CHAPTER IV. Madame Eglentyne

MADAME EGLENTYNE

A. Raw Material

1. Chaucer's description of the Prioress in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

2. Miscellaneous visitation reports in episcopal registers. On these registers, and in particular the visitation documents therein, see R.C. Fowler, Episcopal Registers of England and Wales (S.P.C.K. Helps for Students of History, No. 1), G.G. Coulton, The Interpretation of Visitation Documents (Eng. Hist. Review, 1914), and c. XII of my book, cited below. A great many registers have been, or are being, published by learned societies, notably by the Canterbury and York Society, which exists for this purpose. The most important are the Lincoln visitations, now in the course of publication, by Dr A. Hamilton Thompson, Visitations of Religious Houses in the Diocese of Lincoln, ed. A. Hamilton Thompson (Lincoln Rec. Soc. and Canterbury and York Soc., 1915 ff.); two volumes have appeared so far, of which see especially vol. II, which contains part of Bishop Alnwick's visitations (1436-49); each volume contains text, translation, and an admirable introduction. See also the extracts from Winchester visitations trans. in H.G.D. Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey (1912). Full extracts from visitation reports and injunctions are given under the accounts of religious houses in the different volumes of the Victoria County Histories (cited as V.C.H.).

3. The monastic rules. See The Rule of St Benedict, ed. F.A. Gasquet (Kings Classics, 1909), and F.A. Gasquet, English Monastic Life (4th ed., 1910).

4. For a very full study of the whole subject of English convent life at this period see Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535(1922).

B. Notes to the Text

1. The Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter (1307-26), ed. F. Hingeston Randolph (1892), p. 169. The passage about Philippa is translated in G.G. Coulton, Chaucer and His England (1908), p. 181.

2. See the account of expenses involved in making Elizabeth Sewardby a nun of Nunmonkton (1468) in Testamenta Eboracensia, ed. James Raine (Surtees Soc., 1886), III, p. 168; and Power, op. cit., p. 19.

3. Year Book of King Richard II, ed. C.F. Deiser (1904), pp. 71-7; and Power, op. cit., pp. 36-8.

4. G.J. Aungier, Hist. of Syon (1840), p. 385.

5. As at Gracedieu (1440-1), Alnwick's Visit, ed. A.H. Thompson, pp. 120-3.

6. G.J. Aungier, op. cit., pp. 405-9.

7. Translated from John de Grandisson's Register in G.G. Coulton, A Medieval Garner (1910), pp. 312-14.

8. Rule of St Benedict, c. 22.

9. V.C.H. Lincs., II, p. 131.

10. Translated in G.G. Coulton, A Medieval Garner.

11. Myroure of Oure Ladye, ed. J.H. Blunt (E.E.T.S., 1873), p. 54. On Tittivillus see my article in The Cambridge Magazine (1917), pp.158-60.

12. Linc. Visit., ed. A.H. Thompson, II, pp. 46-52; and Power, op. cit. pp. 82-7.

13. V.C.H. Oxon, II. p. 77.

14. Linc. Visit., ed. A.H. Thompson, I, p. 67.

15. On these gaieties see Power, op. cit. pp. 309-14.

16. Linc. Visit., II, pp. 3-4; and see Power, op. cit., pp. 75-7, 303-5, on gay clothes in nunneries.

17. Linc. Visit., II. p. 175.

18. Power, op. cit., p. 307. On pet animals see ibid., pp. 305-9, and Note E ('Convent Pets in Literature'), pp. 588-95.

19. Power, op. cit., p. 77.

20. Ibid., pp. 351-2; and see Chap. IX passim on the Bull Periculoso and the wandering of nuns in the world.

21. Linc. Visit., II, p. 50.

22. V.C.H. Yorks., III, p. 172.