ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE TEXT

NOTE A.

THE DAILY FARE OF BARKING ABBEY.

The Charthe [charter] longynge to the office of the Celeresse of the Monasterye of Barkinge[1647] is one of the most interesting domestic documents which has survived from the middle ages. The MÉnagier de Paris gives a first rate account of the work of a housewife who has to provide for a private household. The Charthe sets forth the duties of a housewife who has to feed a large institution. No bursar of a college or housekeeper of a school can fail to read it with a sympathetic smile. Like a good business woman the nameless cellaress, who drew it up for the guidance of her successors, sets out first of all the sources of revenue by which the charges of her office were supported. These are of three sorts: (1) the rents from thirteen rural manors, together with certain annual rents from the canons of St Paul’s, the priory of St Bartholomew’s and the lessees of various tenements in London, which were supposed to yield her a little over £95 per annum; (2) “the issues of the Larder,” to wit all the ox skins, “inwards” of oxen, tallow coming from oxen and messes of beef, which she sells; and (3) “the foreyn receyte,” to wit the money received for the sale of hay at any farm belonging to her office. These represent only her money revenues; but she also received the greater part of meat and dairy produce consumed by the convent from the home farm and from the demesnes of the manors appropriated to her. The Charthe warns her to be certain of hiring pasture for her oxen at such times as it is needful, to see that her hay is duly mown and made and to keep all the buildings belonging to her office in repair, both those within the monastery and those at the outlying manors and farms.

The Charthe throws some light upon the domestic staff employed in working the department. An important gentleman called the steward of the household had the general supervision of its business affairs; he kept an eye on the bailiffs and rent collectors of the cellaress’s manors and presided at their courts. The cellaress solemnly presented him with a “reward” of 20d. every time that he returned with the pecuniary proceeds of justice, and on Christmas day. The management of the department was done by the head cellaress herself, with an under-cellaress to assist her and a clerk to keep her accounts and write her business letters, at a wage of 13s. 4d. The kitchen was in the special charge of a nun kitchener and the actual cooking was done by a “yeoman cook,” a “groom cook” and a “pudding wife”[1648]; she paid her yeoman cook a wage of 26s. 8d., her pudding wife, 2s. a year and bought her groom cook a gown at Christmas. She wisely gave a Christmas box to each of the underlings, great and small, with whom she had to do, 20d. to the Abbess’ gentlewoman, 16d. to every gentleman, “and to every yoman as it pleaseth her for to doo, and gromes in like case”; moreover it was her pleasant duty to hand to herself as cellaress and to her under-cellaress 20d. apiece.

The Charthe gives exceedingly minute directions as to the conventual housekeeping. Barking Abbey was a large house, consisting at the time this document was drawn up of thirty-seven ladies. The Abbess dwelt in state in her own apartments, with a gentlewoman to wait upon her and a private kitchen, with its own staff, which was not under the control of the cellaress. The cellaress, however, sent in to the Abbess 4 lbs. of almonds and eight cakes called “russheaulx” in Lent, eight chickens at Shrovetide, one pottle of wine called Tyre[1649] on Maundy Thursday and a sugar loaf on Christmas Day; while the Abbess’ kitchen had to provide the convent with “pittances” and “liveries” of pork, bacon, mutton or eggs on certain days of the year, as will appear hereafter. From the convent kitchen the cellaress had to purvey for: (1) the ladies of the convent, (2) the prioress, two cellaresses and kitchener, who receive a double allowance of almost all food given out, and (3) the priory.

The Charthe sets forth exactly how much is to be delivered to each person, the separate allowances of meat being called “messes.” It will be convenient to consider the stores to be provided under the five headings of: (1) meat, (2) grain, (3) butter and eggs, (4) fish and condiments for Advent and Lenten fare, and (5) pittances, or extra delicacies provided on certain days of the year. It is to be noted that the Charthe deals for the most part with the special fare appropriate to special occasions. There is no mention of the daily allowance of bread and beer made on the premises; the only fish mentioned is salt fish for Lent; the only vegetables are dried peas and beans; the only fowls are for a special pittance on St Alburgh’s day.

(1) Meat. The chief meat food of the convent, eaten three times a week (on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday), except in Advent and Lent and on vigils, was beef. The cellaress had to purvey 22 “gud oxen” by the year for the convent. These oxen were fed on her own pastures, and, says the cellaress, “she shall slay but every fortnyght and yf sche be a good huswyff”; accordingly at the end of the first week, she must look and see if she has enough beef to last out the fortnight and if not she must buy what she needs in the market. It would seem that besides the beef provided by the cellaress from the convent kitchen the convent had an extra allowance of beef provided from some source not mentioned in the Charthe, or else that they did not always eat each week what was delivered to them. For the cellaress sets down as follows the entry which her clerk is to make in her book each week: on Saturday 20 Sept. (doubtless the day on which she was writing) she answers for four or five messes remaining in store of the week before, and of 63 messes of beef from an ox slain the same week, also of 80 messes of beef bought by her of the convent “of that they lefte behynd of ther lyvere, paying for every mess 1½d.,” total 147 messes, whereof she delivers to each lady for the three meat days three messes and to the priory six messes. After beef the meat food most commonly eaten consisted in various forms of pig’s flesh. At Martinmas the cellaress had to ask at the abbess’ kitchen for a pittance of pork for each lady and also a livery of “sowsse”[1650], thus defined: “every lady to have three thynges, that is to sey, the cheke, the ere and the fote is a livery; the groyne and two fete ys anodyer leveray; soe a hoole hoggs sowsse shall serve three ladyes.” At the same time she had to give them “of sowce of hyre owne provisione two thynges to every lady, so that a hoole hog sowce do serve four ladyes.” She also had to provide pork from her own kitchin for two anniversary pittances (of which more anon) and she notes that every hog yields 20 messes. Moreover on Christmas Day she had to ask at the abbess’ kitchen for “livery bacon” for the convent, four messes for each lady; a flitch was reckoned to provide ten messes. Of mutton the convent ate very little. Three times a year, between the feasts of the Assumption (Aug. 15) and of St Michael (Sept. 29), the abbess’ kitchen had to provide “pittance mutton” for the ladies, a mess to each, “and every mutton yields twelve messes”; and twice a year on certain anniversaries the cellaress had to provide a similar allowance out of her own kitchen.

(2) Grain. Under this heading comes three quarters of malt, to be brewed into ale for the festal seasons of St Alburgh’s[1651] (or Foundress’) Day (Oct. 11) and Christmas; one quarter and seven bushels of wheat to be baked into bread or cakes for various pittances; two bushels of dried peas to be eaten in Lent and one bushel of dried beans “against Midsummer.” The brewer and baker were paid a tip of 20d. and 6d. respectively, when they had to make the extra pittance beer and bread. The convent also had a livery of oatmeal from the cellaress, four dishes delivered once a month.

(3) Butter and Eggs. The cellaress had to provide the convent with butter at certain times, to every lady and double one “cobet,” every dish containing three cobets. What was called “feast butter” was payable on St Alburgh’s Day, Easter, Whitsunday and Trinity Sunday. What was called “storing butter” was payable five times a year, “to wit Advent and four times after Christmas.” What was called “fortnight butter” was payable once for every fortnight lying between Trinity Sunday and Holy Rood Day (Sept. 14). The cellaress was also responsible for providing the convent with money to buy eggs (“ey silver”); each lady had weekly from Michaelmas (Sept. 29) to All Hallows’ Day (Nov. 1), 1½d., from All Hallows’ Day to Advent, 1¾d., from Advent to Childermas Day (Dec. 28), 1¼d., from Childermas Day to Ash Wednesday, 1¾d., and from Easter to Michaelmas, 1½d.; also an extra allowance of ½d. on each vigil of the year, when no meat was eaten. Out of this “ey silver” the nuns had to purvey eggs for themselves as best they might; but the cellaress had to give the priory each week in the year 32 eggs or else 2¾d. in money, except in the four Advent weeks when she provided only 16 and in Lent, when none were due; for every vigil she gave them eight eggs, “or else 1¾d. and the fourth part of ¼d.” in money. At the five principal feasts of the year the abbess left her hall and dined in state in the frater, to wit on Easter Day, Whit Sunday, Assumption Day, St Alburgh’s Day and Christmas Day; and on these occasions the cellaress had to ask the clerk of the abbess’ kitchen for “supper eggs” for the convent, two for each lady.

