chapter I

have modernised the spelling.) This version is translated from

Caesarius of Heisterbach. _Dial. Mirac._, ed. Strange, II, pp. 42-3, which is the original version of all the widespread legends on this theme. From Caesarius it found its way into many other collections of miracles, in prose and in verse, in Latin, French, Spanish, German, Icelandic, Dutch and English. Perhaps the most beautiful is the Dutch poem (c. 1320) published by W. J. A. Jenckbloet, _Beatriij_ (Amsterdam, 1846-59) and re-edited with a grammatical introduction and notes in English by A. J. Barnouw (_Pub. of Philol. Soc._ III, 1914). An edition with illustrations by Ch. Doudelet accompanied by a translation into French by H. de Marez was published in Antwerp (1901) and was also issued with an English translation by A. W. Sanders vaz Loo. The best English translations are those in prose by L. Simons and L. Housman in _The Pageant_, ed. C. H. Shannon and J. W. Gleeson White (1896) pp. 95-116 and in verse by H. de Wolf Fuller (_Harvard Coop. Soc._, Cambridge, U.S.A. 1910). Modern writers have retold the tale almost as often as their medieval forebears; see for example Maeterlinck's play, _Soeur Beatrice_, John Davidson's poem, _The Ballad of a Nun_, one of Villier de l'Isle-Adam's _Contes Cruels_ (_Soeur Natalia_), one of Charles Nodier's _Contes de la Veillee_ (_La Legende de Soeur Beatrice_), and one of Gottfried Keller's _Sieben Legenden_ (_Die Jungfrau und die Nonne_). For a study of the Beatrice story see Heinrich Watenphul, _Die Geschichte der Marienlegende von Beatrix der Kuesterin_ (Neuwied, 1904); also P. Toldo, _Die Sakristanin_ (with bibliography by J. Bolte) in _Zeitschrift des Vereins fuer Volkskunde_ (1905), J. van der Elst, _Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Legende van Beatrijs_ in _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde_, XXXII, pp. 51 ff., and Mussafia, _Studien zu den Mittelalterlichen Marienlegenden_ (Vienna, 1887), I, p. 73. See also A. Cotarelo y Valledor, _Una Cantiga celebre del Rey Sabio, fuentes y desarollo de la leyenda de sor Beatriz, principalmente en la literatura espanola_ (1914). For other variants of the _Nonne Enlevee_ see below, Note J.

[1568] Chambers and Sidgwick, _Early English Lyrics_ (1907), No. XC, p. 163. But perhaps the most beautiful of medieval English poems which moralise on this theme is the _Luue Ron_ which Thomas of Hales wrote in the thirteenth century for a nun:

"Hwer is Paris and Heleyne That weren so bryght and feyre on bleo? Amadas, Tristram and Dideyne, Yseude and alle theo, Ector with his scharpe meyne, And Cesar riche of worldes feo? Heo beoth iglyden ut of the reyne, So the scheft is of the cleo,"

--they have passed away as a shaft from the bowstring. It is as if they had never lived. All their heat is turned to cold. (_An Old English Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris (E.E.T.S. 1872), p. 95.) This catalogue of the lovely dead was a favourite device, immortalised later by "ung povre petit escollier, qui fust nomme Francoys Villon" (who certainly was not a moralist) in his _Ballade des Dames du Temps jadis_.

[1569] For an entertaining and stimulating account of the popular cult of the Virgin see Henry Adams, _Mont St Michel and Chartres_ (1913), especially chs. VI and XIII.

[1570] Modern poets who have written upon the same theme have drawn this moral more overtly than the medieval authors. Maeterlinck's Virgin in _Soeur Beatrice_ sings:

Il n'est peche qui vive Quand l'amour a prie; Il n'est ame qui meure Quand l'amour a pleure....

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

"I care not for my broken vow; Though God should come in thunder soon, I am sister to the mountains now And sister to the sun and moon,"

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

"You are sister to the mountains now, And sister to the day and night; Sister to God." And on her brow She kissed her thrice, and left her sight.

[1571] "Cum in hyemis intemperie post cenam noctu familia divitis ad focum, ut potentibus moris est, recensendis antiquis gestis operam daret." _Gesta Romanorum_, ed. Oesterley (1872), ch. CLV. Quoted in Jusserand, _Lit. Hist. of the Eng. People_, I, p. 182.

[1572] One particular kind of story, the _fabliau_ (defined by Bedier as "un conte a rire en vers") was brought to great perfection by French jongleurs. See Montaiglon and Raynaud, _Recueil general et complet des Fabliaux_ (Paris, 1872-90), 6 vols.; and Bedier, _Les Fabliaux_ (Paris, 1873).

[1573] See Dante, _Paradiso_, XXIX, 11, for a violent attack on the practice. Compare the decree of the Council of Paris in 1528: "Quodsi secus fecerint, aut si populum more scurrarum vilissimorum, dum ridiculas et aniles fabulas recitant, ad risus cachinnationesque excitaverint, ... nos volumus tales tam ineptos et perniciosos concionatores ab officio praedicationis suspendi," etc., quoted in _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, ed. T. F. Crane (1890), Introd. p. lxix. The great preacher Jacques de Vitry himself, while advocating the use of _exempla_, adds "infructuosas enim fabulas et curiosa poetarum carmina a sermonis nostris debemus relegare ... scurrilia tamen aut obscena verba vel turpis sermo ex ore predicatoris non procedant." _Ib._ Introd., pp. xlii, xliii.

[1574] For instance _exempla_ were much used by Jacques de Vitry (see _op. cit._). Etienne de Bourbon (see _Anecdotes Historiques, etc., d'Etienne de Bourbon_, ed. A. Lecoy de la Marche (Soc. de l'Hist. de France)), and John Herolt. On the whole subject of _exempla_ see the Introduction to T. F. Crane's edition of the _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, and the references given there.

[1575] The most famous is the _Gesta Romanorum_. _Gesta Romanorum_, ed. Oesterley (Berlin, 1872); and see _The Early English Version of the Gesta Romanorum_, ed. S. J. H. Herrtage (E.E.T.S. 1879). The largest is the _Summa Praedicantium_ of John Bromyard, a fourteenth century English Dominican. See also an interesting fifteenth century English translation of a similar collection, the _Alphabetum Narrationum_ (which used to be attributed to Etienne de Besancon), _An Alphabet of Tales_, ed. M. M. Banks (E.E.T.S. 1904-5); many of the _exempla_ in this come from Caesarius of Heisterbach. Specimens of _exempla_ from these and other sources are collected in Wright's _Latin Stories_ (Percy Soc. 1842), and many tales from Caesarius of Heisterbach, Jacques de Vitry, Etienne de Bourbon, Thomas of Chantimpre, etc., are translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._

[1576] For instance Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dialogus Miraculorum_, ed. Strange (1851); Thomas of Chantimpre (Cantimpratanus), _Bonum Universale de Apibus_ (Douay, 1597); and the knight of la Tour Landry, who wrote a book of deportment for his daughters, copiously illustrated with stories. _The Book of the Knight of la Tour Landry_, ed. T. Wright (E.E.T.S. revised ed. 1906). For some account of Caesarius of Heisterbach's stories, other than those quoted in the text, see below Note K.

[1577] Collections of stories, such as those of the _Decameron_, the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, the _Il Pecorone_ of Ser Giovanni, the _Novelle_ of Bandello, the _Heptameron_ of Margaret of Navarre, became very popular. But individual stories have also given plots to many great writers from the middle ages to the present day; it is only necessary to mention Chaucer, Shakespeare, Moliere and La Fontaine, to illustrate the use which has been made of them.

[1578] For examples of medieval mission sermons, with their colloquialisms, interruptions from the audience and strings of stories, the reader cannot do better than turn to the sermons of Berthold of Regensburg (1220-72) and of St Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444). Specimens of these are translated in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 348-64, 604-19. See also for Berthold, Coulton, _Medieval Studies_, 1st series. No. II ("A Revivalist of Six Centuries Ago") and for St Bernardino, Paul Thureau-Dangin, _St Bernardine of Siena_, trans. Baroness von Huegel (1906), and A. G. Ferrers Howell, _St Bernardino of Siena_ (1913).

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

[1580] Translated from Jacques de Vitry (_Exempla ..._, ed. T. F. Crane, p. 22) in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 95 (No. CXXXVI). The story is a very old one, first found in the _Vitae Patrum_, X, cap. 60. It is sometimes attributed to St Bridget of Ireland, but Etienne de Bourbon, who repeats the story twice, tells it of Richard King of England and "a certain nun" (_Anec. Hist., etc., d'Etienne de Bourbon_, ed. Lecoy de la Marche, Nos. 248 and 500); and other medieval versions make the persecuting lover "a king of England." (See T. F. Crane, _op. cit._ p. 158.)

[1581] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, No. LVIII, pp. 22-3. For other versions of this story, see _ib._ p. 159.

[1582] Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, p. 389. I have used the translation by Mr Coulton, _Med. Garn._ p. 124. The story is a variant of the theme of "the novice and the geese," one of the most popular of medieval stories (see Coulton, _ib._ p. 426); for analogues, see A. C. Lee, _The Decameron, its Sources and Analogues_, pp. 110-16.

[1583] Robert of Brunne's _Handlyng Synne_, ed. F. J. Furnivall (Roxburghe Club, 1862), pp. 50-52. (This is an amplified translation of William of Wadington's _Le Manuel des Pechiez_.) See also _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, No. CCLXXII, p. 113, which is translated in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 303.

[1584] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, No. CXXX, p. 59. For other versions, see _ib._ p. 189. There is an English version in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 78 (No. CVIII).

[1585] Caesarius of Heisterbach, II. pp. 160-1. Compare the tale of Abbess Sophia whose small beer was miraculously turned into wine. _Ib._ p. 229.

