66 Kington St. Michael. [The Priary. 



Mar}'-e Dennis sometyme Ladie Abbesse of a certain Nunnery in 

 Glostershyre [read, Wiltshire] : Sbe dyed in Bristowe 1593, a good 

 olde maide, verie vertuose and godlye : and is buried in the cburch 

 of the Gauntes on tlie Grene." 



The Convent was subject to the authority of the Bishop of Sarum 

 both as Diocesan and Visitor. Under his license they elected their 

 ovnx Prioress, and presented her to the Bishop. If any thing in 

 the election was found to have been uncanonical, it was annulled, 

 and the Bishop then nominated. If properly conducted, it was 

 confirmed, a mandate was issued to the iirchdeacon to install the 

 new Prioress, and a formal declaration of submission by her and the 

 Convent was duly made, signed, and sealed with the mark of the 

 cross.^ The Nuns did not like the visitation of the Bishop and his 

 Officers ; and were desirous of having for their Patron the Abbot 

 of Glastonbury : he being the Head of the First House of Regulars, 

 of the same Religious Order as themselves (Benedictine), and 

 moreover their own Landlord in chief. A curious story is told in 

 some Deeds in the Registry at Sarum,^ of a bold attempt to dispense 

 with the Bishop's right of superintendance, made by one of these 

 Ladies, Dame Alice Lawrence, Prioress in 1454. She permitted a 

 certain Irish Franciscan friar, whose name is lost, to forge a Latin 

 document purporting to come from Rome, by which the Priory 

 was released from the inspection of the Diocesan, and transferred 

 to the care of the Abbot. Of course as soon as the Bishop's 

 right was denied, he applied to Rome, and the fraud was discovered. 

 Dame Alice was quietly admonished to send in her resignation : 

 but as she was considered to have been the dupe of the Franciscan 

 friar, her sentence was lenient, and she was allowed to continue 

 in the House in the rank of a Nun. 



The following is the substance of the Latin Deeds that relate to 

 this transaction : — 



1. The Forged Docxjmekt : pio'jwrting to be a Hescnpt from Pope 

 Innocent VIII., a.d. 1490, addressed to the Abbot of Glastonbury, 



1 See " Audley " and " Mortivale " Registers, 

 2 "Langton" Eegister, 