(4) Lenten Fare. For Lent and Advent the cellaress had to provide the convent with their diet of fish, enlivened for their comfort with dried fruits and rice. She laid in two cades of red herring for Advent, a cade being 600 (counting six score to the 100).

For Lent she purveyed seven cades of red herring and three barrels (containing 1000 at six score to the hundred) of white herring. To every lady she gave four a day (i.e. in all 28 a week), and to the priory she gave four on every day except Sunday, when she gave them fish, and Friday, when they had figs and raisins. She also had to lay in 18 salt fish (nature unspecified), out of which she provided each lady with a mess and the priory with two messes every other week in Lent, each fish producing seven messes; in the alternate weeks they received salt salmon, of which she laid in fourteen or fifteen, each salmon yielding nine messes. To spice this Lenten fare she bought 1200 lbs. of almonds, three “peces” and 24 lbs. of figs, one “pece” of raisins, 28 lbs. of rice and 12 gallons of mustard. Each lady received 2 lbs. of almonds and ½ lb. of rice to last for the whole of Lent, and every week 1 lb. of figs and raisins.(5) Pittances, or extra allowances of more delicate food, were due to the nuns on certain feasts of the Church and on the anniversaries of five benefactors, viz. Sir William Vicar, Dame Alys Merton, “dame Mawte the kynges daughter,” dame Maud Loveland and William Dun. The pittances on the anniversaries of William Vicar and William Dun were of mutton; on each occasion the cellaress had to lay in three “carse” of mutton, and for William Dun’s pittance she had to make sure also of 12 gallons of good ale. For the pittances of Dame Alice Merton and Maud the king’s daughter (which fell in the winter) she had to purvey four bacon hogs, each hog producing 20 messes, also six grecys[1652], six sowcys and six inwardys; also 100 eggs for “white puddings,” together with bread, pepper and saffron for the same, and “marrow bones for white wortys”[1653]; also three gallons of good ale. Evidently the convent had a royal feast on those days and had good cause to remember their former abbesses. There are no details as to Dame Maud Loveland’s pittance. Another red letter day was Foundress’ Day (Oct. 11). On this occasion the abbess’ kitchen had to provide each lady of the convent with half a goose, the two chantresses, as well as the four usual recipients, receiving doubles, and with a hen or a cock, the fratresses and the subprioress also receiving doubles. Moreover the cellaress had to give the ladies “frumenty”[1654], for which she laid in wheat and three gallons of milk.

On the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin (Aug. 15) each received half a goose. At Shrovetide the cellaress gave each lady “for their cripcis[1655] and for their crumkakers 2d.”; she had also to purvey eight chickens for the abbess and “bonnes”[1656] for the convent and also four gallons of milk. On Shere or Maundy Thursday she had 12 “stub” eels and 60 “shaft” eels baked with wheat and 8 lbs. of rice; and she sent the abbess a bottle of Tyre and the convent two gallons of red wine; unglorified by a name. On Palm Sunday they had “russheaulx”[1657], for which she provided 21 lbs. of figs. These were little highly spiced pies (rather like mince pies), of which the chief ingredients were figs and flour, and besides providing them in kind on Palm Sunday the cellaress had to pay the ladies “Ruscheaw silver, by xvj times payable in the yere to every lady and doubill at eche time ½d., but it is paid nowe but at two times, that is to say at Ester and Michelmes.” On Easter Eve they had three gallons of ale and one gallon of red wine. On St Andrew’s Day and on every Sunday in Lent they had fish (doubtless fresh fish, as a welcome change from salted herrings).

NOTE B.

SCHOOL CHILDREN IN NUNNERIES.

The subject is of such interest from the point of view of educational as well as of monastic history, that I have thought it worth while to print in full all the references to convent education in England (c. 1250-1537), which I have been able to find. For the convenience of the reader I have translated references in Latin and Old French and have arranged the houses under counties. Doubtful references are marked with an asterisk.Bedfordshire.

1. Elstow.

Late 12th century. Bishop Hugh of Lincoln sent a little boy, Robert of Noyon, here. “He seemed to be about five years old, or a little older; and after a short space of time (the Bishop) sent him to Elstow to be taught his letters (literis informandum).” Magna Vita S. Hugonis Episcopi Lincolniensis (Rolls Ser.), p. 146.

1359. Gynewell enjoins boarders to be sent away on pain of excommunication. “But boys up to the completion of their sixth year and girls up to the completion of their tenth year, ... we do not wish to be understood or included in the above (prohibition).” Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 139d.

1421-2. Flemyng enjoins “that henceforward you admit or allow to be admitted or received to lodge or stay within the limits of the cloister, no persons male or female, ... who are beyond the twelfth year of their age.” Linc. Visit. I, p. 49.

c. 1432. Gray enjoins that all secular persons shall be removed from the cloister precincts, “... males to wit, who have passed their tenth year, or females who have passed their fourteenth.” Linc. Visit. I, p. 53.

1442-3. “Dame Rose Waldegrave says that ... certain nuns do sometimes have with them in the quire in time of mass the boys whom they teach, and these do make a noise in quire during divine service.” Linc. Visit. II, p. 90.

2. Harrold.

1442-3. At Bishop Alnwick’s visitation “Dame Alice Decun says that only two little girls of six or seven years do lie in the dorter.” Another nun says the same. The Bishop forbids adult boarders, “ne childere ouere xj yere olde men and xij yere olde wymmen wythe owten specyalle leue of us or our successours bysshops of Lincolne fyest asked and had; ne that ye suffre ne seculere persones, wymmen ne childern, lyg by nyght in the dormytory.” Linc. Visit. II, pp. 130-1.

Buckinghamshire.

3. Burnham.

c. 1431-6. Gray enjoins “that henceforward no secular women who are past the fourteenth year of their age, and no males at all, be admitted in any wise to lie by night in the dorter or be suffered so to lie.... That you henceforth admit or suffer to be admitted and received to lodge in the said monastery no women after they have completed the fourteenth year of their age and no males after the eighth year of their age.... That you remove wholly from the said monastery all ... secular folk, male and female, who, being lodgers in the said monastery, have passed the ages aforesaid.” Linc. Visit. I, p. 24.

1519. Atwater enjoins “that infants and small children be not admitted into the dorter of the nuns.” Linc. Epis. Reg. Visit. Atwater, f. 42d.

*4. Little Marlow.

c. 1530? Margaret Vernon, Prioress of Little Marlow and friend of Cromwell, was entrusted by him with the care of his little son Gregory. Several of her letters are preserved, but they are undated and it is difficult to gather from those which refer to Gregory Cromwell whether they were written before or after the dissolution of Little Marlow. There was in any case no question of her teaching the boy herself. He had with him a tutor, Mr Copland, and the Prioress writes to tell Cromwell that Mr Copland every morning gives Gregory and Nicholas Sadler, his schoolfellow, their Latin lesson, “which Nicholas doth bear away as well Gregory’s lesson as his own, and maketh him perfect against his time of rendering, at which their Master is greatly comforted.” Master Sadler also had with him a “little gentlewoman,” whom Margaret wished permission to educate herself. In another letter she speaks of a proposed new tutor for Gregory and expresses anxiety that he should be one who would not object to her supervision. “Good master Cromwell, if it like you to call unto your remembrance, you have promised me that I should have the governance of your child till he be twelve years of age, and at that time I doubt not with God’s grace but he shall speak for himself if any wrong be offered unto him, whereas yet he cannot but by my maintenance; and if he should have such a master which would disdain if I meddled, then it would be to me great unquietness, for I assure you if you sent hither a doctor of divinity yet will I play the smatterer, but always in his well doing to him he shall have his pleasure, and otherwise not.” Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, II, 57-9.

Cambridgeshire.

