[180]Dugdale,Mon.II, p. 458.
[181]Ib.I, pp. 443, 445.
[182]Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham(Rolls Series),I, p. 84.
[183]Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham,II, pp. 651-2.
[184]Ib.II, pp. 659-60, 662-3. For another instance of a prioress faring better than her nuns, see Archbishop Lee’s injunctions to Nunappleton in 1534: “That their be no difference betwene the breade and ale prepared for the prioresse and the bredde and ale provided for the covent, but that she and they eatt of oon breade, and drinke of oon drinke and of oon ale.”Yorks. Archaeol. Journ.XVI.pp. 443-4.
[185]V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 214.
[186]Linc. Visit.I, p. 50.
[187]Ib.II, p. 124.
[188]V.C.H. Lincs.II, pp. 155, 131-2.
[189]Sometimes, however, bishops licenced the head of a house to hear the service separately, e.g. in 1401 Wykeham licenced dame Lucy Everard, abbess of Romsey, to hear divine service in her oratory during one year, in the presence of one of her sisters and of her servants (familia).Wykeham’s Reg.(Hants. Rec. Soc.),II, p. 538. Cf. similar licence to the prioress of Polsloe in 1388.Reg. of Bishop Brantyngham of Exeter, pt. II, p. 675.
[190]Linc. Visit.II, p. 8. The same injunction was sent to Stixwould.Alnwick’s Visit.MS. f. 75d.
[191]Ib.f. 83d. The next year when Alnwick came again this prioress announced that she did not lie in the dorter, nor keep frater, cloister and church on account of bodily weakness; she alleged that he had dispensed her from these observances, which he denied.Ib.f. 39d. Compare injunctions to Godstow, Gracedieu and Langley,Linc. Visit.II, pp. 115, 125, 177. For other injunctions on these points, seeAlnwick’s Visit.MS. f. 78 (Nuncoton, 1440);V.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 119 (Nunburnholme, 1318), 120 (Nunkeeling, 1314), 124 (Thicket, 1309), 188 (Arthington, 1318), 239 (Moxby, 1318).
[192]Reg. Epis. Johannis Peckham(Rolls Series),II, p. 662. CompareV.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 113, 239 andAlnwick’s Visit.MS. f. 6.
[193]Before it was realised that this office was often held by a woman in nunneries, scholars were much exercised to explain this passage in Chaucer’sPrologue, though a search through Dugdale would have provided them with several instances. The office is still held in modern convents, and Dr Furnivall printed an interesting letter from a Benedictine nun, describing the duties attached to it. “It is in fact the nun who has special charge of attending on the Abbess and giving assistance when she needs it, either in writing when she (the Abbess) is busy, or in attending when sick, etc., but that which comes most often to claim her services is, on the twelve or fourteen great festivals,” when the chaplain attends the Abbess in the choir and holds her crosier, while she reads the hymns, lesson, etc.Anglia,IV, pp. 238-9. In the middle ages the chief stress was laid on the constant presence of a witness to the superior’s mode of life, that it might be beyond suspicion. Miss Eckenstein has pointed out that in the allegory of the “Ghostly Abbey,” by the béguine Mechthild of Magdeburg, in which the nuns are personified Virtues, Charity is Abbess and Meekness her Chaplain; and in the English version of the poem printed by Wynkyn de Worde (1500), Charity was Abbess and Mercy and Truth were to be her “chapeleyns” and to go about with her wherever she went. The Prioress (Wisdom) and the Sub-Prioress (Meekness) were also to have chaplains (Righteousness and Peace) because they were “most of worship.” Eckenstein,Woman under Monasticism, pp. 339, 377.
[194]New CollegeMS., f. 88d.
[195]Sussex Archaeol. Coll.IX, p. 15.
[196]Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich(Camden Soc.), p. 190.
[197]Ib.p. 108.
[198]Ib.p. 138.
[199]Linc. Visit.I, p. 50. For other references to the abbess’s nun-chaplain at Elstow, seeArchaeologia,XLVII, p. 52 and Dugdale,Mon.III, p. 415.
[200]Alnwick’s Visit.MS. f. 6. The Prioress was Denise Loweliche (see p.458below) and at the visitation Dame Margaret Loweliche “cappellana priorisse” (evidently a relative) said that she had held the office for the last eight years. Another nun said “that the Prioress ever holds and has held for seven years, one and the same nun as chaplain, without ever replacing her by another, and when she goes out she always has this young nun with her.”
[201]E.g. at Campsey (1532) and Redlingfield (1526 and 1532).Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, pp. 224, 291, 297. At Elstow (1539). Dugdale,Mon.III, p. 415. At Barking (still in receipt of pension in 1553).Ib.I, p. 438 note.
[202]Litt. Johannis Peckham(Rolls Series),II, pp. 658-9. Compare injunctions to the Abbess of Chatteris in 1345. Dugdale,Mon.II, p. 619.
[203]Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich(Camden Soc.), pp. 108, 109, 138-9, 143, 185, 190-1.
[204]SeeLinc. Visit.II, pp. 3, 48, 120, 130, 133; andAlnwick’s Visit.MS. ff. 83, 75d, 26d.
[205]Linc. Visit.II, p. 49.
[206]Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, p. 108.
[207]Ib.pp. 143, 191.
[208]See below, p.216ff.
[209]Among “greuous defautes” enumerated in the “additions to the rules” of Syon Abbey (fifteenth century) is the following: “If any lye in a wayte, or in a spye, or els besyly and curyously serche what other sustres or brethren speke betwene themselfe, that they afterwardes may revele or schewe the saynge of the spekers to ther grete hurte”; others are, “if any sowe dyscorde amonge the sustres and brethren,” and “if any be founde a preuy rowner or bakbyter.” Aungier,Hist. and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, p. 257.
