nunneries at different periods. It is here possible to give only a few examples of the decline in the number of inmates. The numbers at Nuneaton varied as follows: 93 (1234), 80 (1328), 46 (1370), 40 (1459), 23 (1539). (_V.C.H. Warwick._ II, pp. 66-9.) At Romsey (where the statutory number was supposed to be 100) as follows: 91 (1333) and 26 (from 1478 to the Dissolution). (Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, _passim_.) At Shaftesbury as follows: forbidden to receive more than 100 in 1218 and in 1322; number fixed at 120 in 1326; between 50-57 (from 1441 to the Dissolution). _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 77.

[707] _New Coll._ MS. f. 55_d_.

[708] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 53.

[709] _Archaeologia_, XLVII, p. 55.

[710] _E.H.R._ VI, pp. 33-4. From the fact that the Prioress was ordered to make up the number again to fourteen, as soon as she conveniently could, it appears that the ten nuns who gave evidence before the Archbishop represented the full strength of the house.

[711] A few out of many specific instances may be given: Wroxall 1323 (_V.C.H. Warwick._ II, p. 71); Polesworth 1456 (_ib._ p. 63); Fairwell 1367 (_Reg. of Bishop Stretton_, p. 119); Romsey 1302 (_Reg. Johannis de Pontissara_ Cant. and York. Soc. p. 127); Moxby 1318 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239); Nuncoton 1531 (_Arch._ XLVII, p. 58); Sinningthwaite 1534 (_Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 441).

[712] See above, pp. 64-5.

[713] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50.

[714] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 188.

[715] _Ib._ III, p. 177.

[716] E.g. Clemence Medforde at Ankerwyke in 1441 and Eleanor of Arden in 1396. See above, pp. 81, 85.

[717] Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 100-101.

[718] _New Coll._ MS. f. 88_d_.

[719] See above, p. 204.

[720] _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 318.

[721] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 99-100.

[722] _Ib._ pp. 102-3.

[723] _New Coll._ MS. f. 87. In 1492, at the visitation by Archbishop Morton's commissioners, a nun prays that injunctions be made to the sisters and abbess that they choose no one as auditor without consulting the Archbishop of Canterbury. Liveing, _op. cit._ pp. 218-9.

[724] For other mentions of the rendering of accounts by bailiffs, officiaries, etc. see Arden 1306 and Arthington 1315 (_V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 188), Fairwell 1367 (_Reg. of Robert de Stretton_, p. 119), Elstow 1422 (_Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50).

[725] Writing to Sinningthwaite in 1534. _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI, pp. 442-3.

[726] _Visit. of the Dioc. of Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 108.

[727] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 119.

[728] Sometimes specific mention is made of this duty, e.g. in 1318 Thomas de Mydelsburg, rector of Loftus, was ordered to administer the temporal goods of the Cistercian house of Handale, to receive the accounts of the servants and to substitute more capable ones for those who were useless. _Ib._ III, p. 166. Cf. the commission to the rector of Aberford to be custos of Kirklees about the same time. _Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI, p. 362.

[729] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 171.

[730] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 52-3.

[731] In 1442, for instance, the Prioress of Rusper was ordered to render accounts yearly before the Bishop of Chichester and the nuns of the house (_Sussex Arch. Coll._ V, p. 255), and at Sheppey in 1511, two nuns having complained that the Prioress did not account, she was ordered to render accounts, with an inventory to the convent and to Archbishop Warham (_E.H.R._ VI, p. 34).

[732] _Alnwick Visit._ MS. f. 83.

[733] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 184.

[734] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 1.

[735] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 174.