5. Swaffham Bulbeck.

1483. The following references to boarders in the account roll of the Prioress Margaret Ratclyff for 22 Edw. IV almost certainly indicate children. “By Richard Potecary of Cambridge 11s. for board for 22 weeks, at 6d. per week. By 11s. received from John Kele of Cambridge for 22 weeks, viz. 6d. per week. By £1 received from William Water of ... his son for 40 weeks, viz. 6d. per week. By 13s. received from Thomas Roch ... his son for 26 weeks, viz. 6d. per week. By 15s. received from Manfeld for the board of his son for 30 weeks, viz. 6d. per week. By £1 received from ... of Cambridge for the board of his daughter for 40 weeks, viz. 6d. per week. By 8s. from ... of Chesterton for the board of his son for 16 weeks. viz. 6d. per week. From ... Parker of Walden for the board of his son for 12 weeks. By 3s. received from ... the merchant for the board of his daughter for 6 weeks, viz. 6d. per week.” Dugdale, Mon. IV, pp. 439-60.*6. St Radegund’s, Cambridge.

1481-2. The account roll for 1481-2 contains the item “And she answers for 20s. received from Richard Woodcock for the commons of 2 daughters of the said Richard, as for [blank] weeks, at [blank] per week.” Gray, Priory of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, p. 176. This is probably a child, because I am inclined to think that payments so worded, as from a father for a son or daughter, usually refer to children. Unfortunately the nuns of this priory kept the details of their receipts from boarders on a separate sheet, and entered only the total, thus: “And by £1. 12. 1 received for the board or repast of divers gentlefolk, particulars of whose names are noted in the paper book of accounts displayed above this account.” Ib. p. 163 (see also, p. 147). These separate papers are unluckily lost, so no details are available.

Derbyshire.

*7. King’s Mead, Derby.

Dr J. C. Cox says “Evidence of this priory being used as a boarding school occurs in the private muniments of the Curzon, Fitzherbert and Gresley families.” V.C.H. Derby, II, p. 44 (note 14). Without more exact reference it is impossible to say whether this is correct, because adult boarders are so often confused with schoolchildren.

Devon.

8. Cornworthy.

c. 1470. Petition from Thomasyn Dynham, Prioress of Cornworthy concerning two children at school in her house, whose fees have not been paid for five years. See description in text (above, p. 269).

Essex.

9. Barking.

1433. Katherine de la Pole, Abbess of Barking, petitions Henry V, “for as much as she, afore this tyme hath bene demened and reuled, by th’advis of youre full discrete counsail, to take upon hir the charge, costes and expenses of Edmond ap Meredith ap Tydier and Jasper ap Meredith ap Tydier, being yit in her kepyng, for the which cause she was payed, fro the xxvii day of Juyll, the yere of youre full noble regne xv, unto the Satterday the last day of Feverer, the yere of your saide regne xvii, l livres: and after the saide last day of Feverer, youre saide bedewoman hath borne the charges as aboven unto this day and is behynde of the payement for the same charge ... the somme of lii livres xii sols,” she asks for payment. Dugdale, Mon. I, 437 (note m), (quoted from Rymer, Foedera, X, p. 828).

1527. Sir John Stanley made his Will on June 20, 1527, and in 1528, after a solemn act of separation with his wife, entered a monastery. The will is largely concerned with provisions for the education of his son and heir, who was at that time three years old. He set aside the proceeds of a certain manor “whych is estemed to be of the yerly valewe of xl li., to the onely use and fyndynge of my said sonne and heyre apparaunte, tyll he comme and be of the full ayge of xxi^ti, yeres; and I woll that my sayd sonne and heyr shalbe in the custodye and kepynge of the saide Abbes of Barckynge, tyll he accomplyshe and be of thayge of xij yeres and after the sayd ayge of xij yeres I woll that he shalbe in the custodye and guydynge of the sayd Abbot of Westmynster, tyll he come and be of hys full ayge of xxi^ti yeres.” The Abbess and Abbot were to have £15 yearly for the use of their houses in return for their pains and £20 yearly was to be paid them “to fynde my sayd sonne and heyre and hys servauntes, mete, drynke and wayges convenyent and all other thynges necessare un to theym, durynge and by all the tyme that he shalbe in the rule and guydynge of the sayd Abbesse and of the sayd Abbot.” Archaeol. Journ. XXV (1868), pp. 81-2.
It should be noted that there is nothing to suggest that these boys were being taught by the nuns; they were young noblemen attached to a noblewoman’s household to learn breeding.

Hampshire.

10. St Mary’s, Winchester.

1536. Henry VIII’s commissioners, who visited the house 15th May, found here twenty-six “chyldren of lordys, knyghttes and gentylmen brought up yn the saym monastery.” For the list of names (given in Dugdale, Mon. II, p. 457), see above p. 266.

11. Romsey.

1311. Bishop Woodlock decreed “There shall not be in the dormitory with the nuns any children, either boys or girls, nor shall they be led by the nuns into the choir, while the divine office is celebrated.” Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey, p. 104.

*1387. William of Wykeham enjoins (in an injunction dealing with various manifestations of the vitium proprietatis) “Moreover let not the nuns henceforth presume to call their own rooms or pupils (discipulas), hitherto assigned to them or so assigned in future, on pretext of such assignation, which is rather to be deemed a matter of will than of necessity; nathless it is lawful for the abbess to assign such rooms and pupils according to merit as she thinks fit, etc., etc.” But this more probably refers to young nuns or novices. The word discipula is used in this sense in Alnwick’s visitation of Gracedieu. (See above, p. 80.)12. Wherwell.

1284. Archbishop Peckham forbids boarders, adding “Let not virgins be admitted to the habit and veil (induendae virgines et velandae) before the completion of their fifteenth year and let not any boy be permitted to be educated with the nuns.” Reg. Epis. J. Peckham, II, p. 653.

Herefordshire.

13. Lymbrook.

1422. Bishop Spofford writes: “Wee ordayne and charge you under payne of unobedyence that no suster hald nor receyfe ony surgyner, man or woman weddyd, other maydens of lawful age to be wedded, knave chyldren aboven eght yeer of age.” Reg. Thome Spofford (Cant. and York. Soc.), p. 82.

Hertfordshire.

14. Flamstead.

1530. At the visitation of Longland one nun “reported that young girls were allowed to sleep in the dormitory.... The Prioress was enjoined ... to exclude children of both sexes from the dormitory.” V.C.H. Herts. IV, p. 433.

15. Sopwell.

*1446. In the Warden’s Accounts of 1446 there is entered payment of 22/6 for Lady Anne Norbery, for the commons of her daughter, apparently a boarder here. (Rentals and Surveys, R. 294.) V.C.H. Herts. IV, p. 425 (note 41).

1537. At the time of the Dissolution two children were living in the priory. Ib. p. 425.

Kent.

16. Dartford.

In 1527 was confirmed the concession made to sister Elizabeth Cresner by F. Antoninus de Ferraria, formerly vicar of Garsias de Lora, Master General of the Dominican order (1518-24), that she might receive any well born matrons, widows of good repute, to dwell perpetually in the monastery, with or without the habit, according to the custom of the monastery; and also that she might receive young ladies and give them a suitable training, according to the mode heretofore pursued. Archaeol. Journ. (1882) XXXIX, p. 178.

Leicestershire.

17. Gracedieu.

The following references to boarders occur in the Gracedieu accounts (P.R.O. Minister’s Accounts, 1257/10).

1413-14. “Item received from William Roby for the board of his daughter on the Feast of the Holy Trinity vj s viij d. Item received from Robert Penell for the board of his daughter on the same day v s. Item received for the board of Cecily Nevell on St James’ Day in part payment vj s viij d” (p. 7).

