[933] From “Why can’t I be a nun,” Trans. of Philol. Soc. 1858, Pt II, p. 268.
[934] Wykeham’s Reg. II, pp. 361-2 (1384). Compare case at Shaftesbury (1298) where the nuns had incurred excommunication. Reg. Sim. de Gandavo, p. 14.
[935] Linc. Visit. II, p. 8. Compare Winchelsey’s injunctions to Sheppey in 1296. Reg. Roberti Winchelsey, pp. 99-100.
[936] Liveing, op. cit. pp. 245-6. The “bad language” may be scolding or defamation rather than swearing. It is rare to find a nun accused of using oaths. But see the list of faults drawn up for the nuns of Syon Abbey; among “greuous defautes” is “if any ... be take withe ... any foule worde, or else brekethe her sylence, or swerethe horribly be Criste, or be any parte of hys blyssed body, or unreuerently speketh of God, or of any saynte, and namely of our blessyd lady”; among “more greuous defautes” is “yf they swere be the sacramente, or be the body of Cryste, or be hys passion, or be hys crosse, or be any boke, or be any other thynge lyke”; and among “most greuous defautes” is “yf any in her madness or drunkenesse blaspheme horrybly God, or our Lady, or any of hys sayntes” (Aungier, Hist. of Syon Mon. pp. 256, 259, 262). In 1331, on readmitting Isabella de Studley (who had been guilty of incontinence and apostasy) to St Clement’s York, Archbishop Melton announced that if she were disobedient to the Prioress or quarrelsome with her sisters or indulged in blasphemy he would transfer her to another house. V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 130.
[937] V.C.H. Bucks. I, p. 383 and V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 155.
[938] In 1311 Archbishop Greenfield issued a general order that nuns only and not sisters were to use the black veil; sisters wore a white veil (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 188 note, and Journ. of Education, 1910, p. 841). This order was repeated at various houses, which shows that there must have been a widespread attempt to usurp the black veil (V.C.H. Yorks. III, pp. 124, 127, 175, 177, 188). At Sinningthwaite the Prioress was also ordered not to place the sisters above the nuns. A common punishment in this district was to remove the black veil from a nun and this was reserved for the more serious misdeeds.
[939] York Reg. Giffard, pp. 147-8. For further instances, see [Note C] below.
[940] Injunctions against dicing and other games of chance are common in the case of monks (see e.g. Linc. Visit. I, pp. 30, 46, 77, 89). I have found none in nunneries, but a more stately game of skill, the fashionable tables, was played by Margaret Fairfax with John Munkton. Above, p. [77].
[941] Quoted from St Aldhelm’s De Laudibus Virginitatis in Eckenstein, Woman under Mon. p. 115. Compare Bede’s account of the nuns of Coldingham some years before: “The virgins who are vowed to God, laying aside all respect for their profession, whenever they have leisure spend all their time in weaving fine garments with which they adorn themselves like brides, to the detriment of their condition and to secure the friendship of men outside.” Ib. pp. 102-3.