[736] An inventory of the goods of Easebourne Priory, drawn up for the Bishop of Chichester on May 27th, 1450, has survived. It is very complete and comprises all departments of the house, together with a list of land, chapels and appropriated churches and a note that the house can expend in all L22. 3_s._ on repairs and other expenses and that the debts "for repairs and other necessary expenses this year" amount to L66. 6_s._ 8_d._ _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, pp. 10-13. It may be of interest to quote the briefer inventory of the poor house of Ankerwyke, as presented to Bishop Atwater at his visitation in 1519 and copied by his clerk into the register. There were at the time five nuns in the house and one in apostasy. "Redditus ibidem extendunt prima facie ad xxxiij li. x s. Inde resoluunt pro libris (_sic_) redditibus v li. x s. Et sic habent clare ad reparacionem & alia onera sustinenda ultra xl marcas. _Jocalia in Ecclesia_: Habent ibidem vestimenta sacerdotalia ad minus serica xiij. Habent eciam vnicam capam de serica & auro. j calicem de argento deaurato. j par Turribulorum. j pixidem de argento pro sacramento. ij libros missales impressos. j magnum par candelabrorum ante summum altare. j paruum par candelabrorum super summum altare. ij urciolos argenteos. j paxbread de argento, una parua campana argentea. _Catalla_: Habent vaccas duas, ij equas, boues senes iij, unus bouiculus (_sic_), j vaccam anne (_sic_) (_blank_), iij equas pro aratro. _Vtensilia_ vj plumalia, x paria linthiaminum, iiij superpellectilia, iiij paria de le blanketts, ij le white Testers. Habent Redditus Annuales preter terras ipsarum dominicalium (_sic_) in earundem manibus occupatas xlvj li. xj s. x d." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Atwater_, f. 42. A fair number of inventories of convent property made for this or for other purposes is extant; notably those drawn up, for purposes of spoliation instead of preservation, at the Dissolution. See _Bibliography_.

[737] _Reg. of Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 147.

[738] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 120.

[739] _V.C.H. Warwick_, II, p. 71.

[740] See below, p. 226.

[741] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), III, pp. 805-6.

[742] See below, pp. 337-8.

[743] See _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls. Ser.), II, pp. 654-5, 659, 708.

[744] _V.C.H. Yorks._ II, pp. 187-8.

[745] _Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 96.

[746] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 240-1, 684.

[747] At Ankerwyke, Catesby, Gracedieu and St Michael's Stamford. _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 6, 9, 52, 125; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 39_d_.

[748] To this reception of boarders was sometimes added, but with a different purpose, viz. to protect the nuns from contact with the world.

[749] At Moxby in 1318 no fresh debts, especially large ones, were to be incurred without the convent's consent and the Archbishop's special licence. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 239. At Nuncoton in 1440 "ne that ye aleyne or selle any bondman" was added to the usual prohibition. _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 77_d_.

[750] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 131. A few other instances of these injunctions may be given: Arden (1306), Marrick (1252), Nunburnholme (1318), Nunkeeling (1314), Thicket (1309), Yedingham (1314), Esholt (1318), Hampole (1308, 1312), Nunappleton (1489), Rosedale (1315), Sinningthwaite (1315), Arthington (1318), Moxby (1314, 1318, 1328), _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 124, 128, 161, 163, 172, 174, 177, 188, 239-40; Sinningthwaite (1534), _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 441; Arthington (1286), _Reg. John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc. I, p. 55); Ankerwyke, Godstow, Gracedieu, Heynings, Langley, Legbourne, Markyate, Nuncoton, Stixwould, St Michael's Stamford (all 1440-5), _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 8, 115, 124, 134, 186 and _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 6_d_, 77_d_, 81_d_, 75_d_; Elstow (1359), _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, f. 139_d_; Elstow (1421), Burnham (1434), _Linc. Visit._ I, pp. 24, 49; Studley, Nuncoton (1531), _Arch._ XLVII, pp. 54, 58; Polsloe and Canonsleigh (1319), _Reg. Stapeldon of Exeter_, p. 317; Romsey (1302), _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, p. 127.

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

[752] _Lambeth Reg. Courtenay I_, f. 336.

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

[754] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 397-397_d_. These injunctions are scattered among the others, but have been placed together here for the sake of reference.

[755] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343. Compare Flemyng's injunctions in 1422. _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 49.

[756] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 151.

[757] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, pp. 148, 150, 154 (note 1).

[758] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 121.

[759] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 178-9, and _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8. The canons at these houses must be distinguished from the canons who held prebendal stalls in the Abbeys of Romsey, St Mary's, Winchester, Wherwell, Wilton and Shaftesbury; these were often bad pluralists and could have been of little use to the abbeys, as chaplains or as _custodes_. See _V.C.H. Hants._ II, pp. 122-3 and p. 144 above, note 1.