[210]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 121, 123.
[211]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 123, 185, 133.
[212]See e.g.Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich(Camden Soc.), pp. 143, 290.
[213]Linc. Visit.II, p. 186. Compareib.pp. 124, 135 (Gracedieu and Heynings);Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, ff. 139-40 (Elstow, 1359);Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, ff. 343 (Elstow, 1387), 397 (Heynings, 1392);V.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 117 (Moxby, 1252), 164 (Hampole, 1314).
[214]Dugdale,Mon.III, pp. 359-60. There are various other references to “Wynge” (i.e. Wing in Buckinghamshire) in the account, e.g. “Item receyvid of Richard Saie for the ferme of the personage of Wynge for a yere and a half within the tyme of this accompte xlviijli. Item. rec. of the same Richard Saie as in party of payment of the same ferme for a quarter of a yere xs,” “item, paid to the bisshop of Lincolns officers for the licens of Wynge for ij yere xxijsviijd. Item paid to the ffermour of Wynge for his goune for ij yere xiijsiiijd.” For the London lawsuit see below, p.202.
[215]SeeP.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260,passim. The London references are in 1260/7 and 1260/17 respectively.
[216]Constitutions of the legate Ottobon in 1268. Wilkins,Concilia,II, p. 18.
[217]Hugo,Medieval Nunneries of the County of Somerset, Minchin Barrow, p. 81.
[218]Linc. Visit.II, p. 187.
[219]Wykeham’s Reg.(Hants Rec. Soc.), p. 500.
[220]V.C.H. Dorset,II, p. 89. In 1374 the Abbess of Canonsleigh had licence to have divine service celebrated in her presence in the chapel of St Theobald in the parish of Burlescombe “dicto monasterio contigua,” but her nuns were not to leave the claustral precincts on this pretext.Reg. of Bishop Brantyngham, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, pt I, p. 335.
[221]Wood,op. cit.II, pp. 156-7. Even Ap Rice seems to have considered Dr Legh’s enforcement of enclosure as overstrict “for as many of these houses stand by husbandry they must fall to decay if the heads are not allowed to go out.” Gairdner,Letters and Papers, etc.IX, no. 139; cf. preface, p. 20.
[222]Rye,Carrow Abbey, p. 8.
[223]Linc. Dioc. Documents, ed. A. Clark (E.E.T.S.), pp. 50, 53.
[224]Test. Ebor.I, p. 314.
[225]For instance Margaret Fairfax of Nunmonkton was one of thesupervisores testamentiof John Fairfax, rector of Prescot, in 1393 and of Thomas Fairfax of Walton in 1394.Ib.I, pp. 190, 204. The abbess of Syon was one of the three overseers of the will of Sir Richard Sutton, steward of her house in 1524. Aungier,Hist. and Antiquities of Syon Mon.p. 532. Emmota Farethorpe, Prioress of Wilberfoss, was executrix of John Appilby of Wilberfoss in 1438.V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 126 note. Margaret Delaryver, Prioress of St Clement’s York, was executrix of Elizabeth Medlay (probably a boarder there).Ib.III, p. 130. Joan Kay in 1525 left most of her property to her daughter the Prioress of Stixwould to found an obit there and made her executrix.Linc. Wills, ed. C. W. Foster (Linc. Rec. Soc.),I, p. 155. Sir John Beke, vicar of Aby, who left the greater part of his property to Greenfield for the same purpose, made the Prioress Isabel Smith executrix.Ib.I, p. 162. These offices were sometimes filled by nuns other than heads of houses, e.g. the will of John Suthwell, rector of St Mary’s South Kelsey, Lincs., was witnessed by his sister Margaret, a nun, in 1390. Gibbons,Early Linc. Wills, p. 76. Alice Conyers of Nunappleton was made coadjutress of the executors of Master John de Woodhouse in 1345.Test. Ebor.I, p. 15. For Carrow nuns (usually the prioress) as executors, supervisors and witnesses, see Rye,Carrow Abbey, pp. xv, xvi, xxii, xxiii, xxix.
[226]Linc. Visit.II, p. 2.
[227]V.C.H. Sussex,II, p. 84. SeeRot. Parl.I, p. 147.
[228]An Alphabet of Tales, ed. M. M. Banks (E.E.T.S., 1904), no.XV, pp. 13-14. I have modernised spelling. This fifteenth century English version is ultimately derived from anexemplumby Jacques de Vitry, of which it is a close translation.Exempla e sermonibus vulgaribus J. Vitriacensis, ed. T. F. Crane, no.LIX, pp. 23-4.
[229]“Item Priorissa raro venit ad matutinas aut missas. Domina Katerina Hoghe dicit quod quedam moniales sunt quodammodo sompnolentes, tarde veniendo ad matutinas et alias horas canonicas.”Linc. Visit.II, p. 133.
[230]J. P. Krapp,The Legend of St Patrick’s Purgatory; its later Literary History(1899), pp. 75-6.
[231]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 3, 4, 5, 8. The Prioress of Brewood White Ladies in Shropshire was severely rebuked in the first part of the fourteenth century forexpensae voluptuariae, dress and laxity of rule.Reg. of Roger de Norbury(Will. Salt Archaeol. Soc. Collections,I), p. 261.
[232]Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 194.
[233]Sussex Archaeol. Coll.IX, pp. 7-9.
