[1121] The rhymed Northern Rule of St Benedict for nuns (l. 2094) says that when they go away into the country they should wear “more honest” clothes. “In habitu moniali” is one of the conditions imposed on the nuns of Barrow Gurney in 1315. See above, p. [358], note 4. The necessity for such a regulation appears in the decree made by Henry Archbishop of Cologne, executing an enactment of the Provincial Council of Cologne (1310), promulgating Periculoso. “Nevertheless we often see that having come out of their monasteries they [the nuns] wander about the roads and public places and frequent the houses of secular persons. And, what is more deplorable, having put off their religious habit, they appear in secular dress and bear themselves in public with so much vanity that their conduct may justly be considered suspicious, although their conscience be really pure and without sin. And although hitherto they have been menaced with divers penalties, nevertheless the more strictly they are forbidden to live after this fashion, the more eagerly they disobey, so strongly do they hanker after forbidden things.” The whole injunction is worthy of study. Thiers, op. cit. pp. 491-3. Discipline was laxer in German convents than in those of England. In England, however, there are sometimes complaints that male religious leave their convents in secular attire; see a case at Huntingdon Priory in 1439, Linc. Visit. II, pp. 154-5.
[1122] See ib. XXV, XXVI, XXVII. A few examples may be given of nuns leaving their houses to become superiors elsewhere: Basedale got prioresses from Rosedale in 1524 and 1527 (Yorks. Arch. Soc. XVI, p. 431 note); Rosedale from Clementhorpe in 1525 (Dugdale, Mon. IV, pp. 317, 385); Kington from Bromhale in 1326 (ib. IV, p. 398) and Ankerwyke from Bromhale in 1421 (Visit. of Relig. Houses in Dioc. Linc. I, p. 156). Sometimes the prioress of one house left it to rule another, e.g. Elizabeth Davell, Prioress of Basedale, became Prioress of Keldholme in 1467 (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 169). Alice Davy, who occurs as Prioress of Castle Hedingham in 1472 and was afterwards Prioress of Wix (V.C.H. Essex, II, p. 123), and Eleanor Bernard, Prioress of Little Marlow (c. 1516) became Abbess of Delapré (Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 149). For a form of licence from a prioress, permitting a nun to accept the office of prioress elsewhere, see MS. Harl. 862, f. 94 (“Literae Priorissae de Bromhale quibus licenciam impertit Clementiae Medforde ejusdem Domus, consorori et communiali, ut Prioratui de Ankerwyke sicut Priorissa praeesse valeat”); and compare the reply of the Prioress of St Bartholomew’s, Newcastle, to the Bishop of Durham about the election of Dame Margaret Danby, a nun of her house, to be Prioress of St Mary’s, Neasham, “Whilk Postulacion I graunt fully with assent of my chapiter atte Reverence of God and in plesing of yor gracious lordship; not wythstondyng yat she is ful necessarye and profitable to us both in spirituall governance and temporall” (1428). (V.C.H. Durham, II, p. 107.) Sometimes a mother house from over the sea tried to assert its right to nominate the head of one of its daughter houses, but Cluniacs, Cistercians, Premonstratensians and houses affiliated to Fontevrault were all extremely jealous of French interference. See the letter written by Mary, daughter of Edward I, a nun of Amesbury, to her brother the King in 1316 protesting against the action of the Abbess of Fontevrault, who was reputed to be sending “a prioress from beyond the sea,” instead of acceding to the convent’s request that one of their own number might succeed to the office. Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, I, pp. 60-63. It was always held desirable if possible to take a superior from among the nuns of the house in which the vacancy occurred, but sometimes no suitable person could be found.