[760] _Loc. cit._ Compare the complaint of the nuns of Brodholme in 1321-2. "A nostre Seyngnur le Roy e a son Counsaill monstrent le Prioresse el Covente de Brodholme, qe lour Gardayns de la dit meson par lour defaute sount lour Rentes abatez, e lour meson a poy ennente e le dit Gardayns ne vollent nulle entent mettre ne despender pur les ayder kaunt eles sount empleydie, mes come eles meymes defendent a graunt meschef. Pur qoi eles prient pur l'amour de Dieu, trescher Seygnour, pur l'alme vostre Pier, e ouir de charite, qe Vous vollez graunter vostre Charter qe l'avantdit Prioresse el covent pouissent avoir lour rentes e lour enproumens, de ordiner a lour voluntes, e al profist de la dit meson, si pleiser Vous soit, Kare autrement ne poivent eles viver." The reply was "Injusta est peticio, ideo non potest fieri." _Rot. Parl._ I, pp. 393-4. Brodholme was one of the only two convents of Premonstratensian nuns in England; the guardians were probably the canons of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Newhouse; for an ordinance (1354, confirmed 1409) regulating the relations between the two houses, see _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, pp. 159-60.

[761] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 148 (from Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt ii, m. 22_d_.).

[762] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, f. 330. Roger de Dauentry, canon of Catesby, had been made master in 1297. _Reg. Memo. Sutton._ f. 175.

[763] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, III, pp. 850-1.

[764] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 98.

[765] _V.C.H. Derby._ II, p. 43.

[766] _Loc. cit._ see also _Linc. Epis. Reg. Institution Roll_ (_Northampton_) of Sutton for the presentation of William de Stok, monk of Peterborough as Prior of St Michael's Stamford, by the Abbot, and the Bishop's ratification.

[767] Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum_ (Rolls Ser.), II, p. 519, and _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 429. On their misdeeds see Archbishop Morton's famous letter in 1490. Wilkins, _Concilia_, III, p. 632.

[768] See _Cal. of Papal Letters_, VI, pp. 159-160.

[769] Mention of _custodes_ occurs at the following houses, in addition to those mentioned in the text: Studley (1290), Goring (1309), _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, pp. 78, 104; Markyate (1323), Harrold (late thirteenth century), _V.C.H. Beds._ I, pp. 359, 388; Flamstead (1337), Rowney (1302, 1328), _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, pp. 432, 434; Arden (1302, 1324), Marrick (1252), Nunburnholme (1314), Yedingham (1280), Basedale (1304), Hampole (1268, 1280, 1308), Handale (1318), Nunappleton (1306), Swine (1267, 1291, 1298), _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119, 127, 159, 163, 166, 171, 180; all in Lincoln or York. For mention of _custodes_ in other dioceses, see Cookhill (1285), _Reg. of Godfrey Giffard_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), II, p. 267; St Sepulchre's Canterbury, Davington, Usk, Whitehall (Ilchester), Minchin Barrow, Easebourne, St Bartholomew's Newcastle, King's Mead, Derby, below, pp. 231-5 _passim_. The frequency with which _custodes_ occur in houses in the diocese of Lincoln and York and their rarity in other dioceses would seem to support the theory of Gilbertine influence. Of the cases quoted from other dioceses all are either _custodes_ appointed as a deliberate policy by Archbishop Peckham, or _custodes_ appointed to meet some special moral or financial crisis, not regular officials. King's Mead, Derby, seems to be the only nunnery outside the two dioceses of York and Lincoln (with the exception of those in direct dependence on a house of monks) which started its career under the joint government of a _custos_ and a Prioress. _V.C.H. Derby_, II, p. 43.

[770] _Reg. of John le Romeyn_ (Surtees Soc.), I, pp. xii, xiii, 86, 125, 157, 180.

[771] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby_, ff. 23_d_, 37, 44, 60_d_, 79_d_, 118_d_, 328_d_, 366, 373, 378, 382, 388. (These comprise two appointments to Rowney, Godstow and Nuncoton; the dates are between 1301 and 1318.)

[772] _Reg. of John le Romeyn_, I, pp. 203-4, 209, 211, 217.

[773] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton_, ff. 82_d_-83.

[774] _V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 179. But in 1318 Dalderby appointed the vicar of Little Coates, _loc. cit._ f. 373. Originally St Leonard's Grimsby, had been placed under the protection of the canons of Wellow.

[775] _Reg. of Archbishop Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), p. 54.

[776] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 113.

[777] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton_, ff. 25, 92_d_.