[234]Compare the anecdote related by Caesarius of Heisterbach about Ensfrid of Cologne. “One day he met the abbess of the holy Eleven Thousand Virgins; before her went her clerks, wrapped in mantles of grey fur like the nuns; behind her went her ladies and maidservants, filling the air with the sound of their unprofitable words; while the Dean was followed by his poor folk who besought him for alms. Wherefore this righteous man, burning with the zeal of discipline, cried aloud in the hearing of all: ‘Oh, lady Abbess, it would better adorn your religion, that ye, like me, should be followed, not by buffoons, but by poor folk!’ Whereat she was much ashamed, not presuming to answer so worthy a man.” Translated in Coulton,A Medieval Garner, p. 251.
[235]V.C.H. Lincs.II, p. 148.
[236]V.C.H. Warwick,II, p. 71.
[237]V.C.H. Lincs.II, p. 155. Sometimes however, the heads of houses received episcopal dispensations to reside for a period outside their monasteries, for the sake of health. Joan Formage, Abbess of Shaftesbury, received one in 1368, allowing her to leave her abbey for a year and to reside in her manors for air and recreation.V.C.H. Dorset,II, p. 78. Josiana de Anlaby (the Prioress of Swine about whose election there had been so much trouble) had licence in 1303 to absent herself on account of ill-health. Dugdale,Mon.V, p. 493.
[238]Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 638.
[239]Linc. Visit.II, p. 187.
[240]Dugdale,Mon.II, p. 619.
[241]Sussex Archaeol. Coll.IX, pp. 18-19.
[242]Ib.V, p. 256.
[243]V.C.H. Oxon.II, p. 78.
[244]Archaeologia,XLVIII, pp. 56, 58.
[245]Alnwick’s Visit.MS. ff. 83 andd, 39d, 96.
[246]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 120, 121.
[247]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 2-4, 6.
[248]Cal. of Pat. Rolls(1441-6), p. 141.
[249]Linc. Visit.II, pp. 46-52.
[250]Compare the complaint of the sisters of the hospital of St James outside Canterbury in 1511, that the Prioress was adiffamatrixof the sisters and used to say publicly in the neighbourhood that they were incontinentet publice meretrices, to the great scandal of the house. The ages of the sisters were 84, 80, 50 and 36 respectively and the Prioress herself was 74.Eng. Hist. Rev.VI, p. 23.
[251]Compare Archbishop Bowet’s injunction to the Prioress of Hampole in 1411 that “Alice Lye, her nun who held the office ofhostilaria, or anyone who succeeded her in office, should henceforth be free from entering the rooms of guests to lay beds, but that the porter should receive the bedclothes from thehostilariaat the lower gate, and when the guests had departed, should give them back to her at the same place.”V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 165. For the charge that the Prioress made the nuns work, compare the case of Eleanor Prioress of Arden in 1396 (pp.85-6below) and the case of the Prioress of Easebourne in 1441: “Also the Prioress compels her sisters to work continually like hired workwomen (ad modum mulieres conducticiarum) and they receive nothing whatever for their own use from their work, but the prioress takes the whole profit (totum percipit).”Sussex Archaeol. Coll.IX, p. 7.
[252]Compare the case of Denise Loweliche, p.458below.
[253]Test. Ebor.I, pp. 283-5 (summary inV.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 114-5).
[254]An analysis of receipts and expenditure by the Prioress during her term of office, given at the end of thecomperta, stands thus:
[255]The nuns of Swine made the same complaint in 1268. “Binis, tamen, diebus in ebdomada aqua pro cervisia eisdem subministratur.”Reg. of Walter Giffard(Surtees Soc.), p. 148.
[256]Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 506 note.
[257]Cal. of Papal Letters,VI, p. 55.
[258]V.C.H. Suffolk,II, pp. 83-4. The other cases may be noted more briefly. For the story of Denise Loweliche, Prioress of Markyate (Beds.), seeLinc. Visit.I, pp. 82-6, and below, pp.458-9. Alice de Chilterne, Prioress of White Hall, Ilchester, was deprived for incontinence with the chaplain and for wasting the goods of the house to such an extent that the nuns were reduced to begging their bread (1323). Hugo,Med. Nunneries of Somerset, Whitehall in Ilchester, pp. 78-9 andReg. John of Drokensford(Somerset Rec. Soc.), pp. 227, 245, 259. In 1325 Joan de Barton, Prioress of Moxby, was deprivedsuper lapsu carniswith the chaplain.V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 240. In 1495 Elizabeth Popeley was deprived, two years after her confirmation as Prioress of Arthington, for having given birth to a child and for wasting the goods of the house.Ib.p. 189. The case of Katherine Wells, Prioress of Littlemore, who put her nuns in the stocks and took the goods of the house to provide a dowry for her illegitimate daughter is noted below,Note F. See also the stories of Elizabeth Broke, Abbess of Romsey, and Agnes Tawke, Prioress of Easebourne. Liveing,Rec. Romsey Abbey, pp. 211-222 andSussex Archaeol. Coll.IX, pp. 14-19. Joan Fletcher, Prioress of Basedale, resigned from fear of deposition in 1527 and then cast aside her habit and left the house.Yorks. Archaeol. Journ.XVI, pp. 431-2.
[259]It was translated by the Rev. Dr Cox inV.C.H. Hants.II, pp. 132-3, from a chartulary of Wherwell Abbey compiled in the fourteenth century (Brit. Mus. Egerton MS.2104) and quoted by Gasquet,English Monastic Life, pp. 155-8.
[260]See the account in theReg. of Crabhouse Nunnery, ed. Mary Bateson (Norfolk Archaeology,XI, pp. 59-63). Also a charming account of Crabhouse (founded largely on this register) in Jessopp,Ups and Downs of an Old Nunnery(Frivola, 1896, pp. 28 ff.). The English portion of the register was written some time after 1470.