[1586] Boccaccio, _Decameron_, 9th day, novel 2. But the story is older than Boccaccio, who constantly uses old tales. There is a French version by Jean de Conde: "Le Dit de la Nonnete" (Montaiglon et Raynaud, _op. cit._ t. VI, pp. 263-9). It was often afterwards copied in various forms in French, German and Italian jest- and story-books and there is an extremely gross dramatic version entitled "Farce Nouvelle a cinq personnages, c'est a scavoir l'Abesse, soeur de Bon Coeur, seur Esplouree, seur Safrete et seur Fesne" in a collection of sixteenth century French farces (_Rec. de farces, moralites et sermons joyeux_, ed. Le Roux de Lincy et Francisque Michel, Paris, 1837, vol. II). It is also referred to in _Albion's England_:

It was at midnight when a Nonne, in trauell of a childe, Was checked of her fellow Nonnes, for being so defilde; The Lady Prioresse heard a stirre, and starting out of bed, Did taunt the Nouasse bitterly, who, lifting up her head, Said "Madame, mend your hood" (for why, so hastely she rose, That on her head, mistooke for hood, she donde a Channon's hose).

For these and references to other analogues see A. C. Lee, _The Decameron, its Sources and Analogues_ (1909), pp. 274-7. See also a curious folk-song version, below, p. 611. La Fontaine founded his fable of _Le Psautier_ on Boccaccio's version.

[1587] Boccaccio, _Decameron_ (3rd day, novel 1). For analogues and imitations, see A. C. Lee, _op. cit._ pp. 59-62. The story is the source of La Fontaine's _Mazet de Lamporechio_. For other ribald stories about nuns see Note J, below, p. 624.

[1588] I have made no attempt to describe the many treatises in praise of virginity composed by the fathers of the church. These include works by Evagrius Ponticus, St Athanasius, Sulpicius Severus, St Jerome, St Augustine, St Caesarius of Arles and others. Among the most interesting is one of English origin, the _De Laudibus Virginitatis_ of Aldhelm ([dagger] 709). For short analyses of these works, see A. A. Hentsch, _De la Litterature Didactique du Moyen Age, s'adressant specialement aux Femmes_ (Cahors, 1903), _passim_. From the eleventh century onwards several imitations of these treatises occur. A few of the more interesting will be noted later.

[1589] Uhland, _Alte hoch und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_ (1845), II, pp. 857-62 (No. 331). The first verse may be quoted to give the style:

Es war ein jungfrau edel Si war gar wol getan, in ainen schonen paungarten wolt si spacieren gan, in ainen schonen paungarten durnach stuont ir gedank, nach pluomen mangerlaie, nach vogelein suessem gesank.

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

[1591] _An Old English Miscellany_, ed. R. Morris [E.E.T.S. 1872], pp. 93-99.

[1592] Printed in _The Stacions of Rome_, etc., ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1867), and again in _Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._, Part II, ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1901), No. XLII, pp. 464-8.

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

[1594] See on this point Taylor, _The Medieval Mind_ (2nd ed. 1914), I, pp. 475 ff.

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

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

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

[1598] _Ib._ p. 36.

[1599] See e.g. p. 28. "Under a man's protection thou shalt be sore vexed for his and the world's love, which are both deceptive and must lie awake in many a care not only for thyself as God's spouse must, but for many others and often as well for the detested as the dear; and be more worried than any drudge in the house, or any hired hind and take thine own share often with misery and bitterly purchase it. Little do blessed spouses of God know of thee here, that in so sweet ease without such trouble in spiritual grace and in rest of heart love the true love and in his only service lead their life."

[1600] The _Ancren Riwle_ was translated and edited by J. Morton for the Camden Soc. (1853). I quote from the cheap and convenient reprint of the translation, with introduction by Gasquet, in The King's Classics, 1907. For the most recent research as to the different versions, authorship, etc., see article by G. C. Macaulay, "The _Ancren Riwle_" in _Modern Language Review_, IX (1914), pp. 63-78, 145-60, 324-31, 464-74, Father MacNabb's article _ib._ XI (1916), and Miss Hope Emily Allen's thesis, _The Origin of the Ancren Riwle_ (Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assoc. of Amer. XXXIII, 3, Sept. 1918); see also her note in _Mod. Lang. Review_ (April 1919), XIV, pp. 209-10, and Mr Coulton's review of her thesis, _ib._ (Jan. 1920), XV, p. 99; also Father MacNabb's attack on her theory, _ib._ (Oct. 1920) XV and her reply, _ib._ Research is gradually pushing the date of the first English translation (if indeed it be not after all the original) further and further back.

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

[1602] _Ancren Riwle_, p. 259.

[1603] Pp. 164-5.

[1604] Pp. 294-6.

[1605] Pp. 313-4.

[1606] Pp. 317-8.

[1607] P. 68.

[1608] Pp. 319-20.

[1609] Pp. 316-19, _passim_.

[1610] P. 325-6.

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

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

[1613] As for instance the various other books written or translated for the nuns of Syon (on which see Eckenstein, _op. cit._ pp. 394-5) and the mystical treatise "Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat," which was written by Richard Rolle of Hampole for a nun of Yedingham. Rolle was kindly cherished by the nuns of Hampole, where he settled; they often sought his advice during his lifetime and after his death they tried to obtain his canonisation; an office for his festival was composed and a collection of his miracles made. (See _Cambridge Hist. of Engl. Lit._ II, pp. 45, 48.) For similar treatises of foreign origin, see the _Opusculum_ of Hermann der Lahme (1013-54), Francesco da Barbarino's _Del Reggimento e Costumi di Donne_ (which contains a section dealing with nuns), (c. 1307-15), Francisco Ximenes' _Libre de les dones_ ([dagger] 1409) and John Gerson's ([dagger] 1429) letter to his sister. See Hentsch, _op. cit._ pp. 39, 114, 151, 152.

[1614] Printed from the Thornton MS. in _Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse_, ed. G. G. Perry (E.E.T.S. 1867, 1914), No. III, pp. 51-62. Compare _Brit. Mus. MS._ Add. 39843 (La Sainte Abbaye), some pictures from which are reproduced in this book.

[1615] Mechthild von Magdeburg, _Offenbarungen, oder Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit_, ed. Gall Morel (1869), pp. 249 ff.; see Eckenstein, _op. cit._ p. 339. The same idea is found in a little German Volkslied:

Wir wellen uns pawen ein heuselein Und unser sel ain klosterlein, Jesus Crist sol der maister sein, Maria jungfraw die schaffnerein. Goetliche Forcht die pfortnerein, Goetliche Lieb die kelnerein, Diemuetikait wont wol do pei Weisheit besleust daz laid all ein.

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

[1616] English text in Furnivall, _Early English Poems_ (Berlin, 1862), printed in _Trans. of Philological Soc._ 1858, pt. II, pp. 156-61; and in Goldbeck and Maetzner, _Altenglische Sprachproben_ (Berlin, 1867). pt. I, p. 147; W. Heuser, _Die Kildare-Gedichte_ (Bonn, 1904), p. 145; and in a slightly modernised form in Ellis, _Specimens of Early English Poets_, 1801, I, pp. 83 ff., who took it from Hickes' _Thesaurus_, pt. I, p. 231. I have here used the modernised version for the sake of convenience. An attempt has been made to identify the religious houses mentioned in the poem with real monasteries in Kildare; the poem is certainly of Anglo-Irish origin and occurs in the famous "Kildare Manuscript" (MS. Harl. 913). See W. Heuser, _op. cit._ pp. 141-5. There is a French version in Barbazon et Meon, _Fabliaux_ III, p. 175.

[1617] "It is not until French wit flashes across English seriousness that we travel to the Land of Cokaygne," G. Hadow, _Chaucer and His Times_, p. 35. Stories of a food country are, however, common in medieval literature, being sometimes legends of a vanished golden age, as in the Irish "Vision of MacConglinne" (late twelfth century), and sometimes ideal pictures of a life of lazy luxury, as in the French and English Lands of Cokaygne and the German Schlaraffenland. On the whole subject, see Fr. Joh. Poeschel, _Das Maerchen von Schlaraffenland_ (Halle, 1878), and the introduction by W. Wollner to _The Vision of MacConglinne_, ed. Kuno Meyer (1892).

[1618] _Polit. Songs of England_, ed. T. Wright (Camden Soc. 1839), pp. 137-48.

[1619] The idea of the _Ordre de Bel-Eyse_ is probably taken from the twelfth century Anglo-Latin poem by Nigel Wireker entitled _Speculum Stultorum_, which tells the story of the ass Burnellus, who goes out into the world to seek his fortune. At one point Burnellus decides to retire to a convent and passes the different orders under review, to see which will suit him. This gives the author an opportunity for some pointed satire, including a reference to nuns; "they never quarrel save for due cause, in due place, nor do they come to blows save for grave reasons"; their morals are very questionable, "Harum sunt quaedam steriles et quaedam parturientes, virgineoque tamen nomine cuncta tegunt. Quae pastoralis baculi dotatur honore, illa quidem melius fertiliusque parit. Vix etiam quaevis sterilis reperitur in illis, donec eis aetas talia posse negat." Finally Burnellus decides to found a new order; from the Templars he will borrow their smoothly pacing horses, from the Cluniacs and the black Canons their custom of eating meat, from the order of Grandmont their gossip, from the Carthusians the habit of saying mass only once a month, from the Premonstratensians their warm and comfortable clothes, from the nuns their custom of going ungirdled; and in this order every brother shall have a female companion, as in the first order which was instituted in Paradise. _Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the Twelfth Century_, ed. T. Wright (Rolls Series, 1872), I, pp. 94-6.

[1620] With these two highly successful _jeux d'esprit_ at the expense of monastic luxury may be compared a passage in the curious thirteenth century poem entitled "A Disputison bytwene a cristene mon and a Jew," in which an incidental shaft is perhaps aimed at nunneries, which affected the habits of Cokaygne and Fair Ease. _The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS._, pt. II, ed. F. J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1901), No. XLVI, p. 490.

