HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
6. THE ABBEY OF GODSTOW
At the beginning of the Chartulary of Godstow, of which we have both a Latin (fn. 1) and an
English version, (fn. 2) there is a description of the
foundation of the abbey. Dame Ediva, a resident
at Winchester, widow of Sir William Launcelene,
had a vision, bidding her settle near Oxford until
God should send her a token 'in what wise she
should build a place' to His service. When for
some time she had lived a holy life at Binsey,
one night a voice told her to rise, and go where
a light from heaven touched the ground, and
there establish a nunnery for twenty-four 'of the
moost gentylwomen that ye can find.' Apparently she saw the light at Godstow, northward
from Binsey. Going to King Henry I she told
him 'what God in a vision her had sent,' and with
his help a monastery was founded on Easter eve
in honour of St. Mary and St. John the Baptist.
As the king left England in August 1133,
and never returned, we may assume that the
date of the foundation of Godstow was not later
than Easter, 1133. (fn. 3) The story proceeds to say
that Dame Edith was abbess of the convent 'LI'
years, a length of time which in the circumstances of the case is incredible. But we shall
see that she and her successor, who was also
apparently named Edith, covered together a
period of nearly fifty-one years.
In 1139 the church was dedicated. There
were present the king, the queen, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Bishops of Lincoln, Salisbury,
Exeter, Worcester, and others, and the gifts
bestowed by them on the abbey are enumerated
in a charter of Bishop Alexander. (fn. 4) The date of
this dedication must be after 8 January, on
which day Theobald was consecrated archbishop
of Canterbury, yet not long after, since (as the
deed shows), Alberic, the pope's legate, whose
departure from England followed the consecration of Theobald, had not yet started. When
we notice that 18 January and 24 June were
the two great festivals of Godstow, (fn. 5) it seems
likely that the former commemorated the dedication of their church.
As the abbey was erected on the land of John
de St. John, he was considered the patron and
founder; but the most liberal benefactors were
King Stephen, his wife and son. Of the leading barons, Miles of Gloucester, and the earl of
Leicester, made donations, and likewise not only
the bishops that were present, but also the
abbots of Abingdon and Westminster. About
1144 Reginald Baalun, son of Roger earl of
Hereford, gave his manor of Eaton in Wiltshire,
which in 1535 produced £50 a year. Other
gifts followed rapidly; for Godstow, always an
aristocratic nunnery, was at the height of its
reputation during the twelfth century, and the
chartulary shows that wives and daughters of
many of the leading families of the south became
nuns there. About 1180 the abbey received
gifts from Walter de Clifford in Frampton and
Pauntley, Gloucestershire; and one of the
deeds (fn. 6) mentions that Margaret his wife, and
Rosamund his daughter, were both buried at
Godstow. The latter is known as 'the fair
Rosamund.' That she received her education
at Godstow, as the guide-books suggest, is nowhere indicated; nor need she ever have lived
there. It was a common custom of the time
for well-born people to choose a monastery in
which they were to be buried; and it was considered an honour to be the burying place of one
of the king's mistresses. (fn. 7) When she died at
Woodstock, early in 1176, 'for love of her the
king conferred many benefits on the convent.' (fn. 8)
A commentary on these words is supplied by the
Pipe Roll of Michaelmas, 1176, which shows
that the king was sending lathes and roofing
shingles from Wallingford to Godstow, and was
also supplying building material (no doubt stone)
from Gloucestershire. The chartulary also tells
us that about the same time he became patron of
the abbey by the grant of Bernard of St. Walery,
the house of St. Walery having succeeded to the
property of John de St. John, (fn. 9) and in the same
year the king enriched the abbey with the two
churches of Wycombe and Bloxham. In 1191,
when Bishop Hugh visited Godstow, the tomb
of Rosamund was treated almost like a shrine;
but the bishop ordered that the body should be
removed from before the high altar and buried
outside. (fn. 10)
The chartulary shows that the abbey at
different times had property in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorsetshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Norfolk,
Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Sussex,
Warwickshire, Wiltshire, and Yorkshire. It
possessed the churches of St. Giles, Oxford, and
Pattishall, Northamptonshire, both given in 1139;
of Dinton, Buckinghamshire, given about 1170;
and also of Wycombe and Bloxham, all of these
having been appropriated before 1220. (fn. 11) Great Tew
was acquired in 1309 and appropriated then. (fn. 12) There
were also pensions from the churches of Lamyatt
in Somerset and Daglingworth in Gloucestershire.