[261]Reliquiae Antiquae,I, p. 314. See also a little further on in the Crabhouse Register: “And xx mark we hadde of the gifte of Edmunde Peris persoun of Watlington before seyde sekatoure to the same Roger wiche was nought payed tyl xvj yere aftyr his day.” Compare the complaint at Rusper in 1478: “Item dicit quod Johannes Wood erat executor domini Ricardi Hormer ... qui fuit a retro in solucione pensionis vs.per xxx annos priorisse et conventui de Rushper.” But this may mean that the late Richard (a rector) had failed to pay.Sussex Archaeol. Coll.V, p. 255.
[262]With this account of the building of Crabhouse church it is interesting to compare the costs incurred in building the “newe chirch” of Syon Abbey in 1479-80. Two small schedules of accounts dealing with this work are preserved in the Public Record Office. The first is particularly interesting for its list of workmen employed: “Summa of the wages of Werkmen wirchyng as well opon and wyane the newe chirch of the monastery of Syun, as opon parte of the newe byldyng of the Brether Cloyster, chapitirhous and library, that is to sey fr. the xth day of October in the xixth yere of the reigne of kyng E. the iiijth vnto the vijth day of October in the xxth yere of the reigne of the same kyng, as it is declared partelly in ij jurnalles of work thereof examyned. It. ffremasons ccxlv li. xij s. xj d. It. harde-hewers xxx li. xj s. vij d. ob. It. Brekeleyers xvj li. xvj s. ij d. It. chalk-hewers xlj s. iij d. It. Carpenters and joynours xlvj s. ix d. It. Tawyers ix li. xvj s. iiij d. It. Smythes xliiij li. xix s. x d. It. Laborers xxxvj li. xix s. vij d. It. Paied to James Powle Brekeman for makyng of breks lxxvj li. viij s. iiij d. Summa tol, cccclxvij li. viij s. iij d. ob.” (P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1261/2). The other schedule gives further details: “Expenses vpon our newe churche. The makyng of the rof wttymber and cariage and workmanship ixclxv li. xviij s. iij d. qa, lede castyng, jynyng, leyyng sawdir with diuers cariage vcxxxv li. x s. x d. Iron bought with cariage, weyng and whirvage lxxiij li. xvi s. x d. Ragstone, assheler ffreston with cariage, masons and labourers for the vantyng and ffurryng of the pilers and purvyaunes vnto the xxvij of maii mlmlvcxlix li. xj s. j d. ob. Summa total for the church mlmlmlmlcxxxiiij li. xvij s. ob. qa. Expenses of the cloystor and dortour vnto the xxvij day of maii vjciiijxxxviij li. ix s. x d. Summa tol. mlmlmlmlviijcxxxiij li. vj s. x d. ob. qa.” (Ib.1261/3.)
[263]Mr Coulton suggests the reading ‘a mason hewande,’ i.e. a hard-hewer or rough hewer, as opposed to the better freemason.
[264]TheValor Ecclesiasticuswas published in six volumes by the Record Commission (1810-34). It is the subject of a detailed study by Professor Alexander Savine, “English Monasteries on the Eve of the Suppression,” inOxford Studies in Social and Legal History, ed. Vinogradoff, vol.I(1909). For this reason, and also because of their greater interest, I have preferred to base my study of nunnery finance on the account rolls of the nuns. TheValoras it affects nunneries has been largely drawn upon in an unpublished thesis by Miss H. T. Jacka,The Dissolution of the English Nunneries, Thesis submitted for the Degree of M.A. in the University of London(Dec. 1917). It is a pity that this useful little work is not published. I have been able to consult it and have made use (as will be seen from footnotes to this chapter) of the admirable chapterIIon “The Property of the Nunneries”; for my quotations from theValorI have invariably used her analysis. Anyone wishing for an intensive study of the Dissolution from the point of view of monastic houses for women cannot do better than consult this thesis, which is far more detailed, exact and judicial in tone than any other modern account.
[265]P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260.
[266]The wardens’ accounts are inP.R.O. Mins. Accts.867/21-6 and the prioress’s accounts,ib.867/30, 32, 33-36. andHen. VII, no. 274. They are briefly described inV.C.H. Herts.IV, pp. 430-1 (notes 30, 31, 39). An excellent prioress’s account for 2-4 Hen. VII is printed by Dugdale,Mon.III, pp. 358-61, the prioress being Christian Bassett.
[267]P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1257/10. See Gasquet,Eng. Monastic Life, pp. 158-176.
[268]A. Gray,Priory of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, pp. 145-85.
[269]Baker,Hist. and Antiq. of Northants.I, pp. 278-83. CompareP.R.O. Mins. Accts.1257/1 for a Catesby account roll for 11-14 Hen. IV.
[270]Dugdale,Mon.IV, pp. 458-60. See alsoP.R.O.1257/2 for Denney, 14 Hen. IV-1 Hen. V.
[271]SeeCh.IV,passim.
[272]Valor Eccles.IV, p. 302.
[273]Ib.III, p. 103.
[274]Ib.I, p. 119.
[275]Ib.I, p. 397.
[276]Ib.I, p. 424.
[277]Jacka,op. cit.f. 44.
[278]Jacka,op. cit.ff. 27, 29-30. The information about Syon and the Minoresses is taken fromValor Eccles.I, p. 424 andI, p. 397 respectively.
[279]See Jacka,op. cit.f. 25.
