[231] Linc. Visit. II, pp. 3, 4, 5, 8. The Prioress of Brewood White Ladies in Shropshire was severely rebuked in the first part of the fourteenth century for expensae voluptuariae, dress and laxity of rule. Reg. of Roger de Norbury (Will. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Collections, I), p. 261.
[232] Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 194.
[233] Sussex Archaeol. Coll. IX, pp. 7-9.
[234] Compare the anecdote related by Caesarius of Heisterbach about Ensfrid of Cologne. “One day he met the abbess of the holy Eleven Thousand Virgins; before her went her clerks, wrapped in mantles of grey fur like the nuns; behind her went her ladies and maidservants, filling the air with the sound of their unprofitable words; while the Dean was followed by his poor folk who besought him for alms. Wherefore this righteous man, burning with the zeal of discipline, cried aloud in the hearing of all: ‘Oh, lady Abbess, it would better adorn your religion, that ye, like me, should be followed, not by buffoons, but by poor folk!’ Whereat she was much ashamed, not presuming to answer so worthy a man.” Translated in Coulton, A Medieval Garner, p. 251.
[235] V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 148.
[236] V.C.H. Warwick, II, p. 71.
[237] V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 155. Sometimes however, the heads of houses received episcopal dispensations to reside for a period outside their monasteries, for the sake of health. Joan Formage, Abbess of Shaftesbury, received one in 1368, allowing her to leave her abbey for a year and to reside in her manors for air and recreation. V.C.H. Dorset, II, p. 78. Josiana de Anlaby (the Prioress of Swine about whose election there had been so much trouble) had licence in 1303 to absent herself on account of ill-health. Dugdale, Mon. V, p. 493.
[238] Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 638.
[239] Linc. Visit. II, p. 187.
[240] Dugdale, Mon. II, p. 619.