Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535Power, Eileen
History
Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535
Power, Eileen
Convents -- England; Monastic and religious life of women -- History
Account rolls sometimes contain references to food or money distributed to
the poor on the great almsgiving day of Maundy Thursday, or on special
feast days. The nuns of St Michael's Stamford regularly bought herrings to
be given to the poor on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, St Laurence's day,
St Michael's day and St Andrew's day. The nuns of St Radegund's,
Cambridge, in 1450-1 distributed 2_s._ 1_d._ among the poor on Maundy
Thursday and gave 10_d._ "to certain poor persons lately labouring in the
wars of the lord king"[339]. The Prioress of St Mary de Pre, St Albans,
has an item "paid in expenses for straungers, pore men lasours, tennents
and fermours for brede and ale and other vitaills xxxvj_s_ viij_d_"[340].
It is interesting to note that nunneries are not infrequently found giving
alms in money or kind to the mendicant friars. The Prioress of Catesby
gave away 1 qr. 3 bushels of wheat "to brethren of the four orders and
other poor" in 1414-5[341]. The Oxford friary received from Godstow in
memory of the soul of one Roger Whittell fourteen loaves every fortnight
and 3_s._ 4_d._ in money and one peck of oatmeal and one of peas in Lent.
The Friars Minor of Cambridge were sometimes sent a pig by the Abbess of
Denny[342]. It will be seen in a later chapter that the poor Yorkshire
nunneries of St Clement's York and Moxby were considerably burdened by the
obligation to pay 14 loaves weekly to the friars of York[343]. In general,
however, it is difficult to form any just estimate as to how much
almsgiving was really done by the nuns. There is no evidence as to whether
they daily gave away to the poor, as their rule demanded, the fragments
left over from their own meals; for such almsgiving would be entered
neither in account rolls nor in chartularies and surveys dealing with
endowments earmarked for charity.
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