Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535

by Eileen Power

[1267] Chaucer, Boke of the Duchesse, ll. 300-4.

[1268] E.H.R. VI, pp. 33-4.

[1269] This was reiterated in Ottobon’s Constitutions and in the Bull Periculoso. See also Thomas of Cantilupe’s letter to Lymbrook in 1277 (Reg. Thome de Cantilupo, p. 201) and Archbishop Peckham’s injunction to Godstow, both based upon Ottobon. Reg. Epis. J. Peckham, III, p. 848. Also Bishop Brantyngham’s commission concerning the nuns of Polsloe in 1376, which is based upon Periculoso. Reg. of Bishop Brantyngham, pt. II, pp. 152-3.

[1270] Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham, II, pp. 652-3. Compare injunctions to Barking, ib. I, p. 84, and to St Sepulchre’s, Canterbury, ib. II, p. 706.

[1271] Ib. II, p. 663 “volentes ibi moniales curiose respicere vel cum eis garrulas attemptare.”

[1272] Archaeologia, XLVII, p. 52. Compare Bishop Gray’s injunction to Godstow in 1432-4. “Also that all the doors of the nuns’ lodgings towards the outer court, through which it is possible to enter into the cloister precinct, even if the other doors of the cloister be shut for the time being, be altogether blocked up, or that such means of barring or shutting be placed upon them that approach or entrance through the same doors may not be given to secular folk.” Linc. Visit. I, p. 68. Compare also Dean Kentwode’s injunction to St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, in 1432: “Also we injoyn yow, Prioresse, that there may be a doore at the Nonnes quere, that noo straungers may loke on them, nor they on the straungers, wanne thei bene at dyvyne service. Also we ordene and injoyne yow, prioresse, that there be made a hache of conabyll heythe, crestyd with pykys of herne to fore the entre of yowre kechyne, that noo straunge pepille may entre with certeyne cleketts avysed be yow and be yowre steward to suche personys as yow and hem thynk onest and conabell. Also we injoyne yew, prioresse, that non nonnes have noo keyes of the posterne doore that gothe owte of the cloystere into the churche yerd but the prioresse, for there is moche comyng in and owte unlefulle tymys.” Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 554.

[1273] Loc. cit. With this compare Alnwick’s visitation of Ankerwyke in 1441, at which one of Margery Kyrkeby’s charges against the Prioress Clemence Medeforde was: “Also she has ... blocked up the view Thamesward, which was a great diversion to the nuns. She confesses blocking up the view, because she saw that men stood in the narrow space close to the window and talked with the nuns.” Linc. Visit. II, p. 3.

[1274] Yorks. Arch. Journ. XVI, pp. 452-3. Compare Bishop Stapeldon’s injunction to Canonsleigh in 1320: “Et pur ceo que nous avoms oyi et entendu par ascune gent qe par my deus us dedenȝ vostre abbeye ileoqes plusours mals esclandres et deshonestetes sunt avenues avant cest hure, et purront ensement avenir apres, si remedie ne soit mys, ceo est asavoir, un us qe est en lencloistre au celer desouz la Sale la Abbesse devers la court voloms, ordinoms et comaundoms qe meisme ceux deus us soyent bien estupees par mur de pere, entre cy et la Paske procheyn avenir.” Reg. W. de Stapeldon, p. 96.

[1275] V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 172. He also said that “No man loge undir the dortir nor oon the baksede, but if hit be such sad persones by whome your house may be holpyne and socured w^tout slaundir or suspicion.”

[1276] Dugdale, Mon. III, p. 366. But at Barking Peckham ordered in 1279: “In officiis, autem, quae per foeminas fieri nequeunt, operariorum cum eisdem cautelis introitus admittatur.” Reg. Epis. J. Peckham, I, p. 84. On the entrance of carpenters, masons and other workmen into convents see Thiers, op. cit. II, ch. xxvi. He insists that the work must be a necessity and something which could not be done by the nuns themselves. “Ainsi les artisans sont coupables du violement de la clôture, lorsqu’ils entrent pour des ouvrages de bienseance ou de commodite, pour des decorations ou des embelissemens; en un mot, pour des ouvrages dont les Religieuses se peuvent passer; et je ne vois pas en quelle seurete de conscience les abbesses, les Prieures et les autres superieures des Religieuses, les y laissent entrer, soit pour polir des grilles, pour tendre et pour detendre des chambres et des lits, pour faire et pour peindre des plat-fonds et des alcoves, pour boiser des chambres, des galleries et des cabinets, pour faire de beaux vitrages, de belle volieres à petits oiseaux et d’autres choses semblables. Car outre que tout cela est directement opposé à la modestie et à la pauvreté, dont elles font profession, quel pretexte peuvent-elles alleguer pour se mettre à couvert de l’excommunication que les Conciles, les Papes et les Eveques ont fulminée contre les Religieuses, qui laissent entrer les personnes étrangeres dans leur clôture sans necessité.” Op. cit. pp. 412-3. He is particularly urgent that nuns should cultivate their own gardens and should have their vegetable gardens outside the precincts: “par ce moyen elles ne seroient point obligées d’ouvrer et fermer si souvent les portes de leur clôture, à des jardiniers qui ne sont pas toûjours exempts de scandale” (ib. p. 414), which recalls a famous story of Boccaccio’s. Decameron, 3rd day, novel I.