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diff --git a/24633-8.txt b/24633-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d1ca25 --- /dev/null +++ b/24633-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1182 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Double Monasteries, by Constance Stoney + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Early Double Monasteries + A Paper read before the Heretics' Society on December 6th, 1914 + +Author: Constance Stoney + +Release Date: February 18, 2008 [EBook #24633] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + EARLY + DOUBLE MONASTERIES + + A Paper read before the Heretics' Society + on December 6th, 1914 + + + BY + CONSTANCE STONEY + NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE + + + CAMBRIDGE: + DEIGHTON, BELL & CO., LIMITED. + LONDON: + G. BELL & SONS, LIMITED. + + 1915 + + + + +EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES. + + +The system of double monasteries, or monasteries for both men and women, +is as old as that of Christian monasticism itself, though the phrase +"monasteria duplicia"[1] dates from about the C6. The term was also +sometimes applied to twin monasteries for men; Bede uses it in this +sense with reference to Wearmouth and Yarrow, while he generally speaks +of a double monastery as "monasterium virginum." + +The use of the word "double" is important. The monastery was not mixed; +men and women did not live or work together, and in many cases did not +use the same Church; and though the chief feature of the system was +association, there was in reality very little, when compared with the +amount of separation. In time, the details of organisation varied, such, +for example, as whether an abbot or an abbess ruled the whole monastery, +though it was generally the latter. Details of the rule of the community +naturally altered at different times and in different places, but the +essential character remained the same. + +As to the object of such an arrangement, opinions differ. Some have +regarded it as a sort of moral experiment; others have seen in it only +the natural outcome of the necessity for having priests close at hand to +celebrate Mass, hear confessions and minister in general to the +spiritual needs of the nuns. There is, too, the practical side of the +plan--namely, that each side of the community was economically dependant +on the other, as will be seen later. However this may be, the practice +of placing the two together under one head seems to be as ancient as +monasticism itself. + +The double monastery in its simplest form was that organisation said to +have been founded in the C4 by S. Pachomius,[2] an Egyptian monk. He +settled with a number of men, who had consecrated themselves to the +spiritual life, at Tabenna, by the side of the Nile. About the same +time, his sister Mary went to the opposite bank of the Nile, and began +to gather round her women disciples. + +This settlement soon became a proper nunnery under the control of the +superior of the monks, who delegated elderly men to care for its +discipline. With the exception of regulations concerning dress, both +monks and nuns observed the same rule which S. Pachomius wrote for +them[3]. It was very simple. There were to be twelve prayers said +during the day, twelve at twilight, twelve at night, and a psalm at each +meal. Mass was celebrated on Saturday and Sunday. Meals were to be eaten +all together and the amount of food was unlimited. A monk could eat or +fast as he pleased, but the more he ate, the more work must he do. They +were to sleep three in a cell. No formal vows were to be taken, but the +period of probation before entry into the community, was to be three +years. The men provided the food, and did the rough work for the women, +building their dwellings, etc., while the women made clothes for the +men. When a nun died her companions brought her body to the river bank +and then retired; presently some monks fetched away the body, rowed back +across the Nile, and buried it in their cemetery.[4] + +That the communities of S. Basil and his sister Macrina (also in the C4) +were of this type, may be seen from the rule of S. Basil. The +communities, like those of Pachomius, were on opposite banks of a +river--in this case, the Iris; and Macrina's nunnery is supposed to have +been in the village of Annesi, near Neo-Caesarea, and founded 357 A.D. +In her nunnery lived her mother and her younger brother Peter, who +afterwards became a priest. The life of this saintly family and the +relation between the two communities may be learned from the charmingly +written Life of S. Macrina by her brother Gregory of Nyssa.[5] + +The Rule of S. Basil is written in the form of question and answer, and +much of it refers to the relations between monks and nuns, while all +impress upon the religious the duty of giving no occasion to the enemy +to blaspheme. "May the head of the monastery speak often with the +abbess? May he speak with any of the sisters other than the abbess, on +matters of faith? May the abbess be angry if a priest orders the sisters +to do anything without her knowledge? If a sister refuses to sing the +psalms, is she to be compelled to do so?" All the answers urge both +parts of the community to avoid giving ground for scandal. The nuns, in +this case, seem to have had a separate church, for Gregory speaks of the +"Chorus of Virgins" who awaited him when he came to visit his sister +Macrina on her death bed. There were, too, schools for boys and girls +attached to S. Basil's house, for he makes regulations concerning their +education. + +There is practically no evidence for double monasteries in the C5, but +at the opening of the C6 we find them again. In the West the earliest +monastic communities had been founded by S. Martin of Tours, first at +Milan in 371 and afterwards in Gaul, which from then became the chief +monastic centre. + +It is here, then, that another brother and sister figure as the founders +of a double monastery. S. