HOUSES OF MINORESSES
25. ABBEY OF WATERBEACH
In the year 1293 nuns of a branch of the
Second Order of St. Francis called Minoresses
came to England. The special Rule called the
Isabella Rule, approved in its final form (fn. 1) by
Urban IV in 1263, had been intended exclusively for the convent of Longchamp, founded in
1255 by Isabelle, the sister of St. Louis, but was
adopted by the English houses, at no time more
than four in number, all of which derived directly
or indirectly from Longchamp. At the special
request of St. Louis those who kept his sister's
Rule were to be called sorores minores or Minoresses. (fn. 2) The Rule followed in England shared the
characteristic English tendencies towards frequency of Communion and the mitigation of
austerities. Moreover the Isabella Rule alone contains a clause by which the Visitor, at the end of
his visitation, having imposed penance, was to
burn all evidence in the presence of the assembled
convent. (fn. 3) One source of information as to the
internal condition of religious houses is therefore
entirely closed as touching Waterbeach and
Denney.
Denise, daughter and heir of Nicholas Anesty,
the foundress of Waterbeach, had been married
in early youth to Walter, brother of Archbishop
Stephen Langton. (fn. 4) As the widow of Warin
Munchensey, who died in 1255, she received the
king's permission in 1281 to grant her manor at
Waterbeach 'to religious men, or to found there
a house of Religious' (fn. 5) and had papal approbation
for her plan of bringing the minoresses to her
property. A bull of Martin IV (fn. 6) of the same year
grants 100 days' indulgence to those who visit for
prayer 'the church of the enclosed sisters of the
Order of St. Clare' without the walls of London
and the church of the same Order at Waterbeach.
Actually no sisters arrived to live at either house
until 1293-4, and when they came they were, to
speak quite strictly, not of the 'Order of St. Clare'.
The house without the walls of London and
that at Waterbeach were occupied almost simultaneously. In June 1293 the minoresses are
spoken of as about to be brought to London; (fn. 7) by
August 1294 they were settled there; (fn. 8) at Ascensiontide 1294 four Sisters of the Order of Friars
Minor came from France to the church and
numerous other buildings which Denise Munchensey had been preparing for them at Waterbeach during the last year. (fn. 9)
In 1295 both houses obtained the privilege of
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction (fn. 10) and were
thus under the direct and sole jurisdiction of the
Franciscan Minister General and the Provincial
in England. (fn. 11) In 1296 the Isabella Rule was
explicitly granted to both by a papal bull which
describes it as that followed in the monastery of
the Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary at
Longchamp near St. Cloud, Paris. (fn. 12) The first
Abbess of Waterbeach was Joan de Nevers, (fn. 13) who
had been Abbess of Longchamp from March 1289
to April 1294. (fn. 14)
Denise Munchensey granted the manor of
Waterbeach to her nuns in 1294, (fn. 15) and in 1296
she gave them the advowson of the church of
Ridgewell, in Essex. (fn. 16) The grant of the manor
caused immediate difficulty with the canons of
Barnwell, for Waterbeach Church belonged to
them and they and Constantine their vicar feared
the loss of the lesser tithes and the obventions,
since the minoresses were exempt from the payment of tithe. The canons 'strenuously opposed
the foundation', but it was finally agreed (fn. 17) that the
sisters were to pay 22s. yearly to the vicar, in
compensation for his loss of tithe; the secular servants of the nuns who lived permanently within
their gates and were employed in the cellar,
kitchen, and the like, and one bailiff (custos deputatus) of the manor, unless they were originally
parishioners, were not to pay any dues, except
by special grace of the abbess; servants working
outside the inclosure in fields or fisheries or fen
within the parish were to pay oblations to the
mother church of Waterbeach, and to receive the
sacraments there, and if any of them died and was
to be buried elsewhere the first mass of the funeral
was to be said at Waterbeach and the customary
oblations made there.
In 1304 Denise Munchensey died. (fn. 18) Her
grandchild, another Denise, had married Sir Hugh
de Vere, and it was her husband who in 1296
obtained licence for the elder lady to alienate
Ridgewell Church to the abbey. (fn. 19) In 1299 the
minoresses of Waterbeach were trying to evade
the agreement of 1294, and were supported by the
elder Denise. The canons of Barnwell appealed
to Archbishop Winchelsey, who was administering the diocese of Ely during a vacancy. (fn. 20) On
18 March 1299 the archbishop wrote to Denise
and to Sir Hugh de Vere threatening excommunication if they continued to uphold the nuns
in their obstinacy. (fn. 21) The case was carried to Rome
and decided in favour of the composition of 1294,
but the abbess was allowed 100 marks in consideration of her waiting her papal privilege. (fn. 22)
Meanwhile she complained that Benedict, Prior
of Barnwell, with others, had carried off her
goods. (fn. 23) Probably he had tried to distrain for what
she owed.
In 1311 Denise the younger and her husband
had a papal indult to enter the nunnery of Waterbeach twice a year with a retinue, as 'founders' of
the house. (fn. 24)
The bull of 1295 not only exempted the
minoresses from episcopal jurisdiction, it exempted
them also from all secular dues and exactions,
royal or otherwise. It is addressed to the abbess
and convent of the Piety of St. Mary—or in later
phraseology, of Our Lady of Pity—of 'Waterbesche' of the Order of St. Clare. (fn. 25) In September
of the same year the Pope granted to the 'inclosed
sisters' of both Waterbeach and the Minories an
indulgence of 1 year and 40 days for those who
visited their churches, under the usual conditions,
on the Feasts of the B.V.M., St. Francis, St.