[1621] See e.g. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, cap. LII (Comment Gargantua fit bastir pour le moine l'abbaye de Theleme).

[1622] Text in _Dits et Contes de Badouin de Conde et de son fils Jean de Conde_, pub. par Aug. Scheler, Ac. Roy. de Belgique, Brussels, 1866-7, III, No. XXXVII, pp. 1-48. The portion of the poem containing the lawsuit is translated in part into modern French by Le Grand d'Aussy, in _Fabliaux et Contes_, ed. Le Grand d'Aussy et Renouard, 1829, I, pp. 326-36.

[1623] A convenient collection of these is summarised in an excellent little book by Ch.-V. Langlois, entitled _La Vie en France au Moyen Age d'apres quelques Moralistes du Temps_ (2me ed. 1911).

[1624] The text of both _La Bible Guiot_ and _La Bible au Seigneur de Berze_ is printed in _Fabliaux et Contes_, ed. Barbazon-Meon, t. II (Paris, 1808), and both are fully analysed, with extracts in Langlois, _op. cit._ pp. 30-88. The text of _La Bible Guiot_ is also printed in San Marte, _Parcival Studien_ (Halle, 1861), with a translation into German verse.

[1625] _Les Lamentations de Matheolus_, pub. A. G. Van Hamel (_Bib. de l'Ecole des Chartes_, 1892, t. I, pp. 89-90). See also the analysis in Langlois, _op. cit._ pp. 223-75, especially p. 248.

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

[1627] _Poesies de Gilles li Muisis_, pub. Kervyn de Lettenhove (Louvain, 1882), t. I, pp. 209-36. The whole register is analysed in Langlois, _op. cit._ pp. 305-53.

[1628] See above, p. 298.

[1629] See _Vox Clamantis_, Lib. IV, ll. 578-676 in _The Complete Works of John Gower_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, _Latin Works_ (1902), pp. 181-5. The same subject is treated more shortly by Gower in his _Mirour de l'Omne_, ll. 9157-68. (_Ib._ _French Works_, p. 106.)

[1630] Compare the priestly logic of Alvar Pelayo who enumerates the abuse of the confessional among the habitual sins of _women_! _De Planctu Ecclesiae_, Lib. II, Art. 45, n. 84. (See Lea, _Hist. of Sacerdotal Celibacy_, I, 435-6 for this and other medieval complaints of the corruption of nuns by their confessors.)

[1631] Text in Furnivall, _Early Engl. Poems_ (Berlin, 1862), printed in _Trans. of Philological Soc._ 1858, pt. II, pp. 138-48 (from Cotton MS. Vesp. D. IX, f. 179).

[1632] _All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam_, trans. N. Bailey (2nd ed. 1733), pp. 147-55.

[1633] "Nec omnes virgines sunt, mihi crede, quae velum habent.... Nisi fortasse elogium, quod nos hactenus judicavimus esse Virgini matri proprium, ad plures transiit, ut dicantur et a partu virgines ... quin insuper, nec alioqui inter illas virgines sunt omnia virginea ... quia plures inveniuntur, quae mores aemulentur Sapphus, quam quae referant ingenium." Erasmus, _Colloquia, accur. Corn. Schrevelio_ (Amsterdam, 1693), p. 196.

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

[1635] This account of Katherine's experiences, whether they were due (as the translator suggests) to "the crafty tricks of the monks, who terrify and frighten unexperienced minds into their cloysters by feigned apparitions and visions," or (as was more probably Erasmus' meaning) to the mere power of suggestion upon a hysterical girl, should be compared with the numerous accounts of such apparitions seen by novices or intending novices, which are to be found in lives of saints and in edifying _exempla_. See the examples quoted from Caesarius of Heisterbach, below, pp. 628 _sqq._

[1636] For the expenses incidental to taking the veil, see above, pp. 19-20.

[1637] _Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits_, in Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_, ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S. 2nd ed., 1883), pp. 421-3.

[1638] _Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits_, in Sir David Lyndesay's _Poems_, ed. Small, Hall and Murray (E.E.T.S. 2nd ed., 1883), p. 506.

[1639] _Ib._ p. 514.

[1640] _Ib._ p. 521.

[1641] Quoted from the ballad by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe ("The Murder of Caerlaverock") in McDowall, W., _Chronicles of Lincluden_, p. 28.

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

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

[1644] See above, p. 529.

[1645] See _Le Livre du Dit de Poissy_, ll. 220-698, _passim_, in _Oeuvres Poetiques de Christine de Pisan_, ed. Maurice Roy (Soc. des Anc. Textes Fr. 1891), t. II, pp. 160-80. With this may be compared another, but much slighter "courtly" description of a nunnery, contained in the _roman d'aventure_, _L'Escoufle_, written at the close of the twelfth century. At the beginning of the poem the author describes the service of the mass in the Abbey of Montivilliers (see below, p. 637), on the occasion of the departure of the Count of Montivilliers on a crusade; the Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishop of Lisieux took part in the service and a large concourse of lords and ladies was present. The author describes the singing of the service,

Li couvens avoit ja la messe Commencie et l'abbesse Commanda a ij damoiseles Des mix cantans et des plus beles Les cuer a tenir, por mix plaire Et por la feste grignor faire.

He describes the rich offerings made at the altar by the Count and the rest of the congregation; and the stately visit of farewell paid by them afterwards to the nuns in the chapter house, when the Count asked for their prayers and in return gave them an annual rent of 20 or 30 silver marks. _L'Escoufle_, ed. H. Michelant and P. Meyer (Soc. des Anc. Textes Fr. 1894), pp. 7-9, _passim_. The other notable twelfth century description of a nunnery (in Raoul de Cambrai) is very different. See above. pp. 433-5.

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

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

[1648] 'Pudding' was a sausage.

[1649] Tyre was a favourite sweet wine in the middle ages; "if not of Syrian growth [it] was probably a Calabrian or Sicilian wine, manufactured from the species of grape called _tirio_." _Early Eng. Meals and Manners_, ed. Furnivall (E.E.T.S. 1868), p. 90.

[1650] Sowce (Lat. _salsagium_, verjuice) was a sort of pickle for hog's flesh. _Promptorium Parvulorum_, ed. A. L. Mayhew (E.E.T.S. 1908), notes, p. 701. See the rather ominous verse in Tusser:

Thy measeled bacon, hog, sow, or thy bore, Shut up for to heale, for infecting thy store: Or kill it for bacon, or sowce it to sell, For Flemming, that loues it so deintily well.

Tusser, _Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie_ (Eng. Dialect Soc. 1878), p. 52. The word is still in use in the north of England for a concoction of mincemeat, vegetables, cloves and vinegar and in 'soused herrings' i.e. herrings cooked in vinegar.

[1651] I.e. St Ethelburga, for whom the Abbey was founded by her brother Erconwald, Bishop of London, in 666.

[1652] Probably _gris_, i.e. a little pig. Compare _Piers Plowman_, Prol. l. 226:

Cokes and here knaues crieden, 'hote pies, hote! Gode gris and gees gowe dyne, gowe!'

[1653] "White worts," was a kind of _potage_ ("potage is not so moche used in all Chrystendome as it is used in Englande. Potage is made of the licour in the whiche flesshe is sod in, with puttynge to, chopped herbes and Otmell and salte," _Early Eng. Meals and Manners_, p. 97). This is a recipe for _White Worts_, written down, c. 1420: "Take of the erbys as thou dede for _jouutes_ and sethe hem in water tyl they ben neyshe; thanne take hem up, an bryse hem fayre on a potte an ley hem with flowre of Rys; take mylke of almaundys and cast therto and hony, nowt to moche, that it be nowt to swete, an safron and salt; an serve it forth ynne, rygth for a good potage." The herbs used for _jouutes_ are "borage, violet, mallows, parsley, young worts, beet, avens, buglos and orach"; and it is recommended to use two or three marrow bones in making the broth. _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, ed. T. Austen (E.E.T.S. 1888), pp. 5, 6.

[1654] Frumenty or Furmety (Lat. _frumentum_, wheat) is wheat husked and boiled soft in water, then boiled in milk, sweetened and spiced. Here is a recipe for it from the same book as that for white worts: "Take whete and pyke it clene and do it in a morter, an caste a lytel water theron; an stampe with a pestel tyl it hole [hull, lose husks]; than fan owt the holys [hulls, husks], an put it in a potte, an let sethe tyl it breke; than set yt douun, an sone after set it ouer the fyre an stere it wyl; an whan thow hast sothyn it wyl, put therinne swete mylke, an sethe it yfere, an stere it wyl; and whan it is ynow, coloure it wyth safron, an salt it euene, and dresse it forth." _Op. cit._ pp. 6-7. See the rhymed recipe in the _Liber cure cocorum_ (c. 1460), ed. Morris (Phil. Soc. 1862), p. 7.

[1655] Crisps (Mod. Fr. _crepe_) were fritters. Here is a recipe for them in a cookery book written c. 1450: "Take white of eyren [eggs], Milke, and fyne flowre, and bete hit togidre and drawe hit thorgh a streynour, so that hit be rennyng, and noght to stiff; and caste thereto sugar and salt. And then take a chaffur ful of fressh grece boyling; and then put thi honde in the batur and lete the bater ren thorgh thi fingers into the chaffur; And whan it is ren togidre in the chaffre, and is ynowe, take a skymour and take hit oute of the chaffur, and putte oute al the grece, And lete ren; and putte hit in a faire dissh and cast sugur thereon ynow and serue it forth." _Op. cit._ p. 93.

[1656] Buns. Compare the instructions to the cellaress of Syon: "On water days [i.e. days when the sisters drank water instead of beer] sche schal ordeyne for bonnes or newe brede." Aungier, _Hist. and Antiq. of Syon Mon._ p. 393.

