[1376] The unions were sometimes referred to as “marriages” and a priest unaware of the facts of the case may have been got to celebrate them. For instance Bishop Gynewell recites how Joan Bruys, nun of Nuneaton, was abducted by Nicholas Green of Isham and “postmodum se in nostram diocesim divertentes matrimonium de facto in eadem nostra diocesi scienter inuicem contraxerunt et incestum ibidem commiserunt et in ea cohabitant indies vir et vxor.” Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 102. Marriage is also referred to in the case of Joyce, an apostate from St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, in 1388. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. IX, App. pt. I, p. 28. At Atwater’s visitation of Ankerwyke in 1519 it was stated “Domina Alicia Hubbart stetit ibidem in habitu per quatuor annos et tunc in apostasiam recessit et cuidam ... Sutton consanguineo Magistri Ricardi Sutton Senescalli de Syon fuit nupta et cum eo in patria ipsius Sutton remanet in adulterio.” Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Atwater, f. 42.
[1377] Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, f. 16. Translated in R. M. Serjeantson, Hist. of Delapré Abbey, Northampton, pp. 7-8.
[1378] P.R.O. Chancery Warrants, Series I, File 1759; Cal. of Patent Rolls (1381-5), p. 235. This file of Chancery Warrants contains a large number of petitions for the arrest of vagabond monks and nuns. These petitions usually emanate from the head of the apostate’s house, but occasionally from the Bishop of the diocese, as in another warrant in the same file in which the Bishop of Norwich petitions for the arrest of Katherine Montagu, Benedictine nun of Bungay (1376). Other petitions besides those quoted in the text concern Alice Romayn, Austin nun of Haliwell (1314, ib.), Matilda Hunter, Austin nun of Burnham (1392), (File 1762); Alice de Everyngham, Gilbertine nun of Haverholm (1366), (File 1764); and the following sisters of Hospitals, Agnes Stanley of St Bartholomew’s, Bristol (1389), Johanna atte Watre of St Thomas the Martyr at Southwark (1324) and Elizabeth Holewaye of the same house (File 1769, nos. 1, 15, 18). On receipt of these petitions the writ De apostata capiendo would be issued and the royal commissions for the arrest of the delinquents are sometimes found enrolled on the patent rolls, as in the cases quoted in the text. Alice Everyngham was excommunicated by the master of Sempringham; but on her case being brought to the papal court and committed by the Pope to the dean and two canons of Lincoln, she was absolved by them. The master appealed to the Pope against her absolution, and the case was committed for trial to the Archbishop of York. Cal. of Papal Letters, IV, pp. 69-70. For a royal commission to arrest Mary de Felton of the House of Minoresses at Aldgate, see Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1385-9, p. 86.
[1379] P.R.O. Chancery Warrants, Series I, File 1759; Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1401-5, pp. 418, 472.
[1380] There are several references to this ceremony: “Dictam igitur commonialem vestram, iniuncta ei penitencia seculari pro suis reatibus atque culpis, ad vos et domum vestram, a qua exiit, remittimus absolutam; deuocionem vestram firmiter in Domino exhortantes quatinus ... dictam penitentem ... si in humilitatis spiritu, reclinato corpore more penitencium, pulset ad portam, misericordiam deuote postulans et implorans, si suum confiteatur reatum, si signa contricionis ac correccionis appareant in eadem, secundum disciplinam vestri ordinis, filiali promptitudine admittatis” (Maud of Terrington at Keldholme, 1321), Yorks. Arch. Journ. XVI, pp. 456-7. Compare ib. XVI, p. 363 (Margaret of Burton at Kirklees, 1337); Wm. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Coll. I, p. 256 (case against Elizabeth la Zouche who, with another nun, had escaped from Brewood in 1326; she was not recovered until 1331).
[1381] V.C.H. Lincs. II, pp. 99-100.
[1382] V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 159.
[1383] V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 138. The surname “Suffewyk” should probably read Luffewyk, i.e. Lowick.
[1384] V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 171.
[1385] Ib. III, p. 177.