1414-15. “Item received from Giles Jurdon for the board of his daughter in Whitsun week vij s. Item received from Thomas Hinte for the food of a certain daughter of his, in part payment of liij s iiij d,—xl s. Item received for the board of Isabel Jurdon xj s, Alice Strelley xxij s, Alice Grey xiij s iiij d, Robert Drewe xxvj s iiij d, Philip Scargell xxxiij s vj d, Alice Smyth, iij s iiij d and Dame Joan Scargell iiij s—cxiij s ix d” (p. 79). There is a supplementary list for this year written on a loose sheet: “Item, first, received for the board of Isabel Jurdon for the half year, in part payment ix s. Item received for the board of Alice Strelley from the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross to the feast of [St Peter] in Chains in the following year, vj s viij d. Item received for the board of Alice Gray from the feast of the Holy Trinity to the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary xiij s iiij d. Item received for the board of Alice Strelley for ij quarters of the year and v weeks, at the Feast of St Gregory xv s iiij d. Item received for the board of the daughter of Robert Drowe for half a year, xxvj s viij d. Item received for the board of Philip Scargell, in part payment, from the feast of St John etc., paid for the quarter xxij s iiij d, whence at the Feast of Corpus Christi xxij s iiij d. Item received for the board of Isabel Jurdon at the feast of the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury, in part payment—ij s. Item received for the board of Alice Smyth in part payment at vj s viij d for the quarter, iij s iiij d. Item received for the board of Dame Skargeyle for two weeks, ij s per week, iiij s. Item received for the board of Philyppe Skergell from the feast of St Laurence to the feast of St Michael, for the half quarter xj s ij d. Total, cxiij s x d.”

1416-17. “Item received for the board of the daughter of William Rowby, as for the purchase of one ox—xiij s iiij d.”

1417-18. “Item received for the board of Mary de Ecton on the feast of All Saints, in part payment of a larger sum, xxxiij s iiij d. Item received for the board of Joan Vilers on the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle vj s viij d. Item received for the board of Katerine Standych on the morrow of the Epiphany vj s viij d. Item received for the board of the daughters of Robert Nevell, knight, on the feast of St Hilary x s. Item received for the board of Joan Villars on the feast of St Hilary xx d. Item received for the board of Mary de Ecton on the Sunday next before the feast of St Valentine xx s. Item received from Joan Villers for her board on the second sunday of Lent vj s viij d. Item received from Katerine Standych in full payment of her board on Whitsunday x s. Item received for the board of the daughters of Robert Neuel on Good Friday x s. Item received from Mary Ecton for her board on the feast of the Purification of the B.V. then owing vj s. Item received from Joan Colyar in part payment of xx s owing for J. Dalby xij s” (p. 179).

These accounts obviously contain ordinary adult boarders as well as children. Moreover in some cases the visitors seem merely to have come for the great feasts and not to have stayed for any length of time, a practice which does not suggest schooling. Mr Coulton has analysed the accounts closely. He writes: “The records of four years give us, at the most liberal interpretation, only nineteen children, whose total sojourn amounted to 648 weeks; that is an average of three pupils all the year round and one extra for two or three months of the time.” He adds: “I have, of course ruled out ‘Dame Joan Scargill,’ who paid 2s. a week, or four times the sum paid by a child, and Philip Scargill, who paid eighteen pence and was pretty evidently the Dame’s husband; but I have included five others on p. 89, though they are distinctly labelled as perhendinantes, and the sums they pay would in any case have suggested boarders rather than schoolgirls. If these were omitted (and I note that Abbot Gasquet also interprets them as merely boarders), this would bring down the average of actual children to about two at any given time.” (Monastic Schools in the Middle Ages, p. 27.) He infers the weekly rate of pay (where it can be inferred with any certainty) to be 6d. a week for children and 1s. or more for their elders. (Ib. p. 39.)

1440-1. At Bishop Alnwick’s visitation the prioress deposed “that a male child of seven years sleeps in the dorter with the cellaress.” Alnwick makes an injunction forbidding boarders, “save childerne, males the ix and females the xiij yere of age, whome we licencede yow to hafe for your relefe.” Linc. Visit. II, pp. 119, 125.

18. Langley.

1440. At Bishop Alnwick’s visitation Dame Margaret Mountgomerey “says that secular children, female only, do lie of a night in the dorter.” The Bishop forbids boarders “men, women ne childerne” without licence. Linc. Visit. II, pp. 175-6.

Lincolnshire.

19. Heynings.

1347. Bishop Gynewell writes to Heynings: “Item we command you on your obedience that henceforth no secular female child who has passed the tenth year of her age and no male child, of whatever age he may be, be received to dwell among you; and that no child lie in your dorter with the ladies, nor anywhere else whereby the convent might be disturbed.” (Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 34d.)

1387. Bishop Bokyngham writes: “Item, for the removal of all fleshly wantonness (carnis pruritus quoscumque), we will and ordain that secular children and especially males shall henceforth in no wise be permitted to sleep with the nuns, but let an honest place be set aside for them outside the cloister, if by our recent and special grace they should chance to be staying there.” (Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, f. 397d.)

1442. Alnwick enjoins at his visitation and afterwards in his written injunctions “that fro this day forthe ye receyve no sudeiournauntes that passe a man x yere, a woman xiiij yere of age, wythowten specyalle leve of hus or our successours bysshops of Lincolne asked and had.” (Linc. Visit. II, pp. 134-5.)

20. Gokewell.

1440. At Alnwick’s visitation the Prioress “says that they have no boarders above ten years of age of female and eight years of male sex.” (Linc. Visit. II, p. 117.)

21. Legbourne.

1440. Alnwick ordains “that fro hense forthe ye suffre no seculere persone, woman ne childe, lyg be night in the dormytorye.” (Alnwick’s Visit. MS. f. 68.)

22. Nuncoton.

1531. Bishop Longland enjoins: “and that ye suffre nott eny men children to be brought upp, nor taught within your monastery, nor to resorte to eny of your susters, nouther to lye within your monastery, nor eny person young ne old to lye within your dorter, but oonly religious women.” (Archaeologia, XLVII, p. 58.)

23. Stixwould.

1440. At Alnwick’s visitation: “Dame Alice Thornton says that young secular folk female, of eight or ten years old, do lie in the dorter, but in separate beds.... Also she says that, as she believes, there are males and females, about eighteen in number, who board with divers nuns, not passing fourteen or sixteen years in age.... Dame Maud Shirwode speaks of the children that lie in the dorter.” Alnwick in his injunctions forbids seculars (“women ne childern”) to lie in the dorter or to be received as boarders without licence. (Alnwick’s Visit. MS. 75d, 76.)

Middlesex.

24. St Helen’s, Bishopsgate (London).

1298. The Prioress’ account for 25-6 Edward I, contains the following items which probably refer to child boarders. “And by xx s received from Dionisia Miles for her daughter [gap] ... after the Nativity of St John the Baptist. And by one mark received for the niece of Robert Morton [?].” P.R.O. Ministers’ Accounts, 1258/2.

1432. The injunctions sent by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s to St Helen’s contain the item: “Also we ordeyne and injoyne yow, prioresse and convent, that noo seculere be lokkyd with inne the boundes of the cloystere; ne no seculere persones come withinne aftyr the belle of complyne, except wymment servaunts and mayde childeryne lerners.... Also we ordeyne and injoine that nonne have ne receyve noo schuldrin wyth hem into the house forseyde, but yif that the profite of the comonys turne to the vayle of the same howse.” (Dugdale, Mon. IV, pp. 553-4, wrongly dated 1439.)

*25. Stratford “atte Bowe.”

1346. In the will of John Hamond, pepperer, occurs the legacy: “To his niece the daughter of Thomas Hamond, residing with the nuns of Stratford, he leaves a sum of money for her maintenance.” (Sharpe, Cal. of Wills ... in the Court of Hustings, London, I, p. 516.) The girl may have been a nun, but if so the legacy is curiously worded.

Norfolk.

26. Carrow.

In Rye, W., Carrow Abbey (1889), pp. 49-52, is a list of boarders at Carrow, compiled by Norris from account rolls now lost. Some of these were almost certainly children; I should suggest that those described as “son of” or “daughter of” N. or M. are children. On these lists, see G. G. Coulton, Mon. Schools in the Mid. Ages (Med. Studies, No. 10), p. 7.

27. Thetford.

1532. At Nykke’s visitation it was discovered that “John Jerves, gentleman, has a daughter being brought up (nutritam) in the priory and he pays nothing.” (Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, ed. Jessopp (Camden Soc.), p. 304.)

Northamptonshire.

28. Catesby.

1442. At Alnwick’s visitation the Prioress, Margaret Wavere, deposed that “sister Agnes Allesley has six or seven young folk of both sexes that do lie in the dorter.” Alnwick makes the usual injunction against boarders, “ouer thage of x yeere, if thei be men, wommene ouer thage of a xj yere.” Linc. Visit. II, pp. 46, 51.