[280]If the demesne land were let out in farm the customary ploughing and other services of the villeins would no longer be needed and if only a portion of it were so farmed the number of villein services required would be proportionately less. This, as well as the increasing employment of hired labour on the demesne during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, accounts for the item “Sale of Works” which appears in the Romsey account for 1412. Liveing,Records of Romsey Abbey, p. 194. From another point of view the number of rent-payers was increased by the fact that both free and unfree tenants could rent pieces of the demesne. As to the farming of the demesne, note however the conclusion to which Miss Jacka comes from a study of theValorand the DissolutionSurveysnow in the Augmentation Office: “The question ‘to what extent did the nuns in 1535 farm their demesnes?’ cannot be confidently answered on the evidence of any of the records before us. Apart from the fact that in many cases there is no statement at all, the word ‘firma’ or ‘farm’ is used so ambiguously that even where it occurs it is impossible to be certain that a lease existed.... There are, of course, unmistakeable cases in which the demesnes were farmed: Tarrant Keynes kept in hand the demesnes of 3 manors and farmed that of 7; Shaftesbury occupied the demesne of one manor and farmed that of 18 (Valor Eccles.I, pp. 265, 276). But in none of the few cases in which the whole of the demesne is described as yielding a ‘firma,’ should we be justified, in view of the several uses of the word, in asserting that it had the definite character of a lease. That is to say, whatever may be our suspicions, the evidence before us does not warrant the assertion that in a single case did the nuns farm the whole of their demesnes; and this conclusion is an unexpected and remarkable one, for we might well expect them to be among the first land holders who seized this method of simplifying their manorial economy.” Jacka,op. cit.f. 47.
[281]In the account roll of Dame Christian Bassett, Prioress of Delapré (St Albans) for 2-4 Hen. VII, the “rente fermys” range between £7 from Robert Pegge for the farm of the whole manor of Pray, to 2s.received from Richard Franklin “for the ferme of vj acres of londe in Bacheworth”; one John Shon pays 6s.8d.“for the ferme of certeyne londs in Bacheworth and ij tenements in Seint Mighell strete with a lyme kylne”; Richard Ordeway pays 10s.for rent farm of “an hous wtin the Pray” and Robert Pegge 8s.for rent farm of “an hous and a stable wtin Praygate.” Dugdale,Mon.III, pp. 358-9. In this account her assize rents amount to £2. 11s.2d.within the town of St Albans and her rents farm to £4. 13s.2d.; while outside the town the rents of assize amount to £2. 5s.0d.and the rents farm to £11. 19s.8d., while four items amounting to £1. 19s.11d.are doubtful, but probably represent farms. That is to say very nearly three quarters of the lands and houses belonging to Delapré were farmed out, and if we except payments from the town of St Albans, which were probably house-rents, over four-fifths of its possessions were in farm. Similarly in the account roll of Margaret Ratclyff, Prioress of Swaffham, for 22 Ed. IV. the rents are classified asRedditus Assise(£6. 0s.4d.in all),Firma Terrae(£13. 0s.3½d.in all) andFirma Molendini, the farm of a mill (£3. 14s.4d.).Ib.IV, p. 459.
[282]References to money paid in fees to rent-collectors, or in gratuities to men who had brought rents up to the house often occur in account rolls, e.g. in the Catesby roll for 1414-15, “Also in expenses of collecting rents wheresoever to be collected ... xixs.Also paid to divers receivers of rent for the time viijs.viijd.” Baker,Hist. of Northants.I, p. 280. In the Delapré account of 2-4 Hen. IV, “Item paid to a man that brought money from Cambryg for a rewarde viijd.Item for dyvers men ytbrought in their rent at dyvers tymes xxs.ijd.” Dugdale,Mon.III, p. 359. In the St Radegund’s Cambridge account of 1449-51, “In the expenses of Thomas Key (xvijd.ob.) at Abyngton, Litlyngton, Whaddon, Crawden, Bumpsted and Cambridge for the business of the lady (prioress) and for levying rent ... and in the stipend of Thomas Key collecting rents in Cambridge and the district this year xiiis.iiijd.” Gray,Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge, pp. 173-4.
[283]Gray,op. cit.pp. 148, 164.
[284]See for a translation of the whole charter, Aungier,Hist. of Syon, pp. 60-67. The original is givenib.pp. 411-8.
[285]See the valuation of Syon Monastery,A.D.1534, translated from theValor Ecclesiasticus,ib.pp. 439-450. At Romsey in 1412 the perquisites of courts brought in a total of £14 out of an annual income of £404. 6s.0½d., made up of the rents and farms, sale of works, sale of farm produce and perquisites of courts on six manors. Liveing,Records of Romsey Abbey, p. 194.
[286]V.C.H. Hants.II, p. 135.
[287]V.C.H. Norfolk,II, p. 370. So apparently had the Prioress of Carrow. Rye,Carrow Abbey, p. 21.
[288]See p.70above. Compare the Catesby roll for 1414-15. “And in the expenses of the steward at the court this year and at other times vis.viiid.” Baker,Hist. and Antiq. of Northants.I, p. 280.
[289]V.C.H. Essex,II, p. 118.
[290]Cal. of Close Rolls, 1272-9, p. 392.
[291]Cal. of Close Rolls, 1296-1302, p. 238.