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles,[6] persuaded his +sister Caesaria to leave Marseilles, where she was in a convent, and +join him at Arles to preside over the women who had gathered there to +live under his guidance; and the rule which he afterwards wrote for +these nuns is the first Western rule for nuns, and was afterwards +followed in many double monasteries.[7] He arranged it, as he himself +says, according to the teachings of the fathers of the Church. He +stipulates that all joining the community shall, on their entry, +renounce all claims to outside property. Only those women are to enter +who accept the rule of their own accord and are prepared to live in +perfect equality and without servants. Much attention is paid in the +rule to the instruction of the nuns; they were to devote considerable +time to music, as being an art through which God could fittingly be +praised; to be taught reading and writing; to practice cooking, and +weaving both of Church vestments and their own clothing. + +They were to attend to the sick and infirm, and above all they were not +to quarrel. They were not entirely cut off from the outside world, since +they were permitted to entertain women from other convents; but, says +the Rule, "Dinners and entertainments shall not be provided for +churchmen, laymen and friends." We have only indirect evidence that +Arles was a double monastery. The confusion, for example in Caesarius's +will between his two foundations of S. John's and S. Mary's, resolves +itself, if we suppose that the monks were at the one, and the nuns at +the other, and that they associated in the great church in the +monastery, described by the authors of the Life of S. Caesarius, as +being dedicated to S. Mary, S. John and S. Martin.[8] Such an +arrangement was common in later double monasteries. + +Another famous C6 monastery in Gaul now supposed to have been double was +that of S. Rhadagund at Poitiers about 566.[9] S. Rhadagund was married +to King Clothair against her will, and their life together was a series +of quarrels. She was so devoted to charitable work, we are told, that +she often annoyed the King by keeping him waiting at meals, left him +whenever possible and behaved in such a way that the king declared that +he was married to a nun rather than a queen. Finally the murder of her +young brother, at the instigation of the king, determined her to leave +the court, and flying to the protection of Bishop Medardus, she +demanded to be consecrated a nun.[10] + +After some natural hesitation on the part of the Bishop, she was made a +Deaconess--a term applying to anyone who, without belonging to any +special order, was under the protection of the Church.[11] She devoted +herself to the relief of every kind of distress, bodily and spiritual; +and at length the desire came to her to provide permanently for the men +and women who came to her for help. So, on an estate which she owned at +Poitiers, she founded a nunnery dedicated to the Holy Name, and, +probably at the same time, the house for men, separated from the convent +by the town wall and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in S. +Mary's that Rhadagund was buried and after her death, her name was added +to the dedication. Beside this evidence of association between the two +houses, the only other is the correspondence of Rhadagund and the Abbess +Agnes with the poet Fortunatus, who was probably a monk of S. Mary's. He +certainly seems to have been the director and counsellor of the nuns, +and to have been often engaged in business for them; but he did not live +in the same house with them for in one of his letters he laments the +fact. His letters and verses addressed to the two women throw a strong +light on the friendship, and real affection which existed among the +three friends. He says that he will work day and night for Rhadagund, +draw the water, tend the vines and the garden, cook, wash dishes, +anything, rather than that she should do the heavy and menial work of +the house. He begs the abbess Agnes to talk often of him with the +sisters that he may feel more really that she is his mother. He sends +gifts of flowers for their sanctuary, and baskets which he has plaited; +and with a basket of violets he sends the following charming verses.