29. St Michael’s, Stamford.

1440. At Alnwick’s first visitation the sacrist “says that the prioress has seven or eight children, some male, some female, of twelve years of age and less, to her board and to teach them.” Alnwick forbids secular persons (“women ne childrene”) to lie in the dorter and boarders (“yong ne olde”) to be received without licence. (Alnwick’s Visit. MS. ff. 83-83d.)

1442. At Alnwick’s second visitation: “Dame Maud Multone says that little girls of seven or five years of age do lie in the dorter, contrary to my lord’s injunction.” (Ib. f. 39d.)

Oxfordshire.

30. Godstow.

1358. Bishop Gynewell writes: “Item we ordain that no lady of your said house shall have children, save only one or two females sojourning with them.” (Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 100.)

1445. Bishop Alnwick forbids boarders to be received “but if ye hafe lefe of hus or our successours, bysshope of Lincolne, but if it be yong childerne, a man not ouere ix yere of age and a woman of xii yere of age.” (Linc. Visit. II, p. 115.)

31. Littlemore.

1445. The Prioress says that “the daughter of John fitz Aleyn, steward of the house, and Ingram Warland’s daughter are boarders in the house and each of them pays fourpence a week.” These are clearly children, for another boarder “sometime the serving woman of Robert fitz Elys” is mentioned and she pays eightpence a week. Alnwick makes the usual injunction forbidding boarders “ouere the age of a man of nyne yere ne woman of xij yere, ne noght thaym wythe owten specyalle lefe of vs or our successours.” (Linc. Visit. II, pp. 217-8.)

Staffordshire.

32. Fairwell.

1367. Bishop Robert Stretton of Lichfield enjoined that “no nun was to keep with her for education more than one child, nor any male child over seven years of age and even that may not be done without the Bishop’s leave. If any have more they are to be removed before the Feast of Purification next.” (Reg. Robert de Stretton, II, p. 119.)

Somerset.

33. Cannington.

1407. The will of Thomas Woth contains the following legacy: “To the Prioress of Canyngton 40 marks to provide (inveniendum) Elizabeth my daughter, if she shall happen to live to the age of ten years.” He also leaves Elizabeth 11 marks as a marriage dowry. (Somerset Medieval Wills, ed. F. W. Weaver (Somerset Rec. Soc.), I, p. 28.)

Suffolk.

34. Redlingfield.

1514. At Bishop Nykke’s visitation Dame Grace Sampson deposed that “boys (pueri) sleep in the dorter and are harmful to the convent,” and another nun said the same. The Bishop ordained “that boys shall not lie in the dorter.” (Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, ed. Jessopp (Camden Soc.), pp. 139-40.)Warwickshire.

35. Polesworth.

1537. Henry VIII’s commissioners addressed a letter to Cromwell on behalf of this house, representing among other things “the repayre and resort that ys made to the gentylmens childern and studiounts that ther doo lif, to the nombre sometyme of xxx^ti and sometyme xl^ti and moo, that their be right vertuously brought upp.” (Dugdale, Mon. II, p. 363.) The house at this time contained an abbess and twelve nuns.

Yorkshire.

36. Arden.

1306. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that no girls or boarders were to be taken without special licence of the Archbishop. All girls staying in the house without authority were to be removed within eight days. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 113.)

37. Arthington.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that no boys or secular persons were to sleep in the dorter with the nuns.

1318. Archbishop Melton repeated the decree. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 188.)

38. Esholt.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that all women boarders over the age of twelve were to be removed within six days and no more taken without special licence.

1318. Archbishop Melton repeated the decree. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 161.)

1537. Among the debts owing to the Priory at the Dissolution was one of 33s. from Walter Wood of Timble, in the parish of Otley, for his child’s board for a year and a half, ended at Lent, 28 Hen. VIII. (Yorks. Archaeol. Journ. IX, p. 321, note 23.)

39. Hampole.

1313. Archbishop Greenfield granted the convent licence to receive a young girl Agnes de Langthwayt as a boarder, at the instance “nobilis viri Ade de Everyngham.”

1314. He issued a decree that no male children over five years of age should be permitted in the house, “as the Archbishop finds has been the practice.” (V.C.H. Yorks. III, pp. 163-4.)

40. Marrick.

1252. Archbishop Gray forbade any girl or woman to be taken as boarder or to be taught without special licence. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 117.)41. Moxby.

1314. Archbishop Greenfield forbade boarders or girls over twelve to be taken without licence. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 239.)

42. Nunappleton.

1489. Archbishop Rotheram enjoined: “Item Þat yee take noe perhendinauntes or sogerners into your place from hensforward, but if Þei be children or ellis old persones, by which availe by liklyhod may growe to your place.” (V.C.H. Yorks. III, 173, and Dugdale, Mon. V, p. 654).

43. Nunburnholme.

1318. Archbishop Melton forbade persons of either sex over twelve years of age to be maintained as boarders. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 119.)

44. Nunkeeling.

1314. Archbishop Greenfield forbade boarders to be taken, or girls to be kept in the house after the age of twelve years. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 120.)

*45. Nunmonkton.

1429. Isabel Salvayn leaves “xiij s iiij d to be paid for Alice Thorp at Nunmunkton for her board.” (Test. Ebor. I, p. 419.)

46. Rosedale.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed, under pain of the greater excommunication, that no nun was to cause a girl or boy to sleep under any consideration in the dorter, and if any nun broke this command, the Prioress, under pain of deposition, was to signify her name without delay to the Archbishop. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 174.)

47. St Clement’s, York.

1310. Archbishop Greenfield forbade girls over twelve as boarders.

1317. Archbishop Melton forbade little girls, or males of any age, or secular women to sleep in the dorter with the nuns. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 129.)

48. Sinningthwaite.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield enjoined the Prioress and Subprioress not to permit boys or girls to eat flesh meat in Advent or Sexagesima, or during Lent eggs or cheese, in the refectory, contrary to the honesty of religion, but at those seasons when they ought to eat such things, they were to be assigned other places in which to eat them.

1319. Archbishop Melton forbade girls over twelve to be retained without special licence. (V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 177.)

*49. Swine.

1345. Peter del Hay of Spaldynton leaves in his will “to Joan my daughter residing (manenti) in Swyn vj s viij d.” (Test. Ebor. I, p. 12.) This is probably a boarder in the convent, perhaps a child.

15th century. Thorold Rogers (Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1909), p. 166), says: “During the course of the [fifteenth] century I find it was the practice of country gentlefolks to send their daughters for education to the nunneries, and to pay a certain sum for their board. A number of such persons are enumerated as living en pension at the small nunnery of Swyn in Yorkshire. Only one roll of expenditure for this religious house survives in the Record Office, but it is quite sufficient to prove and illustrate the custom.” I have been unable to trace this roll in the Record Office.

NOTE C.

NUNNERY DISPUTES.

Other instances of nunnery disputes may be quoted, among which Peckham’s letter to the Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, is a good example: “If there be any nun above you who is quarrelsome and sharp and is of custom unbearable towards her sisters, we order her to be separated from the communion of the convent according to the form of the rule, and to be kept in some solitary place (so that meanwhile no man or woman have conversation with or access to her) until she shall be brought back to humility of spirit and show herself amiable and devout to all. Therefore let there cease among you quarrels, altercations and sharp words, which stain and deform the splendours of monastic honour. And for such contumelious members who have to be separated as aforesaid we assign that dark room under the dorter, if you have none other more suitable”[1658]. The nuns of Wroxall in 1338 were warned to “cease from scoldings, reproofs and other evil words” and were particularly told not to speak “en reproce ne en vilenie” of a certain Dame Margaret de Acton, who had evidently been guilty of some serious fault, but had been duly corrected by the Visitor[1659]; and in the same year it was ordained at Sopwell that “if it happen that any one scold ... let her be placed in silence by all and do penance for three days”[1660]. At Heynings in 1392 Bokyngham ordered “that all the nuns treat their sisters affably, not with an austere but with a benignant countenance and with sisterly affection, nor visit them with railing and hurtful words in public, especially in the presence of laymen, nor threaten or scold them, on pain, etc”[1661]. At Elstow in 1421-2 there was an injunction against the formation of cliques, upon the need for which light is thrown by the detecta at Alnwick’s visitation of Gracedieu[1662], “That no nun make any secret cabals or say or imagine anything by way of insinuation or disparagement, whereby charity, unity or the comeliness of religion may be hindered or troubled in the convent”[1663].

