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
A similar injunction had been made at Chatteris in 1345, where the abbess
was warned not to bestow the convent rents and goods unlawfully upon any
of her relatives[240]. The charge was, however, most common in later
times, when discipline was in all ways relaxed. At Easebourne in 1478 one
of the nuns complained "that kinsmen of the prioress very often and for
weeks at a time frequent the priory and have many banquets of the best
food, while the sisters have them of the worst"[241]. The neighbouring
nunnery of Rusper was said in 1521 to be ruinous and "greatly burdened by
reason of friends and kinsmen of the lady prioress who continually
received hospitality there"[242]; at Studley in 1520 there were complaints
that the brother of the prioress and his wife stayed within the monastery,
and ten years later it was ordered that no corrody should be given to the
prioress' mother, until more was known of her way of life[243]. At Flixton
in the same year one of the nuns asserted that the mother of the prioress
had her food at the expense of the house, but whether she paid anything or
not was unknown; it appears, however, that she was in charge of the dairy,
so that she may have been boarded in return for her services. A
characteristic instance is preserved in Bishop Longland's letter to the
Prioress of Nuncoton in 1531, charging her
that frome hensforth ye do nomore burden ne chardge your house with
suche a nombre of your kinnesfolks as ye haue in tymes past used. Your
good mother it is meate ye haue aboute yow for your comforte and hirs
bothe. And oon or ij moo of suche your saddest kynnes folke, whome ye
shall thynk mooste conuenyent but passe not.... And that ye give
nomore soo lyberally the goods of your monastery as ye haue doon to
your brother george thomson and your brodres children, with grasing of
catell, occupying your lands, making of Irneworke to pleugh, and
carte, and other like of your stuff and in your forge[244].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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