[1111] Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 100d.
[1112] Linc. Visit. II, pp. 118, 122, ff. 6-7, 25, 72, 83, 109. At Godstow the prioress said “that the nuns have often access to Oxford under colour of visiting their friends,” p. 114; and at Heynings a discontented nun said “that sisters Ellen Bryg and Agnes Bokke have often recourse to Lincoln and there make long tarrying.” They denied the charge, but a note in the register states, “The nuns have access too often to the house of the treasurer of Lincoln, abiding there sometimes for a week.” The Bishop forbade “accesse suspecte to Lincolne,” pp. 132, 133, 135.
[1113] Ff. 28d, 77d, 95d. To Catesby, op. cit. p. 51. Compare injunctions to Godstow, Gracedieu, Nuncoton and St Michael’s, Stamford, pp. 116, 125.
[1114] Above, p. [348]. And compare William of Wykeham’s injunction to Romsey, which repeats Peckham’s constitution on this point word for word. New Coll. MS. f. 85.
[1115] See e.g. Drokensford’s injunction to Minchin Barrow [i.e. Barrow Gurney] in 1315: “quod tunc bene incedant et in habitu moniali et non ad alia loca quam se extendit licencia se diuertant quoque modo, et ultra tempus licencie sue se voluntarie non absentent.” Hugo, Med. Nunneries of Somerset, Barrow, App. II, p. 81.
[1116] See e.g. the synodal Constitutions of c. 1237, Wilkins, Concilia, I, p. 650. Archbishop Courtenay in 1389 sent an interesting injunction to Elstow Abbey, which had evidently been remiss in offering hospitality to travelling nuns: “Inasmuch as it has happened that nuns coming to the monastery on their return from a visit to their friends, have been refused necessities for themselves and for their horses, inhumanly and contrary to the good repute of religion, which we wish to remedy, we order that for each nun thus tarrying provision be made according to the resources of the house, for four horses at least if by day for a whole day, and if [she come] by night or after the hour of nones for the rest of the day and for the night following.” Lambeth Reg. Courtenay, I, f. 336. Injunction repeated by Bishop Flemyng of Lincoln in 1421-2. Visit. of Relig. Houses in Dioc. Linc. I, pp. 50-1.
[1117] See e.g. Peckham’s injunctions to Barking and Godstow. Above, p. [348]. Religious houses of men were sometimes specially ordered not to receive them, e.g. Bridlington in 1287. Reg. John le Romeyn, I, p. 200. The necessity for such an order appears below, pp. [446] ff.
[1118] E.g. Peckham to St Sepulchre, Canterbury (1284): “Nullum quoque potum aut cibum ibidem sumat, moram non protrahat, sed statim expedita causa accessus hujusmodi redeat indilate.” Reg. Epis. J. Peckham, II, p. 707; and Bokyngham to Elstow (1387): “Cum vero recreacionis causa, obtenta superioris licencia, moniales antedicte egrediuntur monasterii sui septa, incedant cum familiarium honesta comitiua et sufficiente, ad idem monasterium, redeuntes de eodem citra solis occasum.” Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, f. 343.
[1119] At Wroxall in 1338 it was specially ordered “qe deux jeunes ne issent poynt ensemble pur male suspecioun qe de ceo purra legerement sourdre, ke Dieuz defent.” Worc. Reg. Sede Vacante, p. 276. At Lymbrook in 1437 Bishop Spofford ordered that no nun was to go out without a companion, and “in case they lygge owte be nyght, two sustres to lye togeder in on bed,” a practice which (according to the usual custom) he forbids in the dorter. Hereford Epis. Reg. Spofford, f. 77.
[1120] See Thiers, op. cit. Pt I, chs. XVIII, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXXI. He quotes the stories of the nuns of Arles in the fifth century and of Marcigny in the eleventh century, who refused to break their enclosures even for fire and were miraculously preserved, pp. 12-13, 32-5.