_c._ 907 AElflaeda, _o._ _c._ 959. * * * * 966 S. Merwenna. _c._ 999 Elwina. _c._ 1003 AEthelflaeda. _c._ 1016 _Wulfynn._ _c._ 1025 _AElfgyfu._ * * * * _c._ 1130 Hadewis. _c._ 1150 Matilda, _o._ 1155. 1155 Mary, married 1161, _o._ 1182. _c._ 1171 Juliana, _o._ 1199.[5] 1199 Matilda Walrane. 1219 Matilda (Paria), _o._ 1230. 1230 _Matilda de Barbfle_, _o._ 1237. 1237 _Isabella de Nevill._ 1238 _Cecilia._ 1247 _Constancia._ 1261 Amicia _de Sulhere_. 1268 Alicia Walerand, _o._ 1298. 1298 _Philippa de Stokes._ 1307 Clementia de Guildeford, _o._ 1314. 1314 Alicia de Wyntereshulle, _o._ 1315. 1315 Sybil Carbonel, _o._ 1333. 1333 Ioane Jacke (or _Icthe_). 1349 Iohanna Gervas (or _Gerneys_). 1352 Isabella de Camoys. 1396 Lucy Everard. 1405 Felicia Aas. 1417 Matilda Lovell. 1462 Ioan Bryggys. 1472 Elizabeth Broke, _o._ 1502. 1502 Joyce Rowse, resigned 1515. 1515 Ann Westbroke, _o._ 1523. 1523 Elizabeth Ryprose, dispossessed 1539. [5] Christina is mentioned as abbess in 1190, in the list suspended in the church, but it is uncertain if she was an abbess. About the majority of the abbesses little or nothing is known; some, indeed, were women of exemplary piety, others were remarkable for their administrative abilities, and did good work in their own way; but of many all that can be said is that In due time, one by one, Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds as well undone, Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sun.[6] [6] "A Toccata of Galuppi's," R. Browning. In this chapter will be narrated any incidents connected with the lives of the abbesses and the nuns over whom they ruled that seem to the writer likely to be of interest to the general reader. It is noteworthy that the story of the nunnery is, for the most part, pre-eminently credible; with a few exceptions we hear nothing about visions or miracles; here and there we have touches of romance, which show that the life of discipline within "narrowing nunnery walls" is not always able to quell human passion, especially when pressure had been brought to bear by friends and relations upon women scarcely more than children, to induce them to take the veil. And as time went on grave scandals arose, which even the energetic action of reforming bishops was not altogether successful in stopping, so that although the greed of Henry VIII and his courtiers was, no doubt, the prime factor leading to the suppression of the religious houses, yet the unholy lives of the inmates gave them some valid reasons, or at rate excuses, for their action in closing nunneries and monasteries.