[12] +(I give a translation which must necessarily be inadequate.) + +"If the season had yielded me white lilies, according to its wont, or +red roses with sweet smelling savour, I had plucked them from the +countryside, or from the turf of my little garden, and had sent them, +small gifts for great ladies! But since I lack the first, I e'en pay the +second, for he presents roses in the eyes of love, who offers only +violets. Yet, these violets I send are, among perfumed herbs, of noble +stock, and with equal grace breathe in their royal purple, while +fragrance with beauty vies to steep their petals. May you, likewise, +both have each charm that these possess, and may the perfume of your +future reward be a glory that blooms everlastingly." + +The nuns of Ste. Croix, too, seem not to have been lacking in +generosity. Fortunatus frequently thanks them for gifts of eggs, fruit, +milk, etc.; and on one occasion he receives more dishes than one servant +could carry. He must have stood in some official relation to Rhadagund, +for such freedom of intercourse to be possible; and if his verses +sometimes suggest the courtier rather than the monk, it must be +remembered that they are the work of a poet who had first been a friend +of princes and was among the most fashionable men of letters of his day +in Ravenna; and that they are addressed to a woman who was, after all, a +queen. + +In 587 Rhadagund died and Bishop Gregory of Tours tells how greatly she +was mourned by the whole community, and how some 200 women crowded round +her bier, bewailing their loss. One of them, the nun Baudonivia, several +years afterwards, cannot, she says, even speak of the death of Rhadagund +without being choked with sobs.[13] + +It will be seen from these examples, that in all probability, the +origin of the double monastery need not be sought, as has been supposed, +in Ireland, since it seems to have been known in Gaul before S. +Columbanus and his Irish disciples landed there and preached a great +religious revival, at the end of the C6. Indeed, though there are +scattered notices in the lives of the Irish saints, which seem to +suggest that there were double monasteries in Ireland in very early +times, there is no definite evidence until the description in +Cogitosus's "Life of S. Bridget," of one at Kildare, probably in the C8. +The monasteries actually founded by S. Columbanus himself, were all for +men. + +On the other hand, the double monastery seems always to have flourished +wherever the fervour of the Irish missionaries penetrated. Perhaps, as +Montalembert[14] suggests, the ideal atmosphere of divine simplicity and +single-mindedness which characterised them, was particularly favorable +to the growth of such an institution. + +S. Columbanus dedicated Burgundofara, or Fara, as a child, to the +religious life; and she afterwards founded the monastery of Brie to the +south-east of Paris, which we learn from Jonas, who was a monk there, +and from Bede, was a double monastery. + +It is clear that this house was one of those ruled by an abbess, for +Jonas says that no distinction was recognised between the sexes, and +that the abbess treated both alike. The discipline here, however, seems +to have been very severe, for he adds that some of the new nuns tried to +escape by ladders from the dormitory. Brie is interesting to us as +forming one of the links between Continental and English monasticism at +this time. Bede says of the daughter of Erconberht, King of Kent, "She +was a most virtuous maiden, always serving God in a monastery in France, +built by a most noble abbess, Fara by name, at a place called Brie; for +at that time, but few monasteries being built in the country of the +Angles, many were wont, for the sake of monastic conversation, to repair +to the monasteries of the Franks or Gauls; and they also sent their +daughters there to be educated and given to their Heavenly Bridegroom, +especially in the monasteries of Brie, Chelles, and Andelys."[15] + +He adds that two daughters of King Anna of East Anglia, "though +strangers, were for their virtue made abbesses of the monastery of +Brie." + +Little is known of Andelys, except that it was founded by Queen +Clotilda. At Chelles, founded by Queen Bathilda in 662, ten miles from +Paris, on the river Marne, many famous persons, both men and women, +received their education. Among them was a Northumbrian princess, +Hereswith, whose sister was Hild, the most famous of English abbesses. + +The prevalence and influence of the double monastery in England may +perhaps be better understood by a reference to the position of women +generally in Anglo-Saxon society. Nothing astonished the Romans more +than the austere chastity of the Germanic women, and the religious +respect paid by men to them, and nowhere has their influence been more +fully recognised or more enduring than among the Anglo-Saxons. This fact +largely accounts for the extreme importance attached by them to marriage +alliances, particularly those between members of royal houses.[16] These +unions gave to the princess the office of mediatrix; in Beowulf she is +called Freothowebbe, "the peace-weaver."[17] From this rose the high +position held by queens. Their signatures appear in acts of foundation, +decrees of councils, charters, etc. Sometimes they reigned with full +royal authority, as did Seaxburg, Queen of the West Saxons, after the +death of her husband.[18] From the beginning of Christianity in England, +the women, and particularly these royal women, were as active and +persevering in furthering the Faith, as their men. "Christianity," says +Montalembert,[19] "came to a people which had preserved the instinct +and sense of the necessity for venerating things above," and "they at +least honoured the virtue which they did not themselves always +practise." + +Consequently, when the young Anglo-Saxon women, having been initiated +into the life of the cloister abroad, returned to England to found +monasteries in their own land, they were received by their countrymen +with reverence and respect. This respect soon expressed itself in the +national law, which placed under the safeguard of severe penalties the +honour and freedom of those whom it called the "Brides of God." + +Princesses, royal widows, sometimes reigning queens, began to found +monasteries, where they lived on terms of equality with the daughters of +ceorls and bondmen; and perhaps it is fair to say that it was not the +lowest in rank who made the greatest sacrifice. + +But the influence of these women did not cease with their retirement to +the cloister. When one of them, by the choice of her companions, or the +nomination of the bishops, became invested with the right of governing +the community, she was also given the liberties and privileges of the +highest rank. Abbesses often had the retinue and state of princesses. +They were present at most great religious and national gatherings, and +often affixed their signatures to the charters granted on these +occasions.