[778] Sometimes the chaplain of the house must have acted as an unofficial _custos_ and sometimes he held the position by special mandate, e.g. in 1285 Bishop Giffard ordered the nuns of Cookhill that "for the better conduct of temporal business and for the increase of divine praise," Thomas their chaplain was to have full charge of their temporal affairs. _Reg. of Godfrey Giffard_ (Worc. Hist. Soc.), II, p. 267.

[779] _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), I, pp. 72-3; II, pp. 708-9, III, p. 806.

[780] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 99.

[781] _V.C.H. Somerset_, II, p. 157. Text in Hugo, _Medieval Nunneries of the County of Somerset: Whitehall in Ilchester_, App. VII, pp. 78-9.

[782] _Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury_ (Somerset Rec. Soc.), p. 177.

[783] Hugo, _op. cit._ _Minchin Barrow Priory_, App. II, pp. 81-3. With these cases compare the appointment of _custodes_ to the worldly Prioress of Easebourne in 1441. See above, p. 77.

[784] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 413.

[785] _Ib._ IV, p. 485.

[786] _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 73.

[787] _V.C.H. Derby_, II, pp. 43-4 (from _Ancient Petitions_, No. 11730); cf. _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1327-30, p. 139. See above, p. 180.

[788] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 7.

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

[790] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 117.

[791] See e.g. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 113, 117, 119.

[792] _Yorks. Arch. Journal_, XVI, p. 362.

[793] It will be noticed that all the references to _custodes_ given on p. 230, note 8, belong to the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries; appointments at a later date are generally made to meet some regular crisis. There are no references to the Prior of St Michael's Stamford in the later account rolls of that house, though one or two rolls belonging to the beginning of the century mention him. One of the few references to the regular appointment of a master in a Cistercian house after the first quarter of the fourteenth century is at Legbourne, where "later Lincoln regulations record the appointment of several masters from 1294-1343 and in 1366 the same official is apparently called an _yconomus_ of Legbourne" (_V.C.H. Lincs._ II, p. 154, note 1). The will of Adam, vicar of Hallington, "custos sive magister domus monialium de Legbourne," dated 1345, has been preserved. Gibbons, _Early Lincoln Wills_, p. 17. The _yconomus_ of Gokewell in 1440 is a very late instance. (Compare Bokyngham's advice to the Abbess of Elstow in 1387, above, p. 228.) Much the same function as that of the _custos_, was, however, probably performed by the steward (_senescallus_), an official often mentioned during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

[794] See account in L. Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, ch. IV.

[795] L. Eckenstein, _Woman under Monasticism_, ch. IV, pp. 160 ff.

[796] _Ib._ pp. 238 ff.

[797] _Ib._ pp. 256 ff.

[798] _Ib._ pp. 328 ff.

[799] _Ib._ pp. 416, 419, 428, 458 ff.

[800] See _Romania_ XIII (1884), pp. 400-3.

"Je ke la vie ai translatee Par nun sui Climence numee, De Berekinge sui nunain; Par s'amur pris ceste oevre en main."

[801] Devon, _Issues of the Exchequer_, p. 144.

[802] There does exist a catalogue of Syon library, but unluckily it is that of the brothers' library and the catalogue of the sisters' library is missing; it was probably a good one since we have notice of several books written for them. See M. Bateson, _Cat. of the Lib. of Syon Mon._ (1898). Only three continental library catalogues survive, of which two are printed and accessible; one is of the library of the Dominican nuns of Nuremberg, made between 1456-69 and containing 350 books, the other belonged to the Franciscan tertiaries of Delft in the second half of the fifteenth century and contained 109 books; the third comes from the women's cloister at Wonnenstein in 1498. See M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible_, pp. 110-5.

[803] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 12.

[804] Mackenzie, Walcott, _Inventories of ... the Ben. Priory ... of Shepey for Nuns_, pp. 21, 23, 28.

[805] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 424.

[806] At a visitation of St Mary's Winchester by Dr Hede in 1501, "Elia Pitte, librarian, was also well satisfied with that which was in her charge." _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 124.

[807] _Test. Ebor._ I, p. 179.

[808] Sharpe, _Cal. of Wills_, II, p. 327.

[809] _Test. Ebor._ II, p. 13.

[810] _Ib._ III, p. 262.

[811] _Ib._ III, p. 199. See an interesting list of books left by Peter, vicar of Swine, to Swine Priory some time after 1380. _King's Descrip. Cat. MS._ 18.