[1657] Here is a recipe: "_Risshewes._ Take figges and grinde hem all rawe in a morter and cast a litull fraied oyle there-to; and then take hem vppe yn a versell, and caste thereto pynes, reysyns of corance, myced dates, sugur, Saffron, pouder ginger, and salt: And then make Cakes of floure, Sugur, salt and rolle the stuff in thi honde and couche it in the cakes, and folde hem togidur as risshewes, and fry hem in oyle, and serue hem forth." _Op. cit._ p. 93. There are other recipes, _ib._ pp. 43, 45, 97. The word survives in _rissole_.

[1658] _Reg. Epis. Peckham_, II, p. 706.

[1659] _Worc. Sede Vac. Reg._ p. 276.

[1660] Dugdale, _Mon._ III, p. 366.

[1661] _Linc. MS. Reg. Bokyngham Mem._ f. 397_d_.

[1662] _Linc. Visit._ II, pp. 120-1.

[1663] _Ib._ I, p. 51.

[1664] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 101.

[1665] See above, p. 397.

[1666] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 115.

[1667] _Ib._ p. 115.

[1668] Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll. IX, pp. 25-7.

[1669] Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll. V, p. 257.

[1670] _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, I, p. 125.

[1671] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 51.

[1672] _Linc. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343. Compare Buckingham's similar injunction to Heynings, _ib._ f. 397, Gynewell's injunction to Elstow in 1359, _ib._ _Reg. Gynewell_, ff. 139_d_-140, Pontoise's injunction to Wherwell in 1302, _Reg. J. de Pontissara_, I, p. 125, and Peckham's injunction to the Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, in 1284, _Reg. Ep. Peckham_. II, p. 706.

[1673] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 104.

[1674] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 174.

[1675] _V.C.H. Northants._ II, p. 99.

[1676] Liveing, _op. cit._ p. 168.

[1677] _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 434.

[1678] Translated from his _Bonum Universale de Apibus_, Lib. II, c. 30, written about 1260, in Coulton, _Med. Garn._ pp. 372-3.

[1679] Aungier, _Hist. and Antiq. of Syon Mon._ pp. 256, 257, 259, 261-2. For further instances of quarrels in the province of Rouen, see below, pp. 664-6.

[1680] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 508.

[1681] _Ib._ pp. 590-1. Compare a decree of the contemporary Council of Trier (1227) for German nuns, Harzheim, _Conc. Germ._ III, p. 534.

[1682]

And, whan he rood, men might his brydel here Ginglen in a whistling wind as clere, And eke as loude as dooth the chapel-belle Ther as this lord was keper of the celle.

[1683] Wilkins, _Conc._ I, p. 660.

[1684] _New Coll._ MS. f. 86.

[1685] Aungier, _op. cit._ p. 392.

[1686] _Reg. Ep. Peckham_, III, p. 849.

[1687] Ful semely hir wimpel pinched was!

[1688] Gresset, _Vert Vert_, ll. 142-6. See below, p. 593.

[1689]

I seigh his sleves purfiled at the hond With grys, and that the fyneste of a lond. Chaucer, _Prologue_, ll. 193-4.

[1690] _Linc. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham_, f. 343_d_.

[1691] _Hereford Reg. Spofford_, I, f. 77_d_.

[1692] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 181.

[1693] _Ib._ p. 126.

[1694] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194.

[1695] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 119, 120, 127, 164, 168, 174-5, 181, 183, 240.

[1696] _Linc. Visit._ II, p. 176; _Alnwick's Visit._ MS. ff. 26_d_, 38.

[1697] _V.C.H. Essex_, II, 124.

[1698] _Norwich Visit._ p. 274.

[1699] _V.C.H. Hants._ II, p. 130, where the date is wrongly given as 1512.

[1700] See below, p. 663.

[1701] _Prologue_, ll. 146-9. Chaucer was certainly a dog-lover: a passage in the _Book of the Duchess_ (ll. 387 ff.) puts it beyond doubt:

I was go walked fro my tree, And as I wente ther cam by me A whelp, that fauned me as I stood That hadde y-folowed, and coude no good. Hit com and creep to me as lowe, Right as hit badde me y-knowe, Hild doun his heed and joyned his eres, And leyde al smothe doun his heres. I wolde han caught hit, and anoon Hit fledde, and was fro me goon.

[1702] _The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry_, ed. T. Wright (E.E.T.S. revised ed. 1906), pp. 28-9.

[1703] Printed in _The Cambridge Songs_, ed. Karl Breul (1915), No. 29, p. 62; and in _Denkmaeler_, ed. Muellenhoff und Scherer, _Deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem_ VIII-XII _Jahrhundert_ (Berlin, 1892), I, pp. 51-3 (No. XXIV). I have ventured to attempt a translation.

[1704] Skelton, _Selected Poems_, ed. W. H. Williams (1902). pp. 57 ff.

[1705] Translation by Robin Flower in _The Poem Book of the Gael_, ed. Eleanor Hull (1913), p. 132. The poem has also been translated by Kuno Meyer and by Alfred Perceval Graves.

[1706] Quoted in Fosbroke, _Brit. Monachism_, II, p. 34.

[1707] _Oeuvres Choisies de Gresset_ (Coll. Bibliotheque Nationale), pp. 3 ff. There is an eighteenth century English translation (1759) by J. G. Cooper in Chalmers, _English Poets_, XV, pp. 528-36.

[1708] Summarised in _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, pp. 76-7.

[1709] When the nuns exhorted her to abstain from his company, she replied "quod ipsum amavit et amare volet." _Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Atwater_, f. 87.

[1710] See above, p. 58.

[1711] So also was Nunkeeling, where there was a particularly violent election struggle, but no mention of immorality.

[1712] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 159.

[1713] _Ib._ pp. 167-9.

[1714] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 456-7.

[1715] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 187-9. A Prioress was deposed here for incontinence in 1494.

[1716] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 239-40.

[1717] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 457-8. Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, is referred to.

[1718] See above, p. 427.

[1719] _Cal. of Papal Letters_, III, p. 1345.

[1720] _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, pp. 355, 358-62. Another nun apostatised and lived a dissolute life for some time in the world, returning in 1337. _Ib._ p. 363.

[1721] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 179-81. The house was in an unsatisfactory condition as early as 1268. _Reg. Walter Giffard_, pp. 147-8.

[1722] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, pp. 129-30.

[1723] _Ib._ III, p. 113. The house seems to have been in much the same condition later. A nun had run away in 1372 and the misdeeds of the bad prioress Eleanor came to light in 1396. _Ib._ 114-5.

[1724] _Ib._ p. 124.

[1725] _Ib._ p. 126.

[1726] _Ib._ p. 161. In 1535 Archbishop Lee found that a nun here, Joan Hutton, "hath lyved incontinentlie and unchast and hath broght forth a child of her bodie begotten." _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ XVI, p. 453.

[1727] _V.C.H. Yorks._ III, p. 164.

[1728] _Ib._ p. 164.

[1729] _Ib._ p. 116 and _Yorks. Arch. Journ._ IX, p. 334.

[1730] _Ib._ pp. 176-7.

[1731] _Ib._ p. 175.

[1732] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 194; see also _Cal. of Pap. Letters_, X, p. 471.

[1733] _Ib._ p. 183.

[1734] It may be noted that five nunneries had already disappeared between 1300 and 1500, viz. Waterbeach (transferred to Denny, 1348), Wothorpe (annexed to St Michael's, Stamford, 1354) and St Stephen's, Foukeholme, all of which owed their end to the Black Death; Lyminster (dissolved as an alien priory, 1414); and Rowney (suppressed on account of poverty, 1459).

[1735] Gray, _Priory of St Radegund_, pp. 44-5. For evidence of the decay of the nunnery during the last half of the fifteenth century, see _ib._ pp. 39-44.

[1736] Eckenstein, _Woman under Mon._ p. 436.

[1737] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV. p. 378.

[1738] _Selected Poems of John Skelton_, ed. W. H. Williams (1902), p. 113. There is an interesting _compertum_ at Dr Rayne's visitation of Studley in 1530 to the effect that "the woods of the priory had been much diminished by the late prioress and also by Thomas Cardinal of York for the construction of his College in the University of Oxford." _V.C.H. Oxon._ II, p. 78.

[1739] See above, Note F.

[1740] See above, p. 480.

[1741] Dugdale, _Mon._ IV, p. 288.

[1742] Uhland, _Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder_ (1844-5), II, p. 854 (No. 329); also in R. v. Liliencron, _Deutsches Leben im Volkslied um 1530_ (1884), p. 226, and (in a slightly different and modernised version) in L. A. v. Arnim and Clemens Brentano, _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_ (Reclam edit.), p. 24.

[1743] Translated in Bithell, _The Minnesingers_ (Halle, 1909), I, p. 200. I have been unable to trace the original. I have slightly altered the wording of the translation.

[1744] Karl Bartsch, _Deutsche Liederdichter des zwoelften bis vierzehnten Jahrhunderts_ (4th ed. Berlin, 1901), p. 379 (No. XCVIII, ll. 581-616). Slightly modernised version in Uhland, _op. cit._ II, p. 853 (No. 327).

[1745] _Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie_, V (1881), p. 545 (No. 28). A slightly different version in Moriz Haupt, _Franzoesische Volkslieder_ (Leipzig, 1877), p. 152.

[1746] In a round the last two lines of each verse are repeated as the first two lines of the following verse, and the refrain is repeated at the end of each verse. The songs lose much of their charm by being quoted in compressed form, for the cumulative effect of the repetition is exceedingly graceful and spirited.

[1747] Haupt, _op. cit._ p. 40.

[1748] Weckerlin, _L'Ancienne Chanson Populaire en France_ (1887), p. 354.

[1749] _Ib._ p. 319.

[1750] Bujeaud, J., _Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de l'ouest_ (1866), I, p. 137.

[1751] _Ib._ I, p. 132.

[1752] _Romania_, X, p. 391.

[1753] _Ib._ X, p. 395 (No. XLVIII).

