In the same way, Minster in Thanet remained in the family of its foundress, Eormenburg or Domneva, as she is sometimes called, the wife of the Mercian prince Merewald. According to tradition she received the land from Egbert of Kent, as wergild for the murder of her two brothers. She asked for as much land as her tame deer could cover in one course, and she thus obtained about ten thousand acres, on which she built her monastery. Her daughter, Mildred, who succeeded her as abbess, acquired greater fame. She was educated at Chelles, and was there cruelly ill-treated by the abbess, who was inappropriately named Wilcona, or Welcome. She wished to marry Mildred to one of her relatives, and when the girl refused, she put her into a furnace. When that punishment failed, she pulled her hair out. Mildred adorned her psalter with the ravished hair and sent it to her mother. Finally she escaped and returned home. Her name is among the five abbesses who signed a charter granting church privileges at a Kentish Witanagemot.[27] Her successor, Eadburg, or Bugga, built a splendid new church in the monastery, which is described in a poem attributed to Aldhelm.[28] The high altar was hung with tapestries of cloth of gold, and ornamented with silver and precious stones. The chalice, too, was of gold, and set with jewels; there were glass windows, and from the roof there hung a silver censer. Mention is made of the united singing of the monks and nuns in the church.
Eadburg and her mother, a certain Abbess Eangyth, were both friends of Boniface, the great English missionary bishop of Mainz, the "Apostle of Germany." Eangyth writes to him of her troubles as abbess of a double monastery, of the quarrels among the monks, the poverty of the house, and the excessive dues which had to be paid to the king and his officials. In one letter Boniface thanks Eadburg for books and clothes, and asks if she will write out for him in gold letters the Epistles of S. Peter, that he may have the words of the Apostle before his eyes when he preaches.
Repton was another double monastery under an abbess, though nothing is known of its foundation. Some information about it is gained from the Life of S. Guthlac by Felix. Guthlac was a noble of Mercia, and in his youth a great warrior; but at the age of twenty-four, he went to Repton and received the tonsure under the abbess Aelfthryth. Her rule was apparently very strict, for we find Guthlac getting into trouble for breaking a rule by not drinking wine.
Several chapters in Bede's Ecclesiastical History are devoted to stories of the double monastery at Barking, which was one of the most famous. It was founded by Erconwald, who afterwards became bishop of London. He built one for himself at Chertsey, and one for his sister Aethelburg at Barking, and, as Bede says, "established them both in regular discipline of the best kind." This monastery included both a hospital and a school, under the energetic rule of its first abbess.
Hildelith succeeded Aethelburg, and it was for her and her companions that the scholar Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, wrote his work, "De Laudibus Virginitatis."[29] He speaks of the nunnery as a hive where the nuns work like little bees, for they collect everywhere material for study. Their industry is not confined to the study of Holy Scripture. He speaks of them as searching carefully into the writers of history, as having a knowledge of ancient law and chronography, and in writing, of the rules of grammar and orthography, punctuation, metre, together with the use of allegory and tropology; all of which goes to prove that the field of secular knowledge was not particularly limited for nuns in those days. Aldhelm enlarges on the charms of their peaceful life in the nunnery, and the opportunities for thought and study it affords them. He recommends the works of Cassian and Gregory for their reading, and warns them against pride, a special temptation to those who have adopted the religious life.
Again there comes the warning against worldliness in both monk and nun. Some of the men, he says, contrary to the rule of the regular life, wear gay clothing. "The appearance of the other sex, too, corresponds: a vest of fine linen of hyacinth blue is worn, and above it a scarlet tunic with hood and sleeves of striped silk; on the feet are little shoes of red leather; the locks on the forehead and temples are waved with a curling-iron; the dark grey head-veil has given place to white and coloured head-dresses, the folds of which are kept in place by fillets and reach right down to the feet; the nails are pared to resemble the talons of a falcon." Aldhelm condemns all this, but hastens to add that of course he is addressing no one in particular. The work closes with an affectionate greeting to those whom he calls the Flowers of the Church, Pearls of Christ, his monastic sisters and scholarly pupils, whose prayers he always desires.
In Wessex the double monastery of Wimborne was the most important of its time, and most famed for its literary activity. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,[30] it was founded by Cuthburg, sister of Ine, king of Wessex. Most of our knowledge of the community comes from the Life of S. Lioba[31] ('the beloved'), who was educated there during the reign of the Abbess Tetta, another sister of the royal founder. The author of S. Lioba's Life describes the arrangement at Wimborne. He says that there were two monasteries there, one for clerks and the other for women. The two houses were surrounded by high walls and the monastery was well endowed. No nun could obtain permission to go to the monks' house, and no man might enter the nuns' convent, except the priests who came to celebrate in their church. One gathers from this that there was not a common church for both sides of the community, as was often the case. The abbess gave any necessary orders to the monks through a window. No woman was admitted to the community unless she undertook not to attempt to leave it except for very urgent reasons and by permission of the abbess.
Some idea of its size may be gathered from the fact that there were five hundred nuns at Wimborne. That strength and tact were needed to rule them is shown by one amusing if lamentable episode.
A very religious virgin was placed in authority over the novices, and she was so hated by them on account of her severity that even after her death the young nuns could not forget; and rushing out, they trampled upon her grave, with curses, until the mound became a hole half a foot deep. The abbess Tetta rebuked them for their unchristian behaviour, and ordered a three days' fast and penance, after which the culprits apparently recovered their senses.
Lioba herself seems to have had an attractive personality, and to have gained the affection both of the abbess and the other nuns. A little letter of hers is extant, wherein she writes to Boniface recalling herself to his mind and claiming relationship with him through her mother. She also encloses some Latin verse for his criticism. She says, "This too, I ask, that you will correct the mistakes of this letter, and send me a few words as a proof of your goodwill. I have composed the little verses written below, according to the rules of prosody, not from pride, but from a desire to cultivate the beginnings of a slender genius, and because I wanted your help. I learnt the art from Eadburga, my mistress, who devotes herself unceasingly to searching Divine Law."