II. VISITATIONS OF NUNNERIES IN THE DIOCESE OF ROUEN BY ARCHBISHOP EUDES RIGAUD (1248-1269) 634
III. FIFTEENTH CENTURY SAXON VISITATIONS BY JOHANN BUSCH 670
IV. LIST OF ENGLISH NUNNERIES, C. 1275-1535 685
I Page from _La Sainte Abbaye_ FRONTISPIECE (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 39843. Folio 6vº.)
II Abbess receiving the pastoral staff from a bishop 44 (From _The Metz Pontifical_, 82(b)vº and 90vº, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.)
III Page from _La Sainte Abbaye_ 144 (Folio 29.)
IV Brass of Ela Buttry, the stingy Prioress of Campsey ([dagger] 1546), in St Stephen's Church, Norwich 168 (From _Norfolk Archaeology_, Vol. VI; Norf. and Norwich Archaeol. Soc. 1864.)
V Page from _La Sainte Abbaye_ 260 (Folio 1vº.)
VI Dominican nuns in quire 286 (From Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. Dom. A XII f.)
VII The nun who loved the world 388 (From _Queen Mary's Psalter_, Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2 B. VII.)
VIII Plan of Lacock Abbey 403 (From _Archaeologia_, LVII, by permission of the Society of Antiquaries and Mr Harold Brakspear.)
Map showing the English Nunneries in the later middle ages AT END
Then, fair virgin, hear my spell, For I must your duty tell. First a-mornings take your book, The glass wherein yourself must look; Your young thoughts so proud and jolly Must be turn'd to motions holy; For your busk, attires and toys, Have your thoughts on heavenly joys: And for all your follies past, You must do penance, pray and fast. You shall ring your sacring bell, Keep your hours and tell your knell, Rise at midnight to your matins, Read your psalter, sing your Latins; And when your blood shall kindle pleasure, Scourge yourself in plenteous measure. You must read the morning mass, You must creep unto the cross, Put cold ashes on your head, Have a hair cloth for your bed, Bind your beads, and tell your needs, Your holy Aves and your Creeds; Holy maid, this must be done, If you mean to live a nun. _The Merry Devil of Edmonton._
There were in England during the later middle ages (c. 1270-1536) some 138 nunneries, excluding double houses of the Gilbertine order, which contained brothers as well as nuns. Of these over one half belonged to the Benedictine order and about a quarter (localised almost entirely in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire) to the Cistercian order. The rest were distributed as follows: 17 to the order of St Augustine and one (Minchin Buckland), which belonged to the order of St John of Jerusalem and followed the Austin rule, four to the Franciscan order, two to the Cluniac order, two to the Premonstratensian order and one to the Dominican order. There was also founded in the fifteenth century a very famous double house of the Brigittine order, Syon Abbey. Twenty-one of these houses had the status of abbeys; the rest were priories. They were distributed all over the country, Surrey, Lancashire, Westmorland and Cornwall being the only counties without one, but they were more thickly spread over the eastern than over the western half of the island. They were most numerous in the North, East and East Midlands, to wit, in the dioceses of York, Lincoln (which was then very large and included Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and part of Hertfordshire) and Norwich; there were 27 houses in the diocese of York, 31 in the diocese of Lincoln, ten in the diocese of Norwich and in London and its suburbs there were seven. On the other hand if nunneries were most plentiful in the North and East Midlands it was there that they were smallest and poorest. The wealthiest and most famous nunneries in England were all south of the Thames. Apart from the new foundation at Syon, which very soon became the largest and richest of all, the greatest houses were the old established abbeys of Wessex, Shaftesbury, Wilton, St Mary's Winchester, Romsey and Wherwell, which, together with Barking in Essex were all of Anglo-Saxon foundation; and Dartford in Kent, founded by Edward III. The only houses north of the Thames which approached these in importance were Godstow and Elstow Abbeys, in Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire respectively; the majority were small priories with small incomes.