At one time also Easington in Oxfordshire paid
a pension, but the nuns surrendered both pension
and advowson to the bishop. (fn. 13) The king remained
patron of the abbey until its dissolution, and had
the right of nominating a nun at his coronation. (fn. 14)
Such evidence as we have suggests that the
monastic rule was well kept at Godstow at the
end of the twelfth century. We may deduce
this partly from the fact that Archbishop Geoffrey
wished to make the priory of St. Clement's, York,
subject to it; (fn. 15) partly also from the vision of the
monk of Eynsham at Easter, 1196, (fn. 16) which, without mentioning Godstow, speaks several times of
an abbey of nuns near Eynsham, whose prayers
were much desired by those whom the monk
saw in torments. Godstow is about three miles
from Eynsham, and there was no other abbey of
nuns in Oxfordshire. Of one abbess he tells
how she washed the limbs of lepers, anticipating
one of the best-known passages in the life of
St. Hugh.
In the year 1281 the king ordered the sheriff
to arrest the abbess and produce her before him
at the next Parliament. (fn. 17) It sounds as if there
was some serious offence; but as it is described
elsewhere (fn. 18) as trespass against the mayor and
bailiffs of Oxford and the king's ministers, which
trespass was forgiven her, it was probably the
encroachment, of which we hear in 1276, (fn. 19) when
she was accused of enclosing 60 acres of the
demesne of the king and of the common pasture
of the citizens of Oxford. In 1285 it was presented that she had appropriated 40 acres of
pasture of the demesne of the king, but she was
able to show for it a grant of Henry III. (fn. 20)
In November, 1284, Archbishop Peckham
wrote to the abbess of Godstow expressing his
disbelief in a charge of unchastity rumoured
against the sub-prioress, but ordering her and the
other nuns to be careful to avoid all suspicious
appearances, especially as regarded scholars,
priests, and monks, in connexion with whom
scandal was particularly liable to arise. (fn. 21) About
the same time he gave instructions for the full
and careful performance of divine service, enjoining amongst other things that the 'childish
celebrations' of Innocents' Day should not continue beyond that day. He gave the usual
elaborate injunctions for avoiding scandal, and
ordered that no scholars of Oxford should be
allowed to speak with any nun unless known to
be a relation in at least the third degree. Confessions were to be made in a place exposed to
public view near the altar, and the confessors
were to be two or four special friars preachers,
and the same number of minors, the chief of the
chaplains, and the master, if he were a priest.
This master, (fn. 22) as we here learn, was the head
of a small community of brethren, including the
principal chaplain, who conducted the services in
the abbey church. At this time their numbers
had become excessive, and the archbishop
ordered that no more should be admitted until
there were only four—then only by consent of
the master, the abbess, and the chief chaplain. (fn. 23)
In 1290 the bishop excommunicated certain
unknown persons, who in the neighbourhood of
Wycombe stopped a carriage belonging to
Godstow, and carried off a nun, Agnes de
Shene. But as, shortly afterwards, we find the nun
herself is excommunicated, together with another
apostate nun, a kinswoman of the Countess
of Warwick, the bishop had evidently discovered
that the nuns were privy to the plot. (fn. 24) On
the other hand, in 1339 we hear of an apostate
nun, who repented and received absolution. (fn. 25)
Though Godstow was rich, with an income
in 1291 of nearly £200, yet, as was often the
case, it suffered from debt more than many poor
houses. For ladies so aristocratic a somewhat
expensive style of living, with several servants
and chaplains, was natural. In 1316, at the
request of the abbess and nuns, the king, taking
the abbey into his protection 'on account of its
poverty and miserable state,' appointed the abbot
of Eynsham and the prior of Bicester to be
keepers of the abbey, paying the nuns a certain
allowance, and applying the residue to the discharging of debts. (fn. 26) Nineteen years later, on the
death of Margery Dyve, the abbess, the profits
during the vacancy were remitted to the abbey
by the king's order 'because of its poverty and
misfortunes.' (fn. 27)
The first visitation of which we have record
was in 1357. The bishop orders that the nuns
shall not absent themselves from the monastery
for more than three weeks, and then only for
reasonable and necessary cause; and that inasmuch as secular people living in the abbey have