[20] + +I have already referred to one of the greatest of these abbesses, Hild +of Whitby. She was the grandniece of Edwin, the first Christian King of +Northumbria and had been baptised with her uncle at York in 627 by the +Roman Missionary Paulinus.[21] Bede says that, before consecrating her +life to religion, "she had lived thirty-three years very nobly among her +family." When she realised her vocation, she went into East Anglia where +her brother-in-law was king, intending to cross over to the continent +and take the veil at Chelles. She spent a year here in preparation, but +before she could accomplish her purpose, Bishop Aidan invited her to the +north, to take charge of the double monastery of Hartlepool, which had +been founded by Heiu, the first nun in England. "When," says Bede, "she +had for some years governed this monastery, wholly intent upon +establishing the regular life, it happened that she also undertook the +construction or arrangement of a monastery in the place which is called +Streonesheal (Whitby), and diligently accomplished the work enjoined +upon her. For in this monastery, as in the first, she established the +discipline of the regular life, and indeed, she taught there also, +justice, piety, chastity, and other virtues, but especially the guarding +of peace and charity; so that, after the example of the primitive +church, no one there was rich and none poor, all things were common to +all and no one had property. So great was her prudence, moreover, that +not only ordinary persons in their necessity, but even kings and princes +sought and received counsel of her. She made those who were under her +direction give so much time to the reading of the Divine Scriptures, and +exercise themselves so much in the works of righteousness, that many +could readily be met with there, who were fit to take up ecclesiastical +office, that is, the service of the altar." Bede goes on to mention six +men from Hild's monastery, who afterwards became bishops. The most +famous was perhaps S. John of Beverley, who was first bishop of Hexham, +and afterwards of York, and who was noted for his piety and learning. +Aetta held the see of Dorchester for a time. Bosa, another scholarly +disciple of Hild, became Archbishop of York, and Tatfrith was elected +bishop of the Hwicce, though he died before his consecration. + +None of these, however, have a greater claim to be remembered than the +cow-herd Caedmon, the first English poet, and the story as given by Bede +is perhaps one of the most charming in his Ecclesiastical History.[22] +Apart from the literary interest attaching to the story, his life shows +some of the details in outward organisation of these great double +monasteries. Before his entry into the monastery, says Bede, he was +advanced in years, and yet had so little skill in music that he was +unable to take his turn at feasts in singing and playing on the harp, an +accomplishment common to high and low among the Anglo-Saxons and kindred +nations. + +The story is familiar: on one occasion when the feast was over, he left +the hall as soon as he saw the harp being passed, according to custom, +from hand to hand. He went out to the cattle-sheds, tended the beasts +and lay down to sleep. In a dream he heard a voice, "Caedmon, sing me +something." He answered, "I know not how to sing; and for this cause I +came out from the feast and came hither because I knew not how." Again +he who spoke with him said, "Nevertheless, thou canst sing me +something." Caedmon said, "What shall I sing?" He answered, "Sing me the +Creation." Then Bede relates how the cow-herd sang songs before unknown +to him, in praise of "the Creator, the Glorious Father of men, who first +created for the sons of earth, the heaven for a roof, and then the +middle world as a floor for men, the Guardian of the Heavenly Kingdom." +When the abbess Hild heard of the miracle, she instructed him in the +presence of many learned men to turn into verse a portion of the +Scriptures. He took away his task and brought it to them again +"composed in the choicest verse." Thereupon the abbess, says Bede, +"embracing and loving the gift of God in the man, entreated him to leave +the secular, and take upon him the monastic life, and ordered him to be +instructed in sacred history." So he was received into Whitby monastery +with all his family "and," continues the story, "all that he could learn +he kept in memory, and like a clean beast chewing the cud, he turned it +all into the sweetest verse, so pleasant to hear, that even his teachers +wrote and learned at his lips." + +The story throws a good deal of light on the way in which a large double +monastery was organised. One gathers from it that not only isolated +monks and nuns were received into the community but sometimes whole +families. Caedmon entered "cum omnibus suis," which is generally taken +to mean