The consecration of nuns was a very ancient and solemn rite. Several forms of the office as celebrated in England are in existence[947]. One comes from the monastery of St Mary’s, Winchester, and is contained in a manuscript written probably soon after 1500; the directions are in English, but the words in which the bishop addressed the maidens and their answers are in Latin. Another manuscript written about 1480 contains the office as used in the diocese of Lincoln, with prayers in English and rubrics in Latin; it contains also various directions and addresses omitted in the other manuscript. A third is throughout in English.
These forms of consecration show that after the celebration of the office of high mass in church the prospective nuns entered, each bearing a habit, a veil, a ring and a scroll. The form of interrogation they were put through and the prayers they recited during the installation are given. The declaration was made by the nuns in Latin and runs as follows: ‘I, sister ..., promise steadfastness (stabilitatem), continuance in virtue (conversionem morum meorum), and obedience before God and all His saints.’ We also have the declaration of four nuns who were installed by the bishop of Ely at Chatteris, which is couched in similar terms[948]. The nun in this case made her promise ‘in accordance with the rule of St Benedict in this place, Chatteris, built in honour of St Mary, in the presence of the reverend father in Christ, William, bishop of Ely,’ adding ‘I subscribe this with my own hand,’ whereupon she made the sign of the cross on the scroll which she carried in her hand and from which she had read her declaration. The form of declaration made at Rusper in Sussex in the year 1484 is similar, but the nun further promises ‘to live without property (sine proprio)’ of her own[949].
For several days after her consecration the nun lived in retirement, strictly observing the rule of silence. She then resumed her ordinary duties in church, cloister, refectory and dormitory. She usually kept within the convent close, but she was not altogether cut off from intercourse with the outside world. The rhymed rule of St Benedict of the north, transcribing the passages which refer to the monk’s going abroad if need be, adapts them to the use of the nun (l. 2450), ‘when a sister is going to her father, mother, or other friends, she shall take formal leave of the convent.’ And if she is away on an errand (l. 1967), she shall not stay away for a meal though invited to do so unless she has asked leave before going. And again (l. 1957) if she be away during Lent and cannot attend service in church she shall not forget to keep the hours by saying her prayers. And again (l. 2094), when nuns go away into the country they shall wear ‘more honest’ clothes (that is clothes more clearly showing their profession), which they can take off on coming home for simpler ones. From passages such as these we gather that nuns sometimes stayed away from their convent, leave of absence having been procured; and that besides pilgrimages and business, friendly intercourse with their relatives might take them away from the convent for a time.
The day at the convent was divided by the canonical hours, stated times fixed by ecclesiastical law for prayer and devotion[950]. The hours since the 6th century were seven in number, viz. matins, prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers or evensong, and compline.
During winter a night office was said in church at the eighth hour, that is at two o’clock in the morning, when the matutinae laudes were sung, but the time for that was variable. ‘Then shall they rise to sing and read, and after that she who has need may have meditations’ (Rhymed rule, l. 1166). Between Easter and winter however the rule says ‘that the nuns shall unto matins rise when the day begins to dawn that they their letters well may know.’ Injunctions sent to Easebourne in 1524 direct the prioress to hold matins at the sixth hour, that is at midnight. Matins were followed by a period of rest, probably till five o’clock, when the nuns rose and assembled in the choir to celebrate the office of prime. This was followed by business transacted in the chapter house, by a meal and by work. According to the prose versions of the Benedictine rule children were taught between prime and tierce.
At tierce a short chapter-mass was sung followed by continued study; ‘from terce to sext the nuns shall read lessons’ (l. 1905). At eight the nuns assembled in the choir for the celebration of High Mass, the principal service of the day, after which came the chief meal. This was served in the refectory; ‘the convent when they sit at meat for to read shall not forget’ (l. 1739); and while reading went on ‘if any of them need aught softly with signs they shall it crave’ (l. 1754). The time of the meal was moveable. In summer the nuns were to eat at the sext, but on Wednesdays and Fridays they were to fast till nones, that is noon, except ‘they swink and sweat in hay or corn with travail great’ (l. 1768), when the time might be altered at the will of the superior. Between December and Lent they always ate at nones. If they eat early ‘then shall they sleep and silence keep’ (l. 1910) till nones, from which time till evensong work was resumed.
About three o’clock, vespers, that is evensong, once more assembled the convent inmates in church. The celebration of evensong partook of the solemnity of the celebration of high mass. In the monks’ houses at high mass and at vespers the youths who were supported there for the purpose attended and joined the brethren in their choral service. In the nuns’ houses the arrangements for the girls who dwelt with the nuns were similar, at least in some cases. After vespers came supper, and then ‘the nuns could sit where they would and read lessons of holy writ or else the lives of holy men’ (l. 1791), until the tolling of the bell summoned them to the chapter-house, where they joined their superior. Compline completed the religious exercises of the day. After this the nuns retired to the dormitory, where silence unbroken was to be observed. Inside the dormitory, curtains, in some houses if not in all, were hung so as to separate bed from bed.
The celebration of the hours formed at all times the great feature of monastic life, and in itself involved a considerable amount of labour, especially during the later period, when the ritual of service had become very elaborate. Indolence and ease might creep in between whiles, deterioration might take place in the occupations of the nuns between hours, but the observance of the hours themselves constituted the nun’s privilege and her raison d’être, and was at all times zealously upheld.
§ 3. The Foundation and Internal Arrangements of Sion[951].
Before leaving the subject of women’s convent life in England in the later Middle Ages, it will be interesting to devote some attention to the foundation and interior arrangements of Sion, a convent founded under peculiar circumstances at a time when it was no longer usual to found or endow religious settlements. The information relating to Sion has been characterised as the most valuable record we possess of monastic life in the 15th century. It refers to one short period only and bears out what has already been put forward with regard to other nunneries. The interests of the women who joined this convent centred round devotional practices and a highly elaborated convent routine.