The detecta at visitations often give details as to the ill-temper or insubordination of individuals. At Wothorpe in 1323 Bishop Burghersh “ordered inquiry into certain irregularities within the priory, caused by the discords raised among the nuns by sister Joan de Bonnwyche”[1664]. At Littlemore one of the nuns deposed that Dame Agnes Marcham “is very quarrelsome and rebellious and will not do her work like the others”; it appears that the convent resented the fact that although she had worn the habit of profession for twelve years she was not expressly professed and refused to make public profession; she on her part asserted that “she does not mean to make express profession while she stays in that place, because of the ill-fame which is current thereabouts concerning that place and also because of the barrenness and poverty which in likelihood will betake the place on account of the slenderness of the place’s revenues,” and she proceeded to give details of the access to the priory of two scholars of Oxford and a parish chaplain[1665]. It is difficult to tell who was in the right; Littlemore certainly was a place of ill-repute and went from bad to worse, but Agnes Marcham had stayed there for half her lifetime (she had entered at the age of thirteen and was twenty-six or twenty-eight at the time of the visitation) and it looks as though she had really no intention of departing, but found the threat to do so useful[1666]. At Godstow in the same year it was sister Maud, a laywoman, who caused trouble; she was very rebellious against the abbess and rumour ran high in the convent that she had “obtained a bull from the apostolic see to the prejudice of the monastery and without the abbess’s knowledge”[1667]. At Easebourne (1524) the subprioress Alice Hill said that three of the younger nuns were disobedient to her in the absence of the Prioress; but the three delinquents and another nun deposed that “Lady Alice Hill is too haughty and rigorous and cannot bear patiently with her sisters” and the Visitor apparently considered that the complaint was justified, for

The difficulty was perhaps the old one, that crabbed age and youth cannot live together. At Rusper, when the same Visitor came there, it was found that the four sisters were disturbed by the intrigues of an external visitor, for the nuns deposed “that a certain William Tychenor hath frequent access to the said priory and there sows discord between the prioress, sisters and other persons living there”[1669]; sometimes the lay servants of a house seem to have stirred up quarrels among their mistresses and in 1302 John of Pontoise ordered the nuns of Wherwell “to punish well secular persons, both sisters and others, whoever they may be, who reply improperly and impudently to the religious ladies, and especially those who sow quarrels and disputes among the ladies”[1670].

Injunctions as to the making of corrections usually had in view the prevention of ill feeling, by ensuring that such corrections should not be made in a harsh or unfair manner and should take place only in the chapter-house and not in the presence of strangers. It will be remembered that the wicked prioress of Catesby, Margaret Wavere, used to rebuke and reproach her nuns before secular folk, and treat them with great cruelty; her the Bishop charged

Bokyngham sent a long and detailed injunction on the subject to Elstow in 1387:

For an injunction to the nuns on obedience see Woodlock’s injunction to Romsey in 1311:

At Rosedale, where in 1306 the nuns had been warned not to quarrel, it was enacted nine years later that

It is to be feared that these quarrels sometimes got to blows. Besides the notorious instances of Margaret Wavere and Katherine Wells, the excommunication of three nuns of St Michael’s, Stamford, for laying violent hands upon a novice may be quoted[1675]. Of another kind were the assaults of a certain nun of Romsey, who was excommunicated for attacking a vicar in church[1676], and of a Prioress of Rowney. It appears from the court rolls of Munden Furnivall (1370) that the latter “had been guilty of a hand to hand scuffle with a chaplain, called Alexander of Great Munden; each was fined for drawing blood from the other and the lady also for raising the hue and cry unjustly”[1677]. In both cases the nun was blamed, but it is perhaps permissible to quote in this connection an anecdote told by Thomas of ChantimprÉ:

The list of faults given in the “Additions to the Rules” of Syon Abbey, contains several references to ill temper, though such references are, to be sure, no more proof that the faults were committed than are the model forms of self-examination (“Have I committed murder?”) sometimes given to-day to children in preparation for the Communion service. Among “greuous defautes” are mentioned, “if any suster say any wordes of despyte, reprefe, schame or vylony to any suster or brother,” “if any sowe dyscorde amonge the sustres and brethren,” “if any be founde a preuy rouner or bakbyter.” Among “more greuous defautes” are:

Among “most greuous defautes” are:

NOTE D.

GAY CLOTHES.

A council at London in 1200 had restrained the black nuns from wearing coloured headdresses[1680] but the standard English decree on the subject was that issued by the council of Oxford in 1222.

Fifteen years later a synod declared:

These regulations were repeated almost word for word by William of Wykeham in his injunctions to Romsey and Wherwell in 1387[1684]. With them may be compared the rule as to dress in force at Syon Abbey in the fifteenth century:

The unsuccessful efforts of monastic Visitors to enforce these rules have been described; a few instances may be added here to show the directions in which the nuns erred. Peckham wrote to Godstow:

Buckingham’s injunction to Elstow in 1387 gives some interesting details; he forbade the nuns to wear any other veil than that of profession, or to “adorn their countenances” by arranging it in a becoming fashion, spreading out the white veil, which was meant to be worn underneath:

(Ainsi qu’il est pour le monde et les cours
Un art, un goÛt de modes et d’atours,
Il est aussi des modes pour le voile;
Il est un art de donner d’heureux tours[1687]
À l’Étamine, À la plus simple toile.)[1688]

They were not to wear gowns of black wide at the bottom, or turned back with fur at the wrists[1689], and they were in no wise to use “wide girdles or belts plaited (spiratis) or adorned with silver, nor wear these above their tunics open to the gaze of man”[1690]. Curious details are also given by Bishop Spofford, writing to the nuns of Lymbrook in 1437; their habit was to “be formed after relygyon in sydnesse and wydnesse, forbedyng long traynes in mantellys and kyrtellys and almaner of spaires and open semes in the same kyrtellys”[1691]. “Large collars, barred girdles and laced shoes” were forbidden at Swine in 1298[1692], red dresses and long supertunics “like secular women” at Wilberfoss in 1308[1693]; at Nunmonkton in 1397 (after Margaret Fairfax’s fashionable clothes had been discovered) a general injunction was made to the nuns “not to use henceforth silken clothes, and especially silken veils, nor precious furs, nor rings on their fingers, nor tunics laced-up or fastened with brooches nor any robes, called in English ‘gownes,’ after the fashion of secular women”[1694]. These Northern houses were continually in need of admonition, sometimes their slashed tunics, sometimes their barred girdles, sometimes their shoes being condemned[1695]. Bishop Alnwick found silken veils at Langley, Studley and Rothwell[1696]; Bishop Fitzjames forbade silver and gilt pins and kirtles of fustian or worsted at Wix in 1509[1697]; and at Carrow in 1532 the subprioress complained that some of the nuns not only wore silk girdles, but had the impudence to commend the use thereof[1698].

Nor could nuns always resist the temptation to let their shorn hair grow again, e.g. at the visitation of Romsey by the commissary of the Prior of Canterbury in 1502, the cellaress deposed “that Mary Tystede and Agnes Harvey wore their hair long”[1699]. Eudes Rigaud had some difficulty in this matter with the frivolous nuns of his diocese of Rouen; at Villarceaux in 1249 he recorded: “They all wear their hair long to their chins,” and at Montivilliers he had to condemn ringlets[1700]. One is reminded of the scene in Jane Eyre, where Mr Brocklehurst visits Lowood:

Or, as Eudes Rigaud expressed it some seven centuries earlier: “Quod comam non nutriatis ultra aures.”

NOTE E.

CONVENT PETS IN LITERATURE.

It would be possible to compile a pretty anthology of convent pets, which have played a not undistinguished part in literature. The best known of all, perhaps, are Madame Eglentyne’s little dogs, upon which Chaucer looked with a kindly unepiscopal eye:

Of smale houndes had she, that she fedde
With rosted flesh, or milk and wastel-breed,
But sore weep she if oon of hem were deed,
Or if men smoot it with a yerde smerte:
And al was conscience and tendre herte[1701].