greatly disturbed the service of God, no secular
woman is to be an inmate, except the necessary
servants and such persons as have corrodies. (fn. 28)
However, in 1363, his successor, at the earnest
prayers of Alice, wife of Alan of Ayote, granted
permission that she might stay for two years at
Godstow at her own expense. (fn. 29) In 1384, the
abbey being vacant, the bishop warns the prioress
that nuns should not be permitted out of the
convent, cases of scandal having arisen; and in
1392 the abbess is ordered to forbid the visits of
John de Kirkeby, chaplain of Wolvercot. (fn. 30) In
1432 the discipline of the house was lax; the
bishop ordered that the porter was to take an
oath not to admit strangers; certain women,
who were evil examples by their extravagant
dress, were to be excluded; the bailiff was to
have no more secret talk with any nun, 'forasmuch as he says that there is no good woman in
the monastery'; there is to be no drinking
(potationes) after compline, but all were to go to
the dormitory; if any nuns admit secular men
to feasts in their rooms they are to be excommunicated, 'for the scholars of Oxford say that
they can have all kinds of good cheer (omnimodas
solaciones) (fn. 31) with the nuns to their heart's desire';
nuns are not to go into Oxford, nor to talk with
secular persons in the nave of the church, or in the
chapels, but only in the hall of the abbess, and
in the hearing of another nun; the porter is not
to convey letters or presents or tokens to any
scholar at Oxford or other secular person. One
nun had broken the vow of chastity. (fn. 32)
At the visitation by Bishop Alnwick in 1445,
the house consisted of the abbess and sixteen
nuns, and returned its income at £200. The
abbess complained that the scholars of Oxford
had common access to the monastery and the
cloisters, and that she could not stop it; that
secular people had access to the nuns in the
choir during divine service, and also in the
refectory at meal-time; the prioress complained
that nuns went often to Oxford, that one had
frequent converse in the church with a certain
Hugh Sadeler of Oxford; several, however, of
the nuns said 'omnia bene.' The bishop's injunctions were much as before concerning the
exclusion of secular people; the abbess was
herself to sleep often in the dormitory, and was
to rise to mattins with the sisters 'at least on all
double feasts.' No seculars were to sojourn in
the abbey except it be children, and in that case,
if boys, they must not be more than nine years
old; if girls, not more than twelve. No corrodies were to be granted.
On the death of Alice Henley in August, 1470,
there seems to have been a disputed election.
The Patent Rolls of April, 1471, inform us that
Margaret More had been elected, but in October,
1471, Alice Nunny is described as abbess of
Godstow in succession to Alice Henley, and she
is pardoned for having obtained a papal confirmation without the royal assent; while in October,
1480, a general pardon is granted to Margaret
More, 'nun of Godstow, alias late abbess.'
At the visitation of 1517 (fn. 33) we have nothing
more than the usual injunction against the admission of secular people within the monastery.
In 1520 the house consisted of the abbess,
fourteen nuns, and a lay sister. Mention is also
made of three junior nuns, whose names are not
given. The income of the house was more
than 400 marks. There was nothing more
seriously amiss than that the elder nuns refused
to sing as the precentrix directed.
In 1526 (fn. 34) the income was gross £289, net
£234; in 1535, (fn. 35) when the number of inmates
was twenty, the income was gross £319, net
£258. When John Tregonwell visited Godstow
in September, 1535, he reported favourably to
Cromwell of all the convent; even a nun who
had been sent thither by the bishop some fourteen
years before to expiate a grievous lapse from virtue
had ever since lived honestly. (fn. 36) Possibly it was at
this visitation that orders were given for the
closing of the back gate of the precincts, to the
great inconvenience of visitors, as the abbess
testified in the following year when she wrote to
Cromwell sending him a present of apples and
a fee of 40s. (fn. 37) To further secure his favour she
offered him, in March, 1538, the stewardship of
the abbey, worth only 40s., but placing at his
disposal for the king's service some twenty or
thirty men. (fn. 38) The royal visitors reported in 1538
that there was great strictness of life at Godstow,
'that most of the young gentlewomen of the
country were sent there to be bred, so that the
gentry of the country desired the king would
spare the house.' (fn. 39) On 4 November, 1539, (fn. 40)