[1754] _Ib._ VII, p. 72 (No. XX). Another version in De Puymaigre, _Chants Populaires recueillis dans le Pays Messin_ (1865), p. 39 (No. X).

[1755] _Ib._ VII, p. 73 (No. XXI). Other versions in Jean Fleury, _Litterature Orale de la Basse-Normandie_ (Paris, 1883), p. 311, and De Puymaigre, _op. cit._ p. 35 (No. IX), and note on p. 37. Compare Schiller's ballad _Der Ritter von Toggenburg_.

[1756] Fleury, _op. cit._ p. 313.

[1757] Nigra, _Canti Popolari del Piemonte_ (1888), No. 80, pp. 409-14.

[1758] T. Casini, _Studi di Poesia antica_ (1913). There is a very racy French song called _Le Comte Orry_ which deserves notice here: see H. C. Delloye, _Chants et Chansons Populaires de la France_ (1{re} serie), 1843.

[1759] Hagen, _Carmina Medii Aevi_ (Berne, 1877), pp. 206-7. There is an exceedingly long and tedious sixteenth century French version, evidently founded on the Latin poem, in Montaiglon, _Rec. de Poesies Francoises des XVI{e} et XVII{e} siecles_, t. VIII, pp. 170-5.

[1760] _The Cambridge Songs_, ed. Karl Breul (1915), No. 35, p. 16. See also Koegel, _Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur_ (1867), I, pp. 136-9.

[1761] _Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie_, V (1881), p. 544, No. 27. Also in Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 405 (under date 1614).

[1762] Rolland, _Rec. de Chansons Populaires_, II, p. 81.

[1763] _Ib._ I, pp. 226-7.

[1764] Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 355.

[1765] Haupt, _Franzoesische Volkslieder_ (1877), p. 84. A slightly different version in Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 297.

[1766] Haupt, _op. cit._ p. 63.

[1767] Weckerlin, _op. cit._ p. 262; also in E. Rolland, _Rec. de Chansons Populaires_ (1883-90), t. II, p. 36.

[1768] "A gentle gallant went hunting in the wood and there he met a nun. She was so lovely, so fresh and so fair. Said the gentle gallant to her: 'Come, sit with me in the shade and never more shalt thou be a little nun.' 'Gentle gallant, wait here for me; I will go and put off my habit and then I will come back to you in the shade.' He waited for her three days and three nights and never came the fair one. The gentle gallant goes to the monastery and knocks at the great door; out comes the mother abbess: 'What are you looking for, gentle gallant?' 'I am looking for a little nun, who promised to come into the shade.' 'You once had the quail at your feet and you let it fly away. Even so has flown the pretty nun.'" Nigra, _Canti Populari del Piemonte_ (1888), No. 72, p. 381. With these two songs should be compared the English poem in Percy's _Reliques_, called _The Baffled Knight or Lady's Policy_, and the Somerset folksong, _Blow away the morning dew_, with its _denouement_:

But when they came to her father's gate So nimble she popped in, And said "There is a fool without And here's the maid within.

We have a flower in our garden We call it marygold-- And if you will not when you may You shall not when you wolde."

_Folk Songs from Somerset_ (1st Series, 1910), ed. Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson, No. VIII, pp. 16-17.

[1769] Fleury, _op. cit._ p. 308. Other versions in De Puymaigre, _op. cit._ pp. 145-8 (Nos. XLV-XLVI).

[1770] Rolland, _op. cit._ IV, p. 31. Cf. versions on pp. 30, 32, 33. The theme recalls a pretty poem by Leigh Hunt:

If you become a nun, dear, A friar I will be; In any cell you run, dear, Pray look behind for me. The roses all turn pale, too; The doves all take the veil, too; The blind will see the show. What! you become a nun, my dear? I'll not believe it, no!

If you become a nun, dear, The bishop Love will be; The Cupids every one, dear, Will chant "We trust in thee." The incense will go sighing, The candles fall a-dying, The water turn to wine; What! you go take the vows, my dear? You may--but they'll be mine!

[1771] Rolland, _op. cit._ I, p. 253, cf. pp. 249-54.

[1772] _Chants de Carnaval Florentins (Canti Carnascialeschi) de l'epoque de Laurent le Magnifique._ Pub. par P. M. Masson (Paris, 1913). For a copy of the song and for the suggestion that it refers to English nuns I am indebted to Mr E. J. Dent of King's College, Cambridge. But the mention of Low Germany sounds more like German nuns.

[1773] Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, _Essays in the Study of Folksongs_ (Everyman's Lib. Ed.), pp. 191-2.

[1774] L. A. v. Arnim and Clemens Brentano, _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_ (Reclam ed.), p. 50.

[1775] _The Oxford Book of Ballads_, ed. Quiller-Couch (1910), p. 635 (No. 125). In the long collection of ballads narrating Robin Hood's career known as _A Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny_ (which was in print early in the sixteenth century) the Prioress is said to have conspired with her lover, one Sir Roger of Doncaster, to slay Robin. _Ib._ p. 574. In the version in Bishop Percy's famous folio MS. "Red Roger" is described as stabbing the weakened outlaw, but losing his own life in the act. _Bishop Percy's Folio MS._ ed. Hales and Furnivall (1867), I, pp. 50-58. "In 'Le Morte de Robin Hode,' a quite modern piece printed in Hone's _Every-day Book_ from an old collection of MS. songs in the Editor's possession, the prioress is represented as the outlaw's sister and as poisoning him." _Ib._ p. 53.

[1776] _Miracles de Nostre Dame par Personnages_, pub. G. Paris and U. Robert (Soc. des Anc. Textes Francais, 1876), t. I, pp. 311-51.

[1777] Translated in Evelyn Underhill, _The Miracles of Our Lady Saint Mary_ (1905), pp. 195-200.

[1778] Caesarius of Heisterbach, II, pp. 41-2. "Although the buffet was hard," says Caesarius, conscious perhaps that the Virgin had acted with less than her wonted gentleness, "she was utterly delivered from temptation by it. A grievous ill requires a grievous remedy."

[1779] Gautier de Coincy, _Miracles de N.D._, ed. Poquet, p. 474.

[1780] _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_, ed. Crane, p. 24. See variant in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), p. 321.

[1781] Caesarius of Heisterbach, _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange, I, pp. 222-3.

[1782] Wright, _Latin Stories_, p. 96.

[1783] Etienne de Bourbon, _Anecdotes Historiques_, ed. Lecoy de la Marche, p. 83 (translated in Taylor, _The Medieval Mind_, I, pp. 508-9).

[1784] I have used the version in _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 11-12. For other versions, see _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ (Soc. des Anc. Textes) I, pp. 59-100. For other versions, see Etienne de Bourbon, _op. cit._ p. 114, Wright, _op. cit._, p. 114, Barbazon et Meon, _Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux_, II, p. 314, _Dodici conti morali d'anonimo Senese: Teste inedite de sec._ XIII (Bologna, 1862), No. 8; Small, _Eng. Metrical Homilies_, p. 164. There is a very interesting Ethiopian version (told of Sophia the abbess of Mount Carmel) in _Miracles of the B.V.M._ (Lady Meux MSS.), ed. E. A. Wallis Budge (1900), pp. 68-71. Most versions preserve the interesting detail that the nuns dislike their abbess and are anxious to betray her on account of her strictness and particularly because she will not give them easy licence to see their friends. In the French dramatic version Sister Isabel stays away from a sermon and gives as her excuse that a cousin came to see her, with some cloth to make a veil and a "surplis," whereupon she is scolded and then pardoned by the Abbess.

[1785] _Le Cento Novelle Antiche_, ed. Gualteruzzi (Milan, 1825), No. 62. I quote the translation by A. C. Lee, _The Decameron, its Sources and Analogues_, p. 60.

[1786] Francesco da Barberino, _Del Reggimento e Costumi di Donne_, ed. Carlo Baudi di Vesme (Bologna, 1875), p. 273. See A. C. Lee, _loc. cit._

[1787] A. C. Lee, _op. cit._ p. 125. The story is of Eastern origin and for its many analogues see _ib._ pp. 123-35.

[1788] _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, ed. Th. Wright (Bib. Elzevirienne, 1858), t. I, pp. 81-4, 114-20, 283-7.

[1789] Montaiglon et Raynaud, _Rec. Gen. des Fabliaux_, III, pp. 137-44.

[1790] _Ib._ IV, pp. 128-32.

[1791] Barbazon et Meon, _Nouv. Rec. de Fabliaux_, IV, p. 250.

[1792] _Erzaehlungen und Schwaenke_, hrsg. von Hans Lambel (Leipzig, 1888), No. VIII, pp. 309-22.

[1793] Koeppel, _Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Novelle in der englischen Litteratur des XVI Jahrhunderts_ (1892), p. 183.

[1794] _King John by William Shakespeare together with the Troublesome Reign of King John_, ed. F. G. Fleay, (1878), pp. 158-62.

[1795] Printed in _A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate_, ed. J. O. Halliwell (Percy Soc. 1840), pp. 107-17. Professor MacCracken denies the authorship to Lydgate, see _The Minor Poems of John Lydgate_, ed. H. N. MacCracken (E.E.T.S. 1911), I, p. xlii (note).

[1796] The edition used is that of Joseph Strange in two volumes (Cologne, Bonn and Brussels, 1851). For a study of the life and times of Caesarius, see A. Kaufmann, _Caesarius von Heisterbach, Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des zwoelften und dreizehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Cologne, 1850). For anecdotes from this source already quoted in the text, see pp. 27-9, 296-7, 511, 520 ff., etc.

[1797] _Op. cit._ I, pp. 1-2.

[1798] I.e. "_Ave Maria, gratia plena._" The Virgin Mary was always the most potent help against the devil, as may be seen from any collection of her miracles (e.g. that made by Gautier de Coincy in French verse in the thirteenth century and edited by the Abbe Poquet).

[1799] _Ib._ I, pp. 125-7. For an abbreviated version of this story, taken from Caesarius, see _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 178-9 (No. CCLV).

