RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
a real abuse ; but it imposed upon the nuns 
a degree of enclosure to which they were not 
bound by the Benedictine rule, and conse- 
quently was difficult to enforce. At Elstow 
it was probably not obeyed at all; for in 
1359 Bishop Gynwell’ at his visitation re- 
ported that there had been ‘too much wan- 
dering of the nuns out of the monastery.’ 
He had other complaints to make, which show 
for the first time what was then and after- 
wards the great snare into which this house 
fell. The story of Abbess Mabel and the 
sword of St. Paul shows a right and whole- 
some interest in the affairs of the church and 
the world, such as any good religious might 
take under the common interpretation of the 
rule of St. Benedict ; but as time went on 
this interest became excessive, and was at- 
tended by an inevitable laxity of discipline. 
From the time of St. Hugh there had been a 
school in the monastery for children of both 
sexes ;? most of the nuns were well born and 
had friends about the Court who sought var- 
ious pretexts for visiting and lodging in the 
monastery. Even if the nuns had wished to 
prevent these visits, it would not always have 
been easy ; the Papal Letters of the fourteenth 
century show that noble ladies, even queens, 
often asked licences from the pope to spend 
a few nights in a nunnery. And the de- 
preciation of the value of property after the 
great pestilence made the poorer houses some- 
times thankful to accept boarders, like many 
French convents at the present day. But at 
Elstow it is to be feared that the nuns were 
really at fault in this matter ; that the spiritual 
life of the convent was marred by worldliness 
from first to last. 
Bishop Gynwell enjoined that no secular 
women, except necessary maidservants, should 
dwell in the convent without special licence ;? 
all were to depart within fifteen days on pain 
of excommunication, because ‘ by the living 
together of secular women and nuns, the con- 
templation of religion is withdrawn, and 
scandal engendered.” Only quite young 
children were to be allowed to remain ;* and 
there was to be no more laxity or favour 
shown in the correction of breaches of rule. 
1 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Gynwell, 139d. 
2 Wigram, Chronicles of the Abbey of Elstow, 57, 
ey the Magna Vita 8. Hugonis (Rolls Series), 
146. 
3 In1350 he had himself granted such a licence 
to the widow of Sir John Pateshull, to dwell in the 
monastery with her daughter and maids. One of 
the brasses still in Elstow church is probably that 
of a lady who had spent her widowhood as a boarder 
in the monastery. : 
4 Girls under ten and boys under six, 
Bishop Buckingham issued three different 
sets of injunctions. In 1379° he wrote to 
the Abbess Anstis to order the removal of 
all secular persons, men and women, from the 
precincts of the monastery, as ‘dangerous to 
the purity and spiritual devotion of the re- 
ligious.” In 1387 he held a regular visita- 
tion, and his injunctions, though they do not 
point to any serious irregularities, are of an 
interesting character ; their aim seems rather 
to set forth to the nuns their duties in general, 
and to exhort them to greater fervour, than 
to correct abuses. ‘There are the usual orders 
about the singing of the divine office, the ad- 
ministration of the revenues of the convent, 
the repair of the buildings, the due care of 
the sick; the nuns are cautioned to avoid 
scandal by refraining from conversation with 
all men, both secular and religious, especially 
the mendicant friars, and their near neigh- 
bours, the canons of Caldwell ; not to go out 
without permission, and to return home before 
sunset ; to be careful that they wear the re- 
ligious habit of their order and the veil, and 
not to seek such ornaments as fur, or girdles 
ornamented with silver; to be humble, 
obedient, charitable, loving one another in 
the bond of peace; so that at last ‘adorned 
with the fruit of good works, their lamps 
burning in their hands, they may be worthy 
to enter into the marriage chamber of the 
Heavenly Bridegroom unto whose service 
they have dedicated themselves.’® In 13887 
the bishop only sent a personal admonition to 
the abbess to be sure and provide a ‘fit and 
secure place’ where offenders against the rule 
might be detained.® 
Bishop Repingdon visited the monastery at 
the beginning of the fourteenth century. His 
injunctions show that no lasting reform had 
been effected by his predecessors. No secu- 
5 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, 191d. 
6 Ibid. 343. In addition to what is given 
above, the Bishop ordered that the nuns were to 
speak French among themselves. They were not 
to talk to the canons of Caldwell ‘ about the public 
highways and fields adjoining’ under pain of ex- 
communication: which shows that they were in 
no sense enclosed within the monastery. The 
last words quoted at the end of the injunctions are 
a reminder to them of the Office for the Profession 
of a nun with which they would all be familiar, and 
would constitute a strong appeal for renewed fer- 
vour. 
7 Ibid. 348. 
8 The year before he had ordered that the abbess 
and prioress should use moderation and temper- 
ance in making corrections: perhaps this was only 
too well obeyed. The abbess at each of these three 
dates was Anstis Dene. 
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