The position of vowesses in the eyes of the Church may be illustrated in various ways. For example, the homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Ælfric testify to a triple division of the people of God. "There are," says he, "three states which bear witness of Christ; that is, maidenhood, and widowhood, and lawful matrimony." And with the quaintness of mediæval symbolists, he affirms that the house of Cana in Galilee had three floors—the lowest occupied by believing married laymen, the next by reputable widows, and the uppermost by virgins. Emphasis is given to the order of comparative merit thus defined by the application to it of one of our Lord's parables, for the first are to receive the thirty-fold, the second the sixty-fold, and the third and highest division the hundred-fold reward. Similarly, a hymn in the Sarum Missal for the festival of Holy Women asserts:
Fruit thirty-fold she yielded,
While yet a wedded wife;
But sixty-fold she rendered,
When in a widowed life.
And a Good Friday prayer in the same missal is introduced with the words: "Let us also pray for all bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, door-keepers, confessors, virgins, widows, and all the holy people of God."
In the pontifical of Bishop Lacy of Exeter may be found the office of the Benediction of a Widow. The ceremony was performed during mass, and prefixed to the office is a rubric directing that it shall take place on a solemn day or at least upon a Sunday. Between the epistle and gospel the bishop, seated in his chair, turned towards the people, asked the kneeling widow if she desired to be the spouse of Christ. Thereupon she made her profession in the vulgar tongue, and the bishop, rising, gave her his blessing. Then followed four prayers, in one of which the bishop blessed the habit, after which he kneeled, began the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," and at the close bestowed upon the vowess the mantle, the veil, and the ring. More prayers were said, wherein the bishop besought God to be the widow's solace in trouble, counsel in perplexity, defence under injury, patience in tribulation, abundance in poverty, food in fasting, and medicine in sickness; and the rite ended with a renewed commendation of the widow to the merciful care of God.
It is worthy of note that in these supplications mention is made of the sixty-fold reward which the widow is to receive for her victory over her old enemy the Devil; and also, that the postulant is believed to have made her vow with her hands joined within those of the bishop, as if swearing allegiance.
Several witnesses were necessary on the occasion. When, for instance, the widow of Simon de Shardlowe made her profession before the Bishop of Norwich, as she did in 1369, the deed in which the vow was registered, and upon which she made the sign of the cross in token of consent, was witnessed by the Archdeacon of Norwich, Sir Simon de Babingle, and William de Swinefleet. In the same way the Earl of Warwick, the Lords Willoughby, Scales, and others, were present at the profession of Isabella, Countess of Suffolk. This noble lady made her vow in French, as did also Isabella Golafré, when she appeared for the purpose on Sunday, October 18, 1379, before William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. Notwithstanding the direction in Bishop Lacy's pontifical, the vow was sometimes spoken in Latin, an instance of which is the case of "Domina Alicia Seynt Johan de Baggenet," whose profession took place on April 9, 1398, in the chapel of the Lord of Amberley, Sussex.
That the vow was restricted to the obligation of perpetual chastity, and in no way curtailed the freedom and privileges which the vowess shared with other ladies, is demonstrated by the contents of various wills, like that of Katherine of Riplingham, dated February 8, 1473. Therein she styles herself an "advowess"; but, having forfeited none of her civil rights, she devises estates, executes awards, and composes family differences. This is quite in the spirit of St. Paul's words: "If any widows have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable to God."
Allusion has been made to the ring as the symbol of the spiritual espousal. As such it was the object of peculiar reverence, and its destination was frequently specified in the vowess's will. Thus in "Testamenta Vetusta" we find the abstract of the will of Alice, widow of Sir Thomas West, dated 1395, in which the lady bequeaths "the ring with which I was spoused to God" to her son Sir Thomas. In like manner Katherine Riplingham leaves a gold ring set with a diamond—the ring with which she was sacred—to her daughter Alice Saint John. To some vowesses the custody even of a son or daughter appeared unworthy of so precious a relic; and thus we learn that Lady Joan Danvers, by her will dated 1453, gave her spousal ring to the image of the Crucifix near the north door of St. Paul's, while Lady Margaret Davy presented hers to the image of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In certain instances the formality of episcopal benediction was dispensed with, a simple promise sufficing. As a case in point, John Brackenbury, by his will dated 1487, bequeathed to his mother certain real estate subject to the condition that she did not marry again—a condition to which she assented before the parson and parish of Thymmylbe. "If," says the testator, "she keep not that promise, I will that she be content with that which was my father's will, which she had every penny." But, in compacts or wills in which the married parties themselves were interested, the vow seems to have been usually exacted. Wives sometimes engaged with their husbands to make the vow; and the will of William Herbert, Knight, Earl of Pembroke, dated July 27, 1469, contains an affecting reminder of duty—"And, wife, that you may remember your promise to take the order of widowhood, so that you may be the better maistres of your owen, to perform my will, and to help my children, as I love and trust you," etc.
Husbands left chattels to their wives provided that they took the vow of chastity. The will of Sir Gilbert Denys, Knight, of Syston, dated 1422, sets out: "If Margaret, my wife, will after my death vow a vow of chastity, I give her all my moveable goods, she paying my debts and providing for my children; and if she will not vow the vow of chastity, I desire my goods may be divided and distributed in three equal parts." On like terms wives were appointed executrices. William Edlington, Esq., of Castle Carlton, in his will dated June 11, 1466, declares: "I make Christian, my wife, my sole executor on this condition, that she take the mantle soon after my decease; and in case she will not take the mantle and the ring, I will that William my son [and other persons named] be my executors, and she to have a third part of all my goods moveable."