[292]In the account of the Prioress of Delapré already quoted occurs the item “Receyvid for ij standyngs at Prayffayre at ij tymes vs.” Dugdale,Mon.III, p. 359. The fair time was the feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. (Sept. 8th) and the account for another year shows that over £1 was spent on the convent and visitors at this time. The accounts for 1490-3 include payments for making trestles and forms in connection with the fair.V.C.H. Herts.IV, p. 430 (note 31) and p. 439 (note 39). The nuns of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, were granted by Stephen a fair, which was afterwards known as Garlick fair, and was held in their churchyard for two days on August 14th and 15th. They did not receive much from it; in 1449 the tolls amounted only to 5s.2d.; moreover they had to give the toll collectors 6d.for a wage and they evidently made the occasion one for entertainment, for they hired an extra cook for 3d.“to help in the kitchin at the fair time.” Gray,Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge, pp. 49-50.
[293]TheValor Eccles.occasionally notes income derived from fairs. Tarrant Keynes had £2 from the fair at Woodburyhill, Shaftesbury had £2. 4s.6d.from Shaftesbury fair, Malling received £3. 6s.8d.from Malling market and fair and £3 from a market “cum terris et tenementis” at Newheth, Blackborough had £1 from Blackborough fair and Elstow had £7. 12s.0d.from Elstow fair.Valor Eccles.I, pp. 265, 276, 106;II, p. 205;III, p. 395;IV, p. 188.
[294]The mill belonging to the home farm would be in the charge of a miller, who was one of the hired servants of the house and was paid a regular stipend. Other mills would probably be farmed out. The nuns of Catesby had two mills, which brought them in 12s.and 22s.a year respectively; one, a wind-mill, was probably farmed, but the water-mill was in charge of Thomas Milner, at a wage of 20s.and his servant, who was paid 2s.6d.The nuns also received tolls of grain in kind from the mill; a certain proportion of which was handed over to the miller for his household. The mill does not seem to have paid very well, for a heavy list of “Costs of the Mill,” amounting to 31s.6d.appears in the account; it includes the wages of the miller and his boy and payments to a carpenter for making the mill-wheel for seventeen days and in damming the mill-tail and buying shoes with nails for the mill horses. Baker,op. cit.I, pp. 279, 281. At Swaffham Bulbeck the “Firma Molendini” brought in £3. 14s.4d.Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 457. Malling Abbey had a fulling-mill.Valor Eccles.I, p. 276.
[295]For instance in Hone,The Manor and Manorial Records(1906).
[296]Coulton,Med. Garn.p. 591.
[297]Baker,op. cit.I, pp. 279, 282.
[298]V.C.H. Norfolk,II, p. 370.
[299]For examples of mortuary law-suits, receipts and results, see Coulton,Med. Garn., pp. 561-6. On the whole subject of mortuaries and the unpopularity which they entailed upon the church, see Coulton,Medieval Studies, no. 8 (“Priests and People before the Reformation,” pp. 3-7).
[300]Translated in Coulton,Med. Garn.p. 323. Compare another of Caesarius’ tales of the usurer who was taken by the devil through various places of torment: “There also he saw a certain honest knight lately dead, Elias von Rheineck, castellan of Horst, seated on a mad cow with his face towards her tail and his back to her horns; the beast rushed to and fro, goring his back every moment so that the blood rushed forth. To whom the usurer said, ‘Lord, why suffer ye this pain?’ ‘This cow,’ replied the knight, ‘I tore mercilessly from a certain widow; wherefore I must now endure this merciless punishment from the same beast.’”Ib.p. 214. Certainly the medieval imagination had a genius for making the punishment fit the crime.
[301]A nunnery in a large town would be far more dependent on buying food. Thus an account of the household expenses of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, in the sixteenth century shows that the nuns had to pay £22 for buying corn and £60. 13s.4d.for meat and other foodstuffs. They were heavily in debt, and their creditors included a brewer, a “cornman,” two fishmongers and a butcher.V.C.H. London, I, p. 460.
[302]Baker,op. cit.I, pp. 281-3.
[303]The convent bought 4½ qrs. of salt for 25s.for the operation this year. Baker,op. cit.I, p. 280. Compare, for the operation at Gracedieu, Gasquet,Eng. Mon. Life, p. 174.
[304]The account of the cellaress of Syon for the year 1536-7 gives very full details of the income derived from the sale of hides and fells. John Lyrer, tanner, buys from her fifty-five ox-hides at 3s.6d.each, and three cow-hides, two steer-hides, one bull-hide, and one murrain ox-hide at 2s.4d.each, making a total of £10. 8s.10d.The same John Lyrer buys 230 calf-skins for £3. 16s.8d.John Cockes, fellmonger, buys 287 “shorling felles,” at 3s.the dozen, 190 “skynnes of wynter felles” at 6s.the dozen, 77 “skynnes somerfelles” at 8s.the dozen, for a total for £10. 18s.1d.The different qualities of wool were always carefully distinguished and priced.Myroure of Oure Ladye, ed. Blunt, p. xxix.
[305]A few examples taken at random will suffice: “By the sale of wool 4 marks 11s.8d.From Gilbert of Chesterton for the wooldel aan ke est aveni100s.” (32-3 Edw. I).P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260/1. “From the sale of 14 stone of wool, price per stone 7s., 4l.18s.” (48-9 Edw. III).Ib.1260/4. “Received for one sack of 20 stone of wool sold last year, at 4s.per stone, 13 marks, 10s.8d.Received for one sack of this years wool, at 4s.6d.per stone, 5l.17s.0d.” (either 46-7 or 47-8 Edw. III).Ib.1260/21. “From John of the Pantry for 11½ stone of wool at 6s.the stone, 69s.” (1-2 Rich. II).Ib.1260/7. In 1412 Romsey Abbey derived £60 out of a total income of £404. 6s.4½d.from the sale of wool. Liveing,op. cit.p. 194.
