unscrupulous relatives desired to be rid, generally in order to gain possession of their inheritance; for a nun, dead in the eyes of the law which governed the world, could claim no share in her father's estate[1] It is true that influential people, who could succeed in proving that a nun was unwillingly professed, might obtain her release[2]; but many little heiresses and unwanted children must have remained for ever, without hope of escape, in the convents to which they had been hurried, for it is evident that the religious houses themselves did all they could to discourage the presentation of such petitions, or the escape of unwilling members. The chanson de nonne, the song of the nun unwittingly professed, is a favourite theme in medieval popular poetry[3]; and dry documents show that it had its foundation in fact. It is possible to collect from various sources a remarkable series of legal documents which illustrate the practice of putting girls into nunneries, so as to secure their inheritance.
As early as 1197 there is a case at Ankerwyke, where a nun who had been fifteen years professed returned to the world and
- ↑ Hence the certificates sometimes required from bishops to testify whether or not a girl had actually been professed. Such a certificate occurs in Wykeham's Register (ii, p. 192), announcing that Joan, daughter of Stephen Asshewy, deceased, was not yet professed at St Mary's Winchester or at any other house. The case of Isabel, daughter of Sir Philip de Coverle, is also interesting; she left the wretchedly poor house of Sewardsley to claim her share of her mother's inheritance, therewith to provide fit maintenance for herself among the nuns; but she was excluded from inheriting with her sisters on account of her religious profession (V.C.H. Northants. ii, pp. 125-6). Compare also the case of Joan, wife of Nicholas de Grene (1357-8); on a question of inheritance the King's court issued a writ of inquiry as to whether she had been professed at Nuneaton (Reg. of Bishop Roger de Norbury (William Salt Aichaeol. Soc. Collections, i), pp. 285-7.
- ↑ See e.g. the commission for the release of a novice preserved in the register of Ralph Baldock, Bishop of London (13 10). "We have lately received the supplication of our beloved daughter in Christ, Cristina de Burgh, daughter of the noble Sir Robert Fitzwalter, to the effect that whereas she was delivered by her parents, while not yet of a marriageable age, into the order of St Augustine in the monastery of Haliwell of our diocese, and for some time wore the habit of a novice therein and still wears it, nevertheless there is no canonical reason why she should not freely return to the world at her own free will; and whereas we do condescend to licence her to return to the world, having diligently made inquiries in the aforesaid monastery for our information as to the truth of the aforesaid matters, etc. etc."; the Bishop having no time to finish the inquiry himself commissions his official to carry it on and to release Cristina if the result is satisfactory. Reg. Radulphi Baldock (Cant, and York Soc.), p. 129. But note that this girl is only a novice.
- ↑ See below, pp. 502-9, and Note H.