[1800] Used in the common medieval sense of entering a religious order.

[1801] _Ib._ I, pp. 328-30. At the end of this story the novice asks: "Why is it that the good Lord allows maidens so tender and so pure to be thus cruelly tormented by rough and foul spirits?" And the monk replies: "Thou hast experienced how if a bitter drink be first swallowed a sweet one tastes the sweeter, and how if black be placed beneath it, white is all the more dazzling. Read the Visions of Witinus, Godescalcus and others, to whom it was permitted to see the pains of the damned and the glory of the elect, and almost always it was the vision of punishment which came first. The Lord, wishing to show his bride his secret joys, permitteth well that she should first be tempted by some dreadful visions, that afterwards she may the better deserve to be made glad, and may know the distance between sweet and bitter, light and darkness."

[1802] _Ib._ I, pp. 330-31.

[1803] _Ib._ II, pp. 68-9. "As I infer from this vision," says the Novice, "an indiscreet fervour in prayers is not pleasing to the blessed Virgin, neither an undisciplined movement in genuflections." On the other hand she did not like her devotees to hurry over their prayers, for Gautier de Coincy has a tale of a nun, Eulalie, who was accustomed to say at each office of the Virgin the full rosary of a hundred and fifty _Aves_; but she had much work to do and often hurried over her prayers, till one night she saw a vision of the mother of God, who promised her salvation and told her that the _Ave Maria_ was a prayer which gave herself much joy; therefore she bade Eulalie not to hurry over it, but of her bounty permitted her to say a chaplet of fifty _Aves_, instead of the long rosary. See Gautier de Coincy, _Les Miracles de la Sainte Vierge_, ed. Poquet (Paris, 1857).

[1804] _Ib._ II, p. 100.

[1805] _Ib._ II, pp. 121-2.

[1806] _Ib._ II, pp. 122-3. For a variant in which the place of the two nuns is taken by two doctors of divinity, see _An Alphabet of Tales_ (E.E.T.S.), pp. 274-5.

[1807] _Ib._ II, pp. 343-4. With these holy rivalries should be compared Caesarius' tales of the drawing of apostles by lot. "It is a very common custom among the matrons of our province to choose an Apostle for their very own by the following lottery: the names of the twelve Apostles are written each on twelve tapers, which are blessed by the priest and laid on the altar at the same moment. Then the woman comes and draws a taper and whatsoever name that taper shall chance to bear, to that Apostle she renders special honour and service. A certain matron, having thus drawn St Andrew, and being displeased to have drawn him, laid the taper back on the altar and would have drawn another; but the same came to her hand again. Why should I make a long story? At length she drew one that pleased her, to whom she paid faithful devotion all the days of her life; nevertheless when she came to her last end and was at the point of death, she saw not him but the Blessed Andrew standing at her bedside. 'Lo,' he said, 'I am that despised Andrew!' from which we can gather that sometimes saints thrust themselves even of their own accord into men's devotions." Another matron was so much annoyed at drawing St Jude the Obscure instead of a more famous Apostle that she threw him behind the altar chest; whereupon the outraged Apostle visited her in a dream and not only rated her soundly but afflicted her with a palsy. See _ib._ II, pp. 129, 133, translated in Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, pp. 259-60.

[1808] Several of the stories have, however, been translated by Mr Coulton, _op. cit._ Nos. 102-32.

[1809] Translated in Coulton, _From St Francis to Dante_ (1907), p. 290; see _ib._ pp. 289-91, for a short account of Eudes Rigaud, also references on p. 395 (n. 17).

[1810] _Regestrum Visitationum Archiepiscopi Rothamagensis_, ed. Bonnin (1852). See analysis by L. Delisle in the _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes_, 1846.

[1811] There is however a copy of the Bishop's letter of injunctions, sent on later, appended to his report of the state of Villarceaux in 1249 (_Reg._ pp. 44-5).

[1812] Walcott, M. E. C., _English Minsters, II_ (_The English Student's Monasticon_), pp. 210 and _V.C.H. Dorset_, II, p. 48.

[1813] _V.C.H. Sussex_, II, p. 121 and Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, pp. 1032-3. The later history of this cell can be traced from occasional references. It was a very small house and contained only a prioress and two nuns in 1380. Dugdale says that after the French wars Richard Earl of Arundel treated with the Abbess of Almeneches for the purchase of some lands belonging to Lyminster and in 1404 a papal brief enumerated the possessions of Almeneches in England and elsewhere, with a threat of penalties against all who should disturb them. Dugdale, _Mon._ VI, pp. 1032-3. Five years later a memorandum in the Register of Bishop Rede of Chichester notes the admission of a new Prioress, Nichola de Hereez, on the presentation of the Abbess and Convent of Almeneches, in place of Georgete la Cloutiere, deceased. _Reg. Robert Rede_ (Sussex Rec. Soc. 1908), pp. 38-9. Clearly French women were ruling over the house, though the nuns may possibly have been English. Shortly afterwards Henry V finally dissolved the alien priories in England and the lands belonging to Lyminster were settled by Henry VI upon Eton College.

[1814] _Reg._ p. 236.

[1815] Walcott, _op. cit._ p. 141 and _V.C.H. Norfolk_, II, p. 463, and Dugdale, _op. cit._ p. 1057.

[1816] Walcott, _op. cit._ p. 173.

[1817] _Reg._ p. 94.

[1818] _Ib._ p. 261. In 1314-5 the Abbess of the Holy Trinity petitioned the King of England, complaining that she had been distrained in aid of the marriage of his eldest daughter, whereas she held all her lands in frank almoin. _Rot. Parl._ I, p. 331.

[1819] Irrespective of double houses such as the Magdalen of Rouen.

[1820] _Reg._ p. 202.

[1821] p. 73.

[1822] p. 471.

[1823] E.g. pp. 43, 207, 323, 361.

[1824] pp. 235, 374.

[1825] pp. 451, 490.

[1826] p. 194.

[1827] p. 299.

[1828] p. 194.

[1829] pp. 636-7.

[1830] p. 298.

[1831] p. 572.

[1832] p. 419.

[1833] p. 298.

[1834] p. 298.

[1835] p. 268.

[1836] pp. 456, 486, 512.

[1837] pp. 419, 451, 491, 598, 634.

[1838] p. 94.

[1839] p. 323.

[1840] p. 338.

[1841] p. 456.

[1842] pp. 16, 121, 201, 326, 512, 588.

[1843] pp. 166, 194.

[1844] E.g. at St Desir de Lisieux (1249), at Bondeville (1259), and at St Saens (1262). At Bival (1257 and 1259) such a roll was kept. See pp. 62, 299, 339, 348, 451.

[1845] pp. 16, 60, 62, 73, 121, 197, 199, 201, 220, 266, 339, 348, 431, 512.

[1846] pp. 43, 44, 220, 305, 326.

[1847] pp. 43, 44, 326, 431, 588, 602.

[1848] p. 348.

[1849] p. 410.

[1850] See e.g. pp. 100, 274, 299, 339, 361, 402, 407, 410, 451, 468, 471, 523, 602, 619.

[1851] p. 468.

[1852] p. 100.

[1853] p. 361.

[1854] pp. 487, 598, 615.

[1855] pp. 100, 572, 592.

[1856] The exact definition of these measures is a thorny subject, but probably the _modius_ was roughly a quarter and the _mina_ a little more.

[1857] The list of rents in kind is an interesting illustration of the monastic economy; such rents were probably retained, where estates belonged to large communities, for some time after they were commuted for money on secular lands.

[1858] The same which they sold in 1261.

[1859] pp. 273-4. Compare the inventory of Bondeville, _ib._ p. 299.

[1860] p. 299.

[1861] p. 457.

[1862] p. 384.

[1863] p. 316.

[1864] p. 16.

[1865] pp. 401, 456, 471, 512.

[1866] pp. 187, 273, 310, 338.

[1867] p. 380.

[1868] p. 419.

[1869] p. 491.

[1870] p. 522.

[1871] p. 522: he probably means _vicar_.

[1872] p. 111.

[1873] p. 217.

[1874] pp. 610, 636.

[1875] pp. 197, 295.

[1876] p. 166.

[1877] p. 285.

[1878] For other references to the fondness of nuns for ginger see the _Life of Christina von Stommeln_: "Item per annum cum dimidio non comedit aliud quam gingiber" (_Acta SS._ t. IV, p. 454 A). Also the _Ancren Riwle_, p. 316: "Of a man whom ye distrust receive ye neither less nor more--not so much as a race of ginger." Cf. _ib._ p. 279.

[1879] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 564.

[1880] See pp. 793-4 for the inquisition. The name of the house is not given and the editor places the list in the appendix, but the date is 1257 and from internal evidence it is quite clear that it refers to the resignation of Marie, prioress of Bondeville.

[1881] p. 793.

[1882] pp. 111, 133, 217, 298, 410.

[1883] p. 6.

[1884] p. 610.

[1885] pp. 44, 115, 166, 255, 273, 338, 419, 451, 457, 491, 500, 522, 550.

[1886] p. 522, compare p. 550.

[1887] pp. 166, 194.

[1888] p. 500.

[1889] p. 273.

[1890] p. 457.

[1891] p. 115.

[1892] p. 15.

[1893] pp. 384, 431, 472.

[1894] p. 44.

[1895] p. 575.

[1896] p. 486.

[1897] p. 487.

[1898] pp. 283, 319, 361.

[1899] p. 457.

[1900] p. 305.

[1901] pp. 281, 402.

[1902] pp. 384, 431, 817.

[1903] pp. 268, 299, 339. On one occasion the number is given as 12. p. 207.

[1904] pp. 43, 534. However in 1268 Rigaud noted that they ought to do so monthly. p. 602.

[1905] p. 412.

[1906] p. 62, but in 1267 Rigaud noted that they were obliged to do so seven times a year. p. 600.

