The Decline and Dissolution of the Gilbertine Order Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy F M Stephenson University of Worcester November 2011 CONTENTS Page Abstract iii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Gilbertine Nuns before the Dissolution 21 Chapter 3 Gilbertine Canons before the Dissolution 73 Chapter 4 The Spiritual Life of the Gilbertine Nuns 119 Chapter 5 The Dissolution of the Gilbertine Monasteries 151 Chapter 6 The Gilbertine Canons after the Dissolution 179 Chapter 7 The Gilbertine Nuns after the Dissolution 221 Chapter 8 Robert Holgate, the Last Master of the Order 246 Chapter 9 Conclusions 278 Appendices 284 Bibliography 306 i This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Phyllis and Sidney Rowntree Stephenson and also to that of Sister Gertrude Brown OSB of Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire. My interest in the Gilbertine order began many years ago when I first visited the site of St Gilbert’s first priory in the village of Sempringham in Lincolnshire. Shortly after, I obtained a copy of the only substantive piece of work that had been written on the Gilbertines; a book written by Rose Graham at the beginning of the twentieth century. From that time I spent much of my spare time finding out what I could about the order and visited many of the sites of the now destroyed monasteries. About twelve years ago I was fortunate to meet up with Sister Gertrude Brown of Stanbrook Abbey who had been an archivist at Lincolnshire Archives before she was professed as a Benedictine nun in the 1930s. It was through the conversations that I had with her that inspired me to begin serious research into this particular order. Unfortunately she died about six years ago and hence she was not able to see the results of my work. As a final note I am grateful to the support my mother gave me during the last years of her life through the many discussions we had on various aspects of my work. ii Abstract The Gilbertine order was unusual in that it was founded for both men and women who lived in adjacent enclosures. The order had its origins in the Lincolnshire village of Sempringham where St Gilbert founded the order in the 1130s. The canons followed the rule of St Augustine and the nuns the rule of St Benedict. The history of the order has been extensively researched by Brian Golding from its foundation until the beginning of the fourteenth century. However, there has been little substantial research on the order in the period from the fourteenth century until its dissolution in 1539. This dissertation continues the work carried out by Golding and examines the later years of the order’s history and its dissolution. The main themes of this work are the recruitment of men and women into the order during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the spiritual lives of the nuns, the impact of the dissolution on the lives of the men and women of the order, and their careers after the dissolution. The study will show that in common with other religious orders there was a decline in the popularity of the Gilbertines in the later Middle Ages, and also a relaxation of the rules the nuns followed. In the period after the dissolution, the thesis will demonstrate that the social and economic position of former Gilbertine canons was much better than that of former nuns. iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Gilbertine order was founded by St Gilbert in the Lincolnshire village of Sempringham in the 1130’s. During the founder’s lifetime houses for both men and women were established. Whether Gilbert’s original intention was to found an order for both men and women is a matter of debate, and will be discussed in chapter three of this thesis. The canons followed the rule of St Augustine and the nuns the rule of St Benedict. The order rapidly gained popularity within Lincolnshire, resulting in the foundation of 1 seven double houses and three houses for canons only. The largest of the double houses was Watton in Yorkshire, this being the only house founded both for canons and nuns in that county. Two further double houses were founded outside Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, namely Chicksands in Bedfordshire and Shouldham in Norfolk. Three houses for canons were founded in Yorkshire and a further eight smaller priories were established for men in other counties. Despite a number of attempts, the order never expanded beyond England. The first substantive study of the Gilbertine order was made by Rose Graham in 1901 and 2 covers the history of the order from its foundation up until the dissolution of the order. More recently Brian Golding has made a far more extensive study which extends from 3 the foundation of the order through to the beginning of the fourteenth century. Since the publication of his work no attempt has been made to research the history of the Gilbertine order after this period. The purpose of this study is to examine the history of the Gilbertine order during the fifteenth century and in the period preceding its dissolution in 1539. It will focus on the numbers of men and women who were recruited into the order 1 For a discussion of the term ‘double house’ when applied to religious houses that housed both men and women, see, Katharine Sykes, ‘Canonici Albi et Moniales: Perceptions of the Twelfth-Century Double 2House’, in, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 60, No. 2 , (April 2009), pp. 233 – 245. Rose Graham, St Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines: A History of the only English Monastic 3Order, London, Elliot Stock, (1901). Brian Golding, Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertine Order c. 1130 – c. 1300, Clarendon Press, Oxford, (1995). 4 during this period, the decline which took place during the last 150 years of the order’s history, the daily lives of the Gilbertine canons and nuns, and the social backgrounds of the women who entered the order. This study will also examine the events leading up to the order’s dissolution, and the lives of the canons and nuns after they were expelled from their monasteries. Many monastic houses experienced recruitment problems in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the second half of the fourteenth century all monastic orders suffered loss in numbers due to the Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of plague. The impact of the Black Death on two male communities namely Christ Church Canterbury, and Westminster have been studied by two writers, John Hatcher on Christ Church, and Barbara Harvey on Westminster. The results of their work will be used when assessing 4 the possible impact on the Gilbertine communities. Marilyn Oliva has shown that in the 5 county of Norfolk not all of the houses for women recovered simultaneously. Only five out of a total of eleven such houses in the whole diocese managed to reach the 1350 levels by the time of the dissolution. In fact four of these nunneries did not even reach 50% of the 1350 numbers, one of which was the Gilbertine house of Shouldham. All of the Benedictine houses either managed to reach the fourteenth century levels or were close to their earlier numbers. The Cistercians were not as successful as the Benedictines, their numbers being lower by the 1530s. Russell’s examination of the diocese of Lincoln shows that the Benedictine numbers were the same for both 1350 and 1539. However, the Cistercian numbers had fallen by 26% by the time of the dissolution; and the Gilbertine 6 numbers had fallen by 63%. This pattern is reflected in Oliva’s study of the nunneries in the diocese of Norfolk. In the case of the Gilbertines, the recruitment of new members appears to have been a problem towards the end of the fifteenth century. This was highlighted in the General Chapter reports that survive for the years 1501 and 1509. The work that has been carried 4 John Hatcher, ‘Mortality in the Fifteenth Century: Some New Evidence’in, Economic History Review, Second Series, 39, 1, (1986), pp. 19 – 38. Barbara Harvey, Living and Dying in England, 1100 – 1540, the 5Monastic Experience, Oxford, (1993), 6 Marilyn Oliva, The Convent and the Community in Late Medieval England, Boydell Press, (1998), p.39. J C Russell, “The Clerical Population of Medieval England”, Traditio, 2 (1944), pp. 182-3. 5 out by Barbara Harvey and Joseph Gribbin on the communities at Westminster and the Premonstratensian orders respectively will be used to compare recruitment patterns 7 within other orders during this period. The ordination lists of Gilbertine canons were used to determine when recruitment became a problem and how effective the measures taken by the General Chapter were at overcoming the problem. The only lists of nuns that have survived for Gilbertine houses are those in the Taxation lists of 1380 and the pension lists compiled at the dissolution. These sources will be discussed in the next section of the chapter. No sources have survived for the fifteenth century to indicate problems with regard to recruitment during this period. Sharon Elkins and Sally Thompson have both made studies of religious women in 8 medieval England. Both have written extensively about the women in the Gilbertine order to highlight the problems experienced by religious women in the twelfth century. Elkins has shown that during this period female religious communities were experiencing severe restrictions and repression with regard to the autonomy of their communities during the second half of the twelfth century. This thesis will argue that a similar process continued in the case of the Gilbertine order until the time of its dissolution.