[161] Reg. Sede Vacante (Worc. Hist. Soc.), p. 114, and Nash, op. cit. I, p. 214.
[162] From a document preserved at the Exchequer Gate, Lincoln.
[163] For the following account, see Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Longland, ff. 22-25.
[164] Compare the complaint of one of the nuns at St Michael’s Stamford in 1445, “Dicit quod priorissa est sibi nimis rigorosa in correccionibus, nam pro leuibus punit eam rigorose.” Alnwick’s Visit. MS. f. 96.
[165] Dugdale, Mon. III, p. 415. For another instance of disturbances in a convent caused by the appointment of a Prioress (here the head of the house) by the Bishop contrary to the will of the nuns, see two letters written by the nuns of Stratford to Cromwell, about the same time that Longland was having such trouble at Elstow. In one they ask his help “for the removing of our supposed prioress,” explaining “Sir, since the time that we put up our supplication unto the king, we have been worse entreated than ever we were before, for meat, drink and threatening words; and as soon as we speak to have anything remedied she biddeth us to go to Cromwell and let him help us; and that the old lady, who is prioress in right, is like to die for lack of sustenance and good keeping, for she can get neither meat, drink nor money to help herself.” In another letter they report “that the chancellor of my lord of London (the Bishop) hath been with us yesterday and that he sayeth the prioress shall continue and be prioress still, in spite of our teeth, and of their teeths that say nay to it, and that he commanded her to assault us and to punish us, that other may beware by us.” Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, I, nos. xxx and xxxi, pp. 68-70.
[166] V.C.H. Yorks. III, pp. 167-9.
[167] Ib. III, p. 180 and Reg. of John le Romeyn (Surtees Soc.), I, pp. 213-4. Whether any nuns were sent to Rosedale does not appear, but shortly afterwards two nuns, Elizabeth de Rue and Helewis Darains, were sent to Nunburnholme and to Wykeham respectively; these punishments may not have been connected with the election trouble. Reg. Romeyn, I, pp. 177, 214 note, 225; compare p. 216. Josiana appears to have been twice Prioress; she was confirmed in 1290 and finally resigned because of old age in 1320, but Joan de Moubray is mentioned as Prioress in 1308 and she resigned in 1309. V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 181. There was discord over an election at St Clement’s, York, in 1316, one party in the convent electing Agnes de Methelay, and the other Beatrice de Brandesby. Sede vacante, the Dean and Chapter appointed the former. V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 129. See also a case at Goring. V.C.H. Oxon. II, p. 103.
[168] Translated from Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum in Coulton, A Medieval Garner, pp. 251-2.
[169] Dugdale, Mon. II, p. 318.
[170] See Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII, II, pp. 281-3.