The tender-hearted Prioress risked a terrible fate by so pampering her dogs, if we are to believe the awful warning related by the knight of La Tour-Landry, to wean his daughters from similar habits:

Poor Madame Eglentyne!

The anthologist would, however, have to go further back than Chaucer, into the eleventh century, and begin with that ill-fated donkey, which belonged to sister AlfrÂd of Homburg, and which the wit of a nameless goliard and the devotion of the monks of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, have preserved for undying fame[1703]:

Est unus locus		There is a township
HÔinburh dictus,		(Men call it Homburg)
in quo pascebat		There ’twas that AlfrÂd
asinam AlfrÂd		Pastured her she-ass,
viribus fortem		Strong was the donkey,
atque fidelem.		Mighty and faithful.
Que dum in amplum		And as it wandered
exiret campum,		Out to the meadow,
vidit currentem		It spied a greedy
lupum voracem,		Wolf that came running,
caput abscondit,		Head down and tail turned,
caudam ostendit.		Off the ass scampered.
Lupus occurrit:		Up the wolf hurried,
caudam momordit,		Seized tail and bit it.
asina bina		Quickly the donkey
levavit crura		Lifted its hind legs,
fecitque longum		With the wolf bravely,
cum lupo bellum.		Long did it battle.
Cum defecisse		Then when at last it
vires sensisset,		Felt its strength failing,
protulit magnam		Raised it a mighty
plangendo vocem		Noise of lamenting,
vocansque suam		Calling its mistress,
moritur domnam.		So died the donkey.
Audiens grandem		Hearing the mighty
asine vocem		Voice of her donkey
AlfrÂd cucurrit,		AlfrÂd came running.
“sorores,” dixit,		“Come, sisters” cried she
“cito venite,		“Sisters, come quickly,
me adiuvate!		Come now and help me!
Asinam caram		My darling donkey
misi ad erbam.		Out to grass put I.
illius magnum		I hear a mighty
audio planctum,		Sound of complaining.
spero cum sevo		Sure with a cruel
ut pugnet lupo.”		Wolf is it fighting!”
Clamor sororum		Heard is her crying
venit in claustrum,		In the nuns’ cloister,
turbe virorum		Men come and women,
ac mulierum		Crowding together,
assunt, cruentum		All that the bloody
ut captent lupum.		Wolf may be taken.
vAdela namque		Adela also,
soror AlfrÂde,		sister of AlfrÂd,
RÎkilam querit,		RÎkila seeketh,
Agatham invenit,		Agatha findeth,
ibant ut fortem		All go to vanquish
sternerent hostem.		The mighty foeman.
At ille ruptis		But he tore open
asine costis		Sides of the donkey,
sanguinis undam		Flesh and blood gobbled
carnemque totam		All up together,
simul voravit,		Then helter-skeltered
silvam intravit.		Back to the forest.
Illud videntes		And when they saw him
cuncte sorores		Wept all the sisters,
crines scindebant,		Tearing their tresses,
pectus tundebant,		Beating their bosoms,
flentes insontem		Weeping the guiltless
asine mortem.		Death of their donkey.
Denique parvum		Long time a tiny
portabat pullum;		Foal it had carried.
illum plorabat		Sadly wept AlfrÂd
maxime AlfrÂd,		Thinking upon it,
sperans exinde		All her hopes ended
prolem crevisse.		Of rearing the offspring.
Adela mitis		Adela gentle,
FritherÛnque dulcis		FritherÛn charming,
venerunt ambe,		Both came together,
ut AlverÂde		That they might strengthen
cor confirmarent		Sad heart of AlfrÂd,
atque sanarent.		Strengthen and heal it.
“Delinque mestas,		“Leave now thy gloomy
soror, querelas!		Wailing, O sister!
lupus amarum		Wolf never heedeth
non curat fletum:		Thy bitter weeping.
dominus aliam,		The Lord will give thee
dabit tibi asinam.”		Another donkey.”

Exquisite ending! “The Lord will give thee another donkey.” With what delighted applause must the unknown jongleur have been greeted by the monks or nobles, who first listened after dinner to this little masterpiece of humour.

All the convent pets who are famed in literature came by a coincidence to a bad end. Our anthologist would seize on two other hapless creatures, both of them birds, Philip Sparrow and the never-to-be-forgotten Vert-Vert. Philip Sparrow needs no introduction to English readers; Skelton was never in happier vein than when he sang the dirge of that pet of Joanna Scrope, boarder at Carrow Priory, dead at the claws of a “vylanous false cat.” Space allows only a few lines of the long poem to be quoted here. It begins with the office for the dead, sung by the mourning mistress over her bird:

Pla ce bo,
Who is there, who?
Di le xi,
Dame Margery;
Fa, re, my, my,
Wherefore and why, why?
For the sowle of Philip Sparowe,
That was late slayn at Carowe,
Among the Nones Blake,
For that swete soules sake,
And for all sparowes soules,
Set in our bederolles
Pater noster qui,
With an Ave Mari,
And with the corner of a Crede
The more shalbe your mede.
Whan I remembre agayn
How mi Philyp was slayn,
Neuer halfe the payne
Was betwene you twayne,
Pyramus and Thesbe,
As than befell to me:
I wept and I wayled,
The tearys doune hayled;
But nothynge it auayled
To call Phylyp agayne,
Whom Gyb our cat hath slayne.
·····
It was so prety a fole,
It wold syt on a stole,
And lerned after my scole
For to kepe his cut,
With, Phyllyp, kepe your cut!
It had a veluet cap,
And wold syt upon my lap,
And seke after small wormes,
And somtyme white bred crommes;
And many tymes and ofte
Betwene my brestes softe
It wolde lye and rest;
It was propre and prest.
Somtyme he wolde gaspe
Whan he sawe a waspe;
A fly or a gnat,
He wolde flye at that;
And prytely he wold pant
Whan he saw an ant;
Lord, how he wolde pry
After the butterfly!
Lorde, how he wolde hop
After the grassop!
And whan I sayd, Phyp, Phyp,
Than he wold lepe and skyp,
And take me by the lyp.
Alas, it wyll me slo,
That Phillyp is gone me fro!
Si in i qui ta tes,
Alas, I was euyll at ease!
De pro fun dis cla ma vi,
Whan I sawe my sparowe dye!
·····
That vengeaunce I aske and crye,
By way of exclamacyon,
On all the hole nacyon
Of cattes wyld and tame;
God send them sorowe and shame!
That cat specyally
That slew so cruelly
My lytell prety sparowe
That I brought vp at Carowe ...[1704].

It is impossible for a cat-lover to leave the whole nation of cats under this terrific curse. Yet literature will supply no nunnery cat beside the unhappy Gyb and the uncharacterised cat of the Ancren Riwle. We must needs turn to the monks, and borrow the truer estimate of feline qualities made in the eighth century by an exiled Irish student, who sat over his books in a distant monastery of Carinthia, and wrote upon the margin of his copy of St Paul’s Epistles this little poem on his white cat:

I and Pangur BÁn, my cat,
’Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
’Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He, too, plies his simple skill.
’Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
’Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
’Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O! how glad is Pangur then;
O! what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love.
So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur BÁn, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night,
Turning darkness into light[1705].

O cat! even at the cost of relevancy we have done thee honour.Two little tragedies of the cloister are concerned with parrots—yet with what different birds and what different mistresses! In the twelfth century Nigel Wireker tells of an ill-bred and ill-fated parrot, kept in a nunnery, who told tales about the nuns and was poisoned by them for his pains:

Saepe mala
Psittacus in thalamum domina redeunte puellas
Prodit et illorum verba tacenda refert;
Nescius ille loqui; sed nescius immo tacere
Profert plus aequo Psittacus oris habens.
Hinc avibus crebro miscente aconita puella
Discat ut ante mori quam didicisse loqui;
Sunt et aves aliae quae toto tempore vitae
Religiosorum claustra beata colunt[1706].

