[906] Yorks. Archaeol. Journ. XVI, pp. 452-3. Unluckily among Archbishop Lee’s injunctions there remain only three sets addressed to nunneries; there are also two letters concerning an immoral and apostate ex-Prioress of Basedale. At the other two nunneries addressed, Nunappleton and Sinningthwaite, no specific accusations are made, but the Archbishop enjoins that the nuns shall “observe chastity” (§ IX, p. 440) and avoid the suspicious company of men (§ V, p. 441).
[907] Aungier, Hist. of Syon Mon. p. 385. Compare also the regulations for behaviour in choir, “There also none shal use to spytte ouer the stalles, nor in any other place wher any suster is wonte to pray, but yf it anone be done oute, for defoylyng of ther clothes.” Ib. p. 320.
[908] The hours seem to have varied in length according to the season; see Butler, Benedictine Monachism, ch. XVII.
[909] Reg. W. de Stapeldon, p. 316.
[910] Aungier, op. cit. pp. 405-9. It is unlikely, however, that Betsone actually invented any of the signs, for similar lists are to be found in the early consuetudinaries of Cluniac houses and other sources. The signs were probably to a great extent “common form.”
[911] Ib. p. 298.
[912] Bernold, Chron. (1083) in Mon. Germ. Hist. V, p. 439, quoted in Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal, p. 157.
[913] E.g. a nun asks that sufficient clothes and food be ministered to her “ut fortis sit ad subeundum pondus religionis et diuini seruicii.” Linc. Visit. II, p. 5. A bishop orders no nun to be admitted unless she be “talem que onera chori ... ceteris religionem concernentibus poterit supportare.” Ib. I, p. 53.
[914] Vattasso, Studi Medievali (1904), I, p. 124. Quoted in Mod. Philology (1908), V, pp. 10-11. I have ventured to combine parts of two verses.