[812] _Reg. Stafford of Exeter_, p. 419.

[813] _Test. Ebor._ II, p. 66.

[814] For Barking books (including a book of English religious treatises) see M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible_, pp. 337-9. Besides the books mentioned in the text there are fine psalters written for nuns at St Mary's Winchester, Amesbury and Wilton in the libraries of Trinity College, Cambridge, All Souls College, Oxford, and the Royal College of Physicians respectively. There is an interesting book in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (_McClean MS._ 123), which belonged to Nuneaton; it contains (1) the metrical Bestiary of William the Norman, (2) the _Chasteau d'Amours_ of Robert Grosseteste, (3) exposition of the Paternoster, (4) the Gospel of Nicodemus, (5) Apocalypse with pictures, (6) _Poema Morale_, etc.

[815] Wright and Halliwell, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, II, p. 117.

[816] Capgrave, _Life of St Katharine of Alexandria_, ed. Horstmann (E.E.T.S. 1893), Introd. p. xxix.

[817] _St John's Coll. MS._ 68. Other psalters from the aristocratic house of Wherwell are _MS. add._ 27866 at the British Museum and _MS. McClean_ 45 at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

[818] _MS._ 136 (T. 6. 18). See J. Young and P. Henderson Aitkin, _Cat. of MSS. in the Lib. of the Hunterian Museum in the Univ. of Glasgow_ (1908), p. 124. In the introduction the book is conjectured to have belonged to the Carthusian monastery at Sheen, where it obviously was written; but the reference to "sorores et ffratres" and the name of Elizabeth Gibbs (see Blunt, _Myroure of Oure Ladye_ (E.E.T.S.), p. xxiii), show clearly that it belonged to Syon.

[819] So John of Pontoise sends Juliana de Spina to Romsey on the occasion of his consecration (1282), with the recommendation "Ejusdem Juliane competenter ad hujusmodi officii debitum litterate laudabile propositum speciali gracia prosequentes, etc." _Reg. J. de Pontissara_ (Cant. and York Soc.), I, p. 240. Cp. _ib._ p. 252.

[820] _Collectanea Anglo-Praemonstratensia_, II, p. 267.

[821] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 53.

[822] _Gesta Abbatum_ (Rolls Ser. 1867), II, pp. 410-2. But professions were often written by others, and the postulant only put his or her cross. So also with the vote.

[823] _Ib._ II, p. 213. This was a not uncommon method of voting. It is clear, too, from prohibitions of letter-writing in various injunctions that nuns could sometimes write.

[824] _Sussex Archaeol. Coll._ V, p. 256. Compare the editor's note on the education of Christina von Stommeln: "Simul cum psalterio videtur tantum didicisse linguae latinae, quantum satis erat non solum illi legendo, sed etiam epistolis ad se Latine scriptis pro parte intelligendis, ac vicissim dictandis: nam scribendi ignoram fuisse habeo." _Acta SS. Junii_, t. IV, p. 279.

[825] Jusserand, _A Literary History of the English People_, I, pp. 239-40.

[826] Jusserand, _op. cit._ I, p. 236.

[827] It is interesting to find the Master-General of the Dominicans in 1431 giving Jane Fisher, a nun of Dartford, leave to have a _master_ to instruct her in grammar and the Latin tongue. Jarrett, _The English Dominicans_, p. 11.

[828] _Reg. Walter Giffard_ (Surtees Soc.), pp. 147-8.

[829] _Reg. John le Romeyn_, etc. (Surtees Soc.), II, pp. 222-4.

[830] _Reg. Epis. J. Peckham_ (Rolls Ser.), III, pp. 845-52.

[831] _Reg. Thome de Cantilupo_ (Cant. and York Soc. and Cantilupe Soc.), p. 202.

[832] _Reg. R. de Norbury_ (Wm. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Coll. I), p. 257.

[833] _Reg. R. de Stretton_ (_ib._ New Series, VIII), p. 119.

[834] _Reg. W. de Stapeldon_, p. 316. See below, p. 286. In the same year Archbishop Melton writes to the nuns of Sinningthwaite that in all writings under the common seal a faithful clerk is to be employed and the deed is to be sealed in the presence of the whole convent, the clerk reading the deed plainly in the mother tongue and explaining it. _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 177.

[835] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, p. 105.

[836] _New Coll._ MS. f. 84.