[306]See, for this very interesting document, Cunningham,Growth of English Industry and Commerce(1905 ed.),I, App. D, pp. 628-41. The nunneries mentioned, with the amount of wool obtainable from each annually, are Stainfield (from 12 sacks), Stixwould (from 15 sacks), Nuncoton (from 10 sacks), Hampole (from 6 sacks), St Leonard’s Grimsby (from 2 sacks), Heynings (from 2 sacks), Gokewell (from 4 sacks), Langley (from 5 sacks), Arden (from 10 sacks), Keldholme (from 12 sacks), Rosedale (from 10 sacks), St Clement’s York (from 3 sacks), Swine (from 8 sacks), Marrick (from 8 sacks), Wykeham (from 4 sacks), Ankerwyke (from 4 sacks), Thicket (from 4 sacks), Nunmonkton (number missing), Yedingham (do.), Legbourne (from 3 sacks). A similar Flemish list mentions Hampole, Nuncoton, Stainfield and Gracedieu (33 lbs.). Varenbergh,Hist. des Relations Diplomatiques entre le Comté de Flandre et l’Angleterre au Moyen Âge(Brussels, 1874), pp. 214-7.
[307]“The Libel of English Policie,” inHakluyt’s Voyages(Everyman’s Lib. edit.), I, p. 186.
[308]See, for instance, a petition from the nuns of Carrow asking to be allowed to appropriate the church of Surlingham, of which they had the advowson, “qar, tres dute seignour, lauoesoun ne les fait bien eynz de les mettre en daunger de presentement en chescune voedaunce”;P.R.O. Anct. Petit.232/11587. It appears that the prioress had letters patent to appropriate the church, probably in answer to this petition in 22 Edw. II; Rye,Carrow Abbey, App. p. xxxvi. It may be useful to give a few out of very many references to the appropriation of a church to a nunnery on account of poverty: Clifton to Lingbrook (Reg. R. de Swinfield, p. 134), Wolferlow and Bridge Sollers to Aconbury (Reg. A. de Orleton, pp. 176, 200), Rockbeare to Canonsleigh (Reg. Grandisson,II, p. 698), Compton and Upmardon to Easebourne (Bp. Rede’s Reg.p. 137), Itchen Stoke to Romsey (Reg. Sandale, p. 269), Whenby to Moxby (Reg. Wickwane, p. 290), Horton to St Clement’s York (Reg. Gray, p. 107), Bishopthorpe to the same (Reg. Giffard, p. 59), Dallington to Flamstead (Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 301), Quadring to Stainfield (V.C.H. Lincs.II, p. 131), Easton Neston to Sewardsley and Desborough to Rothwell (V.C.H. Northants.II, p. 137), Lidlington to Barking (V.C.H. Essex,II, p. 119), Bradford, Tisbury and Gillingham to Shaftesbury (V.C.H. Dorset,II, p. 77).
[309]An analysis of the possessions of Carrow gives some good examples of this. The churches of Earlham, Stow Bardolph, Surlingham, Swardeston, East Winch and Wroxham were all appropriated soon after their advowsons had been granted to the priory, which also possessed the advowsons of four churches in Norwich, the moiety of another advowson, the moiety of a rectory and various tithes or portions of tithes in different manors and parishes. Rye,Carrow Abbey, App.X.
[310]Gasquet,Eng. Mon. Life, p. 194.
[311]For the abuses of appropriation, see Coulton,Medieval Studies, no. 8, pp. 6-8. For the part played by the lower clergy in the Peasants’ Revolt, see Petit-Dutaillis,Studies Supplementary to Stubbs’ Constit. Hist.II, pp. 270-1, and Kriehn,Studies in the Sources of the Social Revoltin 1381 (Amer. Hist. Review, 1901),VI, pp. 480-4.
[312]Valor Eccles.IV, p. 188.
[313]Ib.III, p. 276.
[314]Ib.I, p. 897.
[315]Jacka,op. cit.f. 35. See the list of “Farms and Pensions” in the prioress of Catesby’s accounts for 1414-5. Baker,Hist. and Antiqs. of Northants.I, p. 279.
[316]V.C.H. Northants.II, p. 98.
[317]Dugdale,Mon.IV, p. 268.
[318]This appears from the regular entry of the amount brought in by the farms of the two churches in the account rolls. In 1458 the nuns received formal permission from the bishop to lease out and dispose of the fruits and revenues of any of the appropriated churches. Madox,Form. Anglic.dxc.
[319]P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260/7.
[320]See for instance Norris’ note (quoted by Rye) on the grant to Carrow Priory of the tithes of all wheat growing in the parishes of Bergh and Apton, which tithes “occasioned many disputes between the Rector and the Convent, till at length about the year 1237 it was agreed by the Prioress and Convent and Thomas, the then Rector, ... that the Rector should pay to the Convent 14 quarters of wheat in lieu of all their tithes there, which was constantly paid, with some little allowance for defect of measure, until 29 Edw. III, when there was a suit between Prioress and Rector about them. What was the event of it I find not, but they soon after returned to the old payment of 14 qrs., which continued until 21 Hen. VI, when the dispute was revived and in a litigious way they continued above ten years, but I find they afterwards returned again to the old agreement and kept to it, I believe, to the dissolution of the Priory.” Rye mentions a suit between the Rector and Prioress in 1321. Similarly the nuns were involved in a tedious suit (10 Edw. I) about the tithes of the demesne of the manor of Barshall in Riston, with the Rector of Riston. Rye,Carrow Abbey, App. pp. xxx, xxxv.
[321]See below, p.199, for the other side of the matter.
