A Canterbury Lament

A Canterbury Lament Valerie Spear Scholars of medieval monasticism k n o w only too well the constraints imposed by scattered and patchy sources, particularly those relating to English nuns of the Middle Ages; hence, any extant evidence which promises to shed light on the day-to-day existence of the w o m e n is necessarily subjected to exhaustive analysis. Surprisingly, the petition transcribed and translated below appears to have escaped scholarly discussion until now. It deserves attention, not only for its allusions to abuses of power on the part of ecclesiastical officials, but also for its evidence of female responses to the perceived abuses. A large number of clerical petitions survives from religious houses, particularly male monasteries. The field of inquiry offered by evidence of this kind has attracted little detailed analysis, partly because the sets of documents representing the stages between the issuing of the petition and itsfinaloutcome 1 Great Britain Public Record Office SC8/104/5190, membrane 41. 'Ancient Petition an artificial collection of documents from various sources. The document in question, written in medieval French, is a petition addressed to the king allegedly from nunnery superiors in Canterbury. It is listed in P(ublic) R(ecord) O(ffice) Lists and Indexes I, p. 71. M y thanks are due to Dr John Tillotson for his readiness to discuss a number of issues arising from the document, and also for his generous sharing ofdata. I am grateful also to M r James Grieve for his advice on aspects of linguistics and to Dr Carolyn Fenwick for kindly obtaining a colour copy ofthe document on m y behalf. 16 Valerie Spear are incomplete (as is the case with the petition under discussion). The development of the written petition in the thirteenth century occurred in response to the need for a universally accessible means of approaching the crown. Given the failings of the medieval c o m m o n law system, the importance of this facility for the poor and weak was crucial, since their adversaries were often, as John Tillotson remarks, 'too powerful or had the support of lords too powerful, to be sued by the normal practice of the c o m m o n law'. This class of documents clearly offers valuable information on the poor and allegedly poor religious of the times. Although protests of English medieval religious against royal or ecclesiastical edicts are not well-canvassed in general, there are now some useful works which examine the background to and impact of, the papal bull Periculoso 4 first directed at English nuns in 1298. The petition discussed below probably appeared some three or four decades after Periculoso was promulgated, and the resentment which surfaces m a y well have been simmering for a significant period after the bull was published. Since the petition is undated, m y first task has been to examine the evidence for clues to the period in which it appeared. The writers state clearly that they represent heads ofnunneries in the Southern Province, while the content of their letter places the document by implication between 1300 and 1350. Further evidence supports this notion, as is explained below; thus I have confined my discussion to material emanating from that period, while tracing some perceived trends into later decades. Relevant material from the Northern Province is used 2 An important exception should be noted here. See J. H. Tillotson's unpublished PhD thesis entitled 'Clerical Petitions 1350-1450', Australian National University, Canbena, 1969. 3 Tillotson, 'Clerical Petitions', p. 3. 4 The bull Periculoso, promulgated in 1298, was issued by Boniface VIII, in an attempt to enforce stricter enclosure on female religious and thus protect their communities from harmful secular contact. The text appears in Friedberg's Corpus Iuris Canonici, II (Sext Decretal. Lib. II, Tit. XVI), 1054. See E. Makowski, The Canon Law and Cloistered Women: 'Periculoso and its commentators, 1298-1545', Ann Arbor, Michigan, Universit Microfilms, 1994, from Thesis (PhD) Columbia University, 1993. For a comprehensive discussion of Periculoso and its implications for the nuns of York diocese see J H Tillotson, 'Visitation And Reform Of The Yorkshire Nunneries In The Fourteenth Century', Northern History, vol. X X...