[151] V.C.H. Essex, II, pp. 120-2. Margaret Botetourt became Abbess of Polesworth in 1362, by episcopal dispensation, when under the age of twenty. “This early promotion was not the only mark of favour which this prioress obtained. In 1390 the Pope granted her exemption from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop or Bishop of Lichfield.” V.C.H. Warwick, II, p. 63.
[152] “I take it that Prioress Joan was an heiress, and, in fact, the last representative of the elder line of her family, and the nuns knew perfectly well what they were about when they chose a lady of birth and wealth, and highly connected to boot, to rule over them. They certainly were not disappointed in any expectations they may have formed. The new prioress set to work in earnest to make the nunnery into quite a new and imposing place and her friends and kinsfolk rallied round her nobly.” Jessopp, Ups and Downs of an Old Nunnery in Frivola, pp. 59-60.
[153] Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery, ed. Mary Bateson (Norf. Archaeology, XI), pp. 57-62 passim.
[154] They are as follows: (1) congé d’élire by the Bishop-Elect as patron, (2) notification by the subprioress and nuns of the date appointed for the election, (3) formal warning by the subprioress that all who ought not to be present should leave the chapter house, (4) notification of the election of Alice de la Flagge, (5) declaration of Alice’s assent, (6) letter from subprioress and convent to the Bishop-Elect praying him to confirm the election, (7) letter from the Prior of Worcester to the same effect, to the Bishop-Elect, (8) the same to the commissary general, (9) commission from the Bishop-Elect to the Prior and to the commissary-general, empowering them to receive, examine and confirm the election, (10) instrument by the subprioress and convent appointing Richard de Bereburn, chaplain, their proctor to present the elect to the Bishop-Elect, (11) another appointing two of the nuns as proctors “to instruct and do things concerning the business of the election,” (12) decree by the subprioress and convent, describing the method and result of the election and addressed to the Bishop-Elect, (13) acts concerning the election made before the Bishop’s commissaries by Richard de Bereburn, proctor, by the subprioress and by the two nuns, instructrices, examined on oath, (14) certificate by the Dean of the Christianity of Worcester that he had proclaimed the election, (15) confirmation of the election by the commissaries, (16) final declaration by the Prior of this confirmation and of the installation and benediction of the new prioress and of the injunction of obedience upon the nuns, and (17) a certificate by the commissaries of the Bishop-Elect that the business was completed. Reg. Sede Vacante (Worc. Hist. Soc.), pp. 111-4; the text in Nash, Hist. and Antiquities of Worcestershire (1781), I, pp. 212-6, which also contains many documents relating to the election of other prioresses of this house. There are frequent notices of elections in episcopal registers; for other very detailed accounts, see Reg. of Bishop Grandisson of Exeter, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, pt III, pp. 999-1002 (Canonsleigh) and Reg. of Ralph of Shrewsbury (Somerset Rec. Soc.) pp. 284-7 (Cannington). See also Eckenstein, Woman under Monasticism, pp. 367-8.
[155] See e.g. V.C.H. Glouc. II, p. 93; Reg. of Bishop Grandisson, pt II, p. 742; V.C.H. Yorks. III, pp. 114-5, 120, 124; Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 636; ib. V, p. 207; V.C.H. Durham, II, p. 107.
[156] Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 458.
[157] Evidently this was the usual payment here, for, in the roll for 1392-3, there is an item “Paye al officiale pour stalling de prioris xs.” P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 1260/4.
[158] P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 1260.
[159] The Cistercians fixed the age at 30. Later the Council of Trent fixed it at 40 including 8 years of profession.
[160] An election by acclamation was said to be conducted via Spiritus sancti or per inspirationem. For this and the methods of election via scrutinii and via compromissi, see J. Wickham Legg, On the Three Ways of Canonical Election (Trans. St Paul’s Eccles. Soc. III, 299-312).