[322]Similarly the nuns of Kingsmead, Derby, had part of the shirt of St Thomas of Canterbury, and the nuns of Gracedieu had the girdle and part of the tunic of St Francis, both of which were good for the same purpose.V.C.H. Derby,II, p. 43; Nichols,Hist. of Leic.III, p. 652.
[323]V.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 115, 119, 130, 159, 178, 189.
[324]V.C.H. Northants.II, p. 122.
[325]V.C.H. Essex,II, p. 118.
[326]See for instance the receipts of the nuns of St Michael’s Stamford fromAlmes, Almoignes et Auentureentered in their roll for 45-6 Edw. III. “From Sir John Weston for a soul, 13s.4d.For the soul of Simon the Taverner, 1s.For the soul of Sir Robert de Thorp, £20. 6s.7d.For the soul of William Apethorp, 3s.4d.For the soul of Alice atte Halle, 3s.4d.In alms from William Ouneby, 6s.8d.In alms from Emma of Okham £5. Received from the pardon at the church 6s.8d.For the pardon from Lady Idayne and from Emma Okham £1.”P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260/3. But this was an unusually good year.
[327]The account rolls of St Michael’s Stamford usually arrange expenses under the following headings: (1) rents, (2) petty expenses, (3) convent expenses, (4) cost of carts and ploughs, (5) repair of houses, (6) purchase of stock, (7) weeding corn and mowing hay, (8) threshing and winnowing, (9) harvest expenses, (10) hire of servants, (11) chaplains’ fees. SeeP.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260/passim. The active prioress of St Mary de Pré, Christian Bassett, classifies her payments as for (1) “comyns, pytances and partycions,” (2) “yerely charges,” (3) “wagys and ffees,” (4) “reparacions,” (5) “divers expensis.” Dugdale,Mon.III, pp. 358-61. The prioress of Catesby (1414-5) classifies (1) rents, (2) petty expenses, (3) expenses of the houses (i.e. repairs), (4) household expenses, (5) necessary expenses (miscellaneous), (6) expenses of carts, (7) purchase of livestock, (8) customary payments (to nuns, pittancers, farmers, cottagers, etc. in clothing; details not given); (9) purchase of corn, (10) rewards (various small tips to nuns and servants), (11) tedding and making hay, harvest expenses, stubble, thrashing and winnowing corn, (12) costs of the mill, (13) servants’ wages. Baker,Hist. and Antiq. of Northants.I, pp. 278-83.
[328]Liveing,Records of Romsey Abbey, pp. 194-5.
[329]See below, p.323.
[330]See below, pp.157-8.
[331]Gray,Priory of St Radegund, Cambridge, p. 156.
[332]P.R.O. Mins. Accts.1260/10.
[333]Valor Eccles.I, p. 84.
[334]Ib.I, p. 119.
[335]Ib.I, p. 394.
[336]Ib.III, p. 76.
[337]Ib.III, p. 77.
[338]Archaeol. Journ.LXIX(1912), pp. 120-1.
[339]Gray,op. cit.p. 172.
[340]Dugdale,Mon.III, p. 359. The heading under which this item comes isYerely Charges.
[341]Baker,Hist. and Antiq. of Northants.I, p. 281.
[342]A. G. Little,Studies in English Franciscan History(1917), pp. 25, 43.
[343]See below, p.199.
[344]Gray,op. cit.pp. 156, 172.
[345]Myroure of Oure Ladye, ed. Blunt, introd. p. xxxi.
[346]See below, p.202.
[347]See e.g. above, p.70.
[348]Gray,op. cit.pp. 153-5.
[349]Mackenzie Walcott,Inventories of ... Shepey, pp. 32-3.
[350]Maurice Hewlett,The Song of the Plow(1916), pp. 9-10.
[351]Baker,Hist. and Antiq. of Northants.I, p. 283. Compare the St Radegund’s Cambridge accounts: “Et in butumine empto cum pycche hoc anno pro bidentibus signandis et ungendis, ij s j d. Et in clatis emptis ad faldam, iij s iij d. Et solutum pro remocione falde per diversas vices, iij d. ... Et in bidentibus hoc anno lavandis et tondendis ij s iij d.” Gray,op. cit.pp. 155, 171.
[352]They are a regular item in the St Michael’s, Stamford, accounts and compare the accounts of St Radegund’s, Cambridge: “And in viij pairs of gloves bought for divers hired men at harvest as was needful xij d.” Gray,op. cit.pp. 157, 172.
[353]Tusser,Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ed. W. Payne and S. J. Herrtage (Eng. Dialect. Soc. 1878), pp. 129-30.
[354]Tusser,op. cit.p. 132.
[355]Ib.p. 181.
[356]C. T. Flower,Obedientiars’ Accounts of Glastonbury and other Religious Houses(St Paul’s Ecclesiological Soc. vol.VII, ptII(1912)), pp. 50-62. The nunnery accounts described include accounts of the Abbess of Elstow (22 Hen. VII), the Prioress of Delapré (4 and 9 Hen. VII), the Cellaress of Barking, the Cellaress of Syon, the Sacrist of Syon and the Chambress of Syon. On obedientiaries and their accounts in general, see the introduction toCompotus Rolls of the Obedientiaries of St Swithun’s Priory, Winchester, ed. G. W. Kitchin (Hants. Rec. Soc. 1892).
[357]Liveing,Records of Romsey Abbey, p. 236. At St Mary’s Winchester at the same date the 14 nuns included the abbess, prioress, subprioress, infirmaress,precentrixand three sub-chantresses,scrutatrix,dogmatistaand librarian.V.C.H. Hants.II, p. 124.
[358]Aungier,Hist. of Syon Mon.p. 392.