[1907] pp. 293, 517, 564.

[1908] pp. 298, 487. In 1255 he noted that they did so seven times a year and ordered fortnightly confessions and communions instead (p. 217), but from the later visitations it appears that the seven times rule referred only to lay brothers and sisters.

[1909] p. 410.

[1910] (St Amand), pp. 121, 202, 326, 456; (St Desir de Lisieux), p. 199; (St Sauveur d'Evreux), pp. 220, 305.

[1911] p. 82.

[1912] p. 374.

[1913] p. 419.

[1914] p. 522.

[1915] p. 245.

[1916] p. 517 (Montivilliers).

[1917] pp. 43, 44 (Villarceaux); 117, 146 (Bival); 170, 310 (St Saens); 261 (Caen); 285, 486 (St Amand); 305 (St Sauveur); 348 (Bondeville).

[1918] pp. 15 (St Amand); 60 (St Leger de Preaux).

[1919] p. 43.

[1920] pp. 15, 121 (St Amand); 207 (St Aubin).

[1921] p. 207 (Bival).

[1922] p. 207 (St Aubin).

[1923] pp. 197, 295, 591 (St Leger-de-Preaux); 201 (St Amand); 261 (Caen).

[1924] p. 170 (St Saens).

[1925] pp. 16 (St Amand): 62, 199 (St Desir de Lisieux); 60 (St Leger de Preaux); 170, 187 (St Saens).

[1926] pp. 62 (St Desir de Lisieux); 884 (Montivilliers).

[1927] p. 16.

[1928] p. 121.

[1929] p. 512.

[1930] p. 338.

[1931] p. 384.

[1932] pp. 44, 468.

[1933] pp. 431, 451, 472, 517, 564, 600, 624. Cf. also p. 652, below.

[1934] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 600. Cf. St Saens, p. 451.

[1935] p. 638.

[1936] p. 431.

[1937] pp. 111, 285, 486, 625.

[1938] pp. 111, 166, 170, 194.

[1939] p. 94. Cf. p. 261: "Una non clamat aliam" (1256).

[1940] p. 201.

[1941] p. 293.

[1942] _Ancren Riwle_, tr. Gasquet, pp. 151, 192.

[1943] p. 518. An amusing example of convent amenities on these occasions and particularly of the way in which the younger nuns seized a chance of "getting even" with their elders is to be found in Johann Busch's account of his visitation of Dorstadt (in the _Liber de Reformatione Monasteriorum_ described below, App. III). At this house it was the custom for the chapter disciplines to be administered to the whole convent by two of the youngest nuns, who then received discipline themselves. "And," says Busch, "they had somewhat large rods and beat each other somewhat severely, because the younger nuns were ordained to give disciplines for this reason, that they were stronger than the others. I asked one of them after confession whether she ever gave one more or sharper blows than another. She answered, 'Truly I do. I hit more sharply and as much as I can her who in my judgment deserves more.' This girl was about eight or ten years old. I asked one elderly sister, who was prioress in another monastery of her order, but because she was unwilling to reform was expelled from it, whether she received severe disciplines from them. She replied, 'I have counted ten or eight strokes, which she has often given me as hard as she could, within the space in which "Misereatur tui" is read.' Then I said to her, 'You ought to make her a sign, that she may understand that you have had enough.' She answered, 'When I do that, she hits me all the more. And I dare not say anything to her on account of the prioress's presence, but I think to myself: I must bear these on account of my sins, because the prioress and all the seniors receive from them as much as they like to give, without contradiction.' And she added, 'before her profession I used to teach her and often beat her with a rod: now she pays me back as she likes.'" Busch, _Chron. Wind. et Liber de Ref. Mon._, ed. Grube, pp. 644-5.

[1944] p. 235.

[1945] p. 591.

[1946] pp. 624-5.

[1947] pp. 512, 588.

[1948] p. 550.

[1949] p. 348. Perhaps one of these is referred to in 1251 when Rigaud noted "Ibi est quedam filia cuiusdam burgensis de Vallibus que stulta est" (p. 111). It may however refer to a boarder.

[1950] p. 111.

[1951] pp 348, 615.

[1952] p. 187.

[1953] p. 268.

[1954] p. 412.

[1955] p. 293.

[1956] p. 431.

[1957] pp. 472, 517, 564.

[1958] pp. 170, 187, 522 (St Saens); 201, 326, 401, 512 (St Amand); 298, 348, 455 (Bondeville); 73, 220, 305 (St Sauveur); 117, 146 (Bival); 199, 296 (St Desir de Lisieux); 295-6, 592 (St Leger de Preaux); 402 (Villarceaux); 412 (St Aubin).

[1959] See _Rule of St Benedict_, tr. Gasquet, pp. 95-6: "When receiving new clothes the monks shall always give back the old ones at the same time, to be put away in the clothes room for the poor. For it is sufficient that a monk have two cowls, as well for night wear as for the convenience of washing. Anything else is superfluous and must be cut off."

[1960] pp. 384, 517, 564 (Montivilliers); 295 (St Leger de Preaux); 62 (St Desir de Lisieux); 220, 305 (St Sauveur).

[1961] p. 512.

[1962] p. 305.

[1963] pp. 44-5.

[1964] "Abbatissa dat cuilibet moniali per annum xii solidos pro vestibus tantummodo, et singule earum provident sibi de residuo." p. 339; cf. p. 299. Cf. also Almeneches in 1250, p. 82.

[1965] p. 384.

[1966] p. 207.

[1967] p. 82.

[1968] p. 550.

[1969] p. 587.

[1970] p. 615.

[1971] pp. 62, 199, 296.

[1972] p. 100.

[1973] pp. 115, 273, 285. Cf. injunctions to Villarceaux in 1249, quoted above.

[1974] p. 82.

[1975] Cf. the case of Johanna Martel at St Saens, p, 338, quoted below, p. 668.

[1976] p. 235

[1977] p. 374.

[1978] pp. 384, 431, 472, 517, 564. In 1260 the injunction was: "Item quod omnes sane insimul comederent; item inhibuimus ne in refectorio per conventicula et colligationes comederent sed sederent in mensis indifferenter et escis communibus vescerentur" (p. 384).

[1979] pp. 170, 380, 522.

[1980] pp. 60, 197, 295.

[1981] p. 146.

[1982] p. 572.

[1983] p. 220.

[1984] pp. 111, 217, 571. The oven room of St Amand was looked after by a lay brother, p. 588.

[1985] p. 73.

[1986] p. 82.

[1987] p. 111. "Quod moniales non vendant nec distrahant filum et _lor fusees_."

[1988] pp. 202, 283, 326, 401, 456, 486, 512, 588 (St Amand); 73, 624 (St Sauveur); 518 (Montivilliers); 451 (St Saens); 534 (Villarceaux).

[1989] _Ancren Riwle_, tr. Gasquet, p. 318.

[1990] The custom of depositing valuables in a monastery for safety was very general. Caesarius of Heisterbach has an entertaining anecdote on the point: "A certain usurer committed a large sum of his money to a certain cellarer of our order to be kept for him. The monk sealed it up and put it in a safe place together with the money belonging to the monastery. Afterwards the usurer came to ask for his deposit, but when the cellarer opened the chest, he found neither that nor his own money. And when he beheld that the locks of the chest were intact and the seals of the bags unbroken and that there was no suspicion of theft, he understood that the money of the usurer had eaten up the money of the monastery." Caes. of Heist., _Dial. Mirac._ ed. Strange (1851), I, p. 108. For another example of goods being deposited for safety in a nunnery see _V.C.H. Herts._ IV, p. 431 (note 40). A certain Joan Sturmyn entrusted goods to the value of L50 to the keeping of Alice Wafer, Prioress of St Mary de Pre (near St Albans), which afterwards gave rise to a case in chancery, 1480-5.

[1991] Coulton, _Monastic Schools in the Middle Ages_ (Medieval Studies, No. 10) quoting from Martene, _Thesaurus_, IV, col. 175, Sec. IV.

[1992] See references to convent schools by Gerson and by Erasmus quoted in Coulton, _op. cit._ pp. 22-3, note 17.

[1993] Or grandnieces (_nepotulas_).

[1994] p. 217.

[1995] p. 298.

[1996] p. 410.

[1997] p. 571.

[1998] p. 615.

[1999] Coulton, _op. cit._ p. 5.

[2000] p. 282.

[2001] p. 324.

[2002] p. 572.

[2003] p. 602.

[2004] p. 380.

[2005] p. 419.

[2006] p. 412: "Item ne pueros admitterent ad nutriendum."

[2007] p. 146.

[2008] p. 486.

[2009] p. 60.

[2010] p. 220.

[2011] p. 305.

[2012] pp. 610, 636.

[2013] pp. 43, 44.

[2014] pp. 115, 207, 255, 283, 319.

[2015] p. 361.

[2016] pp. 412, 471, 550, 587.

[2017] p. 310.

[2018] p. 338.

[2019] p. 380.

[2020] p. 419.

[2021] pp. 451, 491.

[2022] pp. 201, 285.

[2023] p. 486.

[2024] p. 512.

[2025] p. 588.

[2026] p. 281.

[2027] p. 323.

[2028] p. 571.

[2029] pp. 44, 572.

[2030] p. 207.

[2031] p. 564.

[2032] pp. 43, 82, 146, 348.

[2033] pp. 348, 410.

[2034] p. 117.

[2035] p. 146.

[2036] pp. 146, 207, 220, 235, 255, 283, 305, 319, 348, 419, 624, 636.

[2037] pp. 43, 207, 255, 283, 305.

[2038] pp. 43, 326.

[2039] p. 117.

[2040] p. 348.

[2041] p. 220.

[2042] pp. 43, 117, 220, 235, 268, 486, 491, 534, 550.

[2043] p. 587.

[2044] p. 44.

[2045] p. 285.

[2046] pp. 43, 197, 296, 338, 348, 374, 380, 419, 451, 455, 486, 491, 534, 591, 624.