[1123] See Thiers, I, ch. XXII, who mentions the corollary that the superior of another house may be called in to correct rebellious nuns if their own head is unable to do so. See below, p. [466]. In 1501 Emma Powes, then at Romsey, is said to have been professed at King’s Mead near Derby “and from that place had been removed to another priory in the Hereford diocese, where she had been prioress, and thence had come to this house.” A charge of incontinence was made against her, and we know from another source that she had been prioress of Lymbrook (she was deprived on or about 24 Nov. 1488, Hereford Reg. Myllyng, p. 112). It is interesting that in 1492 one of the nuns had asked that “a nun who has been brought in, be restored to the place to which she is professed.” Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey, pp. 219, 225. One of Alnwick’s injunctions to Clemence Medforde, Prioress of Ankerwyke in 1441, was “that henceforth she should not admit that nun of Hinchinbrooke either into the house or to dwell among them, and also that she should not deliver to her that bond which she has from the house of Hinchinbrooke, or any other goods which she has of the same house.” Linc. Visit. II, p. 6. In a list of the nuns of Thetford in 1526 occurs the name of “Domina Elianora Hanam, professa in Wyke (Wix).” Jessopp, Visit. in Dioc. Norwich, p. 243.
[1124] Such, for instance, as leprosy. In 1287 Archbishop John le Romeyn sent a request to the master of Sherburn Hospital, Durham, to receive Basilia de Cotum, a nun of Handale, “quia, ... lepre deformitate aspersa, propter suspectam morbi contagionem, morari non poterit inter sanos, devocionem vestram rogamus quatinus ipsam in hospitali vestro velitis recipere et seorsum in necessariis exhibere, ita, tamen, quod sub religioso habitu quem gerit Deo serviat dum subsistit.” Reg. John le Romeyn, I, p. 163. Richard de Wallingford, the great abbot of St Albans, was a leper, but remained in his house.
[1125] Dugdale, Mon. V, p. 493. Dugdale remarks that “a little scandal also appears to have been attached to her character.” She finally resigned on account of old age in 1320, and perhaps the leave of absence referred to accounts for the appearance of another Prioress in 1308 who resigned in 1309. V.C.H. Yorks. III, pp. 180-1.
[1126] V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 127, note 13.
[1127] V.C.H. Dorset, II, p. 78. In 1427 the papal licence was granted to one Isabel Falowfeld, nun of St Bartholomew’s, Newcastle on Tyne, to transfer herself to another monastery of the same order, on account of her weak constitution and the inclemency of the air near St Bartholomew’s. Cal. of Papal Letters, VII, p. 516. See Thiers on the subject, op. cit. pp. 140-2, 213-5. He quotes the decision of the University of Salamanca on the question as to whether the General or any minor official of the Minorites had the power to give permission to a nun of the order who was dangerously ill, to leave her house and enter another of the same order, so as to recover her health. “Exactissima discussione facta circa praesentem difficultatem, omnes unanimiter atque uno ore responderunt atque dixerunt, non posse id fieri stando in jure communi, quod et multis juribus atque rationibus comprobarunt” (p. 214). He also quotes the case of a nun of the Annunciation of Agen, of whom the doctors said that if she stayed in her house she would infallibly die, but if she went out for a change of air and medicinal baths she would infallibly be cured. To which alternative the General of the Order, on being asked to give her a dispensation to go out, replied in one word “Moriatur” (p. 217). But these were both strictly enclosed orders.
[1128] “Si quae vero moniales ad balnea qualitercumque processerint extra monasteria, irremissibiliter priventur habitu regulari; et licentiantes easdem ut praedicta petant balnea, sententiam excommunicationis incurrant.” Nomasticon Cisterciense, p. 533, also in Thiers op. cit. p. 220; cf. pp. 216 ff. But the public baths were of notoriously bad reputation.
[1129] See Thiers, op. cit. Pt I, ch. XLII-XLVII. From the fact that he thinks it necessary to devote five chapters to the subject and from the evidence which he adduces and the language which he uses, it is clear that the practice was very prevalent.
[1130] Decret. III, tit. XXXI, c. 18. See Thiers, op. cit. pp. 161-2. Licences to migrate to a convent professing a stricter rule are sometimes found in episcopal registers. See e.g. Hereford Reg. Caroli Bothe, p. 241.