Dr. London came to the abbey to secure its
surrender. It is generally supposed that he behaved badly to the nuns, and that the abbess
made a firm stand for her religious principles, but
though she resisted London, it was not on religious grounds. In a letter (fn. 41) dated 5 November,
addressed to Cromwell she said that London
was of old her enemy, because, when she was
appointed abbess through Cromwell's help,
London had wished that some one else should
be elected. She complained that he 'tarried
and continued to her great charge and cost;'
that he used first threats and then entreaties
to secure the surrender of the house. She
professed herself quite ready to surrender
to Cromwell or the king, but not to her
ancient enemy London, and asserted that she
was no waster of the goods of the house, as
London said. There is preserved a letter of
London, (fn. 42) written 6 November, which is certainly
more charitable than that of the abbess. He
begs the nuns may be allowed suitable pensions,
especially the abbess, who had been obliged to
borrow money of her friends to pay her firstfruits. This loan, which must have been made
at least four years before, was apparently still
unpaid. On 26 November the abbess thanks
Cromwell for removing Dr. London, 'who was
ready to suppress the house against my will, and
had done it indeed, if you had not sent so speedily
contrary commandments.' She adds that the
nuns did not use or regard pope, nor purgatory,
image nor pilgrimage, nor praying to dead saints,
and did not cling too much 'to this' (i.e. monastic) 'garment and fashion of life.' (fn. 43) The abbey
was surrendered to Sir John Williams 17 November, 1539, the abbess receiving a pension of
£50 and her sixteen sisters smaller sums. (fn. 44)
Abbesses of Godstow
Edith I
Edith II, occurs 1168 (fn. 45)
Agnes c. 1182-95 (fn. 46)
Juliana, occurs 1197, (fn. 47) and c. 1213 (fn. 48)
Felicia Bade, occurs 1220, and 1225 (fn. 49)
Amphelissa, elected 1225, (fn. 50) occurs 1235 (fn. 51)
Flandrina, elected 1242, (fn. 52) deposed 1248
Emma Bloet, elected 1248, (fn. 53) resigned 1269
Isolda de Durham, elected 1269, (fn. 54) resigned
1278
Rose de Oxeye, elected 1278, (fn. 55) resigned
1283
Mabel la Wafre, elected 1283, (fn. 56) resigned
1295
Alice de Gorges, elected 1295, (fn. 57) died 1304
Maud Upton, elected 1304, (fn. 58) died 1316
Margery Dyve, elected 1316, (fn. 59) died 1335
Maud de Beauchamp, elected 1335, (fn. 60) occurs
June 1346 (fn. 61)
Agnes de Streteley, elected 1349, (fn. 62) occurs
1373 (fn. 63)
Margery Tracy, occurs 1375, (fn. 64) died 1384
Margaret Mounteney, elected 1384, (fn. 65) occurs
1413 (fn. 66)
Agnes Wygtham, elected 1415, (fn. 67) occurs 1426 (fn. 68)
Joan, occurs 1428 (fn. 69)
Agnes, elected 1430 (fn. 70)
Elizabeth Felmersham, occurs 1435 and 1445 (fn. 71)
Alice, occurs 1451, (fn. 72) died 1470
Margaret More, elected April 1471 (fn. 73)
Alice Nunny was abbess, October 1471, (fn. 74)
resigned 1481
Katherine Field, elected 1481 (fn. 75)
Isabel Braynton, elected 1494, (fn. 76) died 1517
Margaret Tewkisbury, elected 1517, (fn. 77) resigned
1535
Katharine Bulkeley, alias Bewmarys, elected
1535, (fn. 78) surrendered 1539
The remarkable early twelfth century seal is
a pointed oval: the Virgin, seated on a throne
on the left, a palm-branch in the right hand;
before her on the right St. John Baptist, holding in the left hand a scroll inscribed: ECCE
AGNVS DEI. The left hand of the Virgin, and
the right hand of St. John hold up an Agnus
Dei on a circular plaque. At the Virgin's
feet Ediva, the first abbess, kneeling in adoration, with the name EDIVA over her head. (fn. 79)
Legend:—
SIGILLVM . SCĒ . MARIE . ET . SBI . IO[H'IS .
B]APTI[STE . G]ODESTOENS . ECCL'IE.
This was in use as late as 1371, (fn. 80) but in 1379 (fn. 81)
we find a new seal: a pointed oval, two figures
in canopied niches, the Virgin with Child on
the left, (?) Ediva on the right; below, a kneeling figure in adoration. Legend:—
SIGILL' : COMUNE : SCE : MARIE [: &]: S[CI :
IOHI]S : BAPT : DOMUS : D' : GODESTOWE.
A fourteenth century seal of an abbess is a
pointed oval: St. John Baptist standing in canopied niche, with tabernacle work at the sides,
with the Agnus Dei on a plaque in the left
hand, and pointing to it with the right hand.
In base, under a four-centred arch, with masonry
at the sides, Ediva the first abbess with
crown and pastoral staff, kneeling in prayer. (fn. 82)
Legend:—
SIGILLŪ : COMUNE : [a word here defaced] :
ABBATISSE: DE : GODSTOWE
The matrix of a counterseal or signet found
within the walls of the abbey represents the
head of St. John Baptist in a dish. (fn. 83)
* CAPVT IOH'IS IN DISCO