Records of Romsey Abbey; An Account of the Benedictine House of Nuns, with Notes on the Parish Church and Town (A.D. 907-1558). - Anonymous

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... without the Bishop's special license, and ordering them to remove all secular persons within the Monastery within a month from the receipt of the letter, and to let him know the number of nuns and how they have carried out his injunctions, before the Feast of St. Nicholas next, t.e., the 6th December." In 1363 he wrote in a similar strain, and very probably other letters had been sent in between, for in the latter year he complains that having heard, by public report, that they have not obeyed his former letter, he orders them to remove all women lodging there (perhendinatrices), whom they have received contrary to his letters, within fifteen days, and to receive no others without his special license. His successor, Bishop William of Wykeham, however, on 29th May, 1372, gave a special recommendation to receive a lady as a guest. The Bishop desires them, at the request of William Earl of Pembroke, to receive his kinswoman, Dame Elizabeth de Berkele, during her husband's absence on military service. The Earl was sent to relieve Rochelle, but his ships were taken and burnt by a Spanish fleet on midsummer eve, and he was made prisoner. The lady's husband is named Maurice Wyth. That the introduction of lodgers into a convent might prove unfavourable to the peace and quiet of the sisters may be gathered from an event which occurred in the winter of 1375. Certain persons broke into the houses of the Abbess within the Abbey and carried off Joan, late the wife of Peter Brugge, and her property, consisting of her gold rings, gold brooches or bracelets with precious stones, linen and woollen clothes and furs; her chaplin, John Stonly, aiding and abetting the felony. On Sunday, the 19th of September, 1400, the Suffragan Bishop, Henry of...