that his whole family were received with him. We see from it, +too, how earnest was the desire of the superiors of the monasteries to +instruct the ignorant; how rich and poor alike in the C7 might aspire to +the monastic life, the only passport being the honest desire to serve +God in the best possible way. + +Again in the latter part of the story, dealing with Caedmon's sickness +and death, there is evidence of how the aged, the sick and the dying +were tended with special care. + +Whitby was not only an important religious but also political centre +and the abbesses took by no means a small part in controversy. At the +Synod of Whitby[23] held here in 664, when the respective claims of +Irish and Roman ecclesiastical discipline were discussed, Hild took the +side of the Irish Church; while her successor, Aelflæd, interested +herself in the doings of her brother, King Egfrith. Hild reigned thirty +years at Whitby and died after many years of suffering, during which she +never failed to teach her flock, both in public and in private. All that +we know of her character, indicates a strong and vivid personality, a +mind keenly alive to the necessities of the age, and a will vigorous +enough to be successful in providing for them where opportunity +occurred. She had a worthy successor in Aelflæd, a friend of the holy S. +Cuthbert. Bede says of her that "she added to the lustre of her princely +birth the brighter glory of exalted virtue," and that she was "inspired +with much love toward Cuthbert, the holy man of God."[24] + +On one occasion she had fallen seriously ill, and expressed a wish that +something belonging to S. Cuthbert could be sent to her. "For then," she +said, "I know I should soon be well." A linen girdle was sent from the +Saint, and the abbess joyfully put it on. The next morning she could +stand on her feet and the third day she was restored to perfect health. +Later, a nun was cured of a headache by the same girdle, but when next +it was wanted, it could nowhere be found. Bede argues quaintly that its +disappearance was also an act of Divine Providence, since some of the +sick who flocked to it might be unworthy, and, not being cured, might +doubt its efficacy, while in reality, their own unworthiness was to +blame. "Thus," he concludes, "was all matter for detraction removed from +the malice of the unrighteous." + +A contemporary of Hild's was Aebbe, a princess of the rival dynasty of +Bernicia, and sister of the royal saint, King Oswald, and of Oswy, the +reigning king. Her brother intended to give her in marriage to the king +of the Scots, but she herself was opposed to the alliance. Her family +had embraced the Christian religion in exile, and she determined to +follow the monastic life. + +Accordingly, she built a double monastery, apparently in imitation of +Whitby, at Coldingham on the promontory still called S. Abb's Head. She +does not seem, however, to have maintained, like Hild, the discipline +and fervour of which she herself gave an example; for Bede notes here a +rare example of those disorders of which there were certainly far fewer +in England at this time than anywhere else.[25] Aebbe was apparently in +ignorance of the relaxation of discipline in her monastery until she +was warned of it by an Irish monk of her community, named Adamnan. + +As he was walking with the abbess through the great and beautiful house +which she had built, he lamented with tears, "All that you see here so +beautiful and so grand will soon be laid in ashes!" The astonished +abbess begged an explanation. "I have seen in a dream," said the monk, +"an unknown one who has revealed to me all the evil done in this house +and the punishment prepared for it." + +And what, one naturally asks, are these crimes for which nothing short +of total destruction of the splendid house is a severe enough visitation +from Heaven? Adamnan continues "The unknown one has told me that he +visited each cell and each bed, and found the monks, either wrapt in +slothful sleep, or awake, eating irregular meals and engaged in +senseless gossip; while the nuns employ their leisure in wearing +garments of excessive fineness, either to attire themselves, as if they +were the brides of men, or to bestow them on people outside." One must +admit that here and there in the writings of the period, there are +references to this worldliness in some monasteries; but whatever may +have been the state of things at a later date, there does not seem to be +evidence of graver misdeeds in these early years of monasticism in +England. Bede uses perhaps unnecessary severity in speaking of renegade +monks and nuns so-called, since he is admittedly speaking from hearsay +and not about disorders which came under his own observation. Whatever +the sins of Coldingham may have been, the community at a later date +atoned for them, for in the C9, when the Danes invaded Northumbria, and +killed the men of this monastery, among others, the nuns are said to +have mutilated their faces in order to escape the marauders. The Danes, +in fury at the loss of their prey, burned the monastery to the ground, +and all that remains to mark the site is a small ruined chapel. + +At Ely there was also a double monastery founded by Aethelthryth,[26] +later known as S. Awdrey. She was the daughter of Anna, King of the East +Angles, and therefore a niece of the great abbess Hild. She was married, +for the second time, probably for political reasons, when over thirty +years old to King Egfrith of Northumbria, then a boy of fifteen. After +living with