[837] _Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell_, ff. 34. 139_d_, 100_d_.

[838] _Ib._ _Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, ff. 343 (Elstow), 397 (Heynings).

[839] _V.C.H. Suffolk_, II, p. 83.

[840] _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 52.

[841] _Ib._ I, p. 45. At Kyme and Wellow, houses of canons, however, the injunctions are also to be expounded in the mother tongue.

[842] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 1.

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

[844] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 91; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 83, 38.

[845] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 117.

[846] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 174.

[847] Archbishop Lee's visitations of the York diocese on the eve of the Dissolution (1534-5) are typical. The injunctions sent to the nunneries of Sinningthwaite, Nunappleton and Esholt (_Yorks. Archaeol. Journ._ XVI, pp. 440, 443, 451) are in English, but those sent to the houses of monks and canons are all in Latin.

[848] Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_, ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S. 2nd ed. 1883), p. 21.

[849] _Three Middle Eng. Versions of the Rule of St Benet_ (E.E.T.S. 1902), p. 48.

On the other hand the Caxton abstract at the end of the century is translated "for men and wymmen, of the habyte therof, the whiche vnderstande lytyll laten or none." _Ib._ p. 119.

[850] The preface is quoted in _The Register of Richard Fox while Bishop of Bath and Wells, with a Life of Bishop Fox_, ed. E. C. Batten (1889), pp. 102-4.

[851] _Eng. Reg. of Godstow Nunnery_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 25-6.

[852] _The Myroure of Oure Ladye_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 2-3.

[853] _Ib._ pp. 63 ff.

[854] _Ib._ pp. xliv-xlvi; Eckenstein, _op. cit._ p. 395. Wynkyn de Worde's edition was reprinted for the Henry Bradshaw Society in 1893.

[855] Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible_, pp. 320, 336-7. It may be noted as of some interest that when in 1528 a wealthy London merchant was imprisoned for distributing Tyndale's books and for similar practices, he pleaded that the abbess of Denney, Elizabeth Throgmorton, had wished to borrow Tyndale's _Enchiridion_ and that he had lent it to her. Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, p. 1549.

[856] _Sussex Arch. Coll._ IX, p. 7.

[857] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 49. At Bondeville in 1251 Archbishop Eudes Rigaud has to forbid the nuns to sell their thread and their spindles to raise money, "quod moniales non vendant nec distrahant filum _et lor fusees_," _Reg. Visit. Archiepiscopi Roth._ ed. Bonnin (1852), p. 111.

[858] "Nuns with their needles wrote histories also," as Fuller prettily says, "that of Christ his passion for their altar clothes, as other Scripture (and moe legend) Stories to adorn their houses." Fuller, _Church Hist._ (ed. 1837), II, p. 190.

[859] J. H. Middleton, _Illuminated MSS._ (1892), p. 112. On nunnery embroidery at different periods see _ib._ pp. 224-30; but the book must be read with great caution.

[860] Mackenzie Walcott, _Inventory of St Mary's Ben. Nunnery at Langley, Co. Leic. 1485_ (Leic. Architec. Soc. 1872), pp. 3, 4.

[861] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, 120, 127, 183. Greenfield may have so enjoined other houses; the injunctions are not always fully summarised. As to nuns' embroidery there is an interesting passage in the thirteenth century German poem _Helmbrecht_ by Wernher "the Gardener": "Old farmer Helmbrecht had a son. Young Helmbrecht's yellow locks fell down to his shoulders. He tucked them into a handsome silken cap, embroidered with doves and parrots and many a picture. This cap had been embroidered by a nun who had run away from her convent through a love adventure, as happens to so many. From her Helmbrecht's sister Gotelind had learned to embroider and to sew. The girl and her mother had well earned that from the nun, for they gave her in pay a calf, and many cheeses and eggs." J. Harvey Robinson, _Readings in Eur. Hist._ I, pp. 418-9, translated from Freytag, _Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit_ (1876, II, pp. 52 ff.).

[862] _Manners and Household Expenses_ (Roxburghe Club 1841), p. 18.

[863] Gasquet, _Engl. Monastic Life_, p. 170.

[864] _Trans. St Paul's Eccles. Soc._ VII, pt II (1912), p. 54.

[865] _Ancren Riwle_, ed. Gasquet, p. 318.

[866] See below, p. 655.

[867] Wood, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies_, II, pp. 229-31.

