RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Theodoric, Earl of Flanders. By him she had 

 two daughters, but was afterwards separated 

 from her husband. According to Matthew 

 Paris this separation was brought about by 

 the censure of the Church, and she returned 

 in penitence to Romsey. 



In 1283 this nunnery was visited by the 

 energetic Archbishop Peckham. Among the 

 numerous decrees, issued as a result of the 

 visit, was the forbidding the abbess to have 

 more than two secular maids ; the loss of 

 her pittance in the frater by any nun break- 

 ing silence in the cloister ; forbidding a nun 

 ever speaking to a man (save in confession) 

 unless two of her sisters were present ; con- 

 fessions to be made in the church, either 

 before the high altar, or at the side of it 

 towards the cloister ; forbidding the nuns 

 to eat or drink in any house in Romsey 

 under pain of a year's suspension ; and the 

 forbidding of the entry of any male, under 

 pain of excommunication, into the rooms of 

 the nuns, save in times of sickness to the 

 farmery, and then only the confessor, the 

 doctor, or a near relative. At the same 

 time Peckham decided a dispute as to the 

 steward, Richard de Chalfhunte, who held 

 office against the will of the convent, and 

 ordered the abbess to take to her aid three 

 coadjutors from among the nuns, and to 

 transact no convent business without their 

 assent, namely Margaret de Verder, Philippa 

 de Stoke, and Joan de Ronedonne. 1 



In August, 1 286,Archbishop Peckham issued 

 a mandate to William Shirlock, a prebendary 

 of Romsey, charged with illicit wandering 

 (inhoneste deuagantem) through the town 

 of Romsey and elsewhere, not to dare to 

 enter the cloister nor the abbey church of 

 Romsey so long as there were probable 

 grounds of suspicion against him. This was 

 accompanied by an inhibition addressed to 

 the nuns of Romsey to hold no manner of 

 conversation with this prebendary in their 

 house or elsewhere. At the same time a 

 mandate was despatched to Master Henry, 

 official of Winchester diocese, directing him 

 to inquire into the case of William Shirlock, 

 accused of disturbing the nuns of Romsey, 

 and leading a dishonourable and dissolute life. 2 



The taxation of 1291 valued the tem- 

 poralities of the Abbey of Romsey in the 

 archdeaconry of Winchester at ^78 Js. 6d., 

 in the deanery of Potterne (Sarum) at 100, 

 in the deanery of Wyly, 10*., and in the 

 archdeaconry of Gloucester at 5, giving a 

 total of ^183 ijs. 6d. In addition to this 



the abbess received a pension of 5 6s. Sd. 

 from the church of Inmere (Sarum), and 

 of 9 3*. 4^. from the church of Weston 

 (Worcester). 



In 1301 Bishop Pontoise visited the 

 Abbey of Romsey, and as a result injoined 

 that a balance sheet should be audited twice 

 a year in the chapter house ; that a bell 

 should be rung for all the hours ; that high 

 mass should always precede nones ; that the 

 chaplains should be inhibited from ever cele- 

 brating after nones ; that the doors of the 

 cloister and dorter be better warded ; that 

 the safe custody of the sear be secured ; that 

 there should be no eating nor drinking with 

 any religious or secular person in the town 

 of Romsey ; and that no corrody nor pen- 

 sion should be granted without the bishop's 

 sanction. 3 



In February, 1305, the abbess found her- 

 self so infirm that she nominated Roger 

 Bandet and Roger de Presland to act as her 

 attorneys for three years ;* and in June, 1307, 

 a grant was made to the prioress and nuns 

 of the custody of their abbey on the death, 

 cession, resignation, or deposition of their 

 Abbess Philippa. 5 This order was confirmed 

 by Edward II. on his accession to the throne. 



The convent was visited in 1310, and the 

 decrees consequent on the visitation are set 

 forth in the bishop's register both in Latin 

 and French. The decrees were divided 

 into thirteen heads, and ordered that the 

 mass of the Blessed Virgin, with at least 

 eight nuns present, and the farmery mass 

 should be celebrated daily, and that no secu- 

 lars of any condition or age should come 

 within the precincts to hear mass in the 

 farmery ; that a bell should ring for all the 

 hours, and that high mass should be cele- 

 brated before nones ; that no secular women 

 should enter the convent at any time ; that 

 there should be a half-yearly balancing of 

 accounts before the chapter ; that the seal 

 should only be affixed in chapter to docu- 

 ments read intelligibly ; that two nuns should 

 be appointed to assist the prioress in the 

 receiving and disbursing of rents ; that the 

 doors of the cloister and the dorter should be 

 warded, and that there was to be no eating 

 nor drinking in the frater after compline ; that 

 children were not to be admitted to the dor- 

 ter, nor to be in the quire when divine offices 

 were celebrated ; that curtains (if any existed) 

 before the beds in the dorter were to be re- 

 moved ; and that woodmen and other work- 



1 Archbishop Peckham's Registers, ff. 231, 231. 

 1 Ibid. ff. 1223, I22b. 



3 Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 32. 



4 Pat. 33 Edw. I. m. 17. 



5 Close R. i Edw. II. m. 19. 



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