Women of England

by Bartlett Burleigh James

In general, the routine of the nunnery was the same as that of a monastery. There was the same rotation, hour by hour, of sacred services, with monotonous regularity and repetition; the only variety offered was that of labor of one sort or another, with brief intervals for rest and refreshment. The industry of the nuns usually took the form of working in wool, for it devolved upon them to make the clothing of the monks, who were associated with the convents to perform the outdoor labor and to serve as confessors for the female inmates. Great care was necessary to prevent too close proximity of the nunneries and monasteries and to limit the intercourse of the inmates of the respective institutions to the bare necessities of their mutual dependence.

The rules by which women were governed in the life of the convent did not differ much from those for the men. Some of these regulations were very rigorous: the inmates were to have nothing of their own, nor were they allowed to go out of the convent, and they were permitted the luxury of a bath only in time of sickness. Continual silence, frequent confessions, a spare diet, and hard labor were to be endured uncomplainingly, on penalty of excommunication.

In the fifth century, prohibitions were issued proscribing the founding of any more monasteries for monks and nuns together and ordering the partitioning of those which already existed. No man excepting the officiating clergy, the bishop, and the steward of the convent was allowed to enter within its walls; and, indeed, one of the rules enjoined that the nuns were to make confession to the bishop through the abbess. Under no pretext whatever were the nuns to lodge under the roof of a monastery, nor was any person who was not a monk or a cleric of high repute to be allowed within the precincts of the convent on temporal business; but in spite of the many rules by which they were hedged about, in the eighth century nuns are found admitted into the monasteries on the ground of the necessity for their presence in sickness and similar emergencies.

Besides the nuns, strictly so called, in the eighth and subsequent centuries there were canonesses, who differed from the nuns in retaining more of their secular character. Their vows were not perpetual, and they confined their labors chiefly to the instruction of the children of the nobles.

Having cited some of the rules for the government of those who committed themselves to the life of the nun, it now remains to perform the delicate task of showing the degree of success which attended the attempt to isolate a class of unmarried women, that, by religious offices and meditations, they might wholly dedicate their time and their faculties to the cultivation of the Christian graces, and serve as the benefactresses of the poor in giving alms at the convent gate. The century that witnessed the outbreak of the Reformation is commonly regarded as exceptional for laxity of religious principle and perversion of the institutional ideals of the Church; but, from the eighth century, the ecclesiastical morality was of such a low order as seriously to affect the moral tone of the people and to invalidate the efficacy of the Church as a teacher of religion. The celibacy which was enjoined upon the clergy was largely responsible for this state of affairs. It is unfortunately not true that the ages of faith, so called, were ages of great moral purity. In spite of the interdict of councils, priestly marriages were looked upon as common events. The marriage of priests being under the ban of the Church, concubinage was regarded as almost a legitimate relationship, and carried less of stigma than the proscribed marriages. It is not singular that such impairment of moral ideas was not confined to the priests, and that the same low moral tone invaded the convents, many of whose inmates became the partners of the priests in their derelictions.

"The known luxury and believed immoralities of the wealthy monasteries" in England, says Sharon Turner, "made a great impression on the public mind. Even some of the clergy became ashamed of it, and contributed to expose it, both in England and elsewhere." Nor was the tone of morals outside the cloister of higher grade than that of the monks. In 1212 a council commanded the clergy not to have women in their houses, nor to suffer in their cloisters assemblies for debauchery, nor to entertain women there. Nuns were ordered to lie single. In England, these and many other moral prohibitions were repeated at various intervals, showing that, in spite of the prevailing corruption, there was an appreciation of pure ideals; and in its councils the Church took cognizance of and endeavored to stem the rising tide of unchastity. Thus, inquiries were made in 1252 as to whether the clergy frequented the nunneries without reasonable cause, and a year or two afterward an inquisition was made all over England into the character and actions of the various religious personages. The conduct of the nuns is frequently alluded to in terms of the severest censure, while the ecclesiastics were enjoined not to frequent taverns or public spectacles, or to resort to the houses of loose characters, or to visit the nuns; they were not to play at dice or improper games, nor to leave their property to their children. The vices of the clergy were the unavoidable consequence of the independence of their hierarchy from civil control. The release of the clergy from secular jurisdiction was productive of much personal depravity. They had to fear their abbot only, and he was frequently a mild censor of their morals. At a time when any profligate woman of position might retire to a convent and, by elevation or appointment, become abbess, it is not strange that the moral tone of the convent was not determined by the rules of the order, but by the standards which were actually established.

Yet, in spite of many instances of reprehensible conduct, the nuns as a class did not break the vows that bound them to chastity, and within the convent walls were found many examples of women of illustrious character. In the Anglo-Saxon times, women of the most admirable traits are found in charge of convents; the names of some of the abbesses of the seventh century, and earlier, are notable as those of women of high rank as well as of high character. Saint Werburga of Ely, the daughter of Wulfere, King of Mercia, was made ruler over all the female religious houses, and became the founder of several convents of note. Her qualities and character were set forth in the following lines:

"In beaute amyable she was equall to Rachell,

Comparable to Sara in fyrme fidelyte,