Antony, and St. Clare. (fn. 26)
It is possible that the first grant of Waterbeach
to Denise Munchensey was made under the influence of Queen Isabelle, who was the greatgreat-niece of Blessed Isabelle: her own sister was
a nun at Longchamp. In 1314 she acquired
licence for Waterbeach to receive rents and lands
in mortmain to the value of £20 a year, (fn. 27) under
which Christine de Kirkeby gave the abbey a
messuage, 8 acres of land, and the advowson of the
church of Biddenham in Beds. (fn. 28) Later, in 1342,
a papal mandate was issued to the Bishop of Ely
to appropriate to the abbey of Waterbeach the
church of Biddenham of the value of £10 yearly. (fn. 29)
In 1318 Stephen de Clopton, who in 1305 had
acted as attorney for Joan, the abbess, (fn. 30) gave two
messuages in Cambridge to the nuns. (fn. 31) He was at
this time parson of Buckenham Ferry in Norfolk.
An attempt to obtain the appropriation of Chesterton Church to Waterbeach in 1298 (fn. 32) proved
abortive.
In 1327 the manor of Denney was granted to
the Countess of Pembroke for life (fn. 33) and in 1336
she granted her life-interest to the sisters at
Waterbeach. (fn. 34) In 1339 she first obtained permission to transfer the whole community from
Waterbeach to her new manor, and to consolidate
the two fees. (fn. 35) This was for Denise Munchensey's
original foundation the beginning of the end,
and by 1351 it was finally merged—not without
considerable opposition—in Mary de St. Pol's
new foundation on her manor of Denney (fn. 36) (q.v.).
The first nuns were French and were all noble
ladies, for the Rule of Longchamp that none but
women of noble birth (and that in the strict
French sense) could be professed there held good
until in 1330 John XXII forbade its enforcement. (fn. 37) The minoresses in England remained an
aristocratic order, but they were never so exclusive
as their sisters of Longchamp.
Although the abbess and certain sisters were
removed to Denney by 1342, (fn. 38) some nuns were
left there and the original abbey struggled on under
sufferance for 4 years more, and then in open
rebellion against the authorities until 1351. By
1349 they had had 'the temerity to choose another
abbess' for themselves, had received other women
as sisters, and had announced that they did not
propose to leave Waterbeach. (fn. 39)
Meanwhile Mary de St. Pol's petition to the
Pope to compel the removal of the recalcitrant
nuns to Denney was granted. (fn. 40) The Pope communicated with the Provincial of the Friars Minor
of England on 3 February 1349, and sent a mandate
to John Trilleck, Bishop of Hereford, (fn. 41) and to
Thomas Lisle, Bishop of Ely, (fn. 42) to compel the
minoresses to obey their abbess. Trillek issued a
commission for the execution of the mandate, (fn. 43)
and the score or so of sisters at Waterbeach were
forcibly removed to Denney, (fn. 44) where all but four
or five of them consented to remain under the
obedience of Katherine de Bolewyk, abbess at
Denney, although a papal letter of 1351 refers to
these four or five as still holding out. On 1 May
1351 the Countess of Pembroke executed a deed
at Fotheringhay, which was confirmed by Edward III at Westminster on the 13th of the same
month. She reserved to herself the patronage of
the abbey and required the abbess and sisters of
Denney to maintain a chaplain at Waterbeach to
pray for the soul of Denise de Munchensey as well
as for her own soul and those of her friends. (fn. 45) It
is to be feared that Denise was soon forgotten:
Joan Keteryche, abbess of Denney, writing in 1459
knows only one 'blyssid foundatrice'.
One reason for some of the nuns staying at
Waterbeach is said to have been fear lest the
monastery should fall into lay hands, (fn. 46) and to prevent this Clement VI granted permission to the
Provincial Minister to receive it and replace the
sisters by twelve friars, who were to be provided
with food and clothing from Denney. (fn. 47) But the
brethren seem to have been as unwilling to go to
Waterbeach as the sisters were loath to leave it.
If the situation was bad in 1342, it was no better,
and the buildings were probably worse, by 1349.
In 1350 the king requested the Minister General
to compel brethren of the Order to dwell in the
deserted house, (fn. 48) but nothing seems to have been
done. Perhaps the Black Death afforded a reason,
or at least an excuse, and by 1359 the monastery
at Waterbeach was not only deserted but 'already
well-nigh desolate'. (fn. 49) In that same year Innocent
VI licensed the removal of all bodies buried in
the monastery or its cemetery at Waterbeach to
Denney. (fn. 50) The foundations of the ruined house
disappeared under the grass; but about a hundred
years ago, according to Clay, the big stones from
them were occasionally dug out to mend the
roads. (fn. 51)
The abbesses of Waterbeach whose names
have come down may have covered almost the
whole period of the abbey's existence. Joan de
Nevers, the first of them, was probably still living
in 1305. (fn. 52) A reference to Joan Trengge in a
Court Roll of 1414 (fn. 53) would carry her date back
to 1325 or earlier. Isabel de Olneye was the
immediate predecessor of Katherine, abbess in
1338, (fn. 54) who was presumably identical with
Katherine de Bolewyk, first Abbess of Denney.
Emma occurs in 1348: (fn. 55) she was probably the
abbess irregularly elected by the rebellious nuns.