“The young maids were brought up at nunneries, where they had examples of piety and humility, and modesty, and obedience to imitate and to practice. Here they learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery ... physic, writing, drawing, etc.... It was a fine way of building up young women, who are led more by example than precept; and a good retirement for widows and grave single women to a civil, virtuous, and holy life.”
Much more evidence, if it was required, could be produced as to the education so generally given by English nuns. Quite recently, in turning over some little-explored forest accounts at the Public Record Office, an entry was found (not hitherto referred to in print) of John of Gaunt sending two bucks from his park at Kenilworth to certain Spanish damsels at Nuneaton. This led to further investigation, when it came out that several Spanish young ladies, who had accompanied the Duke’s second wife to England, were sent to the Priory of Nuneaton for purposes of education.
When the Commissioners visited Nunnaminster, Winchester, in May, 1536, they forwarded a most highly favourable report of that ancient house, pronouncing the inmates to be “very clene, vertuous, honest, and charitable conversation, order, and rule,” as testified by the mayor and corporation and all the country side. They found there twenty-six “chyldren of lordys, knyghttes, and gentylmen brought up yn the sayd monastery.” The list of these girls begins with “Bryget Plantagenet, dowghter unto the Lord Vycounte Lysley,” and includes members of the families of Copley, Philpot, Tyrell, Dingley, and Titchborne. There was also one boy, Peter Titchborne, “chylde of the high aulter.” The casual references to “the schools” at English nunneries for girls of all conditions of life might be multiplied almost indefinitely.
No attempt of any kind was made to replace these homes for English girls’ instruction when the nunneries were blotted out of existence.
CHAPTER IV
MONASTIC CHARITIES
THE accounts of every monastery show certain definite sums set apart for charitable distribution, either in money, clothing, or food. These sums being charged on real property, came within the cognizance of the Commissioners who drew up the Valor of 1534. The amounts in some cases were considerable, especially when they are compared with the total revenue of the house. Bishop Hobhouse has thus tabulated them for Somersetshire:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Glastonbury | 140 | 16 | 8 |
| Wells, St. John’s | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| Bruton | 26 | 6 | 8 |
| Taunton | 41 | 9 | 0 |
| Keynsham | 10 | 15 | 0 |
| Worspring | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Bath Abbey | 10 | 2 | 6 |
| Bath, St. John’s | 8 | 0 | |
| Muchelney | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| Montacute | 23 | 8 | 6 |
| Athelney | 22 | 18 | 2 |
| Cleve | 26 | 18 | 4 |
| Barlynch | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Dunster | 14 | 8 | |
| Bridgewater, St. John | 32 | 6 | 8 |
| ————— | |||
| Total | £356 | 14 | 10 |
| ========== | |||
For the much smaller county of Warwickshire, the amount of income assigned of obligation to the poor or in hospitality from the religious houses was far more considerable, as is shown by the following table:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Warwick, St. Sepulchre’s | 25 | 7 | 0 |
| Studley | 25 | 6 | 3 |
| Alcester | 6 | 13 | 4 |
| Wroxall | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Pensley | 9 | 9 | 4 |
| Thelesford | 2 | 13 | 4 |
| Coventry, Benedictines | 60 | 18 | 6 |
| ” Carthusians | 77 | 6 | 9 |
| Combe | 45 | 16 | 8 |
| Erbury | 26 | 19 | 8 |
| Kenilworth | 23 | 17 | 7 |
| Stoneleigh | 52 | 19 | 8 |
| Merivale | 12 | 16 | 8 |
| Maxstoke | 22 | 1 | 8 |
| Avecote | 18 | 0 | 6 |
| Nuneaton | 34 | 6 | 8 |
| Polesworth | 31 | 6 | 0 |
| Henwood | 8 | 10 | 8 |
| ————— | |||
| £507 | 9 | 7 | |
| ========== | |||
But such tables as these are wholly inadequate if we desire to give a true idea of English monastic charity.