Quite other was the fate of Vert-Vert, whose tragedy told with exquisite irony by Gresset in the eighteenth century deserves a place on every shelf and in every heart which holds The Rape of the Lock. Vert-Vert was a parrot who belonged to the nuns of Nevers, the most beautiful, most amiable, the most devout parrot in the world. The convent of Nevers spoiled Vert-Vert as no bird has ever been spoiled:

Pas n’est besoin, je pense, de dÉcrire
Les soins des soeurs, des nonnes, c’est tout dire;
Et chaque mÈre, aprÈs son directeur,
N’aimait rien tant. MÊme dans plus d’un coeur,
Ainsi l’Écrit un chroniqueur sincÈre,
Souvent l’oiseau l’emporta sur le pÈre.
Il partageait, dans ce paisible lieu,
Tous les sirops dont le cher pÈre en Dieu,
GrÂce aux bienfaits des nonnettes sucrÉes,
RÉconfortait ses entrailles sacrÉes.
Objet permis À leur oisif amour,
Vert-Vert Était l’Âme de ce sÉjour....
Des bonnes soeurs Égayant les travaux,
Il bÉquetait et guimpes et bandeaux;
Il n’Était point d’agrÉable partie
S’il n’y venait briller, caracoler,
Papillonner, siffler, rossignoler;
Il badinait, mais avec modestie;
Avec cet air timide et tout prudent
Qu’une novice a mÊme en badinant.

He fed in the frater, and between meals the nuns’ pockets were always full of bon-bons for his delectation. He slept in the dorter, and happy the nun whose cell he honoured with his presence; Vert-Vert always chose the young and pretty novices. Above all he was learned; he talked like a book, and all the nuns had taught him their chants and their prayers:

Il disait bien son Benedicite,
Et notre mÈre, et votre charitÉ; ...
Il Était lÀ maintes filles savantes
Qui mot pour mot portaient dans leurs cerveaux
Tous les noËls anciens et nouveaux.
Instruit, formÉ par leurs leÇons frÉquentes,
BientÔt l’ÉlÈve Égala ses rÉgentes;
De leur ton mÊme, adroit imitateur
Il exprimait la pieuse lenteur,
Les saints soupirs, les notes languissantes
Du chant des soeurs, colombes gÉmissantes.
Finalement Vert-Vert savait par coeur
Tout ce que sait une mÈre de choeur.

Small wonder that the fame of this pious bird spread far and wide; small wonder that pilgrims came from all directions to the abbey parlour to hear him talk. But alas, it was this very fame which led to his undoing. The physical tragedy of Philip Sparrow, an unlearned bird of frivolous tastes, pales before the moral tragedy of Vert-Vert. One day his renown reached the ears of a distant convent of nuns at Nantes, many miles further down the river Loire; and they conceived a violent desire to see him:

DÉsir de fille est un feu qui dÉvore,
DÉsir de nonne est cent fois pire encore.

They wrote to their fortunate sisters of Nevers, begging that Vert-Vert might be sent in a ship to visit them. Consternation at Nevers. The grand chapter was held; the younger nuns would have preferred death to parting with the darling parrot, but their elders judged it impolitic to refuse and to Nantes must Vert-Vert go for a fortnight. The parrot was placed on board a ship; but the ship

Portait aussi deux nymphes, trois dragons,
Une nourrice, un moine, deux Gascons:
Pour un enfant qui sort du monastÈre,
C’Était Échoir en dignes compagnons.

At first Vert-Vert was confused and silent among the unseemly jests of the women and the Gascons and the oaths of the boatmen. But too soon his innocent heart was acquainted with evil; desiring always to please he repeated all that he heard; no evil word escaped him; by the end of his journey he had forgotten all that he had learned in the nunnery, but he had become a pretty companion for a boatload of sinners. Nantes was reached; Vert-Vert (all unwilling) was carried off to the convent, and the nuns came running to the parlour to hear the saintly bird. But horror upon horrors, nothing but oaths and blasphemies fell from Vert-Vert’s beak. He apostrophised sister Saint-Augustin with “la peste te crÈve,” and

Jurant, sacrant d’une voix dissolue,
Faisant passer tout l’enfer en revue,
Les B, les F, voltigeaient sur son bec.
Les jeunes soeurs crurent qu’il parlait grec.

The scandalised nuns dispatched Vert-Vert home again without delay. His own convent received him in tears. Nine of the most venerable sisters debated his punishment; two were for his death; two for sending him back to the heathen land of his birth; but the votes of the other five decided his punishment:

On le condamne À deux mois d’abstinence,
Trois de retraite et quatre de silence;
Jardins, toilette, alcÔve et biscuits,
Pendant ce temps, lui seront interdits.

Moreover the ugliest lay sister, a veiled ape, an octogenarian skeleton, was made the guardian of poor Vert-Vert, who had always preferred the youngest and coyest of the novices. Little remains to be told. Vert-Vert, covered with shame and taught by misfortune, became penitent, forgot the dragoons and the monk, and showed himself once more “plus dÉvot qu’un chanoine.” The happy nuns cut short his penance; the convent kept fÊte, the dorters were decked with flowers, all was song and tumult. But alas, Vert-Vert, passing too soon from a fasting diet to the sweets that were pressed upon him:

BourrÉ de sucre, et brÛlÉ de liqueurs
Vert-Vert, tombant sur un tas de dragÉes,
En noir cyprÈs vit ses roses changÉes[1707].

Doubtless so godly an end consoled the nuns for his untimely death. Yet one hardly knows which to prefer, the regenerate or the unregenerate Vert-Vert. The appreciative reader, remembering the inspired volubility with which (after such short practice) he greeted the nuns of Nantes, is almost moved to regret the destruction of what one of Kipling’s soldiers would call “a wonderful gift of language.” There is an apposite passage in Jasper Mayne’s comedy of The City Match (1639), in which a lady describes the missionary efforts of her Puritan waiting-woman:

Yesterday I went
To see a lady that has a parrot: my woman
While I was in discourse converted the fowl,
And now it can speak nought but Knox’s works;
So there’s a parrot lost.

NOTE F.

THE MORAL STATE OF LITTLEMORE PRIORY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Littlemore Priory, near Oxford, in the early sixteenth century, was in such grave disorder that it may justly be described as one of the worst nunneries of which record has survived. Its state was, as usual, largely due to a particularly bad prioress, Katherine Wells. The following account of it is taken from the record of Bishop Atwater’s visitations in 1517 and 1518, the first held by his commissary Edmund Horde, the second by the bishop in person[1708].

The comperta are that the prioress had ordered the five nuns under her to say that all was well; she herself had an illegitimate daughter, and was still visited by the father of the child, Richard Hewes, a priest in Kent[1709]; that she took the “pannes, pottes, candilsticks, basynes, shetts, pelous, federe bedds etc.” the property of the monastery, to provide a dowry for this daughter; that another of the nuns had, within the last year, an illegitimate child by a married man of Oxford; that the prioress was excessive in punishments and put the nuns in stocks when they rebuked her evil life; that almost all the jewels were pawned, and that there was neither food, clothing nor pay for the nuns; that one who thought of becoming a nun at Littlemore was so shocked by the evil life of the prioress that she went elsewhere. A few months afterwards the bishop summoned the prioress to appear before him, and after denying the charges brought against her, she finally admitted them; her daughter, she said, had died four years before, but she owned that she had granted some of the plate of the monastery to Richard Hewes. In her evidence she stated that though these things had been going on for eight years, no inquiry had been made, and, as it seems, no visitation of the house had been held; only, on one occasion, certain injunctions of a general kind had been sent her. As a punishment she was deposed from the post of prioress, but was allowed to perform the functions of the office for the present, provided that she did nothing without the advice of Mr Edmund Horde.

But some months later when the bishop himself made a visitation “to bring about some reformation,” things were as scandalous as ever. The prioress complained that one of the nuns “played and romped (luctando)” with boys in the cloister and refused to be corrected. When she was put in the stocks, three other nuns broke the door and rescued her, and burnt the stocks; and when the prioress summoned aid from the neighbourhood, the four broke a window and escaped to friends, where they remained two or three weeks; that they laughed and played in church during mass, even at the elevation. The nuns complained that the prioress had punished them for speaking the truth at the last visitation; that she had put one in the stocks without any cause; that she had hit another “on the head with fists and feet, correcting her in an immoderate way,” and that Richard Hewes had visited the priory within the last four months. From the evidence it is clear that the state of things was well known in Oxford, where each party seems to have had its adherents.