him for twelve years, she left him and went to Coldingham, +where she received the veil. Whether Egfrith agreed to this or not, it +is impossible to say. There are reasons for believing that he was, at +any rate, unwilling; for Bede says that she had long requested the king +to permit her to lay aside worldly cares and serve God in a monastery +and that she at length, with great difficulty, prevailed. + +She remained at Coldingham for a year and then went to Ely, the island +in the fens given to her by her first husband; and there she built a +monastery, of which she became abbess. + +She renounced all the splendours and even ordinary comforts of her +former royal life. Bede says that from the time that she entered the +monastery, she wore no linen, but only woollen garments, rarely washed +in a hot bath, unless just before any of the great festivals, such as +Easter, Whitsuntide, and the Epiphany; and then she did it last of all, +after having, with the assistance of those about her, first washed the +other nuns. + +After presiding over the monastery six or seven years, she died of a +tumour in her throat, which she used to say was sent as a punishment for +her excessive love of wearing necklaces in her youth. Hence the "tawdrey +lace" of "The Winter's Tale" and elsewhere, which was a necklace bought +at S. Awdrey's Fair, held on the day of her festival, October 17th. She +was succeeded by her sister, Seaxburh, the widow of Erconberht, King of +Kent, who had founded a double monastery at Sheppey, of which she was +the first abbess. There is no mention of monks as well as nuns before +her reign. Her daughter, Ermengild, succeeded her as Abbess of Sheppey, +and at her mother's death, of Ely. Ermengild's daughter, Werburh (the +famous S. Werburh of Chester), also became abbess of Sheppey and Ely in +succession. + +In the same way, Minster in Thanet remained in the family of its +foundress, Eormenburg or Domneva, as she is sometimes called, the wife +of the Mercian prince Merewald. According to tradition she received the +land from Egbert of Kent, as wergild for the murder of her two brothers. +She asked for as much land as her tame deer could cover in one course, +and she thus obtained about ten thousand acres, on which she built her +monastery. Her daughter, Mildred, who succeeded her as abbess, acquired +greater fame. She was educated at Chelles, and was there cruelly +ill-treated by the abbess, who was inappropriately named Wilcona, or +Welcome. She wished to marry Mildred to one of her relatives, and when +the girl refused, she put her into a furnace. When that punishment +failed, she pulled her hair out. Mildred adorned her psalter with the +ravished hair and sent it to her mother. Finally she escaped and +returned home. Her name is among the five abbesses who signed a charter +granting church privileges at a Kentish Witanagemot.[27] Her successor, +Eadburg, or Bugga, built a splendid new church in the monastery, which +is described in a poem attributed to Aldhelm.[28] The high altar was +hung with tapestries of cloth of gold, and ornamented with silver and +precious stones. The chalice, too, was of gold, and set with jewels; +there were glass windows, and from the roof there hung a silver censer. +Mention is made of the united singing of the monks and nuns in the +church. + +Eadburg and her mother, a certain Abbess Eangyth, were both friends of +Boniface, the great English missionary bishop of Mainz, the "Apostle of +Germany." Eangyth writes to him of her troubles as abbess of a double +monastery, of the quarrels among the monks, the poverty of the house, +and the excessive dues which had to be paid to the king and his +officials. In one letter Boniface thanks Eadburg for books and clothes, +and asks if she will write out for him in gold letters the Epistles of +S. Peter, that he may have the words of the Apostle before his eyes when +he preaches. + +Repton was another double monastery under an abbess, though nothing is +known of its foundation. Some information about it is gained from the +Life of S. Guthlac by Felix. Guthlac was a noble of Mercia, and in his +youth a great warrior; but at the age of twenty-four, he went to Repton +and received the tonsure under the abbess Aelfthryth. Her rule was +apparently very strict, for we find Guthlac getting into trouble for +breaking a rule by _not_ drinking wine. + +Several chapters in Bede's Ecclesiastical History are devoted to stories +of the double monastery at Barking, which was one of the most famous. It +was founded by Erconwald, who afterwards became bishop of London. He +built one for himself at Chertsey, and one for his sister Aethelburg at +Barking, and, as Bede says, "established them both in regular discipline +of the best kind." This monastery included both a hospital and a school, +under the energetic rule of its first abbess. + +Hildelith succeeded Aethelburg, and it was for her and her companions +that the scholar Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, wrote his work, "De +Laudibus Virginitatis."