[868] Peckham, forbidding the nuns of Barking (1279) to eat or sleep in private rooms or to receive mass there, makes an exception for those who are seriously ill, "in which case we permit the confessor and the doctor, also the father or brother, to have access to them." _Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham_, I, p. 84. Cf. _ib._ II, pp. 652, 663. For nuns and medicine see S. Luce, _La Jeunesse de Bertrand de Guesclin_ (1882), p. 10.

[869] At Romsey Abbey a pittance of sixpence was due to each nun "when blood is let" (see Bishop John de Pontoise's injunctions in 1302 and those of Bishop Woodlock in 1311, both of which refer to the payments not having been made). Bishop Woodlock enjoined that "Nuns who have been bled shall be allowed to enter the cloister if they wish." Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 100, 103, 104. In 1338 Abbot Michael of St Albans orders all the nuns of Sopwell to attend the service of prime, "horspris les malades et les seynes." Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 366. At Nuncoton in 1440 the sub-prioress deposed that "the infirm, the weakminded and they that are in their seynies ... do eat in the convent cellar." _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. f. 71_d_. Bishop Stapeldon forbids the nuns of Polsloe in 1319 to enter convent offices outside the cloistral precincts "pour estre seigne ou pur autre encheson feynte." _Reg. Stapeldon_, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, p. 317.

[870] On the custom of periodical bleeding in monasteries see J. W. Clark, _The Observances ... at Barnwell_, Introd. pp. lxi, ff. It is interesting to note that medieval treatises on the diseases of women occasionally refer specifically to nuns, e.g. in a fourteenth century English MS. a certain "worschipfull sirop" for use in cases of anaemia is said to be "for ladyes & for nunnes and other also şat ben delicate." Brit. Mus. MS. Sloane 2463, f. 198 vº.

[871] E.g. Nicholaa de Fulham dates her will in 1327 from Clerkenwell and leaves certain rents for life to Joan her sister, a nun there. Sharpe, _Cal. of Wills enrolled in Court of Husting_, I, p. 324. The will of Elizabeth Medlay "of the house of St Clement's in Clementthorpe" directs her body to be buried in the conventual church, bequeathes legacies to the high altar, the Prioress and each nun there and appoints dame Margaret Delaryver, prioress, as executor (1470). _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 130.

[872] _New Coll._ MS. ff. 88, 88_dº_.

[873] _The Fifty Earliest Wills in the Court of Probate_, ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S.), p. 54. But she may have been a sister from a hospital.

[874] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 4, 5, 6.

[875] _Visit. of Dioc. Norwich_ (Camden Soc.), p. 243.

[876] Liveing, _Records of Romsey Abbey_, pp. 226, 236. William of Wykeham in 1387 ordered that three or four at least of the more discreet nuns of this large abbey, "in regula sancti benedicti et obseruanciis regularibus sufficienter erudite" should be chosen to instruct the younger nuns in these matters. _New Coll._ MS. f. 86. At St Mary's, Winchester, in 1501, besides Margaret Legh, mistress of the novices, there was Agnes Cox, senior teacher (_dogmatista_). _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 124. At Elstow in 1421-2 the bishop ordered "That a more suitable nun be deputed and ordained to be precentress; and that elder nuns, if they shall be capable and fit for such offices, be preferred to younger." _Linc. Visit._ I, p. 50. Dean Kentwode's injunction to St Helen's Bishopsgate in 1432 runs: "That ye ordeyne and chese on of yowre sustres, honest, abille and cunnyng of discretyone, the whiche can, may and schall have the charge of techyng and informacyone of yowre sustres that be uncunnyng, for to teche hem here service and the rule of here religione." Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 554.

[877] The controversy was roused by an article by Mr J. E. G. de Montmorency entitled "The Medieval Education of Women in England" in the _Journal of Education_ (June, 1909) pp. 427-31. This was challenged by Mr Coulton, _loc. cit._ (July, 1910), pp. 456-7; see the correspondence _passim_, especially the two articles by Mr A. F. Leach, _loc. cit._ (Oct. and Dec. 1910), pp. 667-9, 838-41. The subject was afterwards treated with great erudition by Mr Coulton in a paper read before the International Congress of Historical Studies in 1913, reprinted with notes as _Monastic Schools in the Middle Ages_ (_Medieval Studies_, X, 1913).

[878] For the rest of this