RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



without such leave the reception of a guest 

 would have been quite irregular. At the 

 same time a like letter was sent to the nun- 

 nery of Wherwell, so that Dame Elizabeth 

 could make her choice of houses or change 

 her residence during her husband's absence. 

 The Earl of Pembroke was in charge this 

 year of the disastrous expedition to relieve 

 Rochelle, when his ships were burnt by the 

 Spanish fleet and he himself taken prisoner. 



A curious dispute arose in the time of 

 Bishop Wykeham between the (canon) sacrist 

 of the abbey church and the vicar of the 

 parish church of Romsey. An order from the 

 bishop to the rural dean of Sombourn to in- 

 hibit the vicar, John Folyot, and his chaplains, 

 pending the decision of a cause promoted by 

 the abbess and convent against them, states 

 that it had been the usage, time beyond 

 memory, for the sacrist of the abbey church 

 to bless the palms and boughs of other trees 

 used at mass on Palm Sunday, and that from 

 the high altar and not elsewhere ; nevertheless 

 the vicar and chaplains had interrupted the 

 sacrist in the exercise of this privilege. 1 The 

 instruction to the rural dean is dated 13 

 March, 1372, and as Easter that year fell on 

 March 20, the inhibition would be in good 

 time to prevent a scandal on the ensuing 

 Palm Sunday. The north aisle of the great 

 abbey church of Romsey was used as the 

 parish church. The high altar would be in 

 the nuns' quire. It can therefore be readily 

 understood that the vicar ministering to the 

 people would resent the palms being blessed 

 out of sight of the congregation. 



At this time there was also a dispute be- 

 tween the town and the abbey as to the re- 

 pair and maintenance of this north aisle or 

 chapel, and on 15 March, 1372, the bishop 

 appointed Thomas de Sheptone, canon of 

 Wells, and two other commissioners to hold 

 an inquiry in order to settle upon whom this 

 responsibility lay. 3 On 10 May, 1403, a 

 faculty was granted to the vicar and parish- 

 ioners of Romsey to pull down and rebuild 

 the wall of the north aisle of Romsey Minster 

 from the transept to the porch in order to 

 enlarge it. The petition of the parishioners 

 stated that the aisle was so narrow and con- 

 fined that on Sundays and festivals there was 

 no suitable or even decent accommodation for 

 the worshippers, and they expressed a desire 

 not only to make their part of the minster 

 larger, but fairer. The bishop granted the 

 faculty in language strongly approving of the 



beautifying of God's sanctuary, and of pro- 

 viding fully for the numerous population of 

 both sexes of the town of Romsey, for whom 

 this north aisle was their only parish church ; 

 but he made it a condition that not only was 

 the work to be done at their own expense, 

 but it was to be sustained in like manner. 

 On the day following the grant of this faculty 

 the bishop sent a letter to the abbess and nuns 

 of Romsey advising and exhorting them to 

 show favour and kindness to the project of 

 the vicar and parishioners. 3 



Henry, Bishop of Annadown, acting as 

 suffragan to Wykeham, was at Romsey abbey 

 on Sunday, 19 September, 1400, when he 

 received thirteen novices, Margery Camoys, 

 Alice Warennere, Joan Stratford, Alice 

 Northlode, Alice Forester, Elizabeth Sampson, 

 Maud Lovell, Katherine de la Mare, Alice 

 Chamberlayn, Isabel Lekforde, Alice Artone, 

 Juliana Shirnham, and Joan Umfray. 4 From 

 the names it may be assumed that the abbey 

 received ladies of position and good birth 

 among its professed members. 



The abbess, Dame Lucy Everard, was ap- 

 parently ailing in 1402. In August of that 

 year licence was granted her for a twelve- 

 month to hear divine service in her oratory 

 in the presence of one of the sisters and her 

 servants. 



After having held the position for about 

 thirty years, Elizabeth Brooke, who was 

 elected abbess in 1472, brought the gravest 

 discredit on the abbey. The scandal of her 

 life was naturally accompanied by general laxity 

 of discipline and by the. decay of the fabric. 

 In 1494 Archbishop Morton caused Robert 

 Sherborne (afterwards Bishop of Chichester), 

 treasurer of Hereford Cathedral, to visit those 

 religious houses of Winchester diocese that 

 were subject to diocesan control. Abbess 

 Brooke confessed on that occasion to a debt 

 of 80 ; she suspected that the nuns made 

 egress through the church gates, but denied 

 that any frequented taverns or suspected 

 places. Isabel Morgan, prioress, testified, on 

 the contrary, that some of the nuns did fre- 

 quent taverns, and went into the town with- 

 out leave ; she also hinted at a scandal con- 

 cerning the abbess. Various of the nuns 

 were examined, and one of them complained 

 that their sins or faults were not punished, 

 and that the doors were not kept shut. 5 



This nunnery was again visited on 27 

 March, 1502, by Dr. Hede, the commissary of 

 the Prior of Canterbury, during the vacancy 



1 Wykeham's Registers, iii. f. 6$b. 

 * Ibid. f. 88b. 



II 



3 Ibid. ff. 355, 356. 



4 Ibid. f. 328. 



5 Archbishop Morton's Register, ff. 90, 91. 

 I2 9 17 