[29] He speaks of the nunnery as a hive where the +nuns work like little bees, for they collect everywhere material for +study. Their industry is not confined to the study of Holy Scripture. He +speaks of them as searching carefully into the writers of history, as +having a knowledge of ancient law and chronography, and in writing, of +the rules of grammar and orthography, punctuation, metre, together with +the use of allegory and tropology; all of which goes to prove that the +field of secular knowledge was not particularly limited for nuns in +those days. Aldhelm enlarges on the charms of their peaceful life in the +nunnery, and the opportunities for thought and study it affords them. He +recommends the works of Cassian and Gregory for their reading, and warns +them against pride, a special temptation to those who have adopted the +religious life. + +Again there comes the warning against worldliness in both monk and nun. +Some of the men, he says, contrary to the rule of the regular life, +wear gay clothing. "The appearance of the other sex, too, corresponds: +a vest of fine linen of hyacinth blue is worn, and above it a scarlet +tunic with hood and sleeves of striped silk; on the feet are little +shoes of red leather; the locks on the forehead and temples are waved +with a curling-iron; the dark grey head-veil has given place to white +and coloured head-dresses, the folds of which are kept in place by +fillets and reach right down to the feet; the nails are pared to +resemble the talons of a falcon." Aldhelm condemns all this, but hastens +to add that of course he is addressing no one in particular. The work +closes with an affectionate greeting to those whom he calls the Flowers +of the Church, Pearls of Christ, his monastic sisters and scholarly +pupils, whose prayers he always desires. + +In Wessex the double monastery of Wimborne was the most important of its +time, and most famed for its literary activity. According to the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,[30] it was founded by Cuthburg, sister of Ine, +king of Wessex. Most of our knowledge of the community comes from the +Life of S. Lioba[31] ('the beloved'), who was educated there during the +reign of the Abbess Tetta, another sister of the royal founder. The +author of S. Lioba's Life describes the arrangement at Wimborne. He says +that there were two monasteries there, one for clerks and the other for +women. The two houses were surrounded by high walls and the monastery +was well endowed. No nun could obtain permission to go to the monks' +house, and no man might enter the nuns' convent, except the priests who +came to celebrate in their church. One gathers from this that there was +not a common church for both sides of the community, as was often the +case. The abbess gave any necessary orders to the monks through a +window. No woman was admitted to the community unless she undertook not +to attempt to leave it except for very urgent reasons and by permission +of the abbess. + +Some idea of its size may be gathered from the fact that there were five +hundred nuns at Wimborne. That strength and tact were needed to rule +them is shown by one amusing if lamentable episode. + +A very religious virgin was placed in authority over the novices, and +she was so hated by them on account of her severity that even after her +death the young nuns could not forget; and rushing out, they trampled +upon her grave, with curses, until the mound became a hole half a foot +deep. The abbess Tetta rebuked them for their unchristian behaviour, and +ordered a three days' fast and penance, after which the culprits +apparently recovered their senses. + +Lioba herself seems to have had an attractive personality, and to have +gained the affection both of the abbess and the other nuns. A little +letter of hers is extant, wherein she writes to Boniface recalling +herself to his mind and claiming relationship with him through her +mother. She also encloses some Latin verse for his criticism. She says, +"This too, I ask, that you will correct the mistakes of this letter, and +send me a few words as a proof of your goodwill. I have composed the +little verses written below, according to the rules of prosody, not from +pride, but from a desire to cultivate the beginnings of a slender +genius, and because I wanted your help. I learnt the art from Eadburga, +my mistress, who devotes herself unceasingly to searching Divine Law." + +When Boniface was establishing religious houses in Germany he sent to +Abbess Tetta, asking that Lioba might be allowed to come over and help +him. She went, and Boniface put the monastery of Bischofsheim on the +Tauber, a tributary of the Main, under her care. Here she carried on the +traditions of Wimborne, for she taught and encouraged learning in every +way. Her rule was sane and wise. Her biographer says of her, "She was +careful always not to teach others what she herself did not practise. +Neither conceit nor overbearing found any place in her disposition; but +she was gentle and kind to everyone without exception. She was beautiful +as an angel and her conversation was charming. Her intellect was +renowned, and she was able in counsel. She was catholic in faith, most +patient in hope, and of widespread charity. Though her face was always +cheerful, she never broke into hilarious laughter. No one ever heard an +ill-natured remark fall from her lips, and the sun never went down upon +her wrath. Though she provided food and drink with the greatest +liberality for others, she was very moderate herself; and the cup from +which she used to drink was called by the sisters, on account of its +size, 'darling's little mug.'" + +She knew that a heedful mind is necessary for both prayer and study, and +so she insisted upon moderation in holding vigils. She allowed herself, +and the sisters under her, a short rest after dinner, especially in the +summer time; and would never willingly allow people to stay up late; for +she maintained that loss of sleep meant loss of intelligence, especially +in reading. Her methods were