[2047] p. 187 (1254); in 1259 it is again complained that the nuns stay for a long time when they have licence to go outside and on three other occasions it is noted that the nuns go out alone; in 1262 a penance was enjoined on the Prioress for allowing one nun to do so. See pp. 338, 380, 419, 451, 491.

[2048] p. 197.

[2049] p. 295.

[2050] p. 591.

[2051] p. 298; cf. p. 455.

[2052] p. 281; cf. pp. 146, 486, 588.

[2053] pp. 293, 517.

[2054] p. 587.

[2055] p. 412.

[2056] p. 471.

[2057] See above, pp. 542 ff.

[2058] p. 44.

[2059] p. 166.

[2060] p. 197.

[2061] p. 261.

[2062] p. 384.

[2063] pp. 431, 517.

[2064] p. 486.

[2065] See above p. 311 and E. K. Chambers, _The Medieval Stage_, I, ch. XV, _passim_.

[2066] p. 73.

[2067] pp. 305, 624.

[2068] p. 295.

[2069] p. 95.

[2070] p. 201.

[2071] p. 602; compare a similar case at Legbourne, above, p. 412.

[2072] p. 43.

[2073] pp. 518, 564.

[2074] p. 16.

[2075] pp. 73, 207, 220, 305, 624.

[2076] Montaiglon, _Recueil de Poesies Francoises des XVI{e} et XVII{e} siecles_, t. VIII, pp. 171, 173.

[2077] pp. 43-4.

[2078] But a better example of his wit is shown in his repartee to another's pun, quoted in Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_, p. 289. "A clerical buffoon once ventured to ask him across the table, 'What is the difference, my lord, betwixt _Rigaud_ and _Ribaud_ [rascal]?' 'Only this board's breadth,' replied the Archbishop." The jest is however widespread, _mutatis mutandis_, in the east as well as in the west. It is told of one John Scot, 'What difference is there between sot and scot?' 'Just the breadth of the table.' _Calendar of Jests, Epigrams, Epitaphs etc._ (Edinburgh 1753); it also occurs in Gladwin's _Persian Moonshee_ and in several Indian collections of _facetiae_. W. A. Clouston, _Popular Tales and Fictions_ (1887) I, p. 51.

[2079] p. 207.

[2080] p. 146.

[2081] p. 207.

[2082] p. 338.

[2083] p. 522.

[2084] p. 82.

[2085] p. 326.

[2086] p. 456.

[2087] p. 638.

[2088] See pp. 645-6, above.

[2089] _Reg._ p. 348.

[2090] p. 199.

[2091] p. 575. Cf. the case of the Priory of Couz, when it was visited in 1283 by Simon of Beaulieu, Archbishop of Bourges. Baluze, _Miscellanea_, I, 281.

[2092] pp. 43-4. Notice the disjointed character of the report and the repetition of charges, e.g. against Johanna of _Alto Villari_ (who is probably the same as Johanna of _Aululari_) the cellaress and the Prioress. This probably indicates that it is a verbatim report of evidence taken down from the lips of the nuns, as they came before the Archbishop.

[2093] pp. 44-5.

[2094] p. 117.

[2095] p. 82.

[2096] p. 6.

[2097] p. 207.

[2098] p. 268.

[2099] p. 207.

[2100] A similar charge was made at the convent of St Saens in 1264 where scandal imputed to Nicholaa, a notoriously immoral nun, "_quod ipsa nondum erat mensis elapsus fecerat abortivum_"; but the Archbishop apparently disbelieved the charge. p. 491. See p. 669, below.

[2101] p. 255.

[2102] p. 283.

[2103] p. 412.

[2104] p. 471.

[2105] p. 500.

[2106] It is noticeable how often in these visitations the nuns are reported to have been led astray by priests; but when one considers the character borne by many of the parochial and other clergy of the diocese, as it is recorded in the Register, this is hardly surprising.

[2107] pp. 550, 587.

[2108] p. 587.

[2109] p. 619.

[2110] p. 187.

[2111] p. 338.

[2112] See above, p. 667, note 6.

[2113] p. 491.

[2114] p. 522.

[2115] p. 566.

[2116] p. 598.

[2117] Or rather on loose sheets, which were not intended for official preservation and have survived only by accident.

[2118] I.e. abbot. These German Augustinians never used the term _abbas_, but used _praepositus_ instead.

[2119] _Des Augustinerpropstes Iohannes Busch Chronicon Windeshemense und Liber de Reformatione Monasteriorum_ ... bearbeitet v. Dr Karl Grube (_Hist. Com. der Provinz. Sachsen._ Halle, 1886).

[2120] The nunneries dealt with by Busch are the following (A. = Austin, B. = Benedictine, C. = Cistercian, M.M. = penitentiary order of St Mary Magdalen, following the Cistercian rule): (1) Wennigsen (S. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, A.); (2) Mariensee (N. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, C.); (3) Barsinghausen (S. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, A.); (4) Marienwerder (N. of Hanover, dioc. Minden, A.); (5) St George, or Marienkammer (in Glaucha, a suburb of Halle, dioc. Magdeburg, C.); (6) Magdalenenkloster, Hildesheim (dioc. Hildesheim, M.M.); (7) Derneburg (W. of Hildesheim, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (8) Escherde (S.W. of Hildesheim, B.); (9) Heiningen (in Hanover, between Wolfenbuettel and Goslar, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (10) Stederburg (near Brunswick, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (11) Frankenburg (in Goslar, dioc. Hildesheim, M.M.); (12) Kloster zum hl. Kreuze (Holy Cross) or Neuwerk, Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, A.); (13) St Cyriac's in Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, B.); (14) Weissfrauenkloster (White Ladies) in Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, M.M.); (15) St Martin's in Erfurt (dioc. Mainz, C.); (16) Marienberg (near Helmstedt, dioc. Halberstadt, A.); (17) Marienborn (near Helmstedt, dioc. Halberstadt, A.); (18) Weinhausen (near Lueneburg, dioc. Hildesheim, C.); (19) Weissfrauenkloster (White Ladies) in Magdeburg (dioc. Magdeburg, M.M.); (20) Wuelfinghausen (near Wittenberg, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (21) Fischbeck (near Rinteln on the Weser, in Hessen-Nassau, dioc. Minden, A.); (22) Dorstadt (near Wolfenbuettel, dioc. Hildesheim, A.); (23) Stendal (in the mark of Brandenburg, A.). Also (24) Bewerwijk in N. Holland (Franciscan tertiaries), and (25) Segeberchhus in Luebeck, both houses of lay sisters.

[2121] But see _Liber_, pp. 600, 637, 640.

[2122] _Liber_, p. 580.

[2123] _Liber_, p. 591.

[2124] _Ib._ p. 610. For interesting lists of money and goods put into common stock by Busch see also pp. 614, 616, 617, 633.

[2125] _Ib._ pp. 633-4.

[2126] _Ib._ p. 633.

[2127] _Ib._ pp. 571-2.

[2128] See _ib._ pp. 572, 591.

[2129] _Liber_, pp. 573-4. Compare the exertions of Berthold, Prior of Suelte, to provide the poor nuns of Heiningen with sufficient stores of food and to pay off their debts, _ib._ pp. 601-2; see also, p. 599.

[2130] _Ib._ p. 614.

[2131] _Ib._ p. 582.

[2132] _Ib._ p. 643.

[2133] _Ib._ p. 614.

[2134] _Ib._ p. 567.

[2135] _Liber_, pp. 582-3; compare pp. 603, 638.

[2136] _Ib._ p. 639.

[2137] _Ib._ p. 633.

[2138] _Liber_, p. 587.

[2139] _Ib._ p. 599.

[2140] _Ib._ p. 617. Compare Marienwerder, _ib._ pp. 567-8.

[2141] _Ib._ pp. 630-2.

[2142] _Ib._ p. 642.

[2143] _Liber_, p. 581.

[2144] _Ib._ pp. 615, 652-3. But the _praepositus_ of Erfurt, when he saw the result of the reforms, was delighted and thanked Busch.

[2145] _Liber_, pp. 555-62.

[2146] _Liber_, pp. 562-5.

[2147] See _ib._ pp. 591-7.

[2148] _Liber_, pp. 575-6.

[2149] _Ib._ p. 589.

[2150] _Liber_, pp. 597-8.

[2151] _Ib._ pp. 580, 607, 612, 619, 628, 631, 635, 642, 649, 651.

[2152] _Ib._ pp. 618-22.

[2153] _Liber_, pp. 622-7.

[2154] _Liber_, pp. 624-5.

[2155] _Ib._ p. 625. For the learning of reformed nuns, see pp. 576, 607, 642.

[2156] See e.g. _ib._ pp. 585-6, 636, 640.

[2157] _Ib._ p. 596.

[2158] In course of publication, edited by Mr A. Hamilton Thompson. The printed portion is cited in the text as _Linc. Visit._ II, and the unprinted portion as _Alnwick's Visit. MS._

[2159] Bishop Lowth says: "This MS. belonged to Wykeham himself, for the injunctions are the original drafts corrected. It came afterwards into the hands of Robert Shirborn, Master of St Cross Hospital, afterwards Bishop of Chichester." It contains a long series of documents relating to a controversy between the Bishop and the masters of St Cross Hospital and injunctions sent to the Cathedral Church of Winchester, the monasteries of Hyde, Merton, Romsey and Wherwell, and the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr, Southwark, covering the years 1386 and 1387. It is of the highest interest and should certainly be published. My thanks are due to Dr Moyle, Bursar of New College, for permission to transcribe the injunctions sent to the two nunneries.

[2160] Foreign books mentioned only in ch. XIII are not included here.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.

The yogh symbol has been replaced, without note, with the letters "gh" in English passages and "z" in French passages.

The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not represented in this text version. Where appropriate, these forms have been expanded to improve readability.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

Two symbols are represented by [dagger] and [Maltese cross].