undoubtedly successful, for Rudolf says +that among the other convents for women in Germany, there was scarcely +one which had not teachers trained under Lioba, so eagerly sought after +were her pupils. + +Here this account of some early double monasteries must end. In England +they probably existed right up to the Danish invasions of 870, and +disappeared in the general devastation of the country during the +succeeding years. The organisation, however, appears again in this +country in the C12, and even as late as the C15. The order of S. Gilbert +of Sempringham in the C12 was a double one, and the only order which +actually had birth in England. It was, however, entirely lacking in that +intellectual activity which was a special feature of the earlier double +monasteries, among both men and women, and which, from the secular point +of view, gave to the Anglo-Saxon nunneries a place not incomparable with +the women's colleges of the present day. The latest double monastery in +England was that of S. Bridget of Sion, near Isleworth, on the Thames. + +Reference has been made only to the more important early double +monasteries in England; but there are others which may or may not come +under this category. Of these some are Whitern in Galloway, Carlisle, +Caistor in Northamptonshire, Gloucester, Strenshall in Staffordshire, +and Lyminge in Kent. + +It is uncertain whether Bischofsheim, in Germany, under the abbess +Lioba, was a double monastery, but the arrangement is known to have +existed in Germany in the C8 and later. There are also traces of them in +Italy, and considerable evidence for the same sort of system in Spain, +but time does not allow of dealing with them here. + +Finally, the double monastery did not flourish or find much favour in +the more sophisticated ages of Christianity, but generally followed an +outburst of religious enthusiasm in the earlier centuries of the Faith. +"It was," says Montalembert, "a peculiarity belonging to the youth of +the church, which, like youth in all circumstances, went through all the +difficulties, dangers, and storms of that age, and which in maturer +times gave way before a more practical, if less ideal, outlook on +life."[32] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "Monasteria duplicia ut appellantur." Corp. Jur. Civ. (Krueger) +Codex I. iii., 43. + +[2] Vita Pachom. Migne, Pat. Lat., tom. 73, cap. 28, col. 248. Paris, +1849. + +[3] Regula S. Pachomii. Gallandius Bib. Vet. Pat., tom. 4, p. 718. +Venice, 1765. + +[4] Vita Pachom. Migne, Pat. Lat., tom. 73, cap. 28, col. 248. Paris, +1849. + +[5] Lives of Women Saints. Translated by an early author (unknown) +probably 1610-1615. Edited by C. Horstmann (E.E.T.S.), 1886. + +[6] Migne, Pat. Lat., tom. 67, col. 1001. + +[7] Bateson, Mary, "Origin and Early History of Double Monasteries." +Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. XIII., p. 141. + +[8] Bateson, Mary, op. cit., p. 143. + +[9] Gregorius Turon, Hist. Franc., Lib. 3, cap. 7. + +[10] Nisard, Vie de Fortunat, chap. 52. Paris, 1887. + +[11] Eckenstein, Lina, Woman under Monasticism. Page 54. Cambridge, +1896. + +[12] + + Tempora si solito mihi candida lilia ferrent + Aut speciosa foret suave rubore rosa, + Haec ego rure legens aut caespite pauperis horti + Misissem magnis munera parva libens; + Sed quia prima mihi desunt, vel solvo secunda, + Profert qui violas, fert et amore rosas. + Inter odoriferas tamen has quas misimus herbas + Purpureae violae nobile germen habent, + Respirant pariter regali murice tinctae + Et saturat foliis hinc odor, inde decor. + Hae quod utrumque gerunt pariter habeatis utraque + Et sit mercis odor flore perenne decus. + (Nisard, Poésies de Fortunat, Lib. 8, vi. Paris, 1887.) + +[13] Gregorius Turon, De Gloria Confessorum, cap. 106. + +[14] Moines d'Occident. Tom. V., cap. 4. Paris, 1867. + +[15] Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. III., cap. 8. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, +1896. + +[16] This applies to the Germanic peoples generally. + +[17] Line 1942. Ed. F. Holthausen. Heidelberg, 1906. + +[18] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under 672. Ed. C. Plummer. 1892. + +[19] Moines d'Occident. Tom. 5, page 241. Paris, 1860. + +[20] Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii., 238. Abbesses Mildrith, +Aetheldrith, Aette, Wilnoth, Hereswyth, sign the privilege granted to +the churches and monasteries of Kent, by King Wihtred, 696/716. + +[21] Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 23. (Cp. II. 14.) Ed. C. +Plummer. Oxford, 1896. + +[22] Lib. IV., cap. 24. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, 1896. + +[23] Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 25. + +[24] Bede, Vita S. Cuthberhti, cap. 23. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, 1896. + +[25] Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 25. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, +1896. + +[26] Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 19. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, +1896. + +[27] Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii., 238. + +[28] S. Aldhelmi opera. Migne, Pat. Lat. Tom. 89, col. 289. + +[29] S. Aldhelmi opera. Migne, Pat. Lat. Tom. 89, cols. 103-162. + +[30] Under 718. + +[31] By Rudolf of Fulda, a monk. He wrote about 836. A. SS. Boll., Sept. +28. + +[32] Moines d'Occident. Tom. 